Nati

"Try to resist this!"

With the third rune finished, I couldn't justify delaying the spell any longer. It didn't help that the two deities jumped at each other's throats, threatening to destroy us. We also fought the monster hordes, but I had the means to end this.

My cherry staff pointed at Addas, the dragon plushie in my hands, I called on the crystal to fire the binding spell. I had everything ready this time. The Princess whispered his true name earlier. I charged the restricting runes with the orcs, the last thing to do was the Seal.

Addas faced me head-on, but his grin turned into a frown when the magicules connected with him. Last time it happened too fast and sudden for me to comprehend what I did. But this god was way more powerful than the Crantan goddess I dragged out from Elizabeth's mind.

He resisted, but I prepared for that, using all my remaining mana to grab him by the magical strands. They connected him to his followers but I yanked his essence out of the current shell with them. It was only possible thanks to his arrogance.

As part of his ritual, he fed us the magicules and power of countless creatures. He wanted a challenge and now he got it. He shouted as reality bent around his body. It looked like a pebble thrown into a still lake, and the waves distorting the reflections.

"Impossible!" Time was already elusive inside the dungeon. But relative to our surroundings, it seemed to slow down, almost stop. I couldn't move my body as fast as my mind worked. It was like looking at high-speed footage but still bound to the limitations of reality.

My thoughts changed faster than light though. I tried to speak but my lips parted too slow, my tongue couldn't follow either, and no voice came out. My hands moved at a snail's pace, and my vision blurred when I glanced left and right.

The crystal had plenty of time to explain this phenomenon as a relativistic delay. I heard about something similar in the other world. Scientists theorized how black holes slowed down the flow of time. But here the gravity of the tremendous amount of mana caused it.

When I cast a black hole, that didn't cause such a thing. But that was outside the dungeon, and the effect was still terrifying. I tried to hold back since especially because I passed out for a day after that spell. I realized this was the first time I let loose, but I faced a god, which justified it.

If nothing else, this allowed me to take a good look at the battlefield while my spell activated. I didn't even think about how extraordinary this phenomenon could be. But Fenna's magic stone pointed it out. Only gods could gather enough mana and fire them off to cause this.

In my case, it had to be the dungeon's thick air amplifying all the magic. I wiped out a bunch of monsters when I lost my patience and struck at Gadurien. It felt so distant, though it happened seconds ago. She seemed upset about it but also surprised.

Both about my sudden attack and because of my second spell. Did she experience the same slowdown? What about Addas? Their expressions remained unchanged. Was I the only one who saw the world as a still image? Was it a fleeting moment for the rest of them?

Or was it because their bodies also couldn't follow their thoughts like mine? The monsters almost froze in place in the middle of their assault. There were so many types, I couldn't count. All attacked us without a hope of landing a hit. They had no self-preserving instincts.

Emi enjoyed herself, scaring me a little. She was the more violent and boyish one. She jumped on any opportunity to play shooters or fighting games with or against me. No matter how often I told her this was real life, and that she should be careful.

She rushed in head first and acted the same as if we were playing an MMORPG. She chose a tank, and I had to keep her alive. I gained the power to do so now but was busy elsewhere. All my concentration culminated in this spell that slowed down time itself.

Most of my companions didn't even realize, that I released it. Or if they did, they were too preoccupied to show signs of it. Ember was about to cast another firestorm to clear our flanks, the first flame appearing on the tip of her staff. Those too froze in place.

They moved at a thousandth of their normal speed. Omerta exhausted herself with the runes, but her guidance was instrumental. Who knew, that using the same protective spell they put on my armor could even stop a rampaging god? Or at least I hoped it would.

But I had to wait a bit longer to see the results. Not even a second passed since I released the Seal, but it felt like minutes already. It wasn't all my mana, though I put as much into it as Gitaut. The shaman had impressive reserves, he was more powerful than I thought.

I remained skeptical when they told me he was the strongest in the Magic Academy's only beast class. He was this awkward emo kid who looked like a cheap knockoff of The Prince of Darkness. But since I learned that Gitaut was strong enough to claim that title.

Looks could be deceiving, I had to learn this over and over in this world. The monsters became my friends, while humans tried to destroy everything dear to me. Of course, I couldn't generalize like that. There were evil monsters and good humans too.

The Princess changed a lot since the first time we met and I was curious what she has been through in the one month since. The arrogant tsundere was gone, and a selfless, strong, and humbled girl took her place. Was it the result of Gadurien's possession, or their journey?

She still looked the same, and the curling purple hair flew around her face as she threw herself into the battle. The Crantan goddess fought too, taking on the Dragon God, but they weren't on the same level. Even as he faced my tremendous spell, he deflected her attack.

And while I managed to seal her into a cat plushie, she was still stronger than the rest of us. I don't know what took over me when I attacked her. But she didn't care about dragging us down with herself while fighting the other deity. The Princess told me too.

She looked at everyone as tools. The same as Addas, and would destroy everything unless we stopped them both. Cath kept an eye on her, the petite knight landed a devastating blow as time slowed. The green blood of the strange monster she struck floated in the air.

Apart from the goddess, they fought for survival, regardless of race or motivation. Even Aoi, the Saipole princess. She reminded me of the purple-haired one from a month ago, except she had some skill to back up her arrogance. I don't know how strong she was before the ritual.

Now she matched Ember's or Omerta's strength, and the witches were no weaklings. Her main task now was to keep the minotaurs at bay, while protecting our frontline fighters. All my companions were beautiful women, except the orc shaman, fighting like amazons.

Were this a harem story, I would have been the luckiest guy on Earth or this continent. But one tiny detail ruined this image for me since I was in a female's body too. And it was gorgeous. What was the Goddess up to now? How long we've been here?

And how long until my spell reaches the Dragon God at last? I felt like ten minutes had passed, or even more, and I started to get bored. Could Addas feel the same? His expression was still that of surprise. He faced the near-invisible beam heading towards him.

Then it reached his body and things sped up, returning to normal. Only it didn't feel normal after spending all this time observing an almost still image. Now it looked like someone sped up the footage around me.

I couldn't keep up. The beam hit him causing a bright flash. I could see the threads of reality unravel around him, and his now-empty shell collapsed on the ground. The plush toy came to life at the same time. I got him as expected, but he wasn't about to give up.

"You'll regret this!" He warned me, but nothing happened. The Dragon God became a Dragon Toy. While his stuffed face was expressive, the show of his superiority didn't appear. "How did you seal away that spell?"

"Which spell?" I raised an eyebrow, turning the plushie around. The battle didn't stop around us, the monsters worked hard to get themselves massacred. I could tell Addas struggled with something, but he kept failing. We put an insane amount of mana into those runes.

"It worked?" Omerta was out of breath, but her satisfied and tired smile revealed her tiny tusks. I wouldn't have realized if she hadn't said it, but I wasn't tired. "If he couldn't attack you so far, it did. Oh boy, I'm about to collapse. Give me some easy targets."

If anything, I was almost bursting with energy. I did take down an actual god after all. Even if only a part of his soul and mana escaped and found its way to me and the dungeon core. That would explain this surge of energy swirling inside me. But he had plenty more to fight us with.

"What a peculiar rune. So it can block more mana than it took to make because it's selective with the spells." Addas analyzed his new situation, glancing up at me with his button eyes. "So that's why you could cut off some of my magic, but not everything."

A light flashed over his fluffy shell, and the toy's weight increased a hundredfold. It fell off my hands, and he kicked me in my leg. He would have broken it if I weren't in the Goddess' body, but it still hurt.

"If I can cast spells that the rune doesn't recognize as malicious, I can still defeat you." The Dragon Plush told us, spreading its fluffy wings. "I can resurrect all the monsters at once, and have them attack you. The gloves are off now, Black Cat. I will be serious, fighting you now."

His spell proved, he still had tremendous strength, and the corpses around us walked again. The minotaurs adjusted their formation and prepared for an assault too. The stuffed animal became invincible, thanks to his strengthening magic.

But if the monsters were all made of mana, and he could reassemble them, it could be possible to disrupt it all the same. And with the amount of magicules I prepared to release, time would slow down enough so I didn't need to hurry either.