Chapter 167: From Confusion to Conclusion (1/2)

“Eh? What? That power is resistible?”

Gula was as confused as Mammon. Unlike the powers of other Evil Gods, Mammon’s power wasn’t the offensive type, so she had always thought that it couldn’t be resisted. Yet Loren’s greatsword wasn’t snatched away, and he was able to continue attacking Mammon. This completely overturned her belief that the only way to fight against Mammon’s power was to dodge.

After failing the first time, Mammon tried using his power on Loren again. But his power continued to fail without showing any effect for the second, then the third time.

“The atmosphere is kinda strange.”

Gula folded her arms and turned to Lapis, who was hopping over. Her face was still red because of whatever Mammon had snatched from her, but Gula couldn’t afford to tease her right now. She had her own pants snatched away and if she made fun of Lapis, the counterattack would be very harsh.

“Isn’t that power too unfair? Even if he can’t see it, as long as he knows it’s there, he can snatch it. It’s just absurd.”

“Well, aren’t we Evil Gods? Our very own existence is absurd to begin with, isn’t it?”

Losing before Lapis’ threatening attitude, Gula uttered those excuse-like words while wondering why she had to give excuses.

But as Lapis reached Gula’s place, she decided to bury the hatchet.

“But why wasn’t Loren’s greatsword snatched?”

“I wonder why? Even if it’s a magical equipment, as long as it’s a sword, it shouldn’t escape Mammon’s recognition, and his power shouldn’t fail.”

Lapis nodded in agreement at Gula’s reply, but she suddenly recalled something and asked again:

“Is it correct to say that if Mammon can’t recognize something, he can’t steal it?”

“Yeah, that’s correct. For example, if he thinks your jacket is your breast cover and exercises his power on it, he won’t be able to snatch your breast cover.”

“You feel like attacking me while talking about examples?”

“Let’s stop here, Lapis-chan. I don’t think I can handle your attacks right now.”

She was dead serious. Gula, who had her hotpants snatched away and had nothing but her arms to cover her fully exposed lower body, was in no state to respond to Lapi’s attacks. If Lapis went serious, she might even send her flying in her half-naked state. Gula wanted to avoid that as much as possible.

“Leaving that aside, according to your explanation, it’s very likely that Loren’s greatsword isn’t actually a sword.”

“Eh that’s stupid. No matter how you look at it, it’s a sword, right?”

Even Lapis had the same opinion. But from the fact that Mammon’s power failed to work on the sword, the most probable explanation Lapis could think of was that it wasn’t a sword.

“What the hell is it then?”

“I took it from my parents’ warehouse. I don’t know its true form either.”

Loren’s greatsword looked like any other greatsword that could be found in any weapon store in Kapha, but it was an open secret that it came from Lapis. Loren knew it, but still continued to use it. If even Lapis, who brought that sword here, didn’t know its true form, then no one did.

“What’s your appraisal of it?”

“It’s expensive.”

The truth was, Lapis, despite being able to appraise all kinds of goods, didn’t really know much about Loren’s swords. She had given it to Loren knowing only that it must be a very good item to be carefully stored in the deeper part of her parents’ warehouse. She had never truly tried to get information about it.

While Lapis and Gula were talking, Loren continued to attack Mammon to prevent him from directing his attention elsewhere.

“Even though my power doesn’t work, the lack of progress on your end is irritating. Don’t you think so, onii-san?”

“I do not notice you injuring me either!”

In return for Mammon’s provocation, Loren provoked him right back. Even though he was the one who started it, Mammon’s face still twisted in anger. Loren was amazed at his lack of patience. He found a small opening in his storm of attacks, probably caused by anger, and threw a kick to take advantage of it. It hit Mammon, who had been focusing on repelling his sword, on the side.

Being a magical being, Mammon didn’t sustain much damage despite Loren putting his strength into the kick. In fact, it didn’t seem to have much of an effect at all, except for inciting a grunt from the Evil God. But the kick did halt his movements for a moment, and Loren seized it to strike with his sword.

Unable to put up a defense on time, the sword struck Mammon’s shoulder, but the blade wasn’t able to cut into his flesh. The Evil God had quite a high toughness, which made Loren reflexively click his tongue, but Mammon let out a painful groan at the first strike he received since the battle started.

“So it does hurt when you get hit!”

“This… Don’t make fun of me!”