"!?!? W-W-What?! Something that fun happened while we were knocked out!?"
At Mimi-kun's inn in the town, Ritz heard my story and let out a wild shriek.
The dimly lit dining hall, illuminated by lamps, had the entire Mourning Specter assembled. It shouldn't have been long since they'd collapsed, but they all seemed to have fully recovered already.
Not just Ritz, but even Citry, Lucia, Anthem, and Tino — all of them listening to my story with perfectly normal expressions, not a trace of anything wrong.
"...To think they'd come all the way here... We've got real trouble on our hands... If only Big Sis had properly finished them off..."
"Yeah, I was surprised too. Even the Star's Holy Thunder was like 'nope, I'm out.'"
Luke's curse-breaking operation had been one surprise after another, in every sense of the word.
After confirming no one was there, they'd stormed the Treasure Hall, only for Phantoms to materialize right in front of them. When they tried to flee, the Demon Lords that Ritz and the others had driven off barged in and started an all-out war. It was complete chaos.
"That sounds terrible, Mastaa... So, um... who won?"
"Huh? I dipped out halfway through, so I have no idea."
"!?! Huh????"
"Hmm..."
Tino wore a shell-shocked expression, and Anthem let out a groan.
Still, the fact that Tino had recovered from the intoxication at the same time as everyone else was quietly impressive.
I really wished Tino could've experienced the atmosphere of that place. I truly had no idea what to do... Adler and the others were saying all sorts of things, but I couldn't understand a single word of it...
"Klein, next time I'm absolutely coming too!! The hangover's gone and I'm in peak condition!"
"The sensation of feeling great the day after being in such terrible shape... no matter how many times I experience it, I never get used to it."
Lucia let out a small sigh.
The benefits and drawbacks of Mana Material intoxication were two sides of the same coin. Overabsorbing Mana Material temporarily wrecked your body, but the whole point of Mana Material was that the more you absorbed, the stronger you became.
This time, every single one of our members — Anthem included — had collapsed from Mana Material intoxication. In other words, now that they'd recovered, their abilities had surpassed where they'd been before the collapse.
They were already strong to begin with — what would they become now? It was a little scary, but in the current situation, the more fighting power, the better.
"So... what do we do from here?"
"Hmm... for now, I guess we wait and see..."
What came next depended on the outcome of the battle between Adler and the Phantoms.
Whichever side won was going to be a headache, but there wasn't enough information to make the next move. I'd sent Elisa on a scouting mission, so we were waiting for her results.
Then, noticing Lucia had put on a slightly disgruntled expression, I added: "I know what level the Phantoms at the Source Temple are. To deal with those Phantoms — right. We're going to need some... unconventional methods."
The forces Adler had summoned from the spatial rift were clearly far beyond what bandits should have had. On top of that, if her words were true, the Adler army from that time had been even more powerful than the one that fought Ritz and the others.
And we'd fled pretty quickly so I didn't get all the details, but the Phantoms at the Source Temple definitely had power comparable to that Adler army.
Even for the brilliant Mourning Specter, taking them on head-on would be a tall order.
The Phantoms were enemies. And so was Adler. The two sides seemed to be at each other's throats right now, but my luck was truly terrible when it was bad — they could always team up and come after us.
Ideally, they'd have beaten each other to a standstill... but yeah, I couldn't really count on that.
At my wry smile, Tino's cheek twitched slightly as she murmured: "Wh-Well, Mastaa's idea of 'unconventional methods'..."
She didn't need to worry — I wasn't thinking of anything at all. The only thing on my mind was the single imperative to avoid direct conflict.
I'll say it again: our goal wasn't to savor a long-awaited ultra-high-difficulty Treasure Hall — it was to save Luke. For that, I'd become a demon or a devil. Well, if it looked impossible, running away was an option too.
As I steeled my resolve — no, softly steeled my resolve — Citry grasped my hand as if flattering me and asked in a sweet, whispering voice: "There's actually something I've been wanting to try too! You'll be staying in Yggdra for a while, right?"
"...Yeah, yeah, that's right."
Why were Citry's eyes sparkling like that in the middle of an emergency? Had she forgotten that Luke had turned to stone?
Try — try what? Well, being curious was a good thing, but was she really planning to run experiments in a situation like this?
I shrugged, looked around at everyone, and said: "For now, I have some ideas of my own, but if anyone comes up with something good, let me know. We're running short on time..."
Incidentally, what I was thinking was having Ritz sprint back to the Imperial Capital and bring Ark and the others.
The Imperial Capital was a fair distance away, and Ark was busy, so it was unclear whether he'd even be there.
It was a plan full of uncertainties, but our opponent was a god. All we could do was match a god with a god.
§ § § That night, Elisa returned from carefully scoping out the situation at the Treasure Hall, let out an exhausted sigh, and said: "Bottom line — infiltrating the Source Temple is no longer possible."
"What?! What do you mean?"
We'd already investigated the Treasure Hall multiple times before Luke's curse-breaking operation. But Elisa had never once flat-out declared it impossible to infiltrate.
For her — a former Solo Hunter who'd roamed danger zones everywhere — to say that meant something had happened. Something so threatening that even a professional danger detector had no choice but to say so— With a slightly reproachful tone, Elisa said to me: "...The Source Temple was on high alert. Because of the battle with the Thousand Demons' Night Parade. The Phantoms' presence was nothing compared to before — I couldn't even get close enough to see them."
"Oh... I see. So at an estimated Level 10 Treasure Hall, even the Phantoms are well-coordinated."
Ritz said with genuine admiration, while Tino fidgeted nervously, looking around.
It was a phenomenon that rarely occurred when dealing with Phantoms, even if it was common against humans and Monsters.
Phantoms were not living creatures. As recreations of the past, they had no purpose of species preservation, felt little fear of extinction, and since they weren't born from parents, they had almost no sense of belonging.
The reason Treasure Hunters could infiltrate Treasure Halls overrun with Phantoms was that they essentially operated individually. The one thing they all shared was hostility toward intruders, so highly intelligent Phantoms might occasionally band together, but that was usually just a handful to at most a few dozen — they'd never grow large enough to constitute an army.
"Hmm, those Phantoms weren't born one by one. They're a group that acts as one — far beyond mere coordination. They possess high intelligence and are clearly identifying us as enemies, lying in wait."
Come to think of it, she was right — those Phantoms had appeared all at once.
"What happened to Adler and the others?"
"I don't know. The only thing I know for certain is that the Phantoms at the Source Temple are drawing on the power of Mana Material and growing stronger by the day."
A professional danger detector. At Elisa's grave voice, Lucia gasped and Ritz whistled.
The fact that Adler and the others were gone meant the Phantoms had won that battle.
If they'd been humans, maybe we could've negotiated. But the troublesome ones had survived.
"...What if Lucia just bombarded them with magic from afar, like she usually does?"
"Huh!?"
"No! The Phantoms haven't left the Treasure Hall yet. If we provoke them from outside and they advance outward, Yggdra will be in danger."
Lucia let out a startled yelp, and Elisa immediately shot down my idea.
It was just a joke... well, it wasn't like the thought hadn't crossed my mind.
But seriously, this was a problem. If we couldn't even get close enough to see the place, forget about breaking Luke's curse. The curse-breaking apparently didn't take that long, but there was no way we could protect someone during it.
Was there some good method out there... If I could just get close enough to borrow the power of the World Tree, that would be enough— And right then, I came up with a brilliant idea and snapped my fingers.
"...I've got it! Why don't we dig a hole?"
"That's right! Let's dig a hole!"
Citry eagerly agreed with my words.
It was a change in perspective. There was no need to naively try to slip past the Phantoms' guard and approach the World Tree.
What we needed was the power the World Tree emitted. If we dug a tunnel underground to get close, nobody would notice. Digging a tunnel was hard labor, but it was far better than facing an army of coordinated Phantoms. It wouldn't work for conquering the Treasure Hall, but for just the curse-breaking, it should be enough... in theory.
I dubbed it the "Sneak Up Quietly, Break the Curse in Silence, and Get Out Fast" operation.
But to think that I — the brain of the Mourning Specter, Citry — had reached the same conclusion... Was I a strategic genius today?
It was a simple plan, and precisely because of that, it had been outside the realm of consideration. Elisa and the others stared at me with wide eyes as I flashed a hard-boiled grin, alongside the inexplicably beaming Citry.
They still hadn't caught on even though I'd given them such a huge hint about digging... Well, the Mourning Specter had almost always cut their path through with straightforward methods, so I supposed it couldn't be helped.
I snapped my fingers and prompted Citry.
"Citry, why don't you explain?"
Citry nodded enthusiastically and, with a confident grin unlike anything I'd seen before, said: "Yes! What Klein is trying to say is — if the Phantoms are too much to handle, then we just need to weaken the Treasure Hall itself! The research I was doing until recently at a certain institution will come in handy!"
Huh? That didn't quite sound like what I had in mind...
"!?! ...Weaken the Treasure Hall? How, exactly?"
To Lucia's skeptical question, Citry squirmed happily, her cheeks flushing.
"Yes! We'll dig a hole and bury a device that interferes with the Mana Material flowing through the Ley Lines. No need to get close to the Source Temple — it's completely safe! Right, Klein!?"
"...Uh, yeah."
Completely safe... Not quite what I had in mind, but whatever — close enough.