I’ve always tried to hone my senses since joining this company.
It’s because I thought that in this line of work, in the realm of battle, senses are the most important and optimal for gathering information.
Of course, it includes the five senses like smell, sight, touch, hearing, and taste.
But it’s not just physical abilities like those; it’s also the realm of intuition, what you might call a vague sixth sense.
It was also essential to hone that.
The premonition/sixth sense seems to be based on the reasoning that accumulated memories of experience create a sense of déjà vu to detect and avoid danger. In this world, however, it’s close to an ability literally classified as future sight.
Once one reaches a certain level of skill, they can vaguely, and with no real basis, sense attacks or judge whether an attack will be effective.
It’s not a matter of a minute or a second, but a slight difference in an even deeper realm.
Whether one can instantly grasp a sense as fine as a spider’s thread makes a decisive difference on the battlefield.
I’ve experienced this to the point of pain.
That’s why I can say this.
This Takemikazuchi will be blocked.
And this will go according to plan.
This gave me a dreadful certainty.
“Tch.”
I desperately wished for it to break through, but somehow I knew that Nisia was unharmed.
Besides, the premise is that this attack itself is not meant to defeat the opponent.
Normally, I wouldn’t express such a wish.
However.
“Do you think you can defeat me with an attack of this magnitude?”
Nisia, wearing a confident smile, erected a magic barrier.
I glared at her with hatred.
And then.
“I don’t.”
“!?”
Memoria, who burst from Nisia’s shadow, thrust a stake towards Nisia’s body.
The pitch-black stake pierced her fair skin, dripping red liquid.
“When did you…!?”
Nisia, surprised and about to feel the pain, tried to react to Memoria’s sudden appearance.
“This distance!”
However, Memoria wouldn’t let her have it easy.
As she pulled out the stake she had driven in, Memoria attempted to strike with another stake held in her other hand.
The attack, catching her from behind and catching her by surprise, gouged Nisia’s body.
But it was unlikely to defeat her.
I ran in to help Memoria, who had used the shadow created by Takemikazuchi’s light to move and launch a surprise attack.
With a woman clinging to my back, she certainly couldn’t intercept me perfectly.
Still, the attack, overwhelming with sheer magic power, was a formidable threat.
Energizing myself, not to waste the chance Memoria had created, I charged in.
“You fiend! How dare a demon touch me!”
Even with the stakes impaled in her, I could see through the barrier that she was flinging her body around, trying to shake Memoria off.
And a spear of light, appearing in the air, turned its aim towards Memoria.
“Memoria! Dodge!”
I shouted instinctively, but in this storm of magic, my cry couldn’t reach her.
Even as I was shouting, the spear was unleashed, as if to pierce her body with my own.
“Memoria!”
Now, I desperately wished for power.
I knew there was danger involved.
I knew she would get hurt by this action.
Knowing that, she bravely went there alone, determined to create an opening.
I know I must live up to that resolve, but the reality that I cannot reach her stands cruelly before me.
“It’s alright.”
As if she had heard my voice, Memoria met my gaze, smiled gently, and was pierced by the spear of light.
Even so.
“With this, I won’t let go, will I?”
Even with her left lung pierced and her abdomen impaled, her hand did not release the stake.
“The price for this pain will be high.”
On the contrary, Memoria smiled as she looked at the blood dripping from her being pierced by the spear of light.
“Crimson Blood Magic.”
“!? You’re, by any chance, a vampire!?”
Nisia, imagining Memoria’s species from the words she mumbled from her small mouth, panicked even more.
“Bloom Madly, Crimson Blood Rose.”
Only Memoria and Nisia knew what her panic signified.
I sprinted with all my might, not letting myself be mesmerized by her magic, which I was seeing for the first time.
Step by step, I trod the ground, running to widen the gap Memoria had created.
The technique Memoria had informed me of in advance, Crimson Blood Rose.
A magic inherent to vampires that manipulates blood.
It’s a technique that sends one’s own blood into the opponent’s body, erodes it, boils the opponent’s blood, and causes an explosion.
If it lands, it’s a technique that can definitely kill the opponent, a trump card among vampires.
Normally, I would just sprint past the opening she created and escape. But my opponent is an immortal Seraph.
Even though she exploded from within, she was already starting to regenerate.
Seeing me run, she let go of the stake and tried to distance herself. I summoned a single strike at Nisia, being careful not to involve her.
“Oh, God of Lightning, I shall sheathe the thunderous roar that reaches all of creation within this scabbard.”
Ore Trees don’t normally have scabbards.
Despite that, the Ore Tree I was holding now had a scabbard.
A black vortex enveloped the unsheathed Ore Tree, forming a scabbard of dark clouds.
Purple lightning crackled within it, and without reducing its momentum, the number of lightning bolts increased.
I readied the Ore Tree, clad in thunderclouds, and advanced to its range in a drawing stance.
The magic barrier before me was still intact; as long as it stood, we could not advance.
But if I could get this close, there was no reason it couldn’t be cut.
“True Takemikazuchi.”
The Takemikazuchi I normally use is for wide-area annihilation.
This is a close-quarters ultimate technique that uses its immense energy to form a scabbard and, like a railgun, accelerates the blade by sliding the metallic Ore Tree. The time to charge power and the range are truly limited to the reach of the Ore Tree’s slash.
“!?”
With its overwhelming acceleration, the draw that seemed to exceed the speed of light placed an immense burden on my arm.
My reinforced and trained body screamed, I felt the sensation of muscles tearing, but I didn’t loosen my grip on the Ore Tree and swung it.
“Second Styleeeeee!!!!”
A sharp pain shot through my right arm, and my hand was losing its sensation, but my attack had only sliced through the magic barrier.
There was still more to do.
Forget the pain.
Control my body that was about to be flung around.
Step forward, even a hundredth of a second, even an instant sooner.
Without losing the momentum of a blow that felt like my fingers would come off, I changed the direction of the blade.
As if drawing an infinity, the Ore Tree’s blade, which had been slashing from my left flank, now changed trajectory to a slash from the right.
I felt the sensation of muscles tearing again, and biting back my teeth to endure the pain that threatened to throw off my trajectory, I drove the Ore Tree into Nisia’s torso, whose stance had not fully recovered due to Memoria’s attack.
“Haaaaaaahhhh!!!”
After a slight resistance, the Ore Tree’s blade sank into Nisia’s torso and was swung through to the opposite direction.
I don’t think “This should do it.”
“Armor!”
From True Takemikazuchi, I immediately connected to magic.
I told my body, which was showing strain from consecutive attacks, that it was still okay.
I created more magic with the magic power flowing from the Ore Tree.
“Snow Blossom Blade!”
The Ore Tree’s blade, infused with an advanced ice magic on top of lightning, turned white and emitted cold air.
I had seen from my battle with Amili-san that if the opponent is immortal and regenerates, it’s enough to seal them even temporarily.
This magic is specialized in freezing the opponent’s body.
It was originally a magic to defeat shapeless beings like slimes, but it’s effective against opponents like this as well.
“Now’s the time! Run!”
Seizing the opportunity when Nisia’s movement was sealed by thrusting the Snow Blossom Blade into her upper body, I turned around and called out to Suella and the others.
“Muil-san! Memoria!”
“Understood! Leave it to me!”
Although her movement was currently sealed, I could see that she was desperately using magic.
I knew that if I let my guard down even slightly, or if I pulled out the Ore Tree, she would return to normal in an instant.
Therefore, I shouted to urge them to leave quickly, and had them retrieve the fallen Memoria.
“Humans!”
“You can still move!?”
While being slowly pushed back by the magic, Nisia, who should have been frozen and unable to move, grabbed the Ore Tree’s blade and was trying to pull it out with incredible strength.
“Master! Quickly!”
And just as I was hanging on until the last moment, Himik’s voice was heard from afar.
Suella was seen near the wall, lowering the fireproof wall and preparing to deploy a magic barrier.
That door was closing moment by moment.
“Alright!”
I flung the Ore Tree away from Nisia in a direction other than where I was heading, and ran with all my might.
Nisia’s torso and lower body were separated, and she was also frozen.
Believing she wouldn’t be able to recover immediately, I ran without looking aside.
The battle between what appeared to be Amili and Ishan, which I glimpsed for a moment, was escalating.
However, it was clear that Amili, who was attacking with sheer numbers, was at a disadvantage.
I wanted to help, but I couldn’t.
Suppressing that feeling, I slid into the closing door with all my might.
“Hmph hmph hmph.”
With a heavy clang, the door shut, and the sturdy defense of the heavy door and magic barrier made me exhale a sigh of relief.
“Jiro-san!”
I didn’t know what kind of face to make towards Suella, who rushed over with a child in her arms.
“Where’s Memoria?”
“She’s… not in mortal danger, but it’s certain she needs rest after taking a light magic attack from a Seraph.”
Worried that I might be making a strange face, my first question was about Memoria’s condition.
As I listened to Suella’s explanation, I looked towards Memoria and saw Muil-san treating her.
“Jiro, you need treatment too. Using that kind of reckless magic consecutively…”
“No, not now. We need to leave this place quickly.”
A mere wall offered no real sense of security.
Even if it was strong, if it could be broken through by brute force, it would be for nothing.
I clenched and opened my right hand, checking its condition.
“…Let’s go.”
I knew best that the feel of it was not good.
My grip strength was overwhelmingly worse than my normal state.
I was artificially strengthening it with the magic flowing from the Ore Tree to bring it closer to its normal state, but my movement was significantly hindered.
In this condition, fighting Nisia again would be reckless.
The continuous explosions I heard from behind me signaled the lack of time.
“I’ll carry this child on my back.”
“Please do. Muil and Suella in the center, I’ll go ahead. Himik, maintain rear guard.”
I quickly decided on the formation for our movement and started running again.
“Where are we going?”
As I started running, Suella and the others followed.
“If the third-floor connecting passage is unusable, we have no choice but to use the first-floor connecting passage. From there, we’ll move into the company building and enter the commercial facility area. If Nisia and the others are there, perhaps that area will be less guarded.”
It was purely a hopeful assumption, but we had no other choice but to bet on that possibility.
The prickly atmosphere pricked my skin, making me nervous as I answered Suella’s question, without averting my gaze from ahead.
“…”
With each turn, I moved cautiously.
Behind me, Suella lowered a fireproof wall to delay Nisia’s pursuit for even a moment.
Looking at the devastated dormitory with a pained expression, my steps were unwavering.
If we go straight from here, we’ll reach the vicinity of the entrance.
Once we get there, then what…
“So, they’re here, huh.”
I peeked in to see a man in armor, a man in robes, and a woman in white robes.
Furthermore, six soldiers with guns drawn were guarding them.
“I guess I don’t have time to ponder what to do.”
The Seraph was behind us, and it would be difficult to enter the commercial facilities without breaking through the area ahead. Combat was unavoidable, but if we took too long, it was obvious that Nisia would catch up.
It would be practically impossible to advance while hiding in the sparsely covered entrance.
“…”
Suella and the others didn’t ask what to do.
Knowing what needed to be done, they took a deep breath, waiting for my decision as I tried to calm myself.
“Alright.”
With my resolve set, I exchanged glances and ran out from behind the corner where we were hiding.
“KIEIYAAAAAAAAAA!!!”
I unleashed a monkey’s roar as the opening attack, making the soldiers pause.
This monkey’s roar was a sieve, so to speak.
It was to gauge their strength and identify who was the most troublesome.
Hearing my monkey’s roar, the soldiers with guns were blown away.
After all, it has almost the same effect as a dragon’s roar, so such results are expected.
The man in knight-like armor endured it, holding up his shield.
The man in mage-like attire erected a barrier, shielding the woman.
I identified these three as the skilled individuals and was about to break through when, at that moment.
The face of the woman wearing the hood of white robes was revealed.
“…Giro-san?”
“You are—”
My step, which was about to pounce, stopped at the unexpected reunion with an acquaintance.
Today’s Quote:
The scale of the damage will only be known after it is over.
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*The first volume of the book is published by Hayakawa Bunko JA.
It was released on October 18, 2018.
An e-book version was also released on October 31 of the same year.
Volume 2 was released on December 19.
Volume 3 was released on February 20, 2019.
The content has been revised and supplemented from the version posted on Shōsetsuka ni Narō, with the addition of an unpublished interlude.
Please consider purchasing the new books as well!!
A manga adaptation is being serialized in Kodansha’s “Young Magazine The Third.”
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