"A throw?!"
My mind froze at the technique a comrade from the Far East had once shown me.
I hadn't even realized when I'd been hit.
Was it speed? No, I was faster.
Some kind of spell? I'd already confirmed all three of her spells.
Besides, I knew from the start. This wasn't that sort of thing.
A strike from outside conscious thought. As a mage, I'd unconsciously judged close combat to be my advantage and let my guard down, and the woman had not missed that opening.
How foolish. Even knowing there were plenty of mages strong in close combat, I still let myself think that way!
Her technique was at a level that made it hard to believe she was a mage at all.
A movement that completed a single principle. Even if she wasn't quite at Lord Takemikazuchi's level, she could probably have brought down most adventurers with that alone.
Even as I admired it, my body reacted.
Surprised as I was, I wasn't someone who belonged in the category of "most adventurers," either.
Thud—! A sharp pain ran from the soles of my feet up my spine.
It was the price of twisting my body and landing on my feet.
I'd avoided the disgrace of landing on my head or back, but the pain in my legs was no joke.
If I'd gone down headfirst, I wondered what would have happened...
Cold sweat streaming down me, I prepared my next attack.
"[Firebooo—?!"
I tried to prepare it, but she was faster. Before I could even activate the quick-cast spell that should have been called swift, she grabbed me and hurled me away like trash.
With a thud, I hit the ground on my back. Debris shattered, and a thick cloud of dust rose up.
"Cough... That hurts a bit, but this should at least... huh?"
Suddenly, my heart began beating ominously. As if it were foretelling what was about to happen.
"...This is—"
"You're quick on the uptake."
The place I'd been thrown to was the same spot where I'd been blocking her bombardment just moments ago.
Maybe someone would ask what that had to do with anything, but if they could feel the Mind I was sensing now, they'd swallow those words right back down.
Clumps of Mind had begun gathering little by little around the battlefield as we fought. Because they'd accumulated gradually during the battle, I'd noticed too late.
Of course, in a mage's battle, Mind naturally moves actively. In a fight between powerful mages, it was only natural for the concentration of Mind to rise temporarily.
I'd never fought a bombardment exchange like this before, so I'd simply taken the buildup for granted... but what if that wasn't all?
What if this mass of Mind hadn't merely accumulated, but had been deliberately gathered by someone for some other purpose?
The owners of the Mind here were me and her.
I wasn't the one...
With a creak, I turned my head, and the woman's still-expressionless face came into view.
But was it my imagination? To my eyes, she looked as if she were mocking me.
"[Rugio]."
Before I could even say anything, the death sentence was delivered.
At the same time, the Mind surrounding me surged all at once, and then—
KWA-BOOOOM!!
It blew away the entire area around me, myself included.
"W-What... What happened?"
"Arphia won... I think?"
"Hey, Arphia! Even so, that was way too much!"
Ignoring the noisy gnats, I kept my eyes fixed on one place.
"...The feeling."
There was no feeling.
More precisely, there had been one, but it was gone.
Could he really have just evaporated?
"He didn't seem that weak."
In physical exchanges, a single instant was all it took, but even that instant had given her a great deal of information.
To her surprise, the man she had thought was a mage had a body that was not merely that of a mage, but of a seasoned frontliner.
"A frontliner with magical power comparable to my own magic?"
Of course, she herself was stronger than most frontliners despite being a mage, but she couldn't assume others would think the same way.
I am a being called a monster of talent even by the gods themselves. No one understood better than she did just how abnormal she was.
Magic comparable to her own, and a body that surpassed it.
For Arphia, who had almost no interest in anyone other than her little sister, a small spark of curiosity was born.
"Could that guy be the same kind of person as me?"
A curse that gnawed at the curse upon me and my sister.
And yet, ironically, that curse had made her this strong.
But if that was the case, then it also meant that without paying that kind of price, it should have been impossible to become strong.
Of course, she was seventeen and he was thirty-two, but... honestly, she still wasn't sure whether that was really true.
"Come to think of it, he only ever used one hand."
Because he'd been wrapped up in his robe, Arphia hadn't realized the opponent was missing an arm.
"That burst of speed, too... maybe he really is someone like me..."
Arphia sank deep into the thought that had suddenly occurred to her.
And because it was Arphia, she didn't notice. Among the crowd surrounding them, the shadows of two people had vanished.
Even if she had noticed, she wouldn't have cared.
I thought I was going to die. No, seriously—I really thought I was going to die.
"Haa... I think I shook her off... right?"
In a dark back alley, almost on the opposite side of the battlefield, I had sprinted at full speed and was now catching my breath with a sigh of relief.
"If not for this, I really would've been done for."
The witch's attack had been that strong. So strong that I really wondered why someone like her had never left behind a name.
Power, speed, precision, skill, and even battlefield awareness—every one of them was among the best I had ever faced.
Not all together, but if you looked at each strength individually, she was unquestionably number one.
If she were at the same level, she would have become the adventurer representing the age instead of [Great Figure] or the [Empress]. In other words, even she had been no match for the Black Dragon.
Once again, I realized just how miraculous the feat I had accomplished truly was. I knew it because I had experienced it once. There would be no second stroke of luck.
"How ironic..."
With complicated feelings, I looked down at my robe.
A robe made from the Black Dragon's hide.
A farewell gift from the one-eyed goddess who had lost both friend and lover, sent to the hero who had finished his final task.
Even though it must have hurt, she had kept encouraging me until the very end.
It would have been better if she had cursed me instead. Her encouragement, delivered with a face that looked ready to cry, only dug deeper into my wounds and made them fester.
Maybe that was the punishment He had given me.
"As expected, or maybe I should say, it's ridiculously sturdy."
Even knowing full well how strong it was, I could only marvel at its defense.
Since I hadn't had a proper battle since that day, I'd never really felt its performance until now.
The strongest shield.
The opposite of the divine dagger—those words suddenly came to mind.
"And it seems to have that effect too..."
The Black Dragon's hide, feared even by the gods, had a side effect that could deceive even divine senses.
Apparently, if you just wore it loosely, it might be noticed, but if you wrapped yourself up tightly, it would never be seen through.
I'd heard that even making it had been a tremendous ordeal because of that property.
"When I first heard about it, I wondered whether that function was really necessary..."
Now that I was desperately making use of it, I could only feel how true the saying was that you never know what life will need from you.
"Phew. Anyway, can I consider this situation safely over now...?"
"Do you think it will be?"
A heavy presence pressed down on the surroundings.
I'd come to a place with few people because it felt like I was being followed, but... I never imagined he really would be following me. I hadn't been sure until he got close. If he had vanished in secret, I might have dismissed it as my imagination.
I'd been confident in my senses, but that confidence had slipped a little. He was impressive, yes, but I had also grown dull.
I hadn't skipped a single day of training since that day, and yet it still wasn't enough, huh.
Swallowing my frustration, I focused on the man before me.
A giant well over two meters tall. A solemn face and atmosphere.
Even the aura around him was heavy and solid, as if it resembled his very nature.
Enduring the pressure weighing on both shoulders, I looked at him.
I'd never seen him in person, but I knew for certain.
"[Great Figure]..."
"You know me?"
"How could I not?"
"Fair enough."
He was a man of heavy presence, but he didn't deny it.
It didn't feel like bluster or arrogance. It felt like he was simply stating a fact.
"Who are you?"
"I already told you. I'm Vesta."
Without meaning to, my words sharpened a little.
My nerves were getting frayed by the succession of strong opponents.
Both the woman named Arphia and the man before me were not opponents to take lightly.
The strongest person I had ever fought before had been Otaru.
And now I was about to surpass that record twice in a single day. Of course I'd be on edge.
"I wasn't asking your name. You know that."
"..."
"Orario is standing at an important turning point right now."
An important turning point?
As if reading my thoughts, the man's mouth opened to deliver words I was already sick of hearing.
"The Three Great Quests."
"!!!"
The Three Great Quests. The ancient wish of humanity, passed down since antiquity.
Behemoth, king of the earth.
Leviathan, sovereign of the sea.
And... the Black Dragon with the single eye.
Monsters that had threatened humanity since ancient times. Calamities that had spawned countless tragedies and scattered endless suffering.
And... the terror that had annihilated the Zeus Familia and Hera Familia, known as the glorious generation.
In my era, two of the Three Great Quests had already been completed.
Behemoth had fallen into its second slumber, and Leviathan had been reduced to the role of a lid sealing another Dungeon entrance.
But one remained. The Black Dragon with the single eye was different.
So it was said that the Black Dragon had wiped out the mighty Zeus Familia and Hera Familia.
Not crippled. Wiped out.
It had truly erased them without leaving even the roots behind.
And in the gap left by that catastrophe, Loki Familia and Freya Familia had taken the title of the city's strongest.
In other words, right now they were on the verge of being wiped out themselves.
"..."
The black wind I had once faced came to mind.
The moment when that single remaining eye turned toward me and I froze, unable to move.
Even if I had taken its neck then, the fear would not have vanished; it would only have swelled larger.
That was how much the Black Dragon had shocked me, mentally.
"Starting with this Harvest Festival, we'll begin the conquest of the Three Great Quests. In other words, total war."
The conquest of the Three Great Quests.
I could barely keep myself together just thinking about the Black Dragon, and yet they were planning to take on the Black Dragon, Behemoth, and Leviathan all at once.
Of course, it was easy bravado since they had never fought them, but at the same time, I could feel the confidence that they might really be able to kill even the ancient calamities.
If I had possessed that kind of confidence, would I have been able to produce a better result too?
Could I have saved more people?
Could I have...
"Let me say it again: we are standing at a crucial moment."
The man's heavy voice hauled my mind up before it could drown in thought.
"Variables that arise before the decisive battle are not especially welcome."
At last, I understood his intent.
The Three Great Quests, humanity's long-cherished wish.
A mysterious strongman who appeared just as they were about to achieve that feat.
There was no information. No past had been revealed.
Because I was a being from the future.
Among them, I was pure unknown.
For an adventurer, the unknown is something you can't quite separate from like a friend, but apparently my timing had been far too terrible.
Cold sweat ran down my back. I could begin to predict the next words.
"Why should I keep you alive?"
Killing intent surged out. The dreadful pressure made it feel as if night had fallen around me.
This was... this was a strongman who had ruled an era.
This was humanity's strongest.
This was the [Great Figure].
"If you can't convince me, then you'll have to die."
Drip—
A bead of cold sweat slid down my cheek.
H-Hoeeng...