I. Descend.

“It has moved…”

Someone opened their eyes, letting out a charming voice.

Under a bright light, unlike the room built of dark material, the woman clenched her fist while looking not at the room, but somewhere further away.

The being she had been observing was caught in a magic circle mixed with not just mana, but also demon energy.

Until now, she had only been observing vaguely, but now that they were caught in Idea and Isolde’s magic, their appearance was clearly visible.

Of course, that being would surely shake off the demon energy soon, so this clear view would only last for a very short moment.

Therefore, the woman who opened her eyes slowly rose from the throne she had been sitting on, wanting to confirm her with her own eyes.

“Let’s personally feel how great the being prepared by Goddess Iriel is.”

She had been waiting for this for no short time.

Swallowing the rest of her words, the woman stroked the head of the huge dragon crouching behind her throne.

The dragon growled at the cold but gentle touch. The woman eventually stood on the dragon’s head and lightly stamped her foot.

“Let’s go to the Sky Island, Dipailance.”

“Kyaaaa──!!”

The dragon raised its heavy body at the woman’s words calling its name.

And when a huge shadow was cast in the room and one powerful flap of wings brought a gust of wind.

The woman and the dragon had already disappeared.

Towards the distant Sky Island.

When the magic circle activated and the light that had filled my vision disappeared, I took a deep breath to steady my disturbed breathing.

Normally, I should have felt the cold and thin air characteristic of the Sky Island in the sky, but unfortunately, the scent that permeated my nose was something completely different.

And as I opened my eyes, I looked at what seemed to be the source of that scent.

What was there when I turned my eyes was corpses.

Corpses, corpses, and more corpses. Nothing but corpses.

The residents of the Sky Island, who were probably alive until just a few days ago, had turned into cold corpses piled up like mountains.

Under those corpses piled up like mountains, rivers of blood were flowing, painting the green meadows red, and the sticky blood that had been painted stuck to the bottom of my shoes.

“They really killed a lot.”

“It’s disgusting…”

Although the Sky Island was clearly called a paradise, what was spread out before my eyes was a horrific scene that could be called a picture of hell without exaggeration.

It seemed I wasn’t the only one who felt this way, as Mu, standing beside me, covered her nose and agreed with my words.

Originally, unless they were trying to exterminate all the residents of the Sky Island, it would have taken quite a lot of manpower and time to pile them up like this, so they were diligent in unnecessary areas.

But after nodding at Mu’s answer for a moment, I realized that only Mu was near me, and I widened my eyes and looked around.

“Mu, where are the other children? Were only we transferred?”

Didn’t the entire academy come together? If so, shouldn’t there be other students or teachers here, or at least Mira who came with us?

Thinking that perhaps an unexpected situation had occurred, I hardened my expression, but the answer that came back from Mu was enough to alleviate my worries.

“No, mother. I’ve confirmed that all the people from the academy are on the Sky Island. However, it seems the magic circle was designed to send individuals to different locations, so everyone is scattered across the Sky Island.”

“Then what about you, Mu?”

“I slightly altered the structure of the magic circle so I could move together with you, mother.”

“Ah, so that’s how it was.”

I wondered how this had happened, but it seems this was the original design of the magic circle.

Judging from the personalities of Idea and Isolde, who cast the magic circle, they probably intentionally moved individuals separately to instill fear.

In the game, the story started from the point where the player character joined another group, so I had no idea about this.

But well, at this point, it actually felt better this way.

“Although the Sky Island is large, it’s only a matter of time before hundreds of students and professors join up. Moreover, given this situation, everyone will prioritize joining up.”

Although the Sky Island is said to have an enormous size, half that of the Puhara Kingdom, it’s still only half the size.

No matter how evenly the students and professors were scattered, it’s only a matter of time before they join up with each other.

And since everyone is alone, they will all prioritize joining up, which makes it even easier for us to move.

While everyone is focusing on joining up, the path is wide open for us to go kidnap the demon executives.

I felt a slight uneasiness growing at how easily the plan was unfolding, but for now, since a good thing is a good thing, I turned to Mu and asked.

“Mu, what about the visual distortion and magic resistance barrier?”

“I deployed them as soon as we arrived, and although it seems the demon executives are continuously trying to peek, they haven’t been able to break through.”

“Good. The preparation is perfect.”

The deployment of visual distortion and magic resistance barrier that I had ordered Mu in advance. It seemed Mu had immediately carried out my orders as soon as we were transferred here.

Given that the Sky Island has fallen to the demon executives, we should assume that their eyes and ears are constantly spread here.

Then, of course, the first thing we should do is to escape from those eyes and ears.

And now that we’ve perfectly escaped from that, I called Mu again, thinking of what to do next.

“Connect a message to Pina. I’ll do the talking.”

“Yes, mother.”

Mu twirled her staff at my words.

The next moment, feeling that my mind was clearly connected somewhere, I opened my mouth.

“Pina, can you hear me?”

[This voice… Traveler?]

Perhaps surprised by my sudden contact, Pina’s voice was tinged with confusion.

But as she was well-versed in magic, she quickly realized this was a message and calmed down, soon asking me back in a composed voice.

[What’s the reason for this message?]

“It’s not a big deal. I just have something I want to ask of you.”

[A request… you say?]

“Go around the Sky Island, find other students and teachers, protect them, and keep them in place as much as possible. To prevent them from coming to the central tower, that is.”

The central tower.

Literally, it refers to the huge tower at the center of the Sky Island, where the demon executives are currently gathered, that huge tower visible right in front of us.

I needed someone to catch any students who might think of coming here, as I need to go there and capture all the demon executives.

And currently, the only one I could ask such a favor without burden was Pina, who was associated with the temple.

Pina also realized that this request of mine was part of the plan I had mentioned before at the temple, and immediately replied.

[Yes, I understand. But when you say to protect them…]

“Ah, I guess I didn’t tell you that far.”

Come to think of it, what I told at the temple was only that I would capture the demon executives and bring them to the temple’s underground, I hadn’t really talked much about other things.

Only then realizing that I hadn’t properly explained, I told Pina in a tone as if it was nothing.

“How many corpses are there in front of your eyes?”

[I’m not sure… but it seems to be at least over 30.]

“All of those will become undead and rush at you, so deal with them using holy power.”

[…Pardon?]

“Mu, cut off the message.”

“Yes.”

[W-Wait a sec…!]

Pina gave a dumbfounded answer, unable to properly process my words, but I had Mu cut off the message without giving any further response.

As Mu swung her staff again, the message was cut off with Pina’s seemingly desperate voice as the last thing heard.

As soon as the message was cut off, I drew the sword hanging at my waist and looked straight ahead.

“Idea of Sorcery. That one knows how to handle all sorts of sorcery including necromancy, so turning all the corpses on the Sky Island into undead should be simple for her.”

The core of a sorcerer lies in implementing more detailed things different from magic.

For example, if magic creates ‘extremely hot fire’, sorcery would create something like ‘fire that burns the enemy the moment it touches and spreads to chase nearby people’.

Shing──

Along with the metallic sound, as I drew my sword, the corpses slowly began to twitch and rise.

Perhaps due to losing a large amount of blood, the corpses with skin so pale it was almost blue rushed in a straight line towards me and Mu, and I blocked in front of Mu while ordering.

“Prepare your clone, Mu. We’re going to break through straight to the central tower from now on.”

“Understood, mother!”

These sandbags are perfect for warming up before fighting the demon executives. There should be over 3,000 of them from here to the central tower, so…

Shall I try to cut them all down within 1 minute if possible?

Inside the central tower. There, Pensia, Idea, Isolde, and Morgan were sitting at a table, each looking at something.

They were so concentrated that all that could be heard was the sound of their breathing, but suddenly Idea, who had been looking at her staff, raised her voice and shouted.

“Kyahaha!! Those guys are finally coming this way! Yes yes! I like that kind of reckless charge!!!”

“You’re noisy, Idea.”

“Can you shut up for a bit?”

“Can’t you watch quietly?”

Although Idea shouted in great excitement at the fact that the fight she had been waiting for was approaching, for the other executives sitting at the table together, it was nothing but an unbearably noisy disturbance.

Therefore, Idea was sunk without even a single resistance to the bombardment from the three, and only then, in the quieted room, the three executives looked again at the same scene Idea had been watching.

What was there were four women.

There was a woman with reddish hair fluttering as she cut down the undead like weeds, a woman crushing the undead along with the ground with her fists, a woman blowing away dozens of undead with a single arrow, and a woman annihilating the undead with a single swing of her staff.

One by one, they were Aria, Yujia, Kama, and Meiyel.

They were the professors that the executives had scouted using the hosts of demon parasites, and judged to be the biggest obstacles in this operation.

And watching their movements, Pensia stretched her back and scraped out a low voice.

“It was an accurate judgment. Their way of thinking is different from other professors.”

“Not only did they block our view as soon as they were transferred, but they even tracked us back. Their skills are certainly impressive.”

These four rushing towards the central tower were worlds apart from the other professors of the academy in everything from their thinking to their actions.

Despite being suddenly placed in an unknown situation, unlike the other professors who first think of the students’ safety and try to regroup, these four are running towards the central tower without a moment’s hesitation to eliminate the biggest threat.

Whether this is because they trust the other professors, or for some other reason, is unknown, but regardless of the reason, there was one certainty in their actions.

Confidence in their own abilities.

The sight of the four acting based on the confidence that they would never lose to anyone they might meet was enough to leave a strong impression on the executives.

And as if to prove this confidence, the sound of them fighting the undead, who had clearly come from the edge of the Sky Island by now, reached the executives’ ears, small but distinct.

“They’ve already come this close.”

“The chef guy isn’t visible, but at least those four are definitely coming this way. Well, there’s no need to say what we’ll do, right?”

Isolde murmured coldly while looking out the window. Following Isolde, Pensia turned to the other three and said.

What to do. That is, how to fight them.

The method for this was already like an unwritten rule for them. After all, they weren’t the only ones with confidence in their abilities.

Idea, Isolde, Morgan, Pensia, and Ar who wasn’t present here. As demon executives, they too had unwavering confidence in their own abilities.

-Yujia, Kama, Meiyel. We split up here. Turn in four directions and attack the central tower.

-Got it, sis!

-Leave it to me.

-Understood…

The four people splitting up separately in each of their images. The first to speak after seeing this was Morgan.

“That swordsman called Aria, I’ll kill her.”

Caressing the five swords hanging at her waist with an expression full of joy, as she had been looking forward to this fight more than anyone else, Morgan spoke.

And following her, the other executives also each pointed out one person.

“I’ll take that magician called Meiyel. I want to face her as a fellow magician.”

Isolde pointing at Meiyel.

“I’ll take that archer! I’ll put the strongest curse on her and slowly watch that pretty face get all twisted up until I’m satisfied!!”

Idea pointing at Kama.

“I’ll take this fighter called Yujia. As a fellow fist-user, I’d like to exchange some blows.”

Pensia pointing at Yujia.

Because they were executives with unwavering confidence in their abilities, there was one unwritten rule followed in such cases.

Each person kills one that they like. And they don’t touch another’s prey.

That’s why the executives each picked their prey.

And after fairly dividing their prey, each filled with their desires, they gathered their weapons and left the central tower.

After all, the undead were just disposable tools that didn’t matter even if consumed. Since the main event was this Sky Island that would lose its buoyancy and fall in less than an hour, there was only one thing important to them.

To taste their chosen prey as much as they could enjoy before an hour passed.

The door closed, and the four gates of the central tower opened.