The Limits of Concept

There was definitely one advantage for Sei and the others on this battlefield, especially in their confrontation with the hero.

That was the fact that Ryou probably wouldn't use instant-death type concepts.

Though they hadn't made any promises, this was just a mock battle after all. It was a confirmation of combat strength. Causing deaths would defeat the whole purpose.

Conversely, even if Sei's group killed their opponents, they could use resurrection once. That was their promise with Irina.

Of course, they had no intention of using that trump card here, and with opponents other than Ryou, they could probably hold back and neutralize them.

(Even so, he's strong!)

Sei had been put completely on the defensive against Ryou, who had suddenly changed his movements.

Simply put, had he upgraded his stats, or was it some other concept? The fact that he couldn't tell his opponent's exact remaining magic power or stamina due to the disguise was truly troublesome.

In any case, Ryou's movements were becoming more agile and powerful, as if trying to overwhelm skill with sheer force.

Above all, Sei didn't feel like he could win.

This was abnormal. Judging from the opponent's fighting style, regardless of how he might move, he simply felt that his opponent was stronger than himself.

(Conceptual Armament… what kind of Gift is that…)

He could understand concepts like cutting and piercing at face value. But what effects did they actually represent?

Sei kept evading his opponent's attacks. However, Ryou's spear attacked Sei with an impossible trajectory.

Sei, who hadn't taken a single hit until now, had the armor on his upper arm sliced through and suffered a slight wound.

He leaped backward to put distance between himself and Ryou. But what Sei saw was Ryou's astonished expression.

"The concept of certain hit aside… how did you defend against the concept of fainting?"

Ah, I see.

Sei understood. Most likely, Ryou's spear just now had been imbued with the concepts of certain hit and making the opponent faint.

But it hadn't worked on Sei. Sei didn't clearly understand why. Was it simply because his stats were high, or had his resistance kicked in?

(Must be the fainting resistance. Divine dragons really are lifesavers.)

In Ryou's moment of bewilderment, Sei tried to attack. But he reconsidered.

Sei's katana had broken through Ryou's iron wall. In other words, his attacks would work.

And if Ryou's attacks didn't work on Sei here and now…

Ryou's spirit would break. He'd give up and the match would end.

It was abnormal.

Through Conceptual Armament, Ryou's spear had raised its sharpness to the level of a legendary weapon.

That spear's attack had torn through Sei's armor and, albeit slightly, wounded his skin.

A minor wound. But that should have been enough.

Not just fainting, but also paralysis, intense pain, illusion, and sleep—despite adding those concepts, they had no effect on Sei whatsoever.

Though Sei was on the defensive against Ryou's amplified attacks, he wasn't being robbed of his combat ability.

And the reason for Ryou's anxiety also lay in his surroundings.

First, his army's rear guard had been almost completely destroyed.

Mako had held back by using the butt of her spear, so there were no deaths. But the mages who had taken enough damage to writhe in agony would be unable to return to the battle line.

And the vanguard also hadn't been able to fulfill its role.

The clash of vanguards. It wasn't that he had underestimated the orc and dwarf, but that white-haired girl had been unexpected.

Unable to appraise. Even Ryou's concept of 'Grasp' couldn't see through her.

Despite wearing heavy armor that muscular warriors should equip, she easily blocked the attacks of his warriors and counterattacked, whittling them down.

Above all, the ancient dragon was the problem.

After its initial roar and breath attack, the ancient dragon that had been restless followed the halfling's instructions and casually swatted the vanguard warriors with its arms.

The ancient dragon's arms were larger than your average house.

Without even using its sharp claws, most races couldn't endure that impact. Only after receiving the benefit of Ryou's concept could a few stand up without losing their combat ability.

"Sei!"

Mako, having fulfilled her role, came running to reinforce Sei.

"Don't come!"

But Sei stopped her. While Mako also had resistance to status ailments, it wasn't at maximum level. Whether she could defend against Ryou's concepts wouldn't be known without trying.

"I'm the right match for this guy. Go reinforce Gantz and the others."

Mako followed that instruction without hesitation.

Ryou didn't think he was being underestimated even seeing that exchange.

In fact, despite enhancing himself with concepts, he couldn't finish off the girl. And the concepts he had planned weren't working on the opponent.

Above all, this layering of concepts was steadily draining Ryou's stamina and magic power.

At this rate, he would probably be defeated by exhaustion. Not knowing the opponent's condition was this unpleasant, was it?

(I see, it's because I didn't grasp the enemy's combat strength.)

With the concept of grasp, he could understand combat strength to some degree. But the combat ability of the girl he thought he had grasped was clearly different when actually fighting her.

(Penetrating Sight.)

See through the disguised status. Ryou reached that conclusion, executed it, and despaired.

Her real level was higher than his. That was fine.

But the difference in magic power was leagues apart from his own. And every resistance had reached the limit of level 10.

Impossible, he thought. Some mistake, or perhaps she had a disguise Gift herself.

But the status reflected in his mind backed up the progression of the battle so far.

Ryou thought: This isn't an opponent he could beat while holding back.

That was perhaps an action driven by anxiety.

The concept of certain hit—what would be a concept even higher, one that would pierce the enemy's core?

Bull's-eye.

Hitting the target. Certain hit just meant hitting, but bull's-eye was a concept of hitting what you aimed at.

And piercing. He strongly imagined piercing through the opponent's body.

In that moment, Ryou forgot about things like holding back or mock battles, and purely wished to defeat the opponent before him.

Unavoidable.

Ryou's spear seemed godlike in speed. Sei's death sense was screaming the danger with all its might.

An attack different from before. A serious thrust meant to take his life.

If he couldn't avoid it, then he wouldn't avoid it. Sei steeled himself.

Ryou's short spear pierced through Sei's chest.

(Oh no!)

Ryou had been thinking he had to win. From all possible means, he'd thought up and executed the attack that would most rob his opponent of combat ability.

And the spear had pierced through his opponent's chest. A fatal wound. It had probably pierced the heart. And yet this was supposed to be a mock battle.

In that instant, Ryou's mind went blank.

And Sei laughed.

Sei's katana sliced away the spear piercing his chest.

Sei grinned at the stunned Ryou.

"Sorry, but I'm immortal."

Immortal.

Distracted by the many Gifts and skills Sei possessed, he hadn't seen those three characters.

"Immortal…"

There had been classmates with that Gift too. So he could understand the Gift itself.

But just because you don't die, could you swing a katana while in a state that should normally be fatal?

In that moment, Ryou's spirit broke.

The battle continued for a while longer.

Sei pulled out the spear piercing his chest and carelessly tossed it aside.

Both the damage to his body and his armor repaired at visible speed. Still, he felt somewhat unwell, and Sei spat out the blood that welled up.

"Geez, got my heart, lungs, and esophagus, I think? Normally this would be a nearly invincible Gift."

But for Sei, who was immortal and possessed the ultra-high-speed regeneration Gift, the simple means of aiming for vital points to kill didn't work.

Even if attacked with the concept of death, he could probably nullify it with instant-death resistance. In the first place, he didn't think Ryou could go that far in a mock battle setting.

Any deaths in this battle would be meaningless. That's why even Ryou, after inadvertently using an instant-death level concept, realized the meaning of his actions and his body froze up.

"So, still want to keep going?"

Ryou drew his backup weapon, a sword. Though his spirit was broken, his body moved from experience in this world.

Waiting passively for death against the threat before him was impossible. Words like mock battle had vanished from his mind.

He would simply fight to his limit. That was something like the pride of a hero who had come to this world, or perhaps a biological instinct.

Sei's katana clashed with Ryou's sword.

Ryou defended against Sei's attacks, and Sei avoided Ryou's attacks.

Missing attacks consumed stamina. Moreover, Ryou, moving his body almost purely on reflex, was mentally exhausted while his consciousness remained blank.

His stance had collapsed, and there were no more attacks that triggered Sei's death sense.

A hand was placed gently on Sei's shoulder.

"It's over."

As Lavi's words indicated, all the vanguard warriors had been neutralized.

Ryou, breathing with his whole body, sat down on the spot.

Sei's companions were unharmed. Gantz and Bungol had suffered minor injuries, but nothing that couldn't be healed immediately.

Looking back, it had been a complete victory for Sei's group.

"How could I have won…"

Before returning, Ryou muttered that with an unconvinced expression.

"Well, with the ancient dragon on our side, there probably wasn't any possibility of winning to begin with. Still…"

Sei thought. What would they have done?

The group of soldiers might not have been useful after all. The priority of attacks after being reduced to a small number was probably also wrong. The complete shutdown of their maximum combat strength, Ryou, was also significant.

But as a prerequisite before all that:

"Wasn't your intelligence gathering incomplete?"

"That is… certainly, it might be…"

Not just Sei, but Mako also possessed the immortal Gift. If he had seen through that, he wouldn't have thought he could simply fight and neutralize them.

"Insufficient data, huh…"

"You should have used Penetrating Sight first when we met. Then you could have prepared much better countermeasures against me."

Even if immortal, there were plenty of means to rob combat ability. Rather, precisely because of being immortal, he could have stopped their movements with instant-death level attacks.

Still, the moment he had underestimated the ancient dragon's combat ability, defeat had been determined.

"Your resistance skills are too high… Omnipotent Resistance. Is that a Gift you have? No, there's also Immortal…"

"And Omni-Identify too. Though I couldn't completely see through your disguise, we had Mako on our side, so we could make some predictions."

They had gathered information, analyzed it, and won as they were meant to win.

And so the hero returned.

As promised, the ancient dragon would protect this city. Though simply lying around would be boring, so it apparently decided to create its own personal dungeon.

Dragons were beings who quite liked lairs. Besides, if the dungeon was used well, it could provide a stable supply of magic stones and be used for training warriors.

After a hundred years or so passed, it might become this city's new selling point.

Though that presupposed events after the gods had been defeated.

After taking a few days' rest, Sei's group was scheduled to leave Marana.

But that changed. The cause was Lavi.

When they woke up in the morning, Lavi's form was covered in something white.

Something hard, like an egg.

When they hastily contacted Ria, she responded with a reassured-sounding voice.

"That's evolution."

Dragons grew from young dragon to adult dragon, adult dragon to ancient dragon.

But that process wasn't just slow growth. They grew in leaps and bounds.

So much so that it could even be called evolution, as Ria said.

"Given Laverna's age, I thought it would be a bit later, but the journey's experiences must have prompted the evolution. Right before the final hero—isn't it good that our combat strength is increasing?"

Hearing that, it might be so, but if it had been a bit earlier, the journey would have been even easier.

It was like getting the strongest weapon from a treasure chest right before the last boss.

But if this had happened right before confronting the hero, their combat strength would have decreased instead, causing serious problems. So timing-wise, it was actually good.

And then, one week later.

The egg cracked and Lavi emerged.

Her white hair was unchanged, but its length now reached her waist.

Her appearance had matured somewhat, perhaps? Still, she remained within the category of a young girl.

"Good morning."

While emanating a quiet fighting spirit from her entire body, Lavi gave a carefree greeting.