Hey everyone, quick note before the chapter!
I put together a harem list in case you're curious. It's based on everyone who has appeared up to the latest Patreon chapter.
It's posted as Chapter 1, so just head there whenever you want to check it out.
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"The wailing of civilians… it does grate on the ear a little. I hate that sound—and I hate your laughter even more. Anyone who's hurt but still breathing, get up. [Boosted—Wide-Area Restore]!"
Takumi's voice dropped low, then he snapped his fingers.
A matchless emerald halo surged out from him like ripples on a lake, expanding to cover the whole of Orario.
Vmm—!
One after another, on the bodies of the wounded—and even those who had only just stopped breathing—there blossomed a gentle radiance. Restorative power fell upon them and reset their states to whole.
Aside from those who had died by self-detonation, everyone else stood up again without so much as a lingering wound.
"Y-you've got to be kidding me, this is—"
Valetta's expression simply went slack at the sight. Around her, faces were a hundred times more shocked than hers.
Even Airmid, the Dian Cecht Familia's captain and the Silver Saint, stood dumbstruck. Her healing magic, Dia Fratel, had long been called "broken" by Orario's adventurers; and yet, seeing a citywide restoration like this, she suddenly felt how small she was.
"Who… did that?"
The silver-haired girl—features as fine as a porcelain doll—couldn't help but feel a surge of awe for whoever had cast it. And it wasn't just her; everyone in Orario was trying to figure it out.
Even in a shadowed corner, a man covered in heavy armor with claw scars across his face murmured in admiration. "So this is the born hero? Alfia, your kid is something beyond reason."
"You saw it too, Zald," came Alfia's voice as she opened her eyes and appeared before him.
They had both originally intended to carry out Erebus's plan. The root cause of their participation was simple: their time was nearly up. On the expedition, Alfia had unleashed her ultimate magic and triggered the worsening of her illness. Zald, at a desperate moment, had swallowed a chunk of Behemoth's flesh; packed with toxins, it had been rotting him from the inside ever since—he didn't have long to live.
The idea had been to use their remaining days to do one last "great deed." Then Takumi arrived midcourse and pulled Alfia back from the brink. That left only Zald still bound to the plan.
Alfia and Zald weren't close, but they knew each other; she wanted to pull him back as well. "Zald, Takumi can save you. Just give up on Erebus's scheme."
"…"
Zald answered with silence. After a long moment, he exhaled and spoke in a low voice. "No. Even if I keep on living, there's no point."
He wasn't Alfia. Alfia still had a younger sister—and now, Takumi—people who tied her to life. Zald had no one left. Half a year of poison gnawing at him had already fixed his will on death. Even with the hope of being cured, he didn't want it.
He hefted the broad greatsword up onto his shoulder and smiled. "Then let this leftover body of mine pave the road for your kid. He'll be Orario's hero—the leader of a new age. I've only got one wish. Tell that brat: one day he's gotta take down the Black Dragon for me!"
Leaving that desire with Alfia, Zald turned and strode away alone. Alfia watched his back with a soft sigh and didn't try to stop him. She opened her eyes fully and looked to the side.
A stunning silhouette stepped out of the shadows.
"Freya-sama, it seems the trial you've been waiting for is proceeding right on schedule."
"Mhm~~ That child will be Orario's brightest star," Freya hummed, soft delight curving her lips.
Back on the smoke-choked battlefield, Takumi's single citywide [Restore] had stunned the Dark Faction into numbness. Saving everyone by himself—something that outlandish was actually happening before their eyes.
Ryuu, standing motionless, stared at Takumi; a strange light flickered in her eyes. She wasn't the only one—Ais, Lyra, Alise, Kaguya… one girl after another looked his way in shock, admiration, even something like worship.
As for Valetta, the enemy—her mentality just collapsed. "You cast something that massive and you're not even winded?"
She could see it: the magic rising off him only grew fiercer.
Takumi swept his gaze over her and answered evenly, "Nothing to it. I've still got plenty of reserve power tucked away."
He was in the habit of storing magic in the Gauntlet. Becoming divine had only made his recovery inexhaustible. At this level of restoration, he could chain-cast around the clock for—well—two days without stopping.
Listening to that perfectly straight-faced answer, Valetta nearly laughed from sheer rage. Where do these hacks come from? How is anyone supposed to play against that?
"…Can't fight that. Bye," she spat, and without another glance, she wheeled and sprinted for the fallback route she'd prepared. As she went, she flipped a handful of fire-stone bombs behind her.
Boom—boom—boom!
Under the cover of successive blasts, she was just about to dive into the passage when Takumi's figure blinked into being ahead of her, blocking the way. It was like he'd warped there.
Valetta swung on reflex, bringing the longsword down in a vicious arc toward his neck.
At the instant her blade fell, a pale, flawless hand lifted and gently pinched the edge.
Thumm!
The strike stopped dead; shockwaves of force rolled outward, blowing the smoke away. Valetta's eyes bulged. She seized the hilt with her other hand and strained, but the sword wouldn't budge a hair in Takumi's grip. On the contrary, with the slightest increase of pressure, a shudder ran the length of the steel.
Crack, crack—bang!
The next second, the blade fractured and fell away in glittering scraps.
"Huh? You crushed my weapon? With your bare hand??"
Valetta just stared, blank, as if her brain had blue-screened. She had not, in all her contingency trees, budgeted for this kind of cheat.
Takumi looked at her calmly. "You like slaughter, right? I'll give you a chance to indulge."
"[Domain Expansion: Phantasmal Nightmare]."
With a light point of his finger, the black field blossomed and wrapped Valetta tight. From a grotesque urban sprawl rose a thousand shadows of fear, and foremost among them—the Slit-Mouthed Woman. At Takumi's order, they fell upon the woman before them; they would kill her and fold her into the domain.
Takumi shunted the active domain off into the Time-Space Realm and returned to the battlefield in the same breath.
"It's over?"
On the suddenly quiet field, the dazed faces of everyone present seemed to ask that question at once.
....
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