Chapter 109: Fighting Derug Part 1

“You bastards had the audacity to come back! This will be your last mistake!” Derug said to us in a high-pitched, enraged voice.

“Don’t be so full of yourself. We’re not the same as before,” Sarah said.

“That’s right!” Alicia said in a determined voice. “We won’t fail this time!”

“You’re going down,” Justine said in her usual cold tone.

Derug’s only eye radiated immense rage toward us. In fact, it turned red whenever he got angry.

“You brats… you’re really something,” the demon said to us.

I could feel the monster trying to hold back its anger, which was bad for us.

He was certainly a monster with a certain level of intelligence—his ability to speak was proof of that—but his weakness, like that of some humans, was his short temper.

For us, it would be very useful if he truly got enraged and used Dark Veil as soon as possible.

Derug wasn’t alone either. A crowd of spirits gathered around him—tormented souls groaning in their eternal suffering.

I looked at him with a smug expression and said, “As if you could talk—you’re as small as a cockroach, and soon you’ll share the same fate as one.”

“How dare you?! I’m Derug, the right hand of Master Zalrorg!” he said, anger lacing his shrill voice.

Sarah, following our plan, gave a small smile and said, “Then this so-called Zalrorg must not be anything special.”

“Take that back!”

“And what if I don’t? What are you going to do? Bite my ankle?” Sarah said, mocking Derug’s weak point.

“Hmpf!” Justine held back her laughter, her hand covering her mouth.

“That’s right! We’re not afraid of you. Such a small and vile creature.”

“Guys, please… Hahaha, I think that’s enough. Hahaha!” Justine said, her laughter slipping past her lips.

“You all will pay for this!” Derug said, as if Justine’s laughter were the final straw. “Go, my Ghosts—attack them and devour their souls!”

Following Derug’s orders, four of the Ghosts flew toward us, their toothless mouths—or with only a few yellowed teeth—ready to suck our life energy.

Sarah stepped forward with a confident smile, energy radiating from her face. “Guys, let me handle them.”

She drew one of her canteens and poured the Holy Water she had onto the four undead. Sarah’s victory was instantaneous.

“W-What?!” Derug shouted in shock. The Ghosts around it—more than a few dozen behind it—groaned in fear of being disintegrated by the Holy Water.

“You cowards!!” the demon yelled at them. “I could die if this water touches me too, but that doesn’t mean I’ll cower!”

“Eh? Are you sure about that?” Sarah said mockingly. “Because it looks like this fight is already decided. If you surrender, you’ll have a peaceful end.”

I watched Derug closely. Its subordinates had been neutralized easily, and we even had a Saintess on our side. Their weakness—their greatest vulnerability—was also dangerous to it. Now it only had a single option left.

’Come on, use it! Use that skill you’re so proud of,’ I thought inwardly. ’We’re ready to counterattack. Do it, and it will be your last mistake.’

“Ha, ha, hahaha!” Derug let out a laugh filled with pleasure. “Fine. Use your Holy Water. It will be useless anyway. Dark Veil!”

“Now, Alicia!!” I called for my Saintess’s support. She knew exactly what to do at that moment.

When Derug activated his skill, a mass of dark sludge began to form above him and the Ghosts near him.

Just as the mass collapsed, about to drench the shadow creatures, Alicia called out her skill, “Crystal Wall!”

“That’s right, use your protective barrier—it’s the best you can do against us…” Derug was already boasting, but he stopped mid-sentence when he noticed the wall wasn’t appearing in front of him. And when a shadow formed above his head, he understood.

Crystal Wall—the ability that had previously protected us from the Ghosts—was a good defense against magic, but now it had a very different use for us. Above the Ghosts, Alicia’s skill was preventing the Dark Veil from pouring down onto the undead.

“T-That’s impossible!!” the demon couldn’t believe that his ability had been interrupted.

But it was possible. Crystal Wall didn’t just block offensive magic—it blocked anything with magical energy. I believed the Ghosts could be stopped, so why not the Dark Veil’s magic? The spell just needed to be used like a ceiling between our enemies and the dark mass above their heads.

“Good job, Alicia. Now it’s our turn. Justine, come with me. Sarah, protect Alicia.”

“Got it,” the girls replied in unison.

Hearing their voices in sync, I ran as fast as I could toward our enemy, my sword charged with the energy of Holy Blessing. Two Ghosts appeared in front of me, and I simply cut them in half with my blade.

Justine followed right behind me while I cleared the path for her as we closed in on our target. We didn’t have time to deal with minions. Our target was Derug—if he was killed, Dark Veil, his skill, would dissipate.

Derug’s body trembled in fear as he noticed I was coming to take his life. He thought he would render our Holy Water useless, but he had been completely outplayed. I could see his subordinates starting to move in front of him.

“Ghosts, attack the blonde girl! If she dies, the wall will collapse!”

Some Ghosts emerged from the walls, trying to attack our Saintess, who was busy channeling her Crystal Wall. It wasn’t necessary to kill her to break the barrier, as Derug had said. If she stopped concentrating on the skill, that alone would be enough for the wall to collapse.

But Alicia had changed. Even with the creatures right in front of her, their icy breaths brushing against her, the girl kept her eyes closed, focusing on her skill. Still, there was the problem of the monsters trying to drain her energy.

But the young girl wasn’t alone. Quite the opposite—she had an excellent bodyguard. Sarah was ready, protecting Alicia using Holy Water.

“I won’t let you hurt Alicia,” Sarah said, her face serious and determined as she protected her friend. Our party left no openings for the enemy to exploit.

I could see the fear in Derug’s eye growing as I approached, slicing through the Ghosts in my path with each swing of my blade. The cowardly demon began to scuttle backward on its spider-like legs.

“You won’t escape, Derug!” Justine said in an imposing voice. “Water Prison!”

Water burst from Justine’s hand, rushing toward Derug. Now that he was within her line of sight, she was close enough to strike him with her skill. Her role in our strategy was to immobilize him.

In that instant, Derug, who was about the size of my hand, was engulfed by water, trapped inside a floating sphere.

“Ugh, ugh, ugh.” Derug tried to say something, but his voice was unintelligible, submerged in water.

Now there was no escape. His subordinates couldn’t protect him from us, he couldn’t attack our Saintess, and now he couldn’t run either. I didn’t know if this demon could drown, but my plan was something far more lethal for the creature.

I cut down every undead blocking my path with my sword until the way was clear. I could clearly see the water sphere at this point. Now I was close—very close—to the Water Prison. I ran with all the energy I had until the bubble was within reach of my fingers.

When I felt the cold water at my fingertips, I said furiously to my opponent, “You’ve lost, Derug! Holy Blessing!”

I invoked my skill over the water surrounding the monster, and it began to glow with a golden light. Derug was screwed. It wasn’t trapped in a Water Prison anymore—now it was trapped in a Holy Water Prison.

The crystal-clear liquid, lethal to demons, was where the creature was submerged. I didn’t know if that would be enough to kill the demon. It had been struck by Holy Light and survived, but now I wanted to see it in an extreme situation like this.

’Would this be like a human bathing in an active volcano?’ I wondered as I watched the sphere of water. But regardless of the answer, being bathed in Holy Water like this would certainly cause a great deal of damage to a demon.

“Uggggghhhhh!!” I could hear that unintelligible sound coming from Derug. I didn’t know what it was saying—probably some kind of curse—but I knew it was in pain.

’Just a little more and I’ll be able to defeat it.’ That’s what I thought, but I wasn’t expecting what happened next.

Within the water, glowing with a golden light, I could swear I saw a dark substance forming inside it.

’What? Another skill? When did it place it inside the water? Was it before I used Holy Blessing?’ That was all I could think in that instant—but it was already too late.

A black beam emerged, starting small and then spreading to cover the entire sphere where Derug was trapped, and with a boom, the Water Prison shattered into hot vapor around me.

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