It was over.
Another magnificent battle had come to an end.
Ethel let out a long breath as the tension finally left his body.
Quent and the others lowered their weapons as well.
Only Cypher continued staring at the battlefield.
A few of the Demon's remaining claws were still embedded in the ground, slowly carbonizing as black smoke curled from them.
Tia was watching the exact same spot.
The Demon's regenerative ability had been extraordinary, endlessly replicating itself by doubling its tentacles.
Even though she was breathing heavily, her gaze never wavered.
The prolonged battle, followed by the immense burden of Concept Release, had left even Tia visibly exhausted—a rare sight.
Yet she refused to lower her guard until the Demon had been completely eradicated.
Looking at the charred remains, another sphere of light gathered in her hand.
Against a Demon this dangerous, she intended to erase every trace of its existence.
But...
They had all been watching the wrong place.
"Behind you, Captain!"
Ethel's warning came instantly.
His Concept was still active, allowing him to notice the danger the moment it appeared.
The problem was Tia.
Her exhausted body had greatly dulled her reactions.
Even after hearing Ethel's warning, her eyes remained fixed on the remains lying on the ground.
She hesitated.
One second passed before she realized what he meant.
That single second changed everything.
"Tia!"
Cypher roared.
Tia's eyes widened.
A tentacle had pierced completely through her abdomen.
Blood burst from her mouth.
As the tentacle withdrew, she fell toward the ground like a discarded puppet.
At the same time—
The remains on the ground moved again.
The earth trembled.
Dust erupted into the air.
Something...
Was climbing out from beneath the ground.
The soil beneath the charred remains flipped upward like a massive hidden mechanism.
Only then did they see the Demon's true form.
Buried beneath the claws that had remained above ground...
Was another body.
Completely identical to the first.
This...
Was the true nature of the Concept: Dual Demon.
Even its body existed in perfect pairs.
There was no time to grieve.
The remaining four immediately threw themselves back into battle.
Having witnessed the Demon's true power, they knew they had to suppress it before its tentacles multiplied once again.
"Ethel! Support us—and recover Tia!"
Cypher issued the command.
The moment Tia fell, he became the one leading the battlefield.
Every instinct screamed at him to rush to her side—
But he couldn't.
The unfinished expedition came first.
Avoiding the fighting, Ethel hurried toward where Tia had fallen while continuing to monitor every movement across the battlefield.
For the moment, things weren't beyond saving.
Perhaps because its other half had only just been destroyed, the newly emerged Demon had yet to display its monstrous duplication ability.
But the steadily increasing number of tentacles told them that wouldn't last long.
Tier and Michael charged at the front with their massive blades, carving through wave after wave of tentacles as they forced their way toward the Demon's body.
Quent continuously provided sniper fire, trying to slow the growth of the tentacles.
Cypher remained on the front line as well, drawing the Demon's attention.
His remaining two Spheres floated far away from him.
He was saving them for the one decisive moment.
As Ethel moved, he continued issuing evasive commands.
With the tentacles multiplying without end, the others could no longer dodge every attack on their own.
Without Ethel's guidance, they would already have been covered in wounds.
At last, he reached Tia.
She lay unconscious upon the ground.
Thankfully—
She was still breathing.
But the blood pouring endlessly from the wound in her abdomen was like a crimson clock, counting down the little life she had left.
Ethel immediately administered emergency first aid, doing everything he could to stop the bleeding.
For now...
That was all he could do.
Just as Tia's condition continued to worsen, so too did the battlefield.
As the tentacles multiplied faster and faster, Michael and Tier found themselves halted less than ten meters from the Demon's body.
Only ten meters remained.
Yet to them—
It was a shore they could never reach.
"Ethel. You're in command now."
Cypher's voice came through the headset.
He was fully occupied himself and could no longer issue effective orders.
By handing command over to Ethel, he was placing the lives of all four squad members entirely in his hands.
Ethel anxiously scanned the battlefield.
There was nothing more he could do for Tia's broken body.
The only option left was to end the battle as quickly as possible and bring her back to Sunblaze City for treatment.
But there was no sign the fight would end anytime soon.
Every newly spawned tentacle pushed them one step closer to total defeat.
He had to finish this.
Immediately.
They needed a wild card.
Perhaps, if he could slip close to the Demon while its attention was elsewhere and land even a single attack, exposing the slightest opening, the four veterans would seize the opportunity and finish it.
But the moment he entered the battlefield, Tier and Michael would die.
They were already trapped within the sea of tentacles.
Their attempt to reach the Demon's body had failed, leaving them surrounded with no route of retreat.
They survived only because of Ethel's constant guidance, barely fending off the relentless attacks around them.
If his instructions stopped...
Even for a single second...
The two of them would be struck through multiple vital points almost instantly.
Ethel desperately searched for another solution.
How could he get them out?
Keeping them alive came first.
If they lost half their fighting strength now, any hope of victory would disappear with them.
Then...
For a brief instant...
The battlefield stood still.
Ethel's eyes met Tier's.
The resolve in his gaze conveyed everything.
He could sense that Cypher was still being held back some distance from the Demon's body.
He hadn't found the right moment to launch his Spheres.
Meanwhile, Quent lowered his rifle, drew his great blade, and charged toward the battlefield.
"Stop."
Quent froze.
He listened to the voice coming through his headset.
Pain spread across his face.
"...Understood."
He answered quietly.
"Cypher. Ready your Spheres."
Still fighting against countless tentacles, Cypher silently prepared himself.
The Demon's tentacles had already grown beyond forty.
More than half of them were focused solely on Tier and Michael.
They were the closest people to the Demon's true body.
The Demon regarded them as the greatest threat, directing every newly grown tentacle toward killing them.
Nor had it forgotten the one controlling the Spheres.
It remained constantly wary of those condensed masses of light that carried terrifying destructive power.
Having only recently regenerated from the loss of its other body, it could no longer neutralize Cypher's Spheres as effortlessly as before.
Time favored the Demon.
Soon, Concept: Dual would recover its former strength.
Another tentacle emerged.
It intended to reinforce the assault against the two humans.
Then the Spheres moved.
The pair split apart, attacking from different directions.
The Demon chose not to commit another tentacle.
After all, the number already attacking those two far exceeded what they should have been capable of surviving.
Although it couldn't understand why they were still alive...
There was no need for additional reinforcements.
Inside its body, Concept: Dual continued reshaping its flesh.
Its tentacle count had already doubled to fifty.
Soon...
It would double once again.
And when that happened—
No one would be able to stop it.
Far from the battlefield, Ethel devoted every ounce of his concentration to guiding Michael and Tier.
One mistake—
One tiny mistake—
Would cost them their lives.
His brain and eyes worked beyond their limits.
Blood mixed with tears streamed from the corners of his eyes.
Then...
He finally saw it.
"Now!"
Michael and Tier immediately hurled their weapons toward the Demon.
Filled with enormous amounts of Force, the weapons posed a threat comparable to Cypher's Spheres.
The Demon diverted several newly formed tentacles to intercept them.
Having discarded their weapons, the two men were instantly impaled by countless tentacles.
At last...
The two closest threats had been eliminated.
The two floating Spheres also shot in from opposite directions.
Yet both were intercepted before they could reach the Demon's body.
Several tentacles were sacrificed.
But protecting the core was all that mattered.
Without his Spheres, their controller no longer posed much danger.
Only a few tentacles were needed to keep him occupied.
Then—
Another presence charged toward the Demon at incredible speed.
It attempted to stop the newcomer...
Only to realize it had no tentacles left to spare.
The newly regenerated tentacles had already been obliterated intercepting the two Spheres.
The Sphere user cast aside his weapon.
His hand brushed against one of the Demon's tentacles.
Instantly, that tentacle—and several surrounding ones—were ripped free and compressed into a single sphere.
More than half of its tentacles still remained.
But when it tried to move them...
They refused to budge.
With only their final breaths remaining, Michael and Tier poured every last bit of Force into the muscles surrounding their wounds.
Like living clamps, their bodies locked tightly onto the tentacles piercing them.
That desperate act immobilized every remaining tentacle.
Seeing the fourth man charging straight toward it, the Demon hastily generated several new tentacles to intercept him.
Only two.
Three at most.
Quent smashed through them as though they weren't even there.
His great blade came crashing down with all his strength.
Straight toward the Demon's true body.
Having lost every means of defense...
The Demon was cleaved cleanly in half.
Its body slowly crumbled apart.
The Concept: Dual Demon had no third body left to draw upon.
With both of its bodies destroyed,
it dissolved into dust,
scattered upon the wind,
and returned to nothingness.
ns216.73.217.139da2
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