“Go back now. I just need to kill this witch for sure. There’s no need to save a demon who spreads plague and curses, right? With the curse magic of my talented sister inheriting the Jeanne d’Arc of the proud Françoise family, you know how many people have died.”

“No. You don’t need to know. She didn’t kill those people.”

Arvian rebutted Ermont’s words with a firm voice, wiping the blood flowing from his mouth with the white sleeve of his priestly garment.

“A priest? Did you come to exorcise the witch? Get a hold of yourself.”

Despite Ermont’s sneer, Arvian, who had been spitting blood while on all fours, slowly stood up.

“You’re the one who should leave. I assure you as the first disciple of the gods, that woman is innocent. I won’t leave her behind!”

Although trembling all over and barely standing, Arvian’s eyes were filled with a confident and sharp red light.

Gradually, a brighter light began to emit from Arvian’s body than before.

Once again, the light was powerful enough to expel all the dark energy that covered the forest.

“Now!”

Arvian, in a disheveled state with sweat pouring down his entire body and blood flowing from his mouth, shouted in pain, seeming to endure it.

“Uwaaaaah!”

Arvian, squeezing out every last drop of divine power, created an opportunity by extracting the remaining divine power he had.

Faced with the unbearable pain, Arvian vomited blood once again, confirming the terrible pain that he had never known until now.

Although it seemed like she might lose consciousness due to the pain, she couldn’t give up.

‘I can’t lose anything more.’

“Uwaaaaaaah!”

Ermeldirin, screaming as if she were being torn apart, finally released the magic circle.

Her body collapsed powerlessly, emptied like ash burned fiercely.

At that moment, the pain-relieved Felio fired blue flames towards Ermont.

“Kwaaaaah!”

Ermont, whose entire body was instantly engulfed in flames, began to flee in agony, emitting painful groans.

When Felio, who was about to forcibly lift Ermont’s unmoving body to finish him off, appeared from somewhere and dragged Ermont into the dark forest, the three of them who had no energy left to pursue could only lie there and watch Ermont disappear.

“Cough.”

Having already suffered injuries, Ermeldirin, who exerted herself to release the powerful magic circle, spat out a handful of reddish blood.

Arvian, who used divine power within the strong magic circle, also vomited a large amount of blood.

And Felio, well, the surroundings were already a puddle of blood.

“Wow, are we really going to die like this?”

Arvian’s complaint made both Ermeldirin and Felio aware of their serious conditions.

The bleeding and injuries were too severe. It felt like they could really die.

As the realization hit them, the true feelings that had been suppressed burst out.

“Uh, why did you dodge?”

“Huh?”

In such a life-threatening situation, Ermeldirin was perplexed by Arvian’s question.

“You’ve come all the way here, and you dodged, didn’t you?”

“Is that important right now?”

“Yes. It is important. It’s more important than dying to me.”

“What?”

In the midst of this precarious moment, Ermeldirin couldn’t believe that Arvian asked such a question.

“Why did you dodge? Isn’t that what you wanted to ask the witch?”

“Eh?”

Arvian, who lay between Ermeldirin and Felio, burst into laughter at the absurdity, but due to the severe pain in his abdomen, he couldn’t laugh loudly.

“Why would I dodge Jeanne? It’s just because I don’t want to get involved in this situation that keeps repeating.”

Although determined to live, she again dragged Felio into it in the end.

Ermeldirin felt bitter about Arvian’s serious condition, but whether he knew or not, Felio, like a child, started throwing a tantrum.
“Don’t dodge it. Don’t dodge it because I like this filthy situation! Please, don’t dodge it!”

When Arvian turned his head towards Felio at the sobbing sound, he was openly crying, unlike Ermeldirin, who was quietly shedding tears.

“What? This childish guy.”

“Sob… Hic… Huc… Sob…”

The mournful cries of Felio were, of course, clearly heard by Ermeldirin.

“Confucius. Don’t cry. I will never dodge Confucius again, so please stop crying.”

Faced with Ermeldirin’s words of ‘never,’ Felio, now more relieved than before, sobbed louder.

“Oh, this foolish guy.”

Arvian, who found the cries of the grown man irritating, considered saying, “The Queen will die if you die,” but decided to keep quiet.

“I don’t need to tell him.”

After a moment of silence, when her mind calmed a bit, Ermeldirin, who was bothered by Ermont’s past actions that had been revealed, opened her mouth with a heavy voice.

“What my brother said…”

Arvian knew his innocence, but Felio didn’t have grand abilities like seeing the color of the soul.

However, Felio’s response was firm and unwavering.

“I may not be the first disciple of the gods, but I know that guy’s words are not lies.”

“Is that so?”

“No, rather than thinking his words are lies, I just know who the Queen is.”