by Okina Baba
The Demon Lord just carried us the whole damn way.
At this point, maybe I should let her do everything?
All jokes aside, though, there’s an extremely heavy-looking door in front of us unlike any of the ones we’ve seen so far.
The room containing the bomb is on the other side.
Once we open the door, go inside, and have Potimas disable the bomb, our mission is complete.
“The GMA bomb is just on the other side of this door. I will begin locking the bomb’s functions at once, but I do not know what defenses might await within. I must prioritize locking the bomb above all else. If there is any danger inside, I assume I can count on you two to deal with it.”
Again with the “I assume.” Can’t you at least pretend to phrase it as a question?
You’re saying it like it’s already been decided.
Although I guess it’s not like I have any better ideas.
According to Potimas, the room on the other side of the door is fairly small.
The bomb is in there, but for all we know, there might be robots or something, too.
Maybe there will even be stronger defenses than the robots, since this is supposed to be an important place, right?
I doubt they would put anything too dangerous right next to this mega-bomb, but considering they were reckless enough to make the damn thing in the first place, we can’t be too sure!
No rational person would build a bomb strong enough to destroy a continent or a weapon that drops meteors down from the sky.
If they were that crazy, then they could probably mess things up in a way no normal human would ever even imagine.
Not to mention, Potimas’s words sound suspiciously like foreshadowing.
There’s gotta be something nasty waiting on the other side of that door.
Potimas unlocks the door by way of hacking.
I guess the guy who designed this system in the first place has no problem getting through electronic locks.
Despite its heavy appearance, the door opens without a sound.
So who’s the final boss gonna be?
As I brace myself, I see a barren circular room before my eyes.
There’s something in the middle that looks like a strange, clunky pillar of some kind.
Other than that, there’s no robots, no nothing.
Come on—I figured there was gonna be some kind of high-performance super-robot, at the very least.
Bit of a letdown, to be honest.
“It can’t be.”
But compared to my disappointment, Potimas’s reaction is very different.
His short murmur carries a tone of genuine surprise.
If this guy’s surprised, then it definitely can’t be anything good.
Sure enough, the pillar in the middle of the room begins to transform.
The weird structure opens up like a flower bud, forming countless muzzles.
And then it stands up.
What? It can stand?
All I can do is stare in dumb shock.
Seriously, a transformation?
It didn’t merge with anything, but it definitely transformed.
And now that it’s done, it’s clear that it’s some kind of weird robot.
The thing doesn’t attack us, maybe because we haven’t stepped into the room yet.
The pillar part forms the base, looking as sturdy as a tank or maybe even more so.
Then there are countless arms protruding from it with guns that appear to be exactly the same as the tanks’ main guns.
And its propulsion system seems to be repurposed from a tank’s treads.
Honestly, it kinda looks like a robot that was patched together from spare parts.
But since its weaponry appears to be made from those tanks, I know how strong it must be.
Well, it’s not quite what I pictured, but I guess this is a robotic last boss, all right.
Although I feel like it kinda lacks the panache to be a last boss, among other things.
“A Gloria? But I did not give them those schematics. Where did they get this information?”
But while I’m a little let down, Potimas’s expression is grim, and he’s muttering to himself about something or other.
“Potimas, explain,” the Demon Lord says shortly.
Like me, the Demon Lord doesn’t seem overly threatened by the robot in front of us.
But Potimas’s strange reaction has her suspicious, too, which is probably why she’s demanding an explanation.
“That was developed based on the schematics of a different weapon of mine. However, I have never shared those schematics with anyone. I know not where they saw such a thing, but judging by its appearance, I believe it is not a perfect reproduction. However, it is impossible to tell how close this one’s capabilities are to the original.”
In other words, this last boss is a half-baked reproduction based on stolen glances of Potimas’s secret weapon?
“So? How strong would the original be?”
“The original could easily destroy even an upper-class dragon. Ah, I mean the fakes, not the originals, of course.”
Potimas’s casual tone only makes his words seem more truthful.
Pardon me?
Is this guy serious?
An upper-class dragon—so like Hyuvan, you mean?
Ha-ha-ha. Good one, buddy.
You are joking, right?
But Potimas’s expression is deadly serious.
And it’s not like this guy would ever tell jokes in the first place.
Does that mean this thing is seriously strong enough to defeat a dragon?
No, wait, that’s the original. This thing is just an inferior replica.
It can’t be as strong as the original.
“And this might even surpass the original.”
Sorry, come again?!
This super-shoddy-looking knockoff robot?
“This is the worst situation possible. I never imagined it would come to this.”
“Hey. Can you share with the rest of the class, please?” the Demon Lord demands impatiently.
Potimas, on the other hand, just shakes his head with a sigh.
“What did we come here to do, hmm?” he responds in a condescending tone.
You never change, do you, jerk?!
I feel like I can see an enraged mask floating behind the Demon Lord.
But I ignore his sass and think about this rationally.
We came here to dispose of the bomb, obviously.
This final boss robot is the last barrier between us and victory.
Potimas seems super-stressed about this thing, but once we beat it, all we have to do is deactivate the bomb.
Wait. Deactivate…the bomb?
Huh?
Where is the bomb, exactly?
“Ha. It appears the white creature has figured it out.”
Potimas smirks sarcastically, then shoots a mocking look at the Demon Lord, who doesn’t seem to have realized just yet.
Not now, okay?
Now is not the time for crap like that.
The Demon Lord’s rage meter is climbing like crazy, and she looks like she’s about to smack Potimas down at any second, so I grab the end of her sleeve.
“What? I’ve got a noble mission to blow this guy away right now. Why are you stopping me?”
“Bomb.”
The Demon Lord is practically popping a vein as she stares at me, and then the room beyond me, when I speak a single word.
And then she gets it.
Right away, she whirls toward Potimas.
“It is exactly as you imagine.”
When Potimas confirms, the Demon Lord clutches her head and groans.
We came here to disable the bomb.
And the boss robot is our final obstacle.
But there’s nothing else in this room except for that robot.
Hmm. So where could the bomb be?
Well, kids?
Do you see anywhere in this room whe
re a bomb might be hiding?
Oh, and you can’t say it was never in this room in the first place.
…Which means there’s only one right answer.
The bomb we need to dispose of is somewhere inside that final boss robot.
“Strategy time!”
Since the final boss robot isn’t attacking us yet, we can stand right in front of it and come up with a plan of attack.
Yep. That’s not very nice.
But we really have to come up with a plan.
Who could’ve possibly predicted this?
It’s so unexpected, it’s not even funny.
Whoever came up with this idea is an evil genius.
Or maybe just a mad scientist.
Who would think to put a bomb that could blow away an entire continent inside a robot?
No wonder Potimas muttered, “It can’t be.”
“Potimas, are we absolutely sure the bomb is inside that thing?”
“There’s no doubt. This body’s internal measuring instruments are reacting to it.”
The Demon Lord slaps a hand to her forehead and looks up at the ceiling.
I’d like to take the same pose, to be honest.
This is horrible.
Our goal is to disable the bomb.
The bomb is inside the robot.
That means we have to do something about the final boss robot before we can disable the bomb.
That in itself is no different than if the bomb were outside the robot, but since it’s inside, we have to defeat that robot without causing the bomb to explode.
That bumps up the difficulty level quite a bit, I’d say.
On top of that, Potimas says this weapon might be even stronger than the original.
It might look like a shoddy knockoff, but this boss robot has one key difference that would make him say such a thing.
It’s using the bomb as a power source.
In other words, the bomb’s not just stuck in there—it’s actually connected to the robot.
As one of its weapons.
“What do you think?”
“I can’t imagine it’s set up such that destroying it would cause the bomb to explode… Or at least, I certainly hope not. If that was the case, it would destroy the G-Fleet along with it. Thinking logically, no one would ever construct things that way.”
Always quick with the Do I really need to explain that to you? comeback, Potimas responds smoothly to the Demon Lord’s short question this time.
I can’t help noticing that the Demon Lord looks a little annoyed about that.
No doubt she was hoping he would hesitate long enough that she could say, Do I really need to explain this to you? back to his face.
He’s always snarking at us, so I understand the desire to get him back.
He sure sidestepped that attempt, though.
At any rate, I’ll just stay quiet and pretend I didn’t see anything.
Poking fun at her certainly wouldn’t lead anywhere good.
“Unfortunately, we cannot say for certain that it’s not the case.” Potimas sighs.
He’s right. Normally, you’d assume it wouldn’t be constructed that way, but we have no way of knowing for sure.
That’s the problem.
The bomb inside the final boss robot is stupidly powerful enough to destroy an entire continent.
Obviously, if it explodes on this ship, the UFO itself will be blown away, too.
There should probably be some kind of secure lock in place to prevent that from happening, but it’s possible that the lock could come undone by certain circumstances.
Like vibrations from the robot being destroyed, for instance.
So in other words, if we’re going to destroy this final boss, we have to do it veeery gently.
That just makes this even more difficult!
And what if there’s actually a mechanism that makes the bomb go off if the robot is destroyed?
Then, we can’t even destroy the robot at all.
No one in their right mind would design it like that, of course.
But at this point, we have to seriously doubt whether the person who did all this was really in their right mind.
Would whoever developed all this destructive technology really be rational about it?
There’s no way of knowing for sure.
And we can’t act based on wishful thinking alone.
The fate of the world depends on it.
We’ve got to be extremely careful and come up with a foolproof strategy.
But what are we going to do?
“…”
“…”
“…”
All three of us sink into silence.
Uh-oh.
I know I’m stumped, but the fact that the Demon Lord and Potimas aren’t even suggesting possible plans is kinda scary.
But I guess I can’t really blame them.
If we want to dispose of the bomb, we have to do something about the final boss robot.
But if we do that, then the bomb might explode.
We’re between a rock and a hard place, dammit.
Of course, it’s possible that we can destroy the robot without the bomb going off.
If anything, considering how powerful that bomb is, I think it’s much more likely that it wouldn’t explode from that.
If the robot is meant to guard the bomb against thieves who might infiltrate the ship, it wouldn’t make sense for it to explode if the robot was defeated.
What kind of moron puts the bomb a guardian’s supposed to be protecting inside the guardian anyway?!
That only makes the thing you’re trying to protect even more dangerous!
I guess that’s not the worst strategy, but who would even think of that?!
What if the bomb blows up by mistake?!
Seriously, what a mad scientist.
Considering that the culprit thought of this insane idea, it wouldn’t be too out of character if the bomb really did self-destruct as soon as the robot was destroyed.
Yeah. We gotta tread lightly here.
Wouldn’t it be better to let Güli-güli handle this?
We could just keep an eye on the bomb until Güli-güli gets back.
Pretty good idea, right?
I nod to myself in satisfaction.
Some of my hair falls onto my face, so I nonchalantly tuck it behind my ear.
And then there’s a smartphone in my hand.
“No one’s coming to help.”
A beautiful yet unsettling voice comes through the phone.
I know of only one person who can do things like that and who sounds like that.
The self-styled evil god, D.
A chill runs down my spine.
How long have I been holding this smartphone?
Normally, it just appears out of nowhere, which means I can’t detect it coming.
That’s all well and good, since that’s how it always goes.
But why am I holding the phone this time?
It was a coincidence that hair fell into my face.
And the fact that I tucked it behind my ear was nothing but a thoughtless, automatic reaction.
My hand just happened to be in the perfect position to be holding a phone to my ear.
That’s all there is to it.
Yeah. That’s it.
I just so happened to coincidentally be in a position like I was holding a phone, so D snuck the phone into my hand.
That must be what happened, right?
…Yeah, I don’t buy it, either.
How long?
When did D start controlling me?
That’s the only possible explanation.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t be holding this smartphone like this.
Even now, I want to throw it onto the floor, but my body won’t move an inch.
I feel sick to my stomach at the realization.
The owner of this phone is controlling me so completely that even I didn’t notice.
<
br /> “Oh, don’t be so frightened.”
I’m not frightened, okay?
I’m just mad.
I am me. I’m nobody but myself, and I’m nobody’s puppet.
Of course I’d get mad if someone tried to control me.
That’s what led to me fighting against the Demon Lord in the first place.
More than anything else, I refuse to bend on this subject.
Anyone who tries to control me is my enemy!
“Ahhh, you really are so entertaining.”
Despite the voice’s emotionless tone, it somehow conveys a sense of joy.
I force down the rising fear in my heart.
Be strong! Don’t get overwhelmed! Stand up to your enemy, if only out of spite!
“Do not worry. Aside from the instance of light tampering just a moment ago, I have never interfered with your personal actions.”
I focus all my brainpower on the words coming from the smartphone.
I don’t want to miss a single syllable.
I’ll even ignore the fact that D is reading my mind as if it’s the most natural thing in the world.
If these words are to be believed, the only time D has ever controlled my actions is when I was made to hold that smartphone naturally just now.
But the words “your personal actions” sound suspicious to me.
“Very astute. I have not meddled with you personally, but I did provide your weapon with a few extra perks.”
At D’s words, my eyes automatically move to the scythe in my other hand.
“Still, it is nothing too remarkable. I simply made it so that its abilities will improve to correspond with your own growth. The fact that it seems to be developing of its own accord is likely due to the effect of the Parallel Minds skill. I believe an extra framework caused by an irregularity is affecting the weapon.”
An irregularity? Does that mean the former body brain, the Parallel Mind that fused with the Demon Lord?
My Parallel Minds skill is level 10, but I can produce only nine Parallel Minds.
The last one, due to various circumstances, wound up in the irregular situation of being fused with the Demon Lord’s soul.
Since it’s basically been absorbed by the Demon Lord, that means I lost a Parallel Mind. So does that mean this “extra framework” is essentially giving the scythe a mind of its own?
“That is correct, more or less.”
Guess I was right.
“The scythe, which was made from part of your own body, is still a part of you now. That is why it has developed unusual properties. And as it is a part of you, it will not betray you in any way.”
