Shirley saw many things through her life. One did not have to be a warrior to see bloodshed during the war; it was far too commonplace, like spotting crows in the sky.

Being a revolutionary and a criminal let Shirley see more than most others. That was what she could tell.

What she saw in front of her today was nowhere close to normal.

No, that was an understatement.

What she was witnessing was beyond ordinary. It was on the scale of stories she had heard.

The stories of the warriors at the very front of the war. The heroes fight against the strongest of the demons. The vanguards of the final assault.

A wave of mana sent Shirley's hair fluttering. Ethan's mana was charging out like water from a broken dam.

It was a sight she had never seen before.

Did demons possess this much mana? Was it even possible? Shirley couldn't tell.

His eyes had turned a shade of yellow from their black. Slowly, the mana leaking all around the dungeon merged, coalescing into a sword right into Ethan's arms. The sheer amount of controlled energy warped the air around his blade.

"Shirley, get behind me."

Unable to refute, the girl rushed behind Ethan. Even being near him was suffocating. A strange, fearsome pressure squashed on her very soul the closer she got to the man.

Even the Ents surrounding them all over the mountain hesitated to move. But what could be expected from monsters?

Cornered, even rats fought back, and these creatures had been living as kings of this place.

"KRAAA!" A collective scream tore through the air as the monsters charged straight at them. Dozens, no, hundreds, of sharp branches and vines shot straight at them.

Twigs shaped like arrows. Roots held like swords—leaves tossed like darts. The attacks of all the Ents gathered at once.

"Foolish."

The man in front of her swung his sword—

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—And the world came to a standstill.

A strange quiet filled the air as if the attacks coming their way disappeared as if it were all a dream.

Shirley slowly raised her head and looked around. All the branches, vines, and leaves were covered in the attacks of hundreds of Ents.

Were all stopped in the air.

Frozen. As if time itself had stopped.

"Ma…gic—" Shirley's words stuck in her throat. As she focused, she could see the same thin veneer of warped air around all the attacks that sheathed Ethan's mana sword.

This was no magic. There was no spell this quick and this sophisticated.

What she was seeing was sheer mana control. With his overflowing mana, the man in front of her had stopped all the attacks from approaching them.

Balance? Limits? Those be damned. It didn't look like Ethan had used up half of his mana.

"Just what…" Shirley tried but couldn't express her thoughts.

Just what did a person have to sacrifice to get to this level?

"Don't move from here," said Ethan. With a flick of his wrist, the Ents' attacks fell to the ground, and he slowly lowered his stance. His muscles flexed, and his coat swayed.

A bang resounded in her ears as the man shot off the ground and dived straight toward the Ents. A cloud of dust was left behind where he stood, and as soon as it cleared away, the massacre taking place entered Shirley's sight.

Dozens of Ent corpses lay splattered on the ground. Like a storm, the man raged through the monsters. With every swing of his blade, tens more would fall. Behind his back was destruction and only destruction.

He grabbed the branch of one Ent and flung it in the air like rolling a mace. The man threw the giant tree entirely at tens more and crushed them all, then hit the next as if he was swatting flies.

His kicks snapped them in half. His punches left the ground gorged out.

It was not a fight. It was a one-sided rampage.

Shirley gulped and stepped back.

An old rumor entered her mind as she saw the entire mountain getting cleared out in minutes.

A rumor she had heard when the war was nearing its end. It had become rather popular among the revolutionaries, and they all had to shrug it off as a madman's musings.

There was a man the Emperor wanted to hide from the world.

The guide of the Hero party, the leader of the Final Assault, and the man who single-handedly held off the eleven generals while the Hero party fought the Demon King.

A black-haired monster.

Like everyone else, she had scoffed at those words as an amusing tale. An imagination meant to bring some amusement.

A shiver ran down her spine, naturally.

Shirley chuckled.

“It can’t be… it just can’t…”

It couldn't be true.

***

I sighed and took in deep breaths. It had been a while since I had moved around this much.

Behind me, the wake of thousands of Ents had formed atop the mountain. Seeing the place filled with trees now completely clear was quite amusing.

The Ents had managed to scratch me here and there, but I was mostly unharmed. I checked my weapon and then my state.

I still had a bit more than half of my mana reserves. Since I couldn't use magic, its effect on me was minimal, too. I couldn't use temporary mana potions.

There was still a chimera to fight, and god knows whatever else that could be outside.

But before that…

My eyes turned to the giant in the distance. The same giant that was looking at me.

I still had a behemoth to fight.