chapter 37
37. “Win.”
“Yes-!”
Still unable to give up her position as the literary girl, Huk Gya-ru, Ni’ala’to’tep, after doing a Gya-ru peace, rushed to hug Yudahee.
Of course, it was not the blonde tan Huk Gya-ru but the blonde milk-skinned goddess who hugged Dike by turning her body around.
Even so, she refused the hug.
The opponent is an outsider.
After coming to Earth, she could no longer believe in the command of Azathoth that had been released, so she had to be as careful as possible.
Yudahee, who barely avoided Ni’ala’to’tep, who tried to stick to her body by using all the things she had learned, was the appearance of an excellent disciple who made good use of her teachings, and Ni’ala’to’tep’s lips protruded sharply.
Nevertheless, Yudahee was slightly away, examining Dike’s body.
“Do you feel anything strange? I mean, I forced you into it… Well, I blew in just a little, so if there’s a problem, I have to send you back.”
“Something strange? Um- It seems to have worked better than I thought… The creeping chaos of justice…! So, Ni’ala… Dike? Is that about right?”
“
Ni’ala’to’tep, who had been examining her body for a while, raised her chest.
“But this, it’s too big, isn’t something wrong? It’s abnormally large.”
“…That’s not it, let’s move on.”
Dike’s face, voice, and actions were all there, but what was inside was undoubtedly Ni’ala’to’tep.
“He really called it right on the edge! Just right, neither too much nor too little, hmm, as expected, Yog taught him well!”
Niallitotep, who was about to strike Yudahee’s back, suddenly turned around.
“aaah! What’s this! What is thisss!”
Deke’s scream burst out.
Then, his left hand moved swiftly, not to shake Yudahee’s neck.
“Let go! What on earth is this! What is going onnn!”
Deke was on the verge of going crazy at this unexpected catastrophic situation that had fallen from the sky.
Suddenly, it seemed to flash and bounce off to the other side of consciousness.
And in its place stood… a fair-haired, tan-skinned figure.
“My body! My avatar!”
Deke rushed with a determination that could not be taken away, but…
“Huh?”
He looked.
At something beyond those eyes.
The faceless god, the destroyer of hope, the mouth of madness, the ruler of a thousand forms, who dominates even the vast universe lightly… in an unfathomable outer world that even the giant cosmos cannot observe.
“Dekeeyaaat!”
He was immediately thrust into the corner of consciousness.
Niallatotep, who had cleaned up and returned Deke’s withdrawn mouth and hands, looked inward with a sinister expression, as if he had found something to play with after a long time.
It’s really hard to find an opportunity to come into the sacred space and sleep like this~
“Don’t make strange noises, and could you please look over there? You can reach out later; it’s not urgent right now.”
“Oh, can I touch it?”
“A little… just a tiny bit. So, for now, please focus on what’s ahead.”
Yudahee’s permission had probably been granted, hmm. Niallatotep wore a satisfied expression.
“But… just like last time, has Kthoo left any marks again?”
Kthoo wasn’t the exclusive fourth batter. Well… that was true, but Nialla, who spoke with a hint of a desire to be called not only in such situations but also occasionally in normal times, grumbled.
Despite the grumbling, looking in the direction Yudahee indicated, there was a familiar aura, a familiar face of a woman walking towards them.
“Wow… what’s up, Shub? How are you here? Maybe-“
“Oh, I didn’t do it.”
Niallatotep, who stared as if seeing something wrong, blinked for a while, but would that change anything?
The opponent was the impeccable Shub Niggurath.
Shub Niggurath and Niallatotep coexisting on this small piece of land?
It was a situation not easy to pass off as a joke, but after grasping their intentions, Yudahee carefully surveyed the surroundings.
Just like himself, Shub Niggurath was not the original.
Possessing a human body through possession, coupled with a slight distortion of time, it seemed like Yog-Sothoth’s prank was mixed in… It appeared to be interference from the past to the future.
“What on earth are they doing?”
Seems like interference into the future is possible even in this way.
However, due to the constraint of defying time, the size of the power that could be exerted had significantly decreased. It was a situation where abilities couldn’t reach far, almost akin to mere fists.
Of course, forcibly interfering was possible, but looking at Shub Niggurath’s eyes, it was clear that at the moment, he was genuinely enjoying this situation as a form of entertainment.
There was no intention to shatter that enjoyment.
Thus, it is possible to face the current self, Niala-Dike, as it is now.
“…Doesn’t it feel like our scales are getting larger every time Dahi calls us?”
“But it’s still better than during the Formalhaut.”
It’s better than fighting a fully powered Grade Old One.
At least now, we’re not going around breaking stars, which is fortunate.
“Shubdo, am I ultimately in the same condition as well?”
Just gathering and clashing with the remnants of abilities, a pure confrontation with no more than that.
However, while Shub is already equipped with a body optimized for combat, Niala-Dike only has…
“The purity of the body is quite good… that’s all.”
A pure body and the meager power of the original self brought along.
It was Niala-Dike once again, raising the chest of Dike unnecessarily… According to Niala-Dike, an expert in human physiology, it was clear that Dike would only be a hindrance in this fight, constantly clinging and dragging them down from within.
They had considered reducing it with a simple physical modification.
Closing their eyes tightly to the subject who couldn’t even look properly in this direction and continuing to mutter was quite pitiful to see.
[“D… Don’t take my power pocket away…”]
…What can be done when it continues to mutter within? Of course, they gently soothed the mind a little.
If it were to suddenly emerge as it did a while ago, it would be fatal in battle, so they gently flipped the surface of the soul to calm it down.
Despite such inner actions, Niala-Dike’s eyes were endlessly analyzing the opponent.
It takes a lot of effort for the latecomer to defeat the frontrunner.
Moreover, in the current situation, one had to move even more gracefully.
“So… by mentioning the disadvantage, are you saying you’ll lose?”
“No.”
Niallatotep grinned.
In a situation of limits, there was no one to follow oneself in squeezing the best results from the body.
So-
“Win.”
—–
“The faceless god, the one living in darkness, the black pharaoh, the mocking god, the lion of the foolish father….”
Shub Niguras looked at Niallatotep approaching him and squinted his eyes for the first time.
He never expected such a situation.
Thinking it would be boring, he threatened to take him to the outer space, but instead, he gave a slight smile to Yudahee, who had arranged something interesting.
“Uh…-“
Look at that disgusting sight.
Really, isn’t it a face you want to embrace tightly and melt into your arms?
Since his opponent was obviously going to be Niallatotep, then Yudahee’s opponent would be…
“Mamang…!”
This cute girl, for sure.
Actually, Shub had initially planned to kill Penelope directly like other participants… but after looking at her face head-on, he had a change of heart and reconsidered, feeling like the child was starving for love even without using any special abilities.
It was an incredibly familiar face.
Turning his gaze away from the fifth-dimensional box, he looked at Yog-Sothoth and pretended not to notice, casually whistling – a gesture that was all too predictable.
Certainly, it must have copied the appearance of this kid.
If Penelope continues to grow like this for about five more years, her appearance would probably be quite similar.
Even now, if the two of them stood side by side, one might think of them as sisters.
Penelope’s strength comes from the control of the gravitational field emanating from her abilities, but is there any chance Yudahee can see through that?
Listening to Penelope’s murmured story, her abilities seemed to be exposed and suppressed in an instant.
However, it was only because Yudahee was exceptionally outstanding, not because Penelope was lacking.
In understanding humans, no one could match Yudahee, the disciple whom Nyarlathotep taught with passion and skill.
Defeat was inevitable.
But that didn’t mean there was no possibility of Penelope defeating Yudahee altogether.
“A little gift, my child.”
It was Shub-Niggurath who lightly kissed Penelope’s forehead.
To face Yudahee, what was needed was overwhelming output to the point of being unreachable.
Just being in front of her would make the space yield to an appropriate opponent.
What Shub-Niggurath was handing to Penelope was just immense power; how she would handle it was up to her.
“Ah…”
Closing her eyes and accepting her love, Penelope, caressed by Shub-Niggurath, looked directly at him.
And there, clenched tightly, was the fist of Nyarlathotep.
“We, shall we go over there and play among ourselves?”
The darkness that enveloped Shub did not even react to the blow, and the shockwave burst from his hit face, sending him flying over 500m into the forest beyond.
Kwagwagwang!
Countless trees fell, and the damage to nature was evident, but the perpetrator seemed unfazed, pushing the dust away with the darkness and walking out slowly.
“Ugh, it’s disgustingly tough…”
Niallatotep inflated his red fist and huffed.
The fragile body of the weak goddess was like a glass cannon itself. Even a slight mistake could cause her limbs to explode from the strain, a hardcore level of difficulty.
It would have been easier and quicker to call any of the contractees’ corpses here, swallow their souls with the 4 Drones, and obliterate the target’s existence, then crush Shub Niguras with authority…
Seeing that it wasn’t done, it was truly the tender-hearted Yudahee.
But-
Niallatotep wore a satisfied expression.
Without such constraints, would there be any taste in fighting? He readjusted his stance and charged toward Shub Niguras once again.
And Yudahee looked at Penelope with a disgusted expression.
“Mamang… Where did you go… I’m cold…!”
The reason was simple.
As soon as the scattered leaves approached within a 3m radius of Penelope, they seemed to wither and crumble into fine dust.
“…No, seriously, what the f*ck is this love-deprived corruption.”
What the hell did she do to transform so brutally in an instant, with abilities that were incomparable to before, pressing the surroundings with such malice.
Penelope’s shaking eyes moved around, then quickly fixed on Yudahee, who was closest.
“Mamang… Is it because… you’re not here?”
Sssrung-
The drawn barisada was stained with a gloomy color.
“Well, if I kill you… Maman might come back… So…”
Penelope, now in a more stable posture than before, pointed the tip of her sword towards Yudahee.
The gravitational field distorted the air around Penelope, creating an illusion as if sparks were emerging from her body.
“For Maman… Die for me!”
“Ha, mother.”
Regret crossed Yudahee’s mind, wondering if choosing the option to kill without delaying time would have been a better choice, but it was too late.
The dice for the battle avoidance judgment rolled smoothly. The scale was, um… below the threshold, a failure.
Che.
He had thought about avoiding until Ni-alato-tep defeated Shub Niguras, but it seemed impossible.
That meant… eventually, he had no choice but to confront and defeat, right?
Thoughts like easily winning against an opponent once defeated were all swept away.
The previous Penelope and the current Penelope were incomparable, even if you poured in a whole truckload.
Exerting full power.
Yudahee, gripping the parachute tightly, took a step forward.
It was the beginning of the revenge match.