After passing through the Exgate, the Ark arrived in orbit behind the moon. Aigokeros had destroyed the moon, but this was a different one, the moon of another world—that of Earth.
While watching the blue planet from inside the Ark, Virgo leaked out a sound that was neither admiration nor joy.
“So all that’s left is to believe and wait, huh? To think we’d be considered too weak for the finale,” Castor muttered to himself self-deprecatingly as he clenched his fists.
The frustration he felt was shared amongst all the members of the Twelve Heavenly Stars who had been left behind, as well as Terra. They had planned to fight their way through, no matter what battles they were faced with. They would have even been fine with dying. However, this battle was now at a level where they were unable to even stand on the battlefield, so they had been forced to sit and wait. Leon was probably twice as frustrated as the others, since he had always been so proud of his strength.
“Dina, how do you think this fight is going to go?” Libra asked, attracting everyone’s gazes. “You are the only one who truly knows how powerful the Goddess is.”
The only one here who truly knew the Goddess was her avatar, Dina, and though she seemed uncomfortable, Dina still relayed what she knew.
“If... If I were to try to write down the Goddess’s stats here and now, there would be a swath of small nines stretching off to the end of space until it wrapped back around here. That is how unmeasurable her power is.”
“Meaning?”
“Normally, it would be utterly impossible to win. That is why she is a god,” Dina declared.
Scorpius grabbed her collar with enough strength to strangle Dina, but Libra quickly stepped in to free her.
“Don’t you dare! There’s no way Miss Lufas will lose!”
“That was why I said ‘normally,’ meaning the methods that Miss Lufas used were not normal,” Dina muttered after a moment, as she fixed her collar.
Scorpius could not be reasoned with while she was worked up, so Libra handed her over to Leon, who restrained Scorpius, a reluctant look on his face.
“She took in the power of the universe, which was the Goddess’s spell, allowing her to reach the same place as the Goddess... That was the plan that we thought of. The Goddess does not have any weaknesses or easily understood methods of beating her. There isn’t even any well-crafted gimmick to allow her to be defeated... The only way is to forcefully and crudely overpower her.”
How much better would things have been if there was an easily understood weak point, like some sort of object that would greatly weaken the Goddess if destroyed? Or a convenient item that would suppress her abilities? Or some sort of skill that would be very effective at specifically killing the Goddess for some reason? Or a sword that was hilariously super-effective on the Goddess? If there was anything like that, their chances of winning would have gone up an untold amount, but there wasn’t. None of those existed.
The Goddess was not completely flawless. She was, in fact, somewhat dim-witted and full of openings. It was not hard to trick her. However, that did not stop her from being the absolute strongest, a being standing above all others who was so strong that any weaknesses like those were insignificant in comparison.
“Th-Then Miss Lufas can win!” Aries piped up hopefully.
Dina delivered the merciless truth after a moment of silence. “Assuming everything goes well, I would say that her chances of winning are about one in a thousand.”
The Goddess was not that easily beaten. That was exactly why Lufas had been able to create bugs in the system, become the world’s bug herself, and forcefully bust through it in order to grab the right to challenge the Goddess. However, obtaining that right did not mean victory. Lufas would learn the true fear of divinity after coming to stand on the field of battle against the divine.
“Even then, I believe. She has always surpassed my expectations, so the best I can do is welcome her back when she returns.”
And if Lufas loses, I can follow after her.
It was with that level of determination that Dina had fought on by her lonesome for two hundred years, doing everything she could. She’d passed the baton already, so there was nothing left to do but wait for Lufas’s victory, with everything on the line.
If she loses, then I will go down with her. That’s not a problem. I wished for all of that; it’s something I’ve accepted on my own. Even if I am unable to accompany her, my fate is tied to Lufas’s.
＊ ＊
“Blow it away, Scales of Selection. Brachium!”
Lufas intercepted the explosive flames of the hypernova with a destructive torrent of light. At this point, the very concept of time no longer existed, so Brachium’s once-per-day limit could basically be ignored. Lufas had set not only the galaxy but the entire galactic cluster as the target of her swirling destructive light.
If the enemy was going to destroy stars as an attack, then all she needed to do was wipe out all the stars in the area. An eye for an eye and brute force for brute force. Lufas had no intention of doing something so boring as to use giant-killing tricks. This was a fight with the fate of the world on the line, a fight of pure destruction versus pure destruction. They would find out who was on top and force the other to obey.
There was only one strategy for Lufas to take. In fact, it wasn’t even a strategy. Beat them head-on! That was the only way.
When Lufas canceled out Alovenus’s attack, Benetnasch and Orm both launched themselves forward, pummeling the Goddess with a string of blows. Their speed was already infinite, and because their attacks landed the instant they were launched, there was no evasion. However, they were stopped by an invisible wall in front of the Goddess.
As if I care. It’s too much work to think of a way around it. There wouldn’t be any weak points anyway. There’s no point in even thinking about it. The only way is to push straight through. Their only choice was to destroy it head-on. Why would there be any other solution in this ultimate battle?
“HAAAAAAAGGGHHH!!!”
“OOOOAAARRRGGGGHHH!!!”
Benetnasch and Orm’s attacks rained down forcefully on the invisible wall. These attacks, which surpassed the speed of light, had also attained infinite mass, so these shock waves shook space itself. However, that didn’t matter. At this point, neither side cared about incidental casualties.
Orm transformed into a dragon and unleashed a beam. It hit. The torrent of light raged onwards, instantly reaching the ends of space and extinguishing all the stars, planets, and even galaxies in its path. However, the Goddess was unscathed. There wasn’t even a scratch.
“Maiden Who Shoots a Silver Arrow!”
Benetnasch unleashed the most powerful Moon element spell, and a silver arrow surged towards the Goddess. The sheer size of it was awe-inspiring. The arrow was larger than entire planets, and it barreled towards the Goddess. Just having the arrow pass nearby caused countless entire galaxies to disappear, but it never reached the Goddess. A smile still on her face, the Goddess had stopped the arrow with nothing but a single finger, and a single breath erased it as if she were blowing out a candle.
Lufas raised her hands, activating the strongest secret art of alchemy in exchange for most of the universe.
“Come, you who destroys the source... Transmute! Sneering Slaughterer!”
What manifested from beyond the void was a black dragon so large that calling it gigantic didn’t even come close to cutting it. Compared to the sheer scale of its body, even the ouroboroses were like microbes. Its undulating body seemed large enough to be able to swallow this universe in its entirety. Its glare alone caused stars to turn to dust, and a single breath could blow away multitudes of galaxies. It came from the core of the universe, a monster among monsters said to be forever eating the world tree.
Now it faced the Goddess, raising a roar that reverberated through the vastness of space.
“RROOOOOOOAAAAAARRRR!!!”
This roar alone caused cracks to appear in the universe, and the remaining few celestial bodies were all broken down to particles and destroyed. The dragon was so big it exhibited its own form of supergravity, and just its presence warped space destructively. It was a true calamity; the mere fact that it existed put the universe in danger. It was a beast of pure ruin.
However, Alovenus just giggled when she saw it.
“How cute.”
With a light smack, it was deleted.
The end of such a monster was disappointing and far too short. Its overbearing presence vanished as if it had never existed at all; Lufas’s biggest skill had been dealt with as if it were trash. Seeing this, even Lufas was struck mute for a moment.
“Hee hee. You really are strong...” the Goddess said, pausing. “But something like that loses all meaning if I raise it up a stage.”