He went full thug.
The spider left the room.
"Huh!? She vanished!? Spatial magic!?"
I thought I heard something, but it was probably just my imagination.
Unlike the serious-type Balt, I can't be bothered dealing with a guy who looks like a thug through and through.
I'll just dodge him and head back once things have cooled down.
Avoiding unnecessary conflict is one of the arts of adult living.
It is absolutely not because the guy's appearance freaked me out.
Not one bit.
From the eyes of the clone body I secretly left behind in the room, I observed the man's behavior.
He stood frozen for a while, then started rummaging through the room.
Peering under the bed, opening the closet.
Hey, I'm not hiding in any of those places.
Stop searching spots where I obviously couldn't fit.
Wait, that's the underwear drawer!?
Ah, he closed it immediately.
Whoa, bright red. Innocent despite his appearance?
Hmm, but he gives off a tough-guy vibe, so maybe that's just his style after all?
In the end, the man couldn't find me and left the room.
Phew.
There's no way he could find me since I'm not there, but the clone could've been spotted.
Well, even if it was found, I could handle it.
Since it's dangerous to go back right away, I'll kill time somewhere until things blow over.
Hmm.
Since I have the opportunity, maybe I should take care of that matter I've been putting off.
I crossed through dimensional space and arrived at the familiar Great Ello Dungeon.
Between the Upper Layer and the Middle Layer.
The place I once used as my base.
And there, sprawled out magnificently, was a massive object.
The husk of a Queen Taratect.
The one I'd pulled the soul out of when I ascended to godhood.
This Queen originally housed one of my parallel wills, but without a soul, she's in a state of suspended animation.
Not brain death—soul death.
The body is alive, but the soul is dead, so as a living creature, she's finished.
I inject a trace amount of soul into the Queen's body, using the same method as with the clones.
However, I don't activate her.
If I were to activate something this massive and get it moving, the energy consumption would skyrocket.
For now, I keep her in suspended animation and only activate her when the time is right.
Against Black, she's not very reliable, but she was originally one of the strongest Monsters in this world, so I think she could handle anything besides Black.
Well, since I poured my own power into the husk, there are no Skill benefits, and her strength is different from what she originally had.
Hmm.
Did she get a little weaker?
But she should still have the power of an upper-tier dragon species class, and that should be more than enough in this world.
As for the other Queens, I'll leave that to the Demon King.
The other Queens should still have faint traces of their souls remaining.
The only ones I successfully hijacked were this one and one other—the rest were still in progress.
There's another soul-dead Queen in suspended animation, but she's far away and I've never been there, so transferring would be a pain.
I'll leave her be for now.
The other Queens shouldn't have reached soul death, so they should still be alive.
They'd be significantly weakened, but just being massive organisms makes them a threat.
I think that covers the Queens.
I transfer to the next location.
I arrived in a forest.
The elf forest, discovered through my clone body.
Near its center, in front of the barrier.
I'd investigated to some extent through my clone, but I felt I should verify things with my main body.
So, I carefully observed the barrier.
Hmm, this isn't from a Skill.
It exceeds the limits of power granted by the System.
Even a Demon King at Status cap wouldn't be able to break this barrier.
No matter how you look at it, this barrier is powered by MA Energy.
Otherwise, there's no way it could maintain this level of output.
Why is Black leaving this alone?
Hmm hmm hmm.
I don't get it.
Should I smash it right now and at least shut down the generation device?
Hmm, but if I did that, the world situation would probably start moving at an insane pace.
That could effectively rob me of my current period of leisure—I mean, preparation time.
And it's not really a welcome development.
I'm being monitored from all directions through clairvoyance, and the elves seem to have a lot of enemies.
If the barrier breaks, won't I get swarmed?
Well, the barrier probably isn't the elves' only trump card, so there's a possibility I could be the one getting beaten instead.
Either way, it would probably lead to large-scale combat.
And that might interfere with the Demon King, who's currently gearing up for war.
I can't block the Demon King's path just yet.
If enough people die, I could still achieve my goal, but I need to keep up the act of following the Demon King's wishes right up until the last moment without Black catching on.
And then attacking the elves that Black has left alone.
Black would definitely catch on.
Better to leave it alone.
But coming all this way and doing nothing before heading back feels wrong.
If only I could get a clone body through the barrier to see what's on the other side.
I searched the surroundings.
Found them.
A few elves existed outside the barrier as well.
They seemed to be on patrol.
Among them, I targeted a small group moving together.
Three of them.
They hadn't noticed me.
I opened my eyes and unleashed the evil eye.
Instantly, the trio of elves froze as if turned to stone.
It mimics the immobilizing evil eye—locking in place the movements of anyone I look at.
I approached the frozen trio and forced their mouths open.
Inside each mouth, I jammed a ball about the size of a ping-pong ball and made them swallow it.
That should do it.
I distanced myself from the trio and released the evil eye's effect.
The trio resumed their patrol as if nothing had happened.
The beauty of this evil eye is that it leaves absolutely no memory of the time while the effect is active.
No matter what I do, the target under the evil eye's influence can't resist at all and won't remember a thing.
Even if I drew all over their faces, they wouldn't notice until someone pointed it out or they looked in a mirror.
Now, as long as even one of those three enters the barrier, I'm set.
The eggs inside their stomachs will hatch, and clone bodies will be born inside the barrier.
Then they're mine.
To avoid causing a commotion, I'll have them crawl out of the host's mouth while they sleep, without killing the host.
Having done good work, I returned to the mansion, satisfied.