This Isn't an E*otic Game?-Chapter 97: Each One’s Battle (2)

TL Note:

The “serialization is on hold” announcement was just an April Fool’s joke 🐣

Don’t worry—the story continues as planned.

Erfa isn’t going anywhere (except maybe to punch Tuidel again).

Thanks for reading, and happy April 1st! 🎭

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When the followers of Envy charged toward her—

Kanya felt a strange vibration in the ground beneath her.

In that brief moment, she realized the sound was caused by hollow space below, and she quickly spotted an entrance leading downward and threw herself into it.

It wasn’t so much a rational decision as it was an instinctive reaction.

But the War Goddess’s instinct didn’t betray her.

There really was an underground cave down there where she might have a fighting chance against the other followers.

As Kanya squeezed her body into the narrow hole, she saw the horde of Envy’s followers rushing in behind her, and slowly pulled back the hammer of her revolver.

Back when she was treated like one of Sloth’s collectible items—

She had often overheard the conversations of Sloth’s followers up close. Thanks to that, she had many chances to hear about the characteristics of other Demon Lord cults that were close to Sloth.

The Cult of Envy.

A cult blessed with greater physical authority than any other Demon Lord cult.

Especially tough skin and monstrous strength—they were practically the signature traits of Envy’s followers.

But that was it.

When it came to judgment and qualities as warriors, they were far inferior to Satan’s followers.

“Find her!! Hurry, search everywhere! Spread out!”

The followers of Envy who had entered the cave cast magic on themselves to see through the darkness and ran around in a frenzy.

But it wasn’t an organized search.

It was like watching impatient children thrash around.

Kanya didn’t fire.

Instead, she held her breath and slowly picked up a small stone off the ground and carefully tossed it into a corner.

With a small clack, every single follower inside the cave immediately turned toward the sound.

“There! Move!!”

If they had been Satan’s followers, they might have stopped to question it at least once.

But these were followers whose only strength was physical. When it came to the rest, they were basically no better than regular civilians—so they charged blindly.

In that gap, Kanya slipped quietly around and headed toward the entrance.

“She’s nearby! She has to be close!!”

“Idiots! Move, all of you!!”

Frustrated beyond belief, the leader himself began digging through the area where the noise had come from, which meant there was practically no one left guarding the entrance.

And in that moment, Kanya successfully crawled back up to the surface.

“You fuck... No!!”

Only when the sound of her frail limbs scraping as she climbed up echoed down into the cave did the followers realize they’d been duped—and rushed back toward the entrance.

But it was already too late.

Kanya had crawled out, drawn her revolver, and was now aiming it directly at the narrow opening.

“You bitch! Get back here right now—argh! You fuck!!”

The leader, who had hastily stuck his head out, took another bullet to the left eyelid and was forced to drop back down. freёnovelkiss.com

Other followers, driven by panic, tried to push through the hole, but unlike their leader, they didn’t have the reflexes to close their eyes in time.

Roughly three of them had their eyeballs pierced and dropped like puppets with their brains turned to mush.

That’s when the leader finally snapped.

“I swear I’m not gonna let you off, you bitch!! You hear me?! I’m not gonna let this go!!”

From below the cave, his voice echoed up, and Kanya reloaded the revolver quickly, snorting with laughter.

“Then come up here and say that.”

A narrow entrance.

And Kanya positioned right in front of it.

If she just kept shooting bullets into their eyes as they climbed up, no matter how fast or strong they were, this was Kanya’s advantage.

She just had to hold out like this until Jericho returned.

It was the best tactic Kanya could come up with under the circumstances.

Please.

Please just let us stay in this stalemate until Jericho comes back.

Kanya prayed—but...

Suddenly, the ground beneath her feet began to tremble like an earthquake, and Kanya immediately knew something had gone wrong.

The followers of Envy—

When it came to physical strength alone, they were the strongest of all the Demon Lord cults.

In exchange, their judgment as warriors and their tactical thinking were said to be incredibly poor.

That flaw had let her trap them underground.

But the followers of Envy found a solution to their crisis in a way that was so... them.

A long claw suddenly burst through the rock below her.

“You bitch—you think you can make fools of us?!”

The followers of Envy, still underground, had started wildly swinging their claws and tearing through the ceiling of the cave.

Kanya scoffed at the dumb, brute-force tactic.

“You idiots! If you do that, the cave’s gonna collapse!—”

But the followers didn’t stop.

And as a result—

Part of the cave’s stone ceiling, which had been loosely stacked together, gave out, triggering a full collapse of the entire rock cavern.

With a massive tremor that shook the entire ground, the rocks started to cave in.

Seeing that, Kanya immediately scrambled back to put some distance between her and the collapse.

Panting for breath, she stared at the collapsed mountain of rock that had once been the cave.

“Fucking morons.”

The Sloth cultists had always said that the followers of Envy had poor decision-making—and that evaluation had been spot-on.

They really didn’t seem capable of thinking ahead.

No one could survive a collapse like that—having all those massive rocks crash down on their heads.

“Kanya!!”

...or so she thought.

Because right on cue—

Claws shot out from beneath the sunken rocks.

As if not a single one of them had been hurt.

One by one—

The followers of Envy started slicing apart the boulders that had buried them and climbed up, completely unscathed.

No broken bones. Not even a scratch.

It was all thanks to their transcendent defense, their raw strength—

And the claws sharp enough to cut through anything.

Kanya saw it—and broke into a full sprint, fleeing like mad.

Why didn’t the followers of Envy bother to think?

It wasn’t because they were stupid.

It was because they didn’t need to think—their bodies could solve almost any problem.

“D-Don’t come near me! Stay back!!”

Even as she fled, Kanya kept pulling the trigger toward the oncoming followers of Envy.

Among the ones still trapped under the rubble, a few had their eyes shot out and collapsed.

But that was all.

The rest emerged unscathed from the rubble and began chasing her.

And leading them at the front—

“Time your blinks, you fucking morons!!”

The cult leader, with a mashed-up bullet still stuck to his left eyelid, let out a monstrous roar as he charged ahead.

****

The burning sword let out a chilling screech as it grazed past above my head.

I used that moment to slip inside its guard and this time, I threw a punch straight at Ketraltus’s helmet.

As my fist collided with the armor, a wave of excruciating pain shot through my hand.

The helmet, of course, shattered into a mangled mess as it exploded—but I also had to wrench my hand back, writhing in no small amount of agony.

When I looked down at my fist, I saw it had been torn open—riddled with holes by the spikes protruding from the armor.

Sure, Kon healed it immediately and the wounds vanished.

But I never wanted to go through that kind of pain again, the kind that felt like it tore through my spine and into my brain.

[Hurts, doesn’t it?]

The Ketraltus unit whose helmet I’d just blown to pieces spoke again, mocking me, already fully recovered like nothing had happened.

Under the exploded helmet, there was nothing.

Just cold, dead metal—recovering like a living creature. It was deeply unsettling.

[Amayel. What are we gonna do about that thing, huh? It’s not even alive, so most of our skills don’t work on it!]

Kon’s voice trembled as he screamed at me.

This guy—

He always runs his mouth, acting like he’s some macho alpha male, but now that this kind of thing’s standing in front of him, he’s clearly scared out of his damn mind.

I stared at Ketraltus, already healed in the blink of an eye, and slowly began to back away.

I was getting anxious.

I was worried about what might’ve happened to Kanya.

I didn’t have a weapon. And if I tried to fight that monster with my bare hands, every hit was going to feel like hell.

And no matter how much pain I pushed through to land an attack, that thing would just recover like it was showing off.

“I don’t know either, Kon.”

[This is why I told you not to get involved with Demon Lords!! I knew this would happen! You don’t fight divine entities!!]

“You’re right. You were absolutely right.”

If we’re talking normal logic, that’s fair.

But I’m not someone with a normal goal.

If they sent something like that, then it probably means the Demon Lords are seriously pissed.

Just a little more...

And maybe—just maybe—they’ll finally get mad enough to come down and kill me in person.

I’ll prove they have to descend themselves if they want me dead.

“Kon. Can you make my skin resistant to high heat?”

[W-Why?! What the hell are you—?!]

“That sword. I’m thinking I should steal it and give it a try.”

[What?!]

“That bastard regenerates, right? But when I got hit by that sword, I couldn’t heal. So what if I just cut him with that sword instead?”

[......That’s one of the craziest things I’ve ever— you goddamn lunatic!!]

I didn’t even wait for Kon to finish before I was already charging forward.

No matter what he said, the moment I actually acted, Kon would modify my body however I needed it.

“Use Absolute Hypnosis! Erase the fear!!”

As I charged at Ketraltus, I shouted that—and the fear that had gripped me from the pain in my ruined hand disappeared.

Kon.

He really is competent.

If only ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) he could fix that filthy mouth, he’d be perfect.

[Do you really believe you can win?]

Ketraltus’s voice came out from behind the helmet, sharp and aggressive.

The burning sword came flying toward my neck once more.

This time, I didn’t dodge it.

I ran straight into it.

3000x.

My reflexes were enhanced 3000 times over.

No matter how fast Ketraltus’s blade was, there was no way I couldn’t track it.

Slowly.

My hands moved through the air to catch the flying sword mid-strike.

I could see Kon, right on cue, reinforcing my skin and making it absurdly thick.

It’d still hurt like hell, probably—but I could endure it, even just for a moment.

I would stop the blade in mid-air—and then immediately steal it.

As my hands moved to grab the blade—

[Huh?!]

Ketraltus, seeing me run straight into the sword without even trying to dodge, suddenly panicked and froze the blade in place mid-swing.

I couldn’t see its face, but the hesitation in its movements and the tone of its voice made it obvious—

It didn’t want to kill me.

...It didn’t want to kill me?

What kind of weird situation was this now?

Thanks to the stopped blade, I changed my plan in a split second.

My hand reached for the hilt.

And the moment I grabbed it, I clenched with everything I had.

“Kon!!”

[KILL HIM!!]

My arm surged with strength beyond human limits, enhanced by Kon’s body modifications.

[Warning!! You’ve exceeded the limits of human physical modification! Any further adjustment will result in lasting side eff—]

I ignored the red warning window.

This wasn’t the time to give a shit about that.

“Die... you scrap heap!!”

Apparently, Ketraltus hadn’t expected this much force.

The gauntlet that had been holding the blade was torn clean off the armor.

And just like that, the burning sword became mine.

Without missing a beat, I swung the blade.

[Wait—!]

That was the last thing Ketraltus managed to say.

Because I brought the sword straight down, from above.

And split him in half, vertically.

The blazing-hot blade melted the armor clean through.

And naturally—

There was no regeneration this time.