Chapter 172

The object she held out to me was a lump of refined orichalcum weighing roughly 2.5 kilograms.

It was the absolute pinnacle of spiritual metals—orichalcum, which was already obscenely expensive, refined a total of three times over.

For context, this was a fragment of a scepter excavated from the ruined royal castle of the Bordeaux Kingdom. When I first announced my intention to use this as a makeshift bomb, even Disis looked at me as if I had completely lost my mind.

After all, the market price of refined orichalcum was more than triple that of standard orichalcum for the exact same mass.

If one were to convert this into raw currency…

“Wow. With just this single piece, you could basically buy an entire standard estate outright, couldn’t you?”

Disis frowned, clearly displeased by Chel’s remark.

“Hardly.”

Like most of the others aside from myself and Sis, Chel gave an awkward laugh, still looking thoroughly unaccustomed to casually trading words with an entity as grand as the West Demon King.

“…I take it it’s worth even more than that?”

“If the estate you are using as a benchmark is Seol Viscounty, you would need two of these lumps, not one. There is a reason why even the peak Bordeaux Kingdom, a nation that famously treated gold like common pebbles, counted this chunk of metal as their number one greatest treasure.”

“Two entire estates? My god…”

I waved my hand, cutting their conversation short.

“Don’t be stingy about it. What good is a treasure once you’re dead anyway?”

Disis clicked her tongue with a look of utter resignation.

“Sigh. Do whatever you want. It all belongs to you anyway. Who am I to tell you how to manage your own fruits?”

“Hey, hey. Don’t be so pouty. Once this job is over, I’m going to calculate the expenses down to the last decimal point and file a claim.”

“A claim? To whom?”

“To the celestial gods. They explicitly promised they would process my receipts.”

At my words, everyone looked up at me with thoroughly dumbfounded expressions.

“The celestial gods… I swear, I will never get used to this.”

“Still, it’s not like Orabeoni is the type of person to bluster about something like that.”

“I know. I know it’s the absolute truth. I’m just saying it’s utterly mind-boggling.”

“Mister. How exactly do the gods talk?”

I let out a loose scoff at Elizabeth’s completely random question.

“The gods? They mostly just swear up a storm.”

“…Huh?”

“Every time I call them, they complain about how expensive their time is and tell me not to summon them so casually while throwing out a barrage of insults.”

This time, Kelly chimed in as if she simply couldn’t contain herself any longer.

“…Then how do you respond to them, Orabeoni?”

“Me? I just tell them to cut the bullshit.”

“…You seriously talk to a celestial god in that manner?”

“We’ve already dropped honorifics and speak casually anyway. Once you drop honorifics, aren’t you basically friends? It’s perfectly normal for friends to bicker a bit like that.”

“…Dropped honorifics? So you’re saying you use casual speech with them?”

“Yeah.”

At that moment, Ailet rarely pushed Kelly aside and leaned her head forward.

“Did you mention that you primarily communicate with the goddess Lumina?”

“Yeah. She’s officially my designated account manager.”

“Have you never spoken with any of the other gods?”

I nodded my head.

“I was actually a bit curious, but apparently they go out of their way to avoid talking to me.”

“…Why?”

“Because if they talk to me, they’ll have to listen to me speak casually to them. I guess they really hate that.”

“Hmm… for supreme gods, their personalities are surprisingly petty.”

“Well, it’s not a bad deal from my perspective either. At the end of the day, Lumina is relatively favorable toward me… and even though she grumbles whenever I call, she always shows up swiftly.”

Chel shook her head in sheer disbelief, murmuring under her breath.

“Good grief. It’s not like the celestial gods are some neighbors from next door…”

“From my point of view, a neighbor from next door is a far rarer species than a god…”

“Pardon?”

“Ah, no. It’s nothing.”

While we were trading idle banter like that, anger began to color the faces of the nineteen angels who had been trying to set a serious atmosphere high above us for quite some time.

—How dare a bunch of lowly, wretched mortals insolently ignore us, celestial beings.

—We are already well aware of the despicable trickery you used to harm our fellow angels.

Immediately following that, two of the Equilibrium Heaven angels exchanged a brief glance with an Archangel before suddenly melting smoothly into the empty air.

‘Blink…!’

In that split second, reading the sudden distortion in the surrounding coordinates, I executed a movement that was closer to pure instinct, drawing two clean lines across the empty air.

I had deliberately triggered spatial fractures at the exact coordinates where they were about to manifest.

Slash! Crashhhhh!

The atmosphere tore apart.

Right after, the two angels who materialized directly overlapping with the pitch-black, torn coordinates were instantly cleaved in half, scattering a shower of glowing blood into the air.

Craaaaaack!

—Aaargh!

—Gaaah!!

Wow. I had simply thrown it out as a reflex, but to think it would actually work this perfectly.

Suppressing my inner pride, I maintained a perfectly stoic face as I issued a calm warning toward the angels hovering high in the sky.

“I’ll praise you for figuring out our bomb-delivery trick. It was also quite clever of you to block it with spatial disruption. On top of that, constructing an environment where only you lots could utilize Blink was a decent touch. But if you think that alone guarantees your victory, you’re sorely mistaken.”

—……!

—……!!

—……!!!

Clutching the refined orichalcum tightly in my grip, I spoke to Black.

“Time to wrap up the playtime. Black. We’re going as planned.”

“Will you be alright?”

“Oh, are you actually worrying about me? Baldy?”

“…Well, our ultimate master is Miss Disis, and Miss Disis serves Sword God. Doesn’t that effectively mean Sword God is our master as well? It is only natural for a servant to worry about their master’s well-being.”

“Heh. That is a thoroughly brilliant piece of flattery. Take one hundred strands of hair.”

“Yes! Jackpot!!”

Red and Blue stared at Black’s sudden windfall in absolute horror.

“No way…! I can play the role of a sycophant perfectly too…!”

“This absolute bastard, when on earth did he learn this kind of verbal skill…?!”

“Quiet down. Start the spell before those bastards throw another tantrum.”

“Yes, sir.”

Immediately after, Black activated the Acceleration spell he had prepared beforehand, which was designed to accelerate a designated object.

The spell we had originally prepared was a high-speed teleportation spell… but it was a stroke of absolute luck that I had instructed him to prepare Acceleration as a contingency just in case.

“Here we go. …Improved Acceleration.”

BOOOOOOMMM!!

And with that, I blasted off into the sky like a literal cannonball.

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“Urgh…!”

The acceleration was monumental. Even though I had completely enveloped my vessel in Pure Spiritual Power, the g-force tearing at my body was nothing short of staggering.

However, thanks to that raw power, I managed to soar to an altitude of six kilometers in a mere three seconds. Turning my gaze downward, the corners of my lips curled upward as I watched the outmaneuvered angels frantically giving chase a step too late.

—You tricked us…!

—As expected, he was nothing more than a human who only knows how to talk big!

—Do you honestly think you can escape from us in that manner!

—Foolish creature!

—To think you would resort to such petty tricks…!

And just like that, my ascending momentum finally began to dwindle, matching pace with the angels who were rocketing upward from below. Our paths finally intersected at roughly fifteen kilometers above the ground…

—Lowly wretch!

—Die!

—Repent and perish!

Right at the exact millisecond they prepared to swing their respective weapons to carve me into mincemeat,

The refined orichalcum in my hand flashed brilliantly.

—Direct Matter-Energy Convert.

Whhiiiiiiiiiir…!

Teeming with pure mystery, the refined orichalcum began to release an astronomical amount of energy in accordance with its total mass annihilation.

With my current capabilities, using a supreme spiritual metal like refined orichalcum yielded an energy conversion rate of approximately 92%.

In other words, annihilating a mass of 2.5 kilograms produced an energy output roughly equivalent to the mass annihilation of 2.3 kilograms according to E=mc^2.

And when converted into a metric unit familiar to us, it equaled approximately 50 megatons—an absolute tier of destructive power almost perfectly identical to the actual detonation of the Tsar Bomba.

‘If those bastards want to push through with numbers, I just need to completely steamroll them with raw firepower.’

Fittingly named the “Mystery-Flavored Tsar Bomba.”

BOOOOOOMMM!!

—……!!!

—……!!!!!!

—……!!!!!!!!!

In a single instant, the atmosphere tore apart like roaring flames, and a scorching presence completely blanketed the sky. The sheer thermal energy erupting from the center of the detonation emitted a blinding radiance all on its own, instantaneously turning the entire world’s air completely incandescent.

“Ah, hot, hot, hot…!”

Right before the climax, having leaped straight into the spatial fracture I had constructed in advance, I flipped a firm middle finger toward the angels outside who were currently being grilled to a crisp.

“…This is an ultra-luxurious bomb worth two whole estates, so accept it gracefully. Friends.”

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And by the time roughly one minute had ticked past,

“Gag…!”

I slowly crawled my way out from the spatial fracture that was just about to close up completely.

“Bleeegh!”

Vomiting a long trail of bile, I began plummeting down through the empty sky.

“Ugh… fuck. I’m going to die. Seriously, that is a place I never want to crawl into ever again.”

Feeling it raw all over again, crawling into a higher-dimensional space beyond a fracture using a mortal vessel was strictly not a human task.

When I had temporarily undone Shia’s seal, I used the space beyond the fractures as a literal shortcut to seamlessly cross dimensions and all that… but as the phrasing implied, that was explicitly the story of when her seal was undone.

But did I really have a choice? In that extreme situation, that was the singular method available to preserve my life.

It was an absolute miracle that I could utilize Pure Spiritual Power now, limiting the damage to a mere vomit session… under previous circumstances, I would have been puking out my internal organs and brain matter instead of bile.

“Whew…”

Calming my racing breath slightly, I looked up toward the coordinate where the detonation had just occurred as I continued my steady freefall.

Even if its raw yield was fundamentally similar to the Tsar Bomba, considering that 92% conversion rate, this was practically closer to an antimatter bomb than a nuclear weapon. Furthermore, unlike a standard nuclear explosion, this thing didn’t generate a massive mushroom cloud in the empty air.

Instead, the only thing visible was a faintly shimmering, microscopic thermal pulse.

‘First off, it seems the angels have been completely wiped clean…’

And this time, I turned my gaze down toward the ground below.

‘Fortunately, the collateral damage isn’t too severe.’

Granted, a fair number of buildings here and there seemed to have collapsed due to the massive shockwave, but well, that was an exceptionally benign outcome. I suppose it paid off to intentionally fly all the way up to an altitude of fifteen kilometers before detonating it.

‘If it had been a genuine antimatter bomb, an astronomical amount of radiation like X-rays and gamma rays would have jetted out… but because it’s a mystery-flavored version, it thankfully doesn’t have any of those side effects.’

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At a certain point, my plummeting momentum abruptly decelerated, and my feet finally touched down softly on the ground.

“Thou hast performed exceptionally well, my dear.”

“You are truly magnificent.”

“Y-You went through a lot of trouble, Master.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Offering a light shrug toward my companions, who were staring at me with expressions composed of half awe and half terror, I questioned Hazes.

“Now then, where was our next destination? We still have nine more locations left, so we need to move busily.”

“Uh… M-Master? You plan on doing more of this here and now?”

“Of course we have to. Haven’t you ever heard the saying, ‘Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today’?”

“Uh… well… it’s the royal castle of the Ryooka Kingdom.”

“Black. The spatial disruption has been cleared, right?”

“Y-Yes… Sword God.”

“Then teleport us to the gate. Let’s wrap this up quickly so I can get some rest.”

“U-Understood…”

—The Sun on Earth.

The horrific(?) incident that occurred in the royal capital of the Lectus Kingdom—which was later dubbed by that specific name—sent a massive shockwave across the entire continent.

Instead of the already groggy, skeletal Union of the Scales and Scythe, the two prime ministers of the imperial state and the empire—who were practically pulling the strings behind this entire operation—gathered in a single room the moment they heard the news, utterly frozen in sheer panic.

Click.

Stepping into the meeting room with frantic strides, a blue-haired dragonkin aggressively questioned a veiled female elf without even offering a basic greeting.

“…Have you viewed the visual scene? Archduke Octavian.”

“Ah, Archduke Leclerc… if you are referring to the ‘Sun on Earth’ incident, I viewed it alongside His Majesty.”

“His Majesty Emperor Dracos…”

“…His Majesty’s hands were trembling violently after he witnessed it.”

“It was exactly the same on our end. At first, the Emperor bellowed, ‘The sun descended? What absolute nonsense is that!’ but after viewing the footage, his face turned deathly pale and he ordered me to immediately contact the imperial state.”

“……”

“……”

While scribes hurriedly recorded their exchange, the two individuals fell into a heavy silence, staring blankly at each other’s faces… before simultaneously letting out a long, deep sigh.

Brushing back his blue hair, the dragonkin male spoke.

“At this point, shouldn’t we simply acknowledge it?”

The elf calmly questioned back.

“Acknowledge the existence of the Demon King?”

“Exactly. According to the gathered intelligence, he literally dragged down the sun to wipe out nineteen angels all at once. Who else besides a Demon King could possibly be capable of such an absurd feat?”

“Sigh… but aside from the angels who were wiped out, there are still dozens of angels residing in the mortal realm. Quite a few of them are currently staying in our imperial state, as well as your empire. With those entities watching over us with wide, glaring eyes… do you honestly think we can just pull our feet out now? You must have heard the tale of the prime minister of that sovereign nation who was turned into a mere mouse.”

“…As someone who serves the Dragon God, it might sound like a thoroughly blasphemous remark… but if it is absolute truth that the Demon King is fully intact, I genuinely cannot understand why the other gods are merely sending down angels instead of proper oracles. If they could just pool their resources together and send down about ten angels each…”

Hearing that, the female elf prime minister of the imperial state formed the unique holy sign of the Noina Sect, offering a bitter smile.

“Surely they must have a grand divine intent that is far beyond our humble comprehension.”

“…In any case, what do we do now?”

“……”

“The temples and palaces of the Union of the Scales and Scythe have already been burned to a crisp. Isn’t the next step as clear as day?”

“…It will naturally be our imperial state and your empire, the ones who instigated and supported them from behind.”

“My point exactly. Which is why we absolutely must do something, shouldn’t we?”

Having sat silently under her veil with her eyes closed, the woman finally spoke in a slow, deliberate tone.

“…Let’s roll out the straw mat.”

“…Pardon?”

“We have no desire to square off against the Demon King(?), yet we cannot afford to ignore the explicit orders of the angels entrenched within our respective nations… that is our current stance, is it not?”

“True.”

“And at the end of the day, the goal of those angels and that entity presumed to be the Demon King is exactly one and the same. To crush each other to prove either the absence or the survival of the Demon King.”

“…And?”

“So since things have already come to this, let us simply lay out a massive stage so the two forces can settle the score directly.”