Sao-sama...?! What are those emblems on your chest...?!"
"Pyro Stigma".
"Ah Stigma."
"Air Stigma".
Even Tamagushi's eyes were glued to my chest, where the three crests shone brightly.
"You had already obtained two crests before even being recognized by the wind spirit?! I didn't hear anything about it!? Why didn't you tell me?"
"Is there really no need to say that?"
Besides, I thought Tamagushi would already know without me having to tell him.
She always acts like a mysterious woman, so I thought she was a woman who knew everything, but that wasn't the case.
It seems he only knew what he knew.
"In that case, you should have just confronted Gangastora without having to go to the trouble of rescuing the wind spirit! If you had even one spirit crest, those humanoids would have been no match for you!"
You stopped it from the beginning, so why now?
However, that was her plan to defeat the Third Prince.
He rescues the imprisoned wind spirit, receives a crest in return, and then plans to use that power to defeat the third prince?
That's exactly what happened, so you could say her plan is going smoothly, but it feels like a waste of time because she didn't know that I had received the crest from another spirit in the first place.
I've never really thought about it before, but it seems the power you can obtain from a spirit crest is incredible.
I thought it was just a favorite mark.
Well, it's not that I have no idea.
Once, I myself used the power of "Pyro Stigma" to create flames and shouted "Go ahead and kill me!"
Its power is so great that it can easily blow away any skills bestowed upon humans.
I've only just realized that.
The third prince's boastworthy molecular disintegration attack was nothing but a fart. His face was drenched in sweat.
"These are... the crests of the spirits sung in legend... If you inscribe them all on yourself, you will become the king who rules the world...?!"
Didn't you say that earlier?
"King of the world? You think you captured the wind spirit because you wanted to become something like that?"
"Of course! I have the world's greatest power, the world's greatest military force, and the world's greatest strength! That is why I am worthy of ruling this world!"
Here it is, the mysterious theory unique to the Niosebuku people.
"That is why, just as the legend says, I will carve all the spirit crests into my body! The wind spirit will begin anew! Furthermore, I will subjugate all the spirits of earth, water, fire, light and darkness! As proof of this, I will have them offer me their crests! Armed with the power of all the spirits, I will become the strongest king in the world and reign forever! Guhahahahahahaha!!"
"You failed at the first step."
The wind spirit has fled.
When I pointed that out to him, the third prince choked up.
The irony is clearly effective.
"It's all your fault! You destroyed the Material Jail that we, the Niosebuku Kingdom, created! What grudge did you have that led you to commit such a heinous act!?"
"You guys are full of resentment."
Don't tell me you don't remember.
Realize a little of your own guilt.
"He was probably seduced by Tamagushi. If that was all, I could have laughed at him for being a fool who was seduced by beauty... but when I saw the shining crest on his chest, it was no laughing matter."
oh.
The third prince's expression suddenly became serious.
He had the look of a cautious criminal who would nip any danger in the bud, no matter how small.
"You have three spirit crests shining on your chest... Of the six spirits in all, earth, water, fire, wind, light and darkness, that means you have already been recognized by half of them. That is unforgivable."
"What?"
What is not allowed?
"I will be the one to obtain all the spirit crests. And just as the legends have handed down, I will become the king of the world. That is why no one else should be able to collect all the crests except me!!"
"I don't intend to become the king of the world or anything."
Even the spirit crests were given to me without me asking, by spirits I happened to encounter wherever I went.
No one wants to be a king, a position that comes with a lot of responsibility.
Being the Harem King will be enough for me.
"Of course. It is the height of presumptuousness for someone like you to wish to become king. However, if by some fickle stroke of the heavens there is even a one percent chance that you will become king, then you must die. In order to ensure that I will become king in the future, there must be no one to collect all of the spirit crests before me!!"
How selfish.
"There is no future in which you will become king. Even if the world were to collapse 70,000 times and a new world were to be reborn each time, a ridiculous world in which you become king will never be born even once."
Every time, I'll stop it.
"I didn't tell you why I came here. It's to kill you. The Niosebuku Kingdom is causing trouble to the whole world. I will wipe it out and completely destroy it so that it will never cause trouble to anyone again."
"You idiot! Stop spouting nonsense!"
Wow, I was completely denied.
"You're saying it's a nuisance?! So what?! It's the natural right of the strong to oppress the weak! The powerful can do whatever they want with the powerless! They can kill them! Toy with them! Make them wail! That's the law of the world! Power is justice! If there is evil in this world, then being born without power is evil itself!!"
"..."
I decided to stay quiet and not stop this idiot's speech.
The best thing to do with people like this is to just watch and wait until they've gotten everything out of their system.
"It's the law of the jungle! I am simply doing what I must do in this law! By devouring the weak, I will gain greater power and rise to the top of the world! You fool who turns a blind eye to this truth and is misled by emotions such as love! I will deal the hammer of justice to you! And die!!"
"Survival of the fittest, I see..."
It seems like he's run out of words in his limited vocabulary, so I'll say it this time.
"So here's a question for you: can a rabbit kill a lion?"
"teeth?"
For a moment, the third prince seemed taken aback.
"What are you talking about? A hare cannot kill a lion. Have you got the question wrong? Isn't it the other way around?"
"Really? Well then you're right, a rabbit can kill a lion."
Everyone will think that's stupid.
Lions live by eating rabbits. That's why lions are much bigger and stronger than rabbits. They also have weapons that rabbits don't have, like claws and fangs.
Therefore, there is no way that a rabbit can defeat a lion in a head-on fight.
But rabbits have their own weapons.
They have strong legs that allow them to run at the speed of the wind, and their long ears instantly alert them to approaching danger, and they also have a keen sense of smell.
If used properly, its small body can also be used as a weapon, as it can slip into small holes that a lion's massive frame cannot reach.
And above all, the rabbit has an advantage over the lion.
A lion cannot survive without killing and eating rabbits.
Conversely, rabbits can survive without lions. In fact, they would be happier if they had no natural predators to target them.
The strong cannot live without the weak, but the weak can live without the strong.
When you realize this truth, you feel even more strongly the foolishness of phrases like "survival of the fittest."
If the weak continue to use all their weapons, such as their agility and keen senses, to escape from the strong, the strong will run out of food. They will no longer be able to consume what they need to survive.
the result....
"...A rabbit can kill a lion in the most brutal way possible - by starving to death. Your claim of great strength is nothing more than that."
"That's a fallacy! The strong are not limited by anyone!"
The third prince is furious!
"Sure, there are some weaklings who get away with being sneaky, but there are tons of weaklings out there! So many that you can sweep them all away! If there are weaklings running away from you, then just grab the other weaklings and take them away! The strong are special! So you should take them from everyone!"
"That's the only way they can take things, that's the weak point of the strong."
They cannot create anything themselves, but can only be given what someone else has created.
Even if you try to cover it up with fancy words like "taking it away," the true meaning is that someone "gives it to you."
A true weakling who cannot survive without someone to give to him; that is the true nature of the so-called strong people the Third Prince spoke of.
"...Okay, so I've decided on the theme for my fight with you."
In fact, there are times when I think they should just fight already.
"I said I'm going to kill you earlier, but I won't."
"?"
"I won't kill you. I'll leave you untouched."
"What do you mean...?"
The third prince tilted his head, perhaps thinking that I was about to say something witty.
"There's no need to kill you. Right now, an endless supply of things is being given to you in order to keep you, the idiot that you are, alive. I say stop that."
"What nonsense are you talking about...?! Ah, never mind. There's no point in even talking to scum like you!"
The third prince finally let murderous intent form in his eyes and raised his fist.
"I will kill you! That was the plan from the beginning! You pebble that stands in the way of my path to domination! Now atone for your sins and be crushed to pieces!!"
He says some bold things and tries to slam his fist into me.
What a stupid prince. I just proved that the "Molecular Disintegration" skill doesn't work on me.
Even if I get hit by it again, it will be easy to shut it out again with the power of the earth spirit.
However, this time I decided not to allow it to even attack.
"Whoooaa?!"
The third prince attacked me.
Before that could happen, however, he stumbled and took a spectacular tumble to the ground.
There was a heavy, squelching sound.
"Gubeh?! Pepepepepepepepepe?! What is this?!"
He spits out the mud that got into his mouth when he fell and lets out a confused yell.
The area around the third prince's feet had turned into a mud puddle.
A muddy swamp where your feet sink and become muddy.
"That is also the power of the spirit of the earth. It has made the ground beneath your feet more viscous, turning it into mud. Your feet will be so muddy you won't be able to stand still, will you?"
A powerful punch uses the recoil from stepping deep into the ground, doubling its momentum.
The saying, "Boxing is a martial art where you kick the ground," is a kind of proof of this.
Once the ground turns into mud and becomes soft and semi-liquid, your feet will sink forever and there will be no rebound.
His skill, Molecular Disintegration, seems to involve channeling the power of the skill into his fist and slamming it down along with the punch.
In other words, in the current situation where punches can no longer be thrown due to the mud...
"Your skills have been sealed."
"Gunoooooooo...!?"
The third prince had already sunk into the mud up to his knees.
That big, useless body would have a lot of weight. If you act carelessly, you'll just sink deeper into the mud.
"It seems like a fitting end for someone who is arrogant with his power and can only act violently."
"Hehehe... laughable! You think that's enough to stop my strongest skill? That annoying mud... this is what I'll do to you!!"
The Third Prince, his fist that contained absolute destruction, thrust it not at me, but at the ground at my feet.
This caused the ground around him to glow brightly for a moment, and then in the next moment it dissipated into a huge cloud of dust.
"Guhahahahaha!! How's that!!"
And the third prince stood on the lowered, crater-like ground.
"You can see what I mean with just one glance! I wiped out the entire muddy ground that was turned to mud by my skill "Molecular Disintegration"! Underhanded tactics are nothing compared to my overwhelming pure power!"
The bottom of the wiped out mud still retains its firm foundations.
With that, you'll be able to step in fully and deliver punches with plenty of hip power.
but....
"Huh...?!"
"How stupid. If the muddy ground is blown away, all we need to do is turn the ground underneath into mud even more."
Since we're harnessing the power of nature, we can continue this forever, right?
The ground turns to mud, then blows away, turns to mud, blows away, turns to mud, blows away...
Maybe we could repeat that and reach the mantle?
"This is your biggest foolishness. All humans live standing on the earth. We step on the ground, walk, run... that's how we live."
Anyone who doesn't understand this and thinks they are living alone is an idiot.
Like this guy in front of me right now, he'll just keep falling forever.
"We are alive because of the earth we stand on... You will come to understand that. But you still have a long way to go. I will make you understand many more basic things."