Published: March 21, 2026
My whole body was glowing faintly.
I didn’t know how long this—what Ms. Ueno called a skill—would last.
If I didn’t defeat this thing before it wore off, everyone would die.
Maybe because I’d never faced a life-or-death struggle day after day until now, or maybe because my stamina had finally reached its limit, the sword that had become part of me felt unnaturally heavy.
Every time a demonic beast struck, my arm screamed; every time I moved, my legs and the muscles I used cramped.
I had to keep thinking while fighting or I would get hit, and my head hurt from it.
No need to think — I was at my limit.
“Just a little more…”
The safe house, our destination, was just ahead.
And yet, the strongest opponent had appeared here of all places.
The three of us fighting were basically moving on willpower alone.
Nanase-kun was in the rear; since long-range magic didn’t work, he’d been casting support spells for us, but he was probably running out of magical power soon.
How to defeat an enemy we couldn’t damage at range — I tried to think.
First idea: in close quarters, dislocate its joints, maybe even rip off its limbs to render it inoperable. But we couldn’t get close enough beyond trading sword blows, and around its joint weak points there was especially hard material.
Our swords kept bouncing off.
Second idea: lower the ambition and just knock it over. We all tried to strike its legs in sync to neutralize that mobility, but even when one foot rose and we aimed at the supporting leg, it didn’t budge.
What kind of strength is this?
What was this designed to fight?
And who made something this devilish and mean?
No good. My thoughts were veering into strange places and wouldn’t focus.
“If I could use that power again…”
Back then, when Tsuda-kun and Ms. Ueno and I had gone into the forest to find food for everyone, we’d been ambushed by demonic beasts. I’d been knocked out in the fierce fight, but Tsuda-kun revived me with a potion and with holy sword technique wiped out the beast there with a single strike.
If I could use that power now, I thought I could win.
But that technique had only activated that one time — before and after, it never did — and the sword I had now was just a regular sword.
Stronger than most, perhaps, but not a Holy Sword.
What exactly a Holy Sword was, no one really knew; few records remained. It used to be in the Yamato Country of Human territory long ago, but it was lost.
So I had to accept that that day when holy sword technique triggered was special.
Which meant a one-hit kill was out of the question.
“Ugh!?”
While I was thinking that, I saw out of the corner of my eye Asahina-kun fall.
He must have been hit by an attack coming from a blind spot.
When Asahina-kun collapsed and dropped out of the fight, the fragile balance we’d been clinging to broke.
He was carried behind Tsuda-kun’s shield by Nanase-kun’s magic.
Now only Mr. Zeal, Nanase-kun, and I could still fight.
Tsuda-kun hadn’t regained consciousness yet; Kazuki-kun kept the shield raised.
Kazuki wasn’t without strength, but his experience and technique were inferior to Tsuda-kun’s. He might block one blow, but probably not the next.
We couldn’t rely on sending the enemy’s attacks back to long range anymore.
“Tsukasa! Next one’s coming!!”
Nanase-kun’s shout snapped me back to full focus, and the robot that had been trading blows with Mr. Zeal was charging toward us.
Bad.
Kazuki and the others were behind us. If an attack hit properly, the shock might carry back to them.
But if I deflected it, they might become the target.
I had to absolutely avoid that.
How to…?
Whether I took the hit or parried, I decided I must at least ready my sword.
But my arms and legs gave no sign of responding.
The robot was almost on us, yet my body, having reached its limit, ignored commands from my brain.
I don’t know the exact anatomy, but nothing moved.
Even the sword dangling to the ground didn’t twitch.
Is this the end for me?
Everything seemed to slow down like a bad scene in slow motion.