*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!!*

"Dance, dance, dance you bitch! Dance to the sound of my babies!" - ???

Tch, he's getting a little high there.

Loads of shots came from the shadows by the unknown assailant, no, the unknown shit-mouth! Once I get him outta there, I'm gonna fill his throat with that gun of his and give him a bullet carnival to his stomach!!!

I kept on parrying the shots, relying on [Intuition] and [Thought Super-Acceleration] to show me where the bullets would come from, but this is damn hard! Is he using cannonballs instead of bullets!? I can't get a moment to pay that bastard back! 

One light of hope in this bullet hell is that my [Ehangwen-Style Self-Defense] skill is gaining boatloads of proficiency. As I gained another level, I started to gain the composure to try and reflect the bullets to the sender.

"Whoa-!? You m*therf*cker!!" - ???

He hates it~. Then it's my duty to continue doing it~.

The gunshots started to decrease due to the assailant being cautious about another reflected bullet coming his way, which was fine by me. It gives me a chance to gather info for my next move. I have...nothing special around me that I can use as cover or defense. All the puppets have turned to dust, but the corpse of the Songstress...didn't?

This feels bad. In between the shots, I observed the "corpse" of the D-ranked Curse Creature that I believed I had defeated. Only the spider-body is lying there, but the female part seems to have broken off. I looked around hastily and...found her! On the ceiling!

The female body of the Songtress is walking with six additional arms. Puppet arms..., I wonder...

*Crack!*

And over there are some cracks on the wall caused by the reflected shots. Guess it's time to find out.

To create a smokescreen, I covered the area with poison fog to blind the assailant. If he can talk, he shouldn't be a Curse Creature, at least. Hearing the confused swearing, I proceeded to stretch my threads at the spider-body of the Songstress and wrapped it up through [Bind] and then tossed the large body towards where the assailant should be.

Another gunshot rang, but it wasn't me the bullet hit, but the spider-body of the Songstress that I used as a barricade. And due to that, a loud screech was heard and a loud *thump* as the female body fell from the ceiling. The long neck of the spider-body reached to the sky as it opened up the "wound" from where the female body should be and revealed a mouth that resembled that of a lamprey.

"So that's this guy's real identity," I thought as I ran to its side while the gunslinger was confused over the ruckus the Songstress made. The Songstress itself tried to use its Weakening-inducing song-skill, but too late. I had reached its side and used my thread-related skills, [Shooting], and [Storm Compression] in tandem and launched the Curse Creature towards the broken wall.

With a loud *crash*, the spider-body broke through the wall. I remembered to use [Empyrean Eyes] to look at its stats this time, and I was surprised that its HP was still around 80% despite all the beating it had taken. Alas, even 100% wouldn't be enough.

Because the Demonic Sea should be right behind that wall.

*Splash*

Oh~! Level-up! Wait, why's Slasher reached...did parrying all those bullets act as "slashing"?

Speaking of which, what happened to that foul-mouthed gunslinger? I've kept my guard on, but he stopped attacking ever since I used the Songstress as a shield...

...that's fine by me, but don't I get to know why I cleared it?

"Because you defeated the bug while dodging the phantom's attacks~." 

"...freeze! Hands up!" I shouted at the voice with a [Chaotic Bullet] ready to be fired from my hand-gun.

"Iiiik! Don't shoooooot!" shouted the...the Skeleton dressed in white vestments?

"Who or what are you?" - Garami

"Dejidem! My name is Dejidem, Lesser God of Black Arts and Protection!!" shouted the Skeleton...the Lesser God.

"And you are here because...?" - Garami

"Because you cleared my Quest to weaken the Calamity! So please don't shoot!" - Dejidem

Calamity? Things are gonna get complicated.

---

"I leave you for just two hours and you've already beaten a D-ranked Curse Creature, become friends with a Lesser God working under Tharos, and discovered a secret about the Demonic Sea that even I didn't know about?" asked Filyn who had returned from her search.

"Yes, yeah, and yup. Not to mention I had to survive the attacks from a replication of a different god." - Garami

After I had heard the story, or some parts of it, from the Lesser God Dejidem, we invited Zaria into the church and waited for Filyn before continuing the explanation.

The "replication" I mentioned was the third part of the Quest that involved the Songstress from before. You had to defeat the Curse Creature while surviving attacks that were based on a different god from a different Demonic Sea.

Apparently, there are seven Seas, one for each ground continent. And the god they used for the recreation was the protector-god of the Invidia Sea, the same one that Filyn once had a dispute with and still hates the guy for it. No wonder she disliked this church...no, how're you able to notice a recreation of a guy you dislike? Filyn, how much bad blood do you have with that guy??

"Hmm...and this guy is the one responsible for the Quest?" asked Filyn while pointing at Dejidem

"Oh no, just partly...unfortunately." - Dejidem

"Partly?" - Filyn

"Let me start from the beginning: the seven Demonic Seas, one for each Ground Continent on the planet, was as a failed project made by Goddess Alvatria, which was then granted seven guardians so to prevent the dark sea from affecting the real world. I am part of those seven guardians.

"But 1,400 years later, the Seas got a new purpose: to detain a certain Calamity. It was this monster's influence that started to birth so many Curse Creatures until the Seas were seen as a natural habitat for those abominations.

"However, this creature managed to alter some of the functions of the Demonic Seas and prepared for his resurrection. By siphoning off the EXP from the living beings that fight in these seas, along with the contenders that participate in a special event that is held in Wakoku every 14 years." - Dejidem

"...now I get it. The Yamatai Grand Festival." - Filyn

"That is the one, unfortunately. We gods are not permitted to tell people about this Calamity, but since miss Garami cleared the first part of the Quest, I am allowed to explain it to her and her friends." - Dejidem

This is a heavier subject than I first thought! Zaria's completely forgotten about the food and is just staring with her mouth open at Dejidem. For someone who's lived on this continent for most of their life, this news must come as a shock for her.

"And are the Extra Skills the Festival grants to its competitors anything related to all this?" - Filyn

Good question! For all we know, they could be some kinda sham-

"They are false skills, no, they are curses. Ones that will activate when the Calamity resurrects, draining all the aether of those poor people so the Calamity can use it as nutrients-gueeh!?" - Dejidem

"Hey, you tell us how to stop that right now! Some of my guys are in that event as we speak!" I shouted into the god's skull-face while lifting him by his collar. 

"T-that is no problem. The Calamity will have enough power to wake up around the time of the sixth event, so it would not spend unnecessary powers to grant those skills." - Dejidem

...they were mostly to attract people instead of the draining part. 

Calming down from hearing that Mira and the others would be safe, I released the Lesser God and sank tiredly into my chair. Zaria had fled behind the sofa she had been sitting on along with her pet rat.

"No worries. Garami put a wrench in this Calamity guy's plans when she won the Quest here, right? Are there more of them?" asked Filyn as the sole calm person left in the room.

"Yes! By all means, yes! That creature has made the Seas a living hell! Defeat the remaining eleven of his agents and give him his just deserts!" said, no, begged Dejidem Filyn with his head down to the ground in a dogeza. A god begging a demon...

"Hm-hm~. Some simple agents are no match for the future Demon King~. Just checking, what are these "agents" you talked about?" - Filyn

"Curse Creatures. A total of twelve, now eleven, D-rank Curse Creatures that answer to the Calamity. They each protect a temple, just like this place, and while I was not allowed to interfere with them, I could at least add a Quest that would break the Calamity's bond with the temple if the agent was killed by someone from the outside world. Then the Calamity took and altered the Quest so they could add a "supporter" to assist the agent..." - Dejidem

"You've got quite a show with that bastard over the years, I hear~. Then what is the status of this temple?" - Filyn

"It is now in the ownership of miss Garami. I think it can be classified as a potential Guild Home...?" - Dejidem

"...that works. We can connect it with the castles in Damavand and send troops-" - Garami

"Some random wish wash would just end up as prey for the Curse Creatures. Limit yourself to inform the rest of your Dungeon and for obtaining supplies." - Filyn

...true there. And I think I saw some sorta Guild Home-teleporter in the catalog for what we could use Prize Points on. I quickly asked Dejidem, but he assured me that the Calamity had no hands with the new Prize Point system. Let's use everyone's points for those teleporters. No need to be stingy at this point.

"And then? What is the name of the poor fellow who has to face Filyn Belial's wrath?" - Filyn

"He should be sealed in the ocean east of here. If you have [Identification], you can obtain his status page, albeit it is lacking most of the data because he is not "alive" now." - Dejidem

"You heard him", said Filyn and looked at me...oh yeah. I'm the only one with that skill. Integrated into [Empyrean Eyes], but still...where is east...WHAT THE-!?

"...Filyn? Mind if I take a vacation for three weeks?" I asked my esteemed boss while showing her the data I'd Identified.

".........rejected. Defeat the agents first, then you can take one with that girlfriend-Sprite of yours." - Filyn

So even you couldn't come with an answer right away...

---

Kigal-Note/Monsters/Dragons: Azi Dahaka