"Isekai Tensei no Boukensha, Volume 6" released on May 10th!
That said, the release at my regular bookstore is two days late (plus an extra day when Sunday falls in between), so I haven't been able to confirm it on the shelves yet... but it should be out there!
Please keep supporting the series.
(This is a dream...)
I'd experienced lucid dreams several times before, but this was the first time I'd seen one this nostalgic. The dream landscape unfurling before my eyes was the Kukuri Village of my childhood.
(There's nobody here...)
But sadly, even though this was a dream, I couldn't find a single soul.
(Come on, it's a dream — at least give me some entertainment...)
In the dream, I appeared to be walking from outside the village toward my house. Before long, I arrived at the beloved home where I'd been welcomed by Mom and Dad, right up until the zombie attack.
And without even pausing to savor the nostalgia, I pushed open the front door and went inside. But I didn't head to my room — instead, I cut straight through the house and out the back door.
(Huh? Wasn't the front door the pull-open type? And there wasn't a door here, was there?)
The differences from my actual memories might have been because it was a dream, but something about them nagged at me. Still, without stopping to investigate, my body kept moving forward, and I walked into the forest.
(Nostalgic... I used to set bird traps around here, and Dad accidentally wandered into one and got mad at me.)
Reminiscing about such things, I pressed deeper into the forest, parting the vegetation as I went.
(I've walked quite a ways, but where am I even going?)
It's not unusual to do meaningless things in a dream, but just walking endlessly like this was pretty odd. It felt like I was heading somewhere in particular, but according to my memory, there was nothing landmark-worthy ahead — just the Great Old Forest stretching on.
(I've come out into a clearing... Huh? Over there)
Something
is there?
After pushing through and through and through the forest, I finally emerged into a clearing. Just like a dream, it seemed I had arrived somewhere I'd never seen before.
As I stepped into that open space, at the edge of my vision—
Something
was beckoning and calling me over.
(Who is that?)
The something
that was calling me
had its entire body hidden beneath a hood, making it impossible to tell who or what it was just by looking at its face. It seemed a little taller than me, but I couldn't make out its build because of the hood, and I couldn't even tell whether it was male or female.
(Creepy... but even though I should be on guard, for some reason my feet are heading straight toward it)
If this were reality, I'd either leave the area without getting close at all, or use "Appraisal" to figure out what it was. But dream-me wasn't doing any of that—I was carelessly approaching this unidentified, suspicious figure.
When it noticed me getting closer, it stopped beckoning and thrust its hand out in front of itself.
(Does it want me to grab that hand?)
The hand reaching toward me—I could see it, yet I couldn't tell what kind of hand it was. Whether it was thin or muscular, whether it belonged to a man or a woman. All I could make out was that it was roughly hand-shaped.
When I had closed the distance to just a few meters—roughly a dozen steps—from being able to grasp that hand, something struck me square in the center of my forehead, and my gaze was forcibly pulled away from it.
"Ow..."
Instinctively, I touched the spot where pain was shooting through, and felt something slimy. When I checked my fingertip, there was blood on it. The moment I registered the blood and the pain, I realized that what I'd thought was a dream just moments ago was actually reality.
"Sleepwalking... wha—!"
When I whipped my gaze back to face forward, trying to get a grip on the situation, the true form of the figure that had been calling me was revealed.
It was a skeleton. The hand that had been reaching toward me and the face peering out from under the hood were both human bones—the kind you'd see on an anatomical model. There might have been some flesh left on the parts hidden by the hood, but that was a trivial detail. The thing standing before me—
was
not a human, but rather a Monster — or something close
to that kind of
existence.
That creature was facing a different direction from where I stood, reaching out with one hand to cast some kind of spell.
"What the — Jeanne! Like hell I'm letting you!"
In the creature's line of sight stood Jeanne. It looked like the creature intended to eliminate her. Jeanne, overwhelmed by the creature's bizarre appearance, seemed frozen in fear.
If this kept up, Jeanne would be killed by the creature. Making that call, I unleashed the wind magic "Air Ball" at it. Launched with speed as the priority, the spell struck before the creature could cast its own spell at Jeanne, blasting it away.
"Jeanne, are you okay?!"
Rather than follow up with another spell at the creature, I prioritized Jeanne's safety — positioning myself between it and her with her at my back.
The fact that I managed to save Jeanne probably came down to a fair amount of luck. Despite being slower to prepare my spell than the creature, I still managed to attack first — and that wasn't just because I'd chosen a speed-focused spell. The creature had been gathering enough Magic Power to ensure it killed Jeanne, and had been taking careful aim at her. It was probably only two or three seconds at most, but that
brief buildup
was what saved Jeanne's life.
"What the hell is going on here?!"
"I knew you weren't in your right mind!"
In a rush of words, Jeanne told me what had happened — how I had been wandering out of the camp and into the forest in a daze, and how everyone besides Jeanne had fallen into a sleep from which nothing could wake them.
"From any angle you look at it, this is an unmistakably abnormal situation... and the cause is undoubtedly —"
At the end of my gaze, the creature was slowly rising to its feet. The hood it had been wearing was torn to shreds, and the skeletal body hidden beneath it was partially visible.
"Just as I thought — the body is bone too... If it were just a Skeleton, this would be easy, but if it has enough Magic Power to trap me, Grandpa, and everyone else all at once, and my spells barely had any effect... then this thing's true identity is a Lich!"
In my image carried over from my previous life, a Lich was considered one of the most powerful Monsters — even among Zombies and Skeletons, the so-called undead-type creatures. And in this world, that was
for the most part,
that holds true.
However, unlike the programmed Monsters from a game, real Monsters have individual differences in strength, and that naturally applies to the Lich before us. But Monsters born from corpses, like a Lich, are often influenced by the strength and condition of the original body. Even if a creature is born as the Lich race, its strength can vary wildly depending on the raw materials—ranging from the strongest to the weakest. Well, you have to have a certain baseline strength to become a Lich in the first place. But since it *is* a Lich, its threat level as a Monster is on a different scale from trash mobs like Zombies or Skeletons (though even among them, the strength of Zombies and Skeletons varies considerably depending on the materials used).
And the Lich I was facing was, without a doubt, one of the strongest possible specimens of its kind.
"Jeanne! Don't move from my side!"
"Got it!"
From the Magic Bag on my arm, I pulled out ten Golem Cores and my favorite sword. Three of the summoned Golems were sent to guard our backs, while the remaining seven were directed straight at the Lich.
However, of the seven sent forward, the three Golems directly in the Lich's path were instantly destroyed by its magic.
"What kind of magic is that!?"
I had been using Appraisal on the Lich since earlier, but I couldn't read its Status. Similarly, the true nature of the magic that had just destroyed the Golems remained unknown.
"Remaining Golems! Flank it from both sides!"
The Golems circled around, two on each side of the Lich, leaving none between it and me.
"Rocks, dirt, anything! Just keep throwing!"
I ordered the Golems, then immediately started firing off Air Ball spells in rapid succession. The Lich was trying to counter my magic with some kind of spell of its own, but the barrage of rocks and chunks of earth being hurled from both sides left it struggling just to stay standing.
"Physical attacks are more effective than magic... then I'll overwhelm it with this!"
I switched from the wind magic Air Ball to the earth magic Earth Ball and went on the offensive to take down the Lich. The Lich, which had clearly been losing its composure compared to when I was using Air Ball, now had no room to counterattack once I switched to Earth Ball—it was barely holding on, trying not to be knocked down.
"Just a little more!"
The instant I was certain of victory, the Lich's eyes glowed with an eerie light. Then, all at once, the Golems throwing rocks and earth from both sides froze.
"They're destroyed!?"
"Tenma! Behind you!"
"What?!"
The Golem I'd been throwing suddenly stopped mid-motion, and I was distracted wondering whether some spell had destroyed it the same way as the first three, when Jeanne, behind me, noticed something and cried out.
Her voice snapped me to the disturbance behind us, and I grabbed Jeanne and leaped into the air. The very next instant, right where she and I had been standing—
three fists
came crashing down.
"They hijacked the Golems?!"
Those three fists belonged to the three Golems we'd stationed behind us as guards. And the four Golems that had been hurling rocks at the Lich moments ago had also turned their backs on it and started walking toward us.
"Tenma, is that even possible?!"
"I don't know. At least I can't do it, and I've never heard of anyone who could."
If you could make direct contact with a Golem, it might not be impossible to seize control of it. For instance, if the Lich had touched the Golems flanking it in a way I couldn't detect—extending part of its body the way Slarin does, for example—it could have been possible. But I had no idea how it had managed the three behind us.
(Those eerily glowing eyes probably had something to do with it… Either way, I'd better not use the Golems.)
Even if I figured out the likely cause, it wouldn't help if I couldn't prevent it. Fortunately, if that method worked on Jeanne or me, the Lich would have used it before targeting the Golems. Since neither of us had been manipulated the way the Golems were, I could at least assume the technique had no effect—or only a very weak one—on beings with a will of their own. Then again, it might work by an entirely different mechanism, and since I still didn't know how it had controlled me while putting everyone except Jeanne to sleep, I couldn't afford to let my guard down.
I destroyed the Golems heading our way and found myself facing the Lich with no allied Golems left.
From there, the battle ground into a stalemate, neither side able to land a decisive blow. To be honest, I could have seized an opening to grab Jeanne and flee, but there was a chance that unless I defeated this Lich, Grandpa and the others wouldn't return to normal—so that was a card I could only play at the very, very end, when there truly was no other option left.
"Damn it! It's tougher than—
it looks!
—hurgh!"
Once I'd committed to taking it down, I unleashed dozens of spells at the Lich. The first type I tried was light-attribute magic. Light spells were said to be effective against undead-type Monsters, but that Lich seemed to have extremely strong resistance to light, so they barely made a dent. Next I considered fire-attribute magic, which was also effective against the undead, but using fire spells in a forest carried far too great a risk when you thought about the aftermath.
So I focused on earth-attribute spells to attack the Lich, but its physical resistance was just as formidable as its magical resistance, and it didn't look like it was taking much damage. On the bright side, despite its high magic and physical resilience, the Lich was sluggish, and little by little I was managing to push it back. Of course, I was doing all this while shielding Jeanne, so even the slightest mistake could see things turn against us in an instant.
"There! Earth Lance!"
As I kept firing earth-attribute spells in rapid succession—centered around Earth Balls—several of them landed in a row, and the combined impact sent the Lich reeling back harder than ever before.
Seizing that opening, I fired a spell at the Lich's torso—far larger than the Earth Balls I'd been casting, and, true to its name,
like a charging spear—
with a tip honed to a deadly point.
The Earth Lance I fired pierced straight through the Lich's torso, its tip jutting out from its back as the impact sent it hurtling backward.
"Did I manage to take it down... Wait, what?"
Monsters almost invariably possess a magic core located where the heart would be. The magic core is one of the signature materials associated with Monsters, but merely damaging or destroying it during a creature's lifetime does not equate the loss of the core to the Monster's death—though the fragments of a shattered core can prove fatal, or the shock of its destruction can kill them. With undead-type Monsters, however, the rules differ: losing the magic core means death. This is thought to be because they use the core in place of a heart, though the exact mechanism remains poorly understood.
Bearing that in mind, I had used the Earth Lance to crush nearly the Lich's entire torso along with its magic core—yet the Lich showed no sign of suffering. It was simply trying to pull the Earth Lance from its chest with an air of mild annoyance.
"Damn it! Jeanne, get down!"
"Huh?"
I'd been so captivated by the scene before me that by the time I realized what was happening, the Lich was about to strike. The Lich had been skillfully putting on a show—pretending to struggle with
pulling the Earth Lance from its chest—
all while quietly preparing a spell without my noticing.
Jeanne didn't seem to grasp what I meant for a split second, but she reflexively did as told, clutching her head and throwing herself flat against the ground.
The spell the Lich unleashed was a volley of earthen lances modeled after the Earth Lance I'd struck it with. They were smaller than mine, but there were more than ten of them.
"Earth Wall! Earth Wall!"
I responded to the oncoming earthen lances by casting Earth Wall twice in quick succession. Most of them shattered upon hitting the barrier or were smashed from below, but the one at the forefront slipped through, so I drew Kogarumaru and cut it down... only,
"Guh!"
"Tenma!"
A lateral blow sent me tumbling through the air.
The Lich had used the Earth Wall I'd created as cover to reposition itself, then fired a spell at my flank—the same kind of magic as its Earth Balls.
The magic had hit my left arm, but the compressed chunk of earth struck with considerable force. The bones in my arm were shattered, and several ribs were broken too. Still, none of the broken ribs had pierced my lungs or heart, and it wasn't the kind of injury that would kill me if I didn't get treatment immediately.
The Lich's movements just now weren't exactly startlingly fast, but they were clearly different from the sluggish motions it had shown before. That was what caught me off guard and led to taking such severe damage.
If the Lich still had cards it hadn't played, then holding back now and planning for the future would actually be more dangerous. It seemed more likely that I'd survive if I poured everything I had right here and now into bringing the Lich down.
"Jeanne! Get over here!"
"O-Okay!"
Even as I called out to Jeanne, I hurled Kogarumaru straight at the Lich's skull. The Lich panicked in a way it hadn't before, crossing its arms to protect its skull from the incoming Kogarumaru. Kogarumaru couldn't pierce through, but it wedged itself into the gap between the Lich's crossed arm bones, effectively locking the Lich in place.
"So it is
hiding it
in there."
If the magic core wasn't in its chest, then the only remaining possibility was inside its skull. I figured it made sense — protecting it with a hollow ribcage was one thing, but a skull that could encase the entire core was far more secure. That said, I'd never heard of a Lich moving its own core, so if it actually had done that, then this Lich was far more of a nightmare than I'd imagined.
"W-Wait, Tenma!"
"Quiet! Press your face into me!"
When Jeanne made her way to my side, I pulled her close. She was startled by the sudden move, but my firm tone brooked no argument. Once I saw that Jeanne had complied,
"Tempest!"
I unleashed my ultimate trump card.
The Lich, its movement already sealed by Kogarumaru, was swallowed up by the gradually intensifying tornado with no way to resist, bracing itself low to avoid being flung away.
"Tempest F2!"
When I cranked up the power further, the Lich went flat against the ground, its immobilized arms grabbing nearby rocks to hold on. Above it, stones and trees caught in the Tempest whirled through the air.
Another notch more and it would be just like the Dragon Zombie — caught and battered by the flying debris. But Jeanne and I were reaching our limits.
We were safe from being struck by the debris since we were at the center of the Tempest, but the pressure changes were making the pain in my left side worse, and while it wasn't as bad as at the outer edges, the shockwaves were still reaching us to a significant degree.
"Jeanne, hold on a little longer. Tempest F3!"
When I cranked up the power to the level where the Dragon Zombie I'd defeated long ago could barely withstand it, the Lich's body finally began to lift off. The Tempest was stronger than it had been back then, and given how much larger the Dragon Zombie was compared to the Lich, the fact that it had held out this long was astonishing.
But that wasn't the only impressive thing. Even though the Lich was being tossed around in the storm and battered by flying rocks and trees, it was still holding its shape.
That thing was beyond anything I had imagined — in some ways, a monster on par with the Dragon Zombie.
"T-Tenma... I can't... anymore..."
It seemed Jeanne had reached her limit before the Lich.
"Jeanne, when I stop the Tempest, cover your ears, close your eyes, open your mouth, and get low to the ground."
Jeanne, her face pale, nodded in response to my words.
"Three, two, one... now!"
Timing the signal, Jeanne dropped to the ground as instructed.
I threw up a barrier around her prone form, took aim at the Lich as it reached the peak of its ascent and began to fall, and—
"Fall... Takemikazuchi!"
I activated the spell.
Takemikazuchi was a grand-scale magic named after the god of thunder and swords, Takemikazuchi. Its power surpassed that of the Tempest — if it hit squarely, it was capable of destroying a Dragon Zombie in a single blow. However, it required considerable effort to cast, and without the right conditions, it simply wouldn't work. Those conditions were: clouds in the sky, and mixing Magic Power into those clouds to electrify them.
This time, I had met those conditions by mixing Magic Power into the clouds gathered by the Tempest and the clouds formed by the pressure changes.
And then there was one final, crucial element: actually hitting the target — the Lich.
Takemikazuchi was my spell, so I could control it to some degree. But since it also had the properties of lightning, there was a risk of it striking something at a higher elevation than the target. That was why I had waited for the Tempest to send the Lich high into the sky.
Just as I planned, Takemikazuchi descended from above, straight at the Lich.
The instant it activated, a tremendous flash of light and shockwave radiated outward from the Lich. Even though I had my eyes shut and my hand raised as a visor, my vision was completely whited out, and even after the flash subsided, I couldn't focus my eyes. I hurriedly cast a recovery spell on them, and when my sight returned, the first thing I saw was the Lich, torn to shreds, at the moment Takemikazuchi struck it just before it hit the ground.
The Lich crashed into the earth. Every bone from the chest down was shattered to dust, but the bones above remained — its skull with both arms crossed in front of it, like some kind of bust.
"This is bad…"
I gritted my teeth and forced myself to study the Lich, even as my consciousness flickered in and out. The Lich showed no signs of moving, but it could be feigning death. So I decided to test its reaction — I crept a little closer, picked up a stone from the ground, and tossed it at the Lich. But I was too unsteady on my feet to brace myself properly, and the recoil nearly sent me toppling over.
"Look out!"
Jeanne caught me just before I could flip over, but she wasn't in top shape either after the shockwave from Takemikazuchi, and we both ended up sitting hard on our backsides.
Even with us left wide open like that, the Lich still showed absolutely no sign of movement — it really might be dead. Still, I asked Jeanne to take aim at it with the Slingshot.
Jeanne took on the task, missed a few times, and then scored a direct hit on the Lich's skull with a pebble. After how desperately it had fought to protect its skull, if the Lich were still alive, something would have to happen.
As I watched the Lich with that thought in mind, the moment the pebble struck, the skull toppled backward. And as if that were a signal, the remaining bones crumbled to dust like sand.
"Looks like it's over…"
"Yeah, it does…"
The instant I became certain the Lich had been destroyed, I heard a voice calling out to me from far away.
I looked toward the sound and could make out Grandpa and Solomon flying through the sky, along with Amour riding on Shiromaru's back. They must have been in a real panic, because even though they were shouting at the top of their lungs, I could only catch Jeanne's name and mine.
The very next instant I recognized Grandpa and the others, the world before my eyes went pitch black.