Mika’s POV:

I have been born in a caring house. My parents died when I was still a baby, so my grandma took care of me, and I have been living with her since then.

When I turned five, she gave me the orb that I am currently using. It was something that has been passed through our family for ages. My mother should have been the one to inherit it, but she decided to pass it on to me when I was born.

When I entered the academy and learned how to manipulate mana, I unlocked my potentials to use light magic, and for the first time in all of the history of our household, I was able to use the orb as a weapon.

After graduation, I received a lot of invitations from major guilds, but I declined them all to stay near my grandma whose health deteriorated the last few years.

I have been raiding dungeons to get enough money to pay for her high medical bills. Nonetheless, she was still the caring grandma even when she was bedridden.

Even during the latest events when most of our party was annihilated by demons, she was still there to embrace me and I felt that nothing mattered in this world except for her warmth.

I tried telling the truth, but no one believed me except for her. They put all the blame on Shiryuu and we were chosen to be the victims.

I was down and depressed for a month, but grandma was there for me. She gave me the hope to stand up back again.

Sara, my cousin who scouted me for this raid, was with us the past months and told me that this raid would be a good way to start again and have a fresh restart, but here we are, facing demons again.

When I saw the number of skeletons going out through the gate, I felt hopeless, but Shiryuu reassured me that everything would be okay, but when Adramelech appeared, all the fear that I thought I had forgotten, resurfaced.

I felt terrified, afraid, and frightened. I did not want anyone to die. I lost myself to these feelings until I heard Shiryuu shouting the name of the demon and attacking him.

“Who are those?” Asked Jennifer.

“Those are demons,” I replied.

“Demons? I thought they were only in stories?” Said Brian.

“No, they are real, and they were the ones who massacred many of my teammates in the last raid I was part of…”

“You were with Shiryuu during his last raid?” Asked Kamui.

“Yeah, I was…”

“Didn’t he mess up and his teammates died because of him?” Said, Edward.

“No, he was the reason we got from there alive. He protected us from the demon he’s fighting right now.” As I said that, Adramelech pushed Shiryuu away and told him something that made him angry and attacked him again.

“We have to get out from here alive. While Shiryuu is drawing the attention of Adramelech, let’s kill the boss and get out from here.” I continued.

“Talking about the boss, he disappeared when they came out.” Said Kamui.

“I’ll look for him, buy me some time.” Said, Andrew.

While we were talking, the skeletons and manticores did not move and kept watching the clash between Shiryuu and Adramelech.

Shiryuu destroyed the sword of the demon, but he kept dodging all of his attacks, and then, he shot three bright dots from his tail that exploded near Shiryuu and pushed him back.

“They are scheming something. I don’t want to see anyone here alive. My army, go kill them all.” He ordered his army to attack us.

“They are coming, brace yourselves.” Said, James.

We were been outnumbered by the number of enemies surrounding us. Nonetheless, we kept our formation and dealt with the waves of skeletons coming for our heads.

The problem was the manticores. They have been striking from the sky and they packed some heavy hits. Just one A-rank monster would have been a problem for our party, but fighting several of them was a big disadvantage.

Fortunately, we had Jennifer and Mary on our backs. Their healing abilities helped us a lot.

“I found him.” Said, Andrew. “He is moving towards the forest.”

“Let’s split up and finish this quickly.” Said, James.

“If we split our forces, we will be at a clear disadvantage here. Just look how tired you all are after fighting for these few minutes.” Edward seemed stressed and could explode at any moment.

“We have to do something, or we will all get killed here. Mika told us that this could help us get out from here. If you trust her and trust my judgments, then we have to do it.” Shouted James.

“I have an idea,” I said. “Andrew can teleport out from the dungeon, right? Then he should get out and bring reinforcement. I’m sure the high-rankers from your guild are waiting outside.”

“Yeah, you are right. Is anyone against what we were saying now?” Said, James.

No one replied, either from exhaustion or they didn’t want to keep arguing amidst the chaos we were in.

“Kamui and Edward, go follow the boss monster. Andrew tells Mr.Vladimir and the others outside about our situation. The rest of us will keep fighting here.” Added James.

“I’ll make a way for us.” Said Kamui. “Ono-Ha-Itto-Ryu Ougi, Disaster Typhoon.” He used one of his secret sword techniques to open a straight path towards the forest, and he left with Edward, while Andrew used his skill to get out from the dungeon.

We kept fighting for a long time. The sheer number of enemies overwhelmed us, but we kept standing no matter what would happen.

Time was not on our side. Seeing my teammates getting overwhelmed one by one was hard on me. I felt hopeless. I tried my best to protect them, but I reached my limits. I depleted most of my mana.

I didn’t know how much time since Andrew left. My vision became blurry. I tripped and fell.

“Mika, above you.” I heard Jennifer’s voice behind me.

I looked up and saw a vicious manticore flying towards me. I couldn’t stand up. I had no more stamina.

Shiryuu’s POV:

Adramelech blocked my attack with a sword taken from a skeleton and kicked me away.

The demon looked quite different from the last time I saw him. He was missing an arm and his eyes were closed.

“You look much better this way.” I kept my anger at bay and smirked at him.

“All thanks to you. However, this won’t stop me from making you smoked mincemeat like your friend.” He smiled.

My anger got the best of me and I attacked him again with ‘Dragon Slash’.

He blocked my attack at the expense of his sword that got broken and he jumped backward to dodge the attack.

Then I kept attacking him and not giving him the time to set up his dangerous explosion attacks.

He dodged all my attacks with ease, even if his eyes were closed.

I got irritated and launched a ‘Dragon Head’, but he dodged it too.

He moved back and I saw three dots glittering in his tail.

“Damn, I need to dodge.” I gritted my teeth as an explosion happened near me and threw me away.

“Hah, so you managed to barely dodge the explosions. Not bad.”

I didn’t know where he was looking, or how he could keep dodging my attacks even if his eyes were closed.

Suddenly, he turned towards his army. “They are scheming something. I don’t want to see anyone here alive. My army, go kill them all.” He ordered the army of skeletons and manticores to attack my teammates.

“No, don’t.” As I tried to go back, he jumped near me and kicked me away.

“I am your opponent here.”

‘I have to calm down.’ I muttered to myself as I took a deep breath. ‘They can take care of themselves. Adramelech is the real problem.’

“Ono-Ha-Itto-Ryu, Swallow Slash.” I took a thrust stance, putting my sword horizontally with my eyes, and dashed towards the demon. He pushed my sword with the back of his hand, but I tilted my body and created an arc-like slash from the side.

He dodged it and slammed my back with his elbow.

An immense pain went through my back, but I bore with it and used a ‘Dragon Slash’.

He jumped to the back again to dodge and I saw more dots glittering on his tail.

Before he could hit me with those sudden explosions, I quickly held my sword with two hands, I put the hilt in front of my eyes in a way that I could only see it, transferred my mana to the tip of it, and compressed it, then I swung my Dragon Sword with full power.

“Ono-Ha-Itto-Ryu, Tornado Slash.”

He didn’t see this attack coming, so he was hit head-on and sent flying away.

“Finally, the first hit.” I celebrated.

Adramelech used his tail as a cushion and dashed towards me.

We clashed for several minutes with no victor in sight.

I couldn’t damage him anymore after that attack, and he couldn’t land a direct hit on me either. Losing an arm and not opening his eyes made him a little bit weaker than before, but he was still a beast.

Suddenly, Adramelech stopped and raised his hand.

“What is he doing?”

When he lowered it, I felt huge mana soaring through the sky at high speed and descending on the battlefield.

I looked upward and saw a big manticore, different from the ones who were already here diving at high speed from the sky.

I looked back to see where he was descending and saw Mika on the ground.

“At this rate, she won’t be able to dodge.”

I transferred my mana to my feet and dashed towards Mika.

“Ono-Ha-Itto-Ryu Ougi, Flash Slash.”

Just moments before the newly arrived monster could cut the mage girl with his big claws, I intervened and blocked his attack with my ‘Dragon Sword’, and then I launched a ‘Dragon Head’ at the manticore.

“Thank you…” Before I could hear what she was saying, Adramelech struck me with his tail and pummelled me with heavy punches.

Mika’s POV:

Shiryuu protected me from the manticore, but Adramelech beat him up.

I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. I was too tired and felt hopeless.

“The last thing I can do is to pray for a miracle,” I muttered.

As I fell down on my knees, I hugged the orb floating next to me and tears came from my eyes and fell on the orb.

Suddenly it started glowing and I heard a faint voice coming from it.

“I am finally able to get to you.” The voice became clear inside my head.

“Who are you…?” As I said that, I felt my mind drifting inside my consciousness until I found myself in a white room.

Suddenly, a light shone above me. I put my hands on my eyes to protect them from the light and closed them.

When the light died down, I slowly opened them and saw a man with eight wings standing in front of me.

After I took a closer look, he was a tall person wearing a long white dress that covered all of his body. He had eight wings and his hair was long and golden of color.

“I am Gabriel, one of the Archangels, and the being sealed in your orb.” He said.

“N…Nice to know you…” I replied hesitantly.

“No need to be scared. I am your ally. I have always been and I will always be. I’ve been watching over you since you were little.”

“What do you mean?”

“You were chosen to be a Mythological Weapon user since you were a kid.”

“A Mythological Weapon user? Me?”

“Yeah. The orb that you have is a Mythological Weapon. You haven’t awakened because I couldn’t reach you, until now.”

“If I use your powers, can I help my teammates?”

“They are YOUR powers. My whole self is for you to use, as you like. My only goal is to guide you.”

Gabriel started shining and I embraced the light coming from him. I felt a surge in power and a warm feeling engulfed my body.

I opened my eyes and the runes on my orb were shining brightly.

Everyone was looking at me in surprise.

I was floating and the light coming from the orb engulfed me.

“Heaven’s Beam.” I shot several light beams from my orb in all directions and killed the skeletons surrounding my teammates.

I moved at the speed of light towards Adramelech who was fighting Shiryuu and appeared in front of him.

“Heaven’s Burst.” I blasted an invisible light force that pushed the demon away and burned him.

“It is time for the payback!” I addressed Adramelech.