Mushoku Tensei

Volume 23 Chapter 11: Bottom of the Earth Dragon Valley

Part 1

When I regained my consciousness, I found myself in the white dimension.

A feeling of powerlessness filled my body, as it transformed into its former vessel.

It was somehow nostalgic.

And then, a sense of defeat assailed me simultaneously.

I was defeated.

Lured in with Ruijerd as a bait.

My guard lowered with the defeat of Dark King Vita.

Growing overconfident after discovering Gisu’s whereabouts and hunting him all over the Biheiril Kingdom.

And then inviting both North God and Sword God with open arms.

Finally, I acted alone and was caught in the consequences, and now I'm in such a sorry state.

A sigh came forth thinking about it all.

"…………"

Gisu planned it well.

I didn't know that if you cut the arms off from the base, one would be unable to use magic.

The choice of location was also clever.

I certainly couldn't summon the MK. I on top of the bridge.

He must have chosen that place before the battle started.

Roxy has been working on a system that would somehow work without expanding the magic circle, but Gisu doesn't know that……

I probably wouldn't have lost to those two if I had fought them with MK. II.

Not to mention, it looked like those two hadn’t even thought that the bridge wouldn't be able to withstand MK. II’s force.

But if you think about it like that, there was an escape route below it……

"…………"

In the end, just where was Gisu?

Was he there disguised as the King of the Biheiril Kingdom?

His voice was different though………well, if it's Gisu, he would have been able to deal with that somehow.

After all, with your support, wouldn’t anything be possible?

Wait.

Speaking of suspicion, Sándor too was quite suspicious.

His face, voice, and physique didn't resemble Gisu's in the slightest, was it because of the magic tool?

It's highly likely since Magic tools exist.

He probably slipped into Asura Kingdom from the get go and restrained the Golden Knight leader.

He was awfully accustomed to intelligence gathering, so the probability is high.

"…………"

Not to mention, occurrences like this are repetitive these days.

Using dreams to attack the mind.

It was like that with Dark King Vita too.

Ah, perhaps you have a slime-like appearance as well?

That mosaic guise of yours isn't to hide your identity but it is how you originally look, or something?

"…………"

Hey--, Hey!

Say something already.

Wouldn't I look like a fool if I keep talking alone?

Now that I've been defeated, at least tell me all of your secrets as you laugh.

Isn't that how you do things?

Patting my shoulder and saying "I appreciate your efforts, you persevered but it's my win, a pity isn't it? De~yufufu" won't you do that?

Hey! come on!, I'll sock you hard in my final moments.

"…………Just die."

As I said, I'm already dead.

I mean, what happened Hitogami-chan?

Somehow the quality of your mosaic looks bad today.

Are you feeling down?

"My future changes every time you move."

Obviously, that is the only reason I'm moving.

"I'm constantly observing my own future. I'm watching my far distant future."

Yeah, I know that.

Future sight, was it?

If I recall correctly, a maximum of 3 people.

Uhh? You can look at the futures of 3 people, was it?

"Three? I can look even more than that. But I'm unable to take my eyes off from my own future. That's why it's three."

……So most of your powers get consumed into watching your own future, eh?

"My future is pitch dark. It started to darken from that moment on."

A very bleak future, huh?

"There was only Orsted at the beginning. But he was just a small fry. Not my enemy. I would absolutely not lose to that ridiculous simpleton."

Simpleton, huh………

Well, even Orsted has made some minor faults here and there.

Just recently he was silent about the Supard race as well.

I'm not in any position to criticize him though.

"But from that moment on, it came to be that one man found himself next to Orsted.

I don't know that man. A complete anomaly. He's probably not of this world.

It only became a little darker at that time."

Ah.

Perhaps he might be talking about Nanahoshi's boyfriend.

His name was……I forgot.

"But it immediately increased with one more. A woman. After that, my future became dark and fell silent."

"As you kept moving, the number of comrades increased around Orsted."

"And each time you moved, my future became darker."

"It's already pitch black now."

Then that means, whatever I did was not in vain?

"No, everything was in vain. I'll render it all futile."

Oh, so edgy.

But if we assume that I'm already dead, then there's nothing much to do.

"If you die, I can still make it.

That future is based on one person, after all.

I can overturn it if I kill the person with strong fate.

That’s how I’ve been doing it until now."

Would you prefer that I beg for my life……?

Should I say ‘Please at least spare my family somehow’ while prostrating myself?

I guess it would be impossible considering the circumstances though.

"Die."

"Die. Die."

Saying 'die, die' like that. Are you an elementary schooler or something?

"Just die, Rudeus."

Listen to me.

Part 2

I woke up.

The worst wake up ever.

If I'm told to die, die like that right in front of me, then I'll obviously be worried.

But well, even if he said 'to die' like that, he won't say ’I'll kill you’, though. I can understand where Hitogami's reliance upon others comes from or rather, how should I put it?

He won't do his work by himself.

Just gives the instructions from above.

An unpleasant guy to deal with.

At any rate.

"I'm alive?"

I surely considered myself dead.

Magic Armor『MK. II』held a lot of power.

But I was just a lump of living flesh and blood; I fainted.

At that height no less.

I didn’t think I would've been able to withstand the fall.

However, now that I've woken up like this, the question remains whether I did withstand it.

Maybe something cushioned my fall?

It didn't look like there were any trees……

In any case, you've given birth to a robust boy, O-Paul-san, O-Zenith-san, thank you very much.

"………Ngh."

I rose up.

The surroundings were gloomy. Was it a cave?

I suddenly felt something out of place.

What did I do just now to raise myself up?

Straining my abdominal muscles, pressing my elbow against………

"Huh? My arms are here."

Both my arms that should've been cut off by Sword God were sticking to me for some reason.

I don’t remember myself having regeneration………

I stared at the arms while thinking that.

"Woah! What the hell……"

My hands were pitch black.

Similar to obsidian, jet black arms.

However, they freely moved around as my nerve impulses passed through them.

Raising my arm to look up to its shoulder part, the black arm had taken root at the side of the base of my shoulder, just like a plant.

It was a little gross.

Not to mention, it looked like I was somehow striped out of Magic Armor『MK. II』 as well.

I didn’t have the bottom parts either.

I'm only wearing a pair of underpants below.

Incidentally, bandages were wrapped throughout my body.

Blood was spread apart at my side.

Probably first-aid treatment.

So a person who can't use healing magic saved me, eh?

Which means, these arms were also because of that person?

"……Ah."

When I looked around my surroundings, my clothes were all folded up.

Moreover……What the!……An arm rolled over on the side.

A freshly cut raw arm.

Ah, that arm’s mine, isn’t it?

The dragon bracelet was stuck on it.

"Ouch……"

When I tried to move in haste, pain ran through my entire body.

I immediately casted healing magic and cured the wound.

And then I removed the bracelet from the raw arm and put it on my black arm.

It's working……right?

"Where is this?"

I stood up as I expressed my curiosity.

While starting a fire in the palm of my hand, I illuminated the surroundings.

Its extent was 5 metres in all directions. The wall was made out of earth.

Looking at the ceiling, I found that it was definitely a cave.

I was laid to rest on top of the cloth or something that was spread out at the most inner part of the cave.

This cloth……was it a mantle?

"……………"

For now, let's go towards the cave's exit in order to ascertain the location.

The cave was curved, but I saw the light at once.

The exit was there.

However, someone was standing at the exit.

Having a large back.

And a huge armor that matched his physique.

He slowly turned around and raised his helmet's visor as I approached him.

A face that I recognized came into sight.

"Doga………"

"………Yup."

"Did you save me?"

"I immediately leaped in…when I saw you…falling down the bridge. You…fainted. I carried you back, but…the armor was heavy so…I stripped you. I brought you here and…treated you."

So he's the one who saved me.

Leaping inside the valley like that……

Uuu, sorry Doga.

Sorry for saying that you didn't stand out much and that it would've been fine without you.

"I see, thank you, you're my lifesaver. Sorry, I acted alone. I let my guard down."

"……Yup. It was Sándor's…order, that's why."

Doga said that and let out a weak smile.

Even if it was an order, he still protected me the whole time when he was told to do so.

That's a good guy, isn't it?

Why did I even decide to guard those two? That was really absurd of me.

"Were these arms also yours?"

As I raised my black arms for him to look, he shook his head.

"When I found you…you were inside…some type of cocoon…when I opened it…the cocoon…became arms."

……………?

I was inside a cocoon and that cocoon became my arms?

Apart from the fact that the cocoon became my arms, then just what was the cocoon?

Did I carry something like these arms that are adhered to me like this?

As I pondered while looking at my arms, Doga said with an uneasy face.

"I found…one of your…former hands. I looked for…the second one but…couldn't find it. Probably got eaten. Sorry."

"Ah, not at all, it's fine."

Since I can grow them back anytime using healing magic.

………If these black arms can be disconnected, that is.

"Where are we?"

"Bottom of the valley…the…deepest spot."

"I see……How much time has passed?"

"Don't know. Here…the sun rays…don't come. I think that…2-3 days or more…may have passed."

Doga moved out of my way as he said that.

Thereupon, light leaped into my eyes.

A dim slightly blue light.

Besides the cave, there were many things like glittering moss and bright mushrooms growing in crowds.

Those were illuminating the surroundings.

However, that much wasn’t enough to catch one's eye.

Outside the cave.

As if blocking the cave's entrance, there were three corpses.

Creatures possessing dinosaur like carapaces.

The earth dragons.

Also, why were there three corpses lying over next to each other?

"………Is this…your doing?"

"Yup. I…protected…Rudeus."

Now that I looked at it, Doga's axe was painted bright red with blood.

Earth dragon's blood, eh?

Nevertheless, to defeat them alone.

That's amazing.

I might've underestimated him a little bit.

If I recall, was it the North God or Sword God who said that?

"You're a North Emperor, right?"

"Yup. Master said that…I was still…inexperienced, but…monster hunting…is my specialty.

Who was it? Who said Doga wasn't useful?

Didn't Ariel send a proper war potential who is really useful?

Sorry, it was me.

I seriously underestimated him!

"I see…that's amazing."

"Yup."

When I praised him, he smiled delightfully.

But if Doga was a North Emperor, that means…

"And Sándor?"

"………I…can't say."

"I see."

Well, I may have some idea.

When we return, I'll press him about it.

"Now, how do we get out from this place……?"

At any rate, returning back at once was the utmost priority.

Sword God with North God.

The enemy was powerful and in disguise.

Perhaps no one has even realized that I was defeated.

Thus, if they were the enemies, then the subjugation force was coming.

A force with the intention of destroying the Supard race will be coming.

The subjugation force may consist of 100-200 people that can be dealt with somehow, but it's a different story if North God and Sword God are mixed within them.

We must stop them.

"……For now, take me to the place where I fell. I want to recover the armor. Since there might be some useful scrolls that are still left there."

"Yup."

As Doga nodded, he walked forward.

While I followed his reliable back.

Part 3

We arrived relatively quickly where the Magic Armor was.

Defeated two earth dragons on our way.

Both of them were defeated with just one blow from Doga.

It was just one blow.

The head of the earth dragon that was lying in wait for ambush was split open with just one swing from that huge axe.

Reliable indeed.

Recalling the fight with the invisible wolf, he looked weak in underhanded tricks, but I assessed that he wouldn’t be defeated when it came to power confrontation.

Well, Doga’s just fine though……

"Hmm……"

The Magic Armor had completely broken apart.

Especially the Scroll Vernier on the back was completely crushed.

All of the scroll bundles were cut right in half.

On top of that, it was a huge mess considering how my blood was splattered within the vernier. It's useless now.

Even though I received this from Roxy, who went through great pains to make it……

Looks like even the Magic Armor with its defensive armament wasn’t of much use against a Sword God class.

But I guess that the sword was brittle.

The sword simply broke as it cut halfway into the armor

It was an ordinary sword by the looks of it.

Gull Farion had plenty of cursed swords, but for the sake of camouflage, he didn't bring one.

If he had brought his favorite sword along, the sword wouldn't have stopped at just the armor and would’ve cut me in two equal parts.

It's not a very appealing story.

But then again, would Orsted or Cliff have noticed if he brought those things along……?

"We can't use this anymore."

Looks like I have no choice but to throw away the Scroll Vernier that Roxy made for me.

Even though Roxy made this for me, and went through great pains to make it……

I'll at least come back later to recover it.

The main unit of the armor could still move.

One arm-part still remained in relation to the foot-parts which were unscathed.

It wasn’t perfect, but……

Still, it's a pain that I can't make use of the summoning scrolls for the Magic Armor.

Even though I have to fight those two, I can't become their opponent without it.

I must fetch the reserves from the office as soon as I reach the Supard village.

It would be nice if I had the time for that.

"…………Nh?"

While removing the Scroll Vernier from the armor, one of the scrolls along with the piece of sword that was sticking into it fell.

No, it wasn’t a scroll.

It was a box.

It's the box that I put in the vernier since it had the perfect spot for it.

It's as big as a standard dictionary.

Engraved with ominous patterns of demons, a box that might curse anyone who opened it.

"The box I received from Atofe……"

The box I was told to open when I was in a pinch.

Looks like the sword had cut on its way and fractured it.

It had been cut halfway through.

"………"

I timidly opened it and looked inside.

There was nothing inside.

It was empty.

No, there's something written on the bottom of it.

『This black lump of meat is a part of the Immortal Demon Lord Atofe's body. It will protect the owner when caught in a predicament. As if carefully treating the owner』

Black lump of meat………

I looked at my arms as I thought that.

………Don't tell me, these arms were that?

I didn’t remember opening it but, if we think that Gull Farion's strike cracked the box, from there it sensed me being in danger, protected me from the fall, leeched onto my arms like a parasite, and stopped my bleeding, then………

Is that what happened………?

"Atofe-sama………Thank you very much!"

The person who would reply wasn’t there.

But I expressed my gratitude to that violent demon lord from the bottom of my heart anyway.

Kowtowing in the east direction as my gratitude.

She might be on the move right now, but if I meet her, I'll treat her to some delicious alcohol.

"Alright, let's head back."

The war was drawing close.

I must return quickly.

Part 4

Although the situation was expected, we couldn't climb up the cliff.

When ascending to some extent with earth magic, the mushroom and moss area disappeared, making the surroundings pitch black.

Within that complete darkness, the ones who started attacking us were a flock of earth dragons.

The earth dragons kept coming in succession from left and right.

Before those overwhelming numbers, we were forced to retreat.

On top of the scaffold made using earth magic, no less than ten earth dragons swooped down upon us like lizards from within the darkness.

We were somehow able to deal with those, but the dragons kept coming using magic as a matter of course.

From above and below and even the walls, spears of earth came flying at us; we couldn't break through.

As one would expect of the thing called dragons.

"Fuuu……"

We tried to test one thing or another several times after that.

We tried shooting ourselves from a catapult and reaching the top in one go, while hiding our presence using earth magic and trying to rise up to the top.

But we were hindered by the earth dragons either way.

They were unexpectedly quick-witted and agile, persistent indeed.

The catapult shooting was intercepted midway and even if we hid our presence, we were attacked eventually.

Incidentally, once they had locked onto us, they followed us everywhere.

When we returned back to the place where mushrooms and moss were growing, most of them stopped their pursuit.

Looks like they hated this area for some reason.

Whether these mushrooms were not good or they didn’t consider this area as their turf.

Nope, several still pursued us.

It's probably not absolutely impossible to come to this place.

"What to do now……I mean, like, Doga, you came down here pretty easily."

"……Yup. During descent, they…didn't attack…much."

"Is that so……well, it was like that."

The earth dragons were insensitive to the people coming from above and sensitive to people coming from below.

I knew that information.

But watching it happen right before my eyes was a first.

This was really over the line.

They had a will-power like that of a chicken.

Should I rather use a vast range of magic to blow them all off?

No, even if I did that, we'll just be buried under the rubble.

The valley was extensively deep.

The earth dragons could use earth magic at will.

There wouldn't be much significance to it even if we were to exterminate several tens of them.

I didn’t want to waste large quantities of mana because I still had to fight the North God and Sword God.

As I'm sitting here confused, the North God's and Sword God's daggers may reach the Supard Village at any time.

It wouldn't be strange if they were headed to a different direction as well.

At the very least, Zanoba's location has probably been exposed already.

They might already have been done in.

I'm impatient.

Still, let's calm down, the situation won't change for better if I’m impatient.

But, the earth dragons above, that I looked at with my clairvoyance, were still vigilant of us who came down here.

"Is there some place where they are in a lesser quantity?"

"……Yup."

We set out thusly.

It wasn’t dark at our feet thanks to the mushrooms and moss.

There were not only the earth dragons that were attacking us, but also insects as big as humans, like a long-horned beetle and centipedes.

Looks like these dragons lived off by eating these insects.

I just saw a dragon holding an insect in its mouth and climbing to the top.

No sooner than that, I saw the satisfied dragon falling to its death and being surrounded by the insects.

All the fodder was below, something dropping from above rarely ever happened.

It's no wonder that the dragons were only vigilant of the things below.

Looks like there was a strange food chain in this place.

"………"

However, I've been thinking as I was walking.

"It's easier to walk on this path."

The path at the bottom of valley was flatter than expected.

There were places with huge mushrooms or fallings rocks and big stones that were blocking us.

But overall it was easier to walk because it was flat.

I was getting a nostalgic feeling with this easy walk.

"………Yup, it feels just like…the Red Dragon Jaw."

"Ah!"

Those unpleasant heart-warming memories of Orsted still remained!

But it was certainly like that.

Red Dragon Upper Jaw, Lower Jaw, and Holy Sword Highway.

Mushrooms and moss were hard to find, but I felt like this when I walked around those areas.

"Then, does that mean someone built this……?"

But there weren't any monsters on those roads.

Which means, someone built it and called the earth dragons in here……

No, wait.

If I recall correctly, wasn't there a story in which it was stated that Laplace called the dragons in the Central Continent?

Which means, this road too was possibly made by Laplace.

For what purpose?

"………"

Let’s put that aside for now.

I should look for a place to climb up rather than that.

Topographically speaking, isn't there any place where the earth dragons don’t make nests?

I had been looking up at the top using clairvoyance since some time ago, and I could see many holes in the cliff of the valley since it had good durability.

Just like a street of multistory buildings built without any gaps.

I wouldn’t expect them to all be in one hole, but there should be at least a considerable amount of dragons there.

One thousand or two thousand.

Among them, the underlings in particular, would go down and look for food.

But I can’t imagine that there would be enough food to support them all.

But in this world, a mismatch of the amount of food and magic beasts was a daily occurrence.

…I wonder if there’s something they used to climb to the top?

No, what would they use?

If they fell, they wouldn’t get up again.

The Earth Dragon Valley.

'Don't fall down there' or so they say, but I guess I underestimated a bit……

“Rudeus.”

“Hmm, an enemy?”

I took a stance as if a new insect had came out, but Doga pointed his finger.

There was only a wall in that direction.

No, it was not.

It was hard to see because of the shadow of the mushrooms, but there was a hole.

The hole itself had frequent gaps at its base, but this hole was different from the others.

There were stairs.

Stairs had been attached.

Not going up, stairs leading downwards.

“………”

After all this, to go downwards…

Such a thought crossed my mind.

“Oh?”

But in the next instant, my hand moved by itself.

My right hand pointed right at the hole.

Almost as if it belonged there.

“Atofe-sama, is that the exit…?”

The part of Afote’s body didn’t answer.

But it was pointing.

As if it was addicted to being inside.

“Well then.”

Even if I kept walking, it didn’t seem like we would find anywhere to climb up……

It was not as if this valley continued forever.

If we kept going, we would probably just reach a dead end.

Turning back here and looking for the other side was time consuming as well.

Then, if you’re curious about something, why not examine everything about it?

“Let’s try going down.”

“Yup.”

Doga nodded without hesitation.

He also might have guessed something upon seeing this staircase.

And so, we began down the dark stairs.

Part 5

Right at the bottom of the stairs, there was a huge altar.

A huge altar.

I wonder if there’s any other way to put it.

It was a huge cave covered with mushrooms and moss.

And as if to support it, there were two large sculpted pillars.

In between them, there was a rack which looked as if it was cut out from stone, and the interior of that rack looked like a mural which was decorated with meticulous engravings.

Were those dragons depicted in that mural?

There were lots of things drawn all over the place and it was hard to see in the dark.

But I felt like that I’ve seen this somewhere before.

Where was it?

“Are these the ruins of the Dragon Race?”

That was it.

The teleportation ruins.

It was a lot similar to that place.

These writings were also similar to those in the Sky Fortress.

If that’s the case, I wonder if a teleportation magic formation is here.

But even if there was any, using it would only be a gamble.

Should I jump aboard that teleportation magic formation to get out of here not knowing where I’ll end up?

Even though the place I wanted to go was right above me.

No, it’s too early to decide that.

Looking around, there was no other room besides the one with this altar.

Besides, the Atofe-hand wasn’t pointing towards this thing.

It was pointing towards the mural.

Towards the small stone shelf below the mural.

No, it only looked small because of how big the mural was; it wasn’t actually all that small.

But Afote’s hand was, without a doubt, pointing there.

“………”

Suddenly, Afote’s face floated into my mind.

I wonder if it’s ok to follow that unintelligent Demon Lord’s advice.

I felt that unease for a moment.

But my legs moved.

To where the Afote-hand was pointing, to stand in front of the shelf.

On it, several bottles were lined up.

Translucent opened bottles.

And in the centre, a translucent crystal-ball like thing was fixed.

“Don’t tell me there’s liquor inside.”

While thinking that, I tried lifting one of the bottles.

There was a dragon pattern carved on it.

I was sure if I were to show it around Zanoba, he’d start talking about its value.

By the way, it was empty.

“……So what am I supposed to do with this?”

I ask the Afote-hand

No reply.

But, instead, the Afote-hand reached out.

Going past the bottle, for the translucent crystal.

The moment my hand touched the crystal, I regained control of it.

“………”

What was that?

Is it trying to tell me something?

The bottle, the crystal, and the altar.

It seemed some kind of RPG puzzle had started.

“Rudeus, there.”

Suddenly, Doga, who was behind me, pointed above my head.

When I looked, I saw that the tops of the giant pillars supporting the altar were glowing blue.

No, that wasn’t it.

It was not that the pillars were glowing but some kind of blue thing that was oozing out of the top of the pillars was glowing.

And then it came down very fast and started accumulating in a saucer-like spot below the altar.

It seemed that this crystal ball——actually, this entire altar was a magic tool.

A magic tool that spouted blue liquid.

However, the light was mixing with the surrounding moss and mushrooms.

“So, I wonder what this liquid is.”

I wonder if I should drink it.

Although it’s giving off a bad-looking colour…

No, the fact that it came together with a bottle means that it would have to be used somewhere.

You take the water in the bottle, you take it somewhere and pour it into some device, the device activates and opens the door for you to obtain the legendary sword or the like.

I don’t need a sword.

“Isn’t it this?”

Doga was pointing towards the mural.

There, a huge mural was drawn.

It depicted humans and earth dragons.

When the magic tool was activated, the structure that the blue liquid flowed into made a part of it shone exposing its whole aspect.

The mural seemed to indicate the flow of the blue liquid.

At the top was the altar, and below that, a person fetching the blue liquid with a bottle was drawn.

The person holding the bottle sprinkled it on the surrounding people.

Those that had been covered in the blue liquid took up swords and spears and hunted the earth dragons and other unknown creatures from behind.

Going off what I can see here, this liquid was made to hunt the earth dragons.

There also seemed to be something written next to the drawing, but I can’t read it.

It seemed a little different from the writing of the Dragon race.

“Aah, but…”

But I suddenly thought of something.

The dragons don’t come to this part of the valley.

Blue moss, blue mushrooms.

And blue liquid.

It was possible that humans once lived here.

And those humans used this blue liquid to drive the earth dragons away.

The earth dragons hate whatever is in this blue liquid.

And that component is also in the blue moss and mushrooms.

No, looking at the mural, the humans attacked the earth dragons from behind and from below.

From below those sensitive earth dragons…

……Maybe they can’t see it.

The earth dragons can’t see the things which emit this blue light.

Which is why they don’t come here much.

So coating your entire body in it makes it so the earth dragons can’t see you?

“……Should we give it a try?”

I turn back and ask Doga.

I did not give an explanation.

“Yup.”

But Doga nodded as if it were obvious.

Part 6

After a while, we were at the top of the valley.

We escaped.

From the Valley of the Earth Dragons.

We came out of the cave with our bodies covered in the contents of the bottle.

After that, using earth magic, I slowly raised us up.

Thinking that we might be found if we went too fast, I went up slowly.

It was bingo.

The earth dragons, looking at us giving off blue light, gave no reaction.

Whether they couldn’t see us, or didn’t recognize us as food.

All we did was huddle together and stay still on the platform.

It was for about an hour.

As a result of our slow elevation, the night sky was visible.

Looks like it was currently night.

In front of the somehow impressive moon, we landed on the edge of the valley.

“We did it.”

“Yup!”

I slapped Doga on the back and he nodded happily.

It took a while, but the escape was a success.

We immediately headed for the Supard village to tell them about the Sword God and North God.

Author’s Q&A

Q. I’ve been thinking this for a while now but aren’t you misunderstanding the meaning of ‘not a very appealing’?

A. It’s not a misunderstanding but rather the phenomenon that I wanted to write ‘horrifying’ but for some reason ended up writing ‘not a very appealing’.

Q. Now that he has the black arms there’s no need for the prosthetic arms, right?

I don’t think it’s bad but, does that mean if he’s locked in a King-class barrier now then he won’t be able to escape?

A. As long as one prosthetic arm remains, it’s possible.

Q. The current situation is that a part of Atofe is functioning like an arm but would he be able to use magic like usual?

A. He seemed to be using it.

Q. Why did the Atofe-hand know about the ruins?

A. Maybe the Atofe-hand simply pointed towards it instinctively or maybe it wanted to touch the equipment out of mere curiosity.

Q. A North Emperor who is weak in underhanded tricks. Would he be deemed as a heretic in the school?

A. It’s not like that.

Since it’s a school which has developed the best way to fight.

Ah, perhaps using an axe instead of a sword is heresy.

Q. Rudeus said that his hands looked like obsidian but how about their hardness? Are they as hard as stone? Or are they flesh and blood?

A. They are as hard as a stone but flexible and have warmth, so that he can stroke it whenever he wants(The rest is omitted.)

Q. Why are there so many North God Style followers as compared to Sword God style?

A. The top users of the North God style are mostly the immortal demon tribe, to begin with it’s called the school which hates dying, so there’s a lot.

Q. Who’s the one at the 7th rank of the Seven Great World Powers? The 2nd Gen or the 3rd Gen?

A. The 3rd Gen.

Q. Was cutting both the arms Gisu’s own idea? Or was it Hitogami’s suggestion?

A. It was Gisu’s idea.

Q. It was only O-Zenith-san who gave birth to such a robust body, O-Paul-san only inserted the seeds I guess……

A. Th-They raised a robust body!

Q. What if we put the Atofe-hand on head, would it become hair? If your head is in crisis then Atofe-hair is for you!

A. It’ll probably take brain tissue as nourishment.