The 『Soil Demons』 reacted swiftly once they heard it.

  They immediately stopped talking to me and came slashing with swords.

  They either noticed about my made up story or recognized my face.

  I don't know the reason, but it looks like I can't expect to fish out more info off them anymore.

  While thinking that, I enchanted my swords with multiple swords and slashed at one of the demons.

  The demon attempted to dodge my sword, but I had already anticipated that.

  My sword lodged into the demon's neck as if getting sucked in.

  However… It's far from fatal.

  "…As expected of 『Soil Demons』, tough."

  "Bastard, how'd you know that name!"

  "Beats me."

  Talking in the heat of battle is one strategy to dull your enemy's thought process.

  The less these demons think unnecessary stuff, the easier my fight will be.

  Using this strategy would end up dulling your movements as well for those who aren't used to it… But eh, there's no need to concentrate, it's just 『Soil Demons』.

  "Damn it, it's 3-on-1! Yet why is none of our strikes hit!"

  "His sword is heavier than Grevil when he's serious! Is this guy really a human!?"

  "This guys moves like bad news! He's a master magic combatant!"

  "Didn't humans from the era of magic combatants went extinct!?"

  The 『Soil Demons』 continued their struggle against me while sounding confused.

  However, none of their attacks ever hit me, while every one of mine does.

  『Soil Demons』 are sturdy, thus I'm unable to deliver a fatal blow in one hit——but they're not as hopelessly sturdy as Zaridias.

  My sword is slowly but surely whittling down these 『Soil Demons』 life.

  As the battle rages on… It seems these demons have realized that they have no hope of defeating me.

  Their movements have changed.

  Up until now, they were moving in order to defeat me.

  But now, they move as if trying to find the right timing for something.

  The question here is their goal… In this situation, it should be escape.

  However, these 『Soil Demons』 aren't focusing on the exit.

  Which means… That huh.

  "Die!"

  Suddenly, one of the demons slashed at me while yelling out especially loudly.

  Right at that moment, the other 『Soil Demons』 acted.

  They ran up to a wall nearby and struck it with a magic stone——

  Emergency Escape System.

  It's a safety device to allow one to escape this isolated hidden room for when the enemy raided.

  Its activation is triggered by either circulating specific mana into the wall, or striking the wall with a magic stone carved with a specific magic circle.

  Once the emergency escape system is activated, all living beings inside the hidden room will be teleported away to somewhere in the Source's passages individually, with as much distance as possible between them.

  If this gets activated, defeating all of these demons would be difficult——

  I guessed right, they knew.

  Having Ruli break the device was a correct choice.

  "Dammit, why! Move!"

  The 『Soil Demon』 struck the wall over and over while sounding shaken.

  However, the wall is not giving any response.

  Of course.

  What Ruli broke was the magic circle to activate the emergency escape system after all.

  …While they were busy with that, one of the 『Soil Demons』 finally breathed its last.

  The progress of battle is already decided.

  And the enemies understood that as well.

  The demons gave up on the escape system and rushed toward the room's exist both at once.

  Since I'm alone, they probably think I won't be able to deal with two demons escaping with all their might.

  It's not necessarily wrong… but unfortunately, I'm not alone.

  "GUAAAAAAAAA!"

  "Good! This is it!"

  I struck one of the two 『Soil Demons』 who passed by me with my sword, sending it flying back into the hidden room.

  The other demon made use of that chance to run outside.

  An arrow pierced that demon.

  One augmented with mana jamming to deal with demons.

  The demon hit by the arrow had its mana jammed, turning stiff.

  Its speed rapidly decelerated.

  As demons use mana as a source for their Flight, the effect of mana jamming is quite outstanding.

  As the demon stopped moving, Iris rushed up to it with both hands holding her spear.

  And then.

  "SOII!"

  While lightly yelling out, Iris makes a full swing with her personal spear (a lump of iron from an ancient civilization that's awfully heavy and sturdy.)

  With a dull heavy sound, the demon got blown away to the wall at the opposite side.

  I run after that demon.

  Three of these demons couldn't even manage to land a hit on me.

  Alone, it's simply no match for me.

  The last 『Soil Demon』 perished without getting a chance to attempt another escape.

  With this, the doll disturbance should end.

  There's probably other demons making the dolls somewhere, but after getting their supply of life force cut off, they shouldn't be able to do much.

  I don't mind searching and defeating those demons, but judging from their handiwork on the dolls, they're not much of a menace, so there's no problem even if they get away.

  While thinking that… Figure of a man got displayed on the hidden room's wall.

  Looks like the comm magic installed in the hidden room was activated——

  The figure on the display was a familiar face in my previous life.

  The 37th king of Aegis, Grevil.