(Heartfelt thanks to 'Ye Yue Chen Yu' for the 1888 reward! And to 'Mo Ling Yi Yu', 'Qi Guanxuanqi', 'Xiong Mao A!', 'Qinxun Luopo', 'Bing Yue Ying', 'Liunian Chengshang Love', 'Wandering in a World Without You', 'Xiao h Zhai', 'Er Ci Yuan Wo Men De Meng', 'Long Tiani', and 'Fang Zhouzi's Library' for their rewards!)
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"Roar----!"
When Noah heard that enormous roar once again, its source finally came into his sight.
Charging forward at incredible speed, Noah clearly saw a gigantic bull-headed humanoid over three meters tall, walking upright. One hand gripped a thick tree trunk, while the other tightly held a screaming child as it threw back its head and roared.
Ahead of the gigantic bull-man stood a white-haired boy and girl. One sat on the ground, her face filled with terror, while the other stood facing the gigantic bull-man with an anxious expression.
The screaming child caught by the gigantic bull-man was Lisanna!
The one sitting on the ground in terror was Elfman!
And the one confronting the gigantic bull-man, gritting her teeth with anxiety written all over her face, was Mira!
As for that gigantic bull-man, it was something Noah knew very well.
It was a powerful Magical Beast, famous for its savagery and lack of all reason.
In the forests around Magnolia, Noah had encountered this vicious Magical Beast more than once while being led around by some mages from Fairy Tail. It was a Magical Beast that even ordinary mages feared greatly!
Why would a Magical Beast of this level appear in a forest that only had wild beasts?
Noah probably had no way of finding the answer to that question, nor did he have any interest in looking for one.
"Roar----!"
"Big Sis Mira----!"
"Lisanna----!"
The gigantic bull-man's roar, Lisanna's scream, and Mira's cry of grief rang out almost simultaneously. Noah's deep, star-like eyes narrowed as his speed rose to its limit.
Even so, Noah still needed some time to reach the Strauss siblings and the gigantic bull-man.
During that time, if the gigantic bull-man merely tightened the hand gripping Lisanna, the adorable little girl would be crushed to pieces and die on the spot!
There was no time!
It was already too late!
Noah's heartbeat began to race. Without hesitation, he grabbed the cloth bag slung over his shoulder and yanked it open.
The next moment, the hilt of Noah's Knight Sword emerged from the cloth bag, and Noah seized it tightly.
However, Noah did not draw the sword immediately. Instead, he mobilized the vast magic power within his body and continuously poured it into the Knight Sword through the hand gripping its hilt.
"Buzz----!"
The still-sheathed Knight Sword trembled within its scabbard, releasing a dense radiance.
"Clang----!"
Before Mira, who was prepared to risk her life and charge forward to save Lisanna, could make a move, a sword cry that rang through the heavens instantly filled every corner of the scene and became an echo that lingered throughout the forest.
Then, Mira, who was confronting the gigantic bull-man, Lisanna, who was caught in its hand, and Elfman, who had collapsed on the ground beside it, all saw it.
A streak of light.
A streak of light that suddenly shot out from one corner of the forest like a comet, flashing with a blinding glow.
The streak of light appeared out of nowhere and flashed past at a speed that blurred the eye. Amid the tremor of the air and a sonic boom, it slammed viciously into the gigantic bull-man like a falling meteor.
"Rip----!"
An exceptionally clear tearing sound echoed out.
What followed was a rain of blood pouring down wildly.
The gigantic bull-man did not even have time to scream. Centered at its waist, a huge wound abruptly opened across its body, completely separating its upper half from its lower half.
The gigantic bull-man had been cut in two!
"Splash----!"
Scarlet blood rained from the sky, turning the entire area into pools of blood.
"Boom----!"
The gigantic bull-man's upper and lower halves crashed heavily to the ground, splashing up a great deal of blood and producing a tremendous noise that made the ground tremble slightly.
Mira froze, while the terror on Elfman's face transformed completely into fear, and he let out a shriek.
It could not be helped. The scene before them was simply too bloody.
Looking at the blood-red ground and the gigantic bull-man lying there with its eyes still open, cut cleanly in half, Elfman continued screaming, but Mira was the first to recover.
"Lisanna!"
As soon as her voice fell, another utterly calm voice sounded from the other side.
"She's here."
Hearing the voice, Mira hurriedly looked to one side.
On the other side of the gigantic bull-man's severed body, Noah held the unconscious Lisanna in one arm and gripped a Knight Sword as dazzling as ice in the other. Brilliant magical light flowed across the entire blade as he looked at the bisected bull-man with an unpleasant expression.
"Did I use too much force?"
Only then did Mira understand.
The person who had cut the bull-man completely in two with a single slash was this boy before her, who was the same age as her and whom she had looked down on!
And he had done it with that Knight Sword, which seemed more ornate than powerful!
Though she had never possessed one, that did not mean Mira had never heard of them.
In this world, there were many weapons with all kinds of strange abilities and effects—some whose abilities and effects were practically magic in themselves.
Some called them magic-conducting weapons, while others called them Magic Weapons. They were truly priceless items.
The common feature of these Magic Weapons was that their users had to provide magic power in order to successfully activate the abilities and effects within them.
The Knight Sword in Noah's hand, now flowing with brilliant magical radiance across its entire body, could only be a Magic Weapon!
The scene of the gigantic bull-man being split in two by a single strike continued replaying in the minds of Mira and Elfman, leaving the siblings frozen in place and unable to say a word for a long time.
On the other side, Noah was much the same.
Of course, Noah was not like that because he had used too much magic power in his urgency and cut the gigantic bull-man in half. He had become like that only after noticing Mira.
His gaze fixed on one of Mira's hands, and a grave expression gradually appeared on Noah's face.
There was no other reason.
It was simply because Mira's hand did not look like a human arm at all. It was like the claw of a savage beast or magical creature—ferocious and terrifying, with a dark aura pulsing from it that made Noah's heart tremble!
It was like a demon's arm!
Noticing Noah's gaze, Mira's expression changed. She seemed to remember what she looked like now and instinctively hid that demon-like arm behind her back. Her delicate face looked terrible.
The entire area fell silent.
This was the cave where Noah, Wendy, and Jellal had stayed three days ago.
Now, Wendy was gone, and Jellal was gone as well, but the number of people in the cave had increased rather than decreased.
Lisanna had already woken up. She and Elfman sat beside the campfire Noah had lit, looking in Noah and Mira's direction with worry and gloom on their faces.
By the walls on opposite sides of the cave, Noah and Mira leaned against the walls in silence, as though they had deliberately kept the greatest possible distance between themselves while facing each other.
Noah's Knight Sword had been sheathed again and placed back into its cloth bag, which rested against the wall nearby. Noah himself continued staring at Mira, a thoughtful expression in his eyes.
Mira, however, was different.
Unlike the overbearing manner she had shown when they first met three or four days ago, Mira was now wrapped in a cloak. She did not care about exposing the rest of her body to the air, but she kept that demon-like arm firmly hidden beneath the cloak and refused to take it out again. Her face was dark as well.
As this scene continued, the atmosphere in the cave grew increasingly oppressive, so oppressive that Lisanna and Elfman could barely breathe.
So Noah took the initiative to break the suffocating silence.
"Isn't it about time you told me what happened?"
Before you continue