"Onii-sama! Come over here, Alicia is-" Iris' voice rang through the communication device while I continued fighting against Overlord and the big guy.

However, Overlord took advantage of me spacing out for a moment listening to what Iris has to say and cast Cursed affinity magic.

I channelled some of my mana into the Core Outfit, which negated the Cursed magic.

Overlord then aimed at my legs, but I jumped, then lied down and summoned the rifle from the Wind Core Outfit.

I fired light affinity bullets in rapid succession.

The blacksmith... did he improved the rifle as well...?

I didn't expect he would go that far in enhancing the performance of the Core Weapons. I wonder what else he has in store for me.

The most ironic thing is that while my thoughts were still sober, yet my body, on the other hand, was running wild on its own.

My will alone isn't sufficient to stop my own rampage. This isn't a shounen story, where the will is the most important thing and can help the MC to overcome literally anything. If I don't do something about that, the Royal Castle will be demolished one way or another.

I changed the rifle into sniper mode, aimed at the big guy's thigh and pulled the trigger.

The bullet pierced the thigh and the big guy still managed stand on one leg, by which is rather astonishing in my book.

I would recommend him to manage to stand on one leg, but my body did the exact opposite and released a network of light beams.

Shortly after a few seconds, the big guy's other thigh was dyed red as blood trickled out of small holes pierced by the beams of light.

Of course, he fell onto the ground as both of his legs were heavily injured.

"Don't you fking move this time! I will blow your head off instantly if you move!" I warned as I pointed the rifle at his throat.

"Stay away!" I yelled at the guy in purple as I unleashed another network of light.

Meanwhile...

"Mitsurugi-dono! Are you all right?!" Claire called out as she attempted to move rocks laying on top of the Cursed Sword guy.

"It's no use... My body could not move... Could you find Gram?"

"No, I could not see a thing..."

A cloud of ash blew towards the group.

"Huh?"

"*coughing sounds* Onii-sama! Help!" Iris cried out.

"Onii-sama! Help!" Iris' voice rang through the communication device as I looked at the Royal Castle.

"Hey, wasn't that the voice of your comrade?" The big guy started a conversation all of a sudden.

"So what if it was?" I asked back as I turned my attention back to the injured guy.

"Your comrade is asking for help! Go to her!" The big guy continued in a rather anxious but persuasive tone, as if he was concerned of Iris' safety.

"Why should I care?" I retorted with a simple sentence with a nonchalant expression.

"Can you even be considered as an adventurer with that?!"

"Shut up!" I ordered as I pointed the barrel even closer to his throat.

"Onii-sama! Help! It's me, Iris! Onii-sama, save me, and everyone else at the scene! Can you hear me?"

While Iris attempted to call me, I froze on the spot with my finger touching the trigger.

To put this short in a memetic version, it would be Magic Swordmaster(.exe) has stopped working.

I held my head in my right palm as I got a bit of a migraine.

As a result, I lowered my gun and move the barrel away from the man's throat unconsciously.

The man in purple drew his swords as he approached slowly towards us as the big guy attempted to move away from me.

"Don't move!" I shouted as I pointed my rifle at the big guy once again.

A few seconds later...

"Onii-sama! Help! We are trapped in a corridor with volcanic ash! We can't get out! *cough* Alicia was trapped under a pile of rocks... We're suffocating... and suffering... Please, save us!"

"Help, Guardian!" Iris shouted one last time before she fainted as she was short of oxygen.

I turned my attention back to the Royal Castle.

"Onii-channnnnn!" Iris' voice rang in my ears like an echo.

At this point, it felt like something snapped within me

"I...Iris! I am coming!" I shouted as I regained control of my body.

However, Overlord kicked me in the head and made me drop my gun while I was distracted.

"Time to pay you back!" Overlord grabbed the rifle and whacked my back with it.

Then I punched a goblin with the brass knuckle.

"You bastard!" I then grabbed Overlord's arm with both my hands, flipped him forward and kicked him into the stomach.

Then I ran towards the entrance of the Royal Castle as I changed my outfit and the subwoofers played the last part of "His Name is Ginrai" (or Jinrai, if you want to stick to the pronunciation and the official name of the music score).

It turned out monsters from the Demon King Army invaded the entire place, as the Royal Castle was swarmed with monsters.

They were chatting among themselves, so I was unable to pick up their conversation.

But I don't really care about what they were talking about. Right now at this moment, the safety of my comrades is the most important thing.

I cleared a path as I drew my new pair of slash blades and slashed through dozens of small monsters, and used the larger monsters as stepping stones to get to my comrades.

I kept on moving until I found a large pile of concrete lying in front of me.

I sheathed the slash blades and then pulled out the new nodachi.

Holy shit, that nodachi was really heavy.

"Whoa...!" I raised the nodachi with both of my hands and I barely managed not to fall over.

The clock is ticking. If I don't do something...!

I hit the concrete with the nodachi in order to get to my comrades.

The nodachi slightly damaged the concrete, and so I did that two more times.

Oh, and by the way, I... broke my nodachi in halves on the third hit.

But I was so close in destroying the concrete...

If that's the case...

I channelled my mana even more into the broken blade, red flames wrapped around it as I raised it again.

In the end, I managed to break the concrete pile, but I used up most of my mana as a result.

However, I saved some of my mana for my body, so I didn't fall down due to mana exhaustion and ran.

I think mana exhaustion shouldn't be a problem for magic users, considering the fact they should have thought of the mana consumption of magic spells and their mana reserves.

Huh? There's an Archwizard in Axel can use Explosion magic, but falls after every time she cast it? And what would I comment about her?

Well, I wouldn't say she is stupid or something like that. Probably...

After all, it is hard to comment on that since I don't know her motive behind learning Explosion magic, I believe she learns it for a reason.

But wouldn't it be better if she actually increased her mana reserves before learning Explosion magic? She could learn how to defend herself after casting Explosion.

I would say she should take other factors into consideration before actually learning that.

Anyway, I changed the Core properties as I arrived at the scene, unleashed a strong gust of wind and blow away the volcanic-ash-like dust.

The armoured blue trenchcoat began to materialise on my body.

Then I cast healing magic to Iris, who then coughed and regained her consciousness.

"Onii-chan!" Iris whispered with a smile.

"Everything's fine now." I reassured Iris with a smile.

"Hurry up and get Alicia!"

"Alicia! Are you okay?!" I unfolded the brass knuckles and broke through the concrete then got Alicia out of the pile of concrete.

Five minutes later...

"You wouldn't be leaving here alive." Overlord spoke as he pointed the larger sword at us.

Wait, what?

"What?" I asked with visible confusion as the subwoofers played "Sanctuary Guardians".

"I mean, shouldn't we are the ones to say that, considering the fact you invaded the Royal Castle?"

"Fortis! Is that you, Fortis?" Alicia asked out of the blue and stunned the man in purple.

"What are you talking about? You got the wrong person." Overlord retorted while "Sanctuary Guardians" was still playing, making the entire scene even more awkward.

"Leave these monsters to me, Iris-sama. They are no match for me-" Kitsurugi tried to step in front of us and drew his sword, yet his wounds forced him to lean against his Cursed Sword.

"Claire-san, take care of Metsurugi. Alicia, keep Iris safe. The rest of you, draw your weapons." I turned my attention to my comrades as the subwoofers stopped playing music.

"Because... the counterattack starts... now." I continued as I pulled my sword out.

*Hangeki wa kore kara da~

"Whoops, I didn't mean to play the song."

*Note: Go look up Zone Opening in YouTube. As for the lyrics, click on the first link you see when you searched "Zone Opening lyrics TF" in Google.

A/N: This is the first part of the chapter, as I wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year.

And I wish you, who is currently reading this part of the chapter the best of luck and health in this year.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I will upload the lower part as soon as possible.

Until then, please stay tuned for the next chapter.