The next morning breaks. I wake up relaxed, noticing something soft beside me. I prop myself up, my left hand sinking in slightly. I look to the left. Kira is lying there; she must have moved so much in her sleep that she ended up next to me. She slowly opens her eyes while I, sleepy as I am, don't realize what's happening. But Kira realizes it immediately.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Her eyes look at me innocently and slightly confused. She looks cute lying there, but she doesn't flinch away. Perhaps she notices it was an accident. I pull my hand away.
"Oh, sorry," I say, without feeling any shame. Kira notices and starts to pout. "Man, I wanted to throw him off balance, which is why I did all that on purpose in my sleep and placed his hand on my chest," Kira thinks as she tidies her clothes.
Milo doesn't notice anything since he is still sleeping. We leave the tent so as not to wake him. Kira continues to pout while I chuckle softly. From the hill behind the tent, we both look at the beautiful sky, which looks as if it were day and night at the same time. It is bright and dark. The sun begins to shine, and the moon disappears. The stars are still faintly visible.
Kira inconspicuously takes my hand. For a short time, I even forget about Lisa. I've never had this before: a girl who makes me forget Lisa. "Find Lisa," it said in the Legend. Do I even want to find her anymore? After all, Kira is...
"Min, it's you, isn't it? The boy who always protected me from monsters and bullies back then." Her voice is sweet and nostalgic. My eyes widen as I hear it. She is the girl who—after my parents, sister, and Lisa died—was the one who was always there for me. I met her in a forest when she was being attacked by goblins. I saved her then because she is not a fighter. Back then, I confessed my love to her, but she turned me down. Now, it seems as if she regrets that decision. I begin to smile.
"Then it really is you, Kira," I say with a cheerful and calm voice, as if I were somehow stuck in the past. Whether it's Lisa or Kira, I could never forget either and I love both. I will have to decide if what is written in the Legend is true. My life has changed massively since I met this chaotic bunch of girls.
We tell each other a few things that have happened since our last meeting. We laugh again and again. Slowly, the time comes when everyone gets up. I want to cause as little commotion as possible.
"I'm heading off to the Demon General," I say calmly with feigned lightness. Kira looks at me with concern. Her eyes show she is worried, but she simply nods.
I set off knowing that I might not survive it. And I won't cast that spell again for one simple reason: I changed myself and the world with it. The gods want to destroy me mentally rather than physically, but I will not allow the gods to play with me or my friends.
"You filthy gods," I murmur quietly. The gods begin to laugh, except for the sixth one. He only looks at the glass orb where I can be seen.
"This boy will make it." He murmurs it, but only completes the sentence in fragments regarding what he means I can achieve. But what is known: This god is more than he seems to be. However, Freyja catches his words.
"Oh man, Galaktika, you should speak up if you have something to say. But you are wrong." Freyja looks at him angrily, while he, with his starry-sky-like hair and galactic eyes, looks closely at the glass orb. He notices something about me that remains hidden even from me.
"Freyja, you will lose. Whether in intelligence, strength, or other values, he has the advantage over you. Not because you are weaker, but because you are arrogant." All the gods look at Galaktika as if he were saying something against the boss, but he remains unfazed. Freyja simply leaves it at that. One can tell she is full of fear when she talks to Galaktika.
In the glass orb, you can see that I have arrived at the Demon General. "I won't stand a chance, but I can win," I murmur to myself as I lift the protection spell.
The Demon General looks at me with a grim face, as if I wanted to do him harm. Well okay, I do. The Demon General runs toward me with his giant two-hander, which has a blade like a saw with jagged edges.
"If he catches me with that, it's over for me," I say to myself. I dodge his strike. The blow churns up the entire earth, and even stone is shattered. I look at it. "That would have broken me like glass." My voice is cautious. I look at the Demon General, who is currently gripping his sword firmly again. Even though he isn't exactly thin, he manages to move so fast. You can see it, but he is still incredibly fast.
I take my daggers in my hands, which now glow in a threatening violet light thanks to the "Mana Charge" enchantment—where I can let my mana flow into the daggers. I squeeze my mana close to me so that no one really notices I am fighting at all.
While I am fighting here, Kira runs to the tent of me and Milo. Luna, Suri, Mia, and Lilly are just waking up. They hear Kira screaming for Milo.
"Milo... Min, he wants to fight the Demon General!" Her voice is full of fear and concern for me. She starts to cry; she almost falls down. Then the girls come and catch her. "Please save Min, he is in danger," she says with a crying and desperate voice.
I dodge the Demon General's strike again. I try to counter his attack because his arm cannot let go of the sword, otherwise he would stand unarmed before me. I slash his arm, but it is only a tiny scratch on his black, scaly skin. A scale falls to the ground, halved, but underneath is a layer of steel skin.
"Shit, how am I supposed to do this? This monster has no openings," I murmur quietly. I analyze his body precisely. Then I notice his eyes, which are completely unprotected. I jump against a tree. Just before I can spring back, the greatsword races toward me. I cross my two weak daggers, which I pull out of the dimension hole just before impact, and put the other two on my hip. The greatsword barely deflects off my daggers. I breathe deeply from the stress; my body starts to sweat excessively.
"Shit, why does it have to be so warm today?" I throw my cloak away, now wearing only a black tracksuit. I disappear into a blurred vision. The Demon General is about to look for me when I am already standing on his giant nose. The Demon General is startled by the sight—he didn't expect me on his nose.
I stab ten times per eye with the daggers. The Demon General screams out, but after the tenth stab in the right eye, he hides his eyes behind a metallic steel-glass wall with glass scales over it, whereby his only weak point disappears. I will be able to dodge every attack, but without heavy damage, I cannot defeat him.
Shit, I need Lilly. I noticed it: She has a barrier that could just barely restrain my strongest magic. But she isn't here. I dodge every attack from the Demon General with ease.
"Why do I want to protect humans, the race that is the greatest scum?" I say with an angry voice. But it doesn't matter what I think at that moment. I decided long ago: I will bring humans and beastmen to a common peace.
Knowing Kira, she will get help. Probably Milo, who will then tell the girls. Lilly will find out and come. Kira explains that I want to kill the Demon General. Lilly doesn't hesitate for long and sprints off. "Fool, you know you won't make it," she murmurs quietly to herself. She runs toward me at inhuman speed.
I am slowly running out of breath. I am about to dodge, but due to my lack of concentration, I don't catch the feint. The Demon General strikes with the greatsword in the direction where I am dodging. Just before the sword hits me, a giant barrier appears around the Demon General.
"Go Min, thanks for sending me your plan with manipulation magic!" she screams to me. I planted my plan in her head as soon as I sensed her mana. I cast a spell that takes several minutes to complete.
"Lilly, hold him off for ten minutes," I say to her, while tiny elemental spheres slowly form, growing larger second by second. Lilly nods to me and runs toward the Demon General, causing his focus to shift to her.
Lilly attacks the Demon General with strong blows, but it achieves nothing. The Demon General tries to attack me when he notices that I can't do anything right now. Lilly tries to get to me in time but wouldn't make it. Mia comes by and just barely fends off the attack with the hilt of her katana. Mia pushes the Demon General in Lilly's direction, who throws him back toward Mia.
I unfold my mana. A chill runs down both girls' spines. The mana envelops Lagoon, the camp, and the entire forest. I myself am amazed by my new power. Everyone in the camp looks around and sees only the red-violet mana I am emitting. The King looks out of the window out of boredom, as he has nothing to do anyway. His eyes widen and he stumbles back slightly.
"What is that?" He looks shocked at the amount of mana. Elemental spheres of air, earth, water, fire, electricity, darkness, light, ice, nature, and holiness fly into the air. Above the capital, all ten elements are flying, slowly moving toward each other.
"Five more minutes," I say to the two. The two continue to play tennis with the Demon General. The King goes onto the balcony and watches as the colors of the elements mix perfectly. A beautiful color combination is created. Slowly, this mixture of spheres forms into a wall that slowly descends.
"Ten seconds left," I say, as I notice the girls are slowly reaching their limits. The Demon General comes running toward me, though also quite exhausted.
"Nine." The wall-like mana mixture comes down even further. The Demon General is already winding up for an attack.
"Eight." The wall is now almost on the ground and the Demon General is also shortly before me. Due to his exhaustion, he cannot swing the sword properly.
"Seven."
"Six."
"Five."
The Demon General swings the sword toward me. No one can save me or anything else. He hits me, but instead of splitting me in two, I disappear in a cloud of dust.
"Four."
The Demon General looks in the direction where the "Four" comes from. Then I realize that this is an illusion spell.
"Three."
"Two."
The Demon General cannot cope with the fact that I tricked him like that.
"One."
The wall touches the ground.
"Zero," I say with a determined face. At the moment I say "Zero," Lilly casts the barrier around the Demon General. Normally, this attack would have destroyed everything within an area of 100 km². That means it would have even reached Kimura.
"You probably didn't expect that, Demon General. It was an illusion the whole time, whether before the magic or during it. Everything planned from the start," I say with an explanatory voice. Mia looks at me with a pouting face. She doesn't look threatening, but rather cute. Her cheeks are puffed out. I look at Lilly, who gives me a thumb up.
The Demon General crumbles to ash. The magic disappears and my mana flows back into me. Mia presses herself tightly against me.
"I thought you were going to die again," she says worriedly, while Lilly slowly approaches me. She holds out her palm for a high-five. I simply smile and then high-five her.
"Well done, Min. You are incredible. Not only strong, but also smart. You planned everything from the beginning."
"Well, otherwise I'd be dead," I reply calmly, but not arrogantly. Unfortunately, I cannot collect the Demon General since he is dust, but for that, everyone is alive without major damage. I heal the wounds on the two of them, for they suffered while I hid like a coward.
"But sometimes it's better to be a coward than too brave and then die," I murmur quietly to myself without the girls hearing it. Both are feeling great again, so we can go back to the camp. A bright light envelops us, glowing violet. We slowly disappear.
After a few seconds, we appear in the camp. Lilly looks at me startled, while Mia is already used to it. The King is already waiting with everyone else. Kira comes running toward me when she sees me. She throws her arms around my neck and kisses me, but not on the cheek, but on the mouth. Everyone is startled when they see this. Kira looks at me with slightly reddened cheeks as she pulls away.
"Wasn't it good?" she asks shyly with a sheepish look. I nod to tell her that it was good. I have decided: I will no longer chase after Lisa, but choose Kira.
The King clears his throat briefly to draw attention to himself. We all look at him.
"Well done, Min. I saw the mana and the magic. You are truly a disaster-class mage, probably even rank 1 in the world. But don't forget: you could only defeat the Demon General with tricks and help, otherwise you would have died," the King says with a serious voice and face. I nod, as I am already aware that I was actually inferior to the Demon General.
Suddenly a man starts screaming. I run off without hesitation.
"This boy, he is truly special in several ways," the King says with a sigh. I reach the screaming man, who is currently cowering on the ground because in front of him stands an army of 100,000 demons. I look forward. My eyes widen.
"That can't be," I say quietly in shock. Milo and the girls arrive too, and finally even the King.
"Oh, holy shit," Milo says with a shocked voice.
"The battle begins. Evacuate everyone! Kira, get yourself to safety!" I say with an agitated voice. From that moment on, it became clear to me: The gods are serious. They want a war between humans and demons. I stand ready for battle, just like the others.