Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

  *Smack!!*

  Barely in the nick of time, Hisashi used a thunder-enchanted foot to viciously kick the assassin away! He then accurately hit the assassin with a Thunderboom, which caused some damage and minor slowdown.

  Hisashi’s kick and Thunderboom were incredibly well-timed and staggering. He had definitely exceeded his normal level with those attacks.

  Hoshi managed to escape with his life thanks to Hisashi.

  ‘I said a classical death flag sentence which almost got Hoshi killed off!’ Seiji felt guilt, as well as a greater amount of relief. But what he felt most was…


  A deep amount of anger!!

  ‘No matter what the reason is, if you want to kill us, then don’t blame me for killing you in self-defense!!’


  Seiji’s [Bullet Time] had activated again as the greatsword wielder and spear wielder tag team attacked him. He immediately decided to use his [Overload] ability on his [Gale Wind Evolved Body-strengthening technique]!

  This was the wind element speed-focused version of his [Body-strengthening technique]. In exchange for a high amount of constant Mana consumption, Seiji would be able to greatly increase his speed. Thanks to [Overload] strengthening the effects, the spell became even stronger. The end result was that…


  *Zoom!* Seiji transformed into a golden wind.

  *Shing shing shing shing shing…*

  The greatsword-wielding brown-haired man immediately met with a lightning-speed array of slashes! He was unable to even get a clear glimpse of his enemy. The brown-haired man was only able to attempt to forcibly block the attacks with his barrier of red light.

  *Pop!!*

  His barrier was penetrated just a few seconds later. A white sword stabbed through his body from behind!

  The sword then withdrew and the brown-haired man’s body was viciously kicked away towards the spear-wielding green-haired youth.

  At this moment, the hoodie-wearing youth approached Mika and Seiji’s other friends again. The dagger-wielding assassin transformed into a shadow again for a second assassination attempt.

  *Shing!*

  Seiji arrived in a golden wind that was impossible to see clearly. He instantly stopped the assassin’s attempt with a swing of his sword!

  A dense mesh-like series of sword blows followed right after. The assassin was forced to continuously retreat as he barely managed to block the blows. However, his defensive barrier was penetrated as well. A white sword blade impaled him through the chest!

  The green-haired youth took advantage of this opening to swiftly attack with his spear!!

  Seiji withdrew his sword, whirled around, and easily dodged this spear thanks to his high speed. He then counterattacked continuously with his sword!

  At this moment, the brown-haired man crawled back up to his feet. The injury on his body wasn’t bleeding at all. Instead, mist leaked out of his body, as if he was a spiritual creature and not a human.

  The exact same happened to the hoodie-wearing youth.

  Seiji already felt a strange sensation when he impaled the two… Now, it seemed that they were under a strange condition. Their overly vicious expressions, bright-red eyes, and abnormal amount of killing intent were all because of the strange condition.

  Well, since they had transformed into something like monsters, Seiji decided to treat them like monsters!

  Seiji took on all three enemies at once with the effects of his [Gale Wind] speed. He also started casting a seal magic.

  *Tat tat tat tat*

  The Spiritual Ability user from the enemy group started spraying a great amount of spiritual bullets at him, which caused Seiji some trouble.

  Fortunately, Hisashi tossed thunderbolts and Hoshi used his spiritual eagles to help Seiji deal with the monster-like enemy trio.

  Although Mika also fired Mana Bullets with her gun, her gunmanship was far too terrible, so she missed the great majority of her shots.

  Sealing spell, [Demon Suppression Bell]!!

  The moment that his spell was ready, Seiji activated it unhesitatingly. A gigantic golden bell suddenly appeared and covered the deranged trio!

  “Grahhh!!!!” Terrible shrieking came from within the bell.

  ‘This battle was a failure!’ Nirou Iwazaki instantly came to this conclusion.

  He had sacrificed three people without killing a single enemy. In fact, his team members had been unable to inflict even a single severe injury.

  He’d underestimated the opponent… no, he felt that it was more that he’d overestimated those three 1 .

  Those three were very low-quality Spiritual Ability users that were able to produce so much power with a combination of drugs and specialized spiritual weapons. These lab rats were even more useless than expected! Nirou would have to make a detailed report about this to his boss.

  Nirou felt that it was likely that his organization didn’t have much expectations for these low-ability Spiritual Ability users to begin with. It was far more likely that his organization valued these trial version spiritual weapons. However, it was impossible for him to retrieve the spiritual weapons in the current situation. If he didn’t leave now, he knew that soon he wouldn’t have a chance to leave at all.

  The ‘True Knight Order’… Nirou would remember their name.

  He ordered Heita Nishizawa who was still next to him to immediately teleport the two of them out of here. The gray-haired boy furrowed his eyebrows deeply as he brought out a black object, held it in his hands, and started uttering an incantation.

  This object then started to glow red. Heita had a pained expression on his face as if he was in extreme discomfort. However, he was forced to continue with the incantation.

  At this moment, a golden wind rapidly approached! Nirou instantly reacted by firing a barrage of bullets with his assault rifle’s lock-on capabilities. Not only that, he also brought out a few one-time use talismans that allowed him to cast spells instantly…


  Defensive spell, “Prisoner’s Cage”!!

  Whoosh! A multiple layered barrier consisting of overlapping spell formations instantly appeared. This barrier definitely gave people the impression of thick and solid.

  Seiji slashed his sword against this barrier and caused barely a dent.

  This barrier had excellent defensive properties. A powerful magic spell was needed to break through it… Mika’s Dimension Shattering Jade would be capable of doing so!

  However, Mika’s spell wasn’t fast enough.

  Seiji saw the gray-haired boy toss the glowing red object onto the ground. It then transformed into a bright-red circle with a whirlpool-like shape inside. The gray-haired boy then stepped onto this shape and vanished in a flash of light.

  The Spiritual Ability user continued remaining on guard against Seiji as he also stepped on the circle and vanished.

  Seiji sheathed his sword after seeing that the remaining two enemies had escaped. Something flashed in his eyes.

  This mysterious battle which started for no reason to Seiji ended just like that.

  The brown-haired man, green-haired youth, and hoodie-wearing youth trio had all died.

  They died in such a pitiful way that seemed like they were burned to death. Mika and Hoshi both vomited at the sight.

  Seiji also felt his stomach churning at the sight. He felt even worse when he thought about how his own spell had caused this to the trio.

  However, he didn’t regret doing what he had done at all.

  He wasn’t someone who would hold back against an enemy who intended to go to the extent of attempting to kill his friends. Not to mention, these enemies were more monster-like than human.

  Still, there was something else that he regretted. He regretted not being able to react fast enough the moment that the enemy launched their attack. Hoshi was almost killed because of this.

  Luckily, Hisashi managed to stop the assassin with a thunder-enchanted kick. Seiji felt that could be called a golden… no, a diamond kick!

  This was an Inner World, a place where the law had no hold over. Anyone they met here might attack them for no apparent reason at all! Seiji etched this lesson firmly in his mind.

  “We could have interrogated them if any had survived,” Hisashi stated. “But this… there’s no helping it.”


  Hisashi was quite cold and calm, with no traces of pitying the enemy at all. He simply regretted not being able to obtain any information.

  Seiji and his friends all had zero clue why these people had attacked them.

  Seiji’s original guess was that these people wanted to kill them in order to escape from the Inner World. However, this guess had obviously been proved wrong.

  The enemy already had a method capable of teleporting them out of the Inner World. They didn’t need to kill others at all in order to leave.

  And since three people died here, while Seiji and his friends still remained, that meant this Inner World didn’t have the natural law of teleporting everyone out if someone died!

  They would discuss that issue later. Since these people didn’t attack them for the purpose of leaving… then could it have been the opposite? Did these people attack Seiji and his friends because they wanted to take over this district? Seiji thought about it from another angle.

  This “flower garden” had zero spiritual creatures appearing in it. It was an excellent place to rest safely. That meant it could be used as a base.

  A base… right! Not only could this be an excellent resting spot, it would be an excellent location to cultivate in!!

  Cultivating would be much easier in a Spirit World. Inner Worlds were part of Spirit Worlds, so…


  Wait a moment, was this place really an Inner World? Could this place actually be the Spirit World-Forest Palace’s “Surface World?”


  Seiji felt like he had realized everything after having this idea.

  If this was the Forest Palace’s Surface World, or the portion of the Inner World close to the Surface World, that would explain why there was no natural law of a human dying kicking everyone else out of the world! It would also explain why this place was so huge!!

  Seiji felt like he had discovered the answer.

  If other factions also possessed the ability to enter this wide location which might either be a Surface or Inner World, then a safe zone where no spiritual creatures would appear would have incredible value. It would be so valuable that people would be willing to fight over it!

  A small squadron from a certain faction with sufficient power might have located such a valuable location. But, they saw that someone else was in it already, and misunderstood them to be competitors. And so, this squadron launched an attack without so much as a warning…


  ‘Yep, I think this is a good guess.’ Seiji felt that his inference was likely to be on the mark.

  It was quite common for humans to kill others all for the sake of obtaining more territory. The entire history of human warfare was the best evidence of this.

  The only problem was, these people misunderstood what Seiji was here for!

  Seiji and his friends had zero intentions whatsoever of claiming this district as their own. They simply wanted to locate their missing companions and then leave.

  If Seiji’s guess was on the mark, then this meant that the battle just now had been completely meaningless! Three people died for almost no reason at all!!