The game difficulty has gone crazy.
A huge underground chamber.
This place, where the Saint’s secret meeting had been held, instantly turned into a place where blood and flesh flew everywhere.
Chwaaak—
Ainheria, reinforced layer upon layer, split the rushing demon’s hand cleanly in two.
The neatly severed cross section was burned by golden holy power, and the demon let out a shrill scream.
Using that opening, Glen charged in and closed the distance in an instant.
A blue killing intent flickered across Glen’s eyes.
“!”
Swaeaeek—!
But Ainheria sliced through empty air, tearing only useless space.
The moment he swung his sword, Glen was dozens of steps away from the demon.
“Shit……”
The demon’s regenerated hand fell from above, and Glen retreated.
Lilphosibili.
The sound rang in his ears once more.
Glen was back beneath the falling demon’s hand.
“Sir Glen!”
Pukaak—
The demon’s hand exploded overhead along with holy power, scattering blood everywhere.
Glen’s clothes were soaked in pitch-black blood.
“Are you alright?!”
Roderick shouted from behind.
If he hadn’t helped, Glen would have died from that attack just now.
“Yes. Thanks to you.”
Looking at the two demons that had appeared in the chamber, Glen twisted the corner of his lips.
Because this event was important, Glen had made various preparations in case a Lunatic trial appeared.
He had gathered enough strength to handle even the worst-case scenario where the Saint couldn’t fight at all.
But having to defeat two demons—
In other words, the difficulty of the Lunatic trial doubling—was something he had never even considered.
‘Seriously, doesn’t this feel a bit too much, even on a human level?’
At this point, it almost felt like a rule that the system raised trials to a level far beyond whatever preparations Glen made.
It even made him reasonably suspect that if he hadn’t prepared at all, the difficulty might have stayed at a moderate level.
‘……Whatever. Why think so much. In the end, it’s my mess to clean up.’
Biting his lip, Glen began to analyze the situation calmly.
《Accessing information on a new Lunatic element.》
《Thorough Job Execution · Lunatic》
:Although they accepted the request, Saint Luceria is an extremely troublesome existence even for the Black Cult. Therefore, they plan to eliminate Luceria with thorough preparation.
:One additional demon will be summoned at the meeting site.
“Tsk……”
Simple, and utterly awful.
It gave him a headache.
‘At least the good thing is that the two demons aren’t the same rank.’
The demon fighting Glen was Lathero.
In the original work, it was the one that fought Luceria in a desperate battle and was known as the tearing demon contracted to her.
A high-tier demon of the upper species, an 8-star close to 9-star, overwhelmingly stronger than Glen.
‘But that newly appeared one……’
A form with a huge eye and dozens of thick, petal-like tentacles extending outward.
Among the demons in Gray Eden, there was one like that.
‘It’s probably Wello.’
Wello, the grabbing demon.
At least that one was similar to Glen.
Its strength was around early 8-star—at most, mid 8-star.
The problem was that it freely swapped Glen’s position with its ability, making it, in some ways, even more annoying than Lathero.
‘Can I… win this?’
About ten minutes had passed since the battle began.
The Saint’s side and the meeting participants, who had been completely overwhelmed at first, gradually regained their senses and joined the fight one by one, but the situation didn’t improve.
Lathero went without saying.
And while Wello was merely similar to Glen, most of the other fighters were around 7-star at best, so it even had room to assist Lathero and harass Glen.
‘Even when I try to deal with it, that bastard keeps swapping my position.’
The only one he could rely on was Luceria, who possessed the strongest power here—but the problem was that today was the first day of her life she had ever fought.
“Saint!”
“I know!”
Whenever a large attack came in, Luceria focused on blocking casualties by releasing massive holy power in response to Roderick’s commands.
What else could she do?
It had only been a few years since she received Mineth, the main god’s favor, and gained such immense holy power.
The fact that Luceria’s combat ability was weaker than the power she possessed had already been taken into account when making the plan.
But this state wasn’t enough.
Since she held the greatest power, Luceria needed to show more strength than originally planned.
‘But how?’
Chwaaak—
The battle had continued for over ten minutes.
During that time, Glen used the Primordial Mirror to activate the second gray ring and fought on.
He used all kinds of skills, trying to turn the situation around even slightly.
But perhaps they had noticed that Glen was under a time limit—the two cunning demons adopted a defensive stance.
Par sadun.
Ire fortite quo mia parma.
They simply regenerated their hands, which had been severed dozens of times, pointed at Glen, and laughed with that uniquely unpleasant demon grin.
‘Ah… this might not work.’
If he ended up consuming both uses of the gray ring like this, the balance would completely collapse.
Then, in an overwhelmingly disadvantageous situation, Saint Luceria would make the same choice she did in the original story.
‘In that case……’
If he couldn’t win, he would have to run.
Of course, that would turn the village into ruins due to the two demons, but even so, Luceria’s ring had to be protected.
‘The problem is whether Luceria would understand that and retreat willingly……’
Even though escape had been possible from the start, Luceria hadn’t done so.
Given her personality, she would never be able to watch innocent villagers and travelers die because of forces targeting her.
‘And if I forcibly drag her out, her mental state will be completely wrecked afterward.’
In the original work, Luceria was a character close to absolute, untouchable good.
She was someone who overcame countless hardships and dilemmas in her personal scenario and upheld the good she believed in.
If Glen made her abandon the village, he might save her life, but he would leave a wound on her heart.
Of course, the fact that Glen was her benefactor, who saved her life from Ducan and the demons, wouldn’t change.
Because of that, she would later become a reliable ally to Glen. But—
‘If possible……’
He didn’t want someone who would become his person to carry such trauma.
He didn’t want to become someone who ignored the feelings of his own people, treating them like tools, even if he might do so to enemies or strangers.
‘So I’ll do as much as I can.’
A strange light flowed through Glen’s eyes.
He still had some leeway.
He would search for a method until the very end, and if there truly was none, then he would work together with Roderick and escape with Luceria.
As things stood, Glen alone couldn’t defeat Lathero and Wello, and it was unrealistic to expect Luceria to suddenly awaken and display insane combat power.
