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I wanted to jump right into testing things out, but Zygos, being as crafty as he was, opened by targeting Princess Topersion. He was decently fast, faster than Ichinari without his skills, but still slower than Ichinari when he had them active. I could easily catch up. Protecting her was no issue.

I figured I might as well take the opportunity to observe him a bit, too, so I stepped in to shield the princess. But when I tried to block the incoming greatsword with one of my own, Lullus suddenly jumped in front of me and threw up a barrier. The greatsword didn’t clash with the barrier. It completely bypassed it along with Lullus and shattered the ground. Zygos, looking surprised, pulled out another sword and swung it sideways.

This time, the blade clashed with the barrier, and Lullus was blown back by the sheer force. I glanced over to check on her. She didn’t seem like she was about to vanish or anything, so she was probably fine. Taking this opportunity, I conjured a blade of wind with Mana and attacked, but it dispersed the moment it touched Zygos.

(This guy is going to be a pain…)

I tried thinking of some way to handle him, but I needed more time. Keeping the princess here was only going to get in the way, so I casually grabbed her and her attendant and dragged them over to Lullus.

“You probably won’t like this, Lullus, but can I ask you to protect these two for a while?”
“Master Finis, with all due respect, I believe that even you might find that opponent too much to handle. Or rather, it’s precisely because it’s you, Master Finis, that he will be hard to handle.”
“Figures… But you don’t stand a chance either, Lullus.”
“I stood by your side precisely for situations like this, but it seems my strength has fallen short. I apologize.”
“Really? I thought you were just here to keep an eye on me.”
“Even if I am someone abnormal for this world’s standards, surely you knew I wasn’t strong enough to deal with you?”

That was true. But she had met God directly…

“I thought maybe you had some hidden trump card.”
“Unfortunately, no.”
“Well, I’ll do my best, so please rest. And Princess, I assume you understand the situation, so try not to cause any trouble.”

The princess replied, “I understand,” but somehow I didn’t feel I could trust her. So I decided to break the Magic Tool she had. The one I detected during my appraisal of her. The one in her pocket. To put it simply, it was a simplified version of the cage used to trap spirits.

If it didn’t have a spirit inside, making it unusable was easy.

Now that I had done everything I needed to, it was time I headed over to Zygos, who had been patiently waiting for me.

“So, you’re playing the role of a knight protecting the princess?”
“Don’t say that. If anything, I’m her enemy.”
“Didn’t look that way when you protected her.”
“Just like how you crushed Caeruleus, I have a personal grudge against her.”
“Ah, I see. I get that.”
“So how about backing off now?”

(Come on, take the bait, feel the charm of a beautiful girl’s smile.)

I didn’t know if that ridiculous thought jinxed it, but Zygos had no intention of pulling back. Or maybe he realized I wasn’t planning to kill Princess Topersion myself.

“I’m not so kind as to back down when I know I can win.”
“Fair enough.”

So basically, if I managed to gain the upper hand, he might back off. His reason for existing was basically to vent his anger. He was not here to deliver justice or anything noble; he just wanted to release some stress. That made persuading him pretty tough.

While I was thinking all that, Zygos came at me. He delivered a wide-range slash with his greatsword. It was essentially a big swing, but he was casually vaporizing trees and rocks as he went. I tried to fight back with magic, but just like before, the moment my spells touched him, they dissolved without causing any damage.

Wind, rocks, ice, fire, drowning him with water, blasting him with lightning—it didn’t matter. All of it was negated. This was likely how the heroes felt when they fought me.

No… probably not. They never had the kind of composure I had now.

While none of my attacks worked. None of his were landing either.

Still, that didn’t mean the situation was safe. Zygos was just plain strong. The Heroes had powerful skills and intense, but short, combat training, but that only gave them surface-level strength. This guy, on the other hand, was a full-blown expert.

His sword strikes may have seemed slow from my perspective, but he mixed in tricky moves that made them hard to dodge. If I used the Hero skill, the situation would be different, but it felt like this fight was going to be extremely long, so I didn’t want to use any skills with a time limit. And it felt like I’d lose if I couldn’t use them.

Magic attacks were completely useless. Even attacks with weapons didn’t work; neither my conjured weapons nor regular thrown stones seemed to do anything. If there was any remaining option with even the slimmest chance… it would be hand-to-hand combat.

In short, I had to punch him. I would need to get close and be within his striking range the whole time, so it was walking into a losing battle. But unfortunately, I didn’t have any better options. First, I need to test if it could even work.

So I found an opening and sneaked in a single punch, aiming around his stomach. Zygos was surprised to be hit, but it didn’t seem to hurt him at all. The feedback I got felt like I had dealt 1 damage.

If I repeated this endlessly, I’d eventually win. I didn’t want this to turn into a battle of attrition. I hoped he’d give up already.