Part 4 of 8
For someone of Foduey’s wealth, however, the size of the room seemed rather modest.
It was only furnished to the bare minimum, with no showy décor whatsoever.
I suppose you could call that minimalism, but it seemed a strange lifestyle for someone like Foduey, whose total assets were an order of magnitude higher than that of most people.
Strangest of all, there wasn’t a single window in the entire room, and the lighting was quite dim.
“…Good point. I suppose we don’t know if that’s still the case anymore.”
Foduey gave a smile that was more of a grimace, revealing pointed canines at the edges of his mouth.
“Dear me… I thought I’d already had more ups and downs in life than the average person. Who would have thought that something like this would happen so near to the end?”
“True. I doubt even the most knowledgeable minds could have predicted such an outcome.”
Even I, a dragon, never thought that this would happen.
To borrow an idiom from the reincarnations, it was what one might call “a bolt from the blue.”
In terms of our game, it was as if someone had come over and flipped the entire board.
That is how unimaginable what happened to Foduey really was.
I can only tell what happened secondhand.
After all, I did not spend my every waking hour observing the human world.
I know only what Foduey himself told me, as I was not there myself.
At the time, the Sariella Foundation was secretly working to expose a criminal organization.
In fact, it was a combination of several different groups.
However, there was no obvious connection between them, and none of the groups even knew what others they were working with.
This made it very difficult to investigate, and time-consuming.
The Sariella Foundation realized this and decided to use somewhat forceful means that ignored customary practices, attempting to infiltrate the groups.
I do not believe they were wrong to do so. If they left the organization to its own devices, there would more than likely have been even more victims.
Even then, unfortunately enough, they were already too late.
That criminal organization had been made for the sole purpose of carrying out a certain man’s machinations.
As you may have already guessed, that man was none other than Potimas.
He was sowing the seeds of his influence in criminal organizations all over the world, slowly taking over—all without ever showing himself.
His caution was so excessive that most of the organizations weren’t even aware that they were connected to Potimas at all.
But no amount of caution can keep such activities secret forever.
Potimas overreached himself.
In the end, it was the orphans who helped the Sariella Foundation find Potimas.
The Foundation managed and supported orphanages all over the world, and in the course of these activities, they discovered something strange.
There was an increasing number of orphaned children disappearing.
Generally, children left the orphanage if they were adopted by a foster family, reached a certain age, and so on.
But more and more, they found they could no longer locate the children afterward.
Of course, even the Sariella Foundation couldn’t keep track of every single child who moved on from the orphanage, but they had certain systems in place to ensure that the children didn’t fall upon hard times after leaving.
In most cases, they found jobs through employment agencies affiliated with the Sariella Foundation and made a living that way.
But at some point, the number of orphans using that employment agency started to decrease.
It was a minor enough change that most people would pay it no mind, but Sariel noticed something was amiss and ordered an investigation.
As a result, they discovered that some of the orphans had gone missing entirely, and behind it was an organization under Potimas’s control.
The kidnapped orphans were being subjected to Potimas’s human experiments.
While the chimeras at Sariel’s orphanage were the result of experiments meant to produce chimeras from birth, these stolen orphans were being subjected to experiments to turn them into chimeras after the fact.
Unfortunately, this proved to be more difficult than creating chimeras from birth, and most of these kidnapped children could not be saved.
The only survivors were those who were rescued before being experimented on.
Because of all this, there was no time to gather proof and expose each organization. Instead, the Sariella Foundation used all of its power to attack these groups.
I am told that all the major nations chose to avert their eyes from this rather violent tactic, presumably with some motivation by Foduey.
Since the Sariella Foundation was rooting out evil in their respective lands, I assume it was mutually beneficial.
Though I don’t know about the nations that were colluding with those criminal organizations.
Lip service isn’t enough to keep a nation running. Sometimes it takes unconventional measures, even if that includes criminals.
I suppose humans would call it a necessary evil.
Some of the nations probably just took advantage of both sides, but that is not relevant now.
I am sure many politicians proved their mettle by filling in the gaps left once the criminal organizations were all eliminated.
If Foduey had been healthy, I’m sure he would have intervened and collected even more money than he spent, but unfortunately that was not the case.
As I said, the Sariella Foundation utilized some forceful strategies to root out these organizations.
Those strategies included the direct use of military power.
The Sariella Foundation sometimes sent doctors and such into conflicted territories.
They needed soldiers to protect those doctors, which meant they had their own army, technically a private security firm.
Even a group like the Sariella Foundation had to dirty its hands at times.
That was what the security firm was for.
It goes without saying that this force played a part in taking out the criminal organizations as well.
Now, I will say in advance that the force was not at fault for what happened.
Even Foduey himself said so, and after hearing the full story, I was inclined to agree.
No one was at fault here—it was just incredibly bad luck.
…No, I suppose there was one person at fault: Potimas, of course.
Potimas’s experiments covered a wide range, including attempts to turn subjects into vampires.
Nowadays, the word vampire likely calls Sophia to mind, but before she appeared, vampires had not existed for a very long time.
Truth be told, they were exterminated.
But we can discuss that particular history another time.
You see, vampires still did not exist even at the time when Foduey was alive.
To a reincarnation, it might make sense for a world in which dragons exist to have vampires as well, but in fact it is the opposite.
There were no vampires because there are dragons.
Even more so because of Sariella, I suppose.
Vampires really do exist conceptually, just like dragons and angels.
Did you think Sophia’s abilities were due to her skill?
No, she is a proper vampire.
She was simply given relevant skills after being born as a vampire.
Although, of course, the fact that she was born a vampire was undoubtedly due to D’s meddling.
Vampires are a sort of conjured race, an acquired species made by the power of conjuring.
As such, anyone can be made into a vampire as long as the requisite conjuring is performed.
But think about it, hmm?
A species that can create more of itself just by biting people and drinking their blood is bound to destroy the ecosystem.
Vampirism is essentially a disease.
If it spreads, there is no stopping it.
That is why dragons decided to exterminate vampires whenever possible, and why they also run counter to Sariel’s mission of protecting the native species.
Vampires are akin to an invasive species. They had to be eliminated.
Thus, vampires only existed in stories, even in this world.
Do you find it strange that tales of them survive, even if only in legend?
Irritatingly enough, knowledge of such significant beings spreads no matter what.
There is a theory that people unconsciously sense the existence of such creatures from far away, and reflect it in stories that spread throughout society.
There were tales of dragons and angels even in the reincarnations’ world, were there not?
So, are the creatures in that story truly the stuff of fiction, or something more?
Stories are powerful things.
Even we dragons and Sariel could not control their propagation.
Most humans knew of vampires only as fictional creatures.
Yet somehow, Potimas managed to independently develop a conjuring for creating vampires.
Though I am loath to admit it, the man is undoubtedly a genius.
But even he could not create completely flawless runes from scratch.
Though his vampire conjuring was completed, it was technically a failure.
Those who were turned into vampires would lose their minds, attacking any living thing they saw, and eventually becoming beasts who lived only to drink blood.
Potimas locked away these failed vampires in one of his organizations.
They were sealed in the forms of the kidnapped orphans, who sadly were the victims of this experiment.
Not long after, the Sariella Foundation’s security forces were sent out to save them.
They brought down the organization and rescued the victims.
Unfortunately, said victims had gone mad due to the effects of the experiments, and even tried to attack the force, but were successfully brought into custody.
At this point, I imagine you have some idea of what happened to that force, correct?
Yes, that’s right.
The victims, the failed vampires, bit several of the people in the security force.
I doubt I need to elaborate on the results, but those who were bitten turned into vampires.
And, like the victims of the experiments, they lost their minds, too.
Worse yet, there was a delay between when they were bitten and when they transformed into vampires.
In the case of true vampires, the transformation is complete the moment the vampire bites the victim and drinks their blood with the intent to turn them.
But that wasn’t so for the failed vampires.
The length of time varied between individuals, but some of them continued acting normal for up to several days, or so I am told.
Then their condition would suddenly worsen, they would grow disoriented, and within moments they lost all sanity.
Thus, the security force members who were bitten transformed into more failed vampires.
One of these members was the reason Foduey was turned into a vampire as well.
Evidently, he was the captain of the force.
He was reporting to Foduey about the attack on the organization, his findings from the location, and so on.
In a terrible twist of fate, that happened to be the moment when he transformed into a vampire.
Thus, the person he then attacked and bit was Foduey.
…I did not know this captain, as we never met.
But according to Foduey, when he was giving the report, he expressed sympathy for the victims who were transfigured, and righteous anger at the perpetrators.
Given how much Foduey trusted him, he must have been a good man.
Which is apparently why no one who knew him believed that he would suddenly attack Foduey like that.
That man’s unexpectedly violent act, and the fact that the all-important Foduey was attacked, led to a swift and thorough investigation into the frightening phenomenon of vampire transformation.
There were the original victims of the human experiments, then the second-wave victims, the force members who were bitten by the original victims.
And then, there were the third-wave victims who were bitten by those force members.
All were quickly quarantined.
It was a highly dangerous situation. If they had acted even a little less quickly, a vampirism pandemic might have spread through the entire world in a flash.
I hate to put it this way, but you could say that Foduey’s sacrifice kept the number of victims to a minimum.
In fact, all things considered, it is nothing short of miraculous that the damage was so small.
And there was one other miracle, too.
Namely, Foduey’s mind.
The victims lost their sanity, but Foduey was an exception.
When Foduey was bitten, the blood loss put his already elderly body on the verge of death.
He fell into a coma for a time, but eventually awoke.
Since he had already developed the fangs that signified a vampire transformation, it was assumed he would not be sane even if he did wake up, so he was restrained in the bed.
When he awoke, he struggled against the bonds immediately, and shouted angrily at the doctor who came running over, demanding to be released.
That was how the doctor discovered that Foduey had retained a sound mind.
It’s unclear why Foduey was able to stay sane.
Even I do not know everything.
Sometimes, things happen in life that defy all expectations.
Foduey is one example, Potimas another.
Although in my estimation, Foduey’s stubbornness and spite must have won out over the vampiric curse.
Still, it didn’t change the fact that he was turned into a vampire, even if he stayed sane.
And there was no telling whether he might someday lose his mind like the other victims.
Thus, Foduey was kept in isolation.
I was visiting him in his isolation ward.
“Hrm.”
Foduey grumbled again.
Now that he was being kept in isolation, he had lots of time on his hands.
So I periodically visited and played games with him.
Even if he was being kept in isolation, there was no way to prevent a dragon like me from visiting a human.
The supervisor of the isolation facility was reluctant, but he did not stop my visits.
“No take-backs, understood?”
“Heavens, of course not. There are few situations in life that allow for take-backs. That is precisely why humans are so afraid of making mistakes.”
Sure enough, I do not remember a single instance of Foduey attempting to take back a move.
“But humans still make mistakes. It happens, no matter how hard we try. We accumulate these mistakes, write rules in an effort to avoid making new ones, and try to reduce the number of mistakes we make as we go. Human history is a chronicle of mistakes. And we learn from those mistakes to shape the future. Not that the mistakes ever stop completely.”
Foduey moved a piece as he spoke.
I moved my piece right away, so that it was Foduey’s turn again.
But he was deep in thought and made no further moves for a while.
“And I have not lost all these many times in vain. Each time I am defeated, each time I fail, I take it as another lesson. And now I will put all those lessons to use in this one move!”
Foduey made a dramatic declaration as he moved another piece.
At that, I promptly moved one of my own pieces to block his move.
An awkward silence settled over us for a moment.
“…No matter how much one tries to eliminate mistakes, there is no guarantee that it will lead to victory. This is a perfect example of that.”
“Very smooth.”
Foduey was nothing if not loquacious.
From meaningless chatter to groan-inducing metaphors, he was always talking throughout every game.
“They do say that language is humanity’s greatest invention. Human history is also a long record of arguing in circles.”
“No, that doesn’t make sense.”
It was frequently difficult to tell whether he was being serious about topics like this, which led to no small amount of bewilderment on my part.
“But of course it makes sense. Because of the existence of dragons and their absolute power, we humans could never depend on military might alone. In the end, words are our greatest weapons, but it took countless arguments to hone them to this level. Twisting the truth, talking the enemy over to one’s own side… It is because we have done these things for so long that our tongues became so sharp.”
“Don’t blame your own nastiness on history. Nor do I appreciate you casually blaming us dragons, for that matter.”
Foduey definitely had a natural talent for sophism.
…Not exactly an ideal trait.
“Honestly. Your endless rambling never ceases to amaze.”
“Yes, I daresay there are few who could best me at it.”
Foduey acted as if my sarcasm were a compliment, even having the nerve to look smug as he moved his piece.
Of course, I made my own move immediately to wipe the smirk off his face.
“I can certainly best you at this game, but not at talking,” I muttered.
“I should think not. Humans and dragons really do think at different speeds. No matter how many times I challenge you, I doubt I can ever win against you at this game. It’s a strange thing, isn’t it? They both lie in the realm of the mind, but while I can never beat you in a game, I suspect I would never lose to you in an argument. Perhaps it means that dragons are superior in overall calculation ability, but humans are better at being shrewd and crafty?”
Foduey glowered at the board, but still looked somewhat pleased.
“There is no doubt that dragons are magnificent, of course. But no matter how great they might be, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any aspects in which they fall short of other creatures. Dragons are not as cunning as humans. They don’t have to be because they’re strong enough without it. Instead of resorting to any cowardly means necessary like humans so often do, dragons can generally seize victory just by facing the enemy head-on. So there was never a need for you to be shrewd. But you see, that is negligence on the part of dragons. Because you write off humans as lesser beings, our craftiness confounds you. Just as I have currently smooth-talked you, a dragon, into fighting me on human terms.”
Foduey looked even more delighted now.
Despite our battle being on the board, Foduey’s words did indeed fill me with a helpless sense of defeat.
It felt as if I had played right into the hands of the man in front of me, who, from a dragon’s perspective, was only a frail old man unworthy of note.
And indeed, from a neutral perspective, that really was the case.
I, a dragon, was being thoroughly manipulated by a human, a lesser being.
Well, I suppose by that point he was a vampire and not a human, but that is a trivial matter.
“Humans are cowardly, and far more foolish than dragons realize. We have made mistakes throughout history, and supposedly learned from those mistakes, yet we continue to make more. Mistakes upon mistakes upon mistakes. What’s worse, each time we make a mistake we become craftier, and so the amount of damage done by each mistake only grows. Even though these lessons are meant to reduce the damage. Isn’t that strange?”
Despite feeling like I was playing into his hands, I continued to face Foduey from a human perspective, because I knew this was a sort of test.
A trial to see if I could face Sariel.
“You are a dragon, yet you have learned the perspective of humans. I doubt that means you have come to fully understand humans, of course. As I said before, humans are far more foolish than dragons believe. Lady Sariel has been facing that foolishness all this time.”
Foduey moved his piece.
This time, I moved my own almost before Foduey’s hand had even left his.
“I resign.”
Foduey admitted defeat with a sunny expression.
“You possess the perspective of both god and mankind. Perhaps, then, you can bring about change in Lady Sariel. It is no longer within the realm of human possibility, but a god should not do it, either. It must be someone who is a god of sorts, yet understands humans as well.”
This was a serious piece of advice from the defeated to the victor.
And then, a request.
“You see the sorry state I am in. I doubt I will ever leave this room again. So I will entrust this task to you.”
Now that he had been turned into a vampire and isolated, there was little Foduey could do on his own.
He could still offer monetary support within reason, but nothing more.
There was a limit to how much he could work for Sariel’s sake as he once did.
“Please, take care of Lady Sariel.”
Foduey bowed his head in supplication, but I said nothing.
Was there anything I could do for Sariel?
A part of me did not know how to answer that question.
And so, I couldn’t bring myself to agree so easily.
…My concerns, I’m afraid, were right on the mark.
In the end, I was never able to live up to Foduey’s expectations.
Vampires…
What a failure.
I gained knowledge about conjuring and attempted to develop a technique to make humans evolve, but the result was far from satisfactory.
The reason I did not dispose of the failed vampires was so that I could use them for further experiments, but the Sariella Foundation just had to interfere and take them away.
Well, they would not have been much use anyway, I suppose.
Let us simply say that I was spared the trouble of destroying them.
However, it is quite intriguing that the failed vampires then increased their number, and just a single person managed to become a proper vampire.
I should like to investigate the workings of his body for myself, but I doubt I will be able to acquire him for experiments.
Besides, a species with so many weaknesses is a far cry from the eternal life I desire.
Even if I could obtain that specimen, I am sure my experiments would destroy him before long.
So in that way, perhaps it is not such a huge loss.
Okay, what the hell?!
Here I was, busting robots left and right, thinking this was gonna be a piece of cake.
But it turns out the robots I was beating were actually the mass-produced-trash tier, and now I gotta deal with these giant “Gloria” mega-robot things.
On top of that, those are mass-produced, too…
And we don’t know yet how strong these mega-robots are.
If what Potimas said that one time is true, then they’re even stronger than a top-tier dragon.
And there’s a ton of them…
Yeah, this doesn’t look so good, does it…?
I don’t think I can mess around with trying to “conserve my strength” anymore.
Originally, I was hoping to avoid losing too many clones in this battle so I could save ’em for later in the war, but it looks like this isn’t the time to worry about that anymore.
I use my Panoptic Vision to do a quick estimate of the mega-robots’ numbers.
Dude, there’s almost a thousand of them!
At least that’s less than the regular robots.
But the idea of that many robots that are stronger than dragons is still terrifying.
This also applies to the puppet spiders, but if a group with stats averaging over ten thousand really wanted to, they could easily take down a whole nation.
The likes of humans and demons, whose stats are usually under a thousand, wouldn’t be able to put up a fight.
Maybe if several of those rare individuals whose stats are over a thousand were to work together, they might stand a chance of stopping a monster like that, and possibly lose their lives in the process.
Unless you’re a special case like a hero, it’s a mistake to even try fighting them.
That’s the kind of threat we’re talking about here.
And even among that level of monsters, greater dragons are particularly powerful.
Now, supposedly, these mega-robots can beat a greater dragon.
And there’s over a thousand of them?!
Seriously, a force like this could take on the entire world and win…
The only people who could stop something like that are probably the Demon Lord and Güli-güli…
Uh, Mr. Potty? You trying to destroy the world or what?
…Actually, I guess it is Potimas’s fault that this world was nearly wiped out in the first place.
Is he a god of destruction or something?
…I’m starting to feel like that might be kinda accurate.
Okay, enough getting distracted with stupid thoughts. I need to do something about the mega-robot vanguard of said god of destruction, stat.
I mean, okay, let’s calm down.
Potimas is the one who claimed they’re stronger than greater dragons, right?
So it’s totally possible that he might just be exaggerating and they’re not actually that bad, riiiight?
The mega-robot in front of me moves.
In spite of its huge size, it only takes an instant for it to close in on one of the puppet spiders—Riel—and slashes at her with its sword.
Riel just barely manages to dodge, bending over backward like she’s going into bridge pose to narrowly avoid the blade.
…Why did she dodge it like that, though?
A moment later, the other three sisters all jump at the mega-robot that attacked Riel.
The puppet spiders have already busted out their six hidden arms, each equipped with weapons, slashing at the mega-robot!
The unpleasant sound of metal clashing against metal rings out.
Riel and the other three all jump back as if repelled.
…Riel is still scuttling around on her back for some reason, fleeing in a crab walk, but let’s just ignore that.
As for the mega-robot? There’s not a scratch on it!
So instead, the puppet spiders start firing magic.
It’s the Black Spear spell I always used to use!
Pitch-black spears appear in midair and attack the mega-robot from all directions!
But then, they disappear right before they can hit the armor.
That must be the Anti-Technique Barrier that Potimas always uses, the one that cancels out conjurings.
It doesn’t seem like the mega-robots can produce it over a wide range like Potimas, but instead it’s probably coated over their armor somehow.
In other words, the only way to beat these things is to either crush them with a non-conjuring-related physical attack, or hit them with something so huge it busts through the barrier…
But cutting attacks from the puppet spiders, whose stats are in the ten thousands, aren’t making a scratch, and their magic didn’t work, so both physical and magic attacks are gonna be tough…
Basically, their defense is bad news.
So what about their attack power…?
The mega-robot aims some sort of firing system at the puppet spiders, as if to get payback.
The resulting laser beams easily pierce through the trees and even the ground itself.
Of course, the puppet spiders made themselves scarce before those beams could hit. But judging by the depth of the holes left in the ground, a direct hit would’ve done some serious damage even to the puppet spiders.
As Fiel dodges the laser, a blade comes sweeping down toward her.
These mega-robots can move from one attack to the next way too quickly.
They’re far too fast, and too good at assessing the situation, for giant robots.
Or wait, I guess they’re good at that because they’re robots, huh?
The problem is that their mechanical bodies are somehow able to keep up with their quick mental calculations.
If you converted that speed into stats, it’d easily be over ten thousand.
I can tell that much because Fiel can’t even keep up.
In terms of timing, it would’ve been impossible for Fiel to dodge that slash on her own…
It slashes through the place where Fiel would’ve been just as I teleport her over to my side.
The blade hits the ground, but instead of breaking, it actually slashes right through the surface without slowing.
Okay, got it. Their attack power is super high, too.
Forget tough vegetables and sinewy meat—folks, this blade can slash right through the damn cutting board, too!
…So, these things are seriously strong enough to beat a greater dragon.
And there’s seeeeriously over a thousand of theeem…?
I was being careful not to underestimate Potimas, but this is still a liiiittle more intense than I was expecting, y’know?
…Okay, sorry, I lied.
I did underestimate him a tiny bit. I admit it…
But I mean, c’mon!
We’ve been beating the snot out of Potimas lately, dude!
Like that time when the former seventh battalion of the demon army rebelled. We didn’t come out of that so hot, either, but I literally punched him in the face, remember?
And when he was sneaking around in the background of the last big battle, we got the jump on him and destroyed his plans, right?
See? Potimas hasn’t had a single win lately!
How could I not underestimate him a little?
After all that, making a slight miscalculation like this was practically unavoidable.
AKA it’s not my fault.
If anything, I guess this just proves the big talk Potimas is always strutting around with isn’t just talk after all.
The reason he’s been kinda pathetic lately is probably because he couldn’t actually use his full strength for those encounters.
If he cut even one of these mega-robots loose, Güli-güli would definitely be on top of it.
I imagine Potimas is scared of Güli-güli and wants to avoid that at all costs.
Which also means he’s not scared of anyone else.
He seriously intends to crush us this time around.
I’m sure he went into this fully confident that he’s strong enough to win, too.
Thinking that there’s no way he could lose, just like I keep saying.
I can see why he might think that, with all this firepower stashed away.
But that doesn’t mean he can beat me.
I’ll admit it: Potimas’s forces are stronger than I expected.
But they’re still not outside the range of what I can handle.
Maybe Potimas has absolute confidence, but so do I.
It’s true that his forces were a little more than I bargained for, but only because my estimation was “I dunno, maybe this much?”, and it was higher than that line, that’s all.
The line in question was the midpoint between the best and worst scenario I could imagine.
Potimas has gone above and beyond that line, but he hasn’t crossed the worst-case scenario.
I mean, the worst thing I can imagine is him having enough power to go toe-to-toe with Güli-güli.
I seriously doubt Potimas has surpassed that.
Knowing him, if he could do something like that, he would’ve done it by now.
He’s only been relatively well-behaved all this time because of Güli-güli. If he had a way to get that thorn out of his side, there’s no way he wouldn’t jump at the chance.
Since he hasn’t taken out Güli-güli yet, that means Potimas’s strength is less than or equal to Güli-güli’s.
I say possibly “equal to” because of Potimas’s overcautious personality; I figure if his odds of winning were fifty-fifty, he’d probably be reluctant to try.
Güli-güli is definitely a thorn in Potimas’s side, but he’s still not the type to risk putting himself in danger to challenge that thorn.
After all, defeating Güli-güli isn’t Potimas’s goal…
He’s only got this much power to defend himself just in case—it’s not his primary objective.
That’s why I assumed it’d be on the lower side, but I guess he’s even more of a coward than I thought.
He must be really scared of Güli-güli.
But if anything, that’s why I’m confident I can beat Potimas.
Because I’ve prepared myself to fight anyone, even possibly Güli-güli himself.
Our big plan is to destroy the system.
When Güli-güli finds out about that, there’s no guarantee he won’t try to stop us personally.
If anything, I think there’s a pretty good chance he will.
Which is why I’ve been studying diligently so that I could even defeat Güli-güli!
There’s no way I’m gonna lose to some wimp who’s been hiding from Güli-güli in the elf village instead!
Listen up, all you battle clones!
Forget about the regular robots!
Focus all your efforts on destroying those mega-robots!
There’s about a thousand mega-robots.
Versus ten thousand battle clones.
We’ve got ten times their numbers.
But in terms of approximate stats, the battle clones are only a little over ten thousand on average, not much different from the puppet spiders.
Considering that all four puppet spiders together couldn’t lay a finger on a single mega-robot, it doesn’t seem like numbers alone will be enough to make up for the difference in strength.
Sadly, fighting power doesn’t work like addition.
Having ten fighters with the equivalent of stats around ten thousand doesn’t add up to winning against one opponent with stats around a hundred thousand.
Now, I’m guessing the mega-robots’ strength would translate into stats of around twenty thousand.
Around the equivalent of a queen taratect, or maybe even a little weaker.
If the puppet spiders fought them fully prepared to die, they might be able to take one down with them.
Meaning that since the battle clones are about the same strength as the puppet spiders, they might be able to win if I’m willing to lose at least four of them to each mega-robot.
Not that I have any intention of making such a big sacrifice, of course.
It’s true, the battle clones’ physical strength would be around ten thousand if converted into stats.
But that’s just their physical ability we’re talking about.
The outcomes of battles in this world aren’t determined solely by stats.
Back in the day, I wrestled victory away from opponents with much higher average stats than me thanks to the power of skills.
Now that I’ve been removed from the system, I can’t use skills anymore, but I have conjurings that I’ve practiced and perfected to recreate those skills.
And that goes for the battle clones, too.
Frankly, their ten-thousand-stat physical strength is just a bonus.
I’ve never been a big fan of close combat, anyway.
My strength, and the strength of my battle clones, is using threads and poison from a moderate distance to weaken the enemy, or attacking with magic from a long distance.
Their physical prowess is only there to help them do just that!
Now, let me give you a little demonstration!
Battle clones! Use Dimension Cutter on the mega-robots!
Allow me to explain!
Dimension Cutter is a special finishing move that uses spatial conjuring to divide up the space that the enemy is occupying, creating an unblockable slashing attack!
Since it’s separating the space itself, there’s no way to defend against it with physical strength!
Unless the target takes some serious countermeasures, spatial conjuring can turn into an unstoppable killer move, just like that time a while back when I transported Mr. Oni way up into the air so he dropped to the ground.
Since it’s so unfairly powerful, the Spatial Magic skill had limits on that kind of insta-kill strategy, but I’m not bound by those rules anymore!
In other words, I can use as many unfair insta-kill moves as I want!
Even the mega-robots won’t come out unscathed against a move like th…
…ah.
The battle clones all used Dimension Cutter.
But they failed because of the anti-conjuring barrier coating the mega-robots’ armor.
…O-okay, there’s no need to panic just yet!
Play it cool… Play it cool…
Riiiight.
I got a little ahead of myself and launched a volley of Dimension Cutters, but if you really think about it, of course that wouldn’t work on the mega-robots.
Dimension Cutter is a conjuring that acts on space itself.
And the barrier around the mega-robots’ armor prevents conjurings from activating within a certain range.
Yes, it’s got a range!
In other words, in a certain space!
So, I used a conjuring on a space containing a barrier that blocks any conjurings from activating within that space.
Yep! And look how that turned out!
It didn’t work at all!
Wow! What a terrible combination!
Hmmm.
That probably means that practically none of my other attack-based spatial conjurings are gonna work, either.
Without countermeasures, spatial conjurings can be an unstoppable, unfair attack.
The only problem is that if there are countermeasures, then they just won’t work at all.
Separating space as with Dimension Cutter, crushing the entire space, or teleporting them someplace dangerous like I did to Mr. Oni… Noooone of that is gonna fly with these things.
Since spatial conjurings work on space, all you have to do is make it so it can’t be used on that space, and it’ll block everything completely…
I doubt the mega-robots’ barriers were made purely with spatial conjuring in mind, but they certainly make a perfect defense against it, I’ve got to admit.
So what am I gonna do now…?
If I can’t use spatial conjuring, the strongest and most unfair of all my ace-in-the-hole attacks, that puts a serious limit on my options here…
The simplest way to ignore the anti-technique barrier would be physical attacks, but as I keep saying, the battle clones’ physical abilities would only be around ten thousand in terms of stats.
If the puppet spiders couldn’t put a single scratch on that armor with the same kind of stats, I seriously doubt the battle clones could deal any serious damage just by charging at them.
Now, annihilation attacks would probably work if I was willing to allow a whole lot of honorable deaths, but…
Annihilation attacks are my equivalent of the Rot-attribute attacks.
Back when I had skills, they were a crazy self-injurious attack method that dealt a huge amount of damage in exchange for some serious recoil.
When I used Rot attacks, whole parts of my body would disappear.
But apparently, even that extreme recoil from the skill was getting off easy.
If one of my battle clones uses an annihilation attack, the whole clone disintegrates.
Basically, it’s a full-on self-destruct attack.
In exchange, it’s incredibly powerful, but using it requires the sacrifice of a clone.
Which means if I wanted to defeat all thousand or so mega-robots, I would have to lose the same number of clones to do the job.
That doesn’t seem very cost-effective, though, does it?
The one exception is that my signature weapon, the giant scythe, can wield annihilation attacks without the resulting recoil damage. Going around destroying every single mega-robot by myself would take forever, though.
I guess using annihilation attacks from my clones will have to be a last-resort method if nothing else works.
For now, I’m rejecting the kamikaze clone strategy.
So, as far as conjuring is concerned, we’ve just ruled out my best kind.
How about my second-best specialty, dark magic?
I aim a random clone at a mega-robot and have it use a Black Spear-style conjuring.
The spear hits the mega-robot’s armor.
Some kind of reaction between the anti-technique barrier and the energy in the dark spear causes the mega-robot to stumble back a few steps.
Like the Dragon Barrier skill, the anti-technique barrier inhibits the use of conjurings, but there is a limit. If you overwhelm the barrier with more power than it can handle, you can deal damage accordingly, at least in theory…
But the mega-robot that took a direct hit with the Black Spear only has a slight dent in its armor.
…Well, that ain’t gonna work.
That attack should’ve done waaay more damage…
I mean, at least it did something, but how many damn spears would it take to actually bring the thing down like that?
The sun would set by the time we were done.
No, even before that, I would lose too many battle clones.
Then it’ll just turn into a mudslinging contest.
Hrmm. Looks like shooting them with conjurings won’t be very effective, either…
So, that leaves thread and poison?
Poison…poison on a machine…
Yeah, I can’t see that working very well.
And thread isn’t really a main method of attack in the first place…
It’s more like a trap for stopping the enemy from moving, a strategy that only really shines when you have other attack methods.
But none of those other attack methods are really gonna work here…
Wait, what?
Am I screwed?
…No, no, no!
Not yet!
I’m not giving up yet!
Okay, all jokes aside, I do still have a way to beat the mega-robots.
And I can guarantee that it will work, too.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t go around bragging that I’m “never gonna lose to Potimas” with a big smirk on my face.
Still, I’d rather save that method for later if I can help it.
I don’t really wanna unveil it yet.
So how can I defeat the mega-robots without using that…?
Hrmm. It feels like a bit of a waste, but I guess this is my best bet: the special bullets I prepared to use against Potimas.
Let’s go with these.
I knew Potimas was going to use this anti-technique barrier again, so of course I had some countermeasures up my sleeve, too.
I wanted to save this to use against Potimas himself, but that doesn’t matter now.
If I don’t take down these mega-robots fast, Vampy and the others might get hurt.
So it’s now or never, right?
So without any further ado: CONNECT!
I open up a path connecting me to the space-specialist clones.
As the name implies, these clones are designed for spatial conjuring.
Usually, I keep them in separate dimensions I’ve made.
And now, I have business with one of those separate dimensions, this one made and managed by the space-specialist clones.
I use my main body to take out something inside.
I’ve got to take careful aim so I don’t miss.
These bullets are precious, after all!
It’s such a pain in the ass to make them that I almost understand why Potimas is so reluctant to waste his, dammit!
Although these bullets aren’t the same as the ones Potimas uses, so I’m not entirely sure which ones are more valuable.
Anyway, let’s use one of these special bullets to destroy a mega-robot.
Ready, aiiiiim……fire!
My bullet hits the mega-robot in front of me and pierces through the armor—smashes it, in fact.
Not only that, but the bullet goes right through the mega-robot and into the weaker robots marching directly behind it, one after another.
It also goes on to hit a second mega-robot that I wasn’t even aiming at, pulverizes that one too, and finally flies off in the direction of next week.
…Um, yikes?!
I’m gonna have to be real careful about where I aim these things!
If any allies happened to be in the way, they could get seriously injured!
I mean, I already knew these things were pretty powerful, but isn’t this an excess of firepower, to say the least?
Honestly, it might be straight-up overkill…
See, the truth is that these excessively powerful bullets are what you might call meteors.
Yep. Meteors.
Giant chunks that I dropped toward the surface of the planet from outer space.
Physically speaking, I made them out of legendary-class monsters.
You know, the ones I had Vampy and Mr. Oni and friends hunting to recover energy and level themselves up.
I picked some that seemed particularly durable and made them into bullets.
Frankly, I didn’t even worry about how they looked, since it doesn’t matter anyway. As long as they’re sturdy, anything goes.
They also have to be able to withstand the overheating that occurs when they reenter the atmosphere, though. That ruined a couple contenders.
So, I take the bullets that meet those requirements, teleport them into space, and let them drop onto the planet.
As long as they’re not so far out that they get caught in orbit, they’ll fall of their own accord once they’re teleported.
The problem is how to catch the bullets once they’ve fallen.
Otherwise, they’ll just crash right into the ground.
So how do I catch them exactly? Well, I beat them to the spot where they’re going to fall, and drop them into a separate dimension right before they land.
Specifically, an empty vacuum dimension that just goes in a straight line and loops around in a circle.
When I pop a meteor bullet into the loop dimension, it retains the speed it had when it went in, and just keeps zipping around indefinitely, since there’s no air resistance in a vacuum.
And since it retains the same speed, that means it’ll have the same destructive impact that it was going to crash into the planet with.
So when I take it back out of that dimension, it becomes a meteor attack that I can aim wherever I want.
One time, I hit Potimas with a giant rock that I dropped out of the sky.
But that didn’t seem like quite enough impact, so I decided on a literal meteor instead.
There’s a major delay if it’s falling from the sky, though, and at that distance you have to do some serious calculations or you’ll miss the mark.
And if the target moves from that spot before the thing hits, you can forget about the whole thing.
Especially since the delay gives ’em time to run away.
So, I came up with a solution to all those problems by way of popping the falling meteors into an alternate dimension for later.
Which was a great idea, if I do say so myself, except for the fact that it was pretty hard to pull off in practice.
Like I said, catching a fallen meteor isn’t the easiest task.
Think about it this way: It’s hard enough to run after and catch a ball that’s been hit by a pro baseball player, right?
With meteors, you still have to get to the landing spot before they do, plus if you don’t catch ’em, the whole area gets smashed up. It takes a lot of guts, is what I’m saying.
And I had to do it a bunch of times to save up more shots…
Although the hard work definitely pays off in the form of ridiculous power.
You can roughly calculate its force with the mgh formula, in fact.
m is mass.
g is acceleration due to gravity.
h is height.
If you multiply all those numbers together, you get the amount of potential energy contained in the object being pulled down by gravity.
This is high school physics stuff, y’know.
If you haven’t memorized it all yet, now’s your chance.
That being said, m probably gets reduced while it’s burning up in the atmosphere, g must be different since this planet isn’t Earth and is presumably a different size, and h won’t be much help either since it started out in space beyond the range of gravity.
In other words, I can’t actually give you an exact number!
So what was even the point, you ask?
…C’mon, I’m allowed to show off like a smarty-pants once in a while.
Huh? Don’t try to show off with high school physics fundamentals?
Well, that’s not my fault!
My memories only go up to high school!
Obviously that means my knowledge only goes up to what I learned in high school, so I just have to get by with that if I want to show off my smarts at all, duh!
Sure, maybe it’s better if I don’t try to act like a smarty-pants in the first place if that’s the best I’ve got, but it’s human nature to want to look cool from time to time.
What, now you’re saying I’m not even human?
…Yeah, well. Touché.
Okay, I think that’s a wrap on this “arguing with no one” bit.
Back to the meteor bullets I made to use on Potimas.
They’re ridiculously strong, all right.
In fact, they’re so strong they’re almost a little too dangerous, but they can clearly destroy a mega-robot without a hitch.
I mean, yeah.
It’s just raw physical power, nothing the anti-conjuring barrier can prevent.
Armor’s not enough to stand up to that kind of impact, either.
Even I’ll admit that it might be overkill, but hey, better safe than sorry.
I’ve been cranking out these meteor bullets as a pure physical attack to counteract Potimas’s anti-technique barrier, saving them up whenever I got a chance.
In total, I think I have about ten thousand.
I know I looked at the number of mega-robots and accused Potimas of wanting to destroy the world or whatever, but I’m pretty sure I could do just that if I unleashed the rain of meteors I’ve got stashed up…
Not that I’m going to, obviously.
At any rate, I’m gonna have to use about a thousand of them now, so I guess I won’t be able to destroy the world anymore anyway!
Alrighty, let’s clean up the rest of these mega-robots, then!
Oh, and be careful about aim, obviously!
I have to make sure I don’t kill one of my allies with a stray bullet or anything awful like that.
It was hella careless of me to fire one off without even thinking about it.
I’m lucky there happened to be a second mega-robot in its path and not any of my allies.
But hey, now I know that I can kill at least two mega-robots with one bullet if I aim just right.
So I’ll just have to take aim and take ’em out!
I only have so many bullets, after all. Gotta save as many as I can, if I can help it.
So, I start calculating paths that will hit at least two mega-robots and avoid any allies getting caught in the crossfire.
It’s a piece of cake if I use Panoptic Vision to get a panoramic view.
Once I line up a few good shots, I immediately transport some battle clones into position and fire off the meteor bullets.
Several loud BOOMS echo around the area.
Woo-hoooo!
Dude! Did you see that?!
I took out five mega-robots with one shot!
Damn, that feels gooooood!
I could get hooked on a rush like this!
That one volley reduced the number of mega-robots quite a bit.
Pretty good start, considering I was able to take out up to five mega-robots at once.
Every single shot blasted at least two mega-robots, minimum.
The mega-robots are on the move, of course, but they’re generally marching in the same direction.
Most of them are either headed toward the imperial and demon armies, or toward the queen’s taratect troop.
Since I know what direction they’re heading in, it’s easy to target several at once.
On top of the meteor bullets being super destructive, they also move absurdly fast when fired, way too fast for even the mega-robots to dodge very well.
I mean, how’s anyone supposed to react in time to an incredibly high-speed projectile suddenly flying at them from far away in an unexpected direction?
I guess that was a bit overboard, though.
Since I wiped out the group of mega-robots that were about to reach the empire army or whomever, the rest of them all turn around at once, starting to be more wary of their surroundings.
Naturally, they set their sights on the battle clones instead.
I pulled off that round of surprise attacks by teleporting the battle clones next to the mega-robots right before shooting, but now that they’re on their guard… No, wait, it’s still gonna be easy.
I can just teleport them again and shoot from a new direction.
I know, it’s not very fair that I get to take the first move every single time.
Cheap moves like this are probably why the Spatial Magic skill had limits like canceling any other spell you were preparing the moment you teleported.
How many times did I think to myself, If only I could do both!
But look at me now!
Since I’ve become a god, I have no such limitations!
Direct attacks with spatial conjurings don’t work on the mega-robots’ anti-technique barriers.
But there are no limits on how I can use spatial conjurings otherwise.
When it comes to teleporting my own battle clones or producing meteor bullets from there, I get to do whatever I want.
The only way to stop me would be to produce an anti-technique barrier in a wide radius, like Potimas’s robot bodies, but it doesn’t seem like these mega-robots can do that.
Even if they could, all I would have to do is shoot the meteor bullets from outside that range.
It takes spatial conjuring to shoot meteor bullets by taking them out of their separate dimension, but once that’s done, they’re really just pure physical attacks.
Even putting up an anti-technique barrier over a large radius wouldn’t make a difference.
I did develop these to deal with Potimas personally, after all.
While we’re at it, let’s launch the second volley, or I guess the third if you count that first solo shot! Wooo!
Battle clones, teleport! And then, wait for iiit…meteor bullets, fiiiire!
And just like that, these super-powered mega-robots who are stronger than greater dragons get blown to bits by a single shot.
Awwww yeeeeahhh!
Nothing like taking some unbelievably strong opponents and reducing them to scrap metal with an even more ridiculous technique!
Feels! Good! Man!
The mega-robots are strong, no doubt about it.
After all, the puppet spiders, who are in the “crazy strong” category by this world’s standards, couldn’t put a scratch on them.
Even I would have a tough time fighting them head-to-head.
Judging by their strength, I can only guess how much time and effort Potimas must have put into making these mega-robots.
And I’m turning that effort into dust in a matter of seconds!
Mmm, that’s the good stuff.
Just picturing Potimas’s sour expression about it could keep me going for days.
If all it takes to get that level of satisfaction is trashing a liiittle bit of forest in the process, it’s well worth the price of admission.
…Yeah, I know.
If I keep throwing around literal meteors, it’s definitely gonna mess up a good amount of this forest…
I’m shooting them sideways so they don’t crash into the ground, which means they’re not destroying the terrain too much, but there are obvious lines of destruction wherever the meteor bullets have passed through.
Environmental destruction. That’s no good.
Listen, though! It’s basically a force majeure!
A necessary sacrifice, or whatever you wanna call it!
Well, a big battle with a single top-tier dragon or equivalent monster can wreck an entire region, and we’ve got a thousand robots who are even stronger than that here. What did you expect…?
Why, I wouldn’t be surprised if the elf forest is completely razed to the ground by the time this battle’s over.
Sounds rich coming from the person who’s doing an excellent job of razing it to the ground, I know.
Especially since I’m spraying around even more meteor bullets and clearing more land even as we speak!
At this point, I can’t believe I ever thought I would have to sacrifice a considerable amount of battle clones to beat the mega-robots.
The teleport/meteor bullet combo is bringing them down so quickly it’s downright laughable.
The number of mega-robots keeps going down.
Part 4 of 8