Suspicious Blessing

The moment Akira lost consciousness, Lavi's barrier disappeared.

And Sei also released the barrier that had covered him.

"Ahh, the air tastes good."

Sei savored the oxygen-rich air to his heart's content.

That's right—the dust explosion and repeated fire magic attacks weren't meant to damage Akira.

The goal was to lower the oxygen concentration inside the barrier.

Sei had secured a certain amount of space within his own barrier, so he didn't suffer from oxygen deprivation.

To begin with, Sei had resistance to oxygen deprivation, but that didn't mean it wasn't uncomfortable.

After taking a deep breath, Sei surveyed the surrounding spectators.

Akira, who had reigned as an overwhelming powerhouse, had clearly been defeated. Moreover, they didn't quite understand the cause.

Toward the confused onlookers, Sei shouted loudly.

"Are there any others who wish to face me!?"

Of course, no one responded.

Akira, wrapped up in chains, sat on the ground with a dissatisfied expression.

"Oxygen deprivation, huh…"

"That's right. No matter how absolute your reflection is, if there's simply no oxygen, there's nothing you can do, right?"

There were other more brutal methods, but since the battlefield was a plaza, he had chosen a relatively gentle approach.

And after restraining the unconscious Akira with chains, he finally used awakening magic to restore his consciousness.

"Damn it, if I could try one more time…"

"I had several other methods too. Or do you really want to go another round?"

At Sei's words, Akira wavered.

In the end, Akira had been completely defeated without even seeing the bottom of his opponent's abilities.

"I'll keep my promise."

That was the choice to preserve Akira's pride at a minimum.

The Absolute Reflection hero returned.

The warrior and mage who were like Akira's confidants would likely protect this Mephilna from now on.

"Lavi, do you want to stay here?"

Before the half-collapsed Heavenly Corridor, Sei was alone with Lavi.

Mephilna was Lavi's homeland too. She had spent hundreds of years in this city, in the Heavenly Corridor.

"Even if I stay now, I wouldn't be very useful."

"I don't think that's true…"

As Sei said, Lavi was on a different level from before.

Let alone demons, she could probably even defeat mid-ranked gods now.

But what Lavi chose was to accompany Sei and the others.

"Or would I be in the way?"

Sei naturally denied that.

The group spent several days in Mephilna.

One reason was to see what would happen to the city that had lost Akira as a military asset.

And the other reason was to give Lavi time to spend in her homeland.

But that didn't heal Lavi's heart.

The collapsed giant tower where she didn't know a single familiar face.

There were original residents of the city, but there was no way Lavi, who had reigned as a symbol, would know their faces.

The nobles who managed the city had all perished in the gods' attacks.

Akira's trusted warrior and mage were not residents of Mephilna.

Nevertheless, they were now the core of this city's defensive power.

Sei talked with the two of them, repaired and rebuilt the walls, and trained the soldiers.

"Let's go soon."

Surprisingly, it was Lavi who said that.

Seeing her former dwelling destroyed and stripped of familiarity, she apparently learned the emotion of hatred for the first time.

After setting up a magical barrier and confirming its monster-repelling effect, the group left Mephilna behind.

The next time this city would be visited would likely be by Lavi alone.

Lavi kept gazing at the city of Mephilna visible in the distance.

The journey proceeded as planned.

In other words, it was a difficult one.

Monsters and servants of the gods attacked incessantly, and the roads that served as transportation arteries were destroyed in various places.

Sometimes there were no roads at all, and they traveled through wilderness.

"In an RPG, we'd have gotten an airship by now."

"In this world, trains are the fastest, right?"

Sei and Mako were talking with the sensibilities of Earth RPGs.

The airship they had used on the Dragon Bone Continent was stored in the folder.

However, on this Dragon Claw Continent there were many flying monsters, and if they moved carelessly by airship, they might be attacked.

They would use it when there were absolutely no roads, but otherwise it was safer to use a carriage.

Such a journey continued for about a month.

Along the way, they visited hidden villages of the races and completed the classic event of helping merchants attacked by monsters.

But in that process, Sei and the others obtained unexpected information.

The remaining heroes, excluding Mako, numbered two: Conceptual Armament and Magic Creation.

The hero who had defeated the Wicked God was in the south. And Sei thought that hero's Gift was probably Conceptual Armament.

He could use the concept of destruction, albeit in a somewhat degraded form. He had thought that the hero with that Gift was the one who defeated the Wicked God.

Magic Creation was certainly a Gift that seemed capable of various things, but Ria had said that even Meteor Shower, a forbidden spell, wouldn't be enough to defeat a supreme god like the Wicked God. In fact, the god they fought in the Great Forest, despite not having that much combat power, couldn't be completely defeated by Meteor Shower.

However, when they listened to the stories, it seemed the hero in the city they were heading toward was the Conceptual Armament hero.

He could sever, destroy, and penetrate any enemy.

And enemies who received wounds would die. He was probably granting the concept of death to weapons.

Conversely, there were strange stories of him healing people he cut. Perhaps he could do such things by granting the concept of healing to weapons.

"Maybe it's enchantment magic?…"

Even so, Sei still thought the one who defeated the Wicked God was the Conceptual Armament hero.

Magic Creation might be able to do similar things, but somehow Conceptual Armament seemed stronger.

In a sense, it could be called a hero-like Gift.

"Hmm～ I still think the one who defeated the Wicked God was definitely Magic Creation."

Mako's judgment came from her impression of her classmates from when they were on Earth.

When comparing the Conceptual Armament hero and the Magic Creation hero, the latter had more of an eerie, unfathomable quality that would defeat the Wicked God, she said.

"Well, either way, they've defeated gods and leveled up, so they might be a formidable opponent."

Sei was already considering countermeasures, assuming it would come to battle.

A hero's reaction appeared at the edge of the map.

"… Conceptual Armament, huh…"

It wasn't the Magic Creation hero, just as Mako had predicted.

The massive city visible even from afar had an even larger population than Mephilna with the Heavenly Corridor.

Whereas Mephilna was half a religious city worshipping the divine dragon, this city had been the base of the Demon King who commanded the politics and military of this continent.

That Demon King had also died in battle against the gods, but the city itself had never fallen even once.

It was the only city on the Dragon Claw Continent where the races completely held the advantage.

The evil gods had probably deliberately overlooked it.

Imagining the faces of despair when the races' last refuge was lost.

That's how tasteless the evil gods were.

The city called Marana was overflowing with races who had fled from surrounding towns and villages. The population exceeded 100,000.

Of course, there wasn't enough food to feed that many people, and the men went to the surrounding forests and plains seeking prey.

Tilling the meager farmland was left to women and children.

But even so, food was insufficient, and the powerless could only starve to death.

That had been Marana's situation until several months ago.

However, lately Marana's food situation had improved.

Not only had the harvest yield per land area increased, but gathering and hunting had also become more efficient.

When Sei searched the map after hearing such stories, he understood the reason.

The warriors and mages around the hero mostly exceeded level 100.

Considering that even the knight commander of Ogress, the superpower of the Dragon Bone Continent, hadn't reached 100, this was an astonishing strength.

Though it also meant they couldn't have survived otherwise.

If levels rose this high, the dangers of hunting would decrease, and they could spare hands to guard those engaged in gathering.

"Did the Conceptual Armament hero take the lead and raise the levels of the other warriors and mages?"

"No way, Ryou-kun wasn't the kind of boy who'd do something so reckless, you know?"

Mako reacted to Sei's murmur, but boys do change.

Hero Ryou's level naturally exceeded 200.

Now then, what to do?

Sei thought. First, they wouldn't know without meeting and talking, but he didn't know if they could meet, and even if they met, he didn't feel like he could persuade them.

There had been four heroes on this continent, but both of the two they'd met refused to return to Earth, for different reasons.

Marana would greatly lose military strength if the hero were to leave.

(That said, if the Demon God and Evil God got serious, they could probably easily take down even this large city.)

He was grateful to the moderate Demon God and Evil God with good taste.

Now then, information about the Conceptual Armament hero, Sugawara Ryota.

As Mako had mentioned before, he was a cheerful otaku.

Knowledgeable about various subcultures like manga, anime, games, and light novels, he was apparently a person with high communication skills who could even converse with so-called gal-type students.

Or you could say overly familiar. Apparently he could even hold conversations with delinquent-type students through yankee manga.

He had apparently been with Mako since elementary school, so she had a fair amount of information.

It was memorable that in elementary school he had written a book report on Dazai Osamu's "No Longer Human" and received some kind of award.

"No Longer Human… is that something an elementary schooler reads?"

Sei had watched the drama with his parents, and thought the protagonist was somehow a gloomy, self-absorbed person.

"He said he read it because it was a favorite book of an anime character."

"What kind of reason is that… What kind of anime was that…"

He understood the personality traits. It probably wouldn't turn into a one-on-one duel.

If it became a group battle, they had more numbers. But on this side, the levels of the three—Sei, Mako, and Lavi—were outstanding.

In terms of military strength, it could be considered equal. Excluding the hero, that is.

"They're high…"

When Sei once again examined Ryou's status from the map, he was honestly surprised by the high level of his Gifts and skills.

Ability values higher than average even when calculated from his level. And he had acquired combat skills, resistance skills, magic skills, and even incomprehensible skills at high levels.

In close combat, forget Sei—he was probably stronger than Mako.

Surely Sei would win if they exchanged magic from long range, but his healing magic, Principle magic, and physical magic skills were also high. He even had space-time magic.

Above all, the uncertain factor was the Conceptual Armament Gift.

He had probably used this to raise his companions' levels, but it was unclear exactly what he could do with it.

The heroes of the Dragon Claw Continent with its many battle opportunities were all strong, but compared to the previous two, his fundamental strength was different.

"Honestly, I don't want to fight…"

Sei made an uncharacteristically weak statement.

The city of Marana was a town overflowing with violent vitality.

The battle with the gods had made people short-sighted, and they worshipped strength.

Of course, since it was governed, laws were maintained, and soldiers like police were stationed here and there.

Their levels were also high, and this city's military strength alone probably had enough power to fight more than one division of Ogress.

Before contacting the hero, Sei and the others decided to formulate a strategy.

Without even settling into the inn prepared for traveling merchants, they split up into several groups to gather information.

Sei paired up with Laila and headed to the adventurer's guild.

Yes, Marana had an adventurer's guild.

Basically, Marana's military strength was operated collectively. Therefore, there were many warriors like knights and soldiers. Like civil servants.

However, to weaponize those who were valuable in terms of combat power but poor at group battles or had problematic personalities, the adventurer's guild existed.

Before that adventurer's guild, Sei and Laila stood.

"The classic scenario would be getting treated like a little girl and getting harassed, I think."

Sei muttered. On this continent pervaded by death, humans became ferocious. There would be far more roughnecks than adventurers on other continents. And his own appearance.

Laila the elf might still be seen as stronger. Thinking that, Sei entered the guild.

Gazes were directed.

Those gazes were directed not at Sei, but at Laila the elf, as expected.

Elves were fundamentally a race that lived in forests, and there probably weren't any elves visiting cities on this continent, even eccentric ones.

There had apparently once been forests where elves lived on this continent too, but since the races outside the Dragon Bone Continent had gone extinct once, the rarity of elves here was incomparable to other continents.

"An elf…" "First time I've seen one…" "Not a dark elf, right?"

Such mutterings could be heard, but no one approached them. It showed just how extraordinary the existence of an elf was on this continent.

Sei had planned in advance to investigate the hero through two methods.

At the guild reception were a serious-looking woman and a muscular old man. The latter was probably a retired adventurer.

Sei headed toward the old man.

"Haven't seen your face before?"

The old man muttered, but without responding to that, Sei made his request.

"I'd like to make a request. I'm looking for a person named Ryou, or possibly Ryota. Black hair, black eyes, terrifyingly skilled, fights in a strange way. I want you to search for him and investigate his fighting style."

At Sei's words, the old man narrowed his eyes sharply.

"There's no one in this city who doesn't know about Ryou. If you want to know more, try asking those men at that table over there."

At the end of the old man's gaze was a group of four men exuding a grim atmosphere.

Sei approached without hesitation. Feeling the old man's gaze on his back, and gathering the gazes of those inside the guild.

"I'd like to ask you something, is that okay?"

He addressed the giant clan man with a scar on his face, who must have been three meters tall. Level-wise, he was the highest among the four.

"… That depends on the compensation, little lady."

"You're not from this city. Your atmosphere is too upstanding."

The white-bearded dwarf glared, and the ogre man sized them up.

"Well, I can tell you're stronger than you look, though."

The fox beastkin with half a torn ear, slender compared to the other three, observed them.

Fox beastkin, along with tanuki beastkin, were exceptional among beastkin who tended to have little magical power, possessing aptitude suited for magic.

From the slight movement of his magical power, Sei realized he had been subjected to Identify-type magic.

"Hmph…"

The giant clan man exhaled, and then his fist was released toward Sei.

Behind him, Laila drew in a breath, but Sei didn't budge even slightly.

He just stared at the giant clan man. His gaze didn't waver either.

"Would buying you drinks be enough?"

At Sei's words, the man exhaled through his nose and nodded broadly.