* * *

If only he hadn’t collapsed at that time. If only he had regained consciousness a little sooner and recovered quickly. The Knight Order might have been able to scout the swamp safely and only need to reinforce the seal.

He felt a twinge of regret, but feelings were feelings. Lumen rested his hand on the scabbard of his sword and stared ahead.

Standing alongside Lumen, Van had also raised his aura, his senses heightened. With reddened eyes, he glanced at Lydon and Garuel, who were materializing the seal behind him, and then at Jeff, who was pacing the perimeter.

“Hey, you go back now.”

“Pardon? However, I need to see how the situation unfolds before I can report to His Majesty―.”

“Blabbering is one thing, living is another. You won’t survive here with your skills.”

It was a very rude remark, but Jeff couldn’t find a suitable rebuttal. The commander of the Scarlet Scales Knight Order also only asked to be guided to the seal circle, and he did not tell Jeff to participate in the subsequent fight. That was no different from telling him to go back once the guidance was over.

But he was also a decent scout leader. Even if a demon did appear here, he was confident that he would be able to survive. Besides, if he went back, he would only be able to give a pathetic report to the King: ‘A High Demon may have appeared in the swamp, and the seal may have been broken, though I can’t confirm it myself’.

It was Garuel who saved Jeff, who hesitated to leave due to the dark future. As he was helping Lydon infuse light mana into the magic circle, he smiled lightly and said.

“Even if I can’t protect you, I can save you. If you are confident that you can do a good job protecting your own head, it’s okay to stay.”

“Pro, protecting my head……?”

Jeff couldn’t tell if he was being reassuring or sarcastic. In the end, Jeff decided to watch them from a distance. It was just a general observation of their movements, but it was enough. Jeff was confident of his own survival, so he’d simply identify the enemy and get the hell out of there.

“Hmph, this is much worse than the seal in the Empire.”

The materialization of the seal was complete. Lydon looked at the oval seal in the air, disappointed. It was much smaller than the one in Alithis.

Garuel comforted him, concealingly clutching his left hand as the demonic energy began to stir.

“It’s an outer seal. If it was at the same level as the seal in the Empire, other knight orders would have come along. The seal is still intact, so be satisfied with that, Sir Lydon.”

“That’s the most frustrating thing!”

After grunting loudly, Lydon rose into the air and looked around. The location they were currently in was the very center of the swamp. There was a wide swamp surrounding the land where the seal circle was located.

There was no sign of life in the brown, turbid swamp, except for a few dead, barren plants floating around. The eerie silence hung ominously in the air.

Lydon looked up from his momentary contemplation of the sparse landscape, took a deep breath of the humid air, and muttered.

“He’s really here.”

Cadel’s words were spot on.

“He’s outside the seal circle. He hasn’t touched the seal circle yet, but he’s probably realized that we’re approaching it. He’s lying in wait, and he’s going to show himself when the seal is activated. So we need to position ourselves to keep the demon away from the seal, and then defend it. This fight isn’t like the fight with Elvie, it’s not a solo effort, it’s a team effort.”

That was the mission given to the Knight Order. Lydon stared at the swamp ahead, remembering Cadel’s words.

Swoosh―.

Suddenly, the wind picked up. A gentle breeze swept across the ground where they stood, and soon began to create a small whirlpool in the center of the swamp.

This was no ordinary whirlpool. Black petals from some unknown source were mixed in with the fast-moving wind. The dried and decayed petals made a cool friction sound, staining the color of the swirling vortex black as it grew faster and faster.

Van, Lumen, Lydon, and Garuel quickly assumed combat stances in front of the seal circle. And the next moment.

Whoong……!

The vortex dispersed as if bursting, and the figure of a man was revealed on the swamp where nothing was visible.

“As expected, …… humans have arrived.”

Black hair that fell in waves to his waist and skin as pale as a corpse’s. Jet-black eyes without scleras were fixed on the Knight Order. A strange elegance that did not suit a demon flowed from him.

As he stretched out his blood-red lips and smiled, the dark red wings on his back spread wide. His appearance was so gorgeous that it could not even be compared to Sellev’s or Elvie’s. He flapped his wings once, as if to show off, and spoke in an elegant deep voice.

“My name is Mendel Haliev. I’ll be upset if you die without knowing myname, so I’ll tell you in advance.”

The first to attack was Lumen. As his silhouette vanished in an instant, three flashes of light appeared behind Mendel. There was no way that Mendel could have reacted properly at the first strike due to Lumen’s improved speed compared to before.

Phoosh!

A large amount of blood spurted from the torn flesh along the sword energy. Mendel turned his head slightly to stare at Lumen, who now occupied his rear.

“……That’s fast.”

“Maybe you’re just slow.”

Lumen raised the corner of his mouth slantedly and raised his hand on his sword, sarcastically as if provoking. He too was keeping an eye on Mendel, but his attention was focused on the wound he had cut a moment ago.

‘The wound is too shallow compared to the amount of blood. Moreover, that thing that fell on the floor is…….’

Blood was clearly gushing from the cut wound. However, what was actually lying on top of the swamp were bone fragments from unknown sources. Did the blood droplets clump together? The yellow bone fragments slowly sank to the bottom of the swamp.

“Unfortunately, I’m not slow, and if that attack isn’t backed up by power, you can’t kill me.”

Mendel raised his right hand as he spoke calmly, and a blast of turbulent wind mixed with demonic energy exploded around him. Lumen, who had been trying to resist the wind pressure, reflexively stepped back when he noticed the rush of ‘black petals’ that followed the wind.

“You’re not going to cut it? You’ve got good sense. You’re a pretty good human being―.”

A black glare flashed across Mendel’s eyes as he praised Lumen for choosing to evade. A quick look away, and he saw the ice spear rushing straight at him. It was close enough to fill his field of vision, but Mendel swung his hand without blinking, and the wind that followed the direction of his swing deflected the ice spear’s trajectory, grazing his cheek just barely.

An obvious surprise attack. That was the level of attack Mendel assessed, but it was also just a trick. As soon as the ice spear that was blocking his vision disappeared, Van, clad in aura, came right in front of his nose.

The greatsword, engulfed in red sword energy, aimed at his chest with a heavy striking sound. Mendel, who had easily retreated, tried to create a gale once again.

Kiing—.

Suddenly, a flash of light appeared before his eyes.

“Kugh……!”

Mendel reflexively closed his eyes from the stinging pain. He hurriedly launched a gale towards where Van was, but the attack was aimed at his body from a completely different place.

Van, covered by Garuel, changed the trajectory of his blade just as Mendel closed his eyes. A powerful swing of the greatsword sliced deeply into Mendel’s side. He was about to follow up with his next move, but a quickly approaching Lumen stopped him.

“What?”

“Look at that.”

Lumen’s gaze fell on Mendel’s freshly slashed side, where the blood from the wound had long since turned to bits of bone, pooling in the swamp.

In addition, the ‘black petals’ that came in through the wind penetrated the cracks of the wound and filled the empty space like flesh. The black stitched wound soon healed completely without leaving any scars.

“……Another damn regeneration.”

The main reason why High Demons were so difficult to defeat was because of their terrible regeneration ability. Both Sellev, Elvie, and the one-armed Ashvka. You could never hurt them with simple attacks.

“We’ll have to wait a little longer to find out the identity of that bone fragment.”

As Lumen spoke, Van, who was fixing his greatsword, nodded slightly.

“All we have to do now is distract him. Let’s leave the seal circle to the rest and create a gap.”

Meanwhile, Mendel, who had regained his sight, patted his regenerated side. Despite the onslaught from the start, there was still an air of nobility in his demeanor toward humans.

“That’s a good combination. You get speed and power from different humans. It’s interesting. Human cooperation has always been interesting.”

“Shut up. You don’t need to bring all that sentimentality into the fight.”

As soon as Van rushed forward, a circular wall of ice surrounding the three erupted. An instant chill enveloped the three men. Mendel looked up at the ice wall rising high into the sky and muttered darkly.

“It looks like it will be a pretty good…… meal.”