The demon summoner stood within a barrier of flas. The pillar of fire that marked his arrival had already reduced many nearby residents to ash. While these residents were of considerable status, status alone did not equate to strength.
"Fire... fire..." the demon summoner muttered incoherently. His thin, gaunt fra remained motionless as he conjured a ball of blood-red fire in his hand and hurled it toward the crowd.
"Help!"
"Run! Run for your lives!"
"City guards! Kill him, quickly!"
Panic erupted among the people. The arrogant deanor they had displayed earlier while pressuring the city guards vanished without a trace. They now resembled the residents of the slums when faced with an unexpected demonic attack—frantic, helpless, and terrified.
"Out of the way!" The young squad leader was one of the first to react. Shield in hand, he charged toward the descending fireball, shoving the panicked crowd aside with a forceful kick and bracing his shield against the oncoming flas.
"No!" Edward's shout rang out, but it was too late.
The blood-red flas struck the squad leader's shield. Instead of burning him directly, the flas corroded the thin mbrane of white light covering the shield—a protective layer of Edward's secret art, Steel Sunlight.
"What the—?!" The squad leader turned back, stunned, but the flas had already penetrated the Steel Radiance. They rapidly spread from his shield.
"No..." Edward muttered in despair.
"Arghhhh!" The flas grew ferociously as soon as they touched flesh, as if fueled by an endless supply of energy. The squad leader's shield disintegrated like paper, and the blood-red flas engulfed him entirely.
The fire blazed intensely, devouring him completely within monts. His agonized screams faded into silence.
By the ti the flas subsided, nothing was left behind.
The demon summoner's grotesque laughter echoed in the air. "Heh... burn... heh-heh... burn..."
"Ah!" Edward's pained cry was muffled in his throat. In just a blink of an eye, the responsible and righteous young squad leader he had known was reduced to nothing. The shock left Edward trembling uncontrollably.
It wasn't fear—it was a visceral reaction to the haunting mories that surged in his mind, bringing back feelings of despair and helplessness. He couldn't move. His thoughts stalled. His legs trembled—not out of fear, but so sort of base, instinctive reaction.
"Move! Don't just stand there!" A sudden force on his arm snapped Edward out of his daze. The demon summoner was already conjuring another ball of blood-red fire. The crowd scattered aimlessly, lambs to the slaughter before the demon.
"What are you doing? Snap out of it! Run!" The catfolk girl tugged urgently at Edward's arm. Beside her, a wounded soldier weakly gestured for Edward to leave them behind and escape.
Edward looked into the catfolk girl's anxious eyes and the soldier's determined face. Shaking his head firmly, he said, "I can't leave. Not this ti."
"You go ahead. I have to stop it." Sothing within Edward clicked into place. The fog in his mind cleared, and he was no longer paralyzed by an overwhelming sense of despair.
"A-Alright..." Recognizing the Nightblades insignia on Edward's uniform, the catfolk girl and the soldier didn't argue further. The girl supported the soldier and helped him retreat.
"Phew..." Edward exhaled as he glanced at the spot where the squad leader had been burned away. Life and death truly hung by a thread in battle—death could co so quickly it barely felt real.
But this was reality. Being bound by regret was useless. Left alone, regret would only spawn more regret. With renewed determination, Edward raised his shield and sword, fixing his gaze on the fla-wielding demon summoner.
Demon summoners were a type of infernal demon with rudintary intelligence and the ability to use spells from hell.
One of these spells was Corrosive Bloodfla—a terrifying fire from the depths of hell that burned fiercely on contact with material objects and wouldn't stop until it had run out of mana. This sa fire had easily pierced through Edward's Steel Sunlight and the squad leader's shield, killing him.
Demons of this level were on par with butchers and beholders in strength. Yet according to the latest reports, the imperial guards had already secured the outer district and walls of the capital. No demon should have been able to breach those defenses. How did this demon summoner get here?
A demon of this caliber typically required an advanced knight to deal with. Edward, having just crossed the threshold into knighthood, could at best delay and hinder the demon summoner. Killing it outright was beyond him.
"Burn! Burn!" The demon summoner cackled as it hurled another blood-red fla toward the fleeing crowd.
The fla's destructive potential was horrifying. Upon contact with a human—highly flammable fuel—it would spread rapidly, reducing everyone in the vicinity to ash.
Crash! A cabinet flew through the air, intercepting the fla. As soon as the fla touched the cabinet, it engulfed it completely. Within monts, the cabinet was consud, leaving no trace of it behind.
However, the fla likewise dissipated in mid-air.
"Fire?" The demon summoner tilted its head in confusion, its attention drawn to where the cabinet had been thrown. Edward was already dragging out a second cabinet from a shattered storefront. He had thrown the first one.
"Take this!" Muscles taut with fury and determination, Edward channeled his fighting spirit into a powerful throw, hurling the second cabinet directly at the demon summoner.
The demon summoner let out a guttural sound as a pentagram of fire flickered on its claw. A crystalline wall of fla erupted from the ground, forming a semi-transparent barrier.
Boom! The cabinet crashed against the fiery wall, which held firm like solid matter. The wooden cabinet splintered and shattered, scattering debris.
The demon summoner's grotesque face twisted into a sneer, mocking Edward's futile effort. However, the mont the splinters obscured its vision, Edward sprang into action.
With his sword held steady before him, Edward charged forward. The scattered debris provided a fleeting mont of cover. By the ti the wood settled, Edward was already in front of the fla wall.
Channeling his fighting spirit into the blade, he thrust forward.
His energy surged through the sword, clashing fiercely with the wall of flas.
Though limited in its destructive power, Edward's precise control and high-quality fighting spirit created a small breach in the wall.
Exploiting this opening, his blade pierced through and found its mark in the demon summoner's abdon.
"Die!" A garbled scream erupted from the demon summoner as a burst of fiery energy exploded from its body. Edward was flung backwards.
In mid-air, Edward stabilized himself by driving his sword into the ground. He skidded to a stop, leaving a trail of gouged stone behind.
He looked up. The spot where the demon summoner had been standing was now empty. The demon summoner, bleeding green ichor from a wound in its abdon, had retreated to the rooftop of a nearby building.
Edward frowned. The spells that demon summoners wielded were incredibly troubleso. Though they were frail, now that he had failed to strike one down, finding another opportunity to kill it would be nearly impossible.
Where the demon summoner had disappeared now stood a monstrous bull made of embers. It stomped on the ground, ready to charge at him again. This was the sa creature that had just sent him flying.
The bull had been conjured by the demon summoner's unique spell, Ember Summoning, which manifested a lower-tier demon that would remain obedient to the summoner and reconstitute as long as the demon summoner was alive.
"I just need to stall them. The evacuation should be nearly complete by now." Edward kept his gaze locked on the demon summoner and the ember bull, repeating his purpose in his mind. His goal wasn't to kill the enemy but just to buy ti.
However, his expectations were quickly shattered. Terrified screams erupted from behind him, followed by the demon summoner's malicious laughter.
"What's this?!"
"My leg! My leg's on fire! It hurts, it hurts so much!"
"Where did this wall of flas co from? Was it that demon? We're dood. We're all going to die here!"
Chaotic cries of panic to his back made Edward's expression turn grim. What had happened?
A quick glance over his shoulder made his heart sink. A wall of flas had risen abruptly, cutting off everyone's escape route. An unlucky individual, unable to stop in ti, was shoved into the flas by the crowd and instantly reduced to charred remains.
"Damn it..." Edward's heart burned with anger as he glared at the demon summoner's smirking face. There was no doubt it was the one responsible. Its cruel nature couldn't possibly allow such a mass of vulnerable prey to escape unscathed.
"But..." Edward's anger flickered away, replaced by dejection. Anger was futile. The mont he had failed to eliminate the demon summoner at the outset, the situation had spiraled out of control. Given Edward's strength, killing the summoner would surely be an uphill battle.
Now, with the sudden appearance of the wall of flas, even delaying the enemy to ensure the evacuation seed impossible. What could he do? A sense of powerlessness began to seep into him. No amount of will could wash away his negative emotions.
"Fight! We can't let the Nightblades fight alone. Now that we're trapped, let's summon our courage and give it everything we've got, ow!"
A loud voice cut through the chaos, clearing Edward's head. He turned to see a catfolk girl waving a wooden stick in an almost comical manner, one at odds with her resolute tone.
"Don't give up, ow! We're not cowards!" she shouted. Her fra was so small, yet she stood so bravely...
"Yes... yes!"
"But... what can we..."
"Count in!"
While many in the crowd remained hesitant, so stepped forward. Most of the city guards didn't hesitate; they turned back, drawing their swords once more to face the demon summoner.
"Ha... how ironic." Edward froze for a mont, almost forgetting to keep his focus on the demon summoner and the ember bull.
"The very people I want to protect understand better than I do that we must never give up until the last mont. And ? I was sinking into despair. How absurd, how cowardly..."
mories flashed through his mind. His fists clenched tightly. He would not allow history to repeat itself.
Edward looked back at the demon summoner. The flaming shield in front of it had grown twice as thick as before, making it all the more fearso. Even his attacks at full strength had only managed to pierce halfway through the shield before. Now, even that seed impossible—unless...
Would it work? Could he do it? No, there was no ti for doubt. His father's words echoed in his mind: "What matters is not your bloodline, but the courage, the heart, of a lion."
His hesitation and despair lted away, replaced by resolve and determination. Edward raised his intricately crafted longsword and inserted it into a socket on his lion-emblazoned shield. As the blade slid into place, violent fluctuations of energy erupted from it.
The shield began to transform with chanical precision. Armor plates detached and rearranged, extending along the sword, enlarging and thickening it into sothing akin to a hilt.
The shield itself continued to shift. As components moved and locked into place, it transford into an imposing battleaxe. Though it lacked sharp edges, the weapon radiated a brutal, chanical beauty.
The energy emanating from it was not the magical energy typical of magitech devices—it was pure, tangible fighting spirit.
Veins bulged along Edward's arms, his capillaries burst, and his bones creaked audibly. His body was on the brink of collapse from bearing such an overwhelming surge of fighting spirit. Simply wielding the weapon had rendered him immobile. Condensed energy began to envelop the blade of the axe, which crackled with power.
The demon summoner's sinister face twisted into panic as a palpable sense of impending doom befell it. Letting out an eerie cry, it ordered the ember bull to charge at Edward.
"Ha... as I thought, this thing's beyond . Did Father lie to ? But even if I can only manage a single strike, you're coming down with ."
Edward glared at the demon summoner, now bound in place by invisible chains of unknown origin. Neither movent nor its fla teleportation could free it.
"Co!" Edward roared as the ember bull hurtled toward him. His body, already pushed to its limits, could hardly endure another blow. But he had no fear left.
The blade of the axe descended just as the ember bull reached him. The axe was so heavy that Edward had barely gotten it moving in ti—only for a figure to burst through a nearby wall, colliding with the bull and dragging it away with sheer force.
"Ah, made it just in ti!" The newcor's voice was intimately familiar.
A faint smile crept across Edward's lips before being replaced by unwavering resolve. The trembling blade of the axe descended in a sweeping arc, unleashing a devastating slash of energy slash that ripped through—tore down, rent, annihilated—everything in its path.
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