kscans

Chapter 214 - Cheat Punk VS Villainess

December 24th, 11:45 PM. In Tokyo on the fake Earth, the subjugation force was assembled in its entirety, waiting with bated breath for the moment to arrive. It was a scene where anyone below the mid-tier, let alone the veterans, could have been shaken, but thanks to a morale-boosting buff, no one was losing their composure.

"…"

High in the sky, Satou glared into the void, attended by the Aberrations he had made into familiars.

"Satou-kyun, any sign of the enemy?"

"Don't feel anything yet."

In the month since that day he had declared they would start over, Satou had not let his guard down even once. He had said "in one month," but it was just a verbal promise. He was certain they would break it if they saw an opening. He was so certain because that's what he would have done if he were on the attacking side. Thus, even when sleeping, Satou had his senses on full alert, ready to respond instantly if anything happened.

"...More importantly."

"? What is it?"

"...What's with that getup? Are you a character from a mobile game or something?"

Lucifer had a true form, a Demon King style that was bursting with a monstrous aura. But the Lucifer before him now was different. The horns on her head and the twelve ominous wings growing from her back were certainly demonic. The problem was everything else. Her base form was that of a girl, and it was extremely revealing. She was only barely covering her private parts with something like flickering black flames. No matter how you looked at it, she looked like an SSR character from a mobile game that sold itself on its female characters.

"If I had to put a name on it, I'm like a limited-time release. A ‘Limited Lucifer-chan,’ maybe?"

"So it is a mobile game."

"It’s a manifestation of my desire to serve everyone by becoming a must-have character! ★"

"You look like you put all your points into appearance and have mediocre performance... give me back my stones."

"Why would you say something so heartless?"

As they were talking, the hands of the clock struck midnight. At the same moment, Satou’s face contorted into a massive grimace.

"...So that’s where you’re coming from."

From the very ends of the universe, an immense power had suddenly appeared, leading an absurdly large army. And they were now approaching the solar system, devouring the universe as they went. They weren't simply destroying stars. They were also using them as food. The more it ate, the more the swarm of amorphous monsters led by the villainess swelled in size.

Satou’s strategists, like Yanagi, who were sharing his vision, must have made their move. The subjugation force on the ground began to gradually ascend into the sky. Ten minutes after the entire army had risen into the air, the villainess's forces finally broke into the solar system. At the same time, the order to charge came from Yanagi on the ground, and the subjugation force launched itself into outer space. They would be fighting in space, but that wasn't a problem. In a sense, everyone participating in the subjugation force was currently one of Satou's terminals.

"Alright, you guys go too. Cover their asses."

"Okay-dokie! ♪"

At the moment of impact, when about half of the subjugation force was wiped out by the aftershock, Satou gave the command to his own familiars. Led by Lucifer, the demonic army flew into space and joined the subjugation force as reinforcements.

"...Looks like we can manage with this."

They were overwhelmingly outnumbered. But they had made up for it by increasing their quality, and the battle between the armies was now at a stalemate. This meant that neither side could use their forces as pawns to wear down the main target. Satou didn't move. He was waiting for her to call out to him.

"To think you could prepare all this. It is honestly worthy of praise."

"Thanks for that. Now, what do you want?"

"There is no point in continuing this futile staring contest. Let us settle this between ourselves."

"Then hurry up and get over here."

"That is your home turf, is it not? I have no intention of jumping in carelessly."

"So we just stare at each other?"

"You are a cruel man. Do you want me to say it? Very well."

Let us do this in a place where no harm will come to the things you hold dear. At the villainess’s suggestion, Satou finally moved his heavy frame.

"...Let’s go."

He leaped into the Sea of Nothingness. Further in than the place where he had faced the villainess before, the two confronted each other once more.

"Shall we begin, then?"

"Yeah."

With the casualness of two people going for a walk, they clashed head-on. A full-power blow. It was Satou who was overpowered.

"To take a blow with more than enough power to destroy a world and only be sent flying a little... I am impressed."

"You’re one to talk."

They exchanged words, but they didn't stop their hands. Perhaps when one reaches the ultimate realm, things become simple. Punching, slashing, kicking, shooting. It was a head-on deathmatch where they stood their ground and fought. He was up against a supreme being who rivaled his current self, but because this was his second time and he had made thorough preparations, Satou’s mind was cool.

(She’s stronger in terms of raw power, but I have the upper hand when it comes to technique.)

If they exchanged the same number of blows, he couldn't win the damage race. In that case, he would use technique to increase his own number of attacks. As soon as he made that judgment, Satou added a new card to his serious battle deck.

"Nngh…?!"

The villainess's expression changed. It was only natural, seeing as a hole had just opened in her chest without anything being done to her.

(Now, can I push through?)

Even after that, wounds continued to be carved into parts of her body that should not have been under attack, but…

"Attacks from the past and future, is it."

After taking a few thousand of them, his trick was exposed. In terms of time, it hadn't even been a second. But the villainess didn't just stop at figuring it out. Now it was Satou who was being wounded in places that were not being attacked. She was paying him back in kind. Though he had said she was inferior in technique, that was only from his perspective. Her skills were by no means low. She was a master of her craft, enough to instantly learn an attack that utilized the axis of time.

"...I struggle to understand why a being such as you would side with humans."

"Is it so strange for a human to side with other humans?"

They spoke to each other amidst a battle of wits that incorporated not just the present, but the past and future as well.

"You, a human? Do not jest. The vast majority of humanity would not look at you and think you are human."

"Maybe so. But that's not the reason you refuse to acknowledge me as human, is it?"

"...What are you trying to say?"

"Who knows? This is all just idle chatter, isn't it? If something about it bothers you, maybe that's your own problem."

As he spoke, Satou thought to himself.

(I see. So this is how I looked to all the enemies I've faced.)

The villainess was getting stronger. Stronger than she was at the start, for certain. What had been nearly even was now about 6 to 4 in her favor. But Satou wasn't the kind of guy to be finished here.

"Do you hate humans that much?"

Satou also grew, pulling the fight back to even odds, and from there, surpassed the villainess by a slight margin.

"Let me ask you in return. Would you rejoice at being made the dog of a being so vastly inferior to yourself?"

"No, I wouldn’t like that."

"Precisely."

"But that’s a very human sentiment, isn’t it?"

A truly different class of being would probably feel nothing about serving a lower life-form. They would probably just naturally assume they were managing the lesser creatures.

"Or maybe their mental structure is just the kind that humans can’t comprehend."

"…"

"Your true feelings aren't what you just said at face value, are they?"

If you were truly a transcendent being, words like "being made the dog" would never come out of your mouth, Satou declared. This was Satou’s Art of the Flame War, Rule Three. "Making Baseless Assumptions."

"It’s jealousy. Pure jealousy. One of the sins of the humans you look down upon. Oh? Well, well, well? After calling them inferior over and over, you share the same sinful na—"

Satou’s upper body was blown away. The current ratio was 7 to 3. A wider gap than ever before. The boost must have come from her anger. One might think it was a bad idea to provoke her anger after he had forbidden the gods from participating so as not to stir her emotions, but it was fine. Satou had indeed induced her anger, but it was a calculated anger, controlled by him. He had excluded the gods because he judged that their participation would make her rage uncontrollable.

"Hit the mark, did I?"

"Chatty men are not well-liked."

So why had he provoked her now? By intentionally widening the gap between them, he aimed to trigger his own rapid growth.

"Such a human set of values."

The villainess was certainly strong. But in terms of emotional maturity, she was far too green. Having refused to grow within human society, her heart was terribly childish. It stood no chance before Satou’s wicked nature, which had been terrible from the start but had only worsened with age and the addition of cunning.

"You really aren’t so different from a human after all."

8 to 2. The villainess grew even stronger.

"...Honestly, seeing you try so desperately makes me feel pity for you."

"...Honestly, watching you try so hard to act composed is almost admirable."

And then Satou achieved further growth, bringing them back to even odds once again. 6 to 4. 8 to 2. 3 to 7. 9 to 1. A comeback through growth after being pushed into a corner. A repeated cycle. It was a bargain sale on awakenings. The two of them continued to grow stronger with no ceiling in sight. It was a nightmarish scene.

(...Huh?)

The battle was proceeding according to Satou's plan... but then, he noticed. Satou had miscalculated. This back and forth of awakenings, like a never-ending marathon, was something Satou had been prepared to endure for a hundred, even two hundred years. But alas, how tragic. They were fundamentally different.

The villainess, who had rebelled against her preordained fate and, in the end, grasped nothing. Satou, who had trampled upon his preordained fate and had continued to seize only the most convenient outcomes for himself.

There was no need to even debate which of them was the true monster.

"Is this all you have?"

"...What?"