Thanks for reading~
Author"s note: At last, tomorrow, on 7/1, volume one will be released by Kadokawa Sneaker! princess Flare is also greatly delighted! ※The beautiful princess Flare!
Everyone enters the white fog.
And then, we see a town.
However, it"s all white; a white, stone-built town.
The cold air gently brushes our cheeks.
It is terribly desolate, let alone human presences, there aren"t even presences of any living things.
"Everyone, you"re still here right?" (Kearuga)
This is a mysterious fog that hurls you to random places if the stars aren"t in a good position. I need to confirm that everyone is safe and I want to avoid being split up.
"Kearuga-sama, Setsuna is here." (Setsuna)
"I am also okay." (Freya)
"Kearuga, I"m properly here." (Eve)
"There is nothing to fear, Kearuga-niisama." (Ellen)
That"s good. It seems everyone is together.
"Don"t stray away from me. Setsuna, search the surrounding presences for me. Freya, with the【Heat Detection】magic formula, check if there are living things in the surroundings." (Kearuga)
The two nod, and start searching the surroundings.
We don"t know what there could be. Maximum precaution is necessary.
"Kearuga-sama, Setsuna"s ears can"t sense anything." (Setsuna)
"Same here. At the very least, there are no heat sources apart from us in a five hundred metre radius." (Freya)
"I see, for the time being, let"s pa.s.s straight through the town. Most likely, finding the G.o.d bird is also part of the trial." (Kearuga)
In the worst case, we could have been hurled to a strange place because the stars weren"t read correctly. Saying that would reduce our morale, so I won"t say it, but I’ll proceed while checking if there"s an uncomfortable feeling.
We continue doing nothing but walking on the highway.
This highway is a straight, wide path that"s easy to walk on, in the centre of the town.
We"ve walked for around two hours, but we still can"t see the end of the town. It is abnormal that we can"t see the end of the path even after walking this much.
Setsuna is checking with her ears while walking, and Freya is periodically performing heat source detection. Even then, nothing is found.
It can"t be helped. I guess I"ll use a slightly rough method.
"Setsuna, clear your ears. I"ll fire a light bullet that explodes on impact, which travels at the speed of light. Ignore where it goes to, and just listen to the time it takes for the sound to come back, so we can understand how much longer this path continues. Setsuna, you have heard Freya"s explosion magic several times right? With that volume, how far do you think you can hear it from?" (Kearuga)
"By concentrating mana in the ears, Setsuna has the confidence she can hear it from two hundred kilometres away." (Setsuna)
"Alright, in that case, I"ll try it." (Kearuga)
After I make sure Setsuna has put her hands on her wolf ears and concentrated her mana, I create an extra large bullet of light.
Light attribute explosion magic. Even among light magic, it"s categorized as advanced level magic.
Seeing that, Eve makes a envious face. This magic is still impossible for Eve right now, so it"s understandable.
I fired the bullet of light.
The bullet of light naturally went straight ahead at the speed of light.
Now, how many seconds later will she hear the noise?
"That"s a joke right?" (Kearuga)
No matter how long we waited, it seems that she couldn"t hear the noise.
Setsuna shakes her head side to side.
That action means…
"So this path at least continues for more than two hundred kilometres huh… or possibly, there could be no end. As expected of the G.o.d bird"s trial. It"s unreasonable." (Kearuga)
It"s pointless to just advance forward.
In that case, what should we do?
While I think about that, snow begins to fall.
From my bodily sensation, the temperature is close to twenty degrees. There"s no way snow would fall.
No, this isn"t snow.
"Hide under a building right now! This is poison!" (Kearuga)
I was too late by the time I noticed it.
Setsuna and everyone are collapsing in succession. Only Eve is somehow standing while being in a poor state.
I click my tongue.
I have also suffered damage from the poison, but my【Divine Arms】Georgius"s【Automatic Recovery (Auto Heal)】activated, so I was able to stay standing.
What"s troublesome is that【Automatic Recovery】activates every time I get afflicted by the poison, so my mana is steadily being consumed.
I had tampered with my body to make antibodies each time I"m harmed by poison, but the nature of the incessantly raining poison is changing without pause, so my antibody can"t keep up. As expected of the G.o.d bird"s poison, it"s quite irritating.
I somehow carry Setsuna, Freya and Ellen.
"Eve, do you want me to carry you as well?" (Kearuga)
"I"m okay. I can run by myself." (Eve)
"In that case, follow me!" (Kearuga)
We start running towards the nearest building.
We enter the building, and because we have escaped from the white snow, I use【Recovery Heal】on everyone.
As expected of the G.o.d bird"s trial.
If I had been late to use【Recovery Heal】, everyone would have died.
As one would expect, everyone was more or less agitated by this.
In these situations, I need to be optimistic.
"This is good. The only one who could scatter this poison would be the G.o.d bird. The worst case scenario would be if we were hurled to a place that doesn"t have the G.o.d bird, but at the very least, that can"t be possible." (Kearuga)
I say it as if making fun of it.
It seems everyone"s agitation has settled a bit.
"Hey, Kearuga. What are we going to do from now?" (Eve)
"The G.o.d bird is probably somewhere in this town. In that case, we just have to search for it. This town is too wide to do that with brute force. Therefore, I’ll trace it"s mana. It specially sent disease rain to us, so I’ll follow it." (Kearuga)
I can follow the origin of this disease snow with my【Jade Eyes】.
That being the case, I need to leave the building and bathe in the disease snow. I will resolve myself for that risk and jump out.
If I try running through it without making an antibody and just relying on【Automatic Recovery (Auto Heal)】, my mana will be used up in the blink of an eye and I would be checkmated. I need to go forward while enduring the manual【Recovery Heal】until the limit to preserve my mana.
This is a battle about if I can find the G.o.d bird first or if I collapse first
"You guys should stay here and rest." (Kearuga)
Setsuna and the girls stopped in the middle of saying they would go as well.
They know that they would only become a burden.
However, only Eve opens her mouth.
"I will also go." (Eve)
"I can"t allow you to do that. I have no room to waste mana healing a burden." (Kearuga)
"You don"t have to heal me. The kokuyoku race"s poison resistance is much higher than humans. You can leave me behind if I fall." (Eve)
Resolution is in those eyes.
I remember hearing Eve say that this trial is her own trial.
She did not come to follow me. She is here with her own will. … In that case, she would probably follow me no matter what I say.
"I understand. If you have the resolution, then come with me. Drink this just in case." (Kearuga)
After saying that, I take out two potions and hand one to Eve.
"This is?" (Eve)
"It"s a potion that"s full of nutrients and has the effect of increasing your endurance and temporarily increasing your immunity. It"s mere consolation against the G.o.d bird"s poison, but it"s better than not having it." (Kearuga)
I should also inculate myself.
And then, I tamper with Georgius"s configuration and turn off【Automatic Recovery (Auto Heal)】.
If it heals me every time I become poisoned, I wouldn’t have enough mana no matter how much I have.
I"ll keep enduring to a certain extent and then use the manual【Recovery Heal)】.
Eve and I are running.
I activate【Jade Eyes】and follow the source of the disease snow.
I"ve enhanced my physical ability, and we are running on the roof of the stone houses.
By wearing a raincoat that is a counterplan against the rain, the poison snow has become a bit better.
"Eve, are you okay?" (Kearuga)
"I"m completely fine." (Eve)
Eve is acting tough.
With my eyes, I have seen through Eve"s physical condition, and she"s actually on the verge of collapsing.
However, we are almost about to reach the outbreak point of the cursed snow.
We"ve arrived.
It"s a white sphere. Disease snow is blowing violently from the white sphere that"s suspended high in the sky.
"Eve, can you pierce through that?" (Kearuga)
"Leave it to me!" (Eve)
Eve turns her palm towards the sky.
She enhances her mana and…
"【Spear of Light】." (Eve)
Fires a beam of light.
Compared to the【Arrow of Light】that she fires from her fingertip, this has an overwhelming stronger magical power.
The spear of light goes through the white sphere. The white sphere is gouged out, a crack spreads from the middle, and it breaks. Then, the white snow stops.
A huge bird that tucked itself in it"s wings was inside the white sphere. It"s a bird that is slender like a hawk and has a white silhouette. That white sphere is the egg it sleeps in.
Its true ident.i.ty is the G.o.d bird Caladrius. The first trial was to find this guy and break its sh.e.l.l, which means something will happen now.
That premonition was correct.
The G.o.d bird Caladrius spreads its wings, and the moment it does, I become engulfed in black darkness.
I become unable to see the white stone town, the G.o.d bird, Eve and everything
It"s as if I was brought into a different world.
"He said the G.o.d bird makes you fight disease and tests your spirit." (Kearuga)
I remember what Miru-jii taught me.
If what happened until now was the disease trial, it should be the trial that tests your spirit from now.
What exactly is it going to do?
"Eve, are you safe!?" (Kearuga)
I don"t sense Eve"s presence, so we must have been separated. The reasons I need to quickly breakthrough this trial increased.
No matter what trial it is, I want it to happen quickly.
Maybe that wish was understood, as a trial-like thing began.
I can hear footsteps from the surroundings.
"Hate, hate, I lost everything because of you, b.a.s.t.a.r.d."
Princess Flare"s imperial guard knight captain who I killed before comes in sight. He is bloodstained and is spitting out curses.
"Even though I would have been able to embrace more cute girls if you, weren"t here. Because of you."
The hero of the【Sword】who I took revenge on by ripping off her man mask and making her die at the very end as a woman is glaring at me while shedding tears of blood.
In addition, the people I have killed until now appear in succession and spit out grudges.
I see, these are my sins huh.
It appears that the G.o.d bird"s trial is a trial to face your sins.
The dead people censure my sins one by one.
Apparently I"m not allowed to be alive.
They all joined in saying die, die, die.
If I was a normal human, I might have chosen death from the torment of being aware of my sins.
"Ahahahahahahahah." (Kearuga)
When I noticed it, I had been laughing.
Ah, it feels good.
I see, so these guys hated me this much huh.
They"re like the former me.
This, this is so great. My revenge wasn"t mistaken.
After all, these guys hate me this much! That hatred is my pleasure! To think they hate me enough that they would curse me after dying, it really was worth the hards.h.i.+p.
Above all…
I grab the imperial guard knight captain"s head, throw it on the ground and smash it.
I steal that sword, send the head of the hero of the【Sword】, Blade, flying with that sword, kick that head to the group of the dead and humiliate her corpse.
"I had just been thinking the revenge was insufficient. Is this what you call the feeling when your bladder hasn"t been completely emptied? I regretted not tormenting them enough. Thank you for reviving! I can kill you and disgrace you again. What kindness the G.o.d bird has!" (Kearuga)
To think I would be able to kill the people I hate twice, there is no happiness like this! It"s surely a reward G.o.d gave me because of my good habitual conduct!
I don"t know what intention the G.o.d bird has for doing this.
However, a chance like this will never happen again.
I can taste revenge that could never happen again for the second time.
To taste this happiness, I"ll kill, torment, humiliate and pulverize these dead people.
Now, the fun starts from here!