“Did reaching Master rank make you feel special?” I asked, pressing my boot harder against his windpipe. “Hmm?”

“Ugh... you bastard...!”

“Such pathetic struggling. You look like a goblin drowning in sewage.”

Venom thrashed beneath me, desperate to break free, but his efforts were laughably lacking against my strength.

“Why... are you... still alive?!” he choked out, white foam bubbling from his lips.

I gazed down at him with detached interest. “Why? Funny that you ask.”

“Guh—!”

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m alive because I killed all the monsters.”

Thwack!

An arrow punched through his arm.

“GAAAAHHH!”

His scream echoed across the twisted landscape.

He’d been attempting to channel his Aura when the arrow struck. Now that power flickered and guttered like a candle in the wind.

Of course, given time, he might recover enough to use it again.

I had no intention of allowing that.

“I have a general understanding of who instigated this conspiracy and who merely followed orders,” I said to the man writhing in the dirt. “However, I don’t intend to punish everyone involved. I’d hate to waste time hunting down every last traitor. However...”

I turned my head slowly toward Paul, the architect of this entire scheme.

If I had my way, I’d drive an arrow through his throat this very moment. The others needed to remain alive as bait for what lay ahead in the Demonic Realm… but he was different. He was expendable.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t access my Aura at the moment, and numbers still mattered in this cursed place. Besides, this wretch beneath my boot would serve nicely as an example to the others.

For now, one death will suffice.

Paul. When your usefulness ends, I’ll let you taste true fear before you die.

My boot ground down against Venom’s throat as I continued. “This one, however, must die. For the crime of treason against his commanding officer.”

“Guhh... let... go...!” Venom wheezed, his hands patting weakly against my foot in a desperate bid for mercy.

I could see him trying to buy time, hoping his Aura would return.

“I’d rather not waste any more time.”

I retrieved an arrow and drove it into his neck.

A choked gurgle escaped his throat.

Blood streamed from the wound as Venom choked and convulsed. “Help... me...”

He reached out toward the other knights, pleading with eyes that bulged from their sockets.

Not a single man moved to aid him. They wouldn’t even meet his gaze, terrified that my attention might fall on them next.

Venom began to crawl, dragging himself across the ground toward Paul with the determination of the dying.

“Uh... uhh...” A wet, gurgling sound escaped his throat as his movements grew increasingly faint. He stretched one trembling hand toward his fellow conspirator.

Paul’s jaw tightened. He quickly turned away, refusing to acknowledge the dying man’s plea.

“My, my... it seems no one will help you,” I murmured, following Venom’s pathetic progress across the dirt.

Neither his own comrades—men who had shared decades of hardship with him—nor the northern knights who had joined his conspiracy would lift a finger to save him. 

Imagine the disappointment.

“Don’t worry,” I said gently. “Soon, you won’t be thinking of such things at all.”

I drew my dagger and opened his throat in one clean motion.

Like a marionette with severed strings, Venom went limp and still.

“There.” I exhaled slowly and ran a blood-stained hand through my hair. “The punishment is complete. We move out. Lea, compose yourself and gather your Aura.”

“I understand, Louis,” she replied, though her voice carried a dangerous chill. “If the choice were mine, I’d kill every last one of them... but since this is what you want.”

The shock had cut deep.

And why shouldn’t it? It would be stranger if she remained unaffected after such betrayal.

I made a mental note to monitor her condition closely.

“Let’s go,” I said. “We shouldn’t keep His Grace waiting.”

A suffocating tension settled over the rescue party as we resumed our march.

* * *

Damn it all, Paul thought, his eyes sliding furtively toward Louis, who walked ahead of the group.

Not a single scratch marred Louis’s body, but the blood matted in his dark hair induced a primal kind of terror. It was like a living promise that Paul, too, could die by those same hands.

Yet attacking was impossible. Not with everyone watching.

If only Lancelot died!

Frankly? Paul could have accepted almost anything else if Lancelot had perished in the ambush. He could have smiled and nodded through Louis Berg surviving and Venom dying in this nightmare.

Because his own survival, while Lancelot died, would have meant he’d achieved everything he wanted.

But apparently, the world refused to bend so easily to his will.

Why is that rat still breathing?

There was Lancelot, walking beside Louis and chattering away like nothing had happened.

The rest of them felt as though they were treading on cracking ice, yet he alone babbled on cheerfully. The man had to be insane.

That fucker Louis isn’t even responding. Why does he keep talking?

Paul clenched his fists until his knuckles went white, his face twisting into a scowl. 

He wanted to lash out, but couldn’t. After all...

“Be ready,” came a cold voice from behind them. “When we return, you will all answer for this incident.”

The Commander of the Praha Guard walked behind them, his eyes boring into their backs like daggers. It was impossible to even speak out of turn, let alone attempt anything foolish.

Shit. Surely he doesn’t know?

Paul’s eyes darted nervously.

He’d swallowed the note detailing their plan, and no other evidence existed. Moreover, Venom had been carrying the vial of monster lures and aphrodisiacs when he died.

There was no logical reason for suspicion to fall on him.

Yet anxiety gnawed at him like acid. Though Louis had declared he would only execute Venom, only a fool would believe that promise.

Louis’s reputation made relaxation impossible. The story of how he’d once killed three knights simply for laying hands on his subordinates was legendary throughout the North.

I have to run.

Paul’s resolve crystallized. If he remained, death could come at any moment. The same would be true even after returning home. Rather than live every moment in terror, it was better to abandon his knighthood and flee.

I can start fresh on the imperial frontier. With my skill, I could easily become a knight-commander in some remote territory.

The plan was perfectly feasible for a high-level Aura Expert.

Just as Paul began mapping out his escape, his mind settling on this course...

“We’ve arrived,” Louis murmured, coming to a halt.

They stood in completely empty space.

How could he claim they’d arrived when all they saw was the typical desolate landscape of the Demonic Realm?

For a moment, Paul wondered if he was losing his sanity. He glanced around at the others.

Sure enough, they stood in confused silence, their eyes searching the barren surroundings.

“Here?” Lancelot asked Louis, disbelief plain in his voice.

No rational person would believe the Grand Duke was waiting in this empty wasteland.

“Is there... something here that I’m missing?”

Lancelot muttered to himself while everyone, Paul included, waited for Louis to explain.

Louis took a slow step forward into the vacant area.

Pzzt—

The empty clearing began to shimmer and distort around Louis’s advancing form.

“What the...?” Lancelot blinked, confusion coloring his voice.

The others reacted similarly, standing slack-jawed in shock.

“What in the world...?”

The scenery had transformed completely.

Gone was the jungle of poisonous weeds reeking of stagnant death. In its place, a hidden paradise bloomed where Louis had stepped, thick with the scent of camellias and vibrant life.

Though traces of the Demonic Realm’s oppressive gloom remained, this was a world apart, a sanctuary where living things could flourish.

In the center, fish swam in crystal-clear water.

For anyone familiar with the Demonic Realm, the sight was nothing short of miraculous. As the knights stared in stunned silence...

“Did I not say we had arrived?” Louis remarked casually.

“You’re telling us His Grace the Grand Duke is here?” the commander asked.

“That’s right. And the Divine Archer is likely with him.”

“The Divine Archer?” the commander repeated with a wry laugh, as if asking why such a legendary figure would be in this forsaken place. “Why would he be...?”

“You can ask him yourself.”

“I beg your pardon?”

But Louis ignored the question, his gaze fixed ahead as he spoke softly. “He’s right there, watching us.”

What is he talking about?

Paul instinctively followed his gaze. There was nothing visible.

Absolutely noth—

Wait.

Ice flooded Paul’s veins. As a high-level Aura Expert, his senses were more refined than most.

He could feel it now—something was indeed there. An unseen presence moved slowly toward them through the paradise.

Paul swallowed hard.

The voice of a weathered old man echoed through the hidden sanctuary.

“Who are you?”

Though spoken no louder than a whisper, it boomed like thunder in their ears.

Every fiber of Paul’s being screamed at him to flee this place immediately. His body trembled like a leaf in a hurricane.

Only then did understanding crash over him like a wave.

The Divine Archer!

One of only three Grand Masters alive. The man who had pioneered entirely new schools of archery. The legendary bowman said to have journeyed from the distant Eastern Continent itself.

“I gave no permission for anyone to enter this place,” the archer said, his footsteps measured as he approached through the sanctuary.

The entire rescue party held their breath, transfixed.

He stopped directly before them. Or rather, directly before Louis Berg.

The Divine Archer’s weathered features creased into a frown.

“And who are you?” he asked slowly.

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