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Chapter 89
Now then, although we have called it a collaboration on equal footing, in practice, the Hero's party in this battle would have next to no role to play.
In addition to the difference in levels between the two sides being a problem, they were also fundamentally disadvantaged.
The enemy was a mass of water whom physical attacks did not work against, and in comparison, the Hero's party consisted of a Sword Saint, a mercenary, adventurers, and a knight.
The only support member of the party was an elf nii-san... Cruz, but all he was doing was being a coward in regard to me and had no intention of doing anything. The only one who could be of any use was the young Hero boy, Sei. [2]
If I recalled correctly, even when the Hero class was low levelled, they were able to learn some fantastic support skills. Therefore, he might not be useless if he was assigned a supportive role.
Having said that, the best case scenario would be to recall Virgo and Aries, scatter the enemy with Libra's firepower, and during the time the enemy was scattered as mana, I would gather it all and turn it into an apple.
"But it looks like... mana was just forcibly gathered without regard to anything."
"Yeah, it's a little bit of a hassle, isn't it? It looks like mana was gathered not just from this country's vicinity but also from other places, as if that thing was a vacuum cleaner."
Looking from a distance, I saw that Virgo was trying her best to try and erase the mana. However, it did not look like she would manage to erase it in time.
Or rather, was that not Parthenos's skill?
If I recalled correctly, the name of the skill was [Vindemiatrix] or something... but it was a skill with its only use being erasure of mana. Although it was convenient in some circumstances, it was a niche and situational skill as it was too limited in where it could be used.
Nevertheless, in this world where the law "demon race = mana" was applied, it was an effective attack when used against the demons.
That Parthenos... looked like these were the kinds of things she had been teaching Virgo.
But even with this skill in use, the situation was not fully under control. The rate of increase in the amount of water was greater than the rate it was being erased at.
In all likelihood, it had originally been using only the mana in this country's vicinity. However, in retaliation against Virgo, it had likely started gathering mana from elsewhere.
The water monster was getting bigger and bigger by gathering and absorbing mana not just from this country but also from places that were completely unrelated.
Although we could still deal with the situation currently, if it continued to gather all the mana from the whole of Midgard, we might be in a bit of trouble.
Anyways, in a nutshell, all we had to do was prevent that from happening.
I created a white light ball on my palm and shot it towards the sky.
"Breidablik."[3]
The moment I activated the spell with its name, the light ball expanded and widened, eventually turning into a light dome which covered the whole capital.
[Breidablik] - the effect of the skill was an area-of-effect debuff on all the enemies.
Upon the activation of the skill, it decreased the magic power of all within the area regardless of whether they were enemies or allies.
It was a very hard-to-use skill which could even be negative for the user's side depending on how the player used it because the skill would also affect the magic-type players on the caster's side.
On the other hand, if the party was nothing but muscle brains who had no idea what magic was, it was a great support skill with very little else on par. [4]
The background setting said this is a skill to block the flow of mana, so I tried using it because I thought it would be useful, and it looks like I was spot on.
I was successful in completely stopping the inflow of mana from the outside.
As I was showing a smug look on my face, I heard the noise of someone collapsing. When I turned back to look behind me, the tiger Sword Saint-san had collapsed on the ground.
"Err.... Ruphas-sama. You know, how do I put this... this mana repellent field is very effective on magical beasts and beastkin... so, inside this field, the beastkin become unable to freely move around, normally. And to top that off, if you consider how this field was made by Ruphas-sama's power without holding back... unless they're at the same tier as the 12 Stars, I don't think they will even be able to freely move their fingers..."
After listening to Dina's troubled explanation, I questioned whether I was hearing things correctly.
Eh? Really? This is supposed to be a debuff meant to be for the enemy, what do you mean even the allies are getting debuffed?[5]
I hastily turned to glance towards Aigokeros and the rest to check whether they were affected or not.
"Please do not worry, my master. Although there is a little bit of an effect, with our abilities, we are more than capable of performing normally."
"Aaann~ a bondage play from Ruphas-sama is a treat~."
"No problem! It's just the right amount of handicap!"
"There is absolutely no effect on me."
Hmm, it seemed there was some form of adverse effect on Aigokeros, Scorpius, and Karkinos, however, there would be no problem towards their performance.
As for Libra, there was absolutely no effect, huh.
Back in the game, whether the enemy was a player or a golem, it would be weakened by the skill, but... this is quite different here.
I mean, Libra's not getting affected at all but the allies are getting affected.
Unless the situation was similar to this time, this skill did not look like it would be used frequently.
"Ma, mana repellent barrier... not to mention the whole capital in an instant..."
"Cruz-san, how large is this capital again?"
".... It's about 3000 km2. [6] If it's purely based on the surface area, it's even greater than Svalinn."
"So approximately 1. 5 times the size of Tokyo prefecture... to cover that whole area in an instant... isn't the scale too out of whack?"
After listening to Cruz's explanation, I gave off a sigh after getting reminded of how unreasonably small the area for this country was.
Even if it was not official, it was a country where many different races and species resided. Despite being an autocratic country led by an emperor, the surface area of this country was only a hair's length bigger than Tokyo prefecture.
Again, I was forcibly made to realise just how small the living space of the humanoids was at this moment.
This.. - 🅽🅽novelbining all the available areas, isn't the living space of the humanoids only a little more than the area of Japan?
... Well, whatever. In regards to this issue, it'll be solved one way or another if we eradicate the demons.
"We're heading to assist Virgo now. Everyone, follow me."
I grabbed the young man Sei, tucked him under my arms, and spread my wings to fly up. Shortly after, Libra flew up whilst grabbing Dina, followed by Aigokeros who was grabbing onto Karkinos.
Although I had forgotten, Aigokeros was not unable to fly...
Scorpius stretched her braided hair, hooked it onto the mountain (apparently called Hnitbjorg), and launched herself up by quickly shortening her hair.
That range is quite insane, oi.
Although this was an irrelevant observation, she looked quite foolish because when she launched herself with her hair, she was flying backwards.
Oh, also, the Hero's party was carried along with my telekinesis which I had not used much lately.
We landed right near Virgo who was fighting at the mountain and took the time to re-evaluate the blob of water.
Now that I'm having a closer look, it's pretty big, huh. It's full length... it's probably well over 1km?
If it continued to become bigger, it even looked like it would be able to swallow Blutgang.
"Ruphas-sama!"
"Virgo, are you hurt?"
"N, no!"
I dropped Sei nearby and examined Virgo with [Observation Eyes].
There was barely any damage done to her. It looked like Aries had properly managed to protect her.
Additionally, there was also barely any damage done to Aries himself. It looked like they had managed to fight with quite a bit of leeway.
Once he noticed me, he turned back into his human form and landed next to me.
Although this was irrelevant to the current matter, he was wearing his clothes properly. He probably quickly changed into it when he transformed back.
"Ruphas-sama, I'm sorry. That guy... however much I burn him, he regenerates instantly..."
"Ahh, don't worry about it. Good job on protecting Virgo."
My orders for Aries was to be Virgo's support.
He had followed my orders faithfully and also managed to successfully protect Virgo. As such, there was no reason for me to reprimand him.
In regard to this giant blob of water, it was just a bad match-up. After all, Aries did not have any skill that he could use to erase mana.
If it had been me or Aigokeros, we could have managed it in any number of ways... But since I was here already...
I think I will let Virgo have the honour this time.
I activated an [Esper] class skill and used telekinesis on the giant blob of water.
[Psycho Compression]... well, it was a skill which could be used on a weak enemy to immobilise it for a short amount of time whilst dealing damage to it.
By strongly using that skill, I was able to put pressure on the giant blob of water and ultimately compress it.
Have you ever thought about something like this when you were a child? Assuming there was a container which would never break, what would happen to the water inside if you continued to put water in while making the container smaller and smaller?
Once the liquid is compressed to a certain degree, it becomes unable to be compressed any further, and due to the resistant force applied by the water to the container, the container breaks.
However, in this situation, the container absolutely could not be broken.
That was what I was doing at this moment. Right now, I had created an invisible container which enveloped the giant blob of water and enclosed the water inside.
And without holding back, I continued to decrease the volume of the invisible container and compressed the water.
Although the temperature also served as a factor, at around 3500 atmospheric pressure, the water would turn into a substance called Ice V and at above 6200 atmospheric pressure, it would turn into Ice VI. [7]
Because I had never measured how strong my telekinesis was, I did not know what kind of substance it was at that point. However, I could verify it by just looking at how the water had turned into small pieces of ice.
Hmm... maybe I will try and experiment around with charcoal next time.
If I recalled correctly, for carbon to turn into a diamond, the required pressure was approximately one million. So if the charcoal turned into a diamond, I would be able to prove that my telekinesis had enough pressure to rival about one million atmospheric pressure. [8]
.... Though... in this world where the Laws of Physics-san was sabotaging things, it might not be much of an indicator though.
If it was this world, let alone charcoal, it would not be strange for the rocks to turn into diamonds. After all, everything was possible in this world.
In any event, with this, it was checkmate.
By this point, the giant blob of water was no longer able to maintain its form and had already been broken down into mana. As I had forcibly compressed that mana, it had turned into a strange crystal.
".......... . A le, legendary magic stone which is only created when a large amount of mana is compressed to an extreme limit... A mana diamond... it, it really existed... or more like... is it even something that can be created by someone.... ?"
Cruz was muttering something absentmindedly. I wondered what was going on with him.
When I was wondering that, Dina whispered and taught me the situation.
"Ahh, the crystal that Ruphas-sama just created is thought to be an illusory item that no one in Midgard had ever seen until now. Even two hundred years ago, Ruphas-sama and the others thought it would be a hassle... so you never showed it to the others in public and only used it as a material to craft your own accessories."
"Oh, I see. A rare item, huh."
It seemed that I had unintentionally created a fairly rare item just now.
It might actually be a useful material for alchemy.
But we had to give the highest priority right now to allowing Virgo to play a role. For that purpose, I could forego one rare item.
I quickly made that decision, levitated the crystal in the air, and moved it to a position that Virgo could easily aim at.
"Now, Virgo, it's time to end it. Be flashy."
"Ye, yes!"
Although it was currently a crystallised chunk of mana, if it was destroyed, it would revert back to water.
As such, it was time for Virgo to shine.
Following her response, she raised both her hands and produced a shiny and pure white light between her hands.
"Vindemiatrix!"
An absolute magic negation skill that would completely erase mana.
Virgo illuminated the crystal with the niche and situational skill that only Parthenos could use even back in the game. [9]
When it did, the crystal, which was compressed to its limit, faded and completely disappeared from this world.
"The mana diamond gotttt—! The legendary crystal just—!?"
Unfortunately for Cruz who started shrieking with a voice as if he was dying, nobody cared about the state of his heart.
Because I was informed about the value of the crystal, I could partly understand why he was shrieking, however, I still questioned the need to shout all that out loud.
Oh, he burnt out looking white as a ghost and collapsed. I guess everything's over for this guy.
*
".......... ."
Whilst sitting down on the throne, the Demon King Orm opened his eyes.
Just then, in a land far away, a spark of fake life had been extinguished.
Furthermore, the one who had sent that life to their death was none other than himself.
Because Venus was chased away, there was no one else who could make the 7 Luminaries dance on the palm of their hand - that was what Terra thought.
That line of thought was not incorrect; it was a fact. The decision made by Terra was indeed correct.
Nevertheless, the seeds had already been sown.
With the knowledge of Draupnir's guardian deity poisoned, if one were to consider Mercurius's personality combined with his affection towards Luna, it would be easy to predict what possible routes he might take next. In actual fact, Mercurius had been running on rails which had led to the certain destruction that was prepared for him.
The only thing left to enable it to happen was for the Demon King, who had now gained the power to change the fate of the demon race, to show interest in the head of the guardian deity when he really wasn't interested in it at all.
With just that, Mercurius would have walked on the path to destroy himself. And the reality showed that it was indeed the case.
Exactly - the one who was leading the 7 Luminaries to destruction wasn't Venus alone.
The 7 Luminaries' leader, the Demon King himself was the one who most wished the demon race, which was the magic of the Goddess, to disappear from around him.
Orm pointed his eyebrows down in sorrow whilst fiddling with the key that he had previously taken from Castor in his hand.
"Are you worried about something?"
A voice came from behind and Dina showed her face from behind the throne.
As usual, it was a ghost-like entrance from her. By the time one realised, she would have popped out from somewhere and would be talking to you.
Orm faintly smiled and put the key back down.
"Hmm, nothing much really... I just remembered the eyes of Mercurius."
"Eyes, you said?"
"Yeah.... The eyes that he had when he came to petition me whilst filled with his affection for Luna were very serious, you see. Sometimes, I get this thought. Whether they're really dolls or not."
In response to Orm muttering things, Dina unexpectedly thinned the opening of her eyes then followed up with a quiet voice and a tone which lacked any form of emotion.
"They're dolls. Whether they have individuality or have feelings for another, it's all irrelevant. Dolls are still dolls. They move the way their owner wants them to and at the very end, they're thrown away. It's the fate that they have."
"Quite harsh."
"Because it's a fact. Wouldn't you think it's creepy for a doll to move on its own without the will of the owner? That's why, the only thing they can do is to sneakily move around whilst trying not to get caught. If they don't want to get thrown away, they have to return to their original position before they are found and appeal, 'I'm a doll. ' If they don't... they'll be chucked away."
Orm closed his eyes and put all his weight on his back.
He was expressionless at that moment and what he was thinking could not be read.
"But Mercurius did not move in a way that went against the will of the Goddess."
"You might be right. But the answer is simple in that case. There's another bad doll in the midst who's going around breaking other dolls. If they're found out, they're definitely going straight to the bin, don't you agree?"
"How scary. Do you think I'm also going to get thrown away?"
"You might be. Or perhaps... you've already been thrown away?"
Dina smiled faintly as if to mock him, followed by Orm laughing in return.
In that throne room where the two of them were present, only the eyes of the King of demons and the blue-haired young girl shone in a strangely creepy way.
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