＜Infinite Dendrogram＞

□ [Saint Knight] Ray Sterling

◇ ◇ ◇

We helped Rebecca in the alley and went straight to the Ghozmaids Bandits' Azito to help her brother.

So at the time of the break-in, I knew very little about the Gozmaids Bandits.

"Kidnapping and Killing Kids Outside Road" degree of recognition.

I didn't know anything.

But knowing all of them beforehand at this time... I'm sure the results wouldn't have changed.

It simply had to have been the difference between early or late.

◇ ◇ ◇

The white smoke from the [smoke dispenser] used by Hugo's [Marshall II] penetrated the inside of the fort, and I passed through the entrance without being blamed and reached the passage leading from there.

Doesn't make it a case that we don't know where or what is in an indoor full of white smoke......

This smoke looks clear when I stare at it.

It probably doesn't exert a visual inhibitory effect on Hugo's party members, who are users.

It is unclear on what grounds such sorting can be done.

"Well, I don't know the internal structure of what went inside."

Me and Nemesis don't utter a word in covert action, and we go down the aisle talking in readings.

From time to time, they don't see us, not like the bandits trying to intercept us.

"Master, where do you think the child is?

Somewhere in the room that is not facing the window above the second floor, or if there is an underground, it is more likely to be underground.

"Why?

From them, putting the kidnapped children on the ground floor raises the chances of escape.

Also, the room facing the window is different than upstairs.

There was a surprise crawling on the wall. I'm afraid I'll be able to get away with it.

The erasure method is underground or up.

"Then it would be underground."

Reason?

"If a villain kidnaps a child and locks him up, it's set in the basement"

.................. should I say so or not.

Is it possible and should I go?

There was a crossroads ahead that I thought so. Straight ahead and turn left, and peek right into the direction.

At the end of the road to the right there was a staircase down to the basement, opening its mouth to invite us.

I choose to go down the aisle on the right and head down the stairs to the basement.

"... ugh!

A strange odor drifted from the basement as I stepped into the stairs.

Smells I've smelled somewhere but can't or don't want to.

But you can't go without it.

I make up my mind and go down the stairs.

The stairs to the basement are naturally stoned, with floors, walls and ceilings.

The ceiling is surprisingly high, more than double my height, and the aisle is even wider than that. This doesn't seem inconvenient to wield nemesis.

But in places other than the floor, where people would pass from time to time, the ceilings and walls had dark green cockerels and were accompanied by unique humidity.

"You stink."

It's underground.

But this cockerel and moisture... it's leaking ground water from somewhere.

"Originally like an abandoned fort."

If you keep a kid in here for a long time, I'll break your body.

"If they're going to take care of the child's health, they won't be able to kidnap him or kill him."

Is that true?

In reality, though, I also feel that there was a business to treat the kidnapped person politely and ransom them, the people here wouldn't be.

If you look at the inferior guys we took down and those carriage guys, you'll see.

I don't care about my child's life.

Remember what they say and do, chest shit gets worse.

"... ugh."

"Have you noticed, by the way? Master."

Nemesis didn't say what he was “aware of".

Even if they didn't tell me, I noticed, too.

"About down the stairs. I finally remembered where I smelled it"

I'm not talking, I answer with my mouth.

Because you no longer have to hide.

“Something” at the end of the aisle has already captured us.

"Are you there..."

"Oh."

The perimeter is illuminated by the slightest lights installed on the wall.

Stone floors, walls, ceilings and coke.

The smell of drifting moisture, the smell of air, the smell of blood, the smell of rot.

This smell is familiar to smell.

The smell I smelled all night in that Tomb Labyrinth.

That is,

"Ohhhhhhhhhh..."

".................................... Karakara"

It smells like "undead."

He leans over here moaning with dirt juice from the rotten meat sticking to his bones [Woond Zombie].

He doesn't even have meat, he approaches with a rattlesnake and jaw bones ringing [Civil Skeleton].

…………

It is the same type of monster that was defeated several times in the Tomb Labyrinth.

homogeneous, but there was a decisive difference.

Not a number. The number of undead now rises to dozens, but there was a more significant difference between them than that number.

It's not strength.

I'm sure if you fight, you'll be weaker than the undead you fought in that Tomb Labyrinth.

The difference is, who do they end up with?

"... witch mountain play (...) Don't"

I told the sight, don't play witch mountain games, over and over again in my heart.

"Muroi no."

To the sight in front of me, I rub my chewed back teeth and pity even the undead scared nemesis before scared.

The undead standing in front of us was small.

Compared to me... "I'm only about half tall".

Such an undead was filling the aisle.

What they were originally...... needless to say.

"Chest shit bad......"

The little undead reach both ways and come closer to us.

With a worn out weapon in each hand, they're coming at us, the intruders.

Except for the size, it's the same sight as the Tomb Labyrinth.

But the undead based on a man's corpse... was different from the one made as an undead from the beginning.

I can stir up so much emotion in that figure that it doesn't fit in my chest.

"Hung, you seem to have a Necromancy user in the Bandits. You mean the reuse of the children you killed? '

Are you okay, Nemesis?

"Ha. Before you get frightened... the halibut that shouldn't look like this is boiling back."

"Me, too."

Looking at the undead in front of me, I thought.

Do you have a hand in saving these children?

The answer is no.

If we have the means to resurrect the dead in the first place, it cannot have been done in this country, which lost many important figures in the war ahead.

Then there is no such means, or there is no way in the country to do it.

There's no way I can have it right now.

"Hey, Nemesis"

"Something?

"What happens when the undead dies?

The undead, who fought in the Tomb Labyrinth in the Divine Dungeon, is a crop, not someone's body.

But the [Wood Zombie] or [Civil Skeleton] in front of you is the same name as the Tomb Labyrinth, but it was once life.

Then what will happen to the souls of these children

'I don't know. Some have been used only for their bodies, while others have been put into their souls. I don't know what will happen to my soul after I destroy them.'

"Right..."

But I think we should put an end to our suffering as undead.

"... oh"

The distance from the child's undead is clogged, about five meters.

Some [zombies] lit up by lights left a shadow on their lifetime faces.

…………

I close my eyelids tight only once.

When I opened my eyelids again...... I stuck the back of my left hand out to them.

"Sorry."

I radiated Purgatory Fire from my left hand [armor] and burned down dozens of undead children.

Thin bones, thin rot, slightly remaining hair chambers burn in an instant by super hot flames.

In that moment they lose their HP and collapse, burning as bodies, not undead.

Black smoke rises, but it flows along the ceiling to the ground floor and mixes with the white smoke screen.

When I stopped flaming, they didn't burn any more and became cremated remains.

[The number of monster crusades falling under the conditions of < Proper Total Level Zone Undead > exceeded 100]

[You have completed the Job Conditions [Holy Knight] & Cumulative Crusade Count Conditions [Conditions Applicable 100 Monster Crusades], so you have mastered the Active Skill "Holy Another Silver Light"]

Apparently, an announcement appears that conveys skill acquisition, but there was no joy, surprise, or dust in my heart.

It was just that the inside of my chest was heavy.

…………

I slowly put my hands together.

As I would do so in front of the grave...... I only wished and prayed for the blessings of the children's souls.

Unexpectedly, because of the air currents generated by the heat... only a little wind blew through the underground passage.

[Arigato]

My ears felt that voice mixed with the sound of the wind.

But that must be an illusion.

At least he wants only his soul to be saved... it's an illusion that my wish has arisen.

"Master"

"... you mean this (...), nemesis"

I put my hand on my chest and ask Nemesis, holding the weight accumulated there.

"This is... this feeling is what Hugo was about to say then...?

'... right. If Maiden's Master doesn't think of this world as a "game" in his mind… if we are equally aware that life in this world also exists'

…………

"Even in this Infinite Dendrogram, the Lord feels the weight of life too much."

"Reality, huh?"

Reality of the weight of life.

"Perhaps..."

This world is too real to distinguish it from reality.

Even Tian, my heart feels, as if he had a heart and really lived with even a soul.

Even though my head knew it was a game, I couldn't deny the heart I had once.

So like when [Gardranda], even Tian feels terribly bad aftertaste if someone's life is lost.

Weren't I moving to avoid that end, even when Migliane was there?

And that's the same now that I'm here to rescue Rebecca's brother.

But now what's in front of me is countless ends.

I don't know their process. I don't know how it ended.

You couldn't reach me, and you didn't know.

It's just that there was an end that was too cruel to do with the word tragedy and the emotions that flattered my mind.

Only bad aftertaste like burning my chest - only sadness and anger existed.

"In this world where lives are more easily lost than in the Lord's world... how is that so hard?

"............... right"

Even now, I'm going to cry.

As much as I want to throw it out, I'm going to cry.

If you continue to experience this feeling, if you experience the same grief of loss over and over again as reality, some of you will choose to leave < Infinite Dendrogram >.

I'm sure he was there.

That's an impulsive choice for me right now.

"But I... not yet"

I'm not broken yet.

We haven't saved the living children yet.

I haven't fulfilled my promise yet.

Above all - I'm not letting the shithead who created this sight get paid.

…………

I turn my gaze toward the bodies of the children who have returned to the dust.

There is a piece of metal left to melt in its body… it was written in the official language of < Infinite Dendrogram >.

[Maize Young Individual Use Model [Civil Skeleton] No. 87]

That's a tag.

For the guy who put it on, it's just a tag.

But what the word and the numbers mean is... never forgive this guy.

Whether < Infinite Dendrogram > is a game or not.

I can't leave this guy alone.

"Let's go, Nemesis. I'm sure it's up ahead."

'... respond!

I started going down the aisle with Nemesis.

◆ ◆ ◆

■ Two Big Heads of the Gods Maize Bandits [Great Necromancer (Rich)] Maize

"Hmm?"

Find out that subordinate capacity usage has decreased and some of the undead that were under my control have disappeared.

The one that disappeared... oh, the garbage I made for comfort and then left instead of the alarm in the underground aisle?

It's the weak undead that's supposed to be crushed. It's not a waste to be erased.

But I was sensing intruders rampaging flashly on the ground, but are they underground as well?

"Goz."

I move a communication magic item that connects to the ground.

"Ooh."

"How's the scale on the ground?

"Five or six minutes to go. It's gonna be cleared by then. '

"If." After all my men have been wiped out. "Beat the intruder. This one cleans up the rats in the basement too. When that's done, we're moving."

"Oh. Oh, yeah, I think I can make a lot of lunches, so I need you to get me an item box for the body."

"I know."

There must have been a number of empty item boxes for the body collection.

I plan to take everything with me along with that item box where I handed over my treasures and secrets.

"Stand by the gate when the intruders are defeated."

"Ooh."

Shut down communication.

This would be fine on the ground.

The opponent on the ground is fierce enough to wipe out all his men, albeit all the miscellaneous fish in the first lower position.

But Goz's fighting power is different digits.

A man of strength who kansts a level that can be reached up to the senior ranks and ensures that he enters the Five Fingers in this country's combatant lineage.

Without even that Figaro, [superfighter] wouldn't have been strange to have a goz.

And so am I.

I am also the one who kansted the level.

Above all, those who possess the highest technology in this country in the Necromancer lineage and have one hand in a superior position (Superior Job).

I don't know how many people the intruders are, but it's not enough to be afraid unless they're super.

Strange though.

"What did the intruder come here for?

I'm sure you know our crusade is no longer worthy of it.

For the treasure?

I guess so. The funds obtained from the kidnapping are enormous, except for what was flown to Cardina.

Not bad if you're after a thousand bucks.

Most of all, what kind of counterpart is known at the time of designing such a hopeless future.

"Well... shall we get ready to welcome you (without one)"

To be continued