Book 9: Prologue

Here’s the prologue, please enjoy~

Prologue

(Please save us… please save our planet!)

Thanks to Ouma-san’s help, Master Usagi, Iris-san and the others arrived, and we managed to defeat the Dragonias’ army.

Merl-san, who witnessed the abilities of Master Usagi and the others here, called out to them.

However…

(…Hey, Yuuya. What is that woman there saying?)

“Eh?”

When I looked closely, not only Master Usagi but also Iris-san and the others were staring at Merl-san with puzzled expressions.

Come to think of it, Merl-san’s words weren’t understood by Yuti either, so the only people who could understand Merl-san’s words here were just Ouma-san and me.

So, for now, I’m just going to tell Master Usagi and the others exactly what Merl-san said.

At the same time, I also explained to them about this matter from the beginning.

After listening to the shortened, but complete series of events, Master Usagi and the others had indescribable expressions on their faces.

(…I thought they were a bunch of incomprehensible people, but I didn’t expect them to be inhabitants of outer space…)

“I thought their equipment looked unfamiliar…”

“…The other world alone is an extraordinary situation for me, but now we have aliens… who are you really?”

Kagurazaka-san gave me a stare, but… I’m not particularly eager to get into all kinds of trouble too, you know…

(…Oh well. For the time being, I understand the contents of the conversation. So what are you going to do about it…?)

“Of course I’ll help her!”

(You idiot. Think about it a little. In all likelihood, we won’t have enough strength on our own. That’s not the only opponent, is it?)

When I conveyed Master Usagi’s question directly to Merl-san, she nodded with a nervous expression.

(If that’s the case, we are still lacking in strength. We need at least one person who is as strong as Iris and me.)

“If you say it’s someone equal to Master Usagi and Iris-san, it would be… another Holy, right? But will they cooperate with us…?”

In fact, the Fist Saint and Spear Saint had fallen to the Evil as Fallen Saints. In addition, it seemed that the Fist Saint had been going around beating the other Holy…

But…

(I don’t know if I should say we’re lucky, but I have a guess.)

“Right… As Yuuya said, the numbers of the Holy itself have indeed been drastically reduced. But it’s also true that there are still some Holy left. Usagi and I were just on our way to meet him.”

“R-really?”

(Yeah. It’s not just that guy; I also had to tell the other Holy that the Evil has been defeated.)

Master Usagi mentioned that after Night and the others defeated Avis, he had to go and report this to the other Holy…

“Who is this Holy that you mentioned…?”

(──”The Magic Saint”)

＊＊＊

When Yuuya and the others had defeated the Dragonia aliens on Earth, there was a new movement in the other world.

“──The time of resurrection is near.”

At the far end of the world, where people don’t live, and monsters don’t exist, there is ── [The World’s Disposal Ground].

In the past, this was the base of operations for the Evil that Yuuya and the others defeated, and it was originally a place where people did not exist.

But now, there were countless groups of people in [The World’s Disposal Ground].

All of them wore black robes and hoods to hide their faces. Among them, one man in a particularly gorgeous robe spread his hands and spoke eloquently.

“Foolish mortals seem to think that our God is dead, but… that is not true! Our God is now awakening with a new power!”

“Right!”

“Our God is immortal!”

The group of people who were fanatical to any extent radiated a negative emotion… an emotion that was close to Evil.

They were the very group that believed in Evil as the only absolute God.

As the words of the surrounding believers heated up, the group leader raised his hand, and the crowd instantly quieted down.

“I understand the anger of our people painfully… They thought they hurt and destroyed our God. But hear me! They would never expect this. They would never have crossed their minds that our God would be resurrected by the skill of a sage who had once destroyed our God as well!”

The man who shouted this held up a piece of paper in his hand.

“[Swapping Time Magic]… Fufufu. I never thought this kind of magic existed. With this magic, we can resurrect our God from the past!”

“Oh! Founder! Let’s use that magic right now!”

One after another, the believers appealed for the use of this magic.

But the man who was called the founder appeased them.

“Hold on. I’d certainly like to use this magic right now, but… I’m afraid it comes at a price.”

“A price? Whatever the price is, we will pay it!”

“Yes. But don’t be so hasty. This magic works by replacing a person from this period with a being from a past period.”

“Then let’s replace it with one of us…!”

As the believers raise their hands in sacrifice for the resurrection of God, the founder laughs.

“There is no need to sacrifice my people. I have already selected the target.”

“W-who’s that?”

“What, it’s simple… I will use the same being who destroyed our God.”

The believers’ eyes widened at the founder’s words.

“The magic that the abominable sage left behind is, as I said before, magic that replaces an existence of the past with an existence of the present. And this time, as well as in the past with the sage, our God has been defeated… Our God who has become the ultimate perfection should not have been defeated by the Holy of this age.”

“S-so, who the hell is responsible for our God’s destruction?”

“I’m not sure about the details, but… our God was defeated on his way to the [Great Devil’s Nest]. At the same time, there was a rumor circulating in the Alceria Kingdom. A rumor that a person was living in the [Great Devil’s Nest].”

“!?”

Everyone present widened their eyes at the founder’s words.

That’s how dangerous the [Great Devil’s Nest] was, and it’s difficult to believe that there were people living there.

“I understand your surprise. I couldn’t believe it either, but… it seems that the person who lives in the [Great Devil’s Nest] is a close friend of the first princess of the Alceria Kingdom. It’s been confirmed that the first princess often takes a small number of guards with her to the [Great Devil’s Nest] and heads there – maybe this is why. In that [Great Devil’s Nest]… if she goes this far, there’s no doubt that someone lives there.”

“T-then you’re saying that this person destroyed our God?”

“…It’s a possibility.”

The believers were silent at the founder’s words.

Naturally, the believers did not doubt that Evil was the most potent and most supreme existence, but they still perceived the [Great Devil’s Nest] as a dangerous place.

There was no such thing as an ordinary being living there.

But…

“That’s why I’m going to use that being.”

“!”

The believers opened their eyes to the founder who was smiling fearlessly.

“If that being has defeated our God, it could very well be an obstacle to our God after the resurrection. But what if we sacrifice that being to resurrect our God?”

“Then… there will be no more obstacles to our long-cherished desire!”

The believers’ eyes lit up at the founder’s words.

“That’s right. But in order to do so, we must find out the identity of the person living in the [Great Devil’s Nest]… It will be a dangerous path, but will you lend me your strength?”

“Yes! For the sake of our God…!”

──And so, in a place unknown to Yuuya and the others, a new agenda began to unfold.

＊＊＊

Meanwhile, in the Regal Kingdom, King Orghis decided on a matter at an important meeting of his vassals.

“…I’ll open the [King’s Council].”

“Your Majesty!”

The vassals were surprised by Orghis’ statement.

The [King’s Council] that Orghis announced was literally a meeting where the Kings of the world would gather.

Since it was a conference of a very large scale, with the gathering of the Kings of the world, it could not be held so easily.

There were countries that have taken an aggressive stance against other countries, so if they tried to hold a meeting with inappropriate content, the position of the Regal Kingdom would be adversely affected, and in the worst-case scenario, the Regal Kingdom might come under concentrated fire from many countries.

Even so, there was a reason why Orghis wanted to hold the council.

“As you all know, the Evil has attacked our country in its full form. And even the Sword Saint Iris-dono and the Kicking Saint Usagi-dono were helpless against the perfect Evil… this a situation we can no longer handle alone.”

“T-that’s…”

“B-but that would mean that other countries would have to know about Mai-dono’s existence!”

──Orghis, who did not know that the Evil had already been destroyed by Yuuya and the others, heated up at the discussion.

As one of the vassals said, the Regal Kingdom had summoned an existence called Mai from another world, using a skill left behind by the sage – a skill that was banned by the world.

And, as Orghis said, in order to gain the cooperation of other countries to fight against the Evil, there was no way to avoid telling them about Mai. Even if it was unavoidable in order to fight against Evil, it was obvious that it would be condemned.

──However, no matter how serious the discussion was, the Evil did not exist anymore because it had already been defeated.

The only things that exist now were the Evil Beast.

Orghis, who didn’t know this, nodded firmly with a grim expression on his face.

“I’ve been prepared for this from the beginning. I will accept the blame from other countries. It would be a small price to pay if the world could unite with only us being blamed.”

“Your Majesty…”

“…It’s inconvenient for everyone. I should be the only one to take all the blame…”

“No, Your Majesty. We agree with the decision that you made. We feel bad for the person involved, but if we didn’t do this, it would be the end of our country… no, humanity would end!”

As if sympathizing with the vassal who spoke up, the other vassals nodded with serious expressions.

Everyone in the room clearly understood that the power of this world – the power of the Holy – was not enough to handle the tremendous power of Avis, because they had seen it firsthand.

──The only thing was that Avis, the person they needed to defeat, no longer exists in this world.

After looking over each of the vassals’ faces, Orghis nodded firmly.

“Everyone… I appreciate your support. Then let’s get to work. These days, the movement of the cult that worships the Evil has become more and more active…”

“…It has been a disturbing presence for some time, but now finally?”

The cult that Orghis was talking about was a group that believed in Evil.

Although they have never been involved in any kind of terrorist activity before, they still needed to be more vigilant because you never know what they might plan to do now that Avis, the ultimate perfect form of Evil, had been born.

──As mentioned many times already, Avis was already dead.

In other words, they were now having a very serious discussion about someone who did not exist.

As the vassals who received Orghis’ instructions immediately began to move to deliver the letters to the various countries, Orghis sank deeper into his chair.

“There are many things that I have to inform them… about Evil, about Mai-dono. It’s not something that is easily believable, but if I can get Lexia-dono, who knows about the situation, to join me, things will be different. It’s unusual to invite a princess to the King’s Council, but… it can’t be helped now.”

Orghis quickly put together a plan for the future in his mind and waited for Lexia’s return.

＊＊＊

(Your Majesty! Commander of the Third Division, Drade-sama, has returned!)

(Let him through!)

The Third Division was defeated in the battle against Yuuya and has retreated.

Although the unit commander, Drade, was receiving medical treatment aboard the ship during his return, his wounds were still not completely healed because his ship did not have the same advanced facilities as the mother ship.

Still, in order to be the first to announce the existence of the threat of Yuuya, Drade immediately went before Draco III, the king of the Dragonia aliens.

After being escorted to Draco III’s room, he stepped forward and prostrated himself with tremendous vigor.

(Your Majesty… I shall be punished for this…!)

(…..)

Draco III gave him a cold stare and slowly opened his mouth.

(What happened?)

(Ha… Upon Your Majesty’s order, I immediately went to the remote planet where the Amelians were hiding out. We were supposed to battle the target Amelians, but we ended up fighting… their collaborators… and we were defeated..)

(Collaborators?)

Draco III raised his eyebrows slightly.

(Was there anyone else in this universe besides the planet Amel who would be foolish enough to stand up to us? Or were there others who had already shown their reverence and were hiding and secretly building up their forces?)

(N-no, that’s… we were defeated by the humans of the planet where the target – the Amelians – were hiding out…)

(What did you say?)

Draco III couldn’t believe his ears at Drade’s report.

He had thought that they controlled the entire universe except for the planet Amel, so he hadn’t expected to find any threatening beings outside of Amel.

Of course, when they found out that Merl was hiding on Earth, they also investigated the planet, and they knew that with the level of technology on Earth and the fighting power of the people living there, there was no way that the Dragonias could be defeated.

That’s why he couldn’t believe that people from that planet had defeated Drade.

(It’s hard to believe. Are you saying that Amel has succeeded in developing a new weapon?)

Draco III was more inclined to believe that the Amelians had created a new weapon that the Dragonias did not know about and that the Earthlings had used it to defeat Drade.

Draco III was silent for a while, but then he turned his gaze to Drade again.

Sensing the gaze on his skin, Drade shrunk even more and rubbed his forehead against the ground.

(Y-you can punish me any way you want!)

(I don’t care about your will. Normally, I’d ask you to disappear, but… I can’t afford to have my forces diminished here.)

(…..)

(You were the bravest of all our Dragonias. If you are defeated, it will affect the morale of our nation. But at the same time, we can’t let those who are helping the Amelians go unchecked. Once you’ve healed your wounds, the Third Division should capture the Amelians and their collaborators as soon as possible!)

(Ha! Thank you for your generous offer…!)

Drade bowed once more and stared into the void as he exited the room.

(Just wait for me… and I will pay you back for this wound…!)

──Thus, various parties began to move.