Kumo desu ga, Nani ka? Final Battle ⑮

Combat continues with Ariel’s perspective.

Final Battle ⑮

When did Dustin get here? How?

The answer to that was with the elderly wizard standing alongside Dustin. He is Ronant, a Space Magic user who is famous as the strongest human. I guess he brought Dustin here using teleportation. But for what reason?

Even during the battle with Wrath-kun, Ronant simply laid low. That’s because if by some chance the teleport user Ronant was done in, then they would have lost their way of escaping. The same could be said of Dustin. Yamada-kun, Ooshima-kun and imouto-chan all possess a Ruler skill, but I had thought Dustin was staying in a safe location in case they were annihilated. I hadn’t expected Dustin to show up unless we had been defeated and his safety could be guaranteed.

Despite all that, why is he here now? No, I guess I don’t need to think too hard about this. Surely this means that he too no longer cares about appearances.

He said “Harmony”, right? The skill that made it as if the breath attack of two Queens never existed. That’s likely a special skill. A title is given by obtaining a Ruler skill, and by gaining that title two skills are obtained – this is the second of those two skills. In the case of my Gluttony, it was the Sublimation skill. The Harmony skill that Dustin activated is likely the same sort.

I don’t know precisely what happened due to the Harmony skill. However, it’s certain that the breath attack of two Queens was completely neutralised. In short, I should consider the Harmony skill as being capable of defending against the breath attacks of two Queens at a minimum. Well, it doesn’t look like he’s able to spam it though.

Blood gushed out from all over Dustin’s body. It must be the backlash against using the Harmony skill. Skills have various kinds of costs when used, but the cost when using a special skill is huge. I can’t readily use my Sublimation skill either. Actually, I’ve never used it. The cost is such that you wouldn’t think of using it. The cost of Harmony can be clearly seen – it’s enough that Dustin is on the verge of death. However, considering that Dustin was able to nullify the breath attack of two Queens despite having almost no fighting ability, you could say that it was an exceptionally good result in terms of cost-effectiveness.

But, that’s exactly why I can’t stand it.

I use my skills to give instructions. I’ll have the Queens and Puppet Taratekts continue to be the opponents of the ancient dragons. I give a different order to the Arches, Greaters and the rest of the mob. Their target is… Dustin. It would be strange not to target a non-combatant on the verge of death.

「No! The pope is being targeted!」
「Ignore me and focus on the targets in front of you!」

Guen noticed the movements of the Taratekts and began to move to protect Dustin, but the one who put a stop to that was Dustin himself. He’s here to win even if he has to discard his own life. Cutting off his own path of retreat, leaving him unable to back out. In practice, if the ancient dragons lose here then Dustin and co will be out of options. If that happened then the black god faction wouldn’t be able to do anything more than pray that Gyurie wins. That’s probably why he rushed into this place. I had made light of him by expecting that he would be a spectator from a safe location, but instead that expectation has been overturned. However, I won’t let him interfere any further.

「Don’t take me lightly!」

However, the flood of Taratekts heading for Dustin were mowed down by flames. It’s Ronant’s fire magic. Damn! He’s not called the strongest human mage for nothing huh. With that attack, everything weaker than a Greater was wiped out. Even the Greater Taratekts have severe wounds. I guess the Arch Taratekts are just about equal? Despite being a human, you’re quite strong aren’t you.

Of course he’s weak compared to the ancient dragons. However, he’s effective enough in combat that he can’t be ignored. No, it’s not just Ronant. It’s similar for Ooshima-kun with her barriers, but even Yamada-kun is slowly defeating the Taratekts. It seems that Yamada-kun could also defeat a Greater by himself. It seems that I’ve taken these humans a bit too lightly.

While that is going on, the Puppet Taratekts are starting to be pushed back. Sure enough, it was too much for the Puppet Taratekts to take on the ancient dragons, huh. I immediately gave directions to the Queens to reinforce them, but as if ignoring those orders one of the Queens placed her huge body in front of me. My line of sight is blocked by the huge Queen. Almost reflexively I activate Clairvoyance, peering through the Queen’s body to grasp the situation. There I see Reise, with his arm held out towards me in the posture of having fired something.

……He was about to attack me huh. He probably fired magic or something. The Queen protected me by risking herself. The Queen’s judgement was correct. It was correct, but… now it has been exposed. That I… have gotten weak.

To the other side, I should have been the greatest threat from the start. Even if all the ancient dragons had come at me together, I would have beaten them – if I had been in my prime. That I’m not doing so, should have created some doubts in their minds. That doubt… should have become conviction with the Queen moving to protect me. I wouldn’t have needed any damn protection if I’d been in my prime. The fact that the Queen protected me, means that it was necessary.

Reise sidesteps two Puppet Taratekts attacking him, shoving them to the side. Using that gap he dashes forwards. Towards me. His eyes are fixed straight upon me. So he’s completely targeting me then. Since I had targeted Yamada-kun and Dustin, I can’t blame Reise’s response.

The two Queens moved to intercept Reise. The Queens fire their breath at Reise. It’s not possible for him to evade that. No matter that they’ve been weakened, the Queens still are on par with an ancient dragon. If Reise directly receives the breath attack from two Queens, then even an ancient dragon like him would not get away with it.

「Harmony!」

However, that’s only if the attack is received directly. Dustin’s special skill was activated again. The breath attack from the Queens should have hit him directly, but Reise rushes through the breath attacks without having received any damage. That Harmony skill wasn’t about raising defensive power at all, instead it completely nullifies damage huh! The two Queens quickly struck down at Reise with their legs, but perhaps due to the Harmony skill even that wasn’t effective. Reise charged straight to my location without pause. Then, his hand struck out towards my chest.

Translation notes:

The Sublimation skill first showed up in Ariel’s introduction in chapter 170.