Level 1 Strongest Sage ~

“A-Are you sure?”

You’re really gonna fight against me?!

“Yes. If Sea God-sama is willing to fight against me, then I would love to try it. I also wish to test my current strength and see just how far I can go.”

Halt’s eyes were sparkling like a little kid who just discovered a brand new toy or game.

“By the way, can I ask you to promise me that you won’t kill me if I surrender halfway?”

“Y-Yeah, of course. You’re going along with me after all. Just in case I become over enthusiastic and end up killing you, I’ll definitely revive you.”

Not really sure why, but I got the feeling that there was absolutely no need for that.

“Thank you very much! Well then, let’s finish this off!”

“Yeah!”

…Hm?

W-Weird.

I felt like there was something wrong with his words.

──＊＊＊───

Crp, crp, crp, crp!!

This is way too terrible!!

W-What the heck is wrong with this guy?!”

“Sea God-sama, I’ll go with this nex~t!!”

“Oy, wait a minute, Halt! That’s the spell I used earlier —”

Halt created a ginormous whirlpool spear and threw that toward me.

It was originally called the ‘Ultimate Vortex’, and it was the most powerful water magic spell. It’s also the strongest spell you can hurl toward another person.

And Halt —

“Water Lance!”

Released that attack magic while chanting the lowest grade spell.

“Hiii!!”

I managed to evade it with an embarrassing shriek that I couldn’t believe I just let out.

The spell that I just dodged destroyed the outer wall of the shrine that was supposedly as sturdy as heck.

T-This guy’s magic… is terrible!

Just what the heck is going on here?!

How could the lowest level of magic have the destructive power of the ultimate magic class?!

By the way, it’s not only the destructive power that was terrifying.

Halt managed to copy the spell I released exactly as it was. Well, he’s a Sage, after all, so I did understand why he could wield the same magic.

But, he made the spell several times more powerful than mine before firing it at me!

I, a deity — one of the Four Great Deities — fired that for real!!

This guy’s magic doesn’t make sense!

— No, it’s not only magic.

“Sea God-sama, here!”

Halt was kind enough to call out to me before punching, so I managed to duck just in time.

“That’s dangerous!”

His movements and attacks were unbelievably fast for a human.

“As expected of Sea God-sama, your reaction speed is so amazing!”

You’re the one who’s amazing!

Just how the heck can you move faster than the Sea God underwater, for crying out loud?!

“Hey, Halt. Why can you move with that speed despite being under the sea?”

We were in the middle of the battle, but I couldn’t help my curiosity, so I asked.

I feigned calm, of course. It’s bluffing at its finest.

“I probably can move faster underwater than on land.”

“...What?”

Y-you’re a human, right?

Why can a mere human move so fast underwater?

“The water is helping me move. The atmosphere isn’t that dense, so I couldn’t move faster there.”

No, that’s — the explanation doesn’t make sense.

“I use my mana to reduce the density of the water in the direction I'm going and conversely increase the density of the water behind my body. It’s just me taking advantage of the propensity of liquids to move to areas of lower density.”

He probably noticed that I didn’t get his explanation. Halt supplemented it.

“Changing water density with… mana?”

Is that even possible?

“Like this!”

Halt started to release mana. He then gathered it in front of his body.

His body then started to move forward bit by bit.

“Whoa! B-But… why is that?”

“Mana turns into something tangible when densely compressed.”

Yeah, I know that.

“So, that tangible mana would then push the object in that space. In this case, the mana pushed out the water.”

“Fumu, fumu.”

Halt once again gathered the mana in front of him.

He was compressing the mana more densely than before, and it was turning into a block in front of me.

“Right now, this mass of mana pushed the water that was in the space before me. This mass of mana is mine, so I could also make it disappear at will.”

Halt made his mana disappear.

At that moment, a ‘vacuum’ was created in the depths of the sea.

In that next instant, water flowed into that space, but the speed of the inflow was so fast that the water collided with water, creating a shock wave in the process.

“ — Wha!?”

Everything in the depths of the sea is under a tremendous amount of water pressure.

The mermaids living here were already equipped with the magic that could neutralize the pressure around their bodies from birth.

When the mermaids die in the ocean deep —

The neutralizing magic that wrapped their bodies would be dissolved, and at the moment of their death, they would be crushed under that pressure until they would become the size of pearls.

Their remains after being crushed would turn into beautiful orbs the color of their hair when they were still alive.

These were called “Treasure of Mermaid’s Demise” and they were sold and valued highly among the humans.

Right now, this place was under water pressure heavy enough to crush my underlings in just an instant.

Halt was using that pressure to propel himself forward.

I understood the principle somehow. But would you normally come up with this sort of idea?

One wrong move and your own body would turn to dust.

In fact, the shockwave generated at the moment Halt erased that mass of mana was enough to shake the entire shrine.

It wasn’t a surprise then if a mere human would disintegrate just by the impact alone.

And yet —

Halt was nowhere ordinary.

“You see how I moved forward a little bit? If you repeat this on and on, you’ll be able to go forward with an unbelievable speed!!”

The perfectly fine Bakemono stood a few paces away from where he had stood earlier.