Chapter 7

CHAPTER 6 Ace in the Hole “All right, I’m opening us a gate to the center of the village!” As I’m about to cast the spell, Seiya smacks me on the back of the head. “Ouch! What now?!” “Are you stupid? How does that sound like a good idea to you? Make the gate connect to somewhere farther away.” “B-but if we don’t hurry and save them…” “I’m telling you this to save them. Her personality is cruel, correct? She would most likely kill that man the moment she sees me. She wouldn’t need a hostage anymore, after all.” H-huh, that actually makes sense. But… “Sure, but could you not hit me in the head next time?!” He appears a bit remorseful when I get mad at him, which is unusual. “All right, I’ll make sure to be careful from now on.” Wh-what the…? He’s owning up to it? “G-good…” Seiya’s gentle gaze almost makes my heart skip a beat. He stares at the hand he hit me with, a look of deep concern on his face. “I should go wash off whatever weird germs you gave me.” “…?! I don’t have any weird germs!” I want to punch him right in his stupid mouth, but I can’t…! I won’t! I am a goddess! After pulling myself together, I cast the spell opening a gate twenty meters away just to be careful. I peek out from the shadows of the item shop to see what Chaos Machina is doing. She stands in the center of the town square with her giant sword to Nina’s father’s throat. There isn’t another soul in sight. Perhaps everyone is afraid for their lives. Only Nina cries by her father’s side. After an exaggerated yawn, Chaos Machina mutters: “Hmm… Ten minutes is a little long, isn’t it?” Her tongue playfully pokes out from between her lips. “All righty, enough of that rule. I’m changing it to five minutes, which means time’s up. This guy’s a goner.” As Nina screams even louder, I impatiently shake Seiya’s shoulders. “H-hurry! She’s going to kill him!” Right as I start to rush out of the shadows to Nina… “Wait.” Seiya stops me. He already has his sword unsheathed, and he’s raising it at middle guard by the time I turn around. “Wh-what are you doing?” “Stand back.” What does he plan on doing from this far away? I take two steps backward, then look at him again. Out of nowhere, the air around his sword distorts. “Wind Blade!” Suddenly, Seiya swings his sword horizontally in Chaos Machina’s direction from a distance of twenty meters. The distortion shoots out of the sword and soars ahead. Is this some sort of aerial slash skill that uses air itself as a blade?! D-did Seiya even have a move like that?! The Wind Blade moves with lightning speed toward Chaos Machina, but since it’s so low to the ground, it creates a cloud of dust along the way. Immediately noticing this, she dodges by lightly stepping to the side. However, the ground by her violently bursts open. Chaos Machina looks down the trail to find us and laughs. “Hee-hee-hee-hee. I knew you’d cooome. What was that, though? You run away and then try to stab me in the back—what kind of chivalry is that?” “You have no right to speak of chivalry.” I lash out at the coward for taking hostages. However, she simply laughs in amusement. “It’s too bad your surprise attack didn’t work. You completely missed me.” “…I wasn’t aiming for you.” Seiya and I proceed forward until we are standing face-to-face with Chaos Machina. Nina and her father hug behind us. “Papa! Sniffle. I’m so glad you’re okay! Waaah!” “Th-thank you so much for saving my life!” Without even turning around, Seiya waves his hand, shooing them away. As if no words are needed, the father bows before picking up Nina and running off into the distance. “Oh, so thaaat’s what you were trying to do. I see, I seeee. Yep. You got meee.” Even after realizing we’d prioritized the hostages’ safety, Chaos Machina just laughs…but she completely changes her tune after taking a good look at Seiya. “What…? What happened to you in these past few minutes? You’re like a different person.” Her bloodred eyes lock onto Seiya. “Unbelievable. Your attributes exceed even mine. What’s going on…?” I speak up in the midst of her bewilderment. “Oh, so you can use Scan, too? Heh! Seiya’s stats are pretty impressive, huh? Well, consider this your last chance to give up!” I feel so good that I almost want to yell Serves you right! but this euphoria doesn’t last long. Chaos Machina confidently smiles as if nothing has changed. “I guess I’ll just have to power up a little, toooo!” “Huh?” “Release…!” A jet-black aura begins flowing from her body as a bloodred demon crest appears on her forehead. “Hee-hee-hee. Did you think you were about to wiiin? Awww, that’s too baaad! But I’ll let you in on a little seeecret. True masters of war always keep an ace in the hole.” I-I’ve got a really bad feeling about this! When I finally muster up the courage to use Scan… Wh-what?! Her attack, defense, and speed all exceed 1,000 now! Even her HP is substantially higher! A-after all that…! “Now then, how about we have some real fun? What do you say, Herooo?” In a flash, Chaos Machina brandishes her giant sword and then charges at Seiya with blinding speed. “S-Seiya!” I yell at almost the exact moment the sword swerves toward his neck. However, Seiya is perfectly prepared. He leans his upper body back, completely evading the strike. My relief is short-lived, though. “Don’t get too comfy! I’m just getting warmed up!” Chaos Machina swings her gargantuan blade as if it were only a twig, trying to cleave Seiya in two. I can only watch with bated breath as she slashes and thrusts, but her weapon does not reach him. “Hmmm? So it seems you can keep up with me. You have pretty good intuition, don’t yooou?” She briefly pauses her rampage, then creates some distance between them. I get the taste of victory in my mouth. Y-yeah! This isn’t a game! Having higher stats doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll win! Intuition, strategy—a lot of factors go into fighting! “Hmmm… How annoying. So, so annoying. But I guess you can never be too careful…” Chaos Machina spins her sword like an umbrella while addressing me. “Hey, Goddess, you saw my status, riiight?” “Yeah, I did! So what?” “Allow me to show you my skill Demonic Curse.” I—I remember seeing a skill with that name! I yell out to Seiya: “Seiya! Watch out! She’s going to use a special ability!” When I alert him, Chaos Machina raises her sword to middle guard, then reverses her grip for some reason. “Huh?!” I’m at a loss for words. The blade of Chaos Machina’s giant sword now points toward her own stomach. “It’s been so long, so long, so looong since I’ve shown a human this… I’ll let you in on another secret while I’m at it. True masters of war always keep a second ace in the hole…” And then she plunges the blade deep into her abdomen and splits her stomach wide open! Black blood gushes out from the wound like sludge. “Ahhh!!! Wh-wh-what are you doing?!” “This is…the Demonic Curse. Hee-hee-hee… Hee-hee-hee-heeee! This overwhelming power…shall bring death to the Hero…!” She heaves a ragged cough, and more black blood spills from her mouth. The light in her eyes fades as if she was dead, and her head droops. “Wh-what just happened?!” Chaos Machina doesn’t move, but there seems to be some activity down by her gaping wound. Suddenly, massive arms burst out of her stomach. The ink-black appendages tear the stomach open even wider before trying to pull something out from inside. “Oh my—” My heart is in my throat. It’s a sickening sight. Even though Chaos Machina is almost the same size as me, a creature around three meters tall comes crawling out of her innards. It has a head with two horns, fangs visible due to the torn mouth, a well-muscled jet-black physique, a long tail, and black wings. There’s no mistaking it. The creature that stands before us now is an incredibly large demon.