Crackle—lightning sparked, and the thunder sword in Vesta's hand vanished.
And a beat later, Vesta's body also disappeared from Arphia's sight.
"...What?"
It was a super-speed that surpassed speed itself, leaving not even an afterimage behind.
The only thing left there was the crackling current, as if it were proof that Vesta had ever stood in that place.
Then the rabbit became a streak of light and charged forward.
At the same time, half of the monster that had devoured a god evaporated.
It hadn't been cut off. It hadn't burst apart and scattered blood everywhere.
One flash of lightning seemed to flicker, and then the monster's upper body simply vanished as if it had evaporated away.
"[-?!?!?!?!?]"
The sleeping monster screamed. The shock was enough to make it stop absorbing divine power and rise up.
Its half-body had evaporated in an instant. Following that trajectory, there was a white light wrapped in lightning.
"Haa..."
His breathing grew ragged.
His body was already in terrible shape, and forcing himself to do this on top of it felt like it might actually kill him.
But what else could he do? If he held back now, he'd be screwed. This was the time to throw everything in, consequences be damned.
[Keraunos Astrafe]
The technique of taking the spirit contained in a sword into one's own body.
By bearing the power of the spirit within himself, he could unleash absurd output for an instant while also super-enhancing his flesh.
As far as he knew, it was the only buff that surpassed Haruhime's.
Of course, it wasn't all good.
"Ggh..."
For one thing, it hurt like hell. So much that maintaining this technique caused more damage than getting beaten by an enemy.
On top of that, it devoured Mind like crazy, so even if his stamina held out, he couldn't keep it up for long. And when the technique ended, the backlash was huge, just like when he used [Argonaut].
It was a truly difficult technique to use. But even after accepting all those risks, the return was monstrous. It was enough to evaporate half the body of a monster that had devoured a god.
Overflowing current surged into his missing right arm and right eye.
As if replacing the lost parts of his body, the gathered lightning flickered in the shape of an eye and an arm.
He couldn't fully control the overwhelming current, so an enormous amount of electricity was wasted every second for no reason.
Even so, the electricity kept pouring out as if it had no bottom. As long as Vesta, the source of that power, didn't stop, it would truly keep flowing forever.
At the sight of that majesty, which seemed to transcend human limits, everyone there fell silent for a moment.
"Hmm... That ended more anticlimactically than I expected."
Fels, the first to recover, muttered in disbelief.
The monster before them was clearly a threat to humanity. A calamity that could destroy the world. And yet that man had brought it down so easily.
At this point, it was no longer even fair enough to call it cheating. A wall had to be at least a reasonable size before people would look up at it; a wall that towered into the heavens was something you didn't even bother glancing at.
"There's a limit to how absurd you can be..."
He said that, but there was a distinctly amused note in his voice.
An unprecedented crisis had been overcome in an instant. After being so shocked for a moment, that overwhelming strength only sank deeper into the heart.
Not only Fels, but Xenos and Ais also let their guard down in relief for an instant. And in that moment, only [Silence] reacted.
To the monster's attack, launched at terrifying speed.
Clang!
"Tch..."
With a gloved hand, Arphia slapped away something flying toward her. She couldn't see it, but from the feel of the impact she roughly inferred what it was, and her brow furrowed as she grimaced.
"What..."
"Don't let your guard down. Nothing has even started yet."
As Arphia said, the opponent was still not just fine, but practically brimming with vitality.
The half-body that had been blown away was rapidly restoring itself, growing larger by the second.
"No way! It's not even a living organism, and it has super-fast regeneration?!"
"No. That isn't regeneration."
As they recoiled in shock at that cheat-like recovery speed, a privilege of shapeless lifeforms that made it feel like true immortality, the witch corrected their misunderstanding.
"That isn't super-fast regeneration."
A thread of cold sweat ran down Arphia's face as she said it.
She was keeping her composure, but she was just as dumbfounded by the situation.
If only she could have believed it was super-fast regeneration. Arphia found herself resenting how sharp her own instincts were.
There are things that are scarier when you understand them than when you don't. The enemy before them was exactly that kind of thing.
"That is a dream."
"...A dream?"
"Yes. A dream."
More precisely, somewhere between dream and reality.
Maybe it was because it still hadn't fully absorbed the power. Or maybe it simply didn't know how to handle divine power.
But one thing was certain.
"That thing just connected the world and the dream, and shoved the fact that it had been attacked into the dream."
And sent only its unharmed self back into reality.
At that moment, the world changed.
Whatever happened in a dream meant nothing in reality.
"..."
The sage couldn't understand what the witch was saying.
Connect reality and dream? Dump the bad parts into a dream?
And then drag only the perfect self back into reality?
Impossible. It couldn't be.
Even if something like that really happened, was it supposed to be okay?
But even if he denied it, he had no grounds to do so.
The opponent was a level 7 powerhouse, a living embodiment of talent that had even astonished the gods.
Would someone like her really speak carelessly or make uncertain claims in a situation like this?
No—and beyond that, Fels had experience. Even if he didn't notice it himself, if someone gave him a clue, he was more than capable of reaching the right answer.
And to Fels, Arphia's answer was a perfect score.
In other words, if he were to put the current situation into the gods' own words...
"...This game is fucking bullshit."
A bitter curse slipped from the sage's mouth, despite his usual care with profanity.
And he wasn't the only one who was shaken.
'This is...'
Because he had faced it head-on, the rabbit understood it all the more keenly.
What exactly that monster had just done.
'No way... even worse than the Black Dragon?'
If he had to name the worst monsters he had ever faced, the Black Dragon would be at the top of the list.
Nemesis, destroyer. There had been plenty of strong monsters, but the Black Dragon was on another level.
The manifestation of despair. Living death.
It was an existence whose strength couldn't even be described with the word "strong," and even in death it had left a deep impression on the rabbit.
Its claws destroyed everything, and its thick scales repelled every attack.
But the enemy before him now possessed strength that didn't lose out even when compared to that Black Dragon.
The case of Antares was different. Back then, he had the divine spear weapon left behind by moonlight in his hand.
No matter how much the level gap had been back then, it would have been useless before divine power.
If anything, the situation back then, when he at least had a means, had been better if you looked at it purely in terms of circumstances.
At least now, because the monster still hadn't fully absorbed divine power, they could still fight it. But if they delayed any longer, they'd truly be unable to do anything.
So before that—
'I have to... kill the god—'
Suddenly, the final image of moonlight flashed through his mind.
What was different between the me now and the me then?
Had I become better than I was back then? If the moment from that time returned before my eyes right now, could I save her?
Thoughts flickered through him. An inerasable sense of bitterness blocked his choice.
No, what am I thinking? The opponent is a monster with divine power, isn't it? There's no room to hold back.
I have to do it. I have to. I must...!
"[Gospel]."
KWAAAAAAA—!!!
"Wah?!"
A tremendous sound swept through the Dungeon.
What, what was that?!
"Hm..."
The source of the sound. Arphia, both eyes now open, let out a low hum.
"I thought I hit it pretty hard."
She had been able to shake off that hateful curse for an instant through the power of holy flame.
Thanks to that, she had been able to throw herself into battle with a level of all-out force she had never used in her life...
"And yet it was only one arm."
Even the arm she had blown off had returned in an instant. How had the rabbit managed to blow away half of such a monster in a single strike?
"What are you dawdling for?"
"Arphia-san..."
"You're not planning to die on your own after coming all this way, are you? If you keep dawdling, I'll kill you myself."
At the witch's words, the rabbit's mouth hung open stupidly.
Her bold demeanor left him momentarily dazed even in this situation.
She was strong. Unlike him, this was probably the first time she had faced such a phenomenon, and yet she showed no sign of being intimidated, instead radiating the noble bearing of a queen as she bared her hostility toward the monster.
"Ha ha..."
Slap—with his left arm and his right arm made of lightning, he pressed both hands to his cheeks.
Right. I'm not alone right now. There are people who will help me, people I have to protect.
There's no need to hesitate. No matter how foolish, no matter how stupid the path, I'll see through what I believe in.
Not killing the god, only killing the monster. It wasn't to avoid the sin of godslaying.
This was only a confirmation. He wanted proof that if he himself returned to that moment, he wouldn't lose his moon so helplessly again like he had then.
"All right."
Now that he had steeled himself, it was time to act.
Vesta calmly analyzed his opponent.
'For starters, the raw power itself is weaker than the Black Dragon.'
If the Black Dragon was an indestructible existence, then this thing was like the sea—no matter how much you tore into it, it would return to how it had been.
Its defense might be lacking compared to the Black Dragon, but since it could erase injuries as if they had never happened, that ultimately meant nothing. To bring it down, he had to cut off its life in a single blow.
And at the same time, he had to extract the god. Then that insane regeneration would stop too.
'...Can I do it?'
The power was sufficient. In fact, it was so abundant it was a problem.
The issue was the attack's range. If he widened the attack's area, the power would inevitably drop. In that case, there was a high chance he wouldn't be able to finish it off in one shot. If that happened, it would just regenerate immediately, and all of this would be for nothing.
But if he forced the power higher, the god wouldn't be able to endure it. In his current state, he couldn't control the output properly, so fine adjustments were impossible.
'How do I blow away only the monster?'
Considering the time needed to charge, he only had one chance. If he delayed any longer than that, the monster would probably fully absorb the god's power.
The moment of choice drew near. In some corner of his heart, a voice whispered to just give up on the god and kill the monster.
Abandon the 1 and save the 100. Repeat the choice from back then. It tempted him as if that were the truth.
It told him he couldn't do it. That it was impossible. It tried to seduce him with the sweet lure of surrender.
That was true. He had no way to break this situation right now.
With every passing second, the moment of choice drew closer. On the scales before him, one side held his stubbornness, and the other held the fate of the world.
As if trying to discipline a stubborn child, the monster's furious assault began. It endured the witch's bombardment and kept stepping forward.
The monster's approaching presence itself became pressure. And that pressure bore down on him, forcing his choice.
It thrust before him a choice that was dressed up like a choice, but in truth was only one option.
He realized his breathing was growing ragged little by little. In more ways than one, this was a bad situation.
'Ah, what do I do?'
Suddenly, he felt his mind go blank. Sometimes that happened.
When the danger right in front of him and the blade being shoved at his throat started to feel like something far away.
When the worry became so severe that he just wanted everything to disappear.
It was the moment he once again realized what a shitty world this was. Every time before, a companion, a god, some other object of longing had saved him—but now he was alone.
There was no one to help him... nowhere...
'...Hah?!'
His senses snapped back. He dragged his fading mind back up.
'What am I thinking right now...'
The holy flame began to weaken. Running two reckless techniques at once was draining him far more violently than expected.
Should he give up one technique? But if he extinguished the holy flame, he'd fall back into the nightmare, and if he gave up the buff, he'd lose firepower.
He couldn't give up either one, but if he tried to keep both, he'd go groggy before he could do anything.
'This is... could this be a pinch?'
This wasn't the time to be thinking about how to bring down that monster. If he wasn't careful, it would all be over before he could even do anything!
Realizing how serious the situation was only made him more frantic.
What do I do, should I just grit my teeth and swing once?!
'More importantly, the drain is way too severe...?'
No matter how big a technique it was, it was still his technique. How could it be this different? If things were going as expected, he should have been able to hold out until the fight ended.
Even accounting for his poor physical condition, the rate was absurd. There had to be some other reason.
And fortunately, the cause was quickly revealed.
'The output is... higher?'
The lightning pouring out was more violent than usual. Responding to the power of the monster before him, it resonated and grew in size.
'Come to think of it, that thing was a spirit.'
He only learned after that incident was over, but he had heard that it was a normal monster transformed into a spirit by some kind of jewel or something. So the same spirit power was probably reacting.
Bell's sword had been like that too. That was probably it.
'Thinking about it, that's a dragon that was turned into a spirit.'
Right now Arphia-san was beating it senseless, so its original form was hard to make out, but if he thought back to how it had looked when he first saw it, that thing was definitely draconic.
Spirit... dragon...
"Hmm..."
Could it be?
Suddenly, an idea flashed through his mind like lightning.