[Return From Death]

“Unggaaaaa!”

――BAM!

“Uwa!?”

『……Huh?』

We all blinked upon seeing the sight of Patty getting blown away all of a sudden.

I’d thought it was all over for her, but it appeared that Elma was safe.

Come to think of it, even though I’d activated my《Substitute》skill in a hurry, I didn’t feel there was any damage transferred over to me.

Elma had probably used some means of defense right before Patty’s attack landed on her, but I wondered how she came out of that unscathed.

I was sure that I saw Patty’s hand-sword pierce deep up to the wrist, but…

“Hm, it appears that the saintesses are quite capable as well. Perhaps, she avoided a fatal injury by immediately hardening her pectoral muscles. Of course, her breasts softening the impact might have played a factor, but she did well to be able to make such a reaction even while enduring the sharp pain.”

“That’s a matter of course. She’s a ‘saintess’ after all,” I said with a smug face, but… sorry, that was probably a big misunderstanding…

I mean, the size of her breasts isn’t nearly enough to soften a blow, even if only a little… I felt light-headed after noticing the shocking fact.

That was right.

Given Elma’s body built, it was rather strange that the hand-sword didn’t penetrate her back when it had pierced so deeply.

Yet, Patty’s hand-sword was stopped at Elma’s ‘breasts’.

How could I have missed such an unnatural phenomenon? Perhaps the thought ‘it was all over for Elma’ shocked me so much that the fact that her breasts had enlarged escaped my notice for a moment.

We didn’t realize it at all, let alone Patty and Yomi.

But well, to protect Elma’s honor, I’d push through the trained pectoral muscles stuff.

“Mugaaaa!”

That was probably what Elma, who seemed to be falling into a little despair over there, wanted right now as well.

“Now, let us begin, Savior.”

“Yeah. Let me warn you though, I’m quite strong.”

In any case, I manifested the longsword and took the quick-draw stance.

But Yomi just put his hands in his pockets and said, “Oh, believe me, I know. You are the only one in this world our Lord recognizes as ‘enemy’, after all.”

“But your relaxed posture said otherwise. You think you can block my blow?”

“I wonder. How about we give it a try?” Yomi said plainly.

“Very well.” In response to his wish, I used the fastest quick-draw sword art currently accessible to me. “Grand Ray—Zero.”

――Shiiing!

“Gah!?”

The light I released divided Yomi, along with the surrounding trees, into two.

Yomi’s divided body fell on the spot while spurting blood, but—

“!”

Immediately, the surrounding ‘filth’ came to envelop it, and his body began to regenerate with blobbing sounds.

“I knew you had some kind of trick up your sleeve. Are you also immortal?”

“No… I’m not… immortal…”

Crack crack, Yomi regained his original, cracking his neck.

He said expressionlessly, “As long as there’s ‘filth’ in this world, I will keep on regenerating stronger from the injuries I receive.”

“In other words, you’re nearly immortal… and the more severe the damage you receive, the stronger you become?”

“Yes. That blow just now was really good. Probably the best blow I’ve ever had. I thank you, Savior. With this, I’m one step closer to the Lord.”

“Well, good for you, I guess,” I said, shrugging my shoulders.

“Hou,” Yomi tilted his head in wonder upon seeing my response. “You’re calmer than I thought you would. You should have now realized that you can’t beat me, so why?”

“Certainly, I’ll never be able to defeat you as long as ‘filth’ exists in this world. Moreover, the more attack you receive, the stronger you become, and you will surpass us, eventually. And to defeat you, we must first destroy the source of the ‘filth’—that is to say, humans and demi-humans. In other words, we’re already checkmated.”

“Yes, that’s right. But knowing that, how can you stay so calm? Your defeat is already preordained the moment I was created.”

To Yomi’s question, I scoffed, “Isn’t it obvious?” and replied, “Because we can defeat you, that’s why.”