Even though the swordsman in the front had his head half-crushed and lay sprawled on the ground, the rest of them didn’t flee.

Instead, they calmly prepared their magic, getting ready for battle.

“These guys must be repeat offenders, huh?” I remarked.

“Step back,” Mea responded firmly, moving in front of me and pushing me behind her.

“But I can help—”

“Instructors are obligated to protect trainees in emergency situations,” she said, cutting me off.

“That’s the second rule: A demonologist should never fight carelessly.”

Well... she wasn’t wrong.

But I’m an exception among exceptions.

I’m probably the only demonologist in the world who can confidently say, "I could fight all day long."

“And especially not against a theurge.”

“Theurge?”

Theurge—신성술사 (Shinseongsulsa)—meaning a holy sorcerer.

They stand on the complete opposite side from us demonologists.

Demonic magic crumbles like a sandcastle under the light wielded by the theurges. Just like how shadows vanish in the sunlight, demon magic scatters before their divine light.

Mea’s judgment was accurate.

“Judgment!”

With a cry from the theurge, a blinding light poured down on us from above.

They must’ve prepared their magic while we were talking. When they approached earlier, they probably couldn’t use their magic to avoid being detected by the flow of mana.

‘Is this holy magic?’

This was the ultimate counter to demon magic, something I’d only heard about. I could feel the mana I had stored in my bones for body reinforcement slowly dissolving, as if it were being broken down by the light.

‘But this…’

It wasn’t as bad as I expected.
Sure, I felt a little heavy, but not to the point where I couldn’t use magic.

In fact, I was confident I could use blink to escape at any moment if needed.

But the theurge’s light wasn’t their only attack. Arrows flew toward us, followed by a fireball cast by another mage.

Their strategy was clear: seal demon magic with the theurge’s light, while the others finish us off.
It wasn’t a bad combination.

But we weren’t just going to sit there and take it.

“By the name of the demon granted to me, Eclipto, by our contract, guard me now.”

As Mea’s incantation came to an end—

Crunch!

A chunk of the holy light was torn away.

It was as if a massive wolf had bitten into the pillar of light, tearing it apart.

“Oh…”

Grrrr! Snarl!

A second wolf, made entirely of shadows, joined the attack with a fierce growl.

“Bark! Block it!” the archer cried, stepping up to act as a human shield.

But it was useless.

With the holy sorcerer’s magic unable to do its job, Mea’s counterattack became an unstoppable force.

Crack!

“Aaargh!”

The wolf bit right through the shield and the archer’s arm.

“D-do something! I thought demonologists were supposed to be weak!”

“H-holy arrow!”

An arrow of holy energy hit the wolf, stripping away its shadowy exterior and revealing its true fur beneath. But that was all it did.

“You’ve got to be kidding me! What kind of demon is this?!”

The wolf, enraged by the attack, shook its head violently, tearing the archer’s arm to shreds.

“W-wait! I surrender! Please, just spare me!”

“Bark, you idiot!”

“Just burn them all!”

A fireball, twice as large as before, blazed to life.

Did they not care about their comrades at all?

The mage poured even more power into the fireball, clearly intending to burn both the wolf and his ally at once.

“Flame Burst!”

That’s a lot of power.

Mea told me not to intervene, but I should probably prepare to step in soon.

‘Blink might be a bit too much for now.’

Mea had certainly shown a strong sense of responsibility as an instructor, but the level of trust between us wasn’t quite strong enough for me to reveal blink yet.

‘If I can’t use blink, then there’s only one option.’

Aside from my standard magic, I had only two spells.

If blink was out, then the only option left was—

I reached for the second contract mark on the back of my hand, different from the one on my back where Seir’s mark was. I began drawing power from it like a pump.

Just like Seir, Leraje, being a high-ranking demon, had many abilities.
But the most notable of Leraje’s powers was hunting.

Why had Seir recommended I form a contract with Leraje out of all the demons?

It was because Leraje’s abilities matched my combat style perfectly.

And the effect of my contract with Leraje was dramatic.

‘My attacks evolved in every aspect.’

It was like shifting into a second gear—no, my second demon form.

But even then, Mea had no openings.

“Swallow it, Solar Garum.”

The wolf that had emerged from the shadow of the dead swordsman now leaped out of Mea’s shadow.

The second wolf followed its orders immediately. It opened its jaws wide and swallowed the massive fireball, burning fiercely, in one gulp.

“W-what the…?!”

“Did it just… eat Flame Burst?!”

The holy sorcerer and the fire mage were both in complete shock.

And they weren’t the only ones.

I, too, was stunned into silence, watching in awe as the wolf devoured the fireball like it was a mere snack, forgetting the spell I had been about to cast.

But there was a difference between my shock and theirs.

While they were filled with fear and despair at the sight of the wolf, I was simply admiring the wolf’s incredible fire-eating display.

At that point, the two mages’ will to fight had been broken.

The swordsman, possibly dead, lay motionless, and the archer had fainted after losing consciousness. Only the two mages remained, and they had just watched as their holy light was negated and their fireball was devoured by what appeared to be a demon’s summoned wolf.

They were like chess players who had lost all their important pieces and were left defenseless.

The battle was over.

Perhaps realizing this, Mea’s two wolves returned to her side, standing calmly as if waiting for further instructions.

A dark elf girl flanked by two shadow-clad wolves.

It looked like a scene straight out of a movie or anime.

‘So this is a demonologist?’

Then what had I been witnessing until now?

The strength Mea had just shown far surpassed anything that could be compared to someone like Maleboge, who I had considered a competent demonologist.

And beyond the strength, there was a certain charisma to it, something that made you forget about everything else.

‘This is what demonology is all about.’

I felt a pang of envy. I wanted a familiar as cool as that too...

“Solar, Mana, clean up.”

Grrr… Awooo!

The two wolves let out a low growl and a long howl. At that, the two remaining mages dropped to their knees in terror.

‘They can’t be killed.’

I opened my mouth, intending to tell Mea to spare their lives.

I was about to call her name.

If not for the wolves diving straight into her shadow rather than moving forward, I would have done it.

‘Oh, no.’

The wolves didn’t jump into the shadows to clean up; they were heading into the enemies' shadows, just like before.

Seeing the wolves emerge from the shadows of the mages, I immediately spread Leraje’s mana wide.

Leraje’s mana, unlike Seir’s, had a unique characteristic.

Without needing to cast any specific spells, the mana itself carried a toxic trait.

Along with hunting, one of Leraje’s powers was poison.

Without needing to invoke any special abilities, the poison was already infused in the mana, capable of infecting its prey.

The wolves, sensing through animal instinct that they had gone from predators to prey, immediately turned their sights on me.

“Stop! That’s enough.”

With a single command, the wolves' wild eyes calmed, their rage dissipating.

They really were obedient to their master.

Of course, I then found myself on the receiving end of their master’s glare.

“What are you doing?” Mea asked coldly.

Her expression was neutral, but her voice carried a hint of disappointment.

I answered honestly.

“Killing them would be a problem.”

“...Have you ever killed anyone?”

Her tone softened ever so slightly, as if a trace of concern had slipped through.

Mea continued.

“...Don’t feel pity. If we were weaker, they wouldn’t hesitate to take your life. Remember that misplaced sympathy is like poison.”

“It’s not pity, nor sympathy. And yes, I have killed people before.”

“Then why?”

“I have a few questions for them.”

After that, I didn’t care what happened to them.
Sure, the procedures at the main base would likely deal with them properly, but that sounded like a hassle.

“That’s all?”

“Yes.”

“...So, you’re telling me.”

Mea’s eyes trembled slightly.

For a brief moment, I wondered if I had said something wrong.

And then, for the first time, I saw Mea angry.

“You used enough mana to stop my familiars just for that?”

“Well… it was an important question.”

“Fine. Go ahead. Let’s hear it.”

Her arms crossed tightly as she glared at me, clearly determined not to let me off easily if the question wasn’t worth it.

Under her piercing gaze, I approached the mages and asked.

“You’ve done this before, haven’t you?”

“W-what?”

“You’ve attacked others like this before, haven’t you?”

“That….”

They still weren’t getting the picture.

Crunch!

I calmly pressed down on one of their fingers with my metal-plated boot.

“Aaaargh!”

“Answer.”

I wasn’t letting them leave unscathed unless they cooperated.

“We have! We have!”

“This is our third time!”

“So, repeat offenders, huh?”

These guys were professional ambushers, preying on rookies.

“Among the people you’ve attacked, was there a half-elf?”

If there was, even answering truthfully wouldn’t save them from what was coming.