* * *

Click. Clack. Clack.

The cheerful sound of interlocking bones filled the swamp. The noise grew closer and closer, revealing an army of monsters swarming like ants.

Their entire bodies were encased in bone armor similar to Mendel’s, and their eyes, peeking out from beneath their helmets, glowed with a sinister luminescence like black torches. They strode majestically across the swamp and did not sink.

There was an indescribable sense of foreboding in the misty black petals and the legions of monsters surrounding him, but Cadel’s eyes were calm as he counted them.

‘There are no big ones like trolls or ogres. If I only look at the types of monsters, they are all small things. It looks like all useful monsters have already been absorbed.’

Mendel probably didn’t expect that the humans he had waited to transform into a shield would push him this far.

As always, the demon’s cause of defeat was arrogance.

Cadel winked, and Van, Lumen, and Lydon charged straight into the enemy lines. Normally, it would be normal to sweep the monsters once with quick attacks, strong attacks, and magic. Still, they only dealt with the approaching monsters without deviating from Garuel’s demonic energy field.

The energy-filled attacks hit the monsters and bounced back repeatedly. Their attacks did not leave a single scratch on the monsters’ bone armor. At first glance, it seemed as if they were helplessly pushed out and cornered.

At least, that was how it seemed to Mendel. The omnipresent black petals prevent them from escaping the demonic energy field, and the bone armor couldn’t be broken with a moderate attack. If they stayed on the field, they would not be able to handle the onslaught of hordes of monsters.

‘I don’t see the dark energy user. Is that …… a magician? It looks like he’s preparing something.’

Mendel’s eyes fell on Cadel as he watched the battle from above. The man hadn’t stood out much so far. He looked more like a strategist than a fighter, but a hundred tricks would be useless if he had no one to use them.

Kill the mongrel and all would be well. Without hesitation, Mendel descended on his first target, Garuel.

Between the seal circle and the demonic energy field. Outside the boundary, belonging to nowhere, was Garuel’s position. He looked up at Mendel, who landed with a thud on the ground. The fluttering petals grazed Garuel’s cheek, but a burst of demonic energy quickly mended the wound.

“Crying out for help will do no good. Your comrades are dead, and so are you.”

Slowly, Mendel raised his right hand, and a new whip formed in his empty hand. Garuel stared at Mendel without raising his sword. Unlike when Cadel had scolded him for his lack of confidence, his expression was cold and hard.

“You reek of rottenness with every word.”

“Whatever you say, you are only a half-demon. I didn’t want to absorb a mongrel, no matter how poor my shields were……. The inherent irreverence is creeping up on me.”

In front of Mendel, who smiled serenely, Garuel burst out laughing. And the next moment.

“Is my existence as a mixed race blasphemous to the demons? I like that. I was secretly worried about what it would be like to be welcomed by them.”

The demonic energy covering half of Garuel’s body exploded and took on a certain shape. It looked like the paw of a huge beast, or the cunning hand of a devil.

The smile on Mendel’s face vanished as the demonic energy hung menacingly in the air. Tendons sprouted on the backs of his hands as he pulled the whip taut.

“Please tell me the name of that disgusting man who left you his demonic power.”

“I don’t know. If I did, I would have gone after him and killed him.”

“……Is that so?”

No further questions or answers were needed. If he couldn’t find the mongrel’s parents, all he had to do was kill the mongrel and sever that link.

A whip of condensed demonic energy slashed through the air, aiming for Garuel’s throat.

* * *

When Garuel and Mendel’s battle began, Cadel was all set.

‘It’s definitely different now that I’m at the 8-star level.’

The 8-star level was the level at which his teacher, Mamil Kipa, was called the ‘Archmage’.

Of course, Mamil’s destructive power would be higher than Cadel’s, which was based solely on fire, but the 8-star magician still had the prestige of an 8-star magician.

6-star and 7-star, 8-star and 9-star. It was just one more number added. But to get to that next level, it took hard work, experience, obsessive learning, and natural talent. Only when you had all of that, could you grow.

‘Of course, I received the protagonist buff, but I don’t feel like I really benefited from all the hard work I put in.’

As he grew, so did the enemies he faced. If he hadn’t had the good fortune to discover the ‘Heart of Vita’ before facing Mendel, his plans might have been thwarted.

“Yozen.”

Yozen, who had remained invisible the entire time, appeared at Cadel’s call. Still motionless, Cadel spoke without turning to the man standing behind him.

“We’re about to get started, so get ready.”

“Okay.”

Yozen’s calm answer rang in his ears. Cadel opened up the magic spell that had been carried out secretly, avoiding Mendel’s eyes.

[Fire Demon’s Arrows]

It had been a while since Cadel had used fire magic, but it had never been as powerful as it was now.

With Cadel’s light gesture, the flower petals, demonic energy, and previously scattered dark mana were pushed away. As the darkness that covered the sky was pushed aside, what was revealed was a feast of light flames that filled the sky.

‘I put a lot of mana in every arrow. Die a happy death, Mendel.’

With his smirk, hundreds of loaded arrows rained down in a disastrous shower.

The victory was certain.

* * *

Although the mongrel’s demonic energy was higher than expected, he gave up his shield to the monsters and was virtually invincible until their armor disappeared. Mendel had scattered his vital energy everywhere. As long as the scattered vital energy did not dissipate, this body, which was nothing more than a shell, would not die.

High risk, high return.

In exchange for his life force, he gained immortality, meaning he could never be defeated by a mongrel.

He never suspected that.

“That’s……!”

Fire arrows containing tremendous mana rained down from the sky, which he was completely unaware of. It was closer to a thin line of rain than an arrow, but Mendel could feel it.

‘That’s not the level of an ordinary magician. At least 8-star……. Where the hell did that magic come from?’

This did not belong to the mongrel who was constantly fighting with him. Neither the sword user nor the aura user. Next, he suspected the fairy, but he was an ice magic user. So what was left was.

‘That human did it.’

The magician who had been quietly holding his breath. Mendel thought he was leading the humans as a simple tactician, but it seemed he was mistaken.

“Hmm, Knight Commander’s magic is always amazing.”

Garuel stood idly by and marveled at Cadel’s magic, while the raw wounds on his body slowly regenerated. He defended as best he could, but as time went on, his regenerative abilities could not keep up with the number of wounds.

If it had taken a long time, it wouldn’t have been pretty. Garuel, who had been happily watching the fire arrows, slowly turned his head.

“Do not be alarmed, mongrel. It’s a great spell, but I’ll be quicker to take your life than for that attack to destroy my shield.”

It was a formidable power, but if that magician cared about his comrades on the ground, he could not increase the strength of the magic carelessly. It would take a dozen arrows per monster to pierce their armor. Moreover, no matter how great a magician was, he could not maintain such wide-range magic for long. There wouldn’t be any mana left.

Nothing to worry about. Even if he killed the magician right away, as long as there was a mongrel, there was still plenty of room for recovery. So as planned…….

“Why don’t you look again?”

“……?”

“From anyone’s perspective, it looks like your shield will be destroyed before my life.”

Suddenly, he felt wind pressure crushing his entire body. It was not of his own making. Mendel’s eyes fluttered slightly, and his gaze turned to the sky once more.

‘The wind…… speeds up the fire arrows……….’

The wind filled with mana swirled around the arrows of fire, speeding their fall. But that wasn’t all. The wind-fueled flames grew larger and larger, slicing through the humans’ ranks, targeting only the monsters.

In the torrential downpour of fire arrows, the armor of the monster army exploded like flesh wrapped in a thin shell.

“Why…….”

It wasn’t that shocking that human was a multi-attribute magician. What confused Mendel was that his magic was flawless, combining power, speed, and control.

‘Why has someone of his caliber been hiding his claws all this time……?’

To prepare for a wide-area spell? You mean he had been hoarding his power for that one spell?

That was the most likely story, but that said.

‘Did he know all my moves?’

It was a belated realization. There was anger on Mendel’s face.

Right. That was it. The identity of the déjà vu Mendel felt from the first attack was none other than that magician. Originally, it would have been right for those humans to wander around without understanding his own technique. By now, they should all have been absorbed and died.

There was no way that the abilities of a demon called Mendel Haliev were known to the human realm. Most of the humans who faced him were absorbed and became protective shields, and even some who survived did not make it back to normal. There was no way that complete information would remain.

He thought it was obvious. But that wasn’t the case with this magician. He didn’t know what this magician did, but he knew all of his techniques from the beginning. He was prepared for everything and defeated them one by one.

Mendel thought the reason the attack didn’t work was because the humans had quite outstanding skills. He thought they were lucky enough to survive thanks to the mongrel’s power. If he took away the power of superior demonic energy from humans, they would collapse helplessly. He figured that would be all they had.

But he was wrong.

‘I had to kill that magician before anyone else……!’

He could feel the shields being destroyed in real-time. All shields would be destroyed in a matter of seconds. It was impossible to prepare a technique that would surpass the mongrel’s ability to regenerate. Mendel’s murderous intent suddenly turned to Cadel.

This magic must be stopped.

The scattered petals swirled and clustered around Mendel’s whip, which stiffened like an iron core, creating a concentration of demonic energy that was incomparable to the first time gathered together.

Sensing danger, Garuel reflexively ducked, but the trajectory of the whip, which stood upright, narrowly missed him, aiming for something else entirely.

It was in the direction of Cadel.

It was too far to use his demonic energy to protect Cadel. There was no hesitation. Garuel caught the whip with his bare hands.

The whip shot out like a bullet, leaving a deep, long laceration in Garuel’s palm. Unfortunately, it was only for a moment that he stopped Mendel’s attack. The whip only cut Garuel’s palm for a few seconds, slowing him down, but not stopping Mendel’s momentum.

But that was enough. Since Mendel had only a few seconds to begin with.

“Ho, how…….”

A thin line of blood trickled down Mendel’s chin. The murderous intent in his piercing black eyes slowly faded. His head drooped, and he stared at the dark energy that had pierced his heart.

A perfect strike, aimed at the exact moment when the shields were destroyed, with only a fraction of a second to spare.

‘I’ve been played… to the end…….’

Was he just swinging his whip proudly in the magician’s palm all this time?

‘Must, kill him.’

Mendel was able to realize this only when he was close to death. If they kept that magician and these people here alive. Demons could not accomplish great things. They would definitely be stopped. They would face another tragedy.

He strengthened his trembling hands and gathered all the life force within him without leaving a single ounce of it behind. If it was a strike that cost him death, he could at least have a magician as his companion.

“D, die…….”

However.

“That’s a no-no.”

There was no final blow. The dagger that pierced his heart shot upward without mercy, slicing through the back of his head. Mendel’s body tilted, revealing Yozen’s form behind him.

“So, sorry…… Emi, lia…….”

Yozen caught the falling Mendel and plunged the dagger into his throat. Mendel’s limp body twitched briefly, then stopped all movement.

“That’s enough, Sir Yozen. He’s dead now.”

“……Demons aren’t all that different from humans.”

Garuel smirked as he looked at Yozen’s clean, bloodless face.

“All things are equal in the face of death.”

T/N: I must say, what a quick battle.