＜Infinite Dendrogram＞

□ Conversation between a certain Super and Rookie

"For the battle type, < UBM > is troublesome from the ancient Epic class"

"Isn't anecdote or epic a threat?

"I don't know if you're a twisted first-time killer, otherwise you can usually win. The problem is the Ancient Epic. From that stage on, even the battle type has a losing eye of about twenty or thirty percent '

"Twenty or thirty percent...... it depends on people to decide whether it's high or low!

'Cause you're coming through common sense from the ancient Epic class. Performance Weird People Bears'

"Even the legendary [Gardranda] was already crazy, right?

'Fair enough. So, ancient Epic classes come out with pure performance types with strange status, multiple skill types with several powerful inherent abilities, and so on. The most troublesome thing is the conditional type. "

"Condition-specific?

"At the expense of other performance, they are the ones with the inherent ability to boast of invincibility in one situation. Your [disconnected chanting gloves] would be something of a typical of that. You know, the second gear skill you unleashed in your special training earlier, seriously, [the god of earth] is gonna cry. '

"Oh, you're the type like my [Valtburgh]. Very strong for magic, like."

"In short, he says he only fights on conditions that are absolutely advantageous, and that he will never lose out on those conditions. That kind has to mesh. But it's tough.

"For example, if I had a condition-specific type that would unilaterally attack me from a place that wouldn't even arrive with a Bulder shell, I'd still be tough."

◇ ◇ ◇

□ [Saint Knight] Ray Sterling

Something black popped up from the mountains near the village of Torne with a noisy laugh, rising at high speeds as it was.

The sole, which reached heaven as if it were a rocket, stops the ascent at a point in the sky… higher than the clouds.

From here on out, the sole only looks like a small black dot.

But the sky rapidly darkens around the sole.

Even though it is still early in the evening, it seems like after sunset.

The abrupt “night” reminds me of that feminized student... probably the opposite of that one.

Feminized students were producing “night," but that point must be taking away the “day”... the light.

……

Seniors take out binocular-shaped magic items and look at the black dots over them.

And turn that look into something bitter.

"Senior...... what was that?

"…"

That's what the senior said, he hands me his binoculars.

A peek at it revealed that the sole, which looked like a black dot, was a monster composed of cracked crystal balls and dark wings.

And I can also read the name [Black Sky Dead Monochrome], which I saw overhead.

"Cocten...... Then that's...!

The monster that started the Windstar Festival, told in that play... 300 years ago < UBM >.

Three hundred years after the meteorite struck you directly... you mean you lived without drinking or eating in the ground.

"… light-eating energy life form (elemental). Indeed, then, it is not surprising that it remains. No, the problem now is, what the hell is that thing doing,... ugh!

That happened before the seniors finished saying the words.

The [monochrome] over the village of Torne - emitted light from that place toward the ground.

First of all, in the mountains where I popped myself.

Then......, in the midst of the wind star festival where people are gathered.

Fire columns rise.

At the end of his gaze, the stalls, the houses, and people burn up.

The light that causes it - the hotline continues to be emitted from the sky not once, but again, again and again, obstinately.

"KYAHAHAHAHAHAHAA"

I'm supposed to be on the sky...... somehow I can hear him laugh so far.

It's like, "I'm having so much fun," he laughs, telling the victims.

Burning landscape.

panicking people.

People screaming as they burn.

A child who cries as he calls his parents.

Watching many fears and tragedies...... he was (...).

"- Don't play witch mountain."

As I once did when I found out about Maize's outrage.

As I once did when I was relative to [Gozmaize].

Like when I once challenged Franklin.

My heart complains.

He said he should never - never forgive.

"Silvaaaaaa!!"

Respond to my screams and silver emerges from the item box.

I jump on its back and lock the reins with my left hand prosthetic.

At the same time, it consumes MP stored in [Purple Grievance Runaway] and activates "Wind Hood".

"Mr. Ray!

"Seniors evacuate Mr. Farica, Louis and the Tians! I'll... I'll take that one!

At the same time as the words are uttered, they wield the reins and cause the silver to walk toward the sky.

Immediately afterwards, the crest in my arms now glows.

"Ray!"

Nemesis jumps out of the crest, instantly becoming a great sword and tangled in my right arm.

"You know what's going on!

"Answer me! I guess I'm going to go crush the fucking crystal on the sky!

"Enough if you know that!

Silver rushes through the sky at an angle that can be said to be almost vertical.

I turn my magic against gravity with my left handed prosthetic hand, with my strength against my tread.

"Huh, what?

If we looked around in an unusual sight of nearly ninety degrees, there were four other rides from the village of Torne aimed at heaven besides us.

Griffon, Hippogriff, Wyburn, and the pure dragon of the Tenryu species.

On the back of each monster is ridden.

They probably visited the Windstar Festival.

Just like me, I flew off to discuss the [monochrome] overhead.

"Hey!"

and a horse in it approaches this way.

"Hey there, maybe Ray Sterling, the" indomitable ”one!

The approaching horse, the man on the hippogriff, calls out so.

"Oh! What about you?

"I don't have two names. Lang is a [disease cavalry]! My senior...... Mr. Riser was talking about you!

"You know Mr. Riser!

"Each other, we came to the festival and we hit a terrible mess, but we joined forces..."

Moment after moment, his head, which he named Lang, disappeared.

"Huh!?"

A flash of events.

The heat line emitted without sound evaporated the head.

The remaining body also becomes a particle of light, and the hippoglyphs that were on it are automatically stored in the jewel and disappear.

"He's starting to intercept!!"

The heavily armored Master on the Pure Dragon raises his voice to draw attention.

If you look up there, he's got four tentacles twirling around, and he's got his aim here at the tip of it.

"Ha! It's like a shooting game! It's hard to get close!

"Hyah! Yes, but I won't come near you! It's a feud between the desperate members and the Tians! I'm not buying you a sold fight!!"

That's what the lightweight Master on the Griffon and Mohican Master on the Wyburn say to accelerate the horseman.

"His hotline is a straight line! It's not hard to dodge if you're watching the moment your tentacles emit light!

As Pure Dragon's Master says, his attack is linear.

Looks like a laser, but the speed hasn't even reached the sound speed.

Then we can dodge it.

It's a long range, but if we keep dodging it, we can take him down.

"Oops! Watch it, man! He's got a hotline that's more powerful when it's closer!

During the ascent, Mohican on Wyburn spoke out loud - perhaps over a loud item to be heard here - and said so.

"I was where he came from! I turned off our members with one shot per rock formation (...), but when I was shooting the ground from above the sky, humans were burning up (...)! I mean, the power of the hotline is inversely proportional to the distance!

"Even if the maximum range reaches 10,000 meters, isn't that the effective distance that can maintain the power!

To the words of Mohican, Pure Dragon's < Master > responds.

I see. What's really dangerous is when the distance approaches, huh?

If the power is now attenuated, was it caused by a direct hit to the head the first time Lang died... an unlucky man?

……

Unexpectedly behind...... something sounded from the bottom

If you turn around slightly, there's a smoke blast at the middle of the ground with us. It's like a missile or something exploded over there......

'In itself. Missiles were unleashed from the ground toward the sky - possibly some sort of Embrio skill. But they're intercepted by a hotline. "

It seems that Nemesis has a wider vision when it comes to weapon forms, so he also saw a whole bunch of downward events.

I see. We're the only ones up in the sky, but can some of them attack the sky from the ground?

'Besides missiles, attacks have been taking place since earlier. But they're all shot out by the hotline'

"Everything..."

We are rising with the four horsemen of the five horsemen alive.

Sometimes we can avoid this difference better... but I feel uncomfortable somewhere.

It's as if they prioritize dealing with attacks from the ground over us approaching them.

- It's like saying you don't have to deal with us.

"Hey...... yet, is it!

I know what Griffon's short words mean.

I was on the sky, on the clouds [monochrome].

The first altitude was about 10,000 meters above ground.

Our current altitude is close to that.

But my distance doesn't shrink.

- He's still up (...).

"Ke! That crystal ball, how long is the range......!

That's what Wyburn's Mohican said......, no.

'Range, that distance seems to be the limit. I haven't received a hotline on the surface since earlier'

Yes, his hotline reaches the ground at an altitude just now... 10,000 meters seems to be the limit.

But unless you just raise the altitude (...).

Apparently his maximum altitude is not 10,000 meters above ground.

If we just intercept him, it means he can go up more.

Or maybe there are limits to that, too.

I want to think that it just won't reach the universe.

but......,

…… First, no!

Where is Griffon's < master > word, it sounds small.

Naturally. This place is already over 12,000 meters in altitude.

The air is so thin that it cannot be compared to the ground.

"Oh, first off, no! Wolle's, my partner's, no more..."

- Already, not so much a world where life can sustain.

Normally, even real jumbo jets only fly up to 10,000 metres in altitude.

Because the air you can take in more than that is thin and you can't maintain a long flight.

Ultra-low temperatures and ultra-low pressures, this is not an environment where organisms can survive.

Yes, even though monsters with the ability to fly like Griffon and Wyburn, this altitude is not their world.

< Master > and so advanced that he is experiencing syncope and frozen death if he does not have the physical ability derived from a high status.

Even more than 10,000 meters above our altitude... [Monochrome] is there.

[Monochrome] continues to rise.

Maybe there's a cap on his ability to ascend, too.

Maybe it won't reach the universe.

- But the limits of the organism are far ahead of them.

That's why he prioritized dealing with attacks from the ground.

He knew that creatures would never reach where they were (...).

"K......! Sorry, leave, do...!

"Chiquishume......!

First, Griffon's < Master > falls off, then Wyburn's Mohican falls off.

The pure dragon still holds, but the movement slows down and he starts eating his hotline concentrated fire.

Pure dragons make bitter noises.

Eventually the hotline penetrates even the wings, and the pure dragon falls.

"Kuh!" "Return (Li Cole)"!

Pure Dragon's gives priority to the survival of non-flying, seriously injured Pure Dragon, or returns Pure Dragon to his own jewel.

And he fell straight to the ground.

Naturally it would be a death penalty if it fell as-is, but I guess I put it back after figuring it out.

Because his gaze on falling said, "Please do it later."

"Are we the only ones left?"

"... oh"

Silver from a brilliant jade horse is not an organism.

Therefore, we can go even higher than their horseman.

And I myself am protected from cold air, hypoxia, and gases harmful to the human body by the curtain of the faint compressed air deployed in Wind Hoops.

But I can tell.

We've already... said we're at maximum altitude.

"Huh!"

Moment after moment, Silver stepped off his feet.

No, you're not.

A mass of compressed air in the scaffold collapsed due to a "lack of strength”.

Yes, Silver's ability to fly is only cementing the ambient air and making scaffolding.

Already fifteen thousand meters. The amount of air is not even comparable to the ground.

Because of the stratosphere, there is not enough air to satisfactorily form a scaffold of compressed air even if excessive magic power is sent to the "wind hoof".

The barrier that protects my own life has already been broken many times with a sweeping hotline, and it's a limit.

The ambient atmospheric component is also phased out of oxygen molecules, making it an ozone harmful to the human body.

Above this is an area where there is a risk of lethality the moment the membrane of compressed air is torn.

"Chi...!

If you look up, the distance from [monochrome] is not shrinking now.

[Monochrome] has just taken off the troposphere and looks down on this one from the stratosphere.

"KYAHAHAHAHAHA"

Also, I hear that laugh.

The air gets extremely thin and the distance is on the other side, but I can only hear him laugh.

'Well, I guess you have skills, too. Skills for grinning. "

…………

A hotline with a range of 10,000 meters.

The upward force that also reaches the stratosphere.

And grinning skills.

This guy... for all of his abilities to ravage while looking down on other creatures.

"Ray! The limit! I can't go any further!! '

Silver, who was running through the sky, slows down its steps.

We can no longer even make scaffolds of compressed air to match driving.

On the contrary, the intensity has increased since earlier… we cannot avoid a hotline that is concentrated exclusively on us.

We didn't have the technology to get to the top from here.

"... hey, we're leaving!

I instructed Silver to descend to the ground, feeling the anger swirling in my stomach that I couldn't beat.

Silver cuts back instantly and rushes down into a falling mood toward the ground.

But there's no way [Monochrome] would stop intercepting me when I turned my back.

"KYAHAAAAAAAA!!"

To that voice, I twist my torso and look behind my back.

At that moment, four tentacles were emitting light and shooting hot lines at silver aiming at the ground.

against that hotline on the direct hit course,

"Huh! Third form!

"Answer!

I aggressively deform the nemesis into a third form of circular shield to receive the hotline.

The glowing heat line hits the surface of the circular shield and diffuses without penetration.

The extra heat from the hotline licks silver with me, but it's not as damaging as it sounds.

Again, defensive performance is different from previous forms. Even if the Counter Absorption is not used, it can be prevented if the range is critical and the power is weakened.

'... what? Charge? Aside from conventional damage accumulation......'

Nemesis is whining about something, but not me right now.

Brave the descent close to the vertical fall as well as holding the silver horse body with both legs, holding the reins diligently to avoid being shaken off.

And then more than 10,000 meters opened up between him, and we took off the range of his heat line.

◇

A few minutes after the retreat, we set foot on the ground again.

".................. ugh"

Survival is possible.

But that was nothing more than running back [monochrome] against them.

I have bitter feelings about that.

"Evacuation… is progressing"

Where I got off, there's no sign of people.

Looking at the village, a large number of tourists have begun evacuation while being protected by the Master.

The rest of the men on the ground are on guard over the sky, ready for his hotline.

But the hotline never pours down to the ground.

Because he hasn't put the ground in range yet.

"KYAHAKYAHAKYAHA"

But only that laugh is echoing on the ground, stirring people's fears.

That is also evident from the fact that the [Purple Grievance Runaway A] at his feet is running a collection of resentments, negative emotions.

He will stir up fear as he is and execute it as soon as he is able to attack the ground.

"The salvation... is that he doesn't descend very fast"

As I noticed during the descent to the ground, he can't get off as fast as the ascent speed.

Compared to how fast that rocket is going up, it's slower.

That would be slower than a free fall at gravity acceleration.

A rough estimate of the sighting, but there will be about 30 minutes to get the ground to range again......

I earned some time for people to evacuate.

With that in mind, or our assault wasn't in vain, either.

"Salvation, but not enough material to crush that crystal."

That's what Nemesis said when he went back from weapon to human form.

The voice contains a fighting spirit that, with remorse... will never shrivel.

Earlier it didn't arrive as if it were [monochrome].

But Nemesis hasn't given up yet.

... Me too.

"There's another thing I found out about [monochrome]. He's probably not that tough."

Dealing with attacks on the ground, all bullet interceptions. That seems to be his ability to afford it.

But on the contrary, couldn't he have hit one shot?

"On what grounds?

"He's got scratches on the crystal balls that make up his body"

When I saw it with binoculars I borrowed from my senior, I had a crack of considerable size.

Since he appeared, no one should have been attacked.

Then......

"That's his old wound... it must have been the direct damage from the meteorite in his legacy"

He had been buried in the ground for hundreds of years under a direct meteorite strike if it was his inheritance.

But I'm sure that meteorite wasn't something big or powerful.

If such a giant meteorite, the village near here disappears three hundred years ago without leaving any inheritance behind.

So it should have been on a scale that would have done little damage to the neighborhood if it had fallen.

My brother or Figaro told me that if it was UBM, or if I was [Gozmaize] relative, I would have had the repair done to deal with meteorites at that level only by physical means.

But [Monochrome] took heavy damage from that meteorite's direct hit, and it still hasn't been repaired.

Perhaps that [monochrome] is flawed in HP, END, and self-repair capabilities instead of having lifting and ultra-range, light absorption capabilities.

"For the record, if I'm going to have my revenge, which I saved as much as I did when I was [Gozmaize]... no, even half that power can shatter him"

Not impossible as amount of damage.

While receiving his hotline, he can heal and accumulate with items and [BR Armor].

"The problem… is that we don't have the means to hit it"

Again, that's the biggest problem.

Even if he was a vulnerable individual among the < UBM >, it doesn't make sense if you can't guess.

"The creature doesn't trace to the stratosphere where he is, and attacks from the ground are intercepted. So there are two hands I can come up with to attack."

"What's that?

"Ignore the distance like the special skill of Xun Yu, or… use an anti-aircraft attack that won't bitter the interception."

But there is no Xuan Yu here who can execute the former.

Neither can the latter be seen to exist in the land more than all attacks from the ground had been shot down.

Of course, we don't have the same means.

So I thought this tactic was an airborne theory on the desk......

…………

Nemesis seemed to think of something else.

"... Ray, why don't you let me go back inside the crest a little bit"

"Nemesis?"

At this time, why?

"A third form of analysis that was about to be read, but I can read about half of it as it stands"

Nemesis says it here and now...

"Is the third form of skill... something that goes to him?

"... it's possible. Analytical contents like eating bugs, though. And when I shielded him, I went a little further."

When you took it with a shield?

Is that what seniors were saying, when you act on skills, you analyze them faster?

"Perhaps the third skill is close to" I have vengeance. "And Counter Absorptions."

"It's..."

"As far as we are currently analyzing, the third skill also accumulates damage from the enemy. And it's an attack skill that can only be used once a day (...)"

Once a day skill that accumulates and releases damage from opponents.

It was as if the limits of "Vengeance is on Me" and "Counter Absorption" were doubled.

Then it would outweigh "Vengeance is on me" in its destructive power.

But I don't know if that's the skill to reach him.

"This is a double crossing. Is the result of the analysis something that can counteract him? And can you... bump that skill against him for once? If one comes off, we don't have a hand."

"... but it's possible, isn't it?

"Whatever."

I laugh a little bit at that response from Nemesis.

"Then"

"Has the Lord's answer been determined?"

Nemesis was laughing again, too.

Oh, not at all. This is what we always do.

That was true both when [Gardranda] and when [Gozmaize].

But this is how when you're betting on the future with this guy.

I'm more comfortable than ever.

"Analyze me, Nemesis."

"Respond. Expect it, Ray"

That's how Nemesis responded and went back to my crest.

…………

I gently stroked the crest with the nemesis and then looked up over it.

There it looks like a black sand grain [monochrome], but it's slowly descending to the ground.

The time remaining is less than 30 minutes.

Is Nemesis quick to analyze or is he quick to fit the ground at range?

"-KYAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

A [monochrome] laugh sounds like you dare to announce your proximity from above.

I'll tell him again about the announcement of such a laugh.

"That laugh...... I'll stop you"

- The battle is coming.

To be continued