‹Y-you don’t have to act so disappointed…›
‹I’m not! I’m just really glad you and Allo are okay. When I heard you yelling for help, I thought maybe some nasty monster found you. But now that I’ve found you and you’re safe, I feel like I can finally relax.›
‹Oh, Master…!› Treant’s trunk swelled with joy.
After collecting my thoughts, I took a moment to ponder our options.
Allo and Treant are safe, and that’s a tremendous relief. But…we’re in a tighter spot than we’ve ever been before.
Now that I’d found my friends, I could finally assess the situation with a clearer mind. I was pretty sure I got why the Divine Voice had summoned its Spirit Servants now. Not to actually fight me but to prove that I was absolutely no match for it. If I’d been willing to obey from the start, that probably could’ve been avoided. But maybe the reason the Divine Voice was so willing to refuse me was because that gave it a chance to show off its power.
The Divine Voice had declared that it would scatter its Spirit Servants across the world to give me a reason to get stronger. I needed to find a way for the three of us to get back to our original world and stop the Divine Voice. But as I was just made painfully aware, at my current level, I was no match for it.
So I guess I’m supposed to level up some more while I look for a way to get home? And the cost of disobeying the Divine Voice’s wishes…is the destruction of everyone and everything I’ve encountered so far in this world.
It was the exact same tactic the Divine Voice used on Lilyxila when it threatened to destroy Lialum if she failed. I was sure it had used the strategy countless times by this point.
The Divine Voice did seem pretty fired up, but I doubted it was sincere. If it’d been watching me this long, it would know making a proposal like that was a surefire way to get on my bad side.
‹It’s making a fool of me…› I muttered to myself.
The Divine Voice wanted me to get stronger so it could observe and record my data for later trials, but it would never let me get strong enough to threaten it. If I got close, it would just come crush me like a fly with its stupidly OP skills. According to the Divine Voice, its ultimate goal was to create and raise a creature even stronger than itself, use it to revive Fallen, and return to its original world. But there was no guarantee the Divine Voice was telling the truth about its goals…
Either way, I’d made it clear that I wasn’t going to fall in line. It definitely wouldn’t give me the chance to get strong enough to surpass it.
If I’d lied and said I would join it, would I have had the chance to stab it in the back once and for all down the line? Nah, it wasn’t that gullible. I was sure it could see right through me. I would’ve had to obey its order to kill Allo and the others for experience points in order to prove that I didn’t have any lingering attachments to this world.
Was the Divine Voice just going to use my friends as a string of hostages to force me to obey its every command? Maybe that was how it’d always operated. If I hadn’t been there to save that person and get sent to this world, would another guy named Illusia have been standing here in my place?
If I’d never come to this world in the first place, maybe the Divine Voice would have had other issues on its hands. Were all the encounters and difficulties I’d had so far in this world scripted by it to give me increasingly difficult challenges I could overcome? And at the end of its experiment, it’s just going to kill me without a second thought.
When it came for me, there was no guarantee that Allo and the others would be allowed to survive either. The scope of this conflict went far beyond both them and me. The Divine Voice was a god—if not literally, then simply because it was so powerful it was worthy of that title.
I hung my head, defeated. What was someone like me supposed to do against a god? The harder I pushed, the more of its ordeals I completed, the more difficult the Divine Voice’s trials would get. And the more the world would suffer for it.
So what do I do?
‹You’re always such an overthinker. Even when the only answer’s right in front of you.› A familiar voice ran through my mind. Instinctively, I looked to my left. There was no one there, but I felt a strange sensation, like someone had been there moments before.
The corners of my mouth curled up into an unconscious smile. ‹Oh, Partner… Even though you’re gone, I can always count on you to knock some sense into me.›
“Master Dragon…?” Allo looked at me anxiously. “Is everything all right?”
I sucked in a deep breath, raised my head toward the moon, and roared. “Groooooooar!”
Allo and Treant shook their shoulders and straightened their spines.
Even if we didn’t know where we were, we couldn’t just stand still. We had to push forward with all our might.
‹All right, you two, listen up. I’ve made my decision. I’m going to follow the Divine Voice’s orders and get stronger. But not just until I’m strong enough to crush an opponent on Lilyxila’s level, or even that giant spider monster.›
There was only one way for me to escape the Divine Voice’s control: to get stronger than it ever thought possible and take it out. That was all.
There was no way for me to know if it was even possible or not before I faced the Divine Voice. Right now, it was probably relaxed as could be, sitting on its cheat powers and waiting for me to level up. And that would be the perfect chance for me to strike.
‹I’m going to wipe that smug look off the Divine Voice’s face and free the world from its control!›
Maybe this was exactly what the Divine Voice wanted. It did say that my spirit was one of the most important things necessary to overthrow this world’s system.
But if so, then so be it. If the Divine Voice wanted to push me to get stronger, then I’d get stronger than it ever expected.
All this time, I’d always been trying to get stronger in order to protect something: Myria’s village, Nina and Ballrabbit, the Lithovar tribe, the city of Alban, all the friends I made along the way. I’d always sought strength in order to protect those I cared about. But that wasn’t enough. After I’d overcome all these trials, the Divine Voice would contact me.
And I was going to make sure that when it did, I’d be strong enough to save everyone and destroy the Divine Voice once and for all.
‹I won’t stop until I’m the strongest guy in not just the world, but the entire universe!›