The Ultimate Being's vitality flowed through his body, steadying what remained of last night's exertions.
Shin hadn't expected that simply witnessing a dream-memory would count as completing an achievement — let alone cause the Saint's Corpse to integrate directly.
The skill effect was a little strange, admittedly. It kept making him think of the phrase "one heart, one mind" — though in practical terms it did fill a gap in his offensive magical repertoire.
The Stand had naturally unlocked alongside the Saint's Corpse's absorption. But it was an odd one — Shin wasn't quite sure what to make of it.
It was identical to the humanoid Stand that had appeared behind Kars — impossible to make out clearly, only a single visible eye.
The difference was that Kars's version had at least seemed to laterally reinforce his Ripple techniques. Shin's, by contrast, showed no perceptible effect at all — he couldn't even project it outward to fight.
He suspected it had to do with the Saint's Corpse being incomplete. To complete the Stand, he would probably need to return to the JoJo world at some point.
[System Message: Based on the group member's choice, special mission difficulty has been locked at B+++. Non-human legend • "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter" progress advancing.]
He opened the chat group on instinct.
Unsurprisingly, it was buried in messages.
He'd turned off the livestream before things got serious last night, but re-opening now, the wave of vinegar-sharp resentment and barely-contained grievance was practically seeping through the screen.
[Spreading Witch Factors (Great Witch)]: Well. Morning has come.
[Spreading Witch Factors (Great Witch)]: @Moon Princess — By the way, Kaguya Your Highness, that earlier proposal about arranging a match is off the table. Witch's Island is not taking applications for a daughter-in-law at this time.
[Spreading Witch Factors (Great Witch)]: And even if we were, we wouldn't be accepting you. I want you to be clear on that.
[Moon Princess]: Excuse me? Great Witch, don't take your frustrations out on me!
[Moon Princess]: That Yachiyo really does look exactly like me, but I'm the one who spent the night eating dirt in a bamboo stalk!
[Moon Princess]: I'm aggrieved too, you know! Watching "yourself" do that with someone on a livestream — I still haven't recovered!
[Spreading Witch Factors (Great Witch)]: In any case, a match is off the table for now. And Shaya — when you see this message, contact me immediately.
[Spreading Witch Factors (Great Witch)]: Complete the mission and come straight back. Not one extra second.
[Spreading Witch Factors (Great Witch)]: And you are not permitted to bring home any stray women — especially not the kind who drank the elixir of immortality and have lost the ability to bear children.
[Moon Princess]: ???
…Shin.
Right. He'd completely forgotten to consider the Great Witch's feelings. That sense of helpless, useless impotence through a screen — he could see the resemblance to the "utterly useless supporting parent" archetype from every bad harem light novel.
[Spreading Witch Factors (temp account)]: Understood. I'll wrap up as soon as possible.
He rubbed his temples.
The immediate priority was avoiding the bad ending locked in Yachiyo's memory.
Yachiyo had already committed to him. There was no way he was going to sit by and watch her get taken back to the Moon.
But in that memory, the result of resisting had been catastrophic.
Lord Tsukuyomi's divine light from the Moon. And then the betrayal he suffered after choosing to do good.
Even having been stabbed in the back by that kind of stupid, short-sighted treachery, Shin still didn't place the fault with humanity.
Because the whole thing had been a trap set by Lord Tsukuyomi — just like the annihilation of the Great Witch's clan. There was always some deeper culprit hiding behind the surface of things.
"…My dear?"
Yachiyo seemed to sense his thoughts. She propped herself up, the thin covering sliding away, revealing an expanse of startling white.
"If my dear pities those humans, I'll go with the emissaries. Come and visit me sometime — just knowing you'll come is enough."
"Don't even think about it."
Shin pressed her back down against him and continued sorting through his intelligence.
He remembered from Yachiyo's memory that when Lord Tsukuyomi's divine punishment fell, they hadn't done nothing.
Melusine, for instance, had tried the most direct approach with the young man — releasing her True Name and transforming into the dragon called "Albion," attempting to break through the atmosphere and strike directly at the Lunar Capital above.
As the Last Dragon, Melusine's output was absolutely capable of challenging a deity, even a chief god.
But in the memory, she had failed.
Not because Lord Tsukuyomi defeated her — she had been stopped outside the absolute, unbreakable barrier surrounding the Lunar Capital.
No one knew where that barrier came from. But perhaps it explained something: in The Dream Chronicles of the Moon, even when the Lunar Capital attracted the wrath of the Five-Sphere Goddess — one who could reach the stars by journey's end — the Capital had survived. She hadn't been able to annihilate it in a moment of fury.
The answer was becoming clearer.
That was also why Junko was the Lunar Capital's true nemesis — because her power to infinitely purify impurity could detonate the Lunar Capital from within.
Shin glanced over at Melusine — she had been quietly removed from his body around midnight and had been lying sprawled out all night, and was now slowly coming to, blinking in confusion.
They'd said she was here to escort and lead. She'd been escort-knocked-out in the opening minutes, leaving the boss to carry her — Morgan probably had complicated feelings about this.
Then again, it wasn't really Melusine's fault. Without releasing her True Name, her mental resistance was famously weak — just look at how completely Aurora had wrapped her around her finger.
Though the small dragon-girl had absorbed an enormous amount of St. Trina's Nectar, her draconic constitution meant she'd already recovered her clarity.
Not just clarity, either — Shin could see something odd in Melusine's expression. Clearly, Yachiyo's deep-layer dream had been something she'd experienced firsthand last night as well.
"Lady Lancelot, how are you feeling?"
Melusine expressionlessly tidied her disordered armour, a faint, fleeting conflict passing through those dragon-pupils.
Through the shared dream, she too knew what had happened last night — being a fairy born into total solitude, she was having her first experience of something so strange.
The young man in that dream had been extraordinarily powerful, and yet had not hesitated to give everything to comfort the helpless. She thought deeply about him.
If that dream had been real, then this young man was the kind of good person who could stand alongside Aurora. Melusine found herself thinking this.
"…Heh. Her Majesty gave orders for me to cooperate with you."
"I'm ready to fight at any time. If you need me, I can fly toward the Moon right now and try to catch them off guard."
Melusine gave a small smile. Whether it was Yachiyo's imagination or not, she always felt this fairy-dragon girl's eyes on her dear husband carried an unusually bright, keen interest.
"Lady Melusine, can you break through that barrier?"
Melusine hesitated, then shook her head:
"Fighting that deity head-on doesn't scare me. But that barrier is something else — it's defence is on a terrifying scale."
"If I could find a way inside the barrier, then maybe I could…"
"I think I have an idea."
Melusine's words sparked something in Shin's mind.
Right — if the outside can't be broken through, why not go straight to the inside?
As an Ultimate Being, he could shift his appearance at will. And with the newly-acquired [Soul Synchrony] skill, he could also align his mind with another's.
"What is my dear planning?" Yachiyo asked curiously.
"Heh — since the Lunar Capital's people are coming to collect 'Kaguya-hime,' then let them take a 'Kaguya-hime' back."
"You know the Trojan Horse? Today I'll be the horse — and give them a very big surprise."
To be continued…
As you guys know this is a relatively new fic so starting this monday 1 Chapter per day will be posted and 2 chapters on Sunday will be posted.
Advance 50 chapters are up on my Patreon!
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