‘This is insane.’

Even in such a dire situation, a hollow laugh escaped him. That endlessly spirited determination to defeat the clone and leave the room to protect Cadel remained intact. His resolve hadn’t wavered. He just hadn’t expected his sword to break before his will did.

Lumen frowned as he gripped the sword that had already snapped in two for the second time.

‘And there aren’t even any spare swords lying around here.’

This was bad. On the wide-open field, there wasn’t a sword in sight, not even a sharp stone. No backup weapons. Well, he did have one more sword, technically.

‘A sword I can’t even draw and a broken one in two pieces…… What can I possibly do with these?’

The answer was, ‘Absolutely nothing.’ At that hopeless conclusion, Lumen bit his lip. Across from him, Emilia’s clone let out a clear laugh.

“Thinking hard? About how to fight me with a broken weapon?”

“……”

“Why? You’ve got the sword you stole from my armory, don’t you? Why not use that? Haha…… I know. You can’t draw that sword. Look at your face. Priceless.”

She mocked Lumen freely as she spun her demonic sword around. Her blade changed in length and width at will, easily applying pressure to Lumen. Each strike was shockingly powerful. Even so, Lumen’s instincts as a swordsman told him—this clone still hadn’t shown her true strength.

Even a clone of the Demon King wasn’t fighting seriously. That could only mean she didn’t need to. That’s how weak he was. Weak. After all that desperate training, after nearly dying countless times to get here…… And still, he wasn’t enough? That bitter emotion crept up his chest.

“You’re right. I don’t have a sword, so I can’t fight anymore. All I can do is block with this broken blade or the sheath of the one I can’t draw. Yeah. So go on. Are you finally going to kill me now?”

A rebellious glint crossed his previously emotionless face. Emilia looked at Lumen and pulled up the corners of her lips.

“I won’t kill you. I’m going to torment you until you wish you were dead, and once Cadel Lytos gets here, I’ll toss you in front of him.”

“When Leader arrives……?”

“Cadel Lytos is racing this way right now.”

Had someone already summoned Cadel? How? And did Cadel actually answer that call?

A sudden wave of unease filled Lumen, tight enough to take his breath away, but he quickly shook his head.

Whether someone had summoned him or not. The fact that Cadel was on his way here meant he had finished preparing for the attack, didn’t it? If so, then he needed to get out of here and join up with Cadel as soon as possible.

‘Sir Garuel is probably coming with him.’

Garuel had left saying he had something to deliver to Cadel but had never returned. If he still hadn’t met Cadel, that would be one thing—but more likely, he’d been helping him somehow, which had delayed their reunion. It made the most sense to assume Cadel and Garuel were together.

Lumen threw the broken sword to the ground and instead pulled out the demon sword. Emilia’s expression shifted subtly at that.

“You’re going to face me with that?”

“Is there a problem?”

“No, not exactly, but……”

Trailing off, she narrowed her eyes lazily, then lunged without warning. A sudden charge, accompanied by a gale. Lumen raised the demon sword and blocked the incoming strike that had closed the distance in a flash. The shockwave rippled wide, pressing the field’s grass flat. He braced himself against the blow, his body barely holding its ground. He wrapped his energy around the sword’s sheath. It didn’t fly from his grip, nor did it send him flying back. The two clashed, tension taut between their blades.

“I really hate the sight of that sword in a human’s hand.” 

Emilia muttered, her expression tightening slightly as she met Lumen’s unwavering gaze. She had used considerable force, but unlike the sword that had broken so easily before, this sheath didn’t even budge. It made sense.

“Do you know who the owner of this sword is? I’ve given up trying to draw it, but I am curious about who could have.”

“I’m not obligated to tell you.”

“I’m asking nicely.”

Even though it was a contest of raw strength, Lumen wasn’t being easily pushed back. With a body this battered, he was somehow enduring her power. It was pure willpower. The thing that had kept him standing and fighting until now wasn’t stamina or endurance—it was a fierce, unyielding spirit.

If someone like him had been born a demon and become her subordinate…… perhaps so many things would’ve turned out differently. Emilia’s fragmented soul clicked her tongue at the thought.

“It was something of the Human Realm. But it wasn’t made by humans.”

“What does that mean? A demon used a sword forged by humans?”

“It’s the sword of Kelligan, the guardian deity of the Empire. The sword that drove my father to his death.”

Kelligan, the guardian deity of the Empire. At those words, Lumen’s eyes widened. The clone didn’t miss the opening born of his confusion. She deflected his blade with a shove, and Lumen, unable to withstand the impact, rolled across the ground. Even as he tumbled helplessly across the rough field, Emilia’s words echoed in his head.

‘This is the sword that brought down the former Demon King? Not a demon sword, but Kelligan’s?’

Whether the sword had been wielded directly by Kelligan or by Janin, his knight—one thing was clear. This sword held enough power to kill a Demon King.

‘If I could just draw it…….’

Hope flared, cutting through the despair of his situation. Lumen managed to stop his rolling body and lifted his head to locate the clone. In the next moment, she was charging at him with terrifying speed.

“Are you the one who sealed this sword so I couldn’t draw it?”

The clone thrust her sword down at the spot where Lumen had just been lying. He rolled swiftly to dodge and regained his footing. As she pulled the sword from the now-deepened earth, she spoke.

“Of course not. I genuinely wanted to draw that sword. It’s a good weapon—I wanted to use it myself or give it to a subordinate. But it wouldn’t budge.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know. The human who brought down my father died in the Demon Realm. The sword was found next to the corpse. Maybe Kelligan placed a restriction on it so no demon could wield it.”

Even Emilia didn’t know what conditions were required to break the sword’s seal. It wasn’t something she could afford to lose, but destroying it felt like a waste—so she simply stored it away. It had ended up in a human’s hands by accident, but since that human couldn’t draw it either, it hadn’t seemed like a big deal.

Dodging another wave of Emilia’s relentless strikes, Lumen’s mind kept working through the mystery.

‘It can’t be sealed forever. If that were the case, Kelligan wouldn’t have just sealed it—he would’ve destroyed it completely. ……When the sword is held not by a demon, but by a human. It’s a kind of condition—so that if the time came, the right person could still kill the enemy.’

So that when humans returned to the Demon Realm and waged their desperate wars again, they could defeat the Demon King using this sword’s power. Kelligan had left behind a small shred of hope—a safeguard against a disaster that might come again. Hoping someone would carry on his knight’s legacy and protect peace.

‘Think. What kind of spell Kelligan might have cast on this sword. What kind of human he would’ve deemed worthy to draw it.’

He had to think. He had to draw that sword—because only then could he stand as Cadel’s sword and face the Demon King. As Lumen barely blocked the clone’s latest strike, a glimmer of resolve flashed in his eyes.

* * *

「Knight ‘Lumen Dominic’’s will knocks on the wall of fate.」

「Knight ‘Lumen Dominic’’s Limit Break Quest has begun.」

「Upon failure, the Limit Break Quest will vanish. Knight ‘Lumen Dominic’ will die.」

“Why now of all times…!”

Cadel frowned at the sudden system message that popped up. Up until now, everyone except Garuel and Lumen had succeeded in their limit breakthroughs. But not once had Cadel wished for those two to undergo it as well. In fact, he had hoped they wouldn’t. Because he knew all too well what kind of immense trials one had to overcome for a limit breakthrough.

“Knight Commander? What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“……Lumen’s in danger.”

“Sir Lumen? How could you possibly know that……? Don’t tell me—that ‘system’ thing told you? I didn’t think it was that generous.”

Climbing stairs at full speed while blocking incoming attacks and maintaining a conversation was no easy feat. But Cadel, glancing up at the many steps still ahead, replied.

“It didn’t warn me directly. When a squad member overcomes a crisis and gains greater strength, the system notifies me that the trial has begun. But like I said, that only happens if they manage to overcome it. The very fact that it’s started means they’ve hit an enormous crisis they must surpass.”

With Sorin dead, and the rest of them engaged in battle with the Demon King, the fact that Lumen’s limit breakthrough quest had appeared was an extremely ominous sign. Even with all their combined strength, they were being cornered.

Suppressing the searing pain in his thighs as he climbed two steps at a time, Cadel’s breath came fast. Beside him, Garuel, turning over his words, asked.

“Did I ever have one of those moments? I’ve faced quite a bit of hardship, after all.”

“No. You didn’t.”

“……Sounds like everyone else did.”

“Now that Lumen’s begun, yeah. Everyone but you.”

It wasn’t a particularly important topic. Cadel didn’t want even Garuel—the last one untouched—to ever have to face a limit breakthrough. He considered the conversation done and tried to focus solely on the stairs again.

But just as he lunged forward for another stride, Garuel suddenly swept him up with one arm, cradling him effortlessly as he muttered with a wry expression.

“My pride is taking a real hit right now.”