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Chapter 19 — Your Luck Really Is the Worst of the Worst 

Using the star crystals, Lynel could summon a new companion. It was something he had tried many times before, but he normally got small animals like squirrels and mice. The best results he had seen were dogs or wolves. On rare occasions, a person would be summoned, but they would be a normal villager with no combat abilities at all. For Lynel, relying on such a summoning was a final, desperate gamble. 

Even if it had an Ultra Rare guarantee, that didn’t change anything. After all, the last Ultra Rare guarantee had got him a beautiful but powerless clone of the goddess. The chances of the same thing happening again were fairly high. So the number of star crystals required carried only the barest trace of hope for him. Five stones had been needed last time, but this time it was ten. The larger quantity should have meant a stronger effect, otherwise there would have been no point in the difference. This time, maybe his Ultra Rare guarantee would get him a warrior with real skill, someone who could smash through this otherwise hopeless situation. If that were even possible, it was worth spending the last of his star crystals. 

But he also had another thought. If he wanted to survive, even for a little longer, he should hold on to them. Using them to revive himself was the most effective option. With only one stone, he could recover from any injury and overcome his terrible luck. And for someone with luck like Lynel’s, that was invaluable. 

Lynel looked down at Frederica who was curled up on the ground. Her transformation had occurred from the shoulder down, likely so that her arm would come off more easily. Luckily, that meant that her life wasn’t in danger, but even so, she could hardly accomplish much in that state. 

If they waited there helplessly, they would eventually die. 

This isn’t the time to hesitate! Lynel chided himself. 

Drawing the last of the star crystals from his pocket, he held them in both hands as he prayed. Trying to imagine the most powerful being that he could, he rolled the gacha. 

The stones immediately vanished, a brilliant light appearing in the space before him. Glittering stars filled the air, dancing around him. He immediately felt that something had gone wrong — this was the exact same thing that had happened last time. He tried to convince himself that it was simply the standard process for an Ultra Rare summon. The light gathered in one spot, taking on the form of a person. 

Lynel was dumbfounded. It was a woman. She wore gorgeous clothing and flashy jewelry, yet none of it drew the focus away from her curvaceous figure. In her right hand was an enormous ornate sword, and in her left was a wheel of some sort, clearly imbued with divine power but its exact function was unclear. 

In addition to the weapons in her hands, axes, spears, swords, and shields floated in the air around her as if to protect her. Flowers and stars began to grow and glitter in the surrounding space, and a gentle breeze enveloped the area. The sound of praises being sung filled the air, voices overflowing with joy but coming from no visible source. 

It was truly a figure that looked like it deserved the title of Ultra Rare, but Lynel couldn’t hide his disappointment. Because this woman was, unmistakably, the same goddess who had brought him to this world. In other words, he had gotten the exact same result as last time. 

 

“Hey! What’s that look for? You seem like you’re disappointed to see me!” the goddess complained, noting the despair clearly written on Lynel’s face. 

“I mean, you’re just going to say something like, ‘Sorry, I used all my power on the graphics again,’ right?!” 

“Ah, don’t worry, this time is different. This time I came with my actual body.” 

“Wait, uhh, that means...” 

“This time I can use all of my divine authority! Spawn of the Dark God? Please. Something like that is so far below me as to be wholly irrelevant. Even calling them small fry gives them too much credit!” 

“Oh! Then...” 

“Yes. Go ahead and watch. I’ll have all of this cleaned up in an instant!” 

Lynel felt relief wash over him. It seemed like everything would be okay. After all, this was a goddess. No matter how strong the monsters were, they were only the servants of a fallen “god.” There was nothing they could do but prostrate themselves before the glory of a true deity. 

The goddess walked calmly towards the spawn. As if just realizing that someone different had appeared, the two creatures immediately stopped fighting and turned towards her. 

“Lynel, this is...” Sensing the lull in the chaos, Rick made his way to his companion’s side. 

“I did it! It’s the goddess! I managed to summon the goddess! Everything is okay now!” 

“I don’t recognize her, but she certainly has an overwhelming presence. With her on our side, maybe...” 

Lynel could see Rick’s shoulders relax. He too could tell how powerful the goddess was. 

Lynel grinned. “She might even be able to heal Frederica!” 

The goddess stood before Orgain, the winged spawn, who in turn dropped to his knees, lowering his head. 

“Oh! Look at that! She’ll finish this all without even having to fight!” 

Lynel was moved. Things had never gone so smoothly for him in his life. To think that he could pull through at this point, when the continued existence of humanity itself had been on the line, made him think that maybe his luck wasn’t so bad after all. 

But his luck really was the worst. 

“Lady Vahanato, what brings you to a place like this?” 

Something wasn’t right. The way the Dark God’s spawn were acting was totally wrong for a confrontation with a goddess of justice. At first, it looked like Orgain had recognized how outclassed he was and was begging for mercy. But now it looked more like the thing was happily greeting someone close to his own master. 

“Oh! Miss Vahanato is here! What’s up? The barrier should be coming down quite soon.” Acting like an excited puppy, Lute leaped towards the goddess, whose name Lynel hadn’t even known until then. 

“Ummm...what’s going on here?” he asked hesitantly. 

“Let’s just say, the moment you laid eyes on me, your luck was the absolute worst of the worst.” 

“Then, when you said you’d clean everything up, you meant...” 

“Wiping out humanity could be called cleaning up, right?” 

At Vahanato’s indifferent response, Lynel could feel himself striking the rocky bottom of the pit of despair. It would have been far better if he had simply failed to do anything at all. 

Instead, he had brought forth an even greater disaster. Go figure. 

 

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Tomochika’s group entered a room in the basement. It was in terrible condition. Though it was made of stone, the walls, floor, and ceiling were covered with scars. It looked to Tomochika like it had been done intentionally, the deep gouges giving the appearance of someone having tried to cut their way through. It almost looked like someone had stormed into an empty room, carved up the walls for no apparent reason, and then left. The only thing that stood out was an opening along one wall. 

“Looks like it keeps going,” Yogiri observed. The opening was like a window, offering a view of the canyon and the barrier that imprisoned the Dark God, but there was no point in heading that way. Their best bet was the door on the far side of the room. It was closed, but Yogiri opened it easily. There had likely been some sort of powerful seal on it, but in the end it was just another door, and disabling it was child’s play to him. 

Yogiri led the group inside. It was dark; the room had no windows. 

“Leave it to me. I can at least use enough magic to make some light.” After she muttered some sort of incantation, a ball of light appeared over Teodisia’s palm. 


“You say you’re no good at magic, but that seems pretty impressive to me,” said Tomochika. 

The ball of light, about the size of a fist, rose up and stopped at the ceiling. As Teodisia stepped into the room, the orb moved to follow her, staying directly over her head. Inside the chamber were a number of large glass cylinders, all destroyed in the same manner as the walls of the previous room. It was as if everything inside the room had been sliced apart. 

Yogiri stopped Tomochika as she tried to step inside. “Wait there for a second, Dannoura.” 

“What’s wrong?” 

“You don’t want to see this.” 

If it had just been a bunch of mutilated bodies, he wouldn’t have stopped her. 

I recommend you do as he says, Mokomoko added. 

With both of them advising her to stay outside, Tomochika decided to comply. 

“Can you tell if your friends are here?” 

“Probably, here...” Teodisia pointed at one of the glass tubes. The glass had been shattered, but the broken fragments had kept in at least some of the fluid. People were floating within, their dark skin and silver hair betraying them as half-demons. But they were badly mutated, hardly shaped like people anymore. All of the cylinders in the room held the same macabre contents. 

Teodisia carefully inspected all of the tubes, then turned to the others. “I know it’s terrible for me to feel relief despite seeing my people like this, but...” 

“Your sister isn’t here, then?” 

As deformed as they were, the bodies were still identifiable, so she would have known if one was her sibling. 

“No. But what can I do? Could your power put them out of their misery?” 

Some of her people looked like they were dead, killed by a monster of some kind, but plenty of them were still actively writhing in pain. 

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Not if you believe in any sort of afterlife for them.” 

“I suppose you’re right. Leaving them to an outsider would be unacceptable.” Teodisia drew her sword, prompting Yogiri to step out of the room. A little while later, she rejoined them in the corridor. 

“So, what do we do now?” Tomochika asked meekly, her demeanor indicating that she had guessed what had happened inside. 

“First, let’s get back to the surface and see what’s going on,” Yogiri suggested. 

“That’s right! That thing looked like a final boss! Maybe the Swordmaster has already beaten it, though.” 

“What should we do about that Swordmaster, anyway?” Yogiri asked, somewhat upset by the scene he had witnessed. He had no idea what circumstances had led to the Swordmaster’s heinous actions. Perhaps it truly was a necessary sacrifice to keep the world safe. But no matter the reason, stepping on the dignity of others that way was something he couldn’t accept. 

“I was taught to always ensure that a grudge never survives to linger. But this is not a vendetta that I can entrust to others, and I couldn’t hope to defeat a Swordmaster on my own, so in this case I will set aside my desire for vengeance.” 

“All right,” Yogiri nodded. In his current state of mind, if she had asked him to help her, he probably would have agreed. But if he killed someone just because he didn’t agree with their actions, it would be overstepping his bounds. And once he crossed that line once, there would be no going back. 

Well, it won’t be an issue if the Swordmaster tries to kill me next, Yogiri thought to himself. 

 

With the arrival of the goddess, the battle had fallen into a lull. Of course, there were still those who were foolhardy enough to attack without knowing who their enemy was, but in front of the goddess’s majesty, even they had been stilled. 

“Kneel.” 

With that one word, invested with the authority of a powerful deity, everyone in the area dropped to their knees. The only ones who were able to resist were Rick, Lynel, and the Swordmaster. In short, they were the only ones left who could still fight, meaning that any chance at a coordinated defense had effectively been removed. Luckily, the goddess’s exchange with the spawn had continued for a while, and she had yet to turn her attention back to them. 

As Lynel stood dumbstruck at the disaster he had brought forth, the Swordmaster approached. 

“U-Umm...” 

“I’m not going to blame you. And I don’t expect you to do anything about it, either.” 

Lynel struggled to come up with an excuse in response, but the Swordmaster had already moved on, turning to their other companion. 

“This is the worst possible situation imaginable, but there is still something that we can do. First, let me give you the qualifications to be a Swordmaster.” 

“M-Me?!” Rick gasped, shocked by the suggestion. 

“After me, you are the only one left here who has a chance. And so that we’re clear, there can only be one Swordmaster at a time. In short, if I die, you’ll immediately become the next Swordmaster. It’s not just a title, but you’ll figure that out when the time comes. And I don’t plan on dying so easily myself.” 

“So what should we do?” 

“There’s a possibility that we can take them while they’re sitting around chatting. At the moment, I’m absorbing all of the power that the tower holds. If I can take in enough of that power, I’ll be able to face down even a goddess. This was one of many measures that we took when planning for a fight against the Dark God, after all.” 

Rick steeled himself. “In other words, you want us to buy you time. All right, it seems we have no other choice.” 

At that point, Lynel realized they were expecting him to contribute nothing at all. It was true that there was little he could do. But he was the one who had made the situation downright catastrophic. He couldn’t just sit around and wait for others to act. If he killed himself... 

Lynel’s Random Walk ability would allow him to redo everything. But his savepoint was at the top of the tower. The spawn of the Dark God would still come, and even without summoning the goddess, he would still die. So Lynel thought of what he could do here and now. 

“U-Umm! Goddess! Could I talk to you for a moment?” 

The goddess was the one who had brought him to this world in the first place. He wasn’t some random stranger to her. If they needed to buy time, he might be able to get her talking. 

“How can I help you?” Vahanato replied, clearly in a pleasant mood. 

“I, uhh, really don’t know what’s going on here. Could you explain it to me, please? I summoned you, right? So why are you getting along so well with the people who are trying to kill me?” 

“Ah, I suppose it makes sense that you would be curious! But I don’t know, should I tell you?” 

“Please do! I need to understand!” 

“Of course you do. It must be terribly confusing for you. Well, we’ve been together for quite a while, so you dying without knowing what’s going on would be kind of sad, wouldn’t it? All right, I’ll explain.” 

With surprising ease, the goddess had agreed. 



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