"Reconnaissance reporting. The Outer God's Projection has presently fallen as far as the ninth floor, has succeeded in eliminating the Apostle, and is ascending from the eighth floor."
Hearing the report, I was a little relieved.
Twelve hours had passed since the fall and it was still on the eighth floor, which meant there was still a fair amount of time.
"We have about twenty hours."
Archibald's calculation was precise.
This old man is no ordinary doctor. He has considerable field seasoning.
"That should be plenty to treat the wounded and reorganize."
"Fortunate amid misfortune. Had we gone straight into battle we would not have escaped annihilation."
He turned to the scout and asked, to confirm.
"Is it certain the Projection was attacked by the Apostle on the seventh floor?"
"It is."
"So not subjugating the Apostle was a fine move. However lacking in intelligence, to think it would bite its own master."
"Ah, surely not?"
The scout turned to me with his eyes wide.
"Commander, did you foresee even this far?"
"Huh?"
Did I know the Outer God would crawl up from below and clash with the Apostle?
As if.
"How many moves ahead did you read...... Remarkable."
"Uh, well."
"Honestly, when Her Highness appointed you commander I was of two minds. In terms of organization there are cases where the medical corps takes temporary operational command, but never one where full authority is handed over."
Having said that much, the knight seemed to realize his blunder and bowed his head to Archibald.
"Ah! My apologies. The Grand Physician was supreme commander of the war against the Outer Gods."
"I held it only briefly in the early stage of the war. There is no offense. An old commander like me commands by the textbook. I merely draw up an organization that minimizes losses."
He turned to me and added.
"To convert loss itself into a greater gain by setting one enemy against another. Only young geniuses can have such impudent ideas."
"Oho, as expected......"
The attention was uncomfortable.
"So then, Commander Grimwald. How do you intend to conduct the final battle with the Outer God?"
"First, the location is fixed here."
We had come down into the sixth floor's cavity.
Whooooo......
The sound of wind echoed up from the enormous pit beneath our feet.
"Cliff terrain. If the Outer God appears from down there we certainly gain the advantage of high ground and can encircle it. A good position for over a hundred knights to attack simultaneously."
"So you remembered terrain like this."
Archibald and the scout nodded in understanding, impressed.
"But there is one problem. The fact that we do not know whether the Projection will obligingly appear at this spot."
"That is right. There is every possibility it will veer off along another route."
"How do you intend to induce it to fight?"
I pointed down into the pit and answered.
"We will have to lay bait."
"Bait?"
"We put the food the Outer God would like most down there and wait."
"Is there such a thing? An Outer God does not seem likely to move like a creature of this continent, let alone follow a behavior pattern."
"There is."
There was certain bait.
"Me."
"What did you just say?"
Archibald turned grave at the unexpected answer.
"Do you mean to volunteer yourself as bait? For you, who are not even an aura user, that is far too dangerous a gamble."
"Even an aura user gets eroded in a single stroke if the thing devours them, so it is the same either way."
"I heard that at first contact you were attacked and not eroded. To me that can only seem like a fluke."
"If it crushes me I will be a pancake, so Erosion will not be the problem."
"Then why."
I had a conviction.
"The Outer God is looking for a host. It is certain to target me. Perhaps the very reason it is climbing back up now is that it is looking for me."
"A host. You mean there is a priority order among Erosion targets."
"That is right. If we can just drag it here the odds are sufficient."
"Hmm."
Archibald's attitude was distinctly reluctant.
"You are the commander, so I will leave the judgment to you. I am drawing up the formation. Go and rest a while."
"Thank you."
There was one thing I had to take care of.
I left it to Archibald and went off.
"Young Master! I heard. You volunteered to play bait in the next operation? Are you in your right mind?"
When I returned to the medical corps Hammer kicked up a circus.
"I have no intention of throwing my life away either. More importantly, come help me right now."
"Hah, Young Master, you truly are...... Understood."
She grumbles but she listens well enough.
Hammer prepared the materials.
I ran my eyes over the status window.
[Erosion Activity Suppressant]
[Blood of ■■■ + benzylpenicillin]
[Suppresses the spread of curse Erosion in an infected body. The effect lasts ten minutes.]
A status window kindly telling me the formula.
I do not know why this appeared.
Between this and Diagnose to begin with, Boons keep appearing and I cannot make out the conditions at all.
Whatever it is, I should use it.
'Antibiotics work by killing bacteria to prevent additional infection. If that can be applied to curse Erosion as well, it is absurd.'
It does not say it suppresses symptoms.
I guessed the mechanism was to reduce the Erosion's activity.
The duration is short too. It would not be a matter of dosage.
Which shows how troublesome a pathogen the Outer Gods' Erosion is.
'Having this now will be a hidden card.'
The subject of administration was decided, obviously.
"Potion brewing."
I drew a magic circle on the ground.
Two circles flashing with my mana.
I have used it so often it is second nature now.
"Target, Erosion Activity Suppressant."
For some reason the formula I must write and the figures to fill in rise in my head.
My hands complete the circle on their own.
"I have thought this for a while, but your spell formulae really are unusual, Young Master. There are not many people who brew potions to begin with, but the formulae are different from ordinary treatment spells."
Normally a healing spell would be something easily recognizable from fantasy, like a heal.
I had heard that long before I was born, every healing spell stopped working and they disappeared.
Now the name has changed to treatment spells. The concept is an auxiliary device doctors use when treating.
The Tower of Special Medicine Physicians used them quite a bit during treatment too.
Having anything like a cardiac monitor is something.
That device that goes beep, beep and tells you the patient's heartbeat during surgery.
"Penicillin. One hundred milliliters."
"Yes, sir."
The dosage needs fine adjustment to get right.
Hammer poured the exact amount into a flask and set it on the spell circle.
"Next is......"
[Materials - benzylpenicillin + blood of ■■■]
I do not know what these broken letters mean, but since it opened when I saw my own blood.
The answer is obvious.
"Young Master?!"
I lightly cut my arm with a dagger.
Ow, that stings.
I had put on airs for nothing.
Drip, drip. Fresh blood fell into the flask one drop at a time.
I watched the status window and adjusted the amount appropriately.
Little by little the magic circle filled with light.
"This is taking a while."
"It will take six hours. Shall I bring you some jerky?"
"Yeah. Bread and water too. Ah, do we have a blanket? A campfire would be nice as well."
"Why not just move house here."
Hammer grumbled but brought everything I needed.
Dozing off and waking, I stared in boredom at the liquid inside the flask spinning around like it had been put in a centrifuge.
And at the end of it.
Whoosh!
The casting completed.
A vivid red, transparent liquid was finished.
"Done."
I carefully put it in my inner pocket and stood.
***
"Thirty minutes until combat is scheduled to begin!"
"All hands, maintain your positions! Third Platoon! Scatter further to the left!"
The knights formed up busily around the enormous pit.
They took their places per the organization and drew their weapons.
As though the encounter with the Outer God was not far off, the rumbling vibration under our feet grew steadily stronger.
"That is dangerous, is it not."
"Is he really going to do it......?"
The knights' eyes turned to the man standing tall in the middle of the pit.
Commander Dunker Grimwald.
The fact that he had volunteered as the bait to lure the Outer God was more than enough to put the knights on edge.
A commander's role is to devise strategy and handle organization. He is supposed to survive until the unit is annihilated.
"This is on a different level from the Outer Gods we have faced until now. It is necessary to raise the odds even a little."
"Even so, to invite danger upon himself."
"I thought he was only good at treating people, but his nerve is remarkable too."
"Look at his bearing. He stands at the front and does not so much as twitch."
The knights pointed at Dunker.
In an extreme situation where he might be devoured by an Outer God at any moment, he showed not the slightest sign of tension.
Except that was only because they were looking from a distance; in reality Dunker was beyond frightened, completely frozen.
'How did I end up volunteering myself.'
Should I not have put Schnellia out there?
Too late for regrets now.
"Enough chatter. There is no telling when combat will begin."
The knights readjusted their grips on their weapons.
Each completed every preparation to accelerate his heart at any moment.
......Rumble, rumble!
The vibration grew steadily stronger.
"Approaching from three hundred meters below!"
The detection soldier's aura surged.
Hearing the shout, Charlotte wrapped an arm around Dunker's waist.
"Young Master, prepare yourself."
"Save me."
Dunker did nothing but sweat profusely.
Thud, thud, thud!
And then at last, without warning.
—CRAAASH!!
The ground he was standing on shattered apart and an aberration came surging up.
"Now!"
"Pull!"
The knights on the high ground hauled up the rope. Like a pulley, Dunker and Charlotte, who was holding him protectively, shot up into the air.
"Bleugh."
Dunker's vision went black at the sudden acceleration.
"Faster!"
"It is catching up!"
The mass of tentacles that had dug up from below chased Dunker's feet.
The moment they grazed his shoes by a hair.
"North Wind!"
Shwak! The blade of wind Charlotte swung blocked the aberration's attack.
Dunker barely landed on solid ground.
"Haah, haah."
"Get up, Young Master. You have to command."
—KRUMBLE!!
With no time to catch his breath, acrid dust swept over them.
A wave of tentacles filling the pit.
Paradoxically, each one shone black.
"Those are not tentacles, that is an insect's body!"
"It absorbed the Apostle too!"
"Commence the attack!!"
More than a hundred knights began the battle in unison.
They drove in spears. Fwak, clang! They cut, tore and smashed the tentacles. Attacks that got through the gaps were blocked by thick adamantium shields.
"Cut and cut and there is no end to it."
"Is it regenerating?!"
"Raise your aura output. Burn it away!"
Even under a surprise attack from all sides, the Outer God was not the least bit flustered.
No, it is a being one must not try to understand by assigning it emotions in the first place.
Bulging, dozens of eyes protruded from its head and turned toward one place.
That gaze was unmistakably looking at Dunker.
"That is rather enthusiastic attention."
"Stand aside, Dunker."
A pure white uniform blocked his way.
Black hair falling past the waist swayed.
"Form, True Name Release."
—FWOOSH!
Aura of Radiance surged in Schnellia's eyes.
"White Night......!"
An overwhelming explosion of light was loosed.
Fssht! The cluster of light driving straight at the head struck the Outer God's eyes like a keen blade.
—Ssssss.
But the Outer God did not stay still either. Curse ran from those eyes like tears and, with a shuddering burst.
Black smoke spread and swallowed the oncoming light.
"It did not reach the brainstem."
Tch. Schnellia clicked her tongue.
"The thing is too large, far too large. The knight order can only hold it here. The upper portion where the eyes emerged is certainly the head where the brainstem is. We must pierce there to bring it down."
Schnellia fell into deliberation.
Thanks to Dunker's strategy they could at least aim at the head horizontally.
But even so the distance was too great. Because the Outer God was colossal.
"Hold! Block it! Raise your shie—— aaagh!"
"Khaaagh!"
"Contaminated case! Requesting support!"
Already, on all sides, knights were being run through by tentacles and falling, sinking into swamps of curse, and even degrading into minions.
The longer the fight dragged, the closer defeat came. It was clear that she alone had the aura output to pierce the thing in one stroke here.
'But I cannot leap into it either.'
Its body is not a physical body you can tread on or leap from.
It is a mass of curse in itself. Set a foot in and you would sink like into a swamp and certainly be eroded.
'Must I use it?'
Schnellia steadied her breathing.
She concentrated her mind.
Six and a half rings hung upon her heart.
Five of them rotated fiercely and detonated her aura.
But at the same time.
"Kh......!"
A tremendous headache struck Schnellia's head.
"Haah, haah."
She looked at her own face reflected in the blade.
One eye was turning red, veins standing out in it.
'As I thought, the more aura I use the deeper the Erosion burrows into me.'
Schnellia bit her lip.
Just as she could neither advance nor retreat and could not reach a decision.
"Your Highness."
"Dunker? It is dangerous. Command from the rear."
"I will borrow your neck for a moment."
With those words, without permission, he abruptly seized the back of Schnellia's neck.
At the thin fingers parting her hair and digging in, she hunched her shoulders for an instant.
"You, what do you think you are——!"
A stinging sensation lasted only a moment.
"Done."
Dunker drew away from her.
A flask in his hand.
He had injected her with something.
"Try it again."
"Again......?"
She saw Dunker lifting the corner of his mouth strangely.
The expression of someone who cannot stand not knowing.
"......Hup."
Once more.
Schnellia concentrated.
......Whff.
Unlike a moment ago when the rings had run wild unstably, her heart rotated steadily, as though oil had been put in an engine.
'This is......?'
In all her life of using aura.
It was the first sense of stability she had felt.
Like the surface of a lake with not a breath of wind on it.
Clenching.
She gripped the sword once more.
"I command the authority of Radiance dwelling in this one."
Not by detonation, but by restraint.
"True Form."
She declares.
"White Night in Full Bloom."