The battle erupted without warning on the outskirts of Springday City.
These demonkin—mutated from humans—were exactly the same as those that had appeared in Val City before. In fact, compared to the ones from Val City, they were even larger, bulkier by a noticeable margin.
Dozens of flesh-mountains thundered toward Luluwo and the others. In a flash of light, a layer of steel suddenly spread across the surface of their massive bodies, transforming the demonkin into iron war chariots complete with mechanical fittings and reinforced plating.
A flicker of magical light passed over Frog-Head's body—there was no doubt this was his handiwork.
There was no need for further words.
There was only one thing to do now.
Fight.
The small-bodied Mira charged straight into the formation, smashing head-on into the iron-plated flesh-mountains. With pure brute force, she overturned one of the massive demonkin, sending it crashing to the ground.
After chanting, Aim raised her staff, and soap bubbles rained down from the sky. The slick surface instantly robbed the demonkin of their footing, causing them to slip, collide, and crash into one another in chaotic disarray.
When Luluwo finally moved, several chains shot out from beneath her cloak, snapping tight around the two nearest demonkin and binding them so thoroughly that no amount of struggling could free them.
At that moment, one demonkin slipped through the net and charged straight at her, clearly intending to crush her into pulp.
Unfortunately for it, Luluwo merely tapped the ground with her toe and leapt high into the air. In a blink, both her hands pressed down onto the demonkin's head—just a slight twist would have been enough to snap its neck.
But she hesitated.
Instead, she kicked it hard in the stomach, sending the massive body flying.
The remaining demonkin surged forward, and Luluwo continued weaving through the dense barrage of attacks, dodging with precise, controlled movements.
"That's right—keep dodging!" Frog-Head laughed, noticing her restraint. "There's still a chance they can return to being normal humans, you know. Don't hurt them!"
A cunning smile spread across his grotesque face.
He understood it well—humanity's greatest weakness was emotion.
Using the red Fallen Demon Egg he possessed, every human who had mutated through the green Fallen Demon Eggs remained firmly under his control.
After realizing Luluwo had been monitoring them, Frog-Head decided to play along, deliberately manipulating the demonkin into displaying behaviors that would stir sympathy.
And it worked perfectly.
Wasn't Luluwo clearly holding back now?
Frog-Head felt like a genius for devising such a plan.
"If you want them to go back to their normal lives," he continued mockingly, "don't use too much force, okay? Hehehe!"
In truth, these creatures—neither human nor demon—could no longer live normal lives. Everything they displayed was merely a hollow imitation of past habits. As for personal will, that had vanished long ago without a trace.
Just as Luluwo grabbed another demonkin and prepared to bind it with chains, Frog-Head suddenly clenched the Fallen Demon Egg in his hand.
The demonkin's body swelled violently—
Then, in the next instant—
A silent explosion.
There was no sound, yet the sheer force shattered the ground beneath them.
"Captain!" Mira shoved aside the enemy in front of her and tried to rush over, but the surging demonkin blocked her path completely, leaving her able only to watch helplessly.
Aim hovered at the edge of the battlefield, desperately casting interference spells, unable to get close enough to check on Luluwo.
Frog-Head stared smugly at the cloud of dust filling the air, eager to savor Luluwo's despair once it cleared.
Instead, what burst out of the dust were several indestructible chains.
"Huh? Eh?!"
He tried to dodge in a panic, but caught off guard, one of his legs was still snagged.
From within the smoke, a pair of crimson-glowing eyes ignited—like a bloodthirsty bat locking onto its prey.
Cold sweat drenched Frog-Head.
What he hadn't expected was that forcing a demonkin to self-destruct after dangling the lie that they could return to normal would only enrage her.
That red streak flashed toward him like lightning.
With a single punch, Frog-Head doubled over like a boiled shrimp.
He was sent flying—but the chain remained tightly wrapped around his left leg, threatening to yank him straight back.
"D-damn it!"
Grinding his teeth, he glared at Luluwo and roared, tearing the chain apart with brute force. Twisted wings burst from his back, and with a powerful flap, he leapt to the edge of the battlefield.
"What are you idiots doing?! Don't just stand there!"
His furious shout energized the demonkin. Their bodies swelled further, strength skyrocketing.
Even those bound by chains tore free through sheer power.
A horrifying sight.
Mira, who had previously flipped them with ease, was now locked in a brutal contest of raw strength.
Several demonkin closed in on Luluwo. Just as she prepared to counterattack, Frog-Head's shrill voice rang out again.
"If you take even one more step, I'll blow Springday City into the sky!"
A despicable, classic villain's line.
Yet Luluwo could only raise a protective barrier of chains around herself, resisting the demonkin's attacks while staring coldly at Frog-Head.
"Hahahaha!" Frog-Head laughed loudly, delighted that a human powerhouse like Luluwo could be restrained by mere words.
What a wonderful day. Maybe he could even convert these humans—they'd make excellent combat assets.
But one question nagged at him.
How had they discovered him in the first place?
If someone had already found him, then information about him might already be spreading.
He couldn't stay in this city any longer.
Tonight, he would make one enormous bang and return home.
Whether Luluwo complied or not no longer mattered. He would detonate all the demonkin hidden throughout Springday City that very night. Even if preparations were incomplete, it would still be enough to flatten half the city.
Not as grand as Doslepo's work—but enough to inherit his position.
Luluwo stared at Frog-Head, thoughts racing.
If Belto and the others could find and kill all the hidden demonkin before detonation, that would be ideal—but it was clearly impossible.
She didn't know how Frog-Head controlled them from such a distance. Was it through that strange red orb?
If she could subdue him quickly and seize it—
"I'm warning you," Frog-Head suddenly said, "don't do anything rash."
Luluwo's face showed irritation, as if annoyed at having her thoughts exposed.
That only made Frog-Head even more smug.
Master of Human Emotion Research, indeed.
"Pshk!"
Just as everything seemed to be unfolding exactly as Frog-Head desired, the sound of flesh being pierced rang out.
"Huh?"
He looked down.
A chain had pierced straight through where his heart should have been. Blood dripped steadily along the links.
An ambush?!
When had it happened?
Hadn't that woman only just shown signs of attacking?
The surrounding demonkin, stirred by his emotional surge, went berserk and lunged toward Luluwo—
—but they struck only an afterimage.
"Shhk—!"
The chain was yanked free and instantly wrapped around his waist, cleanly tearing the Fallen Demon Egg from his grasp.
In the next second, Luluwo appeared at a distance, clutching the Egg tightly.
She turned back and said calmly:
"You know, when adventurers think about doing something, they've already done it."
"I won't say, 'I'm going to kill you.' I'll only say—'You're already dead.'"
Like bamboo shoots bursting through soil, sharp chain tips erupted from the ground around Frog-Head, binding his limbs in an instant and tearing into him.
"Damn you!"
His body suddenly expanded, the wound in his chest healing in the blink of an eye. Just as the chains were about to finish him, he clenched his fist.
"Boom!"
Several demonkin closest to Luluwo exploded violently.
Blackbat's figure flickered through the flames—she managed to retreat in time, though the blast still caught her.
Without the Fallen Demon Egg, he could still trigger explosions?
Then why had he deliberately crushed it earlier?
Luluwo glanced down.
At some point, a human face had formed on the Egg—crying bloody tears while laughing maniacally at her.
"You're finished!" Frog-Head roared.
His body swelled again, fully transforming into a mountain-sized giant frog. He opened his mouth and screeched, the sound warping even the air itself.
The demonkin mutated once more.
The flesh-mountains unraveled into countless tentacles, their speed skyrocketing as they wove together into a massive net that enveloped Luluwo and the others.
"This thing—"
Luluwo was about to tear through it when human faces appeared along every tentacle.
They were Springday City's residents.
Some were people they had seen during their time in the slums.
Each face wore a pleading expression, silently begging to live.
Luluwo froze.
Then she saw the face of the middle-aged man they had first monitored.
He wasn't pleading.
There was only endless sorrow.
His cracked lips moved soundlessly, as if trying to say something.
"That city can't be saved. I said it."
Frog-Head pointed both forelimbs toward Springday City and clenched them tightly.
In an instant—
Cold light flashed across the sky.
Endless tentacles were shredded into fine chunks of flesh. Nearby demonkin were torn apart as well.
"What?!" Frog-Head's already bulging eyes widened even further. "How dare you attack?!"
If she could strike now, why hadn't she done so earlier?!
As Luluwo swung her chains together, forming a massive iron ball and hurling it toward him, Frog-Head ground his teeth and forced the detonation to continue.
As his claws clenched, flames erupted across Springday City—the very sight he had longed for.
However—
BOOM!
The iron ball slammed straight into his face, instantly dragging up memories of his first nightmare in the Sein Dungeon, when he'd been chased endlessly by a giant iron ball.
His massive body crashed to the ground. He leapt back up immediately, roaring:
"Impossible! Why didn't it explode?!"
The chains unraveled. Luluwo prepared to pursue—
Then froze.
"Because the wolf pack has already devoured them all."
"Awoooo!"
Under the moonlight, a piercing wolf howl tore into Frog-Head's ears. Before he could even turn, a massive force slammed into his back, smashing him from midair straight into the ground.
"Who?! Who is it?!"
He roared—then saw the figure and screamed in a shrill, almost girlish voice.
"It's you! How is it you?!"
The figure standing atop the giant wolf was Frog-Head's nightmare.
On the day Val City fell, it was this very man who had slain Doslepo—terrifying Frog-Head so badly that he fled without looking back.
That was why he had chosen Springday City, far from Bedford—to avoid this walking calamity.
Why… why had he still come?!
Darrick stood atop the massive wolf, the full moon hanging behind him like a giant eye watching the world.
The Farron greatsword in his hand hummed, thirsty for blood.
With a single glance, Darrick gauged Frog-Head's strength. His skin flushed red, and his messy black hair spiked up like a hedgehog—
Proof that Wolf Blood had been activated.
Terrified beyond measure, Frog-Head opened his mouth and fired an almost solidified air cannon—his strongest attack, powerful enough to split mountains and crack stone.
Darrick didn't panic.
Wolf Blood + Wolf Ring + Wolf Leap.
Without any additional buffs, this was his strongest strike.
At that moment, the technique he had rehearsed countless times in his mind—imitating Artorius's Wolf Leap—was finally unleashed.
A simple, unadorned clash.
Before the blade filled with killing intent, the air cannon lived up to its name.
It became nothing more than air.
A flash of sword light.
Blood sprayed.
Frog-Head's massive body split cleanly in two.
Darrick flicked the blood from his blade as the giant wolf let out a victorious howl.
"Where's the demonkin leader?" he asked, looking toward Luluwo.
Her expression shifted strangely before she slowly pointed behind him.
"…?"
A question mark might as well have appeared above Darrick's head. He turned, scanned the area—and finally realized.
"…Ah?"
Watching Darrick instantly transform from a cold, terrifying killer into a confused man, Luluwo finally couldn't hold it in anymore.
"Why do you always show up right on time?!" she burst out. "I was scared to death just now, you know?!"
She pointed toward Springday City. "You handled the explosions in the city? And what about the remaining guards?"
Darrick shook his head. "They're dealing with things inside the city. It should be over by now."
"Stop speaking in riddles and tell me exactly what happened!" Luluwo puffed out her cheeks angrily. When she realized that even stealing the Fallen Demon Egg hadn't stopped the explosions, she had nearly despaired.
Darrick's timing had been too perfect. When he arrived, he really did look like a superhero.
Even Luluwo had been momentarily struck by how cool it was.
"I can roughly guess what they did," Darrick said with a smile. "I sensed the battle here and rushed over. I didn't enter the city."
He began explaining his theory—
While behind them, Frog-Head's corpse suddenly twitched.
.
..
...
Time rewound to a short while earlier, inside Springday City.
Belto and Ais sprinted through the streets, shouting themselves hoarse. With amplification magic reinforcing their voices, they spread the warning throughout the city: monsters were hiding among the citizens of Springday City—and those demons were about to explode. Even the deepest sleepers were jolted awake by the relentless noise.
But the consequences of such an approach were obvious.
How could anyone believe warnings from complete strangers who had appeared out of nowhere? Some especially ill-tempered residents, dragged from their sleep, even hurled rotten eggs at them in fury.
Worse still, Belto had no way of identifying which residents were actually demons. With no proof to back up their claims, everything they said sounded like baseless rumor-mongering.
Only after Belto and Ais displayed proof of their Silver-rank Adventurer status did a portion of the crowd finally begin to believe them.
Belto had initially planned to invoke the name of Luluwo, but quickly realized that the locals had no idea who that was. Left with no other choice, he raised the banner of the Leon Group instead—falsely claiming that he himself was Leon, and that the Ais beside him was Maru.
To his surprise, it worked.
Many people in Springday City had heard of "Leon the Lion." With that name backing them, far more residents were willing to evacuate the city and seek shelter.
The success dealt a small blow to Belto's pride, but with lives on the line, he didn't have the luxury of dwelling on it. While continuing to evacuate civilians under Leon's name, he carefully observed the crowd, searching for any demons hidden among them.
From appearances alone, though, there was no difference whatsoever.
What do we do? What do we do…?
Even if everyone left Springday City, demons could still be mixed in among the evacuees. If they exploded then, the outcome would be just as catastrophic.
And that wasn't the end of their troubles.
Drawn by the commotion, the local lord arrived with his guards to investigate. The city had been peaceful moments ago, and now two strangers had thrown everything into chaos. From the lord's perspective, it was practically a slap in the face.
Could he tolerate that?
Absolutely not.
The lord immediately ordered the guards to block the exits, then personally stepped forward to interrogate Belto and Ais.
Regret flooded Belto's chest. If only they hadn't tried to avoid alerting the enemy and had informed the local lord earlier, things wouldn't have escalated into this blood-pressure-raising disaster.
The demons could explode at any moment.
They couldn't identify who the demons were.
And the lord's misunderstanding couldn't be resolved quickly.
The mounting pressure drove them to the brink of desperation.
Then—at the most critical moment—the demons themselves delivered an unexpected "assist."
"Ah! A monster!"
Someone in the crowd suddenly convulsed and swelled, their body twisting grotesquely before transforming into a horrifying demon. Chaos erupted instantly—but at the same time, Belto and Ais's warnings were proven true.
Faced with a demon ready to slaughter civilians, the Springday City guards—long complacent and untested—offered only token resistance before scattering in panic. Frankly, the fact that they resisted at all already spoke to their quality.
In the blink of an eye, all eyes turned toward Belto and Ais—the so-called messengers.
If they really were "Leon" and "Maru," then surely they could deal with a demon, right?
They could deal with it.
But what if it exploded the moment they attacked?
They dared not act recklessly—but when they saw civilians being torn apart, hesitation was no longer an option. They chose to fight.
Killing the demon itself wasn't difficult.
The real problem came afterward.
The moment the demon collapsed, its body began swelling uncontrollably.
There was no doubt about it.
It was going to explode.
If Ais deployed her magic barrier at full strength, she might be able to contain the blast and minimize the damage—but—
"Ahhh!"
Screams erupted throughout the crowd. One after another, people underwent horrific transformations. The demons hidden among the civilians finally cast aside their disguises, revealing themselves only to self-destruct.
Everything happened in an instant. No matter how prepared someone was, there was no time to react.
Each demon swelled with chaotic magic, their bodies trembling violently. When they detonated, the explosions would rival high-tier magic.
Despair spread through the crowd.
Many didn't even have time to feel it before dying without ever understanding why.
Belto clenched his teeth.
In that moment, his understanding of the phrase "utterly powerless" reached its peak.
"AWOOOO—!"
Just as fear crushed the hearts of the people, a wolf's howl tore through the night.
Not just one.
Howls echoed again and again—a massive wolf pack.
Along with the howls, giant wolves burst into view. And atop each wolf rode a figure clad in unfamiliar armor.
Triangular helms.
Greatswords and daggers in hand.
Behind iron masks, eyes locked onto the demons.
At first glance, people nearly shouted the name—
"The Farron Undead Legion!"
But on closer inspection, the armor was different. Though modeled after the Undead Legion's design, it was simplified—almost as if the wearers believed themselves unworthy of donning the true armor.
Those with sharper eyes cried out instead:
"The Farron Guards!"
The giant wolves streaked through the city like gray meteors. They appeared beside the demons, jaws snapping shut—and in a single bite, half of a demon's body vanished.
Then something miraculous occurred.
The remaining half still contained volatile explosive energy, yet the wolf simply inhaled—and swallowed it whole, without the slightest sign of strain.
Meteor after meteor flashed by.
Corpse after corpse fell.
By the time people truly processed that a demon attack was underway and opened their mouths to scream—
Every demon present had already been reduced to shriveled co