"The Black Death Demon Lord, Pest… may not actually originate from The Pied Piper of Hamelin at all. In other words, she represents a false inheritance."
Izayoi's eyes gleamed as the pieces began falling into place.
"As for the true inheritance—it might lie with the others from the tale. Is it Weser? Or Ratten? Or perhaps that Sturm who appeared at the very beginning?"
He leaned back slightly, frowning.
"I feel like I'm getting closer to the truth… but something's still missing."
And then there was Shiroyasha's sealing. That detail refused to leave his mind.
He turned toward Ren Kuroda.
"Ren, got any ideas?"
Izayoi knew full well that Ren's powers of observation and analysis were exceptional. After all, it had been Ren who pointed out the inconsistency in 『Fantasy Grimoire』's combat strength earlier.
Ren, however, merely shook his head lightly.
"I'm not that familiar with Western fairy tales like The Pied Piper of Hamelin," he said evenly.
That was only half the truth.
Unlike the others, Ren wasn't primarily worried about Pest.
He was worried about "His Highness" and the others who had slipped away earlier.
Pest's attack on the Fire Dragon Birth Festival might have been nothing more than a smokescreen—a way to draw everyone's attention while sealing away the most troublesome figure present: Shiroyasha.
Even Black Rabbit's decision to suspend the Gift Game for arbitration might have been anticipated from the start.
If Pest had some connection to His Highness and his faction…
Then perhaps her insistence on prolonging the suspension wasn't merely about allowing the Black Death to erupt within the infected.
Perhaps it was also about buying time for them.
And diverting attention.
However, the fact that Pest had agreed to shorten the suspension at Ren's proposal suggested something else.
If there was contact, then Pest was likely the one being used.
The idea to attack the Fire Dragon Birth Festival may have come from that girl—Suzune.
And Pest, unaware of the larger scheme, had simply become the decoy.
The next day.
The suspended Gift Game resumed.
As more and more infected individuals began showing symptoms of the Black Death, both 『No Name』 and 『Salamandra』 realized they could not afford to delay any longer. The longer this dragged on, the more people would fall sick—and die.
The moment the Gift Game restarted, both Communities committed nearly all of their fighting strength.
When 『Hamelin's Piper』 reappeared, Pest, Weser, and Ratten were no longer alone.
This time, they were accompanied by several enormous white, clay-like giants.
Sturm.
In German, the word meant "storm."
In some versions of The Pied Piper of Hamelin, it was said that the 130 vanished children perished in a natural disaster near the mountains. That calamity was interpreted as a storm—Sturm.
Three Sturm manifested in the arena.
Each possessed strength approaching the upper ranks of six digits.
They were met head-on by the North District's Floor Master—Sandora.
As for the other names within 『Hamelin's Piper』, they were similarly derived from direct translations of elements in the tale.
Ratten meant "rats"—the vermin that plagued the town.
Weser referred to the river near the execution grounds where the piper and the 130 children were said to have vanished.
Izayoi and the others had nearly reached the answer to the true inheritance—just one crucial piece short.
That final piece arrived when Asuka, who had been missing for quite some time, returned.
At her side stood Merle of 『Rattenfänger』.
『Rattenfänger』 was a Community composed of collective spirits—the souls of the 130 children who perished in Hamelin. Once human, they had undergone rebirth and ascended as a spiritual group, acquiring Divinity and achievements through a form of reincarnation.
Merle was the inheritor of the will of those 130 souls.
A gnome who carried the legitimate achievements of The Pied Piper of Hamelin.
He was the Community's 131st companion.
After entrusting Asuka with the red giant soldier "Deen"—a Gift forged entirely from divine rare metal—and Merle himself, 『Rattenfänger』 had chosen to reincarnate once more.
Now that the true inheritor of the achievement had appeared, the false inheritance began to crumble.
It didn't take long for 『No Name』 and their allies to identify the key to fulfilling the victory condition:
"Break the false inheritance and establish the true inheritance."
The crucial point lay in the stained-glass panels that covered the entire 3,999,999th to 4,000,000th Outer Gate.
If all stained glass except for that depicting the River Weser were shattered, the condition would be satisfied.
Because in the true tale of Hamelin, the piper and the 130 children who disappeared near the mountains ultimately perished due to the natural disaster at the River Weser.
Which meant—
Pest.
Ratten.
The Sturm.
All of them were false manifestations.
Only Weser truly originated from the Pied Piper of Hamelin grimoire.
There was no Black Death in the authentic inheritance.
No plague of rats.
All of that belonged to the false narrative.
As Sandora and the warriors of 『Salamandra』 began smashing the stained glass one after another, Pest realized the tide had turned.
If she were defeated now, it would mean total loss.
So in desperation, she opened the grimoire once more.
She summoned 『Hamelin Town』 itself.
With a thunderous roar, rows of medieval buildings erupted from the ground. In moments, the surrounding plains transformed into a mid-14th-century Germanic town.
Within the battlefield shaped by the grimoire 『Hamelin Town』, the abilities of Weser, Pest, and their allies surged dramatically.
Weser, in particular, was originally a demon from the story itself. Having been granted Divinity by Pest—and now further enhanced by the grimoire 『Hamelin's Piper』—his strength skyrocketed to the point where he could exchange direct blows with Izayoi.
Now—
Weser faced Izayoi head-on.
Ratten confronted Asuka, who wielded Deen.
The three Sturm battled Sandora.
Which left Pest herself.
Though she was a five-digit Demon Lord—the Black Death Divine Child who bore the achievements of eighty million dead souls—her current opponents were anything but ordinary.
A "Little Garden Noble" rabbit.
A pure-blood vampire.
The strongest species, a stellar spirit.
And lastly—
Ren Kuroda.
A presence she could not see through at all.
One against four.
And even the weakest among them stood at the same five-digit level as she did.
Pest's crimson eyes burned with fury.
"I carry the resentment of eighty million souls."
Her voice trembled—not with fear, but with wrath.
"I have yet to exact vengeance upon the indolent Sun."
"How could I possibly fall here so easily?"
"Until my revenge is complete—no matter what kind of enemies stand before me—I will collect the debt owed by that lazy Sun on behalf of those eighty million who died unjustly!"