Johann stepped outside the magic barrier.
Once I’m sure he’s safe, I started releasing my magic, but Mother didn’t move yet. She was observing my actions, waiting to see what I’d do. I guess that ans I get the first move.
…Alright, what should I do?
For now, I’ll just go with my usual spell then.
"Fire Lance!"
I condensed a hundred thousand fire lances into a single, massive attack spell and hurled it at Mother.
Each lance was charged with the maximum amount of magic—ten tis the usual limit. In other words, this was a concentrated mass of a million units of magic. Plus, thanks to my training at the magic academy, I’d improved the speed at which I could launch spells. My attacks were now fast enough that even a fully prepared demon couldn’t dodge them.
The blazing spear roared through the air, heading straight for Mother.
"That’s quite the magic power. But—"
She held a pure white sword in her right hand. Judging from the aura it gave off, it had strength beyond legend-tier. I expected her to slice through my magic with it, but she did sothing even more surprising.
"Tei!"
With a simple exclamation, she knocked my spell away with her bare left fist—the one not holding the sword.
She didn’t even seem to put much force into it. Even so, my attack was deflected and it dissipated upon hitting the reinforced magic barrier surrounding the arena. The barrier trembled slightly but showed no cracks.
"That was a straightforward attack, and it wasn’t all that fast."
"Uh, demons can’t dodge it, though…"
"Well, demons vary in strength, right? If it were Sehre, the demon directly under the Evil God who specializes in high-speed movent, he could probably dodge it."
That’s not true. I’ve taken down Sehre before—using a Fire Lance of the exact sa scale.
At any rate, this wasn’t enough to surprise her.
"Alright then, how about this? Fire Lance!"
I summoned five flaming knights.
Spells that move on their own are pretty rare.
"Oh? You can do that now? Then, I’ll do it too."
A surge of mana radiated from Mother, turning into flas that split into five. Each one began taking shape.
"Turn all that stands in your path to scorched earth—Fla Knight!"
So she could summon fla knights too.
This was my first ti seeing the real thing outside of books.
"So this is the true Fla Knight."
My fla knights had the form of centaur-like beings—part human, part horse. But Mother’s knights were different. Her horses and knights were separate entities. According to a magic to I once read, the real Fla Knights could act independently from their mounts. But before I even learned about them, I had already developed my own version, so I always used the centaur form. Personally, I think mine looks cooler.
"Are those your original creations, Halt? That’s an interesting design."
"Yeah, I made them before I even knew about the official Fla Knight spell, so they turned out like this. Let’s see which version is stronger—mine or the real deal."
I commanded my knights.
"Show them your strength!"
My fla knights charged forward at high speed, their burning lances poised to strike.
"Intercept them."
Following Mother’s command, her Fla Knights moved to counter mine. They wielded lances in their right hands and massive shields in their left, ready to block my knights’ attacks.
But—
"Oh my. That’s unexpected."
For the first ti, Mother looked surprised.
My knights’ lances pierced straight through the shields of her Fla Knights, shattering their cores. The flas of my knights had a higher density, giving them superior offensive power.
"Looking closely, those knights of yours have an insane magic density."
Analyzing my spell while instructing her remaining knights to fall back, Mother’s eyes glead with curiosity.
"Impressive attack power. But…"
Her figure suddenly vanished.
"What about their defense?"
"—What!?"
In the blink of an eye, she reappeared in front of one of my fla knights and drove her sword into its core.
"Their firepower is great, but their core defenses could use so work."
Unaffected by the intense heat, her sword effortlessly destroyed the knight’s core. One of my knights vanished. The remaining four rushed at her, but within seconds, she struck down every single one.
The way she moved was srizing—like a dance.
"Fufufu, what’s wrong, Halt? You’re in a daze."
"I was just… admiring your swordsmanship, Mother."
I see what she’s doing.
She’s showing off her power.
First, she displayed her magic and sword skills.
So next—
"Now, I’ll show off my skills."
As expected, she was going to demonstrate her unique abilities.
I could train my magic and swordsmanship, but skills were a different story. Because of a curse from the Evil God, my status was permanently locked at [Skills: None]. I had managed to replicate skill-like abilities through magic, but I couldn’t use actual skills.
Still, if I watched closely enough, I could probably recreate whatever she was about to show .
"This one might be tough to copy, even for you, Halt."
She read my thoughts like it was nothing.
I decided to just ignore it.
"The skill I’m about to use is [Divine Summon]."
"D-Divine Summon!?"
Was she planning to summon a dragon god into the arena and make this a two-on-one fight? Sylph once summoned the four great spirits to battle the Star King, so it wouldn’t be impossible.
"Lesser gods like the dragon gods can technically be summoned through magic if you et certain conditions and have enough magic power. But there are entities that magic alone can’t summon."
"…You an the Four Great Gods?"
"Exactly! Sky God, Earth God, Sea God… and the Evil God. Without the right summoning skill, humans can’t force them to appear in this world."
E-Eh?
Wait… is that true?
"I only have one skill that allows to summon a Great God. But that’s all I need. The Four Great Gods are the most powerful beings in existence, aside from the Creator God. Once they’re summoned, victory is guaranteed."
A dark aura started seeping from Mother. Up until now, she had radiated a holy presence, but now the atmosphere had completely changed.
"The reason we started this nine-person battle in the first place was to summon this god and fight alongside him."
Dark clouds gathered overhead, blocking out the sun. A sinister energy began to fill the air.
"Halt, you were reborn into this world as my son. That makes you its [Protagonist] …It’s just be being a doting parent, I guess? Maybe. But I want my son—you—to be the hero of this world."
She raised her hand.
A massive magic circle appeared in the sky.
"The being I’m about to call forth is the source of all evil. If you can’t defeat them, this world will be swallowed by darkness."
"M-Mother!? What are you—!?"
"Defeat us both, and prove it to . Prove that you are the true protagonist of this world."
I could have stopped her.
The skill-generated magic circle was automatic, but I had the knowledge to rewrite it. Now that I could understand the divine script, disrupting the summoning would be easy.
But I didn’t stop her.
Because I wanted Mother to see as the world’s protagonist.
By the way, I even casted [Protect] on my thoughts to prevent her from reading my mind, making sure she didn’t realize…
That I had already defeated this god before.
Unaware, she activated what she likely considered her ultimate skill.
"Evil God, descend!!"
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