Chapter 77

Chapter 77 Strongest Sage, Gives Present

"W-what is this . . . "

Arias asked me as the surrounding mana converged .

"It"s your own body, you know without me telling right?"

"Imploding from mana overload . . . "

Correct .

The magic I"ve put inside Arias forces a demon"s mana control to run amok and collect excess mana from the surroundings .

The demon that"s forced to gather mana will lose control of their mana, running amok--in short, it will implode and die .

. . . However, looks like Arias is hanging on to it hard .

Were he a lower ranked demon, I wouldn"t be surprised if he had already imploded by now .

"I see . A fitting magic for a monster . . . . But this isn"t enough to defeat me see?"

Arias laughed painfully as he said that .

The converging mana began to rapidly decrease .

It"s not like my magic is faulty .

The surrounding mana has simply dried up .

Since I had triggered Mana Disaster to materialize Arias, the mana in this vicinity had dried up .

"Right . Looks like it"s not enough . Since you seem to be working hard to control your mana . . . I"ll give you a present . "

I took out a magic stone from Storage magic .

"Present . . . Magic stone?"

Arias shifted his attention toward me while controlling the excess mana, looking dubious .

"Yeah . That said, I"m not giving this magic stone as is though . "

I answered while putting my mana into the magic stone .

Arias probably realizes what"s going to happen after seeing this .

After all, He has seen me crushing magic stones to trigger Mana Disaster .

"St . . . Stop it! Please stop!"

"Ah, sorry . You"re too late . "

I crushed the magic stone in my hand .

All of the vast amount of mana released from it got sucked into Arias"s body .

And, after a moment .

"U, UGAAAAAAAA!"

Arias imploded while screaming, blasting the surroundings .

I wait for the blast to recede while protecting myself with defend magic .

Several seconds later .

The ruined building has disappeared--there"s only a crater around where Arias was left .

After confirming that there"s a metal stake-like thing in that crater, I send 【Enforced Detection】 toward the sky .

Iris started to descend .

"Mathi-kun!"

Ruli got off Iris and hugged me .

"Why did you suddenly jump off! I was really worried you know!?"

"Aah . I did it to deceive the enemy . It didn"t work though . "

It"s a lie .

I had asked Iris to fly off high above to prevent the two from following me down .

"But . . . . "

"Well, he got off safe anyway, isn"t it fine . "

"Right right . Mathi-kun is Mathi-kun, of course he"s coming back safely!"

Following after Ruli, Iris and Alma stopped .

"But Alma, you were also really anxious until you saw Mathi-kun weren"t you!"

. . . . Ruli talked back to Alma .

Having people worrying about me is quite a fresh experience .

There was no one who would do that before I reincarnated .

Setting that aside, Ruli was still hugging me while we were conversing .

Personally, I"m very glad about this, I"d like this to continue a bit more . . . .

"I mean, Ruli, how long you"re planning to cling on Mathi-kun!"

"Ah! I . . . I"m sorry!"

Right when I thought that, Alma pointed that out and Ruli separated herself .

Ruli is looking down with a reddened face .

. . . The mood turned odd somehow . I should change the topic .

We"ve got a new problem we need to deal with after all .