The lattice formed by the pillar of light that seemed to block our path has already vanished.
There was nothing to stop the cart filled with Adventurers, which rattled its wheels and sped away at full speed.
As I watched the line of carts disappearing down the highway, I felt relieved, but at the same time, a hint of loneliness washed over me.
However, this wasn’t the time to indulge in such sentimental feelings.
In exchange for letting the Adventurers go, I must, no, we must confront the Eighth Apostle.
“Come on, don’t glare at me like that. Look, it’s a duel, so let’s enjoy it, okay?”
The Apostle, calling herself Ai, seemed to be quite talkative compared to Sariel.
With her playful tone, it appeared she was interested in me and Lily.
The reason Fiona was not included might be because they hadn’t been able to confirm her powers yet.
“I let them get away, didn’t I? You could at least trust me a little, right?”
“…Yeah.”
That said, there was no way I could trust her unconditionally.
Her desire is to fight us; if we accept her challenge without running away, she promised not to pursue any other Adventurers or the villagers who might be taking shelter further down.
If she disregarded our lives, this was an extraordinary condition to buy time to escape to Spada.
However, there was no guarantee that such conditions would be honored. If she lost her temper, she could easily break her promise, and we didn’t have the strength to complain about it.
Once the Apostle appeared, we had no room for negotiation; if we didn’t accept her terms, we would be wiped out right here.
“Chrono! As long as we’re all together, it’ll be okay!”
Young Girl Lily, pulling at the hem of my robe, asserted strongly.
“That’s true. It seems she just wants to test her strength, so I don’t think we’ll die immediately in battle.”
Fiona made a slightly negative remark.
“…Ah, there’s no turning back now. We can only do our best.”
Confronting the Apostle would be the trio of me, Lily, and Fiona; in other words, the Adventurer Party “Element Master.”
This Apostle, pretending to be an Adventurer, said,
“If you’re in a party, you have to fight together!”
And desired combat as a group, of course, we had no reason to refuse, nor could we.
Rather than thinking that I dragged Lily and Fiona into this, I needed to accept that once we formed a party, the lives of all members were tied together; I must be resolved.
So, I wouldn’t act like I needed to apologize to them.
“Hey, hey, Demon!”
A carefree voice called out, completely disregarding our tension.
It seemed she was referring to me as the Demon.
While fighting in Arz Village, the Crusader Soldier was saying something about a demon, and I realized I had been given such an infamous nickname.
“What is it?”
“You and that Witch girl over there look pretty tired, right? Your magical power is down to half!”
It seemed she had some way of discerning the amount of magic power we possessed, her tone was certain.
Revealing such unfavorable information to the enemy shouldn’t happen, but with an Apostle, such strategies seemed pointless.
“So what?”
“That’s a problem for me, so—”
Ai rummaged through a pouch at her waist,
“—why don’t you just recover quickly?”
She tossed a small vial, which I caught reflexively.
The bottle, about ten centimeters tall, was filled with clear, colorless liquid like water, sparkling with small particles of light that emitted a faint glow.
At first glance, it seemed like a type of potion,
“Divine Potion, huh?”
Fiona, peeking in from the side, provided the answer.
“Divine Potion? That’s quite a grand name. Is it really that amazing?”
“It’s the most incredible potion, at least on the Ark Continent.”
“Show me! I want to see it too!”
It was probably amazing, but I couldn’t be sure of its exact effects, so all I could think was “Is that so?”
For now, it didn’t seem like a dangerous bomb, so I handed the Divine Potion to Lily, the ultra-high-class potion.
While catching a glimpse of Lily holding the bottle up to the sunlight with a serious expression, I asked Ai.
“Are you saying I should drink it?”
“Yep.”
Ai nodded cheerfully; well, I couldn’t think of anything else she meant.
“Understood.”
“Hey, you don’t doubt it’s not poison or something?”
“That doesn’t mean anything, and you told me to trust you.”
“Hehe, that’s right, you’re a good kid who is honest. Now, this Divine Potion is on me, so go ahead and drink it!”
After giving Ai a cold glance, I faced Lily and Fiona.
“Should we split it three ways?”
I was the most exhausted, followed by Fiona, and while Lily wasn’t completely fresh, if we could recover, we should all do it.
“If it’s a Divine Potion, just one sip should suffice, no problem splitting one among three.”
“Got it, then I’ll have Lily drink it first—”
“Yes, Chrono!”
Lily interrupted and thrust the potion bottle toward me excitedly.
“Right, I should taste it first.”
There was no guarantee this liquid was a Divine Potion; I couldn’t let Lily drink something that looked suspicious right away.
I reassessed my role as the leader, opened the bottle, and swallowed the Divine Potion.
“—Whoa! This is… incredible recovery power.”
I could clearly feel my black magic power, probably less than ten percent, flooding back like gasoline being poured into a tank.
Compared to other potions or healing magic, the speed of magic recovery was overwhelming, blowing away the fatigue.
In a terrifying manner, it returned everything—wounds, magic power, exhaustion—back to a perfect state.
“It seems to be real.”
“Yeah, even if it’s not the real deal, it’s still a potion with incredible recovery power.”
“Next is—”
I extended the bottle toward the second most exhausted, Fiona, but,
“No way! Lily drinks next!”
Once again, Lily blocked me.
She was being unusually willful, but what could possibly draw her attention so much? Did she have some opinions about this Divine Potion, which was more effective than the Fairy’s?
“Come on, just drink the remaining half.”
“Okay!”
With a beaming smile, Lily took the bottle.
Holding it with both hands, she licked the mouthpiece gingerly with her little tongue to taste it before decisively downing the Divine Potion.
“—Whew!”
Having finished drinking, leaving exactly half in the bottle as instructed, Lily promptly handed it to Fiona, as if she had no further interest.
However, there was a certain satisfaction on her face, like she had accomplished a task.
“Hmm, this feeling is undoubtedly from the Divine Potion.”
Fiona, who had somehow already finished her drink, murmured her thoughts.
“I didn’t taste anything, but can you really tell?”
“The mouthfeel is different from ordinary water. It’s somewhat similar to a type of alcohol, but if you haven’t had any, it might be hard to recognize.”
Ah, now that I think of it, it was a strange sensation that felt like it melted away the moment it entered my mouth.
I recalled my parents mentioning a similar sensation when they had expensive sake.
So, does the Divine Potion have alcohol in it?
“Anyway, we’re fully recovered now. Well, whether we can beat the Apostle is another matter.”
“Don’t say that.”
It felt uncomfortable not being able to boldly state that we would surely win if we tried.
However, since Lily and I had faced Sariel before, and Fiona was from the Republic, she likely knew the rumors about Apostles well.
No one could casually say they could “defeat the Apostle.”
“Still, we need to think of a strategy to kill her…”
I turned back to Ai.
“Yawn~”
This guy yawned, even though she was the one who approached us for a fight. Does she care at all?
“Ahh, you drank the Divine Potion, right? Then you can just rest. You should be fully recovered in about an hour.”
“You’ll wait that long for us? You’re quite patient.”
“Even with the Divine Potion, it doesn’t mean you recover instantly; you’d better wait a bit.
Plus, don’t you want some time for a strategy meeting?”
“If you’re offering, I’ll gratefully accept.”
Truly, she seemed to want to fight us while we were fully recovered, not wanting to leave any room for error on our side.
“Oh, by the way, my weapon is just this bow. I won’t be using any Combat Scriptures, so don’t worry.”
She waved the old wooden longbow in her left hand, which looked like it would snap any moment.
I recalled from Fiona that Combat Scriptures were awesome weapons exclusive to Apostles.
Both Ai and Sariel seemed to like fighting while holding back.
It was utterly infuriating; we’re in a life-or-death battle, and she approaches it with a playful attitude.
“…Understood.”
“Hehe, not getting mad even when I’m obviously giving you a handicap—you’re really a good kid, Demon.”
Unfortunately, I wasn’t a proud warrior or a noble knight, just an ordinary Adventurer, and if she was offering me an opportunity, I gladly welcomed it.
That said, I had no intention of expressing gratitude.
I turned my back on Ai and sat against a tree by the roadside.
The two followed suit, sitting down on the soft grass.
“Yawn~”
In contrast, Ai took a position on the opposite side from us, holding a black kitten, which might be a familiar or pet, and sat down.
In that relaxed posture, she closed her eyes and soon began to snore quietly.
Completely defenseless and unguarded, she was totally underestimating us, but considering her strength, I couldn’t easily shout at her.
Rather than getting irritated, I should think this was better than them coming at us weirdly.
“Now, we have to come up with a way to defeat that foolish Apostle in an hour. Any ideas?”