Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I’m Not the Demon Lord - Volume 3 - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: The Hidden Boss Settles Things with the Hidden Boss

The morning after Yumiella 2 had appeared, she was sitting at our table having breakfast, as if nothing at all was out of the ordinary. She looked way too much like she belonged here. If she had just used this ability to blend in as she was doing now in her old life in her own world, maybe she wouldn’t have felt so much like she’d been pushed up against a wall, to the point of destroying her entire world.

“Are you free after this?” 2 casually asked, as if she were inviting me to go shopping.

“I am...” I eyed her suspiciously. “Why? What do you want?”

“Just a little chat.”

What is it she wants to talk about, I wonder? I don’t know what her plans are moving forward, so it’s kind of helpful that she’s suggesting we talk. But considering how she’s acting, it doesn’t seem like it’s that important of a conversation.

“Where do you want to talk?” I asked. “Should Patrick be there too?”

“Let’s see... Somewhere spacious would probably be best. And yes, the margrave’s kid should probably be there too.”

Somewhere spacious? Does that mean the topic could lead to a fistfight? That doesn’t really narrow it down. No matter what we talk about, I feel like one of us will eventually end up throwing a punch. I guess the yard out back should be fine.

Immediately after finishing breakfast, and after shoving Eleanora (who wanted to join us) back inside, we headed out into the yard. Ryuu seemed to still be off on his morning walk and so was nowhere to be found, though it was likely he’d be returning shortly.

Our yard was quite spacious, appointed with a table and chairs, which were rarely used. These were perfectly normal pieces of outdoor furniture, like the kind you would see as sidewalk seating at a café.

“Do you want to sit and talk?” I asked.

“No thanks. We’ll probably end up standing right away.”

Oh? Is it a fight? Do you want to fight?

We stood facing each other, keeping a certain amount of distance between us, with Patrick at my side. Coincidentally, this was how we had been positioned when we’d first met.

All right then, what do you want to talk about, 2? Depending on the topic, it might lead to an immediate off-site brawl.

“You know the reason I came to this world, right?” she began.

“Well, yeah.”

“I’ll say it again, but I came to this world for you.”

“Yeah.”

“I thought I should take care of what I came here to do.”

I gulped. Her objective was to kill me and unlock her level cap.

I see... I knew it somewhere in my heart, but it looks like I really won’t be able to avoid fighting 2.

“I thought we’d have more time,” I said, a little sadly.

“What’s the point in taking our time and being friendly?”

“I guess you’re right...”

Even though I agreed with her, it still hurt to fight her. We’d argued and fought each other numerous times, and she had even left me without anything to wear... Wait. Remembering that, I could totally fight her. If anything, I was more motivated than ever.

Considering the damage we’re bound to do to our surroundings, my yard isn’t the best place for this, but eh, it’s fine.

“Let’s begin,” I said.

“Yes, let’s...”

The first to hit would win. I couldn’t afford to pay attention to what 2 was saying. I kicked off the ground and sped forward, closing in on 2.

“...take down that despicable god of evil.”

“Huh?”

By the time 2 finished her thought, my fist had already plunged into her face. Caught off guard, 2 was hit full-force by my Yumiella Punch, or rather, my Yumiella 1 Punch... No, I reminded myself, Rider 1’s kick was called “Rider Kick,” so “Yumiella Punch” is fine... Either way, 2 didn’t brace herself and took the full brunt of my Yumiella Punch, which sent her flying backwards. She had maybe said something important, but that was neither here nor there.

Right as I was about to follow up my attack, Patrick stopped me.

“Hey! Stop, Yumiella!”

“Don’t stop me, Patrick! We’re destined to fight!” I exclaimed dramatically. “There’s no other option for us!”

“No, not that. She was saying something that sounded important.”

“Darn... She actually was?”

Had I started this battle based on a misunderstanding? I mean, 2 was the one who said she wanted to take care of what she’d come here to do... This is a mystery.

The only person who could solve this mystery was currently stumbling to her feet.

“Maybe I should just kill you first...” 2 grumbled.

“Oh, if you weren’t actually intending to kill me, then we don’t have any reason to fight, do we?”

“Why are you saying that after throwing the first punch?!” Yumiella 2 cried, lifting her hands with her palms towards me. In an instant, dense, dark magical energy began flowing from her. Oh, it’s coming, I thought to myself. “Black Hole.”

Most of my body was enveloped in the jet-black orb. In a second, my body would disappear along with the black orb...probably? I’d never been hit with the spell myself, of course, so I thought that’s what would’ve happened if I hadn’t moved.

Black Hole was a spell that worked in two steps—first, you had to make the orb appear on or around your target, and then the orb would disappear, taking all of the matter within its sphere along with it. It all happened in a flash, but from the beginning of the attack to the end, there was a barely discernible time lag. This was all to say that it was no sweat for me to dodge it.

“Whoa, that’s dangerous.” I leaped into the air, twisting my body to escape from Black Hole’s area of effect.

That surprised me. I can easily dodge it, but a spell that would instakill me like that isn’t good for my heart.

“What...?” Yumiella 2 seemed genuinely shocked. “How are you alive?”

“Huh? I mean, I just dodged it.”

“It’s not a spell that you can just dodge, is it? You—” She was interrupted by Patrick’s blade at her throat. He’d run up behind her while we were talking.

“Don’t move,” he ordered. “I’ll slice you wide open if I sense any magical energy.”

“What? Patrick?” I was puzzled. “Why are you suddenly in a murderous rage? Just a second ago you were trying to stop me.”

“Because just now, she was definitely trying to kill you.”

Trying to kill me? That’s a bit of an exaggeration. Even Patrick could’ve dodged that attack.

“Don’t make it into such a big deal,” I said. “You could’ve dodged that too, couldn’t you?”

“Not Black Hole,” Patrick insisted. “You can’t predict how wide of an area it’ll cover, so there’s no way to dodge it.”

“You just move after seeing it,” I explained.

“That’s actually impossible...”

Wait, really? In that case, did Yumiella 2 actually try to kill me? No way. Even if that attack had hit me, I wouldn’t have died.

“My head wasn’t in its range. As long as my head is safe, I think I can heal myself with recovery magic,” I said, perhaps a little too casually. After a moment’s thought, I amended, “Not that I’ve ever tried it.”

“Can you even use magic if you’re just a head...?” he asked.

“I can’t really say since I haven’t tried experimenting...” I brightened. “Oh, but I’ve been wearing my amulet of protection, so I should have just barely survived either way.”

Why was I trying to defend Yumiella 2? It was meaningless to debate whether she had intended to kill me or not with prosecutor Patrick on the case. The defendant, Yumiella 2, finally spoke up.

“I meant to kill you with that spell,” she confessed, rendering moot my efforts to defend her.

Really? I wouldn’t have died that easily. Is 2 just at that age where she wants to posture like she’s bad and tough?

For some reason, the tension between 2 and Patrick seemed to be extremely volatile, so I decided to step up and mediate. It was rare for me to find myself in this position. I grabbed the blade of Patrick’s sword, since it was the easiest part to hold on to, trying to get him to lower it.

“Come on, let’s put this down. It’s not like you can cut her with something like this anyway.”

“Hey, don’t hold it there! That’s... Oh, I see. It won’t cut.” Patrick looked at his sword sadly and mumbled something about how he’d thought it was good quality.

When it comes to damaging a Yumiella, there isn’t much difference between a sword and a wooden club, but if you don’t mind its dull blade, then this is a fine sword. Cheer up, Patrick!

Given the poor quality of the sword, though, it was also strange that Yumiella 2 had sincerely obeyed Patrick’s command not to move.

“Why didn’t you move?” I asked her curiously.

“I stayed frozen because I really thought he would stab me if I didn’t,” 2 answered.

“Like I said, you wouldn’t easily be cut by a sword like this.”

“That only applies to you,” she explained. I felt betrayed and disillusioned; I had assumed that 2 had the same Yumiella-level defense as me.

I see, so this was in reality a tense scene where people were legitimately trying to kill each other. I can’t believe I didn’t notice. I guess I am the one who started this fight, though, so I should be the bigger person and apologize and ask Yumiella 2 for details about what she was trying to talk about before I punched her in the face.

“Uh, sorry for the misunderstanding,” I said sheepishly. “So, you were saying something...?”

“Yes. Where should I begin...” She looked askance at me and Patrick. “Seeing how you two have reacted, it seems as if there’s a basic misunderstanding about my objective here.”

“Aren’t you going to take me down and unlock your level cap?” I asked.

“I thought about doing that just now, but that would just be a means to an end and not my actual goal.”

“What do you mean by that? Didn’t you say in the beginning that you came here for me?”

“Yes. I came here to see you.”

“Oh, that’s what you meant.”

Thinking back on it now, Yumiella 2 had said she’d come to this world for me, but she had never said anything about defeating me.

Then why did she come all the way to another world just to see me? It can’t be something as stupid as just wanting to see a parallel-world version of herself...could it?

At long last, Yumiella 2 shared her true objective.

“As I was trying to explain before being attacked...I came to this world to find a way to take down that despicable god of evil. I don’t think I’m any match for him at my current strength. I wasn’t sure if I should take you down and get stronger or ask you for your help, but seeing as you managed to avoid getting hit by Black Hole, I don’t think I could win against you.”

Things are getting weird again. What the hell kind of being is the god of evil? Not only that, but...

“Why didn’t you say something so important sooner?!” I exclaimed indignantly.

Yumiella 2 shrugged. “I thought you knew.”

“How would I know that?”

“Because you asked me if my objective was you. I didn’t say anything because I thought you understood what was going on.”

You’re kidding me... Yumiella 2, you are insanely bad at communicating. Of course people would misunderstand you. I get it now, though: she wants more firepower to take down the god of evil. Wait, god of evil? I can think of a certain despicable god. 

I called down towards the shadow at my feet, the place from which that certain despicable god was surely watching us right now.

“Lemn, are you there?”

There was a short silence, and then with a long-suffering sigh, Lemn appeared from my shadow. “I’m not the god of evil she’s talking about...”

Though he’d just denied it, I thought it would be best to ask 2 as well. “This kid isn’t the god of evil, right?”

Yumiella 2 shook her head. “Not him. He’s the god that was trying to resist me.”

“Lemn is pretty despicable too...or rather, he’s shady,” I amended.

“The god of evil is much more despicable and even shadier,” 2 assured me.

Wow, even more so than Lemn? This god of evil must be a pretty terrible guy. I really don’t want to meet him. Now that I think about it, she defeated the Lemn in her world, so there’s no way he could be the god of evil that she isn’t strong enough to defeat. Sorry for suspecting you, Lemn.

Although Lemn had finally materialized from the shadows, he hid behind me at once, seeming to be overly cautious of Yumiella 2.

“Wait, if Lemn is the god who resisted you...does that mean there was a second god? One who didn’t resist you?”

“Yes. I don’t know her name. She said she’d come to stop me, but she didn’t show any signs of wanting to fight. Some white-haired goddess.”

“White-haired...? Did she shoot beams from her forehead?”

“What? What in the world are you talking about?” 2 seemed genuinely confused.

Wait, she’s not talking about Sanon? I mean, after the way she resisted me, I guess I can’t imagine her not resisting, and it’s also strange that she didn’t shoot any beams from her forehead. Oh well, I guess the beams wouldn’t come out if she wasn’t doing any actual resisting. But still. Yumiella 2 must be talking about a completely different god.

The idea of another new god appearing in addition to the god of evil made me feel weary to my bones, but then Lemn spoke up.

“The god that didn’t resist her is Sanon,” he confirmed.

“Oh, she was the god that the Sanonists worship? She should’ve at least introduced herself or something,” 2 complained.

“She shoots light-type beams from her forehead,” I explained. “Even I would be in danger if I got hit with one of those.”

“It would hurt you?!” 2 exclaimed.

Curious as to why Sanon hadn’t put up any kind of fight, I turned to Lemn. I figured since his other self had tried to ally with Sanon in the parallel world, he’d know the answer to my question, but I was shot down.

“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head. “Why don’t you ask Sanon herself?”

“I see...” The conversation had strayed off topic. The more important thing was the looming threat of the god of evil, not the battle between Yumiella 2 and the other gods that had already happened. “What about the god of evil? What does he look like?”

“I don’t know,” my counterpart admitted.

“You don’t know?”

“It’s kind of like he’s blurry... It’s like I can see him but I can’t perceive him.”

Does he really exist? Could he just be 2’s hallucination?

Perhaps sensing my suspicious gaze, Yumiella 2 quickly went on to explain who the god of evil was.

“I first met him right after the prince defeated the Demon Lord, so it would have been around the time I decided to destroy humanity. He told me to get stronger, because I would die if I didn’t.”

“Did he give you strength?”

“He didn’t give me anything. All he did was teach me an efficiency-based leveling method.”

“What is it?!” I exclaimed, curious. “I want to know, tell me!”

What kind of level grinding method might a god pass down? Maybe it’s useless knowledge for me since I’m already level 99, but I’d love to know for future reference.

“It was actually a bunch of different crazy leveling methods, like taking down a bunch of dungeon bosses by myself, for instance.”

I blinked. “Isn’t that normal?”

“Actually, the god of evil just told me about the leveling methods that you came up with,” she said with a sigh. “The first time I heard about it, I thought whoever came up with these strategies was completely insane, and I guess I was right.”

“I don’t appreciate being called insane by someone who decided to destroy an entire world!” I huffed, offended.

I mean, anyone could have come up with my approach to leveling. Logically thinking, instead of dungeon crawling with a group among which the EXP would be divided up, going solo and getting all the EXP to yourself is much more efficient. I’m sure anyone could’ve come up with my other methods too; there just isn’t anyone else using them for some mysterious reason. 

Setting aside the perfectly reasonable nature of my leveling habits, it seemed clear from her report that this god of evil actually existed. There was no way she could have figured out my leveling methods on her own.

“Oh, is that how you were able to come here from your world?” I asked, connecting the dots. “Using the god of evil’s powers?”

“That’s right,” Yumiella 2 confirmed. “The god of evil’s ultimate goal is to cultivate someone as a strong pawn to use towards his own ends. He told me to take you down and raise my level cap.”

I see, so that’s what the god of evil is after. I recall that Lemn mentioned that there was a powerful being pulling the strings behind the scenes, so that’s probably this god of evil as well. A being above Lemn and Sanon that oversees countless parallel worlds, who isn’t bound to the shackles of the level cap at 99. Moving between worlds is probably child’s play for him.

Using the information she obtained from the god of evil, Yumiella 2 had managed to become stronger than all the other Yumiellas, and she’d used this strength to bring about the end of her world. She’d then come to this world to become even stronger. It was clear to me now: the reason she alone of all the other Yumiellas had been able to beat Alicia and the other heroes, and the reason she could travel between worlds, something even Lemn couldn’t do. It was all starting to make sense.

“But you don’t plan on defeating Yumiella, right?” Patrick asked as I sorted out the facts in my head.

“There’s no way I’m becoming one of the god of evil’s henchmen,” 2 said decisively.

“Will the god of evil allow that...?” he wondered.

“He probably won’t. That’s why I’m here, begging you to cooperate with me.”

I stared at 2, who wasn’t begging in the slightest, as I thought about the situation.

Even if we work together and defeat the god of evil, what happens after that? Her world can’t ever return to the way it was. And I can’t see any benefits for me in all this. I have no reason to fight. I don’t mind fighting for 2’s sake, but if this is her way of getting back at the god of evil, then I have no obligation to help her.

“What would you do if I said I wouldn’t help you?” I asked.

“You can’t do that.”

“I can’t?”

“That shady god of evil is listening to us right now.” Yumiella 2 delivered this shocking information with great calmness. “He’s realized that I’ve betrayed him, so he’ll surely try to get rid of me. He’ll probably try to get rid of you too, since you’re only going to make his life difficult.”

“Why’d you get me involved?!” I seethed.

I put aside the frankly insulting fact that the god of evil considered me to be difficult and chose instead to concentrate on the fact that it appeared that I had been dragged into a situation in which I had no choice but to fight, and which was all 2’s fault.

I knew it. Yumiella 2’s a bad apple after all.

“The god of evil doesn’t even blink an eye at a world being destroyed,” Yumiella 2 pointed out. “That’s the kind of being he is. Wouldn’t you feel better if he was taken down?”

“Like I said, that doesn’t mean much coming from the person who did the actual destroying...” I grumbled.

This is bad. I’ve never gone up against someone who’s a higher level than I am. I don’t like that I don’t know anything specific about his strength either. Knowing he’s above level 99 isn’t enough; being level 200 and level 2,000 are completely different things. I need to first analyze how powerful this opponent is.

“How strong is the god of evil?” I asked Yumiella 2. “Just an approximate guess is fine.”

“How should I know? I’ve never seen him in battle. He seemed hesitant about using his powers too.”

Wow, thanks for the completely useless information. Even if he seems reluctant to use his strength, he would probably come at us with full force to get rid of a backstabber. 

I put aside the useless Miss 2 and turned my attention to Lemn.

“Do you know how strong he is?” I asked.

“It doesn’t matter how strong you are,” he explained. “You’d never win against him as long as you have the shackles of the level cap holding you back. There’s no chance of winning if you’re still at level 99. This world might come to an end too, ha ha.” His dry laugh was in stark contrast to his hopeless expression. He was the god of darkness, but I’d never seen so little light in his eyes. I hadn’t realized that our situation was so dire.

Still, we simply didn’t have enough information about the god of evil. We weren’t prepared, either location- or equipmentwise, so I suggested avoiding any immediate fighting.

“Why don’t we hold off on this ’til we’re better prepared? It’s not because I’m scared or anything,” I hurried to add. “After all, I’m stronger than you.”

“No, we can’t,” 2 insisted. “Didn’t you hear me? He’s watching over us, even now.” She turned to address the empty air. “You’re here right now, aren’t you? Come out,” she snapped.

Lemn abruptly jumped into my shadow.

Oh, he fled.

Despite my prayers enjoining the god of evil to stay away, the empty space next to Yumiella 2 began to wobble and distort, just like when she had appeared in my world in the first place. Apparently this shady god had been right by us this whole time.

“I did not anticipate that you would betray me. I truly cannot understand the human thought process... In retrospect, perhaps it would have been more prudent of me to suppress your mind and turn you into my puppet. Though, I must admit that I am reluctant to use unnecessary resources...”

“Oh, were you not expecting to be betrayed?” 2 asked sweetly. “How silly of a self-proclaimed ‘higher being’ to fail to consider the possibility.”

I ignored 2 as she belligerently provoked him and observed the god of evil. I couldn’t see him. I could tell that he was there, but I couldn’t actually see him. Yumiella 2’s description of being able to see but unable to perceive him was strange yet apt.

It’s not like he’s censored... It’s kind of like static noise on a CRT TV. Not only that, but he doesn’t have a shadow. He doesn’t stand in the way of light, but he’s also not transparent. I can’t figure him out.

The god of evil’s silhouette and coloring were both ambiguous. I couldn’t tell anything about him other than the fact that he was a humanoid, roughly the size of an adult man.

Wait... Why can I tell that he’s humanoid? There’s nothing human about him, but for some reason my mind just sees him shaped as a person, despite how far he is from being human. 

I was suddenly overcome with an immense fear, deeply disconcerted by the existence of a being so far out of the realm of my understanding.

“What does he look like to you, Patrick?” I asked, keeping my gaze fixed on the god of evil. “Does he look like a human-shaped wobble to you too?”

“Yeah, I see something similar. A human-shaped... Hm? Why do I think he’s shaped like a human...?”

Patrick seemed to be in a similar situation as me, and he seemed equally confused.

I wish 2 had given us some advance warning if she was going to call over such a freaky being. Even if she couldn’t admit that she was going to betray the god of evil because he’d have overheard, she could’ve at least found a way to tell us to prepare our weapons.

“Hey! We aren’t prepared for a fight, and this is my yard. Couldn’t you have provided a little more warning?!”

“That’s why I suggested somewhere spacious. I also asked you if you were free, didn’t I?” Yumiella 2 said nonchalantly.

You didn’t make it seem like it was a big deal at all! Ugh, Eleanora is right inside, and Ryuu’s going to come home any minute. What do I do...what do I do? Okay, first, I need to buy some time. The god of darkness is shrouded in mystery, but one thing we do know is that we can talk to him. Let’s try talking this out.

I cleared my throat. “Um, hello. It’s nice to meet you, Mr. God of Evil.”

The wobble in the air seemed to turn its attention to me. “Are you referring to me when you say ‘god of evil’?”

“Oh, maybe that’s just 2’s nickname for you. May I ask for your name?”

“He he, what a delightfully peculiar occurrence, a human asking me for my name. Hear and rejoice: my name is £.”

Huh...? Excuse me?

The god of evil had ceremoniously announced his name, but I couldn’t catch it at all. It wasn’t that he was too quiet, or that he wasn’t enunciating, or anything like that. It was as if the sound had clearly made it into my ear, but my brain couldn’t process it.

“Could you repeat that...?”

“It’s £. Oh, I do beg your pardon. Lower beings cannot comprehend it. No matter. A name means nothing to a singular being such as myself. Call me whatever you’d like.”

I tried to focus in on the god of evil’s voice, but I still couldn’t make out his name. It was a sound unlike a vowel or a consonant, a sound that a human mouth couldn’t produce. I had definitely heard it twice, yet I couldn’t replay it in my head. I couldn’t even make out the tone of his voice. It was like there was static over the sound. I couldn’t tell his gender either.

Is “he” even correct? I guess it’s fine for now, since he speaks in a manner which reads very masculine to me for some reason. Well, he said to call him whatever I’d like, so let’s come up with a good name. “God of evil” is so bland. Something easy to remember would also be better than a complicated name. Let’s see...

“Then... I’ll call you Spot! Now, tell me: are you a—”

“Spot?!” The squiggle squirmed with rage. “You couldn’t possibly be referring to me, could you?! You have made the choice to call me, a higher being that presides over countless parallel worlds, by the name ‘Spot’?!” He didn’t seem too fond of “Spot.”

Hey, you’re the one who told me to call you whatever I wanted. I know it’s a little cliché, but I thought it was a good name. I’ll come up with something else, then.

“Then... What about Whiskers?”

“Whiskers?!”

“You don’t like that one either? You sure do like to complain...”

At this rate, I was going to run out of names. For someone who had claimed that a name meant nothing to him, he was being pretty picky about it.

It’s not even that bad of a name. I wonder if he doesn’t like Spot and Whiskers because he has poor taste. 

I looked to 2, who had to her credit accepted the name I bestowed upon her yesterday without complaining. She was covering her mouth in an attempt to contain her laughter.

“Heh heh, you’re incredible,” she said to me admiringly. “Whiskers, huh?” She turned to the indistinct entity. “I’m going to call you Whiskers from now on.”

“How dare you! Are you mocking me, a higher being?!”

Yumiella 2’s laughing a lot. Was “Whiskers” really that bad a suggestion? I wondered, turning to Patrick to see how he felt about the situation.

“Why don’t we keep calling him the god of evil like we’ve been doing?” Patrick suggested. “It’s up to him, though.”

“That is a perfectly adequate mode of address,” the nameless being agreed. “It doesn’t concern me as long as I can tell that you are referring to me.”

“That’s too boring,” I whined. “Why don’t I come up with another name—”

“You don’t have a say in this!” the god of evil snapped.

I guess “god of evil” is fine. If I can’t use names like Spot and Whiskers, I’d have to open up another folder in my mind. It’s a folder I’ve kept sealed for a long time, and for good reason: those names are hard to use.

“I guess I’ll call you the god of evil, then,” I said reluctantly. “The only other names I can come up with are ones like Schadenfreude and Kugelschreiber.”

“Oh...? Those seem more appropriate. It has recently come to my attention that I am in need of a name you beings are capable of understanding. From now on the god of evil will be known as Kugelschreiber.”

Oh, he actually likes them. He even picked the lamer of the two. Kugelschreiber is just German for “ballpoint pen.” It was also the name of my “final move” when I was in middle school and a total edgelord. He would definitely get upset knowing that his name was just a writing instrument. I’ll keep that a secret.

The god of evil, Mr. Ballpoint Pen, was looking right at me...or at least I thought he was. I couldn’t tell which direction was “forward” for him.

“So, you,” the god of evil began.

“Me?” I asked.

“Yes, you. The one who stands at the top of the rubbish heap that is the wasteyard of lower beings. Lay down your arms and come to me.”

“Are you inviting me to join you?” Did this god of evil want to make me a henchman of his? He must have decided that I would make a better minion after 2 betrayed him and became of no use to him. He was truly shameless. “I’ll pass. I don’t know what you might try and make me do.”

“I’ve had my eye on you from the very beginning. The you from the parallel world—2, was it? The only reason I started with her is because she was easier to control. I don’t mind in the least adjusting my plans and having you kill 2 instead.”

“Excuse me? You’re calling me easy to control?” 2 snapped. “Funny you should say that after I’ve betrayed you! Also, there’s no way she’d ever kill me.”

“As for your reward...” Kugelschreiber continued cajoling me, ignoring 2. No matter what he proposed, I wasn’t going to waver! “...if you become my henchman, I can promise you the ability to gain unlimited strength.”

“What?”

“I’ll start with removing the shackles keeping you at level 99. After you are held back from your potential no longer, there will be endless days of battle. Once you reach another limit, we’ll discover how to surpass that as well.”

My level would go up endlessly...? Oh. I see. Not that I’m interested, of course. Maybe it would be okay to get a couple of details though. It’s just to get the enemy to share information. I have no other intentions.

“Go on,” I said.

“Oh, I see you’re interested. I should’ve reached out to you first if it was going to be this easy.”

“Let’s say the level limit of 99 were to be removed,” I pressed. “How would I increase my level after that?”

“The only way to increase one’s level is to take in magical energy. The most efficient method to do that is to continuously destroy quasi-living creatures created entirely of magical energy, also known as monsters. It is no different from what you’ve been doing until now.”

I see, so it’s the same thing. I get stronger, and then I go on to defeat even stronger enemies... What kind of enemy would be even stronger? The god of evil made it sound like he was going to fight beside me, but who would be our enemy?

If I asked too many questions about getting stronger, it would only make Patrick’s glares stab even deeper. I decided to shift my line of questioning to ask about the god of evil’s goals.

“Who specifically are you fighting, Kugelschreiber? The being that oversees all parallel worlds wouldn’t have any enemies, would he?”

“My enemies are those from other worlds.”

“You oversee all the other worlds, don’t you?”

“Hmm, how do I put this into words...?” the god of evil pondered. “I hold all the parallel worlds branching off a single tree in the palm of my hand. This world is one branch of that tree. Just as there isn’t only one branch, there isn’t only one tree. I want to conquer the rest of the forest.”

Other trees would mean worlds that didn’t have the same laws, that didn’t share similarities with this one—to put it differently, otherworlds. Was the god unsatisfied with the worlds he already oversaw, such that he felt the need to invade otherworlds as well?

“By that, do you mean otherworlds?” I asked.

“Hm, ‘otherworld’... An excellent term, succinct and perfect. You understand my meaning, don’t you?”

“Those otherworlds must have beings that oversee them as well.”

“Of course, and that’s where you come in: my champion to go up against those beings,” he said eagerly. “Those otherworlds aren’t my true objective either.” It appeared that his ambition went further. “One day, I had a thought: is this world truly a tree?”

“Excuse me?”

“Could it be that I only think that the worlds I govern are part of their own tree? What if they’re actually a clump of branches on a much bigger tree? I can’t deny the possibility that this world might be something like a dollhouse created by a being from a much larger world. Picture it! Those beings could be watching us from above, enjoying us as entertainment!”

“Oh...!”

I was going to say that sounds stupid, but I almost forgot. This world is the world of an otome game. There are definitely people who are enjoying this world as entertainment. I was one of those very people. 

“What’s wrong?” the god of evil asked, curious about the sound I’d made.

“Oh, it’s nothing. Please continue.”

“Well, from the perspective of those in that larger world, I’m nothing but a trivial being frolicking around in their tiny dollhouse. I’m just a clown to them!”

Man, if I tell him that this is the world of an otome game, he might just explode from anger. Also, from the way he’s talking, it sounds like the world I’m originally from might be in danger. After gathering enough powerful pawns, the god of evil will probably end up invading Japan. After being attacked by an otome game, Japan will... Wait. Maybe it’s not actually that dangerous of a situation?

Upon thinking about it, it just didn’t sound that dire. If you said a god from cyberspace was going to attack, that sounded more urgent. If you instead said it was a god from an otome game, it instantly sounded immensely unthreatening.

Well, god of evil, you’re acting pretty high and mighty, but I hate to break it to you: this is just the world of a dating simulation, buddy.

Either way, while this might’ve been the world of a fictional story, the people here were definitely alive, and they made their own choices. That seemed like enough of a qualification for somewhere to be considered a proper world.

On top of that, there was no guarantee that Japan was the “original” world either. My first life could’ve been set in the world of a manga where sorcerers were secretly battling spirits behind the scenes in modern Japan, and my previous self was simply unaware of all that. And then, the world full of even higher beings reading that manga might not be the original either... And so, it was an endless cycle.

I pointed this out. “Even if you were to take over the hypothetical world watching over this world, that world might be fictional, just another, bigger dollhouse.”

“Then I’ll just take over the world above that one.”

“There might be another world above even that one.”

“Even if they go on forever, I’ll just continue climbing up.” His ambition knew no bounds. Even if he were to endlessly continue invading successive worlds, how would he ever know for certain that he’d reached the root of the tree?

I can’t keep dealing with this. I wonder: can he even observe Japan, or even any part of the world where the Japan in which I lived was located?

“So... Does that world above ours actually exist?”

“Theoretically it does. I can’t observe it for myself, but there’s no doubt about it. Why don’t we show those who are blithely watching over us what we’re capable of!”

“I’m sorry, but I’m not interested.”

I really couldn’t have cared less. It’s true that I didn’t like the idea of people watching from above, saying whatever they wanted about me, maybe calling me “cute” or “crazy” or even “a gorilla.” But I already had my hands full with parallel worlds and otherworlds. I didn’t have the capacity to deal with a higher world on top of all that. I was happy now; that’s all that mattered. There was more than enough happiness for me within the world in which I lived now, without having to worry about any other.

Welp, I guess I turned down the god of evil. I hope he’ll just go home without a fight, I thought, feeling myself beginning to panic slightly.

“Yumiella...” Patrick said from beside me. “I believed in you.”

What? Did Patrick think I was going to become the ballpoint pen’s henchman? If he believed in me, past tense, that meant he was slightly doubtful of me. Why would I ever want to go around dominating otherworlds? That felt a little too rude.

I gave him a significant look to convey that I was hurt, and in response, he scrambled to explain.

“Oh, no, it’s just that you kind of lose sight of everything else when it comes to strength. I was just worried about the one-in-a-million chance that you might...”

“If I would do anything to become stronger, I would’ve taken down 2 right away,” I pointed out. “I don’t appreciate being treated like some kind of fighting junkie.”

“Sorry about that,” Patrick apologized, sounding quite genuine. Even if he meant what he said, though, I couldn’t help but notice the skeptical tilt of his head.

I’ll deal with this later. Right now I need to focus on the god of evil. He’s this incredible, all-knowing higher being, so he wouldn’t demean himself and get upset that easily...right?

“Well, that’s it, I guess. It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to help you,” I said.

“I think you’re mistaken,” the god of evil countered. “I didn’t ask you if you wanted to join me. I ordered you to surrender yourself to my will.”

“Just asking a theoretical question here, but what would happen if I disobeyed your orders?”

“I would have no choice but to erase you from reality.”

Oh, he’s really mad. 

The god of evil’s ambitions were much larger than this world. It was possible that we would fight one another in the future, but right now I didn’t want that. We were right by my house, and Ryuu was going to be home soon.

I’ll just hype him up and draw things out. Then I’ll get him to go home.

“Oh, you must be very strong, Sir Kugelschreiber, god of evil,” I simpered.

“Of course I am.”

“If that’s the case, I’m not sure a small, weak lower being like me would be much help to you...”

“No matter how much strength I gather up, my powers are limited,” the god admitted. “I don’t want to waste any of my valuable resources. Just appearing in the world like this is using up my limited reserves of power. They would be drained even more if I were to engage in battle. That’s why I require strong underlings. I’ll admit, you are strong. You shall freely use that strength to serve me.”

Oh, so that’s where he went with that. If he isn’t willing to use his own powers, he shouldn’t get upset at someone turning down his invitation... Maybe I should point that out.

“Resources are precious things. That’s why I think you should just go home for now. That would definitely be the best way for you to conserve your energy for all of your upcoming battles.”

“Exactly!” the god of evil said approvingly. “You understand things very well. Then I command you to erase everyone here for me!”

“Give it up already!” I snapped. “I already said I won’t work for you!”

Oops, I said it. I mean, come on, can anyone blame me? He was being so annoyingly persistent.

I thought the god of evil would fly into a rage, but his voice was calm and quiet as he said, “Activate Administrator Code: Shut off targets in current space.”

I was about to ask him what he was doing, but I realized my mouth couldn’t move. It wasn’t just my mouth, but also my arms and legs—heck, not even my eyeballs could move an inch. Patrick and 2 were just barely visible in the corner of my peripheral vision, and it didn’t seem like they were moving either. They were likely frozen as well. My only lifeline was Lemn, who was hopefully still watching everything from the shadows.

“You can’t move, can you?” the god of evil cackled. “This is the power of a being who is truly a god. The four of you are... Wait, four...? Oh, I see, he must be in the shadows. Lemn, was it? You’re no different from humans in my eyes.”

What?! Lemn can’t move either? We’re screwed.

The god of evil continued his diatribe, gloating over us standing there, completely frozen. “You can experience what it means to disobey me with your own bod—”

Suddenly, the god of evil was swallowed by a black pillar that shot down from the skies. A thundering sound resonated shortly after. I would recognize Ryuu’s breath anywhere.

A dark-type dragon’s breath could melt its target—stone, metal, or flesh, it would dissolve into a puddle. The god of evil wouldn’t be able to survive that without a scratch.

“Oh bother, a dragon...” the god of evil grumbled from within the pillar of Ryuu’s breath.

“Activate Administrator Code: Shut off target.” The breath disappeared, and the god reappeared as his usual calm, wobbling, censored self. It didn’t seem like Ryuu’s attack had done anything. Not only that, but since he didn’t utter a single roar or issue another attack, I assumed that Ryuu couldn’t move anymore either, frozen midwingbeat in the sky above.

I still couldn’t move. No matter how hard I tried, my body wouldn’t even twitch.

What do I do here? Think, Yumiella, think!

“What is going on here?!” A new voice rang out over the courtyard. “There was a terribly loud noise just now.”

When it rained it poured—Eleanora had heard the sound of Ryuu’s molten breath, and now she’d come outside to investigate.

That’s why I wanted to go somewhere else. I’m going to hold this grudge against you, 2.

“Annoyances just keep popping up one after another...” the god of evil complained. “Activate Administrator Code: Shut off target.”

Darn, first Ryuu, and now Eleanora’s frozen too. Another strong member of our group is...not lost. 

Eleanora was frozen, but that didn’t really have a demonstrable effect on how this battle was going.

Well, I can’t actually turn around to check, but there’s no way Eleanora could resist this strange power that not a single one of us could, not Patrick, Ryuu, or me—

“Oh my! It was just for a moment, but I couldn’t move at all! What in the world was that?”

“What...?!” the god of evil cried.

What...?! my confused brain echoed.

Why was Eleanora able to move? Had a hidden power within her perhaps awakened at this very moment...?

Just then, I heard a familiar voice in my ear.

“I can’t believe you’re putting Eleanora in danger again... It looks like we’re going to have to have a long talk about this some other time. Activate Administrator Code: Remove target limitations.”

“Whoa! Wait, I can move.” I turned around to see a woman with white hair and a shiny forehead. It made sense that she wouldn’t appear until Eleanora was in danger. My eyes widened in surprise. “You came to save us, Forehead Bestie!”

“Stop calling me that!” she snapped. “It’s Sanon! Anyways, I’m transporting you immediately. Brace yourselves!”

I remember something about Sanon being able to teleport wherever the sun is shining or something. I think she turned Lemn down when he wanted to use her like a taxi. She probably just wants to get Eleanora out of here, but I’m grateful either way.

Sanon didn’t wait for me to respond, and her magic took effect at once. The scenery before me blurred, and I found myself surrounded by an immense, blinding light.

Wait... This light really hurts.

“Ow, ow, ow!” I cried.

“Ow, ow, ow!” another voice cried.

“Ow, ow, ow!” a third person cried.

It sounded like 2 and Lemn were also being carried along in the spell. Our party had way too many members that were vulnerable to light-type attacks.

By the time the light disappeared, my surroundings had completely changed.

This is...where I first met Sanon.

It was just barren land with nothing around—the perfect place to throw down, since I didn’t have to worry about damage to the surrounding area.

I turned to check who else had been teleported with me. Yumiella 2 and Lemn stood nearby, and Patrick was beside me. Sanon, the being whose powerful magic had teleported multiple people at once, was there as well. And of course, the mysterious blur that was the god of evil, now called Kugelschreiber, had come along for the ride.

“Teleportation? I’m impressed.” He didn’t seem fazed by our sudden change in location. With a shrug, he added, “I can’t really stop you from changing your position in this world, but it won’t matter much in the end.”

All right, we’re now in an open area where we don’t have to worry about hurting anyone or anything around us. Now all I need to do is use every bit of my strength to take down the god of evil. 

Whether I would be able to hold my own against the being that had shown himself to command strange powers of restraint depended entirely on Sanon, who seemed to know an effective countermove to those same powers.

The god of light, my ray of hope, came close to whisper in my ear. “After removing the limitations placed upon you and teleporting everyone here, I’ve used up most of my strength. What happens from here on out depends on you.”

“Whaaat?” I complained.

“Due to my own lack of power, I wasn’t able to bring the dragon here,” Sanon admitted. “I’m terribly sorry.”

“Of course you couldn’t!” I exclaimed. “There’s no way you could bring him somewhere so dangerous, right?!”

“Oh, um, yes. That’s it.”

Ryuu and dear Eleanora need to be protected. They shouldn’t be interacting with some unknown being like the god of evil! This is bad, though; even if I can sense that Kugelschreiber is about to use his power, I can’t really dodge it. 

I wanted to take a moment to collect myself and talk to the others in order to come up with a plan, but the god of evil seemed unlikely to allow us that kind of advantage.

“I see that I shall have to do this over,” the god of evil sighed. “How annoying. Activate Administrator—”

Oh no, not again. He’s going to restrain our movement. I should just punch him. Punching things has, historically, solved most of my problems.

I ran up to Kugelschreiber—who still manifested as a mysterious blur of a figure—and I threw a punch with all my might. My vigorous Yumiella Punch landed right in the part of the blur that I imagined must be the god of evil’s head.

Yes, I did it! I thought to myself, just as my fist connected...and then slipped right through him. Huh...? That should’ve hit him. It definitely felt like I hit something, but my fist didn’t meet any resistance. It didn’t feel like fog or anything... What just happened?

“That won’t work,” the god of evil said, sounding only a little smug. “I’m part of a different echelon than all of you. Why did you think you would be able to touch a being you cannot clearly perceive?”

I wasn’t sure exactly how the physics of this guy functioned, but it appeared that physical attacks weren’t going to work on him.

I’ll have to use magic, then. Ryuu’s breath didn’t seem to have any effect, but we’ll see what happens when I try.

The god of evil seemed like he was about to use his powers again, so I rushed to cast a spell.

“Activate—”

“Black Hole.”

The blurry, censored-looking figure was swallowed by the black orb. The god of evil had been transported here by Sanon’s teleportation powers, so I was hoping that meant that there was a good chance that Black Hole would work on him.

After a moment, the black orb shrank towards its center and disappeared. Just the black orb disappeared. Okay, well, technically the black orb and the atmosphere within its area of effect had disappeared, but either way, he was still standing there, unscathed.

“What? No...” I felt myself deflate slightly.

“Your attacks won’t work on me. That spell is powerful, but it can only erase objects of the same echelon.”

It was over. I’d never fought someone who was an entire class above me in strength. On top of that, all of the opponents I’d recently come up against could’ve been taken down by using Black Hole just once. Deep down, my arrogance had assumed that no matter what, I’d be able to win a battle if I used magic.

Physical attacks didn’t work, and neither did magic. And it was definitely too late to try talking things out.

This is really it. It’s over. I’m so strong that you’d think my stats are bugged, but the god of evil is using actual cheat codes or something.

“I’m at the end of my rope,” I conceded.

“I respect the gracefulness with which you accept your defeat,” the god of evil admired. “Activate Administrator—”

“Don’t give up!” Patrick yelled as a stone spear shot up from the ground, piercing through the god of evil.

Don’t, Patrick. It’s not doing anything to him.

“You persistent little... Activate—”

“He has a weakness!” Patrick exclaimed as he drew his weapon and took a swing at the god of evil. The sword slipped right through him and did nothing but make the blur wobble slightly. “You must’ve noticed by now, right?!”

Man, the god of evil keeps getting interrupted... Oh!

“Activate Administrator—”

“Dark Flame.”

“Activate—”

“Black Hole.”

“Act—”

“Yumiella Punch!”

I get it now! Thank you, Patrick! I thought, giving him a look of gratitude, and Patrick returned a firm nod in response. This guy can’t use his powers without saying, “Activate Administrator Code,” or whatever his catchphrase is. Not only that, but our attacks interrupt him from saying it. As long as we attack when the first “A” leaves his mouth, we can completely stop him. I just have to be careful not to use spells that attack from an enemy’s shadow, like Shadow Lance, since that indistinct blur doesn’t cast shadows.

“Using such nettling little methods...” the god of evil grumbled, obviously irritated. “How long do you plan on keeping this up?”

“If punching you once doesn’t work, I’ll just punch you a hundred times,” I said. “If a hundred won’t work, I’ll just punch you a thousand times. If that doesn’t work, I’ll just keep going until I take you down.”

“How absurd—”

“Black Hole... Oh, wait. That was the ‘a’ in ‘absurd,’ my mistake. Could you stop saying other words that start with ‘a’? It’s confusing.”

I was starting to get into the rhythm of things. Even an enemy that appeared undefeatable at first glance could be outmaneuvered in many different ways. You could get a strange man to teach you a special breathing technique that created ripples, have a mysterious old guy afflict your enemy with the Concept of Death, or throw a purple Pikmin at your foe. Those were, admittedly, all methods that relied on someone else, but there were many other approaches as well, and I was going to test them one by one.

I’m honestly a bit depressed since Black Hole didn’t work for once, but I’m determined to drag this out into a battle of endurance from hell, bwa ha ha! This is all thanks to Patrick. I have a boyfriend picking me back up when I’m down. This is awesome.

“Thank you, Patrick,” I called to him.

“Of course. That whole bit about ‘if one punch isn’t enough’ was awesome, by the way.”

“What? Why are you flirting with me all of a sudden?!”

“I’m terribly in love with that side of you.”

Huh, wait, what, huh? He was supposed to smile flippantly at me and say, “I’m not flirting.” What? Huh? Wait, what? My brain was throwing up error messages after what I thought had been a joke was taken seriously, so Patrick was doing all the heavy lifting of interrupting the god of evil’s attacks. Oh no, I need to get myself together. I can’t let Patrick do everything and wear himself out when this is likely going to be such a long battle. I need to join him. With the two of us... Hold on. We’re not the only ones here. Our party has three other members. I know it’s hard to join in with us when we’re being so lovey-dovey, but that’s no excuse for 2 and the gods to slack off.

I looked around and caught sight of 2 and Sanon having a conversation at a distance from us.

Wait, you guys are actually slacking?

“Hey, you,” 2 said to the god of light, presumably by way of greeting.

“My name is Sanon,” she corrected.

“I don’t care about your name. I have something I want to ask you. Why didn’t you resist me when I was about to kill you? You’re much stronger than the god of darkness, aren’t you?”

“The one who chose to be passive was the Sanon in your world, not me,” she pointed out.

“It’s not like you’re in my situation, with a parallel-world self who is completely crazy,” 2 snarked. “I’m sure you have a similar thought process to your counterpart, so you might be able to guess what she was thinking, right?”

My impulse was to call out to them and scold them for their inaction, but I couldn’t help but listen in on their conversation. I was totally eavesdropping, but I was also curious as to why the other world’s Sanon hadn’t put up a fight against 2.

As I worried whether what I was doing was morally correct, the conversation progressed. Yumiella 2 continued in her belligerence, while Sanon seemed unruffled.

“I don’t think very highly of interacting with humans,” Sanon explained. “Interfering in a battle between humans is out of the question.”

“I do think it would be strange for a god to stick their nose into a war, but...I even killed you.”

“Even so, I must not interfere. A god should not go about killing a human, even if it means that god will ultimately die.”

“Excuse me? A human?” 2 echoed, a little hysterically. “How could someone who controls monsters be a human? There’s no way a single human could destroy an entire world. I’m a beast, far more terrible than the Demon Lord ever was.”

Sanon fell silent for a moment before she responded. “Yumiella Dolkness, you are, without a doubt, a human. I love humans, and you are one of them.”

“This is ridiculous,” 2 scoffed, looking away.

In contrast to Yumiella 2’s awkwardness, Sanon maintained her preferred air of nonchalant serenity, and she spoke as if she was speaking nothing but objective facts. I hadn’t noticed it until now because I’d only seen how she acted in situations involving Eleanora, but Sanon seemed to prize fairness to a disturbing degree. She wouldn’t even lay a hand on 2, who had become a world-ending calamity, because from Sanon’s perspective, 2 was still a human. As a result of Sanon’s personal philosophy of refusing to give special treatment to specific humans, she couldn’t do anything when the world, or even she herself, was facing a crisis—which surprised me when I thought about how that world’s Eleanora had likely been one of the victims of 2’s rampage.

I had missed my opening to enter their conversation, so I was just standing there, trying to figure out what to say, when Lemn finally manifested himself.

“Wow, Sanon really is incredibly tactless,” Lemn remarked.

“She’s way too tactless,” I agreed.

“Well, considering everything that happened in the past,” Lemn observed, “I’m honestly surprised that she’s actually here to help us.”

I think she got involved because she couldn’t just stand by and watch while Eleanora was in danger, not because she wanted to save any of us, or because she cared about helping us fight the god of evil.

Regardless of her motivations, the god of light had saved our lives. She had undone the power restraining us, and she had even teleported us here. Unlike her, Lemn had barely accomplished anything.

I guess it only figures; he’s basically a child, after all, I thought, looking at him. He seemed to take notice of my gaze.

“You were thinking that I’m useless, weren’t you?” he accused.

I was the picture of perfect innocence. “No, I wasn’t thinking anything like, ‘What’s the point of being in my shadow if you’re going to freeze up and do absolutely nothing?’ or anything like that... Not at all.”

“What was I supposed to do?!” Lemn snapped. “I knew he was going to use that code, but I didn’t think he would target the entire space we were standing in!”

“So what? Also, I didn’t know those moves were called codes.”

“He’s famous for being really hesitant about using those powers, you know?!”

No, I don’t know. Why does he keep saying these things like they’re common knowledge? Fine, Lemn seems surprisingly worried about his lack of participation thus far, so I’ll ask him to play a huge role going forward—one that only he can pull off.

“We don’t have time to be talking like this. Can you pull out that sword?” I asked him urgently.

“Oh, the one I was holding on to for you. Okay.” Lemn swiftly reached into his shadow, pulled out the sword, and plopped it unceremoniously into my hands.

This isn’t what we agreed on. He was supposed to pull it out in a really cool and flashy way. Why did I even leave it with him in the first place if he isn’t going to put on a performance when he pulls it out?

Despite the disappointment, I begrudgingly accepted the secateur from him. Sanon, who was clearly keeping an eye on Lemn, let out a piercing scream.

“Why do you have that?!” she demanded.

“I-I know it’s dangerous,” I reassured her.

“What that weapon can accomplish is far beyond the realm of ‘dangerous’! How did you even gain possession of such a horrid object...?”

Sanon didn’t seem to like the secateur very much. Perhaps there was a basic incompatibility between them, this being an object of pure darkness and her being the goddess of light. Still, it felt like she was overreacting. It wasn’t like the sword was going to eat her or anything.

I have a mountain of complaints about Lemn failing to put on a suitably ostentatious sword-summoning performance, but like I said to him, I don’t have time to waste. Yumiella 2’s starting to add to our concentrated flurry of attacks on the god of evil, which is giving us a little room to breathe, but I should probably join in as well. I guess I’ll forgo trying to pull out the sword in a cool way too, I thought, quickly unsheathing the black blade so that I didn’t have enough time to be disappointed about it.

“Secateur, O blade that prunes the branches of the world, come to my hand!” I commanded.

“Huh?” Lemn turned to me. “Did you say something?”

“Nope,” I said, pretending that he hadn’t just heard me chanting under my breath. Internally, the side of me that loved dramatically announcing my next move in a fight was at war with the side of me that was embarrassed.

Let’s hurry up and settle things with the god of evil before my internal conflict settles on a winner.

It was possible that the secateur was powerful enough to have an effect on the god of evil. I ran up to him and took a swing.

“Maybe this will do it!” I exclaimed, but it did not, in fact, do it. His blurry figure slightly wobbled, just as it did when attacking him with any other method.

“I see, so you had it...” the god of evil observed calmly, completely unaffected by the secateur. “I might have been the one who lost it, but it is still rightfully mine. I’ll use this opportunity to take it back.”

“Darn, I thought this would work,” I complained.

“No matter how much power an object possesses, it matters little if you are incapable of drawing out its strength,” he said.

“Oh! You’re referring to the key that unlocks the sword’s power!” I exclaimed. “What’s the key?! Give me a hint! I’ll settle for a hint!”

“Wh-Why are you reacting like that...?” the god of evil asked, seeming troubled for the first time.

Why does he seem kind of weirded out by me now? I can’t really make out his expression or his body language, but I can tell that he’s disturbed. I guess it was rude of me to demand information like that, my bad.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t keep down my curiosity,” I explained. “I just think that there’s something so exciting about an item that can’t exert its full power without meeting some sort of requirement. It’s not like there’s a literal metal key, is there? Just finding that out would be enough for me.”

“W-Well, yes... Just as you say, there are certain requirements, and it is those which are referred to as ‘the key.’”

“I knew it! Of course there are requirements!”

“I still do not understand why you’re reacting like this...” The god of evil had no visible eyes, but I still got the impression that he was looking at me suspiciously.

Now that I had received the answer to my question, I was satisfied. I wanted to ask him about the details of these requirements, but that would’ve been greedy of me. I mulled over whether I should give up or try and ask regardless, with no expectation of an answer, when the god of evil continued offering information on his own.

“In order to unlock the secateur’s power, one must know the name of the blade,” he said, evidently having moved on from being disturbed by my line of questioning. “In other words, the true name of the sword.”

“That sounds so epic!” I exclaimed. “It’s so fitting! I love it!”

“Are you all right...?”

Aw, is Kugelschreiber worried about me? I didn’t think he was the kind of being who cared about the well-being of others...

The god of evil cleared his throat before he continued, perhaps noticing that I found his actions curious. “So, regarding the name of the sword... I believe I’ve already spoken it.”

“No, you haven’t.” I was confident I would have remembered that if it had actually occurred.

“Is that so? Wait... That’s right. It was you, just the one from the parallel world,” he said with a theatrical chuckle as he cast his attention towards 2.

You’d expect the name of this sword to be valuable information, so why did he reveal it to 2? Not only that, but why did he go out of his way to tell me that 2 knows it? Maybe knowing the name of the sword isn’t enough, or maybe he’s setting a trap, or maybe... Whatever, all that doesn’t matter!

“Yumiella 2, you know the name, right?!” I called over my shoulder. “Tell me, please?”

“Have you lost your mind?” 2 grumbled. “What’s wrong with you?”

Oh no, she’s being unreasonably grumpy, as usual. I can’t have her clam up now. 

I wanted to clap back and ask her if she had lost her mind, but instead I used my most affable voice to say, “I might have lost my mind! But I think I might find it again if you tell me the name of the sword.”

“Ew, weirdo...”

“Weirdo? That’s a pretty unique name for a sword... I’m not as excited about it anymore.”

“Not the sword, I’m saying you’re a weirdo.”

Oh, she was commenting on how I was acting. I’m glad that’s not actually the name of the sword.

While us Yumiellas were having this fun little chat, the god of evil was using any chance he got to try and use his cheat codes, but Patrick stopped him each time.

Sorry for leaving you alone, Patrick.

“There’s obviously something more to it!” my fiancé exclaimed, keeping his gaze locked on the blur that was the god of evil. “Even if she’s willing to tell you, don’t use it to unlock the sword’s power!”

I can’t do that, my curiosity is going kill me. Actually, in this situation, dying like a cat doesn’t sound so bad.

If I were to refuse and say I wanted to unlock it anyway, Patrick and I would surely get into an argument. As I stood there, unsure of how to answer him in a way that would leave us both satisfied, 2 rendered the whole argument moot.

“It’s fine. I think he told me, but I’ve forgotten it.”

“Excuse me?!” I exclaimed. “What’s wrong with you?! Have you lost your mind?!”

“That’s the last thing I want to hear from you,” 2 snarled. “Why should I have remembered the name of a sword I’d never even seen before?”

What? No way...what a bummer. I’d love to at least know what kind of name it is. How I feel about it would significantly change depending on whether it’s a name like Mikazuki Munechika or a name like Durendal.

I was about to beg 2 to at least tell me what sort of name it was when I heard a faint voice. I could definitely hear it, but it sounded strange in an alarmingly familiar way—I couldn’t tell whether it was pitched high or low.

“I see that it won’t work... I have no choice but to use my powers.”

The moment I heard the god of evil’s disturbing words, I felt a bottomless pit of fear gnawing open within me. Up to this moment, I had clung to the idea that we could easily suppress him even if our attacks didn’t work, but right now, he was revealing himself to be unimaginably powerful and undeniably terrifying.

Patrick was currently the member of our party standing closest to the god of evil, something I hadn’t thought of quickly enough to yell something like, “You’re in danger! Move!” Without a warning, Patrick was sent flying.

“Patrick?!” I dashed towards him without thinking, which meant that I took my eyes off the god of evil.

Any opening would lead to the god of evil using his cheats to freeze us all helplessly in place. With Sanon unable to use her powers, we had no way to recover from his attacks. By the time I realized the gravity of the situation, the god of evil was already close to finishing his code incantation.

“Activate Administrator Code: Shut off targets in current—”

I tried to think as fast as I could, my mind moving quickly enough that my surroundings were starting to look like they were in slow motion.

How do I stop him? I could get up close and use a physical attack. No, that won’t work. I don’t have enough time. 

What about Black Hole? No, that spell requires a short charge before it’s activated, and there’s also some time before the black orb disappears. It’s usually quick enough that I wouldn’t worry about it, but even the time it takes to blink is precious right now.

Then what about Shadow Lance? It casts right away, but, ugh, he doesn’t have a shadow. We’re also in an open field, so there aren’t any other shadows near enough to him that I could use. Nope, not that.

Dark Flame? It shoots out from the tip of my finger, and it’s as fast as a fireball—which means it’s relatively slow. It won’t make it in time. 

I could throw the sword in my hand at him. It would be faster than Dark Flame at the very least. I don’t know if even that would make it fast enough though.

This time, it really felt like it was going to be the end of us. The distance between me and the god of evil was less than thirty meters, but it felt incredibly far.

I guess I’ll at least attempt the action with the highest chance of success, I thought, holding up my sword. Man, even the time it takes to flex my muscles feels like wasted milliseconds.

Just as I had locked onto my target, I realized that something felt off. It wasn’t the blurry figure himself, but rather the ground at his feet. The area directly below him was pitch-black—I could see a distinct, round, inky shadow below him. I had no time to think; if there was a shadow, then I could use that spell, the one with almost no time lag before activation.

“Shadow Lance!” Black spears shot out from the ground at an extreme speed and pierced the god of evil.

“Curses! Foiled again,” the blurred god snapped, sucking his teeth in frustration.

I used that moment to close in on him.

Things are okay now. That was really close, though. I can’t believe that this battle did a complete one-eighty in less than a second.

The mysterious shadow that had saved me disappeared at once, and Lemn’s voice resonated from within my own shadow.

“I need to pull my weight too,” he said.

“You made that shadow, Lemn?”

“Have you forgotten that I’m the god of darkness? That much is child’s play for me.”

“Can you maintain a shadow continuously right under the god of evil, then?”

“Well, to tell you the truth, conjuring that one shadow really tired me out.”

It appeared that Lemn was quite a feeble god. I couldn’t believe that he was in pain after creating a shadow on the ground for a single moment. But regardless of the remarkable weakness of his constitution, he had saved me from a predicament, so I decided to not comment on his lack of stamina.

I turned my full attention from Lemn back to the god of evil. As long as I stayed focused on him, both Black Hole and melee attacks would stop him in time to prevent him from using his cheat codes. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake again.

The other thing I had to be cautious of was whatever attack had sent Patrick flying earlier. I had only managed to sneak a quick glance at him, but that was enough to confirm that he was all right.

I wonder what caused that shock wave that Kugelschreiber created. I need to make sure I pay attention and don’t miss any movements that might signal a new attack, I thought. Just as I had determined that I would make sure to be on guard no matter what, I realized that my body had started to feel a strange floating sensation.

“Huh?” My confusion was short-lived as I found myself flung back and sent flying.

I was being so careful, I huffed, annoyed by the unfairness of it all. I didn’t stop looking at him for even a single moment. 

The shock wave that had thrown me off my feet was clearly one of the god of evil’s attacks, but it hadn’t been signaled by any preceding movements or chants—I assumed that it was likely impossible to detect when it would happen. Luckily, it wasn’t too powerful an offensive move, and it didn’t seem to have any kind of demonstrable physical effect on Patrick or me. All it did was send us flying back, but in this situation, that in itself could be fatal to us.

“Activate Administrator—”

He was doing it again. I wanted to make a comment about how uninspired his moves were, but since we were once again in a crisis, it didn’t seem like the time for it.

I shot out a bolt of pure magical energy and used that momentum to reposition myself midair. That itself used up quite a bit of mana. I glanced at the god of evil, noting that he seemed to have moved a bit. It sent a shiver down my spine thinking that he might have been using magic without any regard to its potency.

“Black Hole.” I cast one of the strongest dark magic spells once again, as I had done countless times today, and although it again did no damage, it at least stopped the god of evil from using his code. As I landed on the ground, Patrick ran up to me.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“I’m fine. I’m glad you seem okay too.”

“Yeah, but...this is bad.”

“I agree. I’m not sure what to do here.”

We hadn’t yet come up with an effective way to take down the god of evil, and all we had managed so far was to test his patience in a long battle of endurance—all we could do was attack when he began to chant his code and keep endlessly interrupting him. We might be able to keep this up for several days if we took turns sleeping. We might even find a solution during that time, or maybe the god of evil would get bored and back down.

However, things were different now that the god of evil had introduced the shock wave attack to the proceedings. Even if it didn’t do any actual damage, being physically knocked back without any way to stop it was detrimental to our long-term strategy. We were only barely able to keep up after Patrick and I had both been blown back in turn.

As long as we keep our guard up, we should be able to still keep the god of evil from speaking the entirety of the code, but if he keeps knocking us down with his shock wave, I don’t think we could do it for hours on end.

“Not having a proper way to attack him makes things hard,” Patrick observed.

“It’s tough to keep this up,” I agreed.

“He must still have some moves up his sleeve,” Patrick said. “We won’t be able to fight back if he plays his wild card after we’re exhausted.”

“Even just being unable to move like earlier would pretty much mean instant death for us.”

On paper, the current situation didn’t sound too dire: if the god of evil was able to complete his chant, we would be rendered motionless. However, this was a battle, and being unable to move in battle basically meant we were dead.

His code finally freezing us in place might even be more annoying than a direct attack that would kill us. We can’t even use our last resort, our elixirs, if we can’t move. Wait... Would elixirs make us able to move if we’re frozen? I should ask Lemn.

“Hey, Lemn!” I hissed, directing my stage whisper down towards my shadow. “Can you use elixirs to counteract the effects of that code thing?”

“I think you can, but...who would actually be able to use one? He’s going to freeze everything in this entire space.”

Oh, I see. We’re up against an enemy that can essentially instakill the whole party. This is rough. This just reinforces the fact that the way elixirs work is still a mystery though. Just like I thought, rather than a revival potion, they’re more like... No, I don’t have time to be thinking about this right now.

“Okay, let’s split up so we’re more difficult to target,” I suggested to Patrick.

“Got it,” he said.

We both nodded to each other before running in opposite directions. Even if one of us was to be knocked back, the other could attack. As long as we took turns attacking, we should be fine.

“What pesky and desperate little methods you’ve resorted to,” the god of evil grumbled as he sent me flying once more.

Now that it’s happened again, I can see that he doesn’t seem to telegraph the shock wave attack at all. I haven’t noticed any sign that it’s coming. There’s just no way to block it. He got me, so I’ll leave it to you, Patrick, I thought, just in time to see my boyfriend also get tossed into the air out of the corner of my eye. No way! It works in all directions? Isn’t that a bit overpowered? If I were the god of evil, I would’ve come up with a really cool name for a move so strong... Oh wait, that actually makes it even more annoying, because it doesn’t have a name or anything.

“I’ll get him!” I yelled. Patrick could save his strength for later.

Just as I had done earlier, I repositioned myself with a burst of magical energy so that I could use my magic, when all of a sudden, the god of evil was swallowed by a black orb, one that I had not created. The only other person who could use Black Hole aside from me was Yumiella 2.

“So? Do you think you can win?” she asked in a carefree manner, walking up to my side as I landed.

“Can you maybe say something if you’re going to help?! I wasted that mana for nothing!”

“I see, so it’s looking pretty bad. I guess you’re not that impressive after all,” she observed, sounding a little bit smug.

“Excuse me?” I snapped. “Maybe I should take you down first.”

“I see, so you do get it.”

Huh? What do I get? Before I could voice my questions, a smile spread across 2’s face.

“I know a way to defeat him,” 2 said in a jovial tone.

“What? Really?!”

“Do you really think I would start a fight with the god of evil with no plan? I’ve had a plan since the very beginning.”

“Wow, that’s incredible, Miss 2. Why didn’t you say something earlier, punk?” I had intended to compliment 2 for once, but my true feelings slipped out towards the end.

I mean it though. She should’ve said something before. What were we doing all that attacking for until now? So, what is this plan of hers...?

Yumiella 2 seemed like she was having the time of her life. Objectively, her outward demeanor didn’t read as that of someone who was enjoying themselves, but judging her expressions on the Yumiella spectrum, keeping in mind her usual flat affect, she seemed to be truly merry.

“I won’t tell you,” she said.

“What?”

“I’m going to lead the charge, and you’ll figure out the rest of the plan as we go.”

“Pardon?” I sputtered.

“I need you to block his view. Cast Black Hole in as large a diameter as you can around him.”

Yumiella 2 was truly despicable. If she was going to be my ally, I wished she would just act like it for once.

I wouldn’t be surprised if she someday gets shot from behind because of that terrible attitude of hers. 

Regardless of how I felt about her, I was going to do my part. I had no plan whatsoever—I had no choice but to follow hers.

I gestured to Patrick, who was currently positioned behind the god of evil, to stay back, and then I looked to 2 for confirmation.

“Cast it now?”

“I’m ready whenever,” she responded. I was skeptical; she didn’t seem like she was ready for anything, considering how nonchalantly she was standing beside me.

Is she really ready? Whatever, let’s do this. Black Hole, cast as large as I can. I can aim the center at the god of evil and make it big enough that it just barely doesn’t reach us.

I made my move. “Black Hole!”

A jet-black orb appeared. It was positioned so that the bottom half of the sphere was in the ground, which probably made it appear as a dome from above, but from my perspective it just looked like a black wall.

Just then, 2 leaned in and whispered in my ear, “I’ll leave the rest to you, Yumiella 1.”

“Huh?” The way she’d said it was uncharacteristically solemn. It was also, I realized, the first time she had actually called me “1.”

I turned to look at her and see what was going on, but she had already started running forward—forward into the black wall of darkness.

“Look out!” I screamed at her.

She didn’t even slow. “The name of the sword is...”

When you cast the spell Black Hole, there was a time lag between the appearance of the black orb and the moment it disappeared, taking everything inside the area of effect with it. As long as you moved during that very short period between spell phases, it was possible to dodge it. The opposite was also true—if you ran into it during that time period, then...

She did it. Yumiella 2 jumped into the darkness.

The black orb began to shrink towards its center, erasing everything within its diameter from existence. In the blink of an eye, the large, black orb was gone, and it had taken Yumiella 2 along with it.

“What...?” I wasn’t quite able to process this.

A giant crater yawned before me. There was always a change in atmosphere after this spell was cast, since it took all of the air with it when it disappeared, so I was hit by tailwinds that were so strong that it felt like my legs were going to fly off. At the center of the enormous hole was the god of evil, who was standing there just as he had been before. Yumiella 2, however, was gone.

“There’s no way...” I whispered.

No, this isn’t happening. Something’s wrong here. Yumiella 2’s probably just hiding somewhere, and any minute now, she’s planning to launch a sneak attack on the god of evil.

I felt dazed as I stood and scanned my surroundings. She was nowhere to be seen, and there wasn’t anywhere she could be hiding.

No... There’s no way, right?

“Huh...?” I suddenly felt the oddest sensation, and I realized that it was the feeling of highly condensed magical energy flowing into my body, a dark magical energy so dense that it was visible to the eye. The reality that I was attempting to avoid was being shoved in my face. This energy... What was happening right now was...

“Aaah...”

My body was absorbing so much magical energy at an incredible speed that it was starting to make me feel sick. Despite that, the magical energy felt right at home in my body, like it was something I was used to. That was only natural—it was the remnants of another Yumiella, after all.

“I haven’t felt this in a while,” I mumbled to myself.

It was something I hadn’t experienced in several years—I had leveled up. Only this time, I felt my strength skyrocket in a way I had never experienced before.

I had become stronger, to an explosive degree. Now that my body had this new strength, I could no longer deny her death. Yumiella 2 had willingly jumped into my spell and sacrificed her life.

“Hm, I see you’ve reached a higher echelon,” the god of evil observed casually, seeming entirely at ease. “So, which one are you? The one from this world, or the one from the parallel world?”

He couldn’t even tell us apart? What a deeply loathsome guy.

As my brimming eyes blurred my vision, I recalled something Yumiella 2 had said.

“When I do die, I’m planning on bringing down some despicable fiends along with me.”

Oh, she meant she was going to bring down the god of evil too. I wouldn’t usually go along with someone trying to bring down others with them, but in this case, I’ll make an exception. Did she jump into Black Hole having thought this far ahead? I wiped away the moisture running down my face and railed against her internally with as much anger as I could muster. Man, I really don’t like Yumiella 2. I hate you.

As I stood there with tears coursing down my face, I felt the scales begin to tip. The god of evil had still not given up, and I could tell he was about to try and speak his code once again. Patrick ran to stop him, but his timing was a little off. He seemed to have been distracted by 2’s sudden disappearance as well.

“Activate Administrator Code: Shut off targets in current area.” The cheat code rang out in its entirety at last.

We were frozen—not even a single joint in a single one of my fingers would budge. Patrick and I were completely still, and the same was likely true for Lemn and Sanon, although they were too far out of my field of vision for me to say for sure. Everyone in the god of evil’s presence had been stopped.

Except for Yumiella 2. She isn’t here, so she can move. She’s inside me, so I can move.

“How disappointing,” the blurred figure gloated. “You all are at the mercy of a single utterance from me.”

“I don’t know, it took a heck of a long time for you to get that utterance out, though,” I said.

“What?!” The blur wavered, but seemed to regain its composure quickly. “I see... You were able to remove your limitations by syncing with your parallel-world self. How did you learn such a highly technical skill?”

“Huh? You can logically explain what I did? Even I thought I was being crazy,” I admitted.

I had rationalized this by imagining that 2 had passed her powers on to me, but I had actually thought I was able to move because my muscles had gotten stronger when I leveled up—it looked like that wasn’t quite accurate.

“No, the other version has already disappeared...” The god of evil seemed to consider me for a moment. “Could it be? Did you recreate everything in a pseudoworld?! Even if it’s only partial, even I struggle to deploy a pseudoworld!”

“Uh, yep! That’s exactly it. I’m more logical, or should I say intellectual, so... I’m just that kind of person.”

I have no idea what he’s saying! I’m trying to come off as smart, like I know what he’s saying, but I don’t have a single clue as to what he’s talking about! Honestly, I’m not sure if I care. I’m able to move; that’s enough for me.

“I seem to have underestimated you,” the god of evil said as he lightly swung his static-blurred arm in my direction.

I instinctively felt that I was in danger and quickly grabbed the sword that I had previously abandoned, swinging it horizontally and somehow blocking something I couldn’t even see.

“Another invisible attack?!” I cried.

“How were you able to block that?!” he raged.

I felt through the sword that something had bounced off the blade. Since I hadn’t actually been able to see the attack, I’d managed to block it using only my instinct.

I’m incredible.

I looked in the direction I had swung the sword, and I noticed that the scenery seemed...slightly off.

Yeah...“Off” is the only way I can think of to really describe it.

It looked like the space itself had been cut, like a painted canvas had been sliced into two pieces and pulled slightly apart.

It’s probably some kind of spatial severance. I’m not sure about any additional effects, but it’s a thing you see pretty often in fiction. I’m so knowledgeable. 

It wasn’t good to let the god of evil do whatever he wanted. I leaped over the edge of the crater and ran down its perfectly curved sides towards the center. Just as I was about to reach the bottom of the hole, the blurry figure launched itself up into the air.

“You can fly?!” I exclaimed, a little indignantly.

How many abilities is this guy hiding? The god of evil mentioned that he was about to get serious, but now it felt like he had been holding back to an extreme degree. Didn’t you learn in school that it’s bad manners to gradually show your strength like this? If he’d been serious from the start, we definitely would’ve lost right away.

As he looked down on me from his position in midair, the god of evil reached his arms out towards me. I braced myself, assuming something was about to happen. My hypothesis was correct, and I felt a sudden pressure that was trying to crush me from above.

He’s increased the gravitational force here. I’m almost being pushed down to my knees. Man, how much force is he exerting? 

I firmly stomped on the ground and forcefully kicked myself into the air as the soil sank beneath me, succumbing to the incredible pressure. For once, my poor physical build had saved me.

Being heavier and bigger is more advantageous in most circumstances though, so I won’t give up on my dream of weighing three tons.

“How is this possible?!” the god of evil sputtered. “I locked in an irreversible force field!”

You did what? A force field is like gravity’s relative, right? Are you just making things sound more complicated than they actually are, Mr. Kugelschreiber?

Redirecting the momentum from my jump, I made a beeline towards the floating god of evil. However, there was still pressure coming at me from above, which meant that I gradually lost speed as I went—at this rate, I wouldn’t reach the god of evil before being pushed back to the ground.

I don’t know if I can get up here again if I’m forced back down. I’m really understanding why warrior races use gravity machines to train.

Just then, a voice that was not the one in my head called out to me from below.

“Yumiella! I’m making a platform!” It was Patrick, who should’ve been frozen.

A mound of earth shot up like a tower, reaching my feet. I had completely lost my speed and had just begun to fall, but thankfully I landed gracefully on the top of the earthen tower. I thought about asking Patrick to use the tower to raise me up, but it was already beginning to crumble—it didn’t seem like it was going to hold up against my weight when the god of evil’s force field was making me tens, even possibly hundreds, of times heavier than I usually was.

I guess I have to jump again, I thought, leaping off the dirt below me as it crumbled beneath my feet.

“Come onnn!” I yelled.

I somehow made it to the god of evil. Now that we were at the same height, I could tell that he was about to pull another move, but he was too late.

God of evil, Kugelschreiber. You’ve been my strongest enemy to date.

This was going to be my victory only because Patrick, the gods of light and darkness, and Yumiella 2 had made it possible.

“Why...” the god of evil cried. “Why do you have such power?”

“This is the end!” I swung down the sword of darkness, the secateur, which I’d been tightly holding on to this entire time, and...it went right through him. “Huh...?”

What? Aren’t I supposed to win here? I thought that my attacks were going to work now that I’ve unlocked my level cap.

Despite my strength, I couldn’t keep resisting the gravitational force bearing down on me. I had worked so desperately to get up here, but after only managing to swing my blade through the blur once, I was falling down. As I fell, I tried casting Black Hole as a parting gift, but it didn’t do anything.

Oh, so my attacks still don’t work. So what the hell am I supposed to do?

I crash-landed, catching myself from a complete face-plant with my legs and one hand. This method left one hand free, so I was still able to hold my sword.

I see, so there is a practical benefit to a three-point landing. I’ve only been doing it because I thought it made me look cool, like a superhero, but it’s hard on the knees.

I had planned to use the force from my landing to make the ground beneath me sink, but I had landed without making much sound. It appeared that the debuff increasing the gravitational force on me had been removed.

“Oh, I’m light again.”

“It’s pretty tough that we don’t really have ways to attack him,” Patrick said to me, approaching from my flank. I hadn’t noticed him so close, so it surprised me a bit.

“Thanks for helping me earlier,” I said. “How long have you been able to move?”

“I unfroze around the time you ran down into the crater and the god of evil flew into the air. I think it’s probably because he had to allocate his powers elsewhere. It definitely wasn’t because of my own strength.”

Maybe I was the only one the god of evil was focused on. Thanks to him underestimating Patrick, I was able to leap into the air. I guess it doesn’t really matter, since my attacks don’t work. I really don’t know what to do.

As I was agonizing about my next move, the god of evil floated down and approached us. I braced myself, and he raised his blurry arms up in a conciliatory gesture.

“Be at ease. You don’t have any way to harm me in any case. I’d like to speak to you for a moment.”

“You want to talk now? After all this?”

He seemed to shrug. “You’re too strong.”

“Come on, I totally am not, except I totally am.” The compliment had been unexpected. Even though he was my enemy, it was still nice to hear.

I remembered who was by my side, and I glanced askance at Patrick, who was giving me a Look.

I’m sorry, I’ll take this seriously. 

Having dispensed with what was likely insincere flattery, the god of evil continued speaking.

“You ought to only have been under level 99 until mere moments ago. You were shackled by the limitations of this world.”

“I was level 99,” I agreed.

“And your shackles are now removed. But the only change ought to have been that you surpassed level 99. Even after taking in the magical energy of your parallel version, your strength should still be limited. What is the source of your endless strength? From where did you gain that magical energy, that experience? It’s surely useful information, and I would very much like to know it.”

According to the god of evil, I’d become much stronger than I should have been able to from just absorbing 2’s magical energy.

I can’t think of anything else I could’ve done... Oh, wait. Is it maybe...?

“Um, if you continue to take down monsters after reaching level 99, what would happen if you were still shackled by the limits?”

“With no place to go, that magical energy would temporarily store itself in a virtual space in order to avoid any disturbance to the laws of the world.”

“What would happen if your level cap got unlocked after that, then?”

“There would be no disturbance, so the magical energy would go to its rightful place. It would be returned to the person who...” He trailed off, realization dawning. “You scoundrel, did you...?!”

Oh, of course. I kind of regret asking.

I had spent roughly ten years of my childhood focused on level grinding. At first I was getting stronger and stronger, but at a certain point I stopped sensing any growth. That was when I was around seven years old.

After seeing how quickly Patrick had leveled up, I’d had a bad feeling about things, but everything was clear now. I had overaccumulated an immense amount of experience. At even a conservative estimate, it could’ve been enough to level more than ten people from level 1 to level 99.

Thanks, past me! I’m a bit stupid sometimes, but that’s precisely why I’m able to hold my own against the god of evil.

It wasn’t going to hurt me for him to know this, so I decided to tell the god of evil the truth.

“I believe my strength comes from all the experience I’ve continued to accrue since reaching level 99.”

“Why?”

“Huh? I just told you; that’s why I’m so strong.”

“Why did you do something so stupid?”

“Because I...expected this to happen,” I lied.

Yeah, he’s right. I’m totally, definitively an idiot. I tried to put on a brave face, but having someone point out the futility of continuing to grind after hitting the level cap is a critical hit to my psyche. I can’t be depressed right now though; I need to collect myself.

Even though the reason I’d become so much stronger had been revealed, the fact that I still couldn’t attack the god of evil hadn’t changed. I had no other choice but to use that.

“Patrick, stand back.” I hefted the sword. “I’m going to use this.”

“Did you get the name from her?” Patrick asked. He shook his head at me. “Wait, this is definitely a trap.”

I held the secateur with both hands.

The blade was so black that it seemed like it was sucking in the sunlight. The true name of this weapon was the key to unlocking its real power.

The god of evil was trying to get me to say its name. He’s also the one who revealed the name to 2. This is definitely a trap, but it’s the only thing I haven’t tried. But these were her last words, so even if it’s a trap, I won’t regret it.

There was no way I would forget 2’s last words. The name of the secateur, which was utterly unbefitting of shears that could cut off entire words, was...

“Keep Living,” I whispered it as softly as I could, but the god of evil heard me.

“You fell for my trap, you fool!” He laughed maniacally. “The secateur is a blade that was created with the life force of a human of this realm! You’re a human as well. Prepare to be swallowed by the power of the secateur, which was to be your last hope against me!”

This sword was incredibly bad luck, but there were no signs that I was about to get swallowed. All that had happened was that the surrounding area had gotten darker, as if it were shading towards evening. I looked around, but it didn’t seem like the sun had been covered by clouds, so I wasn’t sure why everything seemed so much dimmer.

Just then, I heard a scream from behind me. I looked back to see Sanon, who was floating in the air, making a fuss. Her fingers were twisted into Lemn’s hair, and it seemed like she was trying to keep herself from being pulled in my direction.

“Why are you guys playing around?!” I scolded.

“D-Does this look like play to you?!” Sanon shrieked.

“Ow, ow!” Lemn cried. “Why are you grabbing my hair of all things?!” Lemn turned his attention to me. “Miss! That sword’s power comes from darkness that is created by transforming light energy!”

Light into darkness, I see. That’s why it got darker, and why Sanon’s about to be sucked into this sword.

I thought we were in a dangerous situation since it had gotten darker, but it appeared the sword was using its true power just as it was supposed to. I was quite surprised, but the god of evil was even more shocked than I was.

“Why?! Its propensity to swallow humans should be the same as it ever was... The requirements to use it safely are knowing the words that serve as its key and being something other than a human from this world. In other words, I am the only one here who should be able to use it.”

I see, so the key has two-factor authentication: the key and biometric identification. It won’t start up only with the biometric ID, and only having the password would cause the user to be swallowed by the sword. Maybe biometric identification isn’t the right word though, because a soul isn’t really biological.

“I fit both those requirements,” I said slowly.

“That’s a lie! You’re a human, aren’t you?!”

“Anyone who’s not a human of this world can use it. That’s what you said, right?”

“You... Could it be, that soul was...?!” The god of evil flung himself abruptly into the air. His staticky appearance was erratically wobbling, as if to betray his rage.

The fact that he fled towards the sky is proof he fears the secateur. I have the weapon now, so let’s settle this.

“Patrick!” I called.

“Got it!” he responded.

Just calling his name was enough for Patrick to understand. The ground began to rise up with his magic. It wasn’t going to crumble this time, so now I had stable footing. Fully prepared, I caught up to the god of evil, who was making a beeline towards the sky.

I held the secateur, now correctly dubbed Keep Living, down at my side. The surrounding area became even dimmer.

“Secateur!”

“I knew it!” the god of evil exclaimed. “I knew there was a higher world!”

I tightly gripped Keep Living. A massive pool of magical energy began to pour out of it, as if it were responding to my touch.

“Keep...”

“You must have enjoyed looking down at me from above!” Kugelschreiber seethed with the force of his anger. “I’ll dominate your world, no matter what it takes! No matter—”

I swung the blade. It was a swing that had no swordsmanship or skill to it at all—it was just pure brawn.

“...Living!”

The moment the attack landed, the entire world was enveloped in darkness. It was a true darkness that kept even me, with my incredibly enhanced eyesight, from seeing anything. All I could feel was the secateur in my hand, pulsing with Keep Living’s overabundant, overflowing magical energy.

When the darkness cleared at last, there was no one there.

◆◆◆

“Is it over...?” I wondered aloud as I stepped off the platform of stone that Patrick had conjured for me.

Thanks to the power of the secateur, Keep Living, the god of evil Kugelschreiber had been utterly destroyed.

Even though he had a weird name, he was strong... Oh wait, I guess I am the one who named him that.

Although I had managed to defeat the wicked god of evil, who had ultimately intended to ravage all of the worlds, even the world I’d come from, I wasn’t able to fully enjoy my victory.

“You did it, miss!” Lemn exclaimed, uncharacteristically cheerful. “I can’t believe you defeated him!”

“Thanks...”

“What’s wrong? Aren’t you happy?”

You’re really going to ask me that? Kugelschreiber might have been the god of evil, but I guess even Lemn is wicked in his own way.

In contrast, Sanon, the god of light, spoke to me quite brusquely. “I’ll be taking my leave, then. Yumiella Dolkness, well done on taking down the god of evil. I extend my gratitude to all humans who contributed to his downfall.” With a curt nod to all, Sanon enveloped herself in light and disappeared.

Though she was being as cold as usual, something told me that she would always remember Yumiella 2.

My other self from a parallel world, Yumiella 2, was gone. She’d thrown herself into the darkness of my Black Hole spell so that I could become stronger. Just as she had declared that she would, she’d brought down the god of evil with her. Along with the fact that she had left me the true name of the secateur, there was no doubt that she was the one who had ended up winning us this battle.

She didn’t hesitate to bad-mouth anyone to their face, and she acted like she hated the entire world, but at her core, she was a good person—she regretted the fact that she’d destroyed her world. I didn’t like her, but I couldn’t hate her.

Patrick probably felt the same way. We both had no idea what to say, and an unhappy silence descended as we stood there.

After some time, Patrick finally spoke.

“Do you think that any locks of her hair might still be in the bathroom...?” he asked quietly.

“Her hair?”

Does he want something to bury in memory of her?

“You need a part of someone’s body to revive them using an elixir, right? We set aside some of our hair in preparation, but not hers...”

“Oh!” I had completely forgotten about the elixirs. “Elixirs! Lemn, bring out all of the elixirs!”

“What? Just to remind you, you can’t revive someone without a part of their body,” the god of darkness pointed out. “Also...think a moment. Wouldn’t we be better off not reviving her?”

“Stop yapping and bring out the elixirs,” I demanded.

“F-Fine.” The rotten bastard of a god brought out the four empty-looking bottles.

Along with the ones Patrick and I were carrying, we had a total of six elixirs. I was now regretting that we had used one to repair the cup. I pulled mine out of my pocket as well, and I was surprised to see that the bottle didn’t have a single scratch on it.

It really survived all that fighting? What’s this thing made out of?

“Can you give me yours too, Patrick?” I asked.

“Yumiella...” Patrick’s voice was very gentle. “Just in case you haven’t been hearing us, you can’t use the elixir unless you have a part of your target’s body. We can’t bring her back to life.”

“I’m not trying to bring 2 back to life,” I clarified.

“Huh?” Patrick’s sympathetic expression morphed into one of suspicion. Perhaps I hadn’t clarified enough.

“Reviving 2 would only cause problems,” I explained. “I don’t like her, so I don’t want to live with her, but it would also be troublesome if she created issues elsewhere and ruined my reputation.”

“Yumiella, do you understand what you’re...?” Patrick didn’t finish his thought and just trailed off.

Oh, he’s definitely misunderstanding things, but I don’t want to waste time explaining myself.

“Yeah, you’re right, miss!” Lemn jumped in, as if to make up for Patrick falling silent. “It would be strange to have two of you in the same world.”

“Stay out of this, Lemn. All right then, let’s head out.”

The destination I had in mind was close by—the grass fields right outside Dolkness Village. It was also the place where I had first met Yumiella 2.

Feeling impatient, I broke into a run. Patrick still hadn’t said anything, but he followed, while Lemn slipped into my shadow.

We found the place easily enough. It had been just yesterday that she’d arrived, so I remembered the spot well.

“It was here, right?” I looked to Patrick for confirmation.

“What are you planning to do?” he asked.

It’ll probably be easier to explain things once we’re there.

I unsheathed the jet-black sword and spoke the key to unlock its true power.

“Secateur, Keep Living.”

My plans are going to fall apart if this doesn’t work. I’m counting on you, secateur.

I sliced the spot where I remembered the dimensional warp appearing, the doorway between our worlds through which Yumiella 2 had stepped.

“Nice!” I congratulated myself. “I guess I was able to just do it by feel after all!”

“What? A door leading out of this world?!” Lemn exclaimed in shock. “What are you doing, miss?!”

A warp in space had appeared before us. It looked exactly the same as the one 2 had come through. It should be obvious where the door led.

“Let’s go, then,” I said. “I’ll explain things over there.”

I jumped into the warp without any hesitation. I felt a strange sensation, like someone had grabbed my brain and was giving it a good, hard shake, and I closed my eyes against the discomfort.

The shaking quickly stopped, and when I opened my eyes there was a completely different view before me. Patrick appeared right behind me.

“This is...the Royal Palace?” he said, scanning our surroundings.

“Yeah, it looks like we’re on one of the balconies of the Royal Palace,” I confirmed.

Our vantage point provided a view of the entirety of the Royal Capital of Valschein. I should’ve been able to instantly recognize the city, but it took me some time to realize where we were, because this version of the Royal Capital was somewhat different from the one I was used to seeing.

The main streets should’ve been bustling with people, but the pavement was utterly deserted. The walls that surrounded and protected the capital were broken in several places. There were also numerous buildings that had sustained significant structural damage.

While I had spent three relatively peaceful years at the Academy, 2 had been corrupted by the god of evil and instead spent her time level grinding and preparing for conquest. By the time I had returned to Dolkness County as the new lord of the territory in my world, 2 had destroyed everything in hers.

This, the view before me, was all that remained. As someone who’d been fortunate enough to have a pretty enjoyable life, I felt like I had no right to judge her.

“It looks like she really did a number on this world... I’m assuming she used monsters,” I mumbled, surveying the damage.

“This is...” Patrick blanched. “I thought I understood what she’d done, but to think it was to this degree...”

This Royal Capital wasn’t the one we knew. This was 2’s Royal Capital, amid the crumbling remains of her world.

It’s a parallel world, so I’ll call it World 2 to make things simpler.

“I get it now,” Patrick said, looking over the destruction as if he were trying to burn the image into his mind. “You’re thinking that we’ll be able to find her hair in this world.”

“I already said I’m not reviving 2,” I said. “It would just be cruel to revive her and make her live in this world all alone.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

The stage was set—it was finally time to explain my plan.

“What do you think an elixir really is?” I asked Patrick.

“Isn’t it an item used for resurrection...?” he answered hesitantly.

“We were able to use it on the broken teacup though, if you recall. I guess you could say that the cup was resurrected, but don’t you think it’s strange that resurrecting the cup made the hot tea in it reappear as well?” Thinking of it as an item used for resurrection carried certain strong implications. But something else entirely had come to my mind to better explain how it all worked when I remembered the teacup.

“So what do you consider an elixir to be, then?” Patrick asked.

“A time machine.”

“A time what?”

That’s a pretty boring reaction. I was expecting something like, “N-No way!” I guess that wasn’t a proper comparison. I’ll explain it better this time.

“Elixirs can turn back the time of whatever you target with them.”

“Turn back time?”

“The dead come to life. Broken teacups are fixed, and the tea inside returns. Today becomes yesterday.”

“So, what do you plan on doing, then?”

He still can’t tell? Patrick is surprisingly slow right now. I guess my plan is something possibly even more taboo than reviving the dead, so for someone who values conventional common sense like Patrick, it might not be something he’d ever consider.

I hope he’ll agree to my plan. It would make me really happy.

“I’m going to turn back this world’s time!” I announced.

We’ll resurrect the world using elixirs! We’re going to stick the whole world in a time machine, and bring it back to before Yumiella 2 destroyed it! She and all the people she killed will all come back to life!

I looked at Patrick hopefully. “So... What do you think?”

Patrick was staring at me, lost.

I guess it’s a little too extreme. But I’m still going to do it. Even if he’s against me, even if he hates me for it, I’m going to do it, no matter what.

Before Patrick could respond, a different voice did so from my shadow.

“No way! You can’t do that!” Lemn exclaimed. “That’s insane! Turning the world’s time back would destroy order! Who knows what kind of negative effects that could have?! Come on, mister! Stop her!”

I’m not asking for your opinion, Lemn. Encouraged by Lemn, Patrick finally opened his mouth to respond. Oh, he’s going to say no, isn’t he?

“I... This is the side of you that I fell for, Yumiella. You might lack common sense, but you don’t do things that are wrong. You’re misunderstood, but you’re kind.”

“So...you’re not against it?”

He sighed. “You’re going to do it whether I agree or not, right?”

“Um, well, yeah.”

“You also have a strong heart that doesn’t waver. You’re the best.” Patrick favored me with a gentle smile. “I love you, Yumiella.”

My mind went blank at his sudden confession. Lemn was yelling something, but none of it registered.

I see. Now I’m even more motivated. Let’s do it. Let’s turn back time for this world.

“All right, let’s get started.”

I pulled the six elixirs from my pocket. I held three of the small bottles in each hand, gripping the necks between my fingers.

I recalled that Lemn had mentioned that the bigger the target was, the more mana it would take for the elixir to work. After 2’s sacrifice, however, my mana had increased to a level incomparable to my previous reservoirs, so I was pretty sure that I’d probably be able to resurrect an entire world.

I began pouring all the magical energy I could into the six elixirs.

“My target is this world!” I cried. “And its stars and all of outer space! I command the time of every being and every object to turn back!”

The elixirs began to pulse with searing light, bright enough to obscure my hands.

Turn back, turn back, turn back, I chanted internally as I desperately continued to pour every ounce of magical energy that I could muster into the bottles. I don’t care if I use up all of my mana; all I can do right now is keep filling these with power.

Change came immediately. I looked up at the sky, and I saw that the sun was moving at a rapid speed, from west to east. The world was going backwards.

“Turn back, turn back, turn back!” I continued the chant, vocalizing it aloud with the intensity of my concentration.

“You’re doing it! Go, Yumiella!” Patrick cheered.

Given the current speed that things were reverting, it didn’t seem like we’d be able to get back to before the world was destroyed—I needed things to go faster.

Turn back, turn back. Turn back, world! Rewind!

The backwards movement of the world sped up, and the sun was now moving so fast that I couldn’t track it with my eyes. It became day, then night, then day again in an instant. It was like the sky had transformed into a flickering fluorescent light.

The elixir I was holding in my right hand between my index and middle fingers cracked and crumbled into dust. It appeared that I was starting to reach the limit. A second and third bottle then followed the first, shattering and dissolving into nothing.

“No, not yet!” I cried out. “More! Turn back more!”

Not only were the elixirs almost drained of their power, but I was close to my limit too. I’d never expended so much magical energy at one time in my entire life. I’d probably used enough mana to cast Black Hole several thousand, no, tens of thousands of times. I was using an amount of mana that could possibly destroy multiple worlds in order to revive Yumiella 2’s world.

Just as the final elixir disintegrated, the backwards movement of the world ground to a halt. With each second, time was moving forward—the passage of time in this world was returning to normal.

I was gasping for breath, but I couldn’t rest yet; I had to know the results of my efforts.

“Did I...make it in time...?” I wheezed.

“Yeah, take a look,” Patrick said, pointing to the Royal Capital below.

Grasping the rail of the balcony for support, I could see a crowded, bustling main street, the large church restored to all of its glory, and the capital walls standing tall. It was the lively townscape with which I was so familiar.

I did it. It’s a success.

“The sun rose and set roughly three hundred times, so you turned back time to around a year ago,” Patrick explained. Count on him to have kept track. “You really worked hard, Yumiella.”

My body almost went limp from relief. Even standing was painful. I stumbled and almost fell over, but Patrick caught me.

“Not yet, I’m not done yet,” I said. “I need to see 2.”

As far as the timeline of this world went, I was guessing that it was probably a little bit after Alicia and the party of other heroes had taken down the Demon Lord. Right at this moment, Yumiella 2 was likely hating the entire world and thinking of destroying it. Unless I convinced her otherwise, all of my efforts would be wasted.

I couldn’t brute force it like I usually did. I had to persuade her that destroying the world would only leave her with nothing but misery and regret, that the world was a surprisingly good place—I needed to get through to her heart.

Can I get through to her and really speak to her heart? What words do I need to communicate these thoughts? But first, I need to find her. Where is 2?

I tried to start walking, but I almost fell over instead, and Patrick had to support me once more.

Suddenly, I found myself saved from the trouble of searching.

“What are you doing in a place like this in the middle of the day?”

This voice! I turned around and saw myself. It was Yumiella Dolkness, dressed in the Royal Academy uniform—the Yumiella 2 of the past.

“Oh, um...” I sputtered uselessly.

“Oh, you’re...me?” She raised a scornful eyebrow. “You seem pretty weakened for being me. A me that’s a small fry isn’t me at all.”

“Excuse me? A me that doesn’t have a boyfriend to support her isn’t me at all!” I responded at once to her challenging tone, clapping right back.

Why is she trying to pick a fight when this is the first time we’ve met?

“Well, um,” 2 began as she stopped glaring at me and averted her gaze. “I should thank you, I guess. So thanks.” She seemed uncertain, and her eyes were starting to brim over as she continued. “I’ll do better this time.”

“Do you perhaps...have your memories?”

She had definitely said “this time,” which indicated to me that she was aware that time had been rewound in this world. I wasn’t sure how, but Yumiella 2 still had her memories of meeting me and defeating the god of evil.

That’s good. She remembers all of the good times: the time we repeatedly insulted each other, and the time we kept rolling on top of each other and punching each other, and the time we... Well, I guess they’re not great memories, but she remembers them all.

I was stunned into silence by the wave of emotion crashing over me.

“What’s that face you’re making?” 2 asked, her tone reverting to something more characteristically brash. “Just you see, I’m going to become even stronger than you, and gain a higher standing in society, and find a better boyfriend than you!”

I snorted. “I don’t think you’ll succeed on the boyfriend thing.”

“Excuse me? I could easily find a fiancé or two if I wanted to.”

“I mostly meant that you can’t find someone better than Patrick, but the fact that you took it that way must mean that you’re aware of your lack of popularity.”

“Wh—?!” 2 gasped. “He’s nothing special. Every part of him is just normal. How dreadfully boring.”

“All right, let’s fight!” I yelled.

I’ll use my fists to show her how much stronger I am.

I was about to leap towards Yumiella 2, but I was held back by Patrick laying his hands on my shoulders.

“Don’t stop me!” I exclaimed. “She’s insulting you, Patrick!”

“Why does this always happen?” he sighed in resignation. “Can’t you guys get along now?”

No way. I hate 2.

I thrashed around in an attempt to escape Patrick’s grasp, but I couldn’t muster up enough strength to break free.

I thought I’d powered up! What’s wrong with me? I guess I should get rid of Patrick first, and then I’ll take care of 2. It’s all to protect his honor, so I have no other choice.

Yumiella 2 ignored our banter as she leaned forward over the balcony railing and looked down.

“Have you forgotten where you are?” she asked. “Can you get going already? If you cause any trouble here, it’s going to be my fault.”

“Hey, are you trying to run?!” I accused.

“Take care, Yumiella 1.”

With that, Yumiella 2 vaulted over the railing of the balcony down to the street below.

Forget where I am...? This is a balcony at the Royal Palace, of course. I’m here because she came to my world and... I thought all of this before I realized, Oh, wait, if we’re here for this long someone might find us. That would be suspicious. 

Just as I finally realized the danger of our current location, a furious voice yelled from within the palace.

“Who goes there?!”

“Oh shoot, we need to go.”

Patrick swept me up into his arms, and we jumped together into the dimensional warp.

And so, after saving an entire world, and after saving one girl in particular, we returned at last to our world.