Part 6 of 8
I took that to mean that either she had succeeded in defeating the Nightmare or recruited it onto her side, although I could not say which. But since my surveillance later witnessed Miss White traveling with Lady Ariel, I assumed that she successfully won her over.
However, as I continued my surveillance, I noticed something strange.
Lady Ariel was not treating Miss White as a lesser being.
According to my spy, she appeared to be treating Miss White as an equal.
My spies undergo special training to excel at lipreading.
With one as powerful as Lady Ariel, spying by way of skills is impossible, as she would undoubtedly detect it.
And primitive long-distance viewing devices could provide only an incomplete view of the situation, hardly enough to acquire all the information.
But even this highly inadequate manner of spying showed that the relationship between Lady Ariel and Miss White was most unusual.
Upon receiving this information from my spy, I realized I could not accept Lady Ariel’s claim of “having things under control” at face value.
In other words, Lady Ariel and Miss White have not entirely made their peace just yet.
An outsider such as myself cannot possibly know the exact nature of their relationship, but even I can tell that they do not trust each other completely.
It is even possible that Lady Ariel deliberately used Potimas to try to dispose of Miss White in the midst of this situation.
However, considering Lady Ariel’s personality, I have my doubts about that possibility.
Besides, it seems strange that one as strong as Lady Ariel would treat Miss White as an equal.
With her power, she should be able to force just about anyone to bend to her will.
If they were enemies before, surely Lady Ariel would have simply beaten her into submission.
But at a glance, it seems as though Lady Ariel and Miss White really do treat each other as equals.
Even seeing them up close with my own eyes, I never got the impression that one of them was serving the other.
In that case, there must be some reason that even Lady Ariel cannot force Miss White to do her bidding.
But what in the world could that be?
Even if Miss White really is the Nightmare, I find it hard to believe that her power would rival Lady Ariel’s.
What conditions could prevent Lady Ariel from defeating one who is inferior to her in power?
One could technically say the same of Potimas, but his ability to deal with the bomb makes him a unique situation. It brings me no closer to discerning the reasons for Miss White.
No, I suppose she, too, could be using something as a shield to prevent Lady Ariel from harming her.
Then, could that shield be Sophia Keren?
No, that doesn’t quite add up.
The puppet taratects, then?
But the puppet taratects are Lady Ariel’s own summoned kin.
If she wished to keep them out of danger, she could simply undo the summons.
It doesn’t make sense.
Then, does Miss White, like Potimas, have some kind of special capability that Lady Ariel would be reluctant to lose?
I suppose that would make sense.
But I cannot conceive of what ability Miss White might have that Lady Ariel would want.
In the back of my mind, I remember the last time I encountered Lady Ariel.
That’s right. She did ask me about immortality back then.
It was an abrupt question, unrelated to the topics we were discussing at the time.
After that, she started acting even more strangely and took her leave, so I remember the encounter quite distinctly.
Immortality. Could that be related?
Is it possible that Miss White has the Immortality skill?
But no, that still doesn’t make sense.
Immortality is certainly a rare skill, but even if Miss White does have it, that wouldn’t explain why Lady Ariel has such pressing interest in her.
An undying fighter is certainly a powerful ally, but that would be far too risky a reason to invite a former enemy to join forces.
Besides, the Immortality skill has several shortcomings.
There are multiple ways to kill someone with the Immortality skill, like Abyss Magic, for one. Lady Ariel knows this, of course, so surely she could still slay an immortal enemy.
In that case, perhaps Miss White does not have the Immortality skill, but something still seems off.
Lady Ariel was definitely acting strangely when she asked about it.
“Do you know of any skills besides Immortality and your Temperance that might basically make someone immortal?”
What was the true meaning behind that question?
A skill aside from Immortality that would make someone immortal.
Even if such a skill exists, what would it have to do with Lady Ariel?
Does she want such a skill for herself?
Surely not. Now that she has resolved to become the Demon Lord, it would make no sense for Lady Ariel to seek such a thing as immortality.
Then, was it about Miss White?
Incredible. Could it be?
Did Lady Ariel try to kill Miss White only to discover that she could not?
If she was unable to kill Miss White, of course she would have no choice but to call a truce.
That line of reasoning would explain everything.
If Miss White also had no choice but to reach an agreement with Lady Ariel, since the latter is still stronger, then it would be no wonder that they have such a strange relationship.
Assuming they had no other option than to join forces, rather than working together of their own choice, it makes sense that they would still harbor animosity toward each other.
In that case, everyone who is currently on board the enemy flagship views one another as an enemy.
Potimas goes without saying, but Lady Ariel and Miss White are potential enemies as well.
And now the fate of this entire world rests on such a precarious trio’s shoulders?
It is concerning, but powerless as I am, I have no choice but to entrust things to them.
This is a painful reminder: Compared to the likes of Lady Ariel and Potimas, everything I have built up is terribly weak.
So weak that it amounts to nothing more than a human shield to buy time.
And yet, I have done everything within my power to protect that weakness.
I have no regrets about the path I’ve chosen.
I cannot regret it.
An explosive sound different from the rest puts an end to my wandering thoughts.
Oh dear. My bad habit of getting lost in thought has reared its head again. This is hardly the time to be thinking about such things.
Looking around at the battlefield, I see that the situation is as tempestuous as ever.
The knights are still doggedly holding back the machine soldiers’ advance.
The battle between the wyrms and the flying mechanical soldiers is still unfolding.
The queen taratects are still wiping out the machines’ rear ranks with breath attacks, too.
However, there is one significant change: Potimas’s weapons are now furiously fighting against the tanks.
The knights and even the queen taratects’ breath attacks couldn’t lay a scratch on the tanks, so of course most of them are still intact.
But now they’re all under attack by Potimas’s machines.
In fact, they all seem strangely concentrated in one place.
Looking more closely, I realize that another force is guiding all the tank machines into one area.
It’s the puppet taratects.
They’re skillfully shepherding the tank machines forward, directly into the ranks of Potimas’s machines.
Perhaps the puppet taratects had similar suspicions to my own and decided to nip the problem in the bud before Potimas’s machines could do anything suspicious.
These machines are now far too busy fighting off the enemy tanks to pull any sort of betrayal.
I must admire the puppet taratects: Not only have they prevented any suspicious movements from Potimas’s machines, they’ve even forced the machines to deal with their most formidable foes.
The four puppet taratects couldn’t deal with all the tank machines, so they’re enlisting the help of Potimas’s machines, which weren’t contributing much.
That alone was a brilliant tactical decision, but the fact that it also quashes any potential revolt from Potimas’s machines is true genius.
And at the same time, they’ve drastically reduced their own workload.
There were too many tanks for the four of them to take on, but now that they’ve found an alternative way to deal with them, that frees up the puppet taratects to move as they please.
Essentially, this one tactical decision has killed three birds with one stone.
They do say that the best tacticians are brilliant yet lazy.
The puppet taratects’ leader, especially, seems to have the makings of an excellent commander.
Ah, but they’re currently running all over the battlefield to carry out these tasks, so I suppose it was rude to call them lazy.
At any rate, I am little more than a figurehead commander myself, so I am glad to see there are some real leaders here on the battlefield.
Perhaps we will meet as enemies someday, but since the world is currently in danger, it would be foolish to bare our fangs at each other.
Although I wish we could be sure that Potimas’s machines felt the same way.
Those machines are now too occupied to do anything else, so we will never know whether they intended to betray us.
However, I must say I would be more surprised if that was not the case.
Yet, as long as their guns are not pointed our way, I will be glad to have them demonstrate their full strength.
Just as I predicted, Potimas’s machines are more powerful than the enemy tanks.
Though not without effort, even one of them can take on a tank.
While they could doubtless win such a one-on-one battle, Potimas’s machines are fighting each tank with larger numbers.
There are around two thousand of them, so it’s unlikely that Potimas’s machines will be crushed. However, they are suffering a few losses.
Superior though they might be, both are still machines designed by Potimas. No matter how long ago he developed it, no weapon made by that man would go down easily.
As reluctant as I am to admit it, that man is extremely capable.
I have no choice but to acknowledge him as such.
And there is one more thing I must acknowledge: He is a bastard.
This combination of being both extremely capable and utter scum is what makes him Potimas.
Which is why, when I look out at the battlefield again, I am not as shocked as I could be.
Still, I cannot stop a choice word or two from slipping out.
“Bastard.”
The attendant priest next to me gasps.
I’m sure he’s never seen the look on my face before.
Most people get the wrong impression, since I always take great pains to keep a gentle smile on my face at all times, but the truth is that I am quick to anger by nature.
It is simply that I take care not to let it show on my face.
But this time, I cannot keep up my usual appearances.
“Truly, you still have a horrible tendency to toy with life itself.”
I know that Potimas cannot hear me, yet I cannot help myself.
For my eyes have fallen on one of Potimas’s broken machines.
Within the remains, I can see something slimy and raw.
A strange thing to find among the wreckage of a machine but unmistakable.
A person’s brain.
Instead of artificial intelligence, these machines use brains.
The brain and nothing else.
I have no way of knowing whether these brains still possess the will of the people they came from.
It’s entirely possible they are only equipment for controlling the machines, no longer capable of thought.
Even so, that does not change the fact that these machines are abominations, flouting of the very laws of nature.
Only Potimas could make such a horrific machine.
As long as it helps him reach his goals, he will gladly cast aside morality.
And he will gladly tread on the backs of others.
I tear my gaze away from Potimas’s horrible machines.
I cannot bear to look any longer at the poor beings who have been used for that man’s foul purposes.
But when my eyes fall instead on the knights being trampled by the enemy machines, I realize my own hypocrisy.
Having sent these knights knowingly to their deaths, how am I any different from Potimas?
If he is a heretic, then so, too, am I.
Just another monster who toys with life itself.
And yet, I have no choice but to continue along this path of heresy.
For it is the path I have sworn to follow.
Even if I have fallen from grace, I cannot stop moving forward.
I am sorry.
No matter how many times I apologize in my heart, I cannot say the words out loud.
I have no right to do so.
But even if it is heresy, I shall hold on to my conviction of protecting humanity.
UFO INFILTRATION MISSION
“Hey, Potimaaas. Isn’t anything going to come out of that new hole of yours? C’mon, like fire or something? Maybe you can cast magic out of your butt! Pfffft!”
Heresy.
There’s a heretic here.
Not that I can talk, since I’m the one who started all this in the first place.
Our latest battle is getting rave reviews from the critics.
And yet, this slacker is still messing around.
Sure, we’re absolutely owning this swarm of robots. These little ones are so weak, I’m practically falling asleep here.
That’s why the Demon Lord has decided to start poking fun at Potimas while we’re fighting.
And then busting out laughing in the middle of her own damn jokes.
Cut it out. Magic’s not gonna come out of his butt.
Actually, maybe it could if he really tried?
Hey, wait a second. The Demon Lord and I are both spider-type creatures, so aren’t we the ones who make magic thread come out of our butts?
Having realized this horrifying truth, I decide to keep quiet.
I guess this is what they call putting your foot in your mouth. Or your butt, in this case.
Anyway, since the Demon Lord seems to be having a grand old time, she’s mowing down the robots like crazy.
Potimas, on the other hand, is silent. He’s completely ignoring the Demon Lord and focusing on fighting the robots.
I thought he was going to turn his arm into a gun or whatever like he did before, but this time he’s just holding a gun and firing it like a normal person.
He’s holding it up with both hands, aiming at the robots, and firing light bullets—but these aren’t like the ones the robots use.
Potimas’s light bullets can pulverize several robots in a single shot.
Is it my imagination, or is this gun just as powerful as those tanks’ main gun?
It might be big, but the tank’s gun was obviously way bigger. Maybe he found a way to shrink that down with technology or something?
Either way, it’s scary.
And yet, the Demon Lord is picking a fight with this guy and his giant gun.
I’m stuck in the middle of them, but of course I’m destroying my share of robots, too.
You know, firing magic, using my Evil Eyes, tying thread to my scythe, and playing with it like a sickle and chain, that kind of thing.
Oh, uh, did I say “playing”? I’m not playing. Of course I’m not.
I’m taking this robot fight very seriously, I swear.
But no matter how many of them we break, more robots just keep coming.
Can you really blame me for wanting to experiment a little and try something new?
By the way, my “giant scythe and chain” is working out great.
Since I have Thread Control, I can move it around however I want.
And my giant scythe cuts through these robots like butter.
It’s not exactly like a real sickle and chain, but I think it’ll be a great close- to midrange-attack method.
Magic and Evil Eyes for long-range.
Thread for midrange.
And my scythe for close-range.
Heh-heh. I’ve got a pretty good strategy, if I do say so myself.
And since I have both a spider brain and a human brain, I can even use both of them at once.
Normally, I could even use my Parallel Minds with both brains to get a double-galaxy brain effect going on, but right now I’ve got Parallel Minds turned off.
I mean, what if I turn it on and they go crazy again?
I don’t really have a choice here.
Still, I’ve gotten pretty strong, if you ask me.
I used to be so weak that any single hit would kill me, but now I’m an all-rounder who can handle close combat and long-distance alike!
There’s hardly anyone who could beat me now!
Although the top two contenders are right here next to me.
The number one threat, also known as the Demon Lord, is cackling away as she destroys more and more robots.
Watching her fight certainly is instructive.
After all, the Demon Lord is an all-rounder who excels at any distance, too.
She can use magic to fire at long distances, attack with thread for middle distances, and any brave soldier who gets through those first two will find Gluttony waiting for them.
Seriously, there’s not a single gap in her defenses.
That last one, Gluttony, is particularly scary.
Whether it’s light bullets or the robots themselves, she can swallow them whole.
All she has to do is open and close her mouth, and the predation is complete.
That’s broken even for one of the Seven Deadly Sins skills.
Even though the robots are giant hunks of metal that would clearly never fit into the Demon Lord’s mouth, all she has to do is one big chomp and they’re gone without a trace.
There must be some kind of spatial shenanigans going on here.
Can you imagine somehow getting past the Demon Lord’s magic attacks and crazy thread moves only to find out that she’s most dangerous of all at close range?
She only has to open and close her mouth, and bam, you’re in her belly!
That’s crazy, man.
Even a close-combat master wouldn’t stand a chance in hell.
I guess that means the Demon Lord is a close-combat master.
How are you supposed to tackle that?
Just fire at her from afar, you say?
Well, bad news. She can swallow those attacks with one bite, too.
There’s really no way around it.
Sounds like cheating to me, don’t you think?
Supposedly, I have cheat skills that are just as good, but they don’t really seem that way, do they?
Pride is a growth cheat that has no effect on actual battle.
Perseverance is a defensive cheat that lets me use MP if I run out of HP.
Sloth is an attack cheat that increases all my damage to my opponents.
Hero is a support cheat that lets my allies heal automatically.
Yep. Gluttony is definitely the best out of all of them, dammit!
Considering how much stronger I’ve gotten because of it, I guess Pride is at least as good or maybe even better, but the other ones, not so much.
Okay, I’ll admit they’ve all helped me in the past, but still!
Yes, there were times when I would’ve died if I didn’t have Perseverance, and without Pride, I wouldn’t have been able to defeat Araba.
And I guess without Hero, I would’ve died in that explosion earlier.
Well, technically, that wasn’t Hero; it was the Miracle Magic skill I got along with Hero.
So I guess I still have Hero to thank, huh.
But Pride doesn’t have any direct effect on battle, and Perseverance is a little irrelevant now that I have Immortality, and Sloth is no help right now because my enemies are machines that don’t have HP.
Huh?
Is it just me, or are my cheat skills not really helping me cheat at all?
Th-that’s not true.
It can’t be true.
I’m telling you, it’s not!
Let’s just say it’s not, okay?!
Ugh, this is all the stupid Demon Lord’s Gluttony skill’s fault!
Gluttony is way too useful!
What the hell kind of skill lets you eat literally anything and turn it into energy?
She can eat your attacks, eat right through your defenses, and it takes only an instant to activate.
It works as offense and defense and even recovers her SP.
That’s way too broken of a cheat.
How could anyone beat this monster?
Is a surprise attack from behind the only way or what?
And even that would be pretty damn near impossible.
Yeah. The more I think about it, the less likely it seems one could kill her, even if her guard was down.
How in the world does Potimas plan to do it?
I glance over at Potimas, who’s silently shooting down the robots.
Considering all that big talk he was doing, does that mean he actually has some kind of method to kill the Demon Lord?
Hrmmm.
What should I do?
I don’t think the Demon Lord’s going to let her guard down in the first place, but if Potimas did try to kill her, what would the right reaction be?
The Demon Lord is a regular pain in my butt—I know that much.
If you think about it, we’ve been clashing ever since I first started fighting against Mother.
She’s the one enemy I never found a way to defeat.
Instead I just kept running away from her, antagonizing her as I went, which finally led to this current cease-fire situation.
And I came up with a system that makes it pretty difficult to kill me and, more importantly, makes the Demon Lord think it’s impossible.
It took all that just to get to a truce.
Actually, beating her would be way beyond my abilities.
That’s the Demon Lord in a nutshell.
She’s like a thorn in my side that I can’t get rid of.
So if I could actually kill the Demon Lord…what would I do?
To be honest, I don’t know what the best answer is anymore.
If I’d found a way to kill her before our truce, I probably would’ve done it without hesitation.
But now, it’s been about two years since we agreed to stop fighting.
We’ve been traveling together all this time, so I’ve gotten a pretty solid grasp of her personality.
And from what I can tell, the Demon Lord is super-freaking-nice!
Seriously, it’s like, the Hero skill would suit her waaay better than me! She’s practically a saint!
Why is she even a demon lord in the first place? It really makes you wonder.
She’s such a good person that Vampy and Mera obviously adore her.
Honestly, I’m starting to feel like I should just accept her already.
The only reason we were enemies in the first place was that I was fighting Mother, her kin.
Now that Mother is gone, there’s no real reason for me to want to fight the Demon Lord.
Sure, she’s still kind of a threat, but I think even the Demon Lord would have a hard time killing me at this point.
When I was fighting Mother, I was struggling just to survive, but now, I don’t need to be so scared of every little thing.
I’m starting to wonder if maybe giving up on that animosity is for the best.
The Demon Lord’s an angel.
If we can just let bygones be bygones, I have a feeling we could actually get along really well.
Except I don’t think that would be so easy.
I mean, the Demon Lord really values her friends and family.
The way she rushed to Sael’s rescue in the ruins just shows how much she cares about protecting the people close to her.
And I’m the one who murdered one of her children—Mother.
I’m sure she doesn’t exactly look fondly on me because of that.
So even if I’m willing to forget the past, would the Demon Lord really feel the same way?
She suggested the truce, since she can’t kill me, but doesn’t that mean she would still want to kill me if she could?
And now that I’ve gone and pissed off Potimas, he’s way more likely to come after me than the Demon Lord.
If he uses his mystery barrier, I don’t know whether my immortality method would work or not.
And if the Demon Lord decided to side with Potimas then?
Ha-ha-ha.
Yikes…
Yeah, I’d totally be dead, probably.
The secret to my ability to never die is the Immortality skill and my egg-revival technique.
As the name implies, the Immortality skill means that you can’t be killed.
Thanks to this skill, I wouldn’t die even if my body was blown to bits.
Although I would certainly be rendered unconscious while my body rebuilt itself with HP Auto-Recovery.
Without HP Auto-Recovery, you’d just be stuck in a state of eternal unconsciousness, which is probably a fate worse than death. So Immortality’s already a pretty defective skill.
Not to mention, there are other ways around this so-called Immortality.
So that makes it an even more defective skill.
The countermeasure I developed for this is something I call “egg revival.”
I use the Egg-Laying skill to make eggs, and then the moment I die, I can transfer my soul into one of those eggs like a pseudo-reincarnation.
The reason this crazy stunt works is because the Egg-Laying skill essentially creates inferior clones of me.
I can even use my Parallel Minds to do other crazy soul stuff, too. Specifically, I sent my Parallel Minds to attack Mother’s soul directly and stuff like that.
Skills are the power of the soul.
Mother was trying to use one of those skills, Kin Control, to manipulate me.
So I used it in reverse and managed to eat away at her soul instead.
It’s thanks to that soul-related know-how that I figured out a way to transfer my own soul into another body.
Since there aren’t any skills for messing with souls like that, I think this is a technique that works outside of the constraints of the system.
So there’s a lot even I don’t know about how it works.
Like whether I can still do it inside Potimas’s barrier or not, for instance.
I definitely don’t want to try it, but if it turns out I can’t do egg revival inside Potimas’s barrier, I really would die.
If Potimas was my only opponent, I might have a chance.
After last time, I made my giant scythe so I’d be prepared.
Since Potimas’s barrier renders most skills ineffective, the best way to combat it is with my own physical strength in a close-combat battle.
That and Warped Evil Eye, the only Evil Eye that works in the barrier.
But Potimas has already seen Warped Evil Eye, so there’s a good chance he’s come up with a way to counter it by now.
That’s what I would do, if I were him.
In which case, close combat using my scythe is the best way to deal with him.
The scythe has surpassed my expectations in the best way possible, becoming crazy strong.
And it was able to slice right through that tank, which used the same kind of defenses, so I think it would work even within Potimas’s barrier.
Potimas doesn’t know that, and even if he did, I seriously doubt he could come up with some way to deal with it in such a short time.
In other words, I do have a method for fighting back against Potimas.
It’s possible that Potimas has also prepared some new weapon or something since our battle, but I still think I’d have the advantage, or at least I hope so.
Honestly, there’s no way of knowing unless we actually come to blows.
But I do think I’d have a chance of winning, even if that’s partially just wishful thinking.
But if the Demon Lord was teaming up against me, too?
Then I’d be totally doomed.
Potimas would be hard enough to fight on his own, so if you add the Demon Lord on top of that—forget it.
Even if I unleashed my Parallel Minds, which I’ve currently got shut off, I wouldn’t stand a chance.
Hrmmm?
We’re still just having a friendly little robot cleanup here, so why do I suddenly feel like my life is in pressing danger?
Q: What am I gonna do, seriously?
A: I’ll just have to make sure I don’t let my guard down.
Uh-huh. Potimas said himself that he’d try to kill us only if we let down our guard, which means if we don’t give him the chance, he won’t make a move.
For the sake of my sanity, let’s just go with that.
Other than that, all I can do is hope that egg revival would work inside that mystery barrier.
If there’s someone out there who can make that wish come true, I’ll happily pray to them, even if it’s a certain self-proclaimed evil god.
Ughhh, now my stomach hurts for some reason.
Guess I’ll just have to take this stress out on the robots!
Keeping an eye on Potimas’s movements, I continue wiping the floor with the machines.
But there are still way too many of them!
No matter how many robots I break, they just keep coming.
Seriously, how many of you are there?
Well, given the nature of this UFO, I guess maybe that’s to be expected.
I mean, it’s basically a flying military base.
The UFO itself isn’t equipped with that many weapons. The main gun was the worst of it, and I destroyed that.
But that’s because its role isn’t attacking; it’s deploying troops.
Yeah. The whole point of its existence is to carry those tanks and fighters and stuff.
Which means there are plenty of spare robots inside the UFO to back up the ones it’s already sent down to the ground.
And we have no way of knowing just how many reserve robots there are.
I’d like to think that there’s less than the number that’s already on the ground, but it’s entirely possible it’s around the same amount.
If it wasn’t sending out too many aircraft at once because of a control issue, then maybe there’s even more robots on here than there are down below.
But that can’t be the case, I’m sure.
Right?
As the waves of robots show no end in sight, I’m starting to get a little worried.
I mean, no matter how many there are, they’re not really a threat to us, but still…
Just as that thought crosses my mind, I see a tank coming up behind the robots.
Yay! Just as I was thinking that these robots are no big deal, this big shot suddenly comes rolling in!
Great timing. You should be an actor!
While I’m distracted by these stupid thoughts, a ball of light fires from the tank’s main gun—headed directly for the Demon Lord.
CHOMP! You can practically see the sound effect as the shot disappears into her mouth.
I’ve heard of omnivores, but this is ridiculous.
The Demon Lord promptly grabs the nearest robot and flings it at the tank with all her might.
As soon as the two collide, they’re both reduced to scrap metal.
Geez. The tank looks like a car that’s been totaled in a nasty traffic accident, and the remains of the robot are just stuck to the front.
Talk about an unholy fusion.
Yep. Not only are the robots no match for us, even a tank doesn’t stand a chance!
As long as we have the Demon Lord on our side, we’ve got nothing to fear!
Bring it on!
Then, as if on cue, a whole bunch of tanks come out at once.
…Seriously, are you guys waiting for the right time to show up or what?
Are you? Huh?
Ughhh, enough already, for real.
If these guys were monsters, that’d be one thing.
I get experience for killing those, and I can eat the bodies.
But since robots are machines and not living things, you don’t get any experience for killing them, and they’re metal, so you can’t eat them, either.
I know I have the title Foul Feeder and all, but even I have my limits.
That’s not exactly the kind of iron that’s good for your body!
The Demon Lord has Gluttony, so she can eat them just fine, but she’s the exception to end all exceptions.
In other words, I have absolutely nothing to gain from this battle.
We have to win or the world’s in big trouble, so obviously I’m gonna make sure we don’t lose, but it feels more like work than anything.
Just thinking about that sorta drains my motivation.
The Demon Lord can probably handle it by herself, so why do I even need to be here?
C’mon—didn’t I already fulfill my role by busting the UFO’s main gun and making a hole for us to enter through?
Why do I have to hang around and fight alongside some crazy elf who’s after my life?
Seriously, how did things end up like this?
It’s all this stupid UFO’s fault!
Ugh, just thinking about it is pissing me off.
As if in response to my anger, the ominous aura around the scythe in my hands gets even more intense.
In fact, it’s sorta starting to look like the white blade is letting off a visible black haze.
Uh, what’s going on here?
I’m not sure, but I get the feeling it’s not anything good.
Right away, I swing my scythe around as if to shake off the black haze.
Just like that, the haze dispels.
However, it has some unexpected consequences.
The black cloud spreads, enveloping all the nearby robots and tanks, and destroys every last one of them.
“……”
Silence falls.
The Demon Lord and I, and even Potimas, are at a loss for words.
It’s like, the robots are one thing.
They don’t have the mystery barrier, so any reasonably powerful wide-range magic could probably have done the same thing.
But that’s not true of the tanks.
Since they’re protected by the mystery barrier, magic doesn’t work on them, so you’re supposed to be able to beat them only with physical attacks.
And yet, the black haze my scythe produced just melted them down to nothing.
Despite the fact that you definitely couldn’t call that a physical attack.
I guess the light bullets used by Potimas and the enemy robots aren’t affected by the barrier, so maybe it’s not that strange, but this is still different.
Because the robots and tanks that were destroyed by the black haze turned into dust.
That’s the telltale sign of the Rot attribute at work.
The power of attributes is connected to the system and therefore shouldn’t work within the barrier.
But that black haze went right through the mystery barrier like it was nothing.
And it was produced by my scythe, which even I don’t really understand.
Potimas and the Demon Lord stare at me with their mouths open.
Uh-oh.
If I let them see that I’m just as shaken as they are, I have no idea what they’ll do.
That’s right. I knew this would happen.
My goal all along was to show Potimas what would happen to him if he messes with me!
Yeah, let’s go with that!
Keeping a straight face, I lower the scythe to its original position.
My heart is pounding, but they don’t need to know that.
Hey, wait a second. My MP went way down.
Um, excuse me?! Why does the scythe I made have so many features I don’t know about?!
It’s pretty useful, but still!
Come on! Can’t I get a user’s manual or something?!
All of this shock is gonna ruin my poker face!
Just as my composure is about to hit its limit, more robots and tanks start showing up.
The Demon Lord and Potimas turn their attention toward them.
Nice timing!
Seriously, these machines always know right when to show up!
“Well, if White’s going to take this so seriously, I guess I’d better do the same.”
A shudder runs across my skin.
The Demon Lord, who was right next to me moments ago, disappears.
Technically, she just moved so fast that it looked like she disappeared into thin air, but it was so sudden that it might have well been magic.
Even I couldn’t follow her movements with my eyes.
The sound and shock waves follow a few seconds later.
My High-Speed Processing skill means that things seem to move more slowly around me, but even then, I can barely follow what’s happening.
The new wave of robots and tanks is turned to scrap in an instant.
Talk about cheating.
Yeah. I knew something seemed off.
The robots and tanks are annoying, but the Demon Lord is obviously way stronger.
She should be able to crush them all easily, no matter how countless they might seem.
The reason the battle was dragging on so much is that the Demon Lord wasn’t going all out.
I suppose I wasn’t going all out, either, but can you blame me?
Both of us were saving our energy in case Potimas tried anything, obviously.
We were both trying to stay on our guard so we could deal with it if Potimas tried anything strange.
That might sound bad in an emergency situation like this, but what was I supposed to do?!
I couldn’t help it, even if it was less than ideal.
But if we keep dragging things out, we won’t be able to resolve this situation.
The longer we take, the more likely it is that the UFO will drop the bomb.
I’m still not sure what exactly would cause that to happen, but obviously it’s safer to take care of things as quickly as possible.
So when I made my move, the Demon Lord took that as a sign to start taking this battle more seriously, too, even if it meant neglecting our caution toward Potimas to focus on destroying these robots and tanks.
What actually happened was that my scythe acted of its own accord, but nobody else needs to know that.
And it seemed to intimidate Potimas a little, so maybe it was for the best?
At any rate, the Demon Lord’s serious battle mode is so intense that this’ll all be over before Potimas can even lift a finger.
Was there really any point in being so cautious in the first place?
Uh… Hmm.
W-well, that’s just because Potimas is the kind of guy you have to be careful around at all times!
In fact, having Potimas nearby is clearly doing far more harm than help, so should we really even be letting him live in the first place?
“That seems to be the last of them. Let’s go.”
As if suspecting my thoughts, Potimas briskly strides forward.
Feeling like I missed my chance, I give up on that line of thinking for now and follow after him.
THE BLACK DRAGON’S SPACE BATTLE
As I proceed through empty space and pass a certain boundary, I feel an ever-present magic-runelike link weaken: the rune that connects me to the system.
The connection hasn’t been cut, but I know from experience that I cannot interact with the system from this distance.
From here on out, I will have to fight with my own power alone, not the power provided by the system.
Of course, I have never fought using the power of the system, so it makes no difference to me. I can function perfectly well without it.
As a true dragon, no mere weapon made by human hands is a threat to me.
However, that takes only my own self into account.
When I consider the possible harm toward others it could cause, the difficulty level rises considerably.
A man-made weapon could never kill me, of course.
No matter how advanced it might be, it cannot possibly defeat a true dragon, a god.
If only humans understood that, then this current strife could have been avoided, but I suppose there was no use trying to tell them as much.
Even if they had known that, I doubt the people of the past would have given up on developing these weapons.
To know something and to understand it are two very different things.
If you don’t accept a fact as reality, you cannot really say that you understand it.
And even if you do understand it, accepting it is yet another story.
A difficult conundrum.
Instead of judging what they can or cannot do, humans make their conclusions based on what they want to do.
Their desires, their noble intentions, and their feelings toward others.
They all have different reasons, but ultimately, that is the primitive drive that moves humans to act.
If you probe deeply enough, it all comes down to the simple question of whether they want to do something or not.
Their motives are all the same; it is only the resulting directions that differ.
Although it is these differing directions that cause such problems.
Their different desires are exactly what cause humans to fight among themselves.
Since they always prioritize what they want to do individually, it leads them to clash with one another.
And if they cannot reach an agreement, it comes to blows and eventually to war.
Arguments. Violence. Military might.
In order to accomplish their personal desires, humans will use any means to push through all obstacles.
In which case, the machine I am about to destroy was likely made with such a purpose in mind.
Even if the meaning of that purpose may be long lost to the past.
We cannot possibly know what its purpose might have been.
Of course, if I look into the past, I would be able to see what was happening at that time.
But in the end, that is nothing more than reading memories of the past. I cannot go so far as to read the intentions of the people involved.
A higher god than myself, such as D, might be able to see even that, but I cannot.
God though I may be, there are things I can and cannot do.
Even so, there is one thing I do know.
The people who made these weapons had their backs against the wall.
Otherwise, they would not have created these terrible weapons that even Potimas was surprised to hear they had built, so cost-inefficient and impractical that using them would lead to their own destruction.
Surely they must have realized what would happen if they created and used such weapons.
The GMA bomb can blow away an entire continent, and even the G-Meteo has the potential to destroy the very planet.
If these people had even the slightest bit of sense, they would have realized what would happen to them if they used these.
And yet, their situation was such that they had no choice but to make them anyway.
For they were fighting an enemy who could not be defeated by any half-baked measures.
After all, their opponents were dragons like me.
They must have placed the last of their hopes on these weapons.
Yet, clearly they had a change of conscience or else simply did not complete them in time, for in the end, these weapons were buried underground without ever seeing the light of day.
Most likely, this was for the best at the time.
If the buried weapons had been used, they would have plunged the world into even greater chaos.
But the fact that this peril has come to pass in our current day instead is truly grave.
At the time, there were other gods such as myself who could have dealt with the weapons.
But now I am the only one left.
Which is why I had no choice but to accept Potimas’s proposal that I go into space to deal with the G-Meteo.
I know this was the only choice. Nobody else could possibly fight in outer space.
Knowing Potimas, it is possible that he was concealing a weapon that could have done the job, but of course he would never admit it.
I have no doubt that he deliberately sent me away so that he could attempt something while I am gone.
He has always been this way.
Whenever something unexpected happens, that man attempts to use it to manipulate things in his favor.
Even if he himself was not expecting it, he is cunning enough to find a way to profit from it in the end.
I am sure that this situation, too, was not something he anticipated.
But it was all too clear that he is trying to use it to his advantage, nonetheless.
Since I had no choice but to go along with his wishes, I must curse my own inadequacy.
But it irritates me that he thinks he holds everything in the palm of his hand.
Up ahead, I can see my target.
The frightening weapon with the ability to capture meteors and intentionally drop them onto the planet.
The results would likely depend on the size of the meteor, but in the worst-case scenario, this weapon has the potential to destroy the entire planet.
Yet, despite how alarming its power may be, the weapon’s appearance is rather foolish.
Its main body is spherical with propulsion devices attached, and it is equipped with eight arms for the purpose of latching onto meteors.
From some perspectives it may look like a strange sea creature, but as the sphere emits flames to propel it along, its appearance is more humorous than anything.
Though I suppose that makes sense, considering its designer.
Potimas is concerned only with mechanical efficiency and pays no attention to appearances.
This foolish-looking shape must be the result of another efficiency-focused design.
And since its emphasis is on such efficiency, no doubt there is far more to this weapon than meets the eye.
The G-Meteo, perhaps noticing my approach, begins shooting light bullets.
Outer space does not decrease the power of these optic weapons.
If anything, the vacuum only makes them stronger.
However, a weapon made by man cannot affect a god.
I proceed forward, not bothering to dodge the bullets.
My barrier neutralizes them instantly, so, far from injuring me, they cannot even slow me down.
As a true dragon, I have a barrier far more potent than any created by a system-based skill.
A true dragon’s barrier is limitless, blocking both physical and magical attacks.
Not Potimas or even D could completely reproduce this unique ability of dragons.
D created an inferior version using skills, and Potimas developed a barrier that wards off magic, but neither of them comes close to the original.
It is the existence of this barrier that makes it so difficult to defeat dragons.
Even if one did instigate a disaster that destroyed the planet, it’s still not certain whether the true dragons would be harmed.
All of that effort for only the possibility of putting a scratch on a dragon.
Even that would not be enough to break through a dragon’s barrier.
That is the real difference between man and the godly dragons.
The humans of the past knew this, but they did not understand it.
Which is exactly why they created these weapons, believing they were their last hope.
And now, I crush that hope of the past.
The G-Meteo is destroyed in no time.
The now-meaningless hope from a bygone era, reduced to so much garbage in space.
I cannot help but feel the slightest twinge of sadness at the sight.
Perhaps it is because I, too, am a thing of the past, clinging to a purpose that may no longer have meaning in the present.
For I am just like man.
I continue to struggle for the sake of accomplishing my personal desires.
It is unlike a dragon, which is exactly why I am here.
Of all the dragons who once abandoned this planet, I alone remain.
This is the only place I can be.
As the remnants of the G-Meteo drift around me, I put aside my emotions and turn back.
If I hurry, I can still go to the aid of Ariel and the others.
The GMA bomb has not yet been dropped.
If a dragon such as myself appears in front of the G-Fleet, it may drop the GMA bomb, but even then, I would be able to handle such an event.
I am far more certain to be able to resolve this situation than Ariel and the others.
No matter what Potimas might try to do.
Whatever he is planning, I shall crush his attempts without mercy.
“Splendidly done.”
The voice instantly takes the wind out of my sails.
Even in space, this voice reaches my ear effortlessly.
It’s coming from a thin device floating directly in front of my face.
Even I did not notice the appearance of this object.
That alone shows the difference in power between myself and the being who sent this device to me.
And there is only one being who would contact me at a time like this.
“What do you want, D?”
I open my mouth so that my voice will reach my opponent.
For a god, it is a simple task to produce sound in space.
D: the evil god, the final god, the god of death.
The being who reigns as the most powerful of all gods has many names.
Normally, such a being would not bother speaking to a lesser god like myself.
And yet, this voice speaks to me quite freely.
A human who worships D might see this as the greatest joy imaginable, but for me, it brings nothing but a bad premonition.
“Hello to you, too. Your role in this particular incident is now over. So please watch the rest from here, if you will.”
And my premonition is correct.
D is telling me to stay here and do nothing.
But I don’t understand why.
Surely D would not want the GMA bomb to put an end to this little performance.
“Why?”
“Because it will be more entertaining this way,” D responds unabashedly.
D wants to let the world remain in danger, simply because it will be more amusing.
The nerve of this god is unbelievable.
But she’s being completely serious.
People’s actions are based entirely on their personal whims.
And this god thinks and acts in a very similar way.
D acts purely on whether something will be amusing or not.
Everything she does is for the simple purpose of her own entertainment.
If it amuses her, she’ll do anything—no matter who might be hurt or what might be broken.
That is the true nature of D, the being often called an evil god.
And since she’s making this demand of me now, she must have decided that things will be more amusing if I don’t return.
She wants the people down there to resolve this situation of their own accord, without my help.
No doubt D considers that highly entertaining.
But for me, it’s not entertaining in the slightest.
“But…”
“Just stay where you are for now, please.”
I attempt to protest, but D cuts me off with an order.
Her tone is polite but carries a firm undertone that suggests she will not allow me to act against her wishes.
Such a prideful, selfish will.
She really is just like her.
Their inclinations may be different, but the girl in white displays that same shameless drive to follow her own base desires.
She puts herself first and will gladly wreak destruction if it means getting what she wants.
That’s precisely what concerns me so much about that girl.
I fear that drive of hers will someday bring about a serious situation.
However, I’m currently conversing with someone far more dangerous than that girl.
If D wished it, she could easily end even me.
“All right.”
That’s the only response I am permitted to give.
Because if I spoil D’s mood, I will not be the only one to suffer the consequences.
As long as D’s beloved girl in white is around, I doubt she will cause any serious harm to this world, but she certainly has the power to do so if she wishes.
And it is not within my power to stop her.
“Good answer.”
Part 6 of 8