Something unexpected was happening in the direction of the forest where the mansion stood.

Velkat felt a twinge of annoyance.

“I don’t know who the hell pulled that off, but it’s too late to stop me now.”

He glanced down at the fully-collapsed cliffside and summoned his familiars.

The magical beast Thunder Dragon dissolved into his body and was reverse-summoned, while the Golden Roc flew over and let Velkat mount its back.

Krrrrrnnk.

Cube fragments gathered behind the Golden Roc’s wings and tail feathers, forming a metallic ring.

As mana condensed within the ring, a massive magnetic force erupted, launching the Roc’s body forward.

With that force propelling it, Velkat shot like a bullet in the direction of the forest.

Ludger was dumbfounded as he witnessed the scene.

‘That’s absurd mobility.’

It was no different from a living, breathing fighter jet.

As Velkat shrank in the distance, Ludger prepared to give chase.

But the enemy's speed was too overwhelming. Even if he used levitation magic, he might not catch up in time.

Just then, a snowy white owl flew over to Ludger.

“Derrick.”

“Ride him. I can’t face that monster anymore. But you can.”

Ludger looked over Derrick’s condition.

Blood was dripping steadily from one limp arm.

He had been wounded during the bombardment earlier.

His pale complexion hinted at heavy blood loss.

In that state, he wouldn’t be able to fight.

Valentina was in no better condition.

Her swollen wrist looked broken, and her sword had shattered completely.

Even without a weapon, a knight’s body was a lethal weapon in itself—but not against Velkat. Against him, she would only be a hindrance.

“I’m sorry. Please... stop that monster.”

“I understand.”

Ludger climbed onto Derrick’s magical beast.

Considering how the beast had fought earlier, it should be more than capable of keeping up with Velkat.

“Go.”

At Ludger’s command, the owl flapped its wings once—and with a mighty gust of wind, it shot forward like a bullet.

* * *

“Shit.”

Sempas gasped for breath and braced himself.

But his legs were buckling from exhaustion, barely able to keep him upright.

The battlefield around him bore the scars of destructive magic.

Yet unlike before, one thing remained—the lingering green haze of poisonous mist.

“You really lived up to that nickname of ‘Mad Dog.’ You were damn dangerous.”

Amar muttered, his voice weary from the brutal battle.

He wiped the blood trickling from his lips with the back of his hand.

Though he’d landed serious injuries on Sempas, the fight had taken its toll on him too.

But it was Sempas who had reached his limit first.

“If you hadn’t been poisoned from the beginning, I probably would’ve been the one who fell.”

Amar had felt fear watching Sempas charge him with a twisted face, ignoring pain entirely.

That nickname, ‘Mad Dog’, suited him all too well.

If Amar hadn’t banked on his poison and played for time, he would’ve lost.

“You’re a damn good fighter. But I’ve won.”

Sempas glared at Amar with hazy eyes.

His skin was necrotizing from the poison, yet he remained standing.

“What the hell are you fighting this hard for?”

“I made a promise... to the old man.”

Sempas muttered, half in a daze.

Yes. He had made a promise to Duke Heybach.

To help Ludger resolve this catastrophe.

Amar couldn’t comprehend that answer.

“A promise? You fought this hard over a damn promise?”

“Hah.”

Sempas laughed at him.

His expression was too blurred to make out, but Amar didn’t need to see it.

“Yeah. You wouldn’t understand.”

Sempas had earned his nickname—Mad Dog—and fought with brute force because of where he came from.

He was once a pit fighter in an illegal underground arena.

Not by choice.

He was taken there as a child—dragged in before he even understood what was happening.

Sempas had a talent for magic.

But in this world, talent meant nothing for the wrong people.

Especially if you were an orphan.

For someone like him, magical talent was a curse.

The illegal arena he’d been taken to did exactly what you’d expect—they gathered up magically talented kids and forced them into battle.

The method of teaching magic was pure violence.

If you learned too slowly, you were beaten to death. If you made a mistake, you went hungry.

The kids who had come in with him had no choice but to learn magic with brutal efficiency just to survive.

Sempas too survived—and let his rage fester.

Eventually, the children who had grown up under that system were forced into real fights as competitors.

Not just any fight—fights with magic.

And the matches only ended when someone died.

There was no such thing as a fair duel.

They fought with spells, fists, claws, teeth, even sand thrown in the eyes.

The same kids they learned magic with became the ones they had to kill.

Still, Sempas kept fighting to stay alive.

It was during those days that he earned the name Mad Dog.

He got it when he tore out the throat of his last friend with his teeth.

People had praised and cursed him for it all at once.

But Sempas knew.

That friend had thrown himself at Sempas to save him.

Every other child who’d entered with him was dead—he was the only one left.

So then, what the hell was he supposed to live for?

It was Duke Heybach Kadatushan, then head of the Bureau of Security, who saved him.

—“This is horrific. I can’t believe something like this was happening under the Empire’s nose.”

The Bureau had raided the underground arena and wiped out the criminals completely.

They freed the victims trapped inside.

For Sempas—who had only ever seen filth and blood—it was a shattering realization.

There were people like that... in the world outside.

Beyond the dim torchlight of the underground arena, the world was so damn bright.

Awe. Relief.

And fury.

While others lived peacefully in that bright world, he had been drowning in shit.

Something like magma boiled inside Sempas’s chest.

So he rushed at Heybach, dragging his injured body with him.

He was quickly subdued by the Night Crawler Knights—but even in that moment, he managed to take down five Bureau agents.

—“Why... Why the hell are you only showing up now?!”

Even restrained, Sempas screamed ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) at him with burning rage.

—“If you’d come even a little sooner, my friends... they might have lived!”

He was furious.

Heybach had probably grown up in a nice home, eating good food, respected by everyone.

A man from a different world, untouched by blood and filth.

—“I’m sorry.”

But Heybach bowed his head and apologized.

He said he should’ve come sooner.

He meant it. It wasn’t a lie or a formality. And Sempas couldn’t help but cry.

A few days later, after a long period of reflection...

Sempas made his decision.

He sought out Heybach and said:

—“If I follow you... will people like me stop being born?”

Sempas still remembered it clearly.

Heybach widened his eyes, surprised, and then nodded with a soft smile.

—“Yes. That’s why I fight.”

—“Then I’ll fight too. Fighting’s all I know.”

He knew nothing but battle.

And he might die that way, fighting until the end.

A life with no meaning or purpose.

So he wanted to find that meaning—just once.

That was the reason Sempas kept living, after being given a second chance.

“That kind of nobility... there’s no way something like you could ever understand it.”

“.......”

At Sempas’s mocking remark, Amar frowned.

“......There’s no point in continuing this conversation.”

Amar reached his arm out toward Sempas.

A thick poisonous energy flickered along his hand like fire.

The moment he resolved to melt him down completely, leaving not even a corpse—

Someone charged at Amar.

Abandoning the attack, Amar instantly switched to defense, raising a wall of earth right before his eyes.

Kwaang!

But the intruder’s leg smashed through the thick stone wall and struck Amar square in the abdomen.

“Guh-urk!”

Amar’s body was thrown backward with great force.

Sempas, who had been bracing for death, let out a hollow laugh at the sudden appearance of his savior.

“Sempas, are you alright?”

An innocent voice, completely out of place in such a dire situation.

But no voice could have been more welcome than this one.

“Arfa....”

“Yes. I came to help.”

Arfa approached Sempas, pulled out an injector ampule from his pocket, and injected it into Sempas’s neck.

“Urgh.”

“Bear with the pain. It’s an antidote. It’ll take time to recover, but you’ll be okay now.”

After laying Sempas down on the ground, Arfa turned to face Amar.

At that moment, a bolt of green mana shot out and grazed past Arfa’s head.

“Heh heh. That’s what happens when you let your guard down in front of me.”

Amar sneered at Arfa, whose head had been engulfed in poison.

But then, seeing Arfa still standing there unharmed, his expression twisted in confusion.

“H-how? You were clearly hit by my poison.”

“Oh, the poison? That doesn’t work on me.”

Poison doesn’t affect automatons, which are made of machinery to begin with.

And even if it were a strong acid capable of corroding metal, Arfa wasn’t weak enough to be damaged by something like that.

“You’re immune to poison? That’s absurd...!”

“I can’t explain the details. Sorry. Given the situation, I’ll wrap this up quickly.”

With that, Arfa rushed toward Amar.

* * *

Riding his golden bird, Velkat arrived in the forest—only to find a scene that shattered his understanding of the world.

“The forest beasts... are blocking the mana vein?”

Around the remnants of the mansion where the mana vein was gushing out, beasts of the forest had gathered.

The creatures—having undergone convergent evolution in the mana-rich Kasarr Basin—were emitting their own mana, sealing off the entrance to the mana vein.

It was a staggering sight.

In a world governed by the law of the jungle, where creatures killed and devoured each other to survive, they were now moving in unison, predator and prey alike setting aside their instincts.

Some of them were especially dangerous—massive beasts with high threat levels.

At first, Velkat thought someone else was interfering with his plans. But realizing it was the beasts themselves, he was struck speechless.

Then, belatedly, his rage surged.

“You lowly beasts... dare to interfere with my life’s work?”

His fury burst forth as magic.

“I’ll kill every last one of you.”

Cubes of steel formed around Velkat and began to fall toward the beasts below.

Sensing the incoming magic, the beasts tried to react—but it was too late.

The steel cubes, charged with fierce lightning, triggered electromagnetic explosions the moment they hit the ground, tearing through the area.

BOOMBOOMBOOM!

Explosions erupted one after another, shockwaves blasting outward.

Beasts caught in the blasts were shredded and torn apart.

Some were crushed by the sheer weight, others burned to death by electricity.

Even so, the number of surviving beasts was still overwhelming.

It was because every creature in the entire forest had gathered here.

Velkat prepared to cast another spell.

At that moment, birds suddenly burst from the trees with a great flurry of wings.

“What the—?”

The birds flew straight at Velkat.

Their beaks were sharp like blades, and they moved at frightening speed.

Some carried the power of wind with them.

But Velkat didn’t even bother responding.

Their beaks struck his body, but his Iron Thunder God armor didn’t receive so much as a scratch.

Instead, the birds’ beaks broke, or they slammed into his helmet and fell, spraying blood as they plummeted.

FWEOOOOO!!

Then a giant eagle, larger than a man, dove toward Velkat, claws extended.

Its wings spread wide—it was nearly the same size as the golden bird Velkat rode.

“You filthy fowl. Do not soar above me.”

Velkat reached out toward the eagle.

Iron particles gathered around the beast, bound its wings, and then crushed them with force.

CRUNCH.

Both of the eagle’s wings broke—but it didn’t fall.

This beast could use mana too. Wrapping itself in fierce winds, it continued flying even with broken wings.

KRAKAKAK!

The eagle’s claws scraped across Velkat’s helmet.

A faint mark appeared along the scratch—barely visible, but there.

“Quite sharp indeed.”

To think it left a mark on the Iron Thunder God armor.

Velkat was genuinely impressed by the eagle’s claws.

But that was all.

KIIIEEEEK!

Enraged by the attack on its master, the monstrous bird Velkat rode bit into the eagle’s neck.

Electric storms erupted around them, intercepting the birds flying in endlessly.

The birds were caught in the storm and fell from the sky like moths rushing into fire.

“I’ll leave the insects alone for now. Time to deal with the big ones.”

Velkat set his sights on the large beasts doing most of the work to stabilize the mana vein.

He saw several creatures like Giant Bears, with enormous mana storage capacities.

There were also stone bulls and massive crocodiles radiating cold energy.

Every one of them was dangerous.

But grounded beasts that couldn’t fly posed no threat to him.

They were nothing more than big targets.

Velkat summoned a harpoon of steel in the air and aimed it at them.

Just as he was about to throw it, a stark white shadow came flying at him from afar.

It was the familiar white owl.

And riding on its back was a man cloaked in shadow.

“Ludger Cherish...”

Recognizing him, Velkat turned the harpoon toward Ludger and launched it without hesitation.

The white owl tried to dodge, but the harpoon twisted midair as if alive, relentlessly tracking it.

In the end, the owl was struck and couldn’t withstand the impact—it was forcefully unsummoned.

But Ludger was no longer on its back.

He had already leapt from the owl and was now charging toward Velkat.

Crossing his arms in an X-shape, Ludger pierced through the electromagnetic storm and swung his swordstick at Velkat.

Velkat responded with his magneta sword.

KWAANG!

The two mana-infused weapons clashed midair, sending a massive shockwave rippling out.

“To think you chased me this far. Truly persistent.”

“If I let you be, everyone would die. What do you expect me to do, sit still?”

The two clashed, strength against strength.

Both of them were racing against time—and at that moment, a massive surge of mana roared from below.

It was a power neither Ludger nor Velkat had anticipated.