After a few seconds, I got the brilliant idea of testing the origins of the mana. The light-attribute mana had the same signature as that which came from the god-sword—in other words, it was the mana that Claiomh Solais had spread across the area. The darkness-attribute mana, on the other hand, lacked a comprehensive, single signature—to put it simply, it had come from multiple sources.

Additionally, there was fire-attribute mana mixed in—it seemed the human mage’s spell was involved, too. Although I couldn’t trace the source of the explosion, the only mage capable of this with permission to act was Lilith, so, careful of the smoke and the status-unknown Heroes, I made my way over to her.

“Lilith, explain what you did,” I said once I arrived at her side.

“Ah, Master.” She tore her gaze away from the shadow that was my body and towards the cloud of dust—it looked more difficult than it should have. “Well, y’never closed the telepathic connection, so y’know, Charlotte gave me a plan. I just followed instructions, really.”

It seemed Davna’s [Telepathy] skill had kept the connection up, even as I stopped borrowing it from another demon. “A plan of Charlotte’s, is it… Even so. Explain.”

“Right, right. Well, y’know how some types of mana are like… enemies, yeah?”

“Mana clashing?”

This term referred to a phenomenon where mana of certain attributes, when brought together, would violently annihilate each other, such as fire and wind, or light and darkness.

“Yeah, that.”

“Certainly, that could produce a reaction like earlier, but… I do not believe you should be able to manipulate light-attribute mana.”

“Sure, sure, but… you felt it too, right, Master? That sword was emittin’ some crazy mana. It was kinda gettin’ on my nerves, actually.” Given she now occasionally directed her gaze at me, I decided to hurry it up.

“I can imagine it would feel particularly irritating to a manavorous Devil… after all, it even annoyed me. But even with that said, you should not be able to manipulate the sword’s mana directly. You, yourself, are a darkness-attribute monster.”

“Which is where Charlotte’s plan comes in! Ya should just ask ‘er, instead. I can’t explain it well.”

I was forming a theory on how she had performed it, but I decided to put the subject aside for the time being. “Soon,” I said, “but for now, stop looking at me.”

“Ah… sorry.” She pulled her gaze back to the cloud of dust, inside which the outlines of three figures were gradually becoming visible.

A hoarse coughing sound emerged from the cloud, followed by what I recognised as the mage’s voice. “Uhm, are you two alright?”

The Barrier Hero was the first to answer. “Somehow… but… it looks like my MP’s… at zero. I’ll leave the rest… to you.”

One of the three figures dropped to the ground.

It seemed the Barrier Hero had protected the other two with some skill or other, and run his mana dry in the process. Truly fortunate—for just a moment, a grin settled on my face.

Yet the cloud of dust was still in the way.

“Annoying.” I borrowed a skill and cast [Wind-Attribute Magic: Vacuum Gust] to clear away the dust, and put a whole load of cuts on the three Heroes on the process.

As a side-effect, the Saint’s garb fluttered, though her face showed the same expressionless smile as ever. The mage’s clothes, too, fluttered this way and that, and she pushed her skirt down with a girly scream.

Given no one was looking, it was nothing but wasted movements.

The Barrier Hero’s body lay on the ground, and cracks ran through his armour from head to toe—it seemed his skill had not completely protected him. I could tell only from the light heaving of his chest that he was alive at all.

“Splendid, Lilith. With this, only two are left.”

I leapt forward and ‘accidentally’ planted my foot on the Barrier Hero’s back. Given he did not respond, I figured it was safe to assume he would not be waking up for a while.

The mana I was very consciously emitting seemed rather intimidating to the mage. She took a few hasty steps back, tears in her eyes, and, as a result of her haste, tripped and fell. “Get, get off him!” she said, “p… please. And what did you do to, uh, Reynald?”

Her voice reeked more of nervosity and apprehension than confrontation, despite her words. I estimated that if I kept silent and glared at her, she would soon reek of ammonia and tears.

Since that would be disgusting, I spoke up.

“Since one of my Demon Generals has a bit of a… personal relation with the Barrier Hero, I regret to inform you I cannot comply with your request,” I said, taking my foot off the Hero. With a kick, he flew in Lilith’s direction, who barely managed to catch him. “But if the subject matter is the wielder of the god-sword, then I do believe he is clinging onto life, and I will no further interfere.”

I off-handedly gestured to the collapsed Hero, still clutching his holy sword.

“Huh? You… You’re letting him…”

“I am letting him live, indeed. Why? Is that a problem?” For emphasis, I extended a claw in the mage’s direction.

“No, no, not at all, not at all,” she said, shaking her head side-to-side with truly unexpected vigour. “I just, wondered, ‘why’, is all…”

I shook my head. “If I killed him here, Claiomh Solais might be passed on to a more capable wielder. That would be… troubling.” I felt a grin creep onto my face. Of course, this was more sophistries strung together—I simply needed an excuse to send a few Heroes back to the Holy Astal Kingdom.

The mage’s expression warped into one I had a hard time identifying, but ‘defiance’ was not an emotion I detected. “What about me?” she asked, cautiously making headway towards the noble goal of ‘standing on her feet’.

“Scram.”

“Huh?”

“I am saying you are to take him-” I once more gestured towards the wielder- “and get lost. I have no use for either of you. Even if I were to take you as a hostage, he would only go berserk, and that would help no one. Get out of my sight before I make you.”

“Ah… Uh… Thank-”

“I have no need for your gratitude.”

“... Yes.” She got to her feet and ran over to the wielder’s body, who she began dragging into the direction the Heroes had come from.

The saint- Guriel, as her first action in a while, extended a weak hand in the mage’s direction, but soon dropped it and faced me.

“It has been too long, Guriel,” I said, folding my arms behind my back. “Ten years, perhaps?”

“So it has, Arthur,” she said with a slight nod. “Ten, eleven… the years start to blend together when you’re a Saint.”

“Oh, how interesting. You remember me.”

“Is it unusual for me to remember my good friend’s face?”

“Theliel did not. No, I suppose it would be more accurate to say that her memories were sealed.”

“Ah, of course. It is likely that most Saints will be like that… Although Saniel might have a chance of remembering, as well. The only reason I remember is my skills…”

“Your skills, you say?”

I did not recall Guriel having a skill which would protect her memories from being manipulated, though Saniel certainly did have such an ability. As such, I appraised her.

«An outside influence has prevented your appraisal of the target.»

It seemed Luciel was aware of my presence—perhaps even this entire conversation. “How annoying.”

I decided to perform a little experiment.

“Find a way around, then.”

«This will have negative effects on the target. Is this acceptable?»

With a simple affirmation, I was shown her status.

Name

Guriel

Sex

Female

Race

Human

Class

Saint

Skills

Saint

[Familiar Descent] [Senses of the Goddess] [Status effect resistance] [Healing Magic] [Azalyth Control]

Familiar Descent

>

Senses of the Goddess

>

Status Effect Resistance

Passive: you gain increased resistance against status effects, no matter the source.

Healing Magic

You may use various light-attribute spells that are geared towards healing.

Azalyth Control

>

Hero

[Storage] [Self-image] [Saviour] [Self-status] [Increased efficiency: Light]

Storage

Place an item you are in contact with into or retrieve it from a special sub-space. Living beings may not be placed into this sub-space.

Self-image

Convince others one thing about yourself is true, whether it is factually true or not. Success rate and mana consumption depend on the power of the targets, and their amount.

Saviour

Passive: anyone who you rescue from a life-or-death situation will forcibly have their mental state calmed, and gain permanent increased mental resistance.

Self-status

View your own status, as if through the effect of [Appraisal].

Increased efficiency: Light

Passive: the efficiency and effect of any light-attribute or healing-type magic cast on or by you will increase.

Aspect of Holy Blessings

[Divine Blessing] [Blessing of Light]

Divine Blessing

>

Blessing of Light

>

Other

[Light-Attribute Magic: Support/General] [No-Attribute Magic] [Pokerface] [Divine Protection: Luciel (Increased)]

Light-Attribute Magic: Support/General

You may use various light-attribute spells that are geared towards support of allies, as well as low-level spells with various purposes, such as attack, defence, etcetera.

No-Attribute Magic

You may use various spells that are not bound to any particular attribute. You may use these spells without chanting.

Pokerface

Control every aspect of your expression, allowing you to conceal your emotions.

Divine Protection: Luciel (Increased)

>

It seemed she was in possession of a skill that was a personal favourite of mine—[Pokerface]. Given it had been rather long, I could not recall with certainty whether she had had this skill before.

I theorised she had used this skill in conjunction with [Self-image] to deceive even a goddess, and thus retain her memories of me. I directed my gaze up to look at her, but found she had collapsed onto one knee.

“Oh? Those negative effects were larger than I expected…”

I was aware that appraising an unwilling target could feel invasive, but this seemed different from that. Perhaps the system had gone out of its way to appraise Guriel through her physical body here, rather than going through the Akashic Records, or somesuch—of course, a mere theory. I had no way of knowing what it was doing, after all.

“I trust,” Guriel said, exhaling heavily, “you figured out how I… evaded her detection. You’ve always been good at… figuring things out, after all. I don’t suppose we can reconcile?”

I took a step forward, crouched down, put a hand on her shoulder. “Only if you can perform the impossible and give me your Aspect without dying. Ah, and you would of course have to surrender your allegiance to Lady Luciel, as well.”

“I feared as much,” she said, shaking her head, a grim expression on her face. I cautiously stepped away from her. “In that case, reconciliation is unthinkable. I do not expect to win, owing to my Aspect’s nature, but…”

The same as Theliel, she used that skill—likely to be [Familiar Descent]. By instinct, I leapt backwards and narrowly avoided the pillar of light that illuminated the light sky.

The result was as expected—when the light disappeared, what stood there could no longer be called human, its hair black, its irises rainbow-patterned and its expression stern. A difference, perhaps, from Theliel, was the armour—it was rather more sparse—and the extra pair of wings on the back of its head, which lined up neatly with the halo.

She kicked off the ground and came to a halt in midair, where she summoned a staff rather similar to Theliel’s. She soon accosted me with several slashes of light.

Out of a perhaps unneeded feeling of concern, I decided speedily to block them with Purple Magic Guard, rather than simply avoid them.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Charlotte and Lilith make gestures of gratitude. I kicked off the ground, too, and flapped my wings in pursuit.

I was feeling experimental, so I decided to dispell my own Magic Guard. This time, her attack came in the form of a spear of light. I used my newly-acquired [Shroud].

As expected, the spear went right through me and pierced a tree on the ground. That said, it had landed rather closer to Charlotte than I perhaps would have liked.

Judging from the way Guriel looked around, it seemed [Shroud], using the natural darkness of the night, was properly hiding my form. “Theliel’s skill is rather useful, it seems,” I said. Another experiment.

Still, Guriel did not find me. My experiment was a success.

Although Familiar Spirits did not appear to be capable of speech or changing their facial expression, I almost thought I could see Guriel’s feelings shine through. After all, Theliel’s name was quite recognisable.

She launched her assaults this way and that, and several times, I found one closer to my face than I perhaps would have liked. Yet, owing to the Aspect’s power, not once did she actually find me.

That said, this was a massive drain on my mana. Even I could not keep this up for more than ten minutes—after all, I was using both [True Demon Form] and an Aspect’s power at the same time.

While I had been thinking about such things, it seemed Guriel had wreaked a fair amount of destruction on the forest. Her rage in response to Theliel’s death almost touched my heart a little.

I made my way to her back and flew in close—the next moment, I once more felt the sensation of my claws penetrating first hard armour and then soft human flesh, and I grasped her heart and crushed it to a pulp.

The feeling was, to be completely honest, rather pleasant. I would have to be careful in the future.

‘Even though she was not brainwashed, she was so attached to someone without a shred of her former personality’—such thoughts ran through my head, and were soon drowned out by the voice of the world.