A couple of years ago, Jerome was called to the palace.

It was a meeting just between him, the prime minister, and the emperor.

He wondered what he was doing there.

He managed to become a guild master at a youthful age, to be a AAA Rank adventurer which is a rarity to achieve.

Why was he being called in the middle of the night with the most important man in the country?

Was what he was thinking as his sweat dripped to the soft red cloth carpet.

"Jerome, I am sorry to ask you to come at this hour."

The emperor said in a relaxed tone but without losing his strong tone of voice.

"N-No regrets Your Majesty, how may I be of service?"

"Yes. You see, recently the Attley heir became one of the candidates to be the new sword saint."

"I read about it in the paper. What's up with that?"

"There are too many candidates."

"Huh?"

Jerome's serious expression turned silly from what he heard.

"There are currently 8 candidates for the sword saint, there are more talented young men who can be."

"The problem in that is that many of them were appointed by disreputable nobles."

"For example, Bernhard, he was appointed by Marquis Olgren who has gained a lot of power recently."

"What I want you to do is simple since you are one of the few I can trust."

"I... am I trustworthy to you?"

"That's right."

Jerome felt that this was something too serious, he couldn't even imagine what the emperor would ask of him.

Except for the prime minister who was looking at the situation dejected and sighing.

"I want you to become one of the candidates for the next sword saint and investigate if any of them are into illicit things or might be enemies."

"I knew you would say that."

"..."

Jerome didn't know how to respond. He could only nod.

"Yes! An order from the emperor is an absolute thing, I certainly won't let you down."

"Good. Your new secret identity is ready, little brother, go ahead."

The prime minister handed him a folder in which was falsified information about him.

"Everything you need is in there, this is only known to the three of us and no one else has found out."

"I'm counting on you to report everything you see, Jerome. No, I should say..."

"Gray Hood behind you!"

◇◇◇

Gray Hood was dreaming of the past. No, his real name is Jerome, the guild master.

After pretending to be someone he wasn't, he began to feel fatigue.

(Showing my magic is exceedingly difficult as it is rare to find someone who can manipulate steel.)

He quickly stood up as Bellange and Oscar took his arms.

The current situation was horrible for everyone.

"Attack them!"

"Don't leave a single opening!"

The armored units Zapp and Ixio were mercilessly attacking the group they encountered.

They were more than a dozen fighters but none of them could do anything against these beastly machines.

The battle machines were firing their machine guns, sending missiles into the surrounding area and materializing photon swords to roast their enemies.

Not even with Tina a former sword saint could they manage to harm them.

Dartanyan jumped between the treetops and with his blades tried to shatter the necks of the robots.

But these were impossible to achieve a crack.

"Damn it, I refuse to die here."

Leonard used different magic bullet ammunition to attack in the joints with no effect.

Capture targets were attacking at the legs hoping they could damage him.

"Not a scratch!"

Angry as anxious shouted Lambert trying to inflict a wound on the robot with no hope.

"There must be a way to harm them?"

"Leila is angry!"

"Six Arrows!"

Leila jumped straight at Zapp's head and using all her strength tried to rip it off. While Bayman was supporting her so the robot's arms wouldn't try to touch her.

"It's very resilient his body."

Bayman's arrows could only keep it from moving for a moment. It was like a mosquito biting a huge animal.

Tina on the other hand used a sword she took from a knight and imbued it with magical power.

She was the only one who could repel Ixio's photon sword.

"I'm reaching my limit."

"This is the first time in my life I've faced an enemy of this gauge."

"At this rate I and everyone else are going..."

*Beep*

Ixio began to make a strange beeping sound.

Everyone noticed that sound which was just like a loud screeching sound in the head.

The sound grew louder, and everyone lay down on the ground except for Bellange, Lambert and Jerome who were keeping Zapp from attacking the others.

The screeching was intensifying and from his chest a blue light was growing in intensity.

Tina quickly shouted.

"Runaway everyone, something bad is coming!"

Everyone in Ixio's direction fled and after doing so a bright but small beam of energy was shot out.

The energy beam burned everything in its path as if it were a horizontal meteorite.

Randy saw the trajectory and was horrified to see where it was headed.

"It can't be!"

◇◇◇

Adlet was aboard the Rosenblat shouting.

"Hurry up and let's go now!"

He was shouting to the sailors to hurry up and set sail.

The reason was the letter on the table,

The contents of the letter were long, but in summary it read as follows.

"To Adlet-dono from Russell."

"I am sorry to take leave like this, but my task is done, once I finish with this enemy I will return to my country and report all that you said."

"I will also write a letter to the empire that you gave us information. I'm sorry, but traitors are not wanted by anyone, least of all a country-seller like you."

After reading that letter, Adlet became so upset.

(This is really bad. If that letter is sent to the palace, Wilhelm will really kill me, and I won't be able to excuse myself.)

(My only solution is to return home and look for a scapegoat.)

(Surely the flying turtle will kill them all, if the empire is destroyed it would be really bad, but my life is in danger.)

(What is the correct answer?)

"What is that!"

He heard one of the sailors in the place, he watched through the window something was coming.

"What the hell is that-?"

Were Adlet's final words before the energy beam sent by Ixio destroyed all the ships within range.

The Rosenblat was destroyed.

Eli watched as her family's ship fell in flames to the ground.

"Eli-chan watch out!"

"...!"

Before she could even cry, the metallic dragon moved in again to kill her, Lily, and the dragon they were riding to fly.

The dragons didn't have it easy either.

Shibuya and the other large dragons that could fly were attacking Ilion with all their power.

"Why doesn't he fall?"

He shouted after seeing the anti-dragon absolute defense kick in.

The full body shield was repelling all magical attacks sent by the dragons.

Even the physical attacks couldn't give it a scratch.

More dragons were falling defeated to the ground.

"We can't win at this rate."

It was a decisive battle where humankind was destined to lose.

"Evelyn, can you hear me?"

At that moment, Evelyn's father called out to her through the pendant around her neck.

"Father? What's wrong?"

"I'd like to know what you're doing with those dragons, but it'll be later."

"I and Pleven-dono are safe. The other holy mages were guarding Adlet-dono."

Hearing that almost all the holy mages were wiped out was an unpleasant surprise.

"I'm contacting you to tell you that I found it."

"I found a way to win."

"Really?"

Evelyn exclaimed as her dragon spun around to dodge the missiles sent by Ilion.

"Listen carefully, those strange dragons they face use an unnatural magic shield."

"I can't explain what it's made of, but they use the magical element of air to create a shield."

"I see! I certainly find it odd that our attacks are being repelled."

"It's creating a reverse flow of magical power."

"A what thing?"

Celia asked confused in front of her.

Evelyn explained in short words.

"Magic power is like a river, it always flows in one direction. Those dragons what they do is change the flow of magic power."

"If we can find the pattern of the magic circles it uses, we can destroy it."

"We've already done it miss."

Brian was now speaking to them.

"We managed to develop the formula for the reverse magic circuit."

"It's funny that we managed to create a method to destroy magic barriers called Reverse Magic Flow."

"Please receive it, we will contact Fahren's group that is fighting two of them."

*Explosion*

An explosion was heard in the direction where Amy and Emily are fighting.

◇◇◇

In the sky, Amy was spitting out a large amount of blood.

"Amy-san! Hold on!"

She had been hit by a missile.

Even if she used a high caliber magic shield, Ilion managed to decipher the magic formula of what it was made of and with that she could easily destroy it.

A large amount of blood dripped from every fiber of her body.

She was severely wounded.

Amy was one of the most powerful characters in the game. Right now, she wasn't even 10% of the terror she emanated to the players.

The reason was simple, Amy upon meeting Razel did not close her heart nor did she dedicate herself to perfecting her attack magic to erase hundreds of lives in seconds.

She dedicated herself to conducting research to help Razel improve his attacks and create his spider queen web slime suit.

She didn't use that time to perfect her powerful attacks.

And right now, is when she needed them the most.

*Gasp*

*Gasp*

(My vision blurs.)

(I've lost a lot of blood, I can't feel my left arm, and it hurts to breathe.)

Emily grabbed Amy to keep her from falling several feet to the ground.

"Hang in there, Amy-san!"

Emily was trying to keep Amy from losing consciousness.

But she couldn't fight anymore.

"I admit it."

She said after spitting blood in a weak tone.

"There are things in this world that are superior to me."

"I thought I was the best mage just because he told me so."

"I realized that I am weak. I neglected a lot in my training."

Amy reached up and took Emily's hand.

"I know we've known each other for a few minutes, but I can't take it anymore."

"I'm giving you almost all of my magical power..."

"Amy-san? What are you doing?"

"Just shut up and listen."

"I'll create a barrier to contain it... then you'll use all your power by the time I destroy the barrier."

"That will leave both of us in grave danger, but if we don't win with this. We never will, do you understand?"

Emily felt the magical power entering her body.

She watched as a complete stranger blindly trusted her.

But besides that. She was one of the women of the man she wishes to propose to.

(If I couldn't meet her expectations, it would do no good for my feelings to be accepted when the other girls would look down on me.)

The power of the sacred sword Apollonia increases when its bearer increases its will.

Emily's power grew to such a degree that her pink wings became larger.

"It's okay."

"I trust Amy-san. Let's finish this together."

"Well said. Ready?"

"Yes!"

Amy raised her hand and said with all her might.

"Perfect Cube!"

A purple-colored cube enclosed Ilion.

Immediately the mechanical dragon began to analyze the cube to destroy it.

Amy already knew it would do that.

"Now!"

Emily let go of Amy's hand, which as expected began to fall to the ground at high speed.

Emily didn't hesitate, this was a live or die.

She began to gather the magical power entirely from her body and channeled it into the sword.

The amethyst glow grew with each passing second.

The dragon finally shattered the cube it was locked in.

From its mouth it began to gather great energy, it was ready to fire its attack and annihilate them completely.

"It's ready now."

But that won't happen.

Emily slowly lowered her arms as if exhaustion and fatigue finally forced her to give up.

But she wouldn't.

She closed her eyes and said her most powerful attack calmly.

"Apollonia Blast."

A huge wave of amethyst energy shot towards Ilion who tried to use his shield, but the energy that attack was made of was so pure that it was radioactive to any living being or machine.

The systems burned while Ilion was inside the shield.

A huge wave of heat caused Ilion to short-circuit, and the shield came apart, allowing the energy to hit him fully.

This caused his wings to melt and explode.

Ilion fell to the ground in flames.

Emily after seeing him undo his seraph form as he fell to the ground.

(We did it, Amy-san.)

(Thanks to you we won.)

Emily before falling was rescued by Celia and Evelyn.

Eli and Lily rescued Amy.

They were amazed.

Without the need to use the formula their father told them about; they were able to beat one of these fake dragons.

Seeing that, he motivated them to do the same.

"Everyone, give me your help."

"Yes!"

The girls stood at opposite poles while Shibuya entertained Elion.

The dragon was no fool, seeing his partner being defeated he understood that something bad had happened.

They quickly activated a shield using their own magical power, this locked both dragons inside.

"Did you think you were going to have the same luck? Well, how wrong you thought!"

Shibuya grabbed Elion and using his forelegs opened its mouth.

Immediately small protrusions that were there charged electrical energy and a powerful attack sent into his face.

Despite having a large burn that melted its scales.

Shibuya was not backing down.

"It's time to end this!"

From the bottom of his belly something was rising, to regurgitate something.

A crimson light like the minerals in his body glowed.

"Take this! Dragon Burst!"

A powerful dragon breath which contained lots of crystals were sent into Elion's belly.

Just by grazing his insides the attack was critical.

Elion could not defend himself and the girls watched as explosions occurred outside his body.

Throwing up a large amount of smoke, Elion fell to the ground.

The twin celestial dragons were finally defeated.

◇◇◇

Watching the dragon's fall, Fahren rolled up his sleeves.

"Umu. I can't believe a couple of women were able to take down those monsters."

"Aren't you people ashamed to be beaten, aren't you men?"

"Duke Fitzclarence, I am a woman. Your comment is very poorly phrased to raise spirits, but I think everyone understands what you are trying to say."

Tina and the others lay severely wounded and defeated on the ground after a missile barrage.

With serious and minor wounds.

With blood dripping from various parts of their bodies.

Everyone present was glaring at their enemies with raging eyes.

"Sorry I'm late."

Judal returned after being sent by Brian to Fahren's group.

"Duke Fitzclarence, I have information from the wizard god that will serve us well in taking these two down."

"Useless."

"...?"

Fahren stepped forward and clapped his hands together immediately.

As he spread his hands apart, a bubble was being created.

"I don't need their help. I already figured out a way to beat them, Randy!"

"Get off your ass and help me. Same you Jake, I'll need both of you to take down that black golem over there."

The comeback victory for humanity was getting closer and closer.