「Kaltovich! Leap magic!」

Tetsujin raised her voice, uncharacteristically of her. Coming to her senses, Kaltovich began chanting the magic. A magic circle expanded as though to surround the three. Still on his knees, Kamui was continuously casting healing magic. His eyes were tinged with fear, as all he could do was stare at the looming darkness.

They promptly arranged Leap magic. There was no turning back now. Her arms were screaming from constant overuse. But Tetsujin didn’t care, she kept shooting her bow. Then, she casted combustion magic to buy them more time. It was a reheating of the previous exchanges of attack and defense. But things didn’t go as she expected. The bursting flames were extinguished in an instant.

「I’m tired of seeing that attack.」

They had no choice but to admit it. The existences in front of them were on a completely different level than them. The three of them fell into despair. Tetsujin merely continued to shoot her bow out of momentum. There was no longer any shadow of her previous rapid-fire shooting, and the darkness was closing in. Kamui could only stare dumbfoundedly at the darkness. Kaltovich desperately tried to complete her incantations.

And then, just as the death-carrying darkness was about to engulf them. The magic circle shone even brighter, and the three of them suddenly vanished.

◇ ◇ ◇

「Are you sure about it-degozaru?」

「Hmm. Well, it’s okay, isn’t it? I’m only doing what Tanaka told us to do, after all.」

These were the words Tanaka had left them with when he headed out to scout the town.

「Standby here until my return. If a monster comes, annihilate it. And don’t kill any humans, okay? I don’t want to get into trouble, so just adequately drive them away. And don’t run off on your own without telling me! Absolutely don’t ever leave this place! You can only run away if you think you’re in a danger which leaves you with no other choice! But you have to come back here after! And I mean it! I’ll cry if you’re not here when I return!」

The Sukekaku duo had been faithfully carrying out the order that Tanaka had assigned them with. They truly were admirable subordinates.

「It’s raining, huh….」

Unusually, rain began to pour down on the wastelands. Kaku-san gazed as though being moved by it. 「A good idea just dawned upon me-degozaru. Don’t you think it’d be cool to erect a barrier to keep us from the rain?」

「Hou…」

Kaku-san was intrigued by his partner’s wonderful suggestion. He was showing the face of a master who was pleased with the growth of his beloved pupil.

「Let’s give it a try it then!」Kaku-san promptly erected a barrier. The rain began to avoid the two of them in a dome-shaped manner. The two of them struck a cool pose inside of it. As the rain poured even more heavily, a curtain of water was created around them. The spectacle was truly fantastic.

「I’m looking forward to Tanaka-dono’s return-degozaru.」

The Skekaku duo continued to wait for Tanaka in a cool pose. The rain continued to fall heavily as if to give them its blessing.

◇ ◇ ◇

「We… escaped?」

The three of them were in a daze for a while, still in the same posture they were in before the leap. Before long, a few dispirited words leaked out of Kamui. The exchanges unfolded until just a moment ago. They still couldn’t get their heads around this unworldly event. Was it really real? Of course it was real, the injuries left on their bodies were painfully telling them so. But that didn’t give them the energy to do anything about it, and time simply flew by.

「I guess we still have a long way to go, huh.」

Kamui muttered again. Perhaps due to the self-awareness that he was a hero. Kamui took the initiative to be the first one to move. 「We have to get stronger…. And the next time we meet them again, we’ll defeat them.」

Kamui muttered briefly, as though reflecting on himself. These were words typical to those of an optimistic hero. However, ever since coming to this world, he was still sorely lacking in experience, so those words of his could only be referred to as foolhardy. If he could sense the feelings of his companions, he would not have been able to carelessly make such a remark. As his companions showed no reaction whatsoever, Kamui finally sensed that something wasn’t right.

Still in her bow-shooting stance, Tetsujin froze in place. She was a girl with few emotions to begin with, but this time it was as though she didn’t know how to even express it. And then there was Kaltovich. In normal circumstances, she would have already started to stick uselessly close to Kamui and begun to entangle him. However, right now she was hugging her own shoulder in front of him, her body was trembling. Along with the sounds of her constantly chattering teeth, her appearance was worlds apart from what he was used to seeing.

「It’s impossible… A monster like that can’t possibly exist….」

Kamui was dumbfounded by her state, as she continued to mutter as such repeatedly.

「She is a top-class magician…. the exchange of magic earlier. I think she understands the gap of power better than we do.」

Kamui stood in place frozen. Tetsujin’s words permeated into his head.

「The biggest problem is that for those monsters, what happened just now might be nothing but a play.」

The rain that had started to fall before he knew it soaked into his clothes. It was as if it was trying to raise the fear in him. 「My magic aside, they clearly showed that they were capable of perfectly extinguishing her third-order magic. So there’s no way they couldn’t possibly deal with her leap magic in the same manner.」

Kamui finally caught up to it. The ever so grim reality.

「We were let go. Those monsters were simply driving away flies. That’s the reality….」

How ridiculous the remark he had just made was. And how tall the wall that stood in front of them was. It was such a tall wall that they didn’t even have the will to overcome it.

「We can’t win against those monsters.」The hero party who couldn’t find a path that would lead them to the future. The rain simply continued to pour heavily on such them. As if showing them the sad reality….

◇

Name: Kamui

Level: 29 Experience: 0/2900

Vitality: 655/1587 Magical energy: 1130/1363 Strength: 787 Dexterity: 771 Agility: 805

Intelligence: 659 Spirit: 624

Skills: Sword (3.04), Shield (2.46), Magic (2.05), Morinaga’s Blessing (1.54), Dragon Slayer (0.22)

Equipment: One-handed Sword of Flame, Armor for the the Purin Kingdom’s Imperial Guard, Divine Shield Biscuit

◇

Name: Kaltovich

Level: 78 Experience: 246/7800

Vitality: 562/562 Magical energy: 581/1766

Strength: 293 Dexterity: 305 Agility: 489

Intelligence: 931 Spirit: 899

Skills: Hammer (2.79) Magic (7.12) Morinaga’s Blessing (2.13) Chanting Omission (2.49) Multiple Chanting (3.58) Dragon Slayer (0.22) Equipment: Silver Mace, Purinism Vestments

◇

Name: Tetsujin

Level: 82 Experience: 1247/8200 Guild Rank: A

Vitality: 989/989 Magical energy: 515/1031

Strength: 650 Dexterity: 788 Agility: 926

Intelligence: 700 Spirit: 725

Skills：Sword (5.02) Bow (4.70) Magic (3.53) Intuition (4.42) Chanting Omission (1.55) Multiple Chanting (3.31) Dragon Slayer (0.41)

Equipment: Bow of the Spirit Tree, Dragonhide Armor