There was no sign of movement, no indication that energy was being gathered. Cadel reflexively reinforced the barrier and quickly scanned his surroundings. It was to search for the disappeared demon. But……

‘This is……?’

The demon was nowhere to be seen, and instead, thin purple flashes, like raindrops, filled the air. The threads of demonic energy, crossing each other like a game of cat’s cradle, occupied the space. Cadel looked down at his own hand, where demonic energy had touched.

‘It doesn’t hurt.’

There was no pain from the touch of the demonic energy. If he moved, he could avoid further contact. It was merely obstructing his vision, occupying space like a massive structure.

It was then.

Kiiing—

The demonic energy, swelling and glowing in size, exploded in the blink of an eye. It was instantaneous. The demonic energy pierced through everything it crossed and then vanished.

“Huh……”

Cadel’s trembling eyes focused on his left hand, which had been in contact with demonic energy. It had been punctured. Despite his barrier, that thin stream of demonic energy had pierced through his mana, through his flesh, through his muscles.

A moment later, blood welled up, and a sharp pain slammed into the top of Cadel’s head. Reflexively gripping the back of his hand, Cadel urgently scanned the area ahead.

An attack powerful enough to break through the barrier was sweeping across in all directions. Even if he had sensed something strange, there would have been no time to avoid all the countless threads of demonic energy in the heat of battle.

“Kyaaaagh!”

“Kuaaagh!”

Where the demonic energy had disappeared, the screams of his allies echoed through the air. The barrier, which couldn’t even protect its own master, certainly hadn’t protected anyone else. Allies with holes in their bodies collapsed, crying out in excruciating pain, while those pierced in their vital points died instantly without leaving a single word.

Cadel quickly searched among his collapsing allies for his subordinates.

“Van! Garuel!”

Lumen, Yozen, and Lydon had barely managed to escape the range of the demonic energy. But Van and Garuel had not. Blood was flowing from their shoulders, waist, and thighs where they failed to avoid the attack.

In an instant, Cadel leaped into the magic circle, reinforcing the barrier around the inner group, and quickly searched for Garuel, who was closest. He had been injured on his right thigh and was kneeling, his wounded leg unable to support him. Looking up at Cadel, Garuel awkwardly curled the corner of his mouth in a grimace.

“It might be better for you to be outside, Knight Commander.”

“……Garuel. Is your wound not healing?” 

Demonic energy was rising from Garuel’s leg, trying to regenerate the damage, but the bleeding wouldn’t stop. Most of his wounds could heal on their own. However, injuries inflicted by High Demons were different — the healing process was much slower.

‘But this…… this isn’t just slow.’

There was no sign of recovery at all. The two small holes in his leg weren’t large, but even his demonic energy couldn’t close them. Cadel, looking pale as he watched, felt his heart race. Garuel’s gaze shifted toward Cadel’s left hand, drenched in blood. His brows furrowed as he noticed it.

“Your hand is a mess. You should use healing magic……”

“You can’t even heal your own body, so there’s no way healing magic will work on me.”  

Still, Garuel took hold of Cadel’s injured hand and infused it with demonic energy. Only after pouring a considerable amount of energy into the wound did the bleeding finally stop. Garuel let out an irritated sigh.

“Did you see which demon did this?”  

“I have an idea of who it was. I just…… I don’t know what kind of technique that attack was or who the demon really is.”  

“What about Lord Kunra’s information?”  

“……He doesn’t know.”  

Up until now, Cadel had pretended to know things based on the game knowledge, as if it were Kunra’s information. But this time, there was no need for that. He had no idea about the recent attack, nor the demon who had vanished so suddenly.  

“Commander! What are you doing here?”  

While Cadel was lost in thought about the identity of the demon, Garuel continued to cast wide-area healing spells beside him. From a distance, Van, who had been fighting, came running toward them. He was shocked that Cadel had ventured into the heart of the dangerous battlefield, but Cadel was even more shocked by Van’s condition when he saw him up close.  

“Your shoulder……!”  

“It’s nothing serious, so don’t worry about it. Get outside quickly. You shouldn’t be here yet.”  

From a distance, Van’s wound hadn’t looked too severe. But up close, the blood soaking his shoulder, arm, and even his chest told a much grimmer story.  

The worst part was that it was Van’s right shoulder—the one he relied on most for fighting—that had been injured. As he had continued to fight, the wound had reopened, and the bleeding had worsened.

Cadel was forced out of the magic circle by Van, unable to form any words. He wanted to command Van to stop fighting, to not let the wound on his shoulder tear open any further. But it was not a time for such orders. Even as Van continued to fight with all his strength, his comrades were falling one by one, like ants crushed underfoot.

After pushing Cadel out of the magic circle, Van cupped his cheek with his hand.

“Do not come back inside until the situation stabilizes. You can command from outside. Understood?”

“Van……”

“I don’t want to lose anyone either.”

Van’s crimson eyes, swirling with aura, locked onto Cadel’s. His gaze swept down Cadel’s worried face, and then he spoke firmly.

“That moment we all shared…… I don’t want to lose it either.”

“……!”

“I…… and those annoying guys…… we’ll protect Commander’s future. So don’t worry and lead us like usual. We will follow every one of your orders.”

In that unexpected moment, it felt as though he had been given a gift he hadn’t anticipated. Van planted a brief kiss on Cadel’s forehead and then returned to the battlefield.

Watching Van’s retreating figure, Cadel clenched his scarred hand tightly.

‘……After all the preparation, what good does it do to panic just because the situation is a little different from what I expected? Get a grip, Shin Yeohwan.’

The main quest had twisted more than once before. The enemies that appeared this time were all complete strangers, with no prior information available, but that didn’t matter. He could figure it out as he fought.

‘I need to find a strategy before my subordinates get caught in worse situations.’

Cadel took a deep breath to steady himself and scanned the sky again. The threads of demonic energy weren’t regenerating immediately. If attacks of that scale had continued in quick succession, the annihilation of humanity would have been instantaneous. But the fact that the technique hadn’t resumed immediately meant they needed time to prepare.

His pupils, sharply constricted, darted across the sky. Up above, High Demons and monsters, with the advantage of position, were relentlessly launching their indiscriminate attacks. Each strike that fell reverberated through the earth with a deafening roar.

Including the one who had vanished, there were three High Demons to contend with. Cadel kept a close watch on their movements, continuously searching for the owner of the demonic energy threads.

‘Are they hiding and recharging? If they were on the ground, the knights would have spotted them. At least Yozen would have noticed. So, they must still be up in the sky.’

Slowly shifting his position, Cadel relentlessly scanned the sky, now tainted with demonic energy. And then, in the next moment……

‘There!’

At a high point in the sky, Cadel’s gaze landed on a spot. Beyond the dense veil of demonic energy, a demon was hiding its body. Upon seeing her, Cadel’s expression subtly twisted.

‘Her body is… hollow.’

She floated serenely in the sky, just as she had before, blankly staring down at the ground. But beneath her pale face, her thin body was hollowed out in several places, as though it had been gnawed away by rats.

The wound was not caused by an attack. There was no blood in the cuts, no bone or muscle showing. Moreover, her body was gradually recovering. The hollowed areas were being filled in by the demonic energy, and though the process was slow, it was steadily restoring her to her original form.

‘It’s as if the scattered pieces of flesh are coming together to regenerate……’

For some reason, or by some principle, Cadel could tell that he couldn’t afford to let that body fully recover.

He stretched out his hand, aiming at the demon, drawing on Kunra’s power. A tiny flame gathered in his palm, not growing larger, but shrinking as though it might vanish at any moment. However, the color of the flame deepened, becoming more vivid and intense.

Inside that small, circular flame were intertwined with Kunra’s energy and Cadel’s mana. In terms of sheer power, it was comparable to [Soul Explosion], but unlike [Soul Explosion], which required protection from the explosion itself, this was a long-range attack meant to hit a distant target.

The flame was so small, so precise targeting was crucial.

‘Luckily, she’s staying still.’

If it had been made of pure mana, it would’ve been unstable, but with Kunra’s energy mixed in, its trajectory would be steadier, increasing the likelihood of a direct hit.

‘There’s no way she will survive this, right?’

As expected, the demon was an annoyingly powerful High Demon. If he couldn’t take her down now, the damage she could cause later would be disastrous.

With the technique ready, Cadel made the slightest adjustment to his aim.

‘Please, let it hit.’

His snake-like eyes flashed, and from the tiny flame no larger than a fingertip, a heavy resonance vibrated. Reflexively holding his breath, Cadel clenched his extended wrist and fired the flame toward the fixed target.

However……

“This seems a bit dangerous, doesn’t it?”

Before the flame could even fully leave his palm, a man descended lightly from the sky, gently placing his hand over Cadel’s.

“I’ll take this.”

The surprised expression on Cadel’s face froze as the man’s smiling face overshadowed him.