Harvest Festival (7)

1.

A Legion Commander of the Demon Lord Army.

The Lich, Mortis.

Now a nightmare-inducing existence known by the moniker “The Creator of Death,” he was originally the first Magic Tower Lord of the Southern Magic Tower.

An authority on summoning magic and mental magic, he became interested in alchemy.

Today, alchemy is mainly focused on the potion business, with the ultimate goal of studying the transformation of matter. But hundreds of years ago, the goal was different.

Creating something from nothing.

Challenging the power of God was the beginning of alchemy.

When almost all Magic scholars scorned it as a bogus art, Mortis’s eyes sparkled like an explorer who had discovered a new continent.

Exploring the truth of alchemy was like exploring a new world.

He felt like he had become a god.

And that feeling led him to commit the sin of wanting to become a god.

He wanted to become a god.

Was that why?

He contracted an incurable disease and began to die quickly.

He couldn’t face a futile death.

He wanted to explore more.

He wanted to research more.

He wanted to look down on humans like that.

So he gave up being human.

He transferred his soul into the skeleton of an ancient Wizard.

The already dead body could be moved with Magical power alone.

Having gained eternal life, he began to study creation in earnest.

The path to truth.

Nothing could stop him.

If anyone dared to stop him, he would get rid of them.

He did not hesitate to perform human sacrifices for his research.

The massacre that killed hundreds of thousands of people.

He laughed and was moved the moment he created a monster from the corpses he obtained at that time.

A new monster.

A new life form.

He thought it was the first step in creation.

When the war broke out, the whole world was his laboratory.

Having developed a taste for using humans as materials, he killed them and used them for research.

However, the long war entered a truce.

The Hero had swept through the Demon Realm once and even invaded the Demon King’s Castle, greatly reducing the Demon Lord Army’s strength, so they had no choice but to stop the war.

That meant Mortis’s research was coming to a halt.

He needed corpses.

Hundreds, thousands, no, tens of thousands of corpses.

So he decided to kill.

A lot.

The Imperial Academy, where fresh and high-quality materials were gathered in one place.

If he used the students there as materials, he would surely create something tremendous, unlike anything he had created so far.

So he made a deal with a suitable guy and entrusted him with collecting the materials…

It failed.

By the sword of a warrior from the Southern Kingdom.

No.

It couldn’t fail.

Once a question arose, he had to resolve it.

He decided to take matters into his own hands.

The groundwork was done.

He injected Demonic energy into some of the students and turned them into his puppets.

They would run wild within the Academy, killing their fellow students and being used as sacrifices to open the Gate to the Demon Realm.

He also found a student who would become the door to cross over from the Demon Realm to the Academy.

A girl with very intense Magical power.

A girl from the Agnia family.

It was very easy to control her.

If you stimulate someone with jealousy, with the same jealousy, it works.

Preparations were almost complete.

Now, all he had to do was cross over there and open the Gate to the Demon Realm.

Just as he was about to swallow the girl.

“!!”

Divinity pierced his head.

Hot.

He shouldn’t feel pain because it wasn’t his main body.

Even if he felt pain, it was fire now, so he felt heat.

“Kuaaaaaaa!!”

Mortis roared.

Flames soared high like a tornado.

The pain continued to spread.

Was this the pain he was feeling for the first time in decades?

He decided to retreat for now.

But.

Divinity was binding his feet like chains.

As if telling him not to run away and wait.

There was no choice.

The door wasn’t complete, but he decided to forcibly open it and go out.

Getting out of here was the priority.

2.

The sticky Demonic energy unpleasantly clung to the skin.

Demonic energy was spreading throughout the Academy.

The professors were deploying a Barrier to prevent it from spreading further, but the concentration of Demonic energy was too high.

This was no ordinary matter.

Some were convinced after seeing what was happening.

That a Legion Commander of the Demon Lord Army was coming to the Academy.

A transcendent Wizard who had surpassed the 13th Circle.

The Creator of Death.

The Lich, Mortis.

The protagonist of all the massacres in history, who had destroyed a kingdom, was coming to write another tragic history.

This was not a problem that could be solved by the Academy’s faculty alone.

The Imperial Knights had dispatched troops from the Imperial Knights due to the Harvest festival, but the number was only the size of one company, which was not enough to stop the Legion Commander.

At least the Hero had to come.

Some said to run away.

Some said to defend.

The two opinions were in conflict.

Fortunately, the Saintess’s quick action prevented the Gate to the Demon Realm from opening immediately.

And that Saintess was running around the Academy busily with a sword in her hand.

Where is he?

I have to find him.

He must be here.

“Saintess!”

It was then.

Someone urgently grabbed the Saintess.

It was her escort knight, Rael.

He had just returned to the Academy after participating in the Harvest festival.

“Where are you going? No, before that, what is that sword?”

The Saintess holding a sword.

It was both discordant and harmonious.

“There’s no time to explain. Rael Hyung, please stop the students who are running wild due to Demon Energy Poisoning.”

One or two students had begun to run wild.

As if they had received orders in advance.

Those who had become Mortis’s puppets were attacking people.

“Where are you going?!”

He urgently grabbed the Saintess, who was about to run out again after giving the order.

“It’s dangerous for you to be walking around now. Let’s go to the temple first.”

For an escort knight, the Saintess’s safety was the top priority.

“We have to stop the Legion Commander.”

“Yes? Legion Commander?”

“The Lich, Mortis.”

He knew.

He hadn’t faced him directly, but his infamy was well-known.

He thought this incident was the work of the Demon Lord Army, but he never thought that the Legion Commander would come in person.

“If we don’t defeat him, the Gate to the Demon Realm will open.”

“How are you going to stop him, Saintess?”

“Like this.”

The Saintess extended her sword.

The Sword Dance stopped before piercing Rael’s neck.

Fast.

If that was serious, his head would have been cut off.

“This is an order, Rael. Stop the students who are running wild. I’m going to defeat the Legion Commander. If you stop me one more time, I will rule with the sword.”

Gulp.

Rael swallowed hard.

The Saintess’s bloodshot eyes were eerie.

Her usual lovely appearance was nowhere to be found.

She was like a general now.

Overwhelming.

He was overwhelmed by the atmosphere.

If he grabbed her one more time, she really would cut him down.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be back without getting hurt.”

The Saintess gave a gentle smile once and ran out again.

He had to grab her.

He couldn’t grab her.

Rael decided to trust the Saintess.

The Papal Authority would punish him if they found out about this.

But for now, he decided to follow the Saintess’s orders.

Let’s stop the students who are running wild.

I don’t know where he is.

I keep detecting Demonic energy, but I don’t know.

Demonic energy is floating everywhere, as if I’m in the Demon Realm.

Then, the Saintess saw a person.

The Vice-Commander of the Knights, who was commanding the knights.

It was Gale.

“Gale!”

At the shout calling his name, Gale turned his head towards the voice.

The Saintess was running over.

“Come with me!”

The Saintess grabbed Gale by the collar and forcibly dragged him away.

“W-What are you doing?!”

“I need you.”

“I’m sorry, but I’m busy right now. Let’s spar later.”

The Saintess paused for a moment.

“Who is the next person in charge here after the Vice-Commander of the Knights?”

“It’s me.”

A knight raised his hand.

“I’ll borrow the Vice-Commander of the Knights, so the command of the unit is yours. The fallen students have Demon Energy Poisoning, so they need to be treated with Divinity. Suppress the students who have started to run wild at all costs. I’ll take care of the treatment. And just in case, request support from the Imperial Knights now. If you say that the Gate to the Demon Realm might open, they’ll send them quickly.”

The knights were dumbfounded.

The Saintess’s clear command.

She looked like she had experience as an officer.

“And don’t run away. If you want to live, fulfill your duty as a knight and survive. Those who run away and survive will die by my hand. Then.”

The Saintess dragged Gale away.

“Saintess, please let go of this and explain it to me first!”

“A Legion Commander of the Demon Lord Army will appear at the Academy.”

“Yes?”

“So please find him. A place with more intense Demonic energy or a place where the Barrier is covered with Demonic energy.”

“The Demonic energy is too intense right now.”

Gale was sensitive to Demonic energy, but it was difficult to find the place Elia was talking about in a place that was turning into an environment like the Demon Realm.

“If you can’t find him, you’ll die by my hand.”

She was unreasonable.

But what she said seemed serious, so he was scared.

He had a fleeting thought that dying to this girl would be more terrible than dying to the Legion Commander.

“Give me some time to concentrate.”

The Saintess let go of Gale’s collar.

Gale closed his eyes and focused on the Demonic energy.

The smell of Demonic energy, like burnt corpses, wafted from all directions.

Concentrate.

Concentrate.

I can’t die by the Saintess’s hand.

And.

A more terrible smell wafted from the west.

“West! It’s west!”

“You could do it. Lead the way.”

3.

“Huh… Huh…?”

Yuriel’s eyes widened.

“W-What is this…?”

The brilliant light that bloomed from her fingertips.

The warm warmth that could be felt was the Divinity that the Saintess had given her.

Divinity was entering Reine’s body.

She didn’t do anything special.

Her hand had only slightly touched Reine’s body.

Should she say it was thanks to that?

Reine’s convulsions stopped.

She was trying to catch her breath from her foaming mouth.

“Let’s go back quickly in this gap.”

Yohan took advantage of the gap where Reine had become docile and started running.

“Kuaaaaaaa!!”

But after only a few steps, Reine’s body bounced up and roared.

“R-Reine, calm down!”

Yohan bent his upper body so that Reine, who was on his back, would not fall, and firmly grabbed her legs.

“Uh-oh…!”

But he fell over because she was moving too violently.

Reine gurgled and rolled on the floor.

It was as if she was fighting something inside her body.

“Ugh…! Uwaaaaaaack!!”

Reine began to vomit black water.

She spewed out a sticky liquid as if her organs were melting.

The black liquid wriggled like a living creature and crawled on the floor.

It was as if thousands of earthworms were wriggling.

And those earthworms made a circle and drew several lines.

One Magic circle was completed like that.

Yohan and his party could only watch without being able to do anything.

The Magic circle shone.

It was activated.

An eerie energy flowed, and dozens of arm bones stretched out and opened the Magic circle.

Something was coming up from the Magic circle.

“This… This…”

A black skeleton wearing a robe.

Purple flames flickered in its black, empty eye sockets.

“Who is it? Who is trying to interfere with my research?”

Overwhelming Magical power.

Overwhelming Demonic energy.

A nightmare had jumped into reality.

The black skeleton lowered its head and brought its face close to Yuriel.

“I’ll ask again. Who interfered with my research, little girl?”