A light pillar suddenly fell down to the poisonous smoke, illuminating it.
The poisonous fog seemed to be disintegrated by this light and even Hailfa slightly bent her knees as though a huge amount of pressure had just fallen onto her shoulder.
"Kh." Hailfa gritted her teeth.
The appearance of the light pillar shocked everyone on the battlefield, especially Laufey.
'A light pillar? But isn't that…' Laufey's body trembled as he hurriedly blew Damian away before he jumped toward the light pillar and crushed it with his blade.
"We are retreating!" Laufey shouted in a hurry.
Hailfa didn't know what was happening, but she hurriedly dragged Noel away. However, another light pillar fell on top of her hand, knocking Noel down.
"!!!" Hailfa looked at Noel and wanted to grab him back. But Laufey's arm had circled around her waist and shouted, "Retreat. Hurry up!"
They didn't even bother to retake Noel as a shout echoed across the battlefield.
"LAUFEY ARDAGAN!"
Hailfa glanced to the side and recognized the woman. "Huh? Why is she here? The Captain of the Demon Adjudicator Squad, the successor of Sir Laufey, Milfa."
Hailfa was confused. On the one hand, she didn't know Milfa's true strength, so she thought a single captain couldn't change the situation. At least, they should still have a few more minutes.
On the other hand, Laufey's desperation seemed to stem from her strength. So, there might be something she didn't know about Milfa.
She would never expect that Milfa was actually as strong as Damian, so leaving was the only option here even if the mission had to end in a failure.
Milfa was trying to chase after them, but the rest of the people were stunned.
"We should—" Milfa wanted to command them to help her capture them. But most of them were frozen because of one reason.
All their eyes were glued to the figure that was lying on the ground. He seemed to have fallen unconscious. However, his expression told them how frustrated he was because of the situation.
Yes, that figure was none other than Noel.
Damian's priority was himself, so he instantly disappeared from the area since he didn't want to get involved with the rest of the Demon Banner Army. As long as he could see Noel was fine from a distance, that was enough. His mission was related to Noel, not the Supreme Devil Organization after all.
Meanwhile, the Demon Relief Squad was more concerned about Noel's well-being much more than the Supreme Devil Organization. Noel was one of their core members, so, of course, they didn't want something to happen to Noel.
Only the Vice Captain of the Demon Barrier Squad was ready to follow Milfa and the rest of the Demon Adjudicator Squad members.
But when Milfa saw this situation, she deemed they wouldn't be powerful enough to capture those four.
In the end, she dropped the mission with a long sigh.
She came to Noel and checked his condition.
"He's passed out. There are some injuries, but nothing fatal." Milfa glanced in the direction where Laufey was leaving, disappointed that she couldn't do anything to the former captain of her squad. But as much as she wanted to blame them, everything that happened here could only be possible with the Demon Relief Squad here, specifically Noel.
Milfa carried Noel in her arms while glancing at the rest of the people. "All of you are to remove all the demons near the city. Silvan, cooperate with them."
"Yes, Ma'am!" A young man nodded with a serious expression.
"I will bring him to the city. Lifeal, follow me."
They were shocked to meet Milfa here, but Milfa ignored all of them as she approached the wall. With just a wave of her hand, more than twenty demons died after being illuminated by her light.
After that, she jumped over the city wall and used one of the buildings to lay down the unconscious Noel.
The battle had an abrupt end, but it was different for Noel.
…
When he passed out, Noel was actually dreaming. It felt like he was drowning in deep dark water, being unable to move.
All he could do was think as a few scenes flashed in his mind.
The image was about several important moments in his life. The first image was about the time when Noel killed the first few demons in his life with traps.
He had put out numerous traps around the forest, thinking there were not enough traps even though he only needed one to kill a Low Level Demon.
After that, he could see the image of him defeating the Ancient Demon Tree. Back then, he had nothing to prepare. The risk was too great, but he could do nothing but do it.
The image soon changed to the time he reached the Silica Valley, where he met the Water Lord.
'Traps, Anna, Water Lord, Shale, Dimitri, and even Damian… I have been relying on a lot of people to achieve all this.'
'At first, I always made a lot of preparations like there's no such thing as enough traps. But when did it change…'
'My preparation started to be less. Even during the infiltration of the brothel where I met Harley… I was far too reckless. What if Harley was a Spirit Grandmaster and he was extremely hostile to me? Even with Anna and Rose, I would have died.'
'I have become overconfident after a few successes.' Noel fell silent, regretting that decision.
Of course, it was normal that one's confidence would grow after some successes. However, the risk Noel had was far greater than anyone.
That was something he almost forgot. One might suffer some setbacks when they were overconfident, but Noel would have died if Milfa didn't come. He wasn't even aware of Milfa's arrival.
In other words, his survival this time was caused by luck. Noel was disappointed in himself.
If he had to rely his survival on luck, then it wouldn't be long before he met his demise.
That was why Noel took this defeat very seriously.
