Chapter 80
“Ugh…”
After Lillian’s magic swept through the prison once more, Eric had barely escaped the inferno with Malefica’s help—still stunned by the breathtaking display—when the ground beneath them, already weakened by Magnus’s earlier rampage, finally gave way.
He plunged straight down into the lower floor, unable to resist the collapsing stone.
“Damn it. It did look unstable earlier, but I didn’t think it would actually collapse.”
Even though Malefica had pulled him back quite a distance before Lillian’s spell hit, the destruction had spread far wider than expected.
Luckily, the levels of the prison were vertically connected, and there didn’t seem to be any monsters on this floor.
“Miss Malefica! Where are—huh?”
As he slowly pieced together what had just happened above, Eric suddenly remembered her and tried to stand—only to frown when his leg refused to move.
“Ugh!”
My leg…
One of his shins had snapped from the impact, the broken bone protruding through torn flesh. Because of his , he hadn’t noticed it right away.
Grimacing, Eric steadied himself and began to look for Malefica anyway. He needed her if he was going to treat this.
“Malefi—ah!”
He spotted her lying motionless not far away and hurried over.
“Miss Malefica! Wake up!”
“Ugh…”
Perhaps she had managed to cast a holy protection spell right before the fall. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to be as badly injured as he was. Eric exhaled in relief and gently shook her awake.
“My lord? …Ah! Y-your leg! Are you all right?”
“How could I be? It’s completely broken.”
Malefica blinked in confusion as she came to her senses, then gasped when she saw his leg—and the long trail of blood behind him.
It was a serious injury, one that would immobilize even a trained knight. Yet he had dragged himself this far without showing any sign of pain.
“…Doesn’t it hurt?”
“It’s tolerable.”
Malefica quickly gathered divine power in her hands, her face tight with worry as she began to heal him.
Warm, soft white light enveloped the wound, knitting flesh and bone back together. It looked peaceful from the outside—but the reality was far from it.
The process of forcing a shattered bone back into place was excruciating, a pain that would make most people faint.
I knew the young lord had a high pain tolerance, but… this much?
“Do you think the others are all right?”
She tried to focus on the healing, but couldn’t help asking, uneasy about the rest of their party.
“They should be fine. Whatever happened, they’re better off than we are. The floor collapse only affected this section. The Named monsters up there took Lillian’s spell head-on—they won’t be walking away unscathed.”
Eric’s tone was calm, almost unconcerned.
He wasn’t too worried—Leona was still up there.
He did feel a twinge of concern for Lillian and the Cardinal, who were likely unconscious after that blast. But they weren’t helpless. Even alone, Leona could hold her ground against two wounded Named-class enemies until help arrived.
Slap!
“All done! It’ll still hurt a bit, but you can move now. We need to get the Cardinal and escape before the Demon King or his monsters come swarming in. Once we’re outside—”
Rustle…
Before she could finish, the debris piled high to the ceiling began to tremble ominously.
“…You might want to keep that healing spell ready.”
“Yeah… at least we lightened the load above us, right?”
The shaking intensified. Eric stopped his attempt to climb back up and turned toward the unstable rubble.
Rumble… BOOOOM!
“W-waugh!”
As expected, the debris exploded outward—and someone burst through it.
Eric grimaced as Magnus emerged with a guttural roar, forcing him to draw his sword once more.
“Ugh… hurts! My face, my body—it burns, itches!”
Thud. Thud.
His flesh was blistered and half-melted, organs spilling from the gaps. He should’ve been dead already, but he was still moving, covering his wounds with one massive arm.
Sweat ran cold down Eric’s temple.
What a monster. A stubborn, relentless beast that refused to die.
“…No hostages left. No more holding back! DIE—ALL OF YOU!!”
Whrrr—!
Magnus’s gigantic claw swung toward him. Eric didn’t hesitate—he dove to the side.
CRAAASH!
“Ghk!”
His still-healing leg protested painfully. Even though Magnus’s attacks were slower due to his own injuries, dodging them was getting harder.
“My lord, are you all right? The bone isn’t fully mended yet—if you move like that—”
“I’ll manage. No— I have to. I can’t just stand here and get crushed.”
He’d hoped to simply stall for time; Magnus looked close to death anyway. But that was no longer an option.
He’d have to end this here, now.
Thud.
Eric planted his good leg and stomped hard. Pain shot up the injured one like lightning, but he ignored it.
If he hesitated, it wouldn’t be his leg snapping next—it’d be his neck.
Crack-crackle—!
“Huff… Huff. I’ll kill—huh?”
Magnus froze mid-sentence, blinking at the sight of his arm. It was trapped, immobilized in a column of thick ice climbing from the floor up his shoulder.
“My… my arm?!”
“Can’t move it, can you?”
The ice had surged up the broken pillar and swallowed his arm completely.
As the monster thrashed in panic, Eric limped forward, sword in hand.
“You said no more mercy? That makes two of us.”
There was no one else left to see.
Just him—and Malefica.
“Let’s finish this, then.”
He raised his sword.
“No more holding back. Named Hunt.”
Cough, cough!
The prison was filled with black smoke where the massive explosion had hit.
“What power… Was that spell really cast by one person?”
Ventos, who had been blown back by the shockwave, managed to regain his footing and stared in awe at the devastation.
“Miss Lillian’s magic is… special,” said Leona calmly. “She can match the combined firepower of an entire mage battalion. There’s a small drawback, of course—but with power like that, she’d be welcome anywhere.”
“A small drawback? What do you—ah.”
Following Leona’s gaze, Ventos spotted Lillian, collapsed and unconscious behind a shattered wall—alongside the Cardinal.
Mana exhaustion.
He’d never seen it before, but considering the scale of that spell, it wasn’t surprising.
“Lord Ventos, may I ask you for a favor?”
Leona’s voice came from within the thinning smoke.
“Please protect Miss Lillian and the Cardinal. Just for a short while.”
“That’s no problem, but… can you handle the rest? You and the hero alone?”
Protect them? That meant the Named monsters were still alive.
Ventos frowned. If that was true, shouldn’t Leona be going after her master instead of staying here?
What was she thinking—
“Grrr… Damn it! Damn it! What the hell is happening?! First a hole in my arm, then a fireball from nowhere!”
A guttural voice echoed through the smoke.
Ventos swallowed hard.
The Named was still alive—injured, yes, but very much capable of fighting.
“…Are you sure about this? We could go down and regroup—fight together like before.”
To survive that spell and still move was beyond reason. Maybe his massive body had absorbed most of the blast.
Ventos’s eyes darted toward the hulking shape of Longus standing opposite the exit.
“Carrying two unconscious people? Impossible. We’d get caught halfway,” Leona said flatly.
She glanced back at the unconscious Lillian and the Cardinal, then shook her head.
Ventos’s logic wasn’t wrong. If they could, she’d prefer to regroup.
The missing monster likely fell below with Eric—that much seemed certain.
If that one were still here, she might’ve considered it.
But this one—the one with the long arms—was different. Fast. Too fast.
Even faster than her.
“Then what do you suggest? The big one’s gone, isn’t he? That means the hero and the priest are down there alone with it! You can’t honestly think they’ll win. The hero may be extraordinary, but he’s still powerless—”
“They’ll win.”
Her answer was immediate. Firm.
Ventos blinked, pounding his chest in frustration.
Leona’s eyes never left the looming shape in the smoke.
“Because my lord,” she said quietly, conviction burning in her voice,
“has always done the impossible.”
