Re: From Elf Mage to Overlord Slayer-Chapter 24: vs. Kazuki

Chapter 24: vs. Kazuki
Kazuki let out a soft, pitying chuckle, a sound that just made me want to punch him more.
"Heh... a futile effort," he said, waving a dismissive hand. "It is the nature of my power, you see. Between you and me, there exists an infinity. A boundless, limitless space. No matter how fast your attack, no matter how powerful, it can only ever approach me. It can never, ever reach me."
He flicked a single, elegant finger.
My frozen Mana Bolt shattered into a million harmless particles of light, like a burst of glitter.
An absolute defense.
And he’s explaining the game mechanics.
What an amateur.
I can exploit that.
Reality screamed as my form blurred.
[Phase Step]!
In a flash of black-and-white static, I appeared right in his face, bypassing the space between us.
My hand, glowing with a nasty aura, was already driving forward in a vicious palm strike aimed at his smug face.
BAM!
My hand stopped.
Again.
A single, impossible millimeter from his face, held in place by that same untouchable wall of distorted space.
"Impressive speed," he said, his smile widening into a triumphant grin. "But you still don’t understand, do you? The infinity is not in front of me. The infinity is me. You cannot touch me."
With a casual, almost lazy backhand, he sent a wave of invisible force that slammed into me like a freight train.
HGH! CRACK!
I was launched backward, tumbling through the air before crashing into the side of a ruined building.
The stone groaned under the impact.
I slid down the wall, landing perfectly on my feet, keeping my expression cold and unchanged.
I wiped a trickle of blood from my lip.
"...Noted."
Behind me, the amethyst eye of my shadow titan flared.
It surged forward, a silent, gliding mountain of pure void, its tendrils lashing out.
But even they stopped, writhing and hissing as they were held inches from Kazuki’s body.
"Even a shadow born of the Master’s void is bound by the laws of space," he sighed dramatically. "This is getting tiresome."
He looked at me, a flicker of genuine interest in his eyes for the first time.
"But... that swapping ability, and this shadow... you are no ordinary error. Perhaps erasure is a waste."
He lowered his hands, the pressure of his ability easing up a bit.
"Let us talk, Slayer-san," he said. "A truce."
A dialogue phase?
In the middle of a boss fight?
What’s his angle?
"My name was Isoka Kazuki," he began, his tone shifting from arrogant enemy to something that sounded almost like a mentor. "Like you, I was not of this world. I was from a place called Japan, on a world called Earth. I too was a Host, granted a System. I rose, became a king in my own right."
He gestured to the apocalyptic ruins all around us.
"And then Vex-sama came. He was not a conqueror. He was a force of nature. A reality update. My world, my power... it was nothing. I was given a choice, the same one I now offer you: join the new order, or be deleted as an obsolete file."
Kazuki took a step forward, his voice turning persuasive, almost friendly.
"I chose power, Quinn-san. And I was rewarded. Vex-sama gave me this entire kingdom to govern in his name. Look around! This is all mine! A reward for understanding my place in the new reality."
He extended a hand, a genuine offer in his electric-blue eyes.
"Join us. Your power is unique. Vex-sama rewards strength and punishes defiance. Together, we could be his two most favored sons! Imagine it! A kingdom for you, a kingdom for me! We could conquer countless worlds in his name! Why are you fighting for the memories of a dead world?
For a broken, useless girl?"
Logically... he was right.
The Slayer protocol is designed for this.
Survival.
Power acquisition.
This is the most efficient path forward...
"Forget her," Kazuki pressed, seeing the flicker of cold logic in my eyes. "She was nothing. A catalyst. A stepping stone that Vex-sama used to unlock your true potential. He gave you a gift by removing her weakness from you."
And those were the words that broke the world.
The cold, logical programming of the Slayer shattered.
The carefully constructed walls of ice around my heart didn’t just crack; they exploded.
My vision flooded with red.
I wasn’t in the plaza anymore.
I was back in that dark tunnel, watching them carry her away.
I heard the sickening CRUNCH of her bones.
I saw the hatred and betrayal in her amethyst eyes.
Stay away from me...
I’m done dying for you...
The grief wasn’t a memory.
It was a physical, tearing agony, a wound that had never stopped bleeding.
<ERROR! ERROR! CATASTROPHIC EMOTIONAL FEEDBACK DETECTED!>
<FLAW: PAIN EATER... PROTOCOL OVERLOAD!>
<INTERPRETING PSYCHIC TRAUMA AS LETHAL PHYSICAL DAMAGE...>
<FORCE-ACTIVATING BERSERKER PROTOCOL... UNLEASHING ALL LIMITERS!>
My voice was no longer flat, but a low, guttural growl.
"...You... should not... have said her name."
BOOM!
A pillar of raw, crimson energy erupted from me, blasting skyward and scattering the clouds.
The ground cracked beneath my feet.
My eyes, once cold and silver, now blazed with the furious, heartbroken amethyst of the ghost in my machine.
I wasn’t a Slayer anymore.
I was an avenger.
"IMPOSSIBLE!" Kazuki yelled, stumbling back, his smug composure completely gone, replaced by pure shock. "This presence... this raw despair! This isn’t just a System’s power! This is the rage of a broken soul!"
I didn’t answer.
My mind, supercharged by a pain so profound it was rewriting my own code, saw the solution.
The one, perfect flaw in an absolute defense.
Infinity stops what approaches.
It fills the space between.
But an attack doesn’t have to TRAVEL through that space...
IF IT’S ALREADY THERE!
I lunged.
[Phase Step]!
I vanished and reappeared, a blur of crimson light, creating after-images that flickered around the plaza, disorienting him.
"Useless theatrics!" Kazuki snarled, trying to reform his barrier.
I appeared right in front of him, a fake-out, my fist cocked back.
But my blazing eyes were locked onto a tiny, insignificant pebble lying on the ground behind him.
My voice was a serrated whisper.
"[SWAP]!"
I wasn’t targeting Kazuki.
I was targeting the space inside Kazuki.
His eyes widened in dawning horror as he felt a catastrophic spatial distortion rip through his own body from the inside out.
"HE’S TARGETING THE COORDINATES THEMSELVES?! NO—"
CRACK!
The tiny pebble materialized where his heart should be.
Blood erupted from his mouth.
His absolute defense, bypassed from within, flickered and died like a cheap lightbulb.
He was vulnerable.
He looked up, his blue eyes filled with disbelief, just in time to see my shadow titan, no longer held back, surging over him.
Tendrils of pure void pierced his body from every direction.
"So this... is the power of a broken heart..." he whispered, a final, choked sound that was a strange mix of terror and professional respect. "Heh... Vex-sama... you found... a fascinating... error..."
The Shadow’s maw opened, and with a final, sickening SQUELCH, it consumed him.
A shockwave of dark energy leveled the rest of the plaza.
I stood in the center of the crater, panting, the crimson aura slowly fading, leaving me cold and empty once more.
The hunt was over.
For now.