Volume 8Chapter 1

Chapter 1 – Two Champions Meet

A blinding field of white.

It was a side effect of the transfer out of the Reincarnation Chamber, a flood of light dazzling enough to hurt. It faded in a few seconds. When I could see again, we were standing in pitch-black darkness.

“This is… Magic Academy City?”

My night-vision spell was already running, and it picked out the faint outline of the city wall. Visibility was lousy… but it looked like we’d landed right outside the entrance.

The last time I’d been here, the place had been packed like a rush-hour train. Now there wasn’t a soul in sight. The evacuation that had been under way during the armed-golem mess must have finished.

Frankly, I had no idea what came next. All I knew was that nobody was going to fight Balthazar properly with a city full of people at their backs.

“Good thing the non-combatants are out.”

Everyone nodded.

For the record, five of us had made the jump:

・Me

・The rest of the original Four Emperors

・Sasha

You couldn’t ask for a stronger lineup. Look back over every roster since the Magic Society was founded and you’d struggle to find a better one. I’m not just being partial to my friends.

“Still… seeing it again, that thing is obscene.”

I looked up, and there it was: a sight that outweighed even our star-studded lineup, with plenty to spare.

Until a minute ago I’d been full of fight, the Four Emperors finally back together and ready to blast whatever came… One look at the Nine-Headed Dragon had flattened that mood.

It was daytime, and it was this dark. We might as well have been in a cave where no light reached. The dragon’s body was blocking every ray of sunlight over the whole region, which wasn’t hard to believe… The Nine-Headed Dragon was three hundred kilometers wide.

Ten thousand kilometers long.

That was the off-the-charts size of the thing, and seeing it for real, all I could do was sigh. Seriously, how big is that thing? ‘A ceiling that runs to the horizon’ is the right way to put it… and I honestly don’t know what I’m saying anymore. And that was just the part I could see. At this point it was more terrain than creature. Monster movies weren’t even in the same league.

“Well, Ephthal? How about it?”

A bead of cold sweat ran down Sasha’s cheek as he stared up at the dragon. Even he, it seemed, felt a twinge of fear at a thing that size.

“How about what?”

“How you mean to bring Balthazar down. That’s what I’m asking.”

How to answer? There was really only one way, so I gave it to him straight.

“…We can’t beat the dragon itself, no way. So… we all go beat the hell out of Balthazar, the guy steering it. Right?”

“Hm. And then?”

“Then I take Maria’s place as the core, since I’m a reincarnator and I know magic.”

I shrugged and finished it.

“That’s me grabbing the controls away from Balthazar, so the dragon makes an emergency stop… Mission over.”

Of course, becoming the core was no gift to me. It was basically a human sacrifice, and nobody could say what would happen to me afterward.

From what the Goddess had told us, the core was something like the dragon’s medulla or spinal cord. Work the magic inside it and you could paralyze the whole creature. As the core, I’d have to keep working it to hold the dragon still, and that would probably go on until the dragon’s body rotted away. Hundreds of years, maybe thousands, maybe tens of thousands or more.

I didn’t even know if my mind would last that long. Either way I’d be unable to move for a ridiculous stretch of time. I’d settled that with myself already; there was no other choice. There was no way to slug it out with a monster this size anyway.

“That’s the problem, though. Balthazar comes first. How do you plan to deal with him?”

I’d known he would ask, so I didn’t dodge.

“Yeah, that part’s a mountain of problems. The emergency stop afterward looks fine, but you’re right, master… Beating Balthazar first is the hard part.”

“Indeed. He’s supposedly beyond anything we’ve faced, a mage we couldn’t beat even all together.”

“Well, sure. He summoned the Nine-Headed Dragon. Nobody pulls that off without being ridiculous.”

“Just so.”

Sasha nodded, and we stared up at the sky and held our breath.

What is this thing?

I thought it again. The scale was so absurd I couldn’t make sense of it.

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

Nobody said anything for a while. Then Sasha snorted at me.

“Earlier you were boasting that even Balthazar bleeds if you hit him, and if he bleeds he can be killed… Or some such, wasn’t it?”

He stepped toward me and kept coming until he looked ready to grab my collar. Then he pressed me like a prosecutor.

“So how, exactly? You can’t mean to have all of us charge in together with no plan at all.”

“Well, master… this is awkward to say, but…”

“…Hm?”

“We’ll be working out the plan from here.”

“You… After all that big talk…!”

He looked half exasperated, half furious. Cliff started to chuckle.

“Now, now, Undead Emperor. No need to get so worked up.”

“Hm? What do you mean, whelp?”

Isaac answered for Cliff.

“Ephthal’s always been like this when he’s cornered.”

“…Hm?”

“Let me see, how to put it… He didn’t get cornered much while he was your student, did he?”

“Well, no, he didn’t.”

“He charges headlong into some dangerous mess and ends up with his back to the wall. For us, that’s just Ephthal.”

“I see.”

Sasha gave a small nod, and this time it was Cliff who took over from Isaac.

“So it’s all right.”

“How does that make it all right?”

I could see why Sasha would ask. In his shoes I’d have called it nothing but cause for worry.

“Once he’s cornered, things somehow start going Ephthal’s way.”

“My fool of a disciple’s way?”

“Yes,” Cliff said. “He makes it up on the spot, whatever it takes, and somehow it fits perfectly… It’s uncanny.”

“…In other words, he’s winging it. Isn’t that just luck?”

“There are too many successes to call it luck. My own conclusion is that he has instinct and reason working side by side.”

“Instinct and reason… side by side?”

“Ephthal charges ahead on feeling, but somewhere in his head a cool analysis is running. That’s why the idea that turns up later always seems to rescue him.”

“Hard to believe, that…”

“To put it another way, he looks like he’s all emotion, but in the end he only ever picks fights he can win.”

“Hmm… I’ve plenty to say about it… but this one does have that streak.”

And so it went. Sasha, Cliff and Isaac stood right in front of me, going over my character as if I weren’t there.

Meanwhile something else caught my attention: the two of them were being polite to Sasha.

Come to think of it, I was the odd one, talking to him like an equal.

Sasha spoke up. “Well, Ephthal. Sorry to say it, but I doubt you’ve much time to think now. The enemy’s right there, after all.”

“No, I’ve got a few ideas. A lot of it I can’t swear to, but…”

Sasha looked at me, startled.

“You… actually came up with a plan in this short a time?”

“That’s how it worked out.”

Well, I’d thought of it, so what was I supposed to do? Cliff and Isaac gave me a wry smile that said told you so.

“It seems the whelps were right. So what is it, specifically?”

“First, if we charge in with no plan, we can’t beat Balthazar.”

“If we could, we wouldn’t need a plan. We’d just charge.”

“Yeah. Let’s start from there.”

Sasha nodded hard.

“Good. Go on.”

“If you calm down and look… we’ve got plenty to work with already.”

“Hm?”

As Sasha cocked his head, I gave him a toothy grin.

“First, you and Cliff both have a hidden card, don’t you?”

His head tilted further.

“I don’t know about the red-haired whelp, but a hidden card of mine?”

“You do. The World Magic Circle, your life’s work.”

“…The World Magic Circle? You can’t mean to use that.”

Sasha’s face went blank. He thought about it for a while, then shook his head. “No… it can’t be done.”

“Don’t tell me you’re holding out now, of all times.”

He thought some more, and puffed out his cheeks.

“True. I prepared the Circle for just such a time.”

“Right? Then when are you going to use it if not now?”

“I have no objection to using it.”

“Good. That’s your word. I’m holding you to it.”

“But it has conditions for use… That is why I say it can’t be done.”

I stopped him with a palm. Don’t say it.

“I know the conditions are brutal. That’s why we didn’t use it against Cliff.”

“Then… you mean to create the conditions so that it can be used?”

“I’m working on that. It’ll work out somehow.”

“As for your claim that it can really be used, I’ll take that with a grain of salt. But yes, the World Magic Circle is made for an opponent like Balthazar.”

“Right? But we don’t actually know how strong Balthazar is, either.”

I walked over and clapped a hand on Cliff’s shoulder.

“So, a favor to ask… Cliff.”

“Hm? You’ve been going on about the World Magic Circle and hidden cards, and I don’t follow any of it. What do you want from me?”

“You know about Cocytus, the Mages’ Graveyard?”

Cliff’s ear twitched.

“Know about it? Of course…”

Cliff shrugged, looking put-upon. I gave him a small nod.

“Right. Your plan, the one I crushed, was supposed to end with an undead army.”

“A ridiculously hard ancient dungeon, with the corpses of ancient high-level mages sitting there waiting to be reused. That was the plan.”

“Yeah. Use the bodies of the ancient mages there and you can mass-produce undead sorcerers who can use Level 9… or even Level 10.”

“Mass-producing a lich legion isn’t easy, though. That’s why I ended up facing you before it was ready, and lost.”

Cliff gave a self-mocking smile and a little “Heh.” I put on the brightest smile I had and clapped his shoulder again.

“Well, that’s the idea.”

“What idea?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…That’s the idea.”

So I’d casually thrown the impossible at him again. Now, how would Cliff take it?

“Are you serious, Ephthal?”

“You think I’d joke at a time like this?”

“We couldn’t use that spell against you precisely because it wasn’t ready.”

“And I beat you in that war with you unable to use it. So this time we do it right and win.”

Cliff’s mouth fell open in disbelief.

He scowled, rapped his forehead with his middle finger, and started to think.

“You really are impossible…”

“What else is new? I’ve always been like this.”

“I’m not unwilling to help, you know. If it ends up saving Bridget.”

Always for his sister, to the end. That much about him never changed.

Then Cliff looked me dead in the eye.

“So what’s the plan? Even last time, with all the time we had to prepare, the mass-undead ritual couldn’t be done. No bodies, and a hopeless shortage of materials. Willpower won’t carry me through the impossible.”

“Materials… the main one was the Scarlet of Hades, wasn’t it? We can’t get that much now, no way.”

“…Then it’s a non-starter. You’re missing the most important piece.”

“Ha, come on, don’t be modest, Cliff.”

“Modest?”

I nodded hard and smacked Cliff on the back. Then I jogged over to Sasha and smacked him on the back too.

“Sasha and Cliff. Two of the greatest undead specialists of the age, standing right here.”

“…?”

“Put you two side by side and there’s nothing in necromancy you can’t do.”

Sasha, hit with it out of nowhere, looked openly put out.

“No, you… you’re talking nonsense.”

I turned to Itam and Isaac and grinned at them. The two of them started blinking. What impossible thing is coming our way?

“Cliff, besides Sasha there are three more of us who are scholars too: me, Isaac, and Itam.”

I winked and went on.

“If all of us go at it together, we’ll manage. Right?”

“Ephthal. You’re something else…”

Cliff looked troubled and turned to Sasha, who’d been handed the same impossible job. Sasha was giving a little laugh, and Cliff blinked.

“Sasha-sama… you’re actually going along with this?”

“Well, of course. My fool of a disciple is goading me, and running from this would cost me my dignity.”

Cliff made a face that said oh, come on, give me a break.

“So one of the two specialists is in, Cliff. Now, can you do it, or can’t you?”

“You want me to prepare the summoning ritual from zero? To force through something this insane, Ephthal, what do you take me for?”

“I know what you are. It hurts how well I know.”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“You’re an out-and-out…”

I clapped Cliff on the shoulder.

“…genius.”

Sasha laughed out loud, and Cliff clicked his tongue.

“Red-haired whelp. You’ve been thoroughly beaten.”

“Looks like it.”

“And I have my reasons for laughing. What my fool of a disciple says isn’t entirely out of reach, and…”

Before Sasha could finish, Cliff gave a small nod.

“Yes. What galls me is how he hits the exact line where it might just barely work.”

“Just so. It sounds like a shot in the dark, and yet it lands right on the mark.”

Sasha gave a happy ‘Kah-kah.’

Good. These weren’t people who made promises on nothing, so this was going to work out.

“But Ephthal?”

“What, master?”

“Neither my World Magic Circle nor the Graveyard that makes the lich legion can be ready on the spot. You know that.”

“Of course I do. Even I wouldn’t ask for that much.”

“Then what are you going to do? The enemy… Balthazar… is right there.”

“Yeah, about that—”

Just then I felt something behind me, and we all spun around together.

With this lineup, nobody was slow to react.

A split second, less than that.

In that time every one of us had gone into a battle stance. Cliff and I were a breath from firing Level 11, which would have turned any ordinary enemy to ash. And then…

We dropped the stance in the same instant.

The person standing there was someone I hadn’t expected.

“Don’t tell me… you’re coming along to take down Balthazar too, Goddess?”

We’d only just been seen off by her like it was a final farewell. I’d never have guessed I’d meet her again so soon.

“No, that is not it. I thought I should return this body.”

“Oh. That’s… kind of you.”

Well, now that I thought about it, of course. The Goddess had been acting in the living world through Merlin’s body. Without that body back, we, or rather Merlin, would be in real trouble.

“And while I am here… let me tell you something, just in case.”

“Hm? What?”

“I am sorry to have been of so little use, but this is as far as I can intervene.”

“No, you’ve helped us plenty.”

“It pains me all the same.”

“Pains you?”

“The fact is, I think your chance of winning against Balthazar is close to zero.”

“Close to zero… So that’s how it looks to you.”

The Goddess nodded apologetically.

“As I see it, I am sending you into a death zone on a one-in-a-million chance, with almost no help at all.”

“I see.”

“…From here on, all I can do is watch from the sidelines. But please, go with good fortune.”

“…”

“…”

I thought for a moment, then bowed my head to her.

“What is it, Ephthal?”

“Whatever you think, you’ve helped me plenty. Thanks to you, I can see how to win.”

The Goddess raised one eyebrow.

“You can see how to win? Against Balthazar?”

“Yeah. We don’t know enough about him yet to say for sure… but I’ve got a lead.”

“…A lead? What exactly do you intend to do?”

“Let’s see. First off…”

I turned my eyes to the outer wall of Magic Academy City.

“First off?”

“The method’s simple. Easy, really. In short—”

I started walking toward the entrance to the city.

“I’m going in alone, right now, to Balthazar.”

Maria’s Perspective

Black.

No moonlight, no starlight, just one solid color of dark. That was where I woke up.

I couldn’t tell up from down or front from back. There was only a heavy darkness wrapped around me.

“Why is it so… dark?”

I said it out loud, to nobody. Balthazar’s voice answered out of the black.

“Because the Nine-Headed Dragon’s body is too large.”

It was the same unhurried voice as ever, low and carrying.

“…?”

“It blocks the sun completely, and no light reaches this ground… That is all.”

He snapped his fingers. A small, faint bluish light appeared in front of me. A blink later it split into countless more, like fireflies, and in no time they were lighting up everything.

By their pale glow I could make out where I was: on the roof of some building.

Another snap, and most of the fireflies around Balthazar drifted down to the ground and spread outward in ripples. Before I knew it, that soft glow filled the world all the way to the horizon.

“Darkness alone seemed a little dull.”

This string of miracles left me speechless.

“With a snap of his fingers… a light source, instantly, as far as the eye can see…?”

Barely a couple of seconds had passed since the snap. Never mind how fast he’d built the formula; this light spell reached well beyond the visible world. The speed and the scale were both so far off the charts that common sense couldn’t cope, and my common sense included Ephthal and Sasha-sama… Even counting those two, I had to admit it: Balthazar was on another level.

“That’s insane… This is really…”

My voice came out weak. Balthazar gave a weary shrug.

“Nothing here is odd. I am Balthazar, who holds a fragment of the Ten Sages’ knowledge and power. You and I are on different stages.”

“…”

I tried to take stock of where I stood, looked around again, and caught my breath. “Oh!”

“What… is this?”

Something was growing out of my back. Something slimy, like a vine, or a tentacle. It ran straight up toward the sky where the dragon was.

So the dragon and I were connected, and I was already part of it. That was when it finally hit me that I was a prisoner.

“If you ask what it is, I can only answer that it is the physical link between you and the dragon.”

“…I can see that much myself.”

“You look unwell, but rest easy. The link will do you no harm.”

“But… why haven’t I been absorbed into the dragon?”

I didn’t know anything about ancient magic. I knew even less about biological weapons. But I was supposedly the core of a summoning ritual, so it only made sense to put me inside the dragon.

As things stood, I was just tied to it by a line, and even a kid could see that putting me inside would be more efficient.

“Ah, that.”

He was looking up at the ceiling, or rather the dragon, as he went on.

“The dragon is a large creature, as you see.”

“To me it doesn’t even look like a creature anymore.”

“Well, it has that shape, but it is a delicate weapon.”

“Delicate…?”

“Precisely. A freshly summoned dragon is far too unstable to absorb the whole of you right now.”

“…”

“If I absorbed you and awakened it fully this moment, it would destroy the world at random. That would be most unfortunate.”

I could see what he was getting at.

His goal was the collapse of civilization, not extermination. Without humans, the Ten Sages would lose the native intelligent life they study. For him, avoiding a full reset of all life was the one absolute priority.

“So even you can’t handle the dragon yet.”

“Correct. That is why I respected your will as well. There are other ways, brainwashing among them, but for reining in the dragon, the least risky course is to leave the core her own free will.”

Then I asked the question that had been bugging me ever since the light came up and I could see around me.

“What is this building?”

The roof looked nothing like the Magic Society’s architecture, or any modern building. I knew that at a glance.

Every surface was perfectly smooth, and every corner a perfect right angle. The roof was one flat slab without a single bump or dent.

I knew of no technology in this world that could make something like that.

The technology behind this floor alone was probably earth-shaking, but that wasn’t what puzzled me.

A short while ago we had definitely been at the Magic Society headquarters. Now I was on the roof of some building I didn’t recognize. And the headquarters should have been blown away when the dragon was summoned. A building standing here at all was wrong.

“Ah. I swapped it in for the Society headquarters.”

“Swapped it in?”

“What you are looking at is a building from the ancient magic civilization.”

“From the ancient civilization?”

“It has minimal research facilities, and above all the functions of a residence where the Ten Sages can live in comfort.”

“Wait… what are you talking about? That makes no sense.”

“It makes no sense, you say?”

“I mean, that’s from some insanely long time ago, right? There’s no way a building like that survived…”

“Preserve a building, then make it appear. Once you know the trick, it is a simple application of dimensional transfer magic.”

“…?”

“The scale differs, but the ancient magic civilization did this fairly often.”

Fairly often, he said. He talked about carrying a whole house around like it was nothing, and I couldn’t follow a word of it.

“Naturally there are limits.”

“…Limits?”

“The surrounding area must be cleared. The aftershock of the dragon’s appearance cleared a radius of one kilometer, which is about the size of this building. I am not one of the Ten Sages, so I cannot squeeze a new building in where one already stands.”

So the Ten Sages could pull off that kind of recklessness.

They really were in a class of their own, and there was no way people like us could beat them.

“Just out of curiosity, what level would that dimensional transfer magic be?”

“It is closer to technology than to magic.”

“…?”

“It is a fusion of magic and science. It is not something that can be converted into a level.”

“All right. Will you still humor my questions?”

“Yes, go ahead.”

So I asked what I most wanted to know.

“When are you going to thin out the people of the world?”

He answered almost without a pause.

“In two months or so.”

“Two months?”

He nodded and went on. “Yes. That is how long the dragon needs to settle into your body.”

“Can’t you put it off even a little?”

I knew it was hopeless. But with something like this, I couldn’t not ask.

Balthazar looked into the distance and let his eyes rest on the dragon.

“The wishes of the powerless can only be granted by the amusement of the strong.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Unfortunately, I have no intention of granting you mercy on a whim.”

“…”

“You and I are on different stages as living beings. I am a higher form of life, given power beyond the human by the Ten Sages.”

I hated it. What I hated most was that everything Balthazar said was true. I had no say here. In this place I was one of the weak, and that was all there was to it.

I shook my head.

No…

Not just here. In all my life, had I ever once been strong?

Until I met Ephthal, I’d thought I was brilliant, and I’d spun my wheels every day. After I met him, I lived under the protection of the strong, just frolicking about in student life, that birdcage for the weak.

I’d told myself to be strong, or to get strong. And I’d thrown myself at it with everything I had, I won’t deny that.

But I was still weak.

Even when Ephthal taught me magic, however hard I tried…

Always, every time.

The one who risked his body to protect me was him.

And I had never once been properly useful to him.

When it came down to it, ever since I met him I’d been baggage, the whole way through. It made me sick with frustration.

Not at Balthazar. At my own useless self.

Balthazar chuckled as I pressed my lips tight.

“There is no need to worry. I am treating you with courtesy, believe it or not.”

“I have a hard time seeing where.”

“If I were not, I would not lend an ear to your idle questions. I make a point of feeding an obedient, useful servant what she deserves.”

“A servant… huh.”

“In any case, I can promise you this much: you will suffer nothing. From the moment you and the dragon truly fuse, you will lose consciousness and only dream. When it is all over, the Ten Sages will remove you from the earth along with the dragon, and you will return to nothing, dreaming. In a sense, it is the happiest form of death.”

“…”

“And during the Great Destruction, too, you will only be dreaming. You will know nothing and feel nothing, and you will not be tormented by guilt.”

“…There’s something I want to ask.”

“What is it?”

“I’ve wondered about this forever. Do you ever feel guilty yourself?”

The question seemed to take him by surprise. Balthazar tilted his head slightly.

“My own guilt… I have never considered it.”

He put a hand to his chin and thought.

Then he gave a small nod.

“I have searched myself, and I seem to feel no guilt whatever. At least no feeling of mine could ever obstruct the goal.”

“…You were born from humans too, weren’t you? You can be that detached?”

“I am no longer human. I have told you many times. I stand on a different stage from tiny lives like yours. And I must welcome the Ten Sages and climb to still greater heights under their teaching.”

It seemed the absence of guilt was real. Judging by his face, his feelings weren’t disturbed in the slightest.

“…Honestly, looking at you makes me want to throw up.”

“I do not expect you to understand, but you too aspire to the way of magic, do you not?”

“Yeah, I do. And as someone who does—”

I spat out the rest.

“I can tell your method is hopelessly wrong as a way to get strong.”

“Then you would do well to broaden your view, for the sake of your later study. My way of being is one form of strength too.”

“…Whatever else happens… I’ll never accept your way. And neither will the person I respect.”

It was the best comeback I had, and I glared at Balthazar with it.

Of course my words didn’t reach him. Words from the powerless have no weight anyway.

“What does it matter whether you accept me? The very fact that you are submitting to me proves I am right.”

“…”

What an infuriating man.

But he was still right, and that was why it infuriated me so much.

“Be at ease. Until the time comes, I will protect you, whatever happens.”

“You? Protect me?”

“Yes. I mean you no harm. This building has a built-in defense system… Even if every military force in the world united, it could not break through. How the world’s nations will react to the dragon’s appearance, I cannot say, but I will protect you from everything in this world… with all my strength.”

Just then, an enormous magic power appeared behind me, out of nowhere.

Balthazar and I turned to look at almost the same moment.

“Ah…”

The moment I saw that silhouette, two opposing surges of feeling collided in me.

One was anger and grief: why did you come?

The other was gratitude and joy: you came.

And as always, he took no notice of whatever I was feeling.

As always, with that easy look on his face, he came walking toward us like he owned the place.

“Is that your pride and joy, the defense system? Could that be…”

Ephthal slid his sword back into its sheath as he went on.

“…the junk machines I cut down on my way here?”

Balthazar answered with the same easy face.

“I do not know how you escaped the aftershock of the dragon’s appearance… but still…”

Balthazar spread both hands toward Ephthal, in a pose of welcome.

“I never thought you would come so soon after seeing the dragon with your own eyes. Thunder God Emperor.”

“Well… I should at least say hello.”

Ephthal gave Balthazar a faint, mocking smile.

“Nice to meet you, you bastard.”

Merlin’s Perspective

What Sasha-sama told me astonished me. It seemed I had been the Goddess of Reincarnation’s vessel. That alone was enough to shake me, but there was more.

When I came to, the people standing before me were beyond anything I could have imagined.

The first face I saw was that of my old enemy, the Fire God Emperor-sama. Beside him stood a figure I remembered just as he was in the far past: the Ice God Emperor-sama. And the last of them, Sasha-sama told me, was the Earth God Emperor-sama.

I have lived a long time, but I have never had a day like this one. Had I not already been through something like it, meeting Ephthal-sama again, I am certain I would have sat down hard on the spot.

I stood frozen until the Ice God Emperor-sama spoke to me.

“To think little Merlin would grow up this beautiful.”

It was only a pleasantry, but I was glad to be praised for how I had grown.

“You honor me.”

“Ephthal’s a lucky dog, you know.”

“A lucky dog, sir?”

He gave a rueful shrug, looking oddly vexed.

“His wife was a beauty too, after all.”

“Yes. Bridget-sama was certainly a beautiful woman.”

“And you, Merlin. I can tell just from how you stand how finely honed your flow of magic power is. Ephthal found himself a good disciple.”

“Excuse me… Isaac-sama.”

“Hm? What’s wrong, Merlin?”

“Please. Stop saying such things.”

This would not do. My cheeks were already hot, and my heart was pounding. I knew this was a pleasantry too, but to be praised for my looks and my magic by this man was another matter entirely. I had met the Ice God Emperor-sama as a child, and I remembered as clearly as yesterday how kind he had been to me. Then and now, the original Four Emperors were beings far above me. To have my magic praised by the Ice God Emperor-sama himself… it was only natural that my heart should flutter.

“To me, the original Four Emperors stand level with my master, Ephthal-sama. Praise from someone like you leaves me giddy… and that is bad for one still in training.”

“I see. You’re strict with yourself.”

“Yes. I still have a very long way to go.”

The Ice God Emperor-sama nodded, pleased.

“Sasha-sama, if I may. About the plan against Balthazar that you just described…”

“Hm? What is it, grand-disciple?”

“I understand the lich legion: a vast necromancy ritual, using the bodies gathered at the Mages’ Graveyard.”

“Well, that’s the plainest strength boost there is.”

“So my question is: what is the World Magic Circle?”

I am known the world over as a combat mage. But even Ephthal-sama, rough as he is, has a scholarly side, and as his disciple I have inherited that lineage. I take some pride in my grounding in magic theory.

Yet the World Magic Circle was a name I had never once heard.

“Ah, that. Well…”

Sasha-sama glanced around, and the Fire God Emperor-sama, the Earth God Emperor-sama, and the Ice God Emperor-sama all gave the same small nod.

“Come to think of it, this girl is an important part of our strength too. Let’s tell her.”

Sasha-sama put on a grave face. I swallowed.

It was rare to see such a serious look from Sasha-sama, who was so often foolish in word and deed. Its pressure bore down on me.

“The World Magic Circle, you see, is the ultimate debuff formula I created.”

“A debuff? You mean… a weakening spell?”

“If there’s a debuff that isn’t a weakening spell, I’d like to be taught it myself.”

“…What do you mean?”

“Well, to put it bluntly… Balthazar is ridiculously strong, isn’t he?”

“Yes. Having fought him… I can say that he treated me like a child. The claim that he has reached Level 12 does not strike me as false.”

“Hence the weakening spell.”

“Meaning?”

“If we can’t win by playing it straight…”

Sasha-sama fell silent for a moment, drew a light breath, and went on.

“…then whoever plays it straight is a fool, no?”

I nodded slightly. It was sound reasoning.

“Still, ‘World Magic Circle’ is a rather grand name.”

Sasha-sama grinned.

“Not at all. It’s no exaggeration.”

“What do you mean? You cannot have walked all over the world, Sasha-sama, and drawn an actual magic circle on the ground?”

“I keep telling you, don’t I? The World Magic Circle.”

“…Did you really draw a magic circle across the world?”

Sasha-sama fixed me with a piercing, pressing stare and answered flatly.

“Yes. To be precise, a magic circle that uses this entire continent as its canvas.”

Even a simple circle takes dozens of lines in its geometric pattern. To draw them from one end of a continent to the other, pouring magic and formula into each…

“…Surely no one could ever have enough time for that?”

“I don’t remember exactly, but several hundred years, I think. Bit by bit… Whenever I had a free moment I traveled around the world and walked the lines. It took forever.”

“Several hundred years…?”

“To begin with, I… have my own feelings about these so-called Ten Sages.”

“Yes,” I said, and nodded.

“They are the Star Eaters, a calamity on a cosmic scale. For the people native to this planet, humans and demi-humans alike, their existence must be intolerable.”

Sasha-sama made a sour face. You don’t understand.

“Fifty points.”

“Fifty points?”

“You’re right, as far as that goes, but it’s not the heart of the matter.”

“Pardon?” I tilted my head. The Ten Sages toying with the lives of the native people was not the heart of the problem?

“Then what is?”

“Hm,” he said, and then muttered, irritated, “Being stronger than me… That’s infuriating, isn’t it?”

“…What?”

“I mean it! Someone stronger than me! It makes you angry! No, it makes you absolutely furious, doesn’t it!?”

With that, Sasha-sama began stamping his feet.

A child’s tantrum, thrown by a being over a thousand years old, renowned as the strongest mage on earth…

…an old man in a girl’s body.

I was left speechless, nearly swaying on my feet.

“The point is, when you say ‘strongest,’ that means me, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, well, you are certainly a leading candidate for strongest in the world.”

“Now, I might allow, at a stretch, that my fool of a disciple could be the strongest. But… if he actually did become the strongest, I’d be annoyed, I tell you. Obviously.”

“…What?”

“I mean, who’s his master? Me. You see?”

“…And?”

“I’d be annoyed even at a disciple… so what about the Ten Sages? Nobodies who’ve never come near my influence? Strangers who popped up out of nowhere? And they’re the strongest? It makes me furious!”

“…I see.”

“So I took my time and built a debuff formula to drag them down to my level! I made the entire land my canvas and spitefully pasted my curses and grudges across it… for hundreds of years!”

It was a child’s logic, delivered in a child’s way. Faced with an argument so shamelessly simple, all I could do was smile wryly.

And then, as I thought it through, something fell into place.

Ephthal-sama, in his way, had grown up while staying a child at heart, just like Sasha-sama. At the root, the two of them were no different.

I am not made to aim for the strongest.

When I first heard of the Ten Sages, I took it for myth. And when I faced Balthazar, I went from fighting to fleeing in a moment. I had written him off as beyond my reach, and the Ten Sages with him. Beings so far outside the scale could not make me feel what Sasha-sama felt, the humiliation and anger of hearing ‘stronger than me.’

That was my limit. As a warrior who seeks the strongest, I was nothing like those two, and Ephthal-sama had made that gap in the desire for strength painfully clear when we met again…

“Hm? What are you smiling at, Merlin?”

“Nothing. It is only…”

“Only?”

“I am glad that my master is Ephthal-sama, and his master is you, Sasha-sama.”

“…What are you saying? Did you eat something funny?”

“I have eaten nothing funny. But I did think that I would like to support the two of you from behind the scenes.”

“…What’s the matter with you?”

“It is simply hard work keeping up with you two, with an ordinary person’s nerves and talent.”

I too was one who seeks the way, and I had my pride. A road like this could not be endured out of vanity or on a whim.

When I fully accepted that I had dropped out of the race for the strongest, I suppose I ought to have felt some sentiment, some sorrow or regret. Strangely, there was none. If anything, I felt refreshed.

“Ephthal-sama suffered terribly over his magic aptitude.”

“Where did that come from?”

“But perhaps, at bottom, an innate temperament is the greatest aptitude for becoming the strongest.”

“You’ve been saying nothing but things I don’t understand for a while now.”

“I do not wish to hear that from someone who spent hundreds of years drawing a spiteful magic circle across a continent, just to drag down those stronger than himself. That is far harder to understand.”

Indeed, this person’s obsession, or whatever it is…

But that must be what innate talent is.

“By the way, Sasha-sama? When it comes to debuffs by magic circle, since ancient times…”

Sasha-sama stopped me with a palm. Don’t say it.

“I know. The conditions are very strict.”

He held a hand in front of his face and raised two fingers.

“One is the place. The other is…”

“The time, I take it.”

“Just so. It’s a time-bomb type that works off the phases of the moon, one that carpet-bombs the whole area with a weakening curse.”

“…And the exact time?”

“From the state of the heavens, the soonest is two weeks from now. And only for the one hour from noon.”

“That is… very precise.”

“Which is why I say the conditions are strict. On top of that, the area of effect has to be specified in advance.”

“And if the target, in this case Balthazar, is not at that time and place?”

Sasha-sama threw up both hands.

“One shot, one gamble. If it fails, the labor of several hundred years goes to waste.”

“…I see.”

“Well, if it lands, the effect is tremendous.”

“But Sasha-sama… is that not too strict for a single shot?”

“It’s a formula equal to Level 13 or 14, you know… Unless I give up all versatility and take on constraints like these, even I… can’t pull off an effect at that scale.”

Once again he had said something outrageous, offhandedly.

Ephthal-sama would have said, “Hey, wait just a damn minute,” and knocked Sasha-sama on the head. I, naturally, do not have the nerve.

“Level… fourteen?”

“A circle I carved across the world with half a lifetime of guts and obsession, and it only works under insane constraints. If anything, the effect is on the mild side, wouldn’t you say?”

By ordinary reasoning, Level 14 was absurd. But since it was Sasha-sama saying it… it seemed too late to object.

“Sasha-sama. If you have any other hidden card… I would ask that we hold nothing back this time.”

“No. Even I’m done after this one. Once it’s out, nothing’s left but dregs. Truly emptied.”

“…Truly?”

He had a habit of pulling them out one after another, as if it were nothing.

Under my suspicious look, Sasha-sama pouted.

“What do you take me for? Do you think I’m a superwoman who keeps producing ultimate attacks?”

“No, but… you do look like the type to pull one more trick out of your sleeve without batting an eye.”

Incidentally, it should have been Superman, not superwoman. But there was no use nitpicking.

“In any case, this really is the end. Nothing left but dregs. So this time… I’m a little anxious.”

“Anxious?”

“You know the weakness of the World Magic Circle, don’t you?”

“That it is a time bomb, I take it.”

“Just so. Balthazar is said to wield Level 12 at present. If my debuff lands, he weakens and can only use around Level 10.”

“…So the World Magic Circle’s debuff lowers the usable magic by two levels.”

A cold sweat ran down my back. If that were done to me, I would be left with nothing above Level 6. I might even lose to someone like Anastasia.

“Yes,” Sasha-sama said, with a small nod. “It’s a sure kill, in the literal sense.”

“And after that, all that remains is to gang up and beat him.”

“Just so. If it comes to it, Ephthal or I could win even one on one. But all of it presupposes that Balthazar will be in Magic Academy City at noon two weeks from now. Getting a guarantee of that is the hard part.”

“In other words, we have to steer him there somehow.”

“Just so.”

I see…

But how would anyone steer Balthazar’s movements? And would Balthazar even leave us alone for two weeks? I had already fought him once, and Ephthal-sama and Sasha-sama had apparently already stormed Magic Academy City itself once.

“Sasha-sama, if I may?”

“Hm? What now? You and your endless questions.”

“I do not see Ephthal-sama. Where is he?”

Sasha-sama’s face darkened. He pointed at Magic Academy City.

“Inside.”

“…Inside?”

“He went alone to Balthazar.”

“…What? What for?”

“He has an idea, apparently. He means to pin Balthazar down to the hour we choose, by negotiation, or so I’m told.”

“But wait… why alone!?”

“Ephthal says that if I went, Balthazar would be on his guard, and the chance of the negotiation succeeding would drop.”

“Well, that is true. In the eyes of the world, Sasha-sama is the strongest mage of humankind.”

Sasha-sama glanced at the other three Emperors.

“Balthazar doesn’t know about the revival of these three, either. So, to avoid showing our hand, they can’t show themselves yet.”

“That, too, is true.”

“By elimination, then, it’s Ephthal alone, negotiating. After that, it depends on his skill.”

“That is so, but… Ephthal-sama, negotiating? And alone? Into the enemy’s camp?”

For a while I stood with a hand on my chin, turning it over. Then I put my unease plainly into words.

“Would it not be more accurate to say he did not go to negotiate… but to storm the place?”

Ephthal’s Perspective

“So Ephthal… whatever you do, don’t cross him. Please.”

Maria’s eyes were full of tears as she begged me. I gave her a small nod and said, “Got it.”

Here’s how things stood.

Maria and I were off in a corner of the roof, talking alone. That was Balthazar’s doing.

The moment I’d reached the roof, he’d offered to let Maria and me talk. And he really was leaving us alone, which threw me a little.

Still, if you thought about it, it wasn’t so strange, and it told me three things.

One: Balthazar was looking down on me, all the way down. Maria could be a hostage against me, and he’d left her alone with me anyway. He must have been sure that not only would I never fight back, we couldn’t even run away together.

Two: Balthazar didn’t know I’d met the Goddess of Reincarnation. She’d lived since the ancient magic civilization, too. If he’d known about her rebellion, he’d never have treated me this carelessly. He’d have been on his guard.

And three: it more or less decided round one of the fight with Balthazar in our favor, and the proof was in his own reason for allowing the meeting.

What Maria had to say boiled down to the first thing she’d told me: don’t cross Balthazar. He was having Maria describe how powerful he was, to break us. His aim was persuasion, or intimidation. And that whole setup told me, plain as day, that he had no intention at all of killing me here and now.

Which made my job easy.

Pretend to bow my head, play along, and brush him off.

After that, scout the enemy. If I could pry even a little information about his forces out of Balthazar, I’d call it a win. But that could wait.

“You did well on your own. Are you all right?”

Taking care of Maria mattered too, no doubt. Her small shoulders were trembling so badly.

“Not really… I don’t think I’m all right?”

I didn’t say anything. I gently stroked her head and pulled her in. She closed her eyes, a little relieved, and leaned against me.

“Thanks, Ephthal. It’s only a little, but… the shaking’s stopped.”

“Anyway, I get the picture.”

“Yeah… I’m telling you, whatever you do, don’t go against that thing.”

“Time I had a word with him.”

With that I glared at Balthazar, ten meters away.

“Finished talking?”

We faced each other again, there on the roof. What a monster. That was my honest feeling, standing in front of him.

It wasn’t a first for me. I’d felt the same when I first met Sasha as a young man. But my ‘monster’ for Sasha carried respect for a man of overwhelming strength. For Balthazar, the word came with contempt.

Balthazar’s power wasn’t the result of training or effort. He’d simply been handed it by the Ten Sages. That was probably why bastard was the first word that came to mind. And the longer I looked at that smug face, the less I could stand it.

I held down the rage boiling in my gut and let out a short breath.

“My demand is simple. Let Maria go.”

Balthazar laughed as if it were a joke.

“Haha, hahaha.”

“What’s funny?”

“I thought you were one of the strongest in the world… but perhaps the strongest thing about you is your talent for jokes?”

“A joke?”

“The gap between your strength and ours is as Maria told you. Surely you do not think I would make concessions to the weak? You cannot believe such an absurd demand will be met.”

“…”

“You and I are on different stages as living beings. Begin by understanding that precisely.”

I see…

Just what I’d expected. He was looking down on us completely.

Balthazar looked at my glare and sighed.

“It seems you… need an education.”

With that, he raised his palm toward me. Magic was already gathered in it, and a spell had taken shape.

“…What are you going to do?”

It was a type of spell I’d never seen. It didn’t look like an attack, but… what in the world was he going to do?

“It gives knowledge in the form of a dream. The Arrow of Memory. For the slow of understanding, this is quickest.”

The words were barely out when a magic arrow shot from his palm at tremendous speed, straight at me.

I could have dodged or blocked it.

But… no, not dodging was the right call here.

I’d known from the start that Balthazar didn’t mean to kill or harm me here. And since he was offering to show his hand himself, I might as well let him.

Shwoon.

With a whistle through the air, the arrow pierced my head.

My consciousness went dark.

⁂

I’d been out for a few minutes, it seemed.

What Balthazar had shown me was undeniably shocking. Still, none of it went far beyond what I’d expected going in.

No… not quite. Everything he’d shown me was outrageous, and it did leave me in despair, but somehow or other I’d gotten a rough idea of how to fight him. That’s probably the right way to put it.

When you got down to it, it was the same as what I’d told the Goddess. Balthazar bleeds. Balthazar can be killed. Being sure of that was the best thing I’d gotten out of it.

“…I understand. I have no chance if I defy you.”

But my own pieces weren’t on the board yet. I had to get through this with a lie… And Balthazar nodded, satisfied.

“You finally understand. You should be grateful for Maria’s devotion.”

By now there was no doubt left.

Honestly, I’d planned to squeeze information out of him however I could. I’d never imagined he’d show it to me without being asked.

It could mean only one thing. In a fight, this guy was, at an unbelievable level…

…a complete amateur.

Sure, the gap in raw power was overwhelming, and I couldn’t deny that. But that was also his fatal flaw.

He was so strong that he didn’t even see other people as enemies. Or he’d probably never met anyone at his level or above. Or everyone before had been far below him, and he’d shut them down by crushing them like ants. That was why he hadn’t noticed he’d already been thrashed in the information war.

And he hadn’t noticed how dangerous that was.

With that in mind, I put on a weak voice, like a man whose spirit had broken.

“If I follow you, the people close to us will survive? You’ll let them go?”

I sounded like a small-time crook begging for his life. Balthazar nodded, satisfied again, and held up three fingers.

“Thirty.”

“…Thirty?”

“They will be sterilized, but I will guarantee their survival for one generation. Choose as you like.”

Nasty thing to say. But he probably didn’t even realize how cruel it was.

Humans spay and neuter pet dogs and cats. And judging by his face, this guy was talking in just that frame of mind.

You and I are on different stages as living beings. He’d said it himself a moment ago. And he meant it: he didn’t see humans as humans… as creatures standing on the same ground as himself.

That was why he looked down on us this far. And why he didn’t realize that stray dogs like us were going to bite his leg.

“I have a question, though. May I ask?”

“Go ahead.”

“After the current civilization is destroyed, the Ten Sages come down to this planet. Won’t you need slaves? You can’t see to their needs on your own.”

“Hm? Are you saying that your own people should be kept as a slave class… with their ability to breed intact?”

“If possible, I’d like decent working conditions too.”

“Do not trouble yourself. Even after the collapse, a fair number of humans will survive. I will select the slaves from among them.”

“…I see.”

“I am merely giving you the right to put thirty on Noah’s Ark.”

“I get your position. But Balthazar… there’s one thing I need you to understand.”

“Hm?”

As Balthazar tilted his head, I finally got to the real reason I’d come.

“I want two weeks. I want to take this back to Sasha and talk it over. Even I can’t decide everything alone.”

Balthazar put a hand to his chin and considered. Then he glanced at Maria, sighed, and nodded.

“Very well. A period of that length costs us nothing.”

“Then noon, two weeks from now, right here, for another meeting. No objection?”

“None.”

Inwardly, I punched the air.

And just like that, mission complete.

Well, I’d been sure from the start this would go perfectly. And I’d gotten all the enemy’s information on top of it.

You could only call it a landslide.

“Sasha, my master, is stubborn… so even persuading him is going to be a headache.”

With that I held out my right hand to Balthazar.

He took it with a victor’s smile.

“You have understood my power. If you can convey it accurately, anyone can be persuaded.”

A firm handshake.

Of course it was just for show. Inside, I was laughing at him.

In two weeks I was going to wipe that smug look off his face.

You wait, bastard.

That was all I was thinking.

Just then Maria spoke to me, dazed.

“Ephthal…?”

“What is it, Maria?”

“No, I did say never to cross Balthazar… but…”

“…Hm?”

“You… admit it that easily?”

“After the Arrow of Memory, after being shown all that, I know well enough he’s not someone I can fight on equal footing.”

“…No, but still…”

Her face was pale, and unmistakable sorrow showed in it.

Then Maria lowered her long lashes and shook her head slightly.

“What is it?”

“Yeah… I guess it’s fine, but… it just doesn’t seem like you, giving up this easily…”

She bit her lip, as if holding something back.

And honestly, she seemed to have bought the act whole, same as Balthazar; there were even faint tears in her eyes.

So I hurriedly tapped the back of my hand once.

Maria looked at the back of her own hand, and gave a start. Ah! She’d remembered something.

What I’d reminded her of was the countdown spell I’d used when I fought Cliff.

It was the signal fire handed down in Sasha’s school, a way for every member to share the exact countdown to a charge. This time no numbers actually appeared on the back of Maria’s hand. But between us… that one gesture was enough to tell her exactly what I meant to do.

And just as I’d hoped, Maria got my whole intent. Her mouth twitched, almost a smile.

But right away she put on a straight face and started thinking, and finally she gave up and sighed.

“You’re really sure about this? You’ve already… decided, haven’t you?”

“Yeah. That’s it.”

Maria and I hadn’t known each other very long. But it hadn’t been that short, either. When I decided to do something, I always did it. Maria had learned that well enough by now.

And since she knew she couldn’t stop me, she wasn’t stupid enough to go tell Balthazar and make a scene.

“Besides, Maria. If I die, I can’t keep my promise to you.”

“Promise…?”

“So I’m not planning to die.”

Right, I’d also promised to make her win the Grand Order of the Hihiirokane. I hadn’t seen this coming when I made it, and that promise had turned into a real headache. I wouldn’t even be at the ceremony where she got the medal.

Well, once I became the human sacrifice sealing the dragon, I could leave the rest to Merlin. Maria was serious and hardworking. Even without me, she’d manage a top medal or two.

“And Balthazar.”

“What is it, Thunder God Emperor?”

“I’m taking the two locked up in this building, Anastasia and Sheryl, with me.”

“No objection. I was just thinking they were a bother to feed.”

“Then noon, two weeks from now, this place.”

“Yes, very well.”

And with that I waved at Maria over my shoulder with a “See you,” and left.