"Nagumo-kun!"

Feeling a burning pain on his back, Hajime couldn't help but let out a cry of pain. Aiko called out his name in panic.

Hajime used the impact of the greatsword to fly forward, then turned in mid-air to face Noin.

Noin immediately gave chase, her sword already raised high, ready to swing down.

Hajime gave up on dodging with his sluggish body and used Diamond on the cross floater to block it as a shield. He then dispersed the other cross floaters to the left and right of Noin and fired the bullets hidden in the body.

Noin spun around, spreading his silver wings to shoot down the bullets from the cross floater, then took advantage of the momentum and struck the cross floater that Hajime was using as a shield with his Greatsword One. He then used his Greatsword Two to strike the Greatsword One stuck in the cross floater, successfully severing it.

Hajime opened her eyes wide in surprise, and Noin, who was approaching her, looked into her eyes. Her emotionless eyes seemed to say—

"That's the end."

There was no sign of giving up in Hajime's eyes.

However, in order to prevent his beloved daughter from dying in this situation, there was a price to pay—Hajime had to get hurt in her place.

If he had known this, even if it would weaken his body later, Hajime should have used Limit Break directly without waiting for Tio. Hajime felt regretful and mentally prepared to sacrifice his left arm.

Noin's sword cut off the prosthetic hand that Shi raised to block the attack. Just as she was about to exert her strength and cause fatal damage to Shi's body,

“Hooa ...

A dragon roared, and a black flash of light approached from below with great force.

It was a breath of fire that could destroy everything, a black storm of violence that struck Noin with pinpoint accuracy.

Noin instantly covered his body with silver wings and took a defensive stance.

Then, the black breath struck Noin's silver wings directly, shattering them before still blasting her away with such force. A fierce clash of black and silver magic erupted into the air, and Noin's back slammed into one of the church's towers. The impact sent the tower shattering with a creaking sound as it gradually crumbled.

From below came the cries of the priests and temple knights led by Ishtar. Seeing the apostle of God they worshipped being sent flying, they seemed to panic.

Hajime took out the rocket and missile launcher from the "treasure chest"—Alcorn, and then casually fired all twelve shells in the direction of Ishtar and the others.

This time, a different kind of wailing was heard, but Hajime ignored it because the sound he had been wanting to hear drowned out the noise.

"Master, are you okay?"

Hearing her voice, Hajime's face broke into a smile, even though he was still on guard against Noin.

The long-awaited dragon has arrived.

"Tio, it's a good thing you came. The situation was a bit dangerous just now."

Hearing what Hajime said, Tio felt happy, but also a chill in her heart, knowing that her opponent was a powerful enemy that could make Hajime feel threatened. Tio, in her black dragon form, flapped her wings and came to Hajime's side.

"Luckily I made it in time. Afterwards, I hope Master will torture me—no, reward me."

"...If you can protect the teacher, I will consider it."

"Really? You can't go back on your word! Come, teacher, please sit on my back."

Even in this situation, Tio remained true to her desires (thinking back, Yue, Shia, and Kaori were the same). Hajime showed a helpless expression and let his beloved son sit on Tio's back.

Hearing the conversation between the two, Aiko felt an indescribable emotion in her heart, but she finally didn't have to drag Hajime down anymore, so she obediently climbed on Tio's back.

"Uh, Miss Tio, thank you for your help."

"Well, leave it to me. Sensei is an important person to the master (referring to a mentor), and I will not let you fall into the hands of the enemy."

Hearing the words "important person" from Tio's mouth, Aiko's misunderstanding deepened, and she looked at Hajime with worry.

No matter how you look at it, her expression doesn't look like that of a teacher who is worried about her students. She is clearly a girl in love, but no one present can complain.

At that moment, an explosion echoed, and the tower Noin had crashed into shattered from the bottom. Unharmed, Noin emerged, flapping his silver wings to create a gust of wind, blowing away the thick dust. Even Tio's breath seemed unable to penetrate the silver wings' defenses.

"...Tio, go ahead."

"I understand. But after ensuring the teacher's safety, I will also come to help you, okay? At least leave those guys from the church to me."

Hajime glared at Noin with a fierce murderous aura. Tio, realizing the cause of the weakening magic that had just hit Hajime, glared at Ishtar and the others, and spoke reassuringly, asking Hajime to focus on dealing with Noin.

When Hajime heard her words, the corners of his mouth lifted and he nodded in agreement. This time he took the initiative to leap into the air and head towards Nuo Yin.

"Nagumo-kun! Be careful! Don't let anything happen to you!"

"...Hmm? I see, that's what's going on..."

Aiko clasped her hands together in front of her chest, in a gesture of prayer. Tio, sensing something, spoke with a mixture of interest and amusement.

"Teacher, I understand you're worried about the Master, but we need to move quickly. After I get you to the ground, I must beat up those old losers. We can't let them get in the way of the Master."

After saying this, Tio wanted to turn around and fly away, but Aiko stopped her.

Tio looked back at Aiko, who was sitting on her back, and wanted to ask her what was wrong. Aiko showed a resolute look and answered:

“Miss Tio, wouldn’t it take too long for you to take me to the surface and back? This place is 8,000 meters above sea level, and the round trip must be quite tiring…”

"Hmm? That's true... Could it be that you, Sensei, are planning to..."

"That's right. Since Miss Tio is fighting for Nagumo-kun, please let me help. If we don't quickly deal with Pope Ishtar and the others, Nagumo-kun will become increasingly weak. If you still want to send me down, it would be a waste of time."

Aiko's words made sense, but to be honest, Tio didn't quite agree.

Although Orcorn's attack had left many of Ishtar's group injured, they quickly regrouped, erected a barrier, and began preparing for the hymn again. Seeing this, Tio also wanted to attack the group immediately.

However, if Aiko gets hurt as a result, Tio will have violated the agreement she made with Hajime.

"It's presumptuous of you to ask, but what can you do, Sensei? You have neither magic nor combat experience, right? Can you fight against those priests and temple knights?"

After hearing Tio's sharp opinion, Aiko gritted her teeth, slowly put her finger in her mouth, then closed her eyes, bit her fingertip in one breath, and used the blood oozing from her finger to draw a temporary magic circle on the back of her other hand.

"Don't look at me like this, my magic power is almost the same as that of the brave Amanogawa-san. Although I have no combat experience...but at least I can support Miss Tio! To be honest...I am afraid of fighting, but this is the only way I can do. I can't just have ideals! In order for everyone to return to Japan alive, I am the one who can't escape!"

The kingdom is under attack, and the king and priests have become religious fanatics. Their original plan to rely on the gods to help them return is no longer feasible. Aiko and her friends are left with no one to turn to in this alien world, but they have no choice but to continue on their journey.

As a teacher, she couldn't avoid doing what she had to do because of taboos. She had decided not to let her students shoot for her anymore.

Tio saw Aiko's determination from her eyes, and although she hesitated for a moment, she finally decided to agree to let Aiko go with her.

"Since you've made up your mind, there's nothing we can do. If the master knew this was the teacher's will, I'm sure he wouldn't object. Okay, let's go beat up those idiots together."

"yes!"

Aiko's tone was filled with tension, fear, and a determination to suppress those negative emotions. After hearing her answer, Tio flew straight towards the great temple that symbolized the Holy Church.

They had to deal with hundreds of priests and temple knights.

Now, the alternative combination of Tio and Aiko is about to challenge the world's largest religious base.

Hajime rushed towards Noin, and the first attack was a blow fired by the electromagnetic acceleration anti-object rifle - Shurajan.

Red lightning shot up, and the ferocious-looking monster weapon flashed, moving in a straight line towards the target.

Facing the piercing specialized bombardment that could penetrate even Tio's breath from the front, Noin chose to dodge, perhaps judging that even the silver wings would be penetrated before they could disintegrate.

She twisted her body on the spot and dropped down, ducking under the red flash and charging towards Hajime at terrifying speed.

But Hajime seemed to have predicted this move.

He had already deployed a cross-shaped floating gun on the trajectory of Noin's fall, firing explosive shrapnel at a distance where he could not dodge.

「!?」

Noin saw the exploding shrapnel emitting red ripples, and seemed to think that Silver Wing would not have time to defend himself, so he attacked with the greatsword of One in his hand.

The greatsword swung down at lightning speed, cutting the bullet like butter, splitting it in two.

The magic power contained in the explosive shrapnel was decomposed, but the greatsword's blow could not destroy it completely. The bullets scattered to Noin's left and right sent out shock waves from both sides.

Although the power was weakened, Noin was still impacted and his movements stopped for a moment.

Hajime seized her moment, closing in on her without her noticing. Using his 'Aerodynamics', Hajime unleashed a powerful kick in mid-air, concentrating the force of his footsteps entirely on his left arm. Combining the prosthetic arm's 'Vibration Destruction' and 'Explosive Shotgun' mechanisms with his 'Brute Force' and the immense prana-infused 'Impact Conversion', he unleashed a powerful punch.

“Drink!!”

「!?」

He began to roar with great momentum.

Noin instantly used the Second Great Sword as a shield, blocking the incoming fist between her body and herself. Her sword barely caught up, blocking Hajime's iron fist.

But it couldn't even offset the power of the fist. A loud metal collision sound was heard, and Noin flew out at a fierce speed.

However, Hajime didn't stop chasing.

He immediately pulled out the Donal & Hulak and fired continuously with maximum power.

Two gunshots were heard, and two red flashes pierced the darkness.

What struck Noin was a force equivalent to twelve bullets. Though he was sent flying, Noin crossed his swords and took a defensive stance.

“Guuuuuu!!”

Donal & Hulak each fired in rapid-fire fashion, sounding as if only one bullet had been fired, and each bullet traveled the same trajectory and hit the same point—incredibly precise shooting.

The supposedly invincible Apostle of God finally wailed, her beautiful features slightly distorted by pain. At the same time, her greatsword received the impact, making a slight cracking sound.

After receiving Hajime's full-strength punch and twelve electromagnetic cannon bullets, the two swords did not break. Hajime didn't know whether to be surprised or impressed by their hardness.

Noin was knocked even further away, crashing into another majestic church facility and was buried under the bricks.

Hajime took out Alcorn from the "treasure chest" and fired all his missiles at him, seemingly adding insult to injury.

The powerful and violent swarm of bullets, trailing a trail of flames, dealt a fatal blow to the nearly collapsed building.

The building completely collapsed with the violent explosion. Since the rocket was loaded with a large amount of tar, the building was burned in the 3,000-degree Celsius fire.

Hajime gazed at the flames that dyed the night sky red, but he didn't stop pursuing. He pulled a missile from his 'treasure chest', loaded it into Alcorn, and once again locked onto the blazing rubble.

At this moment——

"Down there!?"

Hajime shifted his gaze downwards, and the ground below him suddenly exploded, and Noin flew out from the ground with his silver wings flapping.

It seems that she used magic to hide underground and launched a surprise attack.

A large number of silver feathers swept over, and silver artillery was fired towards Shi.

Hajime dodged and swayed like a leaf in the wind. As they crossed each other, two great swords swung down. Hajime blocked them while rolling sideways through the gap between the two swords and fired a missile at Noin.

Noin had experienced the power of Orcorn firsthand. She flew at high speed like a silver meteor, creating distance between herself and the approaching missiles. She then fired silver feathers from behind to meet the attack, while creating a magic circle and launching a wave of magical attacks towards Hajime.

The downed missiles exploded in countless flames in the night sky. Hajime put away Alcorn and drew Donal & Shulak again, piercing the core of the magic attacking him. He and Noin also faced all the attacks.

During the fierce aerial battle, a brief silence came.

Noin and Hajime faced off in mid-air.

"I want to ask you a question. Is it okay for you to just fight me?"

“…What do you mean?”

Anyone connected to the church would undoubtedly know that a demonic invasion of the royal capital was currently underway. Because Noin had launched into battle without a word, Hajime hadn't had a chance to ask about it before. But now that there was a break and Noin was willing to listen, Hajime took the opportunity to continue the conversation.

"I'm referring to what's happening next. If this continues, the kingdom will be destroyed, you know? And then of course, this Sacred Mountain will be the next in line. I think you should just leave me alone and go fight those demons, right?"

Hajime asked a legitimate question, but Noin scoffed, as if hearing a boring question.

"If it's truly destroyed, it will be the end of this era."

"The ending... As expected, to the so-called 'Esiddhi,' humans are just 'humans,' mere pawns to pass the time... So, he just happened to be on the side of humans during this era? So, the gods on the demon side might also be Esiddhi himself or one of his subordinates, right?"

“…So what if it is?”

"No, I just want to confirm whether what the Liberators say is credible. Because to me, both of you are just suspicious people."

Perhaps because he heard his master being called a suspicious person, Noin's eyebrows twitched.

But Hajime didn't care at all and said with a pleasant face:

"If I'm getting in your way, why don't you just send me back to my original world? Also, if the kingdom is destroyed, the heroes are just useless pawns, so how about sending them back as well?"

"Don't even think about it, oddity."

"Can you tell me the reason?"

"This is the Master's will, Anomaly. The Master wishes to see you die. To see you overcome all odds, gain immense power and reliable companions... and then die with your ambitions unfulfilled. This is the only way the Master wants to see you die. Therefore, please die in as much pain and sorrow as possible, tasting the bitter taste of regret and despair. This is the only way you can bring the Master the greatest entertainment. As for the Hero and the others... their ongoing performance is quite entertaining, and the Master is very interested. As pawns that can still please the Master, they must continue their performance."

Noin's answer was roughly what Shi had expected, so Shi didn't take it too seriously and just shrugged. Shi deeply agreed with what Mireddy had said before.

In other words - "Those guys are indeed bastards."

However, leaving his own part aside, Noin's last words concerned him greatly.

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