Explosive power filled my body with every step I took. My newly forged and bulky muscles easily embracing that power and supporting my will.

And hordes of what looked like mushroom zombie versions of monsters climbing out from the ground like a scene straight out of the apocalypse.

I growled and summoned one of my giant stone slab from my inventory before grabbing it and swinging to down to squish a horde crawling out from a nearby hole.

An explosion of gore that quickly dissipated into smoke. But more importantly, that hole was now covered.

A storm of screeching wind arrows shot down to clean up the few monsters that escaped, and then Ryuu landed beside me, frowning. "Just what in the world is happening here?"

A scream echoed from nearby. A young girl with an overstuffed backpack collapsed on the ground, probably knocked off balance.

A crimson lizard with tendrils for a face dashed towards her.

The girl pulled out a short sword from her sleeve, one packed with mana. But it would be too slow. Before she could activate it, the lizard would reach her first.

"Tch."

I clicked my tongue and then shot out a few shards of Adamantite at the monster, along with a crystal leaf for good measure.

An explosion of crimson blood and flames that quickly vanished, replaced with an eerie red magic stone that was laced with pulsating green veins.

The young girl looked at me, eyes wide in shock. But just for a moment. After that, she blinked and her eyes defocused as she stared off into space.

Not before she finished pulling out her short sword though.

At that time, the ground cracked beneath me.

Ryuu reacted fast, sending a gust of wind out beneath us to send us flying.

And as she did that, I saw a giant Killer Ant jump up, its crimson mandibles reaching up to snap us in half.

"I."

The area around me started to glitter as shards of Adamantite appeared.

"Hate!"

Light gathered as I looped them to gather speed.

"RANDOM BOSS ENCOUNTERS!"

And then the giant Killer Ant vanished, erased by what amounted to machine gun fire.

For good measure, I crafted a towering boulder and chucked it in the hole to plug it, as well as crushing whatever other mobs planned to crawl up.

That done, I landed on the top of the boulder and crossed my arms, looking around the area.

Chaos. That was the only way to put it.

As if the world said I was having it too easy, we got a full-on Dungeon break... or at least the equivalent of one.

Looking towards Babel, I didn't see anything off. And I didn't see or feel any signs of monsters coming from that direction.

Which meant that these monsters came from somewhere else.

And wouldn't you know it? Today happened to be a festival being celebrated with tamed monsters!

Ryuu landed on the boulder beside me and said, "I take it you are not in a good mood."

"No, Ryuu. I'm not."

Corpses littered the streets, both adventurers and civillians. More were wounded. And combined, it made Main Street run red with blood.

Fortunately, higher level adventurers were reacting.

I saw the girls from the Hostess of Fertility fighting off monsters in the distance. Syr... Or 'Hornie' as Freya called her, was working with Mia to direct Ottar and some other insanely powerful people throughout the city.

Near the commercial district, I saw weapon merchants arming themselves with blades and passing those out to anyone that could fight.

Near the entertainment district, there was a brown-skinned goddess sending out waves of charm to calm down monsters while scantily clad women rushed at them with weapons.

Then there was Fina, Pyrrha, and Bella running around the town square blowing up whatever monsters they came across and snatching up magic stones while Tia, Freya, and Artemis ran after the girls with furious expressions...

Ah. Definitely going to get scolded for that later. But they would be fine.

While they were kids, they were also kids of extremely powerful people who inherited the best from both parents.

Fina was immortal, Pyrrha was invulnerable, And Bella...

I watched my youngest daughter run into a monster and mime a kiss.

The moment she did, the monster stopped in its track, letting out a silly expression.

And then Pyrrha promptly split it in half with a broadsword twice her height.

Something that made Bella burst out laughing.

...Okay. Maybe the best *and* the worst of both parents.

Another flag to deal with later. Gotta make a mental note of that after sorting out who the mysterious voices in my head were.

But for now...

Let's see.

A chaotic scene right out of the apocalypse. Monsters rampaging. Adventurers rushing to clean up the scene...

Since we suddenly switched from slice of life to shounen, there were probably going to be a lot of casualties...

Going from the flow of events, this was a situation meant to get the MC motivated to get stronger and swear not to let something like this happen again. If it was a story, at least.

But since this was reality, it really meant that there was some crazy bastard out there responsible for this.

The question was, what the hell did they have to gain from this?

Orario would be put on edge, meaning security would be tightened. So it definitely wasn't helpful if they had a secret agenda in the long-term.

I doubted it had anything to do with me since I still had yet to make a big splash on anything.

...Though that would definitely change after today.

Then... Welf? Did someone decide that this scenario was a good setup to wring out his hidden potential and force him to make magic swords that he had sworn off making?

Maybe. But that was a bit unlikely.

Freya? Did her Familia members get fed up with me and want to get rid of me in the chaos?

...No. Even if they did, Freya was smart enough to catch wind of something like that. If they were going to try anything, it would be a head-on confrontation instead of this collateral damage situation.

Overall, odds were that it wasn't related to me or anyone I knew.

Then...

...Was this just some crazy bastard who wanted to watch Orario burn? I couldn't think of anything that a reasonable person would want with all of this-

Ah. But then there were unreasonable people in this world, right? Like the record of the coalition between evil god familia called-

"Evilus."

A name said through gritted teeth.

I blinked and looked over to see Ryuu clenching her fists while staring out at the devastation.

She had seemed nonchalant earlier, but I guess she must have just not seen the chaos yet since she was focused on me.

"Hey." I placed my hand on her shoulder and said, "Relax. We'll sort it out."

Ryuu flinched, looking at my hand. Then she gave me a weird look before sighing. After that, she nodded with a faint smile and said, "Understood, Bell."

Was that a flag? Definitely a flag.

"For the record, I'm not interested in you."

Ryuu rolled her eyes and said, "I am well aware, you scoundrel."

I pulled my hand away and said, "And I keep saying, the situation with me and Syr isn't what it looks like. We just have to- Wait."

I paused, realizing that someone was missing from our group.

"Where's Welf?"

Ryuu blinked and looked at me. Then she looked around the area near us and said, "...Was he not just following us?"

I facepalmed. "Dammit. I should never have given him that info about Shirou. Bastard's copying that guy's bad parts too..."

xxx

The sound of clashing steel. A monstrous roar cutting through the air, followed by thunderous fists raining down from above.

Hephaestus trembled as she swung her sword to deflect the attacks.

Left, right. Up, down. An attack from behind...

Her body moved on its own will, pulling her away from danger by a hairsbreadth each time.

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!"

Hephaestus stepped back and swung up her sword.

An explosion of sparks filled the air as <Eternal Love> clashed against the Silverback's fist.

It also made the monster stagger backwards for a step, but nothing else. Not even a scratch or a hair cut on the beast's hand.

Seeing that, Hephaestus let out a wry laugh. "I guess this is karma..."

Tsubaki was gone. Between the randomly collapsing streets and the mutated monsters, Hephaestus thought it'd be a better idea for Tsubaki to run off and help the others since Hephaestus could defend herself with <Eternal Love>.

And it was a good idea.

At first.

Hephaestus was easily able to kill the Silverback and make a quick retreat to Daedalus street to try and avoid any other monsters.

But then it came back. Not only that, but it tracked her down through Daedalus street, and now-

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!"

Hephaestus stared at the monster in front of her and focused again.

It was different now. Although the general form was that of a Silverback, the monster had mutated.

Hephaestus didn't know how, but it seemed to have come back to life and stronger than before.

Silver fur laced with pulsating green veins. Crimson eyes and flesh that looked blackened with rot. A horrific monster that could strike fear into the hearts of any person.

And a terrifying strength to match that horrible visage.

The Silverback charged again, throwing another punch.

Like always, <Eternal Love> drew Hephaestus forward to block.

But unlike before, she didn't have the strength to counteract it.

A heavy impact. Hephaestus' arms turning numb from the blow.

And then a follow-up attack sent her flying.

Was it that she couldn't feel pain because she was protected by <Eternal Love>? Or was the pain so much that her body couldn't process it?

Hephaestus didn't know. But she did know that she had crashed through three different buildings before bouncing along the ground for a bit.

The sound of clattering steel echoed from beside her. <Eternal Love> falling out of her hands and onto the ground.

...Ah. There was the pain.

Hephaestus blinked, suddenly feeling aches in every part of her body. She couldn't see <Eternal Love>, so it must have fallen in her blindspot.

But she had to get up. She had to get up, grab it, and keep moving.

By this point, the high-level adventurers were bound to have started moving. And even if they hadn't, Tsubaki would probably double back to check on her at this point.

But that wouldn't matter if she let herself get killed or forced to use her Arcanum. So-

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!"

A monstrous roar directly in front of her. A blackened fist rushing towards Hephaestus' face.

'Oh.'

She couldn't do anything about it.

It was the end.

Seeing that approaching fist, the only thought Hephaestus had was...

'I'm sorry, Welf. I'm sorry, Pyrrha. I should have been better.'

And like that, Hephaestus closed her eyes.

But.

*SCHING*

The sound of a clean cut. One followed by a loud thud as something fell to the ground and the Silverback roared in pain.

And after that...

"Get your hands away from my wife."