Layla's eyes turned toward her opponent with an angry shine in them. She would have attacked outright if not for how tired her body was.

Her body was overly sensitive, willing to attack anything that moved. But Layla did not have enough power to move.

Eventually, the toll of her core cracking and the burden of what was happening did her in. Her legs eventually collapsed, and she closed her eyes before falling unconscious.

"Master-!"

Raziel was the first to move, and he reached out to grab Layla's unconscious form before it could touch the ground.

His hands shook slightly as he held the more fragile than usual person in his arms and cradled her body close to his. He looked shaken but breathed deeply at the same time.

"Raziel, bring master to me. We need to get her checked out. The crack is small and fresh. If we quickly go back to the temple, we might be able to get it filled up in time."

Mary yelled, holding her arms out for Raziel to put their master in.

She was faster than the younger divine energy user and would reach the temple faster. And why did they need to go to the temple? Because those bastards had a monopoly on the healing effects of the scale required to cure Layla at the moment.

Relying on those people left a bad taste in Mary's mouth, but she had no choice.

"If it is divine power that you need, then I-"

"Raizel, I understand that you want to help, but you lack the control needed to help out this time. Just let the experts do their thing for now. You will get your chance soon enough."

Mary assured before she grabbed hold of her young master and left the scene.

Raziel could only look at her back with a longing expression before he sighed.

"S-So, how do we get out of here? A-And what do we do about those monsters heading our way? Are we going to die next?"

The professor asked in a scared voice.

The aura coming off this place was too scary. It made even a trained professional like him want to stay away.

He was so afraid that he forgot why he had arrived in that forest - to find all the other missing kids.

"Don't worry! No monster would dare come close if you stayed with me. Now, let's find your missing kids so we can head back. Although, considering what happened to Layla, I don't have high hopes."

The half-human professor spoke with a grim voice.

He had not meant to get other kids involved in this mess, but he could not say sorry. Those kids…had been a necessary part of his experiment to see how much he could push Layla.

First-class magician Rodric Burnance was satisfied with these results. The only downside was that Layla hurt her core a little, but that was a small price compared to what else she had been able to do.

As a half-dragon, his sense of injury differed from a normal human's. Out of all the creatures, they were the only ones who could repair their broken core.

Professor Rodric's senses categorized Layla as a dragoon (even though she was not), so he did not feel as worried as before.

"I feel sorry for Layla. As a human, having a fragile or cracked core means you have to live in fear and pain of having such a core all your life. It will be particularly difficult for her since she is a ward taken in by the Duke for her talent.

I wonder if she would be abandoned now."

The professor wondered, but Rodric doubted that it would be the case.

He had seen how Mary acted and wanted to help her master out. There was no way she would ever allow her master to be disgraced like that.

"It will be fine. That kid is destined for things beyond your or my imagination. You just wait and watch this all happen from the sidelines. It would be the safest place for you."

The half-lizard spoke confidently. Not even a single doubt slipped into his voice, making the professor feel both scared and relieved.

With Rodric Burnance assuring him that everything could be right again, the professor felt much better, and his brain felt less burdened.

All his positive feelings went down the drain the second he discovered the mauled bodied of the other kids in the forest. They were torn beyond recognition, and the kids looked to be catching him with their huge eyes.

"Tsk, the monsters had a feast. They will be uncontrollable now since they also ate these kids' magical energy. I will have to tame them from the beginning."

Rodric looked more concerned about the monsters and what he would have to do with them than the dead kids, and the professor felt his temper rise.

"Monster this, monster that! Can't you be more concerned about these kids and their loved ones? They are dead, and look at their bodies! What can we do with them now? How do we tell their parents and siblings that this happened?"

The professor yelled, and for the first time, he realized how cruel humans can be when their interests conflict with something.

"And why should I care about any of it? These kids have been part of my experiment since the start, and I never intended for them to live past a certain age. After a while, everything in this world is something to experiment with.

Don't worry! You are still young and sentimental. But once you gain a longer life span and a deeper understanding of magic, you will begin to see life as something insignificant in front of the grand truth of this world.

That time, you will see how right I am about using those sacrificial pieces and using them for the greater good-"

*Smack*

Something hard and heavy hit the half-dragon, causing him to pause and look behind at the professor.