D.I.O

“Demolish Hand.”

Arc’s hands collided in the air.

Boom!

In an instant, a fan-shaped shockwave swept away the attacks that the three factions had launched toward the Masters. This happened so suddenly that the three factions didn’t even have a chance to properly respond.

“What the hell is this…!”

“What is going on!?”

Sadness spread her skin-like wings and crossed them in front of her to shield herself from the shockwave, and the Basara pirates got into a formation to create a defensive barrier. These were high-level defensive techniques, but they were still swept away by Arc’s attack and pushed backward with ruthless momentum.

Arc exhibited a truly terrifying and powerful physical energy attack!

For those with high-level abilities, physical force was just a low-level energy movement that they quickly understood and moved on from, but the issue with this current show of physical force was its scale. The transcendent-like level of physical force, which concentrated the impact of a meteorite dozens of kilometers in diameter on a single point, distorted the dimension as it crossed through space and struck the three factions.

[Verified. Variable located.]

However, one of the three factions—no, to be more specific, a mechanical being reacted differently.

Boom!

Suddenly, a wormhole opened in the air, and a fifteen-meter-tall giant descended from it and landed next to Arc. The giant shot its fist at Arc without even a second of hesitation. Consequently, Arc wasn’t able to properly register the lightning-quick blow.

[Removing variable.]

Arc didn’t react at all. No, even if she had been aware of the attack, she wouldn’t have had time to react to it since she was still dealing with the recoil of her ultimate magic spell. Instead, someone stepped in between her and Alexander. It was Miho, who had been blown a considerable distance away by the dragon-headed Basara member earlier.

“Stop!” Miho screamed with outstretched hands.

However, Alexander ignored her. It had calculated and concluded that it didn’t need to pay attention to the low-level being in front of it.

Of course, the fact that Miho had moved so quickly while all the other Masters were still in shock and rooted to the ground did raise some questions. Nevertheless… rather than stopping and worrying about what Miho had done or the strength of her potential attack, Alexander considered it more important to eliminate its intended target.

Yet, at that moment, nine tails appeared on Miho’s backside…

Bam!

Alexander was hit with a relentless wave of heat.

*** Incomprehensible ***

“Wow, there’s no answer. So untalented.”

“…” Eunhye gave a bitter smile after hearing the words of the man who sat in front of her.

Was he saying that she didn’t have any talent?

She had grown up with a stepfather and a biological mother. Her stepfather had tried to rape her on many occasions, while her biological mother had been jealous of the attention Eunhye received, instead of shielding and taking caring of her even though she had been constantly at risk of being raped by her stepfather.

It was literally the worst kind of family environment a person could have, but Eunhye persevered and never gave up. She desperately resisted and overcame everything that was thrown at her, and she freed herself from any restrictions and restraints with her own power.

That wasn’t all. Without anyone’s help, she trained and honed herself academically, which allowed her to successfully enter the [Institution], an organization that not only influenced the USA but also the world.

Of course, all of this had been possible thanks to her unyielding spirit rather than her talent… but if she were an ordinary person, she wouldn’t have been able to accomplish such a feat.

Yet, the man in front of her was telling her that she was untalented.

‘But since this person said it, I can’t deny it.’

Eunhye let out a defeated sigh in her heart.

Seeing her disheartened appearance, the manly man sitting in front of her flinched and then shook his head.

“Ah, sorry. It was harsh of me to say you’re untalented,” he said.

“No. Compared to the Emperor of Martial Arts…”

“I should have said that you possess a mediocre level of talent.”

“…”

Regrants, an absolute being whose title as the Emperor of Martial Arts was recognized in every corner of the vast cosmos, saw that Eunhye was at a loss for words.

Then he said sternly, “There’s absolutely no chance that you’ll reach transcendence before you die.”

There was a man with light green hair, who was sitting cross-legged with his upper body upright on a large rock.

In response to Regrants’ words, he replied, “She’s at the margins, you mean.”

“Fine. At the margins. Anyway, her determination is ambiguous, and her talent is ambiguous. If I had to say it another way… she’s just another run-of-the-mill genius. If a being were able to ascend to the transcendent realm with this sort of determination and talent, then 10,000 out of 6 billion beings would be able to ascend to the transcendent realm.”

Eunhye looked around as she listened to Regrants’ cold assessment. Only darkness could be seen outside a fifteen-meter radius of where she and the two men were situated.

She recalled the first time she came here…

“T-This!! So unlucky…!!”This had been her last scream and the last thing she heard before falling into this place… this illusory space.

Originally, she was the only one who should have fallen into the illusory space. However, when Thousand Scents—the White Divine Celestial Dragon—discovered a fatal flaw and opening in Regrants’ defenses, Regrants was pushed into the illusory space by the power of Thousand Scents’ Chintamani Marble. Thus, both Eunhye and Regrants were sucked into this illusory space in the end.

Up to this point, no one would deny that everything had happened by accident and chance. The twist was that there was someone who saved both Eunhye and Regrants, who should have been engulfed in the illusory space’s nothingness and annihilated.

“Ah, by the way, Milleion.”

“Yes? What?”

“If a god is immersed in this chaos, won’t they lose all of their power and assimilate into the chaos too?”

The illusory space was a realm of pure chaos that was close to the source of the universe. Thus, even a god wouldn’t be able to escape from this space, regardless of whether they entered it by mistake.

This space was a gap in the universe where neither time nor space existed. So, it was actually abnormal that such a peaceful atmosphere could be maintained in a place like this. It was why the Noblesse had instantly concluded that Regrants had perished.

“That’s right. You may not be aware of it, but there were quite a few high-level gods that were swept into this place in the past. Well, they were all fake, unskilled gods though.”

“But we’ve been fine for a lot longer than expected, right? So how could this be?”

Milleion, the man with light green hair, opened his eyes before answering Regrants’ question. “Because…”

“Because…?”

“Because I’m such a special being…”

“…” Regrants frowned, causing his forehead to scrunch into a triangular shape.

He felt so disgusted that he wanted to jump at Milleion and unleash his mighty power on the latter, but it was true that Milleion had saved his life, so Regrants held back.

“Ugh, whatever! Anyway, this girl’s talents are average at best. She may reach a halfway decent level of power, but it’ll be nearly impossible for her to reach transcendence. Well, if she tries really hard, she may be able to reach transcendence, but there’s a limit to what one can accomplish with effort alone…”

“What do you mean…” Eunhye asked.

Seeing Eunhye making a bitter smile, Regrants stated, “What I’m trying to say is that you need another path, another means to obtain transcendence.”

Having said this, Regrants thought of Tan and the people in power in Noblesse who had supported him. In truth, Regrants had never had much interest in the user training system, DIO—which Tan and those in power in the Noblesse had ordered him to participate in. However, since Regrants had fallen due to Tan and the Noblesse’s pursuits, he felt that it was more than reasonable to bring Tan and the Noblesse down with him.

“Are you planning on using your power?” Milleion asked.

“What about you? To be honest, she’s a magic warrior, so she needs your help more than mine,” Regrants replied.

“Honestly, I’m a bit busy…” Milleion said. He thought about it for a moment and then nodded. “Okay, if there is a pseudo-transcendent warrior, Tan’s plan will go awry. Moreover, since Tan’s going to have his level reduced due to the Planet God’s penalty, there’ll be a limit to the power he can generate.”

“…Uhm, excuse me?” Eunhye’s expression changed subtly to that of confusion once she felt that the two were discussing something without her input.

Based on what they were saying, it seemed that they were going to try and help her develop, but hadn’t they just said that she was untalented and unable to reach the transcendence realm?

As if understanding Eunhye’s feelings, Regrants said, “You don’t have to worry. There is another way to reach transcendence besides talent and hard work.”

“There is another way?” Eunhye was puzzled by Regrants’ words.

Was there another path? Was there a shortcut to transcendence?

Despite Eunhye’s questioning gaze, Regrants smiled and started explaining, “Yes. There’s another way aside from talent or hard work. We call it…”

A heavy and gigantic ball of energy began to build up in his right hand.

“…unexpected fortune,” he concluded.

***

“Ugh… Ugh… What the hell is up with that magic immunity? How can magic immunity be a thing? Such a scam…” Miho groaned after receiving a huge blow from the attack of the dragon-headed Basara.

The attack had broken through her fox fire. Both of her arms were broken and eight of her ribs were shattered in that single blow. She was critically wounded. The blood flowing down her throat was mixed with pieces of her internal intestines, so it wouldn’t be strange if she perished at any moment.

However, the most pressing issue was…

“My Hydra…” Miho let out another groan when she saw that her red staff had been broken in half.

All the spells she had stored in Hydra had already been used on Tan, but that wasn’t the issue. The problem was that she needed the aid of her magic gear’s spell correction function to cast great healing spells on herself. Consequently, it was currently difficult for her to recover since Hydra, her main magic gear, had been destroyed, leaving her without the spell correction function.

“Ugh, it’ll take too long for normal healing spells to help me recover from these wounds… Huh?” Miho, who had been grumbling, stopped muttering when she realized that a bright light was leaking from inside her arms.

It was the light from the Soulstone that Merlin had thrown to her earlier.

She remembered what Merlin had said to her at that time.

/It’s the last slave contractor left in DIO./

“I don’t know what he meant by that…”

The word ‘last’ was what threw her off. Since she was one of the slave contractors, how could there be a last contractor? If Merlin had just said it in passing, she wouldn’t have thought much of it and simply moved on. However, since Merlin insisted on reaffirming ‘That’s the last,’ it was natural for Miho to think that Merlin’s words had a different meaning.

“Was he saying that I’m not a slave contractor?”

Miho shook her head to shake off the thoughts that were popping up in her mind. It wasn’t possible that she wasn’t a slave contractor. She had been an NPC who had lost all her previous memories as they had been suppressed by DIO… and since she had operated in DIO as an NPC without her memories, she was absolutely certain that she was a slave contractor. Above all, didn’t she recall her past memory of being Heavenly Flower, a nine-tailed fox who had been notoriously named ‘the Witch of Desolate Nation’?

Woong!

As Miho pondered for a moment, the Soulstone in her hand began to shine brighter. It was then that she realized the Soulstone had been soaked with her own blood.

Then…

[The situation has become interesting,] a familiar voice echoed in her head.

“W-What? Who is this?”

[You ask a question that you already know the answer to,] the other being said in a seductive but weak tone of voice. [I am Heavenly Flower. I am a nine-tailed fox who was also called the Witch of Desolate Nation.]

“Uhm… so you’re my past memory? The past me?”

[Past memory my ass.] The being sighed as if she found Miho’s line of questioning pathetic.

Simultaneously…

Whoosh!

Miho’s surroundings changed. Before she knew it, Miho was standing at the foot of a huge altar where a cool breeze was blowing.

“This place…”

It was the only place that she had retained memories of from her previous life. This was where Heavenly Flower, an evil monster, had announced to the entire planet that she had reached the transcendent state after killing countless martial art heroes.

However, unlike in Miho’s recollection where the altar was filled with blood and corpses, the altar was currently clean. Moreover, sitting in the middle was a being she had never imagined seeing again.

“Ms. Heavenly Flower…?”

It was the NPC who had taken care of Miho and raised her like a sister and a mother back when Miho was an NPC living on the Phantom Monster Magic Islands. Although Miho had escaped DIO, entered reality, and lived a completely different life as a player than when she had been an NPC… this Heavenly Flower, the eight-tailed fox in DIO, had given Miho, a six-tailed fox back then, love and support.

[I am not that eight-tailed fox from back then, you fool.]

This Heavenly Flower, the Witch of Desolate Nation, clicked her tongue as she looked at Miho, who was looking back at her with confused eyes.

“No?”

[No, I’m not. And you are not a six-tailed fox either.]

When Heavenly Flower stated this, Miho’s six tails began to shrink one by one.

However, this didn’t mean that Miho’s powers were diminishing. Rather, Miho was going through the process of returning to her [original] appearance.

Miho asked in a trembling voice, “Then… what am I?”

[It’s not difficult to comprehend.]

Gazing at Miho, who now had only one tail left, Heavenly Flower finally said, [You are the ninth.]