* * *

It was a day and a half later when they reached the Lycella Plateau.

The sun was slowly setting. Normally, they would have camped in a suitable spot and moved on again at first light, but the Knight Order did not stop marching.

‘It took longer than I thought to get here. If this continues, the seal will not be safe even if the demon comes out of the summoning circle.’

Unlike Mendel, who appeared before the Knight Order but never touched the seal. Mendel was a special case. Before he broke the seal, he wanted to absorb a human to solidify the shield and ensure that it was perfect. He was greedy in his pursuit of perfection.

But such an exceptional event could not happen twice. If the Knight Order was too late, the seal would be destroyed.

‘There are no monsters that stand out yet.’

It didn’t seem like the seal was broken right away. That meant either the demon inside was preparing to break through the seal, or the demon outside was approaching the seal. It meant one of two things.

They had to hurry.

“Hmm, the seal circle is pretty big this time, huh?”

Meanwhile, Lydon, who had been searching for the seal circle from above on Cadel’s orders, nodded in satisfaction. The last time he’d seen the seal circle in Yingmar Swamp, it had been too small and unimpressive, and the demon that had appeared had been easily defeated, so he hadn’t had a chance to do much of anything.

Would it be different this time?

The seal circle was located about 500 meters in front of the current Knight Order’s position. It was three times as big as the one in the swamp. That should be enough to provide an enjoyable fight.

Lydon lowered his altitude to relay the information to Cadel, his eyes shining with anticipation.

However.

“Umm?”

A heavy feeling began to be added to his body, which had been light just a moment ago. From the wings, to be exact.

Lydon’s eyes widened in surprise as he turned his head to check his wings.

“Wow, what the hell is this?”

His wings, which used to shine transparently, were covered with dark rocks. In the sky where he rose alone, there were no enemies or threatening elements. But what did this unexpected petrification mean?

With this surprising discovery, Lydon’s body began to slowly sink. Petrification was progressing at an uncontrollable rate. In an instant, the rocks that covered half of the wings now extended their grip on Lydon’s wing bones.

“It’s fun from the start.”

A surge of coldness spread a shield of ice around his wing bones. The aggressive petrification was unable to penetrate his shield. Lydon narrowly avoided the catastrophe of having his entire wings frozen solid.

“Ahaha! It’s thrilling!”

There was no way he could fly in the sky with only the roots left on his wings. Lydon began to fall towards the ground at a lightning speed.

* * *

“Huh……?”

Could it be a meteor? Cadel had never seen the sight of a falling meteor before, not even in his original world. A trajectory of light across the colorful early evening sky. Cadel’s eyes widened in disbelief. The sight of a falling meteor intertwining with the setting sun was like a fantasy.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t afford to dwell on the illusion for long. Cadel was a man with more situational awareness than any of the Knight Order.

“……Lumen. Run.”

“Where are you suddenly asking me to run?”

“Go get Lydon!”

There was a better chance of Lydon, who was still flying, crashing than there was of witnessing a meteor falling out of nowhere. Cadel urgently pushed Lumen’s back and pointed to the sky.

“That guy again……!”

Lumen, who found Lydon belatedly, ran like a flash toward the crash site, and the rest of the members hurriedly followed suit.

“Ahaha! I’m falling!”

A makeshift shield of ice covered his body, but it could only do so much to cushion the impact of the fall. If he hit the ground at this rate, he’d be dead.

Still, Lydon’s face didn’t show much fear or anxiety. It wasn’t because he had a plan, it was because he didn’t feel like he was going to die.

It was just a hunch, an ineffectual gut feeling, but this time it was right.

“……Doesn’t it feel like déjà vu?”

Lydon chuckled softly as he patted Lumen’s back, crushed beneath him. He thought he heard a bone snap, but he ignored it.

“Wow, if Cadel hadn’t used wind magic to slow down the fall, we would have exploded and died together. Going to hell together with Lumen isn’t fun at all.”

“I really want to kill you.”

Lydon rolled his shoulders in a refreshing gesture, his eyes darting to Cadel’s group running in the distance.

“Lydon! Lumen! Are you both okay?”

He glanced over at Lumen, who was scrambling to his feet in panic, and Lydon, who was still waving. From the looks of it, it looked like Lumen had fallen, not Lydon.

“Alas, Sir Lumen, did you break it after all?”

“Just use a healing spell.”

Garuel clicked his tongue in mock pity, then immediately deployed a healing spell on Lumen. Cadel dodged Lydon, who was trying to hug him, and checked his body.

“This is…….”

“My body is heavy, darling. Any way to break it?”

Cadel’s complexion hardened at the sight of it.

‘As expected, he has already appeared.’

A shield of ice protected his back, but his wings were petrified, though he was glad that only the wings were petrified. Just to be sure, Cadel tried to channel his mana into the chunky rock, but it showed no sign of breaking.

Clutching Lydon’s stiffened wings, Cadel glanced around with sharp eyes.

“It seems the demon discovered us first.”

A High Demon with the deceptive ability to petrify opponents.

Palaig.

He was the main character of this main quest.

[Main quest ‘The Standstill World’ accepted!]

[Complete quests to progress through the story. Rewards will be given.]

[On failure, the entire Knight Order is incapacitated.]