We'd like to talk to you alone for a bit.
Could you come with us,
Dina?
Now then, where should we start?
No, we won't beat around the bush.
Who are you?
You claim to have been my advisor two hundred years ago,
but that's a lie, isn't it?
Yes, it's a lie.
Of course it is.
After all, when I met her...
It's been so long!
I've been waiting for your return for the past two hundred years!
The tower was filthy.
If she had been waiting for her mistress's return,
she should have at least kept the top floor clean.
Meaning she wasn't there for that long.
You're not one of the citizens who lived under us either, are you?
If you were, then Libra would have remembered you.
Precisely.
I'm neither your advisor nor your subordinate.
I simply knew you had an NPC with that setting in the tower,
so I made use of it.
NPC, huh?
If you know that term,
it can only mean...
you're another player!
Episode 10
Who Are You?
Episode 10
Who Are You?
Episode 10
Who Are You?
Episode 10
Who Are You?
Episode 10
Who Are You?
Episode 10
Who Are You?
Episode 10
Who Are You?
Episode 10
Who Are You?
Episode 10
Who Are You?
Episode 10
Who Are You?
Episode 10
Who Are You?
Episode 10
Who Are You?
Episode 10
Who Are You?
Episode 10
Who Are You?
Episode 10
Who Are You?
Episode 10
Who Are You?
Episode 10
So Dina wasn't an NPC.
Though both Aries and Aigokeros recognized her as the advisor...
Right!
If I felt like it, I could implant false memories and personalities too.
You manipulated Aries and Aigokeros's memories, didn't you?
Yes!
Come on! Think back on it harder!
I was always there at Mistress Lufas's side in the Tower, wasn't I?!
Oh! The person that blended into the background!
I did it to Aries when I first met and questioned him.
Aigokeros was cooperating with the devilfolk,
so I planted several false memories
while he was in their castle.
Understood.
Libra didn't recognize you as an ally
because you couldn't manipulate her memories.
It's exactly as you say.
Golems don't have memories, just records.
So a technique like memory manipulation doesn't affect them.
So it even works on those more powerful than her.
That means there's a good chance she's manipulated me too.
And she mentioned the devilfolk's castle?
I see...
Speaking of, how much have you manipulated our memory?
I couldn't.
Come again?
Your will is much stronger than you think.
Even if I had tried to plant false memories in you,
I would have needed to constantly use the technique for a whole year at least.
That's why the only way I could fool you
was by taking up the position of the NPC advisor in your tower.
I could only manage to nudge your thoughts
to subconsciously keep you from questioning me.
Frankly, I was shocked.
I never expected you would be a player.
That was a miscalculation.
I should also add one correction.
I'm not a player.
Then what...?
To be more precise, I'm a beta tester.
The company hired me to beta test the new race,
half-elf, that was planned to be introduced with the next update.
So that explains it.
That's why you knew about the tower.
Yes.
I could use the company's computers to look at all the data on the players' forces.
Come on, you shouldn't be letting beta testers see that!
You said that you manipulated Aigokeros's memories when he was in the devilfolk's castle?
That sounds to me like you were in that castle as well.
That's correct, Mistress Lufas.
I'm able to freely come and go from the devilfolk's castle.
To be honest, I was planning to keep playing this role of your advisor
and get you and the devilfolk to crush each other,
but I suppose I underestimated you a bit.
So... I'll need to take another course of action.
Oh?
I'll conquer you now and make you my pawn.
There's still much I need you to do for me.
Can you?
When you're Level 300?
That Level is obviously a lie too!
Then what's your true strength?
It goes without saying.
Half-Elf
m 0 -30 l 45 -30 45 200 0 200
Level 1,000?!
She's just as strong as I am?!
Allow me to introduce myself properly.
I am Venus.
One of the devilfolk's Seven Luminaries,
The Metal, Venus.
Pleased to make your acquaintance.
Venus.
Now no one else can interfere.
Come, let us fight to the death,
my beloved Lufas Maphaahl!
Now, come forth.
My summoned women.
Crush all creation with thine might!
Oh? Interesting.
A Metal spell?
Cleta!
That's—
It can damage me?
No.
It's our turn now!
Alchemize!
Psycho Throw!
Exgate.
I'll return these to you.
Each one, of course.
Is that even possible?!
Exgate.
Auxo!
This is Water magic!
This woman has both Metal and Water affinities?!
Now, sprout for me.
Thou art the breath of life.
Thou art a magnificent tree!
What a pain.
Then we'll use this technique.
Meteor Kick!
It's futile.
Exgate!
So fast!
That won't work on me.
Even if you are Level 1,000, you're still a back-line mage.
Physical attacks from a back-liner
won't even shave off a hundredth of my HP,
let alone a tenth!
I see.
How impressive, Lufas Maphaahl.
That blow took quite a lot out of me.
Dina.
You can't beat us.
Megrez was a back-line mage like you,
but he prepared plenty of countermeasures against front-liners.
However, there was none of that in your last attack.
You aren't able to implement any of the front-liner counter strategies.
That leads us to one conclusion.
And what is that?
You were a beta tester.
You weren't actually playing the game.
You were just testing the balance of its abilities.
You never searched for loopholes
or researched how Skills could be used together.
There's no reason for a beta tester to keep raising their stats past the max
and get into the hardcore gameplay.
You might be Level 1,000 like we are,
but we're leagues apart.
Let's stop this, Dina.
My, how kind.
You're saying you would forgive me for deceiving you?
It's true that you deceived us,
and yet...
it's also true that you've aided us.
Besides...
It simply means we were a fool for letting ourselves be deceived.
We should be commending your talent,
not dwelling on resentment.
Will you talk to us?
Will you explain why you've taken such
roundabout means to try and make the Devil King and us crush each other?
Do you think you've won already?
You should save lines like that
for after you've staved off this attack!
Exgate!
Summoning?
What's this?
Well, now...
that's terrifying.
Man. Yup. That's impossible.
Morning Venus!
Hey!
That's on a course that'll totally impact Gjallarhorn too!
Not only that. That spell is famous for being hard to use because it takes a while
for it to rain down after activation,
so using Exgate to slash that time down is just cheating!
Well, I'll be taking my leave now.
What will you do now?
The Twelve Heavenly Stars might survive,
but what about that nation and Merak?
Now we get it.
That's your aim.
As you wish.
I'll stop it for you, Dina!
Strangely enough, I'm not afraid.
I'm sure the Lufas inside of me is telling me we can do this!
Skill...
Iron Kick!
I'll even add Weak Point Strike to pierce its defense...
So it's up to my power now!
I just need to believe in myself
and kick it away!
No way...
Still want to keep going, Dina?
No, I've lost.
Then you'll tell us now, right?
Tell us why you did this.
I'm a beta tester who came to this world
after you were sealed away.
Before I realized it,
I was here, occupying the avatar I used to play.
At the time, there were plenty of great heroes.
It wasn't brimming with people at Level 1,000 like in the game,
but there were a large number of powerful figures over Level 500.
So it was different from the game at the start then?
Yes.
Also, all traces of any players that weren't
written about in the novels were completely gone,
like they had never existed at all.
They were gone?
Yes.
I suspect
this isn't the world of the game,
but the world published in its novels.
What... did you say?!
The Novel System...
It was a system incorporated into the game that adapted the actions
of players in the game into stories composing an official history of the world.
So she's saying this world isn't the game world,
but the world from its novels?
That's bad.
There weren't that many people who made it into the novels.
Because the player count overwhelmingly exceeded the number of authors working on them.
There were also players who didn't want to be in the novels,
so those who were in them were only a handful of the millions who played it.
Hmm? Hold on.
Dina claimed she was a beta tester.
So how could she be included in the novels?
There wasn't anyone in the same situation as I was.
They were all residents of this world from the start,
so I was the only anomaly here.
Wasn't there a chance there were others and you just didn't realize it?
Maybe that could have been true.
But at this point, no...
They were some of the few acquaintances I had.
There was at least a trace of the people I remembered from reality.
But now they've all...
They're dead?
Yes.
I see.
Well, then I guess it makes sense they would lose to the devilfolk.
Besides, that was the first question that should have come to mind.
If this was really the game world, and there were over a million high-level people,
then there's no way they all would have been defeated, even facing the Devil King.
In the game, the most people you could have in one party was twelve, outside of the wars.
However, that wouldn't have mattered to this world.
The one million high-level people could have just overwhelmed him together.
All this time,
I had been thinking this world was based on the game,
but I was blind to this possibility.
I was frustrated.
I hated it.
The few traces of reality that I had left were taken from me.
It was even more painful to watch this world torn asunder.
Even still...
I wasn't enough to beat the devil king on my own.
All I could do was infiltrate the devilfolk's inner ranks,
and delay their conquest from within.
All I could do...
That's why you sought us and the Twelve Heavenly Stars.
Yes.
I hoped that if I could successfully lead you to fight against the Devil King,
then you could defeat him.
That's why I set up the Seven Luminaries.
Again!
Something feels off again!
Take Jupiter.
I promised him I would take Lady Libra away for twenty minutes at the designated time,
What Dina's saying right now...
Is there something wrong with it?
but I broke that promise
and brought Lady Libra back to the city while Jupiter was still here.
I don't think there's anything particularly worth calling out?
Is there anything else you'd like to ask me?
The next question is my last one.
Do not mince words.
Are you our enemy?
No, I don't intend to be your enemy.
Although,
one could easily see my attempt to manipulate you as an act of hostility.
Then good.
Continue to serve us.
Huh?!
We're telling you we'll overlook this matter.
U-Umm, are you sure?! I—
We don't care.
We still owe you much for all your help with this world.
Besides.
Having an advisor who's harboring some secret plot
sounds fun.
In a way, it's fairly standard for us to have dangerous subordinates.
Umm, you really are a player in there, right?
You're not like, the real Mistress Lufas with the memories of a player, right?
Well now, who's to say?
I'm well aware that our memories keep mixing together
and we're starting to change.
But we've finally found a fellow comrade in you.
So we're willing to turn a blind eye to a few pranks.
Neither Megrez nor Merak were like me.
At this rate,
it's likely that the final member of the Seven Heroes, Benetnasch, isn't a player either.
In which case...
That would mean that we're the only two anomalies in this world.
Dina deceived me to use me.
But has she really hurt or hindered me?
No, she hasn't.
If anything, she's only helped me.
The Twelve Heavenly Stars and the
Seven Luminaries will continue to appear on the path Dina's leading me down.
On top of that, Dina's goal of exterminating the devilfolk
and my clash with the Devil King
are things I can't avoid as Lufas.
Come with us.
Put your strength and knowledge to good use for us.
I'm impressed.
You're just the woman I thought you were.
No, even better.
You truly are the one meant to defeat the Devil King and unify the world.
I accept your charge, my king.
I shall serve as your advisor
until the day you defeat the Devil King!
Good.
We'll be counting on you.
As you command,
Mistress Lufas.
Dina
m 0 -30 l 20 -30 20 30 0 30
Level
m 0 -30 l 20 -30 20 30 0 30
Race
m 0 -30 l 20 -30 20 30 0 30
Half-Elf
m 0 -30 l 20 -30 20 55 0 55
Class Levels
m 0 -30 l 20 -30 20 60 0 60
Acolyte
m 0 -30 l 60 -30 60 60 0 30
Priest
Ranger
Strider
Mage
Sorcerer
Equipment
m 0 -30 l 10 -30 10 30 0 30
Head
m 0 -30 l 70 -30 70 15 0 15
R Arm
Bracelet of the Sage
m 0 -30 l 45 -30 45 105 0 15
L Arm
Bracelet of the Shadow
Body
Traveler's Clothes
Legs
Traveler's Boots
Other
Dina, The (Self-Proclaimed) Advisor of the Conqueror, Lufas, Has Joined Your Party
Lady Lufas!
What was that meteor moments ago?
Oh, you two.
Oh man...
How do I play off my battle against Dina?
I understand.
Mysterious forces tried assaulting Gjallarhorn, yes?
Please summon me at once when such things occur.
We're sorry.
Now, we've achieved our goal in this nation.
Let's head out to see Parthenos once more.
As you wish.
Aigokeros, do you have any information on the others aside from Parthenos?
Well...
For starters, there was one other
Twelve Heavenly Star who chose to cooperate with the devilfolk.
Hmm?
Scorpius the Scorpion
became a fiend of vengeance and offered the devilfolk her full cooperation.
Also...
Leon the Lion has been waging war against the vampire princess Benetnasch night and day.
I'd rather not go anywhere near either of them.
Lastly...
I once heard a rumor among the devilfolk.
Laevateinn succeeded in summoning the Hero.
The time hearkens back to when Lufas conquered the Grave of the Black-Winged King.
Laevateinn
Oh!
Did we...?
W-We did it!
We did it, Your Majesty!
The Hero Summoning Ritual!
Succeeded this time!
Translation: Timer: Editor: Quality Control:
John Pickett Andy Ellis Gabriella Ramirez Meagan Smith