Demon General Razel had not been defeated.
He transformed into a vicious magical beast and walked towards us.
I immediately used a [Blessing of Heaven] for Helmios, who was blown to the ground by Demon General Razel.
"Once you're a Liberator, you don't have to use your Extra Skill. Right?"
"Hm? That's right. I see, so your current attitude is the real you. You've been deceiving me, haven't you?"
"It's both of us who were deceiving each other. You're a Demon General but you were pretending to be dead."
"Hmm. We just have to win. Isn't that right?"
Demon General Razel was not unconscious when he was hit by Helmios' Extra Skill, the [Phoenix Sword]. He was trying to catch us off guard.
However, I was looking at my Grimoire the whole time, checking the log which exposed him.
(It looks like he stopped playing dead because of me.)
And I realized that I had made one big mistake.
There were 3 modes available for me to choose from: Normal Mode, Extra Mode, and Hell Mode.
And there was a special skill, called Extra Skill, that only people in Normal Mode could use.
I had two questions.
The first was why Extra Mode and Extra Skill had similar names.
The other question was why I didn't have an Extra Skill.
Demon General Razel answered both of my questions.
Normal Mode could borrow the power of Extra Mode for a certain time.
That was what everyone called the Extra Skill, and Demons called it the 'Gate of Extra'. And I guessed that Liberators were those who were in Extra Mode.
And a Liberator in Extra Mode couldn't use Extra Skill because they had no need to do so.
And Extra Mode allowed someone to use their Extra Skill at will without cooldown.
In my case, they would be and .
(Helmios also said that the use of Extra Skill is similar to the use of normal magic and skills.)
That brought me to the second question, why couldn't I use Extra Skill.
In Hell Mode, I could acquire skills at the same tier to what everyone called Extra Skill while leveling. So there was no reason to display them in a separate column from skills.
"You've lived for thousands of years, and yet you were fooled by a child. Do you stop growing when you become a Demon General?"
"Enough. No more stalling. It's all for nothing. You will die."
(Let's talk some more. Oh! He's caught on!)
Demon General Razel seemed to have noticed that I was trying to buy time by talking in vain.
Helmios, having recovered using [Blessing of Heaven], returns to the front line.
"I'm sorry. Let's retreat, everyone!"
"Oh!"
"Yes, it is all in vain. Think of the despair we've suffered!"
Kurena and Dogora fought back, but the difference in power was even more apparent than before.
Demon General Razel stopped avoiding and blocking Kurena and Dogora's attacks.
The Adamantite weapons struck Demon General Razel's body but only made a sharp, hard sound.
(Oh no, my summons disappeared in an instant.)
C-rank Stones were reducing the damage my friends were taking, but even with multiple C-rank Stones using [Substitute] on Kurena and Dogora, they were disappearing with just one attack.
(Oh no, we can't do this. It's just as I predicted. Except for the Helmios' [Phoenix Sword], we have no way of dealing some major damage on Demon General Razel. He is getting serious, too. We won't be able to escape like this.)
Helmios had entered the fray, but he couldn't change the situation very much.
Although Demon General Razel reacted to Helmios' attack by defending against them, Helmios was no match for him.
"Sophie!"
"Yes, Master Allen."
"I'm sorry, but we need time. I need you to manifest a Great Spirit."
If we didn't attack in sufficient numbers, we were going to be annihilated. To avoid that, I told Sophie to use her Extra Skill [Great Spirit Manifestation].
A Great Spirit was far stronger than a B-rank Commander.
I wanted to escape while the Great Spirit would shield us.
"Oh, um. I've been trying to call them for a while now, but I'm having a little trouble..."
"What?"
"I'm sorry. This has been happening recently. Sometimes they don't answer"
(Huh? Where are you Great Spirits? Are they at home? Hey, come on out.)
Sophie's Extra Skill, [Great Spirit Manifestation] which used to always summon a Great Spirit was not working for some time then.
"All right. Just do your best to summon them."
"Yes."
While I was talking to Sophie, the situation got much worse.
Helmios, Kurena, and Dogora had fought hard to withstand Demon General Razel's heavy blows, but they were on the verge of defeat.
We were no match against a serious Demon General.
The vanguard's duty was to protect the middle and rear guards.
However, the three vanguards were having a lot of trouble handling Demon General Razel.
Kurena was blown away, and using the gap left, Demon General Razel closed in on me who was in the middle guard position.
"Mirror!"
I quickly summoned B-rank Stone' Commander Mirror between me and the oncoming Demon General Razel.
"Nephtila told me that this thing repels attacks."
As he said this, Demon General Razel went around Mirror and approached me.
Nephtila had completely leaked B-rank Stone's ability. A fist slammed into my stomach.
"Gah!"
Spitting out blood, I flew away as I bounced off the ground.
(He knew about my ability? I was wondering why you didn't use any long range attacks.)
All along, I had been waiting for Demon General Razel to use powerful magic or other long-range attacks.
I was starting to wonder if Demon General Razel always only fought using his body without using magic but it seemed he was wary of having his magic bounced back.
While being blown away, I used a [Blessing of Heaven] to heal myself.
[Blessing of Heaven] also fully healed Kurena who was nearby and she returned to the front line.
But that didn't change the situation.
(It's time to make a decision. In exchange for my life, I'll at least be able to keep Demon General here.)
Allen collapses and recovers, but chooses to let his friends escape from Demon Generals even at the cost of his life.
That's when it happened.
Dogora was blown away near me.
"Dogora! Are you okay?"
I use a [Blessing of Heaven] to heal Dogora.
"Yeah, no problem."
"Good. There it is. I'm afraid it's going to be tough. I'll take ...."
"It's kind of nostalgic, isn't it?"
"Hmm?"
"Back when we were in the village, Kurena was so much stronger than us that we would always end up exhausted, wouldn't we? This is how we used to lie in Kurena's garden and look at the sky..."
Dogora suddenly started talking about Kurena village.
Dogora and I, battered and bruised from dealing with Kurena's obsession of playing knight, used to look at the sky over the village together.
"Oh? What are you talking about?"
"I knew you were a strange guy from that moment on. But you turned out to be so amazing."
"So what are you saying?"
(Hey, don't set weird flags.)
"I'll buy you some time and then you can run away. Tell my father in the village that I'm sorry that I never returned to visit him after entering the Academy. Allen, promise me that."
With that, Dogora stood up and ran toward Demon General Razel, with whom Kurena and Helmios were fighting desperately.
"Oh, hey. Dogora!"
Dogora could no longer hear my voice.
"Ohhhhh!!!"
Dogora shouted and ran as fast as he could towards Demon General Razel.
The question of Extra Skill was no longer on Dogora's mind.
He believed I would tell his father in the village what he told me to. Everything about the future, about the past, everything, slipped from Dogora's mind. All of his thoughts disappeared and his head became empty.
The Adamantite axe in his hand felt lighter than usual. The only thing Dogora could think about at that moment was to strike his axe into Demon General Razel.
"Hmm, little fish, time to die."
Demon General Razel snickered at Dogora's cry of resolve and clenched his fists, ready to strike Dogora, who was rushing towards him.
When he was just 10 more steps away from Demon General Razel, a change appeared in Dogora's body.
Dogora's body began to refract and glow a shimmer.
"Kraaaaayyyy!"
"Hm?"
Demon General Razel defended himself with his two right arms against Dogora's attack without much spirit.
He thought he probably didn't need to defend himself, but just in case.
Then, Dogora, who was rushing towards him, put all his strength into his axe and delivered a full-power attack.
"Haaaa!"
The two arms Demon General Razel used to defend himself shattered in an instant.
In addition, Dogora's axe dug into his shoulder. He desperately tried to pull it out with his right arm, but it had dug in too deep to pull out.
Dogora's Extra Skill [Body and Soul] dug in even deeper and reached Demon General Razel's chest as he plunged to the ground on his knees.
"Die, die, die!"
"Don't get carried away, little fish!"
"Buh!"
"'Dogora!"
Demon General Razel made a hand sword with his right arm, which was now reduced to one after losing two, and poked Dogora in the stomach. The Adamantite armor that Dogora was wearing, shattered, and Demon General Razel's claws reached up to pierce through his back.
Dogora was covered in blood and blown away.
