---

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「Are you okay?」
「Yup……」

Seiya strongly hugged Yua to himself, and Yua strongly hugged his arm in return, they continued to fall as such.

Immediately after the duo defeated the lightning beast, the ground suddenly began to collapse and they fell down. But this time they could clearly see the bottom.

「Here we go」

While Seiya was falling, he gracefully turned his body in the air and landed on the ground. Then he lowered Yua on the ground from his princess carry.

Her face looked somewhat disappointed, but he didn’t notice.

「Well then, what are we going to do now」

Seiya said, after looking around.

The place where the two people landed was even more open than the previous one, they were also surrounded by water.

If you are to describe this place, then the solitary island will be appropriate.

And the most distinct characteristic of this place is water, gushing from every hole.

The water was clear enough to see through it. They couldn’t tell why water was spontaneously springing up.

「Weird」
「Yes……」

Seiya was looking around but didn’t find the exit. Yua looked around too but achieved the same.

It was at this moment. A woman’s voice echoed on an isolated island.

「I thought it was noisy, it seems some pests came uninvited」
「「!?」」

They were surprised by an alluring voice that resounded out of nowhere. Because it was the den of the powerful monsters, there should be no one other than two of them here.

Seiya looked at the one who was saying it. There was a woman sitting in a chair that was floating in the air.

She was a woman with blue eyes and sapphire pupils, she had impressive twin peaks, that seemed to defy a gravity.

The feminine atmosphere that she excluded was incredibly alluring for any adolescent boy.

But Seiya was not charmed. He was not conceited enough to say that he was popular with girls. Besides, he had no time for that right now.

「No way ….」

It was the same for Yua. There are no human beings inside the Great Dalis Canyon. As soon as she remembered that, she came up with an answer.

「Are you Undine?」[¹] 「Heh, so you know about me」

The woman confirmed Seiya’s guess. Yes, she is the water fairy Undine who lives in the Great Dalis Canyon.

Seiya never thought that he will be able to meet Undine, he felt lucky in a sense.

The magical beasts were acting based on their animal instincts, but now they have Undine in front of them.

Unlike magical beasts, you can have a conversation with her. That means that you can talk your way out.

Seiya decided to speak with her.

「I want to talk. Please listen」
「Talk? What is it?」

Seiya was glad that he managed to start a conversation. So he immediately got to the chase.

「We are not here to fight. We aim to return to the Leiria Kingdom by passing through the Great Dalis Canyon」
「I see, so what?」
「We want to get out of here. Of course, we aren’t going to harm you」

That was his proposal to Undine. There was no point to fight here. Seiya wanted to solve it peacefully and avoid the fight.

But Undine’s answer was a refusal.

「I refuse. You have to defeat me to get out of here. And I do not intend to be defeated」

Listening to the words of Undine, Seiya felt suspicious.

There is no way it is true. Unless they aren’t inside the unique barrier made by Undine, it is possible to go outside without killing her.

「Why did you lie? We ought to be able to go outside even without defeating you」

Hearing his words, Undine makes a slightly surprised expression.

「Oh, aren’t you nice. Everyone before you tried to kill me though」
「I told you. I do not want to fight you」

Seiya meant what he said. They already spent most of their mana, fighting with fairy is just stupid. The common sense tells you to run if you ever encounter one.

「But too bad. I do not want to let you out」
「Why?」
「Because everyone will know about my existence. I do not want that」

Undine says that, being weirdly irritated.

Her wish was to live quietly in this Great Dalis Canyon. If other people knew about her existence, it was her policy to dispose of them.

That is why Undine was trying to erase the existence of Seiya and Yua.

「You do not need to worry. We will not talk about your existence」
「Am I supposed to believe that?」
「Yes, that’s right」

Seiya was looking at Undine with a serious look. It was the same with Yua. She did not want to fight the fairy in this place.

However, it was not so easy to believe someone you met for the first time, even if they said to believe them. More so for an existence that refused to have a contact with humans, Undine.

「Sorry, but this is impossible」

Undine looked down on Seiya and refused, she started to deploy a magic circle towards the duo.

「I’m sorry, but you have to disappear」

Undine shoots a laser of water from the magic circle towards Seiya. The laser was much more powerful than the one used by the sea dragon. [²]

However, when Seiya cast the『Dark Wave』against the laser of water, it suddenly disappeared as if it never existed in the first place.

「Heh, you aren’t too bad」
「Well, kind of」

Undine saw Seiya’s dark attribute and realized that he is a powerful magician.

By the way, why was Seiya’s『Dark Wave』able to easily extinguish Undine’s attack rather than a relatively weak sea dragon’s attack?

The answer is, he got accustomed to the dark attribute.

When confronting the sea dragon, Seiya had just regained the dark attribute and was not used to it. So he was struggling against the sea dragon’s attack.

But now it is different.

Seiya was one step in the grave in the fight against the lightning beast. Strangely, his affinity with the dark attribute has increased more than ever, and the dark attribute became more familiar to him than ever.

As a result, he was able to easily annihilate Undine’s attack, which was more powerful than sea dragon’s attack.

「I can not let you escape after all. If you want to get out of here, defeat me and make a contract with me. Then you can get out of here」
「Ha, it can’t be helped then. Yua, let’s do it」
「Yes……」

The two grasped their weapons again and faced the Undine.

The atmosphere surrounding the Undine changed in a moment.

And the air in this place changed instantly.

Seiya with twin swords Hollins, Yua with a rapier Yuriel, they looked at the Undine who was still floating in a chair.

On the other hand, from Undine’s expression, you can understand that she is not serious yet.

Undine moved first.

「Water Cannon」[³]

Undine shoots water towards Seiya and Yua.

「『Dark Wave』」

However, when Seiya casted『Dark Wave』against her attack, her spell was extinguished without a trace.

「Yua」
「Leave it to me……」

Aiming for the moment when the water was extinguished, Yua casts『Single Light』on her feet raises leg strength and leaps.

And then she swiftly closed in on the Undine with Yuriel.

「Naive. Water Laser」[⁴]

Facing leaping Yua, Undine deploys a blue magic circle and attacks her.

It was the same attack that Undine used on Seiya earlier.

「You are the naive one.『Dark Wave』」

Seiya cast a『Dark Wave』against the water laser that was about to hit Yua and the laser disappeared in a moment.

Yua who believed that Seiya would be able to protect her stabbed Yuriel towards Undine without hesitation.

「This is the end……」

Yua who pierced Yuriel into Undine tries to pour the mana of light attribute into her body and explode her from within.

It was supposed to be their victory.

「Naive」[⁵]

Undine grinned.

In the next moment, Yuriel, who had been stuck in the abdomen of Undine, is pushed out of the body.

And the wound that should have been made in the abdomen of Undine has disappeared in no time.

「It can’t be……」

Yua lost her words to this sight. She had definitely seen it. She wondered what her body was made of.

「It is all water……」
「Correct」

Hearing Yua’s words, Undine affirmed with a smile.

As she said, her whole body was made out of water. The recoil from striking her with Yuriel felt different from other magical beasts.

The impact Yua felt when she stabbed Undine was so weak that she doubted whether she pierced her or not.

However, if the body of Undine was composed of water, this feeling could be explained.

And this was also the reason why Undine’s body didn’t explode from her mana.

Water, if the body of Undine was made out of water mixed with mana of water attribute, all excessive mana will calm down and wouldn’t make any effect.

It was probably the same even for Seiya’s dark attribute.

In other words, this kind of attack is useless against the Undine.

For a moment Yua lost her means of attack against the Undine. But she was not alone. She had a reliable partner.

「You are full of openings」

Suddenly, behind Undine sitting on the chair appeared Seiya, wearing the mana of light attribute. With Hollins in both hands, he aimed at Undine’s neck from behind.

「I noticed you」

Without sparing a glance at Seiya, Undine creates a blue magic circle behind her and shoots a water laser towards him.

But Undine’s attack already does not work against Seiya.

「It’s useless.『Dark Wave』」

Seiya cast the『Dark Wave』and extinguished the water laser again.

However, Undine also knew that Seiya was able to extinguish the water laser.

Undine’s real aim was not to shoot through Seiya, but to buy some time.

Having earned enough time, Undine proceeds to the next step.

「Gedo-chan」

The moment Undine called this name, a part of the lake’s water surrounding the isolated island gathered in front of Seiya and instantly formed a giant sphere.

「『Dark Wave』」
「I will not let you」
「What!?」

Seiya tried to extinguish the sphere quickly by casting multiple『Dark Wave』towards it, but Undine emanated the mana of water attribute towards Seiya’s『Dark Wave』and suppressed its ability to extinguish.

Because Seiya’s『Dark Wave』was sealed, the huge water sphere was finally completed.

It was a very large water sphere with cracks on its surface, its true appearance was revealed.

「Hey, are you kidding me?」
「I can’t believe it」

The duo who landed on the ground lost their words seeing the true appearance of the sphere

「This is a dragon that has been strengthened to the limit, Gedo-chan」

It was a huge dragon formed entirely of water like Undine that was named using Undine’s nonexisting naming sense as Gedo-chan. [⁶]

 

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「Seiya!?」
「Let’s talk later. Need to deal with it first」

Yua was surprised that Seiya, who she thought was dead, survived, but as he said, now it is not the right time. They need to get rid of the immediate threat.

「Yua, can you break through his defense?」

He asked whether she had a method to stop the white tiger. Unfortunately for Seiya, he didn’t have any means to pierce its skin. [¹]

So he ended up asking Yua.

Answering to his question,

「If you can stop it in one place for 5 seconds……」
「Alright, I’m counting on you」

When Seiya heard that there was a solution, he decided on his role. Seiya’s job was to keep the white tiger in the same place for five seconds then pass the baton to Yua.

It is not easy, but it is necessary to survive.

Seiya grasped Hollins in both hands and increased the amount of mana of the light attribute on its surface.

Up till now, even if he used『Mantle of Light』to catch up with the white tiger, he couldn’t overtake it. So he put on his strongest『Mantle of Light』so far.

For a moment he broke through his limit. However, since Seiya had a dark attribute, there was no anxiety. I will make it succeed. Seiya thought so and further increased the amount of mana.

「Break through the limit, Overlimit」[²]

The moment he raising the amount of mana worn, the color disappeared from his view. He was in the world of speed.

If color disappears from view, he can deploy more brainpower to keep up with the speed of the tiger.

Not only his sight changed. Hearing, olfaction, taste and so on also stopped functioning at once. This reduced the burden on the brain and enhanced only the aspects necessary for battle.

It was all for fighting in the world of godspeed.

It was the same for white tiger. The white tiger also increased the amount of lightning around him just like Seiya and erased the color from its view.

From there, the battle of godspeed started.

They moved almost at the same time. When Seiya kicked the ground with his raised leg power, the lightning beast also kicked the ground and approached Seiya.

When Hollins approached the claw of thunder and they collided, a shock wave was born with a grand explosion sound. And there was not only one shockwave, but many. Even the air vibrated from them.

「Amazing…….」

Yua could not trace the figures of Seiya and lightning beast, but she could feel just how amazing the fight was.

The moment after the massive explosion sound and tremendous shockwave, there was already no one there.

At the next moment, a huge explosion sound and shockwaves were born in other places.

Truly a fight on a different level.

But Yua couldn’t just look at this fight. Because it was her job to put an end to this battle.

Yua begins her final preparations.

Firstly, Yuriel appeared in her free left hand.

Yua who grasped two white weapons in both hands, loaded the rapier Yuriel into a bow as if it was an arrow.

That spell is the most penetrating spell she knows. On the other hand, however, it is a difficult task to hit the moving target, and once she missed it will be the end.

Truly the finishing blow.

Therefore, to cast this spell she had to trust Seiya.

「Seiya……」

While thinking about her reliable partner, Yua started pouring mana into the loaded Yuriel. From all this mana, Yuriel started to shine brightly.

Yuriel cloaked in white mana had a considerable presence on the battlefield. So, Seiya understood that she was ready.

While colliding with the lightning beast, he tried to find an opening. However, the lightning beast couldn’t afford to show a gap so easily, so Seiya failed to achieve anything.

「I have no choice」

If there is no gap, make a gap. As before, Seiya aimed for the moment the beast lands on the ground after the collision.

「『Dark Wave』」

It was not to annihilate the lightning beast, but the ground where it will land. The moment when Seiya cast his spell, a part of its landing spot became depressed, and a small hole appeared.

Gururu

But the lightning beast was not an idiot. The same thing won’t work on it two times in a row.

Lightning beast chose only the space that was not instantaneously eliminated by the『Dark Wave』, landed on it dexterily, and jumped again.

Then it tried to move to the ground which was still intact.

「As I thought」

Seiya smiled when he saw the lightning beast leap again. Seiya believed that it will leap once again without getting its legs on the ground.

Seiya casts a new spell against the lightning beast which jumped away from the depression.

「『Black Hammer』」

In the next moment, the purple magic circle appeared above the jumping lightning beast. However, it was paying attention to the ground and was too late to notice the spell.

The moment it finally noticed it was already late.

The mysterious pressure attacks the lightning beast that was still in the air and pushes it to the ground.

Gururu

The lightning beast was trying to free himself somehow, but the pressure was quite strong, it was unlikely to escape so easily. Still, it will not be detained for a long time.

However, it was enough to buy the five seconds that Yua required.

The spell used by Seiya was the dark attribute original spell『Black Hammer』, a spell that was instantly created by Seiya.

Remembering『Holy Hammer』which Yua used against the sea dragon, he wanted to incorporate a similar spell in his repertoire, its effect wasn’t much different from the『Holy Hammer』.

Seiya who succeeded in stopping the lightning beast shouted out Yua’s name.

「Yua!」
「Leave it to me……」

Yua, who was called out, readied her bow Yurial and faced the lightning beast.

Yuriel, which is loaded in Yurial, was cloaked in more white mana than before and emanated a considerable pressure.

Yua thought.

She could trust Seiya.

At first, he was just convenient, she tried to use him to return home from the dark territory without meeting people.

But his existence gradually becomes more than just useful.

Seiya trusted Yua enough to come to the Great Dalis Canyon.

Just a few moments ago, he did not care about himself and saved her.

Even now, believing that she had a power to decide the outcome, he did his best to suppress the lightning beast.

Seiya already trusted Yua. And that was the same for her.

She knew about that but didn’t admit it.

Because she was afraid to trust Seiya just to be betrayed again. That’s why she distanced herself from him. But she finally faced it.

Seiya already imprinted himself in her heart, and he became an irreplaceable existence for Yua. [³]

She was certainly scared to be betrayed by people. Even if she wanted to trust from the bottom of her heart. However, to trust people, Yua must overcome that fear.

（Seiya……）

She could only admit it.

Admit, that she trust Seiya from the bottom of her heart. And admit that she also liked him as much.

While muttering his name, Yua released the bowstring.

「Holy Law」

Pan! And Yuriel was fired with a loud sound straight towards the lightning beast.

Yuriel, cloaked in white mana, started rotating and increasing its speed, its penetrating power was also raised.

It was easy for such Yuriel to penetrate the hard skin of a lightning beast.

Gugya

The lightning beast wanted to scream from the pain. But before the scream came out, it already lost its consciousness and died.

This determined the victory for Seiya and Yua.

「It ended」
「Yup……」
「Even so, your last attack was amazing」

Seiya was deeply impressed by her last attack.

But her answer to Seiya sounded quite depressed. Besides that, her cheeks were somewhat red.

「Yes……」
「Yua?」

Perplexed, Seiya looked at Yua carefully, she apologized in a quiet voice.

「Seiya……sorry……」
「Mm? For what?」

Seiya who suddenly received an apology was bewildered. It wasn’t surprising, considering that he didn’t know what transpired in her heart.

She apologized not trusting Seiya until now, she apologized for trying to abandon him, when she thought that he died, she apologized for a lot of things.

Then the question was born in her head.

「By the way … how are you still alive?」

Yua asked why Seiya, pierced by the lightning beast, was still alive.

She thought that Seiya was certainly dead at that time. A lot of blood is scattered at the place where Seiya was penetrated. [⁴]

It was weird thinking normally.

「Ah, that was…..」

The moment Seiya tried to answer her question, the ground where they stood suddenly began to collapse.

「「!?」」

They tried to catch onto something but unfortunately, they failed and started falling with the collapsing ground.

「Yua!」
「Seiya….」

While falling, Seiya hugged Yua in a hurry. Yua’s cheeks were quickly dyed red from the hug.

Then the two of them fell together.

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Seiya and Selena appeared in a bar in the center of the second district.

The bar was spacious enough to accommodate 50 people and was crowded. As they took their seats, Seiya ordered a white carbonated drink while Selena a pink one. However, Selena’s face looked somewhat dissatisfied.

「Why are you so angry, bird woman? Does it displease you this much when people see us as lovers? 」
「Not really~. I don’t think about it at all」
「It’s suspicious otherwise」
「I know」

Selena understood that it would have been unnatural otherwise. The problem was in his inattentiveness. Due to that inattentiveness, she was in a bad mood.

「You’ll let your cute face go to waste if you keep making such an expression」
「Eh?」

Selena turned towards Seiya with a blank face.

However, she was met with Seiya’s questioning gaze. What? Thought Selena when she noticed that the nearby couple said the line, which caused her to feel even worse.

What’s wrong with Selena, Seiya made a troubled expression.

Around 10 P.M., they were still in the bar as the guest around them gradually changed.

The customers that came before them finished their business and went to look for another bar or home.

「Hey, we are drinking juice since a while ago. Shouldn’t we ask around? 」

Worried Selena. At this point, Seiya sat there for an hour and a half drinking juice and doing nothing else.

Moreover, once she tried to listen herself Seiya stopped her. She didn’t know what he was thinking about.

「Well, just wait. Did you bring your magic guns? 」
「Yeah, inside my skirt」
「Then it’s fine. Wait a little more」
「U, un」

Once he confirmed that she brought her magic guns, he once again turned silent and started drinking juice. Seeing his state, Selena too turned her attention towards her third cup of juice.

Selena kept her magic guns even with her dress appearance. She always kept her magic guns on her waist but that wasn’t possible with the dress. Thus, she wrapped the holster around her hips inside the skirt.

「It’s about time」

About half an hour later, Seiya said this and paid for the services.

「Are you going?」
「Yeah」

Although lacking understanding, she stood up and followed him out of the bar. After that, the two walked on the road leading to their hotel.

Selena walked while thinking that this atmosphere was like that of the date when Seiya suddenly grabbed her arm once they passed a corner.

「Eh?」

The moment they turned around the corner Seiya pulled Selena’s arm and started running only to suddenly stop soon after.

Selena was about to fall due to her balance being disrupted because of the sudden movements but Seiya caught her into his embrace.

Selena didn’t understand what happened at the beginning but gradually understood the situation. She was currently nestled in Seiya’s embrace.

Selena’s face turned bright red. All the way to her ears.

「Please wait, my heart is not ready……」
「Sorry. Be quiet」
「Eh, really? 」

Her face became even redder under his serious stare. While her head was filled with「You have a fiancée! 」type of thoughts, Seiya turned towards another direction.

「It seems that you intend to follow us, who are you?」

On the other side of his line of sight, there was a figure of a man in his thirties. Selena followed his line of sight and examined the man.

The man had a mustache and a hat, which made him look like a detective. Although, there are no detectives in this world.

「Chi, when did you notice?」

Since the man asked such a thing, Seiya helped Selena stand up and answered.

「A moment before we entered the bar. For a brief moment, you made a surprised expression seeing the bird woman. Adding to that, you was sitting on the opposite side while paying us a bit too much attention」

Meaning that he observed them for a long time.

「I see. I’ll just say it honestly. I was surprised how cute this lady is. I was thinking about asking her out for a tea or something like that」

Hearing the man’s words, Selena hid behind Seiya’s back. Upon seeing her reaction, the man immediately became dejected.

However, Seiya’s opinion was completely different. He didn’t think that this guy truly liked Selena.

Seiya always acted together with Lily and Yua, who could be called as unprecedented beauties. He’d seen the surprised expressions of men numerous times.

Their faces seemed to say「So such a beautiful girl exist」. However, the man’s face was more of「Why is she here? 」kind of face.

「It can’t be helped since I’m rejected~. I’m going home, my lady. Have a nice time」

Said the man as he tried to leave. From Selena’s standpoint, she was happy to see this stalker disappear as soon as possible.

However, there was someone who didn’t wish for the man to leave. It was Seiya.

「Wait a bit」

Don!!

With this sound, the gravity increased trying to stop the man from leaving. Of course, it was the work of his recently upgraded bloodlust.

Being hit by the bloodlust, the man stood in place while sweating bullets. The man was confident if the fact that no one passes in this place during the night and didn’t call for help.

Dosun!!!!

Seiya raised the intensity of his bloodlust even further.

The man could continue standing and was forced into sitting position. He tried to run but his body didn’t listen, tried to do a full mana release but even that wasn’t allowed under Seiya’s bloodlust. [¹]

「Hey, the reason you started at the bird woman wasn’t that she is cute, right?」

The trembling man used all the power he could master to shake his head. The man understood at that moment. He touched something that shouldn’t be touched,

You can’t do anything against this monster. His life was in the hands of the blonde youth behind him.

「You were surprised because you’ve seen the face that resembles the bird woman’s recently, right? And you also should know her location, correct? 」

The man somehow understood that he referred to Selena as the bird woman. However, answering his question any further would make him betray his Lord.

Rather than that, it’s better to commit suicide……he thought but didn’t even manage to bite his tongue off under the effect of the bloodlust.

Selena just silently looked at the man. There was a matter of her fear in play but more than that, she wanted to know about Moka, so she left everything to Seiya.

「If you won’t answer, I won’t let you off easily」

Pachin!!

Seiya waved his finger and the man’s left ear disappeared without a trace. [²]

「Nnnnnnnnnnnnn」

Without being able to scream, the man was forced to silently endure the disappearance of his left ear.

「What is next? A finger? Nose? Or maybe an eye? 」

The man shook his head in fear with all his might.

The blood scattered for the place where his left ear has been but he didn’t pay it any attention. Although missing these parts won’t kill the man, his life after that is going to be horrible. The man came to know fear.

Then, he imagined his life without any of the parts mentioned by Seiya.

「Are you going to answer?」

Hearing his words, the man vigorously nodded his head. He could feel a mad desire to live from the man.

Seeing his state, Selena, although didn’t lose her words, gripped Seiya’s sleeve.

Seiya weakened his bloodlust allowing the man to speak but he still won’t able to move the rest of his body.

「I get it. I’ll talk. I’ll talk so please stop」
「It depends on you」

The man started to desperately talk.

「I did see a person resembling this girl yesterday」

Seiya was surprised. Surprised by the technology that made the travel for criminals faster by one day compared to his group on the magic horses. The man didn’t care for his surprise and continued.

「That person was older that this lady and was restrained」
「Where is she?」
「This is……」

Seiya narrowed his eyes when the man was struggling to produce an answer. Seeing such Seiya, the man became flustered.

「Understood. I-I’ll tell, please have mercy. She is in the Demon King’s palace」
「Demon King’s palace? 」

Hearing the words he had no recollection of, Seiya tilted his head. The man didn’t pay this any attention and continued talking trying to stay alive.

「That’s right. Blod-sama’s palace is across the mountains. She is a valuable specimen brought by Blod-sama from outside. I don’t know the details. I just thought to receive a reward for bringing this girl to him since she resembled that woman who made him this much happy. It’s the truth! Please, believe me! 」

The man desperately said. He was desperate to live.

「Is this Blod you mentioned Blod Mamon?」
「Yeah, that’s him」
「I see. That’s enough」
「Then! 」
「Sure, I shall release you」

Saying that, Seiya used the Holy Attribute to restore the man’s ear.

Failing to hide his surprise at his ear being restored, the man looked at Seiya.

The same was true for Selena next to Seiya. Selena didn’t know what kind of magic it was but understood that it was somehow connected to Seiya’s secret. At the same time, she intuitively felt that it was something she shouldn’t touch.

「Don’t tell anyone about this. If you tell anyone, out next meeting won’t be this easy for you to survive」
「Y-Yes」

In the end, the man bowed and run off somewhere. Looking at the man with pity, Selena thought. [³]

「All right then, we know the location so let’s go back」
「Un」

Seiya began to walk intending to return to the hotel. Faced with his back view, Selena said.

「Hey, lolicon」
「What?」

Said Seiya as he turned around. What was that power? Who the hell are you? she wanted to ask. However, the words stuck in her throat before she could say them.

「Nothing」
「I see」

After that, the two returned to the hotel.

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Thank you for reading. This time I’m going to talk about Seiya and Selena’s date. As an author, I felt that it’s about time for Selena to go dere……..I can only apologize to anti-Selena faction. However, I intend to make the next episode about Seiya and Yua. I’d be glad if you read it^^ [⁴]

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The team was currently in a suite room on the top floor of the most luxurious hotel in the second district. The suite room was on the 8th floor and provided a wonderful view.

There are four suite rooms on the 8th floor, but they took two of them. One for the student council and one for the rest.

「All right. Everyone is here」

When Seiya confirmed everyone’s presence, he inserted his hand in his pocket, took out something, and handed it to everyone.

「This  is?」

Selena questioningly looked at this thing. The same was true for everyone present except Seiya. Seiya explained to the five.

「This is the IC Gater Mini. It has a few restrictions compared to my IC Gater but with this, you can use the virtual currency. I put 20 thousand grela in each of them, use it as you see fit. That being said, don’t leave the inn too much」

Hearing his explanation, everyone looked at their IC Gater Mini. Seiya’s IC Gater was something like a charge-type wallet.

When selling or buying, you can use the IC Gater to pay, making an exchange possible. According to the youth, there are several companies dealing in support and maintenance of the IC Gater.

The girls’ IC Gater Mini didn’t differ that much from a normal one, it only worked with the different amounts of money. The normal IC Gater has no limit while the IC Gater Mini can only operate with a limited amount of money based on its type.

For example, these IC Gater Mini had a fixed maximum amount of 50 thousand grela, and they currently had 30 thousand on them. In other words, if they work hard they can increase it up to a maximum of 50 thousand. Besides those, there is a type for children with a maximum amount of 10 thousand and a type with a maximum amount of 1 million.

Normally the IC Gater of Seiya’s type is kept in a bank and used to charge the IC Gater Mini when necessary.

Therefore, the people with the normal IC Gater either came from other places or confident in their own power.

「Also, you can fill it by selling stuff like we did before. That being said, 50 thousand grela is the limit, if you exceed it you’d have to get a new one. It’s one for 2000 grela, it seems」

Seiya’s explanation was met with silence. Apparently, they had difficulties to comprehend the concept of virtual grela.

That’s why they decided to go out only with Seiya and stay in their room any other time.

「By the way, Seiya……what are we going to do from now on……? 」
「That’s right. We came all the way here, but we have no idea where my mother is」

Yua’s and Selena’s question was reasonable.

They came here to save Moka Fenix, not for sightseeing. But they had no way to save her since they didn’t know where she was hidden. Nevertheless, they didn’t have any way to figure out the location.

「Regarding that, we have no choice but to ask around」
「Ask around!?」
「Would this method work?」
「It may be dangerous if we don’t hurry」

The student council members were surprised by Seiya’s nonchalant answer.

True enough, they didn’t have any other mean but to ask around. However, it can take too much time or, in the worst case, can alert the criminal.

Besides, they couldn’t predict the consequences of being slow. The student council members were agitated.

「This is just a speculation, but they probably won’t kill her anytime soon. If they want to kill her, they could have done so in the Leiria Kingdom.
That means that their target is『Fenix Flames』. However, the criminal shouldn’t be knowledgeable about『Fenix Flames』.If he knew, he wouldn’t have kidnapped her at such a timing.
Therefore, the criminal only knew the general outline and decided to get it」
「But you aren’t certain, right? 」

Asked Selena in a slightly worried voice. That wasn’t surprising. After all, she had her mother kidnapped and they discussed the probability of her mother being killed or not.

「Relax, She should be safe for at least a week」
「Why can you say that?」
「Because this time’s criminal is a big organization. They committed this large-scale crime. It involved a lot of preparations and risks. Your normal bandits aren’t capable of something like that.
In Leiria’s case, it would have been on the level of a special magician’s clan or the church. There is no way for such an organization to kill the target that they spent so much effort to capture. They will probably treat her carefully for a while」
「Then, is my mother safe for a week? 」
「Yeah. But at the same time, it will turn dangerous after one week」
「It can’t be……」

Selena made a despairing expression. It was the end of the second day since they departed the Leiria Kingdom. Because they couldn’t catch up to the criminal even of the magic horses, he is either already here or in a completely different place.

Even if he was here, they only had a window of six days. Selena downed in her worries and despair. Seeing her like that, Mona and Aishi grasped her hands.

「Well, that’s why I’m going to gather intelligence right now, relax」
「Right now……?」

What Yua asked about was whether it is okay to go out so late. The time was about 8 PM. Looking outside the window, the sun couldn’t be seen leaving only the light from the buildings.

Seiya wanted to go out alone in such a city. Her worries were understandable.

「Yeah, the drunkards start appearing on the streets around this time. I think there is a chance of some of them leaking some secrets」
「Then I’ll go too」

I can’t let Seiya wander the dangerous city, thought Yua. 「Then Lily too!」 she would definitely say something like that. That’s why Seiya immediately disagreed.

「No」
「Why?」
「Because here is the Dakuria. If you somehow end up using your light attribute here, it would escalate into a great commotion」
「Then I’ll fight with only wind and fire attributes…….」

Hearing her words, Seiya swung his head sideways.

「That’s precisely why you can’t. I can’t let you face danger with the attributes you aren’t used to. This time I shall go alone. Lily too. You look like a kid, they won’t let you inside」
「Mu~」

Being a step too late, Lily puffed her cheeks. On the other hand, Yua understood but didn’t seem to be convinced.

Looking at the three, Selena thought. This method may take a lot of time. I want to save Moka as fast as possible but it’s true that there is nothing I can do without any information.

That being said, when someone asks her to obediently wait here the answer is no.

「Then I will go too. I’m not of the light attribute and I look much more adult than Lily. Besides, you are acting for my sake, I can’t just sit and do nothing」
「You know, it’s not like I’m doing it for your sake, it’s for Nari’s」
「I know.  But you are here because of my little sister, I, as the older sister, can’t accept being left out.  So please, lolicon. [¹] Take me with you for the information gathering」

Selena looked at him with serious eyes. Looking into their eyes, Seiya said with a sigh.

「Do what you want」
「Thanks」

Selena, who received the permission to accompany him, looked slightly happy. Next to Seiya, there was Yua with an uncomfortable look in her eyes but he didn’t notice.

「All right then, let’s go. I will come back in four hours at the latest. If I won’t come back today at all, stay on high alert. In the worst case, Lily, I’m counting on you」

Seiya said so and left the room. Selena followed after him.

「Hey, where are we going to go first?」
「First is the clothes store on the third floor of this inn」

Selena asked for a destination and Seiya answered as such.

There are various facilities in this inn besides the rooms, the clothes store is one of them. However, Selena’ didn’t seem to understand the need to visit the clothes store.

Seiya headed for the third floor as he eyed such Selena. To arrive, they used the elevator the saw in this inn for the first time.

「Still, this elevator thingy is amazing」
「That just means that this country’s technological level is this high」
「Right」

The two arrived at the store while having such a conversation in the elevator. The insides of the store were wide, many kinds of clothes ranging from children’s to adult’s could be seen here. Selena’s eyes sparkled.

「Welcome」

A girl, who appeared to be a store clerk, approached Seiya. She was slightly older that Seiya but felt young nevertheless.

Seiya told her the place they planned to visit and asked to pick a suitable outfit.

The girl grinned at Seiya and Selena for a moment and went to fetch the clothes.

After a few minutes, they were told to go to their respective cabins to try the clothes out.

When Seiya entered the fitting room, he saw tuxedo-like clothes on the wall. He took off his uniform of the thirteen apostles’ subordinate and wore the tuxedo.

「It suits you well」

The clerk girl complimented Seiya as he went out of the fitting room in the new tuxedo. Seiya himself didn’t think it suited him but became slightly happy at her compliment.

「Are you going in a night bar with your girlfriend?」

The girl asked Seiya. As for Seiya, he felt that is he says yes here Selena will get furious at him. However, going with someone who isn’t a girlfriend to a bar at this hour is something in itself, so he affirmed.

「Well, something like that」
「I see. Are you going to enjoy yourself tonight? 」

The grinning clerk girl asked such a thing. Seiya wondered whether it was okay for a store clerk to ask something like that from a customer when Selena’s fitting room’s door opened.

Shaa~

With such a sound Selena came out from the fitting room.

Different from her usual twin tails, she let her hair loose, she wore a red dress with long skirt together with long black gloves up until her elbows.

She approached Seiya on her high heels.

「How beautiful. With this, you boyfriend will be all over you this night」
「Eh, b-b-boyfriend? 」

The girl’s words shook Selena. She seemed surprised being treat as Seiya’s girlfriend. Seiya acted before Selena said something weird.

「You’re beautiful, Selena」
「Nn, nnnnnn???????」

Hearing Seiya saying her name was already surprising, but the compliment made her completely lose her words. Her face was red, as red as it could be.

The clerk girl looked at the two with an amused expression. Seiya wanted to finalize the purchase and leave this place as soon as possible.

「How much?」
「Are you fine with this? We have more to offer」
「I don’t mind」
「Understood. It’s 12 thousand grela, but since I saw something nice let it be 10 thousand」
「I see. I will take you up on your offer」

Seiya said so, paid with the IC Gater, and left together with Selena.

At that time the girl said「Take your time this night~」but Seiya chose to ignore it. As for Selena, when she heard the girl’s words, she blushed once again.

As for the uniform, he asked the girl to deliver it to the suite room on the top floor as he informed Lily about it through the telepathy.

Like that, the two ventured into the dark city.

---

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Inside the bright cave, Yua faced a lightning beast, wearing lightning around its body.

「Fast…..」

Lightning beast attacks Yua at the speed that can’t be registered by her eyes. She casts『Channel Light』to raise functions such as the eyesight and brainpower, somehow she managed to escape the attack.

The lightning beast moved behind Yua and tried to slash at her, but Yua gripped Yurial in her right hand and fired at its foreleg from the very close range.

Then, she raised her leg strength a took a distance from it.

Yua was on the defensive for a while already.

Even if she tries to attack, its speed is frightening, she can’t hit the beast so easily.

Adding to that, even if her attack hits, it is impossible for her to even penetrate its skin.

Yua knew about the source of its speed and hard skin. She even knew of a magician with similar qualities.

The speed that couldn’t be caught by the eyes, the solid skin that couldn’t be penetrated even by the Yuriel, the source of them was the lightning cloak on its body.

There are two types of the lightning attribute in the Leiria Kingdom.

The commonly known lightning attribute is an attribute derived from the wind attribute which is one of four basic attributes.

And the less well-known lightning attribute is the attribute compounded from the combination of wind attribute and fire attribute.

Lightning beast’s cloak was the latter.

The lightning attribute which is compounded attribute, incorporates the special effect of both wind and fire, the special effect of lightning attribute is『hardening+activation』.

This is the secret of the beast’s strength.

By cloaking itself in lightning, lightning beast hardened its skin using wind attribute, and at the same time by the special effect of fire attribute, activates his latent physical abilities.

「So troublesome …」

Yua muttered looking at the beast.

Gururu

The lightning beast roared, and its figure suddenly vanished. She felt that beast’s speed was gradually increasing.

However, she was still able to barely protect herself.

If you do not lose your cool, it is doable. Yua thought so.

However, the moment when the lightning beast moved in front of Yua and tried to slice her with its claw again, her movements were slightly late.

「Damn….」

Although Yua thought that she would be fine if she fought calmly, somehow she could not keep up with the movement of the lightning beast. And this was not the first time.

「Why….」

You thought that it wouldn’t be a problem if she dealt with it calmly, but for some reason, her body didn’t respond well enough.

It felt like she had a hole in her heart, Yua’s movement kept growing duller.

But Yua couldn’t understand what that feeling was.

The lightning beast continued its merciless attack, disregarding her emotional state.

「Why……」

She felt that each time she tried to concentrate on its attack, the hole in her heart grew bigger.

As if the more she fought, the more she regretted. Yua desperately tried to concentrate on the battle.

「I have to focus …」

Yua muttered to herself again, trying to capture the appearance of the beast in her field of vision. But the moment she looked at Seiya, her movements couldn’t help but slow down.

She couldn’t see the appearance of Seiya under a large number of rocks and stones, after the collision with the wall, but it was impossible for him to survive.

Yua understood such a thing well enough. Still, when she looked at that place, she couldn’t help but be mindful of it.

（It makes no sense …）

Yua desperately tried to convince herself.

（I just tried to use him to get to Aquaristan）

Yua tried to remind herself of the first though she had upon seeing him.

（He is a temporary partner, if he dies that is fine）

Trying to forget about Seiya, she thought of heartless things. But the more Yua tried to forget him, the more his figure imprinted itself in her heart.

「Why……」

Yua couldn’t understand.

I do not trust other people, I do not trust Seiya. So even if he died, I only feel a little sorry, but nothing more. Our connection comes to an end.

He died. Our relationship expired. I need to forget him.

Yua kept thinking as such.

But, for some reason, she couldn’t forget him. She couldn’t understand that reason. [¹]

No, she knew it but didn’t want to acknowledge it.

She was afraid of being betrayed again.

While Yua was thinking, the lightning beast didn’t cease its assault. In other words, it was inevitable that Yua fell into a pinch in a moment.

「Damn it……」

The lightning beast appeared behind Yua, who lacks concentration.

Because of the lapse in concentration, Yua couldn’t respond to its attack. Even if she started moving, it would be impossible for her to avoid the attack of the beast.

Just a momentary gap. However, in high-speed battle, the moment is enough.

Various responses are born in Yua’s head, but she didn’t have enough time to execute any of them.

（Death…….）

I will be pierced through the heart just like Seiya and die. Yua imagined this outcome in her head and strengthened her resolve.

「Tsk……」

Various regrets surfaced in her heart, but it will turn into nothing soon enough, so Yua stops thinking. She prepared to embrace the incoming pain.

（Here it comes……）

Yua was expecting the pain to come. But the pain never appeared, no matter how long she waited.

She was wondering what happened and slowly opened her eyes that she previously closed. And then she was startled.

「Eh……」
「Are you alright, Yua?」
「Seiya…..」

Behind Yua, there was a figure of Seiya with Hollins in his right hand, deflecting the attack of the lightning beast.

This story goes back a bit, just a moment after Seiya crashed into the wall and was buried by the rocks, he mysteriously regained his consciousness.

He felt it was very strange.

Why was he still breathing, why was he still conscious, why he even was here? Seiya felt strange, but he understood that he was still alive

「Why?」

Seiya wondered. He should have been pierced through the heart by the sharp claws of the lightning beast, he should have lost a lot of blood and died. That was an undeniable fact.

But even then Seiya didn’t feel any pain anywhere in his body, the only difference being that his surroundings were dark.

Other than that, everything was normal.

Seiya looked at his chest. There should be a wound from the beast’s claw. But when Seiya saw his own chest, he didn’t find any wounds.

「Why…Mm? This is……」

Not to mention the wound, he noticed that his clothes were mostly fine as well. There was still a small hole in the chest part, the white mana was leaking from that hole.

White mana, its identity is, of course, the holy attribute. But Yua wasn’t here right now, that meant that Seiya is the source of the holy attribute.

「What is happening?」

Seiya was watching his clothes with great concentration, soon enough the small hole vanished and his school uniform returned to its original condition

Seiya lost his words to an incredible sight. But soon he remembers an important matter.

「Right, Yua」

Seiya thought that Yua still didn’t know about his condition. He immediately became worried about her safety.

For Seiya, Yua was a mysterious girl he didn’t understand too well, but he still felt happy because she needed him.

Yua needed Seiya’s help. She needed the help of the Unknown. Never before someone asked Seiya for help.

Seiya, for the first time, felt like admitting to himself, he wanted to protect Yua.

「Have to help Yua」

Seiya slowly stood up and emerged from the darkness.

Then he saw Yua being in a pinch.

「『Mantle of Light』」

Seiya will use his power to protect Yua.

---

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---

---

Seiya put a lot of power into his legs, kicked the ground and approached the white tiger.

The white tiger too kicked the ground and jumped towards Seiya.

Apparently, they are both thinking the same thing.

What the two of them aimed for, was to add the power of the leap to the attack and simultaneously collide with each other in the air where the center of gravity of the opponent was unstable.

In the air, without leverage points, the outcome will be decided by the sheer power.

The more powerful one is, the more likely he is to win in the collision.

Clang

The sound of Hollins and claws colliding reverberated in the air. They efficiently utilized their power and came to a momentary stalemate in the air, their power was close to each other.

And the results soon came out.

「Tsk……」

Seiya was pushed back by the tiger. But the same was also true for the white tiger, and it was blown back by his attack.

In other words, the clash ended in a draw.

But the battle was not over yet. For the tiger’s standpoint, this was the end of their clash, but Seiya’s assault was not over yet.

This is the difference between magicians and magical beasts.

While being pushed back in the air, Seiya cast the『Dark Wave』towards the ground behind the white tiger.

That place was where the white tiger will land. From the power of『Dark Wave』, the ground behind the tiger sank about ten centimeters.

However, the white tiger does not know such a thing and tries to land on the ground. As expected, its legs sunk and its balance was broken.

This was Seiya’s aim. Seiya screams the name of the partner he can rely on.

「Yua!」
「Leave it to me……」

Seiya firmly landed on the ground and entrusted the attack to Yua.

She immediately understood his plan, she poured the light mana in her legs and raised their strength.

「I will finish it with this …」

Yua kicked the ground and closed in on the imbalanced white tiger.

The white tiger couldn’t dodge and ended up receiving the attack.

This time, the white tiger was supposed to be pierced through by Yuriel.

「It is finished …………it can’t be… …」

The next thing they saw was not the sight of the white tiger being penetrated by Yuriel, nor it was the sight of him being scared.

They saw the picture of Yuriel being broken into two the moment it hit the forehead of the tiger.

It was as if his forehead was made of steel, Yuriel couldn’t withstand the impact.

「Why……」

Yua lost her words and froze in place seeing this.

Guruuuu Guraaaaa

In front of her, white tiger raised a much bigger roar than before, and its appearance began to rapidly change.

The ice suddenly grew on its neck, it started to resemble a lion, then the green lightning gathered around its whole body.

All of the sudden, the white tiger changed its appearance. He now looked more like a lightning beast than a tiger.

「Yua!」

Seiya calls out to Yua in a loud voice. He tried to warn her about its attack.

「Ah……」

Called by Seiya, Yua finally got a grip of herself and took evasive actions.

Instantly casting『Single Light』on her feet, Yua swiftly widened the distance between her and the thunderstorm to 10 meters.

Because Yua has taken a distance from the lightning beast, she ends up without injuries.

Yua who escaped thunder beast’s attack was relieved that the momentary crisis has passed, and ended up relaxing her guard. But that proved to be fatal.

「Yua!」

Seiya screamed her name again, but it probably won’t be of any use. Unlike Yua, Seiya knew what was about to happen.

The lightning beast’s speed couldn’t even be compared to before.

If it was still a white tiger, widening the distance to 10 meters would have been the correct decision. However, the opponent now wasn’t the white tiger but a lightning beast.

The beast wrapped in lightning had the ability many times higher than a tiger.

In other words, the distance of 10 meters is negligible for the lightning beast.

Perhaps, in normal circumstances, Yua would have been able to deal with the situation. But Yua was surprised at the moment and didn’t make a good decision.

After two heartbeats she noticed her blunder. But then it was already late.

Lightning beast approached Yua at high speed and tried to tear her body with its claws.

And the moment lightning beast was about to pierce her heart.

「Yua!」[¹]

Yua’s body suddenly was pushed away by someone, and she fell on the ground.

「Guha……」

Bicha bicha, there was a sound of liquid scattering.

What the hell happened?

When Yua looked back, there was a shocking picture in front of her eyes.

「Seiya……」

There was a scene of Seiya, who pushed her away, being penetrated in the heart by the lightning beast.

「Ugh……」

Seiya raised a voice filled with pain. However, his eyes were losing their lustre, it was not known if he still had awareness.

The arms that held Hollins trembled, and Hollins fell on the ground.

Karan karan, the strange sound was reverberating.

「It can’t be…..」

Yua lost her words looking at this.

A tremendous amount of blood flown out of Seiya’s chest, colouring the surroundings in red.

Smash

Lightning beast shook its foreleg and blown Seiya’s body into the wall.

Pshht, making such a sound, Seiya’s body hit the wall with his back and fell to the ground. [²]

Pierced through the heart, he already lost a lot of blood, adding to that the previous sound. Seiya’s circumstances couldn’t be any worse..

「Seiya….」

Yua was convinced that Seiya died. Although they were together thus far, if you died it can’t be helped.

And besides, there is no way lightning beast will forget about her.

In order to leave this place alive, Yua switched to the Yurial and prepared herself.

---

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The two, who had successfully defeated the sea dragon, crossed over the lake and entered the cave.

But there was a little difference from the previous one. That is, Yua wasn’t using『Firelight』.

He didn’t know what was the principle, but in the cave where they are now, strange lights were spread around providing plenty of light in a wide area.

「How long till we reach the end?」
「I don’t know……」

They walked slowly into the dark cave, there were no openings in their posture.

Seiya was always ready to cast his spells at any time and Yua was prepared to create a weapon.

The duo marveled at the appearance of the cave.

「Here…」
「Bright……」

They came to a bright open place about 50 meters in diameter.

But why such an open space exists in the Great Dalis Canyon.

「Well, usually in such cases」
「There should be a strong enemy……」
「Yep. Speaking of the devil」

Before the duo, who absolutely expected to meet a strong enemy in this place, a new beast revealed its figure.

The beast that appeared before the two people was a monster with sharp fangs and characteristic black lines on its white body, the white tiger himself.

Its size was quite small compared to centipede and sea dragon, and it is difficult to grasp its strength at first glance. However, the duo lost their words looking at the white tiger that appeared before their eyes.

「You’re lying, right? Is this really a magical beast?」

Said Seiya, with Hollins already in his arms.

「Monster……」

While looking at the beast and calling it a monster, Yua held her bow, Yurial, in her right hand.

They understood with a glance that white tiger was on the different level from the previous monsters.

Although the aura of the white tiger is smaller than the sea dragon’s, it is somehow deep, they understood that it should be a powerhouse amongst magical beasts.

The white tiger’s aura, if anything, was closer to the warrior than a monster.

The duo felt instinctive danger facing the white tiger, they decided to finish this fight swiftly and moved into action.

「『Dark Wave』」

First of all, Seiya cast the『Dark Wave』towards the white tiger trying to eliminate its existence, but white tiger jumped sideways and dodged it. [¹]

「It is fast」
「It is fine……」

Seiya was surprised by the speed of the white tiger, but Yua was finally ready to unleash her attack.

「This is the end……」

She loaded Yurial with an arrow made from light, setting it up toward the sky, and let go of its string.

Arrow released from Yua’s Yurial will fly above the white tiger and will split to become a rain of light arrows falling down on it.

No matter how fast white tiger is, he can’t easily avoid the rain of arrows.

And if even a single arrow hits, the mana of light will enter white tiger’s body, causing it to explode from the inside.

In other words, the white tiger will be defeated.

Yua was convinced in white tiger’s defeat. That is why she was amazed by the result, she saw the next moment.

Guruuaaa

White tiger raised a roar towards the rain of arrows pouring down on it.

「It can’t be……」

Yua lost her words from the shock.

The moment white tiger roared facing the arrows, all of the light arrows which filled the entire sky disappeared without any trace. It closely resembled Seiya’s dark attribute.

「He can’t have the dark attribute…….right?….」

Yua unexpectedly lost her words. But Seiya’s answer was negative.

「No, it wasn’t the dark attribute」
「Then what was that…….」

If it is was not a dark attribute, the what was that, Yua thought. However, even Seiya didn’t know the answer.

Although he did not understand everything, Seiya dint’s sense any dark attribute mana from tiger’s roar.

「I do not know, but magic might not work against him」[²]

If you use a single-target spell, the white tiger will avoid it with its speed, so you can’t hit him easily. On the other hand, even if you attack by using a spell with a big area of effect, it will be prevented by the roar. [³]

It seems magic does not work against white tigers. If so, it naturally comes to weapons.

「Yuriel ……」

Yua switched from the bow Yurial to the rapier Yuriel and looked at the white tiger, which was staring at them.

「『Mantle of Light』」

Meanwhile, Seiya raised his physical ability and the processing speed of the brain by putting the light mana on his body to match the speed of the white tiger.

「I will be the main attacker, I leave support to you」
「All right……」

Seiya grips Hollins and makes one step ahead.

Because white tiger can move at tremendous speed, it will be better for Seiya to be the main, after all, he can raise his physical abilities with『Mantle of Light』.

Because Yua understood that firmly, she decided to look for the openings.

「Fuuu, let’s go」

Gururu

Seiya and white tiger quietly confront each other. Seiya moved first.

Seiya kicks the ground with his raised strength and moves to the front of the tiger. Holding Hollins in his right hand he attacks it.

However, white tiger swiftly moved into action.

「Tsk」

White tiger jumped and landed behind Seiya. There were no wasted movements, it was moving as if it was sliding on earth.

「I’m not done yet」

Seiya transferred the power to his left foot, kicked the ground with, and approached the white tiger again.

While doing that, he tried to penetrate its right eye with Hollins in his left hand.

Guruuaa

It was then. The white tiger roared towards Seiya. His motive was unknown, but he clearly wanted to erase “something”.

Seiya was not a person that will wait for an attack to hit. He immediately casts multiple『Dark Wave』against the roar.

「『Dark Wave』」

He successfully erased the power behind the roar, and only the breeze reached his face. Then he immediately thrusts Hollins in its left eye. At least, that’s how it was supposed to be.

「What?!」

However, just before that happened, wind blades sliced at his left shoulder and caused him to bleed.

And with that shock, Hollins struck out in a different direction. Of course, it never hits the white tiger.

Seiya showed a multitude of openings at this moment.

As soon as white tiger seen the gap, it tried to slice him with its claws.

「『Wall of Light』」

But the claw of white tiger never reached Seiya’s chest. The wall of light suddenly appeared between Seiya and white tiger, preventing its attack.

「I was saved, Yua」
「Yup…..」

Seiya thanks Yua for timely assist a while ago. Because it was not Seiya who cast the『Wall of Light』, but Yua.

『Mantle of Light』is the only spell Yua can not use, but she was able to understand it.

Instead of being able to use 『Mantle of Light』, Yua was able to use『Channel Light』, a weaker version of『Mantle of Light』.

『Mantle of Light』is a spell that can raise the physical ability of the whole body by spreading the mana of light attribute inside and outside.

On the contrary,『Single Light』 is a spell that can raise the power in one part of the body by putting the mana of light attribute in that body part. [⁴]

And the『Channel Light』used by Yua uses the same principle to deploy multiple『Single Light』points at the same time, although it is inferior to『Mantle of Light』, it still raises several parts at the same time.

This was the limit of the current Yua.

Yua was using『Channel Light』, to raise the processing speed of the brain and perception, and closely watched the battle between Seiya and white tiger.

Seiya takes a distance from the white tiger and thinks about what happened before. What on earth was the wind from the last time?

The roar of the white tiger was completely extinguished by Seiya’s『Dark Wave』. And while Seiya’s face was subjected to the breeze, it was unlikely that wind blades would appear out of nowhere.

Thinking about it, he finally found the answer.

「Overlayed spells」

As Seiya said, the white tiger was overlaying his spells.

A magic overlay is a technique that uses remnants of the dispersed spell to improve or create a new one.

However, because this technique is quite sophisticated, no one is able to do that in the Leiria Kingdom.

If Seiya did not read it in books, he would have never understood.

However, once the cat is out of the bag, you do not need to fear it anymore. As long as you know, you can make a countermeasure.

For example, with regard to this magic overlay, it is okay to just deflect the spell.

Even if it was deflected, it won’t be destroyed, and white tiger won’t be able to do anything. Basically, if you use avoidance method, you have nothing to fear.

「Fuuh」

Seiya took a stance with Hollins and breathed out heavily. Then he imagined. The method to defeat the tiger.

「All right then」

The image was completed.

---

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Defeating the centipede and going ahead, they noticed a light source ahead.

The light ahead of them was different from Yua’s 『Firelight』.

「Light……」
「Yeah」

Thinking that they might have reached the surface, their legs steps sped up naturally.

Seiya and Yua reached the light very quickly.

「This is not the surface」
「Yes…..but it is beautiful…..」
「I agree」

Unfortunately, it was not the surface spreading ahead of the duo. However, rather that getting upset, they marveled at the beauty of this place.

In front of Seiya and Yua was a big lake.

They finally found an open space after all the walking. The sight of the lake could be said to be very mysterious.

「But there is no road」

Indeed, as Seiya said, it was a big lake that spreads out far ahead. He couldn’t find the way ahead.

In other words, the road has ended.

「What should we do?」

Seiya asks Yua what to do. So far Yua was leading their small party, it became natural for Seiya to ask her.

The answer to his question was very simple.

「There is no choice but to cross over the lake ……」
「As I expected. Then, is our goal the land ahead?」
「Yup……」

Seiya points to the faintly visible plot of land in the deepest part of the lake.

It is about 500 meters in a straight line from the place where they were standing to the land located in the deepest part of the lake. It is tough to swim all the way to the land, if there was a small boat it would have been much easier.

There is no such thing as a small boat in the Great Dalis Canyon. But Seiya’s partner is a magician who can make impossible possible.

Before crossing the lake, they decided to have a breakfast.

「Yua, can I ask you for a boat?」
「Yes……」

She immediately created a small wooden boat with the『Holy Creation』spell of the holy attribute. Then she threw that boat into the lake to float.

「Well then, let’s go」
「Yes……」

It happened at the moment Seiya tried to jump onto the small boat floating in water and head to the land 500 meters ahead. A large wave, which appeared out of nowhere, turned over the boat.

「What happened!?」[¹]

Seiya halted his movements and retreated a step. Same goes for Yua, she too took a step back.

buzz

The sound of the waves resonated across the lake. Immediately afterwards, a buzzy sound came out from the water, and the source of the sound appeared.

「This is?!」
「So big……」 [²]

A huge sea dragon stood up from within the lake and revealed his appearance to the duo.

Although this sea dragon couldn’t be seen in its entirety, it was big enough to make the centipede look rather harmless. Moreover, its whole body was covered with hard scales, and it radiated a considerable pressure.

Clearly, it is not your average magical beast.

「Hey, tell me I’m seeing things」
「I can’t believe it……」

They suddenly lost their words, being stared at by this monstrosity.

But the monster was not kind enough to let them regain their bearing.

Locking on the duo, it constructs a large magic circle on its mouth and fires off his spell towards them.

Gaooooooo

A water cannon shot out from a magic circle deployed by a sea dragon with a big shout that could rupture your ears. Its power was no joke, and if they take a hit, they will probably depart straight to the afterlife.

「Crap, 『Dark Wave』」

Seiya cast the『Dark Wave』at its full force towards the attack, which this sea dragon unleashed. There was absolute no leeway fo him.

The『Dark Wave』casted by Seiya struggled with the water ball for a moment but somehow succeeded in destroying it.

But monster’s attack doesn’t end here.

It created the magic circle again and repeated the same attack.

「『Dark Wave』」

Just like before, Seiya fought back with the『Dark Wave』against the attack of the sea dragon, and again after a brief stalemate, the water ball was destroyed.

Both attacks of the sea dragon had considerable power, they were difficult to extinguish even with Seiya’s dark power.

Although it attacked only twice, Seiya’s mana was depleted considerably.

However, the monster did not take into consideration his condition and began its third attack.

Moreover, the magic circle this time is quite big, unlike the previous one, it is doubled in size.

「Are you kidding me? This is just outrageous」
「Leave this to me…..」

Yua answered while summoning her weapon.

「Yurial……」

The weapon that Yua created was not a rapier, Yuriel. Its color was white as Yuriel, but it was not a rapier but a bow.

Yurial —- It is a white bow, like Yuriel which is rapier, it is one of her favorite weapons.

Yua holds Yurial in her left hand while holding the string with her right hand, it points at the sea dragon.

「Yua?!」

Seiya leaked a surprised voice seeing Yua holding Yurial. Because there was no arrow loaded in the bow.

「It’s alright……」

The next moment, arrows made from mana of light attribute were loaded into the bow.

Then Yua smiled a little bit and let go of the Yurial’s bowstring.

Yellow arrows, released from Yuriel, flew towards the sea dragon as if they were sucked in. But on the way, suddenly yellow arrows started to separate to become a rain of light arrows, pouring over the sea dragon.

Guaaaaa

The sea dragon exposed to the rain of the light arrow felt it, and the magic circle which he tried to construct shook.

「Seiya……now……」
「Leave it to me,『Dark Wave』」

Seiya immediately casted『Dark Wave』against the sea dragon whose attack was interrupted. However, the target of the『Dark Wave』was not a sea dragon but the magic circle.

The magic circle that was present a moment ago disappeared without a trace.

The sea dragon failed to catch up with the situation and created an opening.

Seiya, looking at such sea dragon tells Yua.

「Yua, stop his movements. I will take him down」
「All right」

As Yua said that, she immediately cast her next magic to seal off its movements.

「『Holy Hammer』」

Light attribute spell『Holy Hammer』 —- It has “holy” in its name but it is a spell of the light attribute, not the holy attribute. It is considered advanced spell, few people can successfully cast it.

This spell is the spell that crushes everything by increasing the pressure in the are of effect. When used against humans, its killing potential is quite high, so its use is restricted by church and academies.

But even if you say that it is capable of killing humans, what she currently targets is a monster. It is also quite large, the durability of its body is much more than a human’s body.

So it was impossible for her to squeeze the sea dragon under the『Holy Hammer』.

However, it was still easy to restrict its movements.

Yua became exhausted after restricting the sea dragon. She left the rest to Seiya.

「Hollins」

Confirming that Yua sealed the movement of sea dragon, Seiya summoned Hollins, his trusted weapon. And while holding Hollins he cast a new spell.

「『Mantle of Light』」

When spell’s name was said, the yellow mana starts wrapping around Seiya’s body. This spell was finally completed when Seiya regained his dark attribute.

Until now there was a danger of ruining the body, by mistakenly adjusting mana, but now it was different.

With the addition of the dark attribute, there was an option of decreasing the amount of mana. Using the dark attribute he erased the surplus of mana

If minus is added to the operation which had only plus and natural consumption, mana adjustment becomes much easier and security also increases. Right now, Seiya was able to exercise『Mantle of Light』with peace of mind.

Seiya, holding Hollins, launches himself in the air. He jumped with the pure leg strength and landed on the back of the sea dragon.

「Damn……」

Landing on the back of the sea dragon, pressure of the『Holy Hammer』strikes him, immediately Seiya extinguished the pressure exerted on himself using the dark attribute.

And Seiya, who became free of constraint, put the mana of light attribute also the Hollins to raise its sharpness and durability. Holding it in both hands, he stabbed the back of the sea dragon

Guguyy

The sea dragon screams from the pain caused by pressure and stab wound, but Seiya does not mind and pierces its back again.

Usually, he would have poured mana into the body of the sea dragon and erased his insides, but he couldn’t do it so easily unless he knows what kind of constitution this monster had.

If sea dragon has an ability such as mana absorption, if Seiya pours the mana of the dark attribute, the situation will be reversed in a blink of an eye.

So Seiya decided to take his time and do it the safe way.

「『Triple Length』」

Seiya casted『Triple Length』on Hollins deeply stabbed in the back of the sea dragon. Thereby extending its length.

Guguaa

Getting stabbed even more deeply, sea dragon screamed in pain more than ever.

Watching a sea dragon and breathing out, Seiya says.

「This is the end」

At the next moment, Seiya strongly grasped Hollins, stabbed deeply in the back of the sea dragon, raised his arm strength, and pulled Hollins to the head of the sea dragon. He tore its back all the way to the head

Guooooo

The sea dragon with two swords in its head issued its final scream, and its life was extinguished.

「Fuh, it ended somehow」

Seiya breathes out, seating on the body of the sea dragon floating on the surface of the water. And Yua moves towards Seiya on the boat.

「Good work……」
「Yeah」

The facial expression of Yua still has a sense of distance, but it is a bit closer compared with the beginning when she met him.

Still, Yua did not trust Seiya.

But Seiya started to trust Yua.

Little by little, two people were closing the distance between them.

The duo got on a small boat, moved to the land in the deepest part of the lake, and entered the cave further in the back.

---

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Gigi Gigi

The bizarre sound emitted from the front resonates in the canyon and enters the ears of the duo.

「Gross……」
「That’s right」

A new monster appeared in front of them. That monster resembled a centipede with countless hands and feet.

Just looking at it feels extremely unpleasant, not to mention its size.

It has a gigantic body, longer than 30 meters.

The sight of this centipede, gifted with a body exceeding 30 meters, walking around was nothing but grotesque.

A magical beast that can not be accepted physiologically by any human.

Such a monster was blocking Seiya’s way.

This problem occurred soon after he disposed of the bats a moment before.

First of all, it has a surprisingly large body, but the most impressive thing is that this huge centipede appeared in a rather peculiar way.

A few minutes ago, continuing on their path through the Great Dalis Canyon, they heard a bizarre roar from overhead, then Seiya and Yua directed their eyes above.

There they saw a mysterious gigantic something falling down at high speed.

As they visually recognized the falling object, they immediately took a distance from. And a few seconds later, the 30 meters centipede appeared in front of the duo.

And that’s how they arrived to present circumstances.

「So, what now?」

He asks Yua, looking at the centipede. Although he asked that, he had guessed the answer already.

「Seiya……I’m counting on you……」

Yua said that she leaves it to him. And Seiya had no objections.

Yua’s magic is basically of a light attribute.

To elaborate, if she fights the centipede, she might explode it from the inside by the force of habit.

He already understood from the fight with boads that it might just happen.

However, neither Seiya nor Yua wants to see the scene of that huge centipede in front of them exploding.

In the end, making it disappear with the power of the dark attribute is the best solution.

「All right」

Seiya looks at the centipede, lifts his right hand and deploys the magic circle.

However, the spell used by Seiya this time is not a『Dark Wave』.

Because of the size of the centipede’s body, he couldn’t guarantee that he will be able to destroy the whole centipede in one strike. If only the half of the centipede will remain, it could possibly squirm its internal organs.

Nobody wants to see this spectacle.

That’s why Seiya chose a different spell.

「『Dark Sphere』」

When Seiya mutters the name of the spell, a large purple ball appears above the head of the centipede.

It is a gigantic sphere formed by Seiya’s dark attribute mana. This sphere is about 7 meters in diameter.

The centipede fires a poisonous needle from its mouth towards the sphere, but the sphere swallows this poisonous needle.

「It is the end」

Seiya swept down with his right arm with a ruthless look on his face.

Then, a gigantic sphere formed by the mana of the dark attribute begins to descend towards the centipede as if it follows the movement of Seiya’s hand.

Gigi Gigi

The centipede tried to spray poisonous gas and the like towards a giant sphere, but it has no effect at all.

And in the meantime, a huge sphere swallowed the gigantic centipede as it descended to the ground.

This sight closely resembled the black hole

「Amazing, Seiya……」

Yua, who was helpless against the centipede thinks that he is amazing from the bottom of her heart.

Although they struggled with boads at first, after that their journey was going smoothly, no, if was effortless. This was possible thanks to Seiya’s dark attribute.

Yua thought that she can easily return to Aquaristan. At the same time, she thought how lucky she was.

Capable of annihilating hordes of magical beasts with overwhelming power, Seiya was incredibly convenient.

（After all……convenient……）

Yua was busy thinking. Meanwhile, Seiya, who does not know a thing, proposes to go forward.

「Let’s proceed」
「Yup……」

For the sake of conquering the Great Dalis Canyon, the duo continued walking forward.

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Impenetrable darkness —- This was the only thing they could see.

Here, without any light, Seiya and Yua entrusted themselves to the wind.

The air resistance hitting their faces is intense. It shows that they are falling vertically with tremendous speed.

「Hey, Yua-san?」
「What….?」

Seiya called the girl who held his hand firmly. His facial expression was as blue as it can get.

But it is no wonder he would turn blue. I was three minutes of free fall already, but no ground could be seen.

The only thing he can see is Yua’s hand, firmly grabbing his own. Other than that he couldn’t see anything in this darkness.

In addition to that, the air hitting his face gets increasingly stronger.

Proceeding as it is they most likely fall to the ground and lose their lives, he could easily imagine such development.

「What are we going to do?」

Or to be precise, how do we get out of this situation.

Unfortunately, Seiya has no solution. Rather than that, there are probably no such magicians that can get unscathed.

It was good that they had not fallen to the ground yet. If their falling speed was slow, Seiya could have used『Mantle of Light』, then used the wall to kill the momentum and safely land.

But in the current situation, even if they have Seiya’s『Mantle of Light』, they can’t do anything.

So he ended up asking for Yua’s advice.

「No problem……」

Yua superficially answered. Although he couldn’t see her expression, he could tell from her voice that she is calm.

But when he was told that it was okay in the current situation, if you asked Seiya if he believed her, the answer would be no.

For Seiya who just met her, it is difficult to trust her to the extent of throwing your life away. Even if her father is an executive in the church and she is the daughter the goddess, you can’t trust people that easily.

So Seiya says.

「Is it true?」

You can understand from this words that he didn’t trust Yua.

But Yua won’t be hurt by such words. Because deep down she thinks of using Seiya to only pass through the canyon.

I do not need his trust. If he uses his power for my sake that is enough. Yua thought as such.

That is why, Yua says nothing in return, just concentrates on things to come.

「We arrived……..」
「What?」

Yua muttered something, but Seiya couldn’t hear anything due to the wind.

Ignoring Seiya, Yua exercised a spell into the darkness.

「『Holy Creation』」

Seiya understood that she cast a spell and created something. But looking around there was nothing. For a moment he thought that her spell had failed, but suddenly the ground appeared in his line of sight.

「!?」

Seiya was startled and tried to cast something, but the body of Seiya and Yua already touched the ground the moment he thought so.

（Danger!）

He braced himself for impact, however, the expected shock didn’t happen. He landed on the ground gently.

Boyun, a strange feeling enveloped Seiya. [¹]

「What!?」

The feeling of being enveloped in something soft caused him to leak a weird voice.

Seiya understood that it was absolutely not an impact you expect from smacking into the ground, it took some time for him to understand what happened.

「Success……」

Yua flashed a pleased smile to Seiya. He looked at his surroundings and it dawned upon him.

「Could it be, you created a cushion?」[²] 「Yes……」

Yua answered without any expression.

As you have guessed, they were protected from the collision by a very big pillow.

Yua’s cushion was about 20 wide and 8 meters height, it was this high-performance cushion that slowed their bodies that were falling for more than three minutes easily.

Seiya couldn’t hide his surprise.

He could admit that this was rather unconventional usage of the holy attribute, and he was also surprised at her rough methods.

However, it was true that they landed safely, so he thanked her.

「Tnaks, Yua」
「Yes……」

Yua answers while looking at Seiya. Her eyes still do not contain trust, and it seems that there is still a distance between them.

The same could be said about Seiya, as if there was still something like a wall between them.

However, their cooperation plays an indispensable role in trying pass through the Great Dalis Canyon, both of them know that, they have no choice but to stick together.

「That being said, it’s dark here」
「Yes……」

In the place where they stand now, there is a single way to go, about 10 meters wide, surrounded by cliffs on the left and right side.

The light coming from the ground provides a visibility in a 5-meter radius.

This is all too dangerous.

When Seiya thinks so, followed by Yua’s voice the light suddenly appears.

「『Firelight』」

Fire attribute beginner spell『Firelight』, as its name suggests, is a spell that lights a fire. Thanks to Yua’s 『Firelight』, they can see up to 20 meters ahead.

「Well then, let’s go further」
「Yes……Aquaristan is this way……」

Seiya follows Yua further down the road.

After a while since the two of them started walking, they suddenly stopped. Facing the front Seiya said.

「We are being followed」
「Yeah……quite a lot of them……」

Yua also seemed to know what Seiya was saying, she answered while still looking in front of her.

「What should we do?」
「Can’t help it……」
「I agree」

Confirming their intentions, they simultaneously turned back.

「This is……」
「Come on now……」

When two people turned around, there were countless small red dots around. They were convinced that those dots are eyes of small monsters.

The number of monsters, judging by the number of eyes, is in hundreds. Also, since those red dots are able to move vertically you can suggest that they are of the insect or bird type.

Either way, as long as it is a magical beast, it is the enemy.

「I will deal with them. I leave the light to you」
「All right……」

Seiya asks her to secure the light source, and steps ahead. Usually he summons his trusted Hollins, but this time is different.

Yua was watching Seiya, but did not feel like doing anything. For Seiya who can use the dark attribute, her help is unneeded.

Yua didn’t trust Seiya, but she trusted his ability.

That is why Yua was not willing to help Seiya. All she did was to spread the range of『Firelight』to widen his field of vision, so that at least it was easier for him.

With increase of the range and brightness, he finally found out the identity of the red eyes.

「Bats」

As he said, there were more than 100 red-eyed bats. They were watching Seiya while flapping their wings.

The bats flying in front of Seiya are obviously magical beasts.

They disturb their opponent by ultrasonic waves emitted from their mouth, making it impossible to use magic. Moreover, it is impossible for humans to avoid ultrasonic waves emitted from bats, and they can not feel them either.

They will seal you magic before you even notice.

「Huh?……」

Suddenly, Yua’s『Firelight』disappeared.

But Yua couldn’t understand why her spell has vanished. Besides that, her eyes were also spinning.

Ultrasonic waves were emitted from the bat, and disturbed her sight and spell. [³]

That’s why these monsters were feared.

「What happened?」
「Uwa, em……」

Being worried about Seiya, Yua produced an incomprehensible answer, she tried to but words just didn’t come out right.

Looking at her state, Seiya more or less understood the situation.

「Maybe it is monsters fault」

Although Seiya was fine, there was a strange change in Yua, he guessed that it was some kind of attack from the bats.

If you are being attacked, as a matter of cource you should counterattack.

Even while being in the darkness, he lifts his right hand using red dots as a beacon.

And casts a spell using more mana then usual.

「『Dark Wave』」

In the next moment, the eyes that were shining in the darkness disappeared. As soon as ultrasonic waves disappeared, Yua’s『Firelight』appeared again but there was nothing around anymore.

「Are you okay?」
「Yup…..」

Seeing his power, Yua confirmed his usefulness for herself again.

---

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「Seiya……」

A beautiful red-eyed girl, calls on Seiya while pointing to the front. Seiya looked towards the direction of her finger and noticed something.

In this direction was a large horde of animals resembling cattle. And the horde was approaching at the high speed towards them.

Their number was about 3000.

「Magical beasts again」
「It seems so……」
「Seiya…what shall we do?」
「I’ll deal with them」

Seiya starts manipulating mana inside his body while lifting his right hand towards the horde of beasts. Yua does not do anything and just watching Seiya with a relieved face.

「 『Dark Wave 』」

Immediately after Seiya said the name of the spell, horde of close to 3000 beasts that was approaching at a high speed toward the two of them disappeared in a flash.

Seeing this Yua said.

「After all, dark attribute sure is convenient ……」
「Sure enough. That what you should expect from the power of heretics」 [¹]

Seiya and Yua were trying to go straight to the Great Dalis Canyon, but monsters and large mountains got in the way.

Having no other choice, Seiya destroyed every one of them.

By restoring Seiya’s mana consumed by the 『Dark Wave 』 using 『Holy Flower』, they headed to the Great Dalis Canyon in an extremely swift manner.

In the surroundings of the facility, captives were held, there were rocks and dead trees.

But there were no obstacles on their road now, they all disappeared from the『Dark Wave 』.

Proceeding as such, they finally reached a green forest.

This lush forest, located in the dark territory and surrounded by rocks looked like an oasis in the vast desert.

The two raised their guard and entered the forest, then they encountered something.

They saw a bipedal monster with the head of a boar and body of a bear.

And this bipedal boar-bear was not alone.

Their numbers roughly exceeded 100, and the scene of 100 monsters with such bad head and body balance was really strange.

More than 100 monsters turned their sharp nails towards the Seiya and Yua, their appearance was quite intimidating.

According to the research of the church, they can be described as such.

Species: Boad
Danger: ★★★★
Description: An average magician isn’t able to defeat them. Often move in a group. You should escape as soon as you encounter it. Their speed is not so great; escape is most likely possible.

Although it was documented, Seiya and Yua couldn’t possibly know the research materials of the church, so they didn’t know the name of the monster.

Normally, this information can only be seen by senior magicians who are going to subjugate magical beasts in the dark territory, but Seiya, who was the lowest of the beginner magician until a while ago, does not know.

Judging from Yua’s face she is not aware either.

「Their balance sure is bad」
「Creepy……」

Since they do not know the details of boads, they could only recognize it as another magical beast.

A group of boads engaged Seiya and Yua as soon as they saw them.

Seiya immediately fires『Dark Wave 』towards the group of boads. This should have made them disappear in a second. However, this doesn’t happen to a group of boads.

「Hey, this can’t be happening」

While watching the boad’s uninjured appearance, although surprised, Seiya immediately casts a new spell.

「How about this … … 『Dark Wind 』」

The magic exercised by Seiya is the dark attribute beginner magic 『Dark Wind 』, it is not targeted at extinguishing opponent, but slashing him

This spell is supposed to have a high offensive power and it should have sliced the boad in half. But once again the spell does not work against boads.

「Crap……that is a problem」
「What should we do, Seiya?」
「It is dangerous. My magic does not work」

Seiya is nervous fighting against boads with their magic immunity.

He tried to remember what he learned at the Senabia Magic Academy’s lectures, but since there were few lessons about the dark territory, he couldn’t think of anything useful.

At that time, Yua makes a relieved face as if she remembered something.

「Seiya … … maybe they have magic resistance … …. dad said before … … if you meet some weirdos with magic resistance weapons will work just fine……」
「I see. It is worth trying」

Seiya believed Yua’s words and decides to try it.

Seiya thinks that her father is a figure of the church and his position is quite high. So the credibility of information should be high too.

Seiya immediately summons Hollins, his trusted weapon. Because of a『Dark Wave 』, the chant is not necessary, Hollins was immediately summoned in the hands of Seiya.

Meanwhile, boads are trying to quietly surround them.

There are many trees in the forest, but fortunately, the boads are so big that you cannot lose sight of them.

When Seiya takes a stance, boads moved.

Two boads are thrusting towards Seiya, but he also runs to the boads and thrusts, he pours the power of light attribute onto his feet.

And as he took the first step, he accelerated and stabbed Hollins into the sides of the two boads.

Boads were unable to respond to the rapid acceleration and end up getting hit.

The accelerated with a spell『Mantle of Light』, which partially activated 『Single Light』.

「Nice!」

Confirming that Hollins stabbed into the boads, Seiya pours mana of the dark attribute into Hollins.

If it is useless from the outside, how about from the inside?

Two boads, who had the dark attribute mana injected into their body, had their intestines disappear, leaving only fur behind.

Boads, who saw them disappear leaving only the fur, became agitated. Fear of the boy in front of them mixed with anger from having their comrades killed.

「Apparently, magic seems to work from the inside of their bodies. Only the outside is protected」
「I understand……」

Yua hearing his words casts a spell.

「『Holy Maiden』Yuriel」

Immediately after saying the spell’s name, rapier appears in her right hand.

The spell she used is holy attribute beginner spell 『Holy Maiden』, it creates a rapier utilizing the special effect of the holy attribute『creation』.

The rapier created by Yua is one of her favorite weapons, its name is Yuriel.

Yua stabs the bellies of the three boads with the Yuriel and immediately pulls out.

Of course, they won’t die from such a small wound, they tried to hit her using their claws.

Regretfully, they couldn’t even touch her.

Just before their claws were about to land on her, they exploded from the inside and became a meat paste. Although the blood splashed in all directions, Yua avoids it by deploying a light attribute intermediate spell 『Wall of Light』and remains unstained.

「Are you kidding me……」

Seiya has a bitter smile on his face after seeing her attack. He has read about a similar attacking method in a book once.

Among the magicians who use the fire attribute, it is a technique used by especially high-level magicians, it is a technique that detonates the body by pouring the mana of the fire attribute inside the opponent’s body.

The body can’t hold against the pressure created by this spell and explodes. And the victim becomes a minced meat.

Yua’s way of attacking is similar to that attack method, but there were no signs of using fire attribute. The magical attribute used by Yua is a light attribute, and it shouldn’t be possible with the light attribute alone.

But Yua did it right in front of his eyes.

So how did she do it? She pushed the magical power of the light attribute in boad’s body and raised its power.

The special effect of the light attribute is『rising』, which has the effect of improving the object. Yua activated『rising』on the whole body of boad.

Originally it should be strengthened, but boad’s fur is resistant to magic and will not improve.

When inflating the balloon, if the endurance of its material is not enough, the balloon will just explode from the excessive air. It is the same principle here.

Boad’s fur, whose durability has not increased, couldn’t bear the pressure of the raised body and exploded.

This technique is probably possible only for those who have the holy attribute. For an average magician, it is impossible to raise the capabilities of the body that is not his.

Although it is grotesque, her appearance while strengthening others resembles a goddess from the church.

On the other hand, all boads were shivering.

In one moment one’s body is stabbed, as his inside disappeared, leaving only the fur behind. In the next moment, the other one is stabbed and explodes.

Ordinary animals would flee if they are at disadvantage, but boads had their pride and refused to yield.

Driven by their cheap pride they pounce on Seiya and Yua.

Seiya pierces Hollins into the closest one, pushes the mana of the dark attribute inside him, and goes for the next prey.

Right after confirming the death of the boad, he immediately stabs the next one.

Yua also pierces one boad after another with Yuriel. The moment boad is stabbed he explodes from within in the rain of blood.

Yua does not mind whether boad will become a meat block, and will steadily pierce Yuriel sticking to the next prey rapidly.

Before they noticed the massacre was over.

The corpses of boads with only their fur intact and the bunch of meat lumps littered the ground around them.

Because the number of furs and meat lumps are roughly the same, they seemed to have killed roughly the same amount of them.

After that, Seiya and Yua passed through the forest without any troubles and caught sight of their target, the Great Dalis Canyon.

The bottom of the Great Dalis Canyon is so deep it couldn’t be seen.

From where they stood, Seiya threw a stone inside, trying to hear a sound of it hitting the bottom, but he didn’t hear anything.

「Hey, Yua. What should we do now? Do not tell me we need to jump? 」

Just plunging ahead seemed rather stupid, so he confirmed first.

「Can you fly, Seiya?」
「What?」
「I said, can you fly?」
「No, no, no. Do you think people can fly? 」

Seiya was confused, but Yua seemed to understand his answer in her own way. Seiya noticed it and tried to stop her.

「There is no way……」
「Then I guess we have to jump……」
「Huh?……」

Yua’s logic is a method of elimination.

People cannot fly. Then you have no choice but to jump.

Using this simple logic there is no need to search for complex solutions.

Yua gently holds Seiya by the hand.

However, for some reason, he couldn’t resist her grab, and in the next moment Seiya felt his spine freezing.

「Well then … let’s go …」
「Stop, please waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa」

In the next moment, Yua jumps into the great canyon while pulling Seiya by the hand. Their figures disappear in the darkness.

---

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Seiya and Yua who decided to head to the Great Dalis Canyon, faced two problems.

First, Seiya used up most of his mana due to 『Dark Tremor』, his remaining mana is close to zero.

Second, Seiya does not know their current location precisely, nor does he knows where the Great Dalis Canyon is.

When he told that to Yua, she said it was fine.

「Hey Yua, what do you mean “It’s fine”?」
「I will restore your mana …… Great Dalis Canyon is there … …. I saw the map in the laboratory …」
「You will “restore” it … …. Why did you even saw that map?」
「I was looking at the guard and he gave me the map, he said to look at it instead」

Ohh ~ guard-san I understand your feelings. If someone constantly stares at you, this is creepy~ Seiya felt strange empathy with the guard, but he didn’t know if his feelings reached him.

And Yua said she will restore his power, common sense tells Seiya that this is impossible.

Mana is the source of the magician’s power; you can say it is his stamina.

Restoration requires eating, resting, sleeping and so on. It is said that only the goddess who went missing was capable of such a feat.

Yua silently cast her spell on Seiya, who is deep in thought.

「『Holy Flower』」

The next moment, the Seiya’s body was wrapped in white light. At the same time, Seiya feels that mana steaming inside of him rapidly, his mana recovers in the blink of an eye.

「What was that, Yua? I have never heard of 『Holy Flower』spell. Was there such a spell in light magic? 」

Seiya was surprised by the light attribute spell that doesn’t exist in his memory. He believed that he failed in his studies somewhere. After all, preparing for the future he memorized all spells of light attribute he could.

That being said, Seiya had no idea of Yua’s spell.

「It is not the spell of the light attribute …… it was a spell of holy attribute ……」
「For it to be a holy attribute…….」

Hearing about holy attribute Seiya lost his words.

Because the holy attribute was the magical attribute used by the goddess from the church. Actually, the church of the Leiria Kingdom is also called Holy Church and its name was derived from the goddess.

The magic of the holy attribute is almost nonexistent nowadays. It was said that only one person in hundred years has a holy attribute, and this person becomes a new goddess.

If the Holy Church discovers Yua, she will soon become a new goddess and will be worshiped by people.

The holy attribute is just that important.

There are three kinds of magic. They are: basic magic, derived magic, compound magic.

All magic spells fall under one of these categories.

Basic magic refers to the magic of four attributes of fire, water, wind, light.

For example, spells such as 『Wall of Light』 and 『Fire Bullet』fall under the basic magic category, and dark attribute magic such as 『Dark Wave』should belong there too.

Derived magic, as its name says, is magic derived from basic attributes.

Specifically, ice attribute and flame attribute are easy to understand. The ice attribute is the magic derived from the water attribute and the flame attribute is the magic derived from the fire attribute.

There is also a special effect in the derived magic attribute, but its special effect carried over from the attribute before derivation.

In other words, for the ice attribute it is『calm』and for the flame attribute it is 『activation』. Of course, there are exceptions, but that is how it usually works.

Composite magic is a magic that combines multiple spells at the same time, the example is Seiya’s『Dark Tremor』with no chant.

Although the details are slightly different, it can be said that Seiya’s previous spell is a composite spell consisting of『Dark Tremor』and『Dark Wave』.

But the holy attribute used by Yua was an exception, standard classification doesn’t apply to it.

Holy magic is considered a top class derived magic of the light attribute in terms of classification, but magicians who use light attribute magic will never become able to use holy attribute magic.

In other words, the holy attribute is a light attribute but at the same time, it’s not.

Of course, the holy attribute magic also has a special effect, its name is『creation』. [¹]

It is close to the word generation. The magic of holy attribute is a special magic that can generate weapons and mana from nothing.

In fact, Yua defended from Seiya’s attack, not by the power of the light attribute. The dark power was simply destroyed on contact with holy power.

The dark attribute is classified as a basic magic, and the holy attribute is classified as derived magic. If basic magic is compared to derived magic, derived magic is more powerful, they couldn’t compete since the beginning.

It is said that the goddess of the Holy Church was able to restore the mana using holy magic and light magic at the same time, resulting in light speed recovery.

Seiya’s mana was completely recovered by Yua.

「It is awesome, Yua」
「With this Seiya can go to the Great Dalis Canyon…..」
「Do not be like that. By the way, why can you use the holy attribute? It might be useless to ask though」
「I could use it since the past… I do not know the reason …」
「I see」

The fact that church is not aware of her existence could probably be related to her father’s protection, thought Seiya. Who the hell is her father?

「Seiya, let’s go. Quickly……」

Yua pulls Seiya by the hand.

「All right」

At this time Seiya thought, what if her mother is the previous goddess.

It is understandable if the goddess’ daughter can use holy attribute magic. And if her father is the member of the Holy Church, it will explain his knowledge of the dark attribute.

Given the time when the goddess disappeared and the Yua’s age, you cannot reject this theory. At the same time, the father who can hide it is frightening.

While thinking about such things, Seiya and Yua headed for the Great Dalis Canyon.

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Seiya found a girl lying down in front of him, but he did not think she was still alive.

Because the spell that Seiya cast earlier is a spell to extinguish all things other than the user, the fact that this girl’s body remains is close to a miracle.

What can be thought of as the reason for that is that the girl defended herself with light magic, but in the end could not overcome the power of Seiya’s『Dark Tremor』, leaving only the body intact.

The dark attribute and the light attribute are attributes that are mutually good and bad against each other

In the end, the winner is decided by the power of the spell itself, and the 『Dark Tremor』casted by Seiya didn’t lack in power.

『Dark Tremor』 is a powerful high-level spell of the dark attribute, but few magicians use this spell.

Because 『Dark Tremor』is a spell which annihilates everything in the surroundings indiscriminately at the price of all of the magician’s magical power, it’s mostly used for suicide bombing.

At the same time, the spell used by Seiya in the beginning『Dark Wave』is an elementary spell and it is a basic of the basics of the dark attribute.

It is a spell that will eliminate only the object that the magician wishes to destroy, and the greatest feature is a possibility to destroy the chant.

Among the magicians who use the dark attribute, high-level magicians while casting complex spells, use 『Dark Wave』at precise timing, doing so they can eliminate the chant of that spell.

This is a theoretical chant omission. And this was the reason why Seiya was able to cast『Dark Tremor』 without a chant earlier.

However, when a low-level magician attempts to do the same, the timing may not match, and the spell that he/she intends to manifest is getting extinguished itself.

From this Seiya’s level could be seen.

It was at this time.

「What?」

Seiya was surprised at the fact that a girl who seemed to have already taken her last breath started moving, right before his eyes.

「Just what is happening……」

Seiya approaches the girl since he was interested about the way the girl survived after receiving the『Dark Tremor』with full force.

But Seiya’s movement contained a lot of wariness against the girl. As long as he doesn’t know her identity, he doesn’t dare to leave an opening.

Being ready to cast at any time, he talked to the girl.

「Hey, are you in one piece?」
「…………」
「Hey, are you in one piece?」
「Mm……」

The girl opens her eyes hearing Seiya.

For the moment he felt relieved and then carefully examined her with his eyes.

The girl stretched her slender white limbs, she had beautiful red eyes that fascinate the viewer, beautiful shiny white hair, and neat face. Calling her extremely beautiful won’t be a flattery.

But even facing an absolutely beautiful girl, Seiya was still on high alert. Then the girl said her first words.

「…………Who?」

The was very clear and beautiful voice.

Seiya tells his name to her.

「Me? I am Seiya, Kiritsuna Seiya. And you are? 」

When Seiya names himself, the girl also follows suit in a small voice.

「Yua…..Yua Arunia」
「Yua then. Are you hurt somewhere? 」[¹]

Seiya immediately tries to confirm her body condition.

Seiya is not a battle maniac, nor does he finds pleasure in a slaughter.

He thought it is better for people to live than to die, and he didn’t want to kill too many people too. That’s why he was worried about Yua.

「I’m fine…..」
「I see, that is good」

Listening to her words, Seiya rests assured. But he is still wary against Yua.

Because too many strange things are related to her.

If she can resist his power, they how did they caught her in the first place?

Besides, if she is that powerful she could have escaped the range of the spell easily.

So, seeking answers Seiya asks the girl.

「Why were you captured here?」
「I was careless … … they approached from the back and drugged me, when I noticed, I was already trapped … and then everything disappeared ……」

She said that she is a 16 years old magician living in Aquaristan, a student of the second year in the magic academy, and was kidnapped on the way back from the school.

Listening to her explanation, Seiya was amazed. He was neither being sneak attacked nor drugged by medicine.

Yua is sixteen and she if and of the school year as Seiya.

Her appearance is that of a beautiful girl, but she gives off the impression of a trainee. It is hard to guess that she is sixteen on the first look.

Such Yua is staring at Seiya right now.

Her beautiful red eyes make her expressionless face somewhat mysterious, Seiya felt uncomfortable looking at them.

「What is it? You are staring too much」
「Seiya is seventeen ……so you are my older brother ……」
「Well, that’s right. Although we are in the same year」

Hearing that Seiya’s wariness against her disappeared, rather the girl became interested.

But the girl named Yua was an unimaginable existence to Seiya.

「That’s why, walk me home…..」
「———————————What?」

What did she say?………… Seiya could not understand it at all.

「Walk me home……」
「Wait a little. Why is this happening? If you are a magician, you can go home alone. We are even of the same grade. Although I’m older … …」

To her request that disregards common sense, Seiya did not know what to say.

But, Yua proceeds with her explanation.

「The grade is the same but older brother is older brother … Seiya is seventeen years old …… I am sixteen years old … Seiya is an older brother. Besides, it is impossible alone……」

Seiya blanked at such an answer. Using logic, he couldn’t understand Yua asked him to walk her home.

No matter how much of a girl you are, there is a way to return to Aquaristan from the Freestan, which is close by.

If you go to church you will be able to do finish the procedures, and as soon as you arrive at Aquaristan you are as good as home. Yet, she said she could not do it for some reason.

With no other choice, Seiya asked her himself.

「Why me?」
「Because of the Great Dalis Canyon」
「What?」

This time Seiya’s brain mouth gave up on him, he couldn’t understand her at all.

Thinking about her words, it is hard to understand the whole picture.

「Great Dalis Canyon. Is it the place with lots of super strong magical beasts walking around?」
「Yes……」

She answered with a spaced-out look on her face.

She suggested walking through the Great Dalis Canyon, a den of powerful monsters.

The Great Dalis Canyon is situated in between Freestan’s and Aquaristan’s borders and is known as a monster den.

Also, there is a rumor that Undine is living there, people refuse to approach that place.

The rumor says that people who went into the canyon never came home, everyone in the Leiria Kingdom knows that

In the past, there were cases where some stupid magicians went searching for Undine, but they died after being chased by monsters in the Great Dalis Canyon, the monsters then proceeded to Freestan.

Seiya couldn’t understand why is she going through the Great Dalis Canyon. What kind of reason can force you to go inside on your own volition?

「Why, for god’s sake! Can’t you just return by common route?」
「This is impossible …… I am not good with people …… I can’t pass where there are many people…….I need to go through the Great Dalis Canyon, where no one is ……so escort me, Seiya……」

Seiya is stunned and doesn’t know how to respond.

To summarize, she is saying that she wants to pass through the Great Dalis Canyon, where there are no people because she is not good with crowds. Even though there are strong monsters in the Great Dalis Canyon.

「No, THIS is impossible」

Naturally, Seiya does not want to go with that proposal. Although he managed to survive somehow, he didn’t want to commit suicide yet.

But at this point, Seiya thought.

「Hey, if I come with you to Freestan will that be fine?」

If you can’t do it alone, let’s do it together. However, Seiya still could not comprehend the person called Yua.

「No … … if we arrive at Freestan Seiya might disappear …. So I will go to the Great Dalis Canyon… … it is already decided … … Seiya, escort me …」

Yua dared to pass through the Great Dalis Canyon. How much does she hate crowds to the extent of trying to pass through the infamous Great Dalis Canyon by herself.

Again, doubts sprouted in the mind of Seiya.

Like Seiya was on guard against Yua, Yua also does not trust Seiya from the bottom of her heart.

Yua has a secret. If the secret is known to Seiya, she can’t predict his reaction.

That is why she chose to pass through the Great Dalis Canyon.

Whatever she thinks inside her head, Seiya doesn’t understand. It is a suicide to go through the Great Dalis Canyon with a strange girl around.

「Wait a little, I won’t run anywhere, I will properly walk you home. Let’s go to Freestan, please consider it」
「I don’t believe you……besides, going through the Great Dalis Canyon is also for your sake……」
「Mm?……」

Listening to her words, Seiya’s expression changed in a blink of an eye.

「For my sake?」
「Yeah……if people discover your dark attribute you will be in trouble……」
「Why do you know about the dark attribute?」

The atmosphere around Seiya changed drastically.

Why does she know about the existence of the dark attribute? The existence of the dark attribute is a very confidential matter, only some people in the church and powerful clans are aware.

Seiya’s first thought was that she is the spy from Dakuria, but he quickly dismissed that thought.

If you are saying that she is a spy from Dakuria, then you are probably an idiot.

Her character is not suitable for spying. Dakurian spy should be more competent than this.

When Seiya contemplates such a thing, Yua explains why she knows of the dark attribute.

「I heard from my father …… But it’s the first time seeing the real thing….」
「Who is your father?」
「An amazing person …」

Seiya mulls over her story. Yua’s father knows the existence of the dark attribute. That may mean that he knows about the relationship between Leiria and Dakuria more than Seiya himself.

Or perhaps he just can’t remember it.

Actually, Seiya has not regained all of his memory yet. A while ago he got back his memory up to eight years old, but could not remember the memory from eight to ten years old yet.

Certainly, Seiya’s darkness attribute is dangerous if it is known. He may be attacked by many magicians the moment he enters the Leiria Kingdom.

If that happens, his life is over.

Also, he is interested in Yua’s father. He knows of the existence of the dark attribute. Just who is her father?

The dark attribute is the biggest concern for Seiya. If he returns to Windistan but ends up revealing himself, he can’t predict the consequences.

However, the risk of going with Yua is low, in Freestan there is a possibility that you can fail to enter the Leiria Kingdom safely.

The Great Dalis Canyon is indeed a dangerous place. But now Seiya has a strong power of dark attribute.

In some cases, weak but smart people are much more dangerous than powerful but simple monsters. In that case, it would be better to go through the Great Dalis Canyon, relying on his own power.

Besides, if Yua betrays him it is okay to just erase her with the dark power.

That is why Seiya decided to accompany her.

「All right, let’s go through the Great Dalis Canyon」
「Thank you……」

In this way, they decided to go to the Great Dalis Canyon.

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Seiya never heard the voice resounding in his head. From that voice, hatred and killing intent flowed densely, it was very dark.

The darkness seemed to envelop Seiya without any resistance.

However, the deep darkness strangely gave Seiya incredibly nostalgic feeling.

Seiya asks the deep darkness in front of him.

（Who?）
（Do you hate, boy?）

The voice coming from the deep darkness. For some reason, Seiya couldn’t ignore this voice and started a conversation.

（Hate who?）
（The ones who abandoned you, unjust treatment, this world）

Seiya felt that a mysterious voice came from inside of his heart. It felt like the voice asked his inner self, and Seiya answers as if it is natural.

He felt like he was stepping somewhere he shouldn’t enter and was about to pass a point of no return.

But he couldn’t lie.

（I hate. The ones who abandoned me. Unjust treatment. This terrible world）

Seiya ended up saying as such. He couldn’t turn back anymore.

（I see… then, do you want power?）
（Will you give me the power?）

Seiya reacts to the word power. That was something he could not possibly ever have, and Seiya wanted the power the bottom of his heart.

（Wrong. The boy already has power. Power to destroy everything）
（The power to destroy everything? I do not have such power）

Seiya doesn’t have the power to destroy everything. If he had such power, no one would have called him Unknown.

（You have. You just forgot. Remember it, boy. Your true power）
（Can I really remember my power?）

When Seiya said so, the voice in the deep darkness approaches him.

If it is usual Seiya he will run away or defend, but at this time somehow he had no choice but to accept.

He didn’t know himself, why he didn’t run, but he did not feel like rejecting the deep darkness.

The deep darkness envelops Seiya more and more. Being swallowed by the darkness he experienced a peculiar feeling.

Twelve years ago, Leiria Kingdom, Windistan, south of Erenerita city.

There were two figures in a deep forest far from the city.

「Daddy~」
「What is it, Seiya?」
「Look her, look here, it is a purple magic circle」

The identity of two people is a pair of father and son. Father was taller than an average human, with red eyes shining like rubies and white hair.

Furthermore, there is a characteristic big scar on his face, and anyone who saw it for the first time will become afraid of him. However, the face of the man was that of a gentle father.

The child was about 5 years old boy. A boy with beautiful blue eyes and golden hair, although he didn’t resemble his father, they had a strange affinity.

A characteristic purple magic circle was deployed on the boy’s hand.

Because the boy was able to deploy a magic circle, you can understand that they are both magicians.

If a magician while being a child can create a magic circle, it should make his parents extremely delighted, but his father’s face does not seem to be very happy, his face looked rather sad.

After all the magic circle created by the golden-haired boy belongs to a magic treated as a heresy in the Leiria Kingdom.

In the Leiria Kingdom, the colors are: yellow for the light attribute, red for the fire attribute, blue for the water attribute, green for the wind attribute, the complex circles can have different colors, but they won’t become purple.

This was a common sense among magicians, it was an unchanging fact. However, this is the common sense of the Leiria kingdom, not the common sense of the rest of the world.

The dark territory is spread around the Kingdom of Leiria, lots of monsters live in the dark territory and almost no humans.

That is also a common sense of the Leiria Kingdom.

But the reality is different.

There is a country in the dark territory. And the dark territory separates the two countries.

That country’s name is the Dakuria Empire, and just like the Leiria Kingdom, it has a lot of people living in it.

The size of the Dakuria Empire is about the same as that of the Leiria Kingdom’s central region. Instead, there are seven similarly sized cities under the wing of the Dakuria Empire.

These cities have no names; they are called simply Dakuria First District all the way to Dakuria Seventh District.

The seven cities are not adjacent to the Dakuria Empire but are spread across the dark territory. The country which combined this Dakuria Empire and the Seven Districts under one flag is called Great Dakuria Empire.

The Great Dakuria Empire is traditionally led by the demon emperor Lucifer. In each district, there was a demon king ruling the populace.

The common sense of the Great Dakuria Empire is different from the Leiria Kingdom.

The magic circle of the dark attribute is purple, the magic circle of the fire attribute is red, the magic circle of the water attribute is blue, the magic circle of the wind attribute is green, the concept light attribute does not exist in the empire.

There are almost no interactions between two countries.

However, it is not like they are not aware of each other existence, some people in the Leiria Kingdom also know of the existence of the Great Dakuria Empire.

It could be attributed to the gag order given by the church. They concealed the existence of the Great Dakuria Empire and the dark attribute magic from the people.

Let’s return to the parent and child.

「So Seiya also has a dark attribute ……」
「Dad?」

Seeing this magic circle the father-like person makes a “the time has finally come” face. The child was looking at his father with shining eyes.

「Seiya. Do not use this purple magic circle except in front of daddy」
「Why?」
「Because those who use the purple magic circle do not have any friends. You don’t want Rona-chan to disappear right?」
「I don’t want to~」
「Then promise me not to use it, Seiya」
「Yup! I promise」

The boy responds in good spirits and embraces the father, and his father also embraces the boy with a gentle smile.

「We should go home. Mom is waiting for us」
「Yes!」

The father placed him on his shoulders and left the forest to go home.

As they enter the residential area, there are small but stylish houses here, and the two people enter one of them.

When the parent and child arrived home, a beautiful blonde woman came out from inside the house.

「Mom!」
「Welcome back Seiya, dear」
「I’m home, Mom!」

The child smiles and runs to his mother.

「Aye, I’m home …」

A woman called mom had beautiful blond hair stretching to her hips, bright blue eyes and was incredibly pretty.

When a child approaches, the mother holds him gently in an embrace and shows a smile to her husband.

The child was smiling while being held by his mother.

But the mother, who realized that her husband’s face is not that bright, asked him gently.

「What’s wrong, dear?」
「Seiya has materialized the magic circle of dark attribute」
「I see….the time has come」

Mother’s expression gets cloudy in a blink of an eye. But this was not the end of my father’s words.

「Yeah, I think he will soon be able to create a light magic circle too」
「I agree……end eventually he……」
「Mom?」
「Everything is fine, Seiya」

Father faced his wife with a resolved face and his wife nodded to his husband in response.

「Just five more years……」
「Yes, darling. After that Seiya will have to work hard……」

The next moment his mother started crying.

「Mom?」

All children are worry warts.

「I’m sorry, Seiya. I’m sorry」
「Seiya. From tomorrow onwards you will study magic under your father. You need to make sure to master your purple magic」
「Yup!」

The mother embraced her child carefully, and his father also embraced them.

Here, Seiya’s consciousness is released from the deep darkness.

（I……remember……. they are ……my parents）
（So you remembered. That is your power）
（And who the hell are you?）

Seiya asked the owner of the voice. But he didn’t get the answer.

（I’m your memory, I’m you. So use my power to your heart’s content）

Saying this the darkness recedes. In the end, Seiya didn’t uncover the voice’s identity, but it wasn’t the enemy.

（I see. Thank you …… for returning memory）

Seiya thanks the mysterious voice that returned his memory.

He slowly wakes up.

Watching Seiya waking up, the man in the white coat says「What happened!? My anesthesia didn’t work? 」but Seiya didn’t care.

「『Dark Wave』」

The moment Seiya muttered that, a purple wave was emitted from him and erased the restraints binding him.

The man in white seeing this incomprehensible scenery screamed on top of his lungs.

「*******, what did you do? What is this? I have never heard of such a thing. Who the hell are you? 」

The white coat lost his previous composure, his pathetic figure completely exposed.

But it was impossible. A white-robed man was a researcher and had a considerable confidence in his knowledge, but the magic used by Seiya was a first for him.

The man was proud of his magical knowledge but faced with an unknown spell he lost his cool.

The spell used by Seiya originally does not exist in the Leiria Kingdom and even its name is concealed by the church, so it is natural that he does not know.

Seiya disregards the white robe and continues.

There was no killing intent for a white robe or a grudge against this unreasonable world. There was only the power.

At that time, Seiya had already lost interest in the white robe and the world.

「『Dark Tremor』」

Immediately after the words of Seiya, one big wave started spreading out in all directions with him as the center.

Everything that touches that wave if getting extinguished, like it never existed.

The humans disappeared, and the man in the white coat did not even leave the body behind, it vanished in an instant without a trace.

There is a flat ground all around Seiya, if someone said that there were facilities here no one would believe him.

It is a dark territory around, he didn’t know what happened to Zach’s trio, but Seiya didn’t care anymore. [¹]

Looking around Seiya muttered in a small voice.

「So this is a magic of dark attribute ……」

Dark attribute. It is magic that exists in the Great Dakuria Empire, its special effect is 『annihilation』. It is magic that can make everything disappear, a magic contrasting to the light attribute.

While looking up at the sky, he notices the change in his thinking pattern.

Until I awakened, I avoided every conflict, I wanted to find a peaceful solution, but now it is different.

If something stands in my way, I can just destroy it. I someone doesn’t bother me then I won’t bother them either.

He felt as if he quit being a human. Seiya did not know whether he was still considered as such.

Seiya’s heart was almost dead at this time.

He didn’t know what to do from now on. He couldn’t think of anything he should or wanted to do.

「Hmm?」

At such time, Seiya noticed a fainted girl lying face down on the ground.

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Selena’s spell was a spell to create an ultrasonic wave through the power of fire-attributed mana.

The fire-attributed ultrasonic waves, of course, had a special effect of activation and were able to activate the insides of its body again. This spell is also used for treating injuries.

The receptionist men immediately understood that it was a genuine Glena Lion after looking at it again. However, at the same time, he recognized an inconsistency.

Despite having the ability to capture the Glena Lion alive, they didn’t know its value. Capturing beasts alive is a field of work for the adventurers.

The adventurers are supposed to know the value of the beasts, which means that they are amateurs……this line of thinking gave birth to a demon in his heart.

「Understood. It is genuine. You can sell it. There are no visible problems with its condition, how does 20 thousand grela sounds? 」

His suggested price was dirt cheap. In the case of Glena Lion, it can easily go for 320 thousand even if it’s dead.

If it’s alive, it won’t be strange for the price to reach 600 thousand grela. However, the youth lost to the whispers of the demon in his heart.

The eating magicians seemed to hear the youth and gave him a hard stare.

At that time, Seiya learned that the currency was called grela here. However, he didn’t know whether the circulation of this currency was limited to this district or the whole country. Anyway, it didn’t matter to him.

He needed to get it first. When Seiya intended to agree, he noticed the youth being a bit unnatural.

The receptionist was rather eloquent to them until a while ago. It didn’t change even after the Glena Lion was displayed, but his lines became much shorter.

There, Seiya glanced at the people around him and got a rough idea. Seiya closed his eyes and said to the youth.

「I sure have been underestimated」

Seiya opened his eyes filled with killing intent and glared at the youth. The moment the youth saw Seiya’s eyes, he started trembling and fell from his chair.

However, Seiya didn’t retract his bloodlust and kept staring at the youth. From the looks of it, he seemed to look down on the poor youth.

「As of now, I can still forgive you. Either you tell me the truth or die, choose」
「Auu…….」

The youth tried to apologize to Seiya, but due to the overwhelming bloodlust, he couldn’t produce any words.

Looking at the trembling youth on the floor, Seiya confirmed something.

Threats are much more effective in the Great Dakuria Empire than in the Leiria Kingdom. He didn’t know why, but he felt his killing intent growing stronger the further he went from the Leiria Kingdom.

That same killing intent was used against the youth. There wasn’t supposed to be any physical binding effect connected to the killing intent, but he felt as if there was.

While he was thinking that, he heard an angry voice from behind. When he turned back, he saw the magicians, who were previously before the board or eating, staring at him.

「Hey brat. Laying your hand of the guild staff is a taboo here」
「If you don’t stop right now, the magicians present here won’t forgive you」
「There is an A rank here, you better be prepared」
「Even if you are able to capture a Glena Lion, it would be difficult for you with these numbers」
「You still have a chance to apologize」
「That’s right, you brat」

There were about 50 magicians saying those things.

The held their weapons and assumed a fighting stance, but their eyes were mostly directed at Yua, Lily, Selena, Mona, and Aishi.

The magicians used the pretext of protecting the guild’s stuff to cause problems for Seiya. Even so, no one was worried about the receptionist, they wanted to mess with Seiya and take his women.

Of course, Seiya, who was aware of their intentions, decided to release his pent-up stress.

「Do it if you want to, I’m not responsible for the consequences」
「Hmpf, brat, don’t let it get into your head. Let’s do it, guys! These women shall be ours! 」
「「「「「「Ooooooo~」」」」」」

The started chanting and creating one magic circle after another.

There were those who did it chantless. Most likely, they were the so-called A rank adventurers.

Looking at those magicians, Seiya retracted the pressure from the youth. After being released from the pressure, the youth felt his back drenched in sweat.

Somehow, he managed to cling to a chair intending to watch the confrontation between the adventurers and Seiya.

As expected, the magic circles created by about 50 magicians looked rather spectacular. Yua and Lily were calm, but the student council members, who weren’t aware of his abilities, prepared themselves for a battle.

「It’s all right!」said Lily towards the three.

The magicians kept creating the magic circles. However, Seiya wasn’t courteous enough to let them have it their way.

Pachin

As soon as Seiya waved his finger, all of the magic circles disappeared without a trace. It was due to Seiya’s『Dark Wave』.

The adventurers didn’t know what had happened for a moment, but soon enough understood that it was 『Dark Wave』.

The Dakurians won’t be shaken by just this. But they should have noticed.

The strangeness of Seiya’s『Dark Wave』being able to erase fifty magic circles. Even if the dark attribute is common here, being able to erase fifty magic circles in one go was clearly abnormal. Not just that, the magic circles were erased completely, nothing was left behind.

Seeing the circles disappear, the adventurers understood that he was able to use dark magic and switched to the weapons.

Some had swords, some katanas, some bows, and some chains, there were a plethora of weapons. However, in the end, no attacks were able to reach Seiya.

Gon!

When they thought that they heard such a sound, in the next moment, they felt great physical pressure descending upon them. That was Seiya’s killing intent. [¹]

However, it was in a different league compared to the killing intent he exerted on the youth. The bloodlust of Seiya, who at the moment remembered the eyes they used to look at Yua and Lily, reaped the consciousnesses of one adventurer after another.

After that, there were six of those who managed to keep their consciousnesses, but they didn’t have the will to fight any longer.

「Are we done?」
「「「Hi, hyiiiiiii~」」」

The still-conscious adventurers ran away from the guild in a pathetic manner. As Seiya saw them out, he rubbed the heads of Yua and Lily in satisfaction.

Receiving the headpats, they happily clung to him, but the student council members couldn’t understand what happened and just stood there absent-minded.

There was a person that wanted to speak with Seiya. It was the receptionist.

「Etto, about the Glena Lion, I think about buying it for 600 thousand grela」

Hearing those words, Seiya furrowed his brows.

He understood that it was a difference of thirty times but had no way to confirm whether it was the correct rate. Even if he tried to gauge the surrounding people’s reactions, there was no one there who could help him.

Without any other choice, Seiya decided to go on the offense.

「Ho, should I accept it?」
「W-What are you talking about?  It’s a normal rate! 」

Judging from his behavior, it should be the proper rate. However, they needed as much money as they could gather, so Seiya engaged in the negotiations once again.

「That’s not what I was talking about. It was regarding your ridiculous first assessment. Am I supposed to agree without receiving any consolation fee? 」
「Uu, I regret my decisions」
「Then you should understand」

Seiya was supposed to be the deceived victim, but the receptionist resembled a victim much more.

「How about 650 thousand grela?」
「……….」
「680 thousand grela」
「………」
「Then, then 700 thousand grela. How about it? This is my limit. It is impossible to increase any further! 」

Faced with silent Seiya, the receptionist said the biggest possible price, but Seiya wasn’t kind enough to let him off with just that.

「I see. So this is the limit. Then how about going above the limit to show your sincerity? 」
「Uh, how much do you want?」
「800 thousand grela」
「Don’t joke with me! This amount is just….! 」
「Who was the one who said 600 thousand and 20 thousand?」

Seiya didn’t apply any bloodlust on the youth, but his stare alone was enough to intimidate him.

「Or should I spread the rumors? The assessment here is……」
「Understood. 800 thousand.」
「Thanks」

Saying that, Seiya handed the Glena Lion together with the cage to the receptionist receiving a small pass box in exchange.

It looked more like a terminal than a box, but there were no buttons.

「This is?」
「This is? This is the IC Gater. It’s used when dealing with virtual grela」
「I see. Tell me how to use it while you are at it」
「Ha? Could it be that you don’t know? 」

When he heard that Seiya didn’t know how to use it, the youth assumed an unbelieving expression.

「Are you dissatisfied with something?」
「No, not at all」

After that, Seiya had the youth explain everything to him and then moved to find an inn to stay in.

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Thank you for reading. This time we have the people of Dakuria appear before us. That being said, they aren’t that different from the people of Leiria (-_-;)
I’m thinking of explaining it here, different from the clan system of Leiria, the system of adventurers and ranks has been implemented in Dakuria. Well, in simple terms, the ranks are something like elementary-intermediate-advanced classification of the Leiria Kingdom. I’m thinking of writing extensively about that part in the future. Next is the information collection in the city. If it if okay with you, please stay behind for the next story. [²]

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