Illusion...
"Don't————"
Because her wrist was being held and she couldn't move, Mother turned her head and fixed her gaze on the man in front of her.
The person before her was incredibly tall. She had to look up to see his face clearly.
It was a young man.
He had beautiful long golden hair, wore a cyan-blue sweater covered in yellow grid lines, and on his lower body were riding breeches and riding boots. No matter how you looked at him, he was a handsome guy.
But beneath that handsome appearance was the opposite expression: eyes wide open, face covered in sweat with veins bulging, lips trembling slightly, and that hysterical obstruction.
Their eyes met. Mother's gaze froze for a moment.
"You are..."
Before Mother could finish speaking, Diego hurriedly answered, "Brando. My name is Brando."
She was silent for a while, then suddenly squeezed out a smile. Her brows relaxed and the corners of her mouth lifted. "What a coincidence. My surname is also Brando. Perhaps we're relatives."
"..." Diego opened his mouth, but for a moment didn't know what to say.
Mother pointed at her wrist with her other hand. "Um... Could you let go of my hand? My son is right beside us. Although he's still young, he's very sensible. Seeing a strange man holding his mother's hand would inevitably make him worried."
"Besides, it hurts quite a bit."
"Ah, sorry.." Diego let go of her hand in a fluster, like a child who had done something wrong.
Seeing Diego's panicked appearance, Mother smiled gently and asked softly, "Can you tell me the reason?"
"...What?"
"Why did you come to see..." Mother suddenly stopped mid-sentence and rephrased, "Why did you grab my hand?"
"It's because I... I can't stand seeing something like this." Diego slowly began to speak. On his stiff face, he forced out a smile that carried a cautious tone. "Could you please close your eyes for a moment? Just a short while is fine."
Mother's face was full of question marks, but she obediently did as told and closed her eyes.
"It would be best if you also covered your ears with your hands."
Mother nodded and covered her ears as well, then asked curiously, "Why is that?"
Diego revealed a trace of a smile. Even though he knew Mother couldn't hear him, he still answered in a low voice.
"Because the way I am right now... doesn't look good at all..."
"Scary Monsters!"
The dinosaur transformation began spreading across Diego's entire body. His gaze gradually turned cold. He spat out Ugly Treasure, drew the Split Soul Katana from its mouth, and slashed downward with a sudden swing, producing a piercing blade cry.
"Next, every single Zenin clan member here—every last one of them—will be killed again!!"
...
Reality...
Mabel and Rivale's battle gradually entered a white-hot stage. The stalemate between Alicia and the two greater demons was also nearing its end.
Solitär looked at Diego with eyes full of wariness. She said to Grausam beside her, "Little Grausam, let's stop here. We no longer have any reason to continue fighting. From the looks of it, Diego Brando could break free from the illusion at any moment. Losing our lives before Schlacht leads the rest of the Seven Sages of Destruction here wouldn't be worth it."
"But I still haven't been able to steal Frieren's memories." Grausam glanced at Solitär. A large amount of magical power condensed in his hand. "In that case, I'll have to sink Diego Brando into an even deeper illusion."
As soon as he finished speaking, Grausam increased the magical power output of the Paradise Transfer Magic on Diego.
Diego's body swayed and nearly collapsed.
Squelch!!!
At the same time his body teetered, Diego's claw pierced through Alicia's hand, spreading the dinosaur transformation to her as well.
At that moment, Alicia heard a few indistinct words from the mouth of the fallen Diego.
"Alicia..."
"Protect yourself and Frie..."
"Everything from here on... is up to you..."
Crack crack crack...
To explain briefly: the World-Saving Staff reinforces the magic used with it, including Goddess magic.
Therefore, in the past, when Alicia used 『Heart-to-Heart Magic』, the side effect from over-reinforcement caused her to synchronously copy the battle experience and techniques of her target.
Moreover, under the reinforcement of the World-Saving Staff and the Goddess's favoritism toward her, the ability of the technique could even surpass the original.
In other words, the current dinosaur-transformed Alicia was a genuine second-generation Scary Monsters!
Under terrifying dynamic vision, Alicia sliced apart every incoming flying sword one by one.
At the same time, she could clearly observe that Diego's body had begun to deform, expanding outward at a rate of 5 cm per second.
Diego's subconscious had completely vanished.
Boom!
Accompanied by a loud explosion and a large crater formed in the ground, Diego appeared in front of Grausam. With a swing of his massive hand, he sent Grausam flying and embedded him into the mountain wall.
"Little Grausam!!" Solitär was greatly alarmed and hurriedly manipulated her flying swords to block Diego's next attack.
...What just happened.
Grausam regained consciousness from the violent impact. He toppled forward from the mountain wall and slowly opened his eyes.
Could it be that he broke free from the illusion?
"Roar!!!"
Diego's roar drew Grausam's gaze.
...No. His eyes were still in a vacant state.
My magic is still affecting him.
But right now, that monster was charging straight at me like a runaway train, having already sent Solitär's magic flying along the way.
Grausam quickly used flight magic to soar into the air. His figure retreated rapidly like a kite with its string cut. The hovering flying swords followed closely behind him, blocking Diego in front of him.
!!
Why is this happening?!
In the blink of an eye, Diego had already launched a surprise attack from the ground into the air and grabbed hold of Grausam's shoulders.
Squelch——!!!
Grausam's left arm was torn off by Diego with brute force!!!
Why am I being pushed to this extent by this guy inside the illusion...
Squelch——!!!
A mage being approached at close range by a warrior—Grausam's fate was obvious. His head was crushed in one hand while his heart was horizontally split in two!
His corpse fell from the sky and continuously turned into particles of magical power that dispersed.
One of the Seven Sages of Destruction, Miracle Grausam, has fallen!
...
Illusion...
The Zenin estate was occupied by blood and corpses.
"I'll slaughter you!"
That arrogant Zenin clan head was cut in half by Diego with a single slash.
At this point, the Zenin family experienced total annihilation once again.
After finishing everything, Diego panted heavily. The scene before him changed once more, arriving at a grassland.
The sky was dyed with intense orange-red and golden powder. Large, fluffy clouds billowed under the light, as if they would melt into the warm glow at any moment.
The grassland on the ground was coated in a layer of hazy warm yellow. Fine starlight floated in the air. Diego was surrounded by a field of forget-me-not flowers, feeling the laziness and heat brought by the wind.
"This is..." Mother's voice came from behind.
Diego's pupils shrank. His dinosaur-transformed arm quickly moved forward to block, instinctively covering his own face.
Mother's black hair curled in the glow of the sunset. She gently grasped Diego's arm and pulled it downward, revealing Diego's ferocious face.
"Look at that. What a handsome boy." Mother leaned forward, supported Diego's face, and said softly, "You've really grown up, Dio."
"I'm proud of you, child." Mother hugged Diego and gently patted his back.
Diego took a deep breath, dispelled the dinosaur transformation, adjusted his expression, and put on a smile. "It's been a long time, Mom."
"Child, how have you been? Has anyone been bullying you?" Mother put her hands behind her back, her tone worried.
"No. How could anyone bully me? I've been doing really well." Diego gently shook his head, held Mother's hand, and said with a smile, "Besides, Mom, let me tell you—no one dares to look down on me, Dio, anymore. I've embarked on a journey to subjugate the Demon King. Even the Emperor has to speak to me respectfully..."
"I've earned so much money that I'll never go hungry again. I also raised a beloved horse named Silver Bullet. It runs very fast and is especially close to me..."
"I... recently seem to have a girl I like. She's very beautiful, very strong, very good to me, and also relies on me a lot..."
Diego went on and on like that, as if there was no end. Mother listened quietly, her eyes full of gentleness, nodding from time to time.
After some time, Diego finally stopped.
At that moment, Mother reached out and stroked Diego's head. With a heart full of heartache, she said, "You must have suffered a lot."
"I'm an incompetent mother. In the future, I won't be able to stay by your side."
Diego didn't understand why Mother had reached that conclusion. He had clearly been talking about how well he was doing and how happy his life was.
"No..." Diego choked up.
Drip.. drip..
Tears welled up from the corners of Diego's eyes. He cried so hard he couldn't speak, unable to say anything at all.
"Rest for a while, child."
...
Reality...
Because Diego's consciousness had vanished, Mahoraga, which had been restrained all this time, began to grow restless and continuously seized control of the body.
After killing Grausam, Diego briefly remained motionless in the air. His body kept growing larger and closer to Mahoraga's size.
Seeing this, Solitär fled without looking back.
Mabel and Rivale's battle had also reached a conclusion.
While screaming "Why hasn't Dio come to support us yet?!", Mabel ran behind Alicia holding the Freeze God Sword. Both hands gripping Alicia's shoulders, her entire body trembled as she cried "Waaah" nonstop with tears streaming down her face.
Alicia comforted her. "Mabel, are you okay?"
"I'm not okay at all!!!" Mabel wailed. "Didn't you say it would only take a little while to hold them off?!"
"Dio didn't say that, right?!"
Fortunately, Rivale did not pursue them and fled the battlefield together with Solitär.
"Uh..."
At the same time, because of Grausam's death, Frieren held her head and slowly woke up.
"Frieren, you're awake?!" Alicia said in surprise. "Then Dio also..."
"No. Dio won't wake up." After Frieren understood the situation, she immediately brought bad news. "Before he died, Grausam deepened the Paradise Transfer Magic."
"Which means?"
"Dio is going to attack us next!"
Just as Frieren said, once Diego's body had completely transformed into Mahoraga's size, a wave of killing intent locked onto the three of them.
"Three more... Zenin clan members..."
"Roar————!!!"
Whoosh!!!
Diego charged toward the three of them. His attack, carrying terrifying force, went straight for Frieren!
Clang!
Mabel and Alicia simultaneously protected Frieren, the Freeze God Sword and World-Saving Staff desperately blocking the blow.
"Frieren, is there any way to wake Dio up?!" Alicia asked.
"There is, but it has to be a one-hit kill with magic that Mahoraga hasn't adapted to yet!" Frieren answered loudly. Magical power began condensing in the staff in her hand. "Buy me a little time to compress the magic!!"
Mabel broke down. "What? We have to stall again?!"
Boom!!!
Diego exerted force once more, sending Alicia and Mabel flying, and reached his claw toward Frieren!
"I finally found you."
Just as Frieren was about to be struck, Sui, who had been tracking Diego all this time, finally arrived at the battlefield.
She drew an ancient magical tool from a spatial rift. Before Diego could attack Frieren, she severed one of his arms.
"I sensed three greater demons here..." Sui gripped the sword hilt tightly with her left hand, holding the blade horizontally in front of her. With her right hand, she pushed the bottom forcefully, activating the lightning-type magic of the magical tool. "I was a bit worried so I rushed over. In the end, I witnessed you turning from an orc face into Mahoraga. You really caused quite a big problem."
Sui pressed on her shoulder and sighed.
"…Hmph… I really can't do anything about you!"