When I arrived at the entrance that was in rubble, I passed through while ignoring the injured people.
Since there were some ability-users around, the injured would be in safe hands.
It seemed like, the explosion happened at every entrance on the same floor. By the time I was outside, cars were set ablaze, with fire everywhere.
From the entrance, I could see a dozen men in black surrounding three figures. I couldn't quite make out who the figures were, due to the flames and smoke, but I started coming closer while hiding my presence.
Hiding nearby, while keeping myself safe from the flames, I eavesdropped on the conversation.
"Hey princess, why don't you quietly come with us?"
Princess? It must be Lumi then, I thought.
"Come with you? No way, even if you have more men, there's no way you can take me away."
That voice, it's Lumiere for sure.
"Oh really?"
Suddenly, one of the three figures dropped to the floor.
"What are you doing? Sebastian?!"
Damnit, so her butler's name was Sebastian?
Hearing her scream, I looked over at the group and saw the princess' maid lying on the ground. It seemed like the one who betrayed her, was her butler huh.
"Boss, your plan was perfect."
"Of course it was, who do you think I am?"
"Now, do you feel like coming with us?"
"Never!"
Lumiere shouted at them while in tears. Even though I was nearby, I didn't know whether I should help.
Of course, I wanted to help her, but with my current strength, would I really be able to?
In the game, it was Futaba-san who saved her, but I don't know when that would be. But since she was scornful of men, it must've been too late.
Ah, fuck it, since I've already died once, I won't be scared of dying again.
As I stood up, I used my [Body Strengthening] magic to its maximum capacity. Passing through the flames, I shouted in order to distract them.
"Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!"
In an instant, before anyone could react, I stood in front of Lumiere, as she stared at my back.
"Who are you? You have no business with us, if you leave now, I will let you go."
"Hahaha, leave? Even if I leave now, there's no way you would let a witness leave scot-free, is there?"
I smiled as I responded.
"Well, I'm just saying it, since every villain says it. It's part of the troupe."
What the fuck? Is this old man for real?
Sebastian waved his arm, to order his men to charge at me. The dozens of his goons behind him in black, all charged at me at the same time.
Of course, he didn't forget to bring long-range attackers with him. They stayed behind to lock onto me, while the melee fighters charged at me.
Pow!
When one of them was close, I punched him hard. He flew back and smashed into another guy as they both flew dozens of meters backward.
Unfortunately for them, they landed right into the flames, as they screamed.
I ignored them as I continued fighting, it seemed like I could use more of my magic than I thought.
In the game, Hatsume Haruhiro was only this strong, near the end of his second year at the magical academy.
It seemed like my training was paying off. But in the game, he spent much longer training, so how can we have the same results?
As if I were drawing strength from those around me, my muscles slowly became used to the pain and soreness from using my magic at full power.
With just that one punch, my arm was extremely sore, while magic continuously leaked from my body.
More men charged at me, as I moved quickly like lightning and punched them all. Holding back my strength, so that I wouldn't accidentally kill them like the initial ones, while also lessening the burden on my body, I punched another man and knocked him out cold.
The long-ranged attackers had magic tools in the form of a gun. I'll skip the explanation about magic tools for now, since this is a dire situation here.
Whoosh!
As they fired at me, I barely dodged, causing pain in my legs. I punched another man and knocked him out after dodging the guns.
Now there were only the long-range attackers and Sebastian himself left standing. Even though there weren't many left, my body was crying right now.
Not knowing how much more I could withstand, I jumped with all my might. When I arrived by their side, I punched one of them, before sprinting to the others and knocked them out.
When I was done, I didn't stop and tried to land a hit on Sebastian.
Even though I was faster than him, Sebastian clearly had more experience and technique than I did.
As I punched out, his arms wrapped around my own as he grabbed my neck with one arm. Even though he couldn't break it, his grip was enough to hinder my breathing.
As I moved my arms to try and release myself, I felt a sharp pain in my stomach.
Pow!
My stomach was punched as I spat out saliva. Even though I was defending myself with [Body Strengthening], his grasp on my neck made it hard for me to breathe, which lowered my use of magic somewhat.
"You're a pretty strong kid, you must be from the magic academy."
Moving my arms to grab his hand, I replied to him while trying to free myself.
"That's right, would knowing that do you any good?"
Pow!
I was punched once again.
Pow! Pow! Pow!
The old man punched me multiple times, as my defenses dropped with every punch. My body ached all over, but I knew I couldn't release my magic.
If I did, I would die. That was all I knew.
I began to lose consciousness after a while. Facing the old man, I could see Lumiere screaming something in the background.
I couldn't quite hear what she was saying since everything was turning darker. Just as my eyes were about to close, I suddenly heard a voice.
The voice called out to me, it called my name. It was Futaba-san and Onee-chan's voices that I heard shout out my name.
Even though I heard their voices, I knew that they were still inside the mall, helping the injured people out. But when I heard their voices ringing inside my head, my mind became clear, as I regained consciousness.
It was as if their voices granted me power.
When I regained consciousness, I could still feel Sebastian's hands holding tightly onto my neck.
It seemed like that instance where I had fainted, only a few seconds had passed.
My emotions became slightly muddled when I woke up. For some reason, I felt angry. The anger that was inside me, gave me some sort of energy.
It became my new source of power.
I heard a clear cracking sound, loudly resounding inside my body. It was as if something was being unchained deep inside me.
This is it, Hatsume Haruhiro's true potential was being awakened at this moment. That was the thought that ran through my mind.
My body felt invigorated and bustling with energy. The strain on my body from using my magic, felt insignificant like it was non-existent.
My magic was now flowing fluidly throughout my body. It no longer felt restrained like in the past. It seemed this situation had awakened my true abilities.
Being filled with power, I began loosening Sebastian's grip on my neck by grabbing his arm and clenching onto it as hard as I could.
From Sebastian's view, it probably looked like my body was glowing in a dark golden color. As I gripped his arms, his face started distorting from pain.
I gripped even harder, as I hear a clear breaking sound. It was obvious that it was Sebastian's arm breaking.
As he loosened his grip on me, I roared before sending him flying away with a punch.
Bam!
He flew so far back, it wasn't an exaggeration to say that he flew hundreds of meters back! He passed through the flames, which were cleared from the sheer force of my punch, as his body smashed into pillars that held the entire car park together.
Wait, the pillars? Fuck! This place won't collapse, right?
Looking around, my body felt extremely light. I caught sight of the men I had knocked out and thrown them outside the car park so that they wouldn't get caught up.
From another person's perspective, I must've looked like a blur of wind that passed by!
Once I was done, I stood in front of Lumiere.
Since she was there the entire time, she obviously saw me beat up the guys who betrayed her. Her tears had long gone by now and were dried up. Her face was still beautiful, even with dried tears that I could clearly see, shining on her face.
Her deep, green eyes stared at me, before fainting.
Oi, oi, she fainted? On second thought that would make it easier to get her out of here.
Picking her up with one arm, I picked up her maid as well. Did I forget to talk about her maid?
Well, she wore a maid costume and has long blonde hair. Obviously she was an elf as well and was beautiful. The only thing was well, she's a loli.
If the average height of a girl is around one hundred and sixty centimeters, her maid is only about one hundred and forty-five centimeters.
Lifting the two elves on my shoulders, I quickly jumped off the second floor of the car park and landed safely outside.
Many people were watching in horror from outside the car park. When I brought Lumiere and her maid down, I quickly asked someone to call an ambulance.
After confirming that the two were in safe hands, I quickly jumped back into the carpark, on the second floor.
If you were wondering what I was doing, well to put it simply, I am clearing out the flames. How you may ask? It's pretty simple actually.
Remember when I sent Sebastian flying? And that the flames started clearing while he flew?
Well, that's what I'm doing now.
When I punch the air, the sheer force of my raw power cleared out the flames completely. Running around the car park, I cleared as much of the flames as I could.
In fact, even just from me running around, I could clear the flames due to how fast I was moving.
I reckon that even if you recorded me running in one hundred and forty-four times in slow-mo, you still wouldn't be able to see me.
As I was running around, I had gotten used to my power. It seemed like something had broken inside me, allowing me to use the power that was sealed up.
Was this in the game settings? It couldn't be, right? If it was, then Hatsume would be one of the strongest characters in the game, of course, since this is an Eroge, that wouldn't be allowed (unless I was the protagonist).
Apparently, I wasn't even using my full power yet.
When I closed my eyes, I could see a golden number appear in front of me. The number clearly read five. Since it was number five, that meant that I was only using about five percent of my real power?
If that's so, that would be insane. Just imagine, with five percent of my power, I could already clear away even flames and punch people away over a hundred meters. If I were to be able to use one hundred percent, wouldn't I be able to destroy the planet?
Wait, punch someone over a hundred meters away? I didn't kill the old man now did I? I was sure I heard the sound of shattered bones when I punched his ribs. Ouch.
Well, let's ignore this stuff and go back inside I guess. Since I can't do anything about the fried cars, I guess I'll save the old man before heading back inside.
Whoosh!
Picking up the old man, who was still awake due to sheer willpower, I stood in front of him and lifted him on my shoulder.
"Hey, what are you doing? Leave me here!"
"Now, now, you're injured, I can't just leave you here."
"And who's fault is that? Anyways, I betrayed her, just leave me here to die, I'm already one foot into the grave anyway."
"No can do old man, I'll leave it to the princess to deal with you."
"Hah, so you heard us huh. Fine then."
Sebastian gave up as I jumped outside where the ambulance and fire trucks were waiting. Leaving him on the ground, I was turned around.
"Young man, you're injured, please come with us."
"I'm fine, no need to worry about me."
Just as I said that to one of the firemen, my vision started becoming darker. Eh eh? What's hap…
And just like that, I blacked out.