Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyusoukyoku (LN) - Volume 22 - Chapter 8

The Discordant One

Satou here. There are always going to be people who disobey the leaders of the time, but I’d prefer for them to resist peacefully if at all possible. I really don’t think indiscriminate violence is the answer to anything.

“The seal has been completely broken. We cannot defeat it with these vessels. Karion says so, too.”

“I did not. But ’tis true that we cannot win. Let it be known that in this condition, resealing it would be difficult as well.”

Urion and Karion looked uncharacteristically tense.

“Is it really that strong?”

All of the information about the “Discordant One” in my AR display simply read UNKNOWN. I wished it would give me clear details like it did with the Dissentients.

Although I thought my Divine Blade might be able to beat it, I was reluctant to use my “God Slayer” title and everything in front of the gods themselves.

“Our true selves could reseal it easily. Karion says so, too.”

“Aye. But descending to the mortal realm in our true forms consumes far too much power. It would be unwise to allow the egg that protects the world to be weakened, even temporarily.”

“But there are no other options. We shall proceed at once.”

“…Aye. Let us return to our true selves in the divine realm. Be wary of our supply of divine power running out.”

“Wait a minute!”

I called out to stop the goddesses from going back to the divine realm.

“Time is of the essence. Let it be known that a second’s delay could mean the world’s end.”

“Please order the people in the city to evacuate first. The army, too.”

“Thy request is accepted. ’Tis better not to waste human resources.”

Urion waved her hand with a crimson light, and the determined-looking Pialork Kingdom army abruptly turned around and began to retreat.

According to my map information, the people in the city had started to flee, too.

“We shall return now. Good luck to thee.”

The goddesses sent a pillar of crimson and vermillion light into the air.

Instead of dissolving into salt like Tenion’s had, the pair’s vessels turned back into their original statues and tumbled to the ground.

“There go the goddesses.”

Arisa looked up at the sky.

The dragons probably wouldn’t be back anytime soon, as they were still chasing down the mist wyverns. Given that they had come here looking for their eggs, though, they would probably return eventually.

“Pippin, help people evacuate, please.”

“What are you guys going to do?”

“We’re going to evacuate, too, of course. It looks like Lord Kuro and Sir Nanashi the Hero will fight that thing for us until the goddesses come back.”

I took out my Kuro puppet in midair, using my Magic Hand to make it float.

“Lord Kuro really came?! All right, then! Let’s go, Serena!”

Pippin looked delighted.

I felt a little embarrassed that he trusted “me” so completely.

“Wait a second, Pippin. I can’t let other people deal with the mess that my own students made and that I failed to prevent.”

“It’ll be fine now that Lord Kuro’s here. Besides, if we stick around, we’ll only get in his way.”

“I agree,” I added, trying to help Pippin convince Serena.

“All right. I’ll do whatever I can.”

Serena hesitated a moment, then left to help Pippin guide the evacuation.

“The rest of you, go with them.”

Arisa and the others weren’t moving an inch.

The misty monster had yet to move from the spot where it emerged, either, but it might start at any moment now.

“They don’t need our help evacuating. Thanks to the divine commands, the other civilians are assisting anyone who’s in trouble on their way out. Nobody’s being stupid enough to block the roads or gates with carriages full of stuff, either.”

Apparently Arisa was checking on things with Space Magic just like I was.

“No. Not this time.”

I looked around at my companions, who all had unyielding determination on their faces.

Even though they were strong enough to fight against a demon lord, this was one battle I couldn’t let them join.

“This thing is so bad that even the gods can’t handle it unless they use their full strength. And we don’t have any useful information, either. It could even be as dangerous as the Evil God’s Spawn that showed up in Shiga Kingdom.”

Based on the reaction from my “Sense Danger” skill, I suspected it was weaker than those. Still, that wasn’t a good reason to let my guard down.

“Then it’s even more important that we join you! We can’t let you fight it alone, Master.”

“Yes, Arisa. I shall protect Master with my shield imbued with the strength of the gods, I declare.”

“I agree with Arisa and Nana. We shouldn’t depend too much on the power of the gods, of course, but please at least allow us to watch your back.”

Arisa, Nana, and Liza looked desperate.

“Tama will fight hard, too?”

“Pochi wants to help Master, too, sir!”

“My spirits can help suppress the Discordant One, really. I swear I’ll be useful no matter what, you know. So you can count on us, Satou. Okay?”

“Master, I’ll help, too.”

Pochi, Tama, Mia, and Lulu all clearly felt the same way.

“You guys…”

At least as long as they have the protection from Karion, I won’t have to worry about them being affected by that thing, although I didn’t know how long that blessing will last…

I deliberated for a moment.

“…All right. But you have to be extra careful not to do anything reckless or overconfident, okay?”

“Yaaaay! Now you’re talking!”

“Whoo-hooo?”

“Hooray, sir!”

Arisa and the others pumped their fists in the air triumphantly.

Lulu watched them with a smile, then exclaimed suddenly, “Master, look!”

Something was happening in the royal castle, which was covered by a dome of light.

“Popping uuup?”

“A new Mr. Tower, sir.”

“Is that a Magic Cannon? It’s much bigger than the ones we saw in Muno Castle.”

My AR display labeled it as a Heroic Cannon.

It was technically a giant Magic Power Gun, not a Magic Cannon like the ones from the ancient Lalakie era.

“Wait a minute, they’re not going to try to shoot that thing, are they?”

“Looks like that’s exactly what they’re doing.”

No matter how high-powered this gun might be, I seriously doubted it could defeat a Discordant One whose true form was in another dimension. I could only see this resulting in their drawing the thing’s attention and inciting it to attack the city.

“Honestly, how stupid is the king of this country?”

“Save the anger for later, Arisa. For now, teleport us to the peak of that mountain, please.”

“Okey-dokey!”

Without asking for a reason, Arisa immediately agreed and teleported all of us to the mountain towering behind the royal capital of Pialork Kingdom.

“Whew, we made it. I was worried it might be too far.”

Arisa was almost out of magic power. I used Mana Transfer to refill her gauge to the brim.

Then I transformed into Nanashi the Hero with the help of my “Quick Change” skill and took out our small airship from Storage, placing it on the side of the mountain.

“Time for Nanashi the Hero and his Golden Knights to take to the battlefield!”

“Master, the castle’s getting ready to fire the cannon.”

As I stood on the deck of the airship, Arisa spoke to me using “Tactical Talk.”

“I’m going on ahead. Just follow me with the airship, please.”

I hopped off the deck and used “Flashrunning” to get into the cannons’ line of fire.

Activating “Flexible Shield” from my magic menu, I slanted it upward and knocked aside the enormous fireball from the Heroic Cannon.

“Huh, it’s stronger than I expected.”

One of my Flexible Shield was about to shatter just from redirecting one shot.

If I’d tried to block it head-on instead, the shield might have broken entirely.

“Master, behind you!”

Sense Danger.

I took a Divine Blade from Storage and slashed through the tentacle that was closing in from behind with a blade-drawing technique. The shredded tentacle turned into black mist and evaporated.

Looks like a Divine Blade can damage it even without using a scripture.

In fact, my single attack had reduced the volume of the mist by almost a third.

Sense Danger.

My skill reacted yet again.

This time, it was intense enough to give me a headache.

The main body of mist that had been flopping around on the temple grounds suddenly erupted like a volcano.

“Oh crap…!”

I used “Flashrunning” to get away from it.

As it burst upward into the sky, the main body split off into five differently-sized fragments of mist, fleeing in all directions.

…Yeah, that’s right.

It was fleeing.

Probably from my Divine Blade.

“Master, the target is moving oddly, I report.”

“You’re right. It’s almost as if it can’t get too far away from the temple.”

As Nana and Lulu pointed out, the split-up Discordant Ones were maintaining a set distance from the temple as they flew around in the air.

But that didn’t mean we should be relieved. Because that distance was slowly but steadily getting bigger.

“We don’t need to hold back if we’re fighting in the air! Let’s destroy it with a forbidden spell!”

“Mm. Full power. To the ocean.”

“Yes, Mia.”

Nina navigated the small airship over the nearby ocean.

Arisa and Mia began a chant.

“Aim…and fire!”

Lulu used her Acceleration Gun to fire a Holy Bullet at one of the fragments, piercing right through it.

However, the huge hole it created in the misty orb quickly closed itself up.

“Shooom?”

“Spellblade Shot, sir!”

Tama fired a barrage of small Spellblade Shots to limit the fragments’ paths of escape, while Pochi and Liza hit them with more powerful Spellblade Shots.

Although their shots did a fair amount of damage, those too healed up quickly, just like Lulu’s Acceleration Gun shot.

I aimed at one of the fragments that none of the others were going after, closed in on it instantly with “Flashrunning,” and sliced it in half with my Divine Blade.

“…It just makes more, huh?”

While it did reduce the amount of mist quite a bit, I couldn’t go around making even smaller ones.

If I used the Divine Blade’s scripture, I could probably take them all out at once, but I wanted to avoid using that if at all possible.

Implosion.

I blew up one of the smaller fragments that had lost most of its mass after splitting up again.

Hrmm, so the small ones could be defeated with magic. Considering that the separated clumps overreacted to the Divine Blade, it might be best to put my sheathed Divine Blade away in Storage and deal with the rest using a Holy Sword and magic. I changed my title to “True Hero” and took out the Holy Sword Durandel.

While I worked with the beastfolk girls and Lulu to defeat most of the smaller mist fragments, Arisa and Mia finished their chants.

“All right, here we go!”

“Mm… Create Leviathan.”

Mia’s Spirit Magic activated.

“Get them.”

The Leviathan rose out of the ocean and used a giant swirling spear of seawater to pierce one of the fragments.

The sheer force broke the fragment into several smaller ones.

“Catch them.”

The Leviathan roared in time with Mia’s command, and the spear that had pierced the fragment collapsed back into seawater, reshaping itself into a large net and rounding up all of the smaller fragments at once.

“I’ll finish them off! It’s my new spell’s world premiere! …Dimension Eater!”

Arisa used a forbidden Space Magic spell.

The air around the fragments that were caught in the seawater net warped.

Whoa.

The space swelled for a moment, then swirled into a vortex that formed a hole in space itself, sucking the fragments inside.

It was as if they’d been swallowed by a black hole.

“ZZZXXXZBBB.”

Perhaps feeling threatened as so many of its brethren were being destroyed, the unharmed fragments changed shape from an unstable mass of misty tentacles to resemble living creatures.

There were three types: Some took the shape of dragons, some were golems, and some were possessed buildings that began crawling around.

I guess we’ll call them mist dragons, mist golems, and mist buildings.

“Ah! Sir!”

The incorrigible Hero Cannon shot out another fireball from the castle, blowing up one of the mist buildings.

It destroyed the mist building in an explosion of rubble, but the mist itself only split into smaller fragments and was largely unharmed. Each of the smaller mist fragments fused with a piece of rubble and grew legs like a wolf, then promptly began sprinting toward the castle.

On top of changing form, they’d also gained a wider range of activities.

“Pochi, Tama, let’s go!”

“Aye-aye, siiir?”

“Roger, sir!”

The beastfolk girls jumped down from the small airship, used “Skywalking” to hop through the air and land on a roof, then chased after the swarm of mist wolves using “Blink.”

“I’ll help with the counterattack, too! Endless Deracinator!”

“Aim…and fire!”

Arisa blocked the mist wolves’ path, while Lulu sniped them with her Fireburst Gun.

It looked like they could handle things over there.

“Whoa there, you’re not getting away!”

I spotted a mist dragon fleeing through the sky and used a barrage of the Implosion spell to destroy it over the ocean.

When a few remaining traces tried to turn into fish and escape, Leviathan controlled the ocean waves to catch and crush them all.

The girls worked together to defeat all the mist wolves, and when the mist golems dug a tunnel underground to try and escape, I jumped in after them and used an intermediate attack spell to wipe them all out.

“Victoryyy?”

“We won! Sir!”

Tama and Pochi raised their swords triumphantly.

“That wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected.”

“Mm. Easy.”

“I was ready for a hard fight since the goddesses said they ‘cannot defeat it with these vessels,’ but I guess I was worried for nothing.”

It was only when Arisa said this that I wondered if something was amiss.

That’s right…

The goddesses certainly did say that.

Even if I hadn’t used my Divine Blade to do some major damage at the beginning, surely we would’ve been able to defeat those things with the goddesses’ help.

Oh well. My map confirmed that there was nothing left underneath Zaicuon Central Temple, so it was probably fine.

“Master, someone is approaching from the gate, I report.”

I checked that part of my map and saw that the sage’s student Serena, who had gone to the main gate with Pippin, was coming back this way on her own.

She appeared to be chasing another student of the sage.

“Give it up, Kelmareite!”

“Oh, back off already!”

Two black-clad figures burst through a wall and came running out. Sure enough, it was the glamorous whip-wielding woman Kelmareite and the Tile Magic user Serena, both the sage’s students. The former was somehow alive and well despite the fact that I definitely saw her get beheaded by the samurai general before.

I was curious about how she’d managed that, so I might as well help Serena catch her…

“Mew!”

Sense Danger.

At the same time as Tama’s cry, my “Sense Danger” skill pummeled me with an intense warning.

It was coming from the place where the Zaicuon Central Temple had been. Thick miasma, enough that it was visible to the naked eye, was gushing from the ground.

There was a red dot there on my map now, even though I didn’t see anything when I checked before.

“Someone’s coming out of the miasma!”

Lulu’s warning was right: A shadowy figure emerged into view.

The figure had a slender body with strangely long arms. Wings shaped like hands grew from his back. A large round lump pulsed visibly in the middle of each main wing.

“B…Bazan?!” Serena cried out when she saw the figure.

Bazan, the sage’s student who broke the seal, must have been taken over by the Discordant One.

“ZZE…SzeREna…annnd…KelgmaREIde…”

Bazan spoke. Though his pronunciation was poor, he still seemed to have some memories from before he was possessed.

I mentally corrected his hard-to-understand pronunciation.

“Been a minute, Bazan. That’s some look you’ve got going—”

Before she could finish speaking, the woman collapsed in a spray of blood, her head gone from her body.

“Ngh…!”

Serena quickly jumped back and used a talisman from her breast pocket.

The space where she had been standing warped, and a black wing sprouted there.

“He’s bending space!” Arisa cried through “Tactical Talk.”

On closer inspection, Bazan’s wing was partially thrust into a nearby warp in space. That meant that he must have bent space to behead the woman with his wing before.

“  Stack Tile Juukabefu!”

Serena blocked the wing attack with a wall of Tiles.

But the black wing easily broke through the wall and sent Serena flying.

I quickly used Magic Hand to try and slow her momentum, but I couldn’t stop it completely. Serena wound up leaving the same way she’d arrived, crashing through the wall of a building.

I was alarmed to see that her HP was at zero in my map information until I noticed that her condition read Suspended Animation: Reviving. This must be a result of her Unique Skill Safety Hibernation.

“Arisa…”

“I know, I know! I won’t let him get away with that in front of an expert Space Magic user!”

Arisa neutralized the warp Bazan had created in space.

“It’zz SEALED…but no MATTerrr.”

Bazan spread his wings and swooped to attack my friends.

Not on my watch.

I used “Warp” to close in and sliced off one of his wings with my Holy Sword.

“You can HOLD yourrr own, eh…”

Bazan stopped in his tracks and struck with a flurry from his wings, five on each side.

As much as I wanted to dodge them and close the distance between us, I couldn’t do that without risking one of my friends behind me getting hurt.

“All set, Master!”

The girls all hurried onto the small airship that had landed nearby.

“We’re all safe on the airship now.”

The small airship took off without even bothering to close the hatch.

“Wa-wa-waaah, Mr. Egg popped out of the Fairy Pack, sir!”

I heard Pochi panicking over “Tactical Talk.”

“It’s flashiiing?”

“Wait! It’s at the same time as the lumps on those wings!”

Does that mean what I think it means?

I used the help of my “Foresight: One-on-One Battle” as well as a plethora of other skills at full throttle to get as close to Bazan as I could.

“GrrRGH?!”

Ignoring his surprise, I sliced off both of his main wings with a single intense slash from my Holy Sword.

I blocked the needlelike spikes that burst out of Bazan’s stomach to attack me, chasing him closely as he tried to back away.

“Trying to cut off the eggs to weaken me, eh…”

Just as I suspected, the lumps on his wings really were the Dragon’s Eggs that were used for the summoning.

They did have the vague look of an energy source or a weak point.

“But this TOO matterrrs not!”

Bazan raised his arms, and each of his wings took the shape of dragons or winged snakes and flew up into the air.

“We are all ONE, even when apart! I won’t let the likes of YOU stop our RRRREvenge!”

Bazan sneered, laughing triumphantly.

“Could I just mention one thing?”

“Now what? Spit it OUT.”

Bazan jerked his chin at me, still looking overconfident.

Instead of answering out loud, I simply pointed upward.

The mist dragons and mist snakes that were circling around in the sky had been snapped up in the jaws of a dragon that came flying from far away in a matter of seconds.

“Wh…whAAAAAAT?!”

The dragon’s unstoppable fangs pierced the mist, devouring the pulsating bumps.

Another breath attack burned away the rest of the mist all at once.

“Damn YOU, drrrraGOOOONS!”

Bazan sped up to the small airship as quickly as if he’d teleported.

“Gaaaah!”

“Evasive action!”

I heard my companions shrieking.

“No worriiiies?”

Tama’s easygoing drawl overlapped with their screams.

She was right, of course.

I used “Flashrunning” to chase Bazan and kick him high up into the heavens.

“That’s for scaring my friends.”

I fired a volley of the Implosion spell at Bazan in midair.

As far as I could tell from my map information, these attacks wouldn’t be enough to take him down entirely.

“NnngaAAAAAH!”

The smoke from the explosion was blown away from within, revealing Bazan looking burned and tattered.

He was already nearly done regenerating. Clearly, half-hearted attacks weren’t going to make a difference.

“In that case…”

I made the magic circles for the Acceleration Gun from my magic menu, forming a huge barrel that pointed straight at Bazan.

The Implosion spells were just a distraction—this was the main event.

An overcharged Holy Bullet shot through far more acceleration circles than even Lulu’s Acceleration Gun, speeding toward the target.

Bazan didn’t have the slightest chance to react before the attack pierced right through him like a blue laser beam, destroying his body, which turned into three black rings.

“Awwriiiiight!”

“You did it, sir!”

“Not yet.”

Tama sharply interrupted the excited Arisa and Pochi.

My “Sense Danger” skill told me the same thing. Bazan was still alive.

He revived himself almost instantly, turning a smug glare on me.

“It is no USE. I exist in a higherrr diMENSION. You sniveling MORRRRTALS cannot truly kill me in A WAY that matterrrs.”

He sneered down at me and cackled with glee.

Apparently his true form was a lot more tenacious than the Dissentients and wings and such.

But still…

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that.”

“…What?”

I used “Flashrunning” to teleport directly in front of him.

Bazan turned both arms into black blades to intercept me.

“Fall into endless DARRRKness.”

“No thanks…”

I changed my title.

“…But you go on ahead.”

I used the sword-drawing technique I honed during our practice with the samurai general to draw the Divine Blade, which I produced in my hand with lightning speed.

The even deeper darkness that was condensed into the Divine Blade slashed through Bazan’s black blades, slicing his body in two.

“I’m not…reGENERRRating?”

He can still talk? Better pull out all the stops, then.

“…<Ruination>.”

The Divine Sword’s scripture manifested true darkness.

“Wh…what? What the hell…is THAAAAAAAAT?”

Bazan tried to teleport away.

I don’t think so.

My Divine Sword flashed, destroying the space between it and Bazan.

The transfigured Bazan’s inhuman face appeared before my eyes, and it was full of despair.

“Check…”

The blade swathed in ruination plunged Bazan into the depths of darkness.

“…and mate.”

The traces of mist that remained were sucked into the Divine Blade.

I put it into its scabbard and stashed it away in Storage.

Whew, that was exhausting.

> Defeated Discordant One: Bazan.

> Title Acquired: Protector of the World.

> Title Acquired: Destroyer of Outer Gods.