The surroundings were destroyed by the mini-beams and parts of the foothold other than where Yue and Hajime were, already sunk into the sea of magma.
These mini-beams stubbornly aimed at Hajime, they didn't even pouring at the nearby footholds where Shia and Tio were to halt them. However, Shia and Tio were forced to stay where they were because the power and density of barrage from the mini-beams were that abnormal.
"Hajime-san! Hajime-saan!"
"Calm down, Shia! Thou willth die if thou come out of this one's protection!"
"But! Hajime-san is-!"
Tio frantically admonished Shia, who tried to dash into the downpour of mini-beams with tearful look while she moved the shield of swirling wind.
Tio was also worried about Hajime. She understood how painful it was for Shia. However, they mustn't defenselessly charge into the minimized version of the attack that had severely injured Hajime, and had an effect of weakening the recovery rate of holy water. Gripping Shia by the scruff of her neck, Tio desperately averted the threatening lights.
After ten seconds or maybe one minute... the storm of beams that seemed to continue through the eternity, poured down particularly intense, and the end finally could be seen. The surroundings were in miserable condition, and white smokes were rising here and there.
Yue and Tio had used up their magic power. Panting, they refilled their magic power using the magic power stocked inside Magic-Crystallization stones.
And at the same time, a man's voice that was half-amazed and half-admiring descended from the sky.
"... A force that cannot be overlooked; indeed it was the right thing to ambush here. You are all too dangerous. Especially, that man..."
Yue and the girls looked up towards the ceiling where the voice came from. Following that, their eyes opened wide in astonishment. As for the reason, several dragons and a pure white, gigantic dragon that couldn't be compared to the rest were flying, and there was a red-haired, black-skinned, slightly pointed ear, a man from Demon race on the white dragon's back.
"For the Breath of my white dragon to be incapable of killing him... and in addition, he had strong unknown weapons not written in the report... these women, too. It is truly unbelievable for you to not be finished with a barrage of 50 Ash Dragons. You, just what are you? Just how many Age of Gods magic do you have?"
The man was glaring from the sky with his dangerously narrowed golden eyes, similar to Tio's. He asked that question while being cautious of Yue and the others who glared back at him. He thought Yue and the girls' power came from Age of Gods magic from the Great Dungeons.
"Before questioning, how about you introduce yourself first? Does the Demon race have no manners?"
The one who answered the Demon race man was the previously unconscious Hajime. The Demon race man frowned. However, Yue and the girls' voice rang out before the man even opened his mouth.
"Hajime!"
"Hajime-san!"
"Art thou okay!? Master!?"
Hajime somehow managed to raise his upper body, but he once again fell because his injury was indeed severe. Yue promptly supported him while Shia and Tio jumped from the nearby foothold to where Hajime was, worried.
Hajime smiled to tell Yue and the girls, who were worriedly looking at him, that he was alright, and stood up by himself. However, he wasn't in a condition where he would be able to immediately fight. This was displayed by his forehead drenched in sweat due to sharp pains he felt. Even so, Hajime moved his gaze from Yue and the girls towards the Demon race in the sky, and was showing a fearless smile.
"... There's no need to introduce myself to those who will die soon."
"Same here. I am asking just because it was normal to ask. I am not interested either, so don't mind it. By the way, how's your friend's arm?"
Hajime asked as if to ridicule to stall for time for his recovery. The Demon race man had said "report" and "ambush," so Hajime recalled the Demon race who was behind the scene inside the town of Ul, whose arm blown off and got away with his life. Thus, his information might have come from there.
With his eyebrow twitching for an instant, the Demon race man answered with tone somewhat lowered than before.
"I change my mind. Bury this name of mine into your flesh and bones. My name is Freed Baghuar. A God's Apostle who will give divine punishment to the heretics."
"God's Apostle... I see. How exaggerated. Were you allowed to introduce yourself as that because you obtain the Age of Gods magic? It wasn't the kind of magic that control the demonic beasts, right? ...Although the demonic beasts fired the beams, they seemed to do it at their own discretion. So, it must be a magic that created demonic beast, right? Of course, those who can create a matchless army can introduce themselves as God's Apostle, heh."
"That's right. For "Alv-sama," who had obtained God's powers, told to me directly, "My apostle." Therefore, all of my being is devoted to realize my master's wish. Thus, I will use my all to deny you, whose existences will only be an obstacle."
Closely resembling Ishtal of Church of the Saints, the Demon race man, Freed Baghuar, was denying the existences of Hajime's party up front. However, Hajime fearlessly laughed with fierce denial. Though his recovery rate was slow, Hajime had used "Recovery" derived from "Magic Conversion" to change his magic power into recovery, and his bleeding had stopped. Though he could not use his left arm, it was possible for him to use his unbroken right arm even if the bone could be seen. Hajime psyched, "I can still fight!"
"That's my line. Those who obstruct me are enemies. And I will... kill my enemies!"
After shouting so, Hajime endured the sharp pain to aim Donner at Freed and pulled the trigger. He held down his screaming right arm and body due to recoil, and used killing intent aimed at his enemies. Furthermore, he activated "Light Speed" and took out Cross Bits to attack. At the same time, Yue's "Thunder Dragon", Tio's Breath, and Shia's exploding-slug bullet fired.
However, when several of the 3-4 meters long Ash Dragons entered the attack trajectories, numerous piled up, triangular, reddish black barriers immediately appeared and received all of the attacks from Hajime's party.
The barrier that received the force of Hajime's party's attack and didn't even held on for a few seconds before it cracked, but more Ash Dragons came from behind and piled up another similar barriers, and thus it wasn't possible to break through. When they looked carefully, there were turtle-shaped demonic beasts on the dragons' back. Their shells were shining in reddish black, so these turtle-shaped demonic beasts were most likely the ones that activated the barriers.
"Did you think I only brought along these dragon-type demonic beasts? You wouldn't be able to easily break through their defense, you know. Well then, I will show you. I will show the other power I had obtained — the power of Gods!"
Freed began to focus and recited the chant in mutter. On his hand, there was a large fabric where complex and bizarre magic array was drawn. According to what he said, it was another power of Gods. He probably meant the Age of Gods magic he obtained in this «Guryuu-en Great Volcano». Knowing the great effect of an Age of Gods magic, Hajime's party began to attack furiously, to not let him finished his chant.
However, once they broke through the barrier of the Ash Dragons, a new barrier would immediately activated behind the previous one, thus their attacks could not reach Freed. Normally, Hajime would've asked Yue and the other two to cover him and go forward using "Aerodynamic," but he still haven't completely healed, so it would be difficult for him to beat the group of Ash Dragons. Thinking so, Hajime grinded his teeth.
Hajime put away Donner, and fired all ammos of Orkan whose recoil was small, but they only blew away several of the Ash Dragons' barriers, that's all. They weren't able to reach Freed. Even the Cross Bits that had quite the power couldn't completely destroy all of the barriers.
And the time was up. Freed finished his chant.
""Boundary Piercer.""
"Kh! Behind you! Hajime-san!"
At the same time as the last letter of the magic's name was said, Freed and the white dragon disappeared. More accurately, shining membrane-like thing appeared and they jumped inside. The time Freed said the magic's name and Shia's warning were the same, so Hajime's party, without having time to be wide eyed from astonishment, turned their heads around.
There was... right before Hajime a white dragon's whitely opened mouth and Freed on top of it, aiming at Hajime. Inside the dragon's mouth were extreme heat and magic power which concentrated and compressed until the limit. Hajime immediately used Orkan as a shield and at the same time, the beam was fired from zero distance.
BOoOoOoOoOOOM
"Ghh!! AaAAAH!!"
Accompanied by a roaring sound, the held up Orkan was hit by the beam and Hajime was blown away. The severe impact and the damage made his flesh screamed, and Hajime raised an agonized groan from his clenched mouth.
"Hajime!"