The “God”
Satou here. A furious battle against a powerful, worthy opponent is great fun in video games, but I’ve never once wanted to fight a strong enemy in real life. I’d much prefer to live my life on easy mode.
“What’s that?”
As I fought the manticore that was bound down in glowing blue chains, a powerful “Sense Danger” reaction behind me made me turn around.
Something was happening in the area where they were performing the Evil-Cleansing Ceremony, beyond the thick fog the manticore had created.
My “Sense Danger” skill had never reacted so strongly before.
This must be pretty bad news.
“…Huh?”
For just a moment, there was a purple flash of light past the fog.
“Sir Pendragon! Don’t get distracted!”
Just as I heard Sir Juleburg shout, the manticore’s scorpion tail crashed toward me.
I immediately moved to parry it, then stopped and let the blow knock me in the direction where I’d felt the “Sense Danger” reaction.
“Satou!” Helmina cried.
Twisting around in midair, I saw dark purple pillars rising into the air from the center of the ceremony.
Several fractal-patterned magic circles made up of smaller, intricate magic circles were growing and spreading out from the pillars like waves.
That included the ground I landed on.
At the same time, the range of my “Sense Danger” grew larger.
I’ve got to erase these things.
As soon as I landed, I used Break Magic from my magic menu.
The magic circles cracked and broke into shards of violet light—but only a small portion of them.
“…They grew back?”
The nearby magic circles resonated and rebuilt the ones I had broken.
Using Mana Drain from my magic menu made the targeted magic circles disappear, but they disconnected from the adjacent magic circles, preventing the effect from spreading. And as soon as I stopped absorbing their mana, the magic circles grew back.
“Whoa!”
Something floated up into the sky from the center of the fog.
I started to follow it, only to be met with a glob of pink flying at me.
While the “Magic Power Armor” I immediately produced protected me from harm, it slowed my movements by a moment—although otherwise, the panic from my “Sense Danger” skill would’ve prompted me to fly into the sky while still dressed as Satou.
“You’re a tough one, boing.”
It was a pink demon with an unstable form—one of the annoying ones that could slip into so-called gaps.
“Looks like you’re different from the last one.”
“Boing? Have you fought us, the servants of the pink lord, before, boing?”
There was no time for pointless conversations.
I used my mithril sword to slash the pink demon’s core in two.
“Cutting attacks don’t affect us—boing?”
The boing demon lost its form and fell to the ground, turning into black mist and vanishing.
“Master, above you! Something’s happening! It’s bad news in the sky, too!”
I heard Arisa shouting through Tactical Talk.
Looking up, I saw thick clouds forming and swirling above us, possibly created by the magic circles that were beginning to rotate and send up purple sparks.
The rays of the sun could no longer reach the royal capital through the thick vortex of clouds, and a cold, ominous wind began to blow.
“It’s the mastermind at work. My Break Magic couldn’t stop it. Arisa, can you or Mia do anything about it with magic?”
“No way.”
“Your Break Magic didn’t work, master? I have magic-disrupting Space Magic and Fire Magic spells, but they’re not as strong as yours.”
I was afraid of that.
“All right. Get everyone together and change into your gold armor. I’ll give more orders soon.”
“Okey-dokey! The golden knights will get ready to roll!”
Hopefully that wouldn’t be necessary, since things looked really bad this time around.
I kept that thought to myself as I turned my attention away from Tactical Talk and transformed into Nanashi the Hero.
“Can you hear me, Your Highness?”
I contacted the king with Telephone and told him to evacuate immediately.
Considering the obvious irregularities at hand, the king didn’t object, and the dots indicating him and the prime minister on my radar started moving. The feudal lords and ministers also followed behind the king.
The rest of the people present began evacuating with the protection of the imperial knights.
“Lord Satou!”
Someone came toward me through the fog.
Geh, it’s the princess.
She must have seen me get knocked back and come to check on me.
I could see her guards and ladies-in-waiting following her through the fog.
I guess I can’t just leave her here.
I used Magic Hand to grab the princess and her entourage and took them all with me to teleport to a point near the king’s office.
“Wh-where are we?”
“““Your Highness!”””
As the princess and company exclaimed in surprise at the sudden teleportation, I flew up into the air.
“Nanashi the Hero!”
“You should get out of here. It’s dangerous, and the king will be worried.”
“But that’s—what about Lord Satou? Where is he?”
The princess started to object, then panicked when she saw that Satou wasn’t here.
“You mean the boy who got sent flying by the manticore? Don’t worry, I already dropped him somewhere safe.”
I kept floating higher as I spoke, then used “Flashrunning” to speed toward a shadow floating near the magic circle in the air, which was probably some kind of summoning circle.
I’ll knock him out first.
I threw a flying kick toward the figure hovering near the magic circle, only to be blocked by a dark violet spherical barrier.
The barrier sent out a shock wave that knocked me backward.
“An attack from behind is a bit cowardly, wouldn’t you agree?”
The person turned.
“Cardinal?”
Though he looked different without his trademark turban, it was undoubtedly Cardinal Hozzunas of Parion Province. For some reason, a tuft of his hair was dyed purple.
His priestly robes were now inky blank, sleeves fluttering unnaturally.
“And you are? Judging by your actions, I must assume you are not here to celebrate the advent of our god, hmm?”
“I’m Nanashi. A hero from the Shiga Kingdom.”
The advent of a god…?
“What god? Do you mean Parion?”
At that, the cardinal’s expression showed a mixture of scorn and bemusement.
“Parion is no god of mine.”
He practically spat the goddess’s name.
An AR display popped up next to his face. It showed two titles I had never seen before: Devil Worshipper and Devil Protector.
Don’t tell me…
“Are you trying to summon the Evil God to the royal capital?”
“That’s correct.”
Seriously?!
I assumed it was going to be a demon or a demon lord, but this was even worse. And the most alarming part of all was that the patterns in the magic circles looked like it might actually work.
“Our god was trapped by the craft designs of the foolish false idols and sealed within the moon. But we shall create a temporary form to summon him to this land!”
Well, that’s a small comfort. At least it wasn’t going to be a complete summoning.
Still, I really didn’t want to fight what Doghead had described as a superior version of me.
“Sorry, but I’m going to stop this ritual even if I have to kill you.”
While I never wanted to take any lives, this situation might call for it.
“It’s too late. You cannot stop the summoning, even if you do kill me. This magic circle will be our god’s guide to descend. It is a true miracle born of the Evil Philosophia created by the Holy Staff and the divine ability given me by the true god.”
Divine ability from a god… Did he mean a Unique Skill?
I opened the detailed information about Cardinal Hozzunas in my AR display.
Unlike the last time I looked, he now had the Unique Skill “Call Immortal.”
The Evil God–related titles were new, too. There were also new skills like “Interrogation,” “Torture,” “Seduction,” “Charm Person,” and Summoning Magic, not that it mattered at this point. Sure, it made it more likely that the cardinal was the one who’d summoned the imp, but it was a little late for that now.
“Cardinal of the Parion Province… So your true identity is a reincarnation and a leader of the demon lord–worshipping group Light of Freedom?” I muttered the truth that was previously hidden in his job field.
“I see. When I lost my hand as a price for ‘Call Immortal,’ I must have dropped my Brace…”
He raised his arm; his hand was missing from the wrist down, turned into salt and scattered on the wind.
The fact that I was able to see his AR information now that he’d lost his Brace of Stolen Divinity meant that the device had been strong enough to fool even my AR.
For the sake of my sanity, I desperately hoped that there weren’t many other Sacred Treasures or Artifacts that worked the same way.
“Let me correct one of your assumptions. I am no reincarnation. This streak of violet hair is a stigmata from my revered god. Proof that I received a share of a divine ability.”
“An ability? From who?”
“I’m afraid that is a secret. A Geis is quite strong, you know.”
Evidently, someone had placed him under a Geis.
“Your Majesty, seems like they’re trying to summon an evil god.”
“Wh-what?!”
“Evacuate the citizens to a safe place. And if possible, I could use some help destroying the magic circle.”
“Understood.”
As I tried to get information out of the cardinal, I used Telephone to request aid from the king.
While I was at it, I also contacted the Echigoya Company manager to have her evacuate everyone to safety.
Whoa!
Two telephone pole–size transparent spears came flying at me from the side. I hurriedly took evasive action.
I nearly didn’t notice them because the powerful “Sense Danger” reaction from the magic circle almost drowned everything else out.
A newcomer?
I turned toward the source of the attack and saw yet another giant spear coming at me.
Gah!
This time, the spear exploded when it got near me like a missile with a proximity fuze, raining glass-like shards at me.
I activated “Magic Power Armor” as I dodged with “Flashrunning.”
“Target sighted. Eliminating now.”
A silver-haired beauty assailed me with long, thin claws, emitting the same glittering light as the telephone pole–size spears.
I brought Claidheamh Soluis out of Storage to block her attack.
“Master, is that a new opponent? Should I have Lulu snipe her? Or Mia can send a pseudo-spirit to back you up?”
“…No, I’m fine. But if anything comes out of the magic circle, attack it on sight.”
I spoke to Arisa through Tactical Talk as I blocked the silver-haired girl’s barrage of attacks.
According to my AR, she was a dragon’s-blood homunculus called Homu-Homu (temp.).
I only noticed her bat-like silver wings and scale-covered tail when she used them to block my sword at point-blank range.
“Homu-Homu, the summoner with the Unique Skill is the other guy! I’ll take care of him; you keep the purple-haired one busy!”
“Order received, Mito. Suppressing purple-haired opponent.”
The distant voice came from a black-haired girl clad in white robes, flying up through the air.
Transparent weapons floated around her, likely the work of Practical Magic, following her movements like support items from a shooting game.
Her name was Mito, as Homu-Homu had called her; her face was covered with a veil, as if she didn’t want anyone to recognize her. This must be the same woman Zena and Nana’s sisters told me about.
She was level 89 with a magic battle-based skill set. She had a ton of titles, too: Hermit, Hero, True Hero, King, Ancestral King—wait, what?
Mito had a hidden second name.
Yamato Shiga.
Evidently, she was the actual Yamato the Hero who had founded the Shiga Kingdom.
She had another name, too, but I had no time to worry about that right now.
“Stop! I’m not your enemy.”
“Sub-master Mito’s orders are absolute.”
Since Homu-Homu wasn’t listening, I used my “Gap Defense” and “Flashrunning” skills to leave her behind and flew toward Mito.
Up ahead, I could see her and the cardinal locked in a furious exchange of blows befitting two high-level opponents.
The weapons floating around Mito blocked the dark purple tentacles that flew out of the cardinal’s hands, and Mito used multiple kinds of magic to assail him.
But the spherical violet barriers forming around the cardinal blocked all her magic.
They weren’t strong enough to hold up to advanced attack magic, but by the time Mito launched her next spell, a new barrier was already forming.
“My dear citizens, listen close…”
A three-dimensional projection of the king appeared above the royal castle and in several other places throughout the royal capital.
The king told the citizens to evacuate immediately, directing them to underground shelters. Whatever City Core power or magic device was powering this, it was a great way to make an emergency broadcast. The soldiers and guards began helping people evacuate immediately.
I decided to let them handle things on the ground and turned back toward Mito and the cardinal, still locked in battle.
Mito was running out of floating weapons to protect her.
“<Dance,> Claidheamh Soluis!”
The scripture activated my Holy Sword, which split into thirteen thin blades and flew into the air.
The pieces of Claidheamh Soluis floated over to surround Mito and slash away the tentacles attacking her.
“Huh? Claidheamh Soluis?”
“Mito! That’s the guy who plotted this summoning!”
As Mito looked around in surprise, I called out the truth to her.
“What are you saying?! So you would betray our cause?!” The cardinal smirked as he lied through his teeth to complicate the situation.
“Shut up!” I shouted back.
Hesitant, Mito looked at me. She must be analyzing me.
“You…don’t have a name? Mystic Camouflage?”
“Look at my titles! I’m Nanashi the Hero of the Shiga Kingdom!”
Ignoring the unfamiliar term, I directed Mito away from my blank name field toward what I wanted her to see.
“Nanashi the Hero? …A True Hero!”
“Exactly!” I shouted back, fending off attacks from Homu-Homu as she caught up to me.
“Homu-Homu, that guy’s not our enemy. It’s the one with the tentacles!”
“Target reassignment order accepted.”
Once Homu-Homu began attacking the cardinal, I switched Claidheamh Soluis from protecting Mito to backing up the homunculus, positioning myself to protect Mito if needed.
“Mito, can you break that magic circle floating in the air?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
As Mito looked up at the magic circle, the veil hiding her face fluttered enough for me to catch a glimpse of what lay beneath.
Her face looked a lot like Nanashi’s—the one I modeled after an adult version of my childhood friend.
“…Hikaru?”
“H-how do you know that name?”
Mito was thoroughly taken aback when I muttered the name without thinking.
I looked again at her other name in my AR display.
There was no doubt about it; it was the real name of my old childhood friend.
But we didn’t have time to question each other’s identities right now.
“I’ll explain later! Just focus on destroying that magic circle, please!”
“…Got it.”
Mito used a chant-less spell to obliterate a piece of the circle, but it rebuilt within seconds.
She tried another kind of magic, too, which only led to the same result.
“I knew it, greater magic isn’t enough. I’ll have to use my trump card. Keep him off me while I chant, okay?”
“Sure.”
I nodded, and Mito began a chant.
If Mito was taking the extra time for a chant even though she could use chant-less magic, it must be some kind of forbidden curse. That was the only explanation I could think of.
“That forbidden curse seems a touch dangerous. I could easily stop her were it not for those blasted Holy Swords…,” the cardinal muttered.
He must not have been able to move freely with the spherical barriers active.
“To realize our great ambition, to manifest our great god…”
Whatever he was muttering didn’t seem like a chant or anything, and since the tentacle attacks had paused, I took that moment to make my move.
First I brought the Holy Sword Durandal out of Storage and tried slashing at him, but it felt like when I hit Doghead’s “Anti-Physical Barrier.”
“Mana Drain” and Break Magic didn’t work on the spherical barriers, either; maybe they were related to his Unique Skill.
If physical attacks won’t work, I’ll just use magic.
I selected Laser from the magic menu and fired at the cardinal’s spherical barriers.
The laser bounced off the spherical surface, though it did leave a faint crack.
A stronger spell could probably break through. When Mito’s advanced attack magic destroyed the spherical barriers, they immediately produced new ones; maybe a concentrated laser attack with continuous destructive power could pierce them for good.
The problem was that the shock waves from destroying the barriers would definitely kill the cardinal.
I told him that I would stop this even if I had to kill him, but I still hesitated despite myself.
“…I offer my body as sacrifice. Come to me from the demon world, O demon rulers.”
Violet light shimmered over the cardinal’s body.
Was he trying to summon demons with his Unique Skill?
The answer soon made itself clear. A crack appeared in the air next to the cardinal, and an ashen hand emerged from within.
It was a level-50 lizard-headed intermediate demon with ram-like horns.
“Homu-Homu, get back and protect Mito!”
Even with Mito’s support magic on her, Homu-Homu was only level 40. This would likely be too much for her.
Homu-Homu and Claidheamh Soluis broke away from fighting the cardinal’s tentacles to reposition in front of Mito.
“I’ll take care of these guys.”
“What a gallant hero.” The cardinal looked amused. “But I’m not done yet, you know.”
Several more waves of purple light coursed through his body. At the same time, his shoes turned into white crystals and crumbled away, his pant legs flapping as white powder fell through.
I guess that’s what he meant by “I offer my body as sacrifice.”
“Do you intend to fight an entire army from the demon world?”
As the cardinal spread his arms wide, countless cracks appeared behind him, demons appearing one after another.
It was a terrifying number; I could see why he described it as an army.
The demons emerging in all shapes and sizes lined up behind him, like an army from hell prepared to do battle with the forces of heaven.
Several noticeably larger cracks formed with a quake in the air, and truly gigantic demons emerged.
“G-greater demons…,” Homu-Homu whispered behind me in horror.
She was right; they were undoubtedly greater demons, the most powerful kind.
The demons spread their wings, shrouded in dark miasma, and launched ponderously into the sky above the royal capital.
If there were a minstrel here, they might have described these demons as death incarnate, a symbol of destruction and despair.
“H-Hero…”
Homu-Homu scooped Mito into her arms and retreated.
Mito continued her chant, but her voice was more shaken than before.
So the army of demons appearing before me was enough to frighten even the ancestral king Yamato, who defeated one of the three greatest demon lords.
“Heh-heh-heh… Looks like your friends decided to retreat.”
The cardinal sneered down at us.
This must be his true personality, hidden beneath the virtuous guise.
“Nanashi the Hero… Do you really think you can stand up to my forces alone?”
Behind the triumphant-looking cardinal, the demons used support magic on each other, preparing for battle. In my AR display, their attack and defense power skyrocketed.
They already outnumbered me, and now they were making themselves even stronger.
It certainly seemed like a hopeless situation.
Except…
“I’m not alone.”
A blue ball of light pierced through the sky and struck one of the greater demons in the face, exploding on impact.
It was, of course, from Lulu’s Acceleration Gun.
“Impossible! A second-named greater demon brought down by a single attack?”
The exceptional power was likely because she’d used a specially made Holy Bullet I’d overcharged with magic.
I’m sure it was Arisa’s order to boldly use one of our limited supply of overcharged bullets as the first attack.
“Golden knights, assemble!” Arisa exclaimed through Tactical Talk, and I heard each member of the group respond.
“Feather Storm.”
Mia’s voice echoed, and golden feathers flew from behind to slice through the ranks of lesser and intermediate demons, burning them away and slowing the greater demons’ movements.
“Tally-hooo…?”
“Hally-to, sir!”
Next, enormous balls of flame engulfed the greater demons.
Those were from the six-chambered Magic Cannons mounted on the airship.
A moment later, our airship came into view from the direction of the royal capital park, with the rest of my group aboard. Arisa appeared to be steering at the moment.
“Liza, demon incoming! A fast one!”
A rocket-like demon flew toward the airship at high speed.
“Draco Buster!”
Standing at the bow, Liza destroyed the demon just as it flew past.
The tentacles it launched in its final moments twined around her legs, wrenching her off the airship.
“Liza!”
“On it.”
The Garuda flying alongside the airship spread its wings, catching Liza.
I wish they wouldn’t do things like that—I nearly had a heart attack.
“So this is the attack that destroyed the Ancient Dogheaded King and the Golden Boar Lord!”
As he watched this unfold, the cardinal exclaimed an incorrect assumption.
“You ready to surrender?”
“Such foolishness…! <Open>!”
An Item Box opened next to the cardinal.
His tongue shot out in the form of a tentacle and swallowed something jet-black through a hole at the end. I shot a concentrated laser immediately, but the spherical barrier delayed it just long enough to be too late.
The black object I saw for just a moment was labeled Evil Philosophia Fragment.
“Nnngh… GRAAAAAAAH!”
Even though the cardinal hadn’t screamed when my concentrated laser carbonized part of his face and shoulder at point-blank range, now he was tearing at his chest and bellowing.
Poison?
“If it will summon my LORD… I will sacrifice EVERYthing with no REGRETS.”
The cardinal’s voice turned ragged as he spoke.
I thought for a second that he was committing suicide by poison, but apparently I was wrong.
“GUARGRGHOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”
The cardinal’s skin turned black, the surface of his body rippled, and his clothes tore away to expose an armor-like shell. His now-insectoid body was covered in dark violet gems and crystalline patterns. There was something very sinister about it.
His title now read Martyr in my AR display, and his race had changed to Miasma Demon.
He didn’t appear to be a demon lord, but I sensed that he was even more powerful than the greater demons around him. This was one opponent I couldn’t take lightly.
The cardinal’s body continued to transform.
His neck stretched beneath his still-handsome features, and the tentacles at the ends of his wrists branched off and curled in the air.
“So you’re not even human anymore?”
APWUOSSSSS.
The cardinal howled like a demon.
His transformation must have gone so far that he couldn’t even converse anymore.
APWUOSSSSS.
Waves of violet light continued to run across the surface of the cardinal’s transfigured body, summoning more and more demons.
I focused my eyes on the cardinal.
I’d hoped that he might turn back to normal if I made him cough up that Evil Philosophia Fragment, but my “Search Entire Map” no longer showed it inside his stomach.
There would likely be no miracle for him, unlike the time when Sir Gouen was absorbed by the Demonic Heart.
Just as I took aim with my concentrated laser at the head of the cardinal—or rather, the Miasma Demon—Arisa sent word through Tactical Talk.
“Master, east! Tama is sensing something to the east!”
…East?
My radar didn’t show anything.
Opening my map, I saw a point of light approaching from far off in the east faster than the speed of sound.
“Message from my master. ‘Take shelter,’ she says.”
With that declaration, Homu-Homu carried Mito, who was still chanting, even farther from the magic circle.
Oh no—
“Get the airship away from the demons and the magic circle!”
It was no use. They wouldn’t make it in time.
“Nana! Skip the precheck and activate Mobile Fortress, stat!”
“Yes, master.”
The airship changed its course, and the Mobile Fortress feature I’d built into it activated.
An instant later, there was a blinding flash of light, and a massive ray swept across the demons.
Most of the demons were obliterated instantly, and even the greater demons that managed to defend themselves were left smoking and half-dead.
The Miasma Demon’s spherical barriers were blown away as well, and its body was charred behind the burnt remains of the tentacle it must have used to defend itself. Judging by his health bar, he had just barely survived.
“Wh-what was that?”
“‘Dragon Breath.’”
It was unbelievably powerful for something that had been fired from so far away.
No wonder people said that dragons caused even more damage than demon lords when they joined the fray.
“Is anyone hurt?”
“No, we’re fine—gwaaaaaaah!”
The silver sky dragon blew through at subsonic speed, its massive 300-yard-long body sending off shock waves that tossed the airship around.
ABQUOZZZZ.
The sky dragon caught the Miasma Demon in its jaws as it flew past us.
Then its fangs pierced the demon’s body, pulverizing it without leaving a trace.
“Master! The magic circle!”
“I know!”
Even before Arisa said anything, I’d already noticed that the magic circle had begun flashing frantically, as if it might summon something at any moment.
Just as the cardinal said, the magic circle hadn’t disappeared even with the summoner gone.
At this rate, we wouldn’t be able to avoid fighting an evil god.
I whirled to look at Mito, our last shred of hope.
“…… Divine Destruction Shin’i Houmajin!!!”
Mito lifted her staff, and her voice rang out across the sky, raining wind chime–like sounds down all over the royal capital.
An instant later, Mito’s magic wiped out the magic circle covering the royal capital without a trace.
“Is it over?”
“Master, don’t jinx it! Down below! There’s still the magic circle on the ground!”
Arisa yelled at me for letting slip a portentous comment.
“It’s fine—see?”
As Mia spoke, lights appeared all over the ground, forming together and striking the magic circle.
There was a sound like countless glass panes shattering, and the magic circle broke apart.
“Athena.”
The Shiga Thirty-Three Staves had used a synchronized spell to destroy the magic circle on the ground.
“Wow, I guess they’re not half-bad.”
“Stuck-up.”
Mia scolded Arisa for her superior-sounding compliment.
“Master, the clouds are clearing up, I report.”
Nana was right: The vortex of clouds that had formed above the magic circle was clearing away.
As light shone down through the dispersing clouds, the airship came closer, and I landed on its deck.
“I guess that settles things for now?”
I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Master, it’s not over yet!”
“Tama is really scared, sir.”
When I landed on the airship deck, everyone ran over to me except for Arisa, who was still piloting the ship.
The clouds had cleared away, but the sky began to darken.
It was an eclipse. The sun was being covered by the shadow of the moon at an unnatural rate.
“Satou! This is bad. The spirits are upset. They’re going to cry. They’re all fleeing toward the ground! They’re afraid of what’s above, up in the sky.”
A rare speech from Mia emphasized the danger as I gazed up at the violet-tinted moon now covering the sun completely.
Three dark lines appeared in front of the purple moon.
As soon as I saw them, I was paralyzed by a full-body chill, as if an icicle had bored into my spine.
Even with “Fear Resistance” at maximum, it wasn’t enough.
I couldn’t fully shake off the fear.
I remembered what the cardinal had said: “It’s too late.”
And not long after: “This magic circle will be our god’s guide to descend.”
Were those three lines a portent of the god’s appearance? Or vestiges of a failed summoning?
They were too far away to show on my map, but I knew it couldn’t be good.
“Masterrr…”
“Satou…”
Tama burrowed under my cloak and clung to my leg, trembling.
Mia grabbed on tightly to the other leg.
For now, it seemed like the three of us were the only ones who realized how terrifying those three black lines really were.
“They’re huge…”
The lines looked to be around ten yards wide, six miles tall, shaped like human shadows but much too thin…
They only looked thicker when I first saw them because the black lines were absorbing light.
They descended slowly, hovering some five hundred yards above the royal castle.
It was then that they finally entered the range of my map.
The information said only UNKNOWN, the same message I’d seen from the mysterious little girl who’d made quick work of Doghead.
“This is bad, this is really, really bad. We’re in trouble.”
“Let’s leeeave…?”
Mia and Tama trembled.
I didn’t want to push them away when they were scared, but I had a feeling that this thing would destroy the royal capital if it made a move.
“Stay on the airship, all of you. I’ll take care of this part.”
I gently pulled the pair off me and handed them over to Liza and Lulu.
“Master, what is that? Is it really that bad?”
“Yeah. It’s worse than a demon lord.”
As I responded to Arisa through Tactical Talk, I used “Skyrunning” to head over to Mito and Homu-Homu, who were staring up into the sky near the airship.
“Do you know what that is?”
“Uh-huh. It doesn’t look exactly like last time, but it’s an Evil God’s Spawn, a piece of the Evil God that’s been partially summoned.”
Mito’s face was pale.
She seemed to be one of us who could tell how terrifying this thing was.
“You’ve seen one before?”
“Yeah, although it was more like a black slime that time.”
“How did you defeat it then?”
“There’s no normal way to beat it. Swords and magic won’t work. Only a god, or a demi-god like Sky, stands a chance of damaging it.”
Mito looked up at the sky dragon circling in the sky.
“Last time, Sky called the Dragon God, who defeated it for us.”
That wasn’t going to happen this time.
Because I had accidentally killed the Dragon God.
“Thanks for the information. Leave the rest to me.”
“Huh? Leave it to you…? It might be a Spawn, a fragment, but it’s still a god, you know.”
“Don’t worry…”
I used “Skyrunning” to float off the deck of the airship.
“…This isn’t my first time killing a god.”
Mito stared at me in stunned silence. I smiled at her and headed off to face the three lines.
“Arisa, take the airship outside the royal capital at full speed. Be ready to use teleportation so you can get away if things go wrong.”
I gave orders to Arisa, who was still in the pilot’s seat.
“No! I can’t do that!”
“That’s right, sir! Allies of justice never run away, sir!”
“Pochi is right! Who will protect the people of the royal capital if we run away?!”
Arisa and Pochi protested.
“We’ll let you take care of bringing it down, master. But we’re going to save anyone who hasn’t gotten out of the city yet!”
“Master, I agree with Arisa!”
“Master, the larvae must be protected.”
Lulu and Nana chimed in.
“I’m scared, but I’ll fiiight…?”
“Yes, I’ll do everything I can.”
Tama and Liza agreed, too.
“All right. You guys protect the royal capital.”
My response was met with a chorus of cheers.
“But! You have to swear not to overdo it! If I give the signal, you get out of there with Arisa’s teleportation! Got it?”
I had to make sure they knew that this situation was dead serious.
“Wait, I’m coming, too.”
Mito jumped into the air behind me as I headed for the three lines.
“No need. Hate to say it, but you’ll only slow me down.”
I was a little harsh because it would be too dangerous for her to come along.
“…Fine. At least let me support you, then.”
Mito used a chant-less support spell on me.
Wow. It was sparkling too much to be even remotely stealthy, but the stats of my weapons and armor were nearly tripled.
“Satou.”
The Garuda cut through the air to fly up to my side.
Arisa and Mia were riding on its head.
“Here’s a special strengthening present from your beloved Arisa!”
A surge of strength heated my body.
It was Arisa’s advanced Fire Magic spell Body Strengthening.
“And here’s a bonus!”
She used a Space Magic protection spell, too.
Arisa and Mia both teleported on top of Mito.
“Wh—aaaaaah!”
Hanging off of Mito, Arisa grabbed Homu-Homu’s hand and teleported all four of them back to the airship.
Garuda was still floating beside me.
Maybe as my bodyguard?
“““You can do it, master!”””
Arisa and the others all called out encouragement through Tactical Talk.
The airship headed off to rescue the people left in the royal capital suburbs, with my group and Mito aboard.
“I guess I should go, too.”
I used “Flashrunning” to move toward the three lines floating above me.
Wonder if we’ll be able to talk it out…
“It’s huge…”
I stopped across from the three jet-black lines.
…Hmm?
A blast of bright red flames flew toward the lines from the royal capital.
It appeared to be a synchronized spell from the Shiga Thirty-Three Staves—but as soon as it hit one of the lines, it evaporated instantly.
The base of the black line curled into a spiral and…
Uh-oh.
I used “Flashrunning” to get between the line and the royal castle.
By a hair’s breadth, I managed to pull out my Divine Blade and change my title to “Godkiller” just in time.
As the line tried to strike the royal castle like a whip, I blocked it with my Divine Blade.
The line threw off jet-black sparks and split into two when it hit the blade.
As the flying sparks faded, I saw their true color. They weren’t pure black but a very deep, dark purple.
Oof, that’s heavy.
Even when I used “Skyrunning” to fight the inertia, the weight still pushed me down until I nearly collided with the castle.
Without Arisa’s and Mito’s support magic, I probably would have been completely overcome already.
But the situation still wasn’t good.
I had friends in the castle below, including the people from the Muno Barony. And I’d gotten to know people like the king and prime minister too well by now to let them die.
The Shiga Thirty-Three Staves certainly made their own bed by attracting the line’s attention with a reckless attack, but I wasn’t going to abandon them, either.
I piled on my own Body Strengthening skills.
A surplus of power coursed through my body.
But it still wasn’t enough.
At this rate, it would only be a matter of time until I lost.
RYWURWAAAAE.
A golden talon pushed me back up from behind. Garuda.
Blue light beamed up to me from the royal castle, giving me more strength. The king must have used the City Core’s power on me.
“YAAAAAAAAAAH!”
Yelling with renewed effort, I used my shaking arms to hold up the divine sword and push back against the black line.
After an instant that seemed like an eternity, the struggle ended, and the black line was repelled, moving back from the royal castle.
“…Phew.”
I’d managed to make it through.
But the part of the black line that had ripped apart furled back into the rest and repaired itself.
I used “Skyrunning” to get away from the castle and head toward the bottom of the black line, which was turning to make its second attack.
Destroy.
I felt my heart pound heavily in my ears.
Destroy our enemies.
Ba-dump, ba-dump. The black aura around the Divine Blade pulsed in time with my heart.
A voiceless demand issued from the blade into my mind.
I demand an offering. Sustenance.
My magic drained into the sword at an alarming rate.
If this kept up, I’d pass out from extreme magic loss before I could fight.
I pulled out the Holy Sword Excalibur from Storage and drained the magic I’d saved from it, restoring my rapidly decreasing magic.
As it absorbed my power, the jet-black blade slowly grew longer.
By the time I had used up all the magic stored in the Holy Sword, the Divine Blade was over ten yards long.
Destroy.
The message from the Divine Blade changed.
Give me true power.
Words rose unbidden in my mind.
The end of the black line turned toward me, as if sensing the presence of a natural enemy.
I spoke the words in my mind out loud, as if compelled by the blade.
“Divine Blade… <Destroy>.”
Maybe I shouldn’t have done that.
…Total darkness filled the eclipsed sky.
All the light that touched my blade was destroyed.
…Silence fell over the jet-black sky.
All the air that touched my blade was destroyed.
And then…
The black line that touched my blade evaporated into violet mist, ripping apart and vanishing as if being absorbed into the jet-black Divine Blade.
I used “Flashrunning” to sprint up the length of the line, destroying all six miles in an instant.
One down, two to go.
Fortunately, the black lines didn’t seem to have any sense of camaraderie; even with one destroyed, the other two continued to float motionless in the sky.
Now I could just destroy them one at a time.
“Huh, this will be easier than I thought…”
I was so surprised by their unexpected fragility that I accidentally let a little comment slip.
But when I looked down, what I saw doused my brightening spirit in ice.
Far below, a corner of the castle had completely disappeared.
Fortunately, the keep where the people of the castle were gathered appeared intact, but if I had used the Divine Blade’s scripture a little closer to it, I would have done something awful that I could never undo.
Sorry, sorry.
I decided to focus on the matter at hand and do some more serious repentance later.
My AR showed the range of <Destroy> as a few hundred yards. It would probably be best to lure the lines high into the atmosphere before using it so I wouldn’t do any damage to the ground below.
I attacked one of the lines with the long-ranged Laser spell, then used my divine sword in its <Destroy> mode to start erasing it.
While it was hard to breathe up here without any air, judging by my health and stamina bars, I should last at least an hour or two. What an overpowered body, if I do say so myself.
…Hmm.
The surface of the line broke before my eyes, and a split end of sorts lashed out at me like a whip.
When it pierced into the range of <Destroy,> the black whip began falling apart, but it still kept closing in on me. I used “Flashrunning” to avoid its movements, faster than the eye could follow, while twisting around in the air to slash at it with my Divine Blade.
Behind me, a tall spire that the whip had touched was hollowed out, City Core protection and all, and began to crumble.
If an attack like that hit me, even my tough body would definitely take some serious damage.
I turned my gaze forward to find more split ends peeling off the black line, turning into more black whips.
Ugh.
The whips attacked me left and right, and I dodged them by a hair’s breadth, destroying them one by one with the Divine Blade.
The battle unfolded in midair like a dance with death, each step pushing my abilities to the limit as I kept avoiding the whips and paring down the black line.
“…Phew.”
Finally, I managed to defeat the second line.
At this point, I wanted to scold my past self for taking it so lightly after beating the first one.
I was lucky the third line didn’t move even while the second one was destroyed; if they’d attacked me at the same time, I doubt I could have defeated them both without a scratch.
…“Lucky,” huh?
Why was that black line still just floating there anyway?
Thus far, the black lines had behaved like nonaggressive monsters in MMORPGs: They didn’t move unless they were attacked directly, even if the other black lines were under fire.
Was it because the cardinal who summoned them was no longer alive to give them orders, or did they serve a different purpose to begin with? It was just too strange.
I only spent a few seconds wondering about this, but apparently it was a few seconds too long…
White light suddenly appeared in the darkened sky, as if the morning sun had risen.
The light concentrated into a cluster of rays and crashed into the final black line.
Without slowing down, it sliced off a piece of the black line and kept moving, reducing a grain-producing area beyond the royal capital to ash and craters.
It was the sky dragon’s “Dragon Breath.”
The sky dragon swooped down at a speed to rival my “Flashrunning,” assailing the last black line.
With teeth that could pierce anything, the sky dragon tore into the black line, ripping it up with glittering talons.
The sky dragon soared out of the royal capital with the bottom end of the black line still clutched in its teeth and claws.
The remaining half of the black line turned its end into a giant jaw and started to chase the dragon.
I don’t think so.
While the black line was targeting the sky dragon, I used “Flashrunning” to close in on its other end above the royal capital and started destroying it with my Divine Blade’s <Destroy>.
The first half or so went smoothly, but then it appeared to change its target from the sky dragon to me partway through, and I got stuck doing another dance of death against the black whips.
I have to say, a battle where you can’t let your guard down for a second is even more tiring the second time around.
I was lucky I at least had the One-Hit Kill attack of my Divine Blade.
As I was destroying the last of the third line, the sky dragon must have finished tearing up its other end, too.
The violet fog began to fade, starting from the sky dragon.
“Phew…now is it over?”
I heaved a sigh and headed over to the wounded sky dragon.
KUROOOOUUUUNN!
I frantically dodged the sky dragon’s breath attacks with “Flashrunning.”
Storing my Divine Blade in Storage, I tried to get closer.
“Stop! I’m on your side!”
The sky dragon ignored my cry, shooting off more breath attacks at random.
The blasts carved new valleys in the earth and razed hills and mountains.
Did it get drunk on battle or something?
“Wake up!”
I delivered a flying “Flashrunning” kick to the side of the dragon’s face, trying to stop its rampage.
It was strong enough to break one of the dragon’s giant fangs, yet it still didn’t come to its senses.
In the corner of my eye, I saw a remnant of the black line clinging to its scales.
“That must be what’s causing this…”
The line had tinged the silver scales black, possibly fusing with them. The scales that were entangled with the black line were making crackling sounds like breaking glass, cracks forming all over.
KUROOOOUUUUNN!
The sky dragon gave a shriek of distress as the black line spread across its scales.
I can speak dragon language, but I still couldn’t make out any words, so it must have been a truly wordless cry of pain.
The sky dragon swung its tail around wildly and flung itself upward, bounding into the sky.
Uh-oh.
In its agitation, the sky dragon’s head turned toward the royal capital.
I managed to catch up as it started charging at high speeds toward the city, grabbed its enormous tail, and dragged it back, swinging it in a huge circle in the air and tossing it away from the royal capital.
I know it sounds cruel, but I had no other choice.
If such a massive dragon landed in the royal capital, I can’t even imagine how many lives would be lost.
There was a booming thud and a cloud of dust, and the sky dragon’s back turned the grain fields outside the royal capital into a wasteland, carving out a valley.
Sorry, farmers. I’ll fix it later, I promise.
“All right, then…”
I produced my Divine Blade from Storage.
Destroying the majority of the black lines must have satisfied it; the pulsing had died down, and it was no longer in <Destroy> mode.
The black aura still tried to steal magic power from my body, but I was able to keep it suppressed for a short time, at least.
I used my map to mark the fragments of the black line the dragon had torn up and went around destroying them with the Divine Blade one by one.
There was no telling what might happen if I left those things around.
One of the pieces was attached to a still-living giant mutant rat.
Just as I approached it—the rat turned inside-out, exposing its core and becoming an unstable slime-like creature that began to move.
It absorbed nearby garbage and dead monsters, expanding each time. Giant mutant rats were usually level 10 to 20, but after it grew, this one reached level 50.
There were still some red-rope monsters left to be destroyed, so this could have been really bad.
I used Magic Hand to lift the rat-slime into the air, then hit it with the Condense and Laser combo, blasting it and its defense barrier to bits.
Evidently, normal attacks worked on the shreds of the black lines just fine.
I squinted at the core as it fell through the air.
The black line had burrowed into the exposed core.
Jumping into the air, I sliced up the core with my Divine Blade and destroyed it, black line and all, before it hit the ground.
After this round of cleanup, I used “Skyrunning” to head to the sky dragon that was still flattening hills outside the royal capital.
The sky dragon’s status in my AR display read Rampage and Erosion: Evil God’s Spawn.
I guess the UNKNOWN black lines really were fragments of the Evil God like Mito said.
I opened my map.
There were twenty-seven spots where the black lines were eating into the sky dragon. The worst areas were the head, the tail, and the inverted scale.
All right, then…
This was going to be rough, but I didn’t have much choice.
I stepped closer to the sky dragon, Divine Blade in hand.
The out-of-control dragon swung its giant tail toward me, silvery-white scales glistening. The centrifugal force accelerated the tail past the speed of sound as it closed in.
The picture books about the ancestral king Yamato said that the sky dragon’s scales could deflect even a Holy Sword.
That they once blocked the Golden Boar Lord’s Magic Sword, too.
But before my Divine Blade, they were like scraps of paper.
I sliced off the dragon’s tail, destroying the large amount of black lines that were creeping up it to encroach on the rest of the dragon’s body.
KUROOOOUUUUNN!
As the dragon howled in pain, I ran up its back, carving out pieces of its flesh to erase the black lines.
It was a little violent, but if I took too long, the lines might take over its body entirely. That was sure to cause even more damage than a demon lord.
Mentally apologizing for the rough treatment, I hardened my heart and forced myself to keep going.
Within just a minute or two, I was able to get rid of most of the black lines, although it left me soaked in dragon blood.
That just left the inverted scale and the head.
Obviously, I couldn’t just lop those off.
My best bet was probably to grab the black lines and rip them out. But if I touched them directly, I might get affected, too.
I created “Holy Light Armor” around the hand that wasn’t holding the Divine Blade.
But just as I was reaching for the first black line, I stopped.
This thing is a god, even if it’s only a small piece. One wrong move could easily lead to destruction.
Scolding myself for my hubris, I had an idea and changed the settings of my “Holy Light Armor.”
If you could change the components of a Holy Sword to make a Magic Sword instead…
And if the magic-based “Spellblade” had an alternate form like “Sacredblade”…
Couldn’t you reproduce the power of a god in the same way?
I used the power of my Divine Blade to fill the “Holy Light Armor” with godly strength.
The blue glow of the holy light slowly turned jet-black like the Divine Blade.
It’s the same color as the black lines, too…
Don’t think about nonsense like that right now, Satou.
I used my hand, now imbued with godly power, to grab the black line sticking out of the dragon’s head like a tuft of hair and yank it away.
The dragon shrieked in even more agony than before, but I couldn’t stop to worry about that.
As I pulled out the black line, I used the Divine Blade in my other hand to destroy it.
Then, when I pulled out the last black line attached to the dragon’s inverted scale, I accidentally pulled the scale off, too.
I guess that really is a dragon’s weak point. The sky dragon screeched, then fainted dead away.
I silently apologized to the sky dragon as I destroyed that last black line.
“Phew, I’m exhausted.”
I sheathed the Divine Blade and put it away in Storage, then opened my menu.
As I checked the map to make sure there were no black lines left, I took a peek at the log in my AR display while I was at it.
> Defeated Evil God’s Spawn.
> Defeated Evil God’s Spawn.
> Defeated Evil God’s Spawn.
> Title Acquired: Godly One
> Title Acquired: Violator of Taboo
> Skill Acquired:
> Title Acquired: Torture King
> Title Acquired: Sadist
> Title Acquired: Sky Dragon Destroyer
I didn’t appreciate most of those titles, but it was a little late to complain about whoever was in charge of the system at this point.
Now I also regretted missing the chance to destroy the Evil God Fragment that must have been inside the cardinal with my Divine Blade. I didn’t have much choice since I’d had to prioritize the nearly activated magic circle at the time, though.
As much as it pained me, striving for the ideal outcome only ended in pain. I should just be happy that things turned out all right.
I didn’t see the nameless skill in my skill list; maybe the empty SKILL ACQUIRED message was a bug. Based on the rest of the log, maybe it was a hidden skill for using the unregistered ability to channel godly power through my hand or something.
“Oops, better worry about that later.”
Feeling like I might faint from the physical and mental exhaustion, I nonetheless used some advanced recovery potions and healing magic to tend to the sky dragon’s wounds.
A barrel of advanced magic potion literally worked wonders: The severed tail, torn scales, and broken claws and horns began to regrow.
While the broken fang didn’t recover, that was probably no big deal; the black dragon once told me that their fangs were periodically replaced with new growth anyway.
Maybe it was the exhaustion, but my thoughts were getting a little careless.
This might have been the first time I’d been so exhausted since coming to this fantasy world.
Also… I realized I hadn’t had any feeling in my left hand for a while.
I removed the glove that was part of my Nanashi costume to take a look.
“What in the world…?”
My breath caught in my throat when I saw my left hand emerge from the glove.
It had lost all color and turned jet-black…
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