“Ugh……”
Elsez opened her eyes, feeling as if her whole body was being shattered by pain.
Everywhere she looked was blocked by the ruins of buildings.
‘…I must have fainted for a moment.’
Elsez quickly checked her condition.
Her head throbbed as if it had been struck hard — maybe she’d briefly lost consciousness.
On top of that, a protruding shard of the building had pierced her abdomen, leaving a serious wound.
Elsez gritted her teeth and pulled her impaled body free.
“Ugh……”
A pain that nearly made her lose consciousness spread through her, but she forced herself to endure it.
Only then could the healing potion mend the wounds.
Once the foreign object was removed from the wound, the bracelet began injecting the healing potion.
But the healing potion worked slower than healing magic, so recovery would take time.
“Haa……”
While waiting to recover, the pain that dominated her whole body scattered her thoughts. Her breathing grew shallow.
Even so, endless crashes and shouts could still be heard faintly in the di
stance.
The fight wasn’t over yet.
Everyone was fighting desperately.
‘I have to… get back quickly.’
If even one teammate collapsed, cracks would form in the team without them even noticing.
Not only would they be outnumbered, but the whole operation and plan would fall apart.
And right now, fighting Dike, the fact that the demon-god Elsez was out would be the greatest loss.
At present, the only people who could deal a blow to Dike were Elsez and Tezette, who wielded the sword implanted with mana from another world.
‘There’s no time to sit down.’
Even if I die here today, that woman must be killed.
As soon as Elsez had recovered enough to move, she forced herself up.
She couldn’t collapse here.
The fate of this world rested on her shoulders.
****
Meanwhile, your four heroes were locked in a fierce back-and-forth with Dike.
They were all wearing the bracelets Treisha had given them, and Astaire was quickly using healing magic, so there were no life-threatening wounds.
But there remained small bruises here and there that the healing potions couldn’t properly treat.
And worse, their spirit points were being chipped away by one injury after another, gradually draining them.
‘Is Ruel okay…?’
On top of that, Elsez was missing.
Maybe Elsez’s communicator had been smashed in the earlier blast, because not even her voice could be heard.
They wanted to check on Elsez’s condition, but the moment their formation broke, Dike would take advantage of it.
Right now, the best plan was to finish Dike as quickly as possible, then go check on Elsez.
However, everyone was tired and their movements had slowed compared to the start.
Noticing that, Dike glanced toward the rubble where Elsez should be and spoke to them.
“Why not stop and withdraw now? Keep fighting and you’ll only be throwing away what’s already lost.”
“Have you ever seen heroes back down just because a villain asks? That’s not a hero — that’s the villain’s lackey.”
Cassian sneered, and Dike clicked her tongue as if disappointed.
“I’ll extract the demon-god’s power from Miss Elsez and spare her life. Then you will all continue to be worshipped as heroes, and this world will be at peace.”
The power extracted from Elsez would be Reti’s power.
In the end, Reti would, as for hundreds of years, be forced to live as a demon-god against her will.
“A happy ending for everyone, huh.”
How could it be a happy ending when an innocent scapegoat would pay for it?
Astaire answered coldly with a bitter smile.
“No. I won’t let anyone be sacrificed to you anymore.”
Listening to Dike’s absurd justification, Rashiel spoke into his communicator in a cold voice.
“…One more time.”
The three who received that order exchanged looks with Rashiel and nodded.
Cassian used his provoke skill again, and Astaire supported him.
Then Rashiel pretended to attack Dike with magic, and wrapped her in a wave of magic.
“Tezette.”
At Rashiel’s signal, Tezette dashed at Dike.
‘Same trick again…’
Dike tore through Rashiel’s magic as if annoyed and blocked Tezette’s attack.
But then…
‘The sword… is gone?’
At that moment, a sword thrust into her back.
“I can use a sword too, you know.”
Holding Tezette’s sword was Cassian.
Rashiel breathed a sigh of relief at the sight.
He had just teleported Tezette’s sword to Cassian.
Caught off guard, Dike’s face twisted with pain and anger as she sent Tezette flying.
Thud!
She overpowered Cassian who had tried to hold his ground, and pulled the sword that had pierced her body out.
Dike seized the blade in her hand and swung it back, knocking Cassian away.
The bleeding wound quickly healed with her own healing magic.
After healing, Dike snapped Tezette’s sword in two with her bare hands.
The two halves of Tezette’s sword hit the ground.
Even with blood streaming from the hand that had broken the sword, Dike’s face was indifferent as if that pain meant nothing.
“…You don’t understand reason, do you.”
She muttered as she approached the nearest Cassian.
“Then I’ll take them out one by one.”
As Rashiel moved to stop Dike, she vanished.
‘Where did she go?’
At the same time, a presence came up behind him, and Dike’s cold, clear voice whispered into Rashiel’s ear.
“First, Rashiel, it’ll be you.”
Before Rashiel could raise a barrier, something sharp and cold pierced him.
“Ugh…!”
The holy sword that had pierced his body pulled out, and Rashiel staggered from the heavy bleeding.
“Damn, Rashiel!”
Cassian charged, but Dike’s magic stopped him.
Dike swung the holy sword through the air and opened a rift in the dimension.
Seeing the rift open before him, Rashiel realized Dike’s plan.
‘She’s going to throw me into the dimensional rift.’
Since Elsez and Rashiel had returned from the dimensional rift, such rifts had opened only once across the entire continent.
That had been the last dimensional rift.
Because Rashiel had blown up Dike’s basement, there were no more monsters’ or beasts’ eggs for Dike to put inside.
That last rift must have been the delayed rupture of monsters Dike had already put in before Elsez returned.
So now there wasn’t enough mass to open a rift; if someone fell in now, they might not be able to return to this world.
And more importantly…
‘…The healing potion isn’t working.’
Her wounds weren’t recovering. She had already exceeded today’s usable amount.
From now on, only Astaire’s healing could save her. If she fell into the rift now and missed the chance, she could die from excessive bleeding.
Dike floated Rashiel into the air with magic.
“Rashiel, you know too much, and you’re a nuisance. So you’ll die first.”
Just as Dike was about to put Rashiel into the rift—
Tezette, whose wounds had somehow healed, gripped a broken half of his sword and charged at Dike.
Astaire had healed him in the meantime.
Dike couldn’t avoid the attack and took it head-on.
But…
Because the sword had broken, all the mana from the other world that it held leaked out, and the strike didn’t land properly.
“So close.”
Dike clicked her tongue as if pitying him, and sent Tezette flying.
As she was about to throw Rashiel into the rift—
“No way that’s happening!”
Elsez, who had appeared, cut through Dike’s magic that was holding Rashiel and grabbed her waist, throwing both their bodies into the rift.
Seeing that, Rashiel—of course—along with Cassian, Tezette, and Astaire, were shaken violently.
“No, no… Ruel, don’t—”
The rift that swallowed the two closed, ignoring the four heroes’ calls.
****
Watching Dike take not a single scratch from Tezette’s final strike, Elsez realized why she had been pulled into this “game.”
She was a being from another world who could break the rules of this world.
She was the one who could correct the errors of this world.
The more they fought, the more the four heroes would get hurt without leaving even a single wound on Dike.
‘Maybe I’ll die, too.’
That was why—
She had carried Dike into the dimensional rift.
Dike looked at Elsez as if she couldn’t understand.
“Why go to such trouble? To you, this is just an illusionary world anyway.”
Elsez smiled coldly at Dike’s words.
“I decide where I belong. The place where the people I love are—that is my reality.”
“But if I die, you won’t be able to return to those ‘people you love,’ will you?”
Since Dike no longer produced monsters and beasts, the rifts would no longer open.
Dike’s holy sword that could cut through dimensions would disappear when Dike died.
So even if Elsez, a being from another world, won this fight, there would be no way to return to the world where everyone she loved was.
Still, Elsez smiled as if relieved.
“I know. But don’t worry.”
A memory of something Rashiel had once said flashed through her mind.
‘I’ll come find you.’
‘…’
‘Even if it takes years across dimensions, as long as you’re alive.’
If it was Rashiel, he would surely come.
Even if it took decades.
Even if it took centuries.
As long as we’re alive, he will come.
“So then…”
Elsez lowered her eyes at the memory of Rashiel, then lifted her gaze to meet Dike.
“I will be the one to kill you.”
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