by Okina Baba
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 eno
ugh, 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.