Because even an undead wyvern had been taken down before, and given Berdia's own past experiences, he never underestimated powerful adventurers—nor did he allow himself to grow arrogant.
Long before launching the assault on Axel, he had already summoned his personal guard.At present, the number of undead knights gathered around Berdia wasn't especially large—only around a hundred or so. However, every one of them was high-level.They might not compare to the undead wyvern from before, but for Axel—a town where most adventurers were still complete rookies—this force was undeniably overwhelming.
Facing such a number of undead knights, even though Axel's adventurers had prepared themselves mentally, their hearts still pounded with dread.
Because the Demon King's Army was nothing like the monsters they had hunted before. Monsters were mindless and incapable of coordination.But these undead knights moved in perfect unison, their actions crisp and disciplined—no different from well-trained imperial soldiers. In contrast, Axel's adventurers, lacking teamwork and cohesion, looked like a scattered rabble.
What the hell were they supposed to fight this with?
"Everyone, don't lose heart! Our side's powerful reinforcements have arrived as well!""The moment we learned the Demon King's Army was attacking the city, a top-class adventurer who had been traveling through other towns returned!""Mr. Mitsurugi Kyoya! Back in the royal capital, he earned royal commendations for repelling the Demon King's Army multiple times!""He's currently ranked third on the national adventurer leaderboard—a truly monstrous powerhouse! With someone like him fighting alongside us, I'm certain we can drive the Demon King's Army back this time!"
The one who appeared before everyone was a handsome young man wielding an enormous magic sword. At his side stood a spear-wielding girl and a thief girl.
When Luna spoke that name, most of Axel's adventurers visibly relaxed, letting out long-held breaths.
Axel's strongest adventurer now was Yūdō, but in the past, the title of strongest had always belonged to the man known as Mitsurugi Kyoya.
He too was registered with the Axel Adventurers' Guild. His class was the physically strongest combat profession—Sword Master—and he had earned the recognition of the magic sword Gram. Because of that, he had left Axel early on, moving beyond this beginner town.
Hearing a name like "Mitsurugi Kyoya," both Ren Kuroda and Kazuma instantly guessed his identity.
In a European medieval-style world like this, that name format was extremely unusual. And the fact that he had gained a magic sword's recognition at such a level was, in itself, unbelievable.
And indeed, Mitsurugi Kyoya was a high school student from the same world as Satou Kazuma—someone who had also been guided into this world by Aqua, that utterly useless goddess.
The difference was that Mitsurugi Kyoya hadn't tried to be clever like Kazuma. He'd chosen his cheat ability normally when reincarnating into this world.
The magic sword Gram in his hand—that was Aqua's gift.
"…Interesting. So I'm not the only otherworlder in this world.""Ranked third among adventurers, huh? Guess I'll use this chance to see what this world's combat ceiling looks like.""Ever since coming to Axel, I haven't met a single opponent worth fighting. This is perfect—let's see how a top-tier adventurer measures up against a Demon King general."
When Ren Kuroda first spotted Berdia, he'd intended to step in and fight him himself. After all, while Kazuma was admittedly useless, Ren was certain Kazuma was a "child of destiny." That much couldn't be wrong.
Even if other reincarnators existed, someone who could drag a goddess around everywhere like that was probably one of a kind.
To be fair, Ren genuinely admired Kazuma's creativity. Choosing the person who grants cheats as your cheat ability—if that idea belonged to a protagonist in another world, it would be hailed as galaxy-brain intelligence.
Unfortunately, no one could have predicted that Aqua was not only catastrophically stupid, but also possessed a god-tier talent for causing disasters.
And if Kazuma—the child of destiny—died, the plot would unquestionably spiral out of control. Whether Ren's mission target, the mobile fortress Destroyer, would even appear afterward would become completely unpredictable.
To prevent things from veering into unrecoverable territory, Ren couldn't allow Satou Kazuma to die here.
Originally, Ren had planned to defeat Berdia himself and clear the second prerequisite quest.
But after seeing Mitsurugi Kyoya, he stopped rushing—and instead began shamelessly slacking off against the undead knights.
While pretending to struggle, Ren also carefully observed the battle between Mitsurugi Kyoya and Berdia.
The otherworlder known as Mitsurugi Kyoya possessed the advanced class Sword Master, and with the magic sword Gram in hand, both his raw power and swordsmanship were undeniably impressive.
If Ren were to rate Kyoya's strength by the standards of his original world, Kyoya would easily fall into the A+ tier.
However, despite Kyoya's overwhelming attack power, Ren quickly identified his flaws.
They were weaknesses shared by most reincarnators—namely, a lack of real combat experience and battle instincts.
Each swing of Kyoya's magic sword unleashed devastating destruction. And yet, despite all that power, not a single strike had landed cleanly on Berdia.
Worse still, during close combat, Kyoya would unconsciously reveal flickers of hesitation, missing opportunities that should have injured his opponent.
But when you thought about it, this outcome wasn't strange at all.
No matter how strong Kazuma or Kyoya were now, in their original world, they'd only been ordinary high school students.
How could a normal student raised in a peaceful society possibly possess real combat experience or battlefield instincts?
And this wasn't a video game. You didn't feel no pain when injured, nor could you respawn after dying.This might be another world—but death here was permanent.
So feeling fear in the face of danger, hesitating, and being afraid of injury were entirely natural reactions.
Every one of Kyoya's attacks shook the ground and split the earth—his weapon was a magic sword, after all. But the issues Ren could see were just as obvious to Berdia.
After all, Berdia had been a knight in life, and after death, he had spent years waging war as a headless knight.
Moreover, Berdia possessed an extremely practical skill—Piercing Insight.
By throwing his severed head into the air, he could gain a flawless, omnidirectional view, instantly identifying every weakness and opening on his opponent's body.
Combined with his refined knightly swordsmanship, the moment the battle began, it only appeared that Kyoya was suppressing Berdia with sheer power.
In reality, the fight unfolded entirely at Berdia's pace.
The magic sword Gram was indeed terrifying—capable of slaying even dragons.But wielding such power came at a price.
With every swing, Kyoya consumed enormous amounts of mana and stamina.
Meanwhile, Berdia—whose combat power rivaled an S− tier—never engaged Kyoya head-on. Instead, he deliberately avoided direct clashes, seeking victory with minimal loss.
Whether in timing, experience, or battlefield judgment, the gap between the two was painfully obvious.
The outcome was inevitable.
When Kyoya swung his magic sword again, only carving a trench less than half a meter wide into the ground, Berdia knew the moment had come.
In a flash, he vanished—then reappeared directly in front of Kyoya.An elbow slammed brutally into Kyoya's abdomen.
Kyoya nearly lost consciousness on the spot.
"So you are Mitsurugi Kyoya.""Your name is on the Demon King Army's watchlist.""I heard several frontline squads were wiped out because of you.""And the undead wyvern I dispatched earlier… that fell to your magic sword, didn't it?"
"Your strength is commendable.""But you lack the skill to wield it."
"You disappoint me."
"Still… as the master of a magic sword, you are worthy of dying by my blade."
With hundreds of undead knights pressing them, Axel's adventurers were already struggling desperately. If not for the bizarre yet surprisingly effective magic-item bundles from Wiz's shop earlier, casualties would have been catastrophic by now.
But magic items ran out of power eventually.
Seeing Kyoya suppress the headless knight earlier, they had pinned their hopes on him—believing that if he won, the enemy would retreat.
None of them expected the battle to reverse so violently, so quickly.
Just moments ago, Kyoya had been dominating. Now, within mere exchanges, he was completely defeated.
As Berdia raised his knightly greatsword high, preparing to pierce straight through Kyoya's head, panic rippled through the battlefield.
If even Kyoya—the strongest—fell, the rest of them would be steamrolled.There would be no one left who could stop the headless knight.
"Megumin! Use Explosion and blow him up already! That magic sword guy's about to get his death flag punched in!" Kazuma screamed.
"Are you an idiot?" Megumin shot back."That headless knight's armor has extremely high magic resistance! Unless it's holy-element magic, most spells won't do anything!""And that 'Kyoya' guy is standing right next to him! If my Explosion doesn't kill the knight, it'll kill him first!"
Kazuma's group hadn't wanted to get involved in something as terrifying as a Demon King Army siege.
But in the end, Kazuma and Aqua simply couldn't resist the absurdly high bounty posted by the Adventurers' Guild.
A single undead knight was worth one million eris.And the bounty on the headless knight Berdia was an astronomical sum.
"Do it anyway!" Aqua declared."Even if it doesn't kill him, it should severely injure him!""Then I'll purify him with holy magic, and Kazuma can rush in to steal the kill!""As for that magic sword guy—his sacrifice won't be in vain!""I, the goddess Aqua, will remember his name forever… for the sake of the reward money!"
"YOU'RE A DEVIL!" Kazuma shouted, staring at Aqua's eyes—now literally shaped like eris symbols.
"So we just need to pull Mitsurugi Kyoya out of the blast radius, right?""Then let's do it. I'll drag him out of range."
Ren Kuroda stepped forward.
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