Bonus Short Story

Lord☆of☆Air

Pisces the Fish, one of the Conquering Twelve Heavenly Stars, was a child of divinity whose original name was Eros. Though he was called a child of divinity, he was not born of Alovenus’s womb. He was simply a magic spell with a will made by her, which was why he called himself her child. Others may then think, Then, wouldn’t all the devilfolk also be her children? But that mustn’t be said out loud. Everybody wants to be thought of as special, after all.

Eros was a prototype for the ouroboroses, who would become the arbitrators of the world, and he was originally in line to be given the role of ruler over nature on Mizgarz. However, Eros turned out to be rather wild and unruly, hating being tied down by others, and he abandoned the position granted to him to escape into the ocean. After that, he did as he pleased, creating his own underwater kingdom and making beautiful women wait upon him. He spent every day drinking and enjoying music, basically enjoying his life to the fullest.

I am the child of the Goddess. That makes me greater than everyone else in the world, which allows me to do anything I like. He believed this from the bottom of his heart, and he gradually warped into the picture of a terrible person.

He eventually entered the Conquering Twelve Heavenly Stars because Lufas had started to take her conquering game to a serious level. At the time, he’d gotten quite full of himself, and he truly believed that he was the strongest and best in the world.

If he had just thought about it for a moment, there was no way he should have been so full of confidence in this unprecedentedly chaotic age of Mizgarz’s history with so many level 1000s all over the place, such as the Devil King, the ouroboroses, the Dragon King, the Lion King, the Vampire Princess, the Seven Heroes, the Fairy Princess, or any of the other Twelve Heavenly Stars. However, just as his presenting himself as the child of the Goddess of Creation implied, he’d inherited all her strangest traits. In other words, he was a big enough idiot to make any trained medical professional simply throw their hands up into the air and give up. So, when he went up to the surface to try and conquer those whom he considered fools and were too full of themselves, his words came flying right back at him.

The result was obvious. However, summarizing it in one line would be too sad, so a cut-down version of the battle scene is as follows:

“Activating a skill that unlocks at level 1000: Hamal! This will kill the enemy!”

Aries attacks! Eros takes 99999 damage!

“Nwaarrgghh!”

“Using the sure-hit, unavoidable, unblockable skill Brachium to kill the enemy!”

Libra attacks! Eros takes 99999 damage!

“Gyaaarrgghh!”

“Take this: Deneb Algedi, a unique skill that won’t allow healing! You’re dead!”

Aigokeros attacks! Eros takes 50000 damage! Eros has become unable to heal!

“I’ll kill you with this permanent, untreatable poison skill: Shaula!”

Scorpius attacks! Eros is now poisoned permanently!

“Using Argonautai to summon a horde of heroic spirits! They’ll take care of the enemy!”

Heroic spirit attacks! Heroic spirit attacks! Heroic spirit attacks! War is all about numbers!

“Argghhhh!”

“A normal punch from someone who’s broken the level limit and is level 4200! Die!”

Lufas attacks! Eros takes 999999999 damage!

“Gffwoooaarrrgghh!”

Please stop already! Eros has 0 HP!

Anyway, that was how it went. It was a fairly terrible showing.

Without any room to shine, Eros was beaten up handily, completely overkilled, and then captured on top of that. There was no great backdrop or deep lore behind Pisces the Fish’s joining; he simply picked a fight with Lufas and was beaten up for it before being captured. However, this was par for the course. Of course something like this would happen if someone picked a fight with Lufas when her forces were well rounded. Given the circumstances, it was probably also only natural that he received less love and attention from Lufas compared to, say, Aries.

So Eros, having been captured, was given one of the empty seats of the Twelve Stars, as it turned out that he was actually quite capable, and he pledged loyalty to Lufas. This loyalty was something unthinkable for Pisces as he had been previously, but he himself had no qualms about it. In the end, he’d fallen in love with her looks, as well as the sheer scale of her existence, as she was able to trample all over divine providence to break the level limit. She’s stolen something unprecedented—not only my land but my heart as well.

However, while it was great that Eros—or rather, Pisces—had joined the Twelve Stars, he had no time to shine, unfortunately. If he’d at least joined during Lufas’s adventuring days, then he could have swept the battlefield. Now that she’d already become a conquering ruler, however, he’d have almost no room to take the stage, even if he joined a battle. As a result, his presence in the group became ever thinner, and Lufas was sealed before he could ever try to improve his standing.

Still, Pisces had a prediction.

I know Lufas will come back, and when that happens, that will be when I will finally shine in her eyes! I have the ability. In fact, I know I’m stronger than the likes of Aries. I am an all-rounder who can fight both physically and magically, and I also have a powerful unique ability. On top of all that, she’ll also receive this entire underwater kingdom since I’m aligned with her.

There was no way Lufas wouldn’t want what Pisces had to offer, so once she had been revived, he expected himself to be the first one whom Lufas came for.

My springtime has come. Two hundred years ago, I was as air, but I will be the next protagonist. Pisces fervently believed this. He had not yet come to know that he would also be left for the endgame two hundred years later, and he would once again be as air.