Chapter 40: Another Way

Vault’s eyes lit up in utter astonishment. He saw the scarlet-haired fused warrior wielding a weapon created from not only two things that he's crafted, but also her own ability. Currently, it was arguably the greatest weapon that their combined efforts could bring forth.

If his patron was here he felt like he would even have something nice to say about it. Just looking at it, he could tell it was not only something truly special. It also represented how he would still be able to help them in this battle.

It's like both of them were wielding the weapon together. Harmony pointed the sword hilt at her enemy and waved it around like a wand. She shot out her attack that had now become more powerful. The spinning flaming blades of fire swirled around her target and engulfed it in a flaming tornado.

The two circles approached it from opposite sides and quickly dashed towards each other. They sliced through the spiraling tornado of blue flames and caused it to explode. Gray Dungeon’s ultimate creation was now reduced down to a quarter of its HP.

Despite all their setbacks, they now had the advantage. Arret let out a frustrated scream that echoed throughout the entire room. Her rage at being on the losing side put a smile on Harmony's face, but it filled her representative with dread.

She could see him trembling from her reaction. Was it out of fear? Was he really that afraid to disappoint her? She didn't know in detail what he had been through, but she could see that there was clearly some form of twisted connection between the two of them. He relied on her like a crutch covered in spikes.

It was ironic what the minor goddess said about Harmony being like poison. She said that she was corrupting others, and that the only way to stop it was to remove the source. Taking a moment to think about that, perhaps she was self-reflecting? Or at least that's how she felt.

The minor goddess unleashed a barrage of berating comments. Many of them were aimed at Harmony’s party members, but the rest were aimed at her own representative. She tore him down worse than she had tried to build him back up. The room began shaking as she saw that the boy who was already broken, somehow found a way to shatter into even smaller pieces.

He grabbed his puppet as soon as his turn started, and broke it into pieces. He ripped off each limb, the head, the legs, into so many pieces. A loud crunch echoed through the room followed by sounds of metal scraping. That creature was something he had spent so long working on, in order to overcome his weakness and achieve their goals. It was now crushed into scraps due to his overwhelming negative emotions.

She could hear him crying the entire time, and could only look on with an expression of sympathy. He was getting ready to throw all the pieces at her entire party. Probably as some last ditch effort at trying to take them all out. She knew it was an attempt to try and win, but she still couldn't help but feel bad for him.

Was there really nothing else she could do other than just ending this battle? A question she kept circling back to more times than she could count. She didn't even look at the incoming attack. Instead she took a moment to turn to Vault and her friends.

They all existed in this world as something other than an ordinary human. With all their current abilities, was there nothing they could do other than just taking him out to save him?

She turned to the crazy minor deity in the background. She was still continuing her rant of insulting him. “You were just a worthless human being before you came to this world! You were lucky to even be granted a body like this! You are made out of the pure earth of this world! You are a dungeon, no longer a pathetic human, and yet you still somehow are losing to weaklings! How did I get stuck with a bigger failure than Eunice?!”

An idea suddenly flashed in Harmony's mind, or to be precise, it came to Felicia. That crazy lady said that his body was made out of the earth. He was no longer a flesh and blood human being. She shifted her gaze to her own weapon, and suddenly remembered when Vault was captured by the undead flaming knights. She smiled and braced herself for the incoming attack.

Sharp pain shot through her entire party's bodies. Everyone had been injured, but they were still receiving some regenerative healing effects from the potions they'd all taken. It didn't nullify everything they had just experienced, but it did prevent them from being in the immediate danger zone in regards to their hp.

She ordered all of her party members to destroy the rocky structure holding Vault captive. He used his turn to try and craft his way out, but it said it would take another turn. It wasn't really too relevant, since after being attacked by the remaining three members of the party, it broke. It seemed that the amount of damage lessened the total number of turns needed to craft. “Vault, I know how we're going to end this battle. Remember what you did with the Burning Haunted Knight?”

Right after the words left her lips, he turned his gaze towards the weeping humanoid body dangling from the wall. Vault’s eyes widened and a grin spread across his face. Harmony could hear Eunice advising her in her head. “<As I said before…You have found a solution to pull through. We can save this victim of reincarnation.>”

A cocky grin spread across Harmony’s face. “Yeah, the real challenge is can we pull this off?”

Gray Dungeon grabbed a chunk of dirt, and threw it at them while continuing to sob. He completely missed all of them. “I just want to go home! I just want to go home!”

His voice sounded so broken and desperate. It was full of rage and sadness at the beginning of this battle. Now he was just reduced to this poor state. She couldn't stand to see him like this.

She also couldn't stand the fact that the minor deity was the one who pushed him this far. She still felt responsible for what happened to him, but she knew blaming herself alone would not make things better.

Valt took out a shield that belonged to the Burning Haunted Knight that he slayed. The little flames it radiated were needed for his next move. He charged at the personification of the weeping dungeon, and slammed the shield against him. Not to deal damage, but to use its flames to begin the building process. He activated his crafting skill the moment he made contact.

Blue flames erupted out of it and smothered the boy. He let out a cry as his body developed cracks when the flames died out. A turn counter notification appeared.

“In order to craft this item, the skill must be used nine more times.”

Harmony cursed under her breath. This would take a while and she wasn't sure if they would be able to hold out for that long. They already used up so many potions and we're starting to run out.