Chapter 18 — Knowing Them Doesn’t Bother Me That Much
Last Boss Quest, Final Stage, Round Three: Start!
After a short break in the Antechamber Area, Yogiri and Tomochika saw the announcement.
“All right, let’s go.”
“Round three has sixteen parties, right?” Tomochika asked.
“Only four rounds to go, then. I thought it would be a pain with so many people, but this actually isn’t that bad.”
“Yeah, we haven’t had much difficulty yet...”
Since all they had to do was defeat whatever enemy showed up, Yogiri didn’t feel like it was all that much work.
Standing up, they headed out the door, which took them to a barren wasteland. The ground around them was empty, reddish brown earth, which came to an abrupt end. Beyond that was nothing but clouds, so this must have been the edge of the floating island. In the opposite direction was a forest, beyond which they could see part of a large building. That was likely a castle, making it the center of the island.
“Want me to yell again?”
“Please.”
“Yogiri Takatou is right here!”
They had both grown used to her yelling by this point. Yogiri stepped away and covered his ears, while Tomochika made sure not to shout so loud as to hurt her own ears.
“I feel like we’re being really lazy about this, though,” Tomochika commented.
“I guess we’re not really doing much, are we?” But with the other participants prioritizing killing Yogiri, this was the most efficient way to proceed. “Speaking of which, wouldn’t it be possible to attack someone before the fight actually started?” he asked, the idea suddenly occurring to him.
“I wonder. You get moved to the battle channel when you’re within ten meters of each other, right? I don’t know what happens if you fight before then. There are plenty of long-range attacks you can do from outside that distance...” If that was allowed, though, there didn’t seem much point in moving them to another channel in the first place.
“We are not in the same space until we encounter an opponent, it appears.” An answer came to them from the forest.
“Oh, Celestina!” Tomochika exclaimed. Emerging from the woods was the quite familiar hotel concierge.
“I have investigated our surroundings with my threads and been unable to make contact with anyone before approaching within the set distance. I have, however, been able to manipulate the environment around them, similar to how you have, Miss Dannoura.”
Though he wasn’t sure it was quite the right analogy, Yogiri guessed it was like they were halfway outside of space. They couldn’t interact directly with each other, but they could still affect the environment around them enough to communicate. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to hear or see each other.
“Did you come here to kill me?” Yogiri asked.
“Yes. It is most inappropriate behavior towards a hotel guest, but...considering the issues you have caused for the other guests, I cannot avoid it.”
“I guess that makes sense. It’s not like we were your only guests.”
This would be a bit difficult. Celestina had helped them quite a bit in their travels and wasn’t a bad person at all. However, her sense of responsibility had brought her to kill Yogiri anyway, and it wasn’t like Yogiri would stand by and let her kill him.
Celestina approached, shifting them into the battle channel.
“What about the rules?”
“In the end, I must take your life, so specifying any further details seems meaningless to me,” Celestina responded.
“Oh, okay.”
Yogiri Takatou vs Celestina: FIGHT!!!
An announcement played in the air above them, indicating the start of the battle.
“I have already trapped you with my thread. If you do not resist, I will allow Miss Dannoura to escape here unharmed, and will ensure your death is as painless as possible.”
“Sorry, I can’t do that,” Yogiri replied.
“Huh? Thread?” Tomochika looked around but couldn’t see anything. They had fought someone who had used a similar weapon back in the tower, but they had been able to perceive the threads back then. Assuming she wasn’t bluffing, Celestina’s threads seemed much thinner, to the point where even Tomochika couldn’t see them.
“Then how about this? I will kill Miss Dannoura first. Even if you can respond to killing intent, surely you cannot respond to killing intent aimed at others.”
“That’s not going to work.” As Yogiri spoke, Celestina collapsed.
Yogiri Takatou Wins!
“Huh?” Tomochika blurted out, taken aback by how quickly the fight had ended. Maybe she’d thought there was still room for them to discuss things.
“Knowing them doesn’t bother me that much,” Yogiri said.
As she had warned them, Celestina had made an attempt on Tomochika’s life, so Yogiri had killed her. That was all there was to it.
◇ ◇ ◇
As the third round began, Hiruko’s group left the Antechamber Area and arrived in an open field. In the distance they could see a forest, a lake, and a castle, but around them there was nothing but grassland.
“Hey, you’ve got a sensor thing, right? Why can’t you find some opponents for us?” Hiruko asked the Hedgehog.
“There is no need. An opponent already approaches.”
Something fell from the sky, landing hard and shaking the ground around them. Immediately the scenery flickered as they moved into the battle channel. Standing in front of them was a party of five.
“Yo. I’m Demon Lord Gorbagion. These are my Four Heavenly Kings.”
The black-haired boy in the lead was Gorbagion, with his Four Heavenly Kings arrayed behind him.
“Chop chop, let’s keep this moving. We’re just gonna fight, yeah?” The fact he had decided to land close enough to trigger the battle channel left Hiruko assuming they were just going to fight.
Goddess Luu vs. Demon Lord Gorbagion: FIGHT!!!
The announcement played in the air between them, meaning the default death match rules must have been applied.
“Now that I think about it, it’s kind of interesting how those announcements give some of us titles and not others, huh?” Gorbagion said.
“True. Makes things easy to understand, don’t you think?” Hiruko felt no need to engage in small talk. Lifting her right hand, she fired a beam of light wide enough to engulf Gorbagion’s whole party. The straight line carved through the grassland, incinerating everything before it.
When the light finally winked out, Gorbagion was the only one left standing. Even then, he was barely recognizable, thoroughly burned from head to toe. There was no sign of what was once his Four Heavenly Kings but a couple of pairs of glasses lying on the seared earth.
“You gotta play the part of the Demon Lord, yeah? Having the small fry around wouldn’t have changed much anyway.”
“I guess not. I haven’t really gone all out yet either.” Gorbagion picked up one of the pairs of glasses.
“Come on, you sound like an idiot,” Hiruko said.
“If you think I’m lying, then bring it on.”
“Fine.” After one attack, he already seemed on the verge of death. She didn’t need any tricks. More of the same would finish him off easily.
Hiruko fired another beam of light, and then five more to ensure the fight was decided. But after the smoke cleared, Gorbagion was still standing there. Not only was he still alive, but his incinerated clothing was starting to repair itself.
“Oh?” Hiruko started to feel suspicious. Unlike her first attack, the follow-ups didn’t seem to be having much of an effect.
“Hey now, come on. Let me have a turn. You can’t hog the spotlight.”
“Don’t care,” Hiruko said, firing another beam of light. As it struck Gorbagion, the Demon Lord rushed forward, pressing through the searing ray and closing in on her. Hiruko responded with a solid left hook, landing squarely in Gorbagion’s face, but not before his kick tore into her stomach.
“What the heck? You think that’ll bother me?”
“I’m still not going all out,” Gorbagion replied.
“Oh, shut it! Just fight already, then!”
His attack hadn’t hurt her in the least. Hiruko unleashed a barrage of punches, sending Gorbagion flying, but he soon recovered and lunged back into the fight.
Something odd seemed to be happening, though. As the fight progressed, Gorbagion seemed to be growing more resistant to her attacks, and his own attacks were starting to get more and more painful.
“What is with you?!” Hiruko swung another fist in anger, but the impact seemed harder on her hand than on Gorbagion’s face. The Demon Lord ignored the punch, delivering a swift knee to Hiruko’s gut, forcing the goddess back.
“I told you, didn’t I? I wasn’t going all out yet.”
“And I’m telling you that going all out won’t make a difference!”
Frustrated by her lack of progress, Hiruko launched a gravity blast, focusing enough gravity on a single point to crush and kill anyone around it. Gorbagion, however, withstood the attack, bent over but still standing.
“I’m still not using my full power... That’s my power. No matter what I do, I’m never going all out.” Gorbagion stretched out his right hand.
Getting a bad feeling, Hiruko immediately leaped backwards, only to see the space she had once occupied disappear. A half-sphere had been neatly gouged out of the ground she had once been standing on. At the same time, countless holes had opened up in her body. Gorbagion’s attack must have scattered outward as multiple small scale erasures.
“You think you can kill a god like that?!” Hiruko shouted back, regenerating instantly.
“Of course not. But there’s something like a real part of you in there. I know that.”
Hiruko fired another beam of light, putting more strength into it than before. She was beyond keeping up appearances. The intense ray struck Gorbagion head-on. As he wavered slightly with the impact, the Hedgehog rushed forward and swung its bladed arms, then he lifted his left hand and unleashed another erasure attack.
A slash against erasure. Gorbagion came out on top, the Hedgehog’s upper body vanishing.
“Ma! This guy seems dangerous!”
“A bit late for that,” Gorbagion said. “Then again, I get stronger as the fight goes on, so I couldn’t fight like this at the beginning.”
“Shut it!” Hiruko fired another beam of light, but this time Gorbagion ignored it. As it washed over him, he casually walked forward.
“I’m never going all out. That means I can keep getting stronger forever.”
While Hiruko’s mind raced to find a way to deal with him, Gorbagion stepped up beside her. Hiruko punched him with all of her strength, but the Demon Lord simply sidestepped the attack and punched a hand into her chest.
“Hey, that’s sexual harassment, you know?”
“Not my fault you hid your core there,” Gorbagion replied.
“Ma...run. Leave the Great Sage for later...” Hiruko felt herself starting to come apart. Unable to do any more, she could only hope that Luu would be okay.
◇ ◇ ◇
In their compressed band of time, the fight seemed to stretch on forever, but eventually Gorbagion came out on top. Luu was unbelievably strong, and it seemed like Gorbagion would lose any number of times, but in the end he had never shown off his full power.
Demon Lord Gorbagion Wins!
Luu vanished, leaving Gorbagion as the winner.
Whether his opponent was a god or not, no matter how powerful they were, it never mattered to him. He never used his full power. No matter how much weaker he was than his opponent, he was never using his full strength, so he always had a chance to turn the tables on them. Because he would never make it to using his full power, there was no limit to how strong he could grow.
Once again he found himself in the waiting room, and he plopped down on one of the couches. He was a little tired, but not so much as to hinder him going forward. Gorbagion pulled a pair of glasses out of his jeans pocket and threw them on the ground. The glasses started to smoke, and before long the six-eyed Graze was standing before him.
“My apologies. It seems I failed to be of any use,” Graze said, bowing his head deeply.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m the only one who can do anything against gods like that. Bring back the other three, please.”
“Very well. Then, with these Backup Glasses...” Pulling three pairs of glasses out of his pockets, he tossed them on the ground, much as Gorbagion had done before. They began to smoke, and before long the Four Heavenly Kings had been revived.
“It’s kind of unfair how much you can do with just glasses.”
Backup Glasses stored the information of anyone who wore them, allowing them to be restored at a later time. Graze had a limitless amount of related items like this.
“Not at all. The absurdness of my power pales in comparison to yours,” Graze answered.
“Next is round four. Should be far fewer people around now.”
The fourth round would have eight parties. Until now Gorbagion had just attacked whoever was closest, but with so few parties left in contention, it should be much easier to seek out specific prey.
He decided it was about time to take down Yogiri.
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