“F... Fireball!” the man cried out, sending an orb of fire my way. But before it could reach me, it was abruptly extinguished upon hitting a solidified mass of space similar to an invisible wall.
“Well, not that I’ll let you hit me,” I said with a smirk.
“M-My Psychokinesis...was ineffective?!”
“Oh, that was your attempt at an attack? Sorry, my bad. Ah ha ha.”
Apparently I could solidify my body as a separate entity from the rest of space-time, rendering all outside forces ineffective. That also included an object’s weight—under this spell, I could lift a piece of debris as though it were utterly weightless, and if one hit me as a projectile it would smash into pieces upon making contact with my body.
Such was the might of the completely broken offensive and defensive buff known as “I Am the Star.”
My right hand suddenly swiped sideways, and despite being a distance away, the old man’s body split cleanly at the torso. Once again, there was no blood.
The geezer let out a shriek. “Eeek! M-My body’s...!”
“Ah ha ha, relax. Your upper and lower halves are still connected by space, so you’re not dead just yet. Although I can sever the connection at any time. Tee hee.”
“H-Help! Someone help...”
“No one’s coming to help you. This pocket of space is currently cut off from the rest of the world! Oh, here, let me restore your arm—copy, flip, aaand attach!”
With just a clap of my hands, a copy of the old man’s left arm appeared out of thin air, flipped itself around, and attached itself to his right shoulder—blood vessels, nerves, and all. Once the process was complete, it looked indistinguishable from his right arm before it had been dismantled.
Whoa, my head feels all woozy. I guess all that must’ve taken a pretty big toll on my mind.
“Hey, you okay?” I said to myself. “This is basically the tutorial, so this is all basic stuff so far.”
Did you just say “basically,” O Goddess?
“Oh, come on, I just misspoke. It’s a real tutorial! You’re learning stuff, aren’t you?”
Even after calling myself out in my mind, I—or rather, the goddess controlling me—replied with a giggle.
I couldn’t really argue with her—I was indeed learning stuff.
“So you see, you can copy someone’s body, infinitely reproducing them! This way, you can inflict as much harm on them as you please! That said, copying normally uses up a bunch of MP, but for instructional purposes I’ve granted you infinite MP! See? Doesn’t this feel like a tutorial?”
Right...this was nothing more than a helpful tutorial from the Goddess to show me how to use my new powers. It definitely wasn’t a thinly veiled attempt to exact revenge upon a foolish old man misappropriating her lover’s name... But wait a minute, wasn’t defeating the “false God of Destruction” supposed to be my ultimate goal?
Uh, Goddess... What happened to all those warnings you gave me earlier about not using my powers to directly influence the real world?
“Well, I gotta show you the ropes somehow, right? This is the tutorial, so it doesn’t count! Or are you implying you think you’ll be fine on your own?”
No, no, no complaints here! Your gracious instructions, ma’am!
“Ooh, obedient, aren’t we? I like that. Oh, by the way, you can do this too!”
My hand turned like I was twisting the valve of a faucet. In response, the self-proclaimed God of Destruction’s arm twisted and snapped like a twig. Damn, this ability’s seriously OP! Looking at the old man’s face contorted in pain, I belatedly realized he wasn’t making any sound. Apparently, my barrier of spatial magic was also shutting out his screams of agony.
“Now then, I think it’s about time we kick things up a notch and remove the gore filter, wouldn’t you say? This might get a little graphic—viewer discretion advised.”
Eugh.
For some time afterward, the Goddess took her sweet time gleefully eviscerating the so-called God of Destruction over and over again.
Okay... Maybe I should explain how it all came to this from the beginning.
Originally I was just a typical, nondescript Japanese adult male—or at least, I should’ve been. But without even having received a visit from the usual isekai truck, I suddenly found myself in an otherworldly place. It was a world of pure white, and before I knew it, a young girl with golden hair and eyes was grinning before me.
“Welcome! Sorry for the short notice, but you’ve been relocated to the world I manage...or should I say reincarnated, considering I’ve given you a brand-new body? Ah, well, who cares about the details?! Point is, you’ll be starting a new life in a brand-new world from here on!”
Huh...?
“Yes, that’s the correct response! You really dodged a bullet just now, you know. If you’d replied with something like ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?! This is a textbook case of kidnapping! Apologize right this instant!’ and tried to refuse, you would’ve been erased immediately! Congratulations—you exercised more discretion than the schmuck before you!” The girl’s dry applause reverberated through the white space.
The person who came before me was...“erased”?
“So anyway, I’m gonna bless you with power. In return, there’s something I want you to do for me.”
A-All right.
“Deference—I like that! Oh, I’m the Goddess of Time and Space, by the way. A bona fide goddess, mind you. That part’s important.” The goddess girl then continued her explanation. “In the world I’m about to send you to, there’s some blasphemous moron claiming he’s a god. I want you to take him down.”
A...god?
“Self-proclaimed god! He’s actually just a pitiful human. He popped up while I was away for a little while, so I need to show him the power of a real god and whack him back down. Problem is, there’s a rule that forbids us gods from interfering directly, so I have to get someone from another world to mete out judgment in my place.” She grinned.
So since gods can’t interfere with the world directly, they lend their powers to someone else and get them to do it instead. I guess that makes sense. And if the so-called god in this world isn’t bound by any such rule, then it’d indeed mean they aren’t a real god. Seems logical enough.
“As your reward for completing this task,” the Goddess went on, “I’ll give you free rein to do whatever you want in this world from now on. Whether you want to use your new powers to become a hero of the people or just gorge yourself on various pleasures, the world’s your oyster! You’re supposed to be dead, but I’m graciously giving you a new lease on life! What better reward is there than that? Oh, right—you might experience a tiiiny bit of memory loss, but it’s nothing you need to worry about. I mean, I’m not worried about it, so that means you shouldn’t be either.”
R-Right. Um, can I really do anything I want in this new world?
“Yep! You can even call yourself a god if you want! As my disciple, you’ll be equivalent in rank to a lesser god anyway.”
Even though I’d been ordered to kill someone else claiming to be a god? I tilted my head in puzzlement.
“Oh, I see why you’re confused. Calling yourself a god by itself is a-okay. I actually don’t have a problem with that. The problem is that this idiot’s calling himself by a certain god’s name.”
And what name would that be, Miss Goddess?
“The God of Destruction!”
That name seemed to be a sort of taboo for her.
So you want me to find the impostor calling himself this “God of Destruction,” and take him down?
“Quick on the uptake, aren’t you? I like that! You got it—and I’ve specially made you a new body to help you get the job done.”
The Goddess snapped her fingers, and the weightlessness I’d been feeling ever since I’d entered the white world disappeared. I could sense my feet touch down on the ground—my soul must’ve entered this new body she’d mentioned. At the same time, the Goddess brought a giant mirror down in front of me. Reflected there, before my eyes, was a girl who looked to be around eighteen, with straight, black hair and round, brown eyes. While her appearance was kind of plain, she was actually pretty cute. Plus, she had a nice rack.
“Damn, who’s this beauty? She’s kinda... Wait, why is my voice so high?! Huh?! That’s me?!”
The girl in the mirror was making the same movements I was making. I stepped back in shock and felt my long black hair flutter. Finally, just for good measure, I grabbed my own chest and gave it a squeeze. Damn, that’s soft...
“Wait, I’m not supposed to be a girl! I’m a guy! What gives?!” I shouted.
“Oh, it’s just what I’m into—ahem, I mean, because you’re borrowing a goddess’s powers and all, making you in my image allows you to receive my blessing more easily.”
“I heard that, you know! You said it was what you were into!”
“You wanna complain, I’ll erase you. It’s true that it makes it easier to receive my blessing if you’re a girl like me, so it’s a win-win for both of us. Plus, now that it’s your own body, you can cop a feel, or do something even more pleasurable, whenever you want! Right?”
I didn’t raise any more objections—I had the feeling that if I argued with her any further, it’d be my soul she erased rather than this new body. It definitely wasn’t because I wanted to cop a feel or do something even more pleasurable. Honest.
“Now, take this book. It contains everything you need to know about spatial magic and the world you’re about to enter. Also, I’ve granted you the ability to learn all types of skills.”
“Th-Thank you very much.”
“And as a special service from me, I’ll take control of your body and show you just what it’s capable of. But only this once—wouldn’t want you to get too overstimulated since it’s your first time.”
“I-I-I’m not a virgin! Ahem, uh, I mean, I’d appreciate that. Thank you for your guidance.”
Thus, a former Japanese man became a girl and began a new life in another world.