Country Eater, which lived to drain the vitality of others, shook itself with great displeasure amid the display of the boundless vitality of summer in the gleaming water droplets clinging to the recently watered vegetation underneath the cloudless blue sky. It was a stark reminder—coming from weak, puny humans, no less—that the skies were forever beyond the reach of this tyrant who had sat in domination of its territory for over two centuries, and the monster took great offense to that. Arrogant as it was, it never thought for a moment that it would soon be erased. As a human would, this monster had gained the mistaken assumption from living unchallenged for so long that its invincibility would never come to an end. This was not a delusion, but overconfidence based on actual experience, and living beings that could rise above this pitfall were few and far between.
Instead of teleporting, the four tasked with correcting the monster’s conceit intentionally flew out of the vessel floating overhead. It was Reen, Julia, Frederica, and Eliza, decked out in their Numbers armaments and traveling at great speed thanks to a catapult. Tracing glowing trails in the air in the colors of their magical signatures—dark blue, pink, white, and crimson, respectively—they took up position around the giant slime.
“Ready? Begin.”
In the giant displays visible not only from the floating islands but also every major city across the continent, Sol, standing before his captain’s chair, dramatically thrust out a hand in command, a gesture that came across as composed and confident in light of everything he had achieved so far.
The presence of the All Dragon, the Elven Queen, and Little Alshunna in the frame lent much reassurance to those watching. While the common people simply gushed about how adorable they were, those actually present on the floating islands who were more than familiar with their overwhelming strength felt like they could relax in the knowledge that, on the off chance Sol’s Girls failed, his monsters were still at hand. Being here in person had sounded like a huge risk—one they had decided was worth taking to earn Sol’s trust—but was turning out to be the right choice after all.
Reen made the first move. She retrieved all her shields, then had them float above her shoulders in pairs such that they looked like four giant arms, with two on each side. The largest shield, Axis Nine, was deployed above her head like an oversized and oddly shaped halo. This was the new form she had developed after Gawain’s upgrades.
What Reen actually used, however, wasn’t any of the shields that her armament was known for. Instead, her right hand drew a greatsword that seemed far too big for a tank to wield. This weapon, also made by Gawain, had been her closest partner since her Black Tiger days and was seen as just as much a part of her image. Every adventurer from Garlaige knew of it. For its ability to easily cut through carapace and skin that could normally shrug off slashes and even skills unique to God-given talents, it had been given the name Butter Knife.
The main duty of a tank was to protect the rest of one’s party from attacks, but Reen dealt far more damage than even the average attacker. This was largely thanks to the support that Sol provided through Player, but most people chalked it up to the greatsword that she wielded with one hand, especially because of how powerful she looked brandishing it with one hand. The distinctive appearance of the weapon had a lot to do with it too. Right after being unsheathed, it was long, but not exactly a greatsword. When Reen poured mana into it, however, it gained a double-edged blade that gave the weapon the silhouette of a boorish greatsword but was semitransparent and glowed resplendently with her signature deep-blue color.
Just now, Reen had drawn it and deployed its blade. The adventurers and common folk riveted by the livestream erupted into cheers upon seeing the famous weapon of the Iron Wall they knew so well up close. Unbeknownst to them, she was actually holding a practically different weapon from her time in Black Tiger. Despite looking the same, every part had been remade with far more powerful materials, including the magic stone that served as its core. There had been no choice, not when going up against the likes of Country Eater. An ordinary sword, even if high enough in quality to hurt a normal territory boss, was little more than a letter opener against a taboo territory boss. This was Gawain’s answer to the new class of opponents she was now facing.
Using both hands, Reen held Butter Knife in front of her in a combat stance. “Requesting limiter release for unique armament Butter Knife!”
A pop-up appeared on one of Sol’s screens. Having no reason to turn down the request, he pressed “Yes.”
A robotic voice coming from Butter Knife conveyed the decision. “Approved.”
“Commencing overdrive!”
Ancient text glowing in vivid blue light popped up, surrounding the point where the mana blade emanated from as the cross guard expanded. Magic formations in the shape of rings manifested around Reen’s hands and piled up in front of her with increasingly wider diameters, with the mana blade chasing them and swelling up accordingly. In the blink of an eye, Reen held in her hands a sword of light large enough to cut Country Eater in half. It was so much bigger than her that she was practically invisible next to it.
She swiftly raised the blade high overhead, nearly grazing Sol’s airship, then brought it down with all the strength she could muster.
“Released Armament Secret Art: Space Sundering!”
As Reen shouted out the name of the move, her gigantic blade fell like a meteor, tearing through the very space it passed through. All slimes had a high resistance to physical attacks, so the general strategy against them was to use magic. Country Eater, however, had also grown extremely proficient at absorbing attacks converted from mana and reflecting them, as demonstrated earlier with Divine Punishment. The solution that Reen had come up with, then, was to destroy the fabric of space itself. Before the secret art she had just used, all efforts at defense or evasion were utterly meaningless.
And yet, even such an attack was no exception to the absolute rule that was the HP barrier. Although Reen’s attack could tear through Country Eater’s protections and body like paper, it would remain entirely unhurt until she zeroed out its HP. Of course, in carrying out its purpose, the barrier’s durability was plummeting at an alarming rate. White sparks indicating that it was being ground down by the enormous world-splitting blade sprayed everywhere as the screech of torn metal pierced the air.
“Reen, we were right!”
“Whew, glad to hear it.”
Through Player, Sol could tell that Country Eater’s colossal HP barrier was going down so fast it was skipping digits. He and Reen had already known this would happen, so what he was confirming to her now was that her attack, Space Sundering, would indeed last long enough to drain the barrier.
Keeping Space Sundering going was consuming a staggering amount of Reen’s inner mana and the outer mana that Type Kuzuryuu was absorbing at maximum efficiency. However, this wasn’t a problem. Sol could now cast MP Recovery with practically no limit, thereby making it so that those fighting on his side never had to worry about running out of mana again. Unfortunately, just as someone couldn’t stay awake forever by continuously being healed, weapons also could not withstand channeling mana forever.
“Inverted Domain is up,” said Julia, cutting into the conversation as she zoomed about everywhere.
The Numbers armament made for her as the former healer of Black Tiger was Number Eight: Type Phoenix. Made from the body of Phoenix, one of the taboo territory bosses of Gio Nest, it gave her abilities that were centered on buffing allies and debuffing enemies. The design featured twelve massive monoliths hanging above her head in a circle, a pair of transparent goggles, and nothing else over her foundation suit other than flames that appeared to be combined with her form. This gave her a look more reminiscent of an ifrit than a phoenix—plus a thousand points in allure, if it was a stat.