A nightmare flashed through his mind.
On the day the dark mage attacked the village, Darren’s mother had shielded him, only for her back to be pierced through, leading her to an end she had never wanted.
In truth, Darren did not remember the events of that day in detail.
It was not because he wanted to forget them as quickly as possible, but because they had happened suddenly while he was asleep before dawn.
His mother had been the only one inside the house.
His father had not been there.
Later, he learned that his father had died while fighting the dark mage, but at the time, Darren had still been half-asleep and dazed, so everything had only felt unfamiliar and frightening.
“Darren, hurry inside! Hurry!!”
As if forcibly awakening his vacant mind, Letra pushed Darren into the house.
She had realized it early on.
She had realized what sort of magic had been cast on Darren’s mother.
“Everyone, hurry and run inside your houses! You must absolutely not come outside!!”
Letra shouted loudly.
Without any time to grasp the situation, all the villagers who had come outside fled into their homes.
Ritra merely watched them in silence.
As though she had no interest in anyone else, she stared fixedly at only one place.
‘Why is she looking here……?’
A chilling murderous intent soaked his spine.
Even this village had dozens of houses, yet she was looking at this one as if she had come here specifically for it.
Was it because the only survivor was inside this house?
There was too little information.
Letra desperately suppressed the anger rising inside her and took her stance.
‘For now, I should focus only on dealing with that thing…….’
Her heart was already in turmoil because her own older sister had died so suddenly.
She had not even finished settling her feelings, and Darren was right in front of her. Yet someone had committed an act that stabbed the hearts of the bereaved once again without the slightest hesitation.
This was why all dark mages had to die.
Letra distorted her face savagely, slowly raised her cupped palm, and swung it roughly through the air.
It was undoubtedly some sort of stance.
The instant Ritra sensed that instinctively and lowered her upper body,
WHOOSH!!
A massive tree, torn out by the roots, grazed just above her head.
‘Without even seeing it?!’
Letra’s expression twisted sharply. Then the tree that had sliced helplessly through empty air rose quickly and high into the sky.
A dark shadow formed on the ground where the rain had stopped.
When Ritra lightly raised her gaze upward, the tree that had risen into the sky came crashing down, aiming precisely for the crown of her head.
CRACK!!
Another sound followed.
A tree right beside her tore itself up by the roots, floated into the air, and swung at her fiercely like a sword.
It was a double attack with no blind spot.
Without hesitation, Letra crossed both arms in an X.
At the same time, the tree that had been descending toward the crown of Ritra’s head suddenly flipped lengthwise.
The two trees crossed in similar trajectories, colliding with each other.
BOOOOM!
A heavy roar echoed through the village.
The sensation in her hands was unmistakable.
And yet, for some reason, Letra could not relax her expression.
That was no longer her older sister.
Balaid was a dark magic spell that warped the very nature of a human being.
Unlike Atain, which directly brainwashed the brain, it granted autonomous will, but it left almost none of a person’s intelligence intact.
It created an emotionless monster loyal only to its own instincts.
Among dark mages, it was also called Demonic Dark Magic.
Because it could transform even an ordinary person with no power into something on an entirely different level, one could be overwhelmed instead if one let one’s guard down for even an instant.
Ritra had no mana.
Letra had hoped she could subdue her relatively easily because she could not use magic, but reality was not so simple after all.
CRACK! WHOOOOSH!!!
Ritra caught the trees that had attacked from either side as if gripping them with one hand each, then hurled them violently like spears.
Their speed was far greater than when Letra had controlled them with levitation magic.
Goosebumps rose across Letra’s entire body. She hurriedly used levitation magic to alter the trajectories of the trees flying toward her.
KABOOOM!!
The two trees swept across the empty ground and collapsed helplessly.
An opening was exposed.
With a single kick off the ground, Ritra closed the distance to Letra in an instant.
Her speed was too great for the eye to follow. Letra’s pupils shook violently.
‘I have to protect myself……!’
By the time she thought that, it was already too late.
Before she could raise her arms to defend herself, Ritra drove a fist into Letra’s temple and sent her flying backward.
BOOM!!!
Letra’s body smashed through the front door of the house where Darren was hiding and rolled inside.
The startled house owner and his wife flinched violently.
Darren hurriedly ran to Letra, who had collapsed with a faint groan.
“Auntie……!!”
“No, stay away!”
Letra pushed Darren aside with her arm.
The place where the fist had struck her throbbed. Perhaps a bone had broken, because every time she moved her jaw, an intense pain flared.
“…….”
Ritra glared fiercely at Rud, who stood there without a single change in his expression.
‘Balaid…… Was it set to activate automatically when Heros was released?’
It was his own fault for not properly checking each corpse one by one when he buried them.
Ordinarily, he would have joined in immediately.
But the existence of the mage before his eyes put a brake on his actions.
There were two paths for mages.
They could enter the PMI, exercise public authority, and capture criminals, or they could enter the Magic Association and live for the public benefit of the citizens.
Both were civil servants.
Even so, members of the Association did not have the right to arrest people, but the Association also considered dealing with dark mages a form of public service.
In other words,
The moment Rud used lifespan here and was exposed as a dark mage, Letra would become one more enemy to him.
“Excuse me.”
Letra struggled to raise her fallen body and spoke to Rud.
“I am sorry to say this when we have only just met, but please take the house owner and Darren and run from here quickly. I will do something about that thing.”
“Auntie, what are you saying? It would be better to fight together……!”
“Quickly!”
As though she did not hear Darren’s words, Letra shouted loudly.
Perhaps Ritra took that as a signal meant for her, because she thrust her fist sharply toward Rud.
WHOOSH,
Ritra’s fist abruptly veered in another direction.
Letra had used levitation magic to twist its trajectory.
“Mom……?”
Even at the word Darren unconsciously let slip, Ritra did not give him the slightest glance.
There was no time to speak to her again.
While maintaining the levitation magic, Letra threw Ritra outside as if tossing a ball.
BOOOOM!!!
Ritra slammed her back hard against the ground and bounced up.
If she had been an ordinary person, her ribs would have broken long ago, but Ritra calmly adjusted her stance as if nothing had happened.
‘Damn it. She is stronger than I expected.’
Letra clicked her tongue sharply.
As she was now, this was an opponent she could not possibly handle.
It would have been good if even a little support arrived, but this was a village deep in the mountains.
Even if she contacted someone, they would be late. There were no mages living nearby either.
Letra thought of the man who had been standing beside Darren, but soon shook her head.
Judging by the fact that he was only watching without using magic, he was definitely an ordinary person.
‘I have no choice but to do this myself!’
The reality that she had to kill her dead older sister with her own hands made her chest tighten.
However, it was also a foregone conclusion that if she did not do it, this village could suffer even greater damage.
Letra forcibly shook off her hesitation, formed a bright-blue mass of mana in her palm, and charged at Ritra.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!!
Thunderous roars that threatened to burst the eardrums rang through the sky one after another.
Letra was pressuring Ritra with levitation magic and Magic Cannon Magic, but even that was not enough; none of her attacks landed at all.
Ritra was practically playing with her. As if mocking Letra, Ritra lightly avoided her attacks and struck back.
“Aah……!”
Letra let out a short scream and flew across the ground as if scraping over it.
At this rate, she would die.
Darren could not lose his aunt after losing his mother.
But Darren knew all too well that even if he stepped forward here, he would not be able to do anything.
Ritra was under a spell right now. Even if he spoke to her, she was certain to ignore him, just as she had earlier.
If only he could at least release that spell, this would not have happened.
“Hurry, let us go. If we stay here, we will only get in the way.”
Rud spoke coldly and pulled Darren’s stiff, frozen arm.
He had no obligation to help that woman.
Moreover, he was a secret police officer.
His identity had to remain hidden no matter what, so if he rashly helped because of unnecessary emotion, it might someday return as a major obstacle to him.
“Let us go.”
Rud pulled with force on Darren’s arm, which remained unmoving as if roots had grown from it into the floor.
Even so, Darren continued to stiffen his body and resist. Then, suddenly, he looked up at Rud with desperate eyes and clung to his trousers.
“Brother, please save my aunt! If this keeps up, she really might die!!”
“Me?”
Rud spoke, slightly flustered. Darren appealed to him sincerely and cried out.
“I am sorry I spoke rudely to you earlier. I will apologize for breaking the vase because I was angry too. So please, save my aunt. I will repay this debt when I grow up……!!!”
Darren did not know that Rud was a dark mage.
He had to ignore him.
Rud repeated the teachings he had received from Gared over and over in his mind.
―When you must choose between your duty as a secret police officer and your duty as a human being, you must always choose your duty as a secret police officer.
Because Rud knew how insane it was to give public authority to a dark mage, the words struck him deeply.
Rud closed his eyes.
This had all happened because of him.
He wanted to help at once.
But Rud knew far too well how much hardship Gared had gone through to get him into the police.
“I am sorry, but even if I went, I would not be of any help.”
“It is all right. It is all right, so……!”
Rud tried to coldly pull his hand away, but Darren clung on stubbornly.
As Rud bit his lip hard and stood at a crossroads of hesitation, a chilling murderous intent, like a blade driven into his spine, surged toward his heart.
Darren seemed to feel the same thing, because he looked in the same direction.
Ritra was staring fixedly at Rud.
Letra, who had been fighting her only moments ago, was nowhere to be seen.
“Auntie……?”
Letra’s lifespan had sharply decreased. She was not in sight, so Rud could not tell what state she was in, but if she was left like that, her life would be in danger.
“N-no.”
Darren muttered in a trembling voice.
Rud gripped Darren’s arm tightly so he could not move.
If Darren lost his reason and rushed at Ritra, the situation would become irreversible.
But Darren impulsively dashed out of the house as if none of that mattered.
“Darren?!”
“What are you doing? Hurry back!!”
Darren did not seem to hear any voice now.
He only stared straight ahead and shouted with all his strength.
“Mom, please stop!!”
Fortunately, however, Ritra seemed to have no interest in Darren.
The obstacle had disappeared.
As if everything until now had only been a warm-up, Ritra swiftly brushed past Darren’s side.
An artificial wind cut across his skin. By the time he came to his senses, she had already closed the distance to Rud.
Rud had entered her range.
Without the slightest hesitation, Ritra savagely thrust out her tightly clenched fist.
WHAM!!