Early TNG Vol. 22 Chapter 4 Part 3

Full title: THE NEW GATE

Note: If you found any typos/mistakes, pls write them in the comment. Thanks.

Translator: Canon

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It had been another hour since Sety and Tiera went off to intercept the enemy’s detached force.

The tide of battle was gradually turning in the monsters’ favor.

Faced with their seemingly inexhaustible numbers, maintaining the magic weapons in time had become impossible. On top of that, attacks were coming from multiple directions. Sety and Tiera had gone out to intercept and even the reserve forces had been deployed, but the area they needed to cover was simply too large. The enemy attacks came in waves, and defeating one group didn’t mean the end. Some slipped through, breaching the first barrier and began swarming the second.

“Just sitting here and waiting... it’s rough.”

“Yes. But we can’t afford to move from here.”

“It’s so frustrating.”

Shin ground his teeth, to which Schnee and Filma responded.

At the front line, Shibaid and Milt were fighting hard. Even if some monsters got past them, Yuzuha and the defense unit stepped in to finish them off. Other monsters that reached the second barrier were still handled by Sety and the others before they could break through, thanks to the barrier's reinforced durability.

Still, the fact that he couldn’t act despite watching the situation unfold made Shin seethe with frustration. He had considered jumping into the fray if there were still enough time before Nuva appeared—but now, there probably wasn’t.

“With this timing, it should be showing up any minute now.”

Shin muttered as he turned his gaze toward the rear of the monster horde.

Through Yuzuha, Shin was getting updates from Armaiz about the arrival of Nuva. The problem was whether the defense could hold out until then.

“Could it be that it’s waiting for Armaiz to make a move?”

“It’s possible. If Nuva has even a shred of intelligence, it would quickly realize Armaiz is allied with us. Sending its underlings ahead might be a strategy to wear down its enemies—in this case, Armaiz’s allies. If so, then this situation is playing right into its hands.”

There was still the question of how Nuva had gauged their strength. But it was also possible that this was the act of gauging.

Armaiz had proposed acting as bait to lure Nuva out, but things weren’t that simple.

If Shin were in Nuva’s shoes, he wouldn’t show himself. He’d just keep throwing wave after wave of monsters until the enemy was overwhelmed.

Unless Nuva had some obsession with striking the killing blow personally, there was no reason to give up the advantage of remaining hidden.

“If we could just figure out where it is, we could go on the offensive.”

Filma’s grumble was understandable.

They only had a general idea of the direction. Charging out now wouldn't guarantee they’d find Nuva.

The sea was deep, and even with 【Marine Sonar】, there was a limit to how far they could detect. If Nuva was traveling at depths beyond their scanning range, there was a real chance they’d pass each other without even noticing.

“…Shin, about Armaiz’s bait strategy—what if we tweak it a little? Could we still draw Nuva out?”

“Tweak it?”

Schnee suggested projecting an illusion of Armaiz on the front lines, making it appear weak or wounded. That way, even if the plan failed, the real Armaiz would remain unharmed, and they could act immediately.

“I like it. Even if it backfires and Nuva gets suspicious, the situation won’t make things any worse.”

Filma seemed to support the idea.

“Yeah. Nothing to lose, really.”

The longer they waited, the more disadvantageous their position became. Whether Nuva had the intelligence to see through their plan was a gamble, but if they didn’t act soon, they might have to use the real Armaiz as bait after all.

Shin linked with Yuzuha via 【Mind Chat】 and asked Armaiz whether he could project an illusion to deceive the enemy—one that acted weak or suppressed his presence.

“That much is simple. I’ve already been nothing but bones once. If it’s just concealing my presence, I can give quite the convincing performance.”

Shin couldn’t help but chuckle at Armaiz’s somewhat ominous confidence.

They discussed the timing and location to carry it out. Armaiz had already been suppressing his power and presence since his resurrection, so it wouldn’t be hard to release a bit and appear to be running out of energy.

The best place to stage it would naturally be the front lines, where the monsters were most concentrated. Yuzuha, cloaked in the illusion, would engage the enemy to make it look like Armaiz was fighting. Then, she’d pretend to take a hit and act weakened.

Since there was a chance Nuva shared the vision of Hevin or Corpus, they also decided to ask for help from Shibaid and Milt.

Through Milt, they shared the plan with the defense unit and command staff. The operation would be executed during the next maintenance cycle for the magic weapons.

As Shin gazed out toward the distant sea, he murmured:

“Please take the bait…”

𑁋

Thirty minutes later, the operation began. The number of bombardments decreased, and Shibaid and Milt charged toward the advancing monsters.

Normally, this would be the moment to unleash wide-area skills, but to make it look like they were running low on strength, they intentionally held back.

Compared to the start of the battle, their skill output was roughly halved. Naturally, this wasn’t enough to finish off the Hevin, Corpus, or the fused types. These monsters broke through the first barrier and began advancing toward the island. Though Shibaid and Milt continued launching skills in succession to take down as many as they could, it wasn’t enough to stem the tide.

The barrier was breached, and monsters poured in. Then—a roar thundered through the air, unlike anything heard so far.

“GuOOOOOoooーー!!”

What appeared, shaking the very sky, was Armaiz in his small dragon form—massively enlarged. Of course, it was a fake. But to sell the illusion, seawater was manipulated to give the appearance of a physical body, adding realistic resistance to attacks. That trick had been Sety’s idea upon hearing the plan.

When the fake Armaiz opened his mouth wide, a blue light began to gather inside. Seeing this, Shibaid and Milt quickly moved to flank his massive body.

Seconds later, the concentrated light was released as a brilliant flash, slicing through the swarm of monsters.

Armaiz, whose primary domain was the ocean, possessed the ability to use a light-element breath attack designed for fighting enemies on the surface. This illusion faithfully replicated that.

The compressed beam, though barely a mel in diameter, swept across a wide area. For such a massive body, the breath looked thin—but it cut through all monsters within range like a single stroke from a master blade.

“It really does look like he’s using a breath attack. Did Yuzuha get some tips or something?”

The form visible now was purely an illusion. The breath itself, while perhaps lacking real power, looked perfectly authentic thanks to Yuzuha’s manipulation of her own abilities. Still, the way the energy had converged felt subtly different from anything Shin had seen before—he couldn’t help but wonder if this was some technique shared between Divine Beasts.

“The monsters are starting to converge on the illusion.”

“Yeah. So far, so good.”

Whether they were acting under Nuva’s orders or simply targeting the most dangerous opponent, the monsters that breached the barrier were now swarming toward the fake Armaiz, just as Schnee said.

When Shibaid and Milt had been out, there were always a few monsters that ignored them and headed straight for the island. But this time, not a single one did. As if on cue, every last one surged toward the fake Armaiz.

Breath after breath, the illusion of Armaiz mowed them down. However, the area of effect gradually narrowed, and the dragon illusion began to retreat. Shibaid and Milt moved in to assist, but it only briefly stabilized the situation—they were quickly pushed back again.

From within the fused monsters, sharp tendrils shot out like spears, slamming into Shibaid and flinging him away, shield and all. Another tendril lashed like a whip, striking Milt with such speed that its tip blurred from sight.

“—!!”

Even knowing it was just an act, Shin’s hand instinctively reached for the weapon at his waist.

Shibaid had blocked the strike with his shield. Milt deflected it with her weapon. Though it looked like they were struggling, they were minimizing damage well.

Still, watching his companions get driven back was difficult to bear.

“Shin…”

Schnee gently placed her hand over Shin’s, still gripping his weapon.

Not yet.

Shin understood that. He wasn’t about to charge in recklessly. Even so, he couldn’t stop his expression from tightening.

When Shibaid and Milt withdrew to a safer distance, the attacks focused entirely on the fake Armaiz. Not just tendrils—now even the fused monster was launching black sphere-like projectiles.

The aura radiating from them was vile and menacing, but Shin’s past experiences told him it wasn’t miasma. It was likely imbued with some kind of curse. Considering Nuva’s nature, that made sense.

The illusion replicated wounds and blood spray in vivid detail. From Shin’s perspective, it looked like Armaiz was truly injured and fighting desperately to stay standing.

Shin narrowed his focus, trying to expand his detection range as much as possible.

Yet neither his skills nor the map revealed Nuva’s presence. 

Are we just going to sit here and watch? 

That thought weighed on him as he concentrated—until he sensed something odd.

“…What is this…? Something’s there…”

It was only because he’d focused so intensely that he noticed. The aura of the monsters swarming the fake Armaiz—it had changed.

More monsters continued to gather, yet their presence now felt… unified, like they were all part of a single organism.

What’s going on?

Alarmed by the strange presence and behavior, Shin called out to the others—then immediately launched the ship at full speed.

“Shin… don’t tell me—”

“Is that what I think it is…?”

Schnee and Filma, reacting to Shin’s mutter and focusing their senses, seemed to feel it too.

The monsters gathered without end, climbing over each other to build up mass and height. Slowly, they began to take on a new form.

“So that distant presence was a decoy. I can’t believe… that’s how it shows up.”

In the distance, the outlines of the monsters began to blur.

Their forms collapsed and merged, creating a single massive shape.

A towering body clad in blade-like, unyielding scales. Four eyes glimmered with a hollow light upon its head. A maw reminiscent of a moray eel split open in a cross pattern and then widened into four gaping jaws.

With jagged teeth and a pitch-black throat, the monster let out a high-pitched, piercing roar.

It was the main target of this battle—

The Devouring One, Nuva.

The elusive enemy had finally revealed itself.

“Damn it, that was what it looked like from the beginning!”

Right before Shin’s eyes, the fake Armaiz was crushed in Nuva’s jaws. The damage was too great, and the seawater cloaking the illusion dispersed, returning to the sea.

Nuva came to a halt, water sloshing from his closed mouth. He must have truly believed the illusion was real. All four of his eyes darted frantically, scanning the surroundings in search of Armaiz.

But the Divine Beasts present weren’t about to waste the opening that had just been handed to them.

Roughly 50 mel behind the illusion’s last position, a tremendous power surged—and in the same instant, a blue flash struck Nuva’s head.

Unlike the fake’s earlier breath, this beam of blue light shimmered with an almost crystalline clarity. From where Shin stood, he could see it spreading out in a fan shape.

The torrent of light spread wide enough to engulf Nuva’s entire head. Pushed back by the sheer force, Nuva recoiled. The exposed areas had been scorched black, and one of his left eyes was completely burned out. While it didn’t deal overwhelming damage, it had clearly prioritized a reliable hit over focused power.

Armaiz had enlarged his body and entered full combat mode.

This time, Nuva was certain it was the real one—and roared furiously, as if to say You won’t escape.

What surprised Shin and the others, however, was that the roar wasn’t meant to intimidate or assert dominance.

It was a shockwave—practically a sonic blast—that spread through the atmosphere like a wall of sound.

With a deafening boom that seemed to split both air and sea, Armaiz was forced backward.

Even Shin’s ship, though some distance away, was knocked into the air and flipped over by the sheer force.

The instant Shin realized the ship was capsizing, he returned it to an item card.

They had taken no real damage, but Armaiz, who had received the full sonic blast at close range, was visibly unsteady.

“That’s a whole different level than what I’ve seen before. Getting hit up close would be bad.”

“He has a visible inhale before it. We’ll need to time our defense with that.”

“Can you nullify the stun effect with gear?”

Shin, Schnee, and Filma dashed across the sea’s surface, discussing countermeasures.

“Doubt it,” Shin replied to Filma. “Status immunity only covers effects directly caused by items or magic. If you’re knocked out from a massive hit, it doesn’t do anything. So I’d guess something like this—indirect and overwhelming—can’t be nullified either.”

Filma nodded grimly. Shin’s intel came from players who owned high-level equipment with status immunity—reliable sources.

Milt had also agreed earlier that concussive stun effects from damage couldn’t be negated that way.

“I want to back him up, but we’re too far away…”

Filma muttered in frustration.

In the distance, Nuva was charging at the staggering Armaiz.

Whether with magic or weapons, they were too far to provide support. They had kept their distance expecting Nuva to approach from outside the barrier—now that was backfiring.

“No… he’ll be fine.”

Shin spoke with quiet conviction.

Nuva opened his jaws, ready to crush Armaiz for real this time.

Then, suddenly—a small fireball appeared right in front of him.

To Nuva, it must have seemed insignificant—barely a speck. He didn’t slow down, making no attempt to dodge, and instead surged forward to swallow it along with Armaiz.

『Release.』

A clear, bell-like voice echoed in Shin’s ears.

And in that instant, the tiny ember ballooned outward.

It was far too close to evade. The golden-tinged explosion swallowed Nuva’s open jaws—and, with a beat of silence, detonated.

Heat and shock waves radiated outward, vaporizing every nearby Hevin, Corpus, and fused monster.

Shin, having anticipated it, had deployed a barrier to shield Schnee and Filma.

“That thing blew him away in one hit…”

As the shockwave faded, Filma stared at Nuva in disbelief.

The fireball had detonated inside Nuva’s mouth, blasting off his entire head and vaporizing half of his exposed torso.

The resulting tidal wave was massive. Worried about the island’s coastline, Shin turned to see Shibaid and Milt deploying barriers to dampen the impact.

The one who had unleashed that devastating fireball was Yuzuha, who had refrained from joining the fight until now, focusing instead on storing power.

That fireball was one of the Element Tail’s ultimate skills: 【Merciless Sun】—a monster-only skill from the game era, infamous for incinerating entire areas with overwhelming firepower and guaranteeing party wipes if taken head-on.

This was the first time Shin had seen it used in this world, and its power rivaled—or even surpassed—Nuva’s roar.

Just as Filma had said, it felt like this might have ended things.

And yet... Nuva’s ominous presence had not vanished.

Shin wasn’t naïve enough to ignore that unsettling feeling.

“It won’t end that easily, will it…”

As Schnee murmured, Shin watched Nuva’s body begin to regenerate.

The speed was unnatural—like watching footage in reverse. His HP had already fully recovered.

“That’s way too fast.”

“I’ve never seen that before. I’d remember a regen that quick—even that roar was new to me.”

Even in the game era, monsters could gradually recover HP over time, but that was usually triggered by being hit by specific attacks, like magic weapons, not raw damage.

Yuzuha was Shin’s partner monster—her attacks shouldn’t have qualified.

Maybe the developers had intended for players to land the finishing blow directly. But perhaps that rule no longer applied here… or maybe Divine Beasts like Yuzuha weren’t classified as partner monsters at all.

“Questions later. First, we end this. Maybe that form is a temporary shell, or maybe its core is somewhere else. Either way, we should take it down again and see.”

Nuva was now within range.

He charged, trying to get close. Armaiz held him off, refusing to let him through. Yuzuha clung to Armaiz’s head, ready to relay instructions from Shin’s team.

Schnee and Filma cut down monsters emerging from the sea to protect them.

Meanwhile, Shin stopped running, skimming across the surface as he activated a spell.

Lightning-element magic skill 【Spear Bolt】.

Above his raised palm, lightning gathered and formed a spear.

With a flick of his arm, the spear launched forward at its original game-era speed.

It tore through the air—straight into Nuva’s throat—and exited cleanly out the back, vanishing into the sky beyond.

With his limiter released, Shin’s magic skill was dozens of times more powerful than normal. Because the attack had pierced straight through, it hadn’t unloaded its full magical payload—but even so, it still erased about twenty percent of Nuva’s HP in a single strike, even in his complete form.

“I’ll take off its head again.”

“Okay!”

As lightning coursed through Nuva’s body, causing it to convulse uncontrollably, Schnee and Filma closed in.

This time, Shin took a support role. Drawing his 『Seiryutou』—a katana with a pale purple blade especially effective against dark-element monsters like Hevin and Corpus—he tore through the fused monsters’ tentacles.

Schnee’s 『Blue Moon』 and Filma’s 『Scarlet Moon』 radiated brilliant blue and crimson effects, respectively.

Sensing the danger, Nuva tried to act—but was suddenly ensnared by glowing chains that extended from the void, halting his attempted recovery. Shin’s 【Arc Bind】 had landed cleanly.

Getting close to Nuva put them within the range of nearby monsters, including Hevin and others—but any enemies that targeted Schnee and Filma were immediately wiped out by Armaiz and Yuzuha.

Nothing stood in their way now.

As the glow on their weapons flared brightly, they released their coordinated attack.

A cooperative-exclusive skill—【Explosive Slash】.

Blue and red slashes intersected midair, merging into a massive violet blade. It cleaved into Nuva’s immobilized neck, slicing through flesh and bone without resistance from the scales. But unlike a simple slash, it didn’t exit cleanly. Instead, it vanished into the wound as if being drawn inward.

Three seconds after the slash that had severed eighty percent of his neck vanished, the wound exploded from within. The attack had remained inside, delivering explosive damage. That was the effect of 【Explosive Slash】.

Once again, Nuva’s torso and head were separated. It’s HP hit zero.

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