Frondier swept his arm as if drawing back a curtain.
Pandemonium was released.
With it, Baal collapsed like a clay doll. Frondier approached quickly to check on him.
He placed his hand on Baal's neck, opened his eyelids to check his pupils.
A faint but definite pulse. Consciousness, too, remained, however hazy.
If Frondier had been even a little late, Baal would have died.
'That's my demonic power?'
The power of a demon interferes with the soul of its opponent. Just like when Frondier fought the wraiths in Yeranhes.
Therefore, the demonic power unleashed by Pandemonium is not unrelated to the shape of their respective souls.
Frondier, seeing his demonic power for the first time, was shocked, though not as much as Baal.
In fact, he had anticipated it to some extent. The mindset he had when he first activated his demonic power, the dangerous power that, unlike other demonic powers, could kill the demon if not careful.
He had guessed it wouldn't be ordinary, but...
'Such nothingness, such emptiness.'
Emptiness, void. Whatever you call it, there was nothing there. No, beyond that, it tries to erase everything that enters it.
Frondier, the owner of the power, could see Baal going mad.
Frondier's mind was complex in many ways.
It was surprising that his demonic power was like that, but it was also surprising that he was unaffected by such power.
It could be said that it was natural because Frondier was the owner of the power, but he had never thought that he had such a huge power within him.
At that moment, a strange wind sound came from the sky.
When Frondier looked up, he saw...
The low-ranking demons that had been flying in the sky until just now began to fall, unconscious.
It was the effect of being swept away by the demonic power. Perhaps some of them weren't just unconscious, but already dead.
As countless demons fell from the sky, Frondier diligently dodged them.
'Wait, if this happens, it'll be difficult to stall for time.'
Frondier had originally intended to slowly kill the demons and stall for time.
Unintentionally, they were all swept away by the demonic power and lost consciousness, so that plan was already completely overturned.
'No. I need to come up with a proper excuse for Marco...!'
When Frondier found Marco in that state,
Frondier made a sound.
Marco was kneeling on both knees. His whole body was bent over, his face buried in the ground.
Even when Frondier watched him for a while, Marco didn't move.
When there was no response even when he approached, Frondier nudged his shoulder.
Marco fell sideways in that same position.
Standing amidst the strange phenomenon of demons still falling from the sky to the ground, Frondier scratched his cheek.
"...What should I do?"
Whether this situation was good or bad for Frondier.
Even he himself found it difficult to judge yet.
Around him, still pondering, the corpses of demons continued to fall and roll.
[...Now that it's come to this, they might do something unexpected.]
Aster nodded his head after receiving a report from Frondier over the phone.
It was after he and his colleagues had destroyed two suspected locations of the western demons.
[I'm sorry. I wanted to buy time and rescue Lunia as safely as possible.]
Frondier's disheartened voice came through the phone.
Aster chuckled lightly.
"I'm actually relieved."
"It's nothing. Anyway, I'll handle things here."
[Alright. I'm counting on you.]
With those words, it seemed the call with Frondier was over, but then Frondier seemed to remember something and added one more thing.
[By the way, is Selena there with you?]
Aster tilted his head in confusion.
Why would he be looking for Selena here? She's supposed to be his escort.
Aster began to say but then his voice trailed off.
Someone rose above his shadow.
Needless to say, it was Selena.
"......Yeah, no, she's here."
[Really? Then I'll leave her to you. I didn't call her because it's too dangerous here.]
The call was cut off there.
An awkward silence suddenly arrived.
Aster raised his hand, looking at the appeared Selena.
"......Hello, Selena."
With a face that was not at all well, Selena responded.
Anyone could see that she was very angry, her face boiling with rage.
Elodie, who was next to her, cautiously asked.
"......Are you angry?"
Selena didn't deny it.
She didn't even have the heart to keep up appearances.
But everyone understood Selena's feelings well enough. Everyone had similar faces.
"......You didn't call me."
Selena spoke in a frosty voice.
"Even when stepping outside the barrier, even when luring the devil into danger, Mr. Frondier did not call me. Do you know why?"
Suddenly, Selena looked at Elodie.
Elodie flinched unknowingly as Selena stared at her with a terrifying gaze.
"......Because, it's dangerous?"
"Exactly! How could that be possible?"
Elodie gave the correct answer, but Selena's anger didn't seem to cool down.
With a voice suppressing her feelings of injustice and sorrow, Selena grumbled.
"......Because it's dangerous, not having your own guard by your side, who does that......"
Of course, it's a behavior that doesn't make sense logically, but since it happened to Selena, the remaining people had nothing to say.
It's not that they completely don't understand Frondier.