Chapter 141: A Single Wound

7th Floor of the Demonic Palace.
The Peak of Purgatory.
A place teeming with apostles.
There, an unprecedented disturbance broke out.

BOOOOM!
An apostle blocking the passage was hit directly by a spell and shattered completely.
The mage who destroyed that apostle glared with eyes glimmering like a galaxy, radiating burning fury.
But she wasn’t the only one consumed by rage.

Black hair fluttered past her.
A jet-black aura surged from a sword, flashing ominously.
In that instant, around a hundred monsters charging toward them were all slaughtered in unison.
Beneath the black hair, crimson eyes boiled with fury.

Sharin Sazaris, top student of the Department of Magic.
Iris Hyserion, top student of the Department of Martial Arts.
The strength of these two second-year students was enough to push through even the 7th floor of the Demonic Palace.

In their eyes burned a shared emotion—
Urgency.

Hanon Airei and Isabel Luna.
After the two were caught in a Demonic Palace Transference incident—
Everyone present immediately formed a rescue squad.

The Demonic Palace Transference is the most dangerous kind of accident, with a 95% fatality rate.
The most critical factor in surviving it is how low of a floor you were transferred to.
Nothing matters more than that.

Sharin read the spatial flow of the Demonic Palace like a Milky Way.
And then, she delivered the most despairing news to everyone.

“……The 9th floor.”

Hanon and Isabel had been transferred to the 9th floor of the Demonic Palace.
When that news broke, everyone’s faces froze.

The deepest part of the Demonic Palace.
A place no generation other than the Azure Sky Generation had ever reached.
Falling there was as good as receiving a death sentence.

“We have to go to the 9th floor.”
The first one to speak was Seron.

Ever since learning that Hanon had been caught in the Demonic Palace Transference,
She had remained quiet, calmly absorbing the situation.
What filled Seron’s eyes had never changed from the start.

No matter what floor Hanon had fallen to—
She had intended to go rescue him from the beginning.

“Prince Sweet Potato and Isabel are waiting for us there.”
Even if someone told her it was impossible, she wouldn’t even bother listening.
Hanon is there.
That alone was reason enough for her to go.

“Wait.”
Someone stopped Seron.

It was none other than Iris.
Even for someone like Seron, the words of the Third Imperial Princess carried weight.
Still, Seron was prepared to act immediately if Iris said anything different.

“One of you—go outside and report the situation. Get every bit of support we can from the outside. This is a direct order from the Third Princess, Iris Hyserion.”
Iris revealed the crest of the Hyserion Imperial Family.

At those words, Seron’s eyes widened.

“You’re not the only one who wants to save him.”
Iris had been planning ever since she first heard the news.

“We’ll split into advance and support teams. The advance team will descend through the floors. The support team will follow behind with every bit of backup they can gather.”

“We’ll also request rescue support from the other academies. From the 5th floor onward, the paths merge with the other academies, so the support team will link up with them and bring them along.”

She gave orders more calmly than anyone.
At her charisma and leadership, every student nodded in unison.
In that moment, everyone understood why Iris was being hailed as the next Emperor.

The Final Villainess, Iris Hyserion.
They were reminded again of the weight that name carried.

“Sharin Sazaris, you can track them, right?”
“Yep, sure can~”

Sharin had already completed a tracking spell through the Demonic Palace.
Like Seron, she was fully intent on rescuing them no matter where they had ended up.

“Then I’ll now announce the members of the advance team.”
The formation had already been carefully thought out in advance.
A team powerful enough to break through the Demonic Palace—
A golden generation destined to surpass even the legendary Azure Sky Generation.

And now—
The strongest advance rescue squad in history.
They were descending through the Demonic Palace faster than anyone ever had before.

Frontline: Hania, Seron, Iris, Van, Aisha, Eve
Rear guard: Sharin, Poara, Dorara, Beakiring
Healing & support: Grantoni, Valencia, Joachim, Sirmiel

The most elite force in the history of Zeryon Academy.
A lineup so absurdly powerful, even a Saint had joined in at Iris’s request.

The frontline was the strongest, unbreakable shield.
The rear guard was the ultimate spear, capable of piercing anything.
The support team was strong enough to revive even the dead.

Perhaps even the 9th floor of the Demonic Palace—
Even the Evil One’s domain—might not be out of reach for this force.

Though only five can enter the Evil One’s chamber at a time,
Their sheer breakthrough power was second to none.

They raced forward, rewriting the history of descending the Demonic Palace.

RUMBLE!
Suddenly, the ground of the mountain floor collapsed, and an apostle in the shape of a giant rose to its feet.

“Poara!”
“Yes!”

At Beakiring’s call, Poara summoned her spirit.
A high-ranking elemental contractor and a Spirit Lord contractor.
The top-tier fire spirit unleashed flames, And the Spirit Lord’s wind amplified them even further.

A vortex of fire and flame surged, obliterating the upper half of the giant apostle in an instant.

But the giant apostle didn’t plan on dying quietly.
From his shattered body, monster-like rock fragments began pouring out.
As they surged toward the rear guard—

Van and Eve stepped in front to block them.

Van, the lazy genius, swung his sword, scattering a clear aura.
Eve, the unyielding azure flame, extended her sword in a blaze of blue fire.

The two of them shattered the rock monsters completely.
Though some stone shards struck them and left wounds, it was fine.

Saint Sirmiel and Joachim immediately healed their bodies.
Grantoni’s soul magic and Valencia’s curse magic followed up to reinforce them further.

Among the team, there were certainly some who didn’t normally get along.
But at this moment, they were united by a single purpose:
To save the two lost ones.

Beside them, Seron was swinging her axe with both hands.
Her face was drenched in sweat.

“Seron-senpai, you’re pushing yourself too hard.”
Aisha spoke to her gently, and Seron caught her breath with a gasp.

“I’m fine. There’s still a long way to go.”

Seron had no intention of collapsing before rescuing Hanon.
Even if she was the weakest among them, she planned to give it her all.

‘I insisted on coming along, even if it meant forcing my way in.’

Seron’s gaze swept across the others.
Realizing she was the weakest among them, she gripped her axe tightly.
The thought that she might be too powerless to save Hanon almost brought her to tears.

‘I want to grow stronger.’
Seron renewed her resolve that day.
‘I’ll become strong enough to stand by his side.’

Now wasn’t the time to cry over her weakness.
So Seron steeled her heart even more.
When he returned, she would be stronger.
She poured her earnest hope into one wish—
That he would be safe.

“Hania, the path?”
“We’re almost there.”

Hania answered Iris’s question as she cleared the very front.
They were nearly at the 8th floor.

But everyone knew—
That the real hell would begin at the 8th floor.

The difficulty between the 7th and 8th floors was entirely different.
The apostles that appeared on the 8th floor were incomparable to those on the 7th.
Each and every one of them was a named apostle.

And even among apostles, there was a ranking system, like a class hierarchy.
The 8th floor was not suited for large group operations like this.
Rather, it was better to move quietly, split up into smaller units.

Iris pressed her lips into a thin line and muttered.
Even she, known as the strongest among royalty in history, couldn’t guarantee that she could get through the 8th floor.

But she had no choice—
Hanon was down there.

The boy who had done everything he could to help her face her nightmares.
Her cousin, and the first person she had come to truly consider family.

‘Once is enough for losing someone.’
Her mother, who had died because of a nightmare.
Iris never wanted to feel that kind of pain again.

No matter what—
She would save him.

Her red eyes flared with fierce determination.

“…Oh.”

At that moment, Sharin, who had been raining magic from above, widened her eyes.
Her head snapped sharply in a new direction.

And she wasn’t the only one who reacted.
One by one, the others sensed it too and turned their heads.

A pure white light was pouring out from that direction.
Everyone there knew what that powerful, almost warm light meant.

“Isabel.”

Van, who had witnessed her awaken the Goddess’s Wings firsthand, muttered aloud.

Realizing what it meant, Sharin was the first to streak across the sky toward it.
The others quickly followed.

Sharin’s expression, flying in the lead, was tenser than ever before.
Her heart was pounding wildly.

Hanon’s face kept flashing through her mind.
Hanon was the type to always overextend himself—
Especially when it came to putting others before himself.

If anything, he was safer alone.

But what unsettled her even more was the fact that Isabel was with him.
‘My husband is an idiot.’
There was no doubt in her mind that he had recklessly thrown himself into danger.

Sharin felt a strange pressure settle in her chest.
It was the first time she had ever felt such anxiety.

Only recently had she admitted to herself that she liked Hanon.
But the way that feeling made her so worried and frantic—
That was something she had never experienced before.

This kind of anguish wasn’t happiness.
And yet, it made her want to see Hanon even more.
She just wanted him to be safe.

One bad thought after another began popping into Sharin’s head.
What if something had happened to him?
Would she even be able to handle it?

She didn’t know.
And that uncertainty terrified her.

‘Husband.’

Sharin pushed herself faster, racing toward the source of the light.

‘Husband, husband, husband.’

Calling out to him in her heart with desperate longing—
And then, she arrived.

BOOOOOM!

With an earth-shaking explosion, a massive figure, so large its head could touch the sky, collapsed to the ground.
It was the gatekeeper of the 7th floor—
A being that neither let anyone in nor out, guarding the gate from both sides.

And the one who had brought that monster down stood on two feet, gasping for breath.

Sharin widened her eyes in shock as she realized who it was.

“Isabel!”

She shouted Isabel’s nickname and descended rapidly.

“Sharin.”

Isabel also looked up at her, panting.

She was a complete mess compared to the last time Sharin had seen her—
Malnourished, exhausted, and covered in wounds.
There wasn’t a single spot on her that wasn’t injured.

But the worst part wasn’t her physical state—
It was the emotion in her eyes.

Worry, anxiety, and urgency.
All of it was overflowing from Isabel’s gaze.

Sharin felt a weight drop hard in her chest.

No.
No, no.

As she reached Isabel’s side, the latter slowly unfolded her wings.
And there—

There was a boy.

One leg nearly torn off, his left arm gone since early evening.
Not a single part of him was unscathed, and his eyes remained gently closed, refusing to open.

“Ah…”

Sharin trembled as she cupped Hanon’s cheek with a shaking hand.
The warmth of his skin was so faint that she flinched in shock.

He’s dying.
He was clearly, unmistakably dying.

Sharin’s face crumpled more than it ever had in her life.
Magic surged around her like a storm, raging uncontrollably.
Her heart felt like it was being torn to pieces.
All the strength drained from her body, as if she might collapse then and there.

It felt like the whole world had shattered.
She couldn’t catch her breath.

She had never felt like this before.
Not even on the day her mother died from syphilis—she had watched that scene with stoic detachment.

And yet now, watching a boy who wasn’t even family dying in front of her…
It had broken her more than anything ever had.

Only then did Sharin realize.
She can’t live without this person.

The feeling she had vaguely thought of as just love—
At that moment, she finally understood that it was real love.

“I’m sorry… He got hurt trying to protect me…”
Isabel spoke with difficulty, struggling to steady her emotions.

For a moment, Sharin felt a surge of anger toward Isabel—
But she held it back.

It wasn’t Isabel’s fault.
She was only trying to help Sharin cope by taking the blame upon herself.

“Kyaaaaah!”
Just then, Seron, who had been frantically chasing after Sharin, let out a scream.

She shoved aside Aisha, who had been helping her, and rushed straight toward Hanon.

“Sweet potato prince, no—no, no! You can’t die! Heal him! Heal him, now! Saint, hurry, huuuurry!”
Seron broke down completely, rambling incoherently.
Her face was already a mess, soaked in tears.

“Pull yourselves together.”
At that moment, Iris appeared, snapping at both Sharin and Seron.

She too had been deeply shaken by the sight of Hanon’s condition—
But she was the leader here.

More than that, she was the imperial princess destined to lead the Empire.
That was who she was.

So Iris held on to her sanity by the thinnest thread.
It was thanks to a lifetime of training as royalty.

“Saint.”
“Understood.”

“I’ve already requested backup from the Saintess above. She’s on her way. For now, everyone left—start setting up a defensive perimeter.”
Iris issued swift and sharp orders, catching her breath.

Her vision blurred from seeing Hanon like this, but she bit her lip and forced herself to endure.

“Isabel.”
“…Yes, Lady Iris.”
Isabel replied with a sunken face, unable to take her eyes off Hanon.

“We’ll talk about the details later. You should get treatment and rest as well.”
Isabel bowed her head.

Watching her, Iris exhaled deeply and turned away.

She wanted more than anything to stay at Hanon’s side as family—
But staying with the rescue team now would be of more help in protecting him.

As his cousin,
As the imperial princess,
As the leader—
Iris resolutely moved to continue leading the team.

The injury of a single person had shaken each of them in different ways—
And just like that, the Autumn Demonic Palace Campaign came to an end.