Chapter 346: Brother! This Time I'll Save You!

Altina didn't hesitate for a second upon hearing Ansu's warning. With a flash of pale green light, she flapped her wings and soared high into the sky.

Celia's hollow gaze instantly locked onto the black crow.

She raised her hand expressionlessly. With a slight twitch of her finger, an invisible, colossal force suddenly materialized in midair.

Altina flapped her wings desperately but couldn't break free at all. Dragged down as if by a massive, invisible hand, she plummeted straight toward the ground.

Ansu reacted instantly, casting an instantaneous 【Mage's Hand】 to catch the falling dark shadow.

Altina-Crow fluttered her wings a few times, landing on Ansu's shoulder, still thoroughly shaken.

“Ansu...?” Celia's gaze slowly drifted back to him, her brow furrowing slightly as if she had run into something she couldn't comprehend.

“Why... did you save her?”

“Because she would have died. Your rampaging self would have killed her by mistake.” Ansu glanced at Altina, who was safe for the moment, and then turned his eyes to Vera beside him.

Even though he had clearly signaled for her to run, this girl hadn't budged an inch.

Vera blinked at him innocently.

“Why didn't you run just now?” Ansu glared at her. She had the teleportation item on her; escaping the battlefield would have taken only a split second. “Can't you see that Celia has already monsterized? Do you want to die?”

Even if it was just a simulation, he couldn't bear to see Vera get hurt by Celia.

During a previous simulation, he had witnessed Vera's tragic death at school with his own eyes. Back then, his heart had felt as if it were squeezed tight, leaving him too choked up to speak...

At that moment, he had desperately hoped that such a thing would never happen again...

But he never expected this.

Instead of running, Vera took a step forward, her petite body stubbornly shielding him.

“Brother! It's okay! This time, it's my turn to save you!”

She gripped the Elven shortsword tightly with both hands. The holy light coated the blade in a dazzling glow, as if infusing her trembling body with unwavering strength.

Ansu watched her with a complicated expression.

“Come here.” Celia raised her hand expressionlessly, her demonic claws, covered in grotesque black patterns, making a casual grabbing motion.

In that instant, the surrounding space itself seemed to warp slightly under the strain.

Ansu, Vera, and Altina on his shoulder simultaneously felt a powerful pull from behind. Dragged by a terrifying force, they were rapidly pulled toward Celia.

“Ansu!!”

Altina let out a shrill bird cry. The sheer pressure Celia exerted on her at this moment was far more terrifying than any enemy she had encountered in her hundreds of years of life.

“Run! Scatter, quick!” Ansu roared. Gathering his mana in a sudden burst, he slammed his palm onto the ground.

“Rise!”

With a rumbling tremor, a thick earthen wall rose from the ground, forcefully cutting off the line of sight between the two sides.

Ansu immediately let go of the crow on his shoulder, and Altina flapped her wings to soar into the sky once more.

This time, to avoid being caught so easily by Celia, her Druid transformation spell flashed, and her body swelled dozens of times in midair, transforming into a massive creature.

It was a massive owlbear—with the face of a giant owl, a sharp beak, and the thick, shaggy body of a colossal bear. As her four sturdy paws slammed into the dirt, the ground shook with a heavy, muffled thud.

Altina had absolutely no intention of staying to fight. Her hundreds of years of survival experience told her plain and simple: do not, under any circumstances, mess with an enemy of this caliber!

The giant owlbear lowered her head and bolted toward the distant hillside.

Ansu took all of this in, thinking to himself that she truly deserved her reputation as an elven lady who had survived as an investigator for hundreds of years. Altina's knack for running away was indeed top-tier...

With just these few Druid transformation spells, her margin for error was vastly wider than anyone else's...

Ansu looked back at Vera and said in frustration, “Vera, learn from her!”

“I'm not going to learn from her!” Vera shook her head, gripping the shortsword even tighter. “I'm not running! I'm definitely not running!”

The moment the words left her mouth, the earthen wall in front of them exploded into fragments, sending dust and debris flying everywhere.

As Celia's figure emerged step by step from the dust cloud, drawing closer and closer, the hand Vera used to hold the sword began to tremble violently.

Yet she still stood her ground, refusing to take even half a step back.

“Brother! I keep my word! I said I could help you, and I will!”

Her voice trembled with fear.

Hmph... I'm finally being useful!

Vera is useful, Vera is really useful!

Ansu stared at her petite, stubborn back, a lump forming in his throat.

“Vera...”

“Hehehe~” Vera turned her head. Her face was deathly pale, but she squeezed out a smile for him. “Are you touched, Brother? Wasn't I super cool just now?”

Ansu lightly tapped the back of her head.

“Silly girl...”

Vera turned back, staring intently at the approaching Celia.

Her voice suddenly became very soft, as if she were speaking to Ansu, yet also comforting herself.

“This way... even if we die, we'll die together. I'm very satisfied... I'm not scared at all...”

Celia finally stopped.

The air seemed to freeze, and the surroundings fell dead silent, like the prelude to a storm.

Celia let out a faint, cold smile.

“What a lovely pair of siblings...”

Filthy mana surged, and an invisible killing intent washed over them like bone-chilling ice water.

Vera's hand trembled even harder, her grip on the shortsword slipping.

She grit her teeth, muttering to herself to psych herself up.

“Don't be scared, don't be scared... She's only...”

“She's only...”

“A bad witch!”

“I'm not afraid of her...”

Just then, a painful groan echoed from not far away.

“Filthy mana... Such heavy filthy mana...”

“Is it a black mage, or a monster...”

Danielle and Sean supported each other, staggering up from the pool of blood.

A gruesome puncture wound still gaped on Danielle's abdomen, while Sean's shoulder was a bloody mess, blood dripping from his sleeve with every step he took.

But their eyes remained locked onto Celia, staring intently at those pitch-black, hideous demonic claws.

Danielle rasped, a bitter smile tugging at her lips. “So... there was an even stronger monster here. If I'd known, I wouldn't have fought to the death to kill that old bastard. I should've saved some strength for you... Heh.”

Sean coughed up a mouthful of dark blood with difficulty and wiped his mouth. “Honey, can we take her?”

“Idiot! Are we not going to fight just because we can't win?” Danielle held him up, the two leaning on each other to keep from collapsing.

There was no fear in her bloodshot eyes. Instead, they burned with a light that demon hunters spent their entire lives waiting for.

“I've hunted demons my whole life, and finally... finally, I've met the strongest, most powerful one of all!”

Sean patiently opened his travel bag and coated his Church-blessed longsword with various buffing potions—a standard, professional preparation for a demon hunter.

Celia watched them, tilting her head slightly in confusion.

The couple looked toward Ansu, and then pointed their blades at Celia.

“We'll attack together! We might just be able to take down this demon!!”

Those words were full of momentum. Ansu grit his teeth, suppressing the surging blood in his chest, and spent the last of his mana to unleash his gravity magic.

An invisible gravity field pressed down precisely on Celia, attempting to restrict her movements.

Danielle and Sean's figures flashed like ghosts to her sides, their sword lights crossing as they slashed down.

Even the distant, running owlbear stopped and turned around hesitantly, wondering if she could also be of some help.

But in the next instant—

Crack!

Two snaps sounded as one. Danielle and Sean's heads rolled to the ground simultaneously.

Their bodies even maintained their sword-swinging postures, standing for a few more seconds before crashing down.

On the other side, Ansu hadn't even seen how she made her move. He only knew that his magic had struck what felt like a solid wall, and a massive amount of mana rebounded on him completely intact.

It was Celia's 【Spell Counter】.

Caught completely off guard, Ansu suffered a mana backlash. He coughed up dark blood and sank to one knee, his vision darkening in waves.

“Brother!!”

Vera let out a heart-wrenching scream and charged forward in a fit of rage.

She held the Elven shortsword high, and a dazzling, blazing holy light suddenly erupted from the blade.

【Divine Smite】!!

This was the strongest strike Vera could muster with all her might.

However...

Celia raised her grotesque demonic claw and, under Vera's disbelieving gaze, took the blow head-on without any expression.

The moment the blade clashed with the claw, a piercing screech rang out. The collision of filthy mana and holy light whipped loose gravel and withered branches high into the air.

Then, the holy light faded.

...