Chapter 27 [Mushoku Tensei]


Michael (Main) POV


I hate to lose.

Now allow me to explain myself. I don't mean the idea of losing in terms of a contest, bet, or any trivial game. That I can accept is a natural process since the appeal of winning would be undercut if there was no concept of a loser to contrast it. No, I hated to experience the loss of those closest to me especially when they're my responsibility.

Yeah, this part of the job should be expected as a Contractor if I piss of the wrong higher up, stumble upon an all-mighty Outer God, or somehow get killed by a flunky nobody when my guard is down. However, I can come to terms with losing my life. Losing the ones I held close was an entirely different matter. I don't care if you're one of my Main Wives, my Side Wives that I leave my clones to, my Familiars, servants, pets, children, or slaves. If you were under my protection or Retinue, then you were assured that no harm or death would befall you unless you wished it upon yourself or pissed me the fuck off.

This was my own personal responsibility that I gladly held myself accountable for. Now this could bite me in the ass should someone exploit it, but it was what I felt strongly for. This job already takes from the employee, and this was one of the few things apart from my morals that I wouldn't budge from.

So, when I received an alert that I lost both Leona and Asta, I immediately dropped what I was doing, checked the location of their deaths, verify who caused their deaths, busted one last nut in Mila's once virginal tight pussy, then teleported to the area using Irene's Ki Signature. I would have gladly reunited with my wife, but I had business with the scowling Dragon Prick.

So, I powered up to Super Saiyan 4 mid-teleport and punched the gobsmacked asshole before dragging him with me to my Demiplane for a more spacious location to kick his ass. I did hold my strength back just a tad to avoid killing him, but I wouldn't say it was enough not to level that area Irene was in.

Meh, I'm sure that she'll fix things up when I'm done.

The area I chose in my planet sized dimension was an uninhabited continent where a majority of its land was just forestry. I had to remind myself to add more to it at the Mansion's Control Center because this was just the basic barebones design.

I sat upon the uprooted trunk of a broken tree, imperially looking down at the freshly made crater where my victim of the day laid. "Heal. This will be the only time that I'll allow you the chance to do so." A minute or so after I choke slammed the fucker through the ground, Orsted's body twisted itself so outrageously that you could easily mistake him for a pretzel. Of course, as part of the Dragon Tribe, I believed that his bullshit durability would keep him alive and cognizant enough to heal himself.

And so, I waited and watched as the man slowly and efficiently flowed his Healing Magic throughout his body. The spell seemed like a beginner's healing incantation and yet he's able to fluidly use it to its maximum capacity but as a shrewd bastard who saving up his mana for Hitogami that makes sense.

Back on his feet with dirt caked over his recovered body, the Dragon God glared at me. Anyone lesser would have quailed underneath his intense glower, but I simply returned it with one of my own.

"Before we begin, I'll introduce myself to you, Dragon God Orsted." I deeply exhaled and sat up to full height. He opened his mouth to no doubt speak but I raised a hand and flexed my Ki in warning. "I could barely give an iota of a shit if you've heard of me from the grapevine or even from Irene." I cracked my tail against the ground and the impact shook the terrain around us for but a moment. "My name is Michael Abbot. S-ranked Adventurer, Leader of the S-ranked Adventurer's Party [Band of the Crimson Wryms], Sword King level practitioner of the School of the Sword God, and Water Emperor level practitioner of the School of the Water God." I detected the faintest twitch of the scowling man's brow but continued.

"As you can see, I bear a resemblance…" I wagged my monkey tail. "… to your beastman tribes, but this is only the surface." Grasping upon the familiar sensation of power in my heart, I called upon my large spanning dragon wings to shadow over the briefly shocked form of the Dragon God below me. "We have much in common Orsted even if our origins and births aren't so similar." I retracted my wings and held out my hand to summon Hiramune from my Pocket Space. "But any sympathy I had to approach you with respect has gone down the drain after you killed my two maids."

I unsheathed my blade and enshrouded it in Ki. "I'll give you to the count of 10 to prepare yourself. If you attack from the jump, I'll start and keep going until I'm satisfied with your ass beating." Setting my terms, I internally began to count down.

Ten.

"Wait." Once my oppressive aura died down a little, Orsted took a cautionary step toward me.

Nine.

"I apologize for taking the lives of two of your own, but I was in the middle of setting the terms of a potential partnership with that women, Irene. If you truly seek to end Hitogami and be done with his interference, then I see no point in us fighting."

Eight.

I shook my head. "I may want that mosaic bastard gone as much as you, but you don't get to just kill one of my own and think we can still be peachy."

Seven.

My hostility began to leak out from my Ki, all assuredly conveying the depths of my anger with the Dragon God. Rough winds begin to pick up and the skies above blackened from the sheer influence my power had over the environment.

"I felt for your plight in your never-ending war with Hitogami and wanted to break bread with you but you crossed a line that I can't forgive. So don't try and talk about partnerships because I'll be heading Hitogami's demise while using you to achieve it."

Six.

"By the by…"

Five.

I eyes glowed an ominous green as I stared straight through the tensed Dragon God. "No matter if you kill yourself before I get you or if I get what I want from you, this Loop will be your last."

Four.

"…!" Didn't expect me to know that now did ya, asshole?

Three

Tw-.

I held out my hand to grasp the wrist of the knife hand strike aimed for my head. It was so easy to read, but I had to give the man props for his nearly perfect dexterity and swift speed. The ground gave out beneath us and formed a crater, but I kept a solid footing.

I didn't deem to say much else. He started before I could finish so I released him wrist to press my own attack. Orsted didn't deem to wait and proceeded to assault me in a furious exchange of Dragon Saint Touki enhanced attacks. His fists, nails, and palms were made weapons to crush, slash and pulverize my body. Each hit was thrown at a speed that kept on increasing.

Still, it wasn't much compared to what my own clones did to me when I had them gang up on me as Super Saiyan 4s while I remained in Base Form during my time in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. To add insult to injury, I even used the flat side of Hiramune's blade to divert each of his strikes.

It didn't surprise me to see the cautious and calculative Dragon God retreated after his initial attacks to test the waters didn't do much to damage me. Unlike the likes of Atofe, Orsted wouldn't just throw everything that he has at me like a raging berserker. His large mana pool comes with a crippling low mana recovery rate thanks to the Death Looping spell placed on him by the first Dragon God.

He'll probe me out and see what I can do to evaluate just how much mana that he could use to put me down. After all, I didn't exist in the Six-Sided World before this loop, so he has nothing to go off of. Meaning I could play around with him, teach him humility, and blow all of his attacks without even looking winded.

Or…

In a blur, everything became dark, yet I was still aware of my surroundings thanks to Ki sense. I sheathed my blade as I immediately turned on my heel mid-Longsword of Light just to throw my hand in the air and evaporate Orsted's severed arm with a Ki Blast. Once color returned to my eyes, I besieged the Dragon God with well honed thrusts and cuts to whittle away at his stamina.

With a furious stomp of the ground, the terrain violently shook and buckled underneath me. With my footing ruined, he lunged in to skewer me with his arm. Sad for him that I can freely fly and manually enforce my control over Infinity to continually divide the distance between myself and his attack. In the air, I poured more Ki along Hiramine's edge and fired countless blasts of sharpened sickles at Orsted.

"Shit…that was too much." I clicked my tongue as I basically blew up a massive portion of the forest. Probably like around the side of 5 acres. "Is he still alive?" I concentrated and branched out to the clones that I had transformed into insects and birds in the surrounding area. Waiting for Orsted to fully heal himself was the perfect time to set myself up for success.

A couple of them spotted him barely managing to escape the total radius of my attack yet he still had the grit to maintain an impressive running speed to gain more distance from me. Heh, that durable, stupidly belted coat of his didn't make it. Nice.

Ah, he was using God Ranked magic to regenerate himself a new arm. Not nice.

I immediately teleported to around his location using the Ki Signature of my nearby clones and rushed him once more. He greeted my sudden appearance with a massive fireball the size of a town. I split that shit in half and snuffed it out with a single wave of Hiramune. This had the unintended effect of splitting a good portion of the nearby trees surrounding us in half.

Though my action was spectacular, it was also a time consuming 5 seconds wasted for an opportunist like Orsted to escalate and employ another spell.

*ROOOOOOOOOOOOAR!*

For a moment, my body locked up as the paralyzing effects of the Dedoldia Tribe's Voice Magic froze me in place for like…a good four seconds before I broke free of it. In that time, he didn't attack, nor did he escape which were definite clues that he had something up his sleeve. I blasted him with a Ki Blast that he weirdly chose to block against by summoning a floating gate with statued dragons on them. Of course, the gate was decimated from the attack, but this just kept buying Orsted more time.

"It's not even magic?" Orsted clicked his tongue and pressed both of his hands together. Immediately an intense pressure settled on the field. Appearing in Orsted's empty hands was guardless katana, but it was no ordinary katana. The weapon was almost similar to Dragon Sword Reid in terms of its sheer presence when unveiled.

No, Orsted had finally chosen to throw caution to the wind and use his Godsword. He also did not waste time in using it. Space was cut in twine because of the heavenly blade and had I been any slower to jump above the slash, I possibly cut have been bisected with my blade too. The ground rumbled as the Orsted's attack range reached and split apart a mountain peak…then another and another…and another.

The damage was insane. Not Planetary destructive insane but this was still the peak of what a Mushoku Tensei Character can do, and Orsted was one of the few at the top of the pecking order.

After sparing the colossal damage a glance, I examined Hiramune and noticed some chipping along its blade as I remained afloat in the sky. "Now that's a sword. I can see how it once belonged to the first Dragon God, but I heard legend that it was capable of splitting a world in two. Do you wish to try again, or would you like to run out the allotted ten minutes to use it?"

"…"

"No answer is technically an answer, but fine. It was smart that you decided to take me seriously." I began plucking out my hairs, as many as my fingers can grab. "Otherwise, your chances of survival would basically be next to 0." I transformed each strand of hair into a clone, who transformed into the multiple transformations that I had in my repertoire.

Some were in Base State, others went Super Saiyans 1, 2, and 4, and a good majority morphed into the Bipedal and Full Dragon forms. The Sky was just saturated with my clones who were all dying to avenge our murdered maids.

"…" Yet when faced with all of us, Orsted raised his powerful blade skyward without even a shred of fear on that scowling mien of his. He must have known how utterly stacked the odds were against him after I nearly tore screwed his every limb off with my first punch, and now there were about…pfft…uh…100 other mes who could do the same.

He had balls to see his ass whooping through to its end or perhaps he thinks he can actually beat me.

Either way, we were going to get our pound of flesh from him!

"Get him."

One command kicked off utter chaos. Orsted's Godsword further impressed me by cleaving in half a couple of my charging clones. Still the blade itself couldn't overcome our Infinity and was ignored by a couple of clones, who collectively body tackled Orsted through hundreds of trees and into the face of a mountain.

I directed all o my clones to attack in select order in order to soak up all of Orsted's combat knowledge with Martial Talent. The Dragon God was a God-Level Practitioner of the Sword, North, and Water God styles of swordsmanship. He made Gal's swordplay seem like a beginner's with how perfectly honed his speed was.

Orsted's style of combat just kept changing on the dime as my clones kept adding pressure on him.

To avoid getting dogpiled by my clones, he casted an Emperor Level Spell that rained down a fierce volley of thunderbolts which decimated a good chunk of the continent. Wrenching control of the innumerable black cumulonimbus clouds, my clones utilized Sun Wukong's Aerokinesis to redirect the storms back at Orsted.

Once more, Orsted tried employing that Dragon Gate of his and this time it had actually worked. Perhaps because my clones manipulated storm clouds made from his mana, but the end result was the same. Our counterattack was negated albeit with Orsted steadily growing exhausted as the fight prolonged.

One hour had passed before our fight came to a conclusion.

Now I wasn't going super hard on him. Yeah, I was overkill, but if I was truly pissed, I would have just kept making clones and have those clones make clones to utterly overwhelm him and tear him apart through any means necessary.

I wanted to push him into a corner and make him feel despair at a foe that he couldn't overwhelm. Although Rudeus was a piece of shit, I did feel a little bad that he almost got killed by the Dragon God on their first meeting because of a misunderstanding. Of course, I'm the type of guy who wants their protagonist to overcome a foe who initially obliterated them but that never happened in-story. Rudeus was too much of a cautious and conflict avoidant guy to ever push himself to defeat Orsted on his own volition.

I mean, yeah, he was pushed by Hitogami to do it, but that was to protect his family.

So, I was bringing some of my frustration to the forefront of this one-sided massacre.

By the time things had settled down, the continent was an utter wasteland. Orsted began throwing out God ranked spells that visibly eradicated the lush, green life and crumbled the mountain ranges to dust. I had stationed my clones along the shores of the landmass to employ Infinity as a way to prevent the collateral from affecting the other portions of the Demiplane where my Retinue resided.

Sat in the middle of the wasteland was Orsted on his knees with two singed stumps where his arms used to be. Stabbed through his midriff were 5 Hiramune copies that my clones ran him through to make him a living human pincushion. He was still alive, they made sure not to hit anything vital.

The fact that he wasn't healing himself meant that he was literally out of mana by this point. Once he was tapped out, it was only a matter of time before we whittled him down with enough injuries to put him down.

Descending back to the ground, I, the original, interacted with the man for the first time since my clones were set upon him. I casually walked up to him, sheathed my Hiramune, grabbed and wrenched one of the Hiramunes impaled in the man out of him, and held up the blade to his neck.

Huh, this was oddly poetic now that I thought about it.

"You've lost, Dragon God." I said.

"…I have…" The man's blank gaze was on the floor.

With that admission, I just realized now that I was effectively Number 2 of the Seven Great Powers of the world under the Technique God. Huh, I think there was a Mission that reward Contractors for pulling off such a feat. Better check it out after this.

"Now the loss of my maids will forever piss me off even if Irene could bring them back. Still, I'm willing to include you in our plans to eliminate Hitogami as a threat once and for all. But that requires you to yield to me. You will not be calling the shots; you will be supporting me, and this deal won't just be until Hitogami's taken care of. If you accept, I'll spare you. If not, then I'll wipe you away from the existence of this World." Selling him would net me a good net worth of credits even if it is redundant with just how much have already.

"So…do we have a deal?"

"How do you know…everything?" Orsted grunted through grit, bloodied teeth. "No one alive should be aware of my Loops."

I rolled my eyes and inched the blade closer to his neck, drawing some blood as a warning. He lost and must defer to my demands. "Do you yield to me, Orsted? If not, then I'll end you and your 200 time loop cycles right here." My Paradox Defense II immunity would no doubt prevent a time loop should he kill himself.

"…" Taking a pained deep breath, Orsted's gaze refocused as he raised his head to look me in the eye and nod. "I yield to you, Michael Abbot."

"Good." I dismissed the cloned copies of Hiramune and immediately forced my Shroud to ensnare and invade the Dragon God's every orifice. He didn't struggle or put up a fight. His submission made the capture process go exceedingly fast that by the end he…or should I say she was now back to her prime and healthy state.

And boy oh boy did Orsted make a hell of a woman.

"…" She took it all in. Her hands, her new form, her clothing that was weaved and made from her new Shroud, and more specifically…

"My mana is at full capacity?" She sounded so mystified in disbelief that I stifled a chuckle. She just went through a full course ass kicking, nearly died, and received a full sex change, and the first thing that has her shocked was that?

"Yup. Getting captured allows me to use up a Full Heal with the Body Tune-Up Talent. Also, I wouldn't be so quick to scrounge what little mana you have just to save up for the last fight with Hitogami. That pesky slow mana recovery trick of yours should be gone now." I explained.

"I see…" Orsted muttered, looking at her own hands. Seems that she's still coming to grips with her situation. Then her eyes snapped wide open. "But what of the spell that the first Dragon God placed on me?"

"Ah, yeah, you're ability to loop. Its still there." I think. "But unless I customize my Paradox Defenses then it will practically be useless should you side."

"Paradox Defense?" Orsted asked.

Yeah, I guess now is the perfect time to catch hi-her up on everything now that she's officially apart of the Retinue.

"I'll catch you up on everything later." I held out my hand to her. "Here. I'll show you to our home and tell you about who I am and what I do after getting some matters settled." For a brief second, she hesitated to take my hand. Although Orsted's perpetual scowl remained, her eyes now softly looked at me.

Upon clasping her rough hand to mine did I instantly transported us to the living room of the Demiplane's Mansion. There, I found that Noelle was still around, cleaning the fixtures of the room which oddly included the temporarily frozen prisons that held Roxy Migurdia, two women I have no recollection of, and…Aleksander Ryback?

"My lord, I see you've returned to us!" Noelle stopped feather dusting icicle pillar imprisoning Roxy to give me a poised curtsy. "Would you like some refreshments for you and your newest conquest?"

"No, that's fine, Noelle." I walked up to her and pulled her into a deep kiss. Her breath hitched as she melted into my embrace. I chuckled as she piteously whined from my ending the kiss. "You just resume with your duties and when I have free time, I'll personally call on you to properly reward your hard work."

That had the dutiful Maid Knight light up like a Christmas tree. I sent her off with a loud smack to her bottom as I gestured for Orsted to take a seat while I personally inspected the four uncaptured folks in my living space.

"You…you're also lovers with your maids?" Orsted brought up in a odd tone.

"Yup, I mean, not everyone I have with me is a lover, but the ratio for those who aren't a wife of mine is super low compared to those who are. Especially now that I have you and these four to join us." The two women with Roxy and Aleksander may be no-names to the Catalog and offer up 0 points, but if Irene saw fit to bring them here then there's no harm in having them around.

"I-I see…" Ah, was that…!

I quickly turned around to notice the female Dragon God avert her gaze from me as some redness dusted her cheeks. I smirked. "What? Are you saying that you've never been romantically involved with anyone during each of your loops?"

Orsted coughed and did her best to appear stoic. Still her cheeks remained a little red. "No. Hitogami's elimination took precedence over such fleeting emotions. Besides, apart from a couple of close friends I knew wouldn't be swayed by that piece of trash, anyone else would be a potential risk to the health of myself and my close comrades."

True. That bitch ass Hitogami would make falling in love a hassle. That and the curse that made everyone hostile or frightened of Orsted.

"Well, you won't have to worry about that anymore." I flew over to her side and wrapped an arm around the woman. She was still as tall as when she was a guy, but I was even taller. For a split second, she did tense up and even prepared to impale me with a knife-hand strike from the sudden physical contact, but eventually she did relax when I began to gently rub her shoulder.

Sheesh, talk about being on perpetual edge.

"You can now normally restore your mana, your curse that made everyone hate you is gone, and you have me and every resource in the Multiverse to help you out. You don't have to do things on your own anymore, Lunaria."

"Lunaria?" She looked at me in askance.

"Yeah, I mean, calling your Orsted just won't do anymore, ya know. Lunaria just seems like the perfect name for the new you." I chuckled, knowingly offering up Orsted's own mother's name to the clueless Dragon God. "I mean if you like it, I'm still fine with Orsted if you-."

"No. I don't have any qualms with the name. It oddly…feels right." Orste-Lunaria leaned herself against me albeit with some hesitation but at least she was slowly letting herself get comfortable around me.

"That's good. I'm glad." I chuckled and leaned into her.

"Not even an hour later and you've managed to schmooze another woman to your side. Congratulations once more, beloved." Without any fanfare, Irene blinked into the Demiplane on the other side of Lunaria's place on the couch. "Now would it behoove you to allow me to get a hug? I've been working so utterly hard these past months, and I am in sole need of a recharge~."

"Just get over here." I deeply laughed and wrapped my arm around Irene's waist, pulling her to my side. Unlike Lunaria, she gladly snuggled up to my side and began tittering away about all of her exploits since we last met, reassuring me that she recreates Asta and Leona while sadly revealing that they'd effectively would be different to the originals. Which was a damn shame since Warranty Plan doesn't truly apply to enchanted beings made by Irene's magic besides Heine and Juliet.

Lunaria did have the decency to look ashamed for killing the two, but what was done was done. I beat the shit out of her and now she's my newest wife.

That sounded way worse than it needed to be.

On the bright side, Irene switched gears and dragged Lunaria into the conversation to try and prod for a reaction past the Dragon God's brittle mien.

She only managed to make Lunaria blush when mentioning her future duties to me in bed, which I found admittedly cute. I couldn't wait to see how much of a blushing virgin she'll be after I find the time to blow her back out.

But that would probably be after Hitogami's dealt with.

Now with the Dragon God on our side and multiple future Retinue companions that were pretty much pending Captures, I can safely say that I've pretty much got most of the powerful and well-known targets of this world on my side.

Now all that's left was to prepare for facing Hitogami himself. After revealing the truth to Lunaria about everything about who I was, the Company, and our goals, she immediately went straight to business without caring about the whole Multiversal Slave Trade deal that was going on. She keyed in on the fact that I could use Trajectory. Agreement. to literally transport us to the Void World where Hitogami resides and is trapped in.

With this knowledge, she wouldn't have to kill Peruguis and wait to kill the reincarnated Demon God Laplace to be born to get the Dragon Treasure keys just to enter the Void. I was now the key to everything.

And as the key, I held the right to put off our Final Attack until everything and everyone was ready. Hitogami was a confirmed Tier 10 threat, and the main series barely had anything on the guy's capabilities beyond his ability to enter dreams and automatically gain the individual's trust and influence their actions. His other power in divination allowed him to see the possible futures, but he single-mindedly uses this power to glean into his own future: his potential deaths.

I was confident that I can handle him alone due to having more raw power, but having extra precaution could save me the trouble of dealing with any more unexpected losses.

The reason he saw Orsted/Lunaria as a threat was because Orsted possessed the capability to kill. The reason why he plotted for Badigadi to split Demon-Dragon God Laplace into the Technique God and Demon God respectively was because Laplace was setting up everything that could mean his death. If he can divine a future where you're responsible for his demise, then he'll do anything to kill you.

Which makes Lunaria even more of an asset since she's actually faced the Human God before despite losing to him about 200 or more times. As a Dark Souls/Elden Ring player, that amount of loss must have ingrained a ton of information about the Greater Enemy in order to detect his every move and predict his habits.

That's why Lunaria's going to share all that she can about the damned imposter god and help me devise a training regimen for the squad of combatants who'll join us in the assault. A good few of them were already captured by me, will be captured by me (looking at you Roxy and Aleksander), and have yet to be captured by me.

Once everyone was gathered, we'll head into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, train for as many years as we can then return to flatten the Human God.

Already, I can see the momentum towards clearing this World reach its conclusion.

Plus, luck just wouldn't stop smiling down at us after I looked up the World's Missions to see the inclusion of a brand new one.

I glanced at the unbelievably valuable IMG Ticket that joined right beside my credits. Of course, 1 IMG Ticket wouldn't be enough to purchase me a Tier X Companion, but there was other was to utilize such an invaluable resource.

But I'll make a decision on what to use it for later.

I still had to show Lunaria around the Demiplane and introduce her to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.

Then after that well… I wonder how Gal would feel that I brought back the literal Dragon God as thanks for training me in the Sword God style.


Well, I hoped that you guys enjoyed this chapter. It was easier to regurgitate this one out since I didn't have to put too much planning behind this story. It's a pure power fantasy for a reason and having the SI stomp Orsted and utterly decimate him was a thrill to write. Now we're in the beginning of the Endgame towards finishing up Mushoku Tensei. It's been fun being here but I can safely say that the world has worn out its welcome. Of course, we still have to tangle up some loose plot threads like the freakiness down at the Boreas Greyrat Household, the Asura Kingdom, getting a few key characters, and the SI supplanting himself as the Sole Demon Lord of the Magic Continent.

Its going to be a while, but at least there's a defined roadmap toward getting to Hitogami.

Now its still personally up for debate on what the IMG ticket should be used for but I'm certain I'll think of something by the time of next chapter. As for something that YOU guys can decide, I'll set up a poll for: Between Worm and Elden Ring, which world should the SI go to next. I know I already made a poll like this in the past, but meh, School fried my brain and I just recently started playing the copy of Elden Ring that I bought on release day for my little brother, who is insistent on beating Sekiro before getting to it.

I'm fine with either choice, so have fun.

Anyways, I have to go. I have an OSCE tomorrow where I have to inject a classmate intramuscularly and subcutaneously with a syringe. Wish me luck!

I'm Out so Peace Out and have a lovely day everyone!