Just as the elf is about to finish off the family servant, I cut in to attack.
Telepooort! And then a swift punch to the face! That's right! Since I have a partly human form, I can punch things now! I still can't really kick, though! The elf crashes into the wall. While the other hooded guy is staring at the scene in shock, I take the opportunity to chop his head right off with Cutting Thread.
Whew, talk about a speedrun. Pretty impressive, if I do say so myself. I bet I could even beat a TAS runner right now. This is probably the fastest way to do things. I look back at the servant guy. He's near death from all his injuries, yet he's still gallantly trying to keep the baby bloodsucker safe. In his eyes, I see that he's quite wary of me. Hmm. I guess it's natural not to trust a half human, half spider who just popped up out of nowhere, but I did help you, you know. Couldn't you lose the attitude? But because I'm so, sooo nice, I suppose I'll heal him despite his rudeness.
"What?"
As his wounds recover thanks to my Healing Magic, the man looks at his recently transformed body in shock.
"You are not an enemy?" I simply shake my head. Not sure if that's enough to clear up his doubts or not. Just to confirm, I Appraise the guy and see that his race includes "vampire."
Ooh, that naughty little bloodsucker turned him into a vampire! Maybe because they were in a tight spot? So this servant guy's name is Merazophis. Geez, that's long. We'll just call him Mera. Sorta makes him sound like a low-level fire spell, but let's not worry about that right now. I walk over to where the baby bloodsucker is lying on the ground and pick her up. First I check with Appraisal whether she's hurt at all.
The servant guy is freaking out, but I'm not gonna do anything. Relax. Although I gotta say, babies are so soft and squishy, it makes me think they're probably really tasty. They're small, so there's not much meat on them, but still. I bet those stretchy little cheeks are delicious. Maybe I'll sneak a teeny little taste? I guess the cheek would be kinda weird, so how about just an arm? It's totally fine; I'll just heal it afterward.
Just a liiittle bite. As these thoughts go through my mind, the baby's clothes start getting a little wet in the crotch area. Oh, gross. She's peeing, isn't she? Ahh. Well, I guess I can't blame her, since her life might be in danger?
And she's a baby, so there's that. But she's a high schooler on the inside, so I dunno… I mean, if it were me, I'd probably die of embarrassment. Or maybe just kill whoever witnessed it right then and there. I'll just pretend I didn't see anything.
That's what kindness is all about. Plus I don't really feel like eating her anymore. Since she's unharmed and all, I politely hand her back to Mera. He takes the baby bloodsucker without a word.
"Hrmm. What a bizarre creature, and an unwelcome interruption."
I turn to find the source of the voice. The elf I sent flying is standing up, dusting off his clothes as if nothing happened at all. Whoa. This guy's pretty tough. A punch from me didn't work on him, even with my crazy-high stats? I owe you an apology, TAS runners. Apparently I'm not on your level yet after all. I Appraise the elf's status.
Now, that's not the result I expected. Huh? What? Can't be Appraised? It'd be one thing if my Appraisal was blocked, but I can't Appraise him at all? Even when I use Professor Wisdom to try to force it, I still get the same result.
You're telling me that Wisdom, which was able to get at even the Demon Lord's stats when they were hidden by administrator authority, doesn't work on this guy?
This could be bad. I thought I could beat anyone but the Demon Lord now, but is it possible that this elf fella is just as bad as the Demon Lord or possibly even worse?
Uh-oh.
Maybe I shouldn't have charged in here not knowing how strong my opponent was. Should I grab the baby bloodsucker and the servant and get out of here with Teleport?
"Are you Ariel's kin, perhaps? Yet I have never seen a creature with a form like this. Who are you, exactly?" I don't have to answer that.
And the fact that he knows the Demon Lord's name only confirms that he can't be good news. Retreat, retreat!
"You are not getting away. Activate Anti-Technique Barrier."
Around the elf, the world suddenly shifts. I've never felt anything like this. It's as though the world itself really is changing.
Everything looks the same.
Sounds, smells, taste, touch, none of that has changed, either. But something about the world is different. It's like this one spot has been cut off from the rest of the world. Like we've suddenly been flung naked and defenseless into the middle of a winter wasteland. What's going on? It feels like a world that was once kind has suddenly turned its back on me. What's happening to me? But I have no time to worry about these strange feelings.
The Teleport magic I was trying to invoke evaporates. And as if that wasn't enough, my constantly active skills like Divine Dragon Power, Battle Divinity, and Magic Divinity get canceled out, too. This barrier can block skills as well as magic?! Even the Demon Lord's Divine Dragon Barrier couldn't do anything like that!
"Hmm. I believe you may just be worthy of being my opponent. My name is Potimas Harrifenas. Remember that name. There is no need for you to introduce yourself, as you are no doubt about to die by my hand."
The elf called Potimas sways slightly.
A moment later, he approaches me at a ferocious speed, raising a fist to strike. Wait a second! Aren't elves supposed to be good at magic but physically not very strong?! I always pictured elves being bad at hand-to-hand combat! But if this guy's opening with a punch instead of a magic spell, he must be a powerhouse fighter or something?! That's not how elves are supposed to be! But he's not so fast that my speed can't handle it. Unlike the Demon Lord, at least my eyes can still follow his movements. I dodge his fist with ease…almost.
"?!"
The elf's fist passes right in front of my human face.
As it grazes my cheek, it cuts my skin just a little. I wasn't able to dodge it completely. But I thought he wasn't too fast to handle? My body wouldn't move the way I wanted it to, so I ended up getting grazed. Crap. This is really not good. In fact, it's even worse than I thought! I thought Potimas's barrier rendered magic and skills ineffective. But I was wrong. It's far, far worse than that. Magic, skills, and even stats. The barrier cancels out all of them. It's a barrier that rejects the system. Inside this barrier, I'm barely any different from your average Joe. And now I'm trapped in this hopeless situation. Every ounce of confidence drains from my body. My strength is entirely dependent on the system. My stats, my skills.
Without those, aside from the fact that my lower half is a spider, I'm just like any ordinary human. But I guess that's to be expected. The only factors making me anything other than ordinary are the stats and skills given to me by the system. All the power I've built up until now… It's all been taken from me in an instant. My mind goes completely blank. I have to do something, but I can't think of a single plan. As I stand around in shock, Potimas comes at me with a roundhouse kick. Its approach feels slow to me, but I can tell that it would cause a huge amount of damage to any normal human.
I mean, it's so sharp that I can hear his foot cutting through the air! The kick is aimed toward my spider head, so I avoid it by moving backward. But while I intended to hop several feet away in an instant, my body doesn't move the way I want, and I make it only a single step back. The elf's toes literally pass right before my eyes (the spider ones). Eek! If Thought Acceleration wasn't slowing down time, I wouldn't have been able to dodge that! Huh? Wait a sec. Thought Acceleration is working? It totally is. That must be why Potimas's kick looked slow to me. Wait, what? So I can use skills? While Potimas is still finishing the kick I narrowly avoided, I aim some thread at him. In the end, this thread is the skill I can count on more than any other. But before the thread leaves my body, it loses its shape and vanishes. It isn't working after all. I can't use it. So why can I use Thought Acceleration, then?
I test all my skills in rapid succession, sorting out which ones I can use and which ones I can't. Some of them work without a problem, while others definitely don't.
I avoid Potimas's punches or kicks or whatever as I investigate the difference. Soon, I realize that the skills that work entirely within my body are the ones I can use. Conversely, skills that affect things outside my body like thread and magic won't work. So Potimas's mystery barrier isn't perfect. Maybe everything in the air that the barrier covers is affected, but inside the body, the barrier can't reach. Or something like that anyway. And from the looks of things, my stats aren't completely gone, either. Otherwise, someone who was always as unathletic as I was wouldn't be able to avoid this elf's crazy-fast attacks. But what exactly is going on? It's like I can feel my stats trying to strengthen my physical abilities, but the effect of the barrier is slowing them down. And stat-increasing skills like Battle Divinity and Magic Divinity get snuffed out the second I activate them. If I try to Appraise my own stats, I get an error that prevents me from figuring out the exact numbers. But going on my intuition alone, I feel like I'm about a tenth slower than usual. So my other stats are probably in a similar state, right? Maybe, but it's not that simple. First of all, my defense is looking bad. To be honest, it doesn't seem any better than an ordinary human's right now. I mean, getting grazed by Potimas's attack was enough to cut my skin, and just moving quickly is doing damage to my feet. My body can't handle my movements. I'm guessing this difference is because my defense isn't working on my skin. The speed stat strengthens my muscles inside my body, so I think that's why the barrier isn't affecting it as much. But defense mainly works on my outer skin, which is making contact with the air. And by that, I mean it's basically making contact with the barrier. That's why my defense is down so much.
Maybe on the inside my defense is working about as well as my speed, but on my skin it's no better than a normal person's. Getting caught by a direct hit from one of Potimas's attacks in this state definitely means I'll take a lot of damage. If there's one bright side to all this, it's that Potimas himself can't use skills and magic and stuff, either.
That's why he's attacking me physically like this. I can't use my magic and thread and stuff, either, so physical attacks are my only option, too. This'll be my first purely physical fight since I was reborn, won't it? I've been depending on magic from the moment I could use it, and before then I relied on my thread, Poison Fang, and Poison Synthesis. I've never fought a purely physical battle with no thread or magic before. I can't believe I'm getting into a fistfight right after evolving into an arachne. No, I guess maybe it's a good thing I evolved into this first. Before I evolved, my only physical attack options were my scythes and my teeth. But now I can also do punches and head butts and stuff!
…Is it just me, or am I better off sticking with the scythes and the biting?
Since my stats are so low right now, I kinda don't think punching him with these scrawny-looking arms would do very much. All right. Let's just stick with the scythes as my basic attack. I can always use punching as a feint or whatever. So I dodge Potimas's latest punch like a champ, then counter by whipping a scythe up at his exposed chest. Boom! One hit for me! A grating metallic clang echoes as my scythe tears through Potimas's body.
…Sorry, that was a lie.
It doesn't tear through anything. In fact, my scythe blade is what ends up getting damaged. Because my lowered stats reduce the strength of my scythe and because Potimas's body is just that hard. Wait a minute, what?!
Why was there a metallic sound when I hit what should've been his flesh?!
It was like, CLANG!!
And loud enough to make your hair stand on end!
Is your body made of steel or what?!
Nah, I'm just kidding. He's probably wearing some metal armor under his stupid clothes. It doesn't look very thick, so I guess it must be made from pretty strong metal. When I turn to face the elf again, I see that his clothes have been ripped open across his torso.
Through the tear, I can see a glimpse of his skin.
Hmm?
Wait, skin?
Why is there skin under there and not metal armor?
Looking more closely, I notice there's a cut in his skin, too, and underneath that skin I see a metallic glint.
Huh?
Metal under his skin?
Does that mean the inside of his body is made out of metal? I guess I wasn't kidding! This guy's body is seriously made of metal?!
What's going on here?!
Are you a damn robot?! Come on, what the hell is this dude?! While I'm busy freaking out about Potimas's weird body, he presses the attack.
Completely disregarding the cut across his chest. He quickly closes the distance between us, and this time he swings an open hand at me in an attempted grab. He must have figured that if I'm going to dodge and counter his punches and kicks, he should do something that stops me from moving.
I dodge away from his hand and keep moving backward. I've never experienced close-quarters combat like this before. If he pulls me into a sleeper hold or something, I won't be able to get away. All I know how to do are simple punches and cuts with my scythe, stuff like that. I'm sure any professional fighter would say that my stance is all wrong or whatever.
My only hope is to keep fleeing on foot from Potimas's attacks while getting in counterattacks when I have a chance. Potimas and I are locked in a fast-paced dance around the small, restricted space of the mansion entrance. Mera clutches the baby bloodsucker to his chest, crouching in a corner to keep her from getting caught in the rumble. Since we don't seem to be getting anywhere, I grab a vase from a random shelf and fling it at Potimas. The expensive-looking vase flies right at Potimas. Flowers and water scatter through the air as it smashes to pieces against the elf's face. Sorry about that. I'll pay for it later—or I would, but I have no money. I'm very, very sorry. As I silently apologize to Mera in my heart, Potimas charges at me again, heedless of the vase shards everywhere. Shit! I should've known a vase wouldn't damage this freak! I'm still in my vase-throwing pose. I tossed it in the hopes of catching Potimas off guard, but now it's put me in a pinch instead. As the frightening elf bears down on me, I force my legs to move and evade! The recoil pitches my human upper body forward, but it's better than letting him catch me. Okay, it damaged my back, so that sucks. But Suffering Nullification makes that easy enough to bear. Heh-heh. I'm sure a human would've had trouble recovering from a throwing pose so quickly, but I, a great arachne, have eight wonderful legs! I can split roles among the legs that stepped forward for my pitch and the ones that are now carrying me away. Not like some two-legged loser! But Potimas doesn't slow down, intent on catching up to me anyway. He's not just trying to grab me. He intends to tackle me! As he pitches forward like a quarterback, I hastily jump to avoid him! I fly over his head like an Olympic vaulter, swiping at him with my scythe while I'm at it. Behind me, Potimas loses his balance and hits the floor with a thud as I make a perfect landing. Ten points! No time to sing my own praises, though. I quickly swivel around to keep my eyes on Potimas. He's back on his feet in a matter of seconds, glaring at me. There's a huge slash across the top of his head, through which a metal skull is clearly visible. He looks like a certain murderous robot from the future. You know the one. Dun-dun-dun! So you're really, truly, actually a robot, huh?
That's a robot, all right.
We got a live one here! I mean, come on! Are you kidding me?! What happened to elves treasuring the blessings of nature and all that crap?!
Why are they an ultra-technologically advanced super-civilization now?! I thought this was a fantasy world! Since when were there sci-fi elements, huh?!
Don't change the world-building on me now! I know I'm making a lot of jokes about this, but even in the calmer part of my brain, an alarm is going off. It tells me this thing shouldn't exist in this world. The system doesn't allow it. Because it's that kind of mechanical technology that brought this world to the brink of collapse in the first place.
World-destroying technology like that shouldn't still exist here. Yet this guy is using it without a care in the world. He must be out of his mind. No sane person would use something like that in this world. Now I really feel like I have to stop this guy, and not just for the sake of my immediate survival. But my attacks don't work on that steel body of his. He's not landing any hits on me, either, but it's taking everything I've got to avoid him. I could slip up at any moment. "You are more persistent than I expected.
How irritating.
I did not want to use this, but you leave me no choice."
Instead, Potimas changes the game. His right arm falls away with a metallic clank. What emerges instead is unquestionably the barrel of a gun.
Excuuuuuuse me?!
How far are you gonna take this genre-bending thing, exactly?! Wait, I'm in trouble here! I hastily kick off the floor and run along the wall.
Bullets follow close behind me, leaving a trail of holes. Sure. If you can't use magic, just use something physical, like guns. I get that, but come on! This doesn't seem fair! I dash along the wall, avoiding the machine gun–like rain of bullets.
Soon I angle upward, reaching the ceiling. I keep running upside down in an effort to avoid the gunfire. It's not really working, though! No matter how fast I move, I can't completely dodge an endless rain of bullets in this weakened state! Several bullets pierce my body, tearing through skin and flesh. Thanks to Suffering Nullification, there's no pain, but I can still feel the sensation of foreign objects entering my body. This calls for desperate measures! I reach the point of the ceiling directly above Potimas. Then I let myself fall. As I plummet straight toward him, Potimas concentrates his fire on my human head. Bullets burst through it, ripping my head to shreds. You fool! Yes, that is my real head! But I still have another one where that came from!
Even if you shoot my human brain to bits, I've still got my spider brain. As long as one of the two remains, I can still function just fine! Perhaps alarmed by the fact that I'm still moving after evidently losing my head, Potimas's expression turns sour. I decide to fix that for him with a nice gravity-boosted punch to the face.
Since I used my full strength with no regard for the likelihood of breaking my arm, Potimas's face crumples inward, his neck twisting at an unnatural angle. The impact sends him spinning like something out of an action movie, crashing into the wall. Meanwhile, bullets keep spraying out of his right arm, scattering in all directions. I quickly check to make sure the baby bloodsucker and Mera are all right. They don't seem to have been hit. Potimas slumps down, still pointlessly firing bullets into the floor.
Then the sound stops abruptly. Is he out of bullets? I guess he didn't want to use it because he had limited ammo. More importantly, is he dead? As I hesitate for a moment, wondering whether to attack, Potimas snaps back to his feet. His neck is still twisted at a frightening angle. He smacks the side of his head with his left hand, forcing it back into place with a nasty cracking sound. I know I'm one to talk, but that's pretty damn creepy. Still, this is bad. I lost the use of my right arm and one of my heads in that last attack. And my automatic regeneration isn't working. I probably won't recover unless I can get rid of that barrier. My opponent, on the other hand, barely looks damaged at all. He seems to be out of bullets, at least, but that came at a high cost for me. I'm out of my league. This could be serious. If I die here, the barrier might prevent Immortality from working.
That leaves egg revival as my last option, but all my eggs just hatched. I don't know if I can transplant myself into a baby who's already hatched, since I've never tried. For that matter, I don't know if I could even do that from inside this barrier in the first place. If I get killed now, that might actually be the end. I charged in here on a whim, and now I might be facing my doom. How bad can my luck get?
Should I have just forgotten about the baby bloodsucker and not gotten involved in the first place? Argh, there's no point thinking about this now! It's too late for regrets. I gotta figure out how to deal with this situation.
"Hmm. You're quite dangerous. If I do not deal with you now, I suspect it will cause no small amount of trouble in the future. I shall make this place your grave."
Wooow.
He's officially declared that he intends to exterminate me. Thanks but no thanks. It doesn't seem like this guy plans on letting me get away, then. If I want to make it out of here alive, I have to defeat him somehow. Both of us assume fighting stances. Isn't there anything
I can do here? Since this jerk is literally made of steel, it'll be tough to do much physical damage to him. If I want to do that, I have to use outside forces like I did with gravity earlier and be prepared to damage my own body in the process. With my defense lowered like this, my body can't even handle the recoil of my own attacks. All he has to do is attack without worrying about defense. Meanwhile,
I can barely deal him any damage and end up hurting myself in the process. At this rate, I'm going to lose. I have to find a way to turn things around. My thread doesn't work in here. The cloth I made to cover up my chest earlier hasn't disappeared, though, so it looks like thread made outside the barrier in advance is all right. But I can't create any new thread. All I've got is the cloth wrapped around my chest. And I can't use Thread Control to move that, so it's not useful as anything but armor.
Thanks to the barrier, it doesn't even seem to provide any defense. Thread is part of my very nature as a spider, and the barrier prevents me from using it. All I've got left is what essentially amounts to a slightly pretty, white scrap of fabric. Useless. I can't use magic, either. It evaporates before I can even put a spell together, never mind activate it. What's left? Evil Eyes? But they're not much different from magic, so I doubt those will work, either. Potimas points his right-arm-turned-gun at me, even though he should be out of bullets. Instead, the muzzle glows and shoots out a bullet of light. Yikes! Good thing my gut told me to dodge anyway! I probably would've been blown into atomic particles if that hit me! It totally blew up the wall behind me! Wait, what even is that thing? Since the barrier's still active, it can't be a magic attack. Is it a plasma bullet or something? Potimas fires another one of the mysterious light-ball things. Thanks to the few seconds between the time the muzzle glows and when it actually fires, I manage to dodge it again. Unlike the bullets he was using before, he doesn't seem to be able to use these rapid-fire. If he could, I wouldn't be able to dodge them all. After I avoid the second shot, Potimas changes tactics. He starts closing the distance between us, still pointing the gun at me. I guess if you can't hit something, the logical next step is to do it up close and personal. We both already know that I can't break through Potimas's defenses.
I don't have any long-distance attack methods right now, but since he has nothing to fear from my short-range attacks, either, this guy can fight me at whatever distance he wants. He keeps getting closer, trying to land a one-hit kill shot that I can't avoid. It's a very simple plan and a very dangerous one. He's looking to clinch his victory. And all I can do is keep running away. I have no choice but to avoid letting him get too close. Without any means of turning things around, my frustration starts to build, not to mention panic.
I feel like I'm nearing death with every passing second. Shit. In that moment of fear, I move a fraction of a second too slowly. Potimas seizes that moment, his gun muzzle glowing. It comes after me faster than I can dodge. It's no use.
I can't get away in time. Out of sheer desperation, I use the one thing I haven't tried, my Evil Eyes. Jinx Evil Eye, Inert Evil Eye, Repellent Evil Eye, Sealing Evil Eye, Antimagic Evil Eye, and, knowing full well that it might destroy me, Annihilating Evil Eye.
But just as I expected, none of them work. Except for one.
"What's this?"
For the first time, a bit of alarm disrupts Potimas's calm composure. His right arm suddenly twists around. The one Evil Eye that activates successfully is Warped Evil Eye.
This Evil Eye can bend space itself, hollowing out whatever happens to occupy the affected area. In this case, I used it inside Potimas's right arm. That's right. Inside his body. The barrier doesn't have any effect inside my body. So it shouldn't affect the inside of Potimas's body, either. In that case, if I have a way of attacking the inside of his body directly, I can use it without the barrier stopping me! Warped Evil Eye attacks space, regardless of what occupies it. So it can target the interior of Potimas's body no problem. Talk about a twist, both figuratively and literally! Just goes to show you should always give something a try, even if you don't think it'll work. Now that I know I have a chance at winning, I activate Warped Evil Eye again, this time aimed at the inside of Potimas's head.
"Tch!"
But before I can hollow out that metal head of his, he takes evasive action. Warped Evil Eye attacks a space not a target.
In other words, it's easy to avoid if you just get away from that space. On top of that, the harder the substance inside the space is, the more time and energy it takes to twist it. If I want to hollow out any part of Potimas's steel body, it's going to take quite a bit of time. And in that time, Potimas can easily dodge. I was able to do it to his arm earlier only because he was distracted and preparing to fire it at me.
Now that he knows I have a means of hurting him, he'll proceed with caution, too. Unless he makes a serious error, it's safe to assume that he'll dodge my Warped Evil Eye. Still, now our positions are reversed.
In one fell swoop, I gained a weapon that can kill Potimas and also destroyed his means of finishing me off: his right arm. But when it comes to close combat, Potimas still has the advantage. It's anyone's game. Potimas seems to recognize that, too, and is watching me intently. I watch him right back, waiting for a chance to strike with Warped Evil Eye. The tension heightens, and just as it reaches its peak…
"S'up, guys? Magical Demon Lord Ariel has arrived!"
Something strange comes crashing through the ceiling.
Huh?
Okay, um, what?
Are my eyes playing tricks on me, or is the Demon Lord standing right between Potimas and me, striking a ridiculous pose?
Huh?
What's going on here?
Wait, was Miss Demon Lord always this weird?
"Ariel…?"
"Yeah, duh. Need me to go back and do the intro again or what?" I can't blame Potimas for being confused. We were in the middle of a life-or-death struggle, and she just shows up and starts cracking jokes? Could you get any more awkward?!
"Hmm. It's unfortunate that I cannot use Appraisal while the barrier is active. Now I have no means of judging whether you are the real Ariel or a fake."
"C'mon, I'm the real deal. Besides, I don't wanna hear that from someone who's using a fake body, y'know."
"Truly, my ears are burning."
Potimas and the Demon Lord are totally ignoring me. Judging by their conversation, that robot body must be a temporary one. The real Potimas must be somewhere else, using a remote controller or something.
"So hey, Poti, old buddy. What're you doing here?"
"Hmph," Potimas responds smoothly.
"What, indeed?" In the next moment, the ground shakes.
"Spit it out." The Demon Lord just kicked the ground. A simple kick, not using skills or magic, and it was still enough to cause a local earthquake. But that physical change isn't important right now. Not compared to the terrifying rage I can suddenly feel from the Demon Lord.
"So you are real, then."
"Was there any doubt? Now hurry up and spill it."
The Demon Lord is emitting a terrifying aura now. I
t's hard to believe she's the same person who was goofing around just a minute ago. Her rage isn't directed at me, but it still makes it hard to breathe.
Y-yikes.
This is getting a little too scary for me…
Considering how high my Fear Resistance level is, the Demon Lord's anger shouldn't be making me feel such immense terror.
Um, excuse me?
I don't really know what's going on here, and I didn't wanna fight that guy in the first place, so could I go now, please?
"It appears you have not changed at your core if nothing else. Though I do not know what strange turn of events has led you to conduct yourself in such a foolhardy manner. I appear to be at a disadvantage here."
"No kidding. Can you just tell me what you were up to, then? Or would you rather I force it out of you?"
"Neither, thank you very much." Potimas recklessly charges the Demon Lord.
"Hmph."
It happens in an instant. Her arm lashes out almost carelessly. That alone is enough to blow Potimas's body, the body I struggled so hard against, into smithereens. All that remains is Potimas's head and a bit of his neck and clavicle.
"So this body is not enough to contend with you, either. This is an unforeseen loss on my part."
"I'll be happy to do the same to your real body sooner or later." Her voice is dripping with hatred. I almost wanna ask how she makes herself sound so scary. "Ha. We shall see about that, little girl."
In response, the Demon Lord simply crushes Potimas's head under her foot. It's almost anticlimactic. I mean, I didn't really know what I was getting into with this little encounter, so my sense of dramatic tension could've been higher about it. But still, that guy was freakin' strong. One wrong move could've gotten me killed for good. But I don't feel any sense of victory or even the relief of having survived. Because now another threat has appeared before my eyes.
She's even worse than that so-called elf Potimas. Since he's been killed, or rather destroyed, the barrier is gone, and I can use magic and skills again. But I still don't think I stand a chance of beating the Demon Lord right now. Maybe I can just sneak on out of here?
"You there. Little Miss Spider."
Eek!
"Or would you rather I call you by another name? Hiiro Wakaba, perhaps?"
…How does she know that name?
Wait.
More importantly, she's speaking Japanese.
"Anyway, it seems like that little gift you delivered has gotten all mixed up with the rest of me. I am the Demon Lord, Ariel, but I'm also a part of Hiiro Wakaba. I think Ariel is still the dominant one, but I can't actually tell, myself. See what I mean? My personality's changed a bunch, right?"
I don't exactly have a deep friendship with the Demon Lord. But I can still tell that something's different about her. I mean, I don't think the old Demon Lord would've done that whole magical-girl-entrance bit.
"What I'm saying is, because part of me still remembers being your former body brain, I feel kinda weird about trying to kill my old body now," the Demon Lord continues cheerfully.
"Although, I kinda thought I'd finished you off in that last battle. I mean, my Abyss Magic should've literally erased you. So why are you still alive and well? I don't get it. Killing you the normal way doesn't work, and killing you in a special way doesn't work, either. Can you even be killed at all? I mean, seriously. Since you seem to be practically immortal for some reason, I really don't even wanna fight you anymore. I'm scared, to be honest."
The Demon Lord?
Scared of me?
The being whom I basically consider to be terror incarnate is saying that she's the one who's scared of me.
At first, I think she must be joking, but her expression is serious, and there really is a hint of fear in her eyes.
"No matter how many times I kill you, you don't stay dead, and you keep getting stronger. I'm serious—I don't wanna deal with such a scary opponent anymore. How would you feel about a truce?"
That's exactly what I want! I nod my agreement immediately. But then the Demon Lord takes things a step further.
"Great. 'Cause I could use your help. See, you're the scariest thing ever if you're my enemy, but you'd be the best ally ever if you were on my side. Here's what I'm thinking. Wanna join forces with me?"
With that, the Demon Lord offers me her hand.