Elma heard the twins’ shouts. She almost impulsively wanted to turn her horse around. However, she wasn’t able to do it. If she did, then it would basically mean putting Salman’s efforts to waste. It would make everything he did useless.

「!! ――Ahhhhhh!!」

At some point, their group had made it most of the way out of Mūzeg cavalry’s siege.

However, that scream was a mixture of irritation and sorrow. It wasn’t a yell stemming from happiness at breaking through the siege.

「Someone!!」

Anyone is fine.

「Save him!!」

There was no one who would stretch a hand out to a demon lord. This world was just that cruel. She already knew that.

Even then,

「Even a single person is fine…!」

While the horse ran forward, as she cut down the last of Mūzeg’s cavalry,

「Is...no one there…!!」

They finally broke through.

In the next moment,

◆◆◆

「There is. I’ll show you that I can save him. That’s why, you guys save his highness」

◆◆◆

It was in the moment that she raised her face. Elma saw several men to one side moving in the opposite direction as them.

「――」

Elma’s voice refused to come out. The other demon lords looked the same as well. The path that they had just taken, several dozen cavalry were retracing that path and charged into Mūzeg’s army.

Elma continued to chew through the words that they left while passing by the demon lords and with an expression of utter amazement, she looked back at the battlefield.

There was an amazing battle cry that could heard.

「――」

She still couldn’t speak. She still couldn’t grasp what was going on.

◆◆◆

「Corporal! There are new enemies!!」

The moment after Salman grandly waved his arm around, one of Mūzeg’s soldiers yelled.

「What?!」

In the next moment, another voice was raised.

That’s close. While Mūzeg’s soldiers continued to point their spears at him, their attention was completely concentrated to their rear.

「Coming!!」

Salman joined in with Mūzeg’s cavalry to see exactly what was going on, on the other side. Since he was just a step away from dying, he wouldn’t be surprised no matter what happened.

He was even impressed at himself for being able to wait for such a strange event with such a refreshing mood.

As if not at all aware of Salman’s hesitation, the strangeness came closer with a loud yell.

「Get out of the wayyyyyy!!」

It was a man’s deep voice. The ones who showed up with that voice were several cavalrymen.

They weren’t Mūzeg’s cavalry.

Those men could easily be called veteran warriors, with their bodies wrapped in a rustic armour, they looked like they could even take an ogre on.

「Oi oi oi oi」

Salman no longer had any idea what was going on. Even then, he could guess immediately that they were probably people who would be his saviours so he couldn’t help but float an exalted smile.

In the next moment, he met eyes with one of the soldiers who had cut their way through. He looked like an elderly man. However, his spirit wasn’t of someone who had just stepped into old age.

「We’ll cut open a path!! Run, young’un!!」

「Ha! I don’t really get what’s going on but...I can’t say anything other than okay in this situation!!」

「That’s fine!! If you don’t go, then we can’t go either after all!」

「Got it! Then I’ll come along properly! I’ll take you up on your words and go on ahead!!」

As he was told, Salman ran off. At the same time, Mūzeg’s spears came attacking him as he ran.

Although they had been confused with the situation that had just happened but when Salman started moving, they reflexively attacked him.

However, Salman deflected them with his fist and continued on forward.

He ignored any wounds other than those that might become fatal.

A spear stabbed into his body. Even then he continued to run.

When he looked around, at the spot where the elderly man had charged through, there was a small opening.

A small gap that had been created in between Mūzeg’s soldiers. At that gap, as if to keep it open, cavalrymen who looked like the comrades of the elderly man were in battle.

They were completely overwhelmed when it came to numbers.

However, those cavalry managed to keep a small gap, just large enough for Salman to slip his body through, open for him.

While even using the horses’ bodies as shields, as if they were desperately trying to open up a path.

Salman innocently run through. Even though he had prepared himself to die, the 『possibility to live』 was strangely appealing.

That possibility became an eager desire.

He no longer felt the need for logic or rationality and while leaving everything to his instincts, he just ran.

Then...he made it through.

◆◆◆

He could see Elma and the others. As soon as he made it through, a horse showed up in front of him. The twins were riding on it. They were both holding onto the reins of the horse and were somehow moving around albeit shoddily.

「Saru!!」 「Onii-chan!!」

「Haha, at least call me the same thing you damn brats!」

While joking around like that, Salman quickly mounted the horse and looked over at Elma and the others who were considerably far away.

He took the reins from the twins and with them securely in front of him, he kicked the horse’s belly.

He could hear the voices of Mūzeg’s soldiers from behind.

「Don’t come here!」 「You idiot!」

The twins seemed to have used their techniques and dropped them to the ground.

That was why Salman concentrated in front him.

He had to first make it to the place where the rest of them were and reform their ranks.

With this, their retreat route to Lemuse had been secured.

Although they were still being chased by an overwhelming force but, it could at least be said that they had crossed the minimum mark for survival.

After that, they just had to wait for Merea and Noel to reach them and then they could come up with other plans.

If it’s Merea then he could probably make it past Mūzeg’s cavalry alone. Especially since he had the stupidly powerful abilities of white lightning and the wings of wind.

Since he knew that, it was the only reason why he let him go out alone.

When he finally reached the other demon lords, he noticed that Noel had also just reached. Noel had taken a detour and had gone around to reach this location.

He had probably attracted the attention of the cavalry at Merea’s orders.

He had a few injuries here and there but he was, without a doubt, fine.

After that, he finally turned his attention towards the elderly man and his retinue. They were the ones who had saved him, his saviours.

A rarity in this world, a demon lord’s――Hero.

「Ahh, old man, you guys――」

Salman started speaking as he turned around.

「――」

Those men...were not there.

◆◆◆

Around the time when Salman had miraculously made it past Mūzeg’s encirclement and made it to the place where Elma and the others were, Merea was on the back of a land dragon.

On the back of the land dragon that had started running at full speed towards the demon lords right after Merea had chopped off the other two land dragon’s legs.

Before the dragon managed to reach its top speed, he somehow caught up with it and while putting up with the shaking, he got onto its back in one go. Over and above that, in that one movement, he kicked the dragoon off the dragon’s back and immediately moved towards the dragon’s head.

「You really haven’t been disciplined well…!」

Even though the dragoon had fallen off, the dragon still did not stop. On the contrary, noticing that Merea was on its back, it started rampaging as if it had gone crazy. He quickly spoke in dragon tongue but it didn’t seem like he was heard at all.

「Calm down…!」

Seeing that it hadn’t stopped running at full speed even though the dragoon had fallen off, it seemed like the last order that it was given still remained in its mind.

He had no idea how it had been trained to this extent to be used by Mūzeg’s soldiers but he felt like he saw the characteristics of the land dragon in that unbending faithfulness.

While he fixed his posture on the shaking back of the land dragon, Merea turned his gaze to the place where the land dragon was heading and confirmed that his comrades were there.

――They...made it through huh.

He could see the figures of his comrades having made it past Mūzeg’s cavalry. When he saw that scene, he couldn’t help but feel relieved. However, if the land dragon under him reached them then it would end up in a horrible situation.

――I won’t let you do that.

Using large techniques in quick succession puts quite a load on the body and tires it out quite a bit but seeing his comrades safe and sound ended up filling him with even more energy.

――I can still move.

「Technique expansion…!」

〈Resplendent Sword of the Water God (Seura Euras)〉 could be seen being formed in his right hand.

「――Forgive me. ...No――Hate me as much as you can」

While whispering that, Merea aimed the water sword at the base of the dragon’s neck and swung it down.

◆◆◆

Merea finally ensured that none of the three land dragons could participate in the battles. Those were results that could be considered amazing by anyone’s standards.

However, the battle was still not over. He couldn’t be satisfied with just his current actions alone.

Merea quickly jumped high off the land dragon’s body that fell forward and fell apart with creepy movements. His field of vision widened in one go.

Since the land dragon had been heading towards the demon lords, their position was quite close by. If he used the 〈Six Wings of the Wind God (Van Ester)〉 then he would be able to catch up to them immediately.

After he confirmed that, Merea observed the rest of the surroundings. He decided to check up on the enemies while he was still in the air.

――Mūzeg.

The flag with the black emblem seemed to have a rather strong presence.

However such a Mūzeg had let the demon lords break through and hadn’t even pursued.

Their plan had ended in failure.

The demon lords had managed to secure a path for retreat.

Although the situation where they’re chased by such a large group hasn’t changed much but it’s a hundred times better than being surrounded by them.

Most probably to prepare to chase after them again, Mūzeg’s cavalry seemed to stop chasing and were reforming their ranks.

When he looked at those cavalrymen from high up while they didn’t move, he was a little overwhelmed by their numbers.

――It doesn’t quite reach a thousand… No, but, just the ones who’ve noticed our presence are this many huh.

They would most probably increase further.

If they passed on the message that they had found us, then the soldiers who are spreading a net in other places would join in as reinforcements.

While praying that there won’t be any more land dragons showing up, Merea observed the situation further.

――What’s that?

Merea found some odd spots that were moving around weirdly within Mūzeg’s cavalry.

He noticed that it was Mūzeg’s soldiers densely concentrated at that spot.

Although they’re moving around, he couldn’t quite see what exactly they were doing.

Merea concentrated even further.

He could finally see some details.

――Are they...stabbing their spears into the ground?

At least, that was how Merea saw it. They were crowded together and they were stabbing many spears into the ground.

Were they digging the ground up for some plan or had they hidden some sort of a beast underground?

He had a fleeting thought that maybe one of the demon lords had gotten caught which caused a chill to run down his spine but when he had looked over at the demon lords a little while back, he had confirmed that they were fine. The number had added up properly.

While watching Mūzeg’s cavalry stabbing the ground with their spears in irritation out of the corner of his eyes, Merea invoked〈The Six Wings of the Wind God〉. At some point, his jump off the land dragon’s back had turned into a descent and he couldn’t particularly control it much but it was enough for him to reach his comrades.

Once he confirmed that, Merea once more turned his gaze towards the cavalry of Mūzeg.

As he thought, that odd action of stabbing their spears into the ground made him curious. As a last resort, he stretched his neck out as much as possible and looked at them even more seriously.

The blade of the spears of those soldiers seemed to be covered in a 『red liquid』.

Is that blood? As soon as he thought that, he felt like he saw a human hand at the place where the soldiers were stabbing their spears.

――Wh.

While thinking that it was probably his imagination, Merea felt frightened for an instant. However, in the next moment, his altitude reduced and he could no longer see them.

In contrast to that, when he looked up front, he could see his comrades’ faces clearly.

◆◆◆

「Are you fine?!」

While moving at violent speeds with his wings of wind, Merea landed in front of the other demon lords and raised a dust cloud with his violently he landed.

When they saw Merea, the other demon lords felt one of their worries reduce but, Merea himself seemed rather flustered. With his breath still a little rough, he restlessly looked over all the other demon lords faces.

To Merea’s question, Salman, who was close by, answered shortly.

「...Yeah」

Hearing that reply, Merea finally felt relieved and whispered, 「Thank god...it was just my imagination…」

However, he also noticed something odd about Salman.

「Salman? What’s wrong?」

Although Salman had quite a few wounds on his body but there didn’t seem to be any wounds that looked fatal.

Even then, his eyes looked a little hollow.

Salman was looking over at the cavalry army of Mūzeg. Merea copied that and looked over at them as well.

「Did the 『screams』 of those land dragons work?」

Maybe because of the demon lords making it through the encirclement along with Merea taking out the dragons, Mūzeg’s soldiers didn’t look like they were going to chase them anytime soon.

Although they were slowly moving closer but they themselves were moving back slowly to combat that.

If they moved then we would too, that was the kind of situation they were in.

「...Merea, before you came here――did you see any people you’ve never seen before?」

「People I’ve never seen before?」

Merea once again tensed himself up while thinking about how they should move next when Salman glanced at him and spoke. Merea couldn’t understand what Salman had suddenly started talking about and while tilting his neck in confusion he asked back.

「...Yeah. A little while back, I was――」

Salman looked at Merea with eyes filled with sorrow.

「『Saved』. By some soldiers who weren’t from Mūzeg」

Merea hadn’t realized something like that had happened. Since he himself was engrossed in fighting the land dragons.

When he thought about the position that they were all in, the very fact that someone they didn’t know had saved a demon lord alone was something that would cause anyone to be surprised. Salman didn’t look like he was lying either. Merea immediately believed that story and suddenly realised something.

A certain guess cropped up in Merea’s mind.

――No way…

The moment he realised it, he felt a shiver from the very depths of his being. Even though he had no basis for it but, in an instant he had a doubt which immediately solidified into a rough idea.

――That 『thing』 a little while back…

Salman noticed that expression on Merea’s face that looked like he realised something.

「Did you see something?」

「...」

「Did you see something?! Merea!」

There was a terrific amount of sorrow in Salman’s eyes. Something he had never seen before, bottomless grief could be seen in his eyes.

That aloof Salman looked like he would end up crying at any moment, that was how much his eyes were quivering.

At Salman’s words, Merea got a definite answer to every question.

That was why,

「...」

He couldn’t say it.

◆◆◆

That thing that looked like a human hand was――probably not a fake.

◆◆◆

To help Salman get away they broke through and the person who helped a demon lord run away from Mūzeg’s soldiers was over there. That was probably why, out of irritation, over and over again with their spears――

「――Ahhhh!! What the hell! What the hell is with that!! What the hell have we ever done?! Because of me, again just because of me!! Someone died!! Just because of this demon lord title!!! ――Ahhhhhhh!!」

Salman screamed. He most probably realized when Merea averted his gaze.

Salman was crying.

With both his hands on his hips, he desperately held his body so that he didn’t kneel down in front of his enemies.

That figure was heart rending.

A scream that felt like it could cut right through his body resounded in Merea’s ears.

His scream which caused Merea to start to understand the situation a little better became the trigger to change something in Merea.

The monster’s fangs were trying to form into a definite shape.

Sharp, large and with a strange form――