*BOOM!*
At the edge of the forest near the coast, a faint rumbling sound echoed through the air.
Even though the noise was quite quiet, the fact that it could be heard from such a distance meant that something significant must have happened at the source, enough to make the rumbling echo back.
"What’s that?"
Riezel turned toward the direction from which the sound came, his eyes shining with a clear light.
"What’s going on?"
"Is something wrong?"
Although Artoria and Oberon were a step slower than Riezel, as fairies with senses generally sharper than humans, even if they weren’t from the Wind Clan, they still noticed the abnormality one after another.
"Clairvoyance."
Riezel thought for a moment, then activated the surveillance magic he had used before in Salisbury, letting his vision leap forward toward the coast.
Unfortunately, what came into view was a thick fog that almost filled the entire sight, making visibility extremely low.
’If I could use the Transparent World while under Clairvoyance, I should be able to see through this fog, right?’
Riezel thought silently.
Clairvoyance only allowed seeing distant objects without any see-through ability, while the Transparent World could see through bodies but didn’t expand the field of view, so when both were used together, they should have complemented each other perfectly.
Riezel had already tried it, but even when using the Transparent World under Clairvoyance, it regrettably only penetrated the immediate view, not the extended one, so he still couldn’t see through the fog.
But...
’Well, this kind of cursed energy gotta be what those Moss released.’
Riezel vaguely observed some pitch-black magical energy.
’Could it be that someone from Chaldea was attacked?’
This thought flashed through Riezel’s mind before he deactivated Clairvoyance and turned to Artoria and Oberon.
"I’ll go first. You two don’t have to enter the Nameless Forest. You can wait for me outside."
After saying this, Riezel used teleportation magic.
"Wait—"
Artoria was about to speak, but Riezel vanished before she could finish.
"Is it really necessary to be in such a rush?"
Oberon, riding on Blanca, gave a bitter smile, then followed, flying out of the carriage on the moth beneath him.
"..."
Left all alone, Artoria immediately felt lost in the wind.
She was actually left behind...
Left behind...
Behind...
"...I must be the worst-off savior."
With tears in her eyes, Artoria climbed out of the carriage, got into the driver’s seat, and urged the Sleipnir to speed up.
In the next moment, the Sleipnir immediately dashed forward, carrying the lonely fairy girl toward the Nameless Forest by the coast.
===
At the edge of the Nameless Forest, by the coast.
*Swish!*
In the dense fog with extremely low visibility, Riezel’s figure appeared abruptly, causing the surrounding fog to stir slightly with the shifting airflow.
"Hmm, this fog..."
Riezel’s eyes glowed with a transparent sheen as he reached out his hand to brush through the thick fog beside him, his brow deeply furrowed.
He could feel that this dense fog carried unusual magical energy, emitting strange fluctuations that seemed to affect the mind and brain.
’I see... the Nameless Forest’s property of making people forget everything—even their own names—must come from this fog, right?’
Riezel thought to himself, then shifted his attention.
No matter where the Nameless Forest’s memory-erasing nature came from, it didn’t affect him.
Being immune to mental interference, this harmful power that could negatively impact the mind or brain was completely useless against him.
Not to mention, Riezel also had the divine protection bestowed by Morgan.
Even though it wasn’t entirely clear, Riezel felt that with Morgan’s divine protection, even if he wasn’t immune to mental interference, he still wouldn’t be affected by this fog. If that was the case, the source of the Nameless Forest’s nature no longer mattered.
What was important was that right before Riezel’s eyes, a fierce battle was unfolding.
*BOOM!*
A loud rumble echoed through the air—the source of the rumble was a volley of cannon-like blasts as black as ink.
One by one, algae-like Moss creatures wriggled through the thick fog, slowly approaching from one direction while gathering cursed energy on their bodies to form black cannon blasts that exploded at the feet of the group ahead.
*BOOM!**BOOM!**BOOM!**BOOM!*
The blasts kept coming, the cursed magical energy spreading continuously in the fog, causing a series of powerful explosions that assaulted the group.
"Watch out!"
A young and anxious voice rang out.
"What is this?!"
Right after, a graceful male voice followed, accompanied by the sound of strings being plucked, sending invisible attacks through the fog that slashed through the air and struck the Moss.
*Pu-chi!* *Pu-chi!* *Pu-chi!* *Pu-chi!*
Being attacked, all the Moss paused momentarily, with fresh cut marks appearing on their bodies as black magical energy puffed out like smoke.
However, slashing attacks were clearly ineffective against the Moss, as proven by how their bodies only wriggled a few times, the black smoke stopped, and the cut marks healed, leaving them unharmed.
In the end, they continued slowly closing in on their prey, gathering the black magical energy once more, turning the curse into cannonballs and firing again.
*BOOM!*
Another blast echoed, sending black shockwaves outward.
"AHH!"
A sudden shout broke the air.
"Master!"
A girl’s cry followed immediately.
Just like that, the Moss’ combined cannon fire blasted the group in the fog with cursed black energy, sending some rolling on the ground, some falling into the forest, and others plunging directly into the sea, quickly disappearing from sight.
Seeing this, Riezel’s eyes narrowed sharply.
*BANG!*
Raging flames suddenly burst from Riezel’s body, engulfing him as he transformed into a small, blazing sun.
*Schwing!*
Riezel quickly unsheathed Hermit, the black sword hanging at his waist.
*BANG!*
As the flames around Riezel’s body exploded, he transformed into a small sun hovering in midair, then dove downward at an astonishing speed, heading straight for the group of Moss below.
*Shff-Shff—*
At the same time, the Moss seemed to sense the danger and all stopped wriggling, but by then, it was already too late to react.
"Sun Breathing - Second Form - Clear Blue Sky!"
From the descending miniature sun, the black sword burned with fierce flames as it slashed in a perfect circular arc, igniting a ring of solar fire that expanded rapidly and slammed into the group of Moss.
*BOOM!*
The explosion of flames was far more powerful than the Moss’ previous cannon blasts, the roar like thunder shooting straight into the sky.
One by one, the Moss were blown away like spiders caught in falling webs, scattered in all directions. Only then did Riezel’s figure emerge from the fiery sun, landing on the ground with a black sword in hand, his cold gaze fixed on the group of Moss.
*Shff-Shff—*
*Shff-Shff—*
In the next moment, the Moss that had fallen to the ground began to wriggle again, struggling to get back up.
’Pretty tough, no wonder it’s a curse that can pollute all of Britain.’
Riezel instinctively frowned, then relaxed his expression.
A curse?
It seemed like this thing was naturally weak to him.
He tightened his grip on Hermit, causing flames to ignite along its length.
*Buzz!*
Facing Riezel, the Moss immediately reacted, gathering a massive amount of curse energy and forming a power far denser than any previous bombardment, causing the air to hum with a low vibration.
At that moment, Riezel moved—no, it was more accurate to say a fire dragon moved.
Hermit, burning with fierce flames, danced in an instant and transformed into a slender fire dragon that flew and darted through the clusters of Moss.
*Pu-chi!* *Pu-chi!* *Pu-chi!* *Pu-chi!*
*Pu-chi!* *Pu-chi!* *Pu-chi!* *Pu-chi!*
As the fire dragon sped past, every Moss it brushed against was slashed by a trail of blazing flames.
"Sun Breathing - Eleventh Form..."
Riezel’s figure emerged once more from the flames, causing the fire dragon formed by his swinging sword to gradually vanish.
"Sun Halo Dragon Head Dance."
*Whoosh!*
With these words, the Moss struck by the fiery slashes suddenly burst into flames.
*Shff-Shff—*
They seemed to be screaming.
They seemed to be crying out in pain.
Wrapped in the fire of the sun, their forms were slowly consumed, burning away under the fierce flames.
Because of the Pioneer of the Sun, Riezel inherently had the ability to suppress evil entities. Being a spiritual existence, when using Sun Breathing, his attacks also gained a purifying effect against evil spirits.
While facing Returned A-Rei like Woodwose, or Fairy Knights like Lancelot and Gawain, Riezel’s advantage was not fully apparent, but against cursed creatures like Moss, his swordsmanship revealed its terrifying power completely.
Thanks to that, the Moss that had been invincible to others were as fragile as thin paper in Riezel’s hands.
And so, the fire of the sun that could purify all evil burned fiercely on the Moss, and soon they were all incinerated without a trace of curse remaining.
*Click—*
Only then did Riezel sheath his sword, savoring the feel of the strike.
’As expected, Hermit still feels best to use.’
Perhaps it was because the Nichirin Sword matched so well with the breathing style, or maybe Hermit and Sun Breathing had extremely high compatibility. Using Hermit with Sun Breathing gave Riezel a smooth, satisfying feeling.
Even though Fool was not bad, it wasn’t specifically crafted to match Wind Breathing’s sword forms, so it felt a bit awkward to Riezel, just like the last time he used Fast Attack Mode against Gawain, he had felt the same way.
Of course, just as Lizbeth could adjust Love Breathing’s form slightly to fix that issue, Riezel only needed to tweak Wind Breathing’s sword form a little to fit Fool perfectly, and the problem would be solved.
Simply put, it wasn’t a big deal.
At this moment, Riezel was just reflecting and didn’t mean that Strong Attack Mode was necessarily better than Fast Attack Mode.
Each mode had its own features—one was balanced and powerful, the other extremely fast—so neither was better or worse.
Regardless, after his last fight with Gawain, Riezel had realized the value of speed.
Being fast meant that even if his attacks were a bit weaker, it was much harder for opponents to counter his offense, especially with strength-focused fairies like Gawain—using speed to maneuver around her was surprisingly effective and made fights easier.
If he had used Strong Attack Mode against Gawain, he would have had to clash head-on.
If Gawain was in her normal state, that wouldn’t have been a problem, but the issue was that once she entered her atavistic state and her strength and size grew, even in Strong Attack Mode, he simply couldn’t withstand her power.
And then there was Lancelot.
She was so fast and mobile that during their last encounter in Salisbury, Riezel, using Strong Attack Mode, was almost completely suppressed. If not for him turning the tide with magic, his fight against her would have been the same as with Gawain—the faster fighter playing the stronger one like a toy.
In other words, if he fought Lancelot again, using Fast Attack Mode might flip the situation again.
’But my damage in Fast Attack Mode was clearly not enough, since I had to go all out just to seriously injure Gawain back then. If I fought against a dragon with strong vitality like Lancelot, would I still be able to have the same effect?’
Riezel thought seriously as he remembered his battle with Gawain.
’Maybe I need to figure out a way to slightly increase my speed in Strong Attack Mode.’
He didn’t expect to catch up to the speed of Fast Attack Mode, but he wanted to at least barely keep up with Lancelot, and only then could he improve his chances against her.
Actually, Riezel already had an idea of what to do.
’I’ll try it out next time.’
Even though it sounded complicated, in reality, only a few seconds had passed in the outside world from the moment he dealt with the Moss group to finishing these thoughts.
Right after, Riezel headed toward the sea while using ’Message’ to contact Oberon.
[Someone was just attacked here, and they got scattered by the Moss’ attack.]
[Some fell into the sea, some flew into the forest, and some collapsed by the shore—probably unconscious.]
[I’ll leave the coast and forest to you. I’m gonna save the one who fell into the sea.]
After saying this, Riezel abruptly cut off the Message connection and dove straight into the water.
At the same time, on a moth flying in the distance, Oberon, who looked like a tiny figure, hesitated for a moment, then sighed wryly again.
"He really knows how to boss people around..."
Muttering to himself, Oberon still did as Riezel told.
Meanwhile, Artoria was still on the way, riding the carriage.