“Kahahaha! This feels so good! Right! God!”
This must be the feeling of being at the peak of excitement.
My mind was calm, but my mood was soaring.
I must not kill.
I must not defeat.
However, I must keep him contained in this place.
I had faithfully followed those three unreasonable, reckless, and absurd instructions.
Those chains had continued to inflict stress upon me.
Regarding stress tolerance, I had developed a decent level of resilience from my previous workplace, so it wasn’t a problem in itself. However, that didn’t mean I was completely fine with it.
In a way, it was a black company, and in another, it was an exceptionally white company. Even after joining, nothing had changed, and I had been accumulating stress.
However, at the instructor’s words, I realized I didn’t have to hold back anymore and unleashed all my magic power with pent-up frustration.
Ah, it felt as if my stress was being released, creating a wave of magic power around me.
That wave counteracted the god’s flames, creating my safe zone.
The steel tree connected to my right arm rapidly circulated the magic power, improving its purity. Furthermore, the magic power generated by Tofam was being sent to me via Suella.
The obstructed line had recovered when I unleashed a space-cutting slash attack while releasing my restricted magic power, clearing away the god’s magic in this area.
“Now then.”
Normally, I would charge in with no particular stance, but this time, my focus was on offense.
I slowly took a stance.
“Let’s go, partner!!”
“Roger!”
The moment I called out to my partner, I took a step forward as if to emit an explosion.
Flashy, bold, a head-on confrontation.
There was no surprise attack.
If anything, the absurd speed of my step was the only element of surprise.
Just being fast wouldn’t be enough against a god, naturally.
If I simply went straight like a bullet, I would undoubtedly be intercepted.
Perhaps it was to prevent me from getting close, or perhaps to scorch the buzzing fly once and for all, fiercer flames than before surged towards me in the air.
Beams of light from its eyes, a multitude of flame magic, and flames that transformed unpredictably, along with attacks from its powerful arms.
I knew their power, but now that I didn’t have to hold back, each of my swings, with their sharp whistling sound, brushed aside and extinguished the god’s flames.
With the satisfying resistance, a wave of joy washed over me as I realized I wouldn’t have to hold back any longer.
Dodging all of the god’s attacks, I split its exposed torso in two with a diagonal cut, and at that moment, flames erupted in place of blood.
The flames, imbued with abundant magic power, tried to heat and melt my partner, but I cut through even that, and a wound was indeed engraved on the god.
The chains were also cut in the process, but that no longer mattered.
This restraint was meaningless now.
The plan had moved to the next stage.
The battlefield was gradually moving towards its conclusion.
If so, I would shift into a higher gear and accelerate the plan.
I would use Valse-san’s power.
My thought process accelerated, the world’s movements slowed, and I further increased my magic power consumption.
My body creaked and screamed, but it wasn’t at its limit yet.
As I further accelerated, still with reserves of strength, and raised my ore tree, I saw the instructor look at me with a shocked expression.
I might have seen that demon go speechless with surprise rather than joy for the first time.
I thought we might collaborate to kill the god, but then the instructor kicked off the air and retreated.
That instructor?
But I quickly understood it was out of consideration, allowing me to freely cut down the god.
Stealing the kill was one of the things the instructor disliked.
In that case, I would accept his favor.
“KIEIYAAAAAAAAAAA!!”
I let out a monkey’s roar, vibrating the air around, and with a horizontal sweep, slashed across the god before it could break its chains.
My partner cut into the god’s body as smoothly as slicing tofu with a kitchen knife.
The blow, swung with momentum that was overwhelming in a single instant, etched a cross-shaped wound onto the god.
Until now, I had been holding back.
My evasion and interception were full power, but my attacks had to be held back.
“Fall to pieces!!”
But this time, it was a genuine full-power attack.
The air superiority was contested but balanced, the main forces were being held back by Instructor Fushio, and the barrier of the Tower of God would eventually be resolved with the participation of Instructor Kio and the Uuor, who had finished setting up the cursed objects.
Therefore, my job was to cut down the Sun God.
A new summoning circle appeared, and its lower body was being summoned, but that was irrelevant.
A perverted god with only a fiery loincloth was no match.
The god crossed its arms, taking a defensive stance.
Should I call it a barrier? Flames spread like a membrane, creating physical defense that blocked my slashes.
It was putting considerable force into it.
Even my slashes were repelled.
But still!!
“There’s no reason this level of defense can’t be cut!!”
While I uttered “this level,” a doubt crossed my mind that I might not be able to cut through the god’s defenses.
But I scoffed at it, blew it away, and laughed it off as a joke.
There was nothing I could not cut.
My blade immediately carved into the barrier, and with a return swing, the blade deeply penetrated, breaking through the first layer.
Then, by stepping in the air and repeating god-like slashes, the barrier would be cut through as if it were paper.
Ah, what a fine expression, God.
Did you finally realize that the being you thought was an annoying fly was actually a wolf that could tear out your throat?
And not just any wolf, mind you.
My fangs are sharper than any ordinary wolf’s.
Ah, you feel humiliated. You are angry, aren’t you?
It seems even gods cannot have everything go their way.
“Disappear!!”
“As if I’d obey your command.”
If it were your true form, perhaps, but with this temporary body and weakened state, you can’t stop me now.
It must be overwhelming firepower.
If I touched it, my physical body wouldn’t even leave ashes.
But even with such an attack…
I…
“Just shut up and get cut.”
I could cut it.
With a single gust of wind, the waves of flame were split, and the flames whose meaning had been cut away vanished into nothingness.
This is what happens when conceptual attacks are chipped away at each other.
One cuts away meaning, the other burns meaning.
Since both are aggressive concepts, the victor negates the loser’s concept.
That is why…
“Die!!!”
I cut through the flame barrier and stepped forward again towards the god, now standing in empty space, unleashing a horizontal slash to sever its neck.
I thought I could cut off half of its neck at once, but that damn god retreated a step.
If I step forward again…
No, that would be dangerous.
The moment I felt an ominous premonition, I kicked off the space and leaped away.
Watching the erupting flames scorch the spot where I had been, I looked down at the now fully summoned body.
“Insolence, insolence, insolence! Utterly intolerable! As expected, a petty being that bows its head to the lowly! To look down upon me, what profound disrespect!!”
“Do you think I’m going to accept that complaint?”
An enraged face.
Finally, you recognize me as a being and have come to kill me?
If you have the intention, so be it.
I have no intention of wasting time with idle chatter, and I am filled with the desire to kill.
After all, I have many grievances, like having my family beaten up and my precious daughter almost abducted.
“I have a mountain of complaints too!!”
“Insolent fool!!”
I don’t charge in driven by anger, but I am fully intent on carving up your body as I advance like a Charge, and attacks of heatwaves, lasers, and strikes from its limbs assault me.
The elemental magic is primarily flame.
I am vigilant, looking for other types of attacks, but there’s no sign of them.
I wonder if there’s pride in using only fire, and at the same time, I’m convinced there is.
With a diagonal cut, I descend to its feet and then cut its Achilles’ tendon, trying to make it lose its balance, but as expected of a god, it stands firm.
In terms of toughness alone, it’s truly god-tier.
“I will obliterate all impure beings present here!!”
And in contrast, it seems to lack technique.
I can see its patience has run out as it raises both hands, and flames gather at the tips of its palms.
The divine-made sun reappears.
Its size and the amount of magic power contained within it are vastly different from before. If that is slammed onto the ground, at least the Demon Lord’s Army in this area will be wiped out.
Even Tofam, being summoned by Suella, wouldn’t be spared.
Oh dear, oh dear.
“Did you think I’d panic over something like that?”
I crouch briefly on the ground and then dash upwards towards the sky.
From the side, it probably looks like a moth flying into a flame.
However, considering what the opponent is trying to do, this is the best course of action.
But it seems the sun will be generated and dropped before I can reach it.
It was painful that it took me a mere fraction of a second to cut through the barrier that was deployed to prevent the generation of the sun.
Even a half-formed sun.
I can assert with confidence that its power is a weapon that should never be dropped onto the surface.
Based on estimation, there is the ever-present possibility that it will surpass that.
“Well, it’s not a problem, though.”
I am here to prevent that possibility from occurring.
The sun falls towards me.
It’s hard to describe it as anything other than an object with excessive power.
“Amaterasu.”
To counter that sun, I use a single stroke that was once dismissed as futile by the god who entered a hero’s body.
I launch an attack named after the sun god, with the name of the sun.
The god seemed to smile as if that were meaningless.
That smile disappears the moment my blade touches the sun.
With the magic particle absorption ability applied from the application of Adsael’s staff on my partner, coupled with Amaterasu, and deployed…
“I’ll take your magic, you know?”
It absorbs magic of the same attribute without question.
The sun is rapidly absorbed by my partner.
And the sun shrinks.
A slight balance, a slight resistance.
As if it were all meaningless, the sun’s energy becomes entirely mine, and the ore tree returns to its original color as it disperses heat.
“…”
The god’s eyes widen in disbelief.
You’re wide open.
Where did the massively absorbed magic go? Naturally, it’s currently wreaking havoc inside my body.
Honestly, driven by my high-tension state, I’m forcibly controlling it and making it adapt to my magic power.
It’s way beyond just increasing its purity.
It’s like a wicked god, but the energy originated from a god, so its purity is inherently high.
It’s difficult to further increase its purity, and if I don’t immediately release the rampaging magic power, my body will become unstable.
That is precisely why I deploy space-time magic without any mercy or hesitation.
“!? ”
The god’s foolish face opens and closes its mouth, trying to say something.
A Time Stop Barrier.
Even a god cannot easily dispel the barrier, which is imbued with the god’s magic that was mine until a moment ago.
It might last a few seconds, but even a few seconds of defenselessness in front of a general of the Demon Lord’s Army would be fatal.
The remaining absorbed magic is circulated through the steel tree, increasing its sharpness, and my mind delves even deeper into the conceptual world.
The tables have turned.
With this single stroke, I will end it.
I soar into the sky and swing down my single stroke.
The colors of my vision waver, deeper and deeper, and then I see the fraying edges of concepts.
I see it.
The core of the temporary body.
The line connecting to the Sun God’s true form.
Towards that, I quietly swing down my ore tree.
Today’s word:
It’s the best when you don’t have to hold back.
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