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CHAPTER 6 – STILL A WAYS TO BECOMING THE PROTAGONIST
PART 02
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In order to prevent Satsuki from being caught up in our fight, I urged her to leave.
“Rekka, please don’t die,” Satsuki pleaded tearfully before she left.
I smiled back at her.
“Hey hey, didn’t you say you believe I’ll win? So don’t worry.”
“…You’re right. Good luck, Rekka.”
“Yeah.”
Satsuki moved to a spot about 50 meters away, where she would be watching the battle.
Messiah and I squared off against each other, with the cherry blossom tree between us.
“I can tell from a glance that you’re new to magic. I don’t know what you’re planning, but I’ll show you how your ordinary shallow wit is not going to work against me.”
“Heh! I’ll look forward to that…as well as your tearful face when you bow down before me.”
As I let out a disdainful laugh, I subtly checked the time on my watch.
Five minutes to midnight. It was about time to set the plan in motion.
“Let’s do this!”
I kicked off the ground and dashed in a clockwise direction around the tree.
As I ran, I pulled the laser gun from my belt. I’d gotten Harissa to cast an invisibility spell over it after Iris had adjusted the power settings to suit my purpose.
I pulled the trigger, and the gun sent out continuous bullets of light towards Messiah.
“Oh?”
However, the lasers bounced off the Defense Barrier around him and disintegrated.
I had expected this, but it proved once again how strong the Barrier was.
“I had thought you were a novice, but I guess that is not the case?” Messiah whispered, slightly shocked.
He was probably surprised not by the attack, but by the fact that I had seemingly used magic against him. He was totally fooled.
Then, he raised an arm.
“Now it’s my turn.”
“……!”
I dashed away, desperate to avoid the attack issuing from Messiah’s fingertips.
“It’s no use, unless you can run as fast as light.”
Pale sparks crackled around the wizard, before it grew into a tiny lightning bolt and coiled around his arm like a snake.
“…This is your end,” Messiah announced as he fired the lightning magic towards me.
No matter how swift, no human could have outrun a real lightning bolt.
That was why I had prepared a few tricks up my sleeve.
The lightning bolt swerved before it hit me and disappeared into the ground.
“Urrgh!?”
Though I’d avoided the direct hit, the force of the bolt hitting the ground sent up dirt and pebbles which pelted me. I raised my arms to protect myself as best I could, but the pain from being rained on by rocks was still intense. I knew I wouldn’t be able to survive too many hits like that…but I would be able pull through a few.
“…Did I miss?”
Messiah appeared bewildered. He had probably expected to defeat me with that one hit.
“Hah! You suck!” I yelled boldly, blood dripping from my cheek and down both arms through my ripped clothing.
“……!”
In response to my taunting, he fired a few more lightning blasts.
However, each bolt swerved to the sides instead of hitting me.
The trick behind this was simple.
After learning from Satsuki that lightning magic was Messiah’s specialty, we had planted a few space-tech lightning rods which Iris had gotten for us around the area.
Regardless of magic, lightning was still lightning, and it would be attracted to lightning rods more than towards humans.
In order to prevent Messiah from discovering this trick, I had Harissa cast invisibility spells over the rods as well. Paired with the laser gun blasts, it would truly appear to Messiah that I was using magic. Now, he would be thinking that I was using magic to deflect his lightning bolts.
Of course, it would all be over should Messiah choose to utilize another kind of magic, but the difference in our abilities was evident. While my attacks didn’t work against him, his attacks were slowly weakening me. The outcome of the battle was obvious, so Messiah would probably choose to feed his ego and continue using his specialty magic…
Though he would eventually see through my plan.
But as long as I held on till then, it would be enough!
30 seconds before midnight…!
“Messiah!”
I screamed at my enemy in a harsh voice as I pointed up at the sky.
“……What?”
Messiah stopped in his tracks as his gaze followed my finger.
My battle plan was simple. I would lie that I had used my magic to summon the meteor that the Satamonian king had fired at Earth. Then, in order to trump my “magic”, the proud Messiah would intercept and destroy the meteor.
Come on, wizard, work for me!
“Can you stop my magic!?”
I yelled as I dropped my finger in a downward motion, as if drawing the meteor down towards Messiah!
Then we would find out if he was really the strongest wizard of this era.
It was ironic, but I had to trust that my enemy was really as powerful as he claimed to be.
But…nothing happened. Messiah returned his gaze to me.
“…So, where is your magic?”
“……Huh?”
I glanced up at the sky in panic.
And saw a full moon, shining stars…and nothing else.
There wasn’t a single trace of the meteor.
‘What is happening!?’
I stopped myself before I yelled out, and looked to R for help, but she just shook her head. Why was she so useless now, of all times! Couldn’t you provide me with a little good service!?
Messiah laughed, as if I had just performed the stupidest trick of the century.
“I know you humans so well, trying to bluff your way through up till the end. Putting on airs, directing your own play. It’s all good, but deep down, you are all too weak.”
“……”
He was absolutely right.
I clenched my trembling fists.
“Enough of this, young man.”
The wizard, who had been firing blasts at me, now raised his palm towards the sky.
A stream of lightning started to whirl like a tornado from his palm. The lightning bolts then merged together, growing fatter and larger until it became a sphere.
This was the same attack he had fired at me back at the abandoned factory…!
However, the sphere this time was several times larger.
The lightning Sun -it wasn’t exaggerated to describe it as such- looked like it carried billions of volts of electricity, and I could just imagine myself burning to a crisp after being hit by it. Even the lightning rods wouldn’t be able to divert this attack away.
This was the true power of the strongest wizard of this era.
Having displayed this overwhelming power, Messiah looked down his nose at me.
“You’ve done well, for someone so powerless… Do feel proud to tell everyone in the next world how you were brave enough to stand up against me.”
“…Powerless?”
Even without him saying it, I knew it in my heart.
I was just a fake, nothing like a true protagonist, with no special reason for existence. Aside from coming up with crazy battle plans, I was nothing more than a powerless brat.
But my clenched fists refused to slacken.
These fists were nothing but a bluff, I had never been in a real fight in my life. It was to be expected, since I’d always aimed to live an inconspicuous, ordinary life.
But I could always clench my fists.
When humans wanted to protect something, we would always clench our fists.
With the determination to protect, we would grasp our fists tightly…and it didn’t matter if our opponent was a wizard, a meteor, or an otherworldly Demon King, we would fight.
It didn’t matter that I wasn’t a protagonist*.
I would fight.
“……!”
Tossing the invisible laser gun aside, I dashed out with clenched fists.
However, my target was not Messiah.
“Haha! It’s too late to run away now!”
Messiah’s loud laughter reached my ears, but I ignored him as I headed towards my destination.
It was impossible that the Satamonian king was just bluffing about dropping a meteor on Earth. His battle spaceship was parked just nearby, afterall. So why hadn’t the meteor arrived? Could it be that he had meant the meteor would be fired at midnight, rather than the meteor would arrive on Earth at midnight?
Then there was still a chance that Messiah’s attack could be utilized!
“Rekka!”
“Don’t come over!” I screamed at Satsuki and the invisible Harissa, just as they were about to dash over.
If I didn’t defeat Messiah single-handedly in this duel, then the Contract would lose its effect. All the plans we had put in place would go to waste once a third party intercepted the duel.
“I thank you for not involving the Daughter of Creation in this battle. It won’t be nice if she loses her life here. Young man, you really are a brave one. Stupid, but brave.”
Messiah smiled as he lowered his arm.
“It was nice to see you performing your tricks… Now die.”
“Uwaaaahhhhh!”
I screamed as I slid into the shadow of the cherry blossom tree.
“Haha! This isn’t natural lightning, you can’t escape my ‘God’s Judgement’ by hiding under a tree!”
Then, the lightning hammer struck.
Like divine punishment raining down from the heavens upon a sinner.
A blinding light swallowed everything in sight.
——
Note:
When Rekka said “It didn’t matter that I wasn’t a protagonist.”, an alternate reading for the sentence was also provided as, “It didn’t matter that I wasn’t extraordinary.”