Tsuyokute New Saga (LN)

“Now then, this is the real problem.”

The following day, Kyle and Shildonia were out together, investigating the location of the magic circle. The emerald in the center of the altar still shone with a green light.

“Hmmm, it is in a very unstable situation, and one wrong move could lead to an explosion. That being said, if we keep it like this, it’ll eventually reach its limit, and grow rampant.” Shildonia commented with an indifferent tone, as she walked around the emerald.

“It’ll probably gather mana until it reaches that point, yeah.” Kyle narrowed his eyes.

“This gemstone is reaching its limit with how much it can store. Moving it will be impossible.”

As the core of magic items, you usually use minerals or gemstones which are imbued with mana, and the amount of mana they can store is limited. With special gemstones, you can store more mana, but they eventually reach an unstable state. This emerald had already reached 90% of its storage ability, so simply moving it would risk it going out of control. And if that happened, Callan itself would be blown to smithereens.

“So, what should we do about the excessive mana?”

“We could simply release it. Have it slowly but steadily return to the air around us. Would make it the fastest.”

“That…would be a waste.”

Although it was cursed mana created through the sacrifices of many people, it would still hurt to just waste it like that.

“Yeah, I agree with that. If I had the technology of Zaales at my disposal, I would be able to make good use of this, however…”

With the endless possibilities of magic that the Ancient Magic Kingdom Zaales possessed, they could use mana to keep the city at night as bright as during the day, using transportation vehicles that could get them from one end of the continent to the other in a single day, and they could even control the weather. All of these things were utterly unthinkable today. However, nowadays you are completely limited in using up this great amount of mana.

“Maybe we can create a magic item that can put the mana to good use? You know, we have a magic item creator at our disposal.”

“Gou, huh…I’d rather have them focus on the golems, to be perfectly honest.”

With this much mana available inside the core, it would surely become a useful or even valuable magic item. However, that would require a lot of production time, and steal Gou of valuable time for the golem production.

“That being said, we can’t leave this be either. A simple stimulation could spell the end of us.”

Kyle started thinking for a while, when he finally came up with something.

“I know…can we move the mana to another catalyst?”

“I doubt it’s impossible…but where are you going to put it? This emerald is quite the high-quality catalyst, which is why it can keep this amount of mana stored. Any better catalyst would be hard to find…”

“We have a perfect catalyst, remember?” Kyle said, and took out a red-glowing gemstone—the [Heart of the Divine Dragon].

It could hold enough mana to allow for time travelling, which is why Kyle was standing here right now. This gemstone has existed since the era of legends.

“I see, that would surely be able to store the mana…and it would only be one thousandth…No, ten thousandth full.”

It seemed like the heart could store enough mana that could blow up half of a mountain with quite the ease.

“If I keep it stored up, I might be able to use something after all…”

The gemstone gave off as much of an eerie but equally beautiful shine, as Kyle muttered.

“The transfer will take you two days.”

“I see. So I’d have to keep this here. Also, I need to show up at Gazas’ place…That reminds me, using terraforming magic to gather the ores and veins again, is that possible?”

“Yeah, not happening.” Shildonia bluntly denied Kyle’s thought. “The gathering of all veins and ores in this area is how this mountain was created, basically, there are no more materials you could bring to the surface. Even if there were any, it would require you to change the entire terrain again, which would bring ruin to this city either way. It’s an irrational conclusion.” Shildonia said.

That just shows how desperate Mayor Bucks was in his attempt to save Callan.

“So everything was in vain, huh…” Kyle let out a sigh.

At around the same time, Seran, Lieze, and Urza sat at the Embassy of Zilgus, talking.

“So, you two really plan on fighting?” Seran asked the two, to which they both nodded strongly. “My sword is on the line here, so I really can’t have you lose, alright.” Seran said, emphasizing the ‘my’ part. “Listen, the demon you’re going to fight is much stronger than you two. Even if it’s a two versus one, with someone like her, if she gets serious, you’re out, no chance of winning.”

“You really don’t hold back at all…Just as a reference, would you be able to win, Seran?” Lieze asked him.

“Right…Even if I went all out, we’d probably be about equal. Even if I used my Holy Sword.” Once again, Seran emphasized the ‘my Holy Sword’ part. “If I fought, then she wouldn’t know about my actual strength just yet, and since demons generally look down on humans, I might be able to finish it in one smooth surprise attack…But if that doesn’t work, it’ll end up in a long and tedious battle.”

Both Lieze and Urza had trust in his fighting powers at the very least, so they knew he wasn’t just bragging about it.

“So, we basically have no hope of winning?” Urza asked, but Seran shook his head.

“No, that’s not for certain. In a fight, simply being stronger or weaker aren’t the only factors that matter. If she had used some magic like the male demon did, you would have been killed in an instant. In that way, she’s the best possible sparring partner. Even if there’s a difference in strength, you can win.” Seran remembered that the female demon was focusing more on hand-to-hand combat. “That being said, the difference in strength is still there, so in order to win, you need to come up with a strategy.”

“Yup, when we fought yesterday, she almost fell for my obvious feint, and only reflexively managed to dodge.”

“I felt that as well. If I had to guess, she doesn’t have much fighting experience, if at all.” Urza agreed.

“Basically, when it comes to experience and technique, we have the upper hand. That’s why we should focus on that. Besides that…Well, it doesn’t feel too great just talking about the enemy’s weaknesses.” Lieze seemed displeased.

She herself preferred a plain and simple, equal fight, doing whatever it takes to achieve that.

“In order to win, it’s normal to stay away from effort and instead use whatever method available, you know?”

“I know that, it just doesn’t sit right with me…And, what kind of strategy would you use, Seran?”

“Me? Well, if I wanted to raise the chance of victory…I’d probably attack them right now, I guess.”

“…The heck?”

“We set up the time limit, but there’s no need to keep that promise. They excel at deceiving others and breaking promises, but they probably would never even dream that we’d attack them before that. They surely have their guards down right now, so I’d be going for a surprise attack right about now~” Seran said with pure joy in his voice, grinning.

“…Leave it to you to come up with such a dastardly method.” Lieze said, 90% full of contempt, and 10% of admiration.

“It does sound efficient…but inhumane at the same time.” Urza seemed to agree with Lieze.

“If you keep doing that over and over, it’ll just make our reputation suffer.” Lieze argued with Kyle’s goal in mind.

He wanted to become a hero…on a level where he would remain in the chronicles of this world as a legend. If one of these party members were such a fiend and coward, it would hurt his own reputation.

“Simple, you just can’t let others find out. Easy.”

“Now you’re sounding like a villain.” Urza massaged her temple, as if she was plagued by a severe headache.

“Don’t say that. Kyle himself isn’t afraid to use whatever method necessary in order to reach his goal, right.”

“W…Well, that is true.” Urza couldn’t help but agree.

Although they have barely known each other for two months, she somewhat grasped the roots of Kyle’s personality. He wouldn’t act like a coward on the level of what Seran is doing, but if the need arose, he would not shy away from using any method at his disposal. He is what you would call a realist. In a way, it was quite the contradiction to see someone with these ideals aiming to become a hero, a symbol of justice.

“He’s always been like that, but he sure enough stopped holding back all-together lately.”

“He’s found a goal, and is working towards that after all. Since he never had a goal like this before, he’s just been going along with the situation.”

The two childhood friends commented on Kyle’s recent behaviour.

“Anyway, in the upcoming battle, you need to use your advantage in numbers to the best of your ability. Find some attack formations and combinations that use successive hits.”

“Got it. Luckily, we have the perfect practice dummy…excuse me, practice partner, so we can try out a lot.”

Lieze and Urza smiled at each other, and then looked at Seran together.

“…Eh?”

Like this, the three spent an entire day coming up with strategies, and continued their mock battles. On the night of the second day, Gazas returned, devoid of any energy and color in his face, and simply collapsed on the bed, falling asleep immediately. Gou saw this, and thought to himself. ‘I’ll just read the mood’, and tasked Miranda with taking care of his father. And with that, the promised day arrived.

***

Right now, Kyle’s group was waiting for the demons to arrive at the rendezvous location. Surely, the tension was visible on his face, as he stood there with his arms crossed. However, looking at everybody else sitting on a blanket on the ground, eating sweets together, this felt less like a fight for the death, but more like a picnic above ground.

“I did say the date, but maybe not giving an accurate time was a mistake after all…”

As he couldn’t afford to make the demons wait, they had been on standby there since the morning. Of course, the tension would eventually wear them down mentally, they now were having a picnic of sorts.

“You can be clumsy at the weirdest times, Kyle.” Lieze said, pouring him some tea.

“Shut up. I know I messed up…More importantly, I was busy with the magic circle so I couldn’t look after you, but will you be fine?”

“Yes, perfectly fine. We came up with our strategy.”

“The battle won’t be an easy stomp, but we have a chance at winning.”

Lieze and Urza nodded. Kyle glanced over at Seran, who also nodded while sipping his tea. Seeing that from Seran of all people was very reassuring.

“What about you, Kyle?”

“No problems on my end. The magic circle is gone, and I got what I needed from Gazas…If possible, I wanted to practice a bit longer, but it is what it is.” Kyle muttered, to which Lieze and Urza looked at each other.

“Sometimes…Kyle really resembles Seran.”

“Right. How do I say this…they really are best friends.”

The moment Kyle heard that, he felt like despair assaulted him.

“You two! There’s good compliments and bad compliments, you hear me!” Kyle felt hurt, especially because he was right next to them.

“Yeah, I regretted saying it midway…Sorry, Kyle.”

“I bet that must have hurt you. My apologies.”

Lieze and Urza both gave genuine apologies.

“Why don’t you care about my feelings, huh?” Seran said, the only one who really was insulted.

“(Absolutely no tension whatsoever, huh. You’re about to fight demons to protect this city, so won’t you take it a bit more serious?)”

“Because you stuffed your cheeks with snacks, I have no clue what you just told me.”

Shildonia looked up at Kyle with her mouth full, warning him, but it had no credibility whatsoever.

“Sure we’re nervous, but there’s no use being tense all the time. Not to mention…the real deal starts now.” Kyle dropped his voice, and looked at the secret passage.

From there, two shadows appeared, most definitely belonging to the two demons.

“We’ve been waiting. How about we end things now?” Kyle said, pointing at them with his index finger.

“Ah, Kyle, you have some food stuck on your mouth. Clumsy as always,” Lieze complained, but still happily wiped Kyle’s mouth with a handkerchief.

Behind them, Seran and Urza frantically cleaned up the tableware and sheet on the ground.

“(Like I said, way too calm.)”

Shildonia quickly stuffed the rest of the sweets down her mouth, as her cheeks puffed out even more.