“Alright~ start!” (Kuro)

  As Kuro started the match, both Hajime and Alice… didn’t move a muscle.

  Both sides examine and analyze each other’s moves like a predator watching its prey.

  [Chih, she’s not cocky for show huh?] (Hajime)

  Hajime was desperate, not because he couldn't attack or Alice was secretly attacking him from his blind spot.

  It’s because Hajime cannot see any opening, at all.

  Alice, who’s scking and even yawning, was not showing any opening. She might seem to be rexed, but her xed eyes were looking at Hajime the entire time without any pause.

  “What’s wrong? Got cold feet?” (Alice)

  Alice taunts Hajime again, fortunately he knows not to fall for her deceit.

  He thinks of several thousand ways to catch her by surprise, yet for some reason, he can’t see anything would work.

  Any side Hajime attacks, Alice will just confront it with casual waves and it’ll be over without him realizing it.

  [So the best way is to confront her entirely huh?] (Hajime)

  A slight moment Hajime thought of this, he immediately shot his guns towards her with blinding speed using “Riftwalk”.

  However,

  *CLANK!

  “Hmm~, a solid approach, but it needs a bit more refining.” (Alice)

  Hajime was perplexed, Alice not only intercept it so casually, she even did it in an unusual way.

  She shot the bullet that was shot from Hajime’s guns and perfectly pierce it and reached Hajime.

  Hajime barely dodged it, but the bullet left a scar on Hajime’s left cheek.

  “You gotta be kidding me!” (Hajime)

  Hajime ran around in a circle, trying to shoot Alice while strafing to make sure bullets won’t hit him.

  “Rookie mistake.” (Alice)

  Alice nonchantly shoots all of the bullets aiming towards her down with extreme precision without even looking, effortlessly shooting them down.

  “Well how about this!” (Hajime)

  Hajime gets close to Alice while she is busy shooting the bullet and takes out his weapon that helped him through harsh times. The stake that was compressed and coated with Azantium, that pierced some of the toughest shields imaginable, imbued with spatial magic at its tip to penetrate anything aiming towards Alice’s head, The Pile Bunker.

  However…

  “!?” (Hajime)

  Strangely, Alice didn’t move when she realized what Hajime was doing. In fact, she let him get closer to her.

  What Hajime was shocked by, though, is not the fact that Alice did something to him.

  It was from the fact that his Pile Bunker slowly stopped a few centimeters before it hit Alice.

  It was as if there’s endless amount of invisible barriers slowing down Pile Bunkers.

  “Oh my! Looks like you found one of my inventions!” (Alice)

  With an upbeat and annoying tone, mimicking a certain world's most annoying person. It makes Hajime have a slight PTSD and furious look.

  “What the fuck did you just do?” (Hajime)

  “Nothing really, it was one of the few applications of one of the Ancient Magics you all had, one of those is called Spatial Magic and I feel like it was severely underutilized so I decided to make some artifacts for it. Go on, try to attack me again.” (Alice)

  Hajime was fuming, knowing that Alice was only using this fight as a chance for testing her inventions without even minding Hajime’s presence or motivation.

  Furiously, he shot Alice again, and just like the Pile Bunker, the bullets slowed down tremendously, before falling down near where Alice stands.

  “See, there is an interesting attribute in this Spatial Magic that allows you guys to manipute any boundary, between fiction and reality and even space-time, and you guys didn’t even try to do that? I’m slightly disappointed. One of the most powerful magic and you guys sloppily spped it for mundane portals, shields and attacks? How uncreative. So, I decided to utilize this magic first.” (Alice)

  As Hajime is still desperate on how to circumnavigate her artifact’s weird ability, Alice continues to expin about her findings in ancient magics without even paying Hajime any attention.

  “First of all, I started out simple. By creating an infinitely thin space-time barrier and continuously piling them up yer by yer each time an attack enters inside the space-time barrier, it’ll go slower the closer it gets to me until it stops completely, essentially making an infinite space formed between me and a few centimeters around me. If I was allowed to name this artifact, I would name it “Erweiterung”. It’s a pretty simple artifact that even you can make, Hajime-san.” (Alice)

  “...Shut up!” (Hajime)

  Hajime is getting desperate, he pulls his eyepatch and uses his Magic Eye to examine Alice’s surroundings. From there, he can see a line of mana that connects between Alice’s surroundings and somewhere beneath the ground.

  Realizing that’s the artifact that she mentioned, Hajime immediately uses grenades and blows it up to smithereens. Her infinite barriers are gone, yet Alice was not worried at all.

  “Hmm, well I figured you will notice where I put it. It’s a bit heavier to my liking so I decided to put it somewhere, I need more research to make it so I can wear the artifact like a badge anyway.” (Alice)

  Yue and others are baffled, Alice essentially made an artifact that creates an infinite indestructible barrier yet she still called it a failure due to the artifact not ending up to her liking.

  “What? Don’t tell me you all thought that was amazing, I haven’t started anything interesting yet.” (Alice)

  Hajime was getting cornered, knowing her first trick is already something that Alice considered a failure, he pulled out his sniper, Schgen AA, to shoot Alice in the head.

  *BAAAM!

  Loud noise echoes throughout the battlefield as the bullet travels toward Alice at blinding speed.

  Yet…

  “Whoops! Lucky that I had this gun here!” (Alice)

  Just before the bullet even touched Alice, the bullet warped and got sucked into Alice's gun muzzle she equipped on her left hand.

  “Now where was I… Ah right! Another Ancient Magic that intrigued me is Gravity Magic, what power it does is obvious, it controls gravity. But gravity itself is quite a powerful force, despite being the weakest natural force. Of course, this magic also allows the user to control the power of a star, which can let the users make a bck hole like this.” (Alice)

  As Alice expins to Hajime and the Nagumo household what Gravity Magic is despite them knowing how it works, she casted Bck Sky Destitution, the highest level of Gravity Magic, on the tip of her finger. Yue and Shia were shocked that Alice casted it nonchantly as if it was as easy as breathing.

  “Unfortunately, this one is just an imitation. No, calling this an imitation is an insult to a true bck hole. Fortunately, the missing piece in making the true bck hole is, in fact, Spatial Magic.” (Alice)

  As Alice continues her expnation, Hajime keeps on throwing anything towards her, whether it’s bullets, rockets from Agni Orkan, or even grenades. Yet, Alice’s bck gun sucks them all.

  “And so, I decided to make this bck gun here, its name is “Eigenartigkeit” which means Singurity. As you all guessed, a true bck hole is nested within the gun’s muzzle which can sucks everything, even light, and compress them into a tiny point like a bck hole should do. Though the reason why I can use them normally is because I can change mode from normal to bck hole mode using the Space-time barrier.” (Alice)

  As Alice nonchantly expined her bck gun’s effect, it also sucked in many of the projectiles Hajime uses.

  Speaking of Hajime, when Alice is expining, he doesn't stop attacking Alice. He took out his Cross Velts, his Grim Reapers, and the Metzelei disaster. Yet… none of them had any effect on Alice’s single gun.

  “And then this white gun I had on my right hand…” (Alice)

  Shivers ran down on Hajime’s spine, whatever the white gun’s gimmick is, it arms his instinct to not underestimate it.

  “While most of the Ancient Magics are all interesting, what intrigued me the most is Evolution Magic. While the surface usage of this magic is to merely enhance an aspect of certain things, the true nature of this magic is to manipute information. I was kinda shocked, you know? This magic is a cut above the rest, and as usual, all of you are so uncreative in utilizing this magic to its fullest, so much so that I’m almost irritated.” (Alice)

  Alice is visibly irritated, yet a moment ter, her expressions went back to a deadpan one while looking at the desperate Hajime who still uses everything he has to at least nd a hit.

  “Anyway, I actually made two of those true bck hole guns, and then a stroke of genius came to me. What if I changed the property of the bck hole on one of the guns from sucking into repelling?” (Alice)

  As Alice slowly aimed her gun towards Hajime, a dot of pure light emerged from the white gun’s muzzle, it was brighter than even Magnawell’s full power breath that they’ve seen when Tio had a light spar with Magnawell before.

  Not only that… the sheer intimidation exuded from said dot was intense enough that even the onlooker can feel its dangerous presence outside the Large Scale Spatial Barrier.

  “Then I created… A gun that mimics the property of a “White Hole”. I called it, “Ereignishorizont”. Try to dodge it, will you?” (Alice)

  “!!!” (Hajime)

  *BWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

  As soon as Alice warns Hajime to dodge it and pulls the trigger, the force of thousand suns emerges and unches towards a singur human being.

  It was only a mere second, yet the destruction it brings is imminent as there is a gigantic cone shaped crater formed in front of Alice. It was so big, light can’t reach the bottom of the crater.

  “Well this gun needs to be paired with Eigenartigkeit since Ereignishorizont needs to be paired with a true bck hole to even propell anything, so this thing is essentially a counterattack gimmick weaponry and is useless on its own.” (Alice)

  Alice threw her guns away as if it was garbage. Moments ter after the dust settles in, Hajime can be seen, flying with magic circles under his feet.

  “Hmm, Ereignishorizont should have the capability of bending space so you can’t block it with a Spatial barrier, which means…” (Alice)

  As Alice inspected Hajime and deduced the possibility of Hajime blocking it with regur shields, she then looked at Kuromueina.

  “Alright Hajime-chan~ I’ve helped you once, you’re down to two assists, so be careful~” (Kuro)

  “Hah… hah… Thanks Kuro-san. I tried to block it but it got too out of hand.” (Hajime)

  Just as Alice thought, Kuro completely blocked the beam and helped Hajime, thus giving him another chance in this fight.

  “Mmmmm, as I thought, getting Kuro-san’s help is indeed a cheat.” (Alice)

  As Alice compins a little towards Kuromueina, she then turns her gaze toward Hajime. Although he’s out of breath as he did try to block a White Hole’s force.

  Yet… he smiled with a devilish crescent grin, Demon King style.

  Suddenly…

  “Oya? Now this is interesting.” (Alice)

  Suddenly a cage with chainsaw as its bar entrapped Alice. Not only that, a coffin slowly emerges below Alice and fully encloses her with many spikes inside it.

  —Coffin shield Avalon, Iron Maiden version.

  It was improvised as a trap rather than for protection, yet for this specific case, it was only used to buy time. The moment Alice was trapped in it, a satellite-shaped structure appeared right above Alice.

  —Burst Hyperion

  The big artifact that was powered by sunlight and then concentrated it into a deadly beam. Hajime was pnning on using it one way or another. However, he knew that Alice was nimble and hard to catch, so he decided to set an eborate trap to make sure the beam nded on her.

  “Now eat this you piece of sh*t! All seven furnaces! Activate!” (Hajime)

  As soon as Hajime commanded the Burst Hyperion to shoot, the artifact shone and dropped a massive beam above the Iron Maiden where Alice was in.

  While the destruction is smaller than the beam Alice shot, it was more than enough to completely decimate everything in its path, including the coffin shield Avalon.

  Several moments ter, the beam stopped as it needed to be recharged with sunlight again. Hajime looked at the aftermath, a giant crater with nothing left in the middle.

  However…

  “Tch!?” (Hajime)

  Hajime instinctively dodge midair, it made Yue and others perplexed as to why Hajime even dodge something when there’s nothing near Hajime’s vicinity.

  A moment ter… a pitch dark colored sword pierced the space behind Hajime’s original spot and almost stabbed Hajime. Hajime barely dodged it as it grazed his chest and created another wound.

  Shortly after, the sword retreated, and a big spatial rift was formed.

  “Iya~ that attack was actually not bad at all. Though you’re a tad bit too te~, and your spatial awareness was pretty good~” (Alice)

  To Yue and others’ shock, Alice emerges from the spatial rift with the same dark sword that she uses to attack Hajime.

  “Interesting isn’t it? How do I dodge those beams when I was trapped inside an Iron Maiden you ask? Well the answer is because of this sword~, this sword not only cuts through space, it also forms a spatial rift that allows you to travel between space. Kinda like Shia-san’s pseudo-teleportation, if you will~. Well it only functions as a normal sword outside of this gimmick so it’s useless to me.” (Alice)

  Alice throws her sword away like her twin guns before, and it makes Hajime fuming even more.

  She’s strong… really strong… That’s what Hajime truly thought.

  Hajime gave it his all and Alice didn’t even get to be half serious yet and he already used one of Kuromueina’s help. All of his attacks were thwarted and treated like a joke, her attacks are an order of magnitude more powerful than his, her inventions that could’ve been the breakthrough of their artifacts are thrown away like garbage because it doesn’t interest her enough, even his trap was easily countered to the point that it was practically useless.

  Yet, she never, not even once, looked down on him. Alice never break her gaze towards Hajime, not even once. She counters all of his attacks accordingly, without underestimating or overestimating the severity of his attacks. The gap between their strength and skill is that far.

  However,

  “Uuugh, those smiles gave me goosebumps. It reminds me of that goril when she still wants to fight me even after I beat her to pulp.” (Alice)

  “Ah? You got a problem with my smile? Well you should get used to it!” (Hajime)

  A moment after Hajime calmed down, he brandished his signature Demon King smile and released his mana.

  *BOOOOOOM!!!

  A red tornado swirled on top of Hajime, many magic circles spawned behind him, making the onlookers look at the scenery with awe.

  “OOOOOOHHHH!!! LIMIT BREAK! SUPREME BREAK! LAST SEELE! UNLOCK!” (Hajime)

  “Uuugh, what is it this time? Are you trying to go Super Sa*yan or something?” (Alice)

  Alice jokingly questioned Hajime as to why he even tried to use Supreme Break ability and Last Seele, then spatial rifts are created on the magic circles.

  From those spatial rifts, emerges many kinds of weaponry, from guns, to rifles, to even rocket unchers. All of that weaponry emerges from thousands of spatial rifts created by Hajime.

  Not only that…

  “K-Kuro-san, are those weapons created when you trained Hajime-san?” (Alice)

  “Unn! He’s actually pretty diligent so I decided to give away all of them and let him use all of it in exchange for my help!” (Kuro)

  “...Kuro-san, by any chance, is there any magic weapon that has causality intervention and instant death magic applied to those weapons?” (Alice)

  “Well, I kinda forgot~ I just gave Hajime-chan a bunch of magic formus and let him do his training. Now that I think about it, he did actually finish his homework of identifying the usage of all of the magical formus, and he did an all nighter of making those weapons using the formus I gave him before so maybe all of them have those?” (Kuro)

  “That’s cheating!? I demand a reshuffle of rules!” (Alice)

  Alice banters with Kuromueina, saying that it was unfair. Although she was compining, she wasn't particurly worried or scared, just shocked that Kuromueina just let Hajime have thousands of magic formus for him to experiment on.

  “Oi you bastard!” (Hajime)

  What is it now? Alice said this as Hajime tried to get her attention. With his signature Demon King smile, he begins to unleash his ultimate weapon.

  “NOW TRY AND PARRY THIS YOU FILTHY FUCKING BASTARD! GATES OF B*BYLON!!!” (Hajime)

  “Now you’re ripping off other franchises completely, do you have no shaaaaaaaameeeeee!!??” (Alice)

  As Hajime shouted out his move name that was directly ripped out from a certain goldie king, all of the weapons behind him all fired its ammunition towards Alice.

  Some of them are normal bullets and rockets, some of them have homing attributes, some of them are beams of destruction that erases everything in front of it, some of them have Spatial Magic applied to it to have a Space penetrating attribute, some of them have time acceleration to travel faster towards its target. It is a whole shower of bullets, rockets and sers with a maniac in the middle ughing maniacally.

  Meanwhile, the recipient of Hajime’s chaotic bullet shower… was frantically dodging them.

  “Uwaaa… Yue-san, don’t you think Hajime got a little bit overboard? I mean, this is Alice-san we’re talking about sure but she’s restricted to an absurd degree too. I can’t even dodge all of those bullets even with all of my buffs so I can’t really imagine Alice-san could dodge all of them.” (Shia)

  “...Nn, I think this is the reason why Hajime didn’t go to bed with us yesterday, he definitely stayed up overnight to make that many weapons to fight Alice-san.” (Yue)

  “W-well, this is pretty overboard but Hajime-kun’s opponent is one of the Six Kings so no matter how much restrictions were pced, Hajime-kun definitely gonna go overboard to make sure he won.” (Kaori)

  “Umu, plus the fact that Goshujin-sama was pretty furious with Alice-dono's antics, he definitely will go overboard just to prove a point.” (Tio)

  Certainly~ The Wifie~s thought Hajime went overboard with his weapon making just to nd a hit on Alice. However, they know Hajime can’t pull any punches, especially against the Six Kings who are individually stronger than all of them. They were sure that Hajime could win if he kept this going.

  Except for one person…

  “...” (Shizuku)

  “Shizuku-chan? What’s wrong?” (Kaori)

  Shizuku was gring down the messy battlefield with intense gre… and a worried gaze.

  “...Not a single one of them hit.” (Shizuku)

  “Shizuku-san? What do you mean desu?” (Shia)

  “Out of about 200,000 guns Hajime had with an average bullet count of at least 10 million bullets per seconds, not a single bullet hit Alice-san.” (Shizuku)

  “Hmm? Wait, now that I think about it…” (Tio)

  Yue and others looked at Alice again. Although Alice barely and even comically dodge them like a cartoon character, it was not like any of the projectiles hit her. In fact, even though some of the bullets are enhanced with causality intervention to always hit, not a single one of them hit Alice.

  Cold sweat poured out from Shizuku’s face.

  “It’s starting. The real nightmare is beginning! Hajime! Be careful!” (Shizuku)

  Although Shizuku screamed at Hajime trying to warn him, unfortunately her voice was drowned amongst hundreds of thousands of guns shooting its ammunition alongside Hajime’s maniacal ugh.

  Then, suddenly…

  “HAHAHAHA! KEEP RUNNING YOU—!!!” (Hajime)

  Although Hajime was ughing, he’s still keeping his guard on to make sure Alice didn’t sneakily attack him, yet what baffles him is not the fact that Alice did nd a hit on him…

  “I-isn’t that Yue-san!?” (Shia)

  “Nnn!?” (Yue)

  Just like what Shia said, amidst the floating dusts, a petite figure with golden wavy hair that Hajime extremely familiar with can be seen amongst the tattered battlefield. Although Hajime knew it’s impossible that she was there, he… hesitated.

  “Oya? Do you really have time to hesitate?” (Alice)

  “! Chih!” (Hajime)

  Although Alice could’ve easily attacked Hajime with the opening he made, the one who attacked Hajime was not Alice…

  “I-it’s Shia this time!?” (Kaori)

  Just like what Kaori saw, the one who attacked Hajime is, in fact, Shia, or looked like one, with her figures to her attack form to even her hammer Vire Drucken, it was as if Shia herself was there.

  Hajime hastily dodge fake Shia’s attack, and suddenly the magic circles that spawned his enormous amount of guns disappeared.

  “Oooh, that’s quite a handy trick you got there! Though it seems that you can only do it when you’re standing still.” (Alice)

  “You sonuva bitch! What did you do!?” (Hajime)

  “Hmm, well I did say that I want to show you all the peak of your strength. So might as well show them now.” (Alice)

  As Alice emerges from the settled dust with no injuries, both fake Yue and fake Shia went back toward Alice’s side.

  “These are my clones. See, with Metamorphosis Magic that allows manipution of organic matters, coupled with Evolution Magic, I can basically change myself into another person. Not that I need them because I have better magic for that anyway, but there’s just something alluring about making the same magic you used under a different magic system. Ah right, the clones are also something you guys can do with that Endou Kousuke-san guy.” (Alice)

  Alice expins yet another of her original magic that allows her to become a copy of another person entirely, from their physique down to the magic aura, they all are completely the same down to every little detail. Yue and others can’t even fathom her mastery of Ancient Magic that already surpassed the Liberators that gave them the same magic in the first pce.

  “What? Don’t tell me you guys are surprised I can do this too? Tch tch tch, so unoriginal, so uncreative! This is why you guys should’ve done more research rather than sloppily use them for mundane tasks!” (Alice)

  Alice, with a mocking tone, slightly irritated that they can’t comprehend such simple magic. However, a simple magic for her is an extremely advanced magic for Hajime and others.

  Not only do they have to carefully change the information on every DNA strand using Evolution Magic and Metamorphosis Magic as a slight deviation can cause irreversible damage, the impact on one’s personality can cause significant change as even the brain undergoes change. This is why Hajime and others were hesitant or didn’t even thought about trying it.

  “Well, I get it, you guys hesitated on changing your whole being. Not for me though~” (Alice)

  Strange, is what Hajime alongside Yue and others thought. Alice still speaks in a cheerful tone, yet the atmosphere around her becomes heavy and dark.

  “See, more than 20,000 years ago, I started my crusade on the Demon Realm. First, eliminating all of the sh*tty demons completely without trace. Then… I changed my identities across the whole realms, to infiltrate, to gather information, or to simply pass time.” (Alice)

  As Alice speaks of her past, she walks in a circle with Hajime in the middle, while creating clones.

  “Not like I had any identities worth keeping anyway~. I lost everything, my home, my family, my friends, I became a shell of my former self, and slowly became… empty. That’s why I can easily change my identities, like an amorphous slime, I have no definite shape, on my mental self, and slowly, my physical self.” (Alice)

  Alice continues talking while making clones and changing them into someone that Hajime is terribly familiar with.

  The first two clones, Hajime already know both of them extremely well, one of them are a golden haired petite girl with a blouse and a gothic chic clothes, the other are long blue paled haired rabbit girl with easy to move clothing.

  “Humans, Demons, Gods, they're all the same to me. I asked myself, Is it not enough? Is it time to stop taking other people’s identity and start to form my own identity? Ah, perhaps not. I loathe it too, for making so many identities, yet I felt empty.” (Alice)

  Hajime alongside Yue and others can’t keep up with what Alice said. Yet, they can feel it, a tinge of sadness, emptiness, and madness formed into an amalgamation of emotion in each of her words

  Slowly but surely, the clones Alice made started to take shape.

  One of them changed into a dark haired woman wearing a kimono.

  One of them changed to a bck haired girl with saintess-like clothes, brandishing two gigantic swords.

  One of them changed to a swordswoman with long dark hair in a ponytail.

  Slowly but surely all of the clones changed shape into figures Hajime knew. It makes Hajime look as if he has bitten a very sour grape.

  “You’re actually a sick bastard, you know that?” (Hajime)

  “Maybe I am, maybe I’m not, one of the identities I made is definitely a sick bastard. I can tell you that much.” (Alice)

  As they were still talking with each other, the clones all finished changing their figure without their faces, as if it was cutted off. Hajime unconsciously gulped, seeing many familiar figures yet their faces were nowhere to be seen in a battle stance while staring at him with their nonexistent eyes.

  “It was until I met Kaito-san that I started to take a definite shape. Yes, I don’t need millions of identities, I just need… to be me… To be Alice, is all I ever needed.” (Alice)

  Alice stops, and gred at Hajime with her clear sky blue eyes.

  “Well then, enough chit chat, Which one do you want to fight first? I’ll let you choose.” (Alice)

  “...” (Hajime)

  Hajime didn’t answer immediately, he closed his eyes, as if he was thinking of something. The atmosphere was quiet with Hajime surrounded by his fake comrade and lover. Yue and others didn’t know what he would do to escape this predicament.

  However, a moment ter…

  “Well how about neither of them! EIGHT FURNACE ACTIVATE!” (Hajime)

  As Hajime shouted this with a devilish smile, a huge magic circle spawned high in the sky right above Hajime. It created the Burst Hyperion that he used earlier when he trapped Alice. Light emerges from the artifact, ready for unching the ser.

  “So long you cocky bastard!” (Hajime)

  Hajime threw his artifact Orestes that allowed him to open a portal to nearby Orestes that he prepared beforehand to escape before Burst Hyperion releases its beam towards Alice and her clones while flipping a bird towards Alice.

  Not even a moment ter.

  “BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

  A nanosecond after Hajime safely escaped from Burst Hyperion’s fire range. Burst Hyperion unches its beam towards Alice and her clones.

  Before the ser even touches any of her clones, however…

  “!!!???” (Hajime)

  “Iyaa~ I actually almost got tagged there~ that was pretty close~” (Alice)

  Before Hajime could register anything, everything was reseted back to how it was a few seconds ago, with Alice and her clones surrounding Hajime.

  “T-that’s!?” (Kaori)

  “...Nn, it’s causality intervention.” (Yue)

  Both Yue and Kaori knew what it was the second they saw what happened. It was their bane of existence, yet their magnum opus that they learned from their hard days under Isis’ tutege.

  Causality intervention magic.

  “I’m actually pleasantly surprised and gd that Kaori-san and Yue-san managed to cast causality intervention magic~ Because of them, I had an opportunity to do this~” (Alice)

  As Alice commands her clones, fake Tio and fake Shia instantly teleport right within Hajime’s personal space and they all attack him at the same time.

  Hajime hurriedly blocked both their attacks, then fake Yue and fake Kaori were behind casting magics towards Hajime.

  “Chih!” (Hajime)

  Sensing there’s no way Hajime could tanked their attacks, he fired Exise bullet towards his behind and teleported to escape the predicament.

  “Nice fast thinking there~ Now that we gained distance, it’s time to show our dearest spectators what it’s like in their strongest self for now~” (Alice)

  Alice then commands the fake Yue to step up while commands the rest to back down. The fake Yue then turned herself into her adult form. Although faceless still, with her form sitting on the air with her leg crossed, the allure of her body is enough to drive normal people mad.

  After that, three rge halo materialized behind fake Yue, signifying that she’s getting serious.

  “Well, let’s start with Yue-san over here. She has proficiency in all of Ancient Magic, but most of the magic she had either was ripped off from other people, or just not interesting. The Seven Divine Dragon is interesting and all but that’s the only interesting original magic she had. Because of that, I actually had fun tinkering with Yue-san’s magic and her kits. So please stay alive for a bit okay~” (Alice)

  As Alice said this, fake Yue suddenly illuminates a bright light.

  As the light subsides…

  “...You gotta be fucking kidding me.” (Hajime)

  Hajime compined while looking at what’s in front of him exasperatedly, because what he saw was something completely unexpected.

  There are multiple fake adult Yue made out of pure light.

  What’s more, these Yues also have three rge halos behind their back.

  “Now then, I’ll be grabbing popcorn and enjoying the light show!” (Alice)

  “You sick sonuva bit—!!!” (Hajime)

  Before Hajime finishes cursing Alice, multiple fake Yues immediately create tiny stars and light apostles and bombard Hajime with many light projectiles and disintegration bullets. Not only that, multiple bck holes, Spatial cuts and imitation dragons were also created to attack Hajime.

  Due to this, Hajime not only needs to dodge the onsught of many attacks that are stronger and with a high amount of them, while dodging the bck holes, spatial cuts and dragons. He also needs to beat the real fake Yue in order to completely defeat all of the light clones.

  A fight with Ehit in essence, but stronger and multiple of them at the same time.

  The situation is flipped from Alice frantically dodging Hajime’s onsught of bullets to Hajime frantically dodging fake Yues’ onsught of light attacks while Alice is rexing eating popcorn and drinking soda while sitting on a chair that is seemingly made out of pstic.

  To put it simply.

  “W-what the hell is that!? Isn’t the situation completely flipped!? And this whole fight just started less than 5 minutes ago desu!” (Shia)

  Shia was completely perplexed by the absurdity of how sudden the tide turned, from Alice dominating the match, to Hajime dominating the whole battlefield, to Alice completely taking back control of the battlefield. Not only that, Alice wasn't even seriously fighting Hajime and only showcasing magic and artifacts that they could make.

  Moreover,

  “...I’m actually shocked I had this potential. I mean, of course it’s theoretically possible to create another me that can also spawn apostles but to think Alice-san cracked it. Rather, why am I getting insulted for being uncreative…” (Yue)

  Yue was irritated, not just because she can only look at her beloved getting essentially bullied by a fake version of herself, but also towards herself for not realising her own potential and using it to its fullest. She also felt insulted by Alice’s words.

  “You guys should watch closely.” (Kuro)

  “Kuro-san?” (Kaori)

  Kuromueina suggests them to look at Hajime and Alice’s fight, even if it’s hard to watch since their husband was losing very hard against a being that’s completely beyond everything they ever met.

  “Shalltear kindly restricted herself to only using magics any of you could learn, so peel your eyes open and look at how she fights, and learn from them. Examine every move she takes, and incorporate it toward your own skill.” (Kuro)

  Kuromueina’s words resonated in their mind. They realized that Alice was giving them opportunities to reach a higher scale that they could never reach before.

  “...Nn, Alice-san did say that she was pnning on showing us our strongest state, then our mission is to surpass her expectations!” (Yue)

  Oooh! The Wifie~s are in the same mindset with Yue as they closely examine all of the fight without blinking, sworn to surpassing their fake strongest self that Alice imagines them to be.

  Kuromueina, on the other hand, was watching them with a warm gaze and gentle smile, like a mother who is watching her child learning something new in school.

  Meanwhile,

  “Hah… hah…” (Hajime)

  “Hmm, not bad, you gave me some entertainment~” (Alice)

  Hajime successfully defeated fake Yue and completely destroyed her to a pulp. While tattered and exhausted, he uses cheatmate to replenish his vitality and energy to restore himself a little bit. Hajime was not happy as he had to fight, albeit a fake, his beloved.

  However, the fight is far from over.

  “Now for our second contender, the Little Rabbit Shia-san!” (Alice)

  As Alice announced Hajime’s next opponent, fake Shia jumped to the sky and struck the earth near Hajime with extreme force using her hammer. The force makes an enormous crater that rivals even the destruction that Burst Hyperion caused.

  Fake Shia then lifted her hammer and swung towards Hajime with blinding speed in different directions, sometimes from above, sometimes from below, sometimes from the sides. It was a flurry of attacks that Hajime barely dodged and blocked.

  While Hajime desperately fights against fake Shia, Alice continues her expnation.

  “Her fighting style is pretty straightforward, *nom nom, gulp,* swinging a hammer and being strong. Of course she had almost all of the ancient magics for the exception of Creation Magic, *nom nom, gulp,* though she had low to minimal proficiency to all of them. Pretty weird though, since she had innate future sight, *nom nom, gulp,* she should’ve at least had proficiency in Restoration Magic, but sometimes life doesn’t work that way I suppose. Let’s see… her original magic consists of body strengthening, pseudo-teleportation where she can shift her body halfway, and Spatial cracks, standard stuff really.” (Alice)

  Alice nonchantly expin Shia’s fighting style while still eating popcorn while watching Hajime and fake Shia fight. Annoyed, Hajime pnned on finishing fake Shia quickly, he then created magic circles on his step to make multiple traps.

  However…

  “Gah!?” (Hajime)

  “Ah I forgot to expin it, I decided to expand her innate future sight magic by allowing her to look at multiple futures and the best way to counter them. Case in point, the best way to counter her from getting trapped is to simply break your leg. Also, 2 seconds into the future is way too short, so I decided to expand her precognition ability to see 10 seconds into the future. Nothing too grand really. Of course, she could make the mistake of choosing a different future and end up in an undesirable situation but it is pretty unlikely because she can see a few steps into the future.” (Alice)

  Just like what Alice expined, fake Shia’s future sight activated the moment Hajime had an intent to trap her, therefore she acted fast and completely bent Hajime’s leg and crushed any attempt of trapping her.

  Hajime then aimed his gun toward fake Shia’s head, which fake Shia immediately deflected it with her hammer upward. Using the momentum of fake Shia’s attack, Hajime somersault kicked fake Shia while healed his broken leg by forcefully bending them back.

  Although fake Shia dodge it, he gained some distance while preparing wide scale area attacks using Agni Orcan.

  “Mm, smart, the only counter to Shia-san’s fighting style is to completely carpet bomb the whole area until the only possible way to survive is to block it.” (Alice)

  As Alice complimented Hajime, one of the fakes charged toward the battlefield. However, it did not run towards Hajime, rather, it stopped at a considerable distance between the battlefield.

  Suddenly…

  *GRUAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

  “!!??” (Hajime)

  “If she's alone, that is.” (Alice)

  Fake Tio was there, and she roared towards the battlefield. The roar has such intimidation that Hajime is stunned for a moment.

  “Tio-san here was already pretty complete as a fighter. Makes sense, *nom nom, gulp,* as she is the oldest among you guys and had more combat experience, not to mention her royal bloodline means she has more knowledge than some random mook, *nom nom, gulp.* Her roars are interesting too, let’s see, where’s my note? Ah! Here it is! It says that her roars can damage souls, rupture space and turn any dragons into bck dragons. Now that’s a creative usage of Ancient Magic! In my opinion, it just needs a bit of fine tuning of allowing her roars to control any victims that hear her roars, could be used for brainwashing, or simply stun them. Unfortunately her human form isn’t as exciting, I was thinking of completely fusing her dragon and human form but she technically already did that so I’m pretty excited on what direction she will go under Magnawell-san’s care. If only she wasn’t a masochist huh~” (Alice)

  Hajime didn't even have time to listen to Alice's expnation. He quickly fired Agni Orca towards fake Tio and fake Shia. Pencil rockets burst outward the wings of the rockets, flying towards its targets.

  Both fake Tio and Shia… Stayed still without any movement.

  Moments ter…

  “...Of course there’s something between them, why wouldn’t they?” (Hajime)

  The rockets were halted right in the sky, even though there's no barriers present between them. It makes Hajime have a dry ugh due to how ridiculous it is.

  Not only that, fake Yue was revived by fake Kaori, which means Hajime had to fight against all of them at the same time.

  “Of course I need to showcase Kaori-san’s power too, *nom nom, gulp,* otherwise that'll be unfair don't you think? Kaori-san was the standard healer, except she had access to her own padin form called Apostle-ification, *nom nom, gulp,* which lets her access a wide variety of additional skills like swordsmanship, disintegration magic, and flight. She also has the highest proficiency of Restoration Magic, *nom nom, gulp,* so I imagined that she could make Space-time barriers that completely halt or slow down projectiles. I was thinking of giving her a more offensive option but she’s essentially the healer so I changed my mind. Ah my popcorn ran out, gimme a moment, let me make more.” (Alice)

  Hajime can’t even register Alice’s voice as he took out all of his Grim Reaper golems and his Cross Velts to even the power between them as right now, he’s being outcssed, even with Supreme Break and Last Seele. He didn’t have time and luxury to even notice Alice's presence. He then commanded the Grim Reapers to attack all at once and try to overwhelm them.

  The sound of gun firing and the scent of gunpowder scattering through the air, it was as if a world war was happening right in front of Yue and others’ eyes.

  On the other hand, Alice took out a white box, attached its cable to an outlet that suspiciously has the same shape as Elemagia, an artifact Hajime created that converts magical energy to electricity and vice versa. She opened the box, put a pouch in and clicked buttons to set it to 3 minutes and pressed a start button to cook the popcorn, and the mp inside the box lights up with the pouch spinning.

  What the hell is she doing? Rather, is that a microwave… Such is the thought that crossed Yue and others’ minds. The stark difference between the despairing Hajime and xed Alice is also hard to comprehend in their minds.

  “Well, while we’re waiting, let’s talk about Shizuku-san. Possibly the most underwhelming member in your party. You have the all-rounder, the magician, the close range combatant, the tanker, and the healer, an almost perfect team composition. Shizuku-san is… an oddball at best, and a burden at worst. Her fighting style consists of her family's swordsmanship style, Yaegashi-style swordsmanship alongside some self-taught swords art. While it was polished to the utmost degree, it felt incomplete. I checked a bit further and found out the reason, it’s because Yaegashi-style swordsmanship is, in fact, not a swordsmanship but assassin art. Then I thought, wow! She actually might be the st piece needed to make a perfect team! But of course, she doesn't want to learn her family’s assassin art for many reasons…” (Alice)

  Alice then gred coldly at the spectators. In fact, she gred at Shizuku. Shizuku jolts as she feels Alice’s gre, causing her to get cold sweats.

  “Hah, well even I can’t change someone’s mind when they’re dead set on not doing something. So I can only show her what it feels like to be a contributing teammate riiiiiight about… now!” (Alice)

  *DING!

  As Alice announced to show fake Shizuku’s form, the white box (microwave) made a bell sound, signifying that the popcorn had finished cooking. Alice then took out the puffed bag and ripped it open, steams coming out from the bag, a sign that the popcorn was fully cooked.

  Meanwhile…

  “GAH!?” (Hajime)

  “Hajime!?” (Yue)

  In the midst of the battle, Hajime was stabbed in his gut by a dark colored sword from the front. No one even knew where it came from, not even Hajime himself knew.

  Slowly, a figure emerges and taken shape as they focus their sight even more.

  “I-Is that Shizuku-chan!?” (Kaori)

  Just like what Kaori said, fake Shizuku was right in front of Hajime, wielding a dark sword as she clenched its grip and stabbed Hajime.

  Yue and others alongside Hajime were baffled as to how fake Shizuku was able to sneak in front of Hajime and stab him.

  “Go away you creep!” (Hajime)

  Hajime aimed his gun toward the fake Shizuku and shot her. While fake Shizuku dodged it, Hajime used this chance to punch her and gain more distance.

  As he successfully gained distance, he took out his Schgen AA and shot Shizuku in an extremely short time. However, fake Shia caught the bullet, protecting fake Shizuku.

  Of course she caught those, this buggy rabbit… Hajime retorted by how fake Shia just casually caught his bullet that can travel faster than the speed of light, until he remembered that the real Shia already did this before.

  Just after fake Shia blocked the bullet, fake Shizuku disappeared yet again, as if she was a mirage.

  “Shocking, isn't it? Using Evolution Magic, she can rewrite her presence to be “hidden”, *nom nom, gulp,* which makes her eludes her presence from all of your senses, basically recognition inhibition magic. With this, she can surprise attack all of her opponents with ease. A perfect assassin, *nom nom, gulp.* Speaking of Shizuku-san, did you not realize? That most of her heavy hitting techniques are all from your artifacts? Quite an embarrassment I would say, most of your teammates can do well on their own yet Shizuku-san’s option for sure-fire attack is limited the moment you take out her sword artifact and repce them with regur swords. Hah, wasted potential, I would say.” (Alice)

  Alice sighed disappointingly as she continued eating her popcorn while watching Hajime struggling against her clones.

  Hajime was completely cornered, fake Shia and fake Tio’s tag teaming him in order to prevent Hajime from getting closer to the rear where fake Yue and fake Kaori assisted the Frontline while fake Shizuku sneakily attacked Hajime or caught him off guard.

  All hope seems completely lost, and at this point Yue and others were very anxious about Hajime to the point that they wanted to stop Hajime from getting hurt.

  However…

  Hajime isn’t giving up, he thinks and thinks and thinks, to the point that his head starts creating smoke.

  “Hmm, you're not giving up? Good, keep on thinking, keep on racking your brain, how to beat them, how to escape from this predicament, I’m wondering how you'll turn the tides?” (Alice)

  Alice, who is amused, was looking at Hajime with her xed, yet sharp eyes. She might’ve acted like she completely underestimated Hajime but in reality, she calcuted every single micro movement Hajime did and predicted his action in every step he took and commanded her clones to move accordingly and perfectly.

  Soon, Hajime accessed his Treasure Warehouse to retrieve a distinct artifact that Tio knows very well. The moment he touched said artifact…

  *BOOOOOOOM!

  Surge of mana came out from Hajime, and it formed a bigger crimson tornado than before. Strong winds swept through the battlefields and almost blew Alice’s popcorn bag away.

  “Hoooh, perpetual motion engine huh? You're better than I thought.” (Alice)

  —Perpetual Motion Engine Grasp Gloria

  Hajime's greatest invention, combined with many materials from different worlds, he created an artifact that can produce infinite energy, which allows him to gain infinite mana. It allows him to do impossible tasks like powering the entire pnet and even give his allies infinite mana through mana sharing neckce.

  Alice was pleasantly surprised, as the perpetual motion engine is impossible with conventional tools and materials. She's also curious as to how he will use them.

  “HAAAAAAAAAA!!!” (Hajime)

  Slowly, but surely, the red tornado of mana slowly condenses, descending towards Hajime as he poured an enormous amount of mana into making an extremely complicated magic circle. From within the magic circle, a spear with intricate design emerges.

  “heeeee, you're trying to make Concept Magic, aren't you?” (Alice)

  Yue and others were shocked. Because Hajime was attempting to make Concept Magic alone without Yue’s help. Although Hajime won't need to worry about mana consumption, he still needs intense mental capacity. Concept Magic allows one to interfere with the ws of the world to create any effects and concepts according to one’s wishes. Normally, it’s impossible to create Concept Magic as not only does it need an enormous amount of mana, some concepts can’t be conceived alone.

  However, with Grasp Gloria, Hajime has no need to worry about mana consumption, and with enhanced parallel thinking he obtained from training with Kuromueina, he can barely elevate his wish and imprint a concept on something.

  Not only that…

  “Wait wait! Kuro-san!? Why are you giving him some of your magic powers too!?” (Alice)

  “Well~ I thought the match turned out to be interesting to watch so I decided to give Hajime-chan a hand on creating a magic tool in exchange for my help and giving me that magic tool for me to research for~.” (Kuro)

  “Okay that’s definitely cheating! I demand a timeout and more help for me!” (Alice)

  “Eeehhh~ you’ll be fiiine~” (Kuro)

  “I’m NOT gonna be fine! I thought the assists are more like giving him something you created but just downright giving your magic power away is way too much even for me you know!?” (Alice)

  Alice compins to Kuromueina yet again due to the preferences she gave to Hajime. Her compint was not ungrounded, however, as Kuromueina’s magic power has the same properties as Shallow Vernal, Trinia’s God of Creation. Such magic power was given to Hajime like charity, calling it giving a metal rod to an ogre is an understatement, what Kuromueina did was basically giving an insane terrorist a nuclear warhead.

  As Alice was still compining to Kuromueina, Hajime took out a vial containing a bck fog which is Kuromueina’s magic power, the strongest demon in the entire realm. He opened the vial and very carefully guided it towards the spear.

  Then… the strongest, toughest weapon imaginable was created, all that it needs is to imprint Concept Magic on it

  “OOOOOOOOHHHHHH!!! JUST A LITTLE BIT MOOOOOOREEEEE!!!” (Hajime)

  “Okay, change of pn, I’m not gonna let you finish that!” (Alice)

  Alice, who had a bad experience with Kuromueina’s power before, decided to not sit around and command her clones to take Hajime down before he finished creating the artifact that contains Kuromueina’s godly powers.

  All the clones immediately charge towards him with extreme speed.

  However…

  *BOOOOOOOM!!!

  Before they could touch him… Hajime finished his greatest creation yet. Surge of magic power explodes as it emerges from dust with its majestic form with its jet bck color and blows the clones away.

  “HAHAHAHA!!! I’ve outdone myself! Now! I’ll call you-!” (Hajime)

  —Spear of Longinus

  The legendary mythical holy nce that is rumored to have pierced Jesus Christ as he was crucified and ultimately led to his demise in Christianity. It was said that this spear was capable of piercing anything, and ultimately even killing God itself.

  Of course, the one Hajime created was not something that’s from the myth, and it doesn’t have any God-killing properties like the God-sying bullet he had.

  However, there is Concept Magic imprinted within this mythical spear. The concept Hajime wishes for…

  “...「Fuck You! Phantasmal King」!” (Hajime)

  —Fuck You! Phantasmal King

  An extremely specific Concept Magic that will only activate when it hits a specific person, Alice, who is also The Phantasmal King. When it hits Alice, it’ll force her to experience all of the pain, agony, fury and suffering Hajime felt that was inflicted by Alice and amplify it by a million fold.

  It has the same principle as 「The Scattered Pains Right Back Toward You」when Hajime and Yue used it against Ehit and ultimately killed it.

  Yue and others had a very complicated gaze, mainly Yue as she realized Hajime basically used the same Concept Magic that was used in killing a mad god, just to have an extremely specific goal of taking revenge on Alice.

  …On the contrary though, Alice messed with Hajime so hard, it made Hajime spawned a Concept Magic just from his anger towards her is also something Yue and others had complicated feelings about.

  Back to the battlefield.

  The moment Hajime took the spear, an enormous surge of power seeped within his existence. Using Evolution Magic, he amplifies his stat by around a hundred fold. He immediately charges towards Alice’s clones with this newfound power.

  “COME AT ME YOU BASTARDS!!!” (Hajime)

  Hajime then swung the spear as hard as he could and blew away all of Alice’s clones. Fake Shia tried to stop Hajime but she can only serve as a slight annoyance as Hajime completely cut fake Shia in half alongside fake Tio.

  Not stopping anytime soon, Hajime proceeds to locate his next target. He spotted fake Kaori and fake Yue and immediately dashed towards them. Both fake Kaori and fake Yue tried to slow him down using magic but he’s too fast and nimble and ultimately syed both of them.

  Silent, Hajime scanned his surroundings for any movement. He knew fake Shizuku wouldn't come out until he lowered his guard, so he lured her by stopping and lowering the Spear of Longinus. Moments ter, a dark bde emerges from his back. Hajime promptly swung the Spear of Longinus towards his back. A little while ter, fake Shizuku was stabbed, and perished.

  “Finally. It’s just you and me you sonuva bitch!” (Hajime)

  Hajime finally faced Alice as she was visibly nervous while looking at the spear Hajime held. Although Hajime is delighted to see her getting nervous, he’s also slightly irritated that he needed Kuromueina’s help for making this trump card.

  However… He won’t miss this chance of getting back at Alice.

  As Hajime readying his stance like an olympian athlete, ready to unch the Spear of Longinus to attack Alice.

  “This is for fucking with us all for a casual ugh! This is for making Endou become a chuuni edgy lord! This is for taking our money like a goddamn greedy sonuva bitch money vacuum cleaner!” (Hajime)

  And most of all!!!

  “This is for fucking messing with me like a GODDAMN FIDGET STICK!!! GO TO HELL YOU BASTAAAAAAAAAAAAAARD!!!” (Hajime)

  Nonono, you said the monologue like you’re doing this for everyone but you most certainly did this because of that st line…

  Such is the thought that crossed Yue and others’ minds.

  With Hajime finishing his monologue, he threw his spear toward Alice with extreme speed. With causality intervention enhancement imbued alongside Soul Magic to track Alice’s whereabouts, Alice can’t dodge the spear with simple movement.

  While Hajime grinned with his signature Demon King smile, confident in his hard-earned victory while looking at Alice.

  As he looked at Alice, she…stood still with a mischievous grin.

  “Juuuust kidding?” (Alice)

  Hajime, who was so sure of his victory, completely bamboozled when he registered what happened in front of his eyes.

  The Spear of Longinus… vanished into bck smoke…

  “Iyaaaa~ I’m actually getting scared. I mean I should’ve been scared, you’re using Kuro-san’s magic power to make an artifact and Concept Magic! Fortunately, that thing was hastily made so one single disruption of mana and it’s gone! Well it’s Kuro-san’s magic power so the fact that you used her magic power to make an artifact is an amazing feat itself.” (Alice)

  Hajime was in utter disbelief, so much so he didn’t even have energy to retort back.

  He used all of his resources, his traps, his help from Kuromueina, and it still isn’t enough to reach Alice.

  Nothing…worked.

  “Hey, cheer up. You should be proud because this is the first time someone has genuinely surprised me.” (Alice)

  Alice looked at Hajime who looked disheartened with a bit of pity while trying to cheer him up.

  “—ith me…” (Hajime)

  “Unn?” (Alice)

  “DON’T FUCK WITH ME YOU PIECE OF SHIT!!! DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I’VE BEEN PLANNING FOR THIS!!?? I’LL TOOK YOU DOWN IF IT’S THE LAST THING I’LL DO!” (Hajime)

  Enraged, Hajime dashed towards the bewildered Alice as he tried to fight with close combat.

  “Hey hey! Maybe I was a little~ bit too much but stay cool alright~” (Alice)

  “SHUT THE FUCK UP AND DIEEEEEE!!! KIEEEEEEEHHH!!!” (Hajime)

  “W-whoa, this is the first time I’ve seen someone this mad in a while.” (Alice)

  Alice, who was still bewildered by how a person can be this furious, deflects all of Hajime’s punches like flowing water. Hajime didn’t care and kept on throwing punches.

  “Hmm, even though you’re blinded by rage, your martial arts are pretty good. It was pretty rough, sure, but it has battle experiences backing it up. Pretty impressive, really.” (Alice)

  Why do you suddenly analyze his fighting style… Yue and others were baffled that Alice is still analyzing Hajime even though he became enraged.

  Several minutes ter…

  “Hah… hah…” (Hajime)

  “Yep you’re definitely getting fatigued, you okay?” (Alice)

  “I’m… hah… definitely… hah… beating you… hah…” (Hajime)

  “Yep, still peachy.” (Alice)

  Hajime stopped to catch a breath after failing to nd a punch on Alice and was exhausted from repeatedly pushing his body without sleep and used tons of mana for making Concept Magic and Artifacts. Although he cooled down, he’s still furious and wishes to beat Alice still.

  “Well~, you’ve been a good sparring partner so I’ll give you a small present.” (Alice)

  “Hah… Hah… shut up… hah… hah… I haven’t… hah… hah… given up yet…” (Hajime)

  “Yes yes, the fight is still going on, you still not giving up, yada yada, it’s not a prank this time I promise.” (Alice)

  Alice reassures Hajime that she won’t be pranking him with the present she’s about to give. Yue and others were curious as to what Alice had to give, while Hajime didn't care and was still catching his breaths.

  “You see, I was actually impressed that you made the perpetual motion engine. But, since the artifact you made is still pretty crude, I decided to give you a small “hint” on what to see when improving that artifact.” (Alice)

  Alice took a few steps away from Hajime and stopped at a considerable distance. There, she stands tall, as if she’s summoning something.

  Then…

  “!!!” (Everyone)

  The magic power suddenly spiked to abnormal degree, the earth was shaking, the sky was cracking with lightning, even the Large Scale Spatial barrier was shaking violently.

  As if… they felt something was coming…

  “Look closely, this…” (Alice)

  As Alice said this, her whole body illuminates with iridescent light. She looked like a divine being descending the human realm, bestowing gospels and blessings.

  “...Is infinite.” (Alice)

  The moment Alice said this, Hajime, Yue and others were blinded by the light. So much so that they instinctively closed their eyes.

  As the light dissipated, they simultaneously opened their eyes and fbbergasted.

  They’re in space.

  Although gasping for air, they realized they could still breathe normally. Yet, the scenery surrounding them, the countless tiny stars, the spiraling gaxies, the comets flying through the sor system, are breathtaking. They can see all of the wonders of the universe with their naked eyes.

  Then suddenly… they snapped back to the battlefield.

  As they grasp the surroundings and make sure they’re not hallucinating, suddenly they can see…

  That the Large Scale Spatial Barrier… cracked and fell apart like a gss dome.

  “That… is infinite, feel it well and one day, you all might reach it.” (Alice)

  They were speechless, the magic power they felt from Alice felt empty, yet full, short, yet endless, calm, yet chaotic. They couldn’t completely comprehend what they felt. What they know, however, is that what they feel is a mere fraction of what Alice’s true magic power is.

  Even Hajime… who was full of emotion before… went silent.

  “Well that’s the gist of it. Anyway, I lost!” (Alice)

  Eh? Yue and others were completely dumbfounded by Alice’s sudden decration that she lost the fight. Even Hajime was suddenly snapped out from his own world and confused.

  “What? You guys didn’t forget that I can’t use any of my magic right? Otherwise that counts as a penalty and immediately disqualify me. What’s more, I wasted all of my clone’s magic power from releasing them before so I’m slowly disappearing.” (Alice)

  “Wait… you’re a clone!? YOU’RE A FUCKING CLONE THIS WHOLE TIME!!??” (Hajime)

  “Well~ I pnned a date with Kaito-san today so as a devout wife I can”t miss it can’t I~” (Alice)

  Uwaaa… Yue and others were completely taken aback and fbbergasted by the fact that it turns out what Hajime is fighting so desperately is just a clone of her main body that was on a date with Kaito somewhere. They felt extreme pity toward Hajime from the bottom of their heart.

  Slowly, clone Alice slowly disappears from her feet.

  “W-wait don’t go yet!” (Hajime)

  “Well~ I’m out of mana so I can’t maintain this body anymore. I’ll be meeting with you guys tomorrow so see ya~” (Alice)

  “COME BACK HERE YOU SONUVA BITCH! I’M NOT DONE WITH THIS!” (Hajime)

  Hajime desperately tries to catch Alice and prevent her from disappearing. However, all of his attempts are futile as his hand passed through Alice as if he’s grasping air.

  “Oh yeah! One more thing before I’m gone!” (Alice)

  As clone Alice’s lower body completely disappeared while his upper body became transparent, clone Alice gave Hajime a thumbs up with a gentle smile on her face.

  “Stand proud, you are strong~” (Alice)

  “DON’T GIVE ME THAT J*J*TS* K*ISEN TREATMENT YOU FUCKING BASTARD! DON'T YOU FUCKING DAAAAAAAAAARE!!!” (Hajime)

  Strong~ strong~ echoes of clone Alice’s word reverberated throughout the area before she completely vanished.

  Hajime, who is on all four, is punching the ground while screaming with extreme rage.

  “DON’T YOU THINK IT’S OVER YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT! I’LL COME BACK! STRONGER THAN EVER AND I’M GONNA BEAT YOU SO HARD YOU’LL BEG KAITO TO COME SAVE YOU! MARK MY WORD PHANTASMAL KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!!!” (Hajime)

  With a raging fury and unquenchable thirst for revenge in his heart, Hajime swore to surpass Alice and beat her to pulp. Even if it’s the st thing he’ll ever do in Trinia.

  Yue and others, sensing the fight is over, decided to soothe Hajime’s raging heart and ask him to get a rest first.

  Although they are calm, their mind was racing with many thoughts. They have seen the limit of what they could do through this fight, they see how hopeless Hajime is in front of Alice, and they swear to surpass Alice’s expectation to take revenge on what Alice did on Hajime, even if just a little bit.

  All but a single pony-tailed girl who has a conflicting heart…

  .

  .

  .

  Meanwhile, in Yggfresis, inside a fancy restaurant.

  “Mmmmm~! These cheesecakes are yummy!” (Alice)

  Main body Alice was enjoying her dessert after lunch with Kaito, who is definitely going to pay for all of Alice’s food, and Isis, who shared her cheesecake with Kaito once in a while.

  “Hey Alice.” (Kaito)

  “Unn?” (Alice)

  “If I remembered correctly, don’t you have a spar with Hajime today?” (Kaito)

  Gulp! Alice was a bit taken aback by Kaito’s sudden question that she almost choked from eating too many cheesecakes. It was a surprise since Alice didn’t say anything about her spar with Hajime to Kaito.

  “W-what do you mean Kaito-san? Aren’t I sitting here this whole time? Rather, why do you ask that question?” (Alice)

  “Because Isis-san told me yesterday that she had a day off today because you asked her to lend Yue-san and Kaori-san to you. I figured you must’ve some pn regarding Hajime and his wives. Isn’t that right, Isis-san?” (Kaito)

  “Unn… Kaito… ahh…” (Isis)

  “Ahh… Unn, it was delicious, thank you Isis-san. Anyway, I know you can make a clone to spar with him but why are you here then? Shouldn’t you be supervising them?” (Kaito)

  Kaito, who just got spoon fed by Isis, kept on asking Alice, which makes her drenching in cold sweat.

  “W-well~ I can’t miss out on a double date with you and Isis-san right~?” (Alice)

  “...and your true reason is?” (Kaito)

  “Free cheesecake tasted so goo—MIGYAAAAHHHH!!??” (Alice)

  “I knew it…” (Kaito)

  Kaito, who noticed Alice’s true intention of eating free food that he had to pay, immediately took out his paper fan and hit Alice’s head with it in a smooth motion.

  “Uuuuu, that hurts Kaito-san! Anyway, they’re too weak to fight me seriously anyway so why should I be there when they can’t even beat my clone!?” (Alice)

  “It’s not about the matter of strength, it’s about your manner. Anyway, as your punishment, I’ll be confiscating all of your cheesecake to share with them.” (Kaito)

  “ANYTHING BUT THAAAAAAAAAT!!??” (Alice)

  Kaito swiftly took all of the cheesecake on Alice's side of the table and smoothly put it in his magic box, which Alice horrifically begged Kaito not to.

  Isis giggled at their usual antics with a gentle smile while spoon feeding Kaito more of her cheesecakes, which Kaito happily ate.

  Even Alice, the person who was on par with Omnipotent-level world creators, the one who can grow infinitely using her heart tools… can’t win against Kaito’s scolding.

  In a sense… Kaito is the strongest.

  Afterword:

  Serious-senpai: I’m back! I’ve just read the fanfic made by another author but for some godly unfortunate reason, I missed the serious part! Hopefully this fanfic chapter has some serious parts in it—wait, it’s already over? And there’s a slight sweetness at the end of this!? WHY IS THIS KEEP HAPPENING TO MEEEEEE!!??

  Author: Why, hello there Serious-senpai, welcome back.

  Serious-senpai: LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUT!!!