Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? (LN) - Volume 14 - Chapter 2

2 The Starting Bell of The Final Battle

In the midst of the dense forest stands a huge barrier, completely out of place in nature.

The Demon Lord, the puppet spider sisters, and I—six people in total—stand in front of that barrier, away from the rest of the demon army.

Ahead of them, the imperial army has finally reached the outer edge of the barrier that covers the elf village.

All we need to do is get rid of this barrier somehow, and we can invade.

Although that’s kind of the problem.

This barrier is ridiculously tough!

How tough, you ask? Tough enough that it wouldn’t even budge if it took a full-force breath attack from a queen taratect.

What, you think that example is oddly specific?

That’s because I’ve actually tested it out, of course.

See, the Great Garam Forest is known for one other thing besides being home to the elf village.

Namely: it’s inhabited by a queen taratect.

Yep, a member of the very same species as my infamous mother, who lived in the Great Elroe Labyrinth, lives right here in this forest.

It’s easy enough to guess why, though.

It’s here to keep watch on Potimas, the Demon Lord’s mortal enemy.

The barrier prevents it from doing any harm to the elf village, but by staking out the territory of a giant monster right next door, it can apply pressure nonstop.

Thanks to this queen taratect, Potimas can’t drop the barrier even if he wants to.

And in order to avoid walking right into the queen taratect’s habitat, the elves have no choice but to depend on long-distance teleportation by way of teleport gates.

Incidentally, the queen taratect in question has currently been evacuated to avoid getting in the way of the imperial army’s invasion.

It’s on the other side of the elf village, of course!

In other words, the elves are currently surrounded on both sides by the imperial army and the queen taratect’s swarm of spiders.

Sweet!

But wait! In order to carry out that pincer attack, we’ve gotta get rid of the barrier, which even the queen’s breath attack couldn’t crack.

This barrier was apparently made with full use of Potimas’s stupid forbidden knowledge, and produces a ridiculous level of defense at all times by draining an exorbitant amount of MA energy.

Which means it’s been wasting tons of the energy the system has been slowly and steadily collecting. Man, that pisses me off!

Ughhh, I wanna break this stupid thing to bits.

But not now. It’s not time for that just yet.

Right now, we’re still waiting for our signal.

Because there’s something else we have to do before we break the barrier: destroy the teleport gates.

Teleport gates are a long-distance transportation method that anyone can use.

In the case of the elf village, which is cut off by the barrier, it’s also their only connection to the outside world.

If we don’t destroy the teleport gates, the elves can still escape, even if we’ve got them physically surrounded.

And then they’ll be in some far-off land on the other side of the gates.

Even if we tried to chase them down, we’d be out of luck if they destroy the teleport gate after they’ve gotten away.

Now, thanks to tracking and investigation by the Word of God religion over many years, they know about a handful of teleport gates.

But we can’t say for sure that there aren’t more gates we don’t know about.

So our plan is to use the teleport gates we do know of to invade the elf village, and destroy the teleport gates from the inside.

Luckily for us, the teleport gates in the elf village are apparently all built in one place since they have to have a way around the barrier.

Because of the way the barrier is built, they have to make all the gates in one spot, where they temporarily make a hole in the barrier that connects to the outside to send the elves on their merry way.

I discovered this while I was investigating the barrier.

Since this is Potimas we’re talking about, I can’t say for sure that there aren’t more teleport gates elsewhere, but I didn’t find any other weak spots in the barrier, which makes me think those are the only ones.

Which means it’s possible to destroy all the teleport gates in one go.

So yeah, the signal we’re waiting for is a report that our guy has successfully infiltrated the barrier and destroyed the teleport gates.

And who’s leading this secret mission? A reincarnation named Kusama.

His full name in our old lives was Shinobu Kusama.

And his unique skill as a reincarnation is apparently “Ninja”…

That’s totally just based on his name, right?

Isn’t that a little cheap?

Damn D, slacking off on the job as usual…

Anyway, turns out Kusama was reborn into the family that runs the Word of God religion’s secret service.

They’re basically ninjas who serve the Word of God.

Even Potimas couldn’t extract Kusama from a house with such a strong influence from the church, which means he’s the one and only reincarnation who hasn’t had any encounters with the elves in his life.

Although considering the unique circumstances he was born into, I doubt he’s had a particularly peaceful time, either.

For instance, he was thoroughly trained as a member of the secret service, and his unique skill Ninja is a perfect fit for that, making him surprisingly strong.

Well, strong by human standards, anyway.

But it’s enough that a little breaking and entering to blow up some teleport gates should be a piece of cake for him.

By the way, we’re using Mr. Oni’s handmade exploding swords for the “blowing up” part.

They’re called magic swords, but really they’re just bombs.

Plus, they’re explosive enough that just one of them could wipe out all of the teleport gates without issue.

And Mr. Oni is just mass-producing those, y’know?

He looks like a swordsman, but he’s more like a demolition expert, huh?

That’s quite a scam if you ask me.

I even used my threads to make him a classic Japanese-style getup that would go with his katana and everything.

A sword-wielding samurai with horns!

But he actually just blows things up.

No waaay.

Anyway, turns out Kusama and Mr. Oni were pretty good friends back in their previous lives; when we were meeting with the Word of God church, they met up a few times and renewed their old friendship, I guess.

Maybe Mr. Oni gave him the exploding sword as a parting gift kinda thing?

I wouldn’t know, since I have no old friends to get reacquainted with!

Not that I’m jealous or anything!

As I get weirdly defensive in my own internal monologue, I peer inside the barrier.

It’s transparent enough that you can see through it from the outside.

That means visible light rays must be able to pass through, and I assume oxygen and stuff too, since it’s presumably not airtight.

You’d think that would allow for a certain amount of shenanigans, but I’m sure the Demon Lord and the Pontiff and such have already tested out any theories I might come up with, meaning there must be some kind of countermeasures in place for that sort of thing.

Man, what a pain-in-the-ass barrier.

Although busting it open will be a walk in the park for yours truly!

This is the plan for once Kusama successfully destroys the teleport gates:

First, I’m gonna pop the barrier around the elf village like a balloon.

We’ve set it up to look like the imperial army used some new kind of massive magic to destroy it, which should make for a good distraction.

Then Natsume and the imperial army will advance.

He’s pissed off more than a few people, so I’m sure the elves will rush to destroy him right away.

At the very least, I’m guessing Yamada and friends will head over to fight him.

In fact, I kind of need them to do that.

I’ve got to avoid letting Yamada run into the Demon Lord, no matter what.

Hopefully, though, I can count on Güli-güli’s clone Hyrince to take care of that.

Hyrince, you’ve got this, right, buddy?

I’m counting on you to steer him in the right direction, mm’kay?

At any rate, while the elves have their eyes on the imperial army, the demon army will start advancing, too, and attack the elves from the side.

Mera and Mr. Oni are in charge of directing the demon army, and Vampy is up ahead with the imperial army. No problems there.

Phelmina’s with the latter, too, just in case anything goes wrong.

Even if the elves have more forces than we were expecting, that crew can stick it out and destroy them without any major losses, I’m sure.

Frankly, I’m pretty sure Vampy and Mr. Oni could handle it all on their own.

And then, while the elves are forced to fight the imperial army and the demon army on two fronts, I’ll throw in a taratect troop free of charge.

It even comes with a queen!

One queen alone is a force to be reckoned with, and then there are fourteen archs.

And fifty-one greaters.

Plus a whole bunch of others.

Honestly, wouldn’t that lineup alone be enough to take out the elves?

That’d kill most people for sure.

I’m expecting a nice horrific battlefield straight out of hell itself, during which the Demon Lord and I will sneak into the heart of the elf village.

Mostly to scoop up the reincarnations, murder the real Potimas once and for all, that kinda thing.

If we can take out Potimas’s real body, then this war is as good as won.

We’ve already gotten rid of all the fake bodies he had outside the elf village.

I’m pretty sure the one Vampy destroyed in the kingdom was the last of them.

We had to do a little coup d’état in the kingdom and put Yamada and friends through hell just to get at that last Potimas clone, but hey, what choice did we have?

It’s Potimas’s fault for getting up to no good in the kingdom.

Blame him, not me.

Anyway, it was worth all the trouble, because we were able to get rid of Potimas’s influence there, including his clone body.

Even if we missed one, Potimas can’t transfer his main self into a substitute body like I can.

He’s only got one real body, and the rest are just fakes that he operates from afar.

So if we can just kill the real thing, any extra clones won’t make a difference anymore.

The imperial army, the demon army, and even the taratect troop are all decoys.

As the first decoys we’re sending in, the imperial army will probably take a considerable amount of losses, but they’ve been disposable from the beginning anyway.

All we really need them to do is bait out the elves.

Then we just use the demon army and the taratects to keep them busy.

Amid all that chaos, the Demon Lord and I will make our move, the real objective.

The two of us are honestly stronger than all those other armies combined, anyway.

And at the moment, we’re glaring daggers at each other.

“No matter what you say, White, this is the one thing I won’t budge on.”

“I told you, no deal.”

The air crackles with tension between us.

The Demon Lord’s puppet spiders, who are riding in the same carriage, are trembling with terror at the electric atmosphere.

We continue staring down each other, neither willing to give up.

What are we arguing over, you ask? The question of who gets to finish off Potimas.

I wanna beat that guy to a pulp, especially after what he’s done to Ms. Oka.

That bastard fooled the teacher who saved me in my previous life, worked her to the bone to gather the reincarnations for him, and even put a parasitic piece of his soul in hers so that he can use her as a host body later!

You think I’m gonna let him off easy after all that?

As another point in my favor, I’m also stronger than the Demon Lord, making it safer for me to dispose of Potimas since we still don’t know what he might be capable of.

On the other hand, the Demon Lord knows that full well, and still insists she wants to fight him.

Sure, she’s got a very long history of Potimas screwing her over at every turn.

I’m sure her feelings run far deeper than mine in that regard.

But this is Potimas Harrifenas we’re talking about here.

The guy who’s been opposing the entire world on his own behind the scenes, all this time.

Based on our battles thus far, I predict that Potimas’s power is at least as strong as the Demon Lord’s.

If there’s even a tiny chance of the Demon Lord getting killed over something this stupid, I’d much rather take the safest route possible.

But even after I explained all this, the Demon Lord still refuses to budge.

Now, if that were the whole story, it wouldn’t be such a big deal.

I’m certainly dying to rip Potimas apart with my bare hands, but I’m sure the Demon Lord feels the same way, and probably much more intensely.

I wouldn’t mind letting her deal the final blow.

If she would let me help before then.

“At least let me lend a hand.”

“Nope. This is my fight. No one else is allowed to intervene. Sounds pretty cool, right?”

This is the problem.

The Demon Lord insists that she’s going to settle things all on her own.

Without an ounce of my help, or any of her subordinates’.

She wants to put an end to their long-standing enmity, one-on-one.

Even though she just said earlier that it’s not like she doesn’t need my help.

“I know I’m being unreasonable. But I won’t change my mind on this. I’ve got to settle things with Potimas all on my own. He’s the one who…”

The Demon Lord trails off, but there’s grim determination in her eyes.

When she gives me that look, it makes me feel like I’m the one in the wrong.

“You know you might die, right?”

“Of course. It’s not like I’ve got much time left to begin with, anyway. If I die here, I won’t have any regrets. Especially since I know that you’d finish Potimas off for me if that happened.”

I can’t believe she can say something along the lines of “if I die, at least Potimas will go down with me” with a straight face.

Ahh…

No waaay.

I heave a long sigh.

How am I supposed to stick to my guns after she says something like that?

The Demon Lord is willing to bet the entirety of her long life on challenging Potimas.

She’s laying her pride on the line.

I can’t exactly take that away from her, can I?

The worst part is, she definitely put it that way knowing full well that I’d have no choice but to back down.

“You’d better not.”

“Huh?”

“You’d better not die. If you die, I’m gonna ditch this whole stupid world without a second thought. You have to promise to stay alive so I won’t have to do anything that irresponsible. All right?”

“…You got it, boss.”

I can’t bear to look at the Demon Lord’s teary-eyed smile as she salutes me, so I turn away.

Luckily, at that moment, I catch sight of a perfectly timed explosion in the distance.

Looks like Kusama succeeded in blowing up the teleport gates, then.

Now I’m free to bust this barrier wide open.

And so, I pull out a certain item that I’ve been keeping in an alternate dimension.

“Wha—?”

The Demon Lord stares at it blankly, a question mark practically hovering above her head.

I can’t say I blame her.

Since what I pulled out is a baseball bat.

It’s one of the gag gifts I picked up when I searched D’s house.

When you swing this bat, you’re guaranteed to hit a home run on any ball.

Which sounds like a vaguely familiar magical effect, but that’s not all this particular bat does.

If you hit a living thing with this bat, you’ll also get a home run.

I know that sounds like nonsense, but basically, it’ll send the target flying.

Like, ridiculously far, against all the laws of physics.

And yet it only causes a tiny bit of damage.

No matter how far they fly, and how hard they hit the ground afterward, it’ll only hurt a tiny little bit.

No matter how tightly you grip the bat and how hard you swing it, the damage doesn’t go past a certain threshold.

Yeah, it doesn’t make any sense.

But as absurd as it is, it really can send things flying like no one’s business.

Gag gift or not, it’s still a genuine god-tier artifact straight from D’s home.

But the effect is extremely limited—it only works on balls and living things.

The ball thing makes sense, but why living things are considered a valid home run target is a total mystery to me…

Either way, it absolutely won’t work on anything else.

So hitting the barrier with this bat won’t do a damn thing.

But! I’ve got a workaround for that!

Next, I produce a giant white scythe, my primary weapon.

My scythe in my right hand. The bat in my left.

I take a deep breath…

“Fusion!”

…and smash the two together!

“Uhhhh…”

Behind me, the Demon Lord utters a groan of disbelief.

Okay, I know it looks like I’m being so stupid that you’re probably tempted to pretend you don’t know me, but this is actually an insanely dangerous thing I’m doing, all right?!

Silly or not, one of these is a godly weapon handmade by D.

And I’m trying to fuse it with my main weapon.

Honestly, the bat is technically a better item than the scythe.

(Even though it’s just a stupid gag gift…)

Which means this particular fusion is actually really, really hard.

Why am I doing it so last-minute? Well, by my calculations, even if I fail, I should at least produce enough power to destroy the barrier.

If that happens, the bat will probably disappear, and my scythe will stay the same, or get weaker in the worst-case scenario.

But it’s still worth a shot.

Because if I succeed, I can make my scythe even stronger!

So c’moooooon!

Please wooooork!

The scythe and bat glow in my hands, and the bat starts getting absorbed by the scythe.

I can tell an insane amount of energy is flooding into my scythe.

All that crazy energy prompts me to hold the still-glowing scythe aloft.

It’s just about time for the imperial army to use their massive magic.

All I have to do is give this thing a good swing at the same time.

All right, then.

White steps up to the batter’s box!

A swing…and a hit!

It’s a home run!

Can you believe it, folks?!

The scythe cut through the barrier like butter and smashed it to bits, no sweat!

…Man, that bat must’ve been ridiculously powerful to destroy that barrier so easily.

I check on the scythe in my hand.

I don’t feel the same amount of enormous energy as before.

Hrmm. It seems like the fusion worked in theory, but maybe it only strengthened it a little bit?

I guess breaking the barrier probably used up most of the energy, and the rest was absorbed by the scythe.

It does seem a little bit stronger than before.

Well, I’d say we can call that a success.

“Uh, White? What was that bat with the extremely threatening aura just now?”

“Don’t you realize there are lots of things in this world you’re better off not knowing, Demon Lord?”

I would prefer that the Demon Lord not ask too many questions about the deus ex machina item D created.

The more useful it is, the more it probably screws you over once you’ve used it.

I mean, this is D we’re talking about, y’know?

Isn’t it terrifyingly likely that it’s super cursed or something?

I did check it over very thoroughly for that kind of thing before I used it, but still.

Knowing D, it wouldn’t be too surprising if she found a way to hide something that I wouldn’t pick up on until it was too late.

But still, I’m not gonna not use it.

It’s just so damn useful!

And if I hadn’t actually used that bat to destroy the barrier, it probably would’ve taken way longer.

Anyway, right now all that matters is taking action.

I use my Panoptic Vision to get a bird’s-eye view of the elf village, where they’re all totally freaking out about the barrier disappearing, while Natsume is triumphantly leading the imperial army to march right in.

Taking a glance at the reincarnations’ area, it doesn’t look like the elves are going to do anything to them, at least not yet.

Hmm, well, I guess I can leave them alone for now.

“All right, let’s go.”

We’d better take care of our business while the elves are distracted by the imperial army.

So it’s time to move.

I take the lead, with the Demon Lord and company following close behind.

If I were on my own, I could teleport all over the place, but the Demon Lord can’t do that.

Besides, I’m pretty sure he’d pick up on the disturbance in space and figure out what we’re up to if I tried teleporting.

It’s possible he’s already on to us anyway, but it’s equally possible that he’s not. We might as well try to be stealthy about it.

We push onward, picking areas without any elves around.

I zip through the forest just slowly enough for the puppet spiders to barely keep up.

At the same time, I focus on searching the entire elf village with Panoptic Vision, but I can’t figure out where Potimas is.

He must be very carefully hidden, then.

It’s typical of him to be so paranoid.

But the fact that I can’t find him still gives me a hint as to where he might be.

If I can’t see him after searching this carefully, that means he’s somewhere I can’t search.

There’s no way he’s not in the village, though.

Potimas would never use such a powerful barrier only to risk leaving his real body outside.

He has to be somewhere inside the safety of the barrier.

And also somehow in a place where I can’t find him.

With that much figured out, I can easily guess where he might be.

Underground.

Since I couldn’t locate him after a thorough search aboveground, he must be below.

So now, we have to find the passage that leads down there.

We won’t have to look very hard, though.

I didn’t see any of the super-advanced robots that Potimas definitely has anywhere aboveground, so they must be underground along with the real Potimas.

There’s no way he’ll be able to withstand this invasion without using them.

He’s bound to send out the robots at some point.

Then we just have to bust into wherever the robots appear from.

That should lead us right to the real Potimas.

Sure enough, the ground suddenly cracks open a few miles ahead of us, and robots start shuffling out one after another.

Wowzers.

These things look like they came straight out of some space-war movie.

Four arms, and four legs.

The four arms all end in guns, too.

These are some super sci-fi robots, sticking out like sore thumbs in this fantasy world.

As soon as the robots emerge, they start gunning straight for us.

Looks like the enemy’s already located our little team, then.

The robots use their four legs skillfully to bound through the forest.

Boy, that’s fast.

In terms of stats, their average is probably around five thousand per unit?

That kind of speed is a fart in the wind to the Demon Lord and me, but it could give the puppet spiders a run for their money, maybe.

The puppet spiders’ stats average over ten thousand, but we don’t know what kind of firepower those robots are loaded with, and more importantly, there’s a bunch of them.

“Incoming,” I tell the Demon Lord shortly. “I’ll deal with it.”

Then I speed ahead, and before the robots even come into visible range, I activate a conjuring.

Black bullets sail straight toward the robot corps.

As soon as they hit, the robots go down, falling apart immediately.

…Huh.

Is that the best Potimas can do?

No, surely not.

I’m sure he’s got more up his sleeve than this fragile junk.

But either way, now we’ve found the entrance to the underground.

I ignore the broken remains of the robots and move forward, arriving at the area the robots emerged from.

The hatch hurriedly tries to slide shut, but I stop it with sheer force.

In fact, I kinda broke the hatch.

Beyond it is a steep downward slope.

Potimas is down here somewhere.

I signal the Demon Lord with my eyes, and she nods silently and heads down.

From here on out, the Demon Lord is on her own.

That’s what she wants, after all.

We won’t interfere.

But I did send a miniscule spider clone after her, just to watch over the battle.

Don’t die on me, Demon Lord.

Meanwhile, it’s time to get down to business.