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The three heroes would now act together as allies. There was nothing more encouraging than this.

This hope was born out of the efforts of the weak youth who persisted in looking for the menial things that he was able to do. He did what anyone could have done, yet nobody did. Therefore, his efforts now bore fruit.

However, as usual, just when things seemed to be working out, unexpected disasters happened. An applause was heard as if it had been waiting for the heroes to decide to cooperate.

“How wonderful. Despite being a weakling, our hero didn’t give up and continued to search for the things that he could do without rotting away. And now, he has accomplished the feat of moving the time of the heroes again. How truly admirable, weak hero.”

At the sound of the voice, Megrez started casting his magic before Sei and the others could even react. He fired a magic missile in the direction of the voice without even needing to use any actions to accumulate power. It exploded and encased the wall in ice.

Perhaps he decided to use ice magic because he was worried that a water bullet would penetrate the wall and affect people’s houses. The speed of his decision-making and reaction was truly that of a hero. Although he had retired from actual combat, the difference between him and Sei was still like that of heaven and earth. Nevertheless, the owner of the voice was not within that ice. Instead, a voice was heard from the opposite side of the wall.

“Good reaction speed. I’m a little surprised.”

Contrary to his words, he didn’t seem surprised at all. A strange white man stood there, leaning against the wall. Judging by his skin and eye colors, he was probably a demon. However, even the Seven Luminaries of the demons weren’t a match for the heroes. Even though they were weakened, the heroes were still heroes. They wouldn’t lose to the Seven Luminaries.

That was assuming it was an ordinary member of the Seven Luminaries.

“Who are you?”

“My name is Sol. I am one of the Seven Luminaries, Sol of the Heavens. Well, the title of the Seven Luminaries has lost its meaning these days anyway.”

The Seven Luminaries. When they heard the name, Sei and his companions drew their weapons and readied themselves.

The first person to attack was Sarjes. With the remarkable agility of a spiderkin, he ran across the wall and attacked Sol from behind. There was a flash across Sol’s neck, who couldn’t seem to avoid it. Sarjes stabbed Sol with a knife-hand that was as sharp as a real blade…but his arm was stopped without even managing to pierce Sol’s skin.

“……!”

“You haven’t cleaned up properly. There are bugs in the house.”

Sol hit Sarjes lightly with the back of his hand as if he had literally been bitten by a bug. He seemed like he was just shooing away a bug, but due to the overwhelming difference in level, it became a lethal blow. Sarjes smashed into the wall and broke through it, passing through several private houses before disappearing in a cloud of dust.

Then, Gants and Jean attacked from the front, swinging their weapons down. Both attacks made an audible impact. As before, Sol didn’t evade it. He didn’t even defend himself. Gants’ axe struck him on the head, while Jean’s sword hit his stomach.

However, incomprehensibly, there wasn’t even a scratch, as if they had struck a block of steel.

“Growl—!”

Friedrich roared and grabbed the collars of Gants and Jean, pulling them back. At the same time, Sol’s fingertips slashed before their eyes and the ceiling was destroyed by the resulting shockwave. If that had hit, both of them would have been vertically split apart.

Friedrich jumped backwards before that attack had even ended…because he had seen the illusion of his own death.

“I see. You have good intuition at least. You seem to have sensed that you would have died if you had taken another step further.”

It seemed that Friedrich’s timidity was unusually helpful this time. His fine play had allowed them to avoid any fatalities…at least for now. But if Sol felt like it, he could massacre the entirety of the hero’s entourage instantly.

The Mizar Golem attacked Sol from behind, but it was just a remotely controlled golem after all. Moreover, it was made by Blutgang’s dwarves, whose levels were less than 100.

It could not be helped. Even though his personality continued to exist, he was currently nothing more than the core of the huge golem called Blutgang. He was no longer the old Mizar who was called the Smith King.

Naturally, he had lost his alchemy skills. Therefore, except for the golems that he created when he was still alive, he could only depend on the dwarves of the present to make anything. As a result, it was inevitable that the golem’s level was low. A casual attack from Sol easily destroyed his arm.

Sei and his companions were surprised by his attack power, but Sol was the next person to be surprised. While he was distracted by the Mizar Golem, another golem suddenly appeared, crashing through the ceiling to get behind Sol.

“Wha—!?”

“Invader detected. Eliminating!”

A huge iron fist struck Sol’s back, blowing him away. He bursted through the wall and several more houses before a crashing sound was heard from afar. Although several private houses were destroyed, it seemed nobody was caught in the midst. It seemed the golem had accounted for that in its calculations before attacking.

“He—Hey, that golem…”

Jean was the first to react to the huge golem that had suddenly appeared. Yes, he recognized it. He had seen this golem that was over ten meters tall before.

A head like a knight’s helmet sat on top of a shining silver body. It had a single eye. Its arms were unnaturally huge, featuring literal iron fists. Its lower body spread out like a skirt where its legs should be. It was somehow floating in mid-air.

Its name was Gatekeeper. It was the steel guardian who had once defended the Black-Winged Royal Tomb before it was destroyed.

“Hahaha! Are you surprised? I fixed it when Ruphas and I built Astraea!”

“You…I was wondering what you put on standby on top of my house, and it turns out that it’s something like this…”

“Mizar, honestly, you just placed it there hoping you’d get to say, ‘I told you this would happen.’ Right?”

Megrez and Merak calmly retorted to Mizar, who was laughing vigorously. However, regardless of what they were saying, their actions were appropriate. They had already taken the next step.

At Megrez’s prompting, the water in the lake surrounding Svalinn concentrated and transformed into a giant water dragon. This was Levia, the guardian deity who had defended against the attacks of Aries.

In addition, Merak activated his divine magic in order to support the Gatekeeper and Levia. Using its malleable aqueous body, Levia extended tentacles to grab the heroes and their companions and place them on itself. Then, the guardian deity and the Gatekeeper left the royal capital at high speed.

After being blown away by the Gatekeeper, Sol stood in the mountainous area far away from the royal capital as if nothing had happened. He folded his arms and waited for Megrez and the others to arrive. The Gatekeeper had intended to blow him away out of the royal capital so as to avoid involving the citizens, but it seemed that Sol had understood its intentions and allowed himself to be beaten.

“Megrez, be careful. He called himself one of the Seven Luminaries, but he’s really strong.”

“I know.”

The Gatekeeper’s level was 600. The unexpected attack should have done a lot of damage to one of the Seven Luminaries, who were each around Level 300. However, Sol didn’t seem like he was around that level at all. He seemed to be holding back.

Of course, it could just be a bluff…but Megrez and the others judged it otherwise based on their long battle experience. It wasn’t a bluff. The attack really wasn’t effective.

“Hmm. I see…The Seven Heroes, huh? This looks more fun than I expected.”

Sol maintained his fearless attitude despite the numerical difference. There were three heroes, eight people from Sei’s party, the Gatekeeper, and Levia. This would be a thirteen-versus-one battle…but there wasn’t a hornet in the world that would fear thirteen honey bees.

It would only be natural for Sol to win this battle. But if he held back somewhat, he might be able to enjoy it more.

Levia was probably the strongest among them. However, even if it had the attribute advantage, Levia was barely a match for Aries, who was among the weaker combatants of the Twelve Stars. In that case, it would be impossible for it to defeat Sol when there was no advantage in terms of attribute compatibility.

“Heavy Rain!”

Megrez completed his arcane magic in an instant and a huge magic formation covered the sky. Then, a storm of water bullets fired from it, leaving no gaps in between. As the name Heavy Rain implied, the water bullets that were falling like rain were not single-target attacks, but area attacks.

Knowing that there was a speed difference between them due to their difference in levels, Megrez decided that single-target attacks would not hit him, so he opted for area attacks that would leave no room for escape.

Of course, such attacks would affect even allies, but the bullets that should have struck them were blocked by Levia, who served as a shield. As the guardian deity of water, Levia was immune to water-based attacks. If it were real water, Levia would have been healed instead of being damaged.

“Hmm…”

Sol groaned slightly while he defended against the constantly falling water bullets with his arm. The Gatekeeper took the opportunity to thrust its arm forward and its huge fist spun as it flew towards Sol. Levia also changed its body accordingly and unleashed a whip-like blade of water at the same speed.

The blade of water advanced while acting as a support for the iron fist by covering it from the falling water bullets. Then, the fist slammed into Sol and the blade slashed his arm.

“That’s a good attack, but…”

Sol’s arm wasn’t severed. He was merely a little bruised. There wasn’t even a drop of blood. However, Megrez was unmoved by that and he immediately moved on to the next attack.

Meanwhile, Merak focused his concentration, making the surrounding rocks dance into the air and shoot towards Sol at the same time. This was Psychokinesis, which was usable by ESPers. Mental power was normally used for support, but ESPer was one of the few classes which could use it for attacks.

Flügels could not use arcane magic. A balanced build like Ruphas, who had levels in both vanguard and rearguard classes, could still play an active role by assisting as a vanguard. However, a specialized backliner like Merak would not be able to do much.

To put it in a more extreme manner, an elf who could use both arcane magic and divine magic was far superior as a backliner. It was only natural. When comparing a backliner who could also attack with arcane magic and a backliner who could only support, it was needless to say which one would be more useful.

However, there was a class that utilized their high mental power such that even flügels could join in on the attack. It was the ESPer class. Unlike other classes, the ESPer’s offensive skills mostly depended on the value of the user’s mental power. In other words, it was a valuable offensive method for those who specialized in support. Thus, many flügels would also take some levels in this class.

Rocks flew at Sol one after another, but he simply slapped them aside with his hand. However, the water bullets got through that opening, while Levia grew countless thorns from its body to attack Sol. Using Levia as a shield, the Gatekeeper moved through the Heavy Rain and attacked Sol’s vital spots with its fist.

Their collaboration was amazing. It was as expected of veteran heroes who could compensate for each other’s openings. However, Sol’s expression did not change at all. Eventually, he sighed lightly.

“This is more fun than I had thought it would be…compared to what I had expected anyway. But well, this is probably all there is to it.”

As he said so, he broke through the water bullets that were still falling. There was no way to avoid the water bullets. In that case, he could simply just not avoid them. He ignored the shower of direct hits and dashed straight for the Seven Heroes.

He side-stepped the Gatekeeper and landed on Levia with ease. In response, Levia grew thorns to attack the enemy on its head, but Sol avoided them with a quick step and rendered them ineffective.

Merak got between Megrez and Sol, deploying a wind shield for defense. However, Sol didn’t care and simply kicked it, shattering the shield that was supposedly deployed by a hero in one hit. No, considering the level difference, perhaps Merak should be praised for successfully preventing one attack.

“Wha—”

Merak stiffened in shock only for a moment. It lasted less than one second. No, it lasted less than one-tenth of a second. It was just for a moment. He would have deployed the shield again in the next moment. However, the momentary gap was fatal.

Sol’s second attack came before Merak could recover and struck Merak’s arm. There was an ominous sound of bones breaking as Merak’s body fell off Levia. Without confirming Merak’s condition, Megrez canceled Heavy Rain. He was afraid that Merak might get hit by the attack.

However, this was another deadly opening. Sol closed the distance and threw a punch. At the last moment, Levia created a wall of water between them and prevented a direct hit. But the glancing blow was enough to break Megrez’s ribs, causing fresh blood to overflow from his mouth.

“St—Stop!”

Sei attacked Sol with Kouen, the weapon he had received from Ruphas. But sadly, he was too powerless. Sol easily stopped the blade with a single fingertip and he disarmed Sei without leaving him any room for a counterattack.

Just a while ago, there had been hope for the fact that the heroes would be cooperating with him, but now, there was nothing but despair. No matter how united they might be or how strong their beliefs were, they could still be overcome by overwhelming power. This was Midgard. This was the rule of this distorted world governed by power.

In order to finish off Megrez, Sol advanced and closed the distance.

…If the conclusion were to be stated first, this must have been his mistake. In order to test his strength, he challenged opponents that he didn’t have to fight, taking unnecessary detours. Now, it had come back to haunt him. In other words, he reaped what he sowed. But for the heroes, this was a happy miscalculation, as it meant that their fates had not ended yet.

—Sol was suddenly hit from the side. This was nothing like the hit that Sol had previously received from the Gatekeeper. The single blow crushed his face, which spewed a fountain of blood as he was blown away.

He crashed into the ground, but his momentum did not stop. He continued plowing through the ground without stopping until he was buried. Eventually, he stopped a few kilometers away and then looked up to see what had happened.

“Hey, I’ve been searching for you…you white-haired *******.”

He heard the rough voice of a man. The owner of the voice stood in front of Sol, shaking his red hair and looking down at him.

This was what the embodiment of demonic rage would look like. His face was distorted in anger and his fangs were bared. Blood vessels were visible on his log-like arms. Space itself seemed to be distorted because of the rage that he was emitting.

“The Lion King, huh?”

After confirming the enemy’s appearance, Sol laughed fearlessly.