5th Event, Day 3:

Lily's PoV:

The day after Iron and Zaria arrived at the temple, the three of us, plus the trio of Figaro, Trip, and Store, went down the mountain and is now standing in front of the rumored tower.

It's a huge, black construct that reaches the skies. It's called the "Lighthouse of Shuck", not that I get where the name comes from. The surrounding land was filled with the scorched, crushed, and sliced remains of several creatures. Mostly monsters such as wyverns. 

"Aah, it feels good to be on level ground~~." 

...I have a correction to make. Our two trios, plus one more...

"Ren, why're you acting like you are a part of our group?" - Lily

"*Shock*! Lily, is that how you treat your sensei!?" - Ren

"You are too noisy to be teaching anyone." - Lily

"*Sniff*, and I even prepared gifts..." - Ren

I left the so-called "sensei" and went to Iron who was checking out the entrance of the lighthouse while Zaria looked around for clues on the battlefield/graveyard of miserable monsters. 

Alas, we couldn't find anything, and the door's locked. We concluded that it would be smarter to try and pick the door open instead of busting it in, so we returned to the camp we had made when...

*Ka-Boom!*, *Ka-Boom!*. *Ka-Boom!*, *Ka-Boom!*!

...I should have known...I should have so predicted this...

Iron ran over to the camp where four explosions had rapidly and loudly occurred while I sluggishly followed him, bad memories from the last week replaying inside my head while walking.

We found the three featherbrains and Zaria at the camp, all knocked out and covered in soot while having a lunch box placed in front of them. Zaria even had a pair of chopsticks in her hand, frozen from the shock of the explosion.

"That's weird~. Why did it explode again?" said the culprit for this disaster.

"What explosive substance did you add to the food this time, stupid-sensei?!" - Lily

Yes. The culprit is the panda-eared self-proclaimed teacher of mine. Ren, the Champion of Chaos. And now she's living up to her name in full style. 

"Why did you add "stupid"!? And this is perfectly edible-" - Ren

No, stop-!

*Ka-boom!*

And with that, Ren ended in a cloud of smoke. She didn't faint since she has resistance, but the other four...

"They're out cold. Probably won't regain their consciousness before tonight." - Iron

"Meaning we have wasted a whole day." - Lily

Ren twitched when she heard me talk. After Iron and I made sure the four were somewhat okay, she then said:

"Alright, let's beat that stupid tower up! Wo-hooo!" - Ren

"No-hoo. What are you talking about?" - Lily

But before I could stop her, Ren was already running to the tower. That stupid-sensei...

"Go. I can protect these four while you help your sensei." - Iron

"Hah? Don't you mean "go so I don't have to"?" - Lily

"Isn't it obvious?" - Iron

Wow, Iron's defense is flawless. In lots of ways. 

As it would be dangerous for the whole region to let Ren do as she pleases (I've learned that the hard way during the last week), I followed Iron's idea and chased that no-brain girl who gives pandas all over the world a bad reputation. 

Aaaaand she's already punched the door open. Whoa-! This thing must be 5 meters thick! How did she punch this thing open, this jet-black metal door? It looks tougher than Iron...

"GYAAAAA!!" - Ren

Now she's screaming. That's what I want to...to...

"GYAAAAAA!!" - Lily

What the-!? What the-!? What, in the name of the chef, is this place!?!?

The inside of the lighthouse is filled with lines of corpses hanging from the wall like we were inside some sick wardrobe! Oh, I don't want to even describe it!

"L-let's get out of here!" - Lily

"A-a-agree!" - Ren

But just as we turned around to flee-

"*Grrrrr*..." 

.........

"L-Lily? That's your stomach, right?" - Ren

"M-m-m-my tummy isn't that scary-sounding..." - Lily

With slow movements, the two of us turned our heads and saw...

"GYAAAAA!!" - Ren & Lily

We didn't see anything! We did NOT see any three-headed gigantic gecko made of pale-grey human corpses!! 

Despite not seeing anything (we DID NOT see anything!!), we ran out of the creepy tower! Because, err..., because it was creepy! Yes, that's it! 

After basically flying out of the tower and reaching the camp, Iron tried to greet us, but Ren acted before that.

"[Black Powder Smog]! And [Chaotic Concurrence]!!" - Ren

Several grey-black magic circles appeared and released vast amounts of black powder...oh!

"Lily! Hurry up and detonate it before that thing comes out!!" - Ren

"Th-th-there's nothing-" - Lily

"JUST DO IT!!" - Ren (crying in fear)

"Y-YES!!" - Lily (irrational from fear and stress)

"H-hey, what are you-" - Iron (sole sane guy)

"[Flame Breath]!" - Lily

I could see movements in the black cloud so I ignored Iron there and blew the biggest breath of flames I had ever done toward the lighthouse. And then, right as nothing peeked out from the cloud, the fire connected with the cloud of gunpowder and-

---

Chaos's PoV:

[*KA-BOOOOOOM!!!!*]

A large explosion happened on the screen in the meeting room of the Ultimate Gods. After the smoke cleared, the only thing remaining was that idiot Ren and the Nightmare Voyagers. The lighthouse and the Mirror Imitation of Azi Dahaka had been blown to ashes.

That idiot-panda, she's upped her Gunpowder attribute skills a little too much for her own good. While I shall give her praise for getting rid of the Mirror Imitation, she was this close to getting rid of her allies as well. Remember that you're packing skills like [Greater Explosion], you damn failure of a Champion!!

"...Chaos, keep your Champion away from the big cities." - Tharos

Yeah, can't blame him for thinking that.

Including me and Tharos, there's also that Dejidem-guy, who came to warn us about the problems in his Demonic Sea. We are sitting around the table watching the sorry remains of the lighthouse that the Mirror Throne, the boss of the "Yamatai Grand Nightmare" Quest, had created to further improve his own agenda. Also...

"Hmm~. Ren-chan is so talented~," said the woman with coral-colored hair and a bod that would rival Asmodeus, the Demon God of Lust. 

Yrlanaya looked at the sorry plain, not showing one iota of anger despite the large explosion that happened on the continent that is basically her territory. Rather, she nods with a smile that makes me think the stupid panda may have finally earned her third Proof.

But the smile only lasted until she turned around and addressed the sorry girl who was hanging upside-down from the ceiling, tied up by black, vine-like appendages that were part of Yrlanaya's body.

"And is that all of them?" she asked with a voice and face that had 0% friendliness of any kind.

"No way. The info I gave that chair should let it produce at least 6 fake-Dahakas by now," said the captured perpetrator, Alvatria.

Geez, why does that idiot have to stick her finger into so many cakes? After the first Yamatai Grand Festival 1.400 years ago, she went to the Quest Boss responsible for the dark affairs of the Festival and gave him the means to create more mayhem than he should be allowed to.

The original intent of the Quest was to give the people from that time a slap on their face for wanting easier access to Extra Skills, not destroy the continent with an army of Mirror Imitations of a real Calamity. People can't expect that we'll spoon-feed them with awesome skills. They have to work for it themselves.

And that's why we decided to use the Luxuria Continent as the stage for this lesson. But Alvatria wouldn't allow that, no~. She had to mess with things so that stupid Quest-boss would start planning on destroying the whole continent, and more. Not to mention hiding the deed from us...

"Yes, yes, sorry for wanting to produce an army of monsters because I had nothing to do." - Alvatria

"Be honest with us~. You wanted to mess with Dahaka-kun again~...so spill it, you bitch." - Yrlanaya

Ouch! There it came! Yrla's "from loving to cruel" pattern! Alvatria... had an indifferent face as always, but wait! You can see her sweat a little now!

"...messing with that lizard is part of my job..." - Alvatria

"And how is that related to threatening the continent while making that perverted kingdom keep it a secret~?" - Yrlanaya

"..nothing at all. It was possible for me, so I did it." - Alvatria

*BANG!*

Wow! Only Yrla would dare to hit the Alvatria with a chair! Guess that shows how deep her love for that continent goes.

"Eh, maybe we should move on to fix the problem?" I said in a vain attempt of giving Alvatria a lifeline so she wouldn't complain to me later.

"That's already taken care of," said Yrlanaya...she works fast...

"All five remaining Mirror Imitations are being targeted by the same Level-Down curse that the Extra Skills were bugged with. I even turned the original curse to "reducing the target to Lv.1" instead of straight out killing the victim." - Yrlanaya

"Oh. The problem's already fixed then." - Tharos

"No, not yet. First off, it would lead to a weak end to the Quest, something that the public wouldn't accept due to them not knowing how much danger they would be in if we continued the Festival. Second, it would be a waste~." - Yrlanaya

"A waste?" - Tharos

"You got something cooking?" - Chaos

"Yes~. Let us pit four of the remaining Mirror Imitations against the contenders of the Festival~. If they win, I will personally grant them great rewards~. If they lose, I will activate the curse and drain the Imitations until they become withered husks~." - Yrlanaya

No, you could do that even without any curses...

"That wouldn't be a bad end for the final Festival. Merging the 12 groups into four for a set of epic battles against the counterfeits of a Calamity. May even allow some of the losers to re-enter as well in the final battle. The only thing I would have to complain about is that the Imitations are based on the unluckiest chad out of all the Calamities..." - Tharos

"I'm up for it too. We can cover the existence of the Imitations that way by saying they're bosses made to hype the Festival. And we could also start introducing more creatures like these in Dungeons after this." - Chaos

"Wait, my gods! What about the last Imitation? Not to forget about the Throne?" said Dejidem, who had stayed quiet almost all this time.

"That will be a bonus Quest for the people working in the Seas now~." - Yrlanaya

"But, Goddess Yrlanaya...we do not know where the Throne is hiding." - Dejidem

"No worries~. I have prepared a hint for them. They can't miss it, or better said, the hint can't miss them~." - Yrlanaya

That's a strange way to describe it, but I can live with that. Either way, I'm so close to finding out the location of the Chaos Dungeon they're hiding in myself, so I'll hand over that information to the albino demon if that hint doesn't appear. I know that fighting against that one just comes to bite yourself in the ass.

"And if you gentlemen do not have anything more to add, may I ask to proceed with the next item on the agenda~?" - Yrlanaya

"Huh? There's something else?" - Chaos

"The punishment for this little ****** bitch~~," said Yrlanaya and pointed toward Alvatria...who had been gagged before I noticed.

Rather, what did Yrlanaya call her just now? Think my brain must have filtered it out...and can we even punish that Alvatria without being in harm's way for the most unreasonable retribution ever?

Ten seconds ago, I worried about that albino demon. I should have saved it for ourselves...

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Kigal-Note/Artisan Classes: Firework Chief