NOVEL NEXT Arc 4: Awakening – Chapter 3
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Cross-over from various games, books, anime, manga, and movies.
The familiar characters you see here belong to their respected authors and owners.
"Speech"
Time*
Arc 4: Awakening - Chapter 3
2 weeks later*
The World killed one goblin with a single blow, then moved on to the next and struck another until all the goblins in the area had been killed. The mighty Stand strikes a pose before disappearing.
Watching all this, Daisuke has a strange look on his face.
The first goblin was killed normally. But the rest wasn't quite normal. For one thing, The World used its ability to stop time to prevent all the goblins from dying from the death blow until all the goblins were hit. And then, when time resumed for those goblins, they all died at the exact same time.
So, theoretically, The World should be able to do more than just stop time, like fast forward or rewind. Anything else with time itself, but it seems to have specialized in stopping time as a broader approach. Applying the effect of stopping time directly to contact with anything the stand touches, rather than stopping everything and everyone, except certain people, of their flow of time on a large scale.
Daisuke wonders if he should continue to develop this route for The World or if he should continue to expand it with other things while collecting the essential material to develop The World into its Over Heaven version.
"Master, you're doing it again. Pointlessly making something or planning on it." Esdeath poked Daisuke in the shoulder, showing a displeased expression as she appeared beside him.
"It's not useless if you get something out of it." Daisuke argues. "Anyway, we've been in this world for two weeks now. Has anything interesting happened in Axel?" He starts throwing the dead goblins into the back of the wagon he made with Omnifabrication, and what pulls the wagon is just a simple looking horse.
Of course, the horse is anything but simple. It's a bio-engineered monster in the form of a simple horse. Inside, however, it's a completely different story, as it has refined, durable muscles that are impossible for a horse to have, even those special breed horses with some monster blood coursing through their veins.
"Your new sense of humor is not that funny, Master." Esdeath said to Daisuke dryly. "Naming the horse 'Simple Horse' is humiliating and just plain awful to be used as a joke."
Simple Horse, hearing this, let out a sound. If someone were to look closely and knew something about horses, one could tell from its expression that it disagreed with Esdeath's statement, for it was proud of the name it had been given. Unfortunately, neither Esdeath nor Daisuke knew much about horses and didn't notice this.
"Well, for those who dare to try anything on Simple Horse. They will be in for a shocking surprise." Daisuke grins slightly as he slowly takes in the joy of the future results of his creation brought to others.
"Master, when I told you to find your true calling. I didn't expect you to be the kind of person who would be patient enough to see your results on display." Esdeath is at a loss. "Your ability to create anything, literally anything, and have it done in a matter of seconds can lead many to misunderstand the type of person you are, Master."
"That would be the case if people knew that I can create anything in seconds." Daisuke throws the last dead goblin on the pile and goes to the front seats. "Too bad no one in this world knows about it."
Before Esdeath could speak, an explosion went off to their right, and then a few seconds later, they were hit by a powerful shockwave that knocked them off their feet. Even the wagon was knocked over. Simple Horse was also knocked over, but easily managed to prevent itself from falling completely by stomping the ground with a single hoof and pushing itself up into the air of a foot before landing on all fours.
The World appears in front of Daisuke, flexing its muscles and glaring as the shockwave collides with its body. No damage was done and the shockwave was prevented from touching Daisuke.
The Stand moves next to the knocked-over wagon, pushes it back up with one hand, and then disappears.
Esdeath switches to Rashomon for a few seconds before switching back, avoiding the shockwave entirely.
"At this point, I have a feeling that Megumin is the main reason why the builders never seem to finish the wall." Esdeath said dryly, but was impressed by the explosion. "Good thing she can only cast it once a day. Otherwise, the walls might as well not exist. Along with the buildings, anywhere near the explosions appears."
"I wouldn't be surprised." Daisuke knows how powerful Megumin is with her explosion, but she is utterly useless after using said explosion. "Anyway, let's go back to deliver the dead goblins for the reward."
"Fine." Esdeath huffs, then she looks from a distance. Familiar giant toads are hopping around. "Strange how they show up so quickly in only two weeks."
"Yeah, I just don't question many things when it comes to different worlds." Daisuke knew about plot holes in many worlds/stories. And it caused him endless headaches to come up with many theories for them in the past.
A few hours later*
"I must say, the people here seem to be getting used to our presence now. They don't flinch when we're around anymore." Esdeath said with a hint of mockery toward the crowd in the Adventurer's Guild.
"Pretty sure more than half of them are random people seeing us for the first time." Daisuke sat down and enjoyed a cup of warm oat milk. "If anything, it's the staff members you should pay attention to. They are still shaking like a leaf."
"Hm." Esdeath glances to the side, where the employees of the Adventurer's Guild look over in fear. Too scared to gossip, but not too scared to do their jobs.
"If you're bored. Go mess with that guy over there." Daisuke points to Kazuma's party, where two other people are with them. One of them is Darkness, and the other one is Chris, whose real name is Eris; as a goddess, Chris is in this mortal form in this fantasy world, and she is trying to join Kazuma's party. The latter wants to teach Kazuma the skill: Steal.
All of them are already in the process of leaving the place to go somewhere else to teach Kazuma.
"Sure. They must be someone important if you point at them." Esdeath starts walking over to Kazuma's group.
Daisuke starts recalling the two weeks and wonders if he has ever talked about Kazuma being the main character of this world.
"Hey." Esdeath looks at Kazuma and the others with a cold stare, causing everyone to flinch as they stop in place. "Lend me her." She points at Aqua. "And I will teach you how to do this." Then she flicks her wrist and hurls a sharp icicle near one adventurer, who lets out a girlish shriek as the icicle nearly pierces his third leg.
It's a good thing, with the cover of the Adventurer's Card. He had made modifications to his and Esdeath's so that it would work as it should when needed, but could block certain functions when the time came.
"Ka-Ka-Kazu-ma! You-You won't give me away, right?!" Aqua held onto Kazuma with tearful eyes and stared at Esdeath in horror. She no longer has the proud look of a goddess. Instead, she looks like a young girl about to be sold into slavery. She has also forgotten that even though she is technically Kazuma's cheat. She still has her free will and can easily disobey Kazuma.
"I don't think I have a choice, Aqua." Kazume looked like he was going to pass out any moment, but he was too scared to pass out; that's how much Esdeath affected him.
Megumin was fortunate not to be the focus of Esdeath's attention, but she was frozen in place, afraid even to breathe out loud. She was petrified, doing her best not to move a single muscle. She did not want Esdeath to acknowledge her existence.
Darkness looks at Esdeath as if she is just falling in love at first sight.
Eris, on the other hand, seems fine, if she wasn't so pale and her forehead is covered with sweat.
Suddenly, the front door opens. Scathach enters with a small grin on her face as she walks in like she owns the place.
"Scathach." Esdeath greeted, eyes filled with bloodlust and hunger to fight the witch of the Land of Shadows.
"Esdeath." Scathach greeted back, and then she glanced over at Kazuma's group. "And they are?"
Scathach's eyes caused the group to freeze, especially Aqua and Eris, who are both goddesses and can feel the blood of divine beings clinging to Scathach's body, almost as if she were bathing in the blood of the gods she had killed.
"Well, I was told that if I wanted to get rid of my boredom. I should come mess with these people." Esdeath replied, no longer caring about Kazuma's group. Seeing that Scathach is here now. "It looks like you have finished the task Master gave you."
"Yup." Scathach stares at Kazuma's group, or it seems like she focuses more on Aqua and Chris than the rest. "You two..." She points at Aqua and Eris, causing them both to jump in fear.
"I've already offered to teach this guy one of my moves in exchange for lending me the blue-haired girl." Esdeath remembers Kazuma's group. "Perhaps you can offer to teach him something in exchange for the other girl?"
"Would you like to learn the secrets of leaping?" Scathach offered to Kazuma, who was still afraid but now confused by her words. So Scathach set an example by literally appearing right behind Aqua and Eris, faster than anyone could tell with the naked eye. "You won't be able to do what I just did, but you will have the option to reach it once I teach you the basics."
"Teach me, Sensei!" Kazuma kneels before Scathach, performing the dogeza. Showing how much he wants to learn the secrets of leaping.
Normally, Aqua would mock Kazuma for this shameful display, but with both Esdeath and Scathach here, she cannot. Not without making her life even more miserable later on.
"How about a wager?" Esdeath asks Scathach, causing the latter to raise an eyebrow and take a few steps away from the dogeza Kazuma to stand in front of the former. "Whichever skill this brat learns first wins, so?"
"That's fine, but let's limit ourselves to five minutes each. If he understands our instructions, that should be enough time to get his Adventurer's Card to register our skills." Scathach replied.
"So we leave them with the Master, then?" Esdeath points to Aqua and Eris.
"Sure. It's not like Master's going anywhere." Scathach grins, then gives Aqua and Eris a look with a silent order as to what they must do now.
Fortunately, both Aqua and Eris understand. They quickly move over to Daisuke and sit down right in front of him, their backs straight and stiff.
Daisuke watches as Esdeath and Scathach make their way out, followed by Kazuma, Megumin, and Darkness.
He looks at Aqua and Eris, both of whom are very stiff and try to avoid making eye contact.
"I have a few questions for both of you." Daisuke said as calmly as possible but in the ears of the two goddesses. It sounds like death has come.