… … …


  I start chanting my magic, too. I enchant everyone’s weapon with magic. This should raise everyone’s offensive power.

  We are facing against Diehart, after all. This is the third time we are meeting him.

  It really surprised me when Reiji suddenly used the Light Cannon of Heavenly Might magic toward Diehart. The holy dragon king might be alive in there, you know.

  I don’t know what will happen inside the cave if Diehart didn’t use his magic to protect himself against Reiji’s.

  Since Reiji thinks that it’s okay as long as he doesn’t harm any women, he might not even care about what would happen to the dragon king who is protecting the Rox Kingdom.

  Nevertheless, why could that guy neutralize Reiji’s magic? It shouldn’t be possible to defend against that magic with your average magic skill. I feel again the pressure of fighting a powerful opponent.

  Looking from where Diehart’s coming out, I have no doubt that the horn of dragon king was just stolen by him. What the heck is Rena doing right now?

  We haven’t hear any particular tactics about this operation from Rena except that we have to keep Diehart busy.

  And now that I can’t see her figure, did she just encounter an unfortunate incident?

  That’s why the horn of holy dragon king should have been easily stolen.

  Even though I was hesitating whether to fight Diehart or not previously, the situation has changed now. They tried to annihilate the Rox kingdom completely. I won’t leave this kind of dangerous guy to his own devices.

  Though I still think that we’ve to act carefully, I’m not hesitating anymore. I’ll take him down with everything I got.

  Our formation has Shirone and Kaya as our vanguards, Reiji in the middle, with Nao supporting from the side. Rino and I will attack with magic as rear guard, and Sahoko would healing everyone on the frontline. This is our sure win pattern.

  Since there’s no thick fog like last night, now we were fighting with our full strength.

  Nao takes the plunge first with her projectile. Nao’s boomerang is whizzing toward Diehart.

  Nao’s boomerang will split when it’s thrown toward the target; moreover, it’ll create vacuum blades that are capable of slicing several targets.

  But, after Diehart unsheathed his sword, he made all those vacuum blades vanish with one swing of his sword along with all the boomerangs. Splendid, there’s no hesitation in the way he swung his sword.

  Though he can defend himself from those boomerangs, it’s enough for us since Reiji is already rushing to attack him by taking advantage of the gap created when he swung his sword.

  According to Kaya and Shirone, Reiji’s attack is really hard to dodge and almost impossible to predict. Diehart, whose stance has been disturbed by those boomerangs, might be unable to dodge that attack.

  「EEEH! ! 」


  The next moment, I didn’t even know what happened. Reiji attack just passed through Diehart’s body.

  Even Reiji is dumbfounded by that situation.

  Though I don’t know what just happened, the next moment, Shirone spread her wings and already dived from above. Though it couldn’t be used in closed spaces or in a room, this open space gave her absolute advantage. She swings her sword while dropping down from overhead. But, Diehart easily dodged that attack by a paper thin margin.

  From below, Kaya rapidly approaches Diehart while unleashing her fists. As long as Kaya’s fists connect, the damage will definitely passing through his shield and armor and destroy him from the inside.

  But, Kaya’s attack also passes through Diehart’s afterimage just like Reiji’s attack.

  「EVERYONE! MOVE OUT――!」


  Upon hearing Rino’s voice, the four people in the frontlines retreat immediately.

  When I turn toward her, a tall woman, wearing a pale blue dress, is already standing in front of Rino. And then, a gigantic bird with thunder coiling around its body is rising above us.

  They are the superior spirits under Rino’s command, the Snow Queen and the Thunder Bird.

  It seems the number of people who could summon superior spirits could be counted using the fingers in two hands even amongst the elves who have great affinity with spirit, much less to say summoning two superior spirits at the same time; I heard that even the elf queen is unable to do that.

  But, Rino can do that easily.

  If physical attack can’t get through to him, how about the attacks from these two superior spirits?

  「Please, Spirit-san! FINISH HIM OFF!!」


  A storm of icicle lances from the Snow Queen and lightning storm from the Thunder Bird come into existence along with Rino’s appeal.

  Along with a thunderous noise, my field of vision is blocked by a cloud of dust in the next moment.

  The cloud of dust clears up several seconds later. And Diehart is there, standing on his place.

  「What’s wrong with that guy! ! He’s not even injured by this level of attack?!」


  I’m shocked. What the hell is wrong with this guy?

  「He avoided that with his Mikiri*, huh. [TL* : A state in combat where one judges the technique, stance, and movement of their opponent to fight them with paper thin margin.] Our attacks can’t reach him at all. There’s a legend that Miyamoto Musashi can cut a grain of rice on his opponent’s forehead without even wounding his opponent, and this guy might be able to do the same thing」


  Kaya elaborates about what happened.

  「What the heck is that!」


  What’s with that godlike ability? Why is he still okay after all those attacks.

  「But, it seems he couldn’t perfectly withstand the attack of the spirit」


  「Eh …」


  Looking closely, Diehart’s body seems to be trembling.

  「Moreover, he isn’t coming to attack us since the start of the battle and is always on a defensive stance」


  I smiled upon hearing Kaya’s words. We can win as long as we can somehow inflict some damage upon him.

  「In that case, let’s attack him without giving him any chance for rest」


  I am really scared of what happened in that basement, after all. It’s wasn’t done personally by Diehart, but he might be similar to that masked man. I’ll make you pay for your sins.

  Now, I’ll make Diehart pay for what he did including the share of the Rox kingdom’s citizens.

  === === ===

  ◆ Dark Knight, Kuroki

  「Ouch … That … Hurts」


  Maybe it is because I couldn’t perfectly dodge the attack of the spirit. My body is in pain.

  As expected, 7 against 1 is just too much. [TL: This might be what the last boss feels when he’s against the hero party.]

  Why did things turn out like this.

  It’s just a simple matter for me to dodge Shirone’s attack; I used to spar with her so many times, after all. It’s just the same even when she’s attacking from above. No, it’s easier to dodge her aerial attack since it’s follows a linear pattern.

  The attack of the girl who used her fists was sharp. But, it was not at the level of a master. I could dodge her attack by parrying it.

  Reiji’s attack was scary. This guy already killed a few people even back in our world. Every one of his attacks were aiming for my life.

  But, I can read Reiji’s attack pattern to some extent. He never comes to attack me from the front; the attack always comes from outside my field of view. Just like a beast.

  Normally, one can’t do that kind of feat, but Reiji’s physical capability enables him to do so. That’s why I can deliberately guide him to attack a designated spot by shifting my line of sight.

  But still, I can’t protect myself from the spirit attack. Though I might be able to protect myself from that attack as long as I use my magic barrier, their vanguard won’t give me the leeway to do so.

  Well, what should I do now?

  I have no choice but to escape by looking for a gap. But, that’s also difficult. Even if I were to escape with metastasis magic, I can’t leave Glorious in this place.

  When I’m looking around, Reiji and his party rush toward me again.

  It’s not so bad if it’s just Reiji alone, but the mental damage caused to me is too much when even those girls are fighting to take my life.

  I have no intention to fight against Reiji’s women.

  「Why did things turn this way …」


  I wanted to laugh on myself.

  But when I think carefully about it, maybe I know why things turned out this way.

  Anyone who makes an enemy of Reiji will also become the enemies of the women around him. That’s the one thing that doesn’t change whether in our world or in this world. I should have anticipated this matter when I fought against Reiji.

  That’s why anyone who makes an enemy of Reiji will be hated by everyone. You can say that Reiji is a protector of girls in a certain sense.

  Those women are standing on Reiji’s side. Truly an unpleasant situation, isn’t it.

  And the result of following my foolish sense of rivalry is this messy situation I’m currently at. I might be an idiot.

  I should have prepared myself to become the enemy of those girls the moment I made an enemy of Reiji.

  Now I’m driven to the corner since I’m lacking that resolution.

  Maybe I shouldn’t have saved Mizuouji Chiyuki back then. Her magic is aiming for my life now. I mean I’m sure that she wanted to be saved by Reiji, not me.

  That’s why I should launch my counter attack and not just remain defensive. It would mean that I must make the resolution to cut them down, including Shirone.

  It might be only a matter of time before I die unless I retaliate.

  The attacks from Reiji and the girls are reaching me now. If it’s not for the damage of the previous attack, it’s not that difficult to dodge their attacks.

  Reiji is attacking as the vanguard while the magic bombardment is coming from behind.

  Though my power keeps falling, it isn’t the case for Reiji-tachi, thanks to Yoshino Sahoko who’s restoring their stamina repetitively.

  I know that I’m slowly being driven to a corner.

  But I couldn’t force myself to attack those girls. Why am I such an idiot?! Even after reaching this point, why am I more worried about them than my own safety.

  「GUH!」


  I wonder how many times I have received that spirit attack now. I fall on my knees due to the pain.

  Though my power has fallen, I have to still fight. I wonder how many times I would have to say those words to inspire myself.

  But, that’s no longer enough for my current state.

  The way Reiji-tachi is retreating isn’t normal, they took quite a far distance from my .

  「What is………….」


  And then, it was too late by the time I noticed so.

  I don’t know since when but, Mizuoji Chiyuki fired a gigantic light ball that set ablaze toward me.

  I can feel an absurd amount of magical power from this magic ball.

  「This is the compression of several fire magic and explosion magic skills, OVERLIMIT FIERY EXPLOSION MAGIC!! ! NOW YOU’LL PAY FOR YOUR SINS, DIEHART!! [TL: HE IS INNOCENT!] ! ! 」


  Mizuouji Chiyuki is shouting that words.

  Crap. I can only see that magic in silence. It’s coming toward me.

  I couldn’t dodge it with Glorious right behind me.

  I then start releasing every bit of magical power in my body. At least I’ll do my best to protect Glorious. That is my resolution.

  The magic ball is colliding against my defensive barrier.

  And then, a gigantic storm of energy envelopes this area.

  === === ===

  ◆ Black Haired Sage, Chiyuki

  「Did I do it …」


  It is the most destructive magic inside my arsenal. Yep, I want to believe that he has died by that attack.

  The problem is that I might ended up demolishing the cave of the Holy Dragon King, but I will bet on the defensive magic of Diehart.

  As long as we can end this fight with my magic alone, we don’t need to destroy this cave.

  And then, as if proving my premonition, even though the power behind this magic should be enough to demolish this mountain completely, the mountain isn’t damaged in the least. It seems he took the brunt of that magic by himself. I might have to praise Diehart for his toughness.

  「In the end, this villain is done for good」


  I’m laughing.

  「As expected, Chiyuki-san」


  Nao is approaching me.

  「It’s not my own power, it’s everyone power」