Chapter 797: You’re Right

Every card I could play.

Even after using the Authority that drew out every last bit of my divine power.

We could not gain the upper hand against that giant.

Even an equal battle had been impossible.

And yet, the reason I had initiated such a fight was simple.

The Legion’s light amplified the power possessed by the awakened.

The stronger those awakened became, the stronger our light grew.

'Buying time.'

What I had wanted while using the Authority was not victory through that Authority.

The awakened who were growing stronger through my cooking.

Buying time until their light became strong enough.

That Avaritia must have known that as well.

Even so, he had openly tried to suppress us with sheer power.

{No matter that it was cooking, no matter how much the strength of those Legionnaires gathered here has increased.}

The reason was simple.

{They cannot emit this much light.}

No matter how much stronger our light became.

He had judged...... that it was impossible for it to become strong enough to defeat his power.

However.......

As a result of the war in which I had dragged out as much time as possible.

{There is no way it can contend with this lord’s light...... there cannot be!}

He.

Was screaming as though he could not comprehend it.

And no wonder.

'Equal...... no.'

Now that the duration of my Authority had ended.

Now that I could no longer even buy time.

'Our side is slightly ahead.'

The battlefield had originally been dominated by that golden light.

But now...... our gray-white light surpassed his.

{Impossible, impossible!!!}

As though unable to accept that fact.

Avaritia continued swinging his spear of light and sword of darkness while shouting.

The ugly appearance of a loser who could not accept defeat.

But, to tell the truth.

“......You’re right.”

I, too.

Agreed with what he was saying.

{......What?}

“I said you’re right. There’s no way merely strengthening the Legionnaires here could create enough influence to oppose you.”

The screams he had been letting out.

His words were perfectly reasonable.

'Even if you add together every Legionnaire here from every non-human race, there are fewer than a million.'

There was also an upper limit to the stats that the [Stat-Increasing Potion] could enhance.

Merely strengthening that number of Legionnaires to the stat limit of the [Stat-Increasing Potion] would allow them to emit enough light to overwhelm him?

'As if that could happen.'

Even if he had been unable to bring his true body.

He was still clearly clad in the status of a transcendent being.

There was no way such a thing could be possible with only this much.

'Had that been possible, I would never have thought that we had to launch a preemptive attack before he obtained a body befitting his status in the first place.'

I had already been able to use the [Authority] before coming here.

The [Stat-Increasing Potion] had also been part of the plan.

Had this much been enough to surpass him, I would have challenged him with far greater confidence.

The reason I had believed we had to invade somehow before he obtained sufficient status.......

'Was because I had believed there was no chance of victory merely by strengthening the Legionnaires.'

And yet.

Our light was now clearly surpassing his.

“But.”

And.

The reason that was possible was quite simple.

“Who.......”

The one who had descended upon this battlefield.

The light and power of Avaritia, who had been fighting us, had been poured entirely into destroying us.

Because of that, he had failed to notice one fact.

“Who said the Legionnaires here were all of them?”

When I said that.

{......!}

That golden giant.

Avaritia’s eyes opened wide.

FWAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!!!

Golden energy erupted violently and shot toward the sky.

The energy pierced even the clouds above and soon reached outer space.

And...... with his transcendent vision, that great divinity looked down upon Earth from beyond the planet.

“In the first place, I never said I would defeat you with the Legionnaires here.”

I did not share his vision.

Even so.

I could roughly imagine what he was seeing.

“Those who ate their fill of the dishes I made.”

What appeared before his eyes would originally have been a blue planet.

However...... the shape reflected in those eyes must have been far removed from blue.

“I said they would finish you.”

The light of the Five Loaves and Two Fish.

{How...... can this...... be......?}

A planet surrounded by brilliant gray-white radiance.

Was right before his eyes.

***

The northern Korean Peninsula, where a fierce war was taking place.

......And.

A certain land far from that place.

A nation composed of islands large and small, across a sea that smelled of salt.

“Yamato!”

In the land once called Japan.

A different battle from the one in the northern Korean Peninsula was taking place.

“Stop doing something insane and come back! We have to retreat! We have to survive first if we’re going to plan for the future!”

And.

“......No.”

The man fighting that battle.

The human called Yamato looked around and recalled the past.

After destruction arrived, the people of this land had fought against it with everything they had.

Those who had somehow survived carried out Conquest Wars and even managed to remove the barriers between regions once.

However...... this land had originally been composed of islands large and small.

The seas connecting those islands were overflowing with marine monsters.

Even after the black barriers disappeared, they could not easily unite their strength.

Even so, the survivors tried somehow to gather together and combine their strength.

But from a certain day onward.

The survivors realized that the sea level was gradually rising.

It had originally been a country frequently struck by earthquakes and tsunamis.

But the phenomenon happening to them now was somewhat different.

The sea level was rising little by little.

The amount of land where humans could live was gradually shrinking.

Only after some time had passed.

Were they able to understand the cause of the abnormal phenomenon.

Those among them who had been the first to achieve 100% conquest and successfully remove the barriers between each region.

There had been a reason they had succeeded before anyone else.

[Special Privilege]

[Call of the Deep Sea]

A special privilege given only to those who completed a Conquest War first.

Those who received that special privilege were invited into the deep sea, and obtained tremendous power from there.

With that power, they fought against destruction and saved countless people.......

But the more they wielded that power.

The easier it became for the beings of the deep sea to crawl onto the surface.

They had not known that at the time.

'The sea.......'

As the sea level continued to rise.

The last survivors gathered near Mount Fuji, the highest place in this land.

The surrounding landscape viewed from atop that high mountain was unbearably grotesque.

'It’s coming to devour us.'

The sea was far from flat.

As though it intended to swallow this tall mountain, only the sea level near the remaining land had risen grotesquely high.

The will of that sea...... to devour every last piece of this land could be felt.

It was not merely an illusion.

{Ah...... there is not much left.}

Deep within the sea.

Glittering eyes could be seen.

{Even this final piece of high ground......}

The beings that had crawled up from the deep sea.

Those who had turned even places that had once been land into the depths of the sea.

{Shall become our homeland, the deep sea.}

They were bringing the sea with them.

To turn this land into the deep sea.

{Every living thing in this land...... shall become our family.}

To turn every life in this land as well.......

Into residents of the deep sea like themselves.

“This is the last dry land remaining.”

When they realized the sea level was rising.

The surviving humans prepared for the future.

They built even taller structures atop Mount Fuji, the highest land.

Even if this mountain were submerged beneath the sea immediately, the surviving humans could flee to the top of those towers and survive for a while.

'......But only for a while.'

They, too, were people who had survived in this land for a long time.

That was why they knew one thing.

“If even this place is taken, there will be no future anyway.”

They.

The power of the awakened was closely connected to that land.

The more land they lost to the deep sea, the weaker the awakened of this land gradually became.

This tall mountain was the last land remaining.

If they retreated from here, the power of the awakened would decline drastically.

To the point that they would not even be permitted one final struggle.

SHING-

That was why.

The human called Yamato drew his sword.

[This is the first ‘Conquest’ by a human belonging to Greater Region - JPN.]

And as he did.......

He recalled the past.

[Achievement Accomplished! - From Here to There Is My Land.]

The friends who had attended the same school as him, and the adults of the village.

The first great victory they had all achieved by joining forces.

[The 1st Place Special Privilege will be granted.]

'Yamato! You can see it too, right?'

'It says we can obtain something called a special privilege!'

At that time.

The status window that had appeared before them.

'It says we can’t choose any of the special privileges that have already been selected.'

'......That’s unfortunate. The only name that looked somewhat decent was that fortress.......'

And.

'Choices with nothing but names and no descriptions. And even those names seem unsettling.'

'I think so too, Brother. This...... might be something we shouldn’t choose.'

At that time.

His companions, who had felt uneasy while looking at those choices.......

'No.'

And the figure of himself.

......Stopping their concerns.

'The names certainly seem ominous, but we have no choice.'

'......!'

'If we want to survive, we have to take risks. It’s unfortunate that several options have already disappeared, but in that case, we should choose the best one among those that remain.'

After destruction.

A nightmare he had experienced countless times.

'The land we conquered borders the sea.'

[You have selected a special privilege!]

'This special privilege will help us.'

[You have selected Special Privilege - ‘Call of the Deep Sea’!]

It was.

The oldest memory of the disaster he had brought upon this land.

“You all go.”

That was why.

He drew his sword while looking at the monsters whose eyes glittered beneath the surface of the sea.

“I’ll...... defend this place somehow.”

Praying that this sacrifice of his.

Would lessen the weight of the sin he had committed, even slightly.

FWAAAAASH!!!

When he gripped the sword.

A strange power erupted from his body.

[The Master of the Deep Sea grants you power.]

The being he had encountered when he was called by the Call of the Deep Sea.

The power the Master of the Deep Sea had given to the humans of this land.

Obtained in exchange for allowing the beings trapped in the depths of the sea to be released into this world.

It was the power of sin.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

An unbelievable force erupted and cut down the enemies.

Every time his sword swung, hundreds of enemies were cut apart.

The sticky bodies and blue blood of the beings of the deep sea continued scattering through the air.

'I’ll die here.'

Though he was slaughtering countless beings of the deep sea.

Small wounds were also appearing across his body one after another.

A battle to defend the final remaining land.

Even if he somehow succeeded in driving them away at the end of this battle.

He would not survive either.

'That’s fine.'

......But he did not care about that fact at all.

'As long as I somehow protect this land, and my comrades survive even a little longer.'

Originally, the survivors of this land had possessed neither dreams nor hope.

Because of the wrong choice they had made, all they could do was await a future in which everyone drowned and died beneath that sea.

However, not long ago.......

A slight change had appeared in their status windows.

[The large-scale patch has been completed!]

Yamato looked at his status window while swinging his sword.

A rectangular information window.

[The Legion stands with you.]

'Because the Legion will come.'

In one corner of it.......

Words written in rough lettering that looked quite out of place beside the other text of the status window.