After the roof of the house was destroyed,

  Ryan and the mage girl stepped outside, and what stood before them was a massive demon.

  It was fighting a girl dressed in bck, a hood covering her hair and part of her face.

  'An adventurer?'

  The demon swung its enormous weapon to attack her.

  The girl seemed to defend herself well. She could evade the demon’s attacks, but her wounds kept throwing her off bance. She was exhausted. It was only a matter of time before she lost that fight.

  "That thing... a boomerang? It’s huge!"

  "Hey! Don’t just stand there, save her!"

  When Ryan turned to look at the mage girl,

  she had already returned to her child form.

  'She ran out of mana again. She really should get rid of that title.'

  Ryan ran toward the demon.

  He leapt into the air and decred,

  "Fire Aura!"

  His gauntlets burst into fmes.

  When the demon noticed him, it turned its gaze toward Ryan.

  But Ryan was already too close to its massive face. It had no time to react before Ryan’s punch struck it full force, the impact sending the demon crashing into the ground.

  The injured girl leaned against the wall of one of the ruined houses.

  Her eyes fixed on Ryan, her gaze weak and confused.

  "Who are you..." Those were the st words she spoke before losing consciousness.

  The air whistled sharply.

  Ryan turned toward the demon he had struck. It was already back on its feet, and it hurled its powerful boomerang attack straight toward Ryan’s face.

  'Compared to the others, it’s slow. I don’t even need Inspect to know it’s a Principality. The intensity of its aura makes that obvious, but...'

  When the boomerang was only centimeters away, Ryan caught it with one hand.

  "What the hell!" the demon excimed in shock. It tried to pull the weapon back, but Ryan tightened his grip.

  "Watching you fight... I knew you were strong, but this is absurd for a priest..." the mage muttered.

  Ryan smiled, staring directly at the demon. "You’re hideous."

  "Bastard!"

  Before the demon could say anything else, Ryan smmed the boomerang down toward the ground.

  He stepped onto it with two quick strides and unched himself forward.

  Ssh!

  A brutal strike to the demon’s neck ended its life. The intense fmes of Ryan’s gauntlets burned the demon’s neck and face as it colpsed to the ground.

  [Bonus acquired: +62,000 XP]

  The mage girl approached him, keeping some distance.

  Ryan crouched and picked up the boomerang.

  'This thing... I’m smaller than this boomerang.'

  Ryan smiled.

  'I’m keeping it.'

  "I don’t understand why demons from the caste of Demon King Rigal are here..."

  "Rigal?" Ryan asked.

  "Yes... he’s the demon king of the giant race."

  'So that’s why they’re this huge...'

  "Well, now I’ll heal that girl."

  Ryan turned toward the girl and began walking, but a bst of fire suddenly came out of nowhere.

  Ryan grabbed the small girl by the waist and jumped aside.

  "Ah! Careful!"

  "Don’t compin. I just saved you!" Ryan turned toward the direction of the attack.

  Two demons stood there.

  They were giants as well.

  "Bastard! How dare you kill my brother!"

  As soon as he finished speaking, he charged straight at Ryan. Each step thundered across the ground.

  Ryan lifted the boomerang like a massive baseball bat.

  Pnting his foot, he swung the moment the demon reached him.

  The boomerang cut the demon clean in half.

  The other demon stood frozen, mouth wide open.

  But suddenly his expression changed, turning serious.

  Ryan hurled the boomerang with full force. It spun through the air at incredible speed until it reached the demon.

  Smack!

  A loud sound echoed as the demon caught the boomerang with both hands.

  "I expected that!" Ryan shouted.

  "Bastard!" The demon released the boomerang, and before it could hit the ground Ryan activated his other ability.

  "Fire Wall." It ignited behind the demon.

  The demon briefly turned its head to gnce at the bzing wall behind it. When it faced forward again, Ryan’s fming fist was already crashing into its face.

  The massive impact drove the demon’s head straight into the fire wall. With Ryan’s fist still pressed against it, the demon began to burn.

  Ryan kept the pressure until the demon died.

  [Bonus acquired: +62,000 XP]

  [Luck Bonus: +62,000 XP]

  [Level increased]

  [Level Bonus: +20 points]

  [Attributes increased: +20 to all stats]

  Ryan returned to where the mage was standing.

  "I think we’re done here."

  "Hey, you never stop surprising me," the mage excimed.

  "It’s not that impressive. We’ve fought Principalities before... these were bigger, but also more careless."

  "Yeah, giants aren’t very clever. But don’t rely on that too much, alright?"

  "I understand. But right now we should heal that girl before she dies."

  Ryan and the mage walked together, but a scraping sound on the ground distracted her.

  "Hey, I know that weapon is strong, but are you really pnning to drag that thing around everywhere?"

  "You’re right. But I do have somewhere to store it."

  'It’ll be the first time I use that thing... ah, I wonder how those elves are doing.'

  Ryan pulled the object the elves had given him from his pocket.

  The magical inventory.

  When he activated it, the enormous boomerang was easily stored away.

  "See? That’s better."

  "That inventory is very rare. Items like that are hard to obtain. How do you have one?"

  "Well, it was given to me after completing a mission recently."

  The girl watched with curiosity as Ryan put the small box back into his pocket.

  "I also have a magical inventory, but a lower-level one. I keep my staff in it. Without it, I’m very weak. If I hadn’t brought my Twin Fires earlier, things would have gone badly..." She paused briefly.

  "Although I doubt it. After all, you’re pretty strong."

  Ryan looked at her in disbelief.

  'She’s not weak at all.'

  When Ryan finally approached the unconscious girl to heal her, he removed her hood.

  He stopped.

  "She’s a demon too. You should kill her," the mage girl excimed.

  Two horns protruded from the girl’s forehead.

  But Ryan hesitated for a moment. Despite being a demon, the girl was very beautiful. But that wasn’t the only reason. Killing someone while they were unconscious was something he didn’t want to do.

  Ryan refused to kill her, even when the mage girl insisted.

  He told her that if they wanted to leave that pce quickly, the best option would be to interrogate her. If she was being hunted by demons, something must be happening, and she would likely cooperate out of gratitude.

  "I’m not responsible for what happens if you heal her," the mage muttered.

  "Rex. You know I’m very strong, right?"

  She nodded.

  'Besides, this time I’ll use the debt skill to make sure she can’t attack us, and I’ll make her believe I can activate it whenever I want...'

  Ryan sighed as he looked at the demon girl.

  "Recovery."