Chapter 33

I diverted my gaze from Kai—no, it’s Loki now—and looked at Hera, who seemed to be covered in wounds and had depleted her magical power.

The moment I recognized Hera’s figure, my body rushed to her side, leaving Kai behind.

“Are you okay, Hera!? Here, drink this for now!”

I handed her a recovery potion I had prepared in advance to give to Hera—it was slightly different, but almost the same.

Hera looked puzzled, but perhaps sensing my urgency, she seemed willing to drink it.

“…Mmm… what is this…?”

As Hera downed the liquid from the vial, her body suddenly shone with a rainbow of colors.

By the time the light faded, the wounds on Hera’s beautiful skin healed in an instant, and her magical power was fully restored.

Hera, who frequently used healing potions made from monster materials I had defeated and sold, was left agape at such an extraordinary recovery.

I handed her three more of the same potions and said, “This is called an elixir—”

“Elixir!? I can’t accept something like that!?”

“No, I have dozens more, so I could give you at least ten. I’d rather have you allow me to gift them to you.”

“…Why would you go that far…?”

Hera muttered something softly, and since I was organizing the elixirs, I didn’t catch it well.

“Huh? Sorry, but could you say that again?”

“…No, it’s nothing. It was an inconsiderate question.”

Hera seemed to have resolved her thoughts and shook her head, standing up.

Phew… I’m glad I made it in time… That was close… If I had been even a little later, Hera would definitely have been on the brink of death…

Under normal circumstances, I would have sensed the presence of the evil god the moment it appeared, but the fact that Loki was possessing Kai was the biggest problem.

Because Loki scattered his presence in various places, I was delayed in discovering him.

Additionally, the sudden explosion of the Archbishop I was interrogating and the magical power that overflowed from it was another reason for my delay.

“I’m sorry, Hera. I couldn’t get here before you got so badly hurt…”

“No, it was my choice to fight. Getting injured is my own responsibility.”

Seeing Hera speak with such strong eyes reaffirmed that my beloved favorite was indeed my favorite.

While feeling genuinely guilty about Hera, I—

“—Excuse me for a moment.”

“Huh? —Whoa!?”

I quickly scooped her up in a princess carry and took her to a place where she wouldn’t be caught in the chaos.

“Ah, ah…!?”

“I-I’m really sorry! If you stay there, you’ll get caught up in this… But I’ll finish this quickly, so just wait here for a bit!”

I hurriedly apologized to the blushing, flustered Hera and dashed away, suppressing my embarrassingly loud heart in this chaotic situation as I got into battle stance.

“Phew… ‘Lightning Man’…!!”

In an instant, a tremendous surge of lightning erupted from my entire body, reconstructing me.

During this process, my hair turned completely white, my white eyes began to glow fiercely, and I was enveloped in lightning.

At that moment, Shin temporarily transcended the limits of a human.

“—Old man, that’s the main body, right? It looks stronger than the previous one.”

“Hmm… Indeed, that must be the main body. Moreover, it seems it already has consciousness.”

The old man emerged from the spirit realm and confidently stated as he looked at the blown-away Kai—Loki.

If the old man says so, then there’s no doubt.

“Then—Old man, please protect Hera.”

“That one is a strong foe who escaped from me long ago. Be careful.”

“Of course. But—Loki will definitely pay for harming Hera.”

In an instant, I moved to where Loki was, over several dozen kilometers away, and slammed his head into the ground, causing a crater.

“Gah…!?”

“Hey, you were watching through Kai’s eyes, weren’t you? Didn’t I tell you? If you lay a hand on Hera again, I’ll kill you. I won’t let you say you forgot.”

I grabbed Loki’s horn and began channeling lightning into him.

The evil god’s horn had an incredibly high magical conductivity, so attacks from here would cause the most damage, so I tried it out—seemed like it was effective.

Loki was smoking all over, his eyes rolled back, twitching.

Honestly, I felt an impulse to hit him more, but I didn’t enjoy tormenting him, so I’d end it quickly.

I grabbed Loki’s legs and tossed him into the air.

Suddenly, Loki opened his eyes and manipulated his magic, firing multiple energy waves at me simultaneously, resembling some certain boy manga’s devastating beam, far exceeding the speed of sound.

“Haha! Never let your guard down!”

“That’s my line, you fool.”

“…!?”

In an instant, I blew away all the energy waves with my fist, circled behind Loki, and delivered a spinning kick.

Unlike his clones, Loki reacted to my movements but couldn’t evade due to his human body and took the kick head-on, flying backward in a curve.

However, I wasn’t kind enough to wait for him to crash into something.

I kicked off the air and matched Loki’s speed, launching him into the sky—

“‘Divine Thunder’!”

A single bolt of lightning, emanating from a thundercloud with power dozens of times greater than a normal one, roared as it struck Loki from a distance.

“In terms of strength… it’s about the same as that evil god in the forest.”

It was fortunate that the evil god Hera fought this time was one I could handle easily. If it had been the highest level of evil god, Hera would be dead by now, and neither I nor Zeus would get off easy, and there was a good chance we’d be dead too.

Thinking about the opponent waiting ahead made me feel a bit gloomy, but I shook off those thoughts and looked up at the sky.

There, Loki appeared, creating a basketball-sized orb of magical power that made even the previous massive magic sphere look like child’s play.

Loki had a gleeful smile plastered on his face as he taunted.

“What will you do, contractor? If you avoid this, it’ll definitely blow away everything around here, you know?”

He was indirectly saying that if I didn’t want Hera to be killed, I should take it head-on.

What a spiteful, cunning guy.

But—how naïve.

“Are you… misunderstanding something?”

“…Huh?”

“Hera has the old man Zeus backing her up, you know? Besides—I’m not even thinking about dodging…!”

I converted all the magical power in my body into lightning, gathering it into my right hand.

During this process, the thunderclouds writhed, and the gathered lightning rained down around me.

“…This is bad…!! I’m gonna—”

“It’s already too late—”

The moment the lightning that could dye the entire sky white gathered in my fist—

“This ends here—‘Divine Thunder Strike’!”

I became a bolt of divine thunder, instantly obliterating Loki’s magic and piercing through him without losing any power, dispersing the thunderclouds.