"Uooooh! Deryah!!"
Letting out a deep, guttural roar, a muscular male student threw a heavy punch.
His target was a jet-black, lustrous beetle-type Magic Armor Beast. This creature was one half of the duo responsible for the swarm of lesser monsters currently overrunning the Insect Museum.
Wrapped in a steel gauntlet, the boy’s fist packed enough punch to buckle the beetle’s thick exoskeleton. The Magic Armor Beast let out a pained groan as the impact sent it tumbling backward across the floor.
"Nngh! Guuh...!"
"Hang on, Brother! I'm coming!"
The younger sister—a golden stag beetle-type Magic Armor Beast—saw her brother’s plight and tried to rush to his side, only for a sudden gale to strike her from the flank.
Her slender frame was caught in the localized windstorm, swept off its feet, and slammed hard against the ground.
"Kyaaaah!?"
"Nice! Keep it up! Chip away at their health steadily!"
Cyan observed the situation with calculated precision. He issued orders to his comrades while ensuring everything proceeded exactly according to Egos's script.
He knew he had to let the stag beetle escape eventually, but watching the sheer efficiency of his party—a team capable of easily cornering two Magic Armor Beasts at once—made it difficult to suppress a triumphant smirk.
(I was startled when two of them showed up together, but this is the perfect chance to field-test the party. As I thought, my team is unbeatable!)
By leveraging his game knowledge, Cyan had hand-picked his favorite characters who also happened to be top-tier combatants. The result was a party that could handle even the most unexpected variables.
Taking precautions and treating Zenon and Isaac as cautionary tales had clearly paid off, Cyan thought as he mentally reviewed his teammates' roles.
"How’s that, you monsters? Had enough yet!?"
The name of the brawny boy leading the charge was Verda. He served as the primary attacker and tank for Cyan’s party. Boasting an incredible physique, he was a reliable vanguard whose punches already hit like a battering ram; as his level increased, he would eventually gain access to powerful attribute attacks.
"Don't get cocky, Verda! We still haven't seen the full extent of their power!"
The girl keeping the hot-headed Verda in check was the magic attacker, Peewee. Defined by her sharp, piercing gaze, she possessed a fierce personality to match her looks, relentlessly harrying their enemies with her aggressive wind magic.
"Enhancement magic, active! Everyone, stay sharp!"
Finally, providing support from the rear, was a petite girl named Neries. Her charm point was a pair of tiny glasses—though no one was quite sure if she actually needed them—and while she possessed zero offensive capabilities, her performance as a buffer was second to none.
With Cyan himself alternating between the front lines alongside Verda and protecting the rear when needed, the party's tactical flexibility was superb. It was, by all accounts, a perfectly balanced team.
Furthermore, they were currently joined by Egos, a protagonist who possessed his own reincarnation bonuses. Even against two Magic Armor Beasts, victory was a foregone conclusion.
Cyan was intentionally holding back for the sake of the plan, but the fact that he could afford to play with his food only proved the massive gap in power. He gripped the shaft of his spear, a satisfied grin blooming in his heart.
(We’ve got this in the bag! At this rate, the plan is as good as done. Once these monsters kill Fee and I've scrubbed Yugo from the scenario, the world will be mine! I'll be the hero who ended the incident, everyone will look up to me, and maybe even Melt and the others will realize what they’re missing. The Warrior Shrine Maidens will be mine, too. I’ll be able to do whatever I want!)
Indulging in his greed-fueled delusions, Cyan glanced at the two Magic Armor Beasts they were toying with. Seeing the once-beautiful, lustrous shells of the insect siblings now covered in cracks and scuffs, he let out a mocking snort.
(Trill and Rielle, was it? I barely remember them. A couple of bug maniacs who were basically just mid-boss mobs.)
The siblings, who had transformed into Magic Armor Beasts by manifesting the powers of a rhinoceros beetle and a stag beetle, were polar opposites in combat style. The older brother, Trill, was a power fighter who relied on his sturdy carapace and massive horn, while his sister, Rielle, was a high-speed harasser who specialized in confusing her enemies.
Depending on the chosen route, a player would normally only fight one of them. To be honest, Cyan didn't remember ever struggling against either. So long as a player kept up with their grinding, the siblings were manageable. They only seemed difficult in the Yui route because the protagonist had to face them alone; against a full party like this, they were barely a threat.
Egos intended to separate from the group later to "pursue" the escaped Rielle, so he hadn't brought his own party members, but even so, the margin for error was massive.
Two protagonists and a team of elite, hand-trained companions could handle this with their eyes closed. Cyan kept his arrogance masked behind a leader's facade as he barked orders to his team.
"Everyone! We don't know what kind of hidden trump cards they’re sitting on! Don't give them an opening by overextending. Keep the pressure on and wear them down! I don't care how long it takes—just make sure they stay down!"
His companions shouted their affirmations, but anyone with a shred of sense would have realized how bizarre those orders were.
Being cautious was one thing, but saying "it doesn't matter how long it takes" was madness. At this very moment, dozens of monsters were slaughtering visitors throughout the museum. These Magic Armor Beasts were the source of the swarm; to save lives, they needed to be eliminated immediately.
Yet, Cyan had just prioritized his own convenience over the safety of every civilian in the building.
He was pulling his punches solely to manufacture an opportunity for Rielle to escape, yet not a single person in his party seemed to notice the cold-blooded nature of his command.
The party of six continued their slow, agonizing assault, whittling away at Trill and Rielle without ever delivering a decisive blow. Egos would occasionally leave blatant gaps in his defense for Rielle to exploit for an escape, but the beetle-girl seemed too battered to even notice the opening.
(Dammit, move already! If she doesn't go kill Fee soon, the whole plan is going to stall...!)
Irritated by the delay, Cyan clicked his tongue. He was just beginning to wonder if their stamina had finally bottomed out and if he should just execute the brother, Trill, when it happened.
"Heh... heh heh... Ah-hah-hah-hah-hah!"
"Ufu... ufufu... ufufufufufu!"
"What... what's so funny?"
Trill and Rielle had suddenly burst into fits of hysterical laughter.
As Cyan watched the two of them—broken, bleeding, and barely standing—laughing like lunatics, a sliver of genuine dread touched his heart. Verda, ever the hothead, spat on the floor.
"Looks like they finally lost their minds. Cyan-san, let's just put 'em out of their misery."
"A-Ah... yeah. You're right."
"H-Hey, hold on! When an enemy starts acting this weird, that's exactly when we need to be careful—"
Egos began to drone on, trying to stall for the sake of the script, but Cyan was no longer listening to him. He couldn't take his eyes off the siblings.
Something was wrong. An instinctual alarm was screaming in the back of his mind.
That he felt that wrongness and yet failed to act would be Cyan's ultimate undoing. His hesitation in this moment would be the final nail in the coffin. He and Egos were about to pay a sickening price for their arrogance and their vile plot to murder a child.
"Fuhahahaha! I feel it! I can hear it! The pulse of evolution is pounding in my chest! In this moment of absolute crisis, the dormant potential within me is finally waking up!"
"Me too, Brother! The shadow of death is forcing us to change! It's coming! The moment of our awakening is here!"
"What...!?"
Trill and Rielle dragged themselves upright, throwing their arms wide to the ceiling as they let out a triumphant shriek.
As Cyan and the others squinted against a sudden, blinding radiance, Trill’s voice boomed through the intensifying light.
"It is time to evolve! We ascend now to a further realm!"
With a thunderous roar, the light shattered.
Cyan and his party shielded their eyes from the glare. When the brilliance finally faded and they looked back at the siblings, they found two Magic Armor Beasts standing there whose forms had been utterly transformed.