Published: March 21, 2026
“Shadow Magic” vs Mahiro continues.
It’s the same as before.
When Miss Amelia was kidnapped and I learned of it, my magical power dropped into negative values and I was on the verge of dying.
The shadow magic replenished the master’s magical power and even healed his wounds.
Whether it activates when the master is near death or whether the master unconsciously triggers it, I don’t know. Still, it restores a person who’s at death’s door.
It’s not quite as powerful as Miss Amelia’s “Revival,” but for a one-man army like the master, it’s an incredible ability.
No—maybe it isn’t even magic anymore.
《Commencing combat. Eliminating Mahiro Abe.》
Using the master’s mouth, the shadow magic spoke.
The voice was the master’s, but the tone and mannerisms were of something else.
If you looked closely, shadows were wrapped around the master’s arms and legs.
The shadow magic was forcibly moving him.
“I don’t know what happened, but what can you do now? Humans are inferior creatures. Crawling on the ground like earlier suits you just fine.”
Mahiro snapped his fingers as he said that.
A beautiful magic circle formed between his hands.
Behind the master, Amelia—who was being controlled by Mahiro—took a stance.
“M-my body’s moving on its own! Akira, run!!”
Amelia lowered the hand she had raised.
Gravity magic activated, burdening the master with tremendous gravity.
Even the dungeon’s sturdy ground cracked and groaned under the pressure, yet the master stood calmly without even kneeling.
“‘Sickle Weasel’.”
Mahiro completed his magic circle and a wind filled with countless blades raged through the labyrinth.
The wind seemed focused only on the master; it didn’t come near me or Miss Amelia.
Normally, “Sickle Weasel,” like the Thunder King, attacks nearby enemies indiscriminately—a wide-area spell.
By concentrating it on the master alone, its power was explosively amplified.
“To this extent…”
Mahiro is basically lax. His ahoge flops as if reflecting his personality, and I’ve never seen any expression on his face other than a smile.
He’s mysterious. No one knows how long he’s been around or where he came from.
Still, he is the only one who can stop the demon king, and second only to the demon lord among the Demon Clan.
I thought I understood his abilities, but I hadn’t grasped them completely.
I never imagined he could fully control magic of this magnitude.
The only attacks I ever received from the original owner of this body, Saran Misurei, were the Light Hammer and one other spell.
But the conditions for using that other spell weren’t yet met.
The wind was dying down.
I still couldn’t see the master’s back, but I knew he was alive.
Would I once again only be someone the master protected?
Would the day ever come when we fight side by side like before?
“…That spell earlier carried a considerable amount of magical power, and it should have hit you dead on. So why are you still alive?”
Startled by Mahiro’s voice, I strained my eyes and saw the master in the dust exactly as before.
Even after Amelia’s gravity magic and Mahiro’s concentrated Sickle Weasel attack, the master didn’t waver.
《“Night Blade God,” return.》
Before I knew it, the master’s Night Blade God—which Crow had repaired and which had become two short blades rather than one—was stuck in the ground a short distance away.
When the master called, it vanished and, in the next instant, was in his hand.
What on earth had he done?
“…That blade…”
Mahiro seemed to sense something and looked at the Night Blade God.
It had appeared to teleport.
I had never seen the master call the Night Blade God back like that.
When he threw it far away, he always went to retrieve it if the situation allowed.
If the master valued it as much as he valued me and Miss Amelia and didn’t want to lose it, he would surely have it return to his hand in the manner he was now doing.
In other words, the shadow magic controlling the master’s body right now knows how to handle the Night Blade God even better than the master himself.