The Hero's Covenant

Sei's group's journey had been a difficult one.

First of all, camping outdoors was extremely dangerous. On other continents, monsters rarely inhabited areas except in places with high concentrations of magic called demon realms, but on this continent, dangerous beasts and monsters lived in almost every location.

Even with barriers set up, hostile reactions frequently appeared on Sei's map.

And the other problem was transportation.

On the continent that had at least been ruled by the humanoid races, roads had been maintained for supply and logistics even near the front lines.

But the roads of the Dragon Claw Continent were destroyed in many places. Monsters and insect-people could probably run through forests and wilderness, but the humanoid races couldn't do that.

Using the information obtained from Lynx, they had been able to travel relatively decent roads for at most a week. Once they left that range, they would again have to pass through forests and woods where visibility was poor and forest walking couldn't be used.

Airships were slow, and there were many monsters that flew in the sky or attacked from the ground, making them also dangerous and difficult to use.

In the end, the only thing they could rely on was the map they'd received from Labyrinth, and literally wandering about while depending on Lavi's teleportation, the group approached the place where the hero lived.

"Whoa! An open field!"

Bungol, the tallest, raised a cheer. A hilly area spread out before them, and far in the distance was a wall that could only be man-made.

Though it was still outside the range of Sei's map, so they didn't know if people actually lived there.

"Mm, there are definitely people there."

Mako, who climbed onto Bungol's back to look into the distance, stated definitively. Perhaps due to the effects of eating insect-people, her eyesight had improved abnormally. So much so that she could see scenery over 20 kilometers away or more.

"You can see humans?"

"Yeah, they've made fields around the city walls, and there's a fence surrounding those. Soldiers are patrolling too, so there are definitely people there."

"I see… Given the map, the hero must be in that city."

The group proceeded across the grassland after bringing out the carriage. The ground was fairly firm because it had been trampled down. Perhaps they sometimes sent soldiers out near the forest to deal with monsters. They didn't know how many people were in the city, but it would be difficult to feed them all with fields of that scale.

As they approached the fence, the hero's reaction also appeared on Sei's map.

"Is this… the easiest opponent we've faced so far?"

The name of the Gift that hero possessed was "Covenant."

Among the hero powers that Mako had explained, it was something that specialized considerably in combat power, yet was harmless to the humanoid races.

The Gift called Covenant was, as the name suggested, a Gift of pledging something.

The stronger that pledge, the proportionally greater the power gained. Even more than the Awakening hero.

When the Covenant hero came to this world, the first thing she pledged was to not kill anyone except evildoers.

Through this pledge, her ability values jumped several times when facing evildoers.

As pledges increased, and as those pledges narrowed, her power increased.

The last pledge that Mako knew she had made—yes, the Covenant hero was female—was a very limited pledge to not fight anything except the evil gods and their servants.

Conversely, against anything else, meaning even ordinary monsters, not only could her power not be displayed, it was reduced to the level of an ordinary human.

In other words, if she ended up fighting Sei's group, she would be at an overwhelming disadvantage.

Though her level exceeded 200, even against Kukuri she probably couldn't win.

"Halt!"

As they approached the fence, a soldier shouted.

The reason they weren't particularly wary was probably because the harmless-looking Kukuri and Sei were sitting on the driver's seat.

Still, the suspicious looks they were giving was because there was no human traffic to begin with.

"Where did you come from? No, how did you get here?"

A man who seemed to be a commander came over with several soldiers. This man had a level of 73, so he was undoubtedly a frontline commander.

"From the Dragon Wing Continent. The evil gods' armies were destroyed in units of hundreds of thousands by a hero's power. We slipped through that opening, and then stopped at a settlement in the forest before coming here."

"In the forest… the third base? But more than that, what you said about a hero's power…"

The man pondered, but observed Sei's group again.

"Even so, it's impressive you made it this far. There should have been many monster and insect-people habitats along the way?"

"That was thanks to my Gift, and also we had a hero with us."

"A hero!?"

Mako poked her head out from inside the canopy.

"Hiya. I'm Mako Tsubaki, the Gluttony hero."

The men didn't judge people by their appearance.

"She is certainly a hero, no doubt about it."

After entering the city and being invited to the castle on the north side, Sei's group had an identification spell cast on them by a high-level elderly mage.

Mako's title aside, everyone's status was disguised. Their current status, with even Kukuri and Bungol having around level 100, was abnormal no matter how you looked at it.

And while deploying his map, Sei paid attention to the presence just outside the room.

The Covenant hero. Sara Inokuma.

The girl whose family name and given name seemed mismatched quietly entered the room.

"It's been a while, Tsubaki-san."

"Sara-san."

The girl named Sara was beautiful.

Not the cuteness of a young girl, but the type that possessed a woman's beauty. Honestly, among Japanese faces, she was beyond the level of simply being the prettiest girl in school or anything like that.

Sei had heard in advance that she had already been working as a magazine model when she was in junior high.

And also that she disliked being called by her surname.

The two reunited heroes shook hands amicably.

When they talked about each other since the transfer, Sara's side seemed to have had it rough.

Her covenant had specialized for dealing with the evil gods. When fighting ordinary beasts and monsters, her status dropped to the level of an ordinary person.

It was fortunate that her skill levels didn't decrease, but her Gift could only be utilized when she had allies to support her.

With only Sei and Mako brought into the old reception room, high-level warriors guarded Sara's surroundings.

In the conversation exchanged in such circumstances, the Covenant hero said,

That she couldn't go home yet.

Sei understood what she meant.

In a state where her covenant was activated, Sara was probably stronger than Mako. If they lost that much military power, what would happen to this city?

In the year since Sara transferred here, the city's defenses had become quite strong.

But even so, if a high-ranking demon invaded, Sara would be the only one who could deal with it.

There had been heroes before who didn't want to return, but this situation was urgent.

"That said, we don't know when you'll be able to return, you know?"

At Mako's words, Sara's face twisted, but she still looked at them with straight eyes.

"I've been taken care of by the people here, and I've become too involved with them. I understand the circumstances, but I can't go back."

Even when persuaded, Sara wouldn't nod. Certainly in such a situation, if she left it would be quite difficult militarily.

But her perception was mistaken.

If the gods got serious, even a hero's abilities couldn't stand against them.

Though since the evil gods and demon gods seemed to be enjoying this war like a game, perhaps they wouldn't come to the front directly.

Against insect-people or demons, Sara's power could be used without limit.

But even so, Sei's group knew that she still wouldn't reach the gods.

"The divine dragons have started moving, so I think it's about time for the evil gods to pay up."

Sei mentioned the strongest existence in this world. She didn't yet know about the policy change of the divine dragons.

But at those words, the surrounding people seemed more surprised.

"The dragons are moving…"

"Then we can win, even against the gods!"

The executives who had been dejected upon learning of Sei's purpose for visiting all brightened up uniformly.

Sara's expression also showed brightness. She had wanted to go home after all.

Now then, what should they do to return?

"Even if the dragons are moving, we want to reduce the enemy numbers."

According to the city's unit commander's story, there were apparently places where the gods' servants gathered to some extent.

Since the invasion force to the Dragon Wing Continent had been completely annihilated by poison, if they crushed several nearby bases, the city's safety would dramatically increase.

"Sticking to defense is fine, but we certainly want to thin out the enemy. Especially with two heroes here."

Expectant eyes turned to Mako. But if they were going to destroy enemy bases, the one suited for that wasn't Mako.

"Then please guide us. I'll show you how to annihilate them without a single casualty."

At Sei's words, the executives were bewildered.

When the chant finished, the magic activated.

"Meteor Shower"

A wide-area annihilation spell from ultra-long range.

The humanoid races' army watched with mouths agape from a distant hill as meteors fell one after another, driving out the gods' forces along with their base.

"Such… such a powerful spell exists…? With this, couldn't we win even against the gods?"

To the unit commander's astonished words, Sei shook his head.

"I can't defeat them. Lower gods maybe, but against higher gods this would only deal slight damage."

Comparing the god of the demon realm in the southern Great Forest with the god of Istoria, the difference was clear.

The former, Sei could deal with. But for the latter, he had no choice but to rely on the power of Ria, a divine dragon.

And the evil gods and demon gods were said to be even more powerful gods than that.

The hostile reactions displayed on Sei's map disappeared.

Among them were insect-people, demon race who had become servants, demi-humans, and even humans.

No matter how much they had been manipulated by the evil gods, in this world they were counted among the humanoid races.

Sei naturally felt sick about killing them one-sidedly.

With the cleanup of remnants, soldiers advanced toward the cratered earth.

The superheated ground rejected the entry of the humanoid races, and they could only confirm from a distance with visual inspection.

"It's fine. There are no more reactions."

"You can tell?"

To Sara's question, Sei explained the function of his map.

To that, Sara remarked, "Being able to find enemies first is convenient."

"Well then, shall we move on to the next one?"

Sei said it casually, so both Sara and the unit commander made dumbfounded faces.

"Eh, wait a minute. That was a supreme-level spell, right? Normally several people would share that task. You still have energy left after using that?"

Sara's question wasn't wrong from the common sense of magic in this world.

It was all thanks to Ria forcibly raising Sei's magic power and Carla-sensei's magic classroom.

"About three in a row. If I take breaks, I can use it dozens of times in a day."

At this time, Sara thought:

Aren't heroes unnecessary?

Sei destroyed the gods' bases over several days.

The insect-people, monsters, and humanoid races who had become servants killed by this probably numbered over one million.

Terrible scars remained on the land, and it would take considerable years for the humanoid races to build their settlements there.

But in any case, the threat before their eyes had been dispelled.

By hunting insect-people and monsters, the humanoid races' living space had expanded.

At least in this vicinity, there was no longer any existence that threatened the city's defenses.

Still, if they thought years or decades ahead, the hero's military power might be needed.

But that was a cruel story.

Summoned unilaterally from Earth, driven from their country by dragons, fighting evil gods.

To do all that without any compensation whatsoever—no matter how you looked at it, that wasn't a proper situation. Moreover, the heroes who came to this world were still high school students.

Sara was the same.

If she could go home, she wanted to. And there was no longer any reason to keep her as military power.

"Well then."

"Yeah."

Prompted by Sei, Sara closed her eyes.

Through the return stone, the Covenant hero returned to Earth.

After being thanked again by the city's executives and resting leisurely for a day, Sei's group set out again the next day.

"And so, there are finally only three heroes remaining."

"… I see."

Sei, reporting to Ria, made a dubious face at her dull reaction.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, it's nothing related to you all. Continue to focus on the heroes' return."

Ria's words were unusually inarticulate, but Sei didn't press, thinking various adjustments must be difficult.

And to change the topic, Ria made a bombshell announcement.

"A wicked god was defeated by a hero."

Among the evil gods, the four pillars of gods with the highest rank. They had heard that the Calamity God among them had been defeated by Ars.

So they had expected gods to be defeated. What was unexpected was that a hero had done it.

Mako's Gluttony and Mika's Destruction, hero Gifts were powerful, but they still shouldn't reach the higher gods.

But someone—

Which Gift had made it possible.

"Well, the wicked god is apparently weak compared to the demon god and evil god, so if you gather dozens of elites maybe they could defeat it."

Ria said that, but even Sei, who had become stronger than most heroes, didn't feel he could win against a higher god.

"Do you know which Gift's hero defeated it?"

"No, I wasn't monitoring the wicked god."

The wicked god was a god that had been massacring the humanoid races and living things in the southern part of the Dragon Claw Continent, devastating the land.

While the demon gods and evil gods still had some humanity, that existence was said to be completely like a natural disaster.

They had defeated that.

In other words, there was a Gift that could defeat it.

Among those that Ria and Carla had been cautious of, the ones thought to be most dangerous were "Destruction" and "Gluttony."

The Destruction hero had returned, and the Gluttony hero existed as an ally.

Then which of the remaining three was it?

"The remaining three were 'Absolute Reflection,' 'Magic Creation,' and 'Conceptual Armament,' right…"

At Sei's confirmation, Mako nodded. All were powerful Gifts, but Magic Creation and Conceptual Armament were quirky Gifts.

"Absolute Reflection, perhaps?"

"No, that's impossible."

The Absolute Reflection Gift that reflected opponents' attacks, whether weapons or magic. If you thought about it normally, it would seem like an invincible ability.

But in the face of a god's power, it still wasn't enough. It seemed invincible, but was actually a Gift that wasn't invincible.

"If you spray breath attacks and make the air around the opponent unbreathable, that's the end."

Ria had said that before. Even with the area attack of Meteor Shower, reflections would call more reflections, and would end up dealing damage anyway.

Then what about the other two Gifts?

Magic Creation was something that forcibly constructed magic formulas that didn't currently exist in this world.

As an advanced use, it could activate forbidden curse-level magic like Meteor Shower or Collapse of Heaven and Earth with completely different configurations.

If one just had imagination, it could do the same things as the Destruction Gift.

Though there was the restriction of whether one had enough magic power required for it.

And then there was Conceptual Armament.

This was also a Gift with sharp performance.

For example, if you gave the concept of "Severing" to a weapon, that weapon would sever anything.

Even defensively, just by giving the concept of "Ironclad" to clothing, it would become armor that wouldn't let blades through.

Though at low level stages, since base stats were low, it apparently couldn't be used very effectively.

Either way, one of the remaining heroes had undoubtedly defeated a higher god and leveled up significantly.

Without harboring any distrust in Ria's attitude, Sei felt gloomy at the premonition of an approaching fierce battle.