264 Negotiations

While I was busy trying not to get killed by Roz, Cynthia was displaying a level of focus that was, frankly, a little terrifying.

She kept her Ice Shields deployed at all times, methodically picking off the monsters that had nowhere left to run using her Glacies sword and a barrage of spells. Shari’s enchantments had already been layered all over the place in preparation, and Cynthia was making full use of those as well.

"Cynthia, I'm leaving this side to you!" I shouted over the chaos.

"Leave it to me!" she called back.

Honestly, just how many monsters had they prepped for this? They were surging toward us in numbers that made my head spin.

[“Allen and Shari are currently engaged in battle inside the barrier. Carta, Olynn, and Tura are engaging two enemies. Duke and Lilith are in combat with named monsters. No issues with the magic tools.”]

Thanks to Cecil, I was able to keep track of the overall war situation. That barrier was bad news, but with how much Allen and Shari had leveled up lately, I figured I could trust them to handle it. I’d thought the intel on the training uniforms worn by Roz and his crew was already common knowledge, but it seemed the opposition was finally getting serious.

Right then, the mana clinging to Roz’s katana began to intensify. It was so thick I could actually see it—a murky, dreg-filled black mana. One hit from that would probably shatter my Inviolable Domain into a million pieces. It felt uncomfortably close to the darkness unique to the Demon World.

Still—

"Sorry, Roz, but you’re not winning this," I said, trying to sound a lot more confident than I felt. "Tell me what the Demon Race is actually after, and I might let you live a little longer."

"Who knows?" he replied curtly.

Naturally, he wasn't going to be a chatterbox. Just when I thought he was charging straight at me, he swung his sword down with such "honest" brute force it was almost stupid. I tried to lop off his right arm with a return stroke, but a Black Shield flickered into existence without so much as a whisper of a chant.

Wait, was that an automatic trigger from his clothes? I knew I was dealing with a modernized country, but the tech gap here is just depressing.

"—Future Prediction, is it?" Roz muttered under his breath.

He looked genuinely stunned. I suppose from his perspective, the fact that I’d dodged him twice and managed to take his left arm earlier was an impossibility. The guy was a general, the literal right hand of the kingdom; he clearly had absolute, unshakable confidence in his own strength.

I guess if he didn’t at least have this much going for him, I wouldn't even know if I’d actually surpassed the original story or not.

—Blessing of Healing and Impulse of Destruction.

As the ability blanketed the ground, the mana from the fallen monsters began to fuel me, turning into pure strength. But, as per usual, it was way too much. The power was overflowing, threatening to burst out of me.

Well, there’s an easy fix for that. I just have to keep burning through the power as fast as I get it.