A vision and a voice in my head, right when monsters were charging at us. And the voice was so full of itself that it left me speechless. 'Do you desire power?' At this rate, I could barely fight, let alone answer.

The vision remained even when I stopped feeding the dagger mana, and tucking it into my belt changed nothing. I couldn't tell whether this was a curse or a side effect of dying over and over. But why did it have to happen now?

As I stood there at a loss, the Firebird Hunter shouted, "I'll take the red ones! Handle the rest! You only need to buy me time. I'll finish them off quick and come help you!"

Her instructions made perfect sense. One, two, three gray monsters were charging at me. When I'd first encountered them, I might not even have managed to run away. Even after going through this several times, I could barely buy time by fleeing. Still, I could do what she asked—if I were in any condition to fight...

But with a vision blocking my sight and a voice pounding in my ears, even running away looked difficult. I couldn't just stand there and take it, though. Curse or side effect, it didn't matter.

I shouted at the top of my lungs. Whatever it was, I just needed it out of my sight. "Fine!"

My sharp young voice rang through the stone passage. Even the charging monsters flinched, and the Firebird Hunter seemed startled too. "Oh, that's the spirit! I'm counting on you!" The problem was, she'd misunderstood. I wasn't talking to you...

Thoroughly convinced she'd understood me, the Firebird Hunter rushed at the red monsters. At the same time, the gray ones pounced on me. They swung their claws at me, but I couldn't flee. In that instant, the vision of the burning bird engulfed my whole body.

Flames caught all over me. My flesh burned, my bones cooked, and my blood boiled. Pain that felt as though it would kill me at any moment swept through my body. Yet even through it, I could make out what was happening around me. 'Is this some kind of phantom pain? And why have the monsters stopped mid-attack?'

The pain was tremendous, but it wasn't enough to kill me. Having died several times already, I could bear this much. Maybe I'd adapted. Or maybe I'd simply given up... The thought flashed through my mind, but either way, those experiences were helping me now.

I felt my body burning and felt the pain, but beneath the flames, my skin hadn't changed. So this was phantom pain, following the vision and the voice. Thinking of it that way made it a little easier to bear.

Besides, neither my body nor the things around me had stopped moving. The monsters' claws were approaching, only incredibly slowly, like footage played back in extreme slow motion. And it wasn't just the monsters. The mercenary charging toward them, the wind, even the hair blowing in it—all moved slowly, so slowly. No. They hadn't slowed down. My mind was moving dozens, hundreds of times faster.

As I endured the pain and watched this strange scene, I gradually sensed a change. It was happening inside me, not outside.

Something stirred. The flames burning me seeped into my body and set the mana within me ablaze. Mana that had been calm began to boil and change. Once translucent and colorless, it started turning red—from beneath my skin to deep inside my body, from my limbs to my chest and head. Every bit of it boiled and changed.

The moment all my mana began to boil—

CRACK!

It surged toward the dagger. The burning mana rushed through my arm and hand into it. The dagger took it in and trembled, as though devouring a delicious meal.

The blade stretched longer and longer as mana poured in. No, the dagger itself wasn't growing. The mana I fed it extended from its tip in the shape of a blade. It looked like a beam sword from a famous science-fiction film, except I couldn't actually see the extended blade. I knew it was there because it was my mana. To my eyes, the air merely seemed to ripple a little.

The vision vanished. The voice fell silent. The searing heat and pain were gone as well. Only the altered mana continued to flow through my body and the dagger. And then time returned to normal.

SCREEE!

The claws of the monster that had seemed to move like a caterpillar before my eyes sprang forward again. Wind cut across my skin, and the monster's breath heated my face. I swung my dagger at the same time. A short dagger couldn't block all those claws, but I wasn't worried at all.

SLICE, SLICE, SLICE.

Just as I'd expected. In the next instant, the monster's claws flew backward along with its severed forelegs. I hadn't felt as though I'd cut anything, and there wasn't any blood on the dagger. Of course there wasn't. It wasn't the dagger that had severed the monster's forelegs, but the blade of mana sheathing it. Roughly three times the dagger's length, that mana blade had cut through the monster's tough forelegs in an instant.

I didn't know how this had happened, but I knew exactly what to do. Now that I had this power, there was no need to run around buying time. I could worry about why it had happened and everything else after dealing with the danger in front of me. I cut off the monster's head with the invisible blade, then swung at the next gray monster rushing toward me.

SLICE, SLICE.

A sword with an invisible blade was a far more formidable weapon than I'd imagined. Thinking I was swinging a dagger through empty air, the monster kept charging and was cut down by the mana blade. In an instant, I'd felled two. The last monster seemed to realize something was wrong and stopped to assess the situation. But if it wouldn't come to me, I could go to it.

It really was a clever monster. Perhaps it had realized this dagger was different from other swords. Unlike the others, it tried hard to dodge, but it couldn't evade every stroke of an invisible blade. In moments, it was drenched in blood, just like the monster that had fought the Firebird Hunter earlier.

'Damn, I'm already running low on mana...' Maybe because my mana had changed, I could feel it running out after only a short fight. I knew it couldn't be all good. I closed in at once and swung at the monster, letting its spurting blood wash over me.

GRRRR!

Fortunately, I brought it down before my mana ran out. Red mana still raced through my body. I looked at the dagger, spotless despite the blood. I couldn't see it, but turbulent mana was rippling above the blade. Had all my mana really changed for good? I'd gained a fine weapon, but a change to my own mana would be a problem. If my inherited ability changed too, I'd be in serious trouble.

I tucked the dagger into my belt. The mana within me began to shift again. Ah, thank goodness. The red receded, and my transparent mana gradually returned. It quickly went back to normal and began replenishing.

I gripped the dagger again. My mana turned red once more, and its replenishment seemed to stop. I repeatedly let go of the dagger and gripped it again. Each time, the mana inside me changed.

"I think more than my mana changes, too..." I couldn't describe it exactly, but my muscles and nerves seemed to change to suit the way the mana moved. "Does holding this dagger change my ability?" Or perhaps it was something like a class-change item from a game in my previous life.

I recalled the vision I'd just seen: the burning bird and the question it had cried out.

—Do you desire power!

It was a line that made my skin crawl, but what followed made it hard to dismiss the vision as an ordinary hallucination. My questions were only mounting, but there was someone beside me who might be able to answer them.

I hung the dagger at my waist and looked toward the Firebird Hunter, who was still fighting. Despite what she'd shouted to me, the fight was remarkably even. I'd seen it before: those red monsters were in another league from the gray ones. It was like the difference between a wildcat and a leopard. Their hides were tougher, they moved faster than their size suggested, and they were smart enough to dodge her invisible blade. They were nothing like the monsters I'd seen on our journey.

They reminded me of something an older knight had said during that journey.

["The monsters you find in places like this are stragglers from the Great War and their offspring. The strong ones went back to the Demon Realm during the war or gathered at the sealing grounds. They wouldn't still be out here."]

Could a monster that shouldn't have remained out here have been trapped in this cave? Had it raised offspring far weaker than itself in the darkness? Was that why it was so angry?

ROAR!

With every monster around me down, the red ones were rampaging more fiercely than ever. Perhaps there was a sad story behind it all, but once they'd become our enemies, I wasn't interested in hearing it. More importantly, the Firebird Hunter needed help.

Even in their fury, the monsters fought her methodically. Bloodied as they were, they seemed to have gauged the reach of her invisible blade. One engaged her from the front while the other watched for an opening at her side. Apparently they'd switched positions several times already. Unable to land a solid blow, she was panting. It looked as though she was running low on mana.

"Damn it! Damn it! Look what I get for showing off!" She berated herself loudly enough for me to hear as she swung her sword. With the noise behind her having stopped, she apparently thought I'd either run away or died. Was she blaming herself for taking too long?

I walked toward her and drew the dagger again. My mana changed at once, turning red and beginning to boil. Standing behind her as she fought, I called out, "Need a hand?"

At the unexpected voice, she hastily pulled back and turned to look at me. "What? You're alive?" She'd turned her head in the middle of a fight. My voice must have startled her badly. Her eyes widened as she took in the fallen monsters and my uninjured body. "How..." She looked shocked to see me.

Perhaps that was why she failed to notice the monsters charging silently at her. "Look out!" My shout brought her back to her senses just in time. She swung her sword and blocked the claws of the monster attacking from the front, but lost track of the other one waiting for an opening. Its claws came in fast. She clenched her teeth. Then she saw a ripple pass beside them.

CLANG!

The claws were knocked aside, and she narrowly escaped. "Whew, I made it. What are you doing looking away in the middle of a fight? Pay attention!" Despite my shout, she stared at me blankly. No—not at me. At the dagger in my hand, where mana just like hers rippled.