Chapter 174

With me sitting in the seat of honor, the members were offering all kinds of opinions regarding the upcoming battle tomorrow.

While picking out the useful suggestions and passing over the ones that didn’t fit, I questioned Disis.

“Ah, Disis.”

“Yes.”

“How are things looking over at the Soizmiz Plains?”

“Good grief. You sure took your sweet time asking. Around this morning, a joint alliance army of about thirty thousand troops from the imperial state and the empire set up camp and secured their positions. No angels have been spotted just yet.”

“Are there any other distinct anomalies besides that?”

“Hmm… there didn’t seem to be any signs of them plotting anything in particular.”

At that, Shia—who was currently hanging onto my neck as if it were her absolute birthright—clicked her tongue and tackled the statement.

“Surely a mere three or four doppelgangers wouldn’t be enough to fully cover the entirety of the Soizmiz Plains? Is it not far too premature to make such a definitive assumption?”

“…Do you honestly think I merely sent standard foot-soldiers to slam their heads against the bare ground? Naturally, I primarily dispatched mages who know how to utilize familiars.”

“Even so, they are still just doppelgangers. Given your current state, a doppelganger you can manufacture is hardly anything to boast about…”

“Why you little… did a ghost that dies if it can’t pick a fight possess you or something? Your singular talent is clinging to Master Sword God and acting cute, yet your mouth is fully alive. Tsk.”

“Heh. That exact repertoire is getting thoroughly boring by now. And are you even capable of acting cute like that? You are nothing more than a parasite of a ghost who clings to Sword God because you lack a physical body of your own.”

“Clinging? The act you are performing right this second is the absolute definition of a parasite. You roundworm.”

“Then you are a pinworm.”

“You’re a tapeworm.”

“You’re a whipworm.”

“You’re a liver fluke.”

True to their nature of always being desperately intent on ripping each other apart, the atmosphere was growing fiercely hostile. Well, even if I simply left them to bicker, they wouldn’t actually cross any lines, but still…

“Cut it out already. You absolute toxoplasma gondii-like creatures. Forget the chatter—even if they did lay out a trap, there is ultimately only a single thing those bastards would target.”

Pulling out a habanite ring custom-manufactured to fit perfectly onto Astraphe, I displayed it before them.

“Naturally, it would be to seal this. To the angels, I must look like a complete one-trick pony with this. They probably think that if they can just seal this away, handling someone of my tier will be a total piece of cake, don’t you think?”

At my remark, the toxoplas—no, Shia tilted her head in confusion.

“That sounds a bit strange in its own right. The specific strength you possess should be well known to the gods named Equos and Morta. In that case, shouldn’t those angels be well aware of who you are as well?”

“That didn’t seem to be the case.”

Shaking my head, I recounted a portion of my previous conversation with Lumina to them.

“In other words, it seems Equos and Morta have already completely severed their connection with those angels to deflect accountability. The immediate proof is that every single time those bastards lay eyes on me, they always call me a lowly mortal and look down on me.”

“I see… if they possessed even a fraction of intelligence regarding you, they strictly wouldn’t be able to address you in that manner.”

“On top of that, even if we assume they were completely caught off guard, until recently, they couldn’t even comprehend what exactly hit them. If they had been connected to the Celestial Realm, someone surely would have given them a subtle tip.”

“Hmm… putting it that way, it certainly sounds like their connection has been severed.”

“Therefore, as I mentioned, the probability is extremely high that they still view me as a one-trick pony who only relies on mystery-flavored bombs. So if they lay a trap, it will naturally be targeted in that direction.”

“I see….”

Thinking about it, it was a bit pitiful. Not only were they dumped into the mortal realm while saddled with their master’s sins, but they were also bound to a tragic fate of living for a mere forty-nine days.

‘Well, it’s not like I plan on sparing them because of that, though.’

Disis glared at Shia—who was currently rubbing her head against my chest in a thoroughly unseemly manner—as she opened her mouth to speak.

“But honestly, it’s not like the angels’ judgment is completely off the mark, is it? If the angels genuinely manage to neutralize that bizarre mass bomb by any means necessary, you won’t have a definitive method to slay them either, Master Go.”

“Hey, that is a technique I went through a massive amount of trouble to master, so calling it bizarre is a bit uncalled for.”

“Even if it’s strictly limited to spiritual metals, converting raw mass into pure energy while skipping the entire intermediate process… that is something even standard gods find impossible, you know? Throwing something like that around as if you’re casually casting a basic Fireball—if that isn’t bizarre, what on earth is it?”

“Well, it took me over an entire week just to establish the fundamental concept. Refining it for actual combat application took nearly a fortnight. Considering that, it is certainly a technique of an all-time high tier of difficulty.”

“Wow, the sheer bragging.”

“How utterly obnoxious, my dear.”

For this brief second, Shia and Disis joined hands as one to criticize me. In fact, the other members seemed to share a similar sentiment, as they were all throwing silent insults through their eyes.

“…No, if it’s that eyesore to you lots, why don’t you just learn to use it yourselves? I told you explicitly that I’d teach you if you just asked. You refuse to learn even when prompted, so what on earth is up with those glares?”

At that, Elizabeth let out a scoffing laugh.

“I happen to remember every single syllable of what you said back then without missing a single beat, you know?”

With that, Elizabeth began mimicking my exact speaking style.

—Look. It’s orichalcum.

—First, place it perfectly right on your palm.

—Concentrate your mind and gaze directly at it… and eventually, a specific moment will arrive when it stops looking like metal and appears as an accumulation of pure energy.

—Once you reach that point, you’re already halfway there. As long as you can see it, you can touch it. Anyone who succeeds up to that part, come find me again. We’ll move on to the next lesson.

“The intermediate step! Where on earth did the intermediate process go?! Why is your explanation entirely composed of words like ‘perfectly,’ ‘properly,’ or ‘concentrate directly’?! Tell us the actual method, the method!!”

“But that explicitly is the method. If you just focus perfectly and do it properly…”

“…Go dive face-first into a plate of water and drown already.”

Wow. My feelings are genuinely hurt.

“In any case, do you happen to possess some sort of countermeasure?”

“I wouldn’t be standing around trading idle jokes like this if I didn’t.”

“Oh? What kind?”

I let out a sly smirk.

“Whenever an issue arises, the absolute easiest solution in the world… is simply dumping the responsibility onto the person who can actually solve it.”

And that exact night.

‘Lumina-mong! Help me out~’¹

—…So that specific person responsible for handling your dumped work is none other than myself?

‘Are you seriously not going to help? This is your collective business, isn’t it? I am merely a gentleman who accepted a request to help out.’

—Hearing you put it that way, anyone would think you were helping us out completely free of charge.

‘In any case, you know the situation, don’t you? Assuming every single angel scattered across the continent gathers at that location, the number of angels I’ll have to face tomorrow is a monumental fifty-two… if I go in like this, I’m getting brutally slaughtered, you know?’

—Sigh. So what exactly do you want me to do?

‘You need to do one of two things for me. Either prepare a large and beautiful bomb capable of wiping all those angels out clean… or let me undo the seal.’

—Mmm….

‘If you choose the former, give me five kilograms of refined orichalcum. It’ll take at least that much to completely erase them all. Oh, and a countermeasure to stop them if they try to neutralize my mass bomb.’

—I wouldn’t particularly recommend that route. Your ‘Direct Matter-Energy Convert’ is an incredibly powerful offensive method… but if someone acts with absolute intent to block it, it’s not like there are no ways to stop it.

—For starters, among the popular Law Magic used by angels, there is a spell that forbids the use of firearms within a certain area… even with just that, you’d probably have to make a dice roll, you know?

A dice roll? Out of nowhere, what was with this D&D reference?

‘Does a mass bomb count as a firearm too?’

—From that point on, it depends on the capability or tier of the caster and the opponent. It might work, or it might not. It could also only be half-effective. Since ‘Direct Matter-Energy Convert’ is such a high-mystery technique, it feels like it shouldn’t get blocked… but there are plenty of other ways to stop it aside from that.

‘Then I have no choice but to undo the seal. I’ll only undo it for a brief moment, so shield me from the incoming chains during that time.’

—If we directly touch that, it’s an immediate penalty. Do you honestly want to see the South or East Continent turned to ash because the Demon King’s Forbidden Step gets lifted?

‘Tsk… then do I ultimately have to summon Shia into my Imagery like before? The part that got smashed back then hasn’t even been fully restored yet….’

—Hmm. That’s a bit iffy too.

‘Why?’

—The chains of Providence possess a sort of ego of their own. They learn. Your Imagery is magnificent, sure… but if you keep abusing it just because it works, the time you can hold out will steadily grow shorter. You should save it for later.

‘Then what do you want me to do?’

—Sigh… fine. Let me ask this first. How far do you plan to unlock it?

‘They only have up to Archangels, so I’ll only go up to the Archangel tier. Originally, I considered unlocking up to the Principality rank… but the angels turned out to be weaker than I expected. Up to Archangel will be more than enough.’

—Well, that’s because they aren’t combat angels. Even at the same tier, a combat angel is strong. Anyway, you’re only unlocking up to Archangel, right?

‘Yeah.’

—Then… I suppose there is a way.

‘How?’

—I’ll temporarily take Akathastasia to the Celestial Realm.

‘…The Celestial Realm? The place where you guys live?’

—Yes.

‘Didn’t you say you’d get a penalty if you blocked it?’

—I’m not going to block it, though?

‘Then why are you taking her to the Celestial Realm?’

—I’ll save the detailed explanation for later… but to put it simply, the Celestial Realm is vast. Extremely. Extremely, extremely vast.

—To give you an example you can easily understand… the Celestial Realm of Kion where the gods reside… has a diameter of roughly 10,000 AU.

‘10,000 AU?! My god. It’s that huge?’

For context, the distance from Earth to the Sun is 1 AU. In other words, it meant ten thousand times a distance that took over eight minutes to travel even at the speed of light… a truly astronomical size.

—And as you know, there is a delay before the chains actually appear. It’s the time required to locate Akathastasia once the seal is undone.

—And that time grows longer the wider the area they have to search. On top of that, a foreign environment is the absolute icing on the cake.

‘Ah, so….’

—Yes. If it’s only at the Archangel rank, simply dumping her anywhere appropriate will buy you plenty of time. Though since the chains have a learning capacity, it’s not a method we can exploit multiple times.

‘Sounds great. Let’s go with that then.’

—Mmm… aren’t you deciding a bit too quickly?

‘There’s no reason to hesitate.’

—No… you’re a total paranoid patient, you know? When you first took Akathastasia in, you only dragged her along as a makeshift bomb because you couldn’t trust us. Yet you’re willing to send Akathastasia to the Celestial Realm this easily? What if we just snap her up and devour(?) her?

‘Ah, of course I still don’t trust the celestial gods. Like the phrasing implies, did I ever grab a meal with those folks? Did I go to a sauna with them? But you’re different. I at least trust you.’

—Uh, well, I’m grateful for that, but… as the kind older sister who shines at number one in the goddess popularity poll, let me give you a piece of advice. If you treat someone like a friend just because you’ve traded a few words, you might end up getting massively stabbed in the back, you know? No matter how starved for friends you are, be careful with everything….

‘Tsk… why are you suddenly plunging a blade of pure facts straight into my chest? No, more importantly, that’s not the reason.’

—Hmm? It’s not? Then on what grounds do you trust me?

‘I mean, obviously. You’re Yuribel.’

—…….

‘If I don’t trust Yuribel, who am I supposed to trust?’

—…….

‘Why?’

—Ha, haha, hahahaha.

‘…….’

—Hahahahaha… w-what an amusing joke. Why on earth would I be Yuribel?

‘…….’

—…….

‘…….’

—…How did you know?

‘Pfft…!’

I couldn’t help but burst into laughter at her flat, thoroughly defeated tone.

—Stop laughing. Answer. Quickly.

‘Alright, alright. Well, if I had to give a reason… you were way too favorable toward me from the very start.’

—Huh? Just because of that?

‘Tsk, tsk, tsk… you absolute clueless greenhorn.’

—A-A greenhorn?

‘As a rule of thumb in this world, there might be hatred without a cause, but there is strictly no such thing as favor without a cause. Hatred is free, but favor is an emotion that requires a cost.’

—My word. What a thoroughly twisted human being….

‘On top of that, a mere mortal even drops honorifics left and right, yet a supreme deity harbors favor upon their very first encounter? That is an absolute hell-difficulty scenario. The other gods don’t even dare to come near because they don’t want to deal with that crap. Am I wrong?’

—…….

‘Once I harbored that suspicion, things I couldn’t see before naturally started to stick out. Like how Yuribel stopped showing her face ever since you started communicating with me, or how your speaking style somehow felt remarkably similar. So I’ve actually been suspecting it for quite a while now.’

—Sigh. Dammit.

‘And… conclusively, I could feel Yuribel’s unmistakable clumsiness from you too.’

—C-Clumsiness?

‘Or should I call it a scatterbrained trait… a clumsiness where you seem smart but always have a loophole somewhere? That exact vibe of yours perfectly mirrors Yuribel to a T.’

—…My god. Scatterbrained and clumsy. This is the first time in my life I’ve ever received such an insult.

I chuckled and giggled at her reaction for a good while before questioning her again.

‘So? Is Yuribel playing the role of Lumina? Or was Lumina pretending to be Yuribel all along?’