The Heroes' Elegy

"Aaaaah…!"

Both arms had been gripping the longsword. Now, the right arm was severed at mid-length.

Sei turned around and aimed for the left arm next.

A metallic clang rang out, and Sei's katana was deflected.

The severed right arm was still gripping the sword's hilt. The Hero of Wrath had deflected Sei's blade with just her left arm.

(So this is Wrath?)

According to Omni-Identify, her stats had indeed more than doubled. Enough so that she could wield a two-handed sword with just one hand.

When the hero swung her sword around, the severed right arm fell. The girl's gaze, filled with fury, locked onto Sei.

"I'll kill you!"

Receiving that murderous intent head-on, Sei stepped forward.

The sword swung with one hand. She had probably faced desperate situations like this before. Without losing her balance, her blade flashed toward Sei.

But it was crude.

No matter how much power it had, it was a sword swung with brute force alone. And as expected, mere strength couldn't compete with the techniques Ria had passed down.

No matter how many monsters or divine servants she had fought, her experience in combat against humans was overwhelmingly lacking.

Sei appeared to be on the defensive, but he was quietly waiting for that moment.

Wrath. The activation of anger.

The secretion of brain chemicals, the absorption of surrounding magical power, and the enhancement that came from it.

Looking at her right arm's cut surface, the bleeding had already stopped. He couldn't expect her to lose fighting spirit from blood loss.

But this was all according to Sei's plan. The hero, lost in rage, swung at Sei with bloodshot eyes.

And then the trajectory changed into a thrust. Sei didn't dodge it.

The hero's sword pierced Sei's heart.

A smile appeared on the hero's face, and in that instant, she let her guard down. With the sword still through his heart, Sei twisted his body, entangling the blade with his own ribs.

As the hero's expression turned to one of shock, Sei spun further and his katana moved to sever her left hand.

The Hero of Wrath tried to dodge by leaping backward. But Sei had vanished from her field of vision.

Short-range teleportation.

This was the first time he'd used it in actual combat, but it worked perfectly. Having appeared behind the Hero of Wrath, Sei had already severed her left hand.

Moving like a dance, Sei then cut off one of the hero's legs.

Both arms and one leg. With this, the Hero of Wrath was successfully neutralized.

With the Hero of Complete Restoration already down, all that remained was to prevent the Hero of Formula Bypass from using magic to regenerate her.

Setting aside basic healing and recovery, the only one among the remaining heroes who could use restoration or regeneration magic was the Hero of Formula Bypass.

That Hero of Formula Bypass was pressing the advantage against Gantz. He even had enough leeway to cast support magic on his allies—-that was how little mental concentration the Formula Bypass Gift required.

So it was no wonder he tried to bring their greatest fighting force, the Hero of Wrath, back into action.

However, diverting that much attention elsewhere always creates an opening.

And the one who wouldn't miss that opening, who wouldn't hesitate to charge in, was Gantz.

He crashed into him with a body tackle, disrupting his stance, then slammed his battle axe against his armor.

The metal armor dented, and several ribs broke.

Air escaped with a wheeze as the Hero of Formula Bypass was sent flying.

And what he saw wasn't his comrade, the Hero of Wrath, nor his opponent Gantz in front of him—-it was Sei, casually pulling out the sword that had pierced his heart and walking toward him.

Immortal.

Naturally, Sei had been concealing that Gift.

An enemy approaching him despite having his heart destroyed was terrifying to the Hero of Formula Bypass.

"Wh-why…?"

Sei broke into a run, and Gantz charged. Against an attack from two directions, the Hero of Formula Bypass couldn't respond.

Against Gantz, he used a magical shockwave to create distance. But against Sei, without even a single exchange of blows, his right arm was severed.

Sei's slash had completely ignored the magical barrier.

As the hero involuntarily dropped to his knees, Sei mercilessly kicked him in the jaw.

The Hero of Formula Bypass lost consciousness, leaving three heroes remaining.

Who should he go after next? Sei surveyed the battlefield. Gantz, having taken quite a beating from the barrage of spells, had sat down on the spot.

The remaining heroes noticed Sei's gaze. All three simultaneously backed away from their opponents and dropped their weapons.

"We surrender! We lose!"

The three raised their hands and declared their defeat.

Apparently, this had been decided beforehand.

If more than half the heroes were incapacitated, and Sei's group hadn't been reduced to half their number, they would surrender.

That was the proposal from the non-war faction, and the war faction heroes had agreed to it.

Magic Destruction, Absolute Detection, Ability Manipulation.

Of these three, all but the Hero of Absolute Detection had apparently been part of the war faction, yet they still honored what had been agreed upon.

The severely injured were the Hero of Wrath and Bungol, but there were no fatalities.

The insurance he'd asked Irina for wouldn't be needed this time.

They revived the Hero of Complete Restoration's consciousness and had her heal everyone in turn.

Watching the Hero of Wrath's limbs grow back instantly was rather unsettling.

"So we lost, huh…"

The Hero of Wrath muttered, and the unconscious heroes regained consciousness.

The heroes sat on the ground, all hanging their heads.

"The cause of our defeat… I guess it's that the dragon sided with them."

The Hero of Formula Bypass looked at the dragon still lounging on the ground.

"No, I think the mistake was allowin' the General to participate in the first place."

Chi-chan's opinion wasn't wrong either. If Rei hadn't taken down the Hero of Complete Restoration in close combat, the Hero of Wrath might have recovered and overwhelmed Sei with her boosted abilities.

In the end, it came down to lacking numbers and underestimating Sei's group's strength.

Know your enemy and know yourself, and you need not fear a hundred battles. The unexpected factor of the dragon, plus Sei and Mako's disguised statuses—-those were undoubtedly the causes of defeat.

The heroes had accumulated battle experience and knew their own abilities well. That's precisely why they should have at least matched their opponents in numbers.

Thinking it through, there were various causes for their defeat. Summing them all up, it could be expressed in a single phrase: lack of information.

Sei's group had gone around asking the heroes' entourage about their achievements and fighting styles. Meanwhile, the heroes had believed the modestly described adventures of Kukuri and Mako.

They had prepared the stage for victory and won as expected. That was all.

"Well then. Shall we head back?"

Since the two heroes who had been leading everyone were dejected, Chi-chan reluctantly spoke up.

"Mako-cchi, you're stayin' here, right?"

"Yeah. Someone needs to stay on this side or we can't use the map."

"Shouldn't some of us stay to help out?"

Unlike the heroes they'd faced before, these seven had abundant combat experience and high levels. Gifts suited for rear support like Complete Restoration, Universal Barrier, and Formula Bypass would certainly add to Sei's group's fighting strength.

Since Sei and Mako had high regeneration on top of Immortal, it hadn't been a problem until now, but it was true they lacked a dedicated healer.

"We'll be fine. After all, we're immortal."

When Mako made a firm fist to show her confidence, Chi-chan still looked worried but let out a sigh.

"Promise me, okay? Make sure you come back safe."

Leaving those words behind, Chi-chan returned to Earth.

The remaining heroes also wore complicated expressions as they obediently returned to Earth.

The last one remaining, the Hero of Wrath, directed a dangerous look at Sei before returning to Earth as well.

"Well, our job here is done, but…"

Sei looked at the mercenaries who had scattered and regrouped, and the Demon King's army facing them.

Rei stood at the head of the Demon King's army, with more than ten Level 100-plus demons flanking her on both wings.

"Ah, you did well. Leave the cleanup of the rest to me."

"You're not going to slaughter them all, right?"

If the Demon King's army were the regular military, the mercenaries were closer to bandits. He wasn't without concerns about how Rei would handle them.

"Don't worry. Heroes aside, many of the mercenaries have distinguished themselves, and there are leaders among them. This land has been devastated, but rebuilding it is my next role."

Rei's words were probably not lies. This continent, ravaged by the war against the evil gods, would now enter a phase of reconstruction.

"Well, if there are still some hot-blooded ones, there are ways to deal with them—-like throwing them into labyrinths."

Patting Sei on the head, Rei smiled.

"Now then, you still have a role to fulfill, don't you? Leave the rest to me and focus on that."

Sei bowed his head and headed toward his companions.

"She says she'll handle the rest. So we'll head back to Master's place for now, but…"

This was where they'd part ways with Rui. It had been a short time, but she had been extremely reliable in terms of fighting strength, and he'd heard many useful things from her.

Receiving his gaze, Rui bowed her head gracefully. Sei bowed in return.

"Thank you for everything."

When Sei used the transfer stone, the group vanished from the spot.

"Finally, it's over…"

The war had ended. But now reconstruction would begin.

Before that, there was the difficult problem of how to handle the mercenaries. And also… Rei's lifespan was running out.

Even for a long-lived dark elf, 3,400 years was more than triple the average. Lately, she had been feeling death coming for her little by little.

(I can't leave everything to Asuka alone. I need to at least get the foundation in place.)

With renewed determination, Rei turned to face the mercenaries before her.

The Dwarven Village.

The seven of them had returned in front of Ria's shop.

"I can say this now, but it really helped that all seven of them were gathered together."

"Yeah. If we'd had to search all over the African continent, who knows how long it would have taken…"

Mako agreed, but Kukuri seemed a bit unsatisfied.

"If we'd gone to more places, it would have been material for poems."

He said that, but he surely understood the priorities.

Opening the shop door, they found Carla at the counter looking over a ledger.

She turned to face them with a gentle smile.

"Good work out there."

"We're back."

This wasn't Sei's house.

But the words came out naturally.

Night fell, and Ria returned from the forge.

Glancing at Sei and the others, she smiled.

"Looks like you had quite an experience."

The meal preparations were complete, and everyone took their seats. Bungol's massive frame was getting in the way.

"The heroes were tough, but the orichalcum golem was really formidable."

"The one from the Golden Corridor? I helped make that, you know. How did you beat it?"

"I poured an absurd amount of magical power into Kotetsu and cut through it. I watched you cut through orichalcum, Master."

"Oh…?"

Hearing that, Ria smiled with a somewhat intense expression.

"Now, about the journey ahead."

Spreading a world map on the tatami, she compared it to the Labyrinth's map.

"There's a train station in a town a bit southwest of this village. From there, you'll head to Ogress's capital, Manesh."

There was likely a hero in that capital.

But strangely, that hero's dot on the Labyrinth's map gave off an extremely faint light. Clearly different from the other heroes.

"Actually, I've been exploring Manesh whenever I find time, and I've put out requests to the king and the guild, but there's been no word of them being found. In other words, this hero's Gift is…"

"Absolute Stealth…"

Mako said it as if groaning.

Absolute Stealth. The polar opposite of Absolute Detection.

It prevented others from recognizing one's existence. At low levels, it merely erased one's presence, but once the level increased to a certain point, even if the person stood right in front of you, you couldn't recognize their existence.

The Labyrinth's map, which could at least indicate that much, was truly a blessing.

"If they don't show up on your Map… this will be quite difficult."

Sei's Map had been tremendously useful until now. Without it, searching for heroes might have taken more than twice as long.

"You may need completely different abilities than before. It'll be tough, but I'm counting on you."

Ria crossed her arms and furrowed her brow, but Sei nodded firmly nonetheless.

 

*

 

Dragon Fang Continent Arc - End