Yua woke up and immediately stood up. Her gaze fell upon herrades lying on the grass, as well as the dogs.


    “Rx.” Kimi, who was sitting nearby, had a long sigh. “They are fine.”


    The kunoichi also found that the wounds on Elise and Marko’s bodies had disappeared without a trace. “So, you helped us escape from the explosion?”


    “I must admit. What you guys did was reckless and unexpected.” Kimi continued. “But the most important thing is that you get what you need.”


    “Don’t worry, you weren’t really threatened in that explosion.” Raymund said as Yua looked up. “That explosion can’t really kill you.”


    “But, that can’t be said with the others, right?” Yua shook her head, then looked at the thick ck smoke in the distance. The orange color of the forest fire filled the dark sky. “And at what cost?”


    “It’s okay.” Kimi continued. “This is for the greater good.”


    “So, what exactly is your goal, Kimi? What reason made you want to get that great power? Is it because you hate humans too?” The kunoichi looked at the hooded woman._.


    “If I hated humans, I would have killed you and any human who came here,” Kimi replied in a t tone. “It’s just… You’ll know the reasonter.”


    “Huh, you’re so mysterious, aren’t you?” The kunoichi’s attention turned to Elise, who started to squirm.


    The female warrior opened her eyes, paused for a moment, then hurried over to her dog. “Mona!!!”


    Elise’s pet was having a hard time standing with all four legs shaking. When her master approached her, she was moaning in pain.


    “Forgive me.” Elise hugged her dog and burst into tears. “I put you in that situation again.”


    “I’m sorry too, Elise,” Raymund responded. “But, I don’t see any advantage in dying the mission.”


    The female warrior didn’t answer and just wiped her tears.


    Yua turned her head to Kimi again, but the hooded woman had already disappeared.


    The others woke up one by one. Only Marko was still unconscious and was snoring. Henrik had to wake him up by hitting his head again.


    Vilja held the smander’s leg with no disgust at all, though the limb was still dripping with blood. “Actually, who is helping us? We should have been seriously injured and might have died in that huge explosion.”


    “Maybe it’s Kimi?” Marko chimed in while scratching his head.


    “If it really is Kimi, why doesn’t she just appear in front of us to help.” Henrik snorted. “Why did she have to be sneaky like that?”


    Elise and Yua chose to remain silent ording to the hooded girl’s instructions.


    “Well, whatever.” Adjusting her sses, Vilja looked at the burning forest in the distance. “Most importantly, we have got what we were looking for. We can move on to the next mission tomorrow.”


    The kunoichi came up to the blue-haired wizard. “How about we rest first? Maybe our bodies weren’t hurt, but what happened just now really drained us mentally.”


    “I also want to rest. Trust me.” Vilja shook her head. “But, tomorrow is a perfect full moon night. It was a good time to perform the summoning ritual. If we don’t do it tomorrow, we’ll have to wait another month.”


    “Then, let’s wait another month,” Henrik replied.


    “Don’t you want this mission to be over quickly, Henrik?”


    Henrik couldn’t reply and just ruffled his hair.


    Elise and Yua exchanged nces. They had experienced something terrible under a full moon night.


    “What exactly is the summoning ritual you are going to do?” Yua asked in a suspicious tone.


    “We will summon the Devil,” Vilja said with a rxed gesture as if what came out of her mouth was something normal. “We need the essence of darkness to perform that bigger ritual.”


    “Do you have a n to defeat that devil?”


    “Yes.” Vilja drew her closer to the kunoichi. “And if you don’t want to, you can leave now.”


    Yua raised her hand. “Easy, girl. I was just asking.”


    “Please, don’t go, Elise, Yua,” Marko spoke without looking at the two women. “We still need you. You have no idea how hard it is to carry out a mission with fewer members.”


    “Like your friend said.” Yua wore a big smile. “We’ll stay.”


    ***


    Anja put a pile of thick books in front of me. “I can get some of what you asked for. I wrote it down in your debt note, Sir Raymund.”


    “Thanks.” I chuckled at Anja’s sour face. “Come on. It’s for Elise and Yua’s sake. I need to get as much information as possible from their opponent. They’re your friends too, right? You want them home safely, right?”


    The brown-skinned woman took a deep breath. “Yeah, well…. But….”


    I took one of the thinnest books among the others. It’s probably only about ten inches thick. The ck front cover of the book is decorated withrge eyes and the words, “Creature of Darkness.”


    I simply opened the book, and a UI screen appeared in front of me. So I don’t have to go through page after page looking for what I need. All I needed to do was enter some keywords until I finally found the section of the summoning ritual.


    “Vilja must know the devil’s name she will summon, or the ones that appear will be random. If she is unlucky, she will summon a very dangerous devil.” I exined to my two servants. “Ask Vilja, what kind of devil power does she want? I’ll find a devil that you guys can fight.”


    “Is there no other way to get the essence of darkness, sir?” Yua chimed in. “I don’t like the idea of ??summoning the devil. I remember the demons back then.”


    “Yes, there is another method, Yua.” I closed the book and took a deep breath.


    “What’s that?”


    “Maybe we can do something about Elise’s sword and Mona. Maybe we can figure out a way to extract their essence.” I continued. “But I don’t want to do that. We don’t know what harm will happen to Elise and her dog.”


    “Aah, you’re right, sir. I don’t want Mona or Elise to get hurt either.”