The academy immediately after Alon’s group and the Karma Throne of War had fought, and after they had all vanished.

......No, in that place that now seemed more fitting to call ruins, Deus let out a deep sigh and looked over the scenery.

“......”

The nobles, sitting there one by one in utter despair as though they had lost a war, and the buildings that could no longer be called an academy.

Even the place where the classroom building had been, where Alon and the Karma Throne of War had fought, had become a completely empty lot.

For a moment, silence settled.

“Have you come?”

“......Rine.”

Deus found Rine.

Like him, she was looking at the academy that had completely collapsed.

“Where is Yutia?”

Rine and Yutia had been in the same group.

At Deus’s question, Rine stayed silent for a moment before answering.

“It seemed like she had something to do.”

“......Is she going to save Lord Alon?”

Naturally, Deus did not think Alon was dead.

It was not because he could not believe it.

He thought that way as though simply recalling an all-too-obvious principle.

Because Deus had already heard from Alon once before, and knew what the thing that had just happened was.

However.

“No, probably not that.”

“......?”

“It is something for Godfather, though.”

Deus stared intently at her face.

“Rine.”

“Yes?”

“......Why are you so calm?”

Of course, Deus also knew Alon had not died.

On top of that, he was certain Alon would return.

Alon already had precedent.

He had fallen into the past through strange text, then returned to the present again.

But even so, being this calm.

He could not understand Rine’s composure.

After thinking for a moment, Rine said lightly,

“Because I believe, of course.”

“......You believe?”

“Yes.”

Then she glanced to one side.

The sun was slowly rising into the dark sky.

“If Lord Alon had died, we would have had no reason to see that either.”

“......?”

Deus distorted his brow, unable to understand easily.

But only for a moment.

Rine soon turned around.

“......Where are you going?”

“I am going to make my own preparations.”

“Preparations?”

“Yes. I do not know what Yutia will do, but my thoughts are a little different.”

Leaving that answer to Deus’s question behind, she walked off alone into the distance.

Deus watched her retreating back with a strange expression.

'Again, this feeling.'

Since when had it been? Deus had been feeling that.

As though he alone were falling behind.

Of course, he knew that in terms of martial strength, his own abilities were gradually falling short.

He, too, certainly possessed power so strong that no one inside Caliban could keep up with him.

No, that was true even when looking not only inside Caliban, but at the whole.

However, it was true that his strength lagged behind his other companions.

“......”

Deus knew.

That while he had been stopping the fireworks, battles against Divine blood had taken place all over.

“Hoo......”

If the one who had fought Divine blood had not been Rine or Yutia, but himself, would he have been able to win against Divine blood?

Deus did not bother giving an answer and let out a sigh.

Because he already knew the answer.

'.......'

In truth, the reason he felt that he alone was falling behind was not only martial strength.

He did not know why, but at some point, he had realized a strange distance had formed between him and his companions.

His companions were certainly the same as before.

But at the same time, they were not the same as before.

Rine, right in front of him, was no different.

Even though there had been an odd anxiety in her eyes, unlike him, there had also been a strange certainty there.

Unlike Deus, who merely expressed anxiety within belief.

“......”

What was it? What was making him fall behind alone?

Clench—

Without realizing it, Deus put strength into his fist.

......His mind was complicated.

Even more than usual.

####

“......”

Alon stared blankly at the sky.

No, could that even be called the sky?

“What is that—”

Evan muttered as though he could not understand.

Just as he said, the sky reflected in Alon’s eyes was bizarre.

Because the sight of enormous intestines that looked as though they could cover the world, pulsing faintly, gave him an instinctive revulsion.

So Alon, who had been staring blankly at the sky, suddenly asked,

“......Penia.”

“Yes, Lord Alon......”

“Is this place really the past?”

Alon’s question.

At that, Penia opened her mouth, frowning as though she too could not believe what she was seeing.

“......It probably is. The strange text phenomenon itself is a problem caused by twisting space-time, but the probability of falling into another world is...... according to my calculations, close to 0%.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. Even if we temporarily crossed space-time, theoretically, to cross into an entirely different space-time—”

Alon nodded at Penia’s explanation that followed.

To put it briefly, crossing into the past because of the strange text phenomenon could be possible due to distortion, but to cross into another world, they would have to go outside the dimension, the way Baarma had been torn away last time.

In other words, if Alon’s group had been flung into an outer dimension, there was no way they could be alive and intact like this.

“Then that means this place really is the past.”

“That’s right.”

Listening to Penia’s voice as she nodded and answered, Alon lowered his gaze from the sky.

What came into view then was an endlessly red world.

No, strictly speaking, rather than red, it had a somewhat stronger magenta feeling, and beneath it—

“......What a mess.”

—just like when Alon had gone to the past last time, there was a ruined world spread out before them.

However, what made his brow furrow even more than before was—

“......It looks like it has been eroded.”

“It does.”

—that the ground itself looked as though it had been eroded.

Alon quietly looked down over the ruined world.

On that ground, split apart everywhere, where bare and dried trees had crawled upward, there were chunks of flesh attached.

Chunks of flesh that looked the same as the thing floating in the sky and pulsing.

Kudeuk—kudeuk—

For a moment, he watched the masses trembling as though causing biological reactions according to a fixed rule.

“Let’s move.”

Alon soon made his decision.

“Yes.”

“Understood.”

Alon’s group began walking through this world the chunks of flesh had invaded.

####

As they walked over the ruined ground where chunks of flesh were growing, Alon summarized the current situation into roughly two points.

'I don’t know when we crossed into, but it’s certain we crossed into the past.'

Of course, he did not know what point in the past this was.

To begin with, as far as Alon knew, he had never seen or heard of a time period where such a lump of flesh was in the sky and chunks of flesh like this were growing on the ground.

Rather, because of that, if he tried to roughly trace it, this world might be far further in the past than expected.

Perhaps even further back than the Ilanef Empire.

A vague sigh came out, but even so, Alon did not easily let go of the thread of hope.

Ridiculously enough, there was no need to let go of that thread of hope.

'The Karma Throne of War.......'

Because he knew the Karma Throne of War had fallen into this past with them.

In truth, looking only at that fact, it was not a particularly good situation for Alon’s group.

To begin with, Alon had not won the battle against the throne.

However, paradoxically, at the present point, Alon’s group needed the Karma Throne of War.

If it was not there.

No, to be precise, if they did not have its ability, they would not be able to cause the strange text phenomenon.

'......Of course, before that, we have to win against the throne.'

After recalling the battle against the throne for a moment, Alon suddenly checked his breast pocket.

An empty pocket.

'Blackie—'

Thinking about it, when Alon had fought, Blackie had been away with Penia.

Remembering that, he spoke.

“Penia.”

“Yes, Lord Alon.”

“Have you perhaps seen Blackie?”

“No. At some point, it disappeared.”

“......Hm.”

After briefly thinking, Did Blackie not fall with us? Alon looked at the ring this time, and soon realized something strange.

'Sealed?'

It was because the ring Basiliora was inside had hardened stiffly, as though sealed.

'Come to think of it, Basiliora did say that happened last time too.'

How long had Alon been walking while fiddling with the ring and recalling his earlier memory?

■■■■■■■────!!!

Alon heard a bizarre sound from far away.

A sound let out by something grotesque.

At the same time, the group met one another’s eyes, and as though they had been waiting, began moving toward the place where that bizarre voice was coming from.

And not long after.

“......What is that?”

Alon’s group could see them.

■■■■—!!

Monsters.

“......”

What Alon was looking at was something that could only be described with the term “monster.”

Because on the eerie chunks of flesh that seemed to be growing from the ground, limbs were sprouting out at random.

The only other common feature was a mouth that split into four sections like an insectivorous creature, filled with teeth.

At a glance, hundreds of those monsters were swarming toward one place.

More precisely.

“......People—!”

Toward a cave where people were gathered.

After confirming that, Alon’s group moved without hesitation.

There was also the matter of saving people, but they had recognized this was an ideal situation to provide help and obtain information about the current circumstances.

But the moment Alon was about to shoot forward.

Kwajijijik—!

The chunks of flesh that had been running toward the humans until just a moment ago began bursting apart.

■■■—!

It happened far too quickly.

“!”

Yet even as Alon’s group was shocked, the chunks of flesh continued bursting apart endlessly.

Together with that.

“Ah— aah!”

“He’s here! He has come!”

“We’re sa-saved!”

Familiar human voices began reaching Alon’s ears.

The sight of people all breathing sighs of relief and shedding tears, as though every one of them had survived.

And Alon’s group saw it.

That the hundreds, thousands of monsters that had been rushing toward the cave had all been slaughtered horribly.

So the moment he looked ahead.

“......!”

Alon could not help being shocked.

Because he knew the person who had just dealt with the chunks of flesh in order to save the humans.

“......The Descended?”

The Descended.

The Descended, whom Seollang had clearly dealt with before, was standing before the humans.

“What the—!?”

“Why all of a sudden—!?”

At that far too abrupt appearance, Penia and Evan raised bewildered voices at the same time.

And at that moment.

“Ah.”

The Descended’s gaze turned this way.

And in that instant, Alon instinctively formed hand seals and thought.

Was there any chance of winning if he fought it now?

Or was this a situation where they could escape?

If not, then he had to break through this situation with minimal damage—

Alon’s mind scattered chaotically.

At that moment.

He saw them.

Two familiar eyes appearing on the Descended’s chest.

And he heard it.

[Kyuu?]

That familiar voice?

“......Blackie?”

......Penia said, as though completely dumbfounded.