Now I have even more reason to hurry it up.
“I’m going on ahead!”
With a quick word to the puppet taratects, I rush onward, leaving them to take care of the water dragon.
The four of them together should be able to handle it, even if the water dragon is more powerful individually.
Besides, while the water dragon can’t fight at its full strength due to the terrain, the spider girls have home-field advantage in this cramped space.
The Upper Stratum is basically their hunting ground.
It might be a little harder to navigate now that it’s partly submerged, but that shouldn’t be too big of a problem for them.
They were able to catch up to me easily enough, anyway.
The fact that my speed stat is probably higher than theirs didn’t stop them.
That’s probably because they’re much better at using the walls and even ceilings of the labyrinth to move even faster.
Between that and my inability to seal a hole, I guess I’ve still got a long ways to go in many respects.
It’s ironic that I’m realizing my own inadequacy in what will be our final battle.
Too bad I’ll never have a chance to put that knowledge to use.
…Too bad, huh?
If I’m thinking about it that way, maybe I still have attachments to this life after all?
I never planned to survive this battle.
My hands are stained with so much blood already.
Enough is enough.
The moment I killed Buirimus and avenged my goblin clan, my life lost all meaning and purpose.
In fact, when I died back in the classroom, I probably should have just stayed dead.
I only stayed alive in this world out of habit.
Yet even though I was living on nothing but inertia, I still sent countless others to their deaths.
Eventually, I have to pay the price.
And all I have to offer for that is my own life.
So whether we win or lose this battle, I had no intention of surviving.
And yet…
The chaotic days of the recent past flash across my mind.
Sophia flaring up at me, Mr. Merazophis panicking behind her, Miss Ariel gently trying to calm everyone down, and Miss White watching in silence, or occasionally kicking Sophia to the curb.
Those times might have been crazy, but they weren’t bad.
But that’s all over now.
We can never go back to that again.
I’ve known that for ages, or at least I thought I did.
So I can’t falter now.
Stay sharp.
Finish what you started.
And the first step is taking over this fight against the chief of the water dragons!
There!
Running as fast as I can, occasionally swimming through a sunken passage, I finally catch up to where Sophia and the water dragon are locked in battle.
The water dragon chief is purely focused on keeping away from Sophia and attacking from afar, while Sophia is determinedly chasing after her.
They’re evenly matched in terms of long-distance warfare.
However, the nature of the water and ice seems to have Sophia at a bit of a loss as to how to break through.
Sophia can freeze her opponent’s water, except then the ice ends up serving as an obstacle that aids in the water dragon chief’s retreat.
But if she doesn’t freeze the water, her opponent will be able to control it and move freely.
No wonder this battle has been taking so long.
I’m sure Sophia would win eventually, due to her superior abilities…if the Great Elroe Labyrinth doesn’t flood completely first.
“Sophia!”
“…Tch!”
Noticing me, Sophia clicks her tongue, looking annoyed.
“Leave this to me and go seal the holes!”
“…Ugh, fine, I know! You handle it, then!”
With that, Sophia crossly turns on her heel and leaves.
Knowing her, she probably wanted to finish this fight herself.
But she still let me take over because she knows our overall victory is more important than her winning this particular battle.
Otherwise, there’s no way someone as prideful as Sophia would hand over her prey.
Since she was selfless enough to prioritize the team’s goals over her own satisfaction, I’d better make sure I live up to her expectations.
“Oh dear. I’ve been dealt quite the difficult hand.”
The water dragon chief quirks an eyebrow.
“But are you sure you oughtn’t have come at me two against one?”
“No need. This won’t take long.”
She wrinkles her nose in apparent displeasure at my statement.
“You’d do well not to underestimate me, hmm?”
“I’m not. That’s why I’m going to use all of my strength to finish you as quickly as possible.”
The water dragon chief must be very strong.
If we fought in the ocean, where her full strength would be on display, she might very well have defeated Sophia and me both.
She has far more finesse than the other water dragons, too.
That much is clear from the fact that she was able to keep Sophia at bay for so long.
So I’m going to give it everything I’ve got, too.
Because I have no other choice.
“Such overconfidence! Oh, I can hardly wait to smash it to pieces!”
No, it’s not overconfidence.
It’s just that because I recognize how powerful the water dragon chief is, I’m going to break out my ace in the hole right away.
My Wrath.
“GRAAAAAAHHH!”
As soon as I activate the Wrath skill, the world is dyed a deep red.
My brain, my body, my pulse, every fiber of my being demands that I slaughter every living thing in sight.
I let that overpowering urge take control, swinging my magic sword at the water dragon chief before my eyes.
Though my war cry seemed to intimidate her for a moment, she quickly recovers and sends a wave of water toward me.
The torrent takes up the entire narrow passageway.
There’s no way to dodge it.
But I don’t need to, anyway.
I unleash the full power of my magic swords, surrounding my body with their might.
Flames and lightning twine around me, evaporating the wave of water.
“But…how…?”
The evaporating torrent produces shock waves that churn toward me, but I ignore them, press forward, and slice the water dragon chief in half.
When Wrath is activated, all my stats reach 99,999.
That’s the max value they can have, stronger than even Miss Ariel in her prime, at least in terms of numbers alone.
In this state, no ordinary attack can lay a scratch on me, and almost nothing can withstand my blade.
However, it comes at a high cost.
“Hfff…hfff…! Calm down! That’s enough!”
I turn off Wrath and stop my spirit from being swallowed up.
The Wrath skill makes the user lose all sense of reason.
If it fully consumes me, even once, I’ll be permanently transformed into a senseless monster that attacks anything in sight.
Even after training up the Heresy Resistance skill, which reduces negative effects on the soul and spirit, to the point of becoming Heresy Nullification, it still wasn’t enough to get rid of the effects of the Wrath skill completely.
For now, I can bring myself back like this if I only use it for a short time. But if I keep using the skill, I know for a fact that eventually I won’t be able to come back anymore.
I imagine the Wrath skill has special settings that prevent its consequences from being fully negated.
All this is why I’ve avoided using it at all costs, but against the water dragon chief, I had no other choice.
Sophia and I are about equal in power, I think.
If she couldn’t defeat that opponent over a long period of time, this was the only way I’d be able to do it quickly.
“Koff! I’m…sorr…I…offer…”
The water dragon chief murmurs something, despite her upper and lower half being neatly separated.
Then her body crumbles into dust and disappears.
…I see.
She must have offered herself up…sacrificing her soul to the system.
By offering your soul to the system, you can turn all its energy into the system’s fuel.
Of course, that means you’ll never be reborn again, since your soul itself is lost.
It’s a fate beyond death: nothingness.
Yet as she was about to die, she offered up her soul.
That proves she must have come into this battle fully prepared to end it all.
Just like me.
“Wait a little longer. I’ll offer myself up, too, before this battle is over.”
Whether we win or lose, I intend to sacrifice my own soul.
Death alone wouldn’t be enough to atone for everything I’ve done.
So I’m going to give up all that I am.
But the time hasn’t come for that, not just yet.
First, I have to fight my hardest for the ivory god’s victory, so that the deaths of everyone I’ve killed won’t be in vain.
Even if it ends with me disappearing forever.
I take a moment of silence for the place where the water dragons’ chief fell, then move on in order to defeat the rest of them.
✦ ✦ ✦
