Chapter 4

The angel hid her body within the magma, watching closely as the hero she had brought faced the North Demon King in battle.

Splash. Splash.

The hero advanced—not quickly, but with steady, unbroken steps.

And from the other side came dozens, then hundreds of focused ether bombardments, all rushing down toward him.

BZZZZZT!!

The hero’s incandescent blade scattered the light—or rather, the beams of light-element ether—in every direction. Waves of refracted brilliance dyed the dark sky white.

Perhaps displeased by such an unyielding defense, the Demon King’s bombardments grew fiercer with every passing second. Yet the hero’s stride did not falter.

Splash. Splash.

Blast. Blast. Blast.

And then the white arcs of his sword filling the air—scattering, reflecting, dazzling.

KRRRRAAAAAASH!!!

The entire battlefield was drenched in lava as subzero frost turned, in an instant, into heat soaring hundreds of degrees. Even so, not a single change touched the hero’s expression.

Ssshhhhh….

His breathing was calm, unwavering.

The angel half-opened her eyes, letting out a quiet murmur of awe as she watched the hero swing his sword with unshaken composure.

I still can’t understand it. How is that even possible?

When he first crossed over into this world, he had been nothing more than a mortal. Not ordinary, perhaps—but still within the bounds of humanity.

It made sense. He came from the First Civilization, where “powers” like mana or psychic force simply didn’t exist.

And since possessing such powers was considered a prerequisite for reaching the Seat of Transcendence… no matter how skilled he was, he should have remained nothing more than a mortal human.

Yet despite arriving here completely empty—

—he had filled that void through nothing more than concentration.

He perceived mana.

He grasped its essence.

He understood how to wield it.

He aligned its flow to the limits of his body.

And with that alone, he raised himself to heights that even she, the Archangel and emissary of the moon goddess Lumina, had to look up to. To a place where he could stand one-on-one against the very enemy of the world—the Demon King.

And even that wasn’t the end.

At first, his steps had wavered like a ship tossed in a storm as he deflected the Demon King’s volleys. But before long, those steps had become steady, almost leisurely, like a stroll through the park.

With every step closer to the Demon King, he grew more refined. More complete.

GOOOOOOOOOOH….

The North Demon King must have decided things could not go on like this, for her tactics shifted. While continuing her bombardments, she unleashed hundreds of thousands of ice gears that composed her colossal body.

Clink, clatter, crunch!!

The gears crashed down, clumping together into new forms. Within moments, they reshaped into thousands of mechanical monsters.

“…Damn.”

These were nothing like the ordinary fiends of the Demon Territory. Far stronger. Their mouths didn’t open, they didn’t roar, but the grinding screeches of their gears were more terrifying than any howl.

At the Demon King’s signal, the newly forged gear-monsters surged like a tidal wave toward the hero.

CRASHCRASHCRASHCRASH!!

The angel nearly gave in to the urge to leap out and help him, clenching every ounce of willpower to stop herself.

—Beings of the Celestial Realm must never intervene in battles against the Demon Kings.

If that rule was broken, the restrictions binding the Four Demon Kings would weaken.

The only reason Kion hasn’t already fallen is not because its people fight well—it’s because of the countless restrictions holding the Demon Kings back. If one of those bindings were lifted…

Her thoughts tangled into dread. But just then—a sound shattered them all.

KWHOOOOOOOOOM!!!

“…!!”

From the sword the hero had driven into the ground, pure white mana rippled outward like waves spreading across a lake.

KWHOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The tide of mana swept through the gear-monsters, wiping them away in one great surge. A few managed to survive, slipping through the cracks of the wave—but then the tide reared up like a living creature and swallowed them too.

His steps resumed.

Splash. Splash…

Every stride radiated unshakable confidence. At that sight, the Demon King instinctively stepped back.

THOOM!!

The flow of battle has reversed.

The Demon King loosed a low growl, a furious subsonic roar, as though unable to accept that she had retreated even for a moment. Then she moved again, shifting into a new assault.

Clatter! Crack! CRRRRSHH!!!

From the Demon King’s body spilled an even greater torrent of ice gears—far beyond the number she had released earlier to forge her monsters.

So many that her towering frame, once a hundred meters tall, shrank to half its size.

The flood of gears rose into the sky, knitting together into the shape of a colossal blade that seemed sharp enough to pierce the heavens.

“…That’s…!”

The angel gasped, recognizing the power woven into that sword.

Dimensional fracture. My god. Even for a Demon King… is that really possible?

—Dimensional fracture.

The dimensions in which sentient beings exist are fundamentally three (or four, if you include the time axis). Human perception extends no further than the x, y, and z planes.

But if, by some sense, method, or theory, one could perceive beyond that… then using that perception, one could project power into higher dimensions.

Like a picture on a piece of paper suddenly becoming aware of the z-axis, reaching a hand beyond the plane.

And when power was forced into those higher axes, it inevitably left behind a scar—a hole. That was the fracture.

At shallow depth, it was “splitting space.” At deeper depth, it became “splitting dimensions.” And the sword of gears radiated enough mystery to bring about exactly that.

—And therefore, it could not be blocked.

The angel’s mind raced through the analysis in an instant, and she screamed into the hero’s thoughts.

[You can’t block that! You have to dodge!!]

Perhaps sensing the desperation in her plea, the hero—who had been raising his sword to meet the strike—broke his rhythm for the first time and hurled himself into the air.

A heartbeat later, the hundred-meter blade of ice gears slammed down where he had stood.

KWHHOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The moment the blade struck, the ground split open into a colossal fissure over two kilometers long. And from that wound spilled “something” no human sense could grasp—like a flood crashing through reality itself.

It could not be seen, yet staring at it twisted the mind. It made no sound, yet listening for it shattered the self. The tide spread, warping the very world.

Junk data… high-dimensional noise! A low-dimensional being like him can’t resist that! He can’t possibly fight alone!

But against all expectation, the hero barely reacted. He did not tremble, nor waver. Instead, he simply picked out patches of ground untouched by the “junk data” and leapt from one to the next, striding closer to the Demon King as she lifted her blade again.

The angel shouted in a panic.

[What are you doing!?]

“What do you think? I’m going to kill the Demon King.”

She caught his words from the shape of his lips and pounded her chest in frustration.

[You can still say that after seeing this!? It’s not too late—run! I’ve seen enough of your power already! If you just prepare a little more, just a little, then—!!]

“Nope.”

[Hey! I told you that thing can’t be blocked!]

“Then I won’t block it.”

[What, are you planning to just keep dodging? How long do you think that’ll work!?]

“Then I won’t dodge either.”

[If you don’t block and you don’t dodge—what in the world are you planning to do!?]

“Well, that’s the thing….”

The Demon King’s second slash came down.

Her movement didn’t look particularly fast—but the sheer size of the sword made its arc scream through the air at over ten times the speed of sound.

GOOOOOOOOOOOHHH!!!

[No!!]

Too late to evade. Too late to escape.

And then—before the angel’s eyes—something impossible happened.

The colossal blade of ice gears came crashing down—only for the hero’s tiny sword, no bigger than a toothpick by comparison, to meet it.

The moment the two touched, the impossible happened. The gargantuan blade spun in midair, its hilt and edge reversing direction as if the laws of reality themselves had twisted.

WHOOOOOOOSH!!

“…What!?”

The hero deftly caught the inverted blade as it fell.

Clack.

As though recognizing a new master, the massive gear-sword shrank in size to fit neatly into the hero’s grip.

He stroked its surface and grinned. “See? Just steal it. Damn, this sword’s amazing.”

Fwoooooosh…

Snow whirled wildly in the wind. For a heartbeat, silence reigned across the vast battlefield.

The angel. And the Demon King.

Both stood dumbfounded, unable to process what had just occurred.

[W-Wait, so… you actually stole the Demon King’s sword? How!?]

“Technique.”

[What kind of dogshit explanation is that…?]

“You’re too much of a scrub to get it.”

[A scrub…? Why, you little—]

She couldn’t even muster a proper retort. After witnessing something like that, how could she?

“Anyway,” the hero said, hefting the sword, “if your Demon King friend’s out of tricks, I think it’s about time we wrapped this up.”

He charged forward with the gear-sword in hand. Startled, the Demon King tried to leap back, to retreat—

CRACK!!!

But her ankles were already shackled. Black fractures yawned wide beneath her feet, vomiting streams of junk data that bound her in place.

Dimensional fractures!? When did he—?!

And in the next instant, the hero appeared above her crown, bringing down a bolt of pure white lightning straight into her head.

“It’s over.”

KZZZZZZZAAAAAAK!!!

The Demon King’s shriek tore across the battlefield.

—SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

From crown to groin, the colossal body split clean in two. The high-pitched wail of the North Demon King, Akathastasia, rang out until at last it was silenced.

Her vast body collapsed, the mountain of interlocking gears that formed her frame crumbling into ruin.

CRASH! CRASH! CRUNCH! RUMBLE!!!

The gear-monsters that had still been rampaging fell apart with her, shattering into heaps of lifeless gears. And finally… the great gear-sword in the hero’s hand shuddered, coughing out the ice gears within it before disintegrating entirely.

CLATTER…

“As I thought. Damn shame… that was one hell of a sword.”

He clicked his tongue, turning a few shards of broken gears over in his hand.

“And the chains binding her arms and legs didn’t break either. Guess those were something else.”

He was still lost in thought when the angel came fluttering toward him, her dove-like wings beating furiously.

“You’re here. Well? I killed it. Got any commentary?”

Unable to contain her joy, she cried out with her actual voice instead of sending her thoughts.

“Wow. Wow. Wooooow…! Holy shit! You really did it! That’s insane!”

“Look at you, swearing like that. Some angel.”

“I don’t care. I don’t care. Oh my god… unbelievable. Unreal. People—no, angels—say miracles don’t happen, but… this! This is it! I’m getting promoted. Promoted for sure. Frandy, Nedul, Bormis—those assholes called me washed up because they got promoted first, but just you wait… they’re dead. They’re all fucking dead! Hee… eheheheh!”

The hero let her bask in her pent-up triumph for a moment before cutting in.

“That’s enough celebrating. Now… we’ve got plenty to settle between us, don’t we? Time to start doing the math.”