The Lord Is Too Overbearing

"AAAHHHHH!"

As soon as Iliana heard the panicked scream of the civilians, she whipped her head around, and immediately widened her eyes in bewilderment the moment she witnessed the unfolding scene.

The impersonating Demon amongst them had showed itself in the middle of the crowd. It had only a mouth on its face, a fully black skin, equally long, slender arms and feet, and a height of 3 meters.

Like Iliana, the Mages and Knights who were amongst the civilians, were dumbfounded by the development as they looked at the Demon in disbelief. The Demon, in turn, looked at them with a wide grin, exposing two rows of sharp and pointy teeth.

The civilians were already scattering around in utter terror, trying to get away from the abomination that had suddenly appeared. Unfortunately for them however, the Demon didn't have any intention to easily let them go.

"Make a distance!"

As the Knights charged at the Demon which kind they didn't know of, instead of running away, the Demon made time to swing around its slender hand towards the running civilians.

Whoosh!

One might think that such a hand wouldn't be able to exert much strength, but the Demon's was proven to be different as it easily bisected three civilians in one swing. If one carefully looked at its fingers, one would notice there were five knife like nails on them.

Since the distance between the Demon and the Knights weren't that far, the Knights arrived right in front of it just a second after it had bisected the three unfortunate civilians. Right before it was attacked however, it disappeared from its spot.

"What?! Where is it?!"

"Darn it! It's an agility type Monster!"

Pretty much everyone had thought that its hand was the only thing the Demon could move agilely due to its form, but on top of that, it could also move at a speed that could match the speed of two Green Core Knights.

At least, that's what Steven and Thompson thought the only thing it could do.

"Behind you! Watch for its illusion!"

At Iliana's urgent shout, the two Knights immediately turned around, and swung their sword at each other much to their dismay.

Clank!

They only noticed the Demon had already gotten away from their peripheral vision a few seconds after.

"What has just happened?"

"I—I don't understand."

Unlike the onlookers, who had seen the two had been targeting each other's throat since the beginning, the two was sure they had swung their sword at the Demon before realizing they were attacking each other after their sword clashed.

Gulping drily to themselves, they finally realized why none of the Mages had directly attacked the Demon the moment it revealed itself: the Mages knew something like that would happen.

The Knights were slightly irritated that they had been tricked by a Demon, but they were still grateful none of them were injured.

"Thompson, Steven, help Iliana distract the Monster while we are securing the civilians!"

"Leave it to us!"

Upon regrouping with the rest of the Mages, Steven and Thompson immediately charged towards the Demon once again. They had their guard high against it this time.

The illusion the Demon created was strong enough to fool them, Green Core Knights, and it was more than enough to put the entire civilians into frenzy. In result, the civilians were running around the perimeter of the battlefield, thinking they were running towards safety.

Iliana was fully showcasing her skill on wielding her spear, avoiding the frenzied civilians while constantly shooing the Demon away.

She couldn't land a hit on the Demon, because the moment she tried to do so, it was replaced with a clueless civilian, who was thinking they were running towards safety. She was absolutely irked whenever it happened, but luckily she had an admirable self-control.

"Let us help!"

"Don't stare at its eye!"

"Understood!"

Thompson and Steven immediately joined the fray upon reaching Iliana's side, shooing the Demon away with their casual attack. They didn't even activate their Aura as they were afraid they would mistakenly attack a civilian under the Demon's illusion.

On the other side of the battlefield, Cray was smacking the soul out of every civilian he landed his eyes on; they kept running away from him when they were awake. It was the best course of action to secure all of the remaining 50 civilians.

"This is ludicrous! Who would've thought that a frigging little girl was the Monster?!" Cray knocked another civilian as he expressed his annoyance. "This is infuriating!"

He wasn't mad at the fact that the Demon had dare to pretend to be a little girl. He was mad because he was the only person who was chasing around the frenzied civilians.

In the current state, the Spellcasters would never be able to join the fray, unless they wanted to endanger every frenzied civilian's life. They could immediately shoot their Spells towards the Demon and kill it, but the civilians would be dead by then.

They honestly didn't care about the civilians' safety as much as they cared about themselves, but they had done so many things for the civilians—they couldn't just let the civilians die. They didn't want to let their effort end up being in vain.

"Do your best, Cray!"

"I don't need encouragement, but thanks, Jocelyn!"

Jocelyn pumped her fist in the air while watching Cray intently as if her gaze could somehow help him finish his task faster.

Extending his hand forward, Whitney materialized his Grimoire before casting some Low Grade Earth Element Spells to change the structure of the ground. Some of the frenzied civilians tripped themselves over because of that, allowing Cray to "capture" them.

"Thanks for the assistance!"

Although some of the civilians had their nose broken or their lips split open due to their fall, it was better than letting them die. Unfortunately however, Cray still couldn't save as many civilians as the Demon killed in a single minute in spite of that.

'Darn it!' Iliana was cursing herself in her mind. 'I should have expected it! The girl is the only one I didn't feed the heart—I should've suspected her to be the one! That old man's gaze too ... He already knew that his granddaughter was the rat.'

Iliana gritted her teeth in anger the more she thought about her miscalculation. Her decision to not feed the little girl the Minotaur Warrior's heart backfired on her, wasting everyone's time and effort.

'If I had fed the little girl the heart, it would have shown its true self earlier. Just why? Why did I make such a decision?'

She thought hard about her decision as she kept swinging and thrusting her spear towards the Demon. She was so focused on her thought, she didn't even realize she was overwhelming the Demon with her attack.

'Now that I think about it, the clue has been clear since the beginning. The way the girl recounted what she saw, the way she looked at the others, and the fact that no one died when she was with me—everything should've normally made me doubt her...'

The moment she realized how many things she had missed, she immediately realized that she didn't actually miss them; she had been purposely ignoring them. She was always aware of them, but always discarded them due to the person in question.

Someone's face immediately appeared in her mind, and she couldn't help clicking her tongue bitterly. 'So that's what he has been telling me with his gaze ... Naive, huh? I guess I am; things wouldn't have developed this way if I didn't rely on my emotion.'

Iliana abruptly stopped charging at the Demon, spun on her heel, and raise her spear to block the incoming attack.

Clank!

Thompson and Steven had been caught in the Demon's illusion, and they attacked Iliana because of that. Luckily however, she could block their sword skillfully.

"Iliana?! Sorry!"

"Holy crap, that was close!"

"Just don't look at its eye."

Instead of dilly-dallying, Iliana moved past them and chased after the Demon that was dashing towards some of the remaining civilians who were still running around in frenzy.

She closed her eyes in the process, before slashing the back of the Demon the moment she was right behind it.

Swish!

Screech!

Although it wasn't injured fatally, Iliana managed to cut open the back of the Demon with her spear. It stopped dashing towards the civilians in result, before taking some distance away from Iliana and the others.

Facing its head towards Iliana, it was apparent from its body gesture that it was extremely shocked by what Iliana had done to it. Its fingers twitched incessantly as if showing its dilemma about whether it should attack her.

Steven and Thompson arrived at Iliana's side in the next moment, then observed the Demon along with her. It was their first time of seeing it stayed in one place, and Thompson finally realized something because of that.

"Iliana... You have been telling us to not see its eye, haven't you?" Iliana didn't answer, but Thompson was sure she heard him. "If my eyes don't fail me, it doesn't have any eye."

Steven immediately widened his eyes as he muttered in realization. "Now that I think about it..."

"Impostors," Iliana softly said while keeping her eyes on the Demon. "They are the weakest Upper Middle Grade Monsters that specialize in possession and illusion. Their illusion is strong enough to trick a Sixth Circle Mage."

"I think I have ever heard of it before. But to think I would be able to see it..." Thompson muttered.

"It is unnoticeable at first, but once you see the eye, you can never unsee it." Iliana pointed to the center of the Demon's chest. "You will notice the twitching eyelids as long as you look at it long enough."

Thompson and Steve didn't need to look at it for long as they immediately saw the eye of the Demon just two seconds after. The eye was pitch black, and they were immediately engulfed in darkness the moment they looked into it.

"Stop looking at it, imbeciles."

Iliana smacked the back of the two Knights to wake them up. When they were awaken from their daze, Iliana slowly walked towards the Demon.

"Just stay where you are."

Thompson and Steven were still confused at what had just happened to them, but nodded their head at her nonetheless.

Just before Iliana arrived in front of it, the Demon transformed itself back into the little girl.

"Beautiful lady...? Help me—I am confused! There is something wrong inside—"

"I know." Iliana patted the little girl's head, interrupting her. "There is only one way for you to heal."

"That is...?"

The Knights and Mages watched the scene with palpitating hearts as they anticipated Iliana's response to the little girl. They were all aware that the girl was merely possessed, which means she was still a human.

'It is hard to make a decision when one is caught in a dilemma. Every choice has a consequence, and it is one's job to think of the way to face the consequence. I was afraid of the consequences, and therefore I was naive...'

As the little girl's eyes grew darker, Iliana cut her head off in one fluid motion. Her widened eyes representing the Demon's shock, and the smile on her face showed how relieved she was.

Thud!

The girl's head touched the ground at the same time as the body fell to the ground, and along with that, Iliana finally realized her shortcomings.

At that moment, she finally could finally move forward.