I wasn't being careless or overconfident.
It's just that I'm not omnipotent, either.
I can't keep track of everything, and unexpected things happen all the time.
Under ideal conditions, I could at least use various kinds of magic to gather information and prepare countermeasures.
But right now, I was far from ideal.
My fight with Kuro had drained me considerably.
Since it started with Kuro's ambush, I'd been at a complete disadvantage in the early stages. The plan had been to lure Kuro into my field for the decisive battle, but as it turned out, I was the one who got thrown into Kuro's field instead.
That meant I had to start by overwriting Kuro's field with my own.
Naturally, Kuro wasn't about to let that happen easily — she came at me with a sword that had an effect that hindered the regeneration of physical damage.
Thanks to that, I'm covered in blood over here!
Still, I gradually overwrote the field, and just when I thought I finally had the upper hand, Kuro came charging in with a death-or-noorresolve and blinded me in one eye.
At least my brain wasn't split clean in two, but that damage was serious. Most of the distributed bodies I had in the process of rewriting the field got wiped out too…
To put it bluntly, if this main body of mine gets taken out now, I'm in deep trouble.
Very deep trouble.
Probably barely hanging on.
If I take any more damage, I could genuinely die.
So I can't use most of my energy, and that means most of my magic is off the table too.
I'm not being careless or overconfident, but I can't deny that I'm operating under severe restrictions.
That's exactly why I checked the priority of each enemy and tackled them from highest to lowest.
After sizing things up, the Wind Dragon was the biggest nuisance on the field.
Next came the little sister and the Ice Dragon.
The little sister had gotten considerably stronger thanks to the small dragon coiled around her arm, and that small dragon was healing her and providing other support on top of that.
The Ice Dragon was tough.
And its debuffs that were quietly weakening me were annoying.
The last one, the Fire Dragon, was… how do I put it? Ordinary.
No, not weak — just lacking any particular distinguishing features. Yeah.
Going after those four in order and eliminating the others first was the right call, I think.
Yamada's Heaven's Blessing was a threat in terms of shifting the tide of battle, but in a tight battlefield like this, I figured it wouldn't be that useful.
Yamada himself wasn't that strong, either.
No matter how much the power of Heaven's Blessing could nudge things into a favorable position, even if things did go his way, it wouldn't be enough for me to fall behind Yamada.
Same went for Oshima.
Oshima's barrier had decent strength, but it wasn't unbreakable.
Oshima himself, like Yamada, wasn't particularly strong, and since he could only play defense, leaving him alone wouldn't pose any real obstacle.
The Pope was on the verge of death, so I left him alone.
The weird old man was strong for a human, but that was all — strong *for a human.* Leaving him alone wasn't a problem.
If I'd had energy to spare, I could have deployed spells to deal with them too.
But I didn't have that luxury.
Concentrating on high-priority targets within my limited resources and taking them down in order — that was the correct judgment.
It should have been correct.
So what the hell was this situation!?
I'd been firing dark spell-bolts into the Wind Dragon and the Fire Dragon.
Given what happened with the dragon-person earlier, I wasn't about to get close recklessly — I intended to pick them apart from range and kill them at my leisure.
That response shouldn't have been wrong, either.
And yet, I was suddenly attacked from behind.
Something latched onto the back of my neck.
I felt a grinding sensation, like my very soul was being scraped away.
A spiritual attack.
The same as the dragon-person from before!
That's what I thought, and when I looked to see the culprit, it was that same dragon-person.
The dragon-person who was supposed to have died was attacking me again — with just its upper body!
What the hell is going on with this thing!?
It was supposed to be dead!
And on top of that, it was moving on just its upper body!
It didn't even have its right arm — so it jumped at me with just its left?
Baring its fangs even in death? That's way too much spite!
Just die quietly already!
This is horror both situationally and visually — get me out of here!
I yanked the dragon-person off me and slammed it into the ground.
Since it was just the upper half of a corpse, that was enough to stop it from moving again.
No, the fact that it was moving at all in the first place was the abnormal part.
How was it even alive?
That was when a sudden sense of dread washed over me, and I turned around.
There stood Yamada, sword raised high.
Seeing him, everything connected.
Yamada was the one who revived the dragon-person!?
But how did he get here so fast?
Ah! That weird old man's teleportation!?
Damn it! I hadn't been paying attention to Yamada or that side at all!
And this was bad.
Gripped in Yamada's hand was the Hero's Sword.
The holy blade forged by D — the one that could only be wielded by the Hero, and could unleash a single strike of overwhelming power.
Through some turn of events,
When this sword ended up in Yamada's hands without him even knowing its origins, that was when I'd realized the danger of his Heaven's Blessing.
And underestimating that Heaven's Blessing had been my mistake!
I fired a dark spell-bolt at Yamada in a panic.
But it was blocked by Oshima's barrier.
Shit! Because it was rushed, I didn't have enough power to break through Oshima's barrier!
Then I'll just punch straight through!
Yamada's speed was snail's pace from my perspective.
My fist would reach him far faster.
And of course, I'd smash right through that barrier!
"Harmonize!"
Right at the moment my fist was about to pierce through Yamada's chest, the Pope's voice rang out.
And then, without so much as wounding Yamada, my fist simply touched his chest with a soft, gentle pat.
All of its power had been nullified — an utterly bizarre sensation.
My attack… was negated!?
This is bad!
Yamada's Hero's Sword came swinging down.
Make it in time!
I activated my Evil Eye with the one remaining eye I had left.
…Or tried to.
Blood from the eyelid the dragon-person had slashed earlier dripped down, blocking my vision for an instant.
The Evil Eye misfired.
And then my body was engulfed in a torrent of light pouring forth from the Hero's Sword, and was blown away without a trace.