“The Goal of All Life Is Death.”
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A clock appeared behind her.
This was her ace, one she could only use when wielding the scythe.
It guaranteed death.
Absolute death, which could not be resisted.
Not once had anyone escaped the move.
“Huh?!”
The girl sounded surprised. It was a genuine burst of emotion that No Death assumed was actual shock.
Huh? So she isn’t undead? Well, I’d react like that, too. If you don’t know what this is, it’s downright uncanny, a mystery move at work. But the clock itself doesn’t do anything. It just buffs what comes next. So—it’s too soon to be surprised.
Next, No Death used a skill contained within the scythe itself.
Naturally, she chose—
“Death.”
As she cast the spell, there was a tick. The clock behind her advanced.
She’d won.
Victory was hers.
“Phoenix Flame.”
A bird of fire spread its wings behind the girl.
Another spell! But…heh-heh, no use. I don’t know what that does, but nothing can survive this power. Your only shot is to kill me before I use it!
Death was normally a spell that activated instantly, but if she used this ability, it took a full twelve seconds to activate. She had no clue what would happen if she died during that interval, so she was on the defensive.
The girl must have assumed the spell had no effect, because she swung her staff up and charged forward.
So far, she’d been just receiving, only using counters—if she was on the offensive, she must have sensed something amiss. Against the unknown, she could have turtled up, gone to wait-and-see mode. The fact that she hadn’t showed she had good instincts.
But No Death had the advantage on technique and experience. If she wasn’t attacking and just deflecting and evading, she could handle this. Naturally, she couldn’t escape taking a hit forever, but she had to last only a handful of seconds.
Six.
She dodged the girl’s combo. One blink would spell death, a flurry hard to see even for someone in the realm beyond the heroes. Clearly an onslaught from someone at No Death’s level. But playing pure defense, watching close—she could tell the girl’s physical specs were high, but she wasn’t taking full advantage of them. She wasn’t used to this kind of exertion.
Eight.
Common in those born with strength.
Her physical talents were too good—she could win by sheer overwhelming force, so she’d never needed to use tricky techniques, never had to guess another’s moves. Refused to go to the effort of learning those things—and wound up eating dirt when they met someone better. Never realizing the cause was their own arrogance.
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Like this girl soon would.
Eleven. It’s over. Good-bye.
Easily dodging a blow that would cause a concussion just grazing anyone else, No Death bade the dark elf farewell.
This girl had been sinister in a way that defied words, but now that she’d won, she had to admit—the kid was cute. She was too young to really know much of anything. The sin lay not with her but with the parents who’d raised her.
She deflected the staff, ignored a chance to strike—and was faced with an enigma.
The girl wasn’t dead.
……Huh?
For a moment, No Death’s mind went blank.
That move meant certain death and yet, she hadn’t died. She must’ve counted the time wrong. That was the most logical answer.
Outside of training, she’d never fought anyone this strong. She didn’t think she was stressing it, but she must have been. In that state, it was difficult to gauge time accurately. She was just a little off.
…Two more.
She gave it two more seconds, nice long ones.
But the girl didn’t die.
She still wasn’t dead.
The girl was making energetic little noises, “Hyah!” or “Hoo!” that were totally at odds with her terrifying attacks.
“H-how?!”
It was unfathomable.
That move killed everything. Even the undead, who were already dead. Even golems who had no life at all. No Death herself could not comprehend the move’s power, so how had this girl survived?
The girl’s attacks were hurting, so she was no illusion. What else could she be? Did that move just not work on dark elves? Or her bloodline? Or—had the spell she cast thwarted it?
In which case, how had she known what the move did? Even No Death had access to it only through her talent and didn’t know everything about it. Nor did the handful of Theocracy people who knew she could use it. If anyone did know the full details, that would be Sulshana—the scythe’s true owner.
Was that god backing this girl? Given the girl’s apparent immortality, that felt weirdly convincing. But then—
“Unh!”
Confusion and panic had made her stiffen up, and a blow she could have dodged landed cleanly.
“Argh!”
No Death swung through the pain. A desperate flail that sank into the girl’s flesh and before she could tell if it had done anything, that staff pummeled her. The pain left her seeing stars, and her body tipped—but before it toppled over, she got her legs under her.
Her mind was in overdrive.
Her plan had gone awry.
What now?
What was her best option?
She’d taken a beating but still had strength left. She wasn’t done for yet. But given her foe’s potential reinforcements, it was time to pick fight or flight.
But if she tried flight, was she even fast enough to get away? She couldn’t say for sure. In which case—
I’ve gotta use my other ace?
Not the worst idea. But No Death was still hesitant. She’d just watched her other ace get thwarted like it was nothing.
It was hard to imagine this one would be, too. But—did this girl have some crazy move that could cancel it out?
How many scrolls does she have? How many spells does she know? I don’t have anything like enough information!
And when you didn’t have a clue what your opponent could do, it was tough to be sure it was worth playing your own card. But like she kept saying—time was against No Death but helped this girl.
She could push through it, but the pain from these staff hits was definitely making it harder to think.
No Death’s grin grew broader.
The smile hid her emotions, her thoughts, her feelings from everyone—especially her enemies.
That’s why she grinned. She had made her choice.
No more thinking! I don’t know enough for thinking to matter!
All she really knew was that she’d showed off one ace and let this girl know whatever countermeasure she’d used was effective against it. That fact alone was a far greater loss than the total damage No Death had taken.
She used her last ace ability, and a burst of white light formed—another No Death.
No Death had two ultimate moves.
The first left no life behind—slightly more accurately, her talent allowed her access to the move that slept in this weapon, the ace of its former owner.
Her second ultimate came from her class—Lesser Walküre/Almighty. This created a copy of her.
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Einherjar.