The Author's POV

The color blue dominated the world within the Pillar of Pride.

A hazy, dark blue mist covered the entire landscape, with small peaks sprouting from beneath the mist.

The world seemed tranquil, but within the blue mist, all sorts of colorful lights flashed from within.

They carried different hues, and they flashed continuously. It wasn't until the mist suddenly split apart to reveal several figures that the tranquility that lay within the world broke apart.

"Aarrrgh!"

A loud shout reverberated through the air, and a powerful wave of mana burst forth from Octavious's hand.

It directly shot toward a demon in front of him, and shortly after, the demon's figure disintegrated into nothing.

"..."

Silence returned to the world after that, and just as Octavious felt himself relax, an urgent voice rang from behind him.

"Behind you!"

Boom—!

He didn't have enough time to react, and before he knew it, a powerful force blasted past his back, and he found himself hurling forward, eventually crashing against the hard ground beneath.

"Akh."

Octavious groaned in pain, using both hands to help himself up.

SHIIING—! SHIIING—!

He could hear the sound of fighting behind him, and he just barely stopped himself from collapsing again. The force of the impact was a lot stronger than he had anticipated.

'I'm glad Gervis is with me.'

Who would've thought he'd have such thoughts? While he wasn't the same Octavious as in the past, he remembered everything that had happened in the past and didn't think he would work well with Gervis.

He was wrong.

"Oy! Are ya helping me or not?"

Gervis's voice broke him out of his thoughts, and Octavious disappeared from the spot, reappearing right in front of another demon. With his fist clenched, he threw a fist in the demon's direction, and a powerful blast reverberated through the air.

Boom—!

The demon's body hurled back several meters after the contact, and Octavious moved to where Gervis was.

SHIIING—! SHIIING—!

Wearing his armor, Gervis was currently dealing with two Prince ranked demons at once, and even though he seemed to be having a hard time, Octavious could tell he wasn't disadvantaged in the least.

With his large gun like device and powerful shield that activated whenever a demon appeared, he wasn't prone to sneak attacks, making things a lot easier for him.

His maneuverability was a bit questionable, but it wasn't anything to be worried about, considering the defensive mechanism installed in his suit.

Booom—!

Arriving before one of the demons hounding Gervis, Octavious thrust his fist forward, and just by a few inches, he managed to hit the demon in the abdominal area.

"Ueakh!"

an agonized

"Octavious!"

gun in his hand flickered with a green light as a powerful wave of mana sprouted

took several seconds, and under normal circumstances, it would have been difficult to pull off this move; however,

Clank—! Clank—!

no trouble gathering up the mana required to charge the weapon, and his weapon flickered even more wildly as a

around them, leaving behind only the powerful ones who warily

with Octavious next

"Now!"

shouted, and Octavious disappeared from where he

Almost immediately after that, an enormously powerful beam shot out of the gun in the direction of the

every demon that it had a

of the beam, finally revealing what looked to be a forest with trees that seemed to tower in

were in the minority, as

"Shit."

demons, Gervis cursed and reloaded his weapon before hastily pointing

felt something dangerous

WHIIING—!

his attack missed

"Careful!"

reload his gun again, a loud shout echoed behind

force erupted from behind Gervis as Octavious's fist clashed against another first,

"Ukh!"

was so powerful that Gervis

he finally managed to stabilize himself, he was surprised to see Octavious standing before him with a rough

"Ha... ha...haa... That..."

he appeared to be completely unharmed, which was not the case for the

presented itself, he didn't waste a single second and pointed

pressing the trigger, a beam composed of mana shot

Spurt—!

to graze the demon, and that was all that Octavious needed. After materializing behind the demon, he pressed his hand

Wooom—!

body vanished into thin air, leaving behind a dark core in

just firmly grasped it in his hand when, all of

Swoosh—!

"Uh?!"

stop. He's a rather dear subordinate of mine. I wouldn't want him to die

with the surroundings suddenly echoed, and Octavious's entire body stiffened on

happened? Why

Octavious realized that he couldn't move a single

"I'll be taking this."

but at the same time, he was able to

'He…'

that hit him was the overwhelming presence he

reminded of his helpless days with the

one who could ever reach the same level as the Protectors was the demon king,

demon that stood before his very eyes was one such existence, and

in its hand started to shake. Shortly thereafter, the core

my incompetence, Prince

demon apologized with their head lowered. One could tell from the

were indeed quite