"There's no end to them...!"

  How many of them are there? At this rate, I'll never reach him.

  "You're killing innocent people! Hahahaha! This girl is nuts!"

  A blade grazed my side as I dodged a fist aimed at my back. I subdued them quickly — and ten more appeared, each with more distinct abilities than the last.

  Maybe I should have actually learned magic.

  Josephine knows a few spells, mostly assassination-grade. Worth testing out, I figured.

  In the span of a blink, I decapitated all ten before they could react and broke through the city toward the castle.

  Then something sent me flying before I could enter.

  The opponents here were on a different level. The entire castle transformed into a golem and drove me into the ground.

  Fast—!

  A fist slammed into my face. I was launched back. A barrage of light followed, relentless. I was restrained — flung toward a swordsman who cut into me from every angle, leaving a trail of wounds before I could stabilize.

  I've had enough.

  I found my balance. Healed the wounds. The swordsman, whose body I'd already crushed in the exchange, lay still — I took his sword. I imbued it with mana, aura, divine power, everything I had, and slashed.

  The golem split apart. Nearly half the city came down with it.

  The sword shattered immediately after. I clenched my fist and launched the one who'd punched me skyward. Another tackled me into the air as the rubble on the ground reformed — pulling itself into another massive golem.

  "Because of you, my plans — everything I worked for — gone in an instant!"

  The man who tackled me tried to lock me in place as the golem prepared its breath attack, a massive magic circle drawing itself in the air.

  "Take this! [Death Ray!]"

  It was fast. Incineration-fast. And yet —

  "Why do I feel like a Mary Sue right now?"

  [Xipe says it's because you are.]

  I kicked the air hard enough to redirect the beam entirely.

  "You—!! Just who are you?!" their voice cracked.

  I grabbed the man still holding me, poured my energy through him like a conduit.

  "Me? Just a hero — for fun."

  I threw him.

  [Divine Intervention!]

  He went through the golem like a bullet through paper. The explosion that followed took out most of Old York and its surrounding area in one clean sweep.

  I landed on what remained of the ground and looked out over the rubble.

  ...Scary.

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  I was holding back, by the way. Really holding back. What would have happened if I'd actually meant it?

  I activated Divine Eyes and traced Bephelgor's location through the debris. As expected — he was in the labyrinth beneath the city. The eyes cut straight through stone and soil like they weren't there.

  I made my way toward the castle ruins. A large, gaping hole waited in the middle of it.

  I really don't think I'm ready for what's down here. But forward is the only direction left.

  I jumped in.

  "Persistent bitch." Bephelgor's voice filled the shaft from below. "You know you can't kill me."

  The walls narrowed as I descended.

  "You think this is enough to stop me?! Hahahaha! We are Bephelgor — one of the Four Heavenly Kings, a survivor of over a millennium!" His laugh cascaded through the tunnels. "You think I'll let you destroy my lord's revival?! Hahahaha!"

  I kept walking. His confidence wasn't empty — and I already knew the reason why.

  It was behind the giant door at the end of the corridor.

  I sighed. Pushed it open. It gave a low, humble creak.

  Inside: a massive ceremonial hall, pillars stretching up into darkness, the ceiling lost somewhere far above. The scale of it was almost disorienting.

  And in the center of it — a figure.

  Hooded robes of intricate weave, cloth hanging down from the body like a puppet's draped fabric. Bephelgor's trump card from the novel.

  Archmage Cassian.

  The legendary mage of the hero's party — over a thousand years ago.

  I'm not exaggerating when I say his mere presence hit me like a physical weight. My spirits dropped the moment I stepped through the door. The aura coming off him pressed down on the room itself.

  Scary. He's genuinely terrifying.

  In the novel, he was the reason Adele and her party nearly died every time they moved against Bephelgor. He made him nearly invincible — an immovable wall behind every scheme.

  [A familiar figure is near!]

  [Hecatia is furious at what became of her old avatar!]

  "Hecatia-sama?" The robed man — Cassian — slowly raised his head. A weathered face. A long beard. Ancient eyes.

  "What?!" Bephelgor, from somewhere in the walls.

  "Haha... it seems I've been used after all, hasn't it?" Cassian laughed — weak, soft, like a man who already knew the punchline.

  "How did you break my control?!" Bephelgor's voice fractured with disbelief.

  "It seems Hecatia-sama has cast her gaze upon me," Cassian said quietly, and then raised his staff and pointed it directly at me. "Oh, blessed one — please, defeat this senile old man."

  The hall flooded with light.

  A beam shot toward me. I closed the distance fast —

  — and was immediately yanked backward by an invisible force.

  A land-wave crashed over me. Flash-frozen solid in an instant. Fire column. Tornado that tore the ice apart. Gravity pressing down from above — and void bullets threading through the chaos, each one requiring its own dodge.

  I wrenched my foot free just as vines and crystal shards coiled around it — too late. I was spun in a wide arc and slammed into a diamond-reinforced wall at full force.

  "Kgggh—!"

  He's on a completely different level.

  I pushed off the wall and launched myself straight at him — and a force field stopped me cold, hurling me back again like I'd run into a wall of air.

  "Physical attacks won't reach me, blessed one," he said, unhurried.

  The room went dark. Shadows swallowed everything. I reached out with my senses, trying to locate him — and he was already there, closing the distance from behind, staff crackling with [Explosion].

  The impact sent me across the room. Face torn up, body wrecked. The attacks didn't stop.

  "You cannot defeat me like this! You must learn magic!" he called across the room as a sphere of dark energy materialized in his palm.

  It launched. I dodged — and it pulled me in anyway, a vortex, sucking me inside and battering me with dark energy from every direction. My whole body felt like it was coming apart. I kept healing — divine power pushing back against the damage as fast as it came.

  "Focus! Stay calm. Control. You can master it — I know you can!"

  I cannot do that.

  This is bad. At this rate, there's genuinely no path to winning.

  [Hecatia urges you to calm down!]

  Should I just run?

  I broke for the entrance.

  Sealed.

  "Hahahaha! Look at this rat now. Not so tough, are we?" Bephelgor's voice oozed with satisfaction as molten lava poured through Cassian's open hands.

  I swept the room with Divine Eyes. Every opening — patched. Every crack — sealed.

  Shit. I can't stay in here like this.

  I readied to blast a hole through the door —

  — and spikes erupted from every direction. I was impaled from all sides before I could move.

  Ah... My robes. My most expensive, rarest alchemical creation aside from the Philosopher's Stone.

  A massive ball of scorching flame built in the air above me.

  I shattered the spikes from within and threw myself clear of the explosion.

  "Now you've done it," I said flatly, pulling the remaining spikes out of my body one by one.

  Painful — but not Philosopher's Stone painful.

  I reached back and drew the blade sheathed behind me. Leveled it toward him.

  "Come at me, Archmage."