Even though it was done reluctantly, Ryan ultimately remained alone in the forest.

With the rain still pouring down over the trees and the ground, his clothes were now completely soaked through.

He took a moment to patrol the perimeter on foot before mounting the wyvern, making absolutely sure that nothing was hiding among the rubble of the forest.

He didn’t notice any signs of stealth either; upon using his skill, there was no trace of demons or holy knights anywhere in the vicinity.

Everything was seemingly empty.

’Good. At least I don’t think there is anyone nearby who could have seen how they were relocated, so many people moved into the dungeon.’

Ryan mounted the wyvern and the creature responded immediately, taking to the skies with that smooth movement that had already become familiar to him.

From high above, the forest seemed much smaller. Ryan stroked its neck while they flew over the area in wide, sweeping circles.

"You are a good friend, and you have been very useful." He murmured. "But right now I need you to do something that you might not like."

The wyvern lowered its head slightly, almost as if it were listening to him.

Ryan guided it toward the far edge of the forest where the terrain sloped down to the lake containing the submerged portal. The rain continued to fall, though with less force than before, and the surface of the water reflected the shifting gray sky.

Without dismounting, Ryan guided the beast directly into the water.

The wyvern waded in without a single protest; its claws touched the surface first, and then the water rose up its scaly body as it pressed forward.

Ryan instinctively lifted his legs even though the gesture was useless, considering he was already drenched from head to toe.

When they reached the exact spot where the portal lay open underwater, the transition was almost imperceptible—a slight shift in air pressure, a different kind of cold—and suddenly the water vanished completely, allowing the wyvern to emerge on the other side shaking itself forcefully.

Two demons who were standing guard near the portal’s entrance leapt to the sides when the wyvern emerged without warning, its massive wings cutting the air with a sharp snap that forced them to retreat several meters.

The wyvern took to the air, and from above, Ryan saw them stand completely still, staring up at him with that specific kind of confusion reserved for those who receive a surprise they don’t quite know how to classify.

The territory of Kowarre stretched out far beneath them.

Everything was blanketed in a thick layer of snow.

"A holy knight?" he heard one of them say.

’It is interesting that their first thought goes straight to that. But I understand why; it must be because of the wyvern.’

Ryan didn’t bother to respond and simply continued to rise. From that altitude he could get a better view of the territory, the snow expanding in all directions, the trees coated in white, and the gloomy gray sky that made everything else seem much stiller than it probably was.

It was then that he saw it.

Smoke. Far off in the distance, toward the south, a column of dark smoke was rising and unraveling against the harsh wind.

It wasn’t the smoke of a simple campfire or anything controlled. It was the specific kind of smoke a battle leaves behind when someone utilizes fire magic.

’Could it be a fight between demons and adventurers? Or could it be...’

Before he could even finish the thought, an attack shot toward him from below.

It was like a blade of compressed wind, a sharp gust that Ryan saw coming with just enough warning to tilt the wyvern to the right and let it harmlessly pass by.

The attack sliced through the air exactly where they had been a second prior, leaving behind a high-pitched whistling sound that was quickly lost in the cold.

’I do not have time for this.’

He pulled the boomerang from his inventory. He held it for a brief moment, feeling the familiar weight of the weapon he hadn’t used in weeks, and then he hurled it downward with immense force.

The weapon spun wildly through the air, sliced through the two demons advancing from different positions, and returned to his hand before their lifeless bodies even finished falling onto the snow.

"It has been a while since I used this." he murmured.

He kept the boomerang resting against his back, holding it securely with just one hand, and resumed his course toward the smoke, accelerating his pace. The closer he got, the clearer it became that the fire was already dying out.

Although there were plenty of scorch marks left in the snow, there were no visible bodies around; it looked exactly as if a barrage of attacks had been skillfully dodged by someone.

And those tracks, at least to his trained eye, seemed like something very recent.

Someone had definitely fought there. And it hadn’t been long ago.

’The real question is whether they managed to capture whoever it was they were pursuing... or if that person managed to escape.’

Ryan flew over the area in much tighter circles, searching for any sign of movement, a figure standing in the snow, footprints, or absolutely anything that could tell him who had been there and which direction they went.

The silence of the demonic territory possessed that particular eerie quality of places where there had been loud noise just a short time ago. Everything was far too still to be natural.

’If it was Beatrice, she has already moved on from here. But where to.’

That was the exact moment when three figures appeared from behind, bursting out from among the snow-covered trees with a speed that certainly didn’t belong to the lesser demons he had seen before.

They attacked at the exact same time—fire from the left, earth from below, lightning from the right—all three strikes arriving almost at point-blank range before Ryan had the chance to maneuver completely.

He managed to dodge two. The third one, the earth attack, struck the wyvern’s wing with enough brutal force to make it lose its balance in the air. The creature let out a deep groan and began to plummet toward one side.

Ryan channeled his recovery skill immediately. The wing stabilized, but their descent was already well underway, and the wyvern crash-landed, sinking into the snow feet-first, followed by its chest, kicking up a thick white cloud that took several seconds to finally settle.

Ryan climbed off.

The three demons appeared in front of him, forming a tight triangle at carefully calculated distances, showing no signs of rushing.

The one in the center watched him with that particular calm possessed only by those who are entirely used to winning before a fight even begins.

"So you are a holy knight, and you come alone." the demon in the center said. It was delivered in a tone that was clearly not a question. "How very brave you are."

"I am not a holy knight." Ryan replied.

"Despite arriving on that wyvern, you still deny it?" the demon on the right retorted with a tone that mixed pure contempt with something closely resembling amusement.

"You had better stop lying. Though you are going to die right here anyway, so I suppose it doesn’t really matter much."