A few moments ago.

After throwing Loram to Ophelia, Lereon and Eliza, Mika spread his white wings and searched for Lucio. Because Mika enlarged the Holy Spear in the conference room, the two of them were sent in different directions.

But as he looked after Lucio, a demon ambushed him from below.

"..."

Mika managed to dodge the attack but he had to stop his search for Lucio as he recognized the demon as a low A-rank demon.

"I go by the name Arada. Now tell me, wielder of Excalibur, what’s your name?" Arda demanded.

He was a middle-aged man with a strongly built body which was, however, mostly covered by his robe.

"I’m Mika. Mika Elbar."

Mika summoned Excalibur.

"Mika Elbar, huh? I’ve heard a lot about you."

"Is that so?" Mika responded unbotheredly.

The bald Arada huffed amusedly as he drew his great silver sword from his back.

"Let’s see if you can pass by me." Arada declared confidently.

Then, he dashed toward Mika as he spread his black wings.

It came to a clash between their swords.

"..."

Mika frowned slightly as his arms vibrated every time Arada struck Excalibur.

He managed to parry every attack but as time went on, Mika had the feeling that his arms and hands slowly turned numb.

"!"

Arada hurriedly flew to the side when Mika suddenly drew his silver sword which he enhanced with magic and light.

"That was close..." Arada remarked casually with a wry smile.

But he had no time to joke around as Mika charged at him directly with two swords in his hands.

"Keh...!" he groaned as he struggled to block off every attack.

And because of Mika’s speed and skills, soon more and more cuts appeared on Arada’s body.

Again, they distanced themselves from each other after Arada swung his sword forcefully at Mika.

"I was told that demons like me were your greatest enemies as we were gifted with an ability that increased our physical skills tremendously but still..."

Arada’s smile vanished and instead, he looked at Mika in astonishment.

He was starting to get out of breath, sweat dripped from his head and his sword wounds stung more than one would believe as Mika injured him with both Excalibur and a light-infused sword.

"?"

His eyes flinched for one moment when he saw Mika storing Excalibur away.

"Are you underestimating me now...?" he asked grimly.

Even though he knew that he would lose against Mika if they continued their fight, he still had his pride. Therefore, he could not let it slide that Mika was looking down on him.

"Underestimating you? Why do you believe that?"

Mika gripped his silver sword with both hands and took up a firm sword stance where the sword was pointed directly at Arada.

"Aside from that sword, I have many other ways of fighting you while winning with a huge advantage."

"You...!"

Arada, too, grabbed his sword tightly and retracted his arm as he flew to Mika.

"?!"

However, Mika flicked his sword away in a heartbeat.

"So fast...!"

When he turned around, he was met with a kick to the abdomen which sent him to the ground violently.

Mika descended whereas Arada got up. He used his left hand to point at him while muttering something.

Arada quickly swung his sword to disperse the dust around him and went right after Mika with great killing intent.

"Hngh!"

However, he abruptly stopped in his tracks when he sensed pain in his left calf.

"..."

He slowly turned around to see what it was only to notice the Holy Spear being stuck there.

Then, the spear disappeared.

Arada turned around again and this time, he saw Mika right in front of him with the spear in his left hand.

Mika tried to pierce him from the front so naturally, Arada put up his sword to block the thrust.

"Ack!"

But before Mika could thrust the spear, a small shining window appeared between them. And when Mika pushed the spear through it, including his hand, the spear and Mika’s hand appeared behind Arada and pierced his back.

"!"

With the other sword in the other hand, Mika leisurely cut off Arada’s right arm.

Mika pulled out the spear from Arada’s back and from the window.

"..."

While Arada was holding in his painful scream, Mika noticed other demons coming here. But compared to Arada, they were a lot weaker.

At the lowest, they were C-ranks and at the highest B-ranks. However, ranks did not matter to Mika anymore.

The demons flew down and came closer.

"?"

Mika was about to turn his back on Arada but Arada grabbed Mika’s leg.

"I won’t let you go...! That’s the least I can do...!" he stated.

Arada thought that he could at least sacrifice himself so that the others could finish Mika.

But all his efforts now were in vain.

Mika summoned Excalibur again.

"Uwahhh!"

Excalibur was rammed into Arada’s forearm and stabbed to the ground.

Arada tried to free his pierced arm from Excalibur but because of Excalibur’s effect, Arada’s demonic gift, which granted him great strength, was nullified.

"W-what now...?" he wondered weakly as he covered his eyes and averted his face from the shining Excalibur.

The demons in the vicinity were also blinded by the light.

"S-something’s strange...!"

"Huh?"

Then, a few demons tried to shoot dark matter at Mika but nothing came out of their hands.

Some others moved their hands strangely.

"M-my demonic gift won’t activate!"

"Mine, too!"

They were all confused.

"What did you do to us...?" Arada asked with a weak voice.

"..."

Unresponsively, Mika stabbed Arada’s head with his silver sword and casually took some steps forward.

That way, he gained the attention of the noisy demons who flew to him enragedly.

"He must be the cause of this!"

"Kill him first!"

Individually, they stood no chance against Mika but they clung on to the faint hope that they could take him on with sheer numbers.

However, it was a fatal miscalculation on their part.

In the past two years, Mika was constantly hunting down demons without a single real break.

During that time period, his body became fully adapted to the new strength he received thanks to the sixth installment from Mikaela.

Since then, he had no time limit anymore that would restrict his true power. He could use Time Manipulation once every 50 seconds for 10 seconds and the way he could use teleportation changed, too.

Now, the number of teleportations depended on the distance of the targeted location. If Mika were to teleport within three meters, then he could teleport up to roughly 10 times per minute but the number of teleportations decreased with the increase of the range.

His overall speed, strength and stamina also increased a lot due to the experiences he gathered alongside his battles which, in turn, made him able to increase the size of the Holy Spear even more whose usage also depended on the user’s stamina.

Furthermore, Mika was a certified S-rank lightning mage and his ability to use light was at least on the same level. It took him a while but now he mastered the usage of S-rank magic and light as well.

And last but not least, he learned the hidden skill of Excalibur.

The skill of canceling every magic and ability in a certain range for a short moment.

If the wielder of Excalibur were too reliant on magic and abilities, then that skill would be a double-edged sword, however, Mika was nothing like that.

It was quite the contrary.

"Ack!"

"Argh!"

"Shi-"

"Uergh!"

First and foremost, Mika was a swordsman.

And that fact was stressed once more as he mowed down the demons with his silver sword.

"Halt!"

"?"

All of a sudden, everyone stopped and looked in the direction of the person who commanded them.

"Don’t throw away your lives and get away from here. I will take over now."

It was a stern Lucio who walked over to Mika. There was a dry trail of blood on his forehead.

The remnants of the demons looked nervously at him before quietly and slowly backing away.

"You and your friends made quite the mess in my nation." Lucio remarked grimly.

"Are you sure that you should point your finger at us instead of you and your goons?" Mika retorted, pulling out Excalibur from the dead Arada.

The tension between the two rose.

"I won’t let you get away from here alive. I can guarantee you that much." Lucio declared.

"I was about to say the same to you."

But Mika was watching his surroundings.

"Don’t dodge this."

From above, thunder struck down and hit Mika.

"...!"

He balanced his body by stabbing Excalibur in the ground.

Usually, he would have used Excalibur beforehand to negate the attack but his body did not react like he wanted to again.

Cautiously, Mika looked at Lucio.

Unlike his previous words, Mika’s actual goal was to learn as much as he could from this fight and find out what Lucio’s ability was.

Only after achieving that, he could think about retreating.