Ever since I acquired Human Form (Wonderful) and continued with my evolution, the faithful recreation of my real body — which used to be tiny due to the malnourishment — had now gotten a lot more meat on it. My height had shot up to about 155 centimeters. I looked like a middle-schooler.

I guess it’s not surprising he didn’t believe me when I said I was just eleven…

 

“But I guess I’m going to be twelve soon?”

“Yeah, that’s right, gotta be it.”

“About half a year later?”

“God damn, you really are just a kid!”

 

I had no idea whether he wanted me to be a kid or an adult. He needed to make up his mind already.

This was the powerful presence that I detected, the one with high magic. The guy looked to be in his mid-thirties, with short-cut black hair, golden eyes, and a lot of muscles. The very moment I first saw him, I threw out an immediate Identification, but for some reason the skill was obstructed. I couldn’t get a clear look at his combat power.

Either he had an item to rein in his presence and interfere with other people’s perception, like me, or there was another power at work… like, say, a blessing upon him.

Anyway, so I wanted to meet him because of his strength, but then it turned out I couldn’t really figure it out. And then he just started his lecture, plus it seemed he’s just going to be a pain in the ass, so I decided I didn’t want anything to do with him.

“Well then, thank you, and excuse me-” I mechanically said and got ready to leave, but was interrupted.

“Hold on a minute.”

He was about to grab me from behind. I hastily blocked.

“Heey, that’s some good reflexes. You’re gonna be a great adventurer one day, kid.”

“…I am one.” At least that’s what my cover was.

Seemed like a nice guy, if a bit scary-looking. Still, I felt like we were people from different worlds. I just… didn’t want to be near him.

“Even the crowd isn’t a safe place for young ladies, much less alleyways. Come on, I’ll tag along until you get to the guild.”

“…what?”

“No need to be so reserved, girl. You’re an unfamiliar face. First time here? Oh, don’t worry about it, it’s where I’m going anyway.”

“…”

“Ook.” Panda tapped my shoulder, telling me to take the opportunity to get a guide.

The man’s clearly one of the good guys. I supposed I shouldn’t be making trouble here, considering all I had was a baseless feeling of discomfort.

“Name’s Gold. Nice to meet you!”

“…I’m Shedy.”

 

“Nice country, isn’t it. Everyone’s so energetic, so full of smiles!”

“I guess.”

On our way to the adventurer’s guild, Gold acted the part of a tour guide for me, the newcomer to the city.

Here and there were statues of the first-generation hero and fountains spewing endless water, all created from mana.

Gold attracted quite a few people coming to talk to him just by walking around town, and he always replied with a smile.

“And then evil appeared to threaten this peace. I don’t know what thoughts drove the Dark Lady to destroy the Saplings and sow such chaos, but I can’t forgive her.” Gold clenched his fists in apparent outrage.

I supposed to the humans of this world, world peace was really synonymous to nothing but human happiness, then.

“…what if she had a reason?”

“Impossible. Look at them, Shedy. What else could be more precious than the smiles of these people?”

“…I guess.”

I had to wonder if he was really looking. Behind the humans’ cheer, did he see the stick-thin dwarves lifelessly, mindlessly swinging their hammers in the forges? Did he see the beastman girls, virtually naked, being forced to dance for their whole lives?

“…”

Precious things, huh… I supposed so. Different people valued different things, after all.

 

The adventurer’s guild wasn’t all that far away. Gazes fell upon us as soon as we entered. For a short moment, a few looks of suspicion were aimed at me. I thought trouble would be finding me soon, but once they realized Gold was there, most of them turned friendly.

“That’s the reception. Just tell them my name, they’ll pick out a nice request for beginners. I have a special request, so we’ll part ways here.”

“Special request?” Hearing the unfamiliar term, I let slip a mutter.

Gold seemed to have finally settled on treating me as a child — he leaned in close, speaking as if he was colluding with a kid for secret conspiracies.

“Keep it a secret, alright? So there’s a huge wasteland between this Torrann Caliphate and the Savanhuit Republic to the south. The Dark General called the Troll King and his minions had been inhabiting the area since long ago, and they’d apparently been showing up near highways. Then a few adventurers poked at them, and now the trolls are actually starting to get on the highway and attack carriages.”

“Adventurers…”

“Yeah, those guys. The ones getting preferential treatment by the Temples. There’d been a lot more of them recently.”

 

I moved only my eyes to follow Gold’s gaze. At a table in a corner of the guild, a few young adventurers were hanging out, seemingly being shunned by the rest.

…they were players. It’d be a different story if it was another country, one where the Temples held some measure of power, but this place revered heroes. The Temples didn’t seem to have much influence here. And so, with all the trouble players often got up to, they became targets of displeasure by the other adventurers.

 

“So you see, Shedy, remember, avoid those guys.”

“Yeah.”

Then Gold left, a receptionist guiding him deeper into the building.

I didn’t think I’d hear about the Dark Generals that were mentioned in my Dark Lady explanation text here.

The Troll King, was it? I didn’t know how powerful Dark Generals could be, but considering Gold said it was a special request, they should at least be quite a dangerous threat to human settlements.

 

“…tsk, damn fucker making fun of us.”

A voice reached my ears. It came from the group of players I’d been paying a bit of attention to.

The players were supposed to be playing a game, so I was curious why they were still staying in this country. I focused a bit more on their direction, and I heard something interesting.

 

“Come on, Cardi, let’s give up already. That’s too many mobs for us to handle.”

“Fucking hell, didn’t you see how they made fun of us? We can’t leave like this.”

“Yeah, I know, but look at them. One high-ranked troll had at least 3000 combat power. Just ten of them would be enough to overwhelm us.”

“Hero or not, no one fucking gets to lecture me. I’ll show him, one way or another.”

“Whaat? We gonna MPK again? Heheheh!”

 

I see. So to summarize: they had meddled with the trolls and led the monsters closer to the town; they got reprimanded by the supposed hero in this country; and then instead of having a rematch with the trolls to redeem themselves, they saw they were outmatched and decided to sabotage other people instead.

Each one of them only had around 1500 combat power, so I understood how unwinnable their rematch would be… but… hadn’t I heard that name somewhere? Cardi, Cardi… who was he?

And ‘MPK’… if I remembered correctly the lesson before I came to this world, it meant to lead monsters toward someone else and foist the problem on them.

Were they not even aware they were plotting? They didn’t even bother censoring themselves. Yet the other adventurers just ignored them, seemingly not bothering to listen to the words of idiots, or perhaps thinking it was just the puerile nonsense of children.

Oh well, if they really tried to do anything, somebody would be tattling on them to the guild. I wondered what would happen to them, then.

If they got a long jail sentence for their crime, they’d get their characters deleted, right? In that case… they shouldn’t mind helping me out a bit before they disappeared.

 

I quietly approached. “Hey.”

“Whaa?! The fuck are you?” Cardi, or whatever the thuggish player’s name was, raised his head.

I put on an unpracticed smile and whispered.

“I have something interesting for you… wanna hear about it?”

---

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

Torrann Caliphate was a large country right in the middle of the Central Eastern continent.

It was a relatively new country, with not even a hundred years of history under its belt. Its caliph claimed to be a descendant of a Hero centuries ago, and the country revered Heroes as its religion… well, at least that was what the guidebook said.

Apparently, that first caliph of their line just showed up out of nowhere and said so, so who knew if it was true or not. Although supposedly, one of the actual Heroes of the current generation had been born in this country.

“A Hero, huh…”

I had to wonder if they really existed. Rumors had it they were stronger than a dragon, but as a human-turned-monster, I really couldn’t believe someone could be that powerful while still staying human.

 

“Oook.”

“Alright then, teacher, let’s begin.”

And this was where Panda, the monochrome monkey, came in with his knowledge of this world. He began his history lesson with a textbook we pilfered from the castle of ex-Quasix.

Generally, the strength of a lifeform on this world depended on the total amount of mana they possessed. Excluding spiritual lifeforms like me, as long as they were flesh and blood, the amount of energy they could contain would depend on their physical size, just like normal animals.

And dragons were monsters among monsters. They were big, tough, and due to the elemental power residing inside their bodies, they were especially magical, which made them powerful.

Then that meant spiritual lifeforms unrestricted by the physical form like me would be the strongest, right? Not quite. For example, elementals couldn’t exist in locations lacking their constituent element, and demons required a ‘reason’ for being, like ‘contracts’.

But well, apparently demons living for a few millennia knew quite a few loopholes like acquiring different attributes, so they didn’t have a problem there. And I got a Contract with the World Tree anyway.

 

“That’s quite the clever pet. That’s a monochrome monkey, right?” The peddler next to me said, sighing in admiration.

“Yeah.”

The man was bored, so he had joined in Panda’s lesson (which was really just the monkey opening the book and pointing at pages).

We were lining up for border control in order to get inside Torrann Caliphate.

One reason why I came here was, of course, due to Blobsy and Panda’s suggestion, but another reason was that I wanted to see what sort of defensive measures a large country was taking. I’d been blowing up Saplings quite spectacularly, after all.

That, and I wanted to actually do some serious intel gathering. The situation’s changed quite a bit. I couldn’t afford to keep relying on just the guidebook.

“With their intelligence, monochrome monkeys are really popular as pets, you know? Young lady, would you care to part with him? I can pay you ten small golds.”

“Don’t wanna.” I shot him down.

Apparently Panda’s fellow monkeys were quite popular, but their native habitat was the Southern Continent and the Southwestern Continent. I’d heard that ever since I went on my enthusiastic walks in that direction, it had gotten a lot more difficult for the humans to find any monochrome monkeys available for sale.

And that was just Panda. Blobsy was a lot rarer. I wondered if she would be targeted.

“I see, what a pity. Well then, it’s nearly your turn.”

“Yeah.”

The man seemed disappointed, but readily relented. I walked forward to the border control guards.

 

From my experience, newcomers to a city in the countryside generally didn’t have to deal with very strict immigration, comparing to a capital city.

The magitech trains handled some of the shipping, but for the medium-and-small scale merchant companies who dealt in goods for commoners, many still preferred magitech carriages over trains due to their lower fees.

Besides the merchants, the rural cities also saw heavy traffic from adventurers who were hunting nearby. This was why the lackluster security of rural cities, wherein the gate guards didn’t bother with anything more than just a peek at an identity card, was considered something desirable, rather than a flaw. Yet just as I feared, even towns in the boondocks were beginning to seriously look over my card.

“…alright, go ahead.”

Not like they were using magic or anything more meticulous, though. Thanks to Blobsy’s ‘Fashion’, I now looked like a chestnut-haired human girl. I showed them my adventurer’s card, and they let me in just like that.

Not the card Tiz had made for me back then, obviously. That would just be asking for trouble. The resistance’s demihumans had helped me make another one in an adventurer’s guild empty of any humans.

 

“Well then, miss adventurer, may we meet again.”

The middle-aged peddler, the man who had helped me kill some time with his talks, said his goodbyes and left.

Even after I took off my hood, both he and the gate guards displayed no suspicions. My disguise was holding. At this rate, maybe I could even enter the guild.

Ever since I came to this world, I hadn’t had a single moment to relax. Might as well have a tour around the town, then.

 

This Torrann Caliphate — or rather, the whole Eastern Continent — looked like Earth’s Middle East. According to a new book I bought, Lonely Yggdrasia, which was a series of guidebooks about each of the continents, the reason this country had developed so much despite existing for only around a century was due to their access to a kind of black oil coming from underground, entirely different from animal fats or vegetable oils. The common name for it was “Burning Water”. Processing it with mana resulted in a material that was both light and strong, and this was the source of their wealth.

…that’s plastic, right?

And so, due to what I guessed was an overindulgence in mana consumption, over the course of a century, their forests were being replaced by deserts. This led to plastic replacing wood as the main material for their products, and it all turned into a never-ending spiral of desertification, which had led to the current climate.

The guidebook just waved it off as a “strange” and “troubling development”, but really, I gave it a few more centuries before the whole place became an actual desert.

With how things were, the country was relying on food imports from other continents. Looked like their plastic products were fetching a good price thanks to the lightness and durability, but to search for and to dig up the raw materials that was the Burning Water, they were using up a vast amount of mana. Once the Sapling disappeared from this land, the country would collapse in no time.

Well, my goal was “the destruction and rebirth of Saplings”, not “human genocide”, so honestly it was all the same for me.

 

“Still…”

Looking around town, I’d had thoughts such as ‘this looks nice’, or ‘that building’s cool’, but that was all. I surprised myself with my own lack of emotions.

I never had any memories of going out with my family. The world I’d known was just a bubble: a closet and a balcony at first, and then after I moved to the orphanage, a room packed with bunk beds, and the facility for the experiment. I first thought that perhaps my lack of interest was because I had only ever known the outside world through library books, but after some time walking around town, the answer came to me unbidden.

I felt cold when I touched ice and felt hot when I neared flames. Obvious, perhaps, but what’s different about me was that fire couldn’t burn me, nor could the cold freeze me.

Outside, the townspeople had to cover themselves with fabric to prevent sunburn, while inside, the heat forced them to dress lightly. Yet to me, they felt like characters on a screen. ‘Must be tough’, I thought blandly, and that was the most sympathy I could dredge up for them.

At first, I thought it made me similar to those players who hadn’t realized this world was real, but then I realized the main reason for my attitude: I had become something different from humans, something more. I was a High-ranked Demon.

And now that I had become a true demon, what I considered to be ‘happiness’ was no longer the same as a human’s.

When I was human, I wanted food when I was hungry, I wanted a bed that wasn’t cold, and I wanted my wounds to heal faster. I wanted a lot of things.

But now, my desires had gone… and with them, a few other things.

 

As I walked around, idle contemplations in my mind, Panda on my shoulder told me we were being tailed by some strange people.

Both I and Blobsy had realized their gazes and their presence, but the annoying part was that we couldn’t know whether it was simple interest, or actual malice.

Before, I would have hidden myself somehow. This time, though, my curiosity led me toward an alley to lure them in. I wondered if ‘fear’ was one of those things I’d lost together with my humanity.

Out of the presence nearby, one of them had quite a bit of power. I was interested.

 

“Hey there, little lady, don’t you know it’s dangerous around here?”

A short while after I entered the alley, the three men tailing me approached. One of them spoke a line so trite it wouldn’t have been out of place in a museum.

“What do you mean, misters?” I replied.

“Oh, just a bit of a warning. That’s a monochrome monkey there, right? It’s quite a rare thing around here, surprisingly. You should know bringing it along out in the open like that’s gonna attract some… unsavory people. But don’t worry, we’ll take care of it for you.”

“And we know a good job for such a cute lady like you, too. Oh, it’s nothing difficult, you just need to spread your legs for a few old men.”

“We’ll just be taking your pay as the referral fee, though.”

The three laughed in sync, as if something was funny about all this.

 

So Panda’s pretty popular. That merchant guy offered ten small golds for him, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d fetch for twice the amount.

Normally, I would have frozen them all right away and let Blobsy snack on a few popsicles, but not this time. I stayed quiet, waiting for their move.

They must have thought I was tongue-tied out of fear. The three smirked, swaggering forward, posturing for intimidation.

 

“That’s right, just follow us and you won’t get-”

“-Gah?!”

One of the approaching men suddenly screamed and dropped to the ground.

“W-Wha?!”

“Uff…”

As the first man turned around in surprise, another one groaned and collapsed in a heap. The last man remaining whipped out his dagger in a panic. Something fast flew at him, shattering the dagger’s blade and smashing into the man’s head, sending him to unconsciousness.

 

The three men were dealt with in an instant. And then, a man hidden in the alley’s shadow squeaked and dashed off toward the main street.

Huh, that was the nice-looking merchant guy. I’d thought it strange he relented so easily. Turned out he had a hand in this.

Again, something flew forward and slammed into his back, effortlessly taking his consciousness. It was a small thing, perhaps just a rock, and it had sent all the men into dreamland in a blink of an eye.

I stayed still. A man, tall and broad-shouldered, showed up at the alley entrance, the glare of the sun behind him. He barged his way into the alley and suddenly yelled at me.

 

“You! Young girls shouldn’t be going inside alleys so carelessly! At your age, you should already know how to avoid fishy men like that. How old are you?!”

“Eleven.”

“Fucking way too young?!!”

 

He showed up out of the blue to save me, and he began his lecture just as abruptly. And when I gave my honest answer, he was so surprised he staggered backward a few steps.

This was my first encounter of a man that I would be seeing time and time again.

---

Author’s Note: Wow, who could this guy be?

Map update below.

---

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

“The Dark Lady is attacking!!”

 

News from Quanneuf, the neighboring country, arrived through the magitech telecommunication system. The governor of Quanthuit jumped to his feet, eyes wide, his glass of rum — a luxury, now that the world’s commerce was grinding to a halt — clattering on the floor.

“Impossible… why?! What grudge does she have for this region?!”

 

Just the other day, the five countries that were their friends and neighbors had collapsed, one after another. It hadn’t been even a week.

It had been a wake-up call for the whole world. Large countries worldwide had held a meeting, and they had declared the rabbit beastman behind it all to be the Dark Lady.

The last time an official Dark Lord Declaration happened was centuries ago, when half of today’s countries hadn’t even existed. At the time, the demihuman races, including the Elves and the Dwarves, had come together to defeat what had been considered a Calamitous threat, the Vile Dragon. But in most of the human countries, the story went that the credit belonged solely to the humans.

Back then, there had been two Heroes. They had left the Central Continent to start their own countries in the Western Continent and the Eastern Continent, bringing the whole world into the grasp of humans.

And today, there were three Heroes.

The vast majority of humans believed they would win against any Dark Lord or Lady, as long as they had Heroes. They might be fearful, but they held not a hint of pessimism.

 

The human countries had begun preparations for war against the Dark Lady. Among the countries of the small continental group Shedy attacked, only Quanneuf and Quanthuit had been spared, by virtue of holing up inside their borders. They were aggressively hiring adventurers to add to their soldiers and militia as part of their defensive measures.

But while large countries might have the ability to keep up their guard for long periods of time, the small countries certainly did not. Forming the militia meant lost production, and hiring high-rank adventurers costed several times the pay of a normal soldier.

So the only thing the small countries could do was to rely on the Dark Lady Prediction report that the Temples had sent to every single country’s ministry of foreign affairs. According to the report, the next Dark Lady attack was most likely to happen in either the eastern region of the Central Continent, or the western region of the Northern Continent.

The report calculated a 40% probability even for those most likely regions. This small group of continents, a region just recently attacked, only had less than a 10% chance of another assault, and so the governor couldn’t afford for the country to stay in their shell forever. The militia had to be disbanded, and citizens returned to their usual lives.

But now, the Dark Lady was attacking the neighboring country of Quanneuf. This wasn’t right. They were supposed to be a low-probability region.

 

“Your Majesty, please give the order! We must save Quanneuf!” An army general shouted, impatient to set off.

The governor blanched. “W-wait, no, we don’t have enough soldiers! Scout out the situation first!”

“Your Majesty…”

The nobility of the two surviving countries of the region had relatives living in both, so there was no lack of sympathy for the general. But even if the army set off right away, just the preparations alone would take up two days, plus another two at the very least if they took the magitech train. It was very unlikely Quanneuf could hold on by then.

 

The officers of both countries were keeping in contact by the magitech telecommunication system, and what they understood about the situation could be summarized as follows: Quanneuf had changed their monster-repelling barrier into the more mana-intensive magic-repelling barrier, as the target of their caution was a beastman. And so, the Dark Lady hadn’t been able to infiltrate the capital as easily as she used to do.

So she covered the whole capital in arctic mist instead.

Like Quanthuit, Quanneuf had disbanded their militia. They lacked the soldiers for a counteroffensive. The citizens had their hands full just trying to survive the blizzard, and even their plumbing had frozen over. They needed immediate support.

 

“Would we be in time…?”

“In time or not, what about the humanitarian aid…”

“But what if even our country falls…”

 

“Oh, you won’t need to worry about that.”

 

A voice cut through the clamoring nobles. It was a maid with chestnut-colored hair and eyes. Plain colors, but cute-looking.

She looked in her early teens. Was she a noble’s apprentice maid?

No one knew how long she’d been here. The sudden interruption to the meeting prompted the general to stand up, his face set in a frown of irritation.

“The adults are talking here, little girl! Guards, throw her out!”

Several soldiers approached her. But the moment they grabbed the maid’s arm, they stood stock-still, as if frozen.

No. They were actually frozen. The soldiers turned white in a blink of an eye. The warmth of spring suddenly turned into the freezing cold of arctic winter, and right in front of the crowd’s shivering eyes, the girl’s hair and maid uniform melted into a small little slime, revealing scarlet hair and a crimson dress. The very embodiment of their fear.

 

“…the Dark Lady…?”

The governor’s whisper of despair echoed in the silent room. A blizzard of glacial mist ravaged the castle, and the inhabitants did not even realize they had already drawn their last warm breath.

 

***

 

“—My Lady, were you successful?—”

 

In a room now devoid of living people, a voice rang out from the magitech communication device. I gave it a glance.

“Thanks for the help. But I don’t plan on being your ruler.”

“—of course, we understand. We simply do not want to repeat our mistake, that is all.—”

The voice cut out. Panda stopped working the communication device and joined my former disguise, Blobsy, in returning to their usual places on my waist and shoulder.

“Good job.”

*boing*

“Ook.”

 

Ever since I got declared a Dark Lady, the humans had raised their security up a notch. I couldn’t just stroll into their countries like I used to.

My original plan, if I could call it one, was to freeze them all from outside, forcing them to choose between dying out or waiting for rescue. Just as I got ready to begin, however, some people contacted me.

Well, it was less them contacting me and more Panda finding them when they were on their desperate search, really.

They were demihumans. A group of beastmen and elves who hadn’t been captured by the humans, or had managed to escape. I had snuck into the city with their help, got into the castle with everyone none the wiser thanks to my disguise, dealt with the witnesses, then destroyed Quanthuit’s Sapling.

Quanneuf’s Sapling was already gone, of course. The people talking to Quanthuit just a while ago were elves, using their own magic to work the magitech communication devices.

 

The middle-aged elven leader of the group had said it was a “mistake”.

Elves were long-living. Perhaps this leader person even knew of the time when their race still considered humans to be their brothers and sisters.

This mistake… would be them allowing the humans to parasite on the Saplings, right?

…well, whatever. If some other people decided to follow the humans’ footsteps, I just needed to crush them once more.

 

The demihumans’ help was helpful, for sure, but much more useful was the effect of my Disguise.

No, I didn’t get any skill to change my looks. The ones with new skills were my kins.

[Blobsy] [Race: Jelly Slime] [Kin of Shedy, the Demon]
[Magic Points: 10/10] [Hit Points: 10/10]
[Total Combat Power: 10]
[Special Skill: Laundry - Cleaning - Fashion]

[Panda] [Race: Monochrome Monkey] [Kin of Shedy, the Demon]
[Magic Points: 20/20] [Hit Points: 20/20]
[Total Combat Power: 20]
[Special Skill: Makeup Artist - Banana]

Where did I even start.

Blobsy got a new skill called [Fashion]. Apparently it was what she used to stretch herself around me and mimic clothes.

…so I don’t really care, but this probably came about because Blobsy cared more about the clothes I wore than myself. She’s more feminine than I was.

The amazing thing about her skill was that it could even hide the rabbit ears on my head. Even so, it couldn’t change my face, nor could it change my eye color. If anyone looked, they might realize who I was. And here was where Panda’s skill came in.

[Makeup Artist]… huh, why the name? Anyway, Panda’s skill had changed my eye color and my looks a little bit. The rest, Blobsy’s mimicry could cover up and make to look more natural.

Amazing. The two of them were amazing. They covered for so much of my weaknesses. They were so impressive I forgot myself and petted them for a whole hour.

 

Also, if I let those two picked my next target instead of doing it myself, I almost never got ambushed.

There were some players this time around, but not many. Rather than their numbers, however, I was more curious about how they seemed to be a lot less willing to fight me ever since last time.

Did they realize the difference in power? Those I met didn’t even pull out their weapons, they just smiled and took a commemorative picture. And when I killed them, they just cheered, looking absolutely radiant, before disappearing into dust.

Were those true gamers…? Such unfathomable creatures.

 

“Where next?”

I asked my kins with a map of the world spread out before us. Surprisingly, they looked indecisive. Was everywhere difficult now?

“Then tell me where it would be interesting.”

I had access to a disguise now, anyway. Maybe I could go scout things out and sightsee at the same time.

They pointed right at the center of the eastern continent.

The Torrann Caliphate… looked like a troublesome one, judging from its name.

 

And there… I met a certain somebody.

---

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

The Deputy Director of the 7th research center, Brian, had ignored the corporation’s orders and went ahead with his own recklessness. The militarized monster avatars driven by soldiers — the secret beta testers — had been overcharged far beyond the allowed values, and nearly all of them had been deployed into the fight at Yggdrasia.

And at that battle, they had been wiped out by a large-scale frost attack. The majority of the soldiers had begun to display signs of mental instability. They had to be hospitalized in an isolation ward affiliated to the facility.

And the man behind it all, Brian. Possibly as a reaction to improper use of a VR device, his old wounds had abruptly worsened, leading to the loss of both his eyes and arms. Combined with the delirium he showed, Brian had been transferred to a specialized isolation ward.

 

“Well then, do your best, Audrey.”

She sighed.

With Brian now hospitalized, his secretary and chief researcher, Audrey, had been appointed the interim Deputy Director.

Despite her youth, being only in her late twenties, she was chosen thanks to her familiarity to the current experiment and workplace. But more importantly, she was chosen after most of the other candidates had run away with tails between their legs when they learned of Brian’s fate.

The Director, an old man who had gained his station through politics, showed up at the research center after about half a year’s absence, looking like he was about to go golfing afterwards. And after handing the metaphorical keys of the facility to Audrey, he immediately made himself scarce.

As the 7th research center’s acting Deputy Director, Audrey was practically the boss now. All the same, things weren’t looking optimistic.

The World Tree’s Saplings, precious mana sources for the corporation, were being destroyed. Attempts to stop the culprit didn’t so much fail as blew up on their faces. If things didn’t change, the 7th research center’s mana avatar development project would soon find itself in trouble.

 

“…no other choice, I suppose.”

Audrey made the decision to offload a part of the work to another department, even if the researcher inside her was railing against the prospect.

More specifically, the 7th research center would now only be working on the development of militarized monster avatars. The magical weapon project, which had been expanded thanks to Brian’s savviness, and the capture of the rabbit beastman girl responsible for it all would now be inherited by the 4th research center, the original owners of the magical weapons project before it was transferred to the 7th.

 

“Hah! Brian snatched the project out of our hands, and now look at what happened! That world had dragons with over ten thousand combat power. You people should have expected the same sort of opposition. Well, it’s back in professional hands now. Just watch us,” a plump man said, sneering.

Audrey had turned the magical weapon project data over to the Deputy Director of the 4th research center. He heaped snide remarks and sarcastic complaints at her all the while, but considering it was all true, there was nothing she could say in response.

But she had something else more important to worry about. She needed to foist the job of capturing the rabbit to some other research center, no matter what else she must give up.

The 7th research center had had their data ransacked by the 4th, yet the staff members had stayed strangely quiet about it.

All of them, including Audrey, had once been the target of the White Rabbit Girl’s displeasure. And none of them wanted to be her enemy.

 

***

 

The VR chat boards of World of Yggdrasia was aflame with talks of the event quest the other day — the so-called Operation: Capture the Bunny.

 

“I came! I joined! I died in one hit!”

“Goddamn was she overpowered!”

“I’m a Rank 5 tank, but my head exploded from a single palm strike. Why?”

“Lolol you’re that guy right at the beginning?! Go tank with your shield if you’re a tank, dumbass.”

“Man, the whole place got filled with mosaics. The Bunny’s way too brutal!”

“What about those crapton of spiders? They weren’t the Dark Bunny Lady’s minions, right?”

“Pretty sure they opposed her, considering they fought her and all. I’m not sure on the details, but I’ve heard there were fifty monsters with four thousand combat power that were as powerful as draconic-class monsters, like wyverns, maybe. Were we supposed to take the Bunny’s side back then?”

“Nah, I mean, if we consider the whole thing to be a story quest, then it’s probably the part of the story when the Bunny becomes the Dark Lady, right?”

“Which means that last part where she blew up a whole city happened because the devs wanted to emphasize to the players that the Dark Lady’s evil, right? And to introduce her as the final boss.”

“Then the devs failed epically. It just made her more popular!”

“AAAA FUCKING HELL I KNEW IT! Should have borrowed my parents’ money for the figurine, fuck!”

“Behold my collection. I got both the grown-up and the kiddie versions right here!”

“Go find an auction, dude. The resalers are selling them for ten times the price.”

 

“So the Bunny’s getting way stronger with every single event quest. Has anyone analyzed her power?”

“Her combat power’s not identifiable, just like always, but judging from the fights she had with the spiders, she should have twenty thousand at the very least.”

“That’s the Dark Bunny Lady for you. And then she awakened as a Dark Lady right after that, so it’s possible she’d gotten even stronger now.”

“How the hell do we win? I got two combat skills at level 5 now, yet my total combat power only just broke 1000.”

“Well, she’s the final boss, I guess we’ll have to get to Rank 10 first? The game just updated to allow for skill level 6, right?”

“Unlike the other games, there’s actually just one Dark Lord in this one. I wouldn’t want her to be easily defeated.”

“Even if she can be defeated, that just makes things unfair for whoever’s late to the boss fight.”

“Yeah, that’s exactly why she’s so strong. My guess is that it’s going to be a raid with a few thousand people.”

“Hot damn, I’m not even sure my battlestation can handle that amount.”

“It’s not the combat power’s that scary, it’s her batshit insane special abilities. I can’t imagine how we can win.”

“The super cold mist is annoying, but not impossible to deal with. We know it’s weak to wind spells, so just be careful and we won’t get OHKO. Probably.”

“That thing where she points her hand at you? What the fuck is that? My spells just fizzled out.”

“There’s been a lot of talk about that. The conclusion’s that it’s probably some sort of probability manipulation.”

“Does it means both spells and combat arts can fail?! How the fuck do we win against that?!”

“R-rank 10… maybe… hopefully…”

“Excuse me, how do I join the Dark Army?”

 

***

 

“Phew…”

I returned to the World Tree on the connection I’ve unlocked. I could finally relax.

My body hadn’t changed a fraction. But I felt like something inside of me, something critical, had been swapped.

I knew, somehow, that the Human inside me — the one in charge of all my thinking — were gone, and something else had taken her place. What happened back then… perhaps it was the moment I became a true Demon.

And my appearance that time might have been a reflection of that. I’d been worried for a while that it’d ruin any later attempts to infiltrate human settlements, but once I’d calmed down, my bleached skin and bloodied eyes returned to normal. I wondered if that was my Demonic look…

 

Before, I’d been restraining myself, trying to keep from any unnecessary killing, since my opponents were Humans. Now, however, the distinction was no longer there. I no longer had any reason to hesitate.

Of course, that wasn’t to say I’d lost all hesitation when it comes to killing human children. I’d play with puppies and kittens, but if a pack of wild dogs attacked me I’d wipe them out, lair and all. It’s the same thing to me.

In other words, I now saw Humans as no different from packs of animal or lairs of goblins. That was all that’s changed.

If someone was friendly to me, I’d extend my hand to them even if they were kobolds. If someone stood in my way, I’d exterminate them like I would a nest of wasps, even if they were humans.

That didn’t mean I’d poke the beehive for honey, however. Not worth it.

By which I meant normal humans weren’t worth much.

 

[Shedy] [Race: Bunny Girl] [Archdemon Lv. 10]
・The rabbit demon of Laplace. Trickster and guide of man’s fate.

[Magic Points: 56,000/56,000] 
[Total Combat Power: 61,600/61,600]
[Unique Skill: <Causality Alteration> <Cyber-Manipulation> <Absorption> <Materialization>] 
[Racial Skill: <Fear> <Mist Form>]
[Simple Identification] [Human Form (Wonderful)] [Subspace Inventory]
[Dark Lady]

 

My magic went up by around twenty thousand, but considering I destroyed a whole city, that wasn’t much of an increase. The place should’ve had at least a hundred thousand people living there. With how much I’d gained, that meant each person didn’t even give me a point of magic.

I still remembered that time my rank increased when I was a low demon, and how the experience I gained from the caterpillars were lessened. I supposed it was no surprise I wouldn’t gain much from powerless humans.

I should go for the strong ones. The stronger, the better. And horrifically sinful too, if possible. The more evil they were, the tastier they smelled.

 

Once I became a true demon, my rank finally turned into Archdemon. Got to level 10, too. What was the level cap, I wondered? If I gained as many as the Saplings I revived, would the cap be 100? Wow, it’s going to take a while.

But I was curious about something else. This strange title that I’d gotten.

[Dark Lady]… what was this?

How curious. I identified it. Some text showed up to the side of the title.

 

[Dark Lady]
・One recognized as ‘Evil’, or as a threat, by the vast majority of a world’s sentient life.
・Some beings are called ‘Dark Generals’ due to their threat level.

 

…so to summarize, I supposed that was how the human race here saw me after I destroyed a whole city?

And I thought I was a Dark Lady due to my demonic heritage, but it looked like there wasn’t really a relation. I could’ve been called ‘God of Destruction’ or ‘Evil Overlord’ and it would have been much the same.

Finally, apparently Dark Generals were a thing. Huh.

 

*boing*

“Ook.”

As I sat down on the World Tree’s roots for a quick breather, Blobsy clambered up to my shoulder, while Panda jumped on my lap and gave me a banana.

Thanks. But you still haven’t told me where that banana came from.

Ah well, whatever. Let’s get to the next Sapling after the break. Pretty sure the humans wouldn’t be so careless this time, but that was exactly what I wanted. More strong people for me.

I think there was a ‘Hero’ somewhere in this world, right?

 

***

 

The Saplings of five countries on the small continental group in the southern hemisphere had been destroyed in barely any time at all. What’s more, two of them were large countries. The whole world was struck dumb.

The final battle at Xontdix, and the 150,000 citizen casualty of its capital, was a wake-up call for everyone. Royalties of the remaining 30 large countries came together in a conference call. They officially designated the culprit behind it all — the rabbit beastman girl — to be an existential threat: the Dark Lady. They pledged to work together to defeat this enemy.

 

At the same time, the three Heroes of this world had also received a request to subdue the Dark Lady Whitehare, coming from the Holy City Ayune and the Temples themselves.

---

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

My conquest of Xontdix’s castle was interrupted by more militarized monster avatars.

They looked similar to the crab-spiders I encountered that first time. Their design was seemingly less armored in comparison, instead focusing on mobility judging from their long legs. But higher combat power meant higher defense in the end, anyway. At least that’s what I thought.

They had around 4,000 in combat power. 1,200 magic, too, so they were going to be slinging quite a bit of spells. How did they get so strong? There were even fifty of them. I might have ten times the power of each, but that was enough number to overwhelm me.

Also, I’m surprised they sent so many monster avatars inside a human country’s barrier. There weren’t just humans here, there were tons of players too. What was that corporation thinking?

 

Oh, crap, all of them just started buzzing. I immediately jumped away. A blast of force exploded not a second later, shattering the frozen statues and turning even uninjured players and soldiers into minced meat, spraying the pristine castle wall with a new coat of paint.

Mute screams from the blood-splattered survivors and the spectators from inside the castle rang out, echoing, coming together to form a low rumble of horror.

I mounted an immediate counterattack, spraying out cold mist, but their response was no less prompt. Several spiders shot out smaller blasts of shockwave to blow away my fog.

Damn them and their training. So annoying.

My unique skill [Causality Alteration] was also not very effective against avatars. Sure I could force them to fail their actions just like always, but that was it. They had just been created, after all. Their past barely held any significant events for me to mess with, and Earth was still much too far away for me to actually try to reach all the way over there. Still, there was something I could do.

I created some more mist. The spiders attempted to blast it away once more, and I forced their spells to fail.

My mist touched and froze a few of them, but did no damage other than simply stopping their movements. Looked like they’d taken measures against the cold.

I instantly attempted to follow up and destroy them, but interference came in the form of more explosive bullets from the other spiders. I pretended to dodge the projectiles, swerving ninety-degrees to the side and utilizing my 40,000 combat power to accelerate towards a few of the spiders. My claws tore them apart as I ran.

 

…and even all that only netted me two kills.

They weren’t impossible to put down, but I had to expend too much mana in comparison.

This couldn’t continue. I couldn’t stay like this.

To pick a fight with two worlds and survive, I needed more than just power. I needed to change.

Just a little more… just one more, and my transformation would be complete.

 

***

 

“Deputy Director, what in the world are you thinking?!”

The secretary slammed open the door. Inside the room, Brian was setting up his personal VR device. He turned to look at her, a beaming grin in his face.

“Heeey, Audrey, what’s up?”

 

The individual thought to be No. 13, the girl who had attacked the facility on Earth, had begun destroying the corporation’s sources of mana over in Yggdrasia. Security and surveillance was more stringent than ever, and the top brass was demanding the white girl be captured as soon as possible.

And so Brian had requested more budget for his special plan, which was an operation to capture the girl by utilizing the players, as a surveillance network, and the guild. But just as soon as it began, every single one of the new militarized monster avatar models were deployed. The operation did not call for this.

 

“Why did you deploy the new models in front of the public?! And what was with that amount of magic and power?! That was far beyond the allowed value!”

“You’re asking me why…? Isn’t it obvious? I’m killing the bunny.”

“What…”

Seeing Brian’s twisted smile, Audrey clenched her teeth.

 

With the current technology, 800 was the limit for the militarized avatars’ starting magic power. Any further and the link between the user and the avatar would degrade, causing unpredictable behaviors on the avatar side and increasing the mental burden on the user side. Originally, the militarized models were supposed to be gradually building up their magic in a process similar to ‘leveling’. The corporation would then move to analysis for several years before beginning development of high-leveled monster avatars.

Pushing the starting magic all the way up to 1200 must have been Brian’s own unsanctioned idea.

Ever since the white girl had taken his leg, Brian had been displaying more and more instabilities with every single passing day, and now, he was even ignoring his orders. Vengeance was the only thing on his mind.

 

“Come on, little bunny…” Brian chuckled darkly, “let me hear you scream…”

 

***

 

Despite the large-scale monster-repelling barrier, dozens of black spiders had suddenly appeared and began attacking people.

At first, many had thought the monsters were minions of Shedy’s, the mysterious rabbit beastman girl possessing an unknown mean of transport. Contrary to their expectations, however, the girl was no exception to the black spiders’ assault. Battle was joined between the two.

“Infighting?!”

“Regroup! Regroup while they’re still busy! Bring the magicannons, now!”

Those who had recovered from the chaos were beginning preparations for a counterattack.

The magicannon was an enlarged version of the guns that used magic to shoot out lead bullets. Due to the mana consumption, the cannons required a supply line directly from the Sapling in order to shoot. They had enough power to shoot down a flying dragon from several kilometers away.

As they expected Shedy to fight their soldiers and adventurers in a melee, their original plan did not call for the cannon. But now that she was busy with the spiders, there was no more reason to hesitate.

Three cannons were set up on top of the castle wall to point inward. With a roar of thunder, the whole courtyard was blown away, ground and all.

“Got you!”

“Serves you right, damn rabbit!”

“Fucking rabid demihuman, that’s what you get for biting your masters!”

 

Between the spiders and Shedy, who was more dangerous here? To humankind, the girl destroying Saplings was Evil, that much was true, yet it was not what had guided their aim in truth. No, it was simply the hatred they felt for the cattle that dared to rise up against humankind.

However, their decision had led to a tragedy. The cannon shots had damaged the black spiders, making them lose track of the girl that had been their objective. Abnormalities began to show in the monsters’ actions, and they started attacking humans with no discrimination.

 

“AaaaaaAAaRGhh!!”

“Exterminate those spiders!”

“Fuck, they’re toug-aaAAAAAAGH!!!”

The spiders clung to the castle wall, attacking the nobles standing behind windows or on terraces. Several black shadows descended upon the cannons, massacring the adventurers and soldiers nearby. In his desperation, the last soldier managed to fire a single cannon shot moments before his death. The projectile punched a hole through the castle wall. The spiders began pouring inside through the new opening.

 

“Your Majesty, please evacuate!”

Led by his knights, Tiz left the terrace. No matter how confident of his skills he was, Tiz could not stand up to the spiders and their 4000 combat power.

Still, he did not think Shedy would be so easily brought down. He looked back for a moment. In what remained of the courtyard, he saw a mass of white mist bursting out from the cloud of dust. It streamed through the hole in the castle wall as if it had a will of its own.

Something is about to happen, Tiz thought, and I’m not going to miss it.

“I’m going down! Follow me!”

 

***

 

“The secret beta testers are showing signs of mental collapses! The experiment can’t go on!”

The staff members monitoring the secret beta testers shouted, panic coloring their voices. Audrey hurried to give her order.

“I authorize the cessation of-”

“Oh no no no, Audrey, can’t have that now.”

The muzzle of a handgun was touching the back of her head, she realized. Audrey gasped.

“W-Why…”

“Oh, you sure asked some silly questions.” Brian laughed. “Anyway. By my order, freeze Audrey’s authority for today.”

With Brian’s voice, the green lights on Audrey’s mobile device all turned red.

The secret beta testers were showing signs of mental collapses much too quickly. Yet despite that, Brian seemed intent on driving them to their limits in order to kill No. 13.

Audrey stood, aghast. Brian took a look at her, nodded in satisfaction, then booted up his personal full-dive VR system.

“You just stay there and watch. I’m going to kill that little bunny myself.”

 

***

 

Inside, the castle was a mess.

I managed to turn into mist right before that surprise bombardment hit me. Once I flew into the castle, I returned to human form.

The militarized avatars had suddenly gone on a rampage. They weren’t moving mechanically like they did before; they were acting like a swarm of actual locusts, attacking anything alive and devouring humans left and right. Messy eaters, too.

Metallic screeches reached my ears.

Some of them had found me, and they promptly attacked. Their combat power hadn’t changed, but their movements had gotten much smoother, displaying a kind of animalistic nimbleness.

I immediately froze one of them, gouging out its head with my claws.

They might have gotten individually stronger, but they’d lost their cooperation in exchange. One on one, they posed no threat to me. Well, the humans being attacked probably wouldn’t think so, but it wasn’t like I had any obligation to save them anyway.

At any rate, I needed to deal with this group. Just as I finished off the last of them, I noticed a few humans approaching me from behind.

 

“Shedy!”

“…Tiz.”

He was still here? I thought he’d skipped town already.

Well, it wasn’t like I cared what happened to him anyway. I made to return to my search for the Sapling, when Tiz called out to me again.

“Are you so set on killing humans that you would even recruit monsters to do your bidding, Shedy?!”

It was his tone of voice, not what he said, that made me stop. I quietly turned around.

“…no. The spiders are enemies. I’ve nothing to do with them.”

“Then-”

“But,” I looked into his eyes and declared, “destroying the Saplings is my wish. Humans are just reaping what they sowed.” If you must hate, then hate me. That’s the only thing I can do for you. For humankind.

Tiz heard what I left unsaid. He scowled. After a few moments of thought, he raised his hand toward a direction.

“…Xontdix’s Sapling is over there. The path’s tricky, so go through the walls if you’re in a hurry,” he said, his words bordering on treason.

“Boy!” The old butler raised his voice in rebuke. The young emperor paid no heed to him and continued.

“I’m taking Xontdix’s royalty family to escape. I won’t stand in your way, but do something about those spiders until we can get out of here.”

“…understood.” I quietly nodded.

 

I didn’t care all that much, but if people I knew were to die, I’d prefer they at least do so away from my sight.

 

We shared one final glance, then turned away from each other and ran.

I took his advice and simply went through the walls. Several minutes later, I arrived at the Sapling.

 

I was greeted with a cackling laugh.

“Did you think you could save them?! Too bad for you, rabbit!”

Salia, the supposed bodyguard of Tiz, was standing there together with the knights of this country.

Below her feet lay dozens of beastmen and elven corpses, all cut into ribbons and charred black.

“How’s the taste of despair?! That’s what you get for getting in my way and making me look like a fool… t-the hell is that look for?! Brazen vermin!”

Salia had killed the demihuman slaves of this castle. Apparently, her grudge had convinced her I was trying to rescue them.

I supposed it wasn’t surprising people would think so. I had saved demihumans, even if it was all on a whim of mine.

 

“Out of my way.”

I clenched my right hand. The knights, including Salia, instantly had their arms and legs broken. They collapsed into pools of blood, howling cries of agony.

I leisurely walked through them. Salia still struggled. She reached a hand toward me, eyes full of hatred. I froze only the surface of her face.

The woman renewed her screams and scrabbled at her iced-over skin. It only made things worse. Oh well, I’d be spending some time with her later on anyway.

 

“…sorry I made you wait.”

I whispered. Xontdix’s Sapling scattered into light, and I grabbed hold of the white magic stone inside.

 

***

 

“Where, oh where are you, little bunny…”

 

While the dozens of spiders were ravaging the castle interior, an enormous monster appeared outside. A bluish-black centipede twenty meters long and one meter in diameter went through the castle wall, crushing the fortifications with claws and the sheer weight of its armored body. Whoever could use [Identification] despaired, when the skill revealed its combat power to be over seven thousand.

At that moment, the barrier protecting the castle disappeared, announcing to the world the destruction of the Sapling. All hope was gone for the humans.

From inside the ruined castle, the source of the calamity quietly walked out. The white rabbit showed herself.

 

“There you are!!”

The giant centipede attacked as soon as it caught sight of Shedy. The knights ran towards her in a last-ditch attempt of revenge.

“Gah-”

And as she raised her right hand, everything stopped moving.

Her cold, impassive eyes swept through the men and monster standing stock-still as if frozen in time. Her hand clenched into a fist, and corpses of knights fell down in bloody showers.

 

Brian, sitting in his VR device, was forcibly logged out when both his eyes and arms were suddenly pulverized.

 

And Shedy began her silent transformation.

Pale skin, yet still faintly pink of flesh and blood, was now being bleached of all color, turning alabaster white. Scarlet pupils bled out to stain the white of her eyes crimson-red.

An enormous cloud of fog billowed, exploding to cover the whole capital city in a blink of an eye. All living creatures — including the human population of one hundred and fifty thousand — were turned into ice sculptures.

 

Tiz looked back from the airship that had just barely cleared the blast zone. He saw Shedy standing in the center of a wasteland of frost, of deathly silence, as though the ice had entombed even the resentment of the deceased. He thought her cold gaze was pointed at him. He forgot to breath for a moment.

 

And so, Shedy had shown herself to be the worst Evil of this world. People started calling the sorcerous rabbit something else.

Whitehare, the Dark Lady.

 

[Shedy] [Race: Bunny Girl] [Archdemon Lv. 10]
・The rabbit demon of Laplace. Trickster and guide of man’s fate.

[Magic Points: 56,000/56,000] 19,800↑
[Total Combat Power: 61,600/61,600] 21,800↑
[Unique Skill: <Causality Alteration> <Cyber-Manipulation> <Absorption> <Materialization>] 
[Racial Skill: <Fear> <Mist Form>]
[Simple Identification] [Human Form (Wonderful)] [Subspace Inventory]
[Dark Lady]

---

A/N: Readers who have read my other work might think something’s a bit strange. That’s because Shedy isn’t the ‘savage’ or the ‘hedonistic’ kind of demon. She’s a ‘ruthless’ demon.

---

Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

A/N: Newest map. Story currently taking place in the southern part of the map, slightly to the east.

*Destroyed Saplings are crossed out.

---

 

“Quasix… has fallen?”

The Crown Prince Aslan muttered in a daze upon hearing the news. Tiz next to him was silent, his face grim.

 

Quarrevingts, Kancinq, and now Chisept. Small countries they might be, the fact that three Saplings were destroyed in a row was undeniable. Their governments had broken down.

There had been zero casualties among the governors’ families and barely any among the citizen population. However, the vast majority of their magitech weapons had been rendered useless, and the large-scale barriers protecting their cities had disappeared. The inevitable monster attacks would soon turn these countries into ruins.

Until now, a country’s refugees could rely on the prompt support and protection of their neighboring nation. But what would happen if even their neighbors lost their home?

On this isolated subgroup of continents, far away from the other landmasses, what few countries there were had forged a deep alliance with each other. But now, the small alliance had further diminished with their members being picked off one by one, and the very isolation that had been their strength was now pushing the survivors into a corner.

 

And now finally, the Sapling of a large country, Quasix Kingdom, was destroyed.

Part of it was because they had carelessly believed she wouldn’t be keeping her assault up for so long. Mainly, however, no one had thought a large country would fall so easily.

The reason was plain to see: Quasix had sent away too much of its soldier in helping the other countries, and the rabbit beastman girl – Shedy – had been far more powerful than anyone could possibly imagine.

 

The northern and southern landmasses of this subgroup of continents had held five countries. Now, only Xontdix was left standing.

Rumors had it that Quasix’s king had immediately given up on his own country when he saw what had happened to his neighbors, and that the royal family had escaped to the Central Continent on their private airship together with their riches.

‘Gramps.’

‘Understood.’

Tiz looked at his butler. The old servant quietly left, heading toward Touze’s airship to give the order to hasten the mana recharging.

They needed to plan for the worst, even if the worst was something that could not be allowed to happen. With that said, they could not openly prepare their escape. Fear had driven this country’s nobilities and soldiers into a frenzy. There was a very real chance Touze’s entourage would be attacked if they were seen to be getting ready to leave.

“Damn that rabbit! I had always known she was nothing more than a foul villain ever since I first lay eyes on her. By my hand, the hammer of justice shall strike her down!”

Simple-minded Salia was getting worked up in front of Xontdix’s knights, forgetting about her own position of being the Emperor’s bodyguard. At the same time, she was unwittingly making for a great distraction to keep eyes away from their escape preparations.

 

Two small countries in the east still survived, but none of them had more than a hundred thousand in population. They did not have the power to help anyone else. They could only help each other to coordinate their defenses and hole up in their castles. They stayed on utmost alert for Shedy, while praying she never appeared.

In these trying times, both the adventurer’s guild and the Temples had spared no expenses in providing support. Airships carrying adventurers of Rank 4 and 5 gathered from all over the world. At Rank 5, an adventurer was practically equivalent to an officer knight.

 

Since half a year ago, new adventurers with explosive speed of growth were coming out of the woodwork, and a few among them had shown true talent.

But these new adventurers didn’t bring only their talents. They had also brought their own problems.

While not everyone was the same, those to whom the moniker of ‘troublemaker’ would apply were causing no small amount of headaches. Some looked as if they were coming to a festival, even when the country’s very own survival were hinging upon them. Some started fights with the tense soldiers, and in worse cases, even injuring them and getting arrested afterwards.

Ostensibly, the guild was there to provide adventurer support to individuals or small-scale mercenary groups, in order to combat the monsters that had started multiplying in recent years. Keeping the peace – for example, patrolling the streets – in place of the guards was one of their missions. Yet these new adventurers were neglecting their job. They were only there to fight the rabbit beastman girl, all the while making more problems for the knights.

 

“Still, this is quite the sight…”

There were hundreds of Rank 4 and 5 adventurers in Xontdix’s palace courtyard. They made for a force practically equivalent to the whole of Xontdix’s order of knights.

How would Shedy react if she saw this? If she actually attacked this place, how would she do it?

Tiz had poured a fortune into his bounty to capture her. But with the situation being what it was, he doubted many would think of taking her alive.

Alongside the awareness of being the representative of an allied country was a perverse desire to see her breaking apart this army of adventurers. A peculiarly childish excitement welled up inside him. He felt like he was once again that boy who had just acquired his magic sword for the first time.

 

It began the next day, in the early morning.

The three small continents had the typical climate of southern countries, only stabilized thanks to the Saplings. But many of the countries on these continents were near the ocean and thus, constantly humid. No one thought the morning fog was anything out of the ordinary.

Some of the adventurers were mysteriously and unexpectedly disappearing from time to time. The lack of people on watch had been one of the contributing factors to this disaster.

“What is this chill…?”

“Weird mist, don’t you think?”

“Wait, that’s no mist!”

The several soldiers and adventurers blocking the castle gate turned into frozen statues in an instant, and the ice-covered gate shattered inward. People inside the castle witnessed the rabbit beastman girl marching right through the front door.

 

“That’s the bunny!!”

Whistles and bells announced her assault. As the knights attempted to leave their barracks, they found out the drifting mist was more than just a show.

“The doors are all frozen!”

“Break them open! If you can’t, then break the windows!”

Outside, there were 300 soldiers and 100 adventurers. They would need to hold on until the troops from the barracks and castle interior arrived. Against a single normal teenage beastman girl, it would have been considered excessive firepower.

She was not normal.

 

“There she is!”

“The Fluffy Bunny’s here!”

Some of the adventurers rushed forward in the drifting chill, sparing not a single glance for the fearful soldiers.

No one would have thought these men to be high-rank adventurers. They looked far more like clowns prancing around in their inefficiently huge weapons, spiky pauldrons, and overly revealing armor. They leered at Shedy, the girl now mid-way through her teen standing in front of them. They charged at her, looking more like they were trying to push her down rather than actually fighting.

She turned her cool gaze upon them. She dashed, several times faster than the speed the adventurers’ 1,000 combat power could afford them. Her palm smashed into the face of the man leading the charge.

He gurgled and exploded into glimmering light. The adventurer right behind him jumped toward her. She bent backwards to dodge his wild swing, leg snapping upward to deflect the enormous scythe, then twisting her torso to deliver a roundhouse kick. Her razor-sharp heel pulverized his head.

“Holy sheeeiiiit, that’s OP as fuck!!”

“Front line, surround her!”

“Back line, debuff magic now!”

The latecomers were beginning to work together. They seemed to have finally realized the threat Shedy posed.

Enfeebling spells clashed against her resistance and lost, disappearing into sparks and ear-grating crackles. She faintly frowned. The girl turned on her side, pointing her right palm at them and squeezed.

“Whoa?!” “What the fuck?!”

The adventurers’ spells failed, disturbing their battle lines. Shedy spread her chilly mist and ran through the gap in their formation, felling the now-sluggish adventurers with flashes of claws and kicks.

 

Since the fight started, dozens of adventurers had already fallen in just as many seconds. Around eighty percent of the corpses had disappeared, the sight chilling the spines of the soldiers and rooting them to the spot. It was then that the knights finally broke out of their frozen prison.

“Take down the rabbit!”

The officer knight’s shout turned the desperate knights and soldiers into a veritable tsunami of spears and swords.

As Shedy took in their vehemence, their zeal, her countenance turned just a little gentler than what she had shown the adventurers. Frosty mist dripped off of her, sapping heat and magic from everyone in the area, and finally freezing them all.

 

“What is that…?”

Tiz was watching from the upper floor terrace. He turned to his butler, seeking confirmation once more. The old man only grimly shook his head.

Just as before, they could not [Identify] Shedy’s combat power. But they did not need the skill to know that her power was far beyond imagination.

The Rank 5 adventurers with over 1000 combat power were being effortlessly dispatched, and the soldiers and knights with 300 to 500 power might as well be a mob of feeble kobolds facing a Hero.

 

…a Hero.

Indeed, a Hero might be able to do what Shedy was doing right now.

In this world, there were three persons acknowledged as Heroes by the Holy City Ayune.

The Hero of Might, the [Warrior].

The Hero of Knights, the [Blademaster].

The Heroine of Magic, the [Sage].

Rumors had it that these people, chosen by the elementals of light, had combat power over ten thousand; that they were acting upon a different set of principles than what the Temple at Ayune espoused; and that they were vanquishing evil all around the world.

Tiz had met the Warrior before. He thought the man truly deserved being called a Hero.

The Warrior, the Blademaster, and the Sage were all humans. Then what if the other races – the demihumans – had a Hero of their own?

And if such a person existed, then who would be their enemy? Who would be the Villain to the demihumans’ Hero?

 

To humans, Shedy was inarguably Evil.

But then, to the other races, what was she?

 

“…no, that’s just stupid.”

Tiz shook his head, getting rid of a notion much too silly for an emperor of a human country to hold.

He liked Shedy. But he didn’t covet her so much that he would forget his throne, his empire.

To prevent any further losses, Shedy must be the Evil they must destroy, right here and right now.

But was it even possible? It had been only a few days, yet it seemed like she had had another boost in power. They had hundreds of adventurers, over a thousand knights, and several thousand soldiers. Would it be enough…?

 

“Gramps, how are the preparations?”

“Going well. However, lady Salia is currently joining His Highness Aslan in combat…”

“…worst case, we leave her.”

If this army could not defeat Shedy here, then Tiz must immediately return to Touze Empire. He gave his order: if needs must, Salia – the bodyguard who had let her personal indignation and enmity pull her away from her post – would be left behind. Then he turned his sight back to Shedy.

Suddenly, pools of liquid darkness began to seep out from thin air, coalescing into monstrosities.

“What… are those…?!”

 

Grotesque spiders of Stygian blackness. Three meters tall. Fifteen meters wide, including their twelve legs.

There were nearly fifty of them.

[MO—07—B] [Militarized Monster Avatar]
[Magic Points: 1200/1200] [Hit Points: 2000/2000]
[Total Combat Power: 4000]

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