Almost at the same time as when Herbert flashed a grin, a Divine Judgment spell hit Ignoa in the back.
“Ugyaaa!!”
For the first time in this fight, Ignoa let out a scream of pain.
Herbert couldn’t tell exactly how powerful the said spell was on the demon, but with such a direct hit, he was sure it took away much of Ignoa’s strength. Adding that to what he and Marlon had managed to whittle away, it was fair to say that Ignoa has now suffered considerable damage.
And with that, Herbert accomplished the second of his 3-step plan.
It would have been great if the fight ended at this point, but…Marlon’s Divine Judgement entered Ignoa’s body through their back and then exited through the hole Herbert made when he threw his sword. Blood spilled out of Ignoa’s mouth, and sizzling sounds could be heard from where the beam passed through.
However, the demon’s eyes were still bright as if to declare they haven’t lost yet.
But then again, that was all within Herbert’s expectations. His future self had taught him just how durable demons could be, after all. And so, he purposefully stepped forward for the third step in his plan.
Marlon, Ignoa, and Herbert now all stood in a straight line.
The Divine Judgment spell, after piercing through the demon, seemed to be ever so slightly less bright. Even so, as to be expected of an advanced-level light spell, it traveled forward at the same speed as before.
“Gh—aa!?”
Ignoa was taken aback when they saw Herbert dashing toward them.
It should go without saying that if Herbert was to continue going forward, he was going to get hit by the same spell that hit Ignoa. Considering that Herbert was a human, he would get hurt by the light spell much less than a demon like Ignoa would be. Even then though, Herbert was definitely not going to come out unscathed after taking on an advanced-level spell like this.
But, again, this was all part of Herbert’s plan.
“Dimension!”
Herbert activated the intermediate-level spacetime spell Dimension.
He was aiming to absorb the incoming Divine Judgment into the subspace created by Dimension.
In the moment that the light spell entered the subspace, Herbert could feel almost all of his remaining mana get used. Unlike the beginner-level spacetime spells Delay and Accelerate, Dimension allowed other people’s spells to be absorbed and manipulated by a mana sphere. However, this consumed an amount of mana equal to 2 or 3 times that of the absorbed spell.
Despite the Divine Judgment’s somewhat diminished state, it was still a herculean task to absorb into the mana sphere an advanced-level spell. As such, he immediately broke into a cold sweat and he shivered all over; a clear symptom of mana deficiency.
His body was quivering, his sight was unsteady, and his consciousness was fading. And yet, Herbert refused to give up. He grit his teeth as hard as he could, which made his canine to bite into his lips and blood to flow from it. While keeping himself awake through pain and sheer willpower, he turned the mana sphere around.
Yes, the third step of Herbert’s plan was to take in Marlon’s spell and then direct it back to Ignoa.
“This is the end!”
Ignoa realized what Herbert was up to and tried to twist their body to evade. However, unlike with Marlon, Herbert could adjust from where he would release the Divine Judgment by moving the mana sphere around.
“Guaaaaaa!!”
Like that, Ignoa was once again pierced through by a purifying beam of light.
“Haa, haa, haaa…”
Crouching with his hands on his knees was all Herbert could do to keep himself from falling over. But even maintaining that position soon proved to be too hard; his knees gave in and he fell to the ground.
His breathing was rough as he tried to lift his head.
To his horror, Ignoa still wasn’t dead.
“Ghh…ghhh”
Ignoa was in a horrible state. As though their flesh burst from within, there was now a large hole in the demon’s chest and one could see the view on the other side. Moreover, between the two hits of Divine Judgment and all the sword attacks from before, there was hardly any spot on their body without a wound.
Yet, the fire in Ignoa’s eyes remained. It held a strong will to escape and survive.
The prevailing theory was that demons were humans who held monster-like traits. However, the way Ignoa was acting now might make one to think that demons were monsters with a human-like appearance instead.
The outline of Ignoa’s body then became blurred. Ignoa had stayed still enough to start activating their ability to turn transparent. As Ignoa grew more transparent, it became harder to tell if the view behind him was due to their ability or just because of the holes in their body.
Herbert grinned as he watched Ignoa’s blatant attempt to flee.
“Light Arrow!”
“Guuuuh!?”
All of a sudden, Ignoa’s transparency was undone and his body was fully visible again.
An arrow made of light had pierced the demon’s abdomen and made a hole there as well.
In Herbert’s line of sight was Marlon who was focusing to use light magic once again. Herbert himself was heavily wounded, but Marlon was still in fighting form. Thanks to Herbert drawing Ignoa’s full attention, Marlon was able to conserve his mana too.
That wasn’t to say that Marlon had a lot of mana left, especially after using Divine Judgment. At the moment, the most he could do was fire a few Light Arrows.
Thankfully, that proved enough to defeat the demon who was already on the verge of death.
“—Light Arrow!”
“I…b-by these humans…!?”
Marlon fired another arrow of light, this time making a hole in Ignoa’s head.
After Ignoa spun around for a moment, they fell to the ground. The demon never rose again.
“Herbert”
“Marlon”
Herbert, who forced himself to stand up, and Marlon, who was also showing signs of mana deficiency, approached each other, bumped their fists against the other’s, and grinned. They wasn’t any need for them to exchange words of praise.
Both their bodies exhausted, they supported one another by putting their arm around the other’s shoulder.
Herbert and Marlon have safely managed to defeat the demon Ignoa.
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RPGNovels 
Thank you! Good fight.
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