All of a sudden a fist came between Solck and me from the side. The magic source response also felt very peculiar as if a wind hat passed by. But, the arm he used to block my attack became a bloody pulp after having its flesh torn apart and its bones shattered.

Even so, probably because of the grandpa's own power, La Doola's trajectory deviated. Catiza, in her third-arm-state, shrank away due to the punch's impact and reverted to being a finger, before moving towards my right palm.

La Doola fell to the ground, before it could hit the ground, I snatched it with my

. The power of

, which had been engulfing La Doola, had vanished at this point, too.

『It looks like Water Goddess-sama's power has disappeared for the moment』

『Yep』

While agreeing with Helme telepathically, I looked at the grandpa who was obviously bearing his pain.

"…Anyway, grandpa, why did you save him?"

The grandpa didn't answer me and extended his healthy arm towards Solck's hips.

A spear hand? No, he's stabbing Solck's body at several places with a finger pushing out. Solck gasped, recovering his consciousness in an instant.

"I'm…in the divine domain…," he babbled, apparently hallucinating or having a near-death experience.

The grandpa tossed a round pill into Solck's mouth with a, "Here you go."

Solck looked like he might croak any moment, but somehow managed to swallow the pill. And then, in the next instant, I detected several magic sources around us.

Enemies?

In the blink of an eye, divine domain forces surrounded Kisara, who was about to finish off Delgug as he lay on the ground, Shuhelia, and Rollodeen. The new forces were just human monks either. Some of them were divine warriors with several arms.

…The armors of that warrior unit were shining brightly. They carried all kinds of weapons such as light rings, hatchets, spears, swords, and so on. All of their equipment pieces looked high-quality. They were clearly different in quality from the warriors we fought so far.

Seeing those reinforcements, Kisara muttered, "New enemies, huh…?"

Immediately after she saw how healing magic was applied on Delgug, she rotated her witch spear and fell back. However, her

and

remained clinging to Delgug's body, unwilling to leave. They mounted a resistance by erasing the healing magic and kicking as well as cutting the magic light in their own way as tiny creatures.

However, in the end they were no more than paper dolls, and so it bore no meaning. Or so I thought, but the

Jubei and Chikata were different. They truly erased the magic over a small range.

After I watched them for a short while, Jubei and Chikata apparently gave up on erasing the magic, and after delivering a parting kick against Delgug, they retreated back to Kisara together with the

Kisara took up position with her back against Shuhelia's back.

"Just when…did such a big number of divine forces…"

"Shuuya-sama, is the village going to be okay…?"

Both intended to work together by covering each other's blind spots. However, their expressions were full of worry rather than being murderous.

Well, I guess that's only natural under these circumstances…

One of the divine warriors with eight arms was clearly abnormal. His name was Jenga Buu, wasn't it? He looked like an Asura statue with the face of Acala. All his arms were as thick as logs with the topmost metallic arms being especially thick. He carried a bundle of iron-ball-like rosaries on him. His weapons, which looked similar to steel rings, could most likely be used for defending as well.

However, his strongest weapon…I remember from the battle during the night of chaos…is most likely the club which was formed by golden loops being stacked on top of each other in a spiral. Back then, he used it to pulverize Hoffmann's captain-class subordinate.

I naturally ended up invoking

while swallowing my spit.

"…They should be okay. Rotalz is over there, right? Also, Rebecca and Eva. Higlia, Red Tiger Storm, and Quiche are strong, too."

Not to mention Moga, Nemus, Quema, and Solobo.

"You have a point there. Then we will pull back here for a moment."

"Affirmative."

The two women nodded at each other and moved back to Divine Beast Rollodeen. Without moving from her spot, Rollodeen spread her griffon-like wings as if protecting Kisara and Shuhelia like a mother bird her chicks while also amassing her swarm of tentacles below.

Kisara hoisted Damon'Anun up in front of her eyes. The spear transformed into a big shield. One you'd likely use when performing ceremonies.

The bunch of filaments extending out of the hole on the spear part would occasionally look like nothing more than a writing brush at a first glance, but since it could change like that, the filaments were extremely flexible. I think those filaments can be used more freely than the blue tassel right below Ganghis's spear blade part.

The spear was called Damon'Anun's magic spear and witch spear, but it's pretty obvious that it's quite special with a deeper history behind it.

Rollodeen moved her tentacles, instantly creating something like a barrier with the tentacle bone swords protruding outwards and Kisara's big shield in the center. Previously, when Rollodeen had fought against Rotalz, she had bundled her tentacles into one huge bone sword. This time she bundled them up, forming something that ought to be called Divine Beast barrier.

And just as I was admiring the awesomeness of my partner, a stinging pain ran through my finger. When I looked down, wondering what was going on, blood was surging out of my thumb.

It didn't stem from an attack by Solck or the grandpa. Instead a small branch had precisely stabbed the clover mark on my thumb from the ground.

Lucy, huh (the name is still temporary though…)?

The branch connected to my finger sucked my rich blood with its stimulated mana at a tremendous rate. The absorption force was so strong that I felt my stomach being churned. And the twisting of my stomach was even more powerful than the feeling back when the crest tree sucked my blood several hours ago. Rather, it was so strong that it felt like my arm was going to dry up.

The branch (it had a key shape) continued to draw my mana and blood. But, at the same time it returned some of the mana and blood it took from me. It felt like there was a circulation between inside and outside. Blood also overflowed from my feet.

Saraten clamored about her blood being sucked out as well, and her scream-like telepathic message echoed through my head, but I ignored her.

For the first time in a while, I felt the taste of rich blood and bile inside my mouth. And then a liquid blended with blood spread across the ground as if eroding the grasses. The sensation of my blood flowing outside while circulating was weird.

But, the gleaming blood lake's surface was extremely pretty. Also, I felt like it was a new domain for me…

At that moment,

※Piiing※

※ Permanent Skill acquired ※

※ Derivation conditions of Extra Skill

met ※

※Piiing※

※ Permanent Skill acquired ※

Ooohh… Finally I obtained the fourth gate. But I see…this lake's domain is

… It's kind of like

, and then again, it's slightly different…

It seems like the true power will be exhibited if it's within the range of a domain with a crest tree. At least, I can somehow tell this by intuition. But, I could probably learn this because of the current situation. Oh well, the skills' details have to wait for later.

『A beautiful lake surface teeming with Your Excellency's scent! I want to jump in and swim in it!』

Helme commented excitedly while her tiny version in my visual field actually swam in the air, but although I didn't comment on that, I had to admit that the blood's gleam as it reflected the sunlight looked very beautiful.

As I watched it, several ripples occurred on the lake, just for glowing blood to suddenly gush out in the middle of those ripples. The blood shot into the air like a geyser, creating trees on the lake. Those trees transformed into humanoid tree people clad in blood armor.

The finished tree soldiers possessed almond-shaped eyes. The wooden spears and shields looked imposing, but their heads were kinda cute.

"Shuuya-sama, these blood and tree warriors are…"

"…It doesn't look like they're new enemies."

Kisara and Shuhelia commented while watching the situation from underneath Rollodeen.

Suddenly, the finger connected to the branch felt hot and I heard, 『…Master, protect…this, plash connektet wiff master』

A telepathic message by Lucy?

『Place? You mean something like a domain?』

『Master, Lushibal temmel』

『Lucival temple, you mean? So it's a domain of sorts? Is it something that exceeds