Once a canvas of despair, the battlefield pulsed with a newfound rhythm of hope. My heart thundered in my chest, syncing with the beat of combat. I could feel it—that sensation that maybe, just maybe, we could turn this around.
Beside me, Kourin moved like lightning, her white robes trailing behind her like a comet's tail. Her golden hair whipped through the wind as her blade danced with pinpoint grace.
"Kourin, I'll hold her! Attack her heart as many times as you can!" I shouted.
She glanced over, her eyes gleaming. "Just don't fall behind. You promised to keep up."
"Yeah, I remember," I replied, the corners of my mouth twitching upward despite the pressure. Avalon hummed in my grip, the blade pulsing with energy in tune with my mana.
Focalors roared, her wings beating with fury as she launched at me. I intercepted the blow with Avalon, steel meeting claw in an explosion of sparks. The force rattled my bones, but I held firm.
"You persistent worm!" she screeched, clawing again and again.
"Thanks for the compliment," I muttered, ducking and swinging back with a mana-infused uppercut that staggered her for a breath.
A golden flash moved in my periphery. Kourin. Her speed was beyond compare. In a blink, she was on Focalors again, blade aimed true. The target was always the same: the place where her mana surged, the heart that allowed her to regenerate. Every time Kourin's blade pierced it, Focalors screamed in rage and pain.
We were in sync.
I braced against another blow, sweat pouring down my face, but adrenaline dulled the pain. The tempo of the battle was changing. Focalors' regeneration wasn't keeping up.
"You alright there, Raymed?" Kourin called out, weaving past another furious swipe.
"Never been better! Keep hitting her heart! It's slowing her down!"
"Roger!"
Kourin vaulted high, flipped mid-air, and brought her blade down like a golden guillotine. The wound glowed with mana, but this time, it didn't close instantly.
"You won't stop me!" Focalors shrieked, swinging wildly with rage. Her attacks were harder now—not stronger, but more desperate.
We locked eyes for a moment. No words.
She circled again, and I drew Focalors' attention again, baiting her into a wide strike.
"Raymed, step left!"
I obeyed instantly. Kourin slid into the opening I created, her blade slashing through Focalors' left side with pinpoint precision.
"Why won't you just die!?" Focalors shrieked.
"Funny," I panted, holding my ground, "we were thinking the same thing about you."
She stumbled, and for the first time—I saw fear. Her attacks were no longer building strength. Her mana, once increasing with each blow, was now focused solely on healing. No more growth. No more overwhelming pressure.
Kourin stepped beside me, exhaling softly. "Almost there, Raymed."
I nodded. "Her mana's plateaued. She's stuck. We can end this."
"Then let's finish what we started."
We moved in perfect unison. I dashed forward, absorbing another attack with Avalon. The impact sent a shock down my arm, but I clenched my teeth and held.
"Now, Kourin!"
She burst forward, a blur of light, her blade plunging once again into the mana-pulsing heart.
Focalors reeled, screaming louder than ever before. Blood and mana burst from the wound in a violent arc.
She flailed, wings ragged and movements unstable.
"This... this can't be!" she cried. Her voice, once dripping with confidence, was now frayed at the edges.
Kourin smirked, eyes burning. "You're finished."
"Kourin! One final push!"
"Right behind you!"
Our mana surged, rising like twin comets. Avalon glowed red in my hands as I gathered everything I had. Kourin radiated golden light, her blade poised like an arrow drawn tight.
We lunged.
My strike descended with brutal force, and hers followed, swift and elegant.
Focalors let out a deafening shriek.
Then—silence.
She staggered, wings twitching, eyes wide with disbelief. She clutched her chest, blood gushing from the wound.
"Damn you humans!" But it seemed she was very much alive.
Kourin landed gracefully beside me, breathing hard but steady.
I took a shaky breath, my vision blurring slightly from exhaustion.
"We can win this," I said.
She glanced at me and smiled, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear.
"Of course we can."
***
Carmilla's boots sank slightly into the rain-soaked grass, eyes locked upward, scanning the aerial battle raging above the wide-open plains. Fiery streaks and flashes of lightning intermittently lighted the sky. Above her, Lulu and Trish hovered, buoyed by Lulu's levitation spell, the air beneath their feet swirling in controlled gusts.
Killiar Il Lupache drifted nearby, her crimson hair floating on invisible currents, expression stern as she assessed her opponent.
Opposite them, the Demon Lord Envoy Vepar levitated effortlessly, her watery form glinting in moonlight, a mer-tail coiled gracefully below her translucent torso. Her abyssal eyes glowed menacingly.
"You shall drown beneath endless seas," Vepar's voice echoed, resonant and powerful.
"We'll see about that," Killiar replied coldly, lifting a gloved hand as flames sparked to life.
She hurled spears of flame at Vepar, who countered fluidly, streams of water deflecting the fiery projectiles into sizzling steam clouds. Lulu tightened her wind spell, steadying Trish as she adjusted her grip on the mana-infused rapier.
"Lulu, maneuver closer!" Trish commanded, leaning forward.
"Roger!" Lulu responded brightly, guiding them swiftly through the air.
Killiar unleashed another barrage—this time mixing lightning with fire. "Thunder-Reign," she declared, chaining the elements into explosive arcs aimed directly at Vepar.
The demon absorbed the impact almost effortlessly. "Futile," Vepar mocked, voice rippling.
From below, Carmilla calmly observed the exchanges. She knelt briefly, fingers brushing the damp grass, tracing pale runes that pulsed gently. "Ms. Kiliar! She's too fluid and there doesn't seem to be a core of being unlike slimes," she noted. "Use frost to slow her circulation."
Killiar nodded sharply. Ice-blue mana swirled into her palm, rapidly condensing.
Vepar summoned a massive serpent of water from the clouds above. "Drown in despair!"
"On it," Trish smirked, darting upward as Lulu boosted her speed. Her blade flashed, neatly slicing through the serpent, redirecting its collapsing form safely away.
"Viy Viy Viy"
"Jack Frost"
"Black Frost"
In the instant of chaos, Killiar chanted and launched her frost orb.
"Glacial Wave!"
A violent explosion of ice engulfed Vepar, freezing portions of her body.
The demon snarled, cracks forming along her frozen torso.
"She's vulnerable!" Carmilla called from the ground, focusing her energies. "Attack!"
"Stack ice, shatter her defenses," Killiar instructed curtly towards Trish.
"With pleasure," Trish replied, diving forward. "HAAA!!!" Her rapier pierced Vepar's frozen defenses, splintering ice deeper into the demon's form.
Lulu maintained their aerial mobility, her wind spells agilely dodging Vepar's retaliatory strikes of sharpened rain. Below, Carmilla's chanting intensified, mana visibly materializing in the air.
"Divine Circle"
Carmilla paused as the glyph of the Divine Circle floated.
"Magic Conversion"
In dire times, Carmilla usually uses her absolute magic, 'Personification of Great Seal', due to the easy conditions to activate and guarantee that the opponent will always be sealed. Yet this past 3 months, she had leveled up to not relying on that one-time use per day sealing magic. Her new arsenal is an advanced sealing magic with comparable effects and can be used multiple times.
Carmilla released her sealing magic.
"Heaven Restraining Binds!"
Chains appeared from the sky, targeting Vepar, moving fast like serpents. As it encased Vepar, locking her frozen body and restraining it like she was inside some prison.
Killiar's breath misted in the charged air as she drew her hands together, whispering four names—"Surtur. Black Frost. Skadi. Solomon." Each word summoned a layer of power: fire from the primordial forge, cold from the darkest ice, and control rooted in ancient precision.
A spear began to form between her palms, twisting currents of crimson flame and arctic blue mana interlaced in violent harmony. The air warped as the javelin stabilized, heat and frost bleeding from its spiral core in flickering pulses.
She named it aloud—"Polarized Nova Javelin."
In that instant, the battlefield held its breath. Killiar hurled the weapon, and it screamed forward, tearing through wind and mist like a comet. Lulu's vortex whipped behind it, propelling Trish in the slipstream. As Vepar reconstituted, the javelin struck first, embedding into the demon's forming body.
Then—detonation.
Flame and frost collided in a burst, creating a shockwave of thermal extremes. The force fractured Vepar's shell, rending the watery core with simultaneous combustion and cryogenesis. It wasn't just damage—it was disintegration by elemental contradiction. As the light faded, fragments fell like mirror shards. Vepar's regeneration hesitated for the first time as the Demon Lord Envoy fell from the sky to the ground.
Killiar drifted down, landing gently on the grass beside Carmilla, eyes scanning for threats. Trish, aided by Lulu's controlled descent, touched down gracefully, breathing heavily but triumphant.
"We did it," Lulu cheered softly, clinging to Trish's sleeve.
Carmilla exhaled, gaze never wavering from Vepar's body. "Stay alert."
Suddenly, droplets trembled and merged with the Vepar's body, reforming into a swirling, watery figure. Vepar reassembled swiftly, her voice echoing with menace. "I'll kill you first, elf."
Killiar turned sharply, her face expressionless yet resolute. "We are missing something."
Carmilla and Trish's eyes widened. Trish raised her blade again. Lulu steadied herself, wind spells rekindling.
Killiar raised her hand once more, ice spiraling around her form. "Focus," she commanded quietly, determination steeling her voice as Vepar surged toward them again.
***
Thalamik burst into Psytelier, his breathing ragged, eyes wild with an urgency that seemed entirely out of character. Recca immediately straightened, leaning casually against a table cluttered with magical items. Suiko's brows knitted together in confusion, and Kourin froze, sensing the gravity behind his presence as if she already knew what was happening.
"Please—I need your help," Thalamik blurted out, voice strained with desperation. "Raymed and Carmilla—they've gone off to fight the Demon Lord Envoy that attacked a certain region without a proper plan. They're going to get themselves killed."
Begging for help wasn't something Thalamik would do from the get-go.
So knowing he would openly beg meant that he thought something wrong would happen.
An uncomfortable silence filled the room, broken only by Thalamik's harsh breathing.
Kourin shifted uneasily, her gaze darting away from his piercing eyes. "No... I can't possibly..."
Thalamik stepped closer, intensity radiating from every gesture. "Then are you okay? By letting him die? Just like that?"
Kourin flinched visibly at his words, her hands trembling. Her lips parted, but no words came forth, and her eyes fixed onto the floor in anguished silence. A heavy and stifling heartbeat passed before she turned abruptly, bolting from the room.
"Kourin, where—!" Suiko shouted, caught off guard by her sudden departure.
Thalamik watched the door slam shut behind her, guilt flickering momentarily through his determined expression. Suiko folded her arms and shook her head, slowly sighing. "My~My~ I swear, you just have a way with people, huh, Thalamik?"
Suppose I don't show how serious I am about asking for help. I won't get their help.
Slowly, Thalamik sank to his knees, the cold floor pressing harshly against him. The room fell silent, heavy with disbelief, as Recca and Suiko stared at the unexpected sight. Thalamik, always proud and defiant, now knelt in front of them as though stripped of all pride.
"Suiko," he whispered hoarsely, voice breaking under the weight of his despair.
He lifted his gaze, raw and pleading, to meet her uncertain eyes. "Suiko, I beg you. I beg you. I beg you. Help me defeat Vepar and Focalors. Help me fight them...."
"I…" Suiko began, visibly startled, her words trailing into silence as confusion danced in her eyes.
"I can't live without them."
Thalamik's mind was a storm of agony. Every memory flashed vividly before him, each moment of loss sharpened and magnified by fear. He could still feel the sting of failure, the unbearable grief of losing his family in South Jaka City, their faces forever etched into his nightmares. He saw Instructor Hale's solemn expression, a painful memory of his own failure, of the destruction of L'arc Academy, a symbol of everything he had failed to protect.
"I can't watch or see them losing their lives."
Raymed and Carmilla—his friends, his companions, the people who had held him together through every collapse of his fragile world. Their laughter, their warmth, and the comforting familiarity of their presence were irreplaceable. The thought of losing them was suffocating, unbearable, a wound from which he knew he would never recover.
"The Demon Lord Envoy isn't someone we can fight yet."
The admission struck him like a blade. Even he knew that their power was overwhelming, their strength nearly insurmountable. Yet Raymed and Carmilla had charged forward anyway, brave fools risking everything in reckless defiance.
"That's why…"
"That's why we need your help..."
"Please," he choked out, his voice barely audible, trembling with the weight of desperation. "Help us... I'm begging you with everything I have. Anything—I'll give you anything. Whatever you ask of me, my resources, my knowledge..."
His voice cracked sharply, betraying the fragile control he struggled to maintain.
"I'll even give you my life if that's what it takes. Just please help me." His tone grew softer, shaking with the quiet intensity of his plea. "Please..."
His hands trembled uncontrollably, fingers curled helplessly against the cold floor. A raw sob escaped his throat, a sound so full of agony that it resonated deeply within those who heard it. His tears fell unchecked, streaking down his face, burning like acid trails. Each drop was an admission of his vulnerability, his helplessness, and the unbearable weight of the future he could not bear to face alone.
"I need them to be saved," he murmured, voice now scarcely more than a whisper. His shoulders shook violently as his defenses crumbled entirely, exposing the shattered man beneath. "Please, anything. Please help save them."
He lowered his head, forehead pressed to the floor in absolute surrender. Pride had abandoned him completely, leaving only the desperate, fearful shell of a man terrified of losing the few precious bonds he had left. The echo of his broken cries reverberated in his ears, mocking his weakness.
This was Thalamik at his lowest, utterly broken by the fear of loss, driven by a singular, desperate desire to protect those he cared for most. Nothing mattered in that moment—no status, power, or pride. Only Raymed and Carmilla's lives, fragile threads he clung to desperately, terrified that he would again fail to hold onto the people he loved.
He knelt in complete vulnerability, his very soul laid bare, awaiting an answer that would determine the fate of everything he held dear.
***
The battlefield was chaos and clarity at once—a dance I knew all too well. Every heartbeat, every mana surge, was a step in a dance I'd rehearsed for years.
Raymed fought with admirable strength at my side, sending a strange warmth flooding my chest. He moved differently from when we'd first met—stronger, sharper. Avalon sang in his grasp, a harmony to my own blade, Ezel.
"Kourin, Let's do it like before!" Raymed shouted, his voice firm even under pressure. "Target her mana heart again!"
"Got it," I replied swiftly, already darting forward. My speed had peaked. My mana pulsed fiercely through my veins, heightening every sense. Every breath, every twitch from Focalors—I could read them all.
My sword was a flash of gold, relentlessly tearing into her already weakened defenses. Focalors shrieked, her eyes blazing in fury, but beneath that, I glimpsed panic. The wounds I inflicted healed more slowly each time, her mana heart straining to regenerate.
I smirked. "Frustrated? Good."
I leaped high, twisting mid-air. Gravity felt meaningless at this speed. My blade sank deep, shattering her remaining reinforced body armor like brittle glass. Blood and mana surged from her wound. Focalors wailed, wings thrashing helplessly as she retreated briefly.
"Almost there," I muttered, landing lightly beside Raymed, our eyes locking briefly. The intensity in his gaze matched my own.
"Her power isn't growing anymore, and her regeneration is failing," Raymed said, breathing heavily. His voice, though exhausted, resonated with conviction.
"Then it's time to finish this," I affirmed.
Raymed nodded.
He charged first, Avalon blazing with red mana. I circled quickly, flanking from behind. As Raymed clashed head-on with Focalors, locking her attention, I readied myself for a decisive strike. My mana hummed, resonating through every fiber of my being, pooling strength for a final blow.
Yet something felt off—a faint ripple through the battlefield. But I ignored it. I couldn't afford to lose focus, not now. My grip tightened on my sword, eyes narrowing on the weakened spot in Focalors' chest.
"Just one more strike," I whispered. My muscles tensed, channeling everything into a single, devastating blow. My mana coalesced into a brilliant golden halo around my body, enhancing my strength for a finishing move—not agility, but sheer, overwhelming force.
That's when everything shifted.
Focalors stood still, eerily motionless. Her expression twisted into a sinister smile, chilling enough to freeze my blood. Raymed's voice, frantic, echoed distantly.
"Kourin—watch out!"
But I was already committed. My body was locked in the preparation of the strike, mana rigidly channeled for attack rather than defense. I sensed too late the massive surge of mana flooding toward Focalors—a torrent she had been quietly siphoning from her fallen demon soldiers.
My heart plummeted. Her mana heart, crippled moments before, now burned violently, fed by the energy of her absorbed minions. Despair clutched my throat as Focalors opened her mouth, eyes glowing darkly.
"DUSKAL VERISTA ABADDON!"
A wave of destructive mana, raw and unstoppable, erupted from her mouth, aimed directly at me. Everything slowed—too fast to dodge, too powerful to block completely. Panic surged through my limbs, instinctively attempting to cancel my mana charge and bolster my defenses.
It was too late.
Suddenly, a force slammed into me from the side, hurling me violently aside just as the catastrophic blast scorched the air where I'd stood moments ago. Tumbling across the ground, my heart racing, I gasped.
"Raymed—!"
He stood where I had just been, his back turned to me, Avalon raised against the immense ray of annihilation. His scream echoed in desperation and courage alike.
"HAAAAAAAAA!!!"
An agonizing crack rang out. Avalon strained against the devastating attack, the blade beginning to fracture under the enormous strain.
"Raymed, stop!" I yelled, scrambling forward, but the mana clash threw me back, knocking the air from my lungs.
CRACK.
Another fracture appeared in Avalon's blade. Raymed's entire body trembled, mana spiraling violently around him as he forced himself to the brink.
"HEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
BOOOM!
A deafening explosion erupted, consuming everything. Dust and debris swallowed the field as silence returned, oppressive and choking.
When my vision cleared, Raymed stood—barely. Blood seeped from countless wounds; his armor nonexistent, his eyes blank white. A horrific moment of realization struck me cold.
He turned slowly, giving me a faint, painful smile, as if apologizing. Then his strength abandoned him. His knees buckled, and he collapsed limply to the ground.
"RAYYYY!!!" My voice tore through the silence, raw agony slicing through me as I stumbled to his side. He lay motionless, pale beneath the blood smearing his face.
Carmilla's horrified scream echoed my own. She rushed toward us, eyes wide in disbelief.