17.1. ???

[??? - Lvl. ???]

I stared up at the man who entered the cave as he aimed a sword in my direction. He wore a cloak with a hood over his head, which somehow seemed to shadow over most of his facial features from me. His blade gleamed in the sunlight coming from the outside as he tightly gripped the weapon with both his hands.

“You— an [Imp]? You’re the one who destroyed Fairdale! And you attacked Silvergrove, didn’t you?”

I took a step back, slowly trying to circle around him. I wasn’t going to attack him; I could not see his level, and that made me incredibly wary. I had been able to see Lucerna’s level despite the [Djinn] being almost 30 levels over me, but I couldn’t see this man’s level. That meant this man had to be extremely high leveled.

Plus he hadn’t attacked me yet, even if he was clearly being hostile. I tried to reason with him as I eyed the cave exit.

“I did not attack anyone! Nor did I destroy anything! These [Golems] attacked me first— just like those [Green Stags] and [Dark Wolves].”

The man almost jumped as I spoke, backing away from me and blocking my only path to escape. If I used [Double Step], I might have been able to get around him. This last level up brought it to its max at Level 10, leaving me with an extra unspent Skill Point to save. But if he was really higher leveled than Lucerna, I had no doubts he would be able to catch me easily. So I held back.

“You… you can talk?!”

He sputtered as he raised his sword even higher. I frowned and crossed my arms.

“Of course I can. I’ve been trying to talk to you Humans the entire time, but you keep running from me. And when I tried to get you all to tell me the way back to the Netherworld, you all attacked me!”

“Get back to the Nether— what?”

The man shook his head.

“Attacked you for no reason? You burnt Fairdale to the ground.”

I considered this for a moment, then I cocked my head.

“...what’s a Fairdale?”

His shadowed gaze stared at me, flabbergasted.

“The village to the northeast of here! You slaughtered the people! You left no one alive you monster!”

“...that wasn’t me.”

He paused, shuffling his feet for a moment as if in thought. Then he stepped forward and charged me.

“As if I’ll believe a Demon!”

My eyes widened as I saw him coming forward. I braced myself, preparing for his attack. And he swung wide.

I watched the blade miss me completely as I went around him. I struck him across the back, but my claws got caught in his cloak. The cloth material did not tear— it protected him from the attack as he stumbled back.

“Damn it.”

He spun around, thrusting his blade forward, overextending his shoulders. I ducked under the attack, before bringing a fire dagger up towards his face. He flinched and dropped his weapon as a ring on his finger flashed.

I found my fire dagger flying through the air, rebounding off a flickering aura as the light vanished. I narrowed my eyes. What is that? The man was still in a daze when I kicked him with a [Fire Strike]. Again, his ring flashed as an invisible barrier protected him. My attack still sent him staggering back before falling to the floor.

I glanced down at my claws, tapping them together as I felt a slight numbness that came from hitting too many hard things with them. I saw a glint of light from the corner of my eyes and grinned.

The man picked himself up, rubbing at the side of his head.

“Owowow—”

He yelped as I swung his sword at him. He leapt to the side as the blade only nicked the side of his cloak, unable to cut through whatever it was made of. Fine, I thought to myself as he raised both his hands defensively. I don’t have to cut it…

[Basic Mana Manipulation]. [Basic Fire Creation].

I just have to burn it.

A thin layer of fire wrapped itself around the blade of the sword. The man made a noise as he stepped back. I spun the weapon in my hand.

“If you tell me where the Netherworld is, I won’t kill you.”

“Kill me? Like you killed all the innocent people and children in Fairdale?!”

I growled.

“I don’t know what that is!”

I charged him and raised the blade up. I aimed for his head, looking to slice in in half. But as I got close, I heard him whisper to himself.

“Gotcha— [Quick Strike]!”

His fists blurred forward, suddenly appearing right in front of my face. I was reckless; I couldn’t react in time as I found the world suddenly spinning before I rolled to a stop. I got up, wiping the black blood off my cheek as I did. It wasn’t a lot of damage, but it still hurt a lot.

The man picked up his sword, wielding it once again.

“I… I’m not a violent person. I don’t even know why I’m doing this. But I can’t just let a monster like you walk freely. Too many people have already died by your hands. I will…”

He took a deep breath, composing himself before he raised his blade.

“I will stop you!”

I saw the air around the man shift. As if an invisible power suddenly pushed the wind around him back. Even though he was standing deep within the cave, his sword was now reflecting more light than it was before. In fact, it almost seemed like it was glowing.

“[H—”

“[Double Step]!”

I rushed forward, knocking the weapon off his hands, before throwing him off his feet. The impact knocked the air out of his lungs as he gasped, before I stomped on his stomach with a fiery blow. The last of the barrier surrounding him dissipated as I raised a burning claw.

“Please, I don’t want to die—”

I brought my claw down at his neck— then stopped, yelling as loud as I could.

“I did not kill anyone! I don’t know what a Silverdale is! And I just want to go back to the Netherworld!”

…

The man stared up at me with dark brown eyes, his hood having fallen to the side to reveal a head of black hair.

“...it’s Fairdale, not Silverdale.”

I sighed and kicked him in the back of the head— hard.