* * *

Their giant wings, which at first only amplified the turmoil, became a clearer clue to Cadel as he regained his senses.

Sandy, Edward, and Dyphorek. That was all the High Demons that had appeared so far. Unless there was a change in the story, there would be no more High Demons. They were the key enemies in this battle.

“I thought we’d killed all the human magicians. I see there’s one still breathing.”

Cadel’s gaze shifted toward the source of the voice as he channeled his mana. His jet-black hair fell to his shoulders, similarly, his wings were inky black, darkened by the absence of light. 

A man with a cool aura and androgynous appearance.

‘Edward. A High Demon who wields chains and twin swords.’

An enemy with high speed and high evasion rate. It was impossible to deliver an effective blow at a normal speed, so it was essential to deploy a knight with a higher speed or a knight with a skill with a 100% hit rate.

‘That’s good.’

Edward had found him, which was fortunate, as it would have complicated things quite a bit if he had gone looking for the other knights.

Cadel turned his gaze away from Edward as he leisurely drew his twin swords. No defense, no stance of attack, only a focus on the flow of mana.

“Are you ignoring me? I’m sorry, but that kind of guts won’t help you survive.”

Edward’s pride was bruised by Cadel’s indifference. He snorted and flapped his wings as he stared at Cadel’s impassive sideways glance. Crossing his blades, Edward quickly lowered his altitude, swooping down toward Cadel. It seemed that not even a last word would be heard from a defenseless human.

But before his twin blades could reach Cadel.

“……!”

Something out of nowhere interrupted Edward.

“You can’t touch Cadel.”

A single dagger blocked the crossed twin blades. It was Yozen. Edward grimaced at the human standing in front of him. His appearance had come without warning, as if out of nowhere.

Yozen thrust away the twin blades with a shove, and Edward stepped back, unable to resist. Then a dark aura began to radiate from the outstretched twin blades, not demonic energy, but dark energy. Realizing it was dark energy, Edward tried to flick it away, but the dark energy swiftly grew in size and engulfed his blades.

“What the……!”

Edward’s twin swords bent strangely as the dark energy squeezed the blades. Seeing that they were too damaged to attack, he cursed and threw them away.

“You’re annoying.”

A single magician would not be able to destroy the magic circle anyway. Every corner of the magic circle was planted with traps that would lead humans to run out of control, and it would be impossible to avoid them all. Even the magicians who came in hordes were quickly wiped out.

Edward immediately switched his target to Yozen. Condensing demonic energy to create a new pair of twin swords, he spoke fiercely.

“Let’s see if you can dodge this one.”

Demonic energy flowed from Edward’s body, and his wings began to tense in midair. Dense feathers ruffled over his wings as they rose alertly, and his wings twitched as if they were about to spit out something.

As the wings stopped beating, Edward naturally plummeted, his body lowering his altitude to the limit.

Pow!

The stiffened wings flapped as if they were about to explode, creating a tremendous crashing sound. A single flap of his wings propelled his body with destructive momentum, launching it at Yozen like a cannonball. The speed was so great that it left a distinct afterimage. The crossed blades aimed for the standing Yozen’s head.

It was a speed that would have been impossible to evade even if he had known Edward’s movements in advance, and there was no way Yozen could simply dodge such a speed.

Boom!

A crunching sound emanated from Yozen’s body, which had taken all the impact from the front. Torn pieces of flesh flew in all directions, and Edward’s face, which was in front of him, became wet. A brief smile tugged at the corners of Edward’s mouth as he made his way through the flesh he had torn apart, but.

“Slower than Lumen.”

The voice came from behind him. Turning quickly, he watched as the unsuspecting pieces of flesh melted into dark energy, and through the cracks in the falling dark energy, he saw Yozen’s intact form.

“Cough……!”

There was no time to be surprised that it was Yozen’s alter ego that he had defeated, as the shock of the ensuing blow shook Edward’s entire body. As he hurriedly checked himself, he saw that his entire body was speckled with dark energy from some unknown source.

Purple blood spurted from his mangled body in an instant. Beneath the bandages covering his eyes, the corner of Yozen’s mouth turned up sharply.

* * *

“Berserker, I’ve only heard of it, but what an interesting prey! An ability that grows stronger the more you fight, how strong can you get? Where’s the limit, how long before you go insane?”

“If you say one more word in there, I think I might go crazy, but I’ll have to kill you before then.”

The heavy greatsword struck out with a series of flying spears. Sandy, a High Demon with a sunny smile and shining platinum hair. She swung her spear brilliantly, feeling the aura that surrounded her intimidatingly.

The spear’s destination slashed in a perfect circle was not easily predictable, and the swift movements were as distracting as they were spectacular.

‘Those wings suck, too. The wind pressure is ridiculous.’

For some reason, Sandy had given up flying and was fighting Van on the ground, but she still periodically flapped her wings to blast him with wind, causing him to close his eyes several times, narrowly escaping death.

‘I have the advantage in strength. But I still haven’t figured out how she fights, and if she takes to the skies on a whim, I’ll be at an instant disadvantage. I need to settle the score before then.’

He had to prepare a technique that could defeat her in a single blow. The problem was, if this sneaky High Demon sensed anything out of the ordinary, she would immediately dodge. He needed something to draw hers attention, even if only for a moment.

Van’s face crumpled in displeasure as he considered his options. He parried a few of Sandy’s blows, then called out impatiently.

“Hey, Young Master! Help me!”

The answer came from nearby.

“Can’t you see I’m busy dealing with the demons? You can handle your own.”

“You’ve got a lot of people on your side anyway, give me a minute.”

At the sound of Lumen’s sarcastic voice, a lump rose in his throat, ready to tell Lumen to get lost. But Van persevered. Stroking his ego here would only slow down the slaughter of the High Demons. He should end the battle as soon as possible and return to Yeohwan to find out what the problem was.

At Van’s uncharacteristically polite request, Lumen, who had been engaged in a flurry of combat, stopped fighting and stood by his side. Brushing a hand through his disheveled hair, he spoke softly.

“I just need to distract her, right?”

“You’re the human who was dealing with Dyphorek, so why did you leave Dyphorek and come to me? To help a comrade? It wasn’t that urgent.”

“He’s so boring, I find you more interesting.”

“Hehe, you’ve got a point.”

Lumen played along and switched places, but he couldn’t stay with Sandy for long. Dyphorek, who was constantly summoning demons, needed to be exterminated.

Lumen had captured Sandy’s attention early on with his flashy swordplay. Her rapidly darting eyes swept across the flashes of light that painted the surroundings like watercolors.

Normally, the moment a flash of color was etched into the air, a hit was sealed. Lumen’s blade would only leave an afterimage, but Sandy’s case was slightly different.

“You’re exactly four times faster than I thought you were. How can you do that without wings?”

She didn’t have Edward’s sense of speed, but she did have excellent visual acuity and reaction speed. Sandy spun her spear wide, deflecting three of the attacks just before the flashes engraved. The other two attacks hit her as soon as the flash faded, but it was still remarkable that she was able to block more than half of them.

Sandy stuck her tongue out in admiration at Lumen’s speed, and Lumen was equally amazed at Sandy’s reaction time to his attacks. Of course, unlike Sandy, he didn’t show it on his face.

“I can be this fast because I don’t have cumbersome things like wings.”

“Cumbersome? Don’t be so mean.”

Frowning slightly, as if offended, Sandy shifted the spear behind her back and held it at diagonally. Stretching her legs long and leaning back, she grinned, flashing a disconcerting look that didn’t match her sunny appearance.

“Looks like you’re trying to buy time by distracting me, try it. It’s going to take more than just being fast.”

* * *

‘Don’t mind it, don’t mind it……. What I need to focus on is the magic circle, I trust my subordinates.’

Cold sweat trickled down his forehead and pooled on the tip of his chin. Cadel tensed his entire body and tried to focus on the mana that was being channeled into the magic circle.

The magic circle was riddled with traps, to the point where a mass rampage would make perfect sense. There had been traps in the summoning circle at the Demon Realm gateway, where Jeriel had been subjected to the mana rampage, but the amount of traps here was nothing compared to that.

As soon as he started channeling mana into it, he had a feeling he had tapped into something wrong. Normally, Cadel would have gone on a rampage as well. And yet, he was still in one piece, navigating the magic circle. All thanks to Kunra’s mana.

Cadel used Kunra’s mana as a shield to block the trap’s explosion. He was able to do this by using Kunra’s mana separately, rather than combining it with his own mana.

Kunra’s mana was much more concentrated and resistant than normal human mana, and no amount of sabotage could disrupt its flow. Of course, it was also tricky. As if managing just one mana wasn’t enough, he had to move two manas at once to find the core, and if he wasn’t completely focused, the manas would shift positions and explode at any moment.

Cadel had to work hard to ignore the battle behind him.

“If you were going to kill me, you should have done it on the first attack. I’ve recognized your pattern.”

Edward’s twin swordsmanship was nimble and explosive in its momentum. The propulsion from his wings gave him an advantage in positioning, and the demonic energy left behind by the trajectory of his blades didn’t dissipate even after several minutes.

The longer the fight went on, the more the space they stood in was filled with dense demonic energy. It was not ordinary demonic energy; it was like a kind of sword energy, and even a mere graze would draw blood.

“Why do you insist on staying here when it would be better to get out of here? When I see things like this, I can’t help but think that humans are so stupid that it’s hard to understand.”

Edward was right. A far better tactic would have been to move out of range of the demonic energy and try to lure Edward away. Still, Yozen stood his ground. His wounds were growing from the attacks he couldn’t dodge, but he didn’t care.

He was protecting Cadel. Cadel couldn’t move from his position until the magic circle was destroyed. If Yozen moved for his own safety, Edward would attack Cadel as if waiting for him.

The same was true for stealth. As soon as Yozen disappeared from sight, Edward would target Cadel. He’d figured out early on that attacking Cadel would make Yozen appear.

“If I strike this place.”

With a sickly grin, Edward flew toward Cadel, who was positioned beyond the demonic energy. His twin swords, raised in reverse, aimed at Cadel in a vicious manner.

“……You will definitely appear and take the attack directly.”

Yozen, who was off to the side, rushed forward and blocked the twin blades. Edward grinned at the look on Yozen’s face.

“There is nothing more difficult than a fight to protect.”

The battle Yozen was currently fighting was no ordinary one. A battle where protection must be prioritized. For Cadel, even a moment’s interruption could be fatal, and so Yozen’s battle had become increasingly restrictive.

Blood trickled from his raw cheeks, staining his torn uniform red. But Yozen showed no sign of distress. Pushing the twin swords away with force, he spoke in a quiet voice.

“I’ve never fought a fight more exciting than this.”

Yozen had experienced enough of having people’s lives in his hands. He had killed others and wished the survivors happiness. He had never felt rewarded by the act. He just thought he was doing what he had to do, what he was supposed to do.

But now, he was fighting for the human he desired, for his safety. Someone had put their life in his hands, and Yozen couldn’t be happier.

He wanted to give back to the man who had trusted him so completely, who had given him his life so blindly and defenselessly.

“It’s clear now.”

“What’s clear now?”

“You don’t have the means to bypass me and get to Cadel. You don’t have the skill to ignore my presence and get a hit on Cadel.”

“ ……That’s a problem I can solve by killing you.”

“It won’t work out.”

Yozen retorted lightly, tossing one of his daggers high into the air. Edward’s gaze reflexively followed the dagger, but he froze, his gaze locked on Yozen.

‘This is a low-level distraction technique.’

He was planning to rush in and attack while Edward was looking at the dagger. That kind of trick wouldn’t work on him. Edward’s gaze never left Yozen, even as he focused on the dagger in the air.

If the dagger was imbued with dark energy, the attack would soon come from the sky. That shouldn’t be a problem, since Edward could defend with his wings. Or so he thought.

“What……!”

The dagger, which was supposed to fall vertically, came from a completely different direction: behind. Without warning, the dagger grazed Edward’s forearm. Yozen tilted his head, gently fixing the dagger that had returned to his grasp.

“There’s nothing you can do at your level.”

This time he tossed up two daggers. Edward steadfastly kept his gaze fixed on Yozen, but the daggers again came from an unexpected direction. It bounced off the ground, deflected at an angle. The daggers struck Edward’s blind spot perfectly, slicing through him.

‘Damn it! What kind of trick is this?’

The daggers’ trajectory was completely unpredictable. The daggers that had cut Edward returned to Yozen’s grasp like a boomerang and were thrown high again. Finally, Edward couldn’t stand it anymore and looked up to follow the daggers.

“That’s…….”

The demonic energy he’d left behind could be seen pulsing faintly, a thin film of dark energy over it, a dark energy that was wider than Edward’s demonic energy and stealthily filling the space.

The daggers disappeared as if sucked into the dark energy that covered the sky. The next moment, they swooped down, aiming for his right and left at the same time. He spat a curse as they scratched his shoulder and bit his foot. The interlocking daggers disappeared back into the dark energy, only to reappear behind Yozen and settle into his already-unfolding grip.

In front of Edward’s bewildered face, Yozen twirled the daggers mockingly.

[Eye of Darkness Technique 2nd Form – Lawless Zone].

As long as he was in control, Edward could not harm Cadel. Feeling pleasantly reassured, Yozen lightly extended his hand and let the daggers fall to the ground. In this very space, the High Demon in front of him would die a sweet death.