I’m late (sweat).
Sorry.
I can barely breathe.
My body is burning up.
I smell of sweat.
I hear my gasping breaths, as if they belonged to someone else.
While looking down, I observe my own physical condition like data.
It’s hard to tell how much time has passed since I fought the god and my wristwatch melted and disappeared from the heat, only by feeling.
But, at least twenty-four hours have passed.
Thanks to the spirits Suella summoned, the supply of magic power and the control of the weather.
I think I was able to fight non-stop thanks to these two being advantages.
“Phew.”
Without even time to catch my breath, I’ve already taken my eighth potion to replenish the energy depleted from my body.
Since it’s combat information, I’m accurately counting them as my eighth, but estimating from the calorie content of these potions, this body has digested an incredible amount of heat.
Even so, my body cries out that it’s not enough.
And it pleads with me to rest.
But the situation doesn’t allow it.
“Disappear!”
As the restraints begin to crumble, the god’s movements become freer.
Therefore, the attacks are gradually becoming more accurate, and moreover, they are getting more intense.
In that case, the consumption of stamina will relatively increase.
The god, not hiding his annoyance, is still trying to swat me away by swinging his freed arm.
“……”
There’s no need to react to those words.
Rather, speaking unnecessary words will only make my breathing rougher and my stamina decrease, so I judge that it’s best to avoid wasted effort, and I am gradually becoming more silent.
“J…u…bu…”
“No problem. I can still go.”
Even in such a situation, telepathic calls mixed with static, that can’t get through clearly, are answered properly.
The god’s control ability is no ordinary thing.
Perhaps because the heat waves themselves are mixed with the god’s power, the magic concentration in the surroundings is unbelievably high.
As a result, the telepathic communication network within the Demon Lord’s Army is practically non-functional in this area.
Only Suella’s telepathic calls, through our contract, can barely be reached.
Magic power supply is also gradually decreasing, and radio waves are becoming faint and about to break.
The reason I felt at ease during the fight is being cut off, but I can fight similarly by utilizing the magic absorption ability of the magic tree.
Well, I’ve asked myself how much longer I have to fight until I’m sick of it.
I have already cut down the heat waves, unleashed along with his sweeping arm, many times.
As the price for that attack, I have also grown accustomed to cutting down the god’s arm with my counter-attack.
Even so, the arm is incredibly thick.
Even if I cut deeply, the blade is too short to physically cut it off. And even if I try to cut it conceptually, its existence power is too strong. If I extend it with magic power, the output is not enough.
Conclusion: it only ends with a deep cut.
“!?”
I don’t know if this clone feels pain.
But I can tell that the god feels displeasure that his arm is unusable even for a moment.
And I’m also starting to feel the method of cutting this god seeping into my body.
The blade now feels much more substantial than before.
It’s proof that I’m starting to grasp the concept of god.
At first, I had to go deeper, to fully recognize the concept.
But gradually, very gradually, I am now able to do so with a thinner, shallower recognition.
One stroke, then another. With every swing of the steel tree, the blade accurately cuts the god’s body, and no excess power is needed.
Yet, I put the necessary power into it.
That repetition was an act I was doing solely to suppress the depletion of my stamina, but it has turned into an incredibly efficient training method.
How should I put it? Like being constantly supplied with high-efficiency experience points?
The closest situation might be that day I fought to the death with Instructor Kio, or rather, the general selection test where I fought with the intent to kill while believing I wouldn’t die.
A life-threatening battle brings with it an extraordinary boon, especially in terms of experience points.
Whether you live or die.
Whether you kill or are killed.
In the battle on that precipice, the brain constantly strives to maintain peak efficiency, and the body evolves to seek the best results with minimal power.
This battle with the god is raising me to another stage, to the extent that I can feel it.
Heat waves, lasers, physical attacks, magic.
There are many methods, but all of them possess an attack power that could easily turn my body into charcoal if I were to receive them head-on.
Moreover, the opponent is a god of concept itself.
All attacks are imbued with concepts, and I cannot receive them head-on.
While I might be able to defend against Instructor’s attacks to some extent with my trained conceptual defense, against a god, it would be literal paper armor.
Therefore, the only choices are to attack with a similar concept to offset them, or to evade them.
If I get hit, it’s over, but if I retreat, the damage to the army increases.
The instructors, my only hope, are busy facing other opponents, so there are no replacements.
Kaido’s fleet is also engaged with the aerial fortress, so they are not in a position to deal with a god.
In other words, I am fighting desperately in a situation with no replacement.
Naturally, I’ve made some technical advancements or two. I suspect my magic crest is currently growing.
My absurd magic aptitude of ten prompts my body to grow without restriction.
I feel a slight discomfort with a stroke and correct it.
With the next stroke, I try the correction and feel both resistance and doubt simultaneously.
What unreasonable growth.
I’d be happy if it were happening, but it’s frustrating that it *is* happening.
These conflicting sensations.
Ah, even though I’m tired, this growth prevents me from stopping, from being stopped.
Shallow breaths.
Minimal body movements.
Movements that don’t strain my bones, minimal muscle twitches.
“This can be cut.”
With this conviction, my strike cleanly bisects the laser that was fired in half vertically.
The laser flies past behind me.
It doesn’t matter if they are fired continuously; if I know they are coming and can be cut.
I’m not afraid.
The breathing for the strike, the timing of the released attack.
The opponent doesn’t try to hide them.
Should I call it the god’s arrogance?
It’s such arrogance, unlike the god who was possessing Ishan’s body back then.
All attacks are like “telephone punches.”
It’s just that the level of these “telephone punches” is incredibly high.
If you repeat attacks that ordinary people can’t react to, you’ll naturally win.
But it would be even more troublesome if techniques were incorporated, but there’s no sign of that happening.
Thanks to that, I have been blessed with what is called high-efficiency power leveling, in the name of slash practice.
“Why?” I wondered during the battle, but the doubt quickly melted away.
At that time, I was limited by a human body, so I relied on techniques and small tricks because I was inferior in output.
Perhaps, for a god, using human techniques means stepping onto the same playing field as humans, which is a humiliation in itself, I thought of various reasons.
Still, it’s unreasonable to be toyed with like this, but I won’t dwell on that.
I am diligently engaged in the task of slicing up the god’s body.
My partner, which is absorbing highly concentrated magic power, also seems to have a sharper edge than usual.
Perhaps it has developed resistance by absorbing the magic power emanating from the god into its blade?
If that’s the case and it’s making it easier to cut, it’s a huge help.
However, if you ask me if this endless task is painful, I would answer that it is painful, to the extent that physical fatigue has accumulated.
“……”
And then, as if to signal that the restraints are about to break, the chains begin to crumble.
If the time has passed as Valse-san said, good. But if it has passed faster than that, then what lies ahead is truly hell.
I haven’t received the telepathic call for task completion yet.
Furthermore, there has been no support from the main camp since then.
Perhaps it’s because there are too few effective means against the god. But if they had managed to restrain him for this long, I’d wish they’d at least unleash a barrage from a distance.
But if the restraints start to fray, that would be problematic, I suppose.
Careless attacks could have adverse effects.
Even I, while attacking the gaps in the restraints with thrusts, never attempted to just cleave through the restraints.
Now then, I pondered for several minutes about what to do.
During that time, my limbs continue to move at full power, repeating attacks and increasing the resistance.
Once freed from the restraints, the remaining lower body will surely be summoned.
Then it will start moving.
I wish the Giant King and the others would finish their work by then, but that might be difficult.
Since the telepathic calls went dead, I can’t even check their progress.
My role is to keep this god held back until the task is complete.
The job is to be incessantly pestered and annoyed.
Wait a minute.
A job where being annoying is appreciated is, in a way, the best?
I personally feel like it’s a pretty good job.
My body can still move, but I feel like my tension is tipping over to a strange side from lack of sleep. I feel like my composure is starting to lack, but my concentration hasn’t broken yet, so it’s fine.
I feel like I’m starting to get the same tension as a corporate slave working through a black schedule after an all-nighter, but I feel like I shouldn’t worry about that.
“Hoo.”
I exhale a sigh in this space, surrounded by literal flames under a scorching sun, where I could suffer from oxygen deprivation, to maintain my composure.
While firing off rapid slashes, I furrow my brow and rack my brain about how to dispose of this god.
Just then.
“Took you long enough, Jiro!”
A welcome reinforcement breaks through the flames.
“Instructor!?”
A large oni [ogre/demon] with arms crossed, breaking through the flames.
It’s Oni King Raidou, Instructor Kio.
“Telepathic calls aren’t getting through, so I came as a messenger! Took you long enough! We’re ready!”
And that was the voice I had been waiting for.
A crescent moon appears on the corners of my mouth.
“Don’t hold back, cut him down!”
And with the instructor’s encouragement, I, without hesitation, unleash my magic, and convert my conceptual recognition.
Deep, deep, deeper than anything else.
When I felt a headache from immersing my consciousness deeply, I recognized that I could cut.
Along with the chains wrapped around its body, my strike, overlaid with that concept, severed the Sun God vertically from shoulder to shoulder, along with the thickened magic of this space.
“Kahahaha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!! It feels so good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
An ultimate cut that releases pent-up emotions.
I look down not to see the god being cut and his eyes widening, and him unable to move despite his restraints being released, but instead, I cry out the pleasure of liberation towards the heavens.
I don’t have to hold back anymore.
If I hadn’t held back, I could have cut this god to pieces any time.
Or rather, I didn’t think I could do this at first.
Gradually, and very gradually, by continuing to cut the god’s body, what seemed impossible became possible, and I even reached the point of confidently believing that I *could* do it.
How should I put it? I can’t help but think that I have a talent for cutting that surpasses genius and borders on a natural disaster.
“Get up, god. From here on out, I’ll slice you up for real.”
The sense of liberation and the tension of an all-nighter are terrifying. I can only laugh at myself for boasting so much.
Today’s word:
The sense of time passing varies.
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