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Chapter 4 — This Is the Most Fun I’ve Had Since Coming to This World 

“I have to say, it bothers me how much you seem to be enjoying this while I’m suffering!” Mokomoko cried. 

“This is the most fun I’ve had since coming to this world,” replied Yogiri. 

“Not that it has anything to do with this world!” added Tomochika. But she eventually gave up and accepted that she would have to sit tightly squished between the other two. 

If she spent too much time sitting around and complaining, there was a chance that Mokomoko would disappear forever. To reach her in time, their only option was to ride the horse, and the only practical way of doing that was to sit behind Yogiri as Tomochika herself controlled the reins. 

“So, we’re going to grab Mokomoko and just keep running until we reach the port. That’s the plan, right?” she confirmed. 

The heroes and the Demon Lord had been fighting along the edge of a cliff. The idea was to ride until they found them, get rid of whatever was restraining Mokomoko, and run away. Their plan was not the strongest. 

“The problem is whether we’ll be able to deal with the thing holding her,” Yogiri said. “We’ll only have one chance.” 

“What?!” cried Mokobot. “You can try as many times as you like!” 

“Mokomoko, couldn’t you stop controlling Enju and make an actual effort to escape on your own?” Tomochika asked. 

“If I hadn’t already been caught, I would have been capable of doing that. However, it is currently taking all my strength to just prevent myself from being destroyed.” 

While they were speaking, the horse was running full tilt, and the cliff soon came into view. Tomochika’s superior eyesight was easily able to pick up the demons and her family ghost. They hadn’t been noticed yet. 

“I don’t think this will work,” Yogiri commented once they were close enough in range for him to see as well. “I can see Mokomoko but not the thing that’s holding her.” 

“So what now? Should we just leave her and go?” 

“Have you forgotten you won’t be able to return home without my help?!” 

“Let’s try talking to them,” Yogiri suggested. “The heroes and the Demon Lord have no connection to us. We might be able to convince them to let her go.” 

“Yeah... There is no way this will go well.” 

As Tomochika was remembering Yogiri’s previous displays of “negotiating skills,” a ball of light flew towards them from the gathered demons. Her first thought was that it was an attack of some sort, but the light drew a steep arc that took it straight into the ground, which then began to shake. Even their mount, fortified by the armor of the Invincible Battalion, was forced to stop. 

“It doesn’t look like it was targeting us.” Yogiri hadn’t felt any killing intent directed their way. 

The ground continued to shake, and the plateau in front of them began to transform. Pillars rose up from the ground, stretching as far as the eye could see, blocking their view of Mokomoko. 

“This looks pretty dangerous, doesn’t it?” Once again, Tomochika considered turning right around and leaving. 

  

“So, now that the Demon Lord is dead, you’ll let me into your army like you promised, right?” Yoshimasa asked. 

The demons had a rigidly hierarchical society, and it was impossible for those of lower standing to directly harm those above them. That inhibition was welded into their racial makeup, making it impossible for them to carry out any sort of attack against their superiors. No matter how strong they were, even if they were more powerful than the Demon Lord herself, it was impossible for them to act on it and defeat her to take her place. 

That was why they had used Yoshimasa. They’d needed someone entirely separate from their society to fight the Demon Lord on their behalf. Conspiring with a third party didn’t qualify as violating their inherent limitations, so the demons had begun putting enemies of suitable levels before prospective heroes to help them grow, and leaving legendary weapons in their paths all over the place. 

If any human became an actual threat to them, they could easily be dispatched. Such frail creatures like heroes being allowed to exist at all was strictly at the pleasure of the demon realm. Throughout history, Demon Lords had been overpowered and defeated by heroes many times. But in most cases, that was due to demons working behind the scenes to secure more power for themselves. This particular incident had been a plot cooked up by the three demon generals to stage a coup d’état, replacing the old Demon Lord with a new one. 

“Yes, just as I promised.” 

Yoshimasa felt no lie in Oryphes’s words, but it wasn’t because the demon was a sincere, honest individual. Rather, it seemed like Oryphes simply didn’t care about him at all. Yoshimasa wasn’t a true hero. The one with the full support and legendary equipment had been Hellion. The demons had expected results from him and hadn’t cared about Yoshimasa in the first place. If not for Mimir trying to get close to him, he never would have known that. All of this was thanks to her. He had no value of his own to offer and could provide nothing of use if welcomed into the demon’s army. But he had been permitted to join them, as if he were some pet of Mimir’s. 

Not long before, Yoshimasa would have had no problem accepting that as his lot. He knew that if he continued to indulge Mimir, he could live a decent enough life, and it wasn’t as if there were other options open to him. But now he was different. The majority of his power was no longer being held in reserve to send him back home, so he was finally able to wield it fully. With that new power, he felt he would have been able to defeat the Demon Lord on his own, so being looked down on by these demon generals infuriated him. 

“Hey, Mimir, how old is Oryphes?” 

“Oh, I’d guess about five hundred years?” 

“All right, I’ll take five hundred years, then.” 

Having heard that demons lived for about a thousand years, Yoshimasa casually stripped Oryphes of his lifespan. If he ended up taking it all, the demon would die, but that was unavoidable. 

“Impossible!” Oryphes’s face, which had been relaxed and composed, suddenly twisted in fear. He must have never believed he could become a target or that Yoshimasa’s power would even affect him. 

“Looks like it works on demons,” Yoshimasa commented. “Even demon generals.” 

Oryphes’s appearance hadn’t changed in the slightest. Apparently, five hundred years wasn’t much to him after all. A sphere of light now hovered above Yoshimasa’s palm, containing five hundred years’ worth of magical energy. Though it didn’t look any different from the light of seventy years that he had extracted from his earlier foe, he could feel a distinct difference in power between them. 

“I can’t use magic myself, so there’s nothing much for me to do with this energy. But I wonder what will happen if I try something like this?” 

He threw the ball of light in a random direction. It drew a steep curve through the air, arcing down towards the ground, where it sank into the earth. The ground immediately began to shake before bulging upwards. Countless pillars shot up, naked humans appearing from within them. 

“Oh, I see! How’s that? Not only can I take life, I can give it too! I can make people from soil! That’s awesome! This is more like control over life and death itself rather than simply controlling someone’s lifespan! If I can do this, does it make me God?” 

The people who had appeared all seemed to be around twenty years old. Mathematically, from a five-hundred-year lifespan, the number of people he could create at that age should have been limited to twenty-five. But there were far more than that—so many that even those within their field of view defied counting. 

“Oh, Yoshimasa...the way you suddenly became so arrogant right after gaining power... That’s exactly what I like about you,” Mimir breathed, staring at him, totally spellbound. 

“You bastard!” 

“How about a hundred million years, then?” 

Before Oryphes could try anything, Yoshimasa took a hundred million years of his life. If the demon died, he would gain nothing from it, but since the only thing he desired was to kill his target, this was the fastest way. 

Oryphes collapsed to the ground. As Yoshimasa had guessed, even a demon general couldn’t have a lifespan that absurd. 

“This is amazing!” he laughed. “It’s like I’m cheating! Like I can just inflict instant death at will! Isn’t this against the rules? Is there anyone who could even beat me?” Staring down at Oryphes’s body, he felt omnipotent. 

“You knew this would happen, didn’t you, Mimir?” Exia asked, breaking her silence. 


“Yes. I predicted that if Yoshimasa awakened his true powers, it would turn out this way, and I didn’t say anything.” 

“Oh, don’t worry, I don’t kill women,” the former hero interrupted. “I’ll let you live. Assuming you don’t do anything stupid, of course!” 

“And I am a High Priestess,” Mimir added, “which means I can perceive spirits of the dead. So don’t try anything against me either, okay?” 

Exia had mentioned spirits earlier, so it was likely her powers were related to that, but Mimir already had measures in place to deal with it. 

“Very well, I acknowledge your new power. What will you do now?” Exia asked cautiously. 

“That’s a good question. Becoming a Demon Lord myself doesn’t sound so bad. None of you plan on doing it, right? So why don’t I?” 

“Don’t be ridiculous! You could never take their place!” 

“And whose place would that be?” 

“Faisal VIII, who we intended to support,” Mimir answered. 

“Don’t you think it makes more sense for me to be the Demon Lord instead of that pipsqueak? I’m practically invincible. It’s only natural that it’d be me, wouldn’t you say?” 

“Oh, how wonderful! Even though you barely understand anything about your new abilities, you’re still so full of yourself! What a rare talent!” 

As Mimir said, Yoshimasa didn’t truly understand the extent of his powers yet. But he did have a good enough impression of how they worked. There was no one who could fight it. There was no one who could resist him. 

“There are some humans nearby,” Exia warned. “Are they friends of yours?” 

Yoshimasa turned towards where Exia was looking. The people he had created were standing around, doing nothing in particular, but he doubted she was referring to them. Looking closer, he could see a few people mounted on a horse beyond the crowd. 

“So there are. Are they soldiers who survived? Doesn’t look like it. What do you think we should do, Mimir?” 

There was no way these strangers just happened to be in the area. They must have had some business with either the demons or the heroes. 

“I don’t think they’re anyone I recognize. If they’re in the way, why not get rid of them?” 

“I guess you’re right. Sounds good for my first job as Demon Lord. I gotta make it clear that I’m no longer human, right?” He already felt nothing at the prospect of killing his fellow humans. In his mind, he had transcended humanity. 

Yoshimasa thought to turn his newly created lifeforms against the strangers. And as he did so, his creations instantly leaped into motion. Everything he had given life to moved like they were his own hands and feet. 

  

“I-It’s a bunch of perverts!” 

“I don’t think that’s the real issue right now.” 

A huge number of people were heading towards Yogiri and Tomochika. The crowd was so large that it was almost beyond belief, completely covering the plateau. And every single individual within it was naked. The mixed group of men and women ran straight at them, paying no heed to their own nakedness. 

The ground and air shook. As far as they could see, everything was covered in unclothed skin. Anyone caught up in that human wave would be crushed to death, given the energy with which they moved. 

“With everything shaking, we can’t even enjoy the fact that they’re naked,” Yogiri complained. There was absolutely nothing enticing about the scene before them. 

“Wait!” Mokomoko shouted as Tomochika began turning the horse around. “Are you planning on running away?!” 

“There’s nothing we can do, right?!” 

Just then, a sphere of light descended in front of them, striking the ground hard and disappearing, prompting an even stronger earthquake. The Invincible Battalion’s horse came to a stop once again. Under the circumstances, even the greatest of horses couldn’t be expected to run properly. 

“It’s a sphere of pure life force!” Mokomoko explained. “Some guy named Yoshimasa is taking others’ lifespans and using them to create new people from the earth!” 

The ground bulged upwards, and one after another, humans emerged from the soil. Countless more naked men and women appeared, blocking their escape. 

“We’re surrounded!” Tomochika cried, starting to sound alarmed. 

“No running away, then?” Yogiri sighed. “I guess there’s nothing else we can do.” 

If they ran away, they wouldn’t be able to save Mokomoko. On top of that, the mob clearly intended them harm. 

“Die.” With one word, the wave of people fell to the ground, motionless. 

“Your power is absurd, you know that?” 

“Now that the obstacles are out of our path, would you mind hurrying up?!” Mokomoko pressed. 

Tomochika turned the horse back around and set off for the cliff once again. The horse made its own path through the bodies, weaving between and jumping over them as it saw fit. With no one left to stop them, they were able to reach their destination quickly. 

“So, what’s going on here?” Tomochika asked. 

At their destination, only one person was still standing: the mage, Rimlette. Three others were lying on the ground. The first was the demon general Oryphes, who had been killed by Yoshimasa. The second must have been Exia, another of the demon generals. Yogiri had been told she was a young woman, but she appeared quite elderly. Yoshimasa must have taken as much of her life force as he could manage. She seemed to just barely be alive, but it was hard to say if she was conscious. The third was Yoshimasa himself, dead. High Priestess Mimir was alive, but she was on the ground, wailing over the former hero’s body. 

Forget the situation! Just help me! Mokomoko cried in desperation. 

Yogiri looked over at her. He still couldn’t see the Lord of Specters or whoever was restraining her. But from this close up, there was something he could do. He could make the assumption that something existed, and that it was holding on to Mokomoko. From there, he could kill that hypothetical being. 

Honestly, I thought I was going to die, Mokomoko moaned as she floated over to Yogiri and Tomochika a moment later. Yogiri’s plan had worked perfectly. 

“You’re already dead, though,” he observed. 

“Did you kill Yoshimasa?” 

“Yeah. When I killed the crowd, he died too.” 

“But when you killed Tachibana, the bugs didn’t die, did they?” she asked, remembering their old classmate. Back then, Yogiri had only killed the offender directly, the one actually giving the instructions. This time it was different, however, as the crowd attacking them had been a significantly more unified entity. Yogiri had felt that Yoshimasa and the mob were one and the same. 

“Wh-What?! What are you people?!” Rimlette shouted, clearly panicking. 

“We’re just passing through,” he answered. They had planned to quickly be on their way, but he decided to say one more thing while he was at it. “I suggest you stop casually summoning people from other worlds. It’s kind of a huge pain for us.” 

“You might end up with someone like Takatou, after all,” Tomochika added earnestly. 



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