Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyusoukyoku (WN)-Book 17 - Chapter 17-22. Imaginary Fears 2

17-22. Imaginary Fears (2)

Satou here. Falling into ruin from trying to harness powers beyond their capacity has been the staple course of villains found in stories from long ago to today's. If they're going to ruin themselves, then it's whatever, but since these kinds of villains usually get innocent people dragged into their mess, there is no choice but to deal with them.

◇

『I'll show you the forbidden power deprived from demon god!』

God Zaikuon raised his hands heavenward, then from the moon that had eclipsed the sun, something black fell down.

--This is bad.

Crisis Perception skill is blaring fiercely hard.

--Bad, bad, bad.

I haven't got this much sense of looming crisis since dealing with the [Demon God Offshots].

God Zaikuon caught the fallen black sludge-like thing with a golden chalice that came out of nowhere.

Considering the scale, the black sludge fell down at unbelievable velocity.

It's like trompe l'oeil, it just ignored the distance in a three dimensional world.

A bit of black sludge spilled out of the golden chalice due to momentum and touched the earth.

--It's rotting?

Goes without saying plants are, but even the ground below the vegetation is slowly turning into some bubbling thing.

I'd like to stop God Zaikuon from whatever he's doing, but acting carelessly here may result in that black sludge directly spilling to this land, turning it into an uninhabitable zone for sure.

I even have a hunch that the black sludge would eventually encroached to human dwellings were that to happen.

The safest option here should be stowing the black sludge away into my Storage once it's all inside the golden chalice.

--No.

It'd be bad if my Storage get encroached from within, I'd just erase the black sludge along with God Zaikuon's arms once it's inside the golden chalice with the Divine Sword.

"Nymphs!"

God Zaikuon called the nymphs.

However, they too fear the black sludge and won't get anywhere near him.

"This is an order, nymphs! Assemble under me!!"

Commanded by the enraged God Zaikuon, the nymphs hesitantly gathered around him.

--Just a bit more.

The last drip falling from the moon has fallen into the golden chalice.

--Now.

I transform into Hero Nanshi, and jump out of the Dimensional Ship I was riding.

Then right as I changed my title to [God Slayer], I moved next to God Zaikuon with Flash Drive and draw Divine Blade out of Storage to obliterate the black sludge along with the golden chalice.

Check--.

My view blackened out right as I was about to say mate.

◇

Malice.

Murderous impulse, indignation, grudge, hatred, enmity, venom.

Repulsive negative emotions are gnawing on me from all directions.

After noticing that it was a type of mental attack, I invoked mind magic mental defense [Autic Shell], but it only managed to block out the negative emotions for an instant before they come assaulting me back.

And for some reason, Unit Arrangement isn't working.

Only dense jet black fog is reflected in my view.

...This is bad.

I don't think I can keep my sanity for long if this keeps up.

I'm losing sensations of my body too.

--ish.

A slight tremor transmitted down my right hand, the last part of my body that I could sense.

--<>.

It's coming from the Divine Sword I had in my right hand.

"I see, Divine Sword should--"

I put my bet on the last glimmer of hope and recited the Scripture.

"--<>"

The world turned upside down right in that instant.

The malice that had been gnawing on me is perishing.

Thick fog that's shrouding the area around me disappears, darkness the Divine Sword created is filling it up instead.

I noticed that I was falling toward the ground from the floating sensation.

Looks like I've used up all my mana to recite Divine Sword's <> and lost the ability to maintain Sky Drive.

Since I don't feel God Zaikuon's presence around, I put Divine Sword away in my Storage.

"Presently at--"

Checking up my Map, I found out that I was in one of the Safe Points, an uninhabited island that I had been trying to reach with Unit Arrangement.

Looks like Unit Arrangement worked just fine.

『Master! I heard you screaming super loud, are you okay? Can I go there along with everybody to help?』

Arisa's Familiar Link contacted me.

『Nah, there's no need for that.』

『What a relief~. I couldn't get a response no matter how long I kept calling.』

Seems like I made her worry.

『Looks like I got caught in God Zaikuon's trap for a bit.』

『Okay, we really should be going there.』

The worrywart Arisa asked me to, but I can't exactly bring them to a battlefield where a god and his familiars are rampaging around.

『It's fine. I'm not into getting caught in the same trap twice.』

I got a bit shaken up, but after thinking it through calmly, I've come up with several ways to deal with them.

Judging from Map's clock, it hasn't even been a minute since I got hit by the mental attack.

『But--』

I interrupted Arisa's rebuttal.

Guess she won't be satisfied with just words?

『Well then, time for a revenge match.』

I made that declaration through Familiar Link and teleported to where God Zaikuon was with Unit Arrangement.

◇

『Gyahahahahaha』

『The strongest strongest strongest』

『Invincible, Invincible, Invincible』

Jet black humanoids with dark yellow contours are going round and round near God Zaikuon while screaming in high tension.

Looks like God Zaikuon has done something to them using the black sludge he gathered in the golden chalice.

『Enemy attack!』

『Destroy enemyyyyyyyyyyyyy!』

『Get wreckeeeeeeeeeed!』

These nymphs have lost their rides, but it appears that they can move as fast as their leaf boats thanks to reinforcement from the black sludge.

They're even coming at me using short-range warps.

『Surprise strike~~!』

I block the nymph who showed up in my blind spot with space magic [Super Isolation Wall (Hyper Deracinator)] and push away the nymphs who were coming frontally with force magic [Giant Shield].

The Hyper Deracinator cracked, the transparent Giant Shield became muddy with black color.

Right as I activated Unit Arrangement, the Hyper Deracinator broke apart while the Giant Shield crumbled into nothingness.

The instant I had teleported away, Crisis Sense skill informed me of a nymph coming from behind, but an impact had reached my back slightly faster than I could react.

『GOTYAAAAAAAAAA!』

My body got blown away at tremendous speed, rolling on while gouging the ground.

Apparently, she had predicted where I would teleport away.

『HECKYEAAAAAAAAAAAAH!』

The nymph who hurled herself on me is doing a victory lap by making the black sludge wrapping her body wriggle around.

Since I had put Mana Armor on my back right before the impact, I did not get encroached by the black sludge nor receive any real damage. It just hurt a bit.

『Strongest, strongest, strongestgest』

『Invincible, invincible, invincibleeeeeeee』

The other nymphs are hurling flames, lightnings and such at me while screaming in high tension.

As I made my Clone flew out with Flash Drive, my real body moved above with Unit Arrangement.

I saw the nymphs ramming my Clone and attacking it with their whip-turned black sludge.

Then as the Clone bounced on the ground, the nymphs hurled meteor-like gigantic explosive flames at it.

--Man, they're merciless.

In between the explosions, I stealthily exchanged the Clone with a scorched black dummy puppet.

It's the high performance kind equipped with biological response and mana.

『Crushing defeatttttttttt!』

『Weak, weak, weak, too weakkkkkkkk!』

The nymphs look triumphant.

『Such power befitting of being sealed as taboo. It is indeed worthy enough to exchange one of my Authorities for it.』

God Zaikuon is muttering something, probably safe to ignore him.

I'm coming up a way to counteract them while hiding myself with Mana Camouflage.

The black sludge that has altered these nymphs must be a being similar to [Demon God Offshots].

It's the thing that slipped into monsters' magic cores turning them [Inversed], and encroached Heavenly Dragon's body.

Looking through my Miasma Seer, this black sludge is not miasma, but [Something] close to miasma.

Though I can't say for certain, from what I gathered with several detection magic, it appears to be some sort of Divinity that has been mixed with an enormous amount of miasma.

I have no mean to turn those who have been encroached by it back.

I had tried using Primeval Magic while I was processing the black hand back then, but I was unsuccessful turning the blackened finger back to normal.

The highest degree of purification magic may be able to turn these nymphs closer to normal.

I could also just defeat them, but accidentally killing God Zaikuon and his nymphs would mean making enemies of the entire pantheon, almost guaranteed.

If it came to that, it would be harder to gather information about Divine Ascension, setting me far back from my goal of marrying Aze-san.

Besides, I'd feel really bad for apprentice priest Kei and all other God Zaikuon's believers if I killed him right after they managed to use holy magic.

『Neft!』

『『『Destroy all lowly humans nya!』』』

The nymphs let some unbelievable words out of their mouths.

I drive away the curse with advanced level light magic [Divine Brilliant] that I had prepared beforehand.

『NYOWAAAAAAAAAA』

『NUOOOOOOOOOOOO』

『Coming. My power is coming outtttttttt』

It looked like it worked a bit, but barriers protecting the nymphs popped up not long after.

『Close calf.』

『Supeeer, close calf.』

『Kill, killllllll』

The nymphs came attacking with the same pattern from earlier.

I purify the nymphs with [Divine Brilliant] while upsetting the battlefield with Clones and Decoy.

Attacking when their barrier is down seems to have an effect, but they would immediately raise their barrier, giving me no chance to deal any real damage.

I could temporarily neutralize one if I just break their barrier with Divine Sword or my bare hands, then drive [Divine Brilliant] to the nymph at point-blank range.

But I would have to stop moving temporarily with this method, meaning I would be open to get attacked.

The damage I'd take is small enough for Self-Recovery skill to compensate with, but painful things are painful.

『You're tough but dumb.』

『Invincible, invincible, invincibleeeeeeee』

『Destroy, more destroyyyyyyyy』

The nymphs are starting to get carried away after successfully sending me crashing down the mountains for the nth times.

『Neft is citiesssssssss』

One of the nymphs warped to the sky above a city that was slightly visible over the horizon.

--Oh crap.

『Get wasteeeeeeeeeeeeed』

The nymph who had swelled out like a balloon ruptured open, then the black sludge turned into a storm that rained down the city.

The city turned into a mountain of rubble in an instant, gardens, laundries, storefronts, commodities all got broken down into pieces.

『Annihilatioooooooooooon』

The nymph was triumphant.

--That was close.

Almost took the first victim there.

I managed to save them with Group Warp, but I might have failed if it weren't for the experience of saving Weasel Empire's populace during the Divine Punishment.

My heart is beating fast.

『You fools! Stop killing lower people so recklessly!』

Words reprimanding the nymphs could be heard coming from God Zaikuon.

『Eh, why~?』

『Why, can't we kill 'em?』

『Is it cuz their lives are important?』

『Is it cuz it's bad?』

The nymphs asked God Zaikuon.

--What is this?

Feels like there's something odd.

『What an obvious question! Why would I care about the lives of lower people!』

God Zaikuon howled.

『Senselessly killing those unenlightened masses would lessen divinity harvested from them!!』

『So the important thing is just divinity~?』

『Not the lower people's lives?』

The nymphs threw questions like they were inducing God Zaikuon conducts.

『Of course! Those ignorant masses are nothing but tools to produce our divinity!』

『Tools huh~』

『You don't love 'em huh~』

『What are you lot going on about?』

Looks like even the god noticed the inducement.

『『『Mission Complete』』』

--Mission?

The nymphs who were inducing God Zaikuon disappeared with a poof.

At the same time, the other nymphs who were staying put in the air began to squirm in pain.

『Puhaaaaa』

『Chowaaaaaa』

『Uoryaaaaaaaaa』

The nymphs' black sludge is transforming them to look like demons.

『W-what?』

Sounding perplexed, God Zaikuon couldn't keep up with the change.

『『『Second Stage』』』

『『『Reinforcement Complete』』』

『『『Strongest Invincible』』』

The nymphs' eyes glittered dark red.

『『『Destroy Cities!』』』

『『『Destroy Humans!!』』』

『『『Destroy Everything!!!』』』

The nymphs are speaking in unison.

『You bunch of fools! Have I not told you not to kill the source of my divinity!』

God Zaikuon was enraged.

『Shut up』

『Smug idiot』

『What an eyesore』

The nymphs insulted God Zaikuon.

『--What'd you say?!』

God Zaikuon stopped moving when he heard those unexpected words coming from the nymphs.

『『『Punishment time』』』

The nymphs rushed toward God Zaikuon and began punching and kicking him all over.

『Ora ora ora』

『Y-you--』

『Urya uryarya』

『T-think can get--』

『Dorurururu』

『A-away doing this--』

Hit by the flurry of strikes, God Zaikuon sunk deep underground.

『『『Victoryyyyyyyyy』』』

Just as the nymphs shouted their victory call, a yellow light mowed them down.

『How dare you go against me, a god I am!!』

God Zaikuon crawled out of ground.

Looks like he's still firmly holding onto the golden chalice even after that much beating.

He produced a blade of yellow light seemingly made of divinity in the other hand not holding the golden chalice.

The spinning distorted blade looks like it'd hurt if hit.

『You fools dare to defy god--Be torn asunder to the Blade of Condemnation.』

God Zaikuon glared at the nymphs.

At that point--.

I saw the black sludge that had remained in his golden chalice moving like a living being.

"Zaikuon! Throw that chalice away!

『What?』

My warning was in vain as the black sludge spread out like a casting net, and wrapped God Zaikuon up.