At that very moment, Kasha was running down the stairs like a madwoman, holding a magic tool.

‘I have to meet Wolfbane… before Leon does!’

Her heart was pounding as if it would burst. A fearful premonition seemed to rise up to her throat.

‘Please, please… just wait a little longer.’

The holy knights who saw the figure in a black hood suddenly appear on the battlefield swarming with magical beasts doubted their own eyes.

“What, what is it?”

His appearance, walking leisurely with magical beasts on either side as if they were his pet dogs, was like a messenger from hell.

“Stop right there! If you don’t stop, I’ll shoot!”

Despite the holy knight’s warning, he only stretched the corners of his mouth revealed under the hood.

Whoosh.

Finally, the holy power of the magic tool fired by the holy knight flew towards him.

But the next moment, the black hood disappeared from sight.

The holy knight, startled and looking around, was hit by a strong impact the next moment and collapsed, vomiting blood.

What struck his side was the right arm swung by the black hood, which had disappeared in an instant and then rushed in from his left side.

The destructive power of his bare hands, without using a sword or spear, was tremendous.

“You… who are…”

Gurgle.

The holy knight collapsed on the spot without even finishing his words properly.

Looking down at him, the black hood’s lips were filled with an undisguised ecstasy.

After that, the Mein of the black hood trampled the battlefield in all directions as if he had wings on his feet.

His movements were so fast that they were invisible to the eye, making it difficult to aim at him with magic tools, unlike simple magical beasts.

When aiming at the Mein, he would notice it in no time and rush in at tremendous speed, delivering a punch with terrifying strength or snapping necks.

Faced with a terrible power that surpassed human limits, the holy knights could only suffer helplessly.

If that was the situation for the holy knights armed with magic tools, the situation was even worse for the general soldiers under Count Lyuschino.

Moreover, whenever they tried to attack him, the surrounding magical beasts would rush in like a pack of dogs and launch joint attacks. The number of casualties on their side kept increasing.

At one point, the Mein, looking at the corpses piled under his feet, muttered.

“Truly… easy. So easy.”

But just then, a clear voice that didn’t fit the hellish battlefield was heard.

“Wolfbane. I want to talk to you.”

Despite being a small and fragile voice, the moment it pierced his ears, the Mein froze as if struck by lightning.

As he slowly turned around, there stood Kasha, surrounded by magical beasts and aiming a magic tool.

After firing a round of holy power at the magical beasts rushing towards her, she made another loud request.

“Wolfbane. Talk to me. Before you… kill more people, I need to talk to you.”

“…Who are you? Who the hell are you to order me around?”

An irritated laugh flowed from under the hood. However, at Kasha’s next words, that laughter abruptly stopped.

“You think I don’t know?”

“What?”

“Who you are, why you’re doing such a reckless thing, I…!”

With those words, Kasha aimed her magic tool straight at him.

Seeing that, the magical beasts bared their teeth and rushed towards her. It was a hair-trigger situation.

That’s when it happened.

In an instant, the Mein’s figure disappeared from sight, and then he swiftly approached and scooped up Kasha with one hand.

His hand lifted Kasha as lightly as a paper doll.

Then, with Kasha on his shoulder, he quickly disappeared into the shadows of the forest.

The magical beasts, having lost their prey in an instant, scattered angrily to find a new target. Only the magic tool Kasha had been using was left rolling on the spot where she had been.

“Put me down, put me down now!”

As soon as they entered the shade of the forest, Kasha struggled to escape from the Mein’s grasp.

Of course, due to the incomparable difference in strength, her struggle didn’t achieve much.

On the other hand, the Mein, who had Kasha slung over his shoulder like a piece of luggage, focused on moving at tremendous speed. He seemed to pay no attention to her demands at all.

Swaying helplessly on his back, Kasha, after some thought, reached out with all her might towards the Mein’s hood and pulled it off.

“……!”

The moment she confirmed the fluttering silver hair in front of her eyes, Kasha’s heart seemed to freeze coldly.

‘I expected it, but still… I hoped it wouldn’t be.’

At the same time, the Mein abruptly stopped. An overt murderous intent rose from his broad back. He flipped the hood back on with an irritated motion.

“…You’re really insolent, aren’t you.”

A low, chilling, and somewhat distorted voice muttered like that. The Mein roughly let Kasha down from his shoulder and grabbed her neck with one hand, lifting her high up.

In an instant, Kasha was left dangling in the air, her neck being strangled. Despite her face turning bright red and choking, she tried to get a good look at the face of the man in front of her.

Although half-covered by the hood, the distorted lips were indeed familiar.

“Ack, let go… of this….”

She grabbed the hand that was strangling her neck and tried her hardest to tear it away. However, his grip didn’t budge at all, as if it was made of steel.

That’s when it happened. A single name flowed out of Kasha’s mouth, which had turned pale.

“Stop it… Antho…ny.”

Then, in an instant, the power rapidly drained from his grip, which had been as hard as a rock and unmoving. He ended up letting go of Kasha’s neck.

“Cough, hack…!”

Kasha, thrown to the ground, managed to catch her breath. Then, on shaky legs, she slowly stood up.

No matter how much she knew his identity, the overwhelming difference in power evoked an instinctive fear.

The Mein, standing in front of her as she clenched her fists to hide her trembling body, suddenly let out a sneer.

“Don’t be presumptuous. Acting all high and mighty as if you know everything, as if you understand, it’s really disgusting.”

With those words, the Mein slowly raised his hand and pulled back his own hood.

The flowing silver hair scattered over his beautifully chiseled forehead. The delicate and sharp chin was lifted arrogantly, and the deep green eyes, darkened by the darkness of the forest, sparkled sharply.

It was Anthony Aranias, Leon’s younger brother and the second son of the Osilote family.

However, he had clearly changed from the appearance Kasha knew.

He had grown about half a span taller, and his shoulders were incomparably sturdier and more solid than before. The arms that had just been strangling her neck rippled with muscles as hard as steel.

The power of the magic stone Opus.

The devilish power that grants monstrous strength and stamina surpassing human limits.

A human possessing an Opus gains the strongest physique in the world. In hand-to-hand combat, there is no opponent who can defeat them.

Anthony had obtained that demonic power.

‘In the end, the Mein Wolfbane was Anthony.’

The villain who had defeated the Holy Knights and even made Leon lose his right arm in the Holy War before the regression was none other than Leon’s own younger brother.

Thinking about how much despair Leon would feel if he knew this fact made her heart ache terribly.

“How the hell… did you know? Don’t tell me, my brother knows too?”

The irritated voice was sensitive and prickly.

But that much was no different from the old Anthony, so the familiarity of it was rather reassuring.

“Your brother doesn’t know anything. Not yet.”

At Kasha’s answer, Anthony narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

“Is that so? You kept it a secret from my brother?”

A strange sense of triumph was evident in his slow, thoughtful tone. As if to rebuke that, Kasha boldly added.

“That’s right. I didn’t want Leon to know. Because I wanted him not to get hurt.”

“Ha.”

The Mein Wolfbane snorted as if it was ridiculous.

“Hurt? What hurt?”

“You know what family means to him. That he… sacrificed everything to protect his family. But if he finds out that such a family, the younger brother he loves, has swallowed a demon’s magic stone and harms people without any qualms… how could he not be hurt?”

“Ah, right. The demon’s magic stone, you say.”

Anthony’s green eyes glittered with a dark and viscous color.

“The one you unsealed, Kasha?”

Kasha’s mind grew cold at his tone that seemed to mock her.

‘As I thought, Anthony already knew.’

There was a reason he had been wary of her from the beginning.

“Did Prince Nigel… tell you that fact?”

“Hmph, as if that selfish human would.”

Anthony sneered coldly and crossed his arms.

“I found out on my own. Since there’s no way that human approached me with good intentions, I thought I should at least have one of his weaknesses in my grasp, so I secretly gathered information. Your name was included in it.”

“That’s right, you’re correct. The one who unsealed that demon’s magic stone… was none other than me.”

As if unable to contain his delight, the corners of his mouth rose even higher.

“Right. You were always that kind of woman. While clinging to my brother and pretending to be noble and innocent, I was truly disgusted by your hypocrisy.”

“……”

“You’re just hiding your selfish and evil nature, blending in with the flock of sheep and pretending to be innocent. You’re no different from me! And yet… what makes you so great that you always lecture me?”

“It’s not a lecture!”

Kasha’s clear voice echoed through the dark forest.

“I’m telling you to come back, before it’s too late. Before you cross the line from which you can never return!”

“Ridiculous. I crossed that line long ago.”

“Anthony.”

At the name she called with sincerity, his forehead twitched.

“Don’t call me by that weak bastard’s name anymore. You seem to already know my new name, though I don’t know how. I am the Mein Wolfbane. The one with power and abilities on a different level from the likes of you humans−,”

“Eve will be… waiting. Even at this very moment.”

At Kasha’s words, his face crumpled mercilessly. He denied it arrogantly, hiding his shaken emotions.

“For Eve… just having Leon is enough. In the end, the only one who played the role of an older brother to that child, from beginning to end, was only Leon.”

“Don’t lie.”

Kasha cut off his words without hesitation.

“You too, always… thought of Eve. You worried about Leon.”

“What nonsense are you spouting?”

“You… that’s why on that day, you killed that maid and her daughter, at Lake Elor. To prevent Eve from being sacrificed.”

Kasha’s eyes, painfully continuing her words, were clouded with deep sorrow.