"Sob sob..."

"There, there..."

Natsumi patted Angie on the back a few times.

"B-but... how could he just send me away like that?!"

Natsumi smiled wryly at her complaints.

"Doesn't it just show how much he trusts you? He sent you to do something as important a matter as this."

"I guess... But, it's been a couple of months since I last saw him and all I had was a day?"

"At least you had a day... I only saw him for three hours."

"Mmm..."

Angie didn't know what to say and could only console Natsumi like she was consoled.

Kai had sent the two of them, along with Arata and Date. If they had waited a few days, then maybe even Kazuki and Umi would've been sent with them but the matter required urgency and the longer they took, the more dangerous it could be.

The reason the four of them were sent was simple—they hadn't unlocked their Innate Abilities yet. Kai didn't know if Angie had an Innate Ability, but it wouldn't hurt to try, though it actually would hurt her quite a bit considering the requirements to unlock one.

"Then, here should be fine, right?"

"I guess so."

Kai had given them small rods made of an unknown metal. He couldn't teleport around the continent freely because of the dense magic power and because he wasn't familiar with the terrain at all.

With the rods that Kai had given them, he could expand his senses and teleport to wherever they are.

While he couldn't figure out the exact reason he couldn't do it without them, it wasn't much of a problem as each one could be as far as a kingdom away from each other.

Once it was planted into the ground, it began shaking. Kai had told them one thing, he could do blind teleports.

Every time they placed a rod, he would activate his teleportation and teleport them to the nearest kingdom. They would then place another rod and the process would repeat itself until they reached their destination.

The reason that they managed to arrive here so quickly was that Kai had teleported them to a random spot in this direction. As luck would have it, they arrived at an inconspicuous place and quickly placed the rod here.

"I don't see anyone coming."

Date came right as the rod began to emit mana and envelop them. Arata was just waiting by the side.

Soon, they faded like ghosts and were displaced.

"Haa... Sophia, how much mana do you have left...?"

"Not much..."

Karen, the light hero, and Sophia answered each other without turning to look. Currently, in front of them was a giant monster made of stone. It was a golem.

It wasn't the ones with EMETH written on the forehead and causing them to be easily defeated. It was a bonafide golem, complete with the giant frame that their swords couldn't even make a proper dent on.

Collapsed on the ground a few meters behind them was Raul.

Currently, the three of them were on a mountain. A village at the base of the mountain reported that some strange things were happening in the mountains and being B-class, Karen and Sophia were very eager to test out their power.

In normal circumstances, they would be able to deal with a golem if the three of them had worked together. However, they were caught off-guard. They didn't know that their opponent was a golem and the next thing they knew, Raul was sent flying into a tree.

The two of them didn't even know if he was still alive because there was blood leaking from his head.

"[Holy Ray]!"

Karen saw the golem about to move and moved to attack it with her sword. There was a ray of light that managed to impede the golem's arm. Though it wasn't quite enough to break the golem's arm, it at least bought Sophia and her time to escape.

"Sophia!"

"I got it!"

Sophia had already read Karen's intentions and carried Raul.

The two of them tried their best to run away but without much mana, the golem just broke through the forest of trees and knocked everything away.

It moved absurdly fast for something of its size. It was nearly as tall as the trees but was way wider. It could probably even knock down a building with ease.

"There's no way we're going to be able to leave like this!"

They could get tired—and they already were. The golem, on the other hand, didn't have any stamina it needed to expend so it could chase them to the ends of the world. Not only that, there was a village at the base of the mountain, what would happen to them if Karen and Sophia were to bring the golem there?

After thinking about it for a moment, Karen bit her lip.

"Sophia, keep running and head for the village. Once you're there, make sure to get Raul treated and ask for help!"

After Sophia picked up Raul, they realized that he was still very much alive. It was just that he wouldn't regain consciousness even though Sophia was hitting his face with water.

"Karen?! That's—!"

Before Sophia could stop her, Karen changed directions. She made sure to choose the right moment so that Sophia wouldn't be able to follow her.

"KAREN!"

Karen could only hear Sophia's screams from afar. She didn't look back, but she could feel that the golem was following her and not Sophia.

"Come get me, you big hunk of rock!"

Karen didn't actually know if it could hear her or if it could respond to her provocations, but her heart was beating so fast that she actually didn't care.

After shouting at it a bit more and firing off some light magic, she managed to gain a bit of distance.

"!?"

All of a sudden, Karen realized that her feet weren't touching the ground. Her vision suddenly blurred as she fell down a cliff. It wasn't so surprising, they were on top of a mountain after all. She managed to grab onto a tree branch just before she hit the ground but it broke immediately. Then, she crashed into the other branches and fell to the ground.

"Kahk!"

The ground, however, was uneven. She began rolling until she had hit another tree. If it wasn't for her body being enhanced by magic, she would've been knocked unconscious.

With her forehead bleeding from a cut and wounds all over her body, Karen stood up and saw the golem jump down from the cliff. Its body broke apart for a bit but it quickly regenerated.

"..."

There was no way she could fight that thing and win in her current state. Karen slid down the mountain and kept on trying to run away. She changed directions at times and tried to break its legs at other times. None of them worked, however. And then, she ended up reaching the base of the mountain.

She couldn't have gone up because her stamina was all but drained. Luckily, she wasn't anywhere near the village. However, there was no way she could run anymore. She brandished her sword and was prepared to fight until her last breath.

"Uwaaa!"

All of a sudden, she heard a cry behind her. She looked back and saw three hunters. They had a wild boar pierced through by a pike on the ground. One of the hunters had also lost his footing and couldn't stand up while the other two were trying to get him up.

"Damn it!"

They were way too close and there was no time to get them to safety. Karen ran up to the golem and used whatever was remaining of her mana to attack.

"[Heavenly Blade]!"

Her sword was enveloped in light and had grown to several meters in size. Then, with all of her remaining power, she slashed at the golem.

"Haaaaa!"

Karen cried. This was her desperate final attack. She knew that this wouldn't be enough to destroy the golem. After all, it had regenerated after an attack like this before.

As her sword slowly cut through the golem, she felt the resistance increase more and more. In the end, her mana gave out before the golem did and she collapsed on her knees in exhaustion. She turned around and saw that the hunters had already run away, though they didn't manage to take the boar with them.

"That's good..."

She didn't turn her head back towards the golem, but she could see the shadow looming over her body. She closed her eyes and waited for her death.

Memories flashed by her eyes and she couldn't help but gasp.

"Why does this have to happen to me twice...?"

Memories of herself dying and her brother crying by her bedside. It was the warmest hand she had felt in her life. During that moment, her memories of her life had also flashed by.

It was a strange feeling to be experiencing it twice.

"I wanted to meet you again..."

Karen gave up all hope.

But then...

"Karen!"

She heard the voice of her friend. One she had been through thick and thin with for the past few months. Karen opened her eyes and looked into the distance where she saw Sophia using magic to hold the golem back. Beside her was Raul. He was bleeding a lot, but the fire in his eyes hadn't faded in the least.

Karen bit her lip so hard that it bled and forced herself to stand. Sophia's magic disappeared at that point and Karen jumped out of the way at the last possible second.

"Raul!"

"I've got it!"

Raul raised his hand and fired several fireballs at the golem. The rock on the surface of its body melted somewhat, but it soon reformed by using the rocks and pebbles scattered around.

"We need something to erase it all at once! Golems like this have a core in their body, it constantly moves around so it's impossible to hit without destroying its body completely!"

Karen racked her brain thinking about a solution. Raul and Sophia just used whatever magic they had to keep it at bay. None of them had the firepower to erase a target of that size.

Not only that, two of them had almost no mana.

'Power, I just need more power!'

Karen thought to herself and prayed. There was no way the three of them would escape the golem's pursuit unless they led it somewhere that would delay it. Somewhere like the village. However, Karen wouldn't be able to live with herself if any of them died because of her choice.

In the end, what they needed was more power.

And so, the hero's earnest wishes were answered.

"...?"

Karen opened her eyes and suddenly, she felt it. Somewhere inside her, she could feel something warm. It was around where her heart was, and she subconciously reached out to touch it.

"Karen?!"

Sophia looked back and saw Karen with her hand over her chest. She was worried that something was wrong, but she couldn't take her eyes off the golem for long and just shouted at Karen.

"Are you alright?!"

"Nn..."

Karen muttered her acknowledgement and then after looking at her hand, she pointed it at the golem. With the last of the mana she gathered after using Heavenly Blade, she created a bullet made of light. Then, according to her instincts, she used that feeling enveloping her heart with the magic.

Then, without Sophia and Raul noticing, Karen fired her attack. It was just a light bullet, it should only chip off a bit of the golem's outer layer. However, the moment it was released from Karen's hand, the light bullet sped up. It became so fast that the three of them couldn't see it. The golem's upper half was blown away the instant the light had hit it.

Sophia and Raul couldn't believe her eyes. They turned around and saw Karen. Her eyelids flickered and her body was light a puppet that had its strings cut. At the same time, the golem that the three of them couldn't defeat began to collapse. The core was destroyed along with its upper body.

Raul couldn't help but gape. He looked Karen then looked at the golem, then repeat. It was only until after Sophia called out to him did he go back to his senses.

"...?"

Karen opened her eyes and saw an unfamiliar ceiling. She tried to raise her body but her body felt like it was going to break if she pushed it any further. She decided to give up on getting up and tried to think about where she was and why she was here.

After a while, Sophia came in and saw that Karen had finally opened her eyes.

"Karen!"

Sophia ran up to Karen and began to check on her.

"You're finally awake! You really had me worried back then."

"Sophia, what happened?"

Evidently, she was still confused. Though she had already understood that they had defeated the golem and they were most likely at the village, she didn't actually have any solid proof about anything. The last thing she remembered was gathering the very last bit of her mana and then fainting.

"You defeated the golem!"

Though Karen had already realized that, just hearing it was still a surprise.

"But... how?"

At Karen's question, Sophia could only awkwardly scratch her cheek.

"Well, I don't actually know... We were actually hoping that you'd tell us once you woke up."

"Huh? How would I know?"

"??? You're the one who defeated it, what do you mean??"

"Eh...?"

In the end, the two of them had gotten nowhere.

It was only later that they found out that the golem was actually one of the legends of the mountain. It was said that it was created by a very powerful mage to safeguard treasure, but once the mage had passed, it rampaged as it roamed the lands. It moved from time to time, but it was almost always hidden in the mountains.

It attacked any and all passerby and was rumoured to have caused no less than thousands of deaths over the past few centuries.

The heroes' reputation skyrocketed and soon, they became a central figure in the continent.