Author here. I'm so tired. I spent the entire evening and beginning of the night finishing this chapter for you. It's definitely longer than all the previous ones that I did before. Here, we get a display of Amaterasu's power compared to the common grunt. Will Emilia become important? Of course, I didn't just do a segment on her to throw her away. Next chapter, the academy enrollment! Though I might do a side-chapter first. Vote in the previous chapter's poll if you didn't already. It's a 50-50 split. If it's like that, might as well make Sam a trap and call it a day. Well, good night, and enjoy this chapter that I have written for you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Amaterasu stared at the flickering lights. Surprisingly, she didn’t notice them immediately, even if it was night time. This was mostly due to the night vision that elves had.

Looking even closer, Amaterasu noticed the lights came from torches held by people. These people were walking towards the village brandishing weapons. Amaterasu even saw a battering ram that was pushed by several people.

Amaterasu: ‘They’re attacking the village? So they’re the reason for the guard’s behaviour today.’

Amaterasu silently crept out of the bush that she was currently lying in and circled around the edge of the forest to get a closer look at the invader.

Amaterasu: ‘Hmm. With this amount of people attacking the village, it’ll be hard to defend. I don’t know the amount of guards inside the village, but it shouldn’t exceed twenty. There are at least a hundred bandits, so the guards would need to utilise the walls if they want the advantage. I could easily repel this amount, since none of them are strong, but…’

Amaterasu remembered the words that the guard told her earlier in the day.

Amaterasu: ‘… it’s none of my business.’

After all, Amaterasu was seen as a stranger by the village, a possibly hostile threat. There was no doubt that she would be attacked if she had approached the village now.

Amaterasu: ‘If worst comes to worst, then I can always help the old man out. If there’s anyone worth saving, it’s him.’

Amaterasu took a couple of glances around her to observe her surroundings. She noticed a nearby hill that loomed over the village. Amaterasu used wind magic to accelerate herself towards it. Once she reached the hill, Amaterasu sat down on the chilly ground and she made herself as comfortable as possible.

Amaterasu: ‘Now, how are both sides faring?’

Amaterasu was extremely grateful to the vision that an elf’s eye gave to her. Not only was the darkness of the night completely negated, but her eyesight also became sharper.

Amaterasu: ‘I guess this is why elves are such greater archers.’

Looking downhill onto the advancing bandits, Amaterasu took a deep sigh as she watched the bandits approaching the village, unchallenged by the guards.

Amaterasu: ‘The village’s security sure is horrible. If they had pelted the bandits full of arrows right now, then they would have stood a chance at putting up a good fight. That chance is getting slimmer and slimmer by the minute, though.’

It was at that moment that Amaterasu heard the ring of a bell. The cacophonic noise rang through the area as the guards rushed towards village walls. Though Amaterasu wasn’t inside the village itself, she could feel panic and fear fill the air, even from her location.

Amaterasu: ‘Hoh. So they finally noticed the attack? A little too late, though. The bandits have almost reached the village walls. Come to think about it, why do they need a battering ram? Can’t they use magic? Or are humans terrible at magic?’

Amaterasu could see the guards inside the village organising themselves into a formation. Amaterasu noticed that there was a squad leader who was giving out instructions to the other guards.

Amaterasu: ‘Ah! What is he doing? Are they trying to take the fight inside the village? Stupid! They’re losing the only advantage that they had!’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leader: [Get ready! These pesky bandits are about to attack us! We will repel them with our might and courage!]

Guards: [Hurrah!]

The squad leader gave a satisfied nod to the reply. He truly believed that his men were able to take on the bandits. He didn’t care how many of them there were, since his men were properly trained in the art of combat by him personally. His hazel eyes scanned his troops one more time.

It was then that he heard a creaking sound from the gate. This noise signalled to the leader that the bandits had already began to utilise the battering ram, and that they would pour into the village at any moment. The squad leader turned to face the gate along with the rest of his men.

Leader: [In formation!]

In a couple of seconds, the wooden gates came crashing down with a groan. The squad leader narrowed his eyes as people dressed in black emerged inside the village.

Leader: [Attack!]

The guards held out their spears as their formation charged forward, kicking up dust. The guards themselves were not scared against the presence of overwhelming numbers. They were veterans, who were used to be in losing situations. It did not matter whether the situation was advantageous for them or not – their job was to fight.

In a few moments, the two factions collided between themselves. The charge of the guards produced an awesome impact. The wall of spears held out in front quickly pierced through the front line of the bandits.

Leader: [Good! Good!]

As the squad leader exclaimed that, he noticed that the bandits began to flank the guards from the right. The formation that the guards used was good for the initial impact, but was unfortunately too tight packed to manoeuvre swiftly. If the bandits got the opportunity to hit one of the sides, then the guards would suffer casualties.

Leader: [Shit! Hold the line while I come!]

The leader took the sabre out of its scabbard and charged at the flanking bandits. He was determined to face his enemies with unrelenting pressure. Even if one man from his squad fell into Death’s cold hands, then the chances of victory would significantly decrease. He couldn’t allow that, so he had to slice down all the enemies in his path.

Leader: [Haaaaaah!]

The squad leader reached the flankers with a rush of adrenaline and began to cut down the bandits in his path. His control of the sabre was impeccable. It felt as if though he was dancing while he was holding lightweight, one-handed weapon. He would kill one bandit by slicing his shoulder. Another – by slashing his head off.

Leader: [Anyone who wants to pass has to get through me!]

This wild and frenzy, yet gracious attack continued for a couple of more seconds.

Bandit #1: [Ack! Help! It’s the legendary swordsmaster Gregio!]

Bandit #2: [What’s he doing here in this remote village? Shit! We didn’t expect to meet an A rank warrior here.]

A smile came to the lips of Gregio. It was obvious that the enemies were struck with fear. He needed to utilise this opportunity to cut down even more of his enemies. Just as he raised his sabre to deal another blow, he stepped back to narrowly avoid the wind blade flying at him.

???: [Tch! So I missed…]

Standing to the side of Gregio was a tall woman with raven black hair. Her black eyes seemingly pierced him as they gazed at the man named Gregio. Gregio brushed his brown hair with his arm as he observed the woman.

Gregio: [You! You’re Satella! What is a B rank magician such as you doing here?]

Satella smirked at Gregio before answering.

Satella: [What else? Money, of course. These people paid me to work with them, so I agreed.]

Gregio hung his head low while shaking furiously.

Gregio: [You… you’ve fallen so low to work with bandits?]

Satella: [Why not? We used to be partners once, but those times are over, especially after you betrayed me!]

Gregio prepared his stance. He knew what she was talking about.

Gregio: [Satella! That was for your own safety that I… no, we left you behind. I was the only one who survived in the end. Back then, you would have also died!]

Satella: [Shut it, traitor!]

Gregio sighed as he mentally prepared himself for the coming fight. While he did have the rank advantage over Satella, magicians tended to be stronger than warriors, even more so when both parties were fighting to death.

Before giving time to react, Gregio quickly lunged at Satella. He quickly brought down his sabre diagonally at the left shoulder. Satella used wind magic to accelerate herself backwards and successfully dodge the attack.

Satella: [Hah! As if you can touch me!]

Satella quickly fired two wind blades at Gregio. He dodged both of them by a narrow margin before rushing at Satella.

Satella: [Not even using your element against me? Underestimating me like always!]

Satella conjured five more wind blades before firing them at different angles. Gregio was able to successfully dodge the first four, but the last one was flying him at an angle he couldn’t dodge in his current position. Quickly activating his earth magic, he strengthened his sabre before slashing at the last wind blade. The shattered wind blade flew apart in two directions before crashing into the ground with a fierce strength.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Gregio used this opportunity to slash at Satella. She used wind magic to dodge again, but wasn’t as successful this time as blood spurted out of her hand. Giving a maniacal look to Gregio, she licked the blood on her hand.

Satella: [I guess I’ll need to use all my power to defeat you!]

After those words, Satella made wind blades, about a hundred of them. She was visibly becoming exhausted, but she let the wind blades loose. Those hundred wind blades hurled themselves at Gregio with a whistling sound.

Gregio quickly prepared his stance and began to dodge as well as slice at the wind blades using his earth-empowered sabre. However, it was clear that he couldn’t dodge all of them as he emerged a bloody mess after the attack had finished.

Satella: [Damn! I couldn’t finish him off!]

Gregio coughed up blood as he spoke slowly.

Gregio: [Why do you want to kill me so much? It was our collective decision to leave you behind back then. Why must you be angry at the survivor?]

Satella began to shake. Tears formed at the edges of her eyes that began to flow down her cheeks.

Satella: [If only you didn’t leave me behind back then, the rest wouldn’t have had to die.]

Gregio shook his blood-covered head before continuing.

Gregio: [No, all that would have happened was your death. Stop remaining in denial!]

Satella: [Shut up! Die!]

As she flung a final wind blade at Gregio, he prepared to retaliate. However, when the wind blade travelled halfway, it suddenly disappeared, as if though it hit the barrier.

Satella: [Wha…?]

???: [Finished with your lovers’ quarrel?]

Gregio looked up to see a blonde elf sitting on top of the roof. Her beauty was dazzling and he felt enraptured by her. Then, he noticed that there weren’t any signs of battle going on, so he quickly looked around. Lying all around him were the cold, dead bodies of the bandits.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Amaterasu saw that the guard leader was planning to battle inside of the village, she decided to act.

Amaterasu: ‘If anything, I’m doing for the old man.’

She broke out into a sprint, using wind magic to accelerate herself. By this time, the bandits had already broken the village gates and poured into the village itself. Amaterasu prayed that the guards would resist the bandits long enough for her to arrive on time.

Fortunately, the heroic act of Gregio was able to buy enough time for Amaterasu to reach the village. She jumped over the gate using wind magic and onto the roof. She sat down and noticed that the guards were struggling with the bandits while Gregio was duelling with Satella, with almost half of them dead.

Amaterasu: ‘Finally, I’ll get to use this attack that I discovered after Eos left.’

Due to the many RPG games that she played in her former world, Amaterasu was used to seeing the traditional four elements used as offensive magic. Light magic and dark magic was almost always reserved for support-type magic. Yet, this made Amaterasu curious – what if she was able to create offensive magic for both types?

Looking down on the battlefield, she concentrated on her attack, ‘Laser’. This spell created a beam of light that exceeded a temperature of 3000 K (3273.15°C). The great thing about it was that Amaterasu could maintain for as long as she had the mana to do it. However, this spell drained her like the water squeezed out of a sponge under high pressure.

Amaterasu: ‘Okay! I’m ready to begin the experiment!’

She began to wave her finger around the field, slicing and piercing through enemies quickly and efficiently. The carnage was quick and devastating, Amaterasu was able to reduce the enemy’s numbers from over hundred to zero in a couple of seconds, leaving behind scorched earth to signify the laser’s trail.

Amaterasu: ‘Wow. This is extremely effective in reducing numbers quickly. I guess grunts will always remain grunts in the end. Now, those two should be finishing up any moment.’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gregio was staring at the lady on the roof. It was clear to him that she was even more powerful than Satella to produce this kind of massacre. He was extremely cautious since duelling two mages would certainly lead to his death, but since she killed the bandits, he didn’t think that he was in danger.

Gregio: [Who are you? Judging from your power, you are at least an A rank mage! Why are you here?]

Amaterasu brought her right hand up to her face and began to massage her forehead.

Amaterasu: [You’re asking too many questions at once. I’m just a passing-by elf who was going to the capital. I was going to lodge here tonight, but someone’s guard didn’t let me in. So I was camping in the nearby forest when I noticed this mess. Speaking of that, shouldn’t you finish up already? It’s clear that the swordsman is the winner here. He wasn’t even taking the fight seriously or you would be dead, loud woman.]

Satella widened her eyes at that statement. She suspected that Gregio was going easy on her, but she didn’t expect to this extent. She clicked her tongue and used the last of her remaining mana to accelerate herself with wind as she escaped.

Gregio: [Wait!]

Gregio was about to rush after her, but Amaterasu stopped him.

Amaterasu: [Hold your horses! Where are you going with injuries like those? You won’t catch her with her wind magic. Just give up.]

Gregio sighed for another time this night and turned to face Amaterasu.

Gregio: [So, elf. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your help today. Are you going to stay here for tonight?]

Amaterasu curled her lip in dissatisfaction.

Amaterasu: [No. I lost my interest after what transpired today earlier. I’ll jump camp nearby. Goodbye.]

Amaterasu jumped off the roof of the building and proceeded to walk towards the gate. She almost reached it, but she stopped as she noticed something tumbled from the shadows towards her.

Unknown specimen: [Hey! Emilia saw what you did just now! That was so cool! Emilia wants to beat bad guys with light as well!]

Amaterasu was amused as a little girl, no more than five years old, was jumping up and down in front of her. Amaterasu unconsciously smiled as she was confronted by this odd character.

Amaterasu: [Well, if you train yourself over time, then you might grow to be strong like me!]

The little girl tilted her head at Amaterasu.

Emilia: [But mom and dad said that Emilia didn’t have anything special about her! No affinity! They said Emilia wouldn’t grow strong no matter how much she trains!]

Amaterasu smile disappeared as she came to realise the meaning behind those words.

Amaterasu: ‘No elemental affinity? I thought God said that everyone had one! Could this be a disease? Or was she born like this? Regardless, she definitely won’t be able to survive in this magic world like this.’

Amaterasu: [Oh, I’m sor…]

Amaterasu stopped her before another thought came to her mind.

Amaterasu: ‘Wait a minute! Aren’t I a goddess? Shouldn’t I technically be able to give my power to others? I don’t know if I can do this, but it’s worth a shot, I guess.’

Amaterasu brought her right hand to Emilia’s forehead and extended her forefinger so that it was the only one touching her head. Emilia tilted her head in confusion again. As Amaterasu began to concentrate, she sent her mana through her forefinger into Emilia’s head. She spent a couple more seconds pouring mana into Emilia before she stopped.

Amaterasu: ‘Did it work? I can feel my divine mana circulating within her, so something happened at least.’

Emilia rubbed her forehead.

Emilia: [What was that?]

Amaterasu: [Oh, I just gave you a special something! Now, if you train, you can become as strong as me. Just keep it a secret.]

Amaterasu was grinning while she put her forefinger on her lips, indicating a ‘silence’ command.

Emilia: [Really? Yay! Emilia promises to train and become as strong as you! Then, Emilia will come help you!]

Amaterasu: [Alright, settle down there. Go home now.]

Emilia: [OK!]

Amaterasu looked back as the girl sprinted back into the village with her arms outstretched into the air.

Amaterasu: ‘Well, I don’t know if I did anything to help her, but I tried my best. Everything is left up to her. Though, I doubt that she’ll ever come to help me.’

Chuckling, Amaterasu exited the village to spend the night in the forest.