“I’ll keep working hard to—” I began but was abruptly cut off by a dangerous aura that reminded me of death itself. “That presence... Is it him?!”
Lionel immediately confirmed my suspicions. “It is. There’s no doubt about it.”
“D-Do you know what that intense aura is? It’s making my entire body tremble,” Estia stammered.
“Is it the Wicked One?” Ketty asked, her face paling. She had dropped her usual cutesy mannerisms and looked completely serious. She’d been looking at Lionel when she’d asked that question, but I replied in his stead.
“Yes. It’s the Wicked One. We won’t be able to save whoever is trapped in that room, but we absolutely need to purify them.”
“Do not move, everyone,” Estia—the Spirit of Dusk said, wrapping us all in a black mist.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Our opponent might be a god, but if we cloak ourselves in dark mana, he shouldn’t notice our presence. We can’t kill the Wicked One, so our only option is to wait for him to leave.”
“Got it. Do as Estia says, everyone.”
Despite my warning, Brod seemed like he was seconds away from opening the boss room and charging inside. Thankfully, he didn’t, and we simply stood there until we couldn’t feel the Wicked One’s presence anymore, which didn’t even take an entire minute. Yet, the Spirit of Dusk didn’t lift the mist.
“Estia, can’t you remove your spell now?”
“Not yet. The Wicked One is sly. He’s likely just pretending to have left and is awaiting our next move.”
The Spirit of Dusk seemed more familiar with the Wicked One than I was, so I decided to heed her advice.
“Let’s stay like this until Estia says we can move. Hmm, but monsters are closing in on us, so be ready to fight them when the time comes. We’ll do a clean sweep, then wait some more, and then finally enter the boss room,” I said, and my friends nodded in agreement.
When we were done dealing with the first group of monsters, we repeated the process two more times before finally deciding to go into the next room. The door swung open, and I saw that this one wasn’t dark like the other rooms in the labyrinth; it was lit like a regular boss room in any other dungeon. We stepped inside and immediately found ourselves face-to-face with enemies. Just as I’d thought, the people who’d entered this room before us weren’t human anymore. But, contrary to expectations, they weren’t undead either. Five demons were staring fixedly at us.
“What are demons doing in a dungeon? Plus, we felt the Wicked One’s presence, so why didn’t they turn into undead?” I asked, immediately beginning to cast a magic circle.
One of the demons spoke up. “Inferior beings like you dare ask questions without even announcing your names to us? Who do you think you are?!” he asked, his tone overbearing.
“Oh, sorry about that. I’m Luciel, a sage. I make a living killing monsters and demons.”
“Well, would you look at that? The little dungeon crawler isn’t a mere healer anymore; he’s become a sage. The empire will have their hands full with you,” the demon replied.
What?!
The demon had called me a “dungeon crawler” just like the Wicked One had in Grandol. Was the latter controlling this demon to prevent me from freeing the Umbra Dragon?
“You still haven’t answered my question,” I said, raising my voice in agitation. “What are demons doing in a labyrinth?”
“We’re just looking for treasures. But I have to say, we were a bit surprised to see the Wicked One make an appearance.”
So the Wicked One hadn’t sent these demons here? If he had, they surely would have known he’d left. That meant they had likely been demonized.
“You guys aren’t real demons, are you? Were you involved in the empire’s demonization experiments?”
The demon chuckled. “Don’t lump us in with those poor imitations. We’re Illumasia’s special forces.”
I was right. They weren’t pure demons. But from what they said, it seemed they weren’t the products of regular demonization experiments either. I glanced at Ketty and Lionel, and they shook their heads as if to tell me they didn’t know what the demons meant either.
“So you’re special demons. Great. And? What are you trying to accomplish here? Do you plan on becoming subordinates of Blanche or something?” I asked.
Once again, my words were met with chuckles. “See? That’s exactly why you humans are an inferior species. Why would we work for another nation?”
“I suppose you’re not just going to kindly let us go either.”
“You suppose right. Sir Lionel fears that you’ll get in the way of his plans, you see. We’re going to bring your head back to him.”
At that, everyone in the room drew their weapons.
“I have two last questions. Can I?” I asked.
“Sure, we’re quite magnanimous, so we don’t mind granting your final request,” the demon replied mockingly.
“I’ll take you up on that offer, then. Who is your leader? The emperor or the Lion of War?”
“The emperor? Like hell we’d work for that living corpse,” the demon scoffed, and his four comrades erupted into laughter. It seemed that Cloud was the one calling the shots for this particular squad.
“Last question: If you had the option to go back to being human, would you take it?”
“No way. Why would we? Enough with the questions. You’re going to experience our full power as you perish!”
“What a shame,” I said before silently casting Sanctuary Circle.
The next instant, my comrades charged the demons, Brod and Lionel leading the attack. As they flew past me, I caught a glimpse of Lionel’s expression. He looked just like a devil. This was the true Lion of War.
The demonized “special forces” of Illumasia shrieked in pain after being hit by my spell. They tried to fight back as best they could, but it didn’t take long for them to bite the dust. All in all, it took less than a minute for us to wipe them out. I cast one last Sanctuary Circle for good measure, and it appeared the demons had still been alive, as they let out a round of final, anguished screams before being consumed by pale flames, leaving only their equipment behind.
I felt a little hollow after dealing with them, but I pushed it aside and made my way to my friends. We’d reached the last floor of the labyrinth.