"Heh~. Chaos, you say~." - Garami

"*Munch, munch*, that's right. All Dungeons around the world are been said to be, *gulp*, the spawns of the Ultimate God, Chaos. That snake must have used that fact to achieve godhood by transferring his soul and mind to it. As for how he tuned the Core, or, the Dungeon itself to become a fitting vessel for his divine self-." - Gust

"Through that?" - Garami

"Yes, I think so. The Devil's Spine is a piece of the Genesis God after all. If analyzing that wouldn't give you a hint on how to attain godhood, then nothing will. But I don't think that the Dungeon Core could do that..." - Gust

"The Ruins?" - Garami

"You may have..., no, you must have a point there." - Gust

Gust's stomach finally won over his fear for Glavras and came out of the cave to look at the battle with me (and the lunchboxes). During that time, we discussed the secret over Glavras' sudden promotion to the divine stage, which led to the current theory.

Glavras must have used the inversed Dungeon Core to retrieve the info from this "Spine"-mountain, 'cause I think that this Chaos guy..., god, wouldn't want people to learn from the Genesis God at all costs... which turned out to be a fatal mistake when the Core turned inverse.

Gust gulped down the last of the food and went into hiding again in the cave. Smart move. Those turrets to the Black Baron may not make any noise, wish my gun was like that, but they still pack a punch. Pieces of Glavras' fluid body are blown off with each hit.

Not that the False God looks disturbed by it. He keeps on converting material to water for each bullet and not. He's simply not losing body mass, despite the Black Baron's idea being the right. You can't beat a monster made of water with fists. Heat-inducing bullets are the thing for the job... normally.

"Anyway, you said something about killing that thing, but just what are you planning?" asked Gust, peeking outta the cave.

Why's he asking me at this point? The opponent is a monstrosity of a god created by transforming a freaking Dungeon, and it's in mortal combat with what Gust referred to as an "A-Rank criminal" or whatever. So, do I have a plan?

You bet I do!

---

Breaker's PoV:

[Keep the assault going, Breaker. We should see him weakening any time soon.] - Black Baron

"Yes, yes, sir. Keeping on assaulting, duly noted. Breaker, over and out." - Breaker

The wheel-like Machinerz, Breaker, cut off the communication with his master and laid back lazily in his chair while giving commands to his subordinate Machinerz. 

This is not productive at all. That big guy is recovering at an equal pace as we burn off his water reserves. Breaker thought that, but didn't care. It was too much of a pain to do so. The Black Baron should figure that out for himself.

"Fire! Fire! Fire! Fiiiireeee!!" - Scarecrow

And Breaker had his hands filled with the button-mashing idiot. Scarecrow had gotten his own console connected to the cannons, which made good use for his love for buttons on the attack on Glavras.

"Fiiiireee-... huh? Hey, Breaker. Something is jumping over to us." - Scarecrow

"Yes, yes, that is fine. Keep on with the bombardment now." - Breaker

Breaker decided to ignore Scarecrow's warning, as most that come out of his mouth is pure nonsense, and started to take a nap instead when...

*Bang, bang, bang*

Were we hit!?

Breaker thought the sound came from Glavras' attacks but then thought otherwise. Breaker had specifically positioned his ship as far away from Glavras as possible, so far that they were getting a little too close to the Devil's Spine. And the sound came from the hatch, not the hull. 

*Bang, bang, bang!*

"Can someone check out that noise already?" - Breaker

"You got it!" - Scarecrow

Scarecrow left his position, meaning the cannons to Breaker's ship stopped for a small moment... until one of the assistant Machinerz switched the cannons to auto-mode. Even without Scarecrow there, it was no big loss.

Breaker returned to his nap, which lasted for around five minutes before the next catastrophe.

"Sir, the Albabots have been released." - Assistant

"Hmm? What is what again? Wait, seriously, what was released!?" - Breaker

Outside the window were several dozens of Machinerz shaped after albatrosses, and of the same size, with a jetpack on their back that doubled as cannon turrets. Breaker swiftly looked to Scarecrow who had just returned and was the only possible suspect for this mess.

"And just what do you think you are doing? The Eaglebots are just going to get in the way of the cannon fire!" - Breaker

"But, that's a Dungeon." - Scarecrow

"...I know it used to be a Dungeon before, but what has-" - Breaker

"Then we just have to look for the Dungeon Core then!" - Scarecrow

"...The Dungeon Core?" - Breaker

That... can work!? Breaker was shocked by his mechanical core over Scarecrow's idea. True, even if it's Glavras' soul is moving it, even with all the modifications done to it, that thing is this essentially a Dungeon. Break the Core, and the whole thing would go down with it, divine or not.

After all, a Dungeon is a spawn of Chaos, an Ultimate God. They were a type of divine creature from the beginning. That's the whole reason why Glavras could pull out this stunt of his. No way breaking the Core will not hurt the False God.

Breaker was so lost in thoughts that it took him quite a while to convert that idea to the Black Baron when he opened a communication line to them. So much that he forgot to wonder how Scarecrow had come up with that idea, that he forgot about asking what that knocking-sound by the hatch was, or to register that someone was hitching a hike with one of the Albabots towards Glavras.

---

Garami's PoV:

This is more difficult than I expected it to be! And I didn't think that riding on a bird-bot with just my threads would be easy either!

On top of the bird-type Machinerz that I had the idiot program to follow my orders in secret, I looked down at Glavras. Big and ugly as heck. He looked like a snake/crocodile before, but due to haphazardly repairing his body on the go, he's starting to look more like a Shoggoth than anything else.

Kinda regret picking these goggles from the reward from Floor 7. That's how ugly he's become. What was these goggles' effect again? Not that they would be better than the Greatshield or full-plate armor.

The herd of bird-based Machinerz started to pepper Glavras with their bullets while searching for the Dungeon Core, somewhere in his body. I mean, he needs something like a heart, since he has no believers or whatever that keeps a god running. 

It wasn't much in the beginning, but after a while, more Machinerz came out of the Black Baron's ship, than from the one controlled by this "Assault" character. 

Jumping over to that ship was the least of my problems... is what I first expected, but thanks to the gods (the real ones) that it was that idiot that opened the hatch. I think he was called... Scarrow, or something? Well, I had a plan even if it wasn't him who answered, so it was a fortunate miscalculation there.

That they had something as handy as these bird-bots is another thing I didn't expect, but I'm still happy that they had. My original plan was for them to charge in at Glavras when they found the Core to crush it with concentrated fire, but using numbers to overwhelm him is even better.

Also, the bullets they are using are made with some magic-disrupting metal alloy, which is further enhanced to beat Glavras specifically. That Baron sure knows how to hold a grudge.

I simply told that... Carrow guy, about how he could gain some cred with the Baron by telling him about the Core, then I helped him weaving together the idea of using smaller troops to search for it while saving the big cannons for the final blow. I even volunteered to help those guys with the final blow...*giggle*.

As if! Stopping a Disaster is bound to give one heck of a reward. No way I'm giving that away! Also, I've been promised the long-sought-after clues to the Kur Kigal evolution if I crush this guy.

Hmm... this is weird. I was expecting that he would start protecting the place where the Core is located once the bullet-hell started, but he's doing nothin'. Was my plan a flop? Or, do Glavras even think that he needs to protect the Core? He seems stupid, so it's possible he's not thinking about that.

...Got it. It's his head. 

The evidence is that he's aiming for the bird-bots around and above his head only. Think about it: if you were a kaiju-class monster and tons of smaller pests flew around you, which one would you focus on first? Those above you that's difficult to catch, or the ones swarming right where your arms are?

I for one would smack the easier ones first, then work on the more difficult ones... unless I had a good reason to take those guys out first.

I told my bird-bot to ask its friends to aim at the big guy's head in the hope of luring out the Core. Soon after, the bird-bots started to flock around Glavras' head, which freaked him out more than anything else in this fight.

Since the big bad's too busy to notice me, I made my bird keep a distance which was enough for [Magic Sight], and there it is! The Dungeon Core is located where the brain should be, with tons of neural circuits attached to it? Or magic circuits? Let's go with the latter.

I ordered the bird-bot to get closer and twirled the barrel of the Thaumaturgy Revolver. All six [Aura of Darkness]-bullets loaded in the barrel disappeared, for then being replaced with five new ones, with 4 of them also being consumed by the gun. 

Now the Calamity Bullet's ready. This one should make more than a dent in that big buffoon's ego. 

"Damn scrap metal! If that's the case-!" - Glavras

Looks like he finally snapped! Glavras' body started to shrink at an incredible speed while the magic circuits around his mouth started to grow brighter and brighter. Oi, don't tell me-!?

My fears turned out to be true, as Glavras let out a massive roar accompanied by a large burst of water aimed at the three flying ships. A Dragon Breath, no, a False God Breath?!

The three ships and all the bird-bots in between were flushed away by the fake breath. The bots had no chance of surviving, but it seems that the ships kept themselves in one piece... I think. The attack didn't have the turn-to-water property as Glavras' body, but they were flown so far away that I can't even see them anymore. Just how many kilometers away are they now?

Still, that attack wasn't without any risks. Glavras' body has shrunken considerably, enough for him to be only 20 meters high now, way less than half of what he was in the beginning. And now, due to the lower water density, it is possible to see his weak spot located in his head.

"The Core! Take the Core!" - Garami

I shouted to the bird-bots, who were in a daze after having seen their bosses been blown away. They weren't in a position where they had to follow my order, but it was enough for them to remember that their job was to take out Glavras.

The birds started to shoot at Glavras again, but many of them are starting to go empty for bullets. The birds in that situation figured out that they had to bet their last bullet. They charged up the remaining aether in their bodies and did a kamikaze attack on Glavras, exploding just before they got transmuted into water.

Glavras lost another 2-3 meters worth of body mass, but the birds are going down in numbers, fast. I ordered the one I was riding to get us closer. Not caring about saving ammo, I fired the Calamity Bullet while using the Dark Bullet spell at the same time, joining the bots' barrage on the water serpent.

"You again!?" - Glavras

Well, god or not, you would notice someone shooting at you no matter the stealth skills in use. 

I didn't give Glavras any more time to comment and fired with all the bullets and spells I had available. But even the Calamity Bullets can't crack the Core. Some sort of barrier?

Glavras changed the structure of his body to create more tentacles and used them straight away to swat the bird-bots outta the sky. I had mine take a good distance... no good. It was smacked down. Mayday, MAYDAY!!

I jumped off the wrecked bot to a new one, but Glavras didn't take a break and chased after me. I escaped using the remaining bird-bots as footholds while shooting all the bullets I had left in Calamity state... eh? Empty? No ammo? NOOOO!!

Alright, fine! Time to use secret weapon #1... and #2 as well! And #3!!

As I ran on the bird-bots, I continued to go higher and higher until I was above Glavras' head. All of the water-tentacles were aimed at me, but who cares? I used the new skill I'd just obtained before my assault on Glavras.

A purple-black magic circle appeared in my hand. It was more elaborate than those from [Darkness Magic] despite being a non-magic skill, and it consumed 100 MP in a single batch, even when counting my cost-reduction abilities. In tandem, I used [Chaotic Concurrence] to triple the number of magic circles. 

Then came the nightmare. A large, python-like dragon made of darkness appeared from each magic circle and charged at Glavras. He tried to guard himself with his tentacles, but they were all eroded to nothing when they touched the dragons of darkness. 

The dragons, not disturbed the least by Glavras' guard, started to bite, tackle, and crash into the false god, eroding even more of his body at a pace that wouldn't lose to the barrage of the Black Baron's ships. Mostly because Glavras had exhausted himself in driving off the mentioned mad scientist.

But the Dungeon Core located in his cranium was still in one piece! A barrier or something covered the Core, blocking the dragons from finishing their jobs. 

I, who was standing on a new bird-bot after launching the dragons, took out the bottles of the weakening poison that we had used on the Queen before and dropped them all onto Glavras. The contact with the water surface was all that was needed for the weakened bottles to crack, pouring their contents into the snake made of water. 

Glavras flinched when the content was mixed into his body, and the light of the barrier weakened... not by a lot, but somewhat. 

Not caring about the elixir syndrome, I threw all the remaining poisons I had in my Storage, sans for the Hydra poison. I'm not planning on dying together with this guy.

Glavras got busy with trying to purify all the poisons I had dropped into him while holding off the dragons at the same time. Both of them aren't gonna last long, I mean, the opponent is a god, rotten or not. 

But they've done their work. The barrier around the Core's considerably weaker now. I took out the last secret weapon and used threads, [Thread Control], [Shooting], and centrifugal force to throw it towards the Dungeon Core like a slingshot.

The final piece in the puzzle, the Deathcaliber of the Wild Hunt Lord, crashed into the barrier, crushed it, then struck the Core, cracking it in two.

The System Messages started like this while false god gave a silent scream, evoking a gust of wind came out of the destroyed Dungeon Core... or rather, from the Deathcaliber? Oi, don't start with a tornado all of a sudden! Stop that! Demons aren't supposed to flyyyyy~!!!

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