Chapter 270: The World Tree and... Hell Star! (Patreon)

While Ryuuen gazed down at the surface from beyond the atmosphere—

Near the massive, kilometers-long roots of the World Tree, natural enemy of the Great Tree Realm, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka stood expressionless inside a natural tree-hollow shelter, watching the typhoon in front of him.

With hints from Parasyte Zero, it wasn't hard to guess who had started this typhoon.

But as far as Ayanokōji was concerned, the moment he confirmed that the parasites had no effect on the Parasyte living inside his own body, and couldn't break through his flesh, this natural enemy lost any value as something worth his attention.

At most, he'd casually given Kouenji Rokusuke and Ryūji Kanzaki, who were traveling with him, a quick heads-up.

It was just…

Thinking back on the rule-type maps they'd run into earlier in the Roaming Prison Realm, their strange nature had not only kept them from earning many S Points, it had burned a ton of effort for nothing. In the end, they'd only escaped by brute force, thanks to the Door-Door Fruit ability Ryūji Kanzaki had developed.

Watching the devastating storm in front of him, Ayanokōji's mind began to wander on its own.

'If the airflow of a super-sized typhoon like this were adjusted slightly, to create a converging effect like a super tornado… could it gather all the large-scale natural enemies into one place and wipe them out at once?'

Sure, any single natural enemy swept up in it might not be worth many points. But going by the Black Sphere's dynamic scoring mechanism, the stronger a monster was, the more sharply the marginal return on its kill diminished.

In a sense, clearing out low-score natural enemies in one sweep with an area-clearing skill would actually pay far better than hunting a single boss worth two hundred points or more.

While Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was working this out in his head, Kouenji Rokusuke, who was also standing beneath the World Tree's roots, suddenly flicked back his wind-tousled blond hair.

"Hahaha… It seems Chris, my boy, has made his intentions quite clear."

Ayanokōji followed the voice and looked up.

Sure enough, the typhoon's direction had changed dramatically. The hurricane that had been sweeping sideways was now lifting upward like an inverted funnel, greedily scooping up everything in its path and contracting furiously toward its center.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka gazed into the distance with a trace of envy.

He found himself wondering whether he should buy a few items to make up for his own lack of mass-clearing ability.

But the thought passed in an instant.

After all, as destructive as Chris's typhoon was, the World Tree and the tangled terrain of the surrounding Rampant Green Realm gave most creatures cover to survive it.

Now that the storm had just died down, they'd naturally use the lull to look for new homes. For the stronger natural enemies, this place was a perfect hunting ground.

For Ayanokōji and the others, it was also a great opportunity to farm points.

Just as they were getting ready to move out, a flash of light lit up behind them.

"Looks like I got here at just the right time."

Miyabi Nagumo glanced around, a little surprised.

After a couple of quick pleasantries, Ryūji Kanzaki and a few other boys of perfectly normal orientation, mindful of protecting their own innocence, used "going to stand watch on the other side of the World Tree" as an excuse and vanished at light speed, heels barely touching the ground.

That left only Ayanokoji Kiyotaka and Kouenji Rokusuke standing there.

It wasn't that the two of them were fine with Nagumo's style. The intel coming out of his mouth was simply worth sticking around for.

"I just did a little testing with the Soul Refiner I brought back from the Curse Ruin Realm."

Nagumo raised his hand, a vessel hovering above his palm.

"This thing is rather overbearing. Even if the sacrifice chosen as the price resists, once it's activated, it forcibly drains the soul and flesh and converts them into one-time fuel."

"And the result is considerably stronger than the sacrifice itself."

To prove he wasn't exaggerating, Nagumo casually used his spider silk to haul over a passing natural enemy from the Rampant Green Realm, then activated the Soul Refiner.

Accompanied by the beast's agonized shriek, a beam of light rivaling a dragon-sigil spell shot skyward and punched a hole straight through the clouds!

"Not a bad return rate."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka gave his verdict without a flicker of expression.

In fact, before they set out, Hiyori Shiina had already given them a brief explanation of the Curse Ruin Realm's natural enemies through [Rasiel].

But now, standing at the foot of this World Tree that rose straight into the clouds, with Nagumo's demonstration fresh in their minds, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka and Kouenji Rokusuke came up with the same insane idea at almost the same moment.

"Vice Student Council President Nagumo."

Ayanokōji slowly raised his hand and pointed at the colossus above them.

"If the Soul Refiner can forcibly absorb a sacrificial creature…"

"then wouldn't this 'World Tree', which the Black Sphere rates at a full 270 points, be the perfect material?"

Kouenji Rokusuke clapped his hands and chuckled, in complete agreement.

"Beautiful! A high-score target with no will of its own, yet brimming with astonishing energy."

"If we could refine it completely… I dare say that in every plane we've been through so far, nobody could take that blow head-on, hm?"

A glint appeared in Nagumo's eyes too.

There was just one problem.

The World Tree was far too huge. A single Soul Refiner probably couldn't absorb it.

And a trump card of that caliber would be a waste to use right here, right now.

If they wanted to seal it away and carry it off as a hidden backup energy source, they'd need to borrow the Map in Chris's hands.

While the three of them were calculating their next move…

…

Several hundred kilometers away, in a set of ruins, Chris had used the converging super typhoon to clear out the parasites around Hero Village and farmed a nice wave of S Points on the side.

Now he was with Hiyori Shiina and the local mage Zebi, going through the planet's surviving teleportation circles in hopes of reverse-modifying them.

Unfortunately, in Zebi's eyes the circles were too badly damaged. Repairing them and changing their function in a short time was nearly impossible.

Chris frowned and was about to try something when Hiyori Shiina consulted Rasiel and told him exactly what was happening: Ryuuen had more or less taken in the AI natural enemies of the Machine Law Realm.

Chris didn't hesitate. He took Zebi straight to the mechanical factory where Ryuuen was.

After Chris agreed to put the resources Ryuuen had collected into the Map, Ryuuen agreed to let his Ryuuen Kongs help.

Credit where it was due, the Machine Law Realm's AI natural enemies really were useful.

Even after Ryuuen revived them with the Allspark, their built-in integrated network and self-iterating upgrade functions hadn't been lost.

While they helped Zebi and the others analyze the circles, they were also dispatching mechanical armies to circles across the planet for synchronized repairs…

It was fair to say that once enough time had passed, the conditions for separating the thirteen fused worlds would be all but ready.

Having confirmed that, Chris and Hiyori Shiina felt there was no longer any need to keep Nagumo running around the whole world as a laborer, planting Flying Thunder God marks.

So…

When the spatial rift tore open and Chris and Hiyori Shiina stepped out of the passage side by side, they walked straight into the trio who were about to sacrifice the World Tree.

"Oh my, Chris, my boy~"

Kouenji Rokusuke grinned. "Showing up so soon. Have you finished sorting out your side? Or is there some thorny problem you need our help with?"

Chris blinked, then shook his head with an amused look.

"Not at all."

"I just came to tell Student Council President Nagumo that Ryuuen has taken control of the Machine Law Realm's AI natural enemies, and he's sending them to help Zebi analyze and build the teleportation circles."

"So you don't need to run around the world planting Flying Thunder God marks anymore, President."

Nagumo gave a small nod. "Understood."

"Not that I'd put much effort into it anyway. Mostly I was clearing natural enemies for S Points on the way."

Nagumo paused, turned, and looked around at the forest lying in tangled heaps.

"That bizarre typhoon just now. Was that your handiwork?"

"More or less."

Chris didn't deny it. "Mostly because the parasites from the Parasite Realm are so disgusting. They can't do anything to us, but they're a disaster for ordinary people and our weaker classmates. We couldn't just sit back and watch."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka thought it over for a moment.

"Your weather technique, combined with Kiryūin's help?"

Chris smiled. "And Kamuro's Weather Memory. Everyone got to feel involved, and all of it together made that effect."

With the small talk done, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka seemed to remember something and steered the conversation elsewhere.

"Since Ryuuen controls the AI natural enemies, then with an AI's learning and analytical ability, figuring out the Curse Ruin Realm's Soul Refiner shouldn't be hard for them."

He raised an eyebrow at Chris. "Could you pass along a message asking Ryuuen to try making a high-spec Soul Refiner? The requirement isn't high. It only needs to withstand the load of sacrificing a monster in the two-hundred-point class."

Chris gave Ayanokōji a long look.

Then he raised his eyebrows and looked at the sky-blotting World Tree behind him.

"The load of a two-hundred-point sacrifice…"

The corner of Chris's eye twitched. "You rascal. You've got your eye on this World Tree, haven't you?"

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka made no attempt to hide it.

"You could say that."

"According to President Nagumo's tests, even if the sacrifice resists, it can't break free once the sacrifice is complete. A high-score natural enemy like the World Tree, which has energy but no will of its own, is the best material there is for a one-shot bullet."

"In that case… I'm afraid we can't touch it for now."

Before Chris could answer, Hiyori Shiina, standing beside him, spoke up gently.

"Why?" Kouenji Rokusuke raised an eyebrow in mild surprise.

Hiyori Shiina lifted the faintly glowing Rasiel and held it up in front of everyone as she explained.

"Because the World Tree's roots have long since spread through the ground beneath the entire continent."

"Unless I'm mistaken, it's still absorbing the planet's core energy. What we see above ground now is only the tip of the iceberg."

The girl closed the book, her tone earnest.

"Even if you want to uproot it and keep it for later use, it has to wait until the final stage of our plan."

"Otherwise, if pulling out the World Tree makes the crust collapse, our whole plan to separate the thirteen fused worlds could run into trouble!"

"I see…"

Kouenji Rokusuke sighed after hearing this, looking rather resigned.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, for his part, didn't find it a pity at all.

After all, to someone who valued reason above everything, a plan that couldn't be carried out was simply discarded. There was no point agonizing over it.

Besides, even if the World Tree was off-limits, they lost nothing. When it came to cost-effectiveness, high-score single-target natural enemies…

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka ran the numbers and even volunteered a suggestion.

"Since separating the worlds is the top priority, there's no need to take down the Great Tree Realm's World Tree right now. The same goes for the god of the Wrath God Realm."

"They're going to be split off sooner or later anyway, and the god is a passive natural enemy that doesn't descend unless its believers summon it…"

"I think we have no reason to waste time on it."

Ayanokōji looked at Chris.

"Our time is already tight. Instead of burning energy on one god, we'd do better to use this commanding position to farm points off the other scattered natural enemies."

Chris rubbed his brow as he listened.

After a moment of silence, he answered, "You're right, in principle."

"But I actually wanted to use these natural enemies to level everyone up and train their combat skills."

Chris stroked his chin. "Then again, if it comes to that, taking them back to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber as sparring partners doesn't sound bad either."

"I'll go tell Ichinose and the others. The final call is theirs."

Ayanokōji waved a hand dismissively.

"I only mentioned it in passing, as a suggestion. It's up to you."

…

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the Demon King's Castle.

After splitting off from Chris, Suzune Horikita and the others, Honami Ichinose and Arisu Sakayanagi led their group to the demons' main stronghold without incident.

Out of caution.

Some on the team suggested that with their current gear, there was no need to use the Beta Box at all, and they could try pushing their limits instead.

But as commanders, Ichinose and Arisu Sakayanagi exchanged a look and voted the idea down at the same moment.

Besides not wanting to waste time, the bigger reason was Ichinose's view that the Beta Box was part of their combat strength anyway. If a real crisis hit, they'd almost certainly use it.

So why not go with the red form from the very start?

After a brief tactical briefing, Arisu Sakayanagi went first, activating the Beta Box. The instant she transformed, she unleashed a wide-area "fake time stop" that froze and locked down the Demon King's Castle, where the Great Demon King sat!

Meanwhile Honami Ichinose, Kei Karuizawa, and the rest had already spread out beyond the skill's range.

They set up all their heavy firepower, aimed at the castle, and began charging a barrage!

That way, when the flow of time inside the castle returned to normal, all the damage that had piled up outside the frozen space would pour in at once, with no mercy.

The result was no surprise.

When the mushroom cloud cleared, the Demon King's Castle before Arisu Sakayanagi's eyes, along with the Great Demon King inside it, had been leveled in an instant.

Even the red dot on the Black Sphere Watch had vanished with it.

Clearly the Great Demon King was thoroughly dead.

But before the girls could move on to discussing whether to hunt the remaining Demon Kings or detour to the god of the Wrath God Realm, a crystal screen like a projection suddenly appeared out of thin air in front of them.

Thanks to Hiyori Shiina having shown them intel on all sorts of natural enemies before they left, the group wasn't actually very surprised.

Looking at the demon on the screen, with its ugly face like a blobfish, Arisu Sakayanagi struck first.

"The 19th Demon King, Yuuta…"

"You've got some nerve, contacting us on your own at a time like this. What is it? Are you a smokescreen thrown out as bait so the other Demon Kings can escape?"

"How loyal you are!"

The blobfish on the screen sighed.

Wrinkles creased his face as he gave a bitter smile.

"Well… as the pride of demonkind, I'd love to smile and tell you 'there's no need to run.'"

"But I honestly never imagined that even our supreme Great Demon King wouldn't last two rounds against you."

Yuuta's small eyes darted around, and he lowered his voice humbly.

"As a Demon King, by the demons' usual code of 'the strong rule the weak,' I have no right to say a word in front of you, who are so overwhelmingly powerful."

"By that logic… couldn't we take the Great Demon King's place and become the leaders of your demon race?"

Honami Ichinose parted her lips, about to seize the chance and probe him with the same question.

Then she realized the voice hadn't come out of her own mouth!

She turned around with Karuizawa, Amasawa Ichika, and the others, following the sound.

When they saw Chris and Hiyori Shiina walking out side by side from not far away, Ichinose blinked in surprise.

"Senior? Hiyori? What are you two doing back here?"

Chris walked up with a smile and explained.

"Ryuuen, Ayanokōji and the others are about done with their work."

"I just came to join the fun, and to let you know Matsushita and the others are safe."

Hearing that, Kei Karuizawa let out a long breath of relief.

She turned around, stepped forward to back him up, and pressed the blobfish Demon King on the screen not far away.

"You heard that, right? Whether your demon race lives or dies depends entirely on your answer right now!"

"I'd think carefully before responding, if I were you. No tricks!"

Yuuta fell silent for a moment.

Slowly he raised a hand and, with a white handkerchief that came from who knew where, dabbed the cold sweat from his forehead.

"Of course."

"Survival of the fittest is an undisputed law of nature. Since you now hold overwhelming strength, it's only natural that we, the defeated, are at your disposal."

His tone shifted, and a note of reluctance crept in.

"However… forgive my bluntness, but Demon Kings who see reality as I do are a minority among our people. Most of my colleagues will probably cling stubbornly to the pride demonkind once had and won't bow to humans easily…"

"Enough."

Arisu Sakayanagi waved a hand.

"We happen to be short of heads to farm for points right now."

"Since you want to prove yourself, you'd better put your talents to use. Stir them up, or spread false news that lures them all here!"

"Otherwise, we really don't have time to go find them one by one."

Arisu Sakayanagi narrowed her eyes slightly and tossed out a poisoned bait.

"If you do well, by the time we leave this world, you might even get the chance to take the Great Demon King's throne."

"After all, we won't be staying here long. You'd be using our hands to clear future obstacles out of your own way. Mutually beneficial."

Hearing that, Yuuta narrowed his eyes without changing his expression, then bowed with deep respect, like someone terrified that this band of fiends might casually finish him off as a minion.

Chris ignored the Demon King Yuuta's fawning.

Meeting the questioning looks from Amasawa Ichika and Nanase Tsubasa, he quickly moved on to a new topic.

"Ryuuen's side has already started working with this world's magicians to build the circles that will separate the worlds."

"Ayanokōji also suggested skipping the World Tree entirely and focusing on farming points. Since you all already have a plan, there's no need to go bother the god of the Wrath God Realm either."

"We might as well take this chance to wipe out the demons Yuuta lures here in one sweep. More points that way, and it's more practical."

Hiyori Shiina chimed in from the side.

"The natural enemy races with organized tribes have basically all been crippled by us and can't pose a threat anymore."

"Ryuuen and Koro Sensei and the others are also each leaving this world's humans a legacy of resistance technology and education."

"Once the worlds are separated… I think even by the Tengong Society's strictest standards of settlement, they won't find much to complain about."

"So now we just wait for Senior Ryuuen and the others to finish laying out and adjusting the circles, and then we can fast-forward to the final step?"

Amasawa Ichika asked with interest, hands clasped behind her back.

"More or less."

Chris glanced up at the sky.

"If things go smoothly after this, we should still have a bit of time between the end of this campaign and the final exam."

"Still, to be safe, we should go back first and check how fast time is flowing on our side."

Chris added, half joking.

"Otherwise, if we run out of time and the presiding god suddenly starts the final exam over there, the Black Sphere might yank back only our group and leave Koro Sensei and the others behind as Intruders…"

"Then we'd really be guilty of a terrible crime."

Honami Ichinose nodded in full agreement.

Then, as if something had suddenly occurred to her, she looked up at Chris.

"Come to think of it, Senior, that God Warrior you released earlier…"

"Shouldn't we make time to go over there? At least bring back some of the God Warrior's remains as backup material for later?"

Kei Karuizawa eagerly joined in.

"Anyway, it'll take a while for those Demon Kings to get tricked into coming here."

"We could dash over and have a look in the meantime, no problem, right?"

"That… wouldn't be bad."

Chris stroked his chin and thought about it.

Then he drew the Enma Blade with a flick of his hand and slashed through the void.

As light tore the space open, a passage to the world of [There Were Two Chickens in the Courtyard] appeared right in front of everyone.

"Let's go. Quick trip in and out."

The group stepped through one after another without hesitation.

Not one of them worried that Demon King Yuuta, who had just watched the whole thing, might use their brief absence to set some trap for them in the ruins of the Demon King's Castle.

…

As the spatial rift slowly closed behind them, Chris and the others crossed the barrier between worlds.

But.

As their eyes gradually adjusted to the dim light of this brand-new world, they were stunned to find that the beautiful scenery Earth should have had was long gone.

Not only had every trace of humanity, like cars and buildings, vanished without a trace.

Even the sweeping mountains and vegetation were all gone!

As far as the eye could see, the entire world was nothing but a boiling sea of magma.

Only thick volcanic ash remained, blotting out the sky like a heavy layer of lead.

Chris frowned at the sight.

He raised a hand and activated his Weather Forecast (Stand) right away.

A violent wind blew away the acrid sulfur fumes and heavy ash, letting everyone see the sky that had been hidden from them.

Nanase Tsubasa surveyed the surroundings and couldn't help swallowing hard.

"Is this… what Earth looks like after it's been destroyed once?"

Nobody answered her question.

Everyone just quietly got to work, either raising a hand to open the Controller radar on their Black Sphere Watches,

or moving closer to Hiyori Shiina to see the replay of events recorded in [Rasiel].

As the Controller interface unfolded in midair, Hiyori Shiina, holding Rasiel, was the first to break the silence.

"In the days since Chris left the God Warrior behind and went away…"

"this world's aliens gathered their forces from across the globe and launched a campaign to destroy it."

"In the end, the God Warrior wiped out the alien forces single-handedly, and most of the Earth was destroyed along with them…"

"But the God Warrior burned through its energy doing so, and its lifespan has been cut short. Unless I'm mistaken, it has no strength left and is on the verge of falling apart."

Chris thought for a moment.

"If I remember right, once the aliens' homeworld noticed something was wrong, they sent a faster-than-light fleet as reinforcements, didn't they?"

"Now that the God Warrior's out of commission, I guess we'll need to call Horikita over."

"Otherwise we'd be handing half this planet to those aliens for free."

But faced with Chris's perfectly natural suggestion, Hiyori Shiina, who always went along with whatever Chris said, surprisingly didn't nod this time.

She lowered her eyes slightly, her mood seeming heavy.

"Chris… I don't think that's necessary anymore."

"We only need to collect the God Warrior's remains. As for the rest of the alien warships… I don't think we need to bother guarding against them anymore."

"Why?"

Nanase Tsubasa, who had just found the God Warrior's faint life signal on the Controller radar map, looked up in confusion.

Hiyori Shiina paused, as if still digesting what she'd just read in the book.

"Because… there's a planet out in space that happened to be on the same route as the aliens' reinforcement fleet."

"It moves at faster-than-light speed. After crushing and devouring that fleet in passing… it's now heading toward our planet at full speed!"

"A planet…? A living one?"

Amasawa Ichika couldn't help letting out an exaggerated "Wow."

Hiyori Shiina nodded gravely.

"Not just living."

"It's a monster that feeds on other planets!"

Hearing this, Nanase Tsubasa pulled the Controller's radar range out to its maximum and began frantically searching the star chart for the anomaly.

Before anyone else could speak, she found it at the edge of the radar: a huge red dot marking danger.

Without hesitation, she reached out and tapped it.

"Ding—"

[Hell Star Remina]

[Value: 600 points]

[Traits: planet-class living cosmic entity, Cthulhu-type deep-space calamity. Born from an extradimensional wormhole, it feeds on planets and seasons its meals with the fear of living things. To hunt despair, it crosses the universe at faster-than-light speed, devouring every planet along the way. It can freely command gravity and manipulate the internal space of a planet at will, and it releases a giant tongue to attack surface creatures from afar.]

[Fatal point: The Hell Star has its own independent will and loves torturing the creatures on a planet, savoring their despair before swallowing them. However, its main body is so enormous that its mobility is actually only relative to planets. Its attacks are mostly tongue-swallowing and close-range gravity crushing.]

[Against an opponent of the same rank, close combat would be its biggest weakness.]

[Note: But as the beloved pet of the master of the Backrooms… almost no one, not even gods, dares to lay a hand on it.]