“You be careful too!” I exclaimed with a smile directed at Althea and jumped down the stairs, following after James.

Althea was such a worrywart, always thinking about all the things that might go wrong if she does this or that, or if I might be able to keep up with her or not. Still, after these few months, I was already used to what we were doing. Killing people was at first harrowing, but thanks to James, I somehow got a bit over it… He said that he just didn’t think of them as people, as if he was killing bugs or something like that.

I couldn’t just think of people like that myself, but I did try my best to put distance between them and me. Especially when the ones that I did kill were people who didn’t care about other people and just did what they pleased.

Regardless, I tried to not think about it as I got rid of them as fast as I could while leaving the least amount of mess behind so it wouldn’t look like something terrible.

My smile faded as I was pondering those things, jumping from floor to floor, trying to do this mission as fast as we could. Suddenly, James stopped after going down just a handful of floors and I stopped to look at him with a questioning gaze.

He opened the door to that floor and I looked at the number. It wasn’t nearly close to where we had to be. “What are you doing?”

He stopped and turned to look at me. I couldn’t see his face behind the helmet, but I knew he was probably looking at me like I’m an idiot. “This is taking too much time. I don’t want to jump down each floor and then have to jump back up again. Let's just go straight for it.”

“What do you mean? We should just—”

A young man wearing a suit noticed James a second later. Without wasting that second, James dashed ahead and grabbed the man from the neck. He didn’t immediately kill the man, but after a few seconds of Salrak quickly saying who this person was, James just choked him out and left him on the floor. It was just a salaryman…

That was something that worried me about this mission. I’d heard that a lot of Asian men stay to work late because they just have to, so even at this time of the night, there were still people like him working… I can only hope we don’t hurt them, since I think they’re just working here without knowing what is going on at the top floors or underground.

“Come on, let's go back to the stairs. We’re just going to run into people like him if we keep going this way,” I said and turned to leave.

But as I was doing so, I heard James pry open the doors to an elevator. I once more turned to look surprised at what he was doing, but he just ignored me as he looked up and down the elevator shaft. “I don’t want to. Let’s just do it this way.”

Without waiting for me to say anything in return, he used his spear to cut the wires that move the elevator. An alarm sounded off, and the elevator down below pulled the emergency brakes. With a panicked look, I got closer to him as I made sure there wasn’t anyone else around.

“No! Now they know there’s something wrong!” I exclaimed, slapping a hand on my forehead.

“They were eventually going to know,” James said and jumped down the elevator shaft.

It wasn’t a good idea to stay here alone, so without thinking too much about it, I jumped after him. The fall was long, and I managed to see James activate his Holy Magic when he was reaching the elevator… but he didn’t stop himself, crashing instead with the box, and tearing it to pieces as he kept going down and down. I quickly activated my Fire Phoenix Battledress, and while surrounded with its fires, I used my own version of flying magic.

Fire jets burned from the soles of my shoes and I slowed down when I was going to pass by some of the destroyed pieces of the elevator, which then immediately melted when they got close to my burning dress. Hopefully… people didn’t know that I did this, since I wouldn’t want to pay for it…

Down below, James crashed once more with an explosion of Holy Light, and I followed soon after, landing next to him over a blue magic barrier that trembled under the fire of my feet for a moment, only to then reveal a metal plate below.

James clicked his tongue as he looked down at the metal plate. “It seems we still have to go down a few more floors…”

“They had a few more protections for their lower floors, huh…” I said as I pondered about it. “I guess we do as you wanted and just break it down. I’ll use my—”

One of the doors to a higher floor suddenly burst open, with a person wearing a white armor like those of the Holy Knights of Leyfall appearing at the edge of it. “Hey is everything—” The man shouting suddenly paused when he noticed us. “Who are you!?”

“No time to waste,” James replied, pointing the spear up at the man. “Your fire is better equipped for this. I’ll keep anyone that comes to investigate at bay. Melt this shit down.”

He didn’t wait for me to reply as he suddenly flew up with a golden light covering his spear. I watched only for a moment as he crashed with the White Knight upstairs, before turning my attention to the plate under my feet.

The barrier and the metal plate were probably stronger than they appeared, since even after landing on top of it with my fire, it just turned orange for a moment and nothing more… which meant that… I’d have to use a very precise beam. So I crouched and pointed a finger to the floor. A torch of bright blue fire appeared and started burning the barrier.

It immediately pierced through the barrier and then the metal plate as well. I was always surprised to see how my fire worked because normal torches wouldn’t be able to do this, but I had to remind myself that my fire had this much destructive power because of my magic power, so I had to be careful when doing these sorts of things… lest I burn another imperial carpet…

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A crash and a scream sounded from upstairs, so I turned urgently to make sure that James was still alive, but that shout was from the White Knight, who was pushed back away from the elevator shaft as droplets of blood fell on me but evaporated as soon as they got close.

I wanted to chastise James and tell him to be careful, but there was no time for that, so I turned my attention back to the metal plate under me. It was super thick, so I had to push the torch a bit deeper into it. Like that, I was steadily making a round hole all around me; big enough for someone like James to pass through.

More crashing sounds and golden lights were coming from upstairs, but I just focused on opening the hole. After making about half of the hole, the magic barrier broke, and… after what felt like an eternity, I finally managed to open the hole. The metal circle immediately fell, and I fell with it, causing me to yelp as I grabbed on to the edge.

I quickly composed myself and looked up at James. “Hey! It’s open!”

James didn’t turn to look at me as he launched the spear with a lot of strength at the enemies who were coming to the elevator shaft. The movement was so powerful that I felt a shockwave coming down to me, causing some of my flames to sway. But I still just held on to the edge as I looked at James. The sound of crashing and a bright light could be seen coming from the opened door, and right after, James stretched his hand, causing the spear to quickly fly back to his hand.

Once he had it secured, he flew down to me, standing on the edge of the hole while looking at me. “What are you doing holding on to dear life like that? Can’t you fly? Also, I can’t go in if you stay in that position.”

“Oh! Right!” I exclaimed, letting go of the edge as I activated my flying magic.

I floated down slightly, and James followed down the hole to float next to me. “Good job.”

“Eh?” I replied. He wasn’t one to answer nicely to me…

“Let's keep going. They’re really pissed off now, and—”

From above us, I could see a couple of those White Knights jumping into the elevator shaft. I waited for Salrak to tell me who they were, but before I could hear the God’s bassy voice, James lifted his hand, and fired a beam of Holy Magic at them. The Knights managed to block it while falling closer and closer to us, so in a panic, I lifted my hand and created a torrent of dense fire. A blue flame in the shape of a cone, just like the ones you’d see from a space rocket, covered the whole elevator shaft, instantly setting the knights on fire.

They screamed for a moment, and then, they fell to the side of the hole in charred remains. It was when they hit the ground with a thud that I realized what I had done, causing me to bring my hands to my mouth in surprise as I looked at the mess.

“S-Salrak!” I exclaimed.

“They were soldiers who managed to get those weapons and armor after participating and leading sacrificial rituals. None of the knights here got their weapons and armor without doing something like that as proof of their faith…” Salrak said with a calm voice.

“Nothing to worry about then,” James followed up with a shrug, flying down to the bottom of this shaft. “Come on already!”

I decided to trust the words of this so-called God and put aside what I’d done. I had to be careful with those sorts of actions… I wouldn’t want to disappoint Althea by killing innocent people—at least what she thinks are innocent people.

I dropped down to the same level that James was, where yet another thick door stood in our way. It appeared to not be quite as secure as the last one, so James gathered Holy Magic into his spear, and with a sharp stab, he destroyed both the magic barrier that protected it and the metal door behind, sending it flying deeper inside.

A large hall with a tall ceiling full of bright lights and metal walls spread in front of us. All over the hall, there were glass box-like rooms, and behind them, I could see… things… Althea usually called them artifacts, but I couldn’t tell exactly what they were. There were scientists inside those rooms, all looking with wide eyes this way, while a few others were already running this way, only to stop short when they saw us.

The alarm was still sounding, and while we took in the sight, from every corner in this hall, those White Knights popped out, pushing aside the scientists and forming in front of us, with one of them taking a step forward. He had a few golden patterns on his armor, which made it really easy to tell that he was the one in charge.

“Surrender and you might get a quick death!” he shouted, taking a similar spear to the one that James had from his back and slamming one end of it to the floor, creating a wave of light.

He was trying to intimidate us with a Holy Aura, but… well… between Althea, Asteora, Reeta, and all the bases we had destroyed, what he was doing hardly did anything to me; never mind James, who was a self-proclaimed master of Holy Magic.

“If you’re going to kill us anyway, then I might as well drag a few of you with us—not that you were ever going to kill us,” James said with what I imagined was a taunting smile behind that helmet. Once he said that, he turned to me. “Ready?”

With a nod, I turned a determined look at the army of White Knights that spread ahead of us, and James gathered Holy Magic in his body. He glowed golden for a moment, and then burst ahead, leaving behind a few motes of golden light.

The army seemed to not expect what James just did, since as soon as he got close to them, a handful of them were sent flying while being split in two halves. I ignored that mess and focused on using a very special spell; one that I made myself.

While James had them distracted, I lifted my hands forward and gathered my magic in front of me, creating a ball of fire. Steadily, I controlled where the fire mana was going, giving it shape. First a long neck with a head, then a pair of small legs, followed by a long feathery tail, and finally, a pair of big glorious wings. Boom! With a will from my will, the bird powerfully flapped its wings and cawed loudly with a high pitched melodic sound!

A True Fire Phoenix had come to life! And this one was a proper phoenix, none of that fiery chicken stuff that both Althea and Asteora insist are phoenixes—No! This one flew with grace and beauty, and everything under its wings could be turned to ash!

“Go! Miss Pepi! Attack!” I shouted, pointing a finger at the army that just looked with awe at my majestic true Phoenix.

It cawed with an echo once more and then flew forward with enough speed to compete with James. It turned to the side that James hadn’t attacked yet, and with a breath of bright orange fire, it burned the White Knights that were too foolish to stand in its path.

While the shouts of battle and my fires were burning ahead, I heard more knights fall from the same elevator shaft that we used to get here. I urgently turned to look at them, and without saying a word, they dashed towards me.

I jumped back, leaving an explosion behind me to push them away, and followed that with a cone of blue fire from my hand. It didn’t have enough range for me to use it on such a large army, but for these couple of knights that tried to sneak on me, it was more than enough. They burned for only a few seconds, before they—like almost everything I used my fire on—were turned to ashes.

Once I made sure there weren’t any more coming, I turned my attention back to the fight ahead, and with a sharp nod, I flew ahead, joining both James and Miss Pepi.