The City of Mephilna

On the Dragon Claw Continent, the races had no order.

No, to be precise, there was one form of order.

That is, the strong were superior.

When dealing with the familiars of evil gods, simple combat power was indeed an easy-to-understand standard.

Of course, since there was combat, those with excellent wisdom were also necessary.

And heroes were clear symbols of combat power.

Sei and the others had been visiting hidden villages of the races scattered unexpectedly throughout various locations.

While food for the horses and themselves wasn't an issue, the carriage's durability was a problem on this barren continent.

Parts like axles and wheels that they could replace themselves were stored in infinite storage, but sometimes small parts were needed. Also, specialized maintenance was outside even Gantz the dwarf's expertise.

Consumables weren't a problem.

After all, knowing that resupply wouldn't be possible ahead, they had secured several years' worth of supplies on the Dragon Wing Continent.

Still, they visited the races' settlements to obtain information.

"The next hero seems to have 'Absolute Reflection.'"

This information came from a merchant who literally risked his life traveling across the Dragon Claw Continent.

Even in this situation—no, precisely because of this situation—information spread. Especially necessary information.

The hero with Absolute Reflection was apparently to the south from here, about a month's walk away.

That was assuming a straight-line distance, and in reality, they might have to detour around roads or conversely use teleportation, so it was unclear exactly how long it would take.

During that time, when Sei's map found hidden villages of the races they would stop there, otherwise they would camp and continue advancing.

Along the way, they saw many destroyed towns and villages.

Evil gods and demon gods who established bases near the front lines used the races like slaves, but conversely, that also meant they didn't engage in unnecessary slaughter.

Rather, if one submitted to their umbrella, their life and livelihood were guaranteed as subordinates.

But the wicked god was different.

The regions controlled by that god were thoroughly ravaged, and the races were either completely destroyed or could only survive as familiars. Towns and villages were naturally destroyed as well.

The southern part of the Dragon Claw Continent was the wicked god's domain, and there were apparently almost no races left there now.

However, since the root of all evil, the wicked god, had been defeated, there might be a comeback by the races in the future.

As for hero reactions, the Covenant hero was in the north, two heroes were in the central region, and the hero believed to have defeated the wicked god was alone in the south. Since the Covenant hero had returned, now only Mako's reaction remained.

"Positionally and experientially, this is probably the last one."

Sei muttered and talked with Mako about the Gifts of the remaining heroes.

According to Mako, all three of them seemed to be quirky individuals.

Incidentally, all of them were male.

"The Conceptual Armament kid was, how should I say… an otaku?"

Not a gloomy otaku, but a cheerful one apparently. He always participated in events in summer and winter, and enjoyed spending time with like-minded people at school.

In addition to common Gifts like severing and piercing, he could even imitate other heroes' Gifts to some extent.

If he gave a weapon the concept of destruction, it would have the power of destruction.

If he gave a weapon the concept of instant death, it would have the power of instant death.

In a sense, he was an existence who could fulfill most of the roles of other heroes by himself.

However, his reproduction accuracy wasn't that high, and in reality he fell far short of the genuine Destruction Gift.

"The Absolute Reflection kid had some personality problems."

He was apparently a so-called delinquent who often hung around with Keita on Earth. It seemed more like he was tagging along with Keita though.

He was apparently viewed as problematic in the Oneshisu Kingdom as well.

In normal combat, no monster could match him.

Even among the heroes, both weapon attacks and magic attacks were reflected, making it extremely difficult to defeat him.

However, when compared against the Destruction ability, the Absolute Reflection ability itself was destroyed, so his compatibility with Mika was apparently poor. They didn't know which was superior because testing the Instant Death Eyes ability was too dangerous.

However, Sei had already been given a breakthrough strategy regarding this hero.

"The Magic Creation kid was… a bit of an unusual one."

He was apparently smart. He liked tinkering with computers, yet didn't interact much with others via smartphone.

He apparently earned income by seriously programming and working part-time at game companies.

"Programming, huh… It has similar aspects to magical formula construction."

Nears's magic drew magic power from mana through formulas and manifested it as magic. Formulas were necessary even when using one's own magic power.

That certainly did have similarities to programming.

In fact, Carla had said that the magic system changed greatly after Earth's science and technology entered Nears during the Great Collapse 3000 years ago.

Magic Creation. A Gift to imagine and create magic that had never existed before.

"If you imagined and created black holes or the Big Bang, that seems like it would be incredibly strong."

"You can't use that on the ground."

That was magic that could probably even kill a divine dragon.

Mako smiled wryly, and Sei also nodded that it was impossible.

Heading south, Sei and the others ended up visiting strongholds of various races.

Many of these strongholds were controlled by those who stood above regardless of age or gender in this dark age.

Sometimes they were warmly welcomed and fought together against the gods' armies.

Other times, conversely, they were forcibly approached to be incorporated as fighting strength.

Of course, in such cases they fought back, but it also resulted in groups losing their fighting strength and being at a loss.

They taught such groups about their route so far and encouraged them to join other strongholds.

As far as Sei knew, he couldn't guarantee they would successfully merge.

They didn't have enough time to spare to be that considerate of groups that had attacked them.

The party headed south. And the point indicating a hero remained at one spot and stopped moving from there.

"So they've made this their base."

During camp, comparing the Labyrinth map with the detailed map, Sei confirmed the hero's location.

There were several candidate towns, but most weren't substantial enough to be called cities.

And unusually, Lavi spoke up on her own.

"Probably here."

It was close to certain. Sei and the others had no objections.

The city with the Heavenly Corridor, Mephilna.

The base Lavi had lost, where a tower that once reached the heavens was said to have stood.

Mephilna's walls had been repaired, and around them, rather than fields being created, moats and additional fences had been built.

There were fields and orchards inside the castle, and apparently a certain number of people could be sustained by those harvests.

According to Lavi, it had been a comfortable city with complete water and sewage systems, but it had been destroyed once by the gods' armies.

She said that the races who worshiped Lavi had probably been completely wiped out at that time.

When she spoke of this, even the normally expressionless Lavi wore a slightly melancholy expression.

Just to be safe, they had her hide in the carriage and approached the castle gate. Not only in front of the gate but also on top of the walls, archers and mages were deployed.

And the hero reaction on the map had the Absolute Reflection Gift as expected.

"Halt."

Told by the gatekeeper, they stopped the carriage. There were two gatekeepers, but both were warriors with at least level 30.

"Don't know your face. Where did you come from?"

"Do people come from outside?"

"There's an armed merchant group that patrols nearby hidden villages. More importantly, answer the question."

"Yes, we came from the Dragon Wing Continent. We stopped at the northern hero's city and then came here."

The gatekeeper seemed surprised by Sei's words.

"There was a hero-sama in the northern city too!?"

"Yes, though they fulfilled their role and returned to their original world."

As if pondering the content of those words, the gatekeeper thought for a while. The other gatekeeper added another question.

"So what did you come here to do?"

"Well, there's also a hero-sama here."

Mako, poking her face out from the canopy, waved her hand and answered.

"Hello～. I'm the Gluttony hero, Mako Tsubaki."

Apparently on the Dragon Claw Continent too, given names came first as a rule.

One gatekeeper ran into the city. And as far as Sei could see on the map, he made contact with the hero reaction on a street partway there.

The hero apparently didn't live in the ruins of the Heavenly Corridor in the city center. Or rather, a half-destroyed tower would be too dangerous to use as a residence.

The Absolute Reflection hero was heading toward the gate accompanied by several attendants. There were warriors and mages around level 100, with the others ranging from 20 to 30.

"Tsubaki, huh?"

That was the first words from the hero, oddly wearing flashy leather armor.

Mako had said this.

She had never once won in mock battles against the Absolute Reflection hero, Ougi Akira.

However, the only one who could reliably defeat him was Mika, the Destruction hero. Sealing, Instant Death Eyes, and time stop apparently had different results depending on the occasion.

In the first place, Instant Death Eyes was too dangerous to use in mock battles. They couldn't even test which Gift took priority.

Though it seemed time stop could win, the reflection Gift was effective even in stopped time, so victory was apparently determined by whether time could be stopped before the Gift was used.

The same was true for sealing—sealing Absolute Reflection required pouring all of the Gift's power into it, so it ultimately came down to a contest of raw ability.

In battle against multiple opponents, Absolute Reflection was far more effective than other Gifts, just like Instant Death Eyes.

After all, since it reflected any attack, one could attack one-sidedly. One could continue fighting until their stamina and magic power were exhausted, and afterward just keep reflecting enemy attacks.

As for such a strong Gift, there should be some demerit, but none could be found upon investigation.

It didn't use magic power, stamina wasn't involved—it activated simply by being conscious of using it.

However, this Gift also had levels, and things like what percentage of reflection and in what direction improved with level.

Incidentally, Akira currently wasn't activating his Gift. And his level was over 200. His Gift level was also 10.

The Dragon Claw Continent was harsh for survival, but it was the perfect place for training oneself.

Akira was a somewhat cynical youth, but he wasn't needlessly hostile at least.

"Well, I also want to hear how you got here, so come on."

Akira led the way and the group followed. Mako walked alongside Akira on foot, with the carriage following them.

The group headed to a huge mansion near the half-destroyed tower.

"Jade's house…"

Lavi murmured. Even the slightest hint of agitation was apparent to Sei, who had developed a long and deep relationship with her. It had probably been the mansion of someone close to her.

Akira seemed to be using the mansion, which still had broken parts, carelessly.

With the infrastructure destroyed, many things in the mansion were done by human hands.

There were many servants, and when they saw Akira, they bowed with fear and awe on their faces.

"It was prettier before…"

Lavi's murmur was so quiet that only Sei walking beside her could hear it.

The artwork that decorated the corridors had mostly been removed, with only pedestals remaining.

Through open doors of rooms, half-naked men and women could be seen sleeping.

Inviting the party into a particularly luxurious room that was probably a reception room, Akira said with an arrogant attitude:

"Well, have a seat. You've got a lot to talk about, right?"

Clearly looking down on them, he prompted them, and Mako began to speak.

From being transferred from Oneshisu to being protected by Sei and the others.

That the existence of heroes was having a negative effect on this world and Earth.

That they were traveling around the world to send heroes back.

That 32 people had already returned, and only four remained including Mako.

That the Great Demon King defeated the Fierce God, a hero defeated the Wicked God, and the dragons had begun to move to subjugate the remaining two gods.

And that the existence called heroes was no longer needed.

After listening to everything, Akira let out a mocking sigh.

"Are you fucking kidding me!?"

With a clearly looking-down gaze, he stared at Mako with a smirking expression.

"The enemies are gone and it's the warring states period. It's a world where you can rise as high as you want with your own ability. Why would I need to go back to being an ordinary human?"

Truth be told, Sei understood his argument.

Transferred from Earth and given a powerful Gift, but the kingdom collapsed and they were transferred again.

And that transfer destination was the Dragon Claw Continent controlled by evil gods, and despite being beset by difficulties, thanks to his Gift his level rose and he had come to live a relatively luxurious life.

Feared and revered by force. It must be completely different from his circumstances on Earth.

Some wanted to return or thought it natural to return due to the difference in civilization level from Japan, but if one had risen this far, they wouldn't want to go back to being a normal human.

He wouldn't call it greedy. Rather, it was a normal human thought.

"But if we don't go back, it'll cause trouble for the world, you know?"

Even to Mako's persuasion, Akira snorted.

"It's Earth that'll be destroyed, right? Then this world is safer."

The power of divine dragons could destroy worlds.

In fact, 3000 years ago, Ria's predecessor, the Dark Dragon, had annihilated a world that was about to collide.

However, they couldn't leave the hero here and invite a crisis thousands of years in the future.

"If you absolutely don't want to go back, I'll force you to return."

Since Akira didn't seem likely to respond to Mako's persuasion, Sei tried provoking him.

Akira frowned, but glanced at an old mage standing behind him. The mage looked at Sei and slowly nodded.

"I hear you're a divine dragon's subordinate, but do you think you can beat me?"

Akira said mockingly. Apparently the mage's Identify level couldn't see through Sei's disguise and concealment.

"Well, for that level of Gift, there are several strategies."

At Sei's nonchalant words, Akira's expression twisted.

"Interesting."

Standing up, Akira said to Sei with a sadistic smile:

"Let's step outside."

Sei stood up, hiding his smile.