Chapter 49

“《Raiden》”

Lightning shot out from my entire body, racing straight toward the reincarnated one, roaring with thunder.

It was a spell powerful enough to be effective even in the later parts of the story—yet suddenly, right in front of him, all the lightning vanished as if it had never existed.

“…What the…?”

I tried attacking him with the same spell again.

But—the result was the same.

For some reason, the lightning disappeared right in front of him.

‘…Old man, is that some kind of magic…?’ ‘…Why is something like that in the hands of a human…?’

The old man was likely referring to the forbidden tome, the Akashic Record.

That’s not something a human should possess.

Even the Spirit King, who had a contract with the protagonist in the game, had once said, “I’ve only seen it once,” and was shocked.

If people knew he had something like that, of course they’d be surprised.

‘Old man, I’ll ask him about the forbidden Akashic Record later. For now, tell me why that spell disappeared.’ ‘Indeed… That is one of the abilities of the forbidden Akashic Record—《Reality Alteration》. If one sees something or fully understands its principles, they can erase it from existence as if it never was.’ ‘…That’s troublesome…’ ‘However, it doesn’t work against physical attacks.’ ‘Nice intel, old man!’

I accelerated to top speed without any hint of preparation, making sure he wouldn’t notice—

“Shoot—!!” “Huh!?”

I threw a punch straight at his solar plexus.

This time, it was his turn to be surprised, and he was blown away without any chance to react.

However, he quickly regained his posture in midair and returned toward me at a speed even I found shocking.

“There shouldn’t be anyone this strong at this point… Who are you?”

“That’s my line…!”

I parried his punch and immediately countered with a backfist.

Apparently, he wasn’t used to fighting, as he blocked my backfist clumsily.

Unable to withstand my strength, his body floated in the air, and I took that moment to grab his leg and slam him into the ground.

“Ugh—!!”

I aimed to kick him while he was down—but he managed to dodge, as expected.

Glaring at me while blood dripped from his nose, he suddenly dropped a bombshell.

“I remember now…! What are you doing here?! I should’ve killed you—Shin!!”

“…What?”

I stopped moving, stunned by his unexpected words.

As he watched me stand there dumbfounded, he began stomping the ground in frustration.

“Damn it…! I killed you because you’d interfere with my contract with the Thunder Spirit…!”

‘He killed you to form a contract with me? Why did Shin have to die for that?’ ‘…Because, old man, I’m the only one who can contract with you.’ ‘Hmm… Well, indeed, I wouldn’t form a contract with anyone else.’

I see… I guess that could be a motive for killing me… But there’s one thing I’m curious about.

“—How did you kill Shin?”

With his current abilities, there’s no way he could have killed me.

Besides, the original Shin was definitely stronger than me.

Right now, I’m only strong because of the god-spirit old man, with near-infinite magic at my disposal. In terms of combat instincts and wild intuition, I’m nowhere near the original Shin.

So how could someone I’m defeating so easily have managed to kill me?

“You couldn’t possibly have killed Shin.”

“…What?”

“The original was stronger than me. You should know that if you were a reincarnated player of the same game.”

Shin’s movements couldn’t be kept up with, no matter how much one played the game.

There’s no way you could dodge his lightning attacks.

“Oh, that? That’s easy. I’ll show you—《Mana-Impenetrable Domain》.”

In that instant—my body, which had been composed of lightning, vanished, and my 《Thunder Form》 was forcefully canceled, regardless of my will.

I couldn’t even sense mana, no matter how hard I tried.

“How’s that? My trump card spell. But that’s not all—here’s the kicker—I can still use magic.”

Suddenly, he approached me at a speed far beyond the speed of sound.

I used my natural physical abilities to leap away on instinct.

His kick passed just inches from my face.

“Tch… I missed… But you’re struggling, huh?”

“Shut up…!!”

I planted my hands on the ground, leaping back to put more distance between us.

But the difference between having magic and not was immense. He caught up to me instantly, and a kick came flying my way.

I barely managed to cross my arms and block it before it hit me—but this time, I was the one sent flying.

“Damn it… What should I do…”

The worst part was that I couldn’t even talk to the old man since my magic was being blocked.

Grinding my teeth in frustration at my helplessness, I saw him suddenly check something that looked like a wristwatch on his arm.

“It’s almost time…”

“W-What do you mean ‘almost’…?”

Ignoring the throbbing pain in my arms, I forced myself to ask.

He grinned.

“Curious? You’ll find out soon enough.”

As I stared at him suspiciously, a sudden explosion echoed from the middle of the forest, followed by a rising column of smoke.

Not just that—more explosions went off elsewhere, accompanied by the screams of students.

“No way…”

“Just as you’re thinking. The students are probably panicking right now as spirits and demons rampage out of control. Well—my job here is done. Time for me to leave.”

“W-Wait—”

I rushed at him, but before I could reach him, he vanished, likely using teleportation or something similar.

At the same time, my magic returned.

“Damn it… No, I should check on Hera’s safety first.”

I gave up on chasing after him for now and rushed to Hera’s side.

“Please—be safe…!”