It is a frighteningly huge bird.
　It must be two hundred meters long from one end of its wings to the other.
　It's so big that it's hard to believe it's flying in the sky.

　The sun is completely hidden from view, but the glittering, blazing behemoth emits a dazzling light.
　Every time it flapped its wings, an intense hot wind descended, but combined with the heat of the magma, it was now a scorching hell around it.

　Phoenix.
　It was a representative of a mythical grade demon.

''A........ningen, huh? I didn't expect someone to be able to set foot in a place like this.''

　Phoenix looks down at us as he soars leisurely through the air.

'And you guys are........Behemoth and Leviathan?'
'Yoo-hoo!　It's been a while!
"Hm.

　Livy waved her hand casually and Befi nodded with her usual blank expression.

''How rare it is to come to me. It's also the two bodies together. .........I remember that you two were not as close as dogs and monkeys.
Well. But we're in a truce right now!
I don't hate you. I don't hate you. It's just that he came at me.
Well, I guess that makes me look like a pain in the ass!
That's right.
'I've changed my mind!　It's right here and now!

　Without regard to the two bodies arguing with each other in this manner, Phoenix asks, "So what do you want to do with me?

I'm sure you'll be able to tell me what to do.
I'm the one who needs to be here.
"What?

　So I interrupted, and Phoenix cleared his throat in surprise.

'What the hell does Ningen want?'
Long story short, I'm here to make you a squire.
"Am I your servant?

　Phoenix's red eyes narrowed.

''Don't tell me you've turned those two bodies into squires?''
You're very perceptive and helpful. You're right.
"....What kind of trick did a Ningen use to turn a mythical demon into a servant?
I just had to get you in an honest-to-goodness training session.

　I'm a demon trainer now, you know.

No. No, I was coerced into submission.
I can't believe I'm going to get my ass... uh, I just remembered it and it's making me itchy...

　I thought I heard a light accusation from behind me.

''I see, it seems that they are not ordinary ningen. But if you put me together with those two bodies over there, you're going to get hurt, aren't you?''
Don't worry about it. I'll have you on board in no time.
"...don't get too arrogant, my dear Ningen.

　The Phoenix flapped its wings wide.
　Then countless flaming arrows were released from it.

　Super high heat flame arrows that decreased in blessings just by snatching them.
　If they were to fall in large quantities like rain, it would be difficult to avoid them.
　There seems to be no time to strike them away with a sword.

"'Divine Legs Tong'.

　Then instead of avoiding every single raindrop, you can duck it all.
　I instantly retreated to a place a few dozen meters away from the spot.

''It's ... hot.''
Hey, hey, hey!　Don't put us in the middle of this!

　Befi and the others, who got a decent rain of flames instead of me, are protesting.
　Although they're feverish, they don't seem to be able to get a single burn from this level of fire.

''No, no, no, no, I really want to give you a break!

　Matty was using his palm size to desperately scramble away from the arrows.

''........When did you move there?''

　When the Phoenix realizes that I ducked, it fires a flaming arrow at me.
　But as I said, I dodged the attack by using my own divine footwork.

I'm sure you're not the only one with speed. I'm sure you're not going to be able to make me follow you on the ground.
How about this?

　I kicked the ground and flew with my green magic.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to find a way to make it work. I'm not a fan of the idea. You are foolish to challenge my territory.

　The Phoenix gained more altitude.
　I picked up speed and followed them.
　But the distance wasn't getting any closer.

　The Phoenix fired another flaming arrow at me.

'If I had just crawled to the ground, I could have avoided it.... Turn to ashes, ningen.''
"God's Foot Street.
"What?

　I used the Divine Legs Pass in the air.
　I used the air mass created by green magic as a foothold to instantly move and avoid the hail of arrows.

　That was a combination of green magic and divine footwork.

　I learned how to use the air mass as a foothold to accelerate in the air when I was in the magic city.
　But I've been practicing it in secret, trying to apply it to my "divine footwork".

In the case of the divine foot passage, the impact is too strong, so unless it's a condensed mass of air, it will easily be destroyed and not become a foothold.
　It was quite difficult to adjust that area, but it looks like we managed to make it a reality.

　I closed the distance between me and the Phoenix in one fell swoop with my "divine foot passage" in the air.

"Foolishly........you're surpassing my speed...?

　To the astonished Phoenix, I finally fleshed out into sword room.

Heat.....

　I unintentionally flipped over and regained my distance.

　Hmm, apparently that body, it seems that it's emitting a higher heat than I thought.
　Even if you use blue magic to block the heat, your body is likely to melt just by getting in between.

　In this case, you can't use the strategy of attacking from inside the body like in the past.

''.......It's useless, Ningen. You can't be a good friend to me, and I admire your ability to surprise me. But no matter how hard I try, you'll never be able to defeat me. Your fragile body cannot even get any closer.
We don't need to get close to them if they're just going to attack us.

　I'm going to perform a sky-slash.

Huh!

　A slash that ignored the distance sliced through a part of Phoenix's body.
　Flaming wings scattered in four directions like fireworks.

　I fired a series of "kazora-slash" attacks.

''Gunnu!''

　Is it working?
　Behemoth, of course, may have less defense and durability than Leviathan.

　With each slash, the flames that covered his body gradually decreased.
　I noticed that my body had shrunk by more than one round.

''Mm?''

　What did he think at that time, Phoenix jumped into the magma by himself.

''.........Hmmm, it's just as expected of a phoenix.

　When he emerged from the magma again, he was back to his original burning form.