Settlement

"Guwaaaaah!"

Ars went flying with an exaggerated scream. He rolled across the ground and slammed his entire body into a large rock. Cracks appeared in the boulder. For a normal human, that would be a fatal wound with a full-body fracture, full-body bruising, and ruptured internal organs.

Zeke, who was about to follow up with an attack, noticed that the battle over there had ended. He clicked his tongue.

"… Damn! Not that it did any damage anyway."

"Well, yeah."

Ars popped his head up casually, stood up, and brushed the dirt off his armor.

"As expected of Siegfried. That's the first time in hundreds of years I thought things were actually dangerous."

"You've got room to spare. If you'd gotten serious, couldn't you have defeated me?"

"No, I can't take that kind of risk."

Ars's words were sincere. Honestly, he couldn't even imagine what would happen if he cornered Zeke. In a way, he had something in common with the heroes.

The outcome of this battle was determined by whether or not they could send the hero home.

And the moment Mika returned, Zeke had lost.

Ars's stalling tactic had been a complete success.

Zeke had drawn the match but lost the contest, so to speak. A complete defeat.

"Is it over?"

Sage appeared right next to them via teleportation, and Ars nodded.

"Then I'll bring the others too."

At those words, Zeke's wounded companions were teleported to surround him.

Kars and Kess had also been teleported far away at some point to avoid being caught in the aftermath of the battle, and they had been properly brought back as well.

"Damn. Oi, Marie, hurry up and wake up to heal everyone."

Zeke kicked Marisia's helmet hard. This man liked women, but he showed them no mercy either.

"Ugh… my head hurts…"

Marisia woke up and checked the situation around her.

And she realized. That they had been defeated.

Their subsequent actions were businesslike.

First, they awakened Altecia, and the two of them healed their companions' wounds.

Sei's group also used magic to repair their equipment, working silently.

Ars watched the disgruntled Zeke with a seemingly harmless face, smiling cheerfully.

He was probably thinking something like "serves you right."

"Well, I've accomplished my immediate goals, so I'm off to my next objective."

Ars casually announced his departure.

"Your next objective?"

"Yeah, I'm going to destroy the Ferocious God."

At Ars's casual statement, not only Sei's group but also Zeke's companions widened their eyes.

The Ferocious God was a high-ranking deity. She'd heard that even an ancient dragon would be roughly equal to it, or perhaps even lose.

"With just the three of you?"

She looked at Quorfos and Sage. Quorfos smiled wryly, and Sage shook their head vigorously from side to side.

"Well, I alone should be enough. Fortunately, I didn't even need to use my trump card this time."

At Ars's casual remark, Zeke spat out bitterly.

"Alone? Even Master took on dragon form when she fought a fairly high-ranking god, you know…"

"Heheh. Then I'll show you something surprising."

Ars, looking a bit proud, deployed his magic.

It was a spell formula Sei hadn't seen much of. If anything, it would be classified as spacetime magic.

"Summon"

Cutting through the atmosphere, a three-dimensional multi-layered magic circle deployed—.

And it appeared.

The Demon Lord Machine God.

It was the world's strongest weapon, created by Ars for the Great Collapse 3000 years ago.

A fusion of science and magic, something that could even hold its own against a Divine Dragon.

In other words, a robot.

"Wh… it's Eva○gelion…"

Sei blurted out, but Ars smiled wryly at those words.

"Well, that's the closest concept for a robot. After all, I'm using a sealed god as its material."

It was created by combining the power of gods with mana cores—highly purified mana crystals—science, magic, and the pilot's magical power.

It was because of this that Garhart was known as the world's strongest nation.

In a sense, it surpassed even nuclear weapons on Earth.

Sei watched Ars being absorbed into the Machine God with admiration.

Even with a female body, her soul was male. The yearning for giant robots was irresistible.

"Amazing～… By the way, when is ○va going to conclude…?"

"Huh? Didn't E○a conclude with a movie?"

The topic had completely derailed, but there was a difference in Sei and Sage's understanding.

Apparently, Sage had died during the period between the original theatrical version and the new theatrical version.

"Seriously…? Uwah～, I wish I'd lived a bit longer… Ah, but my Earth was destroyed anyway～"

"That anime aired on your Earth too?"

"There are apparently many parallel worlds of Earth. Ah～, I really need to study spacetime magic more～"

Even if going to other worlds was forbidden, surely just observing them would be fine.

Thus the Great Sage resolved to develop magic for the sake of watching anime.

The Machine God that Ars boarded shouted "Duwa!" and floated into the sky in an Ultram○n pose.

It would use less magical power to summon it after teleporting, but even the Great Demon King apparently didn't want to go near the Ferocious God in the flesh.

Waving ciao with its fingertips, the Machine God disappeared into the distant sky.

"Ah～, oi, what happened to our carriage?"

At Zeke's voice, Sage, who had been discussing E○a with Sei, lightly waved their staff. And there appeared Zeke's carriage.

The ease with which they used spacetime magic was impressive as always, but right now the ○va discussion was more important to Sei.

"Damn it. This time ended in an unsatisfying way."

Zeke was complaining, but the truth was that when dealing with Ars, things not going according to his plans had been the same 3000 years ago.

Though it was more or less mutual.

"That womanizer, next time we meet I'll kill him for sure."

Zeke's companions looked at him with gazes that said "you're one to talk."

The Golden Warrior Brigade apparently changed the direction of their carriage to head southwest.

They had been heading to the Ferocious God's territory at Mika's request in the first place, but that reason was now gone.

And their party would naturally head toward lands where Zeke hadn't yet committed sexual assault.

It was a party with a truly unreasonable sense of direction.

And Sei's group returned to the city where they'd left their waiting party.

Laila looked worried, Bungol was excited, and Kukuri pressed in on the three of them with interest. Gantz asked with his gaze.

Explaining how things had gone took quite a while. Kukuri in particular demanded a detailed explanation.

"… I can't really make a poem out of it as is, huh."

After all, they hadn't clashed head-on in the end.

They created a situation advantageous to themselves, assembled forces superior to their opponent, and crushed them. It was their usual method, but not what heroes do.

But Sei wasn't a hero. Sending heroes home was just a job.

Even Mako, being a girl, didn't seek romance in one-on-one fights or anything like that.

Looking only at the results, this battle too had been a calculated power play.

Gathering more forces than your opponent is the basics of battle, so it would be wrong to criticize them for that.

Having finally finished their ○va discussion, Sei continued talking about Earth after Sage's death.

Though there were more topics about how Kochi○ame was still continuing than about how Ii○omo had ended.

Hearing about manga that had concluded after their death, Sage made anguished expressions.

Though since Sei wasn't that knowledgeable about subculture, she couldn't satisfy them.

"Well then, I shall take my leave."

Quorfos interjected. His role was over for now.

They thanked the high elf who was teleporting away, and Sei's group finally took out their map.

There were two heroes remaining on the Dragon Wing Continent.

When it came to which one to head for first, it was obviously the closer one.

"Then I'll teleport you close by."

Sage offered, but Lavi looked a bit displeased.

She probably thought that teleportation travel was her role.

"Honestly, I'd appreciate it if you'd come along with us."

Sei hadn't seen Sage fight. But judging from their level, they were undoubtedly the strongest among them, and more than anything, their teleportation was too convenient.

"Hmm～, we've got something the Divine Dragon asked us to do on our end."

The information discussed in the Time-Space God Trado's dungeon. It wasn't something to be shared with others yet.

Sage's answer was disappointing to Sei, but she'd said it in the spirit of "nothing ventured, nothing gained" anyway.

Still, something directly from the Divine Dragon—was there a matter of concern that took priority even over the heroes?

Sage teleported them close to the town where the hero was, as promised.

From there, Sage would apparently accompany them to the town. If the hero's Gift was one suitable for Sage, they'd lend a hand.

Though in reality, their purpose seemed to be talking about Earth with Sei and Mako along the way.

After living 3000 years, only a handful of people retained memories of Earth.

Ars was apparently one of those handful of exceptions, but due to their respective positions, they couldn't meet that often.

Ria had a fair amount of free time, but she'd lived a past life without much interest in subculture, so her hobbies didn't align with Sage's.

Sei, for her part, wasn't really that kind of person either, but since there were many students around her, she picked up a fair amount of information.

During the journey until they could sense the hero's presence, Sage enthusiastically talked about otaku culture.

In Sei's understanding, Evangelio○ was "a work that was hugely popular long ago," but according to Sage, "that was legendary."

After all, bookstores had sections for Bible-related materials placed together with the comics, generating considerable profit.

Mako knew the name at least, but her early childhood had been spent with Ojamajo ○oremi.

Such conversations, completely incomprehensible to anyone not from Earth, continued for several hours, and the carriage finally reached a city in the southwest of the Dragon Wing Continent.

It was one of the major cities that supplied the front lines. There was one hero there.

Their Gift was "Imitation."

Being able to acquire skills once seen—hearing just that, it seemed quite powerful, but apparently it wasn't actually a very useful Gift.

Because the level of imitated skills started at 1.

It was truly a jack-of-all-trades Gift.

It was something ordinary people desperate to acquire skill level 1 would covet, but considering combat capability as a hero, Gifts with performance that excelled in one specialty were preferred.

They parted with Sage in front of the city gate.

"I'd like to meet more people I can talk about Earth with."

"Among the remaining heroes, there are quite a few like that though."

According to Mako, there were apparently several boys and girls who liked games and manga.

Sage made a regretful expression, but apparently couldn't refuse the Divine Dragon's request.

"Well, if you need a spacetime magic user, contact me. I'll help out if I have time."

What they handed over was a cell phone-sized stone.

It was the same communication device tool that Ria had given them.

They parted with Sage and passed through the city gate.

Security was tight, and luggage was apparently being inspected, but they'd already put away anything dangerous.

More than anything, the identification certificate from the Divine Dragon was effective. Without any luggage inspection, they entered the city as is.

Now then, for the target hero.

Frankly speaking, strong.

But rather than the sharp strength of the Hero of Ruin, it should be called strength without weaknesses.

Various weapon skill levels were moderately high, almost all attribute magic levels were moderately high, and other skill levels were also moderately high. The base level was also properly high. More than anything, there were too many types of skills. About the same number as long-lived people like Ria and Carla.

One-handed spear and shield, and principle magic and physical magic were particularly high, and they even had spacetime magic skill at level 1.

A holder of versatile performance. But that was all. Excellent survival ability. But that was all.

If asked whether they could win in battle, they certainly could.

"Well, even in combat, their original role was filling holes left by someone."

According to Mako, they had existed in the party like a handyman.

This time, it seemed they'd be able to negotiate without too much trouble.

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