"CAPTURE THEM!!" - Garami

"RUN FOR IT!!" - Black Baron

Let us go a few minutes back in time to explain the events that led up to this situation:

---

Back when Garami was roaming the backstage area.

Congratulations! Garami has obtained a bizarre key! A replica of one.

Oh-ho? That owner, he's seriously one heck of a guy. Kinda wished I could meet him. 

I threw the key into Storage and kept on searching. If the back of that goddess's note's correct, then it should be... over here? A big-ass treasure chest looks suspicious enough. Don't let it be the costume chest... BINGO!!

Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!! Coming to this place was a stroke of genius! Culture's amazing! No, I'm amazing! Wha-ha-ha-ha!! ...Wonder if the customers that came to this place left with their SAN points intact. I mean, this thing and the key... the owner of this place has too many Lovecraft skeletons in his closet! Even if they're not allowed into the building!

...Hey, wasn't the description a little bit ominous? "encroaches the user", ain't that too big of a risk to one's health for this item to be allowed? Let's just stuff it away before something bad happens... why won't my body move? Is this like the time in the castle? With that whole maid-event? And why're you taking that nasty-looking orb closer to my mouth, my hands!? Seriously, stop that! Stop, stop, STOOOP!!

*Gulp*

@*#¤!&$@£££@€#!!!

*Ten seconds later*

Hahh, hahh, though I was gonna die... that was the longest ten seconds of my life... and that thing wiggled... no, I don't wanna remember. I don't remember! Remember what? I don't remember!!

Alright, memory-erasing complete. Back to the story.

I've finally gotten all the evolution requirements cleared, so all I need is a single level's worth of EXP. No worries about that, since the three at the castle's probably duking it out as we speak... are they capable of getting some more kills with Regina in the front line?

...Yeah, I'm asking for the impossible. I should get over there and earn some names myself. And I've got a great idea to fix that.

---

Back to the present.

"Don't let them escape!" - Garami

"Aye, ma'am!" - Mira

Mira dashed out from the door and into the room where the Black Baron and his two lackeys had been watching... TV? Geh, they've already fled the room! That's fast!

*Clang!*

Mira tried to reach the exit, but something blocked her sword. A walking samurai armor? No, considering we're in an undead capital...

I knew it! And it's even named!

"Mira, that guy's-" - Garami

"Bad news, I know! Go after those guys on your own! I'm busy with the dance this guy's invited me to!" - Mira

The Ochimusha's katana clashed with Mira's greatsword with enough force to send sparks flying. 

I gave up on the hope of getting some escort and run to the door, with Mira stopping the armor from striking my unguarded back, and left the room. Now, where did those four-*CRASH!*-... won't hurt starting the hunt over there.

"Scarecrow, you idiot!!" - Black Baron

Called it.

Around the corner where the noise came from, I found the three idiots, the strawman Scarecrow having stumbled over an old, and decorated, vase. Bad luck for your guys, even if it ain't a mirror.

*Beep, beep!"*

"R-ruuuuun!!" - Scarecrow

"Wait, why are you taking charge!?" - Breaker

He's got an alarm that sees through stealth skills? Oh, you're not getting outta this castle with that thing in your pockets!

I threw some webbing enough to turn the corridor into a spider-realm..., eh? Wait, that fatass got out of that!? And after grabbing the two robots, they also snuck outta my web-hell. 

DEX AT 700!? That's better than me! And didn't Armveil mention once that some Master-tier Artisan classes had "Artifact" in their name? Then he's a master when it comes to machines!? And Fugitive, as in escaping from places? Oh, don't believe that you can run away from me!!

---

How many times have that guy escaped my webs!? Like, isn't this impossible? That Fugitive class, ain't it supposed to be a simple Intermediate-tier? Why's it so awesome then!?

Ah, can it be the DEX? Damnit all! My greatest strength is my greatest weakness! And they've got to have some SP-saving skills as well. Even I'm getting short of breath here. I'm too used to using traps over chasing my prey.

...Fine, I quit. Taking them alive, that is.

*Bang, bang, bang!*

"B-boss! That crazy demon started shooting at us!" - Scarecrow

"I know! I have ears!" - Black Baron

Grr, can't hit him. Where did they learn how to run away from someone shooting at them? And they're too damn fast as well! No worries for them suddenly being able to fight me, since their battle-related stats are trash, but if reinforcements come...

No time to be stingy! Zahhak, SICK 'EM!

"Boss! Snake!!" - Scarecrow

"Snake? What do you... SNAAAAKE!!" - Black Baron

Grr, they ran into a different corridor. Zahhak, after them!

The black python followed the three doofuses around the corner, out of my sight. Let's hope it won't collide into anything and... it expired. When I rounded the corner myself, I saw a large bite mark on the wall. Damn it.

Ain't there any methods to quickly catch up to those guys? What did the police and superheroes in the action movies do when they chased fugitives? ...Wait, that guy's move could work.

I made a new thread, rather, a rope, made of many threads bundled together and threw it at the wall in front of the Baron. Then, I used [Thread Control] to drag me towards the Baron and his two goofs. Dynamic Entry!

"Huh-Gwhaaa!!" - Black Baron

"OUCH!!" - Breaker

"IYAAAOUCH!" - Scarecrow

Attaching two more threads to the furniture in the corridor and slingshot them at the bots were an equally good idea as the Rider Kick at the Baron's back! Ah, I'm a genius sometimes.

Now, time for my genius brain to figure out how to stop those three. The blow made the three goofs start rolling around as wheels. One of them is excused, but you two ain't, so stop rolling! I can't catch up to someone with a three-wheel drive-... ah. The wall, rather, a door...

*CRASH!*

"GYAAAAAA!!" - The three no-licensed drivers/vehicles

That stopped them one way or another, I guess? And from the sound, they must have fallen down some stairs. Let's collect them before they wake up-

"What is it now!?" - ???

...That voice... is that fallen angel loafing around again? Guess it's punishment for four instead of three then,

---

Mira's PoV

The fight with Iron's sibling from Wakoku has been going on for quite a while now. After Garami escaped, I managed to kick the armor outside the veranda and changed the battlefield to the garden one floor below. 

And that's probably the only accomplishment I've done in this fight. That walking piece of metal is equal to our own when it comes to guts. Despite most of my blows can cut off its limbs or its torso, or at least break them off with the extra blast from [Lightforce Shield], this one is accepting them all without hesitation, all so that it could get a hit against me. 

It's not like I have failed in inflicting damage against this one. Quite the opposite. I have cut off his arms four times already, made him say farewell to his legs three times, and even decapitated him twice. 

From that description alone, one would start to question what it is I'm currently facing, but that's the truth. I've beheaded this thing's head twice, but each time I do so, it immediately regenerates as if mocking my swordsmanship. And it works! That bastard!

"Once more!" 

The other combatants who had arrived through the portal-thing Garami conjured up with that key tried to attack the armor from a distance after seeing that they would stand no chance against this one in close range. Several projectiles, magical or not, were sent flying to the ghost-possessed armor. I jumped back to not get caught in the blast and have a chance to recover with a potion... to no luck!

The armor-undead turned its body around to slash the various projectiles in one blow. The magical ones who got caught by the attack detonated prematurely and dragged the other projectiles with them. And it all took just a second. Barely any time to take a breath!

I lunged at the armor ghost right before it finished the rotation, giving up on the potion-recovery before I could take it out of the pouch. Right before my sword could strike the undead's torso, it made a quick turn to the left, making my attack miss. Then it proceeded to strike my sword with the "Downfall" Sword Art, a move that's basically a downswing, but with much more force and speed than one could produce on one's own. 

The heavy blow knocked Tyrant's Fang out of my hands and the undead continued its attack by turning its sword towards me and used "Uprise", a chainable Sword Art to "Downfall", which takes all the force of the downswing and slashes it upwards instead. I hurried back by making use of [Blink], just barely escaping the assault with just the fear, and a large cut on my face.

Just a kitten-scratch, but that was too close for comfort. And I've lost my best weapon during a fight with no time to pick up a new one. 

As I backed further away from the undead, I tripped on a stone that marked a dead flower bed, making me fall backward and crash into one of the ornamental rocks placed there. The undead had already caught up to me, so fast that I wondered if it had used [Blink] itself, and used "Downfall" again on me. Wasting no time to wait for [Blink] to finish its cooldown time, I slipped past the samurai to the left... and failed.

The samurai must have anticipated me doing so, as he lifted his leg to trip me while I slipped through. I clung to the samurai to prevent myself from falling, and also to break the samurai's posture. The samurai, however, fixed its pose in the split of a second and readied its katana again while I still had my hand at its torso.

"Checkmate." - Mira

The samurai looked like it grinned, happy about cornering me enough to announce my own loss...

Sorry, but that's to signalize my victory.

As the samurai was about to bring down its katana,  dozens of swords were generated by Airgetlám and burst out of the samurai's "body". One doesn't need [Identification] to understand that the samurai's HP reached zero with that blow.

The armor started to rust away and fade into the wind, almost as if to show that the samurai was indeed defeated with no hope of it regenerating back to full health.

The trick is pretty simple. The samurai is an animated, hollow armor, so with my hand on its torso, I could generate the swords inside its body to the point of them bursting out of it. The attribute of the swords of light, along with the fact that it was an attack on the inside, erased all of the samurai's HP in one swoop. No recovery can help you if it can't catch up to the damage after all. 

Still, that was pretty close. I couldn't catch my breathing at all. And my mana is running on fumes from this single fight... The future's looking bleak if we're going to face guys like this every time...

I hurriedly took a stance after seeing the figure in the shadows of the building. A hollowed, rusty-red samurai armor, almost as if it was a doppelganger of the previous one. 

Urgh... is this the line for me? As I thought so, the armor started to look flustered due to me taking a stance. Then, the armor started to fade into dark-green smoke and revealed... Revi?!

Wait, was that the [Envy] skill? Did Revi plan to support me when she saw the opportunity? With the powers copied from the samurai!?

...I calmed down and urged Revi to come closer.

"Good girl. Thanks for trying to help." - Mira

I gave the undead dragon some head pats as Garami did before, but the dragon looked uncomfortable with it. What a rude little reptile... is probably wrong to say. Or getting used to saying, if what Garami said about her evolution is true. 

As I saw the other combatants climbing down to us, I started to look for Tyrant's Fang that was knocked away in the brawl before... oh? Oooohh?! This is-! Maybe this fight wasn't so bad after all~.

---

Garami's PoV

I broke into the hall where the Baron and his helpers had entered in a dynamic, and face-planting, action, and saw... the fallen angel being chased by the combatants? Led by Iron out of all possible candidates! Eh, not my problem.

"Don't ignore me and help!!" - Noire

Tch, fine, I'll help... after taking care of the Baron~. Where did they go? There! At the wall with three broken holes in it! The Baron looks out cold, but the two Machinerzs are still up and running... what are those glowing marks on the floor?

"T-the stars are spinning..." - Black Baron

"Boss, get a hold of yourself! The teleportation device will soon activate!" - Breaker

Damnit, I was afraid of that! I whipped out the Revolver... but the device was already transporting them by the time I corrected my aim.

"Bye~bye~." - Scarecrow

Grr, I swear I'll get them the next time I see them!!

"Hey, are you not forgetting about me!?" - Noire

Geeeeez... 

I took another look at the situation from my position atop the stairs. The combatants and Iron were chasing the fallen angel, despite her having taken to the sky. Hmm? Aren't they acting kinda weird? Empty, white eyes, drooling from their mouth, and walking like a zombie with their arms outstretched...

I jumped off the stairs and pulled out loads of webbing that I covered the zombie(?)-horde with, trapping them in place, for then grabbing the fallen angel in the air and pulled us both back to the top of the stairs with a new thread.

"Fine. Tell me the story." - Garami

"S-safe..." - Noire

"That depends. Now, start talking." - Garami

"W-well, we found a large treasury down in the basement where a spawning point for a type of undead that had the worst compatibility with General Regina..." - Noire

"...You talking about zombies?" - Garami

"Not in that manner! Burning Skulls! The spawning point produced Burning Skulls!" - Noire

Aah, those would be troublesome for the fire-woman. Just troublesome though.

"Then, after some... troubles, we started to emptying the treasury, until-" - Noire

"Troubles? What troubles?" - Garami

"N-n-n-nothing! Nothing at all!" - Noire

Suspicious~. But the story's gonna get damn longer if I push that subject, so I'll let it slide for now. For now.

"A-anyway, after almost storing everything worth of value, that suddenly appeared from the shadows, spewing out many Geists all of a sudden, and everyone got possessed by those Geists except me!" - Noire

Geh, Geists can possess humans as well? Hmm?

"'That'?" - Garami

"Ehm, how should I describe it... a large amount of trash floating in the air?" - Noire

...What?

*Rumble,  rumble, rumble*

...Guess I'll be getting my answer whether I like it or not.

Tons of stuff appeared from one of the doors right beside a broken wall... wait, what's this floating scrapyard for!?

"We're outta here!" - Garami

I dragged the dazing fallen angel with me and we escaped through the door leading outside. No way I'm going against that amount of trash while confined by the walls indoors. 

After reaching the castle ground, which was both littered with bones and full of scorch marks, we turned around to face this "large amount of floating trash"... and one of them has a certain aether signature I recognize.

"Hey, what happened to Alf?" - Garami

"W-w-w-w-why d-d-d-do you a-a-a-ask!?" - Mira

......

"Alright, spit out what's happened while I was away, or you'll go past those guys still inside and turn into a literal zombie!" - Garami

"Alfopenedatreasurechestandgotbittenbyasetofbatteethandcollapsedafterthat!!" - Noire

"...Okay... Alf got bitten by some bat-like gag teeth, and got so sick that he collapsed? Then?" - Garami

"...We kinda dumped him into that spike-less iron maiden because it was a drag dragging him around." - Noire

A gag? And what's with that poor treatment of Alf? 

"When the floating trash arrived, the iron maiden revealed itself as one of their members... and locked itself with Alf still in..." - Noire

If you're guilty, then say so without letting your voice fade. Damnit all...

*Pang!*

I shot the lock into pieces and reclaimed my honor as a marksman after my few failures lately. And Alf's... falling straight to the ground. And he's too far away for the threads to reach. H-he's sturdy, so he'll survive. 

*Bang!*

Ooh! Alf used some strange movements with his weapon and slammed down on the ground, used the force of the impact to bounce up again, took a backsault, and made a perfect landing.

*Clap, clap, clap*

"Ooh, impressive." - Noire

"10 outta 10." - Garami

"Thanks! NOT! Noire, I'll remember what you put me through!!" - Alf

Wow, someone's furious... and full of bite marks. Those gag teeth must have hurt~. Hope he's at full health, cause that mountain of junk I've kept an eye on this whole time's starting to look dangerously large.

Wait, "Vampirism"? Okaaaay...

"Hey, ain't that thing starting to look kinda weird?" - Garami

I already knew the pile of junk was doing something, but I made the other two mindful about it as well for safety reasons. And to save the fallen angel's skin from getting frozen off.

The large piles of junk started to convert into a beastly shape, with four legs, a tail, wings... hey, ain't this...

"A dragon?" - Noire

Yes, the junk had taken on a draconic form, not that different from Revi, with additional wings. After the body had been created, it started to work on the neck, then upward to the head...

"Shouldn't we attack it right now before it completes itself?" - Alf

"Don't. If it attacks us in the shape of a swarm, we have no chance of beating it. Having it converge into a single form makes it easier to damage, as long as we're mindful of its attacks being deadlier." - Garami

Besides, I've got no clue about the "core" controlling this junk. All this junk is commanded by "something", but I can't find out what or where that is. 

While I explained this to the two, the dragon's head had been completed, sans for a small hole between its eyebrows. A cross-shaped one, I may add.

Then, a cross-like pendant, a rosary, flew out of the castle...

"That's the one! The thing controlling all this junk!" - Garami

We all looked at the rosary that inserted itself into the hole of the dragon. Then, a dark-purple fog started to emit from the junkyard dragon, along with a storm of Geists-, wait, what!?

The sudden flood of Geists was so quick that even my hastened thinking could only catch on that they were coming at us before we were swallowed by them. I feared that they would try to possess me as they had done with Iron and the combatants, but nothing happened. Rather, the Geists died like flies hitting a bug lamp the moment they came in contact with me.

Kinda annoyed over this boring and anti-climatic experience, I used [Aura of Darkness] in the hope of it shaving of more Geists, then when I had the freedom to, I used Turn Undead Field and eliminated the remains.

Oh? Lucky~.

I looked around and saw the fallen angel having fun poking at the Geists, which made them pop like soap bubbles. Well, she is an angel, even if a seriously disappointing one. 

My bigger concern was Alf. He's just a human, albeit technically not a normal one... and he's dragging off the Geists that had attached themselves to him and threw them to the ground... he's doing what!?!?

"Hmm? Eh, how are you doing that!?" - Noire

"This? Not that difficult. The work I had to do as a child was way more strenuous than whatever these guys can do to me." - Alf

"...I have been meaning to ask, but what did you do before joining the organization-gueh!?" - Noire

The dragon attacked the doofus angel while she was busy being in wonderland, so I had to drag her away before she got squashed by the dragon's paw. Alf's... still standing there. Rather, ain't he looking a little pale... ah! Getaway, you idiot!

*Crash!*

"...Huh?" - Noire & Garami

Just as the dragon moved its paw towards Alf, a huge icicle appeared in front of it to block the blow. Then, Alf took the hammer part of his halberd and slammed it into the ice, with enough force for the shockwave to reach the dragon's arm. Alf himself started to mutter stuff while gradually turning paler for each word.

"First off, I'm the oldest one in a family with 6 children, but all my younger brothers and sisters have so much talent that everyone except my youngest little brother and sister had become rank-D adventurers while I had finally reached rank-F, so I had to work ten, no, twenty times harder than any other adventurers in history to make up the difference, but that only led to my body constantly breaking from the pressure, monsters ganging up on me every time I set a foot outside the city walls, not to mention those with Danger Ranks several times greater than what a human could handle, then I got scolded by the receptionists at the Union for trying to take on monsters outside my league and therefore endangering the town while they blatantly ignored my complaints about them wrongly judging the Danger Rank of the Quests, I got fired from the Union once, had to work at dad's shipyard as a gopher, my childhood friend/girlfriend left me for some random punk with money that appeared out of nowhere, I was treated like living trash by anyone and anything, my bad luck with monsters still being in good shape and various monsters with tentacles like certain Outer Ones came towards me everytime I helped with the boats on the sea and-" - Alf

Stop, stop, STOP! I don't wanna hear anymore! This is too pitiable for my heart to hear! And Alf's not able to continue like this! He's visibly graying out before my eyes! Stop Alf, STOP! You'll lose all your SAN points!!

What the heck!? Wasn't Alf's LUC at over 100? How can you explain all these disastrous events happening to this guy?! 

"And then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then-" - Alf

Aw, he broke for real. Goodbye, Alf's SAN points...

"GRRAAAAGH!!" - Alf

And now he exploded!?

"Damnit all! As if I'll accept any of that!" - Alf

W-well, that's reasonable to be angry about... rather, was that laziness of his because he was worked to death in his childhood? Yikes...

The junk-dragon looked at Alf with not-so-happy eyes. He's gotten the aggro of that thing alright. I gave some silent commands to the fallen angel to have our battle plan focus on Alf being the vanguard. Now, what is it we're facing anyway?

Wait a sec, a Mimic?! That rosary? You gotta be kidding...

Ehm, Miasma Technique User seems to be a combo of the Darkness and Poison variants of those types of titles, the reason it has more MP than it should have is due to that [Cursed Jewelry] skill, some inborn skill limited to a sort of Mimics...

It can work both on the front-line with those nasty Attack Skills of its, and even better at the rear with all that magic stuff. The Geists aren't that big of a deal, but both [Command] and the Commander-title may turn them troublesome...

Not to forget it's a Dungeon Boss~. No way...... should I use Alf and the fallen angel as a decoy and run away?