Chapter 1070

「Fran, can you pretend you didn’t see anything and just leave?」

「We don’t want to fight you. Please.」

「…Why do you have to kill the villagers?」

「Because――」

「We have no time for chatter, Prince! Girl, what have you done with Rayus!? I know it was you who attacked him just a while ago!」

「If you mean the Wind Demon, I beat him.」

「What! He may have been a mere boy granted a demon, but he should be very formidable in aerial combat… You must eliminated here, as a national enemy of Phyllius!」

The demon knight shouted while raising his spear, as Bune and Ronowe also readied themselves for combat. Despite being surrounded by three demons, Fran showed no signs of backing down.

「Fran, surrender already!」

「Please!」

「…Will you stop killing the villagers?」

「We… can’t do that.」

「Then I refuse.」

The moment Fran rejected Flut’s proposal, the demon knight started chanting magic. Though Flut and Satia were still hesitating, their demons dived into action.

「Die!」

（Fighting here will kill the villagers. We need to win before they can start!）

『Roger that! Urushi, you handle the two demons!』

（Grr!）

「Brilliant Lightning Rush, Sword God Transformation, Black Lightning Divine Claw!」

Fran charged ahead while activating her skills, accelerating so fast that she left afterimages and a burst of black lightning in her wake. Everyone else was frozen solid in her eyes.

Meanwhile, I also maxed my output to make full use of this chance.

『Arch-Sorcerer, Divine Energy Manipulation, Evil Conquest…!』

Mana and evil energy overflowed from within. I don’t feel the chills like I did previously, so I think I’m getting pretty accustomed to using evil energy. All of it was thoroughly infused into my blade.

The mixture of divine energy, evil energy, and black lightning gave off a frightening aura, so powerful that it was chipping away at my blade.

Though my durability fell at a tremendous pace, my power was the real deal.

It only took a single swing to disperse the demon knight’s flame spell. Then Fran closed in on him through the dancing sparks left behind.

「How――!」

「Haah!」

The demon knight widened his eyes, stunned at Fran’s ridiculous boost in strength. He managed to react and attempt a thrust with his spear, impressively, but such a spur-of-the-moment attack could not possibly hit us.

Because at that moment, we had already slashed diagonally across his chest.

Fran flew past the knight at a blinding speed, and a few moments later, his body split apart and fell to the ground in halves.

「I was… too careless…」

「Tewaz!」

Our perfect method of taking down demon knights: eliminate them before they can fully unleash the power of their demons. Well, actually pulling it off is incredibly difficult since the demon knights are still strong in their base state.

Talking was no longer an option. Flut froze after calling the name of the demon knight, while Fran dashed to her next target without pause.

Rather than attacking Flut and Satia directly, we went after the demons serving them.

（This one first!）

『Roger that, Ronowe first!』

（Nn!）

Fran went after Ronowe, the female demon who was closer to us.

Meanwhile, Urushi fired some weaker death poison spells at Flut and Satia to keep them busy. Bune protected them by using his body as a shield, while Ronowe blocked the spell after morphing her arms into long tentacles.

Upon seeing this, Fran decided that Ronowe was more troublesome if left unattended.

She instantly dove into melee range and slammed me into Ronowe’s legs. The demon was too tall for us to reach her torso at ground level.

Our perfect slash sliced straight through Ronowe’s legs, but then…

『What?』

「Cough!」

We never reached her! Our hit simply went right through Ronowe after she morphed her body into smoke! Moreover, purple dots started popping up on Fran’s face.

Poison! It seems Ronowe was capable of transforming her body into a poisonous mist. She must be the one responsible for poisoning the Raydoss soldiers we saw earlier.

What’s really terrifying was how she managed to inflict such potent poison through Fran’s high status resistance. Yet Fran barely even took a single breath of Ronowe’s mist.

To think her poison was that powerful… Well, it’s not too hard to take countermeasures once we know we’re up against poison. I can always absorb it with my Poison Control skill, or simply heal it with restoration magic. However, such only applies to Fran when she’s alone.

If Ronowe decided to slaughter all the villagers with her poison, I doubt I can heal them in time. This only raised her target priority.

But first things first, there’s something I need to try. I charged a thunder spell as much as possible before activating it.

My target was the magic stone in the center of the square, since it was clearly placed there for a reason. I landed a direct hit with a spell capable of knocking a dragon out of the sky.

But nothing happened. The magic stone wasn’t just super tough, but also protected by a magical barrier. I never expected it to survive completely unscathed.

「It’s useless. No one can break it.」

「Flut! Satia! What’s going on?」

「…Fran, I’m going to ask you one more time. Will you step aside?」

「I will not retreat.」

「…Satia, use your poison! I’ll hold Fran back in the meanwhile!」

「On it!」

So Flut intended to take on Fran with Bune while Satia killed the villagers with Ronowe’s poison. I can sense their firm determination to annihilate the villagers.

「Krgh! I won’t let you!」

「FWOOOOOH!」

Fran slashed at Ronowe multiple times, but she had already turned her whole body into a poisonous mist.

『Then how about this!』

「FWAAAAAAHHH!」

It seems her resistance to flame and thunder magic was reduced while in mist form. I blasted the mist with my spells, and Ronowe started screaming after she reappeared.

「Bune! Do it!」

『Fran, behind you!』

「UWOOORGH!」

Bune vanished before appearing behind Fran using the Shadow Shift skill. Fran managed to repel the giant demon’s scythe, but she was quickly blown backwards.

『He’s using telekinesis too? Watch out! This one’s pretty strong!』

（Roger!）

It seems Bune was capable of manipulating very powerful telekinesis. I hit him with telekinesis of my own after noticing that, but it was only capable of weakening his slightly.

「Ugah…」

「Ahh…」

Shit! Ronowe’s poison reached the villagers! I quickly spammed the antidote spell, and it seems I made it just in time.

「They’ve already been cured?」

Satia was astonished after noticing Fran’s instantaneous use of antidote spells. However, the villagers will die sooner or later unless we do something. Fine, you leave us with no choice!

『Urushi! Go after Satia, just don’t kill her! I’ll take Flut!』

（Woof!）

The only way to settle things quickly is to silence the summoners directly.