Editing Godhorn Tech:Volume3 Chapter9 (section)

===Chapter 9 Section 2===

Miyabi Blackgarden groaned.

Which meant he was still alive.

“Ugh…”

“Hi, still alive there?”

“Moebius? Then where am I?”

He slowly sat up in bed.

He had never liked magically-sterilized air, but he found the unique warmth of a log cabin to be nostalgic. Then he realized where he was.

This was the first village’s clinic. But there were no White Sorcerers or nurses here.

There was only one person other than him.

Moebius Entrance shrugged in his wheelchair.

“Too confused to even know where you are? You were born and raised in this village, weren’t you?”

“What about the 11th?” he muttered. Then it all came back to him. “That’s right! Philia Shout! What about the others!? Are they okay!? …Ugh!?”

“You shouldn’t be shouting in your condition.”

Miyabi grimaced and held his head, but Moebius remained entirely relaxed.

“I’m not interested in nursing a guy, so take your own pain meds.”

The situation was too pressing for that.

When Miyabi got his trembling body moving, he did not approach the medicine on the shelves; he grabbed his control sword that was leaning against the wall.

But something wasn’t right.

As soon as he grabbed the grip, he noticed a strange heat there.

“You won’t be able to use the Lucifer Horn for a while.”

The boy did not need any details to know the Godhorn Tech was not in functioning order. After Philia Shout’s attack and the giant meteor summoned by Alma, it was a miracle the Lucifer Horn had not been utterly destroyed. Same for himself, really.

But more than that, he had to wonder how Moebius had broken free of that situation.

Miyabi winced when he tried to leave the bed.

He couldn’t manage it yet. He had pushed himself too far, so he got his feet on the floor but could not get his hips off of the bed.

“Phew… So how did you intervene back there? I mean, you’re in a wheelchair. And Garett, Charlotte, and all the others were knocked out by the shockwave from the meteor that hit Horn Fortress.”

“All the best men have their secrets.”

The man kept his tone light.

And how had he carried injured Miyabi from Horn Fortress to the first village?

Did it have to do with being the Lucifer Horn’s former user? Or was it thanks to Philia Shout’s appearance destroying the barrier around the island? Miyabi considered the options, but no explanation was sufficient. The man must have used some rules Miyabi was unfamiliar with.

Everything had fallen apart.

“So is that woman I ''briefly fought with'' really the 11th? I acted that way on a guess, but I haven’t been keeping tabs on everything.”

“You really fought that ‘mother’ all on your own?”

“Hey, don’t look at me like we’re talking about some fairy tale Demon Lord. And don’t ask too many questions. I’m already retired, remember?” Moebius sighed before continuing. “Also, the others are fine. That woman said she could enjoy this more that way.”

“…”

“Don’t let it get to you. Waiting until the enemy lets down their guard is a legitimate strategy. You don’t have to like it, but you just have to win in the end. And surviving is what counts in my book. History isn’t written by the victors – it’s written by the survivors. But there is one problem.”

“Just one problem is better than I could have hoped for.”

“Wait until you hear what it is. It’s about Alma. Just head to your house. You’ll see what I mean.”



Miyabi could move now. Mostly, anyway.

He awkwardly checked the movement of his limbs before leaving the clinic.

He saw the sunlight filtered through the leaves overhead and he heard the rustling of those leaves in the wind. He smelled animal stew and apple pies from the house windows.

This was the first village he knew so well at midday.

It actually felt weird finding the familiar village so unchanged. Several log houses were nearly engulfed by the forest. The place was awash with the gentle noises of birdsong and of skilled craftsmen working with lumber. It did not take him long to arrive home.

He heard a shrill noise along the way.

Someone was blowing a whistle.

He looked over to see Celina Bodenburg with a whistle in her mouth and Helen Clockgear tearfully protesting.

“Eh? No, I object! This elf tripped all on her own!!”

“Complaining after the whistle makes you look like a sore loser. Hey, stop tugging on my skirt, you meanie☆”

“You’re the worst actor I’ve ever seen. I know you took the fall to get that foul!!”

They appeared to be playing a 1-on-1 ball game. They had made a large ball by stuffing thick leather inside some old cloth. They both stood in front of a goal line drawn in the dirt and tried to kick the ball across the other’s goal line. With only one person on both sides, it ended up a lot like a quick draw with swords or guns in a popular play. It all came down to the instant they intersected while one of them dribbled the ball.

There was less than 10m between the two goal lines.

“Just accept your mistake, four eyes. Now, time for my penalty kick. I’ll just put the ball here and you stand in front of the goal to block it. C’mon, get going.”

“Ehhhh, that’s way too close! It’ll hurt when it hits me! I just know it will!”

“Hyperdrive Monster Tits Glasses Woman Killer Shot!!!!!!”

“Not so clooooose!!!”

The kick was like a close-range blast from a gun and Helen wimped out and escaped to the side. Miyabi felt like he could find a loophole – or an unbeatable strategy – if he thought about the game enough.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh, the boy.” Alicia turned around. “Finally came to, huh? We can’t get started without you!”

“Get started with what? And why isn’t Alma with you?”

It was unusual for that creature to not be hanging around when they were playing like this.

It was an obvious question, but Alicia, Helen, and Celina all chose not to answer him, creating a somewhat awkward mood.

He had a bad feeling about this.

“Um-”

“Just come here, boy. Alma is at your house.”

Alicia quickly cut him off, so he gave those three a puzzled look while they took his hand and guided him home. The log cabin’s front door was unlocked and he found Eliza Silverstorm and Onelife Shiftup when he opened it.

They appeared to be watching something in shifts.

No, some''one''.

And it was an unpleasant enough task to require shifts. Something was happening here that had required Alicia and Helen to head out and get some exercise to help keep their spirits up.

Alicia, Helen, and the others guided him up the stairs and to his own room.

Yet he did not at all feel like he was coming home.

He only felt a sense of dread and had to gulp before he could open the door.

But open it he did.

He looked to his bed to find a creature that looked so much like a stuffed animal sleeping on its back.

Alma had undergone so many transformations, but this was the original white form. But something had changed. It was like the difference between a vibrant leaf growing on a healthy tree and a dry and withered leaf lying on the ground.

Yes, Alma’s white and fluffy fur had lost its luster.

So this looked less like Alma was sleeping and more like…

“…”

“What happened? This isn’t right. Why is Alma the only one that didn’t wake up!?”

Freaking out was not going to give him the answer.

“O-oh, right. The pain medication. Um, Alma doesn’t like bitter things, so I can mix it into some milk or honey.”

He could make his own modifications in a different way to an alchemist. But was that really necessary? He may have been stalling for time because he was too scared to learn the answer.

Yes, he was scared.

Scared to learn the truth.

But he still approached the bed again.

“Alma…”

He was not answered by the usual cry.

But he kept talking.

“Please swallow this, Alma!”

“You can’t force it,” gently said Celina Bodenburg with her arms crossed by the window. “We don’t even know if human medication will work.”

“We have plenty of horn experts, but no one who knows much about Wicked Gods themselves,” said Alicia. “To be blunt, you know the thing better than anyone, so if you’re stumped, there isn’t anything anyone else in the world can do.”

Elaine Greenforest shook her head while leaning onto the bed. The negative emotion on her face was obvious even through the goggles. The dark elves had once lived alongside the Green Forest’s Guardian, but the Wicked God had simply watched over the forest as a whole. Elaine and the rest of the elves had not lived closely enough with the Guardian to know much about him.

The only real exception was the Necromancer.

For her Deadman’s Fenrir, she had built a Godhorn Tech out of a Wicked God horn and another Wicked God’s corpse. She would know all about their bones, muscles, blood vessels, and internal organs in a way Miyabi did not.

That death researcher had her long legs crossed while she used a wooden box as a chair next to the bed. She sighed with her head resting in her hand in a surprisingly classy way.

“All I can say is that, anatomically speaking, there are no external or internal wounds.”

“Then…?” asked Miyabi.

The decadent woman shrugged.

“The coma must have a psychological cause.”

“She means it’s in the thing’s head,” supplied the witch hat.

The Necromancer re-crossed her long legs on the box and toyed with the brim of her hat.

“I don’t know if a Wicked God’s psychological structure is at all similar to a human’s, but do you have any ideas? Is there some truth the thing might be reluctant to accept?”

“Dammit,” spat Miyabi with a bitter taste in his mouth. “Does Alma regret harming us while trying to protect us?”

“Even psychological issues can have an effect on the physical body. Plus, its strength will drop the longer the coma lasts. In the worst case, it could even wither away and die like this.”

“And its vitals are indeed gradually dropping,” explained Number 8 who stood over in a corner like a grandfather clock.

The automaton spoke calmly, which made the words hit Miyabi all the harder.

“So what do we do?”

“I’ve never worked with a living Wicked God, so I haven’t a clue.”

Then Alicia, who was leaning onto the bed alongside Elaine, turned toward Miyabi.

“But Alma has a mind just like ours!”

“Indeed!!” Onelife stood tall in the center of the room. “So we’ve just gotta give the thing a solid slap on the back to pour some energy into it!!”

“That would kill it!” shouted Celina. “I don’t want any more ideas out of you!!”

“We just have to be gentle and soothing,” said Alicia. “Make our arms a cradle for Alma.”

Helen glanced over at the bookcase and then shook her head. The answer would not be found there.

“So you’re saying we need to act like Alma’s ‘mommy’?”

“Are you sure that is a good idea? It might just make things worse.”

Eliza, whose butt was seated on a small table, had a point.

“But…a cradle, huh?” said Miyabi.

“Got an idea?” asked the radio.

“What about the place where I first found Alma? In the mountains past the elf forest, I found the egg inside a nest.”

“That settles it,” said Alicia.

“Yes,” agreed Helen. “Let’s get Alma there right away.”



Philia Shout had no master plan or long-held desire she was hellbent on achieving.

She was more willful and more wicked.

And at the moment, there were likely only two things on the continent she had any interest in. She had said so herself back on Horn Fortress.

The two were Miyabi and Alma.

“She’s waiting.”

“?”

When Celina heard the redhead boy’s dark and heavy words, she did not understand them.

There was nothing special at their destination.

As far as Miyabi Blackgarden knew, it held no significance.

To repeat – to make this crystal clear – there was nothing interesting about the nest.

No matter where on the continent they went, and even if they stayed inside the village, Philia Shout would come to them. And the next time they met, it would be their final battle.



They left the village.

They set out on a new journey.

Daytime had already faded into evening. Entering the forest when it was growing dark would normally be an unnecessary risk. The sun would rise again the following morning, after all. But they had no time to spare at the moment.

Fortunately, their destination was within the usual forest.

Miyabi had been able to walk there on his own when he was a small child.

“It’s up ahead,” he said while guiding the others.

The Blueforest elves controlled this forest and allowed the humans to look after it. It all looked the same at first, but the area up ahead was a little different.

After passing through a small thicket, it was like stepping out into another world. The fauna and ecosystem changed entirely.

“Nhh.” Surprisingly, it was Onelife, man of the sea, who groaned. “This place is bad news. Truly inaccessible and secluded areas won’t actually kill you. After all, no ordinary people can even get there. The real threats are the close-to-home places even a child can reach. The small stagnant places that everyone knows are dangerous but everyone takes too lightly.”

“You can tell?”

“I was originally a naval rescue expert, if you recall. I just ended up being the strongest pirate cause I was little too strong. …I know in my bones how many lives have been taken by the small rocky areas that couples love to sneak away to and kids love using for tests of courage. This might be in the mountains instead of on the sea, but this place has the same feel to it. This is a great maw that feasts on children’s lives.”

“Pirate? And Miyabi? Why are you looking my way? Did you want to hold my hand?”

Young Kananka Fulpen gave them a puzzled and somewhat suspicious look.

This place was just like a nearby cave or a small cliff. It was not well-known enough to be a famous suicide spot. It was a small section of the scenery that the locals didn’t even have a name for. But that was why they let down their guard and merciless accidents could take their children’s lives. It was a dangerous piece of the familiar and the everyday.

The twins stood close together.

“Acacia, I never knew forests could be so different.”

“I know what you mean, Ixea. This is nothing like the dark elf forest.”

A truly untouched forest was enough to reject human life.

The difference was obvious even if you could not put your finger on what exactly tipped you off. Miyabi pointed toward a darker and damper section of forest. There was a clear division between this and the rest of the forest.

This was enough to know why the elves got the humans’ help to thin out the forest and let the sunlight in.

Yes, the world seen in children’s books had to be created.

“One day, my parents entered the forest for a job and didn’t come out for a long time. I was told they had gone deep – very deep – inside. But I was lonely left behind the whole time.” Miyabi adjusted sleeping Alma’s position in his arms. “So I wanted to prove myself to my parents. I only thought of it as a bit of exploration. I would show them I could travel deep in the forest too, so they would have to stop treating me like a little kid. But then I found Alma’s egg.”

They had arrived at the mountain.

The forested ground began to slope upwards.

But something wasn’t right.

This was supposedly a short enough distance for a small child to wander there alone and then find his way back. Yet this place was permeated by something that suggested a single wrong step would be fatal.

“Pant, pant.”

Kanaka had trouble catching his breath on the slope.

The place felt ominous.

So what about the world had changed since then?

Or had a small boy really unwittingly visited such a dangerous place?

Something felt different, but Miyabi could not find the words to describe it. Now that he had a Godhorn Tech and a definite objective, a great pressure here threatened to stop his legs from moving if he stopped concentrating. There was a powerful sense of rejection here. Or maybe this was what Onelife called a small stagnant place and a great maw that feasts on children’s lives.

The source came into view without warning.

The pathless way up the mountain slope was blocked by a giant collapsed dragon, griffin, and more.

They lay utterly motionless on the slope.

Their limbs were sprawled out limply, their eyelids remained open and they seemed frozen in time while blood colored a toxic red poured from their gruesome wounds.

Celina immediately pressed her flintlock gun’s stock against her shoulder.

“Wh-what happened here!?”

“These must be Wicked Gods,” groaned the Lord of Ruin from behind his white mask.

His wrinkled fists were silently trembling.

He had sworn to defeat every Godhorn Tech – even the Deadman’s Fenrir made from a Wicked God’s flesh and blood – since they had already been reduced to weapons for others to use. But he had also wanted the living Wicked Gods to be viewed as equals of the humans, elves, and so on.

Because they had intelligent minds of their own.

The twins had a question.

“But how could these legendary beings be killed so easily?”

“And their horns are intact, so this couldn’t have been to build Godhorn Techs.”

Eliza inspected the wounds on one of the corpses.

“This looks a lot like a sword wound, but…no, it’s subtly different. It was done by something sharp, but not a blade. What would cause a wound like this?”

“These were a test,” said Miyabi in a low voice. “But not of the weapon. Of the victim. The Mother of Wicked Gods said they were meant to be the strongest beasts, so she did this to see if they were worthy of the Wicked God title.”

“You mean there wasn’t even any hatred or resentment behind all of this death?” groaned Elaine.

The bleeding and unmoving Wicked Gods seemed to remind her of something.

But that answer made it easy to imagine what weapon had been used: ''the horns themselves.''

There was no need to remake them into Godhorn Techs. Even natural animals came equipped with those powerful and sharp weapons alongside their claws and fangs. The Wicked Gods and their mother were no exception.

Humans were the weird ones for embedding those horns in weapons.

The Wicked Gods collapsed on the slope ranged from only 10m to even bigger than 100m. By littering the ground, they created a maze of flesh and blood. Continuing up the slope would require climbing over plesiosaurs and ducking below massive serpents.

Government Official Helen paled. If word got out that so many horns were gathered here, it could plunge the entire continent into war as everyone tried to get their hands on them.

Wicked God corpses and dark red blood were everywhere. The rusty smell was identical to human blood and they could not bury the bodies right now. The most they could do was use their hands to close the massive eyes while they slipped between masses of flesh so large they felt more like cliffs or caves.

It seemed unlikely this many Wicked Gods had lived on the mountain.

Philia Shout must have summoned them here and then cut them down with a sigh of disappointment.

What had the Wicked Gods felt when they heard her call? Had they arrived reluctantly, knowing they could not escape their fate? Or had they come peacefully, hoping to receive comfort from their mother?

Either way, this was not how a mother was supposed to act.

Miyabi gritted his teeth, but then he spoke.

“This…''is'' right next to my village, right?”

“Were you always playing in such a brutal place?” asked Eliza.

Miyabi shook his head. He was not talking about all the Wicked God corpses littering the ground. Or you could say their impact had kept him from noticing this earlier.

The boy should have known his way around, yet he had surprise in his voice.

“No, I’ve never seen this place. What is this sinister feeling?”

“The forest is trembling and weeping,” said Dark Elf Elaine.

“Yes, the forest rarely feels so damp and fearful,” agreed Alicia.

“''The first village,''” muttered the Lord of Ruin behind his white mask.

The radio did not miss it.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

“There really are Wicked God corpses everywhere here,” groaned Miyabi.

“I doubt this area is remotely sanitary,” said Number 8 while avoiding a stream of blood at his feet.

“Heh heh. Keh heh heh! I have never seen so many resources! I can barely contain my-”

“Boss.”

“Never mind. Let’s keep going, shall we?”

The hat’s cold reprimand caused the decadent woman to shape up fast.

Young King Kananka took a look around.

“I do find it hard to believe how many of them there are.”

“Was that Philia Shout only interested in killing her own children on a whim? Or did she have business up ahead?”

“She might not have given any of it any thought at all.”

Onelife’s suggestion was actually the most frightening one.

Miyabi’s party continued to duck below the giant corpses and climb the pathless path until they arrived at the summit.

But again, this was a distance a small child could reach. If not for the Wicked God corpses, this would have been a small and unremarkable mountain.

It was still there.

It may have been best described as a giant bird’s nest.

But for it to survive so many years, it must have been sturdily made. The Wicked God must have wanted the egg containing their child to remain safe.

“Okay, this is the place.”

Miyabi gently set Alma down in the nest. Alma was lying face up like usual.

Alicia stroked the small forehead and horn with a fingertip.

“I hope this can soothe some of the tension. I hope this warms the heart enough for the poor thing to wake up sooner.”

“By the way, what is that?” asked Helen.

“Isn’t it a Wicked God nest?” responded Celina.

“Not that,” said Helen, pointing further down.

Something appeared to be buried below the giant bird’s nest. It was a large piece of stone, clearly carved by someone. The bases of what must have once been columns marked out a space about the size of a gazebo.

“Now that you mention it, it does look like some kind of temple,” said the rich girl. “Which makes this look like an altar.”

“But this sensation.” Acacia frowned. “The place feels cursed.”

“Yes, it isn’t the same as our desert kingdom, but there is a bad vibe hanging over this place.”

The Lord of Ruin remained silent with his face hidden behind the white mask.

“…”

And still silent, he turned around before any of the others.

The rest only heard a rustling sound after the fact.

“Oh, dear. I thought I would stop by for a quick test, but you beat me here.”

This was the last person they wanted to meet here.

She was kind and gentle but also entirely unfaltering.

She had long, long hair that shined a bright pink. She wore white armor that left her dazzling skin and navel exposed to the open air. It did not function as armor, a swimsuit, or a shell.

It was actually composed of Wicked God horns.

Each and every one of those protrusions emerging from her body was one of those powerful horns capable of becoming the core of a Godhorn Tech. Their mere existence had endless influence and they could easily distort the power balance between the nations and companies that controlled the continent.

“The 11th!?” shouted Miyabi, eyes bugging, but Philia Shout only wagged a slender finger.

Not only could she draw endlessly on the power of the horns, but she could grow the horns themselves from every part of her body. She could also create as many real Wicked Gods as she wanted. So as slender as that finger looked, it could easily destroy the entire continent. It was, after all, adorned with a very long horn.

Miyabi would not have questioned it if she said her wagging finger was taking years off of his lifespan.

“Do try to use your head just a little, okay?”

“…”

They could not even send out the Lucifer Horn, but she was as extraordinary as ever. And even if they had full use of his Godhorn Tech – hell, even if they could have sent all 10 Godhorn Techs at her – he doubted they could have defeated her.

“I thought maybe you were intentionally ambushing me here, but it sounds like you don’t even understand the significance of this place.”

“What significance?”

Philia Shout turned toward someone other than Miyabi.

“Isn’t fate a funny thing, Lord of Ruin? I bet you never imagined this place would be your final hope.”

“…”

After some silence, a low voice spoke through the old man’s featureless mask.

“This is the altar where I broke off the juvenile’s horn and embedded it in my sword.”

“Wha-?”

Eliza was dumbfounded.

The ruins of a megalithic culture were found in the Bio Rainforest on the east end of the continent. If their influence had reached this far west, then that ancient culture would have covered a greater area than the Empire at its peak.

The Lord of Ruin continued from behind the smooth mask, like he was forcing out the words.

“Check the altar. You will find a symbol there.”

It was like tearing a wound wider and rubbing it with salt.

Miyabi groaned because there was no need to even check closely. The decorations were all over the stone altar.

“It’s the same symbol found on the Bio Rainforest’s ruins.”

“The serpent carrying the sun? Was that originally the Lord of Ruin’s symbol?” asked Helen.

Philia Shout laughed and clapped her hands.

The claws longer than a sword – no, the horns growing from her fingertips – clacked together as she did.

“Ah ha ha! Yes, that’s right!! This is where it all went wrong. This is where the strongest beasts were made to serve the fragile and pathetic humans.”

“So what?” Miyabi asked the fundamental question. “What are you planning to do here now!?”

“Oh, nothing really.” Despite calling herself a mother, Philia Shout childishly stuck out her tongue. “I thought maybe we understood each other a little, but you humans are hopeless. Your expectations are so low you try to force such ridiculous ideas on us. Do you really think I have some grand desire or master plan?”

“…”

“I detonated a sorcery bomb somewhere yesterday and I’ll set one up somewhere else tomorrow.”

There may not have been any deep thought behind it.

“I just remembered there was an amusing memorial here, so I thought I would check it out again.”

“That’s all?”

Kananka was not alone in his disbelief.

Number 8 was just as dumbfounded.

“It was really only on a whim?”

“Oh, dear. Then tell me this: what would I even want to accomplish through some intricate master plan? I did think it would be amusing to transform Alma, but that is far from a necessity.”

She had an almost refreshing look on her face.

“Do you think I want to prove I am the world’s strongest by breaking through the crust below our feet? Hoard all the world’s money? Pursue all forms of beauty? Monopolize every kind of love? Rule with absolute charisma?” asked Philia Shout. “I accomplished all of that before you humans ever appeared in this land. Using the power of my countless horns, of course.”

“Y-you’re insane!” accused Eliza, but Philia Shout did not bat an eye.

“Why should I care how your human standards judge me? I used the Missing Dice to test out every single thing I could do. Much like spreading my arms to see how far I could stretch them.”

She spoke so smoothly.

Right up until she didn’t.

“But it wasn’t enough.”

Something felt wrong.

Like the harbinger of a major accident.

“To be free is not to run wild or be unbound by any rules. Having free rein over the vast world around you actually feels so very lonely. You need an objective, no matter how small. You need some kind of goal marked on the map. Nothing I accomplished changed how I felt. No matter how much I took, I was never satisfied. I felt no attachment to creation either. If I would remain unchanged no matter what happened to the world around me, why even bother changing or growing that world?”

So.

She arrived at a twisted answer.

“The only thing left for me is to return to the first village and destroy everything.”

“Wait, you don’t have to do that now, do you!? Alma is still-!!”

“Oh? You still don’t get how ''mommy'' feels?”

She laughed and made the worst possible announcement.

It seemed to point back at the bloody path they had followed to reach here.

“''I loathe weak children.''”

By the time her slender fingertip pointed his way, Miyabi had already drawn his control sword. They were at the summit, but it did not jut sharply into the sky. The short, trapezoidal mountain had a large, flat summit. There were more than 10 of them and there were no trees, so they could spread out and surround Philia Shout.

However…

“Be careful, Miyabi!” warned Alicia.

“Alma is defenseless right now,” added Helen. “A single hit could be devastating!”

Again, there were more than 10 of them.

They could surround Philia Shout and pepper her with attacks from close and long range.

Kananka threw his boomerang.

The bent projectile weapon was more like a striking weapon, but Philia Shout did not even glance in its direction. Did she know that throw was only meant to read the wind so he could inform the rest of the party?

“The humidity is unusually high? Oh, because of all the blood from the Wicked Gods we saw on the way here?”

“Tch. Elaine, coordinate with me!” shouted Celina while she used a skinny rod to stuff powder and a bullet down the barrel of her gun. “We can use projectiles to surely and safely pin her in place!!”

“Fine, but what then?”

“What else? The others wail on her with some straightforward heavy firepower!!”

Following the smart bullets and arrows, Eliza rushed in with her lance, Number 8 with his morning star, Acacia and Ixea with axes bigger than they were, and Onelife with his powerful arm. They fanned out to partially surround their target and then narrowed back in on her.

Philia Shout only had two arms.

If she was attacked from four directions at once, how much could she block and how much would hit?

“Nwohhh!!” roared the pirate. “I might be slow, but my attacks are devastating when they land. So we only have to set things up so I have a guaranteed hit!!!!!!”

Yes.

Even if she had Wicked God horns growing from every part of her, she still looked like a human girl. She had the usual number of limbs and she could only move in the horizontal directions. She could not fly like a bird or wriggle like a snake.

So she shouldn’t have had any way of defending against a sufficiently high number of attacks.

''However.

Chosen Knight Eliza gulped.

“We were repelled again. What do we do if not even surrounding her is enough!?”

“We either boost our strength or tear down hers, of course! There’s still plenty we can try!!”

Helen cast magic-weakening magic on her dagger and Alicia tossed Eliza a test tube of an alchemical boosting potion.

Miyabi moved between Philia Shout and the altar to keep her away from sleeping Alma.

“Contract Owner: Under Lilith, grant me the power to move the Palette Dice!!”

Cubes of dark soil stacked up in front of the altar to create a Decoy Wall. That would prevent a direct hit on Alma in the off chance Philia Shout tried to throw something.

Their calculations were not wrong.

The Lord of Ruin drew out a lightning bolt with zigzagging slashes of his sword directly in front of her and Kananka’s boomerang curved midflight to strike at her from a blind spot. The Necromancer’s long whip scattered a strange saliva spray every time it struck the ground, sending a toxic scattershot toward Philia Shout’s eyes.

“This is working. We can do this,” muttered Miyabi under his breath.

He tried to convince himself of that while he gripped his control sword in both hands and rushed toward her again.

“I’m still working at it! So create! You can create a path forward! We haven’t lost as long as some possibility remains!! We won’t let you have Alma!!!!!!”

After all the experience they had built up, each of their attacks was devastatingly powerful. It was possible they might have been able to defeat a Godhorn Tech without one of their own at this point.

And yet.

“Hee hee.”

She simply laughed.

Philia Shout swayed in amusement.

“Oh, dear. Trying some fun self-suggestion? You so doubt yourself that you have to ''say it all out loud'' to try and convince yourself it’s true?☆”

She did not dodge or defend.

The sword and the lance were forcibly stopped.

All she did was stand there on her two legs, yet she had not shed a single drop of blood. Even with a morning star swung down at her head, bullets fired at her soft-looking chest, and Helen’s knife aimed for the gaps in the joints of her armor.

Even Kananka seemed hesitant to throw his boomerang.

Their attacks were like pudding or yogurt against the solid wall of her defenses.

Was her very existence that much different from their own!?

“Hee hee. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!”

A dull noise rang out.

The horns growing from her elbows, back, hips, hands, and forehead began to move, deflecting the attacks that should have been landing clean hits.

The encirclement around her was forced outwards.

Miyabi clenched his teeth as the soles of his shoes slid and he nearly slipped down the slope.

“Dammit, our attacks aren’t working!?”

“Of course they aren’t. Godhorn Techs draw their power from a Wicked God horn, remember? And every Wicked God belongs to me. None of you can even perceive the Missing Dice that make up more than 90% of the world, so you can swing around the tip of a broken horn all day long – it isn’t going to change anything in this world full of useless excess.”

The Wicked God horns protruding from her body glowed with a bewitching light.

“If you focus all your attention on the surface-level Palette Dice that make up less than 10% of the whole, you can never defeat me since I can control all of the unseen Missing Dice. The freer you are, the stronger you are, so no one who restricts themselves with unnecessary limits can ever succeed! This useless world is the result of always choosing to compromise and never specializing in anything. And you expect the junk born here to harm me!?”

Miyabi was the one being worn down as he continued to attack. With each strike of his sword, a dull tingling pain filled his wrists. It felt like striking a boulder with a metal pole.

And he wasn’t alone there.

“Alicia! Elf! Give me a hand!”

“What, are your lead bullets not enough for you? Well, I haven’t specialized in that field of alchemy, so if you can’t do it, I can’t either!!”

It was especially obvious in Celina who had to reload her gun with powder and a bullet every time she fired, but they were all showing signs of exhaustion and weariness. Miyabi imagined they were wearing down their hammers and pickaxes by swinging them against an unbreakable wall.

Philia Shout was still toying with them.

She was provoking them in order to draw out some kind of response.

Otherwise she wouldn’t have avoided using the sorcery bombs she could use whenever she liked.

“Pant, pant!!”

“What’s this? Done already? Then do you mind if I get started? Mommy wants to cause a major explosion here. Given the historical significance of this place, I figure it warrants a full 100 sorcery bombs. I can plant them all over like a flower garden. Hee hee.”

“But…why?”

The enormity of what she suggested got them all to stop.

They didn’t mean to, but they all froze in unison. It felt like they were being consumed by something massive, so it was disconcerting to say the least.

Miyabi could not even catch his breath, but he squeezed his control sword tighter as he asked his question.

“Why are you so fixated on power and destruction?”

“Oh, dear. This all came from my body, so aren’t I free to do with it as I please? Really, it’s strange you think you can waltz in and try to stop me. Especially when you’re the one who borrowed one of my horns to use its power. Without asking, I might add.”

“…!?”

(Don’t let her get to you. If a direct attack doesn’t work, we just have to find something else. Like…like a poison root or something.)

He raised his sword and looked her in the eye to distract her from how he was brushing some dirt away with his boot heel and locating a toxic-colored tree root.

Philia Shout gave him a bewitching smile.

“See what I mean? Even you destroy to get what you want. That’s just how the world works.”

“!?”

“Besides, destruction and creation are two sides of the same coin. Creating something requires destroying something. You cannot create anything from nothing. Whenever you created something, you had to fell trees, shatter rocks, and otherwise destroy things to obtain materials, didn’t you?”

It was an amused smile.

“You use up materials, you kill, and you acquire more ''all so you can create something new''.”

It was a sticky smile that seemed to be breaking apart.

Entranced, she placed her hands on either side of her small face.

“And the same applies to the invisible and intangible realm of the Missing Dice. It doesn’t matter if you can sense it or not and you don’t have to question whether whatever it is deserves to be destroyed.”

“But…”

He couldn’t believe it.

His voice grew scratchy.

“But you can’t take people’s lives like that.”

“Did you think you were creating a new world? But that is the same as destroying the current world. And when it comes to destruction, I am far more powerful. I can reach areas you cannot see or touch. So your power of creation cannot defeat ''mommy''. Destruction and creation are one and the same. You must till the land to grow crops and you must reap the wheat and grind it into flour to bake bread. The world has always worked like this.”

(If neither destruction nor creation can beat her…then how are we even supposed to fight her!?)

“Now, how about we end this?”

She gave a flourish of a horned finger and sucked in a breath.

That elegant movement was enough to terrify Miyabi at this point.

“I don’t care if you label it destruction or creation. Whoever is stronger has the power to ''change the world''. So you must be destroyed for the future ''mommy'' has in mind.”

She approached step by step.

Her legs were those of a lovely girl, but they created the illusion of the earth quaking with each step.

A thick invisible wall seemed to be slowly crushing them. Once she was within arm’s reach, they were dead.

No.

That countdown was entirely meaningless. If she had wanted to, she could have blown them away along with the entire mountain using a sorcery bomb.

It was Miyabi’s party that was reliant on that unnecessary countdown. They had to whip their weary and trembling legs into shape and charge in with weapons at the ready.

“This isn’t over yet.”

Miyabi forced his chattering teeth together and raised his voice for a roar.

He had to get his party’s stopped gears moving again even if that meant forcing it.

“Alicia, Helen…follow meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!”

They heard the clang of clashing metal.

They heard the boom of explosions.

They heard the crash of impacts.

They heard the roar of erupting magic.

“Kh…damn her!!”

“Hee hee. Try as much as you like. By the way, are you familiar with the concept of a ''treadmill''? Forcing someone to work an endless and obviously hopeless task is an effective form of torture that wears down their psyche. Ah ha ha!! Ah ha ha ha ha!!”

They struck her.

Hit her.

Slashed her and pushed back at her.

But she put in no effort or thought. She did not predict their actions or trick them. She simply stood before them and slowly approached. She did not even use her hands to keep the incoming blades or blunt weapons from hitting her face. She did not even blink or flinch when a sword or spear was jabbed straight toward her eye.

Nothing at all changed about the Mother of Wicked Gods.

“Yawwwn…”

“!?”

Something was loudly deflected.

Acacia rushed in and had her giant axe repelled so it nearly lodged itself in Onelife’s torso as he followed behind her.

None of the Wicked God horns had glowed.

Nor had she thrown in a sorcery bomb.

“Oh, dear. Sorry about that.”

She had only raised a hand to her mouth.

An action only meant to cover a yawn had accidentally caught the heavy blade and knocked it backwards. Almost like it had been caught on a giant gear.

“I didn’t expect something so simple to knock you on your ass.”

“Damn you!!”

Celina aimed her gun and provided ineffective covering fire while Ixea borrowed Onelife’s shoulder to move back away from the enemy.

The yawn had brought tears to the mother’s eyes.

The horns must have made smaller actions difficult because she let the horn on her index finger fall away before rubbing the tears from her eyes. And that action was all it took for Celina’s bullet to ricochet away.

“Gah!?”

It was like she couldn’t even hear Number 8’s cry of agony as he doubled over. Eliza’s lance was deflected upwards, knocking her arms overhead and stretching her spine up. Even ''the'' Lord of Ruin’s sword strike was easily stopped by her soft-looking chest.

No matter what they did, the action was stopped in some unexpected way.

Their movements fell apart, their coordination was in shambles, and their balance was thrown off. Blades and arrows ended up attacking their own party members.

“Be…careful!”

Eliza’s eyes widened when she saw Helen collapse, bringing Onelife down with her.

She provided a warning as a chosen knight who knew a lot about direct combat.

“If you fall with a blade in hand, you can always stab yourself in the gut or leg. Short one-handed blades are especially dangerous in that- !?”

She stopped midsentence.

She had taken a hit to the forehead and collapsed backwards.

Miyabi caught her but did not understand what had happened at first.

It took him some time to realize Philia Shout had used a fingertip to fling her own tears while pretending to throw a kiss.

“Philia Shouuuut!!!!!!”

“I told you to try as much as you like, but please do not make me embarrass myself.” She placed her hands on her hips and puffed out her cheeks like a child. A new sharp horn grew back on her fingertip. “When you’re this weak, it makes me want to kill you and then it would look like I broke my promise. Do you need a cheerleader maybe? Go, go! You can do it☆ I believe in you! Because if you can’t, it’s time for the sorcery bombs.”

Everything they did backfired.

Miyabi started to justify his fears by wondering if not doing anything was the wiser decision.

However…

“This isn’t over yet.”

The redhead boy left limp Eliza with Elaine and held his sword in both hands again.

He forced the strength back into himself.

“Not even close!! We will make you take this seriously, Philia Shout. However you might see this fight, we’re still fighting to protect Alma’s life!!”

She placed a hand on her forehead and sighed.

She used her feet to tap out a rhythm on the ground.

She pulled the blade-like horns from her fingertips and brought the hand to her long hair.

Her gentlest actions were enough for Acacia and Ixea to crash into each other and roll along the ground, for Kananka’s boomerang to be deflected and collide with Celina’s gun from the side, and for Alicia’s test tubes to shatter in midair when she tossed them to the others.

She wasn’t doing much of anything, but they were battered and bloody.

The Mother of Wicked Gods did not even take a fighting stance.

She did nothing more than someone who arrived at a meetup point early and was trying to kill some time.

“…”

But then she tilted her head.

Confused, she asked a question.

“How strange. Why don’t you give up when the result is so obvious?”

“I don’t care.”

Miyabi knew they couldn’t win.

But that reckless boy was not the only one who glared straight at her without averting his gaze.

He rolled along the ground, nicked his cheek with his own sword, and spilled some red, but he was not alone.

“It only…has to be…a smokescreen.” She couldn’t even hold her shoulders straight, but Celina gritted her teeth, loaded another around, and aimed her weapon despite the tingling numbness in her hands. “Maybe our attacks don’t affect you, but as long as they keep your attacks from hitting us, we break even. We’ll buy enough time to come up with some other idea, so you figure something out, Miyabi!!”

“Lord of Ruin, you wielded your blade as a Godhorn Tech slayer by triggering reaction backlash between two horns’ powers, causing them to rupture from within, right?” The butler automaton was battered, but he was still standing straight. He held his side where an ally’s bullet had hit him, but he still had the will to fight. “I know you can’t use that power with the contents of your demon sword fried, but Miyabi’s control sword is a different matter. It still holds a Wicked God’s power. Is there any way you could teach him that technique? It should be especially effective against Philia Shout thanks to all those horns!!”

This proved that there were still possibilities out there. Maybe they couldn’t see them now, but if they kept pushing, everything could change.

The boy’s indomitable spirit had spread to the others.

Maybe their methods were fundamentally flawed. They may have been overwhelmingly lacking in power. But Miyabi thrust his control sword forward and forced out a roar.

“But something about this is bothering me. It’s right there on the tip of my tongue!”

“I will not give up either,” said Alicia who had been slashed by shards of glass.

“Right. Because we’re all that stands between her and Alma,” said Helen who was extracting some of her own dagger’s poison from her body.

Both of them were gasping for breath but supporting the boy.

They would not give up.

This wasn’t about maturity or childishness, calm or short-tempered, benevolent or malicious. No one here was going to slam on the brakes.

No one needed to.

Even the philosopher’s stone took a challenging stance.

“Tch. Fine then. The mascots and the weakest characters get all the love! But apparently that stuffed animal thing is a girl, so I’m game!!”

They challenged their foe.

They grabbed, fired, and pushed through.

“God, I’m not supposed to be out here fighting with no real chance at profit,” griped the rich girl while rudely spitting out some bloody saliva.

“A knight must rescue the weak. I see no reason to back down!” said the chosen knight, one arm hanging limply at her side.

“Imperial technology was made to last. I can at least function as a shield,” said the magical automaton with his morning star at the ready.

They charged straight it.

They triggered explosions.

They set traps at their feet.

“Who needs logic!? We’ve just gotta try like hell to stop her! Gnhh- bwaaahhhhh!!!!!!”

Onelife was blasted to the side when she brushed her long hair aside and the young king was knocked down by the man’s rolling form, but he readied his boomerang when he got back on his feet.

“Ouch… Conflict is best avoided, but you leave us little choice!!”

Philia Shout breathed an exasperated sigh that blew the long tongue whip back at the Necromancer.

“I pulled the trigger on this, so this is my mess to clean up,” said the Necromancer.

“Boss, have you turned good!?”

They slashed.

They crushed.

They pressed the muzzle against bare skin and pulled the trigger.

“Perhaps I can never atone for my sins, but I cannot allow this juvenile to die!!”

The Lord of Ruin’s sword seemed incapable of even scratching her soft skin. The more the priestesses swung their large axes, they more their coordination failed and the more they harmed each other. Yet those failures did not stop them and they raised those axes with the blades glinting in the light.

“At this point, there is no point in considering the numbers, Ixea.”

“That’s right, Acacia. I’m too pissed to stop now.”

Elaine Greenforest was smiling behind her goggles. She used projectiles, but she had taken damage too. When Philia Shout simply waved her hand, a blast of invisible wind would fly out with the force of a fist-sized cannonball.

“Don’t underestimate a dark elf’s bow. We’ve been known to cause cataclysms of our own.”

They got up.

Again and again.

They readied their weapons.

Over and over.

That was much easier said than done when they had all been pushed well past their limits. It was a miracle they were even still standing. The numbers didn’t add up. But there was someone here who allowed the seemingly impossible to happen.

They could not allow her violence.

Alma was still deep asleep and they could not allow that defenseless life to be lost.

So they had to put up a defense.

They challenged their enemy again and again. If every attack they made was more time for Alma to live, then this fight was not in vain. They were willing to fight forever if that was what it took!!

She was unharmed, but Philia Shout definitely lurched backwards.

“What?”

She seemed to see something deeper here.

She gasped.

And she wanted to deny what she had seen.

“Is something being born here? No, that isn’t it. That can’t be it.”

“Oh, but it is,” confirmed Miyabi. “You said destruction and creation are two sides of the same coin and you have to destroy to create. But that isn’t the full picture.”

“What?”

“There is no destructive price in the creation of the bonds between people. You don’t have to break any other bonds for that! So you can create something from nothing. Everyone knows that. If you do have to pay a price to create a bond, then it’s a false one. There are tons of things out there that don’t follow your equation!!”

Alicia, Helen, Celina, Eliza, Number 8, Kananka, Onelife, the Necromancer, Acacia, Ixea, the Lord of Ruin, and Elaine.

Yes.

They had created something over the course of this battle.

Victia, Sophia, Garett, Iris, and the others who were not actually fighting had supported them in any number of ways from Horn Fortress. They had created the Divine Crystal Bullet, they had treated the Necromancer’s wound, and they had resupplied the Lucifer Horn’s bombs. There was so much the party could not have overcome without that support. And Miyabi would never forget that they had created a home for them to return to.

It was because of everyone who had supported him that he could say this now.

Miyabi Blackgarden refused to be taken in by the enemy’s way of thinking as he spoke straight to her face!!

“The world is a warm and gentle place. I need every last one of you, so I will not offer anyone up as sacrifice!!”

He made a wish.

“So you wake up too.”

He was no longer speaking to Philia Shout.

“Lend me your power.”

He raised his voice to a shout.

“Almaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!”

He had no reason to think this would work.

He knew nothing about Wicked God physiology.

But.

He was absolutely certain.

“''Koo''…”

Absolutely certain he would hear that voice.

Absolutely certain that Alma would get up and rub against his ankles like normal.

“This isn’t possible.” It was Philia Shout’s turn to be baffled. “I refuse to accept something with no mass or proof.”

“You believe in the invisible Missing Dice, but you throw out something happening before your very eyes if you don’t like it? Sound like you live in a very limited world!!”

It happened all of a sudden.

“Kooo!!”

Philia Shout covered her ears.

Miyabi heard a shrill phantom noise similar to the ringing caused by sorcery bombs. Kananka and Number 8 frowned a little too.

But it had to be so much worse for her. The precision of her senses came back to bite her. The 11th was now grimacing and curled up on the ground. The untouchable Philia Shout was acting like someone suffering from crippling tinnitus.

The mother roared with eyes that seemed to be cursing the cause of the headache.

“Almaaaa!!!??? Is this horn resonance? No, did you drag the massless Missing Dice to the ‘surface’ to apply pressure to my horns!?”

“You yourself said people are free to do whatever they want with something that came from their body, right?” Miyabi Blackgarden held out his control sword and shouted while walking forward with the others. “This is the power of the bonds that tie us together! I will not let you reject something we created ourselves. You don’t get to call this unfair, 11th!!”

Her lips were trembling.

“Curse…”

She held her head in pain, her long hair covered the monstrous expression on her face, and the light of her eyes pierced through that hair to stare straight at Miyabi.

“Yes, yes. Curse you and your pathetic attempts!!”

Her resentment leaked out like she was tearing at her skin.

A change came over her.

Her gentle demeanor was gone.

That meant things would be truly lethal now. She was done playing and would bare her fangs.

Miyabi had shown off his creation of bonds – that power that tied them together. He had not held back. He had used everything he had and sworn to defeat the Mother of Wicked Gods.

So this was still not enough.

They were on a mountain summit, but it was not all that high up. There was no seemingly insurmountable height difference to overcome like with the Huge Eye.

[[Image:Godhorn_Tech_v03_bw18.png|thumb]]

The very moment before the light of Philia Shout’s eyes grew lethal, Kananka Fulpen’s boomerang flew along a perfect arc. It was not simply aimed for the side of the Mother of Wicked Gods’s head.

“The wind, temperature, and humidity check out. There’s no margin of error, so just go straight in!!” shouted the young king.

A giant mass slammed into her from the side.

“Huh?”

It was a Godhorn Tech.

The massive form crashed nose-first into her at max speed like a divine hammer.

Time seemed to freeze. Its main wings were spread more powerfully than a dragon’s and they had a message roughly drawn on with a toxic-looking blood-red paint: ''Don’t forget about me, motherfucker!!

The explosive boom of their final party member’s arrival only reached them after a short delay.

The Lucifer Horn’s sonic boom acted as the starting pistol for the final counterattack against the horned one.