BXBX NOVEL Chapter 151 - Konosuba Side Part 36.
[Advocate of Gender Equality: So, what now?]
"Hm?" Leo let go of the prayer in his hand and let them float freely. Strangely though, it didn\'t leave for far, but it continued to swirl around him with another bunch.
[Advocate of Gender Equality: You and the crazy laughs. Me, need an explanation]
"For what?" Leo tilted his head innocently. The circling platinum fireflies made his \'innocent\' face more convincing.
[Advocate of Gender Equality: For waking me up!!! My sleep was interrupted by your crazy laughing bs!!]
"What? Do you still need to sleep? That\'s insane" Saying with a monotone tone, Leo appeared to be shocked.
[Advocate of Gender Equality: I hate you with every fiber of my being]
"I see, but honestly" Leo put his hand on his chin before he said " You should consider not sleeping. Sleeping could be very dangerous for your health and also several other things, after all, dreams can be easily hacked, and…"
[Advocate of Gender Equality: Don\'t put your otherworldly beings\' values on me!]
[NEET Princess: Do you really need to sleep?! I\'m shocked]
[Advocate of Gender Equality:...]
{I always wondered why I get angry easily these days, but…} Looking with his bloodshot eyes, Kazuma whispered these words "This chat absolutely give me some anger issues"
[NEET Princess: Fufufu, enough with jokes. Now, did you burn your world in some weird ritual?]
"Hm? When did I ever hurt the world? I\'m an honest person that pushes the world further… Well, \'further\' could mean a lot, but it\'s an advancement" Leo thought of most of his abilities, which sounds very fitting for this moment.
Despite that, Leo\'s words seem to be only getting weirder, but looking at his sudden good mood, the chat was more speechless.
[NEET Princess: So, you didn\'t blow up the planet and fix it again]
"No" Leo shook his head while drawing something on the ground using the staff.
[NEET Princess: You did nothing, nothing at all?]
"I took a walk in Heaven and its most important place, but yeah, nothing" Leo nodded slowly.
[NEET Princess: Do you expect me to believe that?! You were one step away from laughing like Yagami if he found that L had a club penguin account]
[Advocate of Gender Equality: Yeah… wait, what?]
[Bri-Bri: You don\'t know?]
[Advocate of Gender Equality: How I\'m supposed to know this bs? How about you, do you know anything?]
[Bri-Bri: This place is completely unscientific, so no]
[Advocate of Gender Equality: So, you basically don\'t know anything, heh]
[Bri-Bri:...]
"Fine, I might or not have sent some people into the hospital after my defense mechanism activated" Leo shook his head as some fireflies stuck on his hair.
[NEET Princess: That sounds very disappointing and anticlimactic]
[Advocate of Gender Equality: Indeed, you should feel shame]
[Bri-Bri: Uhhhh, Despite this whole situation is wrong, isn\'t this one of the best conclusions?]
[NEET Princess: Nah, this is disappointing. He failed at his only job, to be a doom angel. Shame, honestly, shame]
[Advocate of Gender Equality: I have never been so disappointed by something like this, even if it woke me up from sleep. Pathetic, you should consider your life choices again]
[Bri-Bri:....]
"..." Leo also stopped for a moment as his eyebrow was twitching.
[NEET Princess: Um, I\'m satisfied by this trash talking. Now, what did you really do?]
"Magic" Leo said with a monotone voice before a period of silence filled the place.
[NEET Princess: We already established that, so and?]
"More magic" The same short answer was heard.
[NEET Princess:...]
[Bri-Bri: Let me guess, there\'s also more magic]
"Indeed, you\'re really smart." Finishing several runes and circles on the ground, Leo nodded.
[Bri-Bri: That doesn\'t sound like a compliment]
"It is whatever you want it to be" Waving his hand, Leo tapped the magic circles before he looked at the chat and said " So, are we ready to start?"
[Bri-Bri: Uhhhhh....]
[Advocate of Gender Equality: Start what?]
"Experiments, magic, ritual. I wouldn\'t say I found a solution, but I found a place to start from. So, experiments" Leo tabbed the staff\'s end on the ground as his Alter Telesma was surging.
Despite not being at his best, the higher dimensional energy was distorting everything around him.
[Advocate of Gender Equality: Yeah, no]
[Bri-Bri: We are still preparing stuff and it\'s nighttime now]
"Did you at least draw the magic circle?" Leo stared blankly at the chat.
[Advocate of Gender Equality: Nope :)]
"..." Leo blinked his eyes before he said " So, you basically did nothing"
[Advocate of Gender Equality: How dare you! I fought bravely and killed the hellspawn pigeons! Despite the hurdles from that Pikachu]
[Bri-Bri: OI! What did you just call me?!]
[Advocate of Gender Equality: Me? I didn\'t call you at all. But you seem to think of yourself as Pikachu?]
[Bri-Bri:... It seems you really want to go at it, huh?]
[Advocate of Gender Equality: After attacking the weak and hopeless me, I made an oath to return this shame, or something, dunno, I forgot the lines… Well, can I make an anti-lightning build here?]
[Bri-Bri:.....]
[NEET Princess: Anyway, what solution?]
"Hm? It isn\'t much of a solution, but a maneuver. How do I explain this? The reality, and mostly the material world, has a lot of restrictions in general, so I\'ll try to match the most common and usual laws of the two worlds in a virtual aspect by throwing some… this is complicated to explain" Leo fixed his glasses as he thought of how annoying explanations are.
[Advocate of Gender Equality: So, experiments, right, indeed. I\'ll go back to sleep]
"Sleep? Magic knows no sleep and rest" Leo looked down at the screen like he\'s saying \'pathetic\'.
[Advocate of Gender Equality: My sleep is more important than magic, goodnight!]
[Advocate of Gender Equality is Offline]
[Bri-Bri: I\'m also going to sleep]
[Bri-Bri is Offline]
"....." Leo blinked before he looked at Kaguya\'s username on the chat.
[NEET Princess: :)]
[NEET Princess is Offline]
"...." Leo stood in the middle of the mountain range alone as the cold wind gently blew his clothes.
Taking a deep breath, Leo turned his attention to the chat and typed quickly. He\'s going to call the richest person in the entire Chat Room.
[Annihilation Maker(Admin): Saitama! I know you\'ve been lurking since forever, come out!]
[A Hero For Fun:.....]
[Annihilation Maker(Admin): Hello, it has been a while]
[A Hero For Fun: Yes]
[Annihilation Maker(Admin): Can I borrow some money?]
[A Hero For Fun:...]
[Annihilation Maker(Admin):....]
[A Hero For Fun: Aren\'t you some kind of god or something?]
[Annihilation Maker(Admin): So?]
[A Hero For Fun: Don\'t you also has a huge debt]
[Annihilation Maker(Admin):... maybe]
[A Hero For Fun is Offline]
"..." Leo slowly muted the Chat before he looked at the sky and said " Why are we here, just to suffer"
{Pain and suffering are an inevitable part of life and some philosophers think of them as signs of living} Venom answered immediately.
"I didn\'t really ask, but what do life things have to do with me? Anyway, thank you" Leo shook his head before he noticed some group of stars in the sky "Leo constellation, huh"
The constellation was shining in the night sky and looking like a sphinx crouching down. It was shown clearly in this mountain range away from civilization.
"Well, I guess I\'ll build the arrangements here, yeah, I\'ll do that… Probably" Leo shrugged his shoulders before walking around the empty mountain range slowly.
Meanwhile, in the Konosuba world, exactly at the Capital.
"You said that kingdom witnessed a sudden attack on the Royal Palace, huh?" Kaguya covered her mouth while looking at several documents.
"Indeed, the attack was sudden and fire devoured almost all evidence, but as it said here, the attacker was jumping in mid-air, turning invisible, merging with shadows, and even teleporting from them?" Leone lifted her eyebrow when she read the last information.
"So, what do you think? Is it worth the shot?" Putting her hands on her hips, Leone looked at the floating Kaguya.
"Hmmm, there\'s no denying the possibility, but there\'s also a chance for it to be a new reincarnator with an artifact. Anyway, it\'s worth a shot" Kaguya nodded before taking a glance at the map to determine the location.
Despite not being sure if it\'s right or wrong, Kaguya doesn\'t see any harm in trying. She could even use the divination ritual there, maybe the location will provide help. But first, she needs to find someone who can teleport or she\'ll have to fly there.
"This is all for today, thank you for your work" Kaguya clapped her hands while nodding at Leone.
"Oh? An official thanks, I would have preferred a real reward though, but this is for another time" Leone shrugged her shoulders.
"Indeed, you should also take some rest." Kaguya took some maps into her sleeve before patting them like everything was ready.
"No worries, no worries. I used to stay way longer when I was doing my missions" Waving her hand, Leone showed everything is okay.
"Your body is a mortal one" Kaguya tilted her head, but Leone shrugged again before she said " Information is the lifeline of every mission. A lot could go wrong just because of one wrong information and I\'m not willing to take the risk"
"Especially, we finally have a goal and not some impossible quiz" Leone glanced at Kaguya, who covered her mouth and said " Would you look at the time? It\'s late, I need to go, bye!"
With that, Kaguya vanished immediately as Leone looked at her place blankly before she sighed.
In the meantime, two people were looking at something inside the forest outside the Capital.
The wilderness surrounding the capital was always the habitat of many strong monsters, which is why only high-level adventurers come here in general. Despite that, these two weren\'t looking worried at all.
They were casually inspecting the place and determining nothing irregular happened. One of them dropped a whole crystal-made skeleton before he frowned.
"This is the planting place?" Kyle looked at this hidden place in the forest before he said " Wow, almost like your spawn was set as \'easy\'"
"Oh, you want to complain?" Susan frowned while looking at the device " You can complain to it"
"Heh, sure, sure, I also prefer to throw you under the bus" Kyle waved his hand before he kicked Lich\'s(Crystal) body.
"Careful, I don\'t want to waste all my efforts killing those two just because of your nonsense" Susan frowned while looking at the device in the middle.
"Do I care? This mission is already a fucking weird shit, even the plot has already gone out of control, yet we actually help it return to tracks?" Kyle clicked his tongue as he looked at Lich(Crystal) " And isn\'t this corpses\' guy? Did he end up like this when going to Axel?"
"...." Susan frowned, but she didn\'t say anything.
Most of Kyle\'s words are to annoy her and the last thing she wants now is to lose her composure.
"Hmph, we already did the Horror Space obligatory mission, so what now?" Kyle looked at Susan as he didn\'t move from his place.
The Horror Space came with a new mission without any warning. That mission overwrote all their previous missions and turned them null like it\'s the only necessary one. It said to follow the coordinates and bring Lich(Crystal) to one of the devices.
"Hm? Do you want to attack or that\'s a decoy in your place? In all cases, this mission is still going until the Space says something else" Susan scoffed at Kyle\'s words, but she still kept her distance from him and the device.
"Oh, you\'re nervous? It seems you don\'t know a lot about what is going on, huh" Kyle\'s words didn\'t change Susan\'s expression, but she was frowning inside.
"Anyway, I\'m going to throw this guy into the device, or maybe I changed my mind" Kyle was the closest to Lich(Crystal) body as he smiled and said " It seems you lost a lot of advantages now, huh"
"You\'re playing like this now" Susan reached for her bow, but Kyle didn\'t mind and said " I don\'t know what extra information you have, but why are you scared of me knowing it? Does that advantage have a critical role in your life and death? I wonder, I wonder"
"Or the Space has a punishment for y-…" In the surprised eyes of Susan, Kyle wasn\'t able to continue his words before the supposed dead skeleton under him twitched.
With a flexible movement, Lich(Crystal) kicked the ground under Kyle and flew towards the device.
"WHAT?! How could it still move?! I broke all its joints!" Kyle was shocked, but the Lich(Crystal) didn\'t pay any attention to him and Susan.
Reaching the planting position, Lich directly slipped under it the metallic rode that who knows when it plucked itself from the ground using the six supporting legs. Then in an instant, it thrust like a drill into Lich\'s (Crystal) chest.
*BOOM!!!!*
It wasn\'t a big explosion, but the shockwave and dust were enough to push Susan and Kyle away with all the small rocks and dust around.
The planting position was shining with a clear green light as Lich\'s(Crystal) body was decomposing into several fragments and merging into the device.
The slim and metallic device was getting bigger and bigger until it reached almost 6 meters before it stopped. The whole upper section of the device became huge and almost looked like a round container that shone with greenish-white color.
"What in the…" Kyle wanted to enter stealth, but he found his body very heavy.
"Ohhhhh, what do we have here?" Meanwhile, in the deepest parts of the world, Konosuba World\'s Will, who was controlling Lich(Crystal) observed what was happening from all angles.
"Talk about resource management, it has been a long time since I saw those pieces of junk" Konosuba World\'s Will put its hand on its chin while paying attention to the device changes and the lost Horror Space that floats in the vicinity of \'his\' world.
"Now, what are you going to do?" Turning his face into :) sign, Konosuba World\'s Will looked at the Horror Space as Susan and Kyle almost lost their ability to stand up when the round container began to glow.
"I should have known that you\'ll be doing this" Suddenly, a voice was heard from the void as Konosuba World\'s Will expression became O.o, then returned into the smiling face.
"Oh, what a surprise to see you here" Turning around slowly, Konosuba greeted a woman that suddenly appeared in \'his\' domain before he said " I wish I could offer you something, but unfortunately, I\'m broke right now"
The World\'s Will of Type-Moon, who took the shape of Shiki, didn\'t comment on Konosuba\'s words. \'She\' only looked at the Horror Space lost in the gray fog and also the device changes before \'she\' said " You\'re pushing it to desperation"
"Am I? That\'s very interesting" Konosuba\'s expression was fixed on the smiling face as \'he\' faced Root.
"Don\'t play dumb, you know more than me what would happen if the Space was pushed to the corner" Root frowned at Konosuba casual attitude.
"I don\'t really mind it going into desperation, after all, only what I get from it is the most important. Hm, and that self-preservation protocols are still working, so no worries" Konosuba turned away to observe the device changes.
The whole hidden area in the forest was filled with green lines like circuits on the ground. With each change, the round container glow was intensifying.
"I said stop this. You know that the Spaces will follow the rules of self-preservation all the time, but if, and only if it doesn\'t involve their \'Master\' things" Root looked at the gray shape of Konosuba before \'she\' said " And you\'re now digging straight into that"
"...…" Konosuba was silent for a moment before he said " It seems that \'she\' left you more information than I thought"
"If you continue, the Space might start to burn itself and even ram your world" Root didn\'t pay attention to Konosuba\'s words and continued " Is that worth it?"
"It\'s up to me to decide that. But to what do I owe this sudden visit? It\'s not like you came here just to tell me this" Konosuba expression didn\'t change and Root didn\'t say anything.
"Oh my, you\'re really here for this" Putting his hand on his chin, Konosuba showed a -_- expression.
"You\'re not stopping, aren\'t you?" Root sighed a little before \'she\' looked at Konosuba seriously.
"Stop? Stop what? I\'m not doing anything extraordinary though. I\'m just looking for something, like everyone else" The smile returned to Konosuba\'s face before it froze because Root said " After all this time, is this search after \'phantoms\' really worth it? You\'ll just burn yourself in the process"
"I said I\'m the one that decides if it\'s worth. But it seems that the \'past you\' really left more than I thought, huh" All marks and expressions on Konosuba\'s face vanished for a second before it returned to the creepy smiling face.
"Stop or not stop, these things aren\'t available for me to be honest." Konosuba looked at the Horror Space that was trapped by \'him\' before he said "Even the whole existence might have been forgotten, I know that \'he\' still exists. Heh, I even have a prove now"
"You see, Root? It\'s like all our mistakes are coming back to haunt us. Be it the mistakes of all of us" Konosuba pointed at the Horror Space.
"Your mistakes" \'He\' looked at Root before pointing at the device in the forest.
Kyle and Susan were struggling to stand up, but the glow of the device increased before ripples appeared on its surface. Then from the depth of the glow, a large metallic arm with slender sharp claws in place of nails stretched slowly.
"Or my own mistakes" As all expressions vanished from Konosuba\'s face, the silence filled this gray foggy space for a while.
"You had enough?" Root lifted \'her\' eyebrow and broke the silence.
"Yes, yes, sorry, sorry. You see, I discovered some things and I couldn\'t help but be affected by memories. Even if I am not supposed to feel that many emotions, but how to say, those memories are really impactful on me" Konosuba shook his head before he thought about something and said " Welp, I think you already know from \'her\' about a coward hiding and running"
"....." Root didn\'t say anything, but she only shook her head as Konosuba was silent and didn\'t push this subject further.
"But as you said, I already got what I want, this isn\'t worth it" With a wave of \'his\' hand, the grey fog around the Horror Space became thinner as the Space trembled before it returned to the movement.
In the forest, Kyle and Susan were sweating as the metallic arm was advancing to their way, but before it reached, a green glow appeared on their bodies before they vanished.
The arm froze in mid-air before it returned inside the container again, but the whole container seemed a little dim.
The whole Horror Space existence was flickering inside the gray area before it turned into a beam and pierced right through the fog, leaving this place instantly.
"So, what are you doing here? Shoo, shoo! This is a private area! Jeez, are you Pekemon\'s World that breaks into people\'s homes without any permission? I\'m broke and you people don\'t want to leave me" Konosuba\'s face became (⌣́_⌣̀) and filled with sadness as Root stared at \'him\' blankly.
" I always knew you as resourceful, yet for you to strongly insist on including your own Son of Destiny(Kazuma) in this project despite his poor compatibility and how much it\'ll cost. You also somehow found a way to inject it" Root thought for a moment before she smiled and said " Coward and broke, I think I see a lot of similarities now"
"Your own little new project doesn\'t make you better. Is that what you used all those anomalies and even \'The Hook\' for? Interesting \'\' Konosuba put his hand on his chin.
"In any case, what are you going to do with it?" Root pointed at the device as Konosuba shrugged its shoulders and said " Who cares about it? Using an old friend ranking system, it\'s barely a Five Digits anomaly and that only because it\'s burning itself and unstable"
"I\'d annihilate it if I wasn\'t really broke now. Anyway, let your fire against fire project deal with it. They\'ll manage and that time bomb of yours is also trying to access my world" Konosuba waved his hand before the creepy :) appeared again and said " Just so I can help him, I disabled all the ways to reach my world except the unorthodox ones. Let him have fun burning a few brain cells"
"....*Sigh*" Root sighed at this guy\'s way of thinking as she walked away.
"It\'s so funny seeing him getting banned by this thing. His reaction would be more wonderful if he knew the true nature of it. Hey, what would you think if I told him?" Konosuba looked at the leaving Root as he lifted a weird-looking \'eyebrow\' that suddenly appeared.
"That\'s up to you" Giving a half-hearted answer, Root turned back to glance and Konosuba and said " However, you really did find something in this attempt, which make me wonder why you told me"
Konosuba didn\'t say anything as the creepy smile seemed deeper this time, which made Root shake her head and say " I guess this is a story for another time, farewell"
Looking at Root disappearing from \'his\' space, Konosuba World\'s Will didn\'t say anything as \'he\' returned to observing the container and all Chat members.
"I think you fully realize, Root. Your previous project already caused turmoil. If it wasn\'t for Shiza Bansho taking a hit with others and all this causing a big loss for both sides, things wouldn\'t be this calm. But everything has an end" Shaking his head, Konosuba looked at the several screens attached before he shrugged.
"I was never a fan of fighting fire with fire, but here we are, so let the show start, hehehe" With those words, the shape of Konosuba World\'s Will became faint before it vanished from this space.
The only thing left was faint laughter echoing in this space before the gray fog returned to the serenity of silence.