345 Part 2

“So that’s what you meant by three people!”

As the enlarged Syrup could not move inside of the forest, she had to repeatedly take the throne out and put it away last time, which meant she couldn’t move and instead had to wait until she could use the skill again. However, if she left the exorcising to Mai and Yui, Maple could focus on creating this advantageous field over them from above. This would make things so much faster.

“I’ll be flying just above the trees, so tell me when you start moving!”

“Okay!”

“Okay!”

“Alright! Then let’s begin!”

They all had their roles now. And since they had more people than last time, things went very smoothly. While Maple’s ‘evil attribute sealing’ field was large, Mai and Yui had plenty of mobility with their tamed monsters, and so they were able to move around swiftly as they exorcised.

After they had moved around the mountain like this for some time, the blue ghost that Maple had talked about suddenly appeared in front of them.

“Sister. Is that it?”

“Yes… Let’s ask Maple, just to be sure.”

The two called towards Maple, and after she made sure that there were no other ghosts nearby, she got up from her throne and jumped off of Syrup.

“Oomph! Uh, so where is it?”

“Over there!”

“Yes! That should be it! Now we just have to follow!”

As Maple knew that there would be a fight soon enough, she kept Syrup flying in the air as she rode on the back of Yukimi. And like that, they followed after the blue ghost.

They arrived at the cross at the top of the mountain, just like the previous time, and then they made some preparations and waited for the event.

“Wha?!”

“Wha?!’

“Here it comes!”

As the three stood in front of the cross, hands started to stretch out from the ground. And the three were dragged into complete darkness.

Like this, the three were forcefully thrown into a combat arena. And a large red ghost appeared in front of them. It was the same one that Maple had met during her time on the 6th layer. It’s torso was coming out of a dark crack in space, and it had long, dangling arms.

“It was pretty difficult on my own, but…it should be fine with you two! ‘Inspire’! Syrup, ‘Red Garden’!”

Maple got onto Syrup and rushed back to the throne. There, she sealed the enemy’s skills and raised the damage that Mai and Yui would inflict. Like this, she waited while perfectly prepared.

“‘Destroy Mode’!”

“‘Destroy Mode’!”

As they had known that a battle awaited them, Mai and Yui had used a great amount of ‘Doping Seeds’ before entering the area, and so their STR was now raised to the limit. They activated one last skill as a finishing touch, and then used a fire attribute item to make their great hammers burn as the boss slowly moved towards them.

“Do it!”

“‘Double Impact’!”

“‘Double Impact’!”

As the two arms stretched out, their burning great hammers slammed into them. There was an incredible explosion of damage effects. It was as if the red ghost’s body had been torn apart.

It was evident that this monster had low HP, because Maple had killed it with tags and salt. So, what would happen when these two tackled it at full power?

As if to overwrite the damage effects, the boss that had once tormented Maple turned into light and vanished in an instant.

“Woah! That was amazing, Mai and Yui!”

“It went pretty well!”

“Yes… I’m relieved!”

As the three celebrated, a single magic circle appeared before them.

“Huh?”

“What is it?”

“Hmm. Last time, the place turned white…and that’s how I got the pendant…”

And so they would not be able to acquire the accessory they had come for. Maple thought back on what they might have done differently this time.

“Uhh… Last time, I was alone, so the battle was very long. I ended up using a lot of skills…and tags…”

“Maybe that’s it? Perhaps there are requirements in how you defeat the boss!”

They had used many tags to exorcise the ghosts on their way here. So perhaps you had to defeat the boss in the same way.

“I see! That could be it!”

“So that means…we have to leave just enough HP so that we can kill it with the tags…”

“Ohh… I hope it only takes one try.”

This time, they had used all of their power and turned the boss into dust in one hit. So now they would have to make adjustments so that it would have some HP left. This was a problem that could only arise with these two, and it was a rather difficult one.

It was hard to keep track of the other’s position once the boss was allowed to change its pattern. Besides, the boss had attacks that were effective against Maple, so it was possible that it could take them down with a surprise attack. If they wanted to win, it had to be done quickly.

“Yes! We can just keep trying! It doesn’t matter if we accidentally kill it, as long as we are safe.”

“Yes!”

“Yes!”

And so the three of them relied on trial and error as they adjusted their attacks in order to allow the boss to have a little HP remaining.

They challenged the boss over and over again, slowly adjusting their buffs until they had the right attack power. And they finally succeeded in hitting the boss without killing it.

“Now you can do it!”

“Yes!”

“Yes!”

Mai and Yui began to quickly paste the tags on the boss before it could move to its next action. And like that, the boss’s HP went down to 0 and it vanished. As this was the first time things had gone according to their expectations, they then waited with excitement to see what would happen next. The black space they were in began to crumble, and they came out into a pure white area, just like Maple had said.