Chapter 55. Nervousness
The current time was 9:57AM with clear skies. The peak of the mountain was filled with people who had come to observe the sky island. I had gotten together with Necro after two days and was now looking at the reason why the mountain was referred to as a half mountain.
"How steep."
It was too steep to be called a fjord. The term "cliff" suited it far better. The plot of land that was supposed to be at the peak had been cleanly cut in two. The surface of the cut was shiny and reflective, almost like glass. Did the dirt melt as it got cut?
"This was done by the Hero…"
The Hero made the mountain look like this with a single strike. With strength like this, there was no need for the Hero to have comrades. Only now did I understand what the saint meant by what she said.
'Sword Monster really is just suited for defense. It's just sturdy.'
She wasn't exaggerating when she said this. Despite having killed tens of different ability users, the Warrior was, in the end, just a tank.
So the actual Hero's this strong…
Well, I guess I'll think about that later. The one we have to face right now was the Summoner. Let's just focus on her for now. I walked away from the cliff to go to the table where the other two were. Necro, who had been enraged when I first showed him my new face, had pulled back his hair to show off that he, too, could be handsome.
"Well? Can you estimate how strong the Hero is now?"
"Let's get to that after the Summoner."
I sat down as I was handed the report. The one we had to kill this time was a young girl who had just turned fifteen. A Russian girl named Iris.
So they brought a child along to kill the Demon King. How amazing. The power she had was something that allowed her to reflect any kind of damage, [Absolute Reflect].
– [Lv.1] Red: Flame (Heat, etc.)
– [Lv.2] Orange: Kinetic energy (Gravitational force, etc.)
– [Lv.3] Yellow: Mental attacks (Curses, hypnosis, etc.)
– [Lv.4] Green: Sound
– [Lv.5] Blue: Cold
– [Lv.6] Indigo: Electromagnetic Force (light, radiation, etc.)
– [Lv.7] Violet: Poison, germs
– [Lv.8] White: Damage
A childish ability. Her power must be derived from her personality of rejecting society. And that personality must be the reason why she was living alone on an island. According to the note that Necro gave me, she was a girl that the saint looked after like a young sister. Not that that would really matter…
I glanced at the saint, who had been staring at me emptily since a while back. She looked down when our eyes met. Her fingers were playing with the ring I have her on the table.
…Whatever. She probably forgot all about the Summoner. It should work out fine.
I put the report back on the table.
"I have three plans. I can try the first two myself, but if they don't work…"
"If they don't work?"
Necro's eyes followed my gaze to look at the saint. She covered her face in embarrassment. If the first two plans don't work, we'll have to rely on her. This was something that only she could do. Only because most of the abilities that could be bought through Heart of Gold was something that required mana. I looked away from the saint and turned towards Necro.
"The first thing we have to do is to kill all the summoned beasts in the island. Can you do it?"
"Ha~ Look at you, just assuming things. Just what do you think I am? I can't. I can't do it. Do you even know how many beasts she has under her? Do you still have no idea on how useless I am?"
"Just try your best. I just don't want any distractions."
"Well, let's just say that I'm going to take care of all the summoned beasts. What next? Just tell us how to get past her power already."
The saint didn't speak at all. She was just glancing at me every once in awhile with dreamy entranced eyes. If I'm not wrong, what she was feeling right now was a feeling of love. I had killed her former lover, Romeo Smith, and was about to kill her dearest friend who was like a younger sister to her…
Would she be able to continue liking me after getting back her memories? Would she be able to forgive herself for that?
Just what does she see in me? My heartless self? The face that I can change as long as I had money?
I don't get it. It's not like it's something very important though. I'll just ignore it. Back to the topic.
"Before we get to talking about how we can get through her power, we need to talk about something. Absolute Reflect. If it indeed does reflect everything away from the Summoner, how does she hear and how does she breath?"
Necro answered my question easily.
"It's not an attack, so it doesn't get ignored."
"Correct. It's not an attack, so it doesn't get ignored. In other words, 'it is possible to choose what would be reflected and what won't.' She allows certain gases, sounds, and gravity through. Seeing how even poison gas doesn't work on her, there is an algorithm of sorts that is able to sort poison away from air."
What attack would work against a power that filters out attacks? The solution was simple. If I can't work on the outside, I'll just work on the inside. I'll lead her to kill herself. Necro knew that I was leading him to the actual method of killing the girl from his two previous experiences, so he listened carefully.
"Right, so?"
"Differentiating and calculating. In other words, there needs to be a 'process' that needs to be completed before reflecting attacks. It can't be a simple process. Take this. If A and B both had the same absolute reflection ability, and A punched B, what would happen?"
"Who knows? Would it be reflected like a ping pong?"
"What if A pulls back his punch? Who gets damaged, then?"
He didn't respond back immediately. Humans were creatures that learned. Instead of just saying 'ah, I don't get it!', he would try to figure out how everything would work. After a while of thinking, he finally opened his mouth.
"Processing time. There's a tiny delay…?"
"Correct again. A calculates the reflect, and B calculates as well. There has to be a certain field around the user that calculates the reflection. Since there's a limit to how fast it can calculate, mixing up attacks and attacking faster would lower its power."
A recursive function. The function would call upon itself again and again like an ouroboros biting its tail, eating up the CPU faster and faster. This would cause the computer to overheat and shut down.
"The area of the power is something to think about as well. For example, if the area affected by the power was a sphere with a radius of ten meters, and emptied the air just around that sphere, what would she do?"
"She'd try to get out of that area."
"What if it wasn't possible?"
Delay, area of effect, and the limits of the processing power. These were the three weaknesses that we had to consider. The first two were the weaknesses that I'd try to exploit. If they didn't work, the saint would have to come into play.
It would be best if I could finish it myself…
I heard a loud 'boom' as I talked, causing me to raise my head. The island, despite being so far from us, still took up most of our view. It was a monstrous object with a volume of a 100 cubic kilometers.
This too, was a relic of the very first Hero, just like the land spider. What kept the island afloat was probably magic.
After a bit, the island began to move across the half mountain. Through the floating eye, I was able to estimate that the amount of summoned creatures in the island to be around nine hundred. There was only a single human among all these creatures. A cute girl that resembled a doll more than anything was having a joyous time on her unicorn.
Did she not know? Well, I guess she had no way of knowing that her comrades had died when she was stuck on an island.
Now, then—-.
Sorry, young lady. You'll have to be alone for a bit.
I took out the thousand thunderbirds, and signalled Necro. His hands stretched out towards the sky.
Our target was the entire island.
The birds dropped down and black smoke began to rise up from the entire island. I, who had fixed my floating eye on the Summoner, was able to hear her desperate screams.
So this wasn't enough to kill her.
I turned to the saint, who had turned a little sick, and motioned her to follow me as I jumped down. Necro jumped with me as he cast several spells. Red and blue spears composed of fire rained down on the island. Spikes made of stone sprouted out at the same time, making the island turn into a hellscape.