The pattern continued: the lord swinging wildly, Geos evading and slicing. I couldn’t look away. Well, I’m moving bit by bit to escape. I didn’t want to draw the lord’s attention by darting around, so I’d been inching toward Shiro and Kuro. They were trembling, unable to move, most likely overwhelmed by the lord’s monstrosity. I’d been carrying Carolina with Mana Arm while using holy magic, so I couldn’t move too quickly.
Meanwhile, the lord’s movements seemed to grow faster and faster—he’s already moving at a speed I can’t perceive. Shadows streaked across my vision, and a barrage of thunderous booms hit my ears. I could only presume that the lord was moving at super speed, unleashing countless attacks. Heavy thuds spoke of the brute force behind his strikes. Even a single hit would’ve probably smashed us into pieces.
On top of that, the lord could still use magic. With a primal roar, he unleashed a vile black mana that spread around him. As he howled in bliss, the remaining knights and soldiers started screaming in agony, their lives being drained away. He must’ve cast a wide-area life absorption.
This is bad. Forget staying unnoticed!
I lifted Carolina and ran to Shiro and Kuro, then immediately cast a barrier. Seeing me move seemed to snap the two girls out of their daze. The three of us worked on putting a barrier all around us. Thanks to that, the life absorption barely affected us.
But for Carolina, it was a different story. Her life force and mana leaked away, as if an invisible hole had been bored through her chest. I immediately checked and found a magic circle that seemed to have been branded into her chest. It must’ve been aiding the lord’s absorption magic.
“I can’t get rid of it!” I said. Even holy magic didn’t work. The brand must’ve had some magical effect on it. It seemed like the only way to stop the absorption was to get rid of the magic circle, one way or another.
I made up my mind.
“Carolina, I’m sorry,” I said, then turned to Shiro and Kuro. “Hold her down!”
“Myah!”
“Arf.”
They pinned her tightly so she couldn’t thrash about. I formed a blade of water and carefully gouged at her chest. Carolina jerked reflexively, but thanks to Shiro and Kuro, I managed to keep working. I guided the blade carefully, shaving off only the skin where the brand had been etched. It took some effort, but I managed to remove it. And just like that, the life absorption stopped—so that mark really had been the cause.
After that, I used holy magic to heal the wound on Carolina’s chest. The skin regenerated cleanly, showing no sign of burns, but it looked like it’d take a while before she fully recovered. For now, all I could do was administer first aid. If I used up all my mana, I wouldn’t even be able to move. The bleeding had stopped, but if we just sat around like this—
“First Blade.”
The lord’s magic came to a halt as he screamed. I turned to see that he’d been cut down in a single stroke; a high-speed diagonal slash had torn through his body. Even with all that reinforcement, Geos’s swordsmanship had outmatched the lord.
As the two foes passed each other, Geos unleashed a horizontal slash that split the lord clean in two. With a wet splatter, the lord collapsed onto the ground.
“GAAAAAHHHHH!”
He still wasn’t dead. Blood gushed from his body as he clawed at the ground, roaring like a beast. His bloodshot eyes still burned with fight and desire.
“You’re still alive?” said Geos.
There was a thunderous, echoing boom.
“Whoa there!”
It was no wonder Geos looked surprised. The lord’s body was suddenly wrapped in black mana, and he stood up like nothing had happened. It didn’t look like regeneration—more like mana had forcibly stitched his body together and was now in control of it.
That black mana reminded me of the twisted mana of dungeon malice—pitch-black, like it would swallow everything whole. It covered every inch of the lord’s body now, forming dragon-like horns and wings. The source of that mana was malice. That was the only way to describe it—just disgusting and revolting. And in the middle of that black mass, his eyes burned an eerie red.
“Urrrrgghaaauuugh!”
With a deranged scream, the lord, engulfed in jet-black mana, shot out his arm. Is he trying to grab Geos?
Geos dodged the attack with ease—
“That’s noth— Tch!”
For the first time in this battle, a hint of panic swept across Geos’s face. The arm he’d dodged twisted unnaturally, snaking after him like a serpent. Geos slashed the arm, but the black mana instantly swallowed the wound, allowing the arm to continue its attack.
“Gah!”
The lord’s fist slammed into Geos’s stomach, sending him flying. He must’ve blocked it with a barrier of mana, but it didn’t absorb the full impact.
Geos groaned, his face twisted in pain.
“What a pain in the ass...”
The lord howled like a feral animal.
“It’s been a while since I had to go all out,” said Geos.
Unlike the rest of us, who were struggling to hide our fear, Geos still looked calm. He hadn’t even been fighting with his full potential yet. He shrugged, raised his magic sword, and for some reason glanced over at us. He casually waved his hand, like he was gesturing at us to go away.
Is he trying to tell us that we should run while we still can? Well, we’ll only get in the way if we stick around...
“Shiro, Kuro, let’s go.”
“Myah!”
“Arf.”
I didn’t know why Geos had suddenly decided to side with us, but I wasn’t about to waste the chance he’d given us. I picked up Carolina, and we started moving along the wall of the deep layer.
“Wait a minute,” I said, “my red mana’s gone.”