Chapter 363: C-Rank Advancement Examination (15)

The current state of the arena was still unknown, so I decided to go there on my own for the time being.

The boundary between realms had become vague. I had turned the arena into a dungeon and connected its surroundings to an inter-realm space through teleportation magic. The space between worlds, or inter-realm space, was where the human world and the spirit world intersected, and spirits and demons would come to the human world through this space.

However, there was no oxygen in the inter-realm space, thus, ordinary humans wouldn’t be able to survive there.

When Akari attacked Gad with all her might, the dungeon I had constructed was mostly destroyed, and the walls and floors of the arena collapsed and disappeared. The destroyed part of the dungeon was directly connected to the space between worlds.

Now, more than half of this place has entered the space between worlds. I'm glad I didn't bring anyone else here.

Akari was standing alone in this place, still holding her black sword.

"Akari, are you okay?"

"H-Haru-Nii!"

Since the ground of the arena was almost completely destroyed, there was no footing. I could create footholds by solidifying magic, but…

I hadn't taught her that yet, but Akari ran towards me as if she were walking on normal ground.

Perhaps her <Skill Master> skill automatically combined her other skills to make that possible. Not only that, she could also survive in this space, probably because of the divine protection she received from the goddess in her original world.

The magic bracelet I gave to my family incorporated a spell that enabled them to survive for a while even in the space between worlds. It was a magic that guaranteed the necessary space for maintaining life under any environmental conditions and would reject interference other than mine for ten days, using multiple layers of magic circles with divine characters.

Spirits Mai, Mei, and Sylph and demon Sitri could survive even in the space between worlds. This function was designed to buy time until I could rescue any family members other than the ones I mentioned in case they accidentally entered the space between worlds.

However, Akari didn't need the life-sustaining function of the bracelet.

"Haru-nii. This is not me, it's not supposed to be like this..."

Akari, who had come up to me, was trembling slightly.

She was afraid of her own ability.

“It’s fine. Akari isn’t in the wrong.”

I hugged her tightly to suppress her trembling and patted her on the head.

Akari regained her calm within my arms.

I initially thought I could handle Akari’s full power without a hitch.

However, I didn’t have any idea that Akari had been limiting her power in her day-to-day life.

I thought she had already reached her full potential back when she fought against Sitri, but… she was still a hero with power that was still developing.

“Sorry, Akari. I didn’t really grasp the extent of your power.”

“Ah, me too… Even though you warned me to use only 30 %, I… I’m sorry.”

“By the way, didn’t your Extreme Intuition, or maybe your Skill Master stop you?”

I had thought that if things were really going to get dangerous, Akari's skills would stop her. That's why I couldn't make my own move until Akari had completed her attack preparations.

"Well, my intuition said, 'go ahead and do it, it’ll be fine.' So, I..."

Ah, I see. Her intuition gave her the green light, huh.

Well, there was no helping it.

The arena was mostly destroyed, but since I had turned it into a dungeon, I could restore it quickly right then and there.

There seemed to be little physical damage despite that massive earthquake. We could receive compensation from the H&T Trading Company if something was damaged as a result of Akari's impact.

Thinking about it now, it seemed that Akari's intuition judged that "in the end, I'll manage to handle it somehow," and that was why she acted.

...Well, I guess that’s fine.

That was really what happened in reality, after all.

So, the final problem was Gad, the exam supervisor.

Akari's attack had completely destroyed the resurrection bracelet that I had created. Of course, it also destroyed Gad's body and soul. Gad's soul was completely pulverized along with his body, or rather, it was even more finely dispersed. At this point, it was almost impossible to restore the soul in the human world.

But this was the space between worlds. Souls wouldn’t deteriorate here. Unlike the human world, there were no remnants of dead souls floating around. If we gather all the fragments of his soul that existed here, Gad's resurrection was possible. Otherwise, Akari would become a murderer.

This was an adventurer's promotion exam, not a fight to the death.

So, for now, I restored the arena. Next, I would need to repair Gad's soul and body.

"Heal!"

I returned his soul to his body and resurrected Gad.

"Argh, Ugh, huh? What's going on? I was supposed to be conducting the green-haired kid's exam..."

It seemed Gad's memory has returned to before he fought Akari. This meant Akari had to fight him again. But this time, please go easy on him, okay?

Akari nodded, as if saying "Understood!", and walked over to Gad.

"I'm Akari. Nice to meet you."

"Ugh, n-n-no, it’s fine now. Y-Y-You pass!"

"Eh?"

Akari was given a passing grade without fighting.

"W-What the heck is going on with me? Why does my body keep trembling when I look at that brat!?"

Even though he lost his memory during the resurrection, it seemed that the fear of being completely crushed by Akari has been deeply engraved on each fragment of his soul, both physically and mentally.