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Chapter 12 — Ugh... This Looks Like It’s Going to Be a Pain

Tomochika, Yogiri, and Mokomoko walked down a road leading away from the city of Kadan. Vivian didn’t pursue them. While it was certainly true she had felt intimidated after seeing Yogiri’s power firsthand, it was really because she wasn’t allowed to leave the city.

West Ent was being observed by some sort of power. A barrier had been set up in Kadan to interfere with that power, so as long as she stayed in the city, she shouldn’t have been detected. But Vivian had ended up thoughtlessly leaving anyway and, in the process, had ended up destroying the barrier. At this stage, it seemed pointless to keep her confined there, but she was also a part of the plan to return the old royal family to power. Even if she was now an apostle, she couldn’t throw all their planning away just to pursue Yogiri.

“Mokomoko, you’re looking kind of scary!” Tomochika said.

The Enju robot had a faint smile on her face, held so perfectly it was like it was painted on. “There is not much I can do about that. I do not have the time to spare managing her facial expressions.”

At the moment, Mokomoko’s spirit form was high in the air above them. There was a strong possibility that others would come after them to attack Yogiri, so she was on lookout duty.

“It would be nice if they just attacked,” Yogiri complained. If they tried to kill him, he would be able to detect them. But if they didn’t have any intent to kill him, he wouldn’t know they were approaching until they were close. It would be difficult to keep dealing with people like Vivian showing up, so he had asked Mokomoko to watch out for others.

“I feel kind of weird saying this, but what if they come after me?” Tomochika asked. She wasn’t especially worried about her own life. She was more concerned about someone trying to take her hostage in an attempt to limit what Yogiri could do.

“Maybe I said this before, but as long as you’re close by, you’ll be fine. I can feel killing intent towards people near me too.”

“I realize it’s kind of late to say this, but that power really is unfair.”

“I was born with it, so I can’t do much even if you complain.”

“I guess there’s a lot I wouldn’t be able to deal with, so I’ll stick close to you.”

With Mokomoko’s help, Tomochika could handle close-quarters combat fairly well. But if some sort of strange power was used to attack her from afar, there wouldn’t be much she could do. Maybe she was just being self-indulgent, but it seemed like she had no choice but to rely on Yogiri.

“I wonder how much farther it is?”

“The map is...not very helpful, is it?” Yogiri pulled the map from their backpack. They had purchased it in Kadan.

Tomochika took a look at it as well. “This thing is totally useless!”

They were currently walking halfway up the inner eastern side of a large crater, but the crater itself wasn’t shown on the map. It had been created when Yoshifumi first invaded Ent. This map was from the royal era, so it didn’t reflect the current state of the landscape.

“Well, it seems the Elven Forest has always been there, so we should be able to find it somehow, right?”

“It doesn’t really help if we don’t know where we are now, though.”

The landscape around them varied immensely in elevation. There were plenty of rocky mountains and small craters all around them. As such, they could barely see anything in front of them.

“Something approaches from ahead,” Mokomoko warned.

A figure appeared in the gap between the mountains. As the person continued walking, they could make out that it was a man. He wasn’t armed, but he was watching them as they approached.

“What are the chances he’s just a random passerby?” Tomochika asked.

“He’s watching us.”

“Well, we’re the only ones around, and it’s not like you can’t say hello to someone you’re walking past... Oh, he stopped.”

The man had halted in the middle of the road, apparently trying to block their way.

“Hello,” Tomochika called out to him. They had no proof he was an enemy yet. If they could settle things peacefully, that would be best.

“My name is Zero. Absolute Zero.”

“Ugh... This looks like it’s going to be a pain,” Tomochika grumbled.

“Is that your real name?” Yogiri asked innocently.

“It is the name given to me as an apostle. With the new power bestowed upon me, a new name was necessary as well.”

“Do you think they all get like this when they become apostles, or do the gods specially pick people like this to become apostles?” Tomochika turned and asked Yogiri.

“I feel like it’s probably both. People who are already like this will just get even more full of themselves, don’t you think?” he answered. Then he turned back to Zero. “All right, then; let me ask you just in case: what do you want?”

“I am here to kill you, Yogiri Takatou. Woman, fear not, as you are not my target.”

“Oh, great.”

“If you’re going to go through the trouble of telling us your name, are you willing to talk first?” Yogiri asked.

“You wish for some last words before you pass on to Hades? Very well.”

“I feel like we’re not getting through to him...” Tomochika muttered.

“I guess they have the idea of Hades in this world too, huh?”

“I am sure that is just a result of the translation,” Mokomoko said.

Like Vivian, it didn’t seem like he was planning on attacking them right away.

“Did you know what my power was before you came all the way here?” Yogiri asked.

“Of course. Yours is the power to kill anything and everything, but even I can accomplish such a feat. My power is that of absolute zero. Before it, all things shall freeze.”

“Die.”

Zero fell to the ground.

“Was that really enough to decide to kill him?”

“He tried to use that absolute zero power or whatever.”

“We were the ones who asked him to talk, though... No, I guess we’d have died if he’d actually used it.”

“If he’s going to try to kill us, I don’t have a choice but to kill him back.”

In the end, this was the result of his own actions. Tomochika didn’t have any pity for the people Yogiri killed either.

“It would really be more convenient if they just attacked us from a distance instead of coming out to meet us every time.”

“That would definitely be easier. I don’t really like killing people I’ve met face to face.”

“I wonder how long this is going to last?”

“Until all the apostles are dead? We’ve already met three, so if it’s the same as the twelve disciples, there should be nine left.”

“Not that there’s any reason to think there were twelve to start with.”


Yogiri grabbed Zero’s fallen body by the hand and threw it off the road.

“You can be really heartless, you know?” Tomochika commented.

“If we left him in the middle of the road, he’d be in the way, right?”

“There are no others in the area as far as I can see,” Mokomoko reported.

“All right, let’s go.” They set off once again for the Elven Forest.

◇ ◇ ◇

Of course, not all of the apostles were so foolish as to meet Yogiri face to face. Tracy watched as Zero was defeated from a distance. She had been following Yogiri for a while, but she was far more careful. After hearing about his instant death ability from God, she refused to take him lightly. She hadn’t even considered suddenly attacking him out of nowhere. First, she needed to wait and watch.

That, of course, opened the possibility of someone else getting to him first. If that happened, she’d have to give up. All it would mean was the loss of a power she had only recently been granted, so it wouldn’t sting all that much. She would have to go back to her previous work as an adventurer.

Her ability was to be totally impossible to perceive. After receiving that power, she had briefly tested it out. Stealing things was simple. She could take fruit from a street stall and eat it in front of the owner without being noticed. He hadn’t even noticed anything was missing until after Tracy had left, putting him outside the range of her ability. Money and valuables were similarly easy to take. She had already accumulated a fortune. Even if she were to lose this power, she would have enough wealth to take it easy for the rest of her life.

Killing people was simple enough as well. A little while ago, she had attacked a party of adventurers that had taken a quest she had planned on doing herself. She slaughtered them effortlessly. After all, they couldn’t even tell she was there. Even when she meticulously dug one of their hearts out of their chest and slashed open their throat, the others didn’t even realize what had happened. Of course, when one of their companions was suddenly dead, they realized they had been attacked by something, but they never knew it had been Tracy. Understanding they were under attack by something invisible merely threw them into a panic. In the end, they had no way of fighting back against her.

So she had learned she could attack others unilaterally. However, there was always the possibility of one of her targets being able to fight back with indiscriminate attacks. Even if they didn’t know where she was, if they scattered attacks around them, there was a chance they would hit her. But her power had already taken that into consideration. While it was active, her body was moved into something like a subspace, allowing her to pass through any attack unharmed, while anything she did would still have an effect on her targets.

Her power was truly invincible. With it, killing Yogiri would be easy. At least, after observing him for a while, that was what she decided. While his instant death ability was certainly terrifying, it required him to notice his opponent for him to activate it.

Having let his guard down after killing Zero, Tracy approached Yogiri from behind.

◇ ◇ ◇

The person with the ability to freeze everything was defeated by Yogiri Takatou.

The person with the ability to be impossible to perceive was defeated by Yogiri Takatou.

The person with the ability to move at the speed of light was defeated by Yogiri Takatou.

The person with the ability to erase anything was defeated by Yogiri Takatou.

The person with the ability to destroy continents was defeated by Yogiri Takatou.

The person with the ability to nullify instant death abilities was defeated by Yogiri Takatou.

◇ ◇ ◇

“Vivian, stop standing around, and get your things together!”

Vivian was brought back to her senses by Maanu’s yelling. They were in Vivian’s house, the home base for the survivors of the royal family.

“But the apostles keep dying...”

“Yes, you told me about the apostles. You certainly have some sort of new power. But now that we’ve been found out, we can’t stay here.”

The barrier had existed to hide the royal family. Even if they were to repair it, they had already been discovered, so they needed to move to the Elven Forest.

The forest was an inviolable domain. The eyes of the empire shouldn’t have been able to reach them there. Whether they intended to set up a new base or cut through to invade the eastern side of the island, they needed to head there first.

“Yogiri Takatou...you must be pretty strong to have defeated so many apostles in a row.”

But this wasn’t the time to be impressed. The reason God was giving them information about who had failed against him was so that they could plan how to defeat him themselves.

Yet the boy with the sword who had gained Vivian’s powers was dead. Her invincible shield and resurrection powers hadn’t worked against Yogiri’s instant death.

“Honestly, doesn’t it seem like I can’t win with this power?!”

“Shut up and get to work!”

“Y-Yes ma’am!”

Vivian wondered whether she could gain any more powers.

◇ ◇ ◇

“What the hell kind of Elven Forest is this?!”

After having entered the forest, Tomochika ranted loudly to no one in particular.

“I mean, with this many trees around, it’s obviously a forest, right?”

“This is a jungle! It’s totally a rainforest! It’s so hot!”

Everything in front of them was green. Leaves crowded their vision, and vines hung from the trees. The air was filled with the smell of plants and the weight of intense humidity. Colorful birds flitted through the greenery, and they could hear the sounds of animals growling and barking in the distance.

“An Elven Forest is supposed to be more, like, mysterious. With beautiful springs of water! And a refreshing breeze, and everything glitters in the sunlight, and fairies frolicking around! Something like that!”

“They aren’t fairies, I guess, but there are a lot of bugs flying around,” Yogiri noted.

“Why did they have to replace the fairies with moths the size of my hand?!”

“Oh, look, it’s a rhinoceros beetle. It’s huge!” He pointed out an insect about twenty centimeters long, clinging to the side of a tree.

“Don’t turn back to a kid on me now!”

“The climate here is crazy too. Just a little while ago, it felt like it was spring.”

“I can see why the royals needed to prepare to get through here,” Tomochika agreed. Maanu had made it sound like they would need quite some time to make their preparations.

“I guess this is what you should expect from another world. Even though we’ve barely moved at all, the climate has totally changed.”

“They do attribute the change in climate to the spirits, I heard.”

“This world isn’t a globe like ours is,” Mokomoko interjected. “The common sense of Earth doesn’t apply here.”

“Can we really get through this brush?” Tomochika asked. “There isn’t even a road.”

“We don’t have any other ideas. The mountains in the north are pretty far away.”

“I guess we’ll have to cut our way through, literally.” As Mokomoko said that, Furemaru burst forth from all over Enju’s body, taking the form of numerous blades. “I shall carve us a path!”

“Are you sure that’s okay? Won’t the elves get angry? They’ll say something like, ‘How dare you harm our holy forest!’”

“Dannoura, do you really still think that the elves in this forest will be like that?”

“I’m hoping there’s a chance.”

“Right... Well, it’s good that you don’t give up on your dreams, at least...”

Mokomoko swung her blades around vigorously, tearing apart the leaves and plant growth, and creating an easy path for them to move forward.



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