‘……………………………It’s dark…. It’s painful…. I cannot think….. What is…. this place….’

I struggled with every ounce of strength that I could muster.

“HAA!”

I appeared on the water’s surface.

‘A sea? It’s also night… Was I within the water…’

The mess that was going on in my head was slowly starting to take shape.

‘I lost against the Black Knight and was killed…’

At that time

I knew that I wouldn’t be able to win against the Black Knight so turned around and began running.

However, I knew that he was faster than me and would reach me eventually. It was then that I took my broken sword and cut off the index finger of my left hand.

I made it so that I would position myself in the Black Knight’s blind spot and threw my cut off finger towards the river. After all, before coming to the United Nations’ building, I had noticed that there was a huge river in the vicinity.

And if it was anything bigger than my finger the Black Knight would have probably noticed it.

And that’s when my memory cuts off.

It was a gamble…. I wasn’t sure whether my finger would amount to a 1% of my body. There was the chance that I wouldn’t be able to restore myself, but whether it was due to help from Goddess’s Blessing or Life’s Cradle I was somehow able to live.

And the moon shining in the sky was also telling me that it had taken me quite a long time for me to recover.

I flew out of the water and landed on the shore.

I was butt naked so I first dried myself using Fire and Wind Magic and afterwards took out a change of clothes from the space region.

While taking out my change of spare clothes my eyes stumbled upon something within the space region.

It was my left hand that I had cut off before and stored inside the space region in case something happened, however there was completely no response from it.

‘I guess Ultra Recovery doesn’t work within the space region…. That was close.’

If I hadn’t managed to revive myself with my finger this time I would have been dead for good.

After putting on my clothes, in order to find out what had happened I used teleportation in order to go and meet the people that I trusted the most.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

Several hours had already passed since Leo and the others headed for Bangkok… We were supposed to start with our preparation for India’s subjugation tomorrow, however I couldn’t seem to fall asleep at all.

“Wan, hurry up and go to sleep.”

“I know.”

I said to Ryu who had come to the lounge specifically to see me. I knew that no matter how much I thought about it, the things that I had to do wouldn’t change.

While once again losing myself in my thought I looked out the window… Suddenly I felt some kind of presence.

“What the….?”

I immediately rushed outside and headed towards the source of that strange feeling. Upon reaching the source, I saw someone sitting under a tree. Not recognizing the person, I was just about to call out to him when…

“…So it’s you Wan…”

It was a really weak voice, however I immediately recognized it.

“Gojo!! Is it really you!?”

I dashed towards him and looked closely at his face. It looked quite worn out, however it was definitely Gojo.

“I’m glad… I thought that maybe I wouldn’t be able to find you even if I came here…”

“Don’t talk!”

I lent my shoulder to Gojo and brought him inside the building. I gave him a chair to sit on and listened to what he had to say.

“I’m sorry… It seems like I’ll need a bit of time to recover.”

“Talk to me, what happened?”

Afterwards Gojo proceeded to tell me what had happened. I wasn’t surprised to even hear about his unbelievable skill, I just put it off because it was him. However, just explaining something because it belonged to Gojo still felt strange.

“Either way the important thing is that you’re back safely. If you had died the world would have really fallen into despair.”

“Can you tell me about what happened after I lost? How long has it been?”

Now it was my turn to explain about the situation the world was in. How four days had already passed since he had lost, how monsters and BOSSes had once again appeared to ravage the world, and how his students had met up with Leo and were currently flying to Bangkok.

“I see… Noah and the others were here huh…”

“I was completely taken aback by their strength! It’s no wonder they’re your students.”

“Do Leo and the others plan to fight as soon as they get there?”

“No, he said that they’ll wait for nightfall. Apparently the Black Knight gets stronger during the day.”

“It will be hard to win against him…”

“Do you think you’ll be able to defeat him next time you fight him? Won’t you come out on top if you fight him during the night?”

“I don’t think so, at most we’d be equal, and with that BOSS assisting him it will be pretty tough. Furthermore, I thought about it for a while, however the Black Knight is unique.”

“Unique?”

“He’s completely different from all of the other opponents that I’ve fought up until now… I cannot find the right words to explain it, but I feel that his sword is not filled with either rage or hatred, but rather sadness.”

“I don’t know a lot about the Black Knight, however now isn’t the time for this. If you can stop time, can’t you just get close to him and defeat him?”

“I already thought of that… However, the Black Knight’s Unique Skill doesn’t just seal Unique Skills but rather completely blocks their influences and effects.”

“What does that mean?”

“Any and all Unique Skills are nullified around the Black Knight… In other words” said Gojo, making a serious expression.

“He can move even if I stop time.”

“That’s just…”

“Wan do you know how many hours there are until the sun sets in Bangkok?”

“There’s almost no time difference so it should be in around 19 hours.”

“19 hours…” said Gojo, following which he opened a crack in space and took out a slate from his space region.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“A Class Slate… It came from that gacha that I told you about before. With this the more I level up the stronger I’ll become. Wan do you know how many BOSSes that appeared around the world?”

“I’m not quite sure, but from the information that we got there’s one in China, Japan, America, Russia, France, England, Bolivia and India, for a total of 8. There might be more, however we don’t have any information about them.”

“So it’s 7 if we exclude China…”

“What do you plan on doing?”

“Currently I have a total of 53 Class Slates.” said Gojo with an expression of determination.

“Within these 19 hours I will defeat the 7 BOSSes and max out as many Class Slates as possible.”

The words that just came out of his mouth were ridiculous. 7 countries in 19 hours…? Even if it was him, it was still unbelievable.

“But you look like you just came back from the dead. Will you really be able to do it in your current state?”

“I know it sounds impossible, but I cannot just sit still and do nothing. The enemy probably won’t expect me to get stronger in such a short amount of time. Wan, there’s something that I need to ask of you.”

“What is it? Just say the word.”

“I’m starving… Do you have something to eat?”

My head went blank for a moment, however it was true that one couldn’t fight on an empty stomach.

I hurried to the sleeping quarters and yelled out.

“MEN, WAKE UP! MAKE FOOD PREPARATIONS IMMEDIATELY!!”

The members, suddenly woke up from their sweet dreams, struggled to get out of their beds, with their heads still in clouds, and ran down to the hall. Ryu was also woken up by the commotion and came to ask me what was going on.

“What is going on Wan, what happened!?”

“Gojo’s back. He needs food immediately!”

“Gojo’s back!?”

Hearing that most of the members didn’t believe their ears so they immediately rushed to the lounge where they saw Gojo sitting on the chair, afterwards a huge commotion occurred.

“It’s true!”

“He’s really here!!”

Ryu upon seeing Gojo immediately went to speak with him.

While I on the other hand send the other members towards the kitchen with kicks. A number of people gathered and managed to produce quite a considerable amount of food, however Gojo mowed it all down with amazing speed.

To be honest it even made one think where all of that food was going. After a bit he let down his chopsticks and began his preparations.

“I’ll head for India first. If the BOSS in India is taken care of you’ll be able to move freely, isn’t that right Wan? I want you to go to Bangkok as well.”

“I should meet up with Leo and the others I presume?”

“I would like you to take care of the Black Knight’s BOSS while I fight with him. I’ll try to finish up the Black Knight as fast as possible and come in to help, but until then I’ll be counting on you.”

“Don’t look down on me. We’ll take care of that BOSS by ourselves. You just need to focus on the Black Knight.”Afterwards all of us went outside to see Gojo off.

“I’m going.”

He said, flying up into the darkness of the night and disappearing into the distance.

“Ryu, get in touch with the Chinese Government and ask them for an air plane. I’m heading to Bangkok immediately!”

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

Soaring through the sky at high speed, I was using Clairvoyance to check up on the situation in India. The country was riddled with monsters that were half beast half men, and a lot of its cities had been run down.

“So this is how India’s monsters look like…”

I opened my space region and took a Class Slate from the inside. At first I had pondered on which class to pick, however in the end I had decided that the one I was currently holding would be the best.

I tapped on the Class Slate and my Class was changed to that of a Hero. The Growth Speed skill that I got from levelling up the Hero would be crucial in this endeavour.

Getting closer to India’s capital, New Delhi, I noticed that my field of view was starting to be overwhelmed with monsters so I circulated the magic power within my body creating kindling flames around me. Those flames then proceeded to take shape and turned into 5 enormous fire dragons.

With the 5 dragons in tow, I flew towards the ground laying waste to all of the monsters.

Mixed with the monsters, there were numerous houses as well as people that were still struggling to live, so I controlled my flames so as to only burn the monsters. It was for these kinds of reasons that I decided to use Fire Magic.

While slaughtering the monsters I continued looking for signs of the BOSS’ presence when I accidentally found a place with a high density of Magic Particles.

I used Clairvoyance to get a better look at it――

“So that’s it huh…”

In front of a huge Mosque, surrounded by numerous monsters all kneeling down, was the so-called BOSS. It had the head of an elephant and 4 arms.

“It’s playing king it seems.”

After appraising it this came out…

‘It doesn’t seem to be that strong… I’ll finish it quickly.’

“Summon―― Come forth Phoenix!!”

Upon appearing, Phoenix spread its wings and shot itself towards Ganesha. As if following it the 5 Fire Dragon flew behind it and began merging with the Phoenix.

An explosion occurred followed by an appearance of a flame that covered the whole area, which flame then took the form of a gigantic bird that soared through the sky.

The monsters in front of the mosque seemed to have noticed the abnormality, however it was already too late. The enormous flame bird swallowed all of the monsters alongside Ganesha, sucking them into a huge vortex of flame.

Countless shrieks of pain could be heard from within that flame vortex.

However, even in the midst of all of that Ganesha still managed to survive. Phoenix returned to its original size and withdrew, while I raised my right hand towards heaven.

“Lightning Sovereign!!”

A lightning bolt fell down from the sky and pierced Ganesha’s head.

The shock from the lightning dispersed what had remained from the fire vortex and Ganesha just stood there unable to even utter a cry of pain.

I took out the Dragon Embers’ Sword that I had received from my students and covered its blade in flames.

Using teleportation to get in front of Ganesha I brought my Fire Sword slashing him right through the middle.

“Uooooooo!!”

After letting out its final scream Ganesha turned into black smoke and disappeared…

“Tame!”

The magic circle was deployed however it disappeared soon after.

“Hm, what’s going on?”

I looked at the place where Ganesha had been, however there was no Magic Core there.

‘Could it be that it had no Magic Core from the beginning?’

I remembered what Wan had told me about the black gem that the Black Knight had used…

‘So the Magic Core’s there I guess.

Which means that the BOSSes that have appeared now are just fakes…’

I opened up my status window in order to check it.

‘Even though it doesn’t have a Magic Core at least it still gives EXP… Oh well it’s fine, I’ll end up destroying that black gem in the end either way. For now I’ll just focus on getting rid of the various monsters.’

With that it was one down…

I opened the space region and teleported out alongside Phoenix.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

That very day, the people that had been praying and hiding from the terror bestowed to them upon the Monster King, suddenly learned of that King’s death.

Alongside that, rumors about a man flying alongside a Phoenix and Fire Dragons, illuminating the night, spread around the country.

“It’s Gojo!! Gojo’s here!”

“Our prayers were heard!”

The rumors spread with unbelievable speed and soon there wasn’t even a single person that doubted that the strongest mutant, Gojo Masakado had returned.

Afterwards the people of India began viewing Gojo as the reincarnation of the hero in their myths called Rama…. However, the person in question had no clue about that.