In a large and wide corridor, footsteps echoed.

"Do you think it was the right idea to just let him go like that?"

Kevin asked, while he turned to face Amanda who was running next to him. Before she could answer, he raised his sword and slashed toward his right.

SHIIIING!

"Huek!"

The body of a demon split in half.

"Yes."

Amanda nodded. Taking out her bow, she brought the string back as three arrows formed on the bow.

Clang!

Letting go of the string, the arrows shot toward the distance and impaled three nearby demons.

"Since he's recovered his mana, he should have no trouble protecting himself, and"

Lowering the bow in her hand, Amanda proceeded to head deeper into the corridor.

"he's not exactly alone."

***

BaThump! BaThump!

Feeling the demon's hollow gaze pause on me, my heartbeat started to rapidly increase and my breathing also became more difficult.

My back began to sweat when the demon once again began to raise his hand.

'Well, shit'

I thought to myself as the Duke ranked demon slowly brought his hand down.

But

A figure materialized behind the demon as his hand was halfway down and attacked him from behind.

Spurt!

The demon began spraying black blood on the ground, and I noticed an enchanting figure standing behind him.

Her hand was currently reaching out for the demon's orb that was now visible to the naked eye, through a gaping hole in his chest area.

"Took you long enough."

I muttered with a smile and supported my body up.

'Thank god our plan worked.'

It was clear from the moment I decided to save Liam that I would not be able to defeat a Duke ranked demon with my current capabilities. Even if it was weakened and I had Liam's help. I still saw no way to defeat it.

Thus.

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I decided to have Angelica turn into a ring like usual, and dropped her toward one of the nearby pillars.

Through communication with Liam, I was able to get Liam to push the demon toward the pillar where Angelica sat so that we could sneak attack him.

That was our plan, and things should've ended there, but..

Bang!

I suddenly saw Angelica's body being swung to the other side of the room, before crashing into one of the pillars as a loud banging sound echoed through the air.

A moment later, my body froze.

Drip! Drip!

Raising my head, all I saw was black blood spilling from the demon's chest as he held onto his core with his hand.

He then pushed it into his body, and his injuries started to heal rapidly.

'how is this possible?'

I thought in shock.

Even after having his core exposed like that, he was able to move his body and force Angelica out of his way before hiding the core again.

Opening my eyes wide, I alternated my gaze between Liam and Angelica. They were currently both still alive, but I knew that it was only a matter of time before they died.

This was especially true for Liam who was bleeding profusely and a small pool of blood formed beneath him.

I knew that I had to act fast.

Fortunately, I also noticed that the demon wasn't in the best condition at the moment. He was currently in a weakened state as he was healing from his injuries.

Furthermore, I was also able to notice that the longer the time passed, the weaker his attacks became. I understood then that he was on the verge of death.

He had clearly been fighting using the last shreds of life energy inside of his body.

If I just waited, ten minutes? or maybe less, then he would without a doubt die without me needing to do anything.

Unfortunately, I couldn't afford such luxury. Taking note of Angelica and Liam's condition, mana erupted from my body as I placed my hand on the sheath of my sword

"Now!"

I shouted as I turned to glance at my shadow servant.

Following my orders, the shadow servant pressed his hand against the hilt of a black sword, and the mana inside of my body started to rapidly deplete.

Click

After which, the shadow servant's figure disappeared from the spot and reappeared right in front of the demon.

The third movement of the [Keiki style] : Void step.

Bang!

Appearing right in front of the demon, the shadow servant stabbed his sword right where the demon's core was. Unfortunately, in spite of the extreme speed at which he appeared and attacked, the demon didn't seem to be the slightest bit startled as he just move a little back and avoided the attack.

After which, he raised his leg and kicked the shadow servant right in the abdomen area, completely severing the servant into two. He soon disappeared into thin air and the mana inside of my body rapidly halved.

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"Ugh."

After letting out a small groan, I pressed my sword's hilt with my thumb and carefully took a stance.

'Good enough.'

I didn't really have anything in mind when I sent the shadow servant toward the demon, the goal was to stop it from healing and buy me enough time to accumulate enough mana to finally use my strongest move.

The last and most powerful movement to date.

The fifth movement of the [Keiki style] : Space splitter

Cr..crackcrack

A bright white light suddenly enveloped the surroundings as the space around the Duke ranked demon started to crack apart.

All of this happened within the span of half a second, and it wasn't long before fissures formed next to the demon, and lights began to shoot out from them, heading toward the Duke ranked demon at incredible speeds.

"Huek!"

The light soon completely impaled the demon's body, and even more black blood started to spill on the floor.

The demon's helpless screams echoed out. Had the demon been in the right state of mind, and not as injured, he may have been able to easily avoid my attacks, but he wasn't, and it wasn't long before his figure started looking like a porcupine as a myriad of long white lights impaled his body completely.

Drip! Drip!

Under the demon's body, a black pool of blood formed, before the white lights impairing him scattered and he collapsed on the floor.

Taking advantage of this moment, I rapidly appeared before the demon and reached out for his core.

Crack!

Not wanting to make the same mistake as Angelica, the moment I felt the core in my hand, I rapidly shattered it into pieces, and the demon's body stopped moving and scattered in the air in the form of fine black dust.

"Haaaa."

Slumping back on my butt, I leaned back and heavily gulped for air.

My chest was burning, and I was currently feeling extremely lightheaded.

"This was a lot harder than I thought."

Despite all the preparations I had made in order to handle the Duke-ranked demon, it took everything I had to kill him. It also had to be noted that I had the assistance of both Liam and Angelica along the way.

'That was really close'

I thought to myself. Quickly turning my body, I turned to gaze in Liam's direction and forced my body up.

"Ugh."

As I stumbled towards him, I reached my dimensional space, a feminine-looking ring, and took out the same potion I had previously given him.

Since my dimensional space was currently somewhere else, I could only borrow Amanda's.

"Drink it"

Opening Liam's mouth, I forced the potion into his mouth. Compared to the time I fed Smallsnake, I was a lot harsher.

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"Haaahaa"

Only once the potion emptied did I finally slump to the ground and stared at the ceiling.

Looking at the ceiling of the room, I suddenly heard footsteps heading my way.

I didn't need to look to know who they belonged to.

"Angelica, are you okay?"

"Yeah."

Angelica replied while walking up to me. Soon her face came into my vision, and she spoke.

"We should get going. I believe the others are going to soon reach the core of the mana compressor."

"You're right."

Chugging down a potion, and feeling the mana inside of my body replenish, alongside the injuries of my body which were quickly healing, I weakly stood up and grabbed Liam's passed-out body before placing him on my shoulder.

"CoughcoughLet's get going."

Taking a look around the room and seeing that there was nothing else left inside, I headed toward one of the nearby corridors.

'I want to get out of here as fast as possible.'

In spite of the fact that the Duke ranked demon here had already been killed, I still didn't feel safe.

The sense of crisis that I had been feeling ever since arriving here had not once disappeared, rather, it only increased with each passing second.

I didn't exactly know what brought rise to this strange feeling, but if there was one thing that I knew, it was that I needed to trust my feelings.

Whenever I chose to ignore them, something bad always tended to happen, and so

"Let's hurry up."

Picking up my pace, I ran toward where the others were located.

'I really do hope this is just a feeling.'

***

Cr...Crack.

A fissure formed in the middle of the sky, and a figure stepped out of it. When the figure appeared, the surroundings trembled as his presence enveloped everything that lay beneath him.

"Is this Cassaria?"

Taking a look at his surroundings, Magnus's eyes shifted in a certain direction.

"Hm?"

Sensing something, a smile formed on Magnus's face. Opening his mouth, he mumbled.

"Interesting."

After taking a step forward, his figure vanished.

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