Teardrop Big Bro seemed entirely unaffected by the surrounding abnormal statuses or the residual mana left behind by Alfia.
Isagi and the girls watched.
The jet-black iron wolf and the Spirit Shark Demon crashed together — the impact of steel against flesh sent violent shockwaves rippling endlessly through the water around them.
In theory, adventurers fighting underwater should never be able to perform at full strength.
It wasn't just a matter of resistance. There was also the unfamiliarity, the inability to breathe, and a dozen other complications — which was precisely why the [Diving] development ability even existed in the first place.
But Teardrop Big Bro didn't seem to care at all.
Of course not.
For something like him, whether on land or underwater, there was probably no difference whatsoever.
Isagi was even starting to think that, at this moment, Teardrop Big Bro might actually be stronger than him.
With each sweep of the greatsword, the weapons in his hands kept shifting and cycling through — all of them black, all of them counterfeits, yet every single one capable of performing exactly as the real thing would.
The long blade's parry-and-counter.
The rapid-fire shots of [Left Bow].
Twin swords flickering with blood-red light.
A massive war hammer cobbled together from a bladed staff and a mass of flesh.
Every trick in the book — and Teardrop Big Bro knew every single one of them!
Watching him fight from not too far away, Isagi was struck by a strange, almost surreal sense of displacement — like watching himself in third person, seeing his own battles play out from the outside. It felt almost like watching a gameplay recording.
And not just that.
Observing "himself" fight from this third-person vantage point gave Isagi the distinct feeling that he was learning something valuable.
He quickly activated the "recording" function in his Eye Crystal, capturing everything he was seeing so he could study it carefully when he got back.
Isagi found himself completely absorbed.
Teardrop Big Bro's fighting style was brutally straightforward — though it did have a somewhat mechanical quality to it. More often than not, he didn't bother to dodge, choosing instead to simply eat his opponent's attacks head-on, which made for a pretty rough-looking scene on the surface.
But Big Bro had the stats to back it up!
It was the first time Isagi had really stopped to appreciate just how far his own stat growth had come. All those levels he'd pushed through, especially the leap from Lv.4 to Lv.5 — grinding his stats to the cap, then piling on all those elixirs until his [Endurance] had broken past 2000.
When facing monsters of roughly the same level as himself —
The monsters simply couldn't hurt him anymore.
That was exactly what he was seeing right now. Teardrop Big Bro stood like an immovable mountain, utterly unfazed in the face of the Spirit Shark Demon's ferocious onslaught — and rather than giving ground, he kept launching counter after counter, leaving the creature perpetually unable to find its footing.
Holy crap — has my build finally come together?
Am I actually a powerhouse now?!
Isagi had always defaulted to evasion as his primary combat instinct — but watching this, it occurred to him that in the future, he could just send Teardrop Big Bro to soak the hits first.
Anything Big Bro could tank, he should be able to tank too.
While those thoughts were still turning over in his mind —
The scales of battle had already begun tilting steadily in their favor. The Spirit Shark Demon's defeat was starting to look less like an "if" and more like a "when."
And then, as little Saika gradually devoured every last trace of Alfia's residual mana drifting in the surroundings, the process only accelerated further.
Every last debuff and abnormal status vanished without a trace — and Lefiya and Haruhime were finally able to fight at their full strength.
"— Grow!"
The fox girl immediately began chanting her magic.
Small golden hammers materialized above the heads of Isagi, Lefiya, and Teardrop Big Bro — then slowly descended.
Power surged through him in an instant!
Isagi didn't linger. Greatsword in hand, he shot forward and joined Teardrop Big Bro in a two-on-one.
And so —
The Spirit Shark Demon, which had already been getting thoroughly suppressed, suddenly found itself under even more crushing pressure.
It almost felt like their side was just bullying the poor thing at this point.
What is even happening right now?!
Meanwhile, Lefiya — looking very much like someone who had finally been set free — launched into a full-throated chant of her magic.
There was no need to drag out her ridiculous [Explosion Magic] in a situation like this. She went with the same [Glacial Arrow] as before.
Except this time, the power behind it was nothing like the "gentle tap" she'd managed earlier.
A colossal bolt of crystalline ice came surging in with terrifying force — enormous enough that it nearly swallowed the Spirit Shark Demon's entire body whole.
Almost in an instant, the surrounding crystal jungle was painted over in frost-white.
Isagi and Teardrop Big Bro immediately fell back in unison.
Two figures — identical in every way, both clad in jet-black wolf-form iron armor — reached back through their cloaks at almost the exact same moment and drew a single long blade each.
[Moonlight Hider].
Not a weapon meant for cutting people — but a magic staff.
Pure mana began to gather and condense, washing over the originally silver-white blades and drowning them in deep azure.
Dense as solid matter. Roaring with contained force.
And then —
It erupted into a torrent of radiance that tore through the water toward the Spirit Shark Demon in the distance.
Azure sword-light like lunar blades crossed and converged — and the Spirit Shark Demon, which had just been frozen solid by the colossal frost arrow an instant before, was carved apart and scattered.
Done.
Lefiya hummed cheerfully and trotted over, waving Haruhime along with her, showing the fox girl how to extract Magic Stones from a monster's body along with any drop materials.
The battle had gone far more smoothly than anyone had anticipated. God Baldr let out a long, relieved breath.
He told them that as far as he was concerned, there was nothing left here — they were free to head back whenever they liked.
"That said, a Dragon Palace with a guardian like that usually contains Leviathan's [Heart] somewhere inside. It might be worth venturing deeper to look."
"Sure, no problem."
It wasn't anything particularly difficult.
Before long, deep within the crystal jungle, Isagi came upon a magnificent, pulsating Magic Stone — it throbbed like an actual heartbeat, and one glance was enough to tell that this was no ordinary specimen.
More importantly —
Saika was staring at it with an expression of absolute, unbearable hunger.
But he couldn't feed it to her yet.
What if this Leviathan Magic Stone served some other purpose?
The residual mana from Alfia that was still drifting all around the Dragon Palace, however — that he could let the little one have every last bit of.
It wasn't getting in the way of anything. All he had to do was wait.
And so, several more hours passed. Only after Saika had eaten her fill to her heart's content did they finally surface.
By then, it was already the afternoon.
The golden sun of late summer hung low over the calm sea, scattering across the surface in glittering fragments of light. Great billowing clouds drifted lazily along the horizon, piled high at the edge of the world.
God Baldr informed Isagi that the Leviathan Magic Stone was his to take home.
"When the Academic District was conducting the subjugation of Leviathan back in the day, they received a share of its Magic Stone remnants from Hera Familia. After so many years of research, there's nothing more to be learned from them — no further use.\
"Once it's reclaimed, the Guild would just hand it out as a commission reward for adventurers anyway. You might as well take it directly."
Since a god was saying so, Isagi wasn't about to refuse.
In truth, recovering any Magic Stones that might exist within the Dragon Palace had only ever been a secondary objective — whether they found one or not had never really mattered. What mattered was that this god of radiance had wanted to see the young man fight.
And now, he had seen it.
Not just Isagi.
Lefiya, too. Even Haruhime.
And that black-clad figure — identical in every way to the boy, seeming to exist as some kind of "magical mirror image" — what exactly was it?
That it could perform at the exact same level as Isagi was simply beyond comprehension.
In fact, in a certain sense, a "mirror image" composed entirely of pure mana — feeling no pain, utterly immune to all abnormal statuses — wasn't that an existence even more formidable than the boy himself?
Impossible to understand. Far too absurd.
Even having once witnessed the great warriors of Zeus Familia and Hera Familia, the golden-haired god still felt that the young man before him was somehow even more... unsettling.
It was a power that even the gods could not comprehend.
So this was the city's current [Hero]. No wonder Ouranos placed such absolute faith in him.
Baldr understood now.
And it wasn't just the boy's own displayed power — it extended to the companions standing at his side as well.
That level-up magic that defied all belief.
And that mage — so breathtakingly skilled in mana manipulation it bordered on the supernatural, capable of wielding a dizzying array of spells that seemed to have no end.
The [Hero] was not alone.
Those around him were no ordinary people either. Even without knowing the specifics of the young man's and the young women's skills and magic, God Baldr had seen enough from what they'd demonstrated in battle alone.
Peace of mind.
"..."
The future of this world.
It could truly be entrusted to them with confidence.
The god of radiance thought this as the sun descended further and further, the sky darkening as night closed in — and before long, another pitch-black night was nearly upon them.
But then the sun would rise again, bringing new light — and so it would go, without end, forever —
Labyrinth City. Orario.
Ryuu slipped through the bustling streets of the Western Main Street, having just barely managed to shake off Anya — who had spotted her and immediately begun skulking after her, trying to tag along for some "fun."
That girl.
She was still supposed to be on the clock, and here she was plotting to ditch work!
If Mama Mia caught her at it, she'd be in for a proper scolding — besides, Ryuu was heading off to do something important, not to play. She absolutely could not drag that troublemaker along.
So, having successfully ditched the airhead cat-girl —
Ryuu moved through the old market district on the western side of Main Street, in the Seventh Ward.
Near the banks of the long river that cut through the city, the lively bustle of the trading district shimmered in the distance, seemingly close enough to touch — along with the towering, absurdly whimsical structure known as [I am Ganesha], looming beneath the night sky.
By contrast.
This side of the street was remarkably quiet — because it was nearly abandoned.
As part of the old city, the block Ryuu now walked through had almost no residents left. And there before her, beside the silent flowing river, a tall clock tower — long since fallen into total disrepair — was quietly turning its hands in the dark of night.
This was the place.
Ryuu confirmed it. This was still the clue she had found — dug out from journals and records that adventurers had written themselves — the key clue concerning Alfia.
The [Great Clock Tower].
Within this city, it was the most important place to that once-legendary genius — that monstrous adventurer.
____
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