Chapter 251: Knight
When you’re doing one thing, focus on that one thing.
“Okay, let’s get down to business.”
So, I decided to stop preparing for the eventuality of the Moonlight Gate and start dealing with what was right in front of me.
The one I need to work with Stardust to defeat.
I need to kill the Knight of God, who is sleeping underground somewhere in this country.
The Knight of God, an ancient weapon of destruction that comes to be known as the Knight of God (Miles Dei) by Celeste later in the original series.
He’s a great guy, especially since he suddenly wakes up in a world that’s still pretty fucked up after the Moonlight Gate disaster and stays until the end of the original.
So in a nutshell, it’s about destruction now.
“…..”
And like I said, it’s something that only Stardus can do.
With that thought, I made my way to one side of the mansion where I kept a collection of books. A study…it’s too fancy to call it that, it’s just a warehouse of old books.
It is said that books are the food of the mind, but of course they are not collected for that reason. The books here are mostly magical and theological. They’re all in the original texts, but thanks to advanced translation technology – a magical device created by Eun-wol – I can read them all.
Of course, through the original books, I already know the secrets of this world that even Celeste, the world’s highest ranking villain, doesn’t know, but I still need to verify just in case.
So, my conclusion after further confirmation is that this is something that only Stardus can do.
“…It’s not going to be easy.”
I muttered to myself.
Why Stardus was the main character in the original?
She was much weaker than the other S-class heroes while her uncharacteristically strong and good will seemed to be the only thing that set her apart.
Why, in the end, she was the only one to survive the final battle, when every other person with super powers in the world was swept away.
Part of it is because unlike the others, Stardus’ powers have an endlessly growing default value.
Most importantly, the origin of her power was different.
The Moonlight Church and the Final Battle.
In the end, she is the only one who can stop them all.
“The power of the stars…”
I muttered to myself.
Three gods, who created this world and a blessed ability, bestowed by the one who loved humans the most.
The best part of Stardus power is that it’s compatible with other powers, that’s all I need to remember. Even Deus Ex Machina, who can turn back time, is a fraud.
That’s why the original Stardust didn’t die after rolling around like that, and why it took her years to finally take on the other villains.
“So…”
That’s why she’s the only one who can defeat this Knight of God.
Of course, if she dealt with him later, after the Moonlight Gate incident, her power would have accumulated and grown stronger, but she would have to deal with him now.
However, thinking about it, I also have this question.
Since I’m actually praying to the same god as Stardust for power, why can’t I deal with this guy myself?
…This is another simple story.
If a vampire is weak to silver, you have to shoot it with a pistol loaded with silver bullets to kill it, not poke it with a silver toothpick.
That means I have no choice.
“Kulk…Oh.”
As I flipped through the tome, I coughed up dust from flipping through the pages.
I’ll have to catch up and organize this place later.
It feels like a study, hmm.
“Okay…well, that’s enough.”
I muttered and closed the book.
Now it was time to get serious and start planning how to defeat him.
With that thought, I left the study.
Calling Seo-Eun and Eun-Wol, I headed to the conference room.
***
Knight of God (Miles Dei) is an elite weapon planted by the Sun God to prepare for any unfortunate event.
It’s been around since the creation of the world, so it’s weakened now, but later, after the Moonlight Gate disaster, it connects to the other dimension and accumulates power…Something like that.
That’s not the point.
The important thing is that it’s a weapon, so its attacks have a certain pattern, like a game boss.
This makes him strong, but if you know his pattern, you can theoretically dodge his attacks without getting hit.
But there are hundreds of patterns, and how am I supposed to memorize them?
Shit…I know because the original made a big deal out of this episode.
It took several volumes for Stardus to memorize the pattern and break it to catch this guy. Do you have any idea how hard it is for readers to watch the same thing over and over again every month?
…Of course, there are sad stories of readers who bought the entire series in tears because that episode was the last half, and their heads were already broken. That’s why they all shed tears of joy when Stardust finally took him down.
Anyway, so my conclusion was simple.
Get in touch with Stardus, and I’ll improvise patterns and tell her to dodge right, hit left, and take him down.
I might not be the one running, but I was the one calling the shots.
Of course, if I did this with my normal skills, I wouldn’t have an answer, so I invented a bunch of new ones.
First, the communicator I gave Stardust, because it’s not just a communicator.
“Seo-Eun, are we connected?”
“Yeah. I think it’s going to work.”
In the basement of the Ego Stream, lined with monitors, I, Seo-Eun, and Eun-Wol were making a full-scale plan.
“Hmm… I was a little nervous since this is actually our first challenge, but it seems to have worked out.”
Seo-Eun muttered while looking at the communicator.
For the first time she used some sort of substance conversion device to turn a mint chocolate cake into a tiramisu, this communicator is a product of magic and science that Seo-Eun created in collaboration with Eun-wol.
In other words, when she wears it, her vision is shared.
With that thought in mind, I sat down in the seat I had prepared.
There was a giant monitor in front of me, the pilot’s seat for the Starbusters. Here I would control her, sharing her vision.
Next to it, on sub-monitors, were the blueprints of the underground temple where the Knight of the God was resting, all set up in case of emergency.
After double-checking that everything was in order, I turned to Eun-wol, who was standing next to me.
“Eun-wol, you know what to do if something happens, right?”
“Yes. Teleport straight from the staging area and save Stardust first.”
Eun-wol nodded and said so.
Just as I was satisfied with those words, Seo-Eun spoke up with a smirk.
“Still…this operation it’s much better than before.”
“Better than what?”
When I ask, Seo-eun looks me in the eye and smirks.
“At least you’re sitting here, so there’s no risk of you getting hurt, right? I was worried that you’d picked a dangerous place to go when you’re so weak. If this is what you want to do with Stardus, I’m all for it.”
…She was surprisingly pleased with the plan.
Yeah. Well, it’s better than being against it…
After that, we finalized the plan and sent everyone off to bed early for tomorrow.
Now, I need to make contact.
With that thought, I pulled out my communicator.
…For some reason, I’m starting to feel like I’m in trouble if I don’t call.
***
“Haa….”
Shin Haru’s house at night.
She dried the side of her hair with a towel and walked out wearing only a t-shirt.
…It’s already been almost a week since she met Egostic.
Two of those days were spent in bed with a sore leg, and since then, she has resumed her activities.
She had already gone to imprison three villains due to the never-ending stream of villains, but she had realized something along the way.
‘…I’ve gotten faster, much faster.’
She could feel that it took her less time to get to the scene of a terrorist attack.
So now she was thinking, “What if…What if?”
‘What if… What if… what if… what if… what if… what if… what if… what if… what if… what if… what if… what if… what if…?’
“…..”
‘…This is too self-conscious.’
Shaking her head at the thought, she sighed and sat down on the bed.
And, of course, next to it, in plain sight was the mysterious communicator and earbuds handed to her by Egostic.
She waited for the contact, hoping to find out what the villain was going to do next behind her back.
With no other thoughts in mind, she carried the communicator with her to deal with the evil villain with pure heroism.
…For the record, it’s no secret that while waiting, she got curious and put on the pair of earbuds.
“…When are you going to call me?”
As she muttered while sitting on the bed, she put her hands on the sheets and swung her legs around, looking at the ceiling and thinking.
*Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.*
“Ew, ew, ew…Oops…”
She chewed on her tongue, startled by the sudden loudness of something, and her eyes widened as she brought a hand to her mouth, searching for the source of the noise.
It was the communicator that hadn’t ringed for a while, finally glowing red.
Surprised, she pursed her lips for a moment to clear her voice, then answered it with a humming sound, trying to suppress a smile.
“…Hello?”
[Hello to you too Stardus, it’s Egostic.]
A cheerful voice, as always, came over the comm.
Her heart sank a little as she realized she was in her own room, sitting on her bed, talking to him.
His next words came clearly over the receiver.
[Are you free tomorrow?]
…and the way he asked it so bluntly.
Suddenly, she realized it sounded like a line from a drama she’d watched before, when the male lead would ask his love interest out on a date, and she forgot her prepared response and opened her mouth to say just one word.
“Yeah…”
[Okay, then I’ll see you tomorrow.]
Her next destination was decided just like that.