Chapter 75: Cross Castle

Despite being trapped inside Nagano's barrier, Suzuki continued to glare at her with a defiant grin on his face. He raised his spear to point its tip at her.

"If I don't try, how would I know?"

"Why?" Nagano responded. "Everyone here has proper business to attend to."

"To me, fighting is the proper business."

Instead of feeling ashamed of his actions, Suzuki was grinning shamelessly and widely, his eyes crazed and filled with bloodlust.

"Since it is so…"

Nagano considered his words seriously as she held his gaze calmly.

"How about a chance to fight against the leader of the Iron Knights?"

At her question, Suzuki's expression changed completely.

Takeda Tetsuo…

His eyes wide, Suzuki contemplated Nagano's offer, feeling excitement surge in his chest when he thought about the formidable leader of the Iron Knights and the reputation he had, as well as the fact that he was supposedly over level 1,000.

"Kekeke."

Chuckling, Suzuki dismissed his Thousand Lightning Divine Spears with a single wave of his hand and lowered his spear. The golden lightning dissipated from his primary weapon, allowing it to turn back into a normal spear.

"Ability release…"

With his air of hostility gone, Nagano descended and hopped off her floating cuboid stage to approach Suzuki, who was still trapped behind her barrier. Stopping right in front of Suzuki, with the yellow screen still between them, she nodded in approval.

"Seems like you think things through."

"To fight against Takeda Tetsuo…I can't think of anything better."

Suzuki smirked in excitement, already lost in thought as he waited in anticipation.

Nagano swung her hand and brought the hovering cube-barriers that imprisoned her comrades back down on the ground, yellow mana swirling around her arm.

"Open."

At her command, the barriers began to crack. Aoyama, Makoto, Sanada, Nishida and Hoshizaki waited patiently as their barriers began to crumble and shatter. As the barrier that imprisoned him completely broke apart, Suzuki strode out of the falling yellow fragments of energy, swiping them away with his spear.

He stopped beside me cockily and glanced in my direction.

"Though I really want to fight against you."

I swallowed, not exactly wanting to go against someone of Suzuki's caliber. Just to match him was already hard enough, especially with my current abilities. It wasn't that I wasn't confident of beating him, but the amount of effort needed would be tremendous, especially if he wasn't on my hit-list or obsessed with killing me for no reason like Minamoto and the rest. He did try to kill me, but he seemed the type to try and kill everybody.

And somehow I intuitively knew that he wouldn't bother to kill me if he had defeated me. He wasn't a murderer but just some crazed maniac who was fanatical over fighting and defeating strong opponents.

Already, Suzuki had directed his gaze away from me to stare in the direction of Cross Castle, his mind distant.

"I am even more excited to fight against Takeda Tetsuo. I am very curious to see just how strong he is."

With his gaze riveted on Cross Castle, Suzuki impatiently took a step forward.

"Let's go…let's enter Cross Castle."

We traversed the last distance in the valley and approached the massive doors that served as an entrance to the formidable-looking fortress.

"We're here!"

Nagano looked pretty happy and jubilant upon returning to Cross Castle. Right, she was stuck in Havia for quite a while before we returned here by airship.

"Everyone, please enter." She picked up her smartphone and made a call. "Domon-kun? Yeah, it's me. You can open the gate."

An ominous creak resounded throughout the valley as Domon Daisuke complied. Inside Cross Castle, a gigantic purple key twisted, groaning as it unlocked the massive lock that kept the doors sealed against the outside world.

Domon stood a few meters away from the heavily armored gates, raising his glowing hand that swirled with purple mana and manipulating the intangible key that was made entirely from mana, bending it to his will.

"Oh?"

Yonebashi Kyouko leaned against the wall and watched Domon at work, her arms folded.

"Everyone's here?"

Domon nodded and turned around, even as we entered Cross Castle through the main gate. Everyone assembled behind the chubby figure of Domon, and I faintly recalled how he used to be the bully victim before Kobayashi shifted his attention to me.

That happened all because I stood up for Domon and tried to stop Kobayashi and his cronies from bullying him, and obviously Kobayashi didn't take my refusal to be intimidated by him or to obey him too kindly.

"Yes, it has been a while since we've had so many guests."

As Nagano walked past Yonebashi, the latter leaned in to whisper to her.

"So you brought Tanaka along, huh? Can we trust him?"

"I fought beside him against the ancient dragon and we saved Princess Merly together. I can vouch for his character, if required. Even if his motives don't align with ours, he is definitely not someone shady or evil."

"Not like Kobayashi-kun, huh?"

"He's a much better company than Suzuki-kun, that's for sure."

Girls…you do realize we can hear you, right?

Escorted between Sanada and Makoto, I followed Nagano and Yonebashi's lead deeper into the castle. It wasn't that they were wary of me, but they were deliberately putting themselves between me and Suzuki to prevent the volatile delinquent leader from changing his mind and suddenly challenging me again.

The castle wasn't exactly built for indoor fighting, after all.

After traversing through the long corridors and vast halls, Yonebashi suddenly turned around and called out in a cheerful voice.

"We're here!"

I looked up and saw what looked like an immense portal that stretched across a single wall. Nagano walked through the portal and we followed, only to find ourselves in another part of the castle, a grand interior hall with a red carpet and dramatic-looking torches that burned ominously. The lush, red carpet ended in a huge door at the opposite end of the grand hall.

"This is the grand hall! Our leader is behind those doors!"

I glanced around the runic symbols carved into the vast, luxuriously looking grand hall for a few moments before fixing my gaze on the large door opposite me. There were two crosses inscribed into the metallic surface of the door, a smaller one in the middle of the bigger one. No wonder they called this place Cross Castle.

I wouldn't want to cross this castle.

In front of the doors, one last figure awaited. It was a blond guy wearing a hoodie. The last Iron Knight, Gendou Issei stuck one hand inside a pocket as he regarded me.

"Tanaka-kun, it's been a while."

"Gendou-kun. Good to see you too."

Not exactly, but I was just being polite. Just like all the others, Gendou didn't do anything but stand by and watch when I was being bullied. He didn't bully me either, and he showed no signs that he was obsessed with killing me over the most absurd of reasons, so I saw little point in antagonizing him when there wasn't a need to.

He spread his hands, as if to welcome me.

"The eight people in front of you…"

Nagano Nanaka. Gendou Issei. Yonebashi Kyouko. Domon Daisuke. Shidou Makoto. Sanada Hiroyuki. Aoyama Aoi. Hoshizaki Kozue.

"…are the 8 guardians of Iron Knights."

"Uh, what exactly are you guarding?"

"That's…" Gendou stuttered for a moment. He obviously didn't know.

"Our leader, I guess?" Nagano supplied helpfully. Gendou nodded fervently.

"Yeah, that's right! We're guarding Takeda-kun!"

I was pretty sure Takeda was stronger than the 8 guardians of Iron Knights, and he didn't need them to protect him, but…whatever. With a sigh, I decided to use this opportunity to cast Absolute Appraisal and check the special abilities of the remaining eight guardians. I had already seen Hoshizaki's, Aoyama's, Nagano's, Sanada's and Makoto's, but there were three left that I hadn't appraised.

Name: Domon Daisuke

Species: Human

Job/Rank: Guardian/Hero

Special Abilities: Arcane Herbology, Agricultural Assault

Name: Gendou Issei

Species: Human

Job/Rank: War Warden/Hero

Special Abilities: Spatial Manipulation, Void Chains

Name: Yonebashi Kyouko

Species: Human

Job/Rank: Illusionist/Hero

Special Abilities: Mystic Illusion, Demonic Fear

Those seemed like quite the formidable abilities. Just as with the ones I already knew, I could tell that they were impressive. Before I could explore the possibilities in detail, however, Suzuki rudely cut into my thoughts.

"Everyone…stop with the lame self-introductions."

Flanked by Ooyama Eiji and Nishida Kensuke, Suzuki Shirou arrogantly strode forward with his spear in hand.

"I don't have any interest in any of you."

Uwah…this guy was downright condescending. I couldn't believe his attitude toward former classmates. He really was a delinquent.

"Can you bring Takeda Tetsuo out to fight me already?"

The guy made an outrageous request in a flippant manner. Even Nishida looked appalled at his leader's audacity.

Meanwhile, inside the eerie chamber that was behind those close doors, Takeda Tetsuo awaited, seated in front of an altar.

"Come."

Without standing up, he glanced over his shoulder to stare past the doors that stood between him and the rest of us.

"Tanaka Tomoyuki…"

His muscular figure was clad in armor, which was marked with runic crosses. Placing his gauntleted hands on his armored thighs, Takeda mused to himself – his head being the only exposed part of his fully armored body.

"We need to have a long chat regarding the fate of Restia…"

Why so dramatic, dude?

As for me, I remained behind the closed doors and continued to use Absolute Appraisal not just on the eight Iron Knights but on the castle.

Wow, Absolute Appraisal also allows me to see the structure of this fortress as well…the ability has finally leveled up enough for me to use it in such a manner.

All the information was fed into my lenses, which projected and mapped the data in the form of a 3D holographic image visible only to me.

I can see everything very clearly…

Unfortunately, it wasn't "everything."

But it's all blurry behind this door…

Beads of perspiration trickled down my face as I attempted to analyze the chamber beyond the door with Absolute Appraisal, but the only information I could get was Takeda being dramatic and telling me to "come". Actually, I was surprised I could even hear him saying all those cheesy lines. He probably didn't intend for me to eavesdrop.

The most I can make out is a human figure near a blue flame…

The blue flame was indecipherable, an anomaly so vast that it couldn't be analyzed and converted into data by Absolute Appraisal. If Timothy Morton was here, he would have called it a hyperobject.

That person must be Takeda Tetsuo…

Well, who else could it be? Kobayashi Kenji? Nah, the creator who planned this story surely wouldn't pull such a lame twist, would he?

"Hehehe."

Beside me, Suzuki chuckled as he stepped forward, approaching the door excitedly. Like me, he sensed the immense power locked behind the door.

"Takeda Tetsuo is really here…"

Duh. Why would Nagano lie to you? Oh wait…because you are crazy. That so justified people lying to you.

Suzuki banged his hand against the door impatiently as he turned to grin at Nagano and the rest of the Iron Knights.

"Yeah," Nagano confirmed. "Our leader has agreed to fight you…"

Beside her, Yonebashi smirked while Sanada maintained a calm façade at the back. I stepped back, maintaining my distance from the door.

"Really? That's great!"

Suzuki grinned as he tried to push the door open.

"I think it's better for you to give up," Yonebashi warned as she placed a hand on Suzuki's shoulder and lowered her ruby sunglasses with the other. Suzuki glared at her from the corner of his eye, then slowly turned to confront her.

"You're joking, right?" he sneered, his eyes narrowed. "How can I let this chance slip by?"

Even as he continued pushing against the door with his left hand, the huge door automatically opened by itself. A wisp of smoke trailed out ominously from the tiny gap, wafting into the grand hall like some sort of serpent.

"Eh?!"

Suzuki froze when he caught sight of the smoke, his eyes going wide.

The door opened further, revealing a bright light from within, and the smoke took on a more energy-like form as it seeped and snaked out of the chamber, almost as if it was taking on a life of its own.

Suzuki instinctively withdrew his hand, even as strands of purple energy shocked his fingers, casting an eerie glow on him.

This is!?

He inadvertently clenched his teeth as he stared at the indecipherable bright light that glowed within the chamber.

Why? Even though I'm standing so close to the entrance…

With Absolute Appraisal, it was easy to tell what Suzuki was thinking. I could simply guess his thoughts just from reading the expression on his face, which was one of abject terror. Suzuki had frozen in place, his legs trembling violently. His hand was still outstretched toward the door, as if he was unable to lower it.

…I'm unable to take another step forward?

Even without my Absolute Appraisal and privilege as the first person protagonist, both Ooyama and Nishida noticed that there was something strange about their leader.

Strange…there's something different about the boss.

Suzuki was less cocky than before, that much was for sure. But it wasn't just his loss of confidence. The usually swaggering, bloodthirsty battle maniac looked terrified for the first time ever, to the point he couldn't move.

It looks like there is a deep ocean in front of me…

Suzuki swallowed as he stared at the swirling blue abyss before him.

No, there was no blue abyss before him. It was merely an image that was conjured by his terror-stricken mind.

…warning me not to take another step further.

The blue whirlpool that his imagination visualized swirled violently before him, a threatening, ominous vortex that beckoned for him to sink and get lost within its endless depths…an abyss that he would never be able to climb out of for eternity.

Perspiration was pouring down Suzuki's face as he stood frozen before the door, his limbs locked and immobilized, yet somehow trembling agitatedly. He stared at the door, his eyes riveted on it, as if he was staring at the blood-red kanji for death.

It's my first time feeling this sort of sensation…could this be the fear that seeps into your bones?

He gritted his teeth as he perspired profusely, but his body refused to obey him, even as the purple mana drifted about him.

Am I going to lose like this? The thing behind the door…is it even human? It feels like that…thing is going to swallow me whole…

Seeing their leader's hesitation, Ooyama and Nishida had two very different reactions.

"Boss…kill him!" Ooyama bellowed, trying to encourage Suzuki. Waving his hands frantically, he spurred Suzuki on to the best of his ability. "Boss!! You can do it!"

On the other hand, Nishida was a lot more cautious.

"Boss…I know, you're not feeling well! Let's come back another day, all right? There will be more chances in the future!"

"What kind of joke is this?" Suzuki growled, gnashing his teeth in frustration. "How can I stop here?!"

"Ah!"

Bathed in the purple energy, Takeda Tetsuo turned around to glance at his guests with a smile.

"Eh?!"

Suzuki was taken aback when a spurt of purple mana erupted from the slightly ajar door, dancing in his face, and then suddenly a cloud of ominous energy washed over him, along with creepy purple things that looked like clawed, spider-like legs that stretched threateningly out of the door to ensnare the guests in the grand room…