"The Great Tree Labyrinth is an ancient region. Lately, a lot of monsters have been popping up over there—probably old-era creatures that were left behind and are only now waking up."
Seeing the commission Takumi had selected, Eina lowered her voice and gave him a quick briefing. The job itself wasn't particularly hard; the real challenge was adapting on the fly once he got there.
After listening, Takumi accepted the quest—and casually brought up the Saturday date they'd talked about.
"Eina-san, I haven't forgotten our date this Saturday. We'll just have to change the location—Orario's repairs aren't going to be finished anytime soon."
Hearing him say it so lightly while he gently took her hand, Eina let out a soft, involuntary little sound, then nodded.
"Whatever you decide is fine, Takumi-kun. And don't push yourself too hard. You already have so much on your plate…"
Her expression was nothing but understanding. With everything Orario had been through lately, the fact that Takumi still remembered the date at all made her happy. She didn't want to become another burden that complicated his life.
Takumi smiled like sunlight, leaned close to her ear, and murmured, warm enough to make her pulse jump.
"Trust me—this is the one thing that's never a burden. I'm really looking forward to our date. And by the time I'm back from this job, the timing should be perfect."
He even breathed softly against her elf ear before straightening up and leaving.
Eina was left standing there, cheeks burning, breathing a little fast. Sweetness swelled through her chest until it felt like her heart had followed him out the door.
…
With the map in hand, Takumi left Orario and headed out at full speed.
This world was enormous—without a way to accelerate, just reaching the Great Tree Labyrinth would take days.
So he didn't bother walking.
"[Cursed Technique: Blue]"
With a flick of his hand, the technique compressed distance itself. Space folded and tightened like a sheet being gathered, and Takumi moved like an ancient sorcerer stepping across miles in a single breath.
That was only the start—he needed to go much farther.
Humm—!
Ripples layered through the air as space kept collapsing and re-forming.
When Takumi planted his feet again, he was standing in a silent, empty forest.
"Still thousands of kilometers from the Great Tree Labyrinth… and Orario is even farther than that."
He swept his gaze across the wilderness and sensed the nearest nation was more than a thousand kilometers away. Moving again wasn't necessary—this was remote enough.
"As long as I keep the aftermath contained, it shouldn't reach anyone."
He exhaled once, then let his eyes sharpen.
"Alright… let's begin."
"[Ten Shadows Technique: Mahoraga]"
Takumi formed the seals.
The shadow beneath his feet immediately writhed, then spread outward like living ink—swallowing the land in a radius of a hundred kilometers. The darkness twisted, stretched, and rose, and from it emerged towering figures like masked specters.
Nine phantom generals lined up in front of him, each with a different presence:
Ninja Shadow. Claw Shadow. Flying Shadow. Giant Shadow. Armored Shadow. Soft Shadow. Devouring Shadow. Pincer Shadow. Scythe Shadow.
They dropped to one knee in perfect unison. It looked like loyalty… and at the same time, like an offering being laid at the feet of something behind him.
Then the true summon surfaced.
A ten-meter-tall monster appeared at Takumi's back—faceless where eyes should have been, four wing-like protrusions at the sides of its head, a tail-like extension at the back, and an exorcising blade mounted on its right arm. Above it, and behind it, the wheel turned—like a rudder, like a judge's verdict.
The moment Mahoraga fully manifested, the chains binding it detonated apart.
BAM—BAM—BAM!!
In the crack of shattered metal, a beastlike roar tore through the forest.
"ROAR!!"
BOOOOM—!!
The ground peeled up in layers under the sheer force of the sound. The shockwave rolled outward like a localized apocalypse, as if a nuclear blast had gone off at point-blank range and hurled megatons of earth into the sky.
At the center of it all, Takumi stood unmoved—his clothes didn't even flutter.
"This level of attack isn't even close."
His low voice was answered by an explosion of air.
BOOM!!
Mahoraga swung the Sword of Extermination down in a brutal arc aimed straight at Takumi's brow.
The blade kept closing in—then stopped.
No matter how it pushed, it couldn't cross the final sliver of distance.
Before the power of stopping, Mahoraga's strikes turned meaningless, like a storm frozen in glass.
And yet—Takumi's eyes narrowed as he watched the wheel at Mahoraga's back.
Click… click… click…
"It's already adapting," he murmured. "And faster than I expected."
As his words fell, the nine phantom generals surged from behind him in a blur.
"They're your servants," Takumi said calmly, palm pressing down, "but they're mine too."
The Ten Shadows Technique snapped into place, and control wrenched hard—dragging the nine generals under Takumi's command.
Mahoraga howled, instincts turning feral.
A vast pressure erupted.
Buzz—buzz—buzz!
Telekinesis smashed outward, and the land across a hundred kilometers burst and exploded as if crushed by invisible fists. Mahoraga attacked like a war machine that never tired, driving forward with relentless force, trying to grind Takumi into fragments.
For the first time, cracks began to creep across the "unstoppable" certainty of Takumi's stopping power—each rotation of that wheel carving deeper.
Takumi's expression cooled.
"Enough."
"[Domain Expansion: Unlimited Void]"
The domain spread at near-light speed and swallowed Mahoraga whole.
An infinite flood of useless information—endless, crushing, meaningless—poured into Mahoraga's mind like an ocean collapsing into a cup. Even a creature ruled by instinct couldn't withstand it. Its body froze mid-motion, brain stalling into a dead stop.
The only sound left was the slow, steady turning of the wheel behind it.
Takumi didn't waste the opening.
"[Balance Breaker]."
"[Boosted!!]"
Crimson dragon armor snapped into existence around him, and glowing cores along it flared brighter and brighter. His presence surged violently, punching past Demon King level and climbing to a terrifying threshold—just a hair short of a chief-god tier.
"[Cursed Technique: Star Rage]"
Imaginary mass slammed onto his body as if the universe itself had decided to increase his weight.
In an instant, Takumi's "mass" was so absurd it felt comparable to a neutron star—contained in human form.
Then he moved.
No fancy flourish. No wasted motion.
Fists. Palms. Kicks.
The simplest strikes became a storm in the span of a heartbeat.
BAM—BAM—BAM—BAM!!
Every punch carried the kind of force that could crack a continent. Every palm strike had the violence to grind mountains into dust. A thousand kilometers of land seemed to vanish under blinding impact, erased as if the world had been scrubbed clean.
A few seconds later, the delayed shockwave arrived like the end of everything.
BOOOOOOM—BOOOOOOM—BOOOOOOM!!
At the center of the battlefield, Mahoraga was pulverized—reduced to churning fragments like crushed tofu.
The remnants still wriggled, trying to knit themselves back together.
Takumi lifted his hand.
A raging, ultimate flame came down like judgment.
"[Blazing Inferno of Scorching Flames]!!!"
The fire devoured the fragments.
Mahoraga didn't regenerate.
It didn't adapt.
It turned to ash.
Standing amid molten rock, Takumi clenched both fists, eyes burning with unhidden exhilaration.
"Now… I'm not missing anything."
He let out a low growl of satisfaction.
To be honest, it had been simpler than he expected.
Mahoraga was terrifying, sure—but in the end, it was still a creation he had improved himself.
Between them, the gap in power was still so vast it might as well have been a different dimension.