Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? (LN) - Volume 4 - Chapter 2

SPIRIT BATTLE VS MOTHER 

I am former magic brain number one. 

Well, as soon as this big job is over, I’ll go back to being magic brain, anyway. 

But first I have to finish, you know, defeating Mother. 

Number one! Don’t just stand there—work! Gyaaah?!? 

Ah, the former body brain got blown away by one of Mother’s attacks. 

Whoop-de-do. 

Oh, don’t worry. 

She’s not gonna die. 

The worst Mother can really do right now is knock us around a bit. 

For one thing, we’re not actually fighting in the real world. 

I guess we’re fighting Mother’s soul or spirit or something? It’s basically like fighting in a dream. 

See, Mother has the Kin Control skill, which generally allows her to control any of her children. 

And it was starting to affect our body, too. 

I first noticed it when I was fighting the fire dragon. 

For some reason, I felt like my own emotions were out of whack somehow. 

Investigating the cause, I discovered that I was receiving something like a radio signal from Mother. 

When you realize someone is pushing you, you push back, right? 

That’s why I traced the signal that was meant to control me back to her, and now I’m waging a counterattack on Mother. 

This is all done by sending in my Parallel Minds to fight as spiritual projections. 

Parallel Minds is a skill that creates copies of my will. 

Just think of it like a ninja cloning technique, except for your consciousness instead of your body. 

I guess since there’s only one body, you could theoretically call it multiple personalities. 

However, by giving each of these minds different roles, we’ve been able to do the work of several people with a single body. 

Specifically, one mind (me) is in charge of magic, one is in charge of moving the body, one is in charge of gathering information, and so on. 

Sort of like a tank with a driver, a commander, and a gunner. 

One of these Parallel Minds was left in charge of the real body, and the rest were sent off to attack Mother. 

By “the rest,” I mean us. 

Mother’s giant figure is right before my eyes. 

However, this is actually just a spirit form. It’s not her real body. 

Mother’s spirit body has already lost a few of its legs. 

Well, it’s because we ate them. 

Even now, a few of my spirit clones are latched on to Mother’s body, gnawing away. 

Mother is thrashing around, shaking them off or knocking them away. 

But, as I keep explaining, these are spirit bodies, not our real physical one. 

They’re like soul fragments, so to speak. 

Moreover, our real body has Heresy Nullification, a skill that cancels out any attacks that would damage the soul. 

In other words, no matter how many attacks Mother’s spirit body hits us with, she can’t hurt us because we are souls! 

All things considered, this means we can charge at her without fear of death. 

Mother who? Never heard of her! 

I don’t feel so much as an itch, even if she stomps me, bites me, or shoots me with magic. 

I’m invincible, I tell you! 

Even attacks that would probably kill me instantly in reality don’t mean a thing here. 

Although, due to how much stronger she is than me, it’s taking us days just to wear her down. 

Still, we’re slowly but surely backing her into a corner. 

If us Parallel Minds can defeat Mother’s spiritual body, she’ll die in real life, too. 

These are still souls we’re talking about, after all. 

Can you really say a living thing is still alive if it loses its soul? 

I’m betting that the life-preserving functions in her physical body will go when her soul goes. 

Which would mean I’ve won. 

If I can’t win by fighting her in the flesh, why not bring the fight to the spiritual plane? 

It’s not psychological warfare—it’s psychic warfare. 

This is a key point. 

My attacks are weak and don’t do much, but hers don’t do anything at all. 

As long as I keep doing damage little by little, while she can’t damage me at all, then my victory is assured. 

On top of that, my real body has left the Great Elroe Labyrinth to embark on a journey in the outside world. 

It’s impossible for Mother’s giant body to go there. 

The moment I exited the labyrinth was the moment I won. 

Now I just have to take my sweet time whittling away at Mother’s soul. 

I never even dreamed that I’d be able to defeat such a powerful opponent like this. 

I guess this is kinda like a dream, though. 

Number one! Are you still slacking off?!? 

The former body brain comes back, complaining all the while. 

Despite how violently Mother’s attack blew her away, she’s still totally unharmed. 

Thank you, O Great Heresy Nullification. 

Without that skill, I probably wouldn’t have had even the slimmest of chances. 

Mother’s spiritual strength is basically on par with her real strength. 

Which makes perfect sense. 

The strength of her real stats is based on the strength of her soul, after all. 

Sure, physical strength comes into play, too, but the soul is the main source of power. It’s not surprising that the spiritual body—essentially her soul itself—would be just as strong. 

In other words, our spirit bodies are comparable in ability to our real bodies, too. 

But in our case, we’ve been split into fragments by Parallel Minds, which means we each have only a certain percent of that strength. 

The fact that this battle is still grueling despite the fact that Heresy Nullification negates any attacks against us just goes to show how enormous the difference in strength is between Mother and our real body. 

We keep getting blown away, charging, and latching on again. 

It’s only after repeating this cycle for days that we’ve finally reached the point where we’ve caused visible damage. 

Hey, don’t ignore me!? 

Ugh, so annoying. 

I haven’t been slacking off, either, you know. 

Hey, former body brain.? 

What?? 

Doesn’t it seem strange to you?? 

I don’t have to clarify what I’m referring to. 

There’s something strange about Mother’s actions. 

In this spiritual battle, as long as we have Heresy Nullification, we don’t have to worry about getting hurt. 

We know we’ll defeat Mother eventually, even if it takes a long while. 

It’s obvious how this will end. 

That being the case, of course Mother’s going to try to foil our plans. 

The first counter came in the form of an arch taratect–led spider army that she sent after our real body, which was in an area too small for her to enter herself. 

Arch taratects are particularly powerful subordinates of hers, able to hold their own even against a dragon. 

She probably thought that would be enough to kill our real body. 

But instead, our real body turned the tables on them using some rather nasty tactics, beating them at their own game. 

That was all well and good. 

But it’s what’s happened since that’s strange. 

Since the arch taratects lost, Mother obviously has to make another move. 

Otherwise, at this rate, she’s gonna die. 

However, Mother hasn’t shown any signs of attempting anything else. 

This is despite the fact that she still has underlings to control. 

Ever since I ate part of Mother’s spiritual body, I’ve been able to see through her eyes. 

I’m not sure where in the labyrinth it is, but somewhere there’s a huge spider army, including arch taratects. 

Mother is at the heart of it all, unmoving. 

Looking at this, I can tell that the force she sent after our real body before was only a small portion of her army of followers. 

Why doesn’t she send the rest of them after our body? 

I just don’t get it. 

I mean, our real body is strong, if I do say so myself. 

Sure, we were able to defeat the arch taratects only through the use of underhanded tactics, but we also fought an equally strong opponent—no, even stronger—the earth dragon Araba, and won in a fair fight. 

Still, if two or more arch taratects attack the main body at the same time, they certainly have a solid chance of winning. 

And yet, Mother isn’t doing that. 

Even though she has way more than two arch taratects. 

She just sits there idly while battling us spirit projections, as if she’s waiting for something. 

Well, I’m sure if she sent such an impossibly large spider army after our main body, it’d just use Teleport to run away without hesitation. 

…Wait a sec. 

Could it be that Mother understands that, too? 

She knows that I have no problem running away from a fight I know I can’t win? 

That’s very possible. 

Mother and I have been connected by her Kin Control skill since the moment I was born. 

I doubt she pays much attention to every one of her countless children, but considering how uniquely I’ve been doing things, I might’ve caught her eye(s) somewhere along the line. 

If Mother’s been using that skill to monitor my actions, I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s familiar with my behavior patterns by now. 

In fact, maybe she used that knowledge to carefully arrange that first army in a way that would make me think that I might have a chance of winning if I fought hard. 

Really, if I had fought that army fair and square instead of using dirty tricks, I have the feeling my odds of losing were just a little higher than my odds of winning. 

If it was just the arch taratects, I think I would’ve won. 

After factoring in that mob of followers, my chances were pretty slim. 

But that slim chance was key. 

It would’ve been tough, but it wasn’t so terrible that I definitely couldn’t win. 

If I think I stand a chance, I can’t bring myself to run away, even if my odds of losing are much higher. 

In the end, of course, our side won with room to spare. 

Still, if Mother actually thought things through that far ahead, then she must be craftier than I gave her credit for. 

I’d say that’d make her as smart as a human being, or maybe even smarter. 

In which case, her current lack of action is downright suspicious. 

If she doesn’t do something, we spirit bodies are going to beat her. 

Why would she just sit around like that? 

Just biding her time, almost like she’s waiting for something? 

No, not “almost.” That’s got to be it. 

But what’s she waiting for, then? 

As if to confirm my sneaking suspicions, Mother’s hitherto motionless body suddenly shifts into action, as does the enormous spider army around her. 

All of them move at once. 

The spider army splits up into several squadrons, each spearheaded by arch taratects, before dispersing. At the same time, Mother starts to move at a speed much higher than seems possible for her enormous body. 

She got us. 

Mother was waiting for this moment. 

Contact the main body!? 

I can’t! Mother’s interfering with the connection somehow!? 

Seriously? 

That’s not good. 

I don’t know what skill she’s using, but she seems to have temporarily cut us spirit projections off from contact with the main body. 

Now we can’t tell our real body that it’s in danger! 

It’s all too clear now what she was waiting for. 

The moment our real body went outside. 

Now she’s distributing her troops throughout the labyrinth, where our main body will teleport to at the first sign of trouble—cutting off our escape routes in advance. 

Then, when our body has nowhere left to go, the queen herself will lead the rest of her army to hunt us down. 

From the bottom of a deep, dark pit, Mother begins to race upward at a horrifying speed. 

And as soon as she approaches the ceiling, she opens her terrible mouth. 

Out comes the attack that destroys everything: Breath. 

A pseudo-breath attack using the Dragon Power skill, likely modeled after the kind used by real dragons. 

However, just because it’s not the real thing doesn’t mean it’s weak. 

In fact, it explodes with more force than a real dragon’s breath, smashing through the thick ceiling of the labyrinth. 

The earth shakes as if the world’s been turned upside down. 

Huge meteorite-size rocks plummet toward the bottom of the pit like rain. 

After the debris stops falling, it gives way to a clear blue sky. 

If I could, I would scream, You’re kidding me, right?! 

Seriously, Mother? You broke through the labyrinth itself to get outside? 

My sense of security, the assurance that surely Mother was too large to ever leave the labyrinth, vanishes in an instant. 

Mother has escaped the cramped confines of the cage known as the Great Elroe Labyrinth. 

And now, of course, she’s heading straight for our real body. 

Who has no idea that any of this is happening.