Leave a comment

We all rushed outside of Lyell’s mansion as we heard the soldier’s words.

We called them Devil, but that word didn’t refer to a singular entity in this case.

Every being that came from a “foreign world” was classified as a Devil. And there were many of such “foreign worlds”. Devils possessing all kinds of abilities came to this world from all kinds of worlds.

As such, there wasn’t a single method that could deal with them, but instead, you had to take various measures.

Lyell who could only cut the enemy was quite a terrible match for them.

Of course, he could cut down most enemies thanks to the Holy Sword’s power, but if the enemy had resistance against slash attacks he would be out of options, which was one of his weaknesses.

In that regard, I had quite a good affinity with the Devils since my combat style changed based on the situation.

We also had Cortina, an expert who could see through their weaknesses, with us.

We should’ve been able to deal with most enemies… should’ve been. But that changed when we saw the enemy’s appearance.

“What the hell is that…”

Lyell muttered in dumbfoundedness.

The enemy that approached the village was a giant with a scorching body. It had a blazing body and bat-like wings, as well as goat-like horns that were extra curved.

The force of its fire was far beyond a Fire Giant’s breath.

Just by being close to it, I could feel sweat forming on my body and my throat getting hoarse.

“Could it be… the Flame Devil, Ifrit?”

Cortina identified with a shocked expression.

“Lady Cortina, you know what it is?”
“It’s a Devil that makes a small appearance in the myths. It is said to be one of the oldest Devils.”
“Why is something like that…”

Here—before Finia finished her sentence, the Flame Devil’s roar erased her words.

After its cry, it then called my name.

“Found you, Reeeid! I never expected that I’d be able to lure you here while coming to defeat Lyell!!”
“Reid, you know him?”
“Of course not!”

Maria asked in a silly tone and I answered back in displeasure.

Perhaps she lost the sense of reality with this ancient Devil making an appearance.

“Don’t you dare say you forgot about my, Kufar’s face!”
“Which part of that looks like your face?!”

I retorted but did feel some uncomfortable feelings.

Kufar was generally a schemer and rarely came to the front himself.

And yet, what do I make of the Devil raid today? He summoned them en masse, had them attack everything haphazardly, and even showed up himself.

His actions were clearly different from the previous Kufar.

“What happened to you?”
“Shut up, shut up, shut up! I absorbed all kinds of powers inside the labyrinth just to defeat you. This time… this time for sure, I’ll end you for good!”
“Didn’t you say you came to take down Lyell?!”

For some reason, his words were inconsistent. It was different from his usual cynicism too.

Wait, did he say he absorbed power inside the labyrinth? Could it be that he over-absorbed foreign substances and his ego got eroded?

“Do you even realize—”
“Shut uuuuuuuuupppppp!!”

He didn’t even listen to my words to the end and rushed at me while raising up his burning arm.

His ego was definitely corroded. I’ve fought him several times, but he had never been this simplistic and impulsive.

In fact, I was the one attacking him most of the time during our encounters.

I picked Cortina up and leaped sideways, dodging his attack.

Lyell grabbed Maria and did the same on the opposite side. Gadius was the only one who used his shield to ward off his attack.

“Reid, what’s this guy’s deal?!”
“You heard him! He’s Kufar, but he’s lost his sanity already!”

I let my threads fly as I yelled, while Lyell readied his sword.

However, my threads ended up passing through Kufar’s body. Lyell’s sword, which followed after my attack, also slipped through it similarly.

“What the?!”
“No response?”
“Be careful, Ifrit’s body is mostly made up of flames. In other words, physical attacks have almost no effect!”

Cortina explained to the shocked two of us.

But that also meant we had no way of dealing with it.

“S̲h̲i̲t̲! But if that’s the case—Maria!”

Maria was the only one here who specialized in magic. Cortina could use magic too, but her spells would be clearly insufficient for this.

Understanding what to do, Maria used the Impact spell.

This was a spell that released a shockwave loaded with purification power. It certainly impacted Ifrit, however, it merely resulted in flickering its flames a little.

“It’s no good! It barely had any effect!”
“Dammit! What do we do?”
“Maxwell should’ve been able to handle him, but…”
“That old man is really hard to get hold of.”

Maxwell, who was a master of all kinds of magic, should’ve had many ways to deal with Ifrit. But Maria only specialized in healing-type spells of each magic system. She was quite undependable when it came to attacking.

“Here! Lure him inside the village!”

But then, Cortina called out to us.

Honestly, for a second I wondered whether it would really be a good idea to take this guy to the village.

But it was thanks to her achievements that we still instantly did as she asked.

“Everyone, run! We’re pulling the Devil inside the village!”

In response to her voice, Maria and Finia ran ahead and called out to the villagers, telling them to flee. Lyell then followed after them.

Cortina and I lagged behind a bit to keep the enemy’s attention on us.

At first, the people were puzzled, but once Ifrit showed up through the gate, they broke into screams and fled.

“Just leave your luggage behind! If you leave them, you can just pick them up later, but if you don’t run now you’ll just die!”
“As long as you’re alive, we’ll do something about it, so just run for now!”

A moment later, I also rushed into the village. Gadius was acting as a rear guard as always.

Cortina issued the instructions at the same time.

“Reid, come here!”

She yelled and pointed toward the direction of the village’s common well.

Water certainly seemed like it’d be effective, but wasn’t the amount there far too little? I doubted it in my head but still raced toward it.