My Castle received a visitor.
Two of them, this time.
The Goddess is running out of road, so on this occasion she went and reincarnated two of them together.
At this point she simply sits there hoping for someone to die. 'Reaper' suits her rather better than 'Goddess.'
All of it to remove me and my unbounded atrocities—yet the one who created the occasion for my existence in the first place was the Goddess herself. If ever there were a case of reaping what one sows.
Now, as for the two visitors: twin brothers who were called geniuses in their previous life.
The elder a gold medalist at the International Mathematical Olympiad, the younger a winner of assorted national quiz tournaments. Glittering credentials, the pair of them.
"Are you the master of this castle?"
The elder put the question to me as I sat on the throne with my chin propped on one hand.
The elder was wrapped in a loose white robe and carried a magic staff about as long as he was tall.
Let us enjoy a little back-and-forth and see precisely what a genius amounts to.
"I am. Did you ask because you wish to apologize for walking into my castle uninvited?"
"No, I merely wanted to confirm whether you were our target."
"So you're not apologizing for walking into my castle uninvited?"
"I am not."
"Why?"
"Is there any need to extend courtesy to someone whose life one is about to take? There is no future relationship to consider, so courtesy strikes me as wasted effort."
"You asked me a question just now, didn't you. 'Are you the master of this castle?' Skipping the courtesy and still expecting an answer—rather greedy of you, isn't it?"
"But I have already received the answer. I have nothing further to ask, so once again, there is no need for courtesy."
"And if I rewind time? I keep my memories; yours get rolled back along with everything else. Then perhaps I, offended by your ill-mannered attitude, decline to answer that question of yours."
"Ho, ho. That would indeed be inconvenient. But suppose we treat this discussion as part of the contest between you and me. Being omniscient you will know this already, but I am called [the Sage of Absolute Victory], and I cannot fail to win a contest. Which is to say: since the contest with you, my target, has already begun, rewind time all you like—I will still be certain to defeat you."
He is right that I know his ability.
He is a sage who used the Goddess's Gift, [The Power to Have Any One Wish Granted], to become [a being that absolutely wins].
He had been briefed about me by the Goddess, and wished for and obtained a power that ought to be capable of beating me, [The Omniscient, Omnipotent, Strongest, Invincible, Absolutely Superior One].
"Hm. If the result is the same whether I rewind or not, then rewinding is wasted effort. If you're that confident, why not hurry up and beat me with your [Absolute Victory]?"
"I intend to, without being told."
The younger tugged at the sleeve of the elder, who had just said this.
"Brother. Let's do it together, just to be safe."
The younger was dressed head to toe in skin-tight black, an outfit that called an assassin to mind.
A black combat knife rode at the small of his back, and he had several concealed weapons besides.
Long hair and drooping eyes on the elder, short hair and sharp upturned eyes on the younger. Geniuses both, and yet a study in contrast.
"No, I'll handle this one alone. If that fails, we can go at him together."
The elder brushed his brother's hand away, put both hands on his shoulders, and slowly pushed him back.
Then he turned to face me and raised his voice as though swearing an oath.
"I shall be victorious over you!"
Words that force a contest to its conclusion.
And when victory and defeat are decided, the Sage of Absolute Victory wins without fail.
"Ngh—!"
The hand that had let go of the long staff clutched at his chest.
The younger rushed to his stricken brother and checked his condition.
He was never going to identify the symptoms.
The elder's heart had simply stopped. Cardiac arrest, plain and simple.
"You—what did you do?!"
"I swapped out his definition of victory for dying. He is victorious. By dying. Ohhh, how vexing. I lost, didn't I. Inside him, anyway. Well—naturally, inside me, I won."
Absolute Victory is a formidable thing: the elder expired without managing to leave his brother a single word.
"Damn it! I told you. Why, brother..."
The younger struck the floor with his fist and wept.
The sight stirred nothing in me, but on a whim I decided to defend the elder's honor.
"It isn't that your brother had no need of you."
"What do you mean?"
"Had you challenged me alongside him, you would have been caught up in his Absolute Victory and died along with him. Your brother went in alone precisely so that you would not be caught up in it, however remote the chance. Wise of him."
The younger had felt a vague unease at how utterly assured I seemed. The elder had felt no more than that same vague unease—but he had gone as far as to consider the possibility that victory might in practice amount to defeat, and that it might prove fatal.
The elder had been prepared to be the sole sacrifice, so that there would be someone left to whom the rest could be entrusted.
Allowing, of course, for a one-in-ten-thousand chance; he had ample confidence of winning.
"Well then. You're next."
The younger, all in black, rose and squared off against me. His hard stare brimmed with killing intent. An entirely different air from a moment ago.
Though all that really demonstrates is the foolishness of having been optimistic until a moment ago.
"You know about me too, don't you. You actually think you can beat me?"
His confidence had solid grounds.
Because his ability was aimed squarely and exclusively at me.
He had used the Goddess's Gift, [The Power to Have Any One Wish Granted], to become [one who absolutely transcends invincible beings]. An [Invincibility Counter], as they say.
Against an opponent who is not invincible he is useless, but the instant his opponent is an invincible being he becomes transcendently strong.
Specifically, he possesses the power to nullify every ability of an invincible being and to annihilate that invincible being.
"Obviously. The question is whether you think you can beat me."
"Of course I do. My brother picked an all-purpose power that's strong against anyone. I picked a power aimed at nobody but you. Burying you is the only reason I exist now."
Quite the avenger. Well—as of the present moment he genuinely is one.
Still, to direct that much hostility at me, whom he had never so much as met at the time of his reincarnation—envy is an ugly thing.
The genius brothers were brothers and best friends both, and rivals to one another besides.
But when they were told about me at their reincarnation, the elder judged me a more formidable opponent than his own brother. That is what the younger envied.
"I don't care. I've no interest in the leftover one, so get on with it."
The younger ground his teeth, seized the knife at his back in a reverse grip, and flung himself at me.
"Too late for regrets! I'm going to stab you full of holes!"
There was nothing to block the younger—because whatever an invincible being does, he nullifies it.
That is what he believes. In reality I was simply doing nothing at all.
"Hrrraaaaaaagh!"
He wound the combat knife back and drove it down.
—Clang!
The blow, everything he had behind it, bounced off my chest.
Not that my equipment is anything remarkable. I am wearing nothing but a flimsy T-shirt.
"Hah! Yaah! Hyah! Rrragh!"
However many times he tried, the knife bounced off.
In the end he flipped to a forward grip, took it in both hands, ran up, and charged.
The knife bounced off regardless.
"Why... why...?"
"Oh? So much for genius. Your brother might have worked it out at once. Shall I tell you?"
"Tch... I let my blood get up. I can't see it in this state, so tell me."
"It seems your brother is spared the disgrace of having a stupid younger sibling. Very well, I shall tell you. At this moment I have temporarily ceased to be invincible. With the power of omnipotence, it is entirely possible for me to stop being [The Omniscient, Omnipotent, Strongest, Invincible, Absolutely Superior One]. I am not invincible, so [Invincibility Counter] does not trigger. And not being invincible still leaves me the strongest—physical attacks and magical attacks alike are all but useless against me."
"I see. But isn't that an opening? Even if I can't manage it, if somebody targeted the moment you aren't invincible—"
"I have no openings. I am omniscient, so I know that no one will land an attack capable of felling me while I am not invincible. The same goes for accidents, naturally."
The mood suggested the contest was over—but this one had said he would stab me full of holes. This, when a direct touch of his hand could annihilate an invincible being.
He went out of his way to try to make me suffer, so he shall receive a fitting return.
I took hold of the blade of the younger's knife, wrested it from him, and drove the grip end into his chest.
The holding end and the stabbing end were the wrong way around, but with my overwhelming strength the round rod of a grip split the skin and flesh of his chest and sank in deep.
"Incidentally, I could have won without temporarily switching my invincibility off. I am absolutely superior, so my invincibility takes precedence over your [Invincibility Counter]; and being omnipotent on top of that, I could simply delete your [Invincibility Counter] outright. It is precisely because I am in a position to do that that I was also able to switch my own invincibility off for a while. Oh—and your brother's Absolute Victory, I could have deleted that as well, had I felt like it."
The younger gave out without leaving any last words either.
I burned the genius brothers' corpses in a savage fire and blew them away without leaving so much as ash.
Then, onto Nation X, the brothers' homeland, I dropped a monolith—a twenty-kilometer-tall black mass cut to the shape of the country.