As soon as Sei entered the world inside the mirror with Agon, he felt an intensely hot beam hurtle towards his face, forcing him to quickly tilt his head to the side to dodge the blast that was almost point-blank.

‘Shit! That was by the skin of my teeth!’ The only thing he could hear was the panicked beat of his own heart. But he didn’t have time to contemplate the near-death experience as another one came his way.

“ROARRR!!” Agon roared, causing the surrounding space to twist and turn.

Sei crossed his arms to defend himself, but the wave behind the roar flung him back so fast that he slammed to the ground a dozen times like a rag doll before finally stopping.

His body was wrecked, and pain spasmed through every piece of flesh and bone. Sei stared at the dark sky.

‘Even breathing hurts.’

But he couldn’t afford to lie down and immediately pushed himself up with shaky legs. “Heh, I always wondered how a second fight would go between you and me. I was confident before, but now you’ve gone and gotten even more monstrous.”

Agon started jogging toward him. It was weird seeing a monster running with sprinting perfect form. Then he started picking up speed and zig-zagging, and Sei could no longer see him.

His next attack was going to be unpredictable!

“I can play that game too!” Sei summoned two mirrors next to him, and he clasped his hands.

Dozens more mirrors manifested, and multiple reflections of Sei started walking strangely, making it look like they were walking from one reflection to the other.

The trick did not bother Agon. He stopped and gathered a huge beam at the tip of his dark horn.

By a huge beam, he meant the raging Agon had formed a beam the size of a small mountain in seconds.

How could something have so much inner energy and gather it so fast!?

His heart shook with fear.

This wasn't something he could handle!

But his cheek stung as it reminded him of the words someone had said to him during the training camp.

'All I see is a once in a thousand years piece of shit!'

Those words rang in Sei's mind, and all the fear disappeared. Then he cracked a vicious smile, and his Ord responded to his emotions. "So it's come to this! C'mon then! Let's die a little!"

Sei drew as much Ord from his body as he could. He felt every pore in his body hurt by how much Ord he forced out.

This was going to be his last stand!

***

Sei will probably die.

That was the sad reality I had to deal with. With Agon at that level, Sei wasn't ready to handle that. The chances of him surviving were slim to none.

A part of me regretted letting him go alone. But sadly, we didn't have any other choice.

Was that the right decision? There was no way to know. I could only play with the cards I was dealt with.

"Why are we waiting here? A battle just happened. People will probably swarm this place soon." Miku said. Though from the look on her face, she didn’t seem too bothered at the thought of fighting others.

I couldn't dispute her words. She was being logical.

If Sei died here, I would have to take his place and deal with what he would have handled.

But that wasn't the main thing I was thinking about.

Sei and I had no kind of deep friendship. He was just a classmate who had his own goals, dreams, and people he loved. It would be sad if he were to die like this.

Just as I was mourning him, there was a bright light in our faces, and a mirror manifested. Out of it came Sei.

He had a broken arm, cut all over his body, and used his only working arm to drag an unconscious Agon.

"W -What happened?!" Anika's eyes were wide in shock.

Sei smiled, showing his bloody teeth. "Nothing happened..."

As soon as he said that, he face-planted onto the ground.

Others rushed to help him, but I stared at Sei's downed body. I had already believed he was dead and had forgotten one minor detail. Something that had slipped my mind after seeing so much death.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

These motherfuckers had plot armor!

Though even knowing that, I couldn't help but smile.

He had one hell of a shounen moment. It was going to be hard to one-up that.

"Do you have all three ribbons?" I asked Anika. If they hadn't gathered them yet, I would have to help them.

"Yes, we're all ready," Anika nodded.

"Then let's find a place close to where the boat will come. That way, we only have to defend ourselves. With our two teams and Miku, no one would dare fight us." I reassured her.

Anika probably was nervous. Both her teammates were down, and she had to continue this alone. She might even be suspicious that we might steal her ribbons.

Welp, time to get out of here and wait for the ship.

...

A day passed, which made it seven days since we had come to this island.

Sei was the first to get up, and as the ship appeared in the distance, Agon woke up too. The latter had a guilty look on his face. He looked at us and bowed his head. "Everyone, sorry for all the trouble I've caused."

Meh, he shouldn't worry about it too much. After all, it was due to him we even had the chance to fight back against the Red Tails members. Otherwise, we would have been badly beaten, and some of us would have even died.

"Sei, sorry for-"

Whatever Agon was about to say, Sei interrupted him. "Don't worry about it. At least this time, you were a semi-decent opponent. I almost had to go all out."

The mocking voice Sei was using made Agon's veins bulge on his forehead. He was angry and looked quite ready to punch his savior.

Sei was underplaying it a lot. He was out of Ord and almost dead when he came here. If it weren't for the mirror world weakening foreign creatures, he wouldn't have had that slight chance of survival.

Plot armor or not, he would have died in that place if the world inside the mirror didn't protect him.

I doubted Sei knew yet. But the mirrors were his special ability as a human. But that world inside it was his inborn power as a demon. Coincidentally both powers meshed well together, and if he mastered them both, Sei would become the strongest exorcist ever to exist.

Of course, that would only be so if Agon wasn’t here.

"Don't worry about apologizing to me," Sei frowned. "But if you keep getting yourself controlled by some demon, how do you think you will ever become the Sage?"

It seemed like Sei wanted to say more. But he stopped himself. He glanced at us, then returned to normal and leaned against a tree.

Sei had probably figured out Agon's situation. He didn't talk about the demon much since Miku and my team was here.

Certain secrets were too dangerous to get out.

Well, my team knew what Agon had sealed inside him. But Sei and Anika did not know. If they did, they were trying to keep their cards close to their chests.

Time passed, and the cruise ship landed on the harbor. An old butler waited on the docks, and he checked his watch every ten minutes.

Our teams walked up to the harbor, and three other teams followed. After that, more stragglers showed up.

The butler cleared his throat. "Only those who have passed the exam will enter this ship. While others will have another ship come and pick them up."

Those who had failed the exam had disheartened looks on their faces. They probably thought they would have another chance to steal someone's ribbons on the ship.

"Well, it seems like this is where we're parting ways. Thanks for helping me. I will repay this debt one day." Miku said as she walked away. I decided not to say anything when I saw her clenching her fist.

Miku was pissed off for failing the exam. Despite what she said, she might even be sad about her teammates’ deaths. But she didn't want to show that in front of us.

I walked up to the butler first and showed him our ribbons. He nodded. "Good. Kon, Gem, and Bets all pass the exam."

After us, only four other teams had passed. Agon's team, the silver-haired team, the corpse guy's team, and the spear guy's team.

The results were within expectation. Though I was troubled, the silver-haired team had passed. If I had met them on the island, I wouldn't have hesitated to eliminate them.

We walked into the ship, and everyone was sizing each other. Amongst all the exorcists, we had proven ourselves as the cream of the crop.

This was it. We had finally reached the finals!

***

Paris was walking through a long hallway on the other side of the world. Before she finally reached what looked like a large round table in a darkened room.

Just over thirty people were sitting at that table.

When she thought about the higher-ups, these were the people that came to mind.

They were the parasites sucking the result of hard work and life out of normal people.

If her ability allowed her to kill everyone here at once, she would have used it without an ounce of hesitation.

She was here to act as a guard, but if she could kill them all by sacrificing her life, she would have done it in a second!

"Since everyone is here, I would like to start the meeting," one man at the table declared. He had wavy red hair and purple eyes. "The King sadly couldn't make it today."

His name was Mango, and he was the King's only brother.

Mango turned toward the rest of the table. Some were smiling, some didn't care, and others had stern looks on their faces.

A bead of sweat rolled down Mango's brow, and he swallowed his saliva. "A -Anyway, I'm not the only one who is standing in someone else's stead. Sir Leo has come in place of his brother today."

He pointed at one side of the table toward a man with dark hair and a gentle smile on his face.

He was Leo of the Dark Sword Clan, the lone brother of the Clan Head.

Paris' brow twitched when she stared at the man. Though it was his first time here, he didn't seem nervous at all, which was the opposite of the stumbling Mango.

Leo waved at them. "Yes, my brother is busy with something."

That was all he said. But since the one who said it was the second-in-command of the Dark Sword Clan, it wasn't hard to guess what the Clan Head was doing.

Leo was hard to read. His face only showed a faint smile, and his eyes were almost closed.

Appearance-wise, there was no doubt Leo was Kon's father.