Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? Volume Chapter 22

Mr. Oni comes charging at us with a roar.

It’s just the baby bloodsucker, Mera, and me.

But I’m a normie now, so I don’t even count as a fighter.

I guess the baby bloodsucker is probably the strongest of the three of us, but even she isn’t as strong as Sael and the other puppet spiders.

And since Mr. Oni was an even match for Sael, I doubt our little vampire will be able to take him on.

So what am I supposed to do now?

That’s obvious. Ruuuuun!

I turn away from the charging oni and flee for my life.

Vampy did a little Healing Magic on me earlier, so while I’m not at 100 percent, I can at least manage to run.

For as long as my shitty stamina holds out anyway!

But it’s better than doing nothing!

It’s not like I’m running away because I’m only thinking of myself, okay?

To put it bluntly, I’m nothing more than a burden in battle right now.

Aside from my total lack of strength, my defense is disturbingly low, too, so just getting caught in the middle of a battle could get me killed.

So the bloodsucker duo won’t be able to fight to their fullest potential if they have to worry about me being nearby.

Look, if I would be any use at all, I’d be fighting right there with them!

But this is the reality: I’m not just useless, I’d actually make things harder for them.

It’s in everyone’s best interest if I hightail it out of there so I won’t get in the baby bloodsucker’s and Mera’s way.

So no, I’m not just running to save my own hide.

I’ve run out of options! Get it?

Behind me, I hear a loud, roaring boom.

I guess the battle has begun.

And it’s waaay too close to me, too!

I can actually feel the air crackling from close behind me.

Like, real close.

Yeah, I guess with my pathetic physique, even a full-speed dash doesn’t amount to much.

Besides, we’re talking about a beast whose stats probably rank in the ten thousands who moves too fast to follow with the naked eye.

It was stupid of me to think I could get away in the first place.

I can hear all kinds of ridiculous battle noises right behind me, like POW! and KABOOM!

Time out, time out!

Can’t you at least wait until I get a safe distance away, please?!

I’m kinda super-serious right now!

But then my wish gets granted, kinda: The shock wave from one of the attacks impacts my body, sending me rolling far away.

Phew. Guess I’m just blessed with good luck as a reward for being so good all the time!

Never mind the fact that I looked really silly in the process or that if I’d rolled any farther, I would’ve fallen right into a seemingly bottomless crevasse.

Yikes, that was close!

I stand up and edge away slooowly, taking care not to fall in.

If I panic and try to run away, you just know the ice’ll crack beneath my feet and I’ll fall in anyway.

As it stands, I’m already hearing some unsettling cracking noises, so I have to be really careful with how I take my distance here.

Finally, I make it far enough away from the crevasse and check that I’m not too close to the battle. I’m safe for now.

A battle like that could easily shift a mile in any direction, so this distance can help me only so much, but it’s better than nothing.

Ideally, I should keep moving to get even farther away, but…sorry, I’m kinda pooped already.

I’m wheezing like crazy, and my shoulders are heaving.

Nope. I can’t move anymore.

Not to mention, the air is so cold that it hurts to breathe.

You’d think running at full speed would’ve warmed me up, but it only made me colder.

Right. Mr. Oni isn’t the only pressing concern here.

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This freezing cold is just as bad.

If I stay out in this cold much longer, I’ll probably turn into an ice sculpture before you know it.

I’ve gotta do something, and fast.

But the best way to deal with Mr. Oni is to wait for Sael to make her way back.

Even together, I don’t think the bloodsucker duo can beat this oni, so it’s best if they just try to buy time.

We have to hurry or I’ll freeze to death, but we have to buy time to defeat Mr. Oni. Talk about a dilemma.

Hey, why is Mr. Oni attacking us anyway?

“GRAAAAAH!”

Oh right. As far as I can tell, he’s lost his damn mind.

It kinda seems like he’s just attacking anything in sight at this point.

I mean, when he first attacked us, we were hidden inside an igloo, so it’s not like he even knew who we were before he came after us.

I guess he must’ve seen the signal Mera sent up, figured someone was there, and just came over to attack for no other reason?

Maybe it’s best to assume that he’s nothing more than a beast in humanoid form at this point. Although even a beast might be better at choosing its battles.

Hrmmm.

Something about Mr. Oni’s current condition kinda rings a bell.

He’s lost his mind.

But he has stats high enough to compete with Sael.

Is this a Wrath skill?

The Wrath line of skills, like Anger and Rage, raises your stats. And unlike Magic and Mental Warfare, it doesn’t even cost SP or MP.

Sounds great, right? But there’s a major catch.

Like they say, nothing in this world is free. Wrath doesn’t seem to cost anything, but there’s actually a very high price.

The loss of your sanity.

When you activate a Wrath skill, it makes you frothing mad, forcing you to go off the rails.

Then you give in to the anger and go on a rampage, but the scariest part is that if you don’t turn the skill off with your own will, you’ll just keep rampaging forever.

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And the longer you leave the skill active, the more the anger eats away at your mind.

Lose yourself to the rage, and you’ll eventually lose the self-awareness to turn off the skill entirely.

In the end, you’ll become a berserker, indiscriminately attacking everyone and everything.

It lines up perfectly with Mr. Oni’s current state.

This is just an educated guess, but I’d bet money that I’m right.

Ahhh, if only I could use Appraisal, I could prove that my theory is correct!

Oh, Vampy learned Appraisal, come to think of it.

I’m the one who suggested it to her.

But I don’t have time to tell her that now.

And I definitely don’t wanna stick my nose into that crazy face-off.

“Oof!”

Just then, the baby bloodsucker lets out a cute little cry as she gets blown away and crashes right into me!

Of course, I can’t catch her in place, so the impact just sends us both rolling along the ground.

Ow.

I think I’m gonna cry.

“Hff! Hff!”

Vampy wheezes, quickly jumping away from me and standing up.

Her body’s covered in cuts and scrapes, but the wounds are closing up even as I look at them.

Now, that’s some speedy self-healing there, missy.

Don’t suppose you could spare a little healing for the person you just crashed into and injured?

Oh, you don’t have time?

Right, since Vampy got blown over here, that means Mera is holding the front lines by himself.

His sword is broken in half, so he’s fending off Mr. Oni’s barrage of attacks with the handle and tiny stump of a blade.

Obviously, that’s not enough to block all of the oni’s attacks, since he has two not-broken katanas, so Mera’s slowly getting more and more wounded.

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And Vampy’s in an even worse situation. She doesn’t have any weapons at all.

She’s still just a child, so her body’s too small to hold weapons in the first place.

And it doesn’t help that her favorite kind of weapon is a big ol’ broadsword.

It’s way too hard to lug something like that around all the time, so her broadsword is usually in the carriage.

And we don’t have the carriage right now, which means she doesn’t have her sword, either.

It looks like she used magic to make herself an ice sword on the spot, but a single attack from Mr. Oni shatters it.

She’s pretty much fighting with her bare hands.

It’s crazy to take on an armed opponent like that, magic or no.

But after catching her breath for just a second, she’s already trying to charge back into the fight.

I grab the hem of her clothes to stop her. Since I’m still on the ground, that means her pants.

“What?!” she snaps angrily. “I’m busy!”

Yeah, I guess I can’t blame her for getting mad when I’m literally holding her back.

But I need her to listen to me for a second.

“Appraisal.”

“Huh?! …Oh.”

What do you mean, oh?!

You forgot about it, didn’t you?! You totally forgot Mr. Appraisal even existed!

How could you do that to a dear friend who was so useful to me before my deification?!

“Check for the Anger skill.”

I manage to push down my own fury enough to tell her what I’m thinking.

She doesn’t seem to know what I’m getting at, but she must feel guilty about forgetting Appraisal, because it looks like she’s doing it anyway.

“It’s not there. Ah, no, wait a second. He has a skill called Wrath!”

Wait, what?

Yikes. Okay, that’s actually even worse than I thought.

I’d assumed that maybe his Anger skill had evolved into Rage.

The Anger skill raises your stats but not nearly enough to put someone on the same level as Sael.

If it gave you that much power, I probably would’ve used Anger more myself, even with the risk of losing my sanity.

So I figured there was a good chance it had turned into the more advanced version, Rage.

But it’s already turned into Wrath?

That’s one of the super-broken Seven Deadly Sins skills.

Considering how overpowered the other Seven Deadly Sins skills are, Wrath is definitely bad news.

And if it evolved from Anger and Rage, then it must have a super-enhanced version of the same effect: sacrificing your sanity to give your stats a huge boost.

No wonder he was able to fight evenly with Sael!

I’m sure the only reason the imperial army was able to chase him off was that he must have been too afraid of losing his mind to use Wrath.

But he must have used it when he got cornered by those elves, or else he got attacked by an ice dragon and used it here in the Mystic Mountains.

Either way, he must have activated Wrath and lost his mind to get to this point.

It all makes sense.

And that means I have a plan.

“Sophia, use your Jealousy skill on Wrath!”

Vampy looks shocked by my uncharacteristically strong words.

But then her expression changes to understanding. Maybe she used Appraisal to read the details about the Wrath skill.

“Got it!”

Vampy nods and takes off.

The Jealousy skill is a lesser version of Envy, one of the Seven Deadly Sins skills like Wrath.

Its effect is similar to a skill I used to have called Sealing Evil Eye: It seals one of the target’s skills.

Obviously, that means they can’t use it anymore.

If we can seal Mr. Oni’s Wrath skill, then his stats should go way down.

On top of that, maybe he’ll even regain his sanity.

Then we can find out whether he really is Kyouya Sasajima.

If so, then he’d be the second fellow reincarnation I’ve encountered, after the baby bloodsucker. I’d like to avoid him getting killed if at all possible.

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But that second if is a pretty big one.

This may sound cold, but I can’t prioritize his life over Vampy’s, Mera’s, and my own.

So I don’t want the bloodsucker duo to do anything too risky, but Vampy’s eyes are sorta blazing right now…

She’s definitely determined to win no matter what.

As I learned from her mock battles with Ael, it turns out the baby bloodsucker is a really sore loser.

Every time Ael beat her, she would always sulk afterward.

I guess knowing from the start that she wouldn’t win didn’t make her any less mad about losing.

On top of that, she seems to be a bit battle-crazy. Like, she really loves to fight.

The reason she didn’t stop training even after I got deified and couldn’t practice with her anymore is definitely that battle-hungry, winning-obsessed side of her.

Even now, there’s a genuine smile on her face as she fights Mr. Oni.

Up till now, her expression had been serious, since her and Mera’s lives were in serious danger; now that there’s a hope of victory, though, she seems to be enjoying herself.

Yikes. That’s hella scary, girl.

But we can’t count our chickens just yet.

The Jealousy skill doesn’t instantly take effect.

It’ll take time to seal off the Wrath skill.

In fact, I don’t even know if a crazy-overpowered skill like Wrath can be sealed at all.

The only way we’re gonna survive this is if either the baby bloodsucker can seal Mr. Oni’s Wrath skill or if Sael comes back to the fight.

Either way, it all depends on the bloodsucker duo being able to buy enough time.

But, uh…

An unpleasant cracking sound fills the air.

It’s coming from the ground.

The ground right nearby, no less.

The creaking, splitting sound keeps getting louder with time.

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We’re on top of a giant glacier right now, so the ground below us is actually ice.

Ice that’s been piled up on top of real ground, since it’s too cold in the Mystic Mountains for it to melt.

But Mr. Oni’s attack earlier made a huge fissure, and the shock waves as the battle continues are only widening that gap.

It’s freezing cold out here, yet I feel like I’m sweating.

(Cold sweat, of course.)

This doesn’t look good, guys.

This glacier is going to collapse!

If this glacier is big enough to form a crevasse so deep that you can’t see the bottom, what do you think is gonna happen if the whole thing breaks?

Sadly, my imagination is too flimsy to picture it.

But I know one thing for sure: I’ll die!

I’m definitely gonna die if I get caught up in the collapse of a giant glacier!

Waaaaah!

What am I gonna do?!

For now, I better start by getting away from here.

But I’m too tired to move another inch!

I can barely even stand up!

I can’t do anything at all!

Save me, Draemon!

But no matter how much I silently cry for help, no one is coming to save me.

Reality is cruel.

Maybe I used up all my luck on that rolling escape earlier…

“Ahhh?!”

To make matters worse, I hear Vampy cry out in pain.

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Her small body has been pierced through by one of the oni’s blades.

Blood oozes from the wound, staining her clothes red.

Mera is lying at Mr. Oni’s feet with no arms.

The oni cut off both his arms.

And yet, he’s still biting Mr. Oni’s leg from the ground.

Even without arms, Mera’s still desperately trying to protect Vampy.

But Mr. Oni kicks him away impatiently, and without his arms, Mera can’t stop himself from rolling away.

He tries to crawl back over, but it looks like his body isn’t obeying him anymore, so he just writhes around.

Mr. Oni flings Vampy off his sword, too, like he’s shaking away a bit of blood.

It’s an awful sight.

But Mera and the baby bloodsucker are both still alive, at least.

Mera is definitely mortally wounded, but he’s still moving, and the baby bloodsucker has the Undying Body skill, which lets her survive a normally deadly attack once per day, leaving her with 1 HP.

She seems to have passed out from the shock of being stabbed, but she’s not dead, or at least she shouldn’t be.

But they’re still in major trouble.

They may be alive now, but one more attack and they’ll be done for.

However, for better or for worse, Vampy doesn’t get attacked again.

Why? Because Mr. Oni has set his sights on me.

Wait. Me?!

I whip my unmoving body into shape, forcing myself to my feet using the scythe as a cane.

It’s not like I’ll be able to do anything else just because I’m standing now, but I’d like to think it’s better than doing nothing at all.

Just as I get to my feet, the oni charges at me furiously.

Next thing I know, he’s right in my face.

Damn, this guy’s fast!

The wind pressure from Mr. Oni’s impossible speed blows the hood of my robe right off my head.

“?!”

When Mr. Oni sees my face, he suddenly freezes.

Huh?

Wait, does he actually recognize me?

I don’t think his Wrath skill is completely sealed, but maybe Vampy’s Jealousy was able to bring him back to his senses a tiny bit.

If I speak to him now, I might be able to set him straight!

“Sasajima?”

Slowly, carefully, I say his name.

Mr. Oni’s face stiffens, and his eyes open wide.

After a conflicted pause, the light returns to his eyes for just a second, only to be engulfed once more by the flames of Wrath.

It didn’t work?!

Then I have no other choice.

I might be weaker than an average normie now, but you better believe I’ll still put up a fight!

Besides, this giant scythe is full of power.

I can’t activate any of that power myself, but if I manage to hit him with it, maybe it’ll produce some kind of results.

Clinging to that faint hope, I raise my scythe against Mr. Oni.

But then Vampy bites down on his neck from behind!

“Mmmph!”

She pierces right through the skin and starts sucking his blood.

A baby vampire sucking an oni’s blood!

Now, there’s something you don’t see every day.

“Graaaaah!”

Mr. Oni howls and thrashes about, trying to shake off Vampy.

But she stubbornly clings to his body, refusing to let go.

You’re in no condition to be doing something this crazy!

Mr. Oni flails around violently, stamping his feet.

The impact causes the ice to emit a new sound, a much worse sound than the ones it’s made so far.

At the same time, the crevasse gets so big that it’s more like a canyon, and new cracks begin to spread around it.

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Then the ice starts breaking off from those cracks and falling into the crevasse.

It’s like watching the ground explode!

Mr. Oni gets caught up in the collapse, sinking downward.

And then he falls.

With Vampy still attached.

“SOPHIA!”

Now, this next part isn’t on purpose.

I mean, I’ve tried it a million times, and it always failed.

But in that instant, I guess my old reflexes just take over.

I start to picture white thread.

I imagine it coming out of my fingertips.

The thread catches Vampy and pulls her back up.

I have no reason to believe this will actually work.

But somehow, thread really does come out of my fingertips, wrap around Vampy, and stop her from falling.

After all those failed attempts, I just pulled it off super-smoothly at the exact right time.

Talk about a deus ex machina.

But I’ll take it, thank you very much!

I brace my legs and pull Vampy back up.

Mr. Oni gets detached from her and falls backward into the darkness of the crevasse.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any spare strength to save him.

In fact, I’m about to fall in myself!

I’m not strong enough to lift a whole person, even if it’s a little girl!

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I guess even if I can produce thread now, I still can’t make my muscles any stronger.

Noticing my pained expression, Vampy hurriedly starts climbing the thread.

Finally, she manages to scramble back up to solid ground.

But we’re not safe yet.

The glacier is still collapsing.

We have to get out of here, and fast.

“Where’s Merazophis?!”

Vampy looks around frantically.

“There!”

Following her gaze, I see Mera on the verge of sliding into a fissure.

Shit!

I quickly send out more thread.

It wraps around Mera’s body right as he slips over the edge, just barely preventing him from falling.

Vampy promptly snatches the thread from me and pulls Mera over.

“My apologies, Young Miss.”

“Don’t be sorry. I’m glad you’re all right.”

Mera looks at his master in anguish, but she warmly embraces him.

This is a heartwarming scene and all, but we don’t have time for this right now!

We have to run, so I start to stand up.

But my legs promptly lurch to one side.

It’s not because I’m too tired to stand up.

No, the ground itself is tilting.

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Uh-oh.

Before I can react beyond that thought, the ground we’re standing on gives way.

All three of us start to fall.

Vampy, use Dimensional Maneuvering!

I whirl to look at her, but the little girl’s eyes are closed.

She passed out still clinging to Mera!

I’m not surprised, since she pushed herself so far already, but still!

Why couldn’t she last, like, thirty seconds longer?!

Mera’s too gravely wounded to move at all, never mind use Dimensional Maneuvering!

Just as I close my eyes and resign myself to my fate, the falling suddenly stops.

Cracking my eyes open cautiously, I see that the three of us have been caught by a white net.

And on the other end of the net is Sael.

SAAAAEL!

Perfect timing, girl!

Sael uses Dimensional Maneuvering to run through the sky, and we escape the collapsing glacier.

I always thought Sael was a little useless, but it goes without saying that, right now, she’s the most dependable person in the world to me.