Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? Volume Chapter 19

I’ve lived a very long life and come close to death plenty of times.

But I have never fought such a strange opponent before.

I first learned of its existence when I received an emergency request for aid from one of my subordinates, a queen taratect.

According to the report she sent me via Kin Control, she was in danger of being eaten by one of her own children.

I didn’t know what to make of that, but from the queen’s panicked state, I knew this was no small matter.

This came at an important time for me, since I’d just started working as the demon lord, but I can’t turn down a request from my precious kin.

I immediately went to the Great Elroe Labyrinth to get more details from the queen herself.

This left me even more bewildered.

Just as I’d been told before, the culprit was one of the queen’s many offspring.

It left the queen’s side, evolved on its own, and ended up freeing itself of her control.

This is the first time anything so unusual has happened.

However, it’s not necessarily impossible.

There are certainly less system bugs these days, but some of them are still hanging around from when the whole thing started.

I concluded that this must be another such bug and figured the situation would be remedied if I just eliminated the anomaly.

But I was naive.

I haughtily assumed that even if it had evolved a few times, it couldn’t be that big of a deal.

It wasn’t long before I realized my mistake.

I didn’t entirely understand right away why the queen had asked for my help.

“Found it.”

When I found the individual, I soon realized that it was far more dangerous than I thought.

My Appraisal results drove this reality home.

Only Rulers can interfere with Appraisal.

Rulers have ruler skills, and on top of that, they’re connected to the system.

Even the queen hasn’t reached that position, but this individual had done it.

“Hi there. I’m your grandma.”

I jokingly introduced myself, approaching in a friendly manner.

“Sorry to ask this right off the bat, but could you stop attacking the queen now, please?”

Hearing that, the creature tilted its head, then waved a leg from side to side.

It refused.

It must have tilted its head to imply that it didn’t know why I would ask such a thing.

“I see. I suppose I have no choice, then.”

It’s not that it didn’t occur to me to try to bring the Ruler onto my team.

However, I judged that it was too dangerous to leave this thing to its own devices.

If it wasn’t going to listen to me, I’d just have to crush it on the spot.

“Well, that was a short-lived relationship. Good-bye.”

With a swing of my arm, I crushed the individual.

Ruler or not, it hadn’t been alive for that long.

Unable to withstand my attack, it died just about instantly.

Or so I’d thought.

But the attack on the queen continued.

An attack that eroded the soul directly, which no skill should have been able to do.

I killed the source, yet the attack persisted.

I don’t know what kind of tricks it used, but that meant it wasn’t dead.

Since then, I’ve been chasing it all over.

I’ve been doing so despite the fact that I’m at a huge disadvantage, since the individual is a master of Teleport magic.

On top of that, there have been signs that it can track my movements.

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Even with Kin Control, I can grasp only a vague idea of where the queen might be, never mind this creature.

There’s nothing more pointless than chasing something you can never catch up with.

And doing something that I know is pointless is incredibly tiring.

In the meantime, we lost not only the queen’s subordinates but even my own puppet taratects.

It would be dangerous to keep warring against that thing.

Yet the all-important queen kept getting attacked, with no way of escaping.

Then the queen died.

I had known for a while that it was the most likely outcome, but when I actually lost one of my queens, it tore open a hole in my heart.

One of my own kin who’d fought alongside me for so many years, gone.

This was a huge loss.

I went to the Bottom Stratum of the Great Elroe Labyrinth, where the queen died.

But I couldn’t even find her body anywhere.

My soul trembled.

A powerful rage that I hadn’t felt in ages burned in my heart.

Never.

I’d never forgive it for this.

I’m going to destroy that thing, and not just because it turned its soul-eroding fangs on me.

Luckily, this attack is much weaker than the one on the queen.

Even my soul, already on the verge of death, can bear it for now.

“You seem to be having quite a bit of trouble.”

In the Bottom Stratum, an earth dragon spoke to me with Telepathy.

It was the guardian of this area, the leader of the earth dragons, earth dragon Gakia.

Behind him were some of the strongest of the already powerful earth dragons.

And I sensed fierce hostility rolling off them toward me.

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“And what if I am? You know if you interfere with me you’ll be violating the pact, right?”

“That was an agreement between you and our lord. We will obey the lord’s orders, of course, but unfortunately we have not been ordered not to oppose you.”

I thought back to the lord of the earth dragons, Gülie.

Clearly, he hadn’t disciplined his subordinates properly.

“How very shrewd. So? What makes you want to fight me so badly that you’d even go against your lord’s orders?”

“Do you not agree that it is time for the old to be culled?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“A new wind is blowing. You are the oldest Divine Beast. Should we elders not withdraw from this world to make way for the new?”

Was the “new wind” he was blathering about that individual I’d been fighting?

“You’re joking. So what, then—we leave everything up to the newbies? That’s how we got into this situation in the first place. Why else would someone as ancient as me have to start getting involved?”

If so, then this wasn’t a joke at all.

Did he know why that strange individual was born?

There was no way something like that just came about naturally.

I had to assume there was a reason behind it.

Did these guys know what it was?

“Eldest Divine Beast. We cannot understand why you are after that being. However, we infer that you are being cornered. Is that being the one who has cornered you? Or are we gravely mistaken?”

I knew it.

These guys knew about that thing.

They knew, and they had expectations of it.

What in the world was that individual?

“That being’s strength is so great that it has managed to defeat our brethren. You cannot simply expect to arrive late on the scene and easily harm it.”

“See, this is the problem with dragons…”

Dragons, especially earth dragons, value strength way too highly. They respect anyone strong, no matter who it is.

Even if the strength in question was being used to kill their own kin.

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“Such strength must be treated with reverence. That being, especially, has grown to be able to defeat our brethren in such a short time.”

Reverence?

For that thing?

“No waaay.”

These words spilled out of my mouth unbidden.

It caught even me off guard.

What did I just say?

Something felt strange, as if someone else’s thoughts had crept into my own.

I was being encroached on.

That individual’s attack on my soul was slowly but surely eating me from the inside.

Me, who rules over Gluttony, being consumed.

Noticing the irony, I couldn’t help but scratch my head irritably.

“So? Are you guys going to back off or what?”

That irritation leaked into my attitude toward the dragons.

“We shall not. We, too, are old creatures, ripe to be destroyed. I cannot think of a more beautifully fitting stage for our end than buying time against the eldest Divine Beast.”

“Speak for yourself. I still intend to devour everything.”

My word was as good as a promise.

I took a step forward to devour the earth dragons.

That was some time ago now.

It’s all but impossible to sense the passage of time in the darkness of the labyrinth, so I have no idea how long it’s been since our battle first began.

“Magnificent.”

Earth dragon Gakia collapses.

“I could say the same for you.”

They really were magnificent.

Despite the huge difference in strength between us, Gakia and his earth dragons gave me a run for my money.

Aside from the unique opponent I’m dealing with right now, it has been quite a long time since I struggled this much in a direct confrontation.

“I am…satisfied.”

The light fades from Gakia’s eyes.

His long life has finally come to an end.

I gaze at Gakia’s fallen remains.

I didn’t have any particular attachment to him.

However, knowing that one of the ancient dragons has perished, I feel a sentiment that’s hard to describe.

Another one of the elders is gone.

It’s all the more painful because it was by my own hand.

I shake free of the pointless emotion.

There is still something that I must do.

I must consume Gakia’s remains, as well as the remains of the other earth dragons.

Because the battle took us all over the Bottom Stratum, the remains of those dragons who fell along the way are scattered in various places.

Troublesome though it might be, I must go retrieve and eat them.

It goes against my principles to leave leftovers behind.

Wait.

That’s strange.

Have I always had such a principle?

Hmm…?

Well, it’s fine.

No.

This is not fine.

This is not fine at all.

My thoughts are diverging more and more from my original self.

I feel that something is mixed in with my soul.

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It’s the individual eating away at my soul, the same thing I felt before this battle began.

It seems to have advanced significantly during the battle.

And yet, something feels different.

Before I started fighting the earth dragons, it felt as if I was being attacked, but now it feels more like we’re melding together.

We’re becoming one.

I cannot tell if that is a good thing or not.

But in the process, memories of what the unique individual is have merged into my consciousness.

A reincarnation, another world, and its life thus far in this one.

It’s only bits and pieces, but now I understand how and why the individual attacked the queen.

Although that does not mean I have any intention of forgiving it.

I do not really understand my own condition at the moment.

I am me, and yet a part of me is not, making me question whether I am really myself at all.

It is not a good feeling.

However, I am still functioning as myself without any issue.

At this point, I cannot tell whether I am succeeding in preserving my own self or not.

And yet, I do not feel too uneasy.

The only thought I can summon is a lighthearted “Well, it’ll work out, I bet.”

Perhaps even my personality has been changed by the spiritual assault now.

I may simply feel like myself still, when in reality I have already been all but devoured.

To be honest, the part of me that believes everything will be fine…frightens me.

But obsessing over it will do me no good.

Clearly, not eating the earth dragons is not an option for me now.

I am indeed hungry anyway, and considering the effects of Gluttony, it would no doubt be best to eat them regardless.

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Then there is no reason to hesitate.

“Time to eat.”

“It certainly is not.”

Someone responds to my soliloquy.

Turning around, I see Gülie there, looking troubled.

The dark man some call “Black,” the administrator Güliedistodiez.

One of the gods who control this world’s system.

“Which one are you right now?” he asks shortly.

I think for a moment before I respond. “Which one do I seem like to you?”

I’m answering a question with a question, but I have no choice.

Because I myself don’t know the answer to what he asked me.

“Both and neither at once. You have blended together such that I can no longer say whether you are one or the other. Though your consciousness appears to be closer to Ariel.”

“Aw, man, you think so?”

I scratch my head with a grin.

I had figured as much, but when someone else points it out, I can’t help thinking, Oh wow, yeah.

“Your tone more closely resembles the other, however.”

“Yep. While I’m at it, I think my thoughts are leaning that way, too.”

Otherwise I doubt I could be so optimistic.

The old me was cautious, even cowardly.

The fact that I am experiencing the process of no longer being myself and still simply enduring it is good proof of that.

“What do you intend to do now, then?”

“I don’t know.”

I really don’t.

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Now that our souls have become so intermingled, it would likely be too late even if I destroyed the other’s real body now.

And the biggest issue is that I still have no idea how to defeat that body anyway.

It somehow revives itself even if I kill it, and since it has Teleport, it wouldn’t be terribly easy to catch it in the first place.

The only reason I was able to catch it before is that I was lucky, and that the main body is a fool.

I can’t catch it by chasing it around, and even if I did, I can’t truly kill it.

Even if I could, I do not think I could return to my old self.

I don’t even know if the corrosion would stop.

I’m beset on all sides.

“Honestly, I’ve pretty much lost already. It’s a fifty-fifty chance whether I’ll retain my sense of self at all, but I don’t know if I can even say that if I’m already not myself anymore. In a sense, the being known as Ariel has already been altered. She may already be gone.”

I would not say that Ariel is dead.

I still retain my feelings and memories as Ariel.

However, my thought process is very different from how it once was.

Given these circumstances, can I really say that I am still me?

It’s a question with no right answer.

“Gülie, what is a reincarnation?”

Putting aside this difficult thought exercise, I instead ask Gülie a question he should know the answer to.

“I suppose the best way to describe them is as guests who have been invited into this world by Administrator D.”

“Invited, eh?”

Something in me resists that knowledge.

All I know of Administrator D is what I have heard from Gülie.

According to him, D is a god with far more power than Gülie.

And now, at a time like this, that god has deliberately welcomed new souls from another world.

Perhaps D was trying to call a new wind into this world, like earth dragon Gakia said.

To change this world’s fate as it careens toward destruction.

“Well, I don’t know what D was thinking, and I don’t care. I’m going to get payback, that’s all.”

I will fight against that individual once more.

That’s all.

“How likely do you think it is that I’ll remain, Gülie?”

“Fifty-fifty, indeed. At this point, even I can no longer separate your souls. Either way, I believe your existence will live on in some form, but I cannot imagine what that form might be.”

“I see.”

“It seems as though even the one grappling with your soul can no longer stop the fusion of its own will. I cannot tell whose thoughts will emerge victorious. You may even be reduced to a different person entirely when the melding is complete.”

I hope that doesn’t happen.

I want to retain as much of myself as possible and resist as much as I can.

“Hmm. Well, allow me to make up for my subordinates causing you trouble. I will send you to that creature’s location.”

At that offer, my jaw hits the floor for a moment.

“Are you sure that’s all right? Even when it clearly has an administrator’s favor?”

“No, it is not all right. D has specifically instructed me not to interfere with the reincarnations. Indirectly or no, D may decide to punish me for putting a reincarnation in a difficult spot.”

It seems that lending me a hand is even more dangerous for Gülie than I realized.

“Then why—?”

Gülie cuts me off. “Nevertheless, I would like to help my old friend’s daughter if I can.”

“Aren’t you acting cool. Can’t you ever show that side to Lady Sariel?”

“Say what you will.”

Gülie begins to form the Teleport spell.

“But come back alive.”

“I’ll be careful.”

Whether I win or lose, I do not know if I will remain myself.

But I must win if I wish to proceed.

Gülie’s Teleport magic activates, sending me to a different place.

When I arrive, I’m at some kind of battlefield.

The strange individual is right before my eyes, wreaking havoc on some humans.

“Sorry to interrupt your fun.”

I apologize frankly for disturbing whatever is going on here.

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“I’m going to have to ask you to die now, okay?”

And then I declare war.

Oh, I just realized. I forgot to eat the earth dragons.