“Ugh!”
The weight and power combined to deliver excruciating pain to the man’s chest.
Above the suffocating pressure, Elsez’s cold voice scattered.
“Do you know how annoying it is when someone picks you up and then drops you?”
I was secretly happy thinking there was a way to return to the original world. I wondered what I would do if I could really go back.
But it was just a dimensional rift opening.
I was disappointed.
Elsez pressed down hard on the man’s chest and asked,
“Who is it? Who’s behind you?”
“Damn it, what are you doing? Kill this woman!”
The man’s companions, frozen by Elsez’s unexpected attack, came to their senses a beat too late and rushed at Elsez.
Elsez, who was about to kick the man by lifting her leg as usual, realized too late that she was wearing a dress and dodged the attack by bending her upper body.
‘It’s getting in the way.’
Elsez quickly tore one side of the dress to make it easier to move.
Then she punched the man, who was flailing from the missed attack, in the abdomen.
“Agh!”
The man, hit by a fist with tremendous force, flew back and hit the back of his head on a tree behind him, knocking him unconscious.
At that moment, a purple magic orb flew towards Elsez’s back.
Elsez easily dodged the attack and instantly closed in on the dark mage’s face.
“You must have opened that rift. Then you must have killed innocent people…….”
‘What kind of speed……!’
The dark mage was taken aback by Elsez’s speed, which was unbelievable even in a dress.
Moreover, she showed no sign of being out of breath despite moving at that speed.
Monster.
The dark mage’s eyes, looking at Elsez, were filled with terror as if he had seen a monster.
“You won’t feel wronged even if you die.”
Elsez grabbed the dark mage by the collar and threw him against the wall of the abandoned palace.
Crash―!
The wall of the abandoned palace crumbled, and a tremendous roar filled the empty lot.
As Elsez turned around, brushing off her hands, she saw the back of the last remaining man running away after seeing his companions being defeated.
Elsez quickly caught up with the man, holding the torn hem of her dress.
“H-help!”
The man screamed in terror as Elsez, who had caught up with him in an instant and even overtaken him, blocked his path.
Elsez grabbed the man’s head as he tried to run in another direction and slammed it into the ground.
“Ugh!”
Then, lifting the head of the man trembling with pain and fear, she asked,
“I’m asking you. Who told you to kill me?”
They sacrificed someone else as an offering to open the dimensional rift and deliberately left Elsez in front of it.
‘To make it look like I was a victim of the dimensional rift, not a sacrifice to dark magic.’
If she died from dark magic, she would die peacefully, but if she was killed by a demonic beast, she wouldn’t die in one piece.
‘Then who, and for whom, is trying to show this? Why?’
Rashiel, who had been identified as the leader of the Demon Resurrection Church, had no reason to kill her like this.
If he wanted to kill her, there would be plenty of cleaner and simpler ways to do it.
“I, I don’t know! I really don’t know! I just did as I was told……!”
“Really? Maybe you’ll remember after a few more hits?”
Just as Elsez was about to attack the man again, grabbing his head,
Keeek!
With a chilling cry, demonic beasts burst out from the dimensional rift, which had grown to the size of an adult man.
If left like this, the people at the banquet would surely be in danger.
“Sigh…….”
Elsez sighed and knocked the man unconscious before standing up.
First, she had to deal with the swarm of demonic beasts rather than finding out who was behind this incident.
Elsez cut off the hem of her dress, which she had only torn vertically, making it short.
Then she stood in front of the approaching demonic beasts.
‘I can’t let the imperial palace be destroyed.’
The dimensional rift would close automatically after all the demonic beasts inside it were released.
The demonic beasts that poured out in the early stages of the rift opening were generally not very strong, so they were not difficult to catch.
However, there were so many of them that it was difficult to defend once caught up in their pace.
Elsez began to quickly deal with the demonic beasts.
Occasionally, there were demonic beasts that caused status ailments, but each time, the bracelet Tracia gave her proved its worth.
As Elsez was dealing with the demonic beasts, she suddenly paused.
‘Why do I feel lighter after moving so much?’
It felt like her energy was being restored rather than depleted.
Reti seemed to feel the same way.
“Human, my power is returning.”
Only then did Elsez remember that the source of Reti’s power was the mana of this otherworldly dimension.
The open dimensional door had restored the demon’s power.
“Good. Let’s stop them.”
However, after cleaning up one wave of demonic beasts, Elsez frowned when she saw the demonic beasts appearing in the next phase.
‘Gargoyles……!’
Gargoyles were high-level demonic beasts, but they were no match for Elsez’s combat power.
The problem was that gargoyles were flying monsters.
They were not easy for Elsez, a melee fighter, to subdue, and even more so in her current dress.
The gargoyles flew past Elsez on the ground and headed towards the banquet hall.
“Damn it! In this situation, it would be better if I were a support mage!”
As Elsez ran towards the distant gargoyles, Reti shouted,
“Human! Use magic!”
“How am I supposed to use―”
Elsez was about to retort to Reti’s words but remembered something Reti had said before.
‘Ahem, this body is proficient in both magic and melee combat. But not yet, it will be possible when more power is restored.’
Elsez stopped in her tracks.
Then, recalling her memories from her time as Ruel, she focused on the mana flowing within her body.
‘An area-of-effect spell, something that can wipe out all those gargoyles at once…….’
At that moment, a giant black magic circle appeared in the sky where the gargoyles were flying.
‘No need to aim since it’s an area-of-effect spell.’
Elsez amplified the magic as it was.
Then the magic circle glowed black, and the magic exploded, attacking the gargoyles.
Elsez watched the scene with a slight frown.
‘Black magic……. I shouldn’t use it in front of people.’
She might be mistaken for a dark mage or, in the worst case, have her true identity exposed.
After dealing with the gargoyles and catching her breath, she heard Reti’s urgent voice.
“Human, behind you!”
When Elsez turned around, she saw the dimensional rift had grown to the size of the abandoned palace.
And a giant demonic beast emerged from the rift.
It was a cyclops, a one-eyed giant.
Thud, thud.
The ground shook like an earthquake with every step the cyclops took.
Elsez clenched her fists as she looked at the cyclops approaching her.
“Right, after the minions, it’s the boss battle.”
She muttered, the corners of her mouth curling up slightly.
****
At that moment, in the temple.
Astaire was organizing his thoughts, reviewing the circumstantial evidence he had gathered so far from Lord Lort, his father Duke Ferdian, and various other sources.
The Crown Prince had identified Rashiel as the true culprit, but something didn’t quite add up.
‘This isn’t like Rashiel’s way of handling things.’
They had been together for a full decade.
Though they couldn’t be called close, living together as roommates had given Astaire some insight into Rashiel’s character.
‘Rashiel wouldn’t have others do his work.’
He was an extreme control freak.
Fundamentally distrustful of others, he handled everything according to his own meticulous plans.
Given that, Rashiel would have chosen to act directly rather than involving non-professional nobles in such matters.
Though it might be more troublesome, it would minimize variables.
However, Astaire couldn’t exclude Rashiel as a suspect based solely on this intuition; he still lacked sufficient information.
‘The most certain way is to catch the masked man.’
As Astaire was deep in thought,
Boom!
A distant roar echoed, accompanied by a strong, ominous presence.
‘This presence…?’
It was a presence he could never forget.
The presence of the demon lord he had defeated after a long battle, the same one that had killed Ruel.
Astaire, possessing attributes antithetical to the demon lord, was particularly sensitive to this presence.
‘Something is about to happen.’
Though the demon lord’s presence quickly faded, Astaire couldn’t stay still.
He put on his outer garment and left the room. Just then, Lancelot, who was approaching, stopped upon seeing him.
“Your Grace!”
“What’s happening? That sound just now.”
“Something seems to have happened at the imperial palace.”
Astaire knew that a banquet was being held at the imperial palace today. Many people unrelated to this incident would be there.
Astaire gritted his teeth and, passing Lancelot, ordered,
“Put all the priests on standby.”
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