* * *

“You mean there’s a monster in there with almost invincible regeneration ability and an attack power combination that Sir Garuel is falling behind and Yozen can’t handle?”

“Let me make one correction: I’m not falling behind, Sir Lumen, I’m on a par with him. That’s a very important point of distinction.”

Lumen shrugged off Garuel’s protestations and kept his eyes on the ‘dark energy prison’ up ahead. The cuboidal shape of the dark energy was only big enough for one person, and there was probably only one demon inside. As if Ashvka wasn’t enough to deal with, this was the kind of monster he’d rather not face.

“So. How many more minutes do you think you can keep him tied up?”

Van asked as he stood stiffly with his greatsword stuck in the ground, and Yozen answered.

“5 minutes. About 2 minutes if he starts to rebel inside.”

“If he starts rebelling? Are you saying he’s not rebelling right now?”

“I don’t feel any movement, he’s just spreading his demonic energy and gently pushing my dark energy away”

“What a terrible asshole.”

Van said with a short cluck of his tongue, looking back at Garuel.

“I hate to say it, but you’re half of the same blood, don’t he have any weaknesses you know of?”

“None, I’m afraid. All I know is that he’s a slightly, very slightly, higher power than I am.”

“A slightly higher power. Are you serious?”

“Of course. It’s only a very slight difference, a gap, if you will, of years of life, an inevitable gap.”

Garuel kept trying to convince them that he wasn’t any worse than Lawrence, but no one was listening. Instead, Van took one clue from Garuel’s excuses.

“There was only one time you couldn’t regenerate and bled, and that was when you were hit by Mendel Haliev’s condensed demonic energy.”

“Yeah, that was pretty bitter.”

“If the two of you are on a similar level, wouldn’t you find similar ways to hurt Lawrence?”

He nudged Garuel lightly as if to suggest a very simple method.

“Condense enough demonic energy to break his bones, and we’ll buy you some time.”

A concentration of demonic energy thick enough to hurt Lawrence. Van’s suggestion seemed the most realistic right now, but Garuel didn’t think it was an easy answer.

“Are you not confident?”

To be honest, no. What he had gained in a year of training was a blend of light mana and demonic energy. He’d trained diligently in both, but there was a difference in the peak of his power compared to those who focused on just one.

In his brief encounter with Lawrence’s demonic energy, Garuel sensed a clear power disparity and wondered if he could leap over it and strike him down. What if the comrades who were buying him time were only injured?

“To condense that much demonic energy, I doubt my healing skills can even afford to be used. It’s not going to be easy for you guys to deal with Lawrence…….”

“You’re full of sh*t.”

Harshly cutting off Garuel’s words, Van slung the greatsword he’d sheathed on the ground over his shoulder and scowled.

“I’m the only one who can worry about my own safety, and letting another man worry about me only makes me break out in hives.”

“…….”

“I’d have to agree with him on that one, Sir Garuel.”

Lumen agreed with Van, his gaze never leaving the dark energy prison.

“All you have to do, Sir, is answer: can you or can you not.”

“……I’m not sure.”

“Cannot mean that the possibility is zero. I ask again, can you do it?”

He was still not confident, but it wasn’t like he had no chance of winning. Besides, this was something that needed to be done even if it wasn’t possible. A relative of his own, one he refused to acknowledge existed, had come to destroy the Human Realm, and he had to stop him, even if it meant throwing his life away.

Garuel nodded slowly, and Lumen, who had known him for years, tugged at the corners of his lips coolly.

“Then I will count on you, for you are my comrade.”

* * *

Meanwhile, before the traveling gateway. New reinforcements had arrived to the east of the Empire, where the battle against Ashvka was in full swing. A large contingent of knights and high-ranking magicians, numbering three battalions in all, and leading them was Ector Entei, the commander of the Guardian Knight Order.

Quickly catching on to the shifting tides of battle, Ector drew his greatsword and shouted in a thunderous voice.

“Magicians to the barrier, knights to the rear of the 5th Battalion! Do not spare your strength. All forces charge!”

Cadel’s face lit up as he recognized the identity of the unexpected reinforcements. The commander of the Guardian Knight Order himself. An ally far more powerful than he had expected.

“Sir Ector!”

“Good to see you again.”

On the battlefield, Ector had the air of a seasoned veteran. He barked out orders to his countless troops, shifting formations as easily as a chess move to find the best tactics.

Most admirably, even as he was busily organizing and orchestrating the battlefield, he was meticulous about gathering information so that he could flex his plans at any moment. Cadel eagerly informed Ector of the information he had on the demons.

“Is there no limit to the amount of mana an energy-sucking insect can absorb?”

“There is. But their numbers are astronomical, so their individual limits are of little use. It’s a waste to inject them with mana and blow them up, as it takes less than a second for them to recover.”

“I see, we have no choice but to physically shake them off. For now, we’ll focus on the energy-sucking insects until the summoning circle is destroyed. You should remove the barrier and conserve your mana. Leave the rest of the work to the magicians over here.”

At Ector’s words, Cadel called to Lydon in the sky, and the barrier was instantly removed. As the tunnel-like barrier dissipated, a barrier was formed by the Guardian Knight Order’s magicians, and another wave of energy-sucking insects charged in. The spells they’d prepared and the knights on standby attacked in unison, but it wasn’t enough to shake off the swarms of insects that swarmed around them like a dark cloud. Cadel, watching, tried to help with the defense.

“Didn’t you tell you to conserve your mana? Magicians of your caliber are few and far between.”

Ector’s sturdy back blocked Cadel’s path, his greatsword held aloft as a bell, as he eyed the procession of magicians surrounded by energy-sucking insects.

“When I see a magician like you, my body aches to protect you. A good magician is a hidden card, a gap in every tactic. So please step aside for me, Commander Cadel.”

Cadel could feel the intangible energy surging from Ector’s body. Even Lydon, who had left to exterminate the pesky insects that were causing the air to vibrate, returned to Cadel’s side.

“Hmph, I guess he wasn’t so useless after all?”

Lydon held Cadel in a protective embrace and glared at Ector. A pillar of energy rose up, powerful enough to disrupt the vision of those around him, and then the greatsword, pointed at the sky, struck the ground.

Rumble―

There was a stunned silence as if all life on earth had entered a state of weightlessness. After a moment of dazedness, as if he had been suspended in a strange medium. A shockwave of distant sensations rushed into his body, accompanied by a barrage of explosions.

“Ugh……!”

It was a sharp shockwave that seemed to shatter the very fabric of space. The sharp sensation that swept through his body should have shredded him to pieces, but Cadel’s body didn’t move an inch from its place, not even a scratch. Not because he was in Lydon’s arms.

“This…….”

Cadel’s eyes, closed against the gale, widened in shock. A single blade. The shockwave created by Ector’s single blade had driven back the swarm of insects that had shadowed the magician and all his nearby allies. The shaken insects, unable to withstand the shock, burst into a torrent of splatter, briefly revealing a clear view of the landscape.

Ashvka slowly regenerated his severed leg and pushed himself to his feet. His grim, massive body ceased to move, and the endless insects that had been spawning remained within his sizzling flesh. The sudden blow stopped his regeneration, and Ashvka slowly turned his head.

His dark, sunken eyes stared down at the tiny humans, his presence so overwhelming that even a mere glance was enough to make them feel overwhelmed.

The sight of his fully exposed raised the tension of his allies. Cadel boosted his mana so that he could defend his allies at any moment, but Ashvka’s next move was not an attack.

[Law…… rence…….]

A voice so heavy and dark that it felt like it would crush them. It was the first voice Ashvka had uttered since coming to the Human Realm, a desperate call for his kind.

* * *

The call was like a hellspawn’s terminal call, and Lawrence responded instantly. The dark energy prison that had closed tightly around him could not withstand the cascade of demonic energy. The dark energy prison exploded, tearing apart, and Lawrence emerged from his momentary isolation.

He raised his arms to the sky without a glance at the enemies surrounding him. Blazing demonic energy emanated from his wide-open reverse eyes, and inky darkness pooled over his outstretched hands.

“I have a bad feeling about this one, he’s up to no good.”

Van, who had released his aura in response to Lawrence’s uncharacteristic maneuver, lunged forward. The hard blade slammed into the defenseless Lawrence’s ribs. Unsurprisingly, his greatsword didn’t leave a scratch on Lawrence.

The strength of the creature’s bones was unbelievable. Furthermore, Lawrence paid no attention to his attacker. It was as if he knew Van wouldn’t be able to leave a scratch on him.

But Van did not back down.

“Arrogant bastards, whether noble or demon, are all the same: once they think you’re beneath them, they think you can’t hurt them.”

The unleashed aura gradually increased in volume and rippled fiercely. It was beginning to react to Lawrence’s demonic energy. Whereas before it had been a power that glowed with a frenzy of energy at the mere touch of demonic energy, it was different now. Van now knew how to amplify the power of his aura through his opponent’s demonic energy.

“And I like to stomp on the arrogant heads of the likes of you.”

A red aura gathered over the greatsword pressed against Lawrence’s ribs, and the rapidly flowing energy soon stained the blade blood red and resonated with an eerie resonance. A similarly reddish glow flickered in Van’s eyes, and the muscles of his tightly clenched jaw stood out.

Slowly, the blade began to dig into Lawrence’s flesh. Demonic energy blossomed over the shallow wound as if waiting, but each time, more aura condensed and swelled.

And then, the first drop of Lawrence’s blood that had flowed since his arrival was absorbed by Van’s greatsword.

Kwaaa―

Like a giant stretching, the darkness that had been resting on Lawrence’s palm spread across the sky. In an instant, without time to do anything. The entire sky was swallowed up by the inky blackness.

It was an abysmally dark condensation of demonic energy. Everyone panicked for a moment at the sudden darkness. A screaming cry erupted from the knights.

“Ashvka’s leg has completely regenerated!”

Garuel’s gaze shifted at the shocked exclamation, and as he scanned Ashvka’s shadowy outline, he saw his leg regenerating as if it had never been cut off. The shockwave from earlier had driven away any insects that might have been feeding on Ashvka’s blood and energy. So something must be responsible for this strange regeneration.

“Lawrence…….”

A powdery, disintegrated energy fell from the shroud of demonic energy that covered the sky. It was absorbed by Ashvka’s body, undoing all the damage he had taken so far.

Ashvka’s power, which he had thought had faded, flared up. Lumen stood at Garuel’s side, looking over at Yozen, who had entered into a melee with Van, still engaged in battle with Lawrence.

“It’s certainly grim to have your healing power as an enemy, and I can see why the other demons were so eager to fight.”

“……Ashvka and Lawrence. If we don’t defeat either of them once and for all, this battle will be a lost cause. I wish I could muster up the strength to deal with Lawrence quickly, but it will take me a while to muster up that much energy.”

“We can keep Lawrence tied up as long as you need.”

“Of course I believe you, the problem is…….”

His power wasn’t centered on destruction like the others. He had healing powers. The number one reason Cadel wanted him. His years as a holy knight had taught him firsthand the importance of a healer on the battlefield. If he focused solely on killing Lawrence, he would not be able to use his healing skills at all.

Demonic energy pure enough to kill Lawrence in one fell swoop didn’t just materialize out of thin air. He feared that his absence would alter the course of the battle, and Cadel’s judgment. Garuel could not act hastily.

And as if to resolve his conflict, Garuel heard Cadel’s urgent call from the other side.

“Garuel! Get over here!”