Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest Volume 11.
Chapter 2: The Tiny Hero.
Loud footsteps echoed through the nearly-deserted throne room.
Only Alva, ten apostles, five of whom were restraining Hajime, and thirty of Freid’s monsters had remained behind to finish off Hajime and the other students.
The majestic hall felt eerily silent, a stark contrast to the cheering heard outside.
Hajime’s screams of despair had left everyone, except Alva, speechless.
“I can’t believe you’re still breathing. Just how tenacious are you?” he spat as he strode over to Hajime. Burning hatred dominated his disdainful sneer. He despised Hajime for ruining the perfect welcome he’d prepared for his lord and master, Ehit.
Hajime’s gaze was cast downward, so he didn’t react at all to Alva’s vitriol. Alva couldn’t feel anything from him. No bloodlust, no hatred. And considering how much blood he’d lost, it wouldn’t have been surprising if he’d just died.
“Hmph, you’re pathetic,” Alva stated as he stomped on Hajime’s head and dug his heels in.
Aiko and the others could only watch on in helpless despair. The students who’d remained holed up in the castle had already given up. They were either sobbing silently or watching on with vacant eyes. However, there was one student who still had some fight left in her.
Nagumo… Yuka thought, balling her hands into fists. Her teeth were clenched and there were tears in her eyes. It looked as though she felt Hajime’s pain herself. She’d only just been healed from the brink of death, but she burned with righteous anger.
In Yuka’s eyes, Hajime was an invincible superhero. The Hajime she knew could take on any enemy with a fearless smile… and save her no matter how dire the circumstances looked. In fact, he’d saved her life twice already, first from the Traum Soldiers in the Great Orcus Labyrinth, and then again in Ur.
I still haven’t done anything to return the favor. I know I’m weak… and useless… but even so… Like the other students, Yuka’s gaze was cast downward and her expression was hidden by her bangs as she mulled over such thoughts.
The remaining apostles and monsters kept the rest of the students at bay, ensuring they made no move to assist those who were fighting. But it wasn’t like they were keeping a particularly close eye on them. They actually had their backs turned to the students, and were only making sure they didn’t do anything to get in Alva’s way.
Kaori was with the other students as well, but she remained motionless after Ehit’s edict. Plus, one of Ehit’s wolf golems was keeping her pinned, so the apostles weren’t wary of her. One of them had confiscated her twin claymores, as those hadn’t been destroyed by Ehit like everyone else’s weapons, but that was all. Her attention was otherwise focused solely on Hajime.
Among the remaining apostles, two stood next to Alva to protect him, one stood watch over Shizuku, Ryutarou, and Suzu, and one kept an eye on Tio. The monsters, on the other hand, kept their distance, and mostly just blocked any potential escape routes the students might try to use.
In short, no one was paying any attention to Yuka or the others. The apostles didn’t consider them a threat. And honestly, they weren’t wrong. Even on the verge of death, Hajime was far more dangerous a foe than Yuka, Aiko, Liliana, and the other kids combined.
Yuka closed her eyes, her mind racing. Ignoring the sweat running down her eyelids, she desperately tried to find a way to turn the tables. After a few seconds, she came up with a plan. Once she made sure Alva’s attention was still fixated on Hajime, she quietly began to move toward Aiko.
“Ah!” Aiko yelped the moment Yuka grabbed her hand. The solid presence of Yuka’s hand helped pull Aiko out of her daze.
“Keep your voice down, Ai-chan-sensei,” Yuka whispered.
“S-Sonobe-san?”
Given the current circumstances, Aiko was the only one who could save them.
“Sensei, do you have enough mana to cast that one spell you told me about before?”
“Which one?”
Yuka quickly summarized her plan to Aiko. The moment Aiko realized what Yuka wanted to do, her eyes widened in surprise. She stared at Yuka in disbelief. However, when she saw the unwavering determination in Yuka’s eyes, she swallowed her protests.
A second later, she cast away her own doubts and gathered her resolve. As she nodded confidently, Nana and Taeko sidled up to Yuka.
“Y-Yukacchi? I brought Endou over, but…”
“What’re you trying to do, Yuka?”
Kousuke cowered behind them. It looked like they’d noticed the hand signals she’d been giving them while talking to Aiko.
There was no telling when the apostle would turn back and spot them conspiring, so Yuka quickly backed away from Aiko once she was done explaining the plan. Meanwhile, Aiko surreptitiously scooted over toward Liliana.
“Wh-What’s going on, Sonobe?” Kousuke asked timidly.
“Listen up, Endou. There’s something I need you to do.”
She pulled Nana and Taeko close so that they’d hear her plan as well, then started whispering into Kousuke’s ear.
Like Aiko, Kousuke was shocked at first when he heard Yuka’s plan. But his ensuing reaction was nothing like Aiko’s. Looking defeated, he whispered, “Don’t be stupid. There’s no way we can pull that off.”
“We have to try. And you’re the only one who can do this.”
“Y-You’re expecting way too much from me! Remember what happened at the royal palace!? I couldn’t do anything! I was useless! How can I outwit those apostles when I couldn’t even sneak past some demons!?”
“Not so loud!” Nana whispered furiously.
A second later, one of the apostles turned around. Luckily, Yuka and the others had already turned their gazes downward. And in an attempt to sell the deception, Yuka muttered, “Are we really going to die here?”
The apostle spared Yuka a brief glance, then turned back to face Hajime. And as soon as she did, Yuka grabbed Kousuke’s arm.
“I can’t do it… I’m not strong enough…” Kousuke whispered weakly.
“I don’t want to let everything Nagumo’s done for us go to waste.”
“Ah… What do you…?”
Yuka’s words struck a chord with Kousuke. He looked up into Yuka’s eyes, and saw the fear in them. In fact, upon closer inspection, he realized her face was deathly pale and her hands were trembling. And yet, he also saw indomitable resolve that was pushing her to keep going despite her fear.
“I don’t want to let the lives he saved end here. What about you, Endou? Do you really want to give up without a fight?”
“……”
Out of the corner of his eye, Kousuke spotted Aiko and Liliana speaking to Jugo, Kentarou, and Atsushi. Everyone seemed terrified, but they hadn’t given up. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, thinking back to the time when the knights had entrusted him to call for reinforcements. After escaping by the skin of his teeth, he’d run into Hajime and been saved by him. He then thought back to the night of Meld’s death.
Kousuke had looked up to Meld. The knight captain had been the older brother he’d never had. Honestly, he still hadn’t gotten over Meld’s death. Ever since that night, Kousuke had been drifting aimlessly through life. Thanks to that, when the apostles had raided the royal palace, he’d barely been able to put up a fight. They took him out in a single blow, even. And so, he knew that if he gave up before even trying this time, it would be like a slap in the face to Meld, who’d given his life to protect Kousuke.
Coming to a decision, he opened his eyes and whispered, “I’ll do it.”
The resignation in his eyes had disappeared. For the first time since Meld’s death, Kousuke hid his presence completely.
Unaware of Yuka’s plan, Alva looked triumphantly down at Hajime and crowed, “Heh, I can’t believe how docile you are now. Did your mind give out before your body?”
At that exact moment, someone dashed out from the throng of students. One of the apostles reacted immediately, grabbing them by the neck.
“Ngh! Wait, there’s something I want to ask you!” Liliana shouted, her face twisting in pain.
Surprised, Alva looked up at the sky to check something.
“Hmm, well, it looks like it’ll take a while for all the demons to get transported. Very well, Princess. Seeing as you won’t live much longer, I’ll indulge you.”
Alva waved his hand, and the apostle let go of Liliana. Tio and Shizuku turned to her in surprise.
Liliana cleared her throat and asked in a dignified, regal voice befitting of a princess, “What did Ehit mean when he said this would be the final game? And what was that about looking forward to seeing what other worlds were like? Is he planning on killing all humans?”
“No,” Alva replied flatly.
Liliana was taken aback by that response, but only for a moment.
“It’s not just all humans. My lord intends to destroy this world itself.”
“Ah…”
“In three days’ time, he shall summon an invincible army from the Sanctuary. With it, he will slaughter everyone. Humans, beastmen, and all other living creatures. He shall destroy this world in much the same way he turned the western continent into a wasteland in order to gain the mana needed to create the Sanctuary.”
“What!? You mean the Grand Gruen Desert was… Ehit’s doing?”
None of the history books Liliana had read mentioned that.
Enjoying Liliana’s reaction, Alva sneered and replied, “You should be honored, Princess. Your Heiligh Kingdom has been chosen as the hallowed ground zero. Keep your eyes on the Divine Mountain. As soon as the gate at its summit opens, your citizens shall be the first to die at the hands of the god they put their faith in!”
“You’re insane… Every last one of you gods is insane.”
“I am simply following my lord’s will. By stealing the mana from this world, we will finally have enough to transport the Sanctuary to a new one! And then, my lord shall become the one true god of the next world he visits!” Alva cackled, his laughter reverberating throughout the room. After that, he spread his arms wide and looked up at the sky in pure ecstasy.
Shizuku’s face stiffened as she realized what that meant. Her friends and family back home would end up suffering the same fate as Tortus. They would become Ehit’s playthings until he tired of them and killed them all. She couldn’t allow that. But unfortunately, there was nothing she could do. Trembling in rage, Shizuku cursed her powerlessness.
However, there was one thing she’d forgotten. In Shizuku’s mind, Aiko had just been someone she had to protect, so she’d forgotten that her teacher was also capable of using ancient magic. Alva was also ostensibly aware of that fact, but she was so weak that he hadn’t been paying any attention to her this whole time.
“I won’t let that happen!” Aiko shouted, drawing Alva’s attention to her.. Blood dripped from her arms, and Aiko had used that blood to draw a complex magic circle on the back of her hands.
“Bring light to the souls who have lost their spark— Soul’s Repose!”
Aiko pressed her hands against the floor, her pale pink mana spreading throughout the room. Soul’s Repose was a spirit magic spell that removed all negative status effects on its targets.
The pink light suffusing the room signaled the start of the students’ counterattack.
“Nice one, Ai-chan-sensei! Suzu, Ryutarou, protect Myu-chan and Remia-san!” Shizuku shouted.
“But we lost our artifacts!”
“We’ve still gotta try!”
The mental damage caused by seeing their own death, as well as their physical exhaustion, had left Suzu and Ryutarou in a daze, but Aiko’s spell galvanized them into action. A short distance in front of them, Tio had recovered as well.
“He called this power Divine Edict, did he not? I’m impressed you managed to overcome such a powerful suggestion through willpower alone, Shea.”
Smiling ruefully, she rose to her feet. Still partially transformed, she grabbed the wolf golem that had been restraining her with her tail and flung it at Alva.
He casually shot it down with a magic blast, then turned to where Shea previously was. But he only saw a pool of blood under the rubble.
Shea herself was nowhere to be found. But the surprises didn’t stop there.
“Ah! How did you—?” the apostle guarding the students exclaimed, turning around in surprise.
“Eeek!” Kousuke yelped. He had both of Kaori’s claymores in his hands.
The apostle looked down at her waist and saw that the claymores were missing. Unbelievable as it seemed, Kousuke had managed to hide his presence well enough that even an apostle had failed to notice him.
Despite the fact that he was trembling in fear, he showed the same guts he had when he’d fled the Great Orcus Labyrinth, avoiding all the monsters standing in his way.
“Caaatch, Yaegashi!” he roared as he tossed one of the claymores to Shizuku.
“Oh, this is shaping up to be rather entertaining. Take care of them for me,” Alva ordered the apostle.
“As you wish,” she replied, flying forward. She planned to atone for her mistake by slicing Kousuke in half. Her claymore glimmered with a deadly silver light as she swung it down. Kousuke backpedaled as fast as he could, but he wasn’t able to get out of range.
“Hmph!”
“Ah! Shea Haulia!? How many times will you get in our way!?”
Right before the apostle’s sword cut through Kousuke, Shea grabbed the remaining claymore from him and blocked the blow. She then pushed the sword back and slipped under the apostle’s guard, not giving her enough time to follow up with her second claymore. While the apostle was still off-balance, Shea planted her foot into the ground and elbowed her hard in the stomach. The apostle doubled over as she was sent flying by the force of the blow.
“Your name’s Ayako Tsuji, right? Thanks for healing me! Also, I don’t know your name, but thanks for grabbing this sword off her!”
“Y-You’re welcome,” Ayako, the healer of Nagayama’s party, stammered.
“Um, we’ve met before, you know…?” Kousuke muttered.
He was the one who’d snuck past the apostles and brought Shea back to Ayako so she could heal her.
But of course, his lack of presence was a double-edged sword, as Shea had clearly forgotten their previous meeting.
Regardless, she had more pressing matters than searching her memories for Kousuke’s name.
“Sensei-san, use your spirit magic on Kaori-san!” she shouted.
“O-Okay!”
Shea strengthened her body to the max and charged forward. She plowed through the golem holding Kaori captive without slowing down at all, then continued toward Alva.
Meanwhile, Liliana put up a barrier to try and distract the apostles for a few seconds, while Jugo ran over and brought Kaori back for Aiko and Ayako to work on healing her.
“I’ll keep Alva busy! You guys rescue Hajime-san!”
“Roger!”
“You can count on us!”
One of the apostles guarding Alva moved forward to intercept Shea, but he held out a hand to stop her. He was annoyed by how lightly Shea seemed to be taking him.
“Uryaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Shea screamed as she swung her sword down, taking advantage of the apostles’ lack of action. A massive shockwave rippled across the throne room.
“No rabbitman should be this strong,” Alva mused with a composed expression. Shea’s sword had stopped inches in front of his face thanks to his light barrier.
“And I’m gonna keep getting stronger, too!” Shea proclaimed as she sliced at the barrier over and over and over. It was impossible to count how many attacks she’d unleashed in the span of a second. She was swinging so fast that the claymore became little more than a silver blur.
“No matter how many times you try, the result won’t cha— Oh?”
“Go to hell!”
Alva didn’t even have time to be surprised. By the time he noticed his barrier was cracking, it was too late. A second later, the sound of shattering glass filled the room as his light barrier crumbled. Seizing the opportunity, Shea leaped forward and aimed a roundhouse kick at his head.
Alva may have been weaker than Ehit, but he was still a god. With uncanny speed, he brought his arm up to block. But he couldn’t absorb the full force of the blow, so Shea’s kick sent him flying straight through the throne and into the wall behind it.
The two apostles who were assigned to guard him prepared to rush Shea, but he stopped them again.
“Don’t bother. I’m going to personally make her suffer for having the gall to kick a god,” Alva stated angrily as he jumped to his feet, blowing aside the rubble that had fallen on him.
In response, Shea rested her claymore on her shoulder and said, “Bring it on.”
There was so much pale blue mana swirling around her that it looked as though she’d just cast Limit Break.
As she charged toward Alva, Tio and Shizuku stared down the two apostles who were keeping them in check. They needed to get past them if they wanted to rescue Hajime.
As the apostles launched their disintegration cannons, the two of them simultaneously cast the same spell.
“Limiter Removal!”
Tio’s clear black mana and Shizuku’s navy blue mana ballooned in size as they powered themselves up with evolution magic.
Shizuku stayed low to the ground as she dashed forward, ducking under the apostle’s disintegration beam.
On the other hand, Tio didn’t even bother to dodge and crossed her arms in front of her to block the attack. Her sleeves were destroyed, but the light of incineration failed to harm her flesh, which was protected by her black scales. Her scales were so thick that her arms looked twice their normal size.
Tio had combined evolution and metamorphosis magic with her natural draconic disposition to harden herself far past her natural limit. Her defensive power far exceeded that of anyone else’s. Not even the apostles’ disintegration powers could pierce her multi-layered scales.
“Shizuku, you need to break through! I’ll be your shield!”
“Got it.”
Shizuku was already using her unique footwork to slip past the apostle’s guard. The apostle desperately tried to follow her movements, but before she knew it, her world had been flipped upside down. Shizuku had managed to grab the apostle’s arm and throw her over her shoulder.
As she sailed through the air, the apostle saw Shizuku’s claymore heading straight for her neck. It was one of the Yaegashi Style’s secret techniques, Mirrored Lightning. Against normal enemies, it guaranteed a kill. Shizuku knew it wouldn’t work as well against an apostle, but she was hoping she’d at least be able to deal some decent damage with it. The force of the blow sent the apostle flying, but instead of landing on the ground, she flapped her wings to regain her balance in the air.
A second later, a pebble flew straight at her eyes. It was another one of the Yaegashi Style’s techniques, Fang Flight. Shizuku had never possessed much physical strength, but evolution magic had helped boost her parameters significantly. The pebble struck the apostle right in the eye. Shizuku had expected the combination attack to do something at least, but…
“I guess it’s not going to be that easy,” she muttered.
“Correct,” the apostle replied coldly. Her eyes and neck remained unscathed. There wasn’t the slightest indication that Shizuku had inflicted any damage on her.
The apostle flapped her wings once, sending a barrage of silver feathers at Shizuku.
Shizuku ran forward, using her No Tempo to weave her way through the feathers. Occasionally, she used her claymore to block the ones she was unable to dodge.
“Get down!” Tio shouted, unleashing a breath attack at the apostle.
“Ngh!”
Shizuku dived forward and slid across the ground, narrowly avoiding the black breath.
The apostle lazily circled upward, dodging the attack as well. But she was unable to escape Tio’s follow-up breath attack and was forced to cross her swords in front of her to block.
Enhanced as it was by evolution magic, Tio’s breath was powerful enough to slam the apostle against the wall.
Alas, by helping Shizuku, Tio had left her own apostle free to attack her.
“Tio!”
“Don’t worry about me! Focus on rescuing Master. We need to buy enough time for Kaori to recover! That’s the only way we can survive this crisis!”
Scales grew to cover her entire body, making Tio look like a human-shaped dragon. She was using metamorphosis magic on herself while under the effects of Limiter Removal. The partial transformation appeared to cause her pain, but Tio was able to use her Pain Conversion to bolster her defenses, allowing her to further resist the apostle’s disintegration cannon.
While Tio kept both apostles busy, Shizuku used Supersonic Step to dash past the apostle firing on Tio. It quickly turned its attention to Shizuku and launched a volley of feathers at her, but she grit her teeth against the pain and continued her headlong rush toward Hajime.
However, a second later, another apostle appeared in front of her. Its stomach was caved in, making it obvious it was the one Shea had blown away a while back. By the time Shizuku’s brain registered what was happening, the apostle’s sword was already on its way down.
Shit!
“Heaven Crusher!” Suzu’s desperate voice called out, and multiple orange, disc-shaped barriers popped up in front of Shizuku, deflecting the blow.
Sweating profusely, Shizuku watched the sword pass by inches from her neck. But there was no time to waste, so she pushed the close shave out of her mind as she resumed her charge.
Though she had no artifacts and was dozens of meters behind her, Suzu had managed to accurately send out barriers to protect Shizuku while also keeping Myu and Remia safe with a Hallowed Ground.
Shizuku had no doubt that Suzu’s hands were drenched with blood, since she was using it to draw the magic circles necessary to keep casting. The only way Shizuku could repay Suzu’s sacrifice was by fulfilling her mission.
As she slid under the apostle’s legs, she launched an upward thrust. And just as she’d anticipated, the apostle used her second sword to block the strike.
“Hah!”
“Ah!”
Having predicted the apostle’s move, Shizuku planted one hand on the ground and launched a back kick at the apostle’s crotch. She looked like an eagle stretching its talons out toward its prey, except upside-down. Unsurprisingly, the name of the technique she was using was called Reverse Eagle Talon. But Shizuku’s foot passed straight through the apostle, making it clear she’d only hit an afterimage. The apostle knocked Shizuku’s sword back and circled around behind her for a horizontal swing.
But right before the claymore cleaved her in two, Shizuku made her move.
“Hiyah!”
Using the centrifugal force of her kick, Shizuku did a side flip and leaped over the sword. Still spinning, she used her other leg to launch another kick at the apostle’s head.
This was the follow-up technique to Reverse Eagle Talon, Double Rake. Her second kick connected, sending the apostle tumbling through the air.
The apostle gasped in surprise as she hit the ground.
I can do this! Shizuku thought to herself as she watched Tio suppress the other two apostles out of the corner of her eye. She’d made it past one apostle, and there were no others in her path.
“What!?”
A second later, though, chills ran down her spine and Shizuku reflexively threw herself to the side. A blast of silver light shot past where she’d been, leaving deep gouges in the ground. She’d evaded the first attack, but Shizuku’s instincts told her she wasn’t in the clear just yet.
As she rolled forward, a claymore thrust at the air inches behind her. She then crawled to the side on all fours, narrowly avoiding a barrage of silver feathers. And as a result, she was forced back to where she’d been minutes before.
The two apostles who had been guarding Alva blocked the path in front of her, and the apostle she’d kicked away waited behind her.
The situation appeared hopeless. But unless she overcame it, she wouldn’t be able to rescue Hajime.
He’s the first boy I ever fell in love with. And he’s saved my life so many times before. I’ll gladly go through hell, if that’s what it takes to repay my debt to him. So what if I don’t have my weapons? So what if I’m up against apostles? That’s no reason to give up! This time, it’s my turn to save you, Nagumo-kun! Shizuku psyched herself up and glared at the apostles.
If nothing else, she needed to buy enough time for Kaori to recover. Even if she couldn’t rescue Hajime, once Kaori was back in commission, they could turn things around. That was how much trust Shizuku had in her best friend.
“Huh?”
The apostle suddenly turned to where Aiko was healing Kaori, as if Shizuku’s thoughts had somehow transmitted to her. Then, while moving fast enough to leave afterimages in her wake, she shot toward Aiko and the students.
“St-Stop right there! If you want to get to her, you’ll have to go through—”
“The two of us are more than enough to handle you.”
The two remaining apostles fired their disintegration cannons at Shizuku. One of them blocked Shizuku’s path, while the other aimed directly for her.
“Don’t allow yourself to get distracted, you fool!” Tio shouted, running toward Shizuku. She used her bruised and battered body as a shield to protect Shizuku from the blast aimed at her. Blood spurted from the new cuts the disintegration cannon caused, but Tio nevertheless successfully extricated Shizuku from the path of the blast.
A second later, thousands of silver feathers rained down on the two of them.
“Ngh! Hallowed Ground!”
Groaning in pain, Suzu immediately created another top-class barrier to protect them. It took a lot out of her to create a second Hallowed Ground dozens of meters away. And she had no artifacts to aid her.
Tio quickly deployed a barrier of her own to reinforce it, but the feathers easily broke down their defenses, so a few punched through and hit Tio directly. She quickly used restoration magic on her damaged scales to keep her vitals intact, but using three types of ancient magic at once taxed her greatly.
Shizuku watched with an anguished expression as Tio grit her teeth against the pain.
Am I so weak that I can’t even slow the apostles down!?
Aside from Hajime and the others, Shizuku was the only one who could use evolution magic. She’d believed that she could at least buy some time, even if Ryutarou and Suzu couldn’t. But it turned out that she was just as powerless as them.
“Don’t give up, Shizuku! You’ve only truly lost the moment your heart gives in!”
“Ngh! I know, I know!”
Holding back her tears, Shizuku waited fervently for a chance she wasn’t even sure would appear. No matter what, she wouldn’t give up. After all, she knew that was the source of Hajime’s strength. Both she and Tio had been attracted to him because of his indomitable spirit.
A second later, Tio and Shizuku’s prayers were answered as a new pillar of light shot up from the spot Aiko and the other students rested.
“Get away from my friends!” Kaori shouted, unleashing a disintegration blast at the two apostles.
“Kaori!”
“Shizuku-chan!”
Kaori’s strength exceeded that of regular apostles, and thanks to Aiko, she was back in perfect shape.
A few minutes before Kaori revived, Yuka and her party desperately fought to protect Aiko. Fifteen or so of the thirty monsters in the throne room had charged forward to keep her from healing Kaori. Though that was only half their number, they were still a significant threat. Freid had taken all of his gray dragons back with him, but the chimeras he’d left behind still proved to be plenty strong.
“Ayako, transfer your mana to Lily! She needs every drop she can get! If her barrier breaks, we’re done for! Mao, you use all your support spells on Lily, too!”
“O-Okay!”
“B-But I’ve barely got any mana left!”
With tears in their eyes, Ayako and Mao Yoshino poured what little strength they had left into supporting Liliana. Mao’s job was Rejuvenist, which specialized in support spells.
“Dammit, these guys heal from petrification in seconds!”
“My illusions don’t work on them, either! And any debuffs I cast get removed right away!”
“Saitou, Nakano! You two are mages too, aren’t you!? You’ve gotta help!”
Kentarou, whose Job was Geomancer, kept casting petrification magic on the monsters, but it had little effect. Akito, who was an Illusionist, tried manipulating the monsters into attacking each other, but that failed as well. Meanwhile, Nana, who was a Hydrosophist, fired ice spears one after another to push the monsters back.
The frontline fighters among the students were powerless without their artifacts, and the rearguard mages were forced to draw magic circles with their blood, meaning their spells weren’t as effective as usual.
Still, jobs like Pyromancer and Aerothurge were extremely valuable. However, Yoshiki Saitou, the class’ Pyromancer, and Shinji Nakano, the class’ Aerothurge, simply cowered in terror with the other students who’d holed up in the castle the whole time instead of participating. The deaths of their friends, Daisuke Hiyama and Reichi Kondou, had stripped them of the will to fight.
“Jugo, don’t push yourself too hard!”
“It’s not like I’ve got a choice right now!”
Kousuke and Jugo, the only two frontliners capable of holding their own against the monsters without artifacts, were covered in injuries. Jugo especially, since most of his techniques were based on judo, which required getting up close and personal. Worse, Ayako couldn’t heal them, since she had to focus solely on Liliana.
“Dammit, if only we had our weapons!”
“I know how you feel, but don’t do anything rash. Nagayama’s only still alive because of how tough he is, and Endou can use his stealth skills to stay out of danger. The rest of us would get ripped to shreds if we went out there. Our job is to protect Ai-chan with our lives if any monsters get through!”
“I know, but still!”
Atsushi and Noboru grit their teeth in frustration. Meanwhile, Yuka threw the stones Kentarou made with his earth magic at the monsters to support Jugo and Kousuke. Honestly, she wished Ryutarou and Suzu could come assist, but she knew the two of them had their hands full already.
Suzu was busy protecting Myu and Remia, while also using her barriers to keep Shizuku safe, and Ryutarou was facing off against the five monsters trying to rip Suzu apart.
The last ten monsters still guarded the exits, but there was no telling when they might join the fight.
What’s wrong, Nagumo!? Why won’t you fight back!? Don’t tell me you’re already… You better not have gone and died without us! I won’t forgive you if you leave us behind!
Right as Yuka started thinking that—
“Shit! This isn’t good, Sonobe! She’s coming for us!” Kentarou screamed hysterically.
Yuka didn’t need to ask who he was talking about. The fear in his voice made it obvious he meant the apostle. He’d learned first-hand how terrifying they could be when one had beaten him senseless back at the palace.
“Nomura, Nana! Focus your attacks on the—” Yuka tried to bark out orders, but before she could finish, a silver flash shot toward the students.
“Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Liliana screamed as the attack pushed against her barrier. She managed to hold out for only a second before it shattered it.
“Sensei!”
The silver flash continued toward Aiko and Kaori, its power undiminished. Taeko tackled the pair, barely pushing them out of the attack’s path. A shiver ran down her spine as she watched the blast obliterate the ground where Aiko and Kaori had been mere seconds before.
The students had lost the protection of Liliana’s barrier, so both the apostle and the monsters flooded in toward them.
I have to at least save Sensei… or we’re done for!
Pushing down the fear that threatened to engulf her, Yuka tried to force her way between Aiko and the apostle. Not even seeing Yuka as a threat, the apostle lazily swung her sword, as if cutting down a weed.
“Not so fast!”
A flash of silver light shot toward the apostle, sending her flying. A second later, countless silver feathers rained down on the monsters, riddling them full of holes.
Kaori had finally been revived.
“Sensei, Yuka-chan, guys, thanks for saving me!”
She had no intention of giving the monsters enough time to heal. While they struggled to recover from the initial barrage, she rained down yet more feathers on them, annihilating them completely.
“Shirasaki-san! I’m going to keep casting Soul’s Repose on you, just in case. It might make it harder for you to fight, but…”
“If it’ll keep them from paralyzing me again, it’s worth it!”
Kaori swept her gaze across the battlefield and picked out the important details. It looked like Hajime had been defeated, Yue was nowhere to be seen, and everyone was heavily injured. The anger she felt when she saw her friends hurt was so great that even Aiko’s Soul’s Repose couldn’t dampen it.
The moment she spotted the apostles bearing down on Shizuku and Tio, she fired her disintegration cannon at them.
Drawing strength from the cheers of Aiko, Yuka, and the other students, Kaori kept on firing until she forced the four apostles attacking Tio and Shizuku to back off.
“Are you two okay!?”
“Don’t give them a moment to rest! If we’re forced on the defensive, we’ll be overwhelmed!” Tio replied. Though she was covered in blood and barely standing, Tio told Kaori to prioritize attacking over healing.
Upon seeing the resolve in her gaze, Kaori nodded immediately and resumed her assault. She launched another disintegration blast at one of the apostles, who countered with a disintegration blast of her own. While the two beams competed for superiority, another apostle closed in on Kaori. However, Kaori refused to be done in so easily.
“I’ll never lose to mere puppets like you!”
As she tried to convince herself she was different from them, Kaori’s silver mana slowly began to take on a light purple tinge. The evolution magic she’d obtained had granted her strength that surpassed other apostles.
Her purplish-white mana pulsed and her disintegration blast overwhelmed that of the apostle’s.
“To think you would surpass us, despite using the body of one of our sisters…” one of the apostles muttered in bewilderment as Kaori’s attack engulfed her.
“Your carelessness will be your undoing!” Tio exclaimed, striking at another one of the apostles that was trying to circle behind Kaori.
“Even if I can’t beat you guys, I can at least distract you!” Shizuku shouted.
“To think a mere human would reach such heights…”
After catching her quarry completely off-guard, Tio managed to drive her scale-covered arm right through the apostle’s chest. She’d wrapped a compressed version of her breath around her arm, granting it far more penetrative power than normal. As she pierced the apostle’s heart, she crushed the mana crystal that powered it. The reason Tio had been able to hit the apostle so easily was because Shizuku had struck from the apostle’s blind spot, distracting it for a moment.
When Tio pulled her arm back, the apostle slumped to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. It was well and truly dead.
In the span of a few seconds, Kaori, Shizuku, and Tio had managed to slay two apostles. Considering how unbelievably strong each one was, that was a huge victory.
However, that victory was short-lived.
“Sheesh, what a waste of time. My strength may be a mere fraction of my lord’s, but I am still a god, you know?”
Kaori, Shizuku, and Tio looked toward the source of the voice. They’d been so focused on their own fight that they hadn’t realized Alva and Shea’s had ended.
“Shea!” the three of them shouted simultaneously. Then, they watched as Alva lifted up a powerless Shea by the neck.
Though she still seemed conscious, she lacked the strength to struggle against his grip. Blood pooled at her feet, and it was clear she was on the verge of death.
The three of them were momentarily distracted by Shea’s plight… which proved fatal.
“I order you in the name of Alvaheit— Stop.”
Alva’s Divine Edict ate away at Kaori’s soul. Thanks to Aiko’s Soul’s Repose, Kaori didn’t lose consciousness immediately, but Yuka, Suzu, and the other students all stopped in their tracks. However, his wasn’t as strong as Ehit’s, so even Tio and Shizuku would be able to break free of their own accord, given time.
Unfortunately, the apostles refused to give them even a moment to resist. They created magic circles with their feathers and rained lightning down on the trio. Tio’s scales and Kaori’s apostle body were both highly conductive, so the lightning was exceptionally effective against them.
Alva also tossed Shea into the lightning storm, making doubly sure that she wouldn’t make a comeback.
“I also order you— Accept your punishment.”
The four of them had instinctively started emitting mana to protect themselves, but they stopped upon hearing Alva’s command, screaming as the lightning struck their unprotected flesh. By the time the storm passed, the four of them were twitching weakly, their bodies covered in burns.
That was the reason Shea had lost to Alva. She could fight his Divine Edict. In fact, it only took her a second to break through it. But that second was precious time lost, and slowly but surely, Alva had been able to pile more and more damage onto her.
“Now then. I’ve had my fun, so I suppose it’s about time we wrap things up,” Alva declared. From the looks of it, most of the demons had finished filing through Ehit’s portal.
As Alva looked up at the shining gate leading to the Sanctuary, he dispersed his mana across the room. Dark gold motes of light suffused the air, and a large, complex magic circle began to form on the floor.
“The least I can do to atone for my failures is present your mana to my lord.”
Before he’d left, Ehit had claimed he would steal all the mana in Tortus. Hajime and his comrades possessed an unbelievable quantity of mana, so stealing all of it would probably be enough to make up for Alva’s blunder.
Indeed, the reason Alva hadn’t killed everyone instantly had been because he’d wanted to give their mana to Ehit. Of course, he’d also wanted to vent his anger against Hajime and the others, as well as kill time while the demons evacuated, but that had been the main reason.
“All of you have extremely high-quality mana. I’m sure my lord will be pleased with this offering. Though… there are a few of you here who are utterly worthless.”
As the magic circle neared completion, Alva’s motes of mana started wrapping themselves around everyone. Mana shouldn’t have had any physical sensation, but for some reason, Alva’s mana felt repulsive to the students.
Smiling, he rested his gaze on Myu and Remia. And with a snap of his fingers, a portal appeared underneath them, teleporting them into the air in front of Alva. They fell unceremoniously to the ground, grunting in pain. It happened so fast that Suzu didn’t even have time to react.
Alva snapped his fingers again, and Myu floated up toward him. He must have released his Divine Edict against her, since she was able to shout again.
“M-Mommy!”
“Stop! Release my daughter at— Agh!”
As Myu struggled in vain, Remia tried to reach for her daughter. But the Divine Edict was still working on her, so she couldn’t even stand. That being said, she still managed to croak a few words out, as well as move her hand a few inches. It was honestly impressive that a normal person like her had even accomplished that. However, even the strength of a mother’s love was worthless in the face of Alva’s cruelty.
“You’ll be dead soon, anyway. The least you can do is be useful during your final moments.”
He left Myu hanging in midair and walked over to Hajime, who hadn’t so much as twitched the entire time.
“Behold, Irregular! This is your punishment for defying god!”
Hajime had gotten in the way of Ehit’s games, and then he’d gotten in the way of his descent onto the mortal plane. And so, Alva planned to make him pay for his sins by killing his beloved daughter in front of his eyes.
“Daddy! Daddyyy!” Myu screamed for help, but Hajime remained unmoving. No one else did anything, either.
Shea and Shizuku were too badly injured from the lightning storm to move. Tio and Kaori weren’t in much better shape, either, and they were still struggling to overcome Alva’s Divine Edict. Naturally, everyone else was utterly helpless.
Before long, the magic circle was complete… and everyone felt Alva’s mana draining away their life force. Alva brushed his hand against the back of Myu’s neck, his fingers carrying the promise of death.
“Now, raise your head, Irregular! I know you’re still alive!”
Alva had purposely exempted Hajime from his Divine Edict.
He cackled maniacally, his voice echoing throughout the room. It was then that he noticed his voice was the only sound in the room. Bewildered, he closed his mouth and listened.
Silence reigned. And it felt unnaturally complete, seemingly encompassing more than just sound.
Looking down, Alva realized he couldn’t feel anything at all from Hajime. And there was something terrifying about that. The five apostles restraining him hadn’t let their guard down for even a second, meaning he was undoubtedly alive and conscious, but…
At the same time, Shea and the others felt chills run down their spine. Their instincts screamed at them to run. At first, they thought Alva and the apostles were up to something, but then they realized that wasn’t it. This primal fear was being caused by something else.
“D-Daddy?” Myu whimpered, looking about as scared as everyone else.
Annoyed, Alva signaled to the apostles with his eyes. They nodded, and one of them grabbed Hajime’s hair. For a moment, she hesitated, surprising Alva. But then she made up her mind and pulled Hajime’s face up.
“Ah!” he gasped. The moment he met Hajime’s gaze, Alva instinctively took a step backward. Moreover, for the first time in thousands of years, he made an elementary mistake. He momentarily lost control of his mana. And as a result, Myu broke free from his restraints and dropped to the ground in front of Hajime.
Alva immediately thrust a hand toward her and began recasting the spell to lift her up, but then stopped midway. To his utter surprise, his hand trembled. It trembled in fear. And the source… was Hajime’s eye.
Within Hajime’s shrunken pupil, he saw… nothingness. His eye was darker than darkness itself… and deeper than the abyss. Alva couldn’t sense the tiniest shred of light within it. It was the eye of a true monster. Alva could feel it dragging him in, inviting him to madness. He feared his very existence would be erased if he stared into it for too long.
“K-Kill—” spurred on by an impulse he didn’t fully comprehend, Alva tried ordering the apostles to kill him immediately. Hajime was on the verge of death, bereft of all his weapons, and should have had his will completely shattered by the loss of Yue. And yet, Alva felt as though he was more dangerous than ever.
The apostles moved instantly, as if they’d been dying to get permission to kill Hajime. Impossible as it seemed, they too feared him. One of the apostles wreathed her hand with disintegration magic and sliced at Hajime’s neck. However, she’d acted too late. Alva had given Hajime far too much time.
The eerie silence that had filled the room vanished. Crimson mana erupted from Hajime’s body, looking like a giant torrent of blood. The sight made goosebumps rise on everyone’s arms, and it felt as though the gates of hell had suddenly been thrown open.
In a deep, dark, despairing voice, Hajime rasped, “I’ll destroy everything!”
His words were a curse. A curse that rejected this world in its entirety.
Realizing they were in danger, the apostles restraining him suddenly leaped back. But they were too late. There was a strange popping noise, and three of the five apostles were sliced in half. A flash of light later, they were cut into quarters, and after a few more flashes of light, they’d been torn to pieces.
In the span of a few seconds, Hajime had reduced three apostles to ash.
Everyone was stunned speechless. No one had any idea what had just happened.
“Alva-sama, please fall back!”
The remaining two apostles grouped in front of Alva to protect him.
Crimson mana swirled around Hajime. It looked as though he was surrounded by a whirlpool of monster blood. His face was deathly pale, and his expression was more emotionless than the apostles’. Blood still dripped from the open wound on his stomach, and it was a wonder he had any left in his body.
“D-Daddy? Are you okay? You look really— Eeek!”
Hajime’s mana pulsed, knocking Myu away from him. Normally, he would never have treated her so roughly, but right now he didn’t even spare her a glance.
“Fall back, you say? Don’t be ridiculous. Why should a god like me retreat from a human!?” Alva proclaimed, ignoring the apostle’s warning.
Confident in his powers, he glared at Hajime and commanded, “I order you in the name of Alvaheit, kneel befo— Aaaaaaaaagh!”
“Alva-sama!”
Without warning, Alva’s outstretched arm was separated from his body. The dismembered limb sailed through the air, and a second later, it was sliced to ribbons just like the apostles who’d died earlier.
Seeing that, one of the remaining apostles grabbed Alva and tried to flee.
Normally, Alva would have been able to heal a severed limb in no time, the same way he’d healed from being shot in the head. But at that moment, he looked utterly bewildered. Pain was a signal the body sent the brain to let it know something was wrong. However, most physical damage wasn’t actually capable of harming Alva, since he was a god. His body didn’t register most wounds as a threat.
That was the first time he’d truly been injured in thousands of years, and it took a moment for him to realize this sensation was pain. The body he inhabited was nothing more than a vessel. If it was damaged, he could just repair it, and if it was destroyed, he could simply move to a new one. Thus, there shouldn’t have been anything in this world that could truly harm him. And yet, he was in pain.
“H-How!? What’s happening!?”
“He’s using superfine threads… no, perhaps it would be more accurate to classify them as chains. Anything that touches one gets severed instantly, then obliterated. No defense seems to protect against it.”
“Wh-What in the world…?”
Once it had been pointed out to him, Alva barely made out the thin chains whirling around Hajime. From the looks of it, he’d transmuted them out of the floor. When he’d lost his arm, a small chain had risen from the floor to slice it.
“What nonsense is this!? If he had an artifact this powerful, why didn’t he—?”
Why didn’t he use it earlier!? Why did he let Lord Ehit go!?
Questions presented themselves one after another, but Alva didn’t have time to ponder any of them. Not that he would ever have even considered the possibility that Hajime had, without any of his magic circles, not only managed to create the chains while pinned to the ground, but had done so without letting anyone sense the flow of his mana.
Alva looked pretty undignified for a god as he scrambled away from Hajime, his jaw still hanging open.
“We do not know the particulars of his new power, but it is clearly a dangerous threat. Alva-sama, please retreat! We’ll buy time for—”
“Ah!”
One of the apostles’ heads flew off, followed by both of her arms. As her body toppled to the ground, it was sliced to pieces until there was nothing left.
Three other apostles launched a torrent of feathers at Hajime from behind, but he didn’t seem the least bit concerned. The attacks all fizzled into nothingness as they drew closer to him.
The crimson light spiraling around him wasn’t just mana. His superfine chains were inside it as well, coiling around him like a protective shell.
“Stop him!” the apostle guarding Alva shouted. In response, all the monsters in the room charged at Hajime. They were nothing more than bait to buy time for the other four apostles to find an opening. Moving fast enough to create afterimages, the apostles circled Hajime.
Meanwhile, Alva grit his teeth and attempted to fly up to the portal in the sky.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Hajime muttered flatly.
“Wha—? When did you…?”
Countless dark crimson chains rose up from the ground to chase after Alva. If even one of them touched him, it would mean instant death. They overtook him and formed a dome-shaped ceiling to keep him trapped within the throne room. Hajime had created a cage of death around Alva.
The dark golden magic circle that had been draining the students’ mana disappeared and the throne room was suffused with crimson light.
“Oh no… This doesn’t bode well. Kaori, get them to the floor below!” Tio, who’d finally managed to shake off the effects of Alva’s Divine Edict, shouted desperately.
For a second, Kaori didn’t understand what Tio was trying to say. But when she followed Tio’s gaze and saw Aiko and the others huddling in a group, it clicked.
A shiver of fear ran down her spine, and she also struggled against Alva’s Divine Edict to launch a huge barrage of feathers. The feathers whizzed past the apostles battling with Hajime and cut a large circle in the ground around Aiko and the others. They screamed as their section of the floor fell to the story below, but that saved them from being trapped in Hajime’s crimson chain cage.
After making sure they were safe, Kaori turned around and shouted, “Myu-chan, Remia-san!”
She flew over to the two of them and hugged them protectively.
“Kaori-onee-chan, why’s Daddy…?”
“What happened to Hajime-san?”
“Don’t worry, everything will be just fine.”
Kaori forced a smile onto her face to try and reassure Myu and Remia. But she, too, was silently praying for Hajime’s safety.
Meanwhile, Tio grabbed Shea and Shizuku, then carried them over to where Suzu and Ryutarou were. As she reached them, another apostle fell to the ground, cut to pieces along with her claymore. The whole time, the monsters were being slaughtered in droves as they rushed Hajime.
“Wh-What’s happening!?”
“What’s gotten into Nagumo!?”
Suzu and Ryutarou both looked bewildered.
Standing protectively over them, Tio narrowed her eyes and explained, “Master is likely using concept magic.”
However, that only served to deepen Suzu and Ryutarou’s confusion.
“B-But I thought he could only use concept magic when he was with Yue-san?”
“Yeah. Didn’t you say he’d need a desire as strong as his wish to go home to use concept magic again, Tio-san!?”
“It is precisely because he lost Yue that he managed to reach this level. You heard what he said as well, did you not?”
The two of them stared blankly at her for a second, then shivered in fear as they realized what concept Hajime must have actualized.
His bottomless rage at having lost Yue had coalesced into an overwhelming apathy. What value was there in a world devoid of his beloved? What reason was there to continue existing in a world without Yue? In Hajime’s mind, there was none. He wouldn’t forgive this world for stealing Yue away from him. Nor would he accept the existence of such a world.
That was why he’d been able to cast concept magic that erased the very existence of everything his chains touched. Hope had driven him to create the Crystal Key, but the complete opposite feeling, despair, fueled his current concept magic.
Sorrow colored Suzu and Ryutarou’s expressions as they realized just how deep Hajime’s anguish ran.
“I suspect anything those chains touch will be removed from existence. Unfortunately, I lack the strength to evacuate you to the floor below with the others. Do not stray from my side no matter what.”
Tio’s conjecture was right on the mark. Hajime’s concept magic was based on evolution magic’s ability to manipulate information. Specifically, anything the chains touched had the information that made up their existence overwritten. In the eyes of the world, they went from “exists” to “doesn’t exist.”
It looked as though the chains were cutting through things, but in truth, anything they touched had its existence erased.
It was little wonder that Alva was afraid of them. Hajime’s erasure was so absolute that even restoration magic couldn’t fix the wounds it caused. Alva realized that on an instinctual level, which was why the chains terrified him so.
While Tio was explaining things to Suzu and Ryutarou, the fight came to an end.
“Alva-sama, I’m sorry we failed y—” the final apostle muttered as she was erased from existence. It was strange to see the apostles, Ehit’s strongest soldiers, taken down one after another like they were nothing.
There was no physical way out for Alva. Hajime’s chains had already covered every inch of the throne room. Therefore, his only hope was to teleport out with spatial magic. He fired blasts of mana at Hajime while he attempted to open a portal.
“Dammit!”
However, Hajime just sent one of his chains at the portal Alva opened, destroying it.
The remaining few monsters ignored the attack order they’d been given and started to flee. But there was no escape, and Hajime made short work of them as well.
Alva was the only one left standing.
Impossible… This can’t be happening! That power of his is far too dangerous. I must find a way to escape and report this to my lord!
Alva put as much distance between him and Hajime as possible.
Those chains are more than just an affront to Lord Ehit, they’re an affront to all of creation… he thought, fear etched all over his face.
The only way out is if I… Alva’s thoughts solidified as he glanced over at Myu. He needed a hostage if he wished to survive. If he could make Hajime hesitate for even a second, he’d be able to summon a portal and escape.
“You damned heathen!” Alva screamed as he unleashed his strongest spell. A blast of lightning so powerful it even damaged the caster shot toward Hajime.
Blinding white light filled the room, followed by a deafening roar.
Alva dashed toward Myu while Hajime was ostensibly occupied, but—
“Huh? Aaaaaaaaah!”
The moment he stepped forward, his remaining arm and both his legs were lopped off. The ease with which he’d been dismembered was astounding.
Alva tumbled to the ground, his screams echoing through the throne room. He hadn’t felt pain in so long that he had little resistance to it, and he couldn’t magically numb it, either. The reason for that was because each time Hajime cut off a part of Alva’s body, he also cut off a part of his soul.
Delirious from the pain and hovering on the edge of unconsciousness, Alva screamed in a trembling, panicked voice, “W-W-W-Wait! Please, wait! Wh-What do you want? I can grant any desire you wish! I’ll even negotiate with my lord if that’s what it takes! I know Lord Ehit will listen to me. You can… You can even have the world if you want! I’ll tell him to give you the right to rule this world however you please! So please, spare my life!”
Alva begged for his life, but Hajime didn’t stop walking forward. He’d become the incarnation of death, and not even gods were safe from the reaper’s scythe.
Hajime looked down at Alva, and the god shivered at the vast emptiness in Hajime’s eye. For the first time in his long life, he felt true fear.
His mind went blank, and he could only stare absently as the chains closed in on him from all sides. None of the dignified grace he’d had earlier was present, and he looked more like a zoo animal than a god as he watched his spherical cage slowly constrict around him.
The chains that made up the cage began sliding past each other, making it look as though the sphere was rotating as it shrunk.
It was clear that Hajime planned to slowly grind him away into nothingness. As he imagined what it would feel like to have his soul shaved away little by little, he finally snapped.
“I’ll pledge myself in service to you. You’ll be my new lord! I swear I can be useful! So please, I’m begging you!”
His fear of death overrode his pride as a god, and he started groveling. Right before the chains touched him, Hajime stopped shrinking the cage and looked down at Alva.
“Do you want to live that badly?”
“Huh?”
Hajime’s voice sounded cold and robotic.
Normally, Alva would have realized Hajime had no intention of sparing him, no matter what he said. He’d toyed with thousands of people the same way Hajime was toying with him now. But he was too desperate to notice.
“Y-Yeah, I do. I don’t want to die.”
“I see…”
Again, Alva failed to notice the utter disinterest in Hajime’s voice. Convinced that he’d been saved, Alva smiled in relief.
Tio and the others almost pitied him. It was clear to everyone else that Alva’s fate had long since been sealed.
“Then die.”
“Huh? Wh-Why!? No, stop— Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahg!”
The cage contracted excruciatingly slowly, torturing Alva as it annihilated him.
No one said a word as Hajime carried out his sadistic execution. Being eaten alive by one of Yue’s dragons was surely a better fate than this.
Unable to bear watching any longer, everyone averted their gaze. Eventually, Alva’s screams faded away, and one of Tortus’ gods was dead.
“Hajime-kun!”
“Master!”
Kaori and Tio ran over to Hajime as the chains that had crushed Alva and the chains covering the room began to vanish. However, Hajime didn’t turn their way. Looking as though he hadn’t heard them at all, he cast his gaze up toward the portal Ehit had opened.
A second later, a few chains gathered around him, and Hajime leaped up toward it. The only thing he was interested in was getting through it and into the Sanctuary.
There were still demons filtering through it, riding on the backs of large eagle-shaped monsters. From the looks of it, only fifty or so remained. Half were demon soldiers who served as the rearguard for this mass migration, and the rest were women, children, and the elderly.
“Hm? Wh-What’s that?” one of the demons muttered, looking down at the palace.
“Isn’t that…?” another whispered.
They saw a small streak of dark crimson shooting up toward them like a meteor. It only took them a second to realize that it wasn’t a demon, and they quickly started shooting magic at it.
Because they kept their incantations short, they were only able to fire basic spells like ice spears and fireballs at Hajime. Naturally, such weak magic posed no threat to him, and a single swing of his existence-erasing chains was enough to annihilate the spells.
“What the!?”
“S-Stop right there!”
A few of the soldiers turned their eagles around to block Hajime. However, he barely took notice of them as he plowed forward. The three soldiers and their eagles were erased instantly, and Hajime’s speed didn’t even drop.
The demons stared on in shock as their comrades were sliced to pieces. No one else moved forward to stop Hajime as he charged toward the gate.
However—
“Uwooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!”
The gate pulsed as soon as Hajime reached it, blocking him from accessing the Sanctuary.
No matter how loudly he screamed, no matter how much mana he threw at it, no matter how hard he beat against it with his fist, the gate refused to let him in.
He debated trying to pierce through the barrier with his chains, but he was worried they might destroy the gate entirely if he did. That being said, it was clear Ehit had designed the gate to only let those he wanted through.
“Fool. Only us demons, the chosen race, are allowed into Lord Ehit’s divine Sanctuary!”
“Stop wasting your time and accept your punishment, you damned heretic!”
All of the demons, even the women and children, started raining magic down on Hajime. He didn’t even try to block the attacks, and his back was soon covered in cuts and burns.
His attention was focused solely on the gate. Nothing else mattered at all.
“Let me through! Let me throuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh!”
The demons faltered, shocked that Hajime would continue charging mindlessly at the gate despite how badly they’d injured him.
A second later, though, their shock turned to anger as the gate began to dim.
“You damned monster! Because of you, the gate’s closing!”
“H-Hurry! We need to get through before it closes for good!”
The demons started rushing the gate. As they charged forward, they rained down even more powerful magic on Hajime in an attempt to kill him.
“Master! What are you doing!? Do you have a death wish!?”
However, Tio caught up to them just in time and blocked the magic with a combination of her scales and a magic barrier.
A second later, the galaxy-shaped gate faded away into nothingness.
For a moment, silence reigned, but then the demons’ wrath returned in full force. They began chanting incantations for higher-level spells, though Hajime ignored them completely. He just stared blankly at the spot where the gate had been a second ago, looking defeated.
“Blast! We should escape for now, Master!”
Tearing up at the look of abject despair on Hajime’s face, Tio slung him over her shoulder and descended back to the palace. She treasured Yue as well, so she understood all too well how Hajime felt. Indeed, the loss of Yue had left a gaping hole in her heart. But right now, Hajime was on the verge of death. In fact, it was a miracle he hadn’t died already, so there wasn’t a moment to waste.
She understood how strong Hajime’s desire to save Yue was, however, she also knew that if she didn’t get him treated right away, he really would die.
“Master, please, you need to think of your own well-being first!”
Noticing that Hajime had swapped his attention to the demons chasing after them, Tio grit her teeth and tried to get through to him. He didn’t reply, but she nevertheless continued flying toward the throne room where Kaori waited.
“Hajime-kun, Tio!” Kaori shouted, running over the moment Tio landed.
Looking around, Tio saw that Kaori had already finished healing Shea, Shizuku, Suzu, and Ryutarou. Aiko and the others had made it back to the throne room, while Remia and Myu remained by Kaori’s side.
Though Kaori had wanted to chase after Hajime the moment he’d left, she’d controlled her impulses and focused on healing Shea and the others first. That way, everyone would get the chance to go after him together. But in the end, it turned out there was no need to chase him, since Tio had brought him back.
Tio’s knees buckled as she hit the ground. She’d been badly injured, but she’d still chased after Hajime because she knew someone had to be by his side. Unfortunately, her draconic endurance had given out at last, and she was at her limits.
“Ngh, I’ll be fine! Heal Master first!”
Despite her injuries, Tio implored Kaori to focus on Hajime. For his part, Hajime simply stood silently next to Tio, his mana still raging as fiercely as before.
“Hajime-kun, please stop burning so much mana! If you keep this up, you’ll actually die!”
Concept magic required unbelievable amounts of mana to cast, and Hajime was still under the effects of the Limit Break he’d used. Even if Kaori healed his physical wounds, if he didn’t calm down, he’d die from mana overuse.
Sadly, Hajime failed to respond yet again. His gaze remained fixed firmly upward.
Despite feeling dismayed that her words hadn’t gotten through to him, Kaori grit her teeth and started casting restoration magic on him. However, she was interrupted as a number of figures blotted out the sun, casting dark shadows over everyone.
“An apostle!? I didn’t realize any were still left on Tortus!”
“Oh, thank goodness! I was worried we were trapped here for a moment!”
“Wait, there are humans… and even beastmen with her? Well, no matter. O great apostle, please pass judgment on these heretics and guide us to Lord Ehit’s promised land!”
The twenty demon soldiers and thirty civilians slowly descended into the throne room.
“I won’t let you lay a finger on anyone!”
“Everyone, get behind us!”
“It’s just one problem after another.”
Kaori, Shea, and Shizuku warily eyed the demons as they stepped protectively in front of the others, but it seemed there wouldn’t be any need to fight.
Before anyone could react, all of the eagle monsters’ heads went flying. The demons then tumbled off the monsters’ corpses, unable to comprehend what had just happened.
The soldiers managed to land on their feet, but that wasn’t enough to save them. The person who’d told Kaori to kill everyone was cut to ribbons the moment he landed, and blood spurted out of his dismembered body.
The other soldiers didn’t even have time to ask what had just happened before Hajime annihilated them as well with his chains.
There were a lot less of them than there originally were, and they weren’t completely destroying the demons like they had the apostles. Instead, chunks of blood and flesh remained, making the scene look far more gruesome than before. Nana, Taeko, and many other students screamed at the horrific sight. Others went pale-faced and started throwing up.
Eventually, the surviving demons realized it was Hajime who was killing them, and they angrily turned to him.
“Ah…”
But the moment they saw his eye, they let out terrified gasps and staggered backward. Their courage left them, and they lost any desire to fight.
“R-Run! We have to get out of the castle, or—” the final soldier shouted before Hajime parted his head from his body.
Hajime’s glowing, dark crimson chains looked like the heads of a hydra. Like a deer in headlights, the demons could only stare blankly at the wriggling chains that held the touch of death.
“Die,” Hajime whispered. Though his voice sounded soft, all of the demons clearly heard the curse he cast upon them.
“L-Lady Apostle! Please save us!” an old man wearing luxurious robes shouted to Kaori. Judging by his clothes, he was a noble of some sort, and he was standing protectively in front of an old woman who was likely his wife. His voice snapped Kaori out of her reverie.
“H-Hajime-kun…” she muttered, reaching out a hand to stop him.
“Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”
Unfortunately, before she could say anything more, the old demon lady let out a blood-curdling scream. Hajime had just decapitated the old demon. And before his head even hit the ground, it was chopped to pieces and removed from existence.
“S-Stop! Hajime-kun!”
“Hajime-san, these people are no longer our ene—”
“All of you, surrender! Get on your knees and put your hands in the air!”
All demons possessed enough magic to fight, but these people were civilians. Though they considered Hajime a hateful heretic, they’d lost the will to fight the moment the soldiers and monsters had been defeated.
Kaori and Shea stepped forward to restrain Hajime, while Shizuku implored the demons to show they had no intention of fighting.
While they talked, the old woman’s screams vanished, along with the rest of her. A young man filled with righteous fury stepped forward to take revenge, but he too was cut in half and turned into a puddle of blood.
“W-We surrender!” a young father stepped in front of his child and dropped to his knees, admitting defeat. The others followed suit, falling to their knees and putting their hands into the air.
They were fanatical followers of Alva and elitists who believed they were the chosen race, but they bowed down in front of a human all the same. That showed just how terrifying Hajime seemed to them. However, even their surrender wasn’t enough to appease Hajime. There was a sickening thud as a middle-aged man at the edge of the group was sliced in half and his body hit the ground. His face showed a mixture of surprise and despair as the light vanished from his eye.
“Wh-Why…?” one of the demons whispered in anguish. The dead man’s wife stared at his corpse in horror until seconds later, she joined him in death.
Hajime had no intention of stopping just because the demons had surrendered. And that shouldn’t have come as a surprise, considering that the impetus driving him forward was “I’ll destroy everything.”
In that moment, nothing in the world had any value to Hajime. Or at least, he’d convinced himself of that fact. Whatever the case, he wasn’t interested in taking prisoners, and the mere existence of these demons was an eyesore. He had no compunctions about slaughtering anyone and everyone that appeared before him.
The demons began to despair. Kaori, Aiko, and everyone else was stunned speechless by his display of brutality. They all wanted to stop him, but they weren’t sure how to get through to him in his current state.
Hajime looked down at the man who’d first announced his surrender. Or rather, he looked down at the child clinging to the man’s legs. And upon realizing his son was the next target, the man turned around and hugged him.
Shea, Kaori, Shizuku, Tio, Aiko, and Liliana all sprinted forward to restrain Hajime, but a certain someone got there before all of them.
“Stop it, Daddy! Go back to the usual Daddy!”
Myu barred his path. She stepped between Hajime and the two demons and spread her arms out wide. There were tears in her eyes, and she was trembling in fear. Her expression looked as stiff as a board, but the determination in her eyes was unwavering.
“Move,” Hajime said in a voice as cold as ice. He had never spoken in such a tone to Myu, so her heart felt like it was being gouged out with a rusty spoon. She wanted to curl up and start crying, but she remained strong.
“I-I won’t!”
No matter what happened, Myu wouldn’t budge. She couldn’t allow her beloved daddy to kill these people. Not only because it was wrong, but because she couldn’t bear to see him take his suffering out on others.
There was no way she could sit back and do nothing when he was in so much pain. Myu kept her eyes locked on Hajime and slowly worked her facial muscles into a smile. Tears still spilled down her cheeks, and her smile looked unbelievably stiff. But even so, no one would disparage that smile. Everyone knew who Myu was trying to emulate. After all, it was the same fearless smile Hajime made when he was up against unbeatable odds.
Myu idolized that smile, just as she idolized the person who’d taught it to her.
“My daddy isn’t this lame! The real you is way cooler than this! And way stronger!”
Everyone watched Myu with bated breath. She looked as gallant as a storybook hero, standing up to Hajime without backing down an inch.
The small hero stared down the monster of the abyss, and even the demons were moved by her unbreakable will.
“I won’t lose to you when you’re like this. Right now, even I’m stronger than you, Daddy!”
Myu was determined to get the Hajime she knew and loved back. She wasn’t going to let him keep looking at her with that dead, defeated eye. She’d grab his hand and stop him before he went so far he couldn’t turn back. Myu looked directly into Hajime’s empty eye, something that even Alva had shrunk away from doing, her gaze unflinching.
“Ah…”
After a few seconds, she finally elicited a reaction from Hajime. No one else’s words had been able to reach him, but thanks to Myu, Hajime’s expression changed for the first time since Yue’s disappearance. His mouth curled into a frown, signaling his defeat. But as always, Hajime refused to give up.
“I won’t say it a third time. Move.”
“Hajime-kun,” Kaori said, walking resolutely up to him. Then, she grabbed him by the shoulder, wheeling him around.
Giving him a smile that didn’t reach her eyes, she commanded, “Grit your teeth for a second.”
“Agh!”
She’d punched him in the face with all her might. Hajime somersaulted through the air and fell to the ground, turning into a crumpled heap. He managed to struggle back to his knees, but he no longer had the strength left to stand.
Kaori looked down at him, her expression a mixture of sadness and anger.
“Wake up already, Hajime-kun! How long do you plan to sit there, wallowing in misery and self-pity!?”
“Ngh…”
“Do you have any idea how pathetic you look, taking your anger at losing Yue out on Myu-chan, your own daughter!? What would Yue say if she saw you now? Actually, I guess you don’t care, since you’ve already given up on getting her back, huh?”
Surprise colored Hajime’s eye. He opened his mouth to retort, but Kaori spoke first, stopping him.
“I heard what you said loud and clear. ‘I’ll destroy everything.’ I bet you thought a world without Yue was worthless, didn’t you? But that means you’d already given up on ever getting to see her again! You decided to destroy everything because you’d given up on getting her back!”
“……”
Light slowly returned to Hajime’s eye as he regained his senses. The dark crimson glow of the chains surrounding the demons began to fade. And as it did, the blood-colored mana turned brighter and more vibrant.
Kaori squatted down in front of Hajime and said in a determined voice, “I’m going to go rescue Yue. I’ll bring her back, no matter what it takes. What about you, Hajime-kun? What are you going to do? Sit here and execute every single one of these demons who’ve already surrendered? Have you really given up on Yue? Can you give up on her?”
“…Hell no,” after a long silence, Hajime finally answered her question.
Kaori gave him a stern glance, while Myu still glared at him from behind. Their clear gazes were like a gust of fresh wind, clearing out all the negative emotions that had been piling up in Hajime’s mind.
A moment later, he felt an impact on the top of his head. Turning around, he saw Shea standing over him, an angry frown on her face.
“You can show us your uncool side, but when you’re in front of Myu, you’ve gotta be the amazing dad she thinks you are. This is your punishment for making her cry!”
“I can’t argue with that…” Hajime muttered, accepting Shea’s scolding. His chains crumbled away, and his mana stopped swirling around him.
“Don’t think you will be able to escape my punishment, either.”
“And this is from me.”
Tio and Shizuku punched Hajime as well. Both of them looked deeply relieved to see Hajime turn back to normal. He scratched his head awkwardly, thinking back to how defeatist the concept magic he’d cast earlier was.
“Sorry… I almost crossed a dangerous line back there.”
“There’s no need to apologize, Master. Everyone loses themselves in anger sometimes. Besides, even if you weren’t conscious of it, you made sure to keep your chains away from us.”
“Come to think of it, was the reason you protected all of us because you knew Nagumo-kun wouldn’t attack us if you were there?” Shizuku asked thoughtfully.
“Who can say,” Tio replied evasively, and Shizuku shot her a glare.
In truth, Shizuku’s guess was correct. Tio had believed that no matter how enraged he got, Hajime would never try to erase the people he cared about. Though, the only people she was confident he truly cared about were herself, Shea, Kaori, Myu, and Remia.
She’d suspected he cared about Shizuku and Aiko a decent amount as well, but she wasn’t certain he’d avoid harming Suzu, Ryutarou, Liliana, Yuka, or any of the other students. That was why she’d had Kaori evacuate the students, and protected Suzu, Ryutarou, and Shizuku herself. The reason she’d had Kaori protect Myu and Remia wasn’t to keep them safe from Hajime, but to prevent Alva from taking them hostage.
In fact, Myu had been the closest to Hajime at that time, yet she’d come out unscathed. His mana had blown her away, but that was all.
Suzu, Aiko, Yuka, and Liliana all seemed unsure how to react to the fact that Hajime didn’t care about them enough to spare their lives, but they too were glad that he had returned to normal.
Kaori cupped Hajime’s face in her hands and looked into his eye. Her expression was unbelievably gentle, a stark contrast to the angry look she’d been giving him seconds before.
“It’s not like this is over, right?”
“Yeah. It’s like you said.”
“You’re not alone, Hajime-kun. You’ve got us with you, and most importantly, you’ve got Yue. She might not be here physically, but she’s here in spirit. I bet… no, I’m certain that she’s still fighting Ehit so that she can return to you. I mean, it’s Yue we’re talking about here. There’s no way she’d lose to some shitty god.”
“Yeah, you’re right. She saved us when Ehit was about to kill us, so she’s probably still messing with him.”
“Exactly. No one’s as good at bullying people as Yue.”
“You do know that the only person she bullies is you, right?”
Hajime and Kaori smiled at each other, and after that, he finally let the tension drain from his body.
He then cast his gaze over everyone else and said in a sincere tone, “I’m sorry.”
Once that was done, he turned back to Myu, who’d been waiting eagerly for her turn. As their eyes locked, Hajime thought about apologizing to her as well, but then realized there was something more fitting he could say.
“Myu.”
“Daddy…”
After a brief pause, Hajime continued in a voice laden with emotion, saying, “Thank you.”
He gave Myu the kindest, gentlest smile he could. Hajime was honestly proud that a girl as strong as Myu looked up to him like a father.
When she saw that smile, Myu burst into tears of joy.
“Daddy!” she exclaimed as she ran into Hajime’s arms, relieved that the father she knew and loved had returned.
“W-Wait, Myu, I— Gah!”
She dove into his chest with all her might, delivering a blow more powerful than even Ehit’s. Drained well past his limits, Hajime fell backward and slammed his head against the ground.
“Oh, shit…”
The tiny hero had saved the monster of the abyss, and she also finished him off. Myu hadn’t been kidding when she said she’d be able to beat Hajime in his current form. Like Hajime, she made good on all her promises.
After receiving such a decisive blow, Hajime’s eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he lost consciousness.
A second later, Myu looked down at him and shouted, “Daddy? Daddy!? Open your eyes, Daddy! You’ll die if you sleep!”
“M-Myu, stop hitting Hajime-san!”
Shea rushed forward to stop Myu, who kept slapping Hajime’s face.
“Oh no, Hajime-san’s not breathing!”
“This isn’t good! His pulse is growing weaker… Wait, it just stopped.”
“Kaoriiiiii, hurry up and use restoration magic on him!”
“On it! Tetragrammaton! Wait… his wounds are healing, but his heart still isn’t beating? Is he dead!? Did I heal him too late!?”
“Awaawawawaa! Calm down, Shirasaki-san! We need someone who can use spirit magic!”
“You need to calm down too, Ai-chan-sensei! You can use spirit magic, remember!?”
“Sh-Should I kiss him!? I read in a book that princesses wake up when a prince kisses them! If that’s true, the opposite should work as well, right!? I’m a princess, so maybe I can save him!”
Despite the severity of the crisis, none of them seemed to feel much of a sense of urgency.
Meanwhile, one of the demons muttered, “Umm… what should we do now?”
They were scared of what might happen to them if they tried to run, but also scared of staying. Still, at least if they stayed, the tiny hero would protect them.
They tried to grab Kaori and the others’ attention, but naturally, no one paid them any mind. Resigned, they decided to wait for the commotion to die down.
Diamond. diamond. diamond.
