118. A Dangerous Situation
Screeeeech! KUUUUNG!
“Retreat! Retreat!”
It’s Howl’s Moving Castle!
It’s freaking Howl’s Moving Castle!
Well, it looked completely different, but something like that was obviously Howl’s Moving Castle!
There wasn’t anything particularly steampunk about it.
Instead, even the chunk of land beneath the castle walls had been pulled upward together with it.
How should I describe it…?
It looked like a plain cake with legs attached to it.
During the Great Demon battle, the Great Demon had also transformed into something resembling a spider.
But at least back then, it had been a size we could somehow deal with.
This thing?
This thing was way too huge to handle.
“Mister! There are eight legs in total, counting from the castle gate! Every single one is insanely thick!”
“Yeah! I can see that! Think you can cut one off?!”
“…Wouldn’t that be difficult?!”
BOOM! BOOM!
Every time one of those legs took a step, the ground shook with a deafening boom.
Because of that, we had to scream at the top of our lungs just to hear each other.
Its actual movement speed wasn’t particularly fast.
But its stride was absurdly huge.
Even when we ran until we were gasping for breath, one step from that thing was enough to catch right back up to us.
I never imagined it would reveal its true form this quickly.
Was it because I had figured out its true nature?
Instead of suddenly ordering the kids to destroy only the castle walls, I should have paid at least some attention to the soldiers and tried to split its focus.
I had gone out of my way to distract the enemy during the battle with the tree.
Had I seriously learned nothing?
“What’s it made of?! Is it just steel?!”
“It looks that way from the outside, but what I can see through the cracks is strange! I’m certain it isn’t ordinary steel!”
“That’s a shame! If it were steel, we could’ve used the classic method—heat it with fire, freeze it, then crack it apart! Easy parking!”
“Wouldn’t we at least be able to ‘parking!’ the outer layer?!”
“…Want to try?”
I spat out my claws and activated my Domain Skill.
I had been using it every time its cooldown ended over the past few days, so my proficiency had gone up considerably.
The moment I activated the Domain Skill, I immediately fused with Modak.
There was a strange feeling, like something was being distorted.
But at the same time, power surged through me.
[Modak: Dad! Isn’t this finally the perfect chance to test the power of Spiral?!]
“…Spiral…?”
…Ah!
Ahhh~!
I forgot!
There really was something like that!
Since fusing with Modak let me freely use both Destruction and Flow, I had briefly assumed that that itself was Spiral…!
Spiral…!
What Jin and Dorphin had talked about—
Using Destruction and Flow at the same time to reach a higher level.
Maybe that was Spiral!
Right now, I was still using the two powers separately.
I had completely forgotten about it until just a second ago, but this was my hidden card!
Hahaha!
How about that?!
Surprised?!
You’re probably more surprised than I am!
“But what even is Spiral? How do I use it?”
[Modak: …Dad, weren’t you supposed to know that?]
“Me?”
How was I supposed to simultaneously use Flow, which continued and carried things forward, and Destruction, which severed that very flow?
Wasn’t that a contradiction?
Did I have to overcome even that contradiction?
Dorphin, Jin, and even I had always assumed it was impossible, so none of us had ever seriously discussed how to do it.
Thinking about it now, in the middle of this emergency, wasn’t going to magically give me an answer.
“Forget it! I’ll think about that later! Village Chief! Prepare an ice round!”
“Yes!”
“Everyone else, support the Village Chief! I’m going for the joint on the front leg! Wait for my signal before firing!”
BOOM!
The power of Madness boiled through my body together with Modak’s scorching energy.
As I became stronger, my body was slowly becoming capable of containing more and more of Modak.
And because of that, our fusion was becoming clearer and more complete.
Part of me wondered if the developers had finally started adding proper details to this hastily made skill.
No.
Stop thinking useless thoughts.
For some reason, every time I did, it felt like my karma was getting deeper and deeper.
“Spiral! Spiral! Spiral! Aaaagh! I don’t know!”
THUMP!
Huh?
I definitely charged toward one of the castle’s legs and swung my flaming claws with all my strength.
But the moment my claws touched the leg—
The flames wrapped around them vanished completely.
What?
Did this thing have some kind of power-absorption gimmick?
[The power of Spiral is compressing the Adventurer’s strength into a single point!]
[The Adventurer’s Spiral, which endlessly advances forward, continues to strengthen the compressed power!]
“…Uh… G-God game! This is a god game!”
Yes!
This was what I wanted!
Even if I didn’t understand the skill’s mechanics, its reason for existing, or whatever else—
I could just press one button and bam! Stuff happened!
The situation wasn’t exactly good, but for once it actually felt like I was using a proper skill!
I had secretly been complaining for ages.
Everyone else only had to mutter a skill name to activate their abilities.
Why was I the only one who had to physically move, feel everything directly, and manually perform every skill?!
[The power of Spiral can no longer be contained!]
[The accumulated power is erupting!]
Well, putting my complaints aside—
There was one thing I could say with confidence.
Because I had always learned to feel Flow directly through my body and use it through sensation…
I was capable of controlling this erupting power.
Even though I had literally just been complaining, now I was suddenly going—
As expected! This is the result of my hard work!
…Yeah.
That sounded exactly like me.
Let’s just call it one of those situations where the explanation changed depending on what was convenient.
I pulled my arm all the way back again and forced the erupting power into the shape of claws.
Then—
I swung!
A gigantic claw formed, perfectly matching the ridiculous size of the castle.
Inside that claw, flames spun like a vortex.
The instant it touched the leg—
The leg was sliced apart as easily as butter.
I saw the castle wall collapse.
I saw it—
We won—
CLANG!
“What the hell was that sound?!”
One entire leg had been destroyed.
And yet the sound was exactly like my claws had been knocked away.
The unexpected noise startled me so badly that the entire flow of my movement fell behind by a single beat.
And in that brief instant—
I failed to react properly.
Arrows and spears fired from the castle slammed into me and sent me flying!
[You have used power far beyond the amount of Spiral you can currently control!]
[You will temporarily be unable to use Flow and Destruction!]
[Please evade the enemy!]
“You should’ve told me that earlier…!”
My fusion with Modak broke apart.
The Domain Skill disappeared too.
That single swing just now had truly compressed everything I had into one attack.
Damn it!
Even the chains won’t come out!
“In-Gwang-nim!”
Thud!
Thankfully, the Village Chief rushed over and caught me.
Everyone else had apparently been standing there thinking—
He’ll probably survive somehow.
Usually, sure!
That was fair!
But after I just did that, shouldn’t you at least think something might be wrong?!
Huh?!
I’m disappointed!
Especially in you, Aien!
You look so reliable wearing that Sea Dragon Armor or whatever it’s called!
“P-Pie! Let’s get out of the Demonic Realm! We can’t do this right now! We can’t fight!”
“Got it. Follow me.”
“N-No, wait. I can’t walk… My body won’t move…!”
I had done enough.
Cutting off one leg was pretty damn good.
The Village Chief hoisted me onto his back and ran after Pie, who quickly took the lead.
Normally, I had to serve as both the tank and the raid leader, giving everyone instructions while keeping the enemy busy.
Now that I was in this condition, retreating was obviously the right move.
Thankfully, Pie had already traveled this path once before.
She found the route out much faster this time.
Meanwhile, the monsters of the Demonic Realm continued attacking the castle as well, slowing both it and us down.
Just a little farther.
Just a little more distance…
And we would completely escape.
This Demonic Realm was also a Forest of Mazes.
A forest where you sometimes had to take ten steps around just to move one step forward.
“How far is that thing going to follow us?!”
“Seriously. It just keeps coming without stopping.”
But…
This wasn’t going well.
How was it still following us?
Shouldn’t the distance between us have started increasing by now?
Why was it still right behind us?
Wasn’t it about time to let us go?
Stay inside your designated area, damn it!
Don’t tell me this entire Demonic Realm was that thing’s territory.
Or maybe it was pissed because we cut off one of its legs?
[Your strength is gradually returning!]
[It would be advisable to exercise greater caution next time!]
You’re one to talk!
If you’d told me what was going to happen beforehand, none of this would’ve happened!
Pie glanced back.
“Looks like it’s going to keep following us. What are you going to do?”
“Tch. If it were only moderately big, I could’ve tied its legs together with chains… but it’s way too huge for that.”
I clicked my tongue.
“And telling everyone to jump over the castle walls would be stupid because its defenses are too strong. No matter how you look at it, doesn’t this thing scream, ‘You’re still underleveled for this boss’?”
We hadn’t even attacked it first.
We were literally just standing there staring at it when it attacked us.
If it wasn’t going to attack, then it should’ve stayed peaceful until the end!
Why suddenly attack us?!
Why does this game have zero consistency?!
Trash game!
“For now, let’s just keep moving! I think I’ll be able to fight again soon.”
Pie asked,
“Can you do that thing from earlier again?”
“Nope.”
The whole disaster had happened because Modak suddenly mentioned Spiral and my entire concentration became focused on it.
There wouldn’t be a second time.
More importantly…
I still had no idea what Spiral even was.
I had somewhat understood both Flow and Destruction.
But I still couldn’t understand why Spiral was connected to those two powers.
When I heard the word spiral, the only thing that came to mind was a drill.
Seriously.
What was I supposed to do with that?
Compress power.
Strengthen that compressed power.
Then explode it all at once.
Was that Spiral?
Was that how I was supposed to understand it?
“Spiral… Village Chief, what comes to mind when you hear the word ‘spiral’?”
The Village Chief was breathing heavily as he ran.
“Huff… huff…! If you say spiral… I suppose reincarnation comes to mind! A spiral gives the impression of something circular, does it not?”
“…Hmm! That actually makes sense!”
Personally, rather than reincarnation, the word Spiral felt more closely related to evolution and regression.
Something turning around and around like winding a spring.
Then evolving.
Regressing.
Maybe that was the nature of Spiral.
If I thought about it that way…
It actually matched some of the things I had done until now.
The most obvious examples were Modak, Jjikjjiki, and Nature.
Even the Village Chief could probably be counted as one of those examples.
“Not bad! As expected of you, Village Chief! That helped!”
“Hahaha! What an honor to hear you say such a thing! I shall continue striving even harder!”
“Good! Hey! Aien!”
“What?!”
I tried fusing with Modak again and jumped down from the Village Chief’s back.
Our previous fusion had been forcibly broken apart, so even though I fused with Modak again after such a short interval, I didn’t feel much backlash.
If Spiral was the power to compress strength, reinforce it, and evolve it—
Then couldn’t I evolve that Sea Dragon Armor into an actual Sea Dragon?
[The power of Spiral grows stronger!]
“Prepare Certain Kill!”
“Yes!”
The castle had lost one leg, so it had slowed down slightly.
I stood facing it head-on and placed my hand against Aien’s back.
If I messed this up, Aien might end up looking like Jjikjjiki’s early transformation form.
So I needed to move as precisely as possible.
[The power of Spiral flows into the Knight of Diligence, Aien, causing a minor change within her body!]
[Deep trust can be felt from the Knight of Diligence, Aien!]
[Her diligent desire to repay your trust further strengthens the power of Spiral!]
“You’re doing great! My daughter is the best!”
“Be quiet! I can’t concentrate!”
Certain Kill always started from a stance that looked like she was about to perform an iaijutsu draw.
Personally, I wondered if the sheath would get in the way when she pulled the sword out and swung it.
But this was fantasy.
Iaijutsu was always the strongest.
Aien leaned forward.
