Chapter 30: Wrecking Shibuya With A Destructive Battle!

Part 1

Countless portals opened all around us. The demon types I saw from the dream simulation came out, a mix of large demons and small ones. They had mean snarls on their faces as they emerged from the portals with bloodlust in their eyes.

"Hoh… So this is the other world, huh?"

Following after the demons were what appeared as two humans, although I knew better. The tall, tanned woman wearing a revealing red dress was Sylvia the chimera, and the middle-aged man was actually a giant poison slime in a human form, Hans.

The one who spoke was Sylvia. Immediately, she caught the eyes of the guys watching, drawn to her large breasts exposed by her low cut dress.

"Whoa, who's the hot chick?!"

"Hey, baby, why don't you quit the demon king army and come with me? I'll treat you right!"

"Why don't we just let them win and have her dominate us?"

Sylvia chuckled, eyeing the guys swooning over her.

"Fufu… What fine men this world has. Once I conquer this world, I will let you men join my harem. What do you say?"

"Yes, mommy!"

"I volunteer!"

"In fact, why don't you take me now?!"

There were several app-users who actually went over to Sylvia's side.

"W-What's going on?! Why are our own forces siding with the bad guys?!"

Darkness said, unable to believe her eyes as a bunch of dudes betrayed us.

I wasn't actually all that surprised. If I was still a lonely, virgin NEET and a woman like Sylvia came in and made that same offer, I would have joined her in a heartbeat.

Sena used her megaphone to speak to the traitors.

"A-Attention, app-users! You are all still citizens of Japan! If you join the enemy side, it will be considered the same as high treason!"

The traitors weren't impressed by Sena's threats.

"And what can you do to us, lady?! Are you willing to give us a sexy service like this babe over here?!"

The guy who said that to Sena wrapped his arm around Sylvia's waist, who smiled and patted his head affectionately.

"Fufu… Good boy. I'll reward you later."

"Thank you, mommy!"

"I might even let you lick it…"

"Yes, please! I'll lick and suckle whatever you want!"

"Oh, dear! My stick throbbed when you said that!"

"..."

Silence filled the street.

The traitor uneasily smiled, as he turned to Sylvia.

"Um, come again?"

"Come again? But I haven't even come yet? You're gonna lick my stick plenty after we're done here, right? Then you'll make me come, won't you?"

"S-Stick?"

When I heard that, I went ahead and used [Lore Reading] on Sylvia.

"Oi… It says here that chimeras are often hermaphrodites, since they are made up of many parts at once."

I said to the traitor, who still had his arm wrapped around Sylvia.

"Ah, is that so? Well, then, I think I'll head back to this side."

"[Bind]."

Sylvia tied up the traitor who tried to escape. She grinned and said,

"Oh, my. What's the hurry? You said you'd lick me plenty, right?"

"I'm sorry?! I don't think I'm ready for this!"

"Don't be shy~!"

"Eeeep! Somebody save me!"

The other traitors tried to escape, but Sylvia tied them up as well.

"Hah… Trying to leave so soon? Why don't I absorb you, so I won't have to worry about you being naughty and running away…"

"Gahhh! Help me! Gurk!"

Sylvia started to absorb the traitors into her body. They disappeared within her flesh in a matter of seconds.

"Stop her! If she gets a hold of those cheat users, she might be able to use their items!"

Mitsurugi heard my warning. With a burst of speed, he drew his sword and attacked Sylvia.

"Whoa there, can't have you harming my ally."

Hans, who hadn't said anything all this time, got in the way and blocked Mitsurugi's attack with the back of his arm. The sword got stuck in his arm, which revealed its true form underneath as thick slime. Mitsurugi had to use all his strength to pull Gram out and retreat from Hans.

The JSDF took the opening once Mitsurugi escaped to fire at Hans. However, even with the composite bullets, Hans didn't seem hurt at all, the bullets sticking into his slimy body. Then, he expelled the bullets, leaving small holes that let us see his true form, before he repaired his skin. He looked surprised by the bullets, picking one up from the ground.

"Sylvia, it looks like this world found a way to damage us. How ingenious."

"Oh, my. I would like to meet the one in charge of inventing these projectiles. I hope they're a man…"

I shivered when I heard that, trying to hide myself.

And that was when Aqua decided to open her big mouth.

"Fufu… The inventor of these bullets is none other than this guy right here, Satou Kazuma!"

She took out her fans and gestured to me, even releasing confetti and a stream of water to supplement the grand announcement.

"Are you scared? You should be. Because Kazuma here has come up with all sorts of ways to stop you! You can even say that he's the control tower leading our forces!"

Even though she was a self-proclaimed genius, Megumin joined in on Aqua's stupid stunt.

"Wow! Senpai, you're really smart, huh?"

They even influenced Rin to join in.

"Satou Kazuma… Ah, you're quite the catch, aren't you?"

Now Sylvia had her eyes set on me.

"You can have your fun after we win, Sylvia, but for now…"

Hans took the bullet he picked up and absorbed it within his hand.

Then, he pointed his index finger towards a JSDF soldier.

The bullet came flying out of his finger at speeds equivalent to the assault rifle it was fired from.

"[Steal]!"

I used steal on the bullet while it was midair. It was seconds away from hitting the soldier's head.

I tossed the bullet away, which made Hans whistle in admiration.

"You know, I think I'm starting to figure out who really killed Beldia."

"Like I said, he is quite the catch."

After seeing Hans fire the bullet, the app-users started to move.

"The enemy attacked! Let's get them!"

"Yosh! I've been looking forward to this battle!"

"Get out of the way! It's time to show off my ultimate attack…!"

I wanted to tell them to coordinate their attacks instead of attacking all at once, but…

The army of demons that were watching converged around their generals, stopping the app-users from attacking.

"Kekeke! Whoever kills the most will get a reward from the demon king!"

"Let's show our best effort for Hans-sama and Sylvia-sama!"

"We'll take over this world in no time!

The demons and app-users clashed.

This marked the beginning of the war between dimensions.

Part 2

The tanks fired their ammunition mixed with materials from the dungeon, but Hans simply transformed his body into his proper form, that of an amorphous giant slime. Not only did the bullets fail to do any lasting damage to him, he even absorbed them and fired them back at the tanks, which took a direct hit.

His body kept growing, until he was the size of a small building. As if that wasn't enough, he transformed his body into a dome around the demon army, forming a hollow space for them inside. Then, he would open slots for them to fire their ranged weapons from, as well as allow for the mages to cast their spells. In this manner, even with all the app-users and modern weaponry infused with dungeon materials present, the demon army grained ground and pushed us back.

Not only that, but since Sylvia absorbed those app-users and their cheat items, she had some new toys to play around with.

She didn't even need to stay within the Hans bubble, marching outside as she fired beams from her eyes that turned its target into stone. When several app-users with the assassin class snuck up behind her, she grabbed them with spectral tentacles that emerged from her back. She laughed at the futile efforts of the app-users.

"Is this all this world is capable of? What a shame! And here I was, so excited for this day!"

She was about to absorb the assassins, but thankfully Yunyun reacted in time.

"[Teleport]!"

"...! Tsk… There's an annoying one with teleportation magic, huh?"

It would have been bad if Sylvia managed to absorb even more cheat items, on top of the ones she already had. I gave Yunyun a smile as she placed the defeated app-users down.

Megumin gritted her teeth as she aimed her staff at the advancing army.

"Ahhh! Those app-users are in the way! If I could get a clear shot, I can blow that stupid slime away!"

I grabbed the megaphone from Sena and said,

"App-users, please retreat!"

Despite my orders, they stubbornly stayed in their places, uselessly fighting Sylvia and Hans.

"W-What should we do, senpai?"

Rin said, looking for a chance to attack as well, but with our troops as disorganized as it was, there wasn't much we could do.

That was, until, I got an idea.

"Darkness, you wanna be useful for once?"

"I'm always useful!"

I ignored her complaints and pointed to the app-users.

"Use your [Taunt] on the app-users and lead them away."

"Using skills on our own allies? Is that wise?"

"At this point, they're more like hindrances than anything."

She eventually nodded and followed my instructions, getting the app-users attention and running to the side.

"[Taunt]!"

The app-users switched targets, going from trying uselessly to get through the demon army defenses to chasing Darkness.

The enemy didn't expect this sudden change in tactics. I turned to Megumin, Yunyun, Rin and Mitsurugi.

"Alright, here's your shot!"

They nodded and charged up their biggest attacks, with Aqua buffing all of them.

Yunyun summoned a storm of lightning bolts to rain down on the demon army, followed by a hail of arrows made out of light summoned by Rin. Mitsurugi lifted Gram and slashed down, releasing a wave of blue, destructive energy. Then, to finish it off…

"Explosion…!"

A fierce explosion rocked the area, causing the ground to shake. Nearby buildings had their windows blown off from the impact, as smoke rose in a slow, black pillar from the center of the explosion.

"T-Those were excellent attacks, I must admit, but…"

"It's gonna take more than that to finish us…"

Silvia and Hans were clearly damaged, there was no doubt about that, but the wounds they received weren't lethal.

Furthermore, Sylvia went on the aggressive, attacking the frontline of the JSDF forces, now that the app-users were out of the way.

I thought that the armored tanks would be safe from her, but…

She leapt into one and started absorbing it.

"S-She can absorb machines?!"

Sena said, as Sylvia created tank armor around her body, a tank gun growing out from her shoulder. She laughed once more, aiming the gun at us.

"Shit! Run!"

We all dispersed as she launched a round, demolishing several cars that were parked in the street behind us. She cackled, enjoying her newfound firepower.

"I must say, this world's weapons are not bad in the right hands!"

I looked around at my dispersed party members. Yunyun picked up Megumin who collapsed after using all her mana, and teleported away.

The others were also able to get away safely.

I took out the walkie-talkie we prepared for this battle, speaking to everyone in the team's channel.

"This is Kazuma speaking. Yunyun, teleport over to me with Megumin. We're going back to the dungeon to refill our mana. Mitsurugi, Rin and Aqua, try to buy some time for us. Darkness, bring the app-users back and use them as a diversion. Chris, try to use [Steal] to take out the cheat-items that Sylvia absorbed. We can't let her have that many weapons at their disposal."

Once I received the rogers from everyone, I switched to my JSDF team's channel.

"Satou here. How are you guys faring?"

It was Sgt. Fujimoto who answered.

"Not good! The chimera is attacking our tanks. Our team is doing its best to get their attention, but she doesn't care about us ground troops! Our composite bullets are barely doing any damage! Over!"

"Copy that. Start using the ghoul-claw grenades. Aim for when the slime fortress opens up and chuck the grenades inside. Even if you can't harm the generals, you might be able to paralyze the weaker demons within the bubble."

"Roger that!"

I looked at Sena, who ran away with me.

"Sena-san, please try to get the app-users to listen to our orders for once. We need Darkness in the frontline, not babysitting those brats."

She nodded, holding her megaphone to her chest.

"Leave it to me. I'll straighten them out."

After handing out orders, I turned to Yunyun and gave her the signal to teleport us to the dungeon.

Part 3

We entered the dungeon once Yunyun teleported us. I absorbed mana from the wall and held Megumin's hand, giving her mana. I also gave Yunyun mana, since she used a lot as well.

For this battle, we had Yunyun reallocate her marks, so she could use them strategically to teleport from the dungeon to the battle ground in Shibuya.

"What are we gonna do? Those guys seem pretty trough."

Megumin said, her mana reserves taking longer to fill up than mine, since she had so much.

"We'll have to rely on your explosion to break past their defenses."

Megumin's eyes shone bright red.

"Very well, the world shall know the glory of explosion magic henceforth!"

"Alright, that should be good enough. Let's head back."

Yunyun nodded and teleported us back to the battlefield.

Darkness led the app-users back to the battle, and Sena actually convinced some of them to behave. The military was trying their best to keep Hans and Sylvia at bay.

"[Steal]!"

"..! How can you keep stealing from me?!"

Chris, who had an abnormally high luck stat, was able to steal some cheat items back from Sylvia. There were also tank parts laying around her, although she hadn't stolen the main gun yet.

With Sylvia distracted by Chris, Aqua twirled her staff around and unleashed a beam of holy light.

"[Sacred Exorcism]!"

"Gyaaaa?!"

Perhaps parts of Sylvia's anatomy were demonic, too, since Aqua's holy magic had a lot of effect on her, although it wasn't enough to finish her off.

"Pufufufu! You sure are arrogant for someone who has stinky demonic parts! You're like a piece of mysterious meat that the housewives in the market never buy, so the owner just throws it away or feeds it to the dogs!"

"Why you! I hate arrogant pretty girls like you! You think you can just say whatever you want, huh?!"

"Oh, my! You seem bitter because I'm way hotter than you!"

"I'll shut you up for good!"

That idiot Aqua provoked Sylvia from breaking formation and attacking her.

"Gahhh! What is that idiot doing?! We could have gotten Sylvia and Hans together in a second blast of explosion!"

Those two wouldn't have expected it, since ordinary humans could only use explosion once in a battle. Aqua just had to run her mouth.

Thankfully, Mitsurugi and Rin were able to defend Aqua, who didn't stop provoking Sylvia. Chris also snuck up from behind and stole even more items and tank parts, stripping Sylvia down to her base form.

"Whatever, at least we can get Hans! Megumin, do your thing!"

"You don't need to tell me twice! Explo…!"

"...! That crazy explosion girl is back! Archers, attack!"

I should have known it wouldn't be that easy. The mages among the demons sensed Megumin charging her magic, ruining the element of surprise. Hans opened up his slime walls and let the archers shoot at us. However, once they did so…

My JSDF team rushed in and threw their ghoul-claw grenades inside.

Half of the demon archers were paralyzed, but the other half were able to resist with their high willpower scores. They still managed to shoot off their arrows.

"Megumin, keep charging up your explosion! Yunyun, let's block those arrows!"

"G-Got it!"

"[Wind Wall] x 2!"

I used my newly learned intermediate magic along with Yunyun, summoning our wind walls together to deflect the large volley of arrows headed our way.

Then, once Megumin was done chanting…

"Explosion…!"

She did an unnecessary pose and pointed her staff at Hans and the demon army, unleashing yet another powerful explosion.

The cries of the demons were engulfed by the blast. Unfortunately, the surroundings were scorched at this point, but it was a small price to pay for stopping this invasion.

When the smoke cleared, we saw the demons evacuating the Hans shield, which was starting to disintegrate. However, he was by no means defeated yet.

"...I'll kill… I'll kill all of you…!"

In his true slime form, he seemed to have entered some kind of berserker mode, especially after all the damage Megumin inflicted on him.

This was the perfect time to try out those new weapons Hyoizaburo-san developed.

I held my hand out to the sky and sent a bolt of fire. This was the signal.

Three F-35's flew overhead the distinct sound making everyone turn up to look.

Then they dropped three missiles aimed at Hans.

However, these weren't ordinary missiles.

They were filled with materials from the dungeon.

Hans screamed out in pain once the warheads filled with dungeon material made impact.

But that wasn't the only thing we had prepared.

Attack helicopters came soon after.

Military otaku out there might know about something the U.S. used against the Al Qaeda, the R-9X missiles, or 'The Flying Ginsu'.

Rather than rely on explosives to neutralize its target, the modified Hellfire missiles had blades inside them that skewered the target, giving them a fast, instant death.

Now, what would happen if those blades were commissioned from a certain blacksmith, and they arrived just in time for the military to insert them in these missiles?

And so, the R-9X-2 was born. Personally, I called it 'The Flying Chunchunmaru'.

As soon as the missiles made contact, the swords came out, piercing through the damaged body of Hans. He cried out in pain, his body melting even more.

Physical damage resistances aside, there comes a certain threshold where he had to take damage at some point. Taking warheads and sword missiles after two direct explosions meets that threshold.

The military acted swiftly, releasing gunfire, tanks unleashing barrages as well. The demons scattered, not wanting to go down with the ship. Sylvia was also out of position and couldn't come back to help Hans.

Rin, Mitsurugi and Aqua joined in, launching their own attacks, while Dust made himself useful for once and held back Sylvia with his longsword, with Chris assisting him.

The app-users saw that Hans was steadily losing hit points.

"...! I'm gonna get the killing blow!"

"No, I want the EXP!"

"Give it to me!"

They surrounded Hans with their cheat weapons, making sure he never caught a break as he was hit by one powerful attack after another.

"This is… We've underestimated this world! Ahhh!"

Hans cried, as he tried his best to endure the attacks, to no avail.

I didn't want to risk giving the final blow to some random app-user who didn't do anything until this point, so…

I held out my bow.

Before, I couldn't do this with [Tinder, since the flames were too weak to form into an arrow.

But now, I had the intermediate magic, [Fireball].

I formed a fire arrow and loaded it in my longbow.

This was the most powerful attack I had available to me. I even used [Enchant] to further power up the fire arrow.

"[Snipe]!"

Sensing the powerful attack, the app-users wisely moved out of the way.

"...! Kazuma, let me have some of that!"

Darkness dove in with Hans within the range of the attack, for some reason.

"This can't be happening to me…!"

Those were Hans' last words of lament as the fire arrow hit him, and he disintegrated into a pile of poisonous sludge.

…But just as the sludge was about to spread and infect everyone in the area.

"[Cursed Crystal Prison]!"

Yunyun came in clutch and froze the sludge, before it could harm anyone.

Part 4

"...Why did you do that?"

I said to Darkness, who was burnt from jumping into the path of the fire arrow.

She avoided my gaze.

"Sorry. Force of habit."

"Kind of an insane habit is that?"

Speaking of insane…

"Ufufufu! You were so cocky earlier, but your disgusting slime friend went ahead and died! That's really pathetic!"

Here was Aqua, continuing to needlessly provoke Sylvia.

Sylvia shook in anger, but she took a deep breath.

"I allowed myself to let you provoke me. Never again!"

This time, she ignored Aqua and headed toward the frozen Hans.

At first, I wondered what she was planning, until I remembered that she could breathe fire.

She was too fast for me to do anything. She inhaled and a stream of fire emerged from her mouth, engulfing the prison of ice Yunyun created. Even though Yunyun used powerful advanced magic, Sylvia's fire was enough to quickly melt it.

That didn't mean that Hans had recovered, though. He was still unable to form back, still damaged beyond repair. But Sylvia had other plans, aside from restoring him.

She placed her hands on her comrade.

"Allow me to absorb you, my friend!"

This was bad.

All I could do was helplessly watch as Sylvia's form changed, her body resembling Hans'. Her hair changed as well, taking on a slimy, gelatinous form.

"Mwahahaha! There's nothing your puny toys can do now!"

Some attack helicopters came and dropped more hellfire missiles, but they didn't even scratch the combined form of Hans and Sylvia. Not only that, but there were still the demons to deal with.

Thankfully, the app-users didn't fool around this time and dealt with the demon army, but with the attention of the cheat item users focused on the demons, Sylvia could run free and start absorbing the tanks again.

"Yes, yes! Give me those toys of yours to play with!"

Soon, she transformed into a half-mechanical, half-slime monstrosity. She had guns on her shoulders and arms, firing at our forces while receiving all their attacks without even showing that she was bothered by it.

"Yunyun, let's take Megumin back to the dungeon!"

Yunyun nodded and teleported us to the dungeon. We quickly entered inside and I set about refilling Megumin's mana supply.

This quickly became a disaster. It seemed like the upgraded Sylvia was actually more of a problem than when Hans and Sylvia were separated. She was practically unstoppable now.

"What do we do? I doubt that even my explosion will do anything to Sylvia now."

Even Megumin had to admit that her explosion wasn't enough.

"...First we'll deal with the underlings. That will make things easier. Megumin, blow up the demon army next time."

"Got it! I'll give those lowly demons a taste of my power!"

She was hanging around Aqua too much and started talking like her.

I turned to Yunyun and said,

"Let's try to jam her guns this time."

"Ah… How should we do that?"

"We'll use ice magic. Thankfully, there might be some wizards among the app-users, who will follow what we're doing."

"T-That's a great plan!"

I was glad that Yunyun was so optimistic about this, but it was only a stopgap measure, at best. We still didn't have a means to take Sylvia down.

Taking her down…

"Ah."

Megumin looked closely at my face.

"Kazuma's making a face he only makes when he's come up with a despicable plan."

"...You can't complain about my plan being despicable if the target is an enemy like Sylvia."

"So you admit that your plans are despicable."

She somehow turned that around on me.

Once Megumin was done refilling her mana, Yunyun teleported us back to the battlefield.

Sylvia was still pushing our forces back using her attacks in combination with her new tank guns.

"Megumin, do the only thing you're good at!"

"I don't like what you're implying, but that's not gonna stop me! Explosion!"

She released her third explosion of the day. Somehow, they kept on getting larger and more powerful with each detonation. Even more windows broke and the demon army had no chance to escape, their numbers greatly reduced by Megumin's explosion.

Without giving Sylvia a chance to retaliate…

"[Freeze Gust] x 2!"

Yunyun and I worked on freezing the guns, jamming the bullets before they could fire.

Thankfully, the spellcasters among the app-users figured out what we were trying to do and joined in.

"Tsk! Well, I don't need your toys to kill you all! I still have this!"

Sylvia yelled, relying on her fire breath instead of shooting from the jammed tank guns.

"Everyone, get behind me!"

Darkness jumped in front of the fire again. Even though she got scorched, the fact that she was still standing after receiving a direct hit was a testament to her defenses. She probably maxed out the [Heat Resistance] skill, too. As painful as it was, that spicy curry challenge was worth it to get that skill.

I wasn't planning on Darkness doing that, but that was the best thing she could have done. Taking advantage of the distraction, I radioed my JSDF team.

"Start setting up explosive charges around Sylvia, then wait for my signal!"

"Roger that!"

This time, they rode in a humvee, quickly dumping the explosive charges around Sylvia. By the time she noticed them, they were already a good distance away.

Then, when I gave the signal, they set the charges.

"Whaa…?!"

Even if Sylvia was invulnerable to damage, that didn't mean she could break the laws of physics.

The explosives shook her, making her tip over and fall on her ass. And since she gained a size increase from absorbing Hans, that just made it easier for her to fall over.

The soldiers took it a step further, throwing their ghoul-claw grenades at her.

"Gahhh! You little ants! Come back here!"

Sylvia tried to swat the humvees circling her, but they were too fast, and the paralyzing effect was quickly working.

The app-users took this chance to attack. They unleashed all their attacks on Sylvia, who was trying her best to stand up from a prone position. But her size made it difficult, especially with all manners of attacks hitting her.

Eventually, she decided to ditch her slime form, opting for her original, smaller form to have more mobility to dodge attacks.

I was hoping that she wouldn't do that, since it was much easier to hit her when she was larger. But I guess she was smart enough to avoid that.

And so, we were back to the starting point, with Sylvia in her base form.

Not only that, but just when I thought Hans was out of commission, the remnants of his slime body started splitting apart.

Soon, we had an army of poison slimes attacking us.

Part 5

"Owww! Help, help!"

"[Heal]!"

I healed the app-user who was poisoned by a slime, who Yunyun teleported to me. She was all over the place, bringing poisoned app-users to either me or Aqua.

Along with the poison slimes…

"Ufufu… You're quite cute, aren't you, boy? Let us unite!"

"Gahhh! Somebody save me…!"

Sylvia took advantage of the chaos to absorb more app-users, and whenever she was attacked, she'd use one of the app-users she absorbed as a shield, bringing them out from her body to make the attacker halt their assault.

"Tsk… We can't harm her at this rate."

Mitsurugi said, stopping his swing as Sylvia made a guy's face surface from her chest.

"You're quite strong, aren't you? Mitsurugi-kun, right? You're very handsome, too… Wanna combine?"

"No thank you!"

Mitsurugi ran away from Sylvia, who spread her arms wide for him.

Dust grinned as he looked at Sylvia.

"Hmm… You know, I'm kind of considering it. Do I get special 'rewards' later if I let you absorb me?"

Sylvia took one look at Dust and scoffed.

"In your dreams, bum."

"What?! A chimera actually rejected me?! Why, you!"

When he attacked her with his sword, she blocked his slash by making another sword protrude from her arm.

"You're in the way, nuisance!"

"Gahhh!"

Electricity surged out from the cheat-item, paralyzing Dust.

"Hmph… If you want me to eat you up so badly, I'll do just that!"

She ended up absorbing that idiot.

"Kazuma-kun, this is getting out of hand really fast! [Bind]!"

Chris threw a rope at a slime that tried to attach itself to her.

"Please tell me you thought of a plan already!"

If I did come up with one, I would have executed it right away. But this was honestly too much. I didn't think that Hans and Sylvia would be this powerful.

No, I could have found an easy solution against raw power. It was all their hax abilities that I was having problems with.

Right now, the biggest problem was Sylvia's absorption ability. She could use app-users as hostages and even steal their cheat-items. The poison slimes were also a problem, but they were more of a diversion than anything. And the demon army was reduced to a point where they weren't much of a problem anymore. Sylvia was the one we needed to target the most.

Now, in terms of dealing with the absorption ability…

I got an idea. I whispered to Chris, who backed away from me in surprise.

"Eh?! You want to do that to senpai… I mean, Aqua-san? No way!"

"You might find it hard to believe, but she's a real goddess."

"I believe that part! But doing that to her is too mean!"

"I've put her through a lot worse. She'll be fine."

"You should treat her better!"

I sighed and said,

"Look, it's not like we have a choice. Or do you know any other goddesses we can use for this?"

"Well… Fine, let's use her."

For some reason, she agreed right away after I mentioned using another goddess.

Aqua just finished healing an app-user when Chris and I approached her. She noticed us and looked up.

"Hm? What's the matter, you two? Need healing?"

"[Bind] x 2!"

Since Aqua had a really high defense, we both used bind on her to make sure she was properly tied up.

"Ehhh?! What are you doing?! Did you mistake me for Darkness, who would enjoy such a play?! Why are you doing this?!"

Darkness heard her name being called and saw us picking up Aqua as she was tied up.

"K-Kazuma, Chris! It looks like you're doing something amazing to Aqua right now!"

What was amazing about this?

Chris and I ignored Aqua's screams and Darkness's nonsense, as we carried Aqua over to Sylvia.

"Oi, Sylvia! Catch!"

We then proceeded to throw Aqua at her.

"Oh? Have you given up and provided an offering to me? This Arch-Priest has given me a lot of trouble, so I will gladly accept your peace offering! Gyaaa?! What's this?! It burns!"

As soon as she absorbed Aqua, she was burned by the divine aura Aqua emitted.

Her divinity was so strong that she turned every wine and tea into normal water with just a touch. That same divinity burned Sylvia from the inside out.

"Get this thing off me!"

When she tried to expel Aqua, I ran forward and kicked Aqua's head in, bringing her back into Sylvia's body.

"Oiii! Kazuma, what are you doing?! You're never gonna get any pussy from me after this ever again!"

Aqua was infuriated, as expected. That threat did make me hesitate, but Chris joined in on kicking Aqua's head back into Sylvia's body.

"I'm sorry, senpai! Please bear with it!"

"Who are you calling senpai?! And that annoying tone of voice sounds awfully familiar!"

As Sylvia kept screaming from the pain, Chris and I bound her with bind. Then, we turned to the app-users.

"Now's our chance! Take out all those slimes and let's finish off Sylvia!"

"Yosh!"

They listened right away, no longer talking about defying orders once they experienced their first taste of war. Getting poisoned and absorbed by a chimera must have finally awakened their common sense.

The soldiers also helped, finishing off the last of the demons.

"You really think I'll let you do as you wish?! Fire breath!"

"...! Chris!"

I wrapped my arms around Chris and tried my best to cover her from the fire, summoning an ice shield. If it wasn't for my [Heat Resistance] and the shield, I would have been done for already. But that still took a big chunk of my health. Chris looked at me worriedly as I healed myself.

"Kazuma-kun! Are you OK?!"

"Yeah, I'm fine…"

"You saved me… Is there anything I can do for you? I'll do anything!"

"Then give me some of your mana. [Drain Touch]."

"Owww! That hurts! Oi, stop that!"

Even though she said she'd do anything, she told me to stop draining her mana.

"Get away from me!"

Sylvia said, pulling Aqua's head out from her body. It was quite a horrifying sight, seeing one body being pulled out from another. She tossed Aqua aside, steam coming out from her body from the divine energies Aqua infused in her.

"This is no way to treat a goddess!"

Aqua said, rubbing her head as she was tossed to the ground.

"Aqua-sama! I'll rescue you!"

Mitsurugi let his feelings for Aqua get in the way of good judgment and ran towards Aqua, ignoring the threat of Sylvia.

Sylvia grinned, seeing her chance.

"Come here, boy! Let me have a piece of you!"

"Ahhh!"

He screamed as Sylvia lunged at him and started to absorb him.

I thought it was over for Mitsurugi, but suddenly…

An arm emerged from Sylvia's chest. A head followed, the unruly hair of a certain blond delinquent.

"Come on, babe. I'm not gonna let this pretty boy share your body~! Let's enjoy our alone time together~!"

What the hell was this guy talking about?

"...?! How did you manage to escape?! That Arch-Priest must have weakened me!"

Like a dam bursting open, more limbs and heads started pouring out from Sylvia's body. It was a freak show, as the absorbed app-users all tried to crawl away from Sylvia.

"Let us out…!"

"Somebody, help!"

"Some dude's junk was pressed against my face the whole time!"

Sylvia screamed, then expelled all the bodies out.

"Fine! Get out if you want! I only want the handsome Mitsurugi-kun, anyway!"

"Get away from me!"

Mitsurugi tried his best to extract himself from Sylvia's grasp, but she was too strong. He also couldn't unsheath Gram from his position.

"Get your hands off Mitsu!"

Megumin said, appearing behind Sylvia as Yunyun teleported her in. She whacked Sylvia on the back with a direct hit of her staff, causing a small explosion to rock Sylvia forward, but that wasn't enough.

Yunyun teleported her away again as multiple blades emerged out of Sylvia's back, trying to skewer Megumin.

"Unhand Mitsurugi-kun! [Taunt]!"

"[Skill Lock]!"

Sylvia used a counter skill to block Darkness's taunt before it could activate.

I formed another fire arrow and tried to snipe her with it, but Sylvia's innate magic resistance was still too powerful.

"Try physical attacks!"

I said, while rushing forward with Chunchunmaru.

"[Power Slash, [Double Attack, [Quick Draw]!"

"As if that's enough!"

Even with my skill combos and upgrades on Chunchunmaru, Sylvia was able to endure the attack and kick me away.

"You're the most troublesome pest here, Satou Kazuma… I'll finish you off!"

She opened her mouth, getting ready to blast off another fire breath.

"Senpai! [Freeze Gust]!"

Rin saw Sylvia trying to attack me and sent a wind of frost towards Sylvia.

I thought it would have no result, due to her high magic resistance. But even though she could resist damage, it seemed as if regular effects still affected her somewhat. Her body started to freeze, before she used physical force to break the ice.

"Tch… There's too many distractions!"

If ice could freeze her main body, and not just the guns she absorbed…

With ideas filling my head, I ran straight towards Sylvia.

"Kazuma-kun?! What are you doing?!"

Chris yelled out in concern, as she saw me charging without my sword drawn.

"Oh? Have you finally chosen to combine with me, Satou Kazuma?"

I smiled at Sylvia, who opened her arms again.

"Yes… Perhaps I've fallen for your charms…"

"Fufu… It was inevitable… Come!"

I leapt towards her.

Then, at the last second, I extended my arm and covered her mouth with my hand.

"[Create Water]! [Freeze]!"

I filled her nose and mouth with water and immediately froze it.

Part 6

I noticed that Sylvia always needed to inhale in order to use her fire breath. By freezing her mouth and nose, it ensured that she couldn't use such a deadly weapon.

Not only that, but she was now oxygen deprived, her face turning purple as the seconds passed.

Unfortunately, that didn't last for very long.

I should have taken into account that she was capable of changing the structure of her body. An opening appeared on her throat, which she used to suck in air. The ice around her mouth soon melted, and flames erupted from it.

"Hoh… That was a good try, Satou Kazuma! You're quite resourceful, aren't you? Say, why don't you consider joining the demon king army? If you do, we will let you rule this country as a reward."

"D-Don't even think about it, Kazuma!"

"It's not worth it, Satou!"

"Kazuma… You're considering it, aren't you?"

Aqua, Mitsurugi and Megumin attempted to dissuade me.

Did they really think I would take such an offer seriously?

I only thought about it for a few seconds.

"No thanks. I'm fine reaping the benefits this country provides, without having to do any actual work in running it."

"There's our resident scumbag!"

Aqua said, clapping for me.

"Fine. You keep refusing my offers, so I'll just forcefully absorb you into my body!"

"Haven't you even thought about consent?! [Flash]!"

I attempted to blind Sylvia, but…

"[Skill Lock]!"

Her thief skills were such a nuisance. She was already OP enough, why did she have a thief class, too?!

Meanwhile, Dust, who was deposited on the ground along with the other app-users, got up from the ground. This guy was surprisingly durable, Even the app-users hadn't gotten up yet.

"I'm not gonna forgive you for eating me in a literal sense! I wanted you to eat me up in a more intimate way!"'

"Hoh? I didn't really care about you, but you're quite talented, aren't you? Let's play some more, then, blond boy~!"

With all of the bodies expelled out, Sylvia couldn't use any more hostages.

"Everyone, attack her while she's vulnerable!"

The app-users roared, taking this chance. But Sylvia wasn't panicking at all.

"Fools! What are you without these divine weapons of yours! I still have an entire arsenal!"

She summoned swords from all parts of her body, blocking attacks from all sides. She raised her arm, deflecting a slash with a sword sticking out from her arm that froze the app-user who attacked her. She used her other arm to dispel an energy beam with a shield that absorbed the energy and launched it back at the caster. She even used her leg and a sword emerged from the knee, blocking another attack and kicking the attacker away.

"Keep pressuring her! [Rune Blade]!"

Mitsurugi attacked as well, Gram glowing bright blue as he charged up energy. Sylvia grinned and simply lifted her arm to block the attack.

"You're way too predictable, handsome~! Hopefully, you're much more interesting in bed!"

Mitsurugi grinned and glanced at me.

"Oi, Satou! This is a pass from me to you! Finish it!"

I played enough soccer with him to understand what he was trying to say.

Our teamwork was at a stage where our minds were in sync.

There were times on the field when Mitsrugui would drop down to the False 9 position to attract attention, leaving me, the Midfielder, to occupy the striker spot.

"[Lurk]..."

Just like how I snuck past defenders, I managed to sneak up to Sylvia.

She was surprised when she finally sensed me, but she wasn't worried since she survived my attacks before.

"Nice try, Satou Kazuma! But your attacks won't…"

"[Steal]!"

"Fool! As if your steal would work on me!"

"I wasn't stealing anything from you, dummy!"

Mitsurugi smirked as I completely read the play he was trying to set up.

I used steal on Gram instead.

When he said this was a pass from him to me…

Gram that was already charged up with the energy from [Rune Blade] was the ball.

And it was up to me to finish it…!

"Hohhh…!"

Before the energy could disperse, I slashed Sylvia from behind.

"Impossible…!"

A wave of blue energy emerged from the blade of Gram as I slashed cleanly across Sylvia's back.

"Gahhh!"

Since I wasn't the owner of Gram, the attack, powerful as it was, wasn't enough to completely finish her off.

"I should kill you once and for all, Satou Kazuma…!"

Sylvia wasn't playing around anymore. A sword emerged out of her chest and she launched it at me like a projectile.

"Kazuma! [Protect]!"

Darkness bumped me aside and used a skill to switch places with me, taking the attack. She screamed in pain as the sword hit her directly, causing a large gash to appear on her armor.

"[Heal]!"

Aqua reacted just in time, healing Darkness.

"Thanks, Aqua! You'll pay for that, foul fiend! [Side Slash]!"

Darkness attacked Sylvia with a wide swing of her sword, but Sylvia dodged it. Perhaps it would have just been better if she stayed still, since the attack had no chance of landing.

While we were in the dungeon, Megumin, Aqua and I noticed something about Darkness's attacks.

Sure, they never land. At all. But most opponents don't expect that. They will instinctively move out of the way of such a powerful-looking attack.

Especially since Darkness hadn't attacked once this whole fight, keeping her terrible accuracy a secret.

That was on purpose, just for this moment.

From fighting with Darkness, we knew exactly where Sylvia was going to dodge just by observing Darkness's attack. With the space she created, Sylvia would dodge to the right.

"You're a proper tank after all, you space creating meathead! [Snipe]!"

I dropped Gram and greeted an ice arrow. It didn't pierce all the way through, but it still caused Sylvia to cry out in pain.

"Good job, Darkness! All that time spent watching you miss finally paid off! Hahhh!"

Megumin smashed her staff against the back of Sylvia's skull. It was followed by an explosion that rocked Sylvia forward.

"Your attacks are never gonna hit, but you sure are good at moving that big body of yours, Darkness! [God Blow]!"

We saw the whites of Sylvia's eyes as Aqua stepped through just as Sylvia stumbled forward from Megumin's attack, an uppercut of the gods connecting to Sylvia's chin.

I thought about capturing Sylvia, but considering all her troublesome abilities, I didn't want to risk having her escape.

Letting the enemy live only to have them come back again is the worst cliche of them all.

I raised my hand to the sky, then brought it down, palm open to Sylvia.

"[Lightning]!"

A lightning bolt crashed down from the heavens to strike Sylvia down.

"This can't be…!"

Those were her last words as she perished, burn marks all over her body.