Konrad felt reinvigorated—in every sense of the word.
Whatever Stella did with that bolt of light, all his fatigue melted away the moment it hit him.
The bleeding of his nose? Gone. And so were most of his worries, too.
He felt younger than ever. Not that his body was old, but his soul sure felt that way all the time.
It used to struggle, carrying two lifetimes' worth of experiences, but not anymore.
He was ready for action. And, well, uh—for all kinds of actions.
There was a distracting little erection in his pants.
Nope, it wasn't even that little.
Sure, battles for survival were exciting, but this had never happened to him before.
And was Stella always this, uh—
This covered up from head to toe in that rough grey cloak?!
What a waste. She wasn't exactly a feminine icon, being tall and, well, leaving a rather scary first impression on him. But that long, straight blonde hair flying in the wind? And her face—
Nope. No. Not now.
There was another face here, too; Maou Midori's.
The old mage might have stared at them, dumbfounded, but wasn't anywhere near defeated.
"A necromancer?!" he shouted, drawing Konrad's fleeting attention back to him. "There were no signs of one in any of the visions. And are those Church robes? You have to be kidding me."
Now that he mentioned it—how did he miss that?
As much as Konrad remembered the ten fleeting scenes of the futures, Stella never appeared in any of them. She wasn't meant to be here—but boy, was he glad that she'd show up?!
"Told you. Things are always in motion," he said to return some of the taunting from earlier.
Not that he arranged for any of this.
If there was a memo, he missed it once he shut his mind off from the Demon Lord's probing.
And if his methods made thinking a bit more difficult—
Being this horny was much, much worse.
He tried his best to think with his head, not his pants, but there were too many distractions.
At this point, the Green Mage looked almost the same age as him, and he hadn't even noticed.
And no, not the same age as his soul or his old body that died in a plague.
Not compared to his exhausted, always overworked self.
He seemed the same age as Konrad Haldstadt, the eighteen-year-old duke of Halaima.
He heard of people feeling older or losing their hair from stress. But to become younger? And not only that, but by two hundred years?! It had to be some form of necromancy.
Did he syphon his life forces away this whole time?
Nobody answered. He still had his countermeasures in place after all.
And well, Stella wasn't part of his usual telepathic network, either. But she was still here, holding a palm towards the Demon Lord, giving her a cool kind of beauty.
"The Silver Mage sends his regards," she said as the temperature dropped.
It wasn't Konrad's first rodeo with her.
But now the former executioner kept her powers under control.
She was way more focused than he felt. And those powers? They had Maou Midori double over in pain, as if his defences weren't even there. Konrad couldn't even scratch them earlier.
Screaming curses, the Demon Lord weaved new spells to shield himself.
It didn't take long, but it was a welcome distraction.
Konrad used that time to recharge his mana reserves from the cracks between the planes.
They felt much wider now, and he no longer had to worry about magic fatigue, either.
Whether that was also Stella's doing or the Silver Mage was aiding them from afar, he didn't know. He didn't care. And while the second push from the girl made him even stronger—
Now, Konrad was even more distracted from being horny.
"He adapted," Stella panted, and it was, uh, kind of a sexy sound. Her voice was a little raspy, but not in a way that hurt his ears. "His staff syphoned your leaking essence away until now."
"My—what?!" he yelped, his gaze falling on his pants, tenting hard but no leaks in sight. Yet.
"N-not that," Stella cried out, blushing all the way to her ears after following his gaze.
Okay, that was actually cute.
But they were still on the battlefield, and this was all the time Maou Midori needed to recover.
"Catching me off guard once won't be enough to defeat me," he shouted, firing spells in quick succession. They were the usual lightning and firebolts that Konrad could defend against.
Except, now he had to protect his ally, too.
It wasn't easy to focus, but the threat to his life helped.
Not with his erection, per se, but at least he could try to ignore it.
And while his mind was still not on top of his usual game, all that practice and muscle memory paid off. His instincts took over. His body was overflowing—and overheating—with life energy.
The barriers he erected stood firm even after he included Stella within them.
As adrenaline flooded his rejuvenated system again, his thoughts sharpened somewhat.
"So, you mean to tell me, he drained my life energy all this time?!" he asked between attacks.
The Green Mage still looked young—he didn't age back again—but his strikes weakened; a lot.
"No, no, he couldn't do that," Stella claimed, shaking her head. She tried her palm thing again, but it no longer worked. "He's not a real necromancer, but he soaked up energies you leaked."
This leak thing again?! He was already embarrassed about his current state—
"Your emotions," she continued, seeking cover behind his back. "Especially the negative ones. Even I could see them. They're so strong, they let scavengers like him feed on them."
He had no idea what that meant.
But her being so close to him now, radiating heat against his body in the cold mountain pass—
"Don't worry, Prodigy," she said with a smirk, patting his back to make it even worse. "I depleted his staff. A scavenger stands no chance against a real predator like me."
"Wording!" Konrad didn't even try to find her meaning anymore.
It sounded hot, no matter how he looked at it.
Hot and distracting. A fireball almost exploded in his face.
He was lucky an earlier barrier was still somewhat functional, or it would've burned his head off. Now, it helped to put that head back in the game instead.
"Had he used my life forces against me then?" he asked, raising fresh new defenses.
If so, his own fear and desperation must have made the Demon Lord so powerful.
He seemed undefeatable despite what the angel and the demoness said about him.
But while he still couldn't find many openings to exploit, Maou's attacks weakened a lot. He could recharge his mana faster than he burned it on his barriers.
Which was also thanks to the widening cracks.
In a sense, it was as if the world itself came undone around them.
No, let's not think about coming.
"He soaked 'em all up," Stella nodded, her wording way too distracting. "But now he'll have to use his own mana. And he's busy blocking my syphons—though not much else I can do."
So she distracted both of them. Better than nothing.
And if that lazy dragon decided to join the fray again—
He almost reached out to find her, only to realise his countermeasures were still active.
What happened to Maple anyway?