Arc 23: Incoming New Threat

Chapter 208: An Interlude, and the Space Between Dimensions

I could’ve never thought it would be her coming out. For the one appearing right in front of me to be the girl who, among closest aides of the [King], resents me the most, it’s truly unlucky.

I’ve somehow managed to lead her outside the barrier… into the dimensional gap with the help of dimensional transition, but I don’t want to use this method excessively. It takes time to regain the necessary power to return to that world after all.

We confront each other in the gloomy dimensional gap with nothing in it. Her glaring eyes are sharp as usual. The grid-patterned barrier in between us is stretching as if showing the distance between the two people

「Just when I thought that the number of those lowly living humans was big compared to the numbers of the advanced unit that has been sent through the barrier… Was it your doing, you bastard? Endemuon!」

「Well, don’t make a mistake here. It will be troublesome if you guys are able to come out, so I’ve crushed every single one of them. Though the ruler-type, which you guys are, has still managed to come out, so it might just be a matter of time until the barrier collapses」

It doesn’t mean it’s that simple to just be able to come out even if I tell her that. It shouldn’t be. That’s because It will be a grave matter if they’ve found the seam leading to the world, won’t it?

「Oh well, whatever. I have a lot of things I want to ask you, bastard. You know where the [King] is, don’t you?!」

「I’ve told you already, I don’t know. Though it’s a certainty that the [King] is somewhere in that world. To begin with, I believe that you guys aren’t even thinking that the other side just doesn’t want to meet with you. Am I wrong?」

「Shut up! The [King] wouldn’t have even gone mad if it wasn’t for your instigation, you bastard! The ringleader of all of this doesn’t have the right to look this self-important!」

Something like “instigating”… My reputation is bad. As for that, it’s up to the person in question to decide. I’m merely watching over things. Well, I’m aware enough that I’m providing a sufficient help.

「I will ask just in case, but… You don’t intend to leave this world, do you?」

「Don’t give me that crap! Our goal is to take back [King]. There is no way that we will withdraw!」

「Take back… you say. Aren’t you mistaking it for [Capture] ?」

The girl… Nei starts to speak in anger while giving a vicious look to what I’ve said.

「Don’t lump me together with those fellows…! It’s not that we want the power of [King]. It’s the [King] that is necessary!」

Everyone is searching for [King]. I know that there are some among them who, naturally, are downright harboring ambitions of being the [King]. It seems that this girl is different, but we’re at odds here because she is trying to restore the position of Fraze [King].

「I would like you to leave whatever it is that you are doing. I’m also quite invested in that world, and I’ve even managed to make an unusual friend there」

Mochizuki Touya. He’s an unusual guy. His judgments do not lie with anything. He’s outside the standards of anything and everything. I feel like that he looks like a human, but he isn’t at the same time. He lives in that world, yet he also appears to be a human from another world. I’ve never met someone like that before. Is he perhaps from some sort of mutated species?

That reminds me, the woman whom he calls [Nee-san] is abnormal as well. As I’ve suspected, they might be from a rare species.

I’m certain that he is not a bad guy. He had treated me with kindness during our first meeting, and it appears that after he thrusts his head into battles which have nothing to do with him, he gets the short end of the stick, doesn’t he?

If possible, I want to let him and the [King] meet.

「We will take back the [King] even if we have to eradicate the lowly humans living in that world. It will happen no matter what you, bastard, do」

「I wonder about that. There might be an opponent more difficult than someone like me, you know?」

The girl once again glares at me with eyes full of hatred. Well, I suppose it can’t be helped since I’m the cause that snatched the [King] away from them.

I didn’t really expect things to turn out this way in the first place. We thought that even the [King] was lost, Frazes would select a new [King] and walked their new way.

However, they wished for power. They clung to their former power instead of finding a new way. They desired to obtain that power even if that meant crossing over the worlds and destroy the people living in them.

Those guys were opposed in a great number of worlds and got a large number of people involved as a result. However, they don’t intend to stop. This remains to be my wish. In other words, I understand that it’s due to my own self-convenient hypocrisy that I have no choice but to try and minimize the damage as much as possible.

The [King] core absorbs the living energy of its host little by little. It then randomly transfers to another human body when the lifespan of that host ends. Most of the hosts don’t recognize its presence and live out their lives like always.

As such, it becomes possible to transfer to another world after repeating this process several times. The [King] then uses the accumulated power and begins its trip from that world to the world higher than the one it’s in.

At the time the host dies, the [King]’s voice becomes audible for only the moment when it transfers to another host.

Each time this sound is being heard, [She] can feel it’s ascending the stairs little by little. [She] can believe that it still lives even if it changes its form somewhere in the world.

「Do the lowly humans of that world have the power to stop us?」

「Isn’t it a fact that they have brought down the advanced type?」

「Fu~n, It must have been the unnecessary hints you’ve dropped, you bastard. We will make sure to exterminate all of them once this hindering barrier falls!」

*Gan*, Nei strikes at the barrier within the darkness.

I’m located inside the barrier at this moment while she’s outside of it even though both of us are at the same dimensional gap. She and her comrades, who can’t use the dimensional transfer like me, can’t slip into this world through the cracks in the barrier. They have no choice but to accidentally find a seam which allows them to jump in.

This should buy us some time. The other ruler-types must be trying to come through the barrier even now as we speak.

「I’ve asked this before but, how about joining forces with…」

「I refuse! Do not think that you can coax me like you did with Rize! 」

「That’s too bad. She would’ve wanted to meet with you too」

「… Is Rize healthy?」

「Yep」

She’s probably waiting for my return even while we’re talking right now. Though it seems that I’ll be a bit late this time. Oh well, if it’s her, she should be okay.

「… I won’t forgive you the next time we meet. Wash your neck and wait for it」

Nei vanishes into the darkness leaving behind those words stating that there’s nothing more to talk about. Oh-my. It’s really troublesome.

Now then. I suppose it’ll once again take time to return to the other side. That’s why I didn’t want to use the dimensional transfer. The other side might’ve turned into a scorched earth together with everything in its surroundings considering how our meeting went down, so I suppose there’s no other choice.

Or maybe, Touya might’ve done something in that case? I feel like I would want to see that. It has been a long time since I’ve seen such an unusual person.

The one before him was… certainly… it was around 5000 years ago, I think? That woman was certainly interesting as well.

That woman who was called Regina Babylon.