（Please Collect, Please Vote for Recommendation!）
"Miya."
"Coming, Lord Matthew!"
In just a few short seconds, Miya, the Demon Race's Little Spy, had already convinced herself.
It was just a photo shoot. If it didn't turn out well, she could always shoot it again, but her life—that had to be preserved.
However—"Clang"!
Matthew, amid the surging flood, threw out a sword.
【Dragon Slaying Holy Sword】
Attack Power +999
Defense Power +666
Critical Hit Rate +55.5%
Special Skill: Ignore Defense.
……
Having seen the sword, Miya's eye sockets instantly turned red, and she said, full of wronged feelings, "Lord Matthew, I'm willing, I'll shoot it right now, however you want it shot is entirely up to you, please spare me."
Matthew set down his comic book, stepped out of the flood, and asked, not quite understanding, "Spare you from what? You just said Kevin gave you the day off, right? Go run an errand for me, deliver this sword somewhere."
Miya: =()?
"This sword is for me to deliver?"
Matthew said, "What else? Did you think I was going to have you hack me to death with it?"
"No, no, I'll go right now, there and back!"
Miya immediately thumped her chest to show her loyalty.
"Wait a moment."
Matthew waved his hand, summoning his skill bar, selecting the Teleport category on the second tier, then rummaging through the numerous teleportation skills.
"Found it!"
【Teleportation Portal: Water Blue World】.
Then Matthew extended his index finger and drew a circle, and a dazzling, multicolored teleportation portal instantly appeared.
"On the other side of the door there's a sword stuck in a stone. Throw it away and put this Dragon Slaying Holy Sword in its place instead, understood?"
"Understood, Lord Matthew!"
Miya picked up the absurdly overpowered holy sword—there was truly no way she'd use it to hack Matthew.
But according to intelligence, the world the Goddess of War had gone to save a while back was called the Water Blue World.
"Just as I thought, only a goddess who offers up a photo album can earn Lord Matthew's attention. Though it seems Lord Hages isn't an evil dragon."
As Miya was wondering whether to give a heads-up, her body was already floating up into the air.
Matthew grabbed her right ankle and tossed her straight into the teleportation portal.
Her shoe fell off.
No matter.
Matthew crooked a finger, and Miya's little red shoe automatically flew into the portal.
Next up—
【Time Acceleration】!
Matthew went back to reading his comic book.
This author was a bit short on output and had already posted a standalone chapter announcing plans to finish the series soon.
Matthew had nothing else going on recently, so he'd finish reading it first before doing anything else.
……
The Water Blue World.
"Thud"!
"Ouch!"
Teleportation complete, and the gothic maiden Miya landed hard on her backside, the pain sharp.
Her little red shoe caught up and smacked her on the head, adding pain to pain.
Holding back tears, Miya put her shoe back on first. As expected, with Lord Matthew's Divine Power, he could reach any of the countless Different Worlds whenever he wished.
At this moment, Miya stood atop a peak among a sea of mountains, a golden Dragon Slaying Holy Sword in hand, facing the Sword in the Stone that Lord Matthew had spoken of.
【Sword in the Stone】
Attack Power +258
Critical Hit Rate +20%
Special Skill: Unsharpened（Once sharpened, this sword will receive an all-around enhancement）.
……
"Junk."
If she had known, the attack power cap in the Water Blue World was only 999.
Once the 258-point Sword in the Stone was sharpened, boosting its attack to 500 wouldn't be a problem.
Add in the hero's own strength and the goddess's power bonus, and it could very well get infinitely close to that cap.
But compared to the brilliance of the Dragon Slaying Holy Sword, a Sword in the Stone that needed a whole series of steps just to be sharpened really was junk.
Miya tried tugging at the sword, but it wouldn't budge.
This sword was restricted to the Chosen Hero's use—there was no way a member of the Demon Race like her could pull it out.
"No matter, I have the Dragon Slaying Holy Sword."
Miya swung the great sword, nearly as tall as she was, and with one strike sheared off the exposed stone blade.
She kicked the broken blade off the cliff, and the Dragon Slaying Holy Sword took its place with ease, comfortable as anything.
"All done, my task is complete, time to head back."
Just then—
"Lord Ares, I see the Sword in the Stone!"
"Oh no, Lord Ares, there's someone up ahead!"
The party sent to save the Water Blue World had endured countless hardships and dangers, and had finally found the legendary Divine Artifact for slaying demons.
A party of five.
More precisely, four people and one goddess.
The Goddess of War wasn't skilled in healing, so the four-hero lineup was centered around the A+-ranked Chosen Hero Gangze, with the Shield Warrior handling defense, the Mage handling magical attacks, and the Priest handling logistics support.
Not having been seen in days, Ares's bandage chest binder was still intact, and her deep red leather outfit had been changed into a short leather top that only reached her sternum.
In the heat of battle, Lord Ares was tremendously commanding—though her Divine Power was nearly exhausted, her spirit and vigor remained full.
Before launching their assault on the Divine Artifact, they had speculated a demon might show up to block their path, or even destroy the artifact outright.
The Mage, a young lady, said "there's someone up ahead."
It gave Ares quite a start.
Throughout their journey, their progress had exceeded expectations, but in truth, even if they wiped out every last demon in the Water Blue World, as long as Hages lived, the evil would never fade.
The "five" arrived atop the peak—there was no sixth person.
The Hero Gangze smoothly pulled the Sword in the Stone free.
No—the intelligence had been wrong. This wasn't the Sword in the Stone at all, but something even more powerful than the Sword in the Stone: the 【Dragon Slaying Holy Sword】!
【Dragon Slaying Holy Sword】
Hidden trait: double damage against evil-dragon-type creatures.
……
Seeing this, the sword-wielding Hero Gangze nearly fainted from sheer happiness.
"Lord Ares, my attack power is in the four digits now!"
"What?"
Earlier, Ares had been leading everyone on watch and hadn't looked closely at the Dragon Slaying Holy Sword.
The human Shield Warrior, especially broad through the upper body, said, "Lord Ares, it seems our next target happens to be an evil dragon."
Ares gazed off into the distance, her long golden hair stirring without wind, and answered, "Not 'seems.' Once we cross this mountain, we'll reach the capital of the Blade Kingdom. The Black Dragon Sansas warned the king that if the capital dares to take us in, it will launch a massacre of the city immediately... Sansas is one of Demon King Hages's three most capable subordinates."
The Hero Gangze swung his longsword and laughed loudly, "Excellent, Lord Ares! Let's skip the capital and go kill Sansas first—with this Dragon Slaying Holy Sword, there's simply no way an evil dragon could be our match!"
"Good, let's move out!"
Hages was an extremely cunning Demon King.
He knew his greatest enemy came from the Goddess World, and through an early trap he'd learned that the goddess coming to challenge him was Ares. From then on, he'd pushed hard, forcing them to keep advancing all the way.
Hages was hoping to wear them down to death along the way, and the Evil Dragon Sansas's warning against entering the city carried the same intent.
Normally, once the one-goddess-four-hero party obtained the Sword in the Stone, they would surely head to the human capital in search of a "method to sharpen it."
By then, the initiative would have fallen into his hands.
No one could have guessed that even a Divine Artifact could be swapped out midway.
Over ten minutes later, in the shadow on one side of the peak.
Hidden from view, the Maiden Miya sighed, "That dragon is done for. If not for Lord Matthew, even if those people who just left could defeat the evil dragon, they'd pay a terrible price... can Hages even beat Ares?"
Another sigh: "Even if he could beat her, so what. Ares is a goddess who's already handed over a Photo Album—this time it was the Dragon Slaying Holy Sword, but next time, it might just be Lord Matthew's True Body descending in person."
The Maiden Miya clenched her small fists. "Should I tell Lord Hages about this? Hmm... maybe I should figure out how to contact Lord Balu first."
✦✦✦