Chapter 323: Alright, Time to Go Home

Yggdrasil’s consciousness flowed into me, and mine went out of my body as if being pushed out.

Maybe this is what they call an ‘out-of-body experience?’

It was the first time that I saw my own face and figure.

Oh, so that’s how it is…

Sarion was originally a body created by the curse of Evil God, and he was born after Yggdrasil’s consciousness entered it.

He had the appearance of the butler I was familiar with.

Yggdrasil’s consciousness was too huge for its vessel, so he wasn’t that strong. Nevertheless, he was still strong enough to fight off demons without a hitch, and once Sylph wakes up, there won’t be any problems anymore.

There’s also Dairon, the wielder of Hakoku.

They’re gonna be fine, probably.

My consciousness was beginning to fade.

Its disappearance would mean death.

However, I wasn’t afraid of death this time around.

Yggdrasil promised that he would protect the Elves, and I knew that Dairon could unify the country and establish Alheim. Dairon would lend Hakoku to several heroes, while Sairon would be in charge of its management. There would come a time when he would hand it over to me.

I had done everything I needed to do.

Alright, time to go home.

Had to punch Evil God, after all.

──＊＊＊──

The transmigration cycle curse was broken.

I successfully died six times.

That;s good.

I was milliseconds away from punching Evil God when the transmigration curse trapped me.

And it was at that moment that I came back to.

Evil God was right in front of me —

“Gufu!!!?”

I ended up punching Evil God in the face.

“Ah.”

No way!!

This isn’t counted! It’s not counted!!

My consciousness had been blasted away for an instant because of the curse.

That’s why I didn’t put any power on that punch at all.

The Evil God was blown away, and he smashed into the wall of the shrine, but this was way too easy to be counted. My anger won’t be appeased by that level. That Evil God killed me a total of 7 times.

The level of power I gave to that punch wasn’t even enough compensation for one of my deaths.

“Y-You bastard… Do you know what you just did? You laid a hand on me, a deity, for crying out loud!”

Evil God’s body was supposedly still lodged on the wall, but it had vanished. He re-appeared right in front of my eyes in an instant.

As expected of a deity-sama. That kind of level was so negligible, it wasn’t even enough to scratch him.

“Don’t think you’re gonna make it out alive outta here!!”

Evil God reached out to me, but I stepped back, already teleporting to Tina’s side, before he could lay a hand on me.

I was donned in a lightning speed magic suit, so I could move as fast as Shiro, who was said to be the fastest Divine Beast of all time. Evil God wasn’t even Shiro’s level — he was even slower than Leo, so there was no way his attacks would hit me.

“Halt-sama. We already accomplished our purpose. A-Ahm… Should we run for it?”

Tina called out to me. She probably thought I was satisfied with that punch.

“Haru-Nii. He’s gonna run after us if we bolt for it now, so why don’t we punch him black and blue so he won’t be able to?”

“I agree with Akari. Let’s cripple his hands and feet so that he won’t be able to move. Evil God foolishly tried to lay a hand on you, Danna-sama.”

Akari and Sitri were oozing with bloodlust.

Sitri, in particular, seemed quite terrible.

She had been respectfully referring to Evil God as ‘Evil God-sama’ until now because he was the one who created her. And yet, she dropped honorifics, and was currently directing bloodlust that was enough to shake the shrine towards Evil God.

I didn’t have the slightest desire to go home, naturally.

Besides, I didn’t want to hand-over my revenge to Akari and Sitri.

“Actually, that guy just casted a curse on me right before I punched him.”

“Eh!? A-Are you alright?”

“Yup. It doesn’t matter anymore now.”

“Curse… Haru-Nii, aren’t your status fixed?”

“It’s a curse that affected my consciousness only and blasted it out, apparently. Because of that, I had to die 6 times.”

Not all of those six were scary, but still, dying was terrifying.

“S-Six times!?... Danna-sama. We really should obliterate this Evil God here and now.”

“Wait, Sitri. I should be the one to do that.”

Sitri was about to pounce on Evil God, so I stopped her.

I was happy that she got mad on my behalf, but punching Evil God was my job.

I released massive amounts of mana while I walked towards Evil God.

It was a hundred times more than the mana I wrapped on my arm as I approached him, before being thrown back into the past because of the transmigration cycle curse.

“Wait, you three. I’m going to punch him one more time.”

Sitri’s bloodlust rendered Evil God frozen.

“W-What!! What the heck are you!?”

“I already introduced myself, didn’t I? Oh well, it felt like a month since I introduced myself, so lemme do it again for you.”

I used ultra-high density magic to seal teleportation so that Evil God won’t be able to escape.

“I’m Halt. Halt Ernol. I was an Otherworlder formerly known as Saijou Haruto, but because Evil God-sama killed me off, I was transmigrated into this world.”

One step at a time, each step firm and sound.

Slowly, slowly, I approached Evil God.

“I got caught in the transmigration cycle curse that you cast, so I had to die six more times. That’s a total of seven times you killed me. That’s why —”

“W-Wait! What the heck is going on here!? Why is a mere human like you this strong, huh!?”

“I owe everything to your curse.”

I don’t have to explain this [Static Status Curse], right?

“I can use mana to my heart’s content, and I owe it all to you.”

As a result of this Static Status Curse, I obtained infinite mana, essentially, and I could obliterate a demon with just one hit.

“D-Don’t come here! Don’t #@^&#$&* coming near me!!!”

Evil God fired magic bullets at me.

They hit me directly, but —

“W-Why!? Why the #$&^*#$ isn’t it working!?”

I didn’t receive any damage, of course.

“I’m invincible no matter what kind of attack launched against me, and I owe it all to you.”

Sea God’s attacks, and even the Dragon God and Martial God’s attacks didn’t affect me at all.

Sea God was apparently the strongest among the Four Great Deities. I could render his attacks useless, so of course there’s no way Evil God’s attacks would have an effect on me.

“S-$#!#$&!!!! What the @#^@&#$ is happening!? All my curses aren’t working on you, not a single @&*$A#^& one!! Just why!!???”

I walked around crushing the curses that I missed the first time around. I wouldn’t repeat the same mistake twice, obviously. There would surely be curses that would teleport the entire space around me somewhere else, as well as other similar curses of that sort. And so, I messed up Evil God’s curses using Divine Script and obliterated them.

“Poisons and paralysis don’t work on me, I’m resistant to curses, and I owe it all to you.”

I knew now that curses other than that transmigration cycle curse didn’t work on me, so I deliberately crushed them underfoot to break them.

“I made a lot of friends and comrades, and I owe it all to you.”

Luke, Luna, Leaffa, Youko, Mai, Mei, Merdie, Ryuushin, Ryuka. I met all of them because I am a Sage. I could only use the lowest tier of magic because my status was fixed at Level 1, but because I am a Sage, I could use various kinds of magic. Moreover, I could even combine them, and that allowed me to be admitted to the Ifrus Academy of Magic.

“I have kind and gentle parents, and reliable brothers. You gave me a family with a cute elder sister, and I owe it all to you.”

Father, Mother, Cain, Leon, Charles.

I love everyone in my family.

It’s thanks to Evil God, because he transmigrated me into a noble house called Silveray.

“I have a family called Ernol, and I owe — oh, I guess not. Sorry about that.”

Yup. This was different. It’s primarily thanks to my own father. He prepared a mansion for me at the magical academy. Tina earning money for the living expenses was also a major factor.

I owe it all to Father and Tina, as well as Headmaster Luarno, who allowed me to bring outsiders inside the school premises. Because of them, I was able to welcome wives like Seira, Elmia, Hakua, Kikyou, Sitri and Akari into the Ernol family.

“My best friend and brother-in-law also formed their own family.”

Luke has Lielle.

Ryuushin’s bride is Hinata.

“I became friends with Divine Beast because… of fate, I guess?”

Shiro became part of the Ernol family because he was sleeping beside my birth home. I accidentally woke him up, and he unexpectedly took an extreme liking to Tina’s curry — her specialty.

“I also joined the Adventurers’ Guild. Our ranks have difficulty getting up, but even so, it’s fun living as an adventurer.”

We were currently D-ranked adventurers. We would be able to create a clan if we reached C-rank. When that happens, I would invite Sally and Lilia so that we can work as a clan. It’s one of the things I look forward to.

“I also forged friendships with the nobilities and royalties of other kingdoms. I also became the owner of a kingdom, did you know?”

King Glendale would drop by from time to time with Cain to eat Tina’s home-made dishes. Ever since Sylph became part of my family, the Elf King would take Sarion along to consult and discuss a lot of things with me. I became the owner of Vestier, and I visit them once every two weeks since Leo, the Beast King, often asked me to train the Beastkin King’s Army.

“I can come to the Divine Realm like this, and I owe it all to you.”

Because of my infinite mana, I could use Divine Script to come all the way here.

“By the way, I could be restrain you like this, and that’s also —”

“Hm!? Hmmm!!! hmmMMM!!!”

A cord made out glowing Divine Script characters bound Evil God’s mouth and both hands and feet. I created this cord using divine attribute magic. I wanted him to keep me company as I talked, so I restrained him.

“Hmmmmm!!”

Evil God glared daggers at me.

Only a bit more and I’m done.

Please stay put for just a little bit more.

“Evil God-sama. I’m thanking you.”

“Mm? Mmwwfff! Fffnnggmmm!!”

“I met everyone, and I became peerless in this world. More than anything —”

I turned around. Tina was anxiously watching me.

“I met Tina once again, and I owe it all to you.”

She was the girl I fell in love with back when I came to this world as the Guardian Hero. She had waited for me for the span of a hundred years. She found me again, just as promised.

Tina had become extremely beautiful. She had worked hard so that I would be able to live freely once I returned into this world. I was really glad.

Tina loved me whole-heartedly, and Evil God made it possible for me to once again return to her side. For that I am grateful, so —

“Actually, I wanted to punch you as many times as you killed me, but I still feel a tiny bit of gratitude towards you. That’s why I’m letting you off the hook with a single punch, okay?”

The Evil God was already restrained by divine attribute magic, so I didn’t have to worry about him teleporting away to escape. In order to obstruct his teleportation, I gathered all the mana surrounding Evil God’s shrine onto my right hand.

My entire body was wrapped in the magical suit, and it still had remnants of the support magic Luina cast before we went into the Divine Realm. That’s why I used all of the mana I released ever since coming here to strengthen the magic suit on my right hand.

If I applied holy attribute magic into it, I might end up obliterating Evil God for good, so I used non-attribute magic for now. The extremely compressed mana was too dense, and the air trembled.

“Mggh!? Mmmgghhh, mggghhffff! Mmmggfffhhh!!!”

Blood drained from Evil God’s horrified face.

Sorry.

I didn’t mean to scare you.

I’m okay with just one punch.

Let’s end this quickly.

“Evil God-sama. Really —”

I put everything I got in this hit.

My fear of death and grudges.

And, my heartfelt gratitude towards Evil God.

“Thank you so muchhhhhh!!!!!!!”

I slammed my fist onto his stomach with all the strength I could muster.

The restraining cord made with divine attribute magic was easily broken as Evil God’s body was blasted into the air, through the walls of the shrine and far, far away —

As expected of a deity.

His body wasn’t broken despite that much force squarely hitting him, and he was blown off as is. He probably won’t die. I must’ve scared the hell out of him, so he probably won’t even want to retaliate.

I already stuck a magical circle that would summon me to where he was just in case Evil God turned up in the Human Realm.

Well, if he wanted to come, then come — kinda like that.

I wouldn’t brag and settle for it just because I blasted Evil God off. As cliche goes, villains typically return after powering up. That’s why I would be training myself, my family, and my comrades.

But in the meantime —

“Ah. What a relief.”

I felt refreshed.

I did it.

“Halt-sama, you did it.”

“Yeah. It took a lot of things before we got to this point. Even so, I successfully did it, Tina.”

“Yes. I was earnestly watching you.”

“I also watched you! Haru-Nii, you’re so cool!”

“The same goes for me, Danna-sama. Watching Evil God being blasted off was an exhilarating sight indeed.”

“Indeed. We have to inform the others who are on standby regarding Evil God’s demise.”

“Haru-Nii, you defeated a deity…You’re not gonna be a deity, will you?”

Deities don’t do things like that, right?

“Then that’s a relief! We’ll be with Haru-Nii from now on, forever!!”

Akari jumped and hugged me.

“Ah, that’s sly of you, Akari!”

“D-Danna-sama, me too!!”

Tina and Sitri also hugged me.

The realization that it’s really the end hit me again.

I accomplished the things I needed to do. However, there were still tons of things I wanted to do in this world. The events up until now are the story of my revenge against the Evil God. And from here on, my story of enjoying my life here in the other world will begin.

“Alright, time to go home.”

I led Tina, Akari and Sitri and we teleported back to our family who were waiting for our return.

LEVEL 1 STRONGEST SAGE — fin —

Author’s Note:

Thank you very much for reading until here.

With this, the main story of [Level 1 Strongest Sage] draws to an end.

I already decided to end this story after Halt punched the Evil God from the moment I started writing this series.

However, there are still a lot of parts that weren't enough, and some parts that I haven’t explained that enough.

And so, from now on, I will be writing the sequel, with flashbacks to the past from time to time, in order to fulfill those explanations.

Basically, my plan is to update the story at a leisurely pace.

I am so grateful to all of you for sticking with me until the end.

Then, see you again. ( *・ω・)ノ