Ardoa laughed again with a cackle.

“Alright, I promise.”

There was no sincerity or weight in his voice.

“I promise. If you cut your neck with that sword, I’ll let this wench go alive.”

Of course, those words were a lie. Eustar was not one to be fooled by it. Laila knew it too. Ardoa was not someone who could be dealt with using common sense. He was cunning and violent.

Then there had to be cunning to surpass him.

“Do it now!”

Ardoa shouted. Even as her neck was being cut off, and even as her pulse was pounding and screaming, Laila thought her ears might burst from his shrieking.

“You’ll have to keep your promise, magician.”

At Eustar’s words, Ardoa bared his teeth and laughed like a beast.

The next moment, Ardoa’s body shot up into the air. Freed from his restraint, Laila quickly cast a healing spell around her neck, moving her tilted head with her own hands.

Terrible imagination and unbearable pain gripped her neck, but she bit her tongue and held back her screams. The one who screamed was not her. It was Ardoa.

“Argh—!”

He floated in the air, thrashing his whole body with his eyes wide open. His limbs were stretched out in all directions as if tied by invisible ropes, and his hands, the source of magical power, remained tightly clenched and wouldn’t loosen.

Ardoa’s eyes looked to where Eustar was. His sword could be seen tilting deeply below his side.

It was like a lion crouching to pounce. That beast, that ferocious thing, was about to charge at him with its gleaming claws and teeth bared…

“Kuhuk…!”

There was a cracking sound. A clear sound of bones breaking and internal organs being pierced exploded from inside Ardoa’s body. Eustar’s sword, which had leapt into the air in one breath, was precisely lodged in the center of Ardoa’s heart.

The sword handle embedded in his chest trembled. As blood burst from Ardoa’s mouth, Eustar tilted his head towards him.

“Didn’t you say I couldn’t do anything but swing a sword crudely, magician?”

“Ugh, kek…”

Eustar’s lips curved. With piercing eyes, he smiled slightly and whispered.

“Yes, you’re right. But such a sword is precisely what can cut the neck of a beast like you.”

“Uh, uk… Y-You son of a…!”

The sword that had been deeply embedded, piercing Ardoa’s body, was pulled out in an instant. That shock struck Ardoa once again. The last thing he saw was a flash of silver crossing his vision horizontally.

Eustar, who had cut off his neck so quickly it was invisible to the eye, said,

“You’re not the only one who can use tricks.”

As Ardoa’s eyes widened, his body, which had been bound in mid-air, fell downward.

The head, separated from the body, rolled towards the darkness. As the gushing blood formed a pool, Eustar moved to another place, carrying Laila in his arms to keep her from getting soaked in that blood.

Suddenly, the field of vision brightened with a whoosh. Eustar gave a helpless laugh as he saw a small girl floating surrounded by light amidst the blazing darkness.

“…How did you get here in that state?”

Then, a strangely shaped fairy poked its head out from behind the girl.

“I brought her here! Bluey said it wasn’t okay, he said it absolutely wasn’t okay, but Miss Muge insisted! No one can beat Miss Muge’s stubbornness! Not even Bluey!”

The fairy’s chirping voice rang clearly through the dark space. Muge, having lost one arm and one leg, smiled wryly with a haggard face and strained her flickering eyes.

“You heard that? That’s how I came.”

The fairy slowly flew to where the two were and carefully set Muge down.

It was a more cautious movement than even a mother putting down a newborn baby. Eustar supported Laila in both arms while balancing Muge’s light weight on the opposite side.

Muge, gasping for breath, said,

“Create a barrier, Bluey. Make it small so it won’t be noticeable if it’s too large.”

“Yes, miss!”

The fairy flew up into the darkness with a light fluttering sound. Muge, having consumed an enormous amount of energy just to say that much, closed her eyes for a moment, gasping for breath, then said,

“How’s Laila?”

Eustar looked down at Laila cradled in his arms. She had lost consciousness, either from the shock or from depleting all her magical power at once.

Carefully touching around her neck, Eustar breathed a sigh of relief as he felt no sense of discomfort.

“She seems fine.”

Muge let out a short sigh and said,

“Ardoa, that damn bastard. I’ve always wanted to kill him with my own hands, but this is quite satisfying.”

“Laila told me you were coming by mouthing the words.”

At Eustar’s words, Muge smiled with a tired face.

“Yes, I spoke directly into her mind. I told her to tell Eustar to wait while I would hold Ardoa.”

Muge, who was holding her shoulder where her arm had disappeared, glanced up at him.

“You weren’t really going to die like an idiot, were you?”

“Of course not.”

It wasn’t a very confident voice. Of course, he had no intention of dying. There was no way Ardoa would have let Laila live even if he died.

But watching her die moment by moment, what thoughts could he have had, what more could he have done? If Muge hadn’t come, he wouldn’t have been able to strike Ardoa’s weak point so well.

“I owe you one.”

“If you know that, then get your head on straight. Ardoa is just a minnow compared to Nierodora Panang.”

Eustar burst into laughter. It was so absurd that he didn’t want to believe it.

“Is this the ‘Well’?”

When he asked, Muge looked at Eustar as if she couldn’t believe how stupid he was.

“This place hasn’t even reached the entrance to the ‘Well’. The entrance hasn’t opened yet. If we’re talking about a forest, the place you want to go is the deepest valley. This is just a trail.”

“A trail.”

A faint sense of frustration tinged Eustar’s voice as he repeated Muge’s words.

“Now that Ardoa is dead,”

Muge said.

“This darkness will no longer resist. It means you can illuminate it even with magical tools.”

“That’s fortunate.”

Eustar replied in an empty voice.

Muge patted his back firmly with her remaining arm.

“Don’t sound so drained here, you damn fool. Listen well. One fortunate thing is that the only elder remaining in the city now is Nierodora. Since you guys eliminated Sigrid and Ardoa, originally you would have had to face two more opponents before reaching the Well where Nierodora is. But those two have gone outside the city with other magicians.”

“To kill humans.”

Muge gave a bitter smile.

“Yes, that’s right. To kill humans. But don’t worry too much. Byron, Jimius, Marnak, and that annoying redhead brought all the members of the entire branch. They’re swarming like ants outside the city.”

“What? Is that true?”

“I don’t know how they found out, but it’s true. So don’t let your concentration waver because of what’s happening outside the city. Now listen carefully to what I’m about to say.”

Muge explained step by step how to proceed towards the ‘Well’ in the darkness. According to her, they would have to face magical beasts or ghosts until just before reaching the Well.

“They’re things that Nierodora forcibly restrained and imprisoned. So there’s none that can be gently appeased. They have nothing but venom left after being trapped and beaten for so long. She did it on purpose to guard the Well.”

“That’s terrible.”

“Magicians, especially the elders, but Nierodora Panang is the one you should be most wary of among them. Expect human common sense and you’ll be in for a big surprise. I don’t think I need to explain why I ended up in this state. I had forgotten that Nierodora Panang had already gone mad long ago because I’d been away from here for too long.”

Eustar chuckled dryly as he looked down at Muge’s ruined body. And for the first time, he was reminded that she was not ‘human’.

There was no blood flowing from the parts where her arms and legs had been cut off, nor were there any hideous scars that had healed hurriedly.

There were only thin devices that occasionally made crackling sounds and faint lumps of magical power that could be vaguely seen, as if a long-connected machine had been cut off.

Muge continued,

“You’ll have to eliminate all of them before you can see the entrance to the Well. Even though I say entrance, it’s just a shabby iron door. As far as I know, there’s no magic cast on the door itself. In the first place, the fact that this place has opened means that all the elders, including Nierodora, have come out, and there’s no human who could break through that and reach the Well.”

Eustar nodded. In his mind, he imagined a firmly closed door. And the horrific sight he would see beyond it when he pushed it open.

“Nierodora is there. She’ll be immersed in the Well to constantly control the magicians who have left the city. That Well… it’s like a kind of conductor. Like the ones used to make magical tools.”

“You mean her magical power is transmitted to the magicians, Miss Muge?”

Laila’s voice, which suddenly rang out, startled both Eustar and Muge, causing them to turn their heads. She was awake. Although her face was a bit pale, she didn’t seem to be in pain.

“You scared me.”

Muge grumbled. But contrary to her words, her expression clearly showed relief.

“That’s right. She uses that Well to transmit her magical power to the magicians outside the city. Nierodora Panang’s magical power is special. If you get hit directly by it, your consciousness flies away first. The magicians who have gone outside the city will have their minds become foggy. Because Nierodora’s magical power will constantly flow into them.”

Eustar narrowed his brow.

“Is that how the Jaokunseu happened?”

“Probably. Although those magicians themselves were vicious people, most of them probably didn’t know exactly what they were doing because of the magical power Nierodora was injecting using the Well. ‘Why do we have to do this?’ They wouldn’t have had the mental capacity left to raise such questions. Do you understand?”