Part 7 of 8
Perseverance is the key here.
Show me what an ordinary human can really do.
Although I guess he’s a vampire, not a human anymore.
Meanwhile, on the human side, Natsume really screwed things up.
He tried to plot an assassination to get revenge on Yamada.
Although it ended in failure thanks to Ms. Oka.
On top of that, she even used her ruler authority to erase all Natsume’s skills.
Since Ms. Oka was able to use those Ruling Class Privileges, that means she has a ruler skill.
And she’s even established her authority.
There’s no way Ms. Oka has maxed out her Taboo skill, so Potimas must have told her how to do that. I’m sure he has his authority established, too, naturally.
Most likely, Ms. Oka’s ruler skill is Charity, one of the Seven Heavenly Virtues.
I used to have that one, too.
I got it when I was saving tons of people’s lives; it just randomly came with one of the titles I got.
It’s unclear whether Ms. Oka got it in the same way or if she used skill points to acquire it.
But how she got the skill isn’t that important, as long as she has it.
As long as Potimas is around, though, I can’t really go near her.
So if Ms. Oka has a ruler skill, that also means there’s one less key that I’ll be able to use.
That hurts, for sure.
But there’s nothing I can do there.
It was always going to be impossible to get all the keys anyway.
Man, though, Ms. Oka really overdid it.
Out of all the ruler privileges, erasing skills eats up an especially large portion of your soul.
Normally, that should have done some serious damage to her soul, enough that she could’ve lost a bunch of skills and had her stats seriously lowered in the process, too.
Ironically, it might be thanks to Potimas that Ms. Oka came out unscathed.
Part of Potimas’s soul is attached to her like a parasite.
Actually, that’s true of all elves, not just Ms. Oka.
I think this is an effect of Potimas’s Seven Heavenly Virtues skill, Diligence.
He can take over people he’s infected and use them as his own body doubles.
Once someone’s been taken over once, they can never go back to their old selves.
In other words, Potimas was basically holding Ms. Oka hostage.
Note the past tense, though.
That was before the Natsume-goes-crazy incident.
Ms. Oka used her ruler privileges in a way that should have consumed her soul, but miraculously, it consumed the soul of Potimas that was parasitically infecting her instead.
I don’t think even Potimas saw this coming.
Thanks to that, the part of Potimas’s soul that was attached to Ms. Oka got seriously weakened, making it much harder for him to take over her body.
All that being said, it’s only harder, not absolutely impossible, which is still concerning.
But still, anytime Potimas is inconvenienced, I’ve gotta celebrate!
Besides, that wasn’t even the only advantage we gained from this little incident.
We also succeeded in brainwa—I mean recruiting Natsume to our side.
Hmm? Was I about to say brainwashing?
No, you’re imagining things.
There’s no such thing as the brainwashing clones that I conveniently didn’t mention earlier.
And there’s definitely not a fingertip-sized spider inside of Natsume’s brain or anything like that! What is this, a horror movie?
Ha-ha-ha.
Look, if we just left him alone, he definitely would’ve gone crazy again and gotten himself executed this time for sure. So why shouldn’t I use him to our advantage instead?
And then I really hit the jackpot: He gained not one but two ruler skills, Lust and Greed!
Talk about a bargain.
We’ve pulled off all kinds of mischief thanks to Lust’s brainwashing effects, so now I can say for sure that I made the right choice!
Although I wasn’t expecting Yamada’s little sister to attack while we were brainwa—I mean persuading Natsume.
Gotta admit, the thought of keeping her quiet through violent means did cross my mind for a second—but when you really think about it, she’s actually pretty smart and talented, enough that she did a respectable job holding her own alongside a reincarnation like Yamada.
Doesn’t that mean she stands a chance of getting a ruler skill?
That’s why I very kindly approached her to suggest that she work with me in exchange for not doing any harm to Yamada.
Since she’s a little too obsessed with her brother, that threat—no, wait, I mean offer, definitely just an offer—worked on her right away.
Unfortunately, she hasn’t been able to get a ruler skill just yet.
But considering that she still helped us out with some other small favors, I’ve kept my promise not to do any harm to Yamada.
With my own hands, at least!
I never promised that Natsume wouldn’t hurt him, okay?
And I’ve still made sure that he stays alive, okay?
So I haven’t broken my promise.
Anyway, all jokes aside, I am planning on making sure she doesn’t get caught up in the shock waves that’ll inevitably come when we destroy the system, as thanks for helping us out.
Especially since I did kinda make her kill her own father.
I did have Natsume brainwash her and force her to do it, to make sure it was against her will at least, but it might’ve still been a teensy bit traumatic for her.
Next, I used Natsume’s brainwashing abilities to control other reincarnations like Ooshima and Hasebe and check whether they had any ruler skills.
If they did, I was planning to steal the keys from them while they were still brainwashed, but sadly, none of them had any.
I didn’t brainwash Yamada, since I made a promise to his sister and all.
Not to mention the little matter of Divine Protection.
I’ll admit, part of it was that I was just scared something weird would happen if I tried anything on him.
The fact that Yamada turned out to have the Mercy skill definitely stings, though.
Maybe I should’ve broken my promise to his little sister and stolen the key from him…
Well, no use crying over spilled milk.
And Shinohara is usually attached to Yamada at the hip, which means I can’t touch her, either.
So that’s the deal with the reincarnations at the human academy.
Other than those guys, there’s also Tagawa and Kushitani, two other reincarnations who’ve been traveling around the world as adventurers and built up a fair amount of combat experience, too.
Neither of them seems to have gained ruler skills as far as I can tell, so I’ve just been keeping an eye on them, but then they clashed with Mera in the war and ended up following Ms. Oka to the stupid elf village.
Maybe I could have stopped them if I tried, but it would’ve seemed weird for us to intervene at the time, and I was so busy with cleanup afterward that I just ignored ’em.
There’s also a reincarnation named Kusama who’s been working under the pontiff, but he doesn’t have a ruler skill, either, placing him solidly in the ignore column.
Hmm? I’m dismissing Kusama way too easily?
It’s not my fault. He’s just that kinda guy.
The other reincarnations are all confined in the elf village, and I seriously doubt they’d be able to get ruler skills in that situation, meaning they also get ignored.
To sum it up, the current ruler skill holders are as follows:
Wrath: Mr. Oni.
Envy: Vampy.
Greed and Lust: Natsume.
Gluttony: Demon Lord.
Pride and Sloth: Both unclaimed.
Mercy: Yamada.
Perseverance: Mera.
Diligence: Potimas.
Charity: Ms. Oka.
Temperance: The pontiff.
Chastity and Humility: Both unclaimed.
Of the fourteen, I’ve acquired the keys for six.
Four are unclaimed, and four belong to members of other factions.
I would’ve liked to get at least half of ’em down, but this might be the best I can do…
I’ll just have to use lockpicking for the rest.
So yeah.
As far as that part goes, apparently, the difficulty varies based on the state of the ruler skill.
Specifically, in order of highest difficulty to lowest: authority established > authority not established > unclaimed.
Unclaimed skills are basically like the key is lying around undefended near the lock, but if someone has the corresponding ruler skill, it becomes a lot harder because someone else is basically carrying the key around.
And if they’ve also established their ruler authority, it’s kinda as if there are additional security measures around the lock itself.
It’s because of this range in difficulty that I was able to figure out someone already had the Mercy skill.
In other words, the hardest ones to contend with at the moment are Diligence, Temperance, and Charity.
Mercy takes fourth place.
If I can just figure out these four somehow, the unclaimed ones should be easy enough.
I’m gonna kill the crap out of Potimas soon, meaning Diligence will go back to being unclaimed.
So I’ll just wait to pry it open until after all that.
As for Charity, I might be able to talk Ms. Oka into handing over the key once Potimas is good and dead.
I don’t know if she’s going to agree or not, but if I have a chance of resolving it peacefully, I might as well wait until then.
Which means that one’s also on hold until I massacre Potimas.
I’m not sure if there’s much I can do about Temperance…
Let’s just put that one aside for now.
I can make a judgment call on it after I kill Potimas.
That leaves Mercy as the highest priority.
It’d definitely be best to pick that lock before Yamada establishes his authority.
Once he maxes out his Taboo, it’d be great if he decided to help us… But if not, then it’s gonna be a huge pain.
Prying it open before then would be safer for sure.
Same goes for the four unclaimed ones.
I held out for as long as I could, but I doubt any of my players are gonna pick up a ruler skill anytime soon at this point, even if I put it off a little longer.
If anything, the chances might be higher of someone on a different team getting one instead.
Even among the people on our side who might get one, there’s an all-too-real chance that they might lose their lives in the battle at the elf village.
That even goes for the ones who already have a ruler skill, like Vampy and Mr. Oni.
And if they die, then another Ruler seat will be empty again.
Better to at least use the keys that I already have now and open as many locks as I can before any of that happens.
“So yeah, I’m gonna go take care of that stuff real quick.”
“Hmm. You can’t let those ‘system-related clones’ of yours take care of it like usual?”
I report in to the Demon Lord before I head out, since communication is important.
We’re in a horse-drawn—or rather spider-drawn—carriage.
It’s basically a fancy basket being carried on the backs of arch taratects. The lap of luxury.
“Nope. It’d be too risky for me to control them remotely from afar for such an important job.”
“Gotcha…”
I can understand why the Demon Lord would want me to hold off, though.
We’re right in the middle of preparing for battle with Potimas, which is clearly very important to her.
I can gather information on the enemy faster than basically anyone else in the world, I can teleport anywhere at any time, and I can even deploy whole formations that way. Since I’m the strongest force on our side, it’s no wonder she’d want to keep me close at hand.
Huh?! Wait, I’m so skilled it’s scary!
Is it just me, or am I too talented for my own good?!
Is this even allowed?
I’m not gonna get banned for hacking, am I?
I’m just that talented. It’s almost creepy.
“White…you’re lost in some stupid thoughts again, aren’t you…?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’m pretty sure you only say that when I’ve hit the nail on the head.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about…”
The Demon Lord rolls her eyes and shrugs exaggeratedly.
Grrr. Offense taken!
And I want to file a complaint against the super-toxic work environment in the demon army, too!
As the CEO, the Demon Lord should pay me a settlement!
“……”
For some reason, the Demon Lord grabs my hand tightly and pulls me toward her.
Whaaa—?
As I freeze in place, she lays me down and promptly bundles me up in her own thread.
The thread is woven like cotton and wrapped around my entire body.
Um, whaaa—?
“You can take care of that tomorrow. For tonight, you sleep right here.”
Sleep?
In this bundled-up state?
Okay, I’ll admit that this is actually super soft and comfy, but still.
If I sleep bundled up adorably in the Demon Lord’s carriage, what about my dignity?
“White, do you even realize how exhausted you look right now?”
“For real?”
Is it that obvious?
I guess I have been working too much overtime lately.
Even though I’m a god, I still have a physical body that can get tired.
Maybe I’ve been pushing it a little too much.
“But there’s not much time…”
“It’d be worse if you doze off and mess something up.”
Fair!
They say that since your performance gets worse when you’re tired, it’s actually more effective overall if you take regular breaks while working.
“All right, then.”
“Good. Have all your clones and stuff rest, too, except for what’s absolutely necessary.”
“Oh c’monnn…”
But then my whole worldwide surveillance network will temporarily shut down…
“Well? I’m waiting.”
“…Fine.”
Sheesh, the Demon Lord’s kinda pushy today.
Seems like she’s gonna force me to sleep by any means necessary.
“…I am aware that I’ve been relying on you too much, you know.”
“Hmm?”
The Demon Lord murmurs something with a bit of a rueful expression.
“So when I see you looking this exhausted…well…you know. I want you to rest, that’s all.”
“…I’m doing it because I want to, okay? Don’t make that face.”
“Sorry. No, wait. I guess what I should be saying right now is thank you.”
“Yeah, exactly.”
“Once it’s all over, I really want to thank you again, properly this time. So don’t fall out on me before then, okay?”
“You got it, boss.”
In that case, I guess it’s time to sleep!
I’m gonna get drunk on sleep!
Goodnight!
Within moments, White is snoozing quietly.
It’s been a long time since I saw her sleeping so defenselessly.
In fact, she hardly ever sleeps this deeply at all.
The only time I remember is after she became a god, when she lost her powers.
Even then, she was heavily on guard at first and would wake up right away at the slightest sound or movement.
But then either she came to trust us more, or perhaps she decided there was no point being on her guard since she had no powers left anyway; at any rate, she started to sleep more soundly.
When she was staying in the duke’s mansion in the demon territory, she apparently slept like a log.
But there was much less of that once she started getting her powers back.
And I think she completely stopped letting anyone else see her sleep right around the time she resolved to destroy the system and save the world.
Ever since then, White has been running nonstop.
Even though I know all she really wants to do is laze around…
Watching her reminds me of the original Ruler of Sloth.
A Ruler who loved lazing around but kept working nonstop until it eventually killed them.
At the time, I couldn’t do anything to help.
Because I was much weaker than I am now.
No, that’s not right. Even now, I’m depending on White far too much, hardly doing anything myself.
In the end, I still exist inside the system.
There’s not much I can do when it comes to what goes on outside it.
The most I can contribute is to force White to sleep like this.
It frustrates me to no end.
I want to help her more.
In fact, the reality is even more painful. White is originally an outsider here, and we’re forcing her to take on all these burdens.
It’s not just White, either.
Sophia, Wrath…
Even Merazophis, though he’s not a reincarnation.
They’re all generously lending me their strength.
I really do feel fortunate.
Maybe even as much as those days when I was surrounded by the first Rulers, or even more.
Back then, I was just a weakling, being protected by all of them.
But it’s different now.
I’ve gotten stronger.
Strong enough to fight, to defeat Potimas.
I can’t help White.
But I’ll do everything within my power until I’m spent.
It’s the least I can do to repay everyone for helping me.
I’ll express my ultimate gratitude by seeing it through to the end and making sure it all succeeds.
Lady Sariel.
The first Rulers, who have long since passed on.
Please watch over me.
I’m going to save this world with my own two hands.
I promise.
And then, if possible, I want to celebrate with White and the others.
So please, White.
Don’t push yourself too hard, okay?
Aah, this is so nice and comfy.
I slept well, all right.
Now I’m nice and refreshed.
“Good morning.”
“Morning.”
I crawl out of the fluffy bundle.
“Mm’kay, this time I’m going for real.”
“Right. Oh, but first, take this.”
Hmm?
The Demon Lord hands me something.
“…Huh?”
“You need that, right?”
Yes, the object she handed me is definitely something I need.
“Thanks. That’s a big help.”
“Don’t worry about it. You’re the one who’s helping me out.”
But this will definitely make my job a lot easier.
“This is pretty much the most I can do…”
…You really don’t need to worry about that, you know.
After all, the reason I decided to save this world in the first place is the Demon Lord herself.
“All right, I’ll be back soon.”
“Okay, have a safe trip. Be careful.”
…That exchange almost made us sound like a family.
Aw, I’m a little embarrassed.
I quickly teleport away to hide my embarrassment.
When I reappear, it’s in a very strange space indeed.
This is the center of the system.
A giant conjuring circle forms complex geometric patterns all across the floor.
It even spreads over the walls and ceiling, glowing with a faint, fantastical light.
And in the center is a woman, the lower half of her body gone as if she’s melting into space, suspended in midair as though the conjuring circle is binding her there.
The Goddess Sariel.
The core of the system, the sacrifice who was offered up to this world, and the precious person whom the Demon Lord called Mother.
<Proficiency has reached the required level.>
<Experience has reached the required level.>
<Proficiency has reached the required level.>
And although the Goddess’s lips aren’t moving, a cacophony of her voice echoes and overlaps endlessly in this room.
The system messages that the Word of God religion regards as the voice of god.
Coming to this place makes me incredibly uncomfortable.
Why? Well, every single sight in this room is disturbing, that’s why.
Maybe it’s because it shows just how selfish the humans of the past really were, or maybe it’s that even though the Demon Lord adores her and wants to save her so desperately, the Goddess herself doesn’t share that wish.
“……”
I shake my head lightly to dismiss those thoughts.
Throughout the mysterious room, there are small white spiders here and there.
Those are my system-related clones, and they’re already on standby.
There are fourteen distinctive conjuring circles that stand out in the room, distributed around the Goddess at the center.
Those are the keyholes.
I can open them by inserting the corresponding keys.
First, I’ll open the seven locks that I already have keys for.
There’s the six I already had and the seventh that the Demon Lord gave me before I left.
Since I’m opening these properly, there’s no problem so far.
This next part will be the real challenge.
I move the system-related clones to make contact with the conjuring circles that correspond to the unclaimed ruler skills.
The lockpicking is about to begin.
But then a sharp voice interrupts.
“Irregularity detected.”
Unlike the overlapping voices that have been echoing this whole time, that clearly came out of the Goddess’s mouth.
“Outside interference confirmed. Activating defense mechanism.”
…Yeah, that’s about what I expected.
Power gathers around the Goddess.
That’s the defense mechanism or whatever getting ready to shoot.
Well, I’m basically breaking and entering here, after all.
It’s no surprise that there would be a home security system in place.
Honestly, I knew this would happen.
Especially since I’ve already set off this defense mechanism once before.
It was during the war, when I tried to abolish the hero function.
The defense mechanism went off just like this, and the clones that were trying to modify the system were physically destroyed.
As a result, I failed to get rid of the function of the hero, and Yamada of all people was chosen as the new one.
Since the system-related clones aren’t made for fighting, this is one job they can’t handle.
Clusters of energy form around the Goddess, taking on shadowy forms.
They become pitch-black silhouettes, just barely taking the shape of humans.
There’s twelve people in total.
Or would you even call these people?
“Commence elimination.”
As my idle thoughts meander in a stupid direction, the Goddess gives an order, and the shadows all move at once.
They’re headed right toward me—and whoa, they’re so fast?!
Just as I take a quick step to the side, a fist flies past my face with a gust of wind.
One of the shadowy figures closed in on me insanely fast and nearly landed a punch right on my nose.
Damn, that was fast!
Wicked fast!
Yiiikes!
Whew, that scared me.
Maybe I wasn’t being careful enough.
Since I’ve gotten so good with my god powers, I might’ve been a little overconfident.
How could I come that close to getting hit by such an obvious Telephone Punch?
Wait, another one?!
The same shadow is charging at me again.
It’s basically just swinging wildly, no polish or technique whatsoever.
But with that unbelievable speed, it’s still a pretty serious threat!
That said, it’s coming in a straight line, so it’ll be simple to dodge.
I sidestep the telegraphed attack and avoid it again.
After the shadow passes, a loud boom follows.
The sound came after—does that mean it’s moving faster than the speed of sound?!
Are these shadows even faster than the Demon Lord, if nothing else?
As I wonder about this, an invisible blade flies toward me.
Whoops, looks like they’re not just speedy after all.
Wait, is this thread?!
The weapons moving toward me are threads, too fine for the naked eye to see.
There’s ten of them in total.
It looks like one of the shadows shot out threads from each of its fingers and is manipulating them.
Heh. So you think you can take me on in a battle of thread?!
Time for you to learn your place!
I’ll turn the tables on you in no time!
So I shoot out ten threads from my own fingers as well, countering the shadow’s attack.
Bwa-ha-ha! You think those feeble threads can reach my feet—whoa, whaaa—?!
We’re actually evenly matched!
But how?!
You’re telling me there’s a thread user who can fight on equal footing with me?!
Our threads crack against each other like whips, whirling and feinting at each other with pulls and twists as we try to cut through each other’s threads.
It’s an incredibly close contest.
And then the speed shadow charges toward me!
I put my fight with the thread shadow on hold to get some distance between us.
Then another shadow suddenly appears behind me.
When did you get there?!
With no time to turn around, I just shoot a Black Spear at it from my back.
It doesn’t exactly look awesome, but I can produce conjurings from anywhere on my body!
The shadow that was trying to pull off a surprise attack on me is getting a surprise attack of its own!
Or so I thought—but then it disappears just as suddenly as it arrived.
This time, I sense its presence carefully and figure out how it’s poofing around!
The shadow is turning its body into a mist form to make it look like it’s disappeared.
Sure enough, the mist concentrates and reverts to a shadow.
What’s up with that vampire-like ability?!
Vampy can do that kinda thing, too, right?! Although she and Mera never really use it!
And now more threaaad?!
The thread surrounds me completely, boxing me in.
Retreat! Teleport!
I escape with a Short-Range Teleport.
Phew. Now I can get my—wait, wha—?!
A speed shadow just grazed me?!
Hang on, time out!
Gimme a second here!
Spatial Separation!
I cut off the space all around me, creating a cube-shaped void barrier.
Since the entire space is separated, no physical or magical attacks can pass through.
You’d have to be on my level of spatial conjuring expertise to get in from the outside.
In other words, it’s practically invincible.
The only downside is that it blocks out all light and sound, too, meaning I can’t tell what’s going around outside, either.
At any rate, this will protect me from enemy attacks.
I’ll take that moment to calm down a little.
Okay, so the defense mechanism shadows are way stronger than I expected.
Maybe I was being careless or overconfident or whatever, but even then, isn’t it awfully strange that they were able to corner me like this?
I am a god, remember?
In terms of abilities, I’m pretty sure I’m way stronger than I ever was as an arachne…
Now, my current strength is spatial conjuring. In terms of stats, I would probably still fall short of the Demon Lord, I think.
Even then, I would estimate that I’ve got the equivalent of stats in the 50,000 or 60,000 range.
So what the heck does it mean if I still can barely keep up with these things?
It’s like I’m fighting a whole bunch of Demon Lord–tier opponents.
Nah, I guess they’re probably individually weaker than the Demon Lord, but still.
Maybe Vampy or Mr. Oni would be a better comparison?
Yeah, that seems about right.
And a dozen of them, no less…
On top of that, thus far, I’ve only been able to confirm the abilities of three of them: the speed shadow, the thread shadow, and the mist shadow.
I don’t even know what the other nine do yet.
Considering how unique the first three have been, I seriously doubt the remaining nine are just generic mass-produced fighters.
It’s probably best to assume they’ve got some crazy abilities, too.
I guess I should’ve expected no less of the defense mechanism protecting the system itself.
This isn’t a hopeless situation by a long shot, but it’s gonna be tougher than I was expecting, that’s for sure.
All right!
I’ve calmed down a little.
Let’s give this another shot.
…First of all, it’d be dangerous to just deactivate the barrier right now. Instead, I’ll teleport somewhere directly outside of the barrier.
All at once, I’m free from the soundless, pitch-dark space.
And the first thing I see is, yeesh, a whole big swarm of…somethings.
There are so many black-silhouette creatures that you can’t even see the Spatial Separation box I was inside a moment ago.
Um, I’m pretty sure those weren’t there before…
Where did these things come from…?
Oh, never mind. I see the source right there.
One of the human-shaped shadows is producing a bunch of monsters.
That guy over there’s clearly the culprit.
Is it just gonna keep churning out endless mobs if I don’t stop it…?
Guess I better take that one down fast.
Ah, but first…
I produce a Spatial Separation wall right in front of me.
Then the speed shadow slams right into it.
If you keep trying the same attack over and over in such a short time, I’m gonna get used to it no matter how fast you are, dummy.
The speed shadow collides with the Spatial Separation wall at the height of its impressive speed and absorbs all the recoil to boot.
A normal wall would probably absorb part of the impact, but this is an actual separation in the fabric of space, not a physical wall.
If you crash into it, you’re taking every bit of that impact right to the face.
The speed shadow crumples to the floor.
One down.
…Or so I thought, until a blast of light coming from another shadow hits the wounded one in the back.
The speed shadow hops right back up.
Ugh. They’ve got a healer, huh…?
If the healer shadow can restore the others, then I’ve got to crush that one, or it’ll keep bringing the other shadows back.
So the summoner shadow and the healer shadow.
Those are my top priorities, but which one should I go after first?
I guess probably the healer.
There’d be no point beating the summoner shadow first if the healer shadow just brings him right back to life.
Death to healers. No mercy.
All I gotta do now is avoid the recovered speed shadow, the thread shadow, the mist shadow, the swarm of shadow beasts, and whatever else comes at me, all while targeting the healer shadow.
The speed shadow only uses simple charge attacks, and the thread shadow is actually easier to avoid if I don’t try to fight it with more thread.
As long as I’m careful of the mist shadow, I can tell when it’s about to appear.
I couldn’t react fast enough before because I wasn’t expecting it and had to fend off an attack at the same time, but the cat’s out of the bag now.
As for the big swarm of beasts, they’re not much to worry about.
In fact, to be totally honest, these shadows are weak.
I can even wipe them all out with some dark missiles that I conjured a bunch of as a smoke screen.
Compared to the shadows, they’re practically trivial.
Although that’s probably why the summoner shadow can crank them out so fast.
As soon as I wipe out one wave, there’s already a bunch more. It’s extremely annoying.
On top of that, they’re actually working together against me pretty well.
That’s probably thanks to the shadow that’s standing next to the summoner shadow, pointing at me and giving orders with gestures.
Is that a command-related ability, maybe?
It might be granting them some kind of ability-enhancing buff, too.
Looks like it’s giving all the shadows orders, including the beasts, which is why they’re coordinating their attacks on me.
That’s kind of a pain, too.
But still, the healer shadow comes first!
Avoiding the intermittent attacks from the beasts, speed shadow, and so on, I send a Dark Spear flying toward the healer shadow.
My attack hurtles at its target, but then a different shadow jumps in front of the healer and blocks it.
This one’s got a shield.
I can’t believe it blocked my conjuring…
Guess this shadow is fairly strong, too.
Each of them would probably have stats in the tens of thousands. Maybe they’d even be on par with legendary-class monsters?
It’d be nearly impossible to deal with a dozen of them if your strength was bound by the limits of the system, wouldn’t it?
The Demon Lord might be able to take them…
No, I guess this would be tough to solo even for her, huh?
Maybe she could do it if she brought the puppet spiders and some more backup?
If it’d be this hard even for the Demon Lord, then this is normally an impossible level.
Guess that means they really don’t want you to cheat.
But I’m gonna do it anyway!
The healer shadow splits in two.
I used Spatial Separation to cut it in half.
Since I’m messing with the fabric of space itself, it’s physically impossible to defend against.
You’d have to be at least as good with spatial manipulation as I am, or else the only thing to do is dodge.
But I’m very confident in my spatial abilities, and there’s no way to tell it’s coming, making it next to impossible to sense or predict and dodge.
In other words, it’s a completely unfair attack that basically insta-kills as soon as it’s activated.
Now that’s one down.
…Except I was wrong. Again.
A plump-looking shadow comes running over to the healer shadow and hits it with light.
And the healer shadow is back on its feet like nothing happened.
Oh, come on.
You can even bring ’em back from the dead?
And there’s another one besides that healer shadow, too?!
I wasn’t told about this!
Come on, you gotta be kidding me! Listen up, system!
I know this is the defense mechanism of the system’s core, but should you really be giving these things the ability to bring the dead back to life, which is practically number one on the list of things that should be totally off limits in this world?
I mean, you can only collect energy if something dies in this world, so preventing that by resurrecting someone should be out of the question.
I won’t say it’s against the rules, but it one hundred percent goes against common courtesy.
And should the system itself really be so brazen about flaunting this unspoken rule? Hmmmm?
There’s only one skill that can even revive the dead, and that’s Yamada’s Mercy.
You’re totally messing up the game balance, dude.
Is this like a penalty from the moderators against a player who’s broken a rule?
Should be grateful that I didn’t get my account banned on the spot?
Knowing D’s power, I’m sure she could impose a penalty that would instantly wipe me out if she really wanted to.
Since that didn’t happen, that means she’s still holding back a bit.
And if she’s still holding back, then D still wants this to be a beatable challenge.
Although I’m pretty sure you seriously screwed up the difficulty level!
Or was that on purpose?
Is D demanding that I should be able to handle something this insane?
…Okay, actually, I could totally see that.
D basically said that she was bored of this world and wanted to ditch it because it was at a standstill.
In other words, the people of this world couldn’t live up to D’s standards.
That’s an evil god for you.
Sticking them with an extreme difficulty mode, then getting bored and throwing them aside because they couldn’t beat it…
Isn’t that a teensy bit too selfish?
But I guess that just means she’s so strong that people have to forgive her, or rather have no other choice but to let her do what she wants.
Even I’m in no position to complain.
I guess this is a real-world example of absolute power corrupts absolutely…
Maybe it really is D’s fault that this world ended up in such a mess, huh?
Her standards were way too high, making it impossible to win…
That would certainly explain why the Demon Lord, the pontiff, and all of them were never rewarded in spite of all their hard work.
You know, thinking about this is actually starting to piss me off.
Why does the Demon Lord have to suffer because of that jerk’s stupid demands?
In fact, I’m suffering because of it right this second!
I use Spatial Separation to cut the speed shadow in half.
But then the thread shadow, the mist shadow, and a whole bunch of beasts all charge at me, forcing me to go on the defensive.
And while I’m busy dodging, the resurrection shadow brings back the stupid speed shadow.
We’ve just been repeating this cycle over and over.
I’ve killed the speed shadow the most, but I brought down the thread shadow and the mist shadow a few times each, too.
But every single time, they just get revived.
If I kill them instantly with Spatial Separation, the resurrection shadow fixes ’em up; if I don’t get a one-hit kill, the healer shadow does it instead.
I feel like I’m playing an endless game of whack-a-mole here.
It seems like the resurrection shadow is the only one that can bring back the dead, not the healer.
So if I could just take that one down, things would get a hell of a lot easier, but obviously, my enemies are all too aware of that fact.
So the other shadows have been aggressively protecting the resurrection shadow.
The shield shadow and the barrier shadow are both guarding it nonstop.
In theory, my Spatial Separation should be able to take out the target anyway, even if there are tanks in the way.
…But in practice, they’ve figured out a way to stop me.
How the heck are they defending against an attack that insta-kills regardless of the distance or the enemy’s defenses, you ask?
It’s similar in principle to the magic-neutralizing effect that dragons have.
Dragons’ scales and barrier-related skills interfere with the fundamental building blocks of magic, weakening the effect of spells.
And the building part actually isn’t any different for conjuring.
In theory, any skill that can block magic should also be able to hinder my conjurings.
It just happens to require a much higher output, since it’s my conjuring that you have to stop.
I’m a former magic expert who once had the Height of Occultism skill, you know?
Even though it’s conjuring now instead of magic, I’m still just as strong! …I think.
But now, my conjuring is being obstructed.
By the shield shadow and the barrier shadow.
One obviously holds a simple shield, and the other creates simple transparent barriers.
I think it’s the latter that’s blocking my conjurings.
But it’s hard to imagine that just one of them is single-handedly negating my powers, so I’m assuming the shield shadow has some kind of obstructing effect as well.
Basically, the two of them are working together to crush my magic.
Although spatial conjuring is my area of expertise, and I can produce it without much effort, it still uses high-level, super-complex runes.
So it’s not my fault that I can’t break through a blockade of two stupid shadows!
At least, that’s the excuse I’m going with.
In reality, spatial conjuring originates in the fabric of space by nature.
If the targeted part of space is within the range of the obstruction, the construction will fall apart as soon as it starts to activate, making it weaker to barriers than other kinds of conjuring.
You’d think I could just shoot them from afar with other kinds of conjuring, then, but that doesn’t work, either.
I tried tossing some Dark Spears, but they lost most of their power as soon as they touched the barrier, then got blocked by the shield shadow and dissipated completely.
Grrr.
These guys’ magic-jamming abilities are crazy strong.
They might even be on par with Vampy, no?
Thanks to her Ruler of Envy title, Vampy has a maxed-out skill called Divine Scales, the strongest of the dragons’ anti-magic scale skills.
Basically, it’s the strongest magic-blocking skill in existence.
As far as I can tell, the shield and barrier shadows have magic-obstructing abilities that are on par with Vampy’s.
In fact, is it just me, or is the barrier maybe even stronger than hers?
Man, what a pain.
What am I supposed to do about these guys…?
Seriously, every single one of them is strong enough to take on an army alone…
How am I supposed to fight twelve of them…?
Now I’m really getting fed up.
So far, we’ve got the speed shadow, thread shadow, mist shadow, summoner shadow, commander shadow, healer shadow, resurrection shadow, shield shadow, and barrier shadow.
That’s nine in total.
As for the other three: One of them has just been standing in front of the Goddess this whole time without moving.
The other two are chasing my system-related clones around.
One of them seems to have a bunch of different abilities; it’s using all kinds of magic to sling attacks at my clones as they run around like crazy.
And it also seems to have telekinesis or something, because there’s a bunch of different swords, axes, spears, and other weapons floating around for no discernable reason.
But the fact that they’re floating there means it can probably use all of those, too.
What a multitalented bastard.
As far as the other one goes, well, I’m not really sure.
I can tell it’s trying to do something to my clones, but they’ve been resisting all its attacks so far.
It looks like they’re being attacked by something invisible, but I can’t tell what’s happening exactly.
Since they’re totally resisting it anyway, I could probably just ignore it.
But considering how strong all the other shadows are, I get the feeling that if they fail to resist it at any point, it’s not gonna be good news.
Although since it’s targeting my clones and not me, I assume it’s nothing totally insane like instant death or something.
Wait, what if it actually is, though?
Like, what if they’re planning on taking out the weak-looking clones first.
But it’s not working, sooo…
I would think it’d be more efficient to help the others fight me than to waste time chasing my clones in that case.
And just as that thought crosses my mind, the commander shadow gives some kinda gesture and sends them after me instead.
Hrm.
I couldn’t tell what was hitting my clones, but if it tries it on me, maybe I can analyze it?
The mysterious shadow that was going after my clones turns toward me, and…uh, whatcha doin’, bud?
It’s striking some kinda weird pose.
Like, the weirdest, most indescribable pose you can imagine.
Is it trying to look cool, or…?
Since it’s just a jet-black shadow, it doesn’t have a face to speak of, but I can almost imagine it winking or something.
At the same time, the mystery attack it was using on the clones comes at me, too, but of course I easily resist it.
Um, okaaay…
How am I supposed to react to this?
You can’t just drop some stupid comedy routine on me in the middle of this super-serious fight scene…
The shadow changes its pose.
Part 7 of 8