Chapter I: The Maestro’s Miscalculation

“The large lake in the northern part of Isengard was made from the wicked god’s thorn when the worlds fused, but...look here,” Doc Babylon said as she magnified the monitor in the lab.

“Is that a fortress...?”

The image wasn’t clear, but it definitely looked like there was a stronghold to protect from outside attacks built in the middle of the red lake. The most surprising part was that the fortress was shaded by trees—or, no, it was made out of trees. Tree roots tangled together in the vibrant red water, turning the scenery into that of the insides of a living being.

The tree looked slightly red itself, perhaps because it was absorbing the water of the lake... Either way, it was one hell of a creepy construct. There was some pyramid-looking device in the center with a glowing halo above it.

“It almost looks like an altar. Don’t tell me they’re actually trying to revive the wicked god...”

“That fortress is an issue, but the thing over here looks pretty bad too.”

When the camera moved toward the shore of the lake, I saw a bunch of small sesame seed-looking objects lined up.

The hell is this?

What I saw on the blurry screen when the camera zoomed in was a whole army of machine soldiers with all kinds of different animal heads—dogs, birds, even crocodiles. In fact, maybe calling them mechimera soldiers would be more accurate, what with the way it looked like flesh and machine were fused together on them. They were akin to mechanized beastkin, or Egyptian deities mixed with heavy sci-fi elements. I watched a movie like that with my grandpa once ages ago.

Those mechimera soldiers were lined up, wielding spears and swords and staves. It wasn’t a small army either; there had to be at least several hundred thousand of them. They were all arranged into neat rows, not moving a metal muscle. Just looking at them made me feel uneasy. It looked like they were waiting for the order to sortie...

“Huh?”

A sudden light flashed from the fortress at the edge of the screen, then the monitor went black.

“Guess they shot down the drone,” Doc Babylon sighed. “I thought they wouldn’t notice us, but it seems they’re on high alert already.”

“The footage looked pretty staticky.”

“The mana seems to be fairly depleted over there, so it would’ve affected the camera. I imagine you’d struggle to use spirit magic in the area. I wonder if that ‘sinister vortex’ the spirits were talking about is located there?”

Not that I was an expert, but could there have been something like a black hole absorbing all the mana in the area? It was definitely the fallen god’s power that was leaving the spirits so frightened, but...

We just need to get this info out to our allies for now.

I immediately sent out a proposal for an emergency summit to the leaders of each country in the alliance.

◇◇◇

“That fortress might have been made using a crown skill. My crown, Grand Grun, has a similar function.”

The meeting commenced a few days later. The one to begin the discussion was King Ervin of the Kingdom of Rhea, an island nation of elves in the north of the western continent. The green crown that he was contracted with had an ability known as Vegetative Dominion. It was an insane skill that allowed it to control not just vegetation, but even processed wood. Unfortunately, it came with the price of its master entering an extreme state of starvation. If they weren’t careful, he could end up unable to eat and then die.

“Were I to attempt to make a fortress of such size, I would no doubt be unable to eat for at least half a year.”

“The gold crown that they have over there can act as a substitute. It does seem like they have their own limits, though.”

Their gold crown, Gould, was equipped with a frame made out of Gluttony and Orichalcum Slimes that took the price of the skill in its master’s place. The thousands of little Slimes used to construct him probably died in the process, but the most Gould himself would feel was some slight damage to his parts.

According to Doc Babylon, Orichalcum Slimes weren’t exactly easy to make, so it wouldn’t be feasible to keep swapping out the sacrificial parts in quick succession—that was our one consolation.

“Are you trying to say their gold crown can use other crown skills?” Her Majesty the Queen of Strain voiced what everyone else had been thinking.

It was only speculation, but the answer to her question was likely yes. We saw Gould use the black crown’s Reverse skill. Noir himself confirmed that it was his crown skill, so there was no mistake. It was a skill that allowed its user to turn back the time of a designated object. It couldn’t be used on living creatures, but that didn’t make it any weaker.

Apparently, if Noir were to use Reverse, Norn—his master—would regress about half a year in age. The price was such that using it too many times would de-age her all the way to a fetus...at which point she would die.

Gould had used several Orichalcum Slime feathers to pay the price. While he wouldn’t have an endless supply of them, it was undeniably a threat.

Hang on. If Gould can use other crown skills...

I turned to the king of Panaches, who was sitting diagonally to my right. He seemed to have come to the same conclusion I had, color draining from his face.

“You don’t mean...he can use Blau’s Spatial Distortion?!” he cried out.

“Shit!”

Thinking of Blau’s teleportation skill working alongside the army of mechimera soldiers that appeared to be waiting for orders made the puzzle pieces click into place. We’d been naive in thinking that the death of the teleporting wicked devout meant we didn’t have to fear any more sudden assaults.

Are you an absolute buffoon, Touya?! Gould literally used Spatial Distortion to escape right in front of us!

Blau’s master, Robert, could only teleport a handful of people due to the cost, but Gould wouldn’t have any restrictions like that!

“Run search! Location of mechimera soldiers across the world!”

“Searching... Search complete. Displaying results.”

Red pins dropped down all over the digital map I had displayed in the meeting room.

We’re too late!

They were currently in five countries: the Kingdom of Rephan, the Gardio Empire, Dauburn, the Regulus Empire, and the Demon Kingdom of Xenoahs. The leaders of each country confirmed that the areas under attack were far from their capitals, but they were still near major towns and cities. Did they target those areas because they wanted to slow down the spread of information...or was there some other special reason?

“Warning: New matches have appeared. Displaying.”

“What?!”

Further red pins were added to the map.

That’s...!

“Here too?! Damn it! [Prison]!”

The second I realized that the pins had dropped on Brunhild, I released a [Prison] with me at the center, covering the whole castle town. I made sure humans and demi-humans were able to pass through—animals too for any pets people had. The strength of a [Prison] barrier dropped the larger the range, but even one of this size still had the strength of [Iron Wall].

“I’ll open a [Gate] for each of you so you can all return home! Those of you in areas under attack need to put out the order to your armies immediately! I’ll head over once I’ve cleaned up here!”

I opened up a personal [Gate] for each visitor, all of them quickly but calmly stepping through it.

“[Teleport]!”

Once everyone had left the meeting room, I teleported straight to the highway leading into Brunhild, arriving just as the mechimera soldiers were swarming through a round distortion in space. There was already a massive army of tens of thousands of them gathered.

There was no mistaking it—Spatial Distortion was absolutely being used.

Talk about cutting it close! If I’d noticed even a few minutes later, the town would’ve been under attack already!

If they’d managed to make it that far, civilian injuries would’ve been unavoidable, not to mention casualties.

“Target lock: Cast [Shining Javelin] on the mechimera soldiers at the front.”

“Locking on. Activating [Shining Javelin].”

Several small magic circles materialized in the air before raining down lightning spears. And yet, even when pierced, the mechimera soldiers remained unaffected; they continued their march right toward Brunhild.

“Magic is ineffective? Then let’s try this: Come forth, Ice! Grand Frozen Mass: [Ice Rock]!”

After summoning a truck-sized block of ice above the fusion soldiers, I slammed it right down on top of them. Several of the soldiers were squashed. At least physical attacks seemed to work.

Should I take them all down at once with Meteor Rain? No, wait, then I risk completely altering the terrain. It’s a pain, but guess I’ll just have to take them down one by one!

“Knights of Brunhild, advance! Protect the citizens from these invaders!”

“YES, SIR! RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

I turned around upon hearing the sudden roars from behind me and was greeted by the sight of Lain—commander of the knights—and Nikola and Norue—the vice-commanders—arriving through a [Gate], followed by the rest of the knights.

“I’m glad we made it.”

Yakumo was the next to exit the [Gate], and from behind her came the other children and their mothers.

“You’ve got some guts trying to pick a fight with us! Let’s go, Linne!”

“Yeah! We’ll beat them all to a pulp!”

Elze and Linne rapped their gauntlet knuckles, then immediately charged toward the mechimera soldiers. Elna and Linze watched on in fond exasperation.

“It would be a disgrace for us to lose here, it would. Let us join them, Yakumo.”

“Yes, mother.”

“We should go too, Frei.”

“Of course!”

The mother-daughter pairs of Yae and Yakumo and Hilde and Frei were the next to run in.

“They’re the most reliable reinforcements I could hope for, that’s for sure.”

Even though the opposing army had more than ten times the soldiers as us, I didn’t feel like we could possibly ever lose.

“Let’s get this party started!”

The moment Yoshino began strumming her guitar, Sousuke appeared out of nowhere in that mysterious way he always did to join in on the drums.

This song is...

With the power of [Speaker], Sakura’s voice joined the instruments as it projected throughout the battlefield.

This song was used in a motorbike scene that came at the very start of a certain movie, and even now, it was popularly used as a song to accompany motorbike scenes. While it would be impossible for them to run as wild as the music, the support magic applied through Sakura’s singing enveloped the knights, building morale and giving them the push they needed to fight even more fiercely.

“Come forth, Iron! Barrier of the Dark Metal: [Iron Wall]!”

Leen and Quun called forth two thick iron walls that were about fifteen meters wide and thirty meters tall in the direction of the enemies that the knights weren’t engaging.

C’mon, I know we need defenses, but that’s just a bit much...

“Don’t miss, Quun.”

“Not to worry, mother!”

Quun whipped out her spellcaster and fired two shots at the iron walls. The magic bullets struck the top of each wall with two shrill clinks.

I stood there, wondering what in the world they were playing at, until the iron walls began falling over toward the enemies from the impact.

Huh?! Did they not fix the bottoms to the ground?!

The domino-like descent of the iron walls continued, crushing every single mechimera soldier in their path. The massive boom as they thudded heavily into the ground was accompanied by a whole bunch of really disturbing cracks and crunches...

Even I feel a bit freaked out by this... I wasn’t expecting them to go for such a cruel method...

While I was left there speechless, a mechimera soldier with a Horus head suddenly appeared in front of me with a spear at the ready.

“Whoops!”

Dodging the thrusts from the spear, I used Brunhild to slash its left arm off at the elbow. What came from the dismembered limb wasn’t blood, though, but some black oil. The feeling when the sword ran through its arm felt just like a real arm...but it was clear that the soldier wasn’t reacting like a living creature. Despite having its arm cut off, it kept fighting unperturbed, swapping the spear into its right hand and continuing its thrusts.

The thing acted like a robot that existed only to follow orders. It looked alive, yet it somehow felt less alive than a Gollem.

“Hmph!”

I deflected the spear and countered with a beheading. When the falcon head rolled to the ground, its body also stopped functioning, joining its head as it toppled over.

So they can’t fight if they don’t have their heads.

“Father, look.”

“Hmm?”

Kuon was pointing at the distortion of space that the mechimera soldiers had stepped through—it was growing bigger. What stepped through next was a wave of Kyklops and some other mech that I’d never seen before. Those new units were made with the same dull gold plating that the Kyklops used, but their frames were slimmer. The shape was odd, looking humanoid yet also distinctly beast-like. They had horns like a goat’s and their hands and feet were equipped with sharp claws. It felt like I was looking at a beastkin turned into a Gollem.

“A new unit? It looks weaker than the Kyklops, though.”

The moment I said that, though, it was like the large goat-head Gollem took offense and suddenly started charging toward the battlefield.

It’s so fast! Maybe not as fast as Ende’s Dragoon, but still clearly much faster than the Kyklops! So they made a lightweight unit too? This isn’t good... It’s heading right to where the knights are fighting!

I moved to put up an [Iron Wall] in order to block its path, but before I could activate the spell, a black lion suddenly—no, a black lion robot suddenly dove into the goat-head’s side and dug its fangs into its stomach.

“It’s rude to make such a commotion in someone else’s garden.”

“Most certainly.”

A girl’s disgruntled voice and a flat mechanical one echoed out from the black lion. It was Chronos Noir, the black crown, and his master, Norn Patolakshe, the younger sister of Doctor Elluka. The two of them drove their Over Gear, Leo Noir, and dug its saber fangs right into the goat-head Gollem until they chomped out a whole piece of its side.

“Sis told me what was going on. I wasn’t expecting to see so many of these weird things all about the place, though... So annoying!”

“Warning: Reinforcements incoming.”

Abandoning their chewed-out ally, the other goat-heads advanced toward Leo Noir. As one of them dashed forward, a large red tiger leaped in and slashed it across the chest.

“Looks like you’re havin’ a blast over here. Let me join in!”

“Stop getting overexcited, Master.”

This time, a carefree voice and a calm voice rang out from a red tiger. It was Nia, the leader of the Red Cats, a group of noble thieves, and Rouge, the red crown. Tiger Rouge, their Over Gear, swung its claws at one of the remaining goat-head Gollems, but it managed to swiftly dodge the strike, swinging its own claws at the Tiger Rouge in retaliation.

Tiger Rouge’s shoulder plating got slashed right open, even though its armor was made of phrasium...

Better watch out for those claws.

Seemingly getting cocky now that it had managed to damage its enemy, the goat-head Gollem lunged at Tiger Rouge again...before a blade suddenly stabbed through its back and into its chest, stopping its movement.

“I was gonna go out shopping with Allis today, you know? You’re all gonna pay for daring to interrupt us...”

It was Ende’s Dragoon that pierced the back of the goat-head Gollem with its shortsword, the man grumbling with resentment all the while. When I looked around, I noticed that Allis had joined the fight too at some point. If I were to make a guess, they’d probably made plans to go shopping, but Allis had been much more interested in what was going on over here.

“Ende! Don’t steal my prey like that!” Nia snapped.

“Oh, who cares? I just want to clean up these assholes and go shopping with Allis.”

Ende made a face as if he weren’t listening (I couldn’t see him, but he most likely wasn’t) and swung his sword at the next goat-head Gollem.

“You guys can have your little competition if you want, but don’t get in the way, ’kay?” Norn said as she wiped her hands of the whole affair and went after the Kyklops instead.

All three of them were famous at the adventurer’s guild, so they probably had a reassuring familiarity with one another.

“We’ll go as well.”

“Yes. We shall protect this area.”

Lu called out Waltraute from her phone’s [Storage] and boarded it with Arcia.

Does she really need to join you...?

Sue also called out her Ortlinde Overlord and stood with its hands on its hips on the road leading to the castle.

I looked back at the warped space as it grew smaller and eventually disappeared entirely. It seemed the wicked devout themselves weren’t going to attack. Were they buying time?

Dammit, I have to hurry and get to the other countries!

“Entwine thus, Ice! Frozen Curse: [Icebind]!”

Linze’s ice magic froze the mechimera soldiers’ feet, restraining their movements. We might not be able to attack them directly with magic, but that didn’t mean using it to hold them down was out of the question.

The knights cut down as many of the immobilized soldiers as they could, but some managed to break free of the ice and make their escape.

Guess we can’t totally trap them...but at least it’s an option.

“Entwine thus, Earth! Cursed Soil: [Earthbind]!”

I chose to try binding them with rocks instead. Bound for a second time, the runaway mechimera soldiers seemed to have no energy left to fight back.

The knights piled on top of the remaining soldiers and took them down. The Kyklops and goat-head Gollems were also thinned down thanks to the adventurer trio. It took a few minutes after that for the rest to be cleaned up. Any further cleanup could come later; for now, we needed to go support the other countries under siege.

I opened up the map and confirmed which locations were being attacked.

They’re all places I’ve never visited...

I could easily use a [Gate] to travel near the areas being attacked in Regulus and Xenoahs. If I then teleported from there... No, it would be easier to use [Recall] on the rulers and see their memories of the areas.

In that case, let’s go directly to the countries that are in danger. I’ll split our forces into five and send them in to support the battles.

I was getting a bad feeling, though. Was this tied to the sinister vortex the spirits had mentioned?

Pushing down the fear bubbling up inside, I opened a [Gate].

◇◇◇

I split Brunhild’s forces up to send them out to the five countries being attacked by the wicked devout. In order, the ones most in danger went from Gardio to Regulus, then Rephan, Xenoahs, and finally Dauburn.

Elze, Linze, and Leen would head to Gardio, Lu and Yae to Regulus, Sue and Yumina to Rephan, Sakura and Hilde to Xenoahs, and then I would go to Dauburn. The kids would go with their mothers, with the exception of Elna and Linne, who were always with their aunts.

I had Norn, Nia, and half the knights remain at Brunhild just in case. Since Allis was complaining, I sent Ende with Yumina—well, Kuon, really—to Rephan.

Babylon would focus on communications. They could use drone transmissions to call in reinforcements if the situation anywhere grew too dire.

Now that I’d gotten a rough idea of the situation, I had some tough decisions to make.

First, I needed to visit each of the countries and receive memories of the locations being attacked from the rulers. Then, I’d need to open a [Gate] to each of the locations and send their domestic knights, the Frame Gears we’d loaned them, and my wives and kids to combat the enemies.

If Yakumo had been able to use [Recall], she would’ve been a huge help... Regardless, I had her travel with me to the five battlefields so she’d be able to use [Gate] herself, just in case the situation called for it. There was no way to predict what would happen, after all.

I ended my rounds by teleporting to the top of a hill in the deserts of Dauburn that overlooked the oasis town of Ishgir. What would have been a bustling town now looked like a scene from hell. Smoke and fire were billowing all around and the townspeople were running aimlessly in a panic. It was mainly mechimera soldiers that were attacking the people. I could see several Kyklops, but no goat-head Gollems.

Did they not have enough of them? Oh well, makes it easier for us.

“Warriors of Dauburn! We must protect Ishgir from these invaders! Charge!”

The young king of Dauburn roared commands to his men through the [Speaker] installed in our mass-produced smartphones. Riding ostrich-like magic beasts, the Dauburn soldiers unsheathed their curved blades and charged across the desert toward Ishgir. Following behind was a mixed force of Dauburn and Brunhild Chevaliers.

What was I doing? I was, well...

Has it finally locked on to all of them? Not being able to use my divinity really makes this take a while, even for just one town...

“[Gate]!”

I opened a large [Gate] beneath the fleeing townspeople and teleported them to the desert. I could’ve teleported the enemies instead, but there were likely people caught in fires or collapsed buildings that needed help evacuating too. His Majesty had asked me to prioritize the citizens, anyway.

At first, I’d considered opening a [Gate] underneath the town as a whole and just allowing humans to fall through, but then people who’d evacuated to higher floors or rooftops would’ve been left behind, so I decided against it. It took extra time locking on to each and every person, but that was a fine sacrifice if it meant saving more lives.

For now, I teleported only the survivors. I felt guilty about it, but if I’d tried to teleport those who had died as well, it would’ve taken me far longer to lock on to all of them, and that delay could’ve been enough to cause even more deaths.

“Come forth, Light! Neutral Therapy: [Area Heal]!”

I used an area healing spell on all the townspeople that I’d teleported to me. There were so many of them that it was impossible for me to fully heal every single wound, but I could at least stabilize those in critical condition. Just a few more casts and they’d be fine.

I left the area to His Majesty and entered the fray.

“Kohaku!”

《My liege.》

I jumped on the back of Kohaku in her big tiger form and we rode off into the desert. As we made our way into Ishgir, we stumbled upon the Dauburn warriors locked in battle with a mechimera soldier. I sliced its head clean off with Brunhild as we rode past, a metal clunk of the head falling to the ground ringing out behind us as Kohaku continued advancing.

“If only magic had any effect, we could clean this up in two seconds flat...”

《Surely dropping a rock or a big chunk of ice on them all would suffice?》

“We’d end up totaling the town if we did that.”

There was no way that would be okay. There weren’t that many enemies in Dauburn, anyway, so we could likely take them all down if we just pushed a little more. At least, so long as there weren’t any reinforcements...

《Hmm? My liege, over there.》

“What the hell is that...?”

Kohaku came to a stop and looked upward. When I followed her gaze, I saw a strange little whirlpool in space. Using my divine sight, I was able to see a blurry ball of light being sucked into it like water swirling down a plughole.

“Is that...?”

《They appear to be absorbing the spirits of the dead.》

Was this another usage of Gould’s Spatial Distortion? The wicked god gained more power by consuming human souls. Had the wicked devout attacked this town to use the souls of the townspeople as fodder for the wicked god’s revival?

When humans died, their souls would leave their bodies and travel to the Divine Realm. So long as their soul wasn’t too tainted, they would then have their sins cleansed and be reborn. It was the cycle of reincarnation. Souls devoured by the wicked god, however, were destroyed in the truest sense of the word; they would never be reborn again.

That isn’t something I can allow. Quit messing with people’s lives like this!

Before I could use [Prison] to section the vortex off, it disappeared. It must have realized there were no more souls to absorb.

“Dammit! The same thing is probably happening in the other countries too!”

Was their goal to revive the wicked god with the souls of dead humans? Or perhaps it was the fallen god of erosion that they wanted to revive? Gould had already absorbed the fallen god, that was for certain. In which case, was their goal just to strengthen Gould?

Ugh, I can barely organize my thoughts. Let’s just focus on what’s in front of us for now.

“Target lock: Cast [Earthbind] on their feet.”

“Locking on. Casting [Earthbind].”

After a short pause, the spell activated. That should’ve bound all the mechimera soldiers in the town. All it took was them breaking the rocks to escape, but I should’ve bought the Dauburn soldiers enough time to take them out.

The Kyklops were much more of an issue. We had to stop them from destroying any more of the town. They were being pushed back, so there probably wouldn’t be much more damage, but...

I dashed through the town, taking out as many mechimera soldiers as I could. Given their half-robot state, they didn’t go down to weak attacks; even after giving them a solid few shots with phrasium bullets, they still managed to get back up and attack. They were like Zombies. Unless you applied some sort of lethal damage like cutting off their heads or gouging out their stomachs, they just wouldn’t stop.

They were living creatures, technically, so if you crushed their head or their heart, they’d die. Zombies wouldn’t die even if you crushed their hearts, so I suppose these were on the better end? But Zombies were also much slower...and we could use light magic to take them out. Yeah, Zombies were much easier to fight.

“Run search: Active mechimera soldiers.”

“Search complete. Displaying results.”

The map showed far fewer of them than before, so I could leave the rest to the Dauburn soldiers. We were winning in the fight against the Kyklops as well. There was a chance the enemy would send reinforcements, but I could return if I had to.

I called the king to inform him I’d be going to a different battlefield and told him to contact me if reinforcements arrived.

“Cesca, where should I go next?” I asked my operator up in Babylon.

“Perhaps the Kingdom of Rephan? There are still numerous active mechimera soldiers. Plus, there are many injured among the citizens.”

The Kingdom of Rephan was where I had sent Yumina, Kuon, Sue, Steph, Ende, and Allis, yet that still wasn’t enough?

I quickly opened a [Gate] and teleported to Mioparade, an economic center of Rephan. It was surrounded by large castle walls and was far bigger in scale than Ishgir. Fires were breaking out all over and a whole section of the wall had been destroyed. Near the broken wall lay several destroyed Kyklops. Behind them was Sue, who was giving the swarming Kyklops a Megaton Punch with the Ortlinde Overlord. She was protecting the city with the wall to her back. I could see the Dragoon and Brunhilde as well, fighting the goat-head Gollems with the Rephan Chevaliers.

There was another creepy vortex above the city, sucking up the souls just as it had done in Ishgir.

“[Prison]!”

This time, I put up a [Prison] around it. Once the souls stopped reaching it, it seemed to believe it had finished its job and disappeared just like that.

“Yumina, I’m here in Mioparade. Can you tell me what’s going on?”

“Touya, you’re here! We’re managing to hold back the Kyklops, but there are just too many mechimera soldiers! I sent Kuon and the other kids into the city, but I’m worried about them!”

I searched with my phone and found Kuon, Allis, and Steph all fighting in some central plaza area.

“Kohaku! To the central plaza!”

《Yes, my liege.》

Kohaku leaped onto a nearby roof and dashed from building to building, hurrying to the plaza along the shortest route possible. Eventually, a bronze statue mounted on a large pedestal that was holding a musical instrument came into view.

That’s gotta be it, right?

Before long, I caught sight of the children fighting the crowd of mechimera soldiers.

“Blow ’em away, Kohaku!”

“Yes, my liege!”

Kohaku emitted a large shock wave from her mouth, sending a whole chunk of the soldiers flying.

“Daddy!”

“Father!”

“Are you guys all right?”

From what I could see, none of them were injured. Steph was protecting them all with [Prison] while Kuon and Allis fought off the enemy. Gold was helping take down the mechimera soldiers with his own golden sword.

“These small fry ain’t nothin’ for me and the kiddo here. Problem is, there’s too darn many of ’em! We can’t get to ’em all!” Silver spoke up from Kuon’s hand.

The knights of Rephan were also wearing armed Gollems and participating in the fight, but I could see a lot of bodies strewn around them. Given their clothes, they were likely civilian casualties. I was worried that the kids were feeling shock at having to witness the deaths of innocents, but Kuon seemed to catch on to my worries and reassured me with an awkward smile.

“We’re fine. We’ve already killed plenty of bandits in our time. We’re not squeamish. Steph’s even taken part in a war here in Rephan.”

“Oh, so she has...”

I forgot that Steph had fought rebels at the behest of the queen as a guest commander... Were our kids’ nerves not a bit too steely? Honestly, they barely acted like kids at all...

Oh, future me, where’d you go wrong in raising our kids?

I could feel unease starting to build in my chest, but then I realized it made no sense for me to start overthinking it now. They were royalty, demigods, and had a ton of divine relatives—there was no way they’d grow up normal in an environment with all that around them. No matter how unchildlike they were, they were all still good children. There was no problem. Yup.

That aside, we needed to evacuate the civilians before there were more casualties. I wanted to teleport them with [Gate] as I had done back in Ishgir, but it would take time. I was locking on to the targets right this second.

“Hiyah!”

I heard a dull thud, then a crocodile soldier went flying into the wall. Allis’s roundhouse kick went from one enemy straight onto another.

“Ha ha ha! Come and get some!”

When I saw Allis taking down mechimeras one after another, I glanced at Kuon, silently asking, Is it okay to leave her like this?

“She hasn’t been able to do much training or bounty hunts for the guild recently, so she’s been restless... She’ll calm down once she expends her energy,” Kuon replied.

Well, it’s true that she’s had stress building up from the etiquette lessons, but... Y-You know, I guess if this lets her get it out, it’s fine...I think...?

I couldn’t deny that I was a little bit more worried about how intense Allis’s ruthlessness was this time.

Meanwhile, I finished targeting the remaining citizens.

“[Gate]!”

I transported them outside the city walls, opposite from where everyone else was fighting for now. It used up a lot of my mana, but it was me we were talking about, so it would recover right away. Now I could join the battle without any worries.

“Come forth, Iron! Barrier of the Dark Metal: [Iron Wall]!”

I materialized a metal wall that was about thirty meters in height and ten meters in width, then shot a bullet into the top of it. With the wall not being secured at the bottom, it toppled right over with a large crash, squashing all of the mechimera soldiers caught underneath.

Hmm... I tried to copy Leen and Quun, but as effective as it is, it doesn’t leave a good taste in the mouth.

It was a little odd—it was starting to feel as if this wasn’t a battle, but simply another task on the list. Not that I really needed to feel bad for these guys, anyway. If I didn’t view this like a pest extermination, I’d burn myself out. Any hesitation from us could lead to someone else paying the price.

Once I’d managed to recalibrate my mindset, I fired out a whole bunch of the same metal walls and crushed the soldiers with them. No matter how many times I did it, the soldiers didn’t show an ounce of fear or hesitation. Sure, they were wearing masks, but not even their body language implied anything of the sort. Were they not capable of emotion, then?

I wonder what’s more human: a half-living creature with no emotions or a Gollem with artificial emotions...

Those useless philosophical questions were running through my mind as I finished off the last of the mechimera soldiers in my field of vision. With the civilians evacuated to safety, I trusted I could leave the rest to the Rephan knights.

I opened up the line to Yumina to get a status report. “Yumina, I’ve cleaned up over here. How’s it going over there?”

“We’ve almost finished with the Kyklops, but we’re struggling with those new Gollems with the goat heads...”

She sounded a little panicked.

They really must be struggling.

“Kohaku, mind watching the kids?”

“Of course, my liege.”

“[Teleport].”

I left Kohaku in the plaza and teleported to the battle that was raging outside of the city. I could see Brunhilde nearby in sniper mode, shooting a crystal round at one of the goat-head Gollems. I was so certain it wouldn’t be able to dodge a shot like that, but then the goat-head Gollem blocked the round with the long claw gauntlets they were equipped with, deflecting it entirely.

Oh, come on! Those bullets are made of phrasium, you know?! What do you mean their frames are even stronger than that?!

Or maybe that wasn’t the right way to think about it. They were deflected...which just meant that it wasn’t taking the shot directly, right? When I paid closer attention, I realized that its arms hadn’t been left unscathed—there were cracks in the plating.

Brunhilde fired a second round, but the goat-head Gollem dodged that one.

The essence of sniping rested in catching one’s enemy by surprise—the reason that being sniped was impossible to avoid was because you were shot from a distance when you weren’t expecting it. If the sniper’s position was exposed, it was easy to account for the incoming shot. Yumina understood that as well, so she had activated Brunhilde’s stealth mode that utilized its mirror armor, changing position and trying again to snipe the goat-head Gollem.

The speed of these things is a pain in the ass.

As the slowest Valkyrie, Ortlinde Overlord would definitely struggle, just as any of the Chevaliers would. The only ones that would stand a chance in an outright battle of speed would be either the Dragoon or the Night Barons.

Maaaan, if only I had Reginleif!

“Huh?”

Activating [Long Sense], I caught sight of Ende fighting with a goat-head Gollem, but that goat-head Gollem was a different color from the rest, and its arms were more like stakes that it was using like Overlord’s Spiral Knuckle. The stakes had chains attached so that the goat-head Gollem could pull them back after deploying them, then fire them back at the Dragoon.

Hang on a second... Is this idea stolen from Gerhilde’s Pile Bunker or Overlord’s Spiral Knuckle?!

“I know they say everything starts from imitation, but that has its limits,” Doc Babylon grouched from my phone.

“The Maestro was best at improving what already existed,” the Professor added.

“Hmph, that’s just a generous way of saying the guy has no originality. Even the Kyklops are just imitations of the Frame Gears,” Doctor Elluka also piped up.

I mean, Frame Gears are just copied from mecha anime, so I don’t think you guys are ones to talk.

Besides, it only made sense to keep integrating proven ideas. If you could make further progress with it, then you’d profit. That wasn’t to say you could just imitate everything and be content with that alone, though.

Ende dodged the incoming stakes and shattered the chains with the Dragoon’s phrasium shortsword, before dashing in and slashing the goat-head Gollem in two. As fast as that unit had been, its frame was weak. Ende’s Dragoon was in the same boat, but I had made it lighter using [Gravity], and it also had a phrasium coating—they didn’t compare whatsoever.

“Detecting spatial distortion. Something is approaching,” Cesca suddenly called out.

“Huh?”

The space in front of Ende began to distort and a strange unit crawled out of the rift. It looked like a spider with a human upper body like an arachne, but the human part had four arms and the head had tons of little shining eyes just like a real spider. In its metallic red grip was a rapier of similar coloring.

“And so the wicked devout make their appearance!”

I clicked my tongue and glared at the new fighter.

◇◇◇

I recognized that red sword—it was the wicked vessel that the Maestro wielded back during the fight in Lassei.

“And another flashy one comes to steal the show,” Ende lilted in his usual laid-back manner.

“Ende, watch out. That’s a wicked devout,” I warned him.

“This thing? Then I guess I’ll get to go all out.”

The wheels on the heels of the Dragoon lowered and Ende piloted it forward at high speed. The arachne-like mech reacted by thrusting its sword at the Dragoon. Ende deflected it with his own, but the rapier’s thrusts never stopped coming. After a few successful dodges, the rapier scraped the Dragoon’s shoulder.

“You’re kidding?!”

Surprised by the hit, Ende slid the Dragoon back.

Suddenly, two of the arachne Gollem’s arms were holding red rapiers.

“No way... Didn’t it have only one earlier?”

As if responding to Ende’s disbelief, the swords in the upper left and right arms blurred, split into two, and landed in the arms below, giving it rapiers in all four of its hands.

“C’mon, man, that’s just cowardly, don’t you think?!”

The arachne Gollem’s eight legs clacked against the ground as it moved toward Ende. It fired sharp thrusts one after another from its four arms. Even Ende had no choice but to focus completely on dodging, leaving him no space for a counterattack.

“You’re fast, I’ll give you that. But can you dodge this?” a deep, masculine voice rang out from the Gollem before the four swords erupted into flames. He swung those blazing swords around, sending a fire slash straight for Ende.

“Crap!”

Ende fired the verniers on the front of the Dragoon’s chest and legs, retreating from the enemy as swiftly as possible. He just barely managed to avoid the fire, but knowing what the spider Gollem was capable of instantly made Ende far warier about approaching without careful thought. Instead, the Gollem made full use of its arms to close in on Ende for the kill.

“Take this, and this, and this!”

“You piece of...! Don’t think you’ve won this!”

The Dragoon had been pushed further and further back by the endless assault, but Ende boosted his Frame Gear to the side of the Gollem and aimed his sword at its thin leg. Where Ende had assumed it would be slashed in two, it instead withstood the attack, letting off a sharp clang.

Taking advantage of Ende, who was now caught off guard in his surprise, the arachne Gollem retreated, dragging its injured leg back and sending out another fire slash.

I had already assumed these Gollems’ frames were tougher after Yumina’s gunshot had failed to make any worthwhile damage, but this just confirmed it. The Dragoon’s shortswords weren’t just made of phrasium, they had also been enhanced with mana, yet even that barely left a scratch... The one saving grace was that they probably couldn’t regenerate like the Phrase.

Ortlinde Overlord might be able to shatter them, though.

Still in the back, I turned to see the Ortlinde deploying its Stardust Shell over the city walls.

“They’ve got their hands full over there just protecting the city...”

Yumina was still sniping away at the Kyklops. That meant Ende was left completely isolated.

“Guess I’ve gotta step up.”

“Hang on, Touya. Mind waiting a sec?” Doc Babylon spoke up just as I was about to use [Fly].

“At a time like this? For what?”

“Ma’am Babylon! Final checks are complete, ma’am!”

“It’s, like, so ready to go!”

Suddenly, I could hear Rosetta and Monica as well.

What are they doing?

“We took far longer than I would’ve liked, but the overhaul is finally complete. Connect a [Gate] to hangar four.”

Overhaul? Hanger four...? Oh!

The moment I realized what the scientist was going on about, I immediately opened a [Gate] as she had instructed.

A Frame Gear with its gravity carefully controlled lowered slowly, feet-first, onto Rephan soil. Golden lines ran across its crystal armor, folded wings glistening in the sunlight. It was my personal multipurpose Frame Gear, Reginleif.

They finally finished upgrading it!

“Hang on, have you changed the design? And some of the parts?”

“Yes, sir! We used the existing Frame Gear data to add as many improvements as possible, including some new gear, and raised its basic specs, sir!”

“Damn... Hey, wait, I knew you guys were making modifications, but no one told me you were equipping it with new stuff. Is that why it took so long for you to finish?”

“Oopsies... I didn’t think that one through, sir...” Rosetta sounded so proud as she answered my question, but then immediately changed tune when I questioned her priorities.

You totally prioritized your own hunger for research over the current situation, didn’t you?!

“For all your hard work, I will reward you with an assistant—Parshe from the storehouse. Isn’t that exciting?”

“NYOOOOOOOOOOOO! Please reconsider, sir! If a klutz like her tries to help, our development will go backward, sir!” her screams echoed out from my phone.

I wasn’t actually intending to have Parshe help; I didn’t even want to think about what would be sacrificed if I dared...

Enough of this fooling around. Gotta go help Ende.

I used [Fly] to get myself into the cockpit, then placed my phone in the pilot seat’s console. There was a low hum as the systems started up, the cockpit filling with the light of the different gauges. The wide monitors pictured what was going on outside. When I flowed mana through the control stick, Reginleif fully activated. I moved the arms a little and did some basic exercises with my hands to check that there were no problems with movement.

“Perfect. Let’s get this party started, Reginleif! Deploy Fragarach!”

“Deploying Fragarach.”

The crystal wings on Reginleif’s back spread wide, releasing the twelve phrasium panels.

“Change mode: Sword Mode.”

“Changing to Sword Mode.”

The crystal panels changed into sword shapes and created a circle in front of Reginleif before flying straight for the arachne Gollem.

“Go!”

The glittering crystal blades all fired toward the red Gollem like homing missiles.

“What?!”

The arachne Gollem detected the incoming phrasium blades and deflected them with its four swords. It managed to avoid most of them, but one slipped through and stabbed into its stomach.

“Guh!”

The Gollem turned its upper body 180 degrees and pulled out the thin sword by hooking the handguard with one of its rapiers and pulling. I called all the blades back, returning them to Reginleif’s wings. Since the pilot needed to control each sword themself, it was quite taxing to do so for a long time. Perhaps it was a given, considering each sword had to be moved independently.

“Not so fast, buddy. This guy’s my prey. Mind not stealing?”

I was a little taken aback when Ende suddenly turned accusingly.

“Is this really the time to be competitive?”

I literally just got you out of a bad spot...

“I wasn’t in trouble! I was just struggling a little!”

That’s what it means to be in trouble, you idiot!

If he really didn’t want me to help, though, I’d stop. The Dragoon was installed with the emergency evacuation system like the rest of the Frame Gears, so even if Ende lost, I could take over easily.

How about we see what you’ve got, huh?

“Do what you want, then. I’ll make sure to look after Melle and Allis if anything happens to you.”

“I would appreciate it if you didn’t try to jinx me! I’m not gonna leave Melle a widow, and I have no intentions of letting Allis become anyone’s wife yet!”

“Okay, okay. Then at least use this.”

I removed two of the phrasium panels from Reginleif’s wings, turned them into simple gauntlets, and fired them the Dragoon’s way.

Well, I don’t know if you can call slapping grips onto two spheres making them gauntlets, but I did say they were simple. Maybe I can add some thorns onto them.

The panels could turn into anything so long as it was a programmed shape, but I didn’t have enough time to do anything more complex, so this was the best option at the moment. They were tougher than the Dragoon’s weapons and one of the blades managed to pierce the Gollem, so it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to think it could shatter its body.

Ende flung away his shortsword and put on the gauntlets instead, rapping his knuckles together. It kinda pissed me off a bit seeing him do that—it reminded me of how well he got along with Elze.

“All right, time to pull this back!” Ende yelled enthusiastically.

“Don’t underestimate me!”

The arachne Gollem immediately returned to its thrusts, but Ende easily dealt with them with his new gauntlets—he was moving faster now too. In hindsight, it made sense. When an opponent slashed a sword down in front of you and you were also holding a sword, the natural way to deal with it would be to catch it with your sword turned horizontally. No one would try to catch it vertically. Unfortunately, that change in angle took time, however slight. With gauntlets, you just needed to throw out your arms and that would be enough to block.

In the case of sword thrusts, the only way to block those with a sword would be to take it horizontally and then force it to change its trajectory. Gauntlets were the same, but without the need to alter the angle of the sword, changing to a counter was far faster and smoother...and that slight speed difference was enough to grant Ende an opportunity that made it possible for him to attack.

“Yah!”

“Hmngh?!”

One of the Dragoon’s fists managed to maneuver through the storm of thrusts and burst right into the spider’s cephalothorax and through the bottom of the human’s stomach. A huge crack appeared on the metallic red plating.

“Yeah, these definitely come more naturally to me.”

The Dragoon leaped at the retreating spider Gollem and launched its follow-up attacks. The tables had now turned; the Gollem had no choice but to remain on the defensive, avoiding the Dragoon’s fists.

“Grrrrrr!”

The Gollem crossed its four arms and sent out fire waves one after another from its swords. Ende dodged left and right, finding the first opportunity to step forward and throw a left hook toward the Gollem’s right elbow, completely shattering the lower arm. The moment he did that, the sword dissolved into black miasma and was absorbed into one of the other swords.

That was probably a clone of the original wicked vessel.

Even when down to three arms, the arachne Gollem continued its relentless assault, but the Dragoon fended off all the thrusts with its gauntlets, attacking the moment it created an opening. The repetition of defense into a counter was slowly whittling away the Gollem’s armor.

“It’s, uh...a pretty boring way to go about it, huh...?”

“At least call it controlled!”

I’m not saying that descriptor is wrong either, but...

Either way, he was managing to damage the enemy, which was the actual important part.

The Dragoon’s right uppercut slammed into another of the Gollem’s elbows, breaking another arm and turning another sword into miasma that was also absorbed. With the enemy now down to two swords, this would be a far fairer fight... Or at least, I thought it would be, until the stomach of the unit detached and stretched forward like a scorpion tail supported by flex arms. The arachne Gollem was now standing on its four front legs, the remaining back four anchored into the ground. That was when we noticed that where a spider would usually release its thread was instead a gathering light.

Wait, is that...a version of the particle laser that the giant Kyklops fired?!

“Hey, that’s dirty!” Ende complained, dodging at full speed.

If that laser was allowed to fire, there would be more casualties. I released the rest of Reginleif’s crystal panels and flew them straight into the firing line of the Gollem.

“Mode Change: Reflector!”

The panels all lined up and created a gigantic wall. I intended to reflect it straight back, but then I noticed there were still Chevaliers fighting the Kyklops, so I couldn’t just send it in their direction.

The moment I angled the reflective mirrors diagonally to not cause unnecessary casualties, the arachne Gollem let out a huge beam. It looked less powerful than the particle laser that Kyklops shot out, but it would still cause a whole lot of damage if it reached the city.

The reflectors caught the beam and diverted it up to the sky, shooting through the clouds.

That was close...

“Ende! The hell are you doing?!”

“Come on, man! How do you expect me to predict a move like that?!”

The arachne Gollem continued firing beams at Ende, but they were like small arrows this time instead. The Dragoon managed to dodge each of them without ever getting hit.

I guess it can fire the short beams at will. Does that mean the big beam is a charge attack?

“Quit dashing around like an irritating fly! Blow up already!”

The arachne Gollem’s hind legs stabbed into the ground like stakes as light started to gather by its stomach once again.

Is it gonna fire off that beam again?!

The next moment, Ende stopped dashing everywhere, suddenly about-turning and dashing toward the enemy at full speed.

“Oh, sh—!”

“Can’t dodge if you’re anchored down, buddy!”

Before the light could finish converging, the Dragoon was in front of the Gollem, its right fist pulled back to its waist.

“Combat Arts: Crouching Dragon, Piercing Fist!”

The Dragoon’s rotating fist smashed right through the Gollem’s chest. Its chest plating distorted like it was being gouged out, then its upper body suddenly shattered into pieces. With its upper body gone, the bottom half lost all strength and collapsed to the ground, including the part that had been gathering energy.

That strike didn’t use divinity, so we’re safe, right?

Besides, we technically didn’t hit the wicked devout directly, and more than that...

As my unnecessary anxious worrying ran through my head, a battered and bruised man with a plague doctor’s mask crawled his way out of the remains of the shattered upper body.

Yep, he’s alive.

“You fiend! How?! How can that Gollem produce so much power?! What is so different between it and my Kyklops or my Baphomets?!” he yelled. Was Baphomet what he called those goat-head Gollems? Which meant this guy was Maestro, one of the five great gollemancers, right?

“Touya, mind patching both our camera and audio through?”

Doctor Elluka and the Professor popped up on the side monitor in Reginleif’s cockpit. They were both acquainted with the Maestro, so they probably had things they wanted to say.

I simply did as they wished, using [Mirage] to display them in the air above the Maestro.

“It’s been a while, Maestro,” the Professor greeted.

Doctor Elluka greeted him next, saying, “You’ve changed in the time we’ve been apart.”

“What?! The Professor! And the Restoration Queen! Are you the ones behind this?!”

The Maestro couldn’t hide his surprise at seeing his colleagues like this.

“We were not the ones who made these Frame Gears,” the Professor clarified. “We simply lent a hand.”

“Frame Gears are completely different from Gollems, you know?”

“I know that! I can tell that the technology used is entirely different! But their parameters should be much worse than the Kyklops, yet they are on equal footing! Why?! Is there some technology I have yet to discover?!”

He pointed at the battling Chevaliers as he continued yelling.

Their parameters should be worse?

I agreed that the Kyklops were more powerful and had great durability, but were they that much better?

On the other side of the monitor was the one person who couldn’t overlook the exact thing I had questioned.

“You know, when I saw those Kyklops for the first time, all I could think was that whoever made them had no taste. Now I’m discovering that the way he thinks is loopy too. In what world would your outdated Gollems ever stand a chance against my constantly evolving Frame Gears?”

Appearing from behind the Professor and Doctor Elluka was the mother of the Frame Gears, sitting smugly on her floating chair: Doctor Regina Babylon herself.

“I see nothing special about the creator coming from the Kyklops. It was like you just built a big Gollem and that was the only thing in your head. Is there an actual reason you made them that size? How does it balance its own weight? Are you fully aware of how much your units can take? Do you honestly think that just adding your own ideas to a preexisting one will make you a better scientist? Well, think again.”

A rain of criticism splashed down on the Maestro, a former Gollem engineer, from the screen hanging above him. The man was stunned speechless for a few moments before he gathered himself and finally managed to squeeze out his gravelly voice from behind the mask.

“I refuse to believe it! Are you telling me a child created a machine like this?!”

“Yup. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, my dear masked engineer. My name is Regina Babylon. I am the creator of the Frame Gears and the lover of the Grand Duke of Brunhild.”

“Okay, wait, that part’s a lie. She’s just my employee!” I denied as desperately as possible. Was this the time to be making such jokes?! Not that employee alone was an accurate description of our relationship, but it would do.

Thankfully, the Maestro couldn’t seem to care less about that part and showed absolutely no reaction.

“You seem awfully upset at the idea that you lost to my Frame Gear, but...truth be told, that Dragoon you just fought? Sure, it’s been modified and upgraded, but it’s still a much older model. It’s far from my magnum opus.”

“Wh-What...? An old model?!”

The Maestro stood there in horror. She was right, though—the Dragoon was old by now. It was one of the Frame Gears originally in Babylon’s Hangar along with the Chevalier and Night Baron. It had been modified various times since then, but it still wasn’t vastly different from its original form.

“Preposterous! You cannot honestly tell me that is an old unit! It absolutely has higher performance than the other Frame Gears!”

“Generally, the performance of a Frame Gear depends heavily on its pilot. If a complete amateur is piloting it, then it’ll move like an amateur. If a hardened veteran pilots it, it’ll perform like a veteran. They’re made in a way that they pull out the pilot’s potential. If you thought it felt strong, well, that’s just ’cause the pilot’s strong.”

“Damn, are pigs gonna start falling from the sky next? Never thought I’d see the day Ende got a compliment.”

“Excuse you, I get plenty of compliments!”

Whoopsies, I forgot Ende was still listening in.

“Sorry, but the image of Uncle Takeru chewing you out every two seconds is burned into my mind.”

“Master’s given me compliments too! Only on occasion, but...”

I personally hadn’t ever seen it happen, but I didn’t think he was lying. Uncle Takeru was good at balancing the carrot and the stick. He didn’t get his title of the god of combat for nothing, after all.

“The pilot?!” Fun times were over as the Maestro began yelling again. “How could you possibly account for such an unreliable factor?!”

“And there’s your problem. Notice how you stopped thinking the moment you hit something unpredictable? You’re completely throwing out human potential. Have you even realized how badly that’s denying you of your own potential? If that’s where your thinking stops, then you have no future.”

The doctor paid the Maestro no mind in her critique of him as her tongue grew even sharper.

“Did you manage to learn even a bit of magic? You had the Ark, so it wasn’t difficult to come to the eastern continent, right? Or were you just completely unable to muster even a shred of interest in a field other than your own? I was taught about Gollems from scratch thanks to these two here, and they were keen to learn about magitech in return. I’m gonna be blunt: You’re way too narrow-minded. You might be able to improve your basic skills by imitating others, but because you box your mind into set ways of doing things, you can’t take anything you learn much further than that.”

I was starting to feel a little bad for the Maestro.

Did you have to be that harsh? Look, he’s practically trembling...

“What would a prissy little girl like you know?! The more I learned about the ancient civilization’s technology, the more I could only despair at the technology we had lost! You have no idea how deeply I wish to have been born in the ancient past! When Gould appeared in front of me, I could only think it a god-given duty! Chrom Ranchesse, the man who knew all of ancient Gollem technology, had appeared before me! I was chosen as Chrom Ranchesse’s successor! And so, I abandoned everything for that purpose!”

“That’s why you became a wicked devout?”

“How foolish...”

Faced with their fellow great gollemancer’s monologue, Doctor Elluka and the Professor could feel only disappointment.

The idea of selling one’s body and soul for some unknown technology wasn’t something I could comprehend as a nonscientist. What had happened was the thing he wanted had been dangled in front of his face and he’d bit into it without so much as sparing a second thought... He really was narrow-minded.

“Well, it’s your life to live. If you wanna sell it to the devil, go right ahead,” Doc Babylon said with a shrug. “But I can’t let you drag other people’s souls with you. Right, Kuon?”

“I agree.”

“Hmm?!”

The Maestro rolled out of the way of Kuon’s sudden slash from behind.

When did you get here?!

I could see Steph and Allis riding Kohaku behind him. Gold was there too. They must have come running from the city.

“You! You’re that wretched child who took down Graphite!”

“Graphite? Sorry, I don’t know who that is,” Kuon replied, tilting his head as he tried to remember.

“Probably that old geezer, kiddo,” Silver supplied for him.

It seemed my worries had been right—the wicked devout had seen the data of Kuon that their bird Gollem had recorded.

The Maestro’s caution was clear as he readied his metallic red rapier. Flames exploded along the thin blade, turning into a slashing wave aimed right at Kuon. Luckily, Kuon seemed to have predicted the attack and very easily dodged.

No, not seemed to. He did predict it.

His right eye was an orange-gold—he’d used his Mystic Eye of Precognition.

Waves of flame were shot out again and again, but Kuon danced from left to right, avoiding them all.

“You slippery little brat!”

The sword in the Maestro’s hand seemed to blur slightly before a second sword appeared underneath that, which he then grabbed with his other hand. Double the swords meant double the fire slashes.

“This is a bit much even for me...” Kuon muttered. “[Slip].”

Huh?!

Kuon leaped to the side, then suddenly he was sliding along the ground as if he were trying to do a soccer tackle. No, he was spinning around in circles! After he jumped, he’d used [Slip] to remove the friction from the ground, then used that momentum to slide! Thankfully, I didn’t think he would suffer any scrapes due to the friction being gone, but I hadn’t ever considered using the spell like that!

“It looks pretty lame, so I’d rather I didn’t have to do this...”

This was true. Since the friction was completely gone, it was impossible for Kuon to stand up straight or keep his posture. He looked really stupi—er, surreal as he slid around everywhere. I’d rather not have to do that myself.

“Couldn’t ya have used that mighty useful magic-killin’ eye of yours?”

“It wouldn’t remove the fire, and I’ve already used my Mystic Eye too much already. If I could’ve, I would’ve.”

Kuon’s Mystic Eyes were incredibly useful, but using it in quick succession put a real burden on his body. I wish he wouldn’t fight so precariously, honestly...

Kuon canceled his [Slip] magic and stood back up. He suddenly had a little platinum ball floating around him like a satellite.

“Sacred treasure equip.”

The ball separated into threads and took a new form in Kuon’s hand: It was a sacred treasure shaped like a gun-sword that looked similar to my Brunhild, but with a revolver and trigger attached.

Kuon aimed the tip of the blade at the Maestro and pulled the trigger. A bullet of condensed divinity fired from the barrel—the Maestro looked ready to try to deal with it using his wicked vessel, but he suddenly changed his mind and narrowly dodged it instead.

“I remember now. That weapon is the one that prevented Graphite from regenerating and shattered his wicked vessel, isn’t it?”

“Gosh, seems the guy was spoiled, kiddo.”

“That’s fine. We have our own way to deal with this.”

The Maestro had probably watched the battle between Kuon and the scepter-wielding wicked devout on the footage from the bird Gollem. He seemed even more cautious than before. I couldn’t blame him—Kuon was his natural enemy here.

Kuon continued firing shots at the Maestro, but he was able to dodge them all.

Aren’t you a scientist? Why are you so good at this?

His physical body must’ve gotten stronger when he became a wicked devout...

“Those bullets of yours are simple to dodge! If you can’t hit me with them, then there’s no chance you can—”

“Oh, I knew I wouldn’t be able to hit you with them. I was just luring you into a blind spot.”

“You were doing what...?”

The Maestro’s head suddenly whipped up as he checked his surroundings. The arachne Gollem’s legs were sticking out of the ground right beside him, blocking his view. Behind that leg was Mioparade. However, what I could see from my angle was something else, and suddenly, I grew fully aware of what Kuon was planning.

A large boom sounded from afar and then the leg that had been blocking the Maestro’s view was being torn apart, a massive phrasium bullet headed right for the wicked devout.

“Gwblurgh?!”

Not expecting the sudden bullet, the Maestro took Brunhilde’s crystal round straight to the face, his body being sent flying and tumbling across the ground.

“Mother’s aim is as impeccable as always.”

“Eurgh... Kiddo, your mama’s got no mercy, that’s fer sure... Like mother, like son...” Silver mumbled, sounding all too put off by the whole affair. I couldn’t entirely blame him...

Did they plan the surprise attack before Kuon came here?

Even though the Maestro took a direct hit, he was still a wicked devout, so that wouldn’t be enough to kill him. In fact, it would be outright impossible without using divinity or a sacred treasure. His body was falling apart, limbs torn from their sockets, but he was already beginning to regenerate.

Naturally, my son couldn’t just sit and let that happen. Kuon shot another bullet from the sacred treasure and, unable to even move, the Maestro took the shot square in his left arm. Those bullets were just balls of divinity, so the moment it hit, his whole lower arm tore right off, dissolving into sand and dispersing into the wind.

“I can’t regenerate?!”

I couldn’t see under that plague mask, but it was easy to guess that he was shocked. Now that he was in range, Kuon had managed to activate Divinity Neutralization.

Really, the Maestro should’ve known this would happen if he’d seen Kuon fighting the wicked devout with the goat skull, but I suppose there was a difference between watching something and experiencing it for yourself.

Kuon fired another round, likely just a regular mana bullet. Since the neutralization was in effect, he shouldn’t have been able to fire a divine bullet.

“Guh!”

Even with his legs torn to shreds, the Maestro still managed to dodge to the side. No longer was there the calm precision from before, however; there was a clear desperation in his movements.

“I suppose this is all I can do!”

The Maestro pulled a test tube from his waist and smashed it into the ground. The moment the glass shattered, a raging fire exploded around the scientist.

Did he blow himself up?

“Did the guy get a bit too desperate?” Silver mused.

“No, this is...”

As Kuon shielded his eyes from the curtain of flames, a cargo Gollem shaped like a centipede burst out of the flames with the Maestro on its back, charging away from Kuon at an insane speed.

“So fast! Is that mad scientist tryna make his escape now?!”

“I definitely can’t keep up with that,” Kuon said. “Steph, think you can manage?”

“Easy-peasy! [Accel]!”

Steph zoomed ahead like a rocket. Kuon returned the sacred treasure to its sphere form and threw it at his sister as she passed. The platinum sphere began circling Steph this time.

“Sacred treasure equip!”

The sacred treasure separated into threads once more and took another new form: a huge shield. Steph boosting her speed with [Accel] was far faster than the many-legged Gollem crawling away—the distance was constantly closing.

“[Prison]!”

“What in the hells?!” the Maestro exclaimed.

“Hiyaaaaaaaaah!”

Steph kicked the ground as hard as she could and charged forward while encased in the [Prison]. The thrust of Steph’s tackle was truly comparable to a rocket as she slammed right into the Maestro and sent him flying.

I feel like I heard a really loud crack just now... Must’ve been a problem with Reginleif’s directional mic.

“Gwah!”

After being slammed into from behind, the Maestro bounced along the ground like a stone skimming across water. Now that the multilegged Gollem was lighter, it sped away into the distance, leaving its owner behind.

“Nrgh! I won’t let things end here!”

Despite having lost his left arm, the beat-up Maestro took out his rapier and slashed at Steph. Steph was standing proud with no signs of attempting to dodge, as if she thought her [Prison] would be more than enough to protect her.

You silly little girl!

“Heh heh, you’ll never hit m—”

The [Prison] suddenly cracked and Steph’s confident expression faltered. The Maestro’s second slash shattered the barrier completely and Steph frantically dodged.

“Steph! Didn’t I tell you that [Prison] doesn’t work against a wicked vessel?! Use Divinity Neutralization!”

“Oh, right!”

I explained it to you clearly! Either you weren’t listening or you’ve just completely forgotten!

This time, Steph made sure to block with the sacred treasure, the Maestro’s sword colliding with her shield as she activated the neutralization. Unfortunately, the range of neutralization with Steph’s shield was only about two meters, but at that distance, [Prison] should be effective, so it would probably be fine.

“Grah...!”

The Maestro sent out a wave of angry thrusts, but Steph blocked them all with her shield. She was only five, but after playing with the gods of swords and combat daily, she was able to see all of the attacks coming her way. Although, since Steph’s shield was a curved rectangular shape, she didn’t need to move that much to block any of the incoming thrusts.

“Soon, all of Chrom Ranchesse’s inventions will be mine! I refuse to let children like you get in my way!”

“Grr! I don’t care!”

“You’re all such creepy little brats!”

The Maestro started kicking Steph’s shield, the direct hits enough to knock Steph off-balance; her body was too small to completely take the impact from a physical strike. [Prison] would soak up any damage, but I was still about to lose my temper at the Maestro for daring to try to kick my daughter even through the shield—and then Steph snapped first.

“Stop iiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!”

“Gyoooh!”

Right before one of the Maestro’s kicks landed, Steph grabbed the bottom of her shield with both hands and leaped into the air before slamming it down on the Maestro’s head, as if squashing a bug. Having taken a direct hit from the sacred treasure, the Maestro slumped onto the ground, his red rapier rolling out of his grip.

“Girls don’t like annoying crows!”

Face puffed up, Steph slammed her shield into the ground. The next moment, there was the sound of metal cracking.

“Eh?”

“Huh?!”

Underneath the shield that Steph had just slammed down was the red rapier, now broken in two.

She...didn’t mean to do that, did she?

The Maestro’s body began disintegrating into dust.

“How could this be?! Gould! No, not yet! I haven’t...!”

The Maestro reached his hand forward, but it too soon turned into dust. On the monitor, I could see Gould hovering from afar—that must have been what the Maestro saw in his final moments. With his body now blowing away in the wind, the man left behind only his clothes, equipment, and plague doctor’s mask.

“This is a great loss...” the Professor said solemnly. “Despite what young Babylon said, he was truly a genius when it came to improving existing works, even if he was not proficient at creating new inventions himself. You could say that he had the ability to make an invention even better than its inventor. He would have reached great heights as someone’s assistant—no, their partner, even.”

“He’d have been too prideful for that. That was part of why I disliked him,” Doctor Elluka spat.

I could see the Professor’s pity and Doctor Elluka’s simmering anger, but Doc Babylon was simply taking a drag from her aroma pipe.

“Almost all exceptional scientists have an insatiable curiosity burning inside them. It’s what allows them to power toward their goal, their beliefs unwavering. Just one wrong turn in life and we might have turned out just like him.”

Those words held significant weight coming from Doc Babylon herself, given she’d made huge humanoid robots and homunculi. Imagining the future had she been on the other side was pretty scary. Though in my mind, all magitech and Gollem engineers were a little messed up in the head.

“Anyway, all that’s left to do is clean up the Kyklops that are left. Dauburn’s safe, so you just need to go to Gardio, Xenoahs, and Regulus... Oh?”

“Touya, we have defeated the Kyklops in Regulus.”

“Xenoahs too.”

Just as Doc Babylon was detailing what was left to do, Lu and Sakura sent over their own reports. That meant only Gardio was left, the place that had the most mechimera soldiers and Kyklops. Elze, Linze, and Leen all still appeared to be locked in battle.

We’d better get over there and support them. We can just leave behind enough Frame Gears for each country to finish the cleanup.

I opened up communications to ask Cesca to calculate how many units I’d need to transport.

Chapter II: The Towering Tree

Smoke was rising from all over the fortress city of Balerlor in the south of Gardio, screams echoing through the streets. The walls, which had protected its people all this time, had been ruthlessly destroyed, several thousand mechimeras filtering through the created hole. An army of several hundred Kyklops were causing further damage outside the city with the Gardio knights attempting to hold them back with their own Frame Gears.

Leen’s Grimgerde was in front of the city gate, sending down a rain of bullets onto the Kyklops. Linze’s Helmwige was supporting Elze’s Gerhilde from the air in their attempt to repel as many of them as possible.

I opened a [Gate] to join my wives and send the Brunhild knights into the fray. The tide immediately turned in our favor.

“You’re finally here!”

“Thank goodness!”

“You sure took your sweet time.”

“Honestly, this was me going as fast as I could... Activate Fragarach!”

“Activating Fragarach.”

The twelve crystal panels broke off from Reginleif’s wings and began circling it like satellites.

“Mode Change: Dagger.”

The crystal panels separated into four, then morphed into daggers, forty-eight of them now circling me.

“Gladius!”

Forty-eight meteors soared through the sky toward the Kyklops, light trailing behind them. The meteor storm of daggers was precise in its attack, striking only the Q-Crystal in the Kyklops’s head before moving to the next enemy.

Gladius was an omnidirectional simultaneous attack with the Fragarachs, but I was controlling every dagger, using [Accel] to speed up my processing speed in order to direct them all at once. Honestly, it was pretty taxing. It was impossible for me to move Reginleif itself when I was performing an attack like this, which meant I was left entirely defenseless.

I returned the Fragarachs to Reginleif after I’d defeated a good number of the Kyklops. Any more would be pushing it.

“This feels more unfair each time I see it...” Leen muttered, having stopped shooting. Personally, it wasn’t that unfair given it was extremely limited in use.

“Chaaaaaarge!”

Now that the Kyklops were no longer so overwhelming in number, the knights charged their Frame Gears into battle.

I think they’ll be fine now. Next...

“Who’s dealing with the mechimeras that already breached the walls?” I asked.

“The Gardio knights are attempting to fend them off, but the numbers are far too great,” Linze reported.

The size of the Kyklops could make them a pain to fight, but huge swarms of mechimera soldiers were arguably even more of a pain. If magic was effective, I’d be able to lock on and eliminate them all at once...

Guess we’re back to the wall press for the most efficient method...

The issue was that all the civilians were yet to be evacuated. This city was way too big compared to the towns being attacked in Dauburn and Rephan. I’d already started locking on to everyone, but it was definitely going to take a while.

Something that was also worrying me was that I hadn’t seen the usual soul-sucking vortex anywhere. Had they already finished absorbing all the souls they needed from here?

While I was thinking to myself, I noticed Kuon riding through the streets on Kohaku on Reginleif’s sub-monitor, Allis sitting right behind him. Beside them was Ende, who was sporting a great scowl on his face—he’d had no choice but to leave the Dragoon behind after the damage it received in the fight with the Maestro. We’d considered having him ride a Night Baron instead, but when Allis insisted she wanted to fight on the ground with Kuon, Ende had immediately stepped forward and said that he would accompany them as their guardian. The reasons were entirely selfish, but I did agree that we couldn’t just let the children go by themselves, so I decided to leave them to him.

They weren’t the only ones on their way, though—ahead of them in the air were Yakumo and Frei on Kougyoku, and behind them were Yoshino, Arcia, Steph, and Gold on Luli. Sango and Kokuyou were too slow, so they were hitching a ride on Kougyoku in their small forms.

Their current destination was the central plaza of Balerlor. It was the same kind of area that the kids had fought in back in Rephan too; when searching for a wide area to fight, central plazas became the default battlefield.

A large fountain was at the center of the fortress city, and it was there that Quun, Elna, Linne, and the Gardio knights were fighting the mechimera soldiers.

I was naturally worried about them, but I had no choice but to leave it to the children for now. Once I’d finished cleaning up here, I’d catch up.

◇◇◇

“Come forth, Water! Ballistic Bubbles: [Bubble Bomb]!”

Elna waved her staff and sent several balls of water that looked just like soap bubbles toward the mechimeras. The moment those bubbles touched something, they caused a massive explosion that sent several of the soldiers flying.

“[Shield]!”

To Elna’s right, Linne jumped up and deployed a large [Shield] beneath her, right above the fallen mechimeras.

“[Gravity]!”

Linne increased her weight by several thousand times and landed on the shield, pushing it down to crush all of the mechimeras underneath it. She then repeated those same motions, leaping to a different group of mechimeras, squashing them with [Shield] and [Gravity], and then leaping to her next victims.

The mechimeras were crushed to death one after another, like frozen puddles on a cold winter morning.

“Quun, this is so boring!” Steph whined.

“But it’s the best way to deal with them, so hang in there. I’d love to get on Beowulf and wreak havoc myself, you know?”

The older sister currently being complained to was in the process of making iron walls appear and sending them tumbling down over and over. Under normal circumstances, Quun would have liked to take her Arm Gear for a spin to test out her new and improved weapons, but then it would be hard to persuade the freewheeling Steph to hold back. Right now, Quun was remaining aware of her position as the eldest sister and leading by example.

“When will Frei or Yakumo get here...?”

Then I could leave Steph to them and do as I want, she couldn’t help but grumble inside.

As if her prayers were answered, those two very girls leaped down from the sky, cutting down a mechimera soldier with their blades.

“Sorry to keep you waiting!”

“You did well holding the fort, Quun!”

“You’re here!”

Her sisters always came when she needed them, and Quun loved them for it, internally raving about them with great admiration. Though there was just a little bit of selfishness in there—their arrival meant she could move freely now.

A shock wave came from behind and blasted away a group of the mechimeras. Quun turned and saw her only brother and his fiancée riding Kohaku. She could see her other sisters behind them as well. Ende was there too, but Quun paid him little mind.

“It’s finally our turn.”

“Leave your defense to us, darlings!”

Sango and Kokuyou leaped off Kougyoku’s back and transformed to their regular size. Sango let out a roar to the heavens before deploying a tortoise-shell barrier.

“Those of you on support, get in the barrier!” Luli yelled.

Elna and Yoshino clambered onto Sango’s back. Quun would usually join them, but she was already calling out Beowulf from her smartphone and excitedly hopping on; she was fully prepared to join the front lines.

Yoshino called out a glowing translucent keyboard and ran mana through it.

“Let’s get this party started!”

Her fingers strung together a jaunty melody—it was the theme song of a film about the adventures of a group of children in search of treasure said to be hidden by a legendary one-eyed pirate. Yoshino was enthusiastically sliding her fingers along the keyboard, as if the image of the children valiantly fighting against the crooks chasing after them perfectly fit the current situation.

Every time Yoshino struck a key, little particles of light shot up around her. Yakumo and Frei could feel themselves being buffed by her performance.

“Let’s go, Allis!”

“You don’t have to tell me twice, Linne!”

With their gauntlets equipped, Linne and Allis leaped at the enemies. Linne used [Gravity] to send her opponents flying with powerful punches while Allis precisely pinpointed her enemy’s weak points and crystallized them with her fists. The two girls were close in age and made for a great team.

“Urrryaaaaaah!”

Clad in her [Prison] armor, Steph ran over (?) the mechimera soldiers at full throttle. Gold finished them all off as they lay on the ground.

Seeing the havoc, Arcia sighed to herself while she struck down the mechimeras with her twinblades.

“Having siblings with such flashy moves makes my plainness really stand out...”

Despite her lacking self-confidence, Arcia was showing even greater results than an average knight. She gracefully dodged an incoming mechimera and slashed its arm off with her blades. To her, these enemies were little more than Zombies, so she felt no hesitation in cutting them down. Though, she did feel it was a waste of time to carve up something that couldn’t even be eaten.

When she looked behind her, she saw Elna on top of Sango and Kokuyou, staff at the ready. Magic was ineffective against the mechimera soldiers—all her [Bubble Bomb] earlier did was blow them away so that Linne could finish them off with [Gravity].

“Entwine thus, Ice! Frozen Curse: [Icebind]!”

Still, she could hold them down with roots of ice. As if she had been waiting for that, Yoshino took the glowing platinum ball from Kuon and held it up in the air.

“Sacred treasure equip!”

The platinum ball separated into threads and became a bow in Yoshino’s hand—not just any bow, of course, but the harpbow that served as the girl’s unique sacred treasure. She ran her fingers along the strings as if strumming a regular harp, then pulled back the last string. Several arrows of light formed in the space in front of her.

“Fire!”

Yoshino aimed her bow to the sky and fired off all the arrows. Those arrows split into further arrows in the air and sent a divine rain barreling into the bound mechimera soldiers. Missing not a single target, the arrows pierced right through their heads, sending all of them collapsing to the ground.

Arcia muttered to herself again, “No, seriously. Having siblings with such flashy moves really makes my plainness stand out...”

With the battle over, Arcia sheathed her twinblades. Kuon approached her on Kohaku.

“Arcia, could I ask you to use [Search] for a moment?”

“What for?” Arcia asked.

“I cannot see signs of the vortex that was absorbing souls at the other battlefields, but the dead here do appear to be devoid of them. I was thinking that it might be hiding somewhere.”

“Oh, you have a point.”

Arcia had been fighting in Regulus with her mother before arriving here, so she had seen something similar. It had disappeared when the battle was over, but she hadn’t seen one here in Gardio.

“[Search],” Arcia said, picturing the vortex she’d seen in Regulus in her mind as she activated a search. “It...appears to be somewhere underground. I’m not sure if it’s because they were trying to not get caught or because it was just more efficient that way.”

“Underground? Can you tell me the exact location?”

“It’s at the end of an underground path you can get to from there. It’s very close by.”

Arcia pointed at a round metal hatch in the plaza that Frei then forcefully flung open with [Power Rise]. Kuon climbed down the metal ladder that was there and found the familiar-looking vortex in the sewers. The threads of light being sucked inside of it were probably the spirits of the dead.

“I’ve found it. Steph, could you seal it with [Prison]?”

“Okaaaaaay!”

Steph leaped down to join Kuon and sealed the vortex. Just like when Touya had cast [Prison] on a previous one, the vortex eventually disappeared on its own once it had lost access to the souls it was absorbing.

“It went away!”

“Thank you, Steph. Now, no more of those who have been sacrificed will be used for evil.”

Kuon patted his sister’s head. He was certain now that the goal of the wicked devout was to gather the souls of the people.

With how boldly they’re going about this, they must be running out of time, Kuon thought to himself. Are they beginning to panic? Regardless, we can’t afford to give them any ground.

They already knew where their base was. The fact that the enemy had sent such a huge army after them made it likely that the base was far from well guarded at the moment.

“This may be the best...and perhaps only chance we have to strike.”

After leaving the underground with Steph, Kuon searched for his parents, who were still fighting outside the city walls.

◇◇◇

In the northern part of Isengard was the wicked devout’s tree fortress in the middle of the red lake. Gould was standing atop an altar at the peak of the pyramidal structure within it. One of the vortices made from Spatial Distortion was depositing the spirits of the dead directly into the altar. Those glowing pale-blue strings of souls created an awe-inspiring otherworldly sight.

The large golden ring on the altar was sliding left to right like a dial on a safe. Eventually, it clicked to a stop and the space in the middle of the circle turned into pitch-black darkness. A small pinprick of light began glowing in the center of that darkness.

“It connected... It connected! Ha ha ha! It finally connected!” Gould cheered as if he were human. Tangerine and Peacock began to feel a touch of fear at the madness they were witnessing from where they stood behind him.

“What...? What exactly are you trying to do?”

Everyone who had become a wicked devout despised the world. They’d sold their souls to the wicked vessels in the hopes of destroying the world that dared to deny their existence. Tangerine had always thought that Gould was with them for the very same reason, but now she was starting to have her doubts. It felt as if he were looking in a different direction from the rest of them. There was definitely a hatred for the world somewhere within him, but that hatred didn’t appear to be so intense that he wished to watch it all burn.

The idea of a Gollem being able to express that much emotion seemed unthinkable, so Tangerine was now struggling to view this mechanical puppet as, well, mechanical at all.

“I refuse to acknowledge this world. I will have you become sacrifices for my wish,” Gould said as he turned around and looked at the two wicked devout, his red eyes piercing through them. They could feel obsession, hatred, and anger in the Gollem’s gaze. “The door has opened. All I need to do now is offer up a catalyst for the process to accelerate.”

Suddenly, several vines shot out from the roots behind Tangerine and Peacock, wrapping around them and binding them tightly to the tree. Their orange mace and green chakram fell from their hands.

“What are you doing?!”

“Gould! You bastard...!”

“The wicked god was undoubtedly a divine being. You were pathetic remnants, but at least you were of use at the end.”

When Gould held a hand out to the wicked vessels, they began to warp along with their surroundings. The mace’s handle began to bend and the chakram began to distort as if a great power was pushing down on them. The weapons audibly creaked as they bent, cracks soon beginning to form.

Gould held out his other hand and a black miasma poured forth from it, entering into the cracks he had created in the weapons. The power of the wicked god was being eroded by the power he had received from the fallen god. The metallic sheen of the weapons began to fade, leaving only a flat dullness.

“Gah!”

“Guh!”

As the color changed, Tangerine’s and Peacock’s bodies began to disintegrate. Even after they fully turned to dust, their wicked vessels remained intact, though the metallic sheen was now gone and a reddish-black miasma was pouring out of the cracks.

Gould picked up the two weapons and flung them haphazardly into the gold ring. For just a moment, there was a flash like a little explosion and the pinprick of light grew to the size of a baseball. That was when Gould was able to see that the light was steadily growing bigger.

“Soon... Soon, I will bring them back...”

Gould continued to stare quietly at the slowly expanding light...

◇◇◇

“If we’re gonna attack, we better do it now, huh?”

“Yes. It’s hard to think that this was a well-planned raid. It feels as though they’re blindly hunting human souls...like there’s some reason they have to rush.”

I considered Kuon’s suggestion as I stood overlooking Balerlor, the battle now finished. I definitely got the sense that this string of attacks was a little too haphazard for it to have been done with any careful planning. The strategy of sending an army of mechimera soldiers to Brunhild in order to save time while they harvested souls from elsewhere felt far too crude, as if they didn’t care what came next. Either they were pressed for time in some way, or the result of what they were doing would counter the negatives.

Whatever the case, I agreed with Kuon that something bad would happen if we put it off for too long. If I took too long to make a decision and we ended up too late to stop their plan, then I really wouldn’t be able to do anything.

“I agree with Kuon,” Doc Babylon chimed in, her image appearing in the air. Next to her appeared footage of the tree fortress floating in the red lake that we’d seen earlier. The footage itself was of such low quality, though. “The mana level around their base is decreasing considerably, enough that the drone is being affected. It’s a little hard to see, but if you look at the center of the fortress here...”

The place Doc Babylon was indicating was a pyramid-shaped altar with something sparkling above it. I couldn’t see very clearly, but something was glowing down there.

“What is that?”

“Dunno, but it’s clear that whatever’s making it function isn’t just magic. I’m starting to think that activating this was their goal, so you might want to hurry.”

As if to prove her words right, the lake around the tree fortress began steadily drying up. At the same time, the tree making up the fortress began to slither like a snake, its roots slowly spreading out around it.

Is it...growing? No, it’s just changing shape, right?

Suddenly, the monitor cut out. The drone must’ve lost power.

Gould was using the wicked devout to achieve something. Everything he’d done until now was for that cause. What in the world did Gould—no, Chrom Ranchesse desire that would make him go this far? I didn’t have an answer, but I couldn’t leave him to do as he wished.

“All right, let’s raid them, then,” I decided.

“What shall we do about the children?” Yumina asked.

“There should still be a few wicked devout remaining. I think we’ll have to bring them...”

The moment I said that, the kids all clapped excitedly.

This isn’t a field trip, you guys!

If the mana in the atmosphere was lacking over there, would it be difficult to transport everyone using [Gate]? In that case...

“Daddy! Mr. Whale is here!” Steph yelled.

“Huh?” I muttered as I looked up and saw a large white airship coming from the sky to the east. “Oh, the Val Albus.”

The Val Albus was the Over Gear of the white crown who Yumina was temporarily contracted with. He could definitely transport a bunch of Frame Gears at once.

“Are the Frame Gears that necessary?” Yae asked.

“They probably still have a lot of Kyklops in their arsenal, and I wouldn’t put it past them to have some secret weapon up their sleeve.”

It was hard to imagine they’d sent all their forces here. Regardless, it wouldn’t hurt to be cautious.

After leaving a few Frame Gears behind in Gardio just in case, we stored the rest of them on the Val Albus with [Gate]. The only ones who boarded the ship directly were the Brunhild knights.

I turned to Ende, who was currently scowling at Kuon and Allis happily chatting with each other, and asked, “What’s your plan, Ende?”

“If Allis is going, then obviously I’m going too. Can’t they just do some emergency repairs on the Dragoon to get it moving again?”

According to Rosetta, the Dragoon’s right arm had taken extensive damage and was unusable. It was probably a result of the recoil from the attack that took down the arachne Gollem. Plus, it didn’t help that the Dragoon wasn’t particularly made for hand-to-hand combat.

They weren’t repairs per se, but apparently, they could attach one of the destroyed Night Barons’ arms onto the Dragoon. That would make it harder for Ende to keep his balance, but they said it would be enough to at least let him fight.

Will he really manage, though...? Then again, this is Ende we’re talking about. He’ll probably be fine.

“Master, we’ve, like, totally finished loading the Frame Gears!” Monica reported on the bridge of the Val Albus.

“Monica, how long will it take us to reach the destination?”

“Hmmm... It will take a few hours at normal speed. Were we to go as fast as possible, perhaps thirty minutes? Val Albus will, like, definitely not be able to move after that, though!”

It’d be stranded for a while, huh? But this was an emergency situation. We couldn’t afford to be late.

“Go at full speed, then. Yumina, could I leave it to you?”

“Of course. Albus, activate turbo mode. Head to the destination at maximum speed.”

“Affirmative. Entering turbo flight mode.”

Yumina, sitting in the captain’s seat, ordered the white crown to proceed. Unlike the usual gradual pace, the Val Albus boosted ahead at incredible speed. It gradually grew faster until it even matched the Gungnir, a rapid transit vehicle.

“Thirty minutes until arrival at destination,” Albus reported from the pilot’s seat.

“All right, let’s make sure the knights all get plenty to eat and rest, then,” I said.

“Of course.”

Yumina made a call to the knights, who were all waiting in the hangar in the white whale airship’s stomach area. They’d been fighting consecutive battles without time for a break since the first attack in Brunhild—it would be good for them to eat while they had the chance. It was impossible to fight well on an empty stomach, after all. Even those of us on the bridge were standing and eating some sandwiches.

Around the time we had satisfied our own hunger, Albus turned to Yumina and said, “Master, there has been a sharp drop in mana in this area. It is impossible to maintain our speed. I must make an emergency landing.”

“This must be as far as we can go,” Yumina mused as she looked at the map window she had pulled up with her right hand. The lake we were heading to...was so dried up by now that it was more crater than lake, but anyway, it seemed as if we weren’t able to fly all the way to the fortress in the center.

“If there’s no mana in the air, won’t the Frame Gears be unusable too?” Elze asked.

“Nope. The reason the Val Albus is having issues is because it works using the spirit kiln that’s installed, which allows it to absorb power from the spirits outside, except all the spirits have run from there, so there’s nothing to absorb. The Frame Gears should be able to somewhat function using the ether liquid, since it’s already infused with mana, though you might struggle to use them for an extended period,” Doc Babylon responded over the comms.

I see now. So basically, the Val Albus’s acceleration is wholly dependent on the presence of spirits.

The Val Albus slowed down before descending toward the ground below. It was an emergency landing, but the descent was gradual enough that it shouldn’t cause any real damage. It might not be able to make it all the way to the fortress, but with any luck, it could at least get us inside the crater.

“Touya, look!” Linze suddenly cried out, pointing at the screen.

“Huh?!”

When I turned to the monitor, I saw the tree fortress begin rapidly growing like a bamboo shoot into a tower sticking up from the ground. Its thick roots were wrapped around the tower like a spiral staircase. It brought to mind the picture on the Tower tarot card. It was one of the worst cards you could get, since it signified destruction, ruin, catastrophe, and the end of the world. There was a Tower in Babylon too, but this one was much more ominous and bore a stronger resemblance to the card.

“Neutralizing inertia, antigravity control engaged. Now carrying out emergency landing.”

All we felt was a light, quiet impact as the Val Albus safely landed in the crater.

“Yeah, the spirit kiln is useless here,” Doc Babylon said. “The ship’ll still function a little thanks to the residual mana, but flying will be difficult.”

From the way she was wording it, it was like how you could listen to your car radio even if you ran out of gas.

Yumina ordered Albus to open the hangar door—if there were any complications, there was the chance even the hangar door would be locked shut and we’d be unable to deploy the Frame Gears.

We’d better get going as soon as possible.

“Oh my, it seems they’ve decided to welcome us,” Leen remarked.

The space around the roots of the tree fortress—or, uh, towering tree, I suppose—began to distort, and several Kyklops appeared with it. And then, there was...

“The hell’s that?”

It looked almost like a dinosaur, but with mechanical parts across its body. It appeared like it might be something similar to the mechimera soldiers. Like a...cyborgsaurus of sorts. Or I could just call it a mechimera dinosaur. Either way, it looked just like a Tyrannosaurus rex, and a whole lot of them were appearing alongside the Kyklops.

“From the sky too!”

The sky distorted, but from there came several mechimera pteranodons instead. Their bodies were also fused with machines, with large wings like a Wyvern, a long beak and tail, and at the tip of the tail was something sharp like a cocklebur.

Did pteranodons usually have tails that long? Is it something else?

“Could they be using summoning magic?” Leen suggested as she watched the mechimera dinosaurs...or rather, mechimera flying dinosaurs. “Maybe they summoned beasts from a different world and somehow have them under their control.”

Summoning magic wasn’t out of the question. It was hard to think it wasn’t something that Chrom Ranchesse had an interest in. Was he using the power of the wicked devout to call monsters from different worlds? Surely he couldn’t keep it up forever...

“We might want to attack before they can strengthen their defenses...” Leen muttered.

“We must also sortie, we must! Let us go, Hilde-dono!”

“Yes, Yae!”

“Mother, let us come too!”

“Oh, wait for me!”

Yae, Hilde, Yakumo, and Frei all dashed out of the bridge.

“We should go too,” I said to Yumina. “We’ll put an end to it all here.”

“Right. Oh, but Albus, you wait here to protect and monitor the ship, please.”

“Affirmative.”

Yumina lowered herself from the captain’s chair. The Val Albus was equipped with its fair share of weapons; even if it couldn’t move, it could still provide supporting fire.

What was this ghost from the past that was living with Chrom Ranchesse’s memories trying to do here?

◇◇◇

The fight had begun. Thanks to Rossweise’s melodic support magic and Grimgerde’s Full Burst, several of the Kyklops were incapacitated, but the mechimera T. rexes didn’t go down even after several direct hits from the crystal rounds. Apparently, they had quite the tough hides.

Most of the mechimera pteranodons were circling the towering tree, with only a few attacking us. Were they just more cautious? No, they were likely ordered to hang back.

The knights had boarded the Chevaliers and were starting their own assault against the mechimeras. I panicked when I saw one of them go flying after being hit by one of the dinosaurs’ tails, but it appeared they’d guarded just in time and were able to get back up. I sighed in relief. The only real damage seemed to be the shield, which was now bashed in.

“Be wary of their tails! Don’t approach them carelessly!” Lain shouted. Several spear-wielding Chevaliers lured the dinosaurs with their superior range, then another wielding a greatsword took advantage of the opening and lopped its tail off, letting them all pile on. Frame Gear weapons were generally forged from phrasium, so despite how tough the mechimera dinosaurs’ tails looked, they were still managing to cut through.

Gerhilde swooped in and gave the bridge of one of their noses a solid direct punch. There was an audible crack as its face pushed inward and then went flying through the air—it never moved after that. Elze must have broken its neck.

“Kokonoe Secret Style: Lightning Flash!”

“Lestian Sacred Sword: Third Shear!”

Schwertleite and Siegrune cut off the heads of two dinosaurs at the same time. I heard a very annoyed, “I wanna fight too! Let me pilot!” through the speaker from Frei. Even if the enemy ended up using divine venom, though, the girls had their pilot suits with the special resistance now, so the kids probably wouldn’t get a shot to fight in this battle.

We’ll be counting on you when the wicked devout appear, though.

I could already imagine our kids begging for their own Frame Gears when they returned to the future...

Hang in there, future me.

“Touya, we should deal with the flying enemies!”

“Sure thing.”

At Linze’s call, I tried to fly off with Reginleif, but...

Hmm? What’s wrong with the acceleration?

“Doc, is something up with this?”

“So, uh...when we modified Reginleif, we miiight have added a spirit kiln to try to assist with aerial thrust, but it appears that has backfired... You’ll struggle to make use of it here. I think you could still make it fly with just mana, though. Are you able to call out your spirits to help?”

I dunno if that sounds like a good idea.

I would basically be forcing them to come to a really harsh environment to work for me. It wasn’t impossible or anything, but it would seriously damage the trust that the spirits had in me.

“Oh well, guess I’ll assist from below.”

Giving up on flying, I released the Fragarachs and transformed them into blades before sending them after the pteranodons. The crystal blades flew like missiles into the dinosaurs, leaving holes in their bodies.

The moment I did that, the pteranodons exploded.

“Whoa!”

I whipped my head to the side and saw the Helmwige in its aerial form about to collide with a pteranodon.

Uhhh...this doesn’t seem good!

“Linze! Don’t let them get close! They can blow up!”

“O-Oh, okay!”

Linze shot a whole bunch of rounds at the pteranodon that was dive-bombing her. When it exploded, the Helmwige sped right through the middle of its shattered body. That was terrifying, but at least Linze was safe.

“Are there bombs stuffed inside of them? Or are they just ordered to self-destruct?”

Whatever the case, we absolutely could not afford to get close. It would be bad news if any of them dove into any of the battlefields.

Having realized just how dangerous they were, Brunhilde and Waltraute’s Caster Unit began attacking the pteranodons from range. Luli and Kougyoku had also joined in from the rear, spraying the flying dinosaurs with their dragon fire and fireballs.

Yumina wasn’t able to assist, since her sniper rifle could end up only piercing their head or wings—and if that happened, they wouldn’t explode until their body collided with the ground. The bombs were likely in the pteranodons’ chests or stomachs, but it was hard to judge. If we had the firepower to blow them away, we could likely manage to get them to explode while they were still in the air.

The pteranodons that appeared to have been evaluating the situation from around the tower suddenly turned and flew toward us.

Do they intend to beat us down with numbers?

“Fragarach!”

The twelve crystal blades began slicing freely through the air, piercing the stomachs and chests of twelve pteranodons and causing them to explode. I did my best to defeat them while no one was underneath, since even if they weren’t caught in the explosion itself, the scattered pieces of the pteranodons’ bodies still fell to the ground. Those explosions had quite the power too; if a Frame Gear got too close, just a single pteranodon would be enough to completely destroy it.

I can’t let them get close. We have to take them all down.

“Gwargh!”

A sudden barrage of crystal rounds were shot from behind me. It seemed Leen’s Grimgerde had recovered from its first Full Burst usage.

“Darling, leave this area to us and go to the tower,” she said. It was true that I didn’t particularly want to waste time here.

It wasn’t impossible for the Reginleif to fly. Like Leen said, I could just fly straight to the top of the tower, but...God Almighty had said once before that my family and I could only resist the power of erosion that Gould had access to because of the divinity in our bodies, which meant that didn’t apply to Frame Gears. Worst case, the Reginleif could get taken over. I’d rather that didn’t happen.

“Guess I’ve got no choice but to go on foot, huh?”

I jumped out of the cockpit and put Reginleif in [Storage]. At the same time, Kuon dashed up on Kohaku.

Huh? I thought he was with Yumina.

“Mother told me to accompany you in case a wicked devout was waiting there. I will join you.”

What kind of father am I if I’ve got both my wife and kid worrying about me...?

Actually, what kind of father was I to even be thinking that? It was normal for family to worry about each other. It was, right? This wasn’t a case of me being seen as unreliable, right? It was true that if the wicked devout were around, I wouldn’t be able to lay a hand on them, so...

Right, this fight should be left to the humans of this world to fight. I’m just their support. Kuon is also a human of this world, even if he’s from the future, so it’s fine.

My job right now was to support my son’s battle. The real star of the show here was him, not me.

“All right. Shall we go, then?”

“Let’s.”

I cast [Levitation] on Kohaku and Kuon, then [Fly] on myself, and we set off into the sky.

◇◇◇

After levitating Kuon and Kohaku, I pulled them along with [Fly] and aimed for the top of the towering tree.

“There are some lizard guys comin’ in hot from the right, kiddo.”

At Silver’s warning, we both turned and saw mechimera pteranodons cawing as they flew toward us.

“Spiral forth, O Wind! Raging Sweeping Gale: [Cyclone Storm]!”

“Gyoooaaaaaaaaah!”

The wind blades I sent out tore the wings of several of the pteranodons to shreds, sending them plummeting to the ground. They would definitely die from the impact of the fall, but I didn’t want to cause everyone else trouble, so I cast [Fire Storm] to burn them to a crisp.

We’re in a hurry here. Don’t get in the way!

“Whoa! Not a single bit o’ mercy shown. Well, you are the kiddo’s papa...”

“Isn’t defeating an enemy when you find them normal?” Kuon defended me against Silver’s remark.

“Well, sure, but...”

I slowly pulled us higher and higher, eventually making it above the tower, at which point we were able to see the top of it sprawling below us.

“I wasn’t expecting this...” Kuon muttered.

“Neither was I.”

There was a big ball of roots that were all crossing around one another. It almost looked like a massive tumbleweed—those things that blow across the wastelands in Westerns.

“It’s like they’ve encased themselves in a shell so no one can approach.”

Encased in a shell, huh? Kuon was probably right. It was a show of their resistance against anyone interfering with their plan.

“What shall we do?” he asked.

“For now, let’s try burning it, I guess. Come forth, Fire! Crimson Duet: [Fire Arrow]!”

I fired three arrows down at the gigantic tumbleweed. But even though the attacks landed, the roots didn’t catch fire.

Hang on, did it just convert my magic into mana and absorb it? Could it be that the tree itself is lowering the concentration of mana in the area and scaring the spirits away?

“Doesn’t seem possible,” I sighed.

“Well, I suppose if this was enough to set it on fire, the whole tower would be at risk.”

For now, I lowered us onto the rooftop. Seeing that the ground was made up of bundles of roots as well, I remained cautious; it was always possible they would suddenly shoot out to try to capture us.

The towering tumbleweed in front of us was even bigger than our castle in Brunhild.

Is this the wicked devout’s castle?

If burning it wasn’t possible, then what about chopping it down like a tree?

Deciding it was worth a shot, I pulled out a phrasium axe from [Storage] and tried chopping into the tumbleweed roots. Though it was pretty tough, it turned out I could cut through it after all.

“If magic doesn’t work, I guess we’ve just gotta cut it down the good old-fashioned way... Hmm?!”

Just as I was thinking about how tedious the process was going to be, I turned to Kuon and saw that he’d gotten off Kohaku and was now wielding a chainsaw sword.

Hey, wait! Is that one of those chainsaws Quun made for the Frame Gears for that fight against Yggdrasil?!

“Quun developed a smaller one and forced it on me with Frei. I thought it was just going to gather dust in my [Storage], but I’m glad it’s going to find some use.”

Kuon took his chainsaw sword—the chainblade, to be precise—and swung it around a little, easily ripping apart the tree roots to cut out a square-shaped opening.

That’s weird. It doesn’t cut like the chainsaws I’m used to.

“It’s open.”

“Oh, uh, yeah...”

We entered through the square hole in the wall and discovered that the big root ball wasn’t actually stuffed with roots, but was instead hollowed out in a dome shape like an egg shell. I thought it would be dark inside, but it turned out that there were a bunch of round flowers scattered about the roots that were giving off a faint green glow. It was bright enough that I didn’t need to use [Light Orb].

The inside looked just like the footage Doc Babylon had shown us with the large pyramid altar in the center and the strange light above it.

Is that where Gould and the wicked devout are?

I was about to leap right over with [Fly], but the field of mana that surrounded my body was immediately sucked up by the roots below.

“It appears we can’t use magic inside this dome,” Kuon observed, rubbing his foot along the ground.

What is he...? Oh, is he testing it with [Slip]?

“What about your Magic Eyes?”

“I imagine any Magic Eyes that result in a direct effect on someone else, such as Compression or Immobilization, will have little effect. Eyes like Precognition that only affect me appear fine, though.”

Kuon’s eye changed color each time he blinked.

To test his hypothesis, I tried using [Boost] and [Accel], and sure enough, I could use any magic that worked on me directly. It was likely because they were magic that made use of the mana inside one’s body.

“I can activate and use them ever so slightly, but it’s only for a quick moment,” he continued. “I think I could still use [Slip] as well if I timed it right.”

“Though, regardless, flying over seems impossible.”

I looked up at the pyramid, which was still standing tall. They were kind enough to provide us with stairs, but I was afraid that there were traps installed. Maybe they would suddenly turn into a slope when we were halfway up...

Surely they wouldn’t, right?

I frowned at the stairs as they brought to mind an old comedy sketch I’d seen on the internet.

“Kohaku, can you make it up there?” I asked.

“Of course, my liege.”

I sat myself down behind Kuon, then Kohaku burst off toward the pyramid.

Suddenly, the space in front of Kohaku distorted. Several mechimera dinosaurs came flying out, but this time, it wasn’t the T. rexes from outside—they were triceratops, the ones with the three big horns on their head.

“GROOOOOOAAAAAAR!”

“You fools.”

Kohaku raised her front legs, then slammed them down. The shock waves that blasted from those large claws easily cut the triceratops in half. The attack immediately stopped them in their tracks, their bodies spurting gushes of blood. Kohaku jumped over the pool of blood as if skipping over something dirty.

“Father, over there too.”

I looked in the direction Kuon indicated and saw another triceratops appearing from a distortion in space.

“I see they’re not gonna let us approach easily.”

More and more portals opened up around us, letting through more of the mechimera dinosaurs. Kohaku alone wouldn’t be enough to handle this.

Hmph. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, summon for a summon.

“Come! Sango, Kokuyou, Luli, Kougyoku!”

I clicked my fingers and my four summoned beasts arrived.

“Oh, well, this is a surprise.”

“Oh my! Luli, darling, it looks like your family’s here for a big reunion!”

“They are not Dragons, Kokuyou. Do not mock me!”

“My liege, your orders?”

The four divine beasts had appeared in their small forms before transforming into their bigger forms in a puff of smoke.

“Clean up these guys for me. There isn’t enough mana here for us to use long-range magic, so be careful.”

The moment I said that, Kokuyou shot out water blades from his mouth and Luli blew out a breath of fire, cutting up and roasting the triceratops.

Huh?

“We use our powers by converting the divinity inside our bodies, so it doesn’t matter if there’s no mana in the environment,” Kokuyou explained. “We are divine beasts contracted to a real god, you know?”

That made sense. Wait, but then, did that mean I could’ve used [Fly] if I’d just made use of my divinity?

“Is something wrong?” Kuon asked, turning to look at me.

“No, nothing...”

I pretended I hadn’t come to any conclusions.

I never realized... This is so embarrassing... I hope my face isn’t turning red...

It would be embarrassing to suddenly fly now, so I decided to continue charging ahead on Kohaku.

“My liege, leave this area to us,” Luli said, interrupting my thoughts.

“Y-Yeah, of course! Kohaku, let’s go!”

“Yes, my liege.”

I totally wasn’t trying to fool anyone. Definitely not.

“How should we cook these menaces today?”

“I can cut them right up for you!”

“Know your place, lizard-breath.”

“Let’s burn them to a crisp.”

Alongside those ever-reliable voices behind me, there was the sudden sound of Luli breathing fire and Kokuyou using his water cutter, followed up by the sounds of the triceratops letting out their last cries.

Rest in peace.

I hadn’t realized until now that since I had fully become a god, the beasts contracted to me would therefore become my wards and have their own powers greatly strengthened. As the summoned beasts went wild with their powered-up abilities behind us, Kohaku continued charging toward the pyramid. Once she reached the log-like stairs, she bounded up them toward the top.

It looked as if the light up there was steadily growing brighter.

Just what are they trying to do?

When we made it about halfway up the stairs, falcon and dog mechimera soldiers blocked our path.

“Get out of my way!” Kohaku roared, sending forth a shock wave that sent them flying. I shot at any that she failed to catch with Brunhild so that she could steadily continue her ascent.

When we finally made it to the top, we saw a large ring standing upright in the middle of a wide-open space. Instead of being empty, the ring was, for some reason, filled with darkness, and in the middle of that, a bright light was being emitted.

What even is that?

“Huh?!”

Kohaku suddenly jumped back. Only moments later, several golden feathers were piercing the ground where we had just stood. The feathers immediately burst like little balloons into some sort of paste, spreading out along the ground and melting the roots that it touched.

I know what these feathers are!

I looked up and saw that familiar silhouette floating in the air, backlit by the large glowing light in the center of the ring. A small gold body, two glowing red eyes, and its four golden wings spread out wide from the bag on its back. Gould was glaring contemptuously down at us from where he floated.

“I never imagined you would make it this far. However, I will not let anyone interfere with my plans. Parallel Shift.”

Gould appeared to blur slightly before splitting into two.

That’s...not Gold’s ability. If he made a clone of himself, then...it must be Noir’s crown skill!

Chronos Noir, the black crown, could call forth a version of itself from a parallel world and anchor it to this one. It allowed him to create a version of himself from a few seconds in the past or future. Naturally, like the other crown skills, it came with a great price: Their master had to sacrifice their lived time, essentially reversing their growth. On paper, it sounded like something to be envious of, but it was much more terrifying than it sounded, able to turn the person back so far in age that they could become a fetus again.

Several feathers on Gould’s back turned gray before falling onto the ground below and disintegrating into dust. The many Orichalcum Slimes inside the feathers had paid the price for Gould.

“Gluttonic Feather.”

The two Goulds sent forth their gold feathers.

“Dodge, Kohaku!”

“Yes, my liege!”

Those feathers had the ability to consume. They absorbed whatever they touched and turned it into their own power. If I hit it with my sword without thinking, my sword would be eaten whole.

Kohaku sped away from the incoming feathers as they pierced the roots below, dissolving them as they had before.

“Veraenderung: Axt.”

“Veraenderung: Schwert.”

The right arms of the two Goulds bent like melted candy and morphed into weapons—one an axe, the other a sword.

I leaped off Kohaku and shot at the axe-wielding Gould to draw its attention, causing it to leap toward me just as I wanted it to. I took the attack from the axe with Brunhild in Blade Mode.

“Such futility. Feast, Gluttony.”

The axe suddenly wrapped around Brunhild like a tentacle.

He’s probably trying to erode my divinity like he did with Yakumo.

“Sorry, but we’ve already devised a counter for this. Divine Providence!”

“Gah!”

My body and Brunhild began glowing with a platinum light. The moment the light hit the tentacle, it whipped off my sword—the divinity I was encased in had a trait that allowed it to deflect my opponent’s divinity.

I’d only been told I couldn’t use my divinity against the wicked god, not the god of erosion; the wicked god’s power was born from the mortal realm, while the fallen god’s power was born from the divine realm, and that meant there was no harm in resisting the fallen god’s power with divinity. It couldn’t be allowed to exist in the mortal realm any longer.

But, uh...where did the wicked devout go? I thought they would be here...

“You meddling...! I should’ve eliminated you first after all!”

Gould landed on the ground and placed his hands on the roots near his feet.

“Arboreus Arm!”

The roots wrapped around his hands, creating gigantic arms that contrasted with his tiny body.

The Gollem sent a massive punch barreling forward. Naturally, there was no way for me to block that with Brunhild, so I jumped to the side as it collided with the ground and completely eviscerated the roots that were there.

That was like a mini explosion...

Smoke drifted up from the destroyed roots and I suddenly realized that Gould’s tree arms were ablaze.

That fire and sheer power... Is that Rouge’s crown skill?!

“I need just a little more time! I won’t let you interfere!”

“Why are you so obsessed with this...?”

I readied Brunhild once more as I looked into those eyes, which were filled with madness.

◇◇◇

“Feast, Gluttony.”

“Hold yer little horsies there, robot boy! Second Seal Release!”

The moment Gould tried to erode Kuon’s sword, Silver knocked it back. The blade, now slightly glowing, was rejecting Gould’s tentacle, protecting Kuon like a barrier. Silver was serving the role of an amplifier to create the barrier from Kuon’s mana. Divine Neutralization prevented the power of erosion from activating, meaning Gould’s attack bounced right off.

“Get lost!” Kohaku roared, then released another shock wave that sent Gould flying, but the Gollem managed to right himself in the air. His red eyes were fixed on the silver sword that Kuon held.

“That sword... Are you Infinite?”

“Tickles me pink to know ya remembered a failure like me, sir. Should I say ‘it’s been a while,’ Master Creator?” Infinity Silver spat at Gould.

Silver had been a weapon Gollem with his own sense of self that was created by Chrom Ranchesse, but the scientist dropped the project halfway through.

Does he still hold a grudge because he was forged and then abandoned? Kuon thought to himself.

“A failure? You are simply something I halted the development of. I don’t think of you as a failure. I do think you were a waste of time and resources, however.”

“Oh, you asshole! Ya haven’t learned how to not piss people off, that’s for sure! Kiddo! This guy hasn’t changed one bit! Go teach him a lesson!”

“Me? Well, I don’t mind, but...”

Kuon swung Silver down at Gould. Gould blocked it with his arm, which was now morphed into a sword.

The golden Gollem and the young boy clashed blades over and over. Gould had yet to realize that the boy’s right eye had begun to shine a red-gold.

Gould’s sword suddenly cracked. The moment came abruptly.

“No!”

They were still in the middle of their clash. Even though he’d noticed that his sword was cracked, Gould couldn’t stop his next attack. The hit caused Gould’s sword to shatter in two.

Kuon had combined his Mystic Eye of Compression with Silver’s amplifying ability to destroy the sword. Gould had no choice but to dodge Kuon’s next attack.

“How d’ya like that, huh?! The kiddo’s sly Mystic Eye and me make fer the best duo!” Silver roared triumphantly.

“Excuse me? What did you just say?”

Kuon began to slap Silver with his sacred treasure.

“Whoa! Th-That was just a figure of speech, ya get me?!”

A divinity-infused sacred treasure could cut even Silver into two. That thought alone was enough to make him tremble.

Each time their swords struck, Kuon had used his Mystic Eye. He was unable to use magic here—or more precisely, it immediately dissipated. That was why he only used it at the precise moments their swords collided. But even then, the effect was lessened, so that it required a lot of strikes before it finally broke Gould’s arm.

Gould stared at his shattered sword arm, but a new sword immediately slithered out from the space where it had broken.

“A Mystic Eye... An activation vessel that uses sight to cast magic. The effect is not that strong. It will pose no problem.”

“Tch, I think the guy’s regeneratin’ himself using purple’s skill... How unfair’s that? He gets to take all the good parts of us crowns.”

Fanatic Viola, the purple crown, had the ability to grant its master an immortal body and regenerative abilities, but the price in exchange for that was eroding the master’s mind, eventually leaving them a husk of who they were before.

Just as before, several gold feathers lost their color and fell from the support unit on Gould’s back, the Cherubim, and disintegrated. Yet more Slimes were sacrificed to pay the price.

“Do not get in my way, child with the Mystic Eye. Disappear, Photon Laser.”

Balls of light floated up around Gould, then turned into rays that shot at Kuon all at once.

“Sacred treasure equip,” Kuon muttered, the blade in his hand unraveling into threads and then rethreading into a large shield. It was a little larger than the one Steph used, easily blocking the lasers.

“How?!”

The sacred treasure had been forged in a way that it could change into any of the nine forms at a moment’s notice—no one form was specific to one child. It was simply that each child had a weapon that they were accustomed to and better at using.

“You certainly like acting all high-and-mighty, but shouldn’t a ghost of the past disappear already? I can even help.”

“You little brat!”

“Eyyy, you go, kiddo! I can never get enough of you tearin’ ’em apart like that! Did you hear him, old man? Disappear already!” Silver exclaimed, deciding to join Kuon in winding up the Gollem.

Kohaku couldn’t help but make the observation that Kuon likely inherited that part of himself from his father.

“Very well! In that case, I will no longer hold back!”

The four Cherubim wings on Gould’s back spread open wide as several rings of light appeared behind him. It looked as if the lights themselves were turning, letting off sparks.

“O-Oh, he’s, uh, pulled out somethin’ mighty concerning, kiddo... Do ya think it was a mistake for me to wind him up too?”

“It’ll be fine. We have our secret weapon, after all.”

“We do?”

Kuon simply smiled at Silver’s confusion.

The rings of light rotated at high speeds like a rotary saw before flying toward Kuon, who was still on Kohaku’s back.

“Tch!”

Kohaku managed to dodge the ring, but when it reached the roots below, the rotary halo cut right through it. That same halo made a large arc through the air and aimed at Kuon once more. Several rotary halos were flying at them from all directions now. Kohaku did her best to dodge what she could as Kuon deflected any she couldn’t with Silver.

“Kiddo, there’s no end to this!”

“I think we’ll have to find a way to get rid of them directly... Sacred treasure equip.”

Kuon returned Silver to his sheath and changed the shield into a different shape. What appeared in his hand next was a small harpbow.

Kuon pulled back one of the strings with his right hand, arrows of light lining up in front of him.

“And...fire.”

The arrows of light audibly whooshed through the air, flying toward the rotary halos. They homed in on the halos as if they were magnets, taking them down one by one.

Kohaku nodded proudly.

“A wonderful display.”

“Wooohooo! Every shot’s a bull’s-eye!”

“So long as they are close enough, the arrows can automatically lock on to their targets. Plus...”

Kuon pulled back the string again and shot an arrow right at Gould, who was still floating in the air. Gould tried to deflect the arrow with his sword, but at the last minute, the arrow veered to the side and curved around to strike the Gollem in the side of his head.

“Gah!”

“...I can do fancy tricks like this.”

Having lost his balance, Gould began to fall. Kuon thought he was going to collide with the ground, but his body stopped at the last minute and began to float up again.

“I thought I could take him down by shattering the Q-Crystal in his head, but it appears that isn’t so simple. Was there not enough power behind it?”

“Hmm, I do think ya landed the shot, but it looked like it got absorbed. It probably felt more like you gave him a little knock on the head.”

Gould turned his red eyes on Kuon. It appeared Kuon wasn’t alone in thinking he felt anger being directed his way, since Kohaku immediately dropped into a defensive stance. Feeling something weird beneath her paws, Kohaku looked down and saw human clothes and accessories, along with two masks, dropped on the ground.

“Are these...?”

Kuon followed Kohaku’s gaze downward.

“Those are the wicked devout’s...”

One of the sets belonged to the chakram-wielding wicked devout he’d fought in the Ark. The other belonged to the mace-wielding wicked devout that Frei had fought. But for their belongings to be abandoned here...

“Did you consume the wicked devout?” Kuon asked directly.

“I simply sacrificed some useless pawns. Inefficient factors will only mess up my plans, so having them around is a waste of time.”

“Ugh, that self-serving efficiency of yours is the same as always... You seriously make me sick.”

Even the scathing words from his own creation weren’t enough to get Gould—Chrom Ranchesse—to react.

Kuon, meanwhile, was left thinking about the valuable questions, such as... Can Gollems feel nauseous too?

That aside, he certainly felt his own anger at how simply Gould was able to treat his comrades like tools, even if those comrades were the wicked devout they were there to kill.

“I will sacrifice you all to the cause as well. Veraenderung: Lanze.”

Gould’s arm morphed into a lance that resembled an ice pick. Thinking he was going to charge into them, Kuon turned his harpbow back to a shield and raised it at the ready.

“Spatial Distortion.”

Gould held his left hand to the side and the space began to distort. Gould thrust his arm lance into that tiny space.

“Crap! Mr. Tiger! Jump forward!”

Heeding Silver’s call, Kohaku reflexively jumped forward. In the space where they’d just been, the tip of the gold lance was sticking out. If Kohaku had remained where she was, Kuon would undoubtedly have been skewered. Silver had been able to detect it so quickly specifically because he perceived his surroundings with a sensor rather than being able to see with a pair of eyes.

“Not bad, silver sword. I’m a little annoyed at you calling me that, but I’ll forgive you just this once.”

“Huh? Why would that make ya mad?”

“Kohaku’s a girl, you know?” Kuon clarified. “Of course she wouldn’t want you to call her that.”

“No way!”

While Silver was busy being surprised by Kohaku’s gender, Kuon realized that the attack just now had been a teleportation attack using Spatial Distortion; it was a tactic that Yakumo frequently used. The fact that the attack completely ignored the concept of distance made it hard to dodge, even with the Mystic Eye of Precognition.

His Mystic Eye worked specifically by predicting where the attack would come from next, therefore letting him dodge. For example, even if someone was going to try to punch him from the front, if he knew that a left hook was going to come his way, he could dodge or block. On the other hand, even if he could predict that a body tackle was suddenly about to come at him from close range, it would be difficult to do anything about it.

“You dodged that, did you? Then how about this?”

The single distortion in space turned into several that were surrounding Kuon. The next moment, Gould leaped through one of the portals, lance aimed forward.

“Ngh!”

Kuon held up his shield and blocked Gould’s attack. Gould then dove into the portal opposite Kuon before immediately reappearing from a different one. This time, Kohaku dodged to the side, but then Gould moved to yet another portal.

“The slimeball! He’s just gonna keep jumpin’ around like this, ain’t he?!”

“Being able to see the distortions is at least better than suddenly being attacked from a blind spot, but it’s still not great,” Kuon muttered.

“There is no way to determine where it will come from next!” Kohaku growled.

As Kuon continued blocking the attacks with his shield, he realized it reminded him of the “whack-a-mole” game that his father had created. He had to predict where the attack would come from in order to block it, but this was more like moving to block after the opponent made their move. He was stuck doing nothing but remaining on the defensive. While the enemy had the initiative, Kuon would steadily tire and eventually have his defenses broken entirely.

“I dunno if we’ve got any other choice other than to make a bet on which is the right hole and try ta counter, kiddo! I could maybe get the rough direc—”

The moment Silver tried to make his suggestion, golden feathers shot out from several of the portals. While Divinity Neutralization was active, the power of the god of erosion would be ineffective, but the Gluttony Slimes could still consume. If Gould managed to absorb the divinity of the sacred treasure, he would grow even more powerful—Kuon absolutely could not block them with his shield. Instead, he struck them down with Silver. If he used his Mystic Eye of Precognition, he could do at least that much, but Gould took that moment to try to thrust with his lance again.

“Gah!”

Kuon bent backward to dodge the strike, then aimed Silver at Gould, who was flying in front of them. But the tip of the sword just missed as Gould disappeared into the portal again.

“Dammit! If the guy can fire his feathers at the same time, there’s no way fer me to distinguish which is him!”

Since they would appear at roughly the same time, Silver’s sensor was useless in determining which were the feathers and which was Gould. Their reaction time was too slow if they waited until Gould had fully reappeared.

Kohaku tried to dash away from the area, but it appeared the distortions were centered around Kuon as they followed them even as they moved.

“If that won’t work, then...!”

The moment Gould leaped through a distortion again, Kohaku jumped upward. Kohaku dodged the feathers and Gould’s spear thrust, bringing up the portals with her in an attempt to stop consecutive attacks.

“Spatial Distortion.”

However, Gould showed no signs of panic as he held his left hand out in front of him and created another portal to jump through.

“Oh no!”

Kohaku immediately realized she had no way to dodge the attack while suspended in the air. In hopes of protecting at least Kuon, she maneuvered her body to take the spear thrust.

“Glasses are the best,” Kuon suddenly said.

“What?!”

Gould’s lance was aimed right for Kohaku’s flank, but before it could reach its target, Gould paused as if time itself had stopped.

“Grah!”

“I see. It certainly is more powerful now.”

No longer able to move, Gould could only watch as Kuon leaped from Kohaku’s back and swung down the sacred treasure in its sword form. The sword was brought down straight on the Cherubim, sending Gould headfirst into the ground.

“Gah...! What was that?!”

Kuon landed softly on the ground in front of Gould’s splayed-out body. One of his eyes had turned yellow-gold—the color of the Mystic Eye of Immobilization—and he now wore a pair of round glasses.

“Kiddo, what are these?”

“It’s a secret weapon I acquired from the god of glasses.”

“Th-The god of...glasses?”

The pair of glasses Kuon was wearing were gifted to him by the god of glasses, Glassie, when he visited the castle the other day. He’d gifted both the grand duchesses and their children their own special pairs. His actual reason for doing it was to try to turn them all into glasses lovers, but that didn’t matter right now.

The glasses that Kuon had received were ones that could strengthen his Mystic Eyes. They were a really unique piece of craftsmanship, able to work even in an area like this with such little mana in the environment. Kuon hadn’t used them straightaway because the glasses had several restrictions. One was that it consumed more energy to use his Mystic Eyes than usual, while the other was that he needed to say a specific phrase to activate them.

“I told him he could choose whatever phrase he liked, and he went for ‘Glasses are the best’...”

“Oof... Yeah, I get why you wouldn’t wanna use ’em now...”

Also, for some ridiculous reason, the effectiveness of the glasses depended on how enthusiastic the user recited the catchphrase. Kuon wasn’t sure how true it was, but apparently, shouting as loud as one could had more of an effect than muttering it. For a boy who honestly couldn’t care less about glasses, having to scream, “Glasses are the best!” at the top of his lungs was an incredibly embarrassing thought. His parents would think there was something wrong with him.

He’d intended to leave them sealed away forever in [Storage], but as today had shown, he really couldn’t tell what would come in handy.

The effects of the Mystic Eye of Immobilization wore off. Now that Gould could move, he leaped back away from Kuon.

“Was that the power of your Mystic Eye? What did you do?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know? Unfortunately, I’m not so stupid as to reveal my secrets to the enemy.”

Kuon observed Gould as he spoke. Although Gould had immediately regenerated his arm when it had been cut off, the dent in the Cherubim hadn’t returned to normal after Kuon’s attack, which implied the regenerative abilities didn’t extend to the Cherubim.

“Found our target, at least,” Kuon muttered.

“Time to strip off his frilly parts first, eh?”

The portals that had been opened around Kuon had disappeared. Gould lifted his arm to use Spatial Distortion once more.

“Glasses are the best.”

However, before Gould could fully open the portal, Kuon spoke those words and the distortion dispelled like smoke, returning the space to normal.

“Nrgh!”

“Wow, so even Negation is strengthened. I knew Gould could use the crown skills with just the smallest bit of mana, so I didn’t think I’d be able to completely prevent it.”

“What in the world did you do?!” Gould roared, appearing shocked with eyes wide. Crowns were more expressive than regular Gollems, but Kuon couldn’t help but be surprised at how even something as stone-faced—or metal-faced—as Gould could have emotional outbursts like that.

“The catchphrase may be lame as all hell, but it sure does a pretty good job! Glasses really are the best, yahoo!” Silver cheered.

“Are you mocking me? If you are, I will not hesitate to permanently meld glasses to your body.”

“Deepest apologies... Got a bit too overexcited there...”

Silver’s enthusiasm immediately dispersed under Kuon’s dark smile. The eyes underneath those lenses were not laughing. Silver had learned long ago that Kuon was not to be messed with when he looked like that.

Kuon decided that the next time he saw the god of glasses, he was going to immediately ask to have the catchphrase changed. Gould, meanwhile, had readied his spear once again and was launching through the air. At that distance, it was easy for Kuon to predict his movements with the Mystic Eye of Precognition. Kuon deftly dodged to the side, targeting the Gollem’s back the second he flew past.

“Glasses are the best.”

“Let’s goooooo! First Seal Release!”

Kuon’s eye began to shine a red-gold. Staring right at the Cherubim, he activated the Mystic Eye of Compression. Silver shone a dazzling white as he amplified the power of the Mystic Eye several times over.

The Cherubim shattered with a deafening crash, sending Gould flying forward. Left without his flight device, the gold Gollem could only roll along the ground. The feathers of the destroyed Cherubim glittered in the air as they scattered.

“Impossible! You destroyed the Cherubim?!”

“Kiddo, somethin’ about the wings ain’t lookin’ right. Are they...?”

As Silver had said, the shattered Cherubim parts were slowly melting into a gelatinous substance. They were losing their golden sheen, turning into red-brown Slimes instead.

“I assume those are the main bodies,” Kuon surmised.

“Eww, that’s so gross.”

The Cherubim was both a magic tool and Gollem made from Gluttony Slimes and Orichalcum Slimes. Now that the core that had been maintaining their shape was destroyed, the Slimes were unable to remain in that form. The scattered feathers turned into small wiggling Slimes, but eventually, their movements slowed and smoke began to rise from their bodies as they melted away.

“The little buddies up and vanished...”

“They probably can’t continue living as Slimes because their cores are gone. Gould over there most likely found them much more useful without a will.”

Kuon looked over at the Gollem, which was still collapsed on the ground. If his only goal for the Slimes was to control them to use their properties, then they didn’t need their own sense of self. The Slimes were practically already dead. Now that they had left Gould’s possession, they’d returned to their original forms.

The Cherubim itself was also turning back into Slime.

It’ll probably disappear too if we just leave it alone.

“He shouldn’t be able to use his crown skills anymore.”

“Just a little more... Just a little more and I can connect it...! I won’t let you interfere...! Reverse!”

Contrary to Kuon’s expectations, Gould activated a crown skill. The Cherubim was nothing more than additional support. If he didn’t care about the damage to his body, Gould could use the crown skills just fine.

Kuon quickly tried to activate his Mystic Eye of Negation, but he was too late. Even if he was able to slightly activate it, Reverse would automatically return affected objects back to their designated time.

Gold had stated that the gold crown had no crown skill—and right enough, there was no gold crown skill. But that was because the gold crown was made to contain all the crown skills except Silver’s. It was a double-edged sword that required a great price from not just the master, but also the gold crown itself. That was why the gold crown had a limiter attached that usually prevented it from using any crown skills. The only one who could release that limiter was Chrom Ranchesse, the High Master and creator himself. Given that Gould had Ranchesse’s memories, it was only natural that he’d removed his limiter.

Having used Reverse, parts of Gould’s body were already starting to disintegrate, but the half-melted Cherubim slowly reverted back to its old form in return. The Cherubim, now having regained part of its old appearance, floated into the air and docked on Gould’s back again. However, the wings no longer had most of their feathers and were still largely destroyed.

“Seems he can’t bring those feathers back once they’re gone,” Silver pointed out.

“If he could, he’d have been able to use his abilities infinitely. I’m not surprised it’s impossible.”

Both Gould and the Cherubim were falling apart, but his eyes were still alight with determination. Kuon could easily tell he had no intention of giving up.

“What are you trying to do that would motivate you to go so far? Is it the revival of the wicked god after all?” Kuon tried to ask.

“I could not care less about the wicked god! I’m here to retrieve what I have lost! I’ll sacrifice anything I must! Veraenderung: Axt!” Gould’s arm transformed into a large axe. He didn’t hesitate to immediately activate the black crown skill: “Clockup!”

“Glasses are the best.”

Gould leaped at Kuon so fast that it looked like he’d teleported. Yet, having managed to predict what would happen, Kuon was able to dodge at the last second, his eye an orange-gold. While Gould was stuck finishing the swinging of his axe, Kuon took the opportunity to aim the sacred treasure, which was suddenly in the form of a gun, at Gould’s temple.

“No matter the reason, sacrificing others is never okay.”

Kuon pulled the trigger. He focused the power of Compression on the Gollem’s temple, the bullet from the sacred treasure ripping through it. Unlike the failed attempt with the arrow, the bullet managed to pierce the Q-Crystal before exiting through the other side of Gould’s head and embedding into the ground.

“Gah... Guh...?!”

With the Q-Crystal shattered, the regenerative abilities of the purple crown and the time manipulation of the black crown did nothing to help. All Gould knew was that at that moment, his hopes had been crushed. In his fading consciousness, Gould entrusted his hope to the remaining self that he could see out of the corner of his vision.

If he could, just one more time...

“E...dda... Ryuu...ri...”

Gould stretched his hand forward. Eventually, he lost all his remaining strength and the arm fell to the ground as his body disintegrated into dust.

“He just disappeared,” Silver muttered.

“It appears this was only the double he created with Noir’s ability. We need to assist fath...”

When Kuon tried to turn around, he suddenly swayed and fell to his knees.

“Kiddo?!”

“Young Master?!”

Kohaku dashed up to support Kuon’s body. The boy was breathing painfully as he leaned against her.

“I should’ve...guessed that using strengthened Mystic Eyes so many times in a row...would take an even greater toll on my body...”

“Please rest,” Kohaku insisted. “Your father will manage.”

“You’re right...”

Reassured by Kohaku’s words, Kuon let his consciousness go. His gun fell from his hand and returned to its form as a platinum sphere, circling Kuon as if trying to protect him.

Kohaku maneuvered Kuon onto her back and walked away to avoid interfering with her master’s battle. Silver, having also fallen out of Kuon’s grip, floated along beside them.

“My liege... It’s all down to you now.”

After taking one last look back at Touya fighting the other Gould, Kohaku left the scene.

Chapter III: At Wish’s End

《My liege, the young master is safe. You needn’t worry.》

《Got it. Look after him for me.》

I continued dodging the attacks from the gigantic tree arms while Kohaku spoke to me telepathically. Gould had made those arms using a green crown skill, then had used a red crown skill to power up his strikes and infuse them with fire. Even though I was managing to dodge the punches, each strike sent broken tree roots flying into me. They didn’t cause great damage to me or anything, but they did sting; it was enough to affect my focus.

I’d attempted to shoot at Gould any time I saw an opening, but every time, he would block the bullets with those huge arms.

“Gluttonic Feather.”

Several gold feathers shot off from the wings on Gould’s back and fired toward me like shuriken.

Realizing I couldn’t dodge them in time, I erected a barrier with [Prison] to block them instead. It was possible to use the spell so long as the barrier was localized around me.

The moment the feathers hit the barrier, they exploded like little balloons, spreading a liquid that consumed part of the barrier.

“Tch!”

I immediately leaped backward. Those feathers had the same characteristics as Gluttony Slimes, so they could consume anything and convert it into their own energy. Their bodies pulsed for a while before they eventually reverted to their feather shapes and returned to Gould’s back—I was pretty sure he was absorbing the mana they’d eaten from my [Prison].

Being able to consume the opponent’s strength and turn it into your own is a nasty move. Even worse now, considering that’s not the only threat here.

“Spatial Distortion.”

The space in front of Gould and the space in front of me started to distort. Gould crossed that distortion in space to launch a right straight that I had no choice but to take up close.

“[Accel]!”

I used acceleration magic to boost to the side and speed up my processing ability to just barely dodge the fist in the slowed-down space. It was all well and good that I’d dodged the fist, but the wind the punch generated knocked me off-balance. Gould took that chance to once more send his gold feathers after me.

Talk about playing dirty!

Just before I fell to the ground, I opened a [Gate] beneath me and fell straight into it. Even if it only stayed open for an instant, I could manage.

Naturally, my exit point was right above Gould.

Time to get a taste of your own irritating medicine!

I took out a huge rock about the size of a minibus from [Storage] that I’d kept aside while helping clear a landslide the other day and...

“[Gravity]!”

...slammed it right down on Gould after making it several times heavier. The tree roots cracked and crunched as the rock embedded itself into the ground. I thought there was no way Gould could have survived that, but then it began to shift.

When I landed on the ground, there Gould was in front of me, lifting up the rock. I was shocked at the strength on display—that rock had to have been several hundred tons.

Is this what the red crown skill is truly capable of?

Gould flung the rock right at me. Unsurprisingly, I did not want to get squished under my own rock, so I used [Accel] to dodge the incoming attack.

“Blazing Finger Shot.”

When Gould snapped his fingers, ten fireballs shot out of them and flew right toward me.

Ten whole fireballs at once?! Is this the red crown skill too?!

I used [Prison] to block the incoming attack. I was afraid they would set the surrounding roots on fire, but it seemed fine.

Then, all of a sudden, I heard my barrier crack.

No way?! Are those fireballs infused with divinity?!

My barrier lasted until the eighth fireball, but then the ninth shattered it entirely and the tenth had an easy opening to strike me.

“Divine Providence!”

I slashed the last fireball with a divinity-infused Brunhild.

Slashed in two by the blade, the last fireball flew past my left and right and exploded behind me.

Jeez, that was way too close for comfort! Is this menace able to use divinity for more than just erosion?

Wait, no...was the power of erosion quite literally eroding Gould? That meant he could be on his way to becoming the wicked god himself!

That wasn’t good. I was the curator of this world. If I let a wicked god be born in my first year of godhood, the other deities would never let me live it down. There were already gods that didn’t think too highly of me, so messing up here would be devastating for my reputation.

Personally, though, the power of the fallen god Gould had gotten his hands on wasn’t even my fault—it was the god of destruction’s fault for not managing to dispose of all of the fallen god’s fragments. He should be the one taking the blame here, not me.

Thankfully, Gould wasn’t fully a wicked god yet. Honestly, he couldn’t even be counted as a wicked devout, which meant it would still be okay for me to be the one to take him down.

“Come forth, sacred treasure.”

At my call, the platinum sphere that had been protecting Kuon flew into my hand. Though I had lent it to the kids, this was technically my sacred treasure that I had created, so I could use it just as well as they could.

“Sacred treasure equip!”

The ball separated into threads, then rethreaded into the gunblade that I’d made for Kuon. It was designed like a blade with a gun barrel attached to the top, and the bullets it shot out were all made from divinity. If I shot them like this, Gould’s Gluttony Slimes would just absorb them, so I made sure to coat them in my Divine Providence, turning them into divine armor-piercing bullets. And to go a little bit further...

“Copy.”

“What?!”

The floating gunblade moved in a circle, leaving behind copies of itself as it went. It eventually left me with nine of those sacred treasure gunblades floating in front of me.

“Full Burst!”

I copied Leen’s Grimgerde and shot a barrage of bullets at Gould.

With there being no end to the bullets headed his way, Gould took a defensive stance with his large arms—but unfortunately for him, the bullets pierced even those wooden creations, the fists slowly being whittled down by the endless assault.

“Guh! This is impossible! What is this attack?! I can’t erode...or absorb it...!”

“Because I made sure that’s how those bullets work.”

Usually, divine beings couldn’t use a sacred treasure so freely. Sousuke only used his as an instrument, so there was nothing to be concerned about on his front, but most sacred treasures had too much of an effect on the mortal realm. The only reason I was going for such an unfair tactic was because I needed to counter Gould’s power from the god of erosion.

Eliminating fallen gods is the job of the gods, so there’s nothing wrong with what I’m doing!

Even though I was making excuses for myself, the fact that neither Granny Tokie nor Karen had tried to stop me had to mean I had the green light. I wasn’t sure if this was one of those actions that were in a gray zone, though.

“That’s enough for now.”

I was starting to struggle to maintain the copies, so I got rid of them and ended the attack there.

Gould was crouched on the ground, his large arms torn to shreds even as he held them up. His shoulders, legs, and wings had all taken damage, but everything apart from the wings was already regenerating.

That must be the regenerative ability of the purple crown.

The price for that was the feathers that fell off the wings and disintegrated. Tens of thousands of Orichalcum Slimes had to give up their lives for that...

“Not yet... I cannot let things end here...!”

Though Gould had the memories of a human inside of him, he was still undoubtedly a Gollem. Yet, feeling the intensity of his motivation, I had started to wonder if a machine was truly capable of such obsession.

What is it that’s pushing him this far?

Just as I’d started to feel a touch of fear, the ring on top of the altar began letting off an especially bright light. I covered my eyes with my arm, but Gould instead widened his eyes and turned to look straight at it.

“It’s time! It’s finally time! The time has come for me to reclaim my world!”

I felt myself shiver at the sheer insanity in Gould’s voice.

His world? What does he mean by that?

“It appears I was too late...”

“Granny Tokie?!”

When I turned around, Granny Tokie, the goddess of space-time, was standing behind me. For a moment, I started to think that I’d violated the rules after all, but the elderly goddess was looking at the ring, not me. It seemed I wasn’t the problem here.

“I never imagined he had hidden it with the power of the god of erosion... I can’t blame that little brat of destruction anymore. Touya, I will get straight to the point: That is a time tunnel.”

“A time tunnel?!”

As in, the thing that would cause the past and the present and the future to get all messed up and cause the god of destruction to make his appearance if it finished forming?!

“It has not finished forming, but if it does, there will be nothing that you can do.”

“Can you not get rid of it like you did that one out in the desert?” I asked expectantly.

Unfortunately, Granny Tokie shook her head no.

“It isn’t that it’s impossible for me to do, but if I were to assist you now, the other gods would definitely view it as favoritism. Not just any favoritism, but favoritism from God Almighty himself. It is because you are his ward that there are some things we cannot do.”

Ugh, she’s got a point...

They were already helping me out a ton—I couldn’t piggyback off them for everything or the gods of the Divine Realm would never truly accept me.

“So I’ve gotta figure out what to do here myself, huh?”

“I’m sorry, Touya. If I had realized sooner, I could have let you know.”

“Nah, this was something I always needed to handle by myself.”

Hell, the timequakes were something I was supposed to go around and deal with, yet I took advantage of Granny Tokie’s kindness and left it all to her. I couldn’t even argue back if someone accused me of relying on favoritism. New gods naturally needed support, but I’d never get anywhere if I always relied on others. I wouldn’t create the best impression either.

“First things first, I guess I’ve gotta destroy that time tunnel. Sacred treasure equip.”

This time, I turned the sacred treasure into the large assault spear that almost looked like a greatsword, the weapon I’d forged for Frei. Usually, the sacred treasure adjusted its weight depending on its wielder, but this one required a certain amount of weight to unleash its full power, so it was pretty hefty.

Thankfully, both Frei and I could use [Power Rise] to easily handle such a heavy weapon. Activating the spell, I aimed the spear at the ring. When Gould noticed what I was doing, he jumped to protect it.

Sorry, but I’ll be taking this opportunity to destroy both you and your ring.

“[Accel].”

I accelerated forward right at the ring.

“I won’t let you! Arboreus Shield!”

This time, Gould’s arms turned into a big tree shield. My sacred treasure and Gould’s shield collided. Even though I was using [Power Rise], the monstrous power of the red crown was enough for me to feel real resistance. The power of erosion started to reach forward from the shield, most likely to try to absorb the power of the sacred treasure.

“Divine Providence!”

Unfortunately for him, I deflected the power of erosion with my platinum divinity. Cracks appeared in Gould’s shield before I blasted through it, shattering his arms and wings in the process, and finally reached the ring. I swung the spear horizontally like a sword and cut the ring in two.

With a satisfying zhwoom, the two halves of the ring separated and the time tunnel that had been releasing light evaporated.

Now the god of destruction has no reason to appear!

But then, I heard Gould’s quiet voice as his body floated through the air.

“Ngh! This was...the one thing I...never wanted to use...but I have no choice... Reset!”

“Huh?!”

.

.

.

The next moment, the area suddenly changed. Gould, battered and broken, was crouching on the ground. We were below the altar, right where we had been fighting earlier.

Is this...Reset, the white crown skill?!

Everything that had just happened had been overwritten. It wasn’t a simple reversal of time, but a complete altering of history. The events of me striking Gould and cutting the ring in two had never happened.

Several feathers fell from Gould’s wings and turned into dust. The price for Reset had to be big.

Suddenly, a bright light assaulted my eyes—the ring had begun shining again.

While I had to shield my eyes just like before, Gould ran straight for the ring with no hesitation. He wasn’t trembling with joy like he had been originally, though.

“Wait!”

I dashed toward the ring even as I was being blinded. I couldn’t run well while shielding my eyes, but if I used [Accel], who knew what direction I’d end up going.

Dammit, I should’ve gotten the god of glasses to give me a pair of shades!

Amid the dazzling vortex of light, Gould reached the ring.

“Wait for me...Edda, Ryuuri!”

Gould dove into the ring, the light getting larger and brighter.

Did he get away?! What should I do?! Do I chase after him? But I have no idea what time it’s connected to!

I looked back and Granny Tokie gave me a small nod.

It’s okay? Is it really okay? I guess I can use Spatial Translocation to come back whenever I need to... Well, I have the goddess of space-time’s approval. It’ll all work out somehow!

Having made up my mind, I flung myself into the ring just as Gould had.

After I experienced a gross twisty sensation, everything went black. All around me was pitch darkness. I couldn’t tell down from up. I felt so floaty that it was like I was in space.

Even though there was no light, I could still clearly see myself. It felt like I was being dragged along by something.

I thought I was in total darkness, but I could see a faint light in the distance that was the size of a pinprick. It reminded me of a star in the sky. Whatever was dragging me along seemed to be heading in that direction.

So this is what it’s like inside of a time tunnel. I feel like I’ve jumped down a manhole only to be dragged through some sewers... Huh?!

“[Prison]!”

I felt a sudden chill run down my back and quickly deployed a barrier around me. Something hit it.

“You insolent fool! Why have you followed me this far?!”

Gould was suddenly floating in the middle of the darkness.

When did he get here?!

Gould’s body had finished regenerating, but the wings on his back could barely be called wings anymore, since they were so ragged. All the crown skills required a price, including the regeneration of his body. Something like Reset must’ve cost a much greater price than the other skills. There was no way he could use those wings as a substitute anymore. The next crown skill he used would use Gould himself as the price.

“I cannot let it end here! I will do whatever it takes for just one more chance!”

“What is it that you’re going this far for? Reviving the wicked god won’t achieve anything, you know?”

Granny Tokie had already said she wouldn’t allow it, after all. She’d just throw him into an endless time corridor and have him wander there forever. Gods weren’t allowed to interfere with a wicked god in the mortal realm, but a different dimension like a time tunnel was a completely different matter. This was the realm of the goddess of space-time now.

“I don’t care about the wicked god! I... I will retrieve what I have lost! That is my only wish!”

What he’s lost? What Gould—no, Chrom Ranchesse has lost... Does he mean his memories?

During the invasion of the Phrase five thousand years ago, Chrom Ranchesse lost his memories as the price for the white and black crowns’ rampage. Was he trying to get those memories back? But how? Was he going to return to that time and stop him from doing anything?!

You can’t do that!

I felt bad for what happened to him, but that moment was an important part of our history. If the white and black crown skills never activated, the world barrier wouldn’t be restored—it would completely change the course of history. Never mind just changing the course of history, if the barrier became so damaged that even the time spirits could do nothing about it, the god of destruction would completely destroy the world. Even Granny Tokie couldn’t do anything if it got that far.

Even if Gould wasn’t intending to destroy the world, it would be the inevitable outcome if he managed his plan. Or, no...what if that was his goal?

“Changing time will result in the destruction of the world... Is that your wish?”

“I don’t care what happens to the world! I will do whatever it takes to save Edda and Ryuuri!”

Edda? Ryuuri? Who are they? Why do they sound familiar...?

Oh!

I reached into [Storage] and took out the ether film we’d found in the underground lab in Xenoahs, then ran mana through it. It displayed a man and a woman on either side of a young smiling girl. Edda and Ryuuri were the names etched into it.

“We found your underground lab, you know? Edda and Ryuuri are your wife and daughter, right?”

“Huh?!”

I showed Gould—Chrom Ranchesse—the film, then threw it at him. It floated through the antigravity space and landed right in Gould’s hand.

“Edda...! Ryuuri...!” Gould mumbled, his voice trembling as he looked at the ether film. Tears didn’t fall from his eyes, but I felt like I saw something shiny.

Did I just imagine it?

“I lost both of them that day. I still have the image of them being sucked into that vortex of light cast by the crystal man burned into my mind.”

He was likely referring to Gila, the Dominant Phrase. Albus mentioned that Gila’s particle laser had completely evaporated Chrom Ranchesse’s wife and kid.

“I will get them back. I have sacrificed so much to reach this point. I will cross time and space to save them. I will let no one get in my way!”

“Hang on... Your goal is to bring them back, right? To not let them die?” I asked Gould, who was burning with desire, his right hand morphed into a sword.

“I have no other goal! No matter what happens, I will—!”

“Do you...not know?”

“Know what?”

If he didn’t, then this was truly tragic. In fact, given the way he had been speaking, it seemed very likely that he didn’t know. Were Chrom’s memories from after the rampage missing? Was the transfer of memories incomplete? The gold Gollem standing in front of me had no idea what happened to his wife and child following that incident... Had he made the whole world his enemy just to bring them back?

“Do you remember what you did after you lost your family?”

“After I lost them? I... I transferred my memories to the gold crown... No, wait, why do I have no memory of that? But...I have Chrom’s memories?”

“How did you fight the crystal man who killed them?”

“I... I...?”

Gould stopped moving as he tried to search his memories. It seemed he was starting to understand himself. Gould wasn’t human—a Gollem shouldn’t forget anything. All of their memories were stored in their Q-Crystal. If the memory existed, then he should be able to remember it. But if the memory didn’t exist...

We’d thought that the gold crown had only received Chrom Ranchesse’s memories before his rampage. From the sound of things, though, he didn’t transfer them until after. Maybe it was because the man himself realized his memories were fading and wanted to preserve them. Unfortunately, those memories had gone so wild that they only transferred up until the moment his wife and daughter had died.

I wasn’t sure if it had been intentional or if it had simply been an issue of the volume of memories, but whatever the case, it had created a tragedy.

“We have the white crown with us,” I told him. “The black crown ended up being reset, but thankfully, the white crown still has its memories from five thousand years ago.”

“The white and black crowns?!”

“Yeah. The two crowns that were with Chrom Ranchesse five thousand years ago. According to the white crown’s memories, he made their abilities run rampant when his wife and kid were killed. It forced the Phrase—the crystal monsters—back into the dimensional gap, and the world was altered so that your family never died.”

“They... They never...?!”

Gould’s eyes went wide. He was likely struggling to accept that not only had everything he’d just done been pointless, but that his goal had already been achieved long ago.

This Gollem wasn’t Chrom Ranchesse himself, but just a Gollem with his memories transferred into it. Still, I couldn’t help but sympathize. I was pretty sure that if my family all died in front of me, I’d do anything to bring them back, no matter who tried to interfere and no matter what I had to sacrifice.

“When I first woke up, a thousand years had already passed... Using the memories I had, I tried to use the power of the black crown to head to the past, but it went out of control and I was thrown into the future instead...”

He’d tried to go to the past with Parallel Shift? I remembered Granny Tokie had said once that it was harder to travel to the past than the future. Trying to go a thousand years into the past would’ve been quite the difficult task. The power of the black crown must’ve gone berserk, causing a timequake which sent Gould to the future instead of the past. It would’ve been at that time that the other gold crown—our Gold—was created.

Doc Babylon had thought that the gold crown had been sent to the future when Chrom Ranchesse had gone on his rampage, but it seemed she was mistaken.

“Heh heh... Ha ha ha ha ha!”

Suddenly, Gould began laughing maniacally. It felt like he was laughing at himself as much as he was laughing at me.

“Are you telling me I did all of this for nothing?! After being thrown into the future, I made use of the wicked god’s power that I found and finally was about to see my wish through... And yet now, you say it was all for nothing?! Did you think I would believe such stupid nonsense?!”

“You...”

I could see the anger in Gould’s eyes. I couldn’t tell if it was aimed at me or...

Gould’s right arm morphed into a huge sword before he then disappeared into the darkness.

He did this before!

I jerked my body back the moment I sensed him, before something whiffed right by me. As he flew past, I thought I could see his red glowing eyes through the gap in his visor. He was probably using camouflage by turning his Orichalcum Slime body entirely black. He wasn’t able to turn his eyes black, so he’d put his visor down to try to hide them. In a space as dark as this, it would be near impossible to catch sight of him.

“Divine Providence!”

“Gah!”

I unleashed the light of my divinity around the area. Now that Gould was visible, I dodged his incoming attack and fired the sacred treasure gun in my hand. The divine bullet hit Gould’s arm, tearing it off at the elbow.

“Give up already. Your goal was achieved well before now. Chrom Ranchesse should have been living happily with his wife and daughter in the past.”

Although I sounded confident, I wasn’t actually a hundred percent sure that was the case. Even if the Phrase invasion had been written out of history, there was no saying how he’d lived his life after that.

Unexpected misfortunes happened all the time, so for all I knew, his daughter could’ve gotten ill and died young, or his wife might have died in an accident shortly after. The only thing I could say for certain was that Chrom Ranchesse would have slowly been losing his memories until all of them were eventually lost, from the monumental knowledge he had as a Gollem engineer, to the knowledge of magic he had acquired by crossing worlds, to the precious memories he had with his family.

But if he was living with his wife and child, could he not have formed new memories to make up for them? The price to pay for using the white crown skill was the memories that had existed at the point of the skill activation, not any of the memories created after. Even if he forgot his name, his wife would surely have reminded him. Even if he forgot who he was, his daughter would surely have told him stories about his life.

He might have lost his life as the genius Gollem engineer, but I personally thought he would still have been able to live life as a husband and a father named Chrom Ranchesse. Maybe this was just me trying to make myself feel better about the situation, but...I’d like to believe that was the case.

“There’s no way I’ll believe that after all this time! If... If that is true, then...why am I here?!”

The crimes Gould had committed could never be excused. Even if it was for his family, it was never okay to sacrifice others for one’s goal. Still, I had no confidence I wouldn’t have made the same choice had I been in his shoes. I would have stained my hands red with blood even while knowing full well that it was a horrendous act. If I were to then learn that all of that had been pointless, I would lose the only moral justification I had for myself. If it turned out that I’d never had to do anything for my family, I would immediately be faced with the magnitude of what I had done.

Would I be able to bear it if that were me?

It could be that he wanted someone to judge him for his actions. Though honestly, maybe I was being selfish by reading it that way...

Suddenly, I realized the light to the left of us was growing brighter. The exit to the time tunnel was getting closer. I had simply been letting the river of space carry me to where it wanted.

I could guess where it was that Gould...no, Chrom Ranchesse had been trying to reach.

“Spatial...Distortion.”

“Huh?!”

Gould created a portal with his raised arm and jumped in while I stared in shock. While he was in the time tunnel, this was the only space he could teleport within. Even if he headed for where we had entered, the torrent of flowing time in an incomplete time tunnel such as this one made it impossible for us to return to our original location without something like Spatial Translocation.

Which means there’s only one place he’s headed!

I whipped my head toward the light and saw Gould appear beside it before disappearing through the exit.

I was surprised not just by the fact that he’d used Spatial Distortion, but that he’d used it all with his body in that state. The feathers were no longer suitable substitutes for the price—and that meant he was going to use his own body.

Was he that desperate to return to the past? It could only be called an obsession at this point. An obsession that I was almost in awe of, really.

I couldn’t just stand and watch, though, so I immediately headed for the exit and made it to the past.

Am I in a forest?

I couldn’t see Gould anywhere, but there were little footprints in the damp ground. At the very least, it was clear that this was where he’d exited. It went without saying, but time passed differently within a time tunnel. I might have only felt that we’d exited a minute apart, but that could’ve been a huge difference out here. I did think it unlikely that our exit times had been separated by hours, though...

I looked around and caught sight of a large mountain range. It looked a lot like the one I saw near the lab in Xenoahs.

Are we near where Chrom Ranchesse lived?

“Groooooooooaaaaaaaaar!”

Suddenly, a roar that sounded neither animal nor monster rang out from deep in the forest.

Is it a magic beast?

If this was five thousand years in the past, then it could be pretty strong.

I think it came from wherever Gould’s footsteps are headed. Guess I should check it out.

I used [Accel] to rush through the forest, being careful not to bump into any trees along the way. When I finally made it to an open area, I saw the two-headed T. rex I’d bumped into once before attacking Gould. Actually, it looked even bigger than the one I’d seen, and it had a horn, so it must’ve been a different species entirely. Perhaps it was a more primitive form.

Gould had morphed his right hand into a lance and was charging right at the T. rex. He managed to pierce it through its chest, but the lance broke off at the base in the process.

Blood spurted out from the T. rex’s mouth and chest as it collapsed to the ground. Gould collapsed at the same time. His body had already begun falling apart, with parts of it crumbling into dust. The Orichalcum Slimes making up his frame were paying the price. If I did nothing here, he’d eventually stop functioning entirely.

“Ah...”

I whipped my head around when I heard a small voice and noticed a little girl crouched under a large tree. She looked about seven or eight...right around Linne and Elna’s age. She had bright flaxen hair tied into pigtails and was wearing a pinafore dress.

I gasped as I realized that I recognized that child.

It’s gotta be her. It’s the girl who was with Chrom Ranchesse in the photo. So she must be...!

When I looked from the fallen Gould to the girl, she nervously called out to me.

“Excuse me, but this sweet little Gollem suddenly jumped out to save me when I was about to be attacked... Is it yours, mister?”

“You...know what Gollems are?”

If this was the Upright World from five thousand years in the past, then Gollems shouldn’t exist. Doc Babylon might’ve invented some support mechs, but they wouldn’t have been called Gollems. If she knew about Gollems, then...

“We have two little robots that look like him back home. They’re called Albus and Noir. They don’t work anymore, though...”

They didn’t work? So was this the world after the black and white crowns had gone berserk? I thought that Gould would’ve tried to go to the time before Gila attacked... Did our divinity clashing inside the time tunnel skew the time that the exit led to?

If Albus and Noir were no longer working, that would mean that Chrom never made another contract with them. The next time they would awaken would be four thousand years later, by the hand of Arthur Ernes Belfast, the current king’s ancestor.

If this girl knew about Albus and Noir, then there was no one else she could be.

“My name’s Touya Mochizuki. Would you mind telling me yours?”

“Ah, I’m Ryuuri. Ryuuri Ranchesse.”

Yep, that confirms it. She’s his kid.

In other words...right where the time tunnel had let us out, Chrom’s daughter was in danger, and Gould, who had his memories, saved her. Was this all a coincidence? If Gould hadn’t created the time tunnel, Ryuuri might have died here. This really made it seem like Gould had arrived from the future to save his daughter. Was this something that had also been dictated to happen by history? Or was it truly all a coincidence?

“Ryuuri!”

“Oh, mom!”

A young woman who looked to be in her late twenties frantically dashed through the trees toward us. She had flaxen hair, the same as her daughter’s, tied back in a ponytail that went over her shoulder. She quickly hugged her daughter while looking fearfully at the body of the big T. rex. Those eyes looked just as cautious of me, though.

“Who are you?”

“He’s Mr. Mochizuki. He saved me.”

Ryuuri went on to explain everything that had happened. Her mother listened carefully, then bowed deeply toward me.

“My name is Edda. I’m Ryuuri’s mother. Thank you so much for saving my daughter. How can I ever repay you?”

“No, uh, it technically wasn’t me who saved her...”

I looked over at Gould, who was still lying unmoving on the ground. It looked like he was trying to move his body, but it was clear he’d reached his limit. It was taking all of his energy to make even those small movements.

I walked up and spoke to him, though I was still a little on guard.

He’s already begun falling apart... I doubt he has long.

“Like a hand? You want to see your wife and daughter before you have to go, don’t you?”

“Please...”

I used [Levitation] to lean him against the nearest tree.

“This Gollem is the one who saved your daughter. I arrived after everything was already over.”

“Oh, he’s in terrible shape. He got hurt this badly just to protect my daughter...”

I couldn’t admit that I was the one who had dealt most of the damage... Regardless, it seemed Edda knew about Gollems as well.

Well, I guess that was obvious. She is his wife.

“Mister, does he have a name?”

“Hmm? Oh, his name is Gould.”

Ryuuri walked up and gently took one of those broken hands.

“Thank you for saving me, Gould.”

“Ryuuri... Edda...” Gould mumbled as he looked at the two with flickering red eyes. The flashing gradually decreased in speed until it finally came to a complete stop, his head drooping down as he stopped moving entirely. He had finally stopped functioning. Gollems had a sleep mode, but this was different. I couldn’t feel any mana from his G-Cube.

“He stopped moving...” Ryuuri said sadly.

“He was getting old. You had nothing to do with it,” I reassured her to keep her from feeling guilty.

I opened Gould’s chest with [Cracking] and took out the G-Cube. The device would usually be glowing a pale green, but this one was completely devoid of color and badly cracked. I could see a small core of an ominous color inside with a bit of residual divinity.

This must be the fragment of the god of erosion.

I crushed it all at once with my divinity, smashing it into pieces so small that it would be impossible for it to regenerate. With that, the mission from God Almighty was complete.

The destruction of a G-Cube meant the death of the Gollem. Unlike a hibernation state, the basic functions of the Gollem were recorded in the Q-Crystal, so those wouldn’t disappear, but all of its memories and experiences up until that point would be lost. It was like taking out the plug in the middle of one of those old games that you couldn’t save, which forced you to start from the beginning.

Since Gould still had his Q-Crystal intact, he could be brought back by inserting a new G-Cube, but he would be completely reset. Naturally, that also meant that Chrom Ranchesse’s memories would be gone. The Chrom-Gould truly died at this moment.

I wonder if getting to see his wife and daughter at the end was enough...

Then again, Gould was a Gollem, not the man himself. His memories and emotions were all simply implanted into him. Thinking of it that way, this small Gollem might have simply been a pitiful puppet, merely acting out the former personality of Chrom Ranchesse. But personally speaking, those emotional outbursts he’d shown had been real. Could a soul reside in a machine? I wasn’t sure.

“Um, could I maybe take him?”

“Huh?”

As I was sinking into a sea of thoughts, Ryuuri’s unexpected words brought me back to the surface.

“I want to build Gollems in the future just like dad did. If I have his Q-Crystal, I can have the Gollem inherit his traits, right?”

The girl was right, but Gould’s special traits had been installed at the same time as Chrom Ranchesse’s memories, so even if he was fixed, he’d probably just become a Gollem without crown skills like Gold.

“Are you going to try to repair him?”

“I might not be able to manage it right now, but some day...I want to see the one who saved me running around all healthy.”

“There’s nothing very special about this Gollem...but if that’s okay with you, then sure.”

“Thank you so much! I’ll do my best to fix him!”

Ryuuri had a wide smile as she rested a hand on Gould. She reminded me a bit of Quun as I watched her.

Edda spoke up next, saying, “Um...you appear to be knowledgeable on Gollems. Could it be that...you were acquainted with my husband?”

“Well, uh...kinda.”

I was an acquaintance of his in the future, in a sense, but that Chrom was just a robot with his memories implanted in it. It was a difficult question; I wasn’t lying, but I wasn’t really telling the truth either.

“I must apologize. My husband has forgotten a lot of things after an...accident.”

“Oh, no need to worry. I know all about that. I doubt he would remember me anymore. I just happened to pass by here—I wasn’t coming to meet him or anything.”

Edda looked relieved at my response. Judging from her reaction, Chrom’s memories must’ve been pretty much all gone by now. She must have thought it would be awkward if I learned here that Chrom didn’t remember me.

Though the truth was that we weren’t acquainted at all. I had to avoid meeting him.

“If you’ll excuse me... Say hello to your husband for me. Ryuuri, make sure you take good care of Gould.”

“I will, mister!”

I looked at Gould, whose body was so beat-up that I couldn’t see him as anything but a battered corpse. The gold color had already faded, much of its plating already detached from its body. The Gollem was almost completely stripped bare. Repairing something this damaged would mean turning it into something else entirely.

Would Chrom realize this was the gold crown if he saw it? Perhaps not if the memory loss was bad enough...

I didn’t approve of what he’d done, but seeing how willing he was to push his body to such a state to see his goal through, I found myself respecting at least his resolve.

After saying goodbye to the pair, I used Spatial Translocation and left the world of five thousand years ago.

See you, little gold Gollem. If the day ever comes that you regain the ability to move, make sure you protect them from at their side this time.

◇◇◇

I crossed my arms and sighed. After using Spatial Translocation to teleport away from the world of five thousand years ago, I ended up floating in pitch-black space.

Spatial Translocation was a divine teleportation skill that could cross even world borders. It allowed us to cross not just space but time as well. Unsurprisingly, crossing to a different world and, even worse, a different time was much more difficult than teleporting within the same dimension.

Now, what do you think would happen when someone as inexperienced as me were to try to do just that? Well, as we could see, I was now stuck in the gap between dimensions. Okay, maybe not stuck, but if I used Spatial Translocation again, I would just end up back where I started. It would be really embarrassing if Edda and Ryuuri were still there after such a dramatic farewell... And so, I’d been floating here for a while, trying to come up with some way to get out of this mess.

Dammit, I guess there’s only one option!

“Help me, Granny Tokieeeeee!” I yelled into the dark.

And then, as if she had been waiting for this moment, Granny Tokie appeared in front of me with a cheerful, “Yes, deary!”

“You were watching the whole time, weren’t you?” I asked, eyes narrowed.

“Hee hee! I was curious to see if you would come up with anything.”

Well, sorry for failing! How was I supposed to just magic up a way to cross time?!

“It wouldn’t have been that difficult to come up with a solution: If you’re going to the future, cold sleep is always there.”

“You’re saying I should just stay frozen for five thousand years?”

That sounded horrible. There was always the risk I’d end up asleep for way longer than intended, after all.

Then again...Doc Babylon should be alive in Partheno around this time. Would she make me a cold sleep device if I explained the situation? Though asking such a thing of a scientist in the past sounds a lot like a certain movie with a time-traveling car...

Ugh, messing with the past would just be a pain. I’d be better relying on the gods here.

“Time travel while you still aren’t used to it is certainly difficult. I’m sure you’ll learn in due time.”

“How long is ‘in due time’ for you?”

“Maybe about a thousand years?”

There it is—a god’s completely skewed sense of time.

At the very least, it seemed it wouldn’t happen while I was still on the mortal coil.

Regardless, Granny Tokie’s ability to traverse time went above and beyond a regular god’s, which made sense as the goddess of space-time. The Spatial Translocation used by gods like Karen and I could only go from humanity’s birth to its extinction even if we mastered it, which, to be fair, was already pretty crazy. But what was the range of time that Granny Tokie could move between? Would it be from the big bang to the total destruction of the universe?

While I was distracted thinking about that, Granny Tokie lightly clapped her hands, immediately moving us back to the altar where Gould had jumped into the ring.

That was all it took? Gould spent so much time painstakingly creating the time tunnel—he’d be in agony if he knew how easy it was for her.

“We have no need for this anymore.”

Granny Tokie clicked her fingers and the large glowing ring was crushed in an instant, destroying the time tunnel in the process.

“Wait, was it okay for you to be the one to destroy it? Weren’t you just talking about favoritism before?”

“You already dealt with the root cause of the issue. There’s no need to worry. This is for the goddess of space-time to handle.”

I would’ve had to ask her anyway, I suppose. I wasn’t able to close rips in space-time yet, after all. This was definitely considered as her just providing support, right? She wasn’t allowed to step in and stop what Gould was doing, but it was okay for her to help with cleanup, right?

It’s really starting to feel like I’m going through training... I mean, I guess I am.

To the other deities, I was like a nepo baby who got in because the CEO was a relative. They were probably talking shit behind my back all the time. If I wanted to prove myself to them, I had to keep doing whatever I could.

It seems I’ve got plenty of time, though, so I just need to keep chipping away bit by bit.

Just as I’d found new resolve, there was a sudden large explosion outside. It seemed the fight was still continuing out there.

Wait, the summoned dinosaurs didn’t disappear with Gould?!

He must not have summoned them with regular summoning magic! He would’ve used the power of the black crown to open a gate between parallel worlds and led them through, so of course they wouldn’t disappear. It wasn’t like he’d even used mana to summon them.

“Stop loitering around here. Go help them.”

“I’m on it!”

Just as I was about to jump away with [Fly], my mana was sucked up and I fell back to the ground.

I totally forgot about that.

I used my divinity to activate it, and I was able to fly away without a problem. I leaped off the altar and headed toward the exit of the huge tumbleweed. On the way there, I saw the bodies of triceratops mechimeras lining the path. They must have been the ones that Luli and the others took down. I couldn’t see them anywhere, but maybe they’d decided to join the fight outside once they were done? I couldn’t see Kohaku and Kuon anywhere either, so they must have all left.

I thought that Granny Tokie would have brought me back to roughly the same time I’d entered the time tunnel, but apparently not. Did she bring me back based on how much time had passed in my perception? Well, if she hadn’t, then I’d technically be older than everyone else...not that that mattered, since I was a divine being.

When I exited out to the rooftop of the towering tree, a pteranodon mechimera suddenly lunged at me.

“I didn’t call you over.”

I instantly shot its wings with a bullet infused with [Spiral Wind]. The hole I’d shot through it expanded until it could no longer fly and it plummeted to the ground.

“What the hell is that?”

The next thing I saw was a ginormous four-headed dinosaur. Its whole body was fused with mechanical parts, and it had four tails. Its heads and tails were made up of four different elements: fire, ice, lightning, and...machine? From the fire head came raging flames, from the ice head came a blizzard, from the lightning head came thunderbolts, and from the machine head came a laser beam. The Frame Gears were fighting a fierce battle against it.

I connected to the communications line with my smartphone and asked, “Yumina, can you hear me?”

“Touya?! Oh, I’m so glad you’re safe! I’d heard what was going on from Kuon and Kohaku. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’ve wrapped up here. What’s going on?”

“One of the dinosaur species is able to summon more of their allies through a rip in space, including that big four-headed one. There’s no end to them, so we’ve asked Yae and Hilde to prioritize the dinosaurs doing the summoning.”

A mechimera dinosaur that could summon reinforcements?

You’re one crafty little bastard, Gould.

Looking toward the edge of the battlefield, I saw Hilde’s Siegrune cutting the head off a dinosaur with a large dorsal fin.

That is one weird-looking stegosaurus...

Then again, was it even a stegosaurus? I didn’t remember them having huge dorsal fins like solar panels.

The dorsal fins of the other stegosauruses near Siegrune vibrated with a buzzing sound before a black hole appeared above them. Okay, it was definitely necessary to take those down before the big four-headed dinosaur. If they ended up summoning another one of those things, we’d be in trouble.

Sue was setting up a defensive wall against the gigantic dinosaur with Ortlinde Overlord while the Gerhilde, Waltraute, and Dragoon were on the offensive to try to hold it back. The Brunhilde, Grimgerde, and Rossweise were providing support from the rear. The Helmwige was flying through the sky, shooting down the mechimera dinosaurs in the air. The other Frame Gears were still taking down the Kyklops one by one.

Kohaku was taking down a whole bunch of mechimera soldiers, but...

Huh? Where’s Kuon?

《Kohaku, where’s Kuon?》I asked her telepathically.

《The young master is with Yumina.》

Oh, she brought him to the Brunhilde?

I breathed a sigh of relief. It would definitely be safer for him in the passenger seat of a Frame Gear that was generally remaining stock-still in the back rather than riding about on the back of a tiger right in the middle of it all. He’d seemed pretty exhausted.

“The god of erosion is gone, so there’s no need for me to worry about the Reginleif being taken over. Guess I should join in.”

I called out Reginleif from [Storage] and boarded it. Setting up my smartphone in the cockpit, I activated [Search].

“Search! Um...mechimera stegosauruses?”

I had no idea what phrase would work, so I just said whatever came to mind.

Technically, it works by feeling out what I’ve seen before, so it should work fine, but still, what a crazy input.

“Search complete. Displaying results.”

Pins dropped on the map displayed at the side of the cockpit.

“Target lock. Activate Fragarach.”

“Targets locked. Activating Fragarach.”

The locks on the crystal panels on Reginleif’s wings clicked off and turned into swords.

“Gladius!”

The crystal swords shot away like missiles, piercing the stegosauruses that were attempting to draw out more of their friends.

There are three of them over there. Looks like they’re trying to open a huge gate. Sorry, big guys, but I’m not letting you get away with that.

I controlled three of the Fragarachs to stab through their brains from above. The partially opened gate immediately shut, cutting off the mouth of some big, crazy-looking crocodile thing. The chopped-off part of its body plopped to the ground.

That was way too close for comfort.

Judging from the size of its mouth, it had to be as big as the four-headed dinosaur. Unless its mouth just happened to be really big and its body was actually tiny or something.

In any case, we likely didn’t have to worry about reinforcements anymore. The only dangerous thing now was the big four-headed dinosaur.

“Combat Arts: Divine Meteor Kick!”

The Gerhilde and Dragoon leaped into the air and delivered two spiraling kicks to it. It staggered back a few steps at the attack.

“Cannon Knuckle Spiral!”

Ortlinde Overlord’s right arm released from the mech and delivered a spiraling punch to the dinosaur’s chest. It pierced right through, creating a huge hole in its chest as it exited out the other side. The dinosaur collapsed to the ground with a booming thud.

Damn, they managed it before I even got the chance to attack.

All that was left was to clean up the small fry, then.

“We’ll now enter the cleanup operation! Everyone, don’t get carried away! Make sure to take each one down in groups!”

“Yes, ma’am!”

After receiving orders from Lain, everyone entered the battle. The enemy was falling apart, but we’d suffered heavy casualties ourselves. Many of our mechs were completely destroyed, their pilots having been teleported back to the Val Albus.

“Oops, no time to be thinking. Gotta help.”

It wasn’t right for the grand duke to watch everything from above. I unsheathed Reginleif’s two phrasium blades and leaped at the nearest mechimera dinosaurs.

◇◇◇

“Search complete. No results found.”

“Great. Lain, we’re done with the cleanup operation.”

“Understood. Everyone, the cleanup operation is now complete.”

When I reported the end of the battle to Lain, she announced it to the rest of the knights. We could all finally relax. The knights hopped out of their cockpits and immediately got to stretching their bodies. It had been the first extended fight they’d been a part of in a while, so that made sense.

Let’s take a half-hour break before we start pulling back.

I was exhausted too...

I put Reginleif in [Storage] and sat myself down on a big rock nearby. Then, I let out a relieved breath.

This breeze sure feels nice...

“Daddyyyyyy!”

“Wait! Daddy’s really tired right now! I can’t take a tackle!”

When I saw Steph charging toward me, I immediately rattled out words to try to get her to stop. Somehow, it was enough to stop her from using [Accel], so she was running toward me at a normal speed. If I got hit with a Steph Rocket right now, I’d definitely go flying.

Her little legs finally reached me and she leaped into my chest. How much nicer life would be if this was the usual extent of her tackle hugs...

I caught sight of Gold coming up behind her and I felt my chest seize for a moment. Gold was Gould’s parallel world self created with the black crown skill. Chrom Ranchesse’s memories had been erased when Steph accidentally rebooted him, so you could argue that he was the real gold crown.

But...no one would ever know which was really the copy. It could be that Gold was the one created by Chrom Ranchesse and Gould was the one created from the parallel world. There wasn’t a whole lot of meaning in following a train of thought like that now, though.

Quite ironically, Gold had been able to stay on the straight and narrow precisely because his memories had been wiped. Guess we had Steph to thank for that one.

Everyone else exited their Frame Gears and walked over while I was busy being a doting parent.

“You put an end to him, you did?” Yae asked.

“Well...pretty much.”

I told everyone about what Gould had tried to do and what his goal had actually been.

“I must say...it is quite the sad outcome,” Lu muttered.

“No matter the reason, the atrocities he committed cannot be forgiven,” Yumina firmly stated. “But...I understand the sentiment.”

I was a little relieved knowing that they felt similarly to me. There would be those out there who viewed the reason as stupid and others who thought he didn’t deserve even a shred of sympathy. Everyone had their own values they believed in, after all. What was most important in life and what was worth risking one’s life for were entirely down to each individual.

“I see... So Chrom had his own sweetheart, did he?” Silver quietly mused from Kuon’s waist. It was easy to imagine that he had all manner of conflicted feelings about his creator. “D’ya think that Chrom was able to pass on peacefully?”

“Couldn’t say. At the very least, his wish was granted, so I imagine he was satisfied.”

Silver was most likely referring to the Chrom Ranchesse that manifested through the memories implanted in Gould. Could souls reside in Gollems? I couldn’t see anything with my divine sight, so perhaps not. However, stories did say that souls resided in objects, so I didn’t think it was right to completely deny the possibility. There were legends of tools that became imbued with a spirit after long years of use and turned into a tsukumogami. Though, in a world like this, those were basically just monsters.

“It’s great that we won the battle, but dealing with all the damage is going to take a painfully long while,” Leen sighed as she looked out over the destroyed Kyklops and the mechimeras.

Personally, I felt it was fine to just leave them to rot. The problem was that the mechimera soldiers had been summoned from another world, and it was highly likely that the Kyklops were made using knowledge related to the wicked god. It would be a pain in the ass if someone with bad intentions were to collect them later, so the safest course of action was to store them, then drop them off at Babylon to be processed and discarded.

“Good work, everyone. I see you managed to finish the enemy off.”

“Granny Tokieeeeee!”

Granny Tokie suddenly appeared behind me, and Steph immediately went to tackle her.

No, don’t! Or...is it...fine?

The old goddess took Steph’s tackle like it was nothing, and was now smiling down at the girl as she patted her head. Apparently, being a higher-tier deity made you impervious to Steph’s super tackles.

“It’s time for me to do my job. The distortion of space and time should soon settle. Once it has completely abated, I will return your children to the future.”

I could feel the air growing heavier the moment Granny Tokie said those words. The children visibly drooped as well. We all knew that our farewell was near.

There was nothing we could do about it, though. This was a determined future. We fought this hard for that future. And yet, I couldn’t deny that the thought of our children leaving was painful. We had gotten so used to them being by our sides that we would feel empty without them in our lives.

“How long will it take for the distortions to settle?” I eventually asked.

“Hmm, probably about two to three weeks? To be safe, I would say a month.”

A month, huh? I had a feeling that Granny Tokie could send our kids back much earlier than that, but she was kind enough to give us extra time to create some lasting memories with them.

“How about we all go on one last trip together?” I suggested.

“A family trip?” Linze asked, her eyes bulging in curiosity.

“That sounds good! Let’s not make it anywhere nearby. Maybe somewhere in the western continent that we haven’t been to befo—”

“No, I want to make one more trip to where I took us on our honeymoon,” I said, interrupting Elze. That was enough to make the girls look at me in shock.

“H-Huh?! To Japan?!”

“Can we go there with the children?!”

“It is possible, it is?!”

“Ohhh, great idea! Great idea, Touya!”

“That means we can show our in-laws...!”

“Yes! We can show them their grandchildren!”

“We must get ready immediately!”

“Hee hee, I’m looking forward to this.”

“Good job, Grand Duke.”

Compared to their overjoyed mothers, the children were left watching in confusion.

Right, I’ll have to explain it to them too.

There was the question of what to do about Allis. Should I bring her as Kuon’s fiancée? It was a family holiday, so maybe that would be weird... No, she was basically family in the future, anyway. Besides, she’d definitely want to join us. But then Leylle would be left by herself. And if I did bring Allis, how would I persuade her father? That would arguably be the biggest hurdle.

Was my only choice to ask Melle for help? If the husband was begged by both the wife and daughter, he would have no choice but to surrender. Or at least, that was how it was with me, so I imagined it was the same for him.

A trip to Japan with a bunch of kids in tow. This was starting to sound like I was leading a school field trip.

Wait...will I have to become a child again? Huh? Am I the one who’s going to need to be led around?

Chapter IV: Preparing for a Trip Home

The war in Isengard had ended with our victory. It seemed safe to assume that all the wicked devout had been defeated. There were two we hadn’t been able to confirm the bodies of, but from what Kuon had heard from Gould, it sounded like he had used those two as sacrifices for the time tunnel. He really stopped caring what he used for his goal, didn’t he? Though I suppose from his view, his plan was to return to the world of five thousand years ago, so who cared what happened to this world.

Please don’t have it be that there’s some secret survivors or something...

Once we finished cleaning up the mess in Isengard, we returned to Brunhild. I immediately called a summit for the alliance and explained what had happened. I didn’t provide all the details, but I made them aware that there had been a Gollem with the memories of an old magitech scholar implanted inside it who had tried to invade the world with the wicked devout. Everyone was relieved that we had stopped them before it was too late.

There was still one problem remaining, however, and that was the golden drug that the wicked devout had scattered across the land. So much of it had been dealt to people that it had been headache-inducing trying to gather it all.

I started by conducting a [Search] in each country to get a rough idea of where those in possession of it were located, and then we arrested them. We confiscated the golden powder, purified it, and then destroyed it. Although the possibility was exceedingly low, there was the chance that someone who continued taking the drug would mutate while still retaining their self-awareness, which created the risk of another wicked devout being born. The best thing to do was to be thorough in completely ridding the world of the drug.

There were already several victims who had mutated so severely that no antidote or magic could reverse the process. I hated to say it, but when someone had progressed to that state, the best thing we could do for them was to put them out of their misery. Keeping them alive would just be torture, after all. It might be silly to say for souls that could no longer return to the cycle of reincarnation, but I could only hope they were able to rest in peace.

The Fishmen, Four-Armed Gollems, and Rock Titans that had been under the control of the wicked devout were no different from regular monsters now that they had lost their commander. They weren’t all that powerful, so we left the disposal of those to the adventurers. The Fishmen used to be human, but so did Zombies and Skeletons, so there was no need for them to hold back.

Once I flung the smaller jobs to the respective countries’ leaders, I was finally free.

God, that was completely exhausting...

◇◇◇

“Now that you’re planning to travel to Earth, would you like to train your Spatial Translocation to manage it yourself? This feels like the perfect opportunity.”

“Huh?”

When I asked God Almighty for help with the family trip, that was the first thing he said to me.

“Training?”

“Even though you reside in the mortal realm, you are still a god. You should be able to at least travel between worlds. Unknown worlds may be impossible for you, but the world you were born in should not be difficult.”

“At least,” he says.

But if Ende could do it, then maybe it wasn’t that difficult to master? If I could manage going to Earth by myself, then maybe I could visit my family over there whenever I pleased.

“I know I don’t need to remind you of this, but you have already died in that world. Reviving you would be defying the world’s logic, which was why I had you go as your child self last time. But...”

But...what?

God Almighty was suddenly struggling with his words, eyes shifting suspiciously. Well, I suppose he was the one who accidentally killed me, so it would feel a little awkward to discuss.

“Can I go to Earth so long as I revert to my child form or even go as a completely unfamiliar person?”

“If your world were recognized as a resort for the gods, then that would be fine, but gods descending on worlds at their whim without even being granted permission is most certainly an issue. Well, it’s fine if you have my permission, given my position, but...”

Right, I did go around to a bunch of worlds with Karen back when I first learned how to use Spatial Translocation. Were those worlds where permission had long been granted? A lot of them had been fairly primitive civilizations—could that be why?

“That isn’t the problem... This is a bit hard to say, but...”

“What is it?”

God Almighty began fidgeting and avoiding my eyes again. Would there be some problem if I went to Earth right now? Even if someone saw me in my child form and thought I looked familiar, they’d never think it really was me, so it was hard to think that was the issue.

“Your parents may be aware that you are still alive.”

“Huh?!”

Mom and dad know I’m alive?! How?! What tipped them off?! I thought we made them think they were dreaming?!

“You remember how you stayed in that house when you went to Japan? Well, your mother went there after you left and ended up noticing a lot of oddities.”

According to God Almighty, mom suddenly decided she wanted to clean grandpa’s house. While she was cleaning, she found a bunch of long hairs of gold, silver, and, worst of all, pink. My mom could be slow on the uptake, but even she could understand the implications of that.

Oopsies... Sakura met mom in that dream, so there’s no way to cover that one up.

Mom had then become positive that my wives existed—and therefore, that that dream hadn’t been just a dream. She turned the house upside down and found that grandpa’s secret stash of alcohol was missing, that there was a photo missing from an album, and that there were signs of something having been stored in the fridge recently.

To make matters worse, mom then told dad, who then hired a private investigator he knew to look into it. The investigator quickly discovered that the girls had been at the nearby department store and family restaurant. They also learned that a small boy had been with them at the same time. When they showed a picture of me when I was younger to the people working there, they identified that it had been me.

“My mom is so proactive...”

“And then, every night since then, she’s been shouting at me in her dreams, begging me to give you back. I’m becoming just a touch scared...”

“I’m so sorry,” I said, bowing deeply to the weary god.

Don’t threaten a god, mom...

“I would advise you to talk to them when you go back.”

“Oh. Uh...is that okay? I’d be telling them about the Divine Realm and about the fact that there are different worlds.”

“Technically, I could erase their memories at any time, but that wouldn’t feel right. It was I who stole their son from them, after all.”

It seemed God Almighty still felt guilty about what he’d done. I would have said he didn’t need to worry so much, but I wasn’t sure I would’ve meant it.

“Of course, I need you to make sure they do not speak that truth to anybody. I do not believe your parents would be so careless, but if they did, then I really would have to erase their memories.”

“Got it.”

I would much rather my parents knew I was alive but was just too far away to visit frequently rather than having them continue to think I was dead.

“Wait, but then, does that mean I can go visit my parents as much as I want once I can use Spatial Translocation to get to Earth by myself? Oh, of course, I’d make sure to get permission from you first.”

“You can. I can’t keep giving out permission willy-nilly, but once a year should be fine.”

I can go home once a year?! That’s great. Now I can watch Fuyuka grow up!

“Keep in mind that you are a special case as my ward. Consider it an extra reward for becoming the curator of a world that is now a resort for the gods.”

“So it’s a bonus, then?”

“Not really, but...let’s just say it is.”

Rewards like that made it much easier to get motivated for a job.

Wait...a job? Hang on. Did this mean that if more gods ended up going to my new world and causing problems, I needed to be the one to deal with it? Was this an advance payment for such a difficult job? Did this mean it was more like a sweet trap to lure me into hard labor rather than a reward?

I glanced at God Almighty, who immediately looked away and started whistling.

Stop that. What an old-fashioned way of trying to play something off.

That confirmed my suspicions, at least...

I guess I’d need to do this eventually, anyway, so having a reward was much better than doing it for free.

“Shall we get you started on your training, then?”

“What?! Already?!”

“No need to worry. I’ll be granting you a very trustworthy navigator.”

Granny Tokie suddenly appeared beside God Almighty. Was she going to be my guide?

“She is the goddess of space-time, after all. She’s godlike when it comes to matters such as these.”

And there’s the dad joke. Not that he’s wrong.

“But don’t you need to deal with the timequakes?” I asked her.

“Now that the cause has been dealt with, I can take my time. You’d prefer it that way, wouldn’t you, Touya?”

“Well...”

If she mended all the rips just like that, our remaining time with the children would be over in a flash. I would certainly prefer she go as slowly as possible. In that case, I’d take them up on the offer. It wasn’t every day that you got to learn how to use Spatial Translocation from the goddess of space-time directly.

“You don’t need to worry about how long the training takes either. No matter how many years it takes you, I can always return us to this moment in time.”

“Hang on! This’ll take years?!”

“It was just a hypothetical. If we only need to train you to travel to one world, then it would maybe take...a month or so.”

A month was still a pretty long time for just one world. It was nice that I wouldn’t have to worry about how much time it would take, but the possibility being raised at all showed just how difficult a task this would be. If she’d said it would take me ten thousand years, I might’ve given up right then and there.

Regardless, I had to succeed. Not just for this trip, but for the future as well; it would be useful if I could go back anytime I wanted.

“Then let’s start with time travel.”

“Huh?! Time travel?!”

Granny Tokie’s sudden suggestion caught me by surprise. As the goddess of space-time, she ruled over, well, space and time. Magic that allowed someone to travel through space was considered teleportation magic, such as [Gate] or [Teleport]. Spatial Translocation also went under that umbrella, so I thought that was the type of thing I was going to be trained in.

“Time works differently between worlds. The time of the world you’re in right now actually runs faster than the time in your old world. That’s why if you go to Japan, spend a few days there, and then come back without adjusting the time correctly, several years will have passed.”

Oh man, seriously? Time dilation comes into effect when crossing between worlds?

Wait, was that why we sometimes referred to it as the Urashima effect in Japanese? Was Urashima Tarou invited to another world and then returned home? The usual theory was that he went to space, but outer space and a different world weren’t really that different.

Did that mean God Almighty and Karen had easily managed to do that when they were traveling between worlds?

“So if I tried to go to Earth with my skill level, I’d end up in the past or the future?”

“Given the differences in the flow of time, it is highly unlikely that you would end up in the past. You may end up traveling billions of years into the future and enter the world after civilization has long been destroyed, though.”

You’ve gotta be kidding.

Would a future like that be ruled by monkeys? I didn’t want to see a Statue of Liberty looking all beat-up...

“It’s very possible to have that happen if you aren’t careful when crossing worlds, but a skilled Spatial Translocation will prevent that. That’s why I want us to start by seeing if you can perform simple time travel in this world.”

After saying that, Granny Tokie placed a retro alarm clock on the low table.

“Uh...what do I do with this?”

“Use Spatial Translocation while fully imagining the world an hour in the future. If you succeed, the clock hand will be a whole hour forward in an instant.”

I see. So the goal is for me to jump an hour into the future. Imagine the world an hour in the future... Imagine the world where the clock is showing one o’clock... All right, let’s give it a shot.

I closed my eyes tight and imagined the clock moving forward in my mind.

“Spatial Translocation.”

My body momentarily felt lighter and then immediately returned to normal. When I opened my eyes again, the clock wasn’t exactly at one, but five minutes past one.

Hey, that isn’t bad for my first try!

“Unfortunate. That’s a failure.”

My excitement was immediately deflated as Granny Tokie delivered her blunt rejection with a smile.

Seriously? Isn’t that a bit harsh? I was, like, five minutes off...

And then, I noticed that God Almighty wasn’t here anymore. Did he go somewhere in that hour?

“But five minutes is within the margin of error, isn’t it? I don’t have to be that precise, do I?”

“Five minutes? You misunderstand. You’ve traveled seventy-three hours into the future. It’s a complete failure.”

“Huh?!”

Seventy-three hours?! I jumped over three days?!

Granny Tokie clapped her hands. I felt floaty again, and then the clock was back to pointing at twelve. God Almighty was also back to calmly drinking tea beside Granny Tokie. Did we return to our original time?

“I see you failed,” he said. “Well, you have just begun.”

“You only imagined the sight of the clock at the endpoint, didn’t you? Instead, try imagining the process of the hands actually rotating until they reach your desired time,” Granny Tokie advised.

I closed my eyes tight and did as she said.

Just one hour, just one hour...

“Spatial Translocation.”

When I next opened my eyes, the clock showed ten past one. Was that a success or a failure? When I looked up at Granny Tokie, she was smiling again.

Uh...is it a failure, then?

“That was a success. You were a little off, but you still jumped roughly an hour into the future.”

“Oh, thank god...”

I felt myself relax. I’d somehow succeeded. I’d jumped an hour into the future. Though, admittedly, it didn’t really feel like it. It wasn’t going to turn out that God Almighty had secretly moved the clock forward while I had my eyes closed, right?

Granny Tokie clapped her hands and the clock returned to displaying the time as twelve.

“Now, we’ll shoot for three days.”

“H-Hang on. You mean I have to visualize the long hand going around seventy-two times?”

Wasn’t that really difficult? What if I fell asleep while trying to count how many times it had circled the clock?

“You can just imagine the sun rising and setting three times. When you repeat the process enough, you’ll start to get the hang of it.”

That was a lot easier. But would that mean I could only jump to the morning of a day? Well, no, I guess I could have some degree of freedom by visualizing where exactly in the sky the sun was.

After that, I repeated time travel attempts over and over again and finally managed to get the hang of it.

Man, I’m beat...

Granny Tokie then instructed me on rewinding the clock, so I learned to travel to the past as well. I never imagined the day would come when I would really be able to travel through time.

“Just so you’re aware, time travel is permitted here in the Divine Realm, but generally, it is forbidden to be used in the mortal realm,” God Almighty warned. “You should use it solely to make adjustments to the time when crossing worlds.”

“What? Really?”

“The commotion this time should’ve shown you the risks involved in time traveling. I can’t be expected to cover for you all the time,” Granny Tokie said.

It was true that if Granny Tokie hadn’t been there, there would have been a real risk of a time paradox being created due to the alterations made in the past. Especially in my case, since I lived in the mortal realm. If I were to travel back and forth in time there, I could easily end up making some huge mistake.

“If you went to the past and came face-to-face with a child on her deathbed, would you be able to leave her to her death?”

“I...”

“That child, were she to be saved, may greatly alter history. Or perhaps, her survival may spell the death of someone else. If you have no confidence that you can remain uninvolved, then you should be very careful about traveling through time.”

I understood what Granny Tokie was trying to say. The spatiotemporal issues caused by the timequake were an exception. Usually, historical alterations wouldn’t be permitted. Being able to freely travel between the past and the future inevitably carried a certain degree of risk with it. It would be incredibly rude of me to travel through time on a whim and expect Granny Tokie to clean up my messes for me.

“Next, let’s try teleporting to Earth to see if you can make the required adjustments there. I’ll guide you at first. Let’s teleport there for now.”

“Huh?! Hang on!”

Before I even got any time to prepare myself, Granny Tokie grabbed my hand and was suddenly using Spatial Translocation to teleport us to Earth.

◇◇◇

“This is...”

Granny Tokie had taken me to a dense jungle. I could hear strange bird calls all around me.

Is this really Earth?

“It was important to choose somewhere with no one around, so this seemed suitable. A bit of noise won’t hurt.”

So that’s why...

Wait, where even is this? It looks like a tropical rainforest, so...South America? The Amazon? A Malaysian jungle?

“I made the adjustments to Spatial Translocation when we jumped this time. The same amount of time has passed since you left this world as you spent in the other world. There is not even a single second of difference. We will make this moment of time our starting point. Make sure to remember.”

In other words, she’d brought us to Earth at a moment that matched my perception of time passing in the other world since my last visit here. But if Earth’s time went slower...did that mean we’d technically arrived in the future?

I was starting to feel like I was getting a sense for the time. It wasn’t that far in the future, right? Even though our world’s time passed faster, it wasn’t like the difference was by hundreds of years or anything. In that case, I didn’t think it would be that difficult to make the necessary adjustments. Not that I thought I could do it right this second, of course...

“Let’s start our training, then, shall we?”

After saying that, Granny Tokie took out that old analog alarm clock again.

“Almost five minutes will have passed since we arrived here. Bring us back to the other world five minutes after we left.”

And yet, I’m being asked to do it right this second! Five minutes, huh? So just visualize the long hand turning five times... Wait, no! That would be five hours!

I needed to visualize the second hand going around five times.

I battled with the clock face in my mind’s eye and began my training to make the power of Spatial Translocation my own.

◇◇◇

“Three PM on the dot. Nice! I can even handle the time difference!”

I was trembling with excitement as I looked across the River Thames at the Elizabeth Tower—or Big Ben, as it was more commonly known. Passersby were giving me odd looks, but I didn’t concern myself with them—I’d finally passed the trial, so I couldn’t help but be excited.

A month had passed since my training had begun. After enduring Granny Tokie’s cheerful yet absolutely devilish Spartan training, I’d finally succeeded in mastering the power of Spatial Translocation. Or, well, I’d mastered it within the realm of Earth.

I was now able to teleport between our world and any country on Earth that I wanted using my own power, and I could even make sure I adjusted the time correctly. I could spend a year in the other world, and then make sure a year had passed on Earth when I traveled over.

It’d been so long since I’d last been on Earth that I’d gotten a bit carried away and ended up visiting a whole bunch of countries during my training, but it wasn’t as if anyone in those places would know me, so it was fine. I’d made sure to cast cognition disruption magic, so they likely didn’t even realize I was there. The Londoners only noticed me because I got a bit too excited.

“I see you managed it.”

Granny Tokie appeared beside me without a sound. Even though she had appeared so suddenly, the passersby were all continuing their fast-paced walking, paying her no mind whatsoever. She must’ve been completely hiding her presence. Apparently, she’d made sure that we wouldn’t appear on security cameras and such either. Coating yourself in a light layer of divinity could disrupt that kind of thing, it seemed. But then, when I tried to do it myself and took a selfie, I could see myself perfectly fine.

Huh?

“Your smartphone is a sacred treasure from God Almighty. Of course you’d show up on it.”

That...makes sense.

“I’ll rewind time back to when you started your training now,” Granny Tokie said as she clapped her hands. We were immediately back in the Divine Realm where God Almighty was waiting.

“Welcome back. I see you’ve gotten the hang of it.”

“Yes, thank you. Now I can go back to Earth whenever I want.”

The alarm clock on the low table hadn’t changed from what it had been when I started training. Or, more precisely, a whole month’s worth of time had been wound back...

“Let me be clear, you can only go when I grant you permission, okay? It is absolutely unacceptable for you to travel to Earth without asking. I won’t hesitate to punish you if you break that rule.”

“There are some very fussy gods up here, so we need to make sure we don’t give them any ammo. It would make things much more difficult later otherwise.”

The two deities gave me very firm reminders. Those fussy gods Granny Tokie was referring to were likely the ones who didn’t think all that highly of me. If I broke the gods’ rules like they were nothing, those gods would say, “I told you so,” and it would absolutely bring shame to God Almighty, so I had to make sure I didn’t do that. Even if I was a grand duke in the mortal realm, up here, I was just a baby.

I’d promised I would only use time travel as a way to adjust time differences during Spatial Translocation, so I needed to make sure I abided by that. If there were any problems, I needed to talk to the gods I trusted, not just make my own judgment. Communication was key.

“I’ll see you next week, then.”

Now that the month of training was over, I finally returned to the castle.

Ahhhhhh, I’m finally home...

To everyone else, not a single second of time had passed, so there had been no changes from when I’d gone to the Divine Realm. For me, though, I hadn’t been back for a whole month, so I honestly really wanted to rest...

Although it was still early in the afternoon, I headed for my bedroom...only to be caught by Kousaka on the way and dragged into my office.

Nooooooooo!

“You must finish your backlog before you depart on your trip. I have received permission from the duchesses on this matter.”

Kousaka had the most pleasant smile on his face as he smacked down a whole pile of paper on the desk.

I’ll never finish this! This is gonna take more than today! Can I use Spatial Translocation to escape this?!

The answer was obviously no, so I got straight into my work. Using [Accel] to speed up my brain, I zoomed through the paperwork from right to left.

This was a bit of a late observation, but we clearly had far too few secretaries here!

I’m gonna fall apart if I don’t recruit more civil servants soon!

I finally finished when the clock had just passed midnight... I wasn’t sure if it was because my mind was still stuck in training mode, but I automatically thought about trying to turn the clock hands back...

This isn’t good. I’m going loopy.

The first thing to do was sleep... I could handle everything else tomorrow. The moment I made it back to my room, I dove into the bed.

Right, I needed to tell the girls that my parents had realized we were real. I was sure they’d be happy to know that we could make trips back once every year, at least.

Hang on, did future me never bring my kids to see their grandparents? Or did I hold back because it would mean changing the history where the kids first met them on current me’s trip?

We’d probably be able to figure something out if we asked Granny Tokie for help, but that felt like a bit much. She’d already helped with far more than she should’ve had to. That meant the next time my parents would see their grandkids would be at least ten years from now. It was better than them not getting to meet at all, given that that would’ve been the reality in a different timeline, but it also meant that they weren’t able to be present for their grandchildren’s births. At the end of the day, I was still a terrible son.

I flopped around on my bed, feeling guilty toward my parents, and then eventually drifted off to sleep.

◇◇◇

“There’s not a lot we can do if they’ve already found out. God Almighty forgave you, yes?”

“Right. There shouldn’t be any problems.”

“In fact, now we can go see them without any sneaking around, we can. Is there really a problem?”

When I told the girls what God Almighty had told me yesterday, that was what they said to me. And they were right, there was no problem, but...

“I’ll most likely get majorly scolded. Mainly by my mom.”

“I doubt there’s a lot you can do about that...” Linze awkwardly laughed. But she was only able to respond like that because she hadn’t ever been a victim of one of my mom’s lectures. The intensity of the telling-off she would give you if you tried to lie or deceive her was nothing like what they’d seen. She was as insistent as a drunk trying to pick a fight.

And it wasn’t that I didn’t get it—they’d thought it had been a dream, but then it turned out not to be a dream. The natural feeling was that you had been deceived in some way. I just hoped she could understand that we had lots of circumstances on our end too.

“You’re mother and son. You’ll figure it out.”

Oh god, Leen completely threw in the towel. Dammit, I guess I’m on my own.

“More importantly, what decision did you come to concerning Allis?”

“She’s Kuon’s fiancée, so I want her to meet her mother and father-in-law.”

“But then, what will you do about Leylle?”

“I guess...have her look after things while we’re gone?”

“It doesn’t feel right to exclude someone like that...”

The topic of discussion had already shifted to Allis. I guess I’d need to give up on the cavalry. I had to think up a way to ignore my mother’s scoldings on my own...

“For now, let’s just talk with Melle and the girls. The bigger problem will be...”

“Ende...right?”

The moment Linze said his name, everyone let out a sigh.

“Knowing him, he’ll insist that he gets to tag along too.”

“His own ability to travel between worlds is quite troublesome...”

Elze and Lu appeared worried, but I didn’t think that would cause an issue. Ende’s ability to cross worlds was purely spatial—I was pretty sure he couldn’t time travel. In other words, even if we departed for Earth at the same time, Ende would likely end up far in Earth’s future. If that future was more than two weeks later, then we’d be back before he even found us.

Though it seemed pretty likely that he’d then just beg me to take him with Spatial Translocation...

◇◇◇

“That sounds fun! I’ll go!”

“Absolutely not! Who knows what’ll happen to you out there?!”

And of course, it went exactly as we figured it would: The daughter and the father had completely opposite opinions on the matter.

We’d gone to Ende’s house to ask about bringing Allis, and while Allis had clearly been excited at the prospect, Ende had snapped.

“Traveling to a different world isn’t some simple affair. Common sense in our world is not the same as in a different world—you have to make sure you follow what is common sense to them. Even if you’re as cautious as can be, you might still be attacked by monsters you can’t find in our world, or be chased around by some uncivilized savages. I can’t let Allis go to a place like that!”

Ende had traveled to a whole bunch of different worlds in his life. He knew exactly how dangerous it could be. But was he saying that people living on Earth were uncivilized savages?

Take that back, asshole! Oh, wait... You’ve been chased around before, haven’t you? You’re talking from experience.

If I could agree with anything, it was that it was dangerous to go over there without understanding how things worked. If you didn’t know what a pedestrian crossing was, you might cross while the lights were still red. If you didn’t know about plugs, you could end up sticking your finger into a socket and getting electrocuted.

But that was what we were here for—to make sure the kids knew these things, so I didn’t think he had any reason to worry. Well, Kuon would likely be the one watching out for Allis, but either way, it would be fine.

“Why?! I’m Kuon’s fiancée! Of course I should go with him!”

“But you aren’t married yet! It isn’t just the natural course of things!”

I sighed as I watched the two of them glare at each other, and Melle, Ney, and Lycee couldn’t help but sigh with me.

“What do you guys think?” I asked them.

“Well...I personally think it’s fine.”

“It’ll be a little lonely without her, but if Allis wants to go, then I think she should.”

“Indeed. Broadening one’s horizons is not a bad thing. But is it really safe over there?”

They seemed to all generally be okay with the idea, but were still a little anxious.

“There’s very little mana over there, so we can’t use much magic, but that shouldn’t matter for Allis. The country we’ll be going to is one of the safest in that world, so we’ll be fine. I’m not saying accidents can’t happen, but we’ll be keeping an eye out.”

Unless I was misremembering, I was pretty sure Japan was ranked in the top ten safest countries. Number one was Iceland, I think? If it was safe from an ordinary person’s perspective, then it would be hard for someone as strong as Allis to ever truly be in danger. Even if a gangster appeared with a gun, I doubted they could even so much as scratch her. Honestly, I’d fear more for the thug’s life than Allis’s...

“See! They think it’s fine!”

“Grrrrrr...!”

With such reliable backers, Allis only gained confidence in her stance. Ende, left all on his own, whipped his head toward me with a sharp glare.

Don’t look at me.

“Then let me go too!”

“Absolutely not. I can’t look after you too, and need I remind you this is a family trip? I’m not about to take my son’s fiancée’s dad with us.”

I immediately interrupted Ende’s predictable response. We would technically be family in a sense once Kuon and Allis got married, but I refused to remind him of that. It was a guarantee that he’d be a pain if he joined us.

“You know, there’s a saying where I’m from that says if you love your child, you should let them travel. It means that rather than spoiling and coddling your child, letting them experience the harsh reality of the world is the true way to show your love and care. Being too nosy isn’t good for her, you know?”

“Nrgh! You’re saying that to me?! This isn’t ‘the harsh reality of the world,’ it’s a damn family trip!”

He had a point. But wasn’t it a little weird for the father of the son’s bride to tag along? Wasn’t that practically like walking into hell? Though, I was sure that depended on the family.

“As her guardian, I should—!”

“Shut your mouth for once.”

A chilling voice came from Leylle, who was sitting between Ney and Lycee. No, that wasn’t Leylle; it was the consciousness of Halle, the Sovereign Phrase, speaking from inside her body.

Through Melle, Ney, and Lycee’s painstakingly careful persuasion, Halle wouldn’t force himself into Leylle’s consciousness even if Ende was present anymore. Allis knew about Halle now too. Apparently, she viewed him as “Uncle Halle.” That meant Ende could return home now without having to fear that Halle would go berserk the moment he ended up in Leylle’s line of sight.

However, that also meant that we never expected Halle to suddenly take over like this.

Please don’t act out, okay?

“‘You just force your own views onto others without considering their feelings. Don’t use her like some convenient tool.’ That’s what you yelled very dramatically at me, didn’t you?” Halle reminded him with a smirk. “Funny. Seems like you’re doing just that with Allis now.”

“Ugh...” Ende clutched his chest at the retort.

What’s this, Halle? Did he really have the nerve to say something so arrogant?

“For us Dominant Phrase, our parents are simply those who produced our cores. From the moment we are born, we are permitted to live as we please. Why, it is even common for those who do not get along with their parents to leave and never see them again. I struggle to fathom your extreme attachment to your daughter.”

Dominant Phrase were born as adults, having inherited some degree of knowledge and experience from their parents. It might be that Dominant Phrase who were prone to self-loathing found that their children ended up not seeing eye to eye with them for that very reason.

“If she wants to go, then you should let her go. My sister left me because I tried to force my own ideals on her without sparing a thought for what she felt. Frankly, I couldn’t care less if you were to make the same mistakes as me, but things are different if it means it would make my sister sad.”

“Halle...” Melle mumbled as she cast a solemn look at Leylle...or more specifically, Halle.

It would be very Allis to ignore Ende and force herself in anyway.

“Allis... Do you want to go that badly?”

“I do. I want to meet Kuon’s grandpa and grandma. I want to make sure I introduce myself,” Allis replied, looking right into Ende’s eyes as she stated her desire.

Eventually, Ende let out a resigned sigh.

“Fine. But seriously, be careful, okay? Make sure you listen to what people tell you. Don’t go off by yourself.”

“Thank you, dad!” Allis exclaimed. Her face broke into a wide smile as she launched herself at Ende.

I sighed in relief at having succeeded in our persuasion, but then I felt Ende’s glare stabbing into me.

I get it, okay? I’ll make sure she comes back safe and sound.

“What about Leylle? If she wants to go...”

“She does not,” Halle answered. “The prospect of traveling worlds scares her. If anything goes wrong, she may end up summoning hordes of Quos again. I presume you do not want that to happen?”

Quos were those artificial gemstonelike Phrase, right? I forgot that when Leylle appeared in this world, a whole horde of Quos materialized to protect her. If they appeared in Japan, saying that people would panic was an understatement... Yeah, that would definitely be bad.

“Whaaaaaat?! Leylle should come too!” Allis cried as she turned to Leylle with a pout.

Leylle’s sharp look softened. She must have returned to normal.

“Sorry, Allis... I’m just too scared... If I cause problems over there, I’ll trouble far too many people, so I’ll wait here.”

“Boo... I’ll make sure to bring back plenty of souvenirs instead, then! Look forward to it!”

“I will. Thank you, Allis.”

Allis stopped hugging Ende and moved to hug Leylle next.

I do want to let her join us, but it wouldn’t be good if she went berserk...

If we caused problems on one of my trips to Earth, we might never be allowed to travel there again. I felt guilty, but it would be best to have Leylle stay here. Like Allis said, we could just make sure to buy her plenty of souvenirs.

“By the way, when will you be leaving? And for how long?” Ney asked.

“We’ll be leaving in a week,” I told her. “The plan is to stay there for two weeks.”

And then, a week after that, we’ll be sending the kids back home...

“Sorry that we’re taking two whole weeks away from your remaining time with Allis...”

“It’s fine.”

Lycee was the next to respond, expression unchanging.

“This is what Allis wants. Besides, as Dominant Phrase, ten years is nothing. It won’t be long before we meet her again.”

I hadn’t thought about it until now, but did Phrase live for centuries? If Kuon and Allis’s children chose to remain here as the rulers of Brunhild, would they also choose to remain here? I couldn’t tell if that put me more at ease or made me feel afraid...

I was sure Dominant Phrase weren’t immortal, but they must have a lifespan that was exceptionally long compared to a human. Not that it made them much different from the elves and other long-lived species in this world. For those of us who were now divine beings, we’d eventually leave Brunhild and remain in Babylon for a spell, waiting for the perfect time to move to the Divine Realm. That would be the true beginning of our lives as gods.

According to Karen, Yumina and the girls would be treated similarly to angels, since they were my wards. They’d be like assistants to the gods. Since they weren’t full gods, they would need to live in the lower divine realm. If they worked hard while there, they could become servile gods, and from there become full gods.

The girls could also become gods—no, goddesses... The scale of all this had really become so massive that it was hard to believe...

Well, that was something for the far, far future.

“Touya... Make sure to take plenty of pictures of Allis while you’re there, okay? And videos. Every moment of her trip, except for when she’s in the bath or the restroom.”

“Don’t turn me into your daughter’s stalker.”

I’d take pictures and videos, but mainly of our kids.

That said, I’ll make sure Allis is in the shots, so stop worrying yourself, you creep.

Ignoring Ende, who was continuing to spout weird things, we returned to the castle. At least with this, our main concern had been dealt with. Next was teaching the children the general rules and manners of Japan, especially traffic regulations like traffic signals, pedestrian crossings, and level crossings. After that was the usual “don’t go off with strangers,” “don’t go off on your own” type of warnings...

Maybe I should have Fam from Babylon’s library make a travel guidebook.

At least if they got lost, I would still know where they were as long as they had their phones on them, but I was still really worried. The kids dropped those things pretty often...

And then, I had to worry about mom. It was painful knowing that she was definitely going to be pissed, but I had to go see her. I’d be going in my child form again, so maybe I could avoid a headbutt like last time? Actually, no, I still had memories of her digging her knuckles into my temple when she got mad at me when I was younger.

Well, even if she did have to get mad at me, I’d rather she didn’t do it in front of the kids. I still needed to keep some sort of image as their parent...

I let out yet another sigh. This was supposed to be a fun trip, yet I’d sighed so many times already just thinking about it.

Intermission: The Legacy of the Knight King

“Your belly’s getting so big!”

“Yes, it is. Oh, that was a kick. She’s so lively for a girl.”

As she said that, Sophia, Queen of Lestia, stroked her baby bump. She was the wife of Reinhard, Hilde’s older brother and current Knight King of Lestia.

“Bea is actually quite calm and matu— Oh no.” Frei quickly covered her mouth.

You nearly spoke about the future again, didn’t you?

Hilde, Frei, and I had come to Lestia Castle to check up on the pregnant Sophia. Although Sophia was a native Lestian, she was a gentle soul. In this land that coveted martial prowess, women often sought strength as well. There were more female knights here than in most countries. But as the kingdom still retained a class system, it was hard for commoners to become knights. Unlike mercenaries and adventurers, who were judged solely on their strength, knights were required to demonstrate decorum and discipline. That wasn’t something that could be learned overnight.

“So Bea will be a calm child, will she? That is also good. I would be rather worried about her future if she ended up as single-minded about swordsmanship as Hilde.”

“Brother! Don’t say strange things about me in front of my daughter!” Hilde snapped at Reinhard’s remark. She might have been embarrassed about it, but Frei was turning out the same way... Though Frei wasn’t as bad as Yakumo. I was much more worried about her obsession with weapons than Hilde’s with swordsmanship.

That reminds me...

“You sent me a message saying you had something you wanted to show me, didn’t you?” I reminded Reinhard.

“Oh, of course. Hey, bring it over.”

At Reinhard’s order, the nearby knight brought over a small tube that was about four centimeters in diameter and twenty centimeters long.

“What’s this?” I asked, looking at it curiously.

“The stone knight statue that has long decorated the castle shattered the other day, and this was found inside. It seems to be something from the first Knight King.”

The first Knight King—as in, the knight who founded Lestia to begin with? He’d picked up a holy sword that had fallen from Babylon’s storehouse and unified the peoples in the area. If my memory served me right, it happened around three hundred years ago.

“They say that back then, the region was overrun by magic beasts, making it a difficult place for people to live. Our founder was just a knight from some foreign country who had ended up in this land while on a journey, then worked together with the local people to take down the beasts. In the end, they even took down a dragon and founded the Knight Kingdom. Or at least, so they say.”

Wow, so a vagrant knight defeated a dragon in his travels and founded a country.

It really did sound like a traditional knight story. It was fortunate that that was the kind of person that Doc Babylon’s sword had ended up in the hands of. I didn’t even want to consider what might have happened if some bandit or highwayman had found it instead. There was already the incident in Eashen with the elixir of immortality, after all...

Every new story I learned really made it sink in how dangerous a thing that clumsy Parshe had done.

“And this...” Reinhard trailed off as he flipped open the lid. Honestly, it looked a lot like the tube you’d get with your diploma inside. He took out a well-worn parchment with lines of some ancient script scrawled on it. “This scroll is not written with Lestia’s ancient script. I imagine it was the language of the founder’s homeland. From what we can decipher, what is written here is information about three special pieces of equipment...”

“Wait...do you mean the three legendary pieces of armor?! They’re real?!” Hilde suddenly spoke up in surprise.

The three legendary what now?

“They are the shield, armor, and helmet the founding knight was said to have worn,” she explained, noticing my puzzlement. “Those three pieces of equipment and the Holy Sword Lestia helped defeat the evil dragon. That is the legend that has been passed down through our family.”

“The legendary armor! That sounds so cool! I wanna see!”

Naturally, Frei was excited, her eyes sparkling. She wasn’t just a weapon maniac, she was an armor maniac too... She had even gone as far as participating in an auction in Felsen to acquire the cursed armor of Damuel. After many twists and turns, that armor now resided in my [Storage], but I was keeping it a secret from Frei. My daughter really was strange to want such an ominous piece of gear.

“It is said that the founder hid those three pieces in Lestia Castle. They haven’t been seen since the founding of the country...”

I see. So it’s the legacy of the first Knight King, then.

That would explain why even Hilde was getting excited about it all.

“We were hoping you could translate this for us, Grand Duke.”

“I’d love to help, but without knowing what the exact language is, I can’t use translation magic.”

It was a language from three hundred years ago, right? If only it had been from five thousand years ago, I could ask Fam and she’d know in a heartbeat.

Wait...I just need to ask someone who was around back then.

I took a picture of the scroll and sent it to the person who fit that criteria as closely as possible. Leen immediately phoned me back.

“Hey, did you see the picture?”

“I did. Unfortunately, I have no idea what language that is. I doubt it was a language from the countries to the west, however. Not even the Sea of Trees fits the bill. I would try more east, like maybe Felsen.”

Felsen, huh? Maybe the first Knight King originally served as a knight there?

“You should try asking Relisha,” she suggested. “She is the guildmaster. I’d think she should be knowledgeable on this sort of thing.”

Relisha was the guildmaster of Brunhild’s adventurer’s guild—and she was an elf. I’d never asked for her age, but Her Majesty Queen Elfrau was her aunt and she’d lived over a thousand years, so Relisha had to have lived for at least three hundred, right?

I did as Leen suggested and sent the picture of the scroll to Relisha next, and again, I immediately got a phone call back.

“Sorry, but I can’t read this either, though I think it might be the language of the Kingdom of Karnavaltz, which used to be on the border of the Roadmare Union.”

The language of Karnavaltz, huh? If I know that much, I can surely translate it now.

I said my thanks to Relisha and hung up. Turning back to the scroll, I activated the translation magic.

Hey, I can read it! There’s some difficult language and parts I can’t quite understand, but it’s enough for me to get a rough idea.

Seriously, though, how did this magic even work? Was I accessing the memory of the world and pulling out the language I wanted translated? Then again, it was pretty pointless to think too hard about it. It was convenient, which was good enough for me.

“‘Though a knight’s soul resides in the blade, if you seek the power to protect, I shall show you the way. The shield rests in the steadfast heart of stone that protects the people; the helm rests in the depths of the sea where wisdom gathers; the armor rests beneath the mightiest sword. Should peril befall the people, don these pieces and vanquish all evil. Herein lies the true desire of a knight.’ Man, this is so abstract...”

If only he had just written clearer instructions. Though I suppose it helped prevent it from being found by those who might use it for evil.

“Can’t you find them with [Search], father?” Frei asked hopefully.

I gave it a thought, then turned to Reinhard.

“If I knew their exact forms, I could probably find them. Are there any records of that sort about them?”

“Sort of, but the descriptions change between legends. One minute the armor is a shining blue, the next it’s bloodred. Sometimes the shield is round, other times it’s rectangular.”

In other words, we didn’t have that info either. Even if I used [Search], if I put in something as general as “shield,” “helmet,” or “armor,” I’d get loads of results back in a castle. I could look up “legendary armor,” but there was no guarantee I’d find it. For all I knew, these relics might look nowhere near as flashy as one would expect from legendary armor.

Guess our only choice is to solve the riddle.

“‘The shield rests in the steadfast heart of stone that protects the people,’ huh? What sort of stone protects the people? A Stone Golem? Is a Stone Golem protecting the shield? I have no idea where to even begin with this...”

Or was it saying that the shield was like the determination one had in their heart to protect others, which was as solid as rock? But that observation didn’t particularly lead me anywhere either...

“A stone that protects the people... Oh!” Sophia let out a little gasp as she looked out the window.

“Did you think of something, Sophia?”

“Um, could it be that the stone that protects the people is the city walls?”

“The city walls?”

Oh... Yeah, they are like a big stone that protects the people. But then, what is its heart?

“I may have an idea,” Hilde said. “Let’s just go check it out for now.”

And so, we set off for the walls of Lestia.

◇◇◇

“Ohhh...”

A stone tablet was embedded into a corner of the inner side of the castle walls with something etched into it.

Are those names of people at the bottom? There are seven of them.

As I gazed at the tablet, Hilde explained the significance of it.

“This was a commemorative tablet created during the founding of Lestia. The names at the bottom belong to the first Knight King and the six loyal knights of the throne.”

I see. So it’s like America’s Declaration of Independence?

It seemed they had the pledges they made at the time engraved on it too.

“The steadfast heart of stone that protects the people... In other words, the proof of Lestia’s unwavering determination. It feels like it would be here, but...”

There was no shield as far as I could see. We examined the tablet from every direction imaginable, but there was no switch anywhere, and it didn’t seem like it was hiding any secret gimmicks.

“You don’t think it’s inside of it, do you?”

Reinhard unsurprisingly frowned at my suggestion and replied, “It...may be. Still, I cannot say I like the thought of having to destroy the monument made on my kingdom’s founding...”

Plus, it would be horrible if we destroyed it and it turned out there was nothing back there.

Oh, what about underground? Maybe it’s buried in front of it or something.

“You should just use [Search],” Frei pointed out.

“You know...that’s a good point.”

I pretended that I’d totally thought of it myself as I activated it using “Shield” as my search word.

It would be strange for any other shields to be inside the castle walls, so if it was here, then...

“Bingo. There’s definitely a shield inside.”

“So we will need to break it...”

I could see Reinhard having an internal battle with himself.

I couldn’t identify if it was the founder’s shield, but there was definitely a shield in there. If it was the founder’s shield, it would be nothing short of a national treasure to Lestia, something they would want to acquire at all costs. Still, it was undeniable that this stone tablet was also a vitally important relic of Lestian history, the physical proof of the founder’s pledge. There was no way they could destroy something of such value. It was too big for me to use [Apport] to try to pull it out too...

Reinhard nodded to himself, having come to a decision, and said, “Here’s what we’ll do. We’ll circle around to the outside of the wall and dig the tunnel from there. If we carefully chip away at it with Earth magic, making sure to calculate the distance, we may be able to keep the tablet safe in the process.”

“Then I’ll—”

“Couldn’t you just use [Teleport] to fish it out?”

Just as I was about to volunteer to enact Reinhard’s idea, Frei raised her own suggestion.

“You know...that’s a good point.”

I pretended that I totally thought of that myself as I used [Teleport] on the shield.

I’d completely forgotten that [Teleport] could be used to teleport things other than myself. It had to be within my range of vision, but just like [Search], if I was positive it was there, it would still take effect.

“[Teleport]!”

The next moment, a gleaming silver shield appeared in my hands. The size wasn’t so different from a regular shield. On its surface was a relief of a bird with its wings spread wide. It was lighter than I thought it would be, as if it were made of plastic.

Wait...

“Is this high-mithril?”

“High-mithril?!”

High-mithril was also known as god king’s silver, and it was famed across the eastern continent as an ore that could seal the functions of a Gollem. A little of it could be found on the western continent too, often in artifacts from the ancient civilization. I was pretty sure Lestia’s holy sword was made of high-mithril, for example.

“Father, father! Let me see! Let me have it! Let me touch it!”

“Calm down, girl...”

Frei was jumping up and down in excitement, stretching her arms out toward the shield in my hands.

Your uncle should come first, you know?! He’s the king.

But when I glanced at Reinhard, he gave a small shrug and gestured toward his niece to let her go first.

I’m so sorry about my child’s impatience...

Thus, I handed the shield over to Frei.

Make sure you say thank you to your uncle!

“Whoa, it’s so light! It seems so easy to use!”

Frei brandished the shield, swinging it in all directions.

Hey, make sure you don’t let it slip from your fingers. That’s a national treasure, don’t forget.

Once Frei was satisfied, Reinhard took it from her hands.

“It really is light... It has been said that these three legendary pieces hold some special power.”

Oh? Let me give it a check with [Analyze]... Ahhh, I see.

“Did you find something?”

“Yep. Seems it’s enhanced with a good old magic reflection. The real impressive part about it is that you can choose when to reflect the damage yourself.”

“It isn’t automatic?”

Honestly, it would be more accurate to say that it absorbed the attack, stored it, and then released it, rather than outright reflecting. It could only hold one charge, but in exchange, it could store anything.

“That’s amazing! Of course the founder had such an impressive shield!” Hilde marveled, taking the shield from her brother and holding it up in the air before nodding in satisfaction.

Something caught my attention, so I asked for it back afterward. After much searching, I found some old letters carved onto the back of the shield. Even without translating it, I could tell what it said—it was the same as what was written on the Holy Sword Lestia, after all.

“This shield was forged by Doc Babylon as well!”

I could see how this was turning out now. These three legendary pieces most likely all fell from the storehouse, probably as a set to boot. I wasn’t about to act as if we owned them, but...

“We’ve found the shield! Now let’s find the helmet!” Frei exclaimed. She was completely ready to search for the rest.

“The helm, huh? Didn’t the riddle say the helmet was in the depths of the sea where wisdom gathered?”

“Surely it doesn’t mean the actual sea, right?” Hilde mused.

“Maybe it refers to somewhere within this castle that is like a sea?” Reinhard suggested.

“A sea... Oh! It must be the fountain!” Frei brightly exclaimed.

A fountain? If I remembered correctly, there was a big fountain if you continued straight on from the castle gates, in the front garden of the castle, but could that really be what the word “sea” was referring to?

We had no other ideas for now, so we went along with Frei’s suggestion and headed to the fountain.

“Is it at the bottom of this?”

“It doesn’t look like there’s anything there...”

The fountain’s water was so clear that you could easily see the stones at the bottom. It didn’t look like anything was down there, and I couldn’t see anything that looked like a switch.

May as well look with [Search].

“Hmm, doesn’t seem like there’s anything there.”

“Aww, I was wrong?”

“Now that I think about it, this fountain was made one hundred years ago. It wouldn’t have been here at the founding.”

“Brother...please remember that sooner.”

Guess that was a completely wrong track. If we were thinking about sealike places around the castle, could it be the moat?

When I suggested that, Reinhard nodded and replied, “If you were to view the castle as an island, then certainly, the moat would be the ocean. It’s possible.”

We went beyond the city walls, me using [Search] as we walked around. The most surprising thing was that I didn’t have just one result, but many. Every single one I pulled up with [Teleport] was just a regular rusty old helmet, definitely not the legendary piece we were searching for.

“Many drunken knights have probably dropped their helms into the moat over the years...” Reinhard muttered in embarrassment.

We did a whole circuit, but the legendary helmet was nowhere to be found.

Guess it’s not in the moat, then. Thinking about it, where does the “wisdom” part come in? Is it not the moat?

“Wisdom... Superior knowledge? Or like, a sage?”

“When it says ‘where wisdom gathers,’ does that mean there’s a lot of it?”

A place where lots of superior knowledge is gathered? Wait, don’t tell me...!

When I lifted my head, Hilde and Reinhard also seemed to have come to the same conclusion as we all shouted at once: “The library!”

◇◇◇

“This library has gathered materials since the kingdom’s founding. The room in the back is filled with confidential documents, so I must ask that you not enter it.”

The library of Lestia Castle was gigantic—ours back in Brunhild couldn’t even begin to compare. Though it was small compared to Babylon’s.

“‘The depths of the sea where wisdom gathers’... Could it be underground?” Hilde wondered.

“Most likely. [Search].”

Something reacted at least, so we must be right. But...

“I hate to say this, but, um, it’s beneath that room at the back.”

The helm was most definitely buried under the room where all the secrets were stored.

Well, this is awkward.

I glanced at Reinhard, and he eventually let out a massive dejected sigh.

“Nothing else we can do. I’ll let you enter, but please don’t touch any of the books or documents inside.”

“Of course.”

It wouldn’t do me any good to make the man suspicious of me.

Reinhard opened the magic door lock and beckoned us inside. [Search] indicated that the helmet was underneath the floor in the center of the room.

When I used [Teleport], something a little like a gleaming silver helm ended up in my hands. This was definitely it. The reason I say “a little” like a helm was because this wasn’t a full-face helmet, nor was it even really a helmet; it was actually more like a crown or a circlet. A large jewel was set into the part that rested on the forehead, while metallic feathers adorned the parts near the ears.

Let’s give it a little check with [Analyze], shall we?

“I see... It makes you resistant to all status ailments and greatly increases resistance to fire, ice, and lightning.”

“Amazing! Lemme see!”

Frei was reaching her hands out toward the circlet with glittering eyes.

This girl!

That was another apology to Reinhard added to the pile.

Still, it made the wearer resistant to all status ailments? That meant paralysis and poison would have no effect. Maybe even petrify and charm. It was like having [Recovery] permanently cast on you. If only we had this while fighting the Catoblepas and its petrifying eyes.

“It’s lighter than I expected. Oh, seems it adjusts based on the size of the wearer’s head.”

Reinhard tried equipping it after Frei had finished looking it all over.

This stuff really did give the vibe of an old hero’s gear. It was convenient that it had an automatic size adjustment feature.

I examined it next—and right enough, it was very light. It felt as light as a straw hat, and it deployed a barrier around the head to mitigate any damage to that area. As expected, Doc Babylon’s signature was also on the backside of the circlet.

No, seriously, we’re so lucky these didn’t end up in worse hands.

“All we have left to find now is the armor... ‘The armor lies beneath the mightiest sword.’” Reinhard muttered to himself. “There’s only one candidate for that, right?”

“The Holy Sword Lestia?” Hilde asked.

The Holy Sword Lestia was the symbol of the Knight Kingdom of Lestia, and another creation of Doc Babylon’s. It granted its wielder the power of healing, and it was with this that the first Knight King of Lestia pacified the lands and founded the kingdom. But...

“What does it mean for it to lie beneath?”

“I’m not sure...”

Right now, we had nothing to clue us in to the meaning.

“Where’s the holy sword right now?”

“It is under tight protection in the castle’s treasury,” Reinhard answered.

Did that mean the armor was underneath the castle’s treasury?

Guess it’s worth a shot.

With Reinhard leading the way, we made our way there. Four gatekeepers stood in front of a sturdy door. Well, he certainly wasn’t lying about the tight protection at least.

When I used [Search], there was a result for armor in the treasury—four different results, actually. But if it was in the treasury, that meant it wasn’t underneath, right?

“It is likely detecting the armor we store in there,” Hilde explained. “We have several valuable pieces of armor that have been gathered over the years.”

“If there are four results, then it seems likely that’s the case,” Reinhard added. “There are indeed four suits of armor stored in the treasury.”

“So this isn’t the right place, then?” I sighed. The second I got no results from underground, I assumed that was the case, but still. “What’s the second strongest sword, then?”

“Hmm... The criteria of a sword being strong is already too vague,” Hilde said. “Swords are simply tools that have their strength decided by the one who wields them.”

That was true. If someone untrained in swordsmanship were to try wielding Lestia, Reinhard would beat them even with a dull sword. What would make a sword “mighty” in that case? This wasn’t like a game where you’d get stats displayed like “ATK +99” or something. That said, the Holy Sword Lestia had the special ability to grant its wielder healing abilities—in that sense, it had more value than a regular sword, and could maybe be described as a mightier sword.

Wait...what if the “mighty” isn’t referring to the strength to strike down, but the durability to not break?

That would mean we were searching for the most durable sword, which instantly cut down the possibilities!

“Oh, I know!”

Before I could voice my own conclusion, Frei’s voice piped up in realization.

Wait, seriously? You figured it out?

“C’mere!”

Frei ignored me standing in shock and dashed down the corridor.

No, seriously. Did you figure it out?!

We ran after Frei with absolutely no idea where she was going.

“And here we are!”

Frei opened two large double doors and burst into a room. It was a vast hall with a red carpet flanked by beautiful white columns. The way ahead was bathed in brilliant sunlight, drawing our eyes to a magnificent stained-glass window. In front of that window stood a sturdy red throne, backed by a tapestry embroidered with the royal crest of the Lestias.

“The audience chamber?”

A room for various ceremonial acts, such as receiving foreign guests, conferring honors, and giving royal decrees...was where the mightiest sword lay?

I looked around the room, expecting to see some big sword hanging somewhere, but I saw nothing.

“Frei? What are you trying to say?”

“Do you still not get it? I’m talking about the knight’s code of honor!”

“Oh!”

Hilde and Reinhard clearly realized what Frei was talking about as they cried out in unison.

Wait, what?! What is it?!

“That makes so much sense!”

“I am a failure of a ruler to have not even realized such a thing...”

“Uh, could someone fill me in?”

I was starting to feel left out.

Frei was the one who finally explained, “Lestia...or, well, this continent in general has several principles that knights abide by. The most important of them all is...”

“A knight should be the sword and shield of those who can’t take up arms!”

All three of them enthusiastically shouted it at once. When I thought about it, it did sound familiar. Our own knight order...

Oh!

“So the ‘sword’ in question is a knight! And the mightiest sword would therefore be...!”

The mightiest knight of the Knight Kingdom would be someone who possessed not only physical strength, but also the skill, physique, and spirit of a knight. In other words, a king of knights. The Knight King of Lestia.

“If it was underneath the mightiest sword, then it would be underneath where the Knight King would reside—in other words, under the throne!”

“That’s what I think, anyway!”

“I never imagined the throne I’ve been sitting on all this time had the founder’s armor hidden underneath it. This almost feels blasphemous. I must apologize, Great Founder...”

Reinhard’s shoulders drooped in deep remorse, but wasn’t this clearly the founder’s fault? It wasn’t as if Reinhard knew. And if that was considered blasphemous, then wouldn’t every generation after the founder be guilty of blasphemy too?

“Anyway, let’s finally get that armor, shall we?”

“I wonder what it’s like! I’m so excited to see it!”

“The founder’s armor... I’m growing excited too!”

Mother and daughter were clenching their fists in excitement, eyes sparkling.

If the armor belonged to the first Knight King, then it must be some powerful stuff. The shield, the circlet...oh, and the sword too. All of them were unique, one-of-a-kind items. Though I suppose that shouldn’t be surprising, given who made them.

And then it struck me. I was hit with an insanely bad feeling. We were talking about Doc Babylon here. Would she make normal armor? Would she not curse it? Would that be why it had been sealed away for so long?

“Father, hurry up!”

“Oh, uh, yeah. [Teleport]...?”

With that sudden uncertainty in my heart, I gave in to Frei’s impatience and teleported the legendary armor to me.

This is...

Just like the rest, it seemed to be made of high-mithril. The gauntlets and greaves, I could make out. But what was this part meant for the torso? Two cup-shaped pieces and a small pair of metallic panties...

“Hey, this is just bikini armor!”

I almost threw it away when I suddenly realized what it was. This was clearly bikini armor! I was right to be worried after all! That scientist never made anything good!

There was a bikini armor listing in the storehouse...so this must have been one of those...

“This was...the armor the founder wore? Can you even call this armor?” Frei asked uncertainly.

I had no idea what to say.

So, wait, did that mean the first Knight King of Lestia fought while wearing this? What kind of perv was he?

Hilde quickly clarified when she saw my face:. “Oh, despite the title, the first Knight King was a woman, so it’s not that strange. Well...in that respect, it’s not strange, but...”

Suddenly, her confidence in what she was saying clearly dropped.

So the founder was a female knight, huh? Well, that makes sense... Yeah... Maybe?

“So, uhhh, what’s the effect of the armor?” Reinhard asked.

“O-Oh, gimme a sec. [Analyze].”

That goddamn scientist...

“The gauntlets strengthen the body. The greaves grant enhanced leg strength. The breastplate and waist armor, um...have the ability to draw the opponent’s gaze and enhance physical strength based on the shame the wearer feels...”

“I... I see.”

Reinhard clearly looked troubled. He looked about ready to shout, “What the hell is that about?!” but he clearly didn’t want to disparage his ancestor in any way.

At a base level, I could understand having an effect that attracted the gaze of your opponent—it was like a taunt, keeping the enemy’s eyes on you so that your allies could fight without being interrupted. But why were there power-ups based on how much shame the wearer felt? Just make it a regular unconditional buff! Making someone stronger based on how embarrassed they felt was clearly just Doc Babylon’s fetish!

The founder must’ve endured so much embarrassment just to use this armor to battle monsters. She had been known for her strength, so the shame she must have felt had to be immense. The fact that she continued fighting for her people regardless was a sign of how wonderful a person she had been.

For some reason, even though this should be a touching story, I’m not really feeling it.

Honestly, it wasn’t much of a surprise that the founder wanted to keep such a dark history hidden. Thinking about it carefully, the founding tablet, the secret room of the library, and the throne were all places that the people would absolutely avoid having destroyed. In other words, these pieces were intended to be used only when they were truly needed, when Lestia was in its darkest hour and you would be willing to go that far to retrieve them. Even if it meant exposing the worst part of her history, she always put her country first.

“Whoa, so this is the founder’s armor... I want to see its effects! Mother, you should wear it!”

“Huh?!”

Hilde looked horrified at her daughter’s sudden bomb of a suggestion.

“Well, it won’t fit me, but it’ll probably fit—”

“I’m not wearing something as horrible as that!”

“Aww...”

Hilde went as far as interrupting Frei to refuse. It was a bit rude to call the armor the founder wore “horrible,” but I understood how she felt. Though I...did kind of want to see her in it...

“What will we do with it now that we’ve found it?” I asked.

Reinhard stood there in thought for a moment.

“They are the three legendary pieces of the first Knight King’s armor. We must declare that we have found them. As for the armor, well...it may be for the best that we only mention the greaves and gauntlets.”

I agreed with him. There was no need to bring shame to his ancestor’s legacy. I was sure she would be happier knowing they had been left hidden in the treasury.

“However, we may find ourselves in a bit of trouble if we do not at least test the armor. It wouldn’t be good to only try them in our time of need, only to find out that it does nothing... So, Hilde, do you mind?”

“Brother?!”

Hilde was looking at her brother in utter shock at the sudden betrayal.

“Well, there are no other female knights we can reveal this to, are there? I think this is the duty of the royal family.”

“I already left the Lestian royal family! I’m a grand duchess of Brunhild now! I have nothing to do with this!”

Hilde was so desperate not to wear it that she argued with Reinhard for a while, but the moment her daughter joined in and her husband remained silent, she finally gave in and decided to do it.

...Yippee!

I felt a glare aimed right at me, but I pretended not to notice.

After we waited around for a bit in the underground training area that was reserved for the royal family, Hilde appeared wearing all the pieces of armor.

“Ugh... Why did things have to turn out like this?”

“Um...it suits you?”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better...”

My attempt at reassurance did nothing to help the bright red Hilde. But it really did suit her, as questionable as it was whether that counted as a compliment. It would definitely draw people’s attention, that was for sure. If you ignored the fact that it was bikini armor, I could definitely agree that this looked like a legendary knight’s armor.

“It suits you well, Hilde. It must be a great honor to be allowed to wear the same equipment as the founder. I’m jealous.” Reinhard added fuel to the fire with a smile on his face. Hilde immediately shot him a glare, in total contrast to her brother.

I’ll just stay out of this...

“If we want to test the power of the armor, I will require an opponent. Brother, would you mind?”

“Huh?”

After that, I could only watch in silence as Reinhard was beaten to a pulp by the powered-up Hilde.

Rest in peace, dear brother-in-law.

Surprisingly, it was through this battle that Hilde awoke to her divine trait. According to Frei, it was called holy sword dance, and it let Hilde summon several floating swords of light that she could control at will. Apparently, she’d already seen her mother use it plenty of times in the future.

Afterword

Although it’s been a year between books, I have managed to publish Volume 31 of In Another World With My Smartphone. Did you enjoy it?

Some of you may already be aware that the web novel of Smartphone is now complete. I must thank all of my readers for helping me see this eleven-year-long battle through to the very end. The light novel version of Smartphone will continue for a little longer, but over on the Narou side, I’ve started a new series where Kohaku, Linze, and Sakura will all feature.

Now that the last battle with the wicked devout is over, we have finally hit the end of this arc. Touya and his wives went on a honeymoon trip to Earth all the way back in Volume 21, but now they’ll get to go with their children in tow. I enjoyed this part a lot when writing it on Narou. I originally wanted to visit the locations myself to conduct some on-site research, but so many things piled up that it became impossible. I would’ve loved to have at least gone to an onsen town, though...

Look forward to their fulfilling trip!

Following up on the last volume, this volume had another special edition with a drama CD attached. Yui Fukuo, the voice actor of Linze, kindly wrote the script for this one as well. I’ve honestly become so dependent on her efforts. Really, thank you so much.

Fukuo-san really wanted the children to appear, so for the first time, they’ve been given voices. Adding in Touya and Kohaku, this drama CD features a lively tale with twenty whole characters chatting away. Each parent ended up playing their child, but that made mother and daughter feel all the more perfect.

I got to watch the recording of the drama CD remotely again this time. Last time, my microphone mysteriously wouldn’t connect, so I ended up unable to talk to them, but this time, I had a new PC and everything went completely fine.

I’m happy I got to finally introduce myself to the voice actors, but because I rarely talk to people, I ended up stumbling over my words and acting strange... I really wish I could redo that interaction. I ended up outright saying to the voice actors that I really hope we can get drama CDs for the last three volumes as well, so please support us so that we can continue with the special editions!

And now, for the special thanks.

First, to my illustrator, Eiji Usatsuka, thank you for making illustrations for both the original volume and the special edition. Please stick with me to the very end.

Tomofumi Ogasawara-sensei, thank you for drawing the illustration of Gould even while you’re so busy. Your crown Gollems are always so cute and cool. I wish we could make them into figures.

My editor, K, the editors at Hobby Japan, and everyone who was involved in the publication of this book, thank you as always for everything you do.

And finally, to all my readers of both the web novel and the light novels, I feel nothing but the greatest appreciation.

Patora Fuyuhara

Bonus Short Stories

Souvenirs for the Gods

“What would I like for a souvenir? Romance manga is fine for me. Oh, and I wouldn’t complain about some delicious cakes.”

“Romance manga and cakes. Got it.”

Now that we were going back to Earth, I decided to ask Karen and the other gods what they’d like as souvenirs. I thought it would be better to get their opinion rather than trying to guess.

“A longsword for me. A katana is also fine,” Moroha requested.

I narrowed my eyes and asked, “Why are you making my life difficult?”

They don’t have swords in Japan. Well, they probably do, but it’s not something I can just buy from a local shop. Even katanas are expensive if you want to get the good stuff.

“Isn’t a kitchen knife or a letter opener good enough?” I tried to negotiate.

“Well, I guess that would do, but... Oh, I know. How about a book on swordsmanship down on Earth? Or even just about swords. That sounds like it would be interesting.”

That certainly sounded a lot more doable. That was Moroha sorted out, then.

“Say, is a bow or a knife also off the table?” Karina piped up next.

“Not completely off the table...but I do think the ones over here are of better quality.”

I could get a bow for archery or kyudo, and for a knife, I could get something like a survival knife, but compared to the enhanced weapons you had here, they were barely worth it.

“I’m not too worried about that. It’s a souvenir, after all. I’ll just use it as decoration.”

“So you’re good with that, Karina?”

“Sure thing.”

I quickly wrote that down in my notebook.

“Some fruit or vegetable seeds would be grand,” Uncle Kousuke said.

Next, Sousuke gave a strum of his guitar.

I see you’re as talkative as ever.

“Sousuke says he’d like a unique instrument,” Uncle Kousuke translated for me.

“A unique instrument, huh? Got it.”

Surely there would be something if I wandered around the music stores. Would they sell didgeridoos in Japan?

“Uncle Takeru and Suika—”

Before I could even finish asking my question, the two of them turned and said at once, “Alcohol.”

“Didn’t even need to ask...”

They likely wouldn’t be content with just one or two bottles either. Guess I’d have to buy as many local sake brands as I could.

“I wanna drink all sorts of sake! So get me tons! Even small bottles! Nice drinking snacks too!”

“I prefer my alcohol dry. Something that hits hard, like the spirits the dwarves drink.”

Unfortunately, I was still underage, so I had no idea what made alcohol good or bad. Suika seemed to want variety, so I’d just buy everything that had a good reputation or that caught my eye. For Uncle Takeru...I guess I could just buy anything with a high alcohol content? There was that Spirytus vodka, right? Said to be the strongest alcohol in the world? Surely that would be good enough.

After asking Granny Tokie and God Almighty what they’d like, I was done.

Granny Tokie wanted a stylish watch, while God Almighty wanted a teacup, a small teapot, and some high-quality green tea.

I also asked God Almighty to exchange a few more gems for enough yen for the souvenirs. There were quite a lot of expensive requests there, after all...

I also intended to buy some sort of local traditional crafts for Kraft in Mismede. I didn’t know where the rest of the gods were. I wasn’t sure if they even knew we were going to Earth. Honestly, the prospect of giving gods souvenirs from Earth already felt kind of strange. But, hey, it was fun picking them out, so this was interesting in its own right.

For the Sake of a Good Night’s Rest

It’s commonly said that a third of your life is spent sleeping. For people who sleep eight hours a day, that would be true, but I tend to sleep between five and six hours a night, so it’s more like a fourth of my life.

Lately, though, I haven’t even been able to sleep five straight hours, not because of some sleep disorder or mental disorder, but purely because I wake up without meaning to. I end up waking up three, sometimes even two hours later. But because it really is just a case of me waking up, I’m still tired, so I manage to fall back asleep eventually, which lets me get my full five or six hours of sleep. When I wake up after that, though, I always have a sore neck, or on occasion a migraine. I realized that maybe the pillow was the problem, so I bought a new one.

If we talk about the change in my pillows over the years, I’m pretty sure that in elementary school I had one of those character pillows that you get for anime (not that I remember that clearly). In middle and high school, I had cotton pillows. Once I became an adult, there was a time when I had to use a zabuton cushion folded in two for a while. The height of the pillow was just right back then...

After that, I got an ergonomic pillow, and then a memory foam pillow. Even then, the memory foam pillow wasn’t thick enough for it to feel comfortable.

I then got a buckwheat husk pillow, and the one I bought at the time was big and thick. Unfortunately, buckwheat pillows require a lot of care and airing out, or it can attract bugs, so I eventually just gave up on it.

I tried a memory foam pillow again after that, but I started to think at this point that maybe memory foam pillows are no good. Is it just me, or are they just not high enough? It’s fine when you’re lying on your back, but when you try to lie on your side, your neck sinks down all the way to your shoulders. With the buckwheat pillow, you could at least shift the husks inside to get it to your desired shape, but with memory foam pillows, their shape is already decided and you can’t change anything.

I eventually began to entertain the thought that maybe it would be best if I did not use a pillow at all, instead testing out sleeping on thick books or rolled up towel blankets, gradually testing out even crazier ideas.

For a while, I’d been sleeping on my memory foam pillow stacked on top of towels, but I recently saw a pillow I’d never tried before at the furniture store, so I decided to buy it. Would you call it a microbead pillow? The ones that have those small, squishy Styrofoam beads inside them. I’d had one of those bean bags at home—you know, those things that people say make you useless, but not a pillow. It turns out they’re pretty good. In terms of height, I could move around the beads to adjust the shape to how I wanted, so there was no issue there.

When I looked into it, it turned out there were a lot of negatives like heat retention, making it harder for you to move around while you’re asleep, and making you susceptible to a stiff neck and shoulders, but so far, I haven’t experienced any of that. My amount of consistent sleep time has also increased to four hours.

It might be tough in summer to have a pillow that retains heat, and stiff shoulders and neck could result in headaches, so I might have to go find a different pillow again.

What kind of pillow do you all use?