“Riro, Hounzen, let’s go!!”

Faust’s figure vanished as he thrust his spear forward.

Though Walm had been braced for it, he clicked his tongue at the inhuman acceleration. The spearpoints collided, locking against each other in a contest of strength. Even after reinforcing his body with mana, Walm was overwhelmed by the one-sided difference in raw power and forced backward.

Not quite on Faust’s level, but the movements of his two comrades were equally sharp. With impeccable positioning, they compressed the space around Walm, restricting his movements and steadily narrowing his options. Utilizing his Cursed Eyes, Walm continued to dance atop the unstable footing.

This was nothing like their battle in the labyrinth, they were like entirely different men.

“You were holding back on me.”

At Walm’s accusation, Faust answered.

“Cursed Eyes that are so difficult to adapt to… impressive indeed! But after a war, don’t think you’re the only one who’s integrated demonkind into your body.”

With a downward smash of his spear, the brick roof was blasted apart. Around his left arm, his body bulged unnaturally. The roof groaned under the force of Faust’s step.

Understanding the implication behind those words, Walm realized the source of that strength.

“You fused a monster into yourself.”

“During the Unification War, my unit was born from the Deep Crimson Bloom and necromancy. There are no more doubts. No more limits. Now, fight me!!”

Facing a formidable enemy, Walm played one of his own cards.

Heat gathered around him. Blue flames poured from his body, scorching winds ravaging the surroundings.

“Ghh! So that’s ‘Demon Fire’!!”

Even as the flames licked at them, Faust and the others endured through an abnormal Magic Barrier. Walm knew full well they wouldn’t fall so easily.

Gripping his halberd in reverse, Walm drew back and hurled it with a blast of scorching wind. The elongated spear of flame streaked toward the slowest of the three, the shield bearer. Judging he could not evade in time, the man braced himself.

The spear tip bit into the great shield, grinding metal away as blue flames coiled around it.

“Hounzen, fall back!!”

Faust and the archer who had lost his bow tried to block Walm’s path but they were a step too slow.

Accelerating with the heatwave, Walm drew the longsword at his waist and channeled blue flames into the Mithril blade. Fire danced along its edge.

He cut through both the great shield and the man called Hounzen in one stroke. Combining the blow with Strong Strike, the attack melted through the surface iron and tore through the armor beneath.

Hounzen’s eyes widened in shock as his gaze met Walm’s. The blade entered at his hipbone and tore out through his shoulder. Split diagonally, the man sank into a sea of blue flame with a dying scream.

Even after losing a comrade, Faust did not falter.

They were men who had prepared for war for nearly a century, tempering hatred and resolve. Expecting them to waver was foolish.

Sword and spear closed in from front and back. Walm deflected the extended spear with the flat of his longsword and, preserving the momentum of his swing, turned to slash at the archer called Riro.

The longsword grazed his temple, but anticipating retaliation, the archer twisted his trajectory at the last instant, lowering his upper body to sweep at Walm’s knees.

Walm lifted his leg, rotating his knee and kicking up the short sword with his greave. Blue flames swirled at his back. Boosted by the heat blast, Walm slammed shoulder-first into the archer.

The archer’s balance broke. Walm reached out to burn him at close range but a spear separated them.

Switching shoulders in an instant, Walm evaded the thrust, only for the spear to sweep horizontally in pursuit. Dropping his center of gravity and folding his upper body, he let the spear pass overhead. Immediately, a sword tip aimed for his throat.

Narrowing his eyes, Walm traced the short sword’s trajectory in his mind. He evaded by a hair’s breadth, the blade slicing the thin skin of his cheek. Blood dripped, but his Magic Barrier suppressed it.

Bracing the pommel of his longsword against his waist, Walm drove the tip into the armor’s structural weak point, the armpit.

“Ugh… giiihh!!”

Blue flames scorched flesh and boiled blood. The resistance felt similar to the shield bearer’s, yet whether due to the area cut or the strength of his Magic Barrier, the man, half-consumed by blue flames, still drew a dagger at his waist and thrust.

Walm shot out his gauntlet, seizing the wrist that held the dagger. Then, his eyes shifted past the archer to the more troublesome Faust.

Raising his spear high overhead, Faust brought it down upon Walm. The iron spear bent like bamboo as it descended. Even a common soldier’s blow could shatter bone and armor. From Faust’s absurd strength, even through armor, Walm’s skull or spine could be crushed.

Burning away the persistent archer with Demon Fire, Walm supported the flat of his blade with his freed arm and received the spearhead.

A numbing, dull pain coursed through his body. His arms and spine creaked and screamed.

He endured, until suddenly, weightlessness overtook him.

It was the footing that gave way first.

Along with fragments of roofing and the archer’s charred remains, Walm was slammed onto the floor below. Air fled his lungs and pain shot through his body, but there was no time to falter.

Faust descended from above, thrusting his reversed spear downward.

Striking the floor with his elbow, raising his knee and catching the ground with his boot, Walm rolled away.

The spear shattered the floor, dust flooding the enclosed room below. There was one window and one entrance.

Walm kneaded his mana and unleashed Demon Fire at maximum output.

A massive wave of manifested blue flame surged through the room, the fire deprived of escape writhing violently as it crashed toward the window and door. Its power was enough to incinerate even Walm, even through his high fire resistance.

Escaping through the window, Walm glared at the burning building.

Suddenly, the outer wall exploded outward.

From the sea of dust and blue flame emerged Faust, his body grotesquely swollen and enlarged beyond human proportions.

“Thiiis boooody has begun to stray from human reason! If you want to kill me, then cut off my heeeead!!”

Not only his appearance but even his voice had transformed. The words “no doubts, no limits” flashed through Walm’s mind.

Like Walm, Faust had not fully adapted to demonkind. Walm’s eyes rotted away, and Faust’s body was being consumed by the demonic.

Between human and monster, a creature who could only be called a demonic being roared.

“You’re abandoning your humanity, Faust!!”

Evading the thrust, Walm circled to his flank. Each swing tore through the air with overwhelming force. A single clean hit could decide everything.

He couldn’t afford a prolonged fight.

Walm committed.

Manipulating blue flames and scorching winds irregularly, he distorted Faust’s sense of distance. The roar of displaced air battered his eardrums. The spear grazed him again and again, shaving flesh from his arm, gouging into his abdomen.

Still not enough.

To finish it, he needed a decisive strike to a vital point.

He closed the distance further. A sound of doom shook his ears. Alarm bells rang in his mind, and the demon mask trembled in savage delight with every clash.

He slashed through viscera, then carved into the giant arm as they separated.

Facing Walm in a high stance, Faust lowered himself into an extreme forward lean with his spear. The cobblestones cracked apart, and Faust vanished.

Now the positions had been reversed.

Blood seeped from Walm’s throat. A feral grin twisted Faust’s face, then the red line etched across his neck widened, blooming into a spray of blood.

The difference between them had been slight.

From the blow Faust delivered while still within human bounds, Walm had learned the path of his spear. Had he faced this unleashed strike without prior knowledge, he might not have read it. The outcome could have been reversed.

Even with his throat and artery severed, drowning on dry land, Faust’s eyes had not lost their fighting spirit.

“Thiiis… isn’t… enooough!!”

He charged again, voice thick with blood.

Walm answered in a high stance.

He knocked aside the dulled spear tip and split the upper body vertically. Blue flames gushed from the wound. Without pause, Walm swung again, cutting horizontally across the chest. Severing through sternum and flesh, the blue flames burned Faust from within.

“Still… not… o—”

Faust dropped to his knees, voice trailing off, then collapsed like a puppet with cut strings.

Walm stared silently at the man’s back as blue flames smoldered.

“…So it’s over.”

There was no joy to be found.

Bearing the bitter aftertaste, Walm left the checkpoint behind.

He had only eliminated one piece. The true culprit still remained.

Translator – Lyxxna