On a Godless Planet:Volume3B Chapter 27

Chapter 27: Battle Mania

–Rather than realize it on your own, let someone else guide you to realization.

●

Anyway, thought Beisu.

…How are they going to settle this?

The Irish representative and the Olympus representative Poseidon were going to fight.

Did he want to see this? Yes, very much so. But on the other hand…

“Is that even a fair fight?”

He wasn’t exactly an expert on Olympus mythology, but he knew enough. He recognized most of the gods’ names and Poseidon was major enough to appear in a lot of games and such.

Meanwhile, he didn’t know much about Irish mythology. Really, he barely knew anything at all.

“What kind a moves does Busty Bangs-senpai use in a fight!? Do you use the three Royal Weapons from the opening castle like in Tir Na Nog!?”

“Eh? Eh? What?”

“I’m not sure Irish mythology would use an English word like ‘royal’.”

“Hey, quit it. That one hurts me more than anyone.”

She was a really major upperclassman. Beisu knew he shouldn’t have said that. But…

“It is kind of fascinating that we don’t know what Irish mythology will do.”

“You mean Poseidon doesn’t have the advantage?”

“Oh, he definitely does. But we’re all gods, so she might have some kind of special move. Like Senpai-san over there.”

The lifespan goddess.

Beisu had received some info on that, although none of the specifics.

Most likely, the Shinto terraforming leaders – usually known as the Library Pals – had leaked it as a show of force.

“If only I had something like that.”

But just as he said that…

“Do you mean the authority? Or the human’s worship?”

And there was another major one.

●

Bilgamesh had something he wanted to ask about.

“A god cannot perform their released manifestation without human worship. It’s true for us and the Norse gods, so it must be true for you as well.”

That was fine for the representatives. At their high divine rank and level, they could handle most anything without a released manifestation.

…The released manifestation would only be for a serious emergency.

Even his Hyper Series Summoning would have difficulty against one. And he thought he might need that kind of power if he was ever unable to do a summoning. But…

“How is it for you?”

“How is what?”

Apparently that was a poorly phrased question.

“Sorry.”

“No, um, you don’t have to apologize!”

The other god seemed really nervous. Not good.

“I am truly sorry…”

“No, no, no, no! You misunderstand!”

Why are my apologies ineffectual!?

●

“We have a situation here. My apologies are being negated somehow.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“No, I am trying to act nonthreatening, yet he seems extremely guarded for some reason. Is there any way of fixing this?”

“Maybe you’re trying, but you seem pretty damn threatening to me…”

“E-excuse me. When I was buying a case of beer at Inageya, the lady at the register asked ‘oh, is that for your dad?’ and I immediately and bluntly said no. Now whenever I check out at the register there, she’s really apologetic, so could this be a similar situation?”

“Knowledge God-senpai, what have you been buying frequently enough for this to be an issue?”

“Snacks to go with my beer and frozen foods.”

“Not counting the alcohol, couldn’t you create the illusion of cooking for yourself?”

“Or she really could start cooking for herself?”

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s happening.”

“Right? Oh, sorry. This was about Bil-chan. So what do you mean your apologies aren’t working?”

“I am apologizing, but he isn’t accepting it. Must I make some kind of vow to get him to accept my apology?”

“ ‘I am not being threatening. Now, you had better accept my apology.’ That’s a new one, for sure.”

“Apology Man! You haven’t been apologizing as much since the camping trip, so your Apology Power is waning! Be more like me and how I think about big boobs at least once a second!”

“Is apology worship a thing?”

“Ah ha ha! Being me is great because I don’t have to apologize when these things happen!”

“You have your own issues, so be quiet.”

●

Kuwajiri ended up having to speak on his behalf since she was threatening but in the same school year.

“To put it simply, Beisu and Seito are wondering if there’s any reason for gods as unimportant as you to even be in this divine world.”

“There has to be a better way to say that!”

Shifu failed to fully suppress her laughter behind Kuwajiri, but Kuwajiri was just glad that someone could find humor in it.

But Beisu’s partner stepped up to his side.

“We are here because we hold a fairly unclear position in Egyptian mythology.”

“Hm? But you two are pretty important.”

She knew their origins.

“You are Bes and Beset, gods who spread across all of Egypt and ultimately made it all the way to Greece and Persia.”

●

“…”

“Sorry. I’m probably just going to reveal how little I know with this, but what kind of gods are they?”

“Um,” said Kuwajiri, with a pretty good idea where this was going.

“Bes and Beset are the Egyptian gods of folk belief and they are thought to have come from Nubia in the Upper Nile region, which is now Sudan and Ethiopia.”

“They would provide protection and exorcise evil and they did that with song, dance, and feasts. This led them to be associated with weddings, birth, and female labor, turning them into a guardian of all things.”

“He’s a 68 user and goes to the arcade a lot, so he’s friends with Tooru.”

“Bes is a short old man god and is thought to be represented by a lion standing on its hind legs as a threat. Since he has a foreign source, he is usually presented head on whereas Egyptian gods are usually depicted in profile. He arrived in Egypt during the New Kingdom, which began in 1570 BCE, after all that dynasty business we were discussing before. It’s thought he was brought in after Hyksos rule was overthrown and Egypt began attacking other places.”

“So he was brought back from a conquered land and incorporated into their myths.”

“In that sense, he isn’t really from our mythology. That’s why his worship is based on folk worship, not on the royal family or a religious group, but that actually expedited the construction of a temple and such for him.”

“We belong to the ordinary people living in the present. The higher ups are kind of old-fashioned. …Or that’s how we took it.”

“So a god focused on having a good time whoser worship is led by the people and isn’t a part of the existing religious groups like the royal family? There’s no way that wasn’t spreading.”

“As Bes gained popularity like that, he and his female version Beset made it all the way to Central Asia in the east and the Iberian Peninsula in the west. It kind of reminds me of the modern spread of musicians and subculture.”

●

“That more or less sums it up. What do you think, Senpai-san?”

Kuwajiri turned around to find Senpai-san prostrating.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry! You’re super major gods! I was acting like I was some important upperclassman, but you’re so important you could obliterate a puny little shut-in god from the mountains of an eastern island nation who can look all across Japan and count the number of shrines to her on her fingers!”

“The terraforming lead always pulls out all the stops when it comes to belittling herself.”

“No, no, no, no, no! That was forever ago! It’s old news!”

“Wait! You should stop right there and accept Senpai’s apology! Look at the perfect form of her prostration! You look too, Kuwajiri! That is the prostration of a true Japanese heart! It is a world-class prostration! And the way her knees squish her boobs makes it all the better! Even a strict assessment would have to award her at least 6 billion points! If you refuse to accept it, I’m going on a trip to Egypt one day and licking every one of your statues I find! Until my tongue is dry and cracked! Like this! On this wall! Licky licky licky lick!”

“We only reapplied the mortar there the other day.”

“That’s some tasty mortar! Is that why it tastes like chemistry class!? But it’s nothing compared to the flavor of a retort pouch boiled by Senpai!”

“Um, Beisu-kun? Seito-san? Sumeragi-kun is always serious.”

“Stooooop!”

He was forced to accept the apology.

●

“Anyway, the question was why you came here.”

Kuwajiri more or less already knew the answer, but Beisu answered anyway.

“We were made a part of the mythology, but we never did become a part of the main family? I guess you could say? And because we spread so rapidly, it was always awkward around them. Also, our divine rank is pretty low because it’s based on our myths in Egyptian mythology.”

“So like how Senpai-san’s authority puts hear near the top, but her divine rank is low because it’s based on her myths?”

“Oh, no you don’t! You can’t belittle yourself that easily! Us true no-name gods never even did get our time to shine! You can’t join my New Weakling God Clan if that’s all you have!”

“You are strict in the weirdest ways…”

“Anyway,” said Kuwajiri to Beisu. “Are you here because you wanted human worship?”

She knew something about this.

“Your power dropped recently, didn’t it? Is it about that?”

●

“Um.” I hesitantly raised my hand.

“May a weakling god like me ask a question?”

“That’s a new one.”

I have to worry about these things! I thought on the inside as I spoke.

“The rules say that you have to go through me to get Sumeragi-kun’s worship, and you have to meet certain conditions.”

“You have to be part of my family and have big boobs!”

“He means me.”

“…”

“Eh? Are you mother and child? Ehh!?”

“How about that, Busty Bangs!? Feel like you’re on a hidden camera show!? It surprised me too!”

“It surprised me a lot too, but Kido-san’s mother-in-law act is great, so it works! It really works!”

“Based on what?”

“Using those conditions, Guard God-senpai cannot receive the human’s worship.”

“Yes, because she doesn’t have big boobs.”

“You could just focus on the other condition.”

A hand went up.

“Wait a second! Big boobs and part of his family!? Funto and I are a couple, so that just isn’t possible!”

“Ah.”

“Eh?”

“…”

“Ahh! Forget I said that!”

●

“Wow, I’d forgotten. You are, aren’t you? I understand. Yes, I really do. Yes.”

“Tooru and I are too, but it’s somehow sweeter with underclassmen.”

“W-well, everyone has their own situation, so no comment.”

“Ahh!! This is why I didn’t want to say that!”

“They’re weirdly drawn to this topic, aren’t they?”

●

“But,” asked Bilgamesh. “Was your position in your mythology the only reason you came here?”

“Eh? Oh…”

After pausing to think, the younger god responded while returning Bilgamesh’s gaze.

“That’s right. If we had another reason, why would she have said that just now?”

●

Kidou watched her partner nod and say, “I see.”

…Now I get it.

Bilgamesh spoke to Beisu.

“I will honor your position. I do not know your reasons, but I can tell it is a matter of your pride.”

He’s being threatening again, thought Kidou with a smile. That was just how he was.

And she had learned something from this exchange.

“…Thank you.”

The lion god, who bowed a little, was definitely weakened at the moment.

She didn’t know why. And she noticed…

…Since the wife god attacked Poseidon, her power must not have fallen.

They had originally been a single god, so why was this happening?

It wasn’t related to human worship.

They had come here, knowing neither of them had that. And the Norse knowledge god had said something else…

…His power dropped recently.

What did that mean?

●

“Can I ask a question on this divine transmission line, Norse gods?”

“Go for it. …I know more or less what’s going on, but I’ll generally not be answering.”

“A matter of honor?”

“That’s right. Since Funto-chan’s keeping quiet. And with Seito-chan here, it’s both their problem. We’ve known them long enough to make some good guesses.”

“But it’s odd that the wife still has her power while the husband’s has fallen.”

“It reminds me of The Return of Ishtar, but that was the wife getting a boost because the husband had declined.”

“You keep saying you’ll let me see that one, but I still haven’t seen it.”

“We’ll probably be spending the night in the clubroom tonight, so I’ll show it to you then. Sumeragi brought his MSX2.”

●

Kido looked to Poseidon and Dan before speaking.

“Now, it is about time to begin today’s slag-tering.”

“Kido-san! Kido-san! You need to take that down a notch! Down from ‘barbarian’ to ‘considerate modern person’!”

Very well.

“First to behead their opponent wins.”

Shifu-san waved her raised hand side to side.

“You don’t have to be modern to understand that one.”

So take it down yet another notch? In that case…

“How about they both duke it out until we appear to have a winner?”

Why did everyone breath a sigh of relief there?

●

“The duel will be completed here. You are limited to the courtyard, so only use authorities contained to this space.”

“You’re restricting them a lot.”

“Yes. Because we would be in trouble if they destroyed this place.”

“I would say, ‘look in a mirror, numbskull’, but I am above such things.”

“Oh? It seems to me you should keep in mind that you are in launch range of Yamanashi as long as you are in Tokyo.”

“Kido-san! Stop picking fights with Demeter-san!”

●

They’re just going to continue provoking each other at this rate, concluded Mr. V, so he raised a hand.

And he spoke to the Irish representative and Poseidon.

“You may begin.”

●

Balancer chose not to open a spell field.

…Even if they would be able to make full use of their authorities inside one.

A spell field was a space where, for example, Yomoji could launch a meteor strike without any concern for collateral damage.

But that wasn’t true here. When limited to the courtyard, the duelists’ choice of authorities would be severely limited.

<Very well. Proceed.>

●

…So how’s this going to play out?

Raidou was eager to find out.

He knew Poseidon was powerful. They had compared strengths a fair amount during their virtual manifestations.

Poseidon was undoubtedly skilled.

And then there was Dan.

“Dan-chan’s part in this is going to be interesting.”

“You set something up with Kuwajiri earlier, didn’t you?”

“You could say we gave her some indirect support. I thought she could use it when dealing with Posei-chan.”

Raidou was excited to find out what that was.

Currently, the duelists were facing each other.

“A mother earth goddess vs. a sea god. Let’s see how this goes.”

●

Anne made the first move.

“Umm.”

But not to attack. She fell back.

She put three or four more steps between them, but at the same time…

“Oh? Are you running away?”

Poseidon swiftly stepped forward.

Just as he did, something happened.

After moving forward as many steps as Anne had moved back…

“Oh?”

Poseidon disappeared.

As everyone watched the center of the courtyard, the sea god stepped onto an earthen depression in the brick paving. And…

“He disappeared.”

Without a trace.

●

“…”

“Eh!? Wait, what!? What was that!? Poseidon-san just vanished!”

“He didn’t just vanish. He was removed. By the Irish representative.”

“Y-yes. …Kind of like that.”

So it was kind of like that.

A fairly large person had been removed from the courtyard.

It happened just as he took a few steps forward and stepped into a circular depression of dirt in the center of the courtyard.

“When Poseidon stood there during the questioning, Raidou-san stopped him. Was this why?”

“No, that was something else. But…”

Raidou-san looked to Dan-san.

“I see. So she’s a mother earth goddess, but she isn’t just a harvest god. To go along with the twin hills, she’s a god of the mountains and forests too.”

“What do you mean!? How did Double Big Boobs get rid of Poseidon? If it was her big boobs power, then I would have been vanished by Senpai 500 times over, but that hasn’t- wait, has it been happening but I’ve been reborn each time it happens!?”

“If you were reborn that often, you wouldn’t have a single memory left in your head.”

Thank you for the correction, Kuwajiri-san. But Raidou-san’s comment made me think of something.

“Was he spirited away!?”

●

Kuwajiri opened her mouth while everyone’s eyes gathered on Dan, who was still technically in a duel.

“That’s right. This was a stereotypical case of spiriting away. Ireland has the changeling stories of fairies kidnapping children, but there are countless similar stories based on the local fairies of Europe where the Celtic culture spread.”

“But we’re in a courtyard, not the mountains or woods.”

“Right. So I think she adjusted the phase to match.”

Kuwajiri pointed at the depression in the center of the courtyard. There was a reason why the dirt ground was exposed there.

“The structure of the courtyard prevents all the water from draining out when it rains. So the center was turned into a depression of exposed dirt to let the water soak underground.”

Meaning…

“That ground is the natural terrain. The club building itself is built on a foundation, but the dirt ground below that is the natural terrain. That provides the necessary earth phase.”

This was probably thanks to Balancer since he created this divine world. The divine world was a data world and it had enough detail to allow the establishment of phases.

But…

“You only need dirt ground to spirit someone away?”

That was the right question to ask.

“Not normally, no. Also, the architecture gods are currently lifting this place on jacks, so I doubt someone at Dan-senpai’s level could do it with an earth phase alone.”

“Then what did she use?”

“The rain. She used the rain.”

●

For Anne, it had been a gamble.

…It…worked…

She really had spirited him away.

Ordinarily, the technique was used to “protect” people who had gotten lost in the mountains or forests and send them back where they belonged. Of course, this was done based on the standards of the world the gods and spirits like her came from, so it often ended badly in the human world, but that was unavoidable.

She had used that here.

She had used the earth phase and the rain phase.

…The dirt ground, the rain, and…

Japanese summers were hot and humid.

“The summer heat built up in the ground and buildings…created a fog…with today’s rain.”

She had summoned that.

“Deep fog…is enough for…a spiriting away.”

When on the dirt and in the fog, a god could spirit someone away without needing the mountains or the woods.

So she had done so to that major Olympus god.

●

“––––––”

Anne took a breath.

She realized everyone was looking at her.

“Oh, um.”

Had this made her stand out?

That was a problem. She didn’t like to stand out. The druids, wise men and priests with a close connection to her mythology, preferred to remain hidden in the woods.

She and her fellow Irish gods were the same.

The old gods had gone to live underground, leaving the surface to the humans. It was more tasteful to only occasionally visit the surface to stargaze or to play.

So she preferred not to stand out, but…

“Eh?”

The hill sea god called Mr. V had stopped his right hand mid-motion.

He must have been counting something on the hand because it was frozen with four fingers raised.

Why had he stopped?

“Umm…”

After some hesitation, Anne realized the others weren’t looking at her. They were looking behind her.

“Well, whaddya know! You’ve actually got some fight in you!”

Poseidon stood there.

●

…That was interesting.

Spiriting away was like a sort of abduction. In Greek mythology, Zeus had a tendency toward abducting girls and goddesses he was interested in, but Poseidon had a few of those stories as well.

And this kind of “technique” was pretty common among the local gods and spirits of Europe too.

So he had known what happened as soon as he was spirited away.

…She used elements of a mountain.

She had used the dirt ground. And probably the fog as a smokescreen. But this fog wasn’t commanded by a water authority – it was the rain fog that covered the mountains.

That meant this goddess was a mother earth goddess of the woods and mountains.

So he had made a decision.

“I forced my way out.”

There was a way to escape a spiriting away.

“Did you soak the fog with your water and turned it into a spring?”

●

“Oh, c’mon! You stole my big reveal.”

Bilgamesh did not respond to Poseidon. He only looked to something behind Poseidon.

A dark line stretched down into the courtyard from the rooftop. It was…

“A drain spout. Did you link the fog phase to that?”

●

“Eh!? What does that mean!? Explain it in terms of big boobs please!”

“Help! Is anyone here an expert at big boobs explanations!?”

“What are you even talking about?”

“You could say he linked the small boobs to some big boobs.”

“…”

“Sorry, Temanko! That was a terrible explanation! I’m really sorry! But I still don’t understand! And since there obviously can’t be anything wrong with big boobs explanations, the problem must be with your explanation! Sorry!”

“Is he really calling a god of education bad at explanations?”

“The complete lack of doubt in his faith is honestly impressive.”

“You’re up, Kuwajiri.”

“I was going to complain, but instead I will do my job and explain this the ordinary way.”

●

“He used a phase link.”

Kuwajiri pointed to the center of the courtyard.

“The courtyard’s brick paving gives it the phase of an artificial structure, but there is a depression in the center without any brick. The dirt there gives it an earth phase and the rain gives it a fog phase. Think of that combination as a ‘spiriting away door’ created by Dan-senpai.”

The battle had already resumed. Dan was avoiding Poseidon’s hands. To keep the explanation from falling behind, Kuwajiri chose her words carefully.

“There are a few different ways of breaking an opponent’s authority. One is to outdo it in strength and that is what Poseidon did.”

“And he did that by…?”

“Creating a link. There is a denser form of water here than the fog Dan-senpai summoned. The water gathering on the rooftop and flowing down the drain spout,” she said. “The fog and the drain spout water is all ‘outside water’ that fell from the sky. And the fog summoned to the center of the courtyard came from the ‘spring water’ that flowed down the drain spouts and gathered in the center of the courtyard. Poseidon is an earth god and controls spring waters, so he was able to forcibly redefine Dan-senpai’s fog as ‘the water of his spring’.”

●

“So by placing his opponent’s weapon into his phase, he was able to place it under his command?”

“Right. He couldn’t have stolen Dan-senpai’s fog if their power were equal, but that wasn’t the case. So his ‘spring water’ was linked to the fog, allowing the fog to continue to act as an entrance to the spiriting away but also turning the ‘spring water’ of his phase into an exit from the spiriting away.”

“That explains how he managed to leave through the drain spout water, but from a mythological perspective, was that a god emerging from a spring?”

“Eh!? So in terms of boobs, linking the fog to the spring water was like linking small boobs to big boobs!? Wow, go me! I just found the perfect analogy!”

“Human-senpai, if you ever come to me praying for academic success, I will refuse you to your face.”

“All I understand is this battle is beyond the understanding of a small-time god like me.”

“The battle is still ongoing, so I would recommend watching it.”

●

“Hey, so how’s it going?”

Raidou looked up, unsure which one to root for.

“The Irish one is holding her ground.”

“Is this another authority?”

“Yes,” confirmed Raidou, nodding at what he could see.

Poseidon was pursuing Dan with his footwork and sending out his hands.

He unleashed a merciless combination. He did what needed doing, not letting his opponent’s appearance distract him. He was doing the right thing for a god with combat authorities.

But…

“Dan’s mountain and woods authority is impressive too.”

●

Not bad at all, thought Poseidon.

…I can’t seem to hit her!

He had a few different authorities, which of course included combat ones.

They were the authorities of a powerful god. You could compare them to the rest of his group to determine just what position he held.

Poseidon’s power was possibly the greatest among the Olympus gods.

But as he used the long arms of his tall stature to throw out a combination of punches…

“None of it matters if I can’t hit her.”

She was dodging.

Anne’s back stepping looked clumsy.

She wasn’t a seasoned fighter. But he could tell she did have some combat authority.

…What a strange goddess.

“Nothing at all like Demeter.”

●

“By the way, why are you so aggressive around him, Demeter?”

“We did some fighting before we were combined into the single Greek mythology. And after that too.”

<Greek mythology does have Poseidon engage in a “forced union” with Demeter, but that puts Demeter in an enraged mode called Demeter Erinys.>

“We mentioned before that Aphrodite has her reasonable mode and pleasure mode, but this must mean Demeter has an ordinary mode and an Erinys mode.”

<A fascinating aspect of the story has been found on the Greek island of Crete. The ancient Greek alphabet was created on Crete which was prospering due to trade and it spread from there, but an ancient clay tablet made in 1450 BCE references an offering to the mainland which is addressed to ‘the Two Queens and Poseidon’.>

“That would mean Poseidon was known as a god back then, but who were the two queens?”

“Most likely, Persephone and me.”

“But why call you queens instead of using your names?”

“We can only guess, but it is possible that a state with Demeter and Persephone as its top gods was ruled over by a state with Poseidon as its top god, or they were allied with the Poseidon one in the more powerful position.”

“And I later got mad and made more of a name for myself.”

<The ancient Greek alphabet was probably made around 1500 BCE, so about that same time. Greek mythology also began to be formed in the same period, so if Demeter’s resistance came later, it would fit with the time the mythology was being formed. That would explain why Demeter causes so much trouble within Greek mythology. You can think of it like realtime commentary.>

“Busty Olympus really is the aggressive type!!”

“Dan-san is nothing like Demeter-san. Or maybe it’s Demeter-san who is the different one.”

●

Poseidon had to agree that Demeter was a force to be reckoned with.

…There’s something wrong with her.

She was a rude, belligerent harvest god who got high off certain leaves and made anyone who attacked her apologize. That had even applied to Zeus. Hades hadn’t been her husband, but he had been in charge of her daughter Persephone.

Who was the strongest Olympus god?

Yes! A certain “queen”!

…It scares me to think that clay tablet from Crete may have called her a queen because they were afraid to use her name.

It was far too likely a possibly.

But Poseidon had a more immediate opponent to focus on now.

“…!”

She was good.

He realized they had already passed by Tooru, Shifu, and that group.

Anne made good and broad usage of the circular courtyard to escape his attacks without every placing her back toward the outer edge.

And at the same time…

“What about this?”

He made what looked like a triple combo, but was actually a 3-2 five-stage combo. And to fill the gap between combos, he made it look like he was going to finish it with the third blow the second time around only to extend his arm and…

…Grab!

His hand grasped Anne’s collar.

His long arm shot out in a flash and his palm reached her neck. But…

“–––––”

She dodged it. No, wait…

“She slipped out.”

That was an authority. She had avoided it with something other than an action or movement.

●

…That was a falling leaf!

Poseidon was sure of it.

Anne’s escape had used an authority related to the trees of a forest. As unfamiliar with combat as she was, she avoided his strength with a movement so much like a falling leaf.

But he had expected this and combat gods knew how to make sure their attacks hit.

So why hadn’t it worked this time?

…A compatibility issue maybe?

The combination of their authorities put him at a disadvantage.

●

“I think Poseidon’s figured it out. His compatibility is unexpectedly bad here.”

Raidou found himself enjoying this, which he didn’t see as a great testament to his character. And…

“What kind of compatibility matters here?”

“Dan’s authorities are based on the mountains and forests. I’d say she’s at a pretty high level there among the European mythologies. Poseidon’s are about the earth and sea, but he also has authorities for rivers, springs, and spring water.”

That was where compatibility came in.

“It worked great when Poseidon placed Dan’s authority below his own. So now Dan has placed the authority of a falling leaf on her actions. But what does that mean for Poseidon with his river authority?”

“Dan-chan’s falling leaf authority will be applied to Posei-chan’s river authority.”

“Making the opposite of what happened before?”

Yes.

“When a leaf falls in a river, it rides the current, never stopping. When Poseidon reaches out his hand, he himself is the current. Dan is using Poseidon’s own strength, so all she has to do is not fight it. He automatically can’t reach her. …The more power Poseidon uses, the further away he pushes Dan.”

“Like the paradox of Achilles and the tortoise.”

“But does Dan-san have any way of fighting back?”

Sumeragi nodded at Kido’s question.

“She has the Super Boobs Attack! The twin peaks become as one – gaining a sports-bra-like unity! Now! Super Boobs Attack!”

His big boobs worship was so radical Raidou had no idea what he was saying.

●

…I don’t have…an attack like that!

Anne wanted to correct him, but she had her hands full controlling her authority.

One mistake and she would be consumed.

She wanted to speak up but couldn’t. Because forests and mountains did not speak.

She couldn’t ruin her efforts here by breaking her phase in that way.

Of course, you could say there was no official problem with her talking if she claimed she herself was an embodiment of the mountains and forests and so her talking was the mountains talking. She wanted to tell herself not to worry about such a minor mistake, but…

“How about this?”

“…!”

This was no game. Poseidon sent in about the most powerful courtyard-level attack possible and she dodged it.

She realized it was time to fight back.

…I have to win this.

She would be Yamanashi’d if she didn’t.

Yamanashi was a forested and mountainous region. She knew that much for certain.

So part of her thought that being launched there was acceptable as the Irish mother earth goddess, but she would still prefer not to have it happen. Down with Yamanashi-ing. Not that she had anything against Yamanashi itself.

Then what could she do? Something happened while she tried to figure that out.

“How about this?”

Poseidon attacked.

She could dodge it. But…

“Eh?”

Something was different about this attack.

He jabbed his left arm out in what looked like an attack, but…

“Hah!”

He jumped around to her right.

He changed their positions in relation to each other.

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