My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! - Volume 13 - Chapter 16

Chapter 16 — Interlude: I’m Happy It Only Cost Me This Much, Because This Isn’t Nearly Enough

When the Swordmaster Urabe awoke, his first feeling was relief. For the past three days, he had suffered from terribly unpleasant dreams. After long years of training, he had defeated all the other Knights of the Divine King to attain the rank of Swordmaster, only to be forced into the unbearably boring job of watching over the Dark God’s prison. After he’d spent the majority of his life in some tower out in the Garula Canyon, the seal ended up breaking, and he was killed by some stranger. He couldn’t think of it as anything but a nightmare.

“I guess things aren’t that much different for me, but it’s a lot more freedom than I had in that shitty dream.”

He wasn’t completely free, but at least he wasn’t trapped in a single place. And he had acquired the title of Swordmaster he had striven for. He had no intention of abandoning his role of protecting the world; not with his pride.

After making himself presentable, he stepped out of his tent and was greeted by a bizarre scenery. Everything glittered. The grass, the trees, even the small animals running around. Almost everything that made up the plain had crystallized, reflecting the light of the sun.

These were the Meld Plains, also called the Crystal Plains, a wicked land that brooked no human habitation. There was a train station served by a number of workers on the edge of the plain, but only a few people could survive to reach the center where Urabe now stood.

There were five tents around him, where his companions were resting. The only ones with them were the Divine King and her elites.

“It looks like the crystallization is speeding up after all.” The Divine King stood alone at the center of their encampment.

“You’re up early,” Urabe quipped.

“A symptom of my old age.” Despite what she said, the Divine King looked plenty youthful. Based on appearance alone, Urabe looked far older. That said, the Divine King had been involved in the founding of the Axis Church, so she should have been at least a thousand years old. For the Axis Church, which revered no god in particular, she was close to being a god herself.

“Look at this.”

Urabe caught the object the Divine King threw at him. It was a piece of dried meat, its outer layer already starting to crystallize. Using his knife to peel off the crystal, he popped the rest into his mouth. Normally, the crystallization process was one that took months. Anything inside the plain would crystallize given enough time, but they had never seen it happen within the span of a few days before.

“Is it because of those dangerous creatures?” he asked. Three days prior, some kind of unknown creature had begun falling from the sky. It was immortal and contagious, spreading itself throughout the world in mere moments. Those who had survived the initial assault had either accepted the Sage’s invitation to join Cavern Quest or found a place to hide.

But they didn’t know how long they could survive this way. Normally, the Divine King and her Knights were the very people to fight such a threat, but they had decided that the events transpiring in the Meld Plains were more pressing.

“It is certainly possible.”

Urabe followed the Divine King’s gaze up into the sky. There was something like a crystalline net there, scattering the sunlight that shone through it. If any of those creatures had fallen in this area, they would have been shredded apart by the net. But there was no damage to it or any sign anything had slipped through it. It seemed the plain was free of those creatures. Apparently, they, too, were susceptible to the plain’s crystallization, so they avoided this place.

“For example, maybe the Spider is accelerating the crystallization process to protect itself from those creatures?” the Divine King posited.

“That would mean the Spider’s seal has already broken...though I suppose we should probably assume that is the case, given the circumstances.”

“If those creatures are trying to avoid crystallization, maybe we can use it to seal them away?”

“That isn’t an option. It would end with the whole world being turned to crystal. Of course, I’m not sure that is much worse than being overrun by those creatures.”

“Hmm. But it is something to think about. The creatures appear mindless, but they’re intelligent enough to avoid this place. And they may be immortal, but they can still be influenced by this crystallization process. There may be a way to deal with them after all.”

Although investigating the situation in the Meld Plains was their priority, they couldn’t put off dealing with the issue forever. Even if it took some time, the creatures would cover the whole world eventually.

“Now then, I don’t believe we have the time to relax here. Let us hurry on ahead.”

The Knights had awoken, so after cleaning up their camp, the party set out for the ruins. This world housed a number of dangerous entities. Sealing them away had created a temporary era of peace, but those seals weakened over time, and occasionally mad cultists attempted to break the seals on the gods they worshipped. The role of the Divine King, the Swordmaster, and the Knights was to protect the world from those threats.

The Meld Plains was home to such an imprisoned being, known as the Spider. Everything being crystallized here was a result of its powers leaking through the seal. The area under its effects was rather limited, so with care, it wouldn’t normally be an issue. But recently, that area began expanding. Their group had come to investigate the cause of that expansion.

Kicking aside the crystalline grass, they made it to a forest of crystal trees. The ruins housing the Spider were inside.

One of the Knights guided them into the forest. When they made it inside, it became clear the trees hadn’t just crystallized. Countless crystalline threads had been strung around and between them.

“Is this...the same as that net in the sky?”

“Yes. The Spider’s spawn make these. Not that I have ever seen them before.”

Their guide was the Knight responsible for this area. The Meld Plains wasn’t a particularly dangerous region, so they didn’t have someone permanently stationed there. The Knights’ only responsibility was to occasionally return to check up on the area, so they likely didn’t know much more than the rumors.

Passing through the forest, they came upon a clearing, a place called the Spring. A circular cavity about fifty meters across, it was covered in ice with a faint glow.

“This is as far as I usually go for my inspections...but it definitely looks like something has changed.”

The center of the spring was broken. A hole had been smashed into it.

“The ruins are in here?” the Swordmaster asked.

“Yes. There are a number of seals layered here, the spring being the outermost one.”

“If this is a sign the Spider has escaped, then it’s already over, isn’t it?” Urabe thought back to the tower. If they’d had a similar device set up to monitor the seal here, they never would have been caught unaware. But that tower, and the High Wizard who had created it, had all been a dream. Nothing like that existed in real life. They had no option but to inspect the seals manually every once in a while.

The Divine King aired her doubts. “No, the Spider isn’t small. It shouldn’t have been able to escape from a hole that size.”

As she said, the hole was only large enough for two or three people to pass through at a time. Of course, Urabe hadn’t been around to see the Spider during its rampage a thousand years ago, so he had no idea how large it was, but the Divine King had been involved in trapping it here in the first place, so he didn’t doubt her.

“The seal itself seems intact. Its spawn shouldn’t be able to get this close to it.” The fact that the spring still glowed was proof that the seal was keeping the evil at bay.

“So monsters weren’t the ones who broke through it, then,” the Swordmaster said.

“Indeed. A powerful monster may have been able to destroy the seal entirely, but in that case, it wouldn’t have stopped at a small hole like this.”

“So the Spider is still inside?”

“Most likely. If it had escaped, we’d be dealing with more than an accelerated crystallization outside.”

“In that case, what happened?”

“Who knows? We’ll have to go inside and find out for ourselves. Urabe and I will be enough. Everyone else, stand guard here.”

Urabe immediately accepted the Divine King’s decision. If they were dealing with a Dark God that had been freed from its seal, the other Knights would only slow them down. The two of them walked over to the spring, approaching the hole. Miasma poured out of it. It seemed the hole was responsible for accelerating the crystallization of the surrounding area.

The inside was dark, but the Swordmaster had no problem seeing in the dark. The inside of the hole was like a cave.

The two leaped inside. After a fall of a few dozen meters, they struck the ground. Such a distance was no problem for them.

They looked around. They appeared to be in some kind of natural cave, but every surface had turned to crystal. Though they had jumped in through a hole, there was a staircase carved into one of the walls, meaning there was likely another proper route to get inside.

“This miasma is pretty intense,” Urabe commented.

“Indeed. It makes it a lot easier to tell.”

Urabe immediately realized what the Divine King meant. Despite the miasma filling the cave, there were still traces of clean air, stretching like a thin line into the depths.

“A Holy Sword, huh?” she said.

“A Holy Sword could be anything from garbage to a legend.”

“This feels more like the latter. I feel I recognize this one.”

“Which means...someone from the royal family—or someone associated with us.”

“If they are one of us, they may have noticed the Dark God’s impending revival and moved to deal with it themselves.”

The Divine King seemed to believe there was no way a Knight would be responsible for breaking the seal, but Urabe wasn’t so sure. Knights were chosen entirely based on their strength. They couldn’t say every one of them was just and pure.

That one girl was quite a bit of trouble. What did we end up doing with her sword?

Urabe couldn’t recall that particular Knight very well. He thought she had the rank of Thunderous Blade, and her “sword” was a wire-like weapon so thin it was mostly invisible, but the more he thought about her, the less he could believe such a capricious Knight ever existed.

“Anyway, we’ll find out when we go.”

Following the presence of the Holy Sword, they made their way through the cave. There were a number of faintly glowing walls blocking their progress, but someone had already punched through them, so they had no issue continuing forward. As they walked, the cave began to widen and eventually deposited them in a large chamber. In each of the chamber’s four corners was a small tower, and they had all been cut down. A square structure sat in the center, its door broken down to allow entry.

“This is bad, isn’t it?”

“Yes. The shell of the seal is broken.”

“So these are the ruins? What about the inside?”

“The structure itself sits over the Spider’s body, while the sealing towers were positioned over its head, abdomen, and each of its eight legs. Those ten towers form the main body of the seal—”

She was interrupted by a tremendous roar as the building in front of them exploded. The two looked up to see that something had punched through the building from below. A large tower, covered in all sorts of intricate carvings, was now embedded deep in the ceiling of the cavern.

“That wouldn’t be one of your towers, would it?”

“This is bad! We need to head to where the Spider—”

The Divine King made to start running, but the ground split open in front of her, forcing her to stop. A second tower erupted from the ground. In short order, the remaining pillars followed suit, opening an enormous hole before them. Ten pillars were now embedded in the ceiling.

“Looks like the seal’s broken. How strong is this Spider?”

“It took three days and three nights of combat for me to lock it away.”

“Sounds tough.”

“Do what you can to retrieve those towers,” the Divine King said, glaring down at the hole in the floor.

“Those?” Urabe sighed, looking up at the ceiling. It seemed the towers would be necessary to overcome the trial before them. But he couldn’t just go get them. He would need to watch the fight between the Spider and the Divine King closely, only moving when they showed an opening.

Urabe looked at the hole just as something leaped out of it.

“Huh?” He had expected an enormous spider, so it took him entirely by surprise. It was neither Dark God nor monster, but an ordinary human. And one that Urabe recognized. “You’re...”

Ein. A man Urabe had given the Gift to in his role as Swordmaster. Many people came to ask him for the Gift, but not many walked away with the class of Hero, so Urabe remembered him. But that was all he knew about him. Urabe had no idea what had happened to the man after he became a Hero.

The Divine King and the Heroes both fought enemies of this world. They had similar missions, but while the Divine King and her Knights worked together as an organized group, the Heroes all worked independently.

“The Holy Sword Cartena. Then you must be the Hero Ein,” The Divine King said, looking at the sword at his hip.

Urabe didn’t know its name, but he recognized it as a Holy Sword immediately. The pure aura it emanated was impossible to miss.

“You know him?”

“I was the one who gave him Cartena. But I don’t understand. Why are you here?”

“The Divine King and the Swordmaster. I have no intention of fighting you. I would appreciate it if you let me pass,” Ein called out politely. There was a respectful air to his speech.

“I don’t think that’s gonna be possible. What happened to your arm?”

Ein’s right arm had completely crystallized and was exuding a sinister miasma. “Oh, this? The Spider gave it to me. I’m happy it only cost me this much, because this isn’t nearly enough.”

“You... You took in the Spider?!” The Divine King drew her sword and dashed forward.

Ein pointed his right hand at the ground. Pillars of crystal filled the cavern. Erupting from the floor, the walls, and the ceiling, the spears of crystal exuded the same sinister aura as his hand. The Divine King cut through the crystalline pillars, but Ein was already gone.

“It seems the Spider has quite a grudge against you, but it is well aware it can’t defeat you as it is now, so I have managed to convince it to retreat. Farewell. Hopefully we won’t have to meet again.”

They couldn’t pinpoint where his voice was coming from. Ein had fled and was already long gone.

“Follow him!” the Divine King commanded.

“Do you know where he went?”

“He said this wasn’t enough. He may be intending to break more of the seals!” She ran back through the cave.

Urabe began to feel this was going to be a pain in the ass.

◇ ◇ ◇

The creature known as the Wolf King was getting frustrated. No matter how long it fought, the constant wave of enemies never ceased. The wolf knew instinctively it couldn’t make physical contact with them, which meant it couldn’t use its primary means of attacking: its teeth and claws.

It could use the shock wave of its howl to obliterate them, but it was still a losing battle. Although none of its enemies were particularly strong, they regenerated rapidly. They infected all living things around them, constantly increasing in number, so it would only be a matter of time before the wolf was exhausted.

It began to panic. At this rate, it wouldn’t be able to reunite with its master, nor would it be able to search for the goddess. How could it get out of this situation? Though its mind raced, it couldn’t find any way to break the deadlock.

Meanwhile, the enemies were growing larger. One had absorbed the others around it and turned into a giant. They were attempting to surround and trap the wolf.

Howl.

Howl.

Howl.

It continued using its only method of fighting back, but there were limits to that as well. The enemy had grown large enough that it could absorb the impact of those shock waves. It was over.

But the moment the wolf gave up, something changed.

“Hiyaaaaah!”

There was a shout, and the enemy was suddenly enveloped in flames. It screamed in pain. Even if it could regenerate, being burned alive still hurt.

“Yo, long time no see.”

The wolf turned its head, puzzled. A woman with long hair and a flashy outfit now sat on its back. Its master, Hiruko, who it had been separated from when it came to this world, was stroking the back of its head. “Don’t give me that angry look! I didn’t forget you at all! Things just changed so suddenly, I got confused!”

The wolf had been thinking no such thing, but Hiruko clearly felt guilty about it.

“Uhh, what was your name again? Whatever. Puppy will do.” It seemed she had forgotten after all. The wolf didn’t have such a bland name, but it immediately gave up. If that’s what its master called it, that was its name.

“Man, this is a real pickle. Feels like we’re in a time loop or something.”

Things had seemed strange to Puppy, so it could accept it was part of some sort of loop.

“But this is much better than last time. I don’t know where they are, but all we gotta do is find some Sage or that Takatou guy.”

According to Hiruko, the goddess had been turned into objects known as Philosopher’s Stones. These were held by the Sages, and a boy named Takatou was collecting them. At least, that was what Hiruko remembered from before the loop. The people living in this world didn’t seem to realize that time had reset, believing everything before to be a dream, but a goddess like Hiruko wouldn’t be fooled.

“Do you remember, Puppy? Some spiky guy cut you in two.”

Now that she mentioned it, it did remember being killed, but its memories of the event were vague.

“Anyway, we gotta look for those Sages, but...it looks like splitting up isn’t a great idea.” If they did, there was a good chance Puppy would be overwhelmed by the creatures again. The situation was frustrating, but it recognized it wasn’t capable of surviving alone.

“I have no idea where to even start, though! Well, with Takatou collecting the stones again, I’m sure ma will be back in no time.”

If a few of the stones were gathered, they would fuse together and give the goddess a small amount of her power back. That would be enough for Hiruko to track her down.

“Well...I guess that means we just gotta wait ’til then, huh?”

At some point, the fire keeping the mysterious creatures at bay had died. Apparently, not even Hiruko could destroy them.

“Oh well. We’ll be fine if we fly.”

Puppy’s body floated up into the air. Hiruko’s power lifted the two of them up, taking them up into the sky and out of reach of the creatures.

“But this only buys us some time. We’ll need to figure something out.”

Hiruko glanced down. The mysterious creatures were gathered on the ground beneath them, desperately reaching up into the sky. The sky would likely not be safe for very much longer.