“Eh? Hajime-kun? Wait, Nagumo-kun? Eh? What? What do you mean?”
Kaori’s ecstatic shout made Shizuku, who was by her side, confused and looked alternately between Kaori and Hajime. Apparently, Kaori was able to see through the white haired, eye-patched, black-coated person before her as Hajime with just a single glance, but Shizuku was still unable to recognize him.
However, when she saw the boy’s face who was looking back over his shoulder with a wry smile, it immediately overlapped with Nagumo Hajime in her memory, and Shizuku, with widened eyes, raised a surprised voice.
“Eh? Eh? Really? Is he really Nagumo-kun? Eh? What? What’s really happening here?”
“Well, just calm down, Yaegashi. Aren’t calm, cool, and collected your main selling point?”
The chain of events happened after she, Shizuku, just like Kaori, was prepared to die which made her perplexed and she forgot her pain. Admonishing her as he said Shizuku’s name, Hajime suddenly looked overhead, feeling their presences. Thus, the falling blond-haired girl, Yue, was caught by him in princess carry style and he carefully let her down, next he received the rabbit-eared girl, Shia, who jumped down the same way.
The last to jump down was a boy dressed in black, Endou Kousuke.
“Na-Nagumoo! You-! I was blown away by that! Wait, what was that just now!? It suddenly pierced the dungeon’s floors…”
Endou looked at the surrounding, started complaining. Then, he saw his best friends and the others together with a group of demonic beasts. After noticing that he was being watched by his stiffened classmates, “Nuoh!,” and released a strange shout. To Endou, they voices were half-filled with joy because of their reunion, and anger because he came back.
“”Kousuke!””
“Jyuugo! Kentarou! I’ve come with help!”
Reacting to “I’ve come with help,” Kouki’s party and the demon race woman finally returned to their sense. Then, they once again stared at Hajime and the two girls. However, not minding the gazes of those in his surroundings, Hajime quickly ordered Yue and Shia with a slightly irritated expression.
“Yue, sorry but please protect those people gathered there. Shia, please look at the condition of the fallen man in Knight’s armor there.”
“Nn… leave it to me.”
“Roger~!”
Yue calmly walked without caring about the surrounding demonic beasts, while Shia used her marvelous jumping power to jump overhead the group of demonic beasts and landed beside the collapsed Meld.
“Ha-Hajime-kun…”
Kaori once again called Hajime’s name with a shaking voice. Her tone was probably filled with joy due to the reunion, yet there was also sorrow. It was because she thought Hajime had came here to die. Although Kaori didn’t know the details, her expression was telling him to immediately get away from the place.
Shrugging his shoulders, he returned Kaori’s gaze. Hajime briefly said, “It’s okay now, so just wait there.” After saying that, he activated “Light Speed” which greatly improved his perception. Then, he took out three Cross Bits from “Treasure Box” which surrounded Kaori and Shizuku like shields.
The floating cross-like objects that suddenly appeared from empty space surprised Kaori and Shizuku. With his back before the two, Hajime made a proposal towards the demon race woman whose appearance could be seen as nothing but arrogance. It was his mercy since the demon race woman was still not his enemy.
“The red-haired woman over there. I won’t do anything if you leave immediately. Just disappeared quickly from here if you don’t want to die.”
“…What did you say?”
It was not a remark that could be said by an ordinary human while being surrounded by demonic beasts. It was the reason why the demon race woman inadvertently asked back. As a response, Hajime repeated himself with an amazed expression.
“Prompt decisions are needed in battlefields. That’s why I said, just disappear from here quickly if you don’t want to die. Understand now?”
Knowing she did not hear it wrong, the demon race woman erased her expression and ordered the demonic beasts while pointing at Hajime, “Kill him.”
This time, the too abrupt situation—— especially the dead of her treasured Ahatd due to an unknown attack made the demon race woman lose her calm and make a fatal mistake.
Even if Hajime had his own objection, the woman was too enraged by Hajime who by the course of events treaded on Ahatd, a demonic beast she didn’t want to lose since it was given to her by her revered superior. In addition, there was the confusion due to the unbelievable situation where the dungeon’s ceiling had been destroyed just because he wanted to go downstairs. In any case, she would have been able to make a more careful judgement if it was the usual her. However, the glove had been thrown out.
“I see… So, I take it that you’re an “enemy”, right?”
Hajime muttered at the same time the Chimera attacked him. Behind Hajime, “Hajime-kun!” and “Nagumo-kun!” warning voices filled with urgency could be heard. However, Hajime casually clawed the Chimera attacking from his left with his artificial arm and lifted it without any difficulty.
The Chimera was surprised and struggled to escape which made the space blurred intensely. Looking at it, Hajime looked at it with scorn.
“Oi, oi, what is this? This half-assed peculiar magic. Are you a street performer?”
Because there’s no meaning if one’s presence and figure disappears when spaces blurs when it moves. Hajime inadvertently retorted. Even in the abyss, there were demonic beasts that could conceal their presences and figuring out what each of them has was extremely troublesome. Comparing it to them, Hajime thought it was too childish that the concealment exposed when it moved.
Standing still while he raised a Chimera with huge body weighing several hundreds kilograms as it struggling mid air, Hajime made the demon race woman, Kaori, and the others dumbfounded.
Hajime leered at them and used “Great Arm” to throw the Chimera on the ground as though he had lost his interest in it.
BoOoOoOmM!!
BaAaAaANNNG
With a raw sound ringing out, the Chimera had its head crushed and made a crater on the ground. Next, having drawn out Donner, Hajime turned the railgun towards the space that seemed to be empty at a glance and fired it in succession.
BAAANG BAAAAANNNG!!
Dry, explosive sounds rang out and two flashes cut through the air, mercilessly piercing respective targets. The space blurred for a moment, then a Chimera with a blasted head and a Brutal-look-alike whose heart had been shot through appeared. They stood still for a second, swayed, and crumbled to ground.
Not moving but could not conceal the wind flow, the shaking of the air and ground, their gazes, killing intent, flow of magic, and temperature made them nothing but unmoving targets for Hajime.
Without even looking at the demonic beasts he instantly killed, Hajime took a step forward into the battlefield, no, the execution ground. What started could not even be called deathmatch. It was a one-sided execution by the monster who shouldn’t be made into an enemy.
The demon race woman was shocked seeing the demonic beasts were killed casually and easily while the classmates stood still feeling the chill from the weapon that shouldn’t exist in this world. Leaving aside those stiffened people, the demonic beasts were attacking Hajime one after another, faithfully executing the demon race woman’s order.
A black cat creeped behind him and fired its tentacles, but Hajime didn’t turn around and only turned the wrist of his lowered arm where Donner was and fired behind. The bullet exceeding the speed of sound easily gouged through the black cat’s forehead.
Without stopping to look at their companion, four-eyed wolves rushed towards him from left and right at the same time. However, Schlag, unknown as to when it was drawn, blew the enemy on his left while Donner blown off the one on the right.
At that moment, the black cats hidden behind the annihilated four-eyed wolves shot their tentacles in cooperation with the Chimeras that were approaching Hajime’s back. However, Hajime had jumped several meters above, flipped mid-air, and while hanging upside down, the floating black cats and the two Chimera, who lost sight of their target, became preys for the railgun.
Within the scattered flesh and blood that looked like flower storm, two Brutal-look-alikes came and swung their maces, aiming for the moment Hajime landed. However, such an easily predicted future wouldn’t work on a monster such as Hajime, and he jumped further using “Aerodynamic” mid-air. He then fired Donner-Schlag to his left and right in succession while spinning like a top.
The released wind of killing intent not only moved towards the two Brutal-look-alikes that were waiting for him, but it also pierced and burst to pieces the heads of the Chimeras and four-eyed wolves that were approaching from behind. While each of the demonic beasts sprayed and scattered blood, Hajime descend as though to follow the law of inertia and dulled the momentum right before he landed.
Landing soundlessly in the center of the corpses and a ground dyed with blood, Hajime took out ammo from an empty space and use gunspin to reload them.
And at that time, “KuWAaAA!,” a strange sound rang out all of a sudden. Hajime turned toward the source and there was the six-legged turtle-like demonic beasts, Absod, whose wide opened mouth was turned towards Hajime. Inside its mouth was a compression of tremendous power shining a pure white light.
It was the previously stored huge magic power from Commander Meld’s “Last Loyalty.” The “Last Loyalty”‘s range was only few meters but its power was more than enough to decimate a person.
The magic power was compressed to the limit and in the next moment it was launched like a laser towards its target, Hajime. The death light approached as it gouged out the