The title of Star was a title permitted only to those whose martial prowess had surpassed the heavens and reached the stars.
In the present age, such a title had come to refer to only one person.
Sword Saint Vitalianus Mahel.
A great knight who had earned the title of Star with a single sword.
The most perfect warrior, born a hero from the moment of his birth.
To him, a fleeting instant was, with only slight exaggeration, a span of time akin to eternity.
Because the range of what he perceived, and the world upon which he stood, were different.
Because he was a superhuman who had far exceeded the limits of mankind.
After the thing he had thought was the core of the floor abruptly transformed into a grotesque eye.
Kwaaaaang—!
The sudden explosion, and Vitalianus’s body being shoved violently backward, had all happened in a mere one second from that moment.
0.1 seconds.
The eye, covered entirely in black, rolled.
0.2 seconds.
It looked at the mage and grinned.
If asked how an eyeball could smile, there would be no answer.
And yet it clearly wore a smile so chilling that the muscles of one’s body would go rigid.
0.3 seconds.
The time it took for Vitalianus to place his hand on the hilt of his sword.
0.4 seconds.
He drew and launched himself at the same time.
0.5 seconds.
His body grew hot from the rapid operation of aura.
Golden aura began to gather on the sword that had been fully drawn.
0.6 seconds.
The scenery stretched out like a rubber band.
The distance between them rapidly narrowed.
0.7 seconds.
Holes began to appear all over the eye’s round body.
Dozens of holes covered the entire eyeball in an instant.
Even at a glance, they were artificial. Dangerous.
Some kind of attack would come through them.
But there was no problem.
0.8 seconds.
Because he was already within range.
There was no need to expend effort adjusting his direction.
It had been planned from before he made his move.
His body, shot forward, had itself become a single sword as it hurtled in with him.
Only now did the other knights seem to begin grasping the situation, their pupils widening as they opened their mouths to shout something.
The mage, too, was unable to react and simply stood there blankly.
It did not matter.
0.9 seconds.
Vitalianus’s golden light was already rushing toward the grotesque thing.
At the same time, something began to writhe within the dozens of holes that had formed on the eye.
He sensed it, but that too did not matter.
Because in the next moment, he would split that grotesque thing itself apart.
The sword fell at a speed that even the elite expedition members could not properly perceive.
The grotesque eye was still looking only at Hio Pavlenko, and Vitalianus was certain his sword would be faster than whatever trick it might try.
And thus, he reached.
1 second.
“……!”
At the same time, he felt a tremendous sense of wrongness.
A vast killing intent rushing toward his brow, his Adam’s apple, his heart.
And so, twisting his body in midair and altering the course of his sword was not in the realm of cognition.
It was instinct.
As if that premonition had not been wrong, shock surged through his entire body.
A powerful repulsion rang sharply through his hand.
Kwaaaaang—!
Black hands, which had somehow reached within a hair’s breadth of his brow, his Adam’s apple, and his heart, clashed with Vitalianus’s golden sword, and the impact caused an explosion.
It was surely the deed of the grotesque eye.
The black hands had undoubtedly been what was writhing within those dozens of holes.
When in the world had they shot out?
How could they move even faster than he, and what on earth was the power contained within them……
No, that was not what he had to think about right now.
There had been dozens of holes that appeared on the eye.
Of those, only three hands had rushed at him.
Then where had the rest gone?
It was obvious.
The eye had been looking at only one person from beginning to end.
“……Mage!”
As he was pushed far back by the repulsive force, Vitalianus shouted.
Hio Pavlenko.
Dozens of hands must have stretched out in a surprise attack toward him.
Vitalianus forced his head up and looked at the scene, thick with the smoke of the explosion.
An explosion from the impact.
The immense wind caused by it.
And within it.
「Skill — ‘Blink’ is activated.」
Dozens, hundreds of black feathers flying through the air.
Distorted space.
Dozens of black hands had burst forth from the eye and devastated the space where Hio had been standing, but Hio had already left the spot.
With the black wings sprouting from his back spread wide.
Leaving behind only distorted space, the traces of Blink.
A scene turned into utter chaos. The noise and smoke of the explosion, the raging wind, and feathers fluttering within distorted space.
There was no trace of panic on Hio’s face as he slowly turned around.
His expression was no different from usual. Only his gaze had sunk a degree deeper, more solemn.
“M-Monster!”
“Draw your swords!”
“Get a hold of yourselves and spread out!”
Only then did the knights of the expedition recognize the situation and attempt to respond.
The commander-class knights of each order had noticed the situation a little faster, but that was all there was to it.
Had the eye decided to attack them, they would have died without even knowing what had happened.
Even so, they were the heads of the Empire’s most elite knight orders, veterans of countless battles.
“Fall back! Create distance!”
“Stay on guard, but do not step forward!”
Vitalianus, of all people, had been blasted back by a great explosion, had he not?
Of course, it had been a sudden blow, so he likely had not been using his full strength, and he did not seem to be wounded, but that alone was proof that their opponent was no ordinary foe.
And so, they pulled the ordinary knights back to an appropriate distance, while they themselves stood at the very front with swords drawn, waiting.
The first reason was to protect the most important figures, the Saintess and the priests.
The second was to create space.
Kwaaaaang—!
So that the great Star of the Sword.
Vitalianus Mahel could run wild.
Furthermore, he was not the only hero present here.
Thud—the sound of a staff striking the ground at a measured pace.
And what changed at that very moment was.
「Skill — ‘Domain of Void’ is activated.」
Space itself.
The desolate 58th Floor of the Abyss began to have its space replaced.
The dark sky retreated, and a violet cosmos filled its place.
「Skill — ‘Domain of Void — Compression’ is activated.」
「Skill — ‘Domain of Void — Severance’ is activated.」
「Skill — ‘Domain of Void — Annihilation’ is activated.」
……
Dozens of black hands, which had been moving at a speed invisible to the eye, came to an abrupt stop beneath the Domain of Void.
As if being pressed down by an unseen force, they crumpled with a creak.
But that lasted only an instant, and soon they shattered even the pressure of the Domain of Void and began moving again.
Of course, as stated before, there was another hero here who could use even a fleeting instant like eternity.
Kwaaaang—!
Vitalianus’s golden sword collided with a black hand right in front of the grotesque eye, causing an explosion.
As if it had anticipated even that, the eye continued pouring out attacks in succession, but the black hands, numbering well over twenty, were instead battering Vitalianus without pause.
How could that be?
How could a mere monster pressure a great knight?
While being interfered with by the mage, no less.
「Skill — ‘Domain of Void — Separation’ is activated.」
「Skill — ‘Domain of Void — Compression’ is activated.」
「Skill — ‘Domain of Void — Movement’ is activated.」
……
Hio also began making full use of the Domain of Void.
Using ‘Movement,’ he freely traversed the Domain of Void to avoid the black hands, and using ‘Separation,’ he divided the space where the eye was into hundreds of small squares.
But none of it worked.
Though the space had been separated by ‘Separation,’ the black hands connected to the eye were not severed even between those spaces, remaining linked among themselves.
‘Compression’ could only stop their movement for a brief moment, and ‘Annihilation’ was resisted.
At least when ‘Compression’ and ‘Annihilation’ were used together, they flinched for a fairly decent time, but in exchange, his mana drained away rapidly.
It was strong.
The top-tier auxiliary skill, Domain of Void, did not work on it.
And so, while using the Domain of Void to assist his ‘Movement,’ he fired compressed spells such as Ray of Frost and Flare, but those too failed to reach the eye and were blocked by the black hands.
As if they possessed some resistance to magic, the spells had no effect at all.
Then he would simply have to push with greater power.
「Skill — ‘Thunder Emperor’ is activated.」
The radiance of lightning sprang up around his body.
Hio’s two eyes burned white, and the power of lightning surged in both his hands.
「Skill — ‘Blue Flame’ is activated.」
Above his head, a blue sun spread wide and looked down upon the ground.
As if it would not permit even a single strand of darkness, it illuminated everything brightly and emitted a scorching heat.
Hio conveyed his will toward that Blue Flame.
To seize exactly five of those black hands, the more than twenty grotesquely stretching toward them.
Then the Blue Flame understood Hio’s will, moved its hot and immense body, and fell toward the eye.
It was a majestic sight, enough to make anyone directly beneath it believe that the blue sky itself was collapsing.
But it was caught by exactly five black hands and could advance no further.
It looked as though five hands were holding back a falling sky.
Of course, this was what Hio had intended.
No more and no less—he would neutralize exactly five.
Understanding that intent, the Blue Flame burned even hotter and began to push forward.
As long as the Blue Flame existed, at least five of the hands were as good as bound.
That alone should have greatly reduced the burden directed at Vitalianus.
Kwaaaaang—!
Indeed, Vitalianus was knocking away every hand fired at him and drawing closer to the eye little by little.
That unidentified abyssal eye was certainly strong.
Its hands were not cut by Vitalianus’s aura, and their speed was so fast that they were difficult to follow with the eyes, and there were nearly thirty of them.
However, if there was a misfortune from its perspective, then it was this.
The great Sword Saint had finished adapting to that speed and power.
Compared to their first clash, he deflected its attacks far more smoothly and dug in with sharper precision.
Even though almost all of the hands were focused on Vitalianus, all they could do was barely pressure him.
And even to that, Vitalianus was gradually beginning to adapt.
This was the grotesque thing’s first misfortune.
The grotesque thing’s second misfortune was that Hio Pavlenko had grasped the situation and immediately focused solely on supporting Vitalianus.
Reducing the number of hands directed at him.
If he did that, he believed Vitalianus would eventually break through the offensive and shatter the eye to pieces.
Of course, several hands continued to shoot toward Hio.
Their speed was difficult to follow with the eyes.
Even so, Hio’s Agility stat was no longer as low as it had once been, so he could at least perceive them.
There was no need to follow them with his eyes.
「Skill — ‘Domain of Void — Movement’ is activated.」
This place was an emptied, or emptiable, Domain of Void.
And Hio Pavlenko himself was the master of this place.
The moment he perceived them, all he had to do was move elsewhere.
「Skill — ‘Domain of Void — Movement’ is activated.」
「Skill — ‘Domain of Void — Movement’ is activated.」
「Skill — ‘Domain of Void — Movement’ is activated.」
……
The hands pursued him tenaciously, so he had to roam through the entire space without pause, but it was fine.
Because he was certain that the grotesque thing’s body would be cleaved apart before his mana ran dry.
「Skill — ‘Thunder Emperor’ is active.」
And so he rose high into the sky and dropped lightning.
Kwaang!
What had fallen one bolt, then two.
Kwaaaaang!
Kwaaaang—!
Did not need much time before becoming dozens, then hundreds of bolts.
The sight of them falling over the eye as a rain of lightning was like a waterfall made of thunderbolts, but.
“……As expected.”
Naturally, before they could reach the eye, they were blocked by a black hand and scattered.
“I thought so.”
Hio had anticipated it as well.
It was unexpected that the waterfall of lightning would be blocked by a single hand, but it was still fine.
Because Vitalianus and Hio were not the only two people in this place.
The others would only get in the way of Vitalianus’s movements, and of Hio unleashing his skill—but was there not one exception?
The holiest woman in the world.
“Irina.”
Hio’s voice, imbued with mana, rang through the Domain of Void, and Irina, understanding his intent though he had called only her name, nodded firmly.
She clasped both hands before her chest, closed her eyes, and bowed her head slightly.
Originally, it would have been ideal to cast it within the sanctuary where the Divine Tree stood, but here, fifteen high priests were with her.
“I will invoke the blessing!”
This was the aberration’s third misfortune.
A pure white light burst forth from the saintess, Irina.
It spread out to the fifteen high priests stationed throughout the area, and they fulfilled a role even greater than the Divine Tree within the sanctuary.
The divine power, reestablished through each of their holy arts, began gathering once more above Irina’s head.
A pure white radiance spread dazzlingly.
A white and holy light. This was unmistakably Rifue’s divinity.
The arrangement made by the Goddess of Hope before she entered her long slumber.
It was the power of a god that bestowed blessings upon allies and stern punishment upon wicked things.
The divine power that had been pouring out vaguely gathered before Irina with a single purpose, and soon shot swiftly forward.
Toward the place where Hio, the aberration, and Vitalianus were entangled together.
And then.
Kwaaaaa—
Rifue’s blessing came pouring down, and the movements of every hand it touched visibly slowed.
The hands themselves had not weakened, but a problem had arisen in the eye that served as their main body.
Hio and Vitalianus were not the sort to miss that opening.
「Skill - ‘Domain of Void - Separation’ has been activated.」
The space occupied by the eye and the hands was separated once more into hundreds of smaller spaces.
The aberration ignored even the divided spaces and continued to maintain its form, but its speed had clearly slowed.
Then what would happen if lightning were poured into those gaps?
「Skill - ‘Thunder Emperor’ has been activated.」
Kwaaang!
A rain of lightning poured down once more.
It fell mercilessly between the separated spaces, into the weakened seams between them.
Kwaaaaang—!
It was effective.
The movements of all the hands began to stutter and break off, as though they were buffering.
The eye, the aberration’s main body, was overwhelmed by the divine power of the saintess and the high priests.
The black hands were controlled by the mage Hio Pavlenko with the power of space and lightning.
For Vitalianus, forcing his way through that and bisecting the eye was as easy as turning over his hand.
What rang out was not the deafening roar of explosions that had assaulted their ears until now, but one small, concise sound.
Slice—
Vitalianus’s golden light tore through the black hands and finally cut down the eye.
“H-he cut it!”
“Waaaaaa!”
The aberration’s eye split wide open, cleaved cleanly in half by a single stroke.
There was no shrieking noise like that of other monsters.
No blood spurted from between the split eye.
Instead, what gushed forth was—
What burst out like an explosion and covered the space was—
“……H-huh?”
“Careful over there……!”
A dense darkness.
An abyss whose end could not be fathomed.
【Heh, heheh.】
That was the first misfortune to befall the expedition.