Overgeared

Reidan Desert.

Hayate’s body lay neatly in the middle of those who were still recovering after the battle. His eyes were closed, and his chest was unmoving.

Hayate’s body wasn’t breathing. It had lost its soul, no longer serving any purpose. It was nothing more than a corpse.

“...It will soon start to rot,” Zeratul told the others. He grimaced, despite the high levels of arrogance he, as the Martial God, displayed.

Thanks to sharing drinks all night, he could somewhat grasp how the people around him felt. Just as the eight gods who had descended alongside Zeratul to challenge Grid had already demonstrated, gods were surprisingly capable of empathizing with others. It was just that, most gods didn’t even get the chance to socialize with humans. For many, the idea of living alongside humanity wasn’t even conceivable. For them, Asgard was the core of their world, their most valued place. Therefore, they rotted for the rest of their lives in Asgard, like frogs in a well.

“It can’t be too late to save him...”

The tower members didn’t disagree with Zeratul’s opinion. However, they also noticed that Hayate’s condition was perilous, and they couldn’t conceal their anxiety.

Nevertheless, no one suggested going to find Hayate right away. They trusted and respected Lauel’s advice, that the right thing to do was leaving the search for the soul to Knight.

They also understood the importance of their task. They were to focus on the body’s recovery, and they kept wondering to what degree they needed to recover in order to help Grid.

“......”

The people’s reactions were making Zeratul feel disappointed. Humans, ephemeral beings with such short lives. Even he, who had been born with eternal life, was always anxious and obsessed over the title of Martial God. Meanwhile, humans appeared to be more altruistic and wiser than him. This was because they managed to overcome their own limitations by trusting others and cooperation with their people.

Zeratul believed the humans’ way of thinking was worthy of imitation.

‘Should I try contacting them...?’

His mind wandered in the direction of the eight gods who had cooperated with him when he had publicly challenged Grid. Maybe they had opened up their hearts to him a little bit. Of course, it could be mere sympathy. It seemed very likely that they would only accept cooperating with him if there was some type of reward to be earned.

Still, it was true that they did him a favor. However, he never considered their feelings. He just struggled on his own to be recognized as the Martial God.

He was only ever focused on himself, and never paid attention to others...

“......!”

Zeratul was startled from his thoughts, eyes suddenly widening at the sight before him.

The others reacted similarly.

Hayate’s body, which had been lying dead, suddenly jumped up from his seat.

“I-Is he back?”

The tower members, the apostles and the Overgeared Guild all felt skeptical before allowing themselves to feel thrilled.

Hayate’s eyes were unfocused. The people couldn’t detect breathing, let alone life.

“Something’s wrong.”

Zeratul frowned and slowly rose from his seat.

Step.

where tattered armor had been discarded. It was the dragon armor created by Grid, though it had been torn to pieces by Trauka, reduced to nothing but a lump of scrap metal. Therefore, it was no longer functional. Still, Hayate started to arm himself

was then that

body is being driven by

of the

while

body finished putting on the armor, it slowly melted away, losing its shape like a painting submerged in water.

Biban reassured

“Don't worry.”

lord has been

presence was rising

who vaguely sensed it

***

felt different than

His heart was hammering in his chest.

than before. It seemed that the ways with which he could grip the hilt had increased considerably from the last time he’d picked up a

reaching its peak. He felt rejuvenated, like his body

[It feels strange...]

could also sense the changes occurring to Hayate’s body. Just by looking at the way his fingers wrapped around the hilt of the sword, he could tell that Hayate’s swordsmanship was changing in real time. The

was in the process of joining with your soul... Isn’t this

was as white as snow, though it appeared

glimpse at the essence of the soul. When Hayate’s body had been reconstructed, the same could

to the surface in this state isn’t the right choice to be made. You

was talking about Chiyou’s appearance. He was confirming that Hayate had become strong enough to be able to bring

you go

soul to heaven. However, things had changed right from the very beginning. Hayate had regained his body. Of course, this didn’t make it impossible to take his soul to heaven. Killing him

was still a human being. However, he resurrected. The only ones who

then wasn’t wrong. It was Mother

about the world. It originated from the time when humans

wasn’t something that could

nor did he care about ruling Asgard, so would decide to remove himself as much as he could from such

very large. I promise to keep

disobeying Judar’s orders. The Valkyries were genuinely shocked. Then the silent Hayate asked a question. “Do you know that the goddess is being chased by

[Of course I know.]

aren’t

[Help...? My mother?]

had a certain rigidness in his expression, but his reaction showed that he didn’t understand

the answer was enough for Hayate to realize that Dominion saw Rebecca

a way, it made sense. After all,

it was famous gods or everything in this world, Dominion

goddess must

the god of

Dominion frowned.

history of sealing the refraction dragon. It will be the same this time. Most importantly, she is the embodiment of light. No one

she was made of light, she couldn’t be reached. There was no

Hayate sighed.

your back to what’s really happening?” Hayate rarely raised his voice. His deep, gentle eyes