"Clap, clap, clap..."
"Powerful. Truly, incomparably powerful."
Clapping his hands, Fenrir wore a delighted smile as he watched the black figure leap out of the massive crater.
"A pleasure to meet you, Shadow. You may already know my name, but allow me to introduce myself anyway. You can call me Fenrir."
"Maybe. Perhaps I should know your name, but... sorry. My ordinary brain can only remember characters who are interesting and powerful. Do you think you're interesting?"
Fenrir's smile instantly froze.
He narrowed his eyes at the figure before him. After a long silence, he finally gave a contemptuous chuckle.
"So I don't even qualify as powerful? Shadow, you really are... arrogant."
The smile gradually vanished from Fenrir's face. His already sharp eyes sank into shadow, and the casual tone he had used moments ago became openly condescending.
"You're the arrogant one!"
Having barely recovered, Zeta flew into a rage at Fenrir's words and pointed at the man who had made her lose so much face in front of Shadow-sama.
"Shadow-sama."
Unlike Zeta, Beta, though she was also glaring at Fenrir with murderous intent, was not nearly as eager to fight. Instead, she turned to Cid and awaited his orders.
"Who said you two were allowed to speak?"
Fenrir frowned at Zeta's accusation and swept his sword through the air.
A surge of Magical Power vastly greater than anything he had displayed before rushed toward Zeta and Beta.
What?!
It was faster than before, and the Magical Power behind it was far denser.
In the blink of an eye, it had already reached them.
The next instant...
"BOOM!"
White radiance shot into the sky.
The entire forest was instantly stripped bare, every tree wiped away as dust and smoke billowed upward and blotted out the heavens.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
A man's coughing came from the center of the explosion.
Through the dense smoke, a black figure could faintly be seen standing in front of two female silhouettes.
"Shadow, one of the World's Five Strongest."
"The Great Red, the God of the Bible, the Infinite Dragon God, the Lord of Netheril, and you. Those are the titles the three worlds have given to the five strongest beings capable of destroying the world."
"I have to admit, Shadow, you deserve that title. You alone managed to prevent the destruction of two planets. I genuinely admire you for that."
As Fenrir spoke, blood-thick mist swirled around him and was steadily absorbed into his body.
With every portion of blood mist that disappeared, his aura became more terrifying.
At the same time, however, the body of the white-haired youth began to twist and deform.
"But how much did you have to sacrifice to prevent the destruction of those two planets, Shadow? Let me take a look."
"Hmm... according to the magic detector, the Magical Power fluctuations coming from you right now are only... five points?"
Fenrir visibly froze.
The next second, he burst into uncontrollable laughter.
"After seeing the power you used to cleave a planet apart, if I were facing you at your peak, even I, in my current state, would probably choose to flee."
"But there are no ifs."
"You can't even squeeze out enough Magical Power to avoid falling, and all you have left is a pathetic five points. So whether you're still stronger than me now... I have a slight doubt."
"I hope you'll clear that up for me."
"So, Shadow, what do you think? This terrifying power was prepared specifically to reap the lives of you people who call yourselves the strongest in the world."
"Since you were the only one who chose to step forward and shield this world from disaster, offer up your life."
Ominous black patterns had already spread across Fenrir's face.
Feeling the terrifying power swelling continuously inside him, a sinister grin appeared on his bloated features.
This was the Cult of Diablos's second plan.
It had been devised in case several of the "World's Strongest" managed to pull out some hidden trump card during the destruction of the world, surviving at the cost of grievous injuries rather than dying on the spot.
To prepare for that worst-case scenario, they had created a Philosopher's Stone from the lives of more than a hundred million people.
In terms of quality, it far surpassed the Divine Essence of the Beast God they had previously used for their experiments.
Using it as a substitute, they could perform the deification ritual and obtain overwhelming power through sheer quality, temporarily creating a "World's Strongest."
Then this temporary "World's Strongest" would hunt down the members of the world's top five who were particularly difficult to kill and had somehow survived the catastrophe.
While those beings were severely injured, they would capture every last one of them and use them as experimental material.
That way, before the lives of the world's more than thirty billion people were exhausted, the Cult of Diablos would possess a "World's Strongest" capable of acting without restraint for three full days.
And where would those thirty billion lives come from?
What a ridiculous question.
With power at the level of the "World's Strongest," what faction could stop them for even three minutes if they wanted to slaughter people and refine them into stones?
Wouldn't the entire world simply become theirs for the taking?
Once the whole process was complete, all five of the World's Strongest would be eliminated, and the entire world would fall back into the hands of the Cult of Diablos.
With a temporary "World's Strongest" on their side, every other faction would be infiltrated and reduced to puppets.
An overwhelming victory.
Unfortunately, the plan had sounded wonderful, but reality had been cruel.
They had prepared to flee if the worst possible outcome occurred.
They had also prepared to twist the best possible outcome into one even more favorable to themselves.
What they had never imagined was that, with the world itself on the verge of destruction, the person they had calculated to be least likely to appear, Shadow, would actually be the only one to step forward.
Even more absurdly, he had pulled out an incredible trump card and single-handedly done the work of all five of the World's Strongest.
That made things awkward.
A temporary "World's Strongest" against the Lord of Netheril, the Infinite Dragon God, the Great Red, or the God of the Bible?
The moment any of them figured out his weakness and cut off his supply, he would be beaten into the ground as soon as his time ran out.
They could not even afford to show themselves in front of those beings.
If the sins of more than a hundred million deaths were discovered, they would truly be hunted to the ends of the earth.
Their plan to run rampant across the world and instantly turn the clock back to the situation from a year ago had effectively gone bankrupt.
The lives of a hundred million people were only enough to sustain one "World's Strongest" for a little over twenty minutes.
Still, even though the plan had failed, securing Shadow as a consolation prize would not be bad.
He would make excellent experimental material.
Fenrir cast a malicious gaze at Shadow.
The black coat was covered in dust, making him look somewhat disheveled.
Even so, Fenrir did not attack immediately.
"What incredible power."
"Tell me, Shadow. Now that you're weaker than you've ever been, how do you intend to defeat me, who is stronger than you?"
What was he talking about?
Cid spat out some dust that had accidentally gotten into his mouth and stared in confusion at the white-haired boy who had somehow managed to get practically everything wrong.
Well...
There was no white-haired boy anymore.
What stood before Cid now was a grotesque monster swollen with flesh.
It was certainly ugly, but the pressure radiating from it had multiplied several times over.
Without exaggeration, in Cid's perception, the monster had actually reached the point where he could feel its gaze bearing down on him.
"Shadow-sama!"
Hearing Fenrir's words, Beta raised her head and looked at the master who had just saved her life.
Beta held absolute respect and trust for the master who had saved her and accompanied her as she grew.
In her mind, the title of "World's Five Strongest" was practically an insult to Shadow-sama.
How could those worthless nobodies possibly deserve to be placed alongside her magnificent Shadow-sama?!
Now that she had little else to occupy herself with, she had even created an alternate account online specifically to praise her master, getting into arguments with other supporters and earning the reputation of a "God of the Shadow Realm."
Under normal circumstances, forget a temporary "World's Strongest."
Even if the other World's Strongest all came to fight Shadow, Beta would still blindly bet on Shadow without hesitation.
But now...
The observant Beta noticed something.
Her magnificent master seemed to have been...
Injured by Fenrir's attack?
He had coughed.
And all of this was because he had protected the world.
Because he had protected her and Zeta, two members of the Seven Shadows who had only become burdens.
Tears slid down Beta's cheeks and fell into the dust.
"He isn't an enemy you can handle or interfere with right now. Why did you join the fight?"
"Didn't we agree that you would leave it to me?"
Cid seemed to sigh as he shifted slightly, then turned around and looked at Zeta and Beta with helpless affection.
His companions seemed to have gotten themselves into trouble.
In that case, there should be no problem with him stealing the monster from them.
"I have disappointed you, Master."
Zeta closed her eyes, unable to face the disappointed gaze she imagined her Master was directing at her.
They had clearly agreed in advance that he would handle everything alone.
Yet they had come to investigate based on their own assumptions, only to end up helping Fenrir gather the materials he needed.
And now they were still here, becoming burdens to their Master.
If one of Zeta's subordinates had committed this entire series of mistakes, she would have sent them to Eta's laboratory for a few days without hesitation.
But this time, the ones responsible were them...
"Well, I wouldn't say I'm disappointed."
"It's simply still too early for you to deal with an opponent at this level. You'll probably need a little more time before you can take part in battles like this."
"Keep growing stronger. I look forward to the day you can walk alongside me."
Seeing that something seemed wrong with Zeta and Beta, Cid thought for a moment before helping both of them to their feet.
Then he turned toward the unknown man who had spent the entire time silently absorbing the blood mist.
Come to think of it, hadn't he introduced himself as Fenrir earlier?
No, he must have remembered wrong.
Wasn't Fenrir the name of that giant Nordic dog?
Should he ask again?
Forget it.
Cid had no idea what was going on, but since he was already here, it would be a waste of the atmosphere if he did not claim at least one kill.
So die, nameless Cult of Diablos monster!
"Finished with your last words, Shadow?"
Fenrir looked at him mockingly and lightly tapped a finger.
The blood-red sphere formed in the sky suddenly plummeted.
"BOOM!"
The forest, already reduced to scorched earth, disappeared along with the entire mountain range.
In its place remained a vast sunken basin.
At the center of the devastation, Fenrir, now swollen beyond any recognizable human form, raised his head and looked toward a point in the sky.
Then he laughed.
Shadow was not dead.
More precisely, Fenrir's attack had not even struck Shadow, despite him carrying two burdens with him.
Fenrir had sensed it clearly.
That figure had escaped at incredible speed.
And Shadow had done it using nothing but physical strength.
Yet Fenrir only grew more excited.
He could have dodged that attack too.
In fact, he could have done it even faster.
But Shadow?
He had barely managed to reach the edge of the explosion's shockwave.
Every one of Fenrir's suspicions had now been confirmed.
Shadow had suffered grievous injuries.
His Magical Power was gone.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
He would eliminate Shadow in one blow.
"Zeta, Beta, I'm sorry."
"I'd like to talk with you a little longer. You both did very well."
"But right now... I'm a little busy."
"We can talk again when I have time. Leave everything from here on to me."
"Don't worry. It'll be over soon."
Cid landed on the ground and set the two of them down.
He turned to leave, only for Beta to grab his arm.
"?"
"No, Shadow-sama. Don't..."
The fear and anxiety in her voice made Cid pause.
Then he chuckled softly, took Beta's hand, and gently pulled it away.
"It's fine."
"I don't particularly like that so-called title of 'strongest,' and I don't consider myself the strongest."
"But taking care of a mere random monster like this is easier than blowing out a breath."
His figure vanished.
Using nothing but physical strength, he crossed an immense distance in an instant and landed once again on the scorched earth.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
The moment Cid touched down, attacks powerful enough to flatten an entire city instantly came crashing toward him.
He looked up.
Fenrir had completely transformed into a beast and was unleashing his firepower without restraint.
A barrage so dense that it was almost impossible to dodge poured toward Cid.
Almost impossible.
Cid walked through it as casually as if he were taking a stroll.
With the slightest shift of his body, he avoided every attack.
It was like a Prince's Battle Technique facing Ultra Instinct.
The black figure moved against the surging crimson flood, explosions erupting all around him as he continued toward Fenrir without suffering so much as a scratch.
Amid the endless sea of blood, a streak of black light flashed.
In the blink of an eye, it reached the source of the crimson torrent.
The explosions stopped.
Fenrir's body, now swollen to more than ten meters tall, was blasted backward and crashed to the ground.
"Hahahaha! What was that? It barely hurt at all!"
Fenrir showed no frustration over his injury.
Instead, he continued taunting from the air.
The enormous hole torn through his body by the terrifying strike healed almost instantly.
Only when he saw the sword in Shadow's hand did he realize that his own weapon was gone.
"How weak, Shadow."
"Choosing to seek death blindly instead of running away was the greatest mistake you've made."
"?"
"Let me guess how many attacks you can still survive."
"Three?"
"Two?"
"Judging by the fact that you would rather steal an already useless weapon from me to weaken me than take one of my magic bullets in exchange for dealing greater damage, I'll bet you can't survive even one."
"Heh. Maybe."
Cid smiled helplessly.
As another attack came toward him, he raised the sword and swung.
"Whoosh!"
The smooth magic bullet split cleanly down the middle.
Its two halves flew past Cid and continued behind him, only exploding when they collided with more light bullets that had also been split in half.
"How is that possible?!"
Fenrir's eyes widened.
The black figure was advancing directly through his attacks using nothing but a worthless piece of junk.
He could not believe it.
He had genuinely reached the level of the World's Strongest, yet every one of his attacks was being cut apart by a weakened Shadow wielding an ordinary sword.
Refusing to accept it, Fenrir tried to increase his output and destroy everything.
But Shadow had already leaped forward.
In an instant, he was right in front of him.
"Slash!"
Fenrir's enormous body was severed at the waist.
A torrent of blood erupted from the wound as both halves of his body fell straight toward the ground.