Prologue

I stood in silence in the middle of the flatlands that stretched across the northern part of the Human Kingdom near the border of the Demonkin Nation, awaiting the arrival of the Master named Doc, who I knew would be coming here with a company of demonkin soldiers dressed as bandits, as well as my older brother who he had turned into a monster.

“You may leave that pillar where you placed it,” Ellie said to some fairy maids a little distance behind me. “As for the other pillar, please move that fifty paces forward from its current position.”

“As you wish, Miss Ellie,” replied the lead fairy maid.

The pillars they were talking about were the same ones we had used in the capture of the flesh zombie, Cavaur, in the Dwarf Kingdom. The fairy maids were busily positioning the pillars around us to Ellie’s specifications, each pillar requiring several maids at a time to maneuver it. Although I highly doubted Doc would just come lumbering along in between a bunch of giant pillars if he noticed they’d been placed in an oddly specific pattern, which was why Ellie was going to make the pillars invisible once they were in place.

I wanted to help with the grunt work in order to take my mind off the agitation I was feeling about the mission, but Mei made sure I stayed put.

“Master Light, there is no need for you to assist in the preparations,” assured my head maid, who was standing close behind me with Aoyuki. “Plus, you must not deny the fairy maids the opportunity to complete this important task for you.”

Sure, I understood what she was saying, but I was too on edge to just sit under a parasol waiting for my long-lost brother to show up, so in the end, I chose to position myself on the farthest edge of the prairie and stare toward the horizon, where Doc’s army was supposedly on the move.

“Aoyuki, are you sure Doc and my big brother will be coming from this direction?” I asked, turning to my Genius Monster Tamer.

“Mrrow!” Aoyuki confirmed.

Right at that moment, Mera was tracking Doc’s movements using a certain skill she possessed, but because said skill required such a huge physical sacrifice on her part, we had left her behind on the bottom tier of the Abyss so she could recuperate. Aoyuki was in constant communication with Mera via an SR Telepathy card to confirm that Doc and his men were indeed still making their way toward us.

I thanked Aoyuki, then turned to Ellie and the fairy maids who had all lined up in front of me.

“Blessed Lord, we have finished setting up the teleportation obstruction barrier,” Ellie announced.

“Thanks, Ellie. And thanks to all of you too,” I said. “Now, like we talked about earlier, you’ll all return to the Abyss to take care of business there. We need you to hold the fort, Ellie.”

“Understood, Your Blessedness,” the superwitch replied. “I pray from the deepest reaches of my soul that you will be successful in this mission.”

Ellie and the fairy maids bowed to me, then made their way outside of the anti-teleportation barrier. Once they had exited the cancellation field, Ellie produced an SSR Teleportation card and translocated the group to the Abyss. After watching them go, I turned my gaze back to the horizon and toward Doc.

If Mera’s report and the documents Mei found in Doc’s lab are both correct, it’s basically beyond doubt that Doc has turned my brother into a monster, I thought. Even so...

I had no reason to doubt what my allies had told me. Mera had recounted seeing someone who had looked just like my brother among Doc’s troops, even going as far as using her shape-shifting abilities to reproduce exactly what she had seen, and there was no denying that the face she recreated looked an awful lot like Els, my missing older brother.

Even so, there’s a chance I’m completely wrong about this, I thought. After all, there was always the possibility that Doc had simply created a monster that looked a lot like Els by sheer coincidence, and my big brother was, in fact, living a peaceful life far from these plains.

I sighed quietly. The logical side of my brain was telling me that I was being absurd even entertaining the idea, but I couldn’t help latching on to the possibility, however faint, that I might be totally wrong. In fact, I wanted to latch on to it. I wanted something—anything—to give me some hope that what I was about to face wasn’t real.

However, a short while after Ellie and the fairy maids had left for the Abyss, the harsh reality I was dreading appeared on the horizon. Doc’s team spotted us and rushed headlong to our position without even noticing the invisible pillars. And due to the speed of their approach, I got to see with my own eyes that there really was someone who looked exactly like my brother among their ranks. I’d heard all the intelligence about Els’s fate from my allies and thought I had steeled my emotions to deal with this very moment, but on seeing my brother in the flesh, I felt my last crumb of hope shatter into jagged shards inside my heart.

“Els...” I whispered. “I can’t believe this is you.” I felt a darkness sweep across my soul as I watched my brother charging toward me.

Chapter 1: A Shocking Discovery

Sometime before Light’s painful reunion with his older brother, Mera found herself staring down adversaries from the Demonkin Nation in front of a Human Kingdom border village. She had transformed into something monstrous to intimidate her opponents, and she let her rasping, signature cackle reverberate around the area to add to the effect.

“Is this some dumb joke?” Mera sneered derisively. “I thought I was finally about to face somebody who’s actually worth my time, but all I see before me is another pushover!”

Yet this was all an act, since Mera already knew she was facing someone whose power level dwarfed her own. She had forced herself to say that bombastic line more to encourage herself to engage in what would most likely be a losing battle than anything else.

Mera’s opponent, Goh, groaned in response, the freak of nature towering over him obviously proving to be a letdown. “S’far as I can see, you’re the only pushover here. For god’s sake, why do I gotta take care of this goofy-lookin’ lightweight? This is such bullshit.”

Unlike Mera, Goh wasn’t putting on an act. Prince Voros of the Demonkin Nation had ordered Goh and Doc to lead a company of demon soldiers to lay waste to the Human Kingdom village nearest to the border between the two nations. Prior to this mission, Voros had repeatedly sent soldiers to destroy this same village to punish Queen Lilith of the Human Kingdom, but all of the assault teams had been wiped out by a mysterious defender.

On approaching the village, Goh’s team got to witness the enigmatic warrior that had been giving the Demonkin Nation so much trouble for themselves: a two-meter-plus tall monster with the body of a voluptuous human woman, but with the head of a cobra, and arms and legs that resembled a dragon’s, complete with boulder-like scales and long, flesh-ripping claws at the ends. In fact, the chimeric being’s four limbs were so thick, they looked disproportionately out of place.

The demons following Goh and Doc cowered in fright at the sight of this monster, but Goh’s reaction was markedly different, in that it was one of complete, undisguised disappointment. Even Doc found himself unable to view the snake-headed creature as any kind of threat, the masked Master merely looking on in mild fascination at it, like a researcher observing the behavior of a newly discovered life-form.

“It doesn’t appear to be a living creature that has been artificially created using a human,” Doc mused. “On the other hand, I doubt this type of creature occurs naturally in the wild...”

Mera threw back her cobra head and cackled. “Keep up the cool act, dopes! We’ll see how long it is before you run off scared!”

Mera lunged forward at a speed that belied her massive frame and swung one of her dragon arms at her adversary. If she had been facing A-rank adventurers, they would have been sliced up into mincemeat by her claws before they’d even realized what had happened.

“Graagh!” But when the dust cleared, it was actually Mera who had come off worse, having been slammed to the ground on her back, though while she’d had the wind knocked out of her, the rocky scales covering her body had prevented her from sustaining any real injuries.

The chimera immediately leaped to her feet again and attempted another sweep with her arm at the Masters, but before she could fully execute the move, something grabbed one of her claws and forced her to drop to one knee. All of a sudden, it was Goh towering over and looking down on Mera, who he hadn’t even needed to hurt to bring her to her knees. All he had done was grab a claw and send her off-balance.

Mera began chuckling nervously, her other hand planted firmly on the ground to steady herself. “What are you, some kind of mage? Or did you use a magic item to pull off this trick?”

“Why would I need to use magic or an item?” Goh retorted, sighing with slight irritation. “But I guess I don’t really expect a freak show like you to know how I handled ya. All you’re here to do is wave around a bunch of muscles, claws, and fangs that’ve been given to ya to put on a show.”

Despite his phrasing, Goh wasn’t intentionally mocking Mera, but instead speaking in the kind of laconic tone of someone presenting the facts as he thought he saw them. Once he felt he had done this satisfactorily enough, he released Mera’s claw and took his first swing at her. His fist didn’t travel particularly fast—in fact, the attenuated speed even gave Mera time to cross her arms in front of her in an attempt to block the punch—but he still managed to tear through the chimera’s arms, and land a blow that crushed her fangs and sent her large frame hurtling backward, plowing a Mera-sized rut into the dirt.

“B-But how?” she grunted. “I thought I’d shielded myself perfectly.”

“You think you have time to cradle your bruises, ya little freak?” Goh bounded over to Mera in a flash and aimed a low kick at her dragon-like feet. He wasn’t using his full strength, but the shock of the strike was enough to make both of Mera’s legs go limp, despite the layers of scales and muscle designed to protect the bones underneath.

Next, Goh drove his fist deep into Mera’s abdomen, causing her to double over in pain, then without wasting a second, he booted Mera in the chin, and with his leg still raised, swiftly landed another ankle strike on top of her groggy head. Goh then piledrived Mera’s body into the ground with enough force to cause cracks to spread outward from the point of impact.

Goh had made short work of the cobra-headed monster and had done it with such seamless artistry, the feat wouldn’t have looked out of place on the stage. But instead of admiring his work, the Master was visibly annoyed at a mistake he had made.

“Crap. I let her get some of her nasty blood on me,” Goh muttered, lazily wiping some of Mera’s sprayed blood off his cheek. “Thought I’d done it clean.” He proceeded to wipe his bloodstained fist on his clothes until eventually being interrupted by Doc.

“Mr. Goh! Mr. Goh!” Doc finally chirped up. “Would you perhaps allow me to retain this creature for research purposes?”

“Free country, so to speak,” Goh shrugged. “But I’m afraid you’re jumpin’ the gun.”

Goh leaped backward just as Mera regained consciousness and roared at her opponents, her mouth breathing fire laced with poison like a cobra-headed dragon would. He then jumped up into the air to avoid the venomous flames that followed, while Doc directed his own bodyguard to position himself in a spot where the mad scientist and the demon soldiers could use him as a shield.

“M-Mr. Goh, why aren’t you protecting us?!” Doc yelped. “If it wasn’t for my bodyguard just then, we would all have been reduced to ashes! May I remind you that I’m not anywhere near as adept at combat as yourself?”

“Well, if you’ve got a bodyguard, put him to work, for pity’s sake!” Goh snapped back. “I’m not gonna go around doin’ his job for him!”

It should be mentioned at this juncture that Doc hadn’t instructed his bodyguard to shield the demon soldiers purely out of the goodness of his heart. No, Voros had given Doc an extra assignment of brainwashing some of the soldiers to assassinate Diablo on their return to their homeland, so as it stood, he could ill afford to lose a section of the soldiers, let alone all of them.

Despite bleeding everywhere, Mera cackled again, her defiance indomitable. “I’m not down and out yet, you worms! It’ll take a hell of a lot more than that to beat—”

But before she could complete her attempt at further provocation, her eyes landed on the cloaked figure who had just shielded Doc and the demon commandos from her dragon’s breath. The heat from the flames had burned away his hood, providing her with a full view of his face.

The owner of a second pair of eyes was just as shocked at what she was seeing. The real Mera had been watching the scene unfold from the shadows in order to gather some intel about the new opponents. The cobra-headed Mera fighting Goh was a spawn the original chimera had created using more than a third of her body tissue.

That guy in the hood... thought the real Mera in her hiding place. He looks just like our master!

In fact, the only real points of difference between the two were that this human male was slightly older and had dark brown hair, while the youthful Light’s hair was jet black. Otherwise, the bodyguard could easily have passed for Light’s look-alike, at least when it came to his facial features. In that moment, Mera could have sworn she had seen a vision of her beloved dungeon master as a grown young man. Like the other denizens of the Abyss, Mera’s devotion to Light ran deep enough that she could instantly recognize him in a crowd, and Doc’s bodyguard looked too much like Light for her to dismiss it as merely a close resemblance.

The only other explanation Mera could come up with was that, by sheer happenstance, she had stumbled across Light’s long-lost older brother. The shock of this realization was so complete, she forgot all about the mortal threat posed by Goh and nearly swooned.

“What the...” the Master yelled. “Guess we got one more rat hiding out back there.”

This menacing pronouncement quickly brought Mera back to her senses. Oh, shoot! I can’t let Dreadlocks waste me here! I need to take this info back to master, pronto!

Mera’s momentary lapse in composure over the sight of her master’s would-be relative had caused her to completely forget about concealing her presence, and the energy inadvertently released by the Level 7777 chimera didn’t escape Goh’s senses. This meant that even though she wanted to stay and collect more intel, she instinctively knew it was time to leave.

The chimera and her spawn locked eyes for a brief moment, which was the signal for the cobra-headed fighter to do everything it could to stall Goh so that Mera could escape. The spawn was already aware of the duty it needed to fulfill if the situation called for it. After directing the spawn to carry out its final task, Mera released her SSR Teleportation card in order to go tell Light of this game-changing news: that someone who looked like his brother was working with his enemies.

Chapter 2: Horrible News

I was in my executive office in the deepest depths of the Abyss with Mei, Aoyuki, and Ellie facing me, all three of my SUR Level 9999 lieutenants shaking with enough rage-filled energy to make my office like an erupting volcano.

What had first set them off was the “postgame” (as it were) report from the team led by Mei that I had sent to capture Doc. While Ellie and my team were busy battling Gira—another Master in Doc’s faction—they had gone to his lab located in a forest just outside of the Demonkin Nation’s capital. Mei and her team managed to successfully infiltrate the lab, but quickly realized that Doc was unfortunately absent.

What they did bring back with them, however, was a bunch of documents Nazuna had found in Doc’s study, containing records of his most successful experimental subject to date in his quest to create a superhuman monster. The document contained the name, height, weight, and other details about the test subject, all of which matched those of my elder brother, Els.

Everyone on Mei’s team had gasped when reading the documents, according to the report. The entire team—which had also included Jack, Suzu, and Lock—was well aware of my brother’s physical description, because I had told everyone in the Abyss what he looked like. But in my mind, I wasn’t ready to rule out the possibility that this test subject was someone else named Els who just so happened to share the same height, weight, and age as my brother. Or at least, that was until we received the most recent report from Mera.

“Based on their profiles I heard previously, I believe I came into contact with the two Masters named Doc and Goh,” Mera had told us a little while earlier in this very office. “They also had someone with them who looked an awful lot like your dear brother, Els, from what I could tell. To my great, great shame, I was too powerless to bring your dear brother back with me, and instead returned to the Abyss immediately because I felt it was my top priority to pass this information on to you as soon as possible. I have disgraced myself in battle, and I will accept any punishment you give me, master.”

Mera had first teleported to the Great Tower as a precaution, just in case she was being tracked via sorcery or a magic item, then after passing a screening at the tower, she teleported to the Abyss, where she rushed straight to my office to deliver the news of what she had witnessed. She even used her powers to shape-shift into the person she had seen in order for me to confirm their identity, and the face she showed me was indeed that of Els.

Mera appeared visibly distraught over the fact that she’d had to leave my brother behind. She even knelt down before me, waiting for me to discipline her, but I wasn’t going to do that. In fact, my immediate thought was to praise her for making the most rational, levelheaded decision she could possibly have made in that situation.

“You did the right thing in coming to me with this news first, Mera,” I told her. “You have nothing to blame yourself for, and I want to thank you for telling me about my brother.”

Mera chuckled humbly. “I don’t deserve your praise, master.” Normally, she would be trembling with joy at receiving a compliment from me, but this time, she showed no sign of being happy at all. Coupled with the documents recovered by Mei’s team, this new bit of info all but proved that Els had been turned into a monster by Doc.

“Thanks to the efforts of you and the Mohawks, we’ve been able to harass Diablo to no end, all while protecting those villagers from raiders. I bet you sacrificed a lot of your body in that fight, so you should go rest up and focus on regaining your strength, because we may need you again real soon.”

“Thank you very much, master,” Mera replied. “If you do need us again, just say the word! The Mohawks and I would gladly lay down our lives and souls for your sake. We’re here to serve you in whatever way you wish.”

In other words, Mera and the Mohawks would attempt to rescue my brother if I ordered them to do so, even if it meant them getting killed in the process. While I was appreciative of this restatement of her pledge of absolute loyalty to me, I was also a little saddened by it, since I could never dream of asking Mera or the Mohawks to throw away their lives like that.

I flashed Mera a half smile and gently dismissed her, leaving just me and my three livid lieutenants in my office. Even I was finding it hard not to feel violently enraged at what I’d heard, although I was equally heartbroken at the same time.

Is there some reason the Goddess makes us humans suffer this much? I grumbled inwardly. What did we do to deserve this cruel fate? Was it something so awful that we needed to be cursed to grind out such miserable lives? But what could ever justify this reality we are living in?

The pain I felt inside was so intense, I was forced to shut my eyes. If the Goddess only exists to make us humans suffer, then maybe I should—

I didn’t want to finish that sentence. I took a few deep breaths to calm my nerves, then opened my eyes again. Besides, blaming the Goddess wasn’t going to solve anything. I had to calmly weigh up my options.

“If I could, I’d go capture Doc right now and subject him to a billion times more pain and suffering than he’s made my brother go through,” I growled. “I’d torture him day and night with my own two hands. But saving my brother, Els, comes before anything else. For that, we’ll need to capture Doc alive and force him to tell us how we can return my brother to normal.”

I tamped down my emotions and glanced pointedly at my three SUR warriors. “I need to rescue my brother, but if I go alone, there’s a chance I might let Doc escape with Els, so I’m going to need all of your help. Can you lend it to me?”

All three of my lieutenants chose that exact moment to start speaking over each other, as if they’d been waiting since forever to express their thoughts on the matter.

“Of course we will assist you, Master Light,” Mei said. “On my honor as a maid, I pledge to rescue your dear brother and make sure he is safe and well.”

“Yes, my master,” Aoyuki said coolly. “Your wish is also my wish. These miscreants who see fit to incur your wrath will most assuredly pay with the worst bloodletting and carnage imaginable. When that is completed, I will return your dear elder brother safely to your embrace, master.”

“Our lives, souls, and very existences are your possessions by right, Blessed Lord Light,” Ellie stated. “Our whole reason for being is to serve as your arms and legs so you can achieve your divine mission! Please give us the order to rescue our dearest brother with you!”

I nodded at my lieutenants, greatly heartened by their responses. “Thanks, you guys. Mera’s able to track Doc, Els, and Goh using her powers, so if we all work together, I know we’ll be able to save my brother and capture those Masters.”

After another round of overeager replies, I laid out our objectives.

“Okay, first and foremost, we need to bring back my brother at all costs,” I said. “Then, our second biggest priority is capturing Doc, since we’ll need him if we want to cure my brother. As for Goh, if worse comes to worst, I don’t mind if he happens to slip through our grasp.” Of course, I would much rather end up with both Masters and Els in our custody, but I had to be realistic.

“I’ll take Mei and Aoyuki to face Doc and my brother,” I continued. “I’ll get Nazuna to take on Goh alone. Ellie, I’ll need you to set up an anti-teleportation barrier so that nobody can escape once we engage them. After the barrier is up and running, I’ll have you return to the Abyss and be on standby.”

“As you command, Master Light,” Mei replied. “On my honor as a maid, I pledge that I will spare no effort in rescuing your dear elder brother.”

“Mrrow!” Aoyuki said, every bit as excitedly.

“It is to my utter chagrin that I won’t be able to participate in the monumental task of rescuing our dear brother myself, but I understand that my part in this assignment is for the best,” Ellie said resignedly. “As you wish, Your Blessedness.”

I was pretty sure Ellie wasn’t going to protest about the role I had given her in front of Aoyuki. After all, Ellie had just gotten back from fighting Gira, while Aoyuki had stayed behind in the Abyss, serving her house-sitting role with absolutely zero complaints, so it wouldn’t be a good look if Ellie whined about being held in reserve.

And truth be told, I would feel much better with Ellie fighting by my side on this mission too, but I’d feel a whole lot worse if I didn’t have at least one Level 9999 warrior watching over the Abyss while the others and I were absent. For one thing, we had Miki detained in the dungeon, and having a SUR warrior around was an extra layer of insurance in case of the worst happening. I loved my brother, and I would do anything to ensure he got brought to me safely, but I loved my sister, Yume, just as much, as well as everyone else in the Abyss. I wasn’t about to leave the people I loved unprotected.

In any case, I had very good reasons for bringing Mei and Aoyuki with me on this mission. In Mei’s case, she was able to create a physical enclosure nobody could escape from using her Magistrings. Aoyuki, on the other hand, had her Beast Chain, a phantasma-class weapon that would prove handy for this mission. The Beast Chain had a spiked collar attached to it that was able to automatically pursue and capture any monster on command, and once attached, it was practically impossible to remove the collar, no matter how much the captive struggled against it. The only choices available to the collared creature were to wait for Aoyuki to let it go, defeat her, or willingly obey her. (Of course, there could be some other secret hacks for escaping the Beast Chain that I wasn’t aware of, but that was neither here nor there.) My plan was to have Aoyuki capture my brother-turned-monster and make sure he couldn’t escape from our grasp.

According to Miki, Goh was the most powerful Master in her clique, but despite this, I figured Nazuna should be able to easily take him on. I might have been a bit worried if Goh had some other Masters he could call on to back him up, but from our count, Doc was the only ally he had left. Still, Goh appeared to be the smart, savvy type—or at the very least, sharp enough to lead the Demonkin Nation’s faction of Masters. Even if Nazuna completely outclassed him in terms of raw fighting skills, I had a few doubts in the back of my mind about her ability to counter some of the potential wild-card tactical maneuvers Goh might pull.

As it turned out, my other lieutenants shared my concerns about Nazuna.

“Master Light, I would suggest assigning Iceheat to be Nazuna’s minder—ahem, or rather, her assistant,” Mei suggested.

“Mrrew!” Aoyuki mewled in agreement.

“Perhaps I should serve as Nazuna’s backup once I’ve finished preparing the teleportation barrier?” Ellie offered.

“Yes, guys, I know. I’m worried about sending Nazuna on a solo assignment too,” I agreed. “I’ve thought about sending someone with Nazuna to provide her with support too, but...”

I thought back to what Mera had told me about the fight between her spawn and Goh. She had laughed darkly while recalling the completely one-sided affair she had witnessed.

“In all honesty, I have no idea how much strength Goh was packing,” Mera had admitted, speaking for her spawn. “What I do know is he didn’t take the fight seriously at all. He was toying with me, in fact.”

Mera’s spawn was the one that had attacked first, but it had found itself slammed into the ground before it even knew what was happening. When it tried attacking Goh again, he had simply grabbed a claw and forced the spawn down onto one knee.

“I tried with all my might to stand, but I just couldn’t,” Mera had said, speaking for her spawn again. “I also tried to pry myself loose from him, but I literally couldn’t budge an inch. It would’ve been one thing if Goh had used his superior power level to subdue me, but there was absolutely no sign he was using any of his strength. This was true even while I struggled wildly to get free.”

Mera had paused briefly before continuing. “I actually asked Goh if he was using spells or some kind of magic item to pull off that trick, but he just scoffed and denied it. Even now, I have no idea how he was able to just shut me down completely like that. It was like he had used a creepy hex on me or something.”

After recalling Mera’s report, I looked up at my lieutenants again. “Goh is a Level 9000 Master, meaning he’s the strongest opponent we’ve ever faced. It also looks like he possesses some kind of unknown skill that completely disabled Mera. From what she told me, I’m afraid any assistant would only get in Nazuna’s way.”

Mei, Aoyuki, and I would be too busy taking on Doc and my brother to be viable alternatives. There remained the option of having Ellie accompany Nazuna, but she was a sorceress through and through, meaning she had next to no close-quarters combat skills. It might have made sense to have her take on the Level 7000 Gira, but she would be more at risk pitted against Goh, who had already proven himself to be a master of physical combat.

I looked at Ellie. “I want to avoid a situation where you end up getting killed by Goh’s melee attacks before Nazuna and the rest of us can save you.” I paused briefly as I took a breath. “I’d never be able to live with myself if that happened.”

“B-Blessed Lord Light...” Hearing me worry about her safety so elated Ellie, her cheeks flushed and her eyes glistened with tears.

“And that doesn’t just go for you either,” I said. “I don’t want anyone to lose their lives. Not Mei, not Aoyuki, not Nazuna, nor anyone else. That’s why I want to keep these assignments as they are for this mission.”

“It is my greatest honor knowing that you care so much about our welfare,” Mei stated warmly.

“Mrrrow!” Aoyuki cooed.

On hearing their responses, it was my turn to start blushing. I cleared my throat to cover up the awkwardness I was feeling and wrapped up the meeting.

“Anyway, I think we’ll end it there,” I said. “We’ll go into battle without any changes to the lineup I suggested. Make sure Nazuna knows about her assignment so she can get ready for it.”

My three lieutenants acknowledged their orders, marking the start of my mission to rescue my brother.

Chapter 3: Blood

“What the...” Goh yelled out. “Guess we got one more rat hiding out back there.”

But before Goh could move to investigate, Mera’s cobra-headed spawn started spewing venomous flames at her adversaries, even as she bled from the corners of her mouth. The spawn needed to buy some time for Mera to teleport away, and even though Goh seemed able to block all physical attacks with some kind of skill he had, he would still have to jump out of the way to avoid the poison flames, like he had done before. This suggested Goh wasn’t immune to fire breath with that particular property, but instead of scrambling to avoid the dragon fire, he merely snarled in contempt.

“Ya really think I’d be that easy to beat?” Goh sneered, speaking in a tone that suggested he knew what the spawn was up to. This time, he didn’t jump out of the way and just let the poison flames wash over him. This move surprised the spawn at first, but it took the opportunity to add more force behind the billowing flames.

That dumbass! He’s really taking my dragonfire head-on! the spawn thought, guffawing like Mera in its mind. If he’s trying to show off how resistant he is to heat and poison, he’s an even bigger dunce than I thought! This isn’t any ordinary poison I’m breathing over him! It’s a supermix of thousands of poisons given to me by Mera. No matter how much of a resistance you have, you’ll eventually be contaminated and weakened the longer you cook in the flames! Then, once you’re weak enough, I’ll move in closer and inject you with even more poison to put you out of commission. After that, all I’ll have to do is shackle you and drag your ass to the Great Tower!

The spawn thought she had finally gotten the upper hand, even taking a beat to remind herself not to relocate the captured Goh straight to the Abyss just in case he was being tracked by anyone. If the spawn succeeded in her gambit, Light was sure to sing her praises for what would be an unlikely comeback. But this plan of hers would only work if there was a chance of success in the first place.

“Wh-What?!” the spawn yelled loudly on witnessing Goh counter her breath attack, simply fanning away the dragonfire by making circular motions with his arm. It was as if he were directing the flames not to touch any of the hairs on his body, and it soon became clear that not a single patch of his skin had been burned or affected by the poison. In short, the spawn’s dragonfire was having absolutely zero effect on Goh.

The spawn cackled in disbelief. “How are you able to beat away my flames like that? You didn’t even use a spell or a magic item. All you did was move your arms! How’s that possible? Is it some sort of special skill?”

“Huh? A skill?” Goh replied. “Guess ya could call it a skill, sure. In a sense. Not that I’d expect a freak like you to know anything about it.”

While the spawn puzzled over the meaning of this cryptic declaration, Goh unleashed the full force of his murderous energy, overwhelming his opponent.

“You all done with your clown tricks now?” Goh asked. “Then, it’s time I put ya outta your misery.”

The pressure from Goh’s energy was so intense, the spawn grunted under the strain and hurriedly retreated from the Master. She knew if she tried to engage Goh in close combat again, she would only get knocked to the ground immediately or find herself completely incapacitated. If she attempted to breathe fire at Goh from a distance, he would merely blow away the flames with his spinning arms. As such, the spawn was left with no good option if she wanted to continue the battle, but she figured her best chance, however faint it might be, was to maintain a gap between her and Goh and wait for an opportunity to strike. Her opponent was still human, after all, even if he was a Master.

I bet I have more stamina than this jerk, the spawn thought. However, Goh was clearly not amused by what were quite obviously avoidance tactics being taken by Mera’s spawn.

“Ya think ya can just back away and wait for an opening to attack me, you freak show?” Goh yelled. “For the record, I don’t need ranged attacks, spells, or any kind of junk like that to handle these situations. All I need is this!”

Goh kicked the ground as though he was channeling all of his pent-up frustration and unleashed a massive tsunami of dirt and rubble that barreled toward the spawn at breakneck speed. She tried to protect herself by throwing up her arms, but the force of the avalanche was so great, it ripped through her arms and the rest of her body, leaving the spawn battered and broken in the resulting debris.

How did I take this much damage from a pile of dirt? the spawn thought, completely astonished by this turn of events. What kind of power does this guy have? The spawn began chuckling inwardly, wholly resigned to her fate. Well, at least I was able to buy Mera enough time to get the hell out of here so she could get that important bit of info to our master. And considering this unstoppable juggernaut I’m facing, that’s a victory in itself!

Indeed, by this point, the spawn’s creator had already translocated to the Great Tower and was preparing for the next leg in her journey to the Abyss. It was only a matter of time before Light found out what this battle had uncovered.

The spawn laughed silently once more. All that’s left now is to splatter my blood all over Goh, Doc, and this bodyguard who looks a lot like our master. It’s a good thing Goh’s ripped me to shreds, ’cause my bloodletting will look more natural this way.

The spawn’s arms had been pulverized by the mass of soil kicked her way by Goh. It had seemingly contained rocks that had ripped through her flesh like a hail of bullets. All that the spawn could do at this point was rush headlong toward Goh in one last assault, although this time, she would be waving her arms around as she charged, spraying her blood everywhere.

The spawn stood up again and sped toward her targets, knowing she now had zero chance of winning this fight. Yet despite this, she cackled ebulliently at the prospect of fulfilling her mission.

I’m doing this for my master and for everybody in the Abyss! Mera’s spawn thought. And I’ll see it through to the very end!

✰✰✰

Mera’s spawn launched one final attack on Goh, in the knowledge that she was at a disadvantage however much distance lay between them. Despite her bruised, battered body with chunks ripped out of it and a pervading sense of hopelessness, the spawn figured she might as well end the fight eyeball to eyeball with her foe. But when it was all over, she was little more than a pile of ash on the ground, having gone up in flames in a self-destruct gambit that would ensure there was no way her foes could get any information on who (or what) they had been fighting. Goh regarded the spawn’s remains and clicked his tongue in exasperation.

“What was the point of fighting so long?” he spat. “Crap, she even got more of her nasty blood on me.”

“It’s highly unfortunate we weren’t able to recover her corpse in one piece, since she would have made for quite an interesting specimen,” Doc said, gazing longingly at the waning embers. “I would never have expected her to incinerate herself like that to keep us from having the body.”

The demon commandos from Diablo’s fiefdom were overwhelmed by Goh’s prowess on the battlefield, but relieved that they themselves had come to no real harm. Meanwhile, a thoroughly displeased Goh turned his back on the human village and started ambling away in the opposite direction. He already knew the houses all stood empty.

“Mr. Goh, might I inquire as to where you are going?” Doc asked.

Goh again made a noise that was half sigh, half groan. “I smashed that ‘powerful subordinate’ that was causin’ everyone so much trouble. My work’s done here. You guys can deal with the rest.”

The derision with which Goh repeated the words that had been uttered by Prince Voros to describe the Wicked Witch’s minion was plain for all to hear. As far as he was concerned, his part in this had been completed, and all that was left to do now was for Doc to fulfill his own special assignment.

Although Goh also had another reason for leaving so soon. It’s somethin’ I gotta do, even if it is a pain in the ass. He sighed inwardly with a mental click of his tongue. He didn’t feel the need to fill Doc in on the specifics of his errand, since while Doc was technically his ally, the only thing tying them together was a loosely shared motive. If he was forced to give his honest thoughts on it, he didn’t really trust Doc all that much.

Doc watched his fellow Master mosey off toward the Demonkin Nation border. “Mr. Goh can be quite capricious at times, but he is certainly correct in his statement that there is no reason for him to remain after slaying the powerful minion. Even if I encounter more assailants, I have my greatest masterpiece to provide me with protection.” He sighed. “Still, even allowing for all of these considerations, my word...”

Doc lacked the strength to force his temperamental ally to listen to reason, and he still had to deal with the demonkin soldiers who were in a state of shock after witnessing Goh’s might.

Perhaps it was partly their disquiet that minded him to take his leave? Doc wondered casually, before quickly dismissing the notion because he knew Goh would never be so conscientious. Wherever he went, he considered himself the center of the universe, with little to no regard for anyone else. Doc smiled wryly under his mask at this thought, and it was only the demonkin soldiers speaking up that brought him back to his senses.

“E-Excuse me, sir, what are our orders now?” one commando asked meekly.

Doc turned to the troops. “I sense no humans in this village; therefore, we should settle down here for the night in preparation for striking the next village tomorrow. We must hunt as many humans as we can for the sake of my research, for the honor of the Demonkin Nation, and for the evolution and glory of the human race.”

Due to his ghoulish mask obscuring his features, none of the soldiers could tell that Doc had a beaming smile on his face while making this pronouncement.

✰✰✰

“Ugh, I’m sick of this dogshit,” Goh moaned. He had just left the raiding party in Doc’s hands and was on his way back to the Demonkin Nation border. After hiking a good distance, he did a quick visual check to make sure Doc wasn’t tracking him, then made a detour to the Dragonute Empire instead. This change to his itinerary was an enforced one, prompted by the recently resolved battle with Mera’s spawn.

They told me the warrior chick working for the Wicked Witch would be a handful to deal with, but I never thought she’d be that tough, Goh reflected. And there was someone else hiding in the village, spyin’ on us, but the snoop ran off when I sniffed ’em out. And judging from the energy I picked up on, the runner’s overpowered too. Is C with the witch? Or is that witch actually C?

Although it had seemed like an easy fight to everyone watching, Goh had actually felt threatened by the strength displayed by Mera’s spawn. It also went without saying that it was the real Mera—the Level 7777 chimera—who had radiated the energy vibrations that had caught Goh’s attention, and he wasn’t naive enough to think it was a coincidence that two powerful warriors like them (in reality, the same warrior, but he wasn’t to know that) just happened to be followers of the Wicked Witch of the Tower.

It’s such a goddamn chore... thought Goh. But I gotta get this info to Hiro’s crew, pronto.

Hiro was the leader of a group of Masters who had allied themselves with the Dragonute Empire. While Goh was the leader of a rival group of Masters, the two heads had been colluding in the background, a relationship that was a closely guarded secret. Hisomi and Octopus Head (as Kaizer called him) were the only other Masters who knew about the cooperation between the pair. Octopus Head’s powers, in particular, had helped Goh to level up to 9000, since they had allowed him to defeat sea monsters that resided deep in the ocean, and those monsters were generally more powerful than ones found on land.

Goh hadn’t disclosed these secrets to anyone else in the Demonkin Nation clique, not even Miki. The reason Hiro was conspiring with Goh was to avoid getting into senseless battles with the rival group of Masters, since that was energy that could be put to better use on their P.A. project, while what Goh got out of the deal was insurance that he’d be saved if the worst-case scenario ever came to bear. In truth, Goh didn’t just lack trust in his supposed comrades, he would turn his back on the rest of his clique without hesitation if it meant saving himself. All in all, there was very little loyalty present in Goh’s faction.

I’d usually use a spell or something to tell Hiro and be done with it, but I’m up against the tower witch here, thought Goh. At this moment, she might be using some kind of witchcraft to intercept any magic messages. Best thing is to just drag my ass to the designated point and tell ’em face-to-face. Still, doesn’t make it any less dogshit!

Despite grumbling inwardly about it, Goh kept trudging along, spurred on by his primal instinct for self-preservation. Partway through his journey, he activated his Item Box and pulled out a Bracelet of Deception, a magic item that altered his appearance, changing him from a beefcake with muscles stacked on muscles to a normal-looking man of below-average strength.

The Bracelet of Deception could transform the visage of its wearer into anything he or she desired, and it mainly saw use on subjects being escorted, aristocrats looking to slum it in the city’s entertainment district, and tricksters out to play practical jokes. In general, however, the bracelet’s power was fairly weak, and a simple Appraisal was enough to expose the true identity of the wearer. Even so, the item’s fame meant it fetched a good price on the open market.

The reason behind Goh choosing to wear a Bracelet of Deception and disguising himself as a more vulnerable-looking man was so he could have some fun along the way, primarily by beating up bandits unlucky enough to mistake him for an easy target, which was quite likely since he was trekking along a forest road alone, without any bodyguards or even a carriage. The only people who’d take that kind of risk were highly trained fighters, folk with no other choice but to chance it alone on foot, and fools with no regard for their own safety.

If Goh had wanted to avoid trouble, he could’ve easily transformed himself into a dragonute, an elf, a dark elf, or a demon, since those races were all powerful enough to ward off petty bandits, yet he purposely disguised himself as a human with a slight build to lure any muggers into a trap. The disguise also came in handy when he needed to melt into crowds.

✰✰✰

After boarding a riverboat, Goh maintained his appearance as a frail, scrawny traveler all the way downstream. The vessel eventually moored up close to the Principality of the Nine, but on disembarking, Goh went off in the opposite direction toward the Dragonute Empire, along a highway that hugged a forest.

Sure, they promised to add me to P.A. if things go all to hell, but they’ve really got me whipped because of it, thought Goh. I mean, why do they make me come all the way out here to this forest just to swap info, for god’s sake?

He made his way toward the rendezvous point, still silently grumbling about the power dynamics that tainted his bargain with Hiro. Ever since the arrival of the Wicked Witch of the Tower, Goh would meet regularly with Hiro’s people to exchange intelligence, and on each occasion, the rendezvous point would be different, but he’d noted that the Dragonute Empire Masters often chose locations that were more easily accessible to them, and that didn’t sit well with his pride one bit. However, since he had more to lose in this clandestine arrangement, all he could do was mutter under his breath, privately cursing his lot, as he lumbered along the trail.

Goh finally arrived at the forest path that would take him straight to the rendezvous point. Of course, he could have taken a shortcut and sliced directly through the woods, but he hadn’t felt like forging his own messy, unbeaten route to his destination. He had only taken a few paces along the forest pathway when he sensed about a dozen pairs of eyes landing on him, causing him to groan inwardly.

And I wasn’t even really out huntin’ for these guys, if I’m being honest, Goh reflected. They coulda just left me alone and not taken the bait. But what can you do? He heard people positioning themselves in a circle around him so that he had nowhere to run, and a few seconds later, a number of human men carrying swords and knives emerged from the trees and surrounded him. Goh sensed that there were others still crouching in the undergrowth with their bows trained on him. This armed gang were quite obviously highwaymen.

One of the men—who appeared to be the boss—strode toward Goh to parley. He had a muscular build for a human, and his beard added to his intimidating look.

“Hey, pal,” the boss said in a low voice. “I’m afraid you’re gonna need to pay a toll if ya wanna pass through here.”

The bandits had Goh completely surrounded, but were left in a state of collective confusion when the Level 9000 Master snorted with laughter as if he were watching a bunch of clowns performing a slapstick routine. After all, from what the bandits could tell, they were threatening a fellow human who looked too frail to defend himself.

“Quit smirkin’, pal, and either say somethin’ or fork over yer money!” the boss thundered. “Or would ya rather pay with yer life? Well?!”

Months before, there had been a healthy number of merchants, travelers, and cargo-carrying carriages shuttling between the Demonkin Nation and the Human Kingdom, but due to the tensions between the two nations, traffic had plummeted to virtually zero. For the bandits, the lack of targets had made them desperate enough to target this spindly-looking man who probably didn’t have much on him anyway. Even so, despite the potential rewards from this encounter being meager, days of hunger had the highwaymen pointing their weapons at the disguised Master all the same.

But instead of looking fearful like they were expecting, Goh grinned almost lasciviously at his would-be attackers. Nobody could have blamed the boss for dropping his cool facade and raising his voice, and the other bandits quickly followed up on their leader’s tirade.

“Maybe this guy doesn’t realize how much danger he’s in,” one said. “The fact he’s out here all alone shows he ain’t particularly bright to begin with.”

“You said it,” agreed his buddy next to him. “He even looks like a chowderhead now that I’m gettin’ a closer look at him.”

“In that case, we should teach this jackass a lesson he won’t soon forget,” suggested a third mugger who was wielding a knife. “I think slicing off an ear will teach ’im some manners. Or maybe both of ’em. Whaddaya think, boss?”

“Well, we ain’t gonna get any other patsy wanderin’ around these parts for another few weeks, if that,” the leader remarked, a sadistic grin spreading across his face. “Guess we might as well kill some time by teachin’ this peabrain how the real world works. Ain’t no guarantee he’ll ever put that knowledge to use later on, mind.”

The knife-wielding bandit guffawed at the joke. “Y’got me there! Learnin’ street smarts ain’t ’xactly useful if yer as dead as a doornail. Maybe he’ll be smart enough to get down on his hands and knees and beg us to let him walk away with a heartbeat. Not that any type of beggin’ will do him any good!”

The rest of the highwaymen brayed with laughter at his follow-up wisecrack, and it was at that moment that Goh finally decided to make his first move. He simply stretched out his arm and uncurled his fingers to show them all what he was holding: a number of torn-off ears. At first, the bandits couldn’t make sense of what they were looking at, but after a couple seconds had passed, they realized Goh was holding their ears.

The knife-wielding lackey screeched. “My ear! He friggin’ ripped my ear off!”

The boss and a number of the other bandits similarly writhed about in pain, though the ones who were the most surprised at what had transpired were the bowmen who’d been hidden in the bushes, ready to loose their arrows at Goh if needed, for their ears were also missing.

Goh dropped the ears and ground them into the dirt with his foot as if putting out cigarette butts.

“Well, you guys did manage to teach me one thing,” Goh said. “Nothing beats wreckin’ a bunch of pip-squeaks who’re too weak to fight back. But there is one other thing that’s an even bigger rush than that. Can ya guess what it is?”

“D-Dammit!” yelled the boss, who was pressing his hand against the open wound where his ear had once been. “Murder that sonuvabitch! Now!”

As it turned out, mobilizing his crew was the worst move the leader of the bandits could have made. Goh lazily struck one of the lackeys who was standing beside the boss, but that single hit was enough to turn the hapless bandit into a fine, blood-tinged mist. For a Level 9000 Master like Goh, reducing a human to powder was easier than crushing an ant underfoot.

“C’mon! Answer the question!” Goh barked.

The boss flinched and squealed in fright. “I-I don’t know...” he whimpered. Goh’s head swiveled around to the other bandits, the evil glint in his eye hectoring them for an answer.

“U-Um, drinking booze? Getting laid?” suggested one of the bandits.

“I-I hear illegal drugs give you a real rush...” offered another.

“I like e-eating a lot, so maybe having a nice meal?” tried a third.

Goh shrugged in resignation—a clear signal that none of the responses had hit the mark. His expression turned much crueler as he addressed the bandits again. “Not even close,” he sniffed. “Y’see, what’s an even bigger rush is lettin’ a bunch of morons think they’re tougher than you, then turning the tables and slaughterin’ ’em all. You get a real high from seeing punks like you begging for your lives so soon after taking your victory lap. And you shit stains always scream the same things: ‘I’m sorry!’ ‘Please spare me!’ ‘Don’t kill me!’ ‘I’ll do whatever you want!’ And every time, it makes me laugh myself stupid!”

Goh’s hobby of disguising himself just to lure in bullies verged on monomania.

“If ya don’t wanna die, you should take your own advice and start beggin’ for your lives,” he said. “Not that it’ll do ya any good!”

The Master launched himself at the bandits, who were dumbstruck at hearing their own words thrown back at them. Now that Goh had exposed his true strength, he seemed like a wild predator baring his fangs at his next prey. One of the bandits broke into a run, fleeing like a jackrabbit.

“P-Please, don’t kill m—” But before the thug could finish his plea, Goh caught up to him, punched a hole in his back, and ripped out his spinal cord, sending blood and guts flying everywhere and killing the runner instantly. The remaining ten bandits screamed, suddenly fully aware of the deadly monster they had unwittingly provoked. They all scattered into the forest, hoping to use their relative familiarity of the terrain to their advantage, but while this gambit proved they were cleverer than most bandits, their quick-thinking turned out to be useless in the face of a Master.

Goh burst out laughing. “Yeah, ya’d better keep runnin’ before I snuff ya out! Call it a game of tag. Winner gets to escape with his life!”

He methodically caught up to each bandit, the thick forest undergrowth proving to be no obstacle to his pursuit, and every time he got within touching distance of one, the bandit would shake like a leaf and abandon whatever pride they might have had previously.

“No! Don’t come near me!” one cried out.

Goh giggled with pure, childlike glee. “C’mon! C’mon! I thought ya said you were gonna kill me! I’m right here, so let’s see ya try!”

“I was wrong! I’m sorry!” the bandit pleaded. “Don’t kill me! No! I don’t wanna die this way!”

But Goh didn’t pay any attention to the fervent pleas of his victim as he relentlessly tortured him. He was like a kid senselessly ripping the wings and legs off an insect before crushing the rest of it and feeding it to a frog. Goh smashed the legs of the bandit, ripped off his limbs, gouged out his eyes, tore off his one remaining ear, plucked out his internal organs, then impaled the mutilated body on a sharpened tree branch, like how a butcher-bird did with its prey. This gruesome treatment was also soon dished out to the other bandits, including two archers that had been assigned to keep their distance from the forest path.

The last member of the bandit gang to be captured by Goh was the boss, who—knowing there was no escape—dropped to the ground and started kowtowing furiously.

“W-We didn’t mean to attack you, I swear!” the boss blurted out. “I’ve got gold, magic items, and food back at the hideout. They’re all yours if you just spare my life! And I promise I’ll get an honest job and retire from my life of crime!”

Tears, snot, and saliva dribbled down into the boss’s beard as he pleaded with more sincerity than he had ever mustered up in his lifetime, but unfortunately for him, his words fell on deaf ears. Goh sucked in a lungful of air and sighed with intense pleasure.

“Hell yeah! This is where it’s at!” he exclaimed. “I just love stompin’ on assholes who run their mouths only to find out they shouldn’t have done so, the hard way. I hope Hiro’s team doesn’t finish up that P.A. stuff too soon, ’cause I wanna enjoy these moments as much as I can first!”

The only reason Goh stayed with the Demonkin Nation’s faction of Masters rather than becoming fully affiliated with Hiro’s cadre was due to the fact that the demonkin always gave him their full backing to do pretty much whatever he wanted, which suited him greatly because he didn’t adhere to any particular sense of duty or purpose. He would kill people whenever he felt like it, and if he found himself in the mood for something more carnal, he’d abduct a woman from some random place and violate her without consequence. If he was hungry, he ate, and once he was full, he slept.

As long as Goh was free to live his life however he wanted, it didn’t matter which faction of Masters he was in, or how they viewed C. He wasn’t even a worshipper of C; if anything, that particular entity could go rot in hell for all he cared.

“Huh? What?” Still on his hands and knees, the boss of the bandits was at a complete loss over what Goh had just articulated, but the man in question simply smirked, before striding over to the boss and crushing his head with his foot.

“Ugh, the rush was so good, I let my tongue slip,” Goh said, checking to make sure his prey was dead. “But dead men tell no tales, and you’re the last of ’em—”

“Hey, you!” yelled the high-pitched voice of a girl. “You must be the baddie who hurt my friend!”

Goh spun around, his eyes landing on a short, busty young woman with gleaming platinum hair, whose forelocks swept over her bloodred eyes. She was wearing the armor of a knight, wielding a broadsword longer than her entire stature, and glaring at Goh with eyes that otherwise seemed large and innocent.

“How dare ya mess with my friend!” the girl repeated. “I’m gonna blast ya all the way to the moon, so prepare for the worst!”

Goh let out an audible breath in shock. For one thing, this girl had shown up practically out of nowhere and without any warning whatsoever, and moreover, the murderous energy radiating from her was spooking Goh to no end, despite his power level of 9000.

Where the hell’d this chick come from? Goh wondered, his eyes narrowing as he became hypervigilant of her movements. She looks dumber than a brick, but damn, she’s strong.

For those wondering how Nazuna had managed to sneak up on Goh without him noticing, this was due to a combination of Mera’s special tracking powers and the Unlimited Gacha cards. Nazuna was given Goh’s present location and teleported to a spot not far from the rampaging Master. She then activated an SSR Conceal card before taking to the air using an SR Flight card. With a bird’s-eye view of the whole area, Nazuna quickly caught sight of Goh and landed a stone’s throw away from him before canceling the Conceal card to make her presence known.

Goh instinctively knew Nazuna was no ordinary opponent, and because the Vampire Knight was uncharacteristically furious, she held her Prometheus sword aloft without paying any heed to his elevated power level.

Judging by how she’s carryin’ herself, I’m pretty sure she ain’t friends with any of these dinky robbers, Goh mused. She’s probably an ally of that snake-headed chick. Does that mean she works for the Wicked Witch too? If that’s a fact, what kind of insanely powerful army has that witch got hidin’ up her sleeve? This is definitely something to report on.

Goh felt an urgent need to tell Hiro’s side about the presence of not just two but three powerful warriors who were seemingly in the employ of the Wicked Witch of the Tower.

I don’t need to waste my strength battling this overpowered kid, Goh decided. I’ll just blow smoke up her ass and make her take a walk. She looks dumb enough for me to put one over on her anyhow.

Unlike Daigo the leveling freak and Gira the homicidal maniac, Goh knew when to pick his battles, and a fight with Nazuna was definitely not on the menu. Thanks to the Bracelet of Deception, he still looked like an ordinary human, so he used this to his advantage by taking the opportunity to flash Nazuna a disarming, salesmanlike smile.

“You seem to have the wrong impression of me. I was simply fighting back against these bandits who tried to assault me,” Goh said innocently. “I’m well within my rights to defend myself, so I think your anger may be misplaced, milady.”

Nazuna raised an eyebrow. “What’re ya talking about? I’m mad about ya hurting my friend, not these guys! And ya can’t fool me with that disguise of yours, so don’t bother! Y’see, ya have Mera’s blood all over your body!”

What? Blood? Goh screeched inwardly.

“My friend’s a chimera named Mera, and she’s got real special blood, y’see,” Nazuna explained vaingloriously. “Her blood can track an enemy for a nice long time! So ya can’t lie to me, ’cause I already know who you really are!”

I thought that snake-headed bitch was spraying all that blood over me to poison me, not track me! Dammit! Goh cursed. The Master had thought the way Mera’s spawn had gyrated her arms to splatter blood everywhere during her final attack was vaguely peculiar, but it was only in this moment that he was finally connecting the dots. As a sidenote, this meant Doc and Light’s brother were also being tracked by the chimera.

Mera had the power to split herself as much as she liked, right down to the cellular level, meaning the droplets of blood that had landed on Goh were presently serving as a type of living spawn that she could sense the location of at any time and at any given distance. The only way Goh could have broken free from Mera’s watchful gaze was if he had scrubbed his entire body clean.

“Even if ya run, ya can’t escape!” Nazuna declared, swinging her Prometheus. “Stay where ya are so I can squash ya!”

Goh sucked his teeth. “Goddammit!” He barely managed to jump out of the way in time as the blade cleaved the ground in two, the shock wave ripping out trees until an entire section of forest had been cleared out. It was only Goh’s keen senses that had saved him from taking a direct hit, although he hadn’t escaped entirely unscathed. The breakneck speed of the Level 9000 warrior’s dodging combined with the devastating reverberations from Nazuna’s sword strike caused the Bracelet of Deception to break apart, exposing Goh’s true form.

“Prometheus! Bend my reality!” Nazuna chanted, inviting the mythical-class sword to interfere with the natural order of things by making five exact copies of the Vampire Knight. Goh’s eyes darted this way and that in disbelief while the five Nazunas shouted threats at him.

“Just you watch! I’m gonna smash ya to smithereens!”

“But we shouldn’t kill him since we need him for information.”

“So we’ll just tear off his arms and legs?”

“Won’t he bleed to death if we do that?”

“Then, let’s just smash him to smithereens without pulling off his arms and legs!”

Once they had agreed upon what they thought was a workable solution, all five Nazunas rushed at Goh like a pack of wolves.

“Great idea! I’m a genius!” they all announced in unison.

Goh could feel it in his bones that the sight he was witnessing was not an illusion. He was definitely facing five overpowered berserkers, each of whom outleveled him by a dangerously wide margin. Cold sweat formed on his brow for the first time in ages, and he reflexively spluttered a torrent of obscenities to the air around him.

“What the hell kinda shit show is this?!” he screamed. “Where’d that damn witch find you dumbshit short stacks, anyway?! Nobody told me about this! This is bullshit!”

“Hey, don’t call me a ‘shit’! My name’s Nazuna!”

“You’re not supposed to call a girl the S-word, ya know!”

“I seriously don’t like this guy!”

“He makes me so mad, I wanna blast him into the middle of next week!”

“Anyways, I’m gonna hit him first!” declared the last Nazuna to speak.

All five copies swung their swords at Goh, staggering the timing of their approaches. The Master managed to dodge four of the strikes through reflex alone, but there was no way he could avoid the fifth. However, before the sword could connect with his cranium, he somehow stopped the blade mid-swing by clapping it between his palms. In other words, he used the classic bare-handed blade catch technique. Even so, the force of the swing was so powerful, the shock reverberated through Goh’s body and legs, and a crater formed beneath him. If he had been a run-of-the-mill fighter, the force of the blow alone would have been enough to flatten him and leave him as a bloody pancake, even if he had succeeded in catching the sword like he had just done. But despite grunting in pain, he even managed to maintain his poise to the extent that he could engage in some mean-spirited banter with the last Nazuna.

“How can a little girl hit this hard?” Goh spat. “I don’t care what your level is—are ya sure ya weren’t a gorilla in a past life?”

With the blade still clasped between his palms, he twisted the Prometheus to one side and threw Nazuna off-balance. Like Miki had said, Goh wasn’t the leader of her clique of Masters for nothing.

“Huh? Why’m I kneelin’ on the ground?” the astonished Nazuna blurted out. Goh had planned to use the sword and the attached Nazuna as some sort of improvised mace to beat back the other assailants, but this particular Vampire Knight had other ideas.

“So this is the weird trick Mera was talking about, huh?” the Nazuna said. “Don’t know why I can’t stand even though yer not pushin’ me down. But it doesn’t matter to me anyway!”

Still kneeling on the ground, the restrained Nazuna hollered a war cry, then used brute strength to lift both her sword and Goh into the air.

“What? Are ya shittin’ me right now?!” Goh screeched. “How the hell’d she brute-force her way out of my kuzushi? Where’d this midget get all of her power? Crap!”

“Kuzushi” referred to the martial arts technique of throwing an opponent off-balance and completely wrecking their ability to regain it. In Goh’s case, he had perfected the technique to such an extent, he had been able to completely incapacitate Mera’s spawn using just two fingers and with no extra exertion. But facing Nazuna, she managed to break through his kuzushi by dint of her herculean strength. If the whole overarching motto of judo was “the soft conquers the strong,” then Nazuna was completely upending that notion at present.

She swung the sword down toward the ground again, ready to create another crater with Goh at the end of the blade. “I’m gonna smash ya like a hammer!” the clone yelled.

“What the actual hell?!” Goh let go of the blade at the last second and used the momentum from the swing to shoot through the air and sail a good distance away from that Nazuna. However, the other four Nazunas were positioned ready to intercept him.

“Like the Mohawks would say, ‘Wahoo! The game’s comin’ right to us!’”

“Whoa now. Ellie will get mad at’cha if ya copy how they speak. Not that I care.”

“I won’t care either!”

“You’re all me, so you’re supposed to care!”

The Nazunas bounded toward Goh like sighthounds, the broadswords they swung at him sharp enough to slice air molecules apart, and because he was still airborne, he was in a bad position to dodge the blades.

“I’ve had it with you little shits!” Goh yelled at them. Through sheer effort alone, he deftly evaded the blades in midair, and on top of that, managed to use his momentum to add more force to the direct hits he scored on each of the four Nazunas. In short, he was able to display all of his defensive and offensive capabilities in one single, seamless motion. Although he looked like a thuggish, rough-and-tumble brawler, the counters he was able to execute on the fly on the four proved he was leagues above most when it came to combat. Unfortunately for him, however, there were five Nazunas.

“Caught ya lookin’!” called out the fifth clone who had tossed him in the first place. It was only the briefest window of opportunity, but she wasn’t about to miss it, and she hammered Goh with her Prometheus, with the Master only just having enough time to raise his arms to shield himself. Goh yelped in pain as he was driven forcefully into the ground, although he managed to remain in one piece due to the extra strength he had concentrated in his arms. Goh got to his feet, spat out a mouthful of blood, and took up a stance in readiness of another attack.

“What an absolute shit show this is,” Goh snarled. “But I know those other four took a real beating, so if I can just knock ’em unconscious one by one—”

“Prometheus! Heal my reality!” shouted the four Nazunas in question.

“What?” Right before his eyes, each of his opponents swiftly healed themselves back to full strength, as if nothing had happened to them. And this was actually the case, since their Prometheuses had rewritten the present reality to become one where the damage had never existed in the first place. The Nazunas rubbed the spots where they had gotten hit and started complaining about the injuries they’d sustained.

“When I tried swinging my sword at him, I missed and got hit in the face,” the first Nazuna bemoaned. “And he actually broke my nose! Still, at least I fixed it with my sword!”

“I took one in the neck,” the second Nazuna griped. “He crushed it so bad, I couldn’t even speak.”

“He kicked me in the side of the face and put me to sleep,” the third grumbled.

“He kicked me too,” the last Nazuna whined. “I tried to put up my guard, but he twisted his leg like a snake and still got me. How does he fight so good when he’s still in the air like that?”

Goh had hit each of the four Nazunas as hard as he could while in midair, each blow having enough force to kill anyone who didn’t have the proper resistance stats. Goh knew he had caused enough damage to injure the Nazunas, but it appeared all that effort had gone to waste.

“Why the hell aren’tcha injured anymore?” Goh moaned. “Who the hell are you people, anyway?!”

All five Nazunas started responding to Goh, but true to their routine, they ended up having a conversation between themselves instead.

“I already told you I’m Nazuna!”

“Wait, did I introduce myself yet?”

“I must have! Didn’t I?”

“No, I don’t think ya did.”

“Well, in that case, I’ll just reintroduce myself,” the fifth clone declared. “I’m the SUR Level 9999 Ancestral Vampire Knight, Nazuna! I’m also super strong!”

At first, Goh couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Are they bluffing me? he wondered. No, they don’t give off that whiff. Plus, they don’t look smart enough for mind games, anyway. But come on. Level 9999?!

If the Nazunas were putting on an act, they were really committed to the bit, to say the least. No, the most plausible explanation was that they weren’t lying, and they really were Level 9999. Goh sighed long and hard in abject frustration at the situation he found himself in.

“Never in a million years did I think the witch would have a soldier with a maxed-out level,” Goh mumbled. “This can only mean the witch is at max level too. Does that mean C really does walk among us? Dammit! Why’d I get mixed up in this?!”

Goh’s mutterings were so incoherent to the Nazunas, all five cocked their heads and stared at the Master, and while this synchronized action was exceedingly adorable in its own right, it didn’t make Goh feel any better about his plight. When he was finally all done grousing, Goh steeled himself by taking a single breath so deep, even the Nazunas sensed a change in the atmosphere. The consummate hand-to-hand fighter that he was, Goh was employing the ibuki breathing technique used by karate specialists, but since the Nazunas had no clue what they were witnessing, they simply crouched down with their Prometheuses pointed at the Master out of an abundance of caution. Goh also assumed a fighting stance for the first time in the battle. The air around the six combatants was electric, and the Nazunas felt like they were about to be fried by the ambient energy coursing around them.

“Ah, that’s the stuff...” Goh sighed happily. “Gotta hand it to you: You’re the first real opponents I’ve faced in a long while. I’m not stupid like Daigo and Gira, but I do like to cut loose and put it all on the mat on rare occasions.”

He stared down the five Nazunas with an intensity he hadn’t shown in years. “I’ll show all of you overpowered freaks the full extent of my martial art skills!”

Chapter 4: Light Versus Doc and Els

After defeating Mera’s spawn, Goh left Doc in charge of the soldiers from Diablo’s fiefdom, and this makeshift regiment swept across the outermost reaches of Human Kingdom territory, attacking every village in their path. For the Demonkin Nation, the aim of this incursion was to teach the new queen of the Human Kingdom, Lilith, a lesson, but for Doc, the operation was merely a way of restocking his supply of human test subjects for his grisly experiments. However, a constantly recurring issue hampered the raiding party in their objectives.

“Who would have fathomed that we would find no people in any of these villages?” Doc sighed as he led his company of soldiers to their next destination. “This goes beyond what I failed to anticipate.”

It went without saying that Doc’s troops had zero chance of finding any villagers, because every resident in the danger zone adjacent to the Demonkin Nation border had been evacuated to safety in advance, with most now residing in the city at the foot of the Great Tower. While these villagers were technically refugees living in shelters, their new lives weren’t anywhere near as miserable as that sounded. They were well provisioned with food and clothing, had been given fully furnished housing completely free of charge, were able to take in the sights of Tower City and mingle affably with its people, and on top of all of that, they had been allowed to bring their livestock with them to be looked after by the fairy maids. Of course, the villagers had needed to leave their arable farms behind, but Light’s team had promised them that magic would be used to keep the crops in their current state, or perhaps even better.

The only problem with this arrangement was that the younger villagers had become totally enthralled with city life after tasting it for the first time in their lives, and the beauty of the fairy maids was the added bonus that tipped the scales. As such, more than a few of the younger folk had started demanding that they settle in Tower City permanently, rather than live out the rest of their lives in “some backwater village.” Light’s team had no choice but to let the village heads deal with the issue.

Of course, Doc’s army had no way of knowing exactly why they were only coming across ghost towns, and this led to most of the demon raiders growing impatient as they wondered how much time they were going to waste on this futile endeavor. And if it wasn’t enough that the lack of victims to assault meant the commandos were left unable to satisfy their more wanton appetites, there was also no money, valuables, or even edible food to pillage from the abandoned villages. In their view, there was basically no point in moving aimlessly around the border region if the rewards weren’t there. Doc wasn’t immune to these mounting frustrations either, since he had yet to acquire more human lab animals.

Perhaps we should give up on attacking villages and end this excursion, thought Doc. I have my other assignment involving Diablo’s soldiers to complete, after all.

This extra assignment was to brainwash the soldiers into assassinating Diablo on their return to their fiefdom, leaving Voros—the one who’d ordered the hit—free to seize the domain for himself.

It appears I have failed to obtain any fresh human specimens for my experiments, but perhaps I can take some of these demons to be my test subjects when I’ve brainwashed them all, thought Doc. I am sure Voros will gladly let me have a few as compensation for my good-faith labors.

While Doc was busily mentally working out his endgame, the exhausted demon troops trudged along behind the Master, none of them aware of the hellish fate that awaited them once they were done with this mission. And Doc was very close to wrapping up the campaign prematurely when scouts spotted three figures on the distant horizon.

Have we finally found some fresh humans? Doc wondered excitedly. He peered at the would-be targets, and his joy at finding out they were human was so complete, he totally failed to notice anything amiss about their sudden appearance in the middle of nowhere. One of the figures appeared to be a boy of about twelve or thirteen who was wearing a dark, hooded cloak and carrying a simple staff.

The second figure seemed to be a maid who was standing quite close to the boy, but not close enough to step on his shadow. Her attractive, womanly figure blew anything the Demonkin Nation had to offer out of the water. Not only was her bust large and shapely, her slender yet well-proportioned legs seemed to stretch down endlessly from her billowing mid-thigh skirt. In fact, this maid was so physically desirable, any male employer would have had trouble keeping his hands off her.

The final figure in the trio appeared to be a petite girl who was wearing a hooded cloak with cat ears attached to the top of it, as well as an oversized beltlike collar around her neck. This girl was shorter and nowhere near as well-endowed as the maid, but her comeliness rivaled hers to the point where, once her body matured and she became a full-grown woman, she would be a breathtaking stunner, guaranteed. Although it must be said that quite a few would probably prefer the cat-hooded girl as she was now over the maid.

None of the trio made any attempt to move from where they were, despite the large band of dangerous-looking bandits that had just wandered into view. Doc and his troops ignored this suspicious behavior, however, and welcoming this long-awaited opportunity for action, they charged excitedly at their new targets.

✰✰✰

Doc and his merry gang showed up just after Ellie had finished setting up the anti-teleportation pillars. The bad guys spotted us and rushed headlong into our trap, and thanks to their uncoordinated approach, I was able to steal a glance at my older brother, who was among their ranks. I thought I’d prepared myself for this moment, but a sudden wave of emotion overwhelmed me.

“Els...” I whispered to myself. “I can’t believe this is you.”

My brother was right behind Doc, the Master who was charging at me. His dark brown hair had grown out so long, it almost reached his shoulders, and he had hollow cheeks and dark bags under his eyes. It looked like he either hadn’t been eating well or he’d been through an ordeal so indescribably ghastly, it didn’t bear thinking about. I could see no light in his eyes, and even I doubted if he was really still among the living. But even though it had been three years since I last saw Els, there was no mistaking it was him. That was my real older brother following Doc.

“Els! Big brother!” I called out to him. “It’s me, Light! I’m sorry it took so long to find you! I’m coming to get you now!”

And I would have run headlong toward my brother if Mei hadn’t gently placed her hand on my shoulder.

“Master Light...” she said, her tone slightly admonishing.

“Nyeew,” Aoyuki added. As for Els, I knew he’d heard me, but he didn’t so much as blink at the sound of my voice. It was as if I were addressing a life-sized doll that merely looked like my brother. But Doc had heard me just fine, and in his fascination with how this scene was unfolding, he put a hand to his chin and hummed.

“Pardon me for asking,” he said, “but are you perchance my bodyguard’s younger sibling, young man?”

“Yeah, I am,” I replied. “What the hell have you done to my brother?” My tone had quickly switched from deep, emotional affection to icy fury. All the demon raiders who had been excited that they were finally getting the chance to have their way with some humans—and pretty ones at that—were immediately scared into silence by the rage-filled energy I was exuding. With the instincts of cornered animals, they realized that not only were they hopelessly outleveled, but if there was going to be a one-sided slaughter, the only likely victims would be them. Meanwhile, I was directing all of my fury at Doc, but all he did was calmly pat himself on the back.

“Ah, so you are related to him,” Doc mused. “I must say, your brother turned out to be the most outstanding lab specimen I have ever laid hands on. Thanks to him, I was able to produce my best breakthrough in my research to date! Unfortunately, he lost his entire sense of self in the process, so I am afraid he will not be able to regard you in the manner he once did...” He paused before suddenly sounding euphoric again. “But despair not, younger brother! Thanks to your kin’s glorious sacrifice, we are one step closer to realizing a new future for humanity! You, in fact, should puff your chest out with pride at your brother being part of history in the making!”

“You sick piece of...” It felt like every nerve cell in my brain was snapping one by one. What in holy hell was he trying to say? That the old Els was gone and he could never return to normal? But that it was all some glorious sacrifice for the sake of humanity? What I’d just heard was so insanely wrong and rage-inducing, I couldn’t utter another word in response.

He did that to my own flesh and blood, and he’s not even ashamed, I thought. Why would he even say that stuff to my face?

I wanted to throttle Doc in the same way I wanted to strangle every single member of the Concord of the Tribes. I wanted to fully unseal my Gungnir and totally erase this repulsive bastard from existence.

“Master Light,” Mei soothed. “I fully respect how furious you are, but you must not forget your objectives.”

“Nraow!” Aoyuki concurred.

Their interventions managed to restore my sanity. Or, well, to a certain extent, at least. Oh, yeah. I’m supposed to rescue my brother and capture Doc alive. We may be way more powerful than them, but that won’t matter at all if I completely lose my cool here. I need to cool down and focus.

Had Doc deliberately boasted about what he’d done to my brother just to tick me off? According to Miki, Doc was the type of person who prioritized his research to a psychotic degree, and he didn’t really seem savvy enough to play mind games. I took a couple of deep breaths before turning to face Doc and my brother again.

“Thanks, Mei. You too, Aoyuki,” I said. “We’re gonna make sure we recover Els, just like we planned. And we must do everything in our power to capture Doc so that we can restore my brother to normal.”

“On my honor as a maid, I vow we shall take both of them into our custody!” Mei stated.

“Affirmative,” Aoyuki said in a somewhat calmer voice. “I will invest my entire being into rescuing your dear brother without fail.”

“As Master Light commands, I shall apprehend you with my powers!” Mei announced to Doc, immediately shooting her Magistrings toward him. However, the Master produced a bunch of little knives, held them between his fingers, and proceeded to cut up the mana-infused strings.

“I’m afraid I must decline your offer of a battle,” Doc said. “As you can see, I am not well suited for combat, so I must ask you to refrain from being so aggressive.” A quick scan with an Appraisal card told me Doc was holding scalpels, implements usually used to carry out surgery. In case I’d forgotten to mention, Doc was two meters tall, gangly, and was wearing a lab coat streaked with blood and a creepy mask that covered his entire face. I thought Doc’s ungainly height would make him easy to catch with the Magistrings, but he nimbly leaped and weaved between the strings as he sliced them up like some strangely dressed ballerina.

Miki had told us that Doc’s level was around 5000, although my Appraisal put him at above 6000. But despite Mei being more than 3000 levels above him, we didn’t know the full extent of his skills, and he appeared to devote his powers to evasion with movements that were difficult to read. Capturing Doc was going to be more difficult than we’d initially thought, but I was confident it would only be a matter of time before we collared him.

“Aoyuki! Catch my brother while we distract Doc!” I yelled.

“Mrrow!” Aoyuki heartily replied. She manifested the spike-collared Beast Chain and swung it at Els. Seeing the weapon looming large in his deadened eyes, he finally reacted and tried to flee. My brother ran much, much faster than he had done back in our old village, but he was unlikely to get away from the Beast Chain. At least, not unless his powers of evasion were able to outshine a phantasma-class weapon that automatically tracked its target. Sure enough, the collar had soon wrapped itself around Els’s neck, just like I knew it would.

“Aoyuki! Tame my brother now!” I commanded.

“Rowr!” came Aoyuki’s speedy reply.

Once the collar was on, there was usually no way of removing it unless Aoyuki allowed it, and just to be clear, the Beast Chain was only able to tame monsters, meaning it would have zero effect on normal humans or any member of the other sentient races, even if the Genius Monster Tamer were to channel all of her energy into the chain.

I thought my brother would be an exception, since Doc had transformed him into a monster, but instead of submitting quietly, Els roared like a wild beast, and the muscles on his previously skinny arms bulged like ripe pumpkins as he furiously tried to remove the Beast Chain collar from around his neck.

Doc really has turned you into something that isn’t human, I thought, recalling how fast Els had been able to run while trying to escape the Beast Chain, in addition to this metamorphosis from the brother I knew. But this was no time to break down crying. I had to think of a way to restrain my brother, and fast.

“It doesn’t look like the Beast Chain is going to quieten him down,” I said to Aoyuki. “You hold on to him while I go knock him out!”

“Mrow!” Aoyuki replied. Even if Els was now a superhuman monster, my Level 9999 Genius Monster Tamer would be more than strong enough to hold him in one place with her chain. My plan was to have Aoyuki use her skills to restrict Els’s movements enough to give me the opportunity to render him unconscious with one blow. I raised my Gungnir and dashed toward my brother, but Doc had other ideas.

“I would rather you refrained from doing that,” he said, still dodging and slicing through Mei’s Magistrings. “Boost!”

Doc then used some kind of buff, but he didn’t direct it at Els. No, he boosted me and Aoyuki!

“Whoa! Yikes!” I felt my stats go through the roof, which would normally have been a nice rush for me if it weren’t for the fact that I was just about to bash my brother’s head in. I managed to stop my swing in the nick of time—because the last thing I wanted to do was kill my brother—and instead ran straight past him and put a safe amount of distance between us. It took about that long to kill my momentum anyway. Aoyuki also yowled in surprise as she desperately tried to adjust to her newfound strength that threw her completely off-balance, while still attempting to keep my brother in place with her chain.

Once I’d acclimatized to the buff, I attempted to run at my brother again.

“This time, we shall try a debuff,” Doc declared.

“Huh? I can barely move!” I cried out.

“Nrreew?” Aoyuki mewled.

Only a few seconds before, I had felt so light on my feet, it was like I had wings, but my legs instantly felt heavier than solid lead. In fact, the debuff was so sudden, I almost stumbled and fell flat on my face, though I managed to save myself at the last second. Aoyuki wasn’t so lucky, however. She wasn’t able to recalibrate her arm strength in time in order to counteract the debuff, giving my brother the opportunity to yank on the chain and swing the Genius Monster Tamer skyward. Els let out a roar and jerked the chain to slam my lieutenant into the ground. But Aoyuki wasn’t an SUR Level 9999 warrior for nothing.

“Nrrrow!” Just like a real cat, Aoyuki twisted her body in midair and touched down on all fours in a way that cushioned her landing, leaving her entirely unscathed.

“How dare you obstruct Master Light!” Mei yelled at Doc, directing her murderous rage at him.

“Now, now, there is no need to get so agitated,” Doc said, as if he were a physician tut-tutting the behavior of an unruly patient. “Please understand that I am duty bound to interfere, since I cannot afford to see my most brilliant work destroyed.”

I recalled what Miki had told us about Doc the last time we’d interrogated her. “He’s also a buff and debuff specialist, so you shouldn’t underestimate him,” she had said. “You never know what he’s got up his sleeve.”

We certainly hadn’t come into this fight underestimating Doc, but I had to admit, he was proving to be more of a virtuoso in countering our attacks than we had anticipated. I supposed this was his way of compensating for his low offensive capabilities.

If we’d just been dealing with my brother, we could’ve used a teleportation card to take him down to the Abyss, I thought. But thanks to the anti-teleportation pillars we set up, we can’t do that. The pillars had been placed around us to ensure Doc couldn’t escape, so any kind of magical translocation was completely off the table.

In which case, maybe I should team up with Mei to take down Doc, I mused. And once that’s done, we can easily take care of my brother afterward.

I gave Mei and Aoyuki a look, and both nodded their assent. We had gamed out multiple scenarios for this mission beforehand, so they both knew how to adapt to any sudden change of plan I deemed necessary. Mei was the first to make a move by blocking Doc’s exit route with her Magistrings.

“Well, I say! This is grossly unfair, boxing me in like this!” Doc protested.

“UR Dimensional Severance!” I yelled, activating the gacha card in my hand. This attack worked by slicing into an adversary by opening up and closing the surrounding dimensional space. That meant the card was able to do serious damage to its target regardless of how high their defensive stats were. I aimed for Doc’s legs so that he wouldn’t be able to run again, but as soon as I’d released the card, he desperately executed his countermoves.

“Debuff! Debuff! Debuff!” the Master shouted frantically. “Multilayer debuff!”

Doc’s debuffs obviously targeted my Dimensional Severance rather than me, because by the time the magic I had unleashed reached his legs, it was too weak to affect them.

“You’re able to debuff and weaken attack magic?” I breathed in awe. I had to admit, even I was impressed with that. Miki had told us that Doc was an expert in providing rearguard support, but I never would’ve guessed that he’d have the power to directly interfere with magic spells.

Just to be clear, I could have killed Doc any time I wanted. Simply hitting him with an unsealed Gungnir would have done it, for instance. But since I needed to capture Doc alive so that we could turn Els back to normal, I was left with no choice but to put up with countering his bag of tricks. His powers certainly aren’t making this easy, I thought bitterly. And naturally, Doc picked the perfect time to needle me even more.

“I sense from your words and your homicidal aura that you are exceedingly cross with me,” Doc surmised. “But what have I done, pray tell, to make you so upset?”

I paused for a moment to collect myself. “Are you serious?”

“Indeed I am,” Doc replied. “If I have hurt your feelings in any way, then please allow me to offer you my sincerest apologies. I am also willing to offer you a gift as restitution, if that is what you prefer.”

Doc was somehow utterly oblivious to what he had done wrong, and his sociopathic detachment was starting to drive me up the wall. Then again, nobody could really have held me responsible for losing my cool.

“What have you done?” I said, repeating his words back to him before exploding. “Go to hell! You turned my brother—a member of my family—into a monster! And that’s even before mentioning the countless number of human beings you killed after using them as guinea pigs! And you’re seriously wondering why I’m upset?!”

“Hmm? But I believe I’ve already informed you that your brother has made a crucial sacrifice for the sake of the human race,” Doc pointed out. “And just like your brother, the sacrifices of those who came before him will eventually lead to a new future for humanity. You should be celebrating this wonderful prospect instead of cursing it. Indeed, I suggest you cheer up and be proud of your brother for his marvelous contribution—”

“Sacrifice for what?!” I screamed. “Do you think human lives are worth nothing?! We aren’t your toys to play with! If you think your vision of the future of humanity is so damn important, why don’t you ‘sacrifice’ yourself for it?!”

Realizing he wasn’t going to get anywhere by feeding me more of his screwball justifications, Doc sighed under his mask. “Well, goodness. It appears you are far too young to understand the nobleness and majesty of my ambitions.”

His mild disappointment suddenly morphed into something more menacing. “Very well! I will just have to overcome your total lack of reason by force. I should not be so surprised that a work of such ingenuity would initially be dismissed by the unenlightened.”

He glared at us through his mask before continuing with his rant. “I will prove that the human race has unlimited potential, and that love, hope, and courage will never succumb in the face of anything! You will soon realize just how great and powerful humans can be!”

Doc then activated something that looked like an Item Box behind him, and tumbling out of the spatial distortion came an avalanche of human cadavers. The sight was so gross, I had to cover my mouth with my hand. I’d fought in a lot of gore-filled battles since being betrayed by my adventuring party in the Abyss, and I prided myself on being immune to all kinds of shocking things, but I frankly wasn’t prepared for this. It was like he’d emptied out a garbage pit full of dead bodies right in front of us. Some of the corpses were half decomposed, while others were no more than bleached, desiccated bones. The pile of bodies was made up of young and old, male and female, and far too many belonged to small children and infants. There were even some that looked like they were still alive, if only barely. This order of killing was truly indiscriminate, to say the least.

“We are not done yet, my dear boy!” Doc said, looking on as the bodies continued to pile up behind him. “Combine and take shape! Created Golem!”

The bodies began to accumulate around Doc before unmistakably forming arms, legs, a trunk, and finally, a head. During the process, one of the arms grabbed hold of my brother and started to integrate him into the mass as well.

“Nrrrow?!” Aoyuki yelped, struggling to pull him away from the mass of dead bodies with her Beast Chain.

“Debuff! Boost! Debuff!” Doc countered, weakening Aoyuki while buffing his golem. This series of spells finally caught the Genius Monster Tamer completely off-balance, and the golem was on the verge of pulling her in too.

“Aoyuki!” I yelled. “Release him from your chain! It’s not worth it!”

“Mrrew...” After a slight pause, Aoyuki sadly relented and released my brother from the Beast Chain collar. Throughout it all, dead bodies continued pouring out of Doc’s wormhole, as if he had an endless supply of corpses. These bodies kept amassing around Doc until they eventually formed a colossus dozens of meters high.

Mei reported that her team had discovered a huge pit piled sky-high with dead bodies in Doc’s lab, I thought. Was that only a fraction of his collection? I’d never seen so many corpses in my life, and the sheer volume of them was making me dizzy.

“Behold, my boy!” Doc said from inside his newly formed flesh golem. “This body represents the bonds of the devotees who have gladly sacrificed themselves to realize a new future for the human race! Will you and your friends be able to break these bonds?”

Mei, Aoyuki, and I could only look on, completely dumbstruck. We had never encountered someone with such a huge lack of regard for human lives and a willingness to go this far to massacre and trample on the dignity of so many innocent people. Even the most prejudiced of the nonhuman races weren’t this callous.

“D-Do you...” I spluttered. “Do you have any compassion for humans?”

“What in the world are you implying, my boy?” Doc replied. “I would say there is no one in this whole world with more compassion for humans than me. Ever since I was young, I felt in my heart that there was no other being weaker than our kind, since we tend to die for the slightest of reasons. I simply believe that all of humanity should become just like me.”

This maniac wasn’t putting on an act. He really did believe he was doing all of us humans a favor, judging from the tone of his voice.

“This is why I took action to save the human race!” Doc continued ranting. “In order to save the humans, I must transform their bodies and change them from what they once were! In fact, I am the savior of the humans on a sacred mission! And these are the bodies of martyrs who have proudly sacrificed themselves to my holy cause!”

That last bit of totally oblivious insanity made my head spin like a loose wagon wheel. He seriously thought he was doing good. But while I was busy trying to cope with the whiplash I was feeling, Doc was concentrating entirely on buffing his corpse golem.

“Boost! Boost! Boost!” he yelled. “Multilayered Boost!”

By this point, the number of dead bodies that had fused with the Created Golem had easily passed the ten thousand mark. And what was worse, Doc’s buffs were amplifying the energy of the souls attached to those corpses, causing their dying laments to become audible to our ears.

“It hurts.”

“Help me.”

“The agony...”

“Kill me.”

“Please spare me.”

The anguished energy produced by the souls intensified to form a thick, dark fog around the corpse golem. It was only at that point that Doc decided he had finished constructing his sickening monstrosity.

“Behold!” Doc gloated. “I will now destroy you with the ties that bind us humans together!”

The corpse golem shuffled forward on its makeshift feet in preparation for taking its first swing at us. I listened to my instincts and backed away from the monstrosity, which was just as well because the cursed dark energy surrounding the golem appeared to be killing everything in the air around it, while the grass and plant life the golem stepped on also withered away and turned to dust. In other words, Doc had managed to create a living weapon that killed everything it touched, and if that wasn’t enough, the golem also seemed to suck the life force out of all of the organisms it killed to add to its own dark energy. The black mist kept expanding and eventually reached the demonkin raiders who were milling about nearby. As soon as the mist touched them, they dropped to the ground and writhed around in the throes of death, as if a plague had suddenly struck them down.

“S-Someone help!” one of the demons cried out, quickly followed by a scream of pain from one of his comrades.

“Mr. Doc! Why!” another soldier lamented.

The corpse golem noticed the dead raiders and extended its arms to grab and absorb them, making its dark energy grow stronger still.

“It appears the necro energy surrounding you grows stronger with each life that is absorbed,” Mei deduced of the golem. “In that case, allow me to cut you up into pieces!”

Mei dismantled the Magistring wall she had constructed to contain Doc and instead pulled her threads this way and that in an attempt to slice and dice the golem. Since the lumbering mass clearly derived its power from dead organisms, it made sense to strip lifeless bodies away from it and whittle it down to size. But Mei didn’t get very far into her barrage of attacks before running into an unexpected setback.

“You’re corrupting my Magistrings?!” she cried out.

“Indeed I am!” Doc confirmed. “This trifling manner of attack will never so much as scratch the strengthened bonds that tie humanity together!”

In other words, the golem’s dark energy that had been boosted by Doc was strong enough to keep Mei’s Magistrings from interfering with the living weapon, and any thread attempting to cut it down turned black and disintegrated before it could do so. True, Mei was the weakest fighter out of my Level 9999 warriors, but I never imagined her Magistrings could be rendered useless in battle. Exactly how many humans had Doc tortured to death to gain all this cursed, ghostly energy? Once again, the sheer evilness of the guy was making my head spin.

“Once we get all the information we need out of you, I’ll make you pay for all your crimes with your body, mind, and soul!” I yelled at him.

With my mind made up, I pulled out an Unlimited Gacha card, although Doc just laughed at me. “Whatever it is you intend to do, it will not work against me, my boy!” he bragged. “You and your ilk cannot possibly dream of challenging the limitless possibilities of the human race! No matter how high your power levels are, they remain powerless against the bonds that unite all humans!”

“You haven’t got the right to say anything about ‘human bonds,’ you worm!” I shouted back at him. “You stain the very meaning of those words. And don’t you dare try to measure the power of the Unlimited Gacha!”

I thrust the card out in front of me. “UR Time Prison—release!” The card immediately turned our surroundings black, from the sky to the plains, and even blacking out the light from the sun. These walls of darkness formed an enclosure stretching five kilometers in all directions, and inside it, not a single blade of grass shook, nor could the sound of the tiniest pebble moving be heard. No sunlight or even starlight managed to penetrate this space, but even without an obvious source of light, everyone was able to see each other just fine, almost like we weren’t in the dark at all. The ground had transformed from a grassy plain to a blackened floor, yet it was neither hard nor soft, and if I’d had a mind to punch it with the entirety of my Level 9999 powers, it would most likely have simply absorbed the full force of the impact, rather than breaking apart. It probably wouldn’t even crack.

“Where are we?” Doc inquired. “What have you done to us?”

“I’ve created a sealed enclosure to make sure you can’t get away,” I explained. “The only way out of here is by defeating me. So, to start us off: UR Card Holder—release!”

I activated my Card Holder and unleashed all of the purification cards contained inside. Unfortunately, because I’d used up all of those types of cards in my battle against the Soul Dragon, and not a lot of time had passed since then to allow my stock of them to replenish, only a handful of cards floated around the corpse golem. Just as I’d suspected, the cards I did have managed to purify some of the bodies and release their souls, but over ten thousand corpses remained unpurified.

“Is that all you are capable of?” Doc taunted. “If you have indeed run out of options, then I shall cut you people down where you stand and take my leave from this place! Then afterward, I will return to my lab to continue my research into realizing a new future for humanity!”

Doc moved the golem toward us, continuously slammed its fists into the ground as it went, but we easily dodged its punches and made sure to keep our distance from it so the necro energy wouldn’t touch us.

Believing his victory to be assured, Doc started laughing. “Trapping me in this space in the first place was a mistake on your part,” he scoffed. “Thanks to that wrong move, all you have succeeded in doing is leaving yourself with no means of escape, ensuring your eventual demise! You cannot evade my attacks forever!”

“Wrong move?” I queried, repeating Doc’s words as I nimbly evaded his golem’s punches. “No, you’ve got it all wrong. This was the best move I could’ve made.” I took out another card. “UR Hellfire—release! Go burn in hell, Doc!”

The Hellfire card sparked a high-intensity blaze that covered a wide area and lasted for a set amount of time, with no amount of water or magic able to put it out before then. The only way the fire would die down was if the time limit had already passed, or if the user of the card thought the flames away. The dark blaze swallowed the corpse golem and burned away layers of dead bodies. I felt sorry for the victims, of course, but after running out of purification cards, setting the monstrosity alight was the only way I could counter it. Unfortunately, Doc felt none of the pain from the fire, since he was at the center of thousands of corpses, which stopped it getting to him.

“You think this will burn us? Think again!” Doc crowed. “I have already boosted these bonds of humanity, so what you are doing right now is akin to tossing a cup of water over a bonfire! You three are powerless against the human ties that bind! Debuff! Debuff! Debuff! Multilayer Debuff!”

Doc’s debuff managed to weaken the Hellfire so that the flames would cease way before the time limit in order to stop them from completely burning up the corpse golem.

“UR Hellfire—release!” I yelled, activating the same card again and enveloping Doc’s golem in flames once more.

“There is no point in attempting that again!” Doc called out to me before proceeding to debuff the fire a second time.

“You have left yourself wide open!” Mei declared.

“Mrrow!” Aoyuki agreed.

Mei infused her Magistrings with excess mana so they wouldn’t be corrupted by the necro energy this time, while Aoyuki did the same with her Beast Chain, then both of my SUR warriors used their weapons to peel away some of the dead bodies from the golem. By this point, Doc had finally figured out what my plan was from my present tactics. If he carried on debuffing the Hellfire—and as a side effect, the golem’s necro energy—he would leave himself open and vulnerable to Mei’s and Aoyuki’s attacks. But if he left the Hellfire to its own devices, it would allow the golem to burn down.

“A-Are you mad?!” Doc wailed. “Do you really intend to remove all of the bodies from these bonds? I must remind you that over ten thousand people sacrificed themselves to make this creation! You would have to be insane to go to all that trouble!”

“Oh, don’t worry. We’re sane all right,” I replied. “We could easily destroy your golem with brute strength alone, but we don’t want to accidentally hurt my brother, nor you, for that matter. We’re going to take our time peeling away the bodies one by one until we get to the two of you, which was why I used the UR Time Prison card in the first place.”

I let Doc ponder what I meant by this for a moment before making the big reveal. “That card doesn’t just trap you on a totally separate plane of existence. No, no. This whole space will remain like this for a full year—yes, I do mean 365 days—unless I, as the user, decide to cancel and collapse it. However, for all the time we’re in here, only a single second will pass in the outside world. That means we can take all the time in the world to battle each other, and you won’t get a chance to sleep or even take a break. Now, let’s continue our fight until one of us lies battered and bruised on the ground!”

Doc recoiled in dismay, but I certainly wasn’t bluffing. The UR Time Prison created a dimensional plane five kilometers in radius where one real-world second was equivalent to 365 days. The only way Doc could escape was to spend an entire year in this bleak space, or if I let him out, for some reason. I had no idea what kind of expression Doc was pulling on receiving this news due to the fact that he was out of sight inside the corpse golem, but the sound of his voice betrayed his desperation.

“Th-That’s not sane at all!” Doc stammered. “Are you sure you’re not mad? Are all of you mad?”

“Wow, that really hurts,” I said mockingly. “That’s the last thing I want to hear from the likes of you.”

“I feel the same,” Mei agreed.

“Nrrow! Nrrow!” Aoyuki hissed. Once we’d all aired our thoughts about the mad scientist’s assessment of the situation, we once again assumed fighting stances.

“Here we come again,” I warned. “Let’s see if your ‘bonds of humanity’ really can beat our unlimited powers.”

“I-I will prevail!” Doc yelled anxiously. “I must prevail! For the sake of the future of the human race!”

The golem raised its fists once more, and because the last flames had already burned themselves out, I released another Hellfire card to allow Mei and Aoyuki to peel a few more bodies away with their weapons. We would subsequently repeat this process over and over and over again.

✰✰✰

“Exactly 99,999 seconds,” I declared. “You held on longer than I thought.”

Less than a second had passed in the real world, but here inside the UR Time Prison, we had spent roughly twenty-seven hours battling Doc.

“Y-You’ve broken the ties that bind humanity...” Doc lamented. “You ghouls!”

We hadn’t allowed Doc any time to rest, eat, or drink while we peeled away the corpses that made up his Created Golem until he didn’t have enough bodies to keep his repulsive weapon running. At present, Doc was sitting atop a small, collapsed heap of cadavers, and as he looked up at us, I could see he was shaking with fright.

As for myself and my lieutenants, we were all still perfectly fine, and with plenty of energy to spare. The reason for this was not only were we all Level 9999 warriors, but we had activated gacha cards beforehand that allowed us to operate continuously without sleep, rest, food, or water, and without feeling any fatigue. In other words, my Unlimited Gacha had Doc’s “bonds of humanity” beat any day of the week. Of course, if we hadn’t cared about the fallout, we could have destroyed the golem in a matter of minutes. I could have just unsealed my Gungnir and tossed it into the middle of that monstrosity, for example. But my brother was somewhere within that mass of corpses, as was Doc, and needless to say, I needed the pair of them alive. So my options were limited to this twenty-seven-hour battle.

We began striding over to Doc to restrain him when we suddenly heard a roar.

“Brother!” I cried out, turning toward Els. He was still being burned by the Hellfire along with the piles of corpses that were littered about. I mentally extinguished the flames and took out a new card.

“SSR Overheal—release!” I yelled. The card healed up all the burns on Els’s body until it looked like it had never come to harm in the first place. My brother moaned softly and turned to me.

“L...” he said in a halting, otherworldly voice. “Light...”

“Els? Big brother?!” I called out to him. “Are you really back to your old self now?!”

I completely forgot that we were supposed to be in the middle of battle, and so did Mei and Aoyuki. All three of us turned away from Doc and focused our full attention on my brother. Els held his hands to his head and staggered toward us, though despite his unsteadiness, there was a determined look in his eye.

We might be able to bring him back to his old self! I told myself inwardly, a flicker of hope igniting as I ran toward my brother with tears in my eyes.

Chapter 5: Nazuna Versus Goh

The battle between Nazuna and Goh had transformed the forest beside the highway into a blighted landscape by this point, as if several meteors had rained down on the terrain. All five Nazuna clones lay sprawled out on the ground battered and bruised while Goh stood over the wounded warriors and looked down at them, thoroughly annoyed at the trouble they’d caused him.

“I lost count how many times I had to beat you down, and how many arms and legs I had to break,” Goh muttered, groaning in disgust. “What really sucked is you’d always heal yourselves up and come back if I missed just one of you. But I finally managed to hit all five of you at once.”

Goh was a rugged-looking fighter who hated putting in more effort than he felt like, and that side of him was fully conveyed by his attitude. However, he was also able to emulate any martial arts technique, maneuver, or finishing move after witnessing it just once. This wasn’t due to his level, a skill, or a Gift; it was all a case of raw talent. Thanks to Goh’s innate abilities, he had been able to calmly counter the five Nazunas and the purposeful swings of their Prometheus swords armed with just his martial arts skills, his knowledge, and his sheer dexterity.

The Prometheus was a powerful weapon that was able to restore its wielders to full health, but it was useless if no enchantment was uttered. As soon as he realized this, Goh concentrated his efforts on knocking out all five Nazunas simultaneously, which he accomplished by kicking some of them on the sides of their heads while blasting the heads of the other Nazunas by focusing his internal kinetic energy into a thunderous hit using a technique known as fa jin.

Goh took a step toward the Nazunas. “Better put this to bed before you all wake up—”

“Ngaah!”

The Master was just about to put the Nazunas permanently out of commission when one of them unexpectedly regained consciousness before he could.

What the crap? he thought. This is insane! I know I just fa jin’d that kid directly through her skull! I felt her brains turn to mush! How the hell is she able to get up?!

The one conscious Nazuna rubbed her head while Goh stood and watched her, completely dumbfounded.

“You’re way stronger than I took ya for,” the Nazuna clone said. “And ya pulled off a whole buncha cool moves too!” She turned to Goh, smiling like a little girl who had just ridden a bunch of amusement park rides, and that wide grin caused more cold sweat to run down Goh’s spine.

“Prometheus, heal my reality!” Nazuna yelled, completely erasing the injuries that she and the four other clones had sustained. But instead of immediately engaging Goh again, Nazuna made her four duplicates disappear and stowed her Prometheus in her Item Box.

Goh let out the breath he’d been holding and blinked in bemusement. “What’re ya tryin’ to pull?” It was no wonder he was astonished by this move because not only did it mean that Nazuna had just reduced her fighting strength by four-fifths, she had also done the equivalent of tossing away her weapon. There was no good reason that he could see for her to purposely hand the advantage to him like this. But Nazuna ignored Goh’s question completely, raising her fists and performing a standing kick, before humming in thought.

“Is this how it’s done?” she said to herself. “No, I think it went more like ‘Shpah!’ then ‘Spah!’ if I remember right...”

Acting like Goh wasn’t standing right in front of her, Nazuna continued walking through a sequence of erratically choreographed moves accompanied by a string of enigmatic, muttered onomatopoeia. For Goh, Nazuna was completely vulnerable and open to an attack, meaning it would have taken very little effort from him to land a quick punch and turn her lights out for good. Yet he found himself unable to take a step forward as droplets of sweat formed on his increasingly agitated brow. After a full minute of twisting her body around every which way, Nazuna seemed happy enough to stop what she was doing and flash a smile as bright as a little girl’s at him.

“Okay! I think that’s how it should go,” she said. “Sorry for makin’ ya wait!”

Nazuna beamed at Goh again like a close friend excitedly showing up to a meetup after running late. Her devastating beauty combined with the guileless, sunny disposition presently on display would have made any man or woman fall captive to her charms. Yet that wasn’t the emotional response Goh was having. All he felt was uncontrollable dread.

As clueless as ever about the inner turmoil of her opponent, Nazuna once again assumed a fighting stance, but this time, it was the exact stance Goh had taken when engaging the five Nazunas in earnest.

“All righty, here I come!” Nazuna announced.

“You stupid midget!” Goh yelled angrily. “Ya really think ya can beat me using my own stance? That ain’t gonna—”

But before he could finish his sentence, Nazuna practically teleported into striking distance using his own shukuchi technique, then delivered a straight right jab. Goh managed to block the punch, but Nazuna quickly followed it up with a left-right combo and a kick for good measure. He reflexively blocked every blow, but because Nazuna outleveled him, her strikes left their mark, and her final kick broke through Goh’s guard and sent him flying backward. He landed on his feet, leaving ruts in the dirt, but Nazuna was already lunging forward at his face with her next attack.

“Back off, short stuff!” Goh yelled before proceeding to twist his arms this way and that in a circular, fanlike motion. It was the same technique he’d used to ward off Mera’s venom fire: the mawashi uke. He intended to parry Nazuna’s strike while simultaneously delivering a counter to her face, but this wasn’t how it worked out in the end. At the last second, Nazuna twisted her body in midair, causing Goh to miss her nose by a hair.

“You anticipated my move?!” he screamed.

“’Course I did! Don’t act so shocked,” Nazuna said proudly. “After getting clobbered so many times, I’ve got your reach down pat.”

Although Nazuna was displaying the kind of cocksure attitude that could only usually be seen in someone who was proud of knowing how to count to ten, these words had come straight from the heart without the merest hint of condescension. For the first time in a long while, a dark haze clouded Goh’s emotions. To ward off his misgivings, he unleashed his next attack, but quick as a whip, Nazuna grabbed Goh’s fist mid-swing and caused him to overbalance and fall to one knee.

“Y-You upset my center of gravity?!” Goh whined as he struggled vainly to get to his feet. A martial arts expert could throw an opponent off-balance and keep them kneeling on the ground just by grabbing one of their fingers. Goh had performed this technique on Mera’s spawn by grabbing one of its claws, though this time, he was being treated to the flip side of that situation, with Nazuna grabbing his entire fist. As a maven, Goh should have known how to counter the hold, but his entirely untrained opponent wasn’t letting him budge.

Dammit. How’s this even possible?! Goh screeched in his head. It’d be one thing if she had her sword out, but how’s this dumb chick one step ahead of me in bare-knuckle brawling?! He considered himself a better unarmed, hand-to-hand fighter than any of the Masters in both cliques, but here he was being manhandled by Nazuna, who was a total novice in his particular brand of martial arts until a few minutes ago. For someone as prideful as Goh, this level of embarrassment was painful in itself.

Nazuna hummed with skeptical indifference. “I guess this move is kinda handy for stopping someone from moving, but it’s just too boring for me. Ah! Maybe it’d be neater if I did this! And this!”

“What the—?!” Before Goh knew it, Nazuna was applying pressure to his fist to twist his arm in an attempt to snap his joints like a twig. In a paroxysm of instinctive self-preservation, Goh spun his whole body around in time to save his arm, but this caused him to effectively judo-flip himself hard into the ground. Nazuna gasped in amazement, like a toddler experimenting with a new toy.

“Wow! I didn’t even try twistin’ that hard! I can’t believe the amount of force that slam had just now!” she cooed. “I think I used your own motion against ya! This is super-duper cool!”

Goh coughed up a storm after being thrown into the dirt. This lousy brat! First, she copies my kuzushi, and now she’s pulling off aikido moves?! I can’t call her a natural, because this goes way beyond natural!

He’d believed he was the top martial artist in this whole world, a prodigy able to replicate moves after only seeing them once. But not only was Nazuna able to copy Goh’s kuzushi, she had also discovered a way to turn it into an entirely new move, which happened to be the sort of combo that would normally take more than a decade to master, and that many hopefuls would find impossible to pull off for as long as they lived. Yet she had nailed the individual techniques within minutes.

Nazuna was the kind of rambunctious, childlike character who was so easy to please, it only took Yume calling her “ma’am” the first time they met for her to be on cloud nine. But when it came to fighting, she was the most gifted champion in the Abyss, even surpassing Light in terms of combat skills. This was because Nazuna had an uncanny ability of understanding a move after seeing just a tiny fraction of it. Or rather, she would gain encyclopedic muscle memory of a new technique and its derivatives within a second of it being performed on her.

After getting his breathing back under control, Goh scrambled to his knees. Still doubled over, he leered up at Nazuna. Shit! he cursed inwardly. With my power level and skills, I can’t beat her! He finally accepted there was a good chance he would be defeated here, but even so, he was too prideful to retreat. Goh mustered up the strength to get himself back upright, then unleashed a flurry of karate moves on Nazuna.

“Get lost, you little shit!” Goh bawled. “Kiss my ass and burn in hell!”

“I thought I toldja I’m not a ‘shit.’ I’m Nazuna!” the Vampire Knight said while dodging the Master’s latest barrage of attacks. “Wait, I did tell ya my name, right? Didn’t I?”

Goh launched a desperate mix of sharp jabs, high kicks, and liver-destroying crescent kicks, but all missed the mark due to Nazuna effortlessly evading each one. I know she’s never seen these moves before, so how’s she dodging ’em?! Goh howled in his head. Has she got my breathin’ down too?

Figuring out an opponent’s “breathing” was synonymous with becoming able to instinctively predict moves that would otherwise be completely unanticipated. In other words, Nazuna had started to acclimatize herself to the rhythm of Goh’s style of combat and had basically decoded how to duck, parry, or counter whatever he threw at her. The Master had used this exact same natural ability that he too possessed to prevail over the untold number of people that he’d fought, but on this occasion, he found himself being completely outread by Nazuna. Goh sucked his teeth in frustration, but he could see the situation wasn’t going to get any better, so he decided to draw on the one final trick he had up his sleeve.

“I’m s’posed to be the fightin’ genius! Me!” he yelled. “I’m not losin’ to a dumb kid like you!”

Goh followed this declaration up with a powerful left-footed high kick that would have decapitated any normal opponent before they’d even realized what had happened. But Nazuna simply moved her head sideways like a child playing dodgeball.

“Genius, ya say?” she opined innocently. “I think this is pretty average.”

But Goh wasn’t finished yet. Using the same foot that was already in midair, he executed an ankle drop with as much speed as the high kick, the change of trajectory so smooth and controlled, his leg seemed to move like it was a living creature.

“Ya already did that one on me, remember?” Nazuna informed him, easily bounding out of the way of his leg. “Ya think ya could pull that same trick again?”

Goh sneered knowingly. “That was the plan, short stuff. I knew ya’d be stupid enough to dodge in that direction!”

“Wha?” Nazuna had indeed managed to evade the ankle drop, but in doing so, she had put herself well within Goh’s reach. Or more accurately, the two were now too close for any normal kick, punch, or elbow jab to land squarely, but there was one attack Goh knew would work with deadly precision at this distance: the “one-inch punch.” A seasoned practitioner only needed three centimeters of space in order to pull off the move, but since he was close enough to actually touch Nazuna, he decided this was his chance to execute a zero-inch punch instead.

The move was strikingly similar to the fa jin Goh had used on the Nazuna clones, and a point-blank zero-inch punch to the skull by someone with Goh’s strength would normally kill the recipient instantly. But in the previous go-round, one of the Nazunas had been able to stand up again relatively unharmed even after taking a similar blow to the head, likely coming around after instinctively shifting the point of impact to mollify the hit’s concussive force. To avoid a repeat of that, Goh decided to modify this particular zero-inch punch in a way that would make sure Nazuna went down and stayed down. He placed both fists against her abdomen and took a sharp ibuki breath.

“This should shred your organs and make you vomit blood, you freak!” Goh yelled. “One! Two!”

Goh delivered two zero-inch punches in quick succession to Nazuna’s midsection, using all of his skills and training, and concentrating the entirety of his superpowers into the blows. The first punch was designed to ricochet through the body and bounce back, while the shock wave from the second was intended to collide with the force from the initial blow and trigger an explosion of destructive energy that would leave the innards in shreds. An ordinary opponent subjected to this double punch wouldn’t have a single functioning organ left by the end of it, and regardless of their level and the kind of armor they were wearing, they would die on the spot. Unfortunately for Goh, however, the opponent he was facing wasn’t ordinary.

At the exact same time that Goh unleashed his one-two zero-inch punches, Nazuna delivered a punch to her own body, the loud clang of the armor resounding around the blighted forest. The idea behind this counterintuitive move wasn’t Nazuna trying to hurt herself, but an attempt to nullify the effects of the double hit, and thanks to her quick-thinking, she sustained zero damage from Goh’s attack.

Nazuna raised her fist in anger at her opponent. “Hey, buster! Don’t go doin’ weird stuff to my body, y’hear?”

While a confused Goh was still trying to work out what had just transpired, Nazuna clobbered him, utilizing the fa jin technique to add some extra power to her punch, having picked it up after being on the receiving end of it. While Goh did manage to put his guard up in the nick of time, it didn’t seem to matter much, and he ended up being hurled backward while sustaining damage to his internal organs. But it was Goh’s pride that was completely obliterated.

Dammit, dammit, dammit! Goh seethed as he lay battered and broken on the ground. That girl don’t even know how to say ‘fa jin,’ yet she figured out how to cancel my combo by punchin’ herself?! I knew I was bound to lose this matchup, but I never thought I’d get totally flattened.

He didn’t even have the strength to wipe away the blood that was dribbling from the corner of his mouth. All he could do was glare bitterly at Nazuna. Shitbags! Now I know how all those scrubs felt when I stomped their asses into the dirt. They gave me the evil eye just like I’m doin’ to this lousy, shit-eating midget now! Damn her! She thinks she’s so hot!

Grinding his back teeth, Goh cursed the fact that he was being made to feel the same level of humiliation as all those bandits and bullies that he’d lured to their summary executions over the years. This time, it was a young, innocent-looking maiden who held Goh’s life in her hands, and he hadn’t felt this desperate since C—

“Kindred Maker! Defeat this girl at once!”

“Sword Fish fighters! I summon you!”

“Where’d you guys come from?!” Goh yelled.

The first interloper on the scene was Hisomi, an average-looking man who had the bearing of a shady merchant with a permanent squint. The second was Requin, who had a massive frame and a completely bald head without a single strand of hair anywhere on it, not even eyebrows. The two Dragonute Empire Masters had arrived just in time to rescue Goh, as if this was an extraction operation they had planned long in advance.

Hisomi used his Gift, the Kindred Maker, to transform three felled trees into Treants, and the half-tree, half-humanoid monsters roared, spiky fangs jutting from mouths that opened at their trunks, before descending on Nazuna.

Requin’s Gift summoned three Sword Fish, marine monsters resembling sharks with sharp harpoons extending from their noses that were able to fly through the air. They also had Nazuna in their sights, and coordinated with the Treants, so that when the tree monsters lashed out at her with their massive branches, the Sword Fish used them as protective shields to launch surprise attacks.

Nazuna let out a startled gasp at the sudden appearance of the Treants and the Sword Fish, but she quickly recovered and used her fists of fury to defend herself against the incoming creatures. Every time her fist connected, a Treant would snap apart like twigs or a Sword Fish would practically explode into a mess of bloody entrails, and all in all, it took Nazuna less than ten seconds to eliminate all of them. But Hisomi and Requin were aware of Nazuna’s fighting prowess, since they had just witnessed the pounding Goh had taken in his battle with her, so they had already mobilized some reliable backup. In truth, the Treants and Sword Fish had merely been to distract Nazuna’s attention away from her real opponent: Hei. The Master clad in all black drew his katana—which was also raven-colored—and swung it at Nazuna when her back was turned, aiming to decapitate her.

“Thought I felt somethin’ sneakin’ up behind me!” The Vampire Knight immediately conjured her Prometheus from her Item Box and deftly deflected the initial strike, the counter so swift and unexpected that the normally wooden Hei couldn’t help an expression of abject shock passing over his face.

“Hey! What’re ya thinking bringin’ Hei along?!” Goh snapped.

“W-We will explain later!” replied a clearly flustered Hisomi. “For now, we must focus on leaving this location!”

“No! Don’t teleport me away yet!” Goh cried out. “They’re tracking my movements using blood that splashed on me in a previous battle! You need to wash me down, pronto!”

Hei’s presence here was even more of a surprise for Goh than seeing the previously bare-handed Nazuna deflecting the deadly strike from the consummate swordmaster. However, getting clean was the priority at this particular moment in time, so using just his bare hands imbued with superhuman strength, Goh karate-chopped all of the dreads off his head. Next, he ordered Requin to use his Gift to wash Mera’s blood off his body and clothes.

“Understood,” Requin replied without objection. “Hei, buy us at least a minute.”

Hei flinched with irritation at being given an assignment he had not previously agreed to, but he decided to comply with the instruction anyway, since objecting to the task really wasn’t worth the effort. Requin produced a giant ball of water that surrounded Goh and proceeded to wash him in the liquid enclosure that operated not wholly unlike a washing machine.

“Hey! I’m not gonna let ya wash the blood off him!” Nazuna yelled. The Vampire Knight sought to beat Hei back with a single strike so she could take out the other Masters before they could escape, but he was able to match her blow for blow, with each steel-on-steel collision causing a shower of sparks. The tremors and shock waves generated by the fight shook the leaves from the surrounding trees and blew back the hair on Hisomi’s head.

Nazuna finally allowed herself to be propelled backward by one of Hei’s strikes, then while still in midair, she shouted: “Prometheus, bend my reality!”

All three newly arrived Masters goggled at the five Nazuna clones that appeared in front of them, indicating they had only observed the final segment of Goh’s fight with her, and not the earlier part of the bout where she had similarly quintuplicated herself.

The five Nazunas touched down on the ground and immediately stampeded toward the Masters, although inevitably, another debate between the quintuplets sparked up almost as quickly.

“Here we come, Mr. Black Glasses!”

“He’s not wearin’ glasses! That’s a blindfold!”

“What? Ain’t it an eye patch?”

“Eye patches don’t cover both eyes, dummy!”

“Whatever. Let’s just clobber ’em all!”

All five Nazunas were equal in equipment, power level, skills, and intelligence. The Masters, meanwhile, watched on in horror, as if they were witnessing something out of a nightmare.

“Wh-What was that she just did? A cheat code?” an astonished Requin stammered.

“M-Mr. Hei! You have to do something about her! Hurry!” Hisomi pleaded.

Hei was as temporarily confused by the sight as the rest of them, but he quickly recovered and did what he knew he had to. He removed his long, dark bandanna and opened his eyes. This action alone was enough to blow all five Nazunas into the air.

“Ngah!”

“Wait, what happened?”

“Did he just blow us all away?”

“But how?”

“Some kind of spell? A skill?” the fifth Nazuna wondered aloud. “I didn’t even sense him attack!”

Whatever it was Hei had done to the Nazunas, the force had been so strong, it had taken the quintuplets completely by surprise. They had only managed to regain their footing again by driving their Prometheuses into the ground to stop themselves. However, the mystery move had still blown the Nazunas farther back from the group of Masters than where the original Nazuna had initially split herself into five, and this meant Requin had ample time to complete his task of washing down Goh.

“Okay, I’ve finished scouring him!” Requin shouted. “Hei, come here now!”

Hei nodded and set off at a run to rejoin the others just as Requin burst the water bubble surrounding Goh to release him. As he neared his comrades, Hei resheathed his katana and tied the bandanna around his head once more. Then, once Hei was within range, Hisomi raised a magic item into the air.

“T-Translocation Gem! Whisk us far from here!” Hisomi chanted before crushing the stone in his hand.

“Ah! Get back here—” a Nazuna began, but it was too late. All four of the Masters vanished from sight, leaving the five Nazunas standing alone in the middle of the devastated forest.

“A-Are ya kiddin’ me?” the first Nazuna blurted out. “They seriously ran away just ’cause they couldn’t beat me?”

“What’ll we do?!” wailed the second Nazuna in despair. “Master told us to capture the baddie, but we let him get away!”

The third Nazuna whimpered, going all teary-eyed. “What if master hates me for messin’ up?”

“Th-This is no time to fret!” the next Nazuna in line burst in quickly. “There’s somethin’ we’re s’posed to do if we mess up!”

“Oh, yeah, that’s right,” the last Nazuna remarked. “If that happens, we’re s’posed to use Telepathy to talk to Ellie and ask her what to do next.”

Nazuna had indeed been given prior instructions on what to do in a bunch of scenarios she was likely to find herself in, including the one she was in at the moment, where Goh had somehow managed to escape from her clutches. Once the Nazunas had finished cycling through the whole range of emotions that had washed over them, they activated an SR Telepathy card and relayed the outcome of the mission to Ellie, so that she could give further instructions.

Chapter 6: Brother

Els moaned and spoke haltingly. “L...” he struggled to say. “Light...”

“Els? Big brother?!” I yelled. “Are you really back to your old self now?!”

My brother had been turned into a monster by Doc, but here he was uttering my name. After twenty-seven long hours of fighting, we had finally defeated Doc using a combination of our usual weapons mixed with a bunch of Hellfire cards. But because Els had been embedded in Doc’s golem, the Hellfire had also burned him quite badly, and I used an SSSR Overheal card to restore him so that he was good as new again. It was at this point that my brother started acting less like a monster and more like a human, though I didn’t know whether this had been caused by the Overheal card, the pain induced by the Hellfire cards, or some other kind of miracle. Even Doc seemed unable to believe his eyes, although it was hard to tell with his mask on. As for me, I ran up to my brother and hugged him for the first time in over three years, hot tears streaming down my cheeks.

“Brother!”

“Li...” Els repeated, holding his head. “L-Light...” All of a sudden, my brother roared with animalistic fury and raised his fists to pound me, suggesting the monster was in charge of his psyche once more.

“Master Light!” Mei yelled.

“Rroww!” Aoyuki cried out.

“Mei! Aoyuki! Stay where you are!” I shouted. “This is a direct order!” I knew my two lieutenants were about to come running and position themselves between me and my brother to protect me from him, but I wouldn’t allow that. I was perfectly willing to let myself be attacked by my brother without laying a finger on him. Come what may, I would focus solely on defense.

Els continued to roar and whale on me with arms the size of tree trunks and using his full strength. Just one of these blows would have instantly crushed a normal human, but since I was Level 9999, none of the hits inflicted any damage.

“You carried Yume away from danger, remember?” I said, ignoring the blows. “She’s fine now. She’s somewhere safe. Mom, dad, and everyone else in the village died, but...” I paused at the thought of this horrible memory. “But this time, things’ll be different! I won’t let anything bad happen to anyone ever again! I’ll protect you, Yume, and everyone else! So please, come and live with us!”

Els stopped hitting me, clasped his head again, and grunted. “L-Light...” he whispered. “Light...”

I reached out and touched his hand. It wasn’t the hand I knew from before, because its skin was as hard and cold as steel, but I knew the blood pulsing away under that skin also ran through me. This was my brother’s hand. When I touched him, the crazed glint in his pupils faded away, and standing face-to-face, we locked eyes. This moment brought back a memory of when we were both still on our family farm.

The sun had started setting because I’d spent too long playing outside and totally forgotten that I was supposed to go back home. I was still very young at the time—so young, in fact, Yume hadn’t even been born yet—and when my brother came to get me, he took my hand and led me down the road toward our home, the two of us bathed in the fading orange light. I remember being scared our parents would get mad and no longer like me because I’d broken my promise not to stay out too late. I was ready to apologize profusely to my parents and beg them not to hate me. Els—who was a head taller than me back then—had gripped my hand tightly to reassure me.

“Mom and dad only get angry because they worry about you,” Els had said gently. “Our parents will never hate you, and neither will I, Light.”

“You mean it?” I’d replied. “You, mom, and dad will never hate me? Not ever?”

At this point, he’d turned to me with the sun setting behind him. “Of course not. I’ll never stop loving you. No matter what happens, I’ll always be with you.”

Hearing those words back then had cheered me up completely. Knowing that my brother would always be with me had brought forth tears of joy.

“We’ll always be together,” he’d repeated.

I’d all but forgotten about that memory since it had happened so long ago.

“Light...” Even though he’d been turned into a monster, my brother had the same smile on his face as he had done that evening, and the familiar sight had jogged my memory. His smile was still as warm and gentle as I recalled it.

“Light, you’ve...” Els whispered, struggling with each word. “You’ve grown. So big...”

My brother’s smile broadened even more as we let go of each other’s hands, and this time, Els brushed his giant palm lovingly against my cheek. Then, before I could stop him, he used that same hand to reach into his chest and gouge out his heart before crushing it before my very eyes, getting some of his still-warm blood on me in the process.

“Brother...” I whispered.

“Light...” Els murmured. “Yume...” He finally collapsed and breathed his last. “Thank you...”

Why had my brother just ripped out his own heart?

“Big brother...” I breathed in utter disbelief. Rationally, I knew exactly why Els had killed himself: he didn’t want his monster side to take over his mind and make him attack his own flesh and blood again. But emotionally, my mind refused to register what had just happened.

I knelt down and held up my brother’s head, his face smiling with relief despite the unimaginable pain he must have endured at the end. It was if he was proud that he’d sacrificed his life to protect the ones he loved.

“You were always like this...” I murmured. “You always put me and Yume first, and yourself last.”

My tears fell onto my brother’s motionless face. “Even when you hadn’t had anything to eat, you’d give us your food so we wouldn’t go hungry. Whenever we were in danger or hard times loomed, you were always there for us, reminding us that you were our big brother...”

I was no longer the Abyss’s dungeon lord hell bent on exacting revenge and uncovering the truth about this world. In this moment, I was just a simple farm boy who was crying like a little kid, cradling his brother who would never speak again. Even Mei and Aoyuki, the two least emotional members of my inner circle, had started weeping for my sake. However, our shared moment of mourning was interrupted by Doc, who, true to form, launched into a gleeful rant.

“Magnificent! Simply splendid!” he roared. “That was exactly what I’ve been pursuing all these years! Something more beautiful than everything else, and more precious than the future: love!”

I could have sworn that he wasn’t the least bit exhausted from battling us for twenty-seven hours straight.

“I have now witnessed the very peak of magnificence!” Doc droned on. “I remolded your brother into my most perfect masterpiece, yet he was able to retap into his own thoughts and feelings! And not only that, but he gouged out his own heart to stop himself from hurting his dear younger brother! Theoretically, this expression of fraternal devotion was never supposed to have been possible!”

He sounded completely enraptured, as if high on some premium narcotic. He even started to clap due to his excitement.

“This could only have been brought about by a miracle!” Doc bleated. “This is the potential I’m seeking in humanity. Love, to be precise! Love, I say! I have witnessed a truly marvelous display!”

My two lieutenants stared at the mad scientist in stunned silence. Whichever way you looked at it, he was in the tightest corner he could possibly find himself in. Not only had he lost his corpse golem, but his bodyguard had just committed suicide. Yet he simply glossed over how desperate his own situation was and kept on crowing like an overexcited researcher observing some lab rats. Both Mei and Aoyuki seethed silently at Doc’s total lack of grace, but as ever, he was totally oblivious to their unspoken rage.

“If you really are the younger brother of my greatest masterpiece, then in the memory of your sibling, won’t you assist me in my research?” Doc suggested. “You share the same blood as this specimen who just brought about a miracle through the expression of familial love! I am also curious to find out how you, a human, came into possession of all of your powers.”

I didn’t say a word in reply to this, but he continued on regardless. “If we join forces, we will be able to create a new future for humanity. A future where none of the other races will look down upon our species. So could I ask you to offer up yourself for the sake of the human race?”

“Shut up...” I said in a barely audible whisper.

“Those two females who appear to be your underlings have also piqued my interest exceedingly.” Of course, Doc hadn’t heard what I’d said. “Perhaps you can convince them to offer up their bodies for the sake of humanity as well? Oh, but please do not get the wrong impression of me. While your female cohorts are indeed extremely lovely, I entertain no inappropriate feelings for them. My interest in them is purely scientific and in pursuit of a future for the human race—”

“Shut the hell up!” I screamed, finally losing it. “Not another damn word!”

The entirety of my murderous fury radiated out toward Doc, and the energy I was releasing was strong enough to even make Mei and Aoyuki gulp in fright. Yet despite being subjected to what was basically the heat of a thousand suns, Doc continued to prattle on without any regard for my raging temper.

“Calm yourself, young man,” he said. “Yes, it is sad your brother died, but his sacrifice was necessary for the future of humanity. Your brother has become a precious cornerstone in that future, and getting emotional and incensed about it will be of no benefit to anyone—”

“Shut your mouth right now!” I gently laid Els on the ground and immediately ran over to knock Doc’s block off.

“D-Debuff! Boost! Multilayer Debuff!” Doc blurted out desperately. Despite being barely unable to move due to sheer fatigue, he rattled off a bunch of debuffs to weaken my stats, along with a buff that raised the stats of his scalpels, which he then threw at me. Under normal circumstances, I would have just whacked the scalpels away with my Gungnir or dodged them entirely, but I was so furious that I simply let the boosted scalpels slash away at my debuffed body without hesitating for a second. I didn’t give a damn what happened to me, as long as I got the chance to pound this scumbag into the dirt!

This time around, Doc looked scared stiff, since he hadn’t counted on me just allowing myself to be slashed by his scalpels without slowing my momentum. It frankly didn’t matter at all what he did to me. With a scream like a banshee, I buried my fist into his mask-covered face. Mei had of course taught me various techniques when it came to hand-to-hand combat, but I didn’t consider any of my training while delivering this punch. I was acting purely on emotion, and my form was as sloppy and unrefined as anyone could imagine, like some kid in a schoolyard brawl. Yet my punch connected anyway, and since my debuffed stats were still sky-high, the force behind it was enough to make him roll and flop quite some distance across the ground.

Doc held one hand against his face in response to the throbbing pain—his Level 6000 resistance had been the only thing that had saved him from instant death—and the other to gesture wildly at me to stop.

“P-Please don’t! Please calm down!” Doc begged. “Let’s discuss this like rational adults!”

I was too enraged to give his words a second thought. “When you were busy chopping up people for your experiments, how many of them pleaded with you to stop?! And did you listen to them? You know what you’ve done, so don’t you dare ask me for mercy!”

Doc was still sitting on the ground when I reached him again, and I kicked him as hard as I could. He tried blocking with both of his arms, but I was way too powerful, and I wasn’t holding back this time. He ended up splayed out on the ground once again, with both of his arms crushed.

Doc screamed. “M-My arms! Why?!”

I was seeing red, and not just metaphorically either. The enraged energy I was unleashing had caused the capillaries in my eyeballs to burst, tinting my vision with blood. Yes, my brother had killed himself, but we could always revive him using Ellie’s Resurrection of the Dead spell (though nothing was guaranteed, since there were a whole bunch of conditions we had to fulfill first). Furthermore, we needed Doc alive so he could tell us how to take the monster out of my brother and turn him back to normal. But despite how valuable Doc was to this plan, my rage wasn’t listening to reason, and I didn’t care if Doc died by my hand or not.

“W-Wait! Please!” he pleaded.

“Shut the hell up!” I kept swinging away with my fists without any real finesse or technique to my swings. I simply pummeled him like a goon, unwilling to listen to another word out of his mouth. To my mind, he didn’t deserve to utter another syllable. Of course, by this point, his arms were all busted up and flailing around brokenly. I crushed one of his shoulders next, before burying my fist into his chest again, shattering his rib cage this time. I kept pounding his abdomen until his bones and internal organs turned to mush. My hits to his face made short work of tearing through his mask, but I was too enraged to get a good look at his face. I didn’t give a damn how he looked. I needed to make him pay for his crimes with excruciating pain. This time, I was the one who had forgotten who he was, and I roared rabidly as I continued to slug my victim, the pure rage inside of me gushing out and seeming to warp the very air around me.

✰✰✰

When all was said and done, I’d more or less lost my mind as I beat the living snot out of Doc, to the point where it took both Mei and Aoyuki grappling with me to finally restrain me. After my lieutenants had dragged me off Doc, they used a gacha card to sedate me, and as I sat nearby in a daze, Mei brought out some other cards to start healing Doc’s wounds. I was staring off toward the horizon in a stupor when Aoyuki walked up in front of me, dropped down to one knee, and offered up her head in penance.

“There is no excuse for what I did, master,” Aoyuki said. “You would have killed that reprobate had we allowed you to continue. In my insolence, I chose to place my hands on you and interfere with your actions. I am prepared to accept whatever punishment you deem it necessary to mete out, my master.”

I had been this close to killing Doc with my bare hands. There was no denying that. And if I had done that, we would have lost the ability to extract information from him that might save my brother. It was exactly for this reason that Mei and Aoyuki stopped me, even though they believed I would probably hate their guts for not letting me have my own way.

“No, you and Mei were right to stop me,” I admitted catatonically. “I’m not gonna punish you. In fact, I should be grateful to the pair of you. Thanks for pulling me back from the brink. We wouldn’t be able to save Els if you hadn’t.”

“Your gracious words are deeply appreciated, master,” Aoyuki replied, bowing even deeper.

Mei and Aoyuki had made what had obviously been the right decision. They had crossed a line, sure, but they had done it because of their undying loyalty to me, and I wasn’t about to overlook that. As for Doc, Mei managed to heal up all of his potentially fatal wounds with the cards, although he still remained unconscious. She then took the opportunity to place an SSSR Curse Collar around his neck and tie him up with her Magistrings. With that, we had officially captured Doc alive, and all that was left was to make him cough up the secret to turning my brother back to normal. And I didn’t care what we’d have to do to him to make him talk!

By the time I’d returned to the Abyss, the rage that was churning away inside of me was darker than the deepest shade of black.

Chapter 7: The Unlimited Gacha’s Possibility

A relentlessly somber atmosphere plagued the bottom tier of the Abyss due to its supreme overlord’s descent into a deep state of melancholy.

“I-Is it because I let the baddie escape?” Nazuna asked with eyes brimming with tears. “Is that why master’s so mad?”

“I assure you it’s not your fault,” Ellie soothed. “Blessed Lord Light is not the kind of man who would be this aggrieved over something so petty. If you recall, several other high-level Masters showed up unexpectedly to seize Mr. Goh from your grasp. None of us could have anticipated that, so you mustn’t blame yourself, Nazuna.”

Light had assigned Nazuna, the Abyss’s mightiest warrior, to capture Goh, and although the mission had initially gone to plan, three Masters had appeared and distracted Nazuna while teleporting Goh away. It was also plain that these other Masters had been on a calculated search and rescue mission, and had no intentions of engaging Nazuna in battle for any extended length of time. Even if on paper, four Masters presented a tough fight, it was virtually guaranteed that Nazuna would prevail. But if their plan all along was a swift withdrawal, Nazuna was never likely to be able to stop them, even if she somehow managed to marshal all of her strength. Viewed through that lens, Goh’s escape had been practically unavoidable in that situation.

“In any case, His Blessedness isn’t displeased with you in the least,” Ellie continued. “So there’s no need for you to be so distraught.”

“O-Okay,” Nazuna sniffed. “If ya say so, Ellie...”

Ellie turned her gaze to the door of the room Light had holed himself in. Just imagining the sight of her master lost in abject misery caused the superwitch’s chest to tighten.

If only my sorcery could be of some help... she thought. But it’s too far out of my hands. I’m the Level 9999 Forbidden Witch, yet I’m unable to be of any service to my Blessed Lord in his time of need...

Even while Ellie comforted Nazuna, in her head, she was mentally clenching her teeth at her own impotence. She knew that all she could do was stand by and watch as her dungeon lord wallowed in despair.

✰✰✰

I sat in a chair beside the bed, gazing in speechless shock at my brother’s unmoving body. We had managed to bring Els and Doc down to the Abyss like we had originally planned, so in that regard, the mission was a success. Admittedly, my brother had committed suicide to stop himself from hurting me, but Ellie had since confirmed that it was possible to use her Resurrection of the Dead spell to bring him back to life.

Fortunately for Els, the only part of his body that had been destroyed was his heart, not much time had passed since his death, and Doc had transformed Els’s body to be highly resilient, which was handy because the resurrection spell wouldn’t work on anyone low-level since the body wouldn’t be able to withstand its power. There was also nothing to be done if the body had been torn to pieces (or was just too damaged in general), or if too much time had passed after death, since the corpse would have started to decompose and become too skeletal. But Ellie assured me that my brother had cleared the whole raft of conditions that needed to be met in order to resurrect his body, so everything was fine on that front. (More precisely, the dead body needed organs that could function normally after being revived. Yes, my brother had crushed his heart, but Ellie said it was possible to restore it and bring him back to life.)

However, the big problem facing us was the fact that there was no way to turn my brother back to normal. None. At this moment in time, Els was lying on a bed still in monster form, and since Ellie had already used her magic to repair his heart, it looked like my brother was just sleeping.

Ellie said Doc had no idea how to turn my brother back into a human, even after probing every inch of his memories, I recalled. Plus, we got Mei to use her lie-detecting skill to confirm he wasn’t hiding anything.

At that same moment, Doc was undergoing the worst form of torture imaginable in the bottommost chambers of the Abyss, beside the former Concord of the Tribes members I had managed to capture so far. But considering the horrors he’d put countless people through, I wasn’t sure he was being punished enough. Prior to placing Doc in his cell, we had done practically everything in our power to try to make him tell us how to turn my brother back to normal, but it was all for naught. This monster version of Els was like a bottle of wine that had mud mixed into it, and it was impossible to separate mud from wine. Since it was similarly impossible to turn my brother back to normal, if we were to revive him, he would go back to being an uncontrollable monster, making the whole thing pointless.

So for the time being, Ellie had used an ultimate class spell on the body that stopped it from experiencing time and thereby prevented it from decomposing. Her magic was strong enough to make time stop forever, not just temporarily, so there was no need to worry about any of Els’s body parts accidentally decaying, and as previously mentioned, it really did look like my brother was simply sleeping on the bed.

I have many times more wealth and resources than I could ever have imagined possessing when I was back on my family’s old farm, I thought. I’ve conquered the world’s biggest and deadliest dungeon, and I have the power to take on all of the nations that oppress humans. Yet none of my powers are enough to bring back my brother...

I folded my hands in front of my face as if in prayer, but instead of beseeching some unseen power, all I could do was let my head hang low until my forehead was pressing up against my interlocked fingers. Bitter tears flowed from my closed eyelids as I tried to make sense of my brother’s cruel fate, and I felt completely miserable about my inability to do a thing for him, even after rescuing him from Doc’s grasp.

I heard a knock at the door, but I didn’t bother to answer. The door opened anyway, and I knew exactly who was walking into the room from the feel of her energy.

“Mei...” I muttered robotically. “I thought I told everyone I wanted to be alone with my brother.”

“Please excuse me for intruding,” Mei said simply, approaching me from the side despite my grumblings, then taking out a handkerchief and gently wiping away my tears. I would usually have been thrilled to be treated with such care by Mei, but instead, this simple act struck a nerve and left me on the edge of becoming a total emotional wreck. But before that could happen, Mei broke the weighty silence.

“Master Light, you must not give up on your dear brother,” she stated. “I believe in my heart that there is still a way to save him.”

“But Doc said that Els is stuck like this forever, and he’s the one who mutated him in the first place,” I said. “Are you saying one of the Dragonute Empire Masters might know something he didn’t?”

I knew it was just wishful thinking on my part, and it was basically a waste of time hoping that any of the remaining Masters might have the skills or capabilities to bring my brother back, no matter what powers they possessed. Heck, I’d even toyed with the idea of getting Nazuna to use her Prometheus to bend my brother’s reality and return him to normal, but affecting the reality of another person would have put her through the most amount of strain imaginable, to the point where it would risk killing her. And that was even if Nazuna made a clone of herself in advance and left it on standby to heal her. I would never risk sacrificing Nazuna’s life to save my brother. That was simply not an option. (And in any case, there was no guarantee Ellie’s resurrection spell would work on Nazuna if she died in the process.) There was simply nothing I could realistically do to save Els.

Mei shook her head. “No, my belief has nothing to do with them. I believe the way to save your dear brother lies within your own self, Master Light. Within your Unlimited Gacha.”

My eyes blinked open and widened as full realization of what Mei had just said struck me. Why hadn’t I thought of that sooner? I chalked it up to taking my Gift for granted for so long, I had completely forgotten to appreciate the world of possibilities it represented.

“You’re right. There’s still a chance my Unlimited Gacha will produce a card that’ll fix up my brother,” I said. “I mean, it’s already given me the Gungnir, an actual genesis-class weapon, so why shouldn’t it give me another insanely rare card with the power to turn him back to normal?”

This must have been what it feels like for the scales to fall from your eyes. I got up out of my chair and turned to face Mei, my eyes twinkling with new hope after her words had hauled me out of my pit of despair. I grabbed her hand with pure, unmitigated gratitude.

“Thank you, Mei! Thank you!” I gushed. “Now I know there is still a chance. I just hadn’t realized it before!”

“There is no need to thank me, Master Light,” Mei replied, a smile on her face from seeing me in such high spirits. “To serve you is my honor as a maid as well as my very reason for being.”

I kept thanking Mei over and over, tears of joy streaming down my face. I had thought I would never get out of my funk, but she had opened up my eyes to this new faint glimmer of a possibility. Mei once again wiped my eyes with her handkerchief, although unlike before, I could feel from the touch of her fingertips that she was just as happy as I was.

✰✰✰

“I-I’m so sorry, masteeeer!”

I had moved to my executive office after leaving Els’s room, and was sitting listening to Nazuna give a tearful account of her battle with Goh. After relating the episode to me, she apologized profusely, and I smiled at her to give her peace of mind.

“It’s a shame you didn’t capture the leader of the Demonkin Nation Masters, but what happened wasn’t your fault at all,” I said. “We didn’t know enough about where Goh was heading to set up a simple teleportation barrier ahead of time, and we certainly didn’t expect a bunch of rival Masters to show up to rescue him.”

I grew more contemplative. “And not only that, one of them was the black-haired Master that Oboro was obsessed with. According to Miki, that Master is named Hei and he’s one of the top fighters allied with the Dragonute Empire. None of us could’ve expected him, of all people, to show up to help Goh, so you shouldn’t beat yourself up about it. Believe me, I’m not mad at you in the slightest.”

“Th-Thank you, master,” Nazuna sniffed. “Next time, I’ll really try my darndest to do good on my mission!”

Her expression made for a strange sight, as a look of determination fought for supremacy on a teary, snot-filled face. An awkward smirk crept across my mouth, and I glanced over at Mei, who was standing off to one side in my office. She understood what this cue signified, and walked over to Nazuna with a handkerchief to wipe her face.

Still, this is really bizarre, I thought to myself while waiting for Nazuna to regain her composure. The Demonkin Nation Masters are supposed to be at war with the Dragonute Empire Masters, going from what Miki told us. Yet several Masters from the Dragonute Empire side had gone out of their way just to rescue Goh? And even if you overlook that bit, why were they anywhere near Goh’s location in the first place? Did they just happen to cross paths? But that wouldn’t explain why they’d rescue Goh. Unless Miki’s hiding something from us?

Although we were keeping Miki prisoner in the Abyss at present, she regularly gave us info in exchange for a few quid pro quos, although these were more “gentlemen’s agreements” than anything put down in writing, and we certainly hadn’t entered into a magical pact either. In other words, there was nothing to stop Miki from only being partially forthcoming with her answers, and she could, for example, be concealing the fact that the two factions of Masters only appeared adversarial on the surface, and were secretly on friendly terms.

Nah, I’m being overly suspicious now, I decided. If Miki had lied to us, all of the intel we had lifted from Gira and Doc would have blown her cover. No, for all of her many, many faults, Miki wasn’t the kind of idiot who’d tell us a pack of lies and hope we wouldn’t catch and interrogate any other Masters. She knew as well as I did that the only reason she was still alive to see another day was due to the value of her intelligence. If she were to deliberately compromise that value in any way, she would just be signing her own death warrant.

Actually, that’d be the least of Miki’s worries, I reflected. If nothing else, she wouldn’t dare to risk throwing away her chance at more quid pro quos from Suzu. As someone who has witnessed her insane obsession with Suzu up close and personal, that would definitely be the real clincher.

Miki was the one who had chosen to defect to our side after falling in love with Suzu, although I’d be the first to admit that she didn’t really have any other options since we had her cornered. But even so, she had willingly become our captive due to her sheer infatuation with Suzu, and I really didn’t see her risking losing her chance to be in the same general vicinity. It was significantly more plausible that Goh had connections to the Dragonute Nation Masters for reasons unknown, even to Miki.

If that’s true, it wouldn’t make sense to lash out at Miki, I thought. Still, I’ll need to have a serious talk with her about this.

Once I finished this train of thought, I dismissed Nazuna, and as soon as she had left, I moved on to my next topic: Doc. I spoke about him with the same murderous edge in my voice I had when talking about my sworn enemies from the Concord of the Tribes.

“If we’re done getting all the information we can get from him, then make him suffer forever,” I declared. “He must endure a fate worse than death for what he did to my brother, and for all of the victims he’s tortured to death. Otherwise, I won’t be able to sleep at night. I don’t care what gacha card you use to make him suffer endlessly; just make sure that both his body and mind are taken beyond the limits of pain and torment. All of that must happen, or my name’s not Light.”

“As you command, Master Light,” Mei replied. “I swear on my honor as a maid that I and every other member of the Abyss will direct the entirety of our beings toward making sure that he suffers a living hell with no end to his pain and misery in sight.”

Mei was just as furious as I was, meaning Doc wasn’t going to escape the same treatment we were giving to those formerly of the Concord of the Tribes. With all of the other bad guys who hadn’t been my ex-partymates, we had tended to show mercy by executing them right after extracting the info we needed from them. Or well, that was at least for those we didn’t decide to torture first. Doc was the unforgivable exception to this rule, but my homicidal malice wasn’t going to end there, for my anger was overflowing like magma at present.

“Summon Ellie,” I said. “The leaders of the Demonkin Nation are just as guilty as Doc, since they aided him in hurting my brother, and trampled all over the dignity of innocent humans. Have her take her dragons to the Demonkin Nation castle and reduce it to ashes.”

My tone softened a little. “We also need to go back to Doc’s lab and make sure all of the bodies still there get given a proper send-off to the Goddess.”

There were still a bunch of dead bodies piled up in Doc’s old lab, as well as people who were still alive and were being used as human guinea pigs, or worse still, who had been turned into monsters. My plan was to cremate all of the souls we couldn’t save, and relocate all the ones we could to Tower City. Mei used an SR Telepathy card to summon Ellie to my office while I sat waiting behind my desk, stewing in my anger.

I need to wipe out the demonkin leaders for all the support they’ve given to Doc over the years, even when they knew he was using humans like my brother as test subjects, I decided. We pulled our punches with the elf queen and only threatened her with the dragons. This time, we’ll turn their seat of power into a pile of ash!

What I really wanted to do was transform the Demonkin Nation’s capital to fiery rubble, since all of the citizens there had lived comfortable lives without caring one bit about the humans who were suffering in their midst. But I couldn’t really go that far because there were a whole bunch of human slaves in the capital, and besides, it wouldn’t really be ethical to take my anger out on innocent demonkin civilians. I had to restrain myself in that regard, but I was free to target the people living in the Demonkin Nation castle—namely Prince Voros, the de facto leader of the nation. He had provided Doc with support despite knowing all of the horrible things he was doing to humans in particular.

I will not rest until Voros is given the same punishment as Doc, I vowed. The last thing I’ll do is let him get off lightly with a quick and painless death! No, I need to capture him and have the dragons burn his palace to the ground as a lesson to the rest of the demons. Then, we’ll proclaim Absolute Autonomy for Humans in the nation and free all of the slaves unconditionally. And if anyone tries to resist...

I continued to stew in my anger as I mulled over all of the orders I was going to give to Ellie, and I kept up this train of thought until the witch walked in through my office door.

Chapter 8: Voros’s Pride

Voros, crown prince of the Demonkin Nation, was sitting at his desk in the executive palace office and humming inquisitively at the documents he had in his hand. For Voros, it had been a highly unremarkable day so far: He had woken up, been waited upon by servants, taken his meals, and performed royal duties in place of his father, the king, who was bedridden. While Voros did not yet wear the crown, everyone around him regarded him as the monarch in all but name. Even the documents Voros was reading at that moment were of no particular importance. But ordinary life as he knew it was about to come to an end, courtesy of a single crow who could be found at that very moment perching on the windowsill and cawing for attention.

“Take your leave,” Voros commanded his maids and bodyguards.

“Yes, Your Highness,” his attendants said as one, bowing and exiting the prince’s office.

The crow on the windowsill wasn’t a wild bird but a magic item able to record audio and used to deliver messages to the designated contact. This was the method Voros usually employed to communicate new assignments to the Masters allied to his nation whenever he didn’t have the time to meet them face-to-face. The maid and the prince’s bodyguards didn’t find it at all weird that they had to leave Voros alone with a talking crow, since exchanges like these had happened many times before. In fact, they were extra obedient when it came time to leave the room, since they risked being beheaded if they overheard something extra sensitive from the crow. As such, nobody wanted to be the last to leave the office.

Voros walked over to the windowsill with the kind of gait that suggested this was business as usual. Are we finally rid of that Wicked Witch’s minion who’s been menacing our troops? It took longer than I would’ve liked. I suppose I should get started on the preparations to take over Diablo’s fiefdom, pending the completion of Doc’s second assignment. Honestly, I can hardly keep up with all this extra workload.

Voros sighed, resigned as he was to the burdens of being the de facto king. In his mind, he was about to receive a routine message from Goh, then he would have to wait some more for Doc to complete the job of assassinating Diablo with his horde of brainwashed soldiers. But the prince wasn’t prepared for what he was about to hear from the crow’s open beak.

“It’s me,” came the voice of Goh, ringing out from the bird. “I was able to get rid of that warrior chick ya mentioned, but I ran into a problem afterward. The witch sent another minion who pounded my ass into the dirt, no two ways about it. Her powers are way too insane, and I don’t see how I’m s’posed to beat her. Plus, seein’ what happened to me, I don’t think Doc’s makin’ it back in one piece this time either.”

For his part, Voros had been thrown for a loop and he found himself struggling to comprehend what had just been reported. Voros was forced to endure the disrespectful behavior of the Masters whenever he engaged with them, but he had let all the insults slide since every single one of the five Masters held the power to eradicate the entire Demonkin Nation army and lay waste to the kingdom if they were ever minded to. Viewed in that light, Goh’s message didn’t make an ounce of sense, leaving Voros deeply confused.

“I had to go into hidin’ to lick my wounds and regroup, so that I can kill that dumb little short stack the next time I see her,” Goh continued. “And if I’m being perfectly honest, even talking to ya like this risks blowin’ my cover, but I did it anyway, since we go back a long way and you’ve been good to me. You’re welcome, by the way. I’ll end this with a warning: Ya better hightail it outta that nation of yours and lie low too. Since you messed with the witch, I’d say it’s a safe bet the Demonkin Nation’s next on her hit list. If ya like breathin’ oxygen, ya better take my advice seriously. Entirely up to you, of course, but don’t expect me to come and bail ya out later.”

Once the sound recording had ended, the magic crow turned back into its original form: an egg. The full gravity of the situation finally hit Voros, and he slumped to one knee with one hand clamped to the windowsill to steady himself while he pressed the other over his mouth. He looked paler than a hospital patient on the verge of death, and beads of sweat traced the contours of his face.

“This cannot be!” Voros wailed. “How could our most powerful Master lose to one of the witch’s minions? Is he trying to deceive me? No, there’s no good reason why he would! Has he switched sides and gone to work for that infernal witch? What could she possibly have to offer him? Money? Women? Status? Glory? No, I just can’t see it! It’s simply unthinkable for him to double-cross us...”

As for Doc, the Wicked Witch of the Tower championed Absolute Autonomy for Humans, so there was absolutely no way he would have purposely switched sides, since it would effectively put an end to his ghastly human experimentation.

“But then that would mean that everything Goh just said was true...” Voros lamented. “That witch has vanquished both Goh and Doc?”

Gira hadn’t been seen either since he had shown up to duel a party of adventurers in league with the tower witch. Added to the previous disappearances of Miki and Daigo, this meant there was no longer anyone left in the Demonkin Nation with the power to resist the witch. Like Goh had said, the witch’s next move was likely to cross the border and attack the demons where they lived. When all was said and done, the Demonkin Nation could well end up being treated as a colony, much like the Elven Queendom.

“As crown prince, I can’t allow my nation to bend the knee to some rotten inferior, Wicked Witch or no!” Voros snapped. “That would be completely unacceptable!”

He slammed his fist into the floor in his fury, the mere thought of his proud nation being under the influence of the Wicked Witch of the Tower making his blood boil to such an extent, he could quite easily have ruptured every vein in his body, if such a cause of death were actually possible.

“I won’t allow it...” he breathed. “I will not allow that to happen to my nation!”

Voros’s pride as a member of the demon race would never tolerate such a humiliation, so he made his mind up on the spot to unleash the final card he had up his sleeve.

“I must protect the Demonkin Nation...” he rasped. “I must revive C!”

Now fully committed to this course of action, Voros rose to his feet and made his way to his desired destination, but instead of going immediately to the bottommost floor of the palace where C was hidden away, he instead went to the treasury to retrieve a national heirloom: the Martyr’s Pendant. This particular magic item was guaranteed to protect the wearer from any sort of attack, no matter how devastating, but it was a single-use item that would disintegrate shortly after being activated.

“What I’m about to do is unprecedented in our nation’s history,” Voros whispered to himself. “If I am to protect my nation, I cannot afford to let anything happen to me.”

After rationalizing his decision, Voros put the Martyr’s Pendant on and made his way to the palace basement.

✰✰✰

“Y-Your Highness, you intend to resurrect C?” the head researcher said in a timid voice.

“You heard correctly,” Voros replied. “With Goh and the rest of the Masters vanquished, we no longer have the luxury of worrying about the consequences. Damn them! I let those human vermin get away with their insolent behavior merely because they were Masters, yet they ended up getting subjugated anyway! This just shows that inferiors will always be inferiors, no matter how powerful they are. The only thing I can truly have faith in is the demonkin race!”

Voros had meant to double down on his direct order to revive C, but had instead ended up airing his grievances with the Masters halfway through. Due to the nature of their research, the head scientist was of course aware of the Masters who were being hosted by the kingdom, and how mighty these superhumans were. However, face drained of color, the lead scientist continued to rebuff Voros’s direct order.

“Your Highness, even if the Masters have been subjugated, I don’t think I can agree to force C to awaken,” the researcher said. “The amount of damage we might end up unleashing could be unfathomable.”

Hundreds of years earlier, the Demonkin Nation had discovered C laying in a coffin in the middle of a set of ruins. The authorities had recovered the coffin and placed it in a research facility deep beneath the palace for safekeeping, then hired scientists to try to find a way of removing the magical seal from the coffin in order to safely revive C. However, these efforts had so far been fruitless. More than a few had contemplated simply breaking open the coffin through brute force, but it was uncertain what state C would awaken in if they did so.

One educated guess about the outcome had taken hold, however: C would be infuriated that his slumber had been disturbed by a bunch of strangers destroying his coffin. The potential risk was, in fact, so overwhelming, the demons contented themselves with keeping the coffin shut up tight while they quietly did their research on a way to remove the magical seal on it. But Voros had no patience for protocol.

“You imbecile!” he yelled. “With those Masters out of the picture, there is nothing stopping that diabolical witch from wreaking havoc on our nation if the mood takes her! We need something even more powerful than the Masters to protect ourselves, and C is Level 9999! If we don’t revive him, our proud nation will become like that of the elves: a dog kept on a leash by that witch! Is that what you want? Well?”

“Well, n-no, but...” the scientist stuttered.

“It’s only because you people are so useless that we’re being forced to resort to opening this coffin crudely anyway!” Voros bawled. “And before you say another word to me, think how much in the way of funds, resources, manpower, and time we have invested in your futile research! You people are disgraceful, incompetent hacks!”

Voros’s fit of outrage had done its job of silencing the head researcher as well as all the other scientists in the underground facility. They all knew that their project had benefited from large sums of confidential funding, and they had nothing to show for it, so they couldn’t really say anything in their defense. Voros managed to calm himself down enough to issue his final order.

“All right, then. If I’ve finally gotten through to you dunderheads, then start preparing to revive C by force!” Voros instructed. “We don’t know when the witch will attack, so make it fast, you dolts!”

“R-Right away, Your Highness!” the scientists replied in unison before scrambling to carry out the order.

C in the flesh lay in a rectangular coffin with an underside made of a stone-colored material that was completely impervious to weapons, magic items, or any other kind of powerful strike. No attack even left a scratch, suggesting the material must be something other than stone despite how it looked. The top half of the coffin was made out of something that resembled frosted glass, and this material was also extremely scratch-resistant. While the glasslike material was only semitransparent, it allowed a fairly good view at the occupant of the coffin, and judging by height and facial features, the subject appeared male. An Appraisal had been performed on the slumbering body, and the stats screen had shown that the interred was Level 9999. There were a few other bits of data given, but it was the word “God” that really caught the eye. Based on this evidence, the demons had determined that they were in possession of the real C.

The top and bottom halves of the coffin were conjoined nearly seamlessly, with the only thing separating the two a line that ringed the entire perimeter of the casket. Past experiments had uncovered much about the coffin, but the simplest way to force open the casket the researchers had hit upon was to focus on this seam that connected the two halves.

Blasting open the coffin required enriched magic gems that could only be harvested from especially high-level monsters. These gems contained pure concentrations of mana, and they were so valuable, they were considered national treasures. The Demonkin Nation had had no enriched gems to speak of when the casket was first discovered, but after centuries of effort, a barely sufficient collection had been assembled. Following Voros’s order, the scientists placed these gems on the seam encircling the coffin, before also placing cutting-edge magic items around the lair that would lessen the effects of any physical or magical forces that might be unleashed as they tried to awaken C.

If only I had Goh and the other Masters here to help buy us some time so that I could save myself if the worst happened, Voros thought, before immediately dismissing the idea. No, I couldn’t have them knowing about C for any reason, even if any of them were still alive and available. Perhaps this is for the best.

Voros sighed softly as he watched the ongoing preparations. He placed a hand on the bit of his clothing where the Martyr’s Pendant lay underneath, just to make sure that he was still wearing his last potential lifeline. Once all of the preparations were complete, the scientists scurried behind a barricade that had been placed a safe distance away.

“Your Highness, we’re ready,” the lead researcher said, holding out some kind of object. “If we turn this switch, the coffin will break apart and reanimate C. At least, in theory.”

The switch was attached to a cord, which was connected up to the enriched gems that had been placed at regular intervals around the coffin. The gems were designed to trigger and explode at the same time, and the concentrated energy produced should blow the lid off the coffin.

Voros nodded without hesitation. “Do it.”

“A-As you wish, Your Highness,” the scientist squeaked. After another vacillating second or two, an outstretched finger went to the switch. A bright light flashed for a second, but that was the full extent of the explosion, the magical safeguards successfully erasing all of the noise and impact from the blast. In fact, the only discomfort Voros felt was having to squint briefly due to the brilliant burst of light. Voros and the scientists peeked out from behind the barricade and noted that the top half of the casket was lying on the floor, which meant the disassembly had been a success. Nothing else seemed to be happening, however.

“The resurrection of C is more underwhelming than I was expecting,” Voros remarked sarcastically.

“Well, we were forced to use magic items that lessened the sound as well as the shock of the explosion,” the research lead reminded him. “I believe a showier display would have been too much to expect.”

Explosions triggered by enriched magical gems were normally enough to strike any spectator dead if their effects weren’t mitigated. Even if the gems were arranged to concentrate their explosive energy on a specific target, the surplus light and sound, and the resulting shock wave could still prove fatal. But thanks to the state-of-the-art magic items they had used, everyone in the underground facility had come out the other side completely unscathed, and given this notable triumph, even the timid head researcher couldn’t let Voros’s snide and rather cavalier remark go unrebuffed.

Out of the blue, the other researchers all started murmuring, because they had spotted something moving inside the smoke that had yet to fully settle. The figure had to be C, since he was the only one inside the coffin—

“Qojgaig jaithajhr jhzouichi kyuuut kyuuakushit kyuushiut!”

A cacophony of noise flooded the room, followed by an unseen burst of energy that blew away the barrier with enough force to overwhelm all of the magic items and turn the entire palace into a massive, smoldering crater.

Chapter 9: Strange Phenomenon

Ellie groaned. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to live down the indignity!”

Standing astride a humongous Red Dragon in her guise as the Wicked Witch of the Tower, the Forbidden Witch was leading her hundred-strong dragon army into the Demonkin Nation on a mission to lay waste to the royal palace. Despite hurtling along at speeds that would see any normal rider blown from their perch, Ellie maintained her balance on the back of her dragon with ease, as if she were standing in a meadow on a cloudless day. She was able to do this because she had cast a spell that constantly adjusted the wind pressure around her, meaning no gusts would blow back her hood to reveal her face. This feat was in no way challenging for the Level 9999 superwitch, yet despite making what would normally be seen as a rather grand entrance into enemy territory, she was gnawing her handkerchief and grumbling.

“I was so busy searching for a spell that would bring back our dear elder brother, I failed to realize I was going about it all wrong,” Ellie bemoaned. “My sorcery is pure trash compared to Blessed Lord Light’s Unlimited Gacha, but I’d completely forgotten that! If only I’d realized sooner, I would’ve been able to provide the Blessed Lord with much-needed solace instead of Mei!”

Ellie stopped gnawing her handkerchief and held a hand to her head to stop herself from swooning. Much to her chagrin, Mei had been the one who’d reminded Light that he might still be able to save his brother if he pulled the right card from his Unlimited Gacha, and cheered by this realization, Light had commanded Ellie to take her dragons and attack the Demonkin Nation’s palace. Her mission came in three parts, the first being to have her dragons reduce the palace to ashes.

Her next objective was to capture Voros, the demon prince who had provided backing for Doc’s human experiments that had been responsible for turning Els into a monster. As had been the case with Doc, Light wouldn’t be able to rest easy until Voros was punished accordingly. Burning down the palace would serve as a warning to all the other demons who thought they could just turn a blind eye to that level of barbarity.

The final aim of the mission was to declare Absolute Autonomy for Humans in the Demonkin Nation, which would force the inhabitants into freeing all of their human slaves unconditionally. It was the same edict that had been imposed upon the Elven Queendom, the Dark Elf Islands, the Dwarf Kingdom, the Onifolk Archipelago, and the Beastfolk Federation, and all the former slaves would subsequently be relocated to the Great Tower.

Light had also ordered her to punish any and all slave owners who resisted the Absolute Autonomy edict, yet Ellie hadn’t encountered any major issues the last few times she had freed slaves. Although during the manumissions in the Elven Queendom, there’d been scores of slave traders—particularly heinous characters, who routinely tortured and killed their bondservants—who refused to hand over their human chattel. In response to this opposition, Ellie had a dragon eat one of the slave traders alive in front of a crowd, and after that gruesome display, none of the other elf slave owners defied the Absolute Autonomy order.

Anyone who goes against Blessed Lord Light’s order should suffer the cruelest fate imaginable, Ellie thought. But there were too many of them. I would’ve had no time for anything else.

Focusing on punishing any and all of the odious lawbreakers would have distracted Ellie from carrying out Light’s commands to the fullest, so she had settled for making an example of a few unlucky slave owners.

“I wasn’t able to provide comfort to His Blessedness, but I did receive a direct order from him, so this is hardly the time to be pitying myself!” Ellie remonstrated with herself. “I need to focus on carrying out my mission!”

She curled up both of her hands into fists and snorted defiantly. Her job was to descend on the Demonkin Nation’s capital and strike fear into the locals, much as she had done in the Elven Queendom. With her dragons by her side, Ellie would demand that Voros hand himself over to her. If he readily complied, all the better, but if not, Ellie would simply locate the demonkin prince and capture him by force. It would certainly be faster than getting other people to do it.

While Ellie went over the plan of attack in her mind, she saw a blast of light burst forth from where Voros’s palace was supposed to be.

“Huh? What was that?” Ellie wondered aloud.

The flash of light vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Using sorcery to boost her eyesight to get a telescopic view of the palace that was still some distance away, Ellie zoomed in on a pile of rubble where the palace should have been. Furthermore, there appeared to be something moving in the rubble. It was yelling something, but Ellie was still too far away to make out any of the words, which was probably just as well because the figure looked a lot like Light had done when he’d snapped and nearly killed Doc following Els committing suicide. Even from afar, Ellie could tell the figure had an extraordinarily high power level, so she activated an SR Telepathy card to report what she had witnessed to Light.

✰✰✰

“The Demonkin Nation palace got destroyed before we even got there?” I repeated.

“Yes, Your Blessedness,” Ellie replied. “I witnessed a beam of light rise into the sky along with debris from the palace. What looked like a male human crawled out from beneath the destroyed building, but he didn’t appear injured at all, and he proceeded to go on a rampage amid the wreckage.”

I’d been sitting in my office in the Abyss when I’d received the Telepathy message from Ellie, and before she gave her report, I’d assumed she had finished her job a lot quicker than expected. Of course, that had turned out not to be the case at all. She went on to tell me that the guy who had crawled out from under the wreckage of the palace appeared to have a black mist surrounding his hands and feet, and when she said he was rampaging through the rubble, it was a real demolition job, like a crazed bull destroying everything in a china shop. Ellie was keeping her distance just to be on the safe side, and had run an Appraisal on the man. The stats were all scrambled on his name, but the data did confirm he was Level 9999. His title was similarly scrambled, but from what Ellie could make out, this person was some kind of “god” who was a “fomenter” of, um, something. She opined that he must have been a “Mad God” and a “Fomenter of Calamity,” judging by the level of destruction he was causing.

Who would’ve thought there’d be a Level 9999 like us in the Demonkin Nation? I pondered. Since he was able to destroy the palace with ease, does that mean this is the bad guy who wiped out my village?

But I quickly dismissed the notion. Sure, the guy’s level surpassed 9000, but why would he go quiet for so long after destroying my village, only to wake up one day and go berserk? That didn’t make much sense. I was also wondering if that guy was even a Master in the first place. But Miki had told us there were only five Masters in the Demonkin Nation, and eleven overall.

“Or there were eleven before you guys killed Daigo, so I guess that means there’s only ten Masters that Miki knows about,” she had corrected herself. This guy, who was on a rampage, might have been part of the Dragonute Empire faction of Masters, but that was such a blind assumption, I couldn’t say how likely that was.

“Ellie, did any information on this guy turn up in Gira’s or Doc’s memories?” I asked.

“I’m afraid not, Blessed Lord,” she replied. “That treacherous criminal, Doc, was laser-focused on his abominable research to the detriment of everything else, so he had no intelligence of interest to offer us, while Gira’s memories only contained his desire to take down C using his own powers.”

In her report, she had written that Gira thought so highly of himself, he believed he could actually kill C if he used all the tricks he had at his disposal. He also couldn’t wait to see the dumbfounded looks on the faces of the Dragonute Empire Masters when he did so.

I wouldn’t call that “valuable intelligence” either, I reflected. I thought for a moment, then made my decision.

“Ellie, stand by and keep watching our rampaging friend while I go have a chat with Miki,” I said. “She might know something about who we’re dealing with here. If this guy tries to attack you, retreat. I don’t want you to engage anyone who’s Level 9999 without more intel.”

“As you wish, Blessed Lord Light,” Ellie replied. “I’ll continue monitoring the situation from a safe distance.” It was a good thing Ellie was so quick to adapt to new orders, since it meant I shouldn’t need to worry about much with her on the case. I cut the Telepathy link and told the fairy maid on duty in my office to set up an appointment with Miki.

✰✰✰

“What? Are you kidding me?” Miki blurted out. “That Level 9999 is rampaging around the capital?”

“Judging by that, you know something about him,” I said.

I was standing in front of Miki’s cell after setting up an appointment at the last minute to see her, and I’d brought Mei and Iceheat along as my bodyguards. As a small courtesy to her, we would normally bring Miki out of her cell and conduct these interrogations in another location, but I obviously didn’t have time for that, so we were speaking through the iron grille in the top part of the cell door, with Miki showing her face through the opening.

“Who woulda thought that self-centered prince would get desperate enough to unleash that thing?” Miki muttered to herself. “I guess that means they must’ve wiped the floor with Goh. And Doc for that matter too.” She hummed in admiration. “So they really beat up that absolute powerhouse, Goh. Miki must’ve really underestimated them. Guess I should start putting this bunch on a higher pedestal.”

Miki was speaking as if she didn’t care that we were listening in on her train of thoughts, and once she was done, she faced us through the bars again, a cloying smile plastered across her face.

“So we’re talking about a Level 9999 dude that’s wreaking havoc right now? Miki knows all about him!”

“Oh, so you do know him, do you?” I said. “Are we dealing with a Master? And why didn’t you bother to mention him to us before?” I took this opportunity to remind her of what she had told me during the first round of interrogations. “You said there were eleven Masters in total that you knew about. Or ten if you don’t count Daigo. Is this Level 9999 guy who’s currently tearing up the Demonkin Nation castle another Master that somehow slipped your mind?”

“No, that’s not quite right, Light,” Miki corrected me. “You’re acting like Miki told you a lie, when all Miki did was be vague and misleading. But whatevs. I’ll tell you what you’re dealing with free of charge since you look like you’re in a hurry. And besides, it’s a super funny story when viewed from my angle.”

Miki’s cloying smile morphed into a taunting one. “Yes, Miki did say there were eleven Masters, but I also said there might be another one if he gets revived.”

“Wait, so this Level 9999 guy is that revived Master?” I asked, stunned. Miki giggled sardonically.

“It’s more accurate to call this dude the ‘fake C,’” Miki said finally. “It’s some cadaver the Demonkin Nation has been keeping around since forever, thinking he was the real almighty C.”

“A fake C?” I said incredulously. Miki laughed again like she was watching a comedy routine.

“Remember how I’m a Beemancer who can summon any kind of bee I want?” she pointed out. “And if Miki has that kind of power, you’d better know she’ll use it to make sure that her hosts are on the up-and-up. So anyway, I used my bees to secretly scour every corner of the palace, and that’s when I discovered a Master sealed away in this weird coffin.”

“And you’re only telling me about this sealed Master now?” I said, unimpressed.

“Oops, did Miki forget to mention it?” she said, faking innocence. “But I’m in a good mood, so I’ll spill the beans. There are two types of Masters, you see. I’ve already told you about the first type who lived different lives before and have retained memories of those past lives. Well, the other type runs the whole gamut, but they’re basically people who were sealed away during the ancient civilization but who later got revived in the current era. Those are the only kinds of Masters you get.”

I was familiar with Masters who had lived previous lives, but the idea that there were Masters out there harking back to the lost civilization that had somehow survived all this time was entirely new to me.

So when she mentioned a Master that could be ‘revived,’ she was talking about one who originated in the ancient civilization? I mused.

“Yeah, so after one of my bees found this coffin in something that looked like an underground lab, I came over all curious and snuck in to take a look for myself,” Miki said, clearly pleased with herself. “And that’s when Miki discovered the guy in the casket was Level 9999 and had buggy stats—”

Miki paused, then corrected herself. “I mean, he had stats you couldn’t read fully. All I could make out were the words ‘god’ and ‘fomenter.’ I guess that’s why the demonkin thought the guy in the coffin was C and were doing everything they could to resuscitate him and bring him under their control. I thought it was hilarious. Sure, the dude was max level, but he wasn’t the almighty C.”

Miki laughed at the notion before continuing. “If anything, all that Master was gonna do was bring about disaster. That was obvious if you just stopped to think about what those readable words might mean. Not to mention the guy was sealed in a coffin for a reason. But those demons tried to unseal the coffin anyway, as some kind of insurance against us Masters. Isn’t that hysterical?”

So it seemed Miki was basically echoing what Ellie had already surmised: that this rampager was some kind of “god of calamity.” The extra wrinkle was that the demonkin had been trying to unlock the sealed Master under the illusion that he was actually C. Well, they had finally awakened the fake C after learning we had defeated their remaining Masters, but instead of providing them with protection, the fake C had gone berserk and destroyed the palace. And judging by what Miki was saying, the demons had only opened the casket recently, meaning this Master wasn’t the one who’d destroyed my village three years ago.

I rubbed my temple. “I thought the Demonkin Nation had laid a trap for us, but I didn’t count on it being the ultimate act of self-destruction. Yes, I can sympathize with wanting to respond to an imminent threat with your ace in the hole, but why would you play a card that was so obviously risky? What were the Demonkin Nation leaders even thinking?”

“Miki can guess what they’re thinking,” she said sarcastically. “If you want a hint, it’s all down to a certain someone who’s too prideful to function. Plus, he loves saving his own hide.”

I continued to rub my temple. Miki’s posse of Masters might have been working with the Demonkin Nation, but it didn’t mean both sides got along. “Is there a way to reseal this rampaging Master?” I asked.

“Oh, c’mon now. Miki would hardly know that, would she?” she protested. “I wasn’t that curious to know more about the dude in any case, and any Master who ends up being sealed like that will be a hopeless train wreck, which is how they got themselves sealed in the first place. They’re mostly too crazed to spout anything but gibberish, but they’re too powerful to be left out in the wild, so the ancients were forced to seal those Masters. Of course, there were exceptions to that rule.”

“Okay...” I began. “So if we can’t reseal this Master, we have no choice but to remove him permanently.” The crazed Master would end up harming all the human slaves still stuck in the Demonkin Nation’s capital if we did nothing, and there was also a good chance he might cross the border into the Human Kingdom. No, I wasn’t about to leave that berserker all alone to hurt innocent humans, especially since myself and my inner circle were likely the only people in the world who could take on this Level 9999 Master.

“Thanks,” I said. “I’ll be sure to repay you later.”

“It’s cool. You don’t have to,” Miki said. “I didn’t make myself clear last time anyway, and it was a blast chatting with you too.”

“No, I believe in repaying a favor with a favor, and kindness with kindness,” I said. “You were purposely being too vague the first time around, that’s for sure, but you’ve more than made up for it with this valuable intel, so I promise to do what I can to pay you back.”

“Gawd, for such a cute kid, you’re a real rigid little boy scout, ain’tcha?” Miki gushed. “But, Miki does like this side of you. My heart naturally belongs to my sweet Suzu, but you’re definitely Miki’s type too, and I wouldn’t mind spending a night with you.”

Mei and Iceheat had been standing behind me throughout our conversation without making so much as a peep, but as soon as Miki made a pass at me, they silently filled the whole jail block with dark, murderous energy. But even as their furious auras pressed against her, Miki grinned playfully, almost as if she were enjoying the whole experience.

I shrugged disarmingly. “Sorry, I’ll pass. But I’ll find a way to pay you back somehow.”

To repeat, the only reason I wanted to pay her back was because she had given us some useful intel. Well, okay, that wasn’t the only reason. If I don’t pay her back fast, she’s sure to leverage the debt to demand who knows what insanity, I reasoned. I could already picture Miki requesting yet another repulsive quid pro quo that would reduce Suzu to tears, so it was best for all of us if I just owned this obligation personally and took it out of the equation altogether.

Miki shrugged right back at me. “That’s too bad. Still, if you’re ever in the mood, look me up. And about that favor...” She paused. “I wasn’t really looking for a reward in the first place, so it’ll just be weird if you come back with something big.” But then, all of a sudden, an invisible light bulb switched on above Miki’s head. “Ah, I know! You can just tell me what my sweet Suzu’s hobbies are, plus her favorite foods and snacks. Since Miki is a maiden in love, she has to know everything her crush likes!”

“Sure,” I said. “Though I’ll have to ask Suzu for permission before I tell you. If she says no, we’ll have to think of something else.”

“Thanks, Light,” Miki said sweetly, before winking at me. “I’ll be waiting for you!”

This last gesture only ticked off Mei and Iceheat even more. I grinned sheepishly before quickly making my way out of the cell block. As I walked through the entrance to the jail, I immediately started brainstorming the lineup I would need in order to take on this psycho Master who was tearing up the Demonkin Nation’s royal palace. As soon as I got to my office, I called in my best fighters to discuss battle plans, but out of nowhere, someone completely unexpected stopped me partway through.

“Master, I beseech you to give the order to me,” Aoyuki implored. Yup, in other words, my ultraquiet, ultraobedient Genius Monster Tamer had decided to volunteer for a mission for the first time ever, and it was to battle a Level 9999 bad guy, no less. Even Mei and Nazuna looked at Aoyuki wide-eyed in shock.

✰✰✰

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Ellie,” I said, appearing on top of her Red Dragon after using my SSR Teleportation card.

“Oh, don’t be,” she said. “In fact, I should thank you for going out of your way to come here for my sake.”

I activated a gacha card to get a better look at the target myself. “So that’s the fake C that’s causing all this trouble, huh?”

The palace was long since destroyed by the time I’d gotten there, but the Master was still rampaging around the wreckage like a rabid animal. The guy was shirtless, and he had long hair that fell all the way down his back and looked cursed like it was made out of concentrated malice. Tears streamed from his eyes, and he continued to smash up debris while his body practically glowed with anger, sorrow, and bitterness. The initial report I’d received had said this guy looked like he was in pain, and seeing him for myself, I had to agree with that assessment. He looked every bit as anguished as I had been after witnessing my brother kill himself right in front of me, and he displayed the same mindless rage that had boiled my blood as I took out my fury on Doc. All this Master was doing was breaking things, and acting purely on emotion.

If I’d completely and irretrievably given in to my own rage, would I have ended up like this? I wondered absentmindedly.

At least by the looks of things, this guy wasn’t the C the Demonkin Nation Masters were obsessed with. Anyone could see that was the case from this sad, miserable display.

I canceled my card and turned to Ellie. “So any updates since the last report you sent me?”

“Why, certainly, Blessed Lord,” she said. “As you already know, a demon who appeared to be Prince Voros managed to escape from the wreckage alive. He has since absconded from the capital on horseback, together with some soldiers, and he is currently heading west, presumably to a fiefdom far from here. Honestly, I never thought the leader of a nation would just abandon his people in such a manner. I have directed a few of my dragons to watch the movements of Prince Voros from a distance, but I believe our first priority is to do something about this so-called fake C. What are your thoughts on it, Your Blessedness?”

“As long as we’re keeping tabs on him, we can let Voros roam free for now,” I agreed. “Still, are you sure there’s no chance this is just a case of mistaken identity?”

When Ellie had first told me via Telepathy that Voros was fleeing the capital, I was so stunned by the news, I wasn’t immediately able to respond. I mean, what kind of leader of a nation would leave his people to fend for themselves against a disaster, especially when it was one that he himself caused? The sheer lack of accountability made my head hurt. But on a more positive note, this meant Voros hadn’t been killed in the palace explosion, so we could still capture this valuable source of intel. And since he was running away from the capital and into the hinterlands, it would make it even easier for us to capture him without too much in the way of collateral damage. Every cloud and all that. Although this particular silver lining was remarkably thin, I had to admit.

“Anyway, continue watching Voros, and give his location to Suzu,” I told Ellie. “There’s no one better at hunting down prey than an actual hunter. We’ll pair Suzu up with Nazuna, just in case those Dragonute Empire Masters decide to interfere again. Nazuna should be able to beat them back if they do show up.”

“As you command, Blessed Lord,” Ellie replied with an elegant bow, and it was clear from her readiness to carry out the order without any qualms that even she thought Suzu and Nazuna could handle the manhunt for Voros by themselves. After all, Nazuna’s combat prowess spoke for itself, and Suzu was able to shoot mana bullets containing whatever property she deemed appropriate to the situation. In other words, Suzu didn’t automatically kill her targets with her shots, since she could just as easily stun them. If we were talking about a target with a high power level, there was a chance they could resist some of the effects, but Voros was nowhere near that kind of range.

“I’m sending Aoyuki in to fight this fake C, so I’ll need you to turn around and head home with your dragons,” I told Ellie. “Once you’re back, I want you to patch up and reinforce the underground arena you built for me to battle Gira. I plan to have another battle in that arena, but I left it just sitting out there with that slapdash fix job I did with a bunch of cards.”

“If you were the one to repair the arena, Blessed Lord, I would think it is already perfectly mended,” Ellie replied. “But I will humbly assist you with that task, if you insist. However, I’m still surprised Aoyuki of all people volunteered to take on this mission. Stranger things have happened, but not many.”

“She must have her reasons.” I closed my eyes as I recalled the conversation I’d had with Aoyuki in my office.

“B-Blessed Lord Light, did I...” Ellie must have thought she had said something rude, because her voice was unusually shaky.

“Oh, don’t worry, it’s nothing,” I said. “Anyway, I’m counting on you.”

“O-Of course, Your Blessedness,” Ellie said with another bow. I activated a second Teleportation card and whisked myself back to the Abyss. It was during that moment that I recalled my talk with Aoyuki in detail.

✰✰✰

“Master, I beseech you to give the order to me.”

Totally out of the blue, Aoyuki stepped forward and signed up to take on the Level 9999 Master that was going berserk in the Demonkin Nation’s capital. And I wasn’t the only one who was shocked at hearing these words, for Mei and Nazuna looked just as taken aback. Aoyuki ignored the collective gasps and calmly laid out her case for why she was the best-equipped fighter to take on this fake C.

For one thing, not only was our target Level 9999, but there was too much we didn’t know about him. Because she was the ultimate monster tamer, she could attack the fake C with a bunch of monsters from her collection to feel him out and identify the best approach to properly engage him. However, Aoyuki stressed that she wanted to fight the fake C alone with her monsters, because having any of the other warriors like Mei in the mix would just introduce potential problems with things like coordinating attacks.

Her basic overarching reason was that we were dealing with an unknown Level 9999 opponent. Aoyuki pledged to play it safe, but also wanted to be the only Level 9999 from the Abyss to face the risk. Depending on the outcome of a battle with this fake C, there was a possibility that a whole bunch of people could get killed, but using Aoyuki’s plan of attack, she would be the only one from my inner circle to perish if things went south.

She spoke at length and went well beyond her earlier points, to the point where Nazuna’s brain pretty much short-circuited midway through, and the Vampire Knight stood with her mouth gaping open and a faraway look on her face. But Aoyuki paid her no attention.

“And that is all,” Aoyuki said finally. “For those reasons, I beseech you to give me the order.”

I didn’t answer immediately. She was right that having her monsters engage with the fake C came with a ton of advantages, but I had a feeling Aoyuki wasn’t proposing this simply on the strength of its own merits.

She must feel partly responsible for Els’s death, I thought. If I were to guess, Aoyuki was still kicking herself over how her fight with Els had gone down, her reasoning being that if she had been more successful, Els wouldn’t even have had the opportunity to kill himself in front of me. She felt she’d had a chance to save me from that grief, but she’d blown it. This mission to stop the fake C was her way of making up for what she felt was her failure.

And I don’t even blame her for what happened to my brother, I thought. But if I say that to her and make her stand down, she’ll just hang on to that guilt until it erupts into something more dangerous. Given the alternative, I figured it was a safer bet to let her tackle this assignment. Besides, I couldn’t deny that Aoyuki had made a good case for why she was the best candidate for the job.

After making up my mind, I looked Aoyuki straight in the eye. “Okay, you got it. I’ll let you handle the fake C alone.”

“Thank you,” Aoyuki said, kneeling. “I vow to live up to your expectations, master.”

Nazuna—who had, by this time, dozed off—suddenly awoke with a start. She didn’t know what was going on but accepted the fact that Aoyuki was going to engage in a solo fight against the fake C.

Chapter 10: Aoyuki Versus the Fake C

The fake C continued to smash and destroy every bit of debris it could find within the ruined palace, squalling savagely like a banshee and radiating malicious energy that was tinged with sorrowful undercurrents. Because he was Level 9999, each time he smashed a pile of debris, a hail of rubble was sent raining out over the capital, causing damage to the homes of residents and even striking the unlucky few. At the same time, it was fortunate the Master was still messing around in the rubble of the palace, because if he decided to wander into the city itself, there was no telling how much havoc he would wreak. As if proving how much of a threat this fake C posed, the few soldiers who had survived the blast at the palace attempted to engage him, but before they could reach their target, they suddenly clutched their heads and started hollering in a frenzied, garbled language, much like the fake C was. The Master hadn’t done anything to the soldiers, besides glance at them. That was just a small taste of the harrowing pandemonium that the fake C would no doubt inflict upon the city’s residents.

A loud screech tore through the air, reaching the ears of every single person living in the royal capital, and descending from the sky came an equally attention-grabbing monster: a massive bird that was entirely covered in flames and had a wingspan that was dozens of meters in length. The UR Level 8500, Mythical Beast, Phoenix—a creature that was under Aoyuki’s control—swooped down and approached the fake C. The mere presence of the Phoenix was enough to draw the attention of the crazed Master, who continued to rant incoherently while his tear-filled eyes remained glued to the powerful creature. The Phoenix sped groundward, making sure it had the full attention of the fake C, then at the last second, it stopped suddenly in midair and came no closer. The Phoenix screeched tersely, then unleashed a flash of light so intense, one might almost think a second sun had risen above the horizon. Of course, this burst of bright light was intended to rob the fake C of its vision, and as expected, he clasped his hands over his eyes to protect them from the blinding flash. Anyone would do that, regardless of their level, or even if they were completely insane.

“Oooooh!” At that moment, another of Aoyuki’s monsters—the SSSR Level 4000, Magus Golem—charged directly toward the fake C. The Magus Golem had activated an SSR Conceal card and stayed quiet in its approach until it was ready to spring a surprise assault. As the name suggested, the golem wore a sorcerer’s robe, carried a magic staff, and specialized in spellcasting. However, its eyes and mouth were no more than circles, which made its face strikingly blank and featureless.

Once the Magus Golem was within range, it produced an SSR Teleportation card and released it.

A moment later, the fake C found himself in the same arena in which Dark and his party had fought the fake Gira. The Magus Golem had been assigned the role of releasing the Teleportation card due to its elevated aptitude for casting spells, and the fact that it was human-sized.

“Oooooh!” The Magus Golem immediately activated a second SSR Teleportation card to whisk itself away from the battleground, and once the golem was out of harm’s way, two more creatures emerged and unleashed twin attacks accompanied by thunderous growls.

The UR Level 8000, Hound of Hades, Cerberus towered over the fake C as if it were a mansion on four legs, and each of its three heads discharged energy blasts that would have easily vaporized whole estates equally as large. C, still blinded after the Phoenix’s sun glare attack, was hit by the three blasts and sent careening into the wall on the opposite side of the arena.

Standing beside Cerberus was the UR Level 9000, Primal God Wolf, Fenrir, a massive, alabaster dog that proceeded to fire off an iceberg at such speed, it nearly broke the sound barrier. The block of ice smashed into C, encasing him before he could recover from Cerberus’s attack and opening a crack in the arena wall that zigzagged up vertically before stopping just short of the ceiling.

Cerberus’s middle head barked quizzically. Did we get him? it said.

The other two heads bit the middle head for speaking out of turn. Don’t jinx it! they both growled. Even Fenrir regarded the middle head with a look that was colder than the iceberg it had fired.

As feared—and likely because their opponent was Level 9999—tiny cracks began to appear in the ice, growing bigger and bigger until the whole ice block shattered to reveal the fake C completely unscathed and rambling just as incoherently as before. Although he didn’t emerge completely unchanged, for the dark mist was no longer localized around his hands and feet, but had seemingly formed a full suit of gaseous armor around him. As the two creatures watched, the mist then pooled around the fake C’s right arm, forming a lance, and while mist also covered his face, it was clear from the tone of his voice that he was angry about the surprise attacks.

Cerberus’s right head snarled twice. This is because you jinxed it, it growled.

The middle head whined and meekly lowered itself. I didn’t jinx anything. Anyway, he can’t be a hundred percent!

Fenrir barked sharply. Stop joking around! Here he comes!

Still babbling like a madman, the fake C raised his mist lance and charged at the two dogs so rapidly, they couldn’t even track him. Cerberus and Fenrir fired their claws to stop him, but they just bounced off without hindering his progress or even inflicting any pain. Cerberus realized it was in the firing line and yelped, its three faces expressing varying levels of shock at this completely unanticipated turn of events. Both mighty canines leaped backward to evade the onrushing fake C, but his darkened lance extended in length at a greater speed and struck Cerberus in the torso, although it failed to penetrate deeply and broke off halfway.

As soon as Fenrir landed on its paws, it barked sharply over to its companion. Are you all right?

I’m fine. It didn’t go that deep, Cerberus growled back. But was that really an attack from someone who’s Level 9999?

Cerberus and Fenrir were surprised their flying claw attacks hadn’t halted the fake C, but that was as far as their shock went. The fake C’s dark energy lance had been unable to penetrate Cerberus’s tough flesh all the way through before snapping in two, and although the weapon quickly restored itself by siphoning off some of the black mist surrounding him, both creatures were baffled that a supposed Level 9999 Master hadn’t been able to inflict more damage.

The Phoenix suddenly appeared overhead after being teleported into the arena, and screeched loudly as it unleashed a tornado of white-hot flames on the fake C. The destructive power of the Phoenix outclassed most of the other monsters in Aoyuki’s army, and the white flames it produced weren’t just hot enough to vaporize a target, they were also imbued with holy properties. The idea behind sending the Phoenix into this battle was to counteract the dark, evil properties of the mist surrounding the fake C.

The Master simply continued to blather on as he parted the flames with his spear, then jumped up into the air toward the Phoenix, as if he himself had wings. The white flames had burned away some of the dark mist around the fake C, but it didn’t seem to have caused him any pain whatsoever.

The Phoenix, however, had anticipated this move after witnessing the fake C’s attack on Cerberus, and swiftly maneuvered itself into a position behind him. Against most opponents, this would have given Phoenix the upper hand, but the fake C spouted some more gibberish that seemingly commanded his mist-covered hair to harden into spikes and stretch out toward the Phoenix like oversized porcupine spines. The flying creature hadn’t anticipated this particular move, and while it was quick to take evasive action, some of the hardened spikes still struck its body. Luckily, however, the Phoenix managed to avoid sustaining heavy damage.

At this creepy, sea urchin-like display by the fake C’s apparently prehensile hair, Fenrir woofed softly, roughly translating to: He’s able to do that too? But at least the Phoenix had revealed another of the fake C’s moves, which was why Aoyuki’s monsters had been assigned to engage him. After reminding itself of its mission, Fenrir took a deep breath in and prepared to exhale an ice attack at the fake C, timed for the exact moment he would touch down on the ground again, which was theoretically when he’d be at his most vulnerable. Cerberus also readied an attack, but all of a sudden, its left head yelped in pain. The middle head had bitten the left, and not in a playful manner either, for the bite was deep enough and also vicious enough to draw blood.

Cerberus’s right head snarled incredulously. What are you two doing?! But instead of answering, the middle head slobbered and growled with a kind of primal animosity, as if infected with rabies. Whatever was affecting it soon spread to the other two heads, causing the hound to collapse in a pained, frenetic mess.

In the next moment, the Phoenix crashed headfirst into the arena wall with a loud shriek, then fell to the ground. The fiery bird was a legendary beast that was eminently more intelligent than the average sentient being, so crashing into a stationary object like that should have been totally out of the question, yet it collided with the wall anyway, and without even slowing before the impact. But despite the Phoenix lying crumpled in an awkward heap on the ground, completely vulnerable to attack, the fake C totally ignored it, as if he had no use for the creature anymore. No, his full focus was on the God Wolf Fenrir, the only creature in the arena left that still had its sanity.

The dark mist once again enveloped the fake C, and two eyeballs appeared on his torso. He raised his dark energy lance and stared down Fenrir, silently telling the God Wolf that it was next. The mighty wolf took half a step backward, whining softly at the eerie and abnormal situation it had found itself in.

“You’ve done well. I know his secrets now. You’ve done enough.”

The SUR Level 9999, Genius Monster Tamer, Aoyuki had teleported into the arena with her Beast Chain already out, and a moment later, she had swung her weapon and buried the spiked collar into the abdomen of the fake C, who could only babble at the completely unexpected attack as it sent him flying at the arena wall before he had time to react. The wall was unable to handle the force of the impact, causing an avalanche of debris to bury the fake C as soon as he slumped to the ground. Aoyuki kept an icy eye on the briefly incapacitated Master as she took out a gacha card to cure her frenzied monsters.

“SSSR Advanced Anomaly Cancel—release,” she said in a soft, even tone. This card was able to cure major ailments—poisoning, sleepiness, petrification, or even curses—unless they were too powerful, though fortunately for Cerberus and the Phoenix, that wasn’t the case in this instance.

The middle Cerberus head stopped gnawing at the other two heads and barked in confusion. Wait a minute. What was I just doing? it seemed to say. The Phoenix, still dazed and in a heap on the ground, chirped and got back to its feet as if nothing had happened.

The fake C finally burst free of the pile of rubble, still prattling away incoherently like always. Aoyuki calmly eyed her foe, noting he hadn’t taken any damage at all, although one thing did stand out.

“I suspected as much,” she said. “Those eyeballs have disappeared.”

Ignoring Aoyuki’s observation completely, the fake C formed another mist lance and prepared to charge, but the three (now cured) high-level creatures unleashed magical attacks at him: Fenrir manifested and launched an untold number of giant icicles; Cerberus hurled floating lances with extra unseen penetrative properties; and the Phoenix showered him with flaming feathers. Unfortunately, the three-way offensive only pounded the ground where the fake C had been standing, the Master emerging from the dust cloud still attempting to get to Aoyuki. The SUR warrior had other ideas, however, and had swung her Beast Chain directly at the fake C, passing through the attacks that had been unleashed by her own creatures untouched because she had instructed the monsters beforehand to direct their attacks in such a way that they would miss the chain entirely.

Unlike the previous time, the fake C used his energy lance as a shield, which managed to partially dampen the blow, even if he was propelled backward, carving grooves into the ground with his heels. Aoyuki and her monsters wasted no time taking advantage of this opportunity that had been presented to them.

Fenrir, Cerberus, and the Phoenix concentrated their attacks on the Master, forcing him to remain on the defensive, and as they chipped away at the dark mist armor enshrouding him, Aoyuki calmly observed, analyzing the situation.

“The eyeballs are markers,” Aoyuki declared. “Sharp objects made by the black mist absorb the life force of whatever they pierce, and when they do, that creates an eyeball. The number of eyeballs indicates the number of victims stabbed. The higher the number, the more power it has to cause derangement in others nearby.”

At the beginning of the battle, Aoyuki had observed from afar while her familiars engaged the fake C, and in that time, she was able to deduce that the black mist had properties that could drive opponents mad. She also sensed a strange energy being channeled from Cerberus and the Phoenix to the Master, which had seemingly been used to make the two eyeballs that evidently had the power to drive the Phoenix insane to the extent that it would fly into a wall at full speed.

The demonkin soldiers who had initially attempted to engage the fake C had all gone insane because their low power levels had failed to protect them from the psychological effects of the mist, even when it had zero eyeballs. However, Level 8000-plus monsters were immune to this latent effect, and it was only when the fake C injured Cerberus—and similarly, the Phoenix—that the ailment was conferred to the creature. The Level 9000 Fenrir was the only one of the three monsters sent into battle that maintained relative composure.

“Conversely, if your opponent avoids being stabbed by you and removes the eyeballs by force, then you are no longer a threat,” Aoyuki stated. “As such, if you happen to get lucky and render one of us insane, we can easily cancel the effect. All that’s left now is to physically incapacitate you and capture you.”

The fake C babbled as the attacks from the three monsters continued to rain down, tearing away the black mist section by section, with each hit doing physical damage as well. Realizing that he would lose if he stayed on the defensive, the fake C impetuously charged headlong at Aoyuki, without giving any consideration to the notion that he might need to stop the three creatures first.

“You’re unable to make rational decisions due to your madness,” Aoyuki diagnosed with a kind of clinical detachment. “No matter how high your level might be, defeating you will be simple. You are no different than a goblin in that regard.”

Her attempt at a witty quip fell on deaf ears as the fake C charged at the Genius Monster Tamer in blind fury yet again. Aoyuki stood her ground without losing her cool as the overpowered Level 9999 madman barreled toward her.

“Follow my lead,” she called out to her monsters as she swung her Beast Chain at the fake C’s legs, causing him to stumble and leave himself exposed to follow-up attacks. The three Cerberus heads synchronized their ranged attacks at the fake C, gouging out a crater where he was lying, while the Phoenix followed up with white-hot flames that liquefied the surface into molten rock, which filled the crater. Fenrir finished off the barrage by sending a giant iceberg crashing down on the lake of fire. The fake C found itself trapped in searing hot lava with a huge ice floe above him, preventing his escape and leaving him to fry like a slab of bacon in a lidded skillet. Needless to say, for a lower-level being, this would have spelled the end.

“Okay, that’ll do,” Aoyuki said after deciding the fake C was fricasseed enough. Taking the hint, Fenrir dissipated the iceberg, allowing a billowing cloud of steam and scalding heat to escape upward. The lava inside the crater quickly hardened into igneous rock, trapping C within.

Aoyuki eyed the supposed Master with severe disdain, but she had been instructed by Light not to kill him so that the team in the Abyss could root through and read his memories. She knew she couldn’t let the fake C languish in the crater until death came to him, so she dutifully resolved to place the Beast Chain around his neck to paralyze him, before pulling him out of the hardened lava and hauling him back to her home dungeon alive.

Aoyuki allowed herself a brief moment to imagine herself being praised and scratched under the chin by Light on the successful completion of her mission, then swung her Beast Chain toward the fake C. The collar neatly clasped around the Master’s neck, but before Aoyuki could do anything else, she blanched and immediately detached it.

Fenrir barked. What’s wrong? the God Wolf asked. Cerberus and the Phoenix also cast worried looks in Aoyuki’s direction. Instead of immediately seeking to reassure her loyal creatures, the Genius Monster Tamer had to clasp a hand over her mouth to stop herself from retching.

The moment I placed the collar on this fake C, his loathing started channeling down the chain and into me, Aoyuki reflected. I never imagined I would meet a foe steeped in so much insanity...

The fake C’s madness burned hotter than the lava that had trapped him, yet it was even darker than the murkiest morass in an all-consuming void. Aoyuki’s only choice had been to let go, because the psychosis effect was threatening to overwhelm her with hate, hate, hate, hate, hate...

“Bnahwagw!”

The fake C jabbered and struggled to extricate himself from its igneous prison. Despite suffering untold damage from the combined attacks, he was thrashing around as if his injuries hadn’t registered in his consciousness at all.

The Phoenix screeched an instruction to the other two creatures to stand in front of their handler to shield her from the fake C, but before they could move a muscle, Aoyuki raised a hand to stop them and whipped the Beast Chain toward the unhinged Master once more. The collar clamped around his neck for a second time, and yet again, his madness flowed through the chain and into Aoyuki, but this time, the SUR warrior had steeled her mind against the psychological assault.

“Do you really think your loathing could be more powerful than my fealty to my master?” Aoyuki snarled through gritted teeth. “That isn’t possible.”

Aoyuki was actually ashamed she had let go of the fake C the first time, even though it had been a purely reflexive action. To her mind, that act stood in complete contradiction to her absolute and unbending loyalty to Light.

When she was first summoned by Light from her Unlimited Gacha card, Aoyuki encountered a boy whose physical and mental wounds from that brutal betrayal were still fresh, and because he was the god who had given her life, she wanted to heal those wounds. She wanted to support her creator, and it was a desire that came from the bottom of her heart. At the time, Light saw a little bit of the sister he had left behind in his home village in Aoyuki, and for her part, she was perfectly willing to act like a little sister for Light. Or even as his pet, if that would bring him solace.

No, Aoyuki didn’t care what she had to do to be useful to Light. If he so ordered, she would kill another member of the Abyss without a second thought, nor any lingering emotions. If he commanded her to kill herself, she would take her own life without flinching or hesitating for a moment. Yet she had flinched on her first attempt to collar the fake C, worrying more about her own safety than faithfully carrying out her mission. This single act of cowardice was enough to injure Aoyuki’s pride as a loyal retainer of Light, and the self-loathing radiating from her was so overt, it even caused the Level 9000 Fenrir to shrink back.

“You will pay for throwing mud on my fealty!” Aoyuki yelled at her foe in an uncharacteristically shrill voice. She mustered up all of her brute strength to yank the fake C out of the hardened lava, and as he flew toward her, she wrapped one end of the Beast Chain around her left arm while preparing her other fist to clobber him. Although the Master was quick to put up his guard, the punch still packed enough propulsive force to drive him through the arena wall again, the sound of the impact louder than if several stagecoaches had crashed into one another. But Aoyuki’s anger had yet to be sated.

“This isn’t over,” she said darkly. Using just her left arm, she heaved on the Beast Chain to arc the fake C through the air again, then smashed him into the arena floor. She repeated this full-body bludgeoning over and over, pulverizing the ground with the supposed Master as if he were a mace.

At first glance, it seemed like Aoyuki had the upper hand, but in reality, the fake C’s malice was still being channeled through the chain at such a dangerous rate and intensity, she would be overwhelmed and driven insane if she even lost focus for a moment.

A smarter approach would have been to let go of the fake C, maintain some distance, and join her mythological monsters in burying the Master with ranged attacks, yet the Genius Monster Tamer was choosing the far riskier option of exposing herself to his poisonous hatred by using her Beast Chain. In her mind, if she released the weapon from around his neck, it would be tantamount to admitting that the fake C’s malice was greater than her loyalty to Light. In short, Aoyuki was choosing pride over logic, because she felt she would be unable to live down the ignominy of breaking her hold with the Beast Chain.

But no matter how many times she smashed the fake C into the arena floor, he would jump up again and continue his unintelligible rant, which then amplified the malice coursing through the chain. This approach implied he understood perfectly how to counter Aoyuki’s stubbornness, and the stronger blasts of malevolent energy he sent toward her were steadily corrupting and blackening the hand and arm grasping the chain. Aoyuki gritted her teeth as she struggled to resist the extreme levels of bitterness and insanity that were driving through her, and this caused C to laugh, a spectral trill filling the air, believing his malevolent properties were winning out.

“Do you really think I’d yield to this trifling amount of madness?” Aoyuki growled with fire in her eyes. “Know that you will never take over my soul with your lunacy, for my soul only belongs to one master!”

Her loyalty to Light was every bit as crazed as the fake C’s pure lunacy, to the point where the two fighters were corrupting each other with their energies. Aoyuki’s monsters decided to play it safe and shrink back from the pair even more, just as Aoyuki dashed toward the fake C with her fist raised and without even bothering to yank on the Beast Chain. The supposed Master spewed yet more gobbledygook and manifested another dark energy lance.

“Shut up! Just be quiet!” Aoyuki yelled. She dodged the lance thrusts as nimbly as a cat, then landed a sharp jab on her foe. The Master recovered quickly and swiped at Aoyuki with his lance, but she ducked and buried her fist into his abdomen this time, while the Beast Chain rattled around like it was an instrument providing a soundtrack for the battle.

The fake C pulled on the chain in an attempt to make Aoyuki lose her balance, but instead of resisting, she let herself be yanked toward him, and he saw his opportunity to punt the cat-eared fighter into the stratosphere.

“Rroww!” The kick didn’t land, however, because Aoyuki used the fake C’s foot as a launchpad to go airborne, and when she reached the apex of her leap, she aimed a dropkick of her own at her foe, weaponizing the speed of her freefall. The fake C just about managed to block the incoming kick in the nick of time, keeping him in the fight. The battle between the pair continued to rage furiously, as if they were two primeval animals whose only thought was to slaughter each other. Even fights between monsters up on the surface world were less vicious.

After a seemingly endless tussle, the fake C eventually squawked and ran from Aoyuki, instinctively knowing that if he continued their hand-to-hand combat, he would lose decisively. Once he’d created some distance, he shoved his lance into the ground, and because Aoyuki was busy basking in the premature victory of her fealty over the fake C’s madness, it took her a moment to react to the Master’s unexpected move. But one moment was all the fake C needed. A black shadow spread out from the lance buried in the ground, but that wasn’t all.

“There’s a presence above me?” Aoyuki mumbled. Black shadows started spreading out across the walls and ceiling of the arena. When the fake C had stabbed the Phoenix with his mist-soaked hair, some of the strands had attached themselves to the ceiling, and it was these that were producing the shadows above their heads. The same thing went for the wisps of black mist that remained on the walls after the fake C was repeatedly smashed against them.

The fake C shrieked in distorted octaves, suggesting that this move was draining his life force. The widening shadow on the ground suddenly manifested within it a whole bunch of eyeballs the size of sparrows’ eyes. The eyeballs were nowhere near as big as the ones that had appeared on the fake C’s body when he stole life energy from Cerberus and the Phoenix earlier on in the fight.

As soon as the tiny eyes appeared, the Phoenix screeched and Cerberus yelped, then both creatures involuntarily dropped to one knee on the ground. Due to Cerberus’s lower power level, it knelt first. The shadows spreading throughout the arena were filled with the fake C’s malice and insanity, and even more than that, the madness in the shadows that expanded across the floor, walls, and ceiling resonated mutually, amplifying itself.

The fake C realized he couldn’t outmatch Aoyuki’s fealty to Light, so he had decided to sacrifice life energy in exchange for making Aoyuki fight with him in a psychologically toxic arena. This gambit had already worked on Cerberus and the Phoenix, causing them to drop to their knees.

Aoyuki flinched as the air around her warped and physically buffeted her. The three-dimensional space around her was seemingly unable to withstand the fake C’s insanity and was starting to contort itself in ways that defied nature. Similar phenomena were affecting the gaseous ether, the ambient temperature, and even the floor itself. It seemed like all of them suddenly had lives of their own and were intent on attacking Aoyuki and her monsters.

The fake C ranted some more, intensifying the resonating lunacy in the arena, and successfully forcing all of Aoyuki’s creatures to concentrate all their energy on weathering this newly twisted world on their knees. Aoyuki tried to yank the Beast Chain to reel in the fake C and punch him again, but she huffed in frustration when the Master didn’t budge an inch. Along with his lance, he remained stuck in the ground, as if the black shadow had taken root underneath him.

Aoyuki decided to switch gears and run straight at the fake C with the intention of pummeling him, but the black shadows on the ground transformed into lances that tried to impale her as she zipped along. The monster tamer immediately took evasive action to avoid the spearlike protrusions, because she couldn’t afford to be stabbed by any of the spikes that would no doubt siphon off her life force and feed it to the fake C. The lances were persistent in their attempts to skewer Aoyuki, and it wasn’t until she finally decided to put some distance between her and the fake C that they eased off a little.

Drunk on his own life-ending madness, the fake C bellowed triumphantly at his foe, thinking he had finally turned the tables. Aoyuki wasn’t able to yank C or his lance toward her using her Beast Chain, and she couldn’t approach the Master to engage him up close, because the shadow spikes were protecting him. She needed to do something, however, because the shadows were close to covering the entirety of the arena, and they were draining C’s life force in the process. If she couldn’t reverse the process quickly, the shadow spikes would soon impale the effectively paralyzed Fenrir, Cerberus, and the Phoenix where they lay and suck their life force from them freely.

It was likely that the fake C’s gambit would eventually run itself out naturally, since he was burning through his life energy fast, but Aoyuki didn’t really have the luxury of testing that theory. C’s corporeal lunacy seemingly had the power to warp space itself, and if his madness magnified further, Aoyuki would end up being rendered immobile too. In the eyes of the fake C, Aoyuki was trapped with no way out.

The supposed Master started babbling away again, confident of victory, but the Genius Monster Tamer seemed perfectly calm about the whole situation. She sniffed in the manner of a highly ranked fighter gazing down at an amateur in the ring.

“You think this is enough to defeat me?” Aoyuki said. “That shows you are merely a fool who happened to go mad one day. You are not worthy of being my foe.”

The fake C jabbered angrily at Aoyuki, because even in the thralls of madness, he knew when he was being ridiculed. As soon as the poisonous shadows reached Aoyuki, he manifested spikes to lacerate her.

Aoyuki released her foe from the Beast Chain collar and leaped into the air to avoid the protrusions. Since she had won the all-out brawl against the fake C, she no longer felt the need to prove her fealty to Light.

On the other hand, the fake C prattled away incoherently, admonishing Aoyuki in his own way for being doltish enough to try and flee even though there was clearly nowhere to go. But while still airborne, Aoyuki impassively slapped the Beast Chain collar around her own neck, and despite having a neck that was willow-thin and dainty, the collar fit snugly.

“Summon Embodiment: Mythical Creature, Phoenix!” As soon as these words passed her lips, wings of crimson flame sprouted from her back and held her aloft. One flap of her new fiery wings reduced the elongated shadow spikes reaching out toward her to ash. Shocked and confused at this development, the fake C chittered away again, but Aoyuki simply looked down on the Master and purred: “Mrroww!”

No, Aoyuki didn’t have the innate capability to grow wings of fire on her back. It was all thanks to the powers imbued in her Beast Chain. Not only could the phantasma-class weapon automatically track and capture a monster, it could also transfer abilities to her from any of her tamed minions. Of course, that wasn’t the full extent of what the Beast Chain could do.

“Mrrew.” Aoyuki landed back on the ground, unable to deal with the contortions of the air around her for long while in flight. Despite having the Phoenix’s wings, she wasn’t an expert flier, especially in such preternatural conditions. There was no real reason to turn this battle aerial anyway.

“Summon Embodiment: Primal God Wolf, Fenrir,” Aoyuki said the moment she landed. Her flaming wings disappeared to be replaced by Fenrir’s claws on both hands. She waved her claws from side to side, which caused all the shadow spikes in the arena to freeze and become a forest of icicles.

“Summon Embodiment: Hound of Hades, Cerberus.” Borrowing the powers of the three-headed beast this time, Aoyuki took a huge breath that completely filled her lungs.

“Rrrow!” She exhaled a destructive energy blast that crushed the frozen shadows, sending the icy fragments raining down on the fake C for good measure. The Master babbled in abject bewilderment at the maelstrom that had been sent his way, awed by Aoyuki’s rapidly shifting powers. He still had some fight left in him, however, and he proceeded to pump even more of his life energy into his right arm-lance that was still embedded in the ground, before commanding the curse-filled shadows on the ground, walls, and ceiling to spread out again. He also made the shadows resonate even more this time.

“Nrrow!” Aoyuki once again manifested Fenrir’s claws on her hands and attempted to freeze the shadows once more, but the fake C blabbered something that indicated he was already wise to her tricks. He used the dark shadows to peel away a layer of the arena floor and sent it shooting upward to use as a shield against the freezing blast. He repeated this tactic again and again to ward off more Fenrir-style blasts, then extended shadow spikes from the ceiling in an attempt to spear his opponent.

Aoyuki clicked her tongue in annoyance and evaded the spikes with relative ease. She wasn’t free to attack continuously, because that would leave her open to counterattacks, and she needed to protect her still-immobile monsters from these new shadow spikes. If all the lances did was injure the creatures, they would easily recover from any wounds inflicted on them, but the spikes were also able to rob their targets of life energy, meaning that if Aoyuki didn’t stop them before they struck, she would be forced to use gacha cards to negate all the damage caused by the spikes, and trying to carry out additional tasks like that would soon have her with her back against the wall.

Realizing this was an opening, the fake C babbled like crazy and manifested a flurry of shadow spikes that sprouted from every corner of the arena and extended in every direction. The fake C was plainly trying to engulf all of his opponents, like a snake with a wide-open jaw bearing down on live prey. Because the arena was deep underground, there was almost no avenue of escape, which meant if the fake C could fill the place with his malevolent shadows and the spikes that grew from them, there was a good chance he would emerge victorious.

At least, that was if he could continue spreading his shadows. Aoyuki coolly observed the fake C’s counterattack without showing any signs of panic.

“Primal God Wolf, Fenrir, and Mythical Creature, Phoenix—integrate,” Aoyuki chanted. “Iceflower Firedance!”

Icy flower blossoms and flaming feathers shot out of Aoyuki’s hands and whipped through the air like a whirlwind. The icy blooms froze all of the shadows and spikes in a flash, while the flaming feathers melted everything they touched. Due to this rapid switch between being superheated and superchilled, as well as the sheer mass of shadows Aoyuki had targeted, the twin attacks caused an explosion that roared around the arena and destroyed the shadows and the thicket of spikes protruding from them. The fake C babbled in shock and despair as one of his last trump cards went up in smoke. He had sacrificed most of his remaining lifespan for this ploy, though Aoyuki hadn’t quite hammered the final nails into his coffin yet.

“Hound of Hades, Cerberus, and Deathtrap, Acid Spider—integrate,” Aoyuki called out. “Acid Lancer!”

This time, Aoyuki borrowed powers from the UR Level 7000, Deathtrap, Acid Spider, as well as from Cerberus. Although the Acid Spider’s power level was quite a bit lower than Cerberus’s, the acid venom it secreted was able to melt any living and nonliving target. Aoyuki coated Cerberus’s howling blast with the Acid Spider’s venom and landed a direct hit on the fake C, who screamed from the unimaginable pain of having his flesh both torn away and melted at the same time.

Yet not only did the Beast Chain allow Aoyuki to borrow powers from her monster familiars, but the weapon also allowed her to combine those powers to create entirely new abilities. Although of course, it went without saying that it was a skill that came with limits. One of these was that the more powers Aoyuki mixed together, the less control she could exercise over them, while another was that if the powers weren’t compatible, the combined abilities would just fail to activate.

It was also quite a useless skill to possess unless the person using it had a vast stable of monsters to borrow powers from. However, in Aoyuki’s case, not only was she a powerful Genius Monster Tamer, but she also had a steady supply of monsters on hand from the Unlimited Gacha. If it weren’t for Light’s Gift, Aoyuki would have needed to trek to all the corners of the world to find the kinds of monsters that would be useful to her. That would have meant climbing the highest mountains, searching the lowest depths of dungeons, and trudging to all the hardest-to-reach places. Even assuming there were that many high-level monsters to be tamed—which was unlikely in the first place—it would’ve taken her far too long to assemble the kind of roster she needed.

But as Light’s lieutenant, Aoyuki had ready access to the monsters the Unlimited Gacha spawned each and every day. All she needed to do was wait for an especially powerful creature to be pulled, then tame it. In a sense, Aoyuki was the perfect fit for Light’s Gift, though at the same time, there was such a thing as having it too good. But that’s a story for another day.

The fake C was also Level 9999, meaning despite being mutilated, he willed himself to muster his remaining strength and launch yet another attack. This time, he amassed all of the remaining shadows into a dark spear that was bigger than the lance attached to his forearm, then aimed this new weapon at Aoyuki.

“Living Fortress, Armor Crab, and War Puppet, Orlok—integrate,” Aoyuki called out. “Armor Shield Puppet!”

The UR Level 7000, Living Fortress, Armor Crab was—as the name suggested—a giant crab clad in what looked like a customized suit of armor. The monster looked adorable, but as its power level implied, its armor was nigh on impregnable. The SSSR Level 4000, War Puppet, Orlok was a golem made of metal that was proficient in both defensive and offensive capabilities, though its one weak point was that it wasn’t very agile (compared to other high-level summons).

Because these two familiars had superelevated defensive stats, Aoyuki decided to borrow their powers to manifest a near-indestructible mana shield, which easily deflected the giant shadow spear and prevented the fake C from stabbing her and siphoning off much-needed life force.

“Hound of Hades, Cerberus, and Living Fortress, Armor Crab—integrate,” Aoyuki. “Fortified Cannon!”

The fake C rambled in astonishment as Aoyuki fired the Armor Crab’s carapace at him like it was some supersonic cannonball. Before he could even move, the armor connected and sent him careening into the wall behind him, eliciting yet another incoherent scream. He slid down the wall limply, but Aoyuki wasn’t about to show him any mercy.

“If you must fight back, then fight back,” Aoyuki taunted, glaring down at her opponent. “With me as its conduit, my master’s Unlimited Gacha will crush anything you can muster up.”

There was no tactic the fake C could try against Aoyuki that would lead to victory for him, since she could just beat him back by combining the powers of monsters she’d tamed. In other words, Aoyuki was this supposed Master’s worst enemy. The fake C bayed in frail desperation, but Aoyuki started battering him again and didn’t stop until he was completely unable to move.

Chapter 11: Prince Voros’s Declaration

“Mrreeww...”

I was standing in front of Aoyuki and scanning what remained of the underground arena after her fight with the fake C. The Black Fools had once used this space to take on Gira, and when Ellie had originally built it, she had designed it to withstand huge amounts of physical and magical damage. Sure, I’d wrecked the place during my battle and ended up having to patch it up again, but after this particular battle, there was rubble everywhere, and it looked like the whole arena was on the verge of collapsing in on itself.

“Nice work, Aoyuki,” I said. “I see you really went all out.”

My lieutenant dropped to one knee and hung her head in remorse. “On the contrary. I ultimately failed to carry out your orders, master. I will accept any punishment you deem appropriate to make up for my transgression.”

Even Fenrir, the Phoenix, and Cerberus followed her lead and subserviently laid their heads on the ground, while I silently turned my head to look at what my lieutenant was referring to. I’d ordered Aoyuki to capture the fake C alive so we could scan his memories, but at that very moment, our target was starting to disintegrate into ash, starting from the ends of his limbs. The fake C had known all along that he had no hope of beating Aoyuki, but his insanity had made him fight on to the bitter end. Aoyuki had been forced to borrow powers from monsters under her control to wear him down, but that was ultimately where the problem lay. The fake C ended up creating shadows and weapons that would rob his opponents of their life force to make himself stronger, but to pull off such a feat, he had to burn through his own life force. Normally, no one would be stupid enough to unleash enough shadow energy to basically commit suicide, but in this case, this guy was mad enough to do it. The fake C had fought on and on without any hesitation and without caring one bit about his life or anyone else’s, and as such, he had ended up destroying himself in what turned out to be a completely senseless rampage.

I used one of my gacha cards to watch the whole battle, so I really can’t blame her for what happened, I reflected. It would’ve been next to impossible to actually capture and detain this fake C without one hell of a fight.

The fake C had been able to hold his own at the beginning of the tussle by using those bizarre curse-like abilities of his, but once he’d shown everything that was up his sleeve, it became Aoyuki’s fight to lose. If the fake C had been capable of logical thinking, he would’ve realized he couldn’t win and simply admitted defeat—or at the very least, tried to escape or something—yet he had continued battling Aoyuki and her monster sidekicks like some kind of rabid animal. That said, he was still a Level 9999 rabid animal, so it wasn’t like he was just some run-of-the-mill opponent you could score an easy victory over. I felt it would be cruel to punish Aoyuki for not being able to capture this powerful but clearly insane lunatic alive. I strolled up to Aoyuki and patted her on the head.

“You can get up now. I’m not going to punish you,” I assured her. “I knew this fake C guy was crazy, but I didn’t think he’d be insane enough to lack any survival instincts whatsoever. If you couldn’t capture him safely, then I doubt anyone could have. I’m just glad you were able to take him out without suffering any casualties.”

“Mrrow!” Aoyuki instantly perked up and lifted her face toward me. I rewarded her by giving her cheeks a rub and scratching her chin, and she was so content with this, she half closed her large, innocent-looking eyes. While I was petting Aoyuki, I turned to Mei and Ellie, who were standing behind me.

“All right, Ellie, you’re up,” I said.

“Leave everything to me, Blessed Lord Light,” she replied.

“I don’t think he has any more fight in him, but take care all that same,” I said. “Mei, Aoyuki, you two stay alert and provide her with cover if she needs it.”

“As you command, Master Light,” Mei replied.

“Mrrow!” was Aoyuki’s feline-like response.

Ellie approached the fake C so she could scan his memories before he completely wasted away, and although Aoyuki had weakened C to the point where he was on the verge of disintegrating, I knew there was no such thing as being too careful, so I warned Mei and Aoyuki to stay vigilant. Even I gripped my Gungnir a little tighter just in case I suddenly needed to use it.

Ellie gingerly placed her hand on the fake C’s head, then just as quickly backed away with her hand over her mouth, and the color drained from her face.

“Ellie?” I queried, raising my staff.

“I-I’m terribly sorry, Your Blessedness, for that undignified display,” Ellie said. “However, it isn’t possible for me to read his mind. His thoughts are too crazed to allow for a proper mind reading. I can hardly believe Aoyuki had the mental fortitude to even engage with an opponent this dreadfully psychotic.”

“Nrrow!” Aoyuki replied, puffing her petite chest out with pride. But the fact that she had been able to withstand the fake C’s madness for as long as she had wasn’t due to her displaying more fealty to me than Ellie. No, if I had to guess at the reason, it was because she had only fought against the delusional energy that was filtered through her Beast Chain. Ellie, on the other hand, had touched the fake C with her hand and peered directly into his madness, which I assumed made all the difference.

Still looking pale, Ellie took out her handkerchief and held it in front of her mouth. “The only thing I was able to grasp was that his derangement was the result of someone killing his lover. It appears he swore vengeance on the murderer.”

“Wait,” I said. “He was out for revenge?” I had my own vendetta against the former members of the Concord of the Tribes, and I couldn’t help looking at this demented Master with a hint of empathy in light of this new information.

Ellie’s voice interrupted my moment of contemplation. “However, there was something quite abnormal about his thirst for vengeance.”

“How do you mean?” I said.

“Well, his desire to get revenge was so strong, it made me feel ill, as you can see,” Ellie pointed out. “But I also got this strange impression that something had compelled him to be this way. It’s only a supposition, so I cannot swear by it...”

“How strange was this impression you got?” I asked.

“Well, I’ve never come into contact with someone as disturbed as this man, so my impression may simply have been the product of that bewildering experience,” Ellie said quickly. “It was only my personal opinion, and nothing more.”

She even waved her hands sheepishly as she said it, and while she was making that adorable gesture, the fake C’s lips moved slightly. We were only able to hear what he said due to our superpowered hearing.

“Lily, forgive me,” he muttered. “Your retribution remains...”

He was unable to finish his sentence, leaving his hoarse words to drift away mysteriously. But it was easy to guess that Lily was this fake C’s lover, and that it was her murder that had driven him into such a psychotic rage to get revenge that the only solution to stop him wrecking everything in sight had been to seal him inside a coffin. His emotions were so deep, they caused him to utter those words in his final moments... I mused. But Ellie thinks something forced him to be this way?

Like Ellie said, she had never encountered someone quite so unhinged before, so her reaction to what she’d felt might have been mistaken. Yet this crazed desire for vengeance carried with it the whiff of suspicion that his behavior was involuntary, and since those two aspects were obviously in conflict with each other, it left a strong impression on me.

At that moment, the fake C’s body completely turned to ash, leaving us with no way to extract any more of his memories. Since there was no use asking any more questions on the subject, I decided it was time to move on from the fake C.

“Mei, gather up his ashes and give him a proper burial,” I said. “Be sure to treat his remains with care.”

“Of course, Master Light,” Mei said with a bow before using her Magistrings to sweep up the fake C’s ashes. My plan was to take his remains to the bottom of the Abyss and bury him there.

I turned to look behind me. “Okay, I think it’s now time to move on to the next item on our agenda. Sorry that I kept you both waiting, Suzu and Lock.”

Standing behind all of us, Suzu shook her head, which her talking musket, Lock, translated for her. “My partner says she didn’t mind waiting at all. It didn’t bother me at all either. Anyway, are we free to release our prey now, Lord Light?”

“Yes, please do, Lock,” I said.

I had sent Nazuna, Suzu, and Lock on a mission to capture our target—Prince Voros of the Demonkin Nation—and he was the one lying motionless at Suzu’s feet. When they’d finally caught up to him, Suzu hit him with a paralyzing bullet. Nazuna had served as Suzu’s bodyguard throughout, but instead of summoning her to this arena too, I’d asked her to stay behind in the Abyss and hold the fort in place of Mei.

I looked down on Voros. We hadn’t been able to get much information out of the fake C, but I was sure we’d be able to get a whole lot more info out of the member of royalty responsible for backing Doc’s human experimentation. I reflexively treated Voros to a frosty smirk.

For those interested, I had purposely asked Suzu to bring Voros to this arena so that he could witness the fake C lying vanquished for himself. In a change to our usual methods, I’d decided I wasn’t going to get Ellie to read his mind, but rather make him tell us what we wanted using his own words. And we were quite willing to use every method at our disposal to get him to talk. Suzu canceled the paralyzation ailment on Voros, and the demon prince scurried backward in an attempt to get away from me. Once he felt he was far enough away, he started spewing a filthy stream of insults at us.

“Y-You foul wretches!” Voros yelled. “Don’t you know who I am?! I’m the crown prince of the Demonkin Nation! B-But did you just say you’ve defeated C? That’s impossible!”

“No, we haven’t defeated the real C,” Ellie corrected him. “That man wasn’t who you thought he was. He was merely a Master with an extremely high power level.”

Voros immediately recognized her voice. “Wait a minute! You’re the Wicked Witch of the Tower, aren’t you?! So you’re the one who triumphed over him? Or perhaps you’re actually C yourself?!”

I had thought Voros would have already known what had gone down, because he’d been right here in the room when I was praising Aoyuki for defeating the fake C. Sure, he’d been paralyzed at the time, but I’d assumed his ears had still been working perfectly fine. As for how Voros could have recognized Ellie from just her voice, she had appeared as the Wicked Witch at the chaotic summit in the Duchy, and the two had exchanged words.

Ellie rubbed her temple, irritated by this needless line of questioning. “Yes, it is I, the Wicked Witch of the Tower. But I am not the C you seek. In any case, who I am is irrelevant.”

“What are you going to do to my kingdom, you vile witch?!” Voros shouted at her.

He must not have cared about what we had to say to him, because all he did after that was glare at Ellie with needlelike intensity. By this point, she was done with putting up with his arrogant and domineering attitude, and she was on the verge of blasting the prince with her murderous aura. Of course, if she went ahead and did that, she might literally stop Voros’s heart due to the difference in their power levels, so I raised my hand to tell her to stand down while I approached the demon.

I had a number of things I wanted to ask Voros, but I knew I wouldn’t be satisfied by just reading all of it in a report that Ellie had written up for me after probing his mind. No, I wanted to ask him myself why he had allowed Doc to revel in his cruelty and how he could have been so heartless toward humans. I already knew he was the acting king of the Demonkin Nation due to his father, the real king, being bedridden through illness. That meant Voros was the one who’d funded Doc’s laboratory of horrors, and who’d authorized people to supply Doc with human slaves and the magic tools he needed. I was going to make sure Voros paid for what he’d done, though the severity of the punishment could more or less depend on what he ended up telling me. But first and foremost, I wanted to ask him about Doc’s atrocities, not as Dark the adventurer, but as Light.

“Voros, crown prince of the Demonkin Nation,” I began. “There’s something I want to ask—”

“Now we have nothing left to resist this witch!” Voros wailed, completely ignoring me. Of course, the naked lack of respect shown toward me had Mei, Aoyuki, Suzu, and Lock steamed, as well as Ellie, but Voros paid them no heed and carried on acting like he was a damsel in distress in some play.

“My great nation will be enslaved by the witch, just like the Elven Queendom was,” Voros lamented. “But while you may have my body to do with what you will, you will never enslave my soul, foul witch! My pride shall never be broken by lowly, worthless inferiors like you people!”

Voros’s face was so exaggeratingly earnest, he really did look like a lead actor meeting his tragic end in the final scene of a play. I just stared at him like he’d grown a second head, unable to utter a word in response. What the heck is he going on about? I wondered.

And it wasn’t just me who was taken aback by this display. Everyone who had been mad at Voros only seconds before now had invisible question marks over their heads. Voros finally noticed that we were totally lost and decided to shine some light on his twisted logic for us.

“It’s just like you inferiors to be so ignorant,” Voros grumbled before launching into a lengthy explanation in which he did the following things:

1. Owned up to the fact that the Demonkin Nation had no warriors or weapons that could take on the Wicked Witch, and that becoming a vassal state was an unavoidable fate.

2. Stated that if his nation was going to become a colony in this way, it would be more efficient if the leaders of both sides entered into a political betrothal. In other words, he would end up marrying the Wicked Witch of the Tower.

3. Admitted that he was perfectly willing to take accountability for the fall of his kingdom by marrying the Wicked Witch and running her new territory for her, similar to how the Elven Queendom was being run (as a reminder, we never actually took over the Elven Queendom). However, he reiterated that such treatment would never break his spirit.

4. Acknowledged that he was also resigned to the fact that, in the circumstances outlined, the witch would bear his children, though nobody should take the presence of offspring as a sign of love. While the witch might well be gorgeous and far more voluptuous than an inferior had any right to be, she would still never be any more than an inferior. Since he was part of the Demonkin Nation’s royal family, his emotions could never yield to someone from the lowliest race, and he would therefore never love the witch.

According to Voros’s declaration, these were all the reasons we could never enslave his soul, and that was how he intended to resist us. Of course, it was such an insanely nonsensical tangent, everyone in the arena including myself could only stare slack-jawed at the prince.

This is utterly incomprehensible, I thought, rubbing my temple. Judging by their faces, even Mei, Aoyuki, Ellie, and Suzu couldn’t believe anyone could be this dumb. Although, on a positive note, I’m glad I sent Nazuna back to the Abyss to guard it in Mei’s place. She definitely didn’t need to hear these absurd ramblings.

I always kept at least one Level 9999 warrior on standby in the Abyss to ensure the dungeon would be secure at all times, especially considering that people like Miki were there. Mei had been the person on standby previously, but I’d needed her with me to help capture the fake C if it came to that, so once Nazuna had come back from guarding Suzu, I’d sent her to swap with Mei. After hearing Voros prattle on like this, I couldn’t help giving myself a pat on the back for having made the right decision. But at that moment, I realized something.

Wait, is he trying to blow smoke up our backsides to buy himself time to escape? I wondered. Has he been saying all of this junk on purpose so that we’ll drop our guard? After all, we were dealing with a prince who was educated and had been trained from birth with a view to becoming an elite, so I couldn’t rule out the possibility that he was actually smart enough to play these kinds of mind games.

I shot Mei a glance, and picking up on the cue, she performed a lie detector scan on Voros. But she shook her head and gave me a look that told me he really was just a hopeless case. This also meant that he truly believed in his heart of hearts that we would never enslave his soul, no matter what we did to his body.

My head was starting to hurt from all the stupidity. The Demonkin Nation had someone this nuts as its leader? I mused. Wait, I guess he would have to be at least this nutty to even suggest launching raids against border villages in order to punish the Human Kingdom. Honestly, it was all starting to make sense, now that I’d seen the prince in the flesh. I wanted to ask him why he’d let Doc commit such barbarity against humans, to hear his reasons for it from his own mouth, since he was so closely involved with what had happened to my brother, even if his involvement was indirect. But I realized now that if I tried asking that question, I would just get a completely worthless, off-the-wall answer.

In fact, I feel sorry for the citizens of the Demonkin Nation because they’ve got this guy as their leader, I thought with utter sincerity. But Voros wasn’t paying any attention to our reactions and continued with his rant.

“You, witch!” Voros spat. “How long are you going to keep me in this seedy place? As a member of the royal family, I must insist you escort me somewhere more worthy of receiving me. I won’t wait another minute!”

I could feel the anger of everyone in the arena boiling over, including Lock. I was starting to get tired of Voros’s nonsense, and there was no point in listening to whatever else he had to grumble about, so I gave Ellie the order that would put an end to all of this.

“Ellie, once you’ve extracted all the info we need from him, take him to the pits in the Abyss,” I said. “Once there, put him through the most excruciating pain and misery imaginable, even if it’s only a small fraction of the suffering my brother went through.”

“As you wish, Your Blessedness,” Ellie chirped merrily.

Voros snorted at this. “Do you pinheads even hear what you’re saying? I’m royalty. Harming a member of the royal house is nothing short of unthinkable! This only proves that you inferiors are completely bereft of logic and understanding.” He shrugged theatrically. “If your undeveloped brains really do see fit to kill me, I’ll have you know that all the barons in my kingdom will revolt. Do you seriously think you can control my nation by spitting on the entire aristocracy? Your trifling threats will extract no further concessions out of me. In any event, do you know who you contemptible inferiors are speaking to? I am the crown prince of the Demonkin—”

Mei waved an arm and cut off Voros’s tongue with her Magistrings, and it fell on the floor with a soft plap sound. To an observer, Mei was usually quite wooden-looking and placid, but in this moment, her rage was plainly obvious for everyone to see.

“Who gave you permission to speak to Master Light in such a manner?” Mei asked sharply. “If you will not hold your tongue, then it is better to cut it off entirely.”

Because Voros couldn’t actually see the Magistrings, he gurgled in confusion before dropping to his knees as blood started gushing from his mouth. Ellie sighed and snapped her fingers, magically regenerating his tongue and stemming the bleeding. She had used healing magic on him because we couldn’t have him dying on us just yet.

“Mei,” Ellie started. “While I do truly sympathize with how you are feeling right now, please refrain from hurting him before I’ve retrieved the information we need from him. But I stress again that I do sympathize with you. I truly, truly sympathize.”

“Please forgive me,” Mei apologized with a bow. “I let the blood rush to my head.”

“Mrrrow.” Aoyuki patted Mei on the back in a way that basically said to her, I know how you feel too. I couldn’t really blame her either, but there was definitely one person who was going to.

“You fiends!” Voros screeched. “Do you rotten creatures have any idea what you’ve just done?! You tried to kill me! Me! The crown prince of the Demonkin Nation!”

In other words, he still didn’t understand the amount of trouble he was in. I didn’t want him hanging on to the mistaken belief that he had any kind of leverage, so I revealed the big secret.

“I knew you were a piece of work, but I never thought you’d be this clueless,” I said. “I’m the lord and master of everyone you see here. The Wicked Witch is a character we invented so that I could hide in plain sight. In other words, she’s a fake. She’s camouflage.”

My voice took on a harder edge. “As for you, we’re going to rip out any intel we can find in your head, and then you’re going to pay for your crimes. For what you did to my brother, and for your attempt to massacre humans. You’re going to suffer so much, you’ll wish you’d never been born. You’ll just have to wait and see what that kind of pain and suffering feels like.”

“What?” Voros squawked. “The Wicked Witch is camouflage?” He stared at me in disbelief for a second, then doubled down on his previous statements.

“I’m the crown prince!” he screeched. “If you don’t keep me as the leader of my nation and have me sire descendants to maintain the royal lineage, the barons will revolt! Do you want this nation to become too chaotic to govern?!”

“You know something? I couldn’t care less,” I said airily. “I’m not going to waste my time babysitting your nation. And if there are any rebels intent on launching suicide missions on us, we’ll take care of them.”

I continued staring down at Voros. “You believe your nation will fall into chaos? Well, so what? If this new version of the Demonkin Nation is too useless to survive without a royal family, that’s got absolutely nothing to do with me. We’re not gonna lend a hand or cooperate with anything, so your subjects are free to run the nation, cities, and villages however they wish. We won’t get involved unless your people decide to get in our way again. And then, if they do, we’ll turn your former nation into a wasteland.”

Voros turned paler, so it seemed he was finally realizing his true place in this world. I tossed out another order without even trying to mask my boredom with the whole situation.

“I think we’re done here,” I said. “Ellie, take this guy to the bottommost depths of the Abyss and chuck him in the same place that Garou and the rest of them are being held. Although don’t forget to get that info we want from him first.”

“Of course, Blessed Lord,” Ellie said with a smile before approaching Voros.

Still looking green around the gills, he drew back. “No! No! I’m the crown prince, you hear? I’m Demonkin Nation royalty! Prince Voros! Enough with these shenanigans! This treatment is wholly unacceptable!”

He tried to turn tail and flee, but Suzu reached him before he could and gave him a swift kick that sent him sprawling. Now face down on the ground, Voros felt a foot get planted on his back to immobilize him.

Ellie smiled at Suzu’s quick-thinking. “I appreciate the help, Suzu. Please keep him restrained, if you don’t mind.”

Suzu smiled back at her. “My partner says you’re welcome,” Lock translated.

If I were to guess at the reason behind Suzu’s smile, I’d say it was because she had helped with the carrying out of my order. Ellie curtsied at me, then produced an SSR Teleportation card in preparation for taking Voros, Suzu, and Lock to the very bottom of the Abyss.

“No! No! Noooo!” Voros wailed. “Spare me, I beg you! Please! I’ll do anything you ask! Oh, you can make my nation your vassal state! It’s yours, if you want it! You can have all of my subjects, so please, let me go! I beg you! Please! I’ll do anything—”

Suzu put more of her weight on her foot and forced Voros’s face into the ground.

“Just shut up, will you?” Lock said.

“Well, if you’ll excuse us,” Ellie said to the people gathered in the room. She bowed again and flashed us all a bright smile, then activated the card in her hand, but not before Voros managed to lift his head again.

“Please spare me—” But before he could finish his sentence, he vanished. All that awaited Voros now was a painful mind scan and a future of never-ending torture where he wouldn’t meet death, even if he wished to with all his might.

Chapter 12: Proxy Letter

“Pwakyuuhaa janahachi sankyuuni!”

A hellish scene of pure pandemonium had broken out among the ruins of what had once been the Demonkin Nation’s royal palace. A huge supernatural explosion had obliterated the castle, sending debris raining down on the surrounding streets of the capital like a hailstorm of fire and brimstone. Houses, shops, and military barracks were all destroyed, although the residents could count themselves lucky if that was the full extent of the fallout.

A single human—the fake C—crawled out from under the rubble, and the soldiers who had managed to survive the initial blast moved to engage the mystery man. But when they drew close enough to get a good look at the fake C, many of the soldiers suddenly started babbling like madmen before attacking their fellow comrades and even themselves. Notably, though, the affected soldiers didn’t attack with spears, swords, or even their fists. In fact, their victims would have preferred they had used conventional weapons.

“No! Stop! Snap out of it!” one soldier yelled at his crazed brother-in-arms who had hold of him, but unfortunately for him, it was to no avail. The hapless grunt screamed bloody murder as his fellow demon bit through his neck with his bare teeth before sucking out his blood and tearing away at his flesh, ululating rabidly throughout.

The ruins turned into a crucible of madness as the crazed fought the uncrazed. There were no high officials around to restore order because they had all been buried under the rubble, so it was left to the few sane soldiers to deal with the chaos as best they could. If they needed to, they would slice off the legs of the lunatics, or just put them out of their misery altogether. Mages among the soldiers attempted to cast anomaly cancellation spells on their manic brethren, but they were totally ineffective, which meant under the circumstances, the sane soldiers were forced to perform summary executions on their former comrades.

This nightmare situation continued unabated until a savior appeared to provide some desperately needed relief.

“SSSR Advanced Anomaly Cancellation—release, shall we?” said a mellifluous voice that rang out in the chaos. All eyes turned to a young woman who was wearing a hooded cloak, though despite her rather austere, discreet choice of clothing, it was plain to see that she had an hourglass figure accentuated by a large chest and legs that were long, statuesque, and perfectly proportioned. Even though the hood shielded her face from view, everybody standing in the rubble of the ruins could tell that this mystery figure was a stunningly beautiful woman.

In her guise as the Wicked Witch of the Tower, Ellie restored the sanity of everybody in her immediate vicinity using her gacha card, and because it was an SSSR card, it worked where regular sorcery had failed. The affected soldiers acted like they had just woken up from being possessed by ghosts.

“Wait a minute. I recall running up to investigate the explosion at the palace, but... Huh? Why can’t I remember anything after that?” one soldier remarked.

“You’re sane again? Thank the Goddess!” another serviceman whooped, laying down his spear in relief.

Another of the soldiers turned to Ellie. “It’s all thanks to that item you used! Pardon me for asking, but do you have any more of them? Normal cancellation spells didn’t do anything, and there are still a few more people who have gone crazy.”

“There’s no need for that. We’re already taking care of them as we speak,” the Wicked Witch said, her tone laced with a touch of annoyance. The soldier looked around and saw yet more beautiful young maidens using Advanced Anomaly Cancellation cards on the victims. The young women all wore maid garments and were floating around the rubble thanks to the translucent, fairylike wings on their backs. In other words, these women the demon soldiers were looking at were fairy maids, and putting two and two together, they at last realized the identity of the stunning young woman in black.

“Fairy maids and a woman wearing a hood?” one of the soldiers said slowly. “Hey, wait! Are you the Wicked Witch of the Tower?”

Even the soldier who had originally been grateful for her help raised his weapon and pointed it at Ellie, precisely as he should since the Wicked Witch had been declared an enemy of the Demonkin Nation.

If I capture her, I’ll be a total hero, thought the soldier. And I’ll get a guaranteed promotion! Other soldiers were having similar thoughts and gulped avariciously.

Ellie completely ignored all of the weapons that were pointed at her and pulled a sealed letter out of her cleavage with an air of irritation. Some of the soldiers looked away out of modesty as she did so, but their bashfulness was quickly replaced with wide-eyed shock when they heard the witch’s next pronouncement.

“I have in my hand a letter from Prince Voros authorizing me to act as his official proxy,” Ellie declared in a matter-of-fact tone. “In that capacity, I have been empowered to hand down mandates in his stead. You gentlemen are free to give in to your greed and attempt to seize me where I stand, but it will only result in your deaths, which would be a shame after you managed to survive this disaster.”

She looked around and started with her first order of business. “It might be an idea for you to try to save your friends, especially those who are injured or still buried under all of this rubble. I would also ask that some of you go on patrol around the capital to take stock of the damage that has been caused by the falling debris. A food distribution program must also be set in motion for the survivors. This is just the start of the numerous tasks I will have you perform.”

“Um, sorry, but we don’t actually know if that letter is a forgery or...” one soldier piped up.

“This letter is quite clearly authentic,” Ellie said testily. “Now, stop wasting your breaths with all that nonsense and direct your energies toward rescuing your associates!”

“A-At once, ma’am!” the soldiers replied, all of them withering under the very palpable pressure Ellie was exuding. They scurried away like mice to attend to their new duties, and watching on, Ellie sighed under her breath. For him to show mercy to these utter barbarians highlights how very kind Blessed Lord Light is, Ellie thought. If he’d given me permission to do so, I would’ve reduced this city to cinders, along with all the people standing in our way. Well, all besides the humans, of course.

After Voros was captured and taken to the bottom level of the Abyss, Light had informed Ellie of his decision on what to do with the Demonkin Nation. Using an SR Telepathy card, Light had found out from observers assigned to surveil the royal capital that lots of soldiers had descended into madness. Because these soldiers hadn’t committed any obvious crimes, and they weren’t in possession of human slaves either, Light had ordered Ellie to save the soldiers as the Wicked Witch of the Tower.

By appearing in this guise, it’s clear to all who it was that saved them, thought Ellie. Perhaps this is a ploy to make them more receptive to my Absolute Autonomy for Humans decree. Or at least, maybe that’s his surface reasoning for doing this.

Ellie looked down at the proxy letter she was holding in her hand, which, like she had told the soldiers, really had been written by Prince Voros himself. At first, Light had considered making a copy of Voros by using a UR Double Shadow card, but he’d decided against it since that particular gacha card was too rare and valuable, and he didn’t want to use such a precious card on someone so closely—if indirectly—linked to the suffering his brother had endured. In any case, Light didn’t really want to rule over the Demonkin Nation with a look-alike puppet, so using a Double Shadow card would just have been a waste.

Now that Mr. Voros is no longer with them, the demons will fight among themselves for the throne once all this fake C furor dies down, thought Ellie. But before that happens, I’ll evacuate every human slave from this nation, and use my dragons and other high-level monsters to enforce the Absolute Autonomy decree. If the new authorities decide to violate the decree and start enslaving humans again, I’ll simply destroy this nation with my dragons. Since there will be no humans to accidentally get caught in the cross fire, I will be entirely free to make an example of them.

But that was a future consideration, and Ellie was well aware of Light’s underlying motives for his decision. The witch gazed down at the letter in her hand and smiled lovingly.

This letter and the fact that we rescued them from the fake C means we’ll easily secure control of this nation, if only temporarily, thought Ellie. Almost every single person involved in the leadership of this kingdom died in that blast, which is yet another point in our favor. What’s important is this control will only be temporary, since we have no intention whatsoever of ruling over the demonkin indefinitely. We’ll use this brief power vacuum to free the slaves and exact Blessed Lord Light’s revenge on Mr. Diablo.

During this interregnum, Light would have free rein to target Diablo, who was still part of the Demonkin Nation’s aristocracy. Light could strip Diablo of his rank, seize his domain, and grant it to whomever he pleased, even Diablo’s estranged elder brother. But if the objective was just to destroy Diablo, Light could have easily atomized his former partymate any time he wanted. But an end like that wasn’t likely to satisfy Light, so he’d sent Ellie to take control of the royal capital, and because she was the smartest person in the Abyss, she immediately identified Light’s true design.

Blessed Lord Light truly is amazing, Ellie gushed inwardly. To think he would simply take control of this nation’s seat of power with such minimal effort. He must have strategized this far in advance the moment the fake C appeared. Normally, I would be the one suggesting such an approach, but I failed to notice this pathway sooner. If I don’t get my act together, I’ll forever be a hindrance and deadweight to His Blessedness. I must concentrate on reducing Blessed Lord Light’s burden as much as I can!

Ellie stuffed the proxy letter back into her cleavage and vowed to be a much more faithful vassal to her beloved dungeon master.

✰✰✰

“Ellie, can you give me an update on the Demonkin Nation damage assessment and the assistance we’re providing them with?” I requested. We were in my executive office back in the Abyss by this point.

“Certainly, Your Blessedness,” Ellie said before launching into her report. “Everyone affected by Mr. C has been cured of their lunacy by spells designed to cure status ailments. The fairy maids also carried out other relief efforts, which helped to bring the situation under control. Evacuees in the capital are being given food through a distribution program, and no problems have been reported. However...”

Her expression darkened. “We are experiencing moderate delays in locating, retrieving, and healing human slaves. I formally handed down the Absolute Autonomy of Humans decree using Mr. Voros’s proxy letter as my mandate, but word of the decree has yet to spread around the nation. The fairy maids have encountered resistance when attempting to retrieve slaves, and most of the slaves we have been able to emancipate were malnourished, with many bearing scars or even grave wounds. We have expended plenty of manpower to heal these unfortunate cases, but...” Ellie paused. “I deeply regret this outcome, Blessed Lord.”

“The elves, the dark elves, and the beastfolk were pretty horrible to their slaves, so I guess we can just add the demons to the list too, huh?” I said bitterly.

The details on how the humans were being abused truly sickened me. And not only were the demons treating my race cruelly, but they refused to let my brethren go when the time came. There were even slaves who had been so badly mistreated, they refused to leave their masters when we invited them to come with us, likely due to trauma or some deep-seated fear. In most cases, we just forcibly relieved the owners of the slaves, then relocated the slaves to Tower City where they’d live freely so they could recover from their trauma.

I flashed Ellie a reassuring smile. “You don’t need to apologize for anything. But we do need to speed up the rescue of the slaves, so we’ll just send some more fairy maids to help out. If you need to, you can use whatever cards you want from our stockpile.”

“I’m greatly humbled by your magnanimity, Blessed Lord,” Ellie said, bowing.

Voros’s insane choices had been part of the reason I’d felt the need to send Ellie and the fairy maids to take care of things in the Demonkin Nation, although I did also want to make sure that every human in the land could be saved as soon as possible. I wanted to avoid a situation arising where I wouldn’t be able to save the life of a severely injured human, and all because I’d cut corners. I’d even allowed the full use of the SSSR Advanced Anomaly Cancellation gacha cards to minimize the resistance against safeguarding humans. Thanks to my Unlimited Gacha, we would replace those cards soon enough, and it’d be worth it if we were able to save lives as a result.

I leaned back in my chair and collected my thoughts. “Well, it seems like there are no major problems with how we’re dealing with the demonkin. Ellie, continue with the mission as planned.”

“Of course, Blessed Lord Light,” she replied, executing an elegant curtsy while holding her witch’s hat to stop it from flying off. She didn’t let it show, but it was obvious she was excited to be given a task of such importance. I smiled again before moving on to our next topic of discussion.

“We are now finally able to exact my revenge on Diablo,” I stated. “The fake C was an annoying distraction, but thanks to that whole mess, we were able to gain something interesting out of it.”

The interesting thing I was talking about was, of course, Voros’s handwritten proxy letter. We’d originally had it written to quickly restore calm to the Demonkin Nation capital and to free the slaves, but I’d quickly realized I could use the letter to really make Diablo’s life miserable.

“We’ve found out from our intelligence operatives up on the surface that Diablo is obsessed with status,” I said. “The same is true about his falling-out with his brother. So if we use this proxy letter, we can boot him out of the aristocracy and make him super depressed. We can even replace Diablo as the head of his fiefdom with his brother. That letter will sure come in handy for all of that kind of stuff besides its primary goal of freeing slaves.”

“You’re so clever to find so many uses from one single concession, Blessed Lord,” said Ellie. “You really are a master among master strategists!”

“Thanks, Ellie,” I said with a smile. “But his misery won’t be anything like the pain I suffered on my horrible first day in the Abyss. He was willing to assassinate me to get to his current rank, so we’ll rob him of his rank through a formal process. That should give him a small taste of the utter despair he put me through.”

“Yes, that’s a splendid plan,” Ellie agreed.

I started to think of extra ways we could bully Diablo. I still don’t think it’s enough just stripping Diablo of his rank and handing his land to either his brother or his nephew, I thought. Ellie could arrange for all of that to happen just by showing the proxy letter in her hand to the right people, but that still wouldn’t be enough for the likes of Diablo.

Didn’t Diablo used to talk about the reason he became an adventurer despite being a former aristocrat? I thought, thinking back to days long past. Diablo claimed he had become an adventurer in order to see the world and widen his horizons. He’d also said that he couldn’t return to his estate because the bodyguards, servants, and maids so doted on him, they would have pressured him to stay home and remain a scion.

“Honestly, everyone in my household is so protective of little old me,” Diablo had said back then. He’d also said he never visited home because it was too much of a chore.

“The maids would constantly be making advances, my parents were smothering me with their love, and my dear elder brother would spoil me so rotten, I simply got tired of it all,” he’d remarked.

Back then, after hearing Diablo talk about his life, I thought that was just how aristocrats lived, I mused. But now I know he was just deluding us all to protect his pride. Still, thanks to Diablo’s thoughtless prattle, I now had a pretty good idea at which buttons to press to send him over the edge. My thinking was that I could put Diablo through a similar test to the one I’d hit Sasha with: If any of Diablo’s underlings, servants, or maids were willing to put their lives on the line for Diablo, I would spare his life.

“Diablo used to say everybody loved him to bits, so that suggests all the people serving him will be quite willing to risk their lives to save him,” I reasoned. “If even one person is willing to put Diablo’s life above theirs, I’ll let him go. But that will require Diablo to know someone willing to sacrifice their life for him.”

“Splendid, Blessed Lord Light. A delightfully clever stratagem,” Ellie gushed. “If anyone is loyal to him, they’d be perfectly fine with protecting their lord from any cruel circumstances that might befall them. But that will only be the case if he truly has the capacity to be a leader of people who genuinely follow him.”

Ellie and I shared deeply satisfied grins, and it was then we decided to put our revenge plan against Diablo into motion.

Chapter 13: Diablo’s Dismay

“How can this be happening to me?” Diablo bemoaned. He was in his study, cradling his head in despair.

The reason he found himself in this predicament was quite simple: The Wicked Witch of the Tower had made the switch from sworn enemy of the Demonkin Nation to its supreme ruler, even if only provisionally. The witch had assumed power by getting rid of the fake C—the Master who had destroyed the palace and done considerable damage to the rest of the capital—and obtained a proxy letter handwritten by Prince Voros personally.

As she settled into her temporary reign, the Wicked Witch used her own funds and resources to provide relief for all the residents, whether they be demon or human. Thanks to her assistance, even some of the demons joined the liberated humans in praising her as “the Great Witch of the Tower.” Those demons had lost their homes and their sources of food, and had been injured when the fake C was resurrected. The tower witch provided them with food, clothing, and healing services free of charge, and led projects to restore all the buildings, so it was only natural that the demons who’d been rescued would start viewing the witch as worthy of reverence.

The Wicked Witch introduced her “Absolute Autonomy for Humans” edict throughout the Demonkin Nation, backed up by her proxy letter and her hundred-strong dragon army. At first, the demon aristocrats objected to the idea of setting the human slaves free, but the sight of dragons flying overhead, blotting out the afternoon sun soon put an end to those protests. Most of the would-be rebels had gotten the message that if they attempted an uprising against the witch, hellfire would rain down and destroy everything.

One demon noble who decided to call her bluff found himself made an example of when dragons breathed fire on his estate, leaving only a crater where a mansion had once stood. The attack killed the noble but left no trace of his corpse to collect, and the slaves who had been in his fiefdom were relocated to the Great Tower. As for the territory itself, it descended into turmoil as potential successors fought over who had the right to take over the domain. Normally, the monarch of the Demonkin Nation would forcefully annex the land and hand it over to another fiefdom, or assign a new lord to the leaderless domain, but since the bedridden king had perished in the palace explosion, and his regent, Prince Voros, hadn’t been seen since the incident, it had all turned into a bit of a free-for-all.

The Wicked Witch explained to the skeptics that Voros had formally awarded her proxy rights to rule the kingdom in exchange for her help in vanquishing the fake C. According to the witch’s words, even she didn’t know where Voros had disappeared to after he was last sighted fleeing the royal capital with his retinue. The soldiers who had survived the blast at the castle had all witnessed the prince absconding, which helped to corroborate this cover story, when Voros had in fact been captured and was doomed to spend eternity suffering in the deepest recesses of the Abyss. But that was beside the point.

After the Wicked Witch had killed the recalcitrant noble, the rest of the demon aristocracy (who all seemed to value their lives) fell into line. Of course, news of this mass capitulation was spread far and wide so that it would eventually reach Diablo’s ears. As Light’s team had anticipated, the demon’s head throbbed painfully with despair when he heard.

“I wasn’t intending to wage war against the witch either,” Diablo said to himself. “But according to all the information I have on her, she might be the worst thing to ever happen to me...”

At the emergency summit in the Principality of the Nine, Diablo had encountered a masked boy he believed greatly resembled Light. Despite his best efforts since then, he had been unable to find definitive proof that this boy was indeed the same human he had left for dead in the Abyss years earlier. Just in case, he had decided to send messages to the other former members of the Concord of the Tribes to warn them of the possibility of Light still being alive, which was done less as a favor to his former partymates than as a way to find someone to scapegoat if the opportunity should present itself. But in a bizarre twist, he found out later that, aside from Drago the dragonute and Santor the centaur, all of the other past members of his clandestine party had vanished without a trace.

“So not only did I encounter a boy who might be Light at that summit,” Diablo wailed, “but Drago and Santor are the only ones from that party who haven’t disappeared. This cannot be a coincidence, no matter how I try to interpret this information!”

The boy adventurer who looked a lot like Light had seemingly become active at around the same time that the Wicked Witch first appeared in the Elven Queendom. It was also around this time that Garou, Sasha, Sionne, Naano, and Oboro started disappearing into thin air, one after another. Furthermore, the timeline seemed to overlap with the Wicked Witch’s toppling of the Elven Queendom, the Dark Elf Islands, and the Beast Folk Federation. The witch had also found friendly nations in the Dwarf Kingdom and the Onifolk Archipelago, forged an alliance with the Human Kingdom, and expanded the reach of her Absolute Autonomy decree.

“Was Light able to survive by the skin of his teeth because he met that witch in the Abyss?” Diablo wondered aloud. “Did he win the witch’s favor, and is now exacting revenge on all of us who were in the party with her backing?”

Diablo wished he could reject this theory outright as being patently ridiculous, but too many pieces of the puzzle fell neatly into place to readily dismiss it.

“So he took revenge on Garou and the rest of them while conquering entire nations on the side?” Diablo summarized. “No, that can’t possibly be true.”

The idea that Light could be vanquishing nations as some kind of series of side quests to his primary mission—his vendetta against his old partymates—was entirely farcical on the face of it, to the point where Diablo had to force himself to shake his head to forget he’d even considered the idea. However, he still needed to confront a gigantic problem that had reared its head.

“The witch is coming to visit my fiefdom!” Diablo cried out in dismay.

He had received a notice informing him that the Wicked Witch was scheduled to visit his domain for an official inspection, and due to her role as the new regent in place of the absentee prince, he was in no position to refuse. If he did, he would suffer the same fate as the previous demon aristocrat who defied the witch.

Diablo’s power level was only slightly above 400, which was the same as it had been when he was in the Concord of the Tribes. Due to his reward of a peerage following his stint in the party, he had seen no reason to level up, since he already had plenty of influence. Therefore, if a hundred dragons swooped down and torched his manor with him inside, he wouldn’t have the resistance stats to survive.

“Not a single one of the soldiers I conscripted has returned either,” he grumbled. “That means I won’t even have a fighting force to combat the witch if the need arises.”

Voros had coerced Diablo into lending him soldiers from his domain to join the latest cross-border raids led by Doc and Goh, but while their tour of duty should have been long since over by this point, not one soldier had returned to Diablo’s fiefdom. And following the news that Voros had apparently absconded from the kingdom, there wasn’t even anybody he could inquire about the whereabouts of his troops. That said, it was unlikely those soldiers could provide any sort of protection against the might of one hundred dragons anyway.

“I hope I’m not the next target of his retribution, after Garou and the others,” Diablo worried. He reminded himself that the whole notion of the mysterious boy adventurer at the summit really being Light in disguise, and that he was carrying out a vendetta while allied with the Wicked Witch, was simply a hunch only loosely supported by odd bits of raw intel he had compiled. There was no irrefutable proof Light was still alive.

“Light was a lowly inferior. There’s no possible way he could’ve survived in the Abyss after tripping that teleportation trap,” Diablo reasoned. “And all those who have vanished were worthless and incompetent anyway! They likely lost their lives by overextending their meager talents while out on dangerous quests. That must be what happened to them!” Reassuring himself in this way finally gave him the energy to take action.

“I-In any case, I must do everything I can to ensure the Wicked Witch feels welcome while she is here,” he told himself. “No matter how powerful she might be, the witch is still an inferior with no civilization or culture to speak of. I will simply offer her cuisine and wine the likes of which her ill-bred kind have never tasted, and surround her with men so handsome, no inferior could ever hope to compare. Yes, I’ll have them wait on her hand and foot!”

Diablo contemplated this course of action some more. “Then again, perhaps the witch isn’t into men at all. In that case, I should hire some women and maybe even some children, just in case her proclivities lean in those directions.”

Diablo marched out of his study, his mind still fixated on ways to give the Wicked Witch the red carpet treatment. At that time, Diablo never imagined the witch’s visit would bring him face-to-face with his past.

✰✰✰

On the day the Wicked Witch was due to visit Diablo’s fiefdom, he made sure his manor was spotless and fully stocked with all the finest food and liquor he could find, regardless of the expense. The servants he’d hired were the most gorgeous men available, and he made sure they were positioned around the manor in places where they would be most visible. The servants were also under strict orders to do anything the witch asked of them without question. Diablo made all the arrangements he could think of to please the Wicked Witch, and when the appointed time came, he made sure he was standing at the front entrance of his manor, ready to receive his guest of honor flanked by servants, who were all wearing new suits.

“It appears she has arrived...” Diablo said, nervously swallowing his saliva. From where he was standing, it looked like a flock of migratory birds had appeared on the horizon, but as the throng drew closer, it became apparent they weren’t birds at all, but dragons. As soon as they were bigger than specks in the distance, the fire-breathing lizards proved to be far too large to be mistaken for birds, and they projected such fearsome force in the air, any painting of their arrival would be considered a work of high art. And it wasn’t just a few dragons the Wicked Witch had brought with her, but the whole hundred-strong swarm. The sheer numbers alone made it a breathtaking sight worth seeing at least once as a spectacle.

As the dragons drew closer, Diablo and the servants gulped as one. The biggest dragon in the swarm, the Red Dragon, made a completely vertical descent right in front of Diablo’s manor and touched down with barely a tremor despite the size of the creature. However, that treatment wasn’t for Diablo’s sake, but to ensure a soft landing for its two hooded passengers. The Red Dragon then knelt down to allow the Wicked Witch of the Tower to disembark, followed by Dark, the boy adventurer.

“You have done well, my pet,” the Wicked Witch said, rubbing the dragon’s snout, and the Red Dragon grunted graciously in reply. Dark, the leader of the adventuring party known as the Black Fools, was wearing a mask to obscure his facial features and remained silent.

Wh-Why is Dark with the Wicked Witch? Diablo wailed inwardly, but he still had the presence of mind to keep a businesslike smile plastered across his face. Although he had only met Dark once at the summit, he would never forget him due to his striking resemblance to Light. Diablo once again tried to convince himself that there was no connection between the two.

I-It simply defies logic that this Dark character would be Light in disguise, he thought. First of all, we left Light in the Abyss three years ago, meaning if he’d survived, he would be fifteen years old now. Humans at that age are much taller, whereas this Dark looks to be around twelve. In any case, that baseborn inferior could never have become powerful enough to incapacitate several elite assassins!

But try as he might to convince himself that he had nothing to worry about, Diablo couldn’t shake the ominous feeling he had on seeing Dark and the Wicked Witch arriving together. But since he was in no position to ask questions about the arrangement, Diablo maintained his salesmanlike smile and elected to impart words of welcome to the pair instead.

“I am most honored you would journey such a long way to visit me,” he said. “It is a rare privilege to be able to host the Great Witch of the Tower at my abode.” He swallowed his pride and folded his hands together ingratiatingly like a menial would when addressing a supervisor.

“Anyway, I wouldn’t dream of keeping you out in the elements to chat, so if you’ll kindly follow me inside,” Diablo suggested, acting like a tour guide. “Now, you may find my manor to be but a humble residence, but please feel free to make yourself at home—”

“Your hospitality is unnecessary,” the Wicked Witch said tersely.

Skipping all of the niceties, the witch produced a sheath of documents from her cleavage and read aloud the contents of the first page. “As regent for the royal house with the authority granted to me by Prince Voros’s proxy letter, I declare your territory confiscated by the Demonkin Nation and all of your authority as a lord hereby revoked, Mr. Diablo.”

Although the Wicked Witch’s face was hidden by her hooded cloak, her tone was disturbingly scathing. Diablo was momentarily confused by what was happening, and so were his servants, the shock constricting their pupils into dots.

He quickly recovered, though, and laughed in a jocular manner. “Surely you jest, Great Witch of the Tower? But I’m afraid your attempt at humor has gone a little overboard for my tastes. I’m aware you were at odds with my nation over some minor misunderstanding, but surely further interaction between the two of us will resolve any lingering enmity—”

“I assure you this is not a joke,” the Wicked Witch cut in icily. “This is an official notice from the Demonkin Nation itself, and all of the required documents have been signed and ratified.”

She waved the documents in Diablo’s face as if to prove it. “It’s tragic, really, since this fiefdom has been in your family for generations. But as of today, your ownership is dissolved. You will spend the rest of your days as a simple commoner.”

Diablo finally snapped. “D-Don’t you mock me! Why must I be subject to this patently ridiculous treatment? I won’t stand for this arbitrary, one-sided farce!” He didn’t care that he was blowing his lid at the all-powerful Wicked Witch of the Tower; he wasn’t about to accept the repossession of his domain as an official act. He knew if he backed down, all of his efforts driving out his brother, taking over the fiefdom, and attaining a peerage would have gone to waste. However, the witch didn’t even flinch when confronted with Diablo’s fiery protest.

“Do you really not know why you’re being punished, Mr. Diablo?” the Wicked Witch asked.

“I honestly do not!” the demon cried out. “I have no idea what I’ve done to deserve having my peerage removed. Whatever the accusation against me, this penalty is disproportionate and unjust!”

He was putting up a rigorous defense, but his servants were starting to wonder whether their lord wasn’t actually responsible for the dispossession.

“I believe you are aware that you handed down direct orders to soldiers in your domain to take part in unauthorized raids, with the intent being to massacre and pillage villages in the Human Kingdom?” the witch put to him.

“O-Oh, well, that I can explain,” Diablo said, suddenly looking a bit more flustered. “Prince Voros asked me in no uncertain terms to lend him some soldiers for a mission, and I was powerless to say no to him. I’m only a simple viscount, after all! If the crown prince tells me to do something, I have no choice but to comply!”

“You also hired assassins from the Bourreaux to murder a certain high-profile figure, did you not?” the Wicked Witch continued.

“No, please!” Diablo pleaded. “Those malicious rumors are completely without merit! I believe someone’s spreading that kind of outright slander to bring about my downfall...”

His gaze briefly shifted to Dark, who was standing wordlessly behind the witch. Diablo had indeed hired assassins to take out Dark and the rest of his party, but those assassination attempts had failed, and someone had posted a grandiloquent display in the middle of the royal capital accusing Diablo of taking out a hit on Prince Voros. But the Wicked Witch seemed completely uninterested in listening to Diablo’s excuses as she unfurled another document to read aloud.

“You have committed many other crimes, both egregious and minor,” the witch proclaimed. “For someone with such a ghastly track record, it was only a matter of time before you faced judgment. In any case, this revocation of your land and your nobility is a matter that has already been settled with the authorities. It is far too late for you to contest it now.”

Diablo could only grind his teeth and snarl gutturally at this, the veins on his forehead and neck dangerously close to popping due to his fury. His normally pale face had gone a deep crimson, and his good senses suddenly flew out the window.

“Don’t go thinking you’ll get away with this!” he screeched. “Come, my soldiers! Kill her! Kill this damnable witch where she stands! And then, once she’s dead, I’ll keep this land, my status, and my honor!”

Diablo had stationed the few soldiers still in his fiefdom inside his manor in case there was an emergency. He had personally selected them for their superior combat skills, and on their master’s signal, they came storming out of the manor and pointed their weapons at the tower witch. But the witch simply giggled and gestured behind her.

“You’re certainly free to resist if you really want to,” the Wicked Witch goaded. “But that would mean my dragons reducing your entire domain to a fiery wasteland. In all honesty, as an alternative, that would be much, much faster for us, given our busy schedule.”

As if on cue, the Red Dragon roared to the rest of the swarm still circling overhead, and the other dragons roared back in unison. This brief display was enough to make the soldiers’ skin crawl, as if the noises made by the dragons carried scalding heat too. Even the most elite fighters were no match for a hundred dragons, and they’d heard what happened to the other demon lord who dared to defy the witch. In the end, the demon soldiers were too scared to swing their swords or nock arrows in their bows, and they just stood around in silence.

Spotting her opportunity, the Wicked Witch hammered the final nail in the coffin with regard to facing any resistance. “Also, since this domain will be in the kingdom’s possession, we will guarantee that all soldiers and servants are paid in full, and retain their status. Of course, that guarantee is null and void for anyone who joins in with any rebellion against the Demonkin Nation. Anyone who commits treason will be dispossessed of everything, including their lives.”

There was technically a power vacuum in the Demonkin Nation at this moment in time, since Prince Voros was nowhere to be found and a permanent replacement on the throne had yet to be appointed, but during her tenure as Voros’s temporary proxy, the Wicked Witch was quite willing to allow people living in confiscated domains to retain their pay, their properties, and their ranks. Immediately upon hearing her offer, the maids, manservants, and soldiers all physically distanced themselves from Diablo. It was obvious they would lose any fight with the witch anyway, and if the alternative was a guaranteed return to their former lives, it was obvious which option to choose.

On witnessing this mass betrayal by his subordinates, Diablo spluttered in a fit of fury and confusion, to the point where he was nearly foaming at the mouth. A dark shadow passed across his face, then he tossed open his cloak and lowered himself into a battle-ready posture.

“You ungrateful turncoats!” he screeched. “In that case, I shall take this witch’s head myself!” Diablo’s servants watched from a distance as their lord tossed reason to the wind and prepared to attack the Wicked Witch, the present de facto leader of their nation. Assaulting her while she held this position would be high treason, but Diablo was too infuriated to care.

“Magic power, frozen might! Manifest to blades of ice! Ice Sword Rondo!” After completing the chant for this combat-class spell, ten ice swords appeared in midair, ready to strike the tower witch. Diablo was a Level 400 demon who had been a top adventurer back in the day, so chanting a voiced spell of this advanced grade was a simple feat for him.

“I will end you, you wretched witch!” Diablo yelled as he fired all ten ice swords at Ellie. Of course, as the Level 9999 Forbidden Witch, she had the highest resistance stats against offensive spells of anyone in the Abyss, and there was no realistic way Diablo could have harmed her with his magical attack, even if she did nothing at all. Yet despite that, Dark made his move anyway.

The young adventurer leaped in front of the sorceress at precisely the same moment that Diablo fired his ice swords, then used his staff to smash every single projectile into tiny shards.

“What?!” Diablo squawked.

“Don’t you dare touch the Great Witch,” Dark warned in a flinty tone.

Diablo’s jaw had unhinged itself in shock, since he hadn’t expected the adventurer to display a level of speed and agility that went well beyond what was reasonable for a human. Meanwhile, the Wicked Witch—or rather, Ellie—was startled for a completely different reason, and to such an extent that she let out a short, rapturous breath in a manner that was a total one-eighty from the no-nonsense tone she had taken with Diablo. While it was still impossible to see her expression through her face-concealing hood, the sense of exhilaration radiating from her was palpable enough to be felt by the servants and soldiers standing in the wings.

Although, of course, this reaction was to be expected. After all, her beloved Light—in his disguise as Dark—had gone out of his way to shield her from Diablo’s attack. While the superwitch hadn’t needed any kind of protection whatsoever in the first place, being saved by her own knight in shining armor had sent her maiden heart aflutter.

In her mind, Ellie sighed with affection. Yes, in all our simulations prior to this mission, we didn’t hit on one scenario where I would face any real threat from Mr. Diablo. But there’s no maiden alive who wouldn’t feel lovestruck after watching her sweetheart defend her like this!

If Mei, Aoyuki, Suzu, Mera, Iceheat, or any of the fairy maids had witnessed Ellie’s momentary lack of poise, not one of them would have blamed her for her reaction. In fact, they would all have felt a deep sense of vicarious elation for her.

While Ellie had failed to prepare herself for Light’s valiant intervention, everything else had been anticipated and gone exactly according to plan. In her role as the Wicked Witch, Ellie had purposely provoked Diablo into attacking her, and stripping him of his land, his title, and even his servants had all been in service to that. Of course, Light had said he would be willing to spare Diablo if even one of his servants had offered up his or her own life in defense of their master, despite the offer of absolution.

But as was seen, not one servant thought to sacrifice themselves for Diablo, so Light had been cleared to proceed to the second phase.

Dark landed a quick, nonlethal kick on Diablo that sent him flying through the doors of his manor, gagging in pain. Once she was finally back in character as the Wicked Witch, Ellie directed the servants to remove themselves so that Dark could be alone with Diablo.

“Mr. Diablo has attacked me in my capacity as Prince Voros’s official proxy, so I will add high treason to his list of crimes,” the Wicked Witch stated in a measured tone. “The soldiers will kindly escort all of the remaining servants away from this building to a safe location. As for Mr. Diablo, my highly competent bodyguard will now mete out his punishment.”

“A-As you command!” the soldiers replied obediently. As far as the other demons were concerned, at this point, whatever the Wicked Witch said went. The soldiers separated into groups, with some running into the manor to gather up the other occupants, while others escorted the servants already at the entrance away to safety. Once the manor had been completely cleared of bystanders, Dark addressed the Wicked Witch.

“I’m going in,” the masked adventurer said.

“Do make the most of this opportunity, if you can,” the witch said buoyantly. Dark strolled inside the manor alone, picking his way between the broken doors to carry out the revenge that had been several years in the making.

✰✰✰

After being kicked like a leather ball straight into the manor, Diablo hacked up a storm as he came to a halt with his back resting up against the wall at the far end of the entrance hall. His arms had taken the brunt of the impact from Dark’s foot, but the kick had also taken a toll on his abdomen, and his back was screaming in agony after being forced through the heavy, wooden doors. If Diablo had been an average man with ordinary stats, that one blow would have been fatal, but since he was a Level 400 demon, the damage was less severe.

The sound of footsteps ominously crunching the wooden splinters of the shattered doors drifted over to him, and when Diablo looked up, he saw a dark-haired boy holding a staff and wearing a mask that covered up the gruesome burn scars that he had once shown to Diablo and his peers. The boy looked down at him with contempt, which once again caused Diablo’s forehead veins to pulsate in fury. The demon raised himself as far as he could, but his lingering injuries kept him down on one knee.

“The nerve of you...” Diablo growled darkly. “A damned inferior has no right to kick a high noble like me! What you just did is tantamount to pulling off your glove and slapping the whole of the Demonkin Nation in the face! This entire nation will hunt you down and kill you!”

“Do you really think the nobles or this nation care what happens to you?” Dark said before letting out a high-pitched laugh. “You’re a commoner now, Diablo. We stripped you of your lordship, remember?”

The demon choked on his rage, his lips trembling as he was on the verge of exploding.

“No...” Diablo breathed. “No, no, no! That woman merely declared it, nothing more! I’m still a noble! I was born into nobility, and I’ve served this nation for many years! I even disposed of a fake Master! This is plainly unjust, depriving me of a peerage like this!”

“Nope,” Dark chuckled. “What you just said is the exact reason why you don’t deserve a peerage.”

The young adventurer placed his free hand on his mask and went to remove it. Expecting to see his horribly disfigured face again, Diablo tried to avert his eyes so that he wouldn’t have to glimpse that stomach-churning sight, but Dark was too quick, leaving the demon staring at the young boy’s face agog, his throat quivering like a leaf.

“Impossible...” Diablo uttered. “But how?”

“Diablo,” the boy said. “The biggest reason you lost your peerage is because you betrayed my trust and tried to kill me, but failed miserably.”

“Light?” Diablo squealed. “Y-You’ve really been alive this whole time?!”

Light grinned from ear to ear on hearing this said by his sworn enemy. “Diablo, I’ve come back from the bottom of the Abyss to get my revenge on all of you.”

✰✰✰

“Diablo,” I said after removing my SSR Fool’s Mask. “I’ve come back from the bottom of the Abyss to get my revenge on all of you.”

“Is that really you, Light?!” Diablo yelped. “B-But what about the burns? And why haven’t you aged a day?!”

I basked in Diablo’s bewilderment while I answered his questions. “The burns on my face were an illusion created by the mask. As for my age—” I reflexively held up the UR Bracelet of Youth I was wearing and tapped it. “I chose to keep looking this way so that I would never forget the pain and agony you people put me through that day you betrayed me.”

I bathed my foe in murderous fury, making him squeal and shake as if he’d been tossed outside naked in the dead of winter. I callously relished the sight of my betrayer being scared witless of me, when a voice cut through and snapped me back to reality.

“Blessed Lord Light, I’ve finished enclosing the manor in the force field,” Ellie said. She was standing behind me with her hood thrown back. “Now, no one will be able to interfere with you either magically or physically, and no third party will be able to listen in on your conversation or see you in action from afar.”

I turned to her. “Thanks a lot, Ellie. Good work.”

“Your words are too kind, Your Blessedness,” Ellie said, trying to sound calm, but the way she blushed told me she was absolutely beside herself with joy to receive this compliment from me. I grinned back at her but was interrupted by a still-shivering Diablo.

“Wh-Why is the Wicked Witch working for you, Light?” he cried out. “Did she help you to escape from that dungeon? And you’re now borrowing her powers to take revenge on everyone in the Concord of the Tribes! Is that it?!”

Ellie met these accusations with a miffed expression, but I held up my hand to stop her from going any further, and she complied by controlling her emotions and making sure she had a completely composed look on her face.

“You’re not wrong. But you’re not completely right either,” I said with a mean smile. “You see, what really happened is my Gift, the Unlimited Gacha, summoned a whole bunch of overpowered people, including Ellie here. Yes, that’s right. The Wicked Witch of the Tower was a character I invented in order to take my revenge on every last one of you.”

The look on my face hardened as I outlined the chain of events leading up to the present. “I lured Garou into a trap, then toppled the Elven Queendom to take revenge on Sasha and to find out the truth about why you all tried to assassinate me. I had to go deep into a dungeon to find Sionne and get my revenge on her, and then, for good measure, I decapitated the leadership of the Dark Elf Islands. I collaborated with the Dwarf Kingdom to capture Naano, then after that, I got my revenge on Oboro in return for helping out the Holy Princess of the onifolk with her dilemma.”

As I listed off each party member, Diablo’s face grew paler and paler. He gulped and pointed his finger at Ellie. “So what you’re saying is the Wicked Witch is your subordinate?”

“Subordinate? Don’t be absurd,” Ellie gushed. “My relationship with the Blessed Lord is so much more than one of a mere servant. I am—or rather, all of us are—sworn retainers who have offered our very souls to the Blessed Lord. We live for His Blessedness and we will die for His Blessedness. You will not find a more exalted relationship than that.”

Ellie looked totally enraptured while saying her piece, and since I was used to hearing this kind of praise, I genuinely smiled back at her. Diablo, meanwhile, looked deathly pale and stunned into silence. He knew from the way Ellie was conducting herself that she would blissfully die for me in a heartbeat, and her fanaticism made the blood drain from his face.

I continued to turn the screws on him. “And it’s not just Ellie here. I have a whole bunch of allies helping me to make sure you feel some of the pain, despair, and misery you people put me through.”

I continued smiling at him like a magician who was about to reveal the secret behind his trick. “Remember the summit at the principality? I showed up dressed as an adventurer named Dark. I purposefully made sure to open the door in a way that went against the etiquette rules you taught me. I wanted to send you a message that, yes, I’m still alive and kicking.”

I went on to tell Diablo all of the other ways I had toyed with him lately, starting with how we had massacred all of the demons who had tried to raid the human border villages, save for those we sent back with letters suggesting that Diablo was in cahoots with the Wicked Witch. I told him how, after we’d figured out that he hired the world’s top assassins to kill me, we’d captured them and dumped them in a plaza, along with a message accusing Diablo of putting out a hit on Voros.

And last but not least, I hit him with the fact that we had captured Voros and forced him to write the proxy letter that allowed us to formally strip Diablo of the peerage he had dedicated his whole life to attaining. Everything I’d done, big or small, was in aid of getting revenge on Diablo, and I was speaking so passionately about it, I could have been mistaken for a guy reading aloud a love letter.

“I did all of that just so I could see you suffer and have my revenge,” I concluded. “So tell me, do you at least feel some of the pain, misery, and despair that I felt all those years ago when you betrayed me?”

I could feel myself smiling like crazy, with dark flames lighting up my eyeballs, and I was so very close to shuddering with delight as vengeful joy coursed through my entire body. And just to drive it home, I activated my stats screen for Diablo to see.

“In case you didn’t know, I leveled myself up all the way to 9999 just so I could take revenge on you with my own two hands,” I said.

“L-Level 9999?!” Diablo squeaked. All hope faded from his face, as if he were witnessing the end of the world itself. He began sweating from every pore and immediately shuffled onto his hands and knees to beg for my understanding.

“Th-There was nothing else I could do at the time!” Diablo wailed. “Drago was our enforcer, and my nation pressured me into doing it! There was no opportunity to allow you to escape! I didn’t have a choice, and it’s not like I could’ve fought back anyway! But ever since, I’ve deeply regretted taking part in that inhumane assassination attempt! So please...”

I glared at Diablo in silence, waiting for him to finish. He carefully lifted his head, and gave me one of those upward-glancing puppy dog looks to try to ingratiate himself to me.

“So please s-spare me. I beg you,” he continued. “I’d also like to retain my title as a viscount. And in return, I’ll be your servant for life. I offer all of my skills and talents in service to you as your right-hand man. If you’re taking control of this nation, I know I’ll be a valuable asset to you. I’m an accomplished leader of a territory and a capable commander who knows the proper way of dealing with this nation’s aristocrats. I offer you all of my knowledge and expertise in governance. I swear you will never regret making me your retainer!”

Ellie silently fumed all throughout Diablo’s speech. He thinks his meager talents make him worthy of being Blessed Lord Light’s right-hand man? He must think so very little of us! she probably thought. But Diablo was so desperate, he didn’t even notice he was basically signing his own death warrant with Ellie as the executioner, rather than succeeding in begging me for his life.

While he said he “regretted” what he did to me, it was clear he still thought demons were superior to humans, even if he was presently kneeling before people who were far more powerful than he could ever imagine. First of all, we had no intention of ruling the Demonkin Nation anyway, so he’d already gotten off on the wrong foot by offering to help us govern the nation. They’re right when they say people expose their true nature when backed into a corner, I thought.

Diablo started sweating again when he saw that we were unconvinced about having any use for his so-called talents, so he immediately switched tack and tried to gain sympathy by bringing up our days in the party.

“W-We mustn’t forget that we had many good times in the Concord of the Tribes,” he stammered. “We should go back to being friends, just like we were in the past. If you’d prefer, Light, I’m very willing to teach you everything I know about etiquette, just like I did back in the old days.”

“Just like in the old days...” I repeated. On finally glimpsing a faint ray of hope, a smile plastered itself across his face and he pressed on.

“Of course!” he said. “We can enjoy ourselves just like we did in the old days. We can drink through the night and be merry—”

I interrupted him by giggling uncontrollably at the suggestion. Diablo’s hope-filled face stiffened, and I full-on exploded into nonstop, unhinged laughter. Although I was unmistakably laughing, my voice was hoarse, and there wasn’t a shred of warmth in it. All that came out with it was intimidating energy as if I were cursed, but I still continued to throw my head back and laugh in that madcap, rasping manner. Even Ellie, my ever-faithful ally, had to take a step back after seeing me laughing half insane like that, and I knew I was scaring her, but frankly, I didn’t care.

“Oh, yes! We did have fun!” I said, my voice dripping with raw emotion. “You all invited me to join the Concord of the Tribes, and even threw me a huge welcoming party. You served me food I’d never eaten in my village, even during festivals! Oh, man. We really did stay up all night partying, didn’t we? At the time, I thought I couldn’t be any happier! Not if I lived for another hundred years!”

I paused and took a breath. “And after quests, we’d go out for drinks, and we’d sing and grab each other by the shoulders, and rejoice that we’d made it back in one piece, and pray we’d have the same luck in our next quest! I always, always, always hoped those happy days would last forever! But you guys ruined it! All of you! You all got together and conspired to kill me!”

I dragged that last syllable out until I eventually ran out of breath. Due to my raised power level, my angry yelling seemed to take on a life of its own, causing the very structure of the manor itself to start creaking. It was a good thing I’d discussed with Ellie beforehand about putting up an extra strong force field, or else my voice and my rage-filled energy would’ve spilled out far beyond the manor.

I smiled, knowing that I was on the verge of really losing it. “But don’t you worry. You’ll soon get to join everyone else in the old gang. You see, Garou, Sasha, Sionne, Naano, and Oboro aren’t just in the bottom of the Abyss, they’re even lower than that! They’re all suffering in ways that make them wish I’d just put them to death. But they won’t die, because I’m keeping them alive using high-grade magic and potions. All so they can keep on suffering.”

My smile didn’t let up for an instant. “And guess what, Diablo? I’m gonna have you join them, and we’re gonna have oh so much fun. Yup, a whole lotta fun. You must be feeling left out of all the good times we’re having now. But we’ll soon fix that. We’ll have a nice little reunion. I’ll take you there.”

I was smiling from the bottom of my heart. “Diablo, don’t you feel sad that you’re the only one left out?”

“No...” Diablo uttered softly before screeching. “N-No! Stay away! Don’t come near me!” His face was twitching with fear, and he turned to scramble deeper into his manor, but he was so weak at the knees, he could barely even stand upright as he ran (if what he was doing could even be counted as running). Even so, I didn’t lay a hand on him. At least, not just yet. This was his last gasp at resisting me anyway, so I figured I might as well let him squirm as much as he wanted. I watched him like a patient mother letting a kid tire itself out from its temper tantrum.

“It doesn’t matter how much you struggle against me, you know,” I said to him.

I walked slowly toward him, and this act elicited a long scream from Diablo. This manor probably has a bunch of secret passages and escape routes and such, I thought. But none of those will work because Ellie’s put up a force field. I carried on strolling toward Diablo with a smile plastered across my face.

✰✰✰

Wheezing like a wind-broken horse, Diablo staggered as fast as his weak knees could carry him to his first-floor study in a distant part of the manor. This particular room contained a secret passageway known to his family for generations, and seeing how Diablo couldn’t escape through the front doors, where Light and his powerful servant, the Wicked Witch of the Tower, were blocking his way, he decided the passageway was his best bet.

“Why?!” he bleated. “Why is this happening to me?!” He still couldn’t believe his misfortune. “Why must I experience this utter insanity? I worked harder than my brother so that I could prevail over him, and I finally managed to wrest control of this fiefdom. So why must I suffer through this adversity? Why?!”

At no point did he even consider that he might have been at fault for attempting to murder Light out of his own self-interest. He similarly believed himself blameless for hiring the Bourreaux to assassinate “Dark,” and for dispatching his own soldiers to raid human villages, though he could point to the fact that he’d been compelled to volunteer his troops by Prince Voros on that one.

Diablo would have at least understood it if he was being targeted for killing someone of his own race, but all he’d done was try to kill some inferior, and the death of any number of that particular race was, in his eyes, as immaterial as killing termites. But now that very same inferior had returned, harboring a murderous grudge against the blue-blooded Diablo simply because he was nearly killed in the Abyss. And not only that, but this inferior had made the Wicked Witch his retainer—the same sorceress who had toppled several nations—and attained the incomprehensible power level of 9999 himself. All of a sudden, peals of maniacal laughter echoed off the walls behind him.

“And where do you think you’re going?” Light called out to him. “Garou, Sasha, Sionne, Naano, and Oboro are all waiting for you at the bottom of the Abyss!”

“Stay away from me, you monster!” Diablo cried out. “Don’t come near me!”

He finally managed to yank open the thick door to his study, then locked it behind him, even though he knew there wasn’t really much point. He lunged at the bookcase in front of him and started tossing books onto the floor to lessen the weight on it. They were all rare editions and practically priceless, but he didn’t have time to care about that. When the bookcase was finally unencumbered enough, he slid it aside to reveal a metal door that marked the entrance to the secret passageway. The door was unlocked and swung open with a sharp yank of the handle. Just as the oral history passed down by his forefathers had said it would, opening the door revealed a staircase that plunged down into a tunnel that would lead him to the outside world and freedom. Diablo dashed toward the staircase, but unexpectedly smashed his face against something that shouldn’t have been there.

“What? Why can’t I get through?” he yelled. “Is there some solid invisible wall stopping me?”

Diablo put every ounce of his Level 400 strength into breaking down this unobservable barrier, but try as he might, it refused to yield. His knowledge of sorcery finally clued him in on what was going on.

“A force field?” Diablo gasped. “Did the witch do this?”

It was indeed a force field, a magical spell that created a band of energy that had a range of uses: shielding someone from attacks, keeping people from coming inside a specific demarcated area, or stopping people from leaving that area. And depending on the type of spell, multiple force field layers could be formed. Ellie hadn’t just placed a force field around the entire manor, she had also placed ones in front of this particular passageway and over all the other possible escape routes. She had made sure that Diablo had no way out. Her unwavering devotion to Light would never have allowed one of his sworn enemies to slip through their net.

“Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!” Diablo yelled, repeatedly slamming his fists against the force field in a pointless fit of rage. He even unleashed a series of combat spells to try to shatter the barrier, but it remained as solid as ever. Diablo finally gave up on the secret passageway, opened a nearby window, and tried to jump out.

“There’s a force field here too?!” he cried out. When Ellie had been placing force fields around the manor, she had of course included some over the windows. With tears welling up in his black eyes, Diablo could only futilely punch the window force field until the sound of knocking on the entrance door made him pause with a start. It was a polite knock of the kind that he had taught Light many years earlier. The knock was followed by the doorknob rattling menacingly, then by Light speaking through the thick door.

“Diablo, I know you’re in there,” he said. “Everyone from the Concord of the Tribes is waiting for you in the Abyss. So are you going to open up or what?”

“No, I won’t!” Diablo shrieked. “Don’t you dare come in here, you unspeakable horror!”

Light laughed delightedly at the demon’s plight. “Come on now. Don’t be so cold, Diablo. All I want to do is get the gang back together.”

The doorknob rattled again and again as Light tried to enter the room, and the sound alone was enough to put Diablo on the edge of mania. It’s like I’m in a nightmare, he thought.

Unfortunately, the scene unfolding was all too real, and Light didn’t need to bother with any doors, given that he was Level 9999 now. Predictably, Light suddenly forced his way in by tearing the door effortlessly off its hinges, proving that the rattling of the doorknob had been nothing more than a ploy to frighten Diablo out of his wits. The boy strode in, laughing.

“Found you, Diablo,” he said. He had that same bubbly, innocent smile on his face that had been a frequent feature there more than three years earlier, back before the Concord of the Tribes left him for dead. Back then, Diablo had secretly mocked the boy each time he saw that smile.

This carefree child doesn’t even realize it’s all an act, Diablo thought at the time. We might even have to do away with him, for all we know. Just shows how ignorant these loathsome inferiors are. Witnessing that smile again in the present, however, that past scorn was replaced with uncontrollable terror. The demon let go of the windowsill and backed away into a corner, trying to get as far from Light as he could.

“Don’t come near me!” Diablo yelled. “No, spare me! Monster! Spare me, please! I’m sorry! Forgive me! No, don’t do this to me!”

His face wasn’t just streaked with tears, drool, and snot, his pants were also soaked in urine as he sank to the floor. His final words were a jumbled mess of pleading, refusal to believe it, insults, and apologies. Light plodded almost lovingly toward Diablo, like an angel of mercy descending from on high, beaming with an equally heavenly smile.

“Come now,” Light said. “Let’s journey to the Abyss where everyone is waiting for you.”

“Nooo!” Diablo let loose a tearful, bloodcurdling scream as Light grabbed hold of him.

“Teleportation—release,” the young boy said. “Take us to the very bottom of the Abyss.” The pair disappeared from the study in a flash, leaving just two more enemies left on Light’s revenge list.

Chapter 14: Convergence and a New Interest

“The Wicked Witch of the Tower destroyed the Master the demons mistook for C?”

In a room somewhere in the Dragonute Empire, Drago, the former leader of the Concord of the Tribes, could barely conceal his surprise after hearing this latest report from his subordinate. The empire had already known about the entombed Master the Demonkin Nation had in its possession, and how they had mistaken him for C. The dragonutes had also been aware that the demonkin were keeping the Master a closely guarded secret in the hopes they could safely awaken him and use him to surpass the dragonutes in their battle for racial supremacy. Since this Master had not actually been C in the flesh, the empire had decided to take a hands-off approach to the whole situation, but no one could have imagined that Prince Voros would prematurely try to revive the fake C, nor that the resurrected Master would subsequently destroy the palace, nor that it would be the Wicked Witch who ended up vanquishing him.

“Keep gathering intelligence,” Drago instructed his subordinate. “Don’t forget about the witch either.”

After his underling had bowed and taken his leave, Drago leaned back in his chair. What in the world is this Wicked Witch? I never imagined she could dispose of that sealed Master so easily. Is she another toy created by the real C?

The Dragonute Empire’s top brass had been performing their own intelligence gathering operations on the Wicked Witch too, but so far, they hadn’t made much progress. The sorceress and her people were so adept at counterespionage, very little material could be found on her. Drago’s own independent efforts had similarly turned up little to nothing.

“It’s just as well,” Drago murmured to himself. “Thanks to that inferior—the false Master—I was picked to join P.A. It soon won’t matter what the latest developments are, as long as that project is complete.”

Drago started trembling uncontrollably, but it wasn’t due to the cold. No, his whole body was shaking from pure, unadulterated fear. He wrapped his arms around himself, fully appreciating how horrifically dire his lot could very well have been.

I was truly lucky! Drago thought. If we had never found that Master candidate all those years ago, I would have remained part of the unchosen and been thrown by the wayside. But because we found that inferior and killed him, I was selected as part of the chosen in the nick of time.

If Drago and his party hadn’t encountered Light, he would have wasted precious time vying to be the next emperor of the Dragonute Empire. Just imagining how close he had been to pursuing that fool’s errand sent shivers down his spine.

But I was saved from becoming that fool, Drago reflected. I was saved! As a result of his successful stint in the Concord of the Tribes, he was rewarded by being let in on the real truth, which made him thank his lucky stars day after day. The only thing that would make the situation he was presently in perfect would be the completion of P.A.

But both the Dragonute Empire and Drago had now heard of the Wicked Witch’s exploits against the fake C, and so had the Masters affiliated with the empire. And of course, that wasn’t the only thing the Masters had picked up.

✰✰✰

Cesta rolled around on the floor, laughing so hard and for such a long time that it got to the point where he almost forgot to breathe. “I’m so dead! My stomach! It can’t take it!” Another wave of guffaws erupted from him, punctuated by labored gasps of wheezing snickering.

“Dumb little shit,” Goh grumbled. He was sitting on a sofa chair in a room at an undisclosed location in the Dragonute Empire, the veins on his forehead bulging in anger.

Cesta—who appeared to be a young teen around fourteen or fifteen years of age—continued rolling around on the carpet in front of Goh in a fit of laughter. Not only was he short, but Cesta looked beautiful enough to be mistaken for a girl at first glance, and he frequently leveraged these physical attributes to his advantage by adopting a cloying, cutesy attitude to win affection and doting from men and women alike. Those who knew the real Cesta were thoroughly disgusted by this pandering personality he had developed, but anyone meeting him for the first time would be immediately entranced by his lovable attractiveness, to the point where they would want to indulge him and give him everything he asked for.

Cesta paused in his laughter and lifted his head once more to gaze at what had set him off in the first place: Goh’s complete lack of dreadlocks, and the tight buzzcut that had replaced his signature hairdo. This sight caused him to burst out laughing again, despite his best efforts to hold it in.

“Aw, crap, I can’t!” Cesta wheezed. “That’s just too hilarious, dude!”

Goh glared at the kid, ready to pounce on him, but Requin intervened to restore peace.

“Calm down, Goh,” Requin soothed. “And Cesta, that’s quite enough of that.”

The two-meter-tall Requin wore a cloak that was billowy enough to cover his massive frame, and beneath it, he had armor covered in scales. Combined with his completely shaven and aerodynamic head, Requin looked like he was capable of swimming underwater at high speed at the drop of a hat.

After his reprimand, Cesta wiped tears from his eyes. “Aw, c’mon! Goh’s practically bald! Is he going for your look, Requin?”

“In my case, shaving my head is a relic of my occupation in my previous life,” Requin said. “As for Goh, he needed to cut off his dreads as a necessary precautionary measure. I’m afraid this isn’t a laughing matter.”

“Appreciate the help, Requin,” Goh muttered, his anger dissipating. “I really needed your powers to make sure all of that blood was off me so I wouldn’t be followed anymore.”

Unbeknownst to Goh at the time, he had been tracked using the blood Mera’s spawn had spilled on him during their battle, and as soon as he found this out from Nazuna during his subsequent fight with her, he instructed Requin (the water expert) to give him a thorough wash before teleporting. But the Masters had been in a rush to get the hell out of there, and scrubbing every single strand of his hair would have been a protracted endeavor, so Goh had made use of some high-speed karate chops to shave off his dreads and minimize the risk of carrying any trace of Mera’s blood to his destination despite only washing for a minute. For the Masters who were aware of the context, Goh’s sacrificial haircut on the fly was decisive in order to maintain their cover from this freakishly powerful warrior maiden they had encountered. Goh expressed a level of indebtedness to Requin for successfully extracting him from a potentially life-threatening situation, but still maintained his incensed glare at the bratty teenager who was still laughing at him.

“Cesta, you’re dead once we’re done here,” Goh warned the kid, but this simply elicited another burst of guffaws, before the teen sprang up and assumed a battle-ready stance.

“Bring it on, baldy!” Cesta goaded. “That is, if you wanna go zero-for-two against ‘little shits,’ after that chick who dog walked you!”

Goh and Cesta filled the room with their homicidal auras, but before either could move a muscle to act on their animosity for the other, a blond, shirtless Master bedecked in an absolute treasure trove of gold finery barked at the two rivals.

“Hey, knock it off!” Kaizer growled. “You dumbasses are hitting me with your dumb vibes. I still wanna know what the leader of those death cult whackjobs is even doing here. Hiro! Have you seriously been in cahoots with this guy all along?”

Kaizer was sitting by himself on a wide couch, staring angrily at his leader, Hiro, who was sitting in an armchair in a position of honor. As usual, Hei stood silently behind Kaizer, serving as his self-appointed bodyguard.

“Did you know about this, Octopus Head? Squintface?” Kaizer asked the other Masters in the room, before addressing Hisomi directly. “You showed up without warning when I was working on P.A., asking if you could borrow Hei for an emergency, and promising to explain everything at a later date. Well, I did as you asked and gave Hei a kick in the backside to get him to go with you, no questions asked. But I never figured you would go rescue the friggin’ leader of that death cult in the Demonkin Nation.”

Hisomi’s rescue team had even used up precious teleportation items to save Goh. While they weren’t irreplaceable, it was understandable why Kaizer was exasperated.

Hiro—a strikingly handsome Master who was wearing princely garb—sighed faintly before answering for everyone. “It would’ve been far worse if both sides had cut off all contact from each other, even given our difference in philosophies. At the same time, I had scruples about making such a link public, so we maintained a confidential relationship. We had no ill intent.”

Hisomi and Requin were leaning against a wall next to each other. Hisomi—the squinting, nondescript Master—guiltily averted his eyes.

“My job involves gathering intelligence from outside of our usual circles, so it would have been problematic if I wasn’t well-informed,” Hisomi rationalized.

Requin shrugged. “I believed it was necessary. We were silent about Goh because we wanted you and Cesta to concentrate on P.A. As for Hei, well, our reasons for not telling him are fairly self-explanatory.”

Hei cared about nothing other than protecting Kaizer, so there would have been little point informing him about Goh anyway.

“Organizations like ours are supposed to have backchannels for dialogue anyway,” Goh added, jumping in to provide backup for Hisomi and Requin. “Thanks to that, you now know what kinda threat the Wicked Witch poses to all of us. It was only because I was battling near the rendezvous point that Hisomi and Requin realized I was in trouble and yanked my ass outta the fire. That midget freak woulda iced me otherwise.”

Goh had been meeting Hiro, Hisomi, and Requin regularly to trade info. The locations of these meetups would constantly change to maintain an extra layer of secrecy. Goh had been on his way to tell the other Masters about the Wicked Witch of the Tower when Nazuna had attacked him.

“I was absent for this particular rendezvous because I was in meeting after meeting with the dragonutes regarding how to respond to the Human Kingdom under the newly crowned Queen Lilith,” Hiro explained. “Still, I could hardly believe the Wicked Witch had a menace in her employ who could overpower you that badly, Goh.”

“If you had been there, Mr. Hiro, we would not have needed to recruit Mr. Hei for the rescue operation,” Hisomi said. “However, we were left with no other choice, since I am poorly adept for battle, and Mr. Requin is at a disadvantage on land. It would have been impossible for just the two of us to extricate Mr. Goh.”

“Indeed,” Requin agreed. “Though I would’ve easily been able to stall for time if we’d been underwater.”

Hiro had entrusted Hisomi and Requin to handle the last rendezvous with Goh since he had been busy meeting with Dragonute Empire officials, and while the two Masters were waiting at the meeting spot, they had heard loud noises reverberating around the forest. Hisomi and Requin had camouflaged their presence and carefully approached the scene of the battle, stopping just short of the range where they felt Nazuna could reasonably sense them. Even at a distance, they could tell Goh was on the verge of being beaten.

However, Hisomi was an intelligence operative, while Requin was more of an aquatic fighter. The two Masters might have been unbeatable against run-of-the-mill monsters and foes, but this was an adversary who even had Goh, of all people, at her mercy. Hisomi had been forced to use teleportation items to bring in Hei for backup, and the three Masters had managed to intervene and rescue Goh before Nazuna could land the final blow. In return, Goh had been able to provide them with valuable intelligence concerning the Wicked Witch.

Kaizer clicked his tongue. “Fine. At least we now know about the bruiser who handed you your ass.” While Kaizer looked like the type of tough guy who’d instantly retaliate at any perceived slight, he wasn’t a fool blinded by pride, which meant despite the other Masters keeping him in the dark, he readily accepted the value of staying in contact with a Master from the rival clique. Hiro inwardly breathed a sigh of relief now that this potentially explosive situation had been defused.

“I appreciate you seeing things our way, Kaizer,” Hiro said. “And while Goh used to lead our adversaries, he’s still a proficient fighter who expresses sympathy with our cause. This was part of the reason we developed a diplomatic back channel. On top of that, we’ve received valuable information about the tower witch from Goh, so I consider him our brother-in-arms and intend to save him a seat on P.A.”

“I agree,” Hisomi said.

“As do I,” Requin echoed.

“I’m cool with that,” Cesta added. “After all, he gave me a good laugh.”

“Only if Kaizer agrees,” Hei finally said, although Kaizer simply winced without saying anything, prompting Hiro to try to win him over some more.

“Goh has a very high power level, so we should welcome his strengths, considering our needs to defend ourselves,” he said. “We now know that exceptionally powerful warriors work for the witch, so we will need all the defensive assets we can acquire to make sure she doesn’t interfere with P.A.”

Kaizer clicked his tongue again. “Fine. Do whatever you want.”

With the consent of the foreman of the P.A. project, Goh officially became part of the Dragonute Empire’s faction of Masters. Hiro inwardly breathed another sigh of relief at this outcome, since a breakdown in discussions with Kaizer would have risked stalling P.A. indefinitely. Hiro wanted to avoid any setback of that kind by any means necessary, and it was clear that Kaizer also wanted to avoid any disruptions in P.A., so in his mind, he was perfectly willing to bring Goh on board. At the same time, he was hesitant to simply embrace his former enemy with open arms, but that was an issue concerning prideful emotions, rather than self-interest. Still sitting cross-legged on the carpet, Cesta—who didn’t care about Kaizer’s sentiments at all—raised his hands.

“Uh, hello, guys?” Cesta said, a pure, innocent smile splashed across his face. “Let’s not forget, the Wicked Witch absolutely whipped Goh’s butt. I’m totally intrigued, and now I wanna go mess with her. So can I go? Pretty please?”

Epilogue: ___ = ____

Where am I? thought ___. Why did I awaken? Bewildered, ___ retraced ___ memories. I was supposed to awaken only after I ________. I’ve awakened too soon.

___ suddenly recalled the most obvious reason for ___ to awaken prematurely. That’s right, it was ___! Was that why I was forced into this incomplete awakening? ___ had taken measures to revive early just in case a problem occurred.

So ___ entered the ____ that I perfected? ___ thought. Damn you, ___! Why are you disrupting my ___?

If possible, ___ would immediately eliminate ___, but ___ had not awakened fully, so ___’s consciousness started slipping away again.

Next time I awaken, I must take steps to eliminate ___, thought ___. This ___ is my ____. Since ___ is trying to get in my way, I’ll crush ___ like ___!

___ once again returned to the world of the unawakened, this time filled with murderous rage for ___. Although ___ was currently dormant, ___ would send ___ into oblivion the next time ___ awakened. It remained to be seen when exactly that would happen.

Afterword

This is Meikyou Shisui, here once again to express my sincerest thanks to all of you for reading and/or purchasing this eleventh volume of Backstabbed in a Backwater Dungeon: My Trusted Companions Tried to Kill Me, But Thanks to the Gift of an Unlimited Gacha I Got LVL 9999 Friends and Am Out for Revenge on My Former Party Members and the World!

Thanks to all your support, the Unlimited Gacha series has an anime in the works! I’m deeply grateful to all of you.

Now, on to the acknowledgments!

First of all, thank you, tef, for the illustrations for this volume. In particular, I want to mention how Aoyuki, the star of the eleventh volume, was front and center on the cover illustration. You made her look cute yet majestic, which was magnificent to behold. You have my heartfelt appreciation for creating such wonderful cover art.

Next to thank is the editorial team at HJ Novels. Thank you once again for assisting me in multiple ways when I needed it. By a happy coincidence, HJ Novels’ tenth anniversary coincided with the announcement of the Unlimited Gacha anime. There’s nothing better than two good pieces of news intersecting with each other, so congratulations HJ Novels on your tenth year!

Due to new chapters of the Unlimited Gacha manga version arriving on the Magazine Pocket app every Tuesday, I would also like to extend my gratitude to Takafumi Oomae for lending his superb artistry to drawing the manga, as well as to the Kodansha editorial team for publishing it. The newest volume of the manga (the fourteenth) was released in the same month as the eleventh volume of the novel. The newest manga volume features the exploration of the vast ruins underneath the Dwarf Kingdom, plus some other surprises you don’t want to miss. So thank you very much for bringing this amazing manga to life.

And just in case you didn’t know, the fourteenth volume of the manga contains a bonus short story written by me. You’re welcome to check it out, along with the rest of the volume.

Last but not least, I’d like to thank all of my readers! As with the previous volumes, I’ve written a bunch of new scenes for everyone to enjoy, including those who had already read the web novel version. It is only thanks to your support that we’re able to keep publishing new volumes. I’ll keep working hard on my novel series, so I hope you will all continue to support me!

PS: Just like in the previous volumes, I have written a bonus story that is available to everyone who purchased this novel. To access the bonus story, go to my activity updates on the Shosetsuka ni Naro website and click on the entry made in November 2024. The password for this volume is: aoyuki. [Please note: As of this English-language publication, this password has expired.]

Bonus Short Story

Khaos Jumps to Conclusions

“Orka, you’re coming along to help me.”

In an unusual turn of events, Khaos had approached Orka for assistance, the two Level 8888s eventually running into each other in a hallway on the bottom level of the Abyss. Orka was pleased to see his chum, but the typically brusque manner that omitted any further explanation in which Khaos made his request left the fiddler with a somewhat confused smile splashed across his face.

“Khaos,” Orka said in a deliberate tone of voice. “I’m perfectly willing to lend you a hand, but might I ask what you need me for exactly?”

“You’ll see once we get there,” Khaos said dismissively, like a domineering husband. The warrior mage turned and set off at quite a pace toward his intended destination. Understanding that this likely was a matter that would require his attention, Orka simply shrugged and followed his Level 8888 partner.

✰✰✰

After issuing a bunch of orders in my executive office, I leaned back in my chair and breathed a sigh of relief. So much has happened in such a short amount of time... I thought, closing my eyes. I should savor this free time and use it to take a breather.

I was presently trying to deal with the death of my big brother, Els. Mera had found out during one of her missions that he was in the employ of Doc, a Master allied to the Demonkin Nation, and if that wasn’t enough of a shock, she also told us that Doc had turned Els into a monster. I wasted no time in taking Mei and Aoyuki with me to capture Doc and rescue my brother, but in the middle of our operation, Els regained some of his old personality, and it proved to be enough to make him rip out his own heart and kill himself before he could hurt me, despite the fact that he couldn’t have left a scratch on me if he’d tried.

We managed to capture Doc alive, but he didn’t know of any way to turn Els back to normal, so we ended up placing my brother’s body to rest in a room at the bottom of the Abyss, and Ellie used her sorcery to stop time for him perpetually. We could have easily brought Els back to life right that second if we’d wanted to, but he would have come back as an uncontrollable monster, so there seemed little point in doing that.

While I grieved over the body of my lifeless brother, believing there was no realistic way to make him human again, Mei gently reminded me that my Unlimited Gacha might someday spit out an item that could cure him. This bit of helpful advice lifted me out of my funk and allowed me to focus on taking action against the Demonkin Nation. I’d only just that second ordered Ellie to destroy the palace and capture Prince Voros, and she was already on her way to the capital with her hundred-strong dragon army. I was taking this rare moment of peace to relax when I heard a knock at the door. The fairy maid on duty answered, then came back to tell me that Khaos and Orka were here to see me.

Is there some kind of emergency that needs my attention? I thought. Nobody’s reported anything. I gave my permission to send them in. Khaos entered the office first, wearing his seemingly permanent half-annoyed look, and Orka followed, his gentle demeanor as apparent as ever. In other words, just from observing their demeanor, it was probably safe to rule out an emergency.

I broke the ice. “So what brings you two here?”

“Come with me,” Khaos said bluntly. “I’m taking you to the practice arena. The same one we fought in.”

My facial expression morphed into the equivalent of a question mark. “Sure, if you want.”

Khaos strode out of the office, leaving me and Orka behind. I flashed the fiddler a glance, silently asking what this was all about, but he simply grinned sheepishly and shrugged. I have no idea either, he replied with his eyes.

✰✰✰

The three of us ended up standing in the same practice arena where I’d beat Khaos in battle and forced him to submit to me. If Ellie were here, we’d have the full roster of people who had been at the previous fight, but she was presently leading one hundred dragons on a decapitation mission to the Demonkin Nation and was therefore indisposed.

Khaos turned to Orka. “Connect us up to the force field.”

“Aha,” Orka said as realization dawned on him. “Now I see why you wanted my assistance. It would appear that I’m here to assume the role normally filled by Ms. Ellie, yes?”

Orka raised his fiddle and started playing a tune that connected him to the force field that was around the arena. This turned it into a special kind of force field that would absorb damage and heal all injuries suffered by anyone inside its area of effect, at the sacrifice of Orka’s mana. To put it a different way, nobody inside the force field could die as long as Orka’s mana pool didn’t get depleted. With all of these glaringly obvious clues in front of me, I finally figured out what Khaos wanted us to do.

“You brought me out here so we can spar again, didn’t you?” I said. “But what I want to know is: Why?”

“Is a reason needed?” Khaos replied.

“Uh, I think you normally need one, don’t you?” I said, then hesitated. “Or maybe that’s just me.” Khaos was being so authoritative and confident that it had thrown me for a loop. I glanced at Orka for backup, but he just shrugged and treated me to a lighthearted grin.

Khaos pointed his Chaos Scythe at me. “It’s time.”

“Uh, okay.” I had no idea what the point of all this was, but I raised my Gungnir in readiness all the same.

Khaos flung himself at me before launching a series of attacks with his scythe, and I could tell from the speed and intensity of the assault that he was out for blood. The onslaught was so sudden, my focus was one step behind, and I found myself on the defensive. I managed to block his scythe swings with my staff, but he clearly had the upper hand, and he eventually whacked my Gungnir aside before delivering a kick to my exposed midsection. I grunted in pain as I was propelled backward through the air, which gave Khaos the opportunity to unleash his finishing moves.

“Chaos Scythe! Full Power!” Khaos tossed his scythe at me, and it split into hundreds of clones of itself, all aimed directly at my skull. But that wasn’t all.

“Highborn Flame Fairies! Highborn Ice Fairies! Highborn Thunder Fairies!” Next, Khaos unleashed a blizzard of fairies with those three properties, and they also zeroed in on me along with the scythes. If I’d been a normal fighter, I would have been done for, but as it was, I was less than impressed with this display.

These are the exact same attacks he used in our last fight, I thought, still flying through the air. What exactly is he aiming to do here?

The last time he pulled this trick, I released a UR Dimensional Blast card, creating an explosion that repelled all of the scythes and fairies. But Khaos had then countered it by absorbing the energy from the blast with his Chaos Left Hand, and unleashing the power from it directly at me with his Genesis Right Hand. That combo move—called the “Genesis of Chaos”—had formed a massive laser beam that had actually left a mark.

Hmm, should I really go with that card again? I thought. I pulled it out anyway, since I was facing the exact same combo of attacks, but from the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of Orka as I passed by him mid-flight. He was still smiling, sure, but he had lost some of his color, which I took as a hint that his force field wouldn’t be able to withstand the Dimensional Blast in the way that Ellie’s mana reserves could.

“You’re soft!” Khaos took advantage of my momentary hesitation to maneuver himself behind me and launch a sneak attack. I realized what was happening just in time, and swiped at him with my staff while still in midair, but he ducked and countered with another kick. I barely managed to put up my guard, but since I was still airborne thanks to Khaos’s first devastating kick, his second kick sent me blasting into the ground like a comet. Of course, all the scythes and fairies swerved toward my new position and slammed into me, filling the crater I was lying in with smoke.

I jumped up out of the crater and clear of the smoke, landing on higher ground. The original Chaos Scythe had already returned to Khaos’s hand by this point, and the moment I touched down, he addressed me directly.

“You have a weakness, Light. A deadly one,” Khaos stated. “Whenever you cast a spell, you need time to produce the card you want and say ‘release.’”

I didn’t know how to respond to that. He was right that as an Unlimited Gacha mage, I needed to activate cards all the time to do my “magic.” It also took at least a second to release a card, and while the delay usually didn’t register as a handicap since I was Level 9999, a fighter at Khaos’s power level was perfectly capable of using that one-second lag to his advantage. I wiped away some of the blood Khaos’s attacks had managed to draw and sneered.

“Sure, you have a point there, Khaos,” I said. “But did you really think that just then would be enough to take me down?”

He huffed derisively. “Still able to talk, I see.” He hurled his replicating Chaos Scythe at me again and yelled more summoning incantations. “Highborn Flame Fairies! Highborn Ice Fairies! Highborn Thunder Fairies!”

This time, I evaded and batted away the scythes and fairies before pulling out another card. “SSSR High Magic Counter—”

“You’re trying to block my magical attacks?” Khaos interrupted, once again showing up out of the blue beside me, ready to knock my lights out. “But like I said, doing that exposes your weakness—Guh!”

I knew he would try to pull another sneak attack, and I was ready for it. I countered with a kick, which connected cleanly, since he didn’t think I would trick him by producing a gacha card and not immediately releasing it. It was Khaos’s turn to get slammed into the ground, and he hit the dirt with enough force to form a second crater. But I wasn’t done yet.

“SSSR High Magic Counter—release!” My triple-super rare gacha card created a force field in front of me that sent all of the Highborn Fairies ricocheting away, though I made sure to direct them into Khaos’s crater. The properties of the combined fairies caused a massive explosion and a huge plume of smoke. This shock had apparently rattled Khaos enough for him to lose focus, because all of the Chaos Scythe clones suddenly vanished all at once. When the smoke cleared, Khaos was down on one knee inside the crater, gripping his original Chaos Scythe.

I jumped down into the crater and faced Khaos. “You’re right about my cards creating an opening. But that opening can also be used as bait, so I personally wouldn’t call the fact that I have to use cards a real weakness.”

Even though my counterattack had left him barely able to stand, Khaos blew out a puff of air with amused resignation. “I suppose this just goes to show that you are our summoner, after all.”

Now that I was in the same headspace as Khaos, I grinned and pointed my staff at him. “So I’m guessing this means we’re not done battling, huh?”

“Of course not.” Khaos raised his scythe and rushed toward me again, clearly enjoying himself immensely.

✰✰✰

“Looks like I win again,” I said.

Khaos was splayed out on the ground after being knocked flat by me. He scoffed at my remark, which I knew to be his way of saying he gave up. Even though I’d come out on top, I was breathing heavily, both shoulders rising and falling with every gasp, while gobs of sweat dripped down my forehead. My body was covered in bruises and cuts, which just showed that the battle had been nowhere near an easy win for me.

Khaos sat up gingerly, then turned his back to me still in a sitting position. “I’ll concede the victory to you.” He hesitated briefly before continuing with a hint of awkwardness in his tone. “If you let yourself get depressed, the mood in this dungeon will deteriorate. I expect this opportunity to exercise has improved your disposition a little.”

“Sorry, what?” I said.

“I heard about what happened to your elder brother,” he continued. “If you’ve lost the will to take vengeance on your foes, you can remain here in the Abyss with your brother and sister, and I will carry out your retribution as your body double.”

“Khaos...” It appeared he had been trying to cheer me up by forcing me to fight him. I was both moved and troubled by all the effort he had gone to.

This is the first time he’s done something thoughtful for me, I reflected. But thanks to Mei, I now have hope that I’ll be able to cure Els, so I’m no longer down in the dumps like I was. But how am I going to break that to him? I held a hand against my head and wondered what to do next when Orka intervened.

“I’m puzzled why you would say that,” he said. “Our lord and master has discovered new hope for saving his brother after receiving counsel from Ms. Mei. Haven’t you heard yet?”

The air in the arena immediately froze. Since Orka was standing next to me, all we could see was Khaos’s back, but even from our vantage point, we saw his ears—or what we could see poking out through his hair—turn slightly red. I chuckled awkwardly, and Orka’s smile stiffened, as if he had only just realized he shouldn’t have said what he’d said. A few seconds later, Khaos stood up and dusted himself off, all without turning to face us.

“If the problem is already resolved, we’re done here,” he said, his voice trembling slightly. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.” He trotted briskly out of the practice arena, leaving me with Orka. We looked at each other.

“My lord and master,” the fiddler said. “Did I perhaps speak out of turn?”

“No, it’s not your fault,” I replied. “Khaos spends a lot of his time alone, so it’d be no surprise if that little bit of news hadn’t reached him yet. But I’ve learned my lesson, I can tell you. Next time, I’ll make sure to update everyone about my situation.”

The two of us spent several more minutes in the training arena discussing ways of improving communication so that nobody in the Abyss would ever be left in the dark again when it came to important matters. As for Khaos, he didn’t show his face to either myself or Orka for several more days after that, which just went to show how embarrassed he was that he’d jumped to conclusions.