Autopilot

"Autopilot successfully started."

Even the voice changed.

Instead of a voice typical for a teenage boy, it sounded rather like the voice of a middle-aged man.

The way he talked was collected and gentle.

"You're not Mika, are you?" Ophelia asked nervously as she looked up from the ground.

"I am him, but at the same time I am not." he answered devoid of any emotions.

"Keep calling me Mika for now." he added.

The person did not even spare a moment to look at her and only focused his gaze on Zantar.

"Tch!" he clicked his tongue.

Zantar spread his wings again and was about to take flight.

"Don't be stupid."

However, before he could even levitate, the one who was supposed to be Mika quickly grabbed one of the wings.

In his right hand, white particles gathered in a straight line.

Those particles shone brighter and brighter and then, with a swift movement, he swung his arm vertically upwards and across Zantar's right wing.

"AARGH-"

"Quiet, please."

Zantar, whose right wing got cut off, was screaming hysterically, however, his scream was stopped as his mouth was smashed in with a sudden punch.

He fell to the ground, pressing his mouth in pain with his right hand.

"S-so fast..." Ophelia commented stunned.

But, she noticed something else quickly.

In the right hand of that person was Excalibur, which Mika was wielding previously.

"Is that really Mika...?"

She was still in doubt.

Only by looking at the person, one could tell that he was abnormally strong.

Compared to other S-ranks, he was on another level.

"You have two options. Either die painlessly after you have given me the information I need or die painfully."

Zantar ignored his threat and with bloodshot and teary eyes, he stared at the monsters in the back menacingly.

He signaled the apes to attack.

Unlike usual, the monsters walked reluctantly and slowly to the target.

"I see. So this is your answer." Mika said with a hint of disappointment.

"?"

Mika raised his sword.

Then, without hesitation, he stabbed Zantar in the stomach so deeply that the sword was stuck in the ground.

"AAAAHHH!"

While Zantar was screaming like a child, Mika turned around and pointed his hand at the approaching monsters.

The monsters were clueless as to what was about to happen and just continued to move forward with their spread arms.

However, in the blink of an eye, arrows made of light were shot from the sky and pierced through the chest of each monster leaving behind enormous holes.

Those arrows disintegrated into fine white particles.

"..."

Ophelia was at a loss for words as she witnessed, how Mika killed each of those monsters with one shot.

"You...!"

Zantar was desperately gasping for air as blood constantly spilled from his mouth.

"Even among your kind... Even among angels! There's nobody this absurdly strong!" he yelled.

"..."

Mika coldly looked down at him.

"As his right hand, I have to be this strong."

"His right hand...? Huh?! No! Are you- AARGHH!"

Not letting him speak to the end, Mika recklessly pulled out the sword and shook the blood from it away.

"?"

Mika flinched for a moment as he noticed blood flowing from his nose.

"Hahaha... Are you perhaps reaching your limit, or what...?" Zantar mocked him even in his dying moments.

"..."

Ignoring the provocations, Mika turned around, after he sensed the presence of multiple monsters.

"Did you summon them?"

Panting, Zantar explained it.

"Since the day I got here, I summoned monsters here until I was exhausted... The stronger the monster was, the more it drained me..."

Mika looked at the emerging monsters.

There were many low to middle-ranked monsters, like some insects-looking monsters.

Aside from them, there were also some dangerous monsters, like monsters from the type panther and snake.

"I used the short time slot, when you were busy with the apes previously, to signal the monsters I summoned to get here..." Zantar admitted with pride.

"However..."

Confused, he looked in a certain direction.

"..."

Giving Zantar the cold shoulder, Mika let the nosebleed drip on his palm.

"Even if I die, my babies won't van- GUEH!"

"You are talking too much."

Ruthlessly, he stabbed through Zantar's neck sending him to the afterlife.

"Now that he was taken care of, I should hurry up with the rest."

Excalibur began to shine until it also disintegrated into fine white particles.

He retracted his right arm and gathered light there, again.

The light formed a long straight line. Longer than, when he summoned Excalibur in his hand.

The light took the shape of a long and thin staff with a pencil-like spearhead on each end.

When the light faded away, the thing in his hand was on full display.

It was a metallic snow-white spear with grooves following a double-helical muster. It was long and thin and its pointy spearheads were thick.

"My apology. It may be your reward, but I have to use it first."

Running berserk, the horde of monsters rushed to Mika.

"Good." he muttered as the monsters assembled in the center.

Then, he soared into the air with a jump.

With his arm still retracted, he aimed at the monsters.

It was just a light throw, however, the spear flew at the speed of sound.

One monster was pierced by the spear as it let out a deafening scream.

"Enlarge."

Following this word, the spear immediately extended its length and width.

The ground was shaking and crumbling.

Monster blood sprayed the air and ground and no body parts were left behind.

The spear, which was now higher than any building in Loogam, covered almost the entire free space.

"..."

When he landed beside Ophelia, even more blood spilled out of his nose.

Ophelia was trembling as she could not close her mouth.

As an S-rank mage, she fought many strong enemies and saw many absurdly strong abilities and relics, however, what she just witnessed could not compare to them.

In her eyes, this version of Mika was the strongest being.

"Shrink."

On his command, the spear returned to its previous state and as if his hand was magnetic, Mika attracted the spear back to his hand.

"No monsters should come here for a while. Now rest for a little and when you can move again, please take care of this body." he said without looking at her.

Ophelia may have heard it, but she was still engrossed by the sight of the large and deep crater, which was left behind by a single spear throw.

Only after she heard someone falling down, she turned around.

Beside her, laid an unconscious Mika, whose appearance matched the way he looked usually.

[Autopilot was turned off successfully.]

Meanwhile, Sylvia also laid her eyes on something completely defying human logic.

"Just what in the world was that...?" a young man muttered sternly as his gaze wandered in a certain direction.

"What could have possibly caused this rumbling...? And what's with this weird feeling I have?" the man, who had shoulder-length dark green hair, added pensively with a finger on his chin.

His hair color matched his eyes.

And his elegant-looking black suit paired with a white shirt beneath it was still clean despite being in the Great Jungle.

Wearing white gloves, he tapped his glasses to correct their position on his nose.

"Hey, you. You told me that you came from that direction, right?"

"Y-yes..."

The person he, Lereon Pantl, talked to was Sylvia.

She rested under a tree with an unconscious Lily lying on her lap.

While they were talking, the weak screams of monsters were heard in the background, but Lereon remained unfazed.

"I'm almost done here, so tell me what exactly happened."

Thus, she proceeded to explain everything in detail.

"Y-yes!"

Sylvia seemed more stiff and nervous than usual.

But that was because she recognized that man.

Lereon Pantl. Almost everyone in the world knew him.

After all, he is a member of the Grand Order, the strongest elite group in the world.

Knowing that she had to give him a short and precise explanation of the events.

Thus, she proceeded to tell him about their initial quest, that was submitted to their academy.

Then, she told him about Mika, whom they lost but later found again.

She talked about the monster they defeated only to be surprised by the appearance of another one of its kind and of a mysterious man.

Lereon's eyes sharpened and got grimmer as he listened to her description of that man.

"So your teacher and your other teammate are stalling them for you?" he deducted.

She shamefully nodded her head.

"I see."

The previous monster's scream stopped.

"Lucky for you that you ran into me. I will help you."

They were in an open space, which was a little bit smaller than the area Mika and Ophelia were in.

In said space, thick and large roots were sprouted from the ground.

During the entire conversation, those roots were strangling multiple ape-like monsters.

"Good. They are dead now."

Then, Lereon jumped from the throne he was sitting on and signaled Sylvia with his eyes to lead him.

Hastily, Sylvia took Lily with her and began to walk.

When she passed by his throne, she tried to not look at it.

After all, it was a gruesome sight to look at the throne.

A throne made of a pile of corpses belonging to high-ranking monsters.