Table of Contents

Color Gallery

Title Page

Table of Contents Page

Cast

The Story So Far

Copyrights and Credits

Chapter 1: The Sword God’s Domain

Chapter 2: Showdown with the Saint

Chapter 3: Conversation with the Divine Voice

Bonus Story 1: The Monkey King’s Truly Terrible Parting Gift

Bonus Story 2: The Saint’s Soliloquy

Bonus Story 3: The Glutton and the Devil Girl

Afterword

Newsletter

Chapter 1:
The Sword God’s Domain

Part 1
Volk

I RAISED MY GAZE to the sky. Above me, the Fly King, Beelzebub, pursued Illusia as he took off after Saint Lilyxila. But I wasn’t concerned; at this point, ­defeating the Fly King and the saint would be a cakewalk to a monster as powerful as Illusia.

The battle against Saint Lilyxila in the Strange Lands was drawing to a close. The saint’s Holy Knights had been all but completely wiped out, and I was certain that Allo and Treant could figure out a way to best Aluanne, the other girl who made up a sizable portion of the saint’s main forces.

The saint no longer had the military power she’d need to plan any sort of strategy. And against the sheer, overwhelming strength of an Oneiros, it seemed unlikely that anyone would be able to put up a fight.

That was why it was up to me to defeat the small, spry old man standing in front of me—to defeat Howgley—here and now.

“Volk…the Dragonslayer,” Howgley said. “I did not think you could take as many of my blows as you did and still return to challenge me. I have never met a human so sturdy.”

Howgley, as one of the saint’s pawns, was simply too dangerous to let live any longer. If I could defeat him here, then Illusia would be able to defeat the saint without him interfering. This old man was the one ­opponent on Lilyxila’s side who could never be defeated by pure strength alone. Even Illusia, with his vastly superior physical strength, magic, and agility, had been unable to land a single blow on Howgley. He was at the mercy of the old man’s blade.

Howgley was my opponent to beat, and mine alone.

After losing to him the last time we fought, I was convinced. Only another master swordsman would be able to defeat Howgley. Neither Illusia nor Allo could keep up with him. Howgley the Glutton was a swordsman of legend…perhaps even the strongest swordsman of all time. This old man was Lilyxila’s secret weapon; the only one who could possibly defeat Illusia.

If there was any chance of defeating him, it lay with me—a fellow swordsman, utilizing my superior strength to my advantage. Howgley was an enemy only I could defeat.

I grasped the long, ultra-thin blade in my hand. It was the second sword I kept in my Dimension portal: Destruction God Doldina.

Despite its rather fearsome name, the blade’s main strength lay in how light it was, despite its long length and reach. Wielding it required delicate swordsmanship and precise maneuvering to make the most of its power. It was the complete opposite of my massive greatswords, Leral and Bandersnatch, which were more about sheer strength than anything else.

In truth, Bandersnatch was usually more of a better fit for me, but I didn’t think it was the right choice this time. The Fang of the Frumious Maniac Bandersnatch was imbued with a monster’s curse that caused its wielder to go berserk, which made it a poor fit against my current opponent. I wouldn’t be able to force my way to victory this time around, even with the additional speed or power. Not even Illusia could best Howgley the Glutton. Petty tricks were not going to work for this fight.

Instead, I chose Doldina as my blade, which would grant me both versatility and the ability to better read my opponent’s moves.

“I stayed my hand the first time we fought, but I will not be so merciful this time around. I do not intend to let my leniency be the saint’s downfall.” Howgley raised his dagger toward me. “Doing so would be a betrayal of my own convictions…and an insult to you, Volk the Dragonslayer.”

After crossing swords with him once myself and witnessing his battle with Illusia, there was no doubt in my mind. For a swordsman to be able to attack an Oneiros without being hit once…no feat described in any myth or legend could come close to his true power. Howgley the Glutton possessed a strength that bordered the line of heresy.

Even the legends about him I’d idolized all my life paled in comparison to the reality of the swordsman that stood before me. Legends were usually exaggerations of the truth—not so with Howgley. The legends that spoke of his exploits told just a crude fragment of the true story and the path that he had taken. I understood now why the rumors were unable to adequately convey his strength. The tale of this conflict might end up being told and passed down for thousands of years in the Holy Land. But even so, I doubted that the truth of Howgley’s role and feats would be remembered as they truly were. Perhaps the masses would believe a story about a dream dragon facing off against the saint, but there was no way they’d believe just how powerful Howgley the Glutton was.

His strength was beyond the normal scope of human understanding. Even Illusia seemed not to understand why he was at Howgley’s mercy when they fought, why his attacks never hit even though he was supposed to be much slower than Illusia, and why Howgley always managed to get in his blind spot before he could react. To him, Howgley’s attacks must have seemed to be some sort of magic trick.

As a fellow swordsman, I could catch only a faint glimpse of the truth behind his power. That was ­probably why this tiny old man seemed like an insurmountable ­giant whose neck pierced the clouds above. I could barely comprehend his strength, and that frightened me. It wasn’t the same fear when challenging a swordsman more powerful than me when I was younger or when I fought against dragons many times larger than myself. I did not fear death.

Instead, this fear was, without a doubt, based on the overwhelming premonition that I would die by Howgley the Glutton’s hand without the ability to do anything to resist him. Without accomplishing anything in the attempt.

When Howgley told me that I could already stand as a rival to him despite my age, he was giving me far too much credit. No doubt his strength was the result of honing his swordsmanship to the utmost extreme—as well as his sharp senses in battle—but that alone was not enough to explain the superhuman abilities he had displayed again and again during our fights.

A sword technique that followed up a slash with an unexpected second slash.

A quick dodge movement that allowed him to avoid his opponent’s attacks, even while in midair.

A defensive ability that allowed him to cancel out an attack that would have otherwise been a direct hit.

Those were the three special abilities Howgley had that put him a head above the rest. At least, those were the ones I had witnessed so far.

I was on the receiving end of the second slash ability during our first conflict. It was difficult to describe. Though Howgley only swung his blade once, I felt the second slash against my skin, as though it came from an invisible sword. The first slash did not do much damage, but the second…when it struck me, the pain was so intense that it felt like my body was being ripped open from the inside. With one single strike, I was sent flying unceremoniously over the edge of the cliff. Such a description made it sound like it was some sort of magic, unrelated to Howgley’s swordsmanship skills, but if I knew one thing for sure, it was that that strange second slash was definitely a cut made by a sword.

I still hadn’t figured out the true nature of these three abilities. There was some answer there that I was yet to discover, something that played at the very edges of my thoughts. But I just hadn’t connected the dots. If I had only seen one of Howgley’s abilities, I would have dismissed it as the product of his many years of training and skill. But now I’d seen him launch such a one-sided attack on Illusia, I knew it could not be so simple.

I did understand one thing, though. With Howgley’s mysterious extra strike, his distorted evasive movements, and his absolute defense, he could emerge victorious from a battle against any opponent, simply by reading their movements. It seemed to me like his evasive and defensive techniques went into effect as soon as he decided to use them. As long as I was unable to read his actions, no matter how much more powerful than him I was in theory, it would be impossible for me to land a single hit.

In that sense, Howgley was a swordmaster nearly akin to a god. He was able to deal with every attack against him, and his own attacks would land against any and all opponents he faced. But the most fearsome thing of all was his battle instincts—they were perhaps the best in the world.

“Face me, young swordsman!” Howgley roared as he came at me.

As I improved as a swordsman, there was one thing in particular that I’d learned to spot on the battlefield: which spots were dangerous. Which areas would put me at risk of being struck by a sword technique I could not handle if I risked standing in them. These spots seemed slightly dimmer to me than the others along the ground. Naturally, the more I could understand and predict my opponent’s actions, the clearer these danger zones became.

I believed that this ability was one that any swordsman could learn. However, I held some pride in the fact that I could detect danger zones more clearly and precisely than other swordsmen. By keeping away from these danger zones, I could avoid a lethal hit. But I could also leap into danger intentionally at times to subvert my opponent’s expectations and create an opening, or to goad my opponent into a hasty attack that I could counter.

However, to my eyes, the area surrounding Howgley was awash in a murky black haze. The danger zones I could see were usually faint, so faint they could be called illusions. This was the first time the effect had been so clear and distinct. It was as though my instincts were screaming at me that no matter where I leapt, only death awaited me.

Am I…truly a match for Howgley the Glutton? Are my swords skills really good enough to compete with him?

No… Enough. Whining about my doubts is unlike me, especially now that I’ve made it this far. Illusia believed in me enough to entrust Howgley’s defeat to me. That should be all the encouragement I need.

“Bring it on, Glutton! I will defeat you and claim your title as the most powerful swordsman in the world!” With a shout, I raised my blade and rushed toward Howgley.

Part 2
Volk

I CLOSED THE DISTANCE between Howgley and me, gripping my longsword tightly as I approached.

At first glance, Howgley seemed relaxed and defenseless. Compared to my Destruction God Doldia, the short reach of his dagger seemed insufficient. He’d taken no additional preparations whatsoever for dealing with my new blade. If he’d been a normal opponent, I should have been able to cut him down from afar by capitalizing on my blade’s reach and my physical strength.

However…the entire area surrounding Howgley was still awash with danger. My instincts screamed at me that, the moment I stepped into Howgley’s vicinity, his blade would fly at me and I would be powerless to defend against it.

In battle, there were two types of attacks: ones that could be recognized and reacted to, and ones that could not. It was better to avoid the former once you realized it. For the latter, one needed to prepare countermeasures in advance and work around them to avoid being threatened with the attack in the first place.

Within the many branches of swordsmanship study, there existed several stances for maintaining an unassailable form against attacks that one could not react to. Naturally, there was a limit to the variety of attacks each stance could defend against. The question of which stance was best was a topic of heated debate in swordsman circles, one that often ended with the crossing of blades and the question left unresolved.

However, at the end of the day, if one was unable to recognize and react to an attack, then their only course of action was to read and analyze their opponent’s movements. And Howgley was terrifyingly sharp at reading and reacting to his opponents’ movements. There was no way I could get through his defense by relying on strength alone. It was obvious to me that Howgley would see my attacks coming from a mile away, even if I did my best to make them impossible to counter.

The only way to defeat Howgley would be to take advantage of our difference in stats as we crossed blades and force him into a corner somehow. Even if I managed that, there would still be a chance he could slip past me with his mysterious dodge. But if I couldn’t at least get him to that point, this would not be much of a fight either way. If I didn’t fight smart, my blade would never reach Howgley.

“Shockwave!” I swung my sword and unleashed a Shockwave from the blade. Then I sped up, dashing forward as if to chase the skill’s path. My plan was to force him to evade the Shockwave, then use that opportunity to land an attack. With my massive advantage in physical strength, an attack like this should’ve proved quite effective.

Even so, my mind was filled with foreboding, and before I knew it, Howgley was swinging his dagger down right in front of my eyes.

For a moment, I was convinced Howgley possessed the gift of teleportation, but then I understood. He simply dodged around my Shockwave and came forward to meet me. What made this maneuver so impressive was his precision and speed. He’d evaded my Shockwave with acrobatic ease and immediately switched to the offensive, dodging and launching an attack in one clean movement.

Although we were facing each other in a direct duel, it seemed as though his attacks would still appear out of nowhere. I would be a fool to underestimate him simply because his agility stat was lower than mine.

“Guh!” I pulled my own blade back to defend against Howgley’s slash. The Destruction God Doldia was a thin blade, but it was by no means frail or brittle. It was capable of defending against even the blows of a rank A dragon.

In that moment, though, Howgley moved to my front, then slipped under and past my sword arm.

“Damn it!”A moment later, I felt a burning heat in my abdomen as Howgley’s blade sliced through my flesh. I was hit.

With Howgley’s low stats, if I could twist my body away from him before he was able to complete his swing, the injury wouldn’t be serious. His dagger’s blade didn’t seem particularly sharp to begin with. The problem, however, was the mysterious second slash that came just after the first. For some reason, that cut dealt far more damage than the first one.

I swung my body away from his and kicked off from the ground to build momentum, then rolled in midair.

I awaited the pain of the second slash, only to be met with…nothing.

I regained my footing and readied my sword once more. Howgley scowled at me from afar, not yet moving to close the distance between us.

“Yes, as I thought…the fact that you were able to avoid it the first time was no fluke,” he remarked. “Color me impressed. I never thought I would face an opponent clever enough to avoid my second blow after receiving it just once.”

I didn’t avoid his attack through a pure stroke of luck, then. I might not have fully understood the workings of his second slash, but I could at least manage to avoid it now.

The mysterious second slash always occurred at a fixed angle that was slightly offset from the first. It made absolutely no sense how or why, but that was the only way I could describe it. The reason I was able to detect it after receiving the slash just once was because the angle and direction of the second slash were so unusual. It was hard to believe someone like Howgley, who was such a precise and masterful swordsman, would just make such a consistently off-kilter slash intentionally.

In other words, because I was able to infer the position and angle of the second slash the moment after the first, I could move to avoid it. Naturally, understanding the mechanics did not mean evading it was easy, and taking even one more of those slashes would mean my end, but it was not impossible for me to deal with it.

“You are the first being—including nonhumans—who has managed to avoid my attack. It is truly a shame that I must end your life here, Volk the Dragonslayer.” As he spoke, I felt a murderous intent swell within Howgley that was more intense than ever before.

I braced against my blade but unintentionally took half a step back. “Hmph… Such words from a swordsman as powerful as Howgley the Glutton can only be seen as sarcasm,” I retorted, tensing my legs to stop them from trembling. “Do you intend to provoke me?”

It will be fine. I can avoid his second slash. As long as I keep doing that, perhaps I can drag this out into a battle of attrition. At the very least, I can avoid being felled by a single blow.

“You are blessed with talent that puts you leagues above me. And I mean that in far more ways than just the limits of your physical abilities,” Howgley said. “I…was once a mercenary who slaughtered tens of thousands. But I grew tired of that life, quit the mercenary business, and began to travel around the world on my own. From then on, I chose to survive only by hunting monsters I could consume. When others took notice, I was given the title of ‘Glutton’…an amusing name, to be sure. It took many decades of living like this to arrive at my current state after learning this abominable black magic.”

“‘Abominable…black magic’?” I repeated haltingly. It was a strange way to describe his own skills. I had guessed that he was using techniques that were beyond the orthodox. But I assumed this would be something he took pride in.

His phrasing nagged at my mind. Surely his swordsmanship is not a result of…? No. It can’t be. I shook my head to clear the thoughts creeping into my mind. Enough. If I allow these idle musings to control me, I will be defeated by an opponent I know I can vanquish. I know how to endure his attacks. That alone should be enough.

“I did not expect you to learn how to avoid me after just one strike, despite my advantage. Impressive. You are undoubtedly a prodigy, more than me in every way. But even so, you are far too young to stand against me.”

Part 3
Volk

I DASHED TOWARD Howgley.

The space around him was still awash with the black haze of danger and death. I could see it clearly, but it was too large and widespread for me to fight him without stepping into it. In any other situation, I would have avoided fighting an opponent so dangerous. My experience was so lacking next to his that even challenging Howgley to battle seemed like an insult to his own divine skill.

I’d always thought I would feel satisfied if I were to be killed in battle…but part of me wondered whether this could truly be considered a battle at all. Howgley’s skills towered above mine, and I stood in his immense shadow. Facing him felt like diving headfirst into the mouth of a volcano.

“To think that you are brave enough to come at me, despite knowing the difference in our strength…” Howgley moved toward me as well, and before I knew it, he was already in range to attack with his dagger.

In my mind, I began to predict Howgley’s next moves. Because his level itself was not very high, he likely had a limited number of options at his disposal. As long as I continued to move optimally, it would surely be only a matter of time before I drove Howgley into a corner. It was not enough to just be a move or two ahead of him.

Think, Volk… I need a maneuver that can put Howgley in checkmate!

Our blades—one short, one long—crashed into each other with a resounding clang of steel. Each time our swords clashed, an addictive rush of adrenaline surged through my veins like a drug. Howgley parried my longsword and diverted its power, carefully compensating for the difference in our blades’ weight and force.

“You…have shown tremendous growth in swordsmanship skills through the course of this battle alone. Without any worthy opponents around to trade blows with, your talents must have been stagnating. Make no mistake…you are a truly fearsome man, Dragonslayer,” Howgley said. He swung down.

The attack sliced a ribbon across my arm, but I felt no pain—perhaps because of the adrenaline rush. On the contrary, I was delighted to be able to fend Howgley off at such close range for the first time.

I blocked Howgley’s attempt to slip under my sword arm and quickly kicked at him to make him retreat. In doing so, I managed to put Howgley in range of my Destruction God Doldina. This also meant I was out of range of his dagger’s blade. It was an ideal position for me.

“Do not move from that spot!” I cried.

Thinking ten moves ahead, I began to swing my longsword, loosing a whirlwind of strikes to crush any possibility of escape. If I made even the tiniest of mistakes now, Howgley would break free from my prison of blows. I pushed my mind past the limit to keep up my furious onslaught with deadly precision. This was, without a doubt, the most accomplished sequence of attacks I had dealt in my entire life.

Howgley’s expression did not waver, but he was forced to fight defensively against my relentless onslaught. “Impressive swordplay. It is a shame I cannot fight you in a sparring match befitting two swordsmen. But this is not a sparring match—it is a duel to the death.”

He suddenly darted to the side at an impossible speed. With my sharp focus, I was able to see his movement easily, but I did not have enough time to correct the path of my sword. It swung through empty air, missing him completely.

Howgley had used his mysterious evasion technique again, allowing him to reposition his body almost instantaneously, even in midair. Even to me, it looked like a blur, but the movement’s unpredictability was what made it truly impossible for me to deal with. It was precisely because I was so close to landing a blow on Howgley that I finally understood just how unfair his evasive ability truly was.

Howgley was a true swordsman. Cheap tricks would not work against him, and it was unlikely I’d be able to bring him down with ranged attacks either. No, my only choice was to challenge him in melee combat—his specialty. But even if I managed to push past his masterful swordsmanship and gain the advantage, so long as he had that uncanny evasive move, he could turn the tables on me whenever he liked.

When I saw the way Howgley’s form blurred as he dodged, though…a strange feeling suddenly washed over me.

Déjà vu.

I’ve seen this move before. From someone else entirely.

Howgley moved to my side, dagger at the ready. One lapse, and he’d completely avoided my attacks and come forward to strike.

I stopped my blade short and moved to dodge by leaping over him, but I was too late. Howgley’s dagger darted right at me. I tried to block his thrust with the broadside of my blade.

“Armor Pierce!”

Destruction God Doldina was a blade strong enough to withstand even a dragon’s blows. But all the same, when Howgley’s dagger thrust into it, glowing with Armor Pierce, cracks appeared along its surface.

Then, my blade shattered.

“No… Impossible!”

“It is only natural that such a thin, light sword would shatter if I pierced through its weakest point. When facing an opponent like me, it would benefit you to be more careful about protecting your blade. To use it as a shield…how foolish.” With my blade now in pieces, Howgley slashed at me without reserve.

I retreated backward, trying to create some space. But without a weapon, I was defenseless against Howgley’s ­attacks. His dagger sliced into my skin over and over, leaving shallow cuts in its wake. I didn’t feel any secondary slashes, though; it seemed as though the second slash would only activate after a deep cut.

At this point, I didn’t care how many shallow cuts I took—only that they were shallow enough they wouldn’t trigger the second slash. I kept retreating for the time being, throwing my broken longsword at him to create some distance.

Forgive me, Destruction God Doldina. I failed you, the same way I failed Moon-Piercer Leral.

Gaining a moment to myself, I used Regenerate to heal my cuts. There was no need to heal them completely; all I needed was to be able to move. There was no point in thinking about what might happen after the battle right now. If I didn’t survive here, there would be no after.

Against Howgley, Destruction God Doldina’s precision had made it the ideal weapon. It was not a blade that relied on any special characteristics or its weight to be powerful. By using its long reach and lightness to my advantage, I could strike Howgley with all of my might.

But now, Destruction God Doldina was gone.

Enough. This is no time to lament.

“Dimension!” I shouted, raising my arm into the air. My hand glowed, then closed around the hilt of a wicked-looking greatsword with a curved blade of crimson and blue.

“Ahh…the Fang of the Frumious Maniac, Bandersnatch,” murmured Howgley. “I wasn’t expecting you to draw such an esteemed blade right after Destruction God Doldina. It seems you are a true collector. The priceless magic sword, said to be lost after the death of Mia the Hero. To think that you’d have it in your possession…”

It was true that Bandersnatch was a more famous blade than Destruction God Doldina. It was a sword made by Mia the Hero, using a fang from the previous Beast King, Bandersnatch. It was one of the best swords in the world. There was no end to the number of swordsmen and collectors who itched to get their hands on it.

Even so, I doubted drawing a blade with higher attack power would do much to change the tide of our battle. If I could just manage to land a single hit on Howgley, that would be enough to end this—but it would be much harder to achieve with the Fang of the Frumious Maniac Bandersnatch, which was far larger and more difficult to maneuver. On top of that, Bandersnatch also inflicted its wielder with the same madness possessed by its Beast King namesake.

Howgley was not an enemy I could defeat with pure frenzied instinct. But Bandersnatch was the only sword I had left. I had no choice but to rely on it to pull me through.

As soon as I readied my blade, my vision went red. An irresistible urge to rend, to tear, to destroy, filled my mind. I let the Bandersnatch blade drive me to madness.

Then I looked at Howgley once more. The black danger zone still swirled around him; but with my vision turned red, it took on the reddish-black hue of dried blood.

Without thinking, my lips curled into a sinister grin. Danger zones? I was already prepared for danger at every turn the moment I stepped into Alban Castle with Illusia. I will follow my instincts and fight with fury. Even if Howgley beheads me before my blade can reach him, I’ll tear out his throat with my teeth.

“Hooooowgleeeeey!” I roared, swinging Bandersnatch.

Howgley readied his dagger and lunged for me. As we closed the distance, the danger zone around him began to thin out.

He’s planning to evade, then come back for a counterattack. Then I’ll just have to cut through every possible evasion path!

I kicked off from the ground and leapt toward him, swinging my sword in a massive arc. The tip of my blade only just missed him. He’d dodged farther back than I thought.

“Hmph. It looked as though you lost your sense of reason. But your instincts are still spot-on. You are still too naive for your own good, though. Even if you believe you’ve read your opponent’s movements correctly, you shouldn’t swing your sword in such a wide arc. Especially against an opponent more experienced than you.”

Taking advantage of my wide swing, Howgley darted forward into dagger range. I kicked my leg out to stop him, but Howgley slipped past it and slashed his dagger across my abdomen.

A burning pain erupted from my stomach. Damn. I read him wrong.

I leapt backward to mitigate the blade’s damage and twisted my body to avoid the second slash. But as I did, I noticed Howgley swinging his dagger down to meet my skin.

“Did you really think I would let you avoid my blade the same way twice?” His voice was far too close.

In the next moment, he thrust his dagger at me. I raised my empty hand to block it. The blade pierced through the back of my hand, spraying blood. But pain was nothing to me now. I closed my fingers, gripping the dagger between them.

“Hm?”Howgley frowned.

“I’ve caught you now, Howgleeeeey!” I swung my greatsword at Howgley, who was supposed to be immobilized. With this blow, I’d cut his body in two.

But Howgley gripped his dagger’s hilt and rolled sideways in midair, dodging nimbly. He yanked the dagger backward and out of my hand, then landed on the ground with a somersault.

I closed the distance between us in an instant and swung my blade in a wide arc before he could regain his footing. He dodged once, and I immediately swung again.

Howgley flitted around me, parrying my attacks with his dagger and searching for an opening.

“It almost seemed like you were losing your mind,” he said, “but you’re incorporating everything you’ve learned from our earlier battle into your own sword techniques and using your instincts to compensate for your lack of experience. I never expected you to be a man of such potential. Perhaps the saint misjudged you. You may be the most dangerous opponent of all.”

Slash. Slash. Slash. My sword came down over and over, but it met only air.

Fine. Then I shall swing harder and faster. Howgley can make as many shallow cuts as he likes; so be it. If I land even a single blow, then I win.

The clanging of swords rang out from both sides, neither of us able to land a decisive blow.

Howgley spoke again. “I am…truly sorry that I cannot face you as a true swordsman, and instead am forced to resort to such underhanded techniques. But I am under orders. Besides, there is something I’ve decided I need to accomplish.”

Howgley’s stance faltered for a moment. I wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass me by; I swung my greatsword with all of my might.

As my blade came down, Howgley’s figure blurred once more. He evaded the blow—a blow that should have been all but impossible to avoid—with ease, and darted toward me with his dagger at the ready.

But I wasn’t going to let him succeed.

“I can see you, Howgleeeeey!”I roared, pulling back my sword to swing it in the opposite direction.

But right as my blade was about to pierce his flesh…Howgley seemed to vanish and reappear a meter away.

He’d used his strange evasion technique twice in a row. He leapt at me, dagger pointed straight at my neck.

I couldn’t bring my sword up to block in time. Instead, I was forced to block with my arm. It would be a deep cut, but it would allow me to counter with my blade in my other hand.

At the last moment, though, Howgley lowered his dagger to scrape past my raised arm, then delivered a sharp knee strike to my chest.

He feinted to make me misread his intentions. Am I being too aggressive? He saw I was about to counterattack.

Despite this setback, I gritted my teeth, gathered my strength, and took Howgley’s kick without allowing it to send me flying back.

Yes! From this close, I should be able to land a blow!

I swung my greatsword at Howgley’s head.

“You really are a stubborn fellow.” Howgley’s body blurred once more. It seemed like he’d been holding off from using the evasion technique in quick succession before, but now that I could see it coming, he was using it relentlessly.

Howgley slipped in close to my chest, then moved to grab my greatsword. What? Is he trying to steal Bandersnatch?

“Ha! As if I would let this blade fall from my grasp!” I slammed my arm against the ground, trying to shake Howgley off. As I did, a sharp pain shot through my fingers.

Howgley landed a short distance away. He carried his dagger in his right hand…and in his left, he had the Fang of the Frumious Maniac, Bandersnatch.

Wh…what? What did he do to me? Why Is Howgley holding Bandersnatch? I couldn’t feel my left hand. I had no intentions of letting my blade go; I would have never let go of it. But somehow, Howgley had managed to snatch Bandersnatch from my fingers. And the last thing a swordsman would want in the middle of a battle would be to lose his sword.

The red began to fade from my vision as my thoughts cleared, having been freed from Bandersnatch’s control.

I looked down at my arm to check on it.

My ring finger was cut off from the base. The rest of my fingers were mangled and broken; it seemed like Howgley had twisted the blade’s handle to break them.

“Hmm…I’m surprised by you, Dragonslayer. You left no openings for me to exploit. That was some superb fighting. However, I have a rendezvous with the saint to make before the battle ends, so I took the liberty of disarming you.”

In a fraction of a second, he had sliced off my finger and twisted my sword out of my grip.

“Do not be ashamed at the fact that I managed to take your sword,” he added. “You held on to it more tightly than anyone I have ever faced before. Your bent fingers are clear proof of that.”

He raised both swords, and I leapt back, desperately trying to heal my fingers with Regenerate. If I couldn’t use a sword, the battle was as good as over.

But…Howgley is holding Bandersnatch. Why is he not being overcome with madness? How is he still so calm?

“You seem surprised I am able to resist this sword’s curse,” he remarked, lightly swinging the greatsword around to test it. “Through my travels, I learned to control my fury. I expect you are able to resist it to some extent as well.”

Once again, Howgley was showing off his superior prowess. I could retain some ability to control my thoughts, but the blade didn’t seem like it affected him at all.How could a man this powerful really exist? Howgley was extraordinary in every way.

“It is against my nature to kill someone who has lost the will to fight, but this would be the second time I spare you, Dragonslayer. Besides, you haven’t given up yet, have you? Come. Fight me.”

Part 4
Volk

MY DESTRUCTION GOD DOLDINA was broken, and the Fang of the Frumious Maniac had been stolen from my hand. I had only one sword left in my possession. It was not a blade I’d planned on using in this fight…but it was my only option left.

“Dimension,” I called, reaching into the air once more. This time, a reddish-black, glowing blade appeared in my hand.

“That brilliance…” Howgley gasped. “It can’t be. Is that Mia the Hero’s Blade of Divine Insurrection?”

He was correct. This was the blade possessed by the Clay Hero, a golem created by Mia the Hero. Its official name was the Lifesteal Laevateinn. I had picked it up after Illusia defeated the Clay Hero in his trial. Illusia said that this sword gave its user a great deal of power. But in return, the blade absorbed some of its wielder’s HP each time it was used.

To be frank, it was far too powerful and costly a blade to use against Howgley. His physical stats were no more impressive than any of the Holy Knights’; I was by no means lagging behind him in terms of strength or agility.

Howgley’s strange movements and confusing sword techniques presented a challenge, but they were not his most fearsome weapons. No, his greatest weapons were his sophisticated swordsmanship, his movement abilities, and his ability to accurately read and predict the battlefield.

If anyone other than Howgley had possessed the same strange abilities, they wouldn’t be much of a threat. But because Howgley was able to accurately read my actions and make judgments based on them, he was able to craft a technique that was nigh impossible to beat.

It didn’t matter whether I used a weaker or stronger blade against Howgley; that was why I wanted to defeat him with Doldina, which could utilize its strength best in a battle of skill. But Lifesteal Laevateinn was the only sword I had left.

“I never thought I would ever meet someone who would wield that sword to challenge me as I acted as the saint’s pawn. Perhaps this is fate,” Howgley muttered. “This is the first time in my life that I have had to fight so seriously. You were a surprise, Dragonslayer. But let us end this.” He pointed the tips of his two swords at me.

“You mean you didn’t think the fight against Illusia was serious?” I asked.

“I did not mean that as an insult. The dragon was simply not a swordsman. It was not necessary to take our fight seriously.”

“You know, you are probably the only person in the world who could say that about a fight with Illusia.” I knew what Howgley meant, though. No one could land a hit on him unless they managed to drive him into a corner. Otherwise, he was untouchable. Wide range attacks and speed helped, of course, but his strange powers prevented him from being trapped by anyone who was not a true swordsman.

“Get ready, Dragonslayer. Here I come!” Howgley dropped into a low stance and dashed forward along the ground. The moment he swung his blade, he disappeared, only to reappear right in front of me.

Howgley had me. He used his strange evasion to close the distance between us at the perfect moment, preventing me from being able to react in time. Battle intuition was all about predicting how one’s opponent was going to engage you, based on their past actions. But against Howgley’s unfair, unprecedented technique, my intuition worked against me.

I blocked a blow from Howgley’s longsword, but I felt a sharp pain in my stomach. He’d sliced into me with his dagger. I needed to twist away to avoid his second slash.

No…actually, I don’t! His second slash had a lot of prerequisites. It could only slice at a certain angle, and his movements were restricted for a few moments right afterward.

In that case, I should strike where he will end up and cut him down, in exchange for taking the second slash!

I whirled around and swung my greatsword at the spot I thought Howgley would end up with all my might. If he was aiming to land his second slash, he’d end up at the tip of my blade.

Howgley was moving exactly like I thought he would. Then, because I chose not to turn away, I finally saw the truth: Howgley’s sword was glowing slightly. I recognized the light shining on his blade.

There was no mistaking it; he was using Blade of Exorcism, a skill that I possessed as well. The skill could cut through magical energy, disrupting any magic in the area. Blade of Exorcism was an important skill for swordsmen, who tended to be natural enemies of mages. It had saved my life more times than I could count.

But why was Howgley using that skill now?

“It seems I’ve been a little too careless,” Howgley said, darting away from my blade with another distorted motion.

I’d lost count of how many times he’d used the same move now. And every time, it gave me a strange sense of déjà vu.

The moment Howgley started using his evasive move, I knew where he was going to end up. I followed his movements with my eyes, reading him instinctively.

For a moment, our eyes met. Howgley’s widened in surprise.

I didn’t think it would work, but I needed to take a chance.

I took two large steps forward and whipped my blade toward him, cutting into his trajectory. This time, my blade landed.

Howgley was flung backward by the force of my strike. He fell to his knees, expression blank.

Belatedly, I realized what I’d achieved. I could now see and completely follow Howgley’s strange maneuver, even while he was on the move.

Even Illusia couldn’t land an attack on Howgley thanks to his special defensive technique. But from what I’d experienced so far in this battle, he seemed unwilling to use it often. Perhaps it costs too much MP?

“You…actually managed to see through my technique,” he said, still shocked.

Despite what he thought, I still wasn’t sure how it worked. But there were a few things I was certain of. Howgley’s second slash used Godspeed Flash’s speed, his dagger was reinforced with the abilities of Blade of Exorcism and Armor Pierce, and his evasive technique incorporated the movement abilities of Godspeed Flash and High Jump.

But simply using those skills in tandem wouldn’t produce the strange distorted movements and slashes. The culprit behind those effects was still a mystery. All the same, though, I now understood the rules for those cuts and dodges.

From the very beginning, my fighting style against more powerful opponents had always favored leveraging my toughness to draw out the battle long enough to learn my opponent’s movements. For this fight, I was able to make the very most of that strategy.

However, the more I learned about Howgley’s techniques, the more I realized just how bizarre this man was. Even considering the knowledge I’d gleaned so far, the only conclusion I was able to come to was that Howgley’s abilities—whatever magic they entailed—were simply impossible.

“What…are you?” The words came to my lips unbidden. I didn’t think there was an answer to my question.

But Howgley responded, the corners of his mouth curved up in a wry smile. “This world…has many defects. After realizing just how precious life was through my many years of war, and vowing to only kill in order to eat, that is the truth I have come to know at the very end of my journey with the blade.”

I was in the middle of a battle to the death. But still, when I heard Howgley’s words, I unconsciously lowered my sword, my mouth opening wide in shock.

Part 5
Volk

“IF YOU PURSUE the way of the sword to its very limit, you will inevitably find that there are certain laws in this world that cannot be understood through one’s senses. My skills in particular are rooted in manipulating and exploiting these laws,” Howgley explained.

I had no idea what he was talking about. Is he really talking about his own swordsmanship skills?

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“The deviations in the reality of this world are small enough that most can live their entire lives without ever noticing anything unusual. But if one were to poke a ­needle into that tiny gap and widen it, such deviations grow far wider.” Howgley continued in a forlorn, detached manner. “The world will then create cuts where no such cuts existed, ignore the restrictions of ­gravity, and even disregard the effects of harm on one’s body.”

I struggled to make sense of what Howgley was saying. But this had to be the truth behind his three strange techniques.

“This is the secret of how I, a simple human man, have come to be known as the world’s most powerful swordsman. This world…is artificial.”

“A-artificial?” I repeated, voice shaking. It was not a claim I was keen to believe without proof. But I could sense from the deep sadness permeating Howgley’s words that he believed it to be true.

Howgley was famous for having learned the value of every living thing due to his experiences with war, and for only killing monsters he could eat and sparing the rest. He must have come to this conclusion, to this truth, as a result of that journey.

He realized the truth, that the lives he placed so much value in and the world he sought to protect by mastering the blade were all a construct. Artificial. It was easy to see why this truth would be twice as painful to bear for a man like Howgley.

Now I understood why he despised the strange sword techniques he’d developed for himself, why he called it an abomination.

Despite his certainty, Howgley’s claims were still difficult for me to believe. I didn’t even know what it meant for this world to be artificial. Even so, the fact that Howgley was the greatest swordsman in the world, who had honed his swordsmanship skills to such an extreme, gave credibility to his statements.

I didn’t understand what his words meant, but I could at least understand that Howgley had uncovered some truth about the world that had so far eluded every scholar and mage, simply by swinging his sword. If I took him at his word, then his blade could deceive even the gods.

This proved a terrifying reaffirmation of the degree to which he’d honed his blade. He could twist the laws of this world in his favor. Howgley was all but invincible. There was no way he should be able to remain sane while holding the Fang of the Frumious Maniac, but to a man who could freely manipulate the laws of reality, the madness coursing through him was nothing but an annoyance.

Even the lofty title of the world’s most powerful swordsman felt insufficient to describe him. There was no human—from any point in time—who was more skilled with a sword than Howgley. This was neither an exaggeration nor a metaphor; it was simply fact. Howgley was a swordsman so strong that he could rival even gods.

“By using Blade of Exorcism to alter Armor Pierce and Godspeed Flash, the world can be made to mistake a single slash for two. I call this skill Dream Wolf. By leaping off my own sword with High Jump while also making small swings with Godspeed Flash, I am able to surpass the limits of High Jump. This is Shadow Fox. With Shadow Fox, I am able to ward off attacks and allow them to pass through me without harm. I call this Guard Shell. These are the three techniques that stretch the laws of this world.” As he finished speaking, Howgley adjusted his grip on both of his swords and readied himself to strike.

“I…see. It is kind of you to explain them to me.” I was almost certain that Howgley was telling the truth. He didn’t seem like the type to lie, and the characteristics of the three skills he explained matched up perfectly with my own observations.

“It is simply a matter of courtesy at this point, more for my own satisfaction than anything. Knowing the truth behind my techniques does not make them any easier to counter. Besides,” he added, his stare boring into me, “I figured you’d like to know the name of the techniques that would be used to kill you.”

I was at a loss. I thought if I could just uncover the truth of his sword techniques, I could close the gap between our skill levels and have a chance at besting him. But now, Howgley seemed even more threatening and unstoppable than he had during our first battle. The more I learned, the more apparent the gap in our skill levels became. Did I ever really stand a chance against a man so powerful…?

“Why, Howgley?! Why would a man like you choose to follow the saint?!” The question flew from my mouth before I could stop it. But I just couldn’t understand how he could bear to serve under such a ruthless and dishonest woman.

Howgley sighed. “You think too highly of me. I’m just a feeble-minded old fool who fears dying before he understands the true meaning of life. That’s all. By allying with the saint, I can gain the means to ask God about the truth of this world and the meaning of life myself. That is my purpose.” There was no trace of hesitation in his words. Any sort of persuasion or negotiation would be impossible. “Let’s end this, Dragonslayer! Show me everything you’ve got!”

With that, Howgley dashed toward me. He seemed more driven than before, as though his goal for this battle had switched from ending things quickly while avoiding too much exertion to simply winning, whatever the cost.

He probably hadn’t expected the fight to last this long, or for me to catch on to his techniques at all. In truth, the fact that I had survived this long—even with Regenerate—was nothing short of a miracle. There had been many instances so far when, if things had gone even slightly differently, I would have been killed.

The only way to learn to contend with a swordsman of a higher rank than oneself was to fight a swordsman of that rank. It sounded like a contradiction, but it was true. At first, I couldn’t make sense of Howgley’s special abilities. But after such a long and drawn-out battle, I’d now learned to read Howgley’s movements to a certain extent and keep up with them.

I’d already learned how to move to block Howgley’s second slash—his Dream Wolf—from activating; I wouldn’t be taking that deadly second slash again. I’d also managed to interrupt his Shadow Fox move once, even if it was just a lucky strike. His Guard Shell was still an issue, but it seemed like it cost a lot of MP to use, and not something that could be used on the spur of the moment against unexpected attacks either.

Howgley’s three techniques were powerful, there was no doubt about that. But if I found a way to slip past all three of them, I could finally give him a taste of my blade. And Howgley had one major weakness: his stats. He was not completely invincible. He wasn’t as fast as me, and he couldn’t kill me with a single blow.

This battle would no longer be one of complete dominance for Howgley. I could see the truth behind his strange sword abilities now.

I’ll defeat Howgley here and now. Even if it costs me my life. I will not let this fiend chase after Illusia.

“I have no more pride left to spare you, Dragonslayer. I will fight with all of my strength. It is an honor to face an opponent I can go all-out against.”

Part 6
Volk

HOWGLEY CAME AT ME with a slash.

He was greatly lacking compared to me in terms of physical ability, so he wouldn’t be able to strike me with a blind charge. He always read my movements and countered them. But I was also certain he’d move in a way that went against that approach at some point.

The distance between us shortened. Normally, I would choose to try and surprise him with a strike from this ­distance, but I needed to be patient. If I rushed in without thinking, it would be my downfall. I’d been able to avoid a deadly blow from him so far, but if my concentration faltered for even a second, that would be the moment he cut me down.

Howgley still didn’t strike. Our longer swords—the Lifesteal Laevateinn and the Bandersnatch Fang—were both within striking distance of each other, but he still held off.

He must be waiting to see how I will act.

Suddenly, the dark haze of danger surrounding Howgley parted, revealing a safe path toward him.

I leapt to the side. The moment I did, Howgley’s figure began to blur as he used Shadow Fox. Then he sprang toward me at lightning speed.

Until now, Howgley had been using Shadow Fox exclusively as an evasive maneuver. But now he was using it to attack.

He slipped past me, swinging his dagger blade at me as he went. I managed to parry it with my greatsword. Although Shadow Fox made Howgley incredibly fast, his path was always linear. As long as I knew it was coming, I could repel it.

However, Howgley likely knew I would block his attack. He was probably planning to break my stance with the Shadow Fox attack, then launch his real strike from the spot he was moving to.

I leapt into the path of safety and felt the air from Howgley’s dagger against my back as he swung and missed. Then I planted my feet firmly on the ground and raised my sword.

“Here!” I shouted. Then I swung my sword down hard, aiming to slice through Howgley’s Shadow Fox form. I was certain my attack would hit—but instead, my greatsword careened off course, as though it were actively avoiding Howgley, and struck the ground.

Howgley’s form reappeared, holding the Bandersnatch Fang vertically to deflect my blade’s trajectory. “Hmph.It seems it wasn’t a fluke that you were able to see through my Shadow Fox the first time. You truly are impressive.”

Howgley thrust his dagger at me with his other hand. I turned my body away to dodge, kicking out at him as I did. He leapt into the air and curled his body into a ball, deftly dodging my leg, and swung upward with his greatsword in a scooping motion.

“I can see you, Howgley!” I roared, blocking his blade with my own. Suddenly, my Lifesteal Laevateinn glowed brighter and began moving even faster than before.

The block threw Howgley a little off balance. I struck him in the abdomen with a large swing, using the momentum from my previous hit. The blow sent his body flying at a speed that transcended the laws of physics, but he appeared unharmed. He must have used Guard Shell to negate the damage.

He zigzagged backward, then stopped a short distance away. He looked stunned—he must not have thought he’d need to use Guard Shell again so soon.

I looked down at the reddish-black blade in my hand. “This could be possible…”

As I swung my greatsword once more, I felt a surge of power course through my body. The Lifesteal Laevateinn fed on my own life force with each swing, which made it glow with a sickly radiance and granted me more and more power.

Perhaps this is a fitting sword for a man with my hardiness.

My physical enhancements would make it harder for even Howgley to anticipate my movements. The stronger my physical abilities, the fewer options he would have to land a hit on me. This blade was a last resort, but it gave me a glimmer of hope.

“With the magic of this sword, I can prevent Howgley from reading my moves…”

“Incorrect.” Howgley’s voice brooked no argument.

“What? How is that incorrect…?”

“While it is true that that sword makes this battle more difficult for me, it is not the only reason for your success. Your own talents as a swordsman are rapidly approaching my level. I envy you. You have seen the truth of my law-breaking skills. You are even beginning to surpass my own swordsmanship skills. And at such a young age! Truly, you are one with your blade.”

Howgley was wrong. Every individual had a ceiling for how powerful they were able to become. Age had nothing to do with it. The fact that he was able to make up for the differences in our stats through techniques alone—allowing him to fight one-sided battles against both Illusia and I until now—made him far more impressive in my eyes.

Although…now that I think about it, perhaps I am a natural enemy to Howgley.

I took pride in the fact that I was one of the most stubborn and tenacious humans in the world. And thanks to my experience as a swordsman, I’d learned to prevent Howgley from utilizing Dream Wolf from the second time he used it against me onward. Howgley could not defeat me with mere swordsmanship alone. As a fellow swordsman, if I fought an opponent long enough, I could learn their patterns and moves and eventually find a way to drive them into a corner. At first, Howgley felt like an opponent who was impossible for me to defeat. Now, however, his defeat seemed to be just around the corner.

All I need to do is land a single blow. One he doesn’t expect, so he won’t have time block it with Guard Shell.

“I…never thought you would be able to push me to this point. It has been decades since I was last forced to use this.” Howgley stuck out his dagger arm, then brought his foot up in a quick and fluid motion.

“What’re you—hng!”

He kicked the dagger with a dull thunk, sending it spinning through the air toward me. I grunted as I bent over backward, avoiding it by mere centimeters.

Huh. Wasn’t expecting that.

The attack felt strange for some reason. While the dagger spun with swift intensity, it still felt…somewhat tepid compared to Howgley’s typical MO. Even if it hit me, I doubted it would’ve been fatal.

At that moment, I sensed a menacing presence behind me. The black haze of danger began to swirl past my feet. I turned to look behind me and saw that the dagger was flying back toward me even faster than before.

“Wh-what?!”

“Do you really think you should be taking your eyes off your enemy?” Howgley growled. I turned back to find him leaping toward me, swinging his greatsword. I quickly blocked it with my own blade.

Behind me, the sound of the dagger slicing through the air drew closer. I was caught between it and Howgley. I tried to jump to the right to dodge it but realized Howgley was moving to meet me and jumped to the left instead.

The dagger sliced through my shoulder as it returned to Howgley’s grip. I tried to twist my body to dodge but couldn’t move in time. By cutting off my dodge, Howgley herded me straight into its path.

“Guh!”I grunted in pain. Suddenly, I understood. Howgley took the Bandersnatch Fang from me in case he needed to use this technique!

His plan was clear to me now. He was trying to restrict my movements and give himself an edge by throwing the boomerang dagger, then attacking with his greatsword while the dagger returned to him.

Howgley sprinted toward me, and I leapt back as far as I could. He snatched the whirling dagger out of the air with a deft grab, then quickly raised his leg to meet it.

“How do you like my signature move, Dragonslayer?” he gloated. “It is known as Paradise Whirl. I’ve had few chances to use it as of late, so I’m afraid I’m a little rusty. It is a skill I developed when I was still young and green as a solution for beating a swordsman far faster than myself. To be honest…I never thought I’d need to rely on this skill again.”

That skill stopped me in my tracks. The only reason I’d managed to survive fighting a swordmaster like him this long was because my stats far outweighed his. But a skill like Paradise Whirl could completely overcome that advantage.

Howgley placed the dagger’s handle on his foot, then kicked it forward once more. It shot toward me, spinning at frightening speed. Simply evading it was pointless; it would just come back around and strike from behind. No, the best choice was to repel it.

I stepped forward, blocked the spinning dagger with my greatsword, and tried to fling it away. But the dagger was much heavier than I expected; it felt like there was a strong force trying to keep it on course. Perhaps that was due to the Paradise Whirl skill.

I somehow managed to sling it to one side, but it flew around me in a wide circle back toward Howgley.

“I’m not about to let this chance pass me by!” Howgley leapt forward, grabbed the dagger, and thrust it at me. I was still recovering from my greatsword swing, but I leapt back to avoid his stab.

Howgley swung at me with his greatsword. I brought my own blade back to catch his swing. He stopped mid-swing, jumped up, and kicked off from my blade to send himself flying into the air.

“Let’s see if you can survive this!” he shouted. He kicked his blade at me again, this time from midair, and his Paradise Whirl came flying at me from above my head. The strange and unpleasant angle made it even more ­difficult to handle.

But that was not the end of Howgley’s attack. His figure blurred and then reformed in front of me.

He’s using Shadow Fox to get close so he can attack at the same time as Paradise Whirl.

Used by anyone else, the strategy would seem too outrageous for me to even begin to anticipate. But for Howgley the Glutton, anything was possible. The mere fact that I was able to notice his intentions so quickly was a huge boon.

By assuming Howgley intended to take advantage of Paradise Whirl for this attack, I could greatly narrow down the list of potential spots where he planned to end his Shadow Fox.

“Here!” I leapt into a safe zone and swung my greatsword down on the spot where I thought Howgley would arrive. But my blade met only open air. I’d misjudged.

“How many times will you be able to figure out where my Shadow Fox is going correctly, Dragonslayer? You must know I have the advantage here so long as I’m the one leading the action.” Howgley stood in front of me, the Bandersnatch Fang in his hand.

Damn it! Has he realized that I’ve been reading his movements?!

“You are a far more formidable swordsman than you know, Dragonslayer. I do not underestimate you like you underestimate yourself. That is why I am able to predict your movements so accurately. I know you better than you know yourself.”

I jumped backward, but it was far too late. Howgley’s blade cut deep, slicing a line from my shoulder to my waist. White-hot pain blossomed across my chest, and fresh blood sprayed through the air.

My consciousness began to drift. No… I cannot fall here. Just a little more…

On top of being a master tactician in battle, Howgley had three reality-breaking techniques at his disposal. He was an opponent who could only be bested by a swordsman as powerful as he was. But that was true even before he unveiled his Paradise Whirl; with it, he had a clear advantage against swordsmen.

But at least he shouldn’t have any more tricks up his sleeve…

My Regenerate couldn’t keep up with the amount of blood I was losing. I was at the end of my rope. The next strike Howgley landed would be the end of me.

But Howgley’s next strike did not arrive to finish off my wounded body. Instead, he was waiting to recover his thrown dagger.

At this point, Dream Wolf, Shadow Fox, and Guard Shell were far less frightening than Paradise Whirl. It was a simple throwing skill, and its effects were nowhere near as colorful as those other three techniques. But in the hands of a swordmaster like Howgley, it left no opening whatsoever. My options were severely limited by the spinning dagger, while Howgley’s had multiplied. There was no way I could succeed against it.

This skill was far different from the unidentifiable obstacle I’d faced until now. Paradise Whirl was a clear indication of the insurmountable wall between Howgley and me.

The murky haze of the danger zone felt like it had thickened since Howgley began using Paradise Whirl. But…the danger was not thickest at his feet—instead, it seemed to be stronger at a distance.

A moment later, everything clicked. I know how to deal with Paradise Whirl.

Howgley stuck his dagger out to the side and raised his leg. At the same moment, I leapt forward and swung my sword down at him. His leg dropped to the ground and he took a half step back to parry my strike. I pushed forward, swinging my sword without pause, as he tried to create some distance. Howgley retreated, dodging to either side of my swings.

“I won’t give you the chance to kick it, Howgley!” I shouted.

Paradise Whirl had a particular windup before the throw. Howgley needed to hold his dagger straight out, then aim his foot at the handle before he kicked. If I kept attacking him, he wouldn’t have the chance to use it.

That also meant I needed to keep him in check, which made it easier for him to counterattack…but this was far better than the alternative.

Howgley made good use of the variety between his two blades—one short, one long—to parry all of my attacks. He was so skilled with them that it felt like he’d been wielding them for decades. There was not a single flaw in his swordsmanship.

With each swing of the Lifesteal Laevateinn, the blade’s venomous glow grew brighter. I could feel it feeding on the remaining portion of my HP. But every time it did, my eyes grew sharper, and my blade moved faster.

I couldn’t give Howgley the chance to get used to how I moved with the Lifesteal Laevateinn’s physical enhancements. If I didn’t end the battle before then, my chance at victory would be lost.

Very well. I’ll end the battle at once.

A short, decisive battle was the ideal here. The longer this fight dragged on, the greater our differences in ability would become. And there was no way I could hold out long against Howgley. No, I had to take him down now with this barrage of blows.

Suddenly, blood spurted through the air. One of my slashes had sliced across Howgley’s chest.

His eyes widened. “I suppose…I’ll have to make a hasty retreat.”

He was defenseless. I struck him across the chest again with my greatsword but there was no blood—Howgley used Guard Shell to block it. The recoil sent him flying back, though. Perhaps that was his plan all along.

Once he put some distance between us, Howgley would use Paradise Whirl again. And I doubted he would let me get close that easily next time.

If I let that happen, it was over. My body was at its limit; I didn’t know how much longer it would hold out. If Howgley got away from me here and used Paradise Whirl, I was dead.

I leapt forward with all of my might and thrust my greatsword after his retreating form. I had a chance at winning, but it felt like little more than a shot in the dark.

Then the tip of my greatsword pierced Howgley’s stomach. His eyes went round and wide. He stared down at the blade embedded in his flesh, dumbfounded.

I’d used the last of my remaining strength to leap at him impossibly fast. My body, already past its limit, fell to the ground in a heap. My vision went dark for a moment, but I clung to consciousness with all my might.

I rose to my knees, then stood once more.

Part 7
Volk

I LIFTED MY GREATSWORD, struggling to control my haggard breathing. My heart pounded, and excitement coursed through my veins.

That strike…I think it pierced Howgley’s stomach. I wasn’t imagining it, was I? I cut him while he was using Guard Shell to escape. Maybe he couldn’t use another Guard Shell so soon…? Regardless, he definitely wasn’t expecting it. I wasn’t expecting it to hit either.

If I let Howgley back off, it was over. With that in mind, I’d given him everything I had.

However, I didn’t know how deep the cut I’d made had gone. The wound was hidden underneath his clothes, and the cut felt questionable. But I didn’t think it was shallow either…

If Howgley was still standing, I had no strength left to resist him. His Paradise Whirl would either hit me or give him a clear opening eventually.

“Truly…you are a swordsman to be feared, Dragonslayer. That was the first time anyone managed to catch up to my Guard Shell retreat. If things had been even the tiniest bit different, that blow would have cost me my life and granted you victory. But unfortunately for you, they weren’t.”

Howgley rose from the ground a fair distance away and began to walk toward me, swaying. Blood dripped from his stomach wound, of course, but also from the corners of his mouth. The stab to his abdomen must have done some serious damage. But it was just shallow enough to not be fatal.

The battle was over. I had no strength left to fend Howgley off. The rest was simply a waiting game.

“Volk the Dragonslayer. You are too young to cross swords with me. Had you known me a little earlier, or possessed more experience in swordplay, perhaps things may have been different. But it seems victory belongs to me this—” Howgley’s words broke off abruptly. Then the arm holding the Bandersnatch Fang began to shake. He looked down at it.

“I…see. You will not recognize me as your master? So be it.” Howgley bent down and gently set the Bandersnatch Fang on the ground.

“What? What are you talking about?”

“My energy is so depleted that I no longer have the strength to fight the madness in this sword,” he explained. “I prefer to not let my instincts take over.”

So he was at his limit as well… He must have decided he couldn’t fight as well in his current state if he was busy controlling the rage of the Bandersnatch Fang.

Perhaps I still had a chance.

If Howgley had stolen any sword other than Bander­snatch, I would have met my end between it and his ­Paradise Whirl. But now that he’d gone back to only ­using his dagger, he couldn’t risk using it for Paradise Whirl and leaving himself defenseless.

Howgley’s body shook violently, and he stopped in his tracks. Then he pressed a hand to the wound in his stomach. It seemed like it had done a lot more damage than I thought.

Howgley was dying; that much was clear.

“It’s time to finish this, Howgley,” I said.

He looked up, as if my voice had brought him back to consciousness. “Yes…it is.” He quelled his body’s shaking, raised his dagger, and dropped into a fighting stance.

It looked like he was running out of steam. He was clearly in much worse shape than I was. There was now a good chance that I could predict his actions and win.

“I haven’t shown you…my ultimate technique yet.” Howgley panted.

“What…?”

Dream Wolf, Shadow Fox, Guard Shell, Paradise Whirl… Were they not enough? Does he still have another skill hidden up his sleeve? No…that shouldn’t be possible.

“It is not a technique I typically use against humans…but I no longer have the strength to compete with you in swordplay.”

“It’s not like you to bluff,” I said quietly.

“We’ll see who’s bluffing, eh? Come on, Volk. Let’s see if you can handle my signature skill! Godfeller!”

The moment the words left his mouth, Howgley vanished into thin air. Sensing danger, I leapt backward. Then every tree around the spot where I was just standing shattered, raining splinters. The whirlwind of dust and wood danced around me, shrouding my view. I could no longer track the movements of Howgley’s blade.

W…was that a human skill?! Although the attack was too fast for my eyes to catch, I could study the skill he used by looking at the shattered trees. It seemed as if Howgley spun his body around at high speed while unleashing a series of lightning-fast dagger blows.

If I got caught in the middle of a move like that, I’d be mincemeat in seconds. Even so, I understood why Howgley didn’t use the skill until now. It forced him to move at a speed well beyond his body’s limits and seemed to put him under a lot of strain. It also couldn’t be finely controlled the same way as Paradise Whirl, making it impossible to take advantage of his precise battle analyses. On top of that, the skill left Howgley himself all but completely defenseless. There was no way he’d be able to use a skill as precise as Guard Shell.

If Howgley had unveiled this skill as his very first move, though, he would’ve killed me then and there. But now that I’d honed my battle instincts and learned Howgley’s ways, I was far more formidable. It was only now that I could possibly deal with his Godfeller.

My eyes couldn’t follow his movements. Very well. Then I won’t rely on my eyes. I closed my eyes and allowed my other senses to heighten.

This wasn’t impossible. I simply needed to slip through the storm of blades and stab Howgley. If I couldn’t do that, then this would all be for naught.

I can do this. I must.

The next moment, I felt the pain of my body being torn apart by a thousand tiny blades. But at the end of it, I was still intact. Howgley didn’t actually cut me; it was my heightened senses telling me the lines Howgley would slice though my skin with his sword. I could tell exactly when and where each cut would land.

I’d been able to keep up with Howgley’s monstrous battle strategies all this time. There was no reason I couldn’t get past Godfeller. It was a far less precise and subtle attack than his others.

Slowly, I extended the Lifesteal Laevateinn. This was all I needed to do to survive. With my hand out in front of me, gripping the Laevateinn, I could slip through the Godfeller slashes unnoticed.

I shot forward, the Laevateinn stretched out in a thrust, and impaled Howgley straight through the chest.

“W-well done…Volk,” Howgley said. His voice was calm. It almost seemed like he knew this would happen when he used Godfeller. “It is official now; you have surpassed me. You are now the greatest swordsman in the world.”

I carefully lowered my blade to the ground, Howgley still skewered through with it. “That…that isn’t true,” I said. “I’m simply at my maximum level. There is not a human alive who could compete with you if they were at the same level, Howgley.”

“What…nonsense are you spouting?” he said between breaths, smiling contentedly. “What’s the point of basing such competency on the mere triviality of level? You won, Dragonslayer. You beat me. You did so to protect your friends; if you didn’t, I would have killed them… Don’t despair, now. A victor…should not wear such a look on his face.”

What kind of face am I making right now…?

“It is…regrettable that I let the saint down,” Howgley lamented. “She gave me far too much credit for my skills, and depended on me above all others.”

“May I…ask you a question?” I said. “Did you truly join forces with Lilyxila in order to affirm your own convictions about the reality of this world? I mean, no matter what the truth is, none of that negates everything we’ve seen, felt, and experienced in this lifetime.”

Howgley fell silent. I knew what I’d said was little more than a cliché. Finding the words to describe what I felt was difficult. I had never been good with this kind of thing.

“Volk…whatever cruel twists of fate await you ahead, promise me you will not falter. Just keep walking straight along the path you believe in.”

“What…? What do you mean, Howgley?” I asked, but Howgley’s expression remained frozen in the same kindly smile. A moment later, I realized that the old man’s final breath had already left him.

I tried to sling my greatsword across my back, but I could not muster the arm strength. My knees gave out, and I fell to the ground.

Ahh…my body has finally reached its absolute limit. The HP-draining power of my Lifesteal Laevateinn certainly didn’t help, but I felt like the mental toll of constantly overanalyzing the battle had been far more draining than either the sword or my injuries.

I did it, Illusia. Somehow, I managed to defeat Howgley… But I don’t think I’ll be able to move again for a little while.

It seems I must leave the rest to you.

Chapter 2:
Showdown with the Saint

Part 1

I FLEW THROUGH the murky fog, hot on Saint Lilyxila’s trail.

She’d sent Beelzebub after me to buy herself some time, but I wasn’t that far behind. I could make up the distance in no time.

Lilyxila…get ready. I’m going to take you down, here and now. I’m done trying to make friends, and I’m done following the Divine Voice’s orders. I’m ending this. All of it.

I’d defeated the Dragon King, Eldia. The Beast King, Beelzebub, had slipped away at the last moment, but he wouldn’t last long. I was pretty sure there weren’t enough Holy Knights left to be a proper fighting force. Volk was dealing with Howgley, the swordsman who seemed like a troubling enemy.

Aluanne was still missing from combat, along with Atlach-Nacha. Allo and Treant were chasing after Aluanne; hopefully they’d manage to hunt her down and get Atlach-Nacha back.

Lilyxila was out of pawns to protect her, and her stats were a fraction of mine. I needed to face her directly and end this as quickly as I could.

If I let Lilyxila escape now, she’d probably rest up and regroup. I wasn’t sure if there was any force in the world strong enough to take me down at this point, but either way, I wasn’t going to give her the chance.

I checked my status.

Illusia

Species: Oneiros

Status: Normal

Lv: 109/150

MP: 3341/4397

MP: 2639/4534

I still had…about 60 percent of my max HP. That felt like plenty to finish Beelzebub off and take down Lilyxila. I doubted she had any more forces hidden away somewhere; she didn’t have the luxury of keeping any in reserve. Although she’d managed to escape, and her group had split off to attack us all individually, these weren’t battles they could afford to lose. If Lilyxila had a special trump card to play, she would’ve pulled it out by now.

But…what if she didn’t? Doubt began to trickle into my thoughts.

“Well, Illusia…I guess this is farewell. You may have won this battle, but at the end of the day, I think I’ll… No, our friendly saint will be the one winning this war.”

Those were the last words Beelzebub said to me before his Spirit Servant form disappeared. It sounded like he still believed Lilyxila would win our battle. But why?

Lilyxila had definitely had my forces at her mercy for a good portion of the battle. In terms of strategy, she was the clear victor. She was also avoiding a direct confrontation with me, instead opting to whittle my HP and MP down little by little with her pawns. She was putting her tactical abilities to good use. Things were looking up for us now that Allo, Treant, and Volk were battling Aluanne and Howgley—Lilyxila’s two main players—but even so, she’d done a spectacular job of herding me along.

But that didn’t change the fact that the battle’s outcome had been heavily tilted in my favor from the very beginning. Lilyxila’s stats were just a fraction of my own now. That was why I managed to knock out her forces with enough MP left to chase after her while she was alone and vulnerable.

Beelzebub could just have been making empty threats to throw me off. If I started having doubts now, I’d risk letting Lilyxila escape for nothing.

But…was Beelzebub the type to do something like that?Lilyxila’s Spirit Servant skill allowed her to bind the spirits of a max of two monsters and use them as pawns. It could make them act against their own will and beliefs…but could it force them to participate in such a particular and delicate kind of mental warfare? Based on how Beelzebub and Eldia had acted before, I didn’t think it could. Beelzebub seemed like the kind of guy who wasn’t interested in anything other than full-on head-to-head combat.

I’m not…missing anything important, am I? There’s no way she could afford to hide a secret weapon or anything, right?

The more I thought about it rationally, the less possible it seemed. Lilyxila definitely couldn’t hold anything back like that. She wasn’t the type to waste her forces hiding a secret weapon until the last moment without a second thought. In that, at least, I felt like I could trust her.

Even so…Beelzebub’s words nagged at me for some reason.

“Looks like I won’t get the chance to face you again, but I’ll be watching from Hell to see whether it’s you or the saint left standing at the end.”

I took that to mean Beelzebub was convinced he’d never see me again now that he’d escaped me. I was sure I’d bump into him again someday, so I let his comment pass without really thinking about it…but now, something about it smelled fishy.

Well…whatever. That didn’t mean I could stop after I’d come all this way. If Lilyxila still had some trick up her sleeve, then I’d just have to overcome it.

As I flew, my Psychic Sense picked up on a figure flying high above me. I adjusted my trajectory and shot up toward it.

Once I got above the tree line, I spotted a zephyr dragon hovering over a large cliff. There was a woman on the zephyr’s back. She was dressed in a white robe, and her beautiful, silky white hair flowed around her with the breeze.

Lilyxila.

I was still a good ways off, but she spotted me at the same time; her gaze pierced through the mist and met mine.

There were no signs that Lilyxila intended to run away. It seemed like our little game of tag was over.

In her hand, Lilyxila held a pulsating mass that looked like it was coated in some sort of…sinister black haze. I’d never seen anything like it before, but in moments, I understood exactly what it was.

It was Beelzebub’s heart. The heart was shriveling up, losing its vigor as I watched. Then the black haze traveled up Lilyxila’s arm and began to coat her entire body.

‹Did you just…suck up the Beast King’s powers and take the Beast Realm Path for yourself?!› I sent the telepathic message without thinking.

Lilyxila crushed Beelzebub’s heart in her hand. Black blood spurted from between her fingers, then glowed with purple light and vanished. Beelzebub was dead. Lilyxila had killed him.

“Strangely enough…I didn’t dislike the time we spent together, Fly King,” she murmured. When she looked up again, there was a black symbol on her forehead that looked like an eye. The moment it appeared, her entire demeanor changed.

For monsters, acquiring a Sacred Skill didn’t mean you immediately received a status boost. Instead, you would receive additional benefits the next time you evolved. But it seemed like getting a Sacred Skill affected humans in a different way. Humans couldn’t evolve, after all, and Illusia the Hero was instantly weakened when he lost his Sacred Skill during our fight.

I had to assume that Lilyxila had just received a significant status boost, along with a big max level cap increase.

She’d probably waited until now to absorb the Sacred Skill because she deemed Beelzebub and the information gathered by his minions about me—and the slime, when it was still a threat—far more important at the time. Of course, this also gave her the use of Beelzebub himself as a primary component of her military. Even before they flew to the Strange Lands, she must have been planning to call him back and kill him in order to obtain the Beast Realm Path Sacred Skill. The fact that she’d sensed Beelzebub was in trouble and already had a plan to release the Spirit Servant skill and bring him back made that much obvious.

I understood her reasons for waiting. It wasn’t that she was reluctant to take the Sacred Skill. She took full advantage of Beelzebub’s ability to see through his minions’ eyes to gain an overwhelming advantage in the previous battle while her other followers whittled down my MP, all while also trying to mislead me about the true strength of her forces.

It was a truly brilliant strategy.

I didn’t give her the chance to strike first. I swung my paw with Dimension Claws. Lilyxila was still a fair distance away, but I knew the zephyr she was riding wasn’t all that strong. This attack would be more than enough to take it down.

“Float.” Lilyxila rose into the air and levitated, avoiding my Dimension Claws. The zephyr wasn’t so lucky: Its body tore in half from my blow, both halves tumbling to the bottom of the cliff.

Gained 310 Experience Points.

Title Skill “Walking Egg” Lv — activated: gained 310 Experience Points.

Float… I’ve seen that skill before. The clay guardians I fought in the forest had it too. From what I recalled, it seemed to cloak its user in light and allow it to move through the air, similar to flying.

I don’t remember Lilyxila having that skill…

“It seems the time I made by capturing those members of your party has run out. Aluanne and Howgley aren’t likely to arrive here just yet either. Now I have truly run out of options; I no longer have any choice in the matter. It seems this day will end in tragedy for the both of us.” Lilyxila raised her staff toward me, floating gently in place with the breeze.

Her words were clever, but their meaning was clear. She was trying to declare that her actions here were a direct result of the choices she’d made up until now.

If that’s a joke, I’m not laughing.

‹Yeah…I don’t think so.› I used Dragon Mirror to enlarge my wings, then caught the wind underneath them and shot forward, closing the distance between us. ‹Get ready, Lilyxila! I’m gonna knock you right outta the sky and give this fight a happy ending for everyone else!›

Part 2

I SHOT ANOTHER Dimension Claws at Lilyxila.

“Holy Wings!” A white light enveloped Lilyxila’s body, and a magic circle appeared. The light gathered on her back and formed into the shape of wings.

Lilyxila tilted her shoulders and soared forward in a spiral to avoid my Dimension Claws. It was almost too easy for her, like she was already anticipating that I’d use that skill to attack.

I didn’t know she had skills to assist her Float skill either… Or that there were so many humans who could avoid my Dimension Claws.

As I closed the distance between Lilyxila and me, I checked her status.

Lilyxila Lialum

Species: Earth-Human

Status: Quick (Major)

Lv: 100/140

HP: 887/1241

MP: 958/1615

Attack: 942+76

Defense: 666+98

Magic: 1557+110

Agility: 951

Equipment:

Weapon: Staff of the Holy Land: A–

Armor: Vestment of the Holy Land: A–

Sacred Skills:

Preta Realm Path: Lv —

Beast Realm Path: Lv —

Special Skills:

Divine Voice: Lv MAX

Light Type: Lv —

Grecian Language: Lv 7

Mage: Lv MAX

Psychic Sense: Lv 8

Stealth: Lv MAX

Robe of Light: Lv —

Eye of Truth: Lv —

Resistance Skills:

Physical Resistance: Lv 8

Magic Resistance: Lv 9

Dark Resistance: Lv 9

Illusion Resistance: Lv 9

Poison Resistance: Lv 7

Curse Resistance: Lv MAX

Petrify Resistance: Lv 7

Instant Death Resistance: Lv MAX

Paralysis Resistance: Lv 7

Normal Skills:

View Status: Lv MAX

Hi-Rest: Lv MAX

Hi-Care: Lv MAX

Holy: Lv MAX

Holy Sphere: Lv MAX

Holy Spear: Lv MAX

Telepathy: Lv 9

Spirit Servant: Lv MAX

Float: Lv 8

Hi-Quick: Lv 7

Hi-Power: Lv 7

Mirror Counter: Lv 7

Gravity: Lv 7

Gravidon: Lv 7

Gravirion: Lv 9

Confuse: Lv 6

Illusion: Lv 6

Fire Sphere: Lv 6

Charm: Lv 6

Slow: Lv 6

Dimension: Lv 6

Stone Curse: Lv 6

Holy Wings: Lv 6

Metamorphosis: Lv 1

Title Skills:

Chosen One: Lv —

Valiant: Lv MAX

Saint: Lv MAX

Beast King: Lv 1

White Mage: Lv MAX

Black Mage: Lv 9

Master of Staff: Lv 9

Itty-Bitty Hero: Lv MAX

Protective Spirit: Lv MAX

Cunning: Lv MAX

Liar: Lv MAX

Laplace Authority Interference: Lv 5

Well…it definitely looks like Lilyxila’s status got a major upgrade. Although her level didn’t change, each of her stats was up by about 40 percent from the last time I saw her. This had to be due to her Sacred Skill acquisition. Her list of skills, too, looked like they’d been padded out considerably.

‹Your stats may have improved, but they’re still way too low to stand a chance against me. But…you knew that already, didn’t you?› I went behind Lilyxila, who was struggling to dodge my Dimension Claws, and raised my paw.

Lilyxila looked back and pointed her staff at me. A dazzling white light began to glow at its tip.

“I knew you would come from behind me as well. Holy Sphere!” An orb of light shot toward me.

Instead of avoiding it, I swung my paw down at the orb. My claws sliced through it, and the Holy Sphere shattered. The shards split through my scales and made me bleed, but it didn’t do much damage. All right! Now I can go in for the kill!

I pushed forward and clawed at Lilyxila, knocking her to the ground. Her back slammed into the very edge of the cliff. Her robe was in tatters, dyed red with the blood seeping out from under it. The Holy Sphere minimized the impact of my attack a little, but she still took a serious amount of damage.

Even so, it was clear that her stats were greatly improved. On top of that, the magical eye pattern on Lilyxila’s forehead that appeared once she absorbed her second Sacred Skill seemed like it gave her the ability to predict my actions. With that, along with some help from Hi-Quick, she managed to overcome an almost certainly fatal disadvantage in agility.

My own agility wasn’t that far behind, though. Her stats now resembled a magic-specialized Eldia’s, at best.

‹Did you…really think things weren’t going to end up like this?›

No, she did. That’s why her plan was to use Howgley as a shield against me and prevent me from going after her while she sent Aluanne to kill Allo and the others and break my spirit.

If Lilyxila had had Aluanne and Howgley with her right now, there was no telling how this fight would end. But Volk had stepped in to fight Howgley in my place, and I had faith that Allo and Treant would manage to take care of Aluanne and rescue Atlach-Nacha somehow as well.

With Howgley and Aluanne unable to rush to the scene, Lilyxila’s plan was as good as ruined.

“No… Deep down, I knew. That’s why I have this!” Lilyxila, panting hard, pointed her staff at me again.

Suddenly, I felt a strange presence appear behind me. I tilted my head to check my rear, making sure to keep Lilyxila in sight as I did so. Behind me, I spotted a massive face made of clay that was immediately familiar to me.

Oh! That’s…!

Species: Clay Guardian

Status: Spirit

Lv: 85/85 (MAX)

HP: 785/785

MP: 225/225

Crap! I screwed up! Clay guardians had max-level Stealth skills. They were nasty monsters that would pretend to be inanimate objects and self-destruct at random.

By the time I noticed it, its face was already cracking—a sign that it was about to use its signature skill, Direct Burst.

Lilyxila used herself as a decoy and brought in a clay guardian with Spirit Servant to blow me up? How could she risk her life on such a dangerous ploy? She must’ve used the empty Spirit Servant slot she got after I killed Eldia to subjugate a clay guardian for the sole purpose of hitting me with its one-shot attack.

The Direct Burst tore through me before I had a chance to avoid it. I belatedly realized that its self-destruct skill was particularly effective at piercing through armor…and scales. I felt the chunks break through my scales and embed themselves in my hide, burning the skin around them.

“Holy Sphere!” At that moment, Lilyxila lifted her bloodstained hand and shot another orb of light at me. The orb smashed into my raw and exposed flesh and scorched it with holy light.

Lilyxila… She really is impressive. She’s seriously still trying to defeat me, huh? I wasn’t expecting her to land such an effective attack.

If Lilyxila had the untouchable Howgley here, and had Aluanne taken over one of my friends’ bodies, then there would’ve been no way I’d be able to defeat her. In other words, she’d made up for the difference in our strength with her allies.

‹Is that all you got? If that’s the only ace up your sleeve, then bring it on, Lilyxila! Let’s end this!› I raised my paw at Lilyxila’s bloody form.

She pointed her staff at me. “Holy Sphere!”

My paw came down on her hard. I was ready to end this fight with one hit, even if she tried to block it with magic. I wasn’t going to let her get away.

White light exploded around Lilyxila. Wait…she wasn’t using Holy Sphere on me…

She’d used it on herself to get away. My claws tore through the ground beneath us as Lilyxila was blasted backward.

I hadn’t expected that from her. I lost sight of her in the bright light as she was blown away. It was a smart move to dodge a blow that would have otherwise certainly killed her.

But if my claws would kill Lilyxila, then the damage from a self-inflicted Holy Sphere would definitely at least get her close. It felt like a move made without any forethought; her only goal had been getting away from my claws.

I followed Lilyxila’s presence and soon found where she disappeared to. She was soaring down the cliff on her wings of light. I guess even if her body is wrecked, she can still get away as long as she has Float and Holy Wings active. She doesn’t need to use her arms or legs for that.

That was a good thing too; one of Lilyxila’s arms was lying in the dirt beside me, nearly shredded beyond recognition. She must have caught the blast from Holy Sphere under her wings to shoot her backward. Her arm was the price she had to pay for her escape.

I’d thought Lilyxila was a ruthless woman who only saw the people in her party as tools to manipulate for her own gain. But I’d underestimated her. She was far more ruthless than that—ruthless enough to consider even her own body a disposable tool for her cause.

You…really feel like you need to go this far to beat me? Is it really worth it to sacrifice all the people around you—and yourself—to win this fight?

Even at this distance, I could catch up to Lilyxila in an instant. I dove down the cliff, following her movements with Psychic Sense.

Lilyxila should’ve been out of Spirit Servants to use. From what she said before, she could only carry two of them with her at any time. She was a liar, but I didn’t think she was lying about that. If she were able to use more, I would’ve met them by now.

Eldia and Beelzebub were her original two Spirit Servants. When Eldia died, she replaced him with the clay guardian. Lilyxila did just kill Beelzebub, but I hadn’t lost sight of her for more than a few moments at a time since I saw her crush his heart. She couldn’t have found a monster to replace him that quickly.

I rounded the edge of the cliff and found Lilyxila floating in the air, facing me. Her staff was raised, blood dripping from the edges of her soaked dress.

Suddenly, I understood. Lilyxila’s Stealth skill was maxed out. She must have gone over the edge of the cliff to make me follow her, then activated Stealth to confuse my Psychic Sense.

“Gravirion!” As soon as I came into view, six translucent black walls appeared around me, trapping me inside. She had lured me over the cliff and then used that time to cast a powerful skill with a longer activation time.

The six walls closed in on me at once, crushing my body. It felt stronger than before, probably because of the status upgrade she got from the Sacred Skill.

I could break through the Gravirion walls by force, but that would cost me a lot of HP. I had a much better way to deal with Gravirion: Wormhole.

Wormhole was a skill I got when I evolved into an Oneiros. It allowed me to manipulate space and time to instantly teleport myself a short distance away. There was no need for me to worry about breaking out of the Gravirion box; I could just teleport out.

I activated Wormhole. As soon as Lilyxila saw the skill envelop me in black light, she turned her back to me and began to fly away. Wormhole was a slow skill that took a lot of time to activate and recover from. Even so, Lilyxila seemed to think her dying body wouldn’t survive it if she tried to attack me now, and so she chose to run away instead.

I teleported outside of the black cube in an instant. Without anything inside it, the cube contracted upon itself until it disappeared. Because I’d activated Wormhole in such a hurry, I didn’t have time to be particular about my destination—the Wormhole dropped me off against the cliff wall, with the ends of my legs and tips of my wings stuck inside it. But for me, the shallow layer of rock was weaker than a sponge.

I leapt from the cliff face, pulling my body out with ease. It didn’t feel like my legs were crushed inside the cliff wall at all—it seemed like Wormhole was designed to carve out any object that happened to be in the way of my destination portal.

Interesting… Until now, I’d only found Wormhole useful for counteracting skills that trapped me inside, like Gravirion. But if it could carve away at any object in its path, then it could be used as a terrifyingly powerful new attack method.

Wormhole had seemed like a skill with few practical uses until now, but perhaps its true merit lay less in instant teleportation and more as a widespread gouging attack.

As the name suggested, Wormhole ripped time and space apart to allow worms—and dragons—to pass through. Whether or not this skill would be useful in my fight against Lilyxila, I made a mental note to keep it in mind for the future.

“It seems…this is as far as I go. My body will not hold out any longer.” Lilyxila raised her staff with her one remaining arm.

I swung my paw. Lilyxila was still a good distance away, but she was dying. I doubted she could avoid my Dimension Claws now.

“I truly hoped I wouldn’t have to use this, but…you’ve forced my hand. From the very beginning, I doubted I could dodge your attacks well enough to defeat you if you challenged me to a one-on-one fight.”

Lilyxila was enveloped in light. The light’s hue changed fluidly, swapping between all colors of the rainbow. But the light seemed more ominous than it did beautiful.

“Metamorphosis.”

Inside the light’s brilliance, I sensed Lilyxila’s form begin to grow and expand.

H-huh…? What the heck is she doing?

I released my Dimension Claws into the center of the light and felt them tear into something. I sent out a second and third round of Dimension Claws, and they, too, shredded into something, even deeper this time.

The rainbow light faded at once. I spotted what seemed to be Lilyxila cascading toward the bottom of the cliff. Her head, body, and limbs were in pieces; their skin shriveled, papery, and bone white.

My mind spun for a moment as I watched my enemy’s corpse fall…but I didn’t get any Experience Points. Lilyxila wasn’t dead.

What? What’s…going on? What was that weird skill Lilyxila just used?

I took a closer look at Metamorphosis.

Normal Skill “Metamorphosis.” A magic skill that destroys the boundary between human and monster. Transforms a human target into a monster, or a monster target into a human. The boundary between human and monster may only be crossed once, making the change an irreversible curse. Easy to resist and therefore unlikely to work on beings with higher magic stats than oneself.

Suddenly, something Lilyxila said a long time ago passed through my mind.

“There is an anecdote told in the Holy Land about a saint who was able to transform an evil monster into a sweet, good-natured boy. If I raise my Saint skill level, I may one day learn of the magic needed to perform such a miracle.”

I always assumed that story of a monster turning into a human was just some garbage Lilyxila made up to worm her way into my camp, but it seemed like I was wrong.

The pieces of Lilyxila’s corpse fluttering to the bottom of the cliff suddenly made sense. Lilyxila had…molted. She’d shed her human skin like a lizard, turning it thin and fragile and stark white. It no longer seemed human; it was just a hollow husk.

I turned back to where the rainbow light was and spotted a massive white snake slithering along the cliff wall. Where its head should’ve been was instead a humanlike torso and head. Large, white wings sprouted from its back behind four slender arms.

Lilyxila…? I stared in shock at her grotesque new appearance.

Lilyxila slithered along the cliff’s face, looking back at her serpentine body. Then she lifted one slender finger to her wide, gaping mouth, as if studying how she’d changed.

Lilyxila…is it really necessary for you to go to such extreme lengths, just to defeat me?

Part 3

LILYXILA CLOSED THE DISTANCE between us in moments, her snake body propelling her across the cliff at a rapid pace. She was fast—much faster than before.

A chill crept up my spine. She isn’t any mere rank A+…she’s a Legendary!

Holy Naga: Rank L (Legendary). A fantastical being with a human torso and snake body. Legends from the Holy Land describe it to appear in times of need to destroy an evil king before the world is swallowed by darkness. Possesses a unique skill allowing it to harness the magical power that lies dormant in the nature surrounding it.

Guess my sense of foreboding was right on target. This…is bad. Real bad. Lilyxila was now the very first Legendary rank monster I’ve ever faced.

Humans couldn’t evolve. Instead, they leveled up more slowly than monsters, but the stat increases they received from their later levels were far higher than a monster’s. This was something I’d gathered from my many past experiences with them.

My guess was that Metamorphosis worked by transforming its target into a monster of approximately equal rank, based on the target’s current level and potential for growth. Lilyxila was at level 100, which put her around the same as an A+ monster—much higher than any other human I’d met. She originally had the Preta Realm Path Sacred Skill, which gave her her Saint skills. On top of that, she’d also picked up Beelzebub’s Beast Realm Path. At such a high level, and with two Sacred Skills under her belt, it was no wonder Lilyxila had turned into a Legendary monster.

And—to my horror—her special Metamorphosis skill didn’t seem like it reset Lilyxila’s level. Normally, monsters reset at level 1 when they evolved, meaning their stats were almost always a bit lower than their previous evolved form. Leveling up cost much less Experience Points at lower levels, so you just had to be careful for a while and grind your levels up a bit.

Unfortunately, judging by the speed with which she sped along the cliff, that didn’t seem to be the case for Lilyxila. There was no way she should be this fast at level 1, even as a Legendary monster.

That Metamorphosis skill must be pretty different from typical evolution, then… I had to assume it allowed her to retain her original level in her newly transformed state.

Lilyxila Lialum

Species: Holy Naga

Status: Normal

Lv: 100/140

HP: 3592/3592

MP: 3956/3956

Attack: 2337

Defense: 2047

Magic: 3440

Agility: 2299

Rank: L (Legendary)

Sacred Skills:

Preta Realm Path: Lv —

Beast Realm Path: Lv —

Special Skills:

Divine Voice: Lv MAX

Light Type: Lv —

Grecian Language: Lv 7

Mage: Lv MAX

Psychic Sense: Lv 8

Stealth: Lv MAX

Robe of Light: Lv —

Eye of Truth: Lv —

Reincarnation Molt: Lv —

Automatic MP Recovery: Lv 9

Holy Scales: Lv 8

Fly: Lv 7

Shinsen Breathing Techniques: Lv 7

Body Alchemy: Lv 7

Chakra Awakening: Lv —

Resistance Skills:

Physical Resistance: Lv 9

Magic Resistance: Lv 9

Dark Resistance: Lv 9

Illusion Resistance: Lv 9

Poison Resistance: Lv 8

Curse Resistance: Lv MAX

Petrify Resistance: Lv MAX

Instant Death Resistance: Lv MAX

Paralysis Resistance: Lv 8

Normal Skills:

View Status: Lv MAX

Hi-Rest: Lv MAX

Hi-Care: Lv MAX

Holy: Lv MAX

Holy Sphere: Lv MAX

Holy Spear: Lv MAX

Telepathy: Lv 9

Spirit Servant: Lv MAX

Float: Lv 8

Hi-Quick: Lv 8

Hi-Power: Lv 8

Mirror Counter: Lv 8

Gravity: Lv 8

Gravidon: Lv 8

Gravirion: Lv 9

Confuse: Lv 8

Illusion: Lv 8

Fire Sphere: Lv 8

Charm: Lv 8

Slow: Lv 8

Dimension: Lv 8

Stone Curse: Lv 8

Holy Wings: Lv 8

Metamorphosis: Lv 2

Venom Fangs: Lv 8

Shinsen Shukuchi: Lv 8

Aparajita: Lv 8

Title Skills:

Chosen One: Lv —

Snake Goddess: Lv —

Saint: Lv MAX

Beast King: Lv 3

White Mage: Lv MAX

Black Mage: Lv 9

Master of Staff: Lv 9

Itty-Bitty Hero: Lv MAX

Protective Spirit: Lv MAX

Cunning: Lv MAX

Liar: Lv MAX

Laplace Authority Interference: Lv 5

Final Evolution: Lv —

Well, there goes my status advantage…

Lilyxila had picked up a bunch of new skills at once. But she’d also received something that was far too major to be considered a bonus effect: Her HP and MP, which were close to completely spent before, were now completely restored. This didn’t happen to monsters when they evolved or leveled up.

It was now clear to me why Lilyxila had waited so long before she decided to use her last resort. By putting up what seemed like a pointless resistance against me, she managed to whittle down a good chunk of my MP.

Obviously, I wasn’t trying to be careless. But I couldn’t deny that I almost felt sorry for Lilyxila when fighting her, and that made me waste a lot more MP than I needed to. I lost count of how many times I thought I’d defeat her in the very next moment.

She’d had the upper hand throughout our entire battle. She intentionally made me underestimate her and continued to just barely slip by unscathed and drain my MP before using Metamorphosis to transform into a Legendary rank monster. This was a scenario Lilyxila had planned from the very beginning.

But I was still hung up about one thing. How the heck did Lilyxila completely heal herself? If that was another effect from using Metamorphosis, then that skill must be completely broken…

Special Skill “Reincarnation Molt.” Sheds off old body to replace with a new one. Completely heals all injuries and regenerates missing limbs but severely depletes MP. This skill also enables users to fully restore status during evolution.

This skill is plain dirty! Normally, it would just be a handy bonus to overcome the risks involved with evolution, but because Metamorphosis was considered an evolution on some level, it turned Reincarnation Molt into a wildly broken full recovery skill. She could only use it this once, but one use might be all she needed.

This…was no coincidence.Lilyxila must have foreseen that she’d reach a point during the battle where she’d be able to use Metamorphosis to transform into Holy Naga and fully recover using Reincarnation Molt. Everything so far had been part of Lilyxila’s plan.

Her use of Laplace made a substantial difference. I thought that Lilyxila sought to challenge me simply by relying on securing my friends as hostages, but I was wrong. She’d put multiple fail-safes in place on multiple levels and challenged me in a perfectly calculated manner. My mistake was assuming that this battle would be a piece of cake without any hostages.

The fact was that Lilyxila had a skill that would allow her to evolve into a Legendary monster, and she could fully recover by using another skill that seemed to let her cheat the evolutionary system. Because of Lilyxila’s Reincarnation Molt, I was now at a major status disadvantage.

Illusia

Species: Oneiros

Status: Normal

Lv: 109/150

HP: 2985/4397

MP: 2287/4534

My MP was down to about half thanks to all the battles I’d endured so far. On top of that, she had a bunch of new skills I didn’t know anything about, while she was already more or less familiar with my own skills. I doubted this would still be the one-sided attack I’d been anticipating.

Part 4

LILYXILA BATTED HER TAIL against the wall of the cliff and leapt at me, wings spread wide. I turned toward her and unleashed another swipe of Dimension Claws.

Right when the Dimension Claws were about to slice through her, Lilyxila’s form distorted in the air. My Dimension Claws went wide, clawing deep gouges in the cliff wall.

Wh-what was that skill? What’d Lilyxila do? As an Oneiros, I was immune to illusion magic; this was no simple Illusion trick.

I scanned through Lilyxila’s skills again and spotted one that looked suspicious.

Normal Skill “Shinsen Shukuchi.” A walking technique that uses the magic stored inside the earth’s veins to shrink the space around the user, allowing them to move quickly across it.

The skill’s description was brief, but it seemed incredible—especially with how short its activation time seemed to be, judging from how quickly it distorted space to let Lilyxila dodge my Dimension Claws. Instant movement with instant activation made it great for evasion, but it also made for a dangerous attack move.

My Wormhole skill was still one I hadn’t tested in a lot of scenarios yet, but in terms of usability, Shinsen Shukuchi was definitely a step up from it. Perhaps it made Lilyxila vulnerable at the end or something, but there was no way to know yet. I couldn’t go on the offensive. Trying to counter it after only witnessing it once would be a poor choice. No, I needed to keep my distance, observe Lilyxila’s new skills, and try to mitigate any unnecessary damage I received.

“Aparajita!” Lights appeared in each of Lilyxila’s four arms. Then they elongated, forming into four blades of light.

Normal Skill “Aparajita.” Concentrates holy magic into a weapon designed to destroy all evil. The number and shape of the weapons can be changed at will. Able to retain form even if it leaves the user’s hand, provided it is still supplied with MP.

So…in other words, it’s a skill that makes a mass of holy magic that can change shape at will. I guess that checks out, coming from a Legendary Holy Naga.

I flew backward, firing off round after round of Dimension Claws at Lilyxila as she charged toward me. The air distorted again, and in seconds she appeared directly in front of me. She’d avoided my Dimension Claws with ease yet again. They didn’t even graze her.

This is ridiculous. With a skill like that at her disposal, there’s no way any of my attacks will land!

I flew further back, trying to make some distance between us. Lilyxila swung the swords of light in her four arms. They lengthened through the swing, one of the blade’s tips just barely grazing my retreating chest. Fortunately, it was only a flesh wound. With the level of damage I’d taken so far, it would be better to avoid both her Shinsen Shukuchi and Aparajita altogether and mitigate any additional damage.

My goal now was to figure out Lilyxila’s attack patterns. But the problem was that she now had much more remaining HP than me; if she managed to land even a few shallow cuts on me, I’d be out of the fight.

As I continued to retreat backward, I checked the rest of Lilyxila’s new skills.

Special Skill “Shinsen Breathing Techniques.” A guidance technique which allows the user to breathe in the magic residing in the air, healing the body and increasing physical strength.

Whoa… A skill that recovers HP and increases strength just by breathing? It’s not exactly a deadly skill, but it’s still pretty annoying.

Special Skill “Body Alchemy.” Uses magic from both nature and one’s own bodily fluids to create an elixir, which is then consumed by the user to restore HP, MP, and any status conditions.

Seriously? HP, MP, and status conditions? So not only does the Holy Naga possess both a powerful evasion skill and a powerful attack skill, but it also has several skills that will give Lilyxila a major advantage in drawn-out battles? You gotta be kidding me!

At first glance, I’d thought Shinsen Shukuchi and Body Alchemy didn’t seem all that impressive, but now they seemed like major threats. With those skills in her arsenal, the longer this fight dragged on, the more dangerous it would be for me.

Even so, it felt wrong to consider the Holy Naga an endurance-focused monster. Lilyxila’s powerful Aparajita could handle both close and long-range attacks, and she still had her signature gravity magic at her disposal.

Her wide array of skills made her an incredibly balanced, dangerous opponent. I had to assume that the Holy Naga was one of the most powerful Legendary monsters in existence. She must have used Laplace Authority Interference to select which monster she’d evolve into in advance. Lilyxila’s efficiency bordered on the edge of insanity.

‹Lilyxila…› I called out to her with Telepathy. ‹I used to think you were a scumbag who considered everyone else just pawns for your grand schemes.›

Lilyxila studied my face as she flew toward me, face expressionless. She seemed to be watching for any sign of my Dimension Claws so she could dodge with Shinsen Shukuchi.

‹But now I know better! You even think of yourself as another pawn! Even back in Ardesia’s royal capital, when there were thousands of lives at stake, you only cared about wiping the slime and I out together! And now you’ve thrown away your humanity like it meant nothing! What the hell do you think you’re doing?! Why are you going this far?! Is it really that important to you to collect all the Sacred Skills?!›

The swords of light in Lilyxila’s hands glowed brighter for a moment, then transformed into four round, flat disks.

“There is no longer any need for us to exchange words.” The air around Lilyxila distorted again as she blinked to the side. As she moved, Lilyxila flung two disks at me. They spun around at high speed and seemed to dance in the air as they flew.

First swords, and now…chakrams, huh? I knew Aparajita could change the form of its weapons at will, but I wasn’t expecting it to be that quick and easy. Aparajita sure is a mind-blowing skill…

And on top of that, Lilyxila threw the chakrams through the distorted space from Shinsen Shukuchi to make their trajectories even more difficult to track. I couldn’t see them coming until they left the skill’s range. I needed to move carefully.

Aparajita was so powerful that even I could only take so many hits. If she landed several in a row, my HP would plummet to zero before I knew it. If she hit me directly here and widened the gap between our HP even further, I would no longer be able to reverse the outcome of this war. I had to avoid taking a direct hit—or else.

Just as I turned my attention toward the two flying chakrams, Lilyxila vanished. Alarm bells immediately blared through my mind.

This is bad. Real bad. I need to focus if I want to dodge the high-speed chakrams coming at me from weird angles. But even more importantly, I need to figure out where Lilyxila disappeared to before she strikes.

There’s no time. If I hesitate here, I’ll die.

I used Dragon Mirror and made myself invisible.

Dragon Mirror was a skill that distorted the light and space around me to change my appearance. It cost a lot of MP to use and left me vulnerable when the skill ended, but it allowed me to completely disappear from sight. While useful, I could only use it a few times, and it was risky.

I didn’t want to have to use Dragon Mirror in my fight against Lilyxila, but my instincts were screaming at me that things would go badly if I didn’t. As soon as I disappeared, the two chakrams sliced cleanly through the spot where I was standing before—as well as two other chakrams, which flew at me from a completely different direction.

This told me that Lilyxila was at different coordinates entirely. She was trying to trick me by drawing my attention to the first two Aparajita tosses, then moving to the edge of my field of vision before releasing the other two and using Shinsen Shukuchi to confuse their trajectories. Without activating Dragon Mirror, it would have been impossible to avoid.

I quickly deactivated Dragon Mirror to reappear, then flapped my wings hard to raise my altitude; staying in the same spot for too long would be bad news.

“I see…Dragon Mirror, was it? You did well to avoid my attack,” Lilyxila said in a detached manner as she looked up at me. Four new lights were already forming themselves into swords in her hands.

If I try to evade her the same way next time, she’ll probably attack as soon as I reappear.

As I retreated upward to the top of the cliff, I looked at another of Lilyxila’s new skills.

Special Skill “Chakra Awakening.” Magically fortifies the seven main organs of the body. Clears thoughts, increases strength, and invigorates magic. Increases all stats, but rapidly drains HP and MP. A double-edged sword that can bring about either salvation or destruction.

So not only does Lilyxila have skills to help with evasion, offense, defense, endurance, and status conditions…she also has a Hail Mary skill in case she gets backed into a corner? How obsessed with beating me can she be?

If Lilyxila got put in a tight spot, she could use Chakra Awakening as a last-ditch effort. But even without it, I was already in a tough situation; with her boosting her strength and magic now, I was in even more trouble.

The Holy Naga’s skills seemed like they were specialized for single combat against other Legendary rank opponents. That was probably why Lilyxila had her sights set on transforming into a Holy Naga specifically. Despite our stats being about the same level, her specialized skill set put me at a great disadvantage.

Part 5

I PEERED DOWN at Lilyxila from the top of the cliff. Along with her new HP advantage, she could also heal with her Shinsen Breathing Techniques and Body Alchemy skills.

Her maneuverability with Shinsen Shukuchi and ranged Aparajita attacks made her perfect for mid-range combat. My only option was to engage her in close combat somehow and utilize my attack and magic advantage as an Oneiros to inflict as much damage as I could in one shot.

Lilyxila wanted to draw this battle out as long as possible. With Aparajita, there was no need for her to fight in close quarters.

I frantically racked my brain for a solution…but came up blank. I couldn’t see any scenario where I’d beat her. The more I thought about it, the more it felt like Lilyxila’s skills were specifically crafted to make it impossible to defeat her with the typical fighting style of an Oneiros.

I wonder…what Partner would’ve done in this situation.

The thought passed through my mind unbidden. She would’ve rushed in to tear Lilyxila apart no matter the risk while I was busy going over all the possibilities in my head. Then, after she killed her, she’d look over at my shocked face with a big grin, like, “See? It was easy!”

Despite the current danger, I felt a wave of nostalgia wash over me. I missed Partner. Whenever I got stuck overthinking, she always charged forward while I did everything I could to hold her back.

Back when we had all that trouble with the Lithovar tribe in Harunae Desert, I felt like the two of us would never be a good pair. We were complete opposites in how we dealt with situations. But in the end, it felt like the two of us worked really well together in some strange way.

You’re right, Partner. I can’t just sit around and ponder my options while I’ve got the strongest opponent I’ve ever fought in front of me. If Lilyxila’s not giving me any openings, then I’ll just have to go on the offensive and make some openings myself.

Letting Lilyxila scare me into backing off and playing defensive—giving her the freedom to launch a full-out assault—wasn’t a smart move. Lilyxila didn’t have as much room for error as she claimed to. This was the first time either of us had been in a Legendary monster showdown, and she was doing it with a new, unfamiliar body that she didn’t want in the first place.

In terms of utility and speed, her Holy Naga skills came out on top. There was no doubt about that. But my Oneiros skills were all brimming with explosive power, and my attack and magic stats still overwhelmed hers. Lilyxila might have had a steady advantage in battle over me, but when it came to which monster possessed more potential to overcome a disadvantageous situation, then I was the clear winner.

I kicked off from the top of the cliff, dove toward Lilyxila, and used Dimension Claws. The air around her blurred as soon as I swung my paw.

Here it comes! Her Shinsen Shukuchi!

Lilyxila’s form blinked to the side to avoid my Dimension Claws. I’d seen it several times before already, but I was once again struck at how seamless the skill seemed. It was nearly impossible to predict exactly where Lilyxila would reappear. It left no openings to exploit at the skill’s beginning or end either. It also didn’t cost much MP, so trying to drain her MP by making her use it over and over wouldn’t work; I’d run dry much earlier than she would. My only option was to get in close and aim for a direct hit. That way, she wouldn’t have any free space around to distort in order to dodge me. Even if I couldn’t find any openings to exploit, I should still be able to get a leg up if I acted right after she used Shinsen Shukuchi.

I inhaled, then shot out a ray of Scorching Breath toward where I thought Lilyxila would reappear. There were very few signs to go off of, but I could guess based on which way she moved when she started using the skill. And Scorching Breath, with its wide area of effect, was my best bet at landing a hit. She was playing it safe; I doubted she would get closer and put herself at risk in the hopes of ending this fight sooner. She wasn’t that foolish.

No, Lilyxila was careful and calculated. She’d never make a bad move. That was exactly why I could predict some of her movements.

‹And you’ll show up right…there!› I stepped forward a little and readjusted my aim. The latter half of my Scorching Breath engulfed Lilyxila in flames.

Yes! I read her correctly! But the real match starts now. I’ll move in while Lilyxila is blinded and knock her HP down past mine all at once!

My only chance was to go on the offensive and land as many hits as I could, even if all the odds were against me. It was time. The only way to overcome a huge disadvantage against a careful opponent was to come at them with everything I had. Isn’t that right, Partner?

I used Dimension Claws again, leaping forward into the flames myself. I stretched my neck out to take a massive bite at Lilyxila…

But my jaws snapped shut on empty air. Through the flames, I spied Lilyxila’s form hovering in the air above me. She must have already activated Shinsen Shukuchi in anticipation of my rush. Her four swords of light were already pointed at my head.

“Although it has a narrower range than Diseased Breath and it burns you if you get too close, you risked using Scorching Breath because you wanted to create a smokescreen to blind me and conceal your own intentions. But that plan was far too obvious to work on me.”

Lilyxila flung the four light swords in my direction.

I twisted my body to avoid them, but I was far too close. Two blades sailed past me, but the other two embedded themselves beneath my chin and in my neck.

A white-hot, burning pain ripped through my skin where the blades touched it. My neck went stiff, as if it was paralyzed, and it felt like poison began to seep through my body. I just barely managed to avoid taking any swords through my head, but it suddenly felt like getting this close to my enemy might’ve been a mistake.

As the smoke cleared, Lilyxila began to raise her arms to the sky. But when she saw me, she stopped, her eyes wide.

“An Ouroboros…?”

That’s right. The same moment I released Scorching Breath, I also used Dragon Mirror to transform into an Ouroboros. But I was already too close, and Lilyxila had noticed a moment too late. The biggest difference between Lilyxila’s human form and the Holy Naga’s form was the fact that her serpentine body was much, much longer.

“Graaaaaaah!”

My second head shot up through the flames and bit into Lilyxila’s snake underbelly. My fangs pierced through her scales like they were slicing through butter.

I knew Lilyxila would be able to read my actions well enough to take advantage of the smoke my Scorching Breath caused. The reason I opted for Scorching Breath over Diseased Breath was because I thought Lilyxila would realize I had something more nefarious than the smokescreen planned if I used Diseased Breath.

I also managed to avoid two of Lilyxila’s close-range Aparajita shots because I knew they were coming. My plan was to disguise myself as an Ouroboros and use my second head to trap her. And I succeeded in catching Lilyxila in my fangs.

Of course, Partner didn’t return just because I’d transformed into an Ouroboros. But even so, it almost felt for a moment like she’d returned to exact her revenge on Lilyxila.

Thank you, Partner. Your quick thinking always managed to save my hide back then.

Her influence lingered within me. Without it, I might’ve never had it in myself to take a gamble against such a steady and calculated opponent. And beyond that, my Ouroboros form was at the center of my entire plan. If I’d chosen a different evolution back then, I never would have come up with such an elaborate ploy in my moment of need.

“Gaaagh…!” Lilyxila grunted as she struggled, beating all four of her arms against my second head. I felt some of my fangs break, my bones contorting under her fists.

The Holy Naga wasn’t a monster especially equipped to fight with its bare hands. But it was still a Legendary, and the series of blows it landed on my second head was more vicious than any monster I’d ever faced.

‹Sorry, though! I’m not gonna let go that easily!› I knew that as soon as I did, Lilyxila would slip away with her Shinsen Shukuchi and come at me with another barrage of Aparajita attacks. She could claw out my cheeks and shatter my jaw all she wanted. I still wouldn’t let go. As long as I held on, she couldn’t escape.

According to the skill description of Shinsen Shukuchi, it wasn’t that it allowed her to teleport—instead, it warped space to shorten the distance between two points. I didn’t really understand how that worked logistically, but I knew it was different from a spatial jump like Wormhole. As long as I held on to Lilyxila, I didn’t have to worry about her escaping.

I wrenched my head to the side, slamming Lilyxila’s body against the cliff wall. Then I sped up, beating my wings hard, and dragged her against the rocky surface. The friction tore at Lilyxila’s flesh like a bad rug burn, sending shreds of her pale skin flying.

Lilyxila raised her four arms once again and created four more chakrams of light in each hand.

Uh oh. If I held on any longer, she’d cut my head off with Aparajita.

I lifted her away, then slammed her against the cliff face once more. The rock wall cracked from the impact. Then I spun around in midair and slammed into her with a vicious tail strike. She crossed her four arms in front of her to block my blow, but my tail struck the wall with enough force to send it collapsing over top of her.

“Gagh!” Blue blood spurted from Lilyxila’s mouth. Even though she blocked it, it was still a serious blow.

Lilyxila Lialum

Species: Holy Naga

Status: Normal

Lv: 100/140

HP: 884/3592

MP: 3681/3956

All right! That did some major damage!

I could do this. Lilyxila still had a lot more MP left than I did, but she wasn’t impossible to beat.

I immediately followed up with Dimension Claws, but Lilyxila dodged it with Shinsen Shukuchi and leapt off from the cliff face, her chakrams ready to fire.

This was the same skill combo she’d used before, the one I avoided by using Dragon Mirror to completely disappear. But that method cost a lot of MP, and it left me somewhat exposed when I ended the skill and returned to existence. I couldn’t risk using that technique against her multiple times.

First, Lilyxila threw two chakrams straight at me from her left and right hands. They whirled and danced in the air, their speed and course changing at a dizzying pace in the distorted air. It might technically have been different from teleportation, but it still felt like those disks were teleporting from place to place.

This is…ridiculous. It doesn’t matter how many times Lilyxila throws this attack at me. I still won’t be able to handle it without sacrificing a bunch of MP!

I dove lower and used Dragon Mirror to transform into a Baby Dragon. The smaller the target, the lower the risk of a direct hit. Even one hit in this form would be enough to incapacitate me…but I had to take a risk somewhere. I passed between the two thrown chakrams—one above, one below.

Yikes… Those things were a lot closer than I thought. If I’d been even just a little bigger, they could’ve gone right through my head or tail.

The fact that Lilyxila could distort the space around herself meant that not only could she mess with her projectiles’ flight paths, she could also correct them. Luckily for me, her corrections weren’t precise enough to hit my tiny Baby Dragon form. I counted my blessings; this situation was dangerous enough already.

Before I had time to recover, though, Lilyxila threw her other two chakrams at me.

C-crap! I’m not ready!

Wait… My attack gets reduced when I use Dragon Mirror, but my magic doesn’t!

I used Gravity. A ring of black light spread out around me. When the Aparajita chakrams crossed into it, they dropped like stones and tumbled to the bottom of the cliff.

Nice! Made ’em miss me! I can use Dragon Mirror and Gravity to dodge Lilyxila’s combo attack! She might find a way to attack me if I use it too many times, but it’s not an unbeatable combo anymore!

Lilyxila glared at me, the space between her eyebrows creasing.

I could see my way out of this. When I first saw it, the Holy Naga seemed invincible. But if I could get her into close-range combat, I’d have the advantage. And it wasn’t like her mid-range skills didn’t have their own weaknesses to exploit. I’d have to take risks and play aggressively, but this difference in our MP was a difference that could be overcome.

Part 6

LILYXILA KEPT HER DISTANCE, spreading her wings and flying around me. Four more chakrams appeared in her hands. My heart sank.

No, stay calm. That skill combo is vicious, but it’s not like it’s unavoidable. I’ll attack her in Baby Dragon form so I’m hard to hit. My attack and defense are lower, but it’s worth it!

I used Dragon Mirror to make my wings a bit larger, then gathered the wind beneath them and shot toward Lilyxila.

If I didn’t go on the offensive here, Lilyxila would attack with everything she had. My only choice was to press on, despite the risks.

This time, Lilyxila brought all four of her arms down, slinging the chakrams at me.

What? She stopped throwing them two at a time? She must be getting nervous now that I found a way to deal with them.

The air around Lilyxila distorted as she used Shinsen Shukuchi. Each of the four chakrams blinked in and out of space randomly as they flew toward me.

‹Not one for artistic flair, are you?› I muttered in my head, annoyed. Lilyxila would never do anything to give up her advantage. Even when she was forced to retreat, she still did everything she could to prevent me from attacking her. This wasn’t a feat possible for most.

It’d be hard to find anyone else capable of pulling off such a successful combat technique so calmly and thoroughly in a fight for her life. Lilyxila’s fighting style didn’t betray a single hint of impatience or emotion.

Even so, this gave me more of an opportunity to get used to Lilyxila’s attack combo so I could avoid it better in the future. She knew this too, of course, but she had no choice but to go on the offensive.

At that moment, I felt a strong chill shoot up my spine. Lilyxila’s four chakrams all froze in midair.

Did she…use Shinsen Shukuchi stretch the space around us? The skill’s description only mentioned shrinking space, but who’s to say it couldn’t expand it too? But why’d she use it to stop all the chakrams? If its purpose is to make her attacks come at me randomly, then wouldn’t that be counterproductive?

It was then that four more light chakrams appeared in Lilyxila’s hands.

No way. Is she going to throw more so she can attack me with all of ’em at once?!

Lilyxila must have realized I’d manage to get close to her eventually and take her out, so she was trying to hurry the fight along in her favor.

‹Tch!› I used Dragon Mirror to greatly enlarge my front paws. There. That should solve my strength issue.

I swung my now-massive paws and swiped at Lilyxila with Dimension Claws.She stepped back with Shinsen Shukuchi to dodge, then threw her four extra chakrams just as the other four began to move again.

Just like that, I had a total of eight chakrams flying at me from different directions.

Uh oh. Should I use Wormhole to teleport out of the way or disappear completely with Dragon Mirror? No, neither. They both leave me vulnerable. Wormhole is too obvious, and I’d show up at the same spot I disappeared if I used Dragon Mirror. She’s already seen both skills once, so it’s too dangerous to use them again.

Guess it’s sink or swim.

I used Mirror Counter to create a barrier of light in front of me. The skill could repel magic projectiles and diffuse attacks, but I doubted it would work great against weapons made with magic. It would probably only take a few hits to shatter it. But it’d still help.

I scanned the area, checking the positions of the eight Aparajita chakrams. But with how quickly they flitted from spot to spot, it was impossible for me to watch them all at the same time.

I flew up and released Gravity, and black light spread out around me. Good. Now those chakrams should drop low when they get close.

One of the chakrams skimmed right below me at high speed. Just as I realized how close it was, another chakram flew from a different direction and shattered the light barrier.

I flew higher and increased the radius and power of my Gravity as fast as I could. A burning heat singed the bottom of my back paw as a chakram grazed my foot. But it was a small price to pay. All eight chakrams slammed into the cliff wall one after the other, causing a landslide.

Somehow, I’d managed to successfully avoid the entirety of Lilyxila’s eight-part Aparajita attack.

“I…didn’t expect you to adapt to my Aparajita chakrams so quickly,” she murmured as she flew farther away from me.

Lilyxila’s greatest advantage as a Holy Naga was that she could chip away at her enemy’s HP from a distance while healing with her own automatic recovery skills. If I let her get away here, it would be game over. I’ll catch her again and end this once and for all!

Lilyxila had me beat in terms of pure agility. That, plus her Shinsen Shukuchi, meant I’d never catch her by simply chasing her down.

Okay, then I’ll do this instead! I sucked in a deep breath, reverted to my Oneiros form by releasing Dragon Mirror, and then sprayed my Diseased Breath in a wide arc around me. The entire bottom of the cliff was filled with poisonous fumes.

“More fumes…? Are you intending to attack me?” Lilyxila sounded confused. She was likely remembering how I chose to use Scorching Breath to blind her last time. I knew if I did that again, she’d see through it immediately. So instead, I used Diseased Breath: It cost less MP, covered a wider area, and didn’t damage me when I passed through it.

Lilyxila sped up to get out of the poisonous fog. I assumed she wasn’t keen on fighting me blind. Unlike last time, when she’d read my movements and moved forward to counterattack, it didn’t seem like she wanted to close in this time. Instead, she looked to be trying to escape from an area with too many variables and get to a spot where she could continue her one-sided onslaught in relative safety.

But that’s exactly how I wanted her to react. I couldn’t catch up by simply chasing after her. Even if I got close, I wouldn’t be able to catch her by surprise; her sight may be compromised, but she still had Psychic Sense to guide her. At the same time, hitting the Holy Naga’s long, slender body with Dimension Claws while my vision was obscured felt unlikely. Her best plan of action was to escape from my Diseased Breath, while readying herself to use Shinsen Shukuchi if she sensed me using Dimension Claws.

And that was exactly why I was about to take her by surprise.

‹I’m not letting you get away!›

As I said it, I teleported right next to her with Wormhole and immediately swung my claws at her. They landed, slamming Lilyxila into the cliff wall.

“Guh! H-how…?! There weren’t any signs of movement! Did…did you just use Wormhole?!” Although she was taken by surprise, Lilyxila immediately understood what I just did. But like I hoped, it was again a moment too late.

Wormhole created a black light at my destination, which would give away my location to Lilyxila. But the poisonous cloud of Diseased Breath concealed the light. If Lilyxila were planning to intercept me, she might have still noticed it, but there was no way she could have noticed it grow behind her while she was busy retreating.

Against an enemy as powerful as Lilyxila, there was no time to gauge the level of risk or create any sort of fail-safe. It was time. I was going to kill her.

Black flames erupted from the cliff face as I used the strongest skill I’d acquired as an Oneiros: Hell Gate.

Lilyxila leapt from the cliff face, trying to escape the black flames. But dozens of long, thin, corpselike arms stretched out from the flames and wrapped themselves around her snakelike body. The arms themselves weren’t particularly large, but each possessed many joints, like a long, black chain. The arms clung to her tightly and grabbed each of her human arms. Lilyxila’s skin surrounding each of the arms began to burn and char, turning black.

Then, from the flames sprouted the torsos of five giant black skeletons.

“N-no! This is…!” Faced with these hulking figures, even Lilyxila was afraid. I was sure she was all too familiar with my skills thanks to Laplace. The fear in her eyes was not fear of the unknown—it was alarm at the known. She knew all too well that taking a direct hit from my Hell Gate would spell her doom.

Normal Skill “Hell Gate.” A type of spatial magic. Summons part of the now-abandoned underworld to burn away enemies with hellfire. The hellfire does not affect the skill’s user. Maximum size of the summoned area is determined by skill level. Powerful but costly.

My Hell Gate could completely annihilate fenrirs in one go and shattered through the high magic resistance of the legendary Wicked Ahriman armor with ease. I knew exactly how powerful it was.

Even so, I could feel my MP burning up with each second I kept it active. The skill’s description was right: It was powerful, but slow and expensive to keep running. It wasn’t a skill I wanted to rely on. But if I didn’t beat Lilyxila here, now that I caught her, the situation would just get worse and worse for me. There was no guarantee I’d be able to catch this cautious, measured woman again. If I let her go, she’d use Chakra Awakening and become even more powerful. If I didn’t kill her now, then it was all over.

“Ah…ah! Aaahh…!” Lilyxila shrieked as her face was scorched by the flames. Her body went limp. The corpse arms held her four arms tight as the five giant skeletons collapsed on top of her immobile form.

There was a chance, of course, that this wouldn’t be enough to finish Lilyxila off. The Hell Gate flames wouldn’t harm me as their user, so I decided to join the skeleton giants in delivering the finishing blow.

Lilyxila couldn’t use Shinsen Shukuchi if she couldn’t move. Her other skills, too, required activation before they could be used. My attack would hit before she had the chance.

Or…would it? I was suddenly struck with apprehension. If I land a finishing blow on her, then I should be able to kill her. But is Lilyxila really the type to just lay there and let that happen without a fight?

Hell Gate was a costly skill with incredible power and range. But I had to wonder if the restraining power of the corpse arms themselves was really all that strong.

I hesitated for a single moment before I was going to move to attack. In that moment, Lilyxila’s serpent belly split open, cut by a shining blade of light. The blade shot out and skimmed past my chest, leaving a thin line of pain in its wake.

“Oh? It seems you’re too late.” Lilyxila’s face peeked out from her own torn abdomen, followed by her new, still-pink body.

She used Reincarnation Molt! The skill allowed Lilyxila to cast off her old body, which drained a lot of MP, but restored her HP back to full. It was no wonder her body had burned so quickly; it was already in the process of becoming an empty husk.

Lilyxila’s plan must have been to counter me with Aparajita from inside her molt when I got close. If I’d gotten any closer, she would’ve killed me in an instant.

Lilyxila crawled out of the molt, holding a large Aparajita sword in one hand and three chakrams in the others. She was trying to fend me off with her Aparajita weapons so she could make her escape from Hell Gate.

I can’t let her get away…not after getting this close! Even so, approaching Lilyxila while she had her weapons drawn and ready would be dangerous. Any second now, her chakrams would start flying toward me.

All right. Then I guess I’ll pull out a weapon of my own!

I used Dragon Mirror again to transform my paws into humanoid arms and made my Oneiros body bipedal. Then I used Ideal Weapon.

Ideal Weapon allowed me to create whatever weapon I desired. This time, it didn’t just need to be strong—it needed to be able to repel the Aparajita attacks and take Lilyxila down. I pictured a weapon in my mind that was deadly enough to kill Lilyxila, while also effective against magic attacks. A large light appeared in each of my hands, which split to either side and stretched into the outlines of two swords. The light dimmed as they each gained mass and took on color.

The swords were each beautiful in their own right. The blade in my right hand was a shining blue with some sort of magical inscription engraved on it in red, while the blade in my left was its opposite, a crimson blade with a blue engraving. Their designs reminded me of my Ouroboros Blade, but these swords were much shorter. My right blade curved wickedly, while my left one looked like it was a combination of two intertwined blades that split near the hilt.

Ouroboros Breaker: Value A. Attack: +75. A pair of blades said to live on until the end of the world. Made from the bones of a two-headed dragon that symbolizes eternity and taboo. The blue blade ignores all resistances of its target and poisons whatever it cuts. The red blade possesses powerful magical resistance and can dispel any magic it cuts.

Another entry in the twin Ouroboros sword series, huh? Interesting…

The blue blade seemed like it could destroy life, while the red blade could destroy magic. Maybe the red one can deal with Lilyxila’s Aparajita…? Once she had more space, she’d be able to throw the chakrams in arcs and conceal their trajectories with Shinsen Shukuchi, but right now all she could do was throw them straight at me. In that case, I should be able to deflect them.

No… I will deflect them.

Lilyxila threw the three chakrams. She added slight delays to their timings with Shinsen Shukuchi. But despite that little hitch, they all flew straight at me.

I readied myself, sharpened my senses, and swung my left sword at the first chakram. I hoped it would destroy the magic concealed within it completely, but it didn’t—likely because I didn’t hit it straight on. The magic of Aparajita was too dense to slice through it from the side.

But I managed to deflect it, and that was the important part. Any ordinary weapon would’ve shattered against the magic power contained in each chakram. With the red blade’s resistance to magic, it could repel the chakram without being destroyed.

I thrust forward to repel the second chakram. But the third one slipped past my blade before I could deflect it and sliced through my side. I winced, but a little cut wouldn’t stop me now!

With my Hell Gate still broiling behind her, Lilyxila had no choice but to move forward. And with me blocking her escape route, she couldn’t use Shinsen Shukuchi to get away.

Lilyxila shut her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. I assumed she was strengthening herself with Shinsen Breathing Techniques to prepare to fight me with her final Aparajita sword.

“I won’t let this be the end!” Lilyxila cried, then swung her sword of light toward me. I blocked it with my magic resistant sword, but the force of her blow pushed my arm back. Her blade cut deep into my shoulder.

‹That’s enough!› I thrust out the sword in my right hand. It sank deep into Lilyxila’s navel—right where her human and snake bodies were connected—and impaled her against her cast-off skin.

Part 7

LILYXILA’S EYES DROPPED to her lower abdomen, where the hilt of my blue Ouroboros Breaker blade stuck out. Blue blood spurted from her mouth.

My blue Ouroboros Breaker blade inflicted damage to its target that ignored all resistances. On top of that, it poisoned its target. Despite Lilyxila’s Physical Resistance: Lv 9 and Poison Resistance: Lv 8, there was no escaping my Ouroboros Breaker’s toxic clutches.

I’d only decided to use Ideal Weapon so I could deal with her ranged Aparajita attacks, so the resistance-ignoring effects of my blue sword were a welcome bonus. Ideal Weapon’s MP cost was a little high, but it felt like I should’ve been a bit more liberal with its use before now.

Normal Skill “Ideal Weapon” Lv 8 has become Lv 9.

The blade pinning Lilyxila to the cliff wall kept her within the range of Hell Gate. I watched her body begin to burn once again as the giant skeletons crowded around her. Now that she was stuck, she couldn’t even use Shinsen Shukuchi to get away. The skill shrank and expanded the space around her but didn’t teleport Lilyxila herself.

The MP cost of Hell Gate was severe, but it was worth it to inflict this much damage. At this rate, Lilyxila would be burned to a crisp in no time.

Lilyxila’s arm twitched. “I’ve…come this far. I can’t lose now…”

I swung the red sword in my right hand to slash at her chest.

The next moment, Lilyxila’s Holy Naga tail whipped toward me. It slammed into my torso, knocking me away.

What?! She ripped herself from the cliff wall with sheer strength?! I looked down at my hands to find my left Ouroboros Breaker blade shattered into pieces.

There was no point in wasting any more MP on keeping them activated. I ended Ideal Weapon and Dragon Mirror to return to my normal form.

That attack Lilyxila landed with her tail felt…much stronger than before. Her base attack stat was quite high as a Holy Naga, and she’d boosted her stats with Shinsen Breathing Techniques, but that didn’t quite cover it. Somehow, she was far more powerful than she had been just moments ago.

Lilyxila’s skin finally burned away with Hell Gate’s black fire, revealing yet another new form inside.

Ugh! Reincarnation Molt again?! I knew the skill cost her a lot of MP, but it was still irritating. No matter how much I wounded her, she could fully heal and regenerate any missing limbs with ease.

Still… Forcing her to use Reincarnation Molt multiple times must have cut her MP down a lot. If I could just hold on a little longer, victory would be within my grasp.

I slashed at her with a barrage of Dimension Claws. Lilyxila’s form blurred from side to side as she dodged, my Dimension Claws tearing into the wall behind her.

Huh? What was that? She’s always used Shinsen Shukuchi to dodge until now, but it looked like she was predicting exactly where my Dimension Claws were gonna land. Did she guess based on how my front paws moved? Or has she leveled up her Shinsen Shukuchi?

Or…are her Laplace Interference Authority predictions more precise?

No, it was simpler than that. Lilyxila’s reaction speed had improved dramatically.

The last bits of charred skin left over from Lilyxila’s Reincarnation Molt peeled away, unable to keep up with her quick movements, and fell to the bottom of the cliff. Lilyxila’s new body glowed with a faint golden hue.

What? What’s she…

Lilyxila’s eyes stared deep into mine. A chill ran up my spine. Her eyes were far colder than those of any monster I’d ever seen before.

Since transforming into a Holy Naga, all traces of humanity had rapidly faded from Lilyxila’s features.

No…perhaps she’s always been a monster underneath her human exterior. Maybe her transformation finally brought her true nature to the surface.

“I…would have preferred to keep this in reserve, but I cannot afford to die without making use of it.” Lilyxila’s head tilted to the side, but her cold, expressionless eyes remained locked on me, unblinking.

If I let her stop me now, I was dead. Lilyxila’s agility and physical strength were off the charts. There was no telling how she’d decide to attack me. I flew away, staying close to the cliff wall.

By process of elimination, I already knew what skill she’d used. Her glowing appearance caught me off guard, but there was only one skill left for her to pull out.

Special Skill “Chakra Awakening.” Magically fortifies the seven main organs of the body. Clears thoughts, increases strength, and invigorates magic. Increases all stats but rapidly drains HP and MP. A double-edged sword that can bring about either salvation or destruction.

Chakra Awakening was a last resort skill for when you got backed into a corner. Lilyxila’s golden glow was likely from the overflowing magic coursing through her body. Some of Tolemann’s soldiers put the Berserk status on their own subordinates, but Chakra Awakening was a much more troublesome skill than that. Unlike Berserk, the skill gave its users a clear head on top of all of their stat boosts.

“I will admit, the most difficult opponents I have faced are ones like you, who do not abandon their pride even in the face of death and who will show their true colors when faced with impossible odds.” Lilyxila spread her wings wide and flew closer. The light of four Aparajita chakrams appeared in her hand once more.

Right as I thought she was about to throw them, the chakrams grew in size. Chakra Awakening was doing its part to make them more powerful.

“But this is as far as you go. Sweet dreams, Illusia.”

Chakra Awakening continuously drained Lilyxila’s HP and MP, similar to the slime’s rampaging Ruin evolution. For a moment, I considered trying to deal with her the same way I had with the slime: keeping my distance until he was completely spent. But that wouldn’t be enough to win this fight. With Lilyxila’s Aparajita chakrams and Shinsen Shukuchi, she’d be able to close the distance between us whenever she liked. It was too risky to fight Lilyxila in close combat, though. It felt like no matter what I did, I wouldn’t be able to outmaneuver her.

But this was the critical moment in our fight. Chakra Awakening allowed her to risk it all for the opportunity to destroy an opponent far stronger than herself. If I could just hold out long enough, then Lilyxila’s last resort would be lost.

Part 8

LILYXILA RELEASED the four chakrams in her hands.

I used Dragon Mirror to transform into a Baby Dragon. The chakrams might have been bigger now, but this was still my best bet for avoiding them. They weren’t completely impossible to avoid as an Oneiros, but it was much harder. I used Mirror Counter to make another magical light barrier like before. But this time, it wasn’t for repelling the chakrams; it was there so I could react to the sound of it breaking if one suddenly came too close with Lilyxila’s Shinsen Shukuchi.

However, I couldn’t rest easy. I doubted Lilyxila would just use the same attack pattern over and over again, even if my countermeasures were improving. Chakra Awakening’s HP and MP drain meant Lilyxila couldn’t afford to just waste the MP it cost to summon those four chakrams. She also must want to avoid taking damage so she didn’t have to use MP to recover.

Lilyxila’s movements were faster now, and her skills were more powerful. But not everything was in her favor. Chakra Awakening’s HP and MP drain meant she could no longer hedge her bets on a long-term battle and stick to feints and reactive combat. She couldn’t keep relying on attacking me from a safe distance and countering me when I attacked. She’d have to find a new strategy. My only option was to find a way to exploit it.

I needed to make Chakra Awakening’s flaws into advantages for me without letting it overwhelm me. If I let her use her strengthened skills to their fullest extent, I could be killed in an instant.

The Aparajita chakrams flitted through the air as their trajectories were distorted by Shinsen Shukuchi. Suddenly, I felt a strange sense of unease. The chakrams surrounded me as if they were trying to cut off any potential escape routes.

Lilyxila hadn’t made it easy for me to capitalize on any weaknesses during our entire fight. If I wanted to try and counter her, I’d have to surprise her somehow. Whenever she attacked, she did so with the utmost caution and never expected her opponent to take it lying down. Her mechanical, almost robotic fighting style probably came from a combination of her personality and the outcomes she’d meticulously simulated with Laplace Authority Interference.

The reason she threw the chakrams wasn’t to attack me with them. She wanted to trap me in one spot so she could get up close and attack where it would be easiest to land hits. I couldn’t think of any other reason she’d spread the chakrams out like this.

Although she was powered up with Chakra Awakening, it would be strange for her to repeat an attack I was now used to without putting a fresh spin on it. Perhaps she would if she were any other enemy, but Lilyxila would never. I had to keep that in mind.

If Lilyxila was trying to get close, then staying in my Baby Dragon form would be a mistake. But I still had chakrams flying at me from every direction, and I wasn’t confident in my ability to avoid them in my normal Oneiros form.

No time to hesitate. I ended Dragon Mirror and leapt forward, then swiped out with Dimension Claws to try and cut her off if she tried attacking directly in front. But when I swung my paw forward, Lilyxila appeared—right above me.

This time, the glowing Aparajita light in her hands materialized as a giant axe of light. Instead of rushing in to fight up close, Lilyxila anticipated my Dimension Claws attack and evaded them once again.

“I’m surprised that you were able to see my true aim. But unfortunately, you were one move too late.”

My heart sank. Lilyxila was right. If I’d predicted her aim with throwing the Aparajita chakrams was to attack me up close the moment she threw them, I would’ve been able to react in time. She anticipated my Dimension Claws and even predicted that I wouldn’t be able to realize her true intentions in time.

No… Even if I’d realized it earlier, the Aparajita chakrams would’ve still forced me to play it safe until I knew their trajectories. I wouldn’t have been able to react in time to deflect her attack either way.

Did Lilyxila really manage to read the situation that far in advance before she chose to move in? She’d been almost pathologically cautious until now. If I accepted the fact that she was taking risks with her actions now, I could assume that she had a plan in motion.

I twisted my body to face Lilyxila, then flapped my wings and shot higher into the air. Because she chose to appear above me, there was a decent chance she’d aimed her Aparajita chakrams to hit further down. Otherwise, she’d risk being hit by the chakrams herself.

I felt a sharp pain shoot through my tail as one of the Aparajita chakrams sliced into it. They were flying beneath me, just like I predicted, but one still managed to hit me! At the same time, Lilyxila brought down her giant axe of light to slash diagonally across my chest.

My vision was shrouded in my own blue blood, and I felt my consciousness waver. Between the stat enhancement of Chakra Awakening and a direct hit from that stupidly large Aparajita axe, I must have taken a lot of damage. Just one blow was enough to deal half my max HP’s worth of damage. If I’d taken that hit in my Baby Dragon form, I’d be dead for sure.

Before I could get my bearings, Lilyxila swung her greataxe for a second blow. I lurched up and away as fast as I could to try and escape. At the same time, I used Ideal Weapon, hoping for something, anything to get me through this alive.

What formed in front of me was no damage-dealing sword. Instead, what I brought out was a greatshield—one that would get me through this attack!

Oneiros Flugel: Value L (Legendary). Defense: 3,000. A greatshield that glows with a faint bluish-purple light. Made with the wings of the Dream Dragon, who rules over the world of dreams. Said to have been used as a gateway between the human and divine worlds. Impervious to superficial attacks. Any who dare to approach it are deceived by illusions.

An immense shield with a blue-purple gradient appeared in front of me. Its design featured two Oneiros wings on the left and right that spiraled together in the center. I quickly used Dragon Mirror to transform my foreleg into a humanoid shape capable of supporting the Oneiros Flugel. It seemed like now that I’d leveled up my Ideal Weapon skill, it was able to produce more powerful Oneiros armaments instead of Ouroboros ones.

The shield didn’t give my own defense stat a boost; instead, it had its own defense stat. It made sense that that was how shields worked in this world—it’s not like I would take mitigated damage if it blocked an arrow—but this was the first time I’d encountered this particular mechanism. It probably couldn’t block all attacks, but I should be able to endure a few hits with it, at least.

In the meantime, I could focus on getting rid of my chest injury with Regenerate and Dragon Mirror. By using the two skills together, I could limit the amount of MP it cost to heal myself. Then I used Hi-Rest to recover my HP.

The blow from Lilyxila’s Aparajita greataxe crashed into my Oneiros Flugel. The greatshield’s right half was blasted into the air from the impact, taking a chunk of the left half with it. The shield was still better than nothing, but it couldn’t block as much as I was originally hoping. It was basically as effective as a 3,000-defense meat shield.

“I am the one who will come face-to-face with it. Not you,” Lilyxila hissed, staring daggers at me.

By “it,” does she mean the Divine Voice? For someone who supposedly reveres it, she sure is talking about it in an awfully rude manner.

Lilyxila swung her Aparajita axe at me once again. I dropped the remaining left side of my Oneiros Flugel, then smacked it with my tail to send it flying straight at her. The recoil from the hit sent me flying back out of reach, and all the while, I continued to recover with Regenerate and Hi-Rest.

Lilyxila’s Aparajita axe slammed into the left half of my Oneiros Flugel, sending it hurtling to the ground. It had only lasted a few moments, but that shield played a vital role in protecting me from her deadly attacks. The fact that I now had a giant shield I could pull out at a moment’s notice was valuable enough.

Up until now, I’d thought of this battle between Lilyxila and I as one focused on who could whittle down the other’s MP most effectively. We both had high max HP and excellent resistance and recovery skills, so we could restore our HP plenty of times before it reached zero.

However…that last attack could have cut through all of my HP at once. It was a clean, direct Aparajita axe hit that was further boosted by Chakra Awakening, so it was no wonder it did that much damage. But the fact that I could’ve lost all my HP at once if things went just a little worse than they had that time was a red flag that I couldn’t ignore.

With Aparajita, Lilyxila could create any weapon she wished; with Shinsen Shukuchi, she could go anywhere she liked. Her options were endless. I’d seen all her skills by now, but I’d be a fool to think I’d seen all her strategies. There was always a chance she’d pull out some new attack method.

With Chakra Awakening active, she’s got the power to knock out most of my HP in one hit. I need to act with that in mind and keep my HP at max whenever I can, no matter the MP cost.

Lilyxila’s body shuddered violently. I didn’t deal any damage in our most recent encounter, but it looked like the continued use of Chakra Awakening was taking its toll.

I kept my distance, letting my body recover, and swiped at Lilyxila from afar with three Dimension Claws. Lilyxila’s figure flitted in and out of existence to dodge my attacks. Ugh… Is getting up close really the only way for me to catch her?

Lilyxila reappeared again, but this time, the Aparajita greataxe was gone from her hand. I looked around and saw it appear in midair, spinning chaotically toward me.

She threw her axe at me while moving with Shinsen Shukuchi!

As the axe spun toward me, Lilyxila readied four more Aparajita chakrams. I used Dragon Mirror to change into a Baby Dragon again and climbed into the air as the Aparajita axe whirled through the air beneath me.

If Lilyxila was planning to stick with mid-range Aparajita attacks, staying in Baby Dragon form was my best bet for evading her. Chakra Awakening would eventually be a burden too big to bear, even for Lilyxila. I was concerned she might try to get close with Shinsen Shukuchi while using her chakrams as cover again, but I’d already seen that strategy once. Next time, I’d be much more ready.

Keeping my distance would make this fight all the more difficult for me, but it was better than charging headfirst at Lilyxila and putting myself at the mercy of her boosted stats. If she wasn’t planning to force me into close combat, then I was fine sticking to evasion.

Lilyxila chased after me as I retreated.

Hmm… She’s not using Shinsen Shukuchi. Maybe she’s waiting for the right moment?

Just then, my Psychic Sense picked up on a presence approaching from afar. It seemed like a human…riding on a monster’s back.

Is that Volk and the black lizard? Or…I hate to even consider it, but it might be Howgley on a zephyr…

Whoever it was, an interruption sounded less than ideal at this point. Even if I got lucky and it was Volk and the rest, they wouldn’t stand a chance against Lilyxila. To be honest, them showing up would be much worse news for me than for her. And if it was Howgley, then him joining up with her would be a recipe for disaster. I still didn’t know how to deal with his strange movements. I could always shake him off and keep my distance, but if I did that, the space around him would become a safe zone for Lilyxila.

I was keeping my distance for the moment, but I wasn’t planning to run away from this fight. Lilyxila probably didn’t want any interruptions during this battle either.

From Lilyxila’s point of view, she’d gathered the best of the best from around the world to defeat me, and even transformed permanently into a monster with the goal of knocking down my MP as quickly as she could. If I escaped now, she’d be much weaker the next time we met, and I wouldn’t be fooled by Reincarnation Molt or Shinsen Shukuchi now that I’d seen them.

In my case, I doubted Allo and the rest would come out of this alive if they got caught in this battle. I needed to settle things between Lilyxila and I as soon as possible. On that point, at least, she and I were in full agreement.

If the presence I sensed joined us, I’d be in trouble—no matter who they were. But there was no way for me to turn them away now.

I looked behind me.

“Heh heh…Luck truly is on my side, it seems,” Lilyxila stretched her torn and bloodied lips into a smile. To her, it didn’t matter whether the human joining us was friend or foe. The battle would tilt in her favor either way. If it was an enemy, she’d attack them and force me to defend them. If it was an ally, she’ll find a way to capitalize on their fighting abilities.

All right. In that case, I’ll just have to meet up with them first!

I dove forward to increase my speed and soared toward the figure on the horizon.

“Do you really think I’ll allow that to happen?” Lilyxila said as the space around her distorted. She reappeared a moment later, now much closer, and flung the four Aparajita chakrams at me.

I’m getting used to dealing with these things too! I sped off in a random zigzag to avoid the chakrams, keeping an eye out for Lilyxila herself as she blinked in and out with Shinsen Shukuchi.

Despite their movements being influenced by Shinsen Shukuchi, my mind was beginning to catch up to the chakrams’ trajectories. They’d felt too complicated to understand at first, but there were only so many different paths they could take toward me. I could read and anticipate them. Now it was just a matter of whether I could react to them fast enough and find a way to outsmart Lilyxila.

At my current location, I could avoid three of the chakrams.

A faint smile tugged at the corners of Lilyxila’s lips. I knew what she was thinking. I still didn’t know where the fourth chakram would show up, but if this spot felt safe to me, I had to assume Lilyxila was herding me here for some reason.

Ideal Weapon! The Oneiros Flugel appeared, floating at my side. As the fourth Aparajita chakram flew in from my blind spot, the two Oneiros wings stopped it in its tracks. The impact sent the greatshield tumbling toward the bottom of the cliff with a massive dent in its surface. But that was fine; I couldn’t hold it up as a Baby Dragon anyway, so I’d intended it to be single use.

Ideal Weapon’s MP cost wasn’t cheap, but it was much better than having to heal myself. My best bet was to stick to reliable ways to defend against her attacks. Lilyxila wouldn’t let herself be hit by any basic attack or let basic defenses hold her back. If I tried to attack her now, she’d read my movements and kill me with ease. I needed to move even more carefully than usual. With Lilyxila’s Chakra Awakening still in use, I wasn’t going to go out of my way to attack her. I’d stick to defense and find a moment to strike once she got impatient.

As I continued my upward retreat, my Psychic Sense twinged, letting me know the mystery third party was getting close. I looked up, trying to catch a glimpse of whoever awaited me.

But instead of Volk’s white hair or Howgley’s hunched figure, my eyes landed on someone I wasn’t expecting to see in the slightest.

Sharp, small irises stared out from beneath a head of short blonde hair as Alphis raised her sword in the air from atop her zephyr.

“Lucent Luna!”

Ten small orbs of light shot toward me before I had a chance to recover from dodging Lilyxila’s chakram. Two of them hit true, sending a wave of burning heat through my wings. As a Baby Dragon, my defense was much lower than usual, but the attack still didn’t do much damage.

Lucent Luna was a mid-range attack skill that relied on quantity over quality and seemed to be more geared toward crowd control than a full-out attack. It didn’t even deal enough damage to burn through my thin Baby Dragon wings.

…What’re you doing all the way out here, Alphis? You should know better than anyone that this isn’t a battle you can charge headfirst into on your own and expect to make a difference.

I hated to admit it, but I was relieved it was Alphis instead of Allo and the others—who’d just become targets for Lilyxila—or Howgley, who’d be a major addition to Lilyxila’s fighting force.

Lilyxila didn’t seem like she’d expected Alphis to show up here either. She stared at her retainer with the closest thing her deadpan face had to shock, her brow wrinkled.

Part 9

I ENLARGED MY WINGS with Dragon Mirror and flapped them, soaring higher into the sky. Just the force of the wind moving beneath my wings was enough to throw Alphis’s zephyr off balance.

“Guh! Y-you’ll have to do better than—”

I swiped past the recovering Alphis with Dimension Claws, a single claw extended. The cliff wall behind her exploded as my claw tore a deep gash in the rocks, sending out a cloud of dust.

Alphis’s eyes widened.

‹Next time, that claw’s coming for you. You’re no match for me. Stay out of this.›

As I spoke to Alphis with Telepathy, Lilyxila summoned four more Aparajita chakrams.

“Just as I thought. You really are far too naive for your own good,” Lilyxila called.

‹H-hey! If you throw those now, you’ll…›

The advantage of using the chakrams was that their flight patterns and attack range were almost impossible to discern. If Lilyxila threw them at me, she’d kill Alphis in an instant.

“I didn’t think that woman would be of any use to me in this fight, but at least she managed to distract you for a moment.” With that, Lilyxila unleashed her four chakrams toward the two of us without mercy.

S-seriously…?

I knew Lilyxila only thought of her subordinates as tools to be used, even if their lives were dedicated to her. But Alphis…Alphis was her retainer. After all those years together, surely she must at least have felt a little bit of compassion toward her…

But when Lilyxila threw the chakrams, I didn’t see a shred of hesitation in her eyes.

I’m nothing like Lilyxila. The thought rang true as I watched the chakrams fly at us. Lilyxila was an enemy I needed to defeat, but that didn’t mean I was going to needlessly kill off her subordinates.

The strength of a single Holy Knight would make no difference in this battle between two Legendary monsters. Despite the brief interruption, I would’ve been fine with just letting Alphis go. But it seemed like Lilyxila thought differently.

No, wait. I bet the space around Alphis is safe somehow. Lilyxila probably saw my threat as an attempt to scare her, so she’s launching a ruthless attack to avoid displaying any weaknesses.

Although I’d gotten somewhat used to dealing with the Aparajita chakrams, I still ended up relying on my instincts to avoid them all. Having even a hint at where Lilyxila was aiming would be a huge help.

I flew closer to Alphis. Her attacks didn’t cause much damage anyway. In my current Baby Dragon form, I wouldn’t want to take any direct hits from her sword or any combination of blows, but if she hit me once, my stats were still high enough that I could counterattack and kill her immediately. It was safe to say that Alphis couldn’t be a threat.

“My… How unfortunate.” Lilyxila’s Aparajita chakrams suddenly blinked forward with Shinsen Shukuchi and shot straight at me. They caught me by surprise, but I decided to swerve to the side to avoid them. As an Oneiros, they would’ve hit me, but in my smaller form I could probably dodge out of the way. I flapped my wings and swooped to the side.

It was then that I realized belatedly that one of the chakrams was heading straight for Alphis.

Wh-what…? Is she seriously going to use Alphis as bait and then kill her?

N-no. Enough. I can’t think about that right now. I’ve fought and killed dozens of Lilyxila’s Holy Knights in this battle so far. I can’t let myself go soft now.

Alphis must have been prepared for this to happen. I checked with her, even gave her a chance to run. But she chose to stay.

I had Allo and the others waiting for me. No matter how I felt, I couldn’t afford to stick my neck out for Alphis right now!

At that moment, the memory of what happened in the royal capital came back to me. After Lilyxila betrayed me and I was forced to face off against the Holy Knights, the slime I thought I defeated transformed into the Legendary monster Ruin and went on a rampage through the city. When I faced off against the Holy Knights, I swore to destroy the slime if they healed me. They didn’t trust that I’d stick to my word. Alphis was the one who called off their attack and ordered them to heal me.

Without the trust she showed me back then, the slime’s final rampage would’ve razed Alban to the ground. Not only that, but Beelzebub would’ve found me and killed me before I had the chance to recover. Alphis put aside her intent to stop me and chose to save Alban.

And after the battle with Ruin was over, I heard some strange stories about Alphis from Allo. She told me that Alphis advised her to take my friends and escape from the capital while she still could. Allo refused, and the two ended up fighting each other.

When I first met Alphis, she seemed strangely high-handed, but now I understood why. Unlike Lilyxila, Alphis couldn’t put on airs and smile at someone she knew she’d betray in the end.

I didn’t want Alphis to die if I could help it.

Making a spur-of-the-moment decision, I flew backward—toward the Aparajita chakram—and enlarged my body with Dragon Mirror. The chakram tore into my left shoulder.

I managed to repel the chakram, but it left deep gashes in my shoulder and wing.

“Wh-why…?” Alphis called out to me, stunned.

‹Why? That’s what I should be asking you! Why the hell are you still following the saint? Can’t you see how horrible she is, how she just uses you and tosses you away without a second thought?! I know you let me go to save Alban, and I know you tried to save Allo before you betrayed me! I know you’re not blind to Lilyxila’s actions, and you can think for yourself! So get out of here! Before it’s too late!›

Alphis was frozen atop her zephyr, her sword arm hanging loosely at her side. “I-I…”

Lilyxila was coming closer, four Aparajita swords in her hands. I knew she was planning to come in close and finish me off while my flying abilities were hindered by my torn wing.

“Alphis, your level of usefulness in this conflict has been a happy miscalculation on my part. Forgiving you for your selfish actions turned out to be a blessing for me in the end. Please fly around and stay close!”

Lilyxila…only you would do something as horrible as this!

Ideal Weapon!

At the same time, I used Dragon Mirror to transform my forelegs into arms. My MP was running dangerously low, but the same should have been true for Lilyxila. I’m going to bring the fight to her and beat her at her own game!

Two weapons appeared in my hands: One was the greatshield, the Oneiros Flugel; the other was a blade I’d never seen before.

Oneiros Reisszahn: Value L (Legendary). Attack: +240. A greatsword that glows with a faint bluish-purple light. Made with a fang from the Dream Dragon, who rules over the world of dreams. It is said that whoever is cut by this blade will lose their grip on reality and eventually be drawn into the dream world. Temporarily reduces opponent’s Illusion Resistance.

Lilyxila surged forward with Shinsen Shukuchi and swung her four Aparajita swords at me. I blocked some with my Oneiros Reisszahn and used my Oneiros Flugel to fend off the others. But I was getting weaker by the moment. I simply couldn’t keep up with Lilyxila’s onslaught. I was barely able to move my blade in time to block, and cracks were beginning to appear on my shield’s surface from her relentless sword blows.

I desperately searched for an opening as I fell back, but Lilyxila was moving too fast to get any attacks in. One of her blades would hit me sooner or later. With my left wing still shredded, I was losing altitude with every blow I blocked.

I spotted Alphis flying around near me, following Lilyxila’s instructions. She didn’t respond when I asked her why she was still following the saint. It seemed like she had no intention of listening to me.

Well…fine, then. I guess I’ll kill Alphis too. I wasn’t going to put my life on the line for her sake. Not when Allo and the rest were all counting on me. They put everything at stake and fought this battle with everything they had to survive. I wasn’t going to let myself be killed protecting Alphis. If she was still choosing to point her sword at me, then so be it. I wouldn’t save her the next time she got in the way. The fact that she came here and dared to intervene meant she was prepared to die.

I blocked Lilyxila’s sword with my Oneiros Flugel and used the impact of her blow to launch myself backward. Alphis was getting closer to try and attack, so I wanted to create some distance between us. Pieces of my shield chipped away and tumbled to the ground. Ideal Weapon was a great skill for creating whatever weapon would best suit my current predicament, but its convenience came at a high price…and I was scraping at the bottom of my MP. If I let the Oneiros Flugel shatter completely without taking advantage of it, it would be a waste.

As I fell back, I released another Dimension Claws. But at the same time, Lilyxila turned one of the swords in her hand into a chakram and threw it at me. Her reaction time was far too fast. She probably guessed I’d choose to move away from Alphis.

Just focusing on running away was a mistake. Lilyxila’s tactics weren’t based on emotion or momentum; she based all her decisions on her own advantages to use them to their very fullest. She’d see through any naive intentions I had.

No, I couldn’t just abandon Alphis to her own fate—I was going to have to take her life myself. If I didn’t fight fully prepared to do so, then I’d never win against Lilyxila.

I tried to block the chakram with my chipped Oneiros Flugel, but it hit at a bad angle, sending the impact straight through the shield’s wing and into my body. Along with the Shinsen Shukuchi, Lilyxila timed her chakram throw perfectly to catch up to my movements.

Lilyxila swerved around me with Shinsen Shukuchi, dodging my Dimension Claws as she closed the gap between us. Then she swung her three remaining light swords.

I parried the first with Oneiros Reisszahn, then leapt back to dodge the second. Right when I was certain I couldn’t evade the third…Lilyxila suddenly stopped in midair, her body shuddering violently. That split second was enough time for me to slip out of the sword’s reach.

Lilyxila’s face turned grim. I watched as the light of her three blades began to dim. Guess I’m not the only one reaching my limit.

The constant HP and MP drain from Chakra Awakening was definitely taking a painful toll on her now. She’d been holding herself together with her recovery skills so far, but she wouldn’t be able to keep that up much longer. Lilyxila was finally starting to crack.

Although she’d kept her face blank the entire fight, I could see a twinge of desperation on her features now.

“Am I…going to lose? No. That cannot be!”

Lilyxila created another Aparajita chakram in her empty hand. But as soon as she did, her three other blades became even thinner and dimmer.

All I had left to face Lilyxila was my Oneiros Reisszahn and the bottom half of my Oneiros Flugel. Neither of us had any strength left to spare.

I released another Dimension Claws and swooped in closer to her. My aim wasn’t to attack her; it was to restrict her movements and limit her ability to attack.

I’d come to learn that in order to defend against her Aparajita and Shinsen Shukuchi technique, I needed to push forward and attack myself. With Lilyxila’s Chakra Awakening draining her power, she was going to attack me either way.

A less experienced me wouldn’t have been thinking this far ahead in the middle of a fight. At best, I would’ve come up with some sort of loose plan and modified it as I went along. But against Lilyxila’s thorough, methodical fighting style, I needed to adapt if I was going to keep up.

Lilyxila flew around me, avoiding my Dimension Claws with Shinsen Shukuchi. She obviously wasn’t loving my one-sided attack, but she seemed convinced she’d die immediately if she charged right in to face me. Even though her MP was almost depleted, she fought with the same force of will as always. I couldn’t rely on her getting impatient and making a mistake to save the day.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Alphis moving closer again. This was a bad moment for her to get involved. I’d resolved myself to killing her the next time she interfered, but I knew my conscience would cloud my intent. That was the difference between Lilyxila and me.

The moment my mind wandered, Lilyxila disappeared, catching me off guard with her Shinsen Shukuchi. I whirled around, leapt to the side, and struck out with my Oneiros Reisszahn, but she parried it with one of her light swords. Then she struck with a second sword. I blocked with my Oneiros Flugel and pushed forward toward her.

“Impressive,” she hissed. “Your instincts have sharpened.”

‹Yeah, thanks to you!› The moment I replied, Lilyxila shoved my shield back in a lightning-fast move, then turned her sword into a chakram and shot it straight at me.

The move surprised me a little, but I could avoid it without much effort. Lilyxila’s attempt to distract me with conversation seemed fairly obvious. I was too focused on her for it to work. Beyond that, her chakram throw was linear and easy to dodge.

It was then that I felt a strange sense of foreboding. The chakram’s flight path felt…a little too simple. I realized, dimly, that Alphis was just behind me.

Even so, I dodged. If I’m so focused on keeping Alphis safe, I’ll never beat Lilyxila. I need to be ready to kill her if I need to. Besides…no matter how dire the situation gets for Lilyxila, she’d never kill her loyal retainer. The fact that her chakram almost hit her earlier was just a coincidence. She can’t control all of her chakrams perfectly. Right…?

“Well… It seems you’re far colder than I thought,” Lilyxila taunted.

Behind me, the decisive dying screech of Alphis’s zephyr echoed through the air.

Part 10

NO…WAY…

I glanced behind me, shocked. Sure, Lilyxila was a vicious, coldhearted snake of a woman who’d sever her own emotions and do anything for her own gain. But still, there was no way she’d senselessly kill her retainer—her closest companion—without a second thought. She had nothing to gain from killing Alphis.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the zephyr covered in blood, its torso split in two by the Aparajita chakram, falling down the cliff. Alphis was falling too, in the shadow of the zephyr’s upper body. She was bloody and limp. I stared at her, forgetting about Lilyxila, desperately praying she was safe. She was stained bright red with blood, but her body seemed unharmed. It looked like the zephyr took the brunt of the attack; she only dealt with the aftermath.

Maybe she’s still alive. Maybe I can save her.

But those hopeful thoughts were soon crushed.

Alphis Atelite

Species: Earth-Human

Status: Deceased

Lv: 60/75

HP: 0/364

MP: 48/227

Her status proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt. Alphis was dead.

In monster terms, Alphis’s strength put her at about a rank C+, maybe a rank B– at best. There was no way she could survive even the aftermath of an Aparajita attack from a Legendary rank Holy Naga enhanced by Chakra Awakening.

Lilyxila closed the distance between us and raised her blade of light. Although she’d killed her loyal retainer only moments before, I saw no trace of hesitation in her eyes.

I understood everything then. Lilyxila wasn’t trying to get me to protect Alphis. Her aim was far simpler: She threw that chakram with the intent of getting me to drop my guard, if even only for a moment.

Lilyxila had fully intended to kill Alphis. If she hadn’t killed her with that hit, she would’ve hit her again, and again, until Alphis was dead.

She…really went that far?

Lilyxila’s final blade of light sliced through my stomach. I had Lilyxila on her last leg, and even now, she managed to cut me deep.

I immediately healed myself with Regenerate and parried her next slash with my own blade, fighting to stay conscious. But with my stance thrown off, I was in trouble. Oneiros Reisszahn and Oneiros Flugel were both taking serious damage. At this rate, I’d slip up and give Lilyxila a chance to kill me at any second.

I needed to reset the situation. I gathered all of my remaining power and unleashed another swing of my Oneiros Reisszahn.

Lilyxila quickly crossed two of her light swords and reformed them into a shield to block my blow. Sword and shield pressed against each other, straining for purchase. I thought Lilyxila would be more surprised by my sudden attack, but she responded with calm defense. Her shield of light gradually began to push my sword back. After using Chakra Awakening, she was the one with the advantage in strength.

‹How could you?! She was your loyal retainer! The closest thing you had to a friend! I thought she’d at least be a little important to you!›

“Heh heh…She was always too driven by emotion. It made her useless. At least she had some worth at the very end.”

After our many encounters, I’d finally learned something about Lilyxila: Her words meant nothing. They were said mechanically and with no emotion behind them, for the sole purpose of riling me up. There was no deeper meaning behind them. No matter what she chose to say, there was no point in me responding to her words with emotions.

I desperately tried to hold in my seething rage. I just need to focus on beating her. Alphis is dead. There’s no point in getting worked up now. I can mourn her after the battle is over. I can’t let Lilyxila get to me.

I felt Lilyxila’s strength fail her a little, our pushing match eating up all of her power. She couldn’t keep Chakra Awakening active for much longer.

“Groooooooooooooh!” I roared, swinging my sword with all my might.

“Gah!”Lilyxila’s body was flung backward from the impact.

Her initial attack was already far weaker than before. If she’d done it right after she used Chakra Awakening, she would’ve killed me the moment I got distracted. She really was at her limit.

Then I’ll push forward and attack!

I dove forward and swung my sword up, slicing through her from her snake torso to her opposite human shoulder. Lilyxila threw up an arm to protect her chest, but my blade sliced through her shoulder and waist, along with the muscles of her upper left arm, exposing bone.

Then I swung my sword at her from the side. This time, she pulled her shield of light close and blocked it.

Now that I was on the offensive, I wanted to keep going until she was dead.

‹Gravity!›

“Gravity!”

Two rings of dark light spread from our bodies, overlapping each other and dragging us both down through the air. I swung my sword wildly until I felt it slice through flesh. Did I…hit her? I bore down, cutting even deeper.

But then, my body exploded with pain. My vision flickered as I was flung back. It felt like a ball of molten metal had collided with my chest. I could feel my scales melting, the flesh underneath burning.

My back slammed into the cliff wall. Dimly, I saw Lilyxila, covered in blood and carrying a giant hammer made of light. It seemed like she realized both of our defenses were slipping and chose to transform her sword and shield into a hammer to land a single massive blow.

I was almost out of HP. Even a light blow would be enough to kill me now. I tried to heal but realized with a sinking feeling that I didn’t have enough MP left.

“Finally…your enormous MP pool is depleted. I’ll finish this nice and quick,” Lilyxila said, her eyes boring holes into me as her mouth twisted into a smile. There was no trace of composure on her features. She simply seemed relieved that she’d done more damage than I had.

I looked down toward the bottom of the cliff, where Alphis had disappeared.

‹Lilyxila… I can’t let you live.›

Lilyxila transformed her hammer into four more blades of light and twisted her long snake body to fly through the air toward me. I readied my battered Oneiros Reisszahn and Oneiros Flugel. It would be nice to repair them with Ideal Weapon, but I couldn’t waste the last of my MP on that. As long as they were still functional, I’d still use them. We were both on the last dregs of our MP; whatever skills we chose to use would be the difference between victory and defeat.

Let’s see… Dark-Dispelling Flash would be too slow. It could avoid all her resistances to deal a lot of damage, but I doubt it’d hit. Dimension Claws is good for keeping her in check but not for dealing a decisive blow. Using Gravity to restrict her movement isn’t a bad idea, but she’d probably just counter with her own Gravity again. I don’t have enough MP for Hell Gate, and Wormhole is only useful in specific situations… Hmm…

Maybe Illusion? It wouldn’t usually work on her, but my sword has a special ability…

Oneiros Reisszahn: Value L (Legendary). Attack: +240. A greatsword that glows with a faint bluish-purple light. Made with a fang from the Dream Dragon, who rules over the world of dreams. It is said that whoever is cut by this blade will lose their grip on reality and eventually be drawn into the dream world. Temporarily reduces opponent’s Illusion Resistance.

Yeah…that could work. I’d already cut her multiple times, so her Illusion Resistance was reduced.

The question is…what kind of illusion should I show her? Lilyxila would see through anything too big and obvious. Any inconsistencies between the Illusion images and reality would feel strange and wrong; Lilyxila wouldn’t disregard that feeling. On top of that, she was also a pro at predicting my actions. She’d likely already checked out the effects of my Oneiros Reisszahn. Even if I could temporarily confuse her, the illusion would break as soon as she realized what it was.

Can I really outsmart her…? Maybe I should forget about Illusion and stick to boxing her in with Dimension Claws or Gravity instead?

Lilyxila’s swords were getting closer. No time to deliberate. I decided to fight with Illusion.

Illusion wasn’t the only type of illusion I could inflict on Lilyxila. I hadn’t relied on the other much so far, but if I used them in tandem, it might be difficult for her to identify them both. After she’d spotted one, she’d be much less wary of a second.

It would take a fair amount of luck to succeed, but this was the best plan I had. There were no strategies that could definitely secure a win for me. If such a thing existed, neither I nor Lilyxila would have been fighting so fiercely all this time.

I parried the first blade of light with my greatshield and countered with my sword, slashing at Lilyxila’s stomach. Blood gushed from her mouth. In order to make it easier for Illusion to hit her, I needed to weaken her even more.

“You make it too easy,” Lilyxila smiled as two of her blades came down on me from either side. They slashed through me, spurting blood. D-did she completely abandon her defenses to commit herself to attacking?!

So far, Lilyxila’s attacks had been safe and calculated. That was why this counterattack felt so unlike her.

Is she really in that much of a hurry to finish this fight up? Maybe she’s closer to her limit than I thought…

Whether she was or wasn’t, Lilyxila’s counterattack gave me the room to return the favor.

“Groooooooooh!” I roared and swung my sword at her.

Lilyxila tried to evade by ducking underneath me, but my blade landed across her chest in a decent slice. One of her arms was severed from her shoulder and toppled into the abyss beneath us, the blade of light still clutched in its palm.

Despite the serious injury, Lilyxila darted past me and slashed at my side. Blue blood spattered through the air, and I clung to my fading consciousness with all my strength. I’m fine. I still have some HP left. Lilyxila is almost dead too. I just need to get through this and use Illusion so I can land one last decisive blow!

Lilyxila twirled in the air and swung back toward me. Her actions were far more aggressive now than earlier; the HP loss from Chakra Awakening was no doubt catching up to her.

Is she…trying to make sure I have no time to think? No, wait. What if she’s purposely inviting me to counterattack to lower her Illusion Resistance? That wouldn’t make much sense in this situation, but I wouldn’t put it past her if she’s confident she can see through my Illusion.

Is Illusion really my best bet here? No, I can’t hesitate now. Lilyxila’s at her wit’s end too. She wouldn’t have thought that far ahead. And holding back out of fear could cost me my life.

This clash will decide our fates!

I activated Illusion as Lilyxila swooped toward me to push my hand in front of me, making it look like my sword was closer than it really was. That was all I needed. If Lilyxila fell for it, I could cut her down as she moved to dodge.

But Lilyxila’s eyes weren’t following my illusion at all. She must have predicted that I’d use Illusion to throw her off.

Did I make it too easy? Or did I time it wrong? I couldn’t think of any way to use Illusion that would be subtle yet effective enough to work. Crap. Maybe Illusion wasn’t the right move after all. Illusions became much less valuable when their time of use and scale were so restricted.

Lilyxila’s multiple arms gave her a huge advantage in a head-on clash. My HP and MP were closer to being depleted than hers.

No… It’s not over yet. I’ve still got one last Illusion to throw at her.

I raised my Oneiros Flugel.

Oneiros Flugel: Value L (Legendary). Defense: 3,000. A greatshield that glows with a faint bluish-purple light. Made with the wings of the Dream Dragon, who rules over the world of dreams. Said to have been used as a gateway between the human and divine worlds. Impervious to superficial attacks. Any who dare to approach it are deceived by illusions.

This time, I’ll rely on the illusory effects of Oneiros Flugel!

By relying on an object rather than my own thoughts, the timing of the illusion and its effects were completely out of my control. Lilyxila could no longer predict it and act accordingly.

“N-no… It can’t be…” Lilyxila’s eyes opened wide, and her three swords dropped. Her expression was one I’d never seen on her before; different from both the expressionless face she wore in battle or the cheerful mask I witnessed on the Island at the Edge of the World. Perhaps this was the one time I finally saw her true expression. Lilyxila’s eyes seemed to be swimming with tears.

I threw the Oneiros Flugel straight at Lilyxila. She immediately readied her blades and sliced the shield in two.

As she did, I swooped in to attack her with a wide swing of my Oneiros Reisszahn. I felt my blade hit flesh.

Lilyxila’s wings went still. The three swords of light fell from her hands. This was no act. She didn’t have enough MP to resummon her Aparajita weapons—Lilyxila was defenseless.

As her wings stilled, Lilyxila’s limp body began to fall to bottom of the cliff.

Part 11

EVEN SO, I didn’t receive an experience-point-gain message.

For a few moments, I just floated in place with my Oneiros Reisszahn raised, watching Lilyxila’s form tumble down the cliff.

I dropped my blade. It fell for a few moments, then began to dissolve into light that disappeared in the air. Then I ended Dragon Mirror, changing my humanoid arms back into forelegs.

A loud thud echoed from the bottom of the cliff: the sound of Lilyxila hitting the ground below. When I heard it, I finally breathed a sigh of relief.

I did it.

I couldn’t let Lilyxila slip away after coming this far. I needed to avenge Partner and bring back the peaceful life I had before getting involved with her.

Gained Sacred Skill “Preta Realm Path” Lv —.

Gained Sacred Skill “Beast Realm Path” Lv —.

Messages appeared in my head, telling me I’d acquired the Sacred Skills of the saint and the Beast King. With them, I now possessed all known Sacred Skills.

But…what exactly does that mean for me? And if I have her Sacred Skills, does that confirm that I’ve beaten Lilyxila?

According to what the Divine Voice said to me before, Sacred Skills only changed hands when Laplace decided that a death was confirmed. Illusia the Hero was killed by Adoff right after I gained his Sacred Skill. The slime Demon King managed to slip away thanks to his henchman Samael, but it could be said that his death was a given at that point; he evolved into the Legendary class Ruin, which had the Collapsing God status effect that always led to certain death.

But losing her Sacred Skills didn’t mean Lilyxila was completely out of the running yet. I’d learned that the hard way with the slime. There was always a chance she’d find a way to make a comeback. I couldn’t take the Divine Voice’s word as gospel. I didn’t even know what Laplace itself was, aside from the fact that it was some kind of power used by the Divine Voice.

Special Skill “Divine Voice” Lv 7 has become Lv 8.

Title Skill “Laplace Authority Interference” Lv 4 has become Lv 7.

Messages continued to pass through my brain.

Hmm… Got a couple of weird level ups this time. Hopefully that’s not a sign I’m about to get wrapped up in anything strange.

I used the MP I’d regained automatically to cast Hi-Rest on myself, then flew down to the bottom of the cliff as I healed. Still, no experience-point-gain message showed up. This battle wouldn’t end until one of us killed the other.

Partner… I can finally get revenge on her for what she did to you.

I landed at the base of the cliff. My Psychic Sense identified Lilyxila’s form at once. She lay on her back in a pool of blood, her body bent at unnatural angles from the long fall. There was no trace of life in her face.

The wound I’d left on her stomach still oozed blood. She hadn’t healed yet. Her body was shredded to pieces, skin darkening to grayish-black as I watched, probably from losing her Sacred Skill. Based on my experiences with evolution and the slime, it seemed like Sacred Skills were what allowed their holders to evolve into a higher-rank being and maintain that form.

So that means…when someone loses their Sacred Skill, they can’t maintain their evolved forms anymore. The Hero Illusia’s max levels dropped dramatically when he lost his Sacred Skill, and the Demon King slime became a deteriorated form with pitiful stats and was forced to evolve with the Collapsing God status condition that doomed him to death.

‹Well, it doesn’t look like you’ll be able to put up a fight anymore.› I called out to Lilyxila with Telepathy.

Only Lilyxila’s eyes moved to meet mine. Then they flicked back up to the sky beyond the chasm above us. “Ahh…”She breathed out a raspy sigh. “I see. I’ve…lost, haven’t I?” She said it like she was talking about someone else. “I knew…about the shield’s illusory qualities. But to think I would fall…for such a petulant trick…”

‹…What did you see?›

I was planning to kill her immediately, but my paws were only half raised. I needed to kill her, but I wanted to know. Was it because my victory was clear as day that I felt so calm in the face of my most hated enemy, Saint Lilyxila? Or perhaps the scale of our battle had grown so large that I had all of this pent-up resentment toward the idea of Lilyxila that I’d constructed inside my mind, rather than Lilyxila herself? Her betrayal had been abrupt and unexpected, and left me with no knowledge of her aims. Suddenly, we’d become bitter enemies. And I just went along with it without question.

Lilyxila was silent for a moment. Then her lips parted. “I was…not expecting to have to kill her twice.”

Alphis.

The Oneiros Flugel showed her a vision of her loyal retainer. At the time, I didn’t know what it could’ve shown her that made her lower her sword, but it made sense. Lilyxila was cool and calculated at the beginning of our fight, but she’d started to lose her composure toward the end. I thought it was because of the time constraints of Chakra Awakening’s stat drain, but that didn’t quite explain it. It even made me suspect that she intended to act dead and attack while I was defenseless.

Looking back now, it was clear to me that Lilyxila had begun to fall apart right when Alphis arrived. It was even more pronounced after she killed her. Without Alphis’s intrusion, I would’ve never been able to land that many hits against Lilyxila.

‹If she was that important to you, then why bring her here, of all places?!›

“Alphis is a brilliant human and, above all, a brilliant knight. She lived as she so chose. She was prepared for an outcome like this.”

‹But that doesn’t mean—›

“I have sacrificed countless lives in pursuit of my gains. How can I treat her life as different, simply because she was special to me? No life is more precious than the rest.”

Lilyxila’s words stunned me. I let my brain digest them for a few moments, then lowered my raised paw a little.

‹I…I see,› I replied weakly.

A few moments passed in silence. Then I spoke again.

‹Why, Lilyxila? Why are you doing all this? And what’s with the whole Sacred Skills and Divine Voice thing?› I asked.

Here, at the very end, I wanted the truth from Lilyxila. As far as I knew, I was the strongest monster in this world. I wanted to know whether I’d be getting a message from the Divine Voice itself again anytime soon, and I felt like Lilyxila might be able to give me some answers.

‹Is the Divine Voice’s true identity the Evil God, Fallen?› Fallen was a mysterious monster I’d found inscribed in some ruins on the island with Eldia. Eldia said the Demon King told him a story about the Evil God, Fallen, who once tried to end the world. It felt like a fairly believable explanation for all this.

“No. It is…likely the last living Creator.”

‹The last Creator?› Was she talking about the six Great Sages from Fallen’s story who created this world by combining their six different worlds together?

“You are the last of the four. I expect…it will explain everything to you, whether you like it or not. There is nothing more I can tell you myself.”

‹But…›

“From the very beginning, the odds were…overwhelmingly in its favor.”

‹Wait, Lilyxila. Were you…really planning on cooperating with me at first?› When we first met on the Island at the Edge of the World, Lilyxila mentioned that there was a sacred crypt back in Lialum that she wanted to take me to because she thought it would clear up any misgivings. That felt like a weirdly specific offer to just be used as bait to get me to trust her. Whatever was in that crypt, it probably had something to do with the Divine Voice. It felt naive to think that the inscriptions in the ruins on Eldia’s island were the only such traces of proof of the Divine Voice and the six Great Sages.

“It was just that it was possible at the time. Even then, I was already considering betraying you,” Lilyxila answered with a long, lonely look. “But that…is past now. You should kill me quickly and rejoin your friends. Of the humans without Sacred Skills, Howgley and Aluanne number among the strongest. If you don’t hurry, they may kill someone before you return.”

I sucked in a breath at Lilyxila’s words. She was right. I didn’t have all day to spend chatting with my sworn enemy.

But…can I really kill Lilyxila like this? Do I really want to? Before our fight began, the question would have never even crossed my mind. The bitterness of losing Partner clouded my view of who Lilyxila truly was.

‹Am I…supposed to oppose the Divine Voice?› I asked.

“You cannot oppose it,” Lilyxila declared without hesitation. “The Divine Voice is a supreme being, one befitting the title of a God. Countless humans and monsters with Sacred Skills have tried to kill it in the past. But it does not fear its own life being taken.” But what she said contradicted the words of Mia the Hero, who was convinced the Divine Voice could be defeated.

“You must…confront it. And it will be a long, terrible trial for a gentle soul like yourself.”

Confront the Divine Voice…? But Lilyxila just said there’s no opposing it…

I thought for a moment, then reached out to offer Lilyxila my paw.

“Wh-what are you…”

‹Join me, Lilyxila. I don’t know anything about the Divine Voice, and I don’t have the smarts to confront it on my own.›

Lilyxila’s mouth opened slightly in surprise. Then her eyes crinkled as she giggled like a girl her age. “It’s a little too late for that, I’m afraid! There are far too many things for me to take responsibility for now. Besides, you will know all that I know before too long. You are no fool. I cannot tell you how many times you have caught me off guard during this battle.”

‹But…!›

“I know. But if it’s…an explanation you’re after, it will have to wait until later. I will not last…long enough to explain it all.”

She was right, of course. Allo and the others could still be fighting, dying, even if the war was over. I needed to go and back them up. I couldn’t find it in myself to kill Lilyxila here. But if I left her alive, she might escape and slip away to start another war with me later. Even after all this time, I still didn’t know a single thing about Lilyxila.

“May I…ask something selfish of you?” Lilyxila rasped.

‹What?›

“Alphis. Please bring her…to my side.”

I nodded silently.

Only dim light shone down from the top of the cliff, making it hard to see at the bottom, but I had a decent idea of where Alphis fell. She’d fallen with her zephyr, so she couldn’t be too hard to spot. I jumped into the air and scanned the area.

Like I thought, it only took a few moments to locate Alphis. Miraculously, the zephyr took a majority of the fall. Her body rested on top of it, relatively intact. I carefully picked her up and returned to Lilyxila, then set her on the ground beside her.

Lilyxila turned her head to look at Alphis. Tears spilled from her eyes. “…I’m so sorry, Alphis.” She put a hand on Alphis’s cheek.

I wanted to believe that Lilyxila’s tears and gentle embraces were genuine. That the girl in front of me truly mourned the death of her closest companion.

‹Maybe…I’m a fool for doing so, but I’m going to trust you one last time. So stay right there and don’t move. I’ll be back after I stop the fight.›

By the time I stopped the fight, gathered Allo and the others, and returned here, Lilyxila would definitely auto-recover to a certain degree. If she wanted to run, she could probably escape.

She no longer had any Sacred Skills, or any forces left in the world powerful enough to face me. But even so, I knew I probably shouldn’t be doing this. If she betrayed me now, I’d never be able to face Allo or the others…or Partner.

“You really are a big softie, aren’t you? You and Alphis were more alike than you think,” Lilyxila murmured, then tilted her face slightly toward me. “Do not…let everything go its way. You are valuable to it now. Use that to your advantage.”

I met Lilyxila’s gaze and gave her a small nod. I didn’t know what the Divine Voice had in store for me, but the fact that Lilyxila chose to tell me now meant it had to be important.

Then I turned my back on Lilyxila and took off from the ground, flying back up to the edge of the cliff. But soon after the base of the canyon disappeared from sight, I sensed a surge in Lilyxila’s magic from behind me.

I panicked. No… She lied! She lied to me yet again, and I fell for it! I immediately turned back to rush down the cliff again. But before I reached the edge, I saw a dim black light flash from below the cliff. Was that…Gravirion?

Gravirion was Lilyxila’s strongest gravity skill. It created a cube that compressed everything inside it, so powerful that it once brought Eldia to the brink of death.

Wh-what?! What is she…?!

Then the squelching sound of flesh compacting in on itself echoed from the bottom of the cliff.

Gained 59,250 Experience Points.

Title Skill “Walking Egg” Lv — activated: gained 59,250 Experience Points.

Oneiros Lv 109 has become Lv 124.

I stood at the edge of the cliff for a few moments, looking down at the bottom of the canyon. But then I turned back and flew off in search of Allo and the others.

‹Lilyxila… Are you trying to fool me again?› I sent the telepathic message out into the empty air as I flew.

But naturally, no response came.

Chapter 3:
Conversation with the Divine Voice

Part 1

AFTER MY BATTLE with Lilyxila reached its grim conclusion, I soared through the foggy landscape in search of my friends. Atlach-Nacha’s mini spider clones had all flown off while I was fighting. I had no way of knowing whether she was still alive or not.

That worry stretched to everyone. Who should I go after? Who needs my help the most? They’re all fighting for their lives against Howgley and Aluanne.

“Kssshh kshh!” All of a sudden, the familiar cries of the black lizard echoed through the air. When I turned to face the sound, I spotted it flying toward me. It looked like it was looking for the others too.

When its eyes met mine, they lit up at once. The black lizard swooped toward me. “Kshhii!”

I caught it against my chest and gently patted it on the head. ‹Glad to see you’re okay, Black Lizard!› It nuzzled its head against my paw. ‹Do you know where any of the others are?›

The black lizard nodded, then slipped out of my paws and headed toward the ground. I followed.

It led me to a strange clearing in the middle of the forest littered with tree stumps and debris. And not just trees—the ground, too, was marred with slashes from countless powerful sword strikes. A serious battle had happened here.

At the center of the sword-scarred clearing knelt a bloodstained and battered Volk. Grandpa Magiatite was slumped a short distance away. And in front of Volk, the figure of a little old man lay still, a large hole torn through his body. It was Howgley the Glutton, and he was very clearly dead.

I landed next to Volk and Grandpa Magiatite.

“Illusia!” Volk leapt to his feet. “You’re all right!”

‹Welcome back!› Grandpa Magiatite said. ‹Is it over? Have we finally seen the end of that saint?›

I nodded. Lilyxila’s final moments had left me with some complicated thoughts, and there was still a lot of uncertainty about the Divine Voice circling in my head. But for now, I was just happy to see my friends were safe.

‹Volk! Grandpa Magiatite! Am I glad to see you two alive and well!› I looked over at Howgley again. ‹And you even managed to make it out of that fight with Howgley in one piece!›

I looked around at the shredded landscape. Did this really all happen during the fight between two human swordsmen? It looked more like the scene of a battle between a thousand soldiers.

‹So is all this…the aftermath of your fight?› I asked Volk.

He lowered his head to gaze at Howgley’s corpse. “It…was not my doing. Howgley’s blade flew fiercely.”

‹W-wow. Sounds like a hard-won fight.›

Howgley really was a ferocious man. As an Oneiros, I’d thought I was strong enough to handle any normal human opponent. The fact that Howgley had managed to slice and dice me up so easily was shocking to me. I still had no grasp of the true nature of his supernatural strength and abilities.

“Anise Howgley… Legends tend to exaggerate the truth, but this man was far more terrifying than all of the tales I’d heard of him. I suppose those who heard the truth found it even more difficult to believe than the legends. He clearly seemed capable of seeing things that no ordinary human could.”

He must’ve been impressive for Volk the Dragonslayer to give him such high praise.I swallowed.

“He also…mentioned something that has tugged at my mind since. You said you were likely being watched by the Divine Voice, yes? It seems Lilyxila received some unsavory information about that Divine Voice. She let some of it slip to Howgley as well.”

‹Howgley knew something about it? What’d he say?›

“Nothing specific, I’m afraid. But it seemed like Lilyxila’s aim was to stop the Divine Voice in some way.”

I knew it. So the stuff she was saying about needing to confront the Divine Voice was the real deal.

In light of everything I’d learned so far, it seemed like the Divine Voice was creating and nurturing beings with Sacred Skills in order to pit them against each other for some higher purpose. Maybe by facing the Divine Voice, Lilyxila was telling me to do as little as I could to help its plans succeed?

Still, the Divine Voice’s silence was starting to nag at me. It was all too ready to chime in when I defeated the Demon King slime. So where was it now?

I now possessed four Sacred Skills: Illusia the Hero’s Human Realm Path, the Demon King slime’s Demi-God Realm Path, Beelzebub’s Beast Realm Path, and Lilyxila’s Preta Realm Path. If the Sacred Skills were in line with the six realms, then there should be two left: the Heaven Realm Path and the Hell Realm Path. But I’d never heard anything about the existence of two more Sacred Skills. Now that I’d collected those four, I assumed the Divine Voice would jump back into action and get in touch with me. Lilyxila seemed to think so too.

I mean, if it doesn’t show up again, then good riddance. But that’s probably just wishful thinking…

Either way, I’d cross that bridge when I got to it.Right now, my top priority was to look for Allo, Treant, and Atlach-Nacha. Aluanne could still be alive, and there was no telling what she might have done to the others.

‹All right. Volk, Grandpa Magiatite, Black Lizard, hop on my back. I still don’t know if Allo and the others are safe. I want us to find them as soon as we can.›

“Understood.” Volk nodded.

The trio hopped on my back, and I took to the skies once more.

We’d been flying for a few minutes when Volk tapped my back. “Illusia, is that…?”

‹Hm? What is it? I can’t see any…› I turned my head to look in the direction Volk was pointing. In the distance, I spotted an unnaturally large tree towering above the rest of the forest. Then, its trunk began to spin around, and I spotted a familiar face.

Oh! It’s Treant!

When Treant saw me, its massive form bounced with joy. We were still too far away to communicate with Telepathy, but it was easy to imagine its delighted shrieks of ‹Master! Master!!›

“Ksshii…!” The black lizard hissed in alarm.

‹Wh-what the heck are you doing, Treant?! Every monster and soldier left in the area will see you and attack!› All the same, I was glad to see Treant safe. And its chipper attitude meant it must have successfully rescued Atlach-Nacha, and that Allo was safe too. Treant would never be that cheerful if one of its friends had just died.

“Ah… We should make haste, Illusia,” Volk urged.

‹Huh?› I looked back at Treant and saw five fenrirs rushing straight at it. ‹Ugh! I knew it!›

I beat my wings and shot through the air at top speed. Treant, having noticed the fenrirs bearing down on it, rose to its root legs and took off running in the opposite direction. As I got closer, its cries started filtering into my mind.

‹Why?! Why did this have to happen now?!›

Because you decided to cause a small earthquake with your bouncing, in the middle of this forest crawling with powerful monsters, even though you’re almost out of HP?

I landed between Treant and the pursuing fenrirs.

‹Master…!› Treant stretched out its trunk and wiggled it in delight.

I swung my paw at the ground, leaving a giant gouge. ‹What’ll it be, fenrirs? I’m pretty tired right now, but if you insist, come at me.› I narrowed my eyes at the fenrirs. In unison, they lowered their heads in fear and disappeared back into the trees.

I let out the breath I’d been holding. Sure, I could defeat them if I tried, but I was glad they’d decided to leave Treant alone. I didn’t have a whole lot of HP or MP to spare on another fight.

‹Masteeeer! Thank goodness! Thank goodness you’re all right!› Treant charged toward me.

‹Hey, uh…mind swapping to your tree spirit state for the time being first?›

‹Ah… Right. Of course.› Treant paused, then shrank into its green, penguin-like spirit form with Tree Spirit Transformation.

There. Now we won’t attract every monster in a hundred-meter radius.

‹Where’s Allo and—› As I spoke, Allo peeked out from behind a nearby mound of clay. The moment our eyes met, her face lit up.

“M-Master Dragon! Atlach-Nacha, look! It’s Master Dragon! He’s back!”

A moment later, Atlach-Nacha appeared behind Allo.

‹A-Atlach-Nacha!›

Treant’s demeanor had assured me the other two were safe, but still, seeing them with my own two eyes brought a wave of relief.

Thank goodness… I’m so glad we didn’t lose anyone.

“You…killed Lilyxila?” Atlach-Nacha called out.

I nodded slowly. ‹Yeah… I did. I killed Lilyxila.›

Atlach-Nacha’s face fell, as if she sensed something from my expression. “I…see.”

Allo touched my paw, then leaned against me and looked up into my eyes. She looked worried. “Master Dragon, have you…heard from your Divine Voice?”

I shook my head. ‹I thought it would’ve said something by now, but it hasn’t contacted me.› Had something unexpected happened to it? The fact that it still hadn’t said anything to me yet was weird.

‹Why don’t we head up the mountain?› I suggested. ‹We should let Umukahime know what the situation is down here.›

“You wish to meet with her again?” asked Volk. “Her help was invaluable in our fight with Lilyxila, but is it truly wise to reconvene with her now? You said that she wanted you to fight the being you call the Divine Voice. If you met with her now, wouldn’t you be making an enemy of the Divine Voice?”

‹Yeah, you’re right, but…the Divine Voice seems like it’ll be interested in me either way. And it’s not like I’ll just be able to avoid it for the rest of my life. With that in mind, I think we’re better off getting Umukahime’s knowledge and help.›

“A fair point… Well, I suppose if she decides to turn on us and attack for some reason, our victory is assured. She wouldn’t do much damage.”

Umukahime? Turn on us? If something went horribly wrong, and she turned hostile, I’d have to kill her. The thought hadn’t crossed my mind until Volk pointed it out. But he was right. There was no guarantee that Umukahime and I wouldn’t have differing views on what we should do from here. She seemed the type to take extreme measures if necessary.

Lilyxila had said that the Divine Voice was some sort of supreme being I’d never be strong enough to oppose. Umukahime, on the other hand, seemed intent on killing it. Her former master, Mia the Hero, wrote that it shouldn’t be impossible to destroy it somehow.

But…to be honest, when I read Mia’s inscription on the stone tablet, it felt like she’d harbored a deep grudge against the Divine Voice and challenged it recklessly. Was there really any hope of me standing a chance opposing it?

Mia and Umukahime both seemed dead set on vanquishing the Divine Voice. If I chose to back out of the fight, I could probably expect some serious backlash from her.

Part 2

MY FRIENDS AND I decided to rest for the night. If we met up with Umukahime now, when we were this exhausted, we’d be in trouble if we found ourselves in a fight.

I didn’t want to fight her if we didn’t have to. But as long as it was a possibility, I had to be prepared. Plus, there was a chance that regrouping with Umukahime would trigger the Divine Voice into showing up and meddling somehow.

I chatted with Allo and Black Lizard for a little while, then went to bask in the sunlight with Treant. Later, when Allo and I took a stroll down the beach, we found Atlach-Nacha fishing with her spider webs. We fashioned some poles and joined her, fishing side by side.

When dusk fell, we returned to the waterfall cave. Volk asked if I’d like to practice some swordplay with him, and I readily agreed. I used Human Transformation so I could wield my weapons without any restrictions. Volk seemed particularly interested in my Ideal Weapon skill.

The two of us sparred for a while as Allo and the others looked on. Naturally, with the gap in our stats, I usually came out the clear winner, but Volk’s moves seemed to get sharper and sharper with every round. I didn’t know much about swords, but even to me it seemed like his sword skills had improved after his battle with Howgley.

“You truly are strong, Illusia,” Volk said, lying on his back in the grassy field with a satisfied look on his face. “As expected, of course. Even with your strength reduced in human form, it is still boundless.”

He’d managed to strong-arm me into a total of twenty sparring matches against him. I’m sure I’ll be fine, but is Volk going to be properly well rested tomorrow? I mean, he just fought Howgley today too…

Volk was the truly boundless one here. Despite the advantage his swordsmanship skills gave him, I still didn’t think he’d get a leg up on me. But if he kept improving this fast, maybe one day he’ll be as much of a force to be reckoned with as Howgley…

Part 3

I OPENED MY EYES to sunlight filtering into the waterfall cave. When I looked to my side, I saw Allo lying there, staring at me.

“Ah! Good morning, Master Dragon!” she chirped, smiling wide.

H-how long has she been watching me sleep?

I’d planned to just doze for a little while, but it seemed like I fell into a pretty deep sleep. The stress of the past few days must have finally caught up to me. I’d been on edge ever since I defeated the slime, had Lilyxila turn against me, and lost Partner, so it was no wonder.

But it’s still not over yet.

Lilyxila’s betrayal, the slime’s two appearances, and the corrupt hero I fought in Harunae Desert—the Divine Voice might be the culprit behind them all. And not just that; I could only assume it had something to do with why I came to this world in the first place.

I still didn’t know anything. But until I settled things with the Divine Voice, I wouldn’t feel like I’d truly avenged Partner.

I wasn’t sure if I even stood a chance fighting the Divine Voice. But even so, I needed to know more about it and find a way to settle things—peacefully or not. Now that I possessed all the known Sacred Skills, it would almost definitely reach out to me eventually, regardless of whether I reached out or not. It wasn’t like I could just ignore Umukahime and live out the rest of my life on this island in peace.

After everyone else woke up naturally and ate a breakfast of dried fenrir meat, I called them to the mouth of the waterfall cave.

‹I’ve decided to go meet with Umukahime to talk about the Divine Voice. She’ll probably urge us to fight it. As for whether or not I’ll agree to it…I haven’t decided yet. Worst-case scenario, our negotiations break down and we’ll be forced to fight her.›

The last hero, Mia, had thought she could defeat the Divine Voice, and she was wrong. I didn’t think the Divine Voice was scared of me at all either. If it was, it could’ve just stopped helping me get stronger.

And Lilyxila—who knew much more about the Divine Voice than I did, and likely pondered the same dilemma—had also made it clear that I shouldn’t try to openly fight it.

I hate to say it, but…I kinda get the impression Mia and Umukahime only operated under the assumption that the Divine Voice can be killed because they hated it so much.

I could see why. According to the inscription she left on the stone tablet, Mia’s inability to see the Divine Voice for the entity it truly was led to the destruction of her homeland, the Harunae Empire. She seemed to regret the fact that even after Noah’s curse turned her into an undead, she couldn’t resist the Divine Voice’s guidance and ended up embroiling the entire world in a war against Saint Lumira. No wonder she dedicated her life to stopping it after that.

But as for me…I don’t think we should call an all-out war. Maybe Lilyxila told me to confront it without fighting it to try and avoid another tragedy like Mia’s. If I’m now the Divine Voice’s primary target, then I’ll probably have to follow its suggestions to some extent. Maybe I can try and convince it to avoid doing any unnecessary damage…?

Either way, I knew one thing for certain: The Divine Voice was an irredeemably cruel and horrible being. If the same entity that had spoken to me was also the one guiding Mia, then it was the same one that had been fanning the flames of war all over the world for hundreds, even thousands of years—perhaps even longer. The Divine Voice’s scope was far greater than I could even comprehend.

‹I really have no idea what’s going to happen to us from now on. I may get caught up fighting an unwinnable battle. But I think it’s my duty to settle things with the Divine Voice. If any of you want out now, I’ll take you wherever you want to go.› I glanced over at Volk and Grandpa Magiatite. Volk was human, and Grandpa Magiatite had only chosen to follow me to settle his score with the slime. I wouldn’t blame either of them for tapping out now.

Volk noticed my look and returned it without hesitation. “I intend to accompany you to the very end, Illusia. I have already vanquished my ultimate target—Howgley. If there is a new, more powerful enemy to set my sights on, then I would want for nothing more. Besides, if we parted here, I could never hope to be powerful enough to be your match one day.”

I bowed my head. I couldn’t count the number of ways Volk had aided me in this battle against Lilyxila. His help was invaluable.

His expression clouded over a little.

‹Volk…?›

“In addition, Howgley seemed to harbor his own opinions about the entity we call the Divine Voice. I fought him with only my own intentions in mind, and I do not believe I am obligated to carry out the will of the man I defeated…but all the same, I wish to know for whom Howgley swung his blade.”

Something about his battle with Howgley seemed to be nagging at Volk’s thoughts. The way Howgley fought was unlike any swordsman I’d ever seen before. Somehow, he seemed to see the world differently than we did. Like Volk, I wanted to know why he chose to lend his blade to Lilyxila and what he hoped to accomplish by doing so.

‹And I have come this far. I, too, wish to see this journey out to the very end,› Grandpa Magiatite said with a sage nod.

‹…Thank you. Both of you.›

Well, I guess I should go see Umukahime now, huh? As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I spotted Treant in its tree spirit state, with its arms crossed and its head tilted to the side.

‹I-I have stuck with you this far, but…›

“What? Treant, are you…” Allo looked at Treant, disappointment etched in her eyes.

Treant flinched, its branches quivering. ‹N…n-no, I’m not saying I want to run away!› It flapped its wings furiously in protest. ‹I just…don’t know if someone like me will be any use to you…›

Allo giggled at the sight, and her face softened. “I understand. But your kindness is your strength, Treant. You were brave enough to go after Aluanne, even though you were sure you’d never be able to beat her, and you rescued Atlach-Nacha all by yourself. You were really worried about us, weren’t you?”

‹M-Miss Allo…!› Treant’s eyes filled with tears.

My friends had already relayed the story to me. After Allo lost to Aluanne, Treant went after her by itself to rescue Atlach-Nacha and defeat her. I had no clue how Treant managed to take down an A-class monster on its own; Treant itself seemed just as surprised.

But the best thing about Treant wasn’t that it was strong enough to beat Aluanne, it was that it cared so much about our friends that it found the courage to challenge Aluanne for Atlach-Nacha’s sake even though it knew it had so little chance of coming out on top.

‹W-well, yes… But, to be honest, I am a little scared. Just a little.›

“Oh, Treant…” Allo sighed, closing her eyes.

‹Y’know, Treant…if you’re that scared, you could just wait for me in the forest with the Lithovar tribe.›

‹I-It is all right, Master!› Treant hastily flapped its wings in protest once more. ‹A simple falter in my resolve, that’s all! I…I don’t want to be left behind while you all go off to fight again!›

Part 4

I MADE MY WAY up the mountain path with Allo and the others in tow. We passed the area where we’d encountered Umukahime the first time, but she was nowhere to be found. I figured she might be higher up, so we continued toward the mountain’s peak, where I’d fought the Clay Hero.

As we entered the clearing at the peak, I spotted the large stone tablet that bore Mia the Hero’s inscription through the fog. The clearing was in shambles after my battle with the Clay Hero—the tablet was knocked to the ground, and all the flowers dotting the landscape had been destroyed. But the rubble had been cleared out, and the tablet now stood upright in its original position. Did Umukahime tidy up after our fight?

The flowers hadn’t returned yet, of course, but grass was beginning to sprout again. Maybe the plants here were a bit heartier than most…

I scanned the area, looking for any signs of Umukahime.

“I assume the battle has reached its conclusion?”

The air nearby rippled, and a dark-haired woman dressed in a kimono appeared out of nowhere. It was Umukahime.

Allo and the black lizard stepped in front of me and glared at her. I figured they still harbored some resentment against her for stopping them from coming to help when I was fighting the Clay Hero. Treant hid behind Allo, shadowboxing an imaginary Umukahime with its wings.

Treant, you don’t have to be here if you’re scared, y’know…

Umukahime gave Treant a long look of dismay but soon turned her attention back to me. “It is a relief to see that you have defeated the fanatical saint.”

‹Honestly…Lilyxila didn’t seem like much of a blind fanatic.›

Her eyes narrowed. “That does not change the fact that she chose to yield to the Divine Voice, rather than defy it. And that is all that matters.” I knew it. Umukahime was dead set on fighting the Divine Voice, no matter the consequences.

‹How am I supposed to fight it, then?› I asked. ‹If there’s a way for me to take it down, tell me. Here and now. I’m not interested in wasting time making friends. That’s why Mia the Hero failed, isn’t it?›

Umukahime furrowed her brow.

‹Sorry… That was kind of rude. But still, it’s a conversation that needs to happen. I was thinking about asking a more probing question, but to be honest, I just can’t leap into a fight I don’t think I can win. And all this stuff about Laplace, the evil god Fallen, and the laws of this world…it all feels way over my head. My priority has always been keeping myself and my friends safe.›

Umukahime gave me a long, silent look.

The air quivered with tension. Treant stepped forward and lined up next to Allo. Umukahime raised her hand to stop them, then crossed her arms, her eyes closed.

“I, too, have revisited the tablet’s inscription, and it has forced me to reconsider many of the beliefs I held until now.”

Umukahime said she’d never looked at the stone tablet with the full details of Mia’s tragic tale before. Mia believed the Divine Voice could see through others’ eyes, so she was the only one to ever see them. It was a last, desperate attempt to keep the information from the Divine Voice’s eyes and ensure it would only be passed on to the one who needed it most. But the Divine Voice hadn’t immediately struck the tablet down after we found it.

With Lilyxila dead, I was the only one left with Sacred Skills. Maybe it didn’t have a way to destroy the tablet, but that felt like the best-case scenario. It was far more likely that the Divine Voice left the tablet alone because it considered it unimportant.

“…And after reviewing the tablet, I was convinced. The Divine Voice can be killed.”

I froze. ‹What…? Really?›

“Yes. The very moment it is about to achieve its goal will be the moment it is most vulnerable.”

The Divine Voice’s goal?According to Mia’s tablet, it was to create a being powerful enough to defy Laplace; in other words, to create an individual with a high enough Laplace Authority Interference to resurrect the monsters Laplace sealed away and wipe out the entire world.

‹Why would the Divine Voice be vulnerable then?› I asked.

“As you know, in order to interfere with Laplace, one must possess a great deal of power. The Divine Voice does not have the authority to free Fallen; if it did, then he would already be free.”

‹So, in other words…the Divine Voice is trying to create an individual who’s stronger than itself in order to free Fallen?›

Umukahime nodded. “Yes, that is the heart of the matter. If you follow the Divine Voice’s wishes, you will eventually surpass it in power. At least, that is what Lady Alchemia believed.”

The problem with this, of course, was that if anyone who seemed rebellious against the Divine Voice’s schemes got strong enough to rival it, it could just dispose of them and use them as a reference for their next generation of Sacred Skill holders. I doubted I’d be able to deceive the Divine Voice into thinking I was on its side.

So…that meant that my only hope would be for the Divine Voice to make some sort of careless mistake. Those didn’t seem like the best odds for me to jump in headfirst…

‹What can I even do to get stronger at this point? I’m still a ways off from my max level, but still…›

Umukahime gave me a strange look. “You have collected the four Sacred Skills, have you not? Has your evolutionary limit not been lifted?”

What?! Th-there’s a rank even higher than Legendary?!

I’d seen the Final Evolution Title Skill disappear before because certain special conditions were met, such as earning another Sacred Skill. But I usually received a message about it when that happened.

I checked my status again, but Final Evolution was still on there.

‹I’ve still got Final Evolution, though. Is there really a rank higher than Legendary?› I asked Umukahime.

“Hmm…” Umukahime rested her chin on her hand, thinking.

‹Are you sure I’m not at my evolutionary limit already? The Divine Voice has been struggling to raise an ultimate Sacred Skill holder for centuries. Even if I beat all the other Sacred Skill holders, maybe I’m just another failed experiment?›

This begged one question, though: What would the Divine Voice do to me? If my inability to evolve further meant it would stop meddling in my life, then that felt like it was for the best. But it was equally possible that it might decide my possession of four Sacred Skills made me too dangerous and try to eliminate me.

“It may still be too early to come to such a conclusion. Perhaps there is some other condition which must still be met. Has the Divine Voice not spoken to you? I would have expected it to try and indoctrinate you to its cause as soon as you were crowned the victor.”

‹N-nope, it’s been silent… I thought that was weird too. It bombarded me with messages as soon as I got Demi-God Realm Path, but I haven’t heard a single word from it this time.›

Umukahime’s mouth twisted. For me, the more I expressed what was going on out loud, the more aware I became of just how strange my current situation was.

Wait… Had the Divine Voice really given up on me because I’d reached my evolutionary limit? Now that I thought about it, it’d definitely been hedging its bets on Lilyxila coming out on top.

If so, then…seriously, where do I fit in with all this? What’s going on?

A few moments of uncomfortable silence passed between Umukahime and me.

If the Divine Voice wasn’t in a rush to get rid of me, then I was fine with being considered a failure. Nothing about being the Divine Voice’s “chosen one” hinted at anything good for me.

But Umukahime thought differently. She believed I was supposed to be some kind of savior, come to avenge her master and free the world from the Divine Voice’s influence. There was no small amount of silent strong-arming coming from her corner.

Do not worry.

I just wanted to give you all a chance to rest and relax before we turn to other things.

Surprisingly nice of me, don’t you think?

Suddenly, a short stream of messages began to filter through my head. It was the Divine Voice. It had been silent for a long time, but now it was surprisingly chatty.

It’s important to spend time bonding with your friends.

Outwitting Laplace is far more about fickle things like one’s will and spirit than you may expect.

Like that poor slime child, for example, whose rage brought him past his evolutionary limits.

The Divine Voice’s messages rolled in one after the other. It spoke at length, and more specifically than it ever had before. That did nothing to reassure me, though.

Its ability to pop in whenever it felt like it made it clear that the Divine Voice was spying on this exchange between Umukahime and me—which meant it knew her goals too. It must have decided she wasn’t much of a threat, then. To the Divine Voice, Umukahime, Mia the Hero’s life’s work, and the stone tablet on which she’d written her final wishes were likely not important enough to bother with.

Umukahime, somehow sensing I was getting messages from the Divine Voice, closed her mouth and watched in silence.

Illusia, I have been trying to guide you in a way that prioritizes your own will and spirit. Because of that, I’ve allowed your journey to be a little more enjoyable than most.

The Divine Voice’s stream of messages betrayed a certain level of excitement. It seemed very pleased that I’d defeated Lilyxila and successfully acquired the four Sacred Skills. I hadn’t even replied yet, and it still kept going on and on.

Not that I felt good about receiving its praise, of course. The Divine Voice was looking down on me from up high and insisting that everything I’d experienced up to this point was its doing, and that really rubbed me the wrong way.

I wonder if Lilyxila’s appreciation of you, and her respect for that trivial Holy Knight woman, were also due to my influence? the Divine Voice pondered, as if it was talking about someone else.

True, Lilyxila said I’d reminded her of Alphis in her final moments. Among her subordinates, Alphis was the one who seemed most capable of thinking and acting on her own convictions. When Ruin went on his rampage in the royal capital, Alban, it was Alphis who placed her trust in me—even though I was her enemy—and helped me recover so I could take Ruin out.

I wonder how Lilyxila felt after that, when she sent her Spirit Servant Beelzebub out to kill me? At the time, I’d labeled her as my true enemy and a truly terrible person. But now, I had a hard time believing she sent Beelzebub after me because she herself wanted to.

Perhaps that was the reason why I felt so uncomfortable about the Divine Voice speaking so sagely about Lilyxila. It felt like it was trying to convince me that Lilyxila’s suffering and resolve were at fault for the way she turned out, and that it had simply guided her along that path.

Congratulations, Illusia. An Evil Dragon, ironically granted the name of a famous hero due to the passing whim of a simple village girl.

You have devoured experience points all across this land, defeated your final enemy invader, and finally become the ruler of the surface world.

There is now no equal to you in any corner of the world.

I always had a feeling that you’d be the one crowned victor of this generation.

A stream of messages flowed through my mind all at once.

Not the self-righteous, childish brute who was nothing more than a stepping stone…

Nor the pathetic little villain ruined by the pressure of being hailed a hero from birth…

Nor the faithless little fly who dreamed of freedom but perished as a mere puppet…

Nor the fool who thought too far ahead and lost herself in pursuit of her goals.

The slime, the hero, the Beast King, and the saint; I recognized them all. But the Divine Voice’s dismissive words sent a spike of irritation through me.

‹Don’t you dare talk about them like you knew them,› I snapped, interrupting it.

With the Divine Voice being some sort of supreme being and all, I knew antagonizing it wasn’t the best choice. But I couldn’t suppress my fury any longer. The Divine Voice distorted the stories of the other Sacred Skill holders into caricatures. I didn’t want to hear it talk about Lilyxila, Beelzebub, the slime, or human Illusia that way.

Sure, the slime and Illusia weren’t the most pleasant of folks, to say the least. But I couldn’t stand the arrogance in the Divine Voice’s words when it spoke of them.

No one else is better equipped to evaluate their worth than I.

It was I who deployed them each in carefully calculated circumstances, and it was I who watched over them, counseled them, steered their paths, and looked after them through it all.

Just as I did with you.

You have made many mistakes. The most grievous of which was that you refused to listen to me because you retained your memories from your previous world. But that does not change the fact that I have been watching over you and guiding you every step of the way.

‹That’s not what I mean! You should come down to our level before you say all that garbage!› I added magical force to the telepathic message to make it even sharper. ‹Watch over us? Guide us? It’s more like you’ve been spying on us from your spot up on high and laughing at our misfortune! You’ve got no right to judge how they lived their lives!›

There was enough force behind my words that I surprised myself a little, along with Umukahime, Allo, and the others.

The Divine Voice fell silent, as if it were thinking about something.

“Ulp…” I sucked in a breath. Crap. I need to stay calm. One wrong move, one angry word, and who knows what’ll happen? Lilyxila said I needed to confront it—not snap at it every chance I got!

That…is true.

Perhaps you are right.

The Divine Voice’s response was uncannily honest.

Wh-what the heck? Did the Divine Voice just admit its mistake? What’s it planning?

I immediately went on guard, not trusting the tame response. But then a voice spoke from right behind me.

“Then how’s this?”

The voice had a creepy, childish tone to it, overlaid with an almost robotic, synthesized sound. I spun around in shock.

“Here I am, in the flesh, just like you wanted. Now I have every right to talk about them however I want, don’t I?”

On top of Mia’s stone tablet sat a pale, luminescent human figure. If I had to say what age it looked closest to in human terms, I’d say about fifteen years old. I couldn’t tell if the figure was male or female; it had hair long enough to touch its shoulders, and its body was wrapped in a large, loose piece of cloth. Two wings sprouted from its back. Its eyes were large and round, with long, pretty eyelashes, but they were vacant and dull, and gave off a gloomy air.

Strangest of all, the left half of its body seemed…defective. It reminded me of a glitched three-dimensional model.

N-no way… Is this really the Divine Voice’s physical form? How’d it manage to appear out of nowhere, anyway?

I quickly tried to check its status.

Special Skill “Divine Voice” Lv 8 is unable to provide that explanation.

The humanoid form turned toward me, scrutinizing my bewildered expression with its one normal-looking eye. Then it opened its mouth wide and gave an ominous chuckle.

Part 5

THE SUDDEN APPEARANCE of the physical embodiment of the Divine Voice put everyone present on high alert.

Not even Umukahime seemed like she’d expected the Divine Voice to show up in person. She glared daggers at it, her teeth gritted in a snarl. But even so, her nervousness was clear.

“There’s no need to be so alarmed,” the Divine Voice said. “No matter what any of you do, I won’t be hurt or offended. Besides, do you really think that just by putting yourselves on guard, you could stand a chance against me if I wanted to fight?” The Divine Voice lazily raised its distorted and blurred left arm. “Or perhaps…our conversation would proceed more smoothly if I eliminated two or three of you to set the stage? I know you’re all shortsighted fools, but surely you wouldn’t choose to be wiped out over nothing?”

I doubted it was bluffing. There was no way the Divine Voice was weaker than me. I was sure it could wipe us all out here, not to mention the entire island, if it wanted to.

I looked around at Allo and the others and signaled them to stand down.

‹Okay, okay, we get it. If you have something to say, then I’m willing to listen. As far as I know, you’ve been manipulating me from the very beginning. Surely you can forgive a little disrespect.›

“Ahh, I’m glad you’re so easy to control. You care about others so much; you always back down so quickly when their lives are at stake.” The Divine Voice gave a cold, obviously fake smile, and crossed its legs on top of the stone slab.

‹Are you…really the Divine Voice? Not some fake, or avatar, or something?›

Naturally. The only ones capable of doing something like this…

“Are Laplace and I,” the Divine Voice finished out loud. “So yes, it really is me. But I can’t prove to you this isn’t an avatar; you know nothing about me, after all. I have no proof. But what’s the harm in using an avatar body instead?” The Divine Voice’s mouth spread into a wide grin. “Are you implying that if you were certain this were my real body, you’d try to kill me?”

‹N-no… I wouldn’t.›

I was lying, of course. I’d love to kill the Divine Voice where it stood. Nothing good would come from its continued existence. Sure, I didn’t know anything about who it really was, but I knew all too well how dangerous, selfish, and cruel it could be. Even so, I knew I was powerless to go up against it right now.

“Good!” The Divine Voice clapped its hands as it brought the conversation back on track. “Now then. I’ll keep the taunting to a minimum so we can get down to business. I’d rather not make you despise me too much, after all. We’ll both come out with losses if you keep on being stubborn.”

Were those threats meant as a joke…? Having completely lost my edge in the conversation, all I could do now was sit quietly and let the Divine Voice lead the discussion.

“You’ve already heard much about my aims from Lilyxila, yes? I don’t exactly try to keep it a secret. My goal,” said the Divine Voice, without a trace of hesitation, “is to create an ultimate being with the highest possible Laplace Authority Interference in order to set free the creature Laplace sealed away: Fallen.”

Fallen. A mysterious, monstrous, spherical creature I’d only ever encountered in name, rumored to be sealed away long ago. People called it an evil god, but the Divine Voice’s explanation assured me that it was, in fact, a monster.

‹But if you free Fallen, then this world will…›

“Yep, it’ll be destroyed,” it said nonchalantly, as if that didn’t concern it in the least. “The moment Fallen returns, the world will come to an end.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. Despite only hearing half of the conversation, Allo and the others looked horrified.

“But for you, that wouldn’t be a purely bad thing at all. I can guarantee you that. We both stand to gain by cooperating with each other. That’s why I’m coming to meet you in peace instead of resorting to any sort of shady tactics.”

‹Wh-what?! What the heck are you talking about?! There’s no way I’d…›

“You want to be a human again, don’t you?” The Divine Voice pointed at me with its distorted left arm. “If you max out your Laplace Authority Interference level, you may even be able to get your missing memories back. It’s a little complicated to pull off, so you won’t be able to do it on your own, but I’d be happy to lend a hand.”

The Divine Voice prattled on, oozing confidence. “It’s rather strange that you retained any memories from your previous existence in the first place. Laplace wouldn’t usually allow such a serious glitch to slip through. But I can’t create someone capable of reaching their max level of Laplace Authority Interference without exploiting a few of Laplace’s weaknesses myself. That’s why I’ve been meddling in the fringes of the Hero and Demon King war, and gave the Skill Steal skill to the slime so he had a direct connection between the world and his system. Your spotty memories were likely caused by the slime stealing the Demi-God Realm Path I planted in you while you were still an egg. Neither Sacred Skills nor skills that allow their user to interfere with the world’s system are supposed to exist in this world, so Laplace couldn’t squash them like the usual bugs. I doubt the same trick will work a second time, though.”

I couldn’t quite catch up to the stream of new info the Divine Voice was feeding me. Where the heck was it going with all this?

“I know you better than you know yourself, you know. So rest assured: Even if Fallen is freed and the world as we know it disappears, you will be able to return to your original world. And then you can live out your days in peace as a human. That’s what you’ve wanted all this time, right?”

I…I can go back to my original world? I didn’t think that would ever be possible.

Heh heh. It’s only natural for you to be suspicious. But I came from the same world you did. You and me, we have a right to let this world come to an end and return to our own world.

The Divine Voice suddenly switched back to mental messages, preventing Allo and the others from listening in.

You were just a data sample at the beginning, but now I see you are far more valuable than I assumed. You and I together can snuff this world out like a light. What do you say? Will you level up and evolve under my tutelage to put an end to this world and go back to where you truly belong?

My mind spun; I couldn’t wrap my head around anything the Divine Voice was saying. Go back to my original world? The Divine Voice is from the same world as me? And it wants me to destroy this one? The utter scale of the task laid out before me left me completely stunned.

How about it? If you accept my proposal, then show me your will and determination. Turn everyone here into experience points. They’ll all become fodder for Fallen anyway. Go on, kill them all with one fell swoop. No need to make them suffer.

But no matter how large the scale seemed, there was still no way I’d accept such a ridiculous proposal.

There were still many things in this world that I didn’t know much about. But no matter what I learned, I knew I’d never even consider sacrificing all of the friends and companions I’d met so far in this world to go back to a life I barely remembered.

I swung my paw at the Divine Voice, tearing deep gouges into the stone tablet beneath it with Dimension Claws.

‹The answer’s no! As if that’s even a question! Don’t you ever say that disgusting crap to me again!›

Mia’s monument crumbled, sending the Divine Voice cascading to the ground.

“Do you have any idea who you’re choosing to make an enemy? Not even I thought you’d be this dense.” My claw attack should’ve been a direct hit, but the Divine Voice didn’t have so much as a scratch. “Very well. I figured I’d have to give you a taste of what happens when you oppose me. Now, which one of your friends’ lives should I take?” The Divine Voice raised its distorted arm again and pointed at Allo, then Treant.

‹Go ahead, take one out! Because the moment you do, I’m never listening to another word you say. My goal in life will be to separate your head from your neck or die trying.› I bared my fangs and gave a low growl. ‹That’d be an ­awful big pain for you, wouldn’t it? I mean, you’ve spent a lot of time and energy on rearing me this far. It’d be a waste if I died now.›

The Divine Voice’s finger stopped moving, and it furrowed its brow, that carefree expression finally slipping from its face. It was clearly losing patience with me.

Lilyxila had told me to not to let the Divine Voice’s wishes come to fruition. So it was decided: I was gonna confront the Divine Voice. I couldn’t just let it destroy the world as it pleased, regardless of the lives that’d be lost. And I’d never let it lay a hand on any of my friends.

“Don’t get a big head.” The Divine Voice smirked. “I wanted to try and talk things out peacefully if we could…but I have plenty of other options. If you won’t listen, then so be it. I’ll deal with this the same way I always have.”

Its body slowly floated into the air. As I watched it rise, one of its arms suddenly swung down, the tip of its extended pointer finger glowing with light.

What is it? What’s coming? My anticipation swelled as I waited for its attack to come. But I had no idea what it was, and no time to avoid it.

A moment later, what felt like a bolt of lightning shot through my brain, scrambling my thoughts. Powerful nausea rose from deep inside my stomach. My mind went pure white.

“Gg-gaagh…!” When I came to, I was sprawled out across the ground. My head laid on its side, limp. A puddle of saliva had formed below my mouth.

A…psychic attack? If it was, it activated far too quickly for me to react. I had no clue what kind of range the attack had either. What the heck was that?

Suddenly, I remembered something Mia mentioned in her inscription.

“One should expect the Divine Voice to be able to use all skills. Naturally, it was far more powerful than any being I had ever faced before. It also possessed an unknown and debilitating psychic attack skill that pierced through every resistance I had and used it as its primary attack. There is no way to counter it, so one must endure it through sheer mental fortitude.”

If what Mia wrote was correct, then there was no way for me to defend against the Divine Voice’s attack. Evasion, skill buffs, and Resistance Skills wouldn’t help.

If the Divine Voice kept zapping me with that attack, it was over. Even if I matched its stats, there was nothing I could do to counter it.

“M-Master Dragon!” Allo, who’d been watching from a distance, leapt toward me. She ran up to my head and placed a hand on my cheek.

‹G-get back! There’s no telling what the Divine Voice will do to you! Just stay away!› Despite my blurry vision, I managed to lock onto Allo’s form with my eyes and send her a message with Telepathy.

‹Miss Allo!! Everyone, please stay on guard! I’ll handle this!› Treant spoke up, then stood in front of me and released its Tree Spirit Transformation to go back to its original Tyrant Guardian form.

In moments, a massive tree that towered over everyone stood between the Divine Voice and me.

The Divine Voice looked at Treant. Its mouth curled up into an empty smile.

‹Treant, back away! You’re gonna get killed!› I warned, panicking.

“So be it, then. I’ll make you regret turning down my offer. I was planning on using Spirit Servant to fulfill my promise to Lilyxila anyway.”

Spirit Servant? The Divine Voice could use Spirit Servant too?!

‹What’re you planning?! Stop this nonsense!› I shouted.

“Lilyxila thought she could confront me, but it was just an illusion. She worked harder when I let her believe she could outwit me. And she really did believe it! Pathetic, isn’t it? I’m the one who made her think it was possible!” The Divine Voice raised its left hand to the sky. “She really tried her best to beat me. It may not mean much anymore, but still, I have to fulfill my promise to her. I’m the type to put a lot of importance on that sort of thing, you know. I’m not about to make light of her determination. Lilyxila and I, we had an agreement. I told her if she lost the battle for your Sacred Skills, I’d turn my Spirit Servants against the Holy Land of Lialum and raze it to the ground.”

‹Wh…what?!›

Suddenly, part of the reason why Lilyxila was so intent on killing me was crystal clear. The Divine Voice was threatening to destroy her homeland if she didn’t collect the Sacred Skills. Lilyxila really was planning to team up with me. The Divine Voice must not have wanted her to because that’d interfere with its quest to collect all the Sacred Skills.

“Regardless of whatever threats you throw at me, ultimately, I can do whatever I like. You’re just a single creature from this world. Don’t expect to stand a chance against a god like me. I’ll let you in on a little secret, Illusia: You don’t have any other choice.”

A ring of magic sprouted around the Divine Voice. It enveloped it in blinding light, cutting off my view. I covered my face with both paws, then slowly peeked out from behind them.

Wh-what the heck is the Divine Voice summoning?!

“Oooh, ooohh, ooooaaaaaaagh!”

A roar exploded through the foggy landscape like an explosion. It took me a moment to realize that it was a creature’s voice.

Behind the Divine Voice, a figure appeared that was almost twice as long as I was. It was a gigantic, hairy, pitch-black spider with eight twitching legs. Its thorax held three heads—a toad on the left, a cat on the right, and the face of a long-eared man wearing a crown in the center. All of the faces had bright red eyes, opened wide and unfocused. The man’s head in the center was the one screaming, while the other two had eerie smiles plastered on their faces.

“Surprised?” the Divine Voice said. “This is the most powerful Demon King in history, the king among Demon Kings. He is known as the Three-Headed King of Gluttony, Baal. He’s got an…interesting form, don’t you think?”

Two figures stood on either side of Baal. One was a woman, concealed head to toe in thick robes. The other was a large man in full body armor, carrying a greatsword on his shoulder. They looked like ordinary humans, but I felt powerful auras emanating from them both. Were they Spirit Servants too?!

“Rrrrrrrooooooooohhh…”

A loud, low growl rumbled from behind Baal. I scanned the area. After a few moments, a shape began to materialize from the fog. It was an enormous human leg.

I looked up and met the eyes of a giant that towered high above me, crushing trees beneath its feet as it walked.

No way. Is that…another Spirit Servant?

“Well? Every last one of them is a Legendary rank with stats far more impressive than yours. Pretty spectacular, huh?”

The Divine Voice had said Baal was the most powerful Demon King of all time. Does that mean the other three were the strongest hero, saint, and Beast King of all time too?

‹But…but how? That isn’t possible! The Spirit Servant skill can only bind two creatures at a time!›

Not to mention that these guys shouldn’t have been able to maintain their Legendary forms after losing their Sacred Skills!Even as a Spirit Servant, Beelzebub had still possessed the Beast Realm Path skill. The Divine Voice’s four Spirit Servants and their ability to maintain their Legendary rank forms without Sacred Skills was a flagrant violation of this world’s laws.

What in the world did the Divine Voice’s status look like? The fact that Mia actually believed she stood a chance against an opponent this powerful made me think she must have just gone insane with resentment over what it did to her.

“Why’d you assume I’d ever stoop to scuffling around in the dirt with the likes of you? This is nothing more than a fun little sideshow anyway.” The Divine Voice looked around at all of us with a malicious cackle. It almost seemed like it was relishing our reactions. No, not almost; it was enjoying our horrified looks.

“Just one of my Spirit Servants could destroy all of Lialum with ease. And now, thanks to your insubordination, Illusia, I’ve decided to send them out to wipe every single location you’ve ever visited off the map. Oh, would you look at that! Not so cocky now, are we?”

I looked around at each of the Divine Voice’s Spirit Servants one by one.

Even if I couldn’t challenge the Divine Voice directly, I thought I’d at least be able to stir up some trouble for it. But it’s on a whole different level.

“Do you get it now, Illusia? You may be the strongest creature in all the land, but you’re nothing next to me. Let’s see… What was it you said again? That if I don’t listen to you, you’ll waste your own life trying to kill me?” The Divine Voice cackled again. “Go on, say it again. I need a good laugh.”

The four Spirit Servants weren’t moving. Both the armored man and the woman in robes were standing as still as they were when they were first summoned. The mysterious giant’s figure strode around at random in the distance. The giant three-headed spider stared at me, drool dripping from its mouth; but for the moment, there were no signs of it poising to attack.

Even without counting the Divine Voice, I had the equivalent of four monster Lilyxilas facing me—and that was a low estimate. There was no way I could take them all on at once.

“All you can do now is lower your head to the ground and beg for my forgiveness. I was in a good mood, so I chose to treat you like an equal, but you took Lilyxila’s idiotic advice to heart and decided to take advantage of me instead. So why don’t I put you to the test? If I kill one of your friends, are you really prepared to die trying to avenge them?”

How could I think I’d actually be able to force my own opinions on someone like this? The Divine Voice was totally nuts. In the end, it only cared about itself. That wasn’t the type of personality you could negotiate with.

‹H-hold on!› I exclaimed. ‹Wait a second! If you could guarantee the safety of all of us, I’m willing to at least cooperate with you. But I won’t let you use me to wipe out the entire world!›

This was the absolute minimum condition I wanted to make before I helped the Divine Voice. But I didn’t have the luxury to negotiate for more conditions; if this went on any longer, the Divine Voice seemed more than prepared to burn all the bridges between us. I needed to offer my own ideas for how to go about this. Ending this conversation with a pointless battle would be a loss for us both.

“It amazes me that you’re still pushing me to agree to your conditions. I’m tired of you underestimating me, Illusia. I went to the trouble of calling my Spirit Servants, and they seem eager to be cut loose.” The Divine Voice rose higher into the air. “I’ve already decided what I’m going to do with you. If you aren’t willing to obey me, then that’s fine. I’ll make you understand the consequences of that choice in the clearest way possible. Come on, Baal! Let’s show Illusia just how insignificant he really is!”

Baal’s three faces laughed, his spidery legs skittering in excitement.

Oh no. They’re going to attack!

‹R-run!› I warned my friends with Telepathy.

Originally, I felt certain that I’d rather die fighting than become the Divine Voice’s pawn and help it destroy the world. But…of course, I also had the idea that the Divine Voice might be willing to compromise if I showed it I was willing to risk it all to stop it. Now that the difference in our power was so clear, it felt hard to justify dying in vain for what would effectively be a suicide mission.

If it were just me on the line, I’d take that gamble. But if I let my emotions get the best of me here, my friends would get caught in the crossfire, and I’d only have myself to blame.

Treant was still in front of me, blocking me with its massive Tyrant Guardian trunk. If I ran away with the others, Treant would become Baal’s first victim.

I stepped in front of Treant and approached Baal.

‹Ah! M-Master?!› Treant called, panicked.

“Oooooooooooaaagh!” Baal stepped toward me as well, its human head shrieking. Before I had a chance to react, his hulking black figure collided with me head-on.

The impact shot through my entire body, sending me flying back with ease. My vision went black, and I fought to stay conscious.

No! If I pass out here, Baal will kill me!

I gathered my strength and somehow came to my senses. Then I struck the ground with my tail, using the recoil to rebalance my stance. That saved me from being blown to bits—but that’s all it did. My shoulder and rib bones had shattered from the impact. Every part of my body screamed in pain.

That…was a crazy strong body attack. In terms of stats, Baal was clearly a big step above me.

Treant rushed toward me. ‹M-Master! Look out! In front of you!›

I-In front…? I quickly tried to gather my thoughts, scrambled as they were from the pain, and looked up to see what was coming. But Baal was standing still, his three heads laughing cruelly. It didn’t seem like he received any damage from his full body collision. He was just toying with me; that much was obvious. That attack had been powerful, but it almost felt sloppy.

I thought Baal was supposed to be a Legendary rank monster, like me. So how can he almost kill me with a body slam and look completely unharmed? We’re the same rank. It doesn’t make sense for our statuses to be this different.

But Baal wasn’t the only threat I had to worry about right now. I looked around, checking the positions of the other Spirit Servants. Fortunately, it didn’t look like the others had moved yet.

At that moment, my Psychic Sense went off, alerting to a presence diagonally above me. I looked up and spotted the Divine Voice, floating higher and higher into the sky.

The Divine Voice wore a wide grin on its half-corrupted face. Black light gathered at the tip of its hand, which was raised high. “What’s wrong? Did you think I’d stay out of this fight just because I sicced my Spirit Servants on you? How in the world did you think you’d be able to outsmart me with that arrogant mindset?”

(Wh…what’re you…?!)

The black light gathering at its fingertips spread out, forming a large magic circle that covered the ground all around me.

A powerful sense of foreboding washed over me. This…is no simple attack. What’s coming?

As I scrambled backward, trying to get away, the Divine Voice lowered its free arm and caught me with the very ends of its fingertips. Another jolt of lightning shot through my body. My mind went white.

“Ghh…gaaagh…!”

“Resistance is futile. Don’t make me say it again, Illusia. You have no choice.”

U-ugh! Another psychic attack! Mia was right; it does like using this skill. It’s the perfect technique to bring opponents to their knees without killing them.

The black magic ring encircled my body. I couldn’t move, couldn’t even lift my paws. The skill seemed like it took a while to activate, but the Divine Voice bought that time with its odd psychic attack.

“Master Dragon!”

‹M-Master!›

Allo and Treant dashed toward me, crossing the edge of the magic circle.

‹No! Get away! You’ll get caught in its trap!›

The Divine Voice squinted at me. “Hmph. It seems like a few little flies have gotten caught in the mix. I’d rather they didn’t contaminate my garden too much…but it is what it is, I suppose.”

I squirmed around, kicking my hind legs wildly to try and get enough traction to get out of the magic circle. But my hind legs met no resistance. I looked back to see them sliding through the ground as if it were thin air.

Wh…what did it do to me…?

“Otherworld Warp,” the Divine Voice murmured. My surroundings were washed in white light that glowed brighter and brighter until they faded from my vision. “Go and level up as much as you can. I’ll keep all the little friends you’ve encountered along your journey in this world hostage, so you’d better make it quick if you don’t want them all to die.”

What’s it talking about…?

The Divine Voice’s laughter echoed through my mind, growing fainter and fainter until finally, it fell blissfully silent.

Part 6

WHEN I CAME TO, I was lying in a daze on my stomach with my eyes half-open.

Where…am I? My mind still felt hazy; clouded with the confusion of unconsciousness. I couldn’t think straight. Something happened. Something…important.

Think! I defeated Lilyxila, met up with my friends, and then…oh! I went to go talk to Umukahime. And after that, I…I…

“Guoooooooo!”I sat up with a roar. That’s right! I finally met the Divine Voice! It showed up out of nowhere, said a bunch of weird and confusing stuff, got upset that I wouldn’t go along with it, and sicced four Spirit Servants on me.

Then it made itself an opening with its weird psychic skill and sent me…somewhere.I looked around. A stand of enormous, crooked trees towered nearby. They were tall, even compared to me; maybe thirty meters high or so—more than twice the height of Treant’s Tyrant Guardian form. It felt like I’d shrunk somehow.