「[Flame Crush]!」
Rest immediately cast the attack magic.
A searing crimson hellfire was unleashed, showering the monstrosity's face.
"Gyaoooooooooooo!"
"It's not working...!"
The monstrosity flinched after taking a mid-tier attack magic head-on, but the wound appeared shallow.
Rest pulled Primula close and hastily leaped away from the spot.
"Gyao!"
The monstrosity swung down its massive arm.
The enormous webbed hand came crashing down onto where the two had been standing, pressing a huge handprint into the ground.
"Tch...!"
"Wh-what is that?! What is that monster...!"
"Calm down, Primula!"
Clutching the panicked Primula, Rest soared into the sky.
Using magic to remain airborne, he surveyed the surroundings — and there was nothing there, unnaturally so.
There was only a vast swamp, and around it, a thick darkness spread like mud.
"Night... there are no moon or stars in the sky. But my vision is clear. And yet, I can't see anything besides the swamp and the monstrosity...?"
This place is far too abnormal.
He had assumed he was teleported somewhere, but... something about it just didn't sit right.
"Could it be...?"
"GYAOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"Whoa—"
From below, the monstrosity craned its neck upward and lunged to bite.
He dodged in a hurry and gained altitude, but in the blink of an eye, darkness swallowed everything around him.
"What the—...?!"
And the next moment, Rest and Primula burst out from the swamp below.
They had been flying upward — yet somehow, without realizing it, they had ended up inside the swamp.
"No way!"
"GYAOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"Aaahh!"
The monstrosity seized the chance to attack relentlessly.
A colossal arm swept sideways through the air. Rest instantly conjured a wind barrier and blocked the devastating blow.
"Guh...! Primula, are you okay!?"
"No... no... this can't be happening. How did this... how did it come to this...?"
In Rest's arms, Primula clutched her own body and trembled.
She didn't appear to be hurt, but her unfocused eyes weren't seeing reality. She kept muttering incoherent delirium, over and over.
"Primula... Damn it, so much for a fun date!"
Really... how did things end up like this?
Rest shouted, glaring at the monstrosity with undisguised hatred.
The monstrosity, apparently pleased that its attack had landed, clapped both hands together and let out a cheerful cry.
"Gya! Gya!"
"Don't get cocky... I will never forgive you!"
Fueled by rage over his interrupted date, Rest cast his magic.
The monstrosity lunged forward for a follow-up attack, but the massive arm it swung down vanished.
"Gyao!?"
"[Star Devourer]"
A pitch-black sphere materialized before Rest's eyes.
It was the [Dark Star]—a void that swallowed everything in its existence and erased it from the world.
"GyaoOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"Now then, this oughta...!"
It was working.
Feeling the solid feedback, Rest unleashed even more offensive magic.
"[Flame Cannon]! [Thunder Cannon]! [Ice Cannon]! [Wind Cannon]! [Earth Cannon]!」
"GYUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!?"
Fire, lightning, ice, wind, earth... one after another rained down, scraping away at the monstrosity's body.
Rest intended to keep firing magic in succession and overwhelm it in one fell swoop.
Planning to push through... Rest attacked without pause, but the monstrosity rolled its compound eyes wide open and glared.
"SYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"Wha—...!"
The monstrosity let out a scream.
At the same time... the body that should have been carved away began to regenerate.
Though at a slow pace, the areas hit by magic were healing, and eventually even the arm that should have been severed by [Star Devourer] began to regenerate.