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“She got away, huh…”

I thought I had finally taken her down, but then that female demon vanished from in front of me. She had been a powerful foe, much stronger than Ditoner who Freya fought, but her ability to use teleportation magic was something I had not expected at all.

“Though hmm…something felt a bit different.”

I did not feel like she used much magic power the instant she vanished. It was more likely she had used some form of item to escape. That would also explain why I did not feel like she was powerful enough to use such a spell herself. If anyone else had fought her, it would have ended poorly, so I was glad I was here, though I still felt a bit disappointed she had escaped. Either way, I just had to wait for the next opportunity.

“I should also focus on the task at hand anyway.”

We had taken care of their two leaders, so now we just had to kill all the monsters and demons remaining in the city. I flew down towards Freya who waved at me and softly landed near her.

“Lapis, you were more powerful than I thought, overpowering that demon like that.”
“She underestimated me too much, so I had an advantage that way. Though in the end, I let her escape, meanwhile you actually took down your enemy. I think that’s more impressive.”
“Heheh. Hearing that from you makes all my efforts worth it.”

We talked in a lighthearted way, almost forgetting we were on a battlefield. But we returned to our senses soon enough and we stood with our backs against each other. Our fight had lured in all the mindless monsters which now surrounded us. They probably were seeing us as their next meal.

“Well, time to finish our job and take down the remaining enemies.”
“Yes, let’s finish this quickly so no more people have to die to them.”

I nodded strongly. Even though Freya had fought a demon more powerful than her, she had been smart and defeated him through clever means. I thought that was more commendable than my fight. I could tell she would get much stronger with time, and then one day I would fight alongside her and Luvias. Thinking of such a future I firmly held my weapon and kicked off the ground to kill monsters.

–––Ciel’s viewpoint

When news of monsters invading Strom reached us, we headed down south as fast as we could. I maintained my top speed for as long as my mana lasted, and once I felt it running out I recovered it with a magic potion. The potions tasted awful and the constant flying made my head feel light, but I forced myself to stay composed until we arrived at Surfour. There we heard unexpected news.

“Lapis went ahead already?!”
“Yeah, the moment she heard about it, she got up and left without waiting for you to arrive. I trust she can keep herself safe, but you should probably hurry after her too.”

Once the guild master Krieck told us that, we had barely any rest in Surfour before we continued traveling south. That way we were able to reach Strom in only three days, when usually it took up to a week with Flight Magic, but…

“I’m…at my limit…”
“Me too…”
“I feel like…I’m going to throw up…”
“I never loved solid ground this much…”

We had flown continuously regardless of the time, whether at night or day, only going down to the ground to eat. Flying overnight for so many days in a row completely wrecked us and we felt sick when we reached our destination. We were in no shape to fight, so we wanted to rest in some inn first, but even that was tricky due to the current situation as no city would let us in. We were told at the gates that no one was let in or out of the cities until official orders came that it was safe to do so. We had no other options, so we decided to just camp in the wilderness. We quickly decided turns to keep watch, and I was shocked at how quickly I passed out once I lay down. The next morning I woke up just as the sun was rising, and I noticed the rest of the party had already woken up and were doing warm-up exercises. As I crawled out of my blanket I heard them talk with each other.

“Somehow I don’t feel as sleep-deprived as I expected. What about you, Luvias?”
“I’m fine, though my body still feels a bit sore.”
“We did sleep out here after all, so that much is expected. Ah, good morning Ciel.”

I slapped my cheeks to force my brain to work and dispel the remaining sleepiness. I felt a bit better after and my thoughts worked correctly.

“Good morning everyone, you all woke up early.”
“Morning. You really needed that sleep, huh.”
“You did overexert yourself a lot these days. I can imagine Master doing something like that, but it’s too much for an average person.”
“At least we’re better now. My head feels cleared up too, so it shouldn’t take much longer before we arrive with the army.”

We all were the hero’s party so we had a duty to protect people, but on top of that, we could not let one of our members, Lapis, fight alone. We knew she was absurdly strong, all of us together could not compete against her, but we still felt bad leaving one of us in a dangerous place so we had to go help her. Keeping our friends safe was our main priority after all.

After a night’s sleep, my magic power had fully recovered, so soon after waking up we continued our trip. We soon reached a rather large city and found a lot of footsteps and carriage tracks. It was easy to assume the army had left those, so we could follow those traces and find them without much effort. Not too far from there, we saw a city in ruins, with smoke still coming out of some places. A large number of soldiers were stationed there, helping the wounded and rebuilding what they could, and there was a high likelihood Lapis was there as well. Thinking we had finally found her, I landed amidst the soldier without much care. Obviously, that alerted all of them who surrounded us with their weapons ready.