The sword was blocked by both blades, regrettably.
But the distance was within my sword’s reach. I didn’t give myself time to breathe and tried to swing my sword.
“Dark Fisher!”
However, it was interrupted by dark magic. Countless black tentacles extended from Palinkron’s shadow. I, who detested being touched, created a large distance and avoided the magic.
I felt something strange about the magic. The magic construction was too fast. And I felt like the amount of magic power was increasing as well.
Palinkron, noticing my suspicious gaze, replied with a grin.
“It’s not my power. It’s the power of my companions.”
Palinkron pointed to the soldiers lying around, defeated. Their unconscious bodies were accelerating their rate of dissolution, no longer retaining their original form and mostly converting into magic particles. Dimension sensed that magic power pouring into Palinkron.
“This Shaka Hōkan Jin is also connected to me. In other words, I’m in an infinite MP state. Furthermore, I can do something like this,”
Palinkron placed his hand on a high-ranking official lying next to him. Then, the conversion of his body accelerated. Just as I thought everything would be converted, the ground bulged and cracked open. Different colored magic power overflowed from the depths of the earth, mixing with the magic power of the converted soldiers. The two types of magic power intertwined, condensed, and formed a certain shape. It was the form of a bird.
The magic power materialized. Organs, bones, flesh, skin, and feathers formed a monstrous bird, a Wind Ripper. It was a behemoth, about five meters long. From my experience in the labyrinth, I instantly focused on this unfamiliar monster.
— Monster
Wind Ripper Rank 35 —
“A, a monster!?”
“Shaka Hōkan Jin is a technique similar to the Labyrinth, so ‘retrieval convergence’ is easy. In fact, this could be considered the original use of Shaka Hōkan Jin.”
No matter how it was explained, I didn’t understand the specifics of the technique. However, it was clear that it had the ability to summon monsters from the labyrinth. From this, I could tell that Shaka Hōkan Jin and the Labyrinth were closely related.
The monstrous bird Wind Ripper let out a shrill cry and flapped its wings. A violent gust of wind swept through, and it flew over my head to attack Maria. I hurriedly went to fulfill my role as the vanguard.
“Ice Sword!”
I adjusted the length of my sword to counter its massive body, and then, ignoring me, I slashed at the Wind Ripper’s wings as it flew away. Then, I cut off the Wind Ripper’s head as it fell, and turned back to Palinkron.
Palinkron was trying to generate about five new monsters. The soldiers’ bodies were likely being used as materials. Even so, he was transforming them into monsters without any hesitation.
“—Dark Cloth!”
Palinkron used magic for the first time. Black liquid spilled from the shadows and clung to the monsters, taking the shape of armor. It was probably a dark attribute enhancement magic. It might even have some influence on the monsters’ minds. However, I couldn’t see the ‘condition’ of the monsters like I could with humans.
Instead, I focused on the names and ranks of the five monsters. A two-headed dog with a wooden body, Tree Didus. A flying large lizard, Lizard Fly. A giant with an eagle’s head, Piede Giant. A one-eyed, four-winged bat, Moonless Fou. A moving suit of armor with nothing inside, Unconquerable. They were all monsters around rank 30. However, I couldn’t accurately gauge their strength due to Palinkron’s enhancement magic.
Growling, the monsters headed towards me along their unique trajectories. But, for some reason, they ignored me and went for Maria—
“—Hey, what the—!”
I took out the Crescent Pectoral Azure’s Straight Sword from my Inventory and switched to dual swords. Then, I extended my swords towards the monsters trying to slip past on either side. I succeeded in slicing the legs of two of the five monsters, the dog and the giant. However, the remaining three slipped past. Exasperated, I extended my sword again using Magic Iceification to pursue their defenseless backs.
But a slimy, unpleasant sensation transmitted from the tip of my sword as I slashed the monsters’ backs. This was due to the black armor applied by Palinkron. My magic blade tip lacked sufficient power. Unable to break through its thickness, I failed to stop the three monsters.
“—Flame Flamberge!!”
Flames erupted from Maria’s hands and slashed through the monsters. Her movements were clumsy and slow, but her attack power and penetration were high. From a distance unreachable by the monsters, she pierced them through their black liquid armor. I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking we had managed to intercept the monsters, but the problem was significant. If I couldn’t function as the vanguard, the formation would lose its meaning.
While we were struggling with the monsters, Palinkron continued to summon them, placing his hands on the ground.
“Come on, boy. Keep ’em coming. Next time, double. Then double again. And double again after that.”
The particle dissolution of the surrounding soldiers accelerated, and about ten monsters were born. I could also sense many more monsters being born further away. It seemed that monster summoning was occurring throughout the entire battlefield.
Various monsters approached us with war cries. And again, they ignored me. I readied my dual swords to protect Maria. But a flame pushed at my back.
“Kanami-san! Leave these weaklings to me and go strike Palinkron! I’ll be fine!!”
She must have judged that staying on the defensive would lead to defeat. However, I hesitated to leave Maria, who had low physical abilities, in the middle of a chaotic battle. I was torn. Then, Palinkron delivered a finishing blow.
“Let me tell you, boy, if you come over here, I’ll discard my defenses and aim for Maria, my dear young lady?”
Palinkron declared with a thin smile. I couldn’t believe it was a bluff. He had a track record of constructing Shaka Hōkan Jin regardless of the pain. However, it was also possible that he was employing a feint, considering that.
“Go on! If you hesitate any longer, I’ll burn your ears off, you hear!!”
Maria screamed, seeing me flustered by Palinkron’s every word. The raging heat seared my skin. I couldn’t believe that was a bluff either. She also had a track record. Most importantly, she was truly irritated with me right now. I felt I might be burned for a trivial reason. Grateful for my companion’s bravery, I ran towards Palinkron.
“Maria, hold on for a little while!”
“It’s not just holding on! I’ll participate in the attack too!”
A reassuring reply came back. As her words indicated, Maria shot flames not only at the approaching monsters but also at Palinkron. Passing through the swarm of monsters, I closed in on Palinkron. The monsters also sped past me. It seemed they intended to follow through on their previous words.
Still wielding my dual swords, I lunged at Palinkron. I wasn’t proficient with dual swords, but my overwhelming advantage remained. Without even using ‘Sensation,’ ‘Swordsmanship,’ or ‘Magic Iceification,’ I wouldn’t lose to Palinkron in a head-on fight. Therefore, in an instant, I cut off Palinkron’s arm again. However, Palinkron, having lost part of his body, continued to speak with a smile.
“Hey, hey, are you really going to leave the young lady alone? The troop strength this time is about 20,000 for the southern army and about 15,000 for the northern army. Eventually, they will become 30,000 monsters and swarm the young lady.”
I really wanted to retort. But he wouldn’t listen. If I responded carelessly, I might really have my ears burned off. I stabbed my sword into the severed arm and used ice magic.
“—Freeze!”
The arm made of black liquid froze and shattered. If he had Tiida’s body, he shouldn’t have been able to regenerate from this.
“Oh?”
Palinkron exclaimed at the precise attack. Confident it was effective, I didn’t stop attacking. In contrast, Palinkron continuously resorted to evasion. But no matter how much he retreated, the difference in speed was obvious. His body was quickly cut, frozen, and even his remaining arm was blown off and shattered. His black body was visibly wearing away. His liquefied body was indeed a threat. But that was when he was a low-level entity without MP to spare. If I fought carefully, freezing as I went, I could completely neutralize him with my current abilities. If this continued, I would shatter him completely soon—or so I thought.
Palinkron leaped far back and latched onto the corpse of a monster that wasn’t breathing. The corpse lying there was the Wind Ripper I had just killed. This wasn’t a labyrinth, so even if a monster died, it wouldn’t disappear into light immediately. I thought he might use the massive corpse as a shield. But that thought was quickly betrayed.
“Wh-what—!?”
The moment Palinkron touched the monster’s corpse, it turned black and liquefied. Then, the black liquid replenished Palinkron’s missing body parts.
“Ah, this is Tiida’s ability.”
Palinkron made an excuse, as if to say, I don’t want to be misunderstood. Then, he immediately fled to the next refueling point. Meanwhile, monsters continued to overflow from Shaka Hōkan Jin, surrounding Maria.
“Tch! What an annoying ability!”
I remembered Arti describing Tiida as nearly immortal. That was exactly right. If he uses monsters for body repair, in this situation, it’s equivalent to having infinite HP.
“Kanami-san! I’ll burn the monster corpses as much as possible so that none are left behind! So, you don’t need to worry about me!!”
Maria offered advice from behind, having witnessed the exchange between Palinkron and me.
“Th-that’s–”
Certainly, with that method, Palinkron could eventually be cornered. But eventually. I didn’t know how long it would take. Right now, I was fighting with just my sword. Therefore, the MP I was consuming against Palinkron was minimal. Honestly, even if all 30,000 monsters were used for repairs, I was confident I would win eventually. However, Maria couldn’t afford to do the same. Lacking normal means of attack, she had to fight entirely with fire. No matter how skilled she was with magic, her fuel efficiency was worse than mine. I couldn’t hide my impatience and moved to stop Palinkron’s feet. But my easy thought was read by Palinkron’s keen observation skills. The sword targeting his legs was deflected by his black blade.
“Tch! —Dimension – Decisive Calculation!!”
Sensing danger approaching my companion, I switched to a tactic that consumed a large amount of MP. I lunged with all my might. As a result, my dual swords succeeded in severing Palinkron’s legs. But—after losing his legs, Palinkron immediately used his liquefied arm to replace them. Despite severing his legs by consuming MP, the profit reaped was only an arm.
“What—” His seasoned defensive ability, combined with the traits of ‘The one who steals the logic of darkness.’ It was far too troublesome. In this case, even Resonance ‘Beloved Flash,’ which broke through the absolute defense of ‘The One Who Steals Earthly Principles,’ would not be an effective means of attack. The remaining option was likely a barrage of ice magic consuming a large amount of MP. But I wanted to save that as a last resort. I wanted to avoid a tactic where there would be no recourse if it failed. My thoughts spun in circles with impatience. The downside of suppressing ‘Parallel Thinking’ was becoming apparent here. While I was leisurely formulating a plan, Palinkron made his next move.
“…Alright, it’s about time I summon big sister’s arch-nemesis. It’ll be a bit of a strain, but it’s worth the trouble.”
Black mist spewed from the ground. The mist then coalesced in one spot, forming a mass of black iron that could be called pitch black. It took the form of a nearly two-meter-tall suit of black armor and began to move without any inner substance. The black mist was still spewing. A human head appeared within the armor’s arms, a chariot that moved on wheels appeared at its feet, and two black horses pulling the chariot were born from the ground.
— Monster
Deep Dullahan Rank 45 —
The Deep Dullahan began to advance towards Maria with a creepy, slow movement.
“Flame Flamberge!”
Maria instinctively intercepted with fire magic. However, the Deep Dullahan deflected the flamewith its armor. The horses pulling the chariot were also unfazed by the flames that could melt iron.
“—Tch!? Impulse!!”
Maria had no choice but to use a neutral vibration magic to push the enemy far away. It was the same as the monsters that appeared in the lava area of the labyrinth. The Deep Dullahan clearly had an immunity to fire. Moreover, it was undoubtedly a high-ranking monster among them. Palinkron seemed to be able to choose convenient monsters for the situation.
“Amazing. As expected of the demon who once killed that sister of yours. Just summoning this one seems to solve everything.”
Palinkron muttered a disturbing remark and tried to summon more Deep Dullahans. I swung my sword to disrupt his concentration, but Palinkron seemed accustomed to chanting magic at the cost of his own body, sacrificing his limbs like a lizard’s tail to summon. As a result, he was allowed to summon a total of three Deep Dullahans.
“Kuuh, this is, already—” Further away, indiscriminate summoning was progressing, and I could see dozens of monsters lined up. Some of them were resistant to fire. Even Maria, alone, wouldn’t be able to handle them. Although she could use some neutral magic, it was meager compared to Arti’s fire magic. I was fine, but Maria was reaching her limit. There was no time for hesitation. I prepared to use ice magic, consuming a large amount of MP. A wide-area magic like ‘Dimension Winter, Warped Ice World,’ which I used against Rowen in the past, would be necessary to handle this number. I pictured the entire battlefield transforming into winter and freezing over. This time, unlike with Laura Via, it wasn’t enclosed, so success wouldn’t be easy. Even with my raised status, my maximum HP would undoubtedly be chipped away. Imagining that, I— I twisted my lips into a smile. Then, I told Maria to stop the flames, preparing to cast the magic.
“Maria, I’m at my limit! I’ll do everything with my ice magic from now on!”
“—No! Kanami-san, you don’t have to do it!”
However, an intense heat, as if telling me to retract my cold, struck me. I looked up to see Maria with a stern face, shaking her head. From her words and expression, I could tell she was thinking the same thing. Realizing she was at her limit, she had resolved to burn through her own MP. However, draining all her MP to the last drop was something that affected her maximum HP. This was something I, not Maria, should be doing. So I retorted.
“If anyone’s going to do it, it’s me! If anyone’s going to sacrifice their life, it’s me!!”
“That’s why, Kanami-san! Stop smiling like that!!”
The flames directed at Palinkron lunged at me. My right cheek was lightly scorched.
“—Tch!?”
I was about to get angry, wondering what she was doing, but I lost my words. Maria was angry. More so than me. And she glared directly at me with those fiery eyes. A vortex of flame began to expand around Maria. A conflagration so intense that ordinary monsters couldn’t approach it. Only the Deep Dullahan could advance into that flame. The firepower I thought had reached its limit kept rising endlessly. In the center of it, Maria continued to glare at me.
“This is a continuation of what I said earlier. Listen carefully—” Taking a deep breath, Maria regained her composure. Then, she spoke in a small voice, but clearly enough for me to hear. “—Palinkron will absolutely not help you, Kanami-san. He is an enemy. He is an enemy. So, stop being ‘desperate’ and fight Palinkron. Don’t hold back…!” The words Maria spoke pierced my chest, and my body froze. ‘Desperate’…?’ The word made me remember the figure of a certain white-haired girl. I could feel Maria’s MP rapidly depleting like a water bucket with a hole in the bottom. Her magic was being converted into heat at an unusual speed. All of the heat rose to the sky as flames. The girl at the source said to me, “I’ll probably have used all my magic power by now. I’ll likely be unable to move, even though I’m in the center of the battlefield! So, before that happens, I’ll say everything I want to say!” Maria looked at me with the same eyes I had looked at Hairi with. She probably saw Hairi superimposed on me. “—Give me a break! You’ve lost track of everything, lost the value of your own life, and think dying is salvation, haven’t you!? Don’t you think it’s okay to lose!? Don’t you think you have no worth!? You absolutely don’t! Everyone knows the value of Kanami-san! They know it!” Being pointed out, I finally understood. And I was stunned. I realized I was doing the same thing as Hairi, whose suicidal act I had so detested. Just like Hairi then, my mouth was twisted. I was smiling in the face of defeat. That’s why Maria was furious. “Remember Dia’s last words! Remember Rustiara’s expression before we parted! Remember Snow’s posture when she fought at the fort! Everyone did it for Kanami-san!” Maria’s voice reached me with an unprecedented wave of heat. Maria repeated what she had yelled at the fort. She scolded me like a child who wouldn’t listen. “Even if Kanami-san weren’t Kanami-san, it wouldn’t matter to us. The Kanami-san we know is ‘you’ here. The thousand years ago, and being a ‘Magic Stone Human’ have nothing to do with it. We like the you who is here. We were all desperately trying to help you! Please understand that!!” The shout transformed into flames. That transformation resembled the ‘Price’ of an ‘Incantation.’ The flames spiraled upwards, expanding in volume and piercing the sky. They evaporated all the falling rain, parted the clouds, and a flame that vertically split the world towered up. Maria called it— “—Shine, Flame Sword!!” With the declaration of that magic, the flames changed shape. They burned up in an inverted cross. It was indeed a shape that could be called a ‘sword.’ But it was too large to be called a ‘sword.’ The sword, extending above the rain clouds, grew so large it could easily swallow an entire town. And it was terrifying that its volume was still expanding. Like a flame fed with firewood, the flamewas getting bigger and bigger. The flames, about to engulf the sky and the earth, rose infinitely, and the color of the sword’s core changed from red to white. That color resembled the flames Arti used. I could see Maria, a forward, catching up to Arti. That white flamewas shone with a brilliance comparable to the light of Shaka Hōkan Jin. “—Cut the Horizon! —Flame Flamberge!!” Maria swung down the giant flamewith the power to cut the world. The flames that had spread across the sky slowly approached the earth. “—Dark Cloth!!” Palinkron, who had declared he would abandon defense from afar, retracted his statement and tried to protect himself with magic. He wrapped his body in black liquid and curled into a ball. “—Freeze!!” I also emitted cold air to protect myself. The cheek I had just been burned was still hot. Then, the flames covering the sky engulfed the earth. The flames swept across the battlefield like a tsunami. Soon, my entire field of vision was dyed red, and the battlefield plunged into purgatory. I panicked at the high temperature that didn’t even allow me to breathe. But I soon realized it was warmer than I had imagined. Looking closely, I saw that Maria’s flames were avoiding me. As if in the eye of a storm, the flames around me were incredibly thin. But there was no mercy for the enemy. First, the monsters summoned around were burned to death. They turned to charcoal in an instant, and even that charcoal burned away. Literally, no cinders remained. In that crimson hell, only the fire-resistant Deep Dullahans survived. They slowly approached Maria, the source of the magic, as if swimming in lava. Maria, who had swung her hands down with all her might, looked up and shouted. Feeling it wasn’t enough, she accelerated the combustion. “Sweep! Slash!!!! —FLAME! FLAMBERGE—!!!!” As Maria swung her hands sideways, the flamestirred with a roar. The flamewas burning away everything on the battlefield. The Deep Dullahans, who could withstand red flames, melted as soon as they came into contact with the white flames at the core of the sword. It didn’t matter if fire was ineffective. Flame Flamberge burned away even the ‘principle’ of ‘resistance.’ The sword spun around Maria, and all the monsters were devoured by the tyrannical flames. It only took a few seconds. In just a few seconds, all the vegetation and rocks on the battlefield disappeared, some of the distant mountains changed shape, most of the ground turned to lava, and the battlefield transformed into a red wasteland. Thanks to ‘Dimension,’ I could tell. The tens of thousands of monsters deployed within a few kilometers had been annihilated. Even though it was my comrade’s magic, a shiver ran down my spine. I felt a chill even in this high temperature. However, Maria was still not satisfied. With the momentum of annihilating the monsters, she raised her flamewice more. Her gaze was fixed on— “Palinkron Legacy—!!!!” Palinkron, who was enduring the sword’s spinning slash with black liquid. Touched by Maria’s killing intent, Palinkron poured more magic power into it, thickening his black defense wall. And he called out a familiar name. “Tiida!! Your opponent is your opponent! Lend me a hand—!!” —*Thump*. The world felt like it was groaning. The darkness of the black liquid deepened. Even in the flames that burned light itself, a darkness, which could be called pitch black, overflowed. It was like an endless swamp, sucking in all light—a great shield of the dark night. And Maria swung her sword down again. “Arti!! Give me strength! Flames to burn that man to death—!!” —*Thump* again. A second heartbeat was heard. The heat of the flamewas increasing, and its color changed further. The white core turned to platinum, and platinum to a near-transparent residual light. It changed to a pure white light—a great sword of sunlight that dispelled all darkness like the sun. The sword and shield collided, scattering a large amount of magic particles. As if the world abhorred contradiction, a curtain of magic particles obscured the collision. Even ‘Dimension’ was blinded by that light. The stalemate lasted for a moment. For just a moment, all external information was blocked. Engulfed by an impact that was neither black nor white, I became unable to perceive anything. Heat, sound, everything vanished for an instant—a sense of the world having stopped, beyond mere silence— And then, in the next moment, the decision was made.
