He was terrified of leaving his teammates alone against Mia and Marcus, but there was little he could do in that situation, as usual.

"No!! Stop!! This isn't the time to feel sorry for myself!!"

He observed his surroundings and confirmed that there was no demon, monster, or slayer insight. He used this opportunity to check his rucksack of items.

Each member of the team had a rucksack like this filled with blessed metal, food, and some first aid kits. Things to help them refill their energy in case they needed some stamina back, close any gaping wounds, or rely on some extra speed to either run away or defend themselves against dangerous enemies.

"Not yet... Let's save this for later."

He looked at Evlin who was still sleeping and wondered if he should try to contact her in the white void, but he didn't want to risk leavingboth their bodies defenseless.

He needed to calm down right now and a.n.a.lyze the situation.

"Lilith and Daren are with the demon leader right now... Ria and Auren are fighting against Mia and Marcus... Xadi is being hunted by the demons... The slayers are still busy facing the monsters of the city... Ugh... What should I do right now?? Maybe I should contact Lilith and Daren..."

Just as Gustav was about to use his telepathy to reach his friends, a giant hand barged thought the ceiling making the debris almost fall on top of him and Evlin.

"What the...!!??"

He quickly moved to get Evlin's body out of the way and looked up to see what was happening. The giant hand belonged to a large demon, much like the one that was following him and his friends not too long ago.

"Darn it!! I forgot!! We are in a war zone... No place is safe!!"

He equipped a few pieces of silver metal from his rucksack, a pair of bracelets that Evlin created using her modeling magic, and carried the sleeping mage in his arms.

His mind was focused on only one thing right now, keeping Evlin safe.

He rushed out of the church and saw the huge creature that had opened a hole in the ceiling.

A large humanoid being with half the size of the church itself and four arms on his back. The demon was colored in a dark-tone of blue and was carrying a huge hammer on one of his arms.

Gustav observed as the giant kept destroying the church and couldn't help but feel sorry for the little G.o.d kid.

"I'm so sorry South... I'll ask Evlin to build you a new church later..."

Gustav was rus.h.i.+ng through the kingdom with the immense speed thanks to his silver metal but was quickly smacked on the legs by some kind of blunt object and ended up falling on the snow while dropping Evlin.

"Ouch!! What just happened??"

He watched his surroundings and realized that two figures were right behind him. Two men in black trenchcoats, one carrying a silver staff and another carrying a pair of knives in each hand.

"Looks like we got lucky Urion..."

"Indeed..."

Gustav had been found by two demon slayers.

He started to panic and rushed to reach Evlin who was laying on the ground. He used all his strength to grab her but the man known as Urion jumped in front of him and smacked his stomach with his metal staff.

"Guahhhh!!!"

Gustav was sent flying towards the sky. He was feeling immense pain circulating his body due to the impact of that silver staff.

As he began to fall, he tried to adjust his vision and saw a pair of knives flying in his direction and stabbing his legs.

"Aaaaarghhh!!!"

The man with the metal staff grinned at the scene.

"Nice shot Trion!!"

"Thanks! It's always more fun when the target is moving!"

Gustav had fallen into the snow, which helped to alleviate his fall, but the pain from his pierced legs was drenching him in agony.

"Ugh... Ugh..."

"Oh, look! He's still kicking!"

"Ha! Nice one!"

The two slayers were taking their time enjoying bullying Gustav, but he had no time to worry about himself. He needed to protect Evlin at all costs. If he could keep their attention on him and away from her, then he could endure a few injuries.

"I can't believe we just found the mage girl this easily!! Imagine how happy lady Mia will be when we deliver her like this!!"

"Stop!!!"

As the slayers stated to move towards Evlin Gustav tried to jump on them to attack the two. But the moment he did so, Urion started spinning around and bashed him with his staff again.

"Kuaaahhh!!!"

Gustav fell on the ground spitting blood on the white ground beneath him, changing the color to red. He tried to rise once again against the slayers.

"Stay... Away... From her!!!"

This time Trion was the one to attack throwing another pair of knives against the wounded man. The knives were planted on his left arm and tore apart his skin.

"Aaaarghhh!!!"

The slayers stared at him but the joy on their faces suddenly began to turn into pity.

"Just stay down man... It's over..."

"It's... Not over!!"

"Sigh..."

Gustav had no strength left to stand up so he was now simply doing his best to crawl towards the slayers. He finally reached one of them and attached to his legs trying to hold them down for as long as he could.

"I promised Evlin that I would always be by her side!!! I'll never let anything hurt her again as long as I can help it!!"

"The thing is... You can't help it..."

Urion released the leg Gustav was grabbing and kicked his face.

"Uuff!!"

He then proceeded to step on his chest.

"Do you even have any powers man? You just keep trying to pounce on us like someone with a death wish..."

Gustav's body was completely drenched in blood, his arm and leg had knives sticking out of it, and the bruises caused by the metallic staff were hurting so much he felt like he was in h.e.l.l each time he tried to lift a finger.

"So what if I don't have powers?? I still can fight to protect someone important to me!!"

"I mean... Yeah, you can fight... Surviving the fight on the other hand..."

"..."

"Urion... Move out of the way... There is no need to prolong his suffering like this..."

Trion showed his hands which were carrying four knives each and aimed at Gustav.

"Let's put him out of his misery."

"!!!"

The moment Trion prepared to launch his knives, Gustav could feel that he was going to die. His body took too much damage to escape this attack and he had no energy left to fight back. With the lest bit of power he had, he whispered a few words of regret for not being able to properly protect his friend until the end, nor being able to keep his promise to bring her sister back.

"I'm sorry Evlin..."

"Sorry for what...?"

"!!!!???" x 3

Gustav, Trion, and Urion all looked behind them as they saw a girl with short messy black hair carrying a wooden crossbow and staring at the wounded man being stepped on.

Gustav could not believe his eyes.

"Evlin!!"

She smiled at him. It was a gentle and warm smile. The kind that said that everything would be fine and that there was nothing to worry about anymore.

"Hey, Gus!"

The two slayers stopped focusing on Gustav and leaped towards the crossbow girl with their weapons ready to impale her.

However, Evlin didn't stop looking at her fallen friend.

"Sorry I took so long to wake up... This always happens when I stay up until late at night..."

"Evlin!!! Look out!!!"

Urion's staff and Trion's knives were one step away from clas.h.i.+ng with Evlin's body, but just as they were about to, she simply grabbed their weapons and smashed the two against the ground like bags of trash.

"Guahhhh!!!"

"Kaaaahhh!!"

"!!!"

Gustav was confused. He knew Evlin was fast but even her speed boosted by her healing magic was never a match for the speed of a silver metal user.

Before he realized, she rushed towards him, removed all of the knives, and applied healing magic on him. Every single wound on his body was completely gone.

"Feeling better?"

"Y- Yes... How did you...?"

Evlin notice his confusion and showed her arms to him. Gustav realized that the crossbow was changed into a pair of gauntlets. When did she do that? One second she was carrying her crossbow and the next she was using her wooden gloves. Her transformation speed had somehow increased.

Gustav took another look at the gauntlets and could see that it was coated with blessed metal in a couple of areas. He checked his body and realized his rucksack was gone. He had dropped it alongside Evlin's body back then.

"You fused your wooden armor with silver metal?"

"Pretty cool huh!?"

The slayers stood up again and charged towards Evlin and Gustav.

"Crossbow mage!!!!"

"You won't run away this time!!!!"

Evlin turned her head and undid her smile. She was now glaring at the two men who were enjoying tormenting one of her closest friends not too long ago.

"Who the h.e.l.l is trying to run away...?"

She slammed the ground with her feet which were covered with her wooden armor as well and a giant wave of spikes made of diamonds started to emerge charging towards the slayers.

"What the...!!???"

The slayers tried to destroy the spikes with their weapons but for some reason, they could not break it. The spikes continued to charge towards them and completely trashed the two silver metal users.

"Gaaaahhhh!!!!"

"Aaaarghh!!!"

The impact of the diamond spikes launched the slayers in mid-air.

Evlin then took this opportunity to recreate her crossbow, which was now also infused with silver metal and charged a ma.s.sive blast of raw magic while aiming at them.

"Not so fun when it happens to you huh?"

The slayers could only watch as a gigantic blast of raw magic came towards their direction, completely blasting the two even higher towards the sky.

"Aaaaahhhhh!!!" x2

Evlin extended her hand towards Gustav who was still astonished by the return of the leader of his group.

"Come on... We have work to do..."

"Y- Yes!!"

Gustav then suddenly heard the sound of two objects smas.h.i.+ng against the ground after dropping from the sky. He turned his head and saw the two slayers unconscious and barely alive after receiving the full power of Evlin's attack filled with bruises all over their bodies.

He looked at the young mage right in front of him and was reminded why his group relied on her so much. He couldn't help but release a crying smile at the idea that everything might actually work out for once.

"Gus?? What's wrong?? Are you still hurt??"

"Nothing... It's just..."

"...?"

"It's good to have you back Evlin!!"

She heard his comment and couldn't help but smile back at him.

"It's good to be back!!"