He didn’t expect to have to use it this soon. Since it was something Cadel had handed over, its effectiveness was guaranteed, and ideally, it should’ve been used when facing the Demon King. If possible, he wanted to return it to Cadel once he came back so he could ensure his own safety.

[Mini Sprayer]. When he pressed the switch on top of the rectangular sprayer, fine particles spread into the air. Since it was impossible to see with the naked eye, Lumen had to press the switch multiple times. And then, the next moment—

“What, what is this?”

All the demons froze in place. Something as hard as stone had covered their surfaces. Van and Ector showed signs of bewilderment as they looked at the demons frozen right in front of them.

Crack. Creak.

But soon, cracks formed over the hardened demons, and their bodies beneath began to tremble.

“They’ll start moving again soon. In the meantime, everyone, keep your heads down.”

If attacks didn’t work, then the plan to create a safe zone by killing the demons also became useless. Among the knights who quickly ducked and observed the demons’ behavior, Yozen alone placed his forehead against the ground and furrowed his brow.

‘……Tiny. Extremely tiny.’

Until now, he hadn’t been able to examine the energy comprising the demons in detail. Their movements were just too fast, and he’d been focused on detecting the signs of attacks from the outer circle. But now that they were all frozen in place, Yozen could uncover one fact he hadn’t realized until now.

“The demons here—their hearts are incredibly small.”

At Yozen’s words, Lydon, who had been rolling around nearby, raised an eyebrow.

“Smaller than I am right now?”

“Yes. Smaller than you. To be exact, the core of energy inside their bodies is very minuscule.”

As the cracks on the demon’s body widened, grains of sand began to fall from underneath. Ector brushed the sand off his hair and looked at Yozen.

“So you’re saying the reason we couldn’t attack the demons is because of that? Because we couldn’t destroy that tiny core of energy, our attacks just passed through their bodies?”

“……Probably. Even excluding the core, the energy is spread across their bodies, following their shape—but it’s very faint. I can’t see, so I don’t know how clearly formed their shapes look to you. But at this level of definition, it’s basically like seeing a ghost.”

As soon as Yozen finished speaking, he seemed to measure something carefully, then began crawling toward a specific direction in a low posture. The place he headed for was right beside Van. With a puzzled frown, Van watched as Yozen pulled out a dagger.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to destroy the core. There’s not much time. Hold him down for me, Van.”

Van’s face twisted with frustration at the bold request. Hold him down? If he held one in place, demons would soon be flying at him from all directions like missiles. It was practically a death sentence. Still, even while expressing his disbelief, Van eventually rose to his feet. Then he called out to the others still lying flat.

“Make sure none of us get blown to bits. Especially the damn fairy. Stop lazing around and do something useful.”

Lydon muttered something in protest, but Van cleanly ignored him and dusted off his hands. With a huff and a determined glint in his eye, he grabbed the demon before him firmly by both shoulders. Fierce vibrations pulsed beneath his solid grip.

“I’ll try to hold back the demon on the other side.”

“No need.”

Sorin, realizing Van and Yozen’s plan, hurriedly tried to rise, but Van flatly refused.

“If our mana is split between two spots, even the ones who would survive will die. Focus all your mana on me.”

He tensed every muscle in his body, released his aura, and wrapped it around himself. Then, barriers of ice and fire enclosed him. Modeleine crawled closer to Van, preparing his light magic for healing. While Van braced for the shock that was sure to come, Yozen, now coating his dagger in dark energy, located the position of the core.

The core was extremely small, and the concentration of demonic energy around it was dense. If he destroyed it by force, the resulting shock could injure Van, who was right next to it. So he needed to find the weakest point and make a clean cut.

“The sand is collapsing. Get ready.”

Barely had Lumen finished speaking when the [Mini Sprayer]’s effect wore off. Van held the charging High Demon like an unyielding bull. However—

“Urgh……!”

A total of seven. Excluding the demon Van was restraining, a total of seven demons charged at the spot where he stood, crossing paths in their assault. A powerful pressure crushed his entire body. Van gritted his teeth as he felt his body being ruthlessly squashed, like clay in a child’s hand.

Even the barriers of Mamil and Lydon cracked easily, and in the time it took for them to regenerate, his bones and internal organs were damaged. It was pain intense enough that losing consciousness wouldn’t be surprising, but Van barely managed to hold on to his slipping awareness. It was thanks to Modeleine’s healing magic unfolding right in front of him.

“Sir Van’s internal organs are rupturing too quickly! Sir Yozen, hurry!”

There were limits to the effectiveness of long-range healing. Modeleine shouted urgently, eyes locked on the demons swarming Van like a hive of bees. But Yozen gave no reply, focusing silently on gathering power. His preparation was calm and quiet, and it made those watching feel increasingly anxious.

“I’d rather not get covered in Van’s blood.”

“At this level of pressure, a barrier isn’t nearly enough to protect him. If you’re not going to blow up the core right now, we need to pull him out.”

“Commander, is it really okay to leave Sir Van like this?”

“……Even as a joke, it doesn’t seem okay.”

Van was approaching his limit. His body repeatedly crushed and regenerated in a gruesome cycle, and everyone’s expressions grew grim. Even Lumen, who had been silently watching, finally furrowed his brow.

Crack.

Yozen’s dagger, which had been rising silently, pierced the target’s heart.

* * *

With his exhausted body, Cadel helped Garuel to a spot where Lawrence’s corpse was out of sight. He leaned Garuel against the sturdiest-looking tree trunk he could find, then gently stroked his soft white hair. Garuel’s pupils had returned to normal, but demonic energy still stirred restlessly within his body. It was a clear sign that his condition was far from stable.

“Let’s move once you’ve calmed down a bit more.”

If he pushed him any further, Garuel’s mind would completely collapse. Cadel had no intention of driving him past the edge. Garuel stared wordlessly at Cadel, who sat down beside him.

“Staring like that won’t change anything. I’m not going to abandon you. Or kill you. So give it up.”

The trunk was too narrow for both of them to rest their heads on it, so Cadel rolled his stiff neck, stretching it side to side. His whole body was sore from staying tense for so long.

Garuel placed his hand on Cadel’s shoulder. When Cadel looked over, startled, he felt a gentle energy soothing his tensed muscles.

“……You don’t need to use healing magic just because I’m a bit sore. It’s a waste.”

“I wanted to do it.”

Garuel’s expression was worn out, dry with exhaustion. Hearing someone who looked like that say they wanted to cast healing magic for him made it hard for Cadel to refuse. He accepted the lightness returning to his body, and when the healing was done, Garuel slowly withdrew his hand.

There were still dried streaks of blood messily smeared around Garuel’s mouth. He unconsciously picked at the crusted blood as he staggered to his feet.

“What are you doing? I said we should rest before moving. Sit down, now.”

“You said Sellev took one of the siblings with her. It’s probably already too late, but still…… still, I have to go after them.”

Even in that broken state, both body and mind, he was still worrying about that? Cadel let out a sigh and grabbed Garuel’s arm.

“You don’t have to worry about it.”

“You said if we didn’t kill all the siblings, the war would just keep repeating.”

“I did.”

“Then how can you—”

“I said, don’t worry about it because I did kill them all.”

Garuel stared blankly, mouth slightly open at the dry response. Cadel tugged him down and forced him to sit.

“You probably didn’t know, but before escaping the underground, I already took one of them out. Well, to be precise, I made sure he would die soon. The one Sellev took—he’s that guy. So he’s probably dead by now.”

When he had aimed the flame blade at the demon’s heart, it hadn’t pierced straight through, but he had embedded a blazing ember deep within it. Since he didn’t have time to kill him outright, he’d basically planted a time bomb.

And before that time was up, he’d killed the other two siblings as well.

‘When I took out the last sibling, the system popped up with a message. Proof that my first strike was going to finish him off no matter what. Sellev basically carried off a corpse. I hope she at least made it in front of Emilia before it happened.’

Cadel, who spoke with a detached tone, gave Garuel a faint smile when he saw the relief in his eyes.

“So focus on your own condition. Recover quickly—we still have to return to the castle.”