What saves Ena’s life is not Sincir, by the fact she doesn’t stay still after having been struck by the demon, immediately rolling out of the way of its second attack…. Although, the creature never had a chance for a third one, before the wind bde Sincir creates cleanly separates its head from its body.

  Unfortunately, he doesn’t have an opportunity to check up on Ena, in spite of the blood he spots over her clothes and her pained, shocked expression, before a buildup of mana coming from the chapel’s front makes it clear the demon contractor managed to survive his fireball.

  Turning in the enemy mage’s direction once more, Sincir is prepared to finish the job when, surprisingly enough, something strikes against his Mind Shield, attempting to breach it.

  As a scream immediately follows the attempt, coming from his enemy’s position, Sincir blinks.

  Not in a million years would he have guessed they’d make his job easier. Some trash, attempting to breach his Mind Shield?

  What a joke.

  Still, Sincir might’ve attempted to extract some information from them had the aftermath of their mind csh not rendered his opponent defenseless, allowing the fmes surrounding them to immediately tch onto his body…

  Their ending is far from pretty, and Sincir is grateful not to have had their mind in his grip when it happened; Not that he stops to watch, of course. As soon as he notices the wizard is no longer a threat, he casts an area search wind spell to make no other enemies remain, then runs toward Ena, crouching near her body as he inspects her wounds – three deep cuts left by the demon’s cws against her back – before meeting her gaze.

  Leaf-green eyes wide open, she meets his gaze with obvious terror.

  “S-Sincir, I can’t feel my back… I-is it bad?”

  Sincir smiles at her. “You’ll be fine,” he lies, “Don’t move, okay? I’ll come back.”

  Taking a brief gnce at the beheaded demon as he rises, Sincir quickly runs toward the chapel’s front, ignoring the rapidly spreading fire in pro of finding Eleanor and Father Anders… Having been the one to move them here, he sees them immediately.

  “I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…!”

  Eleanor leans against the priest’s body, crying uncontrolbly as she apologizes over and over again. The wounds he spots over the body make it clear Father Anders has undergone torture, and a quick inspection of it through a spell reveals his mind as having been shattered.

  Sincir shakes his head; Though the priest’s chest still moves, he is already dead.

  Still, he doesn’t have the luxury of being gentle when another moment more could cost Ena her life, and as such, Sincir grabs Eleanor by her shirt’s colr, dragging her away from the body, and then forces her gaze to meet his.

  “Eleanor, I need you to listen-”

  “No! No, no, no-!”

  Sincir shakes her. “Eleanor! He is gone! But we need to get out of here, do you understand me?! Ena is hurt, and I don’t have enough mana to heal her!”

  Eleanor’s vacant expression finally focuses somewhat as she meets his gaze.

  “I need you to heal her,” he tells her, “Or Ena will die. Do you understand me?”

  Slowly, Eleanor nods, though it is clear she is still in shock.

  Deciding it’ll have to do, Sincir grabs her arm as he leads Eleanor toward Ena’s fallen form, who seems to have grown near unconsciousness during the time it took him to drag Eleanor here.

  Seeing the ugly wounds across her back, and the pool of blood quickly growing beneath Ena, Eleanor shakes her head.

  “I-I h-have never healed anything l-like this-”

  “I need you to try anyway,” Sincir tells her, gentle yet firmly, “Holy Magic has the strongest healing magic. You can do it, Eleanor.”

  Eleanor stands paralyzed by the vision before her for another moment more, then presses her lips together as she knells near Ena, uncaring for the blood seeping through her pants as she does so, and presses her hands against her back.

  Soon, Eleanor's eyes glow brightly as light envelopes her hands and Ena’s back, who immediately screams, arching her spine in obvious pain.

  “Sorry... A better Holy Mage would be able to make this painless,” Eleanor murmurs, her voice having regained some of its usual coolness as she stares at Ena’s expression of agony.

  Sincir sighs as he kneels on the other side of Ena’s body and grabs a hold of her face, guiding her eyes to meet his.

  “You did good back there,” he says, “Your shout might’ve saved our lives… So, hang in there, okay? I’ll get us out of here together, and we’ll find a pce in the world for you. I promise, it’ll only get better from here on out.”

  Ena opens her mouth, screaming breathlessly. Sincir isn’t sure she heard his words, and Eleanor has begun to shake heavily as she continues to pour magic into Ena’s body, slowly closing wounds.

  “Please, Eleanor,” he murmurs.

  However, he can tell she is reaching her limits already, and the wounds are still far from closing… And if she stops now, leaving the job half-done, the cuts will simply reopen, leading Ena to certain death.

  Eleanor breaths heavily, her face having grown deathly pale. Still, she doesn’t stop, even as drops of blood begin to run down from her nose and eyes.

  Eyes widening as he spots the blood, Sincir hesitates, nearly telling her to stop; After all, if she dies from mana deficiency mid-spell, so will Ena, making the whole process more than pointless.

  However, seeing the look in her eyes, Sincir doesn’t move to stop her.

  Those aren’t the eyes of a woman who has given up on her life; They’re the eyes of someone determined to succeed at the task at hand, even if it kills them.

  “I’m sorry,” Sincir says, meaning it, “I never intended to have you give up your life for hers… You can stop now, Eleanor, or you might truly die.”

  But Eleanor doesn’t stop.

  “Vozradith…” she murmurs, “Their name is… Vozradith. Their skin is red, and their body is female. She has horns…”

  Sincir clenches his teeth. “You idiot! Tell me everything in detail, after you survive!”

  Having made his decision, Sincir leans forward and touches her forehead, immediately sending as much of his mana as he dares into her body through a healing spell of his own…

  The chances of something like this working are small; Much more often than not, his mana would csh against hers, interrupting both of their spells and probably killing Eleanor, as well as Ena, in consequence…

  However, perhaps by some sort of divine intervention, Eleanor’s spell survives his intrusion, growing in strength for a brief moment, before she finally releases her hold of it, expression showcasing disbelief.

  Removing his hand from Eleanor’s forehead, Sincir sighs with relief. Gncing down, he realizes only faint scars are left over Ena’s back, who has finally fallen unconscious.

  …He’s a greedy bastard for trying to save both of them, but damn if he is not gd it worked.

  After a moment of silence, encircled by the noise of burning wood as the fire gradually engulfs the rest of the chapel, Eleanor meets his gaze, then rises over unstable legs, beginning to walk back to where Father Anders’ body was left, wobbling after every step taken forward.

  Sincir curses.

  If he had any mana left to spare, he might’ve been able to quench the fmes, or put them out altogether, but he does not, and as such, he only hesitates for a brief moment before grabbing Ena under her armpits as he begins to drag her body outside.

  Sincir thanks his physical training for allowing him at least this much, though he is still grunting and huffing the whole time it takes to drag Ena outside, and the demon body blocking the way hardly helps matters.

  Releasing a sigh of relief once he feels a cold breeze against his face, Sincir sees that the lights around the orphanage have begun to be lit, and he figures it won’t be long before some of the Sisters are here to check on what all this noise was about.

  Still, after setting Ena in a safe spot on the grass, he immediately runs back inside, covering his mouth and nose as he once more enters the now-burning inferno the chapel has become.

  Though the smoke makes it hard to see, Eleanor is where he assumed she’d be, kneeling near Father Anders's body with an empty look on her face.

  This time, Sincir doesn’t bother trying to convince her of anything, simply wrapping his arms around her midsection as he drags her away from the body, and toward the exit.

  Thankfully, she doesn’t fight him.

  Sincir’s eyes sting and his head seems light by the time he finally manages to drag Eleanor outside, now leading her by her wrist.

  Unfortunately, he doesn’t have the time for more than a single deep breath of fresh air before the loud voices of multiple people begin to approach.

  “He’d want you to live,” he tells Eleanor hurriedly, without looking at her as he runs toward the backpack Ena dropped nearby and swings it over his shoulder, “No matter how painful. And I know that demon contractor came for you… Send by Vozradith, right? This demon contractor was an expert at Mind Magic, and that’s probably how they were able to find this pce.”

  Sincir approaches Ena next, though he then stops, meeting Eleanor’s gaze as he kneels next to her body.

  “I can’t carry her on my own,” he expins, “And you can’t stay here. If they sent one of them, it is possible they’ll send more, or that the one we killed shared the info they had acquired thus far before coming here… But if we leave now, they’re likely to believe we also died in the fire.”

  The voices are quickly approaching, and Eleanor must’ve also noticed them, because she gnces in their direction for a brief moment before moving toward Ena, then crouching in order to help him with her.

  “Thank you,” Sincir murmurs.

  Eleanor’s face still carries dry blood from earlier, and bck marks from the fire. Her limbs shake visibly, but her expression showcases nothing as they move away from the burning chapel and approaching voices, only barely leaving the range of light created by it before pajama-dressed Sisters begin to arrive, their screams of arm cutting acutely through the night.

  Without Father Anders's guidance, Sincir suspects most of them will be no different than headless chickens, at least for a while, but unfortunately, they’ll have to manage on their own from now.

  Good luck, Sisters…

  By some miracle, their trio manages to arrive at the orphanage’s gates without encountering anyone, and Sincir breathes a sigh of relief upon their sight.

  He only stops to grab the clothes Ena took out of their bags, considering their change of pns, before heading out with Eleanor and Ena, hoping their luck will hold until they reach the port.

  It is a silent, exhausting walk through the sleeping town, and Sincir clenches his teeth every time the vision of Father Anders’ bloodied body fshes through his mind.

  The priest was a good man, and he deserved better than the end he received. Most likely, that pathetic Mind Mage failed to break through the old man’s Mind Shield using conventional methods, at which point he resorted to physical torture in order to acquire the information he sought, before eventually breaking Father Anders’ mind with his clumsy attempts at extracting information.

  Eleanor must’ve arrived at some point during the process… But Sincir hesitates to ask when, and for what reason. Perhaps she’ll tell him one day, if she feels ready for it, but considering her personality, he doubts it.

  This shitty universe… He is so sick and tired of it. Eleanor might not yet know as much, but revenge means nothing. He doesn’t feel any better because he killed the demon and his contractor, just as he didn’t feel any better after having killed Ig'droren, other than a brief moment of ecstasy.

  No, it won’t matter, even were they to track Vozradith, and kill her. At best, they’ll stop her from hurting others… And so what? It won’t fix the world, and many more who are even worse will continue to exist.

  There is a reason Varzath decided to create his own kingdom, at some point during his time in Hell; Create his own world, however small it might have been in comparison with the Cosmos at rge.

  Heh, Sunnazoth would call him a control freak again…

  At this time of the morning, Stormbay’s port is dead and silent, but Sincir doubts that’ll st for long, considering the sky already begins to show signs of light on the horizon.

  The boat he decided to take is mercifully unguarded, and Sincir quickly directs Eleanor toward it, having to settle Ena on the ground for a moment in order to climb on board, lower the ramp, and then pull her in; Process which st precious minutes of their remaining darkness.

  Of course, Sincir makes sure to leave no traces of their passage as they head into the bowels of the vessel, careful to keep quiet in order to avoid disturbing any crew mates who might be asleep within.

  Checking from door to door cautiously, they finally manage to find what seems to be some sort of small storage room which, at least appearance-wise, hasn’t been used in a while.

  It is a tight fit for the three of them, especially with Ena’s unconscious body occupying most of the space, so Sincir tells Eleanor to lie Ena’s head against her p and keep it from moving too much, which the nephilim does without compint.

  Meanwhile, he occupies himself with carving a rune against the closed door.

  “It is Mind Rune,” he expins, for Eleanor’s benefit, “It should keep the sailors from checking this room, but it won’t work on anyone with more than a drop of magical blood in their bodies…”

  “…If they find us, what happens?” she murmurs, hoarsely, after a moment.

  “That depends on them. If they make trouble, we might have to take the ship by force. Otherwise, we’ll py the innocent children and hope they drop us at the nearest port without contacting the authorities.”

  Finishing the rune takes a while, since Varzath is careful not to mess up any of the design, and then to fill it with his mana without breaking the enchantment. By the time he is done, the ship around them has become filled with noise.

  After confirming the rune is working as intended, Sincir takes a deep breath, while allowing his back to slowly slide against the wall until he’s sitting near Eleanor’s figure. Then, he wraps his arms around his knees, and rests his forehead against them.

  “…This boat is headed for Adall, so it shouldn’t be more than a couple of days until we can sneak out. Still, it’d be good if one of us kept guard, in case they have a mage aboard, who ends up finding us… I’ll take the first turn, so don’t worry about anything, and try to sleep for a while.”

  Receiving no answer from Eleanor, he takes a gnce in her direction, realizing her eyes are wide, and her breath shallow. Is she in shock?

  Sincir clears his throat. “How are you doing?” he asks.

  It takes a moment, but Eleanor does meet his gaze, blue eyes haunted. At first, she looks at him as though seeing a stranger… But then she blinks, and some of her usual coolness seems to return to her expression.

  “…You don’t have to worry about me,” she murmurs.

  Sincir snorts. “First, don’t tell me what to do. Second, I’d offer you my p, but it’d be too weird. Just lie your head on the backpack… I doubt it’s comfortable, but it should be better than nothing. Here, I’ll look after Ena.”

  Giving Eleanor no chance to protest, Sincir pushes her from her pce as he takes hold of Ena’s head, in her stead.

  Eleanor blinks, still not moving to do what he told her to, and he frowns at her.

  “Hey, did you hear what I said? Go to sleep already. As long I’m here, I promise nothing will happen.”

  Eleanor narrows her eyes, and she seems about to protest, but Sincir simply sustains her gaze unblinkingly until she turns away and lies over the backpack, as instructed.

  Since the space is so small, she’s practically touching Ena, and Sincir doubts she’ll be able to fall asleep at first, but her exhaustion won’t take long to catch up to her.

  Speaking of which, he isn’t exactly having an easy time of it himself. His mana has been close to depletion since before he helped Eleanor at the chapel, and, having helped to carry Ena all the way here, his body is very close to reaching its limit, as well.

  Minutes seem to drag by slowly.

  Ena shows no signs of waking up, while Eleanor’s breathing makes it clear she has fallen asleep, at some point.

  Sincir tries to pay attention to the noise outside, in order to keep himself awake, but most of what he hears is too muffled to make sense of.

  The moment the ship sails is easy enough to notice, but he’d be hard-pressed to say how long it took.

  Eventually, he has to pinch himself in order to remain awake, and when that doesn’t work anymore, he ends up biting his thumb hard enough to draw blood.

  “Shit… I already miss those shifts working at the kitchen,” he murmurs to himself, once he notices the blood, chuckling softly.

  Unfortunately, the fact he has gone through much worse as a demon doesn’t really make it any easier to endure suffering... Shit is still shit.

  It’d be easier to bme himself for what happened, as he has no doubt Eleanor will, once she’s well enough to form coherent thoughts again. But sometimes, bad things happen, and it won’t change anything to bme the people who did the best they could to prevent them; Himself included.

  To live one day at a time is the best remedy for suffering… Now, if only he could stop his eyes from closing by themselves for another couple of hours, that’d be great.

  “…Sincir?”

  Sincir blinks. Looking down, he realizes some of his blood has fallen on Ena’s face, awakening her.

  “What happened…?” she asks groggily, green-leaf eyes inspecting their surroundings with confusion, before meeting his gaze again, “The chapel… Am I lying in your p?”

  Sincir forces himself to smile at her, in spite of his exhaustion. “Sorry;Yyou were supposed to sleep some more,” he tells her, “But don’t worry, we’re safe… And on our way to Adall, as pnned.”

  Ena blinks, then frowns. “How long… How long did I sleep for? I remember we were about to leave, and you started running all of a sudden…”

  Her eyes widen.

  “T-there was a monster!”

  Ena tries to rise, but he grabs her shoulders, forcing her to do it slowly, and holding her until she’s sitting with her eyes locked against his.

  “Easy now,” he tells her, “You were hurt. And that was a demon… A demon under a contract, to be exact. The masked mage you saw was its contractor.”

  “A demon…” Ena murmurs, “What happened? I don’t remember much… Did I hit my head?”

  Sincir shakes his head. “No, but you were hurt badly, and you passed out after we managed to heal you.”

  “We…?”

  Ena looks down, noticing Eleanor’s sleeping form for the first time.

  “Is that…?”

  “Eleanor, yes. She is the one who really healed you, since I didn’t have the mana left to do it… Look, a lot happened, and if not for you spotting the demon when you did, we might all be dead right now, or, in Eleanor’s case, worse; But if not for her putting her life on the line to heal you, you wouldn’t have survived, either.”

  Ena swallows. “W-what are you saying, Sincir?”

  “I am saying she almost died healing you, and then she helped me drag you throughout town… I know she treated you like shit, and I’m not asking you to forgive her completely, but…”

  Shit, his thoughts aren’t forming. Was it always this hard to speak?

  “Sincir!” Ena whispers, armed, and holds him against her chest once he ends up falling forward, without realizing it.

  “S-sorry, I suppose I’m a bit more tired than I realized it…”

  “Just shut up already and go to sleep then! I’ll… I’ll be nice to her when she wakes up. That’s what you wanted, right?”

  Sincir smiles. “Right. Yeah, that works. Can I…?”

  “Hum? Oh… Yeah, you can sleep on my l-p…”

  He has the distinct impression she is blushing, but he’s too tired to check it; Instead, he snuggles himself against her body shamelessly, releasing a satisfying sigh and ignoring her yelp of surprise.

  “Thanks…” he murmurs.

  Ena grumbles something that’s too low for him to hear over the moving boat around them, but she doesn’t push him away.

  After a moment, she begins to caress his hair, and Sincir smiles again.

  What a mess their escape turned out to be.

  But they made it out in one piece, and that’s all that matters...

  There will be time to sweat all the small stuff tomorrow.