I retreat at the same speed that Kuro charges in at, keeping pace as I fall back.
Meanwhile, my clones summon additional clones, steadily overwriting Kuro's field with my own.
It seems I hold a slight edge when it comes to spatial magic, which comes as a relief.
Losing here would end everything on the spot.
If I can't at least match my opponent in spatial magic, it's already game over.
If I think back to my embarrassing display right after being dragged into his field, it really drives home just how nasty fields can be.
They're basically a buff for yourself and a debuff for your opponent.
If you have no means of resistance, you'll go down without a chance to do anything.
That's why spatial magic is an essential skill for any god.
Presented by D, "A God's Basics Course: Lecture One."
What I've covered so far is just a prerequisite for fighting a god of higher rank.
You've only just reached the starting line.
If your spatial magic isn't at least on par, you don't even qualify to fight.
I'm glad I have the upper hand, but that advantage is essentially canceled out by the damage I took from his initial surprise attack.
Because I was slower to react, my field's deployment is lagging behind.
I am gradually eating into Kuro's field, but the pace is painfully slow.
If I don't commit to a drawn-out battle, there's no way I can completely overwrite it.
So, my current situation is — in a word — bad.
The prerequisite is that spatial magic be at least equal.
I managed to satisfy that.
But because the surprise attack put me a step behind, I've taken damage, and instead of luring him into my field like I'd planned, I'm the one starting inside Kuro's.
On top of that, Kuro outranks me.
For someone like me to win against a superior god, I need to fight on my own terms, inside my own field.
And that hasn't happened. So yeah — this is bad.
"Hm!?"
Threads strung between the buildings wrap around Kuro's body.
Spider webs that my clones had set up in advance.
Of course, these aren't ordinary threads.
They're threads made using spatial magic, nearly impossible to sever by physical means.
Once you're caught in them, there's no getting out.
...Supposedly.
Kuro casually flicks his arm.
That single motion snaps my threads — my pride and joy — and they dissolve into nothing.
Cheat-tier barrier, my ass!
My threads are made of magic.
Meaning Kuro's Dragon Barrier, which unconditionally erases all magic, makes them completely useless.
I already knew that, of course. I was half-hoping for the spectacular footage of a god tangled up in threads and unable to move, but I guess that's not happening.
Well, I was only clinging to that as a long shot anyway — my real goal was to buy time.
Using the brief opening created by Kuro's distraction with the threads, I gain even more distance.
Right now, my top priority is buying time and overwriting Kuro's field with mine.
Counterattacks can wait until after that.
Actually, not just "can wait" — I have no choice but to wait.
My hand is bare.
Honestly, it's probably too thin to even call myself a god.
To summarize: spatial magic, clones, and the Evil Eye.
That's it.
Hiding myself inside My Home, the field I built with spatial magic, and unleashing the Evil Eye from countless clones simultaneously — that's almost the entire arsenal available to me.
This was all I could manage in a short timeframe while still being capable of going toe-to-toe with an actual god.
Right now, my clones are working at full capacity on the construction of My Home.
I don't have the luxury of deploying the Evil Eye.
Having essentially one type of attack means that once you're hard-countered, my chances of winning drop to zero.
I'd like to believe getting countered is unlikely, but it's not impossible.
That's why, when fighting
Judging by Kuro's behavior, he hasn't prepared any countermeasures against the Evil Eye.
That's some relief at least, but the fact that he went for a surprise attack to cripple my opening move says a lot.
Yeah.
Simple, but devastatingly effective.
Thanks to that, both My Home and the Evil Eye have been sealed off, and I'm stuck on the defensive.
But look at it from the other side — even backed into a disadvantageous position, I'm still hanging in there.
I lost a huge chunk of mana from the surprise attack, but I was able to regroup and keep going.
Honestly, I'd mentally prepared for the possibility of being killed in one hit, so getting away with this level of damage is a stroke of luck.
Kuro's offensive capability isn't as high as I expected.
The fact that he's trying to close the distance suggests he doesn't have anything particularly powerful at range.
Between that and the Dragon Barrier, it looks like Kuro is a defense-type god.
Even if you wound them, they regenerate in the blink of an eye.
My body, damaged by Kuro's attack, has already fully recovered.
Physically putting down a god is incredibly difficult.
You can crush their heart or blow their head apart, and they'll just regenerate and come back.
Of course, losing your head would temporarily deprive anyone — even a god — of the ability to think.
But if you've prepared countermeasures in advance, automatic regeneration is trivial.
I have my own precautions, so anyone who calls themselves a god surely does too.
To defeat such a god, there are several methods.
Broadly speaking, two.
Grind them down, or shatter their soul.
The examples I know of for soul-shattering are Heresy Attacks and Abyss Magic.
D casually installs soul-killing weapons capable of taking down gods.
You've got to both fear and admire that.
What the hell is that guy doing?
As for me — those methods are far too advanced. I can't pull them off.
And D casually lets regular people who aren't even gods use them.
You've got to both fear and admire that.
What the hell is that guy doing?
I said it twice because it's that important.
The soul is the very core of a living being.
No matter how divine you are, if your soul is shattered, you can't survive.
More than that — it practically is the god's true body.
According to "A God's Basics Course," the mainstream method among gods is exactly this.
One side possesses the means to shatter a soul, and the other has the means to defend it.
Each probes for an opening to land their decisive blow.
That's apparently how it goes.
But I can't do any of that.
I became a god through some back-door trick, with no foundation to speak of.
So that leaves me with the other method.
Grinding down.
What am I grinding down, you ask?
Energy.
Energy is the driving force of a god.
If the soul is a god's heart, then energy is their blood.
They use it to perform all manner of miracles.
Even regenerating an injured body in an instant runs on this energy.
Once the energy runs out, that stops working.
In other words — death.
The Evil Eye is my specialization in siphoning that energy away.
Like slowly pumping poison into the bloodstream, gradually cornering the opponent.
But here's the catch.
This method has a problem.
See, a god is someone who's accumulated a massive reservoir of energy, right?
And I need to drain it dry, right?
That takes a whole lot of time.
Yeah.
This grinding method is painfully time-consuming.
And Kuro has a Dragon Barrier.
He won't be able to block the Evil Eye completely, but the speed at which I can drain him will be reduced no matter what.
On top of that, I'm currently struggling just to get My Home built.
Kuro, meanwhile, doesn't have the firepower to take me out in one shot either.
And so, the conclusion: We're entering a super-long battle.
Our fight starts now!