“Emori…”

  “Fortis! Are you alright?” Emori ran to my side, kneeling down and helping me sit back up. She noticed me not moving.

  “Boost…” I whispered. She nodded and rested my back on the wall.

  “Fortisbel!”

  “Forti!”

  Yells came from my left. I turned around to find the rest of the party there. Maya immediately turned to my right, brandishing her musket and firing off a shot.

  After that, she threw the musket and its ammo to Solicea.

  “I'll keep him occupied.” With absolutely zero regard for everyone else there, Maya transformed into her dragon form, ripping apart her clothes, not that it mattered at this point.

  I couldn't see where Amoriaz was, my head unable to move thanks to Boost’s cooldown. Using her fire breath, Maya burned a part of the room.

  Regus came closer and utilized healing magic. It was a pretty weak one, though.

  Could I still fight…?

  While the spell eased my pain, it didn't wholly heal me. I also didn't know how long Boost’s cooldown was. I didn't count, as I was too focused on dealing with the demon king to notice.

  “Stay still, Fortis,” Regus said, not that I can move, even if I wanted to. I took deep breaths, Emori helping hold me.

  “Be careful… he's strong,” I warned. Emori returned a firm nod and let go, heading to wherever Maya went. Solicea and Prilus followed after them.

  “We'll handle the fighting for now. Regus, take care of him,” with those parting words, Amira left.

  “How are you feeling? Anything still hurt?”

  “Urgh…” I still suffered quite a lot of pain, but it was no longer paralyzing.

  “You should rest for a bit more, they'll handle it somehow.”

  “I can't move, even if I wanted to. I used Boost.”

  “I see…”

  From where I sat, I could hear the many sounds and voices of fighting coming from my right. I closed my eyes for a bit, taking some deep breaths, calming my nerves.

  Regus stayed by my side, helping me stabilize my condition. He continued using Heal, the symbol shining in his eyes, the light wand in his hand. As my strength began to return to me, the sound of battle became clearer. Huge thumps and smashes rang all over the pce, with the distinct sound of magic firing filling the air.

  I tried to turn to the run, curious on witnessing the action, but the spell prevented me from doing so. Regus noticed and moved me, allowing me to see. It was a mess. The demon king went from one end of the room to the other, trying to dodge the barrage of spells and attacks coming his way.

  It reminded me of the prologue to Mimosa Online, which involved fighting the demon king with the heroes party. It could be said that I was there a hundred years ago, when they first sealed him.

  To my surprise, despite the century that had passed, and a lot of other new things had been found in that timespan, the demon king kept most of its attack patterns. After so many relentless attacks, it began losing out. Eventually, the demon king let out a loud, deafening noise, marking the end to the first phase.

  I could feel my energy returning to me. I moved my hands, this time they followed my command. The cooldown had ended. Admittedly, a bit faster than I originally anticipated.

  “I think I’m fine, thank you.” I stood up, turning toward the battlefield. Interesting enough, despite all the attacks it endured, neither the demon king nor the castle changed.

  “Looks like you reverted to your old fighting style.”

  My words naturally caught the attention of the others. Even Amoriaz himself, or maybe it’s more respectful to call this inferior the demon king, stopped attacking and turned to me. He must have detected that I had returned.

  “Regus, Amira, monsters would begin flooding in any second. I need you two to make sure they didn’t enter.”

  The pair turned to the single rge entrance to the room and held their position there.

  “Maya, Solicea, Prilus, pawns will begin appearing. They're dangerous, but their attack patterns are predictable.”

  Hearing my terms, the three were naturally confused. Emori noticed that the demon king was prepping up an attack and fired White Void, deying him and giving me time to expin. As if on cue, four different pawns appeared behind the demon king.

  The pawns looked simir to pawns on a chess board, with several differences. They spin, and they have two sharp bdes on their sides, making them simir to spinning top toys. They move in a straight line toward their targets, but bumping onto an object or spell could set them off course.

  They couldn’t be destroyed unless we kill the demon king, and in the original fight, they were huge headaches because the party’s attacks couldn’t deflect them, allowing them to target the fighters focusing on the demon king. But I was sure that wasn’t the case for our group.

  “Are the tops safe?” Maya asked.

  “Yes!”

  Maya rushed forward, using her rge cws… palms? Hands? She gripped the top side of the spinning pawns, stopping them in pce. The other pawns turned and headed straight at her.

  “Not so far!”

  “What are these things?”

  Solicea and Prilus joined in on the fight. Solicea stabbed her spear at the top of the pawns, sending them away. Prilus used his sword to ssh at the bottom side of the pawn, his bde not long enough to reach the top. His sword glowed a bright light, and despite the retively weak ssh, he managed to send them away.

  “Emori, we’ll focus on taking him down.”

  “Okay, I’ll follow your lead!”

  We haven’t had much chance to practice our combined attacks, so all I could do was trust her. I ran straight to the demon king, utilizing Myriad Dash to increase my movements. Using Strasversaus followed by Mazereficent, the demon king hid his attacks. I took a quick breath and sensed the flow of mana, guessing where his attacks came from.

  Thanks to the others being here, he was forced to focus on multiple targets, his movements and attacks turning a bit sloppy.

  I watched the original fight against the heroes party, though, and I know it didn’t end here.

  “Emori, instead of firing single White Void attacks, try merging them like when you fought Akareseki!” I yelled, leaping to the side as a spell barely grazed me.

  “Okay!”

  It would take a while, so I worked on distracting the demon king. I formed the spells required for Saturn Sky, and once close enough, I fired the fsh straight into the demon king’s face from the front. The blinding light knocked him back for a bit. I continued pushing forward, this time firing Hold Spear from point-bnk range, when he was still blind. I formed Greencano on my hand, a merge of various attack spells, to create a kind of grenade then exploded right in front of the demon king’s face.

  I took a step back, barely dodging an incoming pawn. The demon king staggered back up, barely hurt.

  “You have a pretty thick HP bar, didn’t you?”

  “Are those terms from your past life?” Maya asked curiously.

  “Yeah.”

  “Past… what?” Prilus was extra confused, but I have no intention of clearing things up to him, for now at least.

  “Hiyaah!” Solicea yelled, stabbing straight at another pawn for the umpteenth time. “How are they not damaged?” She shouted in exasperation.

  “They’re not going to be damaged unless you kill the demon king.”

  These pawns were a result of the demon king’s spell, Portoceros. Since killing the demon king is the only way to deal with this spell, the people on this side should focus on keeping them away from the main fighters.

  “Fortis, I’m ready!”

  I ran back at the demon king, using the hold spear - greencano combination, before following up with a Saturn Sky.

  The demon king was temporarily blinded.

  “Fire!”

  Emori’s eyes shone a pure white, the ground itself shaking. She fired. The spell turned into a massive, pure white beam. Its strength sent all of us to the sides, nearly throwing us to the ground. From the smoke, came a melted figure shaped like goo. Lines began flowing upward from the puddle of bck on the ground, forming his figure and cane once more. The shade of bck was brighter than before, leaning more toward gray now.

  “It didn’t do anything?” Emori’s voice shook as she said that. I heard the sound of fighting coming from far behind us. Monsters began pouring through the door, the two Wolves fighting them.

  “What should we do?” Solicea asked, gripping her spear once more, readying herself against the incoming pawns.

  “Don’t worry! Keep attacking! The brighter the color, the closer we are to destroying him!” I said, before once again leaping forward. I pyed my combinations again, using various attack spells to stagger him as long as possible.

  Emori managed to get a second White Void off, turning his color even brighter.

  “How are things on the back?” I yelled.

  “There are more monsters!” Regus shouted. “It's getting harder to contain them!”

  We left only two of them on the rear. Solicea remembered something and ran straight to them, handing over Maya’s musket to Regus, before running back to Prilus’ side.

  The pawns had begun to move once more. Seemingly realizing that they didn't have the desired effect, the demon king began creating more, doubling its numbers.

  Despite being a demon king, it didn't mean he had unlimited mana, so the intensity of spells used against us began to waver even more.

  Saturn Sky!

  I tried sending in another fsh, but this time, pitch bck swords shot up from the floor, shielding the demon king's face. They turned toward me, who was leaping in the sky, and shot forward.

  “Fortis!”

  I activated Boost for a split second, and used the extra power to kick the swords away, nding on the ground close to Emori.

  I quickly deactivated the spell, my entire energy drained, but it didn't st long. The demon king sent his swords flying against us, with hands trying to stop our movements.

  Myriad Dash!

  I utilized another quad-casting combination to dodge, taking Emori with me. I ran closer to the demon king, dropped Emori in a safe spot, then threw Greencano. The demon king expected my trick and sshed straight through the incoming attack.

  Not a second te, a new set of attacks came our way, forcing me to grab Emori and get out of there.

  No wonder the original party struggled.

  The party couldn't attack the demon king as one, making the already hard to deal with boss even harder. The demon spells also did some crazy things, making dodging while fighting even harder.

  Regus and Amira were still fighting the monsters. Regus was the one wielding the musket, using it occasionally in between his magic attacks. Amira was more focused on close-quarters combat, putting up a fight with her dagger and her own musket.

  Things were going decently with the pawns. Solicea and Prilus occasionally used spells to help them fight, integrating magic into their swordpy. Maya, on the other hand, utilized the strength of a dragon to keep things under control.

  We didn't have much time…

  I turned to the demon king. Unlike us, he probably didn't have a point where he became tired. My allies do. If I let this go on for any longer, things might begin falling apart.

  If that's the case, then we wouldn't be able to kill him.

  I dodged another sword strike as I began running closer.

  “Emori, can you try eight?” I asked, firing another Hold Spear straight at the demon king’s head. This time, the demon king used a hand to grab and destroy the spell, before punching me. The hit nded on my face and sent me tumbling backward.

  It wasn't as bad as the one from before, but it still hurts.

  “Fortis, are you alright?” Emori came running.

  “Emori, watch out!” A hand plummeted toward Emori. Prilus moved away with great speed, managing to strike off the hand in time.

  “Emori, be careful!” he warned before returning to his task.

  “Emori, you okay?”

  “Ye- yeah.” She came up to me, staggering a bit.

  “Can you double the amount of your White Void?”

  “Eight? That's a crazy amount!” Emori said.

  “If we can do that, we might be able to end this-” I took Emori and jumped away, barely dodging an incoming sword strike.

  “I mean, we might be able to end this with the next attack.”

  I couldn't say that we're past the halfway point. There was no indicator or HP bar. What I did know is that we couldn't keep on fighting like this.

  More and more monsters appeared from the door, while sweat began appearing on the foreheads of the three other members.

  “I'm not sure, but I'll try.”

  “Alright!” I shot forward once more. The demon king expected me, sending his swords and hands to block my path. I used Greencano and threw it at the blocking weapons. I didn't stay around to see the results, instead leaping away to the left and deploying Myriad Dash to once more increase my speed. I combined it with Saturn Sky, expecting the demon king to block his face.

  I doubled up and sent Hold Spear flying. The attack got stuck in between the hands covering his face. I used Saturn Sky again, and again, then backed it up with Greencano.

  I circled my inventory for quad-casting spells over and over, occasionally throwing in some regur or double-casting spells in the mix. My attempt at overwhelming the demon king failed somewhat, as he continued blocking my spells. That was my intention however, as I buy more and more time for Emori.

  Despite losing the ability to speak or maybe losing his heart, the demon king didn’t lose his ability to fight. It was a bit slow, but he managed to find counters to the combination I unleashed. He knew how to protect himself from Saturn Sky and how to destroy Hold Spear before it reached him.

  An annoying action, to say the least. I was dealing far less damage than I had originally hoped for. Things were still going as pnned. Other than the occasional strike that came Emori’s way, she was rgely left alone.

  Good, continue focusing on me.

  I used everything I had. Every single spell, every single mana, I let it all drain me. All to make sure Emori got the final shot out.

  “Fortis, I’m ready!”

  “Alright!”

  I fired one st Saturn Sky, letting it explode right in front of the two swords that blocked the demon king, and leaped away. The demon king detected the strength of the incoming spell, forming hands and swords to block his front.

  But all his defenses couldn’t resist Emori’s White Void. The combination of eight White Void spells, all weaved together in harmony, created a powerful pure white beam that pierced right through, leaving nothing in its wake.

  Absolutely nothing. The pawns fell to their sides and exploded, while all the monsters turned into magic stones. There was nothing left in the room.

  “Is it… over?” I asked, looking around. There were no longer any enemies inside the room.

  “I think it is. All of the monsters- alright, maybe not all.” Regus said. We all turned toward the entrance. Most of the demon king’s monster had been destroyed and turned to magic stones, while some were still there, ready to fight us.

  “The monsters that died must be the ones that were under his influence. We can handle the rest, though.”

  “Alright.” I stretched my limbs. I was about to say something like ‘time to head home’ when I realized that something was amiss. “... Where’s Emori?”