Strawberry Devil in a Fantasy World

An obstinate obstacle was keeping me busy.

Ekibas, the self proclaimed other half of my soul in the form of a devil, was someone who could fight in suspended time. No matter how much I dilated time or altered my perception of time, I couldn't reach her. She was in a different realm altogether due to the divine artifact in her hand.

Though, in reality, if I had sniped her soul core when she was still visible to me, I would have won, probably. That bad personality of mine got in the way. Whether I could get her to show herself again might be the challenging part.

Hurry up already, I can't keep up this singularity field for long.

Truth be told, I had already converted one demon in my possession into pure energy to fuel my |singularity| field and [infinite dreams]. However, I couldn't show my weaknesses before enemies.

Since there hadn't been follow up attacks from her, I decided to provoke her a bit.

"What's with the long hold up, out of juice? Is that |god slayer| trait for show? Come out. Let's finish this. Also, I miss your pretty face, hehe..."

"Then I shall oblige!"

The victory is as good as mine!

Unfortunately, my expectations weren't met.

Immediately, we clashed once again, with her attack pattern the same as before. It really seemed that was the extent of her powers. As for the reason why she wouldn't surrender, I could only guess. Whether that reason be contract or mind control, none of that mattered to me.

Since majority of my power was partitioned to my |dedicated will| core, I had been battling in a significantly weakened state. However powerful it might be, the secondary core only had that trait itself and couldn't command other traits, therefore |singularity| couldn't be utilized to its full potential.

All that ended now.

Reintegrate secondary core to main core.  

With this command given, power and more importantly, astronomical amount of new information became part of me.

It feels good! So much power... Not yet...

There were several demons sealed away under my jurisdiction. Near instantly, their entire existences had been analyzed by me.

Goodbye demons, it's your ill fortune that you messed with the wrong person at the wrong time. I'm take your power for my own.

Converting their very soul into pure energy while only leaving fragments of their memories within me, their long lives came to a pitiful end. Truly, I was grateful for the tremendous amount of knowledge I was able to inherit. Not all demons were converted into energy since a few were in peculiar situations.

Anyway, I was in a state of ecstasy with all that power flowing through my very being.

Power, so much power! Ahahaha! I can finally say that line!

Saving the best for last! Now that's what I call a blast! Here it goes!

In an instant, literally, at the exact moment our weapons clashed physically at the edge of my |singularity| field, another |singularity| field in the shape of a thick spherical shell form a few meters away surrounding us. It had to be that instance where she couldn't time leap.

There was nowhere else to escape. She could now only move within the confines of these two fields.

It's the end for you, and a new beginning for me. Heheh...

Perhaps in a panic, the clashes suddenly stopped. But, it was all too late for her. The two fields expanded and melded into one the next instance, forcing her to appear before me.

By suddenly dragging her into the physical world against her will out of that realm, her movements became disoriented as if her strength had vanished.

Her shock was evident.

Of course, not wasting a second to allow her to recover, I dashed into her. My hands formed into infinitely sharp blades and severed her arms, disconnecting her from that fey weapon.

My base stats were just that much higher than hers. Moreover, [infinite dreams] had already captured her existence. It was over.

Then...Ploosh.

With my right hand, I pierced into her heart and extracted the fey core only someone like me could see and touch. Then with my left hand, I held onto the fey weapon.

If I could use void barrier within this field, I would have done so already.

"It's my win." I declared boldly, gazing into her clouded eyes.  

"Yes... Yes it is... All yours now... It's name is Minute." She said, with a conflicted smile and a bit of sadness in her tone.

"Call me cruel, call me a brute, I don't care. Well, I had quite a bit of fun sparring with you so you have my gratitude. Any last words?"

"Ah, I wasn't able to send you back with my own hands..." Her voice becoming softer, and she herself was fading.

"Hah, that's it? Those contracts don't carry over. Go rest in peace. I'll take care of the rest."

Now that her body was no longer supported by a fey core, it slowly crumbled into soft dust.

"I've done my part... The rest is up to you."

With those last words, she was no more.

Done her part?

"Well, that was a strange turn of events. Mera is just about finished her personal business. I guess I better meet up with her."

Since I had no clue where that self proclaimed god disappeared to, I couldn't pursue it.

The sword staff with the lame name, Minute, was in my hands. I casually twirled it around to get a handle on it.

It's a nice weapon. But... I don't really need it at the moment.

Hence, I decided to seal it away along with the fey core I had just obtained. If I was to wield either of those two as my own power, there was no telling what that demon god would do. However, that didn't mean preparations weren't made for immediate transplantation of all the essential traits and abilities.

Then again, that soul contract was there so the demon likely planned to snatch the soul and take the traits and abilities for himself. It really didn't make sense unless he was a fake god. Really though, a god should have to work within the confines of the system. Since I couldn't permanent sever the energy link, sealing it was a good idea for now.

In all seriousness, I doubted a demon could become a god just with an item called Seed of Life. An item was just an item.

In the worst case scenario that a demon became a god, there were probably laws that regulated gods beyond the system. That meant that gods probably couldn't directly interfere with actions of those working within the confines of the system.

God stuff? Trivial matter!

After creating some more tasks for the secondary core, I gave the command to detach.

The secondary core I had previous reintegrated was split off once again. The amount of information it could generate was just too much for my consciousness to handle. Simply put, my head was getting dizzy.

"Mera, I'm coming!"

I transformed myself back into Kerry the Fairy before teleporting to Mera's side.

The scene was inside a recently furnished tavern. This was still within that strange subspace. The tavern was ran by an elf who had settled here some years ago, apparently.

Really though, this subspace could be considered one of the strangest places in this world. By my earlier analysis from my secondary core, this subspace was ever growing with new areas constantly added. New teleportation gates would occasionally pop into existence in the real world, allowing pioneers to partake in creation.  

Anyway, back to the scene, there were several patrons or customers chatting about as they drank in pleasant atmosphere.

Just earlier, the wooden tables and chairs were cleared away to allow a little spar. Not surprisingly, one of the contestant was Mera. The other one was the owner of this tavern, Lapis, who was supposed to have gone missing decades ago. This was just data gathered by my secondary core.

By the time I arrived on the scene, the winner had already been decided. The tables and chairs were returned to their original positions as if nothing had happened.

No shadow clones, no demons, and no devils...? I guess it's safe here?

"Ehh... Mera?" I said awkwardly, listening to the two of them reminiscing of their early days.

"Hey."

"Don't 'hey' me! While I was fighting for my life, you were chilling here!?" I shouted indignantly.

"This is... Kerry, I guess?"

"Right, I'm Kerry the Fairy! You must be... Lapis?"

"That's right. Thank you for taking care of Mera." A small blonde elf covered with an apron grinned amiably. She seemed like such a sweet person unlike the story Mera had recounted a while back.

Did they really nearly kill each other back then?

"Uh... Likewise! I'm amazed she didn't kill everyone outright since we were on a warpath."

"B- I mean, Kerry. Never mind that, how did you find us here? This wasn't one of the mapped areas."

"Silly Mera, don't ever underestimate my amazingness! Fufufu...! Now praise me! Wait, wait, aren't they all...? Is this really alright?"

"It's hard to believe you actually you're a mother of a single daughter..."

"Seriously, she's got a daughter?"

"Rude! I'm a proper... uhh... parent, I think? Wait, wait! Hey! Why are we talking about me?"

"Long story." Mera shrugged disinterestedly.

"So, how did you end up here with all these people? I mean, most of them have contracts of some sort so I can't say they aren't enemies."

Mera didn't seem to be under any strange influences. Not only that, no one here was showing hostile reactions. So, I wasn't sure what to make of this situation.

"Kerry, I found out about the so called fake guardian..."

"It's probably better if I explain it since I know it firsthand."

Seeing Mera's best friend deciding to offer an explanation to me in her stead, she switched her role from a mere customer to a bartender. The transition was so smooth that if I didn't know better, I would have thought that was her regular occupation. Well, though I had never asked, she might have worked in this industry to gather information as part of her work in the past.