Ihoujin, Dungeon ni Moguru - Chapter 249: Memory VI

「Oh, it seems that you recognize my appearance. Is this the work of my teacher? That man is such a nuisance as well. He could have just kept his mouth shut and focused on saving the world, but all he does is get in the way of his disciple」

「What do you want with me?」

With my remaining strength, I couldn’t pull out the spear lodged in me.

「I’ve come to fulfill a covenant」

「What?」

A covenant with whom?

「It’s a covenant I made with my disciple to “definitely unravel the secret of the curse and lift it”. I’ve unraveled the secret by going over to the prince’s side All that remains is to dispose of you, the last remaining fragment of the curse. How ironic that the way to fulfill the covenant I made with my disciple is to put her last follower in the ground」

Garving let out an evil laugh.

I’m sure of it now.

The fake is much better.

The old man wriggled his fingers and countless crystalline spears came into being. They were the same as the one lodged in my shoulder.

I have a vague memory of this spear.

It’s the spear of miracles everyone created together by chanting to all the gods when we faced the dragon.

「Urgh」

It had started eating into me. Crystals spread from the wound in my shoulder, transforming flesh and bone into something else.

The crystalline spear that slays immortality.

A great magic that transforms the nature of unkillable immortals into something else.

If I get hit by more of these things, I’ll shatter and dissipate. I’ll have to intercept them, but I don’t have a single weapon on hand……………… No, I actually still have one last weapon.

Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the folding karambit.

「………And what do you think you’re going to do with such a thing?」

「Who knows, maybe a miracle will come along and shove this right through your heart」

Garving looked at me with an expression of utter disdain on his face.

「How foolish. In the end, all of you are no more than beasts crawling on the ground」

「A bastard for which there’s no hell deep enough to fall into for betraying his disciple and his party members has no right to call me a beast, you damned levitating beast」

I may have forgotten her name, but her anger and sorrow still remain inside me.

Even if my swords are broken and I’m all out of arrows(Even if I’m all out of options), I won’t give up on defeating this guy until the very end.

「There you go speaking like that again. You’ve reached the height of foolishness. To me, who looks upon the world from a higher plane, you are but a speck of dust scattering your filth all about. Vermin, be gone at once」

The spears rained down.

「Hey, I’ve bought as much time as I could. Hurry up and save me」

『Understood, myself will make it with 0.5 seconds to spare』

A voice came over the communication function of the glasses.

Actually, I had received a message a dozen or so seconds ago that he was rushing to my aid. He really did make it just in time.

The falling mass of spears was intercepted by a cloud of red magic swords.

A crumbling black unit landed in front of me.

Most of his armor was missing, and the mono-eye sensor was peeking out from his half-destroyed helmet. His left hand had been obliterated, and his right hand was discharging electricity and looking like it was about to give out at any moment. An engine of some sort lay exposed in his chest. Even in such a state, he stood firmly planted on the ground, if only by his two feet.

「You’re late, Gunmerry」

「After dumping the girl, it took myself some time to find the venue for the after-party. From the looks of things, you still remember myself, huh?」

「Well, just barely」

His name, the gist of who he is, and the origin of his name that he shared with me after we had hunted the dragon together. Those are the only things I can still vaguely remember. Those memories feel as if they might slip away at any moment though.

Garving didn’t seem surprised to see Gunmerry butting in.

「The ancient vessel from the foreign lands, huh? I hadn’t expected you to take down Eliza. I should have taken you instead of her」

「It’s my policy to only contract with women. Old men in particular are a hard pass」

「What a crude vessel. You too are no more than junk, I see」

The magic swords struck down all the spears and then surged towards the magician.

Just as one of the magic sword’s tip was about to connect, there was a flash of light and it was destroyed. It looked almost like a laser beam had been fired at it.

Floating above Garving’s palm was a blue flame. From it shot out blue beams of light.

The magic swords were destroyed one after another.

Once they were all eliminated, a beam of light came for us.

「Reactor criticality achieved. Power output at maximum」

Gunmerry created a barrier that blocked the laser beam. No, it couldn’t block it completely. Taking the leftover destructive power, a portion of his remaining armor was scorched red-hot.

「Souya! Listen to me! Soon, “she” will awaken! Even if you forget everything, she will definitely still wait for you! And one day, for sure! Reach the depths of the dungeon!」

「Even at the very end, you’re still beating around the bush」

「Trust me」

Gunmerry looked back for just one moment, and I thought I saw a smile on his steel face.

The light closed in mercilessly.

The barrier shattered, and Gunmerry took a direct hit to his body from the laser beam. The unit’s frame turned red as it melted and fell apart.

「Until the very end, myself remained true to my purpose! And myself accomplished it! What a satisfying death! Souya, Yukikaze, farewell! See you again!」

Gunmerry melted away into pieces.

After leaving behind manly words, he was reduced to cold shards of steel that were even now still hot(passionate).

「What a noisy piece of junk」

Garving held up the blue flame.

「With this Final Flame, I shall vaporize your body, leaving behind that fragment of the curse. At last, the end of my long research is at hand」

I glared at the levitating Garving as I waited, trusting and believing in Gunmerry’s words.

That was the only option I had left.

「Any final words at the end of your journey, O Foreigner?」

「Nope, my journey hasn’t ended or anything」

「………Burn to ashes」

As dawn began to break, a beam of light shot through the night. A light of death.

Rebuffed,

It scattered.

「What?」

Garving raised an eyebrow. What had rebuffed the beam of light was a broken magic sword.

It was the very one I had won from the beast-hunter hero.

A voice came from the magic sword.

『Eliza code obtained, Guns-Memory code accepted. Emergency system restoration completed. Good morning, team member Souya』

It was the voice of an A.I. that should be dead.

「You’re kidding. Izora?!」

There’s no way, she should definitely be dead. All of her data should have been deleted.

『Yes, it’s the Izora you know and love. Just before I stopped functioning, I slipped into Agathion’s system to trick its personal authentication function. Having obtained the code of higher-order A.I.s, I restored my personality urgently, albeit in a makeshift manner. I’ve grasped the situation. We just have to take that guy down, right?』

「Y, yeah, that’s right」

I had been so stunned that I had forgotten for a moment that I was in a fight.

「What can a mere broken magic sword hope to accomplish?」

『Shut up, senile old man. I’ll show you the bottomless depths of science』

The shattered pieces of the magic swords gathered together.

The old great magician shot out more beams of light. All the heat of the converging beams was absorbed by the magic swords.

『Data called up from the Ark. Selecting armaments from space-time navigational fighters………Remodeling the IRG-99 Degenerate Particle rapid-fire cannon into an infantry weapon. Launching the assembly matrix』

Izora swallowed up the remnants of the magic swords and Gunmerry, then transformed in shape.

Sensing something, Garving raised both hands to stop her. Criss-crossing laser beams were fired from the two blue flames in his palms, but they were also swallowed up by Izora, who then formed herself into a single weapon.

A black long-barreled rifle.

A simple weapon with an angular design overall that had only a trigger.

『Team member Souya, because of the unreasonable design changes, it can only fire one shot. Please don’t miss』

「One shot is all I need」

I picked up the rifle Izora had turned into.

I placed my right hand at the trigger and gritted my teeth as I moved my left hand, from which I could hear the cracking of bones, to the barrel of the gun. The rifle had a strange warmth to it.

It’s almost as if it has a soul. No, the souls of Izora and Gunmerry are undoubtedly inside.

I pointed the muzzle of the rifle at Garving.

The most evil great magician in the alternate world.

「Very well, O follower of【Science】. If the Final Flame is ineffective against you, then I shall simply crush you with my greatest secret art」

Standing on his staff, Garving began a chant.

「O primordiality, O origin, that which is red hot, O fire, become a conflagration, O flames that engulf many」

As the rifle gave off a soft roar, Izora spoke.

『Commencing graviton rifling sequence. Starting particle stabilization in parallel with warhead assembly――――――』

「Become like the breath of a dragon, the equal of a heavenly sacred fire. Completely devour this world of fate」

『―――――Warhead assembly process completed. Rifling stabilized, firing chamber compression initiated, 60, 70, 90』

「Concentrate all wisdom here. O effigy of ruin and calamity that is redder than red, attack what is before my arms. Now, by this primordial law, the great magician annihilates you. Garving・Romea・Doragubein!』

An enormous black sun fell towards us.

There was no escaping it. It would devastate the entire plain, burning everything to ashes.

But……

『Compression level at 120 percent. It’s ready to be fired』

……our side was quicker by a comfortable margin.

「Izora, any ideas for a good one-liner?」

『Let’s see…… What about――――――』

I took precise aim at the target then said the line Izora suggested.

「Jackpot」

I pulled the trigger.

The recoil of the rifle was minimal.

The unleashed bullet blew a hole through Garving’s black sun and his chest.

「Wh…at?」

Looking like he had seen a bad dream, the great magician dissipated like mist.

The aftermath was tremendous.

Gusts of wind were whipped up to the heavens. They ignited the flames and exploded, scorching the sky and turning it red. After the momentary inferno had died out, the morning sky unfolded as if nothing had happened.

Silence.

The silence of morning filled the air.

「Wha…Izora?!」

The rifle in my hand began to crumble away.

『The assembly matrix has reached its limits. It’s time to part ways again』

「Wait, if you go to――――right away」

The name refused to come to mind.

I had forgotten the name and the existence of the partner I should have depended on. My memories and bonds were beginning to disappear as if eaten away by worms.

『It’s no use. Even if I go back to my original system, I’m too far outside of the regulation the way I am now. I’ll only be seen as a bug and be rewritten』

「But there must be some way to……」

The body of the rifle broke apart and the pieces fell to the ground

Izora had been reduced to a size small enough to sit in my palm.

『I won’t say goodbye. Surely, one day, I’ll see you again. I just have that feeling. I know hunches are unscientific, but……………… Team member Souya, have I been of use to you?』

「Thank you. See you again」

Izora was blown away and lost to the wind. Even if I clenched my fist tight, there was nothing left.

She disappeared without even a trace of remembrance left behind.

The battle was over.

At the other end of the plain spread out before me was a colossal object that looked like a horn stuck into the ground. Beneath it lay a city in which there was someone waiting for me.

Time to return home.

Izora!!! The best girl returns!!!

I guess we’ve finally learned why Agathion saved Souya from Luxugaru and began to obey him all of a sudden. Yeah, she infiltrated Aga-chan’s system and messed with its identification function so it probably saw Souya as Varner or something like that. And, this isn’t out of nowhere. Remember how Tortch had said that the original generation of A.I.s had the ability to infiltrate other electronical things and that Izora was a “direct descendant”? Yeah, the twist that Izora was hidden inside Agathion was already foreshadowed back in vol 3.

Man, even after death, Izora was still protecting and fighting alongside Souya, we simply never knew. But even though they promised to meet again, Souya has also forgotten her at the end there… this darned roller-coaster of emotions the author has us on… Gunmerry too… I teared up so much at his death…especially at how he’s just an eccentric and mysterious A.I. who appeared out of nowhere only recently, and his death won’t be something that hurts now, before readers have learned his whole story…

Err… help… I don’t know the “Jackpot” reference… It’s in katakana, so it’s in “English”, so to speak. Anyone knows any movies or games where that’s the catch-phrase of someone, maybe when firing a gun of some sort?

Edit: Many thanks to Bruhman and Siluman for the assist! This is most likely a reference to Devil May Cry. “Jackpot” is the MC Dante’s catchphrase, often spouted off just before the main antagonist is finished off with powerful charged shot.

Btw, what’s the Ark? Space-time navigational fighters? Oh, in case that was unclear, they’re fighters(as in fighter planes) capable of navigating space and time… Errr…What?!!? Isn’t that super-advanced technology? Where have I heard of such super technologically advanced stuff recently, I wonder? On that note, Izora was using the technology Gunmerry showed in the merchant company’s store, though it was “re-assembly matrix” back then and just “assembly matrix” here. Btw, Garving talking like “Science” is a god or something cracked me up.

In case you forgot, Garving’s full name is Garving Bau Mitera. Yeah, he’s probably related to the flame hero Mitera, whose story ended in great tragedy, in some way, isn’t he? That’s where the link to the Final Flame is probably from too, isn’t it? Did he teach Mitera an incomplete flame or something, which caused the tragedy? Or did he use Mitera as an experiment to complete his Final Flame? I wouldn’t put it past him.

With his bonds clearly disappearing, what awaits Souya in Lemuria? Stay tuned for the epilogue of this long, oh so very long volume…