“How, Laila?”

“Eustar, lay Olga down. Straight. And we need cold water.”

The fairy shouted.

“Cold water! Perleung can find it! Perleung will find it, so just wait a moment!”

He entrusted Muge to Eustar’s arms before fluttering into the gaps between the irregular and sharp rock faces. Eustar carefully laid Muge down so her body wouldn’t be shocked, then looked at Laila.

Laila touched the parts where Muge’s arms and legs had been severed. As she thought, energy that couldn’t flow had pooled there, making the temperature very high. It was a fever high enough that a person would have long since lost consciousness.

Laila, who had drawn several small and complex magic circles below the cross-section, touched Muge’s forehead.

While the severed parts were hot as fire, her forehead was cold. She quickly realized that was also because energy wasn’t circulating properly.

“Water! I brought water! Perleung brought water! It’s very cold!”

Eustar and Laila, raising their heads, opened their eyes wide at the unbelievable sight.

It was because a water droplet about the size of a small pumpkin was floating above the fairy’s head. The sight of water swirling inside a transparent, glass-like membrane was very surreal.

Suddenly, Eustar laughed softly. Surreal, he thought. When encountering surreal things was a daily occurrence.

From the moment he was born, he had been caught up in unbelievable events that made his life trajectory stagger. He found it amusing that he was surprised and bewildered by mere fairy magic.

“Hold it for a moment.”

The fairy carrying the large water droplet circled near Laila’s hand. Laila carefully touched the water.

Unbelievably, the water separated smoothly like soft jelly. When Laila tried to drop it onto the magic circle, this time it flowed down like ordinary water, as if nothing had happened.

The wet magic circle emitted a pale light. Surprisingly, even that simple reaction had an effect on Muge. As if the moisture had seeped in, misty steam rose from the heated parts, and her wheezing breaths subsided.

Laila looked down at Muge’s face, which seemed slightly more comfortable, and placed her hand on the magic circle.

“That which flows gently to places feet cannot reach is my companion. Come, to me. Come.”

As she chanted quietly, a very faint, pale blue light began to flow from the center of the magic circle.

It felt like a cold energy when touched. Like light, or like steam, it gently seeped into every corner of Muge’s body.

“Thank goodness.”

Laila said with a shallow sigh. Her tensed shoulders lowered quietly.

“It’s my first time using water energy magic.”

Laila muttered as if talking to herself. But even to Eustar’s eyes, Muge’s condition seemed much better than just moments ago.

Muge’s entire body began to cool. Seeing her expression become much more peaceful, it seemed the water energy had flowed in sufficiently. It circulated through Muge’s body like blood, loosening the stagnant magic power pooled here and there.

“Eustar, drink some water.”

Laila said, taking a handful of water the fairy had brought. They each drank enough water. After moistening their throats, it felt like they had just remembered their forgotten thirst.

Muge, who had been lying down just blinking her eyes, raised her upper body, propping herself up with one hand.

“Not much left.”

Eustar turned to look at her.

“What?”

Muge blinked her eyes a couple more times and shook her head quickly.

“The spring, I mean. It’s close by. Incredibly heavy… I feel something like vibrations. Don’t you?”

Muge asked, but Laila and Eustar couldn’t feel anything. They were already accustomed to anxiety, tension, and nervousness, but couldn’t sense anything else at all.

“I’m not sure, Muge. Do you feel vibrations?”

“I don’t mean it’s actually shaking. It’s not like that… No, never mind. Let’s move. We didn’t come here for a picnic.”

Muge stood up first. Eustar and Laila also got up following her. Perhaps because they drank water, their bodies felt much lighter and… more sensitive.

Laila’s gaze slowly lowered to her feet. Vibrations. Muge said vibrations. But she said it wasn’t actually shaking…

But it was shaking?

“Eustar, Olga. Right now…”

The moment Laila raised her head, Eustar and Muge suddenly became distant before her eyes. At first, she thought it was dizziness, but… that wasn’t it.

They had truly moved away from Laila’s eyes. Not just Laila, but Eustar and Muge were also separated from each other. The ground had split into three.

“Laila!”

Eustar tried to jump to where Laila was using Runner. But the moment his toes touched the ground, thick and rough vines shot up from the split crevice and tightly wrapped around his ankles and legs before he could do anything.

“Eustar!”

Laila’s scream, and the sound of Muge shouting something, crumbled in disarray, buried under the rumbling earth. Laila felt her body float up into the air.

When the vines, which had tightly wrapped around her entire body – arms, legs, even fingers – so she couldn’t move an inch, finally began to climb up her neck and jaw, Laila’s vision blurred to darkness.

Meanwhile, the knights and members of Tentinella were facing off against mad magicians without even having a chance to find a way into the city.

“Branch Manager Felix! The attacks are relentless!”

Felix growled like a beast at the shout of a senior knight. In one hand he held a magic tool, and in the other a sword. His red hair, which he always kept tied, was completely loose and disheveled.

“If you have time to state the obvious, shoot another arrow at those madmen! Damn it, I’ll kill them all!”

Felix was enraged with deep-rooted hostility towards Jaoqunst.

He used the magic tool to create a barrier around himself, then pulled a magician visible in front directly towards him. The caught off guard magician, flailing his arms and sliding across the dirt ground, had his stomach pierced by Felix’s sword.

“Ugh…!”

This way won’t work. Felix gritted his teeth.

Unless it was an idiot who let their guard down like this, Tentinella’s magic tools could never match the city’s magicians. It was only natural, since the magicians themselves had made those magic tools in the first place.

In contrast, the members were falling one by one quickly. The personnel that seemed to fill the wasteland at first had been reduced to less than half.

It was a fight with too great a sacrifice, and they hadn’t even achieved their original goal yet. Not just Felix, but Byron, Marnak, and Jimiyus were all equally anxious.

‘Damn, that devil. He’s no help at all.’

Byron inwardly gritted his teeth. The devil, Decepter, was less helpful to their forces than expected. Whether he was doing it on purpose, or because demons and magicians didn’t get along well…

Marnak was in the worst condition.

He was exhausted from spreading a wide barrier to block the ghosts surging up from beneath the wasteland and protect Tentinella’s members from the magicians’ attacks pouring down like heavy rain.

It wouldn’t be strange if he lost consciousness and collapsed at any moment.

“Ugh…!”

“Branch Manager!”

Jimiyus bit his tongue hard, feeling the pain of one arm burning away.

Meanwhile, he noticed Decepter moving flexibly through the battlefield as if dancing. At that moment, Jimiyus realized that he had never intended to be of help in the first place.

He had simply taken a piece of Jimiyus through the informal contract. He had said ‘help us’, but how subjective is the act of ‘helping’? It was Jimiyus’s mistake not to have considered this.

“Hey.”

Jimiyus called Decepter in a low voice. Even in the midst of the battlefield filled with screams, explosions, gloomy lights, and storm-like winds, his voice seemed to reach Decepter clearly.

“What is it?”

Like flowing water, no, like flames dancing along dry grass, Decepter approached Jimiyus with irritatingly smooth movements.

“Come up with some solution.”

Jimiyus gasped, swinging his sword to deflect a sphere of fire rushing towards him. Decepter lightly dragged his toes across the ground, looked down at the soot that formed there, and chuckled.

“There is no solution. They’re not in their right minds.”

Jimiyus glared at him with wide eyes.

“Cut the obvious talk.”

“It’s not that there’s absolutely no way. I could use a host.”

Decepter suddenly seemed to grow taller. He bent his elongated upper body and looked down at Jimiyus with glittering eyes. Jimiyus then realized that his pupils were burning like flames and held his breath.

“I take over your body. Because my true form has been revealed to them, I can’t get close to those guys. It’s like putting a whole block of ice directly into flames. But using a host would make it much easier.”

“Then use me.”

When Decepter grinned, his razor-sharp teeth were revealed.

“Are you serious? If you entrust your body to me now, you’ll certainly die.”

“I don’t care.”

While they were exchanging this conversation, Byron sensed something strange but had no chance to intervene between Decepter and Jimiyus.

He was busy enough just blocking the magicians’ merciless attacks while pushing away falling members.

Jimiyus spoke, biting out each word while staring directly into Decepter’s eyes.

“I know a little about demons. You feed on human souls. The greater the desire, the more enormous the human’s greed, the more you like it, don’t you?”

Decepter’s lips spread even wider. When he grinned, countless sharp teeth were revealed.

“That’s right.”

Jimiyus spoke again.

“You can’t eat my soul. Because we didn’t make a formal contract. But if you use me as a host, you can savor it, can’t you?”

“A human with confidence worth praising.”

Decepter’s body trembled. He cackled. That laughter seemed to spread from his entire body, not just his throat or mouth.

Flames flashed in the demon’s eyes.

“A tempting offer indeed.”