The instant Lanqi leapt, time seemed to freeze. Everything around them fell dead silent, save for the howling wind tearing past their ears.
"Meooww!!"
Lisanci was also held aloft in midair by Boss Cat's telekinesis.
Their figures streaked across the night sky above Palieu, the City of Flowers, like three falling stars.
The surrounding clouds brushed against them like folds of soft silk. With every layer they pierced, the city lights below glittered like countless stars reflected across the earth, paving a shimmering path for their descent.
"It's all on you, Boss Cat! Your telekinesis can definitely pull this off!"
The hair on Lanqi's forehead whipped back as weightlessness took hold, floating in the rushing air.
Telekinetic magic was inherently the closest thing to wind magic. In most situations where wind magic could grant flight or a safe landing, telekinesis could accomplish the same.
Plummeting through the skies of Palieu on their backs, the city came into sharper focus as they neared the ground. An endless nightscape enveloped them—twinkling stars like pearls strewn across a black silk ribbon, while the moon, seeming close enough to touch, bathed them in pale white light.
Lanqi experienced extreme weightlessness, yet he felt no fear, only clinging tightly to the cat.
"Meow-meow! I am never going through a shipwreck or a plane crash with you ever again, meow!"
Boss Cat felt that whenever it traveled far from home with this fellow, they never once had a normal landing!
***
Meanwhile, up in the mana airship *Floating Castle*...
"Do we have any telekinesis or wind mages?"
Sergeant Major Nigel the executioner stood beside the shattered glass window, gazing across the terrace toward the haze of dust rising from the city streets a thousand meters below.
He had not expected the other party to breach the reinforced barrier on the *Floating Castle*'s window in an instant; perhaps they were even stronger than he had imagined.
Still, it worked out. Now that they had jumped, he could strike without holding back.
Without waiting for his subordinates to bring flying mana mechanical beasts, Sergeant Major Nigel pressed a hand against his scabbard and dove straight over the edge.
***
North Palieu, down on the streets...
The shadows hurtling from the sky made a deafening commotion upon landing. A sound that pierced the night sky echoed down the bustling boulevard, crashing like a sudden clap of thunder.
The wide street bore deep craters from the impact, and the air around them trembled with subtle tremors amid plumes of swirling dust.
This sudden blast drew the immediate attention of passersby throughout the City of Flowers.
This area lay just beyond the north bank of Palieu and was considered quite prosperous.
Plunging from such heights was inherently dangerous, but they seemed to have deliberately avoided the crowds, touching down in a safe clearing.
Curious pedestrians peered in from every direction, gathering around to gawk at the extraordinary scene.
Several residents stepped out of nearby cafés and office buildings, some holding their dinners, others still wearing aprons.
They murmured among themselves, speculating about what had happened.
At the center of the dust cloud, Lanqi slowly stood up while cradling the cat.
"Ah, telekinesis really isn't as stable as wind magic after all."
Lanqi held his head and shook it, muttering to himself.
Boss Cat's mana capacity and control over telekinesis were limited. Making an emergency landing from a thousand meters up was already impressive enough; it could hardly soar through heaven and earth with effortless ease like Loren.
"Meow-meow-meow, scared me to death."
Boss Cat felt that traveling with Lanqi meant constantly being dragged into extreme sports.
Just as Lanqi and Boss Cat were drawing a crowd of gawking onlookers, another figure on the street suddenly rose.
Boss Cat had protected Lisanci as well, worried that she might die from the fall, and had not dared to use terminal velocity to weaken her.
Yet her condition seemed to have worsened drastically. Shrouded in an eerie black mist, the crimson glow in her eyes flared with mounting fury.
Immediately following that, she let out another ear-splitting screech, brimming with desperate agony and wrath.
The streetlamps around Lisanci flickered wildly. Even the pure moonlight looked pale and helpless against that cursed black vapor.
This sudden shriek triggered widespread panic among the surrounding spectators.
"A demon has gone berserk!"
"Is that a curse?!"
"Run!"
In an instant, the crowd's expressions shifted from curious shock to sheer terror. People scattered in every direction like a surging, chaotic tide, desperate to escape the impending mortal threat!
"Boss Cat, use Taunt,"
Lanqi commanded at once.
"Meow-meow!"
Boss Cat knew what he meant.
Lanqi currently had no card slots of his own; his white, blue, and purple cards were all held by the cat.
Trembling with fear, the cat pulled out the [Flawed Slow Heal] Lanqi had placed on it and tossed it onto Lisanci.
Instantly, Lisanci's screech grew even more agonizing. Her neck snapped around, and the crimson glow in her eyes locked dead onto Boss Cat in Lanqi's arms.
"Boss Cat, use telekinesis,"
Lanqi continued directing the cat against Lisanci.
"I can't, meow! I can't hold her, meow!"
Boss Cat realized that [Flawed Slow Heal] seemed to have aggravated Lisanci's frenzy. Where it had previously been able to pin her, she had now lost her mind completely.
Breaking free of Boss Cat's telekinetic hold, Lisanci surged forward, lunging with terrifying speed straight at Lanqi and the cat.
Lanqi, however, felt this was fine. Hitting her with an effect-free tier-seven wind spell right now would blast her away, allowing them to follow up with crowd control and carry her off.
This bustling district was no place to linger.
"Meow!!"
Just as Boss Cat was about to activate [Roar of the Storm Dragon]—
A figure with gray hair and golden eyes materialized before Lanqi amid coalescing specks of light.
Not only did she disrupt Boss Cat's spell with the mana at her fingertips, but she also thrust out her other hand, seizing Lisanci's forehead in her palm. The moment her hand made contact, Lisanci could no longer budge an inch.
"..."
Talia closed her eyes, sensing the source of Lisanci's frenzy with far greater clarity.
"Ugh... aah!"
Lisanci snarled. Though she felt a terror that struck at the depths of her soul, she still struggled relentlessly against Talia.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the street, a heavy thud signaled the arrival of another figure plunging like a black meteorite, smashing a crater laced with spiderweb fractures into the pavement.
Sergeant Major Nigel the executioner, having pursued Lanqi to the ground, had already drawn his blade, hurtling toward Lanqi as a streak of black shadow!
*Wait, sister...*
Lanqi's expression turned somewhat resigned and lifeless in that split second.
He felt things were spiraling out of hand.
Now they were headed toward the worst-case scenario: a total free-for-all.
Whenever he thought east, Talia would think west.
He had almost forgotten—his past partners had been Hyperion and Sigrid, teammates whose synergy with him was maxed out!
This time was different.
His companion was a terrifying arch-demoness completely at odds with his fate.
Now he might be forced into a brawl with an executioner from the Senate right in the heart of Palieu.
*Sorry, Professor Borao. If Tata and I stay out of prison tonight, I'll count it as a win!*
Nigel swooped in like a diving black falcon, his blade gleaming like a reaper's scythe aimed straight at Lanqi, who stood between him, Lisanci, and Talia.
"• Y i e l d • t o • m e ."
Talia had reopened her eyes at some point, speaking directly to Lisanci word by word.
She was finally certain: Lisanci's contract as a citizen of Posen had been corrupted—or rather, tainted by a curse that served as the trigger for a demon's self-destruction.
The frenzied Lisanci froze instantly like a statue. Her vacant eyes stared up at Talia as though she were hearing a divine decree. Her strength ebbed away until she collapsed unconscious onto the ground.
Her grotesque, mutated demonic features gradually softened as well, until she returned to her original pretty self.
"?"
As Nigel's blade drew near to Lanqi, it abruptly halted.
Not only did he sense the extreme danger radiating from the woman who had appeared beside Lanqi out of nowhere, but he also noticed that the cursed demon had actually regained her composure.
Nigel's pupils contracted repeatedly, staring in utter disbelief at Lisanci sleeping peacefully on the ground like an infant.
For a moment, he wondered if this was an illusion.
Never before had a miracle occurred where a demon returned to normal after the frenzy curse had taken hold.
Just like the kin he had slaughtered with his own hands, those irreversible sins... he, too, had prayed for a miracle countless times.
In the end, all he had received was deeper despair and remorse.
A squad of officers mounted on mana mechanical beasts soon touched down from the sky, surrounding them.
"What's going on?"
"Her frenzy was suppressed?"
"Could we really have misjudged her condition? Was she not suffering from Palroni's curse?"
The crowd in the distance that had not yet fully dispersed and the surrounding officers of the execution squad kept backing away, but some began noticing the situation and voiced their doubts.
Unsure of what had just transpired, the bewildered officers could only look toward their commanding officer, Nigel.
Yet right now, Nigel looked as though he could barely keep a grip on his blade, his hands trembling continuously.
This surpassed everything Nigel had ever known.
One day, he would die too.
He would go to that place where he would have to atone for his sins.
The shadow of the curse had always followed him like a phantom.
Whenever he tried to probe the bottomless questions beneath that abyss, he felt as though everything was merely yesterday repeating itself, and that no one could change their reality.
Was it because this cursed demon girl's symptoms were different from those of the past, or was there truly someone capable of saving them?
"..."
Lanqi glanced at Talia.
He had no idea what Talia had just done to resolve the legendary Great Wizard Palroni's curse so effortlessly.
Professor Borao probably never would have imagined that while he spent so long researching Palroni's magic apparatus, Tata here would simply brute-force her way through it.
Though falling from the sky had been unexpected, things seemed to have taken a turn for the better.
*I used the Demon King's power to forcibly command her into my service, overwriting her original contract,* Talia transmitted her thoughts to him.
Doing so was tantamount to forcibly enslaving Lisanci. If she returned her freedom, the girl might very well go berserk again; this was merely treating the symptom, not the root cause.
If they truly wanted to save Lisanci, they still had to find the true culprit who had corrupted her contract.
Furthermore, this method of the Demon King's command could only forcibly enslave demons when there was a massive disparity in strength. If the target were a tier-seven or tier-eight demon, commanding them like this would be entirely impossible.
"..."
Lanqi fell into contemplation.
When this curse had originated a century ago, it was already after the war between humans and demons had ended.
The Kingdom of Posen had no great demons to speak of.
To the humans and demons of Posen, a bona fide Demon King belonged to a dimension entirely beyond their comprehension.
Even if Talia might be the most disgraceful Demon King in history.
Suddenly feeling Talia's gaze on him, Lanqi amended his thought:
*Then again, she did obtain six of my marks entirely on her own merit. Truly magnificent and powerful.*
Only then did Talia slowly shift her gaze away.
Not far down the street, Sergeant Major Nigel, holding his blade, finally moved again after a long silence.
"Duke Tiffany, an unexpected development has occurred. The suspected cursed demon has stabilized. How should I proceed?"
He sheathed his dark red blade at his waist and brought up his communication magic apparatus to report.
The other end of the line was silent for a long time.
"Use your own judgment,"
Duke Tiffany replied, giving the order before hanging up.
"..."
Nigel stared at Lisanci on the ground, motionless.
He hesitated, seemingly at a loss as to how to handle this situation.
Chapter 663