Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

This is Satou. There’s a saying about needless worries, but in the world of fiction, such things often turn out to be quite plausible. In the realm of science fiction, space stations or colonies falling isn’t that uncommon, and in fantasy worlds, castles or islands floating in the sky crashing down also happens more often than you’d think.

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“Aze!”

To save Ms. Aze from the crisis the trees of the Jade Domain had warned me about, I teleported to the Forest of Boruenan using unit placement.

But she wasn’t at the usual treehouse.

She didn’t even show up on the radar.

Opening the map, I saw that she was near the base of the World Tree.

I used unit placement again to move there.

“Aze—”

In my sight was Ms. Aze collapsed on the ground, and a blond-haired man wearing a toga was stepping on her delicate head.

“—What do you think you’re doing?!”

Before I finished the sentence, I closed the distance with godspeed and, forgetting to hold back, kicked the man hard.

By the time the sound of tearing air reached my ears, the man’s figure had drawn a parabola and disappeared beyond the trees, quickly fading from sight.

“Are you okay, Ms. Aze?”

“Satou.”

I helped her up, tears welling in her eyes, and hugged her tightly.

Fortunately, she didn’t seem hurt.

“Mr. Satou… what have you done…”

Nearby, shrine maiden Lua, her face pale, called out to me.

“Did I do something wrong?”

I thought there was no reason to hold back when someone kicked the person who was trampling my beloved.

“Ah, your opponent—”

“Scoundrel! Get back here!”

Before Lua could finish, the blond-haired man returned furiously, as if his anger was about to erupt.

Moving like earth shrinking, he approached and swung a greatsword glowing with yellow light down at me.

He intended to split me and Ms. Aze in two.

His AR display read UNKNOWN.

I entrusted Ms. Aze’s protection to the clone created by my ninjutsu and, with godspeed, kicked the swinging greatsword with full force, no holding back this time.

The blond-haired man broke the sound barrier instantly and disappeared like a gag manga’s defeated villain.

Judging by the map, the light point indicating him hadn’t disappeared.

Simple physical attacks probably wouldn’t work.

“As expected of a god. Tough as ever.”

“Mr. Satou, did you know who you were fighting?”

“No, I realized just before the second kick.”

I answered the flustered shrine maiden Lua.

Judging by the greatsword and hair color, it was probably God Zaikuon.

He was a diligent fellow, coming to claim the flags set by the demon god so quickly.

“The second kick… so, you knew before the second one, and you still kicked him?”

“Anyone trying to harm Ms. Aze deserves no less than to be kicked.”

I thought it was careless of me, but since I had already kicked him once, holding back the second time made no sense.

“Are you unusually angry?”

Lua’s comment made me realize it. I had clearly lost my composure and gotten angry.

I usually don’t get angry, so I guess I’m not great at managing emotions.

But enough about that—

“Why did he do such a cruel thing to Ms. Aze?”

I asked Aze, who was still cradled by my clone.

I envied my clone a bit.

“W-well…”

Before Aze could answer, God Zaikuon reappeared and spoke.

“You would have been better off handing over the memory vault quietly when told to do so.”

Clad in a tattered toga, bleeding from many places, God Zaikuon emerged. Even gods bleed red blood.

It seemed he’d dropped his greatsword somewhere and wasn’t holding it now; instead, he conjured something resembling a magic circle between his outstretched hands.

Apparently, he intended to fight with magic this time.

“Tear apart the god’s army.”

Countless magic circles appeared behind God Zaikuon—and then vanished.

“What?!”

It seemed the forbidden spell “Divine Destruction” used with silent casting had worked.

This forbidden spell was used by Hikaru to destroy the magic circles covering the Royal Capital during the demon god’s offspring incident. I had learned it early on when I could chant spells but never had a chance to use it until now.