"It’s such a shame that you three never seriously considered the possibility that something you said so casually could turn out to be true."

She gave a small shrug.

"No offence, though. I did have a good time with you all."

Her gaze drifted slightly, and her voice softened.

"Zenovia especially."

Elion’s jaw tightened.

"Wait..."

His voice came out colder.

"What happened to Zenovia?"

Maya blinked innocently, and Elion involuntarily took one slow step forward.

"And how did you get here so quickly? You were supposed to be with her in the outer forest region."

The hall went quiet.

Maya looked at him for a few seconds and sighed softly, as though he had asked something genuinely troublesome.

"Zenovia is alive," she said.

Elion’s eyes, however, did not soften.

"For now."

Kurogoroshi hummed in his hand.

Maya’s gaze flicked to the sword briefly, a faint shadow crossed her expression, "That weapon really is unpleasant."

Elion ignored the comment, "What did you do to her?"

Maya’s smile faded just a little.

"Nothing personal," she said. "She was simply too sharp. Out of all of you, she was always the most likely to notice me first, given the amount of time we spent together. So before I left, I had to make sure she was... occupied."

Elion’s face darkened. Yaana giggled softly from behind Maya, "You look angry."

Uta folded her arms. "Of course he does. Humans are always sentimental at the worst times."

The guardian said nothing; however, his wary eyes remained fixed on Elion.

Maya took another small step forward.

"I didn’t want it to happen like this," she said quietly. "I really didn’t. But things moved faster than expected. The coalition saints, the Demon King’s ritual, Zenith’s unexpected betrayal..." Her eyes returned to Elion’s face. "And then you arrived here earlier than I thought you would."

Elion’s gaze sharpened at the mention of Zenith’s name, "So you know about Zenith, too?" He asked, "Just how much do you know?"

Maya’s expression became unreadable.

"I know enough." She didn’t seem to be eager to say any more than that. However, after everything became clear to him, Elion found himself feeling eerily calm despite the grim revelations before him.

This really was greatly unexpected, and Maya was right. He had never suspected a thing from her. So, why was he calm despite being found out, you might ask?

Well, he had beaten down this trio of heroes the last time. What was one more addition going to do? And he could also say he was quite familiar with Maya’s abilities as a mage after the little bit of time they had spent together.

Taking into account the possibility that she might have concealed her strength, he still wasn’t too worried.

It was just so greatly inconvenient that this was going to be more trouble than he had first assumed.

But now that he knew who the traitor was, that was a weight off his chest, and Maya’s betrayal wasn’t too hurtful for him. He could never say he knew her that well.

He couldn’t help but think of Zenovia, though. He didn’t know how close she had been to Maya, but no doubt, this would have been a big blow for her.

"You know," Maya began, "the very first time I laid eyes on you, I just knew you would be the biggest obstacle for us in this trial. And with every battle you fought in afterward, the more certain I became of that assessment."

Her eyes softened slightly, though her smile remained.

"Even now, I have a feeling that you never really showed us what you would be like at your strongest."

Elion shrugged.

"You think too highly of me. Every battle was hard-fought. I was barely hanging on by the skin of my teeth."

"If you say so." Maya shrugged as well. "Even then, I’m not going to take my chances though."

The others mostly remained silent, though Yaana seemed to have gone back to eyeing him with stars in her eyes, like some infatuated miscreant, which clearly annoyed her brother, Uta.

Their guardian, whose name Elion still didn’t know even now, remained as nonchalant as ever.

"So," Elion asked as he slid his unarmed hand onto his waist, "how do you want to do this?"

Maya pressed a finger to her cheek in a pondering manner.

"Honestly, if I had any other choice, I would avoid this confrontation entirely. You are the last person I would want to go up against in a fight, even if it’s four versus one."

She smiled lightly.

"However, I am feeling confident. After all, you are in our territory, and there is only one of you."

She paused for a moment before continuing.

"In fact, it’s not even four versus one..."

The smile on her face widened into a grin. It looked so unlike her. However, Elion didn’t get the time to ponder on it as six more figures stepped out from within the shadows. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"It’s ten versus one!" Maya said triumphantly as she beckoned toward the new entrees.

Elion’s breath hitched. Setting aside the issue that he hadn’t been able to sense these people even though they had been hidden in plain sight, it was never the numbers themselves that worried him.

What mattered was the individual strength of those he was up against, and right now, he could see that these demons were all individually powerful, far more powerful than this group of four heroes.

Elion clicked his tongue quietly. He was really starting to feel the pressure now. However, it seemed Maya was not finished.

"And the Philosopher’s Stone that you and Mistress Zenith are probably so desperately looking for is not even where you think it is."

Elion’s eyes narrowed as Maya pointed toward the runed door.

"Think about it. Why would it be kept in the most obvious place, appearance-wise?"

She tilted her head slightly.

"This here is nothing but bait."

She went quiet after that, still smiling gently while waiting. Most likely waiting for Elion to crumble into despair.

Unexpectedly, he simply breathed in deeply and then breathed out. He scratched the back of his head tiredly and laughed.

"Haha... I guess, we’re kind of fucked, huh?"

Maya’s smile faltered slightly. Elion sighed and ran a hand over his face.

"It’s not like I never expected something to go wrong. Things were going a little too well for us anyway."

His gaze drifted briefly toward the runed door.

"You said it’s called a Philosopher’s Stone?"

His lips twitched.

"Very philosophical indeed."

Despite the front he was putting on, things were indeed looking quite grim for him. And if Zenith had been here, she might have probably come to the conclusion that this was how Elion had managed to die in every single loop without her knowledge.

Even more so since Zenith never found out that Maya had always been on the demons’ side despite all her regressions.

There was only so much that Elion could do against four Advanced Mages, five High Mages, and one Archmage!

Yes.

One of these demons was a hulking Archmage-level warrior with a wicked grin stretched across its face.