I puked blood and fell to the ground.

However, rather than finishing me Cronus went ahead and just sat on a rock a bit further away, while looking at me with a tranquil expression.

“Why won’t you kill me?”

[Hm? Because it’s boring. If I kill you now, then I’ll just go back to being bored.] said Cronus as if it was obvious.

‘He’s completely looking down on me… Still I cannot deny that the difference between us is tremendous.’

I stuck my sword in the ground and used it to help myself get up.

“Did you stop time?”

[That’s right. I have the ability to command space and time at will. When it comes to a one versus one I’m probably only inferior to our King.]

I held down my wound and cast Healing Magic on it. The wound was quite deep so it wouldn’t heal that easily. ‘If I can only buy just a bit of time…’

[No need to hurry, take your time healing your wound. I’ll wait patiently.]

“Being this laidback will lead you to a trip one day.”

[Hahaha, now that’s interesting. If there’s a human that can beat me then I’d definitely want to meet him. Do you think that you’ll be able to surprise me?]

‘Damn it… If he goes to the others they might get wiped out. I must stop him here somehow…. Gojo…’

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

It was a day where me and Gojo were crossing swords. I was of course being overwhelmed in the power and speed department but it became obvious that my swordsmanship was quite lacking as well.

On top of that he could also use abilities and spells…

“Gojo you have the ability to stop time right? Can you show it to me?”

“Sure. Still you’ll only be able to experience it.”

I readied my sword and was trying not to lose sight of Gojo when he suddenly disappeared. The sword that I was just holding had disappeared as well.

“It’s something like this.” said Gojo while standing behind me. He was holding Durandal in his hand as was pointing his sword at me.

“It won’t be a match like this.” I said with a wry smile while getting back my sword from Gojo.

“Still if you have this kind of ability then you must be invincible.”

“I wouldn’t say that. Every ability has it’s weakness.”

“Weakness?”

Gojo’s words were unexpected. After all, I didn’t believe that an ability like that could have a weakness.

“For example, it is not a problem for me, but this ability drains quite a bit of MP. And there’s also the fact that you can’t use magic or abilities while time is stopped.”

“So it’s like that.”

‘It seems like every ability has its advantages and disadvantages…’

“There’s also stuff that I can’t do anything about even when the time is frozen.”

“For example?”

“For example…”

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

I stood up and readied my sword. My wound wasn’t still completely healed but I couldn’t let this end with him mocking me.

“I won’t go down easily.”

[Hmph, is that so.]

Cronus disappeared from my sight. When I came to my left thigh had already been pierced.

“Urgh!?”

Blood flowed from my leg and I fell to my knees.

I struck my sword at the ground using it to somehow support myself but my consciousness was starting to fade.

‘He’s not an opponent I can beat by fighting head on.’

Cronus had appeared behind me and was beginning to walk towards me.

[Looks painful. I might spare you if you beg for your life…]

“What a blatant lie. You’re not the type of person that would spare someone, aren’t I right?”

The tips of Cronus’ mouth curved into a smile.

[It’s fun to toy around with your opponent when the power gap between you is this huge, don’t you agree? Can you understand this feeling?]

“Not at all, nor do I want to.”

[I see… You’re strong so I thought that maybe you’d be able to understand me but guess I was wrong…]

Cronus got even closer to me and raised his sword.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

[After I kill you I’ll kill your companions. The more prey you have the better. They will definitely entertain me.]

I stopped time.

I could kill him without even stopping time but it would prove troublesome if he decided to fight back. I would cut off his limbs before he could even notice and leave him to die in agony.

It was a short while but I managed to entertain myself. ‘Now that I know that his friends are at the other Divine Generals there is no other point in staying here and guarding this place.

If I go around and kill all of them then there won’t be any disruptions to the King’s plan.’

While thinking that I swung my sword. It was then that I felt the ground shake.

‘What is going on?’ I thought it was strange but before I even noticed it I had fallen to my knees.

[What the…?]

‘I fell…?’ I didn’t know what had happened.

‘Why am I on the ground?’

This was the first time I was experiencing something like this.

I looked up and noticed that Leo Garcia had stood up and was looking down at me. Time had resumed itself even without me noticing.

[What… WHAT DID YOU DO!?]

“I just increased the oxygen partial pressure around me. By using Durandal’s Atmosphere Manipulation and Wind Magic I can manipulate the oxygen partial pressure. And high oxygen partial pressure can be seen as poison. It was a bet weather or not it would work on someone as strong as you but I’m glad it did.”

[Oxygen…!?]

“Even within the frozen world you must have inhaled that highly toxic oxygen yourself. How does it feel? Can you stop time now?”

My hands shook and my body wouldn’t move. ‘Ridiculous… Me… To a lowly human.’

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

“You underestimated your opponent. Even if it’s someone weaker than you, if you don’t treat them with respect you’ll be the one that ends up losing.”

I brought down my sword.

[Wa…wait!]

“Even if you beg for your life I don’t plan on sparing you. I only defeat my enemies with all I have.”

[STOP IT!!]

Durandal cleanly sliced off Cronus’ head. Due to having God Slayer applied to it, it was easily able to take the life of the demon.

While looking at the head rolling further away from its body I wiped off the blood from my sword and sheathed it back into its scabbard.

“One down…”

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

This area was entrusted to Freya and Wan. After defeating several hundred of the normal soldiers they advanced to the back.

There they saw a single man standing close to the stern of an enormous battleship.

It was certain that he was a man because his face was hidden behind his helmet, but the both of them deemed him to be such due to his big build. Still in the end it wasn’t certain whether he was a man or a woman.

“He seems dangerous no matter how I look at him.”

“You’re right. Still if we don’t defeat him we won’t be able to go further. I’ll go in first, Freya, you support me from the back.”

“Got it.”

When they got close to the enemy both of them noticed something strange. Their enemy wasn’t holding a weapon. He had taken on an imposing stance, empty handed, which led Wan to think that he was the fighter type.

[Oh my, oh my, what beautiful ladies.]

“He spoke! Wait!? He knows English?”

“Freya to me it sounds Chinese.”

[I cannot bring myself to kill such cuties but it can’t be helped.]

Both of them immediately realized that his voice was coming from a kind of skill. And judging from his tone they were convinced that he was male.

It was also then that a single fighter aircraft entered their vision. It looked like an aircraft from the human side. Seeing that the armor covered man raised his hand.

[Good grief, these annoying flies just won’t stop buzzing…]

The aircraft changed its orbit and began heading for the ground, colliding with it in the next moment. Apart from raising his hand the man had done nothing else.

“What just happened…”

“Was it magic… Or rather some sort of skill?”

[Well then, the annoying flies are gone. How about we have a nice chat?]

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

[Who are you bastards… So shallow of you to think that you’d be able to beat me if a shit ton of you came!]

“We came with a lot of people but it looks like it’s still going to be troublesome.”

The Northwest was entrusted to Carlo, Luke and Anna, as well as the kids and most of the remaining Suzaku’s military force, excluding Wan.

However, the enemy that stood before them was over two and a half meter tall, beast-like man. He wore an armor but the thing that stood out more was his muscular body.

Carlo could only sigh at the sight of the strong looking enemy.

“And here I thought that we’d have the highest chance of getting past through here… Will we really be okay?”

[I twist and crush every single one of you!]

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

[Oh my, if it isn’t a cute young lady. What’s wrong, did you get lost?]

“…If possible… I’d like you to let me pass through…”

[Ufufu, I’m afraid I cannot do that. First of all, if you’re here that means that you must have defeated close to a thousand soldiers. You’re quite scary despite that cute face of yours.]

There was no doubt that this little girl was one of this world’s ability users. Still the intimidating air that he gave off bewildered Demeter a bit.

She wore a black robe and carried a huge staff that wasn’t suited to her small frame at all. Seeing the Demeter figured that she’d be the same as him, a magician type.

“Is there really nothing I can do… to have you move aside…?”

[I’m afraid not. It’s the King’s order to protect this place you see.]

“I understand… I would have liked not to have to kill you but…”