The shadow sphere launched from Aiolette's fingertips tore through everything in its path and hurtled toward the demons.
And yes—*everything* in its path.
Naturally, the ruins standing between Aiolette and the demons were no exception.
*CRASH!*
The Hero's relic that Dorothia had gone to such lengths to find was reduced, quite literally, to dust by a single merciless strike from Aiolette.
Had Rustil—the relic's rightful owner—witnessed it, she would have breathed fire on the spot. But Aiolette didn't care in the slightest.
It wasn't like *she* was going to be held responsible!
*Just wipe these guys out and bury the evidence. Easy.*
If Gladia had heard that thought, she would have murmured, *"My lady always has a plan,"* with genuine admiration.
Well, the demons on the receiving end might have found it deeply unfair—but what could they do?
The dead don't get to file complaints.
With that rough philosophy in mind, Aiolette's assault rained down on the demons without pause.
"B-block it!"
The panicked demons scrambled to wring out their mana and threw up layer after layer of defensive magic.
But Aiolette's attack was not something a hastily erected barrier could stop.
*Crack—BOOM!*
The shield the demons had cobbled together shattered as easily as a pane of glass.
The shadow sphere punched straight through without slowing, and at the center of their formation it detonated—the shadows compressed to their limit inside it exploding outward in every direction.
"GAAAH!"
"Guh—wh-what is—?!"
Razor-edged tendrils of shadow lashed out in all directions, shredding the demons' bodies and everything around them to pieces.
Agonized screams echoed through the ruins. The shockwave of the explosion kicked up a dense cloud of dust and dirt that swallowed the clearing whole.
"Hey! What are you doing, you quack?!"
Satisfied that her magic had landed, Aiolette wheeled on Cruje—who was standing beside her with a completely vacant expression—and smacked her across the chest.
"Stop spacing out and attack already!"
"Ow! You—you hit me again!"
Cruje snapped back to her senses, clutching her chest with both hands and turning on Aiolette with an aggrieved look.
"What do you think you're doing?! If you just attack out of nowhere, how are we supposed to deal with the fallout?!"
"Not my problem. Future me can deal with it."
"Oh, you—seriously!"
Cruje stamped her foot in disbelief. But the deed was done, and she couldn't ignore the ominous mana writhing through the dust cloud where their enemies still stirred.
In the end, she had no choice. Lips pressed into a pout, she began preparing her own attack.
*Hmmmmm—*
Brilliant golden divine energy gathered rapidly in both of Cruje's hands. She hurled the densely compressed sphere of holy light upward—into the air above the demons, above the ruins.
*FWOOOOOSH—!*
The sphere of light hung suspended in the air, blazing like a miniature sun, then bloomed to its full radiance. Hundreds, thousands of sacred beams of light rained down mercilessly upon the demons below.
Holy magic — *Holy Shower.*
This spell was never meant to be offensive.
It was a peaceful magic—one that instilled a calming effect in those it touched, gradually extinguishing even the will to fight and bringing battle to an end.
Choosing a non-offensive spell was Cruje's last concession to conscience.
But that warm-hearted consideration meant nothing here, because the targets were demons—beings whose very flesh was constitutionally hostile to divine energy.
For them, Cruje's Holy Shower was indistinguishable from acid rain falling from a clear sky.
*Ssssssss—*
"Guh—GAAAAAAH!!"
The demons had already been thrown into chaos by Aiolette's assault. When the Saintess's high-purity divine energy poured down on top of them, their bodies convulsed in violent rejection—flesh slowly blistering, softening, melting away.
"…"
Cruje stared at the horrific scene her own mercy had created, jaw hanging open in a daze. Aiolette, meanwhile, watched the hellscape with her hands on her stomach, laughing until she doubled over.
"Ahahahaha! See? You *can* do it when you try, you quack!"
"Wh—huh? That's—that's not what this spell is supposed to do…?"
Cruje protested that she hadn't meant any of this, but intent hardly mattered to the demons writhing in agony as their skin burned away in real time. To them, the two figures standing before them were nothing short of heartless monsters.
The demons clawed at the ground, screaming through tears of blood.
"Y-you demons…! Appearing out of nowhere and doing something this horrible…!"
"D-demons…?"
"Please."
Cruje flinched as though the word had stung her. Aiolette just scoffed.
"If you hadn't been acting so suspicious from the start, none of this would have happened. This is entirely your fault."
Whether attacking someone simply for acting suspicious was morally defensible was… a question best left for another time.
The moment Aiolette's attack had exposed their true nature, whatever small hesitation had remained in her vanished completely.
They were demons. Anything went.
Continental law, in fact, permitted any and all actions against demons.
All that mattered to her was that they were the enemy.
Their resentful dying screams only made her feel better.
Aiolette drew mana to her fingertips once more.
The shadows around her swirled and converged, coiling around her fingers to form a black sphere.
The finishing move she and Gladia had developed together—the Shadow Hole—launched toward the demons again.
The demons were still soaking in Cruje's divine energy, rolling across the ground and barely able to move. Far from mounting a desperate defense like before, they could do nothing but thrash helplessly against the agony of their dissolving flesh.
Aiolette's killing blow was a heartbeat away from ending them.
*Shhhk—*
"…Huh?"
Cruje's puzzled voice echoed through the ruins.
She watched as the sphere of light still raining divine energy down on the demons was sliced cleanly in two—like a blade through soft tofu—and dissolved into nothing in midair.
At the same moment, the divine energy inside her body began to thrash and writhe, sending her a frantic warning.
*Run.*
"A-Aiolette—!"
Cruje called out, trembling like a leaf, but it was already too late.
*THUD—!*
A figure dropped from above, landing heavily amid the collapsed ruins.
The figure reached out with one casual hand toward the Shadow Hole Aiolette had launched at the demons.
*BOOM!!*
"…!"
Aiolette's eyes went wide with shock.
Her magic—which had been tearing through everything in its path—was stopped cold by a single outstretched hand from this unknown figure and scattered into nothing.
The thick cloud of dust slowly settled. The silhouette standing atop the rubble of the ruins came into sharp focus.
"…I step away for a moment, and vermin come crawling out."
The man who walked out of the dust wore robes as dark as pitch. He was simply standing there, yet the abyssal demonic energy radiating from his entire body pressed down on the air of the ruins like a physical weight.
The demons who had been dying in agony just moments before prostrated themselves before him, shaking violently, as though they had found their savior.
"S-Sion… sir……!"
"Please, spare—spare us…"
"Quiet."
The man dismissed the demons' desperate pleas without a second glance and turned his gaze toward Aiolette and Cruje.
"Pathetic worms. To be brought this low by two green little cubs."
His low voice rolled through the ruins.
He flicked his fingers with the air of someone swatting away a fly. The residual divine energy Cruje had scattered through the air—still tormenting the demons—was swallowed whole by his jet-black demonic energy and vanished as though it had never existed.
"Eek…!"
Cruje sucked in a sharp breath as she watched her own divine energy disappear without a trace.
*Danger. Danger danger danger!!!*
He just *erased* the Saintess's divine energy like it was nothing?!
Cruje had already realized the intruders were demons the moment her divine energy reacted to them.
Demons and a Saintess were natural opposites—and yet he had brushed aside her divine energy that effortlessly.
The gap between her and this male demon was unmistakable.
She grabbed Aiolette's arm—Aiolette, who was staring the man down without blinking—and whispered urgently.
"Th-this is bad! Aiolette! We need to run!"
"I know. Calm down."
Even with Cruje's frantic plea, Aiolette couldn't bring herself to look away.
The moment she took her eyes off him, even for an instant, he would cut them down where they stood.
Aiolette had a sharper sensitivity to dark-attribute mana than anyone. The darkness that man carried came through to her with perfect clarity.
And every instinct she had was screaming at her to run, *now.*
*There's no way he's going to let us just walk away…!*
Maybe she shouldn't have thrown the first punch.
A flicker of regret crept into Aiolette's mind.
***
Meanwhile.
"Out of my way!"
"GAAAH!"
*Shhhhhk!*
I was cutting through every demon that stepped in front of me and charging forward without stopping.
It was a scene straight out of legend—Zhao Zilong riding through a million-man army with Liu Chan cradled to his chest.
"G-Gladia…! I think I'm going to be sick…!"
"Hold it together! Senpai!"
…Though the Liu Chan in my arms—Dorothia, that is—was having a thoroughly miserable time of it.
But I had no attention to spare for her condition.
The demons were focused entirely on blocking my path and buying time. And then there was that overwhelming residual demonic energy that had appeared right after I sensed my young mistress's mana.
Everything pointed to one thing: Aiolette was in serious danger right now.
"H-hold the line!"
"Shut up!"
*CRASH!*
I stomped the demon clinging to me into the ground, then swept my blade through the ones blocking my path.
"Move! Don't stand in a maid's way!"
Out of my way—all of you! I have to get to my young mistress!!!!!