Kumo desu ga, Nani ka? 294 – Elf Village Battle ④

When it rains, it pours…

294 – Elf Village Battle ④

I feel a faint rumble. Amongst all the battles going on throughout this forest, this was caused by the most violent one. On becoming aware of that, I half-opened my eyes just briefly and looked at Kuro, then teleported away from that place. Yamada-kun’s party have become almost powerless, so there shouldn’t be any problems with leaving the rest to oni-kun. It’s understood that the reason for Yamada-kun’s suffering was due to Taboo being max’d. Given his condition, even after he wakes up he probably wouldn’t be able to take any action for a while, so there’s almost no chance he’ll run into the Demon King. In which case, it’s fine to leave things as they are.

More than that, since the elven ultimate weapon has finally come out, I want to give it my undivided attention. Indeed, the elves have finally brought it out. It’s a weapon that’s on a completely different level to those robots until now.

What I saw on teleporting, was the Taratekt squad being trampled down. Spiders who were as small as I was in the past, large grown-up versions of those spiders, and even further grown-up giant spiders, were all similarly being trampled over without being able to do anything. Included in that list, is even the Queen.

That thing was floating in the air. To describe it simply, it was a sea urchin. A huge sphere about 10 meters in diameter. From that sphere sprung countless thorns. Yup. It’s a sea urchin. A huge metal sea urchin.

While that sea urchin’s outward appearance might give one pause for thought, its abilities are seriously bad news. Those thorns that stick out from its body – every one of them is a gun barrel, and they are continuously carpet bombing the area. There’s no place to hide. A barrage of shells comes raining down incessantly from the sea urchin floating up in the sky, turning the ground into scorched earth. The forest is being blown away. Along with the Taratekt squad that’s there.

Even the Queen is unable to escape from that bombardment, and her body is being ground down. With the Queen’s huge body, it’s like giving a big target for the bombardment. Normally the Queen would be able to evade an opponent’s attacks with a speed that doesn’t match her huge body, but I guess she has no way to cope with a wide area bombardment that’s unavoidable.

Naturally however, the Queen isn’t about to go down quietly. Maybe it’s the dignity of a queen, but even while suffering a rain of cannon shells, in her mouth a contradictory black glow of energy is being gathered. The breath attack. The Queen, who is in the highest class of monsters, fires that breath attack with her full power. That thick and wide black beam shoots out at the sea urchin floating up in the sky. The shells being fired by the sea urchin are blown away, and that surge of energy even blows away the main body of the sea urchin itself, as the beam reaches even into outer space. Such a scene was manifested.

That’s just how powerful it was. When the Queen attacks with all her might, a direct hit boasts enough destructive power to even blow up a mountain and alter the landscape. A mere 10 meter diameter lump of metal would obviously be blown away without any trace. Despite all that, the sea urchin is still going strong. The breath was a direct hit. There wasn’t even any indication that it avoided the attack. It was as if it was saying that it wasn’t even worth avoiding.

The magecraft field erected around the sea urchin, erased the Queen’s breath attack. It “erased” the attack. It didn’t “defend” against it. That field completely erased the Queen’s breath attack. It was as if it had never existed in the first place.

I know that field. At any rate, it is something I have experienced before. In that old world underground facility. What I had experienced there, was magecraft jamming. This is a barrier version of that. Since it is technology that existed in the old world long ago, it’s not at all surprising for Potimas to know about it since he is a survivor from that time. Which is why, it’s not at all surprising to encounter a weapon using that. Surely this is the ultimate weapon of the elves.

With the breath attack being ineffective against the sea urchin, there’s nothing that the Queen can do. Long distance attacks are entirely defended against by the sea urchin’s field. There’s no other option left except to attack with a pure physical attack, but the incessant downpour of shells don’t allow that. While the Queen could use Space Maneuver to somehow advance up on the enemy in the sky, as soon as she could take a step upwards a shell would pin her back to the ground. Every time the Queen’s body is hit by a shell it is whittled away, and before it can be regenerated the next shell strikes down.

That Queen which is equal to Mother, is being trampled down without being able to do anything. What a terrifying weapon they’ve developed there. Wouldn’t that single one be able to take over the world? There would be the problem of how many shells remain and how much energy would be required to keep it operational though. But, it’s not running out at all huh. Most likely the space inside has been enlarged, with the shells being stored in another dimension or something. Otherwise it doesn’t make sense.

I’m not simply observing this giant monster vs futuristic weapon battle either. Despite what it seems I’m properly trying to help the Queen, and am attacking the sea urchin as well. However, that field is also preventing me from being able to do anything at all. The death chute from another dimension and the barrier are both preventing me, and in the first place I can’t open the entrance to the other dimension. Any sniping with magecraft is also completely erased by the field. Gnnn! The strength of that field is way higher than I had expected.

The magecraft jamming field isn’t omnipotent. Since it is jammed and not negated, there is a practical threshold to it. In short, if the power output of an attack exceeds what the field can jam, then it will pass through without being erased. However, since that would require using an attack with enough energy to surpass the jamming, from the fact that the Queen’s breath attack was erased without any problems, I’m forced to conclude that the strength of the field is extremely high.

Yup. It’s impossible!

Well, it’s not like I couldn’t do it you know? However, having to do such a thing would require me to consume a non-trivial amount of energy you know. Basically, it’s wasteful. Therefore, I will use a different method. If at all possible, I didn’t want to use this. Beggars can’t be choosers though.

I open my eyes. I gather power in my pupils. Then, I bring the sea urchin into view. Activate Evil Eye of Gluttony!

This Evil Eye is one of the new Evil Eyes that I’ve developed since becoming a god. Its ability is similar to the Demon King’s Gluttony skill. For that reason I named it the Evil Eye of Gluttony. Its ability is to directly plunder energy. With this Evil Eye, the magecraft that comes into my field of vision is decomposed into energy and absorbed.

Strictly speaking, the magecraft jamming field that the sea urchin is equipped with as a barrier, is also a form of magecraft. A magecraft that jams and erases magecraft. That’s the true nature of the magecraft jamming field. If that’s the case then I simply have to develop a magecraft that extinguishes even a magecraft that extinguishes magecraft. What brought this to my attention, is the Demon King’s Seven Deadly Sin skill of Gluttony. The ability of Gluttony is to convert anything and everything into energy, and to then consume that. Taking the theory behind that, I reconstructed it to make these Evil Eyes of Gluttony focus on magecraft instead of converting energy in general. This is one of the secret weapons that I developed to combat Kuro. For that reason, I didn’t particularly want to reveal this to Kuro though.

With its strong point of the magecraft jamming field being eaten by my Evil Eyes of Gluttony, and with the magecraft it used to float also being eaten, the sea urchin falls down. Lying in wait for it is the Queen. The sea urchin still tries to resist by firing shells, but after falling to the ground without its barrier the sea urchin has no chance of succeeding. The huge fangs of the Queen pierce the sea urchin’s steel body, and it’s turned into scrap. We won.

And, the moment I thought that, the sea urchin exploded.

The Queen takes that explosion at point-blank range. That causes half her body to vanish, and the remainder collapses feebly onto the ground. Dammit! To self-destruct at the last moment, they sure got us. Well, although it’s a serious blow that the Taratekt squad has been annihilated including the Queen, conversely it can be said that that’s all it took to destroy the ultimate weapon of the elves. If I think of it as necessary expenses, then it’s perfectly acceptable.

While I’m thinking that, into my field of vision comes another floating sea urchin. Not just one, but a swarm of them.

……………………Huh? Eh? Hm? Hmm? Hmmmmmmm!?

Wait a second please! Wait, wait, wait!? Ehh!? There wasn’t just one of those sea urchins!? Or rather, isn’t this a lot? At a glance it looks like there’s over one hundred floating sea urchins though? On top of that, it seems like there’s some kind of triangular pyramid floating in the middle of the sea urchins that’s much bigger than them too. Could it be, that the sea urchin wasn’t their ultimate weapon at all, but a production model weapon? Then, that triangular pyramid in the centre is the real ultimate weapon? Oh shit. Maybe I’ve been underestimating the elven forces a bit too much.

Translation notes:

“large monster” – this Japanese for this (大怪獣) is a term specific to the Japanese film industry, eg for films like Godzilla featuring large monsters. Most of Shiro’s line here sounds like a headline from a movie poster.

“Magecraft jamming” – this term (魔術妨害) first appeared in chapter 198 when Kumoko encountered the robots underground. The term “magecraft jamming field” (魔術妨害結界), which could also be translated as “magecraft jamming barrier”, is new though.

“Death chute” – this term previously came up in chapter 236.