Otherworld Adventure

It was as if the demon knew, but Matheus's plan to lure him away wasn't going so well. Now that he couldn't catch his opponent off guard, Matheus was once again locked in a stalemate with Saravkibah.

The demon didn't budge an inch and would sometimes try to send an attack at the defenseless Celestina. The Cecilia and everyone else was too busy dealing with their opponents that no one could afford to spare any help for her.

Oscar was trying to make his way over to them but 3 demons were currently blocking his path. Even with his peak mana sea stage cultivation, he wasn't able to do anything against the 3 demons who were a level or two below him.

They were working together to keep Oscar locked in place. The other 5 demons were locking down Cecilia, her attendants, and the other knights, so no one could help them right now.

The others had already seen the precarious state Celestina was in and were trying to make their way over, but the pesky demons wouldn't allow it.

Matheus was pushing himself to try and keep Celestina safe. The more he moved the more strain and pressure his body was put through. Saravkibah already noticed that Matheus was only pushing himself to keep up with his strength and speed.

The demon didn't understand how Matheus was able to do this, but the bleeding on his arms and legs that suddenly started occurring only proved to him that the human couldn't keep this up for much longer.

If his opponent did, then Saravkibah himself wouldn't even need to do anything and the human would just die. He noticed that the human was using his mana with the same principles that his race has been using their mana, direct manipulation, and control.

It was crude, but the human was mimicking him. Saravkibah couldn't help but hold a better sense of appreciation for this human warrior that he was fighting. Just from fighting with him, the human was able to deduce the principles of how his race was using mana and somehow apply that to himself.

It was a little faulty since Saravkibah could see that Matheus's body couldn't handle the strain of having mana injected into his muscles, but it was enough for Matheus to fight on par with him.

"Human, why do you go so far to protect that woman?"

"It's just like how you'd go so far as to protect your own kin!" Matheus retorted as he spun his body around and rapidly stabbed and slashed at the demon.

"...your body won't last. You'll die if you push yourself any further..."

"Hmph, you think I don't know that?"

"It is admirable, however..."

"?"

"For you to be able to comprehend the fundamental principle of how we demons use our mana... You see how we do not use chants in our spells or combat skills. You're currently doing it now, so it was quite admirable that you were able to comprehend that through the course of our battle!"

"..." Matheus remained silent and didn't correct Saravkibah's misunderstanding. He didn't comprehend anything. All he did was forcefully try to use the one technique in his family's cultivation manual that no one else could use.

He did get good information out of this. Matheus didn't realize it at first, but after exchanging blows with Saravkibah for so long, he thought there was something familiar.

The way Saravkibah and all the other demons used mana was the same as how his people used mana. Saravkibah was a dead giveaway because there was someone in his very own family who used mana so similarly and that was his little brother, Cecil.

The dark energy wave that Saravkibah had sent to blow away Celestina from earlier was just like how Cecil would use his sword wave attacks and Ascending Blade. Of course, Saravkibah couldn't stand close in comparison with his monstrous little brother but the similarities in techniques were there.

The two combatants continued exchanging blows with one another but eventually, Matheus could feel that he was on his last legs. His body could no longer take the burden of being directly enhanced with mana. He no longer had any feeling in his broken right arm and his legs and left arm were creaking with pain.

He couldn't even stand upright anymore and his fingers couldn't grip his glaive properly, let alone swing it for an attack.

Saravkibah only shook his head when he saw the state Matheus was in. He stopped attacking and said to the human, "Human, do you know why you cannot use mana the way we can?"

"..."

Matheus didn't answer him back, but Saravkibah continued to explain.

"It is because our races have different bodily constitutions. Your body cannot handle the usage of mana directly so you need a medium to help adjust your body into being able to receive that mana, which is in the form of spells. By then, the incantation and spell formation of your human spells would have diluted the mana by quite a large deal and make it compatible to be used with your weak human body."

"Difference in body constitutions, huh? I guess that's why no one in the family could use Mana Burst except for Cecil..." Matheus said but the latter half of his words were mumbled out.

"This is the end, human. Know that before you die, you have gained my respect as a warrior," Saravkibah declared as he raised his axe high up into the air.

Just before he could slice down onto Matheus with his weapons, a barrier suddenly appeared in front of the human and blocked his attack.

"What's this?" He growled angrily.

He turned to look at Celestina who had somehow managed to stand back up on her own feet. Near the girl's feet, there were broken vials of healing potions scattered all around. It seems that during his fight with Matheus, the human girl was able to heal herself with some potions.

Saravkibah sneered at her and raised both his axes together. Before he could cleave down, one of the demons who were in his squad raised a voice of alarm and pointed into the air just behind him.

"L-Leader, in the skies south of us, more humans!"

"Hm?" He turned around glared up at the night sky. For the demon race, they had an ability known as Dark Vision which would allow them to see in the dark. With this ability, Saravkibah was able to see that there were multiple wyverns, Storm Hawks, and other aerial monsters racing in their direction.

He noticed that each monster had a human rider on top of them and they were all wearing uniformed armor.

"Tsk, I thought those fools were going to keep them from mobilizing! What's the meaning of this?!"

When Cecilia saw the demon and the demon leader communicating with each other and looking towards the skies, she heard the monster cries and her eyes immediately brightened. She immediately started sending Light Bolts into the air while shouting, "Our reinforcements have arrived!"

"Reinforcements?"

"Thank the heavens!"

"Continue defending! Endure until they arrive!" Oscar roared out. The sounds of the aerial monsters caught the demons off guard so he was able to catch one of them off guard. He injured and pushed them back before charging through the opening he had created for himself and rushed straight towards Celestina's location.

Matheus only heard the words 'reinforcements' before he could no longer stay upright. He collapsed down onto the ground and lost consciousness. When Celestina heard her sister say that reinforcements have arrived, she quickly looked up into the air where Saravkibah was looking at and fired a Flame Lance into the sky before exploding it.

She was able to illuminate the skies for a bit and noticed the flying monsters that were rushing to their location. Celestina saw the uniform armor they were wearing and the emblem of the Revertia Holy Kingdom engraved on it.

"H-how? How did they know where we are?!" She cried out in pleasant surprise.

Oscar arrived next to her and quickly said, "Lady Celestina, no need to be surprised. Back when we first arrived in the capital city of the Regulus Kingdom, Lady Cecilia had already relayed the news about our arrival and requested an escort from the holy city."

"I-I see... Th-thank goodness they arrived just in time, but we need to get to Matt—I mean, Sir Matheus first! He was only trying to protect me but he was fighting against the demon group's leader, Saravkibah. The fight has taken a toll on his body..." Celestina urgently said as she eyed the fallen Matheus.

"Yes, of course. I'm quite surprised that that boy had managed to stand toe-to-toe with that demon for a long time. His cultivation stage is so low, but he was able to fight on par with that demon, even if it was only for a while..."

"We have to hurry back to the kingdom and have him get treated! He saved my life after all!"

"He saved all of our lives before. We still haven't repaid him of that debt."

Oscar and Celestina worked together to beat back the 3 demons who had chased after Oscar. It was a pleasant relief, but Saravkibah seemed to be no longer interested in ending Matheus's life.

He was only glaring straight into the night sky at the approaching Revertia Kingdom Air Force. He frowned and quickly took to the skies while shouting, "Retreat! I sense a Holy Knight in their presence."

The other demons heard his orders and quickly flew up and chased after their leader who was already retreating. The Reverita Kingdom's aerial forces saw the retreating demons and the commander immediately split the forces in two. One continued to chase after the retreating demons while the other landed.

The unit's commander who was riding on a large red wyvern landed and quickly made his way to Cecilia.

"Lady Cecilia, you had us all worried! I knew it. We should have remained stationed in that neutral city after you were attacked the first time and waited for your arrival! Those damned geezers, we'll need to—"

"It's alright, Sir Bart, our priority right now is to get back to the kingdom as quickly as possible. Did you prepare us some flying mounts?"

"Yes, Milady, we have them all prepared," The commander replied.

"Good, we'll also be taking someone back with us. He's currently injured and needs to be brought back for treatment. He's an important guest of ours, he saved us back then and he also fended off the demon group's leader earlier before you all arrived."

"...I see. Then he must be a formidable warrior to fight off that Pseudo Mana Core stage demon..."

"Send a messenger ahead of us and have the kingdom quickly prepare a room of recuperation for us. List it under my family's name!"

"I-is this all necessary for just one person?" Commander Bart questioned after eyeing Matheus who was being carried over by Knight Captain Oscar and Celestina.

When he saw the grievous injuries that Matheus had sustained, he couldn't help but widen his eyes in pure shock. The unconscious young man had one arm broken, his other appendages were bleeding and his muscles and skin were all torn apart.

"Let's hurry back then, Lady Cecilia."

"Yes."