In a Different World with a Smartphone Chapter 383: Destruction of the Hideout, and the New World.

The fort that was surrounded by steep rock formations had a distinctness to it that could be likened to the one from “The Hollow Needle”. The parts that were dug out of the rocks and the parts that were made out of wood were mixed together. It’s as if a multistoried building had slipped in between the rocks seamlessly.

I can see a man, who’s standing on top of a wooden watchtower-like scaffold, looking at us who appeared suddenly with his eyes wide open. A tough-looking door made from wood resembling oak stood in front of the fort imposingly and blocked our advance, but…

“Funn!”

…The tough-looking door was blown away easily by a straight punch from Takeru ojii.

“Couldn’t we have, like, dealt with that a bit more smartly?”

“If you’re a man, you charge in from the front. All other methods are heretical!”

Should I call that easy-to-understand or… Well, I was going to destroy it anyway so I guess it doesn’t matter.

“E, enemy attack! Enemy attac—k!”

The lookout on the watchtower I saw earlier started ringing a bell with a wooden mallet like crazy. In response to that, men wearing black masks began pouring out from all over the fort.

Mu? Although their masks are similarly Chinese opera-esq, theirs have gold shadings on them. Are they the cadres of [Kurau]?

“Well, doesn’t really concern me anyway.”

I drew out the gunblade Brunhild, and began shooting down the men in front of me one by one. Of course, with paralysis bullets.

Takeru ojii and Ende also jumped into the midst of the masked group, and began blowing them away.

I could’ve taken care of them altogether by locking onto them with my smartphone, but in that case I might let someone who’s not wearing a mask get away, and it also wouldn’t be good training for Ende; as such, I’m sticking to the straightforward elimination approach.

“Bring out the Iron Machine Soldiers!”

N? Large magic circles formed on the ground to our sides, and two somewhat glittering Iron Machine Soldiers appeared within them. Yep, definitely made by those [Gordian] dudes.

The excessively gaudy-looking, gold-colored Iron Machine Soldier took one step out of the magic circles, before it was blown away to the rock walls behind it and smashed into pieces. Are?

When I reflexively looked towards the other Iron Machine Soldier, the only thing I saw was the figure of Takeru ojii with his fist thrusted high up towards the sky.

I followed that fist and looked upwards. Over there was the figure of the other Iron Machine Soldier, becoming smaller in the sky after being blown upwards.

And like that, it fell down after a while, scattering its parts all over the place as it crashed. Rest in peace.

“… Looking at that sure makes you lose your confidence, eh…”

Ende muttered to himself. I understand. That’s what I thought every time I have a match with Moroha nee-san. The act of comparing ourselves was a mistake in the first place, though.

“Mo, monster!”

“Ru, run away!”

Futile struggles. I’ve already casted a [Prison] over this area, so you guys won’t be able to escape. Ah, wait, since it’s thin an Iron Machine Soldier might be able to break through it.

Since I can feel any breakage in the barrier instantly, though, I can just repair it right there.

“O-tto.”

I turned my body to dodge the dagger strike that suddenly came at me from behind. I couldn’t sense its presence until the very last moment.

When I turned around, a man wearing a pitch-black mask and holding two daggers was standing there. The others had it too, but from this man, I can perceive a far stronger stench of blood. Without a doubt, his was the presence of someone who lives on killing others.

“I suppose you’re the leader of [Kurau]?”

“Exactly… The shadow that lives within the darkness of Yulong—gufuoa!?”

“Ah.”

The leader, who was arrogantly saying something, ate a strike from Ende in his side and flew away with his body bent in the shape of the “

“You…”

“Are? Were you planning to listen to it all?”

“Nope, was planning to shoot him halfway.”

“Alright, no problem then.”

There’s no problem, yeah, but… I’m a bit unsatisfied with this, but oh well.

I sent a paralysis bullet towards the leader, who’s rolling on the floor in agony while holding his side. When I pulled off his mask after restricting his movements, the face of a man in his forties without any special characteristics showed itself.

He looks like a regular uncle you can find anywhere, but I guess that’s an advantage when your job is an a.s.sa.s.sin.

“I’m sorry to say this, but your plans would all end in vain. If you really wanted to help Yulong, you should’ve switched those daggers of yours out with a hoe or something.”

Leaving the leader, whose face was twisted from either regret or pain—I don’t know which— behind, I went deeper into the fort.

As I swatted away the ones who came at me without mercy, I found the transfer formation leading underground.

This hideout was originally something that [Gordian] made in pursuit of their goal, creating an empire of magic, “Magia Imperium”. Similar pieces of magic technology can be found here and there inside the fort.

Leaving the other two to deal with the situation aboveground, I poured magic power into the formation and transferred myself underground.

The place I transferred to looked like a giant limestone cave, with a whole bunch of materials like wood and metal scattered around; it gave off the impression of a hangar of some sort. At a glance, I can already see several things lying around that are obviously made from Reverse World technology.

There are some Iron Machine Soldiers mid-a.s.sembly here too. No doubt about it, this place is the production facility. The only Iron Machine Soldiers left here are all incomplete; guess they sent all the completed ones out to fight.

Around ten men wearing the [Kurau] masks came towards me and pulled out their swords; they’re probably the guards of this place.

“You’re in the way.”

“Gofu!”

“Goha!?”

With Brunhild, I swiftly incapacitated them. Rather than the men with swords who attacked me, I was far more concerned about the prisoner-like group wearing ragged clothes who were standing around the Iron Machine Soldiers.

They’re not wearing masks. I was convinced that they’re not part of [Kurau]. Not because they’re not wearing those masks, but because they had [Collars of Subordination] around their necks.

From within the group, a single elderly man walked towards me. He looks to be over sixty. His white beard flowed freely down his face, and there’s a pair of small round gla.s.ses on his nose. While his gait was a bit unsteady, I can sense a definite force of will within the eyes behind those gla.s.ses.

“We, follow, you. Please, do not, kill.”

While making motions with his body, the elder talked to me with broken sentences. So they really are people from the Reverse World.

Still, “do not, kill”, huh. Well, that’s what happens when you shoot guns right in front of them.

“[Translation].”

I casted translation magic on all the men in front of me. With this, they should be able to converse with me properly.

“Are you all golem engineers?”

“! Can, can you understand our words!? Yes, we are golem engineers. On the way to deliver golems to the Magicraft King of Eisengard, we were suddenly lost in a place we’ve never seen before. And after that, we were caught by those masked men and forced to wear these collars…!”

They were delivering to the Magicraft King…? If they don’t know about the fact that

Eisengard’s Magicraft King is already gone, does that mean they drifted here since before that?

“I’ll listen to the details later. How many people were brought here in total?”

“There were eighteen at first, but now there’s only the fifteen you see here. Three were killed when we were caught. Um, could you tell me where we are? Words we’ve never heard and magic technology we’ve never seen before, it’s almost like we’ve wandered into a different world…”

That’s exactly what’s happening to them, but I’ll leave the explanations for later.

I took off everyone’s [Collars of Subordination], and freed them from their restraints. Some cried in joy when their collars were taken off; they must’ve suffered quite a bit.

“For now, we’ll be moving from here. Is there anything you’d like to bring with you?”

“Sorry, but please wait a bit.”

The elder began digging at a spot near the feet of an incomplete Iron Machine Soldier, and dug out a card-like thing after a while.

“That is?”

“My personal Storage Card. This alone is something I would never allow to be taken, after all. I’ve buried it there all this time.”

Quite the prudent grandpa. With age comes wisdom, I guess.

Alright, first I’ll bring them to Dr. Elka, who’s a fellow resident of the Reverse World and a golem engineer as well.

I connected this place with the top of the hill Dr. Elka and Professor Babylon were at using [Gate].

When the two of them, who were looking at the battlefield, turned around and saw us who came out of the [Gate], Dr. Elka opened her eyes wide and pointed at the elder.

“Eh? [Professor]!?”

“Nn!? The [Restore Queen] girlie!?”

The two of them were speechless as they pointed at each other.

“Acquaintances?”

“Eh, yes. He’s a famous golem engineer in our world. Could it be that the golem engineers that were caught…”

“Ah, un. It’s them.”

“Girlie, just what is going on? We can’t understand anything. In the first place, where is this place?”

“Etto, where should I start with this…”

For now, the talk should go faster if they know each other. I left them in the care of Dr. Elka and the others, and went back to the fort.

The fort was almost completely suppressed by Takeru ojii and Ende already, and I can see fighters belonging to [Kurau] lying about here and there. I one-sidedly teleported these guys all to the prisons back at Horn.

I have to send them all there without missing anyone. These guys are like weeds, if you don’t pull their roots out they’ll grow back again soon enough.

After using [Search] to confirm that there are no other humans left inside the fort, we walked out of the gate.

Apparently, Takeru ojii will do the finis.h.i.+ng-up.

“Pay attention, alright. [Ki] is present everywhere in nature. One can find ki in the air, in the ground, and in the light of the sun. To take that ki into yourself and refine it, is what it means to turn the power of nature into your own. And if you can properly control that…”

Takeru ojii thrusted his hands out in front of him, and swayed them around as if trying to gather something.

After a while, a large ma.s.s of energy, different from magic power, gathered densely in front of him to a degree where it can be perceived by the naked eye.

That ma.s.s grew to the size of an exercise ball, and the surrounding air was visibly shaking with its existence.

“Haaaa!”

Together with a yell filled with spirit, the ma.s.s was fired out from its position before Takeru ojii.

In the next instant, a loud boom and a severe impact a.s.saulted our bodies. It felt almost as if a bomb had exploded right next to us.

When the dust cloud had cleared, the fort that was in front of us was gone. All we could see was the gouged-out wasteland extending outwards; even the rock mountain that was behind the fort was gone as well.

Even the rocks and mountains far off in the distance had pieces sc.r.a.ped off along the trajectory; it was almost as if an advanced-cla.s.s Phrase had fired its particle cannon there. That was some unbelievable firepower.

Can someone really do this with just his body, without using either magic power or divinity?

With the underground factory gone as well, the [Kurau] hideout had completely disappeared off the face of this world.

“What can I say… I suppose I’m still lacking in training…”

“No, I think that falls under the category of things you’re not supposed to try and imitate…”

As Ende muttered with a blank look on his face, I replied absentmindedly while looking at the blown-away rock mountain.

The members of [Kurau] were all handed over to Horn Kingdom, and the Iron Machine Soldiers

+wood golems army was annihilated. With this, their ambition to take over Horn Kingdom had failed completely.

The leader of [Kurau] as well as its cadres were all publicly executed. The rest were given life sentences, otherwise known as being sent to the mines. They will never step on the ground outside again.

Several days later, a new king was crowned in Horn Kingdom. Cuo Da Horn. A one-year-old king.

At the same time, the prime minister of Horn, Schwein Adante announced his intention to resign. And the one who he recommended to become the next prime minister was the younger brother of the former king, Ganossa Da Horn.

And like that, the uncle became regent in place of his nephew, taking care of national matters in his stead. Thinking normally, this might’ve been the safest option from the beginning.

Horn Kingdom had decided to abandon its isolated state until now, and for starters, sent out its youngsters to other countries to study.

By taking in the cultures and customs of other countries through those young people, Horn Kingdom would surely be able to embrace a new stage of progress.

They would do well to work hard, in order to not become like their former neighbor Yulong, who only pursued the glories of their past while neglecting their essence.

It’s fine to be proud of your past. However, if you focus too much on that, you’d be no different from a foolish son who looks down on others due to his parents’ achievements.

I can only believe that there are still people who can properly look at the future within Yulong’s young generation.

Now then, regarding the rescued golem engineers.

They were, with one exception, originally engineers who server in the [Factory] in Eisengard.

The highest authority for the important [Factory] belonging to a country would obviously be its king.

However, the king of Eisengard, the Magicraft King is currently missing, and no one knows whether he is even alive. Furthermore, with the Magicraft King gone, Eisengard, without a leader, had delved into chaos.

Even after I relayed that information to them, most of the engineers still wanted to return home; as such, I used the [Dimensional Gate] and returned them back to Eisengard.

As most of them had families back there, I can understand how they feel.

However, they were treated as dead in Eisengard and had lost their jobs regardless, and there’s a possibility that they might be suspected of having embezzled the 3000 Soldats that were with them. It’s dangerous for them to stay in Eisengard.

As such, I went for broke and tried consulting Garudio Empire’s former Prince Lucrecion… Now Margrave of Lowe, about them, and received the answer that they would gladly receive them in their territory. Well, they are all excellent engineers. There’s no way he wouldn’t want them.

Around this time, they should be heading towards Garudio Empire together with their families.

And so, the problem would be the one that’s left…

“And so, that gramps… Was it Professor? What did he say he would do?”

“He said he’s going to travel around this world. Wants to see all the different countries, apparently.”

Dr. Elka furrowed her brow while playing with the straw she held in her mouth. The ice cubes inside the gla.s.s of orange juice on the table made a *clink* sound.

“Isn’t it dangerous? To let an old man travel by himself…”

“Before he left this country, he made some simple Soldats using the dwarves’ workshop. Apparently he was hiding some G-cubes and Q-crystals. On a glance, all you can see are five fully armored knights, you know. They’re perfect as escorts.”

He made some golems during that short period? They’re not Legacies, but still, as expected of one of the top five golem engineers in the Reverse World, I suppose.

“I wanted him to help me with various things too. He said he wanted to enjoy the sightseeing trip for a while, or something. He was forced to build the Iron Machine Soldiers constantly before this, so I guess it’s his way of trying to forget that.”

Un. Well, if he made some Soldats, then that means it at least hasn’t become a trauma for him. Guess he just wanted to stay away from making machines for a while.

“Oi d.a.m.nit! The break’s already over! Get over here and help out!”

“Eeh~ Monica-chan’s too harsh…”

The yelling voice of the maintenance chief, Monica, reached us who were sitting down at a table in a corner of the [Hangar] and drinking tea.

Behind her, the black and red Over Gears were seated down, waiting for an overhaul including checking for damages caused by the battle.

While complaining under her breath, Dr. Elka nevertheless started heading towards the feet of the Over Gears while accompanied by Fenrir.

As I thought to leave as well and stood up from my seat, the smartphone in my breast pocket rang. Are? How rare, it’s from Kami-sama.

“Yes, h.e.l.lo.”

“Ohh, Touya-kun. There’s something I want to talk about; can you come to the Divine Realm?”

I’ve got no plans after this. I told him that I’m okay with that, and ended the call. What could the talk be about, I wonder?

Guess I’ll go and find out. Oh, before that, I should swing by the kitchen and grab some presents. I feel bad going empty-handed.

Pretty sure our head chef Claire-san made some yokan recently. There should still be some left, as long as Karen nee-san didn’t eat them yet. I’ll bring them along.

Bringing the yokan that had fortunately avoided Karen nee-san’s a.s.sault, I headed towards the Divine Realm.

The same-as-ever 4 ½ tatami room floating in a sea of clouds, with neither walls nor a ceiling, greeted me.

“h.e.l.lo. Here, a present. Yokan.”

“Oh, sorry for that. I’ll bring out the tea.”

Kami-sama took out things like a knife and plates from a cupboard, and placed them down together with some tea. The combination of tea and yokan is unbeatable, isn’t it~

“And so, what is this talk you wanted to have?”

“Umu. It is three days later.”

“Yes?”

Kami-sama opened his mouth while cutting up the yokan piece on his plate with a small fork.

Three days later? What’s happening then?

“What happens three days later?”

“It’s the day when the two worlds would overlap completely. Three days later, the two worlds that you’ve been travelling in would become one, and leave the management of us G.o.ds.”

“Eeehh!?”

I unintentionally raised my voice. I did hear that they wouldn’t know when it would happen until it’s close, but isn’t this too sudden!?

I had wanted to start the two-world conference before it happened for real… No, actually, depending on how you look at it, this is good in its own way. Since it would present the truth

to those who doubt the reality of things. Once it happened, they would not dare treat our words as jokes. The kings of the Reverse World would seriously confront this matter.

“I know it’s sudden, but we really can’t do anything about that. Originally, it was a world that the Destruction G.o.d would’ve dealt with long before this, and it’s also rather unstable and hard to predict.”

“That’s… True. Three days later, huh.”

To what degree could we prepare countermeasures with that amount of days…

“And what about the cataclysms?”

“Normally, that’s very likely to happen. However, you became the Spirit King. If you speak with the spirits governing over things like sea, land or storm, you can minimize the damage. Things like small earthquakes will occur over a long period, but overall the worlds would merge peacefully. At most, some of the topography would change.”

Terrain features changing is plenty scary already, but at least it seems that it wouldn’t develop into a disaster movie. The panic of the populace would be scarier.

“From that moment onwards, the two worlds will be outside of my jurisdiction. Since it’s the last time, I’ll make it a service and make the common language of the two worlds the same. Well, all I’ll be doing is making them think it’s the same language, though.”

It’s a miracle that only people who have been in both worlds would recognize. It’s basically casting translation magic over the entire world. The scale’s way too big.

It’s not something I absolutely can’t pull off, but it’ll probably take me over a week just to lock onto them all with my smartphone, so…

“Or more like, is that fine? Isn’t it bad to interfere with lower worlds using the power of a G.o.d?”

“Originally, it is so. Well, it’s like a illegal move that’s only possible at the very last moment, and because an evil G.o.d was involved in this. For the world to leave the hand of us G.o.ds also mean for us to abandon our managerial responsibilities over it, after all.”

So it’s like throwing a book that used to be at the library away because it had some problems… Once it’s thrown away, it’s no longer something owned by the library. As such, the library has no obligation to manage it. After that, it’s just seeing who picks up that book…

“It’s your job from there onwards. Banish the evil G.o.d from the newly formed world. Once you do that, the world would be allowed to exist. The Destruction G.o.d wouldn’t have any complaints about that.”

“Quite the troublesome problem I’ve gotten…”

“Well, thinking normally, you’re a direct dependant of me, while the other side is a failure of a G.o.d. There’s not a single element present that may cause you to lose. That evil G.o.d is tricky, though. There’s no telling what kind of convoluted hand he may play. Pay attention to that.”

“Yes.”

Are? Isn’t this like taking over a project? The image of a new employee in a company, who was entrusted with work by a veteran employee who left that company, appeared in my mind.

“There’s a whole seven G.o.ds down there as support. Nothing too serious should happen.”

“No, uh, rather than supporting, I feel like those people just came with the feeling of having a vacation…”

It’s true that we now have the Love G.o.d, the Sword G.o.d, the Agriculture G.o.d, the Hunting G.o.d, the Music G.o.d, the Alcohol G.o.d and the Martial G.o.d a.s.sembled like a s.h.i.+chif.u.kujin setup, but if you ask me whether they’re doing their support jobs properly, that’s a delicate question to answer.

“Well, their support job came with the aspect of a vacation in the first place. It can’t be helped. Eventually, when you properly become the manager of that world, it may just become a resort area for the G.o.ds, you know.”

That gives me a complicated feeling as well. Isn’t there some better worlds out there if you’re talking about a resort? Well, all that would come after we do something about the evil G.o.d, anyway.

First, I need to go talk with the spirits; and after that is meeting with the other leaders. We won’t know what may happen from this point on; gotta brace ourselves.

While stuffing my cheek with the yokan, I refreshed my determination with a sip of the hot tea.

—Three days after that.

In the world that had become one, a single country vanished from the map.

-Pixel