After that intense battle, Ash had already reached his limit.
Fortunately, three knights who had happened to spread out into the nearby area encountered Eisen.
Under Eisen's guidance, they carried a doctor across mountains and rough terrain, displaying mobility beyond that of ordinary monsters.
They arrived at the scene in the blink of an eye.
He was quickly given emergency treatment by a doctor on the spot. After his condition was temporarily stabilized, the knights lifted him onto a stretcher, and under Eisen's escort, he was settled in a house in a nearby village.
Although Ash was weak, his mind remained clear. On the way there, he even had a knight locate the final battlefield and bring back the Holy Sword that had been left behind.
Because during his final clash with the Goddess, he had clearly seen her body breaking apart.
He wasn't sure whether the reason she could unleash that world-destroying power was due to the mysterious force contained within the Holy Sword itself, or because of some unknown ability belonging to the Goddess.
But one thing was obvious. At the time, the body she had taken over had not been fully modified yet, so she should have been unable to use much of her power.
In that situation, the Holy Sword must have played an extremely important role. Otherwise, why had she seemed to go after this sword last time as well? She had even hidden it inside a barrier. There had to be something behind it... at least, that was what he thought.
Eisen stood quietly beside the bed watching him, his brows tightly furrowed. Only after Ash sent the knight away on an errand did he finally ask, "What exactly did you fight to end up like this?"
Ash gave a bitter smile. He did not hide much and slowly described his battle with the Goddess, even revealing his true goal.
After hearing it, even Eisen's usually expressionless face was filled with shock.
"You actually fought the Goddess? Have you lost your mind? Or are you trying to get yourself killed?"
"I was forced into it. If I had a choice, I wouldn't want to fight a monster like that either."
"That's true... Still, ruling the world... you've really thought of something outrageous. Will I even live long enough to see it?"
"Of course. Otherwise, there'd be no need for me to rush this much."
It was because he was short on time that he had acted somewhat hastily. If he had followed the original plan, he would never have moved this quickly.
"Is that so? Then I'll look forward to seeing what kind of world my friend creates with his own hands."
Looking at Ash's battered condition, Eisen felt that those words sounded completely insane. Not only would he have to face resistance from the world, he would also have to face opposition from the Goddess herself. Even so, he still gave a slight nod.
Although it was hard to tell from his expression, after knowing him for so long, Ash could more or less tell that it meant approval.
Thus, after a night of rest and treatment, Ash's injuries finally stopped worsening and even showed slight signs of improvement, though he remained extremely weak.
But he paid no attention to that.
He directly ordered the knights gathered there to place him on a stretcher and carry him to the battlefield.
Then, at noon on the second day, after the two groups met up, he received the Holy Sword that had been lost on the battlefield.
But he did not stop there.
He had them continue carrying him toward the battlefield itself.
———
At noon on the fourth day.
Ash returned to the place where the fierce battle had once taken place.
The green mountains and clear waters were long gone, as though a painting had been maliciously smeared, leaving behind only ruin.
A tremendous force had crushed this land, and the surrounding scenery had undergone earth-shaking changes.
The ground looked as though it had been trampled by a giant. Deep and shallow pits covered every part of it. Across this barren wasteland stretched a massive man-made, or rather, god-made, canyon, like a wound carved into the earth.
Connected to the horizon beyond the canyon was an enormous spatial rift that inspired fear, like a violation of the world's order.
On the other side of the rift was a dark void, like the darkest corner of the universe, giving off a mysterious and dangerous feeling.
Although the world itself possessed powerful self-repair abilities and was working hard to heal these wounds, the opening into the void was only slowly shrinking at a visible rate.
It was clear that the slash which had nearly displaced the world had caused far too much damage.
Even after four days, the area remained devastated, and the rift had not closed.
"Maybe this is also an opportunity."
Looking at everything before him, Ash could not help but mutter to himself.
Because his injuries had been suppressed by the Goddess's divine power, recovery was extremely slow. Fortunately, they had not become worse.
Moving was very difficult for him now. As a warrior, little of his former speed and strength remained.
But as a mage... his magic power had mostly recovered. His combat ability was still more than enough. As long as the world wasn't too absurd, he could do whatever he wanted without a problem.
Wrapped in bandages from head to toe, Ash slowly floated into the air and stared at the enormous rift with a complicated look.
A bold idea had already formed in his mind.
Or rather, he had made up his mind before coming here.
He was alive, and the Goddess was not dead.
That meant this matter would not end.
If the Goddess discovered he was still alive, there would be a second attack, a third attack, and many more after that.
So he decided to leave this world for the time being. After confirming and checking through the system, he learned that the flow of time between worlds was not fixed. As long as he mastered time magic later, he could control that variable himself.
Then the answer was simple.
Jump in directly.
With his soul preserved, he would have the system take him to a suitable world.
That way, he would have enough time to heal his injuries and increase his strength before coming back to settle accounts with the Goddess.
He wasn't sure whether the Goddess could chase him into another world.
But he was certain that if he stayed here, she would definitely continue hunting him.
Furthermore, the Goddess this time clearly was not strong enough to casually kill several Great Demons and a Demon King. Her body was obviously limiting the power she could use.
He still couldn't figure out how the Holy Sword fit into all this, but it was clear that the Goddess had first obtained a body and then gone to retrieve the Holy Sword.
If she possessed someone again, this time, the Holy Sword was in his hands. Among countless people, he had no confidence at all in finding her.
If she accidentally recovered even more of her power, he would be finished.
Therefore, he had no other choice.
"You should go to the Imperial Capital. Deliver these letters to the people they're addressed to. Tell them I've successfully defeated the Hero, but I need to leave for a while to find the Goddess's hiding place."
As he spoke, Ash handed the knight several handwritten letters he had prepared before arriving.
The knight respectfully accepted them. Looking at Ash's wounded body, a trace of concern flashed through his eyes, but he still nodded firmly and accepted the order.
Ash then turned toward the dwarf Eisen beside him.
"I'll leave it to you to keep my whereabouts secret for a while."
"Are you really going to be okay? Going into... that..."
Eisen's voice was full of worry. Even he felt uneasy looking at the deep void.
"And your injuries aren't healed yet."
"If I don't go now, it'll be too late. Who knows when this rift will close? Besides, even if I stay here, who knows how long it'll take these injuries to heal?"
Ash spoke helplessly.
How could he not want to stay here?
Or return to a familiar place, recover properly, pet Sense and Linie, reunite with everyone, and enjoy time with his family?
But in his current state, going back wasn't appropriate. He would probably only frighten them.
Besides, this place was too far from the Imperial Capital, nearly half a continent away.
If he wasted time on the return trip and came back only to find the rift already closed, then all he could do was wait for the Goddess to slowly reappear and deal with him.
So he could only give up on returning for now.
After all, the system he relied on... calling it a system was misleading, it was actually just Great Demon magic, an imitation of the Goddess's miracles.
While it was useful at times, when it came to a life-or-death situation like this, Ash had no idea how much help it could provide.
If he lacked this enormous opening as assistance and ended up unable to leave this world, things would become troublesome.
Eisen wanted to say more, but after seeing Ash's unwavering eyes, he swallowed the words back down.
He knew that once Ash made a decision, changing his mind was difficult.
Ash took a deep breath and gave the familiar world one last look.
Though his gaze carried reluctance, he slowly flew toward the massive spatial rift.
As he drew closer, the powerful pull from the void grew stronger and stronger, as though it wanted to drag him inside completely.
Ash steadied himself and looked back at Eisen and the knights kneeling on one knee.
As the distance increased, their figures looked so small beneath the sunlight.
"Wait for me a little while. I'll be back soon... When I return, I'll fulfill my promise to you. I'm sure you haven't forgotten it, right?"
"With blood, create a glorious age!"
The knights watched the receding figure with burning eyes.
"That's right. We will create the most glorious age... and now, we're only one step away from the end of everything, from peace built through death."
Ash merely nodded.
"When I come back, everything will be over. And then... soon..."
Leaving only those words behind, his figure was swallowed by the void the next moment and vanished from the world.
Only the slowly repairing spatial rift remained in the sky, writhing little by little.
———
As soon as he entered the void, Ash immediately turned himself into gold, allowing his body to easily endure the tearing force of the space-time currents.
The currents were like a raging sea. Powerful forces surged at him from all directions, trying to tear apart and crush his body.
Yet his golden body was like an indestructible fortress, effortlessly withstanding every impact.
Who knew how much time passed?
Maybe it was only a brief instant.
Maybe it was an endless eternity.
Ash felt as though he had crossed an endless darkness. After enduring it for a long time, he finally could not endure it any longer.
Feeling that he had probably escaped danger and reached his destination, he canceled the golden transformation.
However, the moment he regained full control of his senses, the scene before him left him completely stunned.
His face filled with a kind of confusion he could hardly describe.
What is this?"
Ash blurted out instinctively, his eyes full of bewilderment.
The moment he opened his eyes, the ceiling above him was no longer merely unfamiliar.
It was a stone wall.
It was completely different from the sky or ocean he had imagined.
Ash tried to move his body, only to discover he couldn't move at all.
That startled him.
Logically speaking, although he had suffered extremely serious injuries before, with his physical abilities, even if he could not move as freely as usual, he should not be completely unable to move.
Even if he had to enter battle right now, he was confident he could outperform an ordinary warrior in an instant.
He would just bleed a lot.
But this situation was extremely strange.
He felt as though he had been frozen in place.
'Did my injuries get worse again?'
The thought worried him.
But after carefully sensing and examining himself, he discovered that something was binding his body.
Squinting and looking more closely, he realized...
He seemed to be wrapped in spider silk.
The strands were so thin that human eyes could barely see them, yet they were unusually tough. They were clearly silk from some kind of spider-type monster.
The threads crisscrossed densely around him, wrapping him completely.
It looked as though he had been set aside as lunch.
"But I was gold just now. Why would a normal spider wrap up a lump of gold?"
Before he could figure out the answer, a faint rustling sound drew his attention.
Instinctively, he looked toward the source.
A huge white spider was slowly approaching.
The spider was dragging a giant frog nearly as tall as a person.
The frog was obviously dead, leaving a long trail across the ground as it was dragged.
The spider looked rather frightening.
Its body was a lifeless white color, covered with irregular black spots.
On its head was a pair of large eyes like giant red gemstones, shining with a chilling light.
Surrounding those large eyes were six smaller ones.
Every single one of them was red, as though observing everything around it from every angle.
Its upper jaw held a pair of enormous fangs that protruded outward like sharp sickles.
In the dim cave, they reflected a cold gleam, looking capable of piercing prey with a single bite.
Of course, calling it a giant spider was relative.
It was actually only about the size of a medium dog.
But for a spider, that was indeed ridiculously large.
Though compared to the monsters he knew, it was actually very small.
It felt like something that had only recently hatched from an egg.
He had not even had time to wonder about it.
Normally, in this kind of situation, the human should be the one feeling afraid.
Yet before he could even pretend to be frightened, the white spider noticed him and seemed to be startled instead.
It suddenly jumped back several steps, waving its front legs wildly.
"Chi? Chi! Chi!"
It kept making noise without stopping.
"What's with you? You're a spider, but you're surprisingly noisy. And... energetic?"
Ash stared blankly at the giant spider.
He was starting to wonder if he had somehow scared it.
But he hadn't released any magic power at all.
The truth was...
The spider had been frightened for an entirely different reason.
Because the spider that had wrapped up the golden Ash was not an ordinary spider either.
She was a transmigrator.
Originally, she should have been a female high school student, or at least she considered herself one.
She possessed the memories of the high school girl Wakaba Hiiro.
But after being reincarnated as a spider monster, her original name had basically been abandoned.
Now she was simply an unnamed spider monster.
For the time being, let's call her Kumoko.
At first, she struggled to accept it for a while.
But hunger quickly forced her onto the path of a monster.
Then, three days earlier...
———
[Three Days Earlier]
'Ah... I want chocolate. I want chips. I want instant noodles...'
Hungry Kumoko staggered through a dark, damp underground tunnel.
Her "smooth white" body looked somewhat worn out, while she continuously muttered the names of foods from her previous world.
Of course, from an outsider's perspective, what came from her "tiny" mouth was nothing but a series of: "Chi! Chi!"
The sounds echoed through the empty dungeon, creating a strangely unsettling feeling.
Kumoko was so hungry that stars seemed to appear before her eyes.
She even felt her spider legs growing weak.
In this starving state, she had wandered underground for a long time without any direction.
Then a violent tremor came from somewhere nearby.
It was like muffled thunder exploding underground.
Her sensitive limbs felt it clearly, and it seemed as though the entire ground was shaking.
'Are monsters fighting? Ah~ what if there are some leftover limbs lying around? Wouldn't that be a free meal? Let's go! I've got to see if there's anything I can pick up for free~'
Kumoko's drooping eyes instantly widened.
Excitement shone in her previously dull eyes like two small flames.
It was as if she could already see a feast waving at her.
She excitedly swung her slender but powerful front legs.
Then she shot off like a gust of wind toward the source of the disturbance.
However, when she arrived at the scene, panting heavily, what she saw was completely beyond her expectations.
Around a strange-looking impact crater, there were no bloodstains, severed limbs, or scorched traces left behind by a battle between monsters.
There was only a human-shaped figure wrapped in bandages standing there quietly.
The figure gave off a golden glow and carried a strange golden greatsword on its back.
'Gold! Real gold! There's actually such a huge chunk of gold sitting here for no reason! Did I just find treasure? I'm going to get rich! I'm definitely going to get rich, right? Am I about to become a billionaire?'
After a brief moment of surprise, all eight of Kumoko's eyes lit up like eight bright stars.
Her tiny heart pounded with excitement, as though it might leap out of her chest the next second.
Without hesitation, she rushed forward, opened her mouth, and bit hard into the figure's leg.
She eagerly looked forward to feeling the soft, precious texture of gold between her teeth, so she could confirm whether it was really gold.