Dungeon World War

Kou’s dungeon was wrapped in quiet bluish-white light.

With thundering footsteps, Rāna and Liricia ran down the passage and rushed into the hall where Kou was.

With a desperate expression, Liricia pressed close to Kou. The hem of her white nun’s habit and her silver hair fluttered.

“Please tell me where Master went!”

“W-wait a minute, what happened?”

Kou asked while running bluish-white lines across his white spherical body.

Liricia placed a hand on her large chest and steadied her breathing as she said,

“Master was sent somewhere. Somewhere in this world, or perhaps another world. I want to go pick him up, right now!”

“Sent away? What kind of way? —Ah, Master certainly isn’t in this world.”

“Then where are you saying he was sent!”

Liricia pressed close to spherical Kou with enough force that she seemed about to grab him by the collar.

Kou made his spherical body flash brightly as he spoke as if admonishing her.

“No matter what, there isn’t enough information. I want you to tell me more details about when Master was sent away.”

“I-I’m sorry, Kou-chan. I was a little panicked.”

“Umm, a black cloud went poof-poof, and even when I hit it with a boom, I couldn’t get in.”

Rāna spread her small hands and flapped them as she explained, but it did not get the point across.

Unable to watch any longer, Liricia spoke up.

“It seemed some kind of magical something had been planted in the small box that contained the Jewel Orb. I believe the activation formula was called Dimension Gate.”

“Hmm. Not Evil Gate, which moves within this world, nor Teleport, but Dimension Gate. It seems he was sent to another world? The reason Rāna-san could not enter was also because it was not this world.”

“C-can he be saved!?”

“Hmm… if we know the coordinates. Rather, I have a bad feeling?”

“A bad feeling?”

“Apparently there is an army of shadow monsters inside the subspace. Master could annihilate them instantly, but that Master is missing. I do not understand the Holy Papal State’s objective?”

Liricia put a hand to her mouth and sank into thought.

“Come to think of it, the Pope said something strange. He said only his subordinate had acted on his own. The Pope was not thinking of doing anything to Fortis. He also said God was currently absent.”

“Then why Master? —Ah! Aaaaaah! No, surely not! But Luktia has a dungeon! In other words, the Pope-san is a dungeon master! God is absent! But it should still only be the third battle!? —Confirming with Rubel-san!”

Kou contacted Rubel while terribly panicked.

Seeing just how panicked Kou was, Liricia and Rāna stared at him and watched.

“Hello!”

“Kou? What is it?”

“Rubel-san! How many consecutive Dungeon World War victories does this world have!?”

“Six. The next one is the seventh.”

When Rubel finished speaking from the other side of the call, Kou shouted.

“We’ve done it now! I understand the whole aim completely! —Edgar-san, can you hear me!?”

“I can hear you.”

“Please defeat even a little bit of them! Otherwise the world will go kaboom!”

“Understood.”

The subspace.

There was an army of several hundred thousand dark monsters.

In the bushes nearby, Edgar moved the sub-device away from his ear. He was about to end the call, but put it into his pocket as it was.

Then he called out to the Demon King, who was also hiding in the bushes.

“Mao-san, there are just too many of them, so could you help me a little?”

“Hmph, nonsense. Well, with my power, their numbers mean nothing. But I have no reason to help, do I?”

“Apparently, if we don’t defeat them, the world will be destroyed.”

The Demon King twisted his face in annoyance and clicked his tongue.

“I do not care what happens to humans, but it would be troublesome if even my subordinates were affected. It cannot be helped.”

The Demon King stood up and casually thrust his hand forward. Black waves gathered at the tip of his hand.

Edgar also took out a kunai and readied it in one hand, then placed the fingers of his free hand beside his mouth.

“Fire Release—”

It happened then.

A hard sound echoed, like glass cracking with a snap.

When they looked, cracks had run everywhere inside the subspace.

“What—?”

The moment the Demon King flinched, there was a sound like shattering glass, and the subspace broke apart.

Black fragments vanished on the wind, and a clear blue sky spread overhead.

The surroundings were a peaceful rural landscape. Vegetables and wheat were growing lush and green.

Edgar hurriedly canceled his technique, then pleaded with the Demon King as well.

“Mao-san! Stop! There are farmers here!”

“Tch!”

The Demon King clicked his tongue and dispersed the magic power he had gathered.

Farmers who had been working in the fields screamed and fled after seeing several hundred thousand monsters suddenly appear.

And the beginning of the end began solemnly.

With a volume that seemed to shake the world, the sound of bells echoed. Galaaaan… Galaaaan…

Edgar looked around in puzzlement.

“What’s this bell sound?”

“Hmm? I hear nothing.”

“Only people connected to dungeons heard it? Don’t tell me, this is—”

From the sub-device in his pocket, Kou’s scream echoed.

“Aah! That’s unfair! That’s cowardly! The World War has started!”

As Kou’s scream rang out, several hundred thousand monsters scattered in all directions at once.

Kou’s dungeon.

The inside of the dungeon, which was usually filled with pure bluish-white light, was now flashing entirely with green light.

In the hall where Kou was, Liricia and Rāna were present. Liricia questioned Kou, who was panicking in confusion.

“What happened, Kou-chan!?”

“That’s unfair! That’s cowardly! That’s bug abuse! This world is finished! Uwaaaah!”

The elf girl Teti came running in with light footsteps.

“I thought I heard a bell, and then it suddenly started flashing green! What is this, Kou-chan?”

“The green flashing is a signal that reinforcements have arrived!”

“Oh, Rubel-san is sending reinforcements?”

“No! It’s the enemy! But they’re displayed as reinforcements!”

“What do you mean?”

“Kou-chan, please explain in detail.”

“Kyaa!”

Kou trembled his round body and spoke while on the verge of tears.

“During a Dungeon World War, dungeons in the same world are set so they cannot attack each other.”

“Well, I get that.”

“They temporarily become allies, then.”

“And because the several hundred thousand monsters were in this world before the World War started, they have been set as dungeon monsters of this world! —On the map I am seeing, several hundred thousand monsters are displayed, but all of them are shown as ‘green’! Since they have become allies, I cannot target them for attacks! And yet they can attack us! That’s unfair!”

“No way!”

“Then we’ll just get beaten one-sidedly!”

“Kyui? Rāna can’t attack either? —I’ll go try!”

The girl Rāna streamed her long white hair behind her and ran down the passage leading to the Forest Mansion.

Kou said in a depressed voice,

“We still have it better here. Rāna-san is the only monster born from our dungeon, after all. But other dungeons are different. They will be beaten to pieces while unable to do anything!”

“That is terrible…”

“So there was a method like that.”

Rāna soon came back.

She looked at her own little fist with her eyes wide and said,

“I couldn’t attack.”

“But that means Teti and I can attack. We have to protect everyone!”

“The Royal Capital should be all right, since the knights and adventurers are fighting? In the forest, Fenrir, White Fang, and the wolves are doing their best.”

“If only Master were here, we could defeat the shadow monsters without difficulty…”

Kou spoke with frustration seeping into his voice.

“Aah… if only Master were here… RTS, real-time strategy, really is a garbage game. Even if you work hard little by little, everything gets burned, and even if you spend millions to get stronger, everything gets burned while you sleep. It is the worst game, where you burn each other’s stacks of cash! It really is a hundred times more garbage than gacha games! Uwaaaah! Everything is over now, shutters closed, completely finished!”

Perhaps because Kou had overlapped the present situation with the past, he began sobbing loudly. Tears spilled from the surface of the orb.

Inside the dungeon flashing green, Kou’s crying voice continued to echo.