When faced with a wall that seemed impossible to overcome Aki was on the verge of giving up, one can guess a rough estimate on the opponents stats when they see their movements and strength, Aru was by far the strongest opponent Aki ever met when it comes to pure stats, even stronger than the Demon King himself
The fire arrow that he used before was his final attack against Demon King, and now it's even more enhanced after obtaining the title of a true hero.
"Then why?"
Aki whispered as he struggled to stand up, someone is healing him now but the damage from the last punch caused him to lose his sight completely
"Don't move, my healing is barely working because of the 50% enhancement"
The man who was talking was Aki's father, Watanabe Satoshi. His physical abilities are not superior to a normal human but his magic stat is around 90.
When heroes fight against the Demon king their skills efficiency is increased by 50%, sometimes it might go even more than that when stacked with other titles, Aru doesn't have this effect because he's defending the Demon king, to be more exact, his power should be restricted, he can't access his full power.
"Stop the healing I already restored my vision, lend me your mana I'll end it in a single attack"
Even though he is acting so arrogantly, what he said was the absolute truth, in the time Aki was out of the fight Aru is getting cornered by a muscular man, Hiiragi Hikaru was the strongest hero when it comes to a physical battle, his agility stat is completely maxed which is something very rare, even to get one stat to 90 took a lot of time and efforts
Although Aru was also fast, he isn't able to react in time to an opponent who is equally as fast. No, in that exact moment Aru was slower, barely managing to dodge any attack Aru was being pushed left and right without stop
'If he was using a weapon I would've been dead multiple times now!'
It was what Aru thought while getting pushed around without a chance to counter, although his defense was maxed there is only so many hits he can take before his body reach the limits
Knowing that keeping this is a dead-end Aru decided to change his strategy. He used fire to create a barrier around himself to buy some time until he heals.
"Come show me your strength now!"
But what he forgot was a simple fact, the people he's fighting are not aiming for him, their goal was to end the Demon King
Using the chance Hikaru launched himself at the unprotected girl, Aru realized his mistake quickly and tried to move but it's already too late. He can barely keep up in speed when they moved together but when Hikaru had a head start Aru stood no chance of keeping up.
Hikaru recognized Chihiro as his daughter's friend but after confirming her identity as a Demon King he had no choice but to step on his heart and execute her coldly.
With a single strike aimed at her heart, Hikaru made sure to end the fight and do he did. The girl's heart was full of purple mana around it there was no doubt about it. Using his strength the heart was turned into ashes in front of Aru's eyes.
His movement slowed down and the punch aimed to Hikaru was weaker than that of a normal kid. Looking down at the girl dying in front of him Aru shouted as strong as he could but his voice suddenly disappeared and a single clap was heard before the scene changed.
"Come show me your strength now!"
"What..?"
Hikaru was in the place he was in a few seconds ago, looking around him the Demon King vessel was still safe, but a horrible expression covered her face as she fell on her knees touching her chest. If It was not a hallucination so all they need to do is attack again! This time faster and with more determination the heart of the Demon King was destroyed again.
But the clap was heard again, this time before Aru's mouth opened up to shout.
"Come show me your strength now!"
This is the 9th time, whenever anything happens to the Demon king time resets, the only one who isn't affected by this Aru as his facial expressions and actions remained the same every time"
"TSUKASA SHIORI"
Aki shouted as if he wanted to destroy his lungs, the girl that he was talking to smiled as she finally showed herself, watching everything from above as if it had nothing to do with her she simply leaned in and enjoyed the view of desperation on the heroes faces.
With a single click of her fingers time reset again
"Who is this..."
Satoshi stood there unable to comprehend the terror of the power standing up there. a single girl was able to move the battle as she wished even if they tried to attack her just looking into her eyes everyone understood that the existence in front of them was on a whole different dimension to everyone else on this fight
"The ruler of time"
Answered Aki with a disgusted face, he knew of her existence...No, she allowed him to know her existence. With absolute control over time she was basically invincible even when severely injured she can easily return her body to a time before the injury.
"You are kidding me right? How are we supposed to do anything when she's here" Said Satoshi with cold sweat all over his face
Aki was also losing his courage to fight but he still forced himself to think of something to turn this desperate situation into a chance
"If her goal was protecting the Demon king she could have easily erased us before we were even born, but since she is allowing us to fight means she's enjoying it"
This conclusion is wrong, He knew that much. But even knowing that he couldn't begin to understand the intentions of the girl who protected the reincarnation of all evil.
"So we need to defeat Sawano-kun first and then she will allow us to-"Come show me your strength now!"
Time went back again, this time the three men know that they will have to fight Aru first before moving to the vessel.
Satoshi cut off the healing magic on Aki and started giving him a part of his mana instead while trying to give him as many buffs as he could, they have the time advantage in this fight since more support will come while Aru will remain alone.
"Counter"
Putting a lot of his magical power into a single attack Aki created a water arrow this time with a simple goal.
"Fuck.. the shield.."
Aru didn't have time to reinforce his fire shield so he had to dodge the arrow but the moment he tried to move Hikaru was already in front of him getting his hand ready to punch
Although Magical resistance wasn't his best ability Hikaru was still able to throw his hand inside Aru's flames making sure he wasn't free to move anywhere and with a perfect timing Aki's arrow broke through the shield at the same time Hikaru's hand extended for a final punch
The fire was extinguished and the impact of the hit on Aru's right side stunned him for a moment, just enough for Hikaru to score a critical hit on him. Losing his conscience for a single second was all it took for him to be hit multiple times. Unable to guard or dodge in this situation Aru was already far beyond his limits yet he showed no signs of giving up.
Using his only opportunity to summon his sword jumped back to create distance but he was quickly stopped by a wall of ice created behind him, and once again he was free to be hit.
Breaking through the ice wall Aru was sent flying unable to move in the air he found himself tanking another one of Hikaru's punches, this time his destination was the ground so his flight wasn't a long one.
"AGGHGGG"
Aru shouted in pain inside the little hole created from the impact
"He stopped healing! End him now!" Shouted Aki without hesitation
Indeed, Aru's wounds weren't healing and his pain didn't seem to stop. Then why? Why was he still using his shattered bones to force his body up?
"Am I really on the good side?"
Thought the man beating a kid defending his friend to death. But stopping now wasn't an option, he already killed that girl multiple times he can't let his feeling stop him now.
Suddenly his vision was covered by blood
"You're getting distracted old timer"
Using his bloody spit Aru targeted Hikaru's eyes to land a single hit, unable to see anything for a second HIkaru had no choice but to take the hit so he reinforced his body for the impact but what he felt was a weak tap
"fuck.."
Aru whispered as more blood left his mouth and a sword showed its tip leaving his chest as it pierced through his heart.
Even if he did lose this fight, Hikaru didn't lose the battle. It was a 3vs1.
"not..yet..I.."
On the other side of the sword Aki was using all his strength pushing the sword as far as he could until he was stopped by a loud noise
[The Target has been killed]
Aki's grip completely loosened when he heard the notification, his sword fell and so did Aru's body.
It took him a second to realize what he did. his hand was shaking harder than it ever did. Disgust sadness anger and fear all went through his body in a single instant but there was another feeling, something he hated himself for feeling
"WHY ARE YOU SMILING?"
Gripping the collar of Aki's torn shirt Hikaru shouted at him but there was no reaction from the kid at all, he was just smiling and looking at his trembling hand
"Stop there"
Before he could do anything reckless Hikaru was stopped by the kid's father
"I didn't come here to kill the kid!"
"Yes I understand, the situation could've been handled better but Sawano-kun understood the situation would end like this when he betrayed us"
Although his frustration was still burning inside him Hikaru throw Aki away and focus on ending the job first
"My daughter will surely hate me for this"
"She won't kn-"
"Shut the fuck up"
Killing two of her friends and then not telling her anything about it wasn't something Hikaru was willing to put his daughter through
"Ah.. Please stop.. just leave me.."
The sight of a girl crying begging for her life wasn't fitting for that of the Demon King, covering her face with her hands she kept shouting for him to stop but the man didn't stop moving
"I'll make it quick, stop begging it's pathetic"
"I'M NOT TALKING TO YOU!"
He was taken aback by her reply, finally realizing the situation he was in he turned his head quickly to see a dead man standing.
His injuries were healing faster than ever and his eyes looked empty. The sword summoned in his hand was different than the one he used before.
"Just stop it.. if I die everything will be solved.."
Even if she tried to kill herself now Shiori wouldn't accept that result, Chihiro couldn't do anything but beg Aru to give up but her voice didn't reach him
With a single step the distance between Aru and Hikaru was shortened. Unable to keep up with his eyes Hikaru had to use his instincts to attack
"Wha..."
His hand completely went through Aru's chest as his body dissappeared into little particles
"Illusion skill!"
Understanding the situation quickly Hikaru scanned the area looking for the real body but what he saw was the sight of Satoshi's body dropped on the floor
Before rescuing his fallen comrade Hikaru's instincts started shouting as he felt a presence behind him but it was too late. Even though they were evenly matched in physical abilities earlier, the current Aru was using multiple layers of reinforcement magic and controlling the wind around his body to increase his speed even more. The amount of magic needed to keep this up was unimaginable to the normal person..
It was the moment his thoughts reached this point when Hikaru realized that in front of Aru he was just a normal person. It's the absolute strength that renders everyone below it as equals
With a single slash another hero was brought down, only one more to go.
Aki still in shock just laughed at the scene, he couldn't even see what happened they were both completely taken by a single attack.
"THEN I WILL END IT WITH ONE ATTACK AS WELL!"
Using the same sword that killed this monster once, Aki swung his sword cutting Aru's body in two halves, or so should've happened. The sword moved through flesh without even causing a single wound
"Illusion magic? No I did feel my sword cutting through!"
Getting angrier Aki started cutting more and more until his sword broke but it was all for nothing, Aru was still standing in from of him with a blank face
"Healing magic..?"
Finally understanding what happened Aki's swords fell from him hand. He did manage to cut Aru but his Healing closed the wound at the exact same moment. No mater how many times he attacks the result will be the same. Even when the support comes no one will stop him. If the world itself went against him he'd still win. The man standing in front him now wasn't an ideal, he wasn't someone he could even dream of reaching. Sawano Aru is by far the strongest hero.