Dreks looked at the newcomers, perplexed. A few seconds later, a dry laugh escaped his lips. “Huh... Look at that. The Hero has allies turning up out of nowhere!” Dreks turned maniacal again as a thin trail of blood escaped his lips. “Hero Rodan! Do you have no shame?! Even now, your Goddess conspires to help you! Can you do nothing without your divine bitch?!” Dreks whipped his arms down repeatedly. “Tell me, Rodan! Why do you and only you get looked at so favorably?! How is that fair?!”

Rodan winced—even he was overwhelmed by the sudden allies that came from nowhere. “Dreks... I—I don’t know—Huh?”

Elma held out her reconnected hand. She didn’t want the Hero speaking any longer. She wanted to answer.

“He’s helped because he deserves it, Dreks.” Elma smirked. “He’s the one who chose to take on the hard job of being the Hero.”

“Hard job?! How is it a hard job when the gods themselves are helping him?!”

Elma didn’t lose a beat. “Well, he attracts people like you and your employers who try to kill him, doesn’t he?” Dreks growled at Elma’s comment. “I can’t imagine how nerve-wracking that must be—having so many crazed admirers...and yet... he perseveres. I could think of no one more deserving of a little aid. I know he’ll return the favor tenfold for this world’s sake.”

“How do you know that?” Dreks spat.

Elma smiled. “Because he is the Hero.”

Behind Elma, Rodan inspected his body. “Huh? The pain is gone.” He looked at Dorthaunzee. “Th-Thank you.”

The mouthless Dorthaunzee smiled with her eyes and hoped he wouldn’t be too put off.

“Hey. Rodan,” Elma said. “You should run over to that princess in your party. She might need help—“

“No, I can help you. Dreks is unbelievably dangerous—“

Dreks threw a dagger—hoping to catch them unaware—and Elma jerked her head out of the way. Dreks ran toward her, and she raised her hand and released a black cloud of mana. Dreks, confident in his ability to hold his breath and fight with his eyes closed, was not bothered. He ran into the cloud and didn’t make it three steps before regretting his decision.

“Ack—what is this?!” He stopped in his tracks and coughed while squeezing his eyes shut.

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It wasn’t simple smoke. It wasn’t even poison smoke. It was simply mana that made living things wither. It was a mana that didn’t exist in this world—a mana that Dreks could never fathom to counter. It didn’t matter if he held his breath or shut his eyes. What mattered was that he was alive and that the mana targeted living things on a fundamental level.

“There isn’t time for this, Hero,” Elma snapped. “Just help the princess, or she’ll die! After that, round up your friends and try to make it back here! We’ll hold him until then, at least!”

Rodan grunted, but he nodded. “Okay! I’ll get everyone! Thank you, strangers!” Rodan found a pathway and squeezed through it while Dreks was distracted.

Elma glanced at Dorthaunzee. “Hey. I need to be able to communicate with you. Give me those spores or whatever it is that you use.”

Dorthaunzee nodded and released a trail of blue light from her lantern. Elma raised her hand, and the trail of light swirled around the hand until a tiny mushroom formed.

“Okay... Just be ready,” Elma said.

Elma rushed into the cloud and dashed straight through, finding Dreks on the other side. He sensed her presence. His eyes were blurry and throbbing, and a strange pain was radiating along his skin, but he still raised his shield to meet Elma’s dagger.

“You! What was that smoke?!”

“Study it more, assassin!” Elma released another cloud from her arms, eliciting a pained yell from Dreks.

He, desperate, did something novel—he absorbed the cloud. Elma was surprised when she saw her mana being sucked into the man’s hand.

“Hah! So it’s magic!”

Dreks’s other fist flew and struck Elma square in the nose. She stumbled back a bit where she was met by the blue glow of Dorthaunzee’s magic.

“Thanks!” Elma yelled as she readied her dagger again. Her eyes went wide—she caught the assassin’s movement in time to roll to her left. Dreks stabbed the ground Elma had stood on and looked at the girl from his squat. “Come on, then! Give me some more of that cloud!”

Elma narrowed her eyes at the man’s arm. “What did you do to it?”

“Surprised? I ate it and made it my own. I can’t wait to use it on others! What a weird magic!”

Slack-jawed wonder turned to a wry smile. “You ate it?” She stifled a giggle and cleared her throat. “No! You must be lying! My mana is my own! No one can make it theirs!” She pointed her palms at him and released two plumes of her mana at Dreks. “You’re lying!” she screamed, her voice sounding as desperate as she could make it.

Dreks licked his lips and began sucking in the mana as soon as it hit him. “It’s not so scary when I’m stopping it from spreading.” He was so focused on the smoke, he didn’t notice Elma’s crazed smile.

She ceased the production of the clouds and ran toward him. She struck at him right as he realized she approached, and his shield met her blade.

“Impossible!” Elma screamed. “The only ones who could hope to survive my smoke are undead!”

“Undead, huh?” Dreks pushed with his shield arm and kicked Elma in the gut. “So is that what you are?! Some necromancer’s bitch? Never seen an undead like you!” He took a step forward and suddenly ejected putrid blood from his mouth. He gripped his throat and fell to his knees.

He gagged, coughed, wretched. All the most terrible sounds—he made them.

“So, it’s affecting you now.”

Dreks looked up at Elma, black tears streaming from his eyes. “What did you do?!”

“I told you.” Elma sneered. “Only undead can hope to not be affected by my mana.”