Chapter 9. Loli Harem Hell?
A young man with curly golden hair was sprinting down the street. To be precise, he wasn't exactly sprinting; his body was hunched low to the front and bottom, tightly clutching the neck of the companion beneath him.
Behind him, a skeletal giant, causing the ground to rumble with every stride, was in hot pursuit.
Flat Escardos looked at the creature's flailing arms and its white thigh bones—which shortened the distance with every step—and couldn't help but let out an impressed "Whoa."
"Be careful, Mr. Jack! Getting smashed by that thing would be disastrous."
"I shall do my best."
The magical wolf beneath him replied in a tone of utter resignation. As if he had been born a wolf, he leaped nimbly at high speed through the treacherous terrain.
"...If it weren't for this place, solving an opponent of this caliber wouldn't be this difficult."
It wasn't that he wanted to prove himself, but perhaps out of disappointment in his own inadequacy, the magical wolf spoke with a human voice. However, before he could fully experience the feeling of frustration, Flat immediately interrupted:
"It's okay, it's okay! We're Servant and Master, aren't we? That's what helping each other is all about. I mean, I can't exactly make clones like you, but what I mean is, whatever Mr. Jack can't do, I'll take care of it!"
"Are you truly incapable...? I get the feeling you're just itching to create clones. That's the scary thing about you."
Seeing Flat's high-spirited demeanor, the Berserker Jack—who had manifested as a magical wolf—gave up on the retort he had been holding back.
"Be that as it may, how do you intend to handle that thing? With my Demonization Noble Phantasm sealed, I've almost given up on the idea of dealing any damage to it."
The magical wolf glanced with his peripheral vision at the relentless, ghost-like pursuer behind them. Yes, he couldn't beat it. Within this bounded field, with no one around, his Demonization Noble Phantasm had the strength of a mere ordinary beast; Jack was nearly burned out.
'Why not try a one-on-one fight outside? What kind of skill is it to bully a single Jack inside a bounded field?'
Unfortunately, the giant skeleton couldn't understand Jack's words. Like a walking meat grinder, it only knew how to pursue them and churn flesh.
Although they were running forward, many figures on the path were heading in the opposite direction, toward the rear. At a glance, they were all magical beasts, but upon closer inspection, they were subtly different from the species inhabiting this city. Not only did they not assist the giant, they began to tear at its ankles.
They were all clones created by Jack's Noble Phantasm, Natural Born Killers: For You Are Denied the Massacre's End. It was sheer coincidence that no magical beasts belonging to the "fake" Snowfield were lurking nearby, but even if they had appeared, they would have been torn to shreds by Jack's guard team of monsters.
When it came to war by sheer volume, no one was harder to deal with than Jack. However, the consequences of a simple numbers game against a tough opponent were now becoming clear. Aside from minor nicks and scratches, the dozens of monsters had caused almost no visible damage to the skeletal giant, and they were swept aside in mere moments.
"Mr. Jack, give it up. Don't torture yourself anymore," Flat comforted him gently.
"No."
When he said that, Jack actually got more fired up. Although the answer seemed normal enough, Flat's entire body stiffened. Because the voice that said "No" was a delicate, girlish voice coming from right behind him.
Flat swallowed hard and looked back...
He saw a little girl using the magical wolf as a stepping stone, standing on its back. She had short silver-gray hair and appeared to be of a young age. Whether she was wearing enough clothing was a major question—she was snow-white from head to toe, and Flat didn't know where to avert his eyes at such close range.
While Flat and the expressionless girl stared at each other, extremely soft hands and a torso hugged him from what had been in front of him. Looking closely, two individuals identical in appearance were guarding Flat at the center, as if they were using themselves as meat shields, holding blades up against the giant skeleton.
There was a little girl on the left, too. And another on the right! Behind him, the very first little girl was also standing guard!
"Loli Harem Hell!?"
As Flat was surrounded by a cluster of little girls, forced to tremble while submerged in their arms, a military formation composed of countless identical little girls had appeared between the magical wolf and the giant skeleton.
Some dressed in revealing clothes, some in swimsuits, all moving with exaggerated vigor!
The swarm of lolis dazzled Flat as they charged at the giant skeleton, but at best, they only deepened the small gashes; they could only focus on severing the bone joints. Then, with one swing from the giant, they were batted away.
Although they didn't speak, the magical wolf beneath Flat clearly let out a spiteful huff. The soft sensation pressed against Flat seemed to turn more resentful, and the force of their embrace intensified.
'This isn't working!'
"Whoa, Mr. Jack, let's cancel this transformation!" Despite being surrounded by so many soft, fair hands and feet, feeling their bodies pressed against one another, Flat was a good student. Loli Harem Hell is not okay!
"Do you have a plan?" one of the little girls asked.
"I've got an idea, but I'll leave the dodging to you, Mr. Jack."
Flat answered calmly. One hand swept through the air, forming the precursor to some kind of magecraft.
"You really are... a handful!"
Canceling the lolis, Jack let out a stiff, wry laugh from the wolf's mouth that didn't match his form, and his pace accelerated again. At the same time, the skeletal giant, having closed in to a certain distance, began to lift its massive foot bone.
It brought its foot down in one motion.
Jack almost had the illusion that he was about to be crushed, but in reality, he dodged it perfectly. At the same time, as an insurance policy, a piece of magecraft was activated beneath the giant's foot.
A block of black ether elemental, resembling a shadow, lay beneath the leg bone. When Flat dueled Rin, who held the Gem Sword, the ether elemental block had been silver. It wasn't that he didn't want to make a silver version; it was just that when he created it on impulse, it had already turned black.
"It seems a bit different, but it doesn't matter!"
Flat threw the subtle differences behind him with a single sentence. At the same time, a deafening crash erupted behind them.
When the giant's bone stepped onto the elemental block, it was forcibly brought to a halt. The block began to cling to its foot bone like chewing gum. After a brief moment of stiffness, the giant foot successfully fell, but Flat and Jack had already vanished.
On the foot bone that had touched the ground, flames suddenly erupted. The fire showed no signs of dying out; instead, it began to spread upward unnaturally.
"Come again with this posture, Mr. Jack!"
Flat's shouting, Jack's response, and the sound of the giant chasing them again and lifting its palm mixed together. A corner of the street was bustling with noise.
Three minutes later.
"Master... is there no problem? If it really doesn't work, since it seems to have no intelligence, how about I send enough clones to die, and we just escape?" Jack asked Flat, looking back at the giant skeleton that remained standing.
It was useless. It was a high-purity nullification of force. The skeleton was covered in various wounds—some parts were entirely charred, some showed traces of explosions, and others were pitted and scarred. However, it seemed to have lost none of its mobility; it still obsessively pursued Flat and the others like a wandering ghost.
Flat also looked at the skeleton, which was dozens of times larger than them, but didn't seem particularly concerned.
"No, it's finally over... Mr. Jack."
After a while, Flat finally blinked his green eyes and replied. He turned around on the magical wolf to face the skeletal giant directly.
"Look."
Flat pointed his finger nonchalantly.
What happened next made Jack break out in a cold sweat—the object he pointed at suddenly stopped as if it had been shut down. The entire building-sized structure of bone collapsed to one side, knocking over an actual building as well; both tall structures crashed to the ground together.
Before this hellish spectacle, Flat explained with an innocent expression:
"Actually, if there's no Magic Resistance, trying to solve it by forcing a big magecraft is one of our backup plans. But isn't that too wasteful? Wasting mana is one thing, and we finally have clues about the opponent's abilities."
"...?"
Flat took a deep breath, finally got off the magical wolf, and stretched his shoulders a little.
"I invaded its control system through several magical contacts. The level of hacking I just did was just right. I've pretty much figured out the principle of its movements."
Flat crouched down, examining the wreckage that had gone from a mountain to a smaller mound, but his eyebrows turned downward in an apologetic expression:
"Sorry, Mr. Jack. Actually, I originally intended to seize control of it... but I failed. Its creator is strong. So, I could only erase its commands. The good news is that I remembered its program, so next time I should just need to touch it once to interfere and trigger an emergency stop, so you won't have to fight so hard."
Jack, who had turned back into a watch, watched the sky with his gear-eyes.
"...No, it's fine. Thank you."
'The sky is really blue.
What is this "quality inspector" that I can't beat, but my Master can?'
"By the way, where are we now?" Flat asked, raising one hand.
"That's a great question. Though I'd love to answer you like that, unfortunately, I don't have a transformation mode that turns me into a GPS."
Just noticing that the surrounding environment had become unfamiliar, the attention of both master and servant was drawn to the most prominent building, the one that occupied a corner of the blue sky.
It was the same location. Before their eyes was the tallest building in all of Snowfield City.
The billboard read: Crystal Hill.
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