The Second Demon Hero, Adora the Illusionist
Strangely, the demonic beasts bypassed Rin without exception.
They avoided the spot where he stood, as if he were invisible, or as if an impassable, unsteppable barrier blocked their path.
The beasts surged past, shaking the very earth beneath them.
"We can do proper introductions in a little while."
Adora reappeared beside the bewildered Rin.
First a thief, then a cloud of smoke—she was utterly impossible to pin down.
"For now, we must first verify if the Hero is worthy of being entrusted with you for the time being."
"Entrusted? I'm not some kind of pet."
When Rin snapped back, Adora flinched in surprise.
"Of course not. I didn't mean it that way at all."
She gently caressed Rin's left arm.
Given who she was, Rin had no choice but to let her.
But the moment Adora touched him, a wave of dizzying fatigue swept through his entire body.
"Just as I thought."
Adora looked at the struggling Rin with pity.
"You haven't fully recovered yet."
"How... do you...?"
A sudden, overwhelming drowsiness washed over him.
As Rin fought to keep his eyes open against the encroaching sleep, Adora patted him soothingly.
"There isn't enough time to explain everything at once."
He couldn't hold out any longer.
Ever since Epaltelga, resisting sleep had become an uphill battle for Rin.
"You've reached your limit. Even the Holy Sword deemed it too dangerous and forced you to sleep."
The exhaustion was overwhelming.
Catching Rin as he collapsed, Adora sat down gracefully and rested his head on her lap.
"No one will disturb you. Sleep well."
Of course, Adora had no intention of forgiving anyone who dared interrupt her time with Rin.
"Riiiiiiin!!!!"
Rin was nowhere to be seen.
He had vanished from sight in an instant as the demonic beasts swarmed.
Lucy had seen it.
She had seen Adora stepping up behind Rin just before he disappeared.
"Damn demon!"
From the moment she appeared in the black market, Adora had made no effort to hide her demonic energy.
Yet, back when Rin had openly asked if she seemed like a demon, Lucy hadn't sensed a single trace of demonic energy.
She should have investigated properly when he pointed it out.
Instead, she had been too busy bickering with Labin, and now look at this mess.
She was so furious with herself she could burst.
"Get out of my way!"
Grabbing the gaping jaws of a lunging beast, she ripped them apart.
When another bit her arm, she drove her fingers straight through its eyes.
A mana-infused kick cleared a crescent-shaped space, but it was immediately filled by more beasts.
"Hero!"
Fortunately, with Lucy holding the front line and absorbing most of the beasts' onslaught, the Waltercroix forces were able to push forward with ease.
Not that there were no civilian casualties, of course.
Labin, consumed by rage, sought out Lucy.
"Where the hell is Lee?! Why are you putting on a one-woman show by yourself?!"
"Did you know that bitch Adora was a demon?!"
"The information officer...?"
Lucy suddenly realized that despite having told her his name, Labin stubbornly continued to call Rin "Lee."
"Did you ever tell that bitch Rin's name? And why haven't you been calling him Rin?"
"Why would I tell her?! And Lee never asked me to call him by his name, so how could I just do it on my own?!"
"...Ha."
In the end, it was her own carelessness that had caused this.
Rin's suspicions, the way Adora had casually called him by his name—the clues had been right there.
No, Adora had likely left those openings on purpose.
Yet she had dismissed them until the very end.
She hadn't noticed at all, even though a demon was targeting Rin.
Swallowing her tears, she had to admit it.
Right now, she was even more useless than when her limbs had been severed.
"What are you doing just sitting there with your head down?!"
Labin wasn't about to let Lucy wallow.
"Find Lee! You were so busy claiming he was yours, so why are you giving up now?!"
"Labin..."
"Ah, seriously!"
She snapped, slicing through a lunging beast.
"Don't call my name so sweetly, you idiot! Go find him right now!"
"But there are too many of them... I have no idea where he could be..."
"You...!"
Furious to her limit, Labin screamed at Lucy.
"You shameless bitch!"
Labin's voice echoed loudly across the ruined clearing of the black market.
"Lee didn't stop to calculate whether he could do it or not when he saved you!"
"He saved you because you needed saving! Because he wanted to save you!"
"So what the hell are you doing right now?!"
Ironically, Adora did not attack the two while Labin was venting her anger.
She simply let the beasts wander around them, watching with amusement as Labin grabbed Lucy by the collar.
Realizing this, Labin rejected Adora's pathetic display of consideration and raised her daggers.
"Fine. Get lost. I'll save Lee myself."
"You can't handle this alone..."
"But!"
Cutting Lucy off, Labin glared ahead with burning eyes.
She stared at a specific spot where the beasts were merely pacing, just like the area around them.
"If I save him, Lee is mine. I'm never giving him up."
"What...?"
"So sit back and watch, you princess!"
"Don't make me laugh!"
Lucy sprang to her feet.
"I haven't lost yet!"
"I don't have time to argue with you!"
Labin pointed her finger at the unique mutant beast.
"I'll take that one. I'll kill it, I'll save Lee, and I'll have him!"
Lucy shot back, refusing to back down.
"First that bitch Adora, and now you! He is my only ally, my best companion, my Rin!"
Picking up a sword rolling on the ground from a fallen black market thug, Lucy unleashed her mana and swung it wide.
"I will never let you take him!"
"Just try and stop me!"
The two dashed forward at the same time.
Cutting down the beasts that lunged at them, the Hero and the Thief split in opposite directions.
The Hero, shrouding her blade in a reddish-gold light, leaped toward the unique mutant.
The Thief broke through toward the spot she had noted earlier, where the beasts were merely pacing.
To resolve the situation and save Rin, they had made different choices.
Naturally, the beasts relentlessly targeted Lucy, who had leaped into the air to protect the unique mutant.
"Tch!"
Forced to swing her sword to clear the surrounding beasts, she lost her chance to deliver the decisive blow to the unique mutant.
Instead,
a path opened for Labin to charge the mutant.
"I'm only cooperating this once!"
She pulled a dark red elixir from her breast pocket and downed it in a single gulp.
Her heart pounded violently as her surroundings slowed to a crawl.
Stepping on the falling carcasses of the beasts, Labin reached the underside of the unique mutant's jaw.
Secret Art: Thousand Piercings
"Secret Art: Thousand Piercings!"
Blood trickled from her eyes and nose, but her momentum did not falter in the slightest.
At a speed that even Lucy could barely track, countless thrusts shredded the mutant beast's jaw into tatters.
Not stopping there, Labin bored into the beast's head like a drill, finally bursting out through the crown of its skull.
As Adora gasped in shock at the unexpected coordinated attack,
"There you are."
Lucy caught her location this time.
"Did you really think you could hide with just some cheap scent-remover?"
It was a spot where nothing could be seen, yet the faint stench of the sewers lingered.
Lucy threw a punch straight toward it.
*BOOM!*
"Ugh!"
The demon took a direct hit to her abdomen and was sent flying backward.
As the illusion shattered, Rin was revealed, lying on the ground where she had stood.
"Rin!"
He wasn't moving, but he was definitely breathing.
Relieved that he was safe, Lucy scooped him into her arms, only for Adora to reappear in an instant.
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't touch Rin with those filthy hands."
"I hit her dead-on!"
Lucy felt a hollow despair, bitterly realizing the absence of the Holy Sword.
While she could somehow damage the beasts with normal attacks, demons were a different story.
Without the Saint's holy buff or the Holy Sword, physical damage against demons was reduced to one-tenth, and magic damage was halved, making it nearly impossible to land a telling blow.
All around them, the scene remained a chaotic slaughterhouse.
"Pant... pant..."
Due to the side effects of the elixir, Labin was down on one knee, blood dripping from her mouth.
Yet the hostility in her glare toward Adora did not diminish in the slightest.
The desperate struggle of the three guilds—Thief, Mercenary, and Merchant—continued.
It was a continuous, meaningless war of attrition.
And Rin, who had been protected by the illusion, finally woke up from the scent of blood and the swirling dust.
Adora knew it was time to wrap things up.
"You're awake, Rin."
"Adora."
"You could have slept a bit longer."
She was proud of him for maintaining his composure amidst the chaos.
But Rin was far from composed.
"Labin, you..."
The moment he saw Labin bleeding, Rin understood the situation instantly.
It was the side effect of the elixir she had used on the day Gutter Alley was destroyed.
Even as she coughed up a clot of blood, Labin felt tears welling up at Rin's worried gaze.
On the other hand, Lucy, treated like a useless sack of grain despite being right next to him, had to grit her teeth.
Just then, someone intruded upon the brief lull in the battle.
"Now! Kill that bitch Labin!"
"Our contract was that you would help us eliminate Labin!"
It was the Mercenary and Merchant Guild Leaders.
"You demand that so openly in front of all these people?"
Even Adora was dumbfounded.
But the Merchant Guild Leader paid no heed.
"You're an illusionist anyway! Just as you blanketed a part of Waltercroix in illusions, manipulating the memories of the people here should be child's play..."
"Shut up."
*Splat!*
The Merchant Guild Leader's head burst open in an instant.
Adora was genuinely furious.
Because of that lowlife, she had lost the timing to introduce herself properly.
The timing to introduce herself to Rin, of all people...!
"Illusionist, this is a breach of contract! A violation of our agreement! If that person finds out...!"
"I couldn't care less about the brat pulling your strings. In fact, I'm quite displeased because that brat chose to act on his own."
It was Adora who had realized Rin had arrived in Waltercroix with the Hero.
She had shared the information out of professional courtesy, but both the underlings and their master had played petty tricks and gotten in her way.
"Didn't I say I would handle it myself?"
The illusions were merely a performance; Adora had never needed to painstakingly craft delicate hallucinations in the first place.
Simply releasing her demonic energy was enough to seize the Mercenary Guild Leader by the throat and slowly choke him to death.
"Ack, cough!"
"This is a warning. A warning not to get cocky."
Clearing her throat, the Illusionist used dark magic to amplify her voice.
"I am Adora. The Illusionist of the Demon Hero party."
Despite the shocking confession of being part of the Demon Hero party, no one dared interrupt her.
"Originally, under the agreement with the Mercenary and Merchant Guild Leaders, I was supposed to kill the Thief Guild Leader, Labin. However, since these two acted on their own first, I intend to make them pay for disrespecting a demon."
"Argh...! You wretched illusionist...!"
"Let me emphasize this once more. The Mercenary and Merchant Guild Leaders of the Waltercroix Triumvirate made a secret pact with me, a demon. Well, not anymore."
This isn't how it was supposed to go. Not like this at all. Rin, I wanted to introduce myself to you in a much more proper way.
The Illusionist sent telepathic messages to Rin, Lucy, and Labin.
To Rin, she appealed with desperate sorrow,
"The goal of our Demon Hero party is to oppose the Hero's party, resurrect the fallen Demon King, and win the war."
Foolish Hero, do you really think you can protect Rin from us without even the Holy Sword?
while to Lucy, she sneered with pure disgust.
"Therefore, you guild leaders are no longer needed. Die quietly."
It wasn't simply because you lacked the Holy Sword that you couldn't find me.
*Splat!*
The Mercenary Guild Leader's head burst open just as easily.
"My amusement has faded, so I shall take my leave."
After you lost your limbs, you were forced to stay glued to Rin. From that moment on, you became accustomed to his energy.
"Remember, though the Demon King has fallen, we demons stand firm by the will of the Demon God."
Even now, Rin's energy is laced with demonic power. The Demon King's demonic power, to be exact. Because of that, you grew accustomed to such pure demonic energy, which is why you couldn't properly perceive me, who possesses that very same purity.
"And remember, when the rest of our Demon Hero party reveals themselves to the world, the Demon King who leads us will also be resurrected."
You know exactly why Rin ended up like that, don't you?
Indeed, it wasn't over yet.
The sins of Lucy and the Hero's party were only just beginning to bear fruit.
It's because you lot forced him to touch the Demon King's single horn with his bare hands.
The Hero stared at Rin in utter despair.
Rin remained silent.
Desperate for forgiveness, she kept tugging at his sleeve, but Rin ignored Lucy to the very end.
Meanwhile, Labin had heard everything through the telepathic transmission.
Adora sent a separate, private message to the Thief, who was weeping inwardly at the revelation of Rin's suffering.
You understand why I came all this way to put on such a predictable farce, don't you?
The Thief's bloodshot eyes snapped toward her.
One who harbors a deep desire, Labin the Thief. Coincidentally, it seems we both want the same thing.
The reason Adora had gone to the trouble of playing a clumsy role to infiltrate Waltercroix.
It was to recruit Labin into the Demon Hero party.