The three girls continued to follow the dog, running at full speed.

It could be said that their fighting power was somewhat diminished because they were in the forest. Because now Lylphia had to be careful with her fire magic. One wrong move could start a fire in the forest that they could not stop and cause big problems.

As a result, Lylphia could no longer use her fire magic to continue to leave a trail for Yu and Yurine. Sivina took it upon herself to leave a trail so that those who came after them could follow them. As she moved through the forest, she cut the trees with her sword and left traces that Yu could see. In this way, Yu and Yurine would finally be reunited despite the distance between them.

“We have come too far, are we sure the dog is leading us to the right place?” Sivina asked. She was skeptical because she couldn't see the men they were chasing.

“It might be a little late to ask that,” Ana replied. She was still holding the dog's leash and running at the front.

Once away from the town and into unfamiliar parts of the forest, it was no longer useful to suspect the dog.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I'm fine.”

Sivina wasn't well, but she couldn't answer Lylphia's question except by saying yes. She didn't want to go back when she had come this far, she would finish what she had started today.

But neither Ana nor Lylphia could help worrying. Her pajamas were torn and stained with blood. Worse than her outfit was the fact that the rock had actually hurt her and she had interrupted Yurine's healing spell to catch the culprits. It still hurt, but that wasn't going to slow her down, Sivina was determined.

“That guy was wounded too, he can't have gotten very far. He must be hiding somewhere,” Sivina said.

“That's a possibility, but there's also the possibility that it's not. Our real problem is the mage.” Lylphia was trying to piece together what she knew about Sony in her mind. “Sony's father used both light and earth magic. We saw that sorcerer using earth magic too, and if it is Sony, there is a possibility that he also uses light magic and healed other's wounds. In short, we have to be ready to face two healthy enemies.”

Although Sivina was not a mage, all the girls here, including her, had met other mages and had seen many kinds of magic.

But Lylphia in particular was much more interested in magic than the others. Ana was also a mage, but Lylphia had taken it to a professional level and was studying at the most prestigious academy in the world. That's why Lylphia was aware that the other person could be more dangerous than they thought.

Yu had made the assumption that the Redchapel Killer could not use magic. If the injured man was not trying to conceal his power, he did not think he was using magic, and if he could not use magic, he could be the killer as they assumed. In that case, the sorcerer, the man they thought was Sony, was clearly more dangerous than the killer.

“Watch out!”

Sivina almost floated in the air in front of Ana and swung her sword at the arrow that came at her.

Thanks to Sivina's quick intervention, the arrow broke and fell to the ground before it reached its target, leaving Ana unhurt.

But the three of them had no time to stop and catch their breath as a long yellow arc moved horizontally, cutting through the trees in its path.

As soon as Lylphia noticed the wave, she jumped up, Sivina jumped on top of Ana and they lay down together. Thus they were all saved from being cut by the yellow bow.

“Light magic!” Lylphia exclaimed, “It must be Sony!”

Before they could comment on Lylphia's detection, an arrow had shot from the bow again, this time choosing Sivina as its target.

Sivina was ready to defend herself with her sword, but Lylphia reflexively used her magic and the flames engulfed the arrow within seconds, leaving nothing behind. Her magic did not hit the trees, thanks to the bow that had just cut them down.

They could see their attacker in the open space created by the light magic cutting down the trees. Another arrow came at Sivina, but Lylphia's flames caught it and destroyed it. Meanwhile, Ana let go of the dog's leash and it bolted towards the men in front of her.

“Ava!”

Ana's wind spell, like the light spell they had just encountered, traveled horizontally and followed the dog.

She had believed that the speed and power of her main spell would allow her to kill her opponents in one move, but her spell was destroyed when it crashed into the rock wall in front of her.

The dog, too, was forced to stop abruptly by the wall, then ran again to go around it, barking furiously. Ana, frustrated that her trusted spell had been thwarted, sent a much more powerful spell from the palms of her hands.

“Ava Neido!”

The tornado that emerged from Ana's palms raced through the dust, crashed into the earthen wall and tore it to pieces. With the destruction of the wall, the two people hiding behind it were exposed.

As soon as the dog saw its opponent, it pounced on him, regardless of who he was. And it was the mage, dog sank his teeth into mages arm and his staff fell to the ground as he screamed.

“Fuck you!”

The wizard swung his arm angrily and struck the dog against the tree behind them. He hit the animal so hard that the bark cracked and the dog fell to the ground and lay motionless.

“Hello!” Lylphia shouted. “Are you Mr. Sony and the Redchapel Killer?”

In the meeting with Yu, they talked about the fact that magic is genetic and that Sony could use the same light and earth spells that his father used.

As she had just said, the mage before her had used light magic as well as earth magic. Lylphia had no doubt, it was Sony.

She didn't want to burn the forest, so she couldn't use fire magic to her heart's content, but it wouldn't be right to let down her guard against a powerful mage like Sony. She formed fireballs swirling around her, ready to be activated at any moment, for attack or defense.

Sivina and Ana were on guard along with Lylphia. Both were bold enough to move towards their opponents at any moment without hesitation.

“Let's see... Yes, you must be him. Well, I wonder if you prefer Mr. Sony or Mr. Bishory? Anyway, I don't know, but I'm sure you’re. You tried to hide your face a bit with the robe, but it was a failed attempt.” Lylphia's speech was a mockery of the other person.

Unlike his other relatives, Sony's hair was brown, not black. Apart from the difference in hair color, he had the same features as all his other relatives, tall stature, a charismatic face and blue eyes.

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“Is it possible that the person next to you is a murderer? If so, you'll have to stand trial for that, too. And if we get past that, you'll have to return what you stole-”

The sorcerer listened to her in silence until she mentioned what had been stolen. When Lylphia mentioned the thing that had been stolen, the mage, Sony von Bishory, turned his head and threw the yellow halos that had appeared above his head at Lylphia in a rage.

If it had been crystals of arak magic, earth magic or water magic that had come at her, Lylphia could have tried to defend herself using fire magic, and most likely would have succeeded.

But even though fire magic was the most powerful form of magic according to Lylphia, it was incapable of providing an effective defense against the attacks of light and wind magic.

If she sent her spell into the halos of light coming at her, they would pass through the flames without any problem and hit Lylphia. She didn't like to run, but she had to run now to avoid dying.

She jumped to avoid all attacks and while Lylphia had the mage's attention, Sivina closed the distance between her and her opponents in a few leaps and brought her sword down on the mage's shoulder.

“Tch!”

Sivina's sword was stopped by a dagger and Sony's arm remained attached to his torso. Sivina did not expect this move, but she wasted no time and continued her attack.

According to the teachings of the kuendo style, long practiced by his family and taught to her by her father, the most important thing in a fight is to defeat the opponent as fast as possible and to do whatever it takes to do so.

Although many people say that this style is more suited to an assassin than a knight, and scorn knights who use the kuendo style, Sivina continued to follow the style used by her family for generations and taught to her by her father, and she drove her knee into Sony's groin.

As Sony staggered back, she punched him in the face with her left hand, knocking him to the ground. She wasn't going to give the other man a chance to attack her, so before he could do anything she jumped up and kicked him in the nose.

As the man's nose was broken, Sivina jumped up again as soon as she landed on the ground and again kicked her opponent in the head.

Her opponent was knocked to the ground by a kick. He had not expected Sivina to move so fast, he was stunned and for the first few seconds he was motionless, trying to understand what was happening. When he came to his senses he started to crawl backwards but stopped when Sivina pointed her sword at him.

Sivina did not let her guard down, not wanting to face a sudden attack. She looked at the men lying on the ground and spoke.

“You're Sony and you're William Berry, right?” The name William came out of her lips like a curse word.

How else could it have come out? Her voice was harsh and her beautiful sea-green eyes were horribly sharpened, without a trace of compassion in them.

“This is the end, isn't it?”

Mage’s voice was full of pain, although it was unclear whether the blow to his groin was hurting him or whether he was grieving. Lylphia and Ana approached them as Sivina continued to wait without letting her guard down.

“Yeah, I recognized it better up close. It's Sony.”

Like Sony, the other man's face was completely exposed. His blue eyes lacked the nobility of Sony's. His red hair was thinning and he had an unkempt beard. He fit the description of William Berry, but he looked forty when he should have been in his late twenties.

“Please,” Sony whispered. Her whisper angered Sivina.

“It is brazen to beg for mercy after causing the deaths of so many people.”

Sony ignored Sivina, wouldn't talk to her. He cried out. “I want her to live, save her!”

Sony attacked using earth and light magic at the same time.

He built a thin wall of earth to block Lylphia and Ana, and the halos of light that appeared in the air were directed at Sivina.

With so little distance between Sivina and the halos, she did not have enough time to escape. She managed to dodge half of the halos coming at her, but could not prevent the other half from slicing her body open.

This time the wounds were a bigger problem than those caused by the rock she had jumped to save Ana, but at least the halos were on her arms and legs and not on her torso or neck.

That was not to say that her injuries were to be taken lightly. She was still alive, but the cuts on her arms and legs caused her sharp pain and she was losing blood.

Sivina realized that the killer was on the run. If she chased the killer now, Sony would attack her from behind, and although she didn't want to take her eyes off the killer, she had to neutralize Sony first. She tried to drive her sword into her shoulder, but he rolled away from her.

“You take him, I'll catch the killer!”

When she saw Ana and Lylphia, she spoke in a tone that made it clear she wasn't going to accept any objections, and before Ana could start ranting about her wounds, she left Sony with them and started running after the killer deeper into the forest.

***

“I'm tired, I'm exhausted, I'm dead, and I’m out of battery.”

Although Yurine's healing spell helped him forget the fatigue at first, Yu's body still had potential. Now the spell was starting to wear off and he was starting to see the effects of the strain on his body.

A few seconds later, using Yurine's magic as doping and pushing himself, Yu was unable to support either Yurine's weight or his own and began to stagger. He barely managed to control himself before he fell to the ground and stopped.

He couldn't breathe, his lungs and spleen were burning. His knees were shaking and his arms carrying Yurine had no strength left.

“Nohhh... Whaaay... Uh... Uh... Uff... Off...”

“Don't sweat, it's uncomfortable. I can't believe you're sweating with a noble lady like me.”

“Uh... Do you think that's our problem?”

Just as Yurine couldn't believe that Yu was sweating, Yu couldn't believe that Yurine was focusing on her comfort instead of the huge problem in front of them.

He wanted to raise his hand and point at the wall, but he didn't think he could carry Yurine with one hand. He didn't even think he could lift his hand and he didn't even think he could keep carrying Yurine.

He knelt down to sit down and put Yurine down. Although Lylphia and the others needed support now, there was nothing Yu could do, he wanted to rest.

“Why didn't you wear socks or slippers?”

Yurine stepped on the ground with her bare feet. She would be cold and it would hurt.

“Hmph! Look at you instead of worrying about me, you're exhausted. I expect more from my partner.”

“My partner? Uh... That's nice to hear, but... I'm human, human. Uh... Uh... I admit, I'm great, I'm the one who sets the ceiling for greatness, but... Uh... But I'm still a human being, even if I'm far above other people. Even if the potential of my charisma and intelligence is limitless, my body unfortunately has limits, ah, I ran well... I ran a lot... It's a good thing I'm not having a seizure right now, otherwise I would have died completely... Uh... Uff...”

“You say you're tired, but you find the energy to praise yourself. If you run instead of talking, we can continue.”

Yurine took him by the hand and tried to lift Yu while he was sitting on the floor. Yu didn't want to get up but he didn't have the strength to resist, Yurine's strength was so great compared to his weakened body that he was dragged along the floor for a while until he reached the wall.

“Let's rest for two minutes and then we'll continue.”

“Isn't he the killer? Maybe the one with him is the headmaster’s son. Come on, get up, let's go get him.”

“Oh my child, have some sympathy.” Yu was still catching his breath. “I don't think there's anything we can help them with. Okay, so maybe we can help and they might be waiting for us right now... Ugh... But if they fail, we're fucked anyway, so let them handle it...”

Yu was in no mood to get up and run, if there was a bed right next to him he would fall asleep the moment he lay down. It was impossible for him to get up and run.

But even in this state, his life was more precious than his joy, and the moment he saw a crystal spear coming towards him out of the corner of his eye, he felt the energy in his body to continue, and he leapt from his seat and jumped towards Yurine.

Yu was lying at Yurine's feet when the spear pierced the wall. He lifted his upper body with his arms and looked across.

“No way, man! Did we run all this way for nothing? How can you catch up with us? This is bullshit! I swear it's bullshit!” He took another breath. “It's a stupid cliché that makes no sense whatsoever!”

Sharley was approaching them from across the road with angry, hard steps and a terrifying aura that even Yu could recognize.

“And after taking that blow, you should die out of respect for your opponent, it's a shame.”

He forced his legs to stand up. He couldn't understand how Sharley had survived Lylphia's blow, dodged the people around him, and caught up with them. If it had been Yu who had been hit by Lylphia, they would have had to scrape him off the ground.

As Sharley continued to approach, Yurine stepped in front of Yu to protect him.

“Hold it right there, my pride won't let me hide behind a little girl...”

Meanwhile, the crystal swords that Sharley threw to kill Yu hit Yurine's wind wall and shattered before they could reach Yu. Yu swallowed.

“Did you say something?” Yurine asked.

“We're different weights. If I had magical powers, I'd go out and fight too.”

“Go out and fight then, I'll stop his magic from hitting you.”

“Now that you've stepped forward and intend to fight, I can't come between you and disrespect your heroism.

Yurine smiled. “Then be quiet and stand behind me and I'll give this bastard a magic lesson.”

“I trust you.”

A storm was forming around Yurine's small body. Sharley stopped when they were ten meters apart and began to form crystal swords above his head.