By Zephyria 
Afterward, Cloud, who returned to the villa with me, released the levitation magic as soon as he entered the courtyard and dropped Balkan onto the ground.
Polargehen, who approached closely, frowned upon seeing his identity. The children who followed hid behind Polargehen’s back, watching while holding their breath.
“Is this guy… the mastermind behind this attack?”
“It seems so. He was a high-ranker.”
Cloud answered Polargehen’s question.
Around that time, the Assistant Hunters who approached a beat later hesitated and were startled upon seeing Balkan sprawled on the ground. Some even let out short screams like “Euek!”
“Ugh, you’ve completely turned him into a bloody mess.”
“That means he was that dangerous, I suppose.”
“He won’t… suddenly get up, will he?”
Amidst that clamorous noise, the voices of Polargehen and Cloud, conversing with Balkan at their feet, mixed and reached me. Suddenly, a glint of something at the corner of my eye caught my attention, so I quietly turned my gaze to look behind Polargehen.
Silver hair shimmering like midnight moonlight….
From any angle, it was Ardian. His beautiful silver hair, symbolic enough to represent his family’s lineage, stood out no matter where you saw it.
‘As expected. He returned safely.’
Then, when I turned my eyes to the guy’s feet.
“……!”
There, I discovered familiar forms lying side by side. They were Zeon and Herman, lying still as if asleep. Tom, guarding beside them, was also briefly visible, but my attention was solely on the two.
They definitely weren’t dead….
If they were, the atmosphere would have been quite different from now.
Still, to directly check their condition, I quickly moved my steps. Then, I felt the gazes of Cloud and Polargehen, who had been conversing, focus on me for a moment.
Only after noticing the direction of my steps did the two withdraw their attention and resume their conversation. I crouched in front of the two and first checked Zeon’s pulse.
Fortunately… his pulse was beating calmly.
The same was true for Herman.
Their complexions weren’t bad either, and there were no signs of being cursed.
Otherwise, nothing else seemed problematic.
“What happened?”
I looked up and pointedly asked Ardian.
Seeing that Zeon had fainted or been forced to sleep to such an extent, it was highly likely the opponent was a Balkan, yet they returned without dying or any injuries.
Either the enemy, for some reason, deliberately didn’t kill them and released them, and someone brought them back… or a skilled person helped them along the way.
It was one of the two.
If so, it was highly likely that Ardian, who had been unseen until then and appeared together, brought them here, which is why I asked.
Ardian, who had been looking at the sprawled Balkan with an unreadable expression, slowly lowered his head and met my eyes.
He curled the corners of his mouth softly as usual.
“I don’t know the details either.”
“You don’t know?”
“I just brought them because they were collapsed on the mountain path.”
“…Hmm. Is that so.”
Anyway, it seemed Ardian did bring them. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to know the circumstances surrounding them.
Well. It didn’t really matter anyway.
I can ask when Zeon opens his eyes.
Around the time I was thinking that, Zeon furrowed his brows and let out a shallow moan. It seemed he had regained consciousness. This guy really has no manners, I thought.
His fluttering eyelashes fully opened. Within them, reddish-brown eyes awoke. Zeon dazedly rolled his eyes to look at me, and I lightly tapped his chest area.
“Zeon. Are you awake?”
“Ah….”
“Tell me. Who harmed you?”
As Zeon tried to sit up, I supported his back, but he clutched his head as if he had a headache. So I waited quietly for him, and Zeon, who seemed to be retracing his memory for a moment, furrowed his brow and hesitantly opened his mouth.
“The memory is… hazy….”
“What?”
“What happened is… unclear….”
Does he not remember what happened?
It was quite strange and bewildering.
But the most bewildered one must be Zeon himself.
His face clearly showed confusion. He looked precarious and anxious, so I couldn’t press him further and stood up, brushing myself off.
Since his condition is like this now, there’s no choice.
Let’s ask again later when he’s calmed down.
“Kyaa!”
Then, a scream suddenly came from behind, and I turned my head. Tom, who was startled, and Ardian, who had raised his head, also turned to the source of the sound.
Wondering what was going on… Balkan, who had been sprawled out, unmoving as if he had given up on life, was suddenly showing strange movements.
Cloud and Polargehen, who had been talking with Balkan between them, moved the children behind them.
The groups split to either side. Polargehen, who was standing in our direction, was preparing for a possible attack, and the children, who were also watching from the same direction, scurried over and huddled next to me.
“He, he just moved! He twitched!”
I knew without him having to make such a fuss.
Since the groups were divided with him at the center, there was enough distance, so all of Balkan’s movements were clearly visible from here as well.
I roughly ignored Derek’s fuss and narrowed my eyes, focusing on Balkan.
‘What is he trying to do?’
The Mana Thread binding him hadn’t been released yet. It wasn’t even a violent movement like struggling to break free.
Just twitching.
Perhaps because of this, and because Cloud had used too much power, he seemed to be watching the Demon’s behavior a little longer. Finally, Balkan, who had succeeded in twitching his body and turning onto his back, raised his head and… stared intently at us.
“Ugh, he’s looking this way….”
“S, scary…. What do we do?!”
There was quite a distance, so it was impossible to know exactly who he was looking at, but the children were trembling, feeling fear just from the fact that his gaze was directed this way.
“…….”
I frowned slightly.
What did that Demon’s persistent gaze mean?
Suddenly, a bad feeling flashed through my mind.
Just as the Demon’s lips, which had been firmly closed in a straight line, opened, I perked up my ears and heard a heavy, muttering voice.
“For the will… of the great darkness….”
It was an incomprehensible phrase. Another bad feeling came over me, chilling one side of my chest.
‘Could it be.’
It didn’t take even a few dozen seconds to realize that the words the Demon had uttered were a kind of trigger. In other words, just like the Soul Transference Magic I had used, the Magic that the Demon had planted in advance would be automatically completed through the trigger just now.
Immediately, I felt the surrounding air getting hotter.
It was when Ardian grabbed my arm and pulled me back.
In that instant, Cloud, who had noticed the anomaly, raised his head with a look of astonishment, trying to warn us of the danger.
“Get away…!”
But that voice couldn’t be fully delivered. Because the Demon’s body, which had instantly begun to swell up like a waterlogged corpse, caused a red blaze and explosion, and at the same time, a tremendous roar was heard, and my vision turned white.
Kuuung―!
Immediately after a hot and intense backdraft blew in, a long ringing sound passed through my ears, which were becoming muffled as if submerged in the deep sea.
I covered my ears and tightly closed my eyes.
At that moment, I felt something embracing me.
Warm and cozy.
The warmth that protected me from the pouring sense of crisis was so great that I instinctively hid inside it and held my breath for a while.
After some time had passed without properly recognizing what was happening, I suddenly felt calmer, so I cautiously opened my eyes and looked around.
The surroundings… were a mess.
The villa, which had been caught in the explosion and was shattered and burned black, as well as the surrounding forest, seemed to have been affected, with embers scattered everywhere and thick smoke filling the air. The crackling sound of burning nearby stimulated anxiety.
In the place where Balkan had been… there was nothing. Only the trace of something that had been charred black remained as a mark. How could he have been unscathed after being caught in an explosion of this scale? Feeling a contradiction there, I carefully examined the surroundings.
From exactly around where Polargehen was standing, and behind him, everything was intact as if someone had drawn a boundary line.
Looking closely, a transparent and solid Barrier was greatly enveloping us. The fact that I, including the children who had gathered nearby, and even Polargehen, who had been closest to Balkan and was in the most danger, had suffered no damage seemed to be thanks to the Barrier.
This was the same for Cloud’s side as well. If this Barrier hadn’t been there, many children would have been engulfed in flames and burned to death together, or would have suffered terrible burns, so the one who had put up the Barrier could be called a savior.
‘But who….’
Had created the Barrier?
The explosion just now was truly an explosion that burned away life. It was a terrifying last struggle of someone reaching the 7-star level. To have deployed a Barrier in time that could easily block that… it didn’t seem like Polargehen or Zeon, who looked flustered.
Around that time, the Barrier on Cloud’s side disappeared first, and he was seen rushing over with an anxious face.
“Over there! Are there any injured students?!”
Immediately after, the Barrier on this side also disappeared a beat later.
As soon as Cloud’s words broke through the silence, Tom and Derek began to cry, and the other children also sobbed or slumped down as if they had lost their strength.
Cloud, who had rushed over in one breath, also visibly relaxed when he saw the unharmed children on this side, so it seemed that the Barrier on this side, if not the one on the other side, was not his doing.
If that was the case, then there was only one left….
‘It was him, after all.’
I quietly stepped back from Ardian’s arms, who was practically holding me.
He let me go willingly and smiled gently as if answering my gaze.
“Ray… are you hurt? Are you okay?”