──This is a story of the future.
The area around it was a burned-out field; buildings were crumbling, and there were human corpses and pieces of machinery lying around.
──Clank, clank, clank.
The sound of machines echoed through this war-torn area.
The ones making this sound were mechanical knights who looked like robots.
These mechanical knights were marching in a line.
What were these mechanical knights marching against?
It was──.
"──Damn it. They're not getting any fewer…!"
A young man swore as he saw the mechanical knights approaching, hiding in the shadows.
Yes, they were the humans fighting the mechanical knights.
This young man was wearing a suit that made him look somewhat futuristic.
Then, the young man's companion, a girl, opened her mouth.
"Stop it. Even if you complain here, their numbers won't decrease."
"I know. In any case, if we don't deal with some of them here, we'll have a hard time again anyway."
The young man said this, but his expression was somber.
The reason was that while the young man and his partner were only two people, the other side's fully armed mechanical knights numbered nearly a hundred.
It would be a ruthless battle no matter how you looked at it.
But…
"…That's true. But we must do it for our own survival."
The young man and his partner had to reduce the number of mechanical knights here in order to survive.
The young man sighed at the girl's words.
"Huh… We really have created a troublesome existence here, haven't we?"
"Yes, that's true. But it is a punishment for the greed of mankind."
"….."
The young man could only remain silent at the girl's words.
"The girl is right, for it is undeniably their own fault, mankind's own fault, that mankind is now in the predicament it is in.
"But that doesn't mean I'm giving up."
"Of course not. I don't want to die either."
"…That's right. Then… it's time to get to work!"
"Yes!"
The two looked at each other and nodded, then began to act.
The moment the mechanical knight approached the predetermined point, they launched a surprise attack.
"Take this!"
The girl held out her hands, and flames of tremendous heat poured down on the mechanical knight.
A few moments later, the knight thrust out his shield.
However, when the girl's flames collided with the shield, they burned through the shield and swallowed the mechanical knight.
As soon as the mechanical knights' attention was drawn to the girl by the surprise attack, the girl screamed,
"Now!"
"──Uooooooooooooooooo!"
At the girl's signal, the young man attacked the mechanical knights.
In the young man's hand was a sword wrapped tightly in cloth.
The sword did not look like it could function as a sword at all.
However, as the young man swung the sword, countless shining swords appeared behind him and rained down on the mechanical knights, following the sword's trajectory.
While many of the mechanical knights fell to the ground from this attack, the girl smiled.
"As expected, your Sword Light of the Sword Saint is amazing."
"If you say so, so is your Hellfire Player."
After praising each other's "abilities," they quickly pulled themselves together to fight the remaining mechanical knights.
After winning the fierce battle, the two returned to their hideout feeling dizzy.
Then, a woman in a technical position waiting at the hideout called out to the young man.
"Ah, you're back! We've been waiting for you!"
"Huh?"
The young man was surprised by the unexpected words.
Then the woman smiled.
"Finally──we were able to build a device that will take you to your great-grandfather."
"What?"
"Really?"
The young man and his partner were surprised by the woman's words.
"It is true. But… I am still skeptical that we can really get out of this situation by bringing your great-grandfather here."
"….."
As the woman said, the young man was also very skeptical that simply relying on his own great-grandfather would improve this situation.
But what he found in the young man's house before the invasion of the mechanical knights intensified was his sword wrapped in cloth, and the person who used it was the young man's great-grandfather.
And when those who had awakened to the "ability" of predicting the future investigated the means of escaping this situation, they were shown to bring the young man's great-grandfather to them.
However, he was now grasping at straws.
The young man made up his mind and opened his mouth.
"…I understand. Let's leave right away."
"I knew you would say that. Here, take this."
The woman held out a bracelet to the young man.
"This bracelet is for you to travel back in time to the time when your great-grandfather was alive. If you find him there, the bracelet will automatically activate and bring you and your great-grandfather back to our time."
"From the sound of it, I don't think I'll have time to explain the situation to my ancestor."
"Of course. We can't worry about what they can afford."
"…That's also true."
The young man looked down at the bracelet.
He then… turned on the function of the bracelet.
At that moment, the young man's body became more and more particulate and faded away.
Then, the woman called out to the young man.
"I'm counting on you. The fate of this world is in your hands."
"Take care."
"──Yes, I'm going!"
With that, the young man completely disappeared from the scene.
──Would there really be an end to this future?
＊＊＊
After putting Saara-san to bed, I suddenly remembered that I had not thanked Reimei-sama, so I called out to Kuuya-san.
"Kuuya-san."
"Hmm? What's wrong?"
"Well, I thought I'd go and thank Reimei-sama…"
"Oh, yeah, yeah. But are you okay?"
I guess what Kuuya-san means by "okay" was if it was okay for me to move in this situation right now.
"Of course, I can't say that it's completely safe, but… maybe Reimei-sama knows about this situation, and I'd like to go there to confirm that as well."
"I see. But don't worry about this. I don't know what they want, but they tried once and failed. They can probably guess that we are looking for them, and they will be quiet for a while."
Sure, I didn't know what they were up to, but I didn't think they were going to attack again anytime soon.
"Well, wait a little while. I'll check it out right away."
Kuuya-san then contacted Reimei-sama through his main body in the underworld.
＊＊＊
At the time when Kuuya was trying to contact Reimei in the Underworld, as requested by Yuuya…
"──Gnununu."
Reimei frowned and stared at the card with a serious expression.
The owner of the card she was staring at was Reimei's subordinate, Ikkaku.
Ikkaku told Reimei with a look of dismay.
"Just give up and draw it quickly."
"Shut up! I'm just trying to find out which one is the old maid…!"
Yes, Reimei, the Lord of the Underworld, was playing──the old maid.
Right now, Reimei was forced to make the ultimate choice, and if she had not drawn the old maid here, she would be able to ascend.
Reimei stared at the two cards in Ikkaku's hand with the same seriousness with which she judged sinners.
"Which one of them… is the old maid?"
She compared the cards with Ikkaku's expression, but Ikkaku did not change his expression at all… it was truly a poker face.
Reimei gets more and more annoyed with Ikkaku and finally makes up her mind.
"I've made up my mind──this is the right one!"
The card was pulled out forcefully.
What Reimei was holding in her hand was──.
"It was… Old maidddddd!"
It was an old maid.
"Why, why old maid?"
"It seems that fortune has smiled upon me."
When Ikkaku calmly told her this, Reimei was so frustrated that she could hardly be considered the master of the underworld.
But she recovered quickly and turned to Ikkaku with a bossy expression on her face.
"N-not yet! If you draw the old maid here, I have a chance to win…!"
"Oh? You think I'll draw the old maid?"
"Ugh! Where does that confidence come from?"
Reimei was completely toyed with by her subordinate, Ikkaku.
She managed to calm her breathing, hid the cards behind her back, mixed them well and held them in front of Ikkaku.
"Come on, let's play!"
"Hmm."
Ikkaku stared at the two cards and picked each one as if he wanted to shake Reimei.
"Gulp…"
However, Reimei refrained from reacting to Ikkaku's actions so as not to give away any information.
Seeing this, Ikkaku chuckled.
"Hmph… fleeting resistance, isn't it? You'll lose soon anyway…"
"Shut up! Just pull it out!"
Realizing that she would not win in a battle of words, Reimei urged him to do so, and Ikkaku put on a serious expression and finally reached for a card.
That card was──Old maid.
The moment the power was applied to her hand to pull out the old maid, Reimei was convinced that she had won.
"That's naive, isn't it?"
But the next moment… Ikkaku changed his target before drawing the whole card, and he drew the… winning card.
"Wha…"
Reimei, who was sure to win, was speechless.
Then Ikkaku discarded his cards and… stood up.
"I won, Reimei-sama."
"No way!"
Reimei held her head.
But the result was cruel, and Reimei's loss was not reversed.
Immediately, Reimei gathered the cards and clung to Ikkaku.
"One more time! One more time!"
"No. There's no end to it."
"Do something!"
No matter how much she screamed, Ikkaku's attitude remained the same.
Then…
"U-um…"
"Nikkaku! You think Ikkaku should play with me, don't you?"
"N-no, I don't think so…"
"W-why…"
The other subordinate, Nikkaku, rejected Reimei as well.
"W-we have a guest."
"Huh? A guest?"
"It's Kuuya-sama."
When Reimei heard that Kuuya-sama wanted to visit Yuuya, she immediately gave her permission.
"Ikkaku, bring Yuuya and the others to me right away."
"Very well."
A few moments later, Ikkaku brought Yuuya and Meiko.
Reimei's eyes widened when she saw the power Yuuya was holding.
"This power is…"
"──Reimei-sama! I apologize for the delay in thanking you. Thank you again for the other day."
When Reimei was surprised by Yuuya's power, Yuuya bowed his head.
"It's okay, it's okay. If left unchecked, it would have affected the underworld as well. Anyway, I'm glad that everything ended well."
After saying that, she turned her attention to Meiko this time.
"I'm glad to see that you're okay too, Meiko."
"Thank you very much! Thanks to Master and all of you, I'm having a great time!"
"Umu. By the way… Yuuya. You've gained some power again, haven't you?"
"I-is that so?"
"Yes, you have. You have the power of existence, but have you also acquired the star power?"
"Star power?"
When Yuuya was surprised by the name of a power he could not remember, Reimei was surprised as well.
"What? You don't know? I can feel a faint star power…"
"Um… What kind of power is that?"
"Well… as the name implies, it is the power of the star… In your case, is it the power of the Earth? I thought it had disappeared…"
The moment Reimei said this, Yuuya looked at Meiko.
"Um… the truth is, besides thanking you, I wanted to ask you something else, Reimei-sama."
"Hmm? What is it?"
When Reimei asked him about it, Yuuya immediately told her about an event that had happened on Earth.
He was talking about the god soldier who had attacked them, in addition to the Saara who had appeared from the coffin.
"I think the 'star power' Reimei-sama is talking about is probably the power of this Saara-san…"
"I see…"
After listening to the story, Reimei showed a grim expression.
And then…
"Yuuya. You seem to have gotten yourself into trouble again. I never thought that you would have to deal with an ancient god…"
"W-what do you mean…?"
Reimei replied to the confused Yuuya.
"Your opponent is the god who once ruled the earth."
──Yuuya finally solved the case of the other world, but… now it seems that he might get involved in the problems of Earth──.
＊＊＊
"!"
Suddenly, particles of light rained down on a deserted alley.
The particles gradually formed the shape of a person, and soon, a young man stood there.
"This is… the age of our ancestors…"
This was not the war-torn world the young man knew, but a world where he could feel peaceful human life.
The young man was stunned for a while, but eventually, he came to his senses and braced himself.
"I can't stay like this. I must find my ancestor as soon as possible…!"
And so, a new trouble secretly loomed over Yuuya.