The books that recorded the Monsters discovered by humans until now were kept in the Royal Library. The biggest one on record, worthy of mentioning since it was 18 meters in length, would surely be the existence known as the 【Dark Dragon】.
Despite that, this illusive existence from who knows where was bigger than all the other approaching Monsters.
“…What is that? I don’t know, I too…have never seen such a Monster. No, is that even a Monster in the first place?”
Originally, only Menou, who had naturally recognized it, was surprised upon noticing this giant warrior. Its presence, though, was capable of inducing Menou to tremble in fear, but he wasn’t the only one.
Everyone felt weak in the knees just by looking at it, and although they had been fighting while repressing the instinct to run away until now, they were sure to fail this time around.
Just as Menou had said, they didn’t know whether or not it was a Monster. The bipedal Monster that was covered in blacksteel armor glared at them sharply. Its body was wrapped in a black aura, and in its eyes was a golden glitter. The ground trembled as it advanced slowly, step by step.
“…Let’s retreat. As expected, there’s nothing else we can do against that thing.”
Although surprised by the giant enemy in front of her, Takako muttered that while keeping her composure.
“Kuh…We’ve endured until now, why should we run away!? Don’t be foolish…I-I won’t give up!”
After he had said that, Rex took out the sword that had been stabbed into the ground and held it before him. In this situation, Takako’s judgement had been correct.
However, since an opportunity to meet his goal of overcoming an opponent several times stronger than him had finally arrived, Rex did not want to give it up so easily.
“Face reality…What can you do against that with your strength? Although I don’t know what that giant Monster is, this…this isn’t a situation you can easily solve. This is a genuinely…unprecedented and dangerous situation.”
Even without Takako’s words, everyone could understand it. Even if they retreated for the time being, they would still have to fight that thing, because there were still humans gathered in Salumeria. It was clearly an opponent they could not oppose.
In other words, they had to face this opponent in this country, before it could affect the survival of humanity on a global scale.
Originally, humans and demons had both possessed overwhelming power, shown through their ability to control what was known as a 【Country】. However, the humans may have been one-sidedly sending Heroes as assassins to the Demon King’s Castle to this day, in order to avoid challenging them in the open. Not once had the Demons ever come to attack them.
“Kagami-chan…retreat from here at once! Although it’s regrettable…aren’t you the one that doesn’t get it!?”
In spite of the approaching blacksteel armor giant, Takako yelled out at Kagami, who stood there staring at the foe that approached with his hands on his hips.
“So huge.”
Kagami used just those words to describe it.
Immediately after, he cracked his neck with a ‘kokikoki’ and began to run towards the blacksteel armor giant with a slightly worried look, ignoring Tatako’s warning.
“Hey…Kagami-chan!?”
Except for Takoko, everyone else was speechless. They couldn’t understand this person, who had already surprised them several times during this battle. They did know that he had no fear of death. Yet, why was he challenging the overwhelming enemies before him without fearing defeat, even though he stood no chance against them?
This man, as of this moment, had decided that he would now witness the outcome of his future actions with his own eyes, without looking away. With this resolve, he had gained a sense of duty.
“Fall back everyoneeeeee! Run away! This is no longer an opponent we can handle!”
“Hey! But…that bastard is still there!”
“What can we do about it!? Run away! We’ve already decided that we will live!”
The Salumerian Adventurers, who had continued to fight against the remaining group of several hundred Monsters, began to retreat one after another. This was a natural action, a natural decision. Yet, an unexpected gale appeared and accelerated past the dry wasteland, heading towards the Adventurers who had disappeared towards Salumeria.
“HYAAAAAAAAA!”
This gale flew up into the air from the dry wasteland, and just before it collided with the blacksteel armor giant, Kagami let out a roar that could be heard by everyone. Then, at that moment,
“Ka-…Kagami-san?”
Kagami had been knocked towards a large rock near Takako’s group, far away from the blacksteel armor giant.
The large three meter rock was blown to bits from the collision with Kagami, and its debris rolled around the feet of the group.
This all happened in a moment. When Kagami had tried to punch it, Kagami’s entire body had been struck by the blacksteel armor giant’s immense fist.
“R-…Run away…it’s useless! We can’t win! It’s the end for Salumeria!”
“Uwah…UWAAAAAAAAAH!”
The Adventurers who had held on to the hope that Kagami would be able to defeat it somehow began to retreat one after another after witnessing his defeat. If you thought about it, the only ones left were the several hundred Monsters, the blacksteel armor giant, and Rex’s group.
“It’s the end…even if it’s Kagami, it can’t be helped. It’s useless no matter what, with only the Adventurers here.”
“Rather than that, Kagami-san is-!”
Although Krul tried to rush towards Kagami as she said this, a cloud of dust quickly swept over Kagami’s body, and Alice appeared carrying a potion in her mouth.
“Kagami-san…Kagami-san! Hang in there!”
“…Alice. It’s dangerous…I told you…to stand down, didn’t I?”
“If I compared it to Kagami’s dangers, this much is enough for me. Although everyone else ended up running away…you should be relieved since I won’t. I’ll be with you until the very end.”
As if she was trying to assuage him, Alice smiled at the weakened Kagami, who could barely keep his eyes half-open. However, Kagami understood that the hands supporting him were trembling.
“Don’t push yourself. You’re trembling, right?”
The moment he said that, he placed his hand on Alice’s head as if to soothe her. Then Krul, who had arrived late, forcibly pushed the Potion into Kagami’s mouth.
“It’s not, ‘You’re trembling, right?’ Alice-chan is trembling in fear, worried that Kagami is being unreasonable. Why don’t you understand this?”
Krul muttered that worriedly, and at those unexpected words, Kagami’s gaze froze upon her. Immediately after, his gaze turned grim, and he looked in a particular direction.
“Such an amazing healing ability. You’re already capable of moving even though you took so much damage. Your endurance, speed, and power are amazing too. Now I understand why things weren’t going according to schedule. I finally understand why Salumeria’s Adventurers were able to resist until now. In the beginning…Although I had thought it was the Hero resisting…It was your power, huh?”
A tall man that looked similar to Menou, fully dressed in a Noble’s surcoat-like garment, was floating in the air. He flew lower to be next to Kagami and looked at him.
He had pea green hair that covered his asymmetrical right eye. Using human standards, he appeared to be around 20 years old. His proof of being a Demon, horns, firmly sprouted from his head.
“Estellar…sama?”
At this moment, upon seeing the Demon floating in the sky, the surprised Menou trembled.