I lunged forward, the Keepsake Sword flashing in a single, sharp stroke.
The arcing slash cleaved through a cluster of tentacles all at once. I shattered even more of them with the return stroke, my blade a blur of motion.
I accelerated my offensive, but the tentacles only emerged faster in response, closing in with erratic, unpredictable movements.
(I can’t keep up with them all...)
Seeing a tentacle graze my shoulder, I leaped backward. At that exact moment, a crack split the ground beneath my feet, and another appendage lunged upward. I parried it on instinct. Its trajectory diverted, the tentacle slammed into the wall behind me, shattering it on impact.
I continued to sprint, carving a path through the relentless assault. Along the way, I stole a glance at the Golden Tower. It loomed over the city with an air of absolute belonging, as if it had always been part of the skyline. The humans embedded in its surface pulsated at intervals, as if only remembering to do so by afterthought. It was a grotesque sight, designed to incite psychological revulsion.
"Help me! Die! Kill! The Demon King! Banzai! This is the worst!"
"No, this is a lie... Why is this happening to me?"
"It’s your fault... it’s your fault... it’s all your fault!"
Voices of pure resentment were hurled at me. The people suffering from mental contamination lunged at me, their eyes bloodshot and frantic. Even as they became fodder for the tentacles, they didn't seem to care. They were single-mindedly obsessed with harming me.
(...It can't be helped, then.)
I invoked my magic.
A blast of hot wind tore through the crowd, incinerating them instantly. In a slightly more distant spot, a blizzard flash-froze another group into ice statues. Elsewhere, a black mist caused people to rot away in a matter of seconds.
All of this was my doing.
I chose spells that would end their lives as quickly as possible. They likely didn't even realize they had died. In this situation, I couldn't afford to ignore even the slightest interference. Occupied as I was with the tentacles, I had no choice but to kill them. I had no desire to do such a thing, but I had no time for hesitation.
The infinitely regenerating tentacles blocked my path. No matter how much I slashed and carved my way forward, I couldn't break through past a certain point. If I pushed too recklessly, I would be absorbed by the mass in an instant.
Furthermore, the closer I drew to the tower, the more my body felt the adverse effects. Specifically, my control over magic power and miasma was beginning to fail. This only made dealing with the tentacles more difficult. It was a truly troublesome arrangement.
The False God was exerting an immense pressure. In terms of existential rank, I was clearly the inferior entity. I was being overwhelmed by the sheer scale of its power.
However, that was no reason to abandon the fight. The Golden Tower was a foreign object that would eventually destroy the world. Now that I understood its nature, I was the only one who could stop it here.
(It will be a contest of endurance, but so be it.)
Shifting my mindset, I faced the tower with renewed resolve.
◆
Just how much time had passed since the battle began?
The sky was beginning to bleed into the colors of twilight. Standing in the center of the devastation, I scanned my surroundings. The crowds that had swarmed me were gone. They had either been consumed as nutrients for the tentacles or had their lives ended by my spells.
In the end, I hadn't been able to save a single one of them. It was a direct result of my own inadequacy. I had no excuses.
The number of tentacles sprouting from the ground had become staggering. Even at a conservative estimate, there were no fewer than a thousand. They writhed before me like a golden hallucination, watching for any opening. Despite the short physical distance, I still hadn't reached the tower. I simply couldn't find a way past that iron wall of tentacles.
Even those few final steps felt impossibly far away.
I had tried every spell and tactic in my repertoire by this point, yet I had failed to establish a definitive way to break through the wall of tentacles.
(What am I missing...?)
I pondered the situation even as I continued to slice through the appendages. Fortunately, their movements were monotonous. As an undead, I could keep this up forever without succumbing to fatigue. I hadn't even come close to being killed yet.
However, the reality remained that I couldn't move onto the offensive. I had a feeling that I could break through if I just found the right opening, but I lacked a foothold.
(I just need one more thing—some kind of trigger—to break this deadlock.)
I continued the grueling battle, searching for a way to turn the tables.
Suddenly, I sensed a high-output magic power reaction in the distance. It was approaching at a terrifying speed. The reaction was chaotic, a turbulent mix of magic power and miasma.
(Reinforcements for the beast?)
Unable to tell for certain, I prepared for the worst. If another powerful beast joined the fray now, I would be at a serious disadvantage. If possible, I wanted to intercept it before it arrived.
I braced myself for an aerial engagement and looked toward the sky.
I froze for a split second.
Screaming through the sunset sky at high speed was a scale-covered pseudo-golem.