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Chapter 38 – part 15

In her heart, Takemikazuchi’s voice questioned her.

「Hey, Saegusa Koharu? You can’t forgive the fact that the Saegusa family has fallen into ruin, and you, its representative, are considered incompetent, can you? 」

「I… can’t」

「Do you also find it unacceptable that the demons and monsters that devastated Saegusa’s village are still wreaking havoc all over the world?」

「I… do.」

「This will be the last question. What you couldn’t forgive the most in the end… What was it exactly?」

In her heart, she answered the final question in her own voice.

「What I can’t forgive is myself! If I don’t do something here, I’ll remain a loser forever! So please… lend me your strength!」

As she spoke, a purple lightning enveloped Koharu.

Its scale exceeded a radius of 10 meters, and along with the deafening roar of thunder, Koharu cried out.

「Resurrection of the God of War… Takemikazuchi!」

The young boy initially had a surprised expression, but then he frowned.

「Are you saying that a great spirit equal to a god lent you its power twice in this short period of time?」

However, he quickly changed his mind and shook his head left and right.

「But you’re doing something that doesn’t make any sense, you know? For humans to harness such a massive spiritual force twice in a short time. It could result in being incapacitated… or even death. You, as a professional, should understand that, right?」

Koharu chuckled self-deprecatingly and nodded.

「Yeah, maybe.」

「Moreover… even if you summon a god again, what’s the point? What can you do? Even your ultimate technique from earlier… I emerged unscathed, didn’t I?」

At this point, Koharu grinned defiantly and raised her hand above her head.

「If you think you can underestimate me, shall you deal with this first?」

Suddenly, within a radius of about 500 meters above Koharu, spears of light danced in the air.

Their numbers were extraordinary, possibly in the hundreds or even over a thousand at a glance.

「A thousand Thunder God Spears… If you can withstand them all, go ahead!」

The young boy narrowed his eyes at that moment.

His expression was akin to a cat tormenting a mouse, an unmerciful smile of an undisputed powerhouse.

「Haha… this looks like fun! Even now, I’m still at the pinnacle of demons. I have confidence in my toughness and resilience, you know? I’m looking forward to the expression on your face when I emerge unscathed from everything you throw at me.」

With those words, the Thunder God Spears in the air began to assault the young boy one after another.

First, ten of them.

With a slight delay, another ten.

After a total of twenty spears had attacked, the unharmed young boy, wearing a faint smile, asked Koharu,

「So, how was your feeling when I emerged unscathed from all of that?」

In response to his words, Koharu provocatively threw back her words with pride.

「Will you say that after you’ve endured all nearly a thousand of them?」

Koharu waved her hand, and ten more spears immediately assaulted the young boy.

「Oh, by the way… Could it be that you can only control them in sets of ten? Isn’t that taking too much time?」

「That’s why I said to wait until you’ve endured them all, you arrogant brat! That condescending look on your face… I’m going to wipe it off!」

In response to Koharu’s ever-provocative remarks, the young boy’s mouth curled into a genuinely joyful smile.

「Haha… I’m really looking forward to it. When I’ve smashed all of your precious one thousand spears, I wonder what expression you’ll have.」

「Yeah, I’m looking forward to it too. Your astonished expression when I—」

With that, Koharu waved her hand once again.

She sent ten spears at a time, with a few seconds of delay between each set.

The successive waves of attacks continued, and the remaining spears dwindled rapidly. \

— About five minutes had passed.

When there were only ten spears left, the unscathed young boy shrugged his shoulders as if he were bored.

「I’ve gone along with this just to break your spirit, but… so far, I’m completely undamaged. And I can’t think of anything you can do from here.」

Without responding to his words, Koharu waved her hand to send the last spear at the young boy.

The Thunder God Spear danced through the air towards him, and then a cloud of dust rose.

When the dust cleared, the unharmed young boy was still standing there.

「Well, is this the end of it all?」

With an expression of unrestrained joy, the young boy asked,

「So, what could you do after all? You couldn’t even scratch me, right? Attacking a defenseless opponent for five minutes straight… and you couldn’t leave a single scratch on me? Haha! Hahahaha! After a second divine descent, it was all in vain, futile, and pointless! You were so confident, but… Haha! Hahahaha!」

The laughter of the young boy echoed in the surroundings.

In response, Koharu also twisted her mouth as if she couldn’t bear it any longer.

「Thanks for going out of your way… and enduring it exactly as I expected, you pathetic fool!」

After saying this, Koharu’s standing hair flowed downward.

It meant that the static electricity surrounding her had been completely dispelled.

「Did you cancel the descent?」

「Yes. Didn’t you say earlier that the strain on the body was tremendous? I don’t want to burden myself with any more useless stress.」

「What are you trying to do…?」

In response to the boy’s question, Koharu laughed and thrust her palm forward, pointing her thumb upward toward the sky.

「Oh, that’s right. You asked what I could do, didn’t you?」

She then reversed her hand, spun her thumb, and swiftly pointed it toward the ground.

「I was able to buy time until Lute-kun arrived! Thanks for enduring the lowest-tier technique I specially prepared just for time-wasting!」

Gon!

With a sound, an impact struck the boy’s head from behind, where the Demon God had been.

It was the sound of a kick someone had delivered to the back of the Demon God’s head.

It traced a clean arc and sent the Demon God crashing face-first into the ground.

Simultaneously, a resounding explosion and swirling dirt erupted.

A crater, several meters in radius, formed on the ground.

In the center of it all stood the Demon God, with its head plunged into the ground, its body reversed with its head in a rigid, upright salute posture, creating a bizarre scene that resembled a comedy skit.

「You did well, Koharu. It’s been quite a while since Cordelia and the others were instantly defeated, huh? Honestly, I didn’t think you’d hold out this long.」

「Haha, Lute-kun said it.」

「I said it?」

Tilting his head slightly, Lute was amazed as Koharu threw words at him as if she couldn’t believe it.

「’I entrusted this place to you because I thought you could handle it’… That’s what you said, right?」

In response to her words, Lute wore a sky-blue smile.

「Haha, not much of a difference. Besides, you’ve reached your limit, haven’t you? From here on, leave it to me.」

Finally, the Demon God pulled its head out of the ground.

Coughing and choking, with a streak of blood running from its nose, the Demon God asked Lute.

「Even though it was a complete surprise attack… My blood? Who are… Who are you?」

「Hmm? Me? I am—」

After pondering for a moment, Lute said,

「—The world’s strongest villager.」

Koharu collapsed on the spot as if her legs had given out, laughing.

Then she sent Lute an incredulous glance.

「…Really?」

Koharu was well aware that Lute was something out of the ordinary, to say the least.

That’s why she had played out the farce earlier just to buy time until Lute arrived.

However, the opponent she faced when confronting Lute was also an unprecedented and extraordinary outlier.

The opponent was a being recognized as a top-tier calamity even among individual entities.

—a monster.

A Demon Lord.

An absolute transcendent and an unparalleled existence.

Facing such an opponent, Lute was, after all, nothing more than a student.

For certain reasons, he had concealed his abilities and existed in the lowest tier, but now he was engaging in the unbelievable.

It seemed he possessed powers exceeding even Cordelia Allston.