Ch.83Academy Attack Incident – 5
by fnovelpia
“Do we really have to be the only ones doing this?”
“If you don’t like it, go to the professors. I won’t stop you.”
“How can I go alone?!”
“If you know you can’t do it, then shut up. You’re being annoying.”
Nngh, Rosaria groaned internally and pressed herself closer behind Priscilla. Nearby, monster corpses numbering easily in the hundreds were already strewn about.
As a combatant rather than a healer, Rosaria’s contribution was practically nonexistent, so naturally all of this was Priscilla’s handiwork.
“Burn, flames. Make your enemies dance in your warmth.”
The staff, half yellow and half orange, glowed brightly. All the magic she had been forced to master during her more than hundred regressions was being unleashed without restraint.
Some corpses had already been reduced to smoldering ashes only to burn again, while others had been completely incinerated without even bone fragments remaining. Within a 20-meter radius around Priscilla was a perfect killing zone.
But despite such fierce efforts, there were still hundreds of monsters swarming everywhere. More were flooding in than the number being killed.
As a result, the circle of monsters surrounding Priscilla and Rosaria hadn’t diminished at all.
“Something’s strange.”
“You think so too, right?”
The academy attack incident was an event that happened in their second year, so both had experienced it before—Rosaria four times, Priscilla over a hundred times.
The monster wave in their memories wasn’t like this. The demons’ plans had always proceeded smoothly, nearly destroying the academy in an instant.
If Brunhild hadn’t awakened as a hero, it would have been faster to count survivors rather than casualties. The demons’ plan had been that meticulous and lethal.
“There are many more of them, but they’re all moving randomly. Less systematic than before, I’d say?”
“The difference is whether they’re moving with a single purpose or just attacking humans indiscriminately.”
“As long as they get the message across, it works. It seems like they didn’t have enough time to plan, so they just ordered them to destroy everything in sight. They invaded almost a year earlier than in the original story.”
“Maybe so.”
Priscilla replied briefly before burning more monsters that kept charging relentlessly.
Each one might be stronger than an average knight, but before Priscilla’s magic, they were all equally swept away. The acrid smell of burning flesh stung their nostrils.
Nevertheless, the creatures kept pushing forward, trampling over their comrades’ corpses. At this rate, they would be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
“…I wonder where Mira is?”
Perhaps that’s why Rosaria unconsciously muttered to herself, with the impertinent thought that Mira would somehow resolve this situation too.
At least in Rosaria’s mind, that was the image Mira projected.
“She’s probably solving this right now. Because she’s Mira.”
“That’s right, isn’t she?”
The moment Rosaria said that, Priscilla, who had been busily casting spells, snapped her head around. Her light brown pupils, contracted with rage, glared with murderous intent.
At this sight, more terrifying than the drooling monsters nearby, Rosaria instinctively stepped back.
“W-why, why?! Why are you looking at me so scary?!”
“You, don’t you trust Mira?”
“Trust her? Of course I do!”
“Then why did you answer like that? Who saved me, who saved you, who came looking for us? Why do you sound like you don’t trust Mira? Huh? Huh? Huh?”
‘What’s wrong with what I said?!’
Rosaria felt wronged. What part of “That’s right, isn’t she?” warranted such a vicious attack? If anything, she had been agreeing with Priscilla.
But Priscilla was too frightening to argue with. In that crazed state, who knew what she might do if contradicted.
In Rosaria’s view, no one was as broken as Priscilla. The purpose and reason for her existence were entirely focused on Mira alone, and her psychology was impossible to grasp.
Sometimes she’d say she was fine as long as she could be near Mira, then other times she’d show jealousy toward Brunhild. It was simply incomprehensible.
“Alright, I believe! I believe her! She’s probably handling other urgent matters first right now!”
“Yes. She definitely is. Because she’s Mira.”
Priscilla’s expression returned to a smile. Whew, Rosaria exhaled a sigh filled with many emotions. Then she looked up again at the monster howls that had grown much closer than before.
The monsters hadn’t missed the opening created by their conversation. The 20-meter killing zone had shrunk to about a person’s height. The foremost creature launched itself like a slingshot to close the distance.
—KRRRRRACK!
At that moment, lightning struck.
Purple sparks spread from the impact point, annihilating hundreds of monsters at once. A split second later, thunder roared as if tearing the sky apart.
Monsters near the epicenter were either flung away as charcoal lumps or completely vaporized. Those at a moderate distance had their heads explode from electrocution, while those farther away were roasted or seared to death.
Now, no living monsters remained near Priscilla and Rosaria. The perpetrator of this massacre appeared among the corpses.
“Mi—”
Rosaria, about to call out Mira’s name in joy, hesitated. Mira’s appearance was completely different from usual.
The eerily glowing blue pupils might be overlooked, but her skin—beyond pale to the point of being ghostly white—with blue veins visible like cobwebs underneath was disturbing.
Moreover, something blue occasionally leaked from her mouth. While Rosaria hesitated, Priscilla rushed forward like the wind, unconcerned about appearances.
“Mira!”
She threw herself into Mira’s arms. Mira’s cold-looking face softened slightly. Her snow-white fingers slowly stroked the orange hair.
[You held out well.]
“Ugh?!”
Rosaria staggered momentarily, and even Priscilla’s eyes widened at the intense sense of dissonance that passed through them. Seeing their reactions, Mira frowned, cleared her throat, and adjusted her voice.
“Sorry. I wasn’t paying attention and some mana leaked out.”
“…What’s with that appearance? And why has your body changed like that?”
“Just think of it as magic from the first world. I’ll explain in detail later. Right now, I have other things to do.”
Mira glanced sideways toward Bellium Forest. A strange-shaped dimensional gate was nearly complete. No further explanation was needed. Everyone gathered here knew what that dimensional gate was.
“Why didn’t you go to the shelter?”
“We tried but got trapped. I could have made it easily alone, but with Rosaria… I wasn’t confident we could reach it without being detected by the professors.”
Facing hundreds of monsters—each comparable to or stronger than knights—while protecting someone with absolutely no combat ability and heading to the shelter? For Priscilla, that would certainly be possible.
Just not at a student level.
Even if that student was from Bellium Academy.
“From now on, prioritize your safety above all else. We can deal with the consequences later.”
“Okay.”
Priscilla smiled brightly. Mira put more strength into the hand stroking her head and made eye contact with Rosaria.
“The current situation is much better than in the original story. The barrier hasn’t broken, the monster isn’t slaughtering professors, and the magical beasts aren’t moving systematically. If we do this right, we can end this with just a few injuries and no deaths. For that, I need your help, Rosaria.”
Knowing that potions would likely be in critically short supply, and even if not, they couldn’t match divine healing, Rosaria nodded resolutely.
She had been feeling useless, so having something only she could do boosted her motivation.
“I’ll clear a path for you. Go.”
With those words, eternity was sliced from top to bottom. The blade cut through the air, and blue mana took form and extended outward. Where the mana swept through, a path formed.
Rosaria, walking determinedly along the blue mana path, stopped. Then, with narrowed eyes, she said one thing to Mira.
“Be careful. Don’t get hurt.”
“I won’t.”
“I don’t believe you, so prove it. I’ll be waiting.”
Mira responded to that sulky gaze with a smile. Soon, Rosaria’s figure disappeared beyond the blue mana. Only one person remained.
“Professor Ingrid went to disable the barrier.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“I’m going to deal with the monster now.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“So, you need to protect everyone else. Make sure no one dies. Can you do that?”
Instead of answering, Priscilla hugged Mira tightly to absorb her warmth, then smilingly jumped into the mana path that was beginning to close. Mira watched her go, then turned away.
Judging by the golden light filling one corner of her vision, Brunhild seemed to be doing well on her own.
“My Queen, the Demon Lord is call— GACK?!”
The succubus who came to deliver the message had her throat pierced by a sharp thorn. She clutched her punctured neck and collapsed to the floor, gasping. Her arm reached out pitifully toward her Queen.
No matter how physically superior demons might be, healing a wound inflicted directly by the Succubus Queen was virtually impossible. She would certainly die if left untreated, yet no demon showed any concern.
“Is it alright to ignore the Demon Lord’s summons? He’ll be angry.”
Maker stretched his neck as he asked. Astaroth, who had been nervously biting and regenerating her nails, glared at him.
“Shut up. If we just deliver results, the Demon Lord will forgive us. He will definitely forgive us…”
From the moment she refused the Demon Lord’s order to return, retreat was no longer an option. This time, she absolutely had to produce results.
Otherwise, she would die at the Demon Lord’s hands.
“We shall see about that.”
Maker cackled. He had joined hands without hesitation when promised they would kill Mira Crate, but with the mastermind acting like this, even a good plan could fail.
While it might be amusing to see Astaroth begging the Demon Lord for her life, Maker’s desire to kill Mira Crate was stronger, so he tried to subtly ease her anxiety.
“It should be fine this time. We’ve deployed the Explosive Dragon to draw out Meligor, so the academy is practically defenseless. Surely you can handle those pathetic humans?”
Astaroth’s eyes gleamed.
“Absolutely not. Once he comes to stop us—”
“There is a dying life here…”
A somber voice interrupted Astaroth. It came from a figure in a black robe pulled up to the top of its head, with skinny limbs.
The bony hand was placed on the nearly dead succubus. After gently caressing the fair skin, it violently tore off one breast.
“—!!!!!”
As the fading life began its final struggle in agony, the hand became more busy. It tore off the remaining breast, gouged out the eyes, twisted the nose, ripped off the ears, removed the arms and legs, and tore the skin.
Unfortunately, the succubus remained alive until the skeletal finger finally extracted her heart as the last step.
“Rise… lost soul…”
With an eerie incantation, the stopped heart was squeezed between the fingers. The mangled corpse began to reassemble. The closed eyes reopened, and the body moved with creaking sounds.
The succubus, now reanimated as an undead, kissed the feet of the being who had just torn her apart, showing reverence. Only then did the skinny figure turn to look at Astaroth and Maker.
“Are you here… Maker… Astaroth…”
“Are you here?”
Astaroth snorted but didn’t push back any further. After all, this was someone who had volunteered to help for free, saying they needed a place to test new undead.
The opportunity to receive free service from the Elder Lich, the 5th Corps Commander of the Demon Lord’s army, was indeed rare.
“How is… my creation…”
“No! Why is it your creation?! You may have revived it, but I assembled it! My share should obviously be larger!”
“I can share its vision now… it has almost fully manifested…”
Ignoring the protesting Maker, the Elder Lich muttered something and then widened its empty eye sockets.
“What? Did something go wrong?”
“…”
The Elder Lich remained still for a while with widened eye sockets, ignoring Astaroth’s question. Then it summoned an orb made from a human skull into its bony hand.
“What, are you going yourself?”
“I have… changed my mind…”
The orb’s eyes glowed black. An unpleasant-colored dimensional gate began to open in front of the Elder Lich.
“After so long… I have found a suitable sacrifice for the Life Vessel…”
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