Chapter 18 — Now I’m Mad! No More Mrs. Nice Goddess!
Yogiri Takatou had to die. That was the natural conclusion that Richard, also known as Rick, came to. That just cause came well before any sort of friendship they may have had. Though he wasn’t sure he would be of any use in the effort, he was a member of the royal family and so possessed their inherited ability.
Even if that wasn’t particularly useful, the fact that they were acquainted meant Yogiri may let his guard down around him. Rick would do whatever it took to take Yogiri down. Even if his actions ended in his own death, that alone might provide at least some information for those who would come after him. Even a seemingly meaningless death had meaning in a fight against Yogiri.
However, if he died out here before even reaching his target, it would truly be a pointless death.
“Is there any way we can talk this through?” Richard asked cautiously. Vahanato seemed more than ready to fight. He couldn’t imagine her letting him go. But she hadn’t attacked him on sight. There was a chance there was room for negotiation.
“Talk things through, huh? That only works if we have something to negotiate, right? I don’t think that applies to us.”
“I disagree. If all you wish for is my death, I suspect there is a high likelihood I will lose my life in the battle against Yogiri Takatou. Would you consider staying your hand until that battle is resolved?”
“Absolutely not. I want to kill you with my own hands. You going off and dying somewhere else doesn’t mean anything. You don’t have any choice but to die here. All that needs to be decided is... Hmm. How pathetic will your death be? And how much will your suffering improve my mood?”
It seemed there was no talking to her. Richard looked to Lynel at her side.
“U-Umm!” Lynel spoke up. “We’re both trying to kill Yogiri, so should we really be fighting each other and reducing our fighting strength?”
“Are you serious? Come on, a fight? Anything with this guy isn’t going to be a fight at all. I’m just going to thrash him. It’s not going to cost me anything.”
“B-But still! If Takatou dies, the world is going to be reset again, isn’t it? So Rick will just end up coming back to life! What’s the point of killing him now? Isn’t it more efficient to kill Takatou first?”
“Revenge isn’t a problem of efficiency. I never cared enough about this guy to seek him out and kill him, but now that he’s in front of me, I feel like I might as well. That’s all there is to it.”
“I-I see. I suppose you’re right...” Lynel had done what he could to stay the goddess’s hand, but it didn’t seem to be working. As humiliating as it was, it seemed Vahanato didn’t consider Richard to be especially important. She was just interested in getting his death out of the way, so there wasn’t any room for negotiation.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you in one hit or anything. First of all, let’s see. It would be a pain if you ran and hid, so why don’t I get rid of one of your legs?”
Vahanato fired a ball of light from her palm. The projectile moved at a tremendous speed, until it was struck by Richard’s sword and dissipated.
“Huh?”
She tilted her head in confusion. She had never doubted that the attack would hit, and that it would blow off his leg when it did. The reality in front of her was so far beyond her expectations, it left her in a state of total confusion. Even when she was playing around, there should have been no way for Richard to react in time to her attacks, let alone to completely stop them.
A number of factors had played into this outcome. She hadn’t intended to kill him, so she had been holding back. Since she was outside her own territory as a goddess, she couldn’t wield her full powers. She was using her connection with Lynel to force herself into the world before the correct time. The Holy Sword Orz, which Richard wielded, was blessed with a divine power, making it especially effective against evil. Orz had its own will and memory, so the god-slaying power it had awakened to upon killing Vahanato the first time remained. Richard still had his memories of being the Swordmaster.
No single one of these factors was enough to protect Richard from her attack, but with all of them together, Richard was just barely strong enough to fight back.
“Ah, I get it. That sword is the one that killed me, so it’s got the concept of god-slaying infused into it now. Now I’m mad! No more Mrs. Nice Goddess!” Vahanato brought the weapons floating around her to bear, each of them firing a beam of light all at once. Her attack had been stopped when she was holding back, but what would happen if she went all out?
Apparently, Richard would still survive. The sword couldn’t block all of the beams of light, but by lifting the sword up, he could force the beams of light off of their trajectories. That gave him enough room to dodge around them. Of course, he wasn’t entirely unharmed, as even the shock waves created by the attack were enough to hurt him. But it didn’t seem Vahanato’s power was so overwhelming that she could end the fight immediately.
“Whaaaaat?! What the heck?! What is going on here?! This is wrong! Something is definitely wrong!”
Richard’s attacks couldn’t reach her. Even if he could dodge around her attacks, he couldn’t get close to her. But neither could Vahanato’s attacks finish him off.
At this rate, though...
He was somehow managing to survive, but there was no hope for him to come out ahead in the end. He could try to run away, but the moment he diverted even a little attention from avoiding her attacks, he would likely die. The only thing keeping him alive was his courage to face her head-on.
“Give those back!”
“I never asked for them in the first place!”
The sword and shield Lynel was carrying flew back to Vahanato. Though it only gave her two more weapons, that was enough to significantly increase the intensity of her attack. Richard knew he wouldn’t last much longer, so he decided to take a gamble.
It’s all or nothing...
Richard threw his knife. It was an ordinary throwing knife, a basic side weapon with no special abilities. A weapon like that wouldn’t even scratch a god. Richard knew it wouldn’t be of any use against her.
“Gah!” Struck by the knife, Lynel cried in pain. It hadn’t hit him dead on, but it had grazed the back of his neck. Though he pressed a hand to the wound, it wasn’t enough to stop the flow of blood. It wouldn’t be a fatal wound, but Lynel’s face was starting to pale. He had never expected he would be attacked in this situation.
“Hey! What are you doing?! Aren’t you two friends?! Why is he attacking you?!” Vahanato complained.
“We’re really just acquaintances. If his life is on the line, I don’t see why he wouldn’t attack me...” Lynel muttered.
Richard didn’t know if there was any point attacking Lynel, but Lynel and the goddess were traveling together. He had hoped to distract her slightly, and it seemed to be working perfectly.
The shield floating around Vahanato glowed with a pale light that then enveloped Lynel. With her focus now on healing her companion, her attack had softened. It appeared that attacking Lynel had put her in a difficult spot.
Avoiding her attacks, Richard edged closer. As he did, the trajectory of Vahanato’s attacks began to change. She couldn’t risk hitting Lynel by accident. The number of attacks was clearly dropping.
“Hey, is it okay if I blow you up with him?” Vahanato asked Lynel.
“You’re letting me decide that?!”
“Okay, how about this? You just go on ahead.”
“Huh?” Lynel blurted out in surprise as a pair of Vahanato’s weapons lined up beside him and picked him up off the ground, throwing him towards the building behind them. Rough as it was, the throw managed to send him into the darkness of the entrance.
“Now I can attack you without worrying about anything!” Vahanato declared. The power of her attacks spiked again. Barely able to survive, Richard lost all room to plan.
“Guh!”
“It’s too bad I can’t go easy on you, but I’m super happy you’re still alive! Killing you easily here wouldn’t be satisfying!”
Richard was barely managing to avoid her attacks in his desperation, but he knew he was on thin ice, and it was starting to crack. A beam of light punched through his right arm. Unable to keep a grip on his sword, he accepted that this was the end.
There was a flash of light. Bright enough to blind him, the powerful impact struck his entire body, sending him flying backwards. After slamming into something behind him, he dropped to the ground. He was alive, barely, but that was all. He didn’t have the strength to stand and had no idea what state his body was in. He was well beyond being able to fight. Even a small child would have been able to take his life in this state. Was dying a meaningless death here the best he could amount to? As he sank into regret, he heard Vahanato’s voice.
“What? What the heck was that?! Where did you come from?!” It was neither a celebration of victory, nor a mockery of the loser. She sounded confused.
What happened?
Had the attack come from someone else? In a daze, he noticed that Vahanato had disappeared. That may have simply been because Richard’s senses were failing him, and she may have even now been approaching to finish him off, but he couldn’t tell.
“Hey, boss! This guy’s still breathin’!”
“Oh? He’s a human, isn’t he? The fact it couldn’t kill a human is concerning, but it did seem to work on that other woman.”
“Yeah, it stuck into her good. She was definitely bleedin’.”
“Maybe it’s just a gear issue. She was practically naked while this guy has armor.”
“Er, I dunno if I should say this, but...”
“What is it?”
“This guy kind of looks like you, boss.”
“You think so? I don’t care that much about my looks, so I didn’t notice...”
Richard could tell a number of people were approaching. If he could ascertain that much, his senses must have been telling the truth when they told him that Vahanato had left.
“Hey. Who are you?”
“I am...Richard...third prince...of Manii...” Trying to leverage his identity might have been pointless now. But if there was even the slightest chance it could save him, it was worth a shot.
“Prince?! Why would a prince be in a place like this?! Sounds fishy to me!”
“Cavern Quest doesn’t care about who you were on the surface. There’s no point lying about being a prince down here.”
“That said, we’re pirates. Only one thing to do with a prince.”
“Interesting. Looks like he’s telling the truth after all.”
“How do you figure?”
“That sword.”
“What about it? Wait, is it glowing? Is that an ancient relic too? I thought people couldn’t use magic near you, boss.”
“I’ve never heard of such a thing, but it would make sense for the royal family to have swords that can use their abilities even through our seal.”
Richard didn’t know who these people were, but if they knew about the royal family’s ability to nullify the Gift, they may have been related. That meant they might save him.
But the moment that thought pushed through the fog in his head, it was immediately struck down. A fresh, incredible pain shot through his already aching body. The feeling of something sharp punched through his armor, through his flesh, into his heart. For the second time in his life, he felt a sensation that should only ever happen once.
“I don’t know if you’re my brother, cousin, second cousin, or whatever. But if you’ve got royal blood, you can die here.” The woman spat the last words Richard heard.
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