Mana Materials sometimes summon terrifying monsters.
Dragons that annihilated countless kingdoms. Demon kings who came within reach of world conquest. And—the god worshipped by an ancient evil cult.
Perhaps the theory that the reason for the fall of countless civilizations recreated by the Treasure Hall is due to catastrophes summoned by Mana Materials is actually true. If so, then the fact that our world hasn't been destroyed yet might be incredibly fortunate.
This time's enemy was undoubtedly the strongest we'd ever faced. I felt like I kept saying the same thing every time something happened, but even I, impressive as I was, thought I was done for.
I should have been growing a little with each incident I got dragged into, but the opponent was so overwhelmingly strong that I couldn't feel any progress at all.
How strong must Ark's ancestor have been to defeat a Phantom of a god... and if it were Ark, could he have defeated Keller?
Well, it was pointless to think about that now... Ark really was never around when it mattered. He'd said he'd come if I called, but next time I'd make sure to bring him along. Yeah, that's what I'd do.
Even so, I was a Level 8—when it counted, I delivered. This time, a lot of unexpected things had piled up, but if I could learn from this failure, I'd definitely be able to save something next time.
To me, nodding away, the battered Selen spoke in a voice just as cold as when we'd first met.
"So, Human. Is that all you have to say?"
§ Having fled from the battle of the gods and taken a nap inside Mimikun's town for several hours, what greeted my eyes when Selen and the others extracted me from Mimikun was—a ruin.
For a moment, I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
The quaint, beautiful townscape had been utterly obliterated. The houses that had been built using the great tree were snapped and scattered, embedded here and there. The ground had been dug up, with massive fissures and scorch marks visible everywhere. The spring had evaporated, leaving bare earth exposed.
This couldn't have been the town where the people of Yggdras had been living just a few hours ago. At a glance, there were no corpses lying around, which was almost more unsettling.
But strangely enough, from the collapsed Yggdras, I could sense a faint sense of peace.
The dark clouds that had loomed in the sky had cleared, and sunlight was streaming through the gaps between the few remaining clouds. The ground was muddy from the storm that had raged until recently, but the air was warm and pleasant, and the atmosphere surrounding us was so tranquil it could put you to sleep.
There were no roaring booms, no thunderclaps, no screams, no shouting. Instead, what filled the air were the voices of Yggdras's residents clearing away the debris of the scattered town.
In the end, I had no idea what had happened, but given that Keller and the elder brother fox were nowhere to be seen— I narrowed my eyes and spoke in a hardboiled manner.
"Peace, huh..."
"You... you can say that after seeing this horrific sight!?"
Selen's shoulders trembled as she shouted. Well... yeah, I guess.
Yggdras was in such terrible shape that starting from scratch would have been easier than trying to rebuild. Honestly, I couldn't imagine what kind of battle could have produced this scene.
I would have preferred not to ask, but I had no choice. For some reason, Keller had come all the way to Yggdras, and it seemed like he'd had business with me.
"What happened? It seems like quite a lot changed in the time I was away—"
"That Keller took our home, uprooted the great tree, and swung it around as a weapon!"
"..........The ground cracks and, you know, that big hole over there?"
"Keller flipped the entire town upside down!! To destroy Yggdras's barrier that was in his way!! It was a sight that didn't seem of this world!!"
Huh... he flipped the entire town... He flipped the town!?
..........That was insane. It was so unreal that I couldn't honestly be surprised.
We'd fought all kinds of powerful enemies before, but none had ever flipped a town upside down. There wasn't even any meaning in flipping a town to begin with— Truly befitting of a Phantom of a god.
That was when I carefully asked what had been on my mind for a while.
"..........Were there any casualties?"
At my question, Selen's eyebrows twitched slightly. The trembling in her body subsided a little, and she answered with a sigh.
"No. I issued evacuation orders immediately... though everyone would have fled on their own even without orders."
At her words, inwardly, I breathed a sigh of relief. The town could be fixed. Wounds would heal. But lives couldn't be brought back.
The fact that no one had died when a god capable of destroying the world had manifested was undeniably fortunate. Was this luck or misfortune? I honestly couldn't tell.
I didn't have any comforting words, but—I wanted Selen to rebuild the beautiful Yggdras without being discouraged by this situation.
"Come on, come on, don't be so down about it. Everyone's safe, right? That's what matters. The town can be rebuilt. I'm sure you and the others can make an even more amazing Yggdras than before. And the people who were turned into Phantoms are back too."
"..........Naturally. Coming from you, Human—the one who summoned the Fox God—it's rather annoying to hear."
Selen coolly tried to pin an outrageous accusation on me.
I didn't summon anyone... it came on its own. But I'd let the details slide for now.
Honestly, I had no idea what was going on. Rather, compared to me, Selen and the others probably had a much better grasp of the situation. At the very least, they must have known why Tino had been chased around by Keller— But for a Treasure Hunter, results were everything. Whether through luck or misfortune, the result was that no god was currently attacking Yggdras. And that was enough.
Having finally calmed down somewhat, Selen spoke in a considerably more composed voice than before.
"Well, it's true that we managed to avoid a fatal situation. The temple that had nested in the World Tree has been destroyed, and the threat has been eliminated. As for how to fight a god—it probably won't be much of a reference, but it will serve as a precedent. Yggdras will pass down the story of this day for generations. Human, perhaps we should be grateful to you."
That was quite dramatic. As I'd said many times before, I didn't need gratitude. I had no right to receive it.
Let me be more friendly about it. We were friends now, weren't we?
"I don't need any gratitude—I didn't do anything... By the way, I want to confirm: who won between Keller and the Fox God?"
"..........Excuse me?"
§ § § Hundreds of kilometers northwest of Yggdras, inside the "temple" shrouded in dark clouds crackling with lightning, the elder brother fox let out a sigh.
"That was a god who rose to power through battle... His origins were different from ours. To fight like that even after just manifesting, and in a weakened state at that—humans truly are barbaric."
He was an unimaginably powerful god.
Keller, the Masked God. A god who was once human.
An ancient god of war who had subdued all manner of beings and transcended his own existence. He was a god I hadn't known of, but to think such a being had once existed...
The lead bullets that the elder brother fox's instincts recoiled from, and that versatile and terrifying divine authority. His readiness for combat, his will, his experience, his knowledge, his abilities—they were all on a different level.
The Fox God wasn't particularly skilled at combat, but even factoring that in, there was no way to win against Keller in that state. And Keller should have understood that. Yet, Keller hadn't retreated a single step.
Therefore—Keller was worthy of being called a god.
To think... in such a disadvantageous state, he still managed to take one tail.
The younger sister fox, who had been the catalyst for this battle, spoke dejectedly.
"I caused trouble for Mother."
That was exactly right. That human had gotten the better of them at every turn.
If the younger sister fox hadn't been provoked into going to recover the smartphone, she wouldn't have been caught up in the battle. Being protected and having her nature of wanting to repay favors turned against her to compel her assistance—these were undoubtedly things that a mother would find hard to tolerate.
But at the same time—it could also be said that it was good that they'd had the chance to fight.
Keller was belligerent. Even if they hadn't fought here, gods and gods were fundamentally incompatible. Eventually, Keller would have declared war on the elder brother fox's family.
Because he had just manifested, had no followers, and was weakened from the barrier, Mother had gotten off with just one tail being crushed. If it had been a hundred years later, the outcome might have been reversed.
Rather than seeing it as crushing a latent threat, perhaps they should have been grateful to that senseless human who'd had no sense of urgency at all.
"Don't worry about it. We'll never cross paths again."
The connection was severed. Leaving that place immediately without encountering that senseless human again had been to avoid being used any further.
Contact with humans was stimulating for the elder brother fox's family. But too much of anything wasn't good.
The younger sister fox looked sadly at the fried tofu wrapper from Keller—the thing that had been transformed into a smartphone—and spoke.
"..........I couldn't reveal the truth. He went on thinking the smartphone was something I'd given him all along."
"......Well, things like that happen. That senseless person was at fault for being deceived for so long."
The illusions cast by the Fox God's kin were powerful enough to deceive the world. But illusions were not omnipotent.
The more complex the object being transformed, the lower the precision. And no matter how powerful the illusion, the flaws would grow larger over time.
Keller had written off that senseless human as incompetent, but the obtuseness required to sustain an illusion of something as complex as a smartphone for that long could well be called a talent in its own right.
Deceiving people was a fox spirit's instinct. The younger sister fox had intended to deceive that human.
But if the person being deceived never realized the truth, it didn't count as deception.
If only she could have undone it in front of him and shown him— The image of his provocative demeanor flickered through his mind, and the elder brother fox shrugged.
"Don't. If you smear any more mud on Mother's face, she'll eat you alive. Improve your skills first."
§ § § Citry and the others had gathered at the site where the former magic research institute had been.
Members of the "Mourning Specter," along with Tino. And from "Star's Holy Thunder," Luin. His complexion wasn't great, but he didn't appear to be injured.
It seemed that Selen and the others had chosen to observe passively from around the time Keller shifted his target to me, and had evacuated from Yggdras once the "Wandering Inn" manifested.
The reason being that they didn't want to interfere with my plan—that was what made it laughable. No wonder I didn't get any backup... well, fighting against a god, even Rids and the others would've been at a disadvantage, so maybe it was for the best.
The moment he saw my face, Citry broke into a wide grin.
"Good work, Kurai! The Phantom of a god... it was even more powerful than its reputation."
"Good work. I'm glad everyone's safe..."
The "Mourning Specter" was belligerent. They'd challenged opponents far above their level time and again, and made it through every time.
But just because they'd been through countless life-or-death battles didn't mean the worry disappeared.
"Kurai, I'm sorry, okay? You gave me such a great chance, but I couldn't break through Keller's defenses... Every angle, three hundred and sixty degrees, there wasn't a single opening anywhere... But next time, I'll absolutely kill him!"
"Mm."
Rids, ignoring my concerns, apologetically said something outrageous.
As if Keller would show up multiple times. And "Mm" wasn't an acceptable response to "Anthem" either.
Lucia let out a deep sigh and chimed in.
"Also, when we were at the 'Wandering Inn,' I thought the same thing—but god-class enemies are absolutely ridiculous. How are we even supposed to beat them... Leader, you've got to consult with us next time."
Lucia too, huh... The next time a god appeared, they were dead set on defeating it. I, on the other hand, never wanted such an opportunity to come again...
Klyus scrunched up his face and said.
"I'd rather never meet one again, if possible."
"If you're going to research ways to fight gods, we'll help too. Keller was blocking our attacks. That means there's a high chance we could have dealt damage if he hadn't been defending."
Luin spoke with a serious expression. It seemed that only Klyus and Tino shared my opinion.
I'd have liked to form an alliance with the three of them, but... they didn't seem very reliable.
It turned out that the battles against gods that I thought were hopeless were apparently not even worth worrying about for Rids and the others. Should I take pride in that fact... or should I be a little more careful?
As I was thinking about this, Selen, who had guided me to Citry, spoke in a voice that sounded like she was about to die.
"..........In any case, everything is finally over. Let's rest a bit and then think about what comes next. I'm... a little tired."
"......What's wrong, Princess Selen? You look quite exhausted."
"A bit of mental strain... To think that without any chance of winning, you summoned another god..."
Apparently, Selen had believed that I'd summoned the Fox God with a strategy in mind to use against Keller.
It was a mistake from the very start to say I'd "summoned" it, but I never expected to be grilled that hard just for asking who won—I was probably the only Hunter in the entire world to be verbally assaulted by a proper Yggdras princess. Even though I hadn't done anything wrong, I somehow felt apologetic.
Unable to endure her exhausted gaze any longer, I finally looked at Luke, who was sitting in the corner of the room that I'd been deliberately trying not to look at until now.
Luke had his knees drawn up, his face bowed down. From his back, I could almost see something like sorrow.
He'd only just been turned back from stone, yet his dejection rivaled Selen's. You're not the type for this, are you!
Truly, this trip had been one new experience after another.
This had been a really tough journey. Hunters who had fought Phantoms of gods could probably be counted on one hand across the entire world.
For me, who wanted to retire more than anything, it was undeniably unfortunate, but there was no point in lamenting it.
In the end, everyone was safe, so I could think about challenges and countermeasures later.
For now, let me forget everything troublesome.
I gave the back of Luke—who was showing a side I'd never seen before from someone who usually radiated enough energy to be annoying—a few hearty pats with a smile.
"Hey, hey, Luke! I'm glad the curse seems to have been broken! I heard you broke it with sheer willpower, without borrowing anyone's help!"
"Almost... didn't make it... A GOD!!"