Back from the brink of death, the allies were ready to resume their assault on Ashvka, but not the magicians. They had already been drained of much of their mana by the energy-sucking insects. All they could do was defend themselves.

Forcing the summoning circle to disengage at this point would be like sending the magicians out on a limb, so Ector decided to put the destruction of the summoning circle on hold and concentrate on defeating Ashvka.

“Bind his hands and feet! We must give the Scarlet Scales Knight Order a chance to strike!”

Cadel was confident that he could end Ashvka’s life with just one member. It was a confidence that was hard to believe, but he hadn’t won so many battles with vanity. So Ector pushed aside the fact that most of the Scarlet Scales Knight Order had been deployed against Lawrence, and the strangeness of the healing energy that surrounded his ally and chose to believe Cadel’s promise.

And so Cadel went to find the man who would fulfill his promise.

“I need this done in one shot. No time for regeneration, just a quick kill. Can you do it?”

Yozen said, wrapping the back of Cadel’s hand as he held his shoulder tightly.

“I can do it.”

It was a clean answer, no further words, no hesitation. Cadel smiled slightly at his trusty subordinate.

“I’ll give you the signal from over there. Aim for the heart the moment Ashvka is bound.”

“Okay. But…….”

Yozen, who had been obediently following Cadel’s instructions, stuttered. After watching Cadel puzzled, Yozen rubbed his eyelids out of habit.

“Do you happen to have any spare bandages or something?”

“Spare bandages?”

“I’m getting ready for a big skill, so I’ve been feeling a little…… uncomfortable.”

Uncomfortable. Was it uncomfortable if he didn’t have a bandage on his eye? It was usually the other way around. Maybe he enjoyed the pressure of the bandage, but it was also strange that he found it comfortable. Cadel pulled Yozen’s hand away from rubbing his eye and studied his face carefully.

“You don’t seem to have any new wounds, is there another reason?”

“……When I use my powerful skills, I look bad. You’ll be offended if you see it.”

“What do you mean, offended?”

“……It’s okay if you don’t have any.”

Yozen started to turn away, evading the answer, but Cadel wouldn’t let him.

“Don’t be ridiculous, you’ve got bandages and all they do is cover your eyes. Who says you look bad?”

“…….”

“Who? You can’t see your face, so you can’t be objective, because even if you grew five horns on your forehead here, you’d never look offended.”

“That’s a little…….”

“I don’t know when or where you met that fucking demonized snout, but don’t mind it.”

Cadel, who’d been admonishing Yozen, yanked Yozen’s hand away and put it over his face. Yozen’s hesitant expression softened as Cadel forced him to stroke his narrowed eyes and raised eyebrows to indicate his anger.

「Knight ‘Yozen Vardikta’ ’s favorability has increased by 2.」

「Current favorability: 64/100」

“Alright, I won’t mind.”

“……Good.”

How did he manage to increase his favorability? It had always been this way since the days of his training in the Mountains of Silence. Yozen’s emotions had overreacted to the consideration and comfort that would have been natural for someone else.

Cadel felt strangely upset, but he didn’t want Yozen’s sensitive emotions to know how he felt, so he played it cool. That was when Cadel rubbed the corners of Yozen’s eyes as if to soothe him.

“Sir Cadel! Go ahead!”

The allies’ capture of Ashvka was successful.

* * *

Was it possible for an assassin to remain completely invisible in the middle of the battlefield? It was not a state of mind that could be reached simply by constant training or tons of experience.

The assassin on Pento Island with a 96% kill rate, the wandering assassin who single-handedly won a 300-to-1 hand-to-hand battle, the legendary assassin who killed the tyrant of a great nation long ago and pulled off a successful coup, all would have given the same answer if asked.

An assassin could be a hand-to-hand combatant in war. But they couldn’t just slit the throat of an enemy leader while standing in the middle of a crowd of enemies, completely unaware. It wasn’t about talent or effort. It was about the realm of the impossible.

But Yozen Vardikta could. With a certain amount of cooperation and the right timing, no kill was impossible for him. One technique that proved it.

‘It’s been a while since I’ve used it.’

He stood in front of the bound Ashvka, but no one seemed to notice his presence. The dark energy around him dulled the senses of those near him and disturbed the vision of those farther away.

His breathing was soundless as he chose stealth. His heart beat without a beat, and the air around him seemed to flow in a steady stream. His allies and the insect swarms were unaware of Yozen’s presence, even as he brushed the side of their noses.

His past had included great talent and countless endeavors, but the foundation that made him who he was today was something else: Desperation. His strength was for the sake of others, but his stealth was solely for his own survival, and in many other ways, Yozen’s need to survive was stronger than anyone else here.

So his coming out of hiding means two things. One, that he was certain of his own survival; and two, that he was certain of his opponent’s death.

“More…… humans…….”

Ashvka’s dull voice slowly faded away. His dirty eyes focused on Yozen in front of him.

A direct stare. Ashvka looked into Yozen’s eyes, and for the first time since he’d been here, he showed signs of agitation.

“……Lawrence.”

He had been badly damaged in the onslaught of the humans, but Lawrence’s demonic energy was slowly healing him, and even without the bloodsuckers, he would be back to full strength in time. Still, Ashvka couldn’t wait for that short time.

He fed on the cold, overflowing resentment of the humans. Their venom was a kind of pleasure, a delight to him, and their hostility never once dampened his spirits.

But the human before him was different. Like a vaguely deep cavity, an inky blackness stared back at him with no end in sight. It wasn’t just dark energy that filled his eyes. It was a killing intent unlike anything he’d ever seen before, a killing intent so sinister that words could not describe it. Like a greater sin waiting to be judged, it had a death grip on Ashvka with just a glance.

“Lawren……ce……!”

There was impatience in Ashvka’s voice. He scrambled about his bound limbs like a cornered rat, but it was difficult to take a single step with a body the size of a mountain that had yet to recover.

Compared to his size, the human was merely an ant, a mere mortal. No matter how powerful he was, all he could do was cut off one of his limbs.

But before he could be reassured, everyone on the battlefield was already overwhelmed by Yozen’s presence. Just as shocking as the first time he spotted Ashvka, perhaps even more so.

A deep darkness, like a tiny abyss beneath Yozen’s eyelids. Dark energy, like tears, dripped from it. Dark energy soaked his pure white face, the nape of his neck, his robes, and his toes.

His entire body was blackened, barely recognizable in its original form, and his dark energy-soaked, smoothly outlined face took on a cold, sunken look instead of its usual smile. He looked more like some deadly entity made of evil and poison than a human being.

And then he took a small step forward.

Duuung―

A dull ripple that rumbled through every bone in his body invaded the space, growing with each step he took, and the few knights who could not resist him collapsed or staggered, barely able to keep their bearings. They fell to their knees just as Yozen began his sprint.

There was no sound to his sprint, and each step was a dizzying blur of dozens of black afterimages, impossible to pinpoint.

“Lawrence……!”

Ashvka shouted Lawrence’s name over and over again. But Lawrence could offer no help, and even if he had, it would have been useless.

Yozen, riding Ashvka’s tilted body, stopped at a point. Above Ashvka’s heart. The sound of his heart pierced through the buzzing of the insects, the infinite beating of their wings. It was the sound of the terrified.

Yozen’s expression grew impassive, then a faint amusement flashed across his face.

“That sounds good.”

Muttering softly, he raised his hands, and the dark energy that flowed from his fingertips took shape, forming a pair of long-bladed daggers.

The two daggers emitted a strange, deafening sound. It was a ghastly, ear-splitting sound, but it excited Yozen, and he swung the twin blades wildly with a grin that could only be described as murderous.

[Inevitable Death].

Without warning, a giant X-shaped afterimage was carved out of thin air, cutting through Ashvka’s body. An afterimage blacker and darker than Ashvka’s body. It glowed ominously as if to suggest that the target was about to be erased from this world. The image faded slightly before disappearing.

Shaaaa―

The intersection of an afterimage. The space at the intersection, which pointed precisely to Ashvka’s heart, disappeared. Beyond the gaping hole in his heart, a swarm of insects fell like a shower of rain.

No thundering terminals, no splashing blood. Just like that, with no death-defying flight. Ashvka’s heart was taken from him.

Until Yozen, mission accomplished, washed away the dark energy and landed on the ground. Neither enemy nor ally could take in what was happening before them.

It was the thunderous echo of a dead meat that reversed the flow of the battlefield. The stately body fell limply, shaking the ground as if to prove its death, and the stiffened knights resumed their movements.

Now that their most threatening foe was dead, their next target was Lawrence, the man the Scarlet Scales Knight Order had been chaining up all this time.

‘How the hell did he……!’

Lawrence’s eyes fluttered as he flew through the rush of sword energy, aura, and magic spells. At the end of his line of sight was Ashvka’s body, heartless and limp.

Sure, the assassin had dangerous powers. But he hadn’t expected to be so powerful that he could take Ashvka’s life in one fell swoop, the peak of which was hard to measure.

Garuel’s presence had distracted him, and he hadn’t been able to gauge the power of the human side.

‘Losing Ashvka, that’s a huge mistake.’

He heard Ashvka’s call but was unable to help immediately. Two humans and a fairy held him back, unable to mortally wound him, but unwilling to allow him to move freely.

‘Especially that berserker……. I had never encountered an aura of that concentration before, not even by myself. There were too many variables, and Garuel wasn’t the only problem.’

The Demon Realm had lost one of its key powers, he had failed to kill Garuel and had failed to take down the Empire. If he returned to the Demon Realm at this rate, he would not escape Emilia’s punishment.

Nevertheless, Lawrence chose to return as soon as he realized that the summoning circle had not yet been destroyed. It was not that he was afraid of the humans, but rather that he would rather suffer Emilia’s punishment.

‘……Scarlet Scales Knight Order, they said.’

The individuals he had battled and found more than annoying, but shocking. He had learned their affiliations, even memorized some of their names. If he gave their information to Emilia, he would narrowly escape a severe punishment. If he played his cards right, he might even get a second chance.

Approaching the summoning circle, Lawrence breathed demonic energy over it. Beyond the pillar of dark demonic energy, he could see Garuel staring back at him from a distance. His nephew, dressed in a ridiculous mask, struggling to hide his identity.

Lawrence’s gaze shifted slightly as he too stared. Before returning to the Demon Realm, the human form he had captured was not Garuel, but Cadel.

The commander of the Scarlet Scales Knight Order. One of the major powers in the Human Realm, as far as Lawrence knew, and his nephew’s spiritual support. He had a hunch that taking that human named Cadel down would be crucial to winning this war.

‘I’ll see you next time, my dear nephew.’

And so Lawrence escaped, and the summoning circle that succeeded in bringing him back was rendered ineffective, a scar of the war.