Why Alec Was The Strongest And The Weakest

Deep within the dense, overgrown forest—

I headed toward the Hell Lich Liricia had located, drawing my black sword as I ran.

While sprinting, I poured Serâge (Holy Wave) into the blade.

I zigzagged between trees, using their massive trunks as shields to break the line of fire from its spells.

Then, through the trees, a log cabin came into view.

A black skeleton wearing a bright red robe had come outside.

—Perfect!

“Haaaaaaah—!”

With a shout that tore from deep within my chest, I raised my sword and charged.

The skeleton lifted its staff to intercept me.

—But only very slowly.

As expected, the Hell Lich moved sluggishly!

“Grh… KO—REHA—TCH! Dark Flare!”

A mass of darkness larger than the one before formed at the tip of its staff.

It launched it straight toward me.

I didn’t slow down—instead, I rammed into the sphere head-on.

BOOOO—OM!!

“Fool… IF YOU TAKE THAT DIRECTLY—DID I GET HIM?”

The skeleton muttered doubtfully.

Even with my vision engulfed by the swirling dark flames, I lunged toward the sound of its voice.

And then I brought my sword down.

“Haaaaah!!”

SLASH!

“Gyaaah!”

The hit was shallow.

When the flames cleared, I saw I had only severed its right shoulder.

But since that was the arm holding its staff, the thing could no longer cast spells.

“It’s over, Hell Lich! HAAH!”

I lifted my sword again and swung with another burst of spirit.

The skeleton turned to flee, but even that movement was painfully slow.

Thud—my blade smashed into the back of its skull, destroying the red hood along with it.

“Gya—”

I struck again. And again.

“G—Gii—”

Piece by piece, I smashed the slow-moving skeleton into fragments.

I crushed its head, its body, its limbs—completely.

Yet the black bone shards still twitched.

The fragments pulled toward each other as if trying to revive.

—Huh? How did I handle this back when I was a hero?

If I remembered right, a high-ranking priest had… somewhere around the Hell Lich’s chest…

I crushed every rib, collarbone, and vertebra trying to reform.

Then I found it—a fist-sized red orb sitting where the heart would be.

“Is this it?”

I tried to pull it out, but for some reason it wouldn’t move from inside the body.

“What? Why not—HAAH!”

After a hard yank fueled by spirit, it tore free with a ripping sound.

The remaining black bones crumbled to dust and disappeared.

As soon as the Hell Lich fell, Liricia rushed over in an instant, her white wings spread wide.

Tears welled in her eyes as she threw herself at me.

“Master! That was reckless beyond words! I’ll heal you right away! —High Heal!!”

She very quickly smeared the slippery sap of medicinal herbs over my face, then cast her spell.

A strong, warm light enveloped me.

My burns and singed black hair mended.

My injuries healed perfectly.

When I sheathed my sword, I patted Liricia’s head. Her lush silver hair felt wonderful between my fingers.

“Thanks. A healer really is essential.”

But Liricia grabbed my cheeks between both hands, her violet eyes filled with tears.

“That wasn’t ‘essential,’ Master! Charging straight into that spell!? My heart nearly stopped!”

“No, see—once I take the first hit, I can just beat it senseless afterward. You saw it, right?”

“Ehh… That spell is one of the ultimate dark spells! It has enough power to shatter my advanced angel-class defensive magic in one hit!”

Liricia recoiled in pure disbelief, her white habit swaying.

“Really? Then that must’ve been a pretty weak Hell Lich.”

I replied casually—that was the only explanation that made sense to me.

But Liricia fluttered her white wings anxiously, deep in thought.

An intelligent gleam flickered in her violet eyes.

“…I feel like there’s a huge misunderstanding somewhere.”

“A misunderstanding?”

“Master, you failed missions constantly as Hero Alec. You think Hell Liches are weak. You’ve never run into goblins or other low-rank monsters. Not even once. All of those things… likely have a single shared cause.”

“What?”

“The cause is the immense amount of Serâge you possess. It far exceeds human perception and common sense.”

“I… don’t really get what you mean.”

Liricia pressed a hand to her chin, glanced around, then looked at me.

“Master, when you attack, you put an enormous amount of spirit into it, don’t you?”

“Well, of course. You have to. If your spirit’s weak, your attack won’t do much damage.”

“Yes—and that right there is why you survived that ultimate spell.”

“Huh? How does that make sense?”

“When you shout and put spirit into an attack, a massive amount of Serâge radiates outward from your entire body. It forms a kind of barrier that mitigates magic damage.”

“S-So if I didn’t do that…?”

“You would have been blown into tiny pieces.”

“…Okay, I’ll be more careful from now on.”

Only now did I realize how insane my actions had been. A chill went down my spine.

Liricia raised a slender finger and continued.

“And the second point: the huge leakage of Serâge is the reason monsters flee from you.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Because they sense the Serâge spilling out when you attack. Most monsters detect it before you strike—and run away.”

“The Hell Lich didn’t run, though.”

“This monster is unusually strong. It can withstand Serâge. But because of the Serâge, its movements slowed dramatically. From the way it looked, it was like it was walking underwater. When it attacked me earlier, its speed was so great it surpassed sight. And yet, at this distance, all it managed was forcing me on the defensive.”

“Now that you mention it… yeah.”

Considering Liricia could move nearly at teleportation speed while in angel mode, the fact she had been pushed back showed how incredible it truly was.

“So I’ve never encountered weak monsters because of the Serâge too?”

“Most likely. It’s constantly leaking out. Judging by the amount and the range, weak monsters would probably disintegrate the moment they stepped within five hundred meters of you.”

“So that’s what happened… That’s why I’ve never seen goblins, kobolds, ghosts, skeletons…”

“No—likely even more than that. Probably all darkness-attribute or undead-type monsters below C-rank simply disintegrated.”

“…………”

My jaw dropped. I couldn’t speak.

My hero-class Serâge being so overwhelmingly strong that it had actually sabotaged my missions… I never realized. Probably no one around me did either.

All those times I failed to complete assignments because I “couldn’t find the enemy”—when in reality I was erasing them before I ever saw them.

And thinking back, the regions I traveled to always stopped having monster incidents for a while afterward.

It was all because of the massive, superhuman amounts of Serâge…

Still—at least now I understood.

“You really are amazing, Liricia. Thanks for explaining it. Stay with me and keep teaching me, all right?”

Liricia blushed faintly and nodded.

“Yes, of course! That is my mission! …And unlike monsters, being near Master fills me with strength and joy.”

“So all that clinging to my arm was to absorb the Serâge leaking out?”

“Th-That’s…! That’s not the only reason!”

Despite being a dignified angel with white wings, her cute expression made me want to hug her.

I wrapped an arm around her slim waist and pulled her close.

“Well then… shall we head back?”

“Ah—um—shouldn’t we search the Hell Lich’s home for treasure first?”

“Oh, right. I guess we should do that too.”

Back when I was a hero, things like that were handled by attendants.

—Adventuring really was a hassle.

But then inspiration struck.

“Wait. If we use your finger monocle, we can instantly find anything valuable, right?”

“Yes! Leave it to me!”

Liricia and I walked toward the Hell Lich’s house side-by-side—except at the doorway, her wings got stuck, so she returned to human form before entering.