"Oh?" The female demon said while looking at Ryan. "I didn't expect the human Baal mentioned would be this interesting. You look quite average, but your eyes… I like them."

Ryan didn't have time to concentrate on Power Shot, so the best way to cause damage was to rely on his magic weapons. He didn't have much time to train using all of them with wind magic and also use that magic to recover Ryan's mana with potions, but he will have to learn by trying now that it had come to this.

"I see, I see," The demon said. "After losing your parents, you learned that your best friend and fiancée had an affair. No wonder you are so conflicted inside. You can't bring yourself to trust others, but at the same time, you can't completely ignore them. It must be tough to try to honor the memories of others when your world is on the brink of annihilation, huh?"

Ryan bit his lips in annoyance,… to find another monster that could read his mind was so freaking annoying that he was having a hard time controlling his urges to punch the fucking demon. Even worse, it was a demon who liked to hear her own voice.

"Ah, such sweet despair!" The demon said. "It is so nice to see someone so conflicted struggling not to show how much in pain they are. It is even better to see all that energy being used in a battle that you cannot win alone. Still, you insist on rushing toward your death… Ah. What a pity… it looks like you are really seeking your death."

Ryan opened his eyes widely when he heard that. Was that true? He was doing something like that without even noticing? Or was that the words of a demon trying to make him lose his cool? Ryan couldn't tell…

"My name is Lilith, fourth general of Lucifer's army," Lilith stopped smiling and then faced Ryan with a serious expression. "I thought you would be a fine addition to my collection, but I am not interested in toys that already want to die before I start to playing with them."

Lilith… another name of a pretty known demon. It looked like things were bound to become worse while dealing with those unknown forces. Regardless, Ryan just learned what happened to the men who were captured. Judging by Lilith's words, they probably didn't have a nice time since her goal was to make them wish for their own deaths. Still… she couldn't have a collection of dead toys…

"I guess it makes sense, you are trying to find meaning in your life by helping others," Lilith said. "As much as you think it is annoying, you can't move on without trying to convince yourself that you are doing something meaningful… what a complicated man you are."

"… For a demon, you sure talk a lot," Ryan said and then fired dozens of Flame Arrows.

Ryan went all out, but his projectiles stopped in front of Lilith when she raised her right hand. As if that wasn't enough, all his Flame Arrows became a single arrow, and then the projectile turned in his direction. Ryan had planned to reach that level of control over the enemies' spell, but it was quite shocking to see what he wanted to achieve being used against him.

As if things couldn't get any worse, his spear, sword, and hammer also stopped a few meters before they could hit Lilith. Ryan had used wind magic to move them when she was busy blocking the Flame Arrows, but the surprising attack failed miserably.

"Telekinesis…"

"I am impressed and disappointed," Lilith declared. "I am impressed that you reached this level of power in such a short time. The fact that you do everything to gain power and win maybe helped you with that. But I am disappointed that you thought only this level of power would be enough to face us. I heard that human arrogance knows no limits, but… I didn't think it was this bad."

Lilith fired the giant Flame Arrow toward Ryan alongside his magic weapons. He tried to dodge to the side, but the weapons followed him. To make things worse, their speed far exceeded Ryan's, and he barely had time to use his shield to block them. Although he succeeded, Ryan was still sent flying toward the ground. The impact raised a pretty large curtain of dust and also created a small crater. Ryan's health dropped to dangerous levels, and a lot of his bones were broken.

Congratulations! The skill Pain Resistance has leveled up.

Pain Resistance Lv 09 ➞ Lv 12

Effect: Decreases the pain caused by all types of attacks by one percent per level.

You obtained 01 status point.

"Shit… this is what I get from focusing solely on increasing my firing power." Ryan cursed after bitting his lips.

Ryan's backpack hit the ground, and all the potions inside of it broke. Some of the liquid recovered his mana, but most of them was flowing outside the backpack. Ryan used Heal to recover himself, but even though his health was full in no time, his broken bones didn't mend that fast. Still, for some reason, Lilith didn't try to finish him off.

"You seem pretty confident that given time, you can one-shot kill anyone," Lilith said. "Go on, do it. Show me your best attack, and I will show you how utterly foolish you are. I need to get some fun out of this, at least."

Ryan bit his lips in annoyance… that was the chance he wanted, but he didn't expect that the enemy would give him that opportunity and only to humiliate him. Still, he could make the damn monster regret its choice. With all the liquid inside the backpack, Ryan managed to concentrate Power Short for three full minutes. Thanks to that, his bow was about to break, but in the end, Lilith didn't show any sign of concern on her face.