“Eat this!” The mage adventurer cast a powerful fireball.

“No!” I cried out.

He ignored me, sending it flying into the tempest. Red seemed to mix with the black, creating a fiery tornado. Worst of all, Celeste was inside there, but it was hard to believe she was safe given the state of the spiral of death. His fireball seemed to have accomplished nothing but make it even more dangerous.

“You fool!” The prince chastised him. “How is that helping?”

“Hmph! The prideful magician snorted. “Like this!”

He snapped his fingers, and suddenly the entire tempest exploded. His fireball must have contained some explosive property. When it was absorbed into the tempest, he was only waiting for it to spread out so that he could destroy the tempest and everything inside in a single motion. It was probably his most powerful spell.

Of course, I didn’t feel any joy as the tempest exploded. I felt horror at what he had done. Celeste was inside that tempest. When the explosion faded, Shao was still floating there. The mage’s initially proud face fell.

Shao’s clothing had been tattered to practically nothing. A great deal of her body was exposed to the point of indecency. There were numerous burns, and cuts, but none of it seemed to touch her skin. After everything that happened, she had somehow used the tempest and healed herself completely. It was almost like everything we had been fighting for was for naught.

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Her hand held some charred ash, the only imperfection marking her skin. She lifted up her hand and blew the ash away. It caught in the wind and flew in a pattern that suddenly struck me as familiar. The ash that floated away. Was… was that Celeste?

Miasma erupted from her, but this time it came out like a spike, not a whip. It instantly impaled the magician. He still had a surprised and disbelieving look in his eyes as he died.

As for me, I was shaking. It was another blow to my heart and my mind. My body shook, and the rage overtook me.

“I order you-“ I screamed hoarsely, “Just die!”

The slave mark glowed and she made an irritated noise. It seemed to be causing her pain and discomfort. I no longer cared. Punish Slave. Cap Slave. Order Slave. I started using every ability I swore I wouldn’t to weaken her. Of course, I also inadvertently gave her Slave Status bonuses, but my mind wasn’t thinking about that at the moment. I had to be able to weaken her more than I helped her.

“Weaken!” Miki called out. “Confusion!”

She appeared next to me, immediately casting spells to weaken the demon lord. Lydia appeared on the other side. She was breathing hard and had a few cuts and bruises, but was otherwise alright. I immediately cast heal spells on both of them.

“Master…” Lydia said, her eyes rimmed with red. “We must defeat her. We have to work together. You can’t do this alone.”

“Lydia…”

“Even if we die, Master… we know you’ll bring us back!” Miki added. “Please… we must fight!”

“Miki…”

I narrowed my eyes. They were right. I couldn’t fight over the past I could only march forward. I had to defeat her. I had to destroy the dungeon.

“Attack!” I gave the order.