Devils.

They are magical beings that are impervious to physical attacks and most magic attacks. Due to this property, they're feared no matter which world they appear in.

But of course, they aren't invulnerable either.

As they're like the incarnation of evil, holy weapons and skills do hurt them. However, those who possessed such elements or weapons were rare...

'But aren't all my weapons charged with holy power?'

Axel heard before that all his weapons, even the wooden spears, were charged with holy power. That's the main reason why he could easily defeat zombies attacking them every night.

Not only that, his latest crafts—the Low Quality Divinity Swords—were even dubbed as literal "Holy Swords"! He was not lacking in weapons to fight against the devil at all!

"..."

Still, Axel wasn't rash enough to just rush in and pick a fight either. Today was just for scouting, and he had no plans of changing the purpose of their outing at all.

"For now, let's retreat," Axel whispered to the two. "We already saw the enemies we need to handle, so let's regroup first and make a plan for later."

"Y-Yes..."

Teruria nodded, although her legs were shaking greatly. But Arianne continued staring ahead, lips partly open and trembling.

"It's... him..!" she whispered, voice dripping with fear and pain. "It's that devil who...!"

"Arianne!"

Worried that she might do something she shouldn't, Axel pulled her shoulder, making her face him directly.

"Calm down," he said, staring into her flickering brown eyes. "It'd be useless to fight here now. Take deep breaths and return to your senses..."

"S-Sir Axel...!"

Arianne's body was tense. But thanks to Axel's voice, she slowly released her clenched teeth and fists before heaving a deep sigh.

"This... Sorry for acting out. It won't happen again..." she apologized immediately.

"It's fine, no harm done yet." Axel shrugged, showing a relieved smile. "Then, let's go down the roof for now and return. We still have a battle to plan."

"...Yes."

Just like that, the three of them carefully climbed down the roof...

"WAAAH!"

Teruria slipped on the steps due to wearing a dress.

"Oomph! Are you alright?"

Thankfully, Axel was on standby below and caught her before she truly fell to the ground. Thanks to his quick response, she wasn't injured in any way. Although the wild beating of her heart was a cause for concern.

"I-I'm fine, I'm fine..."

The little princess waved her hands around in panic, with a face as red as boiled octopus. After all, it was her first time being carried in a man's arms!

"Excuse me, Sir Axel... but can I go down now?"

"Ah! Right, please do."

But when Arianne appealed from above, Axel quickly let Teruria down on the ground and watched as Arianne went down. Though unlike Teruria, she managed to successfully climb down without mishaps.

After coming down, they then entered the Humvee once again, before Axel drove around, returning to where they came, but through the untrodden path on the map. It'd be a waste not to take advantage of the return trip to clear up a bit more of the map, after all.

And just as their vehicle left, a pair of golden eyes, along with vertical pupils, stared at their group from afar. An ominous air was lingering around.

...

Since they had to do a detour, the time they needed to return was increased by 30 minutes. Though thanks to it, two more villages were now named on the map... albeit destroyed and dilapidated already.

"..."

But despite returning to their camp safely, Axel's expression was grim.

His concern was simple. The map.

On it, the two red dots near the river were weirdly moving away from the river... and towards the camp in a straight line!

"This... Did the Devil follow our tracks?" he whispered, confused.

They were half a kilometer away, so they shouldn't have been detected by the enemy. It was supposed to be a safe scouting mission, after all!

But then, Axel recalled a certain possibility.

He turned toward Arianne and frowned.

'Did Arianne's intense hate and killing intent for a brief moment catch the devil's attention?'

It wouldn't be weird for such powerful monsters to be sensitive to ill intent. Thus, this explanation did make sense. However, Axel had no reason to voice that guess at all. After all, it sounds like nothing but blaming Arianne for what's to come.

"Huh? Did the monsters move...?"

Teruria whispered curiously, peeking at the map from over Axel's shoulder.

"Hmm? Yeah... It should be past sundown before they arrive here..." Axel answered offhandedly.

Then, he raised his head and turned to the face over his shoulder, staring. "Wait..." And gasped in shock. "Y-You can see the map?!"

"Huh? Yes... is it weird?" Teruria tilted her head in wonder. "You've been looking at it intermittently during the entire journey, so I got curious and..."

Only then did her words pause, her face turning panicked as cold sweat fell from her forehead. "Wait, is this supposed to be invisible to others like Sir Navi...?!"

"And you fucking know that bastard Navi?!"

"AHH! It was supposed to be a secret!"

"...?"

Arianne could only watch and listen to the two of them. Although she could understand the words, she was completely left out with regard to their meaning.

Axel saw the confused Arianne, glared at the panicked Teruria, and decided.

"Sorry, Arianne. Head on ahead of us. I suddenly got important matters to talk about with this one!"

Without delay, he grabbed Teruria's arm and dragged her away, beyond the western wall. After walking a bit and while under the burning sun, he asked Teruria once more—no, the one he spoke to first was the one who could explain it better, Navi!

"What's the meaning of this?" he asked the floating penguin above. "I thought you said only I could see you?"

[Whelp, cat's out of the bag~!]

Navi shrugged, laughing like a maniac.

[But to be clear, the reason why she could see me and the system is more of a bug than a feature. You recall how she saved you a few days ago, right?]

"Yes..." Axel nodded grumpily. "The Witch's Kiss, right?"

[Exactly! Thanks to that, you two are now sharing a common mana pool. And since she has access to your mana now, that means the system treated her as you, indirectly, allowing her to see what you can see~!]

Teruria then spoke up, looking panicked and worried. "I-It's just an accident! I swear I didn't intend to look into Sir Hexel's secrets or anything!"

"..."

He hadn't really hidden Navi and the system panel before, as it was something only he could see.

But now, Teruria knew of the System's existence. She could not only see, but even touch the panels if she wanted to.

This was a risk, something that Axel didn't anticipate. But more than that...

'With this case, wouldn't those debtors of mine find me faster?' he worried.

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