* * *

Cadel threw away the core nervously.

The core, splayed out on the rough dirt floor, illuminated Cadel’s distorted face over its glistening body, as if to properly trace his temper.

“Ahaha! I’ve never seen a demon heart before. I think I’m going to vomit from the smell?”

Beside him stood the healed Lydon and Lumen. Lydon crouched before the core Cadel had tossed away, studying it intently. His eyes sparkled with curiosity, then he snatched it up.

Cold air rose above the palms that held the heart core tightly. Soon, ice was formed that covered the outer surface of the core, but his mana could not penetrate the core.

“Wow, that’s solid.”

“Don’t play around.”

Lumen leaned down and took away the core. Thanks to the intensive healing technique, all the grievous wounds were gone. He said as he returned the core he took from Lydon to Cadel.

“My sword, the Twilight Knight Order’s Holy Swordsmanship, and Leader’s magic can’t deal a single blow to the core, so we’ll have to find another way.”

“……There’s no other way, and while we’re wasting time trying to figure it out, the core will resurrect Ergo again, and the only way to stop the monsterization of the villagers is to destroy the core and kill Ergo once and for all.”

The herbs Cadel had brought with him restored some of the mana he had lost, but he was still unable to destroy the core. He was unable to break through the ‘protective barrier’ surrounding the core.

An unfortunate future was coming.

‘Can I kill the resurrected Ergo within the time limit? If he gets away with it……. No. If we don’t break the core, it’ll just repeat itself.’

His head felt like it was going to explode. Wasn’t there a saying, for every high mountain there was an even higher mountain? The pressure was overwhelming.

Cadel bit his lip and stared gloomily down into the core, the source of all evil.

“Commander!”

From the distance, Van came running, his fine silver hair flying.

He smiled delightedly at the sight of Cadel, who looked unharmed, and Cadel looked Van up and down, frowning.

“I thought I told you to do it in moderation and run away.”

“Well, it’s not as easy as I thought…….”

Van mumbled and tried to excuse himself, as if his conscience was being stabbed, but Cadel only sighed shallowly and looked away. His nerves were too sensitive to be distracted.

“Forget it. Go in there and get your healing first.”

“All that’s left to do is clean up the mess, right? I’ll help. It’s a minor wound, so it shouldn’t need to be treated…… Ah, right. Commander, I got this from the clone, take a look.”

If Van had approached Lumen first, instead of Cadel. No, if he had even acknowledged the presence of the core on the floor, he wouldn’t have pulled the shard out in front of Cadel with a smile on his face. That would have only added fuel to Cadel’s already burning anger.

But Van firmly believed that Cadel had defeated the demon perfectly, and thought that the purple shard he had obtained might be some kind of rare gem.

All good things came to the commander.

That was Van’s motto, so he proudly picked up the shard.

Cadel’s hand trembled as he took the shard from Van. Of course, it was from anger.

“Sprinkle your heart here and there, damn it, crazy bastard…….”

“……Commander?”

“I’m miserable like this because I couldn’t even break one, but you added two more as a bonus? Are you kidding me? If it’s important, put it in one place, you inefficient *sshole.”

Bone-crushing defeat, kidnapping of subordinate, a ghastly Ergo’s life force that revived even when he tore off his limbs and burnt them, time limits that dwindled with every blink of an eye, and tasks that made no progress.

All the failures and pressure combined to gnaw away at Cadel’s patience.

Van froze at the sound of Cadel’s vile curses, never having heard them before, and Lumen, behind him, nudged him.

“What a perfect gift at the perfect time.”

“What happened to Commander? I’ve never seen him so angry before…….”

With a sneer, Lumen explained a series of events that Van wasn’t aware of. Van’s complexion quickly darkened as he listened.

“……I should have just kept it to myself.”

“If you had taken it out when he figured out how to destroy it, he might have loved it.”

Van lowered his eyes sullenly as he watched Cadel pouring out merciless flames with the shard he had handed to him on the floor.

“Go get treatment.”

If you don’t listen to his order, Leader would really fall down due to anger.

Lumen’s tone was condescending, but there was no denying it. Any longer, and Cadel, freshly awake, would pass out again from high blood pressure. Eventually, Van obeyed and went to the Twilight Knight Order.

“Cadel is scary when you’re angry! If we were in the forest, I would have broken it for you somehow. It’s a shame.”

“……How long does it take to get to the Forest of Enchantment by flying?”

“Well, two or three days?”

Cadel rolled his eyes, glistening with rage, and glared at the upper right corner.

「Time remaining 07 : 02 : 56」

7 hours left. It was ambiguous to try something new, and it was an insufficient time to push common sense methods.

Cadel tried to calm his racing thoughts.

‘It’s a ridiculously tight window of time, considering the possibility of resurrection, but if I look at it calmly, I’m the one holding Ergo’s rope of life right now. If I can destroy the core in time, it’s all over.’

In the game, the protection barrier created by Ergo’s skill, [Core Protection], was quite thick. Normally, he would collect the knights’ ‘special moves’ and destroy it all at once with the Awakening skill of the character with the highest attack power.

‘At the time, my favorite Awakening skill was Yozen’s Inevitable Death.’

As a player, Ergo’s [Core Protection] wasn’t that big of a deal to him, as his Assassin position knight’s [Inevitable Death] had a huge amount of damage that pierced through opponents’ protective barrier in a single shot.

It was easy to break it and hit the opponent with 1 HP left with just one flat blow.

‘But now I don’t have the skills to replace Yozen or Inevitable Death.’

His subordinates were B-grade and A-grade who were not at full awakening, and the only S-grade, Lydon, had his stats halved.

‘Although I have reached the level of a 7-star…….’

His immediate skills were limited. There was one spell that came to his mind, but it wasn’t in the right place, and the risk was too great for a guaranteed success.

“Haa…… I’m going crazy…….”

Looking up at the sky out of habit, Cadel sighed heavily. Even if there was no answer, he couldn’t be like this.

As Cadel was slowly slipping into a state of nirvana, a man approached him.

“Any progress?”

It was Garuel. For some reason, he hadn’t brought a flask with him, and his cool smile and broad shoulders made him look like a good-natured young master from a noble family. His lopsided eyes gave off a languid air that strangely caught the other party off guard.

For Cadel, it didn’t work.

“As you can see.”

Cadel gestured to the glowing core on the scorched earth. Exaggeratedly gesturing away from the wisps of smoke, Garuel stooped to pick up the core and ran his hand over its smooth surface.

“The healing work is almost over, so let’s all gather together and put our heads together. Don’t push yourself too hard when you’re not fully recovered.”

“……That would be better.”

“By the way…….”

Looking at Cadel, who violently shoved the heart core he had handed over into his pocket, Garuel’s eyes curved.

“I thought the next time we met, we would be able to spend a good time together, just the two of us. It’s a pity.”

It was as natural as breathing. Cadel stared at Garuel’s amused expression, then spoke coldly.

“What’s really a pity is that there’s a commander who is not showing his skills even in this situation.”

“……Hmm? Where is that commander?”

“I think Sir Garuel would know better than me.”

Cadel was fully aware of the reason why Garuel couldn’t bring out his skills. However, this was a crisis that made it impossible to break through even with all one’s strength.

“If you’re not going to be serious about helping, at least leave the lame jokes out of it. Don’t make a fool of a desperate man.”

A cold wind seemed to blow from his back. Garuel, who was chasing Cadel’s back for a while, soon swept his chin down with an awkward expression.

“I must look like a piece of sh*t.…….”