That night, Set was sleeping inside the stables as usual.
However, rather than resting in a posture that would let it spring into action immediately like during camping trips, it was curled up like a cat.
It slept that way precisely because it fully understood that this was the stables, and that no enemies were nearby.
It was not a feline animal—it simply slept exactly like an enormous cat. Still, the other horses in the stables made no fuss about it.
The horses had initially been afraid of Set, a gryphon.
But once they understood that it would never attack them, their fear gradually faded.
They hadn't completely placed their trust in it, of course, but it was enough for them to feel at ease, believing it wouldn't harm them without reason.
That said, compared to the horses that had previously accompanied Set, it had taken these ones considerably longer to grow accustomed to its presence.
Nevertheless, since Set spent entire days in the stables unless called by Rei, it naturally passed long hours alongside the horses there. A calm that could almost be called a mutual compromise had gradually taken hold within the building.
...Though there had been one occasion before when Set burst out of the stables, and the horses had caused quite a commotion at the time.
In any case, with night having fallen, the stables passed in natural quiet.
That changed around the time one would call the dead of night.
Set's body, curled up and sleeping like a cat, suddenly twitched.
Raising its head, Set looked around repeatedly as though something was bothering it.
"Guruu?"
The other horses in the stables must have noticed Set rumbling in its throat while scanning its surroundings. Sleeping horses woke, and the building gradually grew noisy.
Paying no attention whatsoever to the commotion around it, Set had been surveying the area as if guided by a sense of wrongness in its chest, when suddenly its movements stopped with a jolt.
That was because it had sensed Rei activate the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor.
Only Set, magically linked to Rei, could have detected it.
Even so, it did not immediately burst out of the stables.
The last time Set had done so when Rei activated the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor, nothing had come of it.
But... even so, Set hesitated.
This was not simply because it had detected the activation like last time.
Beyond that, the lingering sense of wrongness in its chest was also driving its indecision.
The time it took to resolve that hesitation and decide to head toward Rei was a little over ten seconds.
A voice within it insisted that Rei might be in danger.
"Gurururururuu"
Rumbling in its throat, Set rose from its curled-up position.
In an instant, the air it exuded shifted from the calm of daily life to that of a battlefield.
The other horses in the stables probably couldn't fully understand what was happening, but they began crying out incessantly toward Set.
Those cries sounded almost as if they were cheering it on.
Of course, Set couldn't understand the horses' neighing, so what it felt from those voices might have been its imagination.
But even so, right now, Set felt as though the other horses were rooting for it.
"Gururuu... Gurururururuu!"
Crying out loudly, it smashed through the door designed to keep the animals inside from freely going outside and emerged into the stable passageway.
It fully understood that doing such a thing would cause trouble for Rei.
In fact, the last time Set had burst out of the stables, it had watched Rei receive a light scolding from the stable staff.
The door was designed so that a wooden bar could be slid across the outside to keep the animals in.
It wasn't anything elaborate enough to be called a lock—just a simple bar to prevent the door from opening—but even so, removing it from the inside was difficult.
Well, in Set's case, it might have managed somehow by using a skill.
But judging that doing so would take too much time, it chose to force its way through.
"Gururururuu!"
Breaking through the door and emerging into the passageway, Set ran straight out of the stables.
As if seeing it off, the horses inside cried out loudly.
"Gururuu!"
Sent off by the horses' voices from behind, Set emerged outside and immediately flapped its wings, taking to the air.
Just like in Gilm, flying freely was prohibited in the City of Gracial.
But instinct told Set that now was not the time for such concerns, and it took to the sky as if to say it couldn't care less about the rules.
Flying was, as a means of travel, incomparably superior to running on the ground.
Moreover, with Set being the one flying, its speed was nothing short of overwhelming.
That was precisely why, less than a few seconds after taking flight, it arrived above the location where a battle was taking place below.
"Gururuu!"
However, Set paid no heed to the fight below and simply flew past without stopping.
The battle between what appeared to be an Elf and the owner of armor reflecting moonlight might have piqued its interest under normal circumstances, but right now was different.
The abnormality it sensed in its beloved Rei mattered far more.
(Hm? Was that a gryphon just now? I see—a gryphon would mean Rei's Tamed Monster. If that's the case... there may be no need for me to go as reinforcements.)
Bow in hand, Sardat turned his gaze toward the man.
The man at the end of that gaze, while not suffering any fatal wounds, had wounds of various sizes inflicted across the parts of his body not covered by armor.
Furthermore, every last one of the pawns he had brought was already lying collapsed on the ground, either unconscious or dead.
To the man watching him with a bitter expression, Sardat offered a small smile and spoke.
"It seems that within this strange space, the magnitude of one's power shifts due to various factors... but once you get used to it, it's nothing to worry about."
"Damn you..."
Against Sardat, who spoke as though it were the easiest thing in the world, the man ground his teeth.
It wasn't that he had expected to win.
Even so, he hadn't anticipated the compatibility being this terrible.
The effects of the Holy Domain deployed by his own Stigma were easily seen through—and on top of that, even neutralized.
Of course, knowing that his opponent was an S-Rank Adventurer, Sardat the Heavenly Bow, he had never thought he could win easily.
Even so, being overwhelmed this thoroughly was something he could only call unexpected.
Under normal circumstances, the man's Holy Domain—where the magnitude of power shifted based on various factors—should have given him a one-sided advantage over any opponent.
But Sardat, though initially somewhat bewildered, had quickly grasped the characteristics of this Holy Domain and adapted.
How anyone could do such a thing with whatever abilities they possessed, the man couldn't fathom.
Never before among those who had faced his Holy Domain had anyone responded like this, and the man was shaken.
His fundamental strength was different to begin with. Under such circumstances, there was no way he could fight Sardat head-on, and he had gradually been pushed back.
"The Stigma I fought before didn't use any strange techniques like this... but I suppose this is your power? If so, your compatibility with me was poor. If anything, the Stigma I fought previously still had more of a chance, I'd say. ...So, what will you do?"
"...Even if I can't win here, as long as I can hold you back, that's enough. I knew from the start that I was no match for you."
"Ah, buying time. You were going to attack Rei during that opening... you poor thing."
"What?"
At Sardat's unexpected response, the man frowned with suspicion.
He hadn't expected such a reaction.
"Poor thing? What do you mean? I can't beat you. I'll admit that. But even so, you should understand that it's not impossible to fight without losing. If I do that, then that man, our great enemy, would be facing two Stigma members—"
"You're right, that possibility may have existed."
Without letting the man finish, Sardat nodded.
Then why? Against the questioning gaze the man directed at him, Sardat smiled and spoke.
"Truthfully, it would be a lie to say I wasn't worried about that at first. But... that concern just vanished, this very moment."
"...Just vanished?"
The man couldn't understand what Sardat was saying, but the one who had muttered it had no intention of explaining.
There was no need to resolve his opponent's question for him, and he understood that the information he had just provided was confusing the man at just the right level.
And then...
"For that reason, I'm sorry, but I'll be ending this soon!"
So saying, he kicked off the floor of the rooftop he was standing on.
At that moment, the force rebounding from the floor due to the Holy Domain's effect had become abnormally strong, but Sardat deflected that force while using only a moderate amount as his own propulsion.
If more force came back than necessary, he could deflect it; if the returning force was insufficient, he simply needed to apply more.
Saying it was easy enough, but how many people could do it immediately when told—and in the middle of combat, no less?
Then again, the fact that he could perform such feats was precisely why he held the position of S-Rank Adventurer, the pinnacle of all adventurers.
The man braced himself to deal with Sardat, who was charging straight at him even within this Holy Domain.
(Even within this Holy Domain, the fact that he can move normally shows he truly is an S-Rank Adventurer. But... even so, since he can't exert his usual strength, I should be able to buy time. He said something meaningful just now, but I can't let that shake my resolve.)
Concluding that Sardat's words were ultimately meant to unsettle him, the man firmly took his stance.
As he had reasoned to himself, within this domain, he should still be able to hold out against Sardat for a short while.
Trusting the judgment he had made.
"Guruu! ...Guruu?"
Showing no concern whatsoever for the commotion on the ground that had nothing to do with Rei, Set—flying through the sky—sensed the presence it had been searching for below. For a moment it rumbled happily in its throat, but in the next instant, it tilted its head in puzzlement.
Set's sharp five senses, and even its Sixth Sense, were detecting an abnormality on the ground.
Was it all right to descend like this? Set hesitated for a moment, but the instant it understood that Rei—wrapped in the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor—had looked its way for just a fleeting moment, it grasped what was being asked of it and immediately sprang into action.
"Guruu!"
Crying out shortly, Set's form vanished from sight in that instant.
It was the effect of Set's skill: Optical Camouflage.
A skill that could render the user invisible for roughly twenty seconds—a nightmarish ability for anyone facing Set—but it also carried the drawback of requiring thirty minutes before it could be used again.
Now invisible, Set dove straight toward its target in a steep descent.
Its target was the man radiating intense killing intent toward Rei.
Heading toward that man—Visente—Set readied itself to slam down its front legs, harnessing the full speed of its dive.
A strike from the front legs of Set, whose body exceeded two meters in length, delivered from an altitude of a hundred meters.
Furthermore, Set wore the magic item Bracelet of Herculean Strength, amplifying its already fearsome gryphon strength to even greater heights.
Such a lethal blow, delivered from an invisible Set, would under normal circumstances end a life before the victim even had time to think. ...Yes, under normal circumstances.
"Guruu!?"
Diving toward the ground, Set sensed a strange phenomenon at a certain altitude—its strength suddenly draining from its body.
Unable to comprehend what had happened, it let out a cry of confusion.
Naturally, the two Stigma members—Visente and the old man—did not miss that cry.
In the first place, anyone who had gathered even a little information about a person named Rei would inevitably know of the existence of Gryphon Seto.
Given that, it was only natural that while fighting Rei, they remained on guard, ready to respond should a gryphon intervene.
But... what even Visente and the others could never have imagined was that Set might be invisible.
The moment he heard Set's cry, Visente reflexively leapt away from his position, and the old man vanished on the spot.
An instant later, they could sense that something had landed right where Visente had been standing.
However, when Visente—who had braced himself to intercept, expecting a gryphon at the point of impact—looked, he saw not a gryphon but something inexplicable.
Due to the effect of the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor that Rei had activated, the snow had melted, and as a result, mud clung to its body—but it was essentially something invisible.
Set itself was bewildered by the sluggish sensation in its own movements... Both sides froze for an instant, unable to comprehend the situation, but the one who recovered a beat sooner was Set, still invisible.
"Gururururuu!"
Rather than hesitate, help Rei first. Driven by that thought, Set unleashed a strike from its front legs—still invisible—straight toward Visente.