Chapter 79

"Ah? Aichi-kun? That is, Nangun-kun? Ah? What? What's going on?"

While Shizuki shouted with joy, Shizukana, standing beside her, looked back and forth between Shizuki and Aichi in confusion. Clearly, Shizuki had immediately recognized the white-haired, eye-patched figure in the black coat as Aichi, but Shizukana's understanding had not reached that level.

However, even though he only turned his head slightly to look at them with a wry smile, the moment Shizukana saw the boy's face, it overlapped with her memory of Nangun Aichi, and she couldn't help but widen her eyes in shock.

"Ah? Ah? Really? Is it really Nangun-kun? Ah? What? What really happened?"

"No, calm down, Ayakata. Your strong point is being calm and collected, right?"

Having prepared herself for death along with Shizuki, Shizukana was still unable to calm down in the face of the sudden series of events, even forgetting her pain. Aichi called out to her, trying to calm her down, and then he sensed something and looked up. He then caught the falling blonde girl, Yue, in a bridal carry and gently placed her to the side. He did the same with the rabbit-eared girl, Shia, who jumped down, and placed her beside Yue.

The last to land was the boy in all black, Endo Kousuke.

"Nangun! You! You'll be blown away by the shockwave! What was that just now! Suddenly breaking through the floor of the dungeon..."

While complaining, Endo looked around and then noticed his close friends and the monsters staring at them in shock. He let out a strange cry, "Noo!" His classmates called out his name, their voices a mix of joy at his return and anger at why he had come back.

"Kousuke!"

"Shigeta! Kenta! Reinforcements have arrived!"

Reacting to the phrase "reinforcements have arrived," Hikari and the other women of the demon race finally regained their composure. They then refocused their attention on Aichi and the two girls. However, they seemed completely indifferent to the onlookers' gazes. Aichi, with a slightly annoyed expression, gave Yue and Shia quick instructions.

"Yue, sorry, but can you protect the people who are frozen there? Shia, there's a knight in armor lying down over there, check on his condition."

"Sure... leave it to me."

"Got it!"

Yue walked calmly, ignoring the surrounding monsters, while Shia used her astonishing jumping ability to leap over the monsters and land beside the fallen Merudo.

"Aichi-kun..."

Shizuki called out Aichi's name again, her voice trembling. Most of the emotion in her voice was joy at his return, but it also contained sadness. This was because Aichi had come to this place of death. Shizuki didn't know the details, but her expression conveyed the thought, "Please run away quickly."

Aichi glanced at Shizuki, shrugged, and said briefly, "It's fine, stay there." Then, he immediately activated "Instant Light," explosively enhancing his perception, and retrieved three cross-shaped floating cannons from his "Treasure Chest," positioning them like shields around Shizuki and Shizukana.

Seeing the cross-shaped floating objects suddenly appear in the air, Shizuki and Shizukana rolled their eyes. Turning away from them, Aichi addressed the demon woman, who was the cause of all this, with a somewhat arrogant suggestion. He did this because the demon woman was not yet his enemy, and this could be considered Aichi's mercy.

"Red-haired girl over there, if you leave now, I won't chase you. If you don't want to die, disappear quickly."

"…What did you say?"

Of course, in a situation surrounded by monsters, this was not something an ordinary person could say. So, the demon woman couldn't help but ask. In response, Aichi repeated himself calmly.

"In a battlefield, you must make quick decisions. I said, if you don't want to die, disappear. Got it?"

Upon confirming that she hadn't misheard, the demon woman's expression faded, and she pointed at Aichi, ordering the monsters to "kill him."

Faced with this sudden turn of events—especially the sudden death of her beloved Ahart due to an unknown attack—the demon woman lost her composure and made a fatal mistake.

Part of it was her refusal to follow Aichi's advice, but a larger part was her anger at Aichi for trampling on Ahart's corpse, a monster she had been given by a revered superior and did not want to lose. Additionally, Aichi's arrival in such a ridiculous manner, breaking through the ceiling, had left her confused. Normally, she would have made a more cautious decision. But the damage was done.

"Ah, so you're the 'enemy,' huh?"

As Aichi muttered this, a chimera attacked. From behind Aichi, voices full of anxiety called out, "Aichi-kun!" "Nangun-kun!" However, Aichi paid no attention to the chimera attacking from the left, grabbing it with his left prosthetic hand and effortlessly lifting it into the air.

The chimera, shocked, struggled as if trying to escape its restraints, causing the space to violently ripple. Seeing this, Aichi's eyes showed disdain.

"Hey, what's this? This half-baked innate magic, is it a street performance?"

While it was an innate magic to eliminate presence and posture, it made the space ripple when moving, rendering the skill useless. Aichi couldn't help but comment. In the Netherworld, there were monsters that could eliminate presence and posture, but all of them had extremely difficult-to-detect hiding abilities. Compared to that, a disguise that collapsed with any movement seemed too childish to Aichi.

Holding the several hundred-kilogram chimera in one hand, the chimera itself was thrashing and causing a commotion, but Aichi stood firm like a rock. The demon woman and Shizuki and the others looked on in shock.

Aichi glanced at them, as if the chimera wasn't even worth observing, and with "Power Arm," he slammed it to the ground.

Zibang!

Donggusha!

With a bloody sound, a crater appeared in the ground, and the chimera's head was crushed. Then, Aichi casually drew Dona and fired electromagnetic cannons into what seemed to be empty space.

With a dry cracking sound, two flashes of light pierced the sky, accurately hitting their targets. The space rippled for a moment, revealing a chimera with a headshot and a blue giant troll with a pierced heart. After a brief pause, the two monsters collapsed, shaking.

Even though they were still, they had not hidden the flow of wind, the vibrations in the air and ground, their gaze, their killing intent, the flow of magic, or their body temperature. To Aichi, they were just standing targets.

Without even glancing at the instantly killed monsters, Aichi took a step forward, not into a battlefield, but into an execution ground. From now on, it would no longer be a mutual fight but a one-sided execution by a monster that could not be an enemy.

Seeing the monsters being so easily slaughtered, the demon woman was stunned. The weapons that did not exist in this world shocked the classmates standing in place. Among the stunned crowd, the monsters, faithfully following the demon woman's orders, attacked Aichi one by one. (Note: Entering SB mode, one by one! Send the enemy to god!)

A black cat stealthily approached Aichi from behind, intending to extend its tentacles. But Aichi, without even turning his head, lowered his hand holding Dona, turned his wrist, and fired. The supersonic bullet easily shattered the black cat's skull.

Without even glancing at the fallen monster, two four-eyed wolves pounced from both sides. However, the enemy on the left was slashed by Shuraku, which he had drawn at some point, and the one on the right was blown away by Dona at point-blank range.

At that moment, a black cat lurking behind the dead four-eyed wolf, in sync with a chimera approaching Aichi from behind, shot out its tentacles. Aichi jumped several meters into the air, spun in mid-air, and in the inverted world, the two black cats and one chimera, who had lost sight of their target and were looking around, became the prey of the electromagnetic cannons, their flesh and blood scattering like falling petals.

Two blue giant trolls, aiming to strike Aichi as he landed, rushed forward with their maces raised. However, such actions were ineffective against a monster that could predict the future—Aichi. Using "Air Force," Aichi jumped again in mid-air, spinning like a top and firing Dona and Shuraku in rapid succession.

The released killing intent not only shattered the two waiting blue giant trolls but also pierced the heads of a chimera and a four-eyed wolf approaching from behind. The monsters, each spewing blood and flesh, followed the laws of inertia, crossing paths in front of Aichi and collapsing one after another.

In the center of the intersection, surrounded by corpses and blood, Aichi landed silently and reloaded his bullets from the air.

At that moment, a strange sound, "Jiriaaaa," suddenly appeared. Aichi looked at the source, and a six-legged turtle-type monster was opening its large mouth, compressing a pure white light inside.

It had just absorbed the immense magic power from Merudo's "Final Loyalty" explosion. Although the explosion's range was limited to a few meters, it was more than enough to eliminate one person.

The immense magic power was compressed to its limit, and in the next instant, it fired a cannon at Aichi. Aichi, calm in the face of the death beam that was digging into the ground as it approached, retrieved a coffin-shaped large shield from the air, equipped it on his left arm, and activated "Vajra" to reinforce it. Like a tree rooted in the ground, Aichi's eyes showed unwavering will, without a hint of anxiety.

The moment the magic cannon hit, a deafening explosion echoed, and the air crackled, indicating its immense power. However, Aichi, who was hit directly, did not budge, and a mischievous smile appeared on his lips as he began to change the angle of the shield to deflect the cannon. In front of the deflected cannon was...

"──! Damn it!"

The demon woman. From the moment Aichi began to easily slaughter the monsters, she had been driven by a sense of crisis, starting an exaggerated incantation to release a powerful magic spell. She had ordered the absorption turtle to fire the cannon to support her. Aichi noticed this and deflected the cannon in her direction to disrupt her incantation.

Caught off guard by this unexpected turn of events, the demon woman hurriedly began to evade. But Aichi continuously adjusted the angle of the shield, deflecting the cannon and pursuing her relentlessly. The light stream, destroying walls as it approached, forced the demon woman to run along the wall in a panic. Her composed expression was completely gone.

Finally, the deflected cannon was about to catch up with her. Just as the demon woman thought she would be killed by her own order, the absorption turtle's magic power was exhausted, and the cannon stopped.

"Tsk..."

Without even the time to react to Aichi's scoff, the demon woman, drenched in cold sweat, let out a sigh of relief. But in the next instant, she froze.

Do Bang!

The explosion echoed, and a shockwave and heat wave swept across her right face, scattering something white.

That "something" was the remains of the white crow monster that had been perched on the demon woman's shoulder until just a moment ago. Aichi, unable to achieve his goal, fired Dona at the absorption turtle and Shuraku at the white crow to vent his frustration.

Faced with the supersonic bullets that could easily outpace sound, the absorption turtle, unable to even recognize, evade, or block them, was brutally torn apart, its consciousness sinking into eternal darkness.

The white crow, on the other hand, died instantly as its body ruptured, its white feathers and flesh scattering. The demon woman, hit by the shockwave of the electromagnetic cannon, lost her balance and fell to the ground, touching her cheek in a daze. There, she found the flesh and blood of the white crow, as well as severe burns from the heat wave.

If it had been deflected a few centimeters more... The demon woman's body naturally trembled as she considered this. In other words, the incredibly powerful Aichi, who was currently toying with the monster army and crushing them like insects, could kill the demon woman at any moment. Even at this very instant, her life was in his hands.

The demon woman, who prided herself on her warrior's spirit, was trembling uncontrollably in the face of a monster that should not exist. What is this? Why does such a thing exist? How can I survive from this monster's hands!? These thoughts formed a spiraling vortex in the demon woman's mind.

On the other side, Hikari and the others felt the same way. They couldn't identify the white-haired, eye-patched boy, only knowing that an unknown person had suddenly appeared and was easily driving away the monsters that had given them so much trouble.

"What... who is he!?"

Hikari, unable to move, lay on the ground muttering. This was what everyone around him was thinking. The one who answered this question was Endo Kousuke, who had initially fled but then returned to his comrades of his own will.

"Haha, unbelievable, right... That guy is Nangun."

"Whaaat?"

Hearing Endo's words, Hikari and the others let out confused voices, looking at him with a "Is your head okay?" expression. Endo, thinking "I can't blame them," shrugged as if to say, "It's the truth, what can I do?"

"So, Nangun, Nangun Aichi, the Nangun who fell off the bridge that day, survived at the bottom of the dungeon and climbed up on his own. On the way here, he treated the dungeon's monsters like trash, it's impossible, right? I thought so too... but it's the truth."

"Nangun is... huh? Nangun is still alive!?"

Hikari exclaimed in surprise, and the others, too, refocused their attention on the boy who was currently annihilating the monsters, a monster-like powerful youth... and once again denied it. "He doesn't look like Nangun at all." This feeling was understandable to Endo, and he couldn't help but let out a dry laugh, "No, I've seen his attribute card, it's true, he's changed a lot..."

Everyone, unable to believe it, watched Aichi's one-man show in a daze. At that moment, a voice, very flustered, shouted at Endo.

"Liar, Nangun is dead, right? Everyone saw it, right? It's impossible for him to be alive! Don't say such nonsense!"

"Hey, what's wrong! I've seen the attribute card, and he admitted it, so it's true!"

"Liar! You must have done something! There must be some ulterior motive!"

"No, what are you talking about? There's no point in doing something like that."

The person grabbing Endo's collar and spouting nonsense was Hinoyama. His face was unusually pale, vehemently denying Aichi's survival. The others, including Endo, were shocked by Hinoyama's state and slightly retreated in confusion.

At that moment, the disoriented Hinoyama was doused with a bucket of cold water. Not metaphorically, but literally. A large amount of water suddenly appeared above Hinoyama's head and poured down like a small waterfall. Due to the timing of his breath, Hinoyama nearly drowned. Coughing and spluttering, he shouted, "What the hell is going on!?" The response was a voice even colder than the water.

"...Be quiet, because you're annoying."

Hinoyama, hearing those words, was about to shout again, but when he looked in the direction of the voice, the words died in his throat. The reason was that the owner of the voice, Yue, was looking at him with eyes as cold as if she were looking at an insect. At the same time, he was captivated by her beauty, which was like that of a high-end porcelain doll, a perfect model of an ideal beauty, and forgot the current situation.

This was the same for Hikari and the others. The sudden appearance of the beautiful girl naturally drew the attention of everyone, regardless of gender. Suzu, clearly captivated, let out a strange sound, "Ohh~" Not only because of her beauty, but also because of the alluring aura that surrounded her and the contrast with