“Aura?! Wasn't he a mage?!”
“So the rumors were true…?”
Leon's party stared in shock at the Aura Line wrapped around Ex's sword.
Their highly trained senses as martial artists made one thing perfectly clear. That wasn't magic. It was aura.
Leon, having healed his face with his own divine power, fixed a wary glare on the undeniable reality before him.
“Do you understand what it means to point that sword at me?”
“It means I'm going to beat a bastard who goes around beating helpless girls until he's half-dead too.”
“…It means you're making an enemy of the Hero chosen by the Goddess.”
“Did the Goddess tell you to go around beating people like that?”
“It means the Goddess approves of my will…!”
“Bullshit.”
Ex sneered.
There was no one in this world who understood Deuslute better than Ex.
The Goddess valued the greater good, but she had always placed just as much importance on small acts of kindness.
Leon being chosen by the Goddess was nothing more than the setting forcing things to happen.
That was the power of Protagonist Plot Armor, something capable of trampling right over plausibility itself.
With a battle about to begin, Circe quietly asked,
“…What are our chances?”
“Slim.”
Their opponents were the Hero Party, after all.
Even if they were still growing and nowhere near their prime, they were already among the strongest students in the academy.
And as the fight against the world's destruction progressed, they would grow at a terrifying pace until they possessed strength no one else could hope to challenge.
Even to Ex, picking this fight was absurd.
“But that's only when they're all together.”
Their side was missing several critical pieces right now.
For one, they hadn't grown enough yet.
And for another, without Circe, they were weak in a group battle.
Then there was only one thing Ex needed to do here.
‘I'll be Circe's sword.’
He steeled himself and stepped forward.
First, he needed to draw their attention.
“Do you even remember the last time you prayed at a sanctuary?”
“…What are you talking about?”
“Have you even gone near the entrance of one since you were ten?”
“I said, what the hell are you talking about?!”
“The Goddess must be weeping over you, you bastard. The so-called Hero goes around beating kids and hasn't visited a sanctuary even once.”
“Shut up!!”
Just as Leon lost his temper and lunged forward, a tremendous bolt of lightning crashed down on him from the side.
KRAKOOOM-!!
“Ugh…!”
Sensing the attack, Leon cut through the lightning with his sword.
The magical lightning vanished helplessly the instant his blade sliced through it.
That was Protego Swordsmanship, a sword art capable of cutting through the very source of something.
“Circe! It's not too late! Stop this!!”
Leon shouted a warning at the attacker.
Circe ignored him and prepared her next spell.
“I'll stop when you come to your senses after getting beaten black and blue just like that little girl!”
More than a dozen frigid Ice Spears formed beside Circe.
She was exploiting the weakness that Leon couldn't cut through too many attacks at once.
“Ex! Go beat the crap out of him! Just try not to kill him if you can!”
“I'll have to think about that one…!”
The Ice Spears shot forward, and Ex rushed in like an arrow alongside them.
Leon unleashed an Aura Blade and solidified his defense.
But even then, he couldn't defend himself from every direction.
“There's something behind me…!”
Leon's battle sense screamed warnings from all sides.
Ex was charging from the front alongside countless Ice Spears.
Three unidentified swords of white light were closing in from both sides and behind him.
There was no possible way to stop all of them alone.
But Leon wasn't alone.
CLANG-! CLANG-!
An arrow and a dagger flew in and knocked the white-light swords away.
At the same time, a massive Barrier of Light appeared in front of Leon.
The Ice Spears slammed to a halt against the barrier.
Ex was forced to stop before it as well.
Frey, the one who had created the Barrier of Light, cried out desperately.
“Please stop! Mr. Ex, please try to understand! That girl's power was much stronger than we expected!”
“That's why I asked you. Were you really not planning to heal her…?!”
“Ugh, that was…!”
Ex immediately cast magic into the ground.
A violent impact erupted beneath the terrain and shook the earth.
It was Tier 4 Earthquake Magic, a spell capable of overturning the battlefield itself.
“Frey! If you put up the barrier now, I can't get out!”
“Ah, I'm sorry…!”
Leon and Frey, both inside the spell's range, staggered as they lost their footing.
The problem with the barrier was that it didn't merely stop enemies from charging in. It also stopped allies from advancing out.
And on top of that, it couldn't stop Ex's white-light swords.
‘Make them intangible only while they pass through the barrier…!’
The three white-light swords launched from in front of Ex passed through the barrier like ghosts.
Every blade was aimed at Leon, their edges honed razor-sharp.
It wasn't as though Frey simply stood there and watched.
“If that's really what you want…”
RATATAT-!
Glowing fists shot out one after another at the swords threatening Leon. Three punches were thrown in less than a breath, bursting through the air and striking each white-light sword with perfect accuracy.
Frey dismissed the barrier, clenched her glowing fist, and took a fighting stance.
“Then we'll talk after the violence is over.”
And one breath later,
TAP-
Frey appeared right in front of Ex.
‘That wasn't even teleportation…!’
She moved faster than Ex could even process his surprise.
One step brought her directly in front of him and into position.
Then the fist she had drawn back, blazing with light, fired like a cannon shell.
BOOM-!!
Ex barely managed to block it with his sword and arm.
The impact of that single strike sent him skidding far backward, and the arm he'd reinforced with internal energy went numb all the way to the shoulder.
‘She's faster and stronger than I expected…!’
Ex had already known how Frey fought.
Her devout faith had already been honed to its limit.
All that remained was to hone herself.
She pursued the purest extreme of martial combat that a member of the clergy could reach.
Frey stood at the pinnacle as a Combat Monk.
If confronting her head-on was pointless, then he would shake her resolve instead.
“So that's the fist you used to beat Lola like that, huh? Those hands meant to heal people were really just fists for beating them down?”
“I won't ask you to forgive me.”
“Of course not. The one you need to beg forgiveness from is the Goddess. But did she say she'd forgive you? Doesn't look like it, judging by that fist.”
The words flew like a dagger and buried themselves in Frey.
Just as Ex said, the light protecting her fists flickered unsteadily.
For a member of the clergy, whose strength came directly from conviction and faith, the meaning couldn't have been clearer.
‘…I don't believe what I'm doing is right.’
Even now, her fists were trembling.
The memory of having to beat a young girl had been branded into her mind.
It was a horrific nightmare she never wanted to experience again, one she never wanted to remember.
“Can you stand before the Goddess and call yourself a Saintess?”
That single question from Ex drove in like a final nail.
Frey's legs refused to move.
“Yeah. Leave the dirty work to us.”
“That's what we've always done anyway. Nothing new there.”
At that moment, a shadow moved behind Ex and struck for his neck.
At the same time, an arrow flew from his blind spot.
A dagger for the throat.
An arrow for the heart.
Rosaria and Diana's combined attack was as quiet and deadly as hidden weapons.
Of course, Ex wasn't oblivious to it.
“I take classes on Scarlett Hidden Weapon Art and Artemis Archery too, you know…!”
CLAAANG-!!
He knocked aside the dagger aimed at his neck with his sword,
then intercepted the arrow aimed at his heart with a white-light sword.
All three of them were 4-Star martial artists.
The strength of their aura was roughly equal.
“Oh, right. My precious little junior.”
But when it came to skill, Rosaria was several steps ahead.
SHRRAAAK-!!
The moment Ex knocked away one dagger, ten hidden weapons burst out from inside her clothes.
At that distance, dodging them or blocking them all with his sword was impossible.
And behind his head, Diana kept firing arrow after arrow with vicious precision.
There was nowhere to evade.
‘Taking both of them alone is too much…!’
Ex deployed every defensive measure he had.
His white-light swords knocked away daggers and arrows.
A Shield spell blocked several more.
And the still-incomplete Aura Armor around his body minimized the damage from the rest.
THUNK, SHNK-!
“Ghk…!”
Even so, several daggers and arrows still got through.
“Aura Armor too? What are you, some kind of monster…?”
Rosaria clicked her tongue as she gripped daggers in both hands and slashed toward Ex's vital points.
Ex brought his sword down to block her attack, teeth grinding as their faces came within inches of each other.
“You people are the monsters. You're the ones who mercilessly beat someone weaker than you.”
“You think we wanted to do that…?!”
“Must be nice. Life gets pretty easy when that's enough to forgive yourself, huh?”
“Y-You… you fucking bastard…!”
“Do you seriously think it's normal to never think for yourself and just do whatever Leon tells you to do?!!”
“Who the hell are you to tell us what to do?!”
“If Leon decided he didn't like an innocent person, would you kill them too just because he told you to?!!”
The two were still locked in close combat when it happened.
“If you're going to stand in our way too…”
Circe had finally finished preparing the spell that required so much time.
WOOOOOOOM-!!
The Book of Eibon screamed as its pages flipped wildly.
Then, little by little, the pages began turning more slowly.
At the same time, the dagger being thrust forward slowed.
The arrows in flight slowed.
“…then that just means I've got more people to beat senseless.”
Circe's absurdly overpowered unique magic, ‘Time Control,’ activated.
Normally, ‘Time Control’ was a Tier 7 spell, far beyond what Circe could cast at her current Tier 4.
But the artifact in her hands was the most abnormal artifact in the entire world, the ‘Book of Eibon.’
Until every last page in the book disappeared, it would absorb every bit of Rebound its mage should have suffered.
It was an absurdly broken item.
“Circe, you…!!”
Even Rosaria, the fastest combatant in Leon's party, was helpless once time itself bound her movements.
And there was no chance Ex's fist, packed with internal energy and anger, would miss a slowed Rosaria.
“That's one down…!”
His fist slammed squarely into Rosaria's solar plexus.
“Ghehk-…”
The blow sent her flying. As she hit the ground and rolled, Ex launched several binding Ice Arrows after her.
“Grrrgh…”
Rosaria gasped for breath in agony as ice locked down her hands and feet.
Then, for good measure, one of Ex's white-light swords smashed into her head and knocked her unconscious.
“Rosaria!”
Diana, who was particularly close to Rosaria, abandoned her position to rescue her restrained friend.
Tactically, it was a terrible decision.
Unfortunately for them, there was no one in this party capable of pointing that out.
“Ex!”
“Leave it to me!”
That one call was enough.
They immediately understood each other's intentions, as if they'd been fighting together for years.
Leon's party was the exact opposite.
“Damn it… Frey, stop Circe!”
“Wouldn't Diana be better suited for that than I am right now…?!”
“Wait, then… Diana!”
“I'm busy right now!!”
Leon wasn't normally the one giving orders.
He had little experience commanding the party, and between forcing his way through the barrage of spells and trying to make decisions on the fly, he was so overwhelmed he hadn't even managed to swing his sword once.
The rest of the party wasn't accustomed to taking orders from Leon either, so they trusted their own judgment more than his.
“Wow. Looking at you like this, you really are a complete mess…”
Circe continued raining spells down on Leon and Frey, keeping both of them pinned.
While the two were tied down, Ex moved.
There was obviously only one target to go after now.
“Those swords again…!”
Three white-light swords shot toward Diana like arrows.
“You think I'll fall for that again…?!”
Living up to her title as the Divine Archer, Diana responded with a rapid barrage.
Five arrows flew with perfect accuracy toward the white-light swords.
At this rate, the arrows and swords would collide, intercepting one another.
Shhhh-
Or they would have, if the white-light swords hadn't simply passed through the arrows.
“What the hell are those things…?!”
As Diana hurriedly prepared another arrow in confusion, Ex charged straight at her alongside his white-light swords.
Even with him rushing in like that, Diana remained calm and waited for the right moment.
‘I knew he'd come for me sooner or later.’
Archers were always among the first targets on a battlefield.
She knew that better than anyone, which was why she'd always prepared a way to turn the tables.
‘Come a little closer. I'll put holes through your entire body.’
Arrow traps scattered all around the area shifted at Diana's gesture and aimed toward Ex.
‘Now…!’
Just as Diana was about to trigger the traps she'd prepared in advance,
“Did you forget every rule of the Tressian Mountain Rangers?”
“Y-You… how do you know about that…?”
Those words from Ex shook Diana's concentration.
“Your arrows were supposed to be aimed at monsters, not people.”
“S-Shut up!!”
Flustered, Diana hurriedly activated her traps.
SHRRAAAAAK-!!
Dozens of arrows she'd planted beforehand came flying from every direction.
But she'd triggered them too early.
Had she waited just a little longer and kept her composure, the attack would have dealt a fatal blow.
That hesitation gave Ex enough room to take one more step.
“If you broke a Ranger's rules, you should've cut your own bowstring.”
He slipped out from the storm of arrows and reached Diana in an instant.
The white-light swords struck both her hands and the space between her brows.
Ex caught the remaining sword in his hand and brought it down on the crown of her head.
THWACK-!
“Ghk…!”
Two brutal impacts slammed into her forehead and skull in rapid succession.
There was no way Diana, who was weak in close combat, could withstand that.
“Grrk…”
Diana collapsed limply, unconscious.
Ex immediately bound her arms and legs in ice.
Then he kicked her bow and arrows far away and turned around.
“Two left…”
“Dodge!!”
Circe's warning came at the same time as something hurtled toward him.
It was an arc-shaped Aura Blade as large as a person.
It tore through everything in its path from afar and came roaring right toward him.
‘Leon's Blade Shot…!’
It was a technique that separated the Aura Blade from the weapon and launched it at long range.
It consumed so much internal energy that Leon only used it against powerful opponents.
CLAAAAANG-!!
Thanks to Circe's timely warning, Ex managed to defend himself in time.
He caught the Blade Shot with his sword, its edge wrapped in an Aura Line.
SKRRAAAAAAANG-!!
“Grrrrgh…!”
The horrible sound of aura grinding against steel tore at his ears.
The immense pressure pushed his feet backward, gouging tracks through the dirt.
If he tried to endure this head-on, both he and his sword would be cleaved in half.
‘Then I'll redirect it…!’
Ex adjusted his grip and shoved sideways with everything he had.
At first, the mass of aura didn't budge at all.
Then it began shifting little by little.
And suddenly, it veered completely off course.
‘I held it off this time, but there's no way I can do that twice…!’
The skin of his palms had split open, and his arm muscles had likely been damaged. He could barely put any strength into them.
That was what happened when someone brute-forced an attack by pouring an absurd amount of internal energy into it.
But Ex didn't have the luxury of worrying about his body.
“You actually did that to Rosaria and Diana…!”
Leon forced his way through the barrage and came flying in while spouting the most painfully predictable line imaginable. He charged with terrifying force and swung his sword in a massive arc.
Ex ignored his wounds and pain and raised his sword to defend.
CLANG-!!
The impact was so violent that he nearly lost his grip on the sword.
A single blow completely shattered his defensive stance.
If Ex hadn't prepared Ice Arrows beforehand, Leon's next attack would have cut him apart.
“Magic again…!”
Leon quickly retreated to avoid the arrows.
Ex used the opening to down a recovery potion.
A cool, refreshing sensation spread through him. He hurled the empty bottle away and ground his teeth.
“Your own companions matter that much to you, but everyone else's companions are worthless…?!”
“I've never thought that. What happened to that girl couldn't be helped. But I will apologize for the way we treated her.”
“Say that to Lola, you fucking bastard…!”
Ex fired magic into the ground again, sending out another shockwave.
Leon had already experienced it once and immediately drove his sword into the earth.
The impact was strong enough to ruin his footing, but he endured by holding onto the blade embedded in the ground.
“You think I'm going to waste time on something like this… Ghk!”
When Leon raised his head, the sole of a boot filled his vision.
Ex had used Leon's face as a stepping stone to leap over him.
‘I never intended to fight Leon one-on-one in the first place!’
His real target had always been Frey, who was steadily driving Circe back.
“Circe! Please stop! We're companions!”
“I told you I'll think about it after I beat the crap out of Leon!”
“The Goddess would never forgive something like this!!”
“Don't blame the Goddess just because you don't want to do it yourself!! Gh…!”
Circe was quickly being pushed onto the defensive.
Even when she raised a Shield, one swing of Frey's clenched fist shattered it like glass.
No matter how many spells Circe fired or how many traps she laid, Frey simply forced her way through them, relentlessly closing the distance.
‘So this is a Combat Monk…! She's a nightmare to deal with!’
Frey freely manipulated Barriers of Light, using them for offense and defense at the same time.
Even Circe's ice-fragment spells couldn't pierce those radiant barriers.
“You won't even heal someone who's hurt…!”
Even in that situation, Circe glanced over Frey's shoulder and immediately started provoking her.
“All you do is use your freakish strength to beat up people weaker than you…!”
“Freakish strength…?! Have you finished saying what you wanted to say, Circe…?!”
Frey shattered Circe's Shield and closed the distance.
She pulled her fist back again, light blazing around it, and was just about to strike.
WHOOOSH-!!
She sensed something flying toward her back and intercepted it with a spinning back kick.
Her reflexes were astonishing.
“Knew you'd do that.”
What Ex had thrown was a Fireball that exploded on contact.
And not an ordinary one.
He had compressed an enormous amount of magic power into it.
“Oh no…!”
BOOOOOOM-!!!
At the instant the Fireball detonated, Frey launched herself away on one foot and escaped the blast radius.
It was a maneuver bordering on the supernatural.
“…She actually dodged that.”
Frey moved in a blur, stepping away with speed that made it look almost like teleportation, and returned to Leon's side.
In that brief opening, she'd also rescued the unconscious Rosaria and Diana.
Ex stepped in front of Circe protectively and raised his sword.
“Too bad. The surprise attack failed.”
“Frey's the second-strongest after Leon. In a fight against another person, she's actually stronger than Leon. Our odds were never good to begin with.”
Circe looked at the two girls who were still unconscious and let out a relieved sigh.
“Thanks for stopping at knocking them out. I may have left the party, but I'd probably have nightmares if those two died.”
“You asked me to.”
“…Yeah.”
They had managed to knock out Rosaria and Diana, the relatively weaker two, but Leon and Frey were still standing.
Those two were the core of the party's combat strength.
‘Our odds really are low.’
This wasn't even a battlefield they'd prepared ahead of time.
The fight had broken out suddenly.
That severely limited what they could make use of.
If they resumed the battle and each took one opponent, defeat was inevitable.
But that still wasn't a reason to back down.
It would have been perfect if that surprise attack had knocked Frey unconscious, but even though it failed, things were still manageable.
“Circe, if we stand this close together, he's definitely going to use that, right?”
“Of course he will. That idiot doesn't think. Look.”
Circe pointed ahead.
A determined shout rang out.
“Circe-!! If this is really what you want, then prepare yourself-!!”
Leon stood in front of them, pouring out aura in a violent, vivid torrent as though he'd finally made up his mind.
He was obviously preparing to use the Aura Blade attack he'd fired earlier.
“Knew it.”
“How did you ever fight with that guy in your party?”
“You already know. Don't make me say it.”
Frey saw what Leon was doing and went pale. She desperately tried to stop him.
“Leon!! Circe is over there too!! Are you seriously going to use that technique?!”
“Frey, Circe has chosen a different path from ours. It's regrettable, but as long as she stands before us as an enemy, she has to be eliminated.”
“Circe is our companion!! If Circe is gone, who's supposed to command our party?!”
“We'll think about that later. Don't interfere anymore.”
“Leon-!!!”
Watching the scene, Ex couldn't help lamenting inwardly.
‘What a fucking power-fantasy psychopath. Who wrote this bastard? …Was it me?’
Ex himself was one of the biggest reasons Leon had turned out like this.
“Please stop! There's no reason for us to do this!!”
Frey couldn't bring herself to openly defy the Hero.
As the Saintess who served closest to the Goddess, Leon's words carried absolute authority to her. He was the Hero the Goddess had chosen, so his will was as good as the Goddess's own.
Even if he was about to kill Circe, her friend and companion who had shared life-and-death struggles with her in their previous lives.
“I've already decided.”
In the end, Leon brought his sword down.
A Blade Shot woven together with both aura and divine power was unleashed.
Perhaps because he wanted to make it impossible to dodge, this one was even larger than before.
He had probably poured most of his internal energy into it.
And that was an enormous mistake.
“Circe.”
“Already ready.”
WOOOOOOOM-!!
The Book of Eibon screamed once again.
The speed of its turning pages slowed.
And with it, the Blade Shot slowed drastically.
“If it's this slow…”
“We could dodge it by walking.”
Ex and Circe simply walked out of its path.
The Blade Shot tore uselessly through empty air and continued onward.
Circe shook her head and sighed as though genuinely disappointed.
“I kept telling him to stop using that technique every time things didn't go his way. He never fixed that stupid habit, and now he's done it again.”
“Two of his companions were already down, and his enemies happened to be standing together. He probably thought this was his chance. I knew he'd do exactly that.”
Having poured everything into the attack, Leon stood there panting.
He couldn't believe what had just happened.
“They… dodged it…?”
Until now, no one had ever managed to dodge Blade Shot.
That was why he'd focused entirely on increasing its destructive power.
“No way…”
Ironically, it was only after the attack failed that he finally understood why.
‘Because Circe was always supporting me…’
Circe's Time Control had always restrained every enemy.
The endless barrage of Circe's spells had always kept their opponents pinned down.
Circe's strategies had always been built around Leon's techniques.
But now she was gone.
And she would never be there again.
Only now did Leon finally realize what he'd lost.
Ex, meanwhile, couldn't have cared less. He quickly discussed their next move with Circe.
“We drained Leon pretty badly, but Frey's still a problem.”
“If I slow her down with Time Control, can you take her?”
“Let's stop using Time Control. Three times is too much. Besides, even if I cut her with everything I've got, I doubt I'd even leave a wound…”
That was when it happened.
The shadows beneath Ex and Circe began multiplying.
At the same time, the entire area around them slowly grew brighter.
Only then did the two realize something was above them.
“…Wait. There's something up there.”
They looked up.
And saw something impossible.
Countless stars filled the air overhead like a river of starlight.
Every single point of light radiated intense brilliance and heat.
Hundreds of stars hovered above them, waiting for someone's command.
Circe recognized what they were.
“…Every single one of those is an explosive spell.”
“Explosive spells?”
Frey and Leon stared blankly at the sky.
Ex and Circe were just as stunned.
Then a voice came from behind them.
“Commoner, I'm awake now.”
It was Lola.
Somehow, Lola was already standing beside Ex, her eyes blazing with fierce fury.
Ex nearly went blank himself, but quickly snapped out of it and asked,
“My Lady, are you all right?”
“The potion helped. I'm fine. But more importantly…”
Lola's eyes sharpened.
The explosive spells filling the sky immediately began shining even brighter.
“I want to blow every last one of them to pieces.”
Only then did Ex understand what Leon's party had meant earlier.
There was no such thing as fighting normally against a mage capable of raining down this many explosions on such an enormous scale.
This was the true potential of a mage blessed with ‘Mana's Favor.’
Even so, Ex's anger hadn't faded in the slightest.
“My Lady, I only have one request.”
“What?”
Ex tightened his grip around his sword and stared coldly ahead.
Lola was furious.
And Ex was every bit as angry.
“Please leave some for us.”
“That might be hard…”
Lola raised one hand high into the air.
The stars filling the heavens glittered like a meteor shower.
“I don't care-!”
She dropped her hand.
A merciless bombardment came crashing down toward Leon and Frey.
The starlight exploded.
–TL Notes–
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