* * *

Green Hand.

It was the identity of the monster that had attacked Van in the first place, and it was also the biggest troublemaker currently roaming the seal circle.

“That bastard……!”

Cadel gritted his teeth and glared at the dark green hand that blocked the crack. Sensing Cadel’s anger, it quickly withdrew its hand and rolled out of the way of the attack.

However, if Cadel tried to attack the monsters as they emerged from the crack again, Green Hand would inevitably run over and protect its allies with its firm palms.

“Aargh! Hey! Get the hell out of here!”

The Green Hand rolled away, ducking under the hysterical shouts. The monster was goblin-like in appearance, but closer to an ogre in size, and its arms, with misshapen giant hands, were long and flexible like a spider’s.

It even had a total of four arms. Two in the usual arm positions, and two on its wing bones. The fact that it had so many skilled hands, in both attack and defense, running back and forth meant that it specialized in protecting its allies and itself simultaneously.

There were currently five Green Hands protruding from the seal. Instead of attacking the Scarlet Scales Knight Order, they were defending the crack this way, making sure their allies could get out safely.

“Van! Lydon! Keep those bastards away from the seal!”

At Cadel’s command, the two subordinates who were clearing out the other monsters spread across the hill gathered together.

“Don’t worry, Commander!”

“Ahaha! This place is fun!”

Van with his aura opened and Lydon with his mana back. The two men were in excellent condition, and monsters that were not even demons were not a big problem for them.

They took the east and west sides of the seal, respectively, to keep the Green Hands in check.

Lydon ignored their defenses and fired a barrage of ice spears at them, while Van aimed for their ankles with his sword energy, blocking their movement.

And in the meantime, Cadel calmly raised his mana.

‘There is no need to redistribute mana attributes yet. Let’s handle it with one attribute.’

He bent my thumb and forefinger to form a small circle and held it in front of his eyes, his narrowed vision capturing the center of the crack.

“I think that’s about right.”

The seal must not be attacked. The target was the crack. He needed a magic spell with enough firepower to strike exactly beyond it.

Flexing his fingers, Cadel sized it up and produced a small flame that filled the hole, then blew over the flame like blowing out a candle. The shallow breath soon created a long path of flame.

Shaaa—

A straight pipe of fire, exactly the width of the crack, was formed. It looked more like a laser cannon than fire. Cadel spread his palm at the beginning of the pipe and fed it with an uninterrupted stream of mana.

His flames dug perfectly into the crack. The monster that had just exited, and the one behind it. They burned without pause. The only allies who could protect them were bound and immobilized by Van and Lydon.

A perfect slaughter. Feeling refreshed, Cadel burned the monster endlessly, as if exterminating vermin. He planned to control the monsters that escaped like this and wait for his allies.

But his plan went down in flames, both figuratively and literally as his flames split into two.

“……What the heck is that.”

Something beyond the crack was emerging, splitting Cadel’s flame.

The fact that he didn’t know most of the storyline, as he usually skipped the story scenes, played a part in Cadel’s failure to anticipate the crack in the seal, but it wasn’t the only part.

Rather, he could not anticipate what was ahead because he ‘knew’.

After being promoted to knighthood, Cadel received a new quest when he was dispatched to the outer seals. Promotion to the knighthood was a meaningful event even for him, a skipper, and because of that, he was able to remember what the quest was right after.

He was pretty sure he didn’t recall receiving any quests in Area 10, where one of the seals in the Empire was located, so there shouldn’t be any battles as dangerous as the main quest here.

So when the seal cracked and a monster came through, Cadel wasn’t too worried. He figured he could deal with the monster for a while and then reinforce the seal when reinforcements arrived. It would be a minor incident.

However.

[Sudden quest ‘Unexpected crisis’ occurred!]

[Proceed the quest to keep the story moving forward.]

[On failure, the order of the main quest is reversed.]

‘Sudden quest? There’s such a thing?’

A completely unexpected and unpredictable quest popped up. With a being that shouldn’t appear here.

“That arm…….”

Recovering the mana from the splintering flame, Cadel stared at the center of the crack, where a giant arm slithered out of the crevice.

It was not the Green Hand’s arm. It was much larger, much more hideous. Taut and bulky, more like a club than an arm. Something bubbled beneath the thinly stretched skin, like a bubble boiling.

With just one arm, Cadel was able to deduce his identity.

High Demon, Ashvka.

‘There’s no doubt about it, he’s the only one with a disgusting body like that. What the hell is he doing here?’

Ashvka was definitely one of the stage bosses he’d faced, but his appearance came after the outbreak of the Demon War. He made such an impact that Cadel couldn’t forget him.

‘……I need to stop him.’

Slowly, Cadel realized the meaning of the sudden quest. Ashvka was an enemy who shouldn’t be here now. Whether he succeeded in subjugating Ashvka or not, the flow of the story he knew could become entangled.

For example, the outbreak of the Demon War would be accelerated. He couldn’t stand by and watch such a tragedy unfold when he didn’t have a fully formed Knight Order yet.

At the time when Cadel was quickly finishing his thoughts.

Tuk. Tuk.

The skin of Ashvka’s arm began to tear. As if it could no longer contain what was inside, the skin peeled away, revealing the flesh. Cadel, noticing the change in hindsight, was about to create a barrier.

“Ly, Lydon?”

Lydon approached without a sound, grabbed Cadel by the waist, and flew off.

“It’s dangerous, darling.”

Holding Cadel tightly in his arms, Lydon hurled his ice spear toward the ground. Through the misty chill, a swarm of thousands of insects appeared, spreading out like a lake of disaster.

Despite Lydon’s attacks, the insects stalked after them, ready to chew and devour everything in their path. Cadel glanced down, and his face crumpled in disgust.

‘I need to take out the bloodsuckers first.’

Bloodsuckers were a type of insect that Ashvka dealt with. To be more precise, it was one of the insects that made up his body. He could replace his flesh with insects, and if he was injured, he could borrow their strength to recover.

A demon that could create thousands of bloodsuckers with just one arm. Unlike Sellev, whose single blows were lethal, Ashvka was the type to win with lethal volume.

“You should never be bitten. Since they are blood-sucking insects, just think that we will die the moment we are surrounded.”

“Bloodsuckers! Don’t they look a little like Van?”

Lydon laughed merrily and pointed his outstretched right hand at the bloodsuckers, and transparent ice crystals gathered in his palm and began to swirl in a tiny whirlwind. A fierce stream of mana gathered in a single point. He muttered to himself playfully and released the condensed mana.

“An insect is an insect though.”

Crink crank.

The whirlwind, fired like a bullet, grew in size with explosive speed. Along its blink-of-an-eye expanded range, the friction of ice crystals muffled the sound of the bloodsuckers’ dirty wings. Its gaping maw greedily devoured the horde of bloodsuckers, not missing an opportunity.

The sharp cross-section of ice and the bitter cold separate the hordes of bloodsuckers. Frozen bloodsuckers rained down like showers along the spot where the whirlwind passed.

With half the bloodsuckers gone in an instant, the remaining ones stopped their pursuit and lingered in midair. Cadel muttered to himself as he marveled at the number of neatly halved enemies.

“Really…… It was worth it to break the seal.”

“Huh?”

“I’m glad you’re my subordinate.”

“Ahaha! I like it too, Cadel!”

The bloodsuckers clustered in the air, no longer pursuing Cadel. Instead, they scattered in all directions, seeking out the monsters that had spread across the hills.

Back on the ground, Cadel watched the bloodsuckers’ movements. They clung to their allies, sinking their thin, pointed snouts into the monsters’ flesh. The monsters wriggled in agony as the swarming bloodsuckers covered their bodies like stains, but it didn’t last long before they collapsed in a heap. They had been completely consumed.

‘They’re using those monsters like an emergency potion.’

The bloodsuckers thought it was worth it to replenish their own power at the expense of their allies, and it turned out to be true.

“Switch all attacks to ranged. Van, you should stick to sword energy and aura as much as possible. My barrier is useless if you can’t shake off the bloodsuckers, so keep a safe distance.”

Cadel pulled Van to his side and called out to Lydon.

“Lydon, you will fly and seek out the Guardian Knight Order. When you find them, explain the state of the seal with Phantasm Speech, and protect them from the bloodsuckers.”

“Why should I protect other human beings? I just want to fight here with Cadel.”

“If you can get those humans here safely, we’ll have a better chance of getting out of here alive. We’re running out of time, so hurry.”

“Hmph, so stern. So dry! Are you trying to move me with those love-depleted sounds, Cadel?”

It was truly a consistent complaint. Cadel let out a shallow sigh and patted Lydon’s butt half-heartedly.

“Let’s just go there once. Be a good boy, okay?”

It was literally like treating a pet, but Lydon actually floated into the air with his eyes wide open.

“You’re a pervert, Cadel! This isn’t love, it’s lust! What do you want from me in this situation?”

“Cut the crap and get lost, fairy.”

“Van, did you see that? Cadel touched my ass!”

“Get lost before I rip you apart.”

Lydon laughed out loud at Van’s murderous comment and increased its altitude. Cadel tore his gaze away from the departing Lydon and checked the crack.

‘Protecting the story’s progression means stopping Ashvka from breaking the seal, which requires restoring the seal. I can’t do it with just Lydon’s and my mana, so I need to get the Guardian Knight Order in here as soon as possible.’

And in the meantime, he and Van had to reduce the number of bloodsuckers before Ashvka could get any further.