Vol. 15 - Ch. 18 - Ultimate Clan Battle – Qualification Rounds (18/22)

Johann stepped outside the magic barrier.

Once I’m sure he’s safe, I started releasing my magic, but Mother didn’t move yet. She was observing my actions, waiting to see what I’d do. I guess that means I get the first move.

…Alright, what should I do?

For now, I’ll just go with my usual spell then.

"Fire Lance!"

I condensed a hundred thousand fire lances into a single, massive attack spell and hurled it at Mother.

Each lance was charged with the maximum amount of magic—ten times the usual limit. In other words, this was a concentrated mass of a million units of magic. Plus, thanks to my training at the magic academy, I’d improved the speed at which I could launch spells. My attacks were now fast enough that even a fully prepared demon couldn’t dodge them.

The blazing spear roared through the air, heading straight for Mother.

"That’s quite the magic power. But—"

She held a pure white sword in her right hand. Judging from the aura it gave off, it had strength beyond legend-tier. I expected her to slice through my magic with it, but she did something even more surprising.

"Tei!"

With a simple exclamation, she knocked my spell away with her bare left fist—the one not holding the sword.

She didn’t even seem to put much force into it. Even so, my attack was deflected and it dissipated upon hitting the reinforced magic barrier surrounding the arena. The barrier trembled slightly but showed no cracks.

"That was a straightforward attack, and it wasn’t all that fast."

"Uh, demons can’t dodge it, though…"

"Well, demons vary in strength, right? If it were Sehre, the demon directly under the Evil God who specializes in high-speed movement, he could probably dodge it."

That’s not true. I’ve taken down Sehre before—using a Fire Lance of the exact same scale.

At any rate, this wasn’t enough to surprise her.

"Alright then, how about this? Fire Lance!"

I summoned five flaming knights.

Spells that move on their own are pretty rare.

"Oh? You can do that now? Then, I’ll do it too."

A surge of mana radiated from Mother, turning into flames that split into five. Each one began taking shape.

"Turn all that stands in your path to scorched earth—Flame Knight!"

So she could summon flame knights too.

This was my first time seeing the real thing outside of books.

"So this is the true Flame Knight."

My flame knights had the form of centaur-like beings—part human, part horse. But Mother’s knights were different. Her horses and knights were separate entities. According to a magic tome I once read, the real Flame Knights could act independently from their mounts. But before I even learned about them, I had already developed my own version, so I always used the centaur form. Personally, I think mine looks cooler.

"Are those your original creations, Halt? That’s an interesting design."

"Yeah, I made them before I even knew about the official Flame Knight spell, so they turned out like this. Let’s see which version is stronger—mine or the real deal."

I commanded my knights.

"Show them your strength!"

My flame knights charged forward at high speed, their burning lances poised to strike.

"Intercept them."

Following Mother’s command, her Flame Knights moved to counter mine. They wielded lances in their right hands and massive shields in their left, ready to block my knights’ attacks. 

But—

"Oh my. That’s unexpected."

For the first time, Mother looked surprised.

My knights’ lances pierced straight through the shields of her Flame Knights, shattering their cores. The flames of my knights had a higher density, giving them superior offensive power.

"Looking closely, those knights of yours have an insane magic density."

Analyzing my spell while instructing her remaining knights to fall back, Mother’s eyes gleamed with curiosity.

"Impressive attack power. But…"

Her figure suddenly vanished.

"What about their defense?"

"—What!?"

In the blink of an eye, she reappeared in front of one of my flame knights and drove her sword into its core.

"Their firepower is great, but their core defenses could use some work."

Unaffected by the intense heat, her sword effortlessly destroyed the knight’s core. One of my knights vanished. The remaining four rushed at her, but within seconds, she struck down every single one.

The way she moved was mesmerizing—like a dance.

"Fufufu, what’s wrong, Halt? You’re in a daze."

"I was just… admiring your swordsmanship, Mother."

I see what she’s doing.

She’s showing off her power.

First, she displayed her magic and sword skills.

So next—

"Now, I’ll show off my skills."

As expected, she was going to demonstrate her unique abilities.

I could train my magic and swordsmanship, but skills were a different story. Because of a curse from the Evil God, my status was permanently locked at [Skills: None]. I had managed to replicate skill-like abilities through magic, but I couldn’t use actual skills.

Still, if I watched closely enough, I could probably recreate whatever she was about to show me.

"This one might be tough to copy, even for you, Halt."

She read my thoughts like it was nothing.

I decided to just ignore it.

"The skill I’m about to use is [Divine Summon]."

"D-Divine Summon!?"

Was she planning to summon a dragon god into the arena and make this a two-on-one fight? Sylph once summoned the four great spirits to battle the Star King, so it wouldn’t be impossible.

"Lesser gods like the dragon gods can technically be summoned through magic if you meet certain conditions and have enough magic power. But there are entities that magic alone can’t summon."

"…You mean the Four Great Gods?"

"Exactly! Sky God, Earth God, Sea God… and the Evil God. Without the right summoning skill, humans can’t force them to appear in this world."

E-Eh?

Wait… is that true?

"I only have one skill that allows me to summon a Great God. But that’s all I need. The Four Great Gods are the most powerful beings in existence, aside from the Creator God. Once they’re summoned, victory is guaranteed."

A dark aura started seeping from Mother. Up until now, she had radiated a holy presence, but now the atmosphere had completely changed.

"The reason we started this nine-person battle in the first place was to summon this god and fight alongside him."

Dark clouds gathered overhead, blocking out the sun. A sinister energy began to fill the air.

"Halt, you were reborn into this world as my son. That makes you its [Protagonist] …It’s just be being a doting parent, I guess? Maybe. But I want my son—you—to be the hero of this world."

She raised her hand.

A massive magic circle appeared in the sky.

"The being I’m about to call forth is the source of all evil. If you can’t defeat them, this world will be swallowed by darkness."

"M-Mother!? What are you—!?"

"Defeat us both, and prove it to me. Prove that you are the true protagonist of this world."

I could have stopped her.

The skill-generated magic circle was automatic, but I had the knowledge to rewrite it. Now that I could understand the divine script, disrupting the summoning would be easy.

But I didn’t stop her.

Because I wanted Mother to see me as the world’s protagonist.

By the way, I even casted [Protect] on my thoughts to prevent her from reading my mind, making sure she didn’t realize…

That I had already defeated this god before.

Unaware, she activated what she likely considered her ultimate skill.

"Evil God, descend!!"

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