Satou here. I believe the only ways to get through unexpected circ.u.mstances are by either having enough experience, or by having a predefined manual which describes methods to cope with any situation. In my opinion, the ability to instantaneously and perfectly deal with any suddenness only exists in fictions.

“Encroaching Netherworld!? That sounds really really bad!”

Arisa shouted out loud when she heard G.o.d Tenion"s oracle.

“Don"t worry. I won"t let human world be fused with Netherworld.”

It"s like a malignant cancerous tissue.
We just have to surgically remove it real quick.

“We"re here to seal away the gate that connects to Netherworld anyway, our objective remains unchanged.”

I guess it"s not sealing, more like completely severing it off.
I"ve never tested it, but from my experience of crossing over parallel worlds, I believe it"s doable.

“That"s a good point! Let"s do this, Red (Arischan)!”
“Alrighty! It"s time to save the whole world!”

Arisa raised her fist to reply to Hikaru.
She"s as heroic as ever.

“OK then, let"s pick up the pace. You girls with me?”
“Affirmative.”

After nodding to me, Liza turned toward the girls.

“Let"s go, Yellow (Pochi), Pink (Tama), White (Nana).”
“Roger nanodesu!”
“Aye aye sir~?”
“Yes Orange (Liza)!”

Golden Members went on to a.s.sist silver members annihilating the huge army of vanguard monsters.

“The Nether Gate should come into view once we get out of that cave over there!”

I told the girls while backing them up with support magic from behind the line.
There"s only a few vanguard monsters in front of Nether Gate–Oh? There are some demons now.

I navigate through my Menu to confirm their ident.i.ties.

Special Ability users?

–And their levels are way high!

Just as I closed the Menu, I saw the girls rus.h.i.+ng into the cave.

–Oh no.

A moment later, a flash of light intense enough to evaporate orichalc.u.m blinded my vision.

“…Master.”
“Are you okay, Nana!”
“Yes, Master. Succeeded deploying Paladin Kingdom. Since it has been overloaded by the attack from enemy unit, I require a cool down for a while, so I report.”

It would have been disastrous were I late at fetching the girls with s.p.a.ce magic.
I made it in time somehow thanks to Nana"s emergency deployment of [Paladin Kingdom].

“Nyu!”
“It"s coming nodesu!”

Two demons cut apart the leftover vestiges of Paladin Kingdom as they jumped out of the explosion.
Both are holding purple colored great swords.
One is dual wielding, while the other has a s.h.i.+eld.

I rushed right in front of the two demons with Ground Shrink, ambus.h.i.+ng them with my self-made holy swords in both hands.

The three incoming blades are from the s.h.i.+eld user"s thrust attack. I parried the supersonic thrust with the holy sword in my right hand. Meanwhile, the dual wielding demon comes slas.h.i.+ng down diagonally. Just as planned. I blocked it with the holy sword in my left–geh, my holy sword got cut?
I bent my body backward to dodge the dual wielder, and then blow it away with chantless [Explosion] before it could recover–tch, the s.h.i.+eld user blocked it. And it"s unharmed.

Rain of blue rays poured down on the approaching dual wielder. It"s Lulu"s bombardment.
The dual wielder dodged all the hyper accelerated bullets that should have been unavoidable. No, that"s not it. The bullets had their trajectories s.h.i.+fted. As if the bullets themselves are avoiding the demon.

“–Meiko"s skill?”

I could hear Lady Ringrande"s voice in slow motion from behind, probably because my thought process had entered an accelerated state.

The dual wielder is coming for me. I parried a down slash coming from upper right, and s.h.i.+fted my body to dodge a horizontal slash coming from the left. Fast. The right sword has come back already. I sacrificed my holy sword to ward off the attack and clad myself in mana armor to block the thrust from the s.h.i.+eld user at my flank–it pierced through? I immediately discarded my mana armor, knocking the s.h.i.+eld user back with the shockwave produced.

Then I used Ground Shrink to dodge the dual wielder that had made use of that opportunity to draw close to me.

『–Master.』

Arisa"s plan was transmitted to me through Familiar Link.
I caused an explosion using chantless [Explosion] at point blank range, before retreating back using Ground Shrink in between the explosion.

Right afterward, Arisa"s and Hikaru"s lesser anti-G.o.d magic burst apart.
Intense flashes and roaring sounds produced a cloud of dust that covered the area.

“Hehheenda. Didcha forget you"re up against us too.”
“Ichirou-nii, are you hurt anywhere?”

–Crisis Perception.

The dual wielding demon jumped out of the flash.
Looks like the s.h.i.+eld user managed to block those two"s lesser version of anti-G.o.d magic.

Unique Skills are really unfair, aren"t they.

“Pochi won"t let you nodesu!”
“Nin nin~”

Pochi and Tama intercepted the dual wielder.

The dual wielder dodged the two"s dragon fang sword"s finishers by stepping oddly.

“–That"s Meiko"s skill for sure.”

AR readings showed me the dual-wielding demon"s Unique Skills. [Absolute Slash], [Absolute Avoidance], [Future Prediction] and [Create Weapon].

The names aren"t exactly the same as Meiko"s Unique Skills, but they"re extremely similar in effect.

“Master!”

From beyond the numbers displayed in my AR readings, the s.h.i.+eld user slashed the dust cloud apart as it leaped out.
Surprisingly, it can still move even after taking a direct hit from Arisa"s and Hikaru"s anti-G.o.d magic. It"s suffered some damage, but it"s already being healed at an incredible rate.

“I won"t let you!”

Liza rushed next to the s.h.i.+eld user at a tremendous speed.
The s.h.i.+eld user gave up trying to reach me, turning its s.h.i.+eld toward Liza instead.

Magic spear Douma was stopped by the s.h.i.+eld just as the s.h.i.+eld user"s great sword approached Liza.
Liza quickly retracted her spear and quickly thrust back at the great sword.

Looks like it"s used up all its luck for it to expose its s.h.i.+eld-less side to me.

–Photon Laser.

A s.h.i.+eld clad in a purple light manifested over the demon"s side, a layer of purple light diffused my Photon Laser in all directions.
Well, that"s such an unfair skill.

“It"s as if I"m looking at Hayato"s s.h.i.+eld.”

I could faintly heard princess Maryest"s murmur.

AR readings show me the demon"s Unique Skills just as it stopped moving.
This one"s got [Absolute Piercing], [Absolute s.h.i.+eld] and [Infinite Heal] Unique Skills.

“My spear…”

I heard Liza"s tragic grief-stricken voice.
The tip of magic spear Douma has been cut in two. Looks like the demon"s great sword had done a number on it.

Right above her, the dual wielding demon that had managed to shake off Tama"s and Pochi"s fierce a.s.sault came swooping down.

“Protecting Orange (Liza) so I announce!”

Nana stepped in between the two with Flickering Motion and blocked the dual wielder"s slash with [Paladin Castle].

“Gununu. –Heavy, so I report.”

The dual wielder"s great swords are sinking into Paladin Castle"s barrier, vermilion and dark purple sparks are flying everywhere.
They were only equal for an instant as the great swords gradually delved deeper.

The s.h.i.+eld user is closing in on Nana as well.

A thrust clad in a dark purple aura a.s.saulted Nana.

“Phalanx~?”
“Phalanx, multi deployment, nanodesu!”

Tama and Pochi rushed out and tried to stop the s.h.i.+eld user"s thrust, however their phalanxes broke into pieces as if they were made of thin gla.s.s.

–But it"s enough.

Making use of the time the two bought me, I got in front of the s.h.i.+eld user with Ground Shrink.

It probably intends to skewer me and Nana together.
The s.h.i.+eld user grinned devilishly.

A white light and a dark purple light intersected as its blade ran through my body.

The s.h.i.+eld user raised a howl of victory.
My body vanished like a haze before its very eyes.

“That is but an afterimage!”

The one who said that triumphantly was not me.
Arisa watching from behind did.

I created a clone with ma.s.s using True Ninjutsu and let it get run through the s.h.i.+eld user"s blade, all the while I got around behind the s.h.i.+eld user and cut it in two using a dragon fang sword.

The s.h.i.+eld user"s body is reattaching back.

That is within my calculations.

Using s.p.a.ce magic, I expelled the slowed down s.h.i.+eld user to beyond the cave.

Aiming for when I stopped moving as I cast s.p.a.ce magic, the dual wielder came slas.h.i.+ng at me.
However, the dual wielding demon wasn"t the only one waiting for an opening.

“Labyrinth!”

Arisa cast her s.p.a.ce magic, dropping the dual wielder into an overlapping labyrinth of sub-s.p.a.ce.

“I knew it, even the weakness"s the same as Meiko.”

Looks like the dual wielder"s dodging Unique Skill has the same trait as Meiko"s [Unrivaled Mobility (Nothing can Hit)] including its inability to dodge wide area attacks.

Now"s our chance too–.

I positioned myself in front of the great cave with Ground Shrink.

–Here it comes.

It"s a nuclear explosion-type forbidden spell.

I clashed antic.i.p.ated attack with my own [Mythology Down].
Shakings and explosions orders of magnitude bigger than the one before shook the great cave"s ceilings, collapsing the walls and ceilings down, exposing a weird sub-s.p.a.ce beyond them.

The s.h.i.+eld user survived, shockingly enough.
Looks like a mage-type demon in the back had covered for it.

“Well, it"s a checkmate.”

I successively unleash three kinds of anti-G.o.d magic I had put in standby.

The s.h.i.+eld user was the only one left floating in the former great cave that had completely turned into a weird sub-s.p.a.ce with a gate floating inside.
Two dark purple lights that appear to be [G.o.d"s Fragments] are floating nearby. Seems like the mage-type demon who was protecting the s.h.i.+eld user had fallen victim to my anti-G.o.d magic.

The now near-jet black, dark purple aura pulsed unstably over the s.h.i.+eld user"s body.

The s.h.i.+eld user demon started getting bigger as its entire body convulsed.

『Isn"t it turning into a demon lord?』
『Nope, all under control.』

No matter how superior these Demon G.o.d"s Unique Skills are, Soul Vessels of the demons that are using it have their limits.
Consecutive usage of Unique Skills capable of defending against anti-G.o.d magic will almost a.s.suredly put an enormous strain on their Soul Vessel.

The now gigantic s.h.i.+eld user demon convulsed even more intensely as jet black mist overflowed out of its joints, eyes and nose.

Just as I thought, it"s nearing its limit soon.

–ＺＸＤＲＲＢＢＢＢＳＺＺＺ.

After that last howl, the s.h.i.+eld user demon burst open into a jet black mist with dark purple light outline.
Its defeat is signified by the three dark purple lights appearing out of the mist.

◇

『–N-no way! No! Master, behind you!』

The dual wielding demon cut open the [Labyrinth] Arisa created.
Looks like it"s been really pus.h.i.+ng itself, near-jet black, dark purple lights are pulsing over its body.

“Fenrir!”

Mia sent a Lesser Fenrir created from lesser anti-G.o.d magic she cast, but the dual wielding demon stopped it on its track by sending a flying shockwave with a slash.

“Hyper Deracinator.”

The dual wielding demon cut apart one layer of barrier I created with an advanced level s.p.a.ce magic before charging toward me.

“–Divine Dancing Armor.”

A purple barrier appeared before me and blocked the dual wielding demon"s Unique Skill-powered great swords.

This stuff is pretty nice.

“Mythology Down.”

I unleashed an area attack magic on the dual wielding demon.
No matter how good it is at protecting itself by dodging, its defense is paper thin when it can"t.

Defeating this demon is a simple matter if I don"t have to worry about collateral damage.
The Lesser Fenrir got caught in the spell though, gotta remember to apologize to Mia later.

Shockwaves created from Mythology Down were stopped by another instance of Hyper Deracinator"s barrier I put anew.

『Master, it"s not over yet!』

Looks like the dual wielder has regenerated.
It"s probably been transformed into a demon lord.

“>”

Liza flew off at a tremendous speed once she activated her finis.h.i.+ng move, rapidly approaching the dual wielding demon.

Dark purple lights streamed over the dual wielder"s great swords.
Seems like the demon chose to intercept her instead of dodging.

“WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
――ＺＸＤＢＢＢＢＢＢＢＢＢＢＢＢＨ.

The dual wielding demon"s great swords clashed fiercely with Liza"s dragon spear.
The [Absolute Slash] Great swords that sever all and the dragon spear that [Pierces All] fight over supremacy of their concepts each.

However, the demon raised its other sword above, and swung it down toward Liza"s neck.

“Get away, Liza!”

Zensan"s scream resounded in the battlefield.

–Oh there"s no need to worry, Zensan.

After all–.

“>”
“>”

Two reliable reinforcements have already made their way into the battlefield.

Tama blocked the great sword that was coming for Liza"s neck with her twin dragon fang swords, while Pochi"s dragon fang sword pierced the great sword blocking Liza"s spear from the side.

Freed from the deadlock as the blade broke into purple splinters, Liza"s spear gets clad in orange light.

“–>”

The dual wielding demon was going to stream a dark purple light over its body, but it"s already way late.
There"s no way it could activate Unique Skill faster than Liza could get it at that distance.

Orange and white light ran through the near jet black dark purple body of the demon, dragon breath that slays evil burst out from within its body.
The scattered pieces of demon"s body vanished into black mist.

“Good work, Liza. You too Pochi, and Tama, well done.”

I told so to Liza who was still in high alert with her spear at the ready in the air.
The four [G.o.d"s Fragments] that appeared from within the mist is proof of that.

『Kyokkyokkyokkyo』
『Theygotus, realbad』
『Knewit, demonsare, fragile』
『Regenerated, onlyonce, wayfragile』

I put away my dragon fang sword and drew the Divine Sword to eliminate the [G.o.d"s Fragments].
I had already done the same to the three [G.o.d"s Fragments] earlier while Liza was putting her everything.

“Okay, sealing the gate is all that"s left now.”