* * *

“Do fairies really live on dew?”

Dreyfe had succeeded in luring Sellev, and Jeriel had found the magic circle with the rest of the mercenary corps. And now. Under the cover of the berserker, together with the fairy, they were attempting to disarm the magic circle.

Normally, he would have avoided any unnecessary conversation, but now he had a fairy by his side, and not just any fairy. A beautiful fairy next to his nose. It didn’t suit Jeriel’s temper to be silent and do his job without saying a word.

“Are you stupid? How can you live on dew”

“So it’s fiction after all! That’s right, a forest would have lots of berries and herbs and stuff, so it doesn’t make sense to just pick dew to eat. So what do you like, Mr. Lydon?”

“Sweet things.”

“Ah ah, that’s too bad, I would have had some candy if I hadn’t been in a hurry. I usually carry one or two with me to give to the kids if they’re around.”

“Well, I’m not curious.”

It was a conversation that made Jeriel’s one-sided attention wistful. Van tied up all the Red Men passing by, using the two magicians’ chatter as a background sound. Even so, his gaze occasionally wandered to the demon beyond. Cadel, to be exact.

‘It bothers me that there is an ignorant bastard with no common sense next to Commander.’

Van didn’t like the way Dreyfe talked, the way he acted, the way he breathed. Even if the cooperation was temporary, he couldn’t help but notice the periodic flare-ups of resentment.

When Van was distracted and tenaciously watching Cadel’s battle.

“……Commander.”

Sellev’s killing intent, pointing in one direction the entire time, veered off to a place it shouldn’t have gone. Van’s throwing of his body was just a reflex action.

“Urgh……!”

A shudder ran through his lower body. Cadel sank to the floor and looked away quickly.

Where he had stood a moment ago, there stood Sellev, fists clenched in a murderous grimace, and Van, blocking the attack. The aura-encrusted hilt of his greatsword became a shield, narrowly deflecting the blow.

In a moment of hesitation, as Sellev charged like a beast, Van lunged and shoved him. It was obvious what would have happened if Van hadn’t intervened.

“Van!”

“Get away from me, Commander!”

Van shouted ferociously at Cadel’s call. His jaw clenched, bones cracking. Van drew up all the aura in his body to withstand Sellev’s attack. A single punch. Still, it was enough to make every muscle in his body stiffen.

Aura was the same. The waves of the aura that came into contact with Sellev’s demonic energy intensified and she felt that her mind was disturbed. He was using more aura than he was ready for.

“Personally, this body loves aura, and I can’t stop laughing when I see people using them without realizing it’s the power that consumes their own flesh and blood.”

The demonic energy in her left hand, which had been pressing down on the greatsword, faded. The recoil of the weakened pressure caused the greatsword to swing lightly, and Van, seizing the opportunity, tried to close the distance between him and Sellev.

“Just like now!”

Without warning, an outstretched right fist slammed into the greatsword.

This time, it wasn’t just one punch, but a barrage. Sellev’s fists continued their relentless assault, crashing into the aura again and again. There was no dodging, no attempt at speed, and the best Van could do was hold on.

A pain that shattered his entire body. Every minute and every second felt like a ghastly blow, as if his flesh were as fragile as porcelain. Van was horrified by the shocking violence he was facing for the first time in his life.

But he couldn’t collapse.

‘I have to hold on. If I go down here, Commander is next in line.’

If he couldn’t reliably distract her here, she would move on to the most troublesome of them all, Cadel. The case of Dreyfe alone was telling. If he relied on Cadel’s barrier for all his defenses, Sellev’s attention was bound to turn.

Van who made the decision raised the aura above the threshold. The thorns derived from the greatsword wrapped around Sellev’s wrist like a chain. The aura that dug into the demonic energy was shaking violently.

She roughly shook off the thorns that had pierced and scratched her flesh, and her eyes shone brightly.

“I was going to play moderately and throw it away, but……. I don’t think it would be bad to get rid of it beforehand.”

As Van’s aura darkened, so did Sellev’s demonic energy. The shockwaves from the clash of the two types of power vibrated around them.

Through the storm of menacing energy, Cadel watched their battle with a furtive eye. Blocking every attack would negate the reward of the distraction that Van was making. Providing perfect cover when it mattered. For now, it was for the best.

And beside Cadel was Dreyfe. He couldn’t protect the magician he was supposed to be protecting, and the enemy he was supposed to be fighting had been taken from him. That alone was enough to make him angry.

“Damn, there’s no room for interruptions!”

It was not easy to intervene in the fight because of the fierce energy like a well-honed blade. A hasty sword energy strike could injure a mercenary, or it could bounce off the demonic energy and harm an ally.

And so, as the Dreyfe scrambled back and forth, trying to find an opening somehow, Cadel noticed that Van’s condition was rapidly deteriorating.

‘The color of the aura is off.’

Even though it was a fierce battle, the aura’s movement was becoming too violent at a very fast pace. Van was a berserker who had completed his final awakening. It didn’t make sense that no matter how much aura he used, he could already see signs of rampage.

‘……Is it because of the demonic energy?’

Aura and demonic energy were different energies, but there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t affect each other, especially if they were specialized powers that consumed their wielder’s mind, as aura did, making them more sensitive to outside stimuli.

If so, he couldn’t let Van and Sellev’s battle drag on for long.

「Quest success rate: 17%」

They hadn’t dealt a solid blow to either the demon or the monsters yet. Cadel couldn’t afford to let this fight get out of hand so early.

His gaze shifted to Dreyfe.

“If I make you a barrier that protects your entire body, would you be able to deliver a critical hit to that demon right now?”

“What? No matter how many barriers you have, you have to……. find and take advantage of the gaps.”

“If you’re not confident, I’ll move by myself.”

“What, who, who is not confident?”

“That demon is hell-bent on killing my subordinate right now, and if you can’t deliver a blow that will move her killing intent, I’m taking you out of this fight.”

Dreyfe’s mouth dropped open at the sternness of his demeanor. There was no disrespect or belittling in Cadel’s tone, which made it all the more hurtful to his pride. It was as if he was telling Dreyfe to prove his worth on the battlefield.

Hearing this from a mere mercenary, he could not stay still. But before Dreyfe could get angry.

“I’m not going to sacrifice my man to your ego, and I don’t have time for your temper, so answer me quickly.”

A pair of dark, bronze-colored eyes, half-revealed beneath the hood, stared directly at him. The coldness there was enough to press down on Dreyfe’s temper, and he nodded meekly.

“……I just need to be able to dig through that ignorance of an energy battle.”

“Good.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a barrier of wind was created that enveloped Dreyfe. With a short breath, Dreyfe coated the top of the broken twin sword energy in blackness.

There was no time to waste. Determined, he threw himself into the storm of demonic energy and aura without hesitation.

The two types of energy sliced through the barrier like the claws of a beast. Just by breathing, he could clearly feel the killing intent on either side.

Dreyfe approached from behind Sellev’s back, hiding his presence in the terrible killing intent. Fortunately, all her senses were focused on Van, and so was Van. The two were busy continuing the battle as if they had blocked everything except each other.

‘To be more attracted to that mercenary than to me.’

He felt strangely resentful, but now was not the time to consider such things. Dreyfe flung one of his swords upward with all his might. He raised the other and lunged at Sellev’s rear, the tightly condensed energy of his sword tracing an unbroken trajectory, aiming for her wingtips.

The moment he judged that the attack had barely ‘grazed’ the wings.

“Alas, don’t bother me!”

Clutching the bundle of thorns, Sellev whirled around. As she nervously stretched out her arm toward Dreyfe, the thorns connected to Van’s greatsword were ripped out in one swift motion, but her fist failed to strike Dreyf.

Phoosh.

“……Huh?”

One of the twin swords he’d thrown earlier pierced Sellev’s shoulder. The fiery yellow sword energy glowed as it pierced the muscle.

“Don’t be conceited, demon.”

A yellow glow spread over Dreyfe’s bracelets. It was a weapon-calling spell, and at his call, the sword sheathed in Sellev’s shoulder was drawn out, splattered with purple blood.

Despite the sudden fatal wound, a firm question, not pain, appeared on Sellev’s face. She checked her shoulder, which was bleeding profusely, and looked at Dreyfe again.

Silent eyes were blazing as if they were going to devour him. She was completely defenseless, but Dreyfe and Van, none of them dared to attack her.

It was because of the demonic energy. Unlike her frozen body, the flow of her demonic energy surrounding her was explosively expanding.

Van struggled to control his aura as it tried to mimic the demonic energy, and Dreyfe saw shards of the barrier tearing away in real time.

And Sellev.

“Good, good. It appears that you want to die so much. This body will give you that mercy.”

She formed a pitch-black sphere that confined herself and Dreyfe.