My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! - Volume 5 - Chapter 14

Chapter 14 — He Kind of Looked a Bit Like Me, Didn’t He? 

The city was called the City of the War God. Although no one knew when that name had come into use, the reason for it was clear. The ruler of the city was a man named Raiza, who called himself a God of War. He was well aware of how silly the name was, but that was exactly why he’d taken it on. There were likely plenty of people who thought the name ridiculous, but if they wanted to deny his status as a God of War, they’d need to defeat him in battle. If they didn’t recognize his status, they were more than welcome to challenge him. 

But Raiza was too strong. It was rare for anyone to challenge him, so he had tried to spread his reputation as a God of War, thinking that he might get a few reckless challengers coming to deny his claim. He wanted nothing more than to fight. He had continued to accrue strength for just that reason, but in the end that strength had prevented him from finding viable opponents. In fact, things had worked out exactly the opposite of how he’d intended. 

There was no way he could get weaker now, and going easy on others would defeat the purpose. He wanted an opponent he could fight at full strength. So he’d created a city. 

The city served two broad purposes. The first was to make Raiza’s presence known. He wanted it to be common knowledge that anyone who went there could fight him. He hoped that some challengers would eventually come forward. The second purpose it served was as a training ground. He gathered—against their will—those who showed any sort of promise and personally saw to their instruction. 

However, he was now beginning to give up on that plan. No matter how promising they were, the process of training them showed him how limited their strength really was. So he had recently trapped a number of powerful individuals inside the city, instructing them to fight each other in hopes of forcing an explosive growth within some of them. He had yet to achieve any results from that method, and while it was certainly better than sitting around and waiting for challengers to approach him, at this point it didn’t even serve as an ideal way of killing time. 

But if one were to hear his story—one who was familiar with this world—they would no doubt think of the same question. If someone wanted a powerful enemy, they needed to look no further than the Sages. So why didn’t he challenge the Sages himself? 

Unfortunately, that was not an option for Raiza. After all, he himself was a Sage. The Great Sage had forbidden them from fighting each other. No matter how strong he became, he could never violate that ironclad law. 

Raiza was covered in blood. Normally he would never get caught in the sprays of blood that spilled from his opponents, but his enemy this time had been a bit different. It was enormous, a giant so large that he had to crane his head up to look at it. It was one of those creatures known as the Aggressors. He had no idea what their objective was, but they occasionally came from other worlds to attack the locals. 

Leaping into the air, he swung his fist, knocking the giant’s head straight off its shoulders. He didn’t know what kind of being it was, or if it was even a living thing at all, but it seemed to have a heart that pumped blood through its body. A tremendous amount of it now spurted from the giant, creating a sea of red all around them, drenching him thoroughly. 

Unable to fight against the other Sages, the only opponents that offered him any sort of resistance were the Aggressors, but this time even that type of adversary had been disappointingly weak. 

“What a boring fight.” 

He hadn’t had high expectations, but fights with these invaders were his only chances to face potentially worthwhile opponents. Each time one appeared, he couldn’t help but secretly hope that it would prove a worthy rival. 

Raiza kicked at the dirt. For a moment, he soared through the air, flying towards the City of the War God. He made it home in no time at all, landing on top of the enormous tower that dominated the center of the city. 

As he landed, a woman ran up beside him. 

“Welcome back.” 

“How are things going?” 

“Pot A has reached a stalemate. Pot B has been completely wiped out. Pot C is—” 

“I don’t need all the details. Do any of them look promising?” 

“At the moment, no. However, someone has just passed through Tower B.” 

“I’ll go take a look.” 

The city used numerous methods to try to create and identify powerful individuals. “Pots” were locations where stronger individuals were trapped together and forced to fight. The “towers” were designed as obstacles for the powerful to pass through, to separate the wheat from the chaff. While Raiza welcomed challengers, fighting weaklings was a waste of his time, so he used this method to determine those who were worth his attention. 

“Tower B was being held by Alistar the Bladeless, right?” 

“He was killed instantly. I am told he was devoured without even being able to fight back.” 

“He was devoured? That sounds interesting. Such an unusual way of fighting sounds promising.” 

Raiza made to leap straight to Tower B, but the woman stopped him. “Please wait. You should at least clean yourself off first. If you meet the challenger looking like that, they’ll be quite taken aback.” 

“Ah, I suppose you’re right. Being covered in blood won’t look that scary either.” 

Raiza complied, cleaning himself up before heading on. 

The challenger on top of Tower B was a bizarre sight. 

“Can I ask a question?” Raiza asked upon seeing him. 

“What is it?” 

“You aren’t human, are you? You look more like one of the Aggressors.” 

“Do you not accept challenges from non-humans?” 

“No, it’s fine. But if I kill you right away, I won’t be able to satisfy my curiosity.” 

The challenger looked human overall, but he had a few parts too many. The upper body of a small woman was growing from one flank. From his right shoulder flared a single wing, and from his right elbow grew a leg that ended in a hoof. Raiza also recognized the arm sticking out of the challenger’s chest as being the right arm of Alistar the Bladeless. The challenger seemed to have parts of random creatures sticking out of his body all over the place. 

“I can absorb the power of anything I eat. I can’t be bothered to remember everything I’ve ever eaten, but I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them had been an Aggressor.” 

“So, that appearance is just a side effect?” 

“Who cares what I look like? All I have to do is kill you!” 

“Yeah, that’s right. Who cares what you look like? Let’s get started.” 

Raiza lowered himself into a fighting stance. He didn’t really need to, but he did it anyway out of consideration for his opponent. An instant later, the challenger was right in front of him. 

“Oh? How’d you do that?” 

“I ate the space between us. There’s nothing I can’t eat.” 

It seemed this creature could teleport. As if to show off how relaxed he was, he didn’t even attack. Raiza responded in kind. He was more interested in seeing what his challenger would do. 

“And that doesn’t just mean living things or space either,” the stranger continued. “For example, I can even eat cause and effect! That is my power! I can devour the process and get exactly the result I want!” 

As the monster disappeared, Raiza slammed the floor with his fist. “Pathetic. I was impressed by your willingness to pursue strength even if it meant turning into a freak, but if you’re going to be so pretentious about it, it’s all a waste.” 

The Sage’s fist had caught the challenger, whose body was now sandwiched between it and the floor, his head nowhere to be seen. He had been in the middle of attempting something, but Raiza had simply smashed right through him. 

The Sage had fought any number of opponents that could do things such as Phenomenon Alteration, Causality Manipulation, Dimensional Transference, and Spatial Severance. He could smash through any of those abilities with his instincts alone. 

“He kind of looked a bit like me, didn’t he?” 

He had previously been distracted by his challenger’s freakish nature, but thinking about it now, the monster had looked somewhat familiar. Rampaging around random towns and impregnating random women was part of Raiza’s daily routine. It wasn’t to fulfill some desire for destruction or rampant lust, though. He was merely trying to engender a true, pure hatred towards himself in hopes that it would cause his victims to seek revenge against him. 

“Pretty pathetic for one of my brats.” 

He had no interest in one of his own children if they were that weak. The realization only made him feel more empty. 

The woman that Euphemia had turned into a vampire was called Elmoa. Her job was to put together a group whose sole purpose was to generate hatred towards Raiza, and to take them around the country. The group was made up of Raiza’s abandoned children, and they were allowed to do anything they liked as long as it served his purpose. Of course, if they were left entirely to their own devices, they could wipe a city out in no time. That’s why supervisors like Elmoa were needed. 

“You bitch! How can you talk about it so calmly?!” Darf surged to his feet, kicking away his chair. 

The only ones currently in the restaurant were Yogiri, Tomochika, Euphemia, and the restaurant staff, Orie and Darf, as they questioned Elmoa. They were all sitting in random seats around the room. 

“Excuse me, calm down for a second,” Tomochika said, grabbing Darf by the collar and forcing him back into his chair with one smooth motion. “We’re trying to listen to her story.” 

“But she’s the one who’s been leading these rampages through our town!” 

“And we’re the ones who stopped them,” Yogiri returned, exasperated. “Now we need as much information from her as we can get. Can you let us work for a bit?” 

Darf replied with a sullen grunt, averting his eyes. But in spite of his reluctance, he stood down. 

“All right, so we know that Raiza is a disgusting person,” Yogiri continued. “Where is he now?” 

“He is in the City of the War God. Lord Raiza never strays far from there.” 

“What’s going on with her right now?” Yogiri asked Euphemia. “Is she completely under your control?” He felt a little uneasy, as her respect for Raiza didn’t seem blunted in the least by her transformation. 

“It does seem a bit strange, doesn’t it?” 

“Strange as in...she was already under someone else’s control?” He figured these types of mind control powers worked on a first come, first served basis, but that wasn’t actually the case. 

“Those under my control aren’t completely robbed of their will,” Euphemia explained. “Their original personalities are maintained, only with a sense of loyalty to me added to that. In her case, her loyalty and fear of this Raiza are engraved so deeply into her psyche that they’ve become a fundamental part of who she is.” 

“Well, as long as she can talk, I guess it doesn’t matter.” He supposed if the people being controlled couldn’t act on their own to some degree, it would be hard for the vampire to make much use of them. 

Moving on, Yogiri asked Elmoa how to get to the City of the War God. Apparently, it wasn’t hard to find. It was a city with a tower so large that they could already see it from where they were, and all they had to do was walk straight towards it. There were no restrictions on who could enter, so they would be able to get in without issue. 

“He’s looking for people to fight him, right? Which means anyone can go in?” 

“Anyone who reaches the minimum level can face him. There are selection trials available to confirm that you meet the requirements.” 

From what she told them, the city itself was fairly large, and within it were a number of trials to sort the potential challengers into groups. The large tower in the distance was just one of those facilities. 

“What is Raiza’s ability?” 

“He doesn’t have any particular power that stands out. He’s just incredibly strong. None of the people in this room are strong enough to stand before him.” 

“You mean we wouldn’t pass the trials?” 

“No, I imagine even a single one of his breaths would kill the lot of you.” 

“That seems a bit much,” Tomochika replied, sinking into thought. 

Yogiri recalled the Sages they had met so far. They had all been quite powerful, but none had seemed as oppressively strong as this Raiza. It was possible he was the strongest of the Sages. 

“Does he have a Philosopher’s Stone?” Yogiri asked. 

“I’m not sure.” 

“I guess I’ll have to ask him directly, then.” 

Yogiri’s only objective was to collect the Philosopher’s Stones held by the Sages so that he could use them to get back to Japan. No matter what sort of hatred he might personally feel towards Raiza, it wasn’t enough to justify killing him. Furthermore, if he killed him while the stone was inside his body, it would lose its power. He would need to be very careful in dealing with this guy. 

“I guess I’ll go by myself this time,” he suggested, satisfied with the interrogation. 

“That’s probably for the best. If he can kill us just by breathing, the rest of us will only slow you down.” 

Up until now, everyone they had fought had attacked them first, but this time they knew where their enemy was, so they could make thorough preparations. There was no need to take Tomochika with him this time. When it came to defeating an enemy, Yogiri was more than capable of doing it alone. There was still a risk in leaving Tomochika behind, but it seemed significantly less dangerous than taking her along this time. 

“Do you not need to take Elmoa with you?” Euphemia asked. 

“If everyone is allowed in, I shouldn’t need a guide.” 

“What do you plan on doing with her?” Orie interjected, breaking her silence. 

“Hmm. I didn’t really think about what we’d do with her in the future,” Euphemia replied. 

“I guess turning people into vampires willy-nilly has its own problems.” Tomochika once again sank into thought along with the half-demon. Once a person became a vampire, there was no going back. Such transformations should probably be well thought through beforehand. 

“We’re going to pay her back, aren’t we?!” Darf interjected. “Do you realize what she’s done to us?!” 

“So you plan on doing to her what she did to me?” Orie challenged. 

“W-Well...” Darf hesitated. 

“There’s no point in taking your anger out on her.” 

From the siblings’ perspective, having Raiza’s subordinates killed wasn’t worth much. As long as Raiza himself was alive, there would be any number of underlings to replace those who fell. Even if they could vent their anger on her now, it would only bring about a worse fate for them later on. 

“Could you please take her away?” Orie asked. 

“I suppose so. Now that she is my slave, I do have some responsibility for her.” 

“Oh, how about this?” Tomochika suddenly had an idea. “She’ll do whatever you ask, right? Why not send her back to this Raiza guy and get her to stop the others from rampaging around?” While it was likely a futile attempt, it was better than not trying anything at all. 

Yogiri felt that Tomochika’s plan had some merit, but they weren’t able to put it into action. The moment the suggestion was made, Elmoa punched a hand into her own chest and crushed her heart. 

“Huh? What? Was that my fault?!” Tomochika immediately began to panic as Elmoa fell to the floor. 

“I guess I was a bit naive,” Euphemia observed, looking down at the lifeless woman. “I prevented her from attacking anyone else, but I never thought to stop her from harming herself.” 

The heart was one of the weaknesses of a normal vampire. An Origin Blood wouldn’t be killed by something so trifling, but a freshly turned vampire like Elmoa wouldn’t be anywhere near that resilient. 

“I suppose she couldn’t bear the idea of disobeying Raiza’s orders,” Yogiri mused. “It’s impressive how much you can control someone through fear.” It was becoming increasingly evident that bringing Tomochika with him would be a bad idea. “Anyway, we can at least travel together until we get close to the City of the War God. But I’ll be the only one who goes inside.” 

Yes, about that, Mokomoko cut in. I find it hard to believe anything could happen to the boy, but I’m not sure we can trust his judgment when he is alone. 

“Do you want to come too, Mokomoko? I thought you couldn’t leave Tomochika’s side.” 

Mokomoko was a ghost, so she hardly needed protection. And she would be good to bring along as someone to talk to, but the distance would be a problem. 

Fear not, I have a solution for that as well! 

They listened to Mokomoko’s plan.