Even if the cicada pupa's back had split open and eclosion was nearing completion, a strike from the Death Scythe would still deal significant damage if it landed.
Moreover, if it was still in its pupal state and hadn't fully completed eclosion, a powerful blow before it emerged might be enough to finish it off entirely.
Such thoughts crossed Rei's mind.
A Protective Barrier materialized as if to shield the pupa, but in the next instant, it was effortlessly shattered by the Death Scythe's strike.
A sound like breaking glass echoed through the surroundings. Simultaneously, the Protective Barrier was sliced apart like wet paper being torn, then faded away.
It was a Protective Barrier that had even blocked Flying Slash, yet it stood no chance against the Death Scythe's strike.
Maintaining the momentum from slicing through the barrier, the blade of the Death Scythe headed straight for the giant cicada in the midst of molting...
The moment something warm and soft enveloped Rei, before he knew it, he was staring up at a blue sky.
"...What?"
What happened? He had absolutely no idea what had just happened to him.
The only thing he understood was that, for some reason, he was lying on the ground.
His memory was completely blank. When he tried to stand up, pain shot through his entire body.
"Ow!"
Startled by the pain — something he hadn't felt in a long time — he wondered if he'd been injured, but the Dragon Robe wasn't torn or damaged.
However, feeling something trickling down, he brought his hand to his cheek and felt a wet sensation.
Wiping it away and holding his hand before his eyes, he saw a red liquid befitting Rei's alias, Crimson.
"...Blood?"
Yes, there was no doubt about it. What was on Rei's finger was blood.
"Gururururu."
Right beside him, he heard Set's cry.
No — not beside him. Set was underneath his body.
And the Light Sphere flew straight toward Rei as if worried about him, flickering intensely.
"What happened?"
Rei muttered as he stood up, but frowned when his entire body ached.
It wasn't pain in any one place — his whole body ached evenly.
Unable to comprehend what kind of attack could cause this, he stood up and turned his gaze toward the World Tree, only to widen his eyes in shock.
What spread before him was a completely unexpected sight.
Centered on the World Tree, a shockwave had radiated outward in all directions... a scene that made one wonder if an explosion had gone off.
The grass growing from the ground was flattened outward.
"Was I... attacked?"
"Guru."
Set rumbled in agreement with Rei's murmur.
When Rei looked at Set again, he saw that Set, like him, had sustained several injuries.
There were no wounds on his torso, but numerous cuts marked his extremities — his arms and legs.
It was probably fortunate that Set had been behind Rei, ready to follow up after Rei's strike.
"Ow!"
Even the slightest movement sent a faint pang through him.
It was far from a fatal level of pain, but his entire body ached evenly.
"What kind of attack did I take?"
He had no memory of the moment he was attacked.
One instant, something warm had seemed to gently envelop his body, and the next, he'd been blown away like this.
Enduring the pain, Rei turned his gaze once more to the World Tree... to its trunk.
Why, after blowing him away and even knocking him unconscious for what was probably only a few seconds, hadn't it followed up with another attack?
For a moment, Rei wondered if it didn't even consider him an enemy. But then again, if that were the case, it wouldn't have blocked his attack with a Protective Barrier or used some means to attack him in the first place.
However, the giant cicada pupa was still clinging to the World Tree, and seeing the creature's main body beginning to emerge from the crack on its back, Rei thought that perhaps it hadn't chosen not to follow up — it simply couldn't.
Its molting isn't complete yet? Then what was that attack just now? An explosion? No, if that were the case, I'd have burn marks. Leaving aside the areas covered by the Dragon Robe, it's strange that there are absolutely no burns on my face or anywhere else.
Instead of burns, what was on his cheek was a cut.
And what covered the rest of his body wasn't cuts but bruises.
What kind of attack was I really hit with?
Confused by the fact that the same attack had produced such different types of damage, Rei gripped the Death Scythe once more.
The enemy's attack method was a complete mystery. Even so, he couldn't just stand by and observe any longer.
Compared to before he had lost consciousness, even more leaves of the World Tree had withered. The tree was clearly weakening.
If he quietly waited for the giant cicada's eclosion at this rate, what would happen to the World Tree was obvious.
"I guess I have no choice but to do this, huh."
He had no idea what kind of attack the enemy would unleash, but even so, there was no option in Rei's mind to wait for the pupa's eclosion.
"Besides, it's that kind of monster. If I get its Magic Stone, I can definitely learn a skill from it. I can't afford to let it slip away here."
Death Scythe in hand, Rei stood up.
He could still feel a faint, dull ache throughout his body, but ignoring that level of pain wasn't particularly difficult.
Once he was in combat, the excitement and tension would likely make him stop feeling it anyway.
"For now, I need to understand what kind of attack it used... Magic Shield."
With those words, a Shield of Light materialized near Rei.
The Magic Shield, which could nullify any attack even just once, would surely defend against the unidentified attack he had taken earlier — or so was Rei's reasoning for choosing this defense.
"Set, sorry, but this time I need you to stick to ranged support. Since we don't know what kind of attack it used, if you're carelessly close to me, there's a chance you'll get caught in it again."
"Guru..."
At Rei's words, Set let out a worried rumble.
Set didn't fully understand what kind of attack it had been either.
But an attack that had blown them away without either of them even realizing when they'd been hit was clearly no ordinary strike.
Rei gently stroked Set's head.
"It's fine. Have I ever lost a fight before?"
"Gurururu!"
Set shook his head.
Indeed, in Set's memory, there was no instance of Rei clearly losing a fight.
There had been battles where victory was conceded to him, but even in those, they had fought evenly up to a point.
Fight and win. That was Rei's track record.
"Right? Then it'll be fine this time too. Leave it to me. Besides... it doesn't look like there's much time left."
The pupa's back, clinging to the World Tree, was already fully split open. The time remaining until eclosion was complete was certainly not long.
Given that, what was needed here was speed over perfection.
Ideally, fast and perfect would be best, though.
Moving the Magic Shield while muttering inwardly, Rei next turned his gaze toward the Light Sphere.
The Light Sphere flickered under his gaze.
Rei couldn't understand at all what it was trying to say, but the fact remained that its brightness had decreased compared to before.
In that regard as well, he needed to free the World Tree from the giant cicada as quickly as possible.
"You stay back with Set too. Don't blame me if you get caught up in the fight."
As if nodding at Rei's words, the Light Sphere flickered briefly a few times.
Tch, it's weakening more than expected. Which means I need to deal with that pupa as fast as possible.
Rei understood full well that there wasn't much time.
Even now, as they stood here, the giant cicada was absorbing magic power and sap from the World Tree.
"But I... can't just keep taking hits and stand by while the World Tree dies!"
Kicking off the ground, he closed the distance straight toward the World Tree... toward the giant cicada clinging to its trunk.
Just like before — no, even more magic power than before was flowing into the Death Scythe, making its strike even more powerful.
"Haaaaaaah!"
Activating the Sleipnir boots, he ran one step, two steps upward into the air.
Swinging the Death Scythe as he charged, he sliced through the Protective Barrier with almost no resistance.
Up to this point, it was the same as before. No problems at all.
Here it comes!
Rei's inner cry and the giant cicada's attack — the creature on the verge of completing its eclosion, its body emerging from the crack on its back — were nearly simultaneous.
He thought he heard a high-pitched sound for just an instant, and the next moment, the Magic Shield dissolved into particles of light and vanished.
And once again, centered on the World Tree, an attack swept across the surrounding area.
Seeing the Magic Shield disappear and the attack radiate outward, Rei finally understood instinctively what kind of attack he had been hit with.
"Something like ultrasound!"
Of course, it wasn't pure ultrasound.
This was a giant cicada-type monster with a total length of twenty meters... one that had grown by absorbing the magic power of Rei — who possessed enough magic power to be called inhuman — along with the World Tree's sap.
The ultrasound-like attack it unleashed was naturally not ordinary either; it was surely enhanced by magic power.
It was an attack that could be called countless sound blades, but it couldn't slice through the Dragon Robe.
Even so, the impact still transmitted through to Rei's body beneath the robe.
This was the true nature of the attack that had delivered an even impact across his entire body.
"But once the shell splits open, an attack of that level is nothing!"
Earlier, Rei had been blown away by the omnidirectional ultrasound attack before he could even swing the Death Scythe down.
But this time, thanks to the Magic Shield, he had successfully weathered it.
In other words, it should have been impossible for the giant cicada to block Rei's Death Scythe strike. ...Yes, it should have been impossible.
However, the swung Death Scythe didn't give Rei's hands the sensation of slicing through the pupa.
Instead, a fierce metallic sound rang out through the surroundings.
"What!?"
At the sight unfolding before his eyes, Rei's eyes went wide.
The Death Scythe's strike — which should have sliced through the pupa, or the soft body of a freshly emerged adult cicada — had been blocked by something extending from inside the pupa.
Anyone familiar with the sight would have immediately understood what it was.
Rei had seen them countless times during his time in Japan, so he knew exactly what it was. Namely...
"The giant cicada's... legs?"
Yes, without a doubt. What had caught the Death Scythe was the giant cicada's leg.
Despite being a freshly molted leg, there was no trace of weakness or softness as it caught the blow.
And this giant cicada was a monster — not even an ordinary cicada — so it didn't have just one leg...
"Tch!"
Against the strike that burst out from the pupa, Rei kept the Death Scythe where the first leg had caught it and thrust the pommel toward the limb.
"Penetrate!"
A skill that wrapped wind around the pommel, increasing its piercing power.
But even such a strike stood no chance against the leg that had stopped a magic-infused Death Scythe blow, and once again a fierce metallic sound echoed through the surroundings.
Making a metallic sound from hitting a living creature's leg — what the hell is up with that!
There had been enemies who blocked the Death Scythe before.
But blocking it with freshly molted legs... was a first even for Rei.
Using the momentum from Penetrate being deflected, Rei created distance from the giant cicada.
Even so, the moment he landed on the ground, he stepped forward once more.
Its molting wasn't completely finished yet, but it still possessed enough power to block Rei's strike.
If it were allowed to complete its molting at this rate, it would undoubtedly become a massive threat to him... and to this settlement.
Understanding that was what drove him forward.
"Set, support!"
"Gurururururu!"
A cry came right back in response to Rei's words.
At the same time, numerous arrows of wind and ice flew from behind.
Understanding Rei's speed and firing in a way that wouldn't hit him — that was something only his partner, Set, could manage.
However... the moment those countless attacks struck something transparent that suddenly appeared from within the pupa — wings — they were deflected off in random directions.
"Stop doing something so annoying!"
Shouting as he closed the distance, Rei swung the Death Scythe once more, but as the wings rapidly vibrated, a gust of wind swept through the surroundings.
There was no way Rei, airborne at the time, could resist that gust. He was blown away.
There was no damage from the hit itself, but once again the distance between him and the giant cicada widened... and that gap was despairingly vast.
Yes — when Rei landed on the ground and killed the momentum from being blown away, the giant cicada had finally emerged completely from its pupa.