As they faced each other, it was Sistoi who made the first move.

Sistoi had already realised during his fight with Rei in the arena waiting room that he couldn’t defeat Rei in terms of pure combat skill.

Despite that, he still decided to make the first move as he judged that they stood a better chance of winning than if he let Mulla face Rei instead.

However, unlike before, Rei wasn’t his only enemy this time.

This time, Set was also here.

For that reason, Sistoi attacked Rei, knowing it would be a difficult attack to connect……while throwing needles at Set at the same time.

Needles weren’t as large as daggers, but they were still highly dangerous.

……While needles had sharp tips, they weren’t considered a powerful weapon.

No, rather, if you considered their power purely as a weapon, they were quite a weak one.

However, in terms of how they were perceived, they were a deadly weapon.

In fact, the needles managed to pause Set’s steps towards Mulla.

But……

「Set, I’m sorry, but could you keep an eye on Sobble? If he tries to escape, I’ll need you to stop him!」

「Guru~?」

Rei shouted at Set as he deflected a blow from the long sword swung towards him.

Set looked at Rei and gave a cry as if to ask ‘are you sure?’, but Rei shouted back that he would be fine.

「If we let Sobble escape now, it will cause trouble later. Besides, I can handle these two on my own!」

「Gurururu~」

I understand, Set seemed to say with a cry as dashed away, leaping forward and pushing off a tree in order to get behind Sobble.

With that, Rei and Set ended up sandwiching Sistoi, Mulla, and Sobble between them.

The situation was painful for Sistoi and Mulla, but it was especially painful for Sobble.

It would have been best for him if he could have gotten out of the forest while Sistoi and Mulla held Rei and Set back, avoided Frizione’s army, and returned to the Imperial Capital.

But now Set was behind him, watching him closely to make sure he couldn’t run away.

If he tried to escape in this situation, he would definitely be captured.

At this point, his only option was to hope that Sistoi and Mulla could defeat Rei, even though the chances were abysmally low.

(I liked betting with Bratta when I knew he would lose for sure, but……do I have a talent for betting?)

Judging that he probably didn’t have any special luck when it came to gambling, Sobble watched the battle unfold.

The fact was that Sistoi and Mulla were at a huge disadvantage.

Mulla threw several daggers to provide support, but they were all deflected by Rei’s Death Scythe.

Rei wasn’t just deflecting the daggers away either, even as he traded blows with Sistoi, the daggers were deflected towards him, leaving Sistoi powerless to do anything.

Sobble didn’t have a weapon strong enough to be able to support him, not that he was someone athletic to begin with.

And above all, with Set staring at him with round eyes, all Sobble could do was watch in silence.

「Whew-!」

With a sharp exhale, Sistoi closed the distance to Rei as he swung his long sword towards his torso.

Rei stepped forward without any particular concern for the attack.

Kiiin-, a metallic clash echoed out.

The sound came from the shaft of the Death Scythe grinding against the blade of the long sword.

「Guh-!」

The one who cried out in that split second wasn’t Rei, but Sistoi.

Holding his left side due to the sudden pain, he leapt backward to try and open up some space, but……

「Did you think I’d let you?」

Rei had predicted Sistoi’s reaction and was about to swing the Death Scythe at him……but had to stop to deflect a dagger that Mulla had thrown at him.

……Rei did all this with just his right hand.

He dealt with Mulla’s attack with just one hand while his left hand went inside his Dragon Robe.

When he took his left hand back out, there were several arrowheads in his hand.

Those arrowheads were created by Rei’s magic item, Nebula’s Eye.

It was these same arrowheads that had caused Sistoi to clutch his left side in pain just a moment ago.

Rei blocked Sistoi’s long sword with the Death Scythe in his right hand while reaching under his robe with his left hand to activate Nebula’s Eye.

It sounded easy to do, but to do that against someone as skilled as Sistoi……who also had Mulla’s support, required extremely advanced skills.

「Argh-!」

Sistoi cried out in pain again.

Rei’s arrowheads normally carried enough power to break skin, tear flesh, and send shockwaves to the bone.

The fact that Sistoi only cried out in pain after being hit was thanks do the armour he was wearing and his own well trained body.

(How annoying. How many does she have?)

Normally, Rei would have wanted to finish Sistoi off in one blow, but the daggers that Mulla kept throwing at him interfered with his plans.

Mulla’s daggers were seemingly endless.

Of course, she didn’t actually have an infinite supply of daggers, but they were still a major hindrance to Rei.

However, Rei quickly changed his mind.

Why was he cooperating with the rebels in the first place?

It wasn’t to capture their enemies, but to kill them. Now was as good a time as any, since Sistoi and Mulla were fighting for their lives.

「You guys have given me so much trouble up until now. ……Don’t die too quickly, okay? If you survive, I’ll take you prisoner.」

Sistoi’s expression became tense, as if sensing something from Rei’s words.

That said, sandwiched between two enemies, he had no opportunity to escape.

As an assassin from Requiem’s Toll, his goal should be to escape immediately.

But, since that wasn’t possible, he had no choice but to survive Rei’s attack somehow.

He glanced at the forest around him.

Could he leave Sobble behind, as he couldn’t move anyway, and escape with Mulla? Sistoi thought about it for a moment, but even if there was an opportunity, he didn’t think he could escape from a Griffon in this environment.

「Mulla.」

「Yeah. We have no choice.」

Mulla didn’t have Sistoi’s intuition, but she could still tell that Rei was preparing for something.

That being the case, she shifted her focus to survival.

「It looks like you’re ready. Well then……let’s go.」

With those words, Rei activated Overlord’s Armour.

Mulla, Sistoi……and Sobble, saw magic power so dense to the point it was visible.

It’s pointless.

As soon as they saw Rei’s appearance, they realised they had no chance of winning.

No, they had no chance of winning to begin with, but since finding a way to survive was the most important thing, they couldn’t give up to the very end, so the two of them readied their weapons.

Rei took a step forward with the Death Scythe at the ready.

It was just a step. But that alone caused both Mulla and Sistoi to take a step back.

(He’s dangerous. He’s too dangerous. There’s no way we can do anything about him.)

Sistoi’s instinct expressed a danger he had never felt before in his mind.

He wanted to run, he should run, he wanted to disappear. He wanted to disappear from this place.

Such thoughts crossed his mind numerous times, but he persisted and stood his ground.

If he ran now, Mulla would definitely die.

No, even before that, he knew that it would be difficult for even just himself to escape.

And yet, the fact that he was able to remain standing as Rei approached, whether it was Sistoi or Mulla, was because they were skilled members of Requiem’s Toll, a top underworld organisation.

In fact, Sobble, who was standing a little further away, was completely unable to move due to the pressure from Rei.

If anything, he was doing well not to collapse to his knees.

As he watched the three of them, Rei glanced at the magic power clinging to his body.

「……I had a feeling this was going to happen. I’ll go easy on you, but please don’t die.」

Without saying that he was still praticing Overlord’s Armour, he dashed towards Sistoi.

An instant……yes, in that instant, Sistoi sensed danger without knowing why. Prompted by his instincts, he swung his long sword.

Kiin-, a metallic clash.

However, that sound came about from a different result to when Sistoi had previously blocked the Death Scythe.

「Gah-!」

Sistoi groaned as he reflexively turned to look up.

There, he saw a long sword spinning around as it flew through the air……along with his right hand, that had been holding onto it.

「Sistoi!」

Mulla screamed and threw several daggers as she saw Sistoi lose his right arm from the elbow down.

Of all the daggers she had thrown toady, these were undoubted the fastest she had ever thrown.

But Rei didn’t seem to mind the daggers flying towards him as he took another step.

The daggers, which were aimed at Rei’s head, throat, heart, and limbs, were deflected the moment they came in contact with his Overlord’s Armour, bouncing off in various directions.

「What-!?」

As Mulla cried out in disbelief, Rei swung the Death Scythe towards Sistoi……

「Stop it-!」

As Mulla’s voice rang out, the Death Scythe had already swung down, taking Sistoi’s left shoulder with it. Using the momentum from that swing, the blade also took Sistoi’s left leg from the knee down.

Immediately after, just before the Death Scythe’s blade reached the ground, Rei forcibly changed its trajectory to the side. Sistoi’s remaining right leg was also severed at the knee, making him collapse to the ground.

In the blink of an eye……in just an instant, Sistoi had lost all his limbs, except his right shoulder to elbow.

Sistoi fell to the ground with blood flowing profusely from his limbs.

It was easy to see that the flame of his life would soon extinguish if left like this.

Rei pointed the Death Scythe’s blade at Sistoi’s neck as he spoke to Mulla.

「If this continues, he will die before long. If you resist, you will come closer to death as well. ……Now then, I’ll ask again. You have three choices.」

Mulla trembled at Rei’s words.

It was true that she was worried for Sistoi, but she also felt that she would definitely regret it if she didn’t listen to what Rei was saying now.

「First choice, keep fighting me. However, I don’t recommend it. With your greatest force, Sistoi, in this state, no matter how hard you try, you have no chance of winning. In the end, there will just be two corpses.」

That was the worst option.

Mulla had no intention of choosing that.

「Second choice. Leave Sistoi here and run away. ……Of course, I have no intention of letting you get away, but if you still have some secret weapon, you might be able to escape. However, since I would have to chase you, Sistoi will die.」

This option, which could be considered the second best option, wasn’t one that Mulla could choose either.

Just like the first option, Sistoi would die.

「Third choice, surrender to me. Of course, I will have to tie you up, but I promise to treat Sistoi. ……Now then, what will you choose?」

「Can I trust you?」

「Yes.」

In response to Mulla’s anxious question, Rei took out a potion from the Misty Ring.

It wasn’t a cheap potion you could buy anywhere.

「D-Don’t worry about me. At least you can get away!」

Sistoi screamed with excruciating pain, with all his limbs missing.

However, those words only had the opposite effect on Mulla.

Her partner was lying on the ground, bleeding out from his injuries.

Mulla couldn’t abandon the person she had lived with since childhood.

Even if it meant betraying the organisation.

Just a moment ago, she had been resolved to fight to the death in order to repay the organisation, but when compared to Sistoi’s life, the latter easily won out.

That was how important Sistoi was to Mulla.

「……I understand.」

It took her a few seconds to make up her mind before she dropped the dagger she was holding to the ground.

Seeing that, Rei also removed his Overlord’s Armour.

「Once Sistoi’s wounds heal, I’ll make sure he can’t betray us……is that okay?」

「What are you going to do? No, there’s nothing we can do right now anyway……do whatever you want.」

With that, Rei went over to Mulla, who was staring at him.

『Flame, you are a seed. If the host breaks this contract with me, use their life to bloom into a beautiful flower of fire.』

Along with that incantation, a small, seed like flame was created at the tip of the Death Scythe’s blade.

Rei gently touched the flame against Mulla’s head.

『Seed of Prohibition.』

As the magic was activated, the flames disappeared into Mulla’s head, as if it were sucked in.

「If you betray me, Vihera, Mercurio, or the rebel army, that will be the moment you die. That is the prohibition.」

And with those words, he handed the potion he was holding over to Mulla.

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