――The capital Rupugana, now occupied by the undead.

In this city, which is more fittingly called the undead capital than the imperial capital, Al was continuing his lonely battle to search for the whereabouts of the now-missing Priscilla.

That said, one couldn’t say that the search for his master was going smoothly.

After all, the basic approach to finding someone involves gathering eyewitness accounts, but here, there was no one to be found who could provide even a useless rumor, let alone a decisive testimony.

The only beings around were the undead, who charged at any living person with sinister intent, or the surviving humans who merely huddled in fear, clutching their heads and doing nothing to survive.

Either way, they were not helpful in achieving Al’s objective.

Still――,

“Meeting a living person doesn’t necessarily mean that Al’s goals will move forward. Such is the absurdity of this world.”

Cecilis, the embodiment of that very absurdity, quipped cheerfully.

While Al fully agreed with that sentiment, there was no room for debate on his part given his current situation—hanging off the edge of a five-story building’s roof.

“Damn it.”

Al muttered a curse under his breath inside his iron helmet, diverting his gaze from Cecilis’s grinning face.

It was pointless to say anything to Cecilis in this situation. After all, the reason Al ended up hanging like this was that he had been kicked off the rooftop by none other than him. To make matters worse, Cecilis had lured him to the edge, suggesting something interesting was far away before delivering a kick from behind.

What else could that be but an act of malice?

“Whether this is a test or a check, the objective is to assess your reflexes. Since you didn’t fall like a rock, it seems like your reflexes are better than the boss’s.”

“Is that so? I don’t get it.”

“Whether you understand or not is of no concern! I know my thoughts and desires very well. And just to clarify, I won’t be helping you back up, Al.”

Cecilis clapped his hands while nonchalantly answering Al’s unasked question. Though he hadn’t known the reason behind his predicament until he asked, it didn’t make more sense upon hearing the answer. In fact, Al hadn’t really had any substantive conversation with Cecilis about intent to harm or malice.

He had been rescued from a strong foe among the undead, exchanged brief introductions, shared movements up until now, discussed future objectives, and then was promptly kicked off the roof.

It was nothing short of unfortunate timing meeting with Cecilis, but Al didn’t let himself be washed away by disappointment at his answer.

After all――,

“Been there, heard that. I’m not expecting anything.”

Responding to Cecilis like that, Al released his grip on the ledge and let himself fall freely.

“Whoa!”

Cecilis seemed surprised, his voice trailing away, and in the sensation of weightlessness, Al’s mind raced.

The ground was about fifteen meters below—a height that superhumans could land without issue, but Al was an average Joe and might easily meet his end. It would be the perfect recipe for a squished tomato.

The approaching ground had wet cobblestones, not enough water to cushion the impact, and the muddy soil wouldn’t help either—a cruel reality check.

Thus, something other than just falling was needed if he were to survive.

“Whoa!”

Letting out a cry from his throat, Al straightened his bent knees and pushed off the wall with all his might.

Instead of falling straight down, Al’s body gained diagonal momentum, shortening the distance to the building across from where he had been hanging. The timing for the kick had to be between one and two seconds after falling; either too early or too late would lead him to crash into the wall, and he wouldn’t be able to avoid the fate of becoming a squashed tomato.

But this timing was just right—at that instant, Al’s body broke through a window.

“Guh!”

Al rolled into the chaotic interior, shards of glass slashing at his shoulder and back, causing tremendous damage upon hitting the floor.

“Still, I survived…!”

In the room he slid into, Al rolled onto his back and confirmed he was still alive. Next, he checked for any lethal injuries or broken limbs; if none were found, only then was he allowed to acknowledge that he had indeed survived.

If he had gotten himself into a situation that was beyond repair by this point, he would certainly need to make it right.

“Whoa, my left hand is gone!? Oh, well, that’s been the case for nearly twenty years…”

Inserting a predictable joke, Al paused briefly before promptly hiding next to the door that faced the hallway, quickly drawing his Blue Dragon Blade from the sheath at his back.

He had avoided falling to his death. However, with the loud noise he had made while entering the building, it was inevitable that it drew attention from the surrounding area――,

“Here it is!”

“That’s right!!”

With hurried footsteps, the undead barged into the room, breaking down the door.

Although the undead rushed in with a vigorous battle cry, as a pale-faced enemy passed by right in front of him, Al swung his Blue Dragon Blade and sliced off its head.

He instantly killed the first foe and used the headless body as a shield, observing the remaining enemies that had approached. There were two beyond the broken door, and one more was ascending the stairs—totaling three. The second enemy, recovering from their shock, lunged with a spear.

Fast recovery. How annoying.

Thinking that, Al threw the headless corpse into the path of the spear’s trajectory――,

“Oh crap!”

The body, now mortally wounded, shattered into fragments like unsightly ceramic.

Thus, Al suddenly recalled that his usual strategy of using the corpses as shields no longer worked, as he felt the spear pierce deeply into his chest.

×　　×　　×

“Here it is!”

“That’s right!!”

Al beheaded the leading undead from behind as it nearly kicked the door down.

Then, without a thought, he kicked away the troublesome headless body and dove deep into the room. The next enemy, armed with a spear, charged in after him.

“Dona!”

That spear became ensnared by the dirt wall rising from the ground, unceremoniously captured.

Seeing that catch had drawn attention, Al pressed his feet against the soil wall and shouted,

“Dona! Dona! Dona!”

With that shove, a column of earth jutted out sideways, striking the undead right in front and crashing the ones behind it.

The earthen pillar pushed back the leading enemy and a second one who was trying to fall back, and from the tip of that pillar, another column of earth launched out, then another, explosively smashing and crushing the two undead against the wall of the passage.

“One left…!”

A loud ceramic breaking sound echoed between the pillar and wall, confirming that he had taken out the first three in one go, while Al stayed vigilant to track the movements of any remaining foes.

He took out the first attacker with a sneak attack, and dispatched the second and third with minor tricks. Now, if the second-in-command or general would retreat due to the perilous state, Al would have some relief――,

“Well, it won’t be that easy, will it!!”

The earthen pillar breaking open the entrance was demolished alongside the wall, and the last undead unceremoniously forced their way into the room.

It was a one-eyed undead of the single-eyed race, wielding a massive battle axe and housing a gold-colored single eye in the center of its face. At a glance, its power was leagues beyond the three that had come before, forcing Al to turn his back and desperately sprint towards the window――,

“Will I make it!!”

Even if he did, he felt the force of the axe swinging wide, slamming into him, and transforming the interior of the building into a grotesquely painted scene with his disemboweled guts.

×　　×　　×

“Here it is!”

“That’s right!!”

Al slammed the leading undead’s head off as it kicked the door down.

He knew that two others were in the passage and one more creeping up the stairs. With that knowledge, Al leaped back dramatically――,

“Dona!”

Facing the next undead and the mid-tier foe head-on, he needed to carve a path forward against the final monstrosity.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　△▼△▼△▼△

“Wow, amazing, amazing! You just jumped into a battle with a single-eyed opponent I thought you absolutely couldn’t win against.”

“That bastard is a complete asshole…”

“Oh my, though that difficult foe was surely a tough one to deal with, it’s not very polite to throw shade at the opponent you’ve battled fiercely. Obviously, foul language and insults get remembered, but I’m not fond of the notion that bad renown somehow eclipses anonymity!”

“I’m talking to you…”

Al, covered in wounds, panting heavily as he exited the building, leaned steadily against the wall, crumpling to the ground.

Cecilis, who had come to greet him, looked astonished.

“Why do you have such a surprised look on your face after being told something like that? You nearly killed me twice over, right? A psychopath should at least register that being resented could happen…”

“Wow, well it seems you’re not yet fluent in every insult the boss uses in such a short time. What does ‘psychopath’ even mean anyway?”

“It means something akin to aberrant. Someone who can calmly attempt to kill others.”

“Really? But if that’s the case, I don’t think I’m a psychopath at all. After all, Al, you somehow keep surviving, don’t you?”

Cecilis broke into a grin, defending himself with his skewed logic, while Al focused on regulating his breathing, still hunched over.

During the interval of silence, Cecilis held up a finger, continuing,

“The single-eyed guy from earlier had quite the skills. Regrettably, he doesn’t hold a candle to me, but against you, Al, you would lose a hundred out of a hundred fights. That is the truth as I witnessed it!”

“…Still, I’m alive, aren’t I? Or am I dead now?”

“Oh no, you’re very much alive. I did entertain a slight suspicion that the undead could be pretending to be alive or something like that, but you seem to be fine on that front. So then, there’s only one conclusion—I’d say you’ve beaten the odds.”

With one finger pointed up and another from the opposite hand raised, Cecilis presented the two fingers, though even adding them up, they could only total two. Generously speaking, they made eleven at best, but what really gripped Al was what Cecilis then said.

“I’m not hung up on the number one hundred. Two hundred or three hundred would be just fine! You see, Al, you would lose a hundred fights against that single-eyed monster. But what about if you fought a thousand, ten thousand, or a hundred thousand times? Maybe you could trigger a literal one-in-a-million chance. And you just pulled the first.”

“—”

Al had pushed back his focus on regulating his breath to its breaking point.

Inside his iron helmet, he twisted his expression that Cecilis could not see, and he felt genuine fear creeping from the very depths of his heart. That intensity in his eyes, what on earth was it?

What Cecilis had articulated nearly captured the power Al possessed. And he hadn’t even reasoned it out—it was as if Cecilis plucked the essence of it at random.

The boy calling himself Cecilus Segmunt not only shared the same name as the “Blue Lightning” of the Volakia Empire, but he also appeared to be a clear anomaly in this world.

“Though we might share the same height, I suppose that’s reason enough…!”

Just like how Subaru and Al were shrunk by Roswaal’s hands, it’s entirely plausible that Cecilis had similarly been diminished by Roswaal.

Cecilis himself didn’t equate himself with the “One” of the Nine Divine Generals, but there were sensations that once “childification” reached a critical level, his consciousness would indeed pull over the physical appearance. The likelihood of Cecilis sharing a similar fate was high.

In Al’s case, his mindset was forcibly optimized, yet that extreme remedy could only be executed by himself and Subaru. Consequently, it was conceivable that Cecilis’s mind had been helplessly shrunk.

If that was what had made Cecilis into a youthful monster, then the impacts of Roswaal’s actions were serious.

“Is the lack of an answer due to the inability to answer or a desire not to respond… which is it?”

At Cecilis’s quiet interrogation, Al steadied himself against the wall.

Cecilis held a menacing glimmer in his eye as he surveyed Al, shaken by inner turmoil, oscillating dangerously between ally and foe.

Even in the midst of this unprecedented calamity plaguing the undead capital, it was a trivial concern that mattered not.

“I sense something. I feel it profoundly. If, perchance, you hold something that can pull off a one-in-a-million chance… could I be in the running as well?”

In that eventuality, it wouldn’t be just a one-in-a-million chance but perhaps a billion or trillion one, a likely possibility as well.

However, if it were not zero…

“I’ll say this… don’t go digging too deep into my charm, or else you might just find yourself staring down something unwanted and regret it immensely.”

“Really now! To say such a thing to me—it doesn’t bother me, in fact, I like it!”

Al sighed at Cecilis’s increasingly excited response.

He wanted to find words to take the wind out of Cecilis’s sails, but it seemed they were running out of time. He had just barely weathered the torrent of undead after his fall.

Although the burden was heavy, progressing to the next stage was a requirement.

“–Domain release, then re-deploy, resuming thought experiment.”

Before Cecilis could make unnecessary movements, Al redefined the previously set matrix.

The recoil was considerable given the frequency and scale, but Al decided to ignore the price until he left the Volakia Empire. –Retrieving Priscilla was the top priority.

“For that, I’m ready to take any number of times–—”

Just as he resolved to say that with conviction.

Before he could even complete that thought, Cecilis’s figure blurred in front of him, and immediately afterward, Al was met with the kick of a zori to the side, flipping him over.

Amid the shock of that outrageous act, Al screamed as he slid across the ground.

“That’s insane! After all that about stage presence, are you seriously attacking me while I’m talking!?”

“No, no, no, I wouldn’t do something so uncouth! That would be an act of special betrayal! Rather, it’s because, look!”

“What do you mean look…?”

Raising himself from where he had slid, Al saw Cecilis pointing at the wall. To his astonishment, at the height where he had just been standing, a fist-sized hole had formed.

It hadn’t been there just a moment ago. But suddenly, an opening had appeared.

That meant――,

“Sniping… grove!”

The moment he widened his eyes, Cecilis’s figure got blurred again, and right afterward, Al felt the G-force of acceleration overwhelming his entire body as he was thrust backward.

Cecilis took off running, hooking an arm under Al’s waist, starting a full-on sprint while dragging him along, and like wind, the pair were pushed onward――,

“Hey, hey, hey, what’s going on, what’s happening!?”

Within the sensation of being hurled backward, Al’s vision warped from the fast-moving urban streets and crumbling buildings overtaken by something swirling violently as it chased them down.

If the first impression held true, it was a sniper. A sniper was on their tail, chasing both Al and Cecilis.

“A sniper usually can’t move while aiming at a target!”

They would patiently wait to launch a fatal shot when the time was right.

That was the fundamental rule of sniping—yet this sniper was accurately pursuing the fleeing Al and Cecilis, preempting them to anticipate hiding behind cover.

As if surrounded by a hundred snipers, or perhaps faced with a sniper who could move freely at high speeds.

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!”

“Gah! Ouch! I bit my tongue!”

While dodging shots of that terrifying accuracy, Cecilis kept dodging left and right, up and down, avoiding the attacks.

But he was not checking his surroundings at all. Al realized—- He was relying on intuition. Cecilis was evading world-class shots based solely on instinct!

“I’m not that good, you know. But don’t you feel a prickling sensation when the other side is about to take a shot? That’s when you know!”

“Forget about my doubts! Just focus!”

“I’m on it! But this opponent is exceptionally skilled. I’ve come across them a few times, yet not once have I been able to land a shot on them.”

The ground made explosive sounds as it exploded from the zoris, gaining momentum as Cecilis sped up. While feeling the invisible sharpshooter hounding them, Al was hit by a double shock from Cecilis’s past comments.

One was that Cecilis had encountered this foe multiple times and continued to survive.

The other was that this opponent was such an overpowering enemy, even for Cecilis.

“I think they’re flying, but that’s not the only reason I can’t see them.”

“An invisible enemy…!”

Cecilis floundered about, showing a complete lack of urgency as he spoke those words, while Al obtained the keyword—an invisible enemy.

If he could uncover the mystery behind it, or if not, then perhaps find some countermeasure.

“Whoa, watch out!”

While shouting warning of impending danger, an outrageous crashing noise erupted from behind Al—i.e., from the direction they were heading and turned his head.

He was met with two of the three buildings coming down toward their path.

The structures from straight ahead and both sides had all suffered damage, their subterranean foundation ravaged beneath it by sniper fire, leaning dangerously as they collapsed.

If they were crushed, absolute defeat was inevitable. At the moment he noticed, Al gritted his teeth and shouted,

“Domain! Re-define—!!”

“We’re going straight ahead!”

Just as Al reset the domain, Cecilis kicked off the ground, slamming through a window of one of the collapsing buildings with Al still in his grasp.

Hearing the delicate shattering of glass as the windows broke under the weight of the collapsing structure, Cecilis kicked off the collapsing floor, shattering the ceiling, creating a direct route from the lower level to the upper as he charged upward.

“Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!”

Given that the buildings were collapsing, it was a fact that the crushing would start from below.

That said, avoiding being crushed in this manner was a crazy stunt; it was completely beyond sanity. It was something you just shouldn’t say.

However, due to this extraordinary judgment, Al and Cecilis managed to breach out of the window before the entire structure fell apart――,

“No, this won’t do.”

As they burst through the ceiling, Al and Cecilis soared into the air.

Looking down, they could see three buildings crashing in on one another, producing massive earthquakes as they crumbled. It seemed one had stored flammable alcohol or magic minerals, as flames sprawled onto the street.

However――,

“This is tough competition, indeed!”

As Cecilis burst into jubilant laughter, Al’s body trembled from the shock at the same time.

But that shock didn’t come from Al; it was Cecilis who had jumped into the air with him—he was struck by a bullet and lost a part of his leg.

His small left foot exploded from the knee down, blood spilling into the air as the boy gritted his teeth. Al understood from his own experience. Pain would hit immediately, and his throat would give a shout――,

“—That way!”

Letting out that instead of a scream, Cecilis seemed to lock onto a target far in the air.

Then, using the remaining leg he had to push against Al, he propelled himself toward something he had spotted.

The push from just one leg carried immense momentum; he would surely catch up to whoever the enemy was.

In that condition— missing a leg――.

“That’s not going to work.”

Even with just one leg, Cecilis was potentially a hundred times stronger than Al.

That said, it wouldn’t do. Cecilis had to remain in peak condition. Hence, Al drew his Blue Dragon Blade, pressing it against his neck.

And without a moment of hesitation, he swung the blade viciously――.

×　　×　　×

“Going straight ahead—”

“No, right at that building!!”

As the buildings collapsed from all angles, just when Cecilis was about to leap toward the front, Al bellowed with a voice louder than the crumbling noise, directing him to change course.

As soon as Cecilis heard Al’s words, he laughed and suddenly tasted blood as he deftly altered his trajectory, charging with Al still in tow toward the collapsing structure on their right.

Hearing the echoing shattering of glass as they dove into the building, Al pointed towards the back of the room they entered.

“Toward that room! Secure the box inside!”

“Aye, aye, sir!”

With Al’s commanding tone, solidified by certainty, Cecilis posed no questions.

He brazenly smashed through the wall into the neighboring room, discovering an iron box—this was a part of the owner’s assets, meant for emergencies.

Regrettably, it seemed that the owner could not seize it, leaving it ripe for the picking for Al and Cecilis.

“Up there!”

Just after securing the box, their escape from the tilting building transitioned back to the eccentric prowess and creativity of Cecilis.

Scooping Al back up again, he leaped through the ceiling of the lower level, crashing through each floor on the way up at a frightening speed, repeating his feat until finally reaching the top floor.

Then, in the very next moment that they broke through the ceiling, Al dropped the box he couldn’t even count how often he had held at this point.

Just as he did so, sniper fire erupted from far away, wetting the ground just as it missed one of Cecilis’s limbs.

“—–Dona!”

As the box dropped down, Al’s sloppy magic activated from within, igniting the high-purity magic stones that had once belonged to someone in the empire, sending massive flames up, engulfing both of them from below.

“——–”

They were washed in scorching heat while the flames formed a curtain around Al and Cecilis. Still, even if the flames covered them in this fleeting moment, Al knew that if it were this marksman, he wouldn’t miss and could take them down—no, Cecilis specifically.

Thus, the goal wasn’t necessarily to obscure their view but rather to create a moment of distraction for the marksman.

“——–That way.”

Cecilis whispered, grinning widely.

As blood spilled from Cecilis’s cheek where the sniper struck him, his blue hair flew about wildly. Yet, all of Cecilis’s limbs remained intact.

The fiery screen wasn’t meant to hide Cecilis from the enemy; instead, it was meant to ensure he could see and react to approaching threats before they reached him.

Before any bullet could reach Cecilis, it had to breach the flame wall first.

This was absurd, yet Al trusted that Cecilis would not overlook the changes instigated by the flames as they neared him; he relied that he would win this gamble.

――Thus, through the curtain of flames, Al and Cecilis locked eyes with the sniper.

“—–”

In that instant, Cecilis’s pupils constricted, and Al felt a zori’s sole press against his waist.

As had happened before, Cecilis was preparing to enter the sniper’s position. What set it apart this time, however, was that all limbs of Cecilis were tethered to his smaller frame.

From here on out, all he needed was to――.

“—I won’t let my guard down.”

Muttering to himself, Al steadied himself to reset the next domain.

With each scallion of loss he endured in his mind, he realized how exhausting it felt, yet he knew, just as Cecilis stated, that a one-in-a-million chance only comes rarely.

If he wished for a second brush with fate, it had to be yielded without compromise.

That was why Al set about redefining the matrix for the next time――.

“—Kumogiri.”

Right before he could act, something strange struck his view.

It was beyond the fire curtain, where Cecilis had perched himself, judging the position of the sniper with his invisibility.

The sky had gone through an unusual shadow.

Across undead capital Rupugana, thick black clouds had suddenly cleaved. And moreover, it wasn’t just in one spot, but rather in two to three, shifting continuously.

It was as if someone, or something, were tracking an unseen sniper in the sky—no, not merely like that.

The unseen was chasing after the enemy, all the while unleashing a wave that tore through the black clouds.

“Ahhh! They’re getting away, they’re escaping!!”

A voice rising in terror belonged to Cecilis, still latched onto Al’s back.

The reason for his startled scream became clear; fleeing from the slicing of clouds was the marksman—the very being who was abandoning the battle, causing Cecilis to wail in anguish.

For Al, it seemed like a windfall.

But for Cecilis, he stared down in bitterness at the scene below.

There, they saw a figure on a building’s rooftop, far from the toppled three structures.

That figure was seen holding a sword in hand while jovially waving goodbye to the fleeing enemy, applauding himself for slicing through the clouds.

A stranger, someone unknown caused Al to furrow his brows.

And behind Al, as Cecilis regarded this sudden intruder, he spoke with astonishment,

“Wow, my father sure looks older than last time!”

“Your dad?”

Al was left dumbfounded by Cecilis’s flippant remark.

If this figure was truly the person Cecilis referred to as father, that would simplify matters. But the real question was――,

“…there’s no way he’s going to die after this, right?”

Observing the ongoing turmoil of the three buildings still crashing violently below while experiencing a strange sensation of weightlessness, Al uttered his thoughts, leaving the future to Cecilis.