Part 7 of 8
Obviously, he had this Omega here lying in wait for me.
Of course it was a trap.
This is Potimas’s kill zone, and I walked right into it.
But I knew that going in, of course.
I don’t just want to defeat Potimas.
I want to crush all of his forces, traps and ultimate weapons alike, and plunge him into despair before he dies.
That’s why I jumped right in knowing full well that this was a trap, but I kind of regret that now.
This Omega thing is easily as strong as I am in my prime, if not stronger.
I’m totally confident that I could crush most enemies even within the anti-technique barrier, but this one might be a tall order.
It looks like it’d be weak, but it’s crazy powerful.
…No, I guess that’s not right.
Its simple appearance is because it’s pared away anything that isn’t absolutely necessary.
This thing has been built with performance as the sole deciding factor, nothing as mundane as whether it looks cool or not.
It’s a masterpiece by a man who normally seems like the type to worry about aesthetics, focused solely on power.
No wonder it’s so strong.
Knowing that, I alter my approach.
This isn’t a challenge I can take on half-assed.
Yes, I’ll admit it’s a challenge.
I’m the weaker one here.
I have to fight it with that perspective in mind.
Really, how long has it been since I fought something that was out of my league?
I honestly can’t remember.
So much time has passed since I was at a disadvantage in a fight that I can’t even tell you when it last happened.
And to think I used to be so weak and powerless back then.
But I’m not that powerless little kid anymore!
I step forward with renewed resolve.
It’d be bad news to let the Omega set the pace with its crazy speed.
Because of the anti-technique barrier, the only abilities that will function are the ones that activate inside my body.
That means skills that activate outside my body, like long-distance attacks, won’t work at all.
I can’t use magic or thread.
So my only remaining option is close physical combat.
Basically, if I want to negate the Omega’s speed advantage and stand a fighting chance despite the barrier, I’ve got to stick close to it.
“Hiyah!”
I throw a punch at the Omega, which is crouched and waiting for me.
The Omega dodges my punch easily, swirling to the side.
But I saw that coming.
I follow after it with a volley of rapid punches.
It’s a nonstop barrage, too quick for the Omega to counter!
But it sees through all that, too, lunges toward my side when my guard is down for a fraction of a second, and drives its drill into my stomach.
“Nngh?!”
The drill blade spins, paring away my flesh.
I know I have to stay close, but in this case I have no choice but to back off.
I jump away to escape from the drill.
Owww… I guess Suffering Nullification isn’t working because of the anti-technique barrier, huh…
My breath grows ragged.
But even when I try to breathe steadily in and out, it doesn’t get any less painful.
In fact, each gulp of air makes me feel even worse.
I know this wound is deep, but no, it’s more than that…
This must be poison.
The system is supposed to cancel out the effects of any scientifically poisonous substance over a certain concentration, but knowing Potimas, I wouldn’t be surprised if he found a way around that.
I’m in trouble now.
Poison, on top of the anti-technique barrier…?
I can’t believe I’m getting screwed over by one of my own specialties…
It’s taking much longer than usual to heal my stomach wound, too.
Normally, even if half my body got blown away, I’d regenerate in seconds.
But it’s dangerous to fight based on how things normally go.
I have to be more careful than usual about avoiding getting hit.
Since I’ve got high resistance to most attributes, I guess I’ve been starting to fall out of the habit of dodging attacks…
Most things won’t damage me even if they do hit, and I can usually use Gluttony to consume anything before it hits me anyway.
Even getting stronger has its negative effects…or pride, I suppose.
When you fight someone stronger than you, it makes you realize all your weaknesses, much like I’m doing right now.
It’s been a long time since I felt this way.
So maybe I should try something I wouldn’t “normally” do… A little roll of the dice, for instance.
Otherwise, I don’t see how I’m going to beat this thing.
The Omega charges toward me.
Head-on!
Its speed is insane, but at least I’m not going to lose sight of something that’s coming straight toward me.
As the straightforward drill attack charges toward me, I brace myself and let it hit me in the chest.
“Aaaaah!”
A huge hole opens in my torso.
“Got…cha…”
But in exchange, I managed to grab the Omega’s body with my left hand.
Then I clench my right hand tightly.
I’ll put everything I’ve got into this one attack!
A critical right hook!
My full-powered punch hits the Omega square in the face, shattering its head, and blowing away its upper body with the aftershocks, too.
On top of that, even most of its lower body gets scattered by the impact.
“Well? How d’you like that?”
So much for being more careful to avoid getting hit.
But I think this was the only way take down the Omega.
If I kept staying away out of fear of getting hurt, I’d probably have been outmaneuvered by the Omega’s speed and gone down without ever landing an attack of my own.
So instead I let myself get hit, caught the Omega, and brought it down in one blow.
A short, decisive battle.
This was probably the best way to conserve energy.
I’m deeply wounded, but I’ll heal with time.
It probably would consume more energy to try to accelerate the injury’s recovery rather than let it heal gradually over time.
“I hate to break it to you, but it’s not over yet.”
But just as I’m savoring a moment of victory, Potimas’s voice ruthlessly interrupts.
The shattered pieces of the Omega flow together like liquid metal, and form back into its original shape in a matter of seconds.
“Round two is just beginning.”
As I stare in shock, Potimas’s amused voice echoes around me.
Then the Omega charges toward me again.
The battle between humans and dragons had begun.
That in itself was no surprise.
Humans matter little more to dragons than garbage.
Intelligent life or not, from our perspective they are no different from any other animal.
Especially once they continued draining the planet’s life force in the form of MA energy, ignoring our countless warnings.
Inevitably, dragons came to see humans as parasites that were bleeding the planet dry.
So of course they felt no hesitation about exterminating said parasites.
Perhaps it would be different if humans were under the protection of dragons, but that was not the case for the people of this planet.
Yes, there were a handful of humans who worshiped dragons, but their numbers were incredibly small compared to the total human population.
Perhaps there was some intention to offer those few worshippers salvation in the very end, but unfortunately that never came to pass.
At the time, I was only one low-ranking dragon, in no position to be privy to the thoughts of the elders.
I no longer have any way of knowing what the highest-ranking dragons intended for the future.
The only order I was given was to persuade Sariel.
Dragons could no longer overlook the humans’ actions, and would have to exterminate them.
Their hope was that Sariel could tolerate those actions.
That is what I was meant to negotiate with her about.
From my point of view, there was no way that would ever succeed.
They must have chosen me for the role because I was acquainted with her, but honestly, I was far from enthused about the notion.
Who would want to attempt a negotiation knowing it would fail?
Much less when the other party in question is one for whom I had unrequited feelings?
…It did not sit well with me, but I had no choice.
However, it is a mystery to me what the elder dragons expected.
Did they think the negotiation would succeed, or did they know, as I did, that it would fail?
I have no idea.
Theoretically, from the standpoint of an average dragon, there was reason to believe that it might be a success.
Sariel’s mission was to preserve the native species.
If the humans continued to use MA energy, the planet would inevitably be destroyed.
Which would also mean the end of any native species.
In that case, it was conceivable that Sariel would agree to turn a blind eye to the dragons’ actions long enough to let humans be exterminated.
Of course, that logic falls apart when one realizes that Sariel wanted to protect not just the native species, but humanity in particular.
It is possible that the dragons in power did not realize this, in which case they might have truly hoped that the negotiation would succeed.
But what if they knew from the beginning that it would fail?
That would certainly explain why the attack on humanity had already commenced while I was negotiating.
If that were the case, then my role as “negotiator” was really to buy time, to stay Sariel’s hand.
I would prefer not to believe that, since it would essentially make me a sacrificial pawn…
The fact remains that the attacks began while I was mid-negotiation, but it is…theoretically possible…that they were simply overeager and assumed I would succeed…
…I must admit, that excuse sounds feeble even to my own ears.
At any rate, I will never know for sure what the elders were thinking, because I did not rejoin the dragons afterward.
Knowing the truth now would make no difference anyway.
As I expected, negotiations with Sariel broke down, and Sariel and the dragons did battle.
That is all.
I am sure the battle was a fierce one.
I cannot say for sure, as I was not there to witness it.
But Sariel was alone, against many dragons.
A single dragon is more than enough to destroy a nation.
On the defensive, Sariel could certainly defeat an individual dragon, but in the meantime the other dragons could wipe out the nation below.
The dragons trying to destroy humanity, and Sariel chasing the dragons to destroy them…
It must have been quite a deadly game of cat and mouse.
Naturally, the battle went on for some time.
Which gave the humans enough time to start defending against us.
I am sure they did not want to go down without a fight, even if it was utterly hopeless.
Just the other day—no, I suppose it was longer than that from a human point of view…
That weapon appeared from beneath the land of the wind dragon Hyuvan, the one that was designed by Potimas and built by some nation or other.
It was made by humans to fight against us dragons.
Of course, they were unable to finish it in time to fight us in the end; even if it had been finished, it would not have been enough, anyway.
The human armies resisted the dragons’ attack, of course, but that did not last for long.
But we made a miscalculation: The humans stole even more MA energy for those armies.
For making and operating their weapons…
Truly ironic, that a battle to force them to stop using MA energy would result in the use of even more MA energy.
Worse yet, Potimas was behind it, selling the plans for these weapons.
Even after he was made a wanted criminal, he was still sheltered as the leading expert on MA energy.
He must not have wanted for places to hide; I am sure there were plenty of humans who were desperate for the fruits of his research.
And even as he was in hiding, he still devoted himself to research, living his life as he pleased.
Why did I leave him be at the time? There is little that I regret more.
When Foduey was caught up in Potimas’s plot and turned into a vampire, when I grew to know the children of the orphanage and learned the depth of Potimas’s sinfulness…
If only I had given in to the impulse to hunt him down and destroy him on the spot…
At any rate, I doubt things would have gotten as complicated as they have now.
I should not have rationalized that a human criminal should be judged by human hands, and other such convenient excuses.
I suppose the lesson here is that while failure is often the result of acting on one’s emotions instead of listening to logic, there are times when it is best to let one’s emotions decide instead.
But of course, it is inevitably easier to judge these things after the fact, and in most cases one cannot tell at the time what will be for the best.
Still, if I had known, I would have killed Potimas right away.
Even now, I dearly desire to kill him.
But that role is not for me, nor do I have the right.
Though it feels shameful, I cannot refuse to leave that duty to another.
I suppose a human criminal will be judged by human hands after all.
Although it certainly took a long time for that judgment to fall…
Well, he has certainly built up even more charges in the meantime.
I am sure any punishment will be more than acceptable—at least, I will gladly accept it.
She should savor her revenge to her heart’s satisfaction.
Thinking back, there have been many sins in this world, and all have been carried by someone.
Individually, the people who live in this world have probably paid off a fair amount of their penance by now, although Ariel would be angry to hear me say so.
Still, I feel that they have been punished more than fairly.
Think of it: they have been reincarnated in this world over and over, unable to properly return to the cycle of death and rebirth, the power of their souls being squeezed dry all the while.
They themselves are not aware of it, since they do not retain their memories from one life to the next, but it has certainly seemed a sufficient punishment from my point of view.
At this point, their souls have been worn down to the point that even reincarnating is becoming dangerous for some of them.
The wear on the souls of the demons has been especially harsh; there were already so few of them, and in spite of their long lifespans, their cycle of death is hastened by the constant war against humanity.
Perhaps that is punishment for the sin of using so much MA energy in the past in order to evolve, but when I see their race driven to the brink of extinction, I cannot help but feel that perhaps they have suffered more than enough in penance.
Even for humans, it is not as if all of them were in thrall to MA energy.
Many of them were simply caught up in this world’s problems by chance.
Dustin, especially, was not originally in such a position that he should blame himself so harshly as he does.
Certainly, I still cannot accept his final decision.
But the fact remains that it was the only choice he had.
When I think of it that way, I can’t help but feel that he drew the short end of the stick.
Yet in spite of that, he still continues to blame himself for drawing it as if it were of his own volition and take responsibility accordingly, which is honestly rather impressive.
Not that I would ever say this to his face.
Of course not.
Even if I do think him impressive in a way, I cannot agree with the direction of the Word of God religion.
That is another story entirely.
But I suppose I do feel a bit indebted to Dustin, and that is what prevents me from criticizing his final choice too harshly.
I feel guilty because of what my fellow dragons did, even if I did not help them do it.
That feeling is all the stronger because, unlike the humans of this world who have been atoning for their sins these many long years, the dragons did not stay to do just that.
Instead, the dragons did something truly unthinkable in the final hour.
Namely: they drew out the last drops of MA energy from this world, and ran away with it.
What would happen if they did such a thing after the humans had already spent so much MA energy?
The answer was obvious: The world would end.
This was undoubtedly the beginning of the end.
That is the real reason that the world suddenly started trending toward destruction so rapidly right after the conclusion of the battle between Sariel and the dragons.
That was exactly what the dragons were trying to do.
I am sure the humans who lived on this planet thought, How could the dragons do such a thing?!
Even I felt the same way.
But from the perspective of the dragons, it was not such a strange notion.
It might seem irrational to humans, but to the dragons it was in fact a perfectly logical conclusion.
Essentially, the dragons wrote this world off as hopeless.
Humans would not want to stay aboard a sinking ship for long, would they?
No, they would escape from the ship as soon as possible.
And if there was any valuable luggage aboard, they would take as much as they could carry.
Since the ship was sinking anyway, there would be no reason not to take it.
This is the same logic the dragons followed.
There is another reason, too: They wanted to sink it themselves, to ensure that it would never surface again.
As far as the dragons were concerned, the humans of this world were pests who drove their own planet to destruction, heedless of the many warnings they were given.
Naturally, they wanted to ensure that such vermin would not leave their planet and infest other worlds.
The dragons sought to wipe out all the pests at once so they would not have to worry about them again.
Not exactly an appealing concept to the humans being wiped out, I am sure, but that is the truth of how dragons saw humans.
They were reluctant to use an inhabitable planet, but they could not rule the place anyway, since Sariel was already there when they arrived.
Since the planet did not belong to dragons to begin with, it was not a difficult decision to let it go.
In other words, they gave up on ruling the world and opted to destroy it instead.
Though putting it that way sounds rather harsh…
But it is not incorrect, and I do harbor resentment about this final decision of the dragons myself, so I do not care to amend it.
Yes, from the point of view of a dragon, it was the correct decision.
It had advantages for them, and no disadvantages: A planet they could not rule was destroyed, and in exchange they gained what energy that planet had left.
Cruel as it sounds, the fact that all of the humans still living there would be eradicated was also an advantage as far as the dragons were concerned, since it meant that vermin had been exterminated.
They had no pity for humans, even if they were intelligent life.
In fact, I am sure the fact that they were intelligent made it even harder for the dragons to forgive their actions.
It was as if a child who never listened to warnings finally made a foolish mistake they could not undo.
Could you blame the adults for being angry and refusing to help such a child?
…Whose side am I on, you ask?
Why, I am on Sariel’s side, of course.
I am not necessarily on the side of the humans.
Before I struck out on my own, I saw humans from a dragon’s perspective.
I too was angered by their foolishness.
It was the dragons who pulled the final trigger on this world’s destruction, but humans are still unmistakably to blame for paving the way up to that point.
So given a choice between humans and dragons, I will indeed defend the dragons.
Though I cannot say that I am truly on the dragons’ side anymore, either…
I was indeed an unimportant dragon in the first place.
I am lost to their side now, but I will admit that I am still reluctant to speak ill of the race into which I was born.
I cannot fully forgive them for taking the MA energy and fleeing in the end, but there is a part of me that would endorse that course of action from their point of view.
Would you laugh at me for flip-flopping between sides?
…Yes, I suppose you are right.
In the end, I was never able to make a firm decision one way or another.
Even now, I am still struggling in the same way, am I not?
……
…You could at least attempt to reassure me.
………Fine.
My being pathetic is far from a recent development.
I know that much.
But it was still the most painful decision of a lifetime to go begging D for help.
Even now, I myself am amazed that I had the nerve to do something so drastic.
I had never actually met D in person before.
Of course not. D is far too powerful a god.
Even the dragons, who have a great deal of influence among all gods, refrain from clashing with that one.
Did not the dragons also refrain from clashing with Sariel, you ask?
Our dealings with Sariel and D were very different.
Yes, Sariel was a powerful lost angel, and the dragons were reluctant to deal with her.
But we lived in the same world and hoped we might be able to win her over to our side over a long period of time.
We were attempting to gradually encircle her, not refraining from interacting whatsoever.
But D is a different story entirely.
We would never even go near that one.
Do not touch, do not interact, and if she should ever approach you, flee without hesitation.
That was how D was described among dragons.
For such prideful creatures as us, it is rare indeed to make such a statement.
That should tell you how much dragons feared D.
In fact, discussion of D was largely considered taboo among our kind.
We were reluctant to even speak that name.
Truth be told, some of the younger dragons did not even know of D’s existence.
I was one of the younger dragons myself, but I was only made aware of her because I happened to excel at spatial abilities.
These spatial abilities allow one to travel anywhere at all, which is precisely why those who can use them must be informed of the places that are forbidden to tread.
And of course, one of those places was D’s abode.
The dragons boast a great deal of influence even compared to other gods, but it must be said that even then, they are not invincible.
There are many gods that will retaliate if they are offended, no matter who the offender might be.
Even the great dragon god, the highest ranking of the dragons, is said to have been injured once long ago by the god that reigns over hell.
Legend has it that the dragon god had never truly been wounded before or since.
Hm?
Have I ever met the dragon god?
Me? Of course not.
Just to be clear, this world is a very remote region by dragon standards.
Think of it as a puny village in the farthest-removed countryside of an obscure territory.
On the other hand, the dragon god is akin to a king living in the capital, understand?
Someone who was born and raised in obscurity of some far-off countryside would never get a chance to have an audience with someone of such high standing.
In this comparison, I suppose D would be the king of another kingdom.
So even though I had never met my own king, I went to the king of a foreign land to quest their aid.
It was incredibly brazen of me, to say the least.
Honestly, I am still amazed that I did such a thing.
I suppose you could say I was grasping at straws.
Although the “straw” I ended up grasping was something far more sinister…
…Was it really the right decision to turn to D for help?
I still don’t know the answer to that question.
If I hadn’t gone to D and convinced her to interfere in this world, Sariel would no longer be alive.
Far from it: Her very soul and existence might have disappeared entirely.
If her soul was still intact, she could at least be reborn and live out another life.
I do not know what sort of life it would be, but if she could forget everything and be happy, at least…
But if her soul was spent, that possibility would be no longer.
I wanted to save Sariel’s life.
If nothing else, I wanted to at least ensure that her soul would not disappear.
That wish was granted, and the system D created kept Sariel and this world alive.
But it was not the salvation I had hoped for.
For every wish granted, there is always a price.
There was no perfect outcome where Sariel and this world could go on in peace as I wanted.
D might have been able to do that, but she had no reason to.
Things might have been different if I had been able to offer a satisfactory payment, but of course a mere whelp of a dragon like myself had no such thing to give.
Thus, in exchange for saving Sariel and this world, D made the world into her plaything.
She made game-like features such as stats and skills into reality.
The real world was turned into a game for her amusement.
That may have seemed unbearable to the humans of this world who were trapped in the game, but it was their actions that led to this consequence.
Since there was no way to save the world except to play the game, they had to do it, in order to atone as well as survive.
But I do wonder sometimes.
Did I not offer up the humans whom Sariel laid down her life to save, as a plaything for D’s amusement?
And did I not force Sariel to endure constant suffering as a result?
Yes, her life was indeed preserved.
And this world continues to exist, if in a different form than before.
But in both cases, is this not simply prolonging their agony for no reason?
Have I done something completely unnecessary, or even cruel?
I cannot help but get caught up in such negative thoughts.
It is an inevitable effect of watching this world from behind the scenes for so long, unable to do anything more, I suppose.
My melancholy feelings have built up immensely over the years.
But then again, perhaps that is part of my punishment, too.
“What is the situation?”
“There have been radical weather phenomena and other strange occurrences all over the world.”
“Violence is breaking out among citizens, including murder and other crimes.”
“Suicides have increased as well. Many of the dragon worshippers, especially, have committed mass suicide.”
“The distribution of food is at a standstill.”
Each report was as terrible as the last.
But of course that would be the case when the end of the world is drawing near.
“…And how much time do we have left?”
No one was able to answer my question immediately.
Not one of them made a sound, as if afraid to speak the answer out loud.
But eventually, someone had to break the silence.
A minister reluctantly spoke up.
“According to Potimas Harrifenas, we may have less than a year.”
Upon hearing Potimas’s name, I could tell my displeasure was showing on my countenance.
I cannot place all of the blame for this situation on Potimas, but he was undoubtedly the origin of these troubles.
One man’s delusions of grandeur had driven the world to destruction.
But he was also the only individual who might stand a chance of solving the very situation he created.
Thus, we could not execute Potimas, as much as it pained me.
“In addition, he stated that this is only the length of time that the planet is likely to retain its form… But the amount of time that life can survive on it is likely even shorter.”
“If I may add, the more time passes, the worse the situation becomes.”
The implication was that if I was going to make a decision, I must do so with haste.
These men and women who had followed me all this time were resolved to abide by my decision, even in this dire situation.
In other words, they were willing to comply with my judgment as the so-called sage of the world, no matter how illogical it might be.
But while I knew I had been given the right to decide, I could not bring myself to open my mouth.
Our nation of Daztrudia was largely spared from the dragon attacks, perhaps because we forbade the use of MA energy.
While other nations suffered catastrophic damage, we were relatively unscathed.
Thus, I was now being praised and called a “sage” for resisting the allure of MA energy and continuing to condemn it, to the point where there were scarcely any nations that would defy Daztrudia.
Which is why I had to make my choice with great care.
In this situation, if Daztrudia were to say that black is white, then it would be so throughout the world.
“Hmm…”
I heaved a heavy sigh.
No matter how long and hard I thought about it, I reached the same conclusion.
As the president, as the de facto leader of humanity, I needed to make a decision even if it was a bitter pill to swallow.
“Is this truly the only way?”
I was not so much asking the others as I was confirming it to myself.
Sure enough, no one else offered up an answer.
How could they?
A long, long silence sank over the conference room.
“Tell Potimas Harrifenas to make the necessary preparations.”
“…Yes, sir!”
I said it.
There was no turning back.
That was the moment that I, President Dustin of Daztrudia, made the decision that essentially chose the fate of humanity.
The other people in the conference room lowered their heads.
I alone stood up from my chair and walked over to the window.
Through the thick bulletproof glass, the sky seemed to have lost its light, even though it was not yet nighttime.
A dull thud filled the room.
It was the sound of me striking my forehead against the window.
“A sage? How could anyone think me a sage? I am nothing more than a shameless fool!”
As I cried out in despair, I struck my head against the window again.
And again.
Over and over.
“President! President!”
Seeing my forehead split and blood begin to trickle down, a minister rushed over to stop me.
But I still kept smashing my head against the glass.
Only when three of the ministers tore me away from the window did I finally stop injuring myself.
“Scum! I am scum!”
But my words did not stop.
I continued hurling insults at myself.
“President! President! You are an honorable man! You are not scum!”
I am sure the minister meant that from the bottom of his heart, but his words rang hollow to my ears.
“We are repaying a kindness with cruelty. How can that not be called scum?! For shame, damn it all!”
My shoulders heaved as I bellowed, until finally, I lost my strength and sank into a chair.
“My name shall be dragged through the mud forevermore.”
“Surely not…”
“No, it shall. It must. So I must create that future with my own hands.”
The ministers fell silent at this.
“From now on, I will use any means necessary to protect humanity, like the scum I am. I shall carry on until my very soul is gone. That is all I can do, shameless fool that I am.”
My eyes were bloodshot, but I spoke with conviction.
“The goddess Sariel saved humanity from the dragons. And now we will offer her as sacrifice to keep this world alive.”
At that, the ministers all hung their heads.
“We will follow you to the depths of hell, President Dustin.”
Around the time the dragons’ attacks ceased, I was captured by Daztrudia.
…Although that was really only a clone of me.
Hmph. Those people truly believed they had captured the real me.
Such simpletons.
By way of the clone, I proposed a method of saving this world to President Dustin.
Namely, offering the so-called goddess Sariel as a sacrifice.
My clone is in the process of preparing the required technology.
The goddess harbors a massive amount of energy, as she was powerful enough to drive off the dragons.
We will extract it from the goddess by dismantling her and siphoning it into the world to replace the lost MA energy.
…At least, that is the theory I proposed, but of course such a method will not actually save the world.
Energy comes in many different forms.
Just as an atom may be composed of many different things, so too is there a wide range of energy.
Siphoning the goddess’s energy into the planet as is will not make a substitute for MA energy.
In fact, it might even cause resistance that will hasten the world’s demise.
But those idiots do not realize that.
So I will deceive them until the very end and steal away the goddess’s energy, too.
The energy of a goddess… Now that will be worth studying.
I never managed to achieve eternal life with MA energy, but perhaps researching a goddess’s energy will bear better fruit…
However, once I have stolen the goddess’s energy, I doubt I can remain on this planet any longer.
This planet is soon to collapse at this rate, anyway.
I had hoped to remain here until I found a nearby planet I could inhabit, but it appears that will not be the case.
I shall simply have to find one while traveling in space.
Let us hope I do not encounter the dragons, who already know of me, wherever I try to put down roots.
Honestly, those dragons did me a fine turn at the very last.
I would have liked to use the MA energy they ran away with, you know.
But it is gone now, so I suppose there is nothing else for it.
I shall give up on that much, anyway.
Innumerable sea urchins float in the air.
There’s a huge pyramid hovering in the center.
At this point, I feel like this battle should be taking place in space or something.
No waaay.
Look, I’m sorry, citizens of this world.
You gave it your best shot.
Really, how could anyone expect you to save up any amount of energy when some freak keeps spending it all to make stupid crap like this float in midair?
The amount of energy he must’ve needed for that single sea urchin was bad enough, but with what he must’ve stolen to make a whole army of ’em, you definitely could’ve saved a world or two by now.
If anything, I’m amazed this place has lasted at all with that bastard sapping so much energy.
It just goes to show how hard the residents of this world have been fighting.
Wow, you gotta give ’em an A for effort!
…That still doesn’t change what I’m gonna do, though.
But we can worry about that after this battle’s over.
First, I need to deal with that floating swarm of sea urchins and the pyramid thing.
Good thing I already told Mr. Oni to give the order to retreat.
Even the queen couldn’t take down one sea urchin without my help, and now there’s too many to count. Escaping is the best option here.
Those sea urchins seem to specialize in wide-range attacks, too.
With this many of them in one place, they could easily raze the whole forest to the ground.
The demon army and any other troops wouldn’t be anything but targets.
Even the likes of Mr. Oni and Vampy would be out of their league against a whole swarm of these things.
This is what you’d call a “strategic retreat.”
Mera’s doing great on that front.
He and his army have already withstood the elves’ attacks and safely retreated.
I did warn him in advance not to do anything crazy if things took a bad turn, but I’m still impressed he managed to withdraw so smoothly.
It can be tough to retreat with enemies at your back, but they still pulled it off.
In spite of everything, I think Mera might actually be the best commander out of any of us.
Meanwhile, Mr. Oni and Vampy are bringing up the rear, mowing down the elves before they retreat.
…Can you even call that a retreat anymore?
Kinda calls the definition into question if there’s no more enemy to retreat from.
Other than that…uhh, looks like the puppet spiders are fighting robots alongside a familiar-looking old geezer.
What are you guys doing?
Like, seriously, what?
Do I even want to know what happened there?
…Okay, whatever.
I’ll retrieve the geezer along with the puppet spiders, I guess.
I activate teleportation by way of the battle clones the puppet spiders are riding and evacuate all of them to safety with the old man in tow.
There. That’s one less thing to worry about.
Now I just have to deal with this swarm of sea urchins, and the pyramid, which kinda looks like the boss.
First the robots, then the mega-robots, then the sea urchins, and now this pyramid.
Deploying your forces in separate waves is a stupid plan, but I can see why they waited to send out the sea urchins.
Their best attack is carpet-bombing with those countless gun-spikes.
Which could easily take out the robots and mega-robots down below in the process.
That’s probably why they didn’t jump right to the sea urchins.
Although maybe the elves just thought the robots would be plenty.
Then the robots weren’t enough, so they sent in the mega-robots, and then I made quick work of those with the meteor bullets…
Yeah, maybe they were just rationing out their forces without thinking after all.
Or maybe they had no choice because the robots and mega-robots aren’t exactly designed to work well alongside the sea urchins.
Okay, but either way!
This time for sure! This has GOT to be the elves’ ultimate weapon!
There’s no way something even crazier is gonna pop out after this! Right?!
What I’m saying is, there better not be anything else!
I’m sick and tired of this gag already!
It was already getting old when tons of mega-robots popped out, and then the even stronger sea urchin, and then tons of the sea urchins popped out, too?! Are you kidding me?!
And now there’s even a showy-looking pyramid in the middle, like the cherry on top of this stupid weapon sundae!
That thing’s gotta be the last trump card for sure!
It is, right?! Please, tell me there’s nothing else!
I know I’m normally a mild-mannered spider, but if a whole bunch of those pyramids pop out after this, I’m seriously gonna lose it!
Argh! Aaargh!
Ahh, I feel a little better after ranting a bunch.
Seriously, come off it already…
No waaay…
Potimas, you’re something else…
At this point, even I’ve gotta hand it to the guy.
This is pretty impressive.
Now I get why he was always so stupidly full of himself.
With this much firepower in your back pocket, yeah, of course you’d be confident that you can’t lose…
I mean, anyone else would never be able to deal with this…
But I can deal with it, of course.
All right, guess I gotta get serious now.
Ughhh.
I really didn’t want to show my whole hand here, but it looks like I have no other choice…
You should be proud of yourself, Potimas.
You made me—a literal god, at least in a roundabout way—go all out to defeat you.
Honestly, I thought this was gonna be an easier win.
As I’m preparing to get serious, the pyramid makes the first move.
One of its corners starts glowing.
Is that a w*ve motion gun?
’Cause it sure looks like a w*ve motion gun!
Just as I suspected, after a moment, the light forms a dense laser beam and fires right at me.
Yeah, yeah, into my parallel dimension it goes.
Aaand now I’ll send it right back atcha!
A gate to an empty parallel dimension appears right in front of me and sucks up the laser.
Then I create another gate right next to it so that the laser comes flying back out toward the pyramid.
Any space manipulator worth her salt would think of a move like this!
The thing where you connect two portals to fire a long-distance attack back at your enemy!
The pyramid’s own laser beams toward it.
But, as I probably should’ve guessed, the pyramid has a barrier that deflects the laser in a flash of dazzling light.
This one seems to be a combination of an anti-technique barrier with a reflector, maybe?
The laser bounces off the barrier and branches off in all directions, every scattered piece of light vaporizing whatever it hits.
…Yeesh, that thing is waaay too strong.
Seriously, what’s up with that?
It totally annihilated the ground wherever it hit…
I’m not even talking craters here; they’re basically just gaping holes.
Are you planning on physically destroying the planet now?
I thought it was a w*ve motion gun, but it’s basically the superlaser from the D*ath Star.
How much energy must it cost just for a single shot of that thing?
Man, I’m glad I didn’t try to just block that thing.
I don’t think there’s any way to defend against something like that.
Heh, but long-distance attacks don’t work on me!
I’ll just send them all flying right back where they came from!
I’m gonna sink this thing before it fires another shot, though.
First, I steal a quick peek at what Hyrince is doing.
Looks like Mr. Oni is hustling him away.
He looks back for a second, like maybe he noticed me spying on him, but then he faces forward again to focus on evacuating.
Guess he’s not planning to get involved in this battle, then.
That’s all well and good, but it still sucks that he’s gonna see the aces up my sleeves.
I don’t think I can get through this fight without going all out, though.
I mean, I could probably half-ass it given enough time, but this whole area will probably get reduced to nothing if I drag it out for too long.
Whew.
All right, here we go.
But first, I’m gonna throw myself into another dimension.
Heh.
No matter how powerful that beam attack might be, it can’t hit me if I’m in another dimension entirely!
What’s so unfair about spatial manipulation, you ask?
Well, it’s probably the fact that you can do anything you want to any opponent who can’t use spatial techniques without giving ’em any way to fight back.
Which is why gods need spatial abilities, I guess.
Although I seem to be especially good at it.
Anyway, guess it’s time to take the lid off my hellish cauldron.
A crack appears in space above where the pyramid and sea urchins are floating.
It spreads out in the shape of a spiderweb, covering the air above the elf village.
Then countless eyes peer down through the cracks.
Countless eyes, all gazing down at the earth.
It’s my clones, using Gluttonous Evil Eye.
The creepy-crawly crowd of spider eyes unleashes the attack simultaneously, devouring the energy of the pyramid and the sea urchins.
The pyramid and sea urchins all unload anti-aircraft fire, but they’re thwarted by the spiderweb-shaped space, preventing any attacks from reaching the clones.
Well, yeah. I used Spatial Separation on the whole setup.
Nothing’s getting in there.
Their energy drained, the sea urchins drop to the ground.
That’s what happens when I go all out.
I use my spatial abilities to the fullest, have countless clones hiding out in an alternate-dimension “home,” and suck up all your energy with Gluttonous Evil Eye.
Without their energy, even a god is just an ordinary living thing.
Having more energy than a normal creature could possibly contain is what makes a god a god, so if you take that away, you can’t even call them a god anymore.
This is the strategy I developed so that I—a newly made, half-assed god—could defeat the likes of Güli-güli.
I mean, what other choice did I have?
If we fought fair and square, I’d definitely lose.
So my only choice was to take the tried-and-true method I already had to the extreme.
Honestly, this is all I’ve got.
There’s so little I can actually do that you can barely even call me a real god.
But with this new “holing up at home” strategy that I polished to the extreme, I could actually take down a top-tier god like Güli-güli, at least in theory.
There’s no way it would fail against some stupid elf weapons.
I’ve got one million clones stashed in my cozy new subspace home.
So if they’ve got eight eyes each, that’s a total of eight million Gluttonous Evil Eyes.
I can only fully operate up to ten thousand battle clones at a time, but if all I have to do is activate Gluttonous Evil Eye, I can pull all this off.
It’s an incredibly simple strategy, but that’s what makes it so hard to defend against.
Still, that simplicity also means there might be a method for defending against it that I haven’t thought of…
Which is why I was hoping to avoid revealing this particular move…
I check in on Hyrince again.
Oh, geez. He’s totally staring.
Cut it out! Don’t look!
This is the only killer move I’ve got up my sleeve. If you figure out a way to deal with it, I’m totally screwed.
That’s why I didn’t want to do this!
C’mon, don’t come up with a counterstrategy for this, okay?
While I’m distracted with that, the last of the sea urchins fall to the ground, finally followed by the powerless pyramid.
Just like that, the elves’ ultimate weapon goes down.
Considering that the queen couldn’t even put a scratch on the sea urchin alone, this pyramid must’ve been even stronger, probably to the point where even the Demon Lord wouldn’t have been able to deal with it.
Taking into account the massive amount of energy I just sucked out of it with Gluttonous Evil Eye, I can estimate that the thing was insanely powerful.
But it still went down in a matter of minutes.
Just like Potimas confidently built up the elves’ forces, I had my own power saved up that could destroy anything he threw at us.
So this victory was the obvious outcome.
…Still, I gotta admit my heart’s racing a little.
I mean, c’mon!
Every time I thought that had to be it, even more reinforcements popped up, y’know?!
At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if a whole swarm of pyramids comes out next!
I mean, I’d be mad, but not surprised!
But you get why I’m paranoid at this point, right?!
Please, tell me there won’t be any more!
But as if to crush my dreams, the ground splits open, and something gigantic floats into sight.
…
………
……………
ENOUGH ALREADY, DAMMIIIIIIT!!!!
That’s it!
Now I’m mad!
Grr! You’ve gone and pissed off this mild-mannered spider for the last time!!
Arrgh! I hope you’re ready to pay the price!
Part 7 of 8