In the plaza of the New City of Ket Nya, Tetor, Somni, Kiji, the local monsters, and I were joined by the distinguished figures under Lord Kai's command who had recently finished their own battles. Having returned to the city, they all stood gazing up at the floating projection in the sky to watch the match unfold.
At first, Lord Kai's subordinates had cheered wildly at the sight of his overwhelmingly dominant combat. But the moment Lord Kai's demeanor abruptly shifted during his fight against the slug-headed monster, they instantly fell dead silent, staring at the screen as if utterly entranced.
And finally, when he slaughtered every last subordinate of the boy etched with crimson geometric patterns across his body—who appeared to be their commander—in the final great hall, pinning the youth to the floor under his heel, every single spectator wore an expression as hard as stone, sweating buckets.
"N-No way... Not one of the Six Great Generals... Not Anra Mainyu..."
Ramiel squeezed out the words in a trembling voice. Given that she recognized him, she certainly couldn't be a monster. She had to be someone aligned with Lord Kai.
"Hey, Nemea, was the Great One always that powerful?"
A beauty dressed in revealing crimson clothing who introduced herself as Nemesis wiped the sweat clinging to her brow, asking the lion-headed figure beside her as if struggling to process what she was seeing.
"I too haven't seen His Excellency get serious since the day we first met. But that pressure just now was on a completely different level. It has already surpassed any plane the likes of me could hope to fathom."
When the lion-headed Lord Nemea crossed his arms and stated this with certainty,
"Huh?! No, no, no, this is utterly impossible!"
A girl with blue hair tied in buns on either side let out a shrill cry, observing the footage through a magic circle manifested in her right eye.
"Hm? Athena, what's the matter? With someone like the Great One, even against one of the Six Great Generals, surely you could have anticipated an outcome like this?"
A dragon-headed man knitted his thick brows, questioning Lady Athena, the girl with the twin blue buns.
"Yes! If this were the Great One under normal circumstances, I might be surprised by the result, but I wouldn't doubt my own eyes!"
As Lady Athena rambled frantically, spitting saliva with a pale, agitated face,
"What do your current analyses show?"
Lord Nemea turned toward her and demanded.
While everyone held their breath and swallowed hard,
"Right now, the space the Great One occupies has its capabilities suppressed by a covenant with the world! Nine times out of ten, the Great One is suffering from that effect as well! In other words—"
Athena's explanation was cut short by a burst of noisy commotion.
"Quiet! Silence, the lot of you! Just how much is the Great One being suppressed right now? By half? To a fifth? No, don't tell me he's down to a few tenths?!"
To the question from the dragon-headed man, who glared with wild eyes,
"At the very least, all of his stats are suppressed down to a few thousandths of their original values."
Athena answered, biting her lip.
After a heartbeat of dead silence, a tempest of deafening noise erupted across the plaza.
"Gwah! Gwahahaha! Even with all his stats suppressed down to a few thousandths, not even one of the Six Great Generals poses a threat! Truly, that is our Chief God! That is the supreme King!"
Shivering with exhilaration, the dragon-headed man let out a roar of jubilation.
"Indeed, indeed! To our terrifying and magnificent Great One, everything else is nothing more than an insignificant gnat!"
A red-haired young man with a swollen face and vermilion wings sprouting from his back raised his arms, singing Lord Kai's praises like a wandering minstrel.
"It is only natural for my dear husband, yes it is!"
When a breathtaking woman with nine tails puffed out her bountiful chest,
"What kind of nonsense are you blurting out in the middle of all this confusion?!"
Athena shouted in indignation, and
"Exactly! Put an end to your pathological lying already!"
Nemesis chimed in, glaring furiously.
"Hey, looks like Big Sis Asta is gonna fight that Anra Mainyu guy."
At the gruff voice of the beast-like man named Zack, everyone's attention snapped back to the sky. There, facing off against the boy etched in crimson geometric patterns, stood the monocled beauty.
A step away from them, Lord Kai raised his right arm.
"Fight with honor."
With a swift downward sweep of his arm, the duel between the two began.