[Great Demon Belphegor! You are surrounded!]
“······?!”
Huge shadows are looming over us.
It’s an airship.
Not just any airship, but massive ones that can rival battleships!
“This is······.”
North, south, east, and west.
Each direction has an airship rising up, surrounding me as if to capture me.
And from their fronts, the cannons open up.
A massive amount of magic power gathers in the cannons, causing the air around to shimmer as if ready to explode.
But wait, there’s more.
Four airships simultaneously activate some unknown magic.
Barriers start closing in from all sides, completely sealing off this area.
Now it’s just Mi Jeong, me, and that bizarre girl with a giant hat and chains above us, all aimed at the massive cannons.
[Surrender quietly!]
I recognize the voice coming from the loudspeaker in the distance.
Growl!
Finally, the fifth airship reveals itself.
Inside the command room, a familiar blonde woman comes into view.
I believe she is now leading the allied forces.
Jill Diner.
It’s nice to see her, but it’s not a face I can be carefree about.
‘Can she not see me?’
At that moment, I finally understood our current situation completely.
Jill, knowing my face, cannot recognize me right now.
So to her, I must look like a sword floating midair made of magic.
It’s an unmistakable appearance of a Great Demon.
Actually, I am one, after all······.
With the Great Demon standing dumbly in the middle of a field, they have indeed captured me.
Just as I thought I might get blasted to bits.
An unexpected event occurred.
“What are you doing, Priestess?! Lower the cannons right now!”
[□□! Get away from the Great Demon! It’s dangerous!]
“I think there’s a misunderstanding! Great Demon? How can you say this man is a Great Demon? I’ve checked, and he is neither a Great Demon nor its minion! I guarantee it!”
[A man······? What man? There’s only a black mass of magic there.]
“What?”
A girl blocking my way protests.
Yet it seems there’s a gap in understanding between her and Jill; the conversation isn’t getting through at all.
Jill can’t see me.
But that girl can still see me.
‘Why?’
I can’t understand.
I expected Jill wouldn’t recognize me.
But I never anticipated that this girl would shield me.
No, more than that, what did Jill just say?
With the static noise, her name sounded strange······.
“You. Can you still see me?”
“What kind of nonsense is that, old man? More importantly, hurry up and say something! They’re mistaking you for a Great Demon over there! They even think I’ve been kidnapped by you! I’m not weak enough to be kidnapped by that old man!”
“······.”
The girl turns around, exasperated.
Her gaze is directly toward me.
Strange.
That someone who can’t recognize me would see me.
It should be normal for me to be invisible to everyone at this point.
There has been no exception to that rule since my existence was erased.
But now, an exception has appeared before my eyes.
This girl······.
How can she still recognize me while Jill can’t see me?
“······Am I, like you?”
Mi Jeong mutters, frowning in discomfort.
Indeed.
In terms of recognition, she seems similar to Mi Jeong.
“No. That’s not it.”
But Mi Jeong is linked with me and is currently invisible to everyone else.
On the other hand, that girl seems to be able to converse with Jill just fine.
She’s neither like me nor Mi Jeong.
This is a completely new type.
Something is off.
It’s distorted.
While different from us, it still aligns with the fact that she is a being that deviates from the rules.
“You. What’s your name?”
“I just said I don’t have a name.”
“Just tell me what you’re called.”
“I’m called □□. Is that enough?”
“······.”
The girl sighs and answers.
Again.
I thought the odd name I heard from Jill was due to the loudspeaker’s issue.
Even here, standing so close, it sounds like someone is intentionally erasing just the name part.
‘Recognition interference?’
What is this?
Just as my existence has been erased so that no one can recognize me.
Is it that I can’t recognize this girl’s name either?
But why me?
Jill knows this girl’s name and calls her by it.
Why can I not recognize it?
[We can’t have this □□! We need to drag you over!]
“······!”
While I was dazed, something absurd happened.
The cargo bay of the command ship opens, and a figure drops down swiftly.
With a thud, landing and kicking up dirt all around is a well-built man.
Wearing chain mail that allows for easy movement.
Long ears that prove he’s an elf.
“Rex······.”
He was a high-ranking warrior from the elf tribe who had once fought me.
It’s Rex.
“□□! Get away! Unless you want to be caught by the Great Demon!”
“I’ve said this man isn’t a Great Demon so many times already!”
“Where is this man? Has he been charmed by the Great Demon? I will rescue you soon!”
“Ah! I’m going to lose my mind, seriously······!”
Rex draws his sword and strides forward.
The girl pounds her chest, groaning in frustration.
I feel just as frustrated.
Who the heck is this guy that I can’t even understand a name?
And why can he recognize me when no one else can?
“I want to have a little chat with you.”
“Excuse me? But hurry and surrender! You can’t win against that person!”
“I’ll break through. Will you help me?”
“No, ah······! This old man is completely out of control!”
With the Magic Sword, no, Belphegor drawn, I stand against Rex.
At first, he seems hesitant but then looks dejected as he follows behind me.
As long as that girl is close by, the bombardment won’t happen.
I plan to use that to break through as quickly as possible and escape.
“Floating in the form of a sword······. Quite an odd sight indeed!”
Boom!
As Rex draws his sword, he kicks the ground and accelerates toward me.
His momentum is entirely different from the Rex I faced before.
I can tell.
Rex has grown even stronger than when he was burning through his 800-year lifespan!
‘This is troublesome.’
It won’t be easy to deal with him.
Back then, a single Iron Blood Storm Slash could end him, but now his momentum is completely different.
Furthermore, my body feels so heavy, and the traits like Heavenly Armor Plate aren’t responding at all.
But why is it?
I don’t feel like I would lose at all.
What could be the source of this confidence?
“······Here.”
“······.”
At that moment, Mi Jeong reaches into my pocket.
It seems my pocket is getting full.
Inside are a bunch of flowers.
Red camellias.
Yellow jasmines.
Black roses.
And blue cyclamens.
Just before I was about to destroy my inner world.
Mi Jeong quickly gathered these flowers.
‘Right. I still haven’t lost everything.’
Everyone may have forgotten me and lost their traits and abilities.
But I made sure to not lose the most important things.
My experiences and memories.
And the precious bonds that sustain me.
The source of my confidence stems from these.
Traits or abilities can be regained at any price.
But these are things that cannot be gained even with a fortune.
They make me who I am.
They sustain me.
And they are what keep me from vanishing completely.
“Dakia-style Secrets.”
Shwoop.
I draw my sword back, preparing a technique that I’ve fully mastered.
The Iron Blood Storm Slash probably won’t work on that sturdy fellow.
But I have a technique I devised for such moments.
Instead of spreading my will like a gigantic net to envelop my opponent,
I concentrate my will at the forefront and unleash a single, lethal strike!
“Half Moon Slash!”
Whewweeeek!
The slash swings in my hand, and Belphegor screams as Rex tries to react a moment too late.
“Hot?!”
Cling clang clang!
Chains scatter in all directions, and a cloud of blood flies.
Rex, covered in blood, gets thrown back, rolling across the ground.
I made sure to only injure him slightly.
Though it’s a severe wound, with the Priestess present, he shouldn’t die.
Now’s my chance.
Quickly, I’ll use psychokinesis to break through the barriers—
“Wahaha! I did it! I’ve endured! I’ve ‘once again’ endured!”
“······?”
“Come, Great Demon! I’m the legendary swordsman, Yoo Jin! Even after receiving the teachings of the Great Demon, I will not break! I will NEVER forget the precious lessons from a mere human!!!”
“······.”
Rex, pouring a potion over his blood-soaked abdomen, suddenly stands up.
There’s madness in his eyes.
Not the kind of madness of an elf scrambling to live after wasting centuries of life.
But the kind of madness filled with a human’s ambition to meet a valuable death in just a few years left.
‘What kind of monster did I just create?’
I can instinctively tell.
Rex is likely to become a far tougher opponent than I anticipated.
