The Freak Show Foreman

The members began to tidy up the surroundings.

They took out the intact luggage from the broken carriage and loaded it into another carriage.

They also took care of the bodies of the residents who had fallen victim to the demons.

Although they were willing to wield weapons against them, they felt uneasy about leaving them alone.

Wild beasts or filthy demons could still attack.

Ella grimaced at the sight of a demon's corpse with a knife stuck in its back.

Womon's Inspira, 'Blade Juggling,' had a returning force proportional to the throwing force.

In other words, the force that shattered the demon's skull was purely Womon.

They knew he was strong, but they didn't expect him to overpower a demon.

What Yurakne did was equally surprising.

Facing a demon capable of lifting and smashing even large carriages, and despite receiving Inspira help, to have one arm bound.

The physical abilities of an ordinary woman were definitely not present.

The other members were the same.

Fundamentally, they were stronger and sturdier than ordinary people.

If not, even if Wonderstein had written scripts perfectly tailored to them, even if he had trained them appropriately, they wouldn't have achieved such results in just two months.

Their current skills were barely mid-level compared to the entire competition.

However, considering that their opponents had all been training in the circus professionally for several years, their innate physical abilities were remarkable.

The Curse Plague, Debulroots.

The members were the children of those survivors.

Did Wonderstein know this and recruit them?

The Curse Plague was something he had spread in her homeland.

In the end, Wonderstein held all the answers to the mysteries.

They had to meet him.

"Let's go into the village for now. Let's find the two."

"I agree. Womon, how are you? Can you walk?"

"Yes. I applied a potion."

The members walked towards the entrance of the village.

Their footsteps were filled with confidence, perhaps because no one had died, and they had overcome the crisis.

Sven boasted that he could take down a couple more demons without any problem.

Shortly after, they regretted not silencing Sven.

They entered the village entrance.

"Squeak!"

"Kiki!"

There, two demons of the same kind they had defeated awaited them.

***

The Light beams by the priest had the power to exclude negative energy.

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It couldn't inflict damage on material objects.

However, it was an exception for Abyss creatures.

Zakanuba, riddled with holes throughout its body, writhed in white flames.

"Kiaaah…."

Its last struggle didn't last long.

Its charred body collapsed to the ground.

Inside the church, people who had been watching the fight while holding their breath cheered.

"Nun… No, Hallelujah!"

"Blessings to Saint Valentina!"

Today, the residents who had already cried numerous times couldn't stop crying.

The heroes who saved them couldn't rejoice with them.

Valentina, with a stern expression, looked into the mirror she held in her hand.

What she held was a bronze mirror made of brass.

In an age where glass mirrors were commonplace, it had no value other than decoration.

But the bronze mirror she held was not an ordinary item.

It was called the Mabanggyeong and had the power to detect the energy of demons.

If there were demons nearby, it emitted light and heat.

She peered into the light reflected in the Mabanggyeong.

Various colors shimmered like oil on water.

Interpreting the 'light' was one of the main tasks of the priests of the holy church.

They believed that God communicated through light.

Among the seemingly unregulated spectrum of light, she deciphered a symbol.

It could be likened to deciphering a code.

Skilled decipherers could naturally recall sentences as they read the symbols.

She, too, could draw a certain form from the symbols naturally.

Demons with rabbit heads and deer antlers.

When she first confirmed them, there were three.

But when she knocked down the one in front of her and confirmed it, there was only one left.

However, just now, two more appeared from somewhere.

"Is there… a hole in the barrier with the Abyss?"

She warned the residents not to leave the church and ran towards the village below.

She periodically checked the mirror in her hand.

She had come halfway down the hill.

She was dropped the mirror due to the intense heat she felt in her hand.

The bronze mirror clanged as it rolled on the floor.

If light showed the type of demon, the heat indicated the demon's power.

She looked down at the surface of the metal, glowing with intense heat.

In the swirling whirlpool of light that seemed to weave a rainbow, she discerned one image that hadn't been there before.

"This is…!"

It was similar to Zakanuba but slightly different.

And the intense heat emanating from the bronze mirror.

The clues pointed to one thing.

Her complexion turned pale blue.

***

Find Wally!

Zakanuba frantically tried to identify the cat infused with Maya's energy among the throngs of cats.

The cat always slipped in at the most opportune moments.

Zakanuba quickly followed its trail but missed it every time.

Because they all looked exactly the same.

Furthermore, he had lost one eye.

As time passed, Zakanuba's body accumulated more and more wounds.

Meow!

It allowed another attack.

Following the cat with its eyes, Zakanuba hesitated.

Wally had blended in with the others where its companions were.

That part was the same as before.

The problem was not it but the rest.

It was a bunch of cats that looked exactly the same.

But something was off now.

Each one had slightly different shapes and colors.

Was this also the work of the sorcerer?

The demon remembered exactly what Wally looked like.

It rolled his remaining eyeball and spotted one guy among the cats of various colours and shapes and swiped its claw.

An illusion cat was torn apart.

Meow….

That wasn't the real Wally.

The one with the tiger pattern in reverse was standing there.

The demon found another one and swiped its claw.

Wrong again.

This one had the colors reversed.

It pounced on another.

Wrong.

This one was exactly the same, but inexplicably wearing boots on its hind legs.

Tenth one.

This time it thought it had found one with perfectly matching colors and patterns.

But it was wrong again.

Everything was the same, but this time, it was a dog, not a cat.

Woof!

When it started to doubt if even targets with illusion magic could change their appearance, Wally passed by and scratched its thigh.

It confirmed its appearance.

Strangely, only it maintained its original appearance.

"Ha… Ha…"

Maya leaned against the wall, gasping for breath.

The chaos of the illusion that was unfolding was not something she intended or caused.

As her concentration and magical power waned, calculating the illusion became increasingly difficult.

Still, the reason Maya was able to focus her psychic power on Wally was because it wasn't a polyhedron illusion but a different illusion.

A mind illusion utilizing the mystery of "sang".

It didn't require complex calculations like the polyhedron illusion.

It was also easy to carry the psychic power.

However, it was impossible to make all illusions into mind illusions.

She could only frolic with Wally on the canvas of her mind.

The rest still had to be polyhedrons.

Maya noticed that the polyhedron cats were becoming increasingly crude.

Some cats were frozen in place, while others seemed to be just floating tufts of fur.

If things continued like this, it was only a matter of time before Zakanuba figured out her true form.

She had to make a decision.

"Meow, meow, meow!"

Zakanuba also noticed Maya's state.

Her illusion magic was now laid bare.

It no longer attempted to find Wally.

It calmly evaded attacks while biding his time.

Before long, the number of illusion cats noticeably decreased.

From 100 to 40… to 10…

…to 1.

Wally was the only one left.

At the same time, Maya's form also became apparent.

She leaned against a pillar in front of the hall, her breath faint as she eyed Zakanuba.

"Meow!"

The demon swiped away Wally, who was baring its teeth at him.

The faint psychic power imbued in the cat dispersed, and Wally's illusion vanished.

"Mwahaha!"

The demon walked towards Maya.

She stared back at the approaching Zakanuba with narrowed eyes.

The demon chuckled as if to say, "What will you do if you glare at me like that?"

"Almost there."

Maya tensed, staring at the back of the demon's head.

She hadn't collapsed yet.

She still stood behind him in her transparent state, carefully gathering her magic.

What Zakanuba was seeing now was her own illusion.

Since she judged that she couldn't hold out until sunrise anyway, Maya decided to gather the remaining magic and use the failed psychic sphere she had used at first.

Considering the bastard's beastly senses, cunning nature, and characteristic agility, a clumsy attempt was out of the question.

She had to deceive it perfectly.

The method was to stage her own collapse to make it let its guard down.

Creating the illusion wasn't difficult.

Her appearance, bleeding and dying, wasn't exaggerated.

Once she exhausted the remaining magic, she would undoubtedly become like that.

"Kkrrrk!"

Zakanuba raised its claws.

At the same time, Maya hurled the psychic sphere at the back of its head.

"I did it."

As she watched the trajectory of the sphere, she could envision it piercing through the back of its head.

However, fate was truly cruel, acting at the most despicable moment.

"This demon!"

Just then, the arrival of the knight Ivanenko.

He shouted to attract the demon's attention, aiming to save the bloodied girl.

In response to his shout, the demon reflexively ducked and resumed its combat stance.

The psychic sphere shattered its horn and hit the roof of the opposite building.

Squelch. Thud.

"Woah! What's this!"

The knight fell onto the debris of the collapsing roof.

"Ah."

Maya sighed.

At the same time, her invisibility was lifted.

Zakanuba didn't take long to understand what had just happened.

It saw the attack that the magician had initially directed at it.

It was coming from behind it.

It slowly turned its head.

There, Maya, completely depleted of magic, sat on the ground.

Her face, meeting its crimson eyes, quickly darkened.

It was over.

Everything was.