[Lord of the Lands Between]: Incidentally, the one standing before you is My daughter.
[Lord of the Lands Between]: Her name is Ranni. She was born of Me and... mm, the woman you just saw holding the Amber Egg.
[Moon Princess]: ?
[Queen of Britain]: ?
[Many-Headed Monster] (Admin): ?
The moment Marika said that, the chat group exploded into question marks.
[Moon Princess]: Oh my, that is genuinely moving~ I always say love isn't limited by age — and apparently it isn't limited by gender either!
[Moon Princess]: Lady Marika, do tell — your story sounds far more interesting than this young man's livestream. So little one, you're on your own, good luck~
[Spreading Witch Factor (Temp Account)]: ?
...What did she mean by that?
[Lord of the Lands Between]: @Spreading Witch Factor (Temp Account) Do not be alarmed. From what I can observe of the scene, the Ranni before you is merely an avatar — a puppet. Defeating her should not be difficult.
[Lord of the Lands Between]: Though I do not understand why the Great Witch chose not to come herself — the [Boundary Breaking Talisman] should have no restrictions on its user... But it doesn't matter. Since she trusts her child, I will place this responsibility in your hands as well.
[Lord of the Lands Between]: What I would ask of you next is to locate her true body, and livestream her situation to Me. That will count as a fulfilling part of the commission I made to your mother.
Oh, it's just an avatar. No problem then.
Made sense, really — Ranni's true body needed to stay hidden in her tower at Caria Manor, evading the assassins dispatched by the Two Fingers.
Even now, during the Shattering, Ranni's circumstances should be more or less the same as when the game's main story began.
As for Marika's question about why the Great Witch hadn't come along —
Shin wanted to know that too, honestly. He had actually asked before setting out. The Great Witch's answer was that she was busy with something urgent and couldn't get away.
But Shin was absolutely certain there was no urgent business whatsoever.
Because when he and Meruru had been kids, they'd begged the Great Witch more than once to take them off Witch Island for a day out — only to be turned down with the exact same excuse, after which she'd spent the entire day sprawled out on the couch.
Come to think of it, it was a bit strange. Ever since Shin could remember — ever since his rebirth — the Great Witch seemed to have never once left Witch Island.
Not that she kept tabs on where Shin and Meruru went. As long as they were home before dark, she didn't care.
"Still not going to talk? Then die."
As any JoJo fan knows, time seems to stand still during an internal monologue.
Shin finished his mental chat-group conversation — and the mountain of tangential thoughts that came with it — and snapped back to the present. Exactly three breaths had passed. Not one more, not one less.
[Adula's Moonblade] — Shin recognized the name of the spell from its visual effects alone.
Magic in the Lands Between required no incantation — so long as you had the FP, you could cast freely.
This spell had belonged to the glintstone dragon Adula, who Ranni had defeated. Upon swearing fealty to her, the spell had naturally become Ranni's spoils of war.
The puppet girl in the witch's pointed hat swung the glowing magical blade — laced with the bone-deep chill of the moon's surface — without a moment's hesitation, directly at his neck.
System — give me stat points!
There was no more time to play games.
Theoretically, anything not sun-related had a hard time landing a lethal blow on a Pillar Man. But for all he knew, the "moonlight" in Adula's Moonblade was reflected sunlight.
["Perfect Human" System — Online.]
[Current Evolution Points: 317 → 167]
[Spinal Dragon (Lv.0 → Lv.2) leveled up. Points required for next level: 200]
[Level 1 Skill: [Resistant Hide] (Your body gains a degree of supernatural resistance)]
[Level 2 Skill: [Draconic Strength] (You can unleash 2N times your normal physical power, where N equals your current Spinal Dragon level)]
He bypassed both [Pillar Limbs] and [Spirit Bastion] — each of which had already gained one level — and went straight for the [Spinal Dragon], which had the best odds of representing raw power.
And the system did not disappoint. The moment an invisible force surged up from within him on its own, Shin knew he'd made the right call.
I said stacking stats was the right play — anyone else see it now?
Shing —!
The moonblade spell cut through the air with a shriek and sliced toward Shin's neck. On any normal person, at this distance with no room to dodge, the only outcome would have been a clean decapitation.
"...?"
But what followed made Ranni — sword in hand — pause for just a moment.
Because she watched the moonblade make contact with Shin's neck — and simply stop. It sat there, lodged against his skin.
It had barely broken the surface. Then it could go no further.
— This was only a puppet avatar, but Ranni was still a demigod, once chosen by the Two Fingers as an "Empyrean." A magical blade was nothing like a physical weapon. It could not be stopped by any material shield. And yet this boy's body had just done what even a golden iron buckler could not —
"I'd like to say this is all a misunderstanding. Will you hear me out, Lady Ranni?"
Shin hadn't so much as flinched.
He raised one hand, closed his fingers around the magical blade Ranni was gripping, and — under the protection of [Resistant Hide] — the mana sustaining the blade collapsed instantly, scattering into motes of starlight in her grasp.
— And the skin it had barely broken? It regrew before Ranni's eyes in an instant, without so much as a prayer or a spell to explain it.
Shin stood up. He looked down at this puppet witch who stood roughly half a head shorter than him, and said:
"I've come at the command of your mot— no. Your father. To pay you a visit."
"Why don't we sit down and talk things over properly?"
To be continued…