#172 Kyushu Crisis (4)
A mountainside was covered by a fantastical boundary like shattered glass, spread over it like a hemisphere.
Ruuuumble—!
At its center, a thunderous roar burst out as if shaking heaven and earth.
At the same time, a dreadful wave of destruction rocked the surroundings, but by now, that was hardly anything new.
The ground was so riddled with cracks and craters it looked as if it had been bombed, to the point that its original appearance was unrecognizable.
The remains of trees and boulders, torn up by the roots and hurled away, lay scattered everywhere, starkly revealing the devastation.
Since everything in the area was in that state, it went without saying that the small mountain lodge nearby had already vanished without a trace.
Along with the pitiful bait that had been trapped inside it.
“Kwaaaargh!”
Kwaaang—!
Just then, with a fierce sound of tearing air, a metallic muscle monster over three meters tall smashed into the hill behind him, collapsing it as he became embedded there.
True to his appearance, he seemed sturdy enough to dig himself out of the mound of dirt before long, but perhaps the accumulated impact had not been small; he staggered, then vomited up a bowlful of black blood.[“Damn it! Can’t you support me properly? I almost died!”][“Wh-what are you talking about? You’re still alive because I supported you!”][“Kgh, stop talking back and join up as soon as you’ve recovered! Is this the time to be whining?”][“Whining? What kind of nonsense is that!”]
There was a brief commotion over the mental network they had opened for rapid communication, but they soon re-formed their ranks and joined forces to hunt the Demon King who had descended into the present world.
Most of them were people with little connection to cooperation, but the immense experience they had accumulated while reaching their levels was more than enough to make that a trivial issue.
“Huuup!”
The metallic demon, “Tank,” who had recovered in an instant thanks to his tremendous regenerative power and the support of those around him, took a deep breath and launched himself forward once more, charging like a missile.
At an absurd speed approaching supersonic.
Ruuuumble!
In an instant, the air along his path exploded, and a massive aftershock swept through.
A destructive charge that, based on overwhelming physical force, would pulverize anything that stood in its way.
Kwaaang!
But just as it had until now, that tremendous weapon of mass had no choice but to stop midway without achieving its goal.
“Kgh! Damn it, this shitty thing!”
As if defying the laws of physics, the abyss, given substance, absorbed the impact and surged violently, then began to seep back into Tank’s body.
Though he possessed transcendent durability and magic resistance, that strange energy, unlike ordinary mana, slowly began to gnaw away at his body.[“Kgh! Support, now! This nasty stuff keeps breaking through my magic resistance!”]
However, the Beoncheonhoe side, which had made extensive preparations beforehand, was not simply being helplessly overwhelmed.
“Almighty Muiriel, let Your radiance descend upon this place!”
A twilight light extended from a timid-looking woman providing support from the rear.
The edge of the abyss, touched by the divine power of the one called the “High Priestess,” was blunted, and in the end, it failed to pierce Tank’s magic resistance and was repelled.
Of course, she had only weakened it somewhat; she had not blocked the abyss entirely with her ability alone. But those gathered here possessed enough capability to make good use of even the smallest opening created by that.
Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwang!
Kuuung—!
Explosions erupted from every direction, both on the ground and in the air.
The elites of Beoncheonhoe, relying on their numbers, linked together without rest and poured out attacks, while the Hahoe Mask opposing them was, even in the span of a brief instant, traversing space in a flash and projecting overwhelming firepower in all directions.
As if his mana were infinite.
“...To think I would see a Demon King even here. How can a human body possess such power...”
The High Priestess, who had been murmuring softly as she once again raised her divine power to support the battle, suddenly froze at a chill that ran through her.
The moment she looked toward the Hahoe Mask to determine the target’s position.
She found herself staring directly into those abyss-like eyes, as though he had been watching her for who knew how long.
Her body stiffened for only the briefest instant when she met that gaze imbued with the mana of the abyss.
Craaaack—!
But on this battlefield, a momentary opening was enough time for one life to vanish.
Crunch!
Sharp teeth that sprang up from the ground around where the High Priestess stood chewed through space in an instant and disappeared into the floor.
The spot was left empty, without a single trace remaining, as if nothing had happened at all.
There were not many who could react to that ambush, which had come without presence or warning, and unfortunately, she did not possess such an ability.
But that also meant—
That there was not absolutely no one who could react.
“Ugh... Thank you. I really almost died just now...”
Far behind the front line, beside a man in a suit, the High Priestess, unharmed, wiped cold sweat from her pale face.[Hmm—.]
At that, the Hahoe Mask’s displeased gaze turned toward him this time.
Even though he was still moving freely across the battlefield, with dozens of magic circles floating around him, in the middle of fighting nearly thirty powerful individuals.‘Impressive.’The man in the suit, the head of Beoncheonhoe’s Tokyo branch, inwardly admired his opponent while maintaining his tension and delicately operating his energy.
His unique skill, 「Administrator of a Small World」, did not merely isolate the surroundings.
That was only its most basic use; everything inside this space was entirely under his management.
Of course, even so, he was only an “administrator,” not a god, so he could not manipulate the world however he pleased. But with even a portion of that authority, he could do many things.
He could even partially ignore the restrictions of the laws imposed on Earth.‘And yet he is still at that level.’The suited man, the Administrator, clicked his tongue as he once again flicked a finger and crossed space.
Whoosh—
The place where he had been standing moments before was already engulfed in black flames, melting into magma.‘Even while restricting his power as much as I can, he can still do that much. This is no joke—if we weren’t inside this space, we might have been wiped out instead.’There had indeed been a reason the Lawgiver had so earnestly urged caution.
At the time, he had thought a human who was not even combat-type had simply gotten beaten up somewhere and was making an unnecessary fuss...
‘But this place is already my world. Hahoe Mask, you will never escape from here.’Restricting the opponent’s power, strengthening his allies, even moving those in danger to a safe place.
He keenly sensed everything that occurred within his domain and gradually, little by little, adjusted the battlefield.
To neutralize his opponent even more certainly.***All manner of mysteries poured out from the magic circles constructed in an instant.
Lightning and flame, hell and demons, shadow and flashes of light—the powers, regardless of type, laid waste to the surroundings in the blink of an eye, flaunting their presence.
Yet despite that exhilarating spectacle, the user himself was not particularly at ease.‘How stifling.’That was the thought filling Hans’s head as he fought Beoncheonhoe.‘I assumed they would have prepared to some extent beforehand, but to think the compulsion would be this strong.’Moreover, it was not only the restrictions of the space that were suppressing his power.
Who knew how many of them had intervened, but all sorts of skills were layered upon one another, shackling his body.
His normally smooth control over dark mana began to creak, and even his utterly efficient mana designs started to suffer unnecessary leakage.
This is as far as you go—
It felt as though the laws of the world itself were trying to define his limits.‘On top of that, the priests are a problem. Divine power is already the natural enemy of the abyss, and combined with the spatial restrictions, its effect has been multiplied many times over.’If they had merely been people with high levels, they would have been far easier to deal with.
But Awakened who used all sorts of bizarre abilities were not the sort whose combat strength could be determined by that alone.
As Hans continued the dizzying exchange of offense and defense and searched for a solution—
“#$%@#.”
As if aiming for a brief opening, an incomprehensible phrase came from behind him.‘Damn!’Thud! Ruuuumble—!
Dozens of impacts followed, overlapping from a single hit.
Before Hans, who had reacted quickly and turned, could do anything, the barrier that had already been weaker than usual while he was defending against the enemies’ attacks finally burst apart.
And at the moment when the dark mana, close to infinite, tried to restore it—
A fist wreathed in dazzling divine power was already buried deep in his solar plexus.
Crack-crunch!
Kwaaang!
Hans’s body was hurled far away with a powerful shockwave.
But the middle-aged man in a martial uniform who had landed the effective blow did not look particularly pleased either.
“#*%^&...”
Whoosh—
His fist, which had been wrapped in divine power, was instead contaminated by the abyss and was watching for a chance to attack him, while a curse that had activated at the moment of impact coiled around his entire body, so it was only natural.
“Hup!”
Afterward, he shook off the remnants of the abyss with strongly emitted internal energy, but there was nothing he could do about his outward appearance, which looked as though he had suffered a setback.[Hoo, as expected, troublesome bastards.]
On the other hand, Hans, who had allowed the attack, had already restored his protective barrier and looked so clean it was hard to tell whether he had taken any damage at all.
However, that did not mean he had suffered no damage whatsoever...Thanks to the “immortality” effect attached to 「Heart of Immortality」, he had recovered quickly, but in this irritating space, attacks mixed with divine power, his natural counter, were steadily eating away at his strength.
As expected, he needed to devise a countermeasure before it was too late.
If the damage continued to accumulate like this, the only ending left would be escape.‘That is out of the question. If it were the ones who fled getting away, that would be one thing. But this Hans, running away?’This was not merely a problem for the Hahoe Mask.
It was an act utterly unacceptable, one that also concerned the pride of Auterica’s terror... the “Immortal King.”‘The other things are troublesome too, but as expected, the restrictions of this space are the most annoying. If not for this thing defining a limit to my rank, I could somehow shake off the other debuffs.’Moreover, because of the suited man coordinating it, he could not properly finish them off either.
The enemies he had eliminated so far were limited to two priests who had let their guard down early on and three others who had been somewhat lacking in skill.
After that, because the suited man had focused on protecting his allies, Hans had been unable to dispose of any more of them.‘No matter how I think about it, collapsing this place is the best option. But they won’t just sit by and let me do that.’To destroy this space, he needed power on a level capable of interfering with dimensions, and naturally, he could not use magic of that scale without any preparation.
It was a method absolutely impossible now, when the exchange of attacks continued without even a moment’s rest.‘There might be a chance if I pour the abyss, a higher-order energy, into the boundary... but perhaps he’s wary of that too, because the suppression on it is especially strong.’The longer he stayed in this space and the more his opponent analyzed him, the more delicate the restrictions placed upon him became.
It was not simply reducing the power of the individual known as Hans; now, it had even begun to impose limits on the concept of “the unknown energy used by the Hahoe Mask.”
If only he had responded immediately in the early stages, when the man had not yet figured it out, there might have been a chance.
The abyss was already less efficient on Earth, and now that it was being restricted as well, its power had dropped to the point where breaking the boundary in one strike had become difficult.
However.
There was no such thing as perfection in the world, and every matter had its loophole.‘He is analyzing the abyss through me and suppressing it. In other words, it will be fine as long as I am not the subject handling the abyss.’An entity connected to him, yet not himself.
At the same time, a being sturdy enough to withstand a high concentration of the abyss.
Even as Hans continued fighting as he had before, he poured dark mana and the abyss into 「Heart of Immortality」.
Without stopping, continuously, as if compressing it to high density.
In the process, the number of times he was struck by the enemies gradually increased, but he possessed an immortal body that would not die so long as his heart was not destroyed.
And to destroy his heart, the other side would likewise have no choice but to unleash an attack that cleaved through dimensions...
In a sense, it was a battle he could never lose.
However.‘Not losing’ was not enough.
The only thing befitting Hans was victory!
And only an “overwhelming victory” could truly represent him.[Krrh-hah.
— Indeed, not bad at all. Then I can’t very well stay like this, either.]
“What are you trying to pull!”
“Don’t fall for it! Hold formation!”The「Immortal Heart」writhed and pulsed violently.
And at last, the moment it crossed a certain limit.
Hans summoned an undead closely connected to himself.[Come forth, Heratos.]
Gloop—Heratos, the Bone Dragon crafted from the body of a Mad Dragon stained with “Madness.”
Unlike Entracio, it had the limitation of lacking independence, since Hans himself served as its Dragon Heart.
But that also meant—
Conversely, its subordination surpassed that of any other undead—.
Flutter.
— Flutter—[Kyaaaaa——!]
Heratos appeared beneath Hans’s feet, carrying him on its head as it soared upward; its entire body was already filled with the power of the abyss, compressed to an extreme degree.
Crackle—
— Crrrack!
Of course, its body was slowly collapsing from the aftereffects, but as it was still a dragon’s body in name, it was more than enough to endure for a short while.
“What?!”
“What the hell is that monster! How can something like that be on Earth!”
“Wait! Over there, right now···!”
The place one of the Beoncheonhoe’s men pointed to was Heratos’s mouth.
As a result of having greedily swallowed the abyss and black mana through its heart even before being summoned.
Despite having just been summoned, a tremendous power was already gathered in its mouth, shimmering as if it would burst forth at any moment.
“Administrator! Hurry and stop that···!”
“Damn it, it’s already too late···!”
And then, that power—
Before the other Awakened could even do anything.[Kyaaaaaaak——!]
Compressed to an immense density, it was poured straight into the boundary of the world.
In the exceedingly direct form known as a dragon’s breath.
Rumble—!
Kwaaaang—!
“Urgh! Fall back! Don’t fight, retreat!”
“M-Müriel! Protect your servant!”
“Abort the operation! Space is collapsing! Immediately···.”
Perhaps because they were so desperate, the urgent commotion burst out not only through the mental network but also in their own voices.[Khhahahah—
Ahh, now I finally feel refreshed! Yes, this is it! Khahahah!]
At last, the “small world” that had enveloped the hill collapsed.
Hans, Heratos, and the members of the Beoncheonhoe revealed themselves on a hill in southern Kyushu.
On a back mountain not far from the city, where the mountain lodge of the underground organization Hans had been targeting was located.
“H-Huh? What··· what is that? A monster?!”
“M-Mom! Mom!”
“Kyaaak—! What are the Guardians doing!”
With the screams of citizens thrown into chaos as the backdrop, it was the moment when a Bone Dragon from another world—something no one had ever expected—finally manifested in the skies above Earth.