A flash of steel streaked through the air, and a massive, deer-like monster collapsed.
Sheathing her sword, Lilia approached the fallen creature and used a knife to harvest its horns as proof of the subjugation. Just as she finished, Lunamaria and Sieglinde, who had been hunting nearby, approached her.
"Milady, it is exactly the halfway point of the allotted time. How are things on your end?"
"Not particularly well. Thanks to the search magic, I’ve managed to hunt many creatures, but the problem is that I’ve found almost no Black Bears."
"It is the same for me, Milady. I have only encountered a single one. Considering the season, they are far too scarce."
"..."
The hunting competition served the secondary purpose of culling Black Bears, which were considered pests; consequently, the points awarded for them were set significantly higher than for other prey. The event was held specifically when the bears’ population in the forest surged, so even as first-time participants, Lilia and her companions felt a mounting sense of unease.
"Well, regardless, if there are so few Black Bears, we will just have to make up the difference with other—!?"
Lilia’s sentence trailed off as she felt a sudden, sharp sensation. Lunamaria and Sieglinde appeared to experience the same thing at that exact moment.
"...What was that? That strange feeling just now."
"Miyama-sama... is he in danger?"
"Luna, you felt it too?"
"Y-Yes. A sudden, overwhelming sense of dread..."
Kaito possessed the blessing of Shallow Vernal, the God of the World; he was beloved by existence itself. Because of this, the world transmitted Kaito’s peril as a sudden premonition to his companions—with the exception of the Underworld King, who was beyond the reach of Shallow Vernal’s influence.
"I have a terrible feeling about this. It would be best to return to Rigforresia immediately."
"Yes, I agree."
"Sieg, you too—wait, she’s already that far ahead!?"
Unable to ignore the intuition, Lilia and Lunamaria decided to head back at once. They tried to call out to Sieg, who had been standing nearby, but she was already a distant blur, sprinting toward Rigforresia at breakneck speed.
A massive arm swung down.
If that blow connected, it would easily crush a human body. I parried the strike with my left hand and drove my right fist forward in a counter-blow. My fist caught the Black Bear squarely in the face as if drawn to it, but the weight difference was too immense for it to be a decisive hit.
"Guoooo!!"
Enraged by the unexpected resistance from what it had deemed weak prey, the Black Bear let out a roar and swung its arm in a wide, horizontal sweep. It wasn't particularly fast. I ducked beneath the strike and swung my right leg upward, driving my heel into the bear's jaw.
"Guoh..."
They say the legs have several times the power of the arms, and the saying held true. Even the Black Bear staggered for a moment from the force of the blow. But the recovery was instantaneous. It glared at me and began swinging its arms in a blind, savage frenzy.
I wove through the storm of attacks, striking back whenever an opening appeared. To an outsider, it might have looked like I was holding my own or even winning, but internally, I was a mess.
It hurts... it hurts so much... My right hand is definitely broken! My leg joints just made a sickening sound, too. I'm breaking out in a cold sweat from the sheer agony.
Currently, my body was moving independently of my will, driven by the Auto-counter magic. To put it simply, the spell was like an autopilot for my body. It used Sympathy Magic to read incoming attacks and responded with pre-programmed movements. It sounds like an incredibly convenient spell, but in practice, its flaws were overwhelming.
First, the magic removed all physical limiters. I was essentially operating with a permanent surge of "hysterical strength." That was the only reason someone like me, who was terrible at physical enhancement, could even make a Black Bear flinch. Naturally, pushing my body to its absolute limits like that had consequences.
The arm I’d used to punch the bear was almost certainly fractured, and every move I made sent a fresh jolt of pain through me as my muscle fibers tore apart. I was in excruciating pain, but that led to the second flaw: once Auto-counter was active, everything except my thoughts moved regardless of my will. No matter how much I wanted to stop, my body wouldn't obey. My mouth wouldn't even move, so I couldn't even scream. If my consciousness had just faded out, it would have been a mercy, but I needed to stay awake to deactivate the spell eventually. All I could do was endure the agony.
And the third flaw: the fuel efficiency was abysmal. My body was venting magic power like a broken hydrant to maintain the precision of the Sympathy Magic. Since I didn't have a massive mana pool to begin with, I only had a few minutes at most. Once I ran out, the spell would forcibly deactivate.
It was a high-risk spell intended for life-or-death emergencies, but thanks to it, I was actually managing to fight despite having zero combat experience. However, just as I’d realized from the start, winning was impossible. The Black Bear was stumbling, but it wasn't taking any real damage. Even if I could keep this up for an hour, I couldn't kill it.
Still, my chance of survival wasn't zero. I couldn't win, but the commotion was loud enough that if I could just buy enough time, the Security Force would surely arrive. The only question was how much longer I could hold out.
"Guooooooooo!!"
I dodged another devastating swipe and countered. One hit would mean the end. It hurts... it hurts... this spell seriously needs a patch. Specifically, if the enemy is as hard as iron, the counter-blows shouldn't hurt me as much as them. I'll have to ask her to adjust that later...
I had been facing the bear for a little over a minute when I saw armed figures sprinting toward us in the corner of my vision. Was it the Security Force? Or maybe other contestants? Either way, they were going to make it in ti—
"...Ah."
Suddenly, the strength left my body, and my knees buckled. This is bad. The time's up—
"Guooo!!"
"Ah... gah!"
"Miyama-san!?"
"Nooooo!"
The bear's massive arm finally caught me. The impact felt like being hit by a speeding car, and I was launched into the air. Through the haze of pain, I heard the voices of Kusunoki-san and Yuzuki-san. I slammed into a nearby stall, shattering the wooden structure before skidding face-down into the dirt.
...Unbelievable. How am I still alive? Is it because of these clothes? Alice said she guaranteed their defensive properties... I'll have to... thank her... when I get back...
But this might be it. I couldn't feel the pain anymore—or maybe I was in so much pain that my entire body had just gone numb. I managed to tilt my head just enough to see the Black Bear. I wished it would have just roared in victory, but it turned toward me and raised its giant arm again.
Even at this distance, it swung. Its claws glowed with a faint light, and three blades of magical energy tore through the air toward me. It had ranged attacks too? That’s just unfair... Ah, this is it. I’m going to die.
The flying energy blades seemed to move in slow motion. Just as I resigned myself to death, a flash of scarlet hair like a blazing fire filled my vision, and the incoming projectiles were sliced to ribbons.
Clutching dual blades wreathed in crimson flames, she stood between me and the Black Bear—a vision of a scarlet rose blooming upon the field of battle.
"...Sieg... san."
As I recognized her silhouette, Lilia-san appeared in the air behind the bear. She held a slender greatsword overhead and literally kicked the air to propel herself downward, bisecting the iron-furred beast with a single, thunderous strike.
Incredible... That massive thing, in a single hit... I knew it. Lilia-san really is a power type. But I’m so glad they made it...
With the tension finally broken, I let my consciousness slip away.
"Luna! Kaito-san!"
"I’m on it!"
Lilia shouted the moment the bear fell. Lunamaria sprinted to Kaito’s side and began checking his vitals. After a quick examination of his injuries, she let out a long, shaky breath of relief.
"...He’s alright. These aren't light injuries, but his life isn't in danger."
"Thank goodness..."
"However, we must apply recovery magic immediately."
"Leave that to me."
"Rei-san!"
Reijihart and Sylphia arrived a moment after Lilia. Reijihart, a master of magic, held his hand over Kaito to cast a healing spell. Kaito’s body glowed faintly for a moment, but then a sound like shattering glass echoed, and the light vanished.
"What!? No... once more!"
Reijihart’s eyes widened in shock. He tried again, but the same sound of breaking glass repeated.
"Impossible... My recovery magic was nullified."
"—!?"
"No way! Then Kaito-san is..."
"At any rate, we need to perform first aid—!?"
As they scrambled to treat him without magic, Kaito’s body began to glow with an intense radiance. A small white sphere manifested just above his fallen form. As the sphere emitted a brilliant light, the angry red swelling on Kaito’s arms vanished. His torn clothes mended themselves, and even the dirt on his face disappeared.
"...What is this magic? This is a miracle in the domain of the gods..."
It was the magic crystal Shallow Vernal had given Kaito the night before. Within it resided the recovery magic of the Creator God herself. It was a gift designed to ensure Kaito would never die. It triggered automatically whenever he sustained significant injury; even if his body were ground to dust, it would bend the laws of causality to restore him. As long as he carried it, Kaito could not be killed by anything other than the power of Kuromueina, which alone could nullify Shallow Vernal's influence.
Lilia and the others didn't understand the mechanics, but they were profoundly relieved to see him restored. Lilia gripped her sword again, her expression turning grim as she looked at Reijihart.
"...Rei-san. This was just a scout, wasn't it?"
"Yeah... and it looks like we won't even need to look for the source."
Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, dozens of Black Bears began pouring through the breach in the wall. Their numbers were staggering, and behind them loomed a creature that was significantly larger than the rest.
"It’s an Alpha... a 'Special Individual.' An ordinary Black Bear couldn't have breached the city's barrier magic. I knew it had to be this... when was the last time one appeared? Four hundred years ago? Why now, of all times..."
One cause of monster outbreaks was the emergence of a Special Individual. Among various species, rare individuals were born with power far exceeding their kin. Their roles varied: for Ogres, a Blue Ogre was a symbol of terror that led to their persecution; for Orcs, a High Orc was worshipped as a king.
A Black Bear Special Individual was similar to the Orc variety. It possessed the intelligence to lead and organize the normally solitary bears into a massive, coordinated horde. For the Elves, its appearance was nothing short of a catastrophe.
"I was just a child when it happened four hundred years ago, but back then, nearly half of Rigforresia was devastated."
"...There are so many of them," Lunamaria whispered, her voice tight with tension.
More than two hundred Black Bears were streaming through the gap. Considering each one possessed power equivalent to a Wyvern, the situation was utterly desperate.
"Luna, stay back and protect Kaito-san, Aoi-san, and Hina-san!"
"Understood!"
Lilia gripped her sword as elven guards and other contestants began to gather, forming a desperate line of defense against the encroaching horde.
"Oooooooo!!"
The Alpha let out a deafening roar. Just as the bears prepared to charge, a sharp voice cut through the air.
"I'm going in! Raz-sama, cover me!"
"Leave it to me!"
A figure in jet-black armor—Noin—leaped from the human crowd, blurring toward the horde at impossible speeds.
"So fast!?"
Lilia gasped in surprise. As she ran, Noin manifested black spears in the air and launched them; they struck the lead bears with pinpoint accuracy. Without losing momentum, she summoned a sword to decapitate one bear, then snatched a throwing axe from the air to fell another in a single fluid motion.
The horde’s momentum faltered as their front line was decimated, but they quickly tried to swarm her. However, every arm raised to strike Noin was immediately pierced by a barrage of arrows.
"Noin! Don't hold back! Give them everything!"
"Yes!"
Razulia stood with her bow drawn, her shots uncannily precise as she picked off any bear that got too close to Noin. With that support, Noin accelerated, striking down one monster after another.
"Amazing... maybe we can win this."
"No, the situation is still critical!" Razulia shouted, her teeth gritted. "Neither Noin nor I have wide-area annihilation spells. No matter how many Noin kills, too many are going to slip past!"
It was exactly as she said. Noin was a specialist in close-quarters combat against single or small groups of targets. She couldn't stop a tidal wave of two hundred bears before they reached the city. Already, several groups of bears were ignoring Noin entirely, lumbering toward the streets of Rigforresia.
"Damn it! They're breaking through!"
"Everyone! Get ready!"
The initial confusion had passed. Dozens of Black Bears were now charging toward the city. Lilia, the guards, and the contestants braced themselves, weapons held tight as the distance closed.
A massive melee was seconds away. But then—every single charging bear stopped dead in its tracks.
"...Eh?"
Lilia let out a confused sound. A moment later, her sword slipped from her fingers and clattered to the ground. She realized her hands were shaking uncontrollably.
An unnatural, suffocating silence fell over the area. Several of the gathered warriors suddenly collapsed like dolls with their strings cut, falling unconscious where they stood.
As if triggered by that silence, the Black Bears suddenly turned and began to flee with even more desperation than they had shown when charging. But there was no escape. A wall of ice, so tall it seemed to scrape the sky, erupted from the earth to block their path.
And then, 'She' appeared beside the unconscious Kaito.
With a hand as white as fresh snow and wreathed in a pale blue light, she gently stroked Kaito’s cheek with a tender, cherishing touch. Then, she slowly stood up.
"...on't... forgive... I won't forgive... I won't forgive... I won't forgive, I won't forgive, I won't forgive... I will never forgive you!!"
With every word, a gale of magical power erupted, shaking the very foundations of the earth and making the air scream. The Black Bears had made a fatal mistake. They had laid a hand on the one being they should have never touched.
"All of you... not a single drop of your blood shall remain in this world!"
The ultimate sin had been committed, and the Executioner of Death had come to collect. Clad in a malevolent, overwhelming shroud of deathly mana—
The enraged King of Death had descended.