178 humans, beastmen followers gained

Total follower count updated. Total followers of [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]: 48480

[Music Resonation (Major)] [Sanctified Blaze] [Shield of [The Light]] [Quartz Regen Venom (Moderate)] [Stage Fever (Major)] [Blessing of the Goddess of Light (Moderate)] [Various Spell Buffs] [Various Potion Buffs] [Battle Frenzy (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

You bastard! Light Horizon!

Ignoring the pain from having lost my left arm, I gripped my glaive, Burn My Dread, tightly in my remaining hand and slashed at the demonkin before me. Manipulating the light from the glaive, I ripped open a light fissure in front of us, removing the light in front of us, and with it our ability to see each other. Hopefully, further blinding him in the process with all the solidified light particles hitting him in the face.

Urgh, this thing is not made for one hand. I complained in my head about how unwieldy my weapon was due the long shaft and my rather messed up posture. Regardless, bloodlust had consumed me with [Battle Frenzy] and I forced myself to connect my strike into a second one, aiming for the demonkin’s neck when I last saw it.

However, as I was about to swing down, my skills activated, warning me of an incoming attack. I tried to avoid it by stepping to the side, but I was too slow. A hand pierced through the miniature void, grabbed me by the throat and pulled me in. When the light began to fill in the void, it revealed the same demonkin from before, smiling softly.

“No introduction for our first meeting?” he said. “Not even a song to greet? My sweet ♫”

Grk!

A throaty baritone singing voice—pleasant to hear, certainly, but the glint in his eyes told me otherwise. Mesmerizing, almost like the gaze of Earth’s vampires, and it only made me feel ill, feel disgusted, as I saw him grin, revealing his fangs.

I struggled against his grip, causing him to wryly smile at my futile attempt. Letting out a small crackle, he was about to speak only for his eyes to widen when I gnashed my teeth together, creating a spark.

With only that tiny warning, the scale-dust stored in my still-in-the-air, cut-off forearm ignited, blowing up in front of the demonkin’s face with white flames, causing him to jerk back. Yet, he still kept his grip on my throat, squeezing it to the point I left gasping for air. My barrier kept his claws from inflicting worse injuries but his strength was impossible to ignore.

A sin heir? That was the only thought I had after all that had transpired. He was fast, durable, and strong, quickly reminding me of the two Warbringers I fought. Being able to take a point-blank white flame explosion while [The Heir of Hope] playing, meaning my holy spells dealt extra damage to demonic beings, meant this guy was more than just a normal threat.

“Arrgh! Really now?” He was grimacing, feeling the pain, but his skin was barely charred. “It appears that my [Sacred Resistance] isn’t enough for this. It seems I did underestimate you, after all.”

Golden skin with such an arrogant manner of speaking? I didn’t exactly need to think to know this was a pride demonkin. Was he really a sin heir? His aura was starting to suffocate me more than how tight his choke was.

As my forearm, still blazing hot, fell to the ground, the demonkin smiled through the pain and fire grilling his face. “I vastly outlevel you. You may have the health to survive a neck crack, and you will recover from the debilitating effect in a matter of seconds. The strong simply survive such usually lethal wounds easily … Still, in the time you need to recover, I may continue what I came here for. And you will watch them all die.”

“Uh, really?” I forced through my croaky breathing. “You think we’re that dumb and didn’t know your aim is Fleindia? Of course, she’s the bait; the hell, do you think I’m letting you freaks kill another of my friends?”

I switched to telepathy. [“Come on, Saori, I gave you enough time!”]

[“And you did! Endure it, Hel’s Thunder! Smokey Haze!”]

Saori howled as two black magic circles finished materializing, causing the shadow underneath her to explode, covering only the demonkin and me in an unseeable smokescreen. At the same time, electricity surged throughout the entire cloud, zapping the pair of us.

As I felt slightly numb from all the stygian lightning surging through my body, Saori relayed what was going on in the smoke with her heat vision while also telling me she felt a tightness in her chest—the same attack that tore off my arm. She recalled the attack was preceeded by a snap of his fingers. In response, I reached for my cut-off arm through my magic and used [Obsidian Blaze], controlling my still aflamed arm and had it fly over to reattach itself.

Miraculous Heal! I cast, forced to rely on it as the cut was dirty. Muscles, veins, and bones were shattered and ripped and rebuilt as if a miniature explosion had erupted around my elbow. As such, white flames weren’t enough for proper healing.

Still, regardless if it was unusable or not, I smacked the demonkin’s arm pointed at my friend away, preventing his attack from hurting Saori any further. I then wrapped my legs and tail around his torso, giving my neck some leeway after being hanged from in his grip. Due to the close distance between us, using my glaive was impossible, so I threw it away, and instead grabbed his arm, trying to break it off, yet the resistance was firm. I couldn’t snap his hand off like a twig.

So, instead, I activated [Humanize], forcibly transforming myself into my minor dragonewt form, using my stockier and bulkier build to loosen his grip around my throat. As he tried to readjust his hand, I shed some scales and had them support my airway, preventing the choke from working and finally giving me the chance to take in a deep breath.

[Humanize (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

Tyrant’s Voice!

Tyrant’s Voice: Destroy worlds through the voice of a conqueror, trained after years of grueling, voice-cracking usage. Amplifies roars to deal damage based on the user’s Intelligence and their current wind elemental magic level. Will cancel out wind elemental spells or attacks far below the user’s current related skill. Will reduce their effectiveness otherwise

As mana surged in my throat, I unleashed an ear-shattering roar so powerful, it caused even my entire skull to shake from the vibrations. Having loosened his grip, I blew him away, freeing myself and allowing Saori to finally use [Umbral Skip] to rescue the people around me.

As the [Smokey Haze] disappeared, I turned around, seeing Tatsuya, Kyouya, Asaka, and Fleindia all on her back. I smiled and showed them a peace sign.

[“Told you I wouldn’t be late this time!”] I said, earning me some cheers before I turned around, looking at my deformed left arm with unease.

Yikes … I recoiled a bit. As I couldn’t see within [Smokey Haze], I wasn’t able to properly attached my arm, only now noticing my forearm was aligned in the wrong way. I could only feel a sharp phantom pain coming from it.

As I readjusted my limp and had my parallel minds heal it with [Miraculous Grace], my sense kicked in when I noticed some movements ahead of me. I cast [Cyclone Madness] and [Bedrock Blades] to stop the demonkin’s movement.

Despite that, he maneuvered through the spell chaos and began to play his lute. As a calm melody somehow pierced through the slicing storm and thunderous earth eruptions, the demonkin cast his own [Cyclone Madness], counteracting mine as the two tornados clashed before they dissipated at the same time.

“Our journey through the world cometh with a price ♫

Our lives—impure rejection ♫

Our history—unholy defilement ♫

Yet we seeketh a path to the ends of our vice ♫

A path to freedom! ♫

Like the crazed frenzy of virtues! ♫”

Singing, yet, this was not something as simple as a person trying to play a tune. I felt the words affect my body. I felt … like my mind process was being slowed.

[Bardic Song (Embrace Your Vice)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

Mana Eyes.

Oh, Virtue and Sin: A bardic song that increases the spell effectiveness of all who may hear this song by 15% but reduces the effectiveness of skill-based attacks by 15%. Increases stats of all those with demonic blood by 5% while increasing the damage they take from all sources by 10%

It seems that the major difference between my spell songs and a bard’s was … the fact it didn’t have the flavor text!

Jokes aside, it seemed like the demonkin’s [Aerokinesis] control was better than mine, as he was slowly removing every other sound around us aside from our voices. Meaning, there were three songs playing simultaneously.

“Staring out the window while it rains ♫

No one here to talk, silence is all I have ♫

So I delved into my thoughts and wondered, “What if?”♫”

“In the midst of the desert ♫

A bright ray of light shines ♫

Pure and brave, that she was, as she walked ♫”

[My Darkest Thoughts] and [The Heir of Hope] were playing in tandem with his song, creating, honestly, a weird musical amalgamation I found hard to listen to. My two songs were already a mismatch of genres, with one being more somber while the other was a ballad that was sung solemnly with a gloomy-hopeful hybrid tone. The discord was further exacerbated when you added in the demonkin’s folk music, with his usage of mostly major musical keys, creating a cheery song more suited to a medieval fair or a tavern filled with hungry adventurers, than a moment of silence to enjoy the songs like mine.

It was like trying to combine a free-forming country song with the grandiosity of opera. It required careful planning to match these two genres.

Somehow, the two of us stopped playing our songs when this thought crossed my mind. Our faces contorted from cringe, with me stopping my roar as a cold chill ran down my spine.

“Urgh!” The both of us groaned.

This was not music. This was tinnitus.

Yet this moment of shared pain between two music practitioners ended abruptly when my parallel minds reminded me I was in a battle. Snapping out of it, I cast six [Banishment Beam]s, manually piloting them to lead the demonkin around while casting more [Bedrock Blades] to hopefully kill him. Yet, none of the attacks worked, leaving me to simply delay him just long for Saori to give everybody a ride.

“Get on!” I took a glance back after I heard the voice of Krim.

I was baffled to see the saurians here with Master, but more surprising was how they had lost their legs and were bleeding out slowly. Saori, as well, had lost her legs and was using her [Shadow Armament] as prosthetics. Did this demonkin do this to them? Who was this guy?

However, I couldn’t take the time to question them. I came here with [Flash Fire], so I lacked any information on the situation and everybody behind me was scrambling to get out of the area. In fact, I saw three water golems in the form of raptors sprinting towards them, trying to get the saurians to mount two of them. What exactly happened here?

[“Forget our legs, Hestia can regrow them for us. Get the sin heir!”] Saori ordered, drawing my attention over to a motionless, burnt person. His figure was strange and beastial, like some enlarged human-beastmen hybrid. If Saori was mentioning a sin heir, then maybe this guy was the sin heir of envy? If he was the Warbringer, Neill would 100 percent be around.

Unfortunately, I was once again interrupted before I could ask them, as I noticed him stopping his lute play for a single second. I snapped my head around, noticing he was holding his fingers in a snapping motion. Realizing he was aiming at my party members, I cast [Terra Wall] to launch all of them into the air, leaving only the wall behind to crumble from his orthodox attack.

I get it.

Getting a sneak peak on what that attack did, I was able to put together what it was; it seemed like a pure wind attack, although what made it weird was that it wasn’t a spell. Yet, it felt weird to call it an Ability. Did his catalyst have anything to do with it? A peice of equipment, for example, that lute … feathers. For some reason, looking at those feathers reminded me of Artorias.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

In any case, it couldn’t be his demonic powers. After all, a pride demonkin’s power was—

[Pride’s Dominance (Pride)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

—“emotional baggage,” as Klea called it. An aura type skill by the name of [Pride’s Dominance], according to Vifi.

Pride’s Dominance (Pride): The natural aura of a pride demonkin manifested into a skill, used to control their ability to spread their emotions to everybody in the area. Fully believing in their superiority and lineage, the aura increases the effects of [Terror Aura] and reduces the stats of those they deem lesser by 10%. Only one [Pride’s Dominance (Pride)] may be active at once, with the strongest aura nullifying the effects of others and regressing them to [Pride’s Dominance (Envy)]

The yellowish skin of a pride demonkin wasn’t a simple characteristic to differentiate them from the other six demonkin types, but it was also a manifestation of their demonic bloodline. Like a chameleon, their skin would change color depending on their current mood, swinging from yellow like pride to red like wrath, or even into green for envy.

The color was an indication of their current power and confidence. While a wrath demonkin was naturally dangerous due to their elemental control, a pride demonkin could very well be dead weight if you dropped their mood to an undesirable emotion like sloth. If a wrath demonkin was a slave to their emotions, a pride demonkin would be somebody hiding their inferiority complex with a superiority complex … According to Vifi.

Armed with this knowledge, I knew well enough that any emotional reactions could crack his mask. His strength was superior to mine, that was what I felt from our brief confrontation. I had to give my friends the chance to flee.

As such, I continued casting my spells, using [Terra Wall] and [Bedrock Blades] to continuously block his sight and the effects of his finger snapping. Strangely, during this entire sequence, he hadn’t tried his attack on me once; at best, he countered my spells and kept me at bay. Did he not see me as a threat, or was his actual plan to rescue the demonkin behind me?

This guess became true when he suddenly used [Gale Steps], moving with a speed my eyes could only keep up with due to being used to sparring with Sis and Vifi. He dashed before me, forcing me to counterattack by swinging my glaive down, only for him to evade it and move behind me, successfully reaching the downed sin heir. He grabbed the person and with a smile was about to turn away, but in that moment, three projectiles suddenly shot from the shadows.

There, from where my [Detection Sensor] told me a signal was approaching us, stood a reptilian person in the shadows. His body was covered in a black watery robe and he had a skull of a dinosaur covering his face, yet I knew instinctively he was my ally. An amulet of Plesia was in one hand while the other held onto a censer, swinging in it his hand before two blue magic circles appeared on them.

Master! I called out in my mind as he threw three spells at the demonkin, all materializing rotating water buzzsaws.

The pride demonkin easily dodged them and was ready to snap his fingers again, but I snapped mine first. The ensuing explosions caused the entire area around us to burst into flames, as I had plenty of time to fill this place with my scale-dust.

I used [Flash Fire], knowing he would survive, and teleported before him with my glaive ready. He tried to react, but the pain he showed before wasn’t fake. He couldn’t withstand my holy flames at all, furthermore, I had a second surprise for him. As a bard, he should know the power of songs, but it was time he got a refresher.

“Shining bright, all for your smiles ♫

This is me, my music will rage like fire ♫

Open up! ♫

Listen here! Hoo hoo woah! ♫”

Replacing [The Will to Fight and Survive] with my newest spell song, [Slave to my Love], a cheery, high-beat song that felt out of place in this fight. In fact, compared to my spell song, it was a complete tonal shift from my usual work to fit my ideal as an idol. To not be similar to a boss fight, to not be similar to a savior, to not expose my deepest emotions. It was a song for the sake of my happiness!

Slave to my Love: A song created by the Idol [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]. Through the image of becoming similar to the stars decorating the night sky, brightening the world to everybody in the depths of darkness, this song brings about the rallying flames of liberation. Through the power of heavenly flames, the idol becomes the center of attention, overriding all [Taunt]-like effects, and grants everybody listening to her a front-row seat to her performance. All entities affected by [Music Resonation] will receive this effect: Receive [Taunted]. The singer will receive these effects: All Holy and Sacred will be affected by [The Light] and are boosted by 30%. Recovers from and prevents [Arcane Fever] while this song is active. Receive 25% more damage from all sources. Reduces resistance against mental attacks and influences

A song all about my love and for myself. “Target Demographic,” unlocked after [Heavenly Performance]’s true potential was revealed from me making peace with Vifi and accepting her as my friend, allowed me to give every song a focal point. Who should it affect and how specific must it be?

In this case, it was an entirely selfish song that gave my allies zero buffs; in fact, they would also be affected by the [Taunted] effect, meaning their attacks would target me. I would also receive 25% more damage and become vulnerable to mental attacks to compensate for a 30% boost in my holy attacks as well as the immunity from arcane corruption, an inspiration I took from Tatsuya’s [Rush Hour] skill before he lost it.

Naturally, seeing the song like this did make it feel lackluster compared to my other spells, but that was the thing. Its selling point was the immunity to arcane corruption, allowing me to cast as many spells as I wanted as long as I could regenerate my mana. This was a “final stand” type effect. Sure, the [Arcane Fever] once the song ended would be terrible, but an easy price to pay for victory.

Nevertheless, there was a second reason why I made this song like this. It could be “weaker” than my other spell songs since I was a [Musical Renaissance Diva]. I could play two spell songs! Exactly, it was time to combine music in a whirlpool of experimentation between genres!

And I had just the song for this first jam, session—[My Darkest Thought].

“Staring out the window while it rains ♫

No one here to talk, silence is all I have ♫

So I delved into my thoughts and wondered, “What if?”♫

The laughing kid stomping loudly upstairs ♫

The damn lovebirds flirting on the streets ♫

Those rich asses living in their golden bubbles♫

I just wish they would all just disappear ♫”

“Life can beat you down to the ground, give you all the suffering ♫

It’s not that I can’t understand ♫

Pressing on with a broken heart, and the feeling of loss ♫

It’s hard ♫

Sadly, there’s no pity, so start your sprint now! ♫

Rise above the top, aim for that moment ♫

Oh, surely, we’ll fly ♫

All to sing about my life to the heavens! ♫

Shining bright, all for your smiles ♫

This is me, so shout out my music, to let your emotions flare! ♫

Open up! ♫

Listen here! Hoo woah! ♫

I’m not trying to make you forget ♫

But let these pain become your scars ♫

All to craft your own story! ♫

I’m a slave to my love ♫”

Two songs that were the complete opposite of one another played in unison. One bubbly and happy, while the other mused about existential fear. What a combo. However, they both did something I needed from them—one taunted the pride demonkin while the other kept his sin power under control and reduced his stats by 20%.

With his attention now on me, I used [Spark Crescent] with my glaive, separating him from the sin heir. With the distance made, I used [Tyrant’s Voice] for a roar, but this time, dialed the volume even higher with [Aerokinesis]! Shattering an imaginary sound barrier, I blasted not only dust and smoke away, but sent the demonkin flying.

Urgh!

However, this was also when I noticed a sharp pain assault my throat. [Tyrant’s Voice] was strong, but it also placed more stress on my vocal chords. I probably could have kept going, ignoring the pain, but my reflexes as a singer was to stop the moment I felt any pain while singing. This minute mistake gave the demonkin just enough time to respond.

I felt a squeezing around my leg, as if somebody tried to twist it off. My scales immediately went to my defense, reducing that feeling before pop! The snapping attack broke through my [True Draconic Barrier], shattering my scales into pieces. Thankfully, the following damage only felt like I was hit by something hard like a spoon.

25% more damage does that to you. Thank goodness for [True Draconic Barrier].

Sadly, a flurry of snaps kept me on my toes. Reduced as I was to five parallel minds, as four had to manage my songs and one my scales, I couldn’t fire my spells fast enough. This demonkin broke through all of them and landed a right hook when he finally closed the gap, pushing me out of the way.

I responded by using [Dragoon Jump] and [Dragoon Dive] in sequence, stopping the demonkin just as he grabbed the sin heir. My flaming glaive clashed with his lute.

What? The lute wasn’t destroyed? Not even broken? What type of mineral was this ivory-colored instrument made from … what were those feathers made from? They were enduring my flames.

[“I remember … those feathers belong to the Drangleic family. The arvisians of Artorias’s royal family! The size, that’s—”] My eyes widened. [“The Griffon King’s!”]

“Glad we got that out of the way!” he said before grabbing my glaive and smacking me in the face with his lute for no damage. He just wanted me to get off him.

Sadly for him, however, I cast [Unheiliger Engel] and used the two obsidian wings to grab him, pulling him closer to me where I used [Spark Crescent], delaying him just long enough! As our weapons clashed, a scream interrupted our duel.

“Rein’Yond!” The demonkin shouted, his yellow skin becoming muddy like brown. His eyes widened as he saw his fellow sin heir throat slit open by a knife.

Master was the one who did the deed.

“You gave Akasht a warrior’s death, so I shall grant you one as well!” he said before stabbing the demonkin right in his head and ripping it out with a stream of blood. As the demonkin laid on the ground with lifeless eyes, Master raised his head and chest. “Rejuvenation.”

“Curses!” the sin heir shouted as his skin turned red.

[Pride’s Dominance (Wrath)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

Pride’s Dominance (Wrath): The natural aura of a pride demonkin manifested into a skill, used to control their ability to spread their emotions to everybody in the area. Enraged, they are unable to keep their pride as a demonkin. Increase Strength and Intelligence of all afflicted by this buff by 10%

Light Horizon!

Before he could attack Master in his rage, I shattered the light around us, blinding him before I unleashed another [Tyrant’s Roar]. As I was doing this, Master summoned two raptors for us, allowing the both of us to escape from the guy.

[“You’re safe!”] I hugged him for a second as we rode together.

He gave me a boisterous laugh. “Haha, I wouldn’t be, if it hadn’t been for you, my apprentice. Two wrath demonkin nearly killed me, thankfully, I managed to fool them just in time. The sin heir of wrath caused a massive earthquake which resulted in that giant mud wall separating our group. Confounded, really. Tell me, how did you arrive? I’ve tested the barrier, it isn’t traversable from the inside.”

[“Rajah and Varya,”] I replied. [“Fleindia warned me she would enter the basilica area for something, so I was readying myself to embark. When I arrived through the subspace, Rajah and Varya informed me what happened before the mud wall happened. They, Renee, and the students with them went back to rest, but they told me I should hurry to Fleindia. The sin heir of envy was after her and she went with Saori, so I followed my nose and went into the sky, where I used [Flash Fire]. This time … Just in time!”]

Saying that last sentence lifted a giant weight in my chest. Honestly, I really hadn’t expected the giant barrier, so I did feel anxious when I heard Master mention it. I thought … ‘cause of our complicated plan to assure ourselves there wouldn’t be any collateral, I might lose more friends.

“Don’t worry,” Master rubbed my shoulder while looking back. “One down … He’s staying behind, it seems. Although we might be angry, our enemies are still people. His eyes are on me now for vengeance.”

I grimaced, but it only reinforced my opinion on this war. Continued fighting would only lead to the cycle of hatred continuing, yet we had to fight to assure the church of Aurena would be free. I guess this would be called conviction.

Nevertheless, I bottled up these thoughts, leaving them for once all this was finally over. Instead, I chose to use this time to rest. Between the concert and this fight, I really couldn’t strain myself too much. Deactivating [Battle Frenzy], I began drinking mana potions and dragorade to recover as the raptors kept moving.

Once we rendezvoused with the others, Master revealed he had another golem pick up Saori’s, Krim’s, and Grazlahta’s severed legs. While I began healing them, Fleindia and the students decided to retreat as well.

“Thank you,” Fleindia hugged me. “Thank you. Please, be well.”

I nodded. “Don’t worry, and if we can, we’ll avenge our fellow blessed as well. Take over for me, okay?”

She nodded, knowing with me gone, she had to assure the city’s denizen would remain calm on her own. I successfully managed to get all of them inside the obsidian orchestra inside my subspace, so they should be safe from any attacks. The Saelari should have the [Room] runes I left behind at the concert area. All we needed was to keep them inside while the battle kept going.

I then looked at Tatsuya, Kyouya, and Asaka, saying they did well. Their exhausted breathing and dirtied faces told me enough of how much they did today. They deserved a rest, as did Rajah and the others.

“We’ll meet you again once this is over, all right?” Kyouya said, masking his anxiousness with a smile.

Asaka, simply clapped my back and showed me a thumbs up, but I knew from her quivering eyes that she was scared as well. Just like Akasht, some of us could die here … Seeing my mood drop, Tatsuya tapped my shoulder and held his arm forward, asking for a handshake. When I reciprocated it, he pulled me closer and raised our hands up, giving me, I guess, a “bro” handshake?

“That idiot Daisy is waiting for you, so stay safe, all right? As long as you’re around, I don’t have to worry about Sensei, Tasianna, Ellaine, and Yorshka, so make sure you stay alive!” he pleaded, causing me to smile.

[“That’s the plan!”]

With all of them gone, that just left Saori, the saurians, and me.

[“Are you sure?”] I asked the former two. [“You’re injured and this takes time to heal. Fixing the nerves and assuring they can move your muscles takes a bit.”]

“Then you should hurry if you are that worried, young scale!” Krim said, with a grimace. “We’re not leaving Kush behind. We saurians fight together and will die together if we have to, so don’t risk his health by having us leave him. Make us whole and we’ll make sure to protect your master.”

“There are more demonkin aside from the one coming for us,” Grazlahta added. “We can take care of the soldiers. We can still provide backup. That … Prince of Pride nullified the silence field around us, but we still need to break that thing. So we can advance. That will be your goal.”

The Prince of Pride … when Saori told me that, I really had no idea what to think. Two sin heirs and now a Prince? I already had my sights set on the Prince of Envy, but now we had to deal with this guy? This raid was already going to be hard, but we had no idea how to fight this guy.

I guess trying to kill one of their allies would cause such a reaction. Still, I would have preferred if three boss-type enemies wouldn’t just come to support an already strong boss type.

[“The staff controlling this is in the middle of the barrier,”] Saori said.

Master nodded. “The staff is inside a square of the mud wall. Before I came over here, I noticed Midirn, Yorshka, and your sister attempting to siege it, but I also saw the Warbringer moving it on a mud wave. We must hurry.”

I agreed and forced myself to concentrate, even ignoring the fact the Prince was slowly approaching us. When Saori warned me about it, I summoned [Hydra] and had him transport us out, but it didn’t take long until we couldn’t keep fleeing.

[“I managed to attach them just enough for you to run, though your legs aren’t fixed yet, so continue drinking health potions. Master, we need your dinosaurs,”] I said before the latter conjured up two raptors for the saurians and an oversized triceratops for Saori. We needed [Hydra] as our frontline right now, and we prepared ourselves with that in mind until the prince arrived.

His face was still burning as my flames couldn’t be extinguished without my say so, yet he wasn’t reacting to them. His smile from before had disappeared as well. He was about become serious.

“You are correct, these are the feathers of the Griffon King, Assurfel. Feathers to improve the control of my wind spells, while his beak was broken down and added to these metallic strings.” With a smile, he caressed his lute, causing his red skin to turn back to yellow. Once done, he pulled one of his gloves off, revealing a metal-wooden “claw.” “A limb for the death of a rank A dungeon master beast with a lifespan worthy of respect. This is a suitable sacrifice for power.”

So he was the murderer.

“Yet, I must ask, I feel a taint of … jealousy. Not only did you manage to make young Vifi betray us and Bole’Taria’s dream, but you even managed to create a replacement limb that surpasses even our best artificer. So, now, my question, must you really get in our way, Princess Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor? Must you, an otherworlder, really get in the way of us Peolyncians?”

I could understand his reasoning, and it made sense since in his eyes he saw me as an interloper. Yet, this hypocrite was asking me to stay out, when Bole’Taria were the ones to summon the students to this world? Of course, you could make the argument that Aurena might have summoned me first, but did that matter to me? No, it didn’t.

I scoffed and held my hand up in the air. [“Isn’t it obvious? A part of my soul still considers herself from Earth, but another has fully accepted my new life. I am a Peolyncian just like you, ‘an invader,’ as the Folschreckians and church of Aurena would call you.”]

“… Well said, dog of Aurena. Regale me with that pride your words spat out, then.”

[“Master!”]

“Apprentice!”

I took the front while Master took the rear, with both of us readying our spells.

Purple Flash!

I cast five [Purple Flash]es, draining my mana like crazy to speed the cast of my next two spells. As three white, one purple, and one red magic circle appeared in the sky, it was time for the real show to begin.

Sun, Consume All! Quartz Regen!

The third phase would begin now!