The Handbook for Completing Demi-Human Girls

The swift wind carried by the arrow was so intense that it easily gave one the illusion that "the arrow itself was the storm."

Fisher's expression grew serious bit by bit, yet his legs remained planted on the spot like two steel nails, letting his tattered white Sanctuary robe whip about wildly.

In the next moment, he abruptly reached out and pulled Ingrid, who had been in his grasp, behind him in a spinning motion. It was just like a partnered ballet dancer, if one ignored the expression of frantic pain on Ingrid's face...

"Ah! It hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts! My bones! My bones are broken!"

She cried out in pain, her face pale, but Fisher had no time to check on her condition.

The lethal arrow was arriving in an instant. He only turned his head to look at the sky, concurrently saying to Ingrid,

"Among the spells hidden within you, there should be at least one or two for self-protection, right?"

"Huh? There are indeed, but... hiss... it hurts..."

"As long as there are."

Fisher didn't know which of her bones broke, but the injury seemed severe. Her Rank was very low, merely that of an ordinary human. Just now, if he hadn't reached out to save her when the storm's shockwave hit, she would have been blown to death directly by the wind.

It was even more so now; her voice trembled non-stop as she spoke. Intense pain interrupts all human thought and action, stripping away any opportunity to react.

Fisher knew this well. Looking at Ingrid, who hadn't made any other movements for a long while and seemed scared silly by the storm before her, he could only take a deep breath.

In the next second, as countless "∞" symbols flashed through his eyes, his entire aura began to grow increasingly discordant with the surroundings.

Like a tumor unrestricted by established Rules.

He directly faced the arrow that was about to land right in front of him. His left hand slammed onto Ingrid's lower abdomen behind him as if locking on automatically. Before she could even react, Fisher had accurately found and unlocked the nested protective magic structure on her lower abdomen, revealing the spells inside one by one.

"Stand behind me."

As Fisher spoke, the seventh or eighth-ring protective magic on her lower abdomen abruptly rose, wrapping her tightly.

Fisher suddenly let go of the magic on her lower abdomen and abruptly thrust his hand out toward the incoming stormy arrow.

"Rumble!"

Accompanied by an extremely piercing explosion, an intense wind wave nearly a hundred meters wide rushed out next to Fisher. Behind him, Ingrid was half-crouching on the ground, hugging the camera to her chest while shivering with her eyes closed and ears covered.

She was probably truly terrified that she would suddenly be reduced to ashes and smoke.

Because at this moment, the fierce winds continuously leaking from beside Fisher were slicing across the surface of the magic covering her like steel knives swiftly passing over, emitting extremely grating frictional sounds. Yet, the man standing before her, taking the brunt of the storm, remained steady as a mountain, as if his body had completely detached from the concept of flesh and blood...

This man definitely wasn't human, right?

If she had known, she never would have gone to that ridiculous factory! Ahhhh!

But ahead of her, where she couldn't observe with closed eyes, Fisher's hand had already tightly grasped the arrow suspended before him. The arrow, carrying unstoppable force, continued to press forward, but was deadlocked by a hand flashing with "∞" symbols.

The next moment, as the palm gripping the arrow's shaft suddenly exerted force, the fierce winds around the arrow abruptly burst apart, scattering in all directions.

The ground instantly looked devastated, as if a storm had plowed it back and forth countless times, and Ingrid's trembling behind him grew even more violent.

"Whoosh..."

The wind naturally died down, and Fisher frowned as he looked at the now completely quiet arrow in his hand. After a moment of silence, he also raised the arrow and hurled it forcefully back toward where it came from.

"Rumble!"

Following an intense sonic boom akin to thunder, and after a tremor in the ground, the arrow quickly disappeared into the horizon, returning to where it belonged.

Ingrid behind him trembled even more violently, and Eimhart in his coat poked his head out in utter shock. Looking at Fisher, he said,

"Wait, wait, wait, Fisher... I'm even starting to suspect we arrived at the wrong place. There weren't any Mythic Rank people like this when we left! Could it be the fault of that thousand-times-cursed Baimon throwing us to somewhere else?!"

"...Likely not. This is the world we originally resided in, just with some changes. But we've only been gone for four and a half years. It's absolutely impossible for anyone in Naris or humanity as a whole to naturally acquire the Mythic Rank; even breaking through the Transcendent Rank is difficult. Otherwise, Erwind wouldn't have gone to such desperate lengths to run from Naris to the Northern Border to seek the Base."

"But we really met someone who did, and right after we got back at that. Is it really such a coincidence? Oh, you mean the guy who attacked is likely not human, but a Mythical Species? That doesn't make sense either. By this time, the Holy Progeny and those Elves should all be extinct. Could someone have survived? The stars in the Spirit World haven't invaded in a long time, and the true bodies of the Demons are sealed beneath the surface... Then who else could it be?"

Fisher didn't answer. He simply looked towards the south and said in a low voice,

"Coincidences are perceived from our perspective. But the place we returned to is the Southern Continent, completely unrelated to the Stormsea—and specifically the northern edge of the Southern Continent, right near this factory. If my failure in the Tree Continent caused this temporal and spatial deviation upon return, then it indeed is quite a coincidence. But if our return process was influenced by someone else, then our encountering this Cardinal factory and the Mythic Rank existence stationed here was intentional."

"It must be Baimon!?"

Eimhart stated with such certainty, gnashing his teeth as if he wanted nothing more than to drag Baimon out and beat her up fiercely.

Fisher finally realized it: this guy would blame tripping outside on Baimon.

But he wasn't entirely sure either, because he remembered what Helaire had told him when he left. She said, "See you in the future," and coincidentally at that moment, the Sigil in his chest had uncontrollably exploded, nearly blowing his kidney apart.

So he wasn't certain if this matter was related to Helaire or not.

"...I need to set off for the southern part of the Southern Continent quickly. If Raphaela has been facing enemies like this all along, her situation is indeed very dangerous."

"Yeah. Then what about her?"

"Her?"

Resigned, Fisher turned around and looked at Ingrid, who was huddled into a ball behind him.

Her face was deathly pale, and her entire body couldn't stop shaking. Everything that had happened just now had too much impact on her, so much so that she was still in a state of shock and hadn't come to her senses.

Too much time had passed. Due to certain goals, Fisher had always been in a state of climbing the Ranks. For a very long time, his eyes had only seen creatures equal to or stronger than himself. So, at this moment, when a human tangibly appeared before him, the thought that suddenly popped into his mind was surprisingly:

So humans are actually this fragile.

Just the aftershock transmitted from a Mythic Rank attack hundreds of meters away could shatter many bones in her body. Just the extremely terrifying sound could scare her out of her wits...

He was a human in the past as well, but had never felt like this. It was only at this moment that he realized he had actually strayed very far from the conceptual definition of "human," exactly as Erwind had told him...

Fisher glanced at the constantly writhing "∞" symbols and flesh on his hand, slowly returning them to their original human appearance. Then he bent down and looked at Ingrid before him.

"Are you alright?"

"I... I'm fine..."

Ingrid barely raised her head. The magic shield on her body was already covered in cracks and would shatter in the next moment.

"Since you're fine..."

"Thump!"

But just as Fisher let out a sigh of relief, preparing to settle her somewhere for treatment so he could immediately set off to be by Raphaela's side, her eyes suddenly rolled back, and she collapsed to the ground, unconscious and motionless.

"..."

Humans are indeed too fragile.

In the distant factory, all the soldiers watched the General standing motionless in the warehouse, gazing at the sky. Ever since the General fired that arrow, he had stood there like a statue, seemingly waiting for something, yet there had been no further movement.

The General was indeed a very strange person.

He was extremely young but had proven to Naris through illustrious military exploits that he was the most suitable person for the Southern Continent war. Thus, in less than four years, he had climbed continuously from a lowly adjutant to become the General commanding the Naris and Dragon Court Allied Army today.

Of course, there were those who were defiant. After all, in the Naris military, situations where seniority didn't matter were rare. But it was said that as long as one personally participated in a battle alongside this General, there would be no more dissatisfied individuals. They would all transform into the General's most loyal supporters and soldiers.

And it was exactly when the soldiers behind were revering the back of the General before them that the bow-wielding General seemed to feel something. He turned around and expressionlessly said to the soldiers,

"Everyone back away, as far as possible. Close the doors."

"Yes, sir!"

Although all the soldiers were clueless as to why, they honestly obeyed their superior's orders and retreated several meters away, shutting the main doors of the warehouse tightly.

But clearly, the distance they retreated and the distance the General intended for them to retreat had a certain discrepancy.

Because the next moment, from the distant sky, an extremely violent sonic boom transmitted over, as if to slice a boundary as distinct as the Jing and Wei rivers into the dense overcast clouds above, returning with terrifying destructive power.

By the time they realized the object seemed to be an arrow, backing further away was evidently too late.

"Get back!!"

Amidst the shouting of all the soldiers, tracking the explosive sound of wind that filled the sky, the arrow violently plunged into the warehouse storing the Cardinals in the next second.

Following an exaggerated explosion, a tremor seemingly originating from the earth itself abruptly transmitted from the warehouse.

The soldiers were uncontrollably jolted into the air by the tremor, then fell hard onto the ground. In an instant, the area outside the warehouse was filled with rising smoke and dust, as well as soldiers lying scattered haphazardly and wailing.

"Creak..."

After a brief pause, the main doors of the factory building opened once again. At that moment—perhaps due to the immense impact—all the soldiers experienced a hallucination.

In the dense smoke and dust, through the opened doors, they felt that what they saw wasn't a human figure, but a massive, incredibly scorching pillar of fire reaching towards the sky, appearing as though it wanted to burn the souls and desires of everyone present to nothingness.

But that discomfort or hallucination lasted for less than a second before it stopped. Replacing it was the expressionless General wearing a grey cloak and holding a bow.

"General, are... are you alright?"

The lead officer struggled up from the ground and hurriedly went to the General's side, coincidentally checking the state of the warehouse behind.

The warehouse, originally filled with Cardinal parts, was already a mess. On the ground, an enormous circular crater seemed to symbolize a clash between some kinds of powers earlier, momentarily making him afraid to look at the clearly very young General before him.

He couldn't help but gulp, a simple thought alone replaying in his mind:

"Is our General really a human?"

But the General before him paid no heed to his inner thoughts. He glanced at the arrow in his hand. It was as if something on the arrow was writhing to return to his body—a certain chaotic element that didn't conform to the Rules...

"A Mythic of Chaos."

He didn't speak, but the gentle breeze passing by silently delivered the message.

The returning wind didn't just bring back this phrase; it also brought back a name.

"Fisher..."

The General fell silent for a moment, then crushed the arrow in his hand to powder. He turned his head and addressed the officer, who kept his head lowered and didn't dare to move.

"Do not leak the events here. Treat it as if nothing happened."

"But, the goods inside are the quota for the next half-month. What if the lords from the Golden Palace come asking..."

"I will speak with the Golden Palace."

"Yes, sir..."

Since the General had spoken so, what else could he, as an officer, do? He could only agree to it all.

But it was also at this time that from the wilderness outside the factory's walls, the considerably urgent sound of hoofbeats was heard again. Another Naris soldier had arrived here.

However, unlike the soldiers guarding this factory, the armor and weapons equipped by the soldier on horseback were more valuable and varied.

Before he even entered the factory compound, his voice transmitted clearly.

"General Barbatos! General Barbatos! News has arrived from the Golden Palace!!"

The General referred to as 【Barbatos】 didn't make any obvious movements upon hearing this. He merely slung the bow held in his other hand across his back again and walked towards the soldier.

"Perfect timing. I also have something to tell the Golden Palace."