The spectacle unfolding before my eyes rendered me speechless. The zombie dragon had broken into the other world, taking an entire army of monsters on its back. The Demon King had succeeded in crossing the Dimension Door.
“He beat us to the punch,” someone muttered, bringing me back to my senses. It was Nakajima, a daring smile on his face. “I don’t know what he’s planning, but I guess the Lord of Darkness is making a move. We can’t go falling behind now.”
He sounded vexed, but there was no bitterness behind his words. On the contrary, he seemed excited.
“We have one more person to stop! Everyone, give it your all!”
He would overcome any obstacle. He would overturn any unreasonable event. If he was on the verge of defeat, he would turn the tide. He marched forward with an indomitable will and unfathomable power. This was the leader of the exploration team, Nakajima Kojirou.
Frozen by the unexpected development, the exploration team members quickly regained their energy. In contrast, I was spurred into action for an entirely different reason. Nakajima Kojirou was the leader of the exploration team, not mine. I had the responsibility to lead my own group. I had something I had to do first.
“Lobivia! We’re going after them!” I yelled, grabbing Lobivia by the shoulders and staring into her eyes.
“T-Takahiro...” she responded in a daze.
“We already knew Malvina had turned into an undead monster,” I said. “We didn’t expect her to become Kudou’s servant, but that doesn’t change what has to be done. We have to grant her a peaceful sleep. Am I wrong?”
It was a shock for her to appear so suddenly. Just imagining what must have gone through the little dragon’s mind when she saw the tragic state of her mother’s corpse made me want to hug her. But I knew how strong Lobivia was. Despite her age, she had the strength of heart to fight for what was dear to her. Also, even though Malvina had died with their relationship still in a rocky state, Lobivia loved her mother. There was no way she was going to remain frozen here. Remembering what her duty was, a powerful will flared within her eyes.
“Kudou’s destination is the same as ours,” I said, letting go of her shoulders. “We’re going after him.”
“Yeah... We’ll definitely catch up,” Lobivia responded with a nod.
I looked around me. There was one more person I had to talk to.
“Majima Takahiro...” Berta looked at me, her tail sadly dangling to the ground.
“There’s no need to feel guilty,” I said. “You aren’t responsible for his deeds.”
“But...”
“Remember what you said? You want Kudou to choose his own path. So, you don’t have time to despair.”
For better or worse, Kudou’s existence was the only thing that roused Berta into action. She was such an honest soul. She remained indecisive for a moment, but ultimately nodded.
“Thank you. And sorry,” Berta said.
The latter half was directed at Lobivia, but the little dragon flapped her wings and huffed as if to tell her not to worry about it. It looked like these two were fine now. Once I confirmed this, I noticed that Nakajima was smiling at me.
“Looks like you’re fine now,” he said.
“Yes. Thanks for waiting. Let’s go.”
“Right. Leave your safety on the way there up to me. Until we break into the other world, we’ll go with me and Majima at the front just as planned. Everyone else protect the sides and rear. Kouzu, can I leave supporting the rear to you guys?”
“Understood,” Kouzu answered.
His group was considered separate from the exploration team. This was a joint operation between the exploration team, the group of visitors affiliated with the church, and my group. It was important for all of us to play our roles to prevent the end of the world.
“Let’s go!” Nakajima roared.
The exploration team charged forward with terrifying speed. They were probably holding back so that they could keep it up for a long-distance run, but they were still nearly as fast as I could go at full speed. If I tried to keep up on my own, I’d run out of breath quickly. I’d closed the gap between us considerably compared to when I first came to this world, but I still couldn’t hold a candle to any of them in terms of individual strength.
That didn’t really matter here, of course. It wasn’t my job to fight this time. I straddled Berta’s back alongside Lobivia and Ayame. Seeing how we were working with the exploration team, Berta kept her true form hidden, so she wasn’t exhibiting her full strength. The idea was to have Lobivia and Ayame make up for that.
What’s more, Lily and Shiran, who were both contestants for being my strongest servant, reinforced our flanks. Even if several members of the exploration team attacked us, we wouldn’t go down easily.
Having formed up perfectly, we charged through the forest toward the Dimension Door. Dozens of guardian giants blocked our path. These were no normal monsters. Every single one of them possessed the strength of a rare monster, or maybe even more. The greatest threat was those heat rays used in unison. We were capable of close-quarters combat, so the idea had come up to drag things into a melee to prevent them from using their heat rays out of concern for friendly fire, but it turned out they couldn’t damage each other like that, so a melee would actually be more dangerous for us.
It was a boon to have received such information from the Holy Church beforehand, but dealing with that many giants at the same time was still a difficult proposition. In a head-on fight, even the cheaters of the exploration team would end up being stalled, but nobody slowed their charge. There was no need to.
“Majima finished his job splendidly. Now it’s time to do ours!” Nakajima smiled ferociously and raised his hand. A terrifying amount of mana gushed out of his palm, turning into a glowing sword in the blink of an eye. “Take one shortsword. Go to hell.”
Nakajima Kojirou’s Sword of Light was the ability to quite literally create swords made of light. However, these swords didn’t all possess the same power. Their strength was equivalent to the amount of time he’d used to charge them with mana. Given no preparation, a dagger. One day’s worth, a shortsword. Ten days, a greatsword. Naturally, the swords got stronger and stronger with size. They had plenty of destructive potential when wielded like blades, but their full potential could be unleashed all at once.
“Haaaah!”
Nakajima yelled with spirit and undid the bonds of his shortsword, transforming it into a blinding torrent of light. This was the strike of a savior. By the time the light vanished, a path of ground rubble and wood chips was now open, leading to the Dimension Door.
“That many with one strike...”
I’d been informed of this beforehand, but witnessing it for myself was a shock.
“I’ve gotta show my good side,” Nakajima said, turning an affable smile my way. “Well, with this, I’ve used one up, though.”
He didn’t have unlimited use of the Sword of Light. Wielding them like normal swords expended them little by little, and unleashing one like he had expended it entirely. According to how it’d been explained to me, it was possible to stockpile swords. At most, he could store thirty shortswords or five greatswords. In other words, he had thirty shots maximum. What’s more, he was refraining from attacking with the more powerful greatswords, which he had far fewer of.
I already knew this and didn’t give it much thought normally, but I was just a little jealous. If I had that much power, I’d be able to protect the others no matter what happened. I shook off such thoughts as a momentary lapse of judgment and focused on the black sphere ahead of me.
Our three groups charged into the other world.