Ch.113Devil Hunter. (3)

“……What are you planning to do now?”

The Devilhunter asked the Master of Dark with her arms crossed. She knew where Olivia had gone.

She looked at the collapsed ground with troubled eyes.

“If it were me, I wouldn’t follow her in. There’s a demon realm down there.”

“……A demon realm?”

The Fire Demon Realm is a place half-corrupted by the abyss. Ordinary people burn to death before they can even set foot in a demon realm, and mediocre strong ones go mad from demonic corruption.

‘……I never thought I’d be saying this.’

It was something Olivia had told her before.

“Since when has a Devilhunter feared such things?”

“The demons aren’t the problem. The problem is that the person who went in is Olivia.”

The demons inside were merely numerous, with none particularly strong. At least that’s how she remembered it.

But visibility was difficult with the abyss surrounding everything, and there were no terrain features to hide behind.

An open terrain. One entirely favorable to a mage.

“……The terrain changes?”

“You’ve never been in a demon realm, I see. Down there isn’t simply underground. It’s a completely different dimension.”

She couldn’t rush in carelessly. If Olivia ambushed her, she would die before getting her revenge.

For now, she had no choice but to wait until the Rebel arrived.

The Devilhunter loosened her bowstring made from drake tendons. The string that hadn’t worn out once in the past year had become loose from the recent battle.

‘……Why.’

Olivia hadn’t attacked. She only defended when attacked, focusing entirely on protecting the children behind her.

She had never heard that Olivia had disciples in her previous life.

‘……You’re the same this time too.’

Olivia’s methods are cruel. She arms herself with smiles and breaks through the locks of one’s heart in an instant. Before you know it, she has already become the most important relationship in your life.

Even now, in just a few minutes, she had shaken the unwavering composure that seemed unbreakable.

The Devilhunter exhaled lightly, then took out a spare string and attached it to her bow. A memory flashed in that moment.

– I’ll string it for you. Give it here.

‘……Damn it.’

Demons bewitch humans. They offer what humans want, winning their favor in an instant.

Olivia takes it one step further.

She gives what is needed.

She fills what is lacking.

And then she abandons them.

Olivia enjoys watching people despair after being abandoned by someone precious.

At that moment.

“It’s been a while.”

A voice came from behind. It was a man with a neat impression. With his characteristically charismatic smile, well-groomed beard, and a voice that commanded attention.

It was the Rebel.

He strode forward and extended his hand to the Devilhunter.

“Sorry I’m late.”

“……”

The Devilhunter glanced at the hand extended in the air.

This was their first meeting since ‘that day.’

In her previous life, her relationship with the Rebel wasn’t particularly bad.

When the Devilhunter brought back demons’ heads, the Rebel would pay the bounty.

After forming a connection with Olivia, they occasionally traveled together. He was a comrade she could trust to watch her back, a fellow warrior.

‘……Or so I thought at one time.’

But since returning, she hadn’t met him once.

Actually, they had met exactly once.

About a week after she returned.

– ……You’ve changed.

– No, I haven’t changed. And neither have you.

The Rebel had looked as if he had expected this.

– This was our relationship from the beginning. One that couldn’t exist without Olivia.

It was awkward.

As he said, they were never meant to be close from the start.

Their personalities, values, tastes—nothing matched.

They just hadn’t realized it because Olivia had subtly taken on the role of mediator.

Instead of shaking his hand, the Devilhunter summoned a shadow horse and mounted it. Without even looking at the Rebel, she spoke to the Master of Dark.

“I think it’s about time we go?”

The Master of Dark observed them silently, then nodded.

“Yes, now that everyone’s here, we’ll proceed.”

*****

“Listen carefully.”

Olivia spoke to her disciples who were staring at her.

“They’ll be coming after us soon. So you all need to go back.”

“Go back? What about you, Master?”

Olivia smiled a teacher-like smile.

“Naturally, I’ll finish up here and return.”

It seemed impossible to train in this situation. Olivia’s plan was to send her disciples back first, then quickly clear the Fire Demon Realm to get the key and leave.

“Take this.”

Olivia handed over a teleport scroll from her dimensional space. Even for someone like Olivia, traveling directly from the south to the north was impossible. It was inevitable to pass through the Empire several times.

Since she couldn’t go with them, it was better to give them the scroll.

“I’ll call Lady Melina.”

“Don’t.”

“She told me to definitely tell her if a situation like this arose.”

So that’s what they were talking about before coming here?

As expected of a Grandmaster who deals with time, she has good intuition.

“No. Don’t do it. If anyone tells her, it should be me.”

“But……”

“Then wait just one day.”

Olivia frowned and looked directly at Aramis.

“Wait just one day. If I don’t return by then, tell Melina what happened and where I couldn’t return from.”

– That child is stubborn.

“……Understood.”

Aramis took a step back. Melina’s words were spot on.

He was now vaguely aware of their relationship. The way Melina treated Olivia resembled how Olivia treated them.

Of course, it was just a hunch. A hunch that was practically certain.

“Now go. Don’t look back.”

The disciples nodded.

“Remember. One day.”

The moment she uttered those words, she felt something crawling on her skin. It felt as if thin, fine threads were connected to each of her joints.

‘……What is this?’

It was a sensation she had never felt before.

A heavy presence.

And an unfamiliar gaze.

Olivia quickly wrapped her entire body in magical power.

She no longer felt the alien energy. All she could sense was the presence of demons approaching this place.

Olivia stared straight at the empty space. Clearly, she had felt a gaze from there just moments ago.

But there was no one.

It couldn’t be the Master of Dark. From the moment she entered the demon realm, she had scattered her magical power everywhere to immediately notice if anyone approached.

So there were two possibilities.

Either it was an illusion, or someone stronger than Olivia.

‘It can’t be an illusion.’

But there’s no one stronger than Olivia on this continent. This would be true even if the Demon Lord descended.

‘……The Demon God.’

Surely, Yekaterina had said something like that before she died.

– She said the remnants of the Demon God would soon descend upon this land.

Olivia was silent for a moment.

“……Master?”

Hearing the worried voice, she finally came to her senses.

First things first.

Flash!

With a bright light flickering, the disciples’ forms disappeared. Only then could Olivia breathe a sigh of relief. She calmed her mind and charged magical power in both hands.

Olivia clenched her fists tightly, then spread them open as if bursting.

Tzu-tzu-tzu-tzu!

Like flowers blooming, countless flashes of light swiftly flew toward their targets. The demons’ bodies were pierced like leaves. The ground in contact with their blood melted like wax, and the stench emitted by the demons filled the surroundings.

‘I need to catch as many as possible before the returnees arrive.’

The clear condition for the Fire Demon Realm is to eliminate all demons.

[Current Purification Rate: 45.53%]

The Fire Demon Realm isn’t particularly difficult compared to other demon realms. If there’s anything challenging, it’s the sheer quantity of demons.

‘……I won’t be able to finish before they come.’

A wave of monsters was approaching, centered on Olivia’s location. Most were creatures enslaved by demons.

‘Maybe I need to push myself a bit.’

Kwaaaaa!

As Olivia raised her hand, a massive pillar of light struck down from the sky. The lightning shattered the ground and spread thin streaks of lightning in all directions. The huge monsters’ bodies shattered upon contact with the lightning, spilling black bodily fluids.

[Current Purification Rate: 94.47%]

She couldn’t feel the gaze anymore.

Instead.

‘……A presence.’

Olivia twitched her fingers, aware of something behind her.

“You’re alone. I heard there were three of you.”

A low voice appeared. Olivia stopped channeling her magic and turned her head.

A man with short brown hair was staring at Olivia.

‘The Rebel.’

Olivia glanced at his hand. He was holding a shield as large as his body.

The Rebel began to approach slowly with his shield.

“I won’t fall for it like last time.”

“……What?”

“Ah, were you going to pretend not to know?”

The Rebel uttered in a low voice.

“Well, let’s see how long you can keep that up.”

Olivia drew up her magical power.

‘One on the right, one on the left.’

She was surrounded.

“Let me ask one thing.”

The sound of cold and lightning energy mixing and shattering like glass was heard.

“Did you die by my hand too?”

“You could say that.”

The corpses of demons exploded and froze repeatedly.

“Then why are you so relaxed?”

“Of course……”

She doesn’t speak at length.

“What, did you think three would be enough?”

An arrow shot toward her.

A shadow lunging for her vital points.

In that moment, the world split apart.