The flames savagely devoured the castle. Smoke mixed with ash made it hard to keep eyes open.

“Cough.”

The Tower Master pushed away debris from the collapsed castle and got to his feet. Looking back, the mages were either writhing in pain like they were about to die, or already dead. This was because they had cast protective magic in front of the Tower Master before the castle collapsed.

Since only one protective magic could be deployed, their protective barriers had to disappear.

“Grr…”

But before worrying about casualties, the Tower Master quickly turned his head to look for Rael.

She stood upright at the center where the flames began. It was a strange sight for a human form.

When her red-stained eyes turned toward him, the Tower Master forgot even the scorching heat in his chills. Rael had become a being that could no longer be called human.

‘I’m going to die.’

He was certain that if he stayed dazed like this, he would die at the hands of that thing that was neither human nor demon.

When he stepped backward, Rael took one step toward him.

‘I need to run.’

The Tower Master’s mind held only the thought that he had to escape. But mocking that thought, Rael took another step forward.

“Don’t… don’t come! You demon!”

Though the Tower Master shouted with a cracked voice, Rael had already lost her reason. She had only the thought that she must k*ll the enemy before her eyes.

Rather, Rael’s movements quickened at the Tower Master’s voice. She rushed toward him in one bound.

“Ahhh!”

The Tower Master’s body fell, and Rael climbed on top of him. Her hands were strangling the Tower Master’s neck.

“Grr…”

He struggled to remove Rael’s hands, but they wouldn’t come off easily. For a frail woman’s hands, the grip strength was excessively strong. Even Rael’s small body mounted on top of him pressed down heavily like it would crush his ribs.

He frantically tried to draw up magical power, but it still wouldn’t move well like it was paralyzed, and trying to force it while suffocating made concentration impossible.

“If only you… if only you hadn’t existed…”

Rael’s eyes, which had been empty and hollow like they had no soul, became wet. Something hot dropped from between the hair that poured down.

Rael was crying.

“If only you hadn’t existed… none of this would have happened.”

Resentment. In the end, what devoured Rael’s reason at this moment was resentment.

More strength entered her grip. The Tower Master’s neck bones seemed about to break dangerously. His breathing also reached its limit.

“Gah… grr…”

The Tower Master’s vision gradually blurred.

Thwack—

However, he barely returned from the crossroads of life and death.

“Cough, cough.”

The Tower Master barely escaped Rael’s grip and clutched his neck with his hands, taking rough breaths. When he came to his senses, Rael’s body had been thrown far away.

“Ha, if I’d been just a little later, you really would have died, wouldn’t you?”

Juletan, who had pushed Rael’s body away and stood beside him, looked down at the Tower Master.

“Lord Juletan. Cough.”

Seeing the one who had saved his life, the Tower Master kept coughing.

“Can’t even handle one human properly?”

Juletan sent the Tower Master a look close to contempt.

“What a disgustingly troublesome human.”

Juletan approached Rael, who had fallen to the ground. Even if she was a useless human, it wouldn’t be difficult to escape with one dying human.

He was sick of the incompetence of humans who required him to handle everything from one to ten, but bound by contract, he decided to kindly hand over the unconscious Rael to the Tower Master himself.

Thud—!

However, he was pushed back without even touching Rael’s body by Rubellan who came rushing.

“Ah! Really annoying!”

Nothing was to his liking.

“You take that woman and go. I’ll k*ll this bastard.”

He wanted to just eliminate this untrustworthy contractor here along with killing the others, but it was frustrating that he couldn’t.

Juletan fitted his shoulder that had been dislocated by Rubellan’s attack back into place and swung his arm around.

“What to do. The woman you were trying to protect seems already dead.”

Even in this situation, he didn’t forget to provoke Rubellan.

“Ha…”

Rubellan was on the verge of losing his reason, consumed by rage. He had failed to prevent Rael from being hurt before his eyes. He was in a precarious state where he might go berserk if pushed just a little more.

“Rather than enjoying this more, I should finish it quickly.”

Juletan decided to end this situation first, thinking that if he dragged out time and Rael died, it might ruin things.

When the Tower Master and Juletan began moving in earnest, Rubellan exhaled deeply.

In this disadvantageous situation, he couldn’t lose his reason by getting excited himself, but his gaze kept lingering on Rael, whose weak breathing seemed about to stop.

“……”

Rael’s white hand lying on the black ash stirred. He wanted to firmly grasp that small, delicate hand. She shouldn’t have had to roll around in those ashes.

The brief moment when Juletan rushed toward Rubellan flowed slowly like eons of time.

Thwack—

Juletan’s hand aimed for Rubellan’s heart in one stroke.

Whenever he pictured the day he would k*ll Rubellan, the end always involved imagining himself tearing out and devouring the beating heart. So he persistently aimed for Rubellan’s heart.

Cold air flowed along Juletan’s hand. His hand instantly became a hard ice spike. Sharp enough to pierce through anything easily.

The air in the hotly burning castle had somehow frozen cold.

Juletan’s hand finally reached within an inch of Rubellan’s heart.

Thwack—

Rubellan’s hand that grabbed the hand trying to pierce his heart gradually froze from where it touched him. A terrible cold penetrated his bones.

Each time Juletan applied force, Rubellan’s frozen arm cracked.

“Hahahaha!”

It was a precarious moment when just a little more force would make it shatter.

* * *

“Ugh…”

Bastian, who had briefly lost consciousness buried under castle debris, opened his eyes. When focus returned to his completely black vision, an urgent situation unfolded before him.

Rubellan was one step away from having his heart pierced, and the Tower Master was lifting up the unconscious Rael.

Bastian clutched his dizzy head and got up. His hand went into his chest.

His fumbling hand found and drew out a dagger. Bastian kept wiping away blood flowing from his head as he moved his steps.

He was agonizing.

Who should he stab the dagger into?

‘Destroy evil.’

Evil seemed to mean Juletan when thought of directly. Then should the dagger be stabbed into Juletan?

However, the Tower Master who had contracted with a demon also couldn’t be said to not be evil. Moreover, what was important to Bastian wasn’t the Demon King but Rael.

If he stabbed the Tower Master with the dagger to save Rael?

“…Ugh.”

His head throbbed again. He felt blood trickling down from somewhere he was injured.

Killing the Tower Master was a very dangerous choice for Bastian. If he, a servant of God and moreover a High Priest, killed a person, he would lose his sacred power.

That meant he could no longer remain a priest.

It was right to point the blade at a demon. Surely Bastian’s reason was saying so.

Step. Step.

But in the urgent situation, Bastian was heading toward Rael. This was instinct that didn’t allow for thought or calculation.

“Rael…”

Even if someone, no, if God reproached him, he couldn’t make any other choice.

Rael was family. A friend, and someone he loved. What use were being a priest and having sacred power if he couldn’t even protect his one person?

Bastian no longer hesitated. Wiping his blood-soaked vision, he ran straight at the Tower Master.

If God was watching, may all the merit he had accumulated serving God be repaid at this moment.

With the power for the dagger in his hand to pierce through to that evil’s heart.

“Ahhhhh!”

Bastian didn’t look back. The demons’ fight couldn’t be his concern.

Arriving right behind the Tower Master, he grabbed the Tower Master’s shoulder and turned his body. The startled Tower Master looked at him.

“High Priest…!”

But before he could say anything, the dagger Bastian held stabbed his heart.

Stab—

His hand hesitated at the terrible sensation of cutting flesh, but he soon closed both eyes tightly and stabbed the dagger deeper.

“Gah, cough, cough.”

The Tower Master’s body staggered and soon collapsed. Unable to believe that a priest had stabbed a person, and him at that, the Tower Master fumblingly touched the dagger embedded in his heart with his hand.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t a dream.

“Cough…”

Blood flowed backward and spilled from his mouth. The Tower Master choked for a moment then soon died without even closing his eyes.

It was truly a futile death.

“Ha… haa…”

Bastian stared blankly at his blood-stained hands then collapsed to his knees with a thud. His white priest robes were soiled with black ash and red blood.

“…O God.”

Bastian felt the sacred power within him draining from his body.

In the end, was his choice wrong?

His gaze turned to Rael. She was peacefully closing her eyes.

“…Thank goodness.”

Having no regrets at this moment of losing power was a blessing. If he had regretted it, nothing could have been more self-loathing.

Swoosh—

At that moment, rain poured from the black sky. The rainwater soaked Bastian’s body, but the blood that clung thickly wasn’t washed away. Rather, the smell of blood only grew thicker.

Bastian made the sign of the cross and offered a short prayer. Though he had lost his sacred power, it was a final prayer of gratitude to God who had led him here so he could save Rael.

He slowly opened his eyes and turned his head.

It wasn’t over yet.

But when Bastian looked back, he witnessed a strange sight.