"Magic beasts on the surface…? Hey, Ozwald! What the hell is this!?"
The [Hero] shouted furiously at the red-cloaked man after witnessing the surreal sight of massive numbers of dragon species pouring out from holes in the sky.
"As you can see, Your Highness. We're going to trample this land with this dragon horde!"
The red-cloaked man spread both arms wide and declared triumphantly.
Above him, the dragons that had appeared hovered silently, looking down at us like well-trained beasts awaiting their master's command.
(An organized horde of magic beasts, huh. This is going to be troublesome.)
"Don't screw around! If you do that, innocent civilians will get caught up in it too! I won't allow it!"
The [Hero] condemned the red-cloaked man in a voice thick with anger.
I thought it was rich coming from the invader, but it was true—when I'd arrived in Lugau, fighting had already started, yet no civilians had been harmed.
There was significant property damage, but the only casualties were territorial soldiers and the Silver Moon Rabbit of the Night Sky explorers who'd struck first.
They'd drawn a bare-minimum line at not touching civilians.
"How naive. That's just a bit of collateral damage. It's trivial compared to my objective."
But the red-cloaked man was about to cross even that line.
No mercy was needed for this guy.
"Go, dragons! Start by destroying Lugau!"
At the red-cloaked man's shout, the dragons waiting in the air formed ranks like an army and began advancing toward Lugau in unison.
"Stop! My subordinates are in Lugau—"
"Ah, they're in the way, so I'll eliminate them too. 'His Highness and his guards were killed by Silver Moon Rabbit of the Night Sky explorers. I arrived too late, but I used beast summoning to avenge them and razed Lugau.' That's the scenario. So Your Highness has to die too. Thanks for everything."
"What are you… ugh… gah!"
As the red-cloaked man laid out his sloppy scenario, the [Hero] suddenly dropped to his knees in pain, then vomited blood.
"This is the result of Your Highness failing to meet our expectations. Truly regrettable. But rest assured—the empire you cherished will continue to prosper under our care."
"Ozwald McLeod…! So it was you… who poisoned Father…! What exactly are you bastards plotting!"
The [Hero] desperately forced out words while spitting blood, pressing the red-cloaked man.
"…Stubborn as ever. I gave him a lethal dose of poison, but thanks to that atavism… he still won't die even after all this. Thanks for leaving me that valuable information at the end. Your role as Highness is finished. Now then—"
The red-cloaked man muttered something while approaching the [Hero] with a small blade in hand, raising it to strike.
But before the blade could reach the [Hero]'s neck, massive explosions roared overhead.
—My Heaven Flash and the robed woman's multiple [Super Explosion]s.
◇
While the red-cloaked man gave orders to the dragon horde and conversed with the [Hero], I spoke to the robed woman in a voice too quiet for them to hear.
"Hey, robed woman."
"I told you, my name is Shion—"
"Lend me a hand. You don't want this territory falling into the empire's hands either, right?"
I didn't want to borrow power from someone like her, but if I wasted time arguing, this territory would be trampled without exaggeration.
Even if the dragons before us were far weaker than the real ones infesting the labyrinths, their numbers were overwhelming.
I couldn't handle them alone—there were limits.
It grated on me, but I had to admit this woman was the most skilled mage I'd ever encountered. I'd understood that much from our battle half a year ago.
Right now, she was the one most capable of efficient wide-area annihilation.
For the moment, I had to set aside personal feelings and make the optimal move.
This woman had arrived right when my fight with the [Hero] ended, almost as if she'd come to help me.
That meant my defeat—and by extension, this territory falling to the empire—was inconvenient for her as well.
Considering Amuntsāsu and the Cyclamen Order were opposed, there was some wishful thinking involved, but our interests aligned for this incident.
"…I never expected a proposal like that from you, Orun."
The robed woman muttered softly with a genuinely surprised, blank expression. Her eyes gradually grew moist as she desperately tried to hide her joy.
"No time. Are you helping or not? Answer quick."
"—Yes, I'll help…!"
"Then temporary truce. I'll hold the head of the dragon formation. You—"
"Destroy the middle ranks, right?"
Before I could even convey my plan, the robed woman had already understood it.
"Yeah, I'm counting on you."
"Leave it to me. I'll guard your back, Orun—so go wild however you want!"
For some reason, even though this woman had hurt my disciples, I found her reassuring—and joy welled up inside me.
(This is just borrowing her strength temporarily out of necessity. Don't misunderstand. She's still the enemy.)
I told myself that while using [Gravity Manipulation] to cancel the gravity on my body.
Then, with my physical abilities boosted to the limit by [Seal Release], I kicked off the ground and took position in the air to block the dragon formation's advance.
The sight of so many dragons bearing down on us was impressive in its own way. While thinking that, I readied my magic sword.
"—Heaven Flash…!"
"[Super Explosion + Chain]…!"
Heaven Flash, enhanced with [Instant Capability Super Boost], struck the lead dragon, generating a shockwave from mana diffusion.
That shockwave mercilessly dealt death to the dragons in front.
At almost the same moment, explosions erupted in the center of the dragon ranks from the robed woman's [Super Explosion], chaining outward and engulfing more dragons in blasts.
Magic beasts turn into black mist and scatter as magic stones upon death.
These were no exception, turning to black mist—but no magic stones remained.
(It would've been better if magic stones dropped, but oh well. At least the corpses don't stay behind.)
"Orun, let's go!"
Right after landing the first blow on the dragon horde and beginning to construct my next spell, the robed woman's voice called out.
(Could she really read what I was about to do next?)
It felt almost like telepathy.
This was only our second… encounter.
And the first time had been as enemies.
Normally I'd say it's impossible for her to read my thoughts.
—Yet even without any basis, part of me thought: *If it's Shion… she might understand what I'm thinking.*
I hesitated for a moment but decided to trust her just this once.
If the result differed from what I'd planned, I'd only use her from now on.
As I turned to tell her I'd leave the next spell to her, she smiled and activated magic before I could speak.
"[Space Leap]."
The scenery in my vision shifted with the robed woman's magic—and suddenly the red-cloaked man was right in front of me.
I'd transferred directly above the kneeling [Hero].
(Does she really understand what I'm thinking?)
Surprised by the result matching my plan exactly, I quickly refocused, kicked the red-cloaked man—who'd been distracted by the explosions overhead and stopped attacking the [Hero]—square in the face.
I followed through, sending him flying dozens of meters.
If this man truly had [Self-Healing], killing him wouldn't be easy.
Right now, the priority was keeping him out of our fight with the dragons.
I'd take my time showing him hell later—so stay put under that boulder for now.
"[Meteor Strike]!"
Right after transferring, I poured mana into the spell formula I'd been constructing and activated it.
Multiple dragons were caught up as massive boulders fell from above onto the red-cloaked man—who was writhing on the ground clutching his face.
As the boulders crashed down with a deafening roar, countless lightning spears shot skyward from around the robed woman.
That action matched the strategy I'd had in mind exactly.
It seemed safe to think this woman understood my thoughts.
Honestly, it felt reassuring—but considering she'd become an enemy again in the future, I couldn't afford to celebrate too much.
For now, I had to focus on what was in front of me. I'd think about the future after surviving this.
I considered our next moves.
I couldn't confirm whether the red-cloaked man was dead, but at the very least, he couldn't give orders to the dragon horde right now.
That meant the current dragons were no longer an organized force of trained beasts—they were just regular magic beasts.
In that case, there was a way to deal with them.
Slaying magic beasts was my specialty as an explorer.
It was far easier than human combat.
As long as I controlled aggro properly, I could handle them without issue.
To that end—
"[Hero], you're helping too. The root cause of this mess is that you people invaded. Take responsibility."
I spoke to the [Hero]—who knelt at my feet taking shallow breaths—while activating [Ex-Heal].
"…I'd love to, but this is the poison Ozwald prepared to kill me. Recovery magic can't do anything about it. I'm done for… Sorry. I had doubts about this invasion, yet I still… for the empire…"
After explaining his condition, the [Hero] began confessing.
I already knew he wasn't the one who'd decided on the invasion.
This was probably the collective will of the empire's emperor and upper echelons.
Resisting that alone would be extremely difficult even for the [Hero]—I could understand that much.
If someone other than the [Hero] had led the invasion, civilian casualties might have been far worse.
In that sense, it was fortunate the [Hero] had come.
Still—I had no intention of forgiving him.
"Even someone called the [Hero] gives up so easily?"
The robed woman—who'd been single-handedly drawing the dragon horde's aggro since my transfer—spoke while fending off their attacks as she approached.
"—[White Mage]…!? Why are you here…"
"Never mind that. I'm on the defensive against the dragons right now. Hurry up and pull aggro, will you?"
"Robed woman, recovery magic doesn't work on the [Hero]. Unfortunately, we'll have to handle this with just the two of us. So get away from me quick—don't drag me into the dragons' concentrated fire."
"…Orun, aren't you being a bit too harsh?"
I'd planned to have the [Hero] act as aggro-control defender too.
But since recovery magic didn't work, he couldn't fight.
Plus, with no other humans around, if the three of us stayed clustered, all enemy attacks would naturally focus here—and sure enough, fireballs, mana bullets, and other vision-blocking attacks were pouring in from the dragons.
"Tch, [Form Five: Mont F—"
"No need."
Just as I started transforming my magic sword into a shield to defend, the [Hero]'s voice—strong again, belying his earlier weakness—rang out.
All incoming attacks were deflected by an invisible dome-shaped force field covering us.
"[White Mage], thanks. I owe you. —I need to return to the empire immediately, but first I'll help with dragon slaying. It's the least I can do to atone. I can't let this territory suffer any more damage…!"
The [Hero] slowly stood and spoke again.
"You were poisoned and down—how…?"
"This is my unique ability, [Time Regression]. I rewound the [Hero]'s body to before the poison was administered."
"[Time Regression] …? That's an insane ability…"
I couldn't help blurting out what I thought after hearing the robed woman's ability.
Rewinding time—what kind of unique ability even allows that?
If she had such an ability, she wouldn't need to stay in an unfavorable situation—she could just rewind and redo things.
The fact that she hadn't done so meant either significant risks were involved, or redoing wasn't possible.
Still, rewinding someone's physical state so casually like that made it undeniably powerful.
"It loses to Orun's ability, though. —Well then, our forces are ready too. Let's start dragon slaying!"
The robed woman glared at the dragons overhead and declared loudly.
"Fighting these many dragons at once, my blood's boiling!"
The [Hero] followed with an innocent expression, looking up at the sky.
(I never dreamed I'd end up fighting alongside these two. Life really is unpredictable.)
I murmured in my heart, caught in an indescribable sentiment.
Then I refocused and spoke.
"—For now, I'll cooperate with you two. But once this is over, you'll each take responsibility in your own way. Don't forget that."
Now, the dragon slaying begins!