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Chapter 18 — I Don’t Know What Will Happen if I Kill Space Itself 

The tower appeared out of nowhere. It was the same structure that she had caught a brief glimpse of before, and this time it was definitely not an illusion. There was no denying the reality of it as it stood tall before them. 

“To think we missed such a thing...” Hanakawa muttered. 

He and Aoi were perched on a high cliff, having followed the path of the bladed monster in the direction of the structure that Aoi had seen. The tower, which had suddenly popped into view before them, stood out for not only its size but the fact that it was the only artificial structure in the canyon. Aoi figured it was about five hundred meters tall. 

“It looks like they had some kind of illusion around it. The fact that they were able to hide something so big means that it must have been pretty impressive magic. This area is under the control of the Swordmaster, though, so we Sages rarely have a reason to come here.” 

“Swordmasters are the ones who train Heroes, right?” Hanakawa asked. 

“Heroes are more like those who failed to become Swordmasters. From the rumors I’ve heard, they gather people for a selection process to become Knights of the Divine King. Those who have talent later become Swordmaster candidates and are trained by the Swordmaster personally. Those who don’t are cut off and become Heroes. It’s pretty similar to what Sages do in the end.” 

“Ah, now that you mention it, I seem to recall being told to attempt to become a Sage...” 

“By who?” 

“Sion, I believe her name was.” 

“Ahh, my condolences then.” She had thought of Hanakawa as little more than a fat kid who didn’t know how to take care of himself, but suddenly she was overcome by a strong feeling of pity for him. 

“Hold on! Why are you looking at me like an insect whose wings have been ripped off?!” 

“Sion is very much all or nothing in her methods. She has no interest in actually training people. She much prefers driving them to the edge to see if any of them miraculously survive, even if she could get better results by helping them to grow slowly. So you’ll probably run into a bit of a rough patch sooner or later.” 

“I feel that things are sufficiently rough already! Perhaps you would be willing to help me, since I’ve come this far with you? We’ve been traveling together all this time, so you’ve grown a little attached to me, right? Maybe you’re even starting to think I’m a little cute? Like a kind of Stockholm Syndrome thing?” 

Aoi took a good look at Hanakawa, but she felt absolutely nothing for him. “Sorry, we’re not allowed to intervene when it comes to Sage candidates.” 

“Then please send me back! I’ll do my best to become a Sage!” 

“It’s okay. Staying with me will be pretty good training.” 

“Now I just feel like I’m going to die either way! Really, we’ve got one foot in the grave here! Why are we chasing that monster?!” 

“We’re just heading to a place where it looks like something will happen. But don’t worry, I don’t have any intention of fighting that thing. My target is Yogiri Takatou, so we’ll be avoiding the Aggressor.” 

“But like I said, if you are merely targeting Takatou, what need do you have of me?!” 

“Oh, I guess I never properly explained that part. Think of it like Nobunaga Oda.” 

“What is that supposed to mean?” 

“You don’t know who Nobunaga Oda is?” 

“Please, don’t insult me. Of course I know of the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven!” 

“People like him, who have high Fate levels, rarely die. Even when he was attacked by Zenjuubou Sugitani, or when he pretended to be a common foot soldier and fought on the front lines, or when he recklessly attacked Okehazama, he just didn’t die. From his opponents’ perspectives, it must have seemed like he was cheating somehow. But in the end, someone still managed to find a way to kill him.” 

“You mean the Honnoji Incident?” 

“Exactly. To kill someone who is protected by Fate, you need to use that Fate against them. Trying to kill them randomly is impossible. You need to create a situation where killing them will be suitably dramatic, where it’ll cause a huge uproar. Fate tends towards the most interesting outcome. So you need to fashion a scenario where him dying makes a more interesting story than him continuing to live.” 

“This is supposed to be about why you brought me with you, right?” 

“Of course. Reuniting with a classmate is rather dramatic, don’t you think?” 

“But wouldn’t it be easier if you just used your power to counteract his? That seems much easier to me.” 

“I don’t have enough information on him yet, and it’s not safe to rely entirely on my ability. In the end, the fight will be decided by Fate. The best I can do is try to create a situation where Fate will push things in a direction that works for me.” Truthfully, she didn’t have much in the way of expectations for Hanakawa, but it was worth a shot. “Anyway, I just figured that you might be useful somehow —” 

Before she could finish her sentence, a sound like an explosion filled the air. 

“Umm...it looks like the tower has disappeared again. Did they put the barrier back up?” Hanakawa asked, knowing full well that probably wasn’t the case. 

“Looks like someone blew it up,” Aoi answered. 

The tower appeared to have been cleanly wiped from the landscape. And not just the tower — the surrounding canyon and forest had similarly vanished. In their place was a dangerous-looking individual, floating in the air. He fired something into the ground, and everything along the projectile’s path was annihilated. 

“That’s ridiculous! That thing is strong enough to change the landscape!” Hanakawa screamed in a shrill voice. 

“Well, this is a problem. If Yogiri Takatou was in that tower, there’s no way we can confirm whether he’s dead or alive.” For someone in her line of work, having a target die on their own without her knowing about it was extremely annoying. “Well, if that was enough to kill him, then I wouldn’t be needed in the first place, right?” 

Grabbing Hanakawa as he tried to run away, she dragged him along to where the tower had once stood. 

  

“Huh? Where are they going?!” Lynel hesitated as he saw Yogiri, Tomochika, and another woman run off at full speed. He wasn’t sure whether he should also run away or if it would be better to stand and fight. 

“Lynel! This isn’t the time to be worried about the others!” Rick shouted, bringing him back to his senses. Running away wasn’t really possible anyway. Their opponent was someone who could destroy a one-hundred-floor tower in an instant — there wasn’t anywhere safe to escape to. And more importantly, the creature floating in the air was certainly one of the Dark God’s spawn. If they didn’t do something to stop it here, it would destroy the barrier, unleash its master upon the world, and bring about the end of humanity. 

“We don’t need cowards like them anyway! If these things are clawing their way past the barrier for us, that just makes things easier. This time I’ll show you my true strength!” Frederica brandished her staff, once again full of confidence. Though her abilities far exceeded those of an ordinary person, she was particularly skilled with magic, possessing an amount of magical energy that was easily ten thousand times greater than the average mage’s. In fact, as far as he knew, she was the strongest mage in existence, so as pathetic as it made him feel, Lynel found himself instinctively hiding behind her. 

“You realize that’s not actually the Dark God, right? It’s just one of its spawn.” 

“Of course I know that! Dealing with its underlings should be easy!” 

“Lynel, please get ready to use one of your stones,” Rick said calmly, drawing his sword. Those around them who had also just become Knights took up fighting stances of their own. 

The creature floating in the air slowly descended, landing in front of the Swordmaster. It looked basically human, with the only real difference being the three pairs of black wings that sprouted from its back. But the tremendous aura of evil it exuded made it clear that this was no ordinary person. It was a life form on an entirely different level, far above humanity. 

“How does one remove the barrier? If you tell me, I won’t kill you.” The way it spoke would be enough to make a weaker person fall to their knees before it. There was magic in its voice — a magic that was resisted by one of the rings that Lynel was wearing, which protected him from mind control. 

“How kind of you to say that after destroying my tower,” the Swordmaster replied. As expected, he wasn’t the least bit cowed by the spawn’s imposing presence. 

“I’d assumed that destroying the tower would have a high likelihood of dispelling the barrier. But since it didn’t work, I’ll need to find another way.” 

Accepting the Swordmaster’s response as a refusal, the spawn pointed a finger at one of the gathered Knights. For an instant, the tip of its finger glowed, then a thin bolt of black lightning shot forth and punched a hole through the man’s forehead, killing him instantly. 

“There is no need to rush. I will kill you one by one so that you have plenty of time to change your minds.” 

“Don’t make light of us!” another man shouted, jumping into the space between the Swordmaster and the spawn. He immediately split himself into six clones, each of them slashing at the creature simultaneously, striking all at once from six different directions. It was an absolutely unavoidable, inarguably fatal attack, but the creature didn’t attempt to dodge it in the slightest. Instead, it flicked a hand outward in irritation as the six blades struck home. The assault failed to make so much as a mark, accomplishing nothing but the addition of six new corpses around the creature, each cut in half at the waist. 

“Huh. I thought those were illusions or something, but I guess they were real bodies,” Lynel remarked. 

“You seem awfully calm about the whole situation,” Frederica replied, impressed by his composure. 

The Swordmaster leaped backwards, distancing himself from the spawn. Perhaps still waiting for the right opportunity, he had yet to draw his weapon. 

“I’d be more than happy if there was no barrier!” Frederica shouted, lifting her staff into the air as its tip began to glow. The glowing light strengthened and eventually detached from the staff, leaving an enormous ball of light floating through the air. 

“Um...i-is this really the time to be saying such things?” stammered Lynel. “A-And isn’t that orb getting a little too big?!” It was now even larger than the ball of fire she had unleashed at the top of the tower. The light continued to grow, reaching a size that wouldn’t have fit inside the tower if the building had still existed above them. 

“Full throttle, full power! No restraint!” 


“But, um, won’t we be hit by that too?” 

Lynel’s worries amounted to nothing, however. The sphere of burning light that blocked out the entire sky above them suddenly shrank, the air around it wavering in the heat. The enormous magical energy in the sphere had been compressed to its utmost limit, but it was hard to tell what result the impact would have once she unleashed it. Lynel felt his whole body begin to tremble as he was struck with a terrible premonition. 

Luckily, the spawn hadn’t taken notice of her yet. It was simply focused on killing the new Knights around it one by one. 

“Take this!” Frederica swung the staff downwards, pointing it at the spawn. The sphere of light, condensed to the size of a fist, flew at the creature at a terrifying speed. Without even sparing it a glance, the spawn swung around and snatched it out of the air. 

Frederica froze. Her mind couldn’t keep up with the reality unfolding before her. This was the best she had to offer, an attack with all of her power behind it, and yet the spawn had crushed it in a single hand without any apparent thought or effort. 

“That was quite impressive for a human. If it had hit, it might even have left a burn,” a young boy remarked, standing in front of Frederica. He had appeared there at some point, unnoticed, casually standing with his hands behind his head and a big smile on his face. “But if you can’t get past the Dimensional Wall, nothing you do will matter.” 

“Dammit!” Frederica instinctively swung her staff at the boy, who casually stopped it with one hand. Lynel couldn’t believe it — that hadn’t just been an ordinary strike either. Lynel had seen that same attack shatter the head of a dragon, and yet it was being blocked by one of the child’s small hands. 

“Too bad. Looks like you’re not strong enough to fight us yet. You don’t even see what just happened, do you?” 

“What are you talking about?!” Frederica yelled, falling back as she tried and failed to pull her staff away. With a great wrench, she fell hard onto her backside. But while she had never let go of the staff, neither had the boy. Her right arm had been split in half at the elbow. 

“Girls like sweet things, right? So I decided to try making you into a dessert. What do you think?” 

“N-No! What’s happening?!” Frederica’s right arm had turned brown, taking on a solid, rough texture that resembled some sort of baked good. Taking a bite from the hand that was still holding the staff, the boy made a showing of spilling crumbs all over. 

Watching the child eat her own hand, Frederica lost the will to fight, prompting Rick to attack in her stead. The boy made an exaggerated leap backwards, dodging out of the way. 

“Yeah, you can still fight. That sword and armor are pretty impressive. I don’t know where you got them, but it looks like they could work against us.” 

“Lynel! Please take care of Frederica!” Rick shouted, snapping the stunned Lynel back to his senses. 

“Uh, right! Got it!” 

“Swordmaster!” A magic doll appeared, giving its report far too late. “Another unique-type monster has appeared!” 

“What a rude thing to call someone,” the boy complained. “We have names too, you know. I’m Lute, and that fellow with the wings is Orgain. Well, we won’t know each other for much longer, but it’s nice to meet you,” he offered politely. 

“This is bad. This is the first time that two have broken out at once,” the Swordmaster said, distress clear on his face. There were times in the past where such spawn, unique enough to have their own names, had made it past the barrier. But there had never been more than one at a time. 

“Lynel! What do I do? What do I do?! I can’t heal it! I’m still just a dessert!” Frederica was going crazy. She had never been so much as hurt since being born into this world. And now, the first time she had ever lost at something, the result was her right arm being turned into some sort of confection. Her panic was understandable. And despite the fact that she was plenty skilled at healing magic, no matter how hard she tried, her arm wouldn’t return to normal. 

Meanwhile, Orgain was taking his time wounding the people around him one by one. It was as if he wasn’t planning to kill them until they had been sufficiently terrified. Lute was laughing, dodging around Rick’s attacks as he mocked him. And their last ray of hope, the Swordmaster, was still standing there doing absolutely nothing. Crouched in a combat stance, his hands were on the hilt of his sword, so it looked like he was planning something, but as of yet, he wasn’t helping at all. 

Lynel could do nothing but watch. He was entirely powerless. From the beginning, he had never had any real talent. The only reason he had made it this far was because of Frederica and the others. With barely any star crystals left, it was doubtful that he could summon anything useful for such a fight either. And even if he died and came back, there was hardly any point in trying again considering the enemies before him. There was nothing he could do but give up. 

As he gave a weak, defeated laugh, he noticed something blinking at the edge of his vision. Another message from the goddess. Willing to take anything he could get, he opened the message. 

Announcement? Ultra Rare Guarantee Once More! 

It was the ultimate Hail Mary, but Lynel had no choice. He decided to put all his hopes on one last roll. 

  

While all of this was going on above, Yogiri, Tomochika, and Teodisia were descending the stairs to the depths of the tower’s basement. They had found a staircase in the first room they’d checked out, so there hadn’t been any need for them to keep searching, but a new problem had arisen — the staircase was showing no sign of coming to an end, seemingly continuing downwards forever. 

It was especially strange since the tower was on the edge of a cliff. From the direction the stairs descended, they should have long since exited through the side of that cliff. Since they couldn’t just sit around feeling stunned by the strangeness of the situation, they went onwards for a while longer, but no matter how far down they walked, there was no sign of the descent coming to an end. 

When they turned around to climb back up, they reached the top of the staircase almost immediately. 

“Um, I guess there’s some sort of spell in place here, too,” Yogiri said as they began down the staircase again. 

If there is a barrier that influences time, perhaps one that influences space is not so far-fetched, Mokomoko mused. Maybe they have extended the distance from here to the basement infinitely. 

“If the control room for the barrier is down this way, it makes sense that it would be protected,” Teodisia added. Apparently, being a half-demon allowed her to see Mokomoko just as Yogiri and Tomochika could. And she was right; a trial was being held within the tower, after all. It wouldn’t do to have random passersby wandering into a restricted area like that. 

“Can you feel your friends down there?” Yogiri asked. 

“There’s no mistake. Their presence has grown much stronger. This is certainly the right direction.” 

So the barrier isn’t obstructing her senses, then. An odd development. 

“I’m not sure, but it is quite possible that this barrier was set up by my own people.” 

I see. I knew that the tower was absorbing souls to power the barrier, but it also has a population of half-demons to power the tower itself, as well as the independent barriers set up throughout the area. 

“That’s cool and all,” Tomochika interjected in a bored voice, “but what are we supposed to do about it?” It seemed the conversation was going a bit over her head. 

“Getting down there is our objective right now, so we need to find a way. I’m just not sure how we can get around this.” 

“Oh, well why don’t you just kill it? You know, kill the barrier or whatever,” she suggested. 

Yogiri stopped for a moment, considering whether or not such a thing was actually feasible. “Hm, that’s kind of challenging. What would I actually be killing?” 

“Uhh...I don’t know, the infinite space?” 

“I have no idea what that means.” 

“Oh, right, but killing ice and doors makes perfect sense!” 

“Well, for example, if the barrier was trying to keep me trapped, that would be enough of a threat for me to perceive it. But all it’s doing is stopping us from going forward, and it’s not like we’ll die if we don’t get down there.” 

To kill something, Yogiri had to be able to sense it. But space itself was a bit too abstract to target. Even if he couldn’t perceive something, he could respond to anything that offered any sort of threat against his life, but that simply didn’t apply here. 

“I’m not sure what killing space itself would do, so unless we’re desperate, I feel like it’s probably not a good idea.” In the worst-case scenario, it could destroy the entire world, so that was something he preferred to avoid. 

“What about the way that you saved Mokomoko? You stopped the tower from absorbing the spirits, right? Can’t you break it like that?” 

“But in this case, the source of the barrier might be Teodisia’s friends, remember? If that’s the case, and I destroy the source of the barrier, the people we’re trying to save would be dead, so it would all be for nothing.” 

It may be possible for me to pass through alone since I don’t have a physical body, Mokomoko suggested. Since the ghost had been following the other three, she had also been wrapped up in the space-distorting effects of the magic. It appears that her companions can be sensed through this illusion, or whatever it may be. As such, I will venture forward on my own. If I can find the source of the barrier, I will create a path back to Teodisia, which the boy can follow to disable it. 

“All right,” Tomochika shrugged, “I have no idea what you’re talking about anymore, but go for it.” 

Very well. Hmm, what’s this? Mokomoko tilted her head to the side. 

“What’s wrong?” 

I feel vibrations. 

“I don’t feel anything.” 

It’s more like a shaking that can only be felt in the mind. 

“I’m not sure what that means...” 

An ear-splitting roar filled the air, cutting Tomochika off. At the same time, space itself seemed to shift around them. It was like a line ran vertically down through the region around the staircase, causing it to shift slightly. It lasted for only a moment, but when things returned to normal, the stairs before them had changed. Rather than leading straight down as they had before, they now followed a gentle curve, twisting out of sight. The true form of the passageway had been revealed, showing a large spiral staircase heading down below the tower. 

The barrier is gone? Just like that? What happened? 

“We really don’t have the time to worry about it, so let’s just go.” As Yogiri made to continue on down, a gust of wind blew past them. Tomochika suddenly grabbed on to his arm, trembling. “Hey, what’s wrong?” 

“I saw something...something black just went past us, all covered in blades...” 

Whatever Tomochika had seen, it hadn’t cared one way or the other about them. Yogiri turned around, but there were no traces of anything having actually passed through. Whatever it was, it had gone straight to the surface. 



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