Chapter 175

She let out a low sigh and shook her head.

—Sigh… It’s neither of those. Yuribel is my avatar. She is a part of me, yet she is also an independent entity.

‘That’s complicated.’

—To explain it a bit more simply… when she is separated from me, she acts as an independent entity with the persona of Yuribel… but the moment she returns to me, Yuribel becomes a part of me. I absorb Yuribel’s memories, emotions, and experiences as my own.

—In other words, I am Lumina… yet at the same time, I am also the Yuribel who met you that day.

‘So… the gist of it is that it’s like garlic-flavored coffee or a mint-chocolate burger, right? Basically, a Yuribel-flavored Lumina?’

—…That is a thoroughly unpleasant comparison.

‘But it’s pure facts, isn’t it? Anyway, does that mean I won’t be able to meet Yuribel anymore? That’s a bit of a shame.’

At that, Lumina fell into a sudden silence.

Right as I was wondering if I had made some sort of verbal slip, she spoke in a tone that carried a hint of subtle poutiness.

—As I just said, I am Yuribel too, you know? It feels like just yesterday that I got smacked by you for fluttering chicken feathers and got kicked out while wearing a negligee, you know? If you draw a hard line like that, I start getting genuinely pouted, you know?

‘Hey, eating things mixed together is completely different from eating them separately.’

—Sigh…. Well, if you want Yuribel as an independent entity… you’ll be able to see her again soon. She’s just currently resting because she’s a bit exhausted.

—When she crosses over to Earth again in her avatar form soon, she’ll stop by on her way.

‘…Man, throwing third-person and first-person perspectives together like that makes it thoroughly confusing.’

—That’s why I’m saying she is me. Though I am not her.

‘Then… what should I call you from now on? Lumina? Yuribel?’

—Just call me whatever you feel like. We are both me anyway. In any case, is the business you summoned me for officially concluded?

‘Ah, it was originally over… but another favor just popped up right this second.’

—You are genuinely trying to squeeze every single drop out of me, aren’t you? So? What is it this time?

‘Since we’re on the topic of avatars… am I capable of making one too? If there’s a trick to it, teach me.’

And… back to the Soizmiz Plains.

“But now… our weight classes are exactly identical, aren’t they? In that case, it’s about time you get thrashed, right?”

Although the angels couldn’t conceal their sudden shock for a split second… they soon burst into a mocking laugh directed at me.

—We have no idea what sort of foul sorcery you used to drag your tier up… but even if you managed to ascend to the seat of an Archangel, exactly what can you do all by yourself against ‘us’?

“Huh? Who said I was by myself?”

—What…?

“If you lack numbers, you just need to increase them.”

Immediately following my words, the mana and Pure Spiritual Power I scattered began to completely encroach upon the surroundings.

Despite only(?) reaching the Archangel tier, a sudden deluge of enlightenment poured forth like a broken dam, naturally teaching me the correct usage of mana and Pure Spiritual Power.

“Ah….”

An involuntary groan slipped past my lips.

‘I see. So this is how it works…. Still, I somehow managed to point myself in the exact right direction.’

‘By the way, it’s actually possible to mix it with body mana to increase the density and completion of a clone, huh? Ah, I need to bring this knowledge back with me… dammit. In the end, I’ll just end up forgetting all of it.’

Well, that was perfectly fine. Even if it was an enlightenment bound to vanish like hollow bubbles… simply confirming that my direction regarding the ‘materialization of spiritual power’ and the ‘spiritualization of matter’ wasn’t wrong was satisfying enough in its own right.

And… based on the exact enlightenment I had just secured, I generated precisely twelve clones.

Whhiiiiiiiiiir…

Following that, I breathed highly concentrated residual will into those clones, copying my own persona into them.

As a result…

“Ta-da. Twelve Equilibrium Heaven-tier avatars officially complete.”

…Twelve variations of ‘me’—or more accurately, my avatars—simultaneously unfurled a pair of glowing wings of light, drawing blades forged from Pure Spiritual Power all at once.

Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!!

For the record, although these avatars might lack the absolute tier or raw power compared to the clones I used during the fight against the previous West Demon King, they were entities that were far closer to the original version of me.

Back then, the OS controlling the clones was closer to an AI embedded in hardware rather than a proper independent persona.

‘Originally, one is supposed to divide and implant their actual ‘persona’ rather than their ‘will,’ but that is currently impossible at my level… well, even so, this is a thoroughly respectable outcome.’

Praising myself for successfully manufacturing avatars using just a few quick tricks I had picked up from Lumina, I let out a satisfied smile.

“Now then, since my side has reached double digits as well… shall we officially get to it? Friends?”

For the record, the number of angels currently deploying the Array of Divine Restriction and Demonic Sealing barrier(?) high in the sky was twenty-five, including two Archangels.

And the number of angels who had descended to the ground and were currently surrounding me was twenty-seven, including three Archangels.

I issued a firm command to my twelve avatars.

“We clean up the ones on the ground first. I’ll take care of those three hefty Archangels, so you lot handle the rest.”

At my words, the avatars shot me a briefly displeased look before giving a quick nod, throwing their bodies toward the Equilibrium Heaven angels all at once.

Swish-swish-swish!

Despite their numerical disadvantage, the avatars charged forward as though they held the absolute advantage. Caught off guard by their sheer momentum, the Equilibrium Heaven angels frantically drew their weapons.

And naturally… despite being outnumbered, my avatars conversely began to relentlessly push them back.

Boom! Crashhhhh!!

—Gag…!

—Urgh!

—Gaaah!!

Before they could even blink, the heads of three angels who had failed to properly gauge our raw power tumbled onto the grass.

—What…!?

—How…!!

—These things… they are strong!

—Gather up!

—Deploy barriers first! Prioritize defense over offense!

Belatedly recognizing the massive chasm in pure martial skill, the angels began to huddle together to mount a defense… and thanks to that, something resembling an actual battle finally began to take shape. Yet even so, the avatars maintained an overwhelmingly dominant advantage.

It was bound to be that way… because by all indications, those angels were strictly not accustomed to actual combat.

Granted, as transcendent entities, they possessed a basic level of fundamental capability… but even at the same Equilibrium Heaven tier, if those angels were ordinary office workers who had merely lifted a bit of iron at a gym, my avatars were closer to UFC champions.

‘They are none other than minor copies of this magnificent body… so of course they should manage at least this much.’

—Gag!

—Urgh!!

Immediately after, the heads of two more Equilibrium Heaven angels were sliced clean off…

Utterly panicked by the sight, two of the three Archangels turned their bodies to provide backup to those Equilibrium Heaven angels.

But… there was no way I was just going to sit back and watch that happen, right?

“Do you bastards happen to have a death wish or something?”

—Dimensional Cleave.

Slash!! Clang-clang-clang!!

In a single instant, dozens of sword strikes erupted across the coordinates of empty space, brutally hacking away at the angels’ colossal frames.

—Urgh!

—Gag…!

True to their lofty status as Archangels, they somehow managed to avoid a fatal blow, yet a torrent of glowing blood jetted out from their entire bodies nonetheless.

“How insolent. How dare a mere Archangel wretch avert their eyes while standing right in front of me?”

—You absolute fiend…!

“What about it, you bastard.”

Slash-slash-slash-slash!!

The angels were frantically pushed back by the blades popping out continuously via the higher dimensions.

They desperately deployed all sorts of elemental barriers around themselves… but it wasn’t as if the angels who died previously had perished because they lacked a barrier.

Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud! Splat!!

Furthermore, having ascended to the seat of an Archangel now, unlike before, I didn’t require even a fraction of concentration to execute a Dimensional Cleave. It literally meant I could pierce and hack through the space beyond coordinates with absolute zero delay.

Squish-squish-squish!

Instead of striking from the outside, the blades thoroughly gouged their bodies from the inside out, bursting forth through their flesh.

—T-This absolute madman…!

—What on earth is this attack…!!

—Blink!!

—It’s no use! The attack itself is completely disrupting the coordinates…!!

The pure white radiance of Pure Spiritual Power and the distinct golden brilliance of Astraphe blossomed like giant flowers, using the ten-meter-tall colossal bodies of the Archangels as literal stalks.

Since they lacked a definitive weakness like a dragon, they were somehow holding out with the sheer durability characteristic of an Archangel. However, at this rate, it was plain to see that before a few seconds could pass, they would transform from an ‘angel’ into ‘an/gel.’

Sensing the exact same conclusion, the one Archangel who had sustained relatively fewer wounds ballooned his already colossal frame even further, charging straight toward me.

Thud! Thud-thud! Thud-thud-thud!!

Most likely, the other two severely wounded angels were trying to buy time to recuperate their bodies, charging at me while being half-braced for absolute death….

“Oh… did you honestly think you’d stand a chance if you managed to close the distance? Too bad for you, though. This specific area happens to be my absolute specialty.”

Above my empty left hand, I channeled Pure Spiritual Power to summon a twin blade of Astraphe.

Then, softly catching and deflecting his fire sword—which was colossal enough to pierce the very heavens—I cleanly parted the coordinates of his upper arm.

Slash!!

BOOOOOOMMM!!

Failing to withstand the sheer momentum of the inertia, his severed forearm collided violently with the ground before flapping and bouncing off the grass.

—Gaaah! Die, you absolute bastard!!

Despite shrieking in sheer agony, he forcefully swung his fire sword once more with his single remaining hand.

“Oh… pure grit.”

As a blade the size of a small building swept over the grass right toward me, it felt a bit awkward to either deflect or dodge it seamlessly.

‘Well, I just won’t dodge it then.’

The Pure Spiritual Power enveloping Astraphe instantaneously ballooned, transforming into a size that easily rivaled the angel’s fire sword.

And just like creating a solid wall right in front of his blade, I thrusted it straight into the empty air.

Thump.

—Coordinate Fixed Defense.

BOOOOOOMMM!!

The sword of fire shattered to pieces. Failing to withstand the massive impact, the angel stumbled backward frantically.

While the terrifying amount of impact forced shockwaves to detonate in all directions like literal bombs, I plunged the gargantuan version of Astraphe straight into his thoroughly exposed neck.

Craaaaack!!

Piercing clean through his neck, the blade of Pure Spiritual Power brilliantly illuminated the cloud-darkened sky before dispersing and reassembling into three colossal spears stretching nearly twenty meters in length.

“Come.”

Immediately after, the moment I tightly clenched my fist, the spears executed a sharp, supersonic U-turn, impaling the chest of the angel whose neck was already half-parted.

Crashhhhh!!!

—Gag….

The burning flames of rage crackling inside his pupils thoroughly faded, and his remaining life force soon froze deathly cold.

Slide. Thud.

“That’s one.”

While the angel—who had slowly slid down the spears piercing his frame—silently transformed into a shower of glowing particles and dissolved into the air,
I turned my gaze toward the remaining two Archangels, witnessing a rather amusing spectacle.

The colossal bodies of the two angels had become faintly visible, almost as if they had been watermarked into a translucent state.

“Huh? What on earth is this now?”

Staring at the two who had transformed into something resembling a pair of shadows while glaring at me with wide eyes full of sheer, unadulterated venom, I lightly extended my hand forward.

“Go.”

Screeeeeeam!!

In a single instant, over a dozen summoned blades jetted forward, piercing right through their translucent frames.

Swish-swish-swish-swish!

“Oh? It’s not hitting them…?”

—Servant of malice. Your attacks strictly cannot reach us now.

—Wait right there. Once we thoroughly recuperate our wounds, we will absolutely ensure you pay the ultimate price for murdering Iduroel…!

‘Ah, wait a second.’

‘Could this happen to be that specific thing I heard from Lumina last night? Dimension Slide? That high-tier evasion technique that supposedly only angels, as higher-dimensional entities, are capable of utilizing?’

—Dimension Slide.

For context, if one were to describe a three-dimensional space as a single page of a book, and the higher-dimensional direction as the absolute thickness of the book… this Dimension Slide was an evasion technique that allowed an entity to slip off our current page and temporarily step onto the page right next to it.

It was a thoroughly meaningless technique to high-tier angels who could leisurely roam anywhere across the book as they pleased….

‘According to Lumina’s wording, because lower-tier angels can only utilize higher dimensions to a highly restricted degree… subtly slipping onto the immediate neighboring page is their absolute limit.’

Ah, and as an extra note, the reason they left behind such translucent, shadow-like forms in this specific dimension was because that form served as an anchor dropped into this realm. They would later use it as a benchmark coordinate to seamlessly return, or something like that.

Putting that aside… well, even with those limitations, it was true that this was a powerful evasion technique. Once an entity entered that state, a three-dimension-based lifeform possessed absolutely zero methods to deliver a physical strike.

But that was strictly the limitation of ordinary fools… and I am a bit different.

In the first place, my Dimensional Cleave explicitly was a technique that traveled through the book’s thickness—meaning it seamlessly detoured via the higher dimensions.

The neighboring page? If I just casually poke around that vicinity, wouldn’t I hit them eventually?

“Hmm… is it around here?”

Thump!

“Nope. Then over here?”

Thump!

“Close one… then it should be roughly around this spot.”

Thump!

And… after rummaging through the coordinates a few more times like that, I finally caught the exact sensation. Letting out a thoroughly mischievous grin toward the two who were still completely focused on their recovery, I spoke in a smug tone.

“Hey. Didn’t you guys happen to forget something?”

—……?

—……??

“That Array of Divine Restriction and Demonic Sealing barrier those angels high above are deploying to seal my mass bombs… does that specific array happen to cover that dimension of yours as well? I highly doubt it, don’t you?”

The very next millisecond, the angels—who had finally processed the true meaning behind my words a step too late—turned deathly pale.

—W-Wait a fraction…!

—H-Hold on…!

“Hold on my ass. Now then. Take a bomb, will you?”

Click.

Slotting an activated orichalcum ring onto Astraphe, I thrusted it straight forward into the empty air.

Thump.

The delicate sensation transmitted through the tip of my blade confirmed that the delivery had been executed with absolute pinpoint precision. And…

Rumbleeeeeeee!!

The atmosphere—no, the entirety of space itself violently shook, and the translucent, flickering shadows of the angels instantly vanished without a single trace. Since their main bodies had been utterly annihilated, the anchors they had dropped into this realm had naturally been erased as well.

“That makes three.”

Having cleanly(?) taken care of the three Archangels, I turned my body around to observe my avatars’ battle.

However…

“Rock, paper, scissors!”

“Rock, paper, scissors!!”

An event that was shocking in a completely different sense from a moment ago was currently unfolding right before my eyes.

“Hey… what on earth do you lots think you’re doing right now?”

Surrounding the remaining twenty-less angels, my avatars weren’t fighting at all. Out of nowhere, they were casually playing rock-paper-scissors.

At my question, one of the avatars let out a thoroughly obnoxious grin, wagging his finger at me.

“Ah, it’s nothing major.”

“These guys are way too weak, so hitting them doesn’t give a good feedback to the hands at all.”

“So we decided to just vote for exactly two representatives to do the fighting.”

“That should at least make it moderately entertaining.”

Having experienced a brief functional disorder at the sheer nonsense my avatars were spouting, I managed to open my mouth with great difficulty.

“Wow… I have never seen such a bunch of obnoxious bastards in my life.”

At that, the avatars simultaneously turned their heads toward me and let out a collective scoff.

“What absolute rubbish are you talking about? You are us.”

“If your job is finished, stop interfering and just sit over there and enjoy the show.”

“Are you a total idiot?”

…I seriously want to beat the crap out of them.