First Outer World Story Series: The Black Mist that Devours - Chapter 155
Translator: MadHatter Editor: MadHatter
(Third person POV)
It was, without a doubt, a spectacle worthy of being described as a mythological verse.
If the man in black called forth a flood that threatened to sweep away all the land, the petite girl in response would rise up a large boulder… no, a mountain to prevent the flood from reaching her.
When the petite girl grew innumerable plants from the mountain and sought to penetrate the man in black with its trunk and branches, the man in black unleashed a black metal sickle, as if it were darkness itself, to mow down the plants and destroy them.
Their contention was as if they were striving to create the heaven and earth they desired while simultaneously undermining and depriving their opponents of the heaven and earth they had created, which was exactly what they aimed to do as they fought.
“Hah! Now it is an imitation of the heaven-and-earth creation myth!”
The man in black… Kurokiri, sweating slightly, spitted out swear words, and at the same time, several bolts of lightning gushed out from his hand in front of the girl.
“Silence!”
In response, the girl… the God of Calamity, with an expression of indignation on her face, but still with plenty of room to spare, surrounded herself with a moon-shaped barrier.
The lightning, which possessed enough power to obliterate an ordinary creature instantaneously, was reflected back to Kurokiri in the same trajectory as it was.
“If that’s how you want to play it, I’ll do it this way!”
Kurokiri was not startled by the reflected thunderbolt that he had lost control of and deployed his next sorcery. After regaining control of the lightning, he transformed it into an artillery shell and shot out a black cannonball.
However, the God of Calamity struck it down not with the previous barrier, but with another barrier.
Each of their attacks should have originally ended the battle with a single strike. Nevertheless, the stage of combat was not over yet. This was because both sides had reached a point where their abilities can be hailed as the pinnacle of their respective fields of expertise.
So, if this battle were to be settled, what factors would determine the outcome?
“Hah hah… (However, the difference between our experiences is becoming apparent.)”
On this occasion, the gap in their experiences had become a particularly prominent factor.
“What’s wrong? Are you gasping for breath?”
“How can that be?”
There was a distinction between the two of them. To put it another way, it was the experience difference in battle.
Experience was demonstrated not just in physical ability, which can be easily described in figures, but also in the dexterous way of drawing out one’s force, the capacity to concentrate without fatigue, and the ability to move your body efficiently. Even if a person was a natural talent prodigy, honing such skill without exertion was challenging.
And it had already been a whole day since the battle commenced. After such a considerable amount of time, the disparity in their experience would become conspicuous.
Kurokiri had already squeezed every ounce of magical power out of his body, yet in order to carry on fighting, all the other factors were used to compensate for his lack of strength, while most of the preparations he had made in advance had already fulfilled their purpose.
The God of Calamity, on the other hand, still had plenty of time and power. She could probably fight for a few more days even if she was instructed to keep battling at the same level as her opponent.
“Now, here’s your prize for treating me like a replica. Savor it to the fullest. ?Divine Spear Gungnir?!”
A metal spear was produced in the right hand of the God of Calamity.
It was a spear that was destined to pierce the opponent when released.
“What’s wrong with calling a replica a replica? Having fought directly against you, I can recognize this. You are a replica of the real thing, made somewhere at some point in time. I don’t know what the genuine God of Calamity was thinking when she made one like you.”
Yet, even though Kurokiri clearly understood the horror of the spear, he swore unflinchingly.
“Shut your trap!!”
A spear was released from the God of Calamity’s hand. It was a spear that determined the future.
Kurokiri did not try to avoid it. Since his future was fixed, the act of avoiding it was of no significance.
And as long as the future was fixed, there was no way for the Kurokiri to repel or prevent it.
That was why Kurokiri continued to stand there unconcernedly. His expression was similar to that of a martyr who went to the place of death.
“(I’m sorry. It is impossible for me to do this alone.)”
The spear came precisely to puncture Kurokiri’s head.
“(But paradox…)”
And the moment the spear was about to drive through Kurokiri’s head…
“It’s not impossible if you have a companion.”
…the spear was shattered into pieces and its form was transformed into a single sword, which settled in the hand of a girl.
“What!?”
The God of Calamity revealed her astonishment.
“Kurokiri. If it is punishment, I will accept it as much as you want later. So for now, please let me accompany you.”
“Who said anything about punishment… no, you’re right. I will punish you when I return. So for now, please cooperate with me.”
The girl… Ichiko stood beside Kurokiri wielding a knight’s sword in her hand, which she made by disassembling the spear of God.
“Ridiculous! Not only did you stop my spear, but you even snatched it away from me!”
This was the first time the God of Calamity had ever demonstrated such panic.
But that was understandable. What Ichiko had done now was an act of distorting the future that was supposed to be defined. It was not an action that can be executed by brute force.
“Kurokiri. I can only physically pull off one more special move. So, after that…”
“I know. Don’t worry, I’ll finish it next time. Will you use it for me?”
Ichiko silently nodded her head affirmatively in response to Kurokiri’s question and produced a pure white sword from her body.
“‘My name is ‘Blade Princess of the Undefined Sword’. Therefore, the sword that is created from my body is the sword that cannot define the future’. Kurokiri.”
“I get it. ‘My name is the King of the Devouring Black Mist. Therefore, I am the black mist king, who devours the past and the present, and smears everything with blackness to transform it into my power’.”
The sword created from Ichiko’s body passed into the hand of Kurokiri, and the swords in Kurokiri’s hands were dyed black.
Eventually, at the moment when all of the swords had been dyed black,
“What!? Damn!”
With the God of Calamity’s appalled surprise, all of the power of the God of Calamity that should have been surrounding him dissipated, and was consolidated in the swords in Kurokiri’s hand.
Realizing for the first time that this situation was a crisis, the God of Calamity unleashed an all-out attack against the two of them. It was a chaotic attack of fire, water, earth, lightning, light, and darkness.
Unlike the attack that the Octopus King once unleashed, which had the attribute of “chaos” that made the power it swallowed its own, this was an attack of chaos that exploited the weakness of all those it touched and determined the death of those it touches.
In fact, the God of Calamity had already witnessed how the two died through her ?Future Vision? skill, which she activated at the same time, and was aware that this attack would surely wipe them out.
However…
“As long as I am here, the world will no longer be defined by one future.”
“As of now, such an attack will no longer work.”
In the instant she unleashed her attack, a scene different from the one seen in her ?Future Vision? began to materialize in the eyes of reality.
Simultaneously, with a swing of his swords, the God of Calamity’s attack was obliterated without a trace, and the power of Kurokiri’s unleashing intensified.
“D-Don’t be absurdddddddddd!! There is no way this kind of power exists! There is no way such power can overturn the future that has been finalized and change it to your own at the present moment! If such a thing exists, what I wish for is…”
The God of Calamity raged and screeched.
But her words were never fully uttered.
With a speed that even the God of Calamity could not see, Kurokiri stepped forth and positioned his swords in a cross pattern, slashing down on the God of Calamity.
“Argh… such a thing… I am not even assigned to this role…”
The God of Calamity’s entire body began to crack.
“I don’t give a damn about your situation. I am the Demon King.”
“A Demon King is someone who does what they want to do.”
Cracks began to form all over her body eventually, and the space that made up “The World on the Other Shore” started to crack as well.
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“Therefore, I will defeat you, escape your curse, and live the way I desire to live.”[i]
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“Therefore, I will defeat you, escape your curse, and live the way I desire to live.”
And with that, the God of Calamity shattered, along with the entire “The World on the Other Shore”.
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T/N:
[i] Both Kurokiri and Ichiko are saying the same words, the only difference in the text is Kurokiri is using a masculine tone while Ichiko is using a feminine tone in the raw so I am including the original text as well