Chapter 35: Absolute Strongman, the Loneliness Born from It [Monthly Ticket Bonus] (Patreon)

Reinhard carried the Divine Protection of Truth—one glance at the scene was enough for him to piece together most of what had happened.

"You've gone too far, my lord. Even if this was a robbery, as a mage you could easily have driven off a few thugs. Why resort to such brutal measures?"

Reinhard's expression was grave as he said this to Daniel, the sword at his waist trembling.

Dragon Sword Reid only reacted this way in the presence of an enemy capable of destroying the world.

The man before him was clearly a formidable opponent—even Reinhard would need to stay fully on guard.

Daniel frowned at the words, giving Reinhard a look that was hard to keep a straight face over. "Are you being serious right now, Sword Saint?"

"I don't know what's gotten into you."

"Bad people, left alive, just keep hurting good people. I took care of them so they couldn't hurt anyone else—was that wrong?"

"And if I'd let them go, and one day they robbed and killed someone—would that be on you, or on me?"

"That's..."

The hostility on Reinhard's face faded as Daniel spoke, though he still shook his head in protest.

"You could have handed them over to the Knights."

That was exactly the line Daniel had been waiting for. In the original story, Reinhard had done nothing more than scare the thugs off—he hadn't even bothered to arrest them.

Daniel had found that hard to stomach at the time—calling himself righteous and just while doing that. Honestly, he thought the Sword Saint and Ayanokoji were cut from the same cloth: both of them soulless machines without a real self.

Reinhard just happened to have a bit more emotional range.

"Fine then. Say I hadn't stepped in, and you'd seen me getting robbed instead. What would you have done—hauled them off to prison, or just scared them away?"

"..."

Reinhard fell silent. He'd just run the scenario in his head, and the truth was that if he'd actually witnessed a robbery, he would only have scared the culprits off.

"I'm sorry. I was being self-righteous."

"It's fine. I forgive you."

Daniel gave Reinhard a friendly smile, then gave the ground a light kick.

Boom!

The ground beneath his foot shattered instantly, fragments blasting outward. The stones' kinetic energy hit supersonic speed in a heartbeat, riddling the unconscious white-haired thug on the ground like a shotgun blast.

"!!"

It happened too fast—Reinhard hadn't expected Daniel to strike again, and there was no time to shield the thug.

"My lord! I was already planning to take him into custody—why kill him?"

Reinhard was clearly, genuinely angry this time, demanding an explanation.

But Daniel had no intention of explaining himself. Instead, he curled his mouth into a grin and went straight for provocation.

"Oh, that? Nothing much—I just felt like killing him, so I did. So, Sword Saint, are you planning to come at me?"

All that talk Daniel had just spouted wasn't meant to argue Reinhard into agreement.

He'd been quietly using Vector Change to analyze the mana in this world's air, just in case his Reflection ability didn't work on magic and got him killed by surprise.

Now that the analysis was done, he had no more use for small talk with Reinhard.

"At this point, this isn't something words are going to settle."

"Strongest in the world, huh? Let me see exactly how much you weigh."

Before Reinhard could answer, Daniel laughed and swept a hand through the air. Under the influence of Vector Change, the raging wind instantly split into a thousand blades and shot toward Reinhard.

Reinhard's instinct was to dodge, but remembering the crowded street at his back, he froze in place instead, chopping out a bare-handed strike.

[Divine Protection of Unarmed Combat: Strength is not diminished by the lack of a weapon.]

[Divine Protection of First Sight: Any attack seen for the first time can always be blocked or evaded.]

"My lord, I'll be taking you in to the Knights for some time to reflect..."

Under Reinhard's control, a vast surge of mana became a sky-blanketing wave of sword light, scattering Daniel's wind blades and crashing down on him without losing any momentum.

Reinhard hadn't even finished his declaration of victory when he saw his own blade of light turn around and slash back at him.

"What?!"

Reinhard hastily grabbed his sheathed Dragon Sword and blocked the strike with it.

But the shockwaves of their clash had already spread outward—the entire alley erupted at once, and shrapnel of shattered stone left many nearby pedestrians bleeding.

"Waaah, what's happening?!" A sharp-eyed youth in a tracksuit, his face battered black and blue by flying debris, lay sprawled on the ground, screaming.

Then he saw two figures—one in red, one in yellow—come flying out of what used to be the alley, crashing through the street as they traded blows.

The aftershocks of their battle shattered storefront after storefront, and the death toll climbed uncounted.

Natsuki Subaru was frozen in shock, thinking that simply still being alive right now was an absurd stroke of luck.

"This other world is terrifying. I never should've gone out to the convenience store just to dodge doing the dishes. Mom, I want to go home."

He turned to run, only for a flying stone to strike him square in the chest, right over his heart.

Subaru's vision went black instantly and he collapsed onto the street—but he wasn't dead yet.

It would take a while after a heart injury for the brain to die from lack of oxygen, so Subaru's Return by Death hadn't triggered yet.

Daniel laughed wildly as he fought, paying no attention to Subaru. If the guy died, he died—the world would just reset anyway.

Right now, all Daniel wanted was to fight and feel good doing it.

Reinhard was strong, but in front of Daniel he was little more than a punching bag with a high tolerance for pain.

After being bottled up for so long in the Advanced Nurturing High School world, his power was finally pouring out—Daniel was riding an absolute high right now.

Bang!

The arm Reinhard used to hold his sword burst into a spray of blood from Daniel's Reflection—by now he'd noticed the civilians caught in the crossfire of their fight.

But his opponent was strong, and he had no confidence he could take Daniel down in an instant.

And every time he tried to draw the Dragon Sword, an opposing force held him back—obviously another one of Daniel's tricks.

Naturally, Daniel had no intention of letting him draw the sword. By its own lore, that blade could cut through anything—including world-level rules like Authorities.

Daniel had zero interest in finding out whether it could break through his Reflection.

Meanwhile, every other attack Reinhard landed on Daniel came back at him multiplied more than tenfold.

Hitting Daniel was the same as hitting himself.

This was the first time Reinhard had ever faced an opponent this troublesome.

He appealed to the Will of the World for the Divine Protection of Defense-Breaking, but it still wasn't enough to get past Daniel's Reflection—at best, it weakened the reflected force a little.

"Oi, oi, don't disappoint me, Reinhard. Don't tell me this is all you've got. Without that sword, is this really the extent of your strength?"

"The loneliness born of absolute strength—it will teach you what love is..."

Daniel spouted the line with theatrical relish, reaching for Reinhard's throat at the same time. This time, for some reason, Reinhard didn't dodge.

The next instant, Vector Change took hold—the blood reversing course inside his body made Reinhard explode outright into a cloud of red mist.

The armor and Dragon Sword on the corpse caught fire as well, then vanished.

"Huh?!" Daniel blinked, and a bad feeling crept into his mind.

He spun around and saw Reinhard, reborn in flame, standing not far off with an expressionless face, drawing Dragon Sword Reid.

[Divine Protection of the Phoenix: Upon death, is reborn in flame, and may resurrect at any location in the world at will.]

"Uh-oh, uh-oh. Great, just great. Is Subaru still alive? There should still be time for a reset."

Daniel rubbed the back of his head, sheepish, and called out to Reinhard, "Sword Saint, can we still make peace?"

"My lord, it's too late for that. Because of the two of us, a good many people have already died here. To give the dead some measure of peace, I must destroy you where you stand."

The moment Reinhard finished speaking, he stamped the ground and appeared instantly in front of Daniel.

[Divine Protection of the First Strike: Immune to ambush; the first attack always lands.]

Scared me half to death, folks.

"Just kidding."

Daniel's mouth curled into a grin. "Za Warudo!!! Time, stop!"

Click!

The world instantly drained to gray. Daniel looked at the Dragon Sword frozen a single centimeter from his neck and pressed his lips together in a small smile.

"Heh. Heh heh. Heh-hahahaha. Just as I thought—even 'Reinhard the Invincible' can get caught by a time stop."

Daniel stepped around the blade, swung his hand to sever Reinhard's arm, and snatched Dragon Sword Reid for himself.

"Reinhard, I'll probably forget all about you before long. So long."

Daniel raised the Dragon Sword and brought it down across Reinhard's neck, taking his head clean off.

Time resumed its flow.

In theory, the Dragon Sword's power to cut through anything should also work on Reinhard's Blessings and his connection to the world itself.

Probably?

The headless body collapsed onto the ruined street.

Then, to Daniel's intense annoyance, flames engulfed the corpse, and Reinhard came back to life again, completely unharmed.

Even the Dragon Sword in Daniel's hand vanished and reappeared back in Reinhard's grip.

[Divine Protection of the Phoenix, Continued: Effect as above.]

Daniel let out a laugh of pure exasperation. "Figures—using your own weapon against you just doesn't work, huh."

Time Stop was already on cooldown, and with Reinhard wielding the Dragon Sword, continuing the fight might actually get Daniel killed.

The smart move now would be to find Subaru, finish him off, and ride his Return by Death—that would put Daniel in the clear.

Once Reinhard's timeline reverted, he'd naturally have no memory of wanting to kill him.

But that was the thinking of a loser!

He wanted to fight on!!

Just then, the system chimed.

[Reinhard defeated. Superpower acquired: Phoenix Body, Lv. Max.]

Daniel blinked. Killing him twice counted as a defeat—well, that settled that.

"Reinhard, you really think you can kill me?!"

The words had barely left his mouth when, before Daniel could throw himself back into the fight, the scene before him snapped back to the alley at the very start.

"Huh? Subaru's dead?"