Dozens of monsters piled up like hills. They piled on top of each other without a single breathing space, their heaving bodies pressing inward.

Trapped inside was Lumen, crushed by dozens of monsters, barely managing to get his elbows on the ground.

“Kkeugh…….”

As soon as the barrier was removed, the monsters rushed in, concentrating in the direction of Lumen’s defenses, indicating that they knew his location in advance and were preparing to attack. It was a creepy obsession.

Lumen relentlessly slashed at the beast that charged at him again and again, but even he had his limits.

‘I’m running out of energy.’

He was a swordsman who used a monstrous-like long sword and showed off outstanding explosive power. However, as strong as his power in the first half was, his second half was weak. As time passed, his speed and strength inevitably decreased.

The polar opposite of Van. Lumen knew his weaknesses well, and for the majority of his battles, he would outmaneuver his opponents and set the tune before they could adjust to his speed. That was his fighting style.

“Dirty, and……heavy!”

Struggling to lift his upper body from his prone position, he stretched out his arm to grab the sword that lay beneath the monster’s legs. His movements were slow as the muscles in his body screamed under the weight of dozens of monsters.

‘I have to create a way out somehow.’

He had been too busy dealing with the swarm of monsters to find Cadel. Even if they were concentrated in this area, it was unlikely that they didn’t spread out to take on other people.

There was no guarantee that the mercenary corps would come to his aid. Somehow, Lumen had to get out of this on his own.

‘……Got it.’

He drew a shaky breath as he gripped his sword.

‘If I clumsily try to save power, I could die.’

The first priority was to protect the core, which meant survival and escape.

With a dizzying weight pressing down on his body, Lumen closed his eyes tightly. He felt a fierce, swift sensation of deep energy coursing through his body.

What he wanted was power refined to the extreme.

[One Slash Hundred Stabs]

The silent blade sliced across the ground, drawing a single sword aura, which instead of blurring into an afterimage, grew clearer and clearer.

Blue light began to leak from the crevices of the mountain of monsters, and for a moment, the questioning voice of the monsters that made up the surface could be heard.

Kkueeek! Kieeek!

Hundreds of sword aura surged from the inside. The wide-spreading sword aura became a shattering wind, cutting them down and pushing them away.

Red blood and blue sword aura stained the space dizzily. In the center of the slowly dying storm, Lumen staggered to his feet.

There were no surviving monsters.

‘The core…….’

The first thing he checked was the inner pocket containing the core, and he felt its hardness against his hand.

‘Luckily it didn’t fall off…… Wait.’

But before he could breathe a sigh of relief, Lumen’s brow cracked as he swept the core with his fingers.

‘It feels weird…….’

Something about the feel of the surface was foreign to him, but he remembered the feel of the core well enough when trying to break it.

His lips curled into a dark smile, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the core, and there it was.

“Damn it!”

It was a stone with a shape similar to the core.

He couldn’t believe it had been switched. Where? By whom?

Anxious eyes scanned the area, and before long, Lumen spotted the ‘Baby Devil’ scurrying energetically up ahead.

A purple core filled its arms. Lumen tried to launch himself after the Baby Devil, but the damage that had been accumulating slowly caught up with him.

“Why now……!”

One bent knee touched the floor. Lumen struggled to pull himself up. His blue eyes popped open and his clenched jaw twitched.

The figure of Baby Devil quickly receded into his bloodshot eyes. He couldn’t lose the core in vain like this. A desperate groan lingered in his mouth.

That was the moment.

“Lumen!”

The reinforcement he had hoped for had arrived. Spotting Cadel running, Lumen called out in a cracked voice.

“Leader! Catch it!”

* * *

Cadel looked down at the small monster across from him, fierce teeth bared. What it was holding was, to all intents and purposes, the core.

‘Baby Devil…… Right?’

Lesser devils that served as minions of demons. To Cadel, who didn’t watch the story, ‘Baby Devils’ were just ‘monsters for reward drops that often appear during event seasons’. These types of enemies were less likely to appear and less bloody, and could be killed with a single skill before they even get a chance to attack.

That meant.

‘What technique was it using?’

Cadel had a vague idea of who it was, but he didn’t know what skills it had or what it’s capable of specifically.

‘I must take the core first.’

But for now, capturing the core in front of him was the priority. Thinking quickly, Cadel launched a fireball. But as the attack had barely touched the ground.

Kkigit! Kkikigit!

The Baby Devil had disappeared. His bewildered gaze moved toward the fireball that had landed on the empty ground, and soon found the back of the Baby Devil, who was running away from him.

“What move is that……!”

It was a speed reminiscent of Lumen. Of course, the current Baby Devil was slower than before because it had a core the size of its body, but it was still enough to deal with Cadel.

‘It’s impossible to chase it.’

Maybe Lumen could do it, but Cadel was physically inept right now, so it was unreasonable for him to pursue it with that speed. Cadel predicted Baby Devil’s moving path and threw a bolt of lightning in front of it.

Baby Devil, frozen by the lightning bolt in front of it, halted. Cadel, not missing a beat, summoned the mana of wind.

‘I need to hold it so it doesn’t get any further away.’

A gust of wind sliced through the atmosphere. In an instant, the wind stretched out and wrapped around Baby Devil’s body.

Kkiiiish!

The Baby Devil’s body floated into the air. Cadel increased the intensity of his mana, slowly compressing the [Wind Prison] that imprisoned it.

When used on Aiden, it had no use beyond capture, but [Wind Prison] was originally a spell that allowed the caster to control the range of the prison at will through the compression of mana. Of course, it could also be compressed into a single point to annihilate the target.

‘The Baby Devil I faced in the game was weaker than the event monsters, and that shouldn’t have changed.’

If he was not sure what skill it had, he just needed to kill it before it used that skill. Cadel compressed the [Wind Prison] in front of him.

Kkeek! Kkeeek!

A little devil with excessively gigantic eyes while holding the core like a treasure. Baby Devil was struggling in the narrow prison cell.

Cadel unleashed his mana without hesitation. No matter what, he would not surrender the core to the monster legion. That resolve was greater than anything else.

But before he could squeeze the Baby Devil properly.

Kkiiiiii—

It began to emit a deafening sound wave that hurt his ears.

“Urghh……!”

Reflexively covering his ears, Cadel crumpled his face. The mana was not withdrawn. The [Wind Prison] was steadily compressing, but Baby Devil remained silent, crouching as if to protect the core in the shrinking space.

His head throbbed with the constant high-frequency sound. Something wet trickled down the palms covering his ears.

‘I need to kill it quickly…….’

Despite being momentarily distracted by the tearing sound waves, Cadel drew on his mana and pressured the Baby Devil.

And finally.

Spurt. Thud.

“Ugh, my ears…….”

The Baby Devil was perfectly compressed. The blood that soaked the still-intact core was the only sign of its existence.

At the fading sound waves, Cadel pulled his bloodied palms away. Apparently, having the high frequencies right in front of his nose had damaged his eardrums.

‘I’ve got the core, so it’s okay.’

He caught the falling core with his mana and staggered briefly at the dizziness that came over him. Supporting his tilted body was Lumen that followed him.

“Leader, are you okay?”

“……You’re one to talk.”

Cadel leaned back against Lumen’s strong chest and looked up at his disfigured face. Neither of them looked well, the constant battle and pressure eating away at their bodies and minds.

Cadel smiled slightly as he thrust the core in Lumen’s direction.

“I stole it from Mini Lumen.”

“I hope you don’t mean that disgusting creature the Mini Lumen.”

“Its speed was just like you.”

“It’s not all about being fast.”

Cadel placed the core in Lumen’s arms, who was still dumbfounded, and slowly centered himself.

“I need to see what’s going on out there. I need to know how many monsters are out there. I need to know―”

Only then was he able to come up with a solution.

Cadel’s words were interrupted by a nearby vibration.

“What……!”

Lumen quickly turned his head, shielding Cadel from the tremors. He looked to the source of the tremors.

It was in the direction of the temporary garrison.