442 I Can Save You



I rushed towards the princess's side, calling up a Shadow Summon to keep the Pale Fiend occupied while I assessed her wound.

Ok, there wasn't much to assess… She has a longsword stuck through her chest… Even I can tell that this is bad.

It's ok, it's ok… She's still alive so I can still save her…

I reached into my Pack of Folding and took out one of my Intermediate Grade healing potions, this should be enough to heal her…

As I was trying to pop open the bottle, the princess's hand suddenly grabbed my wrist, stopping me from doing that.

I looked down at the princess, wondering just what she was trying to do stopping me from saving her.

It was then that I realised that her face was scrunched up in pain and dark red veins seemed to be appearing all over the exposed parts of her skin.

Even as I watched, her skin started to turn red and her eyes were also shifting to that of a Scarlet Fiend's, evidence that she was already transforming into a demon.

Is this how they were creating more demons?!

"Ki… Kill me…" The princess gasped, her eyes looking at me pleadingly.

I frowned, is this really the only way?

There was a shriek and I looked up to see the demon swinging its arm at my Shadow Summon's side, smashing her away from it to turn towards me.

The King did not seem to be ready to unleash her attack yet and if I were to leave the princess's side now, she would definitely turn into a demon and most probably attack us as well.

Deciding now was definitely not the time to hold back anymore, I called up as many Shadow Summons as I thought was needed to suppress the demon, forming a solid wall between the King, ourselves and the demon.

The demon paused for a moment, as though surprised by the sudden appearance of an army before said army crashed into it like a wave.

I turned my attention back to the princess who was also momentarily stunned at the sight of an army of summons despite the pain she was going through.

I took that chance to look at her wound where I theorised must be the cause of her transformation.

Sure enough, I could feel the faint traces of the same type of mana I would find in a Demonic Core.

The Pale Fiend wasn't gloating over the princess when it was preparing to stab her, it was pouring its own demonic mana into the sword before stabbing her with it.

That also explains why they were taking the prisoners alive… It's so that they could transform them into demons too… Though I'm still not sure how the souls come into this since the Scarlet Fiend I fought seemed quite interested in souls…

Ok, first thing to do… Take out that sword from her body to stop anymore demonic mana from pouring into her body.

I used [Low Anaesthesia] on her to numb the older princess from the pain before standing up to try and pull the sword out from her.

"Wha… What are you… Doing?" She gasped, her voice coming out in throaty rasps.

"Sorry, but you have the face of my dear friend, I'm not going to kill you if I can help it," I growled.

I tugged on the sword, expecting to fling the sword out from the older Tiara's body but found it stuck fast.

What the heck? I'm not that weak am I?

I tried to tug at the sword again but I realised the sword seemed to be sinking even deeper into her body, almost like there was something at the other end pulling at it.

Damnit, so the mana is also holding the sword in place?

I was just about to use [Body Current] to buff myself when another pair of hands came from behind me and wrapped themselves around the handle of the sword.

"I'm here, Sister Aster!!" Odeta shouted, pulling the sword with me.

With the two of us pooling our strength together, the sword started to reverse its direction, slowly slipping out of the older Tiara until only the tip of the blade was left.

With a final yank, the sword was thrown free from the downed princess and flung away to clatter onto the ground a short distance away from us.

I was immediately by her side and pouring the potion over the wound, watching as the hole in her chest slowly knitted itself together.

"You… You foolish… Woman… I'm… Already done for… Why waste… All of this…" She gasped, her face contorting in pain as more of her skin turned red.

Of course, I wasn't just doing all this without a plan. I figured that since the demonic mana was the cause of her transformation, then all I needed to do was to extract it out of her like how I did when I wanted to use the Demonic Cores to cast Infernalmancy magic.

I placed my hands over her chest, using my senses to seek out the demonic mana that should be present inside her.

With how many times I have been using Infernalmancy, I quickly recognised the distinct demonic mana that was swirling inside her body.

From what I could sense, it felt like some kind of seed had latched itself on her mana pool and was slowly draining it to sprout into some kind of demonic plant. I dunno, but that was the image I was getting.

I reached out towards it and tried to will that demonic mana to move towards me instead.

I was expecting some kind of resistance but surprisingly, it did not take much for that demonic mana to jump towards me instead. Maybe a willing host was better than a struggling one?

Part of it still stayed latched on the princess's mana while most of it flowed towards my hand, the image of several black tendrils snaking their way towards me appearing in my mind.

The moment it reached me, pain shot up my arm and I nearly fell onto the princess if it wasn't for the fact that my other arm was propping me up.

If just this little amount was painful for me, I don't want to imagine the pain the princess was going through right now.

I gritted my teeth and raised my other arm, taking the chance to point at the Pale Fiend who was still trying to reach the King while my Shadow Summons barred its way.

Making sure my aim was true, I concentrated on casting [Infernal Lightning] and felt the demonic mana rush through my body to coalesce itself in my other palm.

The Infernal magic shot out of my palm and struck the demon across the face, throwing it all the way to the other side of the tower and imprinting it on the wall.

Eh? What happened to its magic reflection? I was even prepared to shoot another Infernal Lightning to cancel the first one that I was expecting it to reflect.

Oh… Does its magical reflection not work against Infernalmancy magic? Godamnit, I should have tried that when I first had the chance!

Whatever, at least knowing now is better than not knowing at all…

Of course that was not enough to kill it and the demon was already starting to regenerate even while it was stuck to the wall.

I looked back at the princess.

Her face was still contorted in pain but it seems like the rate her skin was turning red had slowed to a crawl, leaving most of her face still in her natural tone.

I directed my attention back at the demon again and casted the spell once more, shooting the black lightning that blasted the demon once again, further pushing it deeper into the wall.

Drawing upon the mana inside the princess once again I casted the magic for the third time, though the Pale Fiend seemed to have learned of my tactic and dove out of the way before my magic could hit it.

Well, it's not like I was trying to kill it anyway, my main goal was to get all that demonic mana out of the princess in any way possible. It was just a bonus to be able to attack it with the mana it so graciously gave me to use.

I turned back to the older Tiara and I could see her demonic features starting to subside, returning her back to her normal Mahun form.

My senses were also telling me that one more cast of the Infernal Lightning should drain out the last bit of demonic mana from her so I went ahead and did just that, this time simply shooting the Infernal Lightning at a wall and obliterating it.

"You… You really are… Something else…" The older Tiara gasped, her eyes looking at me in wonder. "I doubt anyone else… In the world… Can pull off what you did…"

I was about to tell her that it was a matter of course since no one else knew Infernalmancy when the King shouted, "I'm ready! Hold him down!"

Oh, about time, Your Majesty.