WG – Chapter 217: Tying Hearts

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“—Sorry. Could you please repeat that?” 

At the bridge of the Sky City where all of my comrades aside from Sazan are gathered. 

Mitsuki asked me something strange with her cat ears lying flat. 

I enunciate each and every word so that, this time around, she hears me clearly. 

“As I said…when we summoned the Evil God Fragment at the edge of the deck, it dropped, and splattered on the ground. Splush.” (Souma)

I even gave that at-home feeling by mixing in sound effects. I think it was a wonderful and easy to understand explanation.

“Haah…” 

But the reaction of my comrades is not good. 

Or more like, isn’t it cruel to sigh after you were the one who asked? 

“Eh?! B-By Evil God Fragment, are you referring to the Evil God Fragment?! It d-died?!” (Ina)

“Yeah.” (Souma)

“Moreover, it went hyuuun and dropped down?” (Ina)

“Yeah.” (Souma)

“A-And it went splat on the ground?” (Ina)

“Yeah.” (Souma)

I was answering Ina who was parroting my words for some reason, and she fell on her knees right there. 

Good grief, my comrades are weirdos as always. 

In the first place, I am explaining this situation alone here because of my chuunibyou comrade.

As I explained just now, right after we moved to the south solitary island with the Sky City, I moved to the deck with Sazan, summoned the Evil God Fragment there, and had it drop on the ground. 

There wasn’t really anything unexpected there. We literally managed to kill it in an instant, so I actually wanted us both to report our victory, but Sazan must have been distraught with joy, she curled up at the corner of the deck, and didn’t move at all. 

Well, she fulfilled her lifelong desire, so she must be basking in the moment. 

That’s why I thought of leaving her be for a while, but I didn’t expect I would be battered with questions like this by my comrades.

Moreover…

“Aaah, I feel bad for Sazan-chan. Wasn’t it super shocking?” (Maki)

Maki threw in the final blow and said this as if baffled.

But she couldn’t be more wrong.

“Listen here. This was actually what Sazan suggested.” (Souma)

“Eh?!” 

The moment I said this, the groaning Ina and all my other comrades made surprised faces. 

Was it that unexpected? 

I instead puffed out my chest at the dubious gazes. 

“In the first place, dropping the Evil God Fragment from the Sky City was a settled matter between me and Sazan.” (Souma)

“Eeeeeh?!” 

This raised even louder voices.

They are already screaming at this point. 

“I-Is that true?” (Mitsuki)

Even that Mitsuki had her cat ears trembling, and asked with a tone devoid of her usual composure. 

But that doesn’t change reality.

“Yeah. You all might not know since you were not there, but the reason why I noticed that the Evil God Fragment could be defeated with fall damage was because I saw the memories of Sazan using her bracelet.” (Souma)

“Sazan-san’s memories? The time when she was the Seal Priestess…?” (Ina)

I sometimes almost forget about it, but even though Sazan is like that, she was actually the priestess-sama that protected the seal of the Evil God in the south solitary island a few years ago. 

With the power of the bracelet that shows memories, I alone know what Sazan saw at that time, but my comrades simply heard about it. 

It isn’t strange for them to not understand why the Evil God Fragment died from this. 

“There’s a reason as to why the Evil God Fragment was defeated after dropping it from the Sky City.” (Souma)

First, in Nekomimi Neko -the system of this world- fall damage is percent damage.

After defeating the Demon Lord, I fell and got hit with quite a lot of damage when I was running through the roofs of the capital. The logic is the same as that. 

I have become strong enough to defeat the Demon Lord even if it was through drowning, but why did I get damaged just from falling down a roof? 

It is because the damage when falling is calculated by the fall distance and a percent of your max HP.

No matter how high your defense, or how high your max HP is, it holds no meaning against percent damage. 

In other words, no matter if you are level 1 or a 1,000 or an Evil God Fragment that’s stronger than the last boss, if you fall a certain distance, it can still die by getting hit with more than its max HP.

As far as I know, it is a factor that has no resistance just like drowning, and it is effective even on bosses. 

However, there’s almost no bosses where you can pull a fall death. 

Most bosses would only appear in set rooms, and there’s nothing in those places that would cause a fall death, or even elevations that would deal fall damage. 

There’s enemies in places like the Sky City where they would receive heavy damage if they were to fall, but they would mostly have flying abilities like Barnis V. 

Even though I was flying in the air, I died when I landed for some reason -is a plausible thing happening in Nekomimi Neko, but there’s no such reports until now. 

It is possible to paralyze enemies that can fly and have them fall, but most bosses have resistances to those status ailments, so it is normally not done. 

The Evil God Fragment is normally not an enemy that shows up in the sky, but the one in the Hidden Dungeon seemed to be floating. 

Unfortunately, when they are in flying or floating state, the fall distance is reset, so you can’t kill the Evil God Fragment by dropping them…or at least that’s how it should be, but that’s where the memories of Sazan come in.

That’s right. The second point is: ‘the Evil God Fragment sealed in her right hand appears in a sleeping state when summoned on top of the demonic seal circle’. 

This demonic seal circle is apparently the magic circle used to seal the Evil God that Nameless and the past heroes created.

If the Evil God Fragment is called within the sealing light extending from it, the Evil God Fragment won’t wake up unless a good amount of time passes or you hit it once.

And then, the Evil God Fragment made a sound when it landed on the ground in a sleeping state. In other words, it wasn’t floating, and it appears at the place where the seal was undone. This is the info I got from seeing the memories of Sazan.

The remaining problem is whether the power of the demonic seal’s power reaches all the way into the sky, but seeing the memory of Sazan where ‘the light of the demonic seal circle reached high in the sky’, I reached the conclusion that there wouldn’t be any issues. 

“That made things easier. If we had Sazan undo the seal of the Evil God on top of the demonic seal circle, the Evil God Fragment won’t be able to fly in the sky in a sleeping state, will fall straight onto the ground, and die from percent damage.” (Souma)

Of course, this method only works on a sealed Evil God Fragment. 

An unsealed Evil God Fragment won’t be in a sleeping state, and it would be difficult to bring them on top of the demonic seal circle. 

This solution only works this time around.

After I finished the long explanation, Mitsuki nodded with her eyebrows furrowed.

“…I see. I was wondering what you two were doing heading to the deck, but that’s what was going on, huh.” (Mitsuki)

Mitsuki was nodding with her cat ears, but something bothered me. 

“Hm? You knew we were at the deck, right? Why didn’t you come?” (Souma)

If enough time passed it even stirred up the others, it wouldn’t be strange for her to come get us…

When I asked this, Mitsuki sighed as if baffled.

“Listen here… There’s no ground in the sky, you know?” (Mitsuki)

“Huh?” (Souma)

I was wondering what she said all of a sudden, and after thinking about it, it clicked.

—Speaking of which, Mitsuki has a fear of heights…

She has been speaking less since we began moving. In the first place, Mitsuki should have been able to tell that Sazan had gone to the deck.

The reason she didn’t do anything was because she was scared of how high it is? 

“I understood after coming all the way up here. People really don’t belong in the sky.” (Mitsuki)

She said something cool there, but what it basically means is she is scared of high places. 

Now that I look closely, her cat ears are shaking faintly. 

It is not showing in her face at all, but it seems like she is still scared. 

When you consider that, coming all the way to the Sky City in the escape device must have been the very definition of horror for her. 

That’s pretty much reverse free fall after all.

“W-Wait! Then, does that mean Sazan-chan came all the way here to drop the Evil God?” (Maki)

I nodded at Maki who returned to the topic. 

I was certain of it when Sazan came to me and said ‘I will go to the deck (to drop the Evil God) so please come with me’, but Sazan must have been cooking up this plan since way back.

Just like how I thought of how to defeat the Evil God Fragment after seeing the memories of Sazan, Sazan also understood my plan after hearing about the Sky City. 

No, Sazan might have reached that possibility since she was the one originally with the memories. 

She would have noticed my objective since the moment I said we should go to the Sky City after declaring we will defeat the Evil God Fragment. 

In the first place, when you talk about defeating someone at the Sky City, 100 out of 100 Nekomimi Neko players would answer ‘Ah, fall death, huh. Gotcha’.

No, you could even say it is rude to the Sky City senpais if we were to go to the Sky City and not drop monsters from there.

It is like being twins and not switching places, or not having frequent contact with the outside despite being a solitary island. That’s how sacrilegious it would be to not use the fall death after going all the way up the Sky City.

Seeing my comrades looking like they had understood, I felt relieved, but then Maki began to make a ruckus for a different reason. 

“Ugh, so distant! Souma…you always lack explanation on a lot of fronts, but Sazan-chan could have consulted us as well!” (Maki)

Maki said this and looked back, but that’s wrong.

“No, the reason why Sazan purposely didn’t tell you guys was out of consideration for you guys.” (Souma)

“What do you mean?” (Maki)

I tell this to the dumbfounded Maki in a dignified manner.

“The memories Sazan and I inherited were not only from the time as priestess.” (Souma)

“Ah…” (Maki)

My party was wiped out by the Evil God Fragment in the past. 

At that time, I activated the guild event to turn back time and made it so nothing happened, but there’s two people who have those memories. 

The very person who triggered the event and Sazan who remembered those memories through the bracelet. 

“This time’s matter did go well and we managed to defeat the Evil God Fragment, but there’s no assurance it would succeed.” (Souma)

Undoing the seal of the Evil God Fragment and dropping it to kill it with fall damage was not in the game after all.

I thought it might be possible, but even I wasn’t 100% certain.

“If something didn’t go well, there’s the possibility of a battle happening right then and there. 

That’s why she probably didn’t want to drag everyone into that battle.” (Souma)

The pain of losing all your comrades.

Being told it was out of such feelings, they couldn’t say anything back.

They all fell silent in the face of that weight. 

But…

“That’s…something like that is…way too sad.” 

The one who said that was Ina.

“It is true that I am totally weak and I wouldn’t be of help at all. 

But, even if so, not telling us at all and simply pushed us away from the danger… That’s sad.” (Ina)

She said that weakly, as if muttering the words leaking from her heart. 

“I do think this is selfish. But we are comrades. 

That’s why, even when it is harsh, even when it is painful, I would like to overcome them together.” (Ina)

“Ina…” (Souma)

But it is exactly because of that that those words hit my chest. 

And then…

“Nicely said, Ina-san. I feel the same way.” (Mitsuki)

“I-I also would fight when Sazan-chan is in trouble!” (Maki)

The next ones to react were Mitsuki and Maki.

Ringo was also silently nodding, and the double Bears jumped out from the bag as if saying ‘it would be troubling if you were to forget about us’ and clung onto both of my legs. 

“No, you may be having a face as if it is not your business, but you were also as guilty in keeping silent.” (Mitsuki)

“…Hn. The worst one is…Souma.” (Ringo)

Then, Mitsuki and Ringo stabbed that in.

The strict but kind feelings of the two warmed my heart. 

“I see. That’s…true.” (Souma)

It is exactly because I know the past tragedy that I should tell my comrades and avoid that future. 

I felt like I was once again taught that there’s such a path. 

“Haha…” (Souma)

I am always messing up, and always reminded. 

But that’s fine. 

There’s no human who doesn’t make mistakes. 

But it is when you mess up that you are reminded of how important people supporting you are. 

“I…no, we really have good comrades…” (Souma)

I mutter this in a way so that no one hears. 

And there’s someone I have to tell this to.

“Now then, let’s go.” (Souma)

I stealthily wipe the corner of my eyes and begin walking.

“Eh? Where are you going?” (Ina)

I simply turned my head back at Ina who hurriedly followed behind me, and grinned.

“—To welcome our comrade who is stupid and cool-acting chuunibyou but is endlessly kind.” (Souma)

 

After that, we all went to get Sazan at the deck, and they all went ‘Geez, why leave us in the dark?!’, ‘If you had a plan to drop the Evil God, you should have told us’, ‘We are comrades!’, but…

But the person herself began to make incoherent excuses like ‘I knew of no such plan!’, ‘I simply wanted a change of pace outside’ and then said ‘More importantly, Souma! The Evil God! Hyuun and splat! Uwaaaan!’ and began to bawl. 

I for some reason ended up being scolded by my comrades in band.

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