Ch.9291. Proof (1)

# 91. Proof (1)

‘If you stop those troops… I see.’

It was certainly a bet with Lilith Dawn, but I couldn’t help feeling angry.

It was natural to assess the abilities of someone who might become a comrade, but involving others besides me—especially in a way that could harm civilians—was ethically problematic.

But even if Lilith hadn’t made this bet, this situation would have inevitably come to me anyway.

“You can’t tell me where those troops are coming from, can you?”

“If I told you that, it wouldn’t be fun, would it? This is a situation where you need to ‘prove’ your abilities.”

She truly was a succubus who enjoyed toying with people.

‘You really like having fun…’

She was acting so strangely that I wondered if this was her true personality.

Leaving Lilith with her peculiar attitude, I spoke to the woman with the serious expression.

“Let’s go. It seems like you won’t tell us anyway.”

“That’s certainly true…”

As we turned our backs on them, I heard Lilith’s mocking voice behind us.

“Do you even know where to go?”

“It must be somewhere, and you wouldn’t tell us anyway.”

Ignoring Lilith’s irritating laughter, I left the building with the woman.

I continued running forward, ignoring the blatant gaze I felt from a distant window.

The woman following closely behind me asked:

“Where are we going now…?”

“There’s only one place it could be.”

Since this place was quite far from the Babylon Kingdom, if they were coming, they would definitely use a teleportation portal.

And using a teleportation portal requires a considerable amount of magical power.

Of course, a demon of Lilith’s caliber could operate one alone, but she wouldn’t have done that.

‘If she had, she wouldn’t have appeared before us.’

Since demons’ power comes from magical energy, they wouldn’t let themselves run out of it.

Therefore, the logical choice would be to set up a portal where magical power could be easily supplied.

“Where is it?”

“It has to be the clock tower. I’ll go ahead.”

It would obviously be safer to stay with her, but now wasn’t the time to worry about that. The priority was to arrive as quickly as possible to minimize damage.

I immediately activated [Mortal’s End] and summoned my sword in dagger form.

With my agility maximized, I ran at full speed toward the clock tower.

“What…? Wait! We should go together…”

Her words briefly brushed past me, but I couldn’t stop to listen.

She was probably worried about me facing those troops alone, but there was nothing I could do about it.

‘There shouldn’t be too many, so it should be fine…’

The number of people who could move through a portal was limited, and they would have deployed many troops at the border to tie up the empire’s forces.

Therefore, the number of troops coming here would be small.

Of course, that didn’t make it any less dangerous.

Even if few in number, demons were still demons, and there would certainly be executioners like Lilith among them.

‘Since they’re attacking the palace, there must be…’

As I ran toward the location, I hoped that any executioner there would be on the weaker side.

If the person coming this way was Agareus, I’d have to flee rather than fight, but he would likely have sat out this battle due to the wounds he received during the Eden battle.

“Still… I’m quite anxious…”

Compared to the executioners of the Babylon Kingdom, I was still just a Parami, nothing more, nothing less.

‘But I can’t just give up…’

This situation was clearly a crisis.

However, a crisis is also an opportunity.

If I simply avoided this crisis, a great catastrophe would occur, but if I faced it head-on, it could be an opportunity to accelerate my growth rapidly.

“That’s fortunate… but at this rate, I won’t be able to stop it even if I run now…”

Having run at full speed, I reached the clock tower, but the troops had not yet arrived.

However, at the very top of the clock tower, a massive swirl of magical power was churning.

The magical energy, visible and palpable even from here, seemed to be shouting at me that those troops would appear soon.

If I had arrived a little earlier, I might have considered climbing up there to destroy the portal, but now it was too late.

“At this level, the other side must have noticed too, right?”

The nearest military base was quite far from here, but with this much magical power, they would have detected it by now.

‘So I just need to hold out for a little while… I can do this…’

She wasn’t here yet, but soon she would arrive—the woman who was like a symbol of victory to me.

With her, at least we wouldn’t be defeated instantly, and we could buy time until reinforcements arrived.

“Let’s do this!”

Just as I muttered those words, a massive wave of magical power erupted from the top of the clock tower, washing over me.

That magical wave signified that the portal had been activated, and soon after, a creature with large horns appeared there.

From that creature emanated an enormous amount of magical power that was incomparable to humans like us—something even other demons would revere.

It was clear that this demon was the leader of the special unit currently crossing over.

‘But… who is that?’

However, this was a demon I had never seen before.

And crucially, he seemed somewhat weak for an executioner.

Of course, that didn’t mean he could be dismissed, and he was certainly much stronger than me, but it meant I had a fighting chance.

He fluttered his wings as if showing them off as he descended from the top to the ground, and throughout this process, he never once took his eyes off mine.

Looking directly into my eyes with an expression full of confidence, bordering on arrogance, he asked:

“Who are you? And where is that damn succubus?”

“Are you talking about Lilith?”

Hearing my words, he frowned and spoke to me in a solemn voice.

“Who do you think you are, speaking so casually to me? Don’t act like you’re something special just because you have some magical power, you inferior human.”

“Who am I? That’s my question to you.”

He let out a scornful laugh and opened his mouth.

“Don’t tell me you don’t know me? You don’t know ‘Fenex,’ the youngest executioner of the Babylon Kingdom?”

“Fenex… Ah… so that’s why I didn’t recognize you.”

Fenex.

He was certainly someone I knew about.

Of course, I had never seen him before, as he had died before I even went to the battlefield.

I spoke to this executioner whom I was seeing for the first time:

“Of course I know you. I just couldn’t recognize you because I’ve never seen you in person.”

“Didn’t I just tell you not to speak casually to me? Are you too inferior as a human to understand my words?”

Fenex, filled with anger, drew the sword at his waist.

Then, pointing that red-glowing sword at me, he continued:

“I’ll specially kill you myself. Consider it an honor. You’re being killed by me, who will soon make my name known throughout the world.”

“Well… that’s admirable confidence…”

His confidence, emanating from his skills, was certainly impressive.

However, his judgment of the situation was somewhat lacking.

“Instead of wasting time with useless talk, you’d better kill me quickly. Otherwise, you’ll end up being killed by our Empress again, like last time.”

***

About 5 minutes before Albert and Fenex’s confrontation.

Albert’s party members, gathered in their respective dormitories, spotted him running somewhere through the window.

The first to speak upon seeing this was Chris.

“Where’s he going?”

“The princess is behind him too?”

“Let’s go too.”

The one who said this was, of course, Chris, who was already preparing to go down.

“Are you really going?”

“Are you going to let him show off alone like that?”

“Are you going to stop him?”

To Briton’s timid question, Chris smiled meaningfully and said:

“Of course we should show off together.”

“Are you serious?”

“If you don’t want to come, then don’t, you cowards. I’m going.”

Chris soon went down to the first-floor lobby and escaped from the dormitory, evading the teachers who tried to stop him.

There, he found Reina, Rachel, and Elin, who had experienced the same situation.

“Don’t tell me you all…?”

“Why did you come out alone?”

“They’re cowards who don’t want to come out.”

As Chris was criticizing Briton and Reicle, who hadn’t come out yet, a voice was heard from behind.

“Who exactly are you talking about? Surely not us?”

“Finally showed up, cowards.”

At the source of the voice were Reicle and Briton, who had finally appeared, and Reina spoke toward Reicle:

“You came out even though you’re not in our party?”

“Unlike you, I don’t have the mindset of ‘not my party, not my problem.'”

As the two engaged in a meaningless battle of nerves, Rachel, with a serious expression, said:

“Shut up and let’s go quickly.”