* * *

“Sir Lydon, if you build a wall like that, we won’t be able to see what’s going on with our allies.”

“Hmph, they’re not going to die anyway, so it doesn’t matter.”

“Not dying doesn’t mean everything. It’s important not to get hurt.”

“Wow, after Lumen’s orders, now Garuel’s lecturing? You’re so cocky. If it weren’t for Cadel, I would have bundled you all together and thrown you out.”

At the moment, Lydon and Garuel were helping their comrades fight and protect the seal. The role of protecting their comrades became useless when Lydon created a wall of ice that trapped the entire combat party.

“Van and Lumen can fight their own battles, so do something about this. It’s annoying.”

Lydon ignored Garuel’s admonition and pointed forward. There, ‘black flower petals’ were fluttering in the wind. Even as time passed, they did not fall, and even when Lydon had used magic to push them away, they returned and floated through the air.

They might disappear if they grabbed it or cut it, but both avoided direct contact as they felt a strange energy emanating from the petals.

“Nothing much has happened yet, so let’s leave it at that. Until Knight Commander, who has mastered the High Demon’s skills, returns, let’s just do our jobs well.”

“Wow, useless.”

“I suppose I could be of some use if I could break through Sir Lydon’s ice wall?”

“Then continue being useless.”

In the end, Garuel also raised the white flag as he expressed his will to never tear down the wall. He couldn’t understand Lydon’s stubbornness, but for Lydon, this was the best option.

‘Van and Lumen alone will never be able to attract the attention of that demon. It’s annoying that I have to kindly block his view.’

For them, the current battle was closer to a kind of exploration war. They were testing each other’s capabilities without revealing each other’s true worth. But Lydon was certain from the moment Mendel first appeared.

Sellev, Elvie, Ashvka. Of all the other demons he had encountered, the evil aura of the High Demon named Mendel Haliev was unrivaled. It was not a matter of power, but of innate aura.

‘Well, he’s garbage anyway, but I’ll fight it if I have to.’

In fact, Lydon was filled with the desire to break through the ice wall and challenge Mendel to a fight. It would certainly be a pleasure to face him in person.

Unfortunately, Lydon’s wish never came true.

“……Sigh. He’s already here.”

Garuel’s gaze shifted with Lydon’s sigh. The purple eyes beneath the mask caught a glimpse of a man across the swamp on the other side.

It was Cadel. Instead of calling out to him, Garuel watched in silence. Cadel was openly displaying himself, seemingly recognizing that Lydon’s ice wall had trapped Mendel and his comrades. Moreover, he had removed his cloak and was scrubbing at something with it.

‘What is he doing……?’

To Garuel’s horror, Cadel shoved the ‘something’ he’d been diligently wiping away into his mouth and swallowed.

‘He, he ate it? What did you eat, Knight Commander?’

It was not as if he suddenly had his own snack time. Garuel stopped and stiffened his shoulders as Cadel’s head snapped around to look in his direction. Cadel turned to Garuel, who made eye contact with him, and began gesturing with his hands to communicate his orders.

Cadel pointed at Lydon, pointed at the ice wall, and waved his hand as if to send something flying.He knew it was the best way to communicate quietly at this distance, but Garuel chuckled because it was cute to see Cadel waving his hands so hard. Then he nodded as if he understood everything.

“Tear down the wall, Sir Lydon.”

“Any later and I’d be fighting.”

Lydon, who did not flinch from Garuel’s words, immediately tore down the ice wall. What was then seen was not a scene of a fierce battle, nor someone’s inferiority or superiority.

“Cough, gasp……!”

Dozens of slender shafts of dark energy pierced Mendel’s neck. Van and Lumen stood frozen in shock. Then, without a sound, Yozen appeared, clutching Mendel’s face with one hand.

Yozen leaned in close, almost touching the back of his hand cupping Mendel’s face, and spoke softly.

“It’s my first time dealing with a demon. I’ll remember your face as…… a memento.”

As he spoke, Yozen’s fingertips moved in a completely different way from when he touched Cadel’s face. Dark energy condensed in the flexed fingertips, and Mendel’s face was dented as Yozen’s hand went down like a scratch.

Although Mendel’s features were mercilessly split and disfigured into horrendous shapes, Yozen didn’t seem to mind. He swept his hand down to the tip of Mendel’s chin, and when he removed it, Mendel’s writhing body tilted to the floor, unable to scream.

And the next moment.

Shraang!

From the depths of the swamp, the [Fire Chains] rose up and caught the falling Mendel’s body, holding it upright. His dark energy-encrusted neck twitched, and his body, wrapped in chains of flame, began to burn rapidly. To the eyes of the other members of the group, except for Yozen, Mendel looked like he didn’t need to be finished, he was already finished.

However, Cadel’s subsequent shout was completely opposite to their thoughts.

“Everybody away! It starts now!”

* * *

About 30 minutes ago.

After leaving the seal circle and Mendel in the hands of the members, Cadel and Yozen moved separately to take care of another task. Namely, the task of ‘destroying the summoning circle’.

As they traveled to the center of the swamp where the seal circle was located, Cadel became convinced that Mendel had escaped through the summoning circle, not the seal circle. The reason was simple. The more they traveled to the center of the swamp, the less they saw. They didn’t see a single tip of fur, let alone an increase in the number of monsters.

Cadel knew Mendel’s characteristics. Given his characteristics, it was natural that Cadel could not see any monsters. However, once the seal was broken, no matter how many monsters Mendel sacrificed, there was no way he wouldn’t be able to see a single one like he did now. So, like Sellev and Elvie, Mendel appeared in the human realm through a summoning circle.

In that case, there were two things the Knight Order needed to do. Defending the seal circle from Mendel and destroying the summoning circle in advance to prevent him from summoning allies or escaping.

Splitting into teams wasn’t difficult. Cadel alone was able to explore and destroy the summoning circle. The reason Yozen was added was because his fighting style was taken into consideration.

Yozen’s attacks usually required timing to land a single shot. This was especially true in this open area, which was unfavorable for assassination. It would be better for the rest of the group to distract Mendel and ambush him upon their return.

The strategy was satisfactory, and the search for the summoning circle went smoothly. If there was anything that could be said to be special, it was the second goal of this quest that he discovered by chance while exploring.

“Vita……?”

Cadel stopped detecting the mana and stared at a certain place.

In the heart of the swamp. A strange creature vibrated with the sound of boiling water in a kettle.

Its gray, lifeless body swelled like a bud about to bloom, densely studded with black spots. Its epidermis wrinkled like the skin of an old man and its texture like the rind of rotten fruit. From beneath the swamp where it had taken root, a thick steam leaked out with the sound of something melting.

As soon as Cadel saw its monstrous appearance, he knew that it was the ‘Vita’ that Mamil had been talking about.

“Vita? What is it?”

Yozen walked over to Cadel’s side as he stopped, and Cadel took Yozen’s hand and pointed him in the direction of Vita.

“The name of that monstrous plant over there. A magician can become stronger by eating its heart. I thought I’d take care of the demon first, but here’s what I found.”

“……Do you want to get it now?”

“No. Defeating the demon is the priority now. There’s no time to waste. Just remember the location is…….”

As Cadel continued to speak, his eyes landed on Yozen’s hand, which he was holding. His white hands were dripping with dark energy instead of sweat. Why was he suddenly using the dark energy? Confused, Cadel looked at Yozen, but Yozen’s gaze was fixed on Vita.

“You go to the summoning circle, I’ll catch up.”

“What are you doing……? If you’re trying to get it, we can do that later—.”

“I just wanted to renew a new existence in my world.”

The renewal of a new existence. Did he want to say that he became curious about the strange creature he first discovered?

After a moment of hesitation at Yozen’s unnecessary semantics, Cadel noticed that the dark energy from Yozen’s fingertips had already traveled across the swamp, engulfing ‘Vita’ ’s body. Vita, on the other hand, remained frozen in place, unresponsive, as if it hadn’t noticed the dark energy enveloping its body at all.

‘It was said that Vita was good at running away. ……Maybe it would be better to leave it to Yozen.’

Since Yozen wanted to come forward to capture Vita, and since Cadel didn’t need Yozen to search for the summoning circle, Cadel decided to respect Yozen’s ‘renewal’.

The summoning circle was easy to find. Cadel carefully examined the summoning circle he had found. It was smaller than the one Sellev had used. The formula was also much simpler. Cadel analyzed the difference as ‘whether or not other beings can be summoned’.

Sellev had been able to bring out additional ‘Red Men’ troops from within the summoning circle. However, for that to be possible, Mendel’s summoning ceremony was too simple. As a High Demon, he could have fulfilled his role just by coming over. It was probably the same for Elvie.

After easily breaking the summoning circle, he discovered a new ‘magic circle fragment’ nearby.

[It’s definitely connected to the magic circle fragment I saw in the snowfield. The shapes are consistent.]