The Power of the Demons

“Ah! Finally outside!” I exclaimed cheerfully as I stretched.

Helping the elves with their mana took more time than I expected, but fortunately we were done at last, and we could finally return to Uvras. Maybe we could even pass by where the Stalkey corpses were to pull out their fangs for the guild mission.

With the elves’ support now confirmed, everything seemed to be going well, but Liz looked like she was in a bad mood.

“Something wrong?” I asked worriedly.

She said nothing, and just when I thought we might run into another problem like the one we had back in Penton, Liz suddenly clung tightly to my arm as we kept walking.

“W-What, Liz!?”

“I need to recover my mana too…” she explained timidly. “Do you mind?”

God… the face she made after asking that was so adorable and cute that all I could do was look away, blushing and nervous.

“N-no! You can go ahead…”

Liz only nodded at my words and went back to clinging to me. Each second, each step we took in that way made my heart race more and more, and I could feel my face burning up. But if I glanced down, I could notice the same thing was happening to Liz as well.

The walk to the exit took longer since we were moving slowly, stuck so close together, but the time felt extremely short. Without even realizing it, we had practically made it out of the cave.

“Now, which way was it?” I asked myself, but then a shout from behind us caught our attention. It wasn’t a shout signaling an attack—just someone calling out to us.

“Hey!” cried the voice, breathless, surely from having run to catch up to us.

At the sudden call, Liz quickly pulled away from me, as if she didn’t want to be caught doing something improper.

The voice was recognizable even from a distance. It was the elf girl who had guided us to their hideout. Our prisoner, in short.

“Finally… I caught up,” she said, breathing heavily. “The chief… asked me to come with you.”

“With us? Why?”

That was sudden. Liz and I were supposed to go to the capital to research as much as possible in the Noxhollow library, and only after that return to the elves to exchange information and help if possible. He had never mentioned sending anyone.

“Yes. He thought it best to have more help for the investigation, and since I’m an elf, I have quite a bit of useful information about the Great Tree, Mildfir.”

That sounded fairly convincing. Unexpected, certainly, but if she really could help with the investigation, then I had no problem with it.

“Alright, then let’s keep going. We have to get back to Uvras soon, but first help us by pulling the fangs out of some corpses,” I said as I resumed the path.

“Pull fangs out of corpses? Gross!” she exclaimed.

“Yeah, yeah, stop complaining. By the way, what’s your name?”

That was true—we had never properly introduced ourselves. We had just tied her up when she was knocked out, interrogated her, she led us to their hideout, we fought, and after that we talked to the elf chief. It never occurred to us to give names.

“Ah! That’s right. My name is Ena Ravarel, part of one of the elves’ scouting squads.”

“I’m Naoya, and this is Liz, my partner.”

Once introductions were done, we continued on our way until we once again reached the Stalkey corpses, at which point I told Ena to help, something she did reluctantly.

“…”

“Everything alright, Liz?”

“Yes, it’s just that… it’s a shame it’s not just us anymore.”

Her words once again made my heart pound, but they also conveyed perfectly the sadness they carried. We had had some occasional companions before, but in general, it was just Liz and me, together against whatever came. It was a little sad that it was no longer the case, but the help was necessary.

I stroked Liz’s head, as I had gotten used to doing, and smiled back at her, something she returned before we joined Ena in collecting fangs.

***

The trip back to Uvras went smoothly, but thanks to Ena’s presence, it was far more irritating.

“I’m boooored!” she exclaimed loudly.

She spent most of the trip whining about how boring it was, provoking some monsters in the distance with the bow she had brought, and even at night she snored in such a way that it was practically impossible to get any sleep. She was a real nuisance.

“…Why?” Liz murmured, disheartened.

Her dark circles were quite noticeable, and she looked very tired and drowsy. Even though I had kept watch again last night, she couldn’t sleep properly because of Ena’s snoring. She really must have been having a rough time.

“Don’t worry, we’re almost… there?” I said, trying to cheer her up, but something was wrong.

The town of Uvras was already visible in the distance, but smoke was also rising from several parts of it. Something was happening.

“Liz.”

“Yes.”

We got our things ready to jump down as soon as we had the chance, not wanting to waste any time. Perhaps because of the urgency of the moment, the trip felt eternal, but eventually we got close enough to get off and immediately run into town.

The destruction was shocking. Collapsed buildings, fire in many places, screams everywhere—it looked like a real battlefield. The three of us ran to the center, which seemed to be the source of the problem, and upon arrival, a terrifying scene greeted us.

Amid the fire and chaos, there was an adventurer subdued by another man with horns, pale skin, and sharp teeth. The monstrous-looking man held the adventurer’s head, who was begging to be spared, but before any of us could act, the man crushed his head, spilling the adventurer’s blood everywhere.

“A demon!? No, it’s different…” Ena muttered.

A demon? Weren’t they supposed to have disappeared? No, if the elves had managed to survive the destruction of the Great Tree Mildfir, then it wasn’t unreasonable to think that demons could have found a way as well.

“Oh! Finally, I’ve found you!” the demon exclaimed. “You should’ve shown up sooner—I turned this place upside down for you, you know?”

The tone in which the demon spoke was confident and casual, as if destroying a village was no big deal to him, but what unsettled me the most was the fact that he was looking for me. Why? On top of that, the overwhelming pressure radiating from his presence was similar to what I had felt the other day from the alley. They had been watching me since then.

“The leader of the New Order needs you. Feel honored, hero—not many receive that privilege.”

The New Order!?

I remembered that name. It was the same organization the bandit chief had mentioned after killing Clay, and the reason Captain Edran didn’t allow me to kill him—because they needed to investigate more about them. This was becoming much bigger than I thought.

Without wasting another moment, Liz attacked the demon with a basic spell, but he, as if swatting away an insect, deflected it with one hand, sending it toward a nearby building.

“What!?”

“A mage, huh? I’m sure the leader would be interested in me bringing you along too,” the demon said, still looking at the wall destroyed by Liz’s spell, which I took advantage of.

I quickly rushed at the man, strengthening my arms with mana to deliver a heavy blow that pushed the demon back, though he blocked it with his arms without showing much damage.

“That was a good hit, kid.”

The way he said it so calmly was unnerving. That powered-up strike was no small thing, and yet he blocked it without much trouble. To make matters worse, before I could think of anything else, the demon suddenly closed in on me and struck my stomach with tremendous force, knocking the air out of me. As I was about to fall to my knees, he grabbed my face and slammed me into the ground, leaving a huge crater from the impact.

Liz tried to help me with another spell, but the bastard lifted me up like it was nothing, using me as a shield to stop her.

“That bastard…” Ena exclaimed, who had also readied her bow to help.

“Now, be a good girl and surrender. You’ll be of great help to our leader.”

Liz couldn’t do anything while the demon held me as a shield, my strength wasn’t enough to harm him, and Ena wouldn’t be much help with her arrows or sword either. We couldn’t do anything. The only thing I could do was buy them time to escape and get help. Liz would surely be angry at me for this, but it was the only way.

Taking advantage of the demon’s focus on Liz and Ena, I grabbed his head and, using all my strength, managed to land a solid headbutt that disoriented him enough to make him release me. But in exchange, my head started bleeding from the blow.

“Son of a…” the demon growled angrily.

“Get out of here, now!”

“What!?” Liz shouted.

However, the demon gave us no chance and sent me flying into a wall with a single kick. It felt like I’d been run over by a truck, even with the great resilience I had from being summoned.

The impact against the wall almost knocked me unconscious, but I had to endure a little longer. Liz still hadn’t left.

“Ena… take Liz! Go get help!” I shouted as loudly as I could.

Ena nodded at my plea and yanked Liz’s arm, who screamed that she wouldn’t leave me behind, but the elf girl kept insisting.

“He trusts that we’ll find help!” she explained. “Don’t waste the chance he gave us!”

Liz fell silent at Ena’s words but nodded moments later, knowing she was right. After that, the two of them finally ran off, getting as far away from the area as fast as they could.

“Those brats… They won’t get away so easily.”

The demon wanted to chase them, but I stopped him, holding onto his leg as tightly as I could. Even if it was only for seconds, I had to give them as much time as possible.

“You’re a really annoying kid. Well, since you insist, you’ll be the only one to leave.”

Moments after hearing that declaration, my vision went completely dark, and my consciousness sank into an abyss that seemed endless. I had been defeated.

Demons really are terrifying.

Sigh

I just hope Liz and Ena managed to escape.