Did attacks of this level simply mean nothing to him?
Or was there some reason he needed to let himself be attacked?
[It would be best to give you absolute confidence so that you will inevitably choose me.]
“Ha. How?”
When I first cleared the floor 70 boss, I vaguely remembered that bastard saying something like ‘Magic belongs to the King.’
No.
Had he said that Magic had been stolen from the King?
It was an unusual enough piece of lore that I remembered the general idea, but not the details.
[This time, I shall not attack you in any way, nor shall I block a single one of your attacks.]
“What?”
He would neither attack nor defend?
Since he was trying to persuade me, I could understand him refusing to attack.
But refusing even to defend himself?
“Are you that desperate to die?”
Or did he really have some kind of Healing Skill?
At my words, the King merely laughed.
Considering he had built himself a tomb while still alive, perhaps he genuinely did want to die.
“Did you not say you wanted to become a God?”
[Indeed. I shall possess the power of a ‘God.’]
The bastard below and the bastard above both seemed to love twisting their words.
Whether he meant possessing the power of a ‘God’ or actually becoming one.
“And yet you built yourself a tomb in advance like someone already dead.”
[I do not die.]
“What a joke. Nothing is immortal.”
If he could not die, then he could not be cleared.
Unless the developers had completely lost their minds, there was no way they would put an unbeatable boss into the game.
So he definitely could die.
The difficulty was simply insane.
[With your power, you cannot kill me completely.]
“Keep boasting.”
The fact that he remained completely still with such confidence made me uneasy, but there was no way he truly could not die.
When I clearly refused to believe him, the King hummed thoughtfully, then inclined his head.
[Upon my name—no, upon that door—I swear that nothing I have told you thus far has been false.]
“You swear on that door?”
Unless his insistence that he had to protect it had also been a lie, that oath was probably genuine.
‘Why is he so certain he cannot die?’
Among Magic Skills, there was one that created an illusory duplicate identical to the caster's current appearance.
If that bastard could use every Magic Skill available for me to learn……
“Is this an illusion?”
[There is no need for suspicion. I am real.]
The illusion created by that Skill disappeared the moment it was struck rather than bleeding, though.
“Then can you just heal wounds like this immediately?”
Until now, I had never encountered a monster with healing abilities.
But since Healing Potions and Healing Magic existed, it was not as though the concepts of recovery and healing were absent from this world.
‘If he can use Healing Magic too, then as long as he has enough Mana, he can just heal everything. In that case, attacking really would be pointless.’
But if he was trying to persuade me, why deliberately bleed for it?
Was whatever ‘ability’ he saw in me really that valuable?
[Ah. So that is why you cannot believe me. Very well.]
The King smiled and removed the hand he had been using to stop the bleeding.
The moment he did, blood streamed freely down his body again.
[I would like you to understand that I am sincere enough about you to go this far.]
“Why should I care whether you are sincere?”
He had no intention of granting the thing I wanted most anyway.
If killing him would let me return home, there was no chance I would fall for his words.
‘Does he seriously not understand that? Is he stupid?’
Or had he simply never met anyone from another world and therefore could not understand?
Either way, if he truly intended not to use any of the powers he boasted made him nearly a ‘God’……
If he genuinely did not need to use them because he truly could not die……
“Whew.”
I could test it first.
If he really proved impossible to kill, I could give up then.
He was trying so hard to prove it that he had stopped staunching his wounds and was now standing with both arms spread wide, practically inviting me to attack.
The fact that he was accepting it this willingly was suspicious.
But I had no reason to turn away from an opportunity to attack.
SLASH.
I leaped upward and swung the sword in a wide arc.
SLASH.
Then, as I fell, I cut the same place again.
Blood poured over me in torrents.
Barely managing to catch something—whether it was the hem of his clothes or one of his ornaments—I hauled myself upward again.
The red waterfall that no longer stopped was painting his enormous garments completely crimson.
“Ptoo.”
I spat the blood that had entered my mouth and looked up.
His body was enormous.
There were still plenty of places left to cut.
THUMP.
So again.
SLASH.
[It would be wise to stop.]
Again.
[This is my final piece of advice to you.]
And again.
[This time, I remained still because I wished to persuade you. There will be no such opportunity next time.]
SLASH.
As I circled his neck and carved wounds across it from every direction, his voice gradually began to change.
I could not tell whether he was weakening or whether damage to his throat had altered his voice.
[Will you truly refuse my favor until the very end?]
“I told you I do not need anything else, and you ignored every word. What favor are you talking about?”
I was directly beneath his neck, so I could not see his face.
But if I could, he was probably frowning as though he could not understand me.
[I believed I had conveyed my intentions clearly enough.]
“Go fuck yourself.”
Even though he probably could not see it, I raised my middle finger toward him.
[Even if you truly manage to kill me, you will not obtain what you desire.]
Every one of them was the same.
“Why does everyone here insist on cursing me?”
[I have never cursed you. I merely stated a fact.]
The difference was that the cyborg boss had said my wish could not come true as long as the woman stayed with me.
The King, meanwhile, was simply saying it would never happen at all.
Either way, both were irritating because they kept telling me I would fail.
‘Though what the cyborg said probably meant the King would stop me.’
If the King died, the obstruction would disappear.
And if the King himself somehow served as the key to that door, then he would have said something along the lines of, ‘If I die, you will no longer be able to use the door.’
“Do not tell me there is some separate method for using that door.”
[Are you asking me?]
I had not exactly meant it as a question.
But if he was willing to answer, I would listen.
I stopped my next attack and waited.
His voice was noticeably weaker than before.
[Even if I knew, do you truly believe I would tell you?]
Fair enough.
He was the one preventing me from using the door.
Of course he would not explain how it worked.
It was my own fault for briefly hoping he might.
“Haah.”
Would the woman who had fainted outside know how to use it?
She must know if the cyborg boss had spoken as though she might use the door first.
So the NPC I thought existed only to explain the worldbuilding was finally going to be useful.
[You will regret this.]
Instead of giving him the same answer yet again, I jumped down onto his limp wrist and drove my sword into it.
SLASH.
I drew the sword out as though cutting upward through the ground, slicing his wrist open.
Blood erupted like a fountain.
Holding my breath, I continued severing the blood vessels in his wrist.
SLASH.
[You insist upon making a foolish choice.]
SLASH.
I repeatedly cut through every blue vein I could see, then stepped onto another ornament and crossed over to his other wrist.
THUMP.
[But you cannot kill me completely.]
I snorted at him for repeating the same words like an audio file stuck on loop.
Did he really have nothing else to say?
“You are dying right now.”
SLASH.
[If another opportunity is given to you…….]
Another opportunity?
Was he telling me I would have to repeat all of this again?
If that was not a curse, what was?
SLASH.
I swung harder than before.
Not that the blade went any deeper.
SLASH.
[When that time comes, I hope you will make a wiser choice…….]
SLASH.
I roughly wiped the blood from my eyes and jumped down to the floor.
THUD.
I dropped from a considerable height in one go, but since I had jumped deliberately rather than being thrown down without warning like before, the impact was much lighter.
‘Is he dead?’
That weak, trailing voice I had heard moments ago.
Wondering if he might actually have died, I moved to a position where I could see his face and looked up.
“…….”
He looked as though he had fallen asleep after having his entire body painted red.
I had expected him to look as though he were suffering.
“D-Did he die?”
The familiar, irritating voice made me turn.
“Ha.”
Her face was still white, and she was trembling visibly, but the woman was clearly walking toward me.
“You were alive.”
“What?”
“I thought you had died standing up.”
“W-What are you…….”
Her pale skin turned as red as the King's blood in an instant.
I could not tell whether she was embarrassed that she had fainted while standing or angry about what I said.
At the very least, judging from the way she stared at the scene in horror, she was definitely not blushing because she liked me.
If she had been, my expression would have been even more horrified than hers.
“He said he would stop me from using the door. If he is alive, he will probably keep trying to stop me.”
“Stop you…… from using the door?”
The woman's face instantly went cold, as though she had heard something she absolutely should not have.
Just as I expected.
“Still, I do not think I should let you know he is dead yet.”
Thinking back to how the woman had frozen the instant the door opened earlier, the fact that she could move now made it seem likely that the King truly was dead.
But I did not want to tell her that.
For some reason, I felt that I should not.
‘But is that thing really dead?’
For all the threats he had made, and compared to every boss I had fought until now, it had ended far too easily.
“W-Why?”
At some point, the woman had approached until she was standing right beside me.
“The problem is that if that bastard dies, I do not know how to use the door…….”
“I know.”
As if she would personally finish the King off if I so much as suggested reviving him, she grabbed the hilt of my sword.
Not that she could ever take it from me with her strength.
“How do you use it?”
“It will be faster to show you than explain.”
I reflexively frowned.
She had just openly declared that she intended to use it first.
“What if it only works once? How am I supposed to trust you?”
If the door truly only worked once, perhaps the King would have had even more reason to protect it.
But the woman might also know some method of destroying the door.
“We came all this way together, and you still do not trust me?”
Did she not remember everything that had happened along the way?
Or did she think simply spending time together automatically created trust?
“Even if it is difficult to explain, that does not mean you cannot explain it in words.”
“By the time I explain it……”
Unlike the King's endless composure, the woman seemed as though something were chasing her.
Ah.
Before meeting me, she had spent all her time running from monsters.
“Anyway, the method for using the door was probably in that book you said you read. Even if it was not written there, someone must have told you, or you would not know it. Is that not right?”
“That is true, but…….”
“Then explain it first.”
“…….”
“Now.”
The woman merely looked at me with clear reluctance.
I stared directly into her eyes, making it equally clear that I had no intention of backing down.
“…….”
“…….”
“Haah. Fine.”
Judging by how reluctant she was to explain beforehand, there was probably some kind of usage limit……
“It cannot be helped.”
The woman slowly walked toward the door.
Since she might suddenly jump through it and use it first, I stayed close enough to grab her immediately as we moved.
Up close, the door looked less like a proper door and more like a rectangular wooden frame with a wooden panel fitted inside it.
“For this door, you think of the time and place you wish to go……”
The woman naturally placed her hands against the edge of the door.
HUMMMM.
With a low sound, bluish light began pouring from the wooden panel.
“Wait……”
If this was the last one, I could not let her use it first!
“This is how you use it.”
The woman turned toward me for a moment with a brilliant smile.
The instant I reached for her, she leaped into the glowing door.
I caught her.
Barely.
Only the hem of her clothes.
BANG!
My outstretched hand struck the glowing panel and was blocked.
<CAUTION!>
<You have not fulfilled the requirements to use the ‘Door of the Will.’>
“What?”
Why is the System appearing now?
No.
If this is a game, of course the System should appear……
No.
This is a game……
It is a game, but……
<Easy Mode Cleared.>
<Automatically entering Normal Mode.>
The fading blue light flared brilliantly once more.
Then everything went black.