The Weakness of Beatrice the Level Cap Holy Swordswoman

Volume 6, Chapter 3: That is a Deadly Battle for the Future

Part 1

She had fallen.

The 1000m dragon had been brought down.

The injured Thousand Dragon lost her balance in midair and fell straight down. The pitch black dragon knocked over tree after tree in the forest and left large claw marks in the ground.

She fell surprisingly close to where Boo Boo’s house was.

She had circled all the way around the island and returned to an area of wild undergrowth. It contained several abandoned structures covered in green moss. They looked like tents made of large leaves with plants and flowers placed on top, but they must have been some kind of house to begin with.

It was gone now, but everyone recognized that place.

The Iberian Orc village had been there.

“...”

The red-armored and white-miniskirted Sage tossed aside the object held in her gauntleted hand. It was Corpse Thief Liderc who was convulsing a little. Her chest and hips were shaking irregularly, but no one would find any sex appeal there. Her face was battered and swollen beyond recognition and the fact that she could still breathe was a testament to the wonder of life.

The unexpected crash had robbed the Sage of the chance to deliver the finishing blow.

And she honestly did not particularly care whether those people lived or died.

The position of the sun had shifted a bit, but the sky was still blue as the Sage slowly looked around with her red and silver hair swishing behind her. This village was a place of beginnings and of endings. She was the logical sort of person who had changed the course of Earth’s history by introducing the new technological system known as Magic, but she still unscientifically wondered if this was destiny. Or perhaps it was that side of her that had led her to call it Magic instead of Xenophysics or Special Elemental Theory.

The beautiful woman glanced at the fallen Thousand Dragon.

The dragon had wounds here and there, but most of the blood came from her back. More than the large arrowheads shaped like ship’s anchors and more than the Magic fired by the Level Cappers, it was the wounds made by the reawakened Iberian Orcs that had done the most damage.

The Sage placed her gauntleted hand on the weakly breathing dragon’s scales.

She narrowed her eyes and whispered to her.

“Well done protecting the elder and the others this long. You twisted your body in the instant of impact to just barely avoid the village, didn’t you? You have my praise for that.”

Then she slowly turned around.

She sensed a thick bestial odor and multiple animalistic cries. The Reds had been dragged down to the level of unintelligent and mindless beasts as they too set foot in the former location of their village.

The Sage had once killed these precious people.

And she had also had them resurrected.

“Awawa! Awawawa! They’ve woken up!” shouted Huldra. “Does that mean we’re screwed!? Have the angels of the apocalypse blown the trumpets overhead!?”

“A police officer seeing an angel while sober probably is a sign of the end times, but we don’t have time to lament our fate,” said Wildefrau. “The closest Gate is less than a kilometer from here. That’s the one that Beatrice usually uses, right? Let’s do what we can. If we don’t construct a defensive line here, the invasion of Earth really will begin.”

The group on the giant dragon’s back was probably trying to stop the bleeding, but the Sage was not listening as her long hair and miniskirt fluttered in a crosswind.

Someone stepped forward from the group of Reds. She knew before looking who it would be: the elder. Crossing the boundary of time and the border between life and death to face the Sage once more would be too great a burden for any of the others.

“Elder...”

“...Sage.”

An extended conversation was not necessary.

First, the sexy woman drew the patchwork rapier from her hip once more. It was a customized parallel processing device made by gathering the Shining Weapons after hunting down and killing each member of the special unit that had once slaughtered the Iberian Orcs with hardly a thought. It was a symbol of the unreasonable vengeance she had taken by inviting them to act but then loathing the thoughtlessness of the people who had actually agreed, but it was also a sinister weapon that concentrated the entire village’s death down to a single point.

On the other hand, the elder had no specific weapon. He placed a thick fallen tree trunk on his ankle, lightly kicked it straight up and caught it in the center with a single hand.

The Sage grimaced because it made her think of a Chinese spear like a Xian Qiang or Lang Xian. The grown branches looked crude at first glance, but they would entangle and catch an enemy’s attack while making evasion more difficult for them. And the thick trunk itself was powerful enough to break down a castle’s gate if a group of people wielded it.

The elder’s action seemed thoughtless, but it was actually extremely logical.

The way he had lightly kicked up that primitive and brutal weapon and the way he wielded it like a bamboo sword was enough to tell just how frightening his muscular strength was as a Red.

He probably could not control it himself. The reins could snap at any moment. And he made a short statement while his muscles trembled on the verge of explosion.

This was the last shred of his mind.

He gathered all of his reason to say what he had been unable to before.

“I left you with a painful role, didn’t I? Boo, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t say that. I was the only one you could ask, right?”

The long time spent together had deepened their mutual understanding.

Thus, they did not need a signal.

The elder’s rational mind suddenly vanished. Just like letting go of a thick rubber band stretched to its limit, he charged forward with explosive intensity, but the Sage did not hold back either. Instead of defending or evading, she actively charged forward. Her long hair spread out, a magic circle shined on her back, and flame wings burst out. All while she held the patchwork Shining Weapon created by gathering all of the blades that had once slaughtered the Iberian Orcs.

The elder’s thick tree was instantly reduced to splinters.

No, he had swung it with all his might despite knowing it would break.

By splintering it against the Sage’s rapier, he had reduced the force of her attack and sent a downpour of sharp slinters toward her like a shotgun blast. With projectiles that small, she could not block it no matter how she held her rapier. But the Sage was the Sage. No one knew Magic better than her. It did not matter whether or not she could block the horizontal storm of destruction with her blade.

The bizarre magic circle on her back shined even brighter.

Colorful lights raged madly about.

“Hand Grena- Firestor- Detona- Volca- Melt Stee- Fricti- Chemical Smoke!!!!!!”

A storm of light scattered from her rapier. All of it was Fire Magic. Each one was sent toward the sharp splinters of the tree, accurately striking them, and bringing them down. Her red and silver hair and her white miniskirt fluttered violently in her own explosive blast.

No, she did more than intercept the attack.

She also sent a large quantity of Magic past the attacks and straight ahead. It was like firing a Gatling gun.

There was a disconcerting sound as the air was fried.

But the elder was not there.

It was a constant attack. The Sage’s flames seemed to open a hole in space itself, but he jumped to the side every time and stayed just out of danger by moving in a circle around her.

The elder did not have a weapon of his own.

He grabbed another branch-covered tree in either hand, swung his disposable weapons toward the rapid-fire Magic when it caught up, and destroyed his weapons to tear a hole in the Sage’s barrage.

He used that hole to approach.

He no longer had a weapon.

His spread hands themselves contained deadly strength. If he grabbed her with those, she would be crushed in his grip no matter how much she reinforced herself with Magic.

“!!”

She could not catch up to him by sweeping her weapon around horizontally.

Yes, the rapid-fire projectiles actually gave him more opportunities when he was this close. It was just like how approaching a swiveling fan was the best way to avoid being touched by its wind.

The Sage felt a tugging at her wind-blown miniskirt behind her. That was a kind of warning. She heard a giant beast’s footstep tearing into the black soil behind her. The elder had been rapidly moving in a circle around her and he had finally used his fierce intensity to reduce the radius of his circle as he moved behind her.

However...

“Stone Volcano.”

The ground erupted at the Sage’s feet. Her long hair and miniskirt flapped madly in the blast. In older times, some landmines were made by digging a hole, placing explosives in it, packing in things like fist-sized stones and pieces of bricks, and filling the hole back in. When the explosives were detonated, the “bullets” would fly upwards and attack the target.

This was her last resort.

The Sage had mastered all Magic using her ability to reassign Experience Points, so it had been the Iberian Orcs who had taught her basic combat movement skills. She doubted she could catch up to him in that field.

“I can’t hope to defeat you when it comes to basic specs. I knew from the beginning you were bound to get behind me, elder!!”

The Sage spun around like a whirlwind, red and silver hair spreading out behind her, and she attempted to make a horizontal swing of her patchwork rapier, but the elder’s hand surrounded her entire slender hand. It should have been a direct hit, but he advanced on her all the same.

The instant before that crushing grip compressed a wrist as delicate as glasswork, a Magic fire arrow flew in from the side and struck the elder in the right temple.

It partially embedded itself in his head.

A small explosion erupted, but his great body only swayed to the side a bit.

His hand loosened the tiniest bit and the Sage used that moment to jump back and adjust the distance between them. She was too preoccupied to worry about her skirt.

It all took less than 10 seconds.

And it would be even less if the time spent talking was discounted.

“U-uehh...”

That groan came from Meridiana who was watching after descending to the surface. That palm-sized Fairy was flying around Sutriona who looked down on the battlefield from the black dragon’s back.

“B-both sides are unbelievable, but is there any way to join that fight and help?”

“Who do you think I am?” The silver-haired girl in a black ribbon dress put her hands on her hips and sighed. “Besides, did you think they were on even footing? ...At this rate, that woman will lose.”

A straining sound reached their ears.

Disconcerting sounds came from the Sage’s right forearm. This was more than just her armor splitting.

At some point, the beautiful woman’s arm had been transformed into something like a leather belt.

The alluring curves were nowhere to be found. Flesh and bone had been crushed leaving only the flat skin to flap in the wind, but the Sage did not take the time to grimace.

“I didn’t even feel you grab it.”

Without even a tremor in her elegant eyebrows and soft cheeks, the Sage glanced at her destroyed arm.

“Instead of touching it, did you push the air with your hand to crush my arm with the wind pressure alone?”

The Sage could freely choose whatever Elemental Defense she wanted. Since the elder used exclusively physical blows, she should have been able to neutralize all of his attacks by building up the physical Fighter Element to 100%. ...That simple theory was not enough because different Elements had made surprise appearances such as the Fire Element from friction and the Wind Element from wind pressure.

Even then, it could have been worse.

If he used his full muscular strength, he would likely be able to tear off a bank vault’s door like it was made of sugar syrup. Just like a shell made of depleted uranium or tungsten steel could penetrate tank armor as if melting it.

No legendary swords or holy spears were needed.

Raising his base stats with cheat-level equipment did not matter. The Iberian Orcs had brought themselves to the very limit, so their ultimate weapon was the hands they were born with.

The Sage had several 30cm-long acupuncture needles float into the air and stab into her thoroughly destroyed arm from every direction. With quiet pricking sounds, her slender arm and the icefish-like fingers regained their shape like a deflated balloon being filled with air.

Yes.

Her all-encompassing knowledge of Magic included Recovery Magic.

However, Recovery Magic built up a resistance or immunity. So the more it was used, the less it would heal. It could not be used continuously to maintain a stalemate.

That was part of the reason Sutriona had judged she would lose at this rate.

“Now, then.”

The Fairy Queen made that casual statement at just about the same time the beautiful Sage and violent elder clashed head on.

Palm-sized Meridiana spoke up in a worried voice.

“P-please wait! Surely you aren’t going to join that battle! They keep causing all these incredible explosions.”

“Don’t be dumb. That isn’t the only enemy.”

With the flower-decorated black ribbon dress covering her undeveloped body, Sutriona sounded annoyed and gestured with her chin toward the other red-dyed Iberian Orcs.

“The Iberian Orc community is built around their boss. They’re holding back now for the strongest elder, but that won’t last long. I think humans refer to it as Thanatos in their psychology. They will begin to scatter and there will be no stopping it. Someone has to hold them in place before that happens.”

This did not sound humanly possible, but Sutriona was not human.

She brushed her long silver hair off her shoulder and deep red butterfly wings spread from her exposed white back.

“Honestly, I never thought I would be in a fight I didn’t know I could win. I must thank you, you poor, brave barbarians. I haven’t felt my blood pumping like this in a long while.”

Not even Sutriona could fundamentally solve this problem. If she could, she would have done so without relying on the humans.

She could only buy time.

The one stroke of luck was that every single enemy was a Red Iberian Orc. If they found even a single weakness, it would apply to all of them. The battle hinged on whether the Break News would be worn down and killed first or if the humans could use their cleverness to find that vulnerability first.

It was a poor bet, but that was what made it so much fun.

The Fairy Queen wondered why this did not feel as ugly as when she clashed with Elkiad in the Underworld battle.

Perhaps it was because the Iberian Orcs’ extreme strength kept them from hiding the core of their beings, which was very unlike those humans who specialized in trickery.

Her small feet lightly kicked off of the 1000m dragon’s back.

Immediately the Thousand Dragon’s agonized scream reverberated out.

With an explosive roar, the black scales were pushed into her body and the Fairy Queen transformed into flowing red and black lines that charged toward the center of the orcs. As soon as she landed, a dome-shaped explosion knocked over all the forest’s trees around her. The Iberian Orcs’ thick hands grabbed the branch-covered trees from the air and surrounded Sutriona who cracked her neck and gestured them toward her with a bewitching pointer finger.

“Come! Bring it on!! I won’t be broken so easily. You want to satisfy your primitive desire to fight, don’t you!? Well, I’ll take on every last one of you!!”

“Awawa, awawawawa.”

Meridiana was left behind, but since she was watching from above, she saw who else was approaching.

“C’mon now. If you’re trying to buy time, why wouldn’t you rely on someone reusable?”

“Hmph.”

Skull Wave arrived with a veritable ocean of white bones and Ileana arrived as the strongest plant. Alice flew over while watching that.

“Ah, it’s you!!”

“Life is finite, so stay back if you do not want to lose yours, little lady.”

That was all.

Those monsters could act as a group despite being individuals and they rushed at the Red Iberian Orcs as an army. And unlike Sutriona, they were never even thinking about fighting on an even level with their opponent. They worked to stop the Reds using their ability to create more of themselves no matter how many were destroyed.

“Hmph! Hey, skeleton, my harvest requires nutrients in the soil. If you don’t want the entire island to dry up, throw me some bones. I can enrich the soil with them, so I can grow more of myself!!”

“You sure take a lot of upkeep.”

“I am the greatest Mandragora. Even when I am defeated, my splattered bodily fluids act as numbing and sleeping agents, so I can slow down the Reds in a number of ways. My deaths matter. So the true cannon fodder should happily hand over those nutrients!!”

“If you weren’t so good looking, I’d punch you for saying that. But you’re pretty hot, so I’ll do it!! But only cause you’re hot! Heh heh heh. A hot woman’s bodily fluids!! ...Umm, we’re not talking about the gross stuff in your guts, are we?”

Then a white light began to flash irregularly from the black dragon’s back.

Summon Hunter Gruagach sounded flustered.

“Eh? Wait. What is it, Tselika? ...You want me to punch him? Hyah! I thought we agreed you wouldn’t hijack my body! We have a contract, so please do what I- kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

“Wait, my wife’s right over there!? Tell me these things sooner!!!!!”

A pure white beam of light raced out and Skull Wave just barely dodged out of the way before it pierced the Sage’s Stone contained in his cowboy hat. Then the all-piercing Demon Lord arrow made its appearance on the battle line.

“Grind, grind. Grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind.”

“You can talk, can’t you!? My Demon Lord wife can use actual words to communicate, can’t she!? C-crap, why couldn’t she be the type to forgive me cause I’m useful!?”

It seemed no such convenient creature was to be found in that world either.

The white arrows seemed to be primarily targeting something other than the Iberian Orcs, but it still introduced an unpredictable factor to the battle line. A stray shot was still a threat. The Reds were thrown off balance, so Sutriona rushed them barehanded once more.

With the Iberian Orcs’ strength, even a blunt weapon could easily knock a rifle bullet from the air, so their trees should have been enough to knock back the Fairy Queen who was made of flesh, blood, and bone.

However.

“Did you forget?”

A sticky sound rang out.

A nearly-4m body made a horizontal swing of his branch-covered tree, but he did not feel it hit. It did not contact soft flesh or even the black ribbon dress woven from Ground Spider silk.

“A tree is still a living thing. Thus, my toxins affect it.”

The tree had rotted from the roots and slipped away.

The unscathed Fairy Queen produced a sinister glow from the red butterfly wings on her back, pressed her forehead to the giant pig forehead, and smiled fiercely.

“And, Red!! I don’t know what’s made you Iberian Orcs lose your minds, but my wings will affect you as well. Let’s see which has the stronger control of your body: that Redness or my wings!!!!!”

Meanwhile, the Sage’s red and silver hair and white miniskirt fluttered around her while she fought the violent elder with her patchwork rapier. She also looked over at the Break News’ attacks.

They had known from the beginning that there was no defeating the Red Iberian Orcs even if all the inn town’s Level Cappers worked together. The Sage was the strongest of them all. Even if she did have use of every form of Magic, a human like her could not defeat an Iberian Orc.

Thus, the key to this may have been those who did not fall into the category of human.

The Sage faced the elder and thought.

(So that’s an option too. But that method is like relieving the pain of a poison by overwriting it with a different poison. It in no way guarantees their health. ...I need to give that little brat a spanking later on for using such an unsafe method.)

“Bshhh, bshhhh!!!!!”

The elder’s breathing almost sounded like a steam engine as he grabbed a large boulder in one hand and approached. That alone had passed a lethal barrier. Humans and Iberian Orcs inhaled a different amount of oxygen when they breathed. So if trapped in a rush of anaerobic exercise, the slender Sage would hit her limit first. This was an anatomic issue, so no amount of hard work could overcome it.

“Steam Bur- Snow Javel- Water Cutt- Wave Resista- Frozen Ballist- Adhesive Boomera- Heat Fo- Squall Bulle- Curling Contain- Poison Dropper!”

An intermittent rush of Magic was released from the Sage’s patchwork rapier like a shotgun blast.

Hundreds of Water attacks were scattered around, but the elder was not even scratched.

He did it easily.

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His giant dark-red body jumped side to side to accurately dodge them while he approached with boulder in hand. Seeing that, the Sage took a single step backwards.

A small sphere wobbled on top of the elder’s raised boulder.

“Water Mine.”

The baseball-sized mass of clear water did not tear through the air at several times the speed of sound, nor was it several times more solid than steel.

Instead, it could roll along the ground on its own to hide behind cover and in blind spots. Once direct firepower had pinned the enemy behind a thick wall, that deadly scorpion could sneak up to the enemy as they breathed a sigh of relief and finish them off. It was not as flashy or obvious as her many other attacks, but this partner had definitely supported the Sage’s successes in battle.

She knew better than anyone what the elder would do. That naturally included his tactics. If she knew he would grab the objects around him to procure weapons, she could place “bombs” on them.

An explosive boom rang out.

But it was not the sound of the Sage’s ultra-high-pressure water mine detonating.

(It was a dud?)

The elder had swung down the boulder and crushed the bomb between it and the ground. Stepping on a mine would trigger an explosion, but not if the fuse was destroyed before it detonated. His correct response was far too violent and unexpected. Having failed to slow him down, the Sage’s defensive line was breached. The elder moved straight toward her after raising the boulder in his right hand once more.

Patchwork rapier and car-sized boulder intersected.

The roar of shattering stone burst out, but the elder still opened both hands and grabbed at her.

The wind pressure of clenching his fist had been enough to crush the Sage’s arm, so a direct hit from it would crush a tank’s composite armor like pudding.

There was only one choice.

Water exploded at the Sage’s feet.

This was the same as the earlier mine, but she had never been targeting the elder with this one. She had set this one up to catch her in the blast. Struck by the massive wall of water released from the mass of ultra-compressed water, she was launched backwards. She managed to stop moving by slamming back-first into a far distant tree trunk.

There was a roar of raging flames.

The concept was identical to a diesel engine. The elder’s hand wandered through the spot the Sage had just vacated. He had only clenched his fist in the air, but the pressure was so powerful it produced great heat which ignited within his hand.

“I see...”

The soaking wet Sage lightly spun her patchwork rapier around.

“These are no more than human techniques. They seem convenient enough, but they are no more than a lid keeping our heads down. They can take us a certain distance, but they will not allow us to pass a certain point. And their convenience prevents us from letting them go. So there is no escape.”

She brushed her wet hair back with one hand and breathed a light sigh.

A moment later, she did what should have been impossible for a human from Earth.

She threw it away.

She easily cast aside the Shining Weapon that controlled all of her Magic.

Not even the Sage could use Magic without her witch’s wand. In the harsh environment of this alternate world, the options were limited for a naked ape who had lost her fangs, claws, and fur. The Sage had nothing now. No powerful projectiles, no Elemental Resistance to negate individual attacks, and no healing to make up for mistakes.

Nevertheless, she did not even glance over at it.

Showing no concern for the patchwork rapier she had thrown aside, the Sage with soaked red armor and white miniskirt spread her arms in long-awaited freedom and laughed fearlessly.

“...I understood the logic, but it took me so long to actually do it. That’s right. We already knew humans did not stand a chance. So stubbornly clinging to that thing would accomplish nothing.”

“...”

“So this must be resolved by something outside of humanity. I’m glad, elder. The Iberian Orc martial arts you left with me have become my final hope.”

An explosive boom rang out.

As the elder charged straight at her, the Sage flipped to the side to dodge the dark red hand that whipped up the wind. This was more than just a palm strike. He broke the tree trunk that had been supporting her, grabbed it, rotated his entire body like a whirlwind, and made his next attack.

Given the reach of an Iberian Orc’s long arms, she should have been killed instantly.

But she ducked below the horizontally-swung branch-covered tree trunk, did not stop there, and struck the elder’s weapon with her gauntleted fist in something like an uppercut.

It was like striking the side of a sword.

The result was the weapon’s destruction.

Once the tree had broken in two, the Sage grabbed one half. She and the elder now swung around identical weapons. No, it went beyond that. The elder kicked the small splinters floating in the air, the Sage’s fanned-out hair bewildered the eyes of all who saw it, and the misaimed splinters shot right past her face to tear into the surrounding ground like an artillery hit.

It was like a lightning strike.

The sound of the flying splinters arrived only after the great explosion.

Boo Boo’s Shining Weapon was abnormal. Iberian Orcs generally did not use a specific weapon because of the immense powers colliding in their battles. Not even a legendary sword or holy spear would survive to the end. So they used tree trunks, boulders, the bones of giant beasts, and rusted hunks of metal. They would grab all of the objects composing the scenery, lift them up, and transform them into a partner.

It would be broken, crushed, and shattered, but they would even use the shards and fragments.

The Sage and elder destroyed everything within arm’s reach while they repeatedly clashed like two tornados tearing each other apart. The battlefield was ruled by overwhelming speed and weight. Just as water and air would become weapons when compressed to the limit, anything would become a threat in their hands. For them, the entire world was their weapon. If anyone else carelessly attempted to intervene, those murderous hands would grab them and swing them around.

It was a gathering of such primitive violence, but it was also like an elegant dance between a lady and a gentleman who were perfectly in step.

In fact, that was probably exactly how the Sage saw it.

No matter what form it took, she had hoped for a meeting like this.

She had chosen to kill the Red-afflicted Iberian Orcs like they asked, she had recruited the former soldiers of Elkiad as the necessary fighting force, and she had loathed the ugliness of those humans who agreed so readily. Once it was all over and she stood alone in that bloody hell, her thoughts had turned to the absurd dream of perfectly resurrecting the very people she had killed.

That dream had come true.

She was able to meet them again.

Even if that was an absolute mistake, she had even made use of the Underworld and she herself had brought back their lives. Of course that would inspire an emotional response.

They were at close range. On that extreme battlefield, time seemed to have stopped and the air itself seemed to have thickened like molasses. The Sage’s slender fingers grabbed the several splinters that seemed stopped in midair and the elder swung his foot back like a soccer player about to make a shot. Splinters were thrown and dirt was knocked into the air. The sharp points and solid stones collided and crushed each other like clay.

The apparent flow of time returned to normal and reality caught up with them.

Deafening destructive noise continued on and on and the Sage definitely smiled while some of her hair was caught between her alluring lips. Each attack was like an impossible divine act, as if they were firing shotguns at each other from less than a meter apart and successfully shooting down every last piece of shot the other fired. If just one of them made it through, her beautiful face would be smashed to pieces or her slender torso would be torn apart, but it was not fear that permeated her mature body. Adrenaline pumped through her veins. The elation of an extreme battle reminded her of her sparring matches with the elder in that once simple village. Those were the most important days of her life because they had set her straight after she had walked down such a twisted path.

“Hee hee.”

There was no way the color of those memories would dull.

Their brightness would never fade.

“Ah ha. Ha ha ha. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!”

The joy of those many days further increased her accuracy. Her adrenaline, norepinephrine, dopamine, and endorphins had all reached the danger zone. Would her brain cells burn out or not? She approached her enemy to the limit, experienced the same proximity to the precipice of death as in a game of chicken, and set foot in the world of the Iberian Orcs despite being human. She swung vines like whips, flicked seeds from her fingertips like bullets, and thrust out tree roots like spears. Her attachment was on the same level as a bawling lost child who had finally found her mother in the crowd. She had spent so long dealing with the silly interests of the humans on Earth and their various technological barriers. Given the life she had lived, her reaction may not have been entirely wrong.

Then the Sage noticed something about this formidable foe so close by.

She saw tears spilling from the Iberian Orc elder’s eyes.

He had tensed all the muscles of his body, clenched his teeth, and desperately attempted to suppress this rampage.

The Red Iberian Orcs would destroy everything.

Both here in Ground’s Nir and on Earth, they would devour everything within arm’s reach, take in the strong points of every species, and continue their optimizing evolution. If they were released from here, no one could stop them. That result would be unavoidable.

But that was an issue of function.

What did they want in their hearts?

Did they want to consume others, force themselves onto others, ascend to the throne of the strongest, uproot everything as far as the eye could see, and create a barren land? If they had attacked as a group, they could have conquered all other life on that small island that could be walked around in three days, but they had remained in their village to hide from others. After going to such lengths to avoid conflict, would the Iberian Orcs really seek the flimsy title of strongest? Would they really push others out of the way, ignore their feelings, and choose the path of personal happiness?

They had resisted.

They had endured.

The Sage stood at the peak of humanity. She had mastered all forms of Magic and Iberian Orc martial arts. The elder who led the Iberian Orcs was on the verge of truly losing his life to her, yet he still slammed on the brakes as best he could. He suppressed himself yet still surpassed her.

The light of reason twinkled in the eyes on that face of dark red madness.

Kill me, those eyes begged his old friend. This was not just a dream. It was directed at the one and only lifeform that had actually achieved that in the past.

However...

Because of that...

“I’m so happy, elder...”

There was an impassable wall there.

There had never been any hope of defeating a Red with human Magic. As for Iberian Orc martial arts, she had never once actually defeated the elder in their sparring.

That was why a cheap trick had been necessary in the past. Without help from unscrupulous people like Elkiad and without the support of those idiots who had mistaken the unique ugliness of humanity for proof of their superiority as lifeforms, the Iberian Orcs’ desperate plea could never have been answered.

Now that she was in a direct clash, the Sage had no hope of winning.

But she did not care.

With a fierce smile of anger, that beautiful woman gave a roar.

“So happy that you, the elder, are showing this weakness to me. So happy that you would rely on a human like me. But I won’t let it happen. Not again. Never again. I will never go through that regret again! I will not let go of your hand here. This might end if I killed you like you want, but it would leave me as an empty shell in a gray world. What could I live for then!!!???”

A loud rumbling exploded out.

What would happen if she continued this unwinnable battle?

The Sage’s beautiful body was sent flying in a tailspin. She knocked over several thick trees, rolled along the ground, and finally came to a stop.

No one was at fault.

The Red-afflicted Iberian Orc elder had relaxed his tension just slightly. That was enough for it to cross a line. His arm muscles swelled out explosively and an extra few percentage points was added on top of his original destructive power.

That was all that happened, but the result was devastating.

The Sage stood at the peak of Earth’s humankind and she had mastered Iberian Orc martial arts, but she had just been defeated. Even if she crawled through the mud in search of her patchwork rapier, the difference in strength had already been proven. The elder’s powerful arms would knock down all that stood in his way.

The Break News were suppressing the spread of the Reds, but that was not a fundamental solution. Nor had they come up with one. They had hoped the Sage would find the answer while they bought time, so her defeat weighed heavily on them.

A tremor ran through the ground.

A large step was taken toward the beautiful woman who could not even get up properly.

The Iberian Orc elder’s breaths sounded like steam and his dark red muscles shook as he walked toward her. He broke off a tree at the base of the trunk and grabbed it as a weapon that would send its leaves flying from the shockwave alone and was much harder to dodge than a normal sword or spear due to the jagged branches extending from it.

The occasional flashes of reason in his eyes contained a hint of disappointment.

If this was the best the Sage could do, then on one could stop him. The elder’s sorrow was palpable. He had been so very kind, so the mere thought of the gluttony and barbarism he was about to begin may have left him feeling faint.

The Sage could not get up and her legs were trembling at the base, but she smiled thinly.

She tasted blood on her trembling lips, but she still spoke gently to him.

To her friend.

To her savior.

“Hey, elder...”

“...”

“I don’t mean to brag, but I’m not stupid. Well, I might not be as smart as you Iberian Orcs and your supercomputer-level brains. Still, I knew this would happen from the beginning. I knew I could never win whether I used human Magic or Iberian Orc martial arts. That is the limit of humanity. Just as we can’t outswim a fish or outfly a bird, we can’t overcome the limits of our species in the field of destruction.”

Would he crush her head and devour her guts, or would he crush her limbs and force himself onto her?

No.

Or would the elder resist the Redness as best he could by giving his friend a painless death?

“So I had placed my hopes elsewhere from the beginning.”

She did not care.

The Sage had known she would lose all along.

Nevertheless, she had gone out of her way to challenge him. Why? Because how she lost was an important point. Someone as smart as her would of course have considered this.

“I of course haven’t placed them with another human. Nor with the Break News crawling along the ground. Now, a question for you, elder. What is the one thing that can defeat an Iberian Orc? You must know the answer. You once left the answer with me, elder. On that day long ago, you asked me to allow the one unaffected child to escape the village. You said he contained a hope of saving the world from its crisis!”

A sharp scraping sound followed.

It was a disconcerting reverberation, like a sniper rifle bullet knocking leaves from the branches.

“It was not because I conceitedly thought I could win that I shifted to Iberian Orc martial arts. Nor did I need a miraculous recovery. It was all to provide an opportunity to learn. Elder, your minds rival supercomputers. Since he was so young at the time, he may not have learned the proper Iberian Orc martial art techniques. But by showing him a combat-level sparring session, I’ve given him a chance. Humans might be too ignorant and slow-minded to pull it off, but another Iberian Orc should soak it up like the desert sand soaks up water!!”

Was it the elder’s mind or the Red instincts that chose to dodge?

Whatever the case, that giant dark red body jumped straight back as if repelled. And then it happened.

Pebbles rained down between the Sage and the elder. Height could be used as a weapon. Each of the rocks was too small to consider a threat, but after falling from the distant heavens, they rivaled bullets. And what would happen if they were released as a dense downpour?

For the person who threw them, it would have been as casual as tossing fish food in the pond, but it could not have been a bigger deal for those they rained down on.

And as a more fundamental question, who was high enough in the sky to make use of that overwhelming terrain advantage?

“Come, Boo Boo!! All I could do was kill my saviors through deception, so I have no business taking the lead role. You are best suited as the elder and the others’ last hope!!”

It happened suddenly.

After just barely escaping to safety, the elder turned his gaze up toward the blue sky.

Immediately afterwards, a powerful wind whipped up. Something was sliding along the ground with fierce speed. While the elder’s attention was directed elsewhere, a gray giant holding a Shining Weapon resembling a log or steel beam rushed right toward him. More than one person had taken the journey up to heaven. Having one person close in on the surface while another provided a diversion from the heavens had been an option.

He arrived from a complete blind spot.

But the elder did not rely on his sense of sight. Just as his giant nose twitched slightly, his right arm swung out with the thick tree in its grasp, like he was a fully-automated interception weapon.

The branch-covered tree and Shining Weapon clashed.

But then the Sage’s eyes widened. The gray form had not swung his weapon with all his might. He had intentionally caught the elder’s attack before twisting his wrist to rotate the Shining Weapon halfway around. As a result, he negated the force of the impact as if allowing it to slip away and the tree remained in place without shattering. The elder had intended to shatter his weapon and use the splinters for his next attack, so allowing his weapon to survive actually threw him off his tempo.

Destruction was not the only way to close in on him.

And as if to fill the blank that left, the gray giant rotated like a whirlwind and his crude Shining Weapon truly did give a roar this time. He targeted the Red-afflicted elder’s face. The elder did not have time to raise the branch-covered tree to guard. Instead, he swung his own face toward the approaching blunt weapon and caught his opponent’s weapon on the giant tusks that could be seen as the symbol of an Iberian Orc.

The sound was deafening.

Gray and crimson. Both Iberian Orcs were pushed back by the shock, so they both chose to fall back. A slight gap opened between them.

They looked equally matched, but they were not.

The one working to suppress a shaking that refused to go away was the Red-afflicted elder. He had resorted to desperate measures. The head was the common weak point of all life, so he had caught his opponent’s attack on his tusks to avoid a clean hit there, but that had been an irregular move for him.

The gray figure slowly breathed in a large quantity of oxygen.

“Squeal...”

It was Boo Boo.

He shifted his Shining Weapon back and forth between hands. After learning Iberian Orc techniques from both the elder and the Sage, he had taken an action even those experts had failed to predict.

Mastering the Magic developed by humans was not enough to defeat the Reds.

And a human could not hope to match the Reds when mimicking the Iberian Orc martial arts.

So the Sage had concluded an Iberian Orc could only be defeated by another Iberian Orc. And thus the best option was to sacrifice her own life in order to increase the strength of Boo Boo, the only Iberian Orc who still had his senses.

His self-taught skills had lifted him high enough to be known as the Dragon Eater, but she had lifted him to an even higher stage.

“Good morning, elder. Did you sleep well?”

“...”

“If you’re still sleepy, I’ll just have to slap you in the face to wake you up. Boo, and I don’t need to hold back against another Iberian Orc. I’ll show you just how much I’ve grown!!”

Part 2

Finally.

Finally, Boo Boo directly faced the strongest Iberian Orc. He had once been no more than a powerless prey, he had been spared without even knowing the village was being destroyed, and he had been at the very bottom of the food chain. But with only one promise in his heart, that gray figure had grown to the point that he could beat down a 1000m dragon.

The desire to live.

The desire to survive.

Even if you knew it was too late.

The elder and the others had been driven mad by the Hero and that desire within him. Looking up, the sky still looked blue, but now it was the true blue sky with nothing in between. Nothing remained to mess with the elder and the others.

They had once been a small child and an elder.

They raised their weapons and softly touched them to their right tusk.

That was the old sign of a duel.

“Bmooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”

“Pshhhhhkeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!”

No human could imitate their roars.

From that alone, the Sage may have realized they had stepped up to a higher stage. The elder had removed the bonds of his own suppression and raised the level of combat to an area no one else could hope to reach.

He may have gotten careless.

Or he may have trusted his opponent.

...He knew another Iberian Orc would not be destroyed by something like this.

He did not need to hold back.

With each breath, they brought in an unthinkable amount of oxygen, but instead of hyperventilating, that oversupply was entirely converted into kinetic energy. A clash between two monsters like that was beginning.

Even with the support of Magic, human senses could not keep up with their movements. Two or three afterimages were burned into the watchers’ retinas and the rest was erased by the veil of real and false images.

“Eek!!”

While explosive sounds continued at an irregular pace, White Witch Filinion tearfully crouched down and covered her head because of the sharp splinters and rock shards that flew her way with the force of a shotgun blast each time those two collided. A single graze could tear out a large chunk of her flesh and it went without saying what a direct hit to her face or torso would do.

There was no safe zone anymore.

Holy Swordswoman Beatrice drew her Shining Weapon rapier and sent out some fire while Fighter Priest Armelina remade her metal staff into a small boat and used it as a shield.

“So we’ve arrived. How are Sibyl and Marinka doing!?”

“Wait, Beatrice. Are you sure we fixed this? I thought we only had to wait until they stopped now that we destroyed the Hero’s artificial atmospheric barrier!!”

Nothing had happened inside the Iberian Orcs’ bodies.

It was like the moon’s gravitational pull driving people mad.

It had all been caused by the artificial atmospheric barrier the Hero had created to forcibly alter the environment, but Beatrice’s Magic had destroyed that. The blue sky they could see from here would become a starry sky if they were as high in the sky as the sun. Nothing was altering the heavens and the surface any longer.

They just had to endure.

Do that and it would all be over.

...However, this space was small enough to walk the perimeter in three days and they were up against the Red Iberian Orcs who had become incarnations of destruction. The threat was far greater than spending a night in an abandoned school or campground with a serial killer wandering around. If any normal human tried to play the tank role, they would be plowed through in an instant.

“Squeal.”

“Shwiiiii....”

Just looking at their physical strength, the elder was stronger. His already fully-grown body had had its limits removed by the Redness, so that was only natural. But Boo Boo had a Shining Weapon. It resembled a log or steel beam and it was sturdy enough to remain intact even when wielded by the great strength of an Iberian Orc.

For each attack, the elder had to procure a new weapon – be it a tree trunk, a boulder, the bones of a giant beast, or a rusted hunk of metal – which gave Boo Boo a slight but definite advantage.

This was not an opportunity he had obtained on his own.

Long, long ago, the Sage had left young Boo Boo with that weapon after destroying his village. And even though it had been too large for him, he had never let it go.

“I will not lose.”

The gray approached the disturbingly pulsating red.

He approached and raised his Shining Weapon.

“This Shining Weapon has protected Beatrice’s life. I couldn’t have done it on my own, so I had help from your souls sealed in here. You saved Beatrice and I will never forget you. So I will never give up on you. I will win and save you!!”

The elder jumped backwards.

But that was not enough to escape Boo Boo. He moved further forward to close the distance between them and gathered strength in his muscles to make a strike when he landed.

Then something strange happened.

The airborne elder came to a stop. He was caught in midair. No, he kicked off the air. Instead of landing on the ground, he changed directions partway through and made a flying kick from directly overhead.

“!?”

On the Earth where humans lived, there had long been stories of experts who could run on water. It was a ridiculous but never-forgotten rumor that they could use the water resistance to move their left leg forward before their right leg sank.

But the Iberian Orc elder went beyond that.

Water and air could be explained using the same fluid dynamics. And since friction and pressure existed, air had resistance as well. ...So the rest was a matter of scale. Even if human leg strength was not enough, Iberian Orc leg strength was on another level altogether. As long as it was based on a proper theory, their extraordinary bodies could take that theoretical concept and produce a real phenomenon.

It was a meteoric attack.

The flying kick had the red-dyed elder’s full weight behind it.

To reiterate, Iberian Orcs trusted their own arms and legs more than a disposable weapon. Boo Boo raised his Shining Weapon overhead, but the elder’s massive leg attacked from above that. The meteor was falling. Boo Boo’s own Shining Weapon smashed down onto his head and the extreme force of the attack sent his giant form flying backwards. If he had crashed into a normal human, they might have ended up in the hospital, but Beatrice was one of the Level Cappers. She reinforced her slender body with Magic so she could stop and support Boo Boo’s rolling body.

For an Iberian Orc, combat was like swimming through viscous air.

Humans were trapped by the swift concepts of running and leaping, so they could not keep up on a fundamental level.

Fairy Queen Sutriona had been fighting elsewhere, but she fluttered down nearby.

The Break News had been buying time on the land, so they had placed their hopes in either the Sage who had mastered Magic or Beatrice who had gone to collect the three treasures. Since the Sage had been defeated and Boo Boo was already being overpowered by the elder, she may have been worried.

“Hey, since you’re back from heaven, did you find something?”

“The fundamental problem has been solved, but this runaway train isn’t going to stop right away.”

After saying that, Beatrice realized a Ground’s Nir resident would not know what a train was. The palm-sized Fairies had built a roller coaster for Boo Boo Land, so they did have the technology to lay out rails, but that was irrelevant here.

“And we aren’t just being overpowered. Thanks for all your hard work. Now we can suppress the Reds.

“?”

Sutriona gave a confused frown and Beatrice continued.

She used her Magic-controlling Shining Weapon rapier to point in the general direction of the distant Red Iberian Orcs and a baseball-sized fireball flashed at the pointless tip.

“Sibyl! Marinka!! We’re in position!! Use my targeting support to begin immediately!!”

Something other than the sun flashed in the sky.

And the result was immediate.

Part 3

A beam of light combining blue, sapphire, and azure dropped straight down from heaven.

Part 4

The stars decorated the great, great heights of the heavens. On the reverse side of the extinguished sun, Royal Elf Sibyl and Archangel Marinka focused their minds.

The key was the hidden treasures protected by the three royal families.

The circlet with the three blue jewels attached could see across the entire world. The basic principle was the same as a particle accelerator or an electron microscope. The Elements of fire, water, wind, and earth were focused and emitted to reveal the details of invisibly small sample materials.

Now. What if that could be used for more than revealing the structures of objects? What if a massive quantity of an Element could be focused on a single point and released all at once for destructive purposes?

It would produce an effect similar to a charged particle cannon that sent protons and electrons around circular rails large enough to surround the entire island of Ground’s Nir, accelerated them to more than 90% the speed of light, guided them out the exit, and fired them into the outside world.

At the center of the partially-collapsed cathedral, the small brown girl whispered with the slender white angel’s arms still in her back.

“...The power is this great even without Elder Mermaid Vivian.”

Sibyl continued.

“That would be why it had to be split into three and guarded by the rulers of land, sea, and sky. But if we could use it in its proper way as well...”

The completed circlet allowed one to “see everything”, so it would be easy to accurately target any life in that world.

All they needed was for Beatrice to produce a flame with her Magic-controlling Shining Weapon and flash it as an obvious sign. Then they could use that signal to carry out a surefire bombing.

“Sibyl. I have confirmed the bombing signal.”

“Understood, Marinka. Then let’s end this. This one time only, we don’t need to hesitate. We are rulers! We must use our positions at the top to eliminate all chaos from this world!!”

Part 5

It was like an apocalyptic sword.

While giving instructions from the surface, Beatrice viewed it like drawing a line between two points.

She launched small fireballs from her rapier and embedded them in the ground at the destination points.

She sent one to a certain location and another to a different, more distant location.

Immediately, a blue light bright enough to blot out the sun fell from the sky. The width alone was more than twice that of Boo Boo’s brick house. The dreadful beam shot accurately down toward the fireball Beatrice used and then slid more than 100 meters to the other fireball.

Everything in between was destroyed and a giant claw mark was left in the ground. It may have been similar to pressure. The rampaging Red Iberian Orcs immediately split to either side to avoid it and a few that did not escape in time were crushed down with the torn-up ground. They were knocked out in no time.

It was incredibly powerful, but that was why no errors were acceptable. That destructive power could even decapitate the Thousand Dragon if she was caught by it.

“Margin of error: +2.”

The red-armored Holy Swordswoman gathered information on her rectangular frame and red lines and gave instructions like she was playing tsumeshogi.

“For the second and third shot, correct for the margin of error between the theoretical value and the actual coordinate and split the army in two once the Reds have been driven away. Sacrifice the fourth shot to begin guiding them and use the fifth through seventh shots to defeat their main force. Fire.”

Several more thick lines were drawn and the Reds were overwhelmed while the disconcerting sound of the air frying surrounded them. White Witch Filinion held a flustered hand to her mouth as she watched.

“Awawa...”

She was not afraid of the enemy.

She was afraid of going too far. This was the same confusion as World War One.

“Th-this is crazy. The power inflation is out of control. I’m pretty sure we’re throwing open tons of doors that should really stay closed!”

“...I won’t say the technology itself is wrong, but I wonder if this is how the Wright Brothers and Einstein felt.”

Police Officer Armelina did not look exactly overjoyed either.

Meanwhile, Beatrice was skewered by countless gazes full of enough hostility to solidify the air. The Iberian Orcs were not stupid. They must have observed the situation and located the core of the problem. And since they could not immediately destroy the threat floating in the heavens, they would first crush Beatrice who was giving instructions from the surface.

And this naturally included the elder who led them.

“Test. Change the expected target to the elder and prepare for shots 9 and 10. Fire.”

She placed a fireball between herself and the Iberian Orc elder and a giant blade of blue light crushed and sliced into the ground. Then it slid. The incredibly powerful bombing tore through the ground and a second shot was fired after a short time delay. But the elder kicked off the air to jump around with lightning speed, just barely dodging the intersecting blades of the three royal families.

Who was more frightening here: the elder who could dodge the surefire attack that had taken out the rest of the Reds in a single sweeping motion, or the Holy Swordswoman who could do all this while calling it a test?

Beatrice spoke to her partner while they stood back to back, protecting each other.

“...I knew it wouldn’t be, but I guess it won’t be that easy, Boo Boo.”

“Squeal.”

“He’ll probably be focused on me. Can you take care of the elder?”

“You need to ask? I can handle it all.”

She slowly calmed her breathing.

And she answered him without turning around.

“You show them you’re no longer that small Boo Boo who couldn’t do anything. Show them you can protect the people you care for!!”

The situation began moving once more.

The sound of someone kicking off the ground burst out.

Beatrice’s fireball instructions were the same as a flare gun: they relied on direct line of sight. To direct an accurate bombing from an advantageous position, she had to move there on her own two feet. Needless to say, Boo Boo had to do the same. He moved toward the elder who was charging toward Beatrice.

The elder could kick directly off of the air, so no matter how long his steps grew, he could find footing even in the middle of a leap. He could skip worrying about a landing point because he could accelerate and change direction at any time. He could attack in any direction, including overhead, and he could fight in midair, so his freedom of movement was on another level entirely. And differences in mobility led to differences in attack options.

His giant dark red hands no longer grabbed trees or boulders.

He was unarmed.

But that was the true fighting style of an Iberian Orc. Their incredible strength could tear off a bank vault’s door or a tank’s composite armor like they were made of pudding or yogurt. Simply opening and closing their hands was the ultimate attack.

The Redness inside the elder was further stimulated and more of his bonds were removed.

Was his rampage fueled by his fear of the three royal treasures or his desire to fight the grown Iberian Orc before his eyes?

“!!”

“!?”

Boo Boo slammed his log or steel beam of a Shining Weapon toward the dark red arm, but the elder placed his other hand on the side of that weapon. Her grabbed the Shining Weapon between his two hands and twisted it to pull it right out of Boo Boo’s grasp.

The elder twirled around to accelerate the horizontally-swinging blunt weapon like the hammer throw or a roundhouse kick.

Boo Boo grabbed it back and the two of them fought back and forth over the same Shining Weapon.

Another blue beam of light fell from heaven.

With an explosive blast, the brilliant destructive light swept through the Reds and the elder grabbed the Shining Weapon once more. They poured all their might into their hands for a test of strength while they glared at each other at extreme close range.

“What? Is that all your Red rampage can do?”

“...”

“I haven’t used my full strength yet. I’m still not out of breath. Because this isn’t my strength alone. I’m supported by everyone who got me here. And, elder, that includes you and everyone else who raised me in our village!!”

A blinding blue light passed close by, but they were too preoccupied to focus on it.

“So you don’t have to carry that burden any longer.”

Boo Boo did not succumb to the pressure in the elder’s eyes.

In the societies formed by animals like monkeys and lions, opposing the boss’s decisions was to challenge them to a duel in order to become the new boss. Win or lose, the original relationship would never return.

He knew that, but he still said it.

“Elder, I will drag you down from your position as the strongest. We will save you, so it’s time you went down!!”

Part 6

Boo Boo and Beatrice seemed to have everything under control on their own, but what about Filinion and Armelina?

“Watch out!!”

“Chief!!”

The pillars of blue light created by the three royal treasures were cutting across here and there, but Armelina’s Shining Weapon could transform into all sorts of blunt weapons. If she chose a metal boat or something else with a large surface area, it functioned as the strongest and sturdiest shield, so she was the one person who could survive being in the path of the blue. If she simply held up the shield, she would be crushed along with it, so she stabbed the bottom into the ground so the great pressure would escape into the ground.

The Iberian Orcs were not as stupid as their appearance would suggest, so they would learn a tactic they had already seen.

That meant the sturdier(?) types such as Armelina and Sutriona had to hold the Reds in place so they could not dodge the bombing based on Beatrice’s instructions.

Of course, if they attempted a direct contest of strength, they would be smashed to pieces.

They could only last a few seconds at the most.

What mattered was to Stun them just before the bombing hit. Even with such a large weapon in hand, she could still be killed instantly if she let her guard down. Armelina’s shield allowed her to block the blue beam if she could not escape in time, so it was a major point in her favor.

“Filin-...hey, you useless cow!! Why are you slacking off back there!? We’re gathering all the Reds together for the climax here!”

“There is something severely wrong with wanting to put your healer on the front line, you combat-obsessed meathead!! A-and they’re all giving me the most frightening looks. Eek, am I just so attractive that all of the Iberian Orcs have locked onto me!?”

“You’re giving off way too many pheromones, glasses cow.”

“But, Armelina, you’re directly contacting them on the front line there, so why aren’t they giving you any attention? Do they not see muscular Amazon warriors as wom-...”

“Beatrice, have them bomb the cow. What she just described applies to you too.”

A blue beam swept across the battle line, including where some of their allies were, so Filinion quickly rolled along the ground.

Armelina did not particularly want to be popular with berserk Iberian Orcs, but it was the principle of the thing.

The glasses girl was so unathletic that she could not roll in a straight line, ended up moving diagonally, and finally returned to her starting point.

“Are you trying to kill me, you idiot!!!???”

“Tch.”

“Ah, that tongue click sounded genuine...”

“You can’t handle being hit, but you’re not bad when it comes to dodging. Plus, you’ve probably got a few secret potions hidden up your sleeve, so you’d recover even if you lost a limb or a head.”

“Don’t act like I’m the rising star of some niche genre. Have you forgotten how easily I died in the Underworld? I can’t recover from those things over and over without Ileana-class ingredients.”

It was amusing how a plant’s trembling voice could be heard in the distance.

Armelina looked up at the sun overhead as she continued.

“Hmm, then I guess I’ll have to use the cow as bait without a recovery option.”

“Why!? If you want to lure in giant orcs, use meat on the bone or something. I don’t get why you have to have them chase after a witch like me!!”

“Maybe this annoying cow would make good bait if I tied her to the end of a fishing rod.”

The Fighter Priest could procure a metal ball on a chain, so that was not something Filinion could just laugh off.

“What are Wildefrau and Huldra doing on top of the Thousand Dragon? Hey, Filinion, if you’re idle with nothing to do, then climb up on the dragon’s back and heal her wounds. That’ll give us a greater fighting force. Bringing back a Break News should make a lot of difference, and it will also free up everyone busy treating her.”

“Eh? I finally get my idol debut? Wh-what do I even say? Sorry I can’t suppress all the charm radiating from me at all times, you losers.”

Armelina knocked down the useless piece of shit, wrapped her in a chain, and threw her onto the dragon’s back with something like the hammer throw. Assuming her lumps of fat had not been turned to cream by the centrifugal force, she would find something to do over there.

Just then, a new form raised their head over where the cow offering had been made. With the White Witch healer tossed over, the others must have been freed up just like Armelina had predicted.

This person’s long chestnut hair was spread wide behind her and her undeveloped maiden’s body was tightly contained in a leather bondage suit that included scorpion imagery.

“I, Summon Hunter Gruagach, have a proposal for the threat before my eyes. Iberian Orcs, if you desire a reason for your meaningless and chaotic violence, then reveal your true name and accept my contract.”

“You have guts dressing like that in front of a police officer!! Is it entrance exams? Or your love life? I don’t know what kind of stress you’re feeling, but do you want me to take you into protective custody on some really silly charges, you prestigious JK exhibitionist!!!???”

“Your justice obsession can wait!! Now, pure white Demon Lord Tselika, provide your Charm to my body and words. In this place, there shall be no difference between yes and no and I shall receive unconditional agreement to all requests!!”

Gruagach made her proclamation while blushing and fidgeting her body (like it was too much for her to handle) and she caught one of the Reds. The nearly-4m giant floated up in defiance of gravity, twisted his body, and was taken inside an arrow.

It did not matter that he was afflicted by the Redness.

With the Summon Hunter and Tselika’s powers, any Nonhuman could be forcibly tied to a contract and have their power controlled. They had not done this before because the contract required confirmation from the Nonhuman’s mind. Waking up the dormant Iberian Orcs would have been suicide, but now that they were already awake, there was no need to hold back.

The Charm power borrowed from Tselika forcibly controlled him, had him nod his head regardless of what his free will said, and stole his power of the strongest.

With her body contained in her bondage outfit, Gruagach wielded her bow and several magic circles hovered in front of her right eye. And she spoke the same word that Beatrice had when commanding that largescale weapon.

“Fire.”

A dark red beam of light stabbed into the center of the identically-colored Reds.

It was their speed and weight that rose to the surface.

Perhaps because they normally hit things with blunt weapons, the destruction was more of a smashing than a piercing. Hit by an invisible shockwave and pressed into the ground as if by a suspended ceiling, several of the Reds sank down to the ground.

“I, Summon Hunter Gruagach, have a proposal for the threat before my eyes. Iberian Orcs, if you desire a reason for your meaningless and chaotic violence, then reveal your true name and accept my contract.”

Her words continued as the army faltered.

She only had to repeat the same text.

“Now, pure white Demon Lord Tselika, provide your Charm to my body and words. In this place, there shall be no difference between yes and no and I shall receive unconditional agreement to all requests!!”

First, she would bind a contract with an Iberian Orc and turn them into an arrow to reduce their numbers. Then she would use her newly-acquired arrow against the group for a definite result. It might be a small snowball to begin with, but once it began to roll down the snowy mountain, she was in complete control. Her power could increase endlessly. No one could stop her.

Of course, Beatrice’s bombing instructions continued throughout.

Beatrice and Gruagach.

Blue and red. The two forms of attack intersected and cut off the Iberian Orcs’ escape. They were finally able to set up a powerful crossfire. It took courage to charge in there even with a large shield.

But as said before, the Iberian Orcs were not stupid.

If their powerful bodies could withstand the fierce attack, they would eventually finish learning. They would get used to and find a countermeasure for even this extreme situation. They would read the inconsistencies and idiosyncrasies that were unavoidable with humans in control and they would slip through the gaps to defeat the Holy Swordswoman and Summon Hunter at the center of it all.

However.

That was only if their supercomputer-level brains could function at full capacity.

With a flap of her red butterfly wings, the Fairy Queen laughed fiercely.

“Hwa ha ha!! Yes, yes. This sense of death constantly clinging to my back won’t leave me bored. Feeling this way might be wrong, but this is so much fun, Iberian Orcs. And you too are not content with the boring kind of strongest that fights to prove it can’t lose!!”

A small figure stood in the center of it all.

With Beatrice’s blue bombing, Gruagach’s red arrows, and the Red Iberian Orcs dodging and looking for a chance to counterattack, it had all devolved into a chaotic melee, but the Fairy Queen repeatedly moved in small circles as if dancing.

All while scattering her toxic blood wings, of course.

The Iberian Orcs had powerful digestive systems that could handle rotting meat and muddy water with ease, so they were highly resistant to toxins. Nevertheless, that Sandstorm of Red Madness was definitely jamming their ultra-high-precision thoughts.

That affected the Iberian Orcs’ ability to learn and the bare minimum of safeties that prevented them from destroying themselves with their own powerful muscles.

One Red tripped over nothing and another doubled over like he had been hit by a body blow. Sutriona’s slender and sensitive childlike arms and legs only deflected and parried the attacking blunt weapons and giant fists. The Reds were damaged by the Reds themselves. Their incredibly powerful muscles raged inside their bodies and applied pressure to their own blood vessels, nerves, and organs.

There was no such thing as an easy strongest that had no downsides whatsoever.

In fact, polarization was the essence of a strongest.

Just like a great sword specialized for strengthening a single attack would overbalance its wielder with its weight, just like feather armor sold for its light weight would be so fragile it broke the second it was hit, and just like the firearms humans had redeveloped in this world would strike the firer’s shoulder or palm with their recoil.

Because each of the Break News specialized in a very narrow field, the Fairy Queen understood perfectly well how twisted the word “strongest” could be. There were compatibility issues between Break News and there was no single fixed peak. Whether or not the conditions or environment allowed one to take advantage of the flaws and weakness created by that twistedness could greatly influence the overall battle.

Anyone who wanted to be the strongest had clearly never been the strongest.

Those who had that throne would return to the basics. Combat was more about chance and opportunity than individual skill. And those who had mastered such things understood why they were so frightening.

“When you get down to it, the most frightening thing is a collection of people with different powers. I’m not just being idealistic when I say everyone holding hands and working together is the strongest of the strongest. A mixture of poisons is more frightening than a single poison. When you are attacked from multiple directions at once, you may be able to cover for each other’s weaknesses.”

Sutriona flapped her red butterfly wings, put her hands on her hips, and smiled at the center of the most deadly and dangerous region.

“Reds, individually you might be the fearsome Iberian Orcs, but there is no such diversity in a group of the same species. And don’t call this unfair. Bringing together people of different species takes a lot of work. But your cards are limited because you relied on your individual strength and got lazy!!”

With that shout, the fierce toxin was scattered.

And as the confusion caused the Iberian Orcs’ movements to slow down a bit, Beatrice’s blue bombing and Gruagach’s red arrows mercilessly attacked in a crossfire.

“Intermingle, Iberian Orcs!! The door has been open from the beginning!! Instead of calling yourselves smelly, ugly, and pathetic as an excuse, put in the effort to make yourselves likeable! Then – and only then!! – will you too become a part of this strongest!!!!!!”

The elder and the others had seen their village afflicted by the Redness, despaired, and begged the Sage to kill them so they would not trouble anyone.

But that had not been the right thing to ask.

If many more people had worked together and if they had had the courage to expose their weakness to all those people, the miracle about to occur here and now might have happened much, much sooner. I’m scared. It hurts. I want to live. I don’t want to die. No matter how foolish, ugly, and stubborn it was, those puny wishes would have drawn in and connected them to a large group.

Perhaps no one would have had to die.

Perhaps the Sage never would have strayed.

Even if this was only a silly hypothetical and even if it would only be criticizing a past that never was, someone had to tell them off. Even if it had happened in the distant past, they could not pretend it had nothing to do with her. The Fairy Queen was not as short-lived as humans. Even with her long life, Sutriona had not known. She had lived on that island which was small enough for the humans to walk around in three days, but she had not known that the Sage and the Iberian Orcs were suffering in secret and had arrived at that foolish conclusion. Sutriona had seen herself as the strongest and lived in blissful ignorance.

“...Call it unfair if you like.”

If she had known, she never would have let it happen.

And the Fairy Queen would not be the only one enraged by that thought.

They did not simply see themselves as the strongest.

True strongests were everywhere on this island.

“You fools ostracized yourselves without even trying, lost your lives in secret so as not to trouble anyone, and seriously believed that was a virtue, but I was blessed with another chance to reach out and grab your hands!! So I will not back down here. I will grasp your hands. I don’t care if it takes resurrection, rebirth, or coming back from the dead. Even if it violates the rules set by the god in heaven, I will show you lonely wannabe strongests what a true strongest looks like!!”

Part 7

More and more blue and red explosions erupted.

But amid it all, Boo Boo and the elder stood on a solemn battlefield.

Even if he was afflicted by the Redness, he stood at the top of the Iberian Orc hierarchy. Beatrice’s bombing, Gruagach’s arrows, and Sutriona’s butterfly wings may have been effective against the others, but the elder was the lone exception.

He was an exceptional individual.

The village’s destruction was probably carried out as a secret agreement between him and the Sage. Most of the Iberian Orcs suffering from the disease would have had no idea what was happening to them when it happened. But even if they had been told in advance, could any of them have stopped his decision? He was known as the elder because he could make judgments all on his own. If the others had not recognized his overwhelming strength, they would not have called him the elder in the first place.

Young Boo Boo had been entirely ignorant on that day.

He had been weak and foolish, and that was why he had been spared without being told a thing. The truth had been hidden from him so he would not be bound by guilt and revenge. In this case, not noticing and letting them die were nearly identical.

But that had changed.

The elder was always running out in the lead, but Boo Boo had caught up and could place his hand on the elder’s shoulder.

“Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeal!!!!!!”

“Bmooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”

With explosive breaths, the two of them inhaled as much oxygen as possible and then clashed head on. An unlimited period of anaerobic exercise had begun. Single combat between Iberian Orcs was about more than just the movements of their arms and legs. It was a game of chicken where whoever ran out of oxygen first would stop moving and be exposed to their opponent’s fierce attacks.

As the two giant monsters moved through the thick and sticky air, the air spiraled around, was intensely compressed, and produced the same fiery ignition as a diesel engine. The change was not limited to their hands and feet. Their entire bodies were enveloped in flames, but neither of them had time to grimace in pain.

They swam through the unpleasantly viscous air.

Boo Boo held a Shining Weapon that resembled a log or steel beam.

The elder approached while emptyhanded.

This was about more than just taking damage to do even more damage. Slight injuries were of no consequence. In this single combat, everything was determined by their remaining oxygen level.

Boo Boo was nearly 4 meters and the elder may have reached 5 meters.

That difference in size was directly related to lung size, amount of hemoglobin in the blood, and amount of oxygen taken in with each breath. And because Boo Boo carried a heavy weapon, he would consume oxygen at a greater rate.

The elder had the advantage in both intake and consumption.

Thus, it did not matter if his flesh was split or his bones smashed. No matter how much he was injured along the way, Boo Boo would be the first to run out of oxygen and stop moving. This was an anatomic issue, so it could not be overcome with psychological effort. Once it was over, the elder only had to make a fierce rush of attacks to finish off his target with even more damage than was done to him.

He only had to last until the end.

He did not need to take any risks. Victory would be his if he did things like normal, so there was no need to lower his gear to match his opponent and deflect each and every one of his opponent’s attacks.

He seemed to be fighting, but he was actually fleeing.

Since he was working toward a meaningless victory at the behest of the Redness, it was unclear if the win would be happy thing for him or not.

But.

Just then.

Boo Boo’s giant Shining Weapon suddenly flipped around. This worked against its center of gravity and threatened to destroy his shoulder joint. Had the young Iberian Orc tried to rush a major technique before the oxygen level caught up to him? No.

The elder recognized this action. It was the technique he and the others had lent Boo Boo just once when he was unable to save Beatrice when she had tried to kill the Elkiad leader out of rage upon learning the truth about the attack on the Iberian Orc village.

It was a secret martial arts technique only known by the Iberian Orcs.

Instead of his arm strength, he moved the weapon like a wing, adjusted the angle, and used how it swam through the air to twist its trajectory.

That allowed him to move it at a sharper angle than his muscles alone would have allowed for.

And it has already been stated countless times that the Iberian Orcs were not stupid. If he had used a tactic once, he would have analyzed it and made it his own.

This was the same.

He had inherited it.

At that moment, Boo Boo had reached the same level as the elder, so there was naturally an absolute difference between the one who was pouring every last effort into challenging his opponent and the one who was trying to safely escape from the battle.

Boo Boo had said from the beginning that he would never forget them for saving Beatrice.

As Boo Boo’s Shining Weapon flipped around, it ignited the air around it and slid just outside of the elder’s grasp. Then the giant blunt weapon continued on as if crawling up from the elder’s wrist to his shoulder.

If you are a human born on Earth, you can picture it like taking aim with a handgun.

And after following the arm from the wrist to the shoulder, it naturally pointed at the face.

This was a repeat of that day. Everything was the same as when the Iberian Orc souls had taught him the secret technique needed to protect the life of someone he cared for.

It was like a student sparring with his teacher and showing off the technique he had learned to make sure he was doing it right.

In that final moment, the Red-afflicted elder smiled faintly.

Was anything more joyous for a teacher than seeing their student surpass them?

He smiled and tried to catch Boo Boo’s attack on the tusks that were like his final defense.

There was of course no need to hold back.

Those thick tusks broke.

Boo Boo’s blunt weapon sank into the elder’s face and swiftly knocked him unconscious.

Part 8

High in the sky, the false sun island had lost its light.

“...Phew.”

Royal Elf Sibyl sighed and opened her closed eyes while wearing the circlet bearing the blue jewels of the three royal families. Those treasures allowed her to see everything in the world, but it seemed to place a greater burden on her mind than she had expected. Sweat was pouring from her body, but her extremities felt chilled to the core. It felt a lot like when she had gone days without sleep working with the Sage. The improper body temperature control meant her autonomic nerves were malfunctioning.

Archangel Marinka, who had been assisting her, called out to her.

The small brown girl spoke with the slender white woman’s arms in her back.

“What happened?”

“The Red Iberian Orcs have been incapacitated. The defeated ones have been entered into a contract with the Summon Hunter and her power has sealed their actions. The extraordinary elder was the one concern, but the child of the forest settled things with him.”

They were at a high enough altitude to see the stars when they looked up, but that distance from the surface meant nothing to the power of the hidden treasures. Sibyl understood the state of the battlefield like she held it in the palm of her hand.

“The effects of the Hero’s artificial atmospheric barrier should remain for a while after its destruction, but this prevents any chaos during that braking period. Now we just wait for the Red effects to fade away.”

“...Does that mean that Summon Hunter human has the power of Demon Lord Tselika and an entire village of Iberian Orcs all to herself? My, my. We may need to designate a new Break News.”

She did not seem to be joking.

After all, if the Iberian Orcs went berserk, they could destroy two worlds. One only had to consider what it meant for that power to be under a single individual’s control.

Just as the Sage’s life had been entirely changed by the incredible amount of Experience Points she received one day, humans were short-lived but quick to change. They provided nothing but surprises for a Royal Elf who lived for so very long.

At any rate, things had calmed down for the time being.

The power balance would remain unstable, but that concern was proof that they could focus on something other than the immediate threat.

So.

She may have let her guard down for just a moment.

The problem was solved and the burden had been unexpectedly great. Due to that, Sibyl removed the all-seeing circlet from her forehead, but that was a definite mistake. If she had left it on, she might have sensed the signs and prevented it.

Those girls stood on the reverse side of the false sun, but a crackling sound came from even further overhead. It was a lot like the flashing of electricity. Sibyl and Marinka both looked to the cathedral’s ceiling. And through the collapsed hole there, they saw...

“...The artificial atmospheric barrier?”

“Oh, no...”

Royal Elf Sibyl pushed back her exhaustion and quickly placed the circlet back on her head.

And she learned the truth.

Because she could see everything, that forest ruler understood all too well.

“Oh, no!!!!!!”

Part 9

What about that inorganic object produced this result?

Was it revenge for being destroyed? Or was it interest in the new peak that had defeated even the strongest Iberian Orcs?

Regardless, the artificial atmospheric barrier covering the world – that false umbrella created by the Hero who wanted to live – flashed ominously despite no longer functioning due to the hole broken in it. It almost seemed to be surrounded by a blood-red aurora.

And.

And.

And.

Part 10

With an explosive boom, a red high-voltage current stabbed down from the sky like the bursting of a broken cathode ray tube or neon tube.

It tore through the sun island but did not stop there. It continued straight down toward the ground.

The floating island in the middle did not matter.

“!?”

Holy Swordswoman Beatrice did not even have time to react.

It fell and it burst.

“Gahhhh!!!???”

“Beatrice!!”

It pierced her entire body, so Boo Boo screamed her name and ran over despite his pain and exhaustion. His large hand supported the girl as she just about collapsed to her knees.

“Boo...Boo...?”

“Don’t worry. You’re still alive. So we can fix this. Filinion!! Squeal, please save Beatrice!!”

However.

For some reason, Filinion and Armelina stood stock still without approaching. Wildefrau and Huldra poked their heads up from the Thousand Dragon’s back and they tensed up once they realized what had happened.

Boo Boo did not understand.

It was true Beatrice’s armor had burst and she was badly injured, but she was still breathing. Human Magic could heal any wounds, so there was no reason to panic. This was not worth letting his heart pound with terror. He had to believe that.

And yet.

The humans who could use techniques he did not understand looked like they had seen the end of the world. He wanted them to stop because it worried him, but none of them would listen to his request.

“Beatrice, you...”

Finally, Police Officer Armelina hesitantly opened her mouth.

“...Is your Shining Weapon all right? Hey!!”

“?”

Only after hearing that did Boo Boo catch on.

Beatrice’s grip had been weakened by the red lightning strike, so her Shining Weapon rapier had fallen to the ground.

No.

Wait!?

“The blade is...broken?”

It had been destroyed.

This was not a normal sort of destruction. It seemed to have burst from within.

It was like the burden on her armor and miniskirt, which were Magic given that form, had been too great and it had surged back into the Shining Weapon.

The hilt was caught on her slender fingertips, but there was no blade beyond that. The decorations had blown off and the blade was lying on the ground after breaking off at the base. That was why it looked as if she had dropped it. Bluish-white sparks occasionally scattered from the broken end of the hilt. Their intensity was gradually weakening, so they would eventually cease altogether.

The Shining Weapon was becoming nothing more than scrap metal.

“Without her Shining Weapon, she can’t use the Gates to return to Earth.”

Filinion seemed to have difficulty breathing, but she managed to get the words out to Boo Boo bit by bit.

“And humans can only stay in Ground’s Nir for a few days. With things like this...there is no saving Beatrice!!”

Part 11

Was this the curse of the long-dead Hero?

The ancient fear and suffering at the source of it all was now weighing on Holy Swordswoman Beatrice.

Between the Lines 3

I finally

found it.