Leave a comment

What does it mean to be undefeatable?

What does it mean to have strength that would never lose?

For those who fought, it was an eternal proposition as well as a goal to strive for.

How could the vast amount of skills, divine magic, and arcane magic be combined to create an absolutely unbeatable existence?

Anyone who had reached Level 100 would have thought about this at least once. One of them, the Vampire Princess Benetnash, reached her own answer. It involved high HP and percentage HP regeneration.

A law existed that restricted the upper limit of damage in Midgard to less than 100,000. Therefore, if one’s maximum HP was increased to the point where the percentage HP regeneration would recover 99,999, then the damage taken would be nullified in the next moment, no matter what kind of attack it was.

Theoretically, it would be impossible to lose. In fact, Benetnash herself embodied this principle, as any damage done to her would be fully healed in an instant. Of course, this wasn’t the only thing that made her powerful, but one could say that defense was her greatest asset. Therefore, she never needed to take any defensive actions during combat and could focus only on attacks without hiding any card up her sleeve.

And right now, there was another being that perfectly embodied this principle.

“■■■■■■……■■■■”

The mutant god howled. Its form, voice, and scent—everything that it was composed of—caused intense discomfort in others, turning sanity into madness.

Despite its nightmarish existence, Aigokeros stood before it without any mental disturbance. After all, Aigokeros was the devil king whose existence would reduce one’s sanity, so they were evenly matched in that sense.

The huge evil god and devil king fought once more as Libra looked up at them and muttered.

“The time required for its wounds to start regenerating…is 0.05 second. The time required for complete recovery is 0.6 second. This is rather troubling, isn’t it?”

Pisces frowned upon hearing her mechanical voice. It took less than a second to complete its regeneration. The speed was so fast that it would be imperceivable to normal humanoids and magical beasts. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that it was almost completely healed at the same time it was damaged.

Of course, they could cut in before it was completely healed. It was certainly possible to launch an attack within a hundredth of a second and damage it before its regeneration could start. No matter how ridiculous the speed of its regeneration was, it could be overwhelmed by a barrage of attacks that was even faster. In other words, they could just hit it faster than it could regenerate.

For example, if Benetnash was here, she could hit the mutant god with dozens of light attacks in the time it took to regenerate once. It would be almost dead in an instant. Ironically, the most effective way to overwhelm Benetnash’s invincibility was her own fighting style. Although it would be slightly slower, Ruphas could also overwhelm an opponent with a similar barrage of attacks.

However, neither the Vampire Princess nor the Black-Winged Overlord was here. Instead, it was Aigokeros, Libra, and Pisces.

“We just need to damage it faster than it can regenerate. That’s all.”

“That’s not realistic, considering that its level is higher than ours. It isn’t a sandbag that can be beaten without it fighting back. It’s not possible to attack it unilaterally.”

Pisces made a proposition while evading the attacking tentacles, but it was shot down by Libra immediately. As mentioned before, attacking faster than its regeneration was certainly a solution. It wasn’t a mistake.

However, the opponent would naturally fight back, defend, and evade. It might even use skills to heal itself further. In other words, there must be an overwhelming difference in speed in order to implement this tactic, such that one must move to a smaller time scale and leave the opponent behind.

But the speed of the mutant god and Libra and the others were…about the same. Naturally, this was an ultra-high-speed battle that took place on a different time scale and could not be followed by ordinary combatants. The aforementioned tactic would not be easy to implement when they were fighting on the same stage.

“Besides…we fortunately have someone who is the natural enemy of regeneration specialists. Just watch.”

Libra pointed her finger at the side of the evil god. This was the spot where Aigokeros had damaged it earlier, but it still had not regenerated. The head, which was pierced by Libra’s harpoons, and the body, which was burned by Pisces’ roar, had almost completely regenerated. Only that wound persisted without regenerating.

Aigokeros’ attacks inflicted an irreversible curse. Once wounded, the damage could not be healed until the curse expired after a certain period of time. Divine magic and using items were ineffective. Even amputating the damaged part would not help. Furthermore, even elixirs and amrita were useless against this ability. In other words, Aigokeros was the natural enemy of the mutant god.

“Is your plan to just rely on him? I don’t really care for that.”

“In that case, would you like to be the main attacker? Your unique skill…is called Alrescha, right? But, well, you can’t use it, right?”

“Stop joking. I’m not going to use it on such an ugly opponent.”

“That’s what I thought, so please don’t complain and stay focused on providing support.”

“Whatever. Start fighting already! How much longer do I have to fight by myself!?”

Aigokeros shouted at both of them, who were still discussing tactics. He had been hitting the evil god all this time and it was starting to get tough.

Libra immediately took action without answering his question. She bent her knees out of her skirt as if preparing to jump. The parts that were not usually visible due to being covered by the skirt had the characteristic joints of a golem. The parts that were her knees opened up and fired shells from within. They hit the evil god and exploded, while Pisces immediately followed up with an attack.

“Maelstrom!”

This high-level Water-attribute arcane magic created a swirl of water to attack the enemy, hitting the evil god and sealing its movements. However, Aigokeros did not take the opportunity to escape. As if he had been waiting for this, he shot a black bolt that bored into the evil god’s chest.

But the evil god’s vitality was not to be trifled with. After being shaken momentarily, it moved all its tentacles as if it had received no damage. They struck in all directions towards the three of them.

“■■■■■■■■■—!!”

As usual, it screamed in an incomprehensible manner while rampaging as if it was throwing a tantrum. There were several hundred tentacles, including the ones which were grown by its regeneration. In other words, this monster could make more than a hundred simultaneous strikes with a single attack.

Faced with such fierce attacks, Libra and the others could not remain unscathed, no matter how high their defenses were. In particular, Astraea M was already at its limit. Even though Libra herself could endure it, the wings of this external armament were not as durable as her.

“Damage of Astraea Type M…over eighty percent. Apparently, this is it for the armament.”

This armament was a golem created by Ruphas to enable Libra to move underwater. But it would be useless if it had been damaged to this extent. It would just be an accessory. A golem that could only just stay there without doing anything…was just a piece of miserable garbage.

At least, Libra thought so. If she couldn’t do anything, she would rather be discarded than to stay on meaninglessly. The meaning of a golem’s existence was to assist its master. That mission took precedence over its own existence. Therefore, as a fellow golem, Libra decided to give the broken wings its final stage to act.

“Astraea Type M, purge!”

At Libra’s command, the broken wings left her back and flew towards the evil god. This was the last weapon of Astraea Type M. In other words, it was making a charge by using itself as a weapon. While being slashed by the mass of tentacles, it pierced the body of the evil god and started to glow white.

“Self-destruct!”

At Libra’s command, Astraea M immediately exploded. Seeing its role fulfilled, Libra gave a quick salute to the golem who fought to the end. Still, the opportunity created by its self-destruct could not be missed. Despite sinking under her own weight, Libra fired her greatest weapon.

“Brachium!”

After confining the enemy and herself in a field of light, an attack from the Scales exploded to deal the maximum damage to all targets. Swallowed by the brilliance of Brachium, the evil god’s tentacles were all destroyed and blown away.

And then, Aigokeros inflicted his curse again. The tentacles had started to regenerate, but Aigokeros slashed at the evil god before the regeneration was completed. It seemed effective. At this speed, he could deliver an attack before its regeneration was finished. However, the situation was not good as Libra could be said to have been neutralized.

No matter how little damage she had taken, she could not fight like she had been doing after losing her underwater mobility. Of course, it was possible for her to walk along the seabed and provide fire support, but it was still undeniable that it severely reduced her combat power.

The evil god opened its huge mouth towards Libra and fired a blast of arcane power.

This looks like it’s going to take one of my arms.

—Having made this judgment, Libra raised her arm to block the attack and protect her head and chest. However, numerous magic arrows struck from behind, overtaking her and colliding with the blast of arcane power. The attacks neutralized each other.

“This is…!”

Someone grabbed the surprised Libra from behind and quickly swam upwards. The one who was most surprised was probably Pisces. After all, this was a completely unexpected reinforcement.

“You—You’re…Suirat!?”

Yes, she was the apprentice maid Suirat Tigas whom he had taken an interest in earlier. She was the young girl who was chosen to be his nightly attendant because she had the same hair color as Ruphas. However, it was surprising that she could move at the same speed as Pisces and the others.

—No, she was actually moving through the sea at an even higher speed than them.

Pisces instantly realized it. This person…wasn’t a merfolk!? In front of him, Suirat shouted so that everyone could hear.

“Listen, everyone! I just sent a letter with an arrow to Ruphas-sama. Ruphas-sama will be activating Alkaid!”

If Ruphas activated Alkaid, it would mean that she had broken through the level limit and the level limits on the Twelve Stars would be lifted accordingly.

The problem was that Suirat, who had never met Ruphas, was talking about it so naturally. No, in the first place, the skill was named Alkaid only recently. It was weird for her to know about it.

At this point, Pisces finally realized the true identity of the person he had chosen as a nightly attendant. But the truth was that he really didn’t want to know.

“Yo—You…You can’t be…!?”

“Whatever.”

Yes, the response was in a deep voice. Then, Suirat’s entire body was wrapped in light. Unnecessarily sparkly effects were scattered and the appearance of the mermaid changed…

No, her disguise was removed, revealing a masculine and strict face that reminded one of a veteran warrior. The eyebrows were thick. The steel-like body was lean and there was a bow and arrow in his hands. His lower body changed from a fish to a horse.

Realizing that it was exactly who he expected it to be, Pisces was struck by a violent vomiting sensation.

“One of the Tyrannical Twelve Stars, Sagittarius of the Archer…is here.”

“Damn it—! I’ve been tricked! I’ve been tricked—!”

“To deceive the enemy, one must first deceive the allies.”

“Can’t you think of other ways to do it!? A rugged man like you shouldn’t be disguised as a woman!”

Pisces protested in tears, but Sagittarius ruthlessly cut him off.

There was nothing strange about it. He had been ordered to search for Pisces and disguising himself as a beautiful mermaid was the most accessible way to reach the latter. Then, after seeing the females in the palace, he noticed that all of the gathered females looked similar to his master, so he changed his hair color accordingly. It was all for the sake of efficiency. He didn’t have a hobby of cross-dressing.

Indeed, Sagittarius was taking it very seriously.

“Now then, it’s time to reverse the situation. Let’s do this in an instant.”

“……Rather than the evil god, I want to hit you instead.”

Pisces murmured wearily at Sagittarius, who had readied himself without any ill intention.

Image from Manga Volume 4