We are the Dragon King and the Giant King.
The Demon Lord’s Army was comprised of its most skilled individuals.
With just the three of us, we possessed the military strength to conquer an entire nation. According to my memories, having this many allies made me feel confident.
Even with that kind of military strength…
“Fuhahahahaha! You call this a force, even with your numbers?!”
We couldn’t even manage to break one of the haughty god’s noses.
“Hah, a brute god who only relies on strength doesn’t understand reality! You humans still haven’t killed me!”
We launched attack after attack, following up with more, but even the damage we inflicted was regenerated in an instant. It’s no wonder they’re getting cocky.
I continued to taunt and provoke them, trying to distract them even a little to create an opening. I inflicted wounds that should have been fatal, but still, we couldn’t defeat them.
Honestly, a god is still a god, even in decline.
My slashes, the Dragon King’s breath, and the Giant King’s blows.
All of them possessed enough power to reshape the terrain and even change the scenery. Yet, even after enduring these attacks countless times, the god showed no signs of being affected, except for some cursed damage.
Even though my provocations were laced with bravado, the god seemed to sense that we were intent on killing it. It tried to sweep me away with its foot, as if annoyed, but I dodged and tried to cut its Achilles’ tendon.
Even with conceptual attacks, I couldn’t sever its bones, and its body healed in an instant.
We were simply outmatched in terms of stats.
I don’t know how much time passed, as we were shown its literally off-the-charts stamina.
“Shut up!!”
In retaliation for being cut, it lifted its leg, intending to crush me. But there was no way I would be crushed by such a straightforward movement.
Especially not when…
“Hmph!!”
“You’ve left yourself wide open!!”
The other two, besides me, wouldn’t just let such an obvious opening go to waste.
Breath to the face, a blow to the opposite leg to destabilize its footing.
These two attacks made the god kneel once more.
“Damn you, to think I would kneel again…”
“Learn, you fool.”
This guy has high abilities, but he’s not smart. Not only is he short-sighted, but he also repeats the same mistakes over and over.
What on earth is this guy?
While fighting, I definitely felt a sense of crisis from its attacks, but by distracting it with a three-on-one situation, dealing with the god’s attacks became significantly easier.
Its techniques simply didn’t match its abilities.
Is this truly a god?
Is this really a god?
It was so apparent how poor the god’s adaptability was that it made me question it.
Its attempts to deal with the situation, even after kneeling, were clumsy.
It was like a game.
When given a certain amount of attack, it would create an opening for a counterattack in a way that was far too obvious.
I could sense it from its movements.
“This is annoying!!”
It’s happening again. A wide-area attack after recovering.
It simply scattered the flames of the sun, possessing lethal power, but its movement was too simple, and I could avoid it before it even began.
It was like a motion designed solely to hunt down players who attacked too much.
I could move freely, but the opponent was restricted to fixed movements and couldn’t move freely.
What is this disjointed movement?
Is this really a god?
Doubts piled upon doubts, and it was troublesome.
I leaped away, landed, and, forming a circle, stared intently at the god’s body.
My goal was to gather as much visual information as possible and prepare for a conceptual cut. I thought I might understand something from it, but my headache only worsened, and I lamented the limited capacity of my brain to process such a vast amount of information.
From this amount of information, I could recognize that this being was far superior to the Susanoo-god I had seen before this decisive battle.
But why such clumsy movements, in stark contrast to that volume of information?
If the intention was to sow confusion with this gap, it had already succeeded.
However, seeing its genuinely frustrated expression, it didn’t seem like it was intentionally doing this.
What is it?
What am I overlooking?
The sense of unease I felt was gradually turning into disgust. That disgust was starting to sound an alarm.
What am I missing?
I shifted into high gear and charged with all my might. Cloaked in a gust of wind, the moment I approached, I performed an iai.
“KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIYAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!”
The one-stroke attack, unleashed with a monkey’s roar, severed the god’s wrist where it touched the ground, disrupting its attempt to stand up. It retaliated with an attack to stop me, but I was able to dodge it as well.
Again, there was that sense of unease.
What was lacking?
I looked at the Dragon King.
He didn’t look surprised, but he was annoyed.
I looked at the Giant King.
His stoic expression hadn’t changed, but his eyes narrowed occasionally.
The other two were also sensing something. And they didn’t know what it was.
However, we couldn’t stop attacking.
We couldn’t defeat it. We couldn’t kill it.
Yet, we weren’t in any danger either.
What on earth is this?
A shiver ran down my spine. It was probably because of that lingering doubt.
Following my intuition, I instinctively turned around and swung my Ore Tree with all my might.
There should have been nothing there.
There shouldn’t have been anything there.
But there, the blade of a divine sword, which shouldn’t have been there, was approaching.
Just in the nick of time.
My Ore Tree clashed with the divine sword.
Because of that, my body remained intact.
“Whoa, whoa, the hand I cut off is moving…”
I wasn’t injured, but instead, I was shown proof that my attack had been meaningless. The god’s hand, which I had severed at the wrist and which had fallen to the ground, moved with its own will, grasped the hilt of the divine sword, and then attacked me from the air.
My slash was a conceptual attack. It boasted unparalleled effectiveness when it came to cutting. In other words, it shouldn’t be possible to connect its will to a severed object. Yet, it was capable of doing so, attacking me by surprise from behind, and then regenerating back to its original position. I wouldn’t complain if it were just a god, but this was cheating.
“… ”
The deployment of rain clouds was progressing slowly, and the world erosion via the dungeon was also not going well.
“If I keep my trump cards hidden, nothing will move.” The situation was at a stalemate. If this continued, our stamina would run out, and we would lose. Therefore, it was time to play one of our cards.
“Giant King!”
“Hm.”
Among the items stored in another dimension, there was a colossal iron ball, which was simply massive. Its ability was durability; it was a mass weapon that pursued nothing but sturdiness. The spell added during its processing was entirely focused on preventing breakage, pursuing nothing but its indestructibility in a single item. It was made by the giant race, so it was no ordinary iron ball; it was a magic sword despite its appearance. Its ability was quite simple: a cursed iron ball that would do anything to avoid breaking. With chains befitting such a massive object, I unhesitatingly hurled the object, which had been cast onto the ground, towards the Giant King.
Considering its mass, it was an act of madness. But as expected of the Giant King. Without hesitation, he caught the iron ball with one hand, grasped its nature, and with a “Hmph!!”, wielding it as a weapon befitting his colossal physique, he grasped the chains and swung it mightily, slamming it down towards the god.
“What can a mere iron ball do to me?! Hah!?”
Don’t think it’s just a physical attack. Do you think I would prepare an ordinary iron ball?
And besides, do you think you’ll get a decent product if you ask a company full of perverts from the giant race to make something that might work against a god, disregarding cost-effectiveness?
Our company’s technical capabilities are supported by a huge number of personnel who could probably win the world in peculiar ways. The downside of the iron ball, which was extremely focused on resistance to destruction, was its flashback effect. It was a terrifying weapon that attacked both physically and mentally by forcibly making people recall their own dark past the moment they touched it. Its effect was so potent that even I and the Giant King, who merely touched it briefly, winced in unison. While swinging it with chains was fine, direct contact was another matter.
“Ngh! Why?! These damnable memories!”
It forcibly inserted memories that one would rather not recall into one’s thoughts. As long as the Giant King continued to pound the god with rapid blows, the god was forced to relive unpleasant memories.
“Why do I have to remember?! Damn you!! Is it because of that!?”
The god immediately realized the iron ball’s effect, but its true terror lay in the fact that even with the divine sword, it wouldn’t break easily. I doubted its effectiveness against this arrogant god, thinking it might be a magic sword with questionable effects, but it was surprisingly effective. Gods, too, must have unpleasant memories. Thanks to that, the harassment was a complete success. The god was increasingly focusing its attacks solely on the Giant King, apparently hating that iron ball. Personally, I was curious about the memories that might traumatize the god, but I didn’t have the luxury to find out.
“Stop it, stop that!”
While the expressionless Giant King was gleefully swinging the iron ball and attacking, I continued to attack, not slacking off. I concentrated magic power into my eyeballs and further reinforced my brain to accelerate my thoughts. The world slowed down, and heat gathered in my brain. No matter how successful the harassment was, it was meaningless if it didn’t inflict a fatal blow. Therefore, I had to find a way to deliver that fatal strike. Taking deep breaths, I focused on observation, deeper and deeper, rather than attacking.
The colors became distorted. No, the hues shifted. The colors of the world were dyed in the colors of concepts, adorning this world. Evidence of diving deep, and at the same time, my headache intensified. Red liquid dripped from my nose. Even though it was a shorter duration than when I cut through the Heavenly Gate, the overload on my brain was immediate. I reduced my thoughts to the smallest units, minimizing linguistic and visual information. I didn’t distance myself, but maintained the minimum necessary distance to gather information. I extracted meaning from the hues. Failure. I couldn’t cut. Deeper. My vision narrowed. My brain couldn’t process it all. I shifted the proportion of my body reinforcement to my brain. Even knowing it was like pouring water on scorched earth, it was meaningless if I couldn’t see with this. Gradually, slowly, at a snail’s pace, the god’s colors, the colors of its existence, began to appear. A soul color primarily white, mixed with curses and impurities. But what was that? At its center, was there something? It was like a small cocoon. No, an egg? A single different color existing within the hue of its soul. The shell of the egg was semi-transparent, emitting a faint golden light. The color within was blurred and unseen. But I could see something wriggling restlessly within it. A throb. Don’t look any further. If you look any further, it won’t end well. As if protecting those colors, the hue covered by a thin layer of skin was so intriguing that the moment I focused on it, my instincts sent out a warning. Taking a step back significantly reduced the burden on my brain. I slightly ascended from the deep layers of the world. That alone made breathing easier. However, I could no longer see what I had been seeing moments before.
“… ”
“… ”
And the moment I returned to the world with the colors of reality restored, the Sun God and I made eye contact. Honestly, I was surprised that the god, who had been resisting the Giant King’s harassment, was looking at me. But at the same time, I understood it was because I had seen that. The “something” lurking deep within the Sun God’s soul. I was certain that was the source of my unease.
“You saw it.”
“Well, I didn’t see it clearly.”
The battle had stopped, if only temporarily. But at that moment, the atmosphere had definitively changed. The god, who had been rampaging with pure passion moments before, now had no expression. All traces of impatience, anger, disgust, hostility – everything had been stripped away. Its face was so devoid of emotion that it wouldn’t be strange to call it inorganic. Even if I shrugged my shoulders in response to its certainty-laced question, it wouldn’t make much of a difference.
“It doesn’t matter which. If you know about that…”
A shiver ran down my spine. For the first time, the god recognized me as an individual and directed its killing intent towards me.
“I will not let you leave alive.”
Today’s word:
“When you have to make a judgment on the spot, you have no choice but to do so.”
Thank you for your usual comments and corrections. If you found this interesting, please leave a comment, rating, bookmark, etc. I am also currently serializing another work: “Pandora Pandemic Panic – Pandora’s Box Opened Again, but We’re Fighting Back with Various Things in a Secret Base!!” Please check that out as well!!
