Edited by: Flubbykin

The last monster in the room fell dead. Blanka gazed over magician surrounded by two devils trying to hide her emotions. She felt uneasy, the whole presence of magician almost made her puke - the overwhelming pressure of dark magic was suffocating the air around him, it was almost hard to see him through the "mist" of purple magic that he was emitting, but his book was far, far worse. Pitch black dense smoke was pulsating with crimson like veins feasting on the violence that he caused... no, that they caused.

It was almost as if Grimoire was... alive?

- "I know I am dashing, but don't stare so much, you make me uncomfortable. Also, I am already taken, and I think that I know what kind of opinion my lady has regarding open-relationship."

Was he mocking her? Most likely. Yet she couldn't muster any answer for the first time in years, she actually started to be scared. Her? Blanka the blades of justice? The executioner? The one that was taking party quests alone? Was afraid of a solo magician? Male-magician, atop of that?

- "Save your breath, we have no idea how much deeper this cave is..." she managed to save rest of her dignity

- "For the first time today the she-blade said something not-completely-foolish..." bird-devil named Sebastian flapped his wings.

- "I didn't quite break a sweat, did you?" white-haired man snickered

Now, he was just being cheesy, he did break a sweat quite a lot while dancing with a spear.

One thing he was bad with - his melee combat fighting style was full of holes, even less advanced warrior could defeat him in terms of skill, Zariel was able to continue fighting in short range only thanks to his ridiculous, for a mage, strength and speed.

- "...so fret not, child, if something would happen I would have your back." he ended. Did he actually say that to raise her morale?!

This man is a walking riddle, on closer inspection, when he questioned her morality he didn't do that to offend her, but to raise her awareness, did he? Now he tried to bring her some kind of twisted comfort by letting her rely on him... wasn't he supposed to be a bad guy?

- "Say, you told me you had a team..."

- "No past-time, still have, we split up in the guild, for a couple of quests. We needed to distress ourselves and pick a few easier tasks. It's quite stressful to keep looking for one another on the battlefield for day after day, so we are just blowing some steam now. Giselle went to kill a Bogger, I came here, Lanele is probably taking a herbal bath before entering cafeteria - what a freak - as if killing things like a normal person wasn't enough for her."

Killing a Bogger and diving into a random dungeon with no preparation nor information about difficulty was their way of DISTRESSING!? What were they doing on a daily basis then!? No - what did a HARD day look like?!

- "... Why are you asking?" He tilted his head to the side while cleaning his equipment preparing for resuming the dive

- "Your fighting style is weird. People in parties tend to pick a role and master it, so you are either a vanguard, support, glass cannon, ranger, rogue and such... and you are none.."

- "Have been living alone for quite some time, old habits never die."

- "What were you doing back th.."

He stopped his cleaning and took a longer glance at her.

- "You are asking awfully lot of questions on our first date, babe, leave something for second."

- "You are already planning another quest? With me atop of that?"

- "Sure, as soon as I would get back from Danadea Mountains."

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- "When are you getting back?"

- "I do not intend to get there in the first place."

- "But you just said..." second, two, three passed before the meaning of his words finally nested between her ears.

- "Asshole!" she hissed with slightly reddened from embarrassment cheeks.

- "That's after the third date, sweetheart."

HOW COULD SOMEONE BE THIS VULGAR!?

- "I still don't know if I can trust you! I am just trying to see what kind of person you are! If you can't understand this much then..."

- "... then turn around and walk away. You will do me a favor because I can't fight seriously with you around."

- "Your ego appears to be completely reciprocal to your height! Arrogant brat!"

- "... what did you call me?"

Raven devil standing behind him groaned and covered his face with one of winged arms while whispering to himself

- "SAID THAT AGAIN YOU OVERSIZED SOW!..." what was with that outburst of pure anger? "... My body is perfect, you hear that!? It was molded by the goddess and shaped by months of training! I am tall enough to complete EVERY task, yet not too tall enough to be considered a threat! I am a night-time predator! A shadow that lurks in the dark! What's wrong anyway with all your amazement with those colossal bodies!? Nothing but broken chunks of meat that are slowing you down! Also! I could get taller literally any second now, I just chose not to because it's simply fucking pointless! But that's what is attractive to you, yes?! WELL, GO ON THEN FUCK AN OGRE! Maybe that will get you satisfied you greedy slut!"

He was hyperventilating.

Does he... actually has a complex regarding how tall he is? That's... that's...

... SO BLOODY ADORABLE! She just couldn't hold herself to pay him back a little!

She approached magician, she was just a little bit taller than him, you almost couldn't tell the difference, yet she still bends over him a little just so he could notice that, and patted his head.

- "It's completely ok, big-boy, big-sister will help fulfill your dreams, so rest assured and..."

Was that a fireball forming in his hand? No, you will never attack another adventure in the middle of the dungeon for such a pathetic reason, couldn't you?

He could, and he did.

- "Madame Blanka, please, stay still and maybe, just maybe it will not hurt as much... you will evaporate in seconds, I promise you...."

And then, a dim-dark cave for a split of a second became filled with a chant and light.

- "I am the god of new world order,

Cover before my deadly gaze,

Which sets the earth and sky ablaze,

 Looking within the infinity I laugh at perfection,

 The world within my palm,

 Shall shake and cry,

 Fire and flames,

 My will is done,

 Tremble now,

 [The Birth of Sun]"

It was... Beautiful. For the first time, he didn't use unholy magic, his usually dark or even purple flames were stunningly blue, with his stretched hand he looked like an angel - an angel that came to deliver words of the gods - the word was "perish", yet she wasn't sad, she didn't want to run away, quite the opposite, the flames appeared to be so cozy, so safe and pure. And she felt no pain when the flames bathed her skin....

... yet soon the flames perished and she was dragged back to the reality that she welcomes with a moan of dissatisfaction. It was so wrong to be pulled back from hypnotizing sensation of pure flames.

Then she snapped back as if realizing what just happened.

THAT FUCKER THROW A FIRE SPELL AT HER!

... yet nothing happened.

- "For this, I will tax you triple."

He turned around and started walking toward the exit located at the opposite side of the room.

Why did he waste so much magical power though? Just to scare her off? She turned around.

And froze and her heart skipped a beat

This room had a guardian - the so-called boss.

The spider-like beast must have been hiding in the shadow of the ceiling. Each of the creature's legs was over 5 meters long, it's jaw was open ready to snap her head with a single bite, merely inches away from her neck now. Beast must had some detection-negating skills, for even now she couldn't sense its existence in any other way than the smell of burning flesh.

The spell was so strong that it melted the beast's exoskeleton and flesh into one, turning it into a statue.

This boss creature was supposed to be defeated by a party after long and exhausting battle... yet was defeated with a single spell. In a split of a second.

And he was now walking away without looking at his destructive creation, just as if it was nothing. He just put his hand into the pocket of his robe, picked a small vial with blue liquid, uncorked it with his teeth and gulped it down in a one go.

- "... should have made it a cherry flavor..." he said with disgust putting the glass vessel back into his pocket.