Chapter 109: Conclusion

Translator: ShiroiKaze/Soyokaze Translations

Author’s Note: The Demon Lord fight. It will be decided here.

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Taking some distance, I held a quick conference with Marielle, making sure Masayoshi couldn’t hear.

The Demon Lord is currently unstoppable and immortal. If we don’t suppress those abilities, then we’ll have no way of winning.

I thought up a number of possibilities to do that, but with him getting the immortality effect, anything we tried would end up pointless… However!

She’s giving me her trust, so our secret talks easily finished.

“Yo, done talking?”

“We’re going to wipe that smug look off your face right now.”

“Hahah! If you’re gonna do it, then why don’t you try it? Hmm?”

Don’t need to tell me twice… If my “diagnosis” is correct, that smug attitude is going to be blown away in the blink of an eye.

Leaving the reply in my mind aside, I pulled out one of my “trump cards” from my pocket.

The Devil’s Wailing Mask… It’s a mask that grants the wearer increased recovery power, and also is cursed to be irremovable. It has also been modified a bit though.

“Demon Lord Masayoshi… Say your prayers!”

With both feet and my left hand, using everything, I ran across the ground.

At this point I only have a few minutes left of [Body Reinforcement] time.

I moved at nearly the speed of a jet.

After neglecting his technique up until now, Masayoshi couldn’t react even the slightest bit.

But that was all it took to survive up to here. For him.

Take an attack, repel it, and then counterattack.

I was a tactic that made the most efficient use of his gifts.

—That’s exactly why… This attack will hit!

With my left hand paddling against the ground, and both feet boring into the surface… I dove in right next to Masayoshi.

At this distance, neither Sentinel nor Agni Blaze could be used!

Delivering my right hand to his face—I slapped it onto him.

“Haah…?”

Masayoshi made a befuddled noise. Stuck to that face of his was the Devil’s Wailing Mask.

I had taken the mask in my right hand, and pushed it onto his face.

“The hell is this…? Are you just making fun of me now?”

“I’m not. This is the very first step.”

Of the items devised to overthrow the Demon Lord, this is one…

“Try to make a fool out of me… I’m gonna fucking kill you, brat!”

His right arm swung over.

I wasn’t far enough away for a sword’s blade, but he could still knock me away with the handle. And that alone would be enough to deliver a fatal wound to my body.

But I can’t let myself die right now!

I desperately twist my broken posture around, and avoid a direct hit.

Perhaps that had some worth, as it ended with just the right half of my belly being mowed down.

“Gahfua!”

It was just a graze… But that was enough to rupture a number of my organs.

The wound was clearly fatal. But it wasn’t enough for immediate death. I suppose I was lucky, huh?

It hurt as much as dying. Might have been better if there was more of an external wound… If it was a defect in my appearance, then “Golden Ratio” would have almost immediately regenerated it for me.

Anyway, I’m still breathing at the moment. Which means—Time for the next move!”

“Ma… Mari-eeeeeel!”

“What?!”

While I was bouncing and rolling along the ground like a rubber ball, I shouted her name.

There are four steps to beating the Demon Lord, and I just completed one of them.

Next is her turn!

While using me as cover, she successfully got in close, and caught Masayoshi completely off guard.

Concentrating magic power in her right hand, she slapped the palm of that hand into Masayoshi’s stomach like a palm strike.

“Eat this—It’s revenge for Alma!”

The concentrated magic power permeated into Masayoshi’s body.

Seeing that, I confirmed the modification to the Devil’s Wailing Mask had worked well.

—This’ll work. Just… Two more moves!

But Marielle must have relaxed after that one blow, as she stopped moving.

That’s when Masayoshi’s flame axe came charging in.

—Wait, she… She’s not “Immortal,” you know?!

I immediately activated [Telekinesis]. Instantly, my messed up stomach hurt enough that I felt like I was dying, but I didn’t have a chance to care about that.

“Make it… In time—!”

Just barely, her body floated, and with that the flame axe struck her breastplate.

With [Time Stasis] cast on that armor, it should even be able to take his attack…

And by having her float in the air, we should be able to mitigate the impact, too!

“Gyaaaaaaa!”

With her chest smashed into, Marielle screamed in a slightly unladylike fashion as she was sent flying.

She hit the ground a number of times, rolled more than 20 meters, and finally crashed into the wall before she stopped.

“Gofuh, gahah… Agu…”

She’s vomiting blood, and her limbs are bent at weird angles, but… It looks like she’s still breathing.

Apparently she’s still conscious too. Being who she is, she should be able to heal herself up.

She fulfilled her role splendidly. The rest is our job.

We’ve hit him twice; next I have to take his attention this way…

“I’m telling ya it’s useless… Useless, useless, useless! See, my gift makes it so neither swords, nor magic… Work on me at all! You get it? You don’t get it, do you? ‘Cause you’re just a bunch of idiots that went against me.”

“… Demon Lord… Masayoshi.”

“Yeah, what? Still wanna go? Or you gonna give up? Not that I’m letting you off now.”

“What do you think… The first thing I studied, when I came to this world… Is?”

Buy time, and keep him focused on me. To do that, I endured the pain, and spun my words.

“Huh? “This world”? Don’t tell me, you’re…?”

“Yeah, I was born in Japan.”

“Ha, hahah. Seriously? Seriously… There was someone other than me who reincarnated. I see! Alright, then I’ll promote you to being my wife. Rejoice!”

This bastard… Is still spouting that garbage after all this…

But thanks to the bastard being such a moron, it looks like we’ll clear the third move.

“I’m going to… Refuse that one. Instead, let me tell you something. The first thing… I studied, when I came to this world, is… How to “seal a gift,” understand?”

“… Eh?”

At the same time as his voice—

A sword stuck out of Masayoshi’s chest.

“Aga… GYAAAAAAAAH!”

This is probably the first time since coming to this world that he’s felt the pain of death.

His limbs jumped and throbbed wildly like he was a bug specimen being stuck onto something.

“Wh-what?! Why?!”

“I am here… As well! Miss Alma, Mister Tony, and Hans. This is their revenge!”

The one to thrust the sword was Marle, who had been hiding up until then.

The circlet adorning her forehead, the “Owl’s Eye,” strengthens detection ability, and stealth at the same time. Using that power, she successfully sneaked up from behind to deliver a fatal wound.

Her attack accurately gouged into his heart, and pierced through his chest.

With the sword penetrating through, she pried it to further open the wound, pulled it out, and took some distance.

Seeing how she moved, I understood very well that she had really gained plenty of experience here.

By prying at the sword, she cut through major blood vessels, and blood gushed out in time with the throbbing of his heart.

“You see… I went through some terrible things, because of these gifts. So I studied it; how to seal gifts. And then I implemented it. The Devil’s Wailing Mask is… [Enchanted] with a “Full Guard” gift seal.”

“Th-this thinggh… Sh*t, it won’t come off?! And I’m not regenerating… Why? I became “Immortal,” didn’t I?!”

“No. Your “Immortality” is already quite gone.”

Marielle said as she waveringly stood up. Looks like she finished healing her wounds.

Her eyes are shaking with both hatred and rapture.

“Even should you consume the World Tree’s bud, it takes time before your body adapts to it. Until just now, you certainly did hold the regenerative ability of “Immortality,” but that was merely the result of the bud trying to survive within you, and nothing more.”

“Yeah, according to my “Appraisal,” you… Didn’t have the “Immortality” gift yet. Only “status effect: Immortal”. In other words, just the “immortality status abnormality” is what I discovered. That’s… Just like poison, an “influence by an outside factor,” so… What that means is, it was a “temporary immortal status”.”

While the pain in my abdomen has me in shreds, I continue the conversation.

There’s still one more thing to do. I can’t die.

“Which is why I erased it for you. Using my [Antidote] magic. Show some gratitude.”

“Wha-, That… Because of some cheap magic like that…”

Antidote can be learned even in the early stages; it’s relatively simple magic for a healer.

Even so, using it at a level that would get rid of the World Tree’s bud isn’t simple at all.

But the fact that Marielle’s magic is strong enough to even influence the World Tree is something I’ve known since five years ago at the entrance exam.

[Antidote], which gets rid of foreign substances inside the body. With this, not having a chance to digest it, the not-fully-taken-in sprout was erased.

“Now, with your “Full Guard” sealed, and even your “Immortality” lost, you’re just a powerful idiot.”

“Your overconfidence in not wearing armor became your enemy. Even I could easily pierce through you.”

“Sh*t, come off! I said, come off!”

The curse keeping the Devil’s Wailing Mask from being removed isn’t going to let you take it off that easily.

Plus the only one with the techniques to remove it here is me.

Just one last thing to hit him with.

“That mask is cursed… making it impossible to remove. You can’t take it off. At least as long as it’s not destroyed anyway.”

“Ha, hahah… Is that so… Well, thanks oh-so-much for telling me! You dimwit!”

Saying that, he punched the Devil’s Wailing Mask.

Using “Strong Arm,” against his own face.

On the easily destroyed Devil’s Wailing Mask, which didn’t even have [Toughness] [Enchanted] on it.

The considerably low-durability mask easily shattered—

And with a sound like crumpled paper being crushed underfoot, Masayoshi’s head burst into pieces.

~*~

With the contents of his head grandly scattered everywhere, Masayoshi’s body repeatedly convulsed in a way that wouldn’t have been allowed for broadcast in my old country.

Where I was still sitting, Masayoshi’s eyeball came rolling over.

“You had only one way… To survive. You just had to… keep wearing… that mask… and that’s all, okay?”

With that said, I moved my shaking legs, and crushed the eyeball underfoot.

A bursting sensation was conveyed to me.

The Devil’s Wailing Mask’s healing ability.

That, of course, didn’t hold a candle to the World Tree’s.

But the only thing keeping him alive after taking that fatal injury was, without question, that mask’s power.

The reason he didn’t lose consciousness after having his heart pierced and gouged out, then losing a huge amount of blood, was because of that.

But perhaps because he’s not experienced with being on the verge of death, not even having been injured before, he didn’t know that.

And so I played the guide.

For he whose pain made him lose the ability to make calm judgments. On the method for removing his own lifeline.

That was the last move.

“To the very end… He was a stupid man.”

“He couldn’t exactly… make calm judgments, on the verge of death. And I… Knew that very well.”

He doesn’t have experience with death.

Of course the only ones who probably have that kind of experience are Bahamut, Haster, and myself.

But he’s never even had experience with his life being in danger.

Even after being thrown out from 16000 meters up, and making a gigantic crater in the ground, he still lived on.

“His gift defended him, to the point of over-protection… Which is exactly why… he had no ability to cope… with danger.”

“I truly do not give a damn.”

“By the way…”

Still crumpled on the ground, I looked up at Marielle and informed her of something important.

“Could you… Hurry and heal me? I seriously feel… Like I’m gonna… Die.”

“Aaaah, I am sorry! I completely forgot amidst my sense of accomplishment at achieving my vengeance!”

“Mary! We did it, we… We defeated the Demon Lord!”

Then Marle jumped onto her.

In response to her crying and letting out words of delight, Marielle panicked.

“He- Marle! Not now, I have to treat Yuuri!”

“Oh, I’m so sorry! Yuuri are you okay?”

“No… I’m… Done…”

And with those words, I lost consciousness.

Is it okay to cross the finish line now? Just… kidding.

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Author’s Note: Next is the end of act 5.