"GAAAAAAH!"
The searing pain drove Juggernaut into a frenzy, but it possessed no regenerative ability. Its entire body was formed from a single Magic Stone—there was no such thing as recovery.
The severed foreleg was gone for good.
And without its forelegs, Juggernaut's situation grew dire.
Just as it tried to retreat, its prey appeared beside it at the same blinding speed.
"!?"
Its rage-clouded eyes froze for a brief instant.
Before it could react, a strange cracking sound echoed from its remaining foreleg.
"Crack!"
The sound wasn't loud, yet in Juggernaut's ears it rang like the toll of a funeral bell from the depths of hell.
Both forelegs were gone now. The retreating Juggernaut lost its balance entirely, its massive frame collapsing heavily to the ground.
Without its forelegs to stabilize its body, the crawling monster could no longer move properly.
And that was exactly what Bell wanted.
When facing a swift monster, the only way to handle it was to target its speed.
Once its movement was restricted, its magical threat would drop by more than half.
At the same time, eliminating its speed also diminished its offensive power.
Most of Juggernaut's attacks relied on its tail and forelegs.
But now, with both forelegs destroyed, the remaining hind legs couldn't provide the stability or speed needed to attack effectively.
This was checkmate.
"Clang! Clang! Clang!"
A clear, bell-like sound echoed through the White Palace.
Juggernaut struggled to rise, its body pressed low to the ground, attempting one last act of defiance.
"I don't like losing to a monster because of my own carelessness."
Bell spoke quietly, a rare sound amid the chaos, as he watched Juggernaut's futile struggle.
"Juggernaut, cleaner of the Dungeon—I won't give you the chance to struggle."
Struggle meant change, and Bell despised when fixed outcomes twisted out of his control—unless those changes remained within his grasp.
Every mote of light gathered onto his blade as Bell adjusted into a perfect stance.
"Tsubame Gaeshi—"
His body became lightning itself, and in the next instant, he was in front of Juggernaut.
For that moment, the world lost all color.
Dozens—no, hundreds—of Bell's silhouettes appeared, overlapping, each one striking with a blade.
The entire space seemed to be carved into countless fine lines, light itself bending along the cuts.
Time froze still.
"Crack! Crack! Crack!"
Color returned to the world, but the threads of space were torn apart, shattering like glass.
The fragments of reality fell away into the void.
And Bell now stood behind Juggernaut, his sword already sheathed.
"—Dimension Slash."
By combining his mastery of the Tsubame Gaeshi technique, his command over space, and his control of Accumulate Power, Bell had successfully developed a far more aggressive derivative of Tsubame Gaeshi.
Accumulate Power compensated for the original technique's lack of offensive force, while spatial manipulation further increased the number of overlapping slashes. Together, they turned it into a deadly, overwhelming technique—and gave Bell a true trump card, capable of killing in a single strike.
After sliding his blade back into four-dimensional space, Bell turned toward Juggernaut, now completely lifeless.
Thud.
Juggernaut's body split apart as if sliced cleanly by invisible threads, its head hitting the ground with a heavy crash.
As though triggered by that impact, the rest of its body began to fall apart piece by piece, collapsing in chunks until only silence remained.
"Not bad."
Watching Juggernaut's remains slowly crumble into pale ash, Bell allowed himself a quiet laugh.
The technique had only just been completed. Its overwhelming effect in real combat was proof of Bell's complete mastery of the Tsubame Gaeshi; without that, there was no way this level of power could have been achieved.
He steadied his breathing, then turned his gaze toward Ryuu, who had been safely set aside before the battle began.
...
'I suppose I should make a trip after all.'
Night had settled over Orario.
The Hostess of Fertility, the city's premier tavern, was bustling as always. Even from outside, the sound of laughter and chatter from the adventurers inside spilled into the streets.
Yet tonight, the tavern's poster girl was far from cheerful.
Syr's worried eyes kept drifting toward the door as she let out another sigh.
'Ryuu... when are you going to come back?'
She had seen the Guild's wanted notice for Ryuu and knew exactly what she had been doing these past few days.
And that was precisely why she was so worried.
Ryuu was one of Syr's few true friends—and one of the rare people who didn't befriend her because of her looks. Syr had always cherished that kind of friendship deeply.
Perhaps it was because of Freya's influence that she found herself drawn to pure-hearted people, and Ryuu was one of the few who truly embodied that purity.
"Oh dear... Syr's worrying about Ryuu again, meow."
Anya immediately guessed who was on Syr's mind from the troubled look on her face.
"Ryuu's such a fool, meow. She said she didn't want to deal with those Evilus scum, but she still got dragged into it, meow."
"There's nothing you can do about that kind of thing."
"Yeah, yeah. It can't be helped, meow."
The other two waitresses nodded in agreement, fully understanding how she felt.
Everyone knew Ryuu's past and what she had gone through, so it wasn't hard to understand why she'd be drawn to those kinds of rumors.
"Her story's different from ours. We might've retired, but our Familia wasn't wiped out like hers."
"That girl Ryuu's always had a powder keg in her heart. Once it's lit, there's no putting it out."
Chloe Rollo, one of the waitresses at the Hostess of Fertility, had once been a mercenary in an underground organization. Now she was living a semi-retired life.
Lunoire Faust, another waitress at the tavern, had also once belonged to the same underworld circles and was now living a similar semi-retirement.
Both were Level 4 adventurers from different Familia, but fate had brought them together here. Now, burdened with over a hundred million Valis in debt, they could only work at the tavern to slowly pay it off.
But unlike them, Ryuu was... different. She was the most exceptional among them all.
...
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