I'm the Only One With a Different Genre - Chapter 186

Chapter 186
The Arrival of the True Power

The current battle, which could be given the grand name of ‘A Fight of Powers,’ was, in truth, a battle that should neither exist nor be possible.

A fight between ‘that being,’ who could render the Gag Residents powerless and even suppress their abilities merely by revealing a part of their existence, and Lian, whose ‘gag power’ had weakened significantly after his soul was forcibly torn from his body, was an impossible fight.

It was no different from a fight between an ant and a nuclear bomb. The idea of discussing victory itself was absurd.

Clang—!

That obvious truth was shattered with a sharp sound. The power that had been deflected by Lian’s wooden sword shot high into the sky and disappeared from sight.

“Huff, huff… Seriously… You don’t stop… Huff… attacking… Huff!”

Whether it was because his body had changed, or if his feeling that his power had grown stronger was just an illusion, Lian’s breath was caught in his throat, and a bitter taste rose in the back of his mouth.

‘At this point, shouldn’t you give up already?!’

Lian cried internally as he kept moving, not stopping to escape the persistent gaze that followed him. He had been running for over an hour without rest, and his body felt like it was about to collapse.

“I’ll keep running, so you—”

“Huff, huff… No… I can’t…”

It wasn’t because of pride or anything like that. Honestly, Lian was filled with the desire to just collapse onto Jess’s back and let her carry him. But the reason he couldn’t was because of ‘speed.’

Even though he was exhausted, Lian’s legs were still moving fast enough that they were nearly invisible, allowing him to move at an insane speed.

If the Outsider hadn’t deliberately caused them to circle around inside the Demon King’s Castle, they would have escaped long ago.

‘If I slow down even a bit, a barrage of attacks will rain down.’

Even now, attacks were falling relentlessly, but because he was moving so fast, there was a slight delay, and the attacks would land just behind where Lian had passed. If his speed dropped even a little, dozens of attacks would fall on his head like spiked chestnuts.

For that reason, Lian couldn’t switch places with Jess, even though he desperately wanted to. As he silently shed tears inside, steadily moving forward—

Boom!

The path they were trying to take was suddenly bombarded by the Outsider’s attack. Like a nimble cat, Lian twisted his body and dodged the attack, moving into an intact corridor.

‘At this rate, we’ll never make it. I need to think of a way to escape.’

Just as he was about to fall into deep thought, panting heavily, a stone that hadn’t been there a moment ago suddenly appeared and blocked his foot.

Thunk!

“Huh?!”

His foot caught on the stone, and his body lurched forward. Jess immediately reached out and pulled Lian’s head into her embrace. The soft, warm sensation he had nearly forgotten during the long marathon wrapped around his head, causing his mind to blur.

“Ugh…?”

When he came to, he found himself lying on a soft cushion that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Jess, half-hugging him like a dog protecting its owner, was scanning their surroundings with alert eyes.

Just as Lian was about to say, “I’m fine,” to reassure Jess, whose fur was standing on end—

Rumble…!!

A deafening noise, like thunder on a stormy day, echoed through the air. Jess flinched and pressed her sensitive ears with both hands. Her eyes, scrunched in discomfort, turned toward the dark sky beyond the collapsed ceiling of the Demon King’s Castle, which had been destroyed by the Outsider’s attack.

Lian’s gaze followed hers. The sky, filled with ominous black clouds, was swirling toward a single point, as though something terrible was about to happen.

The atmosphere was so eerie, it felt like a demon that had been sealed away was about to be summoned. Lian’s body trembled uncontrollably as a real sense of fear, something he had rarely experienced before, began to creep in.

‘I need to… I need to run away from here right now.’

A groundless, overwhelming fear gripped him, like the feeling of seeing the god of the Gag World squinting with a mischievous grin before pulling a cruel prank. Alarms blared in his mind.

“Je-Jess, we need to get out of here—”

Before Lian could even finish his sentence—

Rumble!

The black clouds began to move faster than before. As tension filled the air, as if something terrifying was about to appear, the center of the swirling clouds began to crack open with a loud tearing sound.

Pop!

“Pop?”

Jess tilted her head in confusion at the unexpectedly cute sound effect. Lian’s face, however, turned deathly pale.

“It’s… coming…”

“Master?”

“No… This is a disaster…”

Lian stared blankly at the being that appeared with a bright white light, completely out of place among the black clouds. A maid outfit, cat ears, a crescent-shaped smile, and a magic wand so flashy it hurt to look at.

Ba-ba-bam!

The moment the god of the Gag World fully revealed themselves, a lively tune, the source of which was unknown, began to play. The goddess of the Gag World struck a bizarre pose and shouted.

“From somewhere—”

[The dialogue here is omitted due to copyright issues.]

With a magical girl pose straight out of an anime, the goddess swung her magic wand.

Ting!

With another cute sound effect—

“Nyaa~!”

As soon as she finished her inexplicable phrase, thunder roared in the background. Lightning flashed like crazy behind the goddess, announcing her arrival.

‘So that’s why the Outsider suddenly got weaker… It’s because a disaster has arrived!’

Lian had every reason to react so strongly. The difference between the goddess when she stayed in the Celestial Realm and when she descended to the mortal world was like night and day.

In the Celestial Realm, the goddess was an eccentric otaku with an unpredictable personality, but when she descended to the mortal world, she was the ‘Manifestation of Gag.’

All the ‘gag-like events’ Lian had experienced so far felt like mere pranks compared to the ‘disasters’ that would now unfold.

Works that were ahead of their time, incomprehensible and bizarre gags.

Even the Gag Residents themselves would shudder at the things that happened around the goddess, as naturally as breathing. Having been caught up in the goddess’s gags a few times before, Lian immediately sprang to his feet and scooped Jess up in a princess carry.

“Hyah?!”

Jess let out a cute sound, her ears and tail stiffening like a broken machine. Her hands reflexively grabbed onto Lian’s shirt as she dangled from him.

‘Run, I have to run! As far away from that disaster as possible!’

Lian’s mind was filled with only one word: ‘escape.’ He had no time to enjoy Jess’s stiff yet adorable reaction.

Thud-thud-thud!

Without looking back, Lian began to run.

“Nyaa-ha! Now it’s your turn, nya!”

Behind him, the voice of the Gag God, addressing the Outsider, rang out. For a brief moment, Lian wondered, ‘Who would win if those two fought? What if the Gag God loses?’ But he quickly erased the thought.

A shrimp caught in a whale fight had no business thinking about such things.

***

The goddess, who had been striking a grand pose while staring at the Outsider, suddenly placed her hands on her hips and spoke.

“If your opponent made a grand entrance and even introduced themselves, shouldn’t you be polite and introduce yourself too?”

The Outsider, who had been about to say something in disbelief, suddenly became alert. His level was so high that he had become akin to ‘nature,’ and his form had changed accordingly. As such, he didn’t feel emotions like ‘disbelief,’ nor did he communicate using ‘sound.’

It wasn’t that he was incapable of emotions, but finding anger in a storm was a similar concept. He also didn’t need to lower himself to communicate with ‘sound’; he could simply convey his thoughts through will.

Yet now, he found himself speaking aloud and experiencing clear, vivid emotions, as if his level had been forcibly lowered. For this to happen, the goddess before him would have to be an equal or even stronger god than himself.

‘…A being of this level succeeded in descending without any sacrifices or costs?’

Typically, Outsiders who crossed dimensions to devour a dark fantasy world only sent a portion of their true form, never fully descending.

This was partly because the world couldn’t withstand their full level, and partly because the dimensional gap was too narrow. To fully descend, an immense number of sacrifices and a vast amount of preparation were required.

In preparing such sacrifices, Outsiders would inevitably draw the attention of other Outsiders by slaughtering countless living beings. Though they could try to kill them little by little in secret— the number of sacrifices needed for a full descent was easily in the millions. It was nearly impossible to kill that many without being noticed by other Outsiders.

Even if they somehow managed to gather the necessary sacrifices, there was still a problem. Using such a large amount of causality at once would inevitably affect the true body that resided beyond the dimensional rift.

Even if a part of their true body or an avatar was here, the real body existed beyond the dimension, and using too much causality would make them noticeable.

In conclusion, secretly preparing for a ‘descent’ was impossible. For even ‘that being,’ who had the highest level and the most sensitive senses in the current world, to be unaware of this was unthinkable.

‘How in the world…?’

End of Chapter