"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!"
When Iris-san unleashed a Divine Authority-covered slash, the swarming god soldiers instantly disappeared.
However, new god soldiers were immediately spawned and rushed in as they were.
"That is useless. You could have dealt with Whips and Tone, but you are dealing with a true god. Be swallowed by my infinite power."
"──Heavenly Whip!"
"Hmm?"
I took out my Heavenly Whip from my Item Box and gave it a big swing.
The tail of the Heavenly Whip branched out and wrapped around the approaching god soldiers.
Then it crushed and broke the bodies of all the god soldiers.
"Is that weapon… Conceptual Armament?"
"──Omni-Sword!"
Even though the Heavenly Whip defeated all the god soldiers for a moment, new god soldiers were summoned in the next instant.
However, I did not miss the gap of a few moments, I closed the distance with Shu and then went straight to slash with the Omni-Sword.
Of course, it is in a state strengthened by Divine Authority and the Power of Existence.
But…
"Hmph."
"Wha…?"
Surprisingly, Shu caught the Omni-Sword with the katana in his hand.
No way… Something that can't be cut with the Omni-Sword!
While I stared in disbelief at the situation in front of me, Shu continued quietly.
"That weapon, it certainly seems to have the concept of cutting through everything, but… in the presence of God, it would be an easy task to cancel that concept."
"Kuh!"
"I won't let you go."
The moment I tried to distance myself, Shu approached me at a blinding speed and swung his sword.
I quickly unleashed all of my powers, including my Magic Armor, Spiritual Energy, and Holy Evil Creation, to intercept Shu's sword.
"Kuh…!"
"Oh? You… Not only can you use Divine Authority, but you can also use strange powers. No wonder the interference of Divine Power doesn't work."
"Haaaaah!"
"Hmph."
I managed to push Shu back and slash at him, but Shu made a momentary shift and stood behind me.
"Hmph."
"Kuh!"
I immediately prepared my Omni-Sword to block Shu's follow-up attack, but I was blown away.
"I don't understand. With so much power, why can't you understand my ideals…"
"Your ideals are nothing but the ego of the strong. Even the weak have the right to feel and think about something…!"
I slashed at him again, and Shu made a momentary change and moved to my back again.
"The rights of the weak? What the hell is the right of the weak?"
When I managed to block Shu's attack, he looked directly at me.
"In this rotten world, the weak can do nothing. That is why the righteous and strong must guide and protect the weak!"
"Kuh!"
"But there are too many corrupt authorities in the world today. What is wrong with purging them and creating a world where the righteous strong like us are the ideal for the weak in the true sense of the word?"
"Gahaahh!"
"Master!"
Shu hit me with a sharp kick to the stomach.
Even though I was blown away, I managed to adjust my stance and hold on.
"Hah… hah…!"
"What's wrong? Is something wrong?"
Shu said, not doubting his own absoluteness.
But…
"How can you say… that you are right?"
"What?"
"A world without sadness and anger would be very attractive. But you don't get that by stopping to think."
"….."
"What you're trying to do is take away people's right to think and just impose it one way or another. I don't think that's right."
Even though it was painful, my feelings were mine.
To have them unilaterally taken away, let alone declared unwanted, was… very unacceptable.
Was it really possible to be happy if you were deprived of your feelings of anger and sadness and just be happy?
I looked directly at Shu, and when I told him this, he let out a sigh.
"Hah… no matter how far I go, you still can't seem to understand what I'm thinking."
"Yeah."
"…Then that's fine. I will defeat you and prove myself right."
"I will stop you and make you realize that you are wrong…!"
When I regained my grip on the Omni-Sword, Shu used his Divine Power and disappeared before my eyes once again.
"Hmph!"
"Hah!"
"!"
Then Shu moved to my blind spot and delivered a sharp blow.
But I anticipated it and blocked it.
Then Shu moved again and again, attacking again and again from each blind spot.
"Deadly Katana Game."
"!"
Slashes came from all directions.
However, I was able to see through, dodge, and block all of Shu's attacks by using my Divine Authority on my Spiritual Eye.
However, it was very hard for my brain to see through the barrage of attacks, and I suffered from a severe headache.
Nevertheless, I did not let the pain get the better of me and continued to watch Shu's every move.
"Useless struggle… Katana Supremacy."
Realizing that his attack could not reach me, Shu moved away for a moment and swung his katana in a sideways split.
At that moment, a huge single straight line of slashes struck me.
"Haah!"
I parried the slash with a swinging blow.
However…
"Wha-!? Guahh!"
The moment I caught the slash, it burst open and a shock wave hit me.
"Not yet──Divine Katana Flash."
"!"
In addition, Shu, who was chasing after me when I was blown away, attacked me with a slash at divine speed, as if he was performing an iai slash.
I could barely see the line of his katana, and I managed to block it by quickly preparing my Omni-Sword.
The next thing I knew, Shu continued to attack furiously.
He was strong…
Surely, Shu had the mighty power of Divine Power.
Only by possessing Divine Power, he could compete with me who had unleashed all of my power.
Moreover, if Divine Power itself had special effects and was a super compatibility of Divine Authority, then Divine Power was a power that could do anything.
Fortunately, I have Divine Authority, which seemed to have prevented direct interference from Divine Power.
But regardless of that, Shu was strong.
The quality of every single technique was overwhelming.
"Come on, why don't you just give up? You can't beat me."
Sure, Shu was refining the techniques he had learned.
But I see something beyond that… the existence of Sage-san.
Shu, noticing that my eyes were not dead yet, let out a sigh of disappointment.
"It looks like you really want to die. Then I'll kill you as you wish!"
"!"
Shu used his Divine Power to create several clones, and they all slashed at me at once!
"Divine Katana Thousand Worlds."
A space of slashes surrounded me as if it were a world of katana.
There was no place to escape, and they covered me without a single gap.
I activated my Spiritual Eye, concentrated to the limit in the face of these seemingly endless slashes, and found a ray of light.
I do not know what that light was.
But the moment I found the light, my body moved naturally.
"──!"
An ideal strike.
I fired it along the light I found.
At that moment, the space of the katana blade covering me burst open.
"Wha?"
"Haaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
"Gah!"
I slashed at Shu's body, not missing the chance to catch him off guard.
Shu backed away as fast as he could, but I slashed him from his left shoulder to the right side of his stomach.
"Guh…! You… cut that space?"
"Hah… hah!"
Shu put his hand on his own wound and frowned.
"…The wound can't even heal. So this is the power that defeated Tone and the others."
The attack with Divine Authority and the Power of Existence will surely damage Shu.
However, Shu looked at me without fear despite the heavy damage he had suffered.
"But… this level won't defeat me…!"
And with that, he came and slashed at me again.
＊＊＊
While Yuuya and Shu fought to the death, Iris and the others dealt with the attacking god soldiers.
"Haaaaah!"
Iris transformed her Divine Authority into a giant blade and slashed them away with a single blow.
Nearby, Meiko created a chain of spiritual power.
"Spiritual Chain!"
Although Meiko did not have Divine Authority, she was still able to defeat the god soldiers if they were her opponents.
However, Shu's Divine Power was overwhelming compared to Whips and Tone, and Shu's god soldiers created by his Divine Power also contained more Divine Power than ordinary ones.
This made Meiko's attacks somewhat less effective.
However, Meiko was the first to notice this, and by stopping their movements with her chains of spiritual power, she was able to support Iris and the others.
"Stella-sama!"
"Nya~"
As soon as the god soldiers were all bound together by Meiko, Stella attacked as if she was slipping between them.
Of course, it was impossible for the god soldiers to withstand the attack of Stella, whose very existence is a huge Power of Existence.
The number of god soldiers did not seem to decrease at all.
"Tsk… they really do keep appearing endlessly…!"
Divine Power was different from magic power, but it was not a power that could be handled indefinitely.
Most importantly, Iris and the others who handled the Divine Authority also had their own physical limitations.
In contrast, the god soldiers created by Shu were reborn as soon as they were destroyed.
In addition, since the god soldiers were inorganic, they had no physical strength or other limitations, so they could literally fight forever.
Although defeating Shu was essential to getting out of this situation, fighting Shu, who possessed powerful Divine Power, was no easy task.
"Yuuya-kun, I hope he's okay…"
Iris was about to turn her attention to Yuuya, but there was no time to look away.
If she showed the slightest sign of weakness, the god soldiers would attack her mercilessly.
Therefore, Iris and the others had no choice but to just keep on defeating the god soldiers.
As the endless battle continued, only Stella saw something different from Iris and Meiko.
"Nya~"
Stella's eyes narrowed as she defeated the god soldiers.
Her eyes were dimly lit by something Iris and Meiko could not see, something like a thread.
She followed the thread and noticed that it was coming from Shu's body.
"Nya!"
Stella immediately cut off the thread with her Power of Existence.
However, the defeated god soldier returned to Shu's body when it turned into a particle of light that was invisible to the ordinary eye, just like the thread in Stella's eyes.
When that light entered Shu's body, the god soldier who was supposed to be defeated reappeared.
In other words, the thread in Stella's eyes was none other than Divine Power.
"Nya, nya!"
The light was so powerful that it was thought to be Divine Power, but it only dissipated and returned to Shu's body, where it was recovered and another god soldier was created.
"Fuuuuuuu…"
Stella, frustrated by this, unleashed the Power of Existence she had been suppressing.
At that moment, the world began to shake and space began to creak.
"W-what?"
"S-Stella-sama?"
Iris and Meiko were stunned by the sudden situation.
The next moment, Stella hissed.
"Hushaaaaaaaaaaa!"
Her hiss was so powerful that it wiped out all the god soldiers that had gathered in the area.
"N-no way… what in the world is Stella-chan…?"
The sheer power made Iris wonder about Stella's true identity.
Moreover, Shu also sensed that all the god soldiers were destroyed by a single attack, and his eyes widened.
"Nonsense… what happened…!"
However, the destruction did not stop the resummoning of the god soldiers, and a large number of god soldiers were produced once again.
"Nya~…!"
"──Please give me a break!"
"Nya?"
While Stella was expressing her dissatisfaction at this sight, a voice unexpectedly entered Stella's mind.
This voice was exactly the voice of the other world, where Yuuya and the others now spend their time… from Argena.
Stella, too, had heard the voice before in "between worlds," so she immediately understood who the voice belonged to.
Then, Argena continued in a tired manner.
"…I won't be able to handle it if you really get out of control."
"Nya~…"
"But that's not it. Originally, you are not the kind of existence that I can accept. But because you suppressed your power and fit into the vessel called Yuuya, and because I tried my best to accept you, you are able to live in this world like this, you know?"
"Nyah."
Argena continued as if she were having a conversation with Stella.
"…Indeed, I understand that in this world right now, an existence calling itself gods has appeared and you and Yuuya are fighting against them. I am the one who originally gave them the title of Holy, but because of the Divine Power, I cannot take away the power of the Holy. Once I even asked for a dialogue, but they would not listen to me. So now I am of no use to you. However, if you take this seriously, my vessel will be broken even before the gods are involved."
"Nya…"
Perhaps because Stella herself understood this, her shoulders slumped a bit at Argena's words.
Above all, there was nothing Argena could do about it anymore, even if it was happening in Argena.
The Divine Power that Shu and the others had received was that powerful.
Therefore, although she had watched quietly, she had to stop Stella's actions, so she approached her like this.
Stella quickly regained her composure and continued.
"Nya, nya nya?"
"Dealing with the infinite number of god soldiers that appear? That's what you're good at, right?"
"Nya?"
When Stella tilted her head at the unexpected words, Argena replied.
"It's simple. You can use your Power of Existence to swallow the Divine Power of the god soldier."
"Nya, nya!"
I didn't know there was a way to do that! Stella rolled her eyes as if to say that.
In response to Stella, Argena continued.
"It is not only impossible for me, but also for that Sword Saint and Meiko there, but I think it is possible for you."
"Nya!"
Argena smiled bitterly at Stella, who nodded confidently.
"In any case, please do it in moderation, won't you──?"
Argena's voice faded away.
Then Iris, who had noticed that Stella had stopped moving, called out to her.
"Hey, Stella-chan? Are you okay?"
"Nya."
Stella replied by raising her hand to Iris and attacking the god soldier once again.
"Fushaaaaaaaah!"
Stella once again ran in all directions, destroying the god soldier.
However, there was one difference from before.
"Nyah."
When the defeated god soldier returned to the state of Divine Power, Stella ate the Divine Power.
This would make it impossible to recover the Divine Power, which had been impossible to prevent until now.
In addition, Stella's body, which ate the Divine Power, began to glow bit by bit.
"Nya, nya~"
──In this way, Stella defeated the god soldiers one by one and took the Divine Power from them.