Verity’s eyes froze in shock, his mouth agape. The battlefield lay silent as Bel stifled a yawn.

  “Have you lost your bite already? Pathetic.”

  It had been so sudden, so swift. Marco’s lifeless eyes stared straight at Verity, as if blaming him, cursing him for his fate. No matter how Verity twisted and flipped the situation in his mind, only one truth remained.

  Marco was dead.

  The demon was unscathed.

  Anger surged within Verity. His blood boiled, his body temperature rose, and his teeth clenched with such force that they seemed as though they would break.

  “YOU F*CK!! YOU KILLED MARCO!!!” He roared, straining his vocal chords.

  Hoshino mumbled as Verity held her, her eyes refusing to leave Marco’s corpse. “K-knight… H-how could this be…”

  Verity set Hoshino down, and stood up, his fists clenched tightly, his vision red and his breathing ragged.

  “I’LL KILL YOU! I SWEAR I’LL KILL YOU!”

  The demon glanced at him, a grimace contorting his face. “How noisy.”

  But before he could take a single step toward Verity.

  BOOM

  An explosive device collided with the demon’s face. “PULL YOURSELVES TOGETHER!!” Midnight commanded. She pulled small marbles from her pockets and threw them toward Bel before the smoke from the first one had even faded away.

  BOOM BOOM BOOM

  A barrage of explosives rained down on the demon, temporarily stopping him, or at least that’s what Midnight hoped for.

  Verity whipped his head toward her. It seemed she had poured a potion over her wound. It hadn’t fully closed yet, but the bleeding had somewhat stopped and at the very least, it was no longer life-threatening.

  “There are only two ways to kill a demon!!” She shouted. “Destroy the core–that’s nearly impossible! Or cut off their connection to the ambient mana!” She threw another set of bombs.

  BOOM BOOM BOOM

  A look of realization befell Verity, and his eyes snapped to Hoshino.

  Midnight bit her lip as she felt her supply dwindling rapidly. “Only mages can do that, but thankfully, we have one!”

  “Can you do it!??” She demanded, her question meant for their only mage.

  Hoshino clutched her wand, holding tears. Her gaze was still fixed on Marco, and her mind seemed to be elsewhere. “I-I’m not good at using Disrupt magic…” She finally said meekly.

  BOOM BOOM BOOM

  “THAT’S NOT WHAT I’M ASKING DAMMIT!!” Midnight shouted angrily, her voice cracking. “CAN YOU DO IT, OR DO WE ALL DIE HERE?”

  Verity looked at Hoshino intently, a frown forming on his face as he studied her. Her answer would be the difference between life and death, but she did not seem ready to meet their expectations.

  “I-I don’t know…Even if I tell you that I can, I’m not–”

  Verity grabbed her collar, fire in his eyes. “Who the hell are you!?!?” He shouted, his face an inch from hers. “If you’re going to be crazy, be crazy until the end!! Where is the Star of Justice!!? Your Knight dies, and you’re simply going to sit here and say that you can’t avenge him!??”

  BOOM BOOM BOOM

  Hoshino lowered her gaze, her facade slipping. She did not reply.

  “....Fine! Have it your way.”

  Verity stood up, his fists wanting nothing more than to rip that demon apart. “Midnight! We’ll have to find a way to destroy its–”

  “One minute.”

  Hoshino rose to her feet, leaning on her wand for support. Her blue eyes stared down the obscured silhouette of the demon with nothing but hatred. “All I need is but one minute, and I shall give you the opportunity to act as Justice’s executioner!”

  She immediately closed her eyes, muttering to herself.

  Verity looked at the demon.

  Was a minute even possible?

  He shook his head. It had to be.

  He then raised his fists. “Midnight! We need to buy her one minute!”

  Midnight, who had ran out of bombs, let out a dry laugh, and raised her daggers. “Yeah sure, no biggie,” she muttered to herself.

  The demon flapped its wings, clearing the smoke. “I hope you’ll come to entertain me,” he said with a sneer.

  “One minute, was it?” Bel’s clawed fingers curled around Verity’s spear, and he tossed it toward him. “I don’t believe you’ll last half that time.”

  Verity picked it up, his teeth clenched. “You’ll regret this.” He said, full of spite.

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  As the three looked at each other, the air was still, the battle to resume in mere moments. Verity’s heart raced. Fury, sorrow, and even fear, all ravaged it.

  Muscles tensed, but before any of them could move—

  “[Heaven Cutting Slash]!”

  A wave of sharp energy aimed straight for Bel surged from the dark forest. It had taken them all by surprise, but Bel, the demon, simply extended his arm. The sigil on his forehead pulsed. “Endure.”

  His bare flesh collided against the sword energy.

  CRACK

  Dark blood began to flow from his palm and he clicked his tongue. With a swing of his arm, he flung the sword energy aside and threw a scornful look toward the darkness.

  “So it seems even you couldn’t fully block it, huh.”

  Raven-dark hair flowed on the edge of Verity’s vision, and his eyes widened. ‘She survived…!!’

  There she stood, Felicia in all her glory, or at least some of it. Her complexion was pale, and she clutched her stomach tightly, but she was undeniably alive. It seemed that she too had used potions to avoid death.

  ‘What the hell is that…?’ Verity wondered as he took a good look at her.

  She had lost her chest plate, now standing before the demon with nothing to protect her vitals. What shocked Verity, however, was what she held. Where her fine sword was broken, a bright blue radiance completed its form.

  In this moment of life or death, Felicia’s genius pushed forward, and she achieved Enhanced Sword Aura, shaping the sword energy without the aid of a medium. She grinned, but it was not one of excitement, or joy at the prospect of battle. Her gaze itself pierced through the demon as she lowered her stance. “Screw one minute, I’ll just kill you right now.”

  Without waiting for a signal, she lunged toward her opponent.

  Verity and Midnight followed suit.

  The clash was fierce, fiercer than any battle Verity had ever fought before. The slightest mistake, the most insignificant misstep, would mean death.

  The demon’s claws, his wings, even his very skin was a lethal weapon, and all of his physical attributes were leagues beyond that of Verity and his companions.

  It was as if he’d come out straight of a nightmare, a final boss spawned from hell itself.

  So, the three of them did not spare any of their strength.

  Verity used Violence - Absolute Destruction in rapid succession as though he was using Violence - Annihilation.

  Every single one of his strikes was finishing a move, the air parting, the ground shuddering with every blow. In his fury, he even layered Fraud on top of it all. He moved as a blur throughout the battle and his prowess far surpassed what his level would suggest, fueled by fury and a blinding desire to slaughter his opponent.

  Of course, The burden on his body was tremendous. Blood seeped through every orifice and his muscles screamed for it to end, but that did not matter. He would last the minute, and did not care for what happened afterward.

  Midnight made full use of the surrounding shadows. Slipping past any dangerous attacks and ensuring that she remained within the demon’s blind spot.

  The mana expenditure was ridiculous, but her Arcane stat was rather high, so that was not a problem – for now. As an experienced adventurer, she always had a few tricks up her sleeve, but at this moment, she was unsure whether they’d even be worth attempting against the demon.

  ‘Nameless style - Riptide’

  Felicia had just created the form. It was purely offensive, something she was not used to. Against her Master, she had no choice but to defend, and against anyone else, going on the offensive often meant the battle would end far too quickly.

  But against this demon, it was perfect. She moved like furious, torrential waters, uncontainable and inescapable. Her blade cut through the demon, pierced his flesh, and maimed him.

  Though it was almost imperceptible, she could see that Bel was conscious of her Aura blade. Even the demon, with its unnatural regenerative abilities, struggled to heal his scarred hand. This made her grin even more sinister.

  The three of them sensed that if it continued like this, they could do it, they could contain Bel for one minute

  Midnight grit her teeth. “Keep going!! Don’t slow down for one secon—”

  In a flash, Bel gripped her throat. “Twenty seconds have passed, and I must say, I’m unimpressed.”

  The sigil pulsed. “Lacer–.”

  Midnight sneered, and she opened her mouth. “You talk too much.” A small marble rested on her tongue, and she spit it toward the demon.

  BOOM

  His face was engulfed in flames, but he did not let go.

  Felicia rushed from the side, roaring, her sword held high. Faster than the eye could see, she brought it down and slashed the demon’s arm clean off, freeing Midnight.

  From the other side, Verity lunged, the tip of his spear aimed at the demon’s head. He strained his muscles, putting everything he had in that one strike.

  “AHHH!”

  From the sheer pressure of his thrust, the cloud of smoke dissipated. His spear flew forward, unhindered, unstoppable, and with the strength to tear through anything. With a sickening crunch, it made direct contact with the demon, his head exploding in a cloud of crimson dust.

  “Don’t stop!!” Midnight shouted.

  Felicia shifted her grip, her sword ascending in an arc that slashed the demon’s torso deeply, giving way for a torrent of dark blood to pour out. Then she slashed again, and again, four times in total before tiring herself out, leaving the demon’s torso attached by a thin layer of bone and muscle.

  ‘I don’t like using this one…’ Midnight thought as she pulled a dagger with incredibly ominous energy from her dimensional storage.

  As soon as wrapped her hand around it, her tanned skin began to decay, and so she wasted no time shoving it into the demon. With the dagger at the nexus, the demon’s flesh darkened and withered, soon to be blown away by the wind entirely.

  Felicia was on the verge of attacking a fifth time, severing the torso clean in half, while Verity was already lunging to pierce through Bel’s chest when—

  A grotesque mouth opened on the palm of his remaining hand. “Explode.”

  Bel’s frame grew exponentially, large enough to slam into Verity, Felicia and Midnight. Then, with a deafening sound, it exploded.

  ‘What the–’

  BOOM

  The impact was devastating. Truly, a catastrophe. A crater lay at its origin.

  Verity was hurled dozens of meters away, and searing pain coursed throughout his entire body.

  Still, he grit his teeth and stood up immediately, not near ready to throw in the towel. Thankfully, It seemed that his armor had absorbed most of the impact, as expected of a Fine piece of equipment, but he had suffered major internal injuries. He coughed up a mouthful of blood as he searched for the demon.

  Felicia, however, did not fare as well. In an attempt to protect herself from the blast, her left arm had become useless, now an unsightly mess of mangled flesh and bone hanging on by a thread. “Well sh*t,” she mumbled.

  That was no longer an injury that could be healed by a mere potion.

  As for Midnight, she’d had the time to merge with the shadows, reappearing far away before Bel destroyed the surrounding ones. She was unscathed, but still, this had cost her a lot of mana, and she was beginning to feel dizzy.

  From nothing– No, from a single abyssal pearl, the demon’s body was reborn. Bone, flesh and skin, reformed anew before them.

  “I’ll command you,” He said, a sneer on his lips. “You’ve made me use a third word. Uncommon for something as pathetic as a human.”

  Bel unfurled his wings. “But that’s all, a maggot remains a maggot in the end.” He glanced in Hoshino’s direction, a smirk curling his lips. “She does not seem quite ready yet. Will you fight, or should I kill another to motivate you?”

  As if to answer him, Midnight picked up the dagger which had been flung away by the explosion. She then emerged from the shadows behind him. “Again, you talk too much!”

  The demon did not waste a second, and before she could even swing, he pierced her abdomen clean through. Her warm blood poured over his pale arm. “You’re nothing but a pe—”

  Midnight stabbed her own heart with the dagger.

  This seemed utterly foolish, perhaps even an act of desperation to not die at the hands of a demon. However, instead of tilting his head in confusion, sneering, or mocking her, the demon frowned.

  Where the blood flowed, his skin turned black, and cracks began to form.

  Midnight gave a weak smirk. “Haha…Idiot.”

  Skill: [Hemotoxin]

  Rank : A+

  Level : 13

  Rarity : Epic

  Type : Passive

  Description : In your veins brews a toxin deadlier than any alchemist’s concoction. To wound you is to risk contamination, to bleed is to strike back.

  Effect: Designate any toxicant, and your blood shall adopt its properties for one hour following intake.

  The demon cut off his arm, a disgusted look on his face, and Midnight fell to the ground. Her smirk did not fade, however, as the corrosion persisted even past the severed arm.

  She spoke weakly, her body growing cold. “It’s a… curse…not a poison…”

  In fact, Bel was still fending off the corrosion from the previous wound he had suffered from that cursed dagger. “...You maggot,” he spat, his face twisting in anger.

  A single tear fell from the corner of her eye, but Midnight did not give her final moments to the demon.

  Why had she risked her life for these people?

  Why was she dying for them?

  What did they mean to her?

  She wasn't sure.

  Just forget about him and move on!

  The words echoed in her mind. They were simple, crude, insensitive even, but she could not stop recalling them.

  With the last of her strength, she turned her head toward Verity.

  '...This isn't so bad,' she thought.

  There was a lot she wished she could say, and even more she wished she could do. It was almost funny how different this moment was to when Verity had been on the verge of killing her. Then, she welcomed death, but now, she wanted more time.

  But time was running out.

  So, she did the only thing she did. Her lips parted, the words undiscernible, and she smiled.

  Then, the light faded, and her body slowly crumbled from the curse, soon to be carried away by the wind.

  Ten more seconds.