More Strange Things Happen in This World Than Not

I grip the spear.

What I have now is only a sliver of the original. My body isn't even a tenth as capable, and the mana that once filled me to bursting is gone—along with that damned divinity.

And yet.

Crrreak…

'Three times.'

This is a situation I know all too well.

The blazing hammer leaps skyward. It moves less like a person wielding a hammer and more like the hammer wielding the person—an absurd, terrifying explosive power coalescing into a single existence.

I drive the spear in deep. Mana churns and roils, the mana of the entire region dragged toward one point.

"Die!!!"

It isn't enough.

My opponent is at the level I was about seven… no, eight years into being Lily. Compared to the thirty-year Lily who spent her prime ground down by the life of a saint, that girl was a rank amateur—but the me of right now isn't exactly in fighting shape either.

Back then, at least, I had divinity. Now I have nothing of the sort.

Worse, she's already used Sacred Fire, doubling her power.

'Two times.'

A distant violence of pure force grazes past me. I feel it, unmistakably.

'Let a single one of those land, and it's over.'

Every blow is lethal, but the Copycat is already consumed by rage, drunk on a power far beyond anything she's ever known, unable to control herself.

That's only natural. Hand someone a weapon and put it in a child's grip, and it means nothing.

But even that is only a matter of time. The moment she grows accustomed to that strength, there will be no escape.

She hasn't even touched me, and the wind pressure alone is carving wounds across my whole body. An overwhelming, tongue-clicking, absolutely absurd amount of force.

Dodging the sixth swing of the hammer, I checked my spear.

Kwag-geuk…

Not yet.

'Not enough.'

Against that demented monster, this much is nowhere near enough.

"……"

Chwa-eok.

The Copycat, who had kept trying to line up her strike, suddenly stops and lowers her hammer.

Her hammer comes around. A maelstrom of hammer mana beyond any comparison sweeps the landscape, and the already half-ruined village is obliterated, ground into dust and gone.

The Copycat's body crumbles further still.

One final blow.

'…One more. Is that it?'

I looked down at my trembling spear.

'How many weapons am I going to break today?'

It can't hold any more. This much stacking will have to do.

All that's left is the strength to wield it—

"A deal's a deal. I'll meet the conditions."

Hwalyeok.

'My body.'

Along with the flames of Sacred Fire.

Spear and hammer—the two weapons collided.

The Spear of Annihilation is a technique even the Celestial Eight Seats cannot wield lightly. A spear that kills all things. Perhaps it is like you.

That is ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠why you must be careful. A weapon that can kill another is also a weapon that can kill its wielder.

Bear this in mind.

Never—not 'ever'—use it beyond its limit.

And even if you must, never use it without full preparation.

'Otherwise, that spear will turn not on your enemy, but on you.'

"…I don't know. Any of that."

If I'd worried about things like that, I never would have lived this kind of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠life. I'd have lived without agonizing over being human or celestial, brushing aside causes that existed in name only, caring nothing for who lived or died, taking whatever profit was mine.

But I can't do that.

Because 'Lily Elbrit' is not that kind of person.

"……"

The spear shattered. Both my arms were torn away.

Even as I was flung through the air, far into the distance, I thought:

'It worked.'

I gathered everything to the very limit of the limit, and added Sacred Fire on top. The spear had most certainly pierced her heart.

But the price was both of my arms.

Not from the hammer. My arms simply tore free because I had wrung out that 'power' past the point where flesh could endure it.

Well—the being flung through the air, that part is the hammer's doing.

"Ah…"

If I crash into the ground like this, I'll die.

No stamina. No energy. No mana. Everything is at rock bottom, and even the blessing of the spirits has fallen asleep after I overdrew my strength.

Would dying count as clearing the quest? Though the clear message hasn't popped up, so I suppose I'm not fully dead yet.

No—before that… what even happens if I die?

The chat window, which I hadn't spared a thought for this whole time, drifts into view.

Pfft.

The same chat as always, unchanged down to its bones, and a laugh slipped out of me.

DeoEn drags me back into the past—yet, paradoxically, DeoEn's viewers are the ones pulling me into the present.

As I flew, I looked into the camera.

"Everyone."

"Thank you."

I meant it.

Of course, even sincerity spoken aloud—

The chat was never a serious place. But then, it never had to be.

The ground is coming up fast now.

If I break, so be it; if I don't, then there's nothing to be done. I gave it everything I had. I can't ask for more than satisfaction.

"And—?!"

Hwa-ak!

A heartbeat before I hit the earth, black smoke burst from somewhere and caught my body.

My speed dropped off sharply, and I touched down safely on the ground.

Thud!

"Ugh!"

I clipped the ground a little, but not hard enough to do any real damage. When I looked back, the black smoke had vanished without a trace.

'…The Shadow Spirit?'

Why would it save me? I haven't so much as begun training it, let alone broken it through force.

Not once, not ever, has an ancient demonic beast helped me first. They're all steeped in self-importance and arrogance—if you don't subjugate them by force, they don't lift a finger. And when they did help, it was always for their own gain.

"Well… either way, I'm alive."

One direct hit really would have killed me, but still.

It's been a long, long time since my body ended up this wrecked. Honestly, even now I just want to close my eyes and collapse—I'm holding out by sheer willpower.

I started walking, slowly.

Part of me braced for the Copycat to be standing far away, exactly where she'd been—but surprisingly, she was close.

No, she shouldn't even be here at all—

"…You walked all the way here?"

"……"

If she'd wanted to live, she should have run. If she'd wanted to kill me, she should have split off a fragment to scheme for another day, or burned her last strength the instant she saw me and attacked.

But the Copycat had given up both—and simply looked at me.

Her heart pierced through, catching her breath, she smiles.

"You won, didn't you."

"…What?"

"Then take your due."

Grin. She smiles, and it rubs me entirely the wrong way. Was I always this off-putting?

'A wound that should have been fatal.'

Any other being would have died ten times over from what the Copycat had taken—but not 'Lily Elbrit.'

'Just like the me of right now.'

I remembered the 'shell' the Shadow Spirit had left behind only moments before.

If the Copycat ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had been completely annihilated by the Spear of Annihilation—if she had vanished and only the barely surviving body of Lily Elbrit remained—then perhaps the consciousness residing within Lily's flesh had driven it here all on its own.

It might be pure speculation, but—

'More strange things happen in this world than strange things not happening.'

Just as he said, this world is a strange place. Nothing here would surprise me.

-Still the same as ever, Lily.

A somewhat awkward voice rings in my head. Telepathy, sent from the Lily before my eyes.

I want to answer, but right now I can't so much as twitch a single muscle.

The corner of her mouth lifts.

-Don't strain yourself. I used it prepared to be erased entirely.

"……"

-You look happy. You're living a happy life, just as Master told you to.

Master? What?

I never had any master. It was nothing more than a relationship of paying each other's price. That sort of—

-Yes. That's what you'll tell yourself. But you know it too, don't you? You don't resent him either.

"…What nonsense."

Creak.

I want to argue back. But I can't speak freely with the stream running.

I'm afraid that if I cut the broadcast, there'll be another uproar like before. And more than anything, it's far too late to take back what's been said.

Her face gone deathly pale, she lowers her head.

-You must have so many questions. Who exactly I am. Whether I'm really 'Lily' at all. And if I am Lily, then I wouldn't be calling 'him' Master, would I.

"……"

-But there's still time. Plenty of it. So think it over slowly, and come find me later.

'I'will always be by your side.

"…What?"

I tried to hear the answer even if it meant muting the entire stream. But by the time I grabbed her shoulders, she had long since gone cold and still.