Arifureta Zero: Volume 1

by Ryo Shirakome

  “Hmph, don’t even bother. These glasses of mine—” Are enchanted to defend against dark magic. Except he never got to finish his sentence.

  “You’re trying to charm my O-kun!? You little thief! Too bad, O-kun’s so head over heels in love with me that your feminine wiles won’t work on him! How does it feel knowing I’m way prettier and way better than you? Huh? You mad? Are ya?” Despite their perilous situation, Miledi continued taunting Hearst. Is it just me or is she acting even more annoying than usual? It seemed Hearst had really ticked Miledi off. Hearst raised her twin swords.

  It looked like this was all the time they’d managed to buy.

  “With your wounds, you won’t be able to dodge anymore. Pitiful creatures who could not even become my master’s pawns. I will grant you a painless end.” Silver feathers fell from her wings. They hung in the night sky like a sea of stars.

  “I’ll block the next attack. You try and finish her with your strongest spell, Miledi.”

  “Looks like I’ll have to do it. Even if I can’t control it, it’s the only option left.”

  The two bumped their fists together and steeled themselves. This would decide it.

  “Disappear!” Thousands of glowing feathers plunged to the earth like a meteor storm.

  Oscar transmuted the sand around his feet and stuck his umbrella into the newly worked earth. Once again, he activated his Hallowed Ground.

  All noise vanished.

  Or at least, Oscar was so focused on the attack in front of him that no sound reached his ears. The feathers demolished any part of the ground not protected by Oscar’s barrier.

  “Gaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Oscar screamed and poured more mana into his tattered umbrella. He was simultaneously maintaining the barrier while also repairing his umbrella with transmutation.

  Sustaining both at the same time was a herculean task, and his mana drained away at a prodigious rate.

  His damaged body cried out in pain, and he felt more blood fill his mouth.

  Still, he managed to hold out. He’d bought enough time for Miledi to cast her most powerful spell.

  “It’s over! Nether Burst!” A two-meter sphere of pure destruction formed around Hearst.

  “This is...” For the first time, there was emotion in Hearst’s voice. Surprise.

  The meteor storm of feathers vanished.

  “Gah!” Oscar spat out a mouthful of blood and grinned triumphantly at Hearst.

  Miledi’s sphere closed in around the apostle. She still wasn’t able to regulate the spell. Once she cast it, it wouldn’t stop until it drained all of her mana.

  So she had to make sure it would hit when she used it. Hearst was too strong for them to force an opening on their own. Which was why they’d waited for her to use her ultimate attack. That would be the only time she would show an opening.

  “Wait, Miledi. Is it just me or is it smaller than last time?”

  “Shut up! This is...the biggest I can...make it right now!” Miledi’s words were punctuated by sharp gasps. Casting such a powerful spell had left her drained.

  Her Nether Burst been so much larger last time because Miledi had also used the six years’ worth of mana stored in Oscar’s Divinity Stone.

  “I see. But this should still be more than enough to—”

  “N-No way!? She’s trying to break out of it!”

  “What!?”

  The walls of Hearst’s gravity prison grew thin in places, making it possible to see inside.

  Oscar saw that she had her eyes closed and seemed to be concentrating on something. What surprised him most was that she’d been able to maintain her form. Anything stuck inside Miledi’s Nether Burst was crushed.

  Miledi started groaning.

  It was taking all of her concentration just to keep the skill going. Hearst’s mana and Miledi’s warred inside the gravity prison. For the moment, they appeared evenly matched.

  “Shit. The only thing I can think of is throwing this in there and—” Oscar twisted his umbrella’s handle. Before he could do any more though—

  “O-Oh no!” There was a huge explosion, and Miledi’s Nether Burst was ripped apart.

  A huge cloud of dust blossomed where Hearst had been standing. Oscar and Miledi were both sent flying.

  Oscar managed to keep them together with his chains, but was unable to mitigate the force of the blow.

  Their bodies had been battered to begin with, but now they didn’t even have the strength to get back to their feet.

  “You really don’t know when to give up.” Oscar couldn’t tell whether she was impressed or just exasperated. There was too little emotion in her voice to be sure one way or the other.

  Oscar and Miledi were unable to do anything more than raise their heads.

  There was a massive ball of fire burning as hot as the sun above her head.

  Still glaring at Hearst, Oscar silently took Miledi’s hand in his own. She squeezed his hand back.

  Just then— “Void Fissure!” Space itself warped.

  “Ah!?” The burning sun vanished, and Hearst was blown backwards. She quickly recovered, but was then battered by a series of invisible explosions. Unable to defend herself, God’s Apostle was sent flying off into the distance.

  “You’re still alive, right?”

  “Nacchan!?”

  “Naiz!?”

  Naiz smiled at them and lifted each of them up with one arm. A few hundred meters away, there was an explosion of silver light. Even after Naiz had ripped apart space around her, Hearst was still fine, it seemed.

  Still, he’d bought them a few precious seconds.

  “Let’s regroup.” Naiz opened a portal and retreated from the battlefield.

  Hearst returned to find everyone had vanished. She swept her gaze back and forth before stopping at a point some distance to the south.

  “Th-This is...”

  “We’re about one hundred kilometers south of the volcano. This is as far as I can teleport in one go.”

  Naiz sounded tired. Miledi cautiously looked around. When she didn’t see any silver-haired women chasing after her she raised her arms in joy. Except she was still injured.

  “Owww!?”

  “What are you doing, idiot?”

  Tears spring to Miledi’s eyes and she writhed in pain.

  Oscar deployed his umbrella’s Benison Aura to heal their wounds.

  “O-kun...we’re sharing an umbrella.”

  “Uhh, yes?”

  Miledi purposely snuggled closer to Oscar. Oscar was too tired for a proper retort.

  “It looks like I’m interrupting something. Should I just go back?” Naiz stared pointedly at the two of them. He pulled some mana potions out of his pouch and tossed a few to Oscar and Miledi. The rest he downed himself.

  The two thanked him and gulped down their own potions.

  “Why did you come?”

  “Those girls begged me to help you.”

  “Sue-chan really knows what she’s doing.”

  Miledi smiled.

  “At any rate, you saved our lives. Thank you. I know how hard it must have been to make this choice.”

  “Yeah, thanks for saving our hides again, Nacchan.”

  “Don’t mention it...”

  Miledi and Oscar both knew he must have agonized over his decision a great deal.

  Naiz did his best to keep a straight face while they thanked him.

  This was the first time he’d used spatial magic offensively since that day. Attacking Hearst had brought unpleasant memories back to the surface of his mind, and even now he felt like he might puke. Still, he was glad he’d come to save them.

  “Now then. If there’s a hundred kilometers between us I think we have enough time to strategize at least... What should we do? Keep running? I don’t think we’ll be able to escape for long though.”

  “No, no running.”

  “Yeah, we wouldn’t be able to get away anyway.”

  Naiz groaned as he heard their reply.
r />   “But how are we going to beat her? Even my Void Fissure couldn’t scratch her.”

  “And that’s exactly why we can’t run. You may as well assume it’s impossible to get away from one of God’s Apostles. I was able to do it once before, but the situation was completely different that time.”

  In the past, Miledi had infiltrated the head chapel to ascertain whether or not Belta had told her the truth. Back then, she’d just scouted the area out. She’d only gotten close enough to monitor the building with Farsight. When she’d been discovered, she’d tried to flee right away. She’d kept the apostle busy guarding the chapel by firing wide-area elemental spells at it and had only used her gravity magic to flee.

  Back then the apostle had mistook her flight for wind magic and so hadn’t realized what Miledi was. Hearst, however, knew Miledi and Oscar were Atavists. Furthermore she knew they were a threat to her lord, and would not stop until they had been eliminated.

  Hearst would continue chasing them down. Miledi doubted they would be able to escape her notice indefinitely.

  “Besides, you’d stay even if we ran.”

  Naiz started. He remembered again why the Holy Church had come here.

  It hadn’t been to chase down Miledi and Oscar. It was purely by accident that Hearst had discovered Oscar and Miledi were Atavists.

  Her original goal was to eliminate Naiz.

  “Remember, back when I asked if we could come visit again as friends? You said you’d think about it.”

  “As your friends, there’s no way we’d leave you to die on your own.”

  Even though I never once actually called you guys my friends. Still, they were both willing to lay their lives down for him. Naiz couldn’t help but be moved.

  Ah, it’s the same as last time. Once again, other people are protecting me.

  “Alright, how do we defeat her then? Void Fissure’s my strongest spell.” He was sure if he thanked them he’d become a blubbering mess. So instead he focused on the enemy they needed to face. At the very least, he’d share his friends’ fate.

  Miledi and Oscar understood the intent behind his words. And they both smiled happily.

  “She even broke out of my Nether Burst...I’m not sure we’ve got any cards left to play.” Miledi rubbed her forehead.

  Naiz’s expression grew grim and he lapsed into thought.

  Only Oscar didn’t seem defeated. He looked at his two companions, then looked up at the sky.

  “I do have one idea. I have no idea if we can actually pull it off though. The odds are going to be stacked really high against us, and even if we make it work we might end up killed along with her.”

  “R-Really, O-kun!?”

  “At this point, I’ll take anything. It’s still better than rolling over and dying.”

  Miledi’s eyes shone with renewed hope, and the corners of Naiz’s mouth twitched up in a faint smile.

  Oscar nodded. Just as he was about to explain his master plan though—

  “Ah!?” All three of them looked up.

  Oscar instantly activated his glasses’ Farsight ability. A shining silver meteor shower was headed toward them.

  “She’s here!”

  “Are you kidding me, this is one hundred kilometers away!? Just how fast is that thing!?”

  “I’m starting to realize now that I didn’t escape last time. She let me run away!”

  Despite their complaints, all three of them still prepared to intercept her.

  Oscar started talking as fast as he could.

  “I need an opening to stab her with my umbrella! Then when I give the signal, hit her with another Nether Burst, Miledi!” The storm of silver feathers reached them the moment he finished.

  The three of them scattered in different directions.

  A second later the feathers slammed into the ground with more force than any feather should rightfully have. Dust clouds puffed up one after another.

  Hearst flew out of the dust with such speed that the air groaned in her wake. Her first target appeared to be Oscar.

  Oscar backed out of the way and tried to counter with Spiral Blaze. A tornado of flames erupted out of his umbrella. Spiral Blaze was one of the strongest fire spells.

  However, Hearst didn’t even bother to dodge it. She crossed her swords in front of her and powered right through the flames.

  “Uwaaah!?” The force of her charge pushed Oscar’s umbrella up into the air. Hearst then tried to ram her sword through his now exposed chest.

  “Not on my watch.” Naiz suddenly appeared behind Hearst. He grabbed her head and they both disappeared. A second later, they appeared high up in the sky. Naiz pushed Hearst in front of him as they fell. She took the brunt of the impact as they hit the ground.

  “Void Fissure!” Naiz followed that up with his strongest attack. A huge shockwave spread out from Hearst’s helmet.

  She turned her head to the side and glared at Naiz.

  “Ah!” Naiz knew his magic wasn’t powerful enough to kill her, but he’d been hoping to at least give her a concussion. It seemed even that had been too optimistic. Hearst fired a barrage of feathers at him at point blank range.

  “Gaaah!?” Naiz had managed to teleport away fast enough to avoid being turned into a pincushion, but he’d still been hit a good few times. His entire body was covered in blood.

  “Naiz!?”

  “Don’t worry about me! It wasn’t fatal!” Hearst flew up after Naiz. Miledi cast six Heavensfalls to box Hearst in from all directions. All six sheets of gravity pressed in on the apostle. Hearst attempted to weaken one of the sides, planning to break out from there.

  “!?” However, her body was pushed in an unexpected direction.

  “Even if I can’t crush you, I can mess with your sense of gravity! Good luck flying now!” As Hearst was tossed this way and that, she began gathering her mana. Her body glowed with an intense silver light. She held out her hand, and waves of fire exploded in every direction. She’d just cast the strongest area of effect fire spell in existence, Hellfire Tsunami.

  Miledi, Oscar, and Naiz all dealt with the flames in different fashions.

  “Shit—” However, just as Oscar had blown away the wave of fire, Hearst appeared next to him. She drew one of her swords back and thrust it at him.

  Oscar’s Hallowed Ground cracked as it took the blow. A second later it shattered and Hearst’s sword punched through.

  It kept going and stabbed Oscar through the chest.

  “Gaaah!?” Hellfire Tsunami’s flames dispersed and both Miledi and Naiz were able to see Oscar floating in the air, stabbed through by Hearst’s sword.

  “O-kun!”

  “Oscar!”

  Miledi and Naiz screamed in horror.

  “One down.” Hearst brandished her second sword. The first had missed Oscar’s heart by a paper-thin margin. Hallowed Ground had held just long enough for Oscar to move a few centimeters to the side and angle his Ebony Coat to deflect the sword another few centimeters.

  There was no way he’d be able to dodge the second blow, not with a massive greatsword already stuck in his chest. Nor would Hearst give him the any time to recover.

  “It’s not over yet!” Oscar poured a huge amount of mana into his boots and hugged Hearst’s torso. The problem with greatswords was that they were useless at close range. As long as Oscar was sticking to her, she wouldn’t be able to swing her sword at him.

  Of course, that also meant he drove the sword already inside him deeper. The pain nearly caused him to black out.

  “Futile—”

  “Miledi, Naiz, now!”

  Oscar sent out all of the threads in his gloves. They wound around both him and Hearst. He then threw his umbrella out. It flipped around in midair, the point aimed directly at Hearst. Once more, he activated Hallowed Ground. This time though, the barrier covered both of them. He was using a defensive spell as a cage to trap Hearst. The greatswords in Hearst’s hands vanished, and she made to strike Oscar with her bare ha
nds.

  Before she could hit him though, Miledi acted.

  “Nether Burst!” Miledi’s black sphere covered both Hearst and Oscar. Even an apostle of god needed to focus to shatter it. In other words, it would hold for at least a few seconds.

  Of course a mere human like Oscar wouldn’t last even a second inside it. Fortunately, Naiz opened a portal and saved Oscar seconds before the sphere finished fully forming.

  “Gah!”

  “Do you have a death wish or something!?”

  Though it was only for a split second, Oscar’s body had been put under the immense pressure of Miledi’s Nether Burst. Blood was pouring out of his mouth, his nose, his eyes, his ears, every orifice that he had. The hand Naiz had grabbed Oscar with was bleeding as well.

  “But we got her.”

  Oscar raised a hand, and his umbrella flew into it. He thrust his left hand forward and pulled his right hand back, like he was drawing a bow. His pose was similar to the one Hearst had taken when she’d stabbed him through.

  “Naiz, give me a portal!”

  “R-Roger!”

  Naiz opened a portal in front of Oscar. Its exit point was directly behind Hearst’s heart. Oscar transmuted the ferrule into a razor-sharp point and flung it as hard as he could into the portal.

  Hearst had no armor protecting her there. When he’d hugged her earlier, Oscar had transmuted away the armor behind her heart.

  The umbrella’s point pierced the apostle’s white skin.

  But it didn’t drive in much further. Hearst’s ridiculously sturdy muscles prevented it from reaching her heart.

  “But can you handle this?” Oscar snapped his fingers and the ferrule ejected from the end of the umbrella. The propulsion drove it even further into Hearst’s body.

  A second later, a jolt of electricity traveled down the wire connecting the ferrule to the umbrella and then directly into Oscar.

  “Let’s get out of here.” Naiz teleported Oscar, along with the umbrella down to the ground. The only thing left near Hearst was the ferrule and its connecting wire.

  “Gaaah!”

  “Oscar, don’t die on me!”