In a Different World with a Smartphone

Chapter 422: Attachments, and Awakening.

Kikikikikikikikikikikiki……

While creating an unpleasant noise like that of someone scratching a blackboard, the evil god flapped its huge wings.

From those wings, a glittery scale powder-like thing was released. It’s probably the same kind of thing as the spores released by the giant golden tree that grew in Eisengard some time back.

Those were demonic spores that transform people who died while holding grudges, or people who had an abundant amount of negative emotions into variants.

Although it’s ineffective against us who are gods’ dependants, if we leave that alone, most of humanity will probably turn into variants before long.

“Reginleiv!”

I called my personal machine on the ground, and jumped off from Eisen Tower. Using [Fly], I got into the cockpit and set my smartphone up on the panel in front, starting Reginleiv up.

On the monitor, the evil god, seemingly having noticed my actions, turned its head towards me.

With a low hum, light particles began gathering between its large antennae. Don’t tell me…!

“Kuh!”

I made Reginleiv do an emergency acceleration, and got away from Eisen Tower while flying low above the ground.

Three seconds later, a giant ball of light impacted Eisen Tower, upon which an explosion the likes of which I’ve never heard before in my life as well as tremendous blast wind assaulted Reginleiv, and me in it, from behind.

“[Prison]!”

I enclosed Reginleiv in a cubic barrier. Rubble and metal pieces that were blown away by the explosion hit the [Prison] and bounced away.

A mushroom cloud like that of a volcano eruption drifted upwards behind me, and rocks began raining from above.

I rose up while rocks continued to drop onto the [Prison], and confirmed the situation from the sky; the capital of Eisengard, Industrial City Eisenbrook has been obliterated.

It had already turned into a capital of death thanks to the golden skeletons, but now not even ruins remain.

That attack was far above an advanced-class’ particle cannon. I couldn’t help but shiver when I thought about that being dropped on another country’s capital instead of Eisenbrook.

That thing probably can’t be guarded against by [Prison] or [Shield]. And I’m not sure if [Reflection] will work, too…

“Dilly-dallying here won’t do me any good. In any case, guess I’ll try attacking as well.”

The twelve crystal boards on Reginleiv’s back broke off and merged together to form a single giant sword.

“Mode change: Greatsword.”

The huge sword, which could only be seen as a giant isosceles triangle, was held in Reginleiv’s hands, and had divinity injected into it.

Crystal material has a frighteningly high affinity for magic power, but it’s also a good material for conducting divinity.

I, who made a holy sword within moments, held that sword up with Reginleiv’s hands and charged at the evil god.

As if it was waiting for that, laser-like beams shot out of the tip of the six limbs attached to the evil god’s torso.

While dodging the beams in midair, I continued heading towards the evil god.

Swinging the crystal greatsword, I cut off one of the thin limbs (even so, it’s still wider than the entire height of Reginleiv) of the evil god. It’s a crystal sword with divinity clad around it, but I was still met with quite the resistance when trying to cut it; I somehow managed.

The cut-off limb dropped onto the ground and broke into pieces.

Kikikikikikikikikikikikikiki……

When the evil god made an unpleasant sound once again, the cut-off limb began regenerating from the cut section. As expected, it also has regenerative powers.

“[O Fire pierce through, scorching great lance, Burning Lance]!”

A giant lance of fire appeared in midair and flew towards one of the evil god’s feathery wings.

The fire lance penetrated the golden wing accurately, leaving a gaping hole. However, compared to the sheer size of the evil god, the hole is only on the level of poking a hole in a piece of paper with a cigarette. It’s regenerated within seconds.

“Magic isn’t absorbed. So it doesn’t have the magic invalidation trait of Phrases?”

The Phrase is capable of absorbing magic power and using it for their own purposes, such as regeneration or making their body harder. I suppose the evil god doesn’t have that trait; or rather, it doesn’t need it.

Without needing to absorb something like that, it can use divinity to regenerate itself, and also fire lasers like earlier.

“It’s so big I have no idea how to kill it…”

If it’s a normal living thing then it should die if I destroy either its head or its heart, I guess. Areh? Wait, in the first place can gods even die? Oh, right, [Godslaying Poison] exists so they should.

As I sank into thought, six lasers were fired at me from the evil god’s arms.

“Oops!”

I moved the control sticks and dodged them by a paper’s width—was what’s supposed to happen, but the large wings suddenly flapped, creating a turbulence in the air that unbalanced Reginleiv.

Not good! By the time my thoughts reached there, Reginleiv had already been hit directly by a laser, and was blown away.

“Ku…”

“The protective barrier has been damaged by 35%.”

A voice notification came from my smartphone. Due to the protective barrier around Reginleiv, the main body hasn’t received any damage. However, given the number earlier, it’ll break with another two more hits.

I put Reginleiv back into a proper posture, and stared towards the evil god. I don’t think it can feel things like emotions. It’s probably attacking me only due to instinctually labelling me as an enemy.

The negative emotions of tens of thousands of people congregated to form the evil god. There’s probably no personality that could lead them and appear on the surface.

Seems like that NEET god had truly been annihilated. He sure has no willpower… Well, he is a NEET.

I doubt it had read my mind, but right at this moment, the evil god shot numerous lasers at me consecutively as if it’s enraged. Dangerous!?

This won’t do, gotta get my mind back in gear; if I lose focus, I could get taken out easily.

This guy is like a boss fight on the first attempt. I don’t know what kind of attacks it has, and what are its weaknesses. I have to proceed cautiously.

Inside my head, the final battle BGM of a certain famous RPG began playing… Playing… Areh? It’s being played?

Eh? It’s actually being played!? The music was coming from the speaker connected to the external mic.

I turned Reginleiv’s camera to the side.

“Ha!?”

Shown on the monitor, sitting still in midair and energetically strumming a guitar with built-in speakers taken from the [Warehouse], was Sousuke nii-san AKA the Music God.

“Oh- oh- oh-. That’s quite a grand spectacle-no da.”

“An evil god of this caliber doesn’t appear that often-no yo. This is a precious experience-no yo.”

There’s also Suika AKA the Alcohol God floating in the air with a bottle in her hand, and Karen nee-san AKA the Love God beside her putting potato chips from a bag into her mouth.

They were both floating in the air and looking at the evil god.

“Wai, why is everyone here!?”

“Field trip-nano ra. The Agriculture God went to the Sacred Tree, and the Martial God, Sword God and Hunting God were all fighting those gold plated things there too; we’re bored, you know.”

Nihehe, went Suika. A field trip… You know, this is supposed to be a fight with the fate of the world riding on it…

“I came to check if my younger brother’s properly doing his job-no yo. In your world, I think this is called a classroom visit?”

“This is the most annoying one I’ve had in my life!”

What kind of a situation am I in, trying to fight with gods spectating me on a field trip!? How do you expect me to stay calm with this!

“Since we’ve been told by World God-sama to stay out of it, we really will only be spectating- nano ra. He did say that we can give advices though.”

What kind of advice can someone whose way of speech isn’t even normal give me? I don’t have any expectations. You’re just a drunkard, you know.

Suddenly, the tune being played on Sousuke nii-san’s guitar changed.

The giant snake-like tail of the evil god was coming down towards us like a huge whip.

The three gods instantly teleported themselves somewhere else. Ah, not fai—!

“Kuh, [Teleport]!”

Imitating Karen nee-san and the others, I used instant teleportation to escape from there.

The golden tail smashed into the ground underneath while raising huge tremors. If I ate that head-on, I’d probably be flattened into a rice cracker by now.

“How can I deal damage to that thing?”

“Evil gods are generally formed when a sacred treasure or something else left behind by a god merges with things like grudges and negative emotions from the lower realm. They’re something like tsukumogami. As such, only the power of gods would work.”

Karen nee-san, who popped up again, spoke thus.

“The power of gods… You mean divinity, right? But I’ve been using it since a while ago…”

“That’s divinity and yet not at the same time, yanno~. Touya onii-chan, you still have way too much lingering attachmenttt. Mixed in, mixed inn ya seeee. It’s a brewed wine yanoo. Brewed

alcohols are nice, but distilled liquors are better~. You get it? Spirits! Spirits-nano ra!”

“… Karen nee-san, translate.”

On top of not speaking properly, she’s even giving me weird metaphors. This damn drunk. Who’re you calling brewed sake? Also, what’s lingering attachment?

“Basically, Touya-kun, you’re currently in an intermediate state-nano yo. God and human. Magic power and divine power. You’re using divinity with impurities mixed in, which obviously won’t be able to show its full power. If you become a complete god, you’d become unable to interfere with the evil god like us, so you have to release pure divinity while keeping your physical body in the same state-no yo.”

“So… What do I do?”

“Firm up your determination. To defeat the evil god, and to climb up the rank of the gods.”

So that’s what the lingering attachments meant…

It’s true that a part of me still wants to live on as a human. Although there’s no way I would turn into a complete god right this instant, deep in my heart, I must still be scared of getting onto that path with no way of turning back.

No, that’s wrong; I’m already on that path. Although I’m only near the start, I’ve already begun walking down it. And even so, I’m still constantly worried about what I’ve left behind. Just like Suika said, I’m full of lingering attachments.

I might’ve even thought “It’s fine even if I can’t defeat the evil god if it means I won’t have to become a god” somewhere in my heart… That is nothing but a betrayal to everyone who had lent me strength on this journey to this point.

“Make up your mind-no yo. Right now, you’re like a wussy ex-boyfriend who keeps thinking back on the girl that already dumped him-nano yo. You’ll become a stalker-no yo.”

“Stop it with the creepy metaphors! … Well, it’s only somewhat, but I get what you mean. Thank you, Karen nee-san.”

“Fufun, of course-no yo.”

Karen nee-san replied with a smug face, and Sousuke nii-san also strummed his guitar. Why did you play a level up sound effect…? You mean I leveled up?

“Not fair-! I was the one who gave the advice in the first placeee! Spirits! God spiritsss!”

No well, I can’t understand what you’re saying, so.

As I was staring with amazement at the Alcohol God who was hugging a sake bottle and spinning in place, another rain of lasers assaulted us from below.

Just like earlier, Karen nee-san and the others teleported away.

“Work hard-no yo.”

Leaving that sentence behind, the three of them disappeared. They’ll probably be watching this battle while relaxing somewhere. To the gods, this might be something on the level of a community event.

“Alright, then time to get this event going, I guess.”

I released the divinity circulating around my entire body. Suika said that there’s things “mixed in” my divinity. So basically, I just need to produce pure divinity that doesn’t have my magic power mixed into it.

I used the World God-sama as a reference. My divinity has the same base characteristics as his. That godly (well, this is obvious) divinity that I experienced during that incident back in Ramissh Theocracy. I’ll have to purify and distill my divinity until it reaches that level.

Strangely, my heart is calm despite the daunting task.

A spontaneous flash of light floated up in my mind. It felt like a small spark, and it also felt like a huge explosion; it was a flash of something being created.

When I came to, before I knew it, my whole body was overflowing with divinity. It’s different from how I was “clad” in divinity “on the outside” before. This time, it’s “flowing out from the inside”.

I did it. It felt like that moment when you popped open the cap of a water bottle, or the moment when you pushed a part of a plastic model into the socket it fits in.

It was done so smoothly, I couldn’t even understand why I didn’t do it before this.

Without a doubt, I can accept that this is also me.

That power, through the ether liquid running throughout Reginleiv, spread across the entire frame and enveloped it.

An overflowing amount of divinity was also poured into the crystal greatsword held in Reginleiv’s hands.

Karen nee-san’s divinity was pink, and Moroha nee-san’s divinity was sky blue mixed with a tinge of gold, that kind of pale color; while my transformed divinity shone with a silver… No, platinum light.

A divinity with a platinum shine. Different from World God-sama’s golden divinity as well, a color that belong only to me.

Another laser came from the evil god.

While dodging that, I once again cut the evil god’s limb like earlier. This time, the sword went through it with a crisp feeling like cutting radish.

Gigigigigigigigigigii!

The cut surface of the limb began producing black smoke, and for the first time, the evil god writhed in agony. The limb I cut off did not regenerate, and fell off while melting down into a sludge.

This’ll work. I can do this.

“Touya-san! Are you okay!?”

Suddenly, Yumina’s voice was heard over the comms. When I turned around, on the monitor, everyone was heading over here in their Valkyrias from beyond Eisenbrook which doesn’t exist anymore.

At the same time, light particles began condensing between the evil god’s large antennae. The speed at which the light condensed was faster than earlier. Oi, wait a sec…!

The attack that obliterated Eisenbrook, instead of being shot towards me, flew towards everyone else as they were running this way.

- Pixel