The Fighting God stood to confront me, the last one standing.
“Any final words?”
“Honestly, I’d like to beg for my life.”
“You may try, though I would not hold out hope that your pleas will be heard. The Man-God desires your death.”
I want to find a moment to heal Eris, I thought groggily. It didn’t look like I was going to be granted that. Wasn’t there another way?
If I kept Badigadi distracted for five minutes—hell, three would do—just time enough to dash to Eris’s side. I’d settle for Cliff waking up and healing someone. Wasn’t there something, anything, I could do?
“Okay, you can have my life. In exchange…would you please spare my family?”
“Oho? Family, you say?”
“I don’t think your Majesty is aware, but I have children now. All four of them healthy.”
“Children are a fine thing. I’d like some of my own with Kishirika one day.” Badigadi nodded. “Very well. But know that if any of them rises against me, I shall show no mercy.”
“Of course.”
After I was dead, the Man-God would go after my children, but now, he wouldn’t have Badigadi helping him. Getting that promise from him would have to do for now. Even if it might not mean anything in the end…
This was my final job.
“Fwahahaha, haaahahahahahahaha!” Badigadi cackled, raising his fist. “Farewell, then, boy!”
At this, I raised both of my hands. As my final act, I could at least hit him with the strongest Stone Cannon I could—
“Get down!”
I threw myself down on all fours like a dog. Something even lower to the ground than I was passed by in the corner of my vision. It shot between the Fighting God’s legs, then stopped behind him. It had gray skin, animal ears, and a cat-like tail. A black wolf. It had sliced through the Fighting God’s legs around the knees, and for a moment, his balance faltered—but only for a moment. The armor repaired itself straight away, and his fist came down undeterred.
Just then, a long skirt fluttered above me. I was being straddled.
“Hmph!” As the Fighting God swung his fist down, he disappeared from my view. I felt something large get blasted away into the sky somewhere behind me. A little later there was a rumble as something hit the ground. What had happened? All I could see was the inside of this long skirt, and, above me, a pair of pale blue panties. The owner of said panties seemed familiar, though I couldn’t place them. But the other one, the wolf? I knew that wolf. I’d seen them before. As if I could forget! That way of moving, that sandy hair, that red-brown skin—plus the waving tail and animal ears.
“Ghislaine!” I cried. That meant the one with black hair had to be Isolde! Water Emperor Isolde! Ghislaine and Isolde had been working together!
“Sylphie!”
Sylphie came darting onto the battlefield like a mouse. She went over to the fallen and simply laid her hands on them. It only took that much for their wounds to heal. Before I knew it, she’d healed Dohga and Zanoba. She was using silent spellcasting. Until now, I hadn’t really considered that it had this advantage—I hadn’t had the chance. Now I saw it, it was clear as day. She was crazy fast. Faster than me and Cliff together. As I watched, Eris and Ruijerd emerged from the bushes and returned to the battlefield, and before I knew it, our line of battle was back on its feet. Isolde took the main shield position with Dohga and Zanoba relegated to sub-shields. Eris, Ghislaine, and Ruijerd were our attackers. And now, we had Sylphie and her unvoiced healing magic as our healer. Our battle line was standing.
We’d made it out of hell.
“Rudy!” Sylphie called. “I’ll hold him down here, so you get to the village! Roxy’s waiting for you there!”
“Got it!” With that, I set off running for the Superd village at an all-out sprint. I ran harder than I ever had in my life.
Sylphie had come. Even though I’d brought the bridge over the ravine down, she was here. That meant she must have come from the village, and that meant that the card I’d been keeping in reserve had arrived at last. Jumping over tree roots and plunging on through the trees, I finally made it back to the Superd Village. What I saw there filled me with joy. The moment I entered the village, there it was, in the distance. The thing I’d been holding out for sat on top of the teleportation circle I’d drawn up in preparation in the back of the village. I kept running as fast as I could.
“Big Brother!”
“Grand Master!”
“Oh, Big Bro…”
On the way, I passed Norn, Julie, and Aisha, but I ignored them. I just kept running until I reached it. A girl sat on the ground near the broken teleportation circle. She looked exhausted.
“Roxy!” I cried.
She looked up at me. “Oh, Rudy.” There were dark rings under her eyes, like she was out of mana or hadn’t slept in days. “I’m so sorry. I messed up the procedure. I dug it out, then after I’d gotten it up, I started working on the teleportation circle. If I’d drawn the teleportation circle first, then had you dig it up, I wouldn’t have been so late…”
“That’s fine! It’s all fine! You got here in time!”
Behind her was a giant set of armor.
Three meters tall and dark blue, its right hand was equipped with a Gatling gun and its left with a shotgun. Besides that, there was a magic sword with the power to ignore all defenses clenched in its fist. The armor was as thick and hefty as a sumo wrestler’s body; it was lying face down. It didn’t look that different from the Version One, but this was not the Version One. This armor, gotten ready just in case of an occasion such as this, was my honest-to-god trump card. It was a weapon for short, decisive battles. Increasing its mana consumption several times over gave it massively improved mobility and armor. In concept, it was the inverse of the Version Three, and so we’d named it—
“This is the Magic Armor Version Zero,” Roxy said.
This was my ace up my sleeve. My trump card. If I couldn’t win with this… Scratch that. Useless way of thinking about it. The odds were against me regardless.
“I’ll be back soon, Roxy!”
“Good luck in the battle, Rudy!”
I got into the Version Zero. The sensation of so much mana being drawn out of me made me a little dizzy as I stood up. Then, I saw Orsted standing in the center of the village. He was holding a gigantic sword.
“Rudeus! Use it!” he shouted, then tossed the great blade to me like it weighed nothing at all. I caught it. It was just the right size for a three-meter-tall suit of armor. Even I, with my clumsy swordsmanship, could feel the awesome power it contained just by holding it.
This was the King Dragon Blade, Kajakut.
“Sir Orsted! I’ll be back soon!” I called. Orsted didn’t reply, only nodded.
Pushing the Version Zero as hard as it would go, I sped back to the battlefield.