At the same time as Angie was carried away by the dragon, hundreds of beasts dropped down from the sky.

"Wha-?!"

Arata couldn't help but exclaim. The sky wasn't clear before, but it definitely wasn't blotted out by monsters just a moment ago.

'Could they be helping the dragon escape?'

Then the one holding the flute is aware of their presence. They couldn't delay it any longer. It wasn't the best situation to fight an unknown enemy near a town, but it was also the best opportunity. They had no way of catching up with the flying tortoise if it decided to leave.

"Hey, look at that!"

Natsumi pointed at one side of the beast swarm. Date and Arata followed her finger and saw some bird-like creatures without feathers. If Kai was here, he could recognize those beasts pretty easily. After all, they were pretty famous back on Earth.

A pterodactyl-like beast. It was a lot larger than what they were like on Earth, but they definitely looked like pterodactyls. It was a beast that was unknown to Natsumi and the others, but it looked like the only type of beast they could potentially ride.

"Angie's going to be in trouble if we don't get up there fast! Arata, go!"

"Right!"

Arata slammed his foot down on the ground and three pillars of earth raised themselves beneath the three of them. They rose so fast that they were sent flying. Natsumi then used the wind to lift them closer to the beast swarm.

"They're coming!"

They were about to make contact with the beast swarm. There were hundreds of them, and they were all varying types. Flying beasts of all shapes and sizes all set their sights on them.

"I've got this one."

Date created rotating shields of water around them. They moved so fast that a beast that was about to hit Date got ripped into shreds in just a few seconds.

Strangely, though, Natsumi's winds weren't affected at all and they soared through the air. Any attacks that were about to hit them like fireballs were deflected with Natsumi and Date's cooperation. Arata couldn't do much in the air other than to divert the beasts' attention. However, it was working.

Little by little, they gained ground. It also helped that the beasts they were targeting were headed straight for them too.

"How are we going to make them fly back?"

"We'll figure it out somehow."

"E-eh..."

Arata couldn't help but falter at Natsumi's confidence. She didn't have a plan and they were at least five hundred meters in the sky already. If they fell from this height, how many bones would they break?

He just decided to stop thinking about it.

"Kyaa!"

Angie was sent flying from the back of the dragon. She managed to move her body just barely enough to not crash into a wall.

"A castle?"

She expected many things going up here, but she didn't expect a giant castle on the turtle's back. No, was 'giant' even enough to say it? It took the dragon a few minutes to get up here and she couldn't even see the castle's peak.

"...How was Natsumi able to hear the flute from here?"

Ignoring the fact that it was thousands of meters above the ground, even if she was in the castle, was it possible to hear anything?

For a while, Angie tried to explore the castle carefully. There weren't any beasts, but there were signs that they were here not that long ago. Strangely, even though there were a lot of rooms, none of them had anything noteworthy inside. After making the necessary precautions, she also tried to find the source of the flute but even though she ran around the castle for a while, she had no idea where to go.

She wanted to try going to the highest point but... even if she were to completely ignore everything else, it would still take a couple of hours to run up there.

In the end, she just decided to wait it out. After all, they were probably already looking for a way up here.

"Hmmm..."

Angie was sitting down with her back pressed on the wall. She was hugging her knees together and was playfully moving her body from side to side.

She rarely had time for herself, but when she did, she typically acted like a child just like when she's with Kai. It was her self-assessment, but it wasn't like she was ashamed of it.

'Okay, maybe it is a bit embarrassing to be seen like this.'

Angie imagined being seen by everyone and squirmed. It was fine if Kai did since he was already aware of her habits, but anyone else would be a bit...

"Master... I wonder what he's doing right now."

Angie muttered his name and began to daydream. It was another of her habits. Maybe it wasn't the best place to be limiting her awareness, but it really had been a while since they met.

Just as she was about to immerse herself in her thoughts, her eyes opened wide and she leaped away as fast as she possibly could.

ROOAAAR

It was a breath attack.

The dragon from earlier had appeared all of a sudden and used its breath attack. Its element was dark and Angie didn't have any proper way of guarding against it. She quickly brought out her weapon and roused her mana.

"Dragon Slayer Art: Vanishing Step."

Angie vanished from her spot and appeared several dozen meters away. Then, when the dragon locked eyes with her, she vanished once more.

The dragon roared but Angie had already closed the distance between them. A dragon's body was large, but it didn't mean they were immobile. Taking distance from a dragon was a given because their claws could tear through anything. However, because of their large bodies, they weren't able to fight any small opponents closer than their reach.

Angie dodged the dragon's arms and slashed out multiple times. Flames accompanied her attacks as she kept on vanishing and reappearing around the dragon.

Fed up with her, the dragon retracted its wings and swung its body at lightning speed. Its tail was headed straight for her.

"Huff...!"

Angie took a deep breath and kicked the ground. She managed to narrowly dodge the tail and jump a few dozen meters above the dragon. Then, she raised her sword covered by flames. It grew in size severalfold and ended up becoming as big as the dragon's head. Using the leverage from the height, Angie slashed down.

just then, there was a whistling that reached Angie's ears.

The dragon that originally didn't know about her spot suddenly looked up and hit her with its giant arm.

"Ack!"

Angie was sent flying and crashing into the wall. She accidentally released her sword during the impact and it flew outside. The dragon didn't hesitate to charge at Angie with its gigantic body. If she hadn't managed to dodge it at the last second, she would've been crushed.

She quickly ran outside to get her sword and even shut the gigantic door behind her using mana but the instant after it closed, the dragon broke through the door and the arch holding the door. Debris flew everywhere and her sword that was within sight got blown away.

With all the dust and rocks flying around, Angie didn't see where the sword went and turned to face the dragon.

She bit her lip.

She still had a trump card, «Draco». But, if she used it when she didn't even know how many enemies were left or how they were gonna fight was suicide.

The best-case scenario would be if she were left unconscious after using up all of her stamina.

There was no other choice.

Angie decided to use the gigantic castle to her advantage. She waited for the dragon to use its breath attack before slipping past it and back into the destroyed gate. She ran inside the castle without looking back and the enraged dragon followed close behind her.

A day before the monsters sieged the city.

It happened so suddenly.

"Hm?"

Kai was just walking around town when he felt a massive burst of mana. The strangest thing was that it wasn't from the presence in the middle of the capital. It came from him.

He quickly went back to their base and ignoring everyone's curious gazes, went into the Illusion World. Akane was standing there while looking in the distance.

"Kai!"

"Yeah, I felt it too."

It was a frightening amount of mana.

Mana was normally intangible. It couldn't be seen with the naked eye.

But, if there was a build-up of mana, it was possible to grasp its presence. Emi produced enough mana to blot out the sky in Alteria, thousands—no, hundreds of thousands of times more than what a normal person could have

The mana that was emanating from the Illusion World, on the other hand, was without equal. If Kai let it out into the world, it might even blot out an entire continent's sky and kill millions.

With each passing second, the mana was getting stronger and stronger. Kai already knew what was emitting it.

"The catalyst, huh... Reo, is there anything we can do?"

"...I don't know."

Reo typically had a good grasp of what they needed to do. After all, though he may be a young spirit, he was still many times older than any of them.

"Let's try our best to contain it for now."

Luckily, the catalyst had darkness inside of it. Kai and Reo were both so attuned to darkness that it was almost unfair.

After all, Kai could even tap into the element so deeply that even the gods were surprised.

Kai ran to the catalyst's location with Akane. He asked her to stay a good distance away while he opened the box containing the catalyst. It looked like a regular stone, but the pressure surrounding it was visible even to those who couldn't use mana.

The very air around it looked like it was being warped and distorted.

Reo had tried to study the stone for a bit but couldn't get anything from it. After that, Kai and Reo decided to just seal it away for the future. Of course, the seal they used was something that not even an S-class could break even if they used all of their power.

"Reo."

"Nn."

Reo manifested right next to Kai and purple smoke began wrapping around the stone as it floated out of the box. Kai raised his hand and put it above the stone and began sending all of his mana outside to create a barrier.

"?!"

Kai's hand was knocked back by some sort of invisible force and the mana he was gathering was dispersed. The purple smoke that Reo wrapped around the stone had also vanished at some point.

If just sending his mana into the surroundings gave him a backlash that strong, what would've happened if he tried to interfere with it directly? The guardians told him that they managed to suppress its power using their mana so he tried to do the same but...

"...It doesn't look like we can contain it. Does that mean it's letting out even more power than before?"

The guardians weren't very strong. They didn't even have an S-class among them. All they had going for them was knowledge and their unique constitutions. Kai was already SS-class, even if a hundred guardians were to use their mana, he could still overpower them.

"Let's try one more time."

Reo burst into smoke and melded with Kai.

Spirit Assimilation.

Kai's mana turned dark and he began to send it out to cover the orb once more. His arm was shaking as the mana enveloped the stone.

"Darkness... The key is darkness."

"That's going to be... troublesome!"

Kai put his other hand next to the one already above the stone and sent more mana around the barrier.

The mana that was enveloping the Illusion World and slowly seeping into the outside was receding slightly. In just a few seconds, Kai expended enough mana to drain an A-class.

If not for his body that could absorb mana from his surroundings, he'd have collapsed already.

Any magician could lose their mana and survive, it wasn't all that uncommon. But, they couldn't lose a large amount of mana in a short time, it would be akin to bleeding out. If it wasn't taken care of, the magician would die without a doubt.

Of course, Kai still felt the pain from having his mana repeatedly drained and replenished.

"Akane, can you go outside and tell everyone what's happening? I won't be able to move until this thing stops producing mana."

"I got it! Kai, don't do anything stupid, okay?"

"I won't."

After making him promise, Akane vanished from her spot and appeared outside.

Erina and the others were already gathered around where Kai had vanished. After explaining the situation to them, Yoko followed Akane back into the world while Erina decided to stay outside and wait for news regarding Angie and the others.

"Your Highness, can you deal with the Peaceful Faction?"

It was actually Yoko and Umi's job but since Akane said that Kai might need Yoko, it was up to Kazuki to do the rest. Kei wasn't one she could rely on for negotiations after all.

"Guess that leaves me to guard the place."

Kei just continued to sit at his spot on the couch. His awareness was spread out so the entire house was covered.

For the next day, other than regular updates by Akane, they were all pretty much on standby. They waited near the base so that if Kai needed anything, they would be there for him.

And then came Angie's message.

"It looks like they're having a bit of trouble finding the anomaly."

Erina would've gone there to help, or at least send someone to help them but without Kai, they wouldn't be able to teleport anyway.

Angie and the others were left without reinforcements.

"I've heard that the Unconquerable Tortoise has been moving weirdly."

A child was sitting on a chair way larger than his stature. He was swirling a wine glass in his hand.

It was Gusion.

There was a long table in front of him with many chairs surrounding it. Save for a few chairs, there were demons of varying body types sitting and doing their own thing.

One demon had his hands beside his head and his feet atop the table.

Another was polishing his weapon.

And then there was a woman who, contrary to the rest, looked like she was just enjoying her food.

"Guess it's gotten tired of flying so slowly for the past few centuries."

The demon polishing his sword talked.

"Why don't we just send a subjugation party to take care of it?"

The demon who had his feet on the table suggested.

"Are you that much of an idiot? Even the previous monarchs couldn't do anything to that tortoise, what makes you think a subjugation party can?"

A demon sitting across from him quipped at him. The demon had glasses and was wearing a suit. Overall, he gave a scholarly image, a stark contrast to the one in front of him.

"Hah?"

The ill-mannered demon raised his voice with a growl.

"Four-eyes, what did you just fucking call me?"

"I called you an idiot. I didn't think you were deaf too."

The scholarly demon insulted him again. The two of them roused their mana and looked like they were about to kill each other.

"Shut up."

Gusion glared at the two demons. It just took one glare from him for the two demons to rein in their bloodlust.

"To everyone sitting around the table, I have a question. How many humans do you think can defeat a Marquess?"

He reverted to his usual childlike voice and asked.

"Duke Gusion, we all know that's impossible."

The demon woman who was eating her food silently rolled her eyes and answered.

"The strongest those humans have are S-class that can't even compare to our barons. It's a wonder how they've even managed to survive this long."

So beating an SS-class is impossible, she followed.

Gusion laughed.

"That's what I thought too!"

It was just a casual statement, but it made all of the demons turn their eyes on him.

"Are you saying that there's a human who defeated a Marquess?"

"Nope. I'm saying that there's two."

The demons all began to cause a stir. Their words overlapped one another with some refusing to believe his claim while some were curious about the identities of the humans and asking for more information. Gusion raised his hand to silence them.

"Marquess Marchosias and Marquess Mars were both defeated by humans that had smuggled themselves into our continent recently. Marchosias was defeated in single combat in my presence with no other spectator so it's natural that nobody knew but that Mars actually tried to cover it up. I only found out by pure coincidence."

Mars Camerius.

It was a name known to the members of the Hostile Faction very well.

After all, he was one of the biggest names in the Peaceful Faction. His connection with darkness allowed him to best many with the same strength as him and rarely did they ever hear anything about his defeat.

"Where are these humans now?"

If they were already killed, Gusion wouldn't have brought them up. Not only that, Gusion was the one who gathered all of them here. He wouldn't do that just to tell them a story.

"My troops are stationed near the capital, if there's any need—"

"Who said anything about killing them?"

Gusion cut off the scholarly demon.

"...Pardon?"

"I'm here to tell you all one thing: do not harm these humans. At least for the next few months until Samhain, these humans are under my protection. One of them personally marched into my place and bested Marchosias in single combat in exchange for a single wish. This is me honoring my side of the agreement."

The Hostile Faction wasn't necessarily aggressive to only humans, they were just a gathering of demons who wanted war. Needless to say, they were definitely filled with the craziest demons on the continent.

Gusion felt the need to warn them because there was no limit to what they could do if they just decided to go ham.

"Hm... And, I'd appreciate it if any of you were to tell me about someone the humans call 'The Fallen Hero'."