The Death Mage Who Doesn't Want a Fourth Time

Side Chapter 56: The battlefield descends into chaos

The Bravers were inside Rikudou’s main headquarters, so none of them saw Vandalieu’s soul directly.

“What is this?! There’s a sinister presence that sends a chill up my spine?!” shouted Derrick.

“What is this?! It’s like there’s someone watching over me, and I feel like there’s a warmth in my chest…?” said Joseph.

Derrick and Joseph both made confused noises, surprised that they had reacted in the completely opposite way.

The Bravers could sense that something had changed, as they could feel the overwhelming amount of Mana that he radiated. As Derrick and Joseph’s reactions showed, how they perceived this change depended on whether they had been guided by Vandalieu and received his divine protection or not.

“In any case, let’s press forward! We still have to stop Rikudou and the others!” said Amemiya.

What Amemiya and his companions needed to do hadn’t changed. Thus, they quickly continued moving again.

Meanwhile, the appearance of this grotesque object had taken all the wind from the sails of Rikudou and his allies, who had been preparing to intercept Amemiya and the others.

“What the hell is that?!” Rikudou shouted.

To him, the grotesque object he was seeing through the screen was so shocking that the calmness provided by his conceited belief that he had become a god was completely blown away.

“No readings from the sensors! That thing isn’t a physical or living thing! It’s a materialized… something!” said Moriya.

“A materialization of what?!” Rikudou demanded. “Mana? Spirits? Ghosts of the dead?! Is it something that’s been created through magic?!”

“The Mana sensors are broken, so I cannot tell you any exact numbers, but… that thing is radiating death-attribute Mana.”

Moriya and the others were flustered, having no idea what this newly-appeared object could be, but this information was enough to lead Rikudou to the correct conclusion.

“Death-attribute magic that can suppress my own death-attribute magic… There’s no one else who could do that,” said Rikudou. “That grotesque thing is the ‘Undead!’ It’s Amamiya Hiroto!”

“What?! But he’s supposed to be dead!” exclaimed Moriya.

“That’s right,” said Rikudou. “But he became an Undead after he died. We assumed that he had been erased from existence after we destroyed his dead body, but… perhaps he remained in some form. Or perhaps he’s come back from the afterlife.”

“That’s… I can’t believe that such a disgusting monstrosity could possibly be another human, just like us… But why has he appeared at a time like this to interfere with our plans?” asked Moriya. “He should have no reason to protect the people of the Nordic Federation and the Chinese Republic, or anyone in this world for that matter!”

Moriya knew that Rikudou was right. It was a far more reasonable conclusion than believing that a grotesque monstrosity with death-attribute Mana had appeared out of nowhere for no reason at all.

But he couldn’t understand Amamiya Hiroto’s (Vandalieu’s) actions. He had appeared not to take revenge on the other reincarnated individuals, but to protect the world from Rikudou – and Moriya couldn’t understand the motive behind that.

“The members of the Eighth Guidance that he saved… Could it be?! That monstrosity bound to Amemiya Mei! Is that Amamiya Hiroto as well?!” Moriya shouted in sudden realization.

“That’s right, Moriya,” said Rikudou. “The true identity of the monstrosity bound to Amemiya’s daughter… the one possessing her, is Amamiya Hiroto. And I’m sure Amemiya Mei is unintentionally using death-attribute magic and controlling him – with some form of necromancy that summons the spirits of the dead.” He snorted in amusement. “It’s laughable that he’s become a puppet of the daughter of the people who killed him.”

Having recovered from his shock, Rikudou faced the people who had chosen to follow him.

“Now then, I shall cast every enchantment spell I am currently capable of casting on all of you. Together, we shall get rid of the Amemiyas and their children who stand in our way!”

Within Rikudou’s main headquarters, the appearance of Vandalieu’s soul only caused a few seconds’ delay for Amemiya and his companions and several minutes’ delay on Rikudou and his subordinates’ preparations to intercept them.

But Vandalieu had spent his twenty years of life in Origin in complete confinement, and more than ten years had passed since he was reincarnated in Lambda. His knowledge of technological civilizations was but a distant memory now, and he had forgotten something crucial… the existence of artificial satellites.

There were satellites in Origin, and every developed nation could see the grotesque thing that had appeared on the planet’s surface.

“The Devil! The Devil is here!”

“Judgment Day, as told in the Bible… Today is that day!”

“Please wait! We can’t be certain that this is some kind of supernatural being! It might be an organism that flew here from outer space!”

The countries that made up the European Union were in panic after seeing Vandalieu’s materialized soul.

“I don’t care what that monster is! The important question is, what does it plan to do, and can we do anything to stop it?!”

The European Union was in a state of chaotic panic, but there were some who were trying to make their colleagues return to their senses. However, the Union’s representatives and the presidents of its most developed nations were missing, effectively paralyzing it. On top of that, Vandalieu’s soul had appeared on the border between two large nations, far away from the European Union, so they were unable to take any definitive action.

But there was one nation in which a completely outrageous series of events was taking place.

Sergei, who had carried out a coup d’état and become the president of the Federal States, shouted with joy as he saw Vandalieu’s soul on the screen in front of him.

“That’s God! It’s the form of God, the same one we saw in our dreams!” he exclaimed.

He had seen Vandalieu’s enormous soul playing with Mei in his dreams.

The supporters that Sergei had brought with him… who were also secret worshipers of the Eighth Guidance, had tears of joy in their eyes as well.

“Such a sublime form…” one murmured.

“It wasn’t a dream. It wasn’t a dream!” said another.

The ordinary people present reacted differently, however.

“W-what the hell is that…?!” said one, speechless.

“O-oh my god…!” said another, silently praying to their own god.

Those who were faint of heart had even lost consciousness.

Meanwhile, the technicians were laughing as if they had gone mad.

“Ha, hahahahaha! We are detecting death-attribute Mana from the target! The number, the number! It’s immeasurable! Our nation’s technology is incapable of measuring Mana with a value greater than 9.9 billion!”

“Its size… It’s three hundred meters tall, and a kilometer in diameter?! Ah, AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

“Over 9.9 billion Mana… It’s not something that humans can stand a chance against!” said the man who had been appointed by Sergei as Director of the Investigation Agency.

There were tears in his eyes. He was certain that this grotesque monstrosity would destroy this world.

“… Gentlemen, prepare a press conference. We must announce this to our citizens,” said Sergei, bringing the technicians and the Investigation Agency Director back to reality. “We must announce that I have been appointed as president, and that God has descended upon our world! We must make his glorious form known!”

It seemed that Vandalieu would regret not clearly telling Sergei and the others that he didn’t want to stand out when he met them in their dreams.

There were also nations that made decisions that would be considered sensible for countries – or perhaps, for humans – to make. These nations were the Chinese Republic and the Nordic Federation. Their governments had been destroyed, and the safety of their most important people couldn’t be confirmed.

On the national level, both were effectively paralyzed. But the local governments were still functioning, and when the monstrosity appeared on their border, they quickly scrambled several surveillance aircraft, as well as fighter aircraft to escort them.

No matter how one looked at it, Vandalieu’s grotesque form didn’t look friendly in the slightest. And beneath him was Rikudou’s laboratory, which was a state secret for both nations.

Vandalieu’s appearance had come immediately after contact was lost with the representatives who had been stationed at this base and explosions occurred in both nations’ capital cities. It was only natural that they would try to determine what had happened.

“We have observed death-attribute Mana, but we can’t measure its number!” reported one of the surveillance aircraft crew.

“The wavelength doesn’t match the death-attribute Mana we detected at the site of the explosion. The intensity is different as well. And… it’s growing bigger and bigger?!” said another.

“What’s going on?!”

“It’s gradual, but the monstrosity is growing larger! Its diameter is increasing only by about one meter per second, but it’s developing further!”

The surveillance aircraft crew member was describing it as ‘growth’ and ‘development,’ but that wasn’t the case. Vandalieu was being pushed from the inside by Rikudou’s life-sapping spell.

There was an enormous difference in death-attribute Mana quantity between Vandalieu and Rikudou. It was true that Rikudou was well-trained in controlling magic and surpassed Vandalieu in precision, but in every other aspect, he was no match for Vandalieu.

Even the ‘vast quantity’ of Mana that he was so proud of now was still a small amount to Vandalieu, less than the equivalent of casting ‘Death Cannon’ a single time.

If this was Lambda, Vandalieu would have scattered and dispersed Rikudou’s shockwave of death in an instant.

But this was Origin, a world with different laws of physics than Lambda, and although Vandalieu’s soul had ‘Embodiment’ applied to it, it was in an unstable state. There was no body to act as its core, like Mei did for Banda.

Thus, he was struggling to contain Rikudou’s spell.

I see. I have been told that gods need to use energy when interfering with what happens in the world. If it’s even harsher on them than me doing this, then it makes sense that they can’t do it so easily. Ah, I’m glad I’m still a human, Vandalieu thought as he silently wished that Amemiya and the others would hurry up and defeat Rikudou quickly.

But the military officers and soldiers of the Chinese Republic and Nordic Federation weren’t aware of this, so the next decision they made was an incorrect one.

“There’s no doubt that this monstrosity was created by the traitor Rikudou! It’s the source of this evil! Attack it!”

They attacked this unidentified, hideous object. It was a simplistic way of thinking, but a reasonable one for any human being. However… in this case, mistaking the shield that was protecting them as their enemy was a fatal error.

The fighter aircraft broke their escort formation and fired missiles at Vandalieu’s soul.

“What’s this?” said Vandalieu in surprise.

He had noticed that there were jet planes flying around him, but he hadn’t expected to be attacked. He produced an ‘Impact-Negating Barrier’ that sapped the missiles’ energy and caused them to misfire.

“Ooh?”

‘Impact-Negating Barrier’ was a spell that he had used before in this world when he was the ‘Undead,’ so he had no difficulties with this.

But because he was forced to cast the barrier, he was pushed from within by the shockwave of death, and a part of his dome-shaped soul distorted and swelled up.

Believing that this was an act of hostility, the pilots of the fighter aircraft were prepared to fire more missiles.

“The target has changed shape!” one piloted shouted.

“Is it going to counter-attack?! Requesting permission to fire again!” said a second pilot.

“Hmm… How troublesome,” said Vandalieu.

Ordinarily, these missiles wouldn’t be a threat. If he had a physical body, it would suffer only a few burns even from a direct hit. These attacks were far softer than a direct hit from the fist of Brateo, the Colossus of Roaring Thunder.

But it would not be good to be hit by these missiles in his current state – where his ‘Embodied’ soul was spread out in the shape of a dome. If he was to be hit directly, the impact would open a hole and cause the shockwave of death within to leak out.

In other words, these missiles were a threat to the very nations that had sent these pilots.

“What shall I do?” Vandalieu wondered as he deflected the second round of missiles with another barrier, causing his form to distort once more.

The fact that they were fighter aircraft was troublesome. They were far away and flying around at high speeds. On the other hand, Vandalieu was unable to move from his current location.

If Banda were free, he would have had Banda deal with the aircraft, but Banda was busy with his own work. He hadn’t prepared enough transformation equipment for every single person he was protecting. He would need to bring them to a safe place, but no such place existed in Rikudou’s headquarters.

And now, no such place existed outside the facility, either. As Vandalieu was being attacked by missiles, there was no way to prevent a stray missile from hitting an unsuspecting victim.

… Would it be best to simply unleash the shockwave of death on these aircraft and the nations that had presumably sent them? If all potential enemies were killed, then things would be safe for a while – These thoughts ran through Vandalieu’s mind.

“Only the Nordic Federation and Chinese Republic would have been able to dispatch fighter aircraft and attack me this quickly. If I make holes and let the shockwave escape only in their direction, the damage will be limited. I’ll also be able to create safe areas to evacuate the victims, and there will be less strain on me.”

With all things considered, he had the feeling that it wasn’t a bad idea.

Vandalieu was protecting the people of Origin like this because he had chosen to. Nobody had begged him to do this. So he didn’t feel anything in particular about the fact that they were attacking him… other than losing his will to keep protecting them.

The fact that they were attacking Vandalieu in the first place meant that they intended to attack Rikudou’s facility. That meant that they weren’t considering the safety of Mei or anyone else inside the facility at all.

In other words, these fighter aircraft and the nations that had dispatched them were Vandalieu’s enemies – even if the ordinary citizens of those nations weren’t yet.

“Alright, it looks like these people will be destroyed before Rikudou,” Vandalieu decided.

Just as he was thinking of how he would need to make the holes so that the death-attribute shockwave would only be released at the fighter aircraft –

“Wait!” voices shouted from within him.

“Who are you?” Vandalieu asked.

“O, great being! We are the presidents of various nations, the ones that were killed by Rikudou!”

These were the spirits of the people who had been killed by Rikudou. They had rushed over here to stop Vandalieu.

“By killing living things with his magic, he absorbs their energy and his Mana increases!”

“Thus, it would not be wise to kill large populations of people using his magic!”

“If you wish to kill large populations of people, please use us instead!”

The spirits, including the former president of the Federal States, had no thoughts whatsoever of wanting to protect innocent people. All they had was a mad desire to do anything necessary to be useful to Mei and Vandalieu.

“I see,” said Vandalieu. “It’s true that it would be foolish to add to Rikudou’s power. But using you people would be… Ah, I have the perfect idea. But let’s destroy only those fighter aircraft.”

With that, he poured about ten thousand Mana and the souls of the presidents into the misfired missiles that were falling towards the ground.

“Leave it to us, God!” the spirits shouted.

The presidents, who had now become Cursed Missiles filled with evil spirits, launched themselves towards the fighter aircraft.

“We’ve been locked onto?! Is the Nordic Federation’s aircraft firing at us?!” one of the Chinese Republic’s pilots shouted.

“An enemy missile is locked onto us?!” exclaimed one of the Nordic Federation’s pilots. “Could it be, the Chinese Republic’s… No! It’s the missiles we fired! The missiles are flying back at us?!”

Not having expected that their own missiles would turn into Undead and be fired back at them, the pilots of the fighter aircraft began making evasive maneuvers and releasing decoy flares.

“You can’t escape from us!”

“You think those will fool us?!”

The spirits within the missiles detected the signs of life of the pilots. They pursued their targets without being fooled by the decoy flares and struck them with spectacular accuracy. The fighter aircraft exploded in mid-air.

Vandalieu had no way of telling the fighter aircraft apart from the surveillance aircraft, but the presidents did, so the surveillance aircraft that had been deployed by both nations still remained.

But these aircraft quickly retreated after reporting: “Surveillance craft to home base! The enemy is somehow using our own missiles to counter-attack us! Cancel all further attacks! Cancel all attacks!”

“Now then, let’s have Hiroshi help create a safe area. Once I do that, the other me and Hiroshi will be free to move,” Vandalieu said to himself.

Unaware of these events taking place in the sky above them, Rikudou and Amemiya faced each other, both accompanied by their companions.

“Looks like you’ve changed quite a bit, Rikudou,” said Amemiya.

“Are you talking about my appearance? Or are you talking about the fact that I betrayed you all?” asked Rikudou.

His face remained the same as before, but he was taller, with pallid skin and not a single hair on his body. There was something about him that made it hard to believe that he was a living organism.

If someone were to claim that he was a very elaborately-made mannequin, it would have been believable.

“I’m talking about your appearance and your Mana, of course,” said Amemiya. “As for the fact that you betrayed us… That’s been happening for a long time, right? But when did it start? Was it that incident at the laboratory, or did you intend to betray me before the Bravers were even formed?”

“In the sense of me taking advantage of you, it began before the formation of the Bravers. I intended to lead the organization by making good use of you, Asagi, and Endou. But as you have guessed, I decided to truly betray you when I learned of the existence of the ‘Undead’… Amamiya Hiroto, and death-attribute magic.”

“I see… It seems that I’m less cut out to be a leader than I thought.”

“That self-deprecation makes me a little sad. After all, it just means that I am exceptionally skilled. What do you think? Won’t you try dancing on the palm of my hand once more?”

Derrick and Narumi made surprised expressions. It seemed that they hadn’t expected Rikudou to invite Amemiya to join him at this point.

“The situation has changed, you see,” said Rikudou. “Amamiya Hiroto has become an evil spirit, and he’s appeared outside the facility now. As vexing as it is to say this, he possesses more Mana than I do… Either your daughter is controlling him, or he is controlling her. If we leave him be, Amamiya Hiroto will likely turn this world into a world of death that is devoid of life. I know that you argued that the death attribute shouldn’t exist; surely this is not an outcome that you can welcome. So, what do you think?” he asked, keeping quiet about the fact that he was in fact the one trying to create a world of death that was devoid of life. “You can act as a symbolic leader, while I take care of all the work behind the scenes. Won’t you join me again?”

Amemiya let out a self-deprecating laugh. “It seems that you’ve been taking me for an absolute imbecile this whole time. Rikudou, I’m not going to accept that offer. And you say that Amamiya Hiroto is going to create a world of death? That accusation is so far off the mark that it might be recorded in history.”

“… It seems that you have chosen to be used by Amamiya Hiroto this time instead. You are a genuine fool, through and through. It cannot be helped. I shall kill the both of you!” Rikudou shouted, emanating a sinister Mana from his entire body.

He had almost a hundred million Mana, far beyond that of an ordinary human, and its sheer quantity made Narumi and Derrick flinch.

But Yukijoro burst out laughing. “You intend to kill that person with only this much Mana?!”

“I think you are more suited to being a comedian than a researcher!” said Bokor, laughing as well.

This reminded the Bravers –

“… Now that you mention it, it’s not as overwhelming as him,” said Nanamori.

“Well, if I had to say which of the two is more of a monster, it’s definitely Banda,” Youdou agreed.

“Just make sure not to say that where he can hear you,” warned Joseph. “He’s quite the sensitive type, you know.”

Joseph caused plant seeds to sprout, while Youdou moved to protect Nanamori, who was in charge of healing. Derrick joined Youdou in a defensive position a moment later, while Narumi used ‘Angel’ to allow real-time coordination.

“I already know everything there is to know about your abilities!” shouted the ‘Shaman’ Moriya, sending artificial spirits created by his ability towards Amemiya and his companions. “Go, Ifrit, Ymir – and Charon, my death-attribute spirit created from Rikudou-san’s Mana!”

A muscular giant with legs made of flames closed in on Joseph. A giant made of cold air, surrounded by an armor of ice, advanced on Yukijoro. And a spirit that Amemiya and the others had never seen before – a skeleton wielding a large scythe – was unleashed towards Nanamori.

“Charon?! Just what part of that thing looks like a boatman?!” shouted Derrick.

The scythe-wielding skeleton looked far more fiendish than the boatman that ferried the dead to the other side of the river in exchange for coins.

Derrick deflected its scythe with a fist that was enveloped in magic.

“What?!” he uttered in shock as the enchantment on his fist was erased.

“Death-attribute enchantments have been cast on the spirits, too. You should assume that any magic will be erased on contact. It seems our equipment is fine, though,” said Amemiya.

“How troublesome… It completely ignores all common sense!” Derrick muttered, realizing that he wouldn’t be able to rely on his physical capabilities being boosted by enchantment spells.

“Damn it, what durable power suits! It’s unharmed even after touching Charon’s scythe!” cursed Moriya, realizing how powerful the suits worn by his enemies were.

This artificial spirit had been made for combat purposes through his ability, and its lethality had been strengthened by Rikudou. And yet, Derrick’s suit and the flesh beneath it was unharmed even after being attacked by it. Moriya could hardly believe the suits’ durability.

At this rate, it would be difficult to kill Nanamori, who was on healing duty. But that wasn’t all…

“If you thought that my plants would be weak to fire, you were mistaken,” said Joseph.

Ifrit, whose lethality had also been increased, should have been able to easily burn away Joseph’s plants. But because Joseph had ensured that these plants contained plenty of moisture, it was struggling more than Moriya had imagined.

“Did you think that I would be unable to fight?!” said Bokor.

Stimulating his own cells to produce heat, he engaged Ymir, the artificial spirit that had been approaching Yukijoro, in close-quarters combat.

“It’s true that I’m an amateur when it comes to unarmed combat! But with this equipment that was bestowed upon me by God, I can buy some time!”

… Ymir was unlikely to lose, but it looked like it would take some time for it to win this fight.

Meanwhile, the technicians ran past Moriya to charge towards Nanamori, letting out beast-like yells.

These people were no longer being depended upon by Rikudou for their skills as technicians or researchers; they were the people who had simply managed to survive by swearing loyalty to Rikudou.

They had been strengthened by death-attribute magic. Their lethality had been increased, and their sense of pain and fear had been numbed… so that they could serve as disposable soldiers.

“You guys might be victims too, but I’m not going to take pity on you! I don’t have time for that!” said the ‘Titan’ Iwao.

In the end, the technicians were nothing more than hastily-prepared creations. All of them fell, crushed by Iwao’s gravity manipulation, before they could reach Nanamori.

“This is the end of the Bravers! Do you still intend to resist?!” shouted the ‘Knight’ Nabeshima, using his ability that allowed him to materialize his own Mana as an invisible layer of space-attribute armor.

“Why don’t you just give up on Amemiya? I think joining us would be much wiser!” said the ‘Issun-Boshi’ Yazaki, who could manipulate the size of objects, as she fired a gun that she had made dozens of times larger.

“It’s not just the Bravers that will come to an end! And we’ll think about those sorts of things later!” said Youdou as he engaged Nabeshima.

“I think you guys are the ones who are cornered!” said Narumi, dodging the one-meter-wide bullet that had been fired by Yazaki.

“Rikudou, it’s over! You’ve made yourself the enemy of the world!” said Amemiya, casting several spells with the effect of ‘Ignore Defense.’

“No, I’m just getting started!” said Rikudou, producing a barrier.

Amemiya’s spells were supposed to be impossible to stop, but the barrier easily stopped them.

“What?!” uttered Amemiya.

“Your ‘Ignore Defense’ is indeed an astounding ability. But you’ve always known that it has no effect if your attack is met by another attack rather than a defense, haven’t you?” said Rikudou.

To give an analogy, if Amemiya had been swinging a sword, Rikudou had deflected it with his own sword rather than trying to stop it with a shield. But what Amemiya was attacking with in this case wasn’t a sword, but spells shaped like arrows or spheres that flew quickly through the air. Deflecting them with one’s own attacks would be trying to shoot at a bullet that was mid-flight using another bullet.

Thus, Amemiya had almost never encountered any enemies resisting his ability with this method.

“That barrier… I see, it’s a barrier that attacks my spells to sap their Mana,” said Amemiya in realization.

“That’s right. This is the power of the death attribute,” said Rikudou.

A basic death-attribute spell that produced a barrier was the greatest threat to Amemiya’s ‘Ignore Defense.’ And in Origin, there was no substance that could nullify this barrier like Orichalcum or Demon King fragments.

“Now it’s my turn! Flames of death, rise!” said Rikudou, conjuring a torrent of blue-white flames.

Amemiya grunted as he dodged this attack.

The amount of Mana he possessed was far more than any ordinary person, but far less than the amount possessed by Rikudou. If he tried to stand his ground and put up a barrier to defend against Rikudou’s attacks, they would go straight through the barrier and crush him immediately.

But taking the battle close-range would be a poor choice. Due to his ‘Increased Learning Speed’ ability, his skill in unarmed combat and combat using a knife surpassed Amemiya’s. In addition to that, he was using a special body that had been created for the purpose of learning death-attribute magic. With ‘Unlimited Development,’ his physical capabilities had surpassed human limits and were continuing to improve.

Rikudou laughed derisively. “You’ve always been reliant on your abilities. I know that very well. Now, die!”

Rikudou had read Amemiya’s movements and cornered him against a wall. He cast a spell to end Amemiya’s life, one that contained several million Mana and was so large that Amemiya wouldn’t be able to avoid it.

But even though Rikudou was giving Amemiya a scornful smile, it was clear that he was wary of Amemiya. He was wary because he was aware that he might not be victorious if he were to face both Amemiya and Banda at the same time.

“Damn it!” said Amemiya, realizing what Rikudou intended to do.

But it was too late. The wall was blocking his escape, and it was no longer possible to avoid Rikudou’s attack on his own.

But reinforcements arrived from behind the wall to save his life.

“Die, false hero!” Rikudou roared.

He unleashed blue-white flames that leapt forth to engulf Amemiya. But in the next moment, a three-meter-tall metallic monster… Hiroshi, wearing his transformation equipment, broke through the wall.

“A-AAAAGH!” Hiroshi screamed.

“H-Hiroshi, is that you?!” Amemiya exclaimed, bewildered.

“Don’t bully my dad, you baldie! ‘Mana Bullet!’” Hiroshi shouted.

This defensive-specialized transformation equipment was, as its name implied, specialized for defense. Thus, it prevented its user from using anything other than death-attribute magic and no-attribute magic. Hiroshi, who was unable to use death-attribute magic, fired ‘Mana Bullet,’ a no-attribute spell.

“I was wondering who it was. If it’s none other than Hiroshi-kun!” said Rikudou. “That’s quite the sturdy armor you’ve got there, at least in defense – WHAT?!”

Despite being specialized for defense, Hiroshi’s transformation equipment functioned as an exceptional magical medium that supported the casting of spells.

Hundreds of times the raw materials had gone into its creation compared to ordinary transformation equipment. Its performance as a magical medium was also several hundred times that of ordinary transformation equipment.

And even ordinary transformation equipment performed at least twice as well as the magical media of this world. Thus… the ‘Mana Bullet’ cast by Hiroshi, who had received Vandalieu’s Divine Protection, had its power amplified hundreds of times over.

“I-impossible!” Rikudou screamed.

He had produced a barrier, but even that had been unable to fully stop the enormous black projectile. Taking a direct hit, he was sent flying into the wall behind him.