Ch.190190 – The Hero’s Strength

<190 – The Hero’s Strength>

Hero Ishtar.

She remembers.

The words the main deity left when bestowing power upon her.

-Only three shields will protect your inexperience, so if even one shield breaks before you awaken the holy light, fight with all your might, and if two break, you must flee. If all three break, only divine intervention will save you.

It felt like taking a direct hit.

She knew he was strong.

She had observed his versatility.

She had even considered him as a potential ally for the hero’s party.

But not to this extent.

He shouldn’t have been this strong.

‘One shield has broken.’

Saying she wouldn’t kill him but correct his behavior, that she would subdue him by force and make him follow her.

He was not someone who could be secured with a sword filled with such lingering attachment and hesitation.

This child had exceeded the limits of what she could handle.

“If only you were a little weaker. Then I could have subdued you by force…”

“Hmph. Why don’t you, Ishtar, recognize the difference in our strength and back down quietly? If you keep coming at me, I’ll make you suffer! Your hero’s shield is down to one, isn’t it?”

“…Did the Foundation tell you that too?”

“Ah, umm… I-I can’t say. It’s a secret!”

[Lie]

A child who could freely discuss all kinds of secrets without even the Foundation’s prohibitions.

When the hero’s holy sword began to vibrate and emit light, Oknodie’s face turned pale.

As if she knew this was <Holy Sword Release>, the true power of the holy sword.

Evil power.

Broken mind.

Mimicking emotions.

She could only think of one reason why such a bad child knew all the hero’s secrets.

‘You intended to be the hero’s enemy from the start. The revelation of such an ominous class as Dark Princess was also the professors’ indirect way of hinting this fact to me.’

How foolish she had been to think that even the professors secretly cherished that child.

<Holy Sword Release>

“Eh? Holy Sword Release? Why?”

“Because you’re that much of a bad child.”

“I didn’t know being a bad child came with such penalties!?”

“Drop the pretense and the act. If you want to live, don’t use your power and let yourself be cut. I’ll purify all the dark mana inside you.”

“No, that’s problematic! Most of my mana pieces are dark mana!”

Crying won’t help her escape.

<Acceleration Afterimage Sword – Disguised Trajectory>

Once again, the continuous motion of afterimages unfolds as if her body is multiplying.

<Holy Sword Function – Purification>

As the light wavelength that rejects all impure power spread, the afterimages all shattered at once, nakedly revealing Oknodie who had somehow already reached close proximity.

Her skills were already impressive enough to be called a high-ranking active assassin, but this was as far as she could go against the holy sword.

‘It’s up to you to endure the pain. This sword cannot cut physical bodies, but it inflicts stronger damage on evil beings and purifies impure power.’

If she were truly an irredeemable demonic being, she wouldn’t survive being cut by the sword.

As the number of hits increases, the impact worsens, and she might lose her life if her breath ends faster than the impure power is purified.

But Ishtar wanted to believe.

In the people who followed Oknodie.

That their treatment of Oknodie as a ‘good child’ wasn’t just falling for a cunning act.

That somewhere in that child’s inner self, there was goodness.

<Holy Smite>

Fatal technique – 10 consecutive thrusts.

Instead of a technique that could certainly destroy an evil being, she switched to an attack that delivered a powerful blow in one strike, due to her wavering heart at the last moment.

That was fortunate for Oknodie in many ways.

<Dark Veil>

The dark barrier that had been deployed shattered, reducing the power, and the single attack inflicted damage on her body while exerting the reduced purification power.

One-tenth.

No, including the reduced damage, only about one-thirtieth of the fatal technique’s purification.

Even that exerted tremendous power beyond Hero Ishtar’s expectations.

Hero Ishtar’s onslaught.

The effect was tremendous.

Blood leaked from Oknodie’s mouth.

A lot.

An extremely large amount.

Enough to fear she might die.

“Oknodie!?”

Ishtar stopped her attack in shock.

Oknodie was also flustered by the blood flowing from her mouth, wiping it with one hand only to be confused about what to do with her blood-covered hand.

The fact was clear.

A magical beast stained with magic.

A magician who controls magical beasts.

Demons who dominate even magicians.

Among them, devils who lean toward evil.

And among devils, the tremendous damage that only those called great devils, who are evil enough, would suffer had shaken Oknodie’s internal organs.

That child is not a good child.

Beyond being stained with evil, she is evil itself.

A great devil-level evil being who will spread calamity to the world in the future.

She was a Dark Princess.

* *

Ah.

Due to increased abdominal pressure from fighting too intensely after eating, the bat-exclusive animal blood drink I stole from the <Senior Class Vehicle Storage> came out of my mouth…!

I glanced nervously at the system like a child being scolded by their mother.

No, right?

It’s not like I wanted to spit it out, so there’s no penalty like confiscating my collection for spitting out food, right?

“You… that blood from your mouth…”

“D-don’t worry about it. It’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing. You’re pushing yourself too hard.”

“Honestly, I’m a bit scared.”

“What on earth did you do at such a young age, what kind of life did you live to become so stained with magic?”

“Don’t know~”

Ishtar’s face gradually changed to look like she might cry.

Click.

Compassion that doesn’t retreat despite feeling sympathy.

If that too can be called a hero’s quality, then Ishtar would truly become an amazing hero.

That’s why she was even more frightening.

‘I must have leveled up too much as a bad child and got powered up a lot. What should I do?’

Originally, heroes don’t release their holy swords against classmates of the same year.

Even if they do, they only use their power from the third year when magicians formally appear, never in the first year.

In other words, this is like doing third-year first semester advanced studies in the first year first semester.

The curriculum is too harsh!

Just as the hero bit her lip tightly and was about to charge, she raised her sword high.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Considerably powerful throwing knives were deflected as a girl with short hair covering down to her ears landed in front of me.

Light.

And graceful.

Every movement of her body flowed smoothly, showing the beauty of a skilled practitioner.

“That’s enough. No matter who you are as a hero, I can’t let you kill Oknodie.”

“Well done, Zhang! Break Ishtar to pie… ugh.”

“Idiot. Don’t talk. The blood keeps coming out.”

While I tried to calmly settle the blood I had stolen at lunch back into my stomach as if I had indigestion, responding to Zhang’s words.

A pure white coldness was felt from behind the corridor.

This coldness.

Could it be Professor Layve?

Was it also that person who moved the hero…?

The tension was momentary.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I felt a different quality of coldness than Professor Layve’s.

“Let me help too.”

“Irene. So you’ve finally decided to help that child.”

“That’s how it turned out. From now on, I’ll be an enemy of the hero.”

Huh?

What kind of conversation are these people suddenly having?

Irene is the hero’s enemy?

She’s taking my side?

Why suddenly? What kind of event is this?

There wasn’t such an event before?

A cold breeze gently brushed past my shoulder as I was confused.

“Don’t make that face. Not everyone in the world is your enemy.”

“No, that’s… would someone please explain?”

“I know. That you’re using evil power, and that you might walk the wrong path.”

“!”

“The hero couldn’t forgive you for that, but I believe it’s not your responsibility but the Foundation’s. And I think that evil power can be corrected with enough time without resorting to such extreme measures.”

Zhang retorted sharply.

“You can show off later, but could you do something about that monstrous aura first? It’s really burdensome to face it directly. Seriously.”

Beads of cold sweat rolled down Zhang’s profile as she stood in front of me facing the hero.

Even while receiving the coldness emanating from Irene right behind her, she couldn’t help but sweat due to the tension.

Perhaps it was the poison of having enough strength to recognize the difference in power but not enough to overcome it.

Swish swish

Swish swish

…Or perhaps she instinctively sensed the small ghost, fake Lin, who emerged from the ring during the confusion, caressing Zhang’s hair with her hands in an approving manner.

“You have many good friends. People with the courage to stand in a hero’s way are rare. Especially when it’s not for their own selfish desires but to protect others.”

A sudden honest compliment from the hero.

“…Suddenly?”

“I just expressed my honest impression.”

The tense atmosphere eased somewhat.

Is she going to let us go?

Zhang and Irene’s vigilance loosened.

That was the hero’s strategy.

Without any warning, the hero charged straight ahead.

“!!”

<Stealth – Shadow Walker>

Zhang hurriedly raised her magical power to kill her presence.

As if sinking into shadows, she becomes so blurry that even though she’s right in front of you, you can’t read her.

As is typical in assassins’ fights, she hides herself and strikes at the enemy’s opening.

It’s a technique befitting an assassin who sticks to the basics.

However, unlike my technique which deceives position, steals timing, creates openings in the enemy, and lands attacks, Zhang’s technique is too focused on reducing her presence.

A technique that can only perform one role at a time is difficult to use against super-strong opponents like heroes.

Regardless of the presence disappearing from the front, the hero tracked her position perfectly.

“!!”

She was detected.

The hero’s holy sword swung precisely toward Zhang whose position had been tracked.

If it were a slash, her body would certainly be cut.

The trajectory was so accurate it froze her body in fear.

However, Zhang was lucky.

Instead of cutting her, the hero struck her with the flat side of the blade.

Zhang, who was thrown and rolled on the floor, also had a streak of blood flowing from the corner of her mouth.

However, despite taking a direct hit, the amount of bleeding was less than mine.

The hero’s expression became even more pained.

Simultaneously, a stream of ice rushed like a torrent over the fallen Zhang.

<Ice Magic – Ice Herald>

The property of ice that restricts movement.

It is projected through a medium to the other side of space.

Crowd control.

Ice binding.

The hero cut the blatant strike with her holy sword, but the halved energy occupied the space around the hero, blooming like snowflakes.

Bang!

As the flower burst, the coldness intensified.

The hero exposed to the cold that freezes the body.

It’s Irene’s clever attack that gradually slows down the enemy by repeatedly stacking cold effects.

Charara

Sparkling ice particles.

Unlike the beautiful scene as if entering a fairy tale, the cruel possibilities contained within were continuously manifested following Irene’s gestures.

She enlarged the particles into thorn-like shapes and fired them toward the center.

She condensed the central cold further, freezing the ground with bitter cold.

She raised a huge ice wall and crushed an opponent who could neither dodge nor move, like a finishing blow.

Despite unleashing such a thorough offensive that seemed like it might kill someone, Irene’s expression wasn’t bright at all.

Flash

White sword strikes indiscriminately slashing through the ice mana.

If Irene’s earlier attack was as beautiful as snowflakes blooming, the hero’s sword strikes devoured the beauty of snow like light flowers in full bloom.

<Breakthrough Technique – Seven Flashes in One Step>

A fierce consecutive technique that captures seven flashes in one step breaks through the ice wall and rushes fiercely toward Irene.

Clang!

“Don’t interfere.”

“Ugh…!”

Zhang, who had quickly recovered and rushed in, was thrown back more roughly than before and hit the wall.

“Zhang!”

“Run… away…”

Zhang lost consciousness and drooped her head.

In the brief moment of looking back at her, the hero’s hand grabbed Irene’s collar, breaking through her defensive technique <Bitter Cold Barrier> which concentrated extreme cold from the front.

“Keurk…”

As her throat was grabbed and her airway constricted, Irene lost consciousness and collapsed.

The hero, who threw the collapsed Irene to the opposite side of Zhang, sharpened the blade of her holy sword.

“You said I’m a bad child? Then you’re a bad woman. Those kids did nothing wrong.”

“…I promise. I’ll make the Foundation that made you like this pay the appropriate price.”

The hero’s sword began to emit threatening light once again.

Sigh.

I didn’t want to use dangerous techniques in reality…

Do I finally have to use <Berserk Mode>?

Just as I was making up my mind to not ‘control’ but fully ‘utilize’ dark mana in proportion to Ishtar raising her momentum, someone squeezed between the two of us with a calming scent.

“My, my. Could we end this fight between students here?”

A gesture that gently twisted our wrists, softly grasping the hero’s killing intent and my dark fighting spirit in different directions with outstretched hands.

<Mind Technique – Pure Land Discourse>

<Taoist Technique – Butterfly Dream>

There was an irresistible force that compelled movement in the gentle gesture like a butterfly’s movement.

Both the hero’s and my power were simultaneously neutralized as we followed the irresistible force and released our power into the air.

Since such a mysterious feat couldn’t be performed by an ordinary student, everything he accomplished made sense as soon as I recognized his identity.

“You are…!”

“Ah! Professor!”

The identity of the intruder was a bald man wearing a thick gray robe with an old brown kasaya draped over one shoulder – Monk Myungho.