The turning point began the very moment Apollo Familia lost the will to fight once more and fled.
And right after that.
"B-Bell!"
Cassandra, who had been watching the situation unfold, hurried toward where Bell had been sent flying.
When she arrived, she could not hide her shock.
That was how grave the boy's condition was.
"H-How could this happen...!"
Forget the blood bruising his whole body and the blood-soaked mess pouring from torn wounds.
All four of the boy's limbs had been broken, bent in bizarre directions.
On top of that, there were more than a few places where broken bones had pierced through his skin.
At this point, he could no longer continue fighting.
Worse still was the chest caved in by the impact. There was a very high chance the broken bones inside had badly damaged his organs.
In other words, the boy's life was hanging by a thread.
It was a critical situation where the fact that he was still breathing at all was nothing short of a miracle.
"[O light of the heavens once refused. Arms of mercy that save this frail body...]"
So Cassandra hurriedly chanted a recovery spell.
Her magic was area-based, so for the amount of Mind it consumed, it did not have much healing power. Still, in the current situation, it was better than nothing.
Moreover, with no potions left in her possession, this was the best and only option.
Even if she had had a spare potion, it might have been poison to Bell in his current state.
"[...I beseech you, drive back ruin. Sol Light!]"
Fwoosh!
Once she finished the chant, a sacred magic circle spread out around her.
All that was left was to wait for the boy to receive the spell's effects and recover somewhat.
That was what Cassandra thought.
At least.
"Huh? Bell?"
Until the boy, who had been lying still with his injuries, suddenly got up.
"N-No, you can't. If you keep fighting in that condition, you'll really—"
Startled by his sudden action, Cassandra tried to stop him.
Then—
Twitch!
[Ah...]
The boy, who had risen to his feet, gave a violent shudder.
And then—
Creeeak... shaaak!
"H-Hiiik!"
Something strange happened to the boy's body.
From his mouth.
And from his eyes.
Even from his nose and ears.
A white substance burst out from every opening in his body and began to cover him.
Not only that, but it seeped into the wounds all over his body beneath the neck.
[Aaaaaaaaaaaah!]
At the same time, a fierce scream burst from the boy's mouth.
However, that sound was unmistakably, undeniably not human.
It was like the howl of a demon risen from hell.
Something horrifying, as if it were literally grabbing hold of the soul, tearing it apart, twisting it, and wringing it dry.
The boy's roar rang out across the entire battlefield.
"Bell-kun?!"
"Cranel-san!?"
After Cassandra, who was right beside him, the first to react were, naturally, the boy's companions.
By the time everyone else realized something was wrong and looked his way—
"A-Ah..."
The unknown white substance pouring from the boy's body had completely hardened, covering his face.
The gaps in his wounds were all sealed over as well, hidden beneath the same white matter.
To describe that sight another way, he looked exactly like a ghost.
It was, quite literally, an "oni mask."
"C-Could it be... this is it?"
Seeing that, Cassandra thought.
The mysterious mask mentioned in the prophecy.
She had assumed it was some kind of metaphorical expression.
But apparently, that was not the case.
Could it really have been referring to this thing itself?
At the same moment that question crossed her mind—
- Guaaaaaaah!
BAM!
"Kyaaah! Bell!"
The giant's massive fist came crashing down on the boy once more.
Cassandra's scream rang out as she barely managed to avoid being caught in the blow beside him.
With the Bell she had just seen in that grievous condition, this had to be a fatal strike.
As she tried to rush in and save him somehow—
Shhk!
A sudden slicing sound rang out.
Then, after the sound, the giant's hand was cut cleanly in two and shattered apart.
Standing there in the gap was none other than Bell Cranel.
In his battered hand, which had been ruined by his earlier injuries, his main weapon, the Hestia Knife, was now firmly gripped.
The knife's small blade was blazing with pure white flames, unlike usual.
"B-Bell?"
Cassandra reflexively called out to him at that bizarre, changed atmosphere, but no answer came.
Instead, what followed were strange, deeply unpleasant sounds coming from his body.
It was the horrifying scream of his own flesh.
Crack! Crunch! Squelch! Rattle!
"W-What is that...?"
Right beside him, Cassandra saw it with her own eyes.
The boy's body was gradually recovering.
No, that was not recovery in any kind, favorable sense.
It was not something gentle at all.
That was, quite literally, "restoration."
Like a blacksmith repairing a weapon with hammer and tongs.
The boy's body, broken beyond belief, was being forcibly "reconstructed" in a way even more brutal and merciless than that.
The broken bones were forcibly fitted back into their original shape.
The severed and torn muscles were forcibly rejoined.
And when his twisted, ruined limbs, along with his caved-in chest, had all been restored to their original form—
[Aaaaaaaaaaaah!]
BAM!
The boy ran.
He charged forward with a scream-like cry.
Just as his companion Ryuu had done earlier.
Using the giant's arm as a foothold, he ran up it.
His destination was none other than the giant's shoulder.
- Uwaaaaaaah!
BAM!
The giant had no reason to let the boy's charge go unchallenged.
Just as it had done to Ryuu before, it swept its hand across him as if brushing away a bug and shook him off.
No, it thought it had shaken him off.
Tap!
- Gua?
The white-haired boy vanished from sight in an instant.
Just as the giant's eyes belatedly tried to track his movement—
Crack!
"[Firebolt.]"
BOOM!
With a burst of explosion, the giant's arm was blown away.
An unbelievable sight even for everyone watching with their own eyes.
"Bell-kun, just what...?"
Mikoto's eyes went wide with shock at the astonishing result.
Unlike her, Ryuu, who had more experience as an adventurer, could calmly tell what had happened.
It was not especially strange or unusual.
It was simply that the boy had driven his knife into the giant's shoulder, then activated his magic through the knife and detonated it, forcing the gap open with pressure and breaking it apart.
In other words, the boy's knife was the nail that made the hole.
His magic was the hammer that came down to split the stone.
"What happened to you, Cranel-san?"
What Ryuu could not understand, however, was only one thing.
With the level of skill she had known him to possess until now, such a method should have been impossible.
Not just the movement that had matched her own from moments ago.
Even the boy's magic, whose short chant made it especially weak, should not have been able to do this.
"No, if it were magic, I could understand it somewhat as support for the power he used when facing the Black Goliath on the 18th Floor."
Even so, she could not make sense of it.
It was true that the boy had become stronger than before, but the change was far too sudden, far too abrupt.
To judge it as merely a skill effect felt wrong.
Especially when considering the extent of the injuries he had suffered.
It was enough to make anyone watching feel a sense of wrongness, danger, and unease all at once.
No matter how she looked at it, the boy's current state was not normal.
In a sense, it felt even more dangerous than before. That was Ryuu's rational conclusion.
"N-No... he's, he's going to die... Bell-kun is going to die...!"
"What?"
Those were Cassandra's tearful words in Ryuu's ear.
But that was not what mattered right now.
No, more importantly—what had she just said?
Who was going to die?
"Mirabilis, what did you just say? Die? Don't tell me... do you know something about Cranel-san's condition?"
"Ah, um, that is..."
"Answer me now!"
"Eek!"
Under Ryuu's angry pressing, Cassandra hesitated for a moment before answering.
But the problem was that she herself did not really know much of anything.
She had only said those words because she believed in the prophecy's contents.
"I don't really know either. It's just... that mask, if it isn't taken off soon, Bell-kun will be in danger..."
"Then who! Who said that?"
"Ngh! I-I can't say."
Even under Ryuu's repeated demands, Cassandra could not continue.
After all, that was what her prophecy was.
If she said it and no one believed her, and something went wrong with the boy because of that...
She might never be able to forgive herself.
So she could only tell them the prophecy's outcome.
In truth, in normal circumstances, even that would be dangerous if no one believed it.
"B-But it's all true. P-Please, believe me..."
"...It seems you have some circumstances of your own."
Fortunately, perhaps because the prophecy had already progressed this far.
Ryuu did not particularly doubt her.
She was already fully aware of the boy's sudden strength, the unease that came with it, and the danger it implied.
More than anything, in fact—
"Hey, that Little Rookie..."
"He's bleeding way too much. Is he really okay?"
"At this rate, he's really going to die."
Before long, the boy's body, his once-white hair, was gradually being dyed red with his own blood.
And the blood left over from that, the blood flowing out through the gaps in his body, scattered through the air and fell to the ground.
At the same time, it steadily carved away at and shattered the giant's body.
- Guaaaaaaaah!
BAM!
To stop the boy's struggle, the giant counterattacked.
Most of the time it missed, thanks to the boy's small frame and quick movements.
Still, there were moments when the end of its attacks reached him.
Each time, the boy's fragile body bent and broke.
Crunch! Squelch! Creak!
"What is that?"
"My God..."
Just as before, some unknown force forcibly "restored" his broken body to its original shape.
Anyone who saw that horrific sight with their own eyes would understand.
This astonishing struggle was being carried out by literally burning through his life.
And that end would surely... not be a good one.
[Ka, g, aaaaaaaaaah!]
As if only the boy himself did not know that obvious fact, he kept moving.
He kept breaking his body, kept shaving away his life, and kept fighting.
Watching that self-destructive figure, Ryuu bit her lip hard.
If she did not do something else quickly...!
"I'll stop him. Yamato-san, please handle the giant until then. With your magic, you should be able to buy some time."
"Understood. Leave it to me, Ryuu-san."
After briefly leaving the giant to Mikoto, Ryuu hurried off.
Every second counted.
If she was even a little too late and an irreparable wound was left on the boy's body...
She would never forgive herself.
"I will not let that happen."
Whoosh!
- Uwaaaaaaah!
Just then, Mikoto's magic activated and bound the giant's feet once more.
In that opening, Ryuu closed the distance to Bell, who had broken away from the giant.
"Cranel-san! Stop this! If you keep pushing yourself any further—!"
And toward Ryuu—
Swoosh!
"Cranel-san!?"
As if telling her not to interfere, Bell swung his weapon.
No, it was not merely some aggressive impulse.
Rather, something...
"He's excluding me? Why?"
That was right.
Bell, wearing the unknown mask, was clearly hostile toward her.
As if she were an enemy threatening him.
As if everything around him except himself was a threat.
"No, Cranel-san! I'm not your enemy! Please, come to your senses...!"
Swoosh!
Ryuu's earnest, desperate plea.
But the boy acted as though he could not hear any of it.
He kept swinging his weapon, hostile to her as she continued to approach.
If he had been his usual self, Ryuu alone should have been able to subdue him without difficulty.
"This movement... just how?"
[Aaaaaaaaaah!]
Facing him directly, she could tell for certain.
Bell Cranel had indeed become stronger.
Strong enough to match her, a level 4 adventurer and one of the highest-ranked among them.
"It's not just his status that's gone up."
His movement, technique, judgment, even every breath he let out from time to time.
Every single element had been sharpened and refined to a degree far beyond the boy she had known before.
That only made Ryuu's confusion grow.
If it were merely the kind of temporary strengthening that raised his status, she could understand it to some extent.
Skills and magic with such effects could be seen in other adventurers too.
But his enhancement did not end at that simple level.
The way he handled his body, the completeness of his technique, even the occasional feints and bluffs mixed in.
Everything had reached the realm of maturity.
It felt, quite literally, like an inexperienced level 2 had become a seasoned level 4.
Was this really something that could happen in reality?
"Tch, it's obvious it's that man's doing."
What on earth did you do to him, magus?
Ryuu muttered a low curse as the face of the prime suspect rose in her mind.
Regardless.
What mattered right now was stopping the boy in front of her.
Having faced him directly, she could tell even more clearly how dangerous this was.
If she left him alone like this, he would truly die by self-destruction.
"That will never happen."
[Aaaaaaaaaah!]
Watching Bell charge at her, Ryuu steeled herself with a hardened expression.
If she wanted to save the person in front of her, half-hearted resolve would not be enough.
Even if it cost her life.
"Cranel-san, I will save you no matter what."
Ryuu tightened her grip on the wooden sword and made her resolve firm.
It seemed that for today, at least, she too would have to go on an "adventure" like everyone else.
The boy in front of her was undoubtedly an encounter worth that much.
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