Before Nellin, Fresia, and the others arrived, Smartass had made a crow his familiar and was watching from the tree, waiting for them.

Why had he chosen a crow as his familiar?

Well... because it looked cool!

A lich with a crow familiar just seemed impressive! That was his reasoning.

Fifty years had passed, but the monsters he encountered through streams were fundamentally childish and selfish. Seeing and interacting with no one but them, Smartass had inevitably picked up some of their habits.

Otherwise, he would never have pulled a stunt like this just to show off the cool spells he had developed since becoming a lich, instead of coming straight out and explaining himself!

Watching through his familiar, Smartass was delighted when Nellin immediately noticed his presence.

'Your instincts are as sharp as ever, Nellin.'

During their campaign against the black dragon, Nellin had used her keen senses to detect nearby presences and warn them of danger. Reminiscing fondly, Smartass used Warp to reveal himself.

He began by addressing Nellin as the Starlight Archer, pretending this was their first meeting. As everyone prepared for battle, she drew her bow and asked him what his name had been before he became a lich.

'Hmm? Does she suspect I'm the lich? Nellin always did have sharp instincts. But she doesn't seem certain it's me.'

If he revealed his identity now, things would proceed peacefully, without any fighting.

But...

'After all the spells I've prepared, that would be such a waste!'

Smartass wanted to show his companions the fucking awesome spells he had developed, even if it meant keeping up the act a little longer.

So he put on a performance.

["I do not know."]

"You don't know?"

["Indeed. From the moment I became aware of myself, I was who I am! Surely I must have existed before acquiring this body... but unfortunately, I remember nothing. Still, none of that matters now."]

He committed to the act: I'm an amnesiac lich, so there's no point asking my name!

SNAP!

Smartass snapped his fingers, erecting a barrier around the hill.

["What matters to me now is proof! Yes! Proof of my power! Can my magic prevail against you, the so-called legendary heroes? Only that proof matters!"]

"An amnesiac lich? How the hell does that make any sense?"

["Yet here I am."]

"You're so fucking annoying! And stop making your voice echo inside my head!"

["I have no vocal cords. How else am I supposed to communicate?"]

Actually, he could. Even without vocal cords, Smartass could speak aloud. But then he couldn't use the voice alteration he was employing with Telepathy. His voice would sound exactly like Ventus Frail's, which was why he kept using Telepathy.

'Talking with Nellin after so long fills me with longing.'

He wanted to talk a little longer, but if he kept going, he felt he might give himself away before he could properly show off his magic.

["Enough idle chatter. Now! Behold my power! And show me yours!"]

Smartass immediately began the battle.

VMMMM!

An immense amount of mana began surging around Smartass's body. As everyone tensed at the vast power, Nellin was the first to move.

FWIP!

The arrow she already had drawn flew toward Smartass. It was powerful enough to pierce even the black dragon's hide where its scales had been stripped away.

But...

CLANG!

The arrow struck the barrier he had erected while gathering his mana and bounced away.

["Did you think I would neglect such precautions? Now it is my turn!"]

CRACKLE!

Dozens of arrows formed from mana appeared around Smartass.

["Go."]

The instant he swept his arm, all the arrows shot toward the party at once.

THUD!

"Hngh! O sacred wall!"

Paulen slammed his shield into the ground, drawing up his holy power to activate a holy art: Holy Wall, an art available to paladins. It summoned a wall of holy power to protect allies from enemy attacks.

CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!

Smartass's arrows rained down on Holy Wall. Spells that formed arrows from mana and fired them were common. But launching so many at once, each carrying considerable power, was a feat no ordinary mage could accomplish.

["Oh? A Paladin indeed. So you possess at least that much defensive capability. How about this, then?"]

'If you actually move instead of just defending, I'll have more spells to show you.'

Smartass swept his skeletal hand upward, and a golem a full three meters tall rose from the ground.

THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!

Moving far faster than its bulk suggested, the golem charged and swung its stone fist at Paulen's holy wall.

BOOOM!

"Urgh!"

This was an immense physical blow delivered by actual stone, not something formed purely from magic. Though Holy Wall remained intact, a substantial shock traveled through to Paulen, who was sustaining it.

"Paulen!"

Amelia called his name and bestowed a blessing on him, increasing his physical strength and filling him with vitality.

Nellin nocked another arrow and shouted, "Hey! Drop it!"

At her words, Holy Wall vanished.

FWOOSH!

This time, an arrow imbued with mana flew toward Smartass.

CLAAANG!

But once again, Nellin's arrow was stopped by the magical barrier. That didn't mean it had been entirely ineffective, however.

'It's terrifying being on the receiving end. If I hadn't poured more mana into the barrier beforehand, that would've gone straight through.'

"Damn it, that didn't work either. Paulen! You can handle that thing yourself, right?"

"Of course!"

This time, the golem brought its heavy stone fist down on Paulen. It was all too easy to picture him being crushed beneath it if he failed to block.

But this was Paulen—the strongest paladin in the Holy City. He alone was strong enough to serve as the Saintess's bodyguard.

"Haaaaah!"

CLAAANG!

Swinging the large shield in his left hand upward, Paulen performed an unbelievable feat. He knocked aside the fist of the three-meter golem.

And he didn't stop there.

"Don't underestimate my muscles, liiiich!"

Clad in full armor, Paulen kicked off the ground and leaped into the air. Raising the sword in his right hand high, he brought it down on the golem.

CRAAACK!

Rather than slicing through it with the clean cut of a master swordsman, he split the golem in two as though smashing it apart through sheer strength.

Watching him, Nellin and Smartass each saw a former companion reflected in him.

'So he uses a shield like Aldor.'

Nellin thought of Aldor Meyer, the Impenetrable Shield.

'I saw it on the stream, too, but he's got absurd brute strength, just like Kachal.'

Smartass thought of Kachal Demft, the Mighty-Armed Warrior.

"Well done! That's one nuisance out of the way!"

["Did you think a single golem was all I had?"]

Smartass waved his hand again. This time, two golems rose up along with six more the size of adult humans.

"You're a lich, and all you can do is overwhelm us with numbers?"

["Of course not! I still have plenty I want to show you!"]

Smartass raised his skeletal hand high.

VMMMM!

A huge magic circle appeared in the sky, accompanied by an enormous sphere of dark crimson flame. Its ominous color made it look like fire burning in hell. To convey the image of a vast mass of hellfire falling from above, Smartass had named the spell...

["Inferno Fall!"]

"Wh-what is that...?"

"Just as the name suggests. That's pure hellfire."

"What the hell kind of spell is that?!"

"Th-that's... that's dangerous!"

Godric and his companions stood frozen, staring at the unfolding spectacle in disbelief.

"Shit! Fresia!"

"Leave it to me. Paladin Paulen, once I block it, focus on destroying the golems. Amelia, keep blessing Paladin Paulen!"

"Yes!"

Fresia gathered her holy power, preparing to deploy a hemispherical defense that would protect all her allies, unlike Holy Wall, which blocked attacks from only one direction. But as she drew up more holy power to perform the art, Gracie stopped her.

"No! Leave this to me!"

"Gracie?"

"I'm a proud descendant of the Mage of a Thousand Spells, Ventus Frail! I'm not here just to stand around watching! I'll deal with that spell!"

["Oh? You will?"]

Gracie's sudden intervention piqued Smartass's interest. Though Inferno Fall contained an immense amount of mana, he had calculated that Fresia's barrier would be more than sufficient to block it.

Yet now Gracie was stepping forward.

As a natural-magic practitioner, he had initially been reluctant to acknowledge Gracie, a device-doped mage. But as he continued watching the stream, he had secretly grown fond of her. Device-doped or not, the way she agonized over her thesis made her a fellow mage all the same!

Above all, after learning how things had unfolded following his disappearance, he had begun to feel a little inclined to cheer her on. Come to think of it, he had never seen Gracie seriously wield her magical devices to cast magic.

So Smartass wanted to see just how skilled his descendant was.

["Hahahaha! Very well. Let us see you stop it!"]

Gracie stretched her hand toward the falling Inferno Fall. Magical devices hung all over her fingers, arms, ears, neck, and legs. But she wasn't wearing them merely as extravagant accessories.

To make up for her shortcomings, she had researched how to use every magical device she wore with maximum efficiency, and found her answer. Even if her own talent was nothing more than ordinary...

'Activate numbers four and five! Begin calculation assistance! Activate numbers twelve and fifteen! Begin mana assistance!'

Gracie had no doubt that, with magical devices, she could become a great archmage.

'Activate numbers seven and eight! Begin elemental enhancement!'

Several magic circles appeared in overlapping layers before her. She couldn't use one enormous magic circle all at once. Instead, with her devices' assistance, she deployed multiple circles simultaneously and combined them, maximizing each circle's effect to increase their power.

'Activate number twenty-one! Begin spell-formula convergence!'

CRACKLE!

The layered magic circles resonated, sending out sparks. She had never converged this many circles before.

But...

'I have to do it now! I can't just stand around like an idiot doing nothing again, like last time!'

Her chosen element was water. She didn't need something as large as Inferno Fall. She needed enough power to break the spell. She compressed the water to its limit, gathered it into one place, and fired it all at once.

"Pierce... through!!!"

A stream of water no thicker than a single arrow shot toward Inferno Fall. It looked so thin that it would surely evaporate the instant it touched the flames.

But...

BOOOOM!

As though defying reality, Gracie's spell pierced the enormous ball of hellfire and burst it apart.

"Ha! That's fucking awesome!"

The legendary hero exclaimed in admiration at Gracie's achievement. Nor was Nellin the only one impressed. Paulen, Amelia, Fresia, and Godric and his companions all looked at Gracie in astonishment.

The mage who always seemed so fidgety, with magical devices dangling all over her, had shattered the lich's spell head-on.

'Ah... well done.'

Smartass was deeply moved.

Even if she had used magical devices, Gracie's spell was nothing to scoff at. Using multiple devices simultaneously, combining multiple spell formulas and elevating them into a single spell—Smartass knew just how remarkable that was.

["Mage over there. What is your name?"]

Gracie answered his question with more pride than ever before.

"I am... Gracie. Gracie Frail! A proud descendant of the Mage of a Thousand Spells, Ventus Frail!"