Soldiers, adventurers, mercenaries, and everyone and anyone able to pick up a weapon congregated in the plaza that doubled as the centre point of the capital’s survivor camp.

The makeshift war council stood at the very front.

“Rejoice, my fellow brethren! We have pushed back the demons, for now!” Ryuuji said, doing his part as the Hero. He was upset that they didn’t follow his plan, but he wasn’t going to throw a bitch fit about it. He was still the Hero and Heroes are universally recognised as a symbol of power, and he had to fulfil his duty as the council’s spokesperson.

“Rest while you still can. You will need all the energy that you can gather to fight the battles to come!” With the Hero’s charisma, the fighters roared victoriously.

“OOOOOoooOoOOOOOOOOOHHH!”

The sound reverberated loudly.

Ryouta nodded at Shiro, signalling her to begin.

She received his cue and flew upwards, stunning the crowd with her beautiful and sparkling wings.

The white-haired girl who Ryuuji had thought to be a human turned out to be a demihuman?! He who had spent the majority of his time surrounded by the human-centred views of the Church and the Kingdom unconsciously began thinking of the girl as a lesser being.

Shiro who had noticed that the flashy-armoured Hero was blackening but didn’t care much about the consequences simply turned a blind eye towards the occurrence.

She raised her arms wide, then slowly gestured her arms into a hug, bowing slightly. With her eyes half-closed, she began to emit the light of [Barrier]. With her in the centre, the light begins to expand, enveloping the whole plaza, then farther and farther, until it reached the edge of the area that marked the entrance and exit of the campsite.

“What is this warm feeling…?”

“Is this [Barrier]?!”

“Amazing, I’ve never seen such a large-scale barrier being casted before in my entire life!”

“We’ll take turns to patrol the area. If you encounter a demon, try to see if you can defeat it without going over the boundaries of the [Barrier],” the royal guard’s captain finally instructed.

A collective sound of affirmation could be heard from the crowd.

Finally, they were allowed to disperse.

Those who did not believe the strength of the barrier went to test it, those that had been fighting without rest went to rest, and those that needed medical attention went to find it.

Shiro who had to keep up the barrier at full power felt irritated at the idiots testing their strength on her barrier. The barrier was one such spell that required her to continuously feed it MP to use it. Damaging it would be too wasteful, as it would require even more MP to patch it up. But, she was in no position to say anything as she had to pull all her focus towards maintaining it.

Ah~ it sucks having a limited amount of MP.

She had to concentrate so much just to spend it thriftily.

Tsk.

While Shiro was inwardly cursing, Ryouta was patrolling the area restlessly.

He was partnered up with Hal, and the two showed great teamwork despite it being the first time they worked together.

For the first five hours, no demons came into sight.

However, as the night went on, demons began to trickle out from the castle.

“They’re coming!”

“Isn’t this too soon?”

“I’ll hold them back, you go inform the rest!” Ryouta bravely stood at the front, brandishing a sword. Mana whirled around him like a miniature tornado as he condensed them. Any and all demons that even came close would be zapped by the combination of his lightning magic and almost endless supply of sword rays.

Hal was just about to refute when he saw faint cloud dust from afar. Demons clouded the horizon.

So many of them, stampeding their way straight towards the human’s camp.

His pupils shrank. He had never seen so many demons. Rather, he did not know that so many demons could have ever existed.

“Ryou, be careful! I’ll be right back!” Hal made a mad dash backwards, almost stumbling as he ran to signal the warnings.

Shiro, who had been mid-air, naturally noticed the demons way ahead of time.

She had already weighted her choices. The demons’ attack was the perfect chance for her to log out from this body.

It wasn’t like she needed it anymore. Since all the chess pieces are in place, all that was left for her to do was announce the winner.

So, Shiro opened her eyes and straightened her back. She tilted her head, her wings fluttering elegantly. She sunk herself into the barrier just before the rampaging demons could reach her.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The barrier shimmered with every hit it took.

Some screaming could be heard within the campsite. Voices of despair and hopelessness intermingled with the sound of people unsheathing their weapons.

Soon, every inch of the sky was dotted with aerial-type demons, and the barrier was covered, top-to-bottom, with demons.

This was clearly a very dire situation.

If one were to look up, they would see Shiro who looked as if she was struggling. Her brows was uncharacteristically scrunched as she became pallid.

With the unified attack of the demons, the barrier began to shudder from the force, looking as if it would fade at any moment.

Every drop of MP had been squeezed dry. Even the MP she stole from the people within the barrier using [MP Sharing] wasn’t enough. After all, she can’t steal too much, else they’ll die.

Crackcrackcrackcrack.

Visible cracks began appearing on Shiro’s body. She had truly overexerted herself.

When MP runs out, HP took its place. Now, even her HP was almost gone.

Extreme tension placed on host body has caused break down. Time of death: 10 seconds.

Nine.

Eight.

Seven.

Six.

Five.

Four.

Three.

“Shiro?!?!”

Two.

“Shiro!!!”

…

One.

Disengaging…

Disengagement complete.

…

…

…You’ve worked hard, Shiro.

Mn~ Thanks~