Kumo desu ga, Nani ka? 251

Decapitation? ‘Tis but a scratch.

251 – Scarier than an oni

Wh, what should I do? Th, the other dimension I sealed Kuro in, has a different flow of time to the present world. Because of that, though I can infer what’s going on inside the other dimension, the time lag is absolutely huge. That’s why I didn’t realise that there were signs that Kuro’s seal was breaking.

What should I do? What can I do?

1 – Dear Shiraori suddenly comes up with an idea for a counter attack.
2 – My friends come save me.
3 – Nothing can be done. Reality is cruel.

Yeah. The answer is number 3!

Well, there’s really nothing that can be done. Kuro is stronger than me anyway. Besides, for 2, I got no friends anyway! Hah-hah-hah.

Okay, maybe I should stop messing around and come up with a serious countermeasure. Saying that though, it’s obvious what I have to do. If he’s hostile then eliminate him. Otherwise, wait and see for a while. If possible I’d prefer it if he’s not hostile though.

After breaking out from the seal, Kuro is heading towards vampire girl and oni-kun. Hrm. Does he intend to get rid of oni-kun perhaps? For now, I don’t want to get vampire girl involved though. I guess I’ll prepare to save her at any time.

Regarding that vampire girl though, she’s sure been mangled by oni-kun. Now that oni-kun has activated Wrath, she’s unable to handle his attacks, and damage is slowly building up. Even with the golden combo of Future Prediction and Thought Acceleration, if she’s been continuously attacked at an unavoidable speed then they’re useless. It seems that she’s able to endure it with the defensive power of the Dragon Scales, but how long will that last I wonder.

Ah, she’s been decapitated. Or, so I thought but she catches her head in midair and sticks it back on.

WOW!? You can actually do that!? What the, I want to try that too! Ah, no, never mind. It seems painful.

However, well, it’s enough of a one-sided defensive battle that she got decapitated. I guess this is game over huh.

Hm? Vampire girl, is intending to do something? Don’t tell me she’s thinking of using Envy? Ah, she IS intending to use it. Whether or not she’s going to be killed, that’s not something you should use. It’s punishment time for you later okay.

Well, she doesn’t activate it. Since before that happens, Kuro arrives.

Kuro lands between vampire girl and oni-kun. Oni-kun slashes at Kuro, but gets beaten easily. I don’t know what she’s thinking but vampire girl tries to crash Vermillion Sea into Kuro. OI, FOOL, STOP! Vermillion Sea is simply erased completely by Kuro’s barrier. Of course such an attack would never work on Kuro.

Hey, wait! Vampire girl, you just used Envy right!? You actually used it!? What are you doing? Okay, PUNISHMENT TIME is booked.

Kuro grabs vampire girl’s head. I stand ready to go rescue her immediately if it looks bad. But, my worry is misplaced, and Kuro simply knocks her unconscious.

Then, Kuro pummels oni-kun. Really, it’s such a one-sided beat-down that the only word that works is “pummels”. A “don’t try this at home kids” level of pummelling. Perhaps his soul is starting to lose power, as even regeneration can’t keep up.

Ah, Wrath has expired. Ahh! I see, I see. Wrath also uses the power of the soul to activate, so if the underlying power runs out then the activation also stops. So, if the activation stops, I guess his sanity will more or less return. So long as his sanity hasn’t been destroyed already at least. But, it seems I don’t have to worry about that. While he was fighting vampire girl I was thinking that maybe his logical reasoning power still remained anyway.

「Are you satisfied with this?」

Kuro speaks to one of my clones. Oh my. What are you talking about?

「I know, if I kill this oni, I will turn you bastard and D into my enemy, right?」

Eh? That’s not actually the case though. Or rather, D is in the middle of critical work so probably can’t come.

「Even if this guy is a victim. The anger I am feeling now, venting my anger by hitting anyone makes me feel refreshed. It can’t be helped, this is my revenge.」

Humph. In short, Kuro currently has no intention to oppose me for now. Sounds like a nice deal to me. It seems like he’s happened to fall under various rather magnificent misconceptions, but that’s convenient for me. I’ve got no obligation to correct him anyway, so let’s just leave him to his misconceptions then.

For now, I retrieve the fallen vampire girl and oni-kun into a space that I open. After confirming that, Kuro teleported. It seems that he teleported to the Demon King. I guess I should go too.

It’s about time that I should inform the Demon King about my final objective and the means. It’s probably better if Kuro is told some of that as well. Based on Kuro’s reaction when he finds out, Kuro’s future will then change. Either way, I can expect that he’ll oppose my final objective though.

Nevertheless, Kuro, is strong. A vastly lower rank person can’t fully see the whole story, but a portion can be seen. I can’t overlook how he broke my seal a lot faster than I predicted either. With this, it seems that I must revise my evaluation of him upwards. If Kuro and I go head to head right now, my chances of winning, are maybe around 20%? Even then, since I don’t really understand Kuro’s true strength I can’t say for sure. I have quite a high evaluation of him, but it’s possible that he exceeds even that.

As for my current strength, even amongst the lower ranked gods it’s the lowest of the low. In comparison, my prediction based on what I glimpsed in the current situation, is that Kuro’s strength is about that of a lower ranked god just a step below a middle ranked god. Normally I’d have no chance of winning. The qualitative difference is something like, if I’m level 1000 then Kuro feels like he’s a step below reaching level 10,000.

However, I have been refining my abilities with the assumption of facing Kuro. Even if I cannot hope to compete in raw power, I’m sharpening my abilities to be something special. I can only win depending upon the gap in affinity. Same as always.

Yes, the same as always. Fighting higher ranked opponents, that’s what I’ve been doing the whole time since I was born into this world. Each time I gained victory using my threads and poison to take them unawares. This will be the same.

Although, that’s a long way off still. I teleport to the Demon King’s location. There, the Demon King and Kuro are waiting. Now then, how shall I begin?

Translation notes:

A small note regarding the “Golden combo” – Shiro refers to “Future Foresight” (see chapter 189 for an example) but what Sophia actually currently has is “Future Vision”. Naturally, these skills are related so it’s not “wrong” but perhaps Shiro is thinking about her own memory of using it rather than what Sophia has right now.

Kuro’s words are all from “Oni VS Oni ⑥”.