Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?

329 – How to kill a god

As Kuro chases me at high speed I escape by retreating at the same speed. During that time my clones also continue to summon more clones, overwriting Kuro’s zone. I’m relieved to be able to say that I seem to be a step above in using Space Magecraft. If I lost at this then I wouldn’t have a chance. If I couldn’t compete with Space Magecraft at the very least, then I would be in checkmate at that point after all.

If you recall my pathetic state immediately after I was dragged into this zone, you can see just how brutal these zones are indeed. It’s like putting a buff on yourself and putting a debuff on your opponent, as it were. If you don’t have some method of resisting that, then you’ll be totally screwed. Thus, Space Magecraft is an essential ability for gods. As per D’s carefully made Basic Course of God.

That is merely the prerequisites to fight a higher ranked god. That’s only enough to get you to the starting line. Unless you’re equal to or superior in Space Magecraft, then you don’t even have the capabilities to fight at all. I’m happy at the fact that I surpass him in that, but even that has been cancelled out by the damage I took from the initial surprise attack, pretty much. The delay in my initial response has equally delayed the expansion of my zone. While I am able to errode Kuro’s zone, the rate feels pedestrian. So unless I’m prepared for a drawn-out battle, it’ll be impossible to completely overwrite it.

So, my immediate situation is basically… REALLY bad. The prerequisites are to be equal to or superior in Space Magecraft. I was able to satisfy that. However, that surprise attack left a delay in my initial response when originally I had planned to lure him into my zone, but this is starting from me being in Kuro’s zone instead. In addition, Kuro is higher ranked. In order for someone lower ranked like me to beat Kuro, I absolutely must use my field to maneuver myself into an advantageous position. Because I haven’t achieved that, I’m in deep shit.

「Ugh!?」

The threads that had been spread out between the many buildings here wrap around Kuro’s body. This is a spider web that my clones had prepared beforehand. Of course, it’s nothing like a normal web. This thread contains Space Magecraft making it almost impossible to sever physically. Once you’re caught in this, you cannot escape. Or at least, that’s how it’s supposed to go.

Kuro casually swings his arm. That’s all it takes for the threads I take pride in to snap, annihilating the web. That damn cheat barrier! My threads are made by magecraft. In other words, by totally eliminating all magecraft without exception, it doesn’t work on Kuro’s dragon barrier. I knew all that, but does this mean I won’t get to show the amusing spectacle of a god strung up and immobilised by my threads then? Okay, fine. Well, I had somewhat hoped to be able to do that, more or less, but my main reason was to buy some time though.

During the tiny pause while Kuro was distracted by my threads, I gain some further distance between us. For now I’ll somehow play for time, giving priority to overwriting Kuro’s zone with my zone. It won’t be too late to go on the counterattack afterwards. Or rather, I can’t until then.

My hand has too few cards that I can play. This would be probably considered too pitiful a hand to use to claim to be a god. All I have is Space Magecraft, my clones and my Evil Eyes. Just that. Use magecraft to create my own zone, trap them in My Home and shower them with countless Evil Eyes from my clones simultaneously. You could say that this is pretty much the only attack method that I have available. You could also say that in the brief time that I had to prepare, that this method was the only one that I was able to develop that is capable of contending with a real god. Currently, my clones are putting everything into the construction of My Home.

Since I have just one type of attack, if that can be countered then I would no longer have any chance of winning. I’d like to believe that it can’t be countered so easily, but it’s definitely not impossible. This is why I didn’t want to show this if possible, back when I was fighting with Potimas’s weapons. Going by Kuro’s actions, he doesn’t have a countermeasure for my Evil Eyes. While that does give me some peace of mind, that’s also why he began with a surprise attack in order to gain an early advantage as well. Yep. Simple but super effective. Thanks to that, My Home and my Evil Eyes have been blocked and I’ve been forced onto the defensive.

However, looking at it from another perspective, this means that I should somehow be able to overturn the unfavourable situation that I’ve been placed into. That surprise attack cost me a lot of magic power, but that’s done with now that I’ve got back on my feet. To be honest, considering that I had resigned myself to be possibility that in the worst case one strike might kill me instantly, being done with it while having taken only that much damage is stroke of luck. Kuro’s offensive abilities aren’t higher than I thought. Considering that he’s attempting to draw closer, it seems unlikely that he’s good at long distance attacks. He has the dragon barrier as well, so it seems that Kuro is a god specialised in defence.

Gods are absurd beings. After all, even if you injure them they can simply recover in an instant. My body that Kuro injured has already completely returned to normal. It’s incredibly difficult to deal with a god purely with physical means. You can smash their heart or cut off their head, but they’ll soon recover back to normal after all. Of course, if you’re able to cut their head off, even a god will lose the ability to think for a moment. However, since they would have prepared for such things in advance, it’s simple enough for them to automatically recover. Even I have prepared for that, so of course those who call themselves gods would definitely have prepared for such things.

There’s many different methods available to defeat such a god. These fall into two main categories. To wear them down and to break their soul. The two examples I know of to break the soul are Heresy Attack and Abyss Magic. D casually included ways to defeat a god. I’m neither excited or attracted by that. What the fuck is that person doing!? So anyway, those methods are too high level for me and I can’t use them. D casually lets people who aren’t even gods use them. I’m neither excited or attracted by that. What the fuck is that person doing!? This is important so I’m saying it twice.

The soul is the very nucleus of living beings. Even a god can’t survive their soul being broken. Or rather, the soul is like the main body of a god anyway. According to the Basic Course of God, this is how battles between gods typically go. Possess methods to break the soul and methods to defend against that. Determine a good way to strike the opponent, then wait for a good moment to use it. Something like that. But, I can’t even do that! Since I pretty much became a god by using a trick, there’s none worse than me.

So in short, the methods I can use are from the other category. To wear them down. To wear what down you ask? Their energy.

Energy is what powers gods. If you consider the soul to be like the heart for a god, then energy is like their blood. They use that to perform various miracles. Being able to regenerate their body instantly from damage for example, is by using energy. If they exhaust their energy, then of course they can no longer do that. In short, they die. Through my Evil Eyes, I’m specialised in stealing that energy. As if I had injected them with poison, the opponent slowly becomes worn down.

But you know. This method has a problem. Which is this – gods are a bunch who have a vast amount of energy stored up, right? And so, it means I gotta drain all that energy, right? That’s gonna take forever, right?

That’s how it is. This method of wearing them down takes a LOAD of time. On top of that Kuro has the dragon barrier. While I doubt he can completely defend against my Evil Eyes, the rate at which he’s worn down will get slower no matter what. On top of that, I’m having a hard enough time just with constructing My Home in preparation for that. Neither Kuro or I have the firepower to take out the other in an instant.

Thus, we can deduce the following conclusion. We’re plunging into a super drawn-out battle. Our fight is just beginning!