「Quest success rate: 21%」

‘It’s up 4%. ……Okay, let’s squeeze it as hard as I can while Van recovers.’

He was the commander. He had to trust and rely on his subordinates, but he had to show enough firepower to cover their absence.

‘Clear the gateway, then find Lydon. Sellev must have traveled to the magic circle, and the fact that Jeriel’s mana rampage has subsided means that Lydon has made it out alive, so he can afford to run. I need to help him before things get out of hand.’

Since he had killed quite a lot of Red Men, there was a high chance that Sellev would try to replenish her forces again. He wouldn’t dare to ruin the flow of the battle by chasing after the fleeing Lydon.

When Cadel was thinking so.

“……?”

An icy chill swept across the battlefield, freezing the ground where he stood.

“Ha! I like it. Fairies are fun after all?”

Running the back of her hand across the gash on her cheek, Sellev let out a boisterous laugh. The shadowy reversed eyes rolled, quickly scanning her surroundings.

A fierce blizzard beat against her skin. A bone-chilling chill rose from the ice that covered the ground. The only thing visible through the transparent ice was Sellev, flapping her bat-like wings and keeping a wary eye on her surroundings. The master of this murderous mana wasn’t in sight.

The next moment, however, a thick spear of ice aimed for her front. Reflexively, Sellev tried to block the ice spear but then she froze. The ice spear went straight through her abdomen.

No sensation, no pain. The ice spear, which had pierced her exactly in the middle of her abdomen, had disappeared without a trace. An illusion. The next, and the next, and the next.

It was all an illusion, but as time went on, Sellev’s senses became more acute.

‘No matter what I do, the illusion won’t go away. He’s a pretty high-level fairy, that guy.’

No matter how much demonic energy she circulated through her body, no matter how much pain she felt from her wounds, the illusion could not be broken. The perfection of the technique was considerable. The line between reality and illusion was incredibly blurred, and if she let her guard down for even a moment, she would end up being a laughingstock.

‘To cast such a strong illusion spell in a state of mana rampage. He must be pretty crazy. Or is he not thinking at all?’

Neither of them would last long in a rampage state. If she went along with this prank just a little longer, the fairy would fall into her grasp in no time. It was the moment Sellev thought so.

“……Hmm.”

Dozens of ice spears appeared. Dense magic surrounded her without a single defense. The ice spears spun with coldness, emitting sharp wind sounds.

“Are 5 of them real? Do you have that much power left?”

Five was the limit in this unstable mana state. If so, she would put an end to the pitiful outburst with minimal force.

“If I break everything, you’re next!”

Crying out excitedly, Sellev maximized her senses to find the ‘real thing’. No matter how many fakes that fairy could create, he couldn’t erase the aura of the real thing. A powerhouse of her caliber would be able to detect it in an instant, no matter how subtle it was.

And so it was.

“……?”

The moment the spinning ice spears were fired like a cannonball. She realized that all the magic that surrounded her was real.

“You crazy bastard……!”

She wasn’t prepared for all the attacks to be real. No matter how good her reflexes were, she couldn’t defend against attacks coming from all directions at once.

In the end, she covered her vitals with the minimum amount of demonic energy she hastily pulled out.

“Cough―!”

The attack was relentless. Ice spears pounded against demonic energy’s defenses, piercing through the gaps. Her natural physical prowess allowed her to dodge many of the ice spears, but she couldn’t hide the embarrassment of taking more damage than she had anticipated.

‘I didn’t expect all attacks to be real. Is he still in the early stages of a rampage? If not.’

A large amount of mana was stored in each ice spear. If it was an average level of magic, she wouldn’t have bled just because she was hit a few times. It was so sophisticated that it was unbelievable that a rampage magician did this.

But again, Sellev’s predictions were wrong.

“Ahaha! What a dumb demon! Why didn’t you just ignorantly cut them off one by one this time? Did you not notice? Aha, those black eyes are just decorations!”

Sellev, who had been hacked up all over, turned her head with a bloody face. The fairy, who had been hiding his presence with his illusion technique, was looking down on her from a great height.

“……You are talking a lot for a dying human.”

“You can’t even talk when you’re dying? What a shame, the demons are. Sure. That’s the kind of race you are, right?”

Lydon looked so terrible that it was unbelievable that he had been fighting a battle to trample a High Demon. Blood poured from his orifices, drenching his chin and neck, and thick crystals of ice formed on the exposed skin of his forehead, cheeks, and the backs of his hands.

An endless chill coursed through his body, freezing everything around him, even himself. It was a clear sign of a mana rampage, and a normal person would have struggled to stay upright. Yet Lydon continued to draw on his mana as if he were spitting out vitality.

The reason was simple. He couldn’t send this dangerous demon to Cadel.

“Are all demons who use physical combat skills as stupid as you are? It’s so easy for you to get tricked, it’s boring because it’s so unexpected.”

“You’ve only got the power to make fun of me now, haven’t you? If I hit you once, it’ll be a clean goal. If you’re a fairy, you might want to clean up your act. You’re an endangered species after all.”

“Haha! Who cares about whom? You should know yourself, you trash demon. Shall I kill you like this?”

“Oh oh, go for it. But be careful, because if I catch you, the first thing I’ll do is rip your snout off.”

Lydon’s eyes fluttered open and he smiled, the blood pooling at the corners of his eyes giving him an eerie air.

* * *

「Quest success rate: 34%」

A slightly rising level of contribution and an ever-widening range of ice sheets. That was all that proved Lydon’s survival.

‘Why the hell would Lydon have a mana rampage……. Is it because of Jeriel?’

Cadel knew of a few ways to stop the mana rampage. They always involved risk to the caster. But he knew that Lydon would stop working on Jeriel’s rampage as soon as he felt unwell. There was no reason for him to try to quell Jeriel’s rampage at his own expense.

However, Lydon was on a rampage and was dealing with Sellev in that state.

‘If I don’t help him.’

He might die. The thought alone made Cadel’s mouth dry.

Cadel wanted to run to Lydon right now, but he couldn’t leave the gate, at least not until Sorin returned. And not just because he had promised to guard the gate.

Beyond the gate lay Van. If he left the gate unguarded and ran to Lydon, the Red Men, unchecked by the knights, will head for the other side. The wounded Van would be the first to fall.

‘I’m going crazy, for real!’

Both of his subordinates were in a life-and-death situation, and it bothered him that he could only choose to prioritize one.

How long could Lydon last? The moment he couldn’t hold on, he died at the hands of Sellev. The hysterical anxiety also affected the Red Men’s subjugation.

Cadel literally swept up monsters. Whether it was the Red Men the knights faced or the Red Men sneaking through the gate. He seized every single one he could find and imprisoned them in the [Wind Prison]. He no longer cared about the delicate distribution or strength of the mana. Those that could not withstand the compressive force of the [Wind Prison] would burst into flames and die, while the rest would be roasted whole by the thunderbolts that followed.

Now, in front of the gateway, Cadel’s kills were piled up like mountains. There was not even a short break in his attacks. He killed, killed, killed, without pausing for breath.