It seemed the woman noticed she was being chased while also chasing someone else, because she left her detour destination immediately. However, that detour had considerably closed the distance between us, and at this rate I should have been able to catch up well before she reached the Great Old Forest. The problem was where she had made her detour.
The place she had stopped at was Gunjou City — a town I could honestly call the next most significant place to me after Kukuri Village.
"I don't know whether that woman did this or her subordinate zombies, but the damage extends over a pretty wide area. At least the old man and the others weren't victims, so that's something..."
Because of that, when I passed overhead I witnessed the devastation of Gunjou City firsthand, and without realizing it I had slowed down. I caught myself right away and picked up speed, but at this rate it would be a close call — whether I could catch her just before she escaped into the Great Old Forest. Still,
"I'm catching her if it's the last thing I do..."
Fortunately, when I scouted the area with Search, none of my close acquaintances — the old man and the landlady included — had been killed. But maybe that was only true "for now." Even so, if they were on the brink of death, I still couldn't prioritize them over stopping that woman.
"And I need to take her down as quickly as possible... no, kill her..."
To make sure this never happened again, I had to erase that woman's existence for certain, then get back here as fast as possible to confirm the old man and the others were safe, and return to the Royal Capital.
With that resolve renewed, I chased after the woman.
"I've caught up... huh!"
Just before the entrance to the Great Old Forest, I caught up to the woman — no, I was allowed to catch up.
Right when she was just within my visual range, she suddenly ducked behind a rock and launched a spell at me as I closed in. That said, I had been chasing her with Search active, so I noticed the moment she hid, and since I also knew where she was hiding, her ambush spell was trivially easy to dodge.
"Does she not know I can use Search? Or did she know and still think a second surprise attack could finish me off?"
As I muttered, I twisted my body to dodge a wyvern diving at me from above, then lopped its head clean off.
"She doesn't look surprised, so I guess she already expected the ambush wouldn't work."
Even though her two-stage ambush had ended in complete failure, the woman didn't show even a hint of shock on her face.
"Am I that much of a nuisance for ruining your plans? Well, I probably look just as furious as you do, though!"
I fired Air Bullet in retaliation, but the woman casually swatted aside my spell with one hand — a spell that should have been significantly more powerful.
"I wasn't using my full power, but to deflect it with one hand... As expected, we're about even in abilities — or maybe she has a slight edge."
It was troublesome, but I had no intention of losing.
That was partly because we had both become demigods, but more importantly because I knew I wasn't fighting alone.
"Sure, the circumstances are different, but fighting alongside someone you once fought to the death with as your partner — I'd call that the most recycled storyline there is... but actually experiencing it, I have to say there's nothing more reassuring."
Besides, the longer time went on, the weaker that woman's power would become.
"Right, I get it now. That's why you chose to fight me here instead of fleeing into the forest — you wanted to take me on while you still had the upper hand."
If that was the case, she might actually be a bit troublesome.
Until now, most of her fighting had been with escape in mind. Even when she'd cornered me, she never showed herself unless the situation was overwhelmingly in her favor.
But now that she'd decided to stop running and fight head-on, one of us would die. A wounded beast that prioritizes turning its back to flee isn't scary — but one that bares its fangs with the resolve of a last stand is. I should consider her more dangerous now than when she had been at full strength.
"Graaaaaah!"
The woman charged forward with a roar that made the air itself tremble. In her hands she wielded the same great scythe as before. But her scythe, much like my Kogarumaru, seemed to be a special weapon of its own — and its malevolence had increased dramatically.
"But Kogarumaru is stronger."
No matter how special her weapon was, Kogarumaru couldn't possibly lose in a contest of power... Or so I thought as I retreated, trying to maintain distance. But she was closing in faster than I could back away, and the gap between us shrank in the blink of an eye.
Whether the difference in stance between advancing and retreating played a role or not, there was no helping the gap in physical ability between me — a freshly minted demigod — and her, who may have fallen to demigod status but had once been a god.
I wanted to turn the tide at least to even, but with her bearing down on me like this, even if Kogarumaru was the superior weapon, she'd overwhelm me with sheer momentum. So I kept backing away while trying to chip at her momentum with magic — but then...
"I'm outnumbered too, you know!"
A wyvern dove at me from above once again, forcing me to abandon my spell and focus entirely on evasion.
"I really need to use Explore during combat too... but right now—!"
My evasive maneuvers cost me the chance to attack and let her close the distance even further than before. But looking at it another way, it was like an obstacle had appeared out of thin air. Trying to use Explore while fleeing from the woman and simultaneously dodging wyverns attacking from blind spots sounded exhausting — but thanks to Explore, I could tell the timing of the wyvern's approach... So I decided to use this situation to my advantage.
"Fireball!"
I dodged the incoming wyvern by a hair's breadth and positioned it between myself and the woman, using it as a shield.
The woman split the pesky wyvern clean in half, then pivoted her blade and swung her great scythe at me—but I seized the brief opening where her momentum faltered, shot straight upward, dodged her attack, and launched a magic spell at the same time. My magic, once again, was dispelled with nothing more than a wave of her hand, but that worked in my favor—her forward rush came to a complete stop, and I was finally able to close the distance on my own terms.
"Even if Kogarumaru is the superior blade, one clean cut won't finish the job, huh… Then!"
Kogarumaru's strike had been blocked by the woman's great scythe, but a clear mark from the blow remained on the scythe's blade. In other words, a single hit couldn't destroy it, but if I repeated the attack enough times, destruction was within reach.
The only nuisance was that the scythe appeared to possess some kind of regenerative ability. The wounds that had been clearly visible moments ago, along with the fresh ones I'd just inflicted, were gradually shrinking. On top of that, once the woman caught on to my strategy, she immediately adjusted her footwork to avoid taking hits to the same spot.
"G-Gguh…"
Still, the speed difference between Kogarumaru and the great scythe was clear—and more importantly, my weapon handling skill and experience far surpassed hers. So while it was taking time, things were progressing exactly as I'd planned.
"At this range, even the wyverns can't interfere!"
The woman was trying to break out of her disadvantaged position by sending the wyverns after me, but since I was constantly maintaining proper spacing with Kogarumaru while fighting, she couldn't find an opening to let them intervene.
(If I were in her shoes, I'd still charge the wyverns in, though.)
If you were backed into a corner with no way out, you'd send a wyvern crashing in with the intent of knocking both yourself and your opponent away. Sure, you'd take damage too, but it might create enough distance to regroup—and if things went your way, you could even come out unscathed by using the wyvern as a shield, just like I had done.
(The fact that she's not doing that means she either lacks the nerve, the skill, or both…)
As expected, even if this woman's physical abilities exceeded mine, her combat technique left much to be desired.
No matter how carefully the woman tried to maneuver to protect her scythe, if she kept absorbing my attacks, the weapon's limit would inevitably arrive. And since her evasion skill couldn't outmatch mine, all she could do was wait for that inevitable moment.
"Alright, I can do this!"
And that inevitable moment came sooner than expected.
Starting partway through, I began mixing in punches, kicks, and feints between my Kogarumaru strikes, which left the woman virtually frozen in place.
Seizing that opening, I concentrated my attacks on the parts of the scythe that looked most vulnerable—
"Hah!"
At last, I succeeded in shattering the scythe's handle.
And with that same momentum,
"Hah!"
My blade slashed across the woman's torso… but—
"Wh-what?"
At the same time, her attack had cut into my side.
Fortunately, the follow-through of Kogarumaru's swing seemed to have disrupted her movement, so the wound on my flank hadn't reached my organs. But right now, all that meant was it wasn't fatal — the cut itself was quite deep, and blood was pouring from my side, running down my pants and pooling on the ground. At this rate, I'd lose the ability to move from blood loss, and given who my opponent was, I'd also need to take precautions against poison and bacteria.
"It hasn't reached my organs, but it came close…"
I held Kogarumaru in one hand to keep the woman at bay while tending to the wound with the other. But the woman wasn't foolish enough to let that opportunity pass — she closed the distance herself and went on the offensive.
(The fact that she's pressing in means the wyvern won't attack me, but the tables have turned against me. And she's dual-wielding that massive scythe… She doesn't seem to have mastered it, but it's still troublesome.)
The thing that had wounded me… was the handle of the scythe I thought I'd destroyed.
More precisely, I'd been cut by a blade that had sprouted from the butt cap — the opposite end of the scythe. Despite appearing so suddenly, the blade was just as hard as the original one, and even when struck by Kogarumaru, it only sustained a shallow nick.
(Can't do much damage with one hand, huh… And on top of that, it has a regenerative ability?)
Because the scythe's length had been roughly halved, it was now easy to wield even at close range — the rotational speed of its swings had increased dramatically. Moreover, the woman had enough raw strength to swing the massive scythe one-handed, and she could do it with both arms.
Her technique and experience left much to be desired — her swings were far from sharp — but deflecting scythes whirling in from both sides like a mantis's claws with a single arm was no easy feat. And although the damage wasn't as severe as the wound on my side, small cuts were accumulating all over my arms and legs.
(Damn it! I don't know if it's the poison or the bacteria, but my wounds are healing slowly! If this keeps up…)
"Guh…"
I focused my healing magic on the areas closest to my organs, and used fire magic to sear the surface wounds shut.
The pain was so intense that my consciousness nearly flickered out for an instant, and the woman almost exploited that opening to land a clean hit — but I managed to block her attack at the very last moment.
"I knew it was risky to grab it bare-handed, but I can pull it off if I put my mind to it."
I'd aimed for the handle near the base of the blade, but my grip slipped just slightly, and the edge bit into the base of my thumb. Still, compared to the wound on my side, it was practically a scratch. Something this minor, I could heal with magic in no time.
The woman seemed caught off guard by my response. Eyes widening in surprise, she tried to wrench the scythe free and shake off my grip. We were practically pressed against each other, so simply pulling the scythe back wouldn't be enough to separate us — but with her physical prowess, if she started swinging me around by brute force, I wouldn't last long. So instead, I used the moment she pulled on the scythe to release my grip on my own accord, throwing her off balance. Then, shifting the angle of Kogarumaru — which had been locked in a tsuba press against her other scythe — I let it slide down along the handle and brought it crashing down,
"Guaah!"
I cut off four fingers from the woman's left hand and everything below the knee of her left leg.
"Normally, that'd be enough to settle the fight... but against a freak of nature, it doesn't work like that."
The woman's pain tolerance must have been absurd — losing fingers and a leg barely fazed her. And despite supposedly having her fingers severed, the scythe remained in her hand as if glued there.
"No... it's not glued — they've fused together!?"
The four fingers that remained on the stumps had sprouted root-like growths from the wound, and the scythe had been anchored to her palm through them.
As bizarre as that was, the woman's transformation didn't stop at her fingers. After the roots grew from her fingers, her entire arm began winding itself around the scythe's handle. At the same time, her arm shifted from its human shape into —
"She changed it into a shape that's easier to swing the scythe..."
It took on a form like a praying mantis's forelimb. Unlike a real mantis, though, it lacked barbs on the blade, so its ability to grapple was diminished — but the wrist could rotate and the scythe was double-edged, so its killing power seemed to have gone up considerably.
"As always, she just swings wildly, but the sheer abnormal strength behind those swings makes them terrifyingly sharp."
Her other arm — the right one — was still human-shaped, and that somehow felt more troublesome.
If both arms had fused with the scythe, she'd have had two of the same limb, which would've made it easier to find an opening using the same countermeasures. But instead, the woman aimed her left mantis-arm at me as her primary weapon while keeping her right arm human, scythe in hand, ready to cast magic at any moment.
Just as I was growing accustomed to my power as a demigod through our fight, the woman was apparently learning one-on-one combat tactics from battling me as well.
"This is a bit unexpected..."
I'd assumed the longer the fight dragged on, the more it favored me. But now the woman was beginning to show signs of growth. I doubted she had much room left for ability gains, but if she fully maximized what she already had... well, that'd be a handful. No — it'd be genuinely dangerous.
So far, she only seemed to be learning the basics of combat, so I wasn't at a disadvantage in terms of technique. But even just learning to keep me in check had already made the fight significantly harder.
"Well, either way, I have to fight at close range, don't I?"
The fight had gotten tougher, but at close range, the advantage was still mine. If I backed off now, I'd give the wyvern room to intervene, and with magic, I wasn't sure I could even hold my own. Besides, there was the wound on my side to consider — letting her wear me down from a distance would be a terrible idea.
(Just a little longer until my side heals...)
The pain in my side should be gone in a few more minutes. Until then, I'd parry her attacks at close range and wait for my chance to strike back.
I kept fighting with that thought in mind, but even after my side had healed, I couldn't find any decisive opening.
I'd originally intended to drag the fight out and turn the situation to my advantage, but that moment just wouldn't come. I didn't think my current approach was wrong, but something still felt off.
I shouldn't have let myself waver between going on the offensive right now versus holding my ground and waiting for her to weaken.
"What?!"
Even though I'd been fighting the woman at point-blank range, the wyvern had suddenly closed in from behind.
At this distance, taking down the wyvern would be easy enough, but whether I killed it or dodged it, I'd inevitably have to split my attention away from the woman. The absolute worst outcome would be a half-hearted response that left me eating the wyvern's body slam while also leaving myself wide open to the woman.
"Damn it!"
Either way, if clinging to my current distance risked exposing a fatal opening to the woman, then I had no choice but to abandon the range I'd been maintaining, deal with the wyvern somehow, and brace for the woman.
In an instant I made that call — ducking the wyvern's approach from behind while slashing at it, and simultaneously pulling back from the woman. I prepared to meet her charge head-on, but—
"She's not coming?"
The woman had barely moved at all. If anything, she hadn't even tried to get out of the way of the wyvern, which was barreling in without being able to slow its momentum.
(I don't know what she's thinking, but if I close the distance again and, if possible, land a hit—!)
As the woman was about to collide with the wyvern, I readied Kogarumaru and launched an Air Bullet, then moved to close the gap to point-blank range once more… but—
"Whoa—! Gah!"
The instant the woman and the wyvern collided, a left arm fused with her great scythe emerged from the tip of the wyvern's tail and shot straight toward me.
It was a completely unexpected sneak attack, but thanks to the Air Bullet I'd fired just ahead, the scythe's speed dropped ever so slightly, and I barely managed to block it with Kogarumaru.
However, I'd been forced to defend from a half-baked stance, and the sheer force of the great scythe sent me flying backward. That put nearly fifty meters between me and the woman, but it also gave me the chance to see what had just happened.
"She absorbed the wyvern!?"
The woman's left arm was embedded up to the elbow in the snout of the very wyvern she'd just collided with, and from the elbow onward it protruded from the tip of the wyvern's tail. Moreover, the great scythe that had appeared from the tail's end extended further like a tentacle, making the combined length of the arm and the wyvern's body nearly twenty meters.
(So that's how she extended her physical attack range? But then—!)
It was probably meant to be a surprise attack, but once I dodged it, the added weight would naturally slow her movements. So I tried to close the distance while launching another spell, but—
"No way!"
The woman's new arm showed no sign of slowing down. It came snaking toward me like a whip, as if to intercept my advance.
If I could just dodge this attack, I figured, then swinging a heavy limb at that speed would leave her arm too spent from the centrifugal force to mount a proper follow-up — or so I thought, but the great scythe came at me again and again without ever losing speed.
"You really are a monster…"
Caught off guard once more, I had no choice but to pull back from the woman again. And what I realized was that she had undergone yet another rapid transformation.
The wyvern that had been fused with the woman's arm was gone. Her entire arm had changed into something like a tentacle growing from the tip of a tail. Furthermore, when I looked more carefully at the area around her — specifically beneath where she stood — I could see what appeared to be wyvern remains scattered about.
"She absorbed only the usable parts from the wyvern's body, reshaped her arm, and discarded the rest?"
That woman had been tinkering with human bodies all this time — implanting magic cores, giving them four arms, all sorts of things. She might have done the exact same thing to her own body.
(Modifying her own body in an instant is ridiculous, but I suppose that's just what a former god is capable of… this monster!)
As I struggled against the scythe-equipped tentacles assaulting me from every direction, the woman must have judged this strategy effective against me, because she began sending wyverns crashing into me one after another.
"Her attacks plus wyvern charges? …Annoying, but not impossible to avoid—wuh!?"
The wyverns' charges included not just body slams, but also diving headfirst to bite as they passed by, swiping with their claws, and swinging their tails — so even combined with the woman's attacks, dodging them wasn't particularly difficult. The reason I wasn't fighting back was that if I carelessly dealt a fatal wound, the woman — currently focused on offense alone — might switch to absorbing the wyverns at any moment. I wanted to put that off for as long as possible until I could find a countermeasure.
But then, without warning, something completely outside that pattern was thrown in — no, "attack" wasn't even the right word for it.
It was an encirclement by several wyverns. They spread their wings and closed in from the front, above, below, and both sides, blocking every gap in my path as if trying to embrace me.
With the woman pressing in from behind and wyverns blocking every other direction, I had no choice but to aim for the ones I could definitely break through rather than the uncertain path behind me. But breaking through meant I had to take down a wyvern first.
"Tch!"
Reluctantly, I severed the neck of the wyvern lunging at me from the front with bared fangs, and sliced off the wings that were in the way, but… sure enough, the woman stabbed her scythes into the now-dead wyvern's head and torso to reclaim them.
She then grabbed the head with her right arm and absorbed the torso while it was still impaled on her left scythe. Her right arm doubled in length and thickened to roughly four times its size, while her left arm underwent a change where another tentacle sprouted from roughly the area that served as her elbow.
Not content with that transformation alone, the woman began killing wyverns with her own hands and absorbing their corpses.
The wyverns showed absolutely no concern whether their comrades were being killed or whether the great scythes were heading their way, and they didn't even flinch when they themselves were about to be absorbed. I attacked the woman to prevent her from growing any stronger, but the wyverns would sacrifice themselves—or rather, deliberately use their own bodies as shields—and then the scythes' attacks would come from behind and pierce right through those shields, so I couldn't land a single blow on the woman.
After absorbing nearly thirty wyverns and undergoing yet another transformation, the woman—
"So that's what you consider your strongest form..."
Her right arm was unchanged, but her left arm had grown ten tentacles, each bearing a great scythe. Her torso extended from around her waist, and below that hung a lower body resembling that of a mid-rank or higher dragon with four limbs—not unlike the wyverns, or rather, not unlike Solomon. It was an extraordinarily bizarre sight, almost comical depending on how you looked at it, and utterly grotesque.