Volume 6Chapter 4

Chapter 4 – The God of the Sword and the God of Thunder

Two days later.

Sheryl had acquired, entirely on merit, the title of mysterious genius girl. The natural consequence of loosing a Level 6 in public was that a scouting war broke out over her. Every mage of consequence in every country on earth went into motion. Won’t you come to us? Won’t you come to us?—one after another… at a pitch of enthusiasm that got wearying from where I stood.

Every one of them was met with a sleepy-eyed “…Not interested,” and no purchase whatsoever.

The organizers, incidentally, had been tracking Anastasia’s and Maria’s run through the selections, the labyrinth and the melee both, so a fair number of people descended on them as well. They too were dismissed with ‘not interested.’

Sheryl being an odd one, that’s fine. But the offers to Anastasia and Maria came from magic graduate schools, or directly from Society factions in the plain sense of the word, and the terms didn’t look bad to me. So I asked them:

“Why, though? Some of those weren’t bad offers…”

Anastasia answered, “Because I’ll be Master’s slave for life.” Maria said something along the lines of, “What you promised me before isn’t anywhere near done yet. You said it, so take responsibility to the end… no, spend your whole life raising me into the strongest mage there is.”

Hearing which, I thought:

—Do neither of them have any intention of ever leaving my side?

The thought crossed a corner of my mind and made me dizzy. But it looked like a seed for a headache, so I stopped thinking about it too deeply.

Anyway. The last remaining task, the exhibition match against the Sword God Emperor, falls on the closing day of the Magic Society’s general assembly. The reason it’s the last day is that this whole event, world tournament included, is essentially the assembly’s entertainment. So it gets staged grandly, as the festive close of the Society’s run of events.

Which leaves more than ten days until the assembly ends, and us inevitably at a loose end.

And that day I was summoned by Sasha, who attends the meetings in body if not enthusiasm, complaining about the bother of it the whole time.

“Would you run an errand for me?”

That was the first thing out of his mouth, sleepy-eyed, when I reached his room.

“An errand…?”

“As you can see, I’m busy.”

As I could see, all I could see was Sasha in a swimsuit, sunbathing by the window with slices of lemon stuck all over his face.

“You look idle to me.”

“I attend the meetings properly. This is a breather.”

“A sunbathing vampire is unprecedented, I’d have thought.”

“I’m a daywalker, mind.”

“I know that. So… the errand?”

“As you know, this island has living ruins of the ancient magic civilization. And you know what the President intends going forward?”

“Recovering and sealing dangerous relics. Although the important relics in the deep levels were recovered back in the era of the original Four Emperors, surely?”

Sasha let out a light breath and began peeling the lemon slices off his face.

“It got written off as a siren’s song, but you heard that voice yourself in the business with the Leviathan, did you not?”

“I did. That was certainly nothing ordinary.”

“And at this timing, an application from S-rank adventurers to enter the ruins for survey has come in to the island’s public office…”

“S-rank adventurers?”

“Just so…” Sasha nodded and went on. “It snags on something. The one who chose this island and chose the prize is a man calling himself the Earth God Emperor.”

“…And you think those S-rank adventurers are connected to the Earth God Emperor somehow?”

“No, that I doubt. But the Fire God Emperor’s connection to the ancient ruins ran deep, did it not?”

“Well, yes…”

“In any case, management of the ruins is still nominally the Magic Society’s business. So I mean to grant the S-rank party entry on a condition.”

“What condition?”

“That someone recommended by the Society goes with them. I would ask you to be that someone.”

Hmm… I put a hand to my chin and thought.

“…And concretely, what do I do?”

“Nothing at all. Survey the deep levels of the ruins. If some irregularity exists, as I fear, consider how to deal with it. If nothing does, leave it be. And if the adventurers behave suspiciously, take them to task.”

“…”

“Your face is clouded… What is it? You’re idle in any case, are you not?”

“Why not go yourself? You say you attend the meetings, but you sit there in a foul mood saying nothing. I was going to use this time off to make contact with the Sword God Emperor.”

“As to that…” Sasha grinned. “The Sword God Emperor is going with the S-rank party.”

And so, by way of that exchange, here I am now: walking a vast underground labyrinth spread out beneath the island.

With the Sword God Emperor gone there’s no point staying in town, true enough. It would only mean shopping with Anastasia and the others… or a vague tour of the island’s sights. Not that I’d skip the daily training either way…

We got into the underground ruins, incidentally, through a side tunnel off the island’s volcanic crater, where the magma boils. So the place is extremely hot. Walking that furnace of a passage, though, the heat gradually eased, and eventually it turned cool.

“That’s the heat behind us, then. Still, having the Sword God Emperor with us is a real help.”

Four S-rank adventurers in total. A swordsman, a heavily armored warrior, a priest for healing, and a mage: two close-quarters fighters supported by a healer and a ranged attacker. An orthodox arrangement.

One of them spoke, and that set the party talking.

“Genuinely reassuring.”

“Yes. For us adventurers the Sword God Emperor is one of the summits you aim for.”

“Speaking as the mage, the summit I aim for is the Four Emperors.”

“Don’t be an idiot. The Four Emperors these days is the summit a politician aims for.”

“Say that and there’s nothing left to say. And I mean the original ones… the great predecessors who got there on genuine ability. Anyway, dependable firepower is very welcome.”

At that, the Sword God Emperor smiled mildly.

“With an appendage attached, mind.”

His gaze rested on Naomi, who’d crossed swords with Anastasia and the others. The party looked at Naomi, and then turned a dubious look on me.

“The Sword God Emperor is raising a disciple… Appendage or dead weight, the total is still a large plus. We’re grateful.”

“But this boy Sasha-sama recommended… that I don’t quite follow.”

The four of them nodded along, and gave me a look that ran from my feet to the top of my head, pricing me.

“For a mage, the magic power he wears is a poor thing… And he’s a child, by age.”

“So even you think so, and it’s your field? I was thrown myself the moment I saw him. He looks exactly like an ordinary student.”

“Yes. When they said Sasha-sama had vouched for him I assumed there was something to it, but no matter how I examine his magic power, he really does seem to be an ordinary child. It surprised me.”

At that the Sword God Emperor smiled ruefully, and Naomi dropped her lashes in embarrassment. Naomi hadn’t seen through my concealment on first look either, mind.

Still… I thought. She’s nowhere near Merlin, obviously. But S-rank is S-rank, and this woman looks reasonably skilled. Observe me properly and deeply enough and she could probably see through the concealment. The failure is entirely down to being fooled by how I look, which is pure carelessness on her part…

I was thinking that when the Sword God Emperor gave a small shake of his head.

“No, I think he has an uncommon talent. To me, at least, Sasha-sama’s recommendation makes perfect sense.”

The four of them shook their heads repeatedly. “No, no.”

“So a truly strong man really is humble.”

“Humble? What do you mean by that?”

“Taking care over the feelings of a child like this one. Not many could manage it.”

“I do think his ability is real.”

Hearing him say it again, the four turned dubious looks back on my face.

“Really? This boy?”

“It’s hard to credit on the spot.”

The Sword God Emperor shrugged, as if to say oh, very well.

“I haven’t measured his ability precisely either, so… I can’t vouch for whether he’d hold up in your S-rank territory. All I can tell is that he transcends the level of a student.”

“I see. So… for a student, is what it comes to.”

The four looked at one another and nodded broadly.

“We’d been holding back until now, what with Sasha-sama’s recommendation… But the Society was tiresome about this survey… the headcount limit was strict, so we couldn’t fit a bag-carrier into the party.”

And on that basis, the four of them smiled and said:

“You’re the bag-carrier, boy.”

“We’re a party. A community of fate. Each has a role suited to his ability.”

“Dogsbody work and carrying the bags falls to the newest, for mages and adventurers alike.”

This particular sporting-club atmosphere hasn’t changed in four hundred years… Roaring with laughter, they loaded the heavy packs onto me, and I sighed from the bottom of my chest.

“So why did you all come to survey the ancient ruins? Everything worth having on this island was cleaned out four hundred years ago, surely?”

“That’s… well, look. If a relic that didn’t get cleaned out turns up, that’s a stroke of luck.”

“Sell it to some country or other and depending what it is, the sum can be extraordinary.”

“And besides…”

“Besides?”

“Ancient ruins are famous as extreme danger zones. Leave a solid record on the internal-structure survey alone and it burnishes your name as an adventurer.”

Hmm. No sign of anyone lying. These people evidently have no connection to the Earth God Emperor. In that case I can complete Sasha’s errand simply by having a look at the deep levels, and otherwise build some goodwill with the Sword God Emperor so it’s easier to ask about physical enhancement later.

But… I thought. Why is the Sword God Emperor on this survey at all?

Per Sasha, the stated reason is that taking on high-difficulty work with S-rank adventurers is training for him… Frankly, the gap in power between the Sword God Emperor and S-rank adventurers is far too wide. I can’t see anything he does with these people amounting to study or stimulus for him. Come to that, four hundred years ago I got out of the adventuring business at a fairly early stage myself. For the genuinely strongest of that era, S-rank was no more than a waypoint on the way to the actual goal…

I was thinking that when the air around the S-rank party changed and they braced. The close-quarters fighters set their weapons; the mage began building a formula. The Sword God Emperor and Naomi were watching our surroundings too, hands at their hilts. And so, of course, was I.

In the tension that settled over us, the woman mage looked toward the depths of the cave and shrugged.

“Well. It’s dangers like this that make picked-clean ruins unpopular… poor returns for the risk.”

Ahead of us stood a monster: a spider from the waist down, a woman from the waist up.

An arachne.

Arachnes have been famous as high-tier, powerful monsters since four hundred years ago. An ordinary adventurer would be trussed in silk in moments and turned into preserved food.

“Boy, Naomi. Stay back.”

The S-rank adventurers said it, and the fight was on.

⁂

Rewind, to the day before Ephthal set out for the ancient ruins.

In the courtyard of the facility, during a recess in the Magic Society assembly, two men sat on a bench.

“Incidentally, when might the four million gold be paid? By the original arrangement, Altena Magic Academy was at odds of eight, I believe… Lord Rosen?”

Against the young man’s flat delivery, the older one answered haltingly, visibly cowed.

“…Even selling… property… it takes… time.”

“Meaning you intend to break your word?”

“No. I’m saying wait… no. I’m saying knock the figure down.”

“…And what does that mean?”

The older man snorted, brazen now, and his tone changed entirely.

“That wager was meant as a game played on the world tournament, wasn’t it? Putting up a ludicrous sum like that… isn’t sane.”

“You accepted the wager knowing it. And went so far as to harass children… which is beneath an adult.”

“…About that. The whole thing is odd to begin with.”

“Odd? In what way?”

“Betting that sum on that academy with no prior information is odd. You rigged something, didn’t you?”

“The one who rigged something was you.”

“You’ll have been helping the students from the shadows yourself. Yes. That’s what it is!”

“Dear me… This doesn’t look like a conversation…”

“Either way, I’m not paying. Not a coin. Or what? Will you complain to the President of the Society? The man detests gambling. And there’s case law that debts from unlawful wagering needn’t be repaid… a last resort, granted, but a piece of knowledge I kept in a corner of my mind as insurance.”

“I see… So you intended to default from the very beginning, if it came to it?”

“If you hadn’t wagered so idiotically I’d never have raised any of this. Hm? You look dissatisfied… Galling, is it?”

“No, it suits me. I knew you would come at it this way. And… you said it was odd that I backed that academy. There is a proper reason for it.”

“A reason?”

At something evidently funny, the young man began to laugh as though a dam had given way.

“Because Ephthal is there. What could students possibly do about that? Ha, ha, hahahaha! Hahahahaha!”

The older man turned a suspicious look on him.

“Itam-dono?”

“How could I not laugh? It’s like setting a crowd of infants armed with sticks off the road to deal with a monster.”

And Itam snapped his fingers, and the light went out of the older man’s eyes.

“What… are you…?”

To the man sliding limp off the bench, Itam grinned and said:

“I thought I might adjust your body a little, in lieu of payment. Though it’s a nuisance… Modern mages are no use even as vessels for a magic weapon: only at the level of a Society grandee does it become workable at all.”

“Body… adjust…?”

“The causality is established. I am not kind as the Fire God Emperor is, nor do I do things without reason. All things have their causes, and ruin comes about as the consequence of a cause. Indeed, where a man forces misfortune on a man, it must be so.”

“After all,” Itam continued, cheerfully, “I have no wish to be made an experimental animal or tortured or killed without understanding why. So at the very least, a reason is necessary. Come along, now.”

Every trace of feeling drained from the older man’s face. And when Itam stood and began to walk, the man followed behind him, his eyes still empty.

“Now then. With that I have the ideal base-body for the Hecatoncheir as well… Let us see a little of what you can do these days—Ephthal.”

Ephthal’s Perspective

“What’s the matter? You look glum.”

Through the efforts of the S-rank adventurers the arachne had been put down after a hard fight. They’d struggled enough that partway through the Sword God Emperor moved to help them, only to be told—

“We can manage this ourselves!”

—and in the event they did put it down alone. They were delighted with themselves for killing a powerful monster. I could only sigh.

“So this is a top-flight warrior… An S-rank adventurer.”

Naomi, the Sword God Emperor’s disciple, was sighing too, but hers was admiration, not my resignation.

An arachne is a high-tier monster, certainly… But that means dangerous to an ordinary adventurer; it is by no means top-tier. Anyone classed S-rank four hundred years ago would emphatically not have got bogged down in a scrappy fight like that one.

—So this is… what an S-rank adventurer is now.

Which leaves me with nothing to do but sigh again.

“What did you make of it, Sword God Emperor?”

He shrugged, with a face I couldn’t read.

“From where Naomi stands they look top-flight, and they are unquestionably first-rate, in fact.”

Then he added, “Although.”

“There’s a good deal of room for improvement… it seems to me.”

Hearing that, the party smiled, awkward and embarrassed.

“That’s the Sword God Emperor for you. Harsh.”

“Though at your hands nearly every human being ends up an amateur.”

“What did you make of my magic, incidentally?”

“I don’t understand magic, so on the mage I’ll pass… if I may.”

“Even I would be a little annoyed at a layman lecturing me, so passing is the right answer. Though Headmaster Merlin or Sasha-sama, being this boy’s connections, would be another matter…” And the woman mage winked at me.

“Incidentally, what would you think if I lectured you?”

“I’d flatten you on the spot.”

Evidently entertained, the Sword God Emperor put a question to me.

“As I said earlier, this boy has signs of uncommon ability as a magic swordsman. So, as a specialist in the magic sword, what do you make of these adventurers, Ephthal-kun?”

“…I’ll pass, if I may.”

I don’t want to be flattened for nothing. I can hardly say the true thing, which is that the level disappointed me.

The woman mage laughed and clapped me on the shoulder repeatedly.

“Say honestly that it was all too amazing to follow, and the big brothers and sisters might treat you as a sweet little child.”

She grinned as she said it, and the rest of them started laughing hugely.

“Still, Sword God Emperor’s word or not, uncommon ability? Praising a child excessively isn’t admirable.”

“Agreed. Sasha-sama recommended him, so he may grow into something impressive in due course, but…”

One of the adventurers clapped his hands.

“Something’s bothering me, so let’s leave the chatter there. An arachne turning up here is outside expectation. The deep section we’re surveying is a long way further on, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is odd… Though an odd specimen straying up into the shallow levels isn’t especially rare… Still, caution costs nothing.”

Tension ran through the party at that. The mage started a detection spell, and the close-quarters fighters and the healer visibly tightened their watch.

And the Sword God Emperor, evidently of my mind, glared into the depths of the cave and shook his head.

“I have a bad feeling about this survey. If it were possible I’d rather we called it off…”

“What are you suddenly saying? Is there some basis for it?”

“I have no detection magic. But… because I keep my senses honed for reading ahead, what I say at times like this is… almost never wrong.”

“So in the end it’s a hunch? Then I’m afraid that’s not a request we can grant. We’ve been building this survey plan for a long while, and we’ve spent time and effort on applications and the rest of it.”

Well, on my detection too the situation is a gray zone. The state of the mid-level area a little further on is oddly noisy. With the interference peculiar to ancient ruins, that’s as much as I can tell for now.

Having drawn the S-rank party’s pushback, the Sword God Emperor shrugged wearily.

“…Then let us go on with the utmost caution.”

⁂

“Honestly, though, there are a lot of monsters.”

“Is there a giant-snake outbreak, I wonder?”

Just short of the mid-level area. We’d already stepped over the corpses of more than twenty giant snakes to get here.

“Giant snakes are the bottom of the mid-level food chain, aren’t they? Could a pack of cave dragons be rampaging up ahead, hunting them?”

“So the giant snakes are being driven up into the shallow levels? The mid-level area past this bend was a large chamber, wasn’t it?”

“If a pack of cave dragons is on the rampage it’ll be a kicked hornets’ nest in there…”

“What do we do? Turn back?”

“Don’t joke. A cave dragon isn’t a true dragon, it’s a wyrm, no intelligence… just a big lizard in the end. Ten of them would be somewhat dangerous, granted.”

Svetlana belongs to the true dragons, incidentally, and true dragons and wyrms really are different. Should anyone call Svetlana a wyrm to her face, it takes no imagination at all to picture her charring them on the spot for the insult.

Never mind that. We rounded the bend and arrived in a space you could call an enormous underground dome… better than a kilometer in radius.

“Wh-what… what is this?”

Countless monster corpses lay strewn everywhere. Giant snakes in the hundreds, cave dragons in the tens by the look of it.

And the woman mage simply stood there, blank, a look of despair on her face.

“This is well past a pack of cave dragons rampaging… That… that is…”

Ahead of her gaze: a body ten meters tall. A giant with four pairs of arms, left and right, and three heads, rampaging.

It was throwing dragon carcasses about, and tearing those hard-scaled bodies apart with raw strength alone. Drenched in the blood of what it killed, it went on killing.

That monster’s name is Hecatoncheir. Or rather, it’s a creature made in the age of the ancient magic civilization; whether an artificial biological weapon should be called a monster at all is a matter of some debate…

“Retreat, right now. Nobody told us there was anything like that here!”

“Sword God Emperor! It hasn’t noticed us yet! Let’s pull out immediately!”

“No, it’s too late.” “We’re past that already.”

The Sword God Emperor and I spoke at the same moment, and at the same moment sprang apart, left and right. The S-rank adventurers and Naomi, too slow to move, froze on the spot as though bound.

“…The binding evil eye, Sword God Emperor.”

“Yes, Ephthal-kun. The effect itself is kinder than the petrifying eye, but in exchange it has the property of breaking through magic resistance at a very small cost in magic power.”

Right, then… I can’t see this as an easy win. So what do we do about it.

Again at the same moment, the Sword God Emperor and I drew the blades at our hips.

“Ephthal-kun. Do you know what that is?”

“Yes. A relic of the ancient magic civilization… the biological weapon Hecatoncheir.”

⁂

The two of us faced the giant, and opened with a simultaneous strike from left and right that took an arm off each side.

At the sound of them dropping we both stepped back and looked at one another.

“…As I feared, this is not good, Ephthal-kun.”

We’d committed to hit-and-away on the first exchange. Feeling it out, in other words, and there was a reason for that: I wanted to test whether the information in my head about the Hecatoncheir matched the actual thing.

Because as a creature, the Hecatoncheir’s combat ability is not as high as the Leviathan we met before. It’s a tenth the size, to begin with, and its raw strength is proportionately lower, obviously.

But that emphatically does not make it less troublesome than the Leviathan.

And while we were feeling it out, the worst of the expected phenomena duly occurred.

“Sword God Emperor. The Hecatoncheir’s arms regenerated instantly. Or rather, grew back new, which is the more accurate way to put it.”

“Yes, Ephthal-kun.”

We both gave a small nod, and I began to think.

Right. The Hecatoncheir boasts an abnormal regenerative capacity. That’s its greatest characteristic as a weapon and its greatest strength, a regeneration so fierce that it is said to return to its original form instantly even if you dice it.

That recovery, incidentally, is a different thing from my own full-recovery magic. The important point being that magic means of sealing recovery are, for creatures of this kind, generally meaningless, because that regeneration isn’t the result of magic activity. It was designed and built that way as a function of the organism itself.

“Do you know how the Hecatoncheir is dealt with, Ephthal-kun?”

“Only from the memory of documents, I’m afraid, but there should be two cores inside the body. Crush them simultaneously and… probably.”

“Fufu. Truly, what are you?”

“Meaning?”

“To be versed in how to handle a biological weapon of the ancient magic civilization… Your average S-rank adventurer doesn’t know that. Come to that, even a man who lives by the martial path never assumes he will meet such a thing in the first place.”

“Well… A number of things, in that area.”

“You really are bottomless.”

“In any case, how do we bring it down? Simply running would be easy enough for us…”

“Yes. With the binding eye it amounts to hostages. The retreating move isn’t available. Therefore—”

And the Sword God Emperor nodded firmly, his eyes strong.

“We must crush both at once. I take one, you take one. Can you do it, Ephthal-kun?”

From the group frozen by the binding eye, a girl came leaping at ferocious speed.

“Naomi? Why can you move?”

She gave a small nod at my question.

“I train regularly to raise magic resistance, and my master has passed me a great many implements for resisting curses and weakening magic.”

I see. For a swordsman that sort of underhanded work would be among the first things to guard against.

“Master! I have heard everything! In that case, let me destroy that monster together with you!”

The Sword God Emperor shook his head and cut her off flatly.

“Naomi, you cannot.”

“…What?”

“The cores move freely inside the Hecatoncheir’s body, and the timing of the strike demands an instant’s judgment. Therefore: insufficient speed, insufficient strength, immature swordwork—and immature physical enhancement. For you it is impossible.”

“Th-then Ephthal-dono meets the standard?”

“Setting aside that his swordwork is immature, I believe he fits the conditions. And he has a magic sword to make up for the immaturity.”

“You cannot… entrust it to me? And you truly say Ephthal-dono can do it?”

“Know your own measure. That is the means by which one derives the optimal answer for keeping one’s life out of danger. I taught you that first of all. Though in Ephthal-kun’s case it is a matter of possibility… I cannot assert that he can.”

At that Naomi turned a mortified look on me.

“Ephthal-dono… Do you yourself believe you can? Do you say you have that confidence?”

“I’ll do my best, at any rate.”

Worst case, there’s always the option of loosing a Level 10 and erasing the cores along with everything else.

“Still, this is genuinely difficult, Ephthal-kun. Prodigy of the magic sword though you are, exactly as your swordwork is immature… you are also a child.”

“…”

“If my own master Breit were here the possibility would be a hundred, but…”

“Even so, I’m the only one here with any possibility of doing it. That’s the position, isn’t it?”

“It is. Though I would put the possibility at three in ten… Four, generously. And in all likelihood the first attempt is the last chance—once the Hecatoncheir understands what we are aiming at, it will move the cores and the difficulty will rise further.”

“…”

“In which case a war of attrition against an opponent who regenerates without limit is meaningless. The option of abandoning the adventurers begins to take on reality.”

And the Sword God Emperor clapped me on the shoulder.

“Hold the tension of knowing it ends if you don’t settle it on the first attempt. But do not be pessimistic, believe firmly that you can, and execute it calmly, without a hitch, bringing out the whole of your ability.”

“Understood.”

He’s right that as a magic swordsman I get exactly one throw at this.

—But can I do it? Something the Sword God Emperor will state in those terms… with a sword alone?

Nothing starts until I try. And there the two of us broke into a run at the Hecatoncheir together, in perfect time.

Slipping its countless fists, we swung several times, and when every arm was off, the Sword God Emperor gave a roar and leapt for its chest, straight up the front.

From its movements and the circulation of magic power inside it, the cores were where he’d judged them: the heart… and the head I was making for.

Almost as he jumped, I came round behind and sprang for the head.

“—Here!”

I fixed the core’s position and took aim, and was starting the cut down when—I felt a faint current of magic power inside the Hecatoncheir’s head.

The core’s position is… moving?

No, more than that, it’s as if there are several cores…

This is… a decoy?

Well, of course it is. The idea that a thing wouldn’t have some means of shoring up its own weakness was never plausible.

So. What do I do.

While I was thinking, from the Hecatoncheir’s front, from the heart the Sword God Emperor had cut into—I felt a large loss of magic reaction.

His conditions are the same as mine. But the idea that he reads magic power better than I do is, frankly, impossible. So this is probably… the peculiar combat sense a close-quarters fighter has: the sixth sense, put plainly, telling decoy from genuine.

I can’t do anything that deft. One truth among several targets, and no way to cut them all at once. And one chance.

—So what do I do?

The answer is simple, and there’s only one thing for it.

“Level 7 Magic Sword: Drag’s Thunder!”

If you cut with a blade you need to pick out decoy from genuine with pinpoint accuracy. And if you can’t do that, then you burn out a wide area with a magic sword carrying a high-power spell!

The descending blade drove into the head. Thunder rolled. Perhaps from taking a strong localized current through roughly a third of its head, steam went up off the Hecatoncheir’s skull, and the giant sank slowly to its knees as though crumbling, then came down with a deep, heavy crash. For a while it went on convulsing from the electricity, and then it fell entirely silent.

“You thought your way through it, Ephthal-kun! Not cutting the line but striking the plane… To think you would use a magic sword powerful enough to break through the magic barrier protecting those cores…”

He went on, genuinely astonished.

“That was a Level 7 magic sword… was it not?”

“It was, yes.”

“…Fufu, haha… hahaha! Truly, how far does this prodigy go?”

“Meaning? Didn’t you have some idea of my ability already?”

“I thought you bottomless, certainly. But Level 7. I had you at Level 5… Six at the outside.”

Level 7 magic swords were something few people could use even four hundred years ago, granted.

Behind me came a sound like someone dropping to their knees, and I looked round.

“L-Le… a Level 7 magic sword…? Does Ephthal-dono truly hold the ability of a magic swordsman so transcendent as to be the world’s highest peak?”

Immediately after, several more sounds of people sitting down hard.

“Wh… what… what is this brat…?”

“That looked like a Level 7 magic sword just now…?”

“And his swordwork was on a par with yours… No, it looked better.”

“A mon… a monster. This is past prodigy and into monster… Is that child… some secret weapon the Undead Emperor keeps hoarded away?”

I smiled ruefully at the four of them, sitting on the floor, mouths opening and closing.

“Still, to be so nearly complete as a magic swordsman at that age… I can’t see you surpassing me as a swordsman any time soon, but as a magic swordsman you will pass me on total ability before long.”

“For my master to say so much… is Ephthal-dono truly such a talent?”

“Yes, Naomi. In this world there are, at times, people outside the standard, beyond the range of understanding.”

And the Sword God Emperor smiled and clapped my shoulder.

“Though if you had aimed at being a mage rather than a magic swordsman, you would have become something extraordinary.”

I am a thoroughgoing mage, as it happens. Not that saying so here and now would help.

“In any case, I’m glad the exhibition match isn’t a survival format.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because in a survival format my disciples would every one of them be flattened by you alone. By my reckoning… it isn’t an exaggeration to say that as a magic swordsman you have already reached about the level of my feet.”

He put out his right hand as he said it, asking for a handshake.

“So, an honest, straight contest, if you please, Ephthal-kun.”

The Sword God Emperor turned his eyes for a moment, with evident reluctance, toward the side passage that led on into the depths. Then, as though pulling himself together, he clapped his hands at the adventurers.

“It’s too dangerous beyond this. Let us abandon the survey here.”

⁂

Nine days remained until the exhibition match against the Sword God Emperor’s team of disciples.

On the schedule, after that we’d take in the Society’s assembly, wait for the scheduled ship, and stay on the island about six more days, call it a fortnight on this island all told. And then we’d go home to our own magic academy in triumph as the winning team.

I finished my daily training, supervised Anastasia and the others through their own, and then we all went out into town. And there we ran into Naomi.

“I understand now that you are a magic swordsman of the very first class… And so I have a request.”

Awkwardly, she was down on her knees in the road with her head bowed to the ground.

“Please, get up. There’s no need for that…”

“I thought first to apologize for my discourtesies. For all my ignorance of your ability and my contempt for it… I have no words of apology.”

“No, no. It’s my fault too, for keeping my ability out of sight.”

Naomi suddenly put a hand to her chest and pulled the front of her clothes open.

Sorry? The situation froze me… and inevitably a great deal of chest entered my field of view. The genuinely important parts were, thanks to the wrapping, only just hidden. Only just.

“Er… what exactly is happening here?”

“Since I have no words of apology, the sincerity I can show you is… to apologize with my body—”

“Wait, wait, wait! Hold on!”

Looking thoroughly resolved about it, Naomi flushed faintly and murmured:

“I do have some confidence in my body…”

“That’s not the issue!”

“Then black hair is not to your taste? I was born on this island, but the blood of the eastern peoples runs strong in my family, and there is nothing I can do about that!”

“That’s also not the issue!”

“Then where is the issue?”

There’s nothing but issues, as any ordinary person can work out.

I checked our surroundings, nervously, and found Anastasia and the others wearing the faces of vengeful gods, exactly as expected.

“Master! If you have desires of that kind, I want you to tell me! Having a slave is partly for that!”

“Hang on, Ephthal! Don’t tell me you’ve pulled another woman in this short a time?!”

“…Being popular is fine. Playing around is fine too… But if you get serious, I will be angry.”

Ah. It’s gone exactly the way I expected.

Although… why am I being scolded by my own disciples? On any ordinary reading I’m currently unattached, romantically speaking… Setting Bridget four hundred years ago aside for the moment. And Sheryl has gone entirely into wife mode, which, regrettably, she is far too young for. Not that Anastasia or Maria would be any better.

“Never mind the apology. What’s the request?”

Naomi made an awkward face and bowed deeply again.

“I am truly sorry to ask, but… I would like you to lose the exhibition match.”

“Hm… Get up first. What’s this about?”

Her expression was serious itself, without a fragment of malice in it. Something unavoidable seemed to be behind it, but what?

“My conclusion is that I can’t throw a match… But genuinely, what’s this about?”

“We want the prize at the exhibition match. That is exactly why the Sword God Emperor accepted the Society’s request to enter us—his disciples.”

“…The prize?”

“Yes. It’s the thing called a Soul of the Demon God, and we need it for a certain purpose. Our accompanying that survey the other day was part of the same effort.”

I motioned her to stand, and pointed toward the inn we were staying at.

“This sounds involved, and I’m interested in the substance of it.”

“Where are we going?”

“Our inn. Let’s talk it through properly there.”

Naomi nodded firmly, then said, with a touch of embarrassment:

“I don’t intend to have you lose for nothing either. In which case going to the inn is convenient.”

“Hm. Meaning?”

“Meaning that indoors is preferable to being taken in front of a crowd. Though if you are going to take your time with me at the inn… you will lose!”

“I told you, that’s not what this is!”

Feeling a certain amount of secondhand despair on Naomi’s behalf… a considerable amount, in fact… I headed for the inn.

Anastasia and the others, incidentally, were too angry to speak to me, and the walk there passed in total silence.

⁂

“You know that the Sword God Emperor’s master, the War God, hunts the remnants of the Demon Lord’s army?”

Once the inn staff had brought tea for everyone, Naomi opened with that, her face grave.

“Yes, that’s how I remember it.”

“About ten years ago… the War God visited this island and hunted the remnants here. He was also interested in the ancient ruins, said to be deeply connected to the Demon Lord, and as part of that, in this place—”

I raised a hand to stop her a moment.

The ancient ruins come up here too… It may be that this whole affair is more closely bound up with the ancient magic civilization than I’d thought.

“Go on, it’s fine.”

“Yes. And so he arrived at a secret long handed down on this island.”

“…A secret?”

“The Guardians of the Volcano. The body of rulers who govern this island.”

“Hm… Tell me in detail.”

“Originally the ruins on this island were a facility for managing a certain magic biological weapon, sleeping in the nearby sea. And the Guardians of the Volcano managed that weapon by a method passed down orally.”

“…Relic management?”

“Nothing so grand. Merely the role of keeping a sleeping magic weapon quietly asleep.”

“And what sort of weapon is this?”

“Once, and only once, that weapon woke incompletely. Like many weapons sleeping in ancient ruins, it lost control… and obeyed only the command at its root: kill and destroy the enemy, meaning harm humans. Ephthal-dono, do you know the legend of the twilight of Jotunheim?”

“…It’s the most famous of the giant traditions. A giant… a colossus, rather: Ymir devoured a whole island, wasn’t it?”

“That is fact from several thousand years ago, not tradition. The colossus Ymir stands over a kilometer tall, a genuine calamity of the sort that swallows and destroys great nations, as I hear it.”

“…Since coming to this island I’ve had a remarkable amount to do with giants… so I rather thought it would be something like that. And?”

“At the time, the War God, surveying the ruins, reached their deepest part. And seeing the weapon’s control apparatus he grew suspicious, and so arrived at the island’s secret.”

“Grew suspicious? The War God is a specialist of the sword, isn’t he hopeless with magic?”

I can say that with authority, having been his close friend. Sasha and I look at the facilities in ancient ruins and understand less than half. The idea of that sword-obsessed idiot noticing anything from looking at ruins is something I can flatly rule out.

“No, to be precise, the War God had a boy with him at the time. Red hair, I believe…”

The Fire God Emperor, then, beyond much doubt… And this is getting steadily more suspect.

“So what’s the island’s secret?”

“Controlling the colossus requires enormous magic power. Ymir woke that time… because the ritual was short of the necessary number of people…”

“I see. So the magic energy needed to maintain the colossus’s control system runs short, and a ritual supplies the difference with human sacrifices.”

Naomi’s eyes went wide with surprise.

“…You are well informed.”

“In regions that keep creatures of that sort it’s not a rare story at all. A long, long time after the ancient civilization fell, the facility’s own energy runs dry, the weapon senses a threat to its life support, wakes, and eats humans to top itself up. A common enough tale.”

“Yes. As you say, what the people of this island did is not unusual either. To protect the islanders as a group, an individual is offered up. Once you call it a choice between lives, there’s an end of it.”

“And then what happened?”

“The War God raised an objection with the Guardians of the Volcano. And in the end he took in the four shrine maidens who had been born and raised solely in order to be killed. Us, in other words.”

“…I’m not quite following.”

“Having objected to the sacrifices, the War God was required by the Guardians to offer a counter-proposal for ending them.”

“Well, that follows.”

“At that point the War God had no means of countering the colossus Ymir… Or rather, he apparently had a bare prospect of winning, but it would have meant damage to the island.”

“Winning alone is quite a claim in itself. The thing’s over a kilometer, isn’t it?”

“He is the War God, from four hundred years ago… The problem was the more than ten Leviathans sleeping alongside Ymir, those he judged he could not handle alone.”

Which means it would be the same story if I took it on. Even Leviathans alone, ten of them would be seriously hard for me. On top of which… the ones that wake start attacking whoever is nearby, indiscriminately. With each of them going after humans wherever they please, and me trying to protect the surroundings at the same time, I’d have no way to fight either.

“And so the War God took us in, on the condition of the ten years until the next ritual, with a promise that he would by then have a means of dealing with the colossus Ymir…”

“Which means the ritual date must be close. So where is the essential War God… and what’s he doing?”

“…He has been missing for some months.”

“Missing?”

“He was becoming impatient at finding no counter-measure. And he said he would call on an acquaintance of four hundred years’ standing in the Magic Society… That was the last of it.”

“And you want the Soul of the Demon God, a crystallized body of magic energy, because you need it to stop the colossus reviving?”

“Yes, that’s it. Accompanying the S-rank adventurers was also, in part, to scout the place where the Soul of the Demon God is to be offered.”

“I see… So that’s your reason. Incidentally, does the Sword God Emperor know you’re making this request of me?”

“No. He is a serious man… and will try to obtain the Soul by legitimate means to the very last. If this were known I would get considerably worse than a scolding.”

The Fire God Emperor, and now the Earth God Emperor. Old acquaintances getting cosy with each other entirely out of my sight… Being the only one left out, I could almost get jealous.

Joking aside, the one pulling the strings here is the Earth God Emperor beyond doubt. He set the Soul of the Demon God as the prize, so I can state it as certain. What he’s after… I don’t know.

“So given all that, would you not concede the win at the exhibition match nine days from now?”

The naked hostility toward us at the start, the demand for a bout with Merlin to strengthen herself… the whole run of Naomi’s behavior ties back here in the end.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t concede. I have my own reasons for not losing.”

“…As I said, I intend to give you anything that can be given. Even, indeed… my virginity.”

“As I already told you, that’s not the issue.”

I shrugged, sighing. And as Naomi, eyes filling, moved to bow her head again… Merlin put a question to me.

“More than ten Leviathans, and a colossus the War God called a marginal proposition. Ephthal-sama… can you win?”

“If Breit said he couldn’t do it alone, then I can’t do it alone either. If damage to the town is acceptable I could presumably manage something—the same as Breit, in all likelihood.”

“But has Ephthal-sama not obtained new power?”

“Back then none of the Four Emperors could beat Breit one to one. Even with a five-minute strongest mode… he’d probably be an even match for me as I am now.”

“Then this is troublesome…”

“It is. To shut it out completely we’ll have to call for reinforcements.”

Listening to us, Naomi tilted her head, question marks plain in her eyes: what are these people talking about?

“What do you mean?”

“We deal with the colossus without letting the island take damage. And we fight the exhibition match honestly on its own terms. That’s all there is to it, isn’t it?”

“…I don’t follow your meaning.”

“Merlin. The final is nine days off… and our ship home is six days after that?”

“That’s right, Ephthal-sama.”

Naomi asked, confused, as though only now noticing:

“Er… why is it that Ephthal-dono speaks plainly to Headmaster Merlin, and Headmaster Merlin speaks respectfully to Ephthal-dono?”

Given the way the conversation has to go, Naomi finding out what I am is already settled. So I carried on speaking to Merlin without adjusting anything.

“Good. Merlin, that’s time enough. Now… there are things I want you to get hold of.”

“Things to get hold of…?”

“A list of the predatory moneylenders on this island… And a lot of carrier pigeons. It’s a long way, so allow for birds dropping out, as many as you can manage.”

Merlin laughed quietly. “Predatory moneylenders… How odd.”

“Am I to understand this order comes with an unreasonable deadline of a few hours?”

“It’s urgent. I’m sorry. I’m always asking unreasonable things of you.”

“Your unreasonable requests are hardly a new development.”

And with an “Ah, so busy!” Merlin went off out of the room at a trot.

⁂

So, in that fashion, we were now at the foot of the crag we’d visited during the labyrinth selection.

What we’re about to do is unquestionably somewhat shocking for an ordinary person, so we decided to do it where there aren’t any. I’m running detection as well, so I can say for certain we’ve made a situation with no risk of being seen.

Present: me, Merlin, Sasha. And our guest for the occasion, Naomi.

“Ephthal-dono… The carrier pigeons I can accept, since you said they were to call for support somewhere. But your reason for borrowing this much money from predatory lenders? Do the measures against the colossus cost so much?”

“No, they cost nothing at all.”

“Then why…”

Ahead of Naomi’s gaze, in front of us, were several sacks stuffed with gold coins, tens of thousands of coins, all of it borrowed in Merlin’s name.

Doing it in my own name would have been best for me. But the sums a student can borrow raise all sorts of problems where drawing up a formal, properly laborious deed is concerned, and the deed is the whole object here. So I had Merlin, who has social standing, step up as a pinch hitter. She knew perfectly well what I was going to do, and took it on cheerfully, without a single sour look.

“Well, defaulting is one thing, but pocketing it isn’t the point. I’ll donate it to charity.”

“Defaulting? Charity? Donate?”

Naomi tilted her head, uncomprehending.

“What I wanted, in other words, was—this.”

The contracts, acquired from every predatory operator on the island. Because of the sums involved, they inevitably take the form of a magic contract sigil, with a god standing as guarantor. The god in this case is the one we summoned when we released Anastasia’s peculiar slave crest.

“Money I have no plans to repay, in short.”

“I don’t know what you intend, but shouldn’t borrowed money be repaid?”

“Street moneylenders aren’t like guilds or banks doing licensed lending. Their existence is outside the law to begin with, isn’t it?”

“Even so, users of them never run out. Contracts between individuals are bound by a god, and they do in fact function as a trade.”

“They line their pockets at usurious rates and make life miserable for people… A hard lesson is called for now and then.”

“But defaulting… there are contracts, aren’t there?”

I snapped my fingers and started the deeds burning.

“Burn them in flame and they were never there at all.”

“Do that and you’ll be judged in breach and the god will—”

And as the contracts burned away, exactly as I’d planned, that lot turned up.

“I am the White Tiger. Fufu, that there should be a fool who breaks a contract under my guard… And several at once?”

“I’m the Black Tortoise. Voiding several contracts at once under my administration—now that’s a bold one.”

“I am the Vermilion Bird… Oh, what is it, White Tiger, Black Tortoise?”

The Azure Dragon is off duty this time. Since we thrashed him not long ago he presumably can’t manifest in the living world with a body yet.

The three gods who’d appeared looked at one another and tilted their heads. Then they looked round, checked Sasha’s face, and—

“Ugh! Sasha!”

All three rose into the air to flee somewhere, so I loosed a Level 10: Thunder God Emperor Ephthal to head them off.

“This lightning… I know this!”

“It can’t be… It can’t be…”

“You are Ephthal the defaulter!”

“Ah, the news from the Azure Dragon that I’d reincarnated hasn’t reached you.”

“Reincarnated?”

“That’s outrageous…”

“A nightmare… This is a nightmare… To be summoned to a site where this appalling master and disciple are together…”

Quick on the uptake. Very helpful.

“So what will you do?” Sasha said.

The Vermilion Bird pleaded in a voice about to vanish altogether.

“As I have said, we will not become part of your collection…”

“Force is out of the question! We would sooner abandon our own existence and be annihilated!”

“That’s right! We have a right to live freely! Who would go into an Otogi Fantasia?”

Sasha grinned, and I threw the three gods a rope.

“So, I did something similar to the Vermilion Bird four hundred years ago, I think, but I have a favor to ask.”

“In place of being collected, we are to do as we’re told again?”

“That’s it. Last time it was a grace period of a hundred years, wasn’t it? This time my master is thinking of a special grace period of a hundred and fifty.”

“Well, I do think it a problem to build too foul a reputation among the residents of the world of illusion. Easier to manage if you follow of your own accord, however unwillingly, than to bind you by force… Good relations matter. So I keep my promises properly.”

The three gods looked at one another and nodded, resigned.

“And what is it you mean to have us do this time?”

“I mean to pick a quarrel with an artificial god of the ancient magic civilization.”

“Ha, an artificial god, is it? Still picking the same ludicrous fights as ever, I see.”

“But we would rather not take issue with a biological weapon of the ancient magic civilization ourselves.”

“I’m not asking you to fight it. What I want from you is only a barrier over this island.”

“…A barrier?”

“The enemy is the colossus Ymir and ten-odd Leviathans. And they’ll come at this island from the sea floor over that way.”

Sasha pointed far out to sea, and the three gods nodded.

“Certainly, from the giants’ point of view that’s no distance at all… There would be no time to finish them at sea.”

“Just so. So I want you to put a barrier over the whole island, so the giants can’t get in easily.”

“I see… Buying time.”

“Indeed. You’re the Four Gods, who govern the directions… that sort of thing is your specialty, is it not?”

“The Azure Dragon isn’t here, mind, so one of the four directions is missing.”

“And Sasha, even our barrier can’t stop something as oversized as the colossus Ymir.”

Sasha laughed, ‘Kah-kah,’ and nodded.

“I ask no such thing of you. As for that, we’ll sink it properly, out at sea.”

And with the business concluded the three gods began to thin and fade. And last of all… in a tone of profound inconvenience, the Vermilion Bird said:

“Please… truly, let this be the last time. Preferably, forget about us altogether…”

“Fufu. Who would forget such conveniently useful curiosities?”

So the three gods vanished, and Naomi simply stood there, stunned.

“Sasha-sama… I can just about understand, but Ephthal-dono… what on earth is this?”

“Gods or not, four hundred years ago they were a good deal closer to humans in distance and in power. As a practical matter Breit the War God could probably do this much himself.”

“That may be so. But… it looks to me like far too much. Defaulting on debts to summon gods, and then using them as errand boys…”

“Well, serious as Breit is, this method wouldn’t occur to him.”

Leaving Naomi to go pale and sink into thought, I turned to Merlin.

“Incidentally, Merlin, about the carrier pigeons…”

“The birds already have magic guidance attached and have been sent off.”

“Without asking the destination?”

“The place where Svetlana’s father lives is rather too famous to need asking.”

Half right and half wrong, as it happens… I’ll have to change their heading remotely later. As I was thinking that, I noticed Naomi’s mouth hanging open.

“Svetlana… you mean the Dragon Princess, Svetlana?”

“That’s the one. If it were a quarrel between humans the Dragon Emperor wouldn’t move, on the principle of neutrality. But this involves the ancient magic civilization, and that clan has its own dislike of ancient biological weapons.”

“You intend… to move… the Dragon Emperor?”

“Mm…” Merlin nodded, counting on her fingers. “Four days to reach the Dragon Emperor. Then contact with the dragons scattered across the nations in his name, and about ten more days for them to arrive here. It’ll be tight, but they should be in time before we leave.”

“It’s fortunate this is a holiday spot. Calling that clan out is hard work even for me, and they’ll come in a holiday mood.”

“This is absurd… The Dragon Emperor’s clan is a great power said since antiquity to hold the strength to deal humanity a crippling blow, and you would move that? It’s absurd! Do you intend to bring the end of the world down on this island?”

“Four hundred years ago this sort of thing was a daily occurrence. And the Dragon Emperor’s clan can take down a great nation, but they can’t take on the world.”

Merlin smiled wryly. “No, no, no, no.”

“Ephthal-sama. That was abnormal four hundred years ago as well. And against the world as it is now… that lot could fight it perfectly well. They’re neutral, so they keep to the frontier.”

“Is that so? Anyway, it’s bring your spears and bring your bows.”

“Yes. You’d have to summon the Demon Lord’s army at its height to stand against Svetlana’s clan.”

“Merlin, that lot are neutral, so I don’t think they’d take issue with the Demon Lord’s army.”

Merlin smiled, conceding the point.

“True. The Demon Lord and his army are demons, a demi-human race. Which is why the dragons stayed out of that war.”

“So—Naomi. The moves that needed making are made. Let’s put ourselves properly into the exhibition match. After that we smash the colossus, go home, and everything’s settled.”

Naomi asked me, in the manner of someone who understands nothing at all:

“Ephthal-dono… What are you? And even granting that you would help us… that you would go this far. I don’t understand that either.”

I thought for a while, then nodded firmly and said:

“I have a small connection to Breit—to your master’s master. That’s all it is.”

⁂

Nine days later.

We were in the arena where the world tournament final had been held. The crowd was sparse; entry had evidently been restricted this time to Society people and the students who’d competed. Lined up four against four on the platform, we finished the courtesies and got a proper look at one another.

Their ages were about ours. Having heard Naomi’s account, I understand now why the Sword God Emperor’s disciples are all roughly the same age, and why they’re all girls. That will have been how the choice of lives to sacrifice fell out: selected in infancy for the purpose of dying, so of course.

And taking them in because it disgusted him, and then handing the children to a disciple to raise, that is very Breit indeed.

While I was thinking that, Maria spoke to me under her breath.

“Ephthal? Are you really all right?”

“All right how?”

“I heard the whole business the other day… Is it really fine for us to be playing around here?”

“You mean the colossus?”

“That’s it.” Maria nodded several times, then made a serious face. “Realistically, this opponent is going to give even you trouble, isn’t it?”

“That’s what all the groundwork was for.”

“But I don’t think this is the time to be playing games.”

“Playing games how?”

“You’re carrying the fate of a whole island. On that scale… this exhibition match feels far too much like a game.”

“But as a matter of fact I’ve finished every preparation. And unless I collect that prize properly there’s nothing to talk about.”

“Sure, all that’s true, but… shouldn’t you leave this bit to us and go do something else? That’s the plain question that comes to mind, is all.”

“Ha. It’s not unreasonable to think so.”

Then I looked around the spectator seats and grinned.

“Except that my standing in this place is also groundwork for protecting this island and these girls.”

“…Meaning?”

“You’ll see. I can’t promise it, but… this exhibition match is going to be an eventful one. Never mind that, though, you’re wearing very… unusual clothes today.”

“Oh, this? Did my gorgeous body make you dizzy?”

She said it with a touch of embarrassment. Maria’s outfit today did show a lot of skin, though not in the sense of being risqué.

How to put it. If I say it resembles what a woman track-and-field athlete wears to compete, that conveys some of the feeling. Shorts with the midriff bare, and something like a sports top.

“I’ve finished my preparations too, is what it means. I can finally bring out what I’ve been working on.”

I can tell what Maria intends from the flow of magic power over her skin.

“You’re planning to use something rare, by the look of it.”

“…You’re honestly exasperating.”

“Hm? Meaning?”

“I put effort into concealing it, specifically… so nobody would notice the magic power I’d laid in.”

“Better if they don’t notice, it’ll rattle your opponent more.”

“…Hah. Having what I’m about to do seen through in a second… Honestly, it’s not worth trying.”

While we were talking, the referee called Maria’s name. Our lead was to remain and the rest of us to withdraw, and so the last battle of our time as students on this island began.

⁂

The gap in quality was obvious.

Their lead looked to have ability on Naomi’s level, and the proof was that her foundation in close-quarters combat was plainly different from Maria’s. She was thoroughly prepared for mages on top of it, and the secret art of cutting a spell was worn smooth with use.

That art, precisely stated, cuts the formula that fixes magic power released into the atmosphere as a spell. Or rather, she’s using a method that erases the spell. We mages do something similar as emergency handling, though for a professional a defensive spell is faster, so it isn’t much used. Breit used to deal with magic the same way, so the sight sits very comfortably with me.

For Maria, though, it means being blocked in an unfamiliar shape. The difference in combat experience against that method came through starkly, and she was clearly finding it hard going. On top of which, arrows loosed from her bow were being knocked out of the air with a blade, although Maria will know herself that shooting is a drop in the bucket here.

A knife as her close-quarters option. Magic and the bow as her mid- and long-range options.

Her close-range attacks were shut down, and so were the mid- and long-range attacks where she should have had the advantage, leaving her purely on the defensive.

“You fight exactly as Naomi described. I think you have done well, but… it would be better to surrender about now.”

“Surrender? Why would I do that?”

“You already know the gap yourself. Until you have at minimum acquired a counter to spell-cutting, you will never reach us.”

“I do intend to pick that up eventually. Unfortunately, I’ve got a reason I can’t lose.”

“A reason you can’t lose?”

“I… can’t make any more of a fool of myself in front of him. It’s… how to put it… a very personal problem.”

Maria pinned her opponent with a level, steady look. Pressed by her resolve, the other girl reset her grip on the sword and began settling her breathing.

“Even so, I don’t think spirit alone closes that gap.”

“Right, which is why I brought this to close it.”

And a red pattern rose to the surface of Maria’s skin. Seeing it, her opponent’s brows drew together.

“That whirl of magic power… that isn’t normal.”

Maria didn’t engage with it. She bounced lightly a few times, stepping, and vanished.

To my eyes she was visible. But from her opponent’s position it could only have looked like disappearing.

“What—what did you do?”

You think she’s vanished, and then she’s behind you. Insufferable, from the receiving end.

“Just… putting a boost on myself. That’s all!”

Her opponent turned and cut at her, and Maria vanished from the spot again and took her back a second time.

“You—aaaargh!”

The whistle of air being cut rose into a howl. The other girl had gone into a torrent of sword strikes, and Maria dodged them with a cool face, no: went on dodging them. It was at a speed that made even me catch my breath and think fast, and from her opponent’s side it must have been a demon out of a nightmare.

And in the end Maria’s practice knife went into her opponent’s throat, aimed and placed.

“…I yield.”

At the words of surrender, Maria dropped straight to her knees on the spot as though relieved of something. And as she went down her face turned pained, and then bloodless.

Her opponent, meanwhile, had taken one blow from a practice knife. No real damage; entirely fine. Set beside Maria, white-faced, gasping, collapsed… you couldn’t tell which of them had won.

Well. She strengthened herself by a method close to forbidden. This result, as the price of that, is only to be expected.

“Maria-san! What’s wrong?!”

Anastasia scrambled up onto the platform in a panic and ran straight to her.

“She’s absolutely white! And her magic power is badly disturbed! It must be the backlash from an unreasonable strengthening method! Get the medics, now!”

“You don’t need to go that far… I just went dizzy for a moment. I’m fine now.”

She said so, but Maria was still breathing from the shoulders and running with cold sweat. Even so, in the present state… it isn’t the sort of thing that endangers her life, and there’s no need to worry.

“Then I’ll lend you a shoulder!”

“Mm… Thanks.”

And half carried by Anastasia, Maria was brought over beside me.

Healing magic… or in this case tuning her magic power, rather. I did think about treating her that way for a moment. But if she’s going to go on fighting like this… then in terms of acclimatization it wouldn’t do her any good, so I deliberately did nothing.

“Maria… how do you know that strengthening method?”

“Bringing down the spirit that dwells in the World Tree, god of all forests, into this body. Is it strange for an elf to use it?”

“No, the opposite: only an elf can use it, so that part isn’t strange.”

A tattoo of magic power cut into the body in advance. Unlike an ordinary tattoo it doesn’t wound the skin or apply visible paint. How to put it… a magic circle that surfaces on the skin and activates at will, cut into one’s own body. That’s about the nearest sense of it.

“Bringing down a spirit isn’t quite it, but in the east that method is called god-descent. You know the strain on the body is extraordinary?”

“I know. I’m doing it with that fully understood, taking the risk.”

“And again, Maria, how do you know so advanced a technique?”

“I was taught the surface of it in the forest, as a secret formula never passed outside. Nobody’s been able to do it since four hundred years ago, so it was a dead letter.”

“…Since four hundred years ago, so this is another of the arts affected by Magia Burst?”

“Yes. But my brain’s magic circuits now aren’t contaminated by Magia Burst.”

“You didn’t know the details of the method itself, though?”

“No, but I thought I might be able to use it… And after that, digging through the magic books at Merlin-sama’s house… no, the ones you keep—sorts anything out, doesn’t it?”

“…Don’t tell me you did that entirely on your own.”

“I did. Completing a method I had fragments of in memory out of a range of documents… Between coming back from the training camp in the forest and now, that’s time enough. It finally came together after the fight with the Fire God Emperor, mind, while you were laid up.”

“…”

“Hm? What’s the matter, going quiet?”

Because this is a genuinely difficult technique. Even with a base taught to her as a child, she got this far unaided.

In that sense this girl really is exasperatingly capable. And paying any price at all, offering up everything for her own strengthening, is very Maria, a hard worker, and a solid mass of pride.

Guiding her so she doesn’t overreach is… presumably my job from here.

While we were talking, up on the platform Anastasia’s bout was about to begin. And before the signal, smiling brightly, Anastasia spoke to her opponent.

“I’ve met the Sword God Emperor once myself, and he was a wonderful person. So rather than the two of us glaring at each other, I’d like an honest contest between rivals, with no bad feeling.”

Her opponent grinned. She avoided the hand Anastasia held out for a handshake.

Not brushing it aside, and not simply failing to respond. She backed away several steps, excessively wide, and avoided it.

“I hear you fight in all sorts of irregular ways. Don’t you think taking your hand here would be the height of folly?”

Anastasia’s face stiffened, flustered. The other girl’s forehead glowed pale blue for an instant, and there opened what could only be called a third eye.

“Which is why I, who see widely and deeply and excel above all at reading, was chosen as your opponent. Cheat as much as you like. If you can manage it against me.”

“Ugh… This is difficult…”

“Petty tricks don’t work on me. I intend to hand you to the referee the instant you cheat, so think about that carefully.”

“That’s frightening. Then I’ll have to do it honestly.”

And with the signal the fight began.

The development was a repeat of the previous bout, and the gap in ability was obvious even from outside. Though this is partly my fault for not teaching them a way of fighting that assumes swordsmen.

So it was all defense, and so far Anastasia hadn’t done anything underhanded at all, and was accordingly losing in proportion to the gap.

The question is when Anastasia makes her move. She said honestly. But neither her opponent nor, frankly, we her allies believe that for a moment.

I watched with interest for when she would move… and no sign of any scheme appeared. And as a result Anastasia was driven back to the platform’s edge.

She slipped a descending cut, and took her opponent’s side kick square in the body.

“Ah!”

She went down with a cry, rolled over and over, and dropped her practice sword.

“Got you!”

And as her opponent raised the sword to finish it, over Anastasia on the ground—

—her opponent’s movement stopped.

“There’s my opening!”

Anastasia rose as though she’d been waiting, took hold of the girl’s collar with a swift movement, and threw her with a textbook shoulder throw, flawless and unreturned, straight out of the ring.

“I managed a win, Master!”

And to Anastasia, who came down off the platform beaming, I said:

“When did you lay it?”

“Lay what?”

“You used… a neurotoxin, didn’t you?”

“Ah, you spotted it?”

She stuck her tongue out in a tee-hee and nodded.

“Right after Maria-san’s… bout.”

“So that’s what running up onto the platform was for.”

I shrugged, exasperated, and Anastasia made an indignant face, as though anyone who falls for it is an idiot.

“Well, I knew Maria-san would collapse when she used that. So it was the plan from the start.”

“…And?”

“What I scattered on the ground is a mandragora-based powder. It takes the sight momentarily, and scatters on the wind so no evidence remains at all. Very convenient.”

Very convenient, she says. Discussing contraband as though it were a seasoning is a difficult thing to respond to.

“Well, once a fight started, I knew that lot would keep watching my movements the whole time. But what about an ambush using something laid before the fight, something that shouldn’t even be there? That’s where the idea came from.”

“…”

“…”

Right. This girl is frightening. That concepts like guilt or fair play were never in her head to begin with is… I have to say, a bit much even for me.

Though being consistently uninterested in winning honestly from the outset is, in its way, a valid position. It’s the crooked path and not the straight one, but it is also true that it’s one of the correct answers in a fight.

Next was Sheryl’s turn. Win here and our victory is settled, though with me last, it’s effectively a dead rubber.

“Your magic power is striking, but your formula construction is fatally slow and I hear you can do nothing but magic. By the rules construction starts with the bout, so from there it’s a blade to that thin neck of yours at top speed, and we’re done.”

And with the signal her opponent moved to spring at Sheryl at ferocious speed, exactly as declared.

“…Level 6: Dragon Breath.”

And Sheryl’s Level 6 answered her, as a counter.

Her opponent cut the spell well enough, and then, past the volume she could handle, was burned by the flame.

Frankly, I already knew these girls could cut spells… only up to a certain magic output. So the situation produces no reaction from me beyond within expectations.

“Th-that’s… impossible…”

“…Slow formula construction? Ephthal’s school takes maximum speed as its principle, and I am strongly… under its influence.”

“But by Naomi’s account…”

“…That time, an area spell risked endangering ordinary people. Adjusting for that was all that took the time.”

And before she’d finished, her opponent lost consciousness, and it was settled.

⁂

That left me and Naomi on the platform.

By the nature of a points contest the last bout is already meaningless. But Naomi’s expression was seriousness itself. Facing me, she gave a small bow.

“Ephthal-dono. The team result is decided, but might you hear a selfish request?”

“…A selfish request?”

“As magic swordsmen the difference between us is far too great. So… for my own instruction, I would like you to stand against me as a swordsman, at full strength.”

“As a swordsman? Your reasoning?”

“An experience like this will not come many times in a life. I want to waste as little of this good fortune as I can and make it fuel for what comes. Being finished in an instant by the full strength that my master the Sword God Emperor says has reached his own territory would do me no good.”

“…”

“I saw your strength outside the standard the other day… and it left me nothing but astonished. Done straight, I would not even grasp the true size of the gap. So I ask for an honest contest of swordwork alone.”

“…All right.”

In the end this girl is a fellow traveler on the martial path too. Set the colossus aside, her essence is unchanged from when she asked Merlin for a bout: she wants to meet the strong, and to take it as motivation, as stimulus in the good sense.

The same as Breit, the Sword God Emperor’s own master…

“Then… with all courtesy, let us begin!”

We drew the blades at our hips and squared off. With magic power sealed away as promised, I felt the unmistakable pressure of a strong opponent.

Naomi’s stance was close to what the Jigen school calls the dragonfly guard. Mine was the middle guard.

I learned swordwork at home, but… that the swordwork this girl has gone on honing is the genuine article comes through from the stance alone, unmistakably.

“Haaaaaa!”

With a roar she closed the distance and came at me with a torrent of strikes at furious speed. Fast enough that, in fact, parrying was all I could manage.

And when she’d spent the run of attacks, Naomi laughed quietly, as though at something insupportable.

“I am glad after all that I asked for a contest of swordwork alone.”

“Why’s that?”

“I have put ten years into swordwork and nothing else. You could call it the whole of me, offered up entirely. And in a contest of swordwork alone, you and I appear to be equals.”

“So it seems. Though I’ve put about ten years into the sword… fairly seriously myself.”

“Fairly seriously. But that will be modesty, surely? No… I have it wrong. As a matter of fact you believe it. And it is I who have been indulging myself.”

“Indulgence?”

“Yes.” Naomi nodded. “There are differences in the amount of talent, that is fact. But there is no talent that gets past demon-hard training. In swordwork there can be no absolute difference in gift, of the kind magic aptitude represents.”

“…”

“The conclusion is that you must have accumulated training of the same order as mine. And you called what I described as the whole of me offered up merely fairly serious. That is the difference between us, and that is the greatest gap between us.”

We were both silent for a moment. Then Naomi made a face I couldn’t read, as though to say how galling.

“Truly… the world is wide. Learning that is the greatest thing I take from this.”

“I see.”

Naomi returned the blade to the scabbard at her hip, sank her weight, and looked straight into my face. She means to settle it with a drawing strike, evidently. Answering that, I raised my sword high overhead.

“The next exchange ends it. Ephthal-dono—one thing I want to ask.”

“What is it, Naomi?”

“Can I become strong… as you are? Will there come a day when I can stand against you at full strength, in the same territory—not merely a contest of swordwork?”

I nodded firmly at that, with certainty.

“You can. As long as you stay exactly as you are now, and always hold the will to improve, and never forget how to learn…”

Sliding our feet along the ground, we closed on each other slowly. And at the instant we entered one another’s measure, we both moved at once.

Naomi slid the blade out of the scabbard, and I brought mine down from overhead.

—No magic.

—No magic sword.

—But nothing held back at all in physical enhancement.

—And in the sense of swordwork, everything I have, wide open.

I answered her blade, her ten years, and her wish to become strong with my swordwork at full strength.

Naomi’s blade never reached me. Mine came down dead center on her head.

“Splendid… With anything but a practice blade, that would have been instant death.”

Naomi sat down flat on the spot. And at her rubbing her head with an “Ow…”, I smiled crookedly.

Judged fairly, the swordwork was even, and the difference was physical enhancement and combat experience, and there the edge was mine…

I walked over to her and put out my right hand. Naomi thought about something for a moment… and then, embarrassed, was reaching to take it.

And at that moment—

“A splendid exchange. But… it does put us out to have the prize taken.”

I turned, and there stood the Sword God Emperor, wearing an expression of genuine difficulty.

“Meaning what? The platform is off limits to anyone but competitors and the referee.”

“I took out insurance, you see.”

“…Insurance?”

“In accepting the exhibition match, I set a condition.”

He sighed deeply, as though he found it truly regrettable. Then, with an apologetic look, he bowed his head to us slightly.

“That at the very end… the children’s contest being the exhibition entertainment proper, the strongest of each camp should come out and face one another, to decide the true victor.”

“…Hm? What does that mean?”

“It’s the one method I truly didn’t want to use. But we wanted insurance, and it also suited the organizers, so I told them the final judgment would be held in my hand.”

“After all…” he said, smiling, “if it’s an exhibition, then the Sword God Emperor against… in this case, Headmaster Merlin makes for a better spectacle, doesn’t it? That’s the organizers’ convenience.”

The venue answered that with cheering and applause fit to split the place.

Which, fair enough, it would. A bout between the Sword God Emperor and… the hero of the demon race with her many legends unquestionably draws better than a scrap between unknown students.

“That’s rather a lot of insurance, isn’t it?”

“Which is why I am extremely reluctant. But we have our own reason we can’t lose. So… your side the Headmaster, our side myself. A final bout between the instructors.”

Merlin, who had heard the whole of it from below the platform, nodded.

“I understand the position. I have views about the method, but… an off-mat brawl is part of a fight too. In that sense you were a step ahead of us.”

“For which I am genuinely sorry, but we cannot give ground either. Come, Headmaster Merlin! Direct disciples of two old friends. Our masters, fearing that their fierceness in battle would turn it into killing, never once faced each other in earnest, but—”

He drew a great breath and went on.

“—let us settle the four-hundred-year-old question here and now! Without taking each other’s lives, of course!”

Delight came into Merlin’s face at the words.

“That is an extremely interesting proposal. I have a personal interest myself in which of us stands higher. But—by what you said a moment ago, each camp puts out its strongest?”

“Yes. Meaning you.”

Merlin shook her head and shrugged.

“If it is the strongest… then that is not me.”

“Not you, Headmaster Merlin? Then who…?”

With a “Surely not… to that degree…”, the Sword God Emperor turned his eyes on me, and almost in the same instant Merlin’s words came flying at me.

“Given the situation—if you would, Ephthal-sama.”

“No, but…”

“Ephthal-sama? You have a reason you can’t lose as well, don’t you? In which case there’s no possibility but that you go out.”

There are a great many people here, Society people included. Even so, I’m not hiding any more. It makes for a somewhat showy unveiling, but this isn’t the moment for holding back either.

“All right, Merlin. On this, your judgment is entirely correct.”

And I turned to face the Sword God Emperor, grinning.

⁂

“Ha. Truly an astonishing child. That magic-sword skill… to handle up to Level 8.”

“You’re outrageous yourself. You’re turning my magic swords aside without effort.”

“I am the Sword God Emperor, after all. One who bears the name of the sword can hardly fall behind a child.”

Several minutes into the fight. The feeling-out was over and we each had a sufficient grasp of the other’s measure.

Still… this is a problem. I’d tried every Level 8 magic sword I had, one after another, and every one had been comprehensively shut out. And in pure close-quarters combat I couldn’t match him standing on my head.

And in the hushed venue, I could hear the Society grandees in the guest seats murmuring as though talking in their sleep.

“This… what manner of prodigy is this?”

“No, that’s well past prodigy.”

“Might he not be closing on Christine, called the strongest magic swordsman of the age?”

“There’s even a possibility he has surpassed her…?”

The Sword God Emperor spoke to me, sighing, as though it were a shame.

“Still, the pity of it is your swordwork.”

“Yes. I think so too.”

“It is at a very high level, certainly. But it hasn’t caught up with that magic-sword skill of yours, which has reached the highest peak.”

And with that he closed the distance in one motion and brought his blade down at mine.

The metallic ring of blade on blade. And exactly as he’d intended my sword was sent flying away, and he opened the distance again and called across:

“Now. Surrender.”

“Unfortunately, I have my own reason I can’t lose. Surrender… isn’t available to me.”

“This is awkward. I didn’t want to injure you… But I can’t hold back well against you either. If you won’t surrender, you’ll have to resign yourself to two or three broken bones.”

He closed on me again, and repeating the previous move, brought his sword down from high overhead.

And I decided there was nothing else for it, set myself, and murmured one line.

“Level 8: Material Guard.”

I took his blade on a wall of iron packed out of magnetic sand.

“Playing at mages now? But a makeshift like that—”

The spell-cutting technique broke through the Material Guard, and his sword came for my head. And at the moment it was about to land square—

“Level 8: Teleport.”

“What—?”

Only slightly… Only for an instant. But I could see the Sword God Emperor’s presence waver.

He’s a veteran of a hundred fields, though. He paid the shock no attention and did what needed doing, sending his blade at me almost without pause as I took his back.

“Level 8: Teleport.”

“—?!”

This time the shock was plain. And still he sent the blade at me as I took his back again.

“Level 8: Teleport.”

And having his back taken a third time, the Sword God Emperor leapt away from me as though he couldn’t bear it. And white-faced, he said:

“What is that speed? That refinement? The flow of magic power is far smoother than with your magic sword. Surely… you can’t be…?”

“Yes. Exactly as you suspect. I’m sorry to have kept quiet about it.”

“But… truly?”

I was silent a moment. Then I drew a light breath and went on.

“I’m not a swordsman, and not a magic swordsman. I’m a mage by trade.”

“That’s… absurd… And with that you fought me to this point?”

“Yes. Thanks to which I’ve had my immaturity in close quarters brought home to me.”

I raised my palm to the sky and loosed lightning at him.

“Level 8: Thor Hammer!”

And the Sword God Emperor blocked my Thor Hammer with that spell-cutting technique. I followed with seven Thor Hammers at furious speed, and every one of them was cut.

“Still, as expected… That swordwork genuinely recalls the War God… No, Breit.”

“…As one called the Sword God Emperor, I can only say I intend to shut you out entirely.”

He’s right, true enough. Going on honestly hammering out Thor Hammers would only wear me down.

“But your spell-cutting technique… it looks to me as though it has one defect.”

“…A defect?”

“You honed your swordwork after Magia Burst, didn’t you?”

At that a flicker of alarm crossed his face. Surely not…

“You’ll have honed the art without assuming the existence of Level 9 or above, in a direction that handles only spells below Level 8, the present top rank. Am I wrong?”

In practice, spell-cutting needs some amount of wind-up. But his was far shorter than the wind-up on Breit’s, as I knew it. Which leaves only one conclusion.

Just as I, without magic aptitude, gave up on the time it took to build high-level formulas and made rapid-fire in the Level 6 to 8 band my principle—

—the Sword God Emperor likewise discarded handling Level 9 and above, which had become unnecessary, and built his art optimized for the lower band.

“But what does seeing that get you? Aside from Sasha-sama, there exists no mage in this age who can handle Level 9 or ab—”

His eyes went wide mid-sentence, and his face drained.

“Ephthal… kun? That formula… surely… Level… 10?”

“By way of thanks for the instruction in swordsmanship. Let me show you the essence of magic.”

His face went from white back to the usual mild smile at once, with something of resignation mixed into it. He’d evidently resolved to accept the loss.

“Ha… This child is… endlessly… outrageous…”

At the same moment a stir like a scream came from the guest seats. Those capable of noticing before a spell fires had evidently noticed.

“So, Sword God Emperor. I think this one exchange ends it.”

“Yes. That art I genuinely cannot handle. The essence of magic—let me burn it into this body.”

And at that moment—

Far out to sea, an enormous column of water went up into the sky. Immediately after, a roar rolled through the venue along with a shaking of the ground.

“What is it?! What is it?! What’s going on?!”

“Kya, kya… kyaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

“A giant?! What is that size?!”

Big isn’t the word for it. At this distance… looking up is still the correct expression for taking it in.

“Why… why is the colossus Ymir… at this time? It isn’t yet the season of its waking. The date for offering the maidens should be far off…”

The Sword God Emperor stood there blankly. And there Naomi came up onto the platform and ran to us, literally.

“Ephthal-dono! This is outside expectation! The Dragon Emperor’s clan won’t make it in time!”

“No, they made it.”

“But… the Dragon Emperor and the others arrive right on the edge of when Ephthal-dono’s party sails, surely?”

“This is the Earth God Emperor’s old habit. If that man was going to move, I reckoned this was the only timing he’d choose.”

“…Habit?”

“He’s abnormally attached to the causality of things. He’s a man who makes much of a turning point like this one.”

“Which is why,” I said, and gave a small nod, “I had a great many carrier pigeons prepared. There was no need to go asking the Dragon Emperor’s permission to convene dragons from every country. I contacted all of them directly—Svetlana’s clan mostly know me by sight.”

“Meaning what, exactly?”

“Nine days since… Time enough. The Dragon Emperor’s clan is already in there, every one of them, as spectators.”

I gave the signal with a snap of my fingers, and screams went up from the seats again.

They would. Ten, twenty enormous dragons had suddenly appeared inside the venue and risen into the sky. The place fell into total panic, into something like bedlam.

“Right… Shall we go.”

Merlin answered my call, and Sasha came flying over from the guest seats on flight magic. And as the dragons wheeled up into the sky and set off to intercept the Leviathans, one of them—Svetlana—turned not for the sea but for us.

“Riding on a dragon’s back to put down a colossus… Ha. It’s like a fairy tale.”

I said it half joking, and the Sword God Emperor, who had simply been standing there stunned, put a palm on my shoulder.

“Ephthal-kun… I heard all of that, but… what… no. Who are you?”

Now… how to answer. Lying here would be pointless.

“I’m an old mate of Breit’s. Reincarnated, if you want the whole of it. You probably won’t buy that.”

Svetlana landed on the platform, and Merlin and Sasha sprang up onto her back ahead of me.

“…The Dragon Emperor Mikhail and his kin, aren’t they? And this dragon is… the Dragon Princess Svetlana, most likely. So far as I know, there is only one person with ties deep enough to Sasha-sama and Headmaster Merlin to move them.”

“Got it in one.”

“And though it never fired, that spell just now was without question Level 10 lightning. There is no room left for doubt.”

And seeing Naomi turning eyes full of trust on me, the Sword God Emperor nodded broadly, as though he understood everything.

“My master Breit didn’t return, and immature as I am I have been spinning my wheels in desperation… and to think my disciple had found the optimal answer. In any case—it seems I may relax at last.”

And he bowed, very deeply, and went on.

“There seems to be no scene here for an unripe man like me… I leave it in your hands, Thunder God Emperor.”

⁂

That day, myth overflowed on Narcis Island.

The vanguard of a colossus over a kilometer tall was thirteen Leviathans, each above a hundred meters.

Every soul in the port town looked on that oncoming hell and despaired on the edge of death.

Some sank to their knees, thinking it the end.

Some only looked up at the sky.

And some prayed, single-mindedly, to the gods.

Whether the prayers reached anyone is not certain. But in the midst of that universal despair, the whole island was suddenly wrapped in a gentle light.

It was the Four Gods, three of them, to be exact, and the shining barrier they made barred the Leviathans’ approach from the sea.

And then, one after another, dragons wheeled in the island’s sky. The kin of the Dragon Emperor had come to meet the Leviathans.

Giants against dragons.

At a sight out of a monster film, every onlooker held their breath, and every one of them was struck dumb by the sheer savagery of it.

A Leviathan holds power equal to a nation’s magic corps. Against them, the dragon race is said to be able to swallow a great nation in moments should it ever rise. The dragons merely impose non-aggression toward the human races on themselves, by ancient covenant. Should they choose otherwise, they are a force that would redraw the map of the world in an instant. And their main strength was gathered on this island.

And the reason they had gathered was, again, an old connection.

Dragon breath. Dragon jaws. And dragon claws, scorching and tearing the giants apart.

That the Leviathans are ancient magic biological weapons is an open fact among the learned; but there is a theory that dragons too are relics of the ancient magic civilization, the summit of the combat organism, and one completed form. By one account they are the descendants of those who used that power to break out of the management of the ancient magic civilization of their day.

Which makes them, literally, different at the foundation from Leviathans, who in the end had no option but to be managed and left behind as relics, as things done to.

That much is clear from the result: the dragons shut the Leviathans out entirely, with injuries but not one death.

And the stage moves to the back of the dragon princess, out over the nearby sea.

“Right, that side looks fine.”

And Ephthal rode Svetlana’s back toward the colossus.

Ephthal’s Perspective

“That’s too damn big by any measure…”

Sea up around its knees, cloud hanging about its head. Cloud… it’s not a mountain, is it. The sheer scale of the sight took my breath.

I’ve hunted my share of giants, four hundred years included, but this size is a first. A kilometer of body, after all…

Power source is high-purity magic power, granted, but what it eats to hold that shape is a genuinely interesting question. Then again, this is the ancient magic civilization, where anything goes. Probably some outrageous, ridiculous method, photosynthesis plus compounding atmospheric nitrogen into proteins and lipids, or the like.

“So I’m counting on you, master. Stop that big bastard moving, just for a bit. The three Sacred Beasts’ barrier won’t hold that.”

“What a tiresome order… Very well. Level 10: Immortal Reptiles.”

Sasha’s signature door onto the underworld appeared in the air, except that this time… the door was absurdly large. Out of a gate tens of meters across, dragons formed of bone and rotten flesh were disgorged, on and on, and then—

“Right, fusing dragon zombies to build a zombie ouroboros… That’s a hell of a thing.”

Exactly as I said. Dragon zombies of tens of meters apiece gathered and fused on the spot, and eventually formed an enormous serpent on the same scale as the colossus.

Sasha really is outrageous. That’s my honest reaction.

Though how many original Level 10s and Level 11s does this one have in his repertoire? Even I get a chill just thinking about it.

And then the monster battle proper began. An absurdly outsized serpent coiled around the absurdly outsized body of the colossus and stopped it moving.

“That said, it’s only Level 10. That snake is show and no substance—a bluff. It’ll hold it a few minutes at most.”

Then the colossus turned its eyes on us and drew in a vast breath.

Reading the flow of magic power… this is bad. I clicked my tongue.

“Ephthal. It’s drawing in the magic power of the atmosphere around here, root and branch, and refining it inside its body.”

“I can see that. It means to fire a magic cannon at us out of its mouth.”

“And what will you do? Without your Level 11: Four Emperors I don’t believe that can be cancelled out.”

“You keep a trump card back to the end, don’t you?”

Even so, waiting for the other side to finish preparing isn’t an option either. I was thinking about what to do when Merlin raised a palm overhead.

“Ephthal-sama. Leave clearing the way… to Svetlana and me! Level 8: Thor Hammer!”

Lightning wrapped her right hand, and she went on refining more magic power.

“Level 8: Thor Hammer, Level 8: Thor Hammer, Level 8: Thor Hammer!”

Four Level 8s fired at once. With lightning lodged in all four limbs, Merlin gathered the four charges together and loosed them at the colossus’s eyes.

And Svetlana drew a great breath and put her own Level 8 fire magic onto the physically concussive energy breath peculiar to dragons, and poured that into the colossus’s face as well.

“Nnnoooooooooooo!”

A cow’s bellow multiplied ten thousand times… Slow, and vast enough to burst an eardrum.

Merlin’s lightning for the eyes. And with its sight temporarily taken, a right straight of flame from Svetlana’s breath.

The colossus’s magic cannon fired at the same moment, and with Svetlana’s right straight turning its face off toward nowhere, the aim slid a long way off us and went by.

The stray magic strike vanished beyond the far horizon. And an instant later we watched a mushroom cloud go up out there.

If that had landed square… A cold, unpleasant sweat ran down my back.

“Not an opponent to take lightly after all.”

Something clicked in my head, the signal that the shackle on my magic aptitude was off, and I began weaving attack formulas at maximum speed, everything I had, wide open.

“Level 10: Thunder God Emperor Ephthal!”

The Level 10 landed on the colossus’s right shoulder. The strike gouged out some thirty meters of its flesh, and a vast scorched lump of it fell away into the sea.

“Level 10: Thunder God Emperor Ephthal!”

Its right thigh, this time. Again thirty meters of flesh torn out, again the huge scorched piece falling to the water.

“Level 10: Thunder God Emperor Ephthal!”

And immediately after, a Level 10 burst on its left calf. As the great lump dropped away, the colossus, both legs degraded, went down on its knees where it stood.

“Level 10: Thunder God Emperor Ephthal! Level 10: Thunder God Emperor Ephthal! Level 10: Thunder God Emperor Ephthal! Level 10: Thunder God Emperor Ephthal!”

Coiled by the zombie ouroboros and reduced to a punchbag, the colossus took strike after strike as I pleased. The ouroboros was taking hits too, of course, but it’s a disposable summon.

Still, what kind of endurance does this colossus have. Seven direct Level 10s already, and the damage is nowhere near enough to finish it. The only enemy I’ve ever met with durability like this is the Demon Lord.

“You there, Ephthal! Don’t dawdle! The ouroboros’s hold is nearly done!”

I looked over: the colossus clearly had no intention of taking it quietly. It had hold of the ouroboros’s body and was putting the strength of both arms into tearing it apart.

“Then this finishes it.”

I put everything I had into my palm, wove the formula, and thrust it out at the colossus.

If it boasts Demon-Lord-class toughness—

—then how about the art that put the Demon Lord down?

And I fired the formula that holds absolute destructive power.

“Level 11: Four Emperors!”

What was loosed is a crystallized body of pure magic energy belonging to none of the four elements. The magic cannon was swallowed into its belly, burst out through the colossus’s flesh, and vanished beyond the horizon. And an instant later, as before, a mushroom cloud went up out there.

And the colossus, with a hundred-meter hole blown through its gut—

—went over backward with a colossal crash of water and a great tower of spray.

“It won’t be getting up after that.”

And I told Svetlana to move in on the place where the colossus had gone down.

“…What in the hell is this?”

Sasha, Merlin and I caught our breath at the same moment. Because—

“The colossus is… gone?”

Exactly that. Of the far too enormous shape that should have sunk into the sea, there was neither shadow nor trace.

Just as with every giant we’ve met on this island…