Karelia, who was protected by the magic barrier, regained her stance and fired a quick slash at me again.
　At the same time, Arte quickly chants a spell.

''All that is formidable is not different from what is false, and all that is false is not different from what is formidable. I am the one who knows the truth of the five elements. Spirit, lend me your power!

　From the tip of Arte's staff, a large amount of five colored bundles of light - red, blue, yellow, green and white - are released.
　It's an offensive magic that outputs a huge amount of magic power.

　The reason why I can use such a large amount of magic power is because Arte is an excellent sage, and I guess it's also strengthened by the sacrifices of the slaves who are descendants of the Demon King.

　I managed to catch the first blow from Karelia's azure treasure sword and the second blow from the vermilion treasure sword and retreated.
　However, in the next moment, Arte's attack magic strikes us.

　The first blow's bundle of red light was cut off by the treasure sword tetracord.
　The second attack is the same.　

　However, the next attack could not be prevented.
　Sophia quickly deployed her defensive magic and played back the next two colored light attacks.

　But the last attack of Arte penetrated and grazed my right arm.
　My arm is shaved and blood splattered.

　I managed not to scream, but I couldn't hide the twisting of my face in pain.
　Arte's attack magic has the effect of burning off the part of the attack that it passes through, in addition to its ability to kill by slashing.

　I looked at the surface of my burnt and seared right arm and smiled bitterly.
　It's a horrible injury, despite myself.

　Sophia hurriedly waved her wand from behind and chanted a spell.

'Heal this one!'

　Then the wound on my arm was repaired about 80% of the time.
　It's not as serious a wound as Lairen Remilia's, so with Sophia's power, I can heal what I can in an instant.

　However, it's difficult to completely heal with recovery magic alone.
　I swung my treasure sword with my right hand to catch Karelia's attack again, but to be honest, it was quite painful.

　As my movements have slowed slightly, Karelia swings two swords at me as if to further fold and corner me.
　That's where Arte's May rain-like magic attack overlaps.

　Thanks to the power of the treasure sword tetracord and Sophia's defense, I was able to block the magical attack, but this time I was unable to catch Karelia's slash.

　Karelia's vermillion treasure sword slices through my shoulder.
　Flesh was shaved off and bone seemed to be severed.

　I backed away, but blood was flowing like a river in front of me.
　I manage to hold only the sword.

'Heal this one!'

　Sophia cast a recovery spell again, but her voice was shaking as if she were crying.
　The wound on her shoulder had healed.
　I can still fight.

　Two or three times, the same thing happened again, and I was hurt, and each time Sophia cast a recovery spell.
　Gradually I receded.

　The farther the position of the sorcerer is from the target, the more the effect of the sorcery decreases proportionally, and conversely, the closer the sorcerer is to the target, the more proportionally the effect improves.

　So, if you're going to receive Sophia's strengthening and recovery magic, it's effective to stand somewhat close to Sophia.

　On the other hand, if the vanguard is near the sorcerer who is the rear guard, he might get the rear guard involved in an unexpected enemy attack, although it's not all good.

　As I was about to have my leg amputated by the fifth attack, Sophia threw a pleading voice at me from behind.

''If you don't do this, Solon-kun will die!　Let's give up. I will return to the Order.

You can't do that.

　For example, let's say that Arte and the others made a promise to guarantee the safety of me and Princess Filia if I surrender and hand over Sophia to them.
　That promise is not always kept.

　It is not unlikely that the promise will be reneged on, I will be killed and Filia will be taken away as a tool.
　I spoke to Sophia in an effortlessly calm tone.

'It's all right, Sophia. You need to trust me. I have a solution to the problem.

　Sophia responded briefly, "........yes.
　It's true that I'm crossing a dangerous bridge, but it's actually just as I planned before the fight.

　The biggest weakness of the duo of the twin swordsman Karelia and the wise man Arte is that their cooperation is not perfect.
　Although they happen to be working together on a mission, their personalities are different, their values are different, and their fighting styles are different.

　That's why I'm going to break off the cooperation between these two.

　I re-holstered my treasured sword at the upper level and took another step back.
　When Arte saw this, he sneered.

''Is running backwards the only thing you can do, senpai?　Totally, you're a useless person who can't even think of a way to fight properly.

　As a result of my retreat, Arte was now at a relative distance from me, and his voice sounded somewhat muffled.
　I raised my voice and asked back.

''Is it Arte like that, do you really think you can bring Sophia back this way?

'Yes. If I take you to the Order's headquarters, I'm sure the saint will wake up.

　Arte's voice was full of conviction.

　That's when Karelia's sword came at me.
　I dodged it and fired a counterattack sword against Karelia from the right side.

　I said.

'There is no way Sofia would allow someone to hurt her friends with violence like this. Besides, Sofia wants to quit the Order and live a peaceful life. If Arte cares about Sophia, he should give her what she wants.''

''No. Saint Saintess has been deceived by senior Solon. Saintess's true mission is to contribute to this country by accomplishing more feats as the strongest adventurer. Conquering the ruins as the leader of the knights is supposed to be the true happiness of the saintly woman. In order to achieve that, you should be beside me, the wise man, and it is necessary to cut down the unworthy.

　It was something I didn't agree with, and I'm sure Sophia herself would agree.
　But I guess this is the image of a saintly woman that Arute should have,

　Arte said with amusement.

''Well, the wasting of time is over!　Karelia, settle it!

　At the same time as Arte's words, Karelia's azure and vermilion slashes were repeated with tremendous speed.　
　I repeatedly retreated while dealing with them.

　And when I crossed a certain point, I flicked Karelia's sword back powerfully.

　Earlier, such a thing would have been impossible in terms of speed and power.
　It's a good thing that you're not the only one who can get away with it, because Arte's magical blessing has increased the speed and power of Karelia's own swordsmanship.

　But now it's different.

　I glanced at Arte, who was standing at the entrance side of the garden, and then at Karelia in front, who had moved quite a bit closer to the building.

　The distance between Arte and Karelia became too great to ignore.

　Karelia looked at her sword curiously and then huffed.
　Magical blessings become less effective as the distance between us increases.

　Each time Karelia was dragged forward by my retreat, the distance between Karelia and Arte opened up.
　Each time this happened, the effect of the strengthening magic that Arte put on Karelia decreased, which means that before long they were pulled apart to zero.

　The reason I was daring to show my predicament in an exaggerated way was so that they wouldn't detect my true intentions of retreating.

　It was the fault of Arte and Karelia, who hadn't been working well together.
　I'm not going to be able to get a good idea of what I'm talking about. Karelia couldn't support it and let the sword fall from her hand.

　I didn't want to miss this opportunity, so I turned to Saint Sophia and gave her a signal.

　As Sophia nodded, her beautiful golden hair swayed.
　Then Sophia chanted in a beautifully clear voice.

''Accelerate this one!''

　It's an easy acceleration spell that I can use without chanting.
　But what happens when a saint puts all her energy into it?

　I took a big step forward.

　In the next moment, I was standing in front of Arte.
　I swung the treasure sword Tetracord at Arte.

　Sage Arte's beautiful black eyes were wide with fear.

'It's over.'

　I swung my sword down at Arte.
　At about the same moment, I saw that Arte squeezed his eyes shut.

　He must have thought I was going to kill him.
　But I'm not like Arte.

　The Treasure Sword Tetracord cut both sides of Arte's willow staff.