Heroic Spirit: I, Shinji, have tried my best.

"Boom...boom..."

The man named Iwan among the three was covering the wound on his shoulder and running quickly in one direction, with the black sandworm-like monster behind him chasing him closely.

He has been following Riku for a while, so he naturally understands that someone has to make sacrifices at this time. He has been prepared for this and will not have any complaints.

His next task was to delay as much time as possible to buy Riku and the others enough time to escape. Otherwise, with the speed of the [Demon] in front of him, it would catch up with them in no time.

At that time, everything they had done before was in vain...

"…not good!"

"boom!"

Ivan looked at the collapsed scrap metal in front of him and subconsciously wanted to run to another way out, but suddenly remembered that this was the direction Riku and the others left...

“…Can’t you dodge?”

"Roar!"

It slowly turned around, with its bloody mouth as if playing with its prey, and slowly approached this side, ready to appreciate the fearful look on the prey's face before hunting.

The man's legs trembled due to the instinctive fear of human beings, but his face was full of relief...

"Is this all I can do... Sorry, Nonna, it seems that Daddy can't go back to see you this time..."

"Roar!"

"Big Spiral Yu!"

Just as Ivan closed his eyes and prepared to welcome the world, a black ball suddenly flew out from above his head and rushed into the mouth of the oncoming monster.

Feeling something was wrong, Ivan opened his eyes and saw a scene he would never forget:

The man-eating beast opened its huge mouth and stopped in front of his face. He could even smell the foul odor coming from it.

However, at this moment, half of the monster's body was expanding strangely. It was also the first time in history that he saw a [Demon] showing fear.

"boom!"

The swollen body exploded instantly after reaching its limit, and minced meat mixed with black blood splattered everywhere. The remaining body connected to the head kept twisting and twitching on the ground, looking very painful...

"You have quite a lot of vitality... I clearly didn't hold back when I attacked you, but you're still able to survive?"

"There are also large differences between the individuals of the [Demon Species], and those who choose to occupy a place as their territory are generally not very strong..."

Ivan was shocked by the scene in front of him. When he suddenly heard other people talking, his first reaction was not that he was saved, but that a stronger [race] was coming!

I mustered up the courage to stick my head out and took a look. I saw that the person coming was a man holding a strange weapon and... [Ex-Machina]?

How come that race that always acts in groups appears here?

As soon as Shinji and Hubie arrived here, they found this [Demon] chasing its prey, so Shinji planned to deal with this guy at that time, but he failed unexpectedly.

“Does Hubie need to wipe it out?”

"…Can you do it? I remember you were the tenth one, which is only one place higher than it, right?"

"Hubby, no problem."

Shinji leaned aside half-believingly. Based on the situation when they first met and fought, he couldn't think of how she would attack...

"【Open】"

Circles of blue light emerged from Hubie's head. He pressed his hands forward and slowly opened a magic circle, aiming it at the giant creature below.

"[Pseudo-classic: Mori Sora Photography]"

A mechanical sound without any emotion was heard, and the magic circle in front of Xubi released several wind blades in succession. They seemed to have little power, but when they hit the thick-skinned [Demon] below, they actually cut it into pieces...

The big bug that was still twitching was cut into pieces in an instant. Except for Shubi himself, the two humans Shinji and Iwan were stunned.

After finishing the attack, Hubie tilted his head and looked over, not caring at all that he had just killed a monster many times bigger than himself in seconds.

"…I say, you are not some kind of princess or something, right? How high does this level of strength rank in your race?"

"【Ex-Machina】does not have settings like 【Princess】, and because Shuvi is an 【Analysis Form】, his combat capability is less than 32% of that of a 【Combat Form】, and he is disconnected from his Connected Form, so he can only use 47 types of weapons in total..."

"So the comprehensive evaluation of combat strength ranks last."

"..."

"As for the attack just now, it was a weapon derived from the magic of the Elfs. Although the power has decreased, the consumption has also been reduced."

"…Is the racial disparity in this world so huge?"

Shinji shook his head to indicate that he was frightened. It seemed that his strength here could only be ranked around average... He was a bit shocked.

"Ok?"

Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of the human being being hunted. From his appearance, he was indeed a normal human being without any strange mutations. This made him feel a little bit of familiarity in this strange world full of aliens!

But the other party doesn't think so...

Although the other party looks like a human, humans do not know magic, so humans must be ruled out first. Then every remaining option is dangerous.

"Hey!"

"..."

"What are you standing there for? I'm calling you."

"…What do you two adults want to talk to me about?"

Seeing the other person's alert face, Shinji felt helpless for a moment. Why did he treat him as an outsider? He had saved his life, so shouldn't he be grateful and say that he wanted to marry his daughter to him?

"…Forget it. I won't embarrass you. Do you know Riku Dora?"

"You know Riku!?"

"Yes, I'm looking for him now. Since you know, could you please take me to find him?"

"I'm sorry... I can't do that."

Iwan observed for a while and found that the other party had no intention of hurting him, especially when he mentioned Riku's name, he was more or less aware of the other party's human identity.

After all, those high-ranking [races] wouldn't go to such great lengths to find a human monkey...

"why?"

Iwan didn't say anything, but glanced at Shubi next to Shinji.

"This person...is considered my friend. You don't have to worry too much."

"I'm sorry, but even so I can't gamble with the entire tribe, even if you kill me here!"

“…This is going to be difficult.”

Suddenly, a snow-white little hand stretched out. Shinji looked down and saw Shubi raising his hand as if he had something to say...

"what happened?"

"Hubby... that should be OK."

“Oh? What are you going to do?”

The mechanical device on Hubie's head moved, and the tail behind him touched the ground, unfolding the original three-dimensional projection again.

Shinji looked at the rugged terrain above and didn't quite understand, but Iwan looked incredulous:

"how come!"

"Ok?"

"…This is where Rikudora is in the human group. If we can use the spirits, we can arrive in about 72 seconds at the fastest."

"..."

Shinji looked at Iwan, who had turned gray, with some amusement, and probably understood how much of a blow this scene had brought to him...

"Then let me reorganize my words... We are going to visit your tribe now, do you want to take a ride?"

Iwan raised his head stiffly, and when he saw Shinji's malicious smile, he suddenly felt like the sky was falling...

……

As for Riku, with the help of Iwan, he finally returned to the tribe smoothly.

While sorting out the spoils brought back from this outing with the others, a girl with sapphire-like pupils suddenly rushed over and hugged Riku:

"Riku! Great... You're still alive..."

However, this weak look only lasted for a while, and immediately turned into a lively and cheerful look again.

"Mo! Didn't I tell you to come back soon? Do you know that we are very worried about you..."

"We are already fast..."

Riku's calm voice came, and the girl was stunned for a moment, and suddenly found that only one of the two people who went out with the other party came back, and that one also seemed to be avoiding her gaze.

My heart sank as I immediately realized what had happened and a look of sadness appeared on my face.

"Ivan..."

"Do not say!"

"father!"

The girl tried to cover Riku's mouth in panic, but she was still a step too late...

A little girl with short purple hair ran over laughing, holding a piece of paper with crooked handwriting in her hand.

"Dad! Nonna can write her own name now... Dad?"

"Neh... Sister Chloni, where's Dad?"

"Nonna..."

The girl looked at the other's expectant face, not knowing how to explain for a moment. At this time, Riku came out from behind, squatted in front of Nonna, and said extremely cruel words in a calm voice:

"Nonna, Ivan is...dead, and he will never come back."

The expression on the little girl's face froze, and then a heart-breaking scream rushed into the ears of the people around her...

"boom!"

"Bang...bang..."

"Snapped!"

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"

"What are you talking about for the final victory? What nice words are you saying!"

"It was clearly your order... It was clearly you who said go to hell, it was clearly you who killed him!"

"boom!"

"You damn hypocrite, tell me clearly! You killed him just to save your own life!"

"boom!!!"

After returning to the room, Riku's rational mind finally couldn't bear it anymore and he started smashing things crazily. The planning documents on the desk were scattered all over the floor, making the room a mess with sawdust everywhere.

When there was nothing left to smash, he lay on the ruins and gasped for breath. He raised his hand and touched the cheek that was hit by Nonna not long ago. At this moment, he really hoped that he would be the one to die...

"How long will this kind of life last..."

Outside the door, the girl named Chloe removed her hand from the doorknob and leaned against the stone wall beside her. She had no idea how to comfort the other person in this situation. She could only hope that time would heal the pain...