Rather than the footsteps of a demon, it sounded distinct, as if to announce its purpose in surrounding the young girls. It was immediately recognizable as a bipedal gait, the sound of human footsteps.
　The amount of demons, which could be called a horde, surrounded the only two, that is, the little girl who was seriously injured. All weapons are raised at once with a heavy sound, without even the slightest hesitation as to who will be the one to strike the blow.

　There is no mercy for demons, and no mage would expect it.
　The two of them, Rhea and Mea, were not so ignorant of the outside world that they would beg for their lives to the point of begging for their lives to someone who couldn't understand their language. Weak and strong, the word was enough for the two of them to describe the outside world.

　No matter what way they were killed, it would still be death.
　These are the demons that have increased so much, they will just swing the weapons in their hands. Violently, violently........

　Leah did not cry.
　Mea did not cry.
　Because that is the natural order and rule. They had killed an uncountable amount of demons themselves. So even if they are demons, they have the right to kill them. Even if it is a miserable and torturous method, the two of you have no right to argue about it.
　That's because we decided that was the rule.

　It's good for you and not for them. Such reasoning is not a play on words, it's pure truth.

　So in the end, both Rhea and Mea accepted death. They accepted it willingly.
　It was just a matter of fighting and resisting, and at the end of it, it was decided to live and die.

　It was just a normal occurrence for the two men who had survived in the outside world. The strong eat the weak.

　But," said Rhea's mouth quivering.
　But, and Mea's mouth trembles.

(If possible, I would have liked to spend more time with Mea in that place, where there were more and more people.)
(I wish I could have played more with Rhea in that place where it was all new and fun.)

　A small, tiny reminder brought tears to the corners of their eyes.
　The world was a big place. The world is a big place, and life in the outside world has taken up most of their lives. Life in the inner city is always fresh and surprising. Each day is a long, endless tick of time, which is stored in a drawer of the mind as an important memory.

　Even a single conversation with a person is always new.
　I spent my days in a state of excitement, chewing on each day, more today than yesterday, more tomorrow than today.
　So I wanted to cross tomorrow again if I could. When I closed my eyelids and opened them, the day would begin like the sun rising. A long day, a long year, a glorious day that would last forever, too many glorious days to count on the fingers of both hands.

　I'm afraid to open my now-closed eyelids, afraid to open them, afraid to know that tomorrow will never come again.
　So beside me, we feel each other's warmth, Rhea's and Rhea's.

　Dreaming of the day when the eyelids open again.
　Let's start the day again, feeling the dazzle of sunshine.



　But Rhea learned that the day would never begin, much less end.
　Every cell in her body shuddered in fear, a feeling she hadn't felt even before death.

　Death stroked his back, and Rhea meditated with even more force. This time, it seemed as if she could endure the looming presence.

　Then suddenly a voice, a sound that was devoid of any emotion, reached the ears of the two men.

'You're in my way.'

　A black haze enveloped the passage. Call it erosion, I suppose you could call it erosion, but the mithril light vanished from the walls and only darkness filled the passage.
　Behind him, there was a series of strange and frightening signs. It was an odd presence. There was no threat, and it could only be interpreted that way, as if the animal had given up its life to accept its own predation.

　The weak are being overrun by the strong.
　So the scene was simple and straightforward, no need to think about it. Just the emergence of a further strong man, Rare and Mea, and the big man's demon, the moment when they both became weak in common.

　Rhea had already stopped meditating, for the voice she heard was unmistakably that of a human. However, it was very different from the magical power emitted by humans. So Rhea continued to hold Mea in her arms, her small body still tensing up.
　The unblocked eyelids showed Rhea a half-filled sight.

　Rhea's eyes widened in astonishment, and the impossible sight left her speechless.
　A sight worthy of being called a violation. Countless snakes with only their black foggy mouths open ran through the passage and devoured the big man's demons. Although its form as an actual form is very weak, it easily devours the demon's flesh. And it sucked all the life of magic from its body.

　This was the first time Rhea felt like she had seen life.
　Something black and stagnant was being sucked out of the big man. Not even a piece of flesh was left behind, turning into dust in an instant. Resistance with weapons is completely pointless against the fog. Rather, even the weapons are disintegrated and eaten.
　The scene was a familiar one for Rhea and Mair.

　It is still bizarre, but what they are doing is the same.
　It was just like the scene of hungry animals crowding together to fight for their prey.

　So I guess this is the natural order of things. If there is something to eat, there is something to be eaten.
　It is perfectly natural. Until now, humans have only been at the top of nature's ecological pyramid, and now they are just one level below. It's just that it's now a demon that eats humans.

　To be more precise, the current situation is that humans and demons are competing for the position in the pyramid. It's a bit of a bad fight, though.
　Then what Rhea is seeing now............

　This time a demon is being eaten. Whatever he understood of this scene, Rhea could only be blindsided by it.

　For a moment, the brunt of the predation turned to the two of them.
　Realizing that Rhea was a lowly race on the side of the devoured, she didn't show any futile resistance. Besides, it was too late now.
　Now that further higher-ups have appeared, there's no intention of resistance to the heavily wounded Mea and Rare, who has quit fighting.

　However, a faint surprise "eh" and a faint surprise was wooded within Rhea. The black snake that had been greedily devouring in front of Rhea's eyes as she surrendered to the process opened its mouth slightly, but as if it had lost interest, it changed its predatory target and swam through the air at a terrific speed.

　Immediately after that.
　The black fog had finished eating all the big man's demons, and his long torso melted and disappeared as the fog cleared.

''There you are.''
"--!　

　As soon as he fired, Rhea's shoulders relaxed and shedding large tears. The thread of tension was broken, but most of all........



　That cry that echoed in the ears built a deep crease between Ars's eyebrows as he called the first place. I can't spare the time to give a d*mn to Ars, who wants to prioritize Felinella, who is holding in both hands.
　But I can't possibly overlook it. There are priorities, but even so, this rescue operation includes the Rare Mare sisters.
　The complaining to Fanon, who is supposed to be in charge of this tier, is starting to creep in, but it's more than that.

'That's quite a lot of blood........don't die.
Please help us, please help us, number one.

　He cries to me and grabs me by my tattered trousers as I cling to him.
　We know from the earlier meeting that these two men, both of whom can be considered close associates of Head Marshal Balmes and Cyan, are important to the young head of state.
　Ars, who wants to put Felinella first, will not think anything of the two men dying as they are.
　It's not an evil thing to put the lives you want to save first.

　Even if it was too late, Ars would choose to do so of his own volition. There is no end to what you saved because you were asked for help.

　Ars turns his cold gaze to Mere. It irritated him that he was even stopping his feet in this way.
　 These two people are also the members who have been selected for the mission of investigating the mineral deposits this time. Lives that need to be saved in the grand scheme of things.

　In fact, the potential of these women is outstanding compared to their peers.
　With one look at Felinella's peaceful face, Ars cowered his shoulders.

''Loki, simple healing magic...''

　Is that word, which is hardly expected, a pose that took the body of a half-finished hand?

　After being called out as such, the exhausted Loki somehow returns it. She too, in terms of the extent of her injuries, must be examined by a healing magician immediately. She still has enough strength left to be able to take some strain, but it's enough to force her to use Ars's [Gura Eater] to take care of the demons.

　Loki has a blue face and makes a difficult expression when he sees Mea's condition.

''I've already used it up. All we have now is.....the used up pieces of paper.''

　The simple healing magic is that anyone can use healing magic by inscribing a magic formula on a specially made piece of paper or something else. Its effect is not expected to be great, but it promotes self-healing to the extent that you can move, like Loki in this case.
　And for simple healing magic, once it's used up, the inscribed magic formula disappears.

　Loki showed Ars the piece of paper he used on himself, but when she looked at it, there was nothing left there that looked like a magic formula.

'That's fine. It should still be useful enough. However, it's only for a minute or two, but you're in luck. Loki, we need to stop the bleeding first.
Oh, thank you very much.
Take care of it!　I'll help you as much as I can. But don't hold a grudge on me when I die.

　With a stern look on her face, Rhea gave one big nod. Rhea also met with Felinella before the start of the mission, so she realized at a glance that something was wrong with her.
　Naturally, Ars had a good point, and as Rhea, she couldn't have been more helpful just to lend a hand.


　Ars put Felinella down once and joined Mea in tending to her, telling her to wait a bit.
　Given the amount of blood loss, we have to force our way out of the interior of this deposit. Even if we ran as fast as we could, our chances of survival were slim. The survival rate should be lower than Ars's expectations.

　Not even one or two.
　All three of them finished stopping Mea's bleeding with their bloody hands and were only able to give minimal treatment to the protruding bones. The three of them, who had no knowledge of the situation, couldn't do anything unnecessary.
　Right now, we have to control the bleeding. Focus on that, and Loki will take the lead in administering first aid.

　There's not much we can do, and now we have to get out of the deposit as soon as possible.

'Don't add to the hassle,'

　I can't even spare the time to preach to Rhea here because it's the outside world. But I was going to leave her there when I died.
　So, I'm going to do everything I can to get to the outside.
　As long as I can get out, as long as I can get out, as long as I can get out alive, that's all that matters.
　Because in the outside base, the highest-ranked healing magician known to Ars is waiting for the outside base.

　He borrows Leah's clothes and straps Mea to Ars's back. There's no time to worry about the shaking. Of the three of them, Ars is the one who can point out the outside before anyone else.
　I have no choice but to ask Loki and Rhea to follow me to my death. Even if we can't leave them behind, we need to hurry.

(Notice the quicksand.)

　I spat b*tc*ily to the single mage in charge of this hierarchy, because I need her help now.

'Let's go, if you can't follow me, I'll leave you behind. You're going to help me, right?　Okay, I'll be out of here in three minutes.

　I can't even spare the time to leave the demon alone. In an instant, I'm going to eat it with 【Gras Eater】 or aim outside even if I ignore it.