Ryan had finally finished sending the inhabitants of the village to the S-rank dungeon.

After sealing the entrance within the relic, he decided to also send his companions to protect the dungeon in case of trouble.

And now that he had decided to venture into the territory of Kowarre to see if he could find any trace of Beatrice.

He was suddenly attacked.

Now that Ryan had those three demons in front of him, he inspected them quickly while the one with the scythe kept talking.

Three archdemons.

’Individually they aren’t on Solaris’s level, but there are still three of them...’

Three together could be a problem, or maybe not. But for Ryan, one thing was certain: he had no intention of being overconfident.

The largest of the three was hard to ignore. He was massive in a way that went beyond what Ryan would expect even from an archdemon, a mass of muscle that made the mace in his hand look small, though in reality, it was so heavy it would have crushed the ground if he let go.

And the shield on his other arm was the size of a door.

The archdemon who had two enormous bracers on his wrists and nothing else visible as a weapon, which Ryan interpreted as a relic.

And the third carried a scythe.

It was the scythe that made him stop internally.

He had seen it before. Or rather, he had seen the one who carried it, though at that time it was from very far away.

"I remember it, the day we left the A-rank dungeon. Right where we encountered Solaris," Ryan murmured to himself.

But the demon gave no sign of recognizing him. He looked at him as what he believed him to be—a holy knight who had appeared alone in demonic territory riding a wyvern, which in normal circumstances would be exactly as absurd as it sounded.

"May I ask what a holy knight is doing here?" the one with the scythe asked, leaning the weapon over his shoulder with a studied calm.

"Don’t you think you’re quite far from home?"

Before Ryan could respond, the largest of them took a step forward, looking at the wyvern with an expression that, in a human, would have looked like greed.

"I want to keep that wyvern. Can I have it this time? You guys always get the best rewards."

The one with the scythe let out a burst of laughter that was lost in the cold wind.

"And how do you plan to ride it, being so heavy? You’ll just kill it by crushing it. Forget it."

The big guy frowned but didn’t respond, which suggested he didn’t have a good argument against it.

Ryan sighed

It wasn’t exactly impatience. It was more the resignation of someone who had more urgent matters to attend to and was forced to make a stop that wasn’t in the plan.

"How about you stop wasting my time and just fight already?" he said, adjusting the boomerang on his shoulder.

Then he took the magic inventory out of his pocket.

’For now, I’ll put it away; I don’t plan to spend much time on them.’

The one with the bracers looked at him as if he had just heard an insect’s complaint.

"What’s with this idiot? Are you that eager to die?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Ryan said as he put away the boomerang that had been resting on his shoulder, sliding it into his inventory without taking his eyes off the three archdemons.

"Just fight. I’ll kill you quickly."

The one with the scythe let the blade of his weapon drop against the snow and observed him with an expression as if evaluating him.

"You’re very confident for someone alone. Or you’re buying time." The scythe blade scratched the snow as he dragged it slowly. "Tell me, how many came with you?"

Ryan didn’t respond.

The one with the scythe fixed his gaze on the weapon at his waist.

"That weapon," he said slowly. "It radiates a very interesting power; I’ll take it once I kill you."

"You think so? I invite you to try," Ryan replied, placing his right hand on the hilt of his chimera sword.

Then, the archdemon with the massive weapon attacked, and Ryan jumped, avoiding the strike.

While he was in the air. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

He unsheathed his sword.

Clang.

The sound echoed throughout the place; the scythe demon remained in the same spot, but now his weapon’s blade was clashing with Ryan’s unsheathed sword.

Ryan pushed it back with the sword while still in the air, and received five more attacks in a row as he fell.

The archdemon’s scythe was connected to him by a long, black chain.

"You’re more skilled than you look," the scythe demon said as he called it back to him.

Then Ryan jumped backward, and exactly where he had been a few moments ago, the ground exploded from the impact of the demon with the massive mace.

"Tsk, this idiot has good instincts," the giant commented.

The one with the bracers seemed to lose his patience before the other two.

"Let me handle this moron. We’ll figure out how to divide his gear later."

He took a step forward, stretched his hand toward Ryan with his fingers pointing directly at him, and opened his mouth.

"Fire b..."

"Fireball?" Ryan cut the phrase before the archdemon could finish.

"That technique belongs in an ossuary."

The one with the bracers slowly closed his hand.

"Damn you." His voice dropped a pitch. "You don’t know how to keep your mouth shut, do you?"

Ryan didn’t change his stance. Keeping his sword drawn, he prepared for any attack that might come from the archdemons.

"Isn’t it the truth?"

He stood with his feet planted in the snow, watching them with the expression of someone expecting a trap before a duel.

That was when the demon with the bracers began to laugh.

The ground beneath Ryan’s feet began to heat up rapidly. As if something beneath the snow was waking up.

Ryan lowered his gaze for a moment.

A circle of fire charging from below.

He jumped.

"And this was supposed to be a surprise attack?"