Part 8 of 8
Huh?
Wait a sec.
Thought Acceleration is working?
It totally is.
That must be why Potimas’s kick looked slow to me.
Wait, what? So I can use skills?
While Potimas is still finishing the kick I narrowly avoided, I aim some thread at him.
In the end, this thread is the skill I can count on more than any other.
But before the thread leaves my body, it loses its shape and vanishes.
It isn’t working after all.
I can’t use it.
So why can I use Thought Acceleration, then?
I test all my skills in rapid succession, sorting out which ones I can use and which ones I can’t.
Some of them work without a problem, while others definitely don’t.
I avoid Potimas’s punches or kicks or whatever as I investigate the difference.
Soon, I realize that the skills that work entirely within my body are the ones I can use.
Conversely, skills that affect things outside my body like thread and magic won’t work.
So Potimas’s mystery barrier isn’t perfect.
Maybe everything in the air that the barrier covers is affected, but inside the body, the barrier can’t reach.
Or something like that anyway.
And from the looks of things, my stats aren’t completely gone, either.
Otherwise, someone who was always as unathletic as I was wouldn’t be able to avoid this elf’s crazy-fast attacks.
But what exactly is going on?
It’s like I can feel my stats trying to strengthen my physical abilities, but the effect of the barrier is slowing them down.
And stat-increasing skills like Battle Divinity and Magic Divinity get snuffed out the second I activate them.
If I try to Appraise my own stats, I get an error that prevents me from figuring out the exact numbers.
But going on my intuition alone, I feel like I’m about a tenth slower than usual.
So my other stats are probably in a similar state, right?
Maybe, but it’s not that simple.
First of all, my defense is looking bad.
To be honest, it doesn’t seem any better than an ordinary human’s right now.
I mean, getting grazed by Potimas’s attack was enough to cut my skin, and just moving quickly is doing damage to my feet.
My body can’t handle my movements.
I’m guessing this difference is because my defense isn’t working on my skin.
The speed stat strengthens my muscles inside my body, so I think that’s why the barrier isn’t affecting it as much.
But defense mainly works on my outer skin, which is making contact with the air.
And by that, I mean it’s basically making contact with the barrier.
That’s why my defense is down so much.
Maybe on the inside my defense is working about as well as my speed, but on my skin it’s no better than a normal person’s.
Getting caught by a direct hit from one of Potimas’s attacks in this state definitely means I’ll take a lot of damage.
If there’s one bright side to all this, it’s that Potimas himself can’t use skills and magic and stuff, either.
That’s why he’s attacking me physically like this.
I can’t use my magic and thread and stuff, either, so physical attacks are my only option, too.
This’ll be my first purely physical fight since I was reborn, won’t it?
I’ve been depending on magic from the moment I could use it, and before then I relied on my thread, Poison Fang, and Poison Synthesis.
I’ve never fought a purely physical battle with no thread or magic before.
I can’t believe I’m getting into a fistfight right after evolving into an arachne.
No, I guess maybe it’s a good thing I evolved into this first.
Before I evolved, my only physical attack options were my scythes and my teeth.
But now I can also do punches and head butts and stuff!
…Is it just me, or am I better off sticking with the scythes and the biting?
Since my stats are so low right now, I kinda don’t think punching him with these scrawny-looking arms would do very much.
All right. Let’s just stick with the scythes as my basic attack.
I can always use punching as a feint or whatever.
So I dodge Potimas’s latest punch like a champ, then counter by whipping a scythe up at his exposed chest.
Boom! One hit for me!
A grating metallic clang echoes as my scythe tears through Potimas’s body.
…Sorry, that was a lie.
It doesn’t tear through anything.
In fact, my scythe blade is what ends up getting damaged.
Because my lowered stats reduce the strength of my scythe and because Potimas’s body is just that hard.
Wait a minute, what?!
Why was there a metallic sound when I hit what should’ve been his flesh?!
It was like, CLANG!! And loud enough to make your hair stand on end!
Is your body made of steel or what?!
Nah, I’m just kidding. He’s probably wearing some metal armor under his stupid clothes.
It doesn’t look very thick, so I guess it must be made from pretty strong metal.
When I turn to face the elf again, I see that his clothes have been ripped open across his torso.
Through the tear, I can see a glimpse of his skin.
Hmm? Wait, skin?
Why is there skin under there and not metal armor?
Looking more closely, I notice there’s a cut in his skin, too, and underneath that skin I see a metallic glint.
Huh? Metal under his skin?
Does that mean the inside of his body is made out of metal?
I guess I wasn’t kidding!
This guy’s body is seriously made of metal?!
What’s going on here?!
Are you a damn robot?!
Come on, what the hell is this dude?!
While I’m busy freaking out about Potimas’s weird body, he presses the attack.
Completely disregarding the cut across his chest.
He quickly closes the distance between us, and this time he swings an open hand at me in an attempted grab.
He must have figured that if I’m going to dodge and counter his punches and kicks, he should do something that stops me from moving.
I dodge away from his hand and keep moving backward.
I’ve never experienced close-quarters combat like this before.
If he pulls me into a sleeper hold or something, I won’t be able to get away.
All I know how to do are simple punches and cuts with my scythe, stuff like that.
I’m sure any professional fighter would say that my stance is all wrong or whatever.
My only hope is to keep fleeing on foot from Potimas’s attacks while getting in counterattacks when I have a chance.
Potimas and I are locked in a fast-paced dance around the small, restricted space of the mansion entrance.
Mera clutches the baby bloodsucker to his chest, crouching in a corner to keep her from getting caught in the rumble.
Since we don’t seem to be getting anywhere, I grab a vase from a random shelf and fling it at Potimas.
The expensive-looking vase flies right at Potimas.
Flowers and water scatter through the air as it smashes to pieces against the elf’s face.
Sorry about that. I’ll pay for it later—or I would, but I have no money.
I’m very, very sorry.
As I silently apologize to Mera in my heart, Potimas charges at me again, heedless of the vase shards everywhere.
Shit!
I should’ve known a vase wouldn’t damage this freak!
I’m still in my vase-throwing pose.
I tossed it in the hopes of catching Potimas off guard, but now it’s put me in a pinch instead.
As the frightening elf bears down on me, I force my legs to move and evade!
The recoil pitches my human upper body forward, but it’s better than letting him catch me.
Okay, it damaged my back, so that sucks.
But Suffering Nullification makes that easy enough to bear.
Heh-heh.
I’m sure a human would’ve had trouble recovering from a throwing pose so quickly, but I, a great arachne, have eight wonderful legs!
I can split roles among the legs that stepped forward for my pitch and the ones that are now carrying me away.
Not like some two-legged loser!
But Potimas doesn’t slow down, intent on catching up to me anyway.
He’s not just trying to grab me. He intends to tackle me!
As he pitches forward like a quarterback, I hastily jump to avoid him!
I fly over his head like an Olympic vaulter, swiping at him with my scythe while I’m at it.
Behind me, Potimas loses his balance and hits the floor with a thud as I make a perfect landing.
Ten points!
No time to sing my own praises, though. I quickly swivel around to keep my eyes on Potimas.
He’s back on his feet in a matter of seconds, glaring at me.
There’s a huge slash across the top of his head, through which a metal skull is clearly visible.
He looks like a certain murderous robot from the future. You know the one.
Dun-dun-dun!
So you’re really, truly, actually a robot, huh?
That’s a robot, all right. We got a live one here!
I mean, come on!
Are you kidding me?!
What happened to elves treasuring the blessings of nature and all that crap?!
Why are they an ultra-technologically advanced super-civilization now?!
I thought this was a fantasy world!
Since when were there sci-fi elements, huh?!
Don’t change the world-building on me now!
I know I’m making a lot of jokes about this, but even in the calmer part of my brain, an alarm is going off.
It tells me this thing shouldn’t exist in this world.
The system doesn’t allow it.
Because it’s that kind of mechanical technology that brought this world to the brink of collapse in the first place.
World-destroying technology like that shouldn’t still exist here.
Yet this guy is using it without a care in the world.
He must be out of his mind.
No sane person would use something like that in this world.
Now I really feel like I have to stop this guy, and not just for the sake of my immediate survival.
But my attacks don’t work on that steel body of his.
He’s not landing any hits on me, either, but it’s taking everything I’ve got to avoid him.
I could slip up at any moment.
“You are more persistent than I expected. How irritating. I did not want to use this, but you leave me no choice.”
Instead, Potimas changes the game.
His right arm falls away with a metallic clank.
What emerges instead is unquestionably the barrel of a gun.
Excuuuuuuse me?!
How far are you gonna take this genre-bending thing, exactly?!
Wait, I’m in trouble here!
I hastily kick off the floor and run along the wall.
Bullets follow close behind me, leaving a trail of holes.
Sure. If you can’t use magic, just use something physical, like guns.
I get that, but come on!
This doesn’t seem fair!
I dash along the wall, avoiding the machine gun–like rain of bullets.
Soon I angle upward, reaching the ceiling.
I keep running upside down in an effort to avoid the gunfire.
It’s not really working, though!
No matter how fast I move, I can’t completely dodge an endless rain of bullets in this weakened state!
Several bullets pierce my body, tearing through skin and flesh.
Thanks to Suffering Nullification, there’s no pain, but I can still feel the sensation of foreign objects entering my body.
This calls for desperate measures!
I reach the point of the ceiling directly above Potimas.
Then I let myself fall.
As I plummet straight toward him, Potimas concentrates his fire on my human head.
Bullets burst through it, ripping my head to shreds.
You fool!
Yes, that is my real head!
But I still have another one where that came from!
Even if you shoot my human brain to bits, I’ve still got my spider brain.
As long as one of the two remains, I can still function just fine!
Perhaps alarmed by the fact that I’m still moving after evidently losing my head, Potimas’s expression turns sour.
I decide to fix that for him with a nice gravity-boosted punch to the face.
Since I used my full strength with no regard for the likelihood of breaking my arm, Potimas’s face crumples inward, his neck twisting at an unnatural angle.
The impact sends him spinning like something out of an action movie, crashing into the wall.
Meanwhile, bullets keep spraying out of his right arm, scattering in all directions.
I quickly check to make sure the baby bloodsucker and Mera are all right. They don’t seem to have been hit.
Potimas slumps down, still pointlessly firing bullets into the floor.
Then the sound stops abruptly.
Is he out of bullets?
I guess he didn’t want to use it because he had limited ammo.
More importantly, is he dead?
As I hesitate for a moment, wondering whether to attack, Potimas snaps back to his feet.
His neck is still twisted at a frightening angle.
He smacks the side of his head with his left hand, forcing it back into place with a nasty cracking sound.
I know I’m one to talk, but that’s pretty damn creepy.
Still, this is bad.
I lost the use of my right arm and one of my heads in that last attack.
And my automatic regeneration isn’t working.
I probably won’t recover unless I can get rid of that barrier.
My opponent, on the other hand, barely looks damaged at all.
He seems to be out of bullets, at least, but that came at a high cost for me.
I’m out of my league.
This could be serious.
If I die here, the barrier might prevent Immortality from working.
That leaves egg revival as my last option, but all my eggs just hatched.
I don’t know if I can transplant myself into a baby who’s already hatched, since I’ve never tried.
For that matter, I don’t know if I could even do that from inside this barrier in the first place.
If I get killed now, that might actually be the end.
I charged in here on a whim, and now I might be facing my doom. How bad can my luck get?
Should I have just forgotten about the baby bloodsucker and not gotten involved in the first place?
Argh, there’s no point thinking about this now!
It’s too late for regrets.
I gotta figure out how to deal with this situation.
“Hmm. You’re quite dangerous. If I do not deal with you now, I suspect it will cause no small amount of trouble in the future. I shall make this place your grave.”
Wooow. He’s officially declared that he intends to exterminate me.
Thanks but no thanks.
It doesn’t seem like this guy plans on letting me get away, then.
If I want to make it out of here alive, I have to defeat him somehow.
Both of us assume fighting stances.
Isn’t there anything I can do here?
Since this jerk is literally made of steel, it’ll be tough to do much physical damage to him.
If I want to do that, I have to use outside forces like I did with gravity earlier and be prepared to damage my own body in the process.
With my defense lowered like this, my body can’t even handle the recoil of my own attacks.
All he has to do is attack without worrying about defense. Meanwhile, I can barely deal him any damage and end up hurting myself in the process.
At this rate, I’m going to lose.
I have to find a way to turn things around.
My thread doesn’t work in here.
The cloth I made to cover up my chest earlier hasn’t disappeared, though, so it looks like thread made outside the barrier in advance is all right.
But I can’t create any new thread.
All I’ve got is the cloth wrapped around my chest.
And I can’t use Thread Control to move that, so it’s not useful as anything but armor.
Thanks to the barrier, it doesn’t even seem to provide any defense.
Thread is part of my very nature as a spider, and the barrier prevents me from using it.
All I’ve got left is what essentially amounts to a slightly pretty, white scrap of fabric.
Useless.
I can’t use magic, either.
It evaporates before I can even put a spell together, never mind activate it.
What’s left? Evil Eyes?
But they’re not much different from magic, so I doubt those will work, either.
Potimas points his right-arm-turned-gun at me, even though he should be out of bullets.
Instead, the muzzle glows and shoots out a bullet of light.
Yikes!
Good thing my gut told me to dodge anyway!
I probably would’ve been blown into atomic particles if that hit me!
It totally blew up the wall behind me!
Wait, what even is that thing?
Since the barrier’s still active, it can’t be a magic attack. Is it a plasma bullet or something?
Potimas fires another one of the mysterious light-ball things.
Thanks to the few seconds between the time the muzzle glows and when it actually fires, I manage to dodge it again.
Unlike the bullets he was using before, he doesn’t seem to be able to use these rapid-fire.
If he could, I wouldn’t be able to dodge them all.
After I avoid the second shot, Potimas changes tactics.
He starts closing the distance between us, still pointing the gun at me.
I guess if you can’t hit something, the logical next step is to do it up close and personal.
We both already know that I can’t break through Potimas’s defenses.
I don’t have any long-distance attack methods right now, but since he has nothing to fear from my short-range attacks, either, this guy can fight me at whatever distance he wants.
He keeps getting closer, trying to land a one-hit kill shot that I can’t avoid.
It’s a very simple plan and a very dangerous one.
He’s looking to clinch his victory.
And all I can do is keep running away.
I have no choice but to avoid letting him get too close.
Without any means of turning things around, my frustration starts to build, not to mention panic.
I feel like I’m nearing death with every passing second.
Shit.
In that moment of fear, I move a fraction of a second too slowly.
Potimas seizes that moment, his gun muzzle glowing.
It comes after me faster than I can dodge.
It’s no use. I can’t get away in time.
Out of sheer desperation, I use the one thing I haven’t tried, my Evil Eyes.
Jinx Evil Eye, Inert Evil Eye, Repellent Evil Eye, Sealing Evil Eye, Antimagic Evil Eye, and, knowing full well that it might destroy me, Annihilating Evil Eye.
But just as I expected, none of them work.
Except for one.
“What’s this?”
For the first time, a bit of alarm disrupts Potimas’s calm composure.
His right arm suddenly twists around.
The one Evil Eye that activates successfully is Warped Evil Eye.
This Evil Eye can bend space itself, hollowing out whatever happens to occupy the affected area.
In this case, I used it inside Potimas’s right arm.
That’s right. Inside his body.
The barrier doesn’t have any effect inside my body.
So it shouldn’t affect the inside of Potimas’s body, either.
In that case, if I have a way of attacking the inside of his body directly, I can use it without the barrier stopping me!
Warped Evil Eye attacks space, regardless of what occupies it.
So it can target the interior of Potimas’s body no problem.
Talk about a twist, both figuratively and literally!
Just goes to show you should always give something a try, even if you don’t think it’ll work.
Now that I know I have a chance at winning, I activate Warped Evil Eye again, this time aimed at the inside of Potimas’s head.
“Tch!”
But before I can hollow out that metal head of his, he takes evasive action.
Warped Evil Eye attacks a space not a target.
In other words, it’s easy to avoid if you just get away from that space.
On top of that, the harder the substance inside the space is, the more time and energy it takes to twist it.
If I want to hollow out any part of Potimas’s steel body, it’s going to take quite a bit of time.
And in that time, Potimas can easily dodge.
I was able to do it to his arm earlier only because he was distracted and preparing to fire it at me.
Now that he knows I have a means of hurting him, he’ll proceed with caution, too.
Unless he makes a serious error, it’s safe to assume that he’ll dodge my Warped Evil Eye.
Still, now our positions are reversed.
In one fell swoop, I gained a weapon that can kill Potimas and also destroyed his means of finishing me off: his right arm.
But when it comes to close combat, Potimas still has the advantage.
It’s anyone’s game.
Potimas seems to recognize that, too, and is watching me intently.
I watch him right back, waiting for a chance to strike with Warped Evil Eye.
The tension heightens, and just as it reaches its peak…
“S’up, guys? Magical Demon Lord Ariel has arrived!”
Something strange comes crashing through the ceiling.
Huh? Okay, um, what?
Are my eyes playing tricks on me, or is the Demon Lord standing right between Potimas and me, striking a ridiculous pose?
Huh? What’s going on here?
Wait, was Miss Demon Lord always this weird?
“Ariel…?”
“Yeah, duh. Need me to go back and do the intro again or what?”
I can’t blame Potimas for being confused.
We were in the middle of a life-or-death struggle, and she just shows up and starts cracking jokes?
Could you get any more awkward?!
“Hmm. It’s unfortunate that I cannot use Appraisal while the barrier is active. Now I have no means of judging whether you are the real Ariel or a fake.”
“C’mon, I’m the real deal. Besides, I don’t wanna hear that from someone who’s using a fake body, y’know.”
“Truly, my ears are burning.”
Potimas and the Demon Lord are totally ignoring me.
Judging by their conversation, that robot body must be a temporary one.
The real Potimas must be somewhere else, using a remote controller or something.
“So hey, Poti, old buddy. What’re you doing here?”
“Hmph,” Potimas responds smoothly. “What, indeed?”
In the next moment, the ground shakes.
“Spit it out.”
The Demon Lord just kicked the ground.
A simple kick, not using skills or magic, and it was still enough to cause a local earthquake.
But that physical change isn’t important right now.
Not compared to the terrifying rage I can suddenly feel from the Demon Lord.
“So you are real, then.”
“Was there any doubt? Now hurry up and spill it.”
The Demon Lord is emitting a terrifying aura now. It’s hard to believe she’s the same person who was goofing around just a minute ago.
Her rage isn’t directed at me, but it still makes it hard to breathe.
Y-yikes.
This is getting a little too scary for me…
Considering how high my Fear Resistance level is, the Demon Lord’s anger shouldn’t be making me feel such immense terror.
Um, excuse me? I don’t really know what’s going on here, and I didn’t wanna fight that guy in the first place, so could I go now, please?
“It appears you have not changed at your core, if nothing else. Though I do not know what strange turn of events has led you to conduct yourself in such a foolhardy manner. I appear to be at a disadvantage here.”
“No kidding. Can you just tell me what you were up to, then? Or would you rather I force it out of you?”
“Neither, thank you very much.”
Potimas recklessly charges the Demon Lord.
“Hmph.”
It happens in an instant.
Her arm lashes out almost carelessly.
That alone is enough to blow Potimas’s body, the body I struggled so hard against, into smithereens.
All that remains is Potimas’s head and a bit of his neck and clavicle.
“So this body is not enough to contend with you, either. This is an unforeseen loss on my part.”
“I’ll be happy to do the same to your real body sooner or later.”
Her voice is dripping with hatred.
I almost wanna ask how she makes herself sound so scary.
“Ha. We shall see about that, little girl.”
In response, the Demon Lord simply crushes Potimas’s head under her foot.
It’s almost anticlimactic.
I mean, I didn’t really know what I was getting into with this little encounter, so my sense of dramatic tension could’ve been higher about it. But still, that guy was freakin’ strong.
One wrong move could’ve gotten me killed for good.
But I don’t feel any sense of victory or even the relief of having survived.
Because now another threat has appeared before my eyes.
She’s even worse than that so-called elf Potimas.
Since he’s been killed, or rather destroyed, the barrier is gone, and I can use magic and skills again.
But I still don’t think I stand a chance of beating the Demon Lord right now.
Maybe I can just sneak on out of here?
“You there. Little Miss Spider.”
Eek!
“Or would you rather I call you by another name? Hiiro Wakaba, perhaps?”
…How does she know that name?
Wait. More importantly, she’s speaking Japanese.
“Anyway, it seems like that little gift you delivered has gotten all mixed up with the rest of me. I am the Demon Lord, Ariel, but I’m also a part of Hiiro Wakaba. I think Ariel is still the dominant one, but I can’t actually tell, myself. See what I mean? My personality’s changed a bunch, right?”
I don’t exactly have a deep friendship with the Demon Lord.
But I can still tell that something’s different about her.
I mean, I don’t think the old Demon Lord would’ve done that whole magical-girl-entrance bit.
“What I’m saying is, because part of me still remembers being your former body brain, I feel kinda weird about trying to kill my old body now,” the Demon Lord continues cheerfully.
“Although, I kinda thought I’d finished you off in that last battle. I mean, my Abyss Magic should’ve literally erased you. So why are you still alive and well? I don’t get it. Killing you the normal way doesn’t work, and killing you in a special way doesn’t work, either. Can you even be killed at all? I mean, seriously. Since you seem to be practically immortal for some reason, I really don’t even wanna fight you anymore. I’m scared, to be honest.”
The Demon Lord? Scared of me?
The being whom I basically consider to be terror incarnate is saying that she’s the one who’s scared of me.
At first I think she must be joking, but her expression is serious, and there really is a hint of fear in her eyes.
“No matter how many times I kill you, you don’t stay dead, and you keep getting stronger. I’m serious—I don’t wanna deal with such a scary opponent anymore. How would you feel about a truce?”
That’s exactly what I want!
I nod my agreement immediately.
But then the Demon Lord takes things a step further.
“Great. ’Cause I could use your help. See, you’re the scariest thing ever if you’re my enemy, but you’d be the best ally ever if you were on my side. Here’s what I’m thinking. Wanna join forces with me?”
With that, the Demon Lord offers me her hand.
CLASH OF THE ANCIENTS
I remember when White and I first teamed up.
She wouldn’t stay dead no matter how many times I killed her, so the only solution I could think of was to propose a ceasefire and try to win her over to my side.
Not dying because of the Immortality skill is one thing.
But White came back even after I hit her with Abyss Magic, which even the Immortality skill shouldn’t have been able to save her from.
That was the last straw.
By that point, the part of White that was in me, the Parallel Mind once called “body brain,” had already blended with me completely, leading to my current self.
Once I was certain no more changes would occur, at least not against my own will, I didn’t have any reason to continue treating White as an enemy.
I guess I was still a little bitter about her killing the queen, her army, my puppets, and so on, but there was nothing to be gained by fighting her anymore.
Besides, for whatever reason, I had a gut feeling that I’d be the one to go down eventually.
So I gave up on trying to defeat White and shifted gears to trying to recruit her instead.
I lost the queen, but I gained the powerhouse who defeated her.
On top of making a dangerous enemy into an ally, this meant I could keep a close eye on her at all times.
It was a bit of a gamble, since she was no less dangerous then, but I didn’t have any other choice.
At the rate things were going, I definitely would’ve gotten killed by White someday.
I won that bet and gained an invaluable ally in the process.
Yes, a very important and invaluable ally indeed.
It’s been more than ten years since then.
The two of us worked hard together to get to where we are now.
“It’s been quite the journey.”
This is something I’ve desired since long, long ago.
And today, it will finally come to fruition.
When I think of how long it’s been, the ten years I’ve spent with White seem like they’ve gone by in blink of an eye.
Although they were ten very eventful years.
As emotions briefly overcome me, I look up to see a mechanical menace that shouldn’t exist in this world standing in my way.
The only creatures who would use such a device are the elves.
More specifically, only the one called Potimas, I suppose.
“You remember what I told you before, right?”
“Who can say? I hardly have the time to memorize every word spoken by a little girl.”
Potimas’s voice echoes through the speaker of the first of the army of machines.
I face down the army with a sneer.
“You think these little toys can stop me? Shouldn’t you have sent the hero after me instead?”
Not that it matters, since White should be on her way to that hero right now.
“A hero is merely the plaything of the administrators. I have no need for such trifles.”
“We’ll see if you still feel that way a few minutes from now.”
A swarm of spider monsters assembles behind me, enough to oppose Potimas’s mechanical forces.
All the taratects that live in the Great Garam Forest have gathered here, with the giant queen taratect leading the way.
The imperial army and even the demon army are here only to even out the numbers.
My real forces are this swarm of spiders, including the queen taratect.
Not to mention a few very dependable associates, especially White.
With all this preparation, I have to make sure we succeed, y’know?
“Potimas. I’ll say it again. Today, I’m going to kill the real you.”
“We shall see about that.”
The machine army invokes their barrier.
One that cancels out the very system that governs this world.
But a silly thing like that won’t stop me from stepping forward.
A NEW JOURNEY BEGINS
In the distance, the town is blazing brightly.
Two pairs of eyes gaze at the flames.
They belong to Mera and the baby bloodsucker in his arms.
The baby watches the town where she was born and raised burning to the ground.
Mera, too, swore his loyalty to the baby bloodsucker’s parents.
I have no way of knowing what the two of them are thinking as they watch the town burn.
But I figure I’ll let them keep looking for as long as they need.
The Demon Lord is standing around nearby.
My longtime enemy, with whom I’ve chosen to join forces.
“So? Gonna answer me or what?”
The Demon Lord smiled cheerfully.
But her eyes weren’t mirthful in the least.
I didn’t know what would happen to me if I said no.
The Demon Lord thinks of me as some deathless monstrosity, but it’s not like I can really keep resurrecting myself indefinitely.
Not that she needs to know this, but I’m not actually sure if my egg revival technique would work right now.
My eggs have all hatched, so all those little babies are wandering around with their own free will now.
Can I basically hijack one of those babies back to revive myself in its body?
I’m not sure. If anything, I feel like I probably can’t.
It’s likely it worked originally only because the baby hadn’t been hatched yet, so it didn’t have a mind or self of its own established at all.
Which meant if the Demon Lord killed me, I might not have been able to come back.
What if I had to fight her, then?
I’d lose, that’s what.
Meaning that route was a dead end.
Ah-ha-ha…ha…ha.
I literally couldn’t say no!
But if you really thought about it, it wasn’t actually such a bad idea, right?
The Demon Lord can keep an eye on me, her mysteriously unkillable enemy.
And I can use the Demon Lord as a bodyguard.
We each think of the other as a serious threat, so it’s more beneficial to both of us if we join forces instead of fighting each other.
On top of that, the Demon Lord thinks I’m completely immortal.
Hopefully, that means she wouldn’t risk breaking our truce by trying to attack me again.
In other words, the Demon Lord isn’t going to betray me.
Even though I could very well betray her!
Is it just me, or does this treaty work out in my favor?
Especially considering the way she phrased it. “Join forces.”
I don’t like the idea of working under someone else, but if we’re joining forces, that means we’re on equal footing.
I won’t have to worry about the Demon Lord being my worst enemy anymore.
She won’t have to keep trying to fight an inscrutable opponent.
And we’ll each gain the other as a powerful, dependable ally.
Is this a win-win situation or what?
In the worst-case scenario, if it doesn’t work out, I can always just use the Demon Lord until I figure out a way to beat her, at which point I can betray her.
On the other hand, she’s not likely to betray me, since she thinks I’m immortal, so I don’t have to worry about that.
It’s certainly more logical than refusing her offer, going back to being enemies, and living my life on the run.
After making all these calculations in a matter of seconds, I silently took the Demon Lord’s hand.
After that, Mera went to confirm the fate of his master and mistress.
The lord and his wife had already been killed by the time I came charging onto the scene.
Potimas murdered them.
Mera probably suspected that, but I think he wanted to confirm it with his own eyes.
Otherwise, he might not have been able to or wanted to believe it.
He hugged the baby bloodsucker to his chest but shielded her gaze as he looked at the bodies of his master and mistress.
Of course, Mera doesn’t know that the baby bloodsucker is a reincarnation and already has a fully developed consciousness.
But the fact that he would make sure to keep a child from seeing the remains of her brutally murdered parents still speaks volumes for his character.
As does the way that his normally serious face crumpled as he openly wept.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t dwell on this spot for too long.
Because the Ohts army was closing in on the mansion from all sides.
The Demon Lord and I could easily wipe out one measly army of humans without breaking a sweat.
But we weren’t going to do that.
There wouldn’t be any point.
The lord and lady of the house were dead, and the town was virtually destroyed.
Even if we slaughtered their army now, it would be too late.
Lashing out at them anyway would only be pointless violence.
Since the Demon Lord and I don’t have deep connections to this town, it wouldn’t even be revenge.
The people of the town might want to get revenge on Ohts, but to me, it seemed somehow wrong for us to do that for them.
Instead, we decided to withdraw.
Finally, Mera pulls his eyes away from the burning town.
“You finished?”
“Yes.”
There’s a tremble in his voice as he answers the Demon Lord.
But behind it, I think I sense a will that can’t be broken.
“Please accept my gratitude for your assistance, belated though it may be.”
Mera bows his head politely to the Demon Lord and me.
But when he looks up again, there’s a bit of suspicion in his eyes.
“I apologize for asking such a rude question after you’ve just saved our lives, but might I inquire as to who you are?”
Well, yeah.
We might’ve saved his life, but I’m still a half-human, half-spider arachne.
And based on her entrance, the Demon Lord might be even weirder.
Magical Demon Lord? Come on…
Talk about sketchy.
You can’t blame the guy for having his doubts.
“I am the one and only Demon Lord, Ariel, in the flesh. And this is the spider monster you guys were praising as the Divine Beast until recently—or her evolved form anyway.”
“The Divine Beast?!” Mera looks at me in surprise.
Uh, so you’re just gonna ignore the part about her being a demon lord?
“Hmph. Come on, I’m the Demon Lord here. Can’t I get a little respect?”
The Demon Lord puffs her cheeks irritably.
Weirdly childish but also pretty cute.
“Maybe I should make myself a little clearer, then.”
The Demon Lord’s frightening aura suddenly intensifies.
She must have turned an Intimidation-like skill from off to on.
It doesn’t really work on me much, but the overall effect is definitely dramatic.
Mera’s entire body breaks into a sweat.
His expression is frozen with fear.
As a little bonus, I can sense all the living creatures around us simultaneously running away.
“I am a genuine, bona fide demon lord. Demon Lord Ariel is my name. Nice to meet you.”
Geez. When she stops acting like such a weirdo, she really is a terrifying demon lord.
I’m sure Mera is crystal clear on this fact now, as well.
I doubt there are many others out there who can produce such an intimidating aura.
“Demon Lord… But…why?”
He probably wants to run away screaming right now, but instead Mera stays rooted to the spot, holding the baby bloodsucker protectively.
On top of that, he even asks a question, though his voice cracked while he did.
This guy’s got guts.
“Well, it’s a long story, but basically…”
Then the Demon Lord explains our history.
She tells Mera how she and I were enemies until recently, and that while she was chasing me down, she saw that her longtime enemy Potimas was here and decided to intervene.
“He’s the biggest piece of shit in the entire world, see. If I find him, I gotta crush him. But the thing earlier was basically a puppet that he was controlling from afar, so those’ll probably keep coming back no matter how many times I break ’em.”
An awful thing like that will keep coming back?
Scary.
“So really, it was just a coincidence that I ended up helping you. I didn’t set out to save your butts or anything. This one probably did, though,” she adds, looking at me pointedly.
Noticing this, Mera looks in my direction, too.
Ugggh.
Do I really have to talk now?
I don’t think I’d do a very good job explaining things…
“Right. So basically, I’m guessing she helped you because she comes from the same place as that baby you’ve got there. Right?”
As I remain silent, the Demon Lord decides to speak for me.
I guess that’s nice, although I’m not sure I appreciate her talking about my business like that.
“The same place?”
“Yep, that’s right. Okay, question time. What’s your name, little missy?”
The Demon Lord grins broadly as she peers at the baby bloodsucker’s face.
“Lady Ariel, the young miss cannot speak yet.”
“Ohhh, gotcha, gotcha. Can’t move your little mouth properly yet, huh? How about I hook you up with some Telepathy, then?”
“I do not believe that is the problem…”
“Sure it is. ’Cause this kid is a reincarnation from another world, just like our spider friend here.”
The demon casually reveals the baby bloodsucker’s and my big secret.
“Reincarnation?”
Mera furrows his brow. He’s probably not too familiar with the concept.
“See, a certain dumbass from this world did some stupid crap and ended up causing trouble for another world.”
“Pardon?”
“Just listen. Basically, a bunch of kids from that world ended up dying because of this world’s problems. And the god felt bad about that, so he grabbed the souls of those kids who died and popped them into this world to be reborn as babies. In other words, reincarnations.”
“Uh-huh…”
Mera’s expression says clearly that he has no idea what the Demon Lord is talking about.
Well, yeah. You can’t just drop a crazy story on someone like that.
“These reincarnations are born with their memories from their previous lives. And they got a nice little bonus from that god, too. I’m not sure if that’s why, but I’m pretty sure the guys who attacked you lot are after the reincarnations, by the way.”
Hmm?
Wait, really?
Does that mean that Potimas elf guy is targeting reincarnations?
“Forgive me, but what does this story have to do with…?”
“Hrmm? Wow, you’re slow on the uptake. I’m saying that baby there is one of these reincarnations.”
“Eh?!”
“Isn’t that right, Sophia? So? What was your name in the other world, huh?”
The baby bloodsucker looks visibly shaken by the Demon Lord’s questions.
“Shouko Negishi.”
Then, after a moment, she reveals her name through telepathy.
“Sweet, we got a name! So she really is a reincarnation, and a vampire, too! Yeesh, talk about having problems. Anyway, Miss Spider over there is a reincarnation, too, just like the baby. So I’m guessing she was keeping an eye on her out of a sense of kinship, trying to protect her from all those problems. Am I right?” She looks at me again.
Um. Hmm.
I guess I was kinda looking out for her, so she’s not wrong, per se?
Denying it would be a pain, so I just nod an affirmation.
“Well, now you’re all caught up on our whole situation. My turn to ask questions. What are you guys gonna do now?”
Both Mera and the baby bloodsucker seem flummoxed by the Demon Lord’s question.
Mera is probably still in shock over the revelation that his young vampiric ward is actually a reincarnation, and I doubt he has any idea what to do next.
“If you ask me, you’ve got a couple of options here. First, you could just go to another town in Sariella. Second, flee to a different country. Third, show up in Ohts. Okay, that third one’s not a great option, but I honestly wouldn’t recommend the first two, either.”
The Demon Lord carries on disinterestedly.
“You two are vampires now, not humans. Can you imagine how hard it’s gonna be to get by in human society when most people think you’re some creepy legend come to life?”
Instead of Mera, it’s the baby bloodsucker who turns pale at that.
“Merazophis, I’m sorry. I turned you into a vampire. It was the only thing I could think to do at the time.”
The baby seems to feel guilty for turning Mera into a vampire, altering his life forever.
But I don’t think she had much of a choice.
Turning him into a vampire to fight for both of them was the only way they could’ve gotten out of that mess.
If I were in her place, I’m sure I would’ve sucked Mera’s blood to make him into a vampire without a second thought.
“Please do not apologize. If anything, it is I who should do so.”
“What? Why?”
“Because I could not protect you. I am terribly sorry.”
Mera bows his head to the baby bloodsucker in his arms.
“Besides, if you had not done what you did, I would have died. I cannot be anything but grateful for that.”
“But you’re a vampire now. You can’t live as a human anymore…”
“That is all right. In fact, it may be for the best so that I might better protect you.”
“Merazophis…you still want to protect me?”
“My master and mistress entrusted you to me, young miss. Thus, I shall protect you for as long as I might live. Whether you are a vampire, a reincarnation, or anything else, it makes no difference to me.”
“Merazophis…!”
At Mera’s bold declaration, the baby bloodsucker repeats his name as if overwhelmed with emotion.
Mm-hmm. This is moving stuff.
Although I’m not sure if the Demon Lord needs to be bawling about it next to me?
I mean, I know it was touching and all, but to the point of crying about it?
I don’t know. Maybe I’m just insensitive.
“Oh, this is too much! Just come with me, you two. I’ll take you under my wing!”
Hoo, boy. Looks like they set her off somehow.
Well, I guess it’s fine.
I would’ve felt a little weird about rescuing them and then ditching ’em to fend for themselves anyway.
“Pretty good deal, right? I mean, I’m the Demon Lord. Just so ya know, there’s pretty much no one in this whole world who can beat me. You’d be pretty lucky to have my protection, no? I mean, you probably realize this, but those guys who attacked you were no ordinary thugs. But I can fend ’em off easily. And in the demon territory I rule over, nobody’s gonna give you a hard time for being a vampire. So you’ll be safe from the elves, and you can live freely as vampires. It’s two birds with one stone! So whaddaya say? Want to come to the demon territory with me?”
Mera and the baby bloodsucker exchange looks.
“I shall abide by whatever you choose, young miss.”
“All right. Just let me think about it a little, please.”
“Sure, no prob! Take your time; think it over. How ’bout you travel with me for a little trial period, though? You don’t wanna get attacked again right away, I’m sure. Let’s head for the capital of Sariella, shall we? Once we get there, you can make up your mind.”
With that declaration, the Demon Lord determines our next course of action.
We’re traveling to the capital of Sariella.
There, the baby bloodsucker and Mera will decide whether they want to stick with the Demon Lord.
And, uh, it kinda seems like I’m coming along, too?
I feel like I’ve just been going with the flow lately, but I guess that’s fine.
Whatever the baby vampire decides, I might as well see it through to the end, considering that I’ve already come this far and all.
With the threat of the Demon Lord squared away, it’s not like I had any immediate plans anyway.
Oh, but I would like to lay some eggs somewhere.
Gotta keep those backups around in case I need to use egg revival.
Come to think of it, what should I do about the Parallel Minds and all the other babies I left in the Great Elroe Labyrinth?
Guess I’ll just leave them to it.
I’m sure they’re getting by just fine on their own.
I would live to regret making that choice.
I sorely underestimated just how estranged from me my Parallel Minds had become.
And in the future, I would end up paying for it dearly.
“All right, you guys, let’s start our preparations. We’ve got lots of work to do if we want to wipe out all of human- and demonkind!”
““““““““Yeah!””””””””
AFTERWORD
Hello there. I’m Okina Baba.
We’ve finally reached Volume 5 of this series.
Five seems like a pretty good place to leave off, don’t you think?
Is it just me, or does it feel like a sort of special, exciting number?
Oh, it’s just me? All right, then.
Old man: “Ahem.”
What is it, Mr. Ronandt?
I feel like you’re going to confuse people, showing up in the afterword like this.
Old man: “In the web version, I seem to recall that I played a large role in both the spider and S sides of the story right around now. And yet it seems that I am not in this volume at all, no?”
Nope, you sure aren’t. Not a single trace. Your name’s not even mentioned once.
Old man: “Why, then?!”
I couldn’t help it.
Your part got sacrificed to a terrible phenomenon in the world of adults known only as a “page-count limit”!
Old man: “O-of all the—”
But fear not, friend!
For you are going to play a seriously major role in Volume 6! If all goes according to plan, at least.
So please look forward to the exciting antics of Elder Ronandt, who you could even call the real hero of this series if you really wanted to, in the next volume!
Old man: “It sounds to me like you’re making things up.”
It’ll be fine! Probably.
As of now, I really do plan to write Mr. Ronandt’s role in a very different way from how it played out in the web version.
In fact, the entirety of Volume 6 is going to differ quite drastically from the original web version of the story.
Perhaps the fate I’ve managed to avoid in Volumes 4 and 5 will finally catch up to me, and I’ll write a volume that’s 100 percent new content?
How very frightening.
Incidentally, while the advertisement for Volume 4 said that it contained sixty thousand characters of new text, that was actually just the count as of the writing of that ad copy. By the time I finished, it was apparently even more than that.
And Volume 5 has gone just about the same way.
Ha-ha-ha. I’m such a hard worker.
Now on to the thank-yous.
As always, I want to thank Kiryuu-sensei for drawing such charming and beautiful illustrations.
And also as always, I want to thank Asahiro Kakashi for drawing such charming and hilarious poses.
Let me also thank my editor K and everyone else who was involved in bringing this book into the world.
And all of you who have picked up this book.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for buying this ebook, published by Yen On.
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Part 8 of 8