As Serius watched Merea use the pinnacle techniques of the heroic spirits, one after the other, he had no choice but to discard his earlier thoughts. In addition, he realised that, as a country, Mūzeg still had the capacity to change their policies.

Mūzeg may no longer have the room to be bothered with the north and west.

There will probably be no problems even if they leave the existence of the eastern continent be as they have so far. Thinking so, they had invested a large amount of power towards the north and west. He, himself, had given his approval to that decision of the current king.

However,

「I, is that really a human like me...?!」

Seeing that, he felt that decision was wrong.

――We made a mistake.

Of everything. From the very beginning.

They really should have investigated the Sacred Mountain of Lindholm much sooner.

There was no way to even know that something like 『that thing』 had even been born.

Even if they had to leave every other demon lord be, they should have made sure to stop the birth of that〈Demon God〉.

That monster might even be a man capable of changing history on his own.

「I sealed it!! His technique processing domain!! ――It definitely got sealed!」

He understood it. By forcibly breaking through his limits, he had 『reversed』 it.

His sealing technique was still present. He was sure that he could feel that.

As if not minding something like that at all,

――He widened his own framework.

That’s not normally possible. Is that also a demon lord’s――

「...damn it」

Secret techniques genetically usually only pass over to one person.

He himself knew exactly how useful they were. Since he was one of those people after all.

However, that thing was no longer in the same dimension as himself.

He might look similar but it’s different.

That was a level that could definitely not be reached by normal human beings.

「Anything and everything――」

Absolutely everything was just because,

「That bloody sacred mountain was there――!!」

The main cause was definitely on that mountain.

It was annoying.

He really wanted to go back immediately and blow it away.

「Your highness!! The demon god is coming here!!」

「Endure!! Other battalions are on their way!! We’ve even asked the infantry to move! No matter how much of a menace he might be, the advantage of numbers is with――」

In the next moment, while still on Caligula’s back, he saw the demon god move.

A black eerie flame wrapped around his right hand. He very slowly raised that hand up and as if to point at the sky, he raised his index finger.

At the same time he made that movement――

In the sky that the demon god had pointed at, countless〈Resplendent Sword of the Water God〉appeared.

Two, four, eight, sixteen. ――It kept increasing.

Each and every one of them, as they doubled each time, was moulded as tenderly and beautifully as the sword they had seen a little while ago and every single one of them exerted a phenomenal sense of coercion.

「――」

Words refused to come out.

Something like that――

「...What exactly should I do about it…?」

◆◆◆

「〈Rain of the Resplendent Swords〉」

◆◆◆

In the moment that Merea waved his arm down, the swords in the sky――

Fell down on to Mūzeg’s army like shooting stars.

That scene looked even worse than a nightmare to Serius.

◆◆◆

「Stand back! Don’t get close to that!!」

A roaring voice. Orders being given. No, they weren’t anything as exaggerated as orders.

――We have no other choice than to wait for the effect to end.

「Endure!!」

After slowly getting back his ability to think, he predicted that, that spiritual technique would have some restrictions or repercussions.

In the first place, if there were no restrictions or repercussions, then he would have used it from the beginning.

No matter how much he wanted to have a conversation with Serius, there was no reason to come out as humble as he did.

The strange sense of security that he felt when he first met Merea may have been 『planned』 but if he could use power to this extent at any time then did he direct everything with that in mind?

――That, in itself, was him showing his normal power.

It might not have been 『full power』 but it shouldn’t have been him holding too much of his power back.

So, without seeming unnatural, he made sure to give Serius a sense of security and succeeded in making Serius approach him.

No matter what, he wasn’t nearly as monstrous as he is right now.

What it comes down to is,

「I was――」

『Invited』.

When he looked back at it, it felt like his very essence had been seen through.

Would Merea have been capable of knowing Serius to that extent?

Having only had their gazes meet for a mere moment on the sacred mountain, could he see through to his essence with just that?

Such a godly existence couldn’t possibly exist.

If that was the case then, he would have talked to and gotten information from someone who knew Serius well.

Who would that be? The person who would be capable of such a thing.

――Muran, Crisca or Fasalis.

The three people who he had the maximum contact with in Aios academy. The ones who might have hostility to himself and knew him well would be those three who are also the current kings of the three kingdoms.

――No.

There was just one more person.

However, after that man had been thrown out off Aios academy, there was no further news of him.

In the end, he couldn’t find out anything about him, his name or his social status.

He was the only man who was at the same level as him and most probably――his 『friend』.

Serius suddenly turned his gaze towards Lemuse’s army. He didn’t have any particular reason for doing so.

However, his head turned towards that place as if guided by god.

He finally noticed the existence of a certain man there.

Right underneath the flag of Lemuse, as if he was the supreme commander of the army of Lemuse, a certain man’s figure could be seen.

The man who he had noticed earlier, with his bright brown hair, as probably being the supreme commander of Lemuse but, since he couldn’t see further details he had given up on it.

However, the distance was much closer now.

――He could see it.

The face that he had seen somewhere before.

◆◆◆

「――『Kudo』」

One beat.

「――」

Two beats.

「――...You!!」

◆◆◆

The man who had once said the same thing that Merea had said to him.

The man who had pointed out his madness.

And the only man who had been able to compete with him equally.

At this point, Serius felt a sense of satisfaction about everything.

There was no doubt.

That man was definitely the one who told everything about himself to Merea.

A man who was outrageously good at figuring out the subtleties of someone’s personality.

He was also someone who was extremely sharp on how to use that kind of information.

Although he wasn’t particularly strong but he had politically inclined power that was on par with his father.

――By the looks of it, even Kudo had mistaken the power of the demon god huh.

After a beat, Serius regained his calm.

He couldn’t possibly show any more of a disgraceful behaviour.

His pride finally started to support his mind.

Serius noticed the surprised expression on Hasim’s face. He looked extremely astonished seeing Merea’s techniques unleashed in front of him.

――Such power is outside of even his assumptions huh.

It also means that he didn’t come all the way out here relying on that power. In which case, he must also have some important on Serius as well.

――There’s no way that, that Kudo would come here without any preparations.

There must still be something left over. Not Merea but, 『a trump card that Hasim himself has prepared』.

No matter how he looks at it, Hasim was an important person of Lemuse.

Actually, he had the air of royalty.

When he thought of it that way, it oddly seemed natural.

――If Kudo is royalty then what would he prepare?

With going against Mūzeg as the presumption, how would that man move?

No matter, even if he got in contact with the demon lords first and obtained the power to resist, he would definitely not have thought that he could win with that alone.

If Kudo is how he used to be, then he would be cool-headed to the point of being able to calculate all of this easily.

――What is he 『waiting』 for?

Serius naturally felt a strong conviction that Hasim was waiting for something. He continued to think on those lines.

「――The three kingdoms huh」

Serius’ thoughts that started moving at a dizzying pace, managed to figure out the answer.

「So he managed to...convince them huh」

He thought that they were leaning towards pledging allegiance to Mūzeg.

His father who wa in charge of political affairs had said so.

Especially, the Kingdom of Kushana which was lead by Muran, while being part of the alliance of three kings, had started to secretly slanting towards pledging allegiance to Mūzeg.

「...Which one was it. Which one was Muran’s――」

『Acting』?

One of those had to be acting.

For a moment, Moran's 『giving』 smile floated into Serius’ mind but he immediately shook it off.

At this point, something like that didn’t make any difference.

If those three kingdoms had joined with Mūzeg then, those reinforcements would be rather substantial.

――They were earning time.

Conclusion. Conviction.

It might even be that, that conversation earlier was all for the sake of buying time for the three kingdoms to arrive.

――Stop it, there is no point in thinking about things that have already passed. I need to figure out how to survive this situation.

The moment those words passed through his mind, Serius suddenly felt thunderstruck.

「I just said――」

――『survive』...

Serius realised that, at some point in time, their positions had been reversed.