Immediately after being attacked by a mysterious group, Hermis and the knights arrived.
“Of course! Lord Judas! And Miss Eliya!”
She shouted joyfully from a distance.
The enemies were momentarily baffled.
They once again aimed their crossbows at us.
“All weapons up…!”
The moment Dillon issued the command.
Light appeared.
Golden flames enveloped us in a semicircle.
It was Eliya’s magic.
A curtain made of flames protected us.
The projectiles that were fired burned up and scattered.
Dillon hastily directed us.
“Those who can still fight engage the enemies at the rear before regrouping with the front! Lindell, Jerry! You two prioritize tending to the injured!”
“Damn those bastards—!”
Richard cursed as he leaped back.
Several followed suit.
They clashed with the enemies blocking the path to the underground city.
In the meantime, Lindell approached me.
“Judas. Are you alright?”
“Ugh… It’s sore.”
“I’ll pull it out, so hang in there.”
Eliya glanced over with a worried expression.
“Is it going to hurt?”
“Yes…!”
I gritted my teeth.
Something sharp and hard was being pulled from my back.
“Ugh…!”
I bit down hard and stifled a scream.
At that moment, Eliya quickly reached out toward the upper front diagonal.
A sharp fireball formed from her hand.
It shot upward like an arrow.
Right in front of the path that the fireball was heading toward, a huge ice spear was summoned.
‘Ice Sphere?’
The fire that Eliya shot collided exactly at the moment the spear was summoned.
The two spells clashed and exploded.
Waves rippled from the impact.
The two opposing elements neutralized each other, releasing steam.
Shattered ice and droplets poured down like rain.
“I got it out!”
And finally, the bolt was pulled out.
“It hurts like hell… Is there no poison?”
“Fortunately, it seems not.”
“Judas, stay still.”
Eliya placed her hand on my back.
The pain subsided quickly.
I felt the flesh healing.
It was a healing spell.
“Ah… Thank you, Miss.”
“There’s a wizard among them. I’ll handle that asshole…”
“Gaaahh—!”
A loud scream echoed from behind.
Startled, I turned to see Hador writhing as he pulled out the bolt.
Behind him, Richard and our allies were in fierce combat.
Richard was engaged in a duel, swords clashing with the enemy.
The opponent was holding his own against Richard’s strength, seemingly skilled enough.
Richard appeared to be pushing hard, but then gripped the opponent’s wrist with one hand and yanked.
In an instant, balance was lost.
The enemy stepped forward to regain his footing, and Richard swiftly swept his leg, knocking the opponent down.
‘Nice foot sweep. Clean.’
The enemy fell just as Richard sliced through his neck.
After five years of consistent training, it was paying off.
Everyone had become adept enough to handle real battles.
Seeing Hador’s pale face, I turned to Eliya.
“Could you perhaps heal that guy too?”
“…….”
“If you don’t want to…”
“I’ll do it.”
Her tone suggested reluctance.
Just as Eliya seemed to vanish, she appeared beside Hador.
She quickly healed the wound on his ankle.
The speed was instantaneous.
Before Hador even had a chance to thank her, Eliya was back at my side.
‘But still, she’s his personal guard. Isn’t she too cold?’
Hador loudly expressed his gratitude.
“Thank you, Miss!”
Well, it was impressive. She managed to heal in mere seconds in this situation.
Whether she was cold or not was irrelevant.
Eliya stood up and said, “I’ll handle the wizard.”
She was both our protected escort and master.
Yet ironically, she didn’t really need our active assistance.
Her power was superior to all of us combined.
From the moment the first ambush failed, they had practically lost.
I said, “…Be careful. If anything happens, just summon me.”
“…….”
Eliya stared at me blankly, then pulled her scarf up to her eyes.
For some reason, the tips of her ears turned red.
After a moment, she averted her gaze and answered, “…Okay.”
Eliya vanished.
It seemed she teleported to track the wizard.
“Secure the rear, then move forward and regroup with our allies!” Dillon shouted.
I couldn’t just stand by.
With a sharp whistle, I called out.
From a distance, Yuel bounded over the cliffs.
Agilely dodging bolts and occasionally kicking enemies off their feet.
Finally, Yuel arrived right in front of me.
I jumped onto him and pet his neck.
“Good boy, good boy. You’ve been well.”
While our allies were dealing with the ground forces, I would be dashing around the cliffs with Yuel.
To deal with any stragglers.
“You don’t look injured. Think you can run again?”
Yuel responded by rolling his body on the ground.
“Good. Let’s go.”
In an instant, my body soared into the air.
Enemies loomed over the sides of the canyon.
*
Eliya teleported right in front of the wizard.
Though everyone wore the same black robes, it was easy to spot the wizard.
On the tallest cliff overlooking the entire canyon.
The wizard, leaning against the wall, stepped forward, clapping his hands.
A smile peeked from beneath his hood.
“Wow. You’re incredible. A wizard from the mythic era. Not only did you find me instantly, but you’re able to move this distance without error.”
Eliya didn’t respond.
She simply stared at him with golden eyes, as if about to incinerate him.
Her heart pounded fiercely.
The moment when Judas had tackled her.
And the moment when she saw Judas wounded.
Vivid snippets kept flashing through her mind, preventing her heart from calming down.
“Staring like that is scary. Were you that infuriated about your precious lover almost dying?”
“…?”
Eliya tilted her head slightly.
That was a strange provocation.
It was so unexpected that it eased her tension a bit.
She didn’t have a lover, did she?
“Seems like a wizard who learned dark magic is out of his mind.”
“Oh? Really surprising. Did you uncover that too?”
“Your vibe is similar to your dead companions inside there.”
The wizard crossed his arms.
The way he rubbed his chin suggested he was seriously contemplating something.
He reached out his hand to Eliya.
It wasn’t a stance of preparing a spell, but rather offering something.
“Listen. I’m asking seriously, but wouldn’t you like to join us? The more I learn about you, the more it seems a waste to let your talent go. Even though we met like this, I understand that first impressions can be bad. But if you talk things over with the higher-ups, someone like you would surely be welcomed…”
“Well, I have no desire to join the Royal Wizard Order.”
“…!”
The wizard took a step back, bewildered.
“W-what…?”
Eliya just smiled sweetly.
“Exactly.”
The dark wizard had entered the Sun Symbol Temple.
The Temple Knights, the royal forces, had let the dark wizard go.
The various journals and levels of research found in the dark wizard’s residence.
And having faced the three members of the Royal Wizard Order directly with Judas.
It was all the result of piecing together multiple clues.
The Royal Wizard Order had dabbled in dark magic to increase their power.
The Emperor knew and was utilizing this.
And for some reason, she was being targeted by them.
But she wasn’t entirely sure.
She merely believed it was a high possibility.
To gauge the reaction, she had thrown that out there, and the enemy had bitten.
That was all.
“I don’t particularly want to tell you, but whatever reason you have for lurking around me, I won’t answer even if you ask.”
“…….”
“Are you going to tear me apart out of annoyance?”
“…What a shame. It would have been great if you had become an ally.”
Just pure obsession with strength, a classic trait of wizards who tampered with dark magic.
The only difference was that he was strong enough to be a pure wizard, being part of the Royal Wizard Order.
The wizard extended his hand.
He unleashed a completed spell.
Bubbles began to rise around Eliya.
Thousands of droplet-like bubbles surrounded her like a water bubble.
From all around the bubbles, sharp ice spikes sprouted.
The number this time was also around a thousand.
They all aimed at Eliya.
There was no way to dodge.
The wizard had heard that his companion had died at Eliya’s hands.
He was pleased with that news.
Now he could sacrifice his companion to enhance his dark magic.
And he wanted to fight Eliya with that power.
He had honed and refined his magic in anticipation of this day.
The spell he had prepared with his life on the line.
“With only fire for offense, this magic will be too much for you. You see, the resurrection of the wizard from the mythic era comes down to a battle of talent and compatibility, doesn’t it?”
“Is that so….”
“That talented body shall make for a splendid offering…”
But the wizard couldn’t finish his sentence.
Dumbfounded, his half-open mouth froze.
What played out before him was unreal.
Eliya simply waved her hand once.
And the bubbles created by the barrier began to catch fire.
This was absurd.
Fire on water.
The water evaporated according to the flames, as if it were burning like paper.
The ice spikes were the same.
They melted in an instant.
The spell he based his entire wizarding life and experience on…
Eliya looked at her opponent and said indifferently.
“Not just fire magic, you know.”
“What…?”
The wizard’s hair stood on end.
A chill crept down his neck.
Before he could react, the ground shot up.
Rocks protruded.
A large boulder struck the wizard’s jaw with great force.
He fainted instantly.
Eliya looked down at him disdainfully.
‘Is this all he’s got….’
The Royal Wizard Order had about ten members.
She had defeated four of them by herself.
And three of those were in three-on-one matchups.
She casually tried to replicate the magic he had just used.
Though it was her first time seeing it, she was able to do it.
Why was that possible? She had no idea.
It just felt like she could do it, and indeed succeeded.
Thousands of bubbles of water and ice spikes formed.
Even bigger and denser than the fainted wizard’s original ones.
‘…Not that great.’
Eliya assessed it dispassionately and retracted her spell.
‘Is my power too abnormal?’
She still found it hard to gauge her own level.
Some days she could grasp it, but on other days, she would rapidly grow, making it precisely hard to measure.
‘I need to accurately assess it to compare it to Balak….’
Especially on days when she was warmly hugged by Judas, her growth seemed to accelerate even more.
‘All in all, it’s a good thing to get stronger, so it’s not bad. Can I credit it to Judas?’
With that thought, she looked down into the canyon.
Her allies were clearly gaining the upper hand in battle.
However, Eliya wasn’t all that interested in that fact.
She quickly spotted a dot leaping between the cliffs.
It was Judas on Yuel.
‘He’s safe.’
He was slicing down enemies while moving across the cliff tops.
Eliya placed her hand over her heart.
That pounding from earlier was still thumping away.
She remembered the moment it all started.
When Judas had tackled her to the ground.
And the moment she saw Judas’s injured back.
Her heart had dropped.
Her insides churned.
The reactions were the same, yet the reasons were different.
What was it? How were they different?
Eliya shook her head.
There was something else to be done right now.
She needed to use magic to support her allies.
‘A wizard from the Royal Wizard Order. Then those must be royal knights.’
Once she casually reached that conclusion, she cast her spell.
Dozens of fire arrows sprang up over the canyon.
They rained down like a storm, targeting only the enemies.
Eliya looked down at the cascading fire.
Judas riding Yuel raised his head while moving across the cliffs.
Their eyes met.
He smiled and nodded.
As if to say thank you.
“…….”
Eliya stood there dazed, watching him.
Judas briefly greeted her and then focused back on the battle.
His gaze shifted to something intensely.
Calm yet sharp.
His hair blew in the wind while riding Yuel.
His handsome features were sharply revealed.
Thick eyebrows, deep eyes, a straight nose, and his lips…
Eliya subconsciously moistened her lips with her tongue and swallowed before quickly shaking her head.
She needed to dismiss unnecessary thoughts.
There were still tasks left to do.
She couldn’t afford to waste time.
There was no reason beyond that.
For some reason, her face felt hot and her heart raced faster than before from the end of the battle.
Absolutely not because of Judas.
Calming herself down, she looked at the fainted wizard.
‘Hmm… It’d be troublesome if he ran away.’
She needed to interrogate this wizard.
He must disclose information about the Emperor and dark magic.
She still didn’t know how she would use that information.
But it was surely bound to be useful.
Dark magic was condemned across every nation and society.
They were lunatics who sought to sacrifice humans for power.
But, the imperial royal family, the pillars of the current continent, had also touched dark magic?
The moment it got out, there would be a massive ripple effect.
She didn’t specifically want to cause chaos.
But she was merely curious as to why the royal family was interested in her.
That was all.
If necessary, she would turn against the Empire too, but more importantly, the Bevel Family had to be wiped out.
Without losing sight of her priorities, Eliya placed her hand on the dark wizard’s body.
‘A wizard capable of teleportation. Physical restraint is meaningless.’
In other words, she needed to prevent him from using magic.
A temporary barrier wouldn’t suffice.
The magical suppression field has many limitations, and maintaining it would tire her out.
It was better to completely seal away the use of magic.
‘Although I’ve never heard of such a thing being possible.’
That was just a thought.
To set the opponent’s mana circuit ablaze.
However, she believed it was possible.
When it came down to anything related to magic, she had yet to experience failure.
An application of the anti-magic field she learned previously, combined with the way she had deciphered that field.
She sensed the wizard’s mana circuit through her hands.
The flow extended throughout his body like veins.
Having frequently observed Judas’s mana circuit, she quickly found his.
Branches sprang from the heart.
She set the circuit ablaze.
Eliya’s gaze was fixed intently on the area around the heart.
It wasn’t visible to the naked eye.
But she could feel it with her hands.
The mana circuit flowing through the wizard’s body.
From the extremities starting all the way to the heart, it burned away like a candle.
‘…It’s done.’
Finally, every mana circuit had burnt out.
This wizard could no longer use magic.
He was in the same position as an ordinary person with no mana.
She wasn’t surprised by her own talent any longer.
It had always been this way.
Eliya checked again below.
Before she knew it, the battle had concluded, and her allies were cleaning up.
The fervent atmosphere had settled and calmed.
‘…….’
And there was Judas, conversing and laughing with Hermis.
Alone together.
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