Chapter 173


“Uraa Chaa!!!!”

I swung the sword of Alterion No. 28, enhanced by the power of the Dragon Heart Stone.

With no skills, just a simple swing of the sword, the upper and lower bodies of dozens of monsters separated right before my eyes.

I felt no resistance at all.

  

While I marveled at how sharp it had become to allow such a feeling, I heard a tremendous noise beside me.

“Kwaaarrrr!!!!!”

A massive turtle-like monster was charging straight at me—no, at Alterion No. 28.

It seemed to believe in its sturdy shell.

“Good. I’ll accept the challenge.”

I too charged at the turtle with my sword in hand.

Deliberately aiming for its hard shell, I struck down.

Skkk-kung—

“Kuueeek!!!!!!”

With a burst of red magic and blood swirling around, the turtle’s body split left and right.

Still, this guy seemed pretty tough.

Considering I felt a slight cutting sensation in my hand.

“Kiieeek!!!”

“Grgrrrr!!!!!”

Perhaps it was because their boss monster had been killed in one blow?

The monsters felt fear.

The ones that looked like they might charge at me backed away.

It seemed they were planning to attack from a distance, spitting like hydras while trying to keep their distance to avoid death.

I retrieved the second weapon of my Magic Armor Knight, Alterion No. 28.

“I brought this just in case you guys would do something like this.”

It was my creation that simultaneously functioned as a shield and an energy rifle.

I simply named it the “Shield Buster Rifle.”

This weapon launches a massive laser beam by bestowing high-pressure compressed magic with light-speed characteristics.

In short, it fired an incredibly hot and large laser beam.

Wuuuuunng— Kwaang!!!!

“Kuueeek!!!!”

“Grraaargh!!!!”

A huge red beam burst forth from the Shield Buster Rifle.

Monsters hit head-on ignited, let out grotesque screams, and died in agony.

This was enough, but I wanted to do the action that’d been my top priority ever since I got the Buster Rifle—a rolling buster rifle action.

In short, I spun around, setting everything around me ablaze.

Buuuuung—

“Kuueeek!!!”

Like Superman—no, more like Homelander—monsters burned or got sliced to death by the buster beam.

At least a thousand monsters visibly evaporated from my recent attack.

Sitting inside Alterion’s cockpit, I felt omnipotent.

If there’s a feeling of becoming a god, this must be it… In fact, it felt more like playing a game with cheat codes.

Normally games are supposed to be boring, but right now, I was having way too much fun.

Inside a huge robot,

With one hand wielding a sword that could cut through worlds,

And the other holding a gun that could incinerate worlds,

I was in a situation avenging past enemies.

How could it not be fun?

“Then let’s keep going!!!”

“Ku…Kuueeek!!!!!!”

The monsters screamed as if they were horror-stricken by another monster.

Leading the steel monster, I surged forward.

*

Just a moment ago, Gold felt really good.

According to the plan, the rampaging monster wave was about to reach the city, and the last resistance, Sage Irene, was already showing her limits.

If Irene died like this, the city would burn, and they could seize the treasures of the abandoned city, then everything would be wrapped up.

It was the perfect success,

Feeling the long-awaited thrill of victory, Gold preemptively raised his cup to celebrate.

But then, suddenly… it appeared in the sky.

A giant steel being fell from the heavens, exuding red magic.

It seemed like a golem-type summoning created by the Irene School, and it began to slaughter the monsters.

It was an overwhelming massacre.

Thousands of monsters couldn’t respond properly and were annihilated by the sword and gun of that steel golem, and Gold cried out.

“What the hell is that!!!?”

“Th-that’s the first time we’ve seen something like that.”

“It looks like a golem, but to have summoning magic at that level… truly, it’s the School of the Sage.”

“Is this really the time to be in awe!!!”

Under the overwhelming power of the red golem, monsters were falling left and right.

No matter how deranged the monsters were, they had a survival instinct.

Monsters, now morale-shattered in the face of an overwhelmingly powerful being, began to slowly retreat, trying to escape, and Gold, unable to let that happen, shouted.

“Increase the output of the ‘Apocalypse’ to maximum!”

“Lord Ober! If we do that, our position will be completely exposed.”

“If we leave it like this, we’ll end up getting killed by the fleeing monsters! Just do as I say!!”

Gold’s judgment was not wrong.

Once monsters started scattering, they’d likely seek out other prey.

That way, it’d just lead to the area emitting an arguably suspicious amount of magic being sensed, and the monsters would attack.

Understanding the situation, the wizards had no choice but to maximize the output of their magical tools.

From their perspective, the best scenario they could imagine was simply praying that those monstrous beings would handle the demonic red golem.

*

“Wait? Why are they acting like that?”

It was a sudden change.

After sensing the eerie afterglow of magic, the monsters, who had been fleeing in fear, suddenly changed their gazes.

The monsters, ignoring their own lives, started to charge at Alterion.

Chwaak-! Skkk-kung!! Scrape— Buuuuuuuung—

“Kuueeek!!!”

“Graaahhh!!!!”

The attacks from the monsters, carelessly charging at me, began to gradually threaten Alterion.

No matter how enhanced by the Dragon Heart Stone, Alterion wasn’t invincible.

Relentlessly attacking monsters eventually landed their blows on Alterion.

Krazzzz!!!

“Graaahhh!!! Damn!!! That hurts!!!!”

A monster resembling a golden lion called Kazan lunged at Alterion’s arm holding the sword.

No matter how sharp the sword was, it was difficult to fend off such a horde, and in that chaos, one last monster bit off Alterion’s arm cleanly.

As the pain shot back through my nerves from losing my arm, I involuntarily cursed and thought of the pilots from Evankalion.

Did they really put middle school kids into this cockpit, making them feel such agony?

I’d have everyone involved nailed for violating child labor laws.

“Ha…ha…ha…”

“Grgrrrr!!!”

“Kuwaek! Kuweweck!!!”

Lost in the pain of losing an arm, I fell back.

The monsters still, perhaps having lost their sanity, were staring greedily at me, ready to leap at any moment when Sora contacted me.

“Yuren! Can you hear me!!!”

“Sora?”

Sora’s urgent voice appeared on the screen along with her face.

She showed me a map and said.

“We’ve detected abnormal responses on the radar, and after analyzing Irene’s magic waves, it seems there’s a magical tool or spell that’s rampaging the monsters.”

“Is that really a thing!?”

“Yes! I’ll send you the coordinates right now!!”

Looking at Sora’s coordinates, it seemed to be a forest not far from here.

Surely that was also where I sensed the eerie wave of magic just moments ago.

I didn’t know whether it triggered the monster wave or not, but it definitely drove the monsters crazy.

“Hang in there a little longer, Yuren! We’ll try to handle this!”

“It’s too dangerous, don’t come, Sora, and… I think I can handle this in one go.”

“W-what!?”

After that, the monsters began their assault again, so I cut off the communication and countered.

The monsters were coming for the most threatening Shield Buster Rifle.

“Is this what you want? Then I’ll give it to you as you wish!”

I threw the rifle at the monsters.

However, I couldn’t just give it up for free, so I heightened the internal pressure and threw it in a runaway state.

Kwaaang!!!

“Kuweeeek!!!”

While the explosion of the Shield Buster Rifle blinded the monsters, I retreated.

My right arm and sword were damaged, and the rifle had exploded.

To the monsters, I might look like a very tasty prey.

But they didn’t know.

The true essence of a robot was that cannons capable of executing ultimate moves should be installed in the chest.

[Magic Charge 10%…20%…30%]

Charging magic began.

I manually maneuvered, aligning to the coordinates Sora sent me.

That was the only problem with Alterion—it didn’t have any automatic lock-on features.

[Magic Charge 80%…90%…100%]

[Charging complete]

[High-Density Magic Particle Cannon “Dragon Horn Cannon” ready to fire.]

As the magic charge completed, the dust settled.

The gazes of the monsters, sensing me, turned in my direction.

How would the overwhelming magic reaction in my chest appear to them?

It certainly didn’t seem to look ordinary.

The monsters roared madly, charging at me, and I used my ultimate move.

Alright, dragon, it’s time to work.

“Dragon! Swallow the enemies!!!”

Kuuuuuoooooo—

At that moment, a red dragon surged from Alterion’s chest.

This was the best offensive magic created by my master, converted into a magical tool.

This spell summoned the legendary dragon Ragmahgnitare, said to devour everything with its body made from high-density compressed magic.

Legend had it that if one got injured by this dragon’s teeth, no healing magic could ever heal it.

Thus, I named this ultimate move “Dragon Horn Cannon.”

Now, that dragon descended into the world as a red dragon with the power of the Dragon Heart Stone.

Kuuuuooooo—!!!

“Kuueeek!!!”

“Graaahh!!!!”

In the moment the red dragon was unleashed from Alterion’s chest, everyone inside the tent realized the situation.

  

Everything the red dragon came into contact with turned to dust as it flew toward this very spot.

Although they could sense my presence here, they never imagined I had such a trump card prepared, leaving them with nothing they could do.

“Irene, you bastard——”

Kwaaaarrrr!!!!!!!

Before Gold could even leave his last words, the red dragon obliterated everything—people, magical tools, everything—in its wake.

Thus, those who sought to take everything away ended up with nothing, vanishing without a memory to anyone.