“Ugh… You insolent spirits and humans…”
The Void Lord couldn’t hide his frustration as we systematically exterminated the evil gods. His face and body were leaking magic, a clear sign of his growing agitation.
“Shin-kun!”
“Roger.”
At Hera’s voice, I enveloped myself in lightning and released it all at once. In an instant, a thunderclap powerful enough to shake the very air incinerated the surrounding evil gods.
“Haaaaaaa— Yamata no Orochi!”
As the enemies faltered from my lightning, eight dragon heads, black and white, emerged from Hera’s dual blades and crushed the evil gods without leaving a trace.
“GYAAAAAAHHHHH!!”
The evil gods, likely lacking any intelligence due to their summoning, could only scream as they were wiped out by my lightning and the dragons.
“…It’s over.”
Realizing that summoning more evil gods wouldn’t defeat us, they dissolved into magic power, which the Void Lord absorbed. And then— in the next instant, the Void Lord’s figure vanished, reappearing behind us without us noticing.
“—Behind you!”
The old man inside me shouted for the first time, and I instinctively pulled Hera close and unleashed a full-powered Divine Thunder behind us.
“Guhhh…”
It seemed to hit, as I heard the Void Lord stagger behind me. I immediately followed up with Divine Thunder Strike from my hands. A streak of lightning, filled with divine fury, blasted the Void Lord away.
That was close… I thought, breaking out in a cold sweat, when Hera, still in my arms, whispered in a soft voice, her face flushed red.
“Sh-Shin-kun…”
“S-sorry… Hera, you were in danger, so…”
Realizing what I’d just done, heat rushed to my face as I awkwardly let go of Hera and redirected my gaze to the Void Lord to hide my embarrassment.
“H-Hera, how much time do you have left?”
“Ah, I have two minutes. I’m nearing my limit… How about you, Shin-kun?”
“I’ve got… about two minutes too.”
That was a lie.
I had activated Spirit Assimilation far earlier than Hera, so there was no way I had two minutes left. I had heard the old man’s voice earlier… which was a sign that the assimilation was starting to wear off.
In full assimilation, I shouldn’t be able to hear the old man’s voice. The fact that I could meant that my body was already reaching its limit.
To be honest… I only had a few seconds left.
But— I wasn’t going to let Hera fight alone. I wouldn’t allow it.
“For the one I love… I’ll surpass my limits!!”
I steeled myself, enduring the excruciating pain coursing through my body as I squeezed out every last drop of magic. Being a magical entity, using too much magic would make it hard to maintain my form… but I was going to hold it together through sheer willpower. I didn’t want Hera to worry.
Together, we kicked off into the air, hurtling toward the Void Lord like bullets. He, too, seemed to be nearing his limit, as parts of his body were starting to lose form.
“Hera, aim for the spots where his body’s breaking down. Those are his weak points.”
“—Understood!”
Reacting immediately, Hera darted through the air, slashing precisely at the Void Lord’s deteriorating parts. Her black blade carried the power of Destruction, while the white blade held Erasure—their forces opposing the Void Lord’s Corruption, causing him more damage than my attacks.
“Ugh… Corrosion Wave!!”
“Hera! Don’t let that touch you!”
“—What?! W-what is this…!?”
A murky black wave of magic erupted from the Void Lord’s body, spreading out like a net to catch its prey. As soon as Hera’s blades touched the wave, her perfectly controlled white and black swords began to crumble.
Planting my feet to protect Hera from being engulfed by the wave, I felt a sudden instability in my magic, causing my legs to shake.
“Damn it… I don’t have time to worry about my body right now…!!”
Focusing my consciousness on my legs to keep them stable, I launched myself into the air once more, shifting my focus to my arms. I gripped my transformed lightning spear, Keravnos, and charged between Hera and the magic wave, shouting:
“—Divine Thunder Spear Wave!!”
Though the name felt a bit embarrassing, it was pretty standard in this world.
As I swung Keravnos, the lightning surrounding it sparked and scattered, repelling the dark wave of magic. I spun the spear with just my upper body, creating a force that blew away the magic in all directions.
“Haaaaaaaahhh!!”
With each swing, my body wavered, but I kept pushing forward, determined not to let the magic touch Hera. While I fought, Hera crouched behind me, shielding herself as she wrapped her body in magic and leaped into the wave, aiming for the Void Lord’s blind spot.
“Hera!?”
“Hah! To dare intrude upon my territory! It’s as if you’ve come to die on your own!”
The Void Lord scoffed, releasing even more magic power to concentrate his attack on Hera, intending to kill her. I tried to rush forward instinctively—
“Shin-kun, trust me!”
—But Hera looked back at me with unwavering trust in her eyes and continued charging ahead.
Heh… with those words, there’s no way I could do anything but trust her.
All I could do was take the action she expected of me.
However—contrary to my resolve, my body had started to blur, just like the Void Lord earlier. Parts of me were fading, and I began hearing the old man’s voice in my head.
“Shin! Your body is at its limit! You need to release it now!”
“Old man… can I entrust my magic control to you…?”
“…Shin… are you serious…?”
Even without seeing him, I knew the old man’s eyes were wide with shock. I nodded in affirmation to his words.
“Of course… Have you forgotten my purpose? My mission is to protect Hera. There’s no way I’ll go down before her.”
“…I see. If you’re that determined, then I’ll give it my all as well.”
In that instant, control over the magic forming my body shifted from me to the old man. The sensation of becoming a puppet was strange, but I ignored it, gathering all the surrounding magic and channeling it into my spear, Keravnos.
Being the top expert in Hera, I knew exactly what she wanted from me.
There was only one thing she wanted me to do.
“—I am the Thunder God, Shin—”
Lightning in shades of blue, purple, and red surged from my body, influencing the sky as storm clouds began to form. The weather grew turbulent.
“—One of the gods who commands the fury of nature—”
The lightning from the clouds combined with the lightning emanating from me, growing even stronger and larger. All of it was absorbed into Keravnos.
“—I govern the storm, the wrath of the world—”
Through the storm, I glimpsed Hera, wielding her black and white blades, moving with grace like a dancer as she closed in on the Void Lord. It was exactly the sight I had always longed for, the image I had always admired.
Without realizing it, I felt a smile tug at the corners of my mouth.
Ah… even in a moment like this, I’m moved by Hera’s presence. I really am a hopeless fanboy.
Just then, I heard Hera’s voice.
“—Kuroshiro Issen!!”
Her voice wasn’t particularly loud, but it rang out so clearly. As she shouted, the black and white slash cleaved not only the Void Lord in two, but also tore through the stormy sky above.
“—Now, Shin-kun!!”
Hera, having obliterated the Void Lord’s magical wave, smiled as if to say, “I leave the rest to you,” raising her thumb in a gesture of victory. Slowly, she began to descend, her silver dress fluttering in the wind.
I mirrored her thumbs-up, still smiling, and spoke the true name of my divine weapon.
“Pierce through—Divine Thunder Spear Keravnos!”
In that moment—before I realized it, I had already left the Void Lord far behind. When I glanced back, Hera was still falling, but had barely moved from her position. The Void Lord was now engulfed in a storm of multicolored lightning. Despite the furious magic swirling around him, he sneered, his face contorted with hatred.
“D-damn you… you… accursed h-humans—”
Before he could finish his sentence, the lightning contracted in an instant, then erupted into a massive explosion. It expanded through the sky, obliterating even the storm clouds that Hera hadn’t been able to disperse.
“H-Hera—”
Using the last of my strength, I rushed to Hera’s side, catching her unconscious body and shielding her from the blast as we descended together.
—Above us, the clearest blue sky and a beautiful rainbow stretched across the horizon.
