There's No Point Running Away (6)

'Oh? What do you intend to do?'

"Only you can perform the resets, right? Then... if I defeat you, the demon race will never be reset again."

'You would defeat me? Foolishness... I told you I am stronger than the Demon King. I am the one entrusted by God with this world... There is no being in this world greater than me.'

At the Dark Dragon's question, Kagami gave a derisive snort. The very next moment, he vanished from before the Dark Dragon's eyes.

'...?! So fast...?!'

Lowering its head to meet Kagami face-to-face had been its undoing. The instant Kagami disappeared, he reappeared right beside the Dark Dragon's head and unleashed a full-force punch at blinding speed.

Caught completely off guard, the Dark Dragon took the blow. Unable to absorb the impact, it reeled far backward from the force of the punch.

'...Magnificent power. I see why you were able to defeat this Demon King. Blinding speed, and enough strength to easily make my enormous body stagger... You are vastly superior to those who came here before you.'

As it spoke, the Dark Dragon steadied its reeling head and faced Kagami once more.

'But... it is not enough to defeat me... Nowhere near enough. That is why it is such a shame. I want you to proceed to the next stage at any cost. ...This is the first time I have ever pleaded with anyone. Will you reconsider?'

"If you feel that way, why not just force me to go? Though I'd have a problem with that."

'A foolish question. You already know the answer, yet you ask anyway, don't you? I, too, was created by God. I would never defy the rules God set.'

"Then I'll just knock you flat and smash the rules God made."

'Foolish... You do not understand. It is impossible for you to defeat me. If you cannot comprehend that... I shall show you a little of your own helplessness. Then you may reconsider.'

As soon as the Dark Dragon finished speaking, countless blue-white spheres appeared, enough to fill the vast chamber. Surrounded on all sides, Kagami couldn't move carelessly. He merely took a fighting stance and watched for what they would do.

"K-Kagami-dono!"

"Menou! Get away from me! Don't you dare get involved!"

Assuming the Dark Dragon wouldn't attack Menou directly unless Menou made the first move, Kagami shouted while focusing on the spheres surrounding them.

'This is... no more than a fraction of my power.'

Menou moved away from Kagami. The next instant, after the Dark Dragon murmured those words, the countless blue-white spheres began firing beams of heat at Kagami all at once.

"W-what is this absurd magic...?"

Watching the scene from a distance, Menou murmured with a look of despair. Beams of heat rained down on Kagami like a storm. They weren't fired just once; the beams were unleashed at him again and again.

And they weren't ordinary beams of heat, either. They exploded on impact. Smoke from the blasts had already engulfed Kagami.

"How much mana would it take to pull off something like this...? You'd run out of mana in no time!"

'My mana will never run out.'

"...What did you say?"

'Did I not tell you? Only those who can push back against my mana can perceive my existence. I possess enough mana within me to spread it across the entire world. You could call it inexhaustible.'

Menou was struck speechless by the sheer scale of the being before them. Until witnessing this sight, Menou had thought Kagami might have a chance of defeating it. Even if it was stronger than the Demon King, it was still a level-500 monster; if its strength could be expressed in numbers, surely it could be defeated.

But now Menou understood that a level was no measure of strength for a being entrusted with a divine mission. Faced with such unreasonable power, Menou recognized without a doubt that this opponent was stronger than the Demon King.

And despite having accompanied Kagami to protect him, Menou felt ashamed to be able to do nothing but watch.

'...You survived. As I expected, you are exactly what I hoped you would be.'

After a while, the rain of attacks suddenly stopped. The Dark Dragon spoke.

The smoke from the explosions gradually cleared, and Kagami's figure slowly came into view.

"K-Kagami-dono..."

Seeing the horrific scene, Menou could only murmur those words.

Kagami's body was more battered than ever before.

Even when he had fought the being called Messiah, created by Estellera using the Demon King, Kagami hadn't been this badly hurt. He was at death's door, unconscious.

And yet, Kagami was still standing.

There he stood, proof that he had held on to his will to fight until the very brink of death.

Blood poured from his entire body. His mouth hung half open, his eyes rolled back—yet Kagami had endured the Dark Dragon's attack, still holding his fighting stance.

'Even after being hurt this badly and brought to the brink of death, you kept your fighting spirit until the very moment you lost consciousness... I have never seen a human like you. Impressive... Wha—?!'

At that moment, the Dark Dragon's expression changed so dramatically that it seemed to twist for the first time.

Menou, too, stared in shock, mouth falling open at the sudden, impossible sight.

"Who said... I passed out?"

His eyes were rolled back, and his body was battered. He looked completely unconscious.

And yet, after the smoke from the explosions had cleared, Kagami suddenly shot forward like a gale and slammed a full-force punch into the Dark Dragon's enormous abdomen, as if trying to tear it open.

Unable to withstand the sudden impact, the Dark Dragon slid a short distance backward, a small amount of blood trickling from its mouth.

'Impossible... You should have been completely unconscious. No, why? How can you move in that condition?!'

"I did pass out... for a moment. But... only for a moment. Unfortunately... being stubborn, having guts... and being tough... are my... strong points."

'You still have strength left...? Impossible!'

"The explosions might've hidden it from you... but I blocked quite a lot, you know? I punched every beam of heat that came flying at me."

'You punched them? Impossible. You can't block them that way...'

For a moment, Kagami thought he caught a hint of panic in the Dark Dragon's voice, and couldn't help grinning. Meanwhile, he took several deep breaths to steady himself.

"There's a trick to it. They explode when they hit something, right? So... first, I touch the beam with my left hand and deliberately set off the explosion. Then I pull my hand back fast enough to avoid taking damage from the beam."

'You deliberately set off the explosions?'

"That's right. Then, once the explosion starts, I use my right hand to slam the blast wave into it. I kept doing that with all my strength to block the attacks. They were coming from every direction, so I still took plenty of direct hits, though."

The whole thing was absurd. But Menou reconsidered: maybe Kagami really could do it. This man had always overturned Menou's common sense.

Even the Dark Dragon, hearing him and seeing how confidently he declared it, found itself thinking that something which should have been impossible might actually be possible.

"Come on, let's continue. Try it again... This time, I'll block it even better."

Kagami spoke with such ease that it was hard to believe he'd been on the brink of death moments earlier. His Skill, Auto Revive, had begun gradually restoring his health, but he still hadn't recovered enough to fight.

It was obvious to anyone watching that he was still in that condition. And yet the Dark Dragon simply couldn't understand Kagami's nerve in putting on such a bold front.

'Are you... not afraid? You held on to your will to fight until the very end, even in that hopeless situation... Do you feel no fear? That attack was only a fraction of my power. Knowing that, why do you still try to fight?'

At those words, Kagami sighed. He gave the Dark Dragon a look that said the question was ridiculous, then—

"Giving up just because that's how things are... that's far more terrifying. I'm more afraid of imagining a future where I do nothing, let my precious friends die, and spend the rest of my life regretting it."

After saying this, Kagami clenched his fists once more.

'...Truly, you are an interesting one.'