Ornis charges straight at Gloria, stabbing him over and over until Gloria slices off Ornis’s arm — but this time, regeneration isn’t going to save him. The flames coating Ornis’s attacks have burned away Gloria’s blood, and without blood, his healing is basically on a permanent vacation. It’s far too late for Gloria to back out now.
Ornis cuts off Gloria’s remaining arm and unleashes a storm of spear strikes, leaving Gloria as nothing but a charred, pitiful torso. (Honestly, at this point he looks like a barbecue tragedy.)
Meanwhile, at the bottom of the dungeon, Yora finally wakes up tied to a tree, with a Shadow Guild member gloating over her. He brags that she’s too late — he already has the dungeon core.
But suddenly, Melly casually slashes Toro across the back. Toro faceplants, drops the core, and Melly picks it up like he’s claiming a prize in a claw machine.
Yora’s totally confused — wasn’t Melly supposed to be on their side? But Melly declares that now that he’s both the core and the seeker, he has absolutely no reason to cooperate with the Shadow Guild anymore.
Yora is baffled. “Seeker? Since when am I a seeker?”
Melly explains that he wants her to help him find Eden, a place where dungeon cores can supposedly grant wishes. Unfortunately, Yora has absolutely no clue what he’s talking about — she’s never heard of Eden, never heard of wish-granting dungeons, and she certainly didn’t sign up for magical treasure hunts.
Before she can argue more, Toro wakes back up and screams at Melly for betraying the Shadow Guild. He threatens that strong fighters will soon come after him.
But instead of being scared, Melly smiles and basically says, “Perfect. I want them to come.”
He wants to become even stronger, and the only way to do that is through constant battle. The problem? Once you’re officially recognized as a Swordmaster, people tend to avoid picking fights with you — which is terrible when your hobby is apparently “grinding EXP like an RPG character.”
Which is why Melly eventually decides that if he can’t find strong enemies, he’ll just manufacture them by betraying as many people as possible—basically speed-running his way onto everyone’s “Most Wanted” list. Conveniently, Olivia and Krasia show up right then. Yora is relieved to see them, and once she’s back on her feet, she tries to bluff Melly by claiming even more of her friends are on the way.
This would normally intimidate someone… but not Melly. The man literally just said he wants all the smoke, so threats are basically seasoning for him. But then he casually asks if Alec is one of those friends. That instantly worries Yora, because she definitely didn’t mention Alec’s name. Turns out Melly knows way more about Alec than expected—enough to know he’s the son of Arya Ygret—and he’s eager to meet him.
Meanwhile, on Alec and Ornest’s side, Ornest admits he’s completely tapped out after the fight with Gloria, so Alec will have to face Melly alone. And just for emphasis, Ornest reminds him that Melly isn’t someone you casually throw hands with. He even recalls the academy headmaster scolding him years ago for picking fights, warning him that if he ever challenged the Blade Master—Melly—he’d basically be signing his own obituary.
Still, there’s no running from this fight. But Ornest warns Alec not to pull any heroic nonsense—the top priority is staying alive. Alec promises he’ll bring Yora, Olivia, and Krasia back safely. To save time, he uses the bracelet linked to Krasia and teleports straight to her.
Meanwhile, at the bottom of the dungeon, Melly strolls toward Olivia with the confidence of a man who’s never heard the phrase “consequences,” while Olivia sprints toward him. She vows to make him pay for killing her mother, but she knows she can’t beat him head-on. So she dashes past him, snatches Yora, and leaps to safety. Once they’re clear, Krasia fires a volley of arrows straight at Melly—who now looks like he’s having the time of his life.
Melia barely reacts to the surprise attacks. He just pulls his cloak over himself like someone hiding from rain, except this rain is made of arrows. Then he calmly turns to face today’s challengers. Yura, refusing to take any risks, instantly casts Bind, locking Melia in place while Crazia aims again. She tells Melia that he made a huge mistake letting them rescue Yora so easily—because now their formation is “unbeatable” (at least according to her).
To finish the job, Yora unleashes a seven-fold enchantment on Crazia’s bow, boosting her next shot into a max-powered Phoenix Arrow. A giant ball of fire comes roaring toward Melia… yet he just smiles. This is exactly the kind of challenge he’s been waiting for.
He struggles against the chains, snaps one like it’s cheap decoration, and once free, slices the Phoenix Arrow clean in half with a single swing. Yuri is stunned; that was her strongest attack, and Yora even buffed it. Yet he treated it like warm butter.
While everyone else is frozen in shock, Olivia launches herself at Melia from behind. But before her sword can touch him, he raises his blade and blocks it without even looking. He sighs, disappointed she really thought such a basic ambush would work. She should know better—she can’t beat him alone.
Olivia declares she won’t let anyone else take Melia’s head. As she charges again, Melia casually notes that Fisel must have an excellent healer if she recovered this quickly. He assumes it must be the CRA’s doing. He even compliments her new friends, saying their coordinated attack wasn’t bad and shows potential.
But in the end, he calls them nothing more than “kids playing hero.” And he tells Olivia that despite everything she learned from him, she’s still far too weak. Friends alone won’t cover up that weakness.
Hearing those words from Melia triggers a sudden flashback in Olivia’s mind. She remembers being a little kid, crying alone in her room, when Melia walked in and found her sniffling like a sad puppy. When he asked what happened, she explained that she got into a fight because some kids mocked her mother—claiming she must’ve been a weak adventurer to die in a dungeon, and refusing to play with Olivia because she was adopted.
Melia didn’t blame her at all. In fact, he said, “Yeah, you can’t just let insults like that slide.” Then he told her something she never forgot: that loneliness could become a source of strength. It could push her to grow stronger than anyone who tried to bully her. Whether he said it to comfort her or subtly mold her into a battle-obsessed warrior… well, nobody knows. But it definitely worked. From that day forward, Olivia trained obsessively, determined to become strong enough to stand on her own—and to one day defeat him with her own hands.
Back in the present, she charges at Melia and slashes, but he blocks it with a barely unsheathed sword and sends her flying back with a single push. He follows it up by kicking her straight into a boulder, which, honestly, should file a complaint for workplace abuse.
Crazia panics and is about to rush over, but Yora quickly stops her. She warns that neither of them is skilled enough in close combat to get anywhere near Melia unless they want to become decorations on the ground.
Even when Crazia fires another arrow, Melia casually catches it—because compared to the Phoenix Arrow earlier, this one feels like a gentle breeze. Now he starts walking toward them, radiating pure murder, and the two archers have no idea what to do.
Olivia shouts at Crazia and Yora to run, warning them that if Melia gets close, they’re doomed. Unfortunately, it’s already too late. He’s right next to them… and his hand is already on his sword.
Just as Melia unleashed a devastating sword strike, Olivia leapt in front of it, refusing to let anyone else she cared about get hurt. She took the full brunt of the attack, shielding Yora and Crazia, but the cost was severe—her body was badly damaged, and she collapsed to the ground. Crazia immediately rushed to her side, furiously trying to heal her. Meanwhile, Melia simply stood there, waiting. After all, nothing these “kids” could throw at him would even count as a warm-up.
Just then, Alk came crashing down from above—exactly the moment Melia had been waiting for. With a gleeful smirk, he locked swords with Alk and knocked him back in a display of brute strength. Yora panicked and wanted to help, but Alk insisted he could handle himself. He urged Yora and Crazia to focus on Olivia instead.
Alk charged at Melia, who effortlessly parried each strike. Seeing this, Alk demanded to know why Melia treated Olivia so cruelly when she had trusted him so much. Melia shrugged and replied coldly that she wouldn’t have been hurt if she were strong enough to defend herself—her suffering was her own fault.
This enraged Alk to the point of steam practically coming out of his ears. He lunged at Melia again, but this time, Melia sidestepped easily. “You need to take this seriously,” he said. “I already know you’re supposed to be an amazing magician, but if you think you can win without using your magic, you’re sorely mistaken.”
Alk realized Melia was right—he couldn’t hold back. He summoned his Thunder Dragon spell and unleashed it at full force. Melia just stood there, practically licking his lips in anticipation. As his sword met the attack, it gave him some trouble, but he eventually pushed back the spell—something Yora didn’t even think was possible.
Melia then sliced through the spell completely, smirking. It had even made him bleed a little, and for the first time in a while, he was genuinely challenged. “You, Alk, are what an adventurer should be,” he said. But he didn’t think Alk was a great magician—after all, that lightning spell, while flashy, had no true killing intent.
He considered targeting Yora to motivate Alk to fight harder, but Alk read his thoughts. “Leave them out of this,” he growled. “If you want murderous intent, then you’ll get it from me alone.”
Alk thought back to the promise he had made to Ornest not to take risks, but he knew this was the only way out. He began channeling all his mana outward. Yora realized what he was about to do and shouted that they needed to stop him—but it was already too late.
Normally, it’s impossible to replenish mana externally, but Alk had invented a spell called Limit Break. It allowed him to expel all the mana in his body while drawing more from the environment. The toll on his body was enormous, but in this state, there was no limit to the magic he could wield. This was his trump card.
