The woman was making gestures as though brushing away insects flying around her, while carefully avoiding stepping on something at her feet.
(I don't know what's going on, but now's my chance to strike!)
I hurled a shuriken at the dragon torso of the woman who was behaving so strangely.
The shuriken was warped and its cutting edge had dulled considerably, yet somehow its power hadn't diminished much—it stabbed into the dragon's body and stopped inside without piercing through.
Against this woman, the shuriken were effective to this degree, but it was frustrating that only three remained after what I'd thrown earlier, while she'd been thrashing around.
(She'll notice me eventually… but now that she's seen me, there's no point in trying to hide.)
The moment the woman spotted me, she swung her left arm at me despite being off-balance.
The attack wouldn't reach given the distance, but she'd likely close the gap next time, so it would be cutting it close. Anticipating this, I flew backward and fired off as much magic as I could in the direction of the woman while I had the chance.
As the woman moved away from the spot where she'd been stomping around, her strange behavior ceased, and on her third attack she brought me within range. I figured I could barely dodge, but just in case I held up the 'Gigant'—broken to less than half its original size—as a shield to brace for the impact, and then… something inexplicable happened again.
"My arm avoided me?"
The ten sickles that had been bearing down on me suddenly changed course mid-swing the instant I held up the Gigant, moving as if to dodge around me.
As a result, the arms collided with each other, and more than half of the sickles ended up mangled.
(That was clearly because of the 'Gigant.' When she was targeting only me, her movements were normal, but the moment the Gigant appeared between me and her arms, they started behaving erratically… Could it be that the stomping and the insect-brushing gestures were her trying to dodge the shattered fragments of the Gigant? If that's the case, then…)
I'd figured out that the Gigant was the cause of the woman's strange movements, so I drew the Kogarumaru—the one I'd deliberately kept stowed until now.
"Whoa!"
The instant I gripped the handle firmly, a jolt of pain shot from my palm all the way up to around my elbow. It was almost as though—
(Ancient Dragon… no, maybe Kogarumaru had been sulking inside the bag the whole time. "Release me sooner next time!" …or something.)
"Sorry about that," I muttered, and this time, instead of an electric jolt, my palm gradually warmed. It seemed the mood had improved.
I re-gripped Kogarumaru and pointed its tip at the woman, and the part of its body made from the Wyvern trembled. That was when the woman apparently understood, too, what had been causing her own body to move in such incomprehensible ways.
"Gyaaaah!"
The woman let out a tremendous roar — whether to rouse the body parts she had crafted from the Wyvern, or simply to intimidate — and then swung her left arm toward me.
Earlier, that arm had moved on its own to avoid me, but now, influenced by the woman's roar, it charged straight at me…
"Hmph!"
Thanks to Kogarumaru, five arms that had been about to hit me were sliced clean off. Kogarumaru's performance had surged ever since I spoke with the ancient dragon that dwelled within it. Moreover, when filled beyond a certain threshold of Magic Power, it emitted a faint blackish glow that further enhanced its cutting power.
(Now that I've spoken with Kogarumaru, I can vaguely understand abilities I never knew it had.)
The woman's severed arms were immediately recalled and reattached, but it seemed she had finally grasped that her current form was no match for me and Kogarumaru. Only after reaching that state did she deliberately create distance between us.
Having retreated, the woman feinted a magic spell with her right arm to keep me in check, while simultaneously spinning her reconstituted left arm.
At first, I thought she was building momentum through rotation to amplify her striking power, but the ten arms she was spinning gradually intertwined and merged together, transforming into a single, thick, elongated limb. The great scythe grew in tandem with her arm's thickness, now exceeding my own height in length.
With that even more colossal arm, the woman swung it at me without killing any of the rotational momentum… and yet, even the enlarged great scythe could not so much as scratch Kogarumaru. Instead, the blade itself shattered on impact.
Of course, in a weapon-versus-weapon clash it was a crushing victory for Kogarumaru — but in terms of raw momentum and mass, I was completely outmatched. The moment the scythe's blade broke, I was sent flying backward with tremendous force.
However, compared to the woman — whose great scythe, now part of her very body, had just shattered — I had taken a heavy impact but was uninjured. Clearly, the momentum had swung in my favor.
(I can't afford to let this opening slip away!)
The broken great scythe was visibly regenerating in real time, but before it could fully reform, I closed the distance to the woman. I landed a deep slash on her left foreleg, then carved through her torso while threading between her legs, and sliced off her right hind leg.
"That was genuinely dangerous. But the risk was worth it."
My original plan had been to sever the left foreleg as well, but as I began closing in, magic erupted from the woman's right side. I dodged the spell, only to nearly get crushed by her still-regenerating left arm slamming down from above. That forced my attack on the foreleg to land shallow. On the other hand, having evaded the left arm threw the woman off balance, allowing me to slip between her legs — so in the end, I dealt more damage than I had anticipated.
(The most effective weapon against that woman in that state is definitely Kogarumaru, no question. No matter how many Wyverns she stitches together, she can't overcome a weapon that houses the soul of an ancient dragon.)
Just as Kogarumaru — forged from Dragon Zombie materials — harbored the soul of a black ancient dragon, the parts the woman had built from Wyverns likely retained something akin to a Wyvern's spirit. When that spirit found itself facing an equal — an ancient dragon — it felt the disparity in their ranks viscerally, and the instinct to flee from Kogarumaru as well as from the Gigant, also constructed from Dragon Zombie materials, manifested as an uncontrollable aversion to me. If I assumed that, then the inexplicable movements of the Wyvern-derived parts made perfect sense. The same logic applied to the shuriken I had thrown using Tanikaze's outer plating — the lingering influence of the Dragon Zombie's magic core's Magic Power must have amplified their effectiveness against the woman beyond the ordinary.
(In that case, how will the woman adapt?)
If she continued using the Wyvern-crafted body, that part might betray her at a critical moment. But even if she discarded the Wyvern portions and reverted to her original form, while the risk of betrayal would vanish, her combat capability would drop significantly.
(Though, if she could easily separate only the parts she didn't need, I'd think she would have used Wyverns from the start.)
If instead of gradually reinforcing her body with Wyvern parts, she had used them to upgrade her entire body at once when she first added the left arm, I probably wouldn't have been able to cope with the sudden spike in her combat power and would have been killed.
(Whether she separates the Wyvern parts or not, I feel like the advantage is still on my side.)
As things stood, Kogarumaru made it easy to deal damage, and even if she reverted to her original form, I was the one accustomed to a Demigod's power, so I'd still hold the edge.
Thanks to Kogarumaru, I now had both the combat strength and the mental composure to calmly watch for whatever the woman did next.
In contrast to me, the woman seemed to be growing desperate as the situation that had once been in her favor turned against her.
(Is it from the desperation, or is her wound healing slowing down... no, is she hitting her limit?)
Even accounting for the fact that she was once the God of Death, she had fought countless battles while commanding uncountable numbers of zombies, and had hastily rebuilt her own body using Wyvern parts. On top of that, she'd had the situation flipped on her twice in a short span — just when she was on the verge of victory. It wouldn't be strange at all if she were approaching both her physical and mental limits.
(Chances are, she'd never been cornered in combat before. That's probably why she couldn't notice the changes happening to her body.)
So far, the woman had always prioritized efficiency — striking at the weaknesses of the black ancient dragon when turning it into a zombie, and sending her Lich subordinates to wear me down before attempting to capture me herself. Emphasizing efficiency when carrying out a plan is nothing unusual, but from a different perspective, one could say she had always chosen the easier path in most situations.
As a result, she had neither pushed herself to her limits nor been pushed to them, so she had no idea what changes would manifest when her limits drew near. Even if she understood it intellectually, limits can approach gradually — or they can surface all at once without so much as a hint beforehand, simply because you weren't paying attention. This time, it was likely the latter pattern.
(Did her concentration break, and did the fatigue hit her all at once... the worst possible pattern.)
Once focus breaks, it doesn't come back easily, and with the fatigue thrown in, her body probably wasn't moving the way she wanted it to.
And the proof was right there.
"You fall for feints so childish it's almost comical!"
She fell for it immediately — a feint where I swayed my body while slowly closing the distance, then pretended to surge forward all at once. She swung her scythes to intercept, but since I had barely moved from my position, her weapons cut through empty air. And because her speed had dropped considerably, dodging her attack and landing a slash was easy. Granted, I got greedy and aimed for her neck, only to have my strike blocked by her right arm — but even so, I managed to wound that arm so badly it was only centimeters from being severed entirely.
Starting from that wound on her arm, the woman took hit after hit, accumulating injuries across her entire body. She managed to avoid any fatal blows, but her rare counterattacks were all born of desperation, and I could dodge them with ease.
At the start, I had been the underdog from the woman's perspective, with the goal of capturing me without damaging my body. And she had indeed captured me, pushing me to the brink of certain death — but after that, multiple factors converged, and I... I and Kogarumaru had completely turned the tables on her.
"Gyaaa!"
Even now, I had just slashed her right hind leg, forcing the woman down to one knee.
The momentum was on my side, but I couldn't say I had the clear advantage in terms of raw power. There was still a chance I could take a fatal wound at some point, though with every blow I landed, that chance was growing smaller.
"Something wrong? ...I'm not feeling as much resistance?"
I'd inflicted more than ten wounds on the woman since forcing her to one knee, yet for some reason, each successive cut with Kogarumaru was leaving shallower injuries.
When I noticed this, I thought Kogarumaru's edge might have dulled from the woman's blood oil, but even after wiping the blade clean with my clothes, nothing changed — if anything, the cuts were getting shallower still.
"It's not Kogarumaru — her hardness has changed."
The woman's transformations up until now had primarily been about boosting her attack power, but this time it seemed she had shifted to specializing in defense to withstand my blows.
"Still, isn't she getting a little too small this time?"
The woman's massive body, which had been shaped like a dragon, had been shrinking as it grew harder, eventually transforming into a roughly spherical form about three meters across.
"I don't know what she's thinking with this shape, but she's gotten pretty tough."
In this new form, even a direct slash from Kogarumaru only left a wound about ten centimeters deep. What's more, her regeneration — while slower — was still very much intact, so if I eased up at all, a ten-centimeter gash would likely close in just a few minutes.
"But the parts I slice off don't seem to regenerate back to normal."
When I landed a second hit in roughly the same spot as the first, a chunk of flesh a few centimeters across went flying — but after a while, it just lay there on the ground where it had landed, with no sign of being reabsorbed. The wound on the main body healed slowly, and even after it closed, the color was paler than the surrounding area.
(Just to be safe, if I burn the severed pieces so they can't be reabsorbed, I should eventually be able to whittle my way down to the magic core.)
A counterattack from the woman was terrifying, but since this method offered the best odds of winning, I had no choice but to accept the risk — get as close as Kogarumaru could reach, and chip away at her steadily, little by little.
I had no idea if she even had a counterattack in the works, let alone what form it might take, but I stayed on guard as I continued to land blows, gradually shaving away at her flesh.
(Have I finally gotten through about a tenth of her? But the fact that she hasn't counterattacked after taking this much damage is suspicious... Huh?)
One of countless times I'd done this — when I burned the severed piece of the woman's flesh, I noticed a cross-shaped line on the upper surface of her main body that I was certain hadn't been there before.
Keeping my distance just to be safe, I watched as the wound rapidly expanded. At about a meter across, it began to split open, and the woman's upper body emerged from within. Her expression was utterly vacant — she was facing in my direction, but it didn't feel like she was actually looking at me. At the very least, this wasn't the face of someone who was backed into a corner, which made it impossible to tell what she was thinking. It was deeply unsettling.
(The woman has finally decided to show herself — does that mean some kind of preparation is complete? Or...)
Both of the woman's arms had returned to the same size and shape as a normal human's, which meant she was very likely hiding the scythe somewhere.
I circled the woman while firing off what amounted to probing spells, but she didn't move from her spot — she simply rotated her body and countered my magic with her own, neutralizing each attack. That said, unlike me who was mobile in the air, she was rooted in place, so any spells she failed to neutralize still inflicted damage. But given her durability and regenerative ability, those hits were probably trivial.
(Should I keep this magical duel going and look for an opening, or should I press the fight as soon as possible since I have no idea what she's hiding?)
There was always the option of continuing to exchange spells and striking with Takemikazuchi the moment I spotted a gap... but I had already shown Takemikazuchi twice, and the second time, even though it wasn't at full power, it had been broken through. If that was the case, I couldn't be sure even a full-power Takemikazuchi would work on the woman now. And since I couldn't be sure, I had to avoid any action that might waste a massive amount of Magic Power.
(Remaining the most effective option right now is close combat with Kogarumaru.)
I had no idea what would happen if I got close, but since magic was yielding almost no damage, my only choice was to attack with Kogarumaru — the weapon that had dealt the most damage so far.
To close to a distance where Kogarumaru could reach, I kept firing spells while inching closer...
"Hah!"
I swung Kogarumaru down at the crown of her head. And then—
"What?!"
Kogarumaru cleaved through the woman's head with ease.
Even accounting for Kogarumaru's effectiveness against her, it was strange that there was so little resistance. The moment I thought that, from the mass that served as the woman's lower body, countless tentacles — no, small arms — extended toward me, trying to grab hold.
The arms were only about two fingers thick, and the hands at their tips were toy-sized, but each palm was studded with numerous thorns. If I got caught, it would not be easy to wrench myself free.
I sliced through the approaching arms with Kogarumaru while retreating. Whether it was because they had thinned out, the arms lacked the hardness of the mass I had cut earlier, and I could sever them easily. The severed arms didn't seem to regenerate immediately, but... even after I was nearly a hundred meters away, they kept stretching and chasing me.
(They stretch because they got thinner, huh? But still...)
Once they reached nearly a hundred meters in length, the speed at which they pursued me began to drop, and they seemed to hit their limit shortly after — they stopped extending.
"I finally made it to point-blank range, and now I have to start over..."
But since the thinner arms had significantly reduced strength, as long as I was careful not to get grabbed, I should be able to cut through them easily with Kogarumaru.
Thinking that, I was resetting my stance to close in again when—
"Damn it!"
Two arms attacked from directly beneath me. Caught off guard, I managed to dodge one, but the other seized my left leg, and then my right leg was grabbed as well.
I tried to break free immediately, slamming Kogarumaru into one of the arms, but my poor posture made it hard to put any real force behind it, and I couldn't cut very deep.
Still, with each successive blow, the wound grew deeper and deeper, until I was on the verge of slicing the arm clean off — but in the meantime, the arm had begun retracting back toward the main body, fusing with thinner arms it met along the way. What had been two arms merged into one, growing thicker and stronger in the process, until even slamming Kogarumaru into it didn't make it budge.
"Damn it, damn it!"
I kept hammering Kogarumaru into the arm and firing magic at both the arm and the main body, but it didn't seem to do much good.
I tried to flee in the opposite direction from the arm at the same time as attacking, but the woman's pulling force was stronger than mine, so the gap between us kept shrinking bit by bit. Just when we were about fifty meters apart — for some reason, the woman stopped pulling.
However, while she stopped pulling, she seemed to compensate by increasing the hardness of the arm, making it impossible for me to escape. If the arm had grabbed me below the knee, I could have slashed just above the grab point and broken free, but during the struggle, the arm had coiled its way up to around my waist, so that option was off the table.
(Should I use the Takemikazuchi after all...? No, I don't know if it would even work on her, and if I used it while being restrained like this, I'd take damage too.)
A mutual trade I could live with, but if she withstood it and I was the only one hurt, she would definitely kill me afterward and retreat somewhere to recover.
(And if that happens, the first thing she'd target after recovering would be my acquaintances.)
That was something I absolutely had to prevent, but among the magic I had, nothing other than the Takemikazuchi seemed capable of taking her down.
With no other options, I was about to grit my teeth, prepare to blow myself up, and gamble everything on the Takemikazuchi — when I stopped to think...
(Wait, why did she grab me in the first place if she's not going to do anything?)
That thought suddenly crossed my mind.
Having regained a sliver of composure, I took a fresh look at the woman. And then I noticed —
(She hasn't fully recovered from where Kogarumaru cut her?)
The wound I had slashed before being swarmed by countless arms was still there.
At first glance, her face — which I had cleaved left and right — looked like it had returned to normal. But the cut marks were still clearly visible, and the halves had healed together slightly misaligned.
Even accounting for her reduced recovery speed from accumulated damage, she should have long since been back to normal by now. And even if she was prioritizing recovery, would she really heal it so half-heartedly? Even if this was an act to make me let my guard down, there was no need to keep up the charade while I was far enough away not to notice. Plus, leaving it misaligned meant it could easily become a weak point.
(In that case, she's in worse shape than I thought? To the point where she can't spare any power for recovery... or maybe recovering now would be pointless anyway.)
So the reason she had pinned me down at this awkward distance was likely threefold: buying time to charge up for an attack, staying ready to counter any attack of mine, and — most probably — keeping me within range of whatever assault she had planned.
(At any rate, I should probably be ready to use Takemikazuchi.)
I didn't know what kind of attack she was preparing, but to counter it, I needed to be able to fire Takemikazuchi, with its high single-strike power, at a moment's notice.
(It might be a stretch, but it's better than nothing... eh?)
Just as I was about to begin the activation sequence, I noticed the surrounding atmosphere change dramatically—and for the worse.
(The ambient Magic Power is converging on the woman! At this rate, I won't have enough to spare for Takemikazuchi!)
The fact that she was gathering the surrounding Magic Power meant that there would be less available for me to use for Takemikazuchi, which also relied on the ambient energy.
Even if I could use it, a Takemikazuchi weaker than the one that had already been beaten once before would never defeat her.
(And on top of that, this feeling... Is she planning to self-destruct?!)
It was the same kind of presence I’d felt when she created the explosion during the battle with Seigen. That time, my parents had shielded me, so I wasn’t injured, but they’d both been pushed to their limits and couldn’t fight any further. Plus, the damage had been catastrophic everywhere except the direction we were in. And that had been a full-power explosion, predicated on her escaping.
Realizing she had no future, the woman was preparing to unleash all her magic.
(I can’t do it... I have no technique to neutralize or defend against an explosion greater than that one...)
The only ways to deal with it were to hit it with a more powerful spell or to nullify it before it activated.
But my strongest spell, Takemikazuchi, couldn’t be launched before hers went off, and even if it could, its power wasn’t enough. Moreover, even if I managed it, Takemikazuchi’s nature meant it would have to strike her directly from above. That wouldn’t stop the circular blast from spreading; in fact, there was a high risk that my spell’s power would just add to hers.
The next most powerful was Tempest. I might be able to contain its power by creating a wall between us or by enveloping her, but... to give it enough force to act as a wall, we were too close. At this distance, I’d be caught inside Tempest along with her, trapping the explosion and likely increasing its power further.
(Wait, to block that thing, the best bet might be to create a thick wall of magic in front of it... right?)
Whether I could actually stop it was one thing, but I should at least be able to build a wall of magic. However, I doubted she’d let me do that. Right now, I was effectively in the same state as being grabbed by her—a state so far beyond exhaustion that recovering was pointless. Until the moment she detonated, she would cling to me with everything she had.
So even if I made a wall in this state, she’d undoubtedly interfere in some way right before the explosion.
(Is there any other move...?)
I thought over various possibilities, but among the spells I could use or even considered using, none seemed capable of countering that explosion.
(I know another spell... That’s it! With that one!)
The spell I wanted was an offensive type launched forward, with enough power to pierce through or dispel that explosion. And at the very last moment, I recalled a spell that might possess such potential.
(Solomon’s ‘Breath’ or Namitaro’s ‘Hadōhō’ — putting power aside, they at least fit the criteria I’m looking for! ...But I don’t know how to cast them...)
Solomon’s ‘Breath’ and Namitaro’s ‘Hadōhō’ likely consume magic power differently from the spells I usually employ, and given enough time, I might be able to reproduce something similar. But in this current situation, I don’t have that kind of leisure.
(Is it all over...?)
I resolved to give up and stake everything on the wall of magic power! ...Just as I was about to make that decision, I noticed an unprecedented heat gathering in the palm of my right hand.