---

“Oh.”

A sigh of disappointment escaped my lips.

After doping with the Spirit Stone, the amount of firepower I could unleash in one go was easily shattered by that damned demon’s grasp.

Thanks to that, the mad goat-headed bastard suddenly redirected all the attention he had been giving to Edelin right onto me. It would be fair to say that my situation was about to become the worst.

“Seriously ridiculous.”

If I had been told to shoot my bow instead of throwing this unfamiliar spear, I could have easily pierced his head by now.

The unimaginable weight pressing down on my mind and body was proving to be a struggle to endure, and the paltry result was just this.

As frustration surged within me, I hurriedly exclaimed.

“Orna, get Shione out of here right now!”

“Meow!”

Ah, that bastard is coming this way.

The demonic creature, walking confidently on two legs and nodding its head, drew closer. The malignant magic and poison it exuded coiled around my very life thread the nearer it got.

‘…He really has me locked on.’

I could see the irritation mixed in with the gaze that firmly kept me in its sights.

It seemed like he had no intention of returning to being a High Elf. Soon, it would unleash its accursed attacks on me.

In this tangled mess, I quickly called the spirits I trusted the most.

“Tania, Elvis! Come back right now!”

At my call, Tania and Elvis rushed back.

But there was a problem.

“Damn it—”

At the same time, that monstrous creature’s form vanished at eight feet in height.

Instead of thinking, I entrusted my instincts and threw myself forward. Just in time, the familiar feeling of omnipotence wrapped around my body. Fortunately, Elvis must have rushed in to assist.

Boom—!!!

With a tremendous sound like the earth was splitting open, the ground beneath me sank.

The demon brushed right past me. The eyes that were melted into its ghastly head glinted while burning with madness as they locked onto me.

Finally, I heard the voices of my spirits that I had been waiting for.

“Dad!”

“You crazy fool! Just dodging once isn’t enough! Get into position and move!”

A violent gale covered the demon. Elvis unleashed magic to widen the gap between it and me.

As I firmly rooted my legs on the deteriorating ground.

“—!”

Before my eyes, and beside me, Tania’s angry blue flames flared up intensely.

“Park Shin-woo, do you even know you almost died again? Get back!”

It seemed Tania had managed to block the intense poison that threatened to corrupt even the World Tree itself.

I hastily retreated as Tania instructed.

‘…I thought I was going to die.’

If Elvis and Tania hadn’t reunited just now, I would have already been visiting the afterlife in that situation.

As countless thoughts flooded my mind, I quickly gathered my scattered focus.

‘Current state of my body.’

When I thrust the spear down, I had consumed power to the point of losing consciousness due to mana depletion. Luckily, maybe the remaining effects of the Spirit Stone were still holding on, as I felt a deep fatigue but could still carry on fighting at least moderately.

Edelin hadn’t been retired, and the Royal Guards who were deployed to protect the World Tree would soon rush this way. With extreme concentration and a bit of luck, I thought I might just manage to cling to life.

‘And that demon…’

Truly annoyingly enough, even while facing off against Tania and Elvis, who were unleashing power comparable to a natural disaster, he hadn’t taken his eyes off me.

‘The way to turn this around—’

Unless I wielded the spear only I could handle, no one could create a critical opening against that creature in this situation; I had heard this painfully through Edelin.

I needed to reclaim that spear in his hand to awaken its true power again. The triggering condition? Blocking the enemy’s attack and amplifying the power absorbed by the spear to shoot it back out.

‘Since it has come to this.’

Edelin had already declared that killing that demon was impossible, casting off fate, and even the World Tree was entrusting its life and the fate of the Great Forest to us.

Sure enough, the frantic madness flared in that demon’s eyes, as if it had realized something from the spear’s monstrous ability. The demon seemed to feel a stronger threat from me than expected. If it was going to convulse like this, even if Edelin intervened again, escaping would be no easy feat.

It was clear that if Shione and I failed to kill it, it would try to ensure my death before it rotted the World Tree.

In this do-or-die situation, I had no choice but to gamble on fate and destiny.

At that moment.

“…I’ll reclaim the spear and create a last opportunity, so dear hero, please conserve whatever mana you have left.”

Edelin swiftly closed in and began attacking the demon.

Magic and powerful swordsmanship rained down upon the hand holding the spear, and the Royal Guards following her poured their efforts into facing the demon.

However, the Royal Guards’ resistance didn’t last long. The demon’s poison and brutal combat style were too much for ordinary guards to overcome. Eventually, it was only Edelin, revealing her true power as a spirit mage, who managed to retrieve the spear with great effort.

“This!”

Edelin didn’t miss the moment the spear slipped from the demon’s hand and threw it back to me.

But Edelin seemed too drained from her efforts to respond quickly to the ensuing demon attacks, struggling to hold her ground while the demon resumed its offensive against me.

“…Elvis, Tania, don’t attack recklessly right now. Focus all your strength on supporting my actions.”

Grasping the unfamiliar spear, I adopted a complete defensive and counterattack posture. Tania and Elvis looked at me in shock.

Yet, neither Tania nor Elvis voiced any objections. I had commanded them with the full force of a spirit mage.

In my movements lay enough power to sweep away tens of thousands beyond that defense line, and the spear in my hand was charged with pure, potent spirit flames capable of dissolving even the fiercest poison.

I danced the spear in anticipation of the demon’s attack.

“……!!”

I couldn’t handle the spear. I had only seen glimpses over my companions’ shoulders.

Even if I flowed through my swordsmanship, it could never be a complete technique.

Even if Edelin intervened with magic to incapacitate the demon, my weak arms struggled to withstand its assaults.

The first time I deflected its attack.

Crack—!!

‘This damn it, really…!!’

I wanted to scream, but the pain took my voice.

Even with Edelin’s magic attempting to halt its movements, just one of its attacks strained my wretched wrist and arm intensely.

The second. When I narrowly evaded another blow.

With our close combat, the poison spewed forth even with Tania and Elvis nearby. Every time the demon suddenly released its toxins, my spirits couldn’t purify them all, creating internal injuries within me.

Those injuries would only twist the paths through which my mana circulated. I felt something foreign attacking me from the inside, causing a chilling sense of dread, making the demon’s magic seem terrifying as it lay in wait for my demise.

‘I can’t hold on much longer.’

Even if I struggled to breathe, having to fight with a spear rather than a bow permitted me little time.

Now, even Edelin was unable to react in time to the demon’s counterattacks, struggling against her bleeding body.

The third time I barely managed to deflect another strike.

‘…My arm feels like it’s completely destroyed.’

My arm had long been out of commission. Not just my arm; the shock reverberating through my shoulder only amplified the searing agony that threatened to turn my thoughts blank.

But gritting my teeth, I forced my arm to move with the strength Elvis bequeathed me, pushing on with the battle.

The fourth time, when I managed to counter the demon’s relentless onslaught with a sufficient attack to awaken the spear.

“Ugh…!”

As my vision faded white, I forcibly called my mana up.

“Eriantina…!”

The World Tree had said that it would twist fate to create miracles once.

This insane demon was a being that even two high-level spirits and a High Elf fully committed to my aid couldn’t handle.

To pierce him with this spear, or rather, to survive at all and keep my life, I needed a miracle in this moment.

As I earnestly wished for it, the miracle manifested.

“This is!”

The moment Edelin gasped in astonishment, the miracle began to reveal itself before my eyes.

Seeing the demon take advantage of my fleeting moment when my focus drifted, its hand reached for my heart, but—

Its hand grazed past me, forced away by a power I couldn’t contend against, and the spear held not just my mana, but also another far greater force surged through it.

Boom—!

The moment my spear finally struck the demon’s heart.

I understood.

It wasn’t the newly received bow from Fletta; it was this damn spear that had to be wielded to pierce him.

 

---