Rescue

Avilan brushed the leaves from his body. This directionless fool had finally made it out of the Messiah Great Forest, but before he could rejoice, he heard piercing cries of battle.

Thick black smoke had already risen from his destination, Carter Village.

The first thing he saw was a youth clutching a little girl as he fled toward him in blind panic.

As Wellington ran, he heard the clamor of metal behind him. It was a highly rhythmic sound.

A black-armored knight was pursuing Wellington from behind, brandishing a serrated longsword.

He had clearly been only a little distance away from charging into the Messiah Great Forest.

Wellington desperately suppressed the urge to complain. He had no strength left to waste.

He panted relentlessly, his heart pounding so fast it felt ready to burst, while his legs trembled without stop. Perhaps before long, he would be completely exhausted and collapse, unable to rise again.

If he had been alone, he might have given up on himself and lost the strength to flee.

But the younger sister whose hand he held became the force driving Wellington onward.

That was right. It was only because he so desperately wanted to save his sister that Wellington had managed to keep running until now.

While running, he glanced back once more.

The distance between them had barely changed. Even clad in heavy armor, the other man's speed had not slowed. This was the glaring gap between a well-trained knight and an ordinary person.

Cold sweat poured down Wellington's face as his body went icy. At this rate, he would absolutely be unable to escape alive with his sister.

His sister looked as though she was about to cry, but why was she holding back her tears?

Because she believed in her brother. She believed that her brother would definitely save her.

Clutching his sister's hand—the hand that gave him the strength to run and the courage to fight—Wellington steeled his resolve.

He absolutely could not abandon his sister.

"Ah!"

Wellington was not the only one at the end of his strength; his young sister had expended much of hers as well. Her steps suddenly staggered, and she let out a cry of pain, nearly falling.

The reason neither of them fell was because their hands were clasped tightly together. Still, Wellington was nearly pulled off balance by his sister.

"Hurry!"

Though he meant to keep running, his sister's leg had cramped, and she could barely move. Wellington hurriedly tried to pick her up, but the metallic clatter stopped beside him, terrifying him.

The knight standing beside him held a bloodstained sword. Not only that, but his armor and helmet bore splatters of blood as well.

Wellington hid his sister behind him and glared fiercely at the knight.

"Don't make pointless struggles."

The knight raised his serrated sword high. Just as it was about to fall, an unfamiliar voice rang out beside the three of them.

"Flame Shield!"

A mere Level One Flame Shield appeared before the siblings, blocking that killing blow.

Roaring flames raced along the serrated sword toward the knight. The knight decisively retreated, battle aura surging from his body and forcing back the flames that had clung to him.

The youth who appeared to be the elder brother had messy brown hair with several stalks of straw stuck in it. His healthy, sun-tanned skin had turned utterly pale from overwhelming terror, and desperate tears filled his brown eyes.

His younger sister, a tiny little girl, buried her face in her brother's embrace, trembling all over in fear.

Avilan fixed the knight with an icy gaze.

The knight wore a helmet, making his features impossible to see, but those bloodshot, vicious eyes fully revealed that he was no kind-hearted man.

Avilan looked at the siblings below him, and an indescribable irritation slowly began to rise within him.

He felt an urge to kill, because the bloody stench on the knight had stirred his Chaotic Demon Physique.

"You're courting death!" Seeing Aslan appear, the black-armored knight paid him little mind. With an angry roar, he raised his serrated sword high. Black light burst from his legs as he leaped into the air, black light also appearing on the serrated sword as he slashed at Aslan.

"Get behind me!" Avilan said flatly. A blinding radiance suddenly flashed from the staff in his right hand, followed by a soft pfft—the sound of something sharp piercing flesh.

When Wellington barely managed to open his eyes, he saw that the knight who had just been hunting them was already severed into head and body, leaving only blood all over the ground.

"Third-Tier Great Swordsman," Aslan muttered before stepping forward.

As he passed the siblings, Wellington, perhaps frightened by the knight's death, made a hesitant sound.

Avilan had obviously come to save them. Even so, the youth found Avilan's sudden actions strange. What exactly was he thinking?

Though suspicious, Avilan had no time to ask questions. After briefly confirming that the blood on the youth's ragged clothing was not his, Avilan placed the two behind him and fixed a sharp gaze on another knight emerging from a nearby house.

The knight saw Avilan as well and seemed to retreat a step in fear.

"Are you afraid?"

Facing the knight radiating fear, Avilan chose to continue casting the magic he was about to use.

Just now, Avilan had used the highest-level spell he knew as his first move: Wind Blade. The reason it was his highest-level spell was that in the game, warriors could not use skill points to upgrade mage skills; they could only improve them bit by bit through proficiency. In his previous life, Aslan had mainly used this move to lure monsters, so Avilan had unknowingly trained it to Level Four.

Mage skills were divided into ten levels, with each level increasing their power by ten percent.

During this time, with his understanding of the spells in this world, he had begun modifying them himself.

Spell attacks were mainly formed from magical elements in the air. An ordinary Wind Blade was composed of wind elements. If a small amount of fire elements was added to the wind elements, then with proper control, it could produce an effect similar to propulsion, making the Wind Blade faster and more powerful.

Avilan slowly raised his hand, forming it into the shape of a gun. Aiming at the head of the retreating knight, he softly uttered—

"Bang!"

Wellington blinked instinctively, then saw a streak of white light shoot from Avilan's fingertips at incredible speed. By the time he came to his senses, the black-armored knight was falling backward, blood spraying from the forehead beneath his helmet.

"So strong!" Wellington hugged his sister tighter without realizing it.

If he had possessed such strength, the village would not have been attacked.

Avilan looked at his finger. This spell was Radiant Bullet, transformed from Light Bullet. He compressed Light Bullet into the size of a bullet, then used wind magic to pressurize it, increasing its speed and penetrating power. The resulting force was terrifying.

Looking at the corpses on the ground, Avilan had initially wanted to summon a Horned Demon, but on second thought, he was now, at least in name, a light-element mage representing justice. Summoning a member of the Devil Race would be far too mismatched.

A white glow began to cover the two knights' corpses.

Whether the summoned creature was righteous or evil, blood sacrifice was an indispensable part of permanent summoning.