Ornis is shocked that Gloria healed himself so completely in just a few seconds, but he doesn’t panic. His brilliant strategy? “Hit him until he stops regenerating.” Solid logic… probably.
He thrusts his spear straight through Gloria’s chest — but this turns out to be the worst possible move. Gloria starts laughing like an unhinged villain on discount day, yanks the spear out, and explains that his heretic blood magic not only regenerates his body, but actually powers him up the more damage he takes.
Before Ornis can react, Gloria slashes him again, and the power boost is obvious. Things get worse when Gloria forms a blood-made whip — because apparently his magic comes with a built-in weapon shop. He snags Ornis by the leg, swings him like a ragdoll, and smashes him into the ground.
With Ornis dazed, Gloria laughs maniacally, thrilled to finally beat on someone strong again, and decides it’s time to finish the job.
But Ornis refuses to stay down. He summons his spear back to him… except he doesn’t catch it. Instead, he lets it fly past him straight toward Gloria.
Gloria dodges, proud of himself for expecting a trick — but he definitely didn’t expect the real attack: Ornis sprinting in with his fists.
It’s a classic Ornis move. Years ago, when he and Alk were still students, the two had a duel where Ornis accidentally launched his spear into a wall. Instead of giving up, he simply charged at Alk bare-handed. That “technique” has now become his signature backup plan.
Back in their school days, that duel between Ornis and Alk didn’t end in a dramatic victory… it ended with the headmistress storming in, furious because they put a spear-shaped crater in the wall. As punishment, the two spent the entire day fixing it.
When they finally finished, Alk praised Ornis for his “genius strategy,” saying he never expected him to purposely drop his weapon mid-fight. Since things like magic swords drain mana constantly, pulling off a weird distraction like that was actually super effective.
Of course, it had been pure accident back then — but Ornis didn’t want to admit that, so he pretended it was intentional. But now, in this life-or-death battle, he really is dropping his weapon on purpose.
He can’t use offensive spells like Alk, support magic like Yora, or healing magic like Craia, but when it comes to close-quarters combat, almost nobody can match him. And if Gloria gets stronger every time he bleeds? Fine — Ornis will just keep overpowering him until that blood magic runs dry.
However, as Gloria lies on the floor, he bursts out laughing again. He can’t believe Ornis is “naive enough” to think physical strength can defeat magic. To prove his superiority, he decides to show Ornis “the true extent of magic” by summoning a being known as Anses.
Meanwhile, back at the guild, Levi is trying to have a serious meeting with Lorg… but Lorg is too busy inhaling every sweet in sight to pay attention.
Levi asks if it’s true that he chose Alk as his raid partner. Lorg confirms it and adds it shouldn’t break any guild rules since Alk’s party was recently promoted to S-Rank.
He’d also heard the rumors that the Five-Colored Magician had arrived in Fisizel, and he couldn’t resist wanting to meet a mage who could use all five elements — a practically unheard-of talent.
Though he can’t confirm whether the rumors about Alk are true, Levi agrees with Lorg on one thing: he’s the type who won’t believe anything until he sees it with his own two eyes. The idea that Alk and his party set a dungeon record years ago in Galdana still feels unbelievable to him.
But he does know Yora and the others well enough to trust they wouldn’t lie about something like that, so the rumors are probably true.
Just then, Marbell bursts into the room, frantically looking for the guild master — and she brings terrible news. She reports that Olivia ran off into the dungeon on her own to get revenge. Levi is immediately worried, but Marbell assures him there’s no need to panic (too much) because Alk and the others already went in after her.
Lorg feels relieved hearing that, but the guild master is still stressed out of his mind. Now he has to worry about Alk’s group and Olivia, all while dealing with the threat of the Shadow Guild. He had originally planned to wait for the perfect moment to ambush the Shadow Guild and wipe them out — but that plan is officially ruined.
He sighs, stands up, and heads out to start some emergency damage-control measures. But before leaving, he turns to Marbell with one more question:
Based on her personal experience, she’s seen Alk use only fire and lightning magic. So, what does she think about his real abilities?
Marbell says she suspects Alk is intentionally limiting himself to those two elements. Lorg then wonders if the rumors about Alk being able to use all five were wrong after all.
But Levi has a different hunch — he believes Alk is simply hiding his full capabilities.
Either way, it’s a mystery for another day.
For now, Ornis decides to meet up with Alk and the others inside the dungeon, since his gut tells him the place is probably crawling with monsters right now. Meanwhile, deep inside, Ornis is staring down the barrel of a death beam — and he’s completely out of options. But at the last possible second, Alk shows up like a discount superhero and reflects the spell right back at Gloria.
Alk asks if Ornis is okay, and Ornis has never been happier to see anyone in his life — he genuinely thought his soul was about to take unpaid leave. Crazia and Olivia arrive soon after and assume Alk already defeated Gloria… until the smoke clears and Gloria is standing there perfectly fine, like he just walked out of a shampoo commercial.
Olivia recognizes the blood magic immediately and knows it’s a nightmare to fight. She offers to help Ornis finish him, but Ornis says they have a much bigger issue. A little while ago, Mora was kidnapped by one of the Shadow Guild’s goons — Flunky Guy #384 (okay fine, not his name) — and Melly. He doesn’t know what they want with her, but they called her by name, and he overheard them saying they’ve been looking for her for a long time.
Right now they’re dragging Yora toward the dungeon core, and whatever they’re planning definitely isn’t a birthday surprise.
Crazia starts patching up Ornis’s wounds and tells him to stay put and help fight Gloria while she and Olivia chase after Yora. But Gloria, being the worst team player ever, refuses to let anyone leave — and immediately fires another volley of death rays like a kid spamming the laser button in a video game.
Alk once again reflects Gloria’s death rays, kicking up a massive dust cloud — the perfect ninja-level cover for Olivia and Crazia to slip past him. Olivia even tosses Ornis his spear mid-run, earning at least five style points. Gloria, meanwhile, is absolutely furious that everyone keeps interrupting his dramatic villain moment.
But as he prepares another attack, he suddenly collapses to his knees from exhaustion. Ornis is relieved — finally, all of Gloria’s ridiculous magic spam is catching up to him. If they can keep the pressure on, his mana will drain faster than a phone at 1%.
At the same time, Levial, Louv, and Marble rush into the dungeon. Levial explains that demon cultists within the Shadow Guild are probably behind everything. They worship demons (always a great hobby choice), and anyone with a sorcery seal is especially dangerous because they’ll sacrifice literally anything for more power.
Back at Alk and Ornis’s battlefield, Gloria realizes he’s cornered — so he decides to go all-in. He activates his sorcery seal, gaining absurd strength and speed. He blitzes past Alk and sinks his teeth into Ornis’s shoulder before Alk can even process what just happened.
Alk tries hitting him with lightning, but Gloria jumps back like he’s auditioning for “World’s Fastest Bunny.” So Alk abandons aiming entirely and blasts the whole area with lightning. Gloria gets hit… briefly… before smiling again like a horror movie final boss. He mocks Alk, explaining that in this form he can constantly refill his mana using his own blood. So Alk’s “puny” attacks won’t drain him anytime soon.
Gloria then unleashes a flurry of slashes. Alk manages to put up a shield, but it shatters quickly under the assault. Just as Gloria raises his arm to finish Alk off, he notices something off — Ornis is no longer behind Alk.
A moment later, we see Ornis sneaking up behind Gloria like he’s about to press the “Backstab” button in an RPG.
However, Gloria notices Ornis in time and blocks the sneak attack. With his boosted physique, he’s now way too fast and way too strong for injured Ornis to keep up with. Gloria starts mocking him, calling him a self-proclaimed “genius” who only ever looked impressive because he was a big fish in a kiddie pool.
After another brutal beatdown, Ornis is left bloody and barely standing. Alk wants to jump in, but Gloria threatens to kill Ornis instantly if Alk even twitches in his direction.
But while Gloria is busy monologuing like every classic villain, Ornis regains his footing, channels flames into his spear, and drives it straight through Gloria’s chest.
As he does, he remembers his childhood — the endless sparring sessions with his older brother, who was effortlessly better at spearmanship. No matter how hard Ornis trained, his brother always won without even breaking a sweat. Still, Ornis devoted every spare moment to training, determined to surpass him one day.
Late one night, his brother caught him practicing alone. He was proud of Ornis’s dedication… but he also knew a harsh truth. A fatal illness was eating away at him, leaving him coughing blood. He wouldn’t be around much longer, and he wanted Ornis to grow stronger than he ever could.
However, he didn’t want Ornis to find out about his condition, so the moment he was spotted, he slipped away. But it didn’t take long before his illness grew too severe to hide. When Ornis finally learned the truth, he was devastated. He shouted that his brother couldn’t die because they still hadn’t had their long-awaited rematch. But his brother simply smiled and told him there was no need — because he already knew Ornis would one day become the greatest spearman in the world.
Back in the present, Ornis fires another flaming strike straight through Gloria, blowing a fresh hole in his body.
Meanwhile, Crazia and Olivia hurry toward the dungeon core to intercept Melly, and Olivia steels herself emotionally to finally confront him face-to-face.
At the same time, Melly and the remaining Shadow Guild member reach the door to the core chamber. When they push it open, they find a staircase spiraling up toward the glowing dungeon core. The Shadow Guild member practically explodes with excitement, sprinting toward it like a kid spotting free candy. He grabs the core, lifts it to his face, and marvels at finally holding it.
But strangely, Melly isn’t excited at all — he just stares at the guy with pure, icy disdain in his eyes.
