Smartass was riding a high right now. His plan was still only in its early stages, but Gracie’s performance was filling him with satisfaction. To think that immediately after casting a spell he had wanted to show his companions, he would get to see his own descendant shine like this—even if she was a device-doped mage!

His Inferno Fall was by no means an easy spell to stop. He had believed Fresia could handle it, of course, but he had cast it with Fresia, the Saintess, as his benchmark. In other words, its power was calibrated against a hero.

And Gracie had stopped it. Using magical devices, she had cast her spell through a method of employing spell formulas that he had never used in life.

In life, Smartass had mainly cast spells by deploying multiple spell formulas simultaneously and unleashing them all at once. Gracie, on the other hand, had chosen to combine several formulas to strengthen a single spell, even if that meant using fewer formulas overall. It was more complicated and required more advanced technique than Ventus’s method, but Gracie had overcome that hurdle through her skilled use of magical devices.

Even a naturally hidebound old mage like Smartass had to acknowledge what he had seen.

And seeing it just once was not enough to satisfy him.

'I still have plenty to show you. I’ll test your limits along the way, Gracie!'

["Gracie. I shall remember that name. Now try stopping this as well!"]

This was the second spell Smartass had created while holed up in his secret workshop. A magic circle for a mass barrage of magical homing missiles spread across the sky.

HUMMMMM!

FWIP FWIP FWIP FWIP FWIP!

This time, instead of several circles, a single enormous magic circle appeared, pouring down countless rays of light.

“Aah! Dodge!”

“How does it make any sense that he can keep blasting off spells like this back-to-back?!”

“I-intercept them...!”

Gracie immediately tried to cast her next spell. But—

“Ugh!”

A sudden bout of dizziness made her stagger. It was the backlash from casting a spell on a level she had never attempted before.

Gracie had focused on research at the Mage Tower in the first place; she was not a combat-oriented mage. Her body simply could not keep up with casting another spell immediately after such a powerful one.

'I finally had a chance to shine! And now, of all times!'

Gracie was bitterly frustrated. She had steeled her resolve and proudly declared her name, only to make this sorry showing the very next moment. Never in her life had she felt so frustrated.

“Thank you, Miss Gracie. Leave this one to me.”

Drawing up her holy power, Fresia finally deployed her hemispherical holy barrier. It enclosed not only the party, but even the golems Paulen was fighting.

RATATATATAT!

Magical bullets poured down like rain. Yet against Fresia’s holy barrier, they were no different from raindrops striking an umbrella.

“Your barriers are as dependable as ever. Now then...”

Nellin drew her bowstring, preparing to aim at a golem the size of a grown man. While Paulen held off the hulking golems, the others were approaching the party behind him. Just as she was about to release the string, Fresia stopped her.

“Nellin, please keep your attention on the lich.”

“What? Then who’s going to stop those things coming over here?”

“Naturally, I intend to leave that to the companions you’ve trained.”

“What? Them?”

With a kindly smile, Fresia turned to Godric and his companions.

“Forgive me, but could you help us? We need your strength.”

“O-our strength?”

“Yes. Of course, it’s all right if you’re afraid. I need only work a little harder myself.”

“... Heh. A fighting force the Saintess needs, eh? Not bad!”

“Yeah! It’s a whole lot better than just sitting here scared!”

“I want to fight too!”

“... You’re still good at coaxing people.”

“I’m merely asking them to look again at the courage they already possess. Now, Amelia, please bless them.”

“Yes, Saintess Fresia!”

While Fresia blocked Smartass’s spell, Amelia bestowed the same blessing she had given Paulen upon Godric and his companions.

HUMMMM!

“So this is a Saintess’s blessing? My body’s overflowing with strength.”

“I can do anything now! This feeling of omnipotence...! Magnificent!”

“Hey! Def! Let’s go clear those things out!”

“Okay!”

With strength coursing through their bodies from the blessing’s enhancement, Godric and his companions kicked off the ground and charged the golems.

“Hyaaah!”

“Taste my blade, minion of the lich!”

“Yaaah!”

“Haaaah!”

SHICK!

CRUNCH!

Godric and his companions swung their weapons at the golems. The struck golems lost parts of their bodies or crumbled outright.

“What the hell! These things are nothing!”

Sgol shouted triumphantly after defeating a golem with ease.

'Hmm. Was the next Saintess’s blessing stronger than I expected? No, more importantly, those fellows have become incredibly strong since I last saw them.'

Smartass had last seen Godric and his companions several months ago, when they were hunting a lesser troll. It was no exaggeration to say their abilities had undergone a complete transformation since then. They were still far from matching a hero, of course, but attaining skill at least beyond that of veteran adventurers was a tremendous improvement.

'I suppose I can summon the golems with a little more mana poured into them.'

The instant Smartass’s countless mana bullets stopped pouring down, Fresia dismissed her barrier and signaled Nellin.

“Nellin! Now!”

At Fresia’s request to focus on the lich, Nellin had held her bowstring drawn and infused her arrow with mana. It was a secret art of the elves—a hidden technique that only the few elves who had reached a certain level could perform.

The reason Nellin was called The Starlight Archer was about to unfold.

“Diiiie!”

Nellin’s arrow sliced through the air and flew upward. Then, in the next instant, what had clearly been a single arrow multiplied, shining like starlight as it rained down on the lich.

This was her secret technique, Meteor Shower. The mana infused into the arrow spread out, becoming individual arrows of formidable power that showered the enemy like falling meteors.

'Here it comes, just as expected!'

He had thought Nellin would use this technique. She had no reason to hold it in reserve against an enemy like a lich.

'This time, I’ll show you my defensive magic!'

Smartass drew up his mana and deployed a barrier to stop the arrows raining down on him. Unlike the simple mana barrier he had erected earlier, this one was densely woven with intricate spell formulas.

Smartass had named the spell “Aegis.”

CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG!

Countless starlight arrows collided with the barrier.

“Tch. He even blocked that.”

Nellin clicked her tongue when her secret technique failed to land a telling blow on the lich. But Smartass was not having such an easy time of it either.

'It would have shattered if I hadn’t kept feeding it mana. Just what I’d expect from Nellin’s secret technique.'

Throughout the collision with the arrows, Smartass supplied mana to keep Aegis’s durability from being depleted. He could only do that because it was his newly developed spell. An ordinary barrier would certainly have shattered the moment an arrow touched it.

Smartass was delighted not only by his new spell’s performance, but also by Nellin’s skill, which still gave him no room to lower his guard. His spell’s success pleased him, but so did the knowledge that his companion’s abilities remained undiminished.

“One shot won’t break through? Then here comes another!”

'Taking those back-to-back would be dangerous!'

["I won’t allow that!"]

Smartass began casting again to prevent her from unleashing another Meteor Shower.

+++

The fight lasted more than thirty minutes. Smartass continually summoned golems to keep the front-line fighters from approaching him while he cast the spells he wanted to show off.

Paulen fought the giant golems that kept appearing, while Godric and his companions destroyed the ceaseless waves of golems to keep them from reaching Nellin, Amelia, and Fresia. Amelia maintained her blessings on Paulen and Godric’s group, launching attacks with her holy arts whenever she saw an opening.

Nellin threatened Smartass with arrows at every opportunity, and as soon as Gracie recovered, she used her own spells to counter the magic assailing them. Whenever Gracie, still unaccustomed to intense combat, began to stagger, Fresia erected a barrier to buy her time to recover. She also coordinated with Amelia to attack Smartass with volleys of swords and spears imbued with holy power.

“Huff, huff.”

“Hngh! Hah, hah.”

“When are they going to stop coming?!”

“W-we can’t lose! We have to find Bouncy!”

After thirty minutes of fierce, uninterrupted combat, Godric’s Party was breathing raggedly. Paulen was not panting, but sweat ran down his face as he continued to fight the giant golems.

He would have liked to cut down a golem in a single stroke and swing his sword at the lich, but Smartass had taken extra care in summoning the golems blocking his path. Unlike ordinary golems, these giants had vastly superior strength, speed, and technique. As they continually barred his way, Paulen never managed to reach Smartass.

The front line was not alone in running out of stamina. Gracie had repeatedly countered and retaliated against spells unlike anything she had ever encountered, and her mana was already at its limit. Among the many magical devices hanging from her body, those powered by magic stones had already exhausted their mana, and her mana-replenishing devices no longer functioned either. Her face had turned deathly pale from the lack of mana.

Amelia, too, had never used holy arts for so long without a break, and cold sweat ran down her face. The only members of the party who could still fight comfortably were Nellin and Fresia, who had already experienced countless fierce battles. Nellin still had stamina to spare, while Fresia’s ingrained ability to ration her holy power left her with ample reserves.

Meanwhile, Smartass had expended more than half his mana fighting the party. His greatest expenditure had not been summoning golems, casting large-scale offensive spells, or even maintaining the barrier he had laid in advance to prevent severe damage to the hill. It had been defensive magic.

Blocking Nellin’s Meteor Shower, as well as holding out against Gracie’s spells and Amelia and Fresia’s combined holy arts, consumed the most mana. Becoming a lich had multiplied his mana several times over what he had possessed in life, yet they had made him expend half of those enormous reserves.

'You really are extraordinary, Nellin, Fresia.'

He felt proud of his companions, whose skills had not rusted in the slightest.

'I look forward to seeing what all of you become.'

Looking at Godric and his companions, who had held out this long, and at Paulen, Amelia, and Gracie, who would achieve even greater things in the future, he felt that humanity’s future was still bright.

'It’s about time.'

He had shown them every spell he wanted to show. Smartass still had half his mana left, but if he continued, everyone other than Nellin, Fresia, and perhaps Paulen would reach their limits and collapse.

And so he decided it was time to reveal his identity.

["Remarkable. Yes, truly remarkable. To hold out this long against me as I am now."]

“Hold out, my ass! Give me a little longer and I could fuck you up!”

["Hahahaha! Now that is a frightening thing to say. Truly!"]

SNAP!

Smartass snapped his fingers and withdrew the mana he had poured into the golems. The golems still fighting Paulen and Godric’s companions all stopped moving at once, then crumbled into heaps.

Then—

“Honestly. Your mouth is as foul as ever, Nellin.”

Rather than using Telepathy, Smartass spoke his dear friend’s name aloud.