CH 39

The Finale and a New Title

Above the rubble, I began a certain incantation and mowed down the incoming demons with Explosive Thread.

As several explosions were going off in the air, I felt a presence behind me, so I kicked off the ground and flew to the right. Several blue tentacles fired off by Blue Beard pierced into the ground where I was just a second earlier.

“Stop scurrying around!!”

He had transformed into a blue ball with only his head visible, slightly peeking from above.

If he’s a fellow earthling, then I’ll need to redefine my definition of a human-being.

I mean, he’s clearly gone past the bounds of a human. Well, it’s not like I’m one to talk.

“Gwahahaha!!”

After a villainous laugh, I turned towards him and fired off countless Cetus.

Dozens of ice dragons attacked him from all directions, biting into him like piranhas. However, Blue Beard transformed into a hedgehog-like thorny bush and skewered the ice dragons.

“Gumu?”

His tentacles that had been pierced, froze over and shattered like glass.

Without missing a beat, I continued to cast Cetus over and over.

Countless ice dragons froze Blue Beard in the air and turned him into a cocoon-like sculpture.

Now for the finishing blow.

“This is the end.”

I activated Birdcage. This time, however, it was centered on Blue Beard who was now an ice sculpture, and covered the barren remains of the estate and the empty field we were fighting in.

For greater effect, I added Wind Manipulation, Explosive Thread, and Cetus, not for more power, but to further seal him off from the world.

“Don’t underestimate me!!” Blue Beard yelled. He attempted to break the ice dragons with his blue tentacles, but Wind Manipulation and Explosive Thread bound his limbs and the ice dragons froze his blue tentacles.

After a long incantation, I finished casting, “Four Skaði Palms.”

Four pairs of black arms appeared from the top, bottom, left and right.

Each pair of arms produced an abnormal amount of dazzlingly bright light which poured into the frozen Blue Beard.

In just an instant, Blue Beard disappeared from this world, unable to let out a single sound.

“Good grief, it’s finally over.”

The entire area around me had turned to rubble because of our fight. I planned to turn this city into a commercial city that could rival Camelot in the future. We’d need to begin development immediately.

But that was for tomorrow. Even I was exhausted after all that and planned to get some rest back at home.

I searched around Fort Arkroy for more enemies using Analyze Environment. After confirming that no enemies remained, I teleported back to Straheim’s Sagami Co. and dished out several orders to Judo.

After he gave me an earful for going off on my own, I went straight to my room and dived onto the bed.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t fall sleep.

My body was definitely worn out from casting several powerful spells one after another. My mind, on the other hand, was still tensed up and didn’t want to let me fall asleep at all. The problem was that my thought processes had declined remarkably.

“Let’s see, this might be a good time,” I said aloud.

I could always force myself to sleep by training to raise magic power, but strengthening my abilities was also tempting.

I thought back to Blue Beard. Powerful enemies had been appearing way too frequently as of late. I had managed to survive this time, but that was due to his scorn, whims, and other luck-related factors. I would definitely meet a loss at this rate. I needed to not only strengthen myself, but my allies as well.

And the fastest way to get stronger was to make use of my gifts. After all, I was going against enemies who were out of the norm. I’d stand no chance without doing things out of the norm as well.

I opened a blueprint for magic and began entering all the materials I had on hand.

……

…………

………………

After several attempts, I managed to hit upon the following spell.

★【Human Realm】

〇 Ingredients: 6 A rank or higher magic stones, 5,000 F rank or higher monster magic stones, 5,000 human magic stones.

A grimoire made from ancient dragons, monsters, and fragments of human souls. I felt nothing good would come from its name, but its effects were at an entirely different level compared to the magic currently at my disposal. After all. my magic spells only cost one B rank magic stone while this spell required not one but six A rank magic stones. On top of that, I’d need 5,000 magic stones and human magic stones. I could easily imagine just how insane this spell would be.

The 5,000 monster magic stones required just about amounted to all the ones I had gathered over these past couple of years, but I could always begin saving anew.

The problem lay with the human magic stones. Extracting them from the remains of the kingdom’s soldiers was a great idea, but I was hesitating now that it came down to use them.

Really though, what am I thinking this late into it? In the first place, Analyze Environment had stated that the magic stones were just the souls’ remnants and nothing more. I know my Earth self wouldn’t have worried a bit.

My ‘Sagami Shirabe’ self had probably changed over the course of my time in this body.

Still, it was in my nature to just throw these feelings into the drain. It was impossible for my emotions to get the better of me.

In any case, I had the ingredients. I could create it right now if I wanted, but this room was a bit cramped. I’d need a spacious room for this experiment.

I exited Sagami Co. to see a starry sky without a single cloud in sight.

Then, I walked over to the company’s excessively spacious plaza. This was more than enough space for an experiment.

I selected Human Realm and a giant metal box appeared before me. I inserted the thousands of materials and began to channel in magic power.

Before long, a single book appeared. The book was dark as night and covered in a red-black aura. Then the ground beneath it began to crumble and cave in.

This couldn’t be a good thing, no matter how optimistically I thought.

I analyzed it with Analyze Environment.

〇Spell Name: Human Realm

〇Explanation: Upon usage, gain the title, Human Realm. However, the grimoire will disappear upon use and you will be unable to create another grimoire of the same type.

〇Chant: —

〇Rank: Title-Granting Grimoire

〇Proficiency: —

Of all things it had to be a grimoire that granted a title. This was definitely dangerous.

There was no guarantee I’d be safe after binding the contract. In fact, it’d probably put me to eternal sleep.

I placed the grimoire in my Item Box and teleported back to my room.

I couldn’t have my room be destroyed, so I took out the grimoire and suspended it midair via Wind Manipulation. I don’t think the grimoire would destroy even the atmosphere, so now the rest was up to me.

I didn’t want to touch a grimoire that dissolved anything that touched it, but I couldn’t stop here.

I placed my right palm on the book.

“Ugh!?”

My hand immediately dissolved all the way up to my wrist. The pain only lasted an instant, and not a single drop of blood came out of the severed area, which turned into white sand and fell to the floor.

I used magic to sever my right arm at the elbow. Then I casted High Heal and my arm was back to normal.

Now this was a problem. I can’t bind a contract without touching it, and my body would turn to sand if I did.

This was a grimoire. There was no meaning to it if you couldn’t bind the contract, so there had to be a way. I must have overlooked something.

“Hm? This haze……”

I looked into the red-black haze that continued to pour out of the grimoire.

“Is this a seal?”

It was difficult to describe, but it looked like a sword. In the most basic of senses, however.

“Hm.”

Is this a keyhole? So the key must—

I used a knife to carve the seal of the grimoire’s aura into my palm.

“No way this will work.”

It’d be such a cheap and delusional way to bind a contract.

As my hand approached the grimoire, the red-black haze wrapped around my hand. An intense pain followed before my hand turned into a cloud of sand.

I had expected it to turn to sand, but not that much.

Once again, I severed my arm and casted High Heal on it.

Much to my astonishment, or rather to my amazement, the carve-in-palm technique wasn’t wrong.

Yes, this meant that the symbol wasn’t right.

If the key and keyhole were related, then there was only one solution.

I carved a pattern symmetrical to the one before onto my right palm. Then, I brought it near the book.

“Woah!?”

The red-black aura engulfed me in an instant and my world went black.