My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! - Volume 2 - Chapter 21

Chapter 21 — Was There Actually a Reason for Us to Get This Close to You?! 

While most of the people present were frozen, awestruck, there were a few who were spurred to immediate action. 

The first was Teodisia — as she couldn’t care less about the barrier or the Dark God, the incident left her unfazed. Seeing a chance that she knew wouldn’t come again, she didn’t hesitate. The moment she stepped onto the scene, she drew her sword and swung it with a horizontal slash. The shockwave that it unleashed promptly separated the Swordmaster from his head. 

The next to move was the monster of blades that Tomochika had seen on their way to the lower levels. 

The goddess Vahanato stared speechlessly at the scene before her. Watching from the air as the Dark God Albagarma fell like a stone, she had a clear view of him hitting the water below. Her mind had gone completely blank. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing...couldn’t accept the truth of the situation. 

She was finally brought back to her senses by the shock of a long black blade punching through her chest. 

“What...?” She turned her head to see the source of the attack. Behind her stood a creature covered entirely in blades. One of those blades, sprouting from the creature’s elbow, was currently embedded in her back. The sight simply confused her further. What in the world was happening? Her body as a goddess should have been entirely impervious to harm. It was unbelievable that another life form could even scratch her. 

The creature’s glowing red eyes stared straight into hers. As she tried to decipher some sort of intent from its hellish gaze, her thinking was sent into further disarray when the monster punched its fingers into her head. 

A god couldn’t die from something as minor as having its brain destroyed. But now that Vahanato had taken on a physical form, the majority of her thought processes relied on that brain — and with it destroyed, there was no way she could think coherently enough to formulate a plan to counter-attack. 

She could tell that the monster was searching for something inside her head, felt its fingers wriggling around in her skull. Soon after, its thoughts seemed to flow into her. 

This creature was responsible for destroying most of the barrier. It had been trapped by the barrier’s defensive systems, but had managed to escape by simply destroying everything in sight. Having wasted most of its energy on that escape, it had waited, hiding until Vahanato had shown an opening. 

Not you, a thought flowed into her mind, clearly disappointed. 

She knew that something had been targeting Lynel. She hadn’t figured out what it was or why, but now it was painfully clear. This monster was searching for gods. Following the faint traces of her presence on Lynel, it had actually been tracking her the whole time. 

The creature smoothly withdrew its blades from Vahanato’s body. Having lost interest in her, it didn’t even feel the need to finish her off. Letting the goddess fall to the ground, the monster leaped away. 

Once the Swordmaster’s head fell to the ground, and some bizarre monster stabbed the gaudily clad woman before abruptly disappearing, the frozen atmosphere lifted and everyone finally began to move. 

“My lord!” the winged creature cried, leaping off the cliff, followed closely by a number of its fellow spawn. 

“Uhh, what exactly is happening?” Tomochika asked, having difficulty keeping up with the rapidly unfolding events occurring in front of her. She turned to look at the woman who had killed the Swordmaster. 

“I figured now was a good time to catch him off guard,” Teodisia said indifferently. 

“Jeez, was that really your first thought in a situation like this? That’s kind of scary.” Her way of thinking was somewhat reminiscent of Yogiri’s. But as she had said, the Swordmaster had been totally defenseless just then. Teodisia’s ability to grasp that and jump at the opportunity showed an impressive amount of nerve. “So, what happened over there?” 

“That’s the thing you saw on the way to the basement, huh?” Yogiri commented. “No wonder you were freaked out. It looked like it was made entirely of blades.” 

The monster had used those blades, which sprouted from every part of its body, to stab through the woman with ease. After piercing her back and head, it had seemed to lose interest, leaving her where she was and disappearing. 

“I wonder if we could just walk on out of here,” said Yogiri, unfazed as always. “If we’re stealthy about it, I doubt anyone would notice.” 

The whole place was still in chaos, so there was certainly a chance they could slip past the crowd. As they considered their options, the winged spawn returned, both he and the Dark God he was now carrying soaked through with river water. The creature lay his master on the ground, but the Dark God remained perfectly still. 

“My lord! Please awaken! What is wrong?!” Orgain’s voice was ragged. No matter how it shouted or shook the body, the fallen beast failed to answer. “Haha...hahahahaha...I see...sacrifices...our lord is a god who demands sacrifice...” the monster began to mumble with a faraway look. 

“I’m getting a bad feeling about this...” Tomochika muttered. According to what Rick had told them, the Dark God was a being who granted wishes in exchange for sacrifices. 

“No doubt your power has waned after being sealed away for so many long years,” Orgain continued. “The answer is clear — I shall offer up all of humanity as a sacrifice to you!” As the winged spawn stood, the others gathered around it began to whip themselves into a frenzy. 

Moments before, they had been stunned and at a loss. Now, a clear objective had been placed before them, cutting through their confusion. With humans standing right there, ready to be sacrificed, it wasn’t any surprise that they would immediately turn to venting their fury through violence. 

With a horrible cry, the massed monsters turned gazes brimming with wicked intent towards the frail humans around them. The looks in their eyes made it clear that they didn’t intend to kill them quickly. They would draw as much agony, hatred, and terror from them as possible first, all as part of a sacrifice to their god. That overriding impulse dominated their thoughts entirely. 

“There are an awful lot of them,” Yogiri observed. “This seems kind of dangerous. Could you two try to stay a little closer to me?” 

“Like this?” Tomochika asked, stepping up and grabbing his arm. Teodisia followed suit, clinging to his other arm. 

The spawn burst into action. As one, they rushed forward to overwhelm the gathered humans as if trying to create hell on earth. 

“Die.” 

Yogiri unleashed his power and the entire horde dropped, leaving them once again surrounded by a mountain of corpses. The only figures still standing were those who at least looked human. 

“Hey, was there actually a reason for us to get this close to you?!” 

“Well, it would be dangerous to risk getting separated in a situation like this, right? It’s easy for me to respond to danger pointed at me, so it’s more convenient if we’re all in the same place.” 

Tomochika had her doubts. She couldn’t help but remember Yogiri’s story about “enjoying the situation while he had the chance.” 

But her classmate just shrugged. “Anyway, let’s get out of the tower. It seems like sticking around is going to cause us more problems.” 

“Not that this counts as much of a tower anymore...” 

There were still plenty of problems piled up in front of them, but with the Dark God and his spawn dead, the other issues were probably minor at best, or so Tomochika tried to convince herself. 

“Sir Takatou, do you think it’s okay to leave her as she is?” Teodisia asked, pointing at the woman in gaudy clothing. 

“She doesn’t have any intention of killing anyone, and she seems human enough to me, so I don’t see a reason to kill her.” 

“If you say so,” their companion conceded. 

Of course, no matter what Yogiri thought her to be, it didn’t matter to the woman herself. Though her chest had been impaled and her head smashed, she was now standing again, her injuries healed. She stood with hollow eyes, not looking at anything in particular, having clearly lost her mind. 

With a shrill, mad laugh, she waved her hands around. As she did, the weapons floating behind her began to glow, firing beams of light in all directions. Those beams sliced through the nearby mountains, tore apart the tower rubble, and flash-boiled the river at the bottom of the canyon. Everything in their path was completely annihilated. 

Tomochika was taken aback. “That’s just ridiculous...what is she even doing?!” 

The surviving Knights hurriedly tried to get out of the way. The woman wasn’t aiming at anything in particular, but anyone who was so much as grazed by those streaks of light was instantly erased from the scene. 

“Miss Vahanato, what’s wrong?! Dammit, has she gone crazy?!” a young boy shouted. 

Why was a boy like that here, of all places, and who was that woman? Tomochika was curious, but more than anything, she was worried about the safety of the people she actually knew. She chanced a look around. 

“Where are Lynel and the others?” 

It was hard to see anything through the flying chunks of rock and clouds of dust being kicked up by the destruction, but it seemed like the Divine King was blocking those deadly rays of light, having created a wall of her own light as a barrier. 

“Wait, aren’t there a few more people here than there should be right now?” 

Lynel, Rick, Frederica, the Divine King, and the Swordmaster’s body were all accounted for. But at some point, two more people had joined the group. 

“I’m sick of this! Let me go home!” Hanakawa shrieked. 

They had finally reached the tower, only to be greeted by a storm of destruction that defied description. Beams of light were being fired wildly from a single point, vaporizing anyone and anything that they touched. At this rate, the entire canyon, never mind the tower, was going to be obliterated. 

“It’s fine, we won’t be killed by something like this. You’ve seen action movies, right? The main character never gets hit during the firefight. It’s the same thing. Dying to some stray shot wouldn’t be an interesting enough development.” 

“I believe your perception of what constitutes a firefight is a bit too broad!” 

“Whether it’s lethal beams of light or bullets, it’s still something that kills you if it touches you.” Aoi somehow understood that they would be fine here. She was absolutely sure that she wouldn’t die. Pulling Hanakawa along behind her, she made her way to the source of the commotion. It was more than probable that Yogiri Takatou would be there. 

Heading toward the area that seemed to promise the most exciting storyline, they found a woman dressed all in white creating a wall of solid light to block the rays of destruction. 

Hiding behind that wall were a tall, lanky fellow, a knightly-looking man clad in silver armor, and a girl whose right arm had turned into some sort of baked dessert. While the tall guy and the girl were crouched low to the ground, trembling in fear, the knight stood with his sword drawn, looking nonplussed. 

“Is one of those guys Yogiri Takatou?” asked Aoi. “Doesn’t look like it.” 

Both of the men seemed to be natives of this world. As a person of Japanese origin, her target would have a very different appearance. For that same reason, the woman likely wasn’t Tomochika Dannoura either. There was also a body beside them, lying beheaded on the ground, but it was an old man. There was no one who looked like a high school student. 

“Who are you? Perhaps an acquaintance of Takatou?” the knight asked, shock clear in his voice. It must have been unthinkable for a pair of random people to show up in the middle of such a dangerous and chaotic situation. 

“My name is Aoi. I’m not, but this pig knows him.” 

“We’re not really acquaintances or anything!” Hanakawa protested. 

Aoi shrugged. “Well, whatever. Do you know where Takatou is right now?” 

“I don’t believe this is the time for that!” Ignoring her, the knight turned back to the center of the destruction. 

“I guess you’re right. From Fate’s perspective, nothing else can happen until this whole thing is resolved.” 

It certainly wasn’t the type of scenario where they could relax and talk. Aoi took stock of the hellish scene. Reading the flow of Fate around them, the situation before her — and the solution to it — became immediately clear. 

“Hey, did you know that you’re a Swordmaster now?” 

The knight once again looked at Aoi. “What? Oh, yes, the Swordmaster did say something about that!” 

“Then problem solved. Go kill the goddess and it’ll all be over.” 

“But to face such an opponent without a plan...” 

“Don’t worry, she’s completely lost her mind. She’s firing those things off randomly, so if you just keep an eye on the weapons floating around her, you’ll be able to dodge them, no problem. With the power of a Swordmaster, it should be quite easy for you. Her chest and head are already injured, so aim for one of those areas with your sword. Killing a goddess would normally be impossible, but if you hit her with the Holy Sword Awz before she’s fully healed, you can finish her off.” 

“How did you know about this sword?!” Despite his confusion, Aoi’s knowledge of the weapon lent credibility to what she was saying, and after a moment, he seemed to let the matter go. It appeared he had resolved himself to act, as he began to take some practice swings with the blade. “Fine. Understood. The Divine King’s power won’t last much longer anyway, so sitting around doing nothing will certainly lead to our demise.” 

Steeling himself, the knight passed through the protective barrier of light. Dodging the goddess’s lethal rays, he determinedly made his way towards her. Even for a Swordmaster, avoiding something that moved at the speed of light was impossible. If, however, he could read the movements of the weapons responsible for firing those objects, he would be able to manage. If the goddess had been sane and actively targeting him, there would have been no chance, but given her present condition, the knight easily made it to her side and plunged his sword into her chest. 

The beams of light stopped, the weapons firing them abruptly clattering to the ground. Aoi confirmed to herself that the goddess was dead — according to Fate, that was a sensible outcome for the current scenario. 

Now that the attacks had stopped, she looked around again. Yogiri Takatou should have been somewhere close by, but the dust kicked up by the goddess’s attack had yet to settle. While that made it difficult to confirm anyone’s identity, the fact that most of the people in the area were dead made the search much easier. 

Not too far away, a lone figure was standing dumbstruck amidst the rubble, but whoever it was, they were too short. So her targets were most likely among the group of three at the far end of the tower. 

“Hey, piggy, is that Yogiri Takatou over there?” 

“Huh? Ah, it’s hard to tell through all this dust, but I would recognize Tomochika’s silhouette anywhere, so probably.” 

“Things get gross with you pretty quickly, don’t they? All right, let’s go.” 

“Umm, actually, I’m pretty sure if they see me, they’ll kill me on the spot.” 

“If you don’t intend to hurt them, they won’t kill you, will they?” 

Continuing to drag Hanakawa along behind her, Aoi made her way over to where Yogiri was standing. Once she had passed through the thickest part of the dust, she could see them clearly. Yogiri Takatou and Tomochika Dannoura. There was a half-demon woman with them. 

The first thing she had to do was measure what kind of being Yogiri was. So Aoi activated her Hero Killer eyes — her ability to see Fate itself. 

Immediately, her vision warped and twisted. Losing her sense of balance, she fell forward, unable to keep herself upright. A deep, wrenching pain in her gut brought forth a wave of nausea that she couldn’t suppress. 

Hanakawa was screaming again for some reason, but it sounded extremely far away. Propping herself up on the ground with both hands, she vomited. As pathetic as she must have looked, Aoi had long since lost the composure to care about keeping up appearances. 

She needed to escape. That thought alone crowded out all else from her head.