Alice wanted to save the world.
For a long time, as if in a dream, she had watched everything from the boundary of the world, and that was the conclusion she reached.
She saw people laughing. She saw people crying, people rejoicing, and people sighing in despair.
She witnessed someone’s failure and someone else’s success.
She observed every facet of joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness. She saw both the good and the bad sides of the world.
“Why was it that I wanted to save the world?”
She had seen just as many things she disliked as things she liked. She had tried to focus more on the good parts, but…
“Did I really love the world enough to throw everything away for it?”
No, probably not.
If the question was whether she wanted to save the world or not, then yes, she did.
But she probably hadn’t wanted to save it at the cost of her own life.
Then why had she devoted herself to this cause, even risking her life?
“I…”
She saw the smile of a child.
She also saw a rough-faced boy crying his eyes out.
She saw the boy’s youthful courage and his embarrassingly painful failures.
She saw the man’s determination and the compromises he made when confronted by the walls of reality.
She saw failure, and she saw success.
A crooked smile and an inferiority complex.
A pessimistic attitude and a mean-spirited nature.
A self-preserving mindset, yet someone who always kept his promises and loyalty.
Yes.
“I saw you.”
Alice saw Johan.
She had watched the lives of countless people. But perhaps only one had truly remained in her heart. Why had she been willing to risk her life for this world?
It was for the young boy who used to go on adventures with her in the hills behind their village.
For the boy who, despite being terrified, stood in front of a wild dog to protect her.
For the boy who spent his whole life longing for someone who had left.
For the foolish boy who became twisted after despairing over his lack of talent and being betrayed by his efforts.
And yet, despite everything, still secretly held onto his original ideals.
“Because it’s a world you’ll live in.”
Even if he suffered, struggled, despaired, and grieved.
“Yes. Because it’s a world you’ll live in.”
Because even in the midst of all those hardships, there was someone who could still smile from time to time.
Crack!
She had made up her mind.
Alice steeled her resolve.
Once again, she would cross beyond the world and seek everyone out.
She intended to bow her head before everyone who knew Johan and ask them for help.
To help him.
***
Even against everyone charging at him, Emperor Abraham never once retreated.
A Misfit group? An archmage? The strongest assassin? Ridiculous.
He was the Emperor. The absolute ruler who had reigned for centuries.
He was a man who had overcome crises like this countless times before.
“There truly is potential here.”
Each of them was a warrior worth a hundred men.
The sword Dietrich wielded was fierce. And the aura it emitted spread far wider than it appeared, making it dangerous to focus only on what was visible.
After all, he had once allowed Dietrich to close the distance without realizing that fact and had nearly paid a heavy price for it.
In the end, Abraham had to wrap his body in Hellfire to prevent Dietrich’s aura from invading him.
“This really is troublesome.”
Though Abraham said so, he still showed no sign of losing his composure.
The divine power pressing down on his entire body was indistinguishable from the light of the sun itself, and the telekinetic force clutching at his limbs felt endlessly heavy.
As far as technique was concerned, the swordsmanship Dietrich displayed could be said to surpass even his own.
The output Ariel demonstrated was enough to suppress his Hellfire.
The divine power continually attempted to reset all of his actions back to zero, while the bombardments launched by mechanical devices from afar were nearly impossible to detect.
“Indeed, troublesome. I wonder what they’ve prepared this time.”
Among everything he was dealing with, what Abraham found most troublesome was, without question, Emily’s machinery.
This was not the first time he had experienced the firepower of an archmage.
Nor was it the first time he had faced someone who surpassed him in technical skill.
But everything Emily brought to the battlefield felt unfamiliar.
Because of that, Abraham had to sharpen his senses more than ever before.
Thunk!
A strange sound reached his ears.
A heavy noise, as though something bound tightly had suddenly been released.
Then came the sound of something cutting through the air.
What had they launched?
He could sense no mana. The girl who normally relied on magitech had completely avoided using any magical elements when targeting Abraham.
When dealing with something unfamiliar, the best approach was often to prevent any reaction at all.
At the very least, Emily seemed to understand that.
“……!”
Then Abraham spotted it.
Above him, plunging straight down from the sky, was a gigantic metal rod.
The kinetic weapon commonly referred to as the “Rod of God” was aimed directly at Abraham.
What surprised him most was its precision.
He had no idea where it had been launched from, but considering the tremendous acceleration involved, using it as a weapon must have required extraordinarily precise calculations.
“Remarkable.”
But once he understood what was coming, it was no longer a problem.
Abraham swung his sword toward the tungsten rod descending upon his head.
Tzzzzzzzt!!
It was a metal rod that had already built up tremendous heat from its extreme acceleration.
No matter how high its melting point was, it could not withstand the power of Lævateinn in Abraham’s hands.
Boooooooooom!!
A massive explosion erupted around Abraham.
The falling mass of metal had not merely been melted by his sword. It had been vaporized in an instant, and the resulting blast was enormous.
Its force was great enough to affect everyone present.
And that included Abraham himself. Under normal circumstances, he could have blocked or avoided it far more easily, but with so many enemies targeting him, his options were limited.
Thud!
From the center of the explosion, Abraham’s wounded hand shot forward and grabbed Dietrich by the collar as he charged in.
Fwoosh!
Before he could even react, Dietrich was engulfed by [Hellfire] and met death in an instant.
Yet Abraham felt no satisfaction.
Crack!
As always, a fracture appeared in space, and everything returned to its original state.
Dietrich who should have been reduced to ashes by the Hellfire reappeared as though nothing had happened.
I see.
Despite the seemingly hopeless situation, Abraham remained calm.
The injuries he had sustained while intercepting the Rod of God disappeared.
The magic Johan Damus had cast was an ability that nullified and reversed everything back to the moment it was first activated.
Its basic effects were two.
The first was reverting only Johan’s own condition whenever he reached the point of death.
The second was reverting everything that had affected the surrounding space back to the moment the spell was cast whenever he desired.
And there were no exceptions to that power.
If the space itself was rewound, then any injuries Abraham had suffered would naturally be rewound as well.
Let’s see.
The magic Johan Damus wielded was powerful, but its weaknesses were equally clear.
The first, as he had already confirmed, was that when the phenomenon affecting the entire space was reversed, no exceptions could be made.
And the second…
It always returns to the exact moment the spell was cast.
Step by step, he verified it.
He analyzed the cards his opponents held and devised ways to counter them.
Though Abraham possessed power greater than anyone else, he assessed the situation more carefully than anyone else.
When Dietrich had been killed moments ago, everyone’s positions had changed.
He hadn’t noticed it when he first blocked Johan Damus’s attack from where he stood, but when their states were reverted, their positions were forcibly reverted as well.
“Hmm.”
Abraham could have continued this drawn-out battle indefinitely.
It didn’t matter if Johan Damus kept rewinding events over and over using his ocean-like reserves of mana.
After all, Abraham was capable of drying up even that vast sea completely.
He was confident of it. If he couldn’t do even that much, how could he dare call himself the ruler of the world?
But now he could see a clear method of attack.
No matter how powerful a trump card may be, once it’s shown repeatedly, the answer eventually reveals itself.
Abraham memorized everyone’s positions at the moment the spell was undone.
Most importantly, he made sure to remember the exact location of Johan Damus, the one maintaining the spell.
Now only one thing remained.
“When the next spell is broken.”
He would kill Johan Damus.
The moment the spell ended, all he had to do was swing his sword toward the place where Johan Damus would be. It would be a simple solution.
Click.
Even if Johan Damus recast the spell before Abraham could reach him, it didn’t matter.
He had already confirmed that there were things Johan’s power could not reverse. Even now, the arms Abraham had burned away from the recoil of Lævateinn had not returned.
If that was the case, then wounds inflicted by Lævateinn could not be undone either.
“Now then, let’s continue. I’m quite curious to see which side tires first.”
The decisive move would come in the very next moment.
But it would not be that simple.
Unlike before, when only Johan Damus, Lobelia, and Lapis had been attacking him, there were now far more people pressing him from all sides.
Earlier, he had attacked Dietrich while accepting that he himself would be injured.
That trick would not work a second time.
In terms of technique, Dietrich surpassed him.
He also possessed enough strength to withstand a direct clash with Lævateinn.
Of course, if Abraham fully unleashed Lævateinn’s power, even Dietrich’s mysterious ability would be reduced to ashes.
But he did not want to do that.
Whatever else he might be, he had spent his life trying to save the world.
The scars left behind by Lævateinn would not heal easily.
“The average temperature will probably rise by another two or three degrees over the next four years.”
The scar he had carved into empty space while fighting the Demon King was still radiating heat.
It would take a long time for that wound to heal.
So he would not use it.
He was not fighting merely to win. He was fighting to achieve victory.
Surprisingly, the balance of power was fairly even.
The combined force Johan Damus had gathered and Abraham’s own strength were roughly equal.
In some respects, it would not be wrong to say that Abraham was at a disadvantage.
If so, the battle would be decided by who was more cunning.
“Cunning, huh…”
Abraham looked at Johan Damus.
His greatest strength lay precisely in that.
One could even say he had survived solely because of it.
Then what about himself?
Abraham considered himself a fairly cunning man as well.
After all, even now, despite having discovered the weakness in Johan Damus’s spell, he showed no sign of it whatsoever.
“……”
He focused.
Gripping his sword tightly with both hands, he held his ground.
Steady and stable.
A fighting style that stood in complete contrast to his appearance.
“Here I come.”
Once again, he faced them all.
Feeling the weight of the light pressing down on him, Abraham pushed forward.
He moved while dragging along the telekinetic force that sought to restrain his limbs.
He met Dietrich’s miraculous swordsmanship head-on and continued advancing.
His target was Johan Damus. It would be best if he could kill him here, regardless of the magic involved.
Of course, it did not have to be that way.
He could simply use the method he had already prepared earlier.
“Hup!”
“……”
Exchanges with Dietrich were, by nature, prolonged affairs. His attacks were fierce and razor-sharp, requiring several rounds of blows before he could be driven back.
For now, he still held the advantage.
Despite the interference from Helena and Ariel, he remained ahead.
However, it was unwise to give too much time to an opponent who had already surpassed his own skill at such a young age.
Even in the midst of this battle, Dietrich was growing stronger in real time.
At this rate, the day might come when he could stop Abraham’s advance all by himself.
Whoosh!
For now, it was still manageable. The destructive power of Hell Fire was superior to anything else.
Sword met sword.
Sparks flew, and the Hell Fire blazed.
Crack!
Then, breaking through those sparks, Lobelia’s fist came hurtling toward him.
In a way, she was even more troublesome than Dietrich.
Her power was no less formidable, her technique no less refined. And her judgment was astonishingly sharp.
Perhaps this was proof that choosing her as his successor had been the right decision.
One day, she would undoubtedly become a monster who surpassed even him.
“Not so fast!”
Of course, that day was not today.
Only after this foolish situation had been resolved, and after everything that could stand in the world’s way had been swept aside.
When that time came, Abraham would entrust everything to Lobelia.
That had always been the plan, and it had not changed even now.
Whoosh!
The Hell Fire roared.
A power that burned away crimson lightning and dark energy alike erupted forth.
“Urgh?!”
The moment he forced back Lobelia and Dietrich, Abraham suddenly felt a strange resistance throughout his body.
Ariel? But…!
The force gripping his arms and legs had become several times stronger than before.
Had he misjudged the extent of Ariel’s power?
Abraham was momentarily taken aback, but it did not take long for him to realize the truth.
Ariel had not changed, neither then nor now. Nor had she been secretly concealing her strength all along.
The truly cunning one was someone else.
“Right. You were here too…!”
Yuna’s ability was [Copycat].
An ability that copied other abilities.
Using it, she had copied Ariel’s [Telekinesis] and amplified its power.
“Hah! You got me with that one!”
The Archmage and the future Master of the Magic Tower had combined their strength through the same ability.
The resulting power was so immense that even Abraham found it difficult to gauge properly.
The crushing force bearing down on his entire body severely hindered his movements.
At this timing, then surely…
He had already blasted Dietrich and Lobelia far away with his [Hell Fire].
Even under these circumstances, there was only one person capable of landing a meaningful blow against him.
“A bold move!”
Johan Damus was charging straight at him with a dark sword in hand.
And he was doing it head-on.
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