The heavy grinding of gears grew louder, as if signaling that the end was just ahead.
“It’s quite different from the previous ones,” Kurimu remarked.
Looking at the unknown metal gate before her—not just a simple gear, but a massive entrance covered in them—Kurimu spoke. Upon closer inspection, one could find that this gate bore some similarities to the entrance of the Dungeon Instance.
“‘The Labyrinth Fairy’s Blessing’ stopped in front of this gate. Does that mean the Final Boss of this Dungeon Instance is inside?”
“Yeah, basically.”
Even without looking at where the fairy had stopped, Ai Yue knew the final stage was ahead.
“No time to waste…”
Ai Yue placed her hand on the gate. Sensing the touch, the gears on the door began to rotate, letting out an extremely low sound, as if they had not moved in many years.
The gate slowly swung open, and golden light flooded out from behind it. In the next moment, the radiance engulfed everyone’s vision. After a brief spatial distortion similar to teleportation, the light faded, and their surroundings changed.
***
A magnificent, colossal mechanical room appeared before Ai Yue and the others. Countless gears were constantly turning, and standing before them was the Final Boss of the Relics of the Lost World Mechanism.
[Forgotten World Mechanism Manager—Demonai M-0]
Even though this was not a game, it felt as if they could see those words appearing before their eyes.
Although the entire room was composed of golden gears, the boss in the center was pitch black, radiating a powerful and unsettling aura. On its body, constructed from obsidian machinery and gears, glowing unknown scripts flowed across it like streams of data. They eventually converged at a core on its chest, pulsing like rhythmic breathing.
[…Enemies detected. Executing Third Protocol: Clear Intruders.]
The gear giant spoke with the same broadcast voice Ai Yue and the others had heard when first entering the Dungeon Instance. Immediately after, a red beam of light shot from its hand, forming a beam lance.
As the gear giant moved, the gears acting as wheels ground against the floor, emitting a piercing screech. Simultaneously, the arm holding the beam lance swept forward.
“At this distance, could it actually hit—huh!?”
Before Kurimu could finish her sentence, the beam lance—which was originally less than a third of the distance between them—suddenly extended several times over. It lengthened just as it was about to sweep past them, catching her completely off guard.
Fortunately, Bululu had remained alert and reacted in time to scoop the other two out of the way.
In that interval, the gear giant had already closed the gap. It swung its other weaponless hand, smashing down in the opposite direction of their retreat.
Seeing this, Bululu held nothing back. She threw a heavy punch augmented by massive stat bonuses and active skill buffs to meet the gear giant’s heavy fist.
Crash!!
The shockwave from the collision of their powers rippled through the entire room. Unexpectedly, Bululu’s attack did not have much of an effect. The gear giant was not pushed back; instead, it slightly overwhelmed her.
Sensing something was wrong, Bululu quickly pulled back to avoid being pinned to the ground. Meanwhile, Ai Yue and Kurimu used the brief moment Bululu bought to put some distance between themselves and the giant.
“How was it?”
“Something’s not right. When I hit that thing, it didn’t feel solid. It was as if I was punching something soft and elastic.”
“But it obviously looks very hard, right?”
“That’s why I’m saying it’s strange.”
Clearly, the traits of being soft and hard should not coexist. While elasticity might be possible—like with amorphous metals—that thing definitely was not “soft.”
“Hmm… whatever. I’ll know once I try it myself.”
Kurimu was not one for deep thinking, deciding it would be better to just experience it firsthand. She charged head-on toward the gear giant, which had already adjusted its stance and was rushing them again.
Her Devil Race Distorted Law Ability triggered instinctively, coating Kurimu’s claws in a layer of purple Magic Power. A streak of crimson appeared in her purple pupils. With a single swipe, a claw strike capable of piercing any resistance or defense cut through everything in front of her. Even space itself shattered, leaving several terrifying, massive purple claw-shaped rifts in midair.
This was the terror of the Devil Race. If their racial ability was directed outward rather than toward themselves, every strike dealt the equivalent of true damage. Ordinary defenses stood no chance.
However…
“Wh-what!?”
The gear giant took the hit without suffering any damage. Not only that, but it used its mechanical body to smash right through the massive rifts Kurimu had left behind. It ignored the damage from the shattered space and swung the beam lance down once more.
“Whoa! You’re being totally unreasonable!”
For a devil with an “unreasonable” ability herself to call someone else unreasonable, one could see just how shocked Kurimu was.
Yet that did not change the fact that the beam lance was about to strike her. Since the gear giant had ignored Kurimu’s Distorted Law attack, it would likely ignore her defenses as well. At this rate, she would suffer significant damage.
“…Sacred Wall.”
Right then, as a voice spoke, a wall of golden light appeared between Kurimu and the gear giant.
The wall did not look particularly strong, as if it might shatter at a single tap. However, it steadily intercepted the gear giant’s assault. The beam lance, possessing high attack power and piercing capability, could not advance even an inch against the wall.
“I told you not to just rush in blindly. That is not an enemy that can be dealt with easily.”
Ai Yue held up the Glass Kaleidoscope. The multi-colored gemstones embedded on its surface emitted various hues under the influence of her Magic Power, looking more beautiful as they refracted through the kaleidoscope-like transparent staff.
“Um… was that… Holy Magic that Master Ai Yue just used!?”
The characteristics of Holy Magic were simple; it was generally golden in color. However, that was only for standard Holy Magic. There were more specialized types with different manifestations, but those would remain unmentioned for now.
The reason Bululu recognized the wall as Holy Magic immediately was mainly due to the innate sensitivity a member of the Demon Race had toward it. After all, Holy Magic was the ultimate counter to the Demon Race; they could identify it at a single glance.
She simply had not expected Holy Magic to be effective against even a mechanical gear giant. Furthermore, the caster was Ai Yue—who was part of the very Demon Race vulnerable to it.
“Well, that’s true, but that isn’t the point right now,” Ai Yue said, turning her gaze toward the gear giant. “Let’s just take this thing down first.”