“So you said you could tell I was in despair? Like hell I was! Maybe your eyes and brain are fried from all your fantasies.”
Honestly, I’ve been fighting the urge to laugh at how stupid you are, walking right up to me without a care in the world. Sure, maybe biting my lip made it look like despair.
“Forgive...m—”
“Not a chance.”
Even if she had some tragic backstory, there was no universe where I’d forgive this woman. Actually, “forgive” wasn’t even the right word, since it wasn’t like I personally hated her. All I felt was disgust, and the idea of letting her roam free horrified me. If she escaped, she’d absolutely come back for revenge.
So in order for me—for us—to live happily in peace, you need to die right here.
“Shadowflame Annihilation Circle.”
“AAAHHHAAAAHHHAAAHHH!”
A pillar of black fire swallowed Machina whole, her screams ripping through the room. I was surprised she still had enough strength left to scream like that. But after a few seconds, the voice stopped, and when the flames vanished, only a pile of blackened ash remained.
It looked like an easy win, but it was actually a close call. If she’d used her cheat with the intent to kill me from the start, I might’ve been doomed. There’s gotta be thousands of dangerous mushrooms I’ve never even heard of.
“Godlord, are you okay?”
“Y... Yeah.”
After using detox, purification, and healing on Shiro and Kuro, I started treating Godlord.
First, I had to deal with the wound in his stomach. It seemed Machina hadn’t planned to kill him and had intended to put him under her control again. His wound had already started to close. Even so, I used several spells for emergency treatment. Detox, purification, sterilization with electricity—everything needed to deal with the spores. It hurt like hell, judging by the screams, but it was better than having mushrooms sprout from his body later.
“You saved me...” said Godlord. “I can’t believe Machina was that psycho woman...”
Seeing someone he’d trusted turn into a monster must’ve been a shock. His physical wounds would heal quickly, but his emotional scars might take some time.
“Shiro, Kuro, you two okay?”
“Myah...”
“Arf...”
They seemed fine too. I treated them again for spores and poison, then reapplied healing. They should’ve been all right now.
The immediate threat was gone, but the fight with Machina had been a complete anomaly. If anything, the real boss should’ve been the dragon we’d fought before her.
“The dragon was probably the boss, right? So that would mean—”
“Pathetic... What a disgrace.”
“To think you couldn’t even corner another reincarnator. Weak.”
A raspy old man’s voice suddenly echoed around us. I couldn’t tell where it had come from. It felt like it was coming from the entire room at once—loud, yet somehow not grating. It sounded like multiple people, yet also like a single being speaking.
“That voice...” muttered Godlord.
“You know it?” I asked.
“It sounds just like that weird voice I heard when I was fighting that big lizard. Kept yelling at me to get angrier, and to destroy you guys. It was annoying as hell. Disappeared when I told him off, though! But I swear I’ve heard it somewh—”
While Godlord was cocking his head trying to remember, the old men’s voices continued.
“We bestowed upon you part of our power—your cheats—yet you lost so easily...”
“The cheat has yet to settle within you. Still, that vile nature of yours... Not bad.”
I recognized that spine-chilling voice; it was the same as dungeon malice.
The sound itself was different—dungeon malice had a woman’s voice, while this was an old man’s. But the sinister, repulsive aura was identical.
Godlord seemed to remember something too.
“That’s it! The god I met when I was reincarnated! It sounds just like that old man!”
“That creepy voice?”
“Yeah, for sure.”
How could you think this is the voice of a god? I would for sure think it’s some evil deity or demon. Actually, I guess whether you think someone’s a god just depends on what they tell you, so maybe he really was fooled.
So Godlord heard a mysterious voice when his black mana swelled. It can’t be a coincidence that it sounds just like the god who’d reincarnated him. And the voice even encouraged him to destroy us?
“Even at death’s door, your desire does not fade... Splendid.”
“The color is pride. It is not me.”
“Indeed. This is my color. One who believes it natural to torment others, who delights in trampling them... One so full of pride they believe their own perception is absolute... How worthy to be my sacrifice. Now...offer me your flesh!”
The moment the voice cried out in joy, a tremendous surge of mana erupted from the corner of the room with a roar.
The source of the overflowing jet-black mana was what had once been Machina. She should have been reduced to ash, yet mana was rising from her remains—actually, her remains couldn’t even be seen anymore, swallowed by the dense black mana.
Something was writhing within that darkness. It wasn’t just the flickering of mana, but rather, something truly horrifying.
A sinister laugh echoed through the room. “I, Machina of Pride, have taken flesh...!”
The mana split apart, and something black emerged—a giant mushroom. The squat, round-bodied fungus had stubby arms and legs, like a mascot plush toy, and her entire body was pitch-black.
She looked almost funny, cute even. But I couldn’t laugh.
My survival instincts started going berserk, like they were screaming in my ear: You can’t stay here! Run! Now!
The desert dragon was nothing compared to this. The same nausea-inducing disgust and terror I’d felt when I first faced dungeon malice washed over us again.
“Ugh... Gah...”
“Myah...”
“Arf...”
Our bodies froze, seized by a terror that locked every muscle.
“D-Damn...”
“I shall devour you all...and make you my flesh.”
The black mushroom—Machina of Pride—extended her short arm toward us. A mass of black mana shot out, attacking Godlord like a lightning-fast cannonball.
Unable to move, Godlord took the hit directly, letting out a pained grunt and slamming into the wall with brutal force. His arms and legs bent the wrong way, and he collapsed on the ground, twitching.
I needed to help him, but I had no such luxury.
“You look delicious as well... Let despair consume your soul even further.”
Machina of Pride fired at me next.
I screamed. The fear of death rushing toward me must have overridden the paralysis. Just before the attack hit, I managed to move, leaping aside and creating a mana-reinforced wall.
But even the Iron Wall I’d strengthened to the limit wasn’t enough. The mana cannonball didn’t slow for even a moment, shattering the wall and slamming into me.
I’d activated a Water Barrier at the same time, so I wasn’t pulverized like the wall, but I was still launched like a pinball. The impact was like being caught in an explosion, and I almost lost consciousness.
“Gah...!”
I was blown away over ten meters and slammed into the wall back-first, a crushing shock hitting my back just as pain exploded across my front. There was no up or down; there was just pain running through every inch of my body. It honestly felt like all my bones had shattered. I dropped to the floor with a wet thud, barely able to move.
Godlord was lying beside me. The pain, blood loss, and suffocating tightness in my chest made my whole body feel unbearably heavy.
“Thor!” said Shiro.
“We’re coming!” followed Kuro.