Chapter 146

The battlefield shifts to Anamz where Ren was facing Maxis' army .

"So this is your best, huh . "

The battle had been already settled . Countless gouges and cracks formed in the ground, as well as the collapsing demon soldiers and monsters, surrounded Ren, who was letting out a heavy sigh .

"You were a little weaker than expected . "

All of them weren't breathing and didn't lift a single finger while on the other hand, Ren didn't seem to be hurt anywhere and stood nonchalantly . The battle was overwhelming . The first side that got annihilated during a short while was the monsters, then the demon soldiers followed them . Before a long time passed, everything was already settled . The monsters turned into light particles and disappeared without leaving a trace . The man annihilated an entire army without even getting a single scratch . The battle was in his favor before it even begun .

No way... What's going on here...

There was a single demon among the entire army who was still breathing . Maxis, who is one of the four great generals, burying himself under the corpses of his subordinates and hiding . His mind couldn't follow what had happened in this short period of time .

Not yet... I'm not done yet...

"Good work, Ren . "

Maxis kept observing Ren while hiding and noticed the girl who was hiding all this time, Mana, and rushed towards him .

"They were weak to a disappointing level . "

"Well, that's just because I was the one who dealt with them . "

Ren replied to Mana with his normal attitude without any pride, and Mana returned him a smile back . A breeze blew in their direction and took off their hoods .

"Ah . "

"Oh . "

Mana's face was about to get exposed, but Ren extended his hand to her and pulled back her hood before that happened .

"Don't drop your guard just because this battle is done . Keep hiding your face . We never know who might be watching us . "

"Jeez, I know . "

Getting warned by Ren, Mana pulled her hood with both of her hands while looking displeased . Ren is supposed to be long dead for Lurian and his classmates . At first, he was intending to go back to the kingdom, but now he had made a new goal . Until he achieves that goal, he can't let them know about his existence .

"I'm done returning the favor, so let's go before someone else comes here after noticing what happened . "

"Yeah, you're right . "

Agreeing to his suggestion, Ren and Mana turned their back to the fallen demon army and took their leave . However, before they were able to get away, Maxis who couldn't forgive them took out something from his chest pocket .

I won't let him go back alive...

With his body all worn out and his breath in disorder, the item he took with his trembling hand was a bottle containing a pitch black liquid .

I was intending to use it in while fighting Tenjouin, but it can't be helped now...

He hesitated a little bit at first, but he soon drank it in one go . The next moment he became quiet before his body started to gradually shiver .

"UOOOOOOOOO!!!"

He then let out a loud war cry .

"W-What was that?!"

"This guy..."

Ren and Mana turned around, their eyes widened in surprise after witnessing Maxis standing up . His eyes were completely white and his body became twice, no, thrice as large . Kicking away the corpses of his subordinates, Maxis approached them while howling . Mana and Ren kept gazing at him with the same bewildered expression until this time, Mana acted strangely .

"Ah... Ah...!!"

She held her eye with her hand while looking in pain and letting out short groans .

"Mana!"

Ren immediately moved his hands to her back and supported her from falling . The other eye that wasn't covered had a small magic circle on its iris that rapidly switched colors from blue to red . It looked as if the magic circle in her eye went out of control .

"T-This is, bad!"

She tried to warn Ren, but her voice was too weak . On the other side, Maxis was still howling and yelling the grudge that took over his sense .

"It's all his fault... Tenjouiiiiiiiinnn!!"

He shouted the name of the person who made him like this . If that person didn't exist, nothing of this would have happened . It was the name of the person he abhorred the most . The liquid he drank was a potion that makes him cross over the limits of his powers . He would no longer feel pain and his abilities exceeded the standards . However, as a side effect, he would lose his sense and would be unable to control himself . That potion was Maxis's greatest trump card . Ren wasn't concentrating on Maxis anymore and kept on desperately calling Mana's name .

"Mana! Get a hold of yourself! Mana!!"

"Ren, more importantly, you should, do something about him..."

Mana replied to his frantic calls while pointing at Maxis . The magic circle in her eye increased the speed in which it switched from red to blue until it eventually stopped at the blue color .

"Ah, Ah... I can't... anymore..."

The issue in the magic circle in her eye reached the summit as she did her best to stop it and spoke with a faint voice . At that moment, a magic circle appeared under Maxis's feet .

"UOOOOOOOOO―――――!!"

Maxis who was still howling like a beast faded away when the magic circle under him was activated then disappeared completely . He vanished from his place along with the circle under his feet . The next moment, the color of the circle in Mana's eye returned to its natural blue color and she laughed weakly as she lost all her strength .

"Mana, are you okay?"

"Y-Yes . Somehow..."

She answered Ren with a sweat running down from her forehead and looked at him with an apologetic face .

"Sorry . I sent that demon somewhere else . "

"More importantly, treat yourself with more care next time . Was that the magic spasm again?"

"Yeah, it's happening more frequently lately . "

"We need to do something about that eye . "

"Yeah..."

Mana took a deep breath to calm down and returned to her former smiling self again .

"Alright! I'm fine now!"

"You're fast in changing attitudes . "

"That's me!"

Mana replied to Ren's troubled remark in a cheerful voice . After confirming that her magic spasm had stopped, Ren went back to think about Maxis .

"Do you know where you sent him?"

"I didn't specify the place so he should have been sent to the place he wanted to be in the most . "

The place where Maxis wants to be in the most . Ren recalled the shout he heard earlier . He was screaming Tenjouin's name while Ren was busy looking at Mana . once he recalled that, the place where he went became clear .

"So he was sent to Tenjouin's place . "

"Tenjouin? Is that the name of your friend? Wouldn't that be bad since they are supposed to be in the other world as you told me?"

Listening to Mana's question, Ren started pondering .

"... Well, it will probably be alright . Let's just leave the rest to them . "

In the end, he reached that conclusion and said it to Mana .

"Aren't you going to save them?"

"I did my part of the job . The rest is for them to take care of . And besides..."

"Besides?"

"I can't leave you alone, Mana . "

He stated his last line while looking at Mana right in the eyes . However, instead of blushing at that situation she revealed a delightful smile .

"You said, didn't you? Not bad, not bad . "

"I get it already . Let's go . "

She wanted to poke fun at him for what he said, though Ren had already begun walking . Mana followed him while pointing out his dishonest attitude . The both of them continued their journey towards their goals .

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I am now in a very confused condition . I already entrusted this matter to those two, yet why am I seeing Karen and Saya tied down? Did they perhaps fail at protecting them? No way . I don't think those two would lose to them .

I worked up my mind trying to find a reasonable explanation while gazing at the reflection in front of me . I can tell that they were inside some random building, but I couldn't find out their exact location . Both of them were tied to the wall and were sleeping peacefully . They didn't look hurt or wounded anywhere as far as I could see .

What am I going to do now? Should I just annihilate them all?

I considered a few possibilities in mind while Tenjouin shouted at the screen and ordered his classmates to stop .

"Hondou-kun, stop it! Nothing will come out from you doing that!"

"I don't want to hear that from a loser like you . "

Despite hearing the voice of his leader, the class member called Hondou wasn't intending to stop .

"You are being deceived! You shouldn't have listened to Metron's luring words!"

The both of them then started arguing . This was my chance to contact one of the people I entrusted with the mission . I concentrated and called the first one .

"Ouka, do you hear me?"

"So this is the human technology! Everything here is new to me!"

Apparently, my voice didn't reach her as she was too indulged in what she was doing .

Ah, so that how it is...

"He–y, Ouka-!"

"... Ah, Eh? This voice, is it you, Yato-sama?!"

Finally, when my voice reached her, Ouka took back her usual attitude in haste .

"You seem to be having fun . "

"Eh? W-What are you talking about, Yato-sama? I'm doing my mission properly right now . "

"Then can you tell me where is Karen?"

Hearing my simple question, Ouka sounded like she is looking around her to find Karen . A short while later, she couldn't find her, obviously, and replied back to me in a flustered voice .

"Y-Yato-sama..."

"So you finally realized it..."

Seriously, I'm impressed on how she didn't notice her absence until now . I remembered telling her that Karen was going to leave the house sometime in the day . Anyway, she failed . And I was wrong for choosing Ouka to be Karen's guard .

Her voice repeatedly apologizing to me resounded in my head . Next time I will get her used to the city to avoid such a mistake in the future . That was the conclusion I reached within this conversation while holding on my head . I wonder what happened to the other guard, Lina . This time, I contacted Lina and got back an immediate reply .

DOOOONNN!!

"W-What was that?!"

Though, the reply came from the reflected image in front of me and Tenjouin . Doumoto and the other class members who were attracted by the sound of something crashing while Tenjouin and I kept following what was going on . Shortly after, a hole was made by smashing the ceiling and a single angel descended from there .

"What are you doing to my friends?"

Lina, in her angel form, asked the members in that room while holding back her boiling anger .

So she's finally there . Seriously, why do they think I asked them to guard Karen and Saya?

As I complained to myself secretly, Lina noticed me through the screen in that room and revealed an apologetic expression .

"I apologize for being late, Yato . "

"What were you doing?"

"Today I went out with Saya for shopping with the plan of guarding her, but I got distracted by a phone call and lost sight of her inside the crowd . She disappeared before I realized it..."

I can't believe this . Lina apologized while being aware of her miss and depreciating herself by saying that she was pitiable . I guess they were waiting for her to lose sight of Saya . She was unlucky . Well, let's forgive her for barely making it in time at least .

"W-What is happening...?!"

Tenjouin who couldn't keep up with the abrupt flow of the event uttered with a stunned face . I don't have time to care for him now . My job is done here, so I will teleport to the other side .

"Um, Yato-sama? Did something happen?"

Before I teleported, Ouka asked hesitantly . I forgot to inform her of the situation .

"Ouka, everything is fine here . You can go back ―――"

The moment I was going to send her back to the shrine, something else happened .

DOOONNN!!

The sound of something falling to the ground resounded in the battlefield .

"What now?"

I stopped talking and turned to the direction of the sound to notice a large magic circle in the air and a cloud of dust under caused by the thing that fell from within it . That something had the shape of a human . I examined the situation with a cool head and waited for the dust to clear away .

"W-Where am I... ?"

His body was three times larger than that of a normal person . His eyes were dyed in pure white and he seemed to be out of control . For some reason, his clothes were tattered and his body was full of wounds . He wasn't giving off a good impression at all .

"... Ah, never mind . Come help me out here . Something terrible just occurred . "

"Ah, yes!"

Realizing that it was her chance to make up for her mistake, Ouka replied in an energetic voice and appeared next to me .

"Please go help Lina first . I will join you once I'm done . "

"Please leave it to me, Yato-sama . This time for sure, I will accomplish my duty using this angel's raiment you bestowed me!"

Ouka replied back with a confident look while showing the angel's raiment she was wearing on her shoulders . Her level wasn't high enough for her to ensure her win against the heroes . Therefore, I gave her this angel raiment to raise her powers . Equipping it conceals her presence, makes her invisible to the human eye, and impossible to be detected with any skill . A perfect item for assassins .

"Okay, I will leave it to you then . "

"I understand . "

I teleported Ouka to Lina's place . I heard a painful groan coming from the reflection behind me, but I didn't mind it . Ouka is wearing the item I gave her and Lina has almost reached level 200 during her training this summer . It's impossible for them to lose with those conditions .

Well then, next is this guy .

I turned to look at the huge creature that appeared out of the blue .

"I-Isn't that..."

"You know about him, Tenjouin?"

Tenjouin uttered while still lying on the ground . I asked him whether he knew who it was .

"He looks quite different but I'm sure that he is Maxis . He's one of the four great demon generals . "

What? Do they really exist?

I judged that his title might be just for show, but by looking at Tenjouin's impatient expression, I gave up on that idea . The demon general called Maxis noticed our presence .

"You, Tenjouin!"

Recognizing Tenjouin's face, he let out a startled yell and suddenly revealed an enraged expression .

"I found YOUUUUUUU!!!"

He then yelled in a loud voice . He must really hate Tenjouin for him to react that way . His loud voice resounded inside the barrier and made me shiver for an instant . My ears hurt . I made a displeased face from hearing that howl while on the other hand, Tenjouin stood up using his sword .

"This is bad, at this rate..."

"What are you intending to do?"

"It's obvious . I will bring him down . "

He said it that way, though he can barely stand up . He wasn't in a condition to fight at all . What is this guy thinking?

"Stop it . "

"Ouch!"

He was pouring all his strength to keep on standing, but I placed my hand on his shoulder again and made him sit down .

"Ah! Aouch! What are you doing!"

"You will just die if you fight in that condition . "

"But, I'm a hero . If I don't do something, we will..."

"Shut up you idiot . Just look at yourself . Can't you see that you will drop dead any moment in the middle of the battle?"

Despite listening to my words, Tenjouin still insisted on standing . I continued speaking .

"Besides, I don't recommend using that sword . Your body is already worn out for not being able to keep up with its power . "

A great sword should be only equipped by someone who could handle its power . Tenjouin had also realized that before I told him and stayed quiet . I made a few steps forth and stood before him .

"Also, we are on Earth . Keep your hero act for when you go back to your world . "

"But, who will defeat him..."

"can't you see that I'm more than enough to deal with that guy?"

The moment I finished my line, I teleported right before Maxis' eyes .

"You're being annoying for a while now . "

"W-Who are y–!?!?!"

Before he could finish his words, I kicked his jaw up and blew him away in the air before he fell again on the ground, facing the sky .

"I'm already tired here, so I will be wrapping up things before long . "

I learned that I should finish with this type of creatures before anything else comes up . That is why I declared that to Maxis who was still on the ground .

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Bonus

Mail

"Lina, did you get used to phones?"

"A little bit, yeah . "

"That's great . "

"I still have a problem with sending messages though . "

"Really? I think it's pretty easy . "

"Well, I don't have many people to whom I can send it, so..."

"I will teach you next time..."