"What the hell is that?! Get lost!"
The moment Naya sensed someone standing ahead, it immediately raised its leg to strike!
"Watch out!"
Kanzaki Rei shouted.
But the warning came slower than the monster's attack.
Its slash had already been unleashed.
Three earth-rending strikes tore across the ground, carving open the earth as they advanced.
Yet in the very next instant—
The warrior moved even faster.
The massive greatsword resting on his shoulder swept downward in a diagonal arc.
BOOM!
A deep crimson blade of light split heaven and earth apart, leaving a scarlet diagonal streak stretching across the sky itself.
The monster that had been sprinting forward—
Stopped abruptly.
Frozen in that exact moment.
Then in the next second—
Its entire body exploded.
It shattered into pulverized flesh and blood mist.
One strike.
One kill.
As if he had just cut down a fragile, insignificant minion.
"It's over now."
The warrior appeared beside Rei without warning and lightly patted him on the shoulder.
Even with Rei's current thinking speed and visual reaction, he hadn't seen how the man moved to his side.
It was over…
A gentle breeze fluttered the hems of their clothes.
Rei's robes were torn and tattered, barely holding together.
The warrior's clothes, however, remained perfectly intact.
"Is it really over?"
Rei looked back.
From within the dense forest, monsters were still emerging endlessly.
However, they were all weak creatures.
Not truly dangerous.
But still annoying to look at.
The warrior patted Rei's shoulder again.
"As long as I'm here… everything's already over."
The next moment—
BANG!
His figure vanished once more.
All that could be seen was a streak of crimson light!
Like lightning, it cut through layers of forest!
BOOM!
The red light shot skyward!
Immediately afterward, a ring of scarlet sword intent rippled outward through the forest.
PUFF!
Every monster visible to the naked eye exploded into blood mist in an instant.
The thick black-red clouds hanging over the sky suddenly trembled—
Then were violently blasted apart, revealing a patch of clear blue sky.
The oppressive gloom lingering in the air seemed to disperse as well.
With his extremely high spiritual sensitivity, Rei could see it clearly.
The world itself seemed to grow sharper.
The colors became more vivid.
The monster tide… had dispersed?
SWOOSH!
Right after that—
A figure cloaked in emerald green descended beside him.
She glanced briefly at Rei—
Then disappeared again almost immediately.
In only two flashes of movement, she returned to the walls of Rain Town.
She gently raised her hand.
The sky instantly turned lush green, shimmering with vitality.
Crystal-clear emerald raindrops began falling upon the earth.
[Rain of Life]
Afterward, she hurried into the city.
SWOOSH—
Immediately following her arrival, the man wearing a mage's hat appeared beside Rei.
Stone followed behind him.
"Sorry… we came back too late."
Izparut gazed at the devastated Rain Town.
His expression carried a complexity Rei couldn't decipher.
It looked as though he wanted to explain something.
But in the end, he closed his mouth.
Instead, he led Rei back toward the town.
…
The battle had ended.
Exhaustion swept through Rei's body almost instantly.
He hadn't slept the entire night before.
He had only drunk a fatigue-relief potion, but those potions didn't truly remove exhaustion.
They merely stimulated alertness.
Once the effect faded, the fatigue only returned even heavier.
As they passed the battlefield where the fighting had just occurred—
The ground was covered in corpses.
Most of them were monsters.
Looking up at Rain Town—
The city wall had split into more than a dozen fractured sections.
Quite a few people must have died.
All of that destruction had come from the monster's furious slashes earlier.
Just the aftershock alone had caused such devastation.
Even now, Rei still didn't know the monster's name.
However, after it died, Izparut had already collected the items it dropped.
Rei didn't mind.
He had been observing Izparut's character for a while now.
He trusted him.
After returning to the town, Rei saw people hurriedly carrying corpses, piling them in the center of the road.
Was this some kind of memorial ritual?
After all, Rei had only recently arrived in this other world.
This was the first time he had seen a funeral here.
How would the dead be commemorated?
He didn't know.
"Quick! Are there any others?"
Yet Kumironi was among the crowd, directing people urgently.
She herself was flashing around the battlefield, carrying fragments of corpses.
She also transported stones from somewhere unknown, piling them into the center of the road.
She looked extremely anxious.
Did a memorial ritual really require such urgency?
Just as Rei was thinking this—
Kumironi placed another corpse fragment onto the growing pile.
"Everyone… we're almost out of time."
"I can't delay any longer."
As she spoke, she pulled out a staff topped with a crystal-clear emerald gem and pointed it toward the sky!
"Life should endure eternally, never fading!"
"Death is unjust—only the living shall reverse the rightful cycle!"
"I follow the laws of life!"
"I sever the fate of death!"
"Life… awaken!"
"Resurrection of Life!"
PUFF—
Rei's eyes widened.
He hadn't understood most of what she had just muttered—
But the final phrase—
Resurrection of Life—
Made his mind explode.
Wait…
No way.
The sky suddenly filled with emerald radiance!
Countless corpses and scattered fragments rose into the air within the glowing light.
Blood and flesh began to recombine.
Broken limbs reattached themselves.
Fragments of bodies fused together, reconstructing into complete human forms.
The mangled, unrecognizable mass of flesh and blood—
Miraculously restored itself.
The reconstructed bodies—
Actually opened their eyes again.