The First Floor's Relentless Hunt
Even though the inspector's head was half-crushed and the bastard was sprawled on the floor like a discarded toy, the others refused to run.
Instead, they shifted into a more composed stance, their magic already crackling with focus as they readied themselves for the fight ahead.
“These guys are seasoned troublemakers, huh?” I muttered, half to myself, half to the team.
“Get back,” I ordered sharply, my voice steady despite the chaos.
“Me too—let me help…”
“In case of emergency, the guardian’s duty is to protect the escort,” Mea cut in firmly, stepping forward to push me behind her without hesitation.
“This is the second caster. Demonologists don’t go in swinging blindly.”
It was… correct. She had a point.
I was the exception to every rule.
Probably the only Demonologist in the world who could say, without exaggeration, “I can do this all day long.”
“And especially when the opponent is a caster.”
“A caster?”
Theurge.
The term meant something like a holy spellcaster—complete opposites of us Demonologists.
Demonic power was nothing more than sandcastles in the face of their radiant light, scattering like shadows that had lost their place.
Mea’s judgment was spot-on.
“Judgment!”
A pure white light rained down from above the moment she finished her chant.
They had been preparing their magic while we talked.
They hadn’t had time to gather power yet when we approached, so they were caught flat-footed.
Is this what holy magic feels like?
The pinnacle of Demonologist theory I had only heard about.
Following Ray’s lessons, I felt the silver mana I had stored in my bones for physical enhancement slowly dissolving away.
But this…
Surprisingly… nothing special?
My body felt a little heavy, but not enough that I couldn’t cast anymore.
Right now I was confident I could just Blink and disappear in an instant.
Yet the enemies’ attack wasn’t coming from the Theurge’s light.
At the same time, arrows flew in, and one of the casters hurled a fireball.
The Theurge was sealing our magic with his light, while the other two finished us off?
Not a bad combo.
But we weren’t the type to stand still and take it.
“You, the named demon Eclipto. By our contract, shield me right now.”
The second Mea’s chant ended.
CRACK!
The Theurge’s light column was ripped away in a single bite.
It looked exactly like a colossal wolf had chomped it down.
“Ooh…”
KERENG!
Following the invisible wolf that had sliced through the air, a second wolf of pure black shadow lunged forward with a savage howl.
“Bark! Block!”
The archer had become a meat shield for a split second, but it was useless.
The moment the Theurge’s magic failed, Mea’s counterattack became an unstoppable tidal wave.
CRACK!
“AAAAAK!”
The wolf bit clean through the awkward shield held in one hand.
“H-Hey! Do something! Demonologists are trash!!”
“H-Holy Arrow!”
A holy arrow pierced the wolf.
But it only removed the shadow cloak wrapped around the creature, revealing its true fur—nothing more.
“You son of a bitch! What kind of demon is this?!”
The wolf’s anger only flared higher.
It shook its head savagely, ripping the archer’s arm out in one violent motion.
“W-Wait! Surrender! I surrender! Just spare me!!”
“Bark, you idiot!”
“Just burn the whole thing!”
A larger fireball than before roared to life.
Did they not notice their companion?
The caster poured even more power into the flames, determined to incinerate both the wolf and the inspector at once.
“Flame Burst!”
The fire was stronger than I expected.
Mea had told me not to interfere, but I was already reaching for my own magic.
Blink is still a bit tricky.
Her sense of responsibility as a guardian had been perfect.
But the trust we had built between me and Mea hadn’t yet reached the level where I could just Blink away.
If Blink is off the table, then there’s only one other option.
Of all my spells, excluding Universal Magic, only two existed.
If Blink failed, the remaining choice was simple.
Instead of the contract mark Seir had burned into the space between my shoulder blades, I focused on the second contract mark on the back of my hand.
Like Leraje, a high-ranking demon, Seir had a variety of authorities.
But the one most characteristic of Leraje was hunting itself.
Why had she arranged the contract between me and Leraje among all those demons?
It was because Leraje’s fighting style matched mine the best.
And the effect of the contract had been dramatic.
My attacks had evolved in every single way.
More precisely, it was Second Demon status!
But Mea left no openings.
“Swallow. Solar Flame.”
The wolf that had burst from the inspector’s shadow a moment ago now rose from Mea’s own shadow.
The second wolf immediately obeyed its command.
It tore its jaws wide and swallowed the fireball hurtling toward its twin.
“W-What the…!”
“Flame Burst…?”
The horror on the faces of the Theurge and the fire caster was genuine.
It wasn’t just them.
I had been about to cast my own spell when I saw the wolf casually devour the fireball as if it were a snack, and my mind blanked.
Yet even among their shock, there was a vast difference between them and me.
They had seen a wolf and felt the terror of death and utter despair.
I had felt nothing but pure admiration for the “flame-eating show” this wolf was putting on.
The casters’ fighting spirit snapped right there.
The inspector—alive or dead?—and the sub-inspector archer who had already collapsed.
They were left with nothing but themselves, yet here they were, refusing to stop holy light and letting their summon seem to ignore their own fire magic.
They were probably thinking the match was already over and they had nothing left to lose.
Maybe they simply lost interest once they realized it was finished.
The two wolves Mea had summoned walked over calmly and positioned themselves on either side of her, forming a perfect shadow escort.
It was like a still frame straight out of a movie or anime.
Is this what a Demonologist really is?
Then what the hell was I fighting before?
It was an overwhelming power that made even a “pretty good” Demonologist like Malek look weak.
And it was that same explosion of elegance that made me forget everything else.
So this is what a Demonologist is.
I felt envy.
I wanted a summon like this too…
“Solar, mana. Clean up,” Mea ordered.
GRRRR.
AUWO.
The two wolves howled, and the two casters finally couldn’t hold back their fear.
They collapsed to the floor in defeat.
I couldn’t kill them.
I opened my mouth to tell Mea I would protect her life.
I was about to call her name.
If the wolves had simply walked forward instead of jumping into her shadow, I would have done exactly that.
Wait… this is a problem.
The wolves weren’t heading to Mea’s shadow to tidy it up.
Of course, the ones who had jumped into the shadow were doing so to get a better angle on the casters’ own shadows.
I watched the two wolves slip through the casters’ shadows and immediately spread Leraje’s mana.
Leraje’s mana had a special quality beyond even Seir’s.
It wasn’t a special spell—just pure toxicity woven into the mana itself.
Along with hunting, Leraje’s authority included poison.
Without needing to borrow any extra power, the effect was already embedded in the mana, poisoning anything it touched.
The wolves, as predators and hunters, instinctively recognized themselves as the new prey and immediately switched targets.
“Stop! That’s enough!”
The wolves’ eyes, which had glared at me with raw anger, softened the moment I spoke.
They listened well to their master’s words.
But I still had to endure Mea’s piercing gaze.
“What are you doing?” she asked calmly.
“It’s hard to kill them,” I answered just as calmly.
“…Have you never killed before?”
Her first words had been cold, but now a faint trace of worry slipped through her voice.
Mea continued.
“…Don’t feel any pity. If we had been weaker, they would have taken your life. Remember that half-hearted sympathy is poison.”
“I’m not feeling pity or sympathy. I’ve never killed anyone, and I’ve never been killed either.”
“Then why?”
“There are a few things I need to ask.”
After that, whether I killed them or not didn’t matter anymore.
I would execute them properly when we reached the main base, but it felt like too much effort.
“Is that all?”
“Yes.”
“Then…?”
Mea’s eyes trembled.
Did I say something wrong?
I briefly wondered that.
For the first time, I was facing an angry Mea.
“You used enough mana just to stop my summon because of that?”
“Um… it might not seem like a big deal, but it was an important question.”
“Fine. Hear me out. Go ahead.”
She crossed her arms tightly, clearly ready to scold me if the answer was anything less than perfect.
Withstanding her sharp glare, I turned back to the casters.
“You’ve done this kind of thing before, right?”
“Y-Yes?”
“With people besides us?”
“That’s…?”
They still hadn’t fully grasped the situation.
CRACK!
I crushed their fingers under my reinforced boots in an instant.
“AAAAH!”
“Answer.”
If they didn’t answer honestly, they wouldn’t leave here nicely.
“W-We did!”
“Third time!”
“As I thought, serial offenders.”
These were professionals—cunning repeat offenders.
“Among the people you’ve turned, was there a half-elf?”
If there was, they knew they couldn’t get off easy.