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n“Are you alive?”

nShe heard the voice again. For a moment, Lyla couldn’t speak. She wondered if the situation before her was part of a dream or reality. She even thought Finel could be mimicking Zich’s voice to torment her. Yet, it was clear that she wasn’t imagining or dreaming of these rough palms that were pulling her hand.

n“Hey, are you dead? Feeling your current temperature, it seems you are still alive. Did you faint? Or is this not Lyla?”

n“N-No, I am Lyla!” Worried that Zich might let go of her hands, Lyla gripped the hand that was clutching hers harder and yelled.

n“Ah, so it is Lyla.”

nPop! In an instant, she felt the meat clump’s dirty and heavy weight that had been pressing her down disappear. Although she heard a scream full of pain in the background, she didn’t focus on it.

n“What’s that stuff all over you?” Zich asked.

nPop! Another shock swept the surroundings again, and the legs of the meat clump disappeared. Yet, there wasn’t any injury on Lyla’s body. It was a surprising level of mana control. Lyla couldn’t put any strength into her legs and fell to the ground.

n“What, is this place that comfortable?”

n“W-wait!” Lyla tried to hurriedly get up but fell again.

n“It doesn’t seem like it’s because you are just surprised.” Zich pulled himself out of the hole and pushed his feet into the large room he had made. Then, he looked around. ‘As I thought, this place seems to be really special.’

nSince he had controlled the blade attack to not injure Lyla, the force had been much weaker than the attack he made to pierce this hole. Yet, because of the blade attack, all the meat clumps that had been surrounding Lyla fell apart. Compared to the meat clumps that had blocked him so far, the meat clumps here had the defense ability of paper. Zich smashed their remains on the ground as much as he pleased and approached Lyla.

n“Thankfully, it doesn’t seem like you are hurt anywhere.”

n“Ah, yeah. I’m not hurt.”

n“Then, is it just that you can’t put any strength in your body?” It was probably the side effect of the meat clump’s attempt to steal her body.

n“W-wait! If I wait a bit, I think I can—”

nZich ignored her. It would be preferable if Lyla recovered quickly, but right now, they didn’t have the time to leisurely wait and see when she would be fully capable of walking again.

nBam! Zich struck the fireball flying his way.

n“Magic?”

n“This place is still the inside of the damn meat clump. It has been grossly blocking me since I came in.”

n“Ah!” Lyla remembered what she had completely forgotten at Zich’s sudden appearance. “That must have been the firelight I saw!”

nShe had seen a firelight when she grabbed Zich’s hands but didn’t see it anymore. It seemed that the light that she saw had come off from the magic Finel shot.

n“Let’s get out of here first.” Zich grabbed and lifted Lyla with one arm and clutched Windur tightly with the other.

n“You are freakishly light. Are you eating properly these days?”

n“W-Wait….”

n“What, do you need to do something? I don’t know what it is, but do it next time. We don’t have the time for it right now.”

nTruthfully, Lyla still felt guilty towards Finel. Thus, she had stopped Zich without thinking twice. Yet, it was true that she also desperately wanted to continue living, so in her heart, she felt relieved that Zich ignored her. Furthermore, it wasn’t like Zich was wrong. Meat clumps began to push into the area again. Several hands stretched out between these areas, and eyes and lips also popped out similarly. Then, they began to enchant spells.

n“How is your mana, Lyla?”

n“It seems okay. I think I only lost strength in my body.”

n“Then, can you use magic?”

nLyla lifted her arms and tried moving her fingers. It felt much harder to move them than usual, but it wasn’t to the point where she couldn’t move them at all.

n“It’s alright.”

n“Good! Then, let’s get out of this disgusting place first.” Zich deflected the magic coming his way with Windur. Light, storms, and heat rushed into the dark place. Thanks to that, Lyla could check her surroundings with her eyes.

n“…”

n“What is it? Why did you suddenly go silent?”

n“…We just have to penetrate the area to make a passageway, right?”

n“Yeah. I mean, magic makes the most powerful single blows.”

n“I understand.” Lyla began to murmur a spell. Her mana overflowed and began to gather at the ends of her fingers.

n– Kyaaaaaah!

nSeveral lips let out incomprehensible screams.

n‘Hmm. Even though these guys are controlled by the main body, it’s a reach to say they are also part of it.’ Their magic and attack methods were all crude. ‘Yet, it’s true that they are special products.’

nIn addition to their magic, their physical strength was formidable. Thus, he had to go through a lot of trouble to break their walls. Nevertheless, he succeeded in retrieving Lyla, and considering the mana gathering in Lyla’s hands, escaping appeared to be easier than trespassing.

nCrackle! Fire sparks burst out of Lyla’s hands. It wasn’t the usual fireball that swept up a wide area like a tsunami of flames, but a compressed fire spark that shot out in a straight line.

n– Kieeeeeeh!

nThe lips screamed simultaneously. The smell of burning skin and fat grazed thickly across their noses, but Lyla didn’t stop. She continued to cast spells. Although Zich had to maintain a sloppy stance, there was now a space where he could walk through while carrying Lyla.

n‘This is comfortable,’ Zich thought as he sliced an arm reaching for him. With Lyla joining, the situation had become much easier. Leaving the task of piercing a hole to Lyla, all he had to do was block the attacks in their surroundings.

nCrunch!

n– Kueeeeeeh!

nHe even poked the eyes that annoyingly glared at him from time to time.

nBaam! The fire spark that was fading away after burning through a path of meat clumps finally blew forward cleanly. The fire sparks flew while leaving a long red trajectory and disappeared after burning away the meat clumps on the opposite wall. A hole had formed in front of Zich and Lyla, and beyond it, a bluish light coming from the water tree seeped in. Instead of the disgusting smell of burning flesh, fresh air tickled their noses.

n—Ahhhhhhh!

nThe mouths cried out loud as if to let out their frustrations at their inability to stop Zich and Lyla. However, Zich nor Lyla had any desire to understand their hurt feelings.

nCrush! Zich swung Windur and expanded the hole; Lyla did the same thing. Blast! Blast! Blast!

nLyla’s magic completely burnt the flesh surrounding the hole, making it expand to a large enough size for two people to sufficiently pass through. Zich stepped out of the hole without hesitation.

n“Sir Zich!”

n“You’ve come out!”

n“Teacher!”

nHans, Snoc, and Elena called out to them happily. However, they all immediately closed their mouths as soon as they saw Lyla and Zich’s appearances. More specifically, they shut their mouths after seeing Zich. Lyla took out a bunch of potions from her magic box as soon as they came out of the hole. Then, she looked up at Zich. She bit hard on her lip.

n“What?”

n“Just drink this first!” Lyla put a potion on Zich’s mouth. Zich gulped down the potion without any resistance. While he was drinking the potion, Lyla took out more potion bottles and sprayed them everywhere on his body.

n“Um, Sir Zich?” Hans approached them and carefully asked, “Are you all right?”

nZich was holding Lyla, and she didn’t seem to have received any surface-level injuries. The problem was Zich. His appearance was disastrous; his body was covered in blood, and there were many large holes throughout his body. There were areas where they could see parts of his bones, and they could also see his intestines moving in his stomach area. The skin around those areas had severe burn marks.

nMoreover, his face, which was the most visible area when fighting an opponent, was in an extremely dire state. There was a hole in his cheek, so they could clearly see his inner teeth, and one of his eyes was completely mangled. It was definitely unable to perform its proper function.

nHowever, the part that made his companions speechless was Zich’s careless attitude. Even though they had seen him look unfazed while receiving severe injuries before, his current condition looked way too serious.

n“Wow, my pain instantly disappeared.” It was even more bizarre to see him chuckle as Lyla poured potions on him.

nHowever, they couldn’t continue to stay frozen in shock. Finel’s attacks hadn’t stopped yet.

n—Y-y-you…!

nAfter seeing that Zich had rescued Lyla, Finel was unable to properly talk and huffed in fury. She looked like a child who got her snack taken away from her.

n—You **ing bastaaaaaards!

nFinel loudly cried out; enormous mana trembled and likewise, her flesh moved in a frenzy. Even though it felt as if the whole space was trembling from her cries, Zich merely cleaned his ears.

n“So **ing loud.” This was the extent of Zich’s thoughts about Finel’s cries.

n—Kill, I need to kill you!

nFinel’s eyes rolled back in fury as the long-awaited plan she was so close to achieving was shattered by Zich.

n—I don’t need a body anymore! I’m going to kill you bastards here! All of you!

n“Ah, is that so? We seem to share mutual feelings. I’m also starting to get tired of seeing your face. Let’s end this.” Zich lifted up Windur.

nThe surrounding meat clumps began wiggling again; the meat clump that had imprisoned Lyla was moving more strongly than the other parts. ‘She’s planning to gather her body parts again.’

n“Hans! Snoc! Elena!”

n“Yes, sir!” All three of them answered at the same time.

n“All of you stay here and prevent that meat clump from moving!”

n“Yes, sir!”

nAs soon as Zich gave them an order, the three of them began moving. Snoc used mithril to build a wall and stopped the meat clump’s path. Hans and Elena mercilessly attacked the meat clump. Even though they were unable to completely stop the meat clump’s movements, it was definitely moving slower than before.

n“Lyla.”

n“Yep! What should I do?”

nLyla seemed to have become oddly more compliant than before, but Zich didn’t think too much about this. He merely thought that there was now a higher possibility that she might forgive him for the action he was about to do.

n“You’re able to use all your magic, right?”

n“Of course!”

n“Good!” Zich lifted Lyla high up in the air.

n“…What?” Lyla let out a surprised yelp as Zich supported her butt with his elbow and put his hand on her back. “W-wait! Zich, what are you doing right no—!”

n“I trust you, Lyla!”

n“Kyaaaaaaah!”

nWhen they talked about this event later, although Hans and Snoc had been with Lyla for a very long time, and of course, Elena, they all agreed that it was the very first time they ever heard Lyla scream like that. Regardless of how light Lyla was, she was still a full-grown adult, and she still carried a certain amount of weight. However, with Zich’s throw, Lyla’s body flew in the air at an extremely fast speed—right in front of Finel.

n—What!

nEven Finel was startled in the middle of her attack. She hadn’t expected him to throw Lyla like that in her direction. For that reason, a small gap appeared in her movements. Zich used that moment to run towards the lake at full speed.

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