8 Picking a Fight with the System for a Living
Aah, this is so nice and comfy.
I slept well, all right.
Now I’m nice and refreshed.
“Good morning.”
“Morning.”
I crawl out of the fluffy bundle.
“Mm’kay, this time I’m going for real.”
“Right. Oh, but first, take this.”
Hmm?
The Demon Lord hands me something.
“…Huh?”
“You need that, right?”
Yes, the object she handed me is definitely something I need.
“Thanks. That’s a big help.”
“Don’t worry about it. You’re the one who’s helping me out.”
But this will definitely make my job a lot easier.
“This is pretty much the most I can do…”
…You really don’t need to worry about that, you know.
After all, the reason I decided to save this world in the first place is the Demon Lord herself.
“All right, I’ll be back soon.”
“Okay, have a safe trip. Be careful.”
…That exchange almost made us sound like a family.
Aw, I’m a little embarrassed.
I quickly teleport away to hide my embarrassment.
When I reappear, it’s in a very strange space indeed.
This is the center of the system.
A giant conjuring circle forms complex geometric patterns all across the floor.
It even spreads over the walls and ceiling, glowing with a faint, fantastical light.
And in the center is a woman, the lower half of her body gone as if she’s melting into space, suspended in midair as though the conjuring circle is binding her there.
The Goddess Sariel.
The core of the system, the sacrifice who was offered up to this world, and the precious person whom the Demon Lord called Mother.
<Proficiency has reached the required level.>
<Experience has reached the required level.>
<Proficiency has reached the required level.>
And although the Goddess’s lips aren’t moving, a cacophony of her voice echoes and overlaps endlessly in this room.
The system messages that the Word of God religion regards as the voice of god.
Coming to this place makes me incredibly uncomfortable.
Why? Well, every single sight in this room is disturbing, that’s why.
Maybe it’s because it shows just how selfish the humans of the past really were, or maybe it’s that even though the Demon Lord adores her and wants to save her so desperately, the Goddess herself doesn’t share that wish.
“……”
I shake my head lightly to dismiss those thoughts.
Throughout the mysterious room, there are small white spiders here and there.
Those are my system-related clones, and they’re already on standby.
There are fourteen distinctive conjuring circles that stand out in the room, distributed around the Goddess at the center.
Those are the keyholes.
I can open them by inserting the corresponding keys.
First, I’ll open the seven locks that I already have keys for.
There’s the six I already had and the seventh that the Demon Lord gave me before I left.
Since I’m opening these properly, there’s no problem so far.
This next part will be the real challenge.
I move the system-related clones to make contact with the conjuring circles that correspond to the unclaimed ruler skills.
The lockpicking is about to begin.
But then a sharp voice interrupts.
“Irregularity detected.”
Unlike the overlapping voices that have been echoing this whole time, that clearly came out of the Goddess’s mouth.
“Outside interference confirmed. Activating defense mechanism.”
…Yeah, that’s about what I expected.
Power gathers around the Goddess.
That’s the defense mechanism or whatever getting ready to shoot.
Well, I’m basically breaking and entering here, after all.
It’s no surprise that there would be a home security system in place.
Honestly, I knew this would happen.
Especially since I’ve already set off this defense mechanism once before.
It was during the war, when I tried to abolish the hero function.
The defense mechanism went off just like this, and the clones that were trying to modify the system were physically destroyed.
As a result, I failed to get rid of the function of the hero, and Yamada of all people was chosen as the new one.
Since the system-related clones aren’t made for fighting, this is one job they can’t handle.
Clusters of energy form around the Goddess, taking on shadowy forms.
They become pitch-black silhouettes, just barely taking the shape of humans.
There’s twelve people in total.
Or would you even call these people?
“Commence elimination.”
As my idle thoughts meander in a stupid direction, the Goddess gives an order, and the shadows all move at once.
They’re headed right toward me—and whoa, they’re so fast?!
Just as I take a quick step to the side, a fist flies past my face with a gust of wind.
One of the shadowy figures closed in on me insanely fast and nearly landed a punch right on my nose.
Damn, that was fast!
Wicked fast!
Yiiikes!
Whew, that scared me.
Maybe I wasn’t being careful enough.
Since I’ve gotten so good with my god powers, I might’ve been a little overconfident.
How could I come that close to getting hit by such an obvious Telephone Punch?
Wait, another one?!
The same shadow is charging at me again.
It’s basically just swinging wildly, no polish or technique whatsoever.
But with that unbelievable speed, it’s still a pretty serious threat!
That said, it’s coming in a straight line, so it’ll be simple to dodge.
I sidestep the telegraphed attack and avoid it again.
After the shadow passes, a loud boom follows.
The sound came after—does that mean it’s moving faster than the speed of sound?!
Are these shadows even faster than the Demon Lord, if nothing else?
As I wonder about this, an invisible blade flies toward me.
Whoops, looks like they’re not just speedy after all.
Wait, is this thread?!
The weapons moving toward me are threads, too fine for the naked eye to see.
There’s ten of them in total.
It looks like one of the shadows shot out threads from each of its fingers and is manipulating them.
Heh. So you think you can take me on in a battle of thread?!
Time for you to learn your place!
I’ll turn the tables on you in no time!
So I shoot out ten threads from my own fingers as well, countering the shadow’s attack.
Bwa-ha-ha! You think those feeble threads can reach my feet—whoa, whaaa—?!
We’re actually evenly matched!
But how?!
You’re telling me there’s a thread user who can fight on equal footing with me?!
Our threads crack against each other like whips, whirling and feinting at each other with pulls and twists as we try to cut through each other’s threads.
It’s an incredibly close contest.
And then the speed shadow charges toward me!
I put my fight with the thread shadow on hold to get some distance between us.
Then another shadow suddenly appears behind me.
When did you get there?!
With no time to turn around, I just shoot a Black Spear at it from my back.
It doesn’t exactly look awesome, but I can produce conjurings from anywhere on my body!
The shadow that was trying to pull off a surprise attack on me is getting a surprise attack of its own!
Or so I thought—but then it disappears just as suddenly as it arrived.
This time, I sense its presence carefully and figure out how it’s poofing around!
The shadow is turning its body into a mist form to make it look like it’s disappeared.
Sure enough, the mist concentrates and reverts to a shadow.
What’s up with that vampire-like ability?!
Vampy can do that kinda thing, too, right?! Although she and Mera never really use it!
And now more threaaad?!
The thread surrounds me completely, boxing me in.
Retreat! Teleport!
I escape with a Short-Range Teleport.
Phew. Now I can get my—wait, wha—?!
A speed shadow just grazed me?!
Hang on, time out!
Gimme a second here!
Spatial Separation!
I cut off the space all around me, creating a cube-shaped void barrier.
Since the entire space is separated, no physical or magical attacks can pass through.
You’d have to be on my level of spatial conjuring expertise to get in from the outside.
In other words, it’s practically invincible.
The only downside is that it blocks out all light and sound, too, meaning I can’t tell what’s going around outside, either.
At any rate, this will protect me from enemy attacks.
I’ll take that moment to calm down a little.
Okay, so the defense mechanism shadows are way stronger than I expected.
Maybe I was being careless or overconfident or whatever, but even then, isn’t it awfully strange that they were able to corner me like this?
I am a god, remember?
In terms of abilities, I’m pretty sure I’m way stronger than I ever was as an arachne…
Now, my current strength is spatial conjuring. In terms of stats, I would probably still fall short of the Demon Lord, I think.
Even then, I would estimate that I’ve got the equivalent of stats in the 50,000 or 60,000 range.
So what the heck does it mean if I still can barely keep up with these things?
It’s like I’m fighting a whole bunch of Demon Lord–tier opponents.
Nah, I guess they’re probably individually weaker than the Demon Lord, but still.
Maybe Vampy or Mr. Oni would be a better comparison?
Yeah, that seems about right.
And a dozen of them, no less…
On top of that, thus far, I’ve only been able to confirm the abilities of three of them: the speed shadow, the thread shadow, and the mist shadow.
I don’t even know what the other nine do yet.
Considering how unique the first three have been, I seriously doubt the remaining nine are just generic mass-produced fighters.
It’s probably best to assume they’ve got some crazy abilities, too.
I guess I should’ve expected no less of the defense mechanism protecting the system itself.
This isn’t a hopeless situation by a long shot, but it’s gonna be tougher than I was expecting, that’s for sure.
All right!
I’ve calmed down a little.
Let’s give this another shot.
…First of all, it’d be dangerous to just deactivate the barrier right now. Instead, I’ll teleport somewhere directly outside of the barrier.
All at once, I’m free from the soundless, pitch-dark space.
And the first thing I see is, yeesh, a whole big swarm of…somethings.
There are so many black-silhouette creatures that you can’t even see the Spatial Separation box I was inside a moment ago.
Um, I’m pretty sure those weren’t there before…
Where did these things come from…?
Oh, never mind. I see the source right there.
One of the human-shaped shadows is producing a bunch of monsters.
That guy over there’s clearly the culprit.
Is it just gonna keep churning out endless mobs if I don’t stop it…?
Guess I better take that one down fast.
Ah, but first…
I produce a Spatial Separation wall right in front of me.
Then the speed shadow slams right into it.
If you keep trying the same attack over and over in such a short time, I’m gonna get used to it no matter how fast you are, dummy.
The speed shadow collides with the Spatial Separation wall at the height of its impressive speed and absorbs all the recoil to boot.
A normal wall would probably absorb part of the impact, but this is an actual separation in the fabric of space, not a physical wall.
If you crash into it, you’re taking every bit of that impact right to the face.
The speed shadow crumples to the floor.
One down.
…Or so I thought, until a blast of light coming from another shadow hits the wounded one in the back.
The speed shadow hops right back up.
Ugh. They’ve got a healer, huh…?
If the healer shadow can restore the others, then I’ve got to crush that one, or it’ll keep bringing the other shadows back.
So the summoner shadow and the healer shadow.
Those are my top priorities, but which one should I go after first?
I guess probably the healer.
There’d be no point beating the summoner shadow first if the healer shadow just brings him right back to life.
Death to healers. No mercy.
All I gotta do now is avoid the recovered speed shadow, the thread shadow, the mist shadow, the swarm of shadow beasts, and whatever else comes at me, all while targeting the healer shadow.
The speed shadow only uses simple charge attacks, and the thread shadow is actually easier to avoid if I don’t try to fight it with more thread.
As long as I’m careful of the mist shadow, I can tell when it’s about to appear.
I couldn’t react fast enough before because I wasn’t expecting it and had to fend off an attack at the same time, but the cat’s out of the bag now.
As for the big swarm of beasts, they’re not much to worry about.
In fact, to be totally honest, these shadows are weak.
I can even wipe them all out with some dark missiles that I conjured a bunch of as a smoke screen.
Compared to the shadows, they’re practically trivial.
Although that’s probably why the summoner shadow can crank them out so fast.
As soon as I wipe out one wave, there’s already a bunch more. It’s extremely annoying.
On top of that, they’re actually working together against me pretty well.
That’s probably thanks to the shadow that’s standing next to the summoner shadow, pointing at me and giving orders with gestures.
Is that a command-related ability, maybe?
It might be granting them some kind of ability-enhancing buff, too.
Looks like it’s giving all the shadows orders, including the beasts, which is why they’re coordinating their attacks on me.
That’s kind of a pain, too.
But still, the healer shadow comes first!
Avoiding the intermittent attacks from the beasts, speed shadow, and so on, I send a Dark Spear flying toward the healer shadow.
My attack hurtles at its target, but then a different shadow jumps in front of the healer and blocks it.
This one’s got a shield.
I can’t believe it blocked my conjuring…
Guess this shadow is fairly strong, too.
Each of them would probably have stats in the tens of thousands. Maybe they’d even be on par with legendary-class monsters?
It’d be nearly impossible to deal with a dozen of them if your strength was bound by the limits of the system, wouldn’t it?
The Demon Lord might be able to take them…
No, I guess this would be tough to solo even for her, huh?
Maybe she could do it if she brought the puppet spiders and some more backup?
If it’d be this hard even for the Demon Lord, then this is normally an impossible level.
Guess that means they really don’t want you to cheat.
But I’m gonna do it anyway!
The healer shadow splits in two.
I used Spatial Separation to cut it in half.
Since I’m messing with the fabric of space itself, it’s physically impossible to defend against.
You’d have to be at least as good with spatial manipulation as I am, or else the only thing to do is dodge.
But I’m very confident in my spatial abilities, and there’s no way to tell it’s coming, making it next to impossible to sense or predict and dodge.
In other words, it’s a completely unfair attack that basically insta-kills as soon as it’s activated.
Now that’s one down.
…Except I was wrong. Again.
A plump-looking shadow comes running over to the healer shadow and hits it with light.
And the healer shadow is back on its feet like nothing happened.
Oh, come on.
You can even bring ’em back from the dead?
And there’s another one besides that healer shadow, too?!
I wasn’t told about this!
Come on, you gotta be kidding me! Listen up, system!
I know this is the defense mechanism of the system’s core, but should you really be giving these things the ability to bring the dead back to life, which is practically number one on the list of things that should be totally off limits in this world?
I mean, you can only collect energy if something dies in this world, so preventing that by resurrecting someone should be out of the question.
I won’t say it’s against the rules, but it one hundred percent goes against common courtesy.
And should the system itself really be so brazen about flaunting this unspoken rule? Hmmmm?
There’s only one skill that can even revive the dead, and that’s Yamada’s Mercy.
You’re totally messing up the game balance, dude.
Is this like a penalty from the moderators against a player who’s broken a rule?
Should be grateful that I didn’t get my account banned on the spot?
Knowing D’s power, I’m sure she could impose a penalty that would instantly wipe me out if she really wanted to.
Since that didn’t happen, that means she’s still holding back a bit.
And if she’s still holding back, then D still wants this to be a beatable challenge.
Although I’m pretty sure you seriously screwed up the difficulty level!
Or was that on purpose?
Is D demanding that I should be able to handle something this insane?
…Okay, actually, I could totally see that.
D basically said that she was bored of this world and wanted to ditch it because it was at a standstill.
In other words, the people of this world couldn’t live up to D’s standards.
That’s an evil god for you.
Sticking them with an extreme difficulty mode, then getting bored and throwing them aside because they couldn’t beat it…
Isn’t that a teensy bit too selfish?
But I guess that just means she’s so strong that people have to forgive her, or rather have no other choice but to let her do what she wants.
Even I’m in no position to complain.
I guess this is a real-world example of absolute power corrupts absolutely…
Maybe it really is D’s fault that this world ended up in such a mess, huh?
Her standards were way too high, making it impossible to win…
That would certainly explain why the Demon Lord, the pontiff, and all of them were never rewarded in spite of all their hard work.
You know, thinking about this is actually starting to piss me off.
Why does the Demon Lord have to suffer because of that jerk’s stupid demands?
In fact, I’m suffering because of it right this second!
I use Spatial Separation to cut the speed shadow in half.
But then the thread shadow, the mist shadow, and a whole bunch of beasts all charge at me, forcing me to go on the defensive.
And while I’m busy dodging, the resurrection shadow brings back the stupid speed shadow.
We’ve just been repeating this cycle over and over.
I’ve killed the speed shadow the most, but I brought down the thread shadow and the mist shadow a few times each, too.
But every single time, they just get revived.
If I kill them instantly with Spatial Separation, the resurrection shadow fixes ’em up; if I don’t get a one-hit kill, the healer shadow does it instead.
I feel like I’m playing an endless game of whack-a-mole here.
It seems like the resurrection shadow is the only one that can bring back the dead, not the healer.
So if I could just take that one down, things would get a hell of a lot easier, but obviously, my enemies are all too aware of that fact.
So the other shadows have been aggressively protecting the resurrection shadow.
The shield shadow and the barrier shadow are both guarding it nonstop.
In theory, my Spatial Separation should be able to take out the target anyway, even if there are tanks in the way.
…But in practice, they’ve figured out a way to stop me.
How the heck are they defending against an attack that insta-kills regardless of the distance or the enemy’s defenses, you ask?
It’s similar in principle to the magic-neutralizing effect that dragons have.
Dragons’ scales and barrier-related skills interfere with the fundamental building blocks of magic, weakening the effect of spells.
And the building part actually isn’t any different for conjuring.
In theory, any skill that can block magic should also be able to hinder my conjurings.
It just happens to require a much higher output, since it’s my conjuring that you have to stop.
I’m a former magic expert who once had the Height of Occultism skill, you know?
Even though it’s conjuring now instead of magic, I’m still just as strong! …I think.
But now, my conjuring is being obstructed.
By the shield shadow and the barrier shadow.
One obviously holds a simple shield, and the other creates simple transparent barriers.
I think it’s the latter that’s blocking my conjurings.
But it’s hard to imagine that just one of them is single-handedly negating my powers, so I’m assuming the shield shadow has some kind of obstructing effect as well.
Basically, the two of them are working together to crush my magic.
Although spatial conjuring is my area of expertise, and I can produce it without much effort, it still uses high-level, super-complex runes.
So it’s not my fault that I can’t break through a blockade of two stupid shadows!
At least, that’s the excuse I’m going with.
In reality, spatial conjuring originates in the fabric of space by nature.
If the targeted part of space is within the range of the obstruction, the construction will fall apart as soon as it starts to activate, making it weaker to barriers than other kinds of conjuring.
You’d think I could just shoot them from afar with other kinds of conjuring, then, but that doesn’t work, either.
I tried tossing some Dark Spears, but they lost most of their power as soon as they touched the barrier, then got blocked by the shield shadow and dissipated completely.
Grrr.
These guys’ magic-jamming abilities are crazy strong.
They might even be on par with Vampy, no?
Thanks to her Ruler of Envy title, Vampy has a maxed-out skill called Divine Scales, the strongest of the dragons’ anti-magic scale skills.
Basically, it’s the strongest magic-blocking skill in existence.
As far as I can tell, the shield and barrier shadows have magic-obstructing abilities that are on par with Vampy’s.
In fact, is it just me, or is the barrier maybe even stronger than hers?
Man, what a pain.
What am I supposed to do about these guys…?
Seriously, every single one of them is strong enough to take on an army alone…
How am I supposed to fight twelve of them…?
Now I’m really getting fed up.
So far, we’ve got the speed shadow, thread shadow, mist shadow, summoner shadow, commander shadow, healer shadow, resurrection shadow, shield shadow, and barrier shadow.
That’s nine in total.
As for the other three: One of them has just been standing in front of the Goddess this whole time without moving.
The other two are chasing my system-related clones around.
One of them seems to have a bunch of different abilities; it’s using all kinds of magic to sling attacks at my clones as they run around like crazy.
And it also seems to have telekinesis or something, because there’s a bunch of different swords, axes, spears, and other weapons floating around for no discernable reason.
But the fact that they’re floating there means it can probably use all of those, too.
What a multitalented bastard.
As far as the other one goes, well, I’m not really sure.
I can tell it’s trying to do something to my clones, but they’ve been resisting all its attacks so far.
It looks like they’re being attacked by something invisible, but I can’t tell what’s happening exactly.
Since they’re totally resisting it anyway, I could probably just ignore it.
But considering how strong all the other shadows are, I get the feeling that if they fail to resist it at any point, it’s not gonna be good news.
Although since it’s targeting my clones and not me, I assume it’s nothing totally insane like instant death or something.
Wait, what if it actually is, though?
Like, what if they’re planning on taking out the weak-looking clones first.
But it’s not working, sooo…
I would think it’d be more efficient to help the others fight me than to waste time chasing my clones in that case.
And just as that thought crosses my mind, the commander shadow gives some kinda gesture and sends them after me instead.
Hrm.
I couldn’t tell what was hitting my clones, but if it tries it on me, maybe I can analyze it?
The mysterious shadow that was going after my clones turns toward me, and…uh, whatcha doin’, bud?
It’s striking some kinda weird pose.
Like, the weirdest, most indescribable pose you can imagine.
Is it trying to look cool, or…?
Since it’s just a jet-black shadow, it doesn’t have a face to speak of, but I can almost imagine it winking or something.
At the same time, the mystery attack it was using on the clones comes at me, too, but of course I easily resist it.
Um, okaaay…
How am I supposed to react to this?
You can’t just drop some stupid comedy routine on me in the middle of this super-serious fight scene…
The shadow changes its pose.
Huh? Seriously, what am I supposed to do here?
Since another invisible attack came at the same time, the poses must have some kinda meaning, but this is kind of a lot…
Uhhh, I guess I’ll try analyzing the mystery attack?
I take a peek at the nature of the invisible attacks the mystery shadow has been sending at me.
…Ahh, I get it.
It’s some kind of charm attack.
The type that’s supposed to make the target do your bidding.
Which means those poses really are meant to look cool…
I guess they’re supposed to enhance the charm effect or something.
But I’m a spider, and I’m not super interested in an interspecies romance…
Plus, I’m a god, too, remember?
Gods are supposed to be perfect beings on their own, which means they don’t really need to reproduce. Plus, they hardly ever die.
The point of reproduction is usually to pass your genes down to future generations, right?
But gods don’t have a life span, and death is a foreign concept for deities, meaning they can just carry on just fine without reproducing.
And romantic feelings are theoretically linked to reproduction, and the effect of Charmed is a status condition that appeals to those romantic feelings, sooo…
Basically, what I’m saying is that charm effects don’t really work on gods…
Although a lot of the gods in Earth mythology had wild soap opera–level romantic drama.
But that’s another story.
At any rate, it doesn’t really affect me.
Since this thing was trying to use it on my clearly spidery clones, it must work on other species, but I think this is a bit too much of a stretch.
And even if I did have feelings like that, I wouldn’t go falling for some vague shadowy silhouette striking a supposedly cool pose!
If it was at least an attractive person, the idea might’ve gotten across in theory, but a stupid shadow doing it just makes no sense whatsoever!
The mystery shadow, or I guess the charm shadow, keeps on striking poses for all it’s worth and even tries out some dance moves eventually, but it never ends up working on me…
Honestly, watching it put on a whole show all by itself makes me feel a little bad for it.
…At any rate, it’s not bothering me. I’m just gonna ignore it.
Since the multitalented shadow is just chasing my clones around and not attacking me, I’ll leave that one alone for now, too.
My system-related clones have no battle abilities to speak of; they can’t outrun the multitalented shadow’s attacks forever.
But I’ve got plenty of ’em, so as long as they focus on evasion, they can at least buy some time.
It should take at least a little while for them all to get wiped out.
As long as I can attack the other shadows in the meantime and turn the tide of battle in my favor, I’ll have nothing to worry about there.
Although first I’m gonna have to do something about this resurrection shadow.
And to do that, I have to deal with the shield shadow and the barrier shadow.
And to deal with them, I’m gonna have to get up close and personal, since long-distance attacks aren’t getting me anywhere, but the speed shadow, thread shadow, and mist shadow all get in my way when I try to do that.
So then I try to get rid of those three first, but of course the resurrection shadow revives them…
And the circle just keeps on going around and around.
Ugh, seriously, this is the worst game ever!
Out of the three vanguard attackers, the speed shadow isn’t that big of a threat.
It’s certainly crazy fast, but its only attack seems to be charging in a straight line. I’m not gonna fall for something that basic.
The problem is the other two.
The thread shadow is super hard to read.
It controls ten threads, attacking in ever-changing patterns.
And it can silently deflect attacks from any angle, to the point where you start to wonder if it has eyes in the back of its head.
I don’t know if these black silhouettes even have eyes, period, but let’s not worry about that right now.
At the very least, given that the other shadows tend to turn their faces toward me and try to follow my movements, I’m assuming they have similar sight to normal humans.
The thread shadow seems to be the only exception.
This one has some kind of detection abilities, so it doesn’t have to rely on sight.
And yet, its attack method is these thin, stupidly hard-to-see threads.
Thanks! I hate it!
On top of that, whenever I decide to just throw caution to the wind and attack the stupid thing head-on, the result is a weird attack flying at my face.
It’s an invisible attack, like the kind the weirdo charm shadow uses.
Probably an Evil Eye or something, the type of ability that activates when the user can see you.
Whenever I get into the thread shadow’s line of sight, I can feel my energy being slowly sapped away.
My guess is it’s something like Jinx Evil Eye, which has the effect of slowly decreasing the target’s HP, MP, and all-around stats.
Now that I’m a god, I don’t technically have stats and all that junk anymore, but it looks like it can just directly drain my internal energy levels instead.
Because the amount lost is fairly insignificant, it’s not doing much damage to speak of, but it still doesn’t exactly feel great.
I end up instinctively wanting to move out of the thread shadow’s line of sight, making it that much easier for the enemy to read my movements.
Since it’s doing so little damage, I should just ignore it, and I really do try, but I still can’t help instinctively wanting to avoid it instead.
Thanks again! I hate all of this!
And even worse, this thing can avoid Spatial Separation!
I think it’s probably because it has detection abilities that don’t rely on sight—it picks up on some incredibly faint premonition and avoids my attacks somehow.
So I can’t take it out just by popping off an attack without thinking.
I’ve got to include some feints or mix it in with other attacks.
That adds an extra step to the process, giving my opponents that much more time.
But wait! There’s more!
Once in a while, the thread shadow takes a hit from Spatial Separation and still doesn’t die.
I have no idea how that works, but somehow, it keeps moving even with what should very obviously be fatal wounds.
When that happens, the healer shadow can fix it up from afar without the resurrection shadow needing to move. In other words, it’s a huge freaking pain.
It can avoid Spatial Separation and sometimes even survive if it gets hit. Basically: I hate it!
But if I try to ignore it, I get a nonstop barrage of thread and Evil Eyes for my troubles.
I hate you! Please die!
This is the worst fight ever.
It’s strong, but what’s worse is that it’s a kind of strength I’ve never encountered before.
For the most part, the toughest opponents I’ve faced have just been super strong, plain and simple.
Types like this, who are tricky instead of just being strong, are a lot rarer.
There are probably some humans with low stats who manage to be that tricky, but once your stats break the 10,000 mark, it’s usually easier to get by with the sheer brute force of that strength.
Even a martial arts master can’t take on an Aegis cruiser, know what I mean?
In which case, it’d be a whole lot easier to just get an Aegis cruiser of your own.
But this thread shadow is a rare case of something that’s got Aegis cruiser strength but still fights like a martial arts master.
…Okay, even I’m not sure anymore where I was going with that example.
Anyway, on the opposite end of the tricky thread shadow, the mist shadow just relies entirely on its own strength.
Surprise attacks from its mist form.
Turning into a giant wolf and jumping at me.
Throwing punches that rely on its stupid-high stats.
Darkness-based magic attacks.
Reckless charges that depend on its own toughness and regenerative abilities.
If the thread shadow fights with the clever strategies of a human, the mist shadow fights with the raw violence of a movie monster.
More specifically, it’s a vampire, really.
Its fighting style is different from Vampy’s and Mera’s, but its range of abilities certainly feels familiar.
Where Vampy and Mera use strategies similar to humans to maximize their power, this mist shadow is more like the pure strength of a vampire.
Like a standard-issue vampire, I guess.
Although I don’t know if any vampire can really be called “standard.”
Given that it’s basically a monster in humanoid form, maybe it’s more like the Demon Lord than Vampy or Mera.
You could say it’s the tyrannical strength of stats and skills, I guess.
This one’s not nearly as skillful as the thread shadow, but it’s got the pure strength to make up for that difference.
Although since vampires are tricky by nature, I guess it’s not quite as simple as “pure strength.”
At any rate, it’s undeniably strong.
The thread shadow sometimes survives Spatial Separation through what seems to be sheer force of will, but sometimes the mist shadow manages to survive, too.
In its case, though, I think it’s more of a matter of just having super-high vitality and regeneration ability!
Who the hell can just stick themselves back together and heal right up when their body gets cut in half?
Sometimes it even uses that insane regeneration to straight-up charge at me without bothering to defend itself, which would be pretty damn impossible to deal with for anyone but me.
You heard me! I can still deal with it, at least!
As strong as it might be, it still doesn’t hold a candle to the Demon Lord, and it might even be weaker than Vampy in a lot of ways.
It’d still pose a serious threat to any modern-day human, though.
But if it was just one on its own, I could handle it easily.
The problem is that when they team up against me, it gets a whole lot harder, even if the thread shadow and the mist shadow wouldn’t be so bad one-on-one.
And to make matters worse, the speed shadow comes flying at me if I slow down for even a second.
I could forget about it all too easily if I stay focused only on the thread and mist shadows.
Plus, the endless flood of beasts from the summoner shadow is vaguely annoying, too.
They’re not strong enough to be worth noting, but since there’s so damn many of them, they’re infuriatingly distracting.
They’re like a bunch of fruit flies buzzing past my face at every turn.
What could be more annoying than that?
Without a concrete plan to resolve all these various problems, I’m doing nothing but eating up time.
But I’m not in danger of going down, either.
I know I keep griping about how strong they are, but the shadows still have far lower base specs than I do.
Their teamwork is a pain in my butthole, and they’re definitely stalling my plans, but they have no real way of finishing me off.
Since I can blink all over the place with teleportation and use Spatial Separation as the ultimate defense barrier, it’d be pretty tough for these shadows to really hurt me (although I won’t say it’s impossible).
Even if they did manage to hurt me, I can regenerate as long as I don’t run out of energy.
I used to have the Immortality skill, you know.
Even without the security of that skill now, I can still remember how it felt to be immortal.
How do you survive if all that’s left is your head?
How do you regrow yourself from there?
Yep, I’ve already figured out those methods and learned to reproduce them.
So unless I get broken down to the atomic level, I’m not gonna die.
You call that cheating?
Fine by me!
It’s a small price to pay as long as I don’t die. Victory is all that matters!
All this to say that as long as the shadows don’t have any other tricks up their sleeves, they can’t defeat me.
And what about the other way around? Actually, I could defeat them if that was all I had to do.
You there! The reader who just thought “That’s a bold claim for someone who’s been dragging out this fight for pages and pages now”!
I’m not letting this fight drag on because I want to, you know!
It’s true that I could defeat the shadows if it were that simple.
The problem is that I don’t know what will happen to this place if I do that, which is why I haven’t actually defeated them yet.
I mean, this place is super important, right? It’s the heart of the system and all that. So I can’t just blow up all the shadows at once! I might do serious damage to the place, that’s all I’m saying…
What if I wrecked something and caused some weird error in the system?! Yeesh!
Worst-case scenario, I could even blow away the Goddess, force the system to stop and break down, and BOOM! Next thing you know, the world is destroyed!
Seriously, it could happen.
Is that scary or what?
The last thing I want is to cause a bad end after we’ve come all this way.
So obviously, I have to proceed with extreme caution here.
In other words, I’ve got to find a way to get rid of the shadows without damaging the system or the Goddess.
That’s why any kind of high-powered, wide-range attack is not an option, ’cause it would also hit the Goddess and/or the system.
Even if I kept the target area limited by cranking up the power of my Dark Spears and slamming them into the shadows or something, it could still end up over penetrating a shadow and damaging the wall behind it, leading to a system failure, so I can’t do that, either.
The reason I’ve been using Spatial Separation so much in this fight is that it’s the only way I can target a precise area and still ensure high lethality.
If I didn’t have to worry about causing damage to the system or the Goddess, that would definitely open up my options, but…
Hmm.
I can feel all this wasted time slipping away.
Since my movements are so limited, I’ve even been watching a broadcast of Team Yamada’s adventures in the Great Elroe Labyrinth while I fight.
Although obviously I can’t spare the attention to do anything more than take a peek.
This is a weird situation, I tell ya, being caught in this intense nonstop shootout but having nothing much to do at the same time.
It’s like my own personal thousand-year war.
Okay, it hasn’t actually been a thousand years, but a few days actually have passed since this battle started.
Yamada and friends are breezing right along through the Great Elroe Labyrinth, while I can’t even manage to defeat a single shadow.
Which means I haven’t had time to try to slow them down, either.
WAIT. Don’t tell me this is also because of Divine Protection?!
Am I stuck in this super-long fight just so I won’t be able to stop them?!
…Okay, that’s probably overthinking it.
I’m the one who chose this moment to try and mess with the system.
I can’t just blame everything on Divine Protection. That’s no good.
Still, one way or another, this development certainly does work out in Team Yamada’s favor.
Ugh. No waaay.
I’ve gotta hurry up and make a move here.
Hrm.
Looks like these shadows never run out of steam…
Usually, anyone would lose momentum of some kind after fighting for this long.
You’d run out of stamina or magic or something like that.
Even I’m no exception—I can’t fight forever.
In my case, I’ve got tons of stored-up energy, and I’m being careful to conserve it as much as possible, which is how I’ve been able to keep it up for so long.
Not to mention that I can’t use any big moves in this room, forcing me to hold back.
The shadows, on the other hand, clearly must be going all-out.
Especially the speed shadow—it’s been going full throttle nonstop.
Yet somehow, they’ve been recklessly running at full power for days now.
Considering how strong these shadows are, it makes some sense that they’d be able to fight at full strength for a full day or so.
But several days in a row? Come on now.
They should definitely be getting winded at this point.
Since they haven’t, though, I should probably assume that they’re getting unlimited backup from the system.
That would explain why they seem to have full MP and SP at all times.
I allowed myself to get drawn into this long battle because I was hoping they would wear themselves out, but if that’s not gonna happen, I’ll have to change my approach.
I need to break out of this deadlock, even if I have to be a little more forceful than I’d like.
Especially since that multitalented shadow has whittled down the number of system-related clones quite a bit.
Once they’re all gone, it’ll probably join in attacking me next…
Would that mean curtains for me? I don’t think so, but it’d make things even more of a pain than they already are.
And there’s one more reason I want to finish this as quickly as possible, too.
If the shadows are getting backup from the system, that means the system is supplying them in energy—which means the longer we fight, the more they waste the energy we’ve saved up in the system.
The shadows probably aren’t using a huge amount of energy for this battle, but it’s still being wasted, no matter how small the amount.
That’s energy we collected by igniting a huge war and letting countless people die in battle.
I can’t have that being lost.
After all the sacrifices that created these energy stores, it would be wrong to let any more of it go to waste in this meaningless fight.
So let’s hurry up and end it.
…That being said, what am I gonna do, exactly?
I could easily wipe out all the shadows in one go, sure.
The problem is how to do it without causing any damage to the system or the Goddess.
Idea number one: Use a big wide-range blast to destroy them all and hope it doesn’t cause any extra damage.
Nope.
It’d be way too dangerous to bet everything on a risky move full of unknown variables when failure could potentially result in the end of the whole world.
Would the system really break so easily? Probably not, but the Goddess is already gone from the waist down and looking like the rest of her could vanish at any moment now.
By all appearances, she seems so weakened that a single stray missile hitting her by mistake might put her at death’s door.
If I killed her by such a stupid accident, I could never look the Demon Lord in the eye again.
Idea number two: Slowly increase the firepower of my attacks and finish off the resurrection shadow once it outclasses the defenses of the shield and barrier shadows.
This plan sounds fairly practical, but it’d actually be pretty tough to pull off…
Conjuring and magic are fairly similar.
I mean, even the magic system itself is just one big conjuring anyway.
In that way, you could say that magic is a part of conjuring.
Just like magic, conjuring requires construction, which is basically the blueprints for a spell.
You create a rune according to a pattern and fill it with energy to activate the conjuring.
Now, those blueprints actually predetermine how strong the attack is gonna be and stuff like that.
If you try to make a building bigger by just taking the blueprints and scaling ’em up as-is, for instance, it’s probably not gonna go very well.
Because when you change the size of the building, you have to change stuff like the size of the support beams, the materials, and all that jazz.
In the same way, if you want to make a conjuring stronger, you have to alter the construction.
Usually, that holds true for magic, too, but back when I had the support of the Height of Occultism skill, I could mostly change things up however I wanted.
But now that I don’t have Height of Occultism, I have to do those kinds of alterations manually.
And that’s not exactly easy.
If I just have to let loose a bunch of constructions I’ve already completed, it’s still not simple per se, but I’ve gotten the hang of it over these past few years by training myself.
Like I keep saying, constructions for conjurings are basically like blueprints: You assemble the runes in accordance with the blueprints, then fill them with energy to activate them.
If you make the same thing over and over and fill it with the same amount of energy every time, eventually, you’ll memorize even the smallest details and get that much faster at completing it.
It’s like that thing where people practice putting together a gun that’s been broken down into parts, loading it with bullets, and pulling the trigger.
Guns always have a set amount of firepower, too.
Solid example, if I do say so myself.
If you want to make it stronger, you’d have to start by going back to the drawing board and reconsidering the fundamental structure of the gun itself.
Frankly, it’s a huge pain.
If I really want to, I can tweak the power a little bit, you know?
But only very roughly.
Since I don’t know how much power it would take to bust through my opponents’ defenses, I would have to adjust my firepower very carefully.
But right now, all I can do is really broad changes—like going from a pistol to a rifle, a bazooka, and then a wave cannon.
That’s the best I can do with the conjurings I have on hand.
If I was gonna do it, I think the best way would be to try to slowly raise the power of my Dark Spears, but that would be like gradually increasing the amount of gunpowder you put into the bullets of a pistol.
Something’s bound to explode sooner or later…
But changing the conjuring itself would be like trying to turn a pistol into a rifle.
And if I shoot them with a rifle, and it ends up being too strong and plows right through and into the Goddess…
If I reeeally took my time altering the construction of my Dark Spears and testing things out, I do think it’s theoretically possible, but that could end up taking ages…
Yeah, let’s table that idea, too.
Idea number three: Summon some battle clones.
If I brought in the battle clones here, I could wipe out these stupid shadows with the strength of numbers.
There’s twelve of them, but I could call in waaay more than that and probably win with ease.
This method would be the easiest and most guaranteed way to wipe out the shadows.
I just have two concerns here.
One, because of my own mental capacity, I would have to temporarily stop all my information-gathering clones to concentrate on moving the battle clones.
Believe it or not, there is a limit to how many clones I can control at the same time, despite how amazingly awesome I am.
So for whatever amount of battle clones I bring in, I would have to stop managing the same amount of information-gathering clones.
On that note, the multitalented shadow has taken out a few of my system-related clones, freeing up a few of those spaces.
Plus, as long as I can wipe out all the shadows in a short period of time, I don’t have to stop the spy clones for too long.
And I can choose which ones to shut down from places that I probably don’t need to watch too closely.
So this one isn’t actually that big of a deal.
It’s the other concern that might be really serious.
But it might end up being an unfounded worry, too…
This might not sound super important, but basically, I’ve got a sneaking suspicion about something.
Namely: If I bring in reinforcements, won’t they do the same thing?
I mean, these guys totally look like mass-produced goods, y’know?
When you actually fight them, each of the shadows has totally unique individual abilities, but who could tell that at a glance?
They all look the same, except maybe the resurrection shadow being kinda pudgy.
And given how cookie-cutter they look, who’s to say they can’t just pop out more?
And who says that won’t be exactly what happens when they see that I’m bringing in enemy reinforcements from their point of view?
I mean, ramping up your forces to match the number of enemies is just common sense in battle.
I could try summoning just one to see what happens, but I’m afraid to do that in case they immediately double in number or something.
Hopefully I’m overthinking it, and these are the only shadows they have in store.
But this defense mechanism was created by D, sooo…
You never know what might happen.
It’s kind of impressive that she’s so dependably untrustworthy.
This could even turn into an all-out war between my clones and the shadows…
What a creepy image…
But this is the most realistic plan I’ve come up with so far, and as long as there aren’t any more shadows lying in wait, it’d be an easy win.
Hmm, hmm, hmmmm…
Well, just worrying about it won’t get me anywhere, so maybe I should just go for broke and summon a clone?
But I guess I spent too long thinking about it, because suddenly, the speed shadow is right on top of me.
Oh shit.
It’s actually gonna hit me.
Without thinking at all, I throw out my arm in a totally instinctive reaction.
That’s not gonna stop it from crashing into me…
But then the impact I’m expecting never comes, and instead, I can feel the weight of something being clutched in the hand I thrust out toward the shadow.
Oh, I see. It’s a giant white scythe.
I kinda forgot I had this thing…
I crafted this scythe with the blade of one of my own front legs before I became a god. Then when that whole thing happened, it absorbed some of the energy from a bomb that could theoretically destroy an entire continent.
It’s made from part of me, and it basically underwent deification along with me.
Which might be why it sometimes ignores my wishes and does stupid crap like this.
Admittedly, most of the time, that “stupid crap” happens to involve saving my ass when I need it the most, but still.
I definitely get the impression that this thing has a mind of its own. It’s not just my imagination, right?
Even right now, it’s totally giving off a smug aura, somehow.
I guess that’s fair, though.
Since it just magically appeared in my hour of need, rescued me from a tight spot, and totally blew away the speed shadow to boot.
Yep…
It blasted away the shadow that was charging right toward me…
Without a trace, in fact…
Well, yeah, I guess this scythe has always had some Rot attribute–like effect.
Rot is a super-dangerous attribute that obliterates the target to the point where not a speck of dust remains. For example, it slew Julius the hero without leaving any room for resistance.
I guess even these shadows don’t stand a chance against it.
And no new shadow has appeared to immediately replace their fallen comrade.
Maybe the arrival of the scythe didn’t count as reinforcements, or maybe there were never any backup shadows to begin with.
Either way, now that I’ve got a weapon that can destroy my opponents instantly, there’s no need to summon clones at all.
Okay, time to hack these guys to pieces!
I charge straight for the mist shadow and swing my scythe.
The shadow seems to know that a hit from this scythe would be bad news, and it turns into mist to try to flee.
Bwa-ha-ha-ha!
You wish, pal!
Turning into mist, which is basically just really fine particles, probably means most attacks won’t hit you.
But here’s the thing!
Rot attribute is an insta-kill attack, you know?
No matter how finely you split yourself up, all it has to do is touch one part of you, and death will spread throughout the rest of your entire body.
The scythe cuts right through the fog-like mist shadow, scattering it into nothingness.
Hot damn.
Is this weapon OP or what?
I haven’t used it lately since it tends to be a bit overkill, but this scythe sure is strong.
Looks like it should be smooth sailing (or slicing) from here on out.
The thread shadow is next.
Ten threads shoot toward me—but I’m a thread user, too.
I know all about the many ways of attacking with threads.
Fending them off is no problem for me.
In fact, all I really need to do is mow them down with my scythe, easy-peasy.
I slice right through the threads and close in on the thread shadow itself.
Just as it seems to look right at me, I feel a strange sensation throughout my body.
…Looks like it did something to me.
I resisted whatever it was, though.
It was probably a last-ditch Evil Eye, but I resist it easily and strike home with my scythe.
If that shadow had some kind of Rot-based Evil Eye move, it might’ve been a closer call.
I’m guessing the recoil from something like that would kill the user, too, but all it would need to do is have the resurrection shadow bring it back.
Then you could easily get into a terrifying pattern of self-destruction via Rot-attribute Evil Eye, resurrect, and rinse and repeat.
That probably would’ve been dangerous even for me.
My scythe is proof enough of how scary the Rot attribute is, after all.
At any rate, that’s it for the vanguard shadows.
Now I just need to take care of the rear guard—but then the multitalented shadow changes targets and comes after me instead.
It starts wildly shooting magic at me and sending each of the rainbow of floating weapons toward me one after another.
But while it’s got a lot of moves, none of them are all that strong on their own.
It’s basically just for show.
I easily fend off the magic and weapons coming my way, then slice through the multitalented shadow itself with my scythe.
Its body falls apart in two halves, then vanishes within seconds.
Oh-ho-ho.
So much for all the trouble you guys were giving me before!
Man, this feels great…
Guess I built up a lot of stress over the course of this battle that’s gone on for way too long.
It’s so refreshing to slaughter these enemies in one blow!
Yeah, I could get used to this…
All right, next, it’s finally your turn! Resurrection shadow!
I locate my target and run forward.
The shield shadow and barrier shadow are standing in my way, but that doesn’t matter now!
One swing, two swings.
That’s all it takes for the shield and barrier shadows to disappear.
Now all that’s left is the resurrection shadow standing there defenseless.
You sure made this whole thing a lot harder for me, didn’t ya?!
Bwa-ha-ha. Excuse me, please die!
I bring down my scythe.
Then a different figure pushes the resurrection shadow aside.
It’s the charm shadow, which has been putting on a pointless one-man show of cool poses this whole time.
Wow. It sacrificed itself to save the resurrection shadow.
It’s been totally useless the whole time, but it really went and pulled off some manly heroics at the last second, huh?
Too bad I’m just gonna swing my scythe right back and get the resurrection shadow, too.
Cruel?
Look, I know it’s sad, but that’s war for you.
Sometimes you just gotta mercilessly slaughter enemy soldiers!
Now all that’s left is the healer, summoner, and commander shadows, plus the last one that still hasn’t moved from its designated spot in front of the Goddess.
The former three are all gathered in one place, so I guess I’ll take them out first.
But then, before I have a chance to approach them, that last one finally makes its move instead.
Since this scythe landed in my hand, I’ve been acting like I’ve got this in the bag, but I better check myself before I wreck myself.
Somehow, I just get the feeling that I should be extra careful of this last guy.
The last shadow holds out its hand toward me.
A bad feeling prickles my skin.
Ooh, this thing’s definitely trouble…
I brace myself.
And then, the last shadow shoots a beam of light out of its hand!
Well, shit!
That’s some crazy-concentrated energy coming right at me!
Even I won’t escape unscathed if I get hit by that!
I gotta dodge—wait, no!
If I move aside, it’ll hit the wall behind me!
Then it might damage the system!
If you’re supposed to be the system’s defense mechanism, why are you using attacks that could easily hurt it?!
I brace myself and get ready to intercept it.
Holding my scythe out in front of me, I slash through the beam with its blade.
A heavy impact ripples through my hands.
The scythe’s Rot power and the beam’s intense energy are clashing, canceling each other out.
I grip the handle tightly, pushing back to make sure my scythe doesn’t get knocked aside.
Ngh!
What kind of insane energy levels must this thing be putting out that it can resist the powers of my scythe?!
This is way too different from the other shadows!
Shoot, my hands are going numb…
Right before I hit my limit, the beam finally stops.
Phew, thank goodness.
If it had gone on for one more second, my scythe was about to slip right out of my hand.
Then I would’ve taken a direct hit from the beam, and I bet it would’ve blown my body to bits.
That was waaay too close.
Once it stops emitting the beam, the last shadow doesn’t take a defensive stance—it just collapses on the spot.
Its body fades into nothing.
Wait, did that guy just put all the energy that comprised its own body into that beam of light?
Yikes, that’s a scary move…
It was crazy strong, for sure, but I dunno about throwing your life away in a literal one-shot suicide attack like that…
Now I know why that shadow didn’t move until the last minute.
If it used its attack, it would die. That’s why it waited for the crucial moment.
Rot Attack generally kills the user, too, but if you converted even your body into energy and fired it like that, doesn’t that mean your soul would get used up, too?
If so, that’s even scarier than the backlash from Rot Attack.
If your soul disappears, you can’t get resurrected, and you can’t even reincarnate.
With an attack that serious, no wonder it got so dangerously close to doing me in.
Offering up your entire self in one decisive attack to vanquish the enemy.
It could probably only do that because it was a shadow and not a human…
If any human was capable of that same feat, they’d have to be a little bit crazy, I think.
Well, that was a bigger attack than I expected, but now there’s only three left.
Might as well clean ’em up, since I doubt they’ve got any more tricks up their sleeves now.
I wipe out the swarm of beasts charging at me with a single slash and take down the summoner shadow.
The healer shadow and commander shadow can’t do anything on their own, so I take them down easily, too.
Just like that, the long battle against the shadows is finally over.
Now I’m hacking the system along with the surviving system-related clones.
That multitalented shadow reduced their numbers quite a bit.
I’m gonna have to make more…
I’d like to do that right away, but picking these locks takes priority.
Carefully, I pick the closed locks and pry them open, one by one.
So far, nothing has popped up to stop me.
I was honestly a little worried that more shadows would appear once I defeated those ones, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.
I guess once you defeat the shadows, that’s it for the defense mechanism.
Maybe it would’ve been safe to summon my battle clones after all.
But no point dwelling on that now.
It all worked out anyway, since I was able to win without them thanks to the scythe.
Maybe I should have used this thing against Julius the hero, too?
…No, I think I made the right choice back then. We couldn’t risk anything going wrong in that situation.
I used a Rot-attribute Evil Eye attack to kill Julius.
It’s an insta-kill attack, just like my scythe.
An incredibly powerful one that can kill someone just by looking at them.
But it comes at a pretty high cost.
My eyes are still damaged from using it.
The damage is so deep that not even my regenerative abilities can easily fix it.
I can use things like X-ray vision and telescopic vision, but I’m trying to hold off on using Evil Eyes style abilities; it’s not that I absolutely can’t use them, but I think it would slow down the healing process.
It’s gotten a lot better already, and I think I should be fully recovered by the time we get to the elf village even if I use an Evil Eye or two, but there’s no harm in being extra careful.
That’s also why I didn’t use any in the battle against the shadows.
I was only willing to pay that high price because the existence of the hero is just that terrifying.
On top of the obvious danger to the Demon Lord, he had the potential to kill even a god like me with that Sword of the Hero.
The fact that we couldn’t get him to waste it against the Queen clone is a serious blow.
Hyrince said he’d get rid of the Sword of the Hero, so I gave it to him, but it somehow still seems to have ended up at Yamada’s waist?
Um, helloooo?
Hyrince gave it to the third prince Leston as Julius the hero’s last request, and then Leston passed it on to Yamada as part of Julius’s will in turn.
He at least honored his promise not to reveal the nature of Julius’s Sword of the Hero to anyone else and didn’t explain it to Yamada, but still.
Leston is all well and good.
But Hyrince, what are you doing handing off such a dangerous thing to other people?!
That thing would work on me or even the real you, y’know!
What the hell was he thinking…?
Or did all that happen because of Divine Protection, too?!
Did it activate just to make sure Yamada got a powerful weapon?!
Ugh, no, that’s dumb.
I refuse to believe it.
Otherwise, my “Divine Protection is all-powerful” theory would actually be true.
I don’t know what Hyrince’s motive was, but it sure makes it a hell of a lot more dangerous to risk interfering with Yamada myself.
I guess that might even be why he did it—to make sure I don’t try anything too overt on Yamada and his friends.
Well, I suppose I can’t blame him for being wary of me, since I did murder Julius with my own hands.
If only I had succeeded in getting rid of the hero feature, this would all be a lot easier.
I leave the system-related clones in charge of all the work for a moment and walk up to the Goddess.
<Proficiency has reached the required level.>
<Experience has reached the required level.>
<Proficiency has reached the required level.>
Her mouth isn’t moving, yet her voice echoes endlessly throughout the room.
All of the world’s system messages, from level-ups to skill-ups, are sent out to every individual from this room.
The voice that relays these notices sounds flat and emotionless.
I always assumed that the Goddess had her thoughts and emotions stolen away while she’s bound to the system, rendering her a perfectly silent sacrifice.
But what if that’s not true…?
I open my eyes and look at the Goddess’s face.
When I killed Julius, my system-related clones were attacked by the shadows of the defense mechanism here just like I was before.
They had no way of defending themselves against the shadows, of course; by the time I arrived in person, the next hero had already been assigned, and my attempt to get rid of the hero function ended in failure.
Since there was no point sticking it out once my plan failed, I just gathered my system-related clones and withdrew.
Then, once the shadows went away, I sent the system-related clones back in.
Nothing about that sequence of events seemed particularly strange.
If the system’s defense mechanism was set up that way in advance, that reaction makes perfect sense.
But something about it doesn’t quite feel right to me.
Specifically: Yamada himself.
Yamada being chosen as the new hero seems way too good to be true.
He’s a reincarnation, has the extraordinary Divine Protection skill, and is even the biological younger brother of the previous hero.
When you think about it that way, sure, he seems perfectly suited to be the new hero.
And his appointment certainly did cause plenty of extra work for us on the Demon Lord side.
Surely, no one could be a better hero than that.
But is that really true, though?
I started to have my doubts when I asked about the history of heroes and demon lords past.
Because normally, when a hero or demon lord dies and the title is passed on to the next, the new one isn’t chosen directly after the previous holder dies.
There’s a delay, albeit a short one, while the system determines who is best suited to be the next hero or demon lord.
It’s because of that delay that the Demon Lord was able to use her ruler privileges to refuse that assignment so many times, before finally accepting it and becoming the demon lord this time around.
In other words, there was enough delay for the Demon Lord to have the opportunity to choose.
But that didn’t happen in Yamada’s case.
I know this because I was monitoring Yamada through a clone even as I killed Julius the hero.
Yamada became the hero at almost the exact moment Julius died.
The delay that normally occurred was completely absent.
Which makes me suspect that someone decided of their own volition that Yamada would be the next hero.
But who could have done that?
There are only two possible contenders.
D, or the Goddess here…
If it was D, that’s fine.
Knowing that voyeuristic personality, she might’ve chosen Yamada purely because it seemed entertaining.
But what if D wasn’t the culprit?
If that was the case, then I’d be a little pissed about it.
I throw my fist toward the Goddess’s face.
But then I change my mind at the last second and stop right in front of her.
…I don’t know for sure if that’s true.
To think that the Goddess would ignore the feelings of the Demon Lord, who’s been working herself to the bone trying to save the very same Goddess, and make Yamada the hero on purpose…no, that can’t possibly be the case.
Yeah, I’m just gonna pray that it’s not true.
Pray to the Goddess, as it were.
I draw back my hand, turn my back on the Goddess, and teleport away.
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