Dier and Pielott stared for a moment at the fallen Adolf.
Adolf's severed head rolled on the ground. His eyes were vacant, his expression blank. He was utterly dead.
Pielott was the first to speak.
“You said this guy was the fifth, right?”
“Yeah. The fifth devil in Satan’s hierarchy.”
“Are we getting that strong?”
“...Well, we were lucky. He got flustered and left himself open.”
Dier kept his answer vague, sparing his words. He glanced at Pielott.
‘Even if he was open, to cut off a devil’s head in one strike...’
Dier knew that his turn to attack would likely not come during the fight with Adolf.
In fact, even though he had completely predicted Adolf's attack, disrupted his rhythm, and reached right before him, Adolf still managed to block Dier's sword.
His defense after the feint was faster than Dier's attack. Dier was frustrated, but he knew it would be from the beginning. That's why he only put on a show and didn't put any power into the attack.
‘If our auras clash, it’ll cause a shockwave. That would interfere with Pielott, who was aiming for his neck from behind.’
Dier chose to leave it to Pielott rather than attempt an attack that he wasn't sure would work.
But even so, he didn't expect Pielott to so easily slice off the devil's head.
What was most surprising was that even with Dier's dynamic vision, he couldn't follow the moment Pielott swung his sword.
‘Can a human unsheathe and sheathe a sword that fast?’
If Dier had been an ordinary person, he might not have questioned it. He might have just accepted that Pielott's strike was too fast for him to see.
But Dier prided himself on his exceptional eyesight. Yet, even his eyes couldn't capture Pielott's strike.
‘This guy hasn't been drawing his sword from its sheath for a while now. What the hell did he learn?’
Dier already knew about Pielott's secret technique. He had heard about it during the skill test.
A dual simultaneous attack. An aura technique where a sword made of aura and a real sword attack in different trajectories. The problem was that it could only be done with a drawing technique.
But in fact, Dier understood that drawback when he heard it.
Such an absurd technique should have a handicap like that. That's what Dier thought.
‘So instead of doing the dangerous act of putting the sword back in its sheath during a fight, he decided to keep it sheathed from the beginning and settle the fight with the first move?’
Thanks to that, he was able to cut off the devil's head in one strike.
The fifth-ranked devil of Satan.
‘I don't know how strong this Adolf devil is. But at least his attacks were at a level that I could see and avoid, so maybe we didn't need to be as scared as we thought. However...’
When Dier's blade and the thread Adolf had attached to the bead collided,
Even though he wasn't putting much force into it, he realized that he could never cut this thread.
Dier walked over to Adolf's severed head, feeling a hunch. He knelt down and examined it closely.
“Why are you looking at it so closely?”
Pielott frowned as if it were disgusting, but Dier examined the cross-section of Adolf's head with his usual cool eyes.
‘...There it is. The thread.’
Dier guessed that with the strength of this thread, it would have been used elsewhere for both offense and defense, and his guess was right.
Adolf had actually wrapped his entire body with his thread. Although it wasn't visible, Adolf had no part of his body exposed.
Since it was impossible for Dier to cut this thread, theoretically, he was a devil that Dier could never kill.
Just how far has Pielott's swordsmanship reached?
Dier looked at Pielott involuntarily. Pielott, not knowing the reason, just tilted his head.
Dier had once received a stern warning from Frondier.
Never praise Pielott.
No matter how much talent he shows, don't show it. Even if it exceeds Dier's expectations, never.
‘At first, I didn't really care. I knew I was less talented than Dier.’
Dier was probably one of the people who rated Pielott's talent the highest within Constel. He knew his own shortcomings, which made him appreciate Pielott even more.
But what if even that was an underestimation?
Dier stood up again and spoke to Pielott.
“I would have struck from above. The fact that this devil raised his head towards you and exposed his neck was pure coincidence. If he had kept his head down, your sword would have been blocked by his skull, right?”
“Hey! Don't talk nonsense! How can you swing your sword down while charging at that speed! And I would have cut through his skull or whatever!”
Pielott retorted to Dier's nagging. "Damn, everyone's dying to give me a piece of their mind," he grumbled. Dier watched him for a moment and sighed inwardly.
...How long can he deceive Pielott with this kind of bluff? He realized that Frondier's advice was more difficult than he thought.
“Anyway, let's move. While we were fighting, I heard noises from all over the place. And since devils are walking around inside Constel so brazenly, the teachers must have been attacked too. I don't think they've been defeated, but they're probably tied up.”
“Right. But where should we go?”
“Let's go to the Headmaster first. He might know the purpose of these devils.”
These two still didn't know the devils' purpose. But they believed the Headmaster would know something. They had no basis for that belief, but they were sure of it.
Of course, that thought was correct, but.
“You killed Lord Adolf! You bastards!”