“Licht! Mardol! Are you alright?!”
The other two team members also burst out from the bushes, and the battlefield devolved into chaos. This was bad—there was no telling who the Queen would target.
“Kainel! Use Shine Strike on the Queen Bee’s wings!”
“Ariel, aim for the Iron Hive! Burn it all to ash!”
This would force the Queen to make a choice. As a massive, slow-moving monster, it would struggle to react quickly while still preoccupied with breaking through the glass wall.
“Got it, Helmet!”
“Understood, Licht!”
No sooner had I given the order than they began executing it, wielding their magic and Holy Sword with perfect coordination. I couldn’t help but chuckle slightly inside my helmet—those two were such a perfect match.
─BOOOOM!
A massive explosion of fiery fireworks and a concentrated blade of light flew toward the Queen. Panicked, the Armored Queen Bee redirected her forces to protect the hive on her back.
An opening appeared.
“Mardol, now’s the time! Use that skill on me!”
“…Alright, got it.”
Mardol activated a skill he had demonstrated earlier that morning—a peculiar spell that created a translucent, mirror-like clone. He called it Mirror Mirage.
‘With this, I can combine sword strikes with magic for a stronger attack. It should work.’
Now was the chance, while the Queen was too distracted to assess the situation. I prepared to combine Vacuum Slash with Reverse Scale Thrust, aiming for her weak points.
To the right, there was a glaring gap in her defenses. The Queen had hastily concentrated her forces on one side, leaving a fatal flaw.
I didn’t waste the opportunity.
─SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
I unleashed a barrage of heavy wind pressure with my right hand, mixing the second and fourth forms of my sword style. Thanks to Mardol’s magic, the power of my continuous strikes was amplified.
The Queen retaliated with venomous stingers, but they were no match for Reverse Scale Thrust, a technique that relentlessly targeted her vulnerabilities.
“Mardol, watch out!”
“…Ah, thank you.”
I intercepted an attack heading toward Mardol, slicing it apart. Then, with a series of rapid strikes, I aimed at the hive on her back.
Like peeling away layers of fruit, the armored bees’ defenses were slowly stripped away.
‘This is it. I can see the shadow clearly now.’
The moment I had been waiting for finally arrived. Even though Vacuum Slash alone struggled against her physical resistance, the skills of a Magic Swordsman had a chance.
As her shadow came into sharp focus, I executed my move.
─SCHLICK.
I slashed clean through the Queen’s intact shadow engraved on the ground. Combining Shadow Slash and Vacuum Slash, I bisected both the hive and the Queen’s massive body in one clean strike.
“…It’s done.”
As the Queen fell, the remaining armored bees scattered in disarray. I collapsed on the spot, finally allowing myself to breathe.
“…Are you alright, Licht?”
Mardol’s voice reached me as I sat on the ground, my strength drained.
“…Yes, I’m fine.”
“You’re strong, as expected.”
Seeing Mardol’s formidable combat abilities firsthand was astonishing.
‘If only we’d brought him to fight Magic Hat in , maybe we could’ve saved our Saintess.’
“Thank you, Mardol. I couldn’t have done it without you.”
Mardol’s golden eyes lingered on me as I spoke, and though hidden behind my dark helmet, I smiled faintly with a sense of accomplishment.
***
While Licht’s party was busy defeating the Armored Queen Bee, another incident was unfolding elsewhere.
“Answer my question already.”
“I don’t know! I don’t know anything about Heroes, or the dungeon beneath here—it’s the first I’ve heard of it!”
A white-haired woman in a magician’s hat was interrogating a student at Grand Hearts Academy.
“Think carefully. There’s no way you, a non-Hero, could break the Demon Lord’s Authority.”
“I swear, I don’t know anything…! Please, stop…”
The orange-haired girl, her voice trembling with sobs, had tears streaming down her face.
She looked like an oni with a horn protruding from her forehead, but the surrounding students paid her no attention.
“Ha. You’re making this so boring.”
It was as if neither of them existed—like the girl’s desperate cries were inaudible to everyone else.
“Please… Just spare me. Save my friends too…”
“Don’t worry, I won’t kill you. My husband wouldn’t like that.”
Even as other academy students passed by, no one acknowledged the two, as if they were invisible.
“Seriously, haven’t you seen anyone unusual? Like someone wielding a Holy Sword?”
“I-I think I saw a new student…!”
The girl racked her brain in terror, her orange hair quivering.
“…Oh? Who?”
“Kainel! His name was Kainel. He had blond hair and carried a strange sword!”
“Oh, now it makes sense.”
Her golden eyes widened slightly in interest, and a sly smile spread across her lips.
“Where is this Hero now? Things are finally getting fun.”
“He… I think he went to do a group assignment… Please, now that I’ve told you, let my friends go back to normal…”
“Sure. I’ll keep my promise.”
As soon as the girl answered, the magician’s mood lightened, her white hair fluttering. The oni girl, relieved, stopped crying.
“But I might need to tweak you a bit. You might tempt my husband with that face of yours.”
“…What? But… You said if I answered, you’d…”
“Yes, of course, I’ll spare you.”
The magician casually shuffled a deck of cards, ignoring the girl’s growing panic.
“What should I do…? Oh! How about erasing your face? That could work.”
Delighted by her idea, Magic Hat grinned eerily, as if convinced her actions were entirely reasonable.
“No! Please! Somebody help me! Help!”
The girl screamed and tried to run, but none of the nearby students even glanced in their direction.
“…No one’s going to save you, idiot.”
It was as though no one else had been there from the start.