By Zephyria 
“Exactly 30 seconds.”
I raised one corner of my mouth and smiled at Balkan as I held up three fingers, and it raised its eyebrows as if it understood.
“I’ll finish it within that time.”
Any longer than that and my body definitely wouldn’t be able to handle it.
I took a deep breath.
Balkan, whose face had turned red and blue, became very angry and bared its claws and rushed at me. However, the fact that it still wasn’t trying to kill me was a fatal mistake and carelessness on its part.
“Kiaak!”
Just as Balkan was about to swing its claws at me.
I calmly calmed my mind and opened my eyes.
Guwoong!
Immediately after, a tremendous pressure that seemed to crush my head descended on the ground. The Mana in the air created a fierce flow that was visible to the eye and began to be absorbed into me, and my greedy Mana Heart ravenously absorbed and accepted that vast amount of Mana.
Perhaps sensing the danger instinctively, Balkan, who was greatly startled, hesitated and stepped back.
Soon, ominous Black Mana swirled around me like a huge natural disaster and blazed with all its might, and a growth spurt-like pain swept through my body. My achievement was rising momentarily, and my physical abilities were also increasing rapidly.
My trump card was this.
Forcibly releasing the control of the Black Mana Heart, which has the property of ‘constantly absorbing Mana’, and causing artificial growth.
Originally, the Mana Heart is an organ that stretches well like a stomach, and it was a bizarre act that was only possible because my Mana Heart had a unique property, and I had the experience and skill to control the Mana Circuit so that it would not be destroyed.
‘I didn’t want to use this method if possible, but this is an emergency.’
The Mana absorbed in this way is not properly stored, so it cannot be maintained for long and will quickly escape. Of course, there will be side effects afterwards, and my body will be damaged a lot, as if I had taken doping.
Since it’s a human body now… the pain will be even worse.
‘But the chances of survival increase.’
Once I kill that guy who’s in the way right now, I can take my time to find the trigger. Of course, there was also the possibility that the caster of Cycle Shackling Space would appear after taking away all of my power… but either way, I would die at that time.
I wouldn’t be able to maintain this power for more than a few seconds. There was no other best option. It was truly a gamble. But, it was a valuable price to pay because I could expect to gain more than I lost.
“Hoo.”
I never thought I would use the method that I had tried to become stronger by cheating one day in my previous life when I was young and blue, and then regretted it after suffering from side effects for several days.
‘By now, my body will follow my thoughts.’
I carefully gathered the Mana that I had drawn into myself as much as possible. Then, everything on the ground that had been shaking as if trembling in the face of fear subsided in an instant.
There was a brief moment of silence between Balkan, who was sweating profusely, and me.
I was the first to move.
Tseut.
Dirt splashed shallowly on the twisting footprints. Balkan couldn’t keep up with my speed, which grabbed its back in an instant. But, even an earthworm squirms when stepped on.
“Kieuk, Kkeeeeek!”
The guy, who belatedly felt my presence and turned around sharply, thrashed wildly with a pale face, swinging his arms roughly and quickly. It was an aggressive act that a cornered rat showed without thinking about the consequences, just to survive.
In this case, it exerts much higher power than usual, so it can be dangerous if you are careless. But now that I’ve raised it to a level equivalent to 7-star… it was too slow in my eyes.
I easily lifted my hand to stop the arm that was slamming down and swung my palm to lightly lift the joint, and with the sound of bones dislocating, the guy’s arm was bent.
“Kaaak!”
As Balkan grabbed my arm and took a step back, he simultaneously thrust his palm forward, creating a massive Magic Circle. Propelled by the powerful wind that shot out in a straight line, Balkan was flung away like a bullet.
Kugugugugu!
The surrounding trees, unable to escape the range of the Magic, were flattened, broken, and utterly destroyed. The ground was gouged out as if a giant snake had passed through. Herman, who was knocked unconscious, was shielded, so he wasn’t greatly affected.
Soon after, Balkan, who had flown from behind me again, was sent flying even further, skidding across the ground after he fell.
But he was still breathing.
He had survived a direct hit from that attack. It should have been enough to shatter his body.
‘Balkan is certainly durable.’
I seemed to have failed to control my strength, since it had been so long.
‘I should just blow his head off and kill him for good.’
Just then, hot liquid started pouring from my nose. Bright red. Blood. Not even a few seconds had passed, and this damned body was already sending out warning signals.
“Tch.”
When I was in a Demon’s body, I could at least last five minutes.
What a weak human.
“Cough… Kuugh.”
Balkan forced his tattered body to rise. He let out a grotesque groan and reached out to me, but… his meaningless gesture never reached me.
Paang!
With a single gesture, the targeted man’s face swelled grotesquely before exploding with a violent sound. Balkan’s blood rained down like a shower. Immediately after, I felt the Cycle Shackling Space slowly being destroyed from the edges.
“Ah.”
I realized.
The caster who trapped us here had planted the now-dead Balkan as the trigger to release the Cycle Shackling Space. I don’t know who the caster is, but they’re vicious. Well, it was a good thing for us, in the end….
“Keueok.”
Suddenly, a lump of blood surged up and burst from my mouth, and my vision blurred with dizziness. I felt the Mana that hadn’t fused with me rapidly escaping my body. Because my consciousness was hazy, it was difficult to control, and my Mana Circuit began to rupture in places.
“Ugh… Haa, Keoheok.”
It seems more… dangerous than I thought….
Tremendous pain swept through my entire body. Darkness fell heavily over my vision as I scanned the surroundings. I, who had been spewing blood like water, finally lost consciousness.
☠
Raymond’s presence disappeared.
Zeon, who had just succeeded in taking the mark from Newt Alkabas, flinched and looked back towards the forest.
Newt was sitting in the clearing, not hiding, but waiting confidently for her opponent to approach. Zeon had targeted Newt and had just won the battle against her.
“Gap!”
Newt didn’t miss the brief opening and reached out her hand, but Zeon easily grabbed her wrist without even looking at her.
He seemed preoccupied with something, not even noticing what was happening beside him.
Newt, her pride wounded by Zeon’s attitude, struggled to break free from him, shouting.
“Eek! Let go, can’t you let go! You idiot!”
Her tone was like an old man, but her appearance was unmistakably that of a sulking child.
It was hard to believe that she was the same person who had engaged in a destructive battle that had sent shivers down Polargehen’s spine just moments before.
“Please be quiet for a moment.”
Zeon, who had been more than equal to the child, even to the point of toying with her, released Newt and put a finger to his lips. Although he had a rather seductive appearance, Newt, who had no interest in such things, was simply fixated on the fact that she had ‘lost’ and grumbled with a very angry face.
“What’s wrong?”
At that moment, Polargehen, who had remained silent until the end of the battle to maintain neutrality, approached, questioning Zeon’s actions, thinking it was over.
The reason Polargehen was with them in the clearing was that it was the starting point and also the warp location that automatically summoned them when someone was seriously injured.
In other words, the two had been fighting ‘arbitrarily’ in a place where Polargehen, the supervisor, was present.
“…Raymond’s presence….”
Zeon muttered softly, like a man possessed. His gaze, sweeping far away, was still searching for something, but it was shaking with considerable anxiety.
“…Raymond’s presence? What are you talking about?”
Polargehen, noticing something strange, asked back.
But Zeon closed his mouth instead.
Zeon was the only one who could feel Raymond’s presence, his ‘existence,’ because they were connected by the Contract of Eternity.
That presence had disappeared.
Suddenly.
And there were two possible reasons for that.
He was either dead or trapped in another dimension.
Either way, it was an unexpected emergency.
Therefore, there was no time to explain everything in detail. Zeon headed straight into the forest in the direction Raymond had been, both to find Raymond and to assess the situation. Newt and Polargehen, who didn’t understand the situation, could only watch Zeon leave abruptly.
‘Master… where on earth….’
Zeon, who was rushing through the forest like the wind, anxiously scanned the surroundings as soon as he found the place where the trees had been destroyed.
There seemed to have been a battle here.
And his presence had definitely disappeared near here. But there was no trace of Raymond anywhere.
Zeon’s heart began to beat heavily.
‘He’s… he’s disappeared again. Just like then.’
Zeon, who cherished and revered only one master, Mephisto, recalled the sight of his master, a soulless shell under a ray of light seeping through the bars, being held in the arms of a human named Gilbert. Zeon squeezed his eyes shut.
It was a terrible past.
-I won’t give up…. I won’t… never.
Suddenly, he remembered Gilbert’s eerie gaze, filled with tears, muttering repeatedly and quietly looking back when he sensed someone… when he encountered Zeon at the time.
He didn’t know why.
It occasionally came to mind for no reason.
That human had not appeared before the Demons since his master had passed away, but… that last, bizarre and even sacred scene remained in Zeon’s heart like a bothersome pebble.
Zeon shook off the lingering, chilling gaze that flickered before his eyes and ran around in all directions to find Raymond’s vanished trace.
Despite his efforts, he couldn’t find him for a while, but at some point, Raymond’s presence returned. As if it had never disappeared.
“……!”
As soon as his presence returned, it moved to the clearing.
Zeon, recalling that the warp Polargehen had implanted in the mark would activate if someone was seriously injured, felt his heart sink.