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299 – Elf Village Battle ⑪
I wonder how much time has passed. I feel that the battle continued for quite a long time, from my perspective. But, it’s possible that my sense of time was lengthened and it was like that only in my subjectivity, and that in fact the actual amount of time might be unexpectedly short.
I’m not sure how many times I’ve done this now but once again I make a strike. My spear hand pierces the robot’s chest, and the Heresy Magic that I activated inside destroys a soul dwelling within there. The robot trembles once as if convulsing, then its movement stopped completely. Even after I withdraw my hand, the hole that I had created doesn’t regenerate, and having lost its support the body feebly collapses to the ground. The crashing sound it makes is unexpectedly light, giving an impression of being an empty shell of an instrument that had lost its significance with its souls.
It’s over. No, not yet. Even if this robot is Potimas’s secret weapon, it’s not actually Potimas himself. Until I give Potimas himself his last rites, it won’t be over.
That being said, that sure was painful. I might look perfectly unharmed in appearance, but on the inside I’m a total wreck. That’s because the effect of Humility is to consume the soul. While the energy I was able to steal from the robot helped cushion the effect somewhat, that’s only at the level of being better than nothing. If I canceled the effect of Humility, it might be bad. I guess this is like how a candle burns brightest just before its flame burns out huh. Please, let me last until I have dealt with Potimas.
――If you’re done then come outside――
That voice resounds directly within my head. I guess it’s a message from Shiro-chan? Despite the magecraft jamming field still being active, I wish she wouldn’t make doing that seem so easy. I’m losing my confidence here.
Anyhow, for Shiro-chan to go out of her way to call me, I guess it means that I had better go outside, right. I forcibly wrench open the door that had closed over the entrance when I arrived. Just what you’d expect of something made to shut in a god, I sure had a hard time opening it. I was wheezing after opening the door, then wheezing again as I climbed up the long slope, reaching the outside world.
What I saw there, was something completely beyond my expectations. The forest was blazing here and there. In the places where flames were coming up from, there were these large round objects lying there that I couldn’t really figure what they were. Within that spectacle that was like something from hell, there was the silhouette of something enormous standing out prominently. As if covering the sky, an enormous disc shaped object was floating there.
If I was to express it in a single word from Shiro-chan’s memories, I would call it a UFO. That thing rumoured to actually have space aliens riding it. However, that expression is not necessarily wrong. That floating disc, is evidently a space ship after all.
There’s no way that Potimas wouldn’t know the current state of this planet. The reason why Potimas is obsessed about this planet that is like a house of cards, is because the System is here. Although he was making heavily abusive statements about the System just earlier, that’s precisely because his expectations have been betrayed. Potimas had expectations of the System. That perhaps it could make him a god. However, Potimas couldn’t become a god. Even so, betting on that ray of hope, Potimas remained on this planet. Hoping that one day maybe he would be able to become a god.
However, Potimas himself should have been aware that there was only a faint hope of that. Therefore, it’s natural that he was prepared. To escape from this planet, that is. Potimas was ready to leave this planet at any time. For that reason, he could calmly do things that were capable of ruining the planet. What’s floating in the sky right now, is basically his means of escaping this planet.
But then again, that means of escaping, has been rendered immobile by white threads though. Just as if it was a bug caught in a spider’s web that could do nothing except wait to be devoured. Yeah. That’s actually so true it makes me want to smile.
Shiro-chan, you’re something amazing. While I was playing with that robot, just what the heck were you doing? You did such an amazing job I can’t express it in words.
Potimas is in there for certain. When I was fighting with that robot, part-way through I stopped hearing Potimas’s voice. Meaning that he had abandoned the robot and was trying to escape already. Even that robot, despite all the time and effort he spent on it, is just another tool in the end, from Potimas’s point of view. If it was in exchange for his own life, it’s clear that Potimas wouldn’t worry about his choice even in the slightest, basically.
Amongst the threads that are binding the space ship, there is one stuck to the ground right next to me. The thread is thick enough for a single person to walk along without a problem. Taking a quick look around the area, there’s no sign of Shiro-chan. However, since this thread is obviously telling me what to do, well, let’s just get on with it then.
I climb up the thread, using it as a foothold. It seems like I’ve been doing nothing but climb up for a while now. I’m alert for some kind of counterattack from the space ship, but without anything occurring I quickly reach it. I guess it has already been rendered powerless by Shiro-chan huh. Climbing onto the space ship itself, I look for something like a hatch. Sure enough I find one before long and rip it off, and go inside.
The interior is surprisingly dark. There’s no illumination. Well, that doesn’t matter to me though since I have the Night Vision skill.
I walk on. As expected from its size, the passages are also stupidly long.
I walk on. Through glass windows I saw facilities that seemed like factories and plantations. I’m sure that the interior of this ship is laid out so that people can occupy it fully. Because they very well might need to spend centuries wandering through space after all. Maybe it’s not just because of his expectations for the System that Potimas didn’t leave this planet, but also because he was uncertain about the future. This planet only has the god called Gyuri, but other planets might have many gods. Considering that, he couldn’t afford to be careless.
I walk on. There’s defense orientated robots swarming around, but they’re hopelessly weak compared to the one I fought underground just now. I rout them. What I find from dealing with the other robots, is that the one I fought underground, Gloria Type Ω or whatever, is very clearly a special one.
I walk on. While screaming something strange, one of Potimas’s clones attacked me. He had had a handsome face, but it turned into something nasty due to impatience and terror. I’ve killed many of Potimas’s clones up to this point, but none of them had such a warped expression. While he’s not bothered about however many of his disposable clones are killed, he’s clearly that worried about the possibility of his main body being killed. Well, naturally. I quickly finish off the attacking clone. No matter how much they’re strengthened by machines, I’m already far beyond what these mere clones can handle.
「In short, you’re checkmated.」
I walked and walked, and when I finally arrived, he was there. The body of an elderly elf, inside a transparent cylinder. That body had countless tubes attached. Like the peculiar subject matter or whatever clotting those pipes, the old elf didn’t even flinch.
「Stop! Stop, stop, stop! I don’t want it to end! It can’t end here! I must live on for eternity! I beg you! Please stop!」
Well, instead of moving, his screams are surging out from the speaker though. Along with the continuous entreaties to stop that are being discharged from the speaker, there’s also a meaningless scream mixed in. Since he doesn’t need to breathe, he can scream continuously as well. To Potimas, a body is not a container for living in, but something that simply needs to be alive. When he wants to move about he can just use his clones.
This lump of flesh that simply lives without stirring at all within that cylinder, this is what Potimas’s main body is. I had guessed that he might have ended up like this, but when I see it for real it sure is a miserable form. Stubbornly living on, this man who pursued nothing but that – this is his fate.
「I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die! No-o-o! I don’t want to diieieiie!」
「Unfortunately Potimas, I have a much crueler fate in store for you than death.」
I won’t sympathise with the continuously screaming Potimas. Having said that though, I don’t have a sense of “it serves you right” either. I had expected something more to well up than this, but I feel nothing at all, to the extent that it surprises me.
「Abyss Magic」
Hearing my muttered words, Potimas starts screaming in an even greater frenzy. Abyss Magic is a unique magic. Compared to Heresy Magic that destroys the soul, Abyss Magic decomposes the soul, and contributes it back to the System. Simply killing him, isn’t enough. This man, to his very soul, must make recompense to this world.
I begin the preparations for Abyss Magic. Unlike Heresy Magic, Abyss Magic requires a sophisticated magic construction. I believe that D-sama most likely did that deliberately. Heresy Magic was established to confront gods. Abyss Magic was created in order to deliver judgement between the people of this world. Dispossessing them of the choice of being able to reincarnate, and delivering the judgement of forcibly contributing to the System. Meaning, doing that is considered to be better for the world than having them reincarnate. The invocation takes a long time, which makes me secretly think that this is proof that this was never intended to be used in battle.
「Bye bye, Father.」
I invoke the Abyss Magic towards Potimas’s main body, who is no longer saying anything intelligible and simply screaming. Then, only silence remained.