Ultimate Being from the Tokonosu City

"This is...?!" 

When Hestia saw the silver lights that rained them down, her eyes widened, filled with shock and dumbfounded, as she never imagined something like this would happen. 

On the other hand, Hermes thought for them to escape, running away from those silver lights, but Isao's words dumbfounded him. 

"Gather toward me!" 

Unlike Cassandra and Daphne, who were obedient and followed his words without any questions, Hermes was dumbfounded. 

"Follow him, Hermes." 

Hermes gritted his teeth and followed Hestia's words. Then, when he wondered what Isao was about to do—

"Phalanx." 

Multilayered barriers appear from all directions, protecting them, and as the lights meet them, they give off rainbow colors. 

Beautiful, they thought. 

Yet—

BOOOOM! BOOOOM! BOOOOM! BOOOOM! BOOOOM! 

The silver lights that appeared like arrows rained them down with a purpose: to kill all of them! 

Yet, when they thought that it was over, the barriers erected by Isao stopped all of those attacks faithfully and firmly. As they were close, they could see those barriers were destroyed yet kept replaced as if there was no end, unlimited, and would keep existing until all the dangers around them disappeared. 

'Phalanx...' 

As they saw how strong this barrier was, they couldn't help but mutter the name of this technique. 

What a suitable name, they thought. 

As expected, under this barrier magic, they were completely safe, and none of those attacks hit them, but as they were afraid for another attack to appear, they landed in the forest, hiding among the sea of trees so they wouldn't become an easy target for the hidden enemy. 

"You all okay?" Isao asked. 

"Yes." 

All of them answered with a sigh of relief and a smile. 

Yet, Hestia couldn't smile, especially when she looked at Artemis. 

Isao noticed this, but he didn't say anything, as if he was completely oblivious to everything. 

So, when they landed and rested for a moment, gathering their breath as they calmed themselves from the sudden attack, Hestia quickly pulled Artemis away. 

Once again, Isao noticed this, but he just pretended that he didn't see anything. 

"You must have noticed something, right?" 

Unlike Bell, who was kept in the dark and obvious of everything, Hermes decided to approach Isao in a straightforward manner. While he wasn't sure whether Isao knew the detailed information about the quest that Isao might face, he was sure that Isao was clear about what he had to do to defeat the enemy before them. 

At the same time, Hermes had a guess that... Isao must have also realized what kind of cost that Isao had to pay to defeat this enemy, and this fee wasn't something that a normal person could bear. 

Isao glanced at Hermes, who approached him and said, "I do." 

"Then—" 

Hermes stopped what he was about to say when he noticed Cassandra and Daphne glancing in his direction. At the same time, he couldn't help but look at Isao with a complicated gaze. 

Isao understood everything, yet he still decided to take care of this quest. 

The bond, the love, and everything. 

Isao had to—

"This is our matter." Isao looked at Hermes calmly and said, "I have been chosen, and what you can do is just to support me. Leave everything to me." 

"...you really." 

Hermes felt his eyes wet, watching Isao's figure move away from him. He could tell that Isao had prepared for everything, and no matter what would happen, Isao would charge forward the fate that had been waiting for him. 

Yet for him to have such a determination... Hermes wondered what kind of suffering Isao had faced and how Isao could have such a hardened heart. Wasn't this the quality that one sought from the last hero? 

As Hermes thought so, he couldn't look away from him, and he thought that Isao might be the one...

On the other hand, Herstia confronted Artemis for the first time as she knew that this Artemis wasn't Artemis that she knew. 

"You are Artemis... but you are also not her..." 

Hestia didn't know, but—

"What did you plan with Isao-kun?" 

Watching Artemis' eyes, Hestia stopped what she was about to say and the questions that she wanted to ask regarding the change and about Artemis. Instead, she was more concerned about what Artemis planned to do with Isao. 

The anxiety, worry, and defiantness that told her that Hestia would even fight her if she decided to hurt Isao made Artemis sigh, then showed a gentle smile. "Hestia, you really love Isao-kun, huh?" 

"I do." Hestia appeared so confident as she proclaimed. "In this world, I am the one who loves Isao the most!" Not the other women, it was her! 

She believed that she had the most love for Isao!

"No...." 

"What?" 

Artemis' lips squirmed as she wanted to say that she was the one who loved Isao the most! 

Yet, when she thought about what would happen later, she knew that she couldn't say it. She didn't have a right to compete with others or even the thought of having his heart fall for her. 

This was her karma, the punishment that she had to receive so—

"You don't have to worry." 

Artemis showed the gentlest smile that she had ever shown to anyone. "I won't do anything that hurts him, so please keep loving him." 

After she said so, she left and ran away. 

"Wh—" Hestia was dumbfounded and quickly chased after Artemis. "Wait, Artemis! Wait!" 

Fortunately, Artemis didn't run away and just gathered around Isao, Daphne, Cassandra, and Hermes, but because of that, Hestia couldn't talk with Artemis and could only bury all of her worries inside her heart, hoping that someone could clear up the doubt on her heart, yet when she thought about the spear that was brought by Isao... then... 

However, Hestia's thoughts quickly stopped when the members of Hermes Familia and an unexpected person came toward them. 

"Hermes— huh?! Iinuma-san!" 

"IINUMA-SAMA!" 

"IINUMA-SAN!" 

When the members of Hermes Familia saw Isao, all of them were excited! 

This wasn't their first time on the same quest, and they still remembered Isao's power, so there was no doubt they were happy that he was the one who came. 

Still, Isao was surprised by someone who also joined the Hermes Familia. "Ryuu? Are you here, too?" 

"Um, I got a sudden quest, so here I am..." Ryuu felt awkward but was happy that she saw Isao. 

"I wanted to call you before." 

"Ah, really? I am sorry!" 

While Hermes was a bit disgusting, Isao's relationship with his Familia members was good. 

"I am glad you are here, Isao-san." Asfi smiled softly when she saw Isao, who came for their reinforcement. 

"Um, I am here." 

Yet, watching how close he was to everyone, Artemis couldn't smile, but she also felt relief since she knew that even without her, Isao would be okay. As she thought so, while she knew that everything would be okay, there was this part of her chest that didn't seem able to close. It was ugly, black, like a black hole, making her wish to destroy everything so that she could be with Isao all the time. 

Even if the price of that was... everything in this world. 

'No, how can I think of that?' 

Artemis shook her head furiously, but the thought of him forgetting about her made her frightened. 

In the original, something like this didn't happen, as her feelings toward Bell Cranel weren't high to begin with. In her mind, Bell was nothing but a tool for her to defeat the enemy, but she wasn't a demon or even an evil deity, so she gave compensation, and that compensation was her love. 

Like the original story of Artemis and Orion, Orion was able to gain Artemis, but it wasn't from her affection or love. Instead, it was because he tried to beat her and forced himself toward her, and she was okay with it since the concept of love, affection, or emotions didn't exist in the past, and because of that, she was okay. 

Yet, for the first time in her life, Artemis learned the meaning of love, and she had never thought it was something that hurt so much that it made her become such an ugly thing. 

Still, when she was in doubt and frightened by her thought, Isao came and said, "Artemis, let's run away." 

"...eh?"