A Flash of Light That Cuts Through Darkness

When I casually dodged Baldo's special move, the area fell silent.

Baldo's face was frozen in shock.

"Well, that fills in the final piece."

Though I said something pretentiously cool, like some mysterious figure, there was only one thing on my mind.

—Good thing I prepared the 【Space】 magic.

◆

—Let's go back in time.

"Sigh... Seriously, what should I do about magic..."

Around the time I started training with Enrique in the "Mob-Style Combat Method," I was given an assignment by Carla-san—the beautiful woman who looked like a complete pervert in a Chinese dress with the chest cut out. Maybe that's how you'd describe her.

"Come up with some kind of magic that feels like it fits your 【Space】 affinity."

said the beautiful woman, whose manner seemed cold at first glance.

"With Extra-Domain magic, the tiers aren't organized very well, so it depends heavily on the individual's imagination. So think of something. A spectacular spell that you want to use, something you can picture yourself using."

Right. My affinity was 【Space】.

In other words, it was a mysterious affinity with no established theory or anything.

That's why Carla-san probably told me to come up with any spell I liked.

But...

"Magic, huh..."

After she said that, I agonized over it at the estate.

Of course, I'd played the original, so I could make full use of my knowledge of it. If I wanted, I could steal the final boss's signature Space spell and submit it as something I came up with myself. Then I might be able to use a powerful spell from a young age.

But I was really conflicted.

To begin with, should I really learn a powerful spell?

—Magic should be as powerful as possible.

That was common sense. Second-Tier magic was better than First-Tier, Third-Tier better than Second-Tier... Everyone thought that way.

But I wasn't really in the mood to think, "I'll make full use of my knowledge of the original!"

Because...

"The damage scaling in the second half of Lasaka is seriously insane..."

That was it.

The further you got into Lasaka, the more the power levels spiraled out of control.

For example, early on, you'd get excited about First- and Second-Tier spells, but by the end, you could learn up to Tenth-Tier.

A famous First-Tier spell would be Fireball, I suppose.

The familiar fantasy spell where a ball of fire flies at the target.

But from here, things got sketchy fast.

By the time you reached the Tenth Tier, the power creep made the spells absurdly destructive. For example, here's the lineup of Tenth-Tier spells I can remember off the top of my head.

・Armageddon

・Meteor Rain

・Fall of Eden

・Eternal Desire

・Blind Eye

And so on and so forth.

...Yeah.

I think you can tell just from looking at those names.

Sure, in the game, I could enjoy them without a care. Whenever I learned a high-damage spell, I would go wild with joy.

But still, let me say this:

Even if I could learn a powerful spell, would I really be able to cast it?

By the way, the cutest in scale among these is Meteor Rain.

It's an amazingly exhilarating spell that sends meteors streaking across the entire sky, reducing every enemy and everything around them to ash in an instant. The damage is so absurdly high it makes you want to cry.

"No, there's no way..."

And the 【Space】 spells were no less ridiculous.

For example, here's a spell the final boss casts right at the start, among his Space spells.

Dimension Slave

And...

Here was its description:

'Deals massive damage to the selected target. Exiles them to a subdimension beyond the bounds of reality for a thousand years.'

...What the hell?????

I wanted to say:

I don't need this!

My knowledge of the original was completely useless.

Why was this game crawling with muscleheads and teeming with mages who wielded insane firepower?

This was awful.

And it was an 18+ game, for crying out loud. None of this made any sense.

"Oh, that person next to me is annoying. I know! Maybe I'll banish them to a subdimension for a thousand years." Was there anyone in the world who would do that???

I'd gone to all this trouble to stay inconspicuous with the Mob-Style method, so there'd be no point if I stood out because of magic.

I thought as hard as I could.

"Not just for combat... something... you know... magic that might be useful in everyday life someday..."

Right.

The final boss's spells were too aggressive, so I ruled them out.

On the other hand, I was admittedly a little envious of the original Kuzutos developing pervy spells, but bringing a pervy spell to an assignment from one of the main heroines seemed risky...

Maybe the protagonist's Space magic would be easy to use.

The Space magic that protagonist Zeke-kun eventually learns is the kind that creates a huge barrier to protect his companions. But as I recall, that seemed incredibly difficult and required a lot of experience.

I wanted something more practical... Something I could use right away, simple and low-key, but that would eventually be useful somewhere unrelated to fighting.

I agonized over it for days, and finally found my answer.

That was—

A few days later, I confidently told Carla-san:

"I was thinking of making a wall in a small area of space."

"A wall?"

Carla-san looked puzzled.

In other words, here's what I had in mind.

The protagonist has Space magic that creates a large barrier to protect his companions, but I seem to remember it being pretty difficult and requiring a lot of experience.

So I thought:

—Couldn't it just be smaller??

In other words, suppose it was difficult to create a large barrier.

Then I could just make one in a small, specific spot.

"B-but is that okay? A spell like that? I mean... it's kind of... plain."

I smiled and answered, "Of course!"

"I thought it might be practical."

"O-oh, I see..."

And when I tried it, it turned out to be surprisingly easy.

Of course, even when I managed to make something like a translucent wall, it was only about thirty centimeters across. It was sturdy enough to stand on, but only lasted about three seconds.

After three seconds, it would vanish with a soft poof.

Carla-san was watching me with concern for some reason, but I thought, This is fine.

If I couldn't reach something, I could make something like a foothold in midair.

Yeah, handy.

What I wanted was a laid-back, fluffy mob-character daily life.

The protagonist was supposed to handle the crazy battles, not me.

And what's more...

—This convenient little wall spell turned out to have surprisingly great synergy with the Mob-Style Combat Method.

◆

I brought my mind back to the present.

"—Looks like that last step was enough."

When I said that, Baldo, looking stunned, changed expression.

"Don't you dare mess with me!!!!!!!"

Just like before, Baldo charged at me.

I charged toward Baldo once again, and our swords clashed.

"I don't know what trick you used, but my shadow magic...!"

At Baldo's command, his shadow lunged at me like a snake and even defended him.

It really was a good spell.

—But,

"We're running out of time. Let's finish this—Deploy."

"Huh?"

I leapt into the air again, and planted my foot on a foothold I'd created in midair with my convenient wall magic.

Then I accelerated and changed direction in midair.

A trajectory and movement no ordinary person could manage.

And then.

The next instant, I was right behind Baldo in a flash.

I slashed upward with my sword.

"Gah! O shadow—!"

My sword was blocked by the shadow. In the same motion, it went for a counterattack.

But by then, I'd already leapt off in another direction and planted my foot on another foothold I'd created in midair.

"What the—!!!"

So,

by the time Baldo turned around, I was already closing in from another direction.

I unleashed another slash at Baldo, who couldn't keep up.

What I was doing was simple.

Create a foothold in the air, then use my reinforced legs to push off it and accelerate.

Then attack from wherever their defense was weakest.

I see.

Magic that can defend and attack in ever-changing ways at its caster's command.

It certainly was convenient. And powerful.

But I thought:

If he can't catch up, that's all there is to it.

—In short, if the shadow magic defended and attacked for him, all I had to do was keep slashing faster than it could keep up.

After that, I just repeated the same thing.

No matter how well the shadow defended him, there was a limit to how much a person could control.

Accelerate and slash.

Accelerate and slash.

Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Accelerate. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash. Slash.

◆

"N-no..."

Iris couldn't believe her eyes.

In terms of quality, the shadow magic was probably superior. Iris had never seen such an exceptional spell.

But Genesis was trying to overcome it with an overwhelming number of slashes.

The masked man darted through the air in every direction.

What's more,

"B-beautiful..." Iris couldn't help exclaiming in admiration.

This was entirely his domain.

His own pitch-black territory.

Baldo's defenses could no longer keep up.

The defenses of the shadow magic were being peeled away, layer by layer.

And then, a momentary opening.

When Baldo's shadow magic could no longer keep up at all,

"—It's over."

Like a flash of light cleaving through darkness,

the masked man's strike cut through the 【Shadow of Despair】.

―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

Baldo

→ After piling one defeat flag on top of another by blabbing about his own ability, he was defeated by the brute-force tactic of "Magic? Why not just slash faster than it can keep up??"

Protagonist

→ For all his talk, he's a musclehead. At his core, he's no different from Enrique.

Iris

→ Good at live commentary.

Carla-san

→ Making a rare appearance, and worried about her student.