*
Pina Grancia fainted and then awoke.
Thud thud.
The coldness of the floor seeped through her helmet. Darkness surrounded her.
“..Where am I..?”
It was a different place, similar to where Licht and Kainel were trapped.
The void created spaces as if bugs were gnawing on leaves.
She definitely was knocked to the ground by the titan’s attack, yet…
Was it Licht’s foresight? Thanks to the masterpiece she was wearing, she wasn’t hurt.
“..Mardol? Did you get sucked in here too?”
At that moment, a familiar voice sounded from behind. An elf mage with impressive twin braids.
“Ariel..?”
“What the hell..! You shouldn’t be here too!”
However, Ariel’s red eyes were lowered as she spoke with a quiver.
The moment she felt something was off, a strong pressure slammed into Pina’s body with a crash.
‘It’s the power of might. I’m done for.’
Her whole body lost strength, feeling a heavy weight pressing down on her. It was a feeling she had experienced before.
Realizing the crisis, Pina struggled to move her body but it was useless.
“Professor Dennis cast the magic circle, but…. I can’t move at all..!”
Thud, collapsing back onto the cold floor, Pina finally grasped the situation.
The professors, including Drake and Dennis, were stuck to the ground like gum.
Fortunately, it seemed that they blocked the titan’s attack with the 3D magic circle, and no students were severely injured.
“Mardol..!! No..!! Get up..!!”
Only around Ariel did a halo of light exist. A shield created by the holy sword.
It was the one Kainel had given to his lover before being pulled in.
The fire mage tried desperately to lift the fallen Pina, but failed.
Pina’s consciousness was fading, unable to get blood to her head.
‘..I should have protected Su-hyun.’
Even through her blurry vision, she recalled the man wearing the black knight helmet.
A hero from another world.
He always stepped forward to save people, but beneath that bravado, he had deep wounds.
‘….’
He felt pain when cut and swallowed his suffering in silence. He was a weak person.
Being the chosen hero didn’t make a difference.
From watching him, she realized he was just another human.
The truth that only Pina knew was that after the showdown with the Head, she had cared for him when he was in bed suffering.
Perhaps that was when Pina began to see him as a precious person.
Just moments ago, the small wounds on Licht’s body fading. That was why Pina had cast healing magic on him.
A foolish man who jumped into the flowing valley water for her without hesitation.
‘……So weak.’
He changed after meeting the Black Knight. He had been swinging his sword alone in solitude before.
Every word and action from that man came to her as warmth.
It was like applying medicine to a wounded wolf.
Just thinking that he wasn’t by her side made her feel a surge of dread.
He was someone so pure and naive that it felt greedy of her to want him.
Even though she was a princess of the Grancia Empire.
Lee Soo-hyun and Pina Grancia’s hearts were connected. Now, she could only feel a single, clear heartbeat instead of overlapping ones.
‘I have to help Su-hyun.’
Crack, Pina tightened her grip on the ground with her hands.
She endured the oppressive force.
The very air vibrated with the power; grinding her teeth, she persisted, and the glass knight straightened up with a rough breath.
“..Mardol? How do you..?”
Ariel couldn’t close her mouth as she watched Pina overcome the power.
Golden wolf eyes shimmered in the glass helmet.
“Ariel, shoot your magic toward the front. Use the strongest one you can.”
That gaze was piercing through the hidden enemy.
“Uh..? I got it..!”
“Dragon Prominence!”
A magic circle unfolded from Ariel’s palm, sending a fireball with a dragon head flying. The firecracker explosion cut through the darkness, turning into a dazzling display of fireworks.
Boom!
At that moment, a white leg stretched down from the sky like a pillar, revealing the hidden Intinium.
“Uh.. um, how did you know? Finn oppa said I wouldn’t be found here..!”
A bewildered blue-haired woman couldn’t hide her expression. She was hiding using the darkness around her, except for the ground.
As another Demon King of Might revealed herself, Pina charged forward with her sword.
That woman was not the real Demon King. Just a fake mimicking the shell.
She recalled what happened in Tardun’s shrine.
The corpse that turned into a deck of cards as it was cut by Licht’s sword. And the sticky blood that had stained her mouth.
All of this signified the illusion created by the Magic Hat. Paper puppets made entirely of cards.
She knew the truth from a similar experience she had in the Imperial Palace as a child.
Bang! Bang! Like someone trying to stomp on ants, Intinium’s attack targeted Pina. Shadows loomed over her head.
With the sensation of space warping and being pulled in, Pina prepared to sacrifice an arm or two and ran.
At that moment, fireworks exploded toward the titan’s foot, the blast sounding like thunder, opening a path to the Demon King.
“Pina!! Don’t worry and approach!!”
When Pina turned back, she saw Ariel drenched in sweat.
The fire mage was casting spells to assist the glass knight while blocking the Demon King’s attacks.
“Uh..? How did you get here..?”
Seeing Pina approaching, Intinium looked flustered. She shouldn’t be able to move after being hit by the power of might.
How could she be moving even though she wasn’t a hero?
Even if that mage named Ariel was protected by the holy sword, it was odd for this glass knight to be advancing toward her in this situation.
Pina Grancia had now reached right in front of Intinium.
She attempted the technique she had failed in her year-end exam. A sword technique that imitated her father.
The one Licht practiced in the Swordsmanship Training Hall.
She needed to let go of her greed. She had to relax her strength and aim for her opponent’s weakness.
In the end, she had to grip tightly and strike down her opponent.
She slowly raised her sword into the sky─.
“Heart Slash.”
Pina perfectly replicated Emperor Rock’s axe strike.
Boom! A sound echoed as the air exploded along with it.
“Kaak!!”
Intinium’s body split in half, transforming into a pile of cards.
*
She thought Finn was dead. But what was this scene now?
“..Kuh, haha.”
She definitely severed the head, but a new one popped out from where it was cut.
Moreover, there were no previous injuries; it was all clean. Kainel and I felt a sense of freezing horror.
The Finn now was so different it could have passed for another person.
The entire body had transformed into a shade of purple.
The short hair had turned into long hair, and it looked like someone mixed red and blue together.
“In the end, forcing my dead sister back to life was impossible.”
Instinctively, the grip on my sword trembled.
Is this phase three?
From the start, unlike what I knew, there were two Demon Kings of Might.
The Cyclops was divided into upper and lower halves, and didn’t use their powers against Finn.
Even before dying, when she laughed while mentioning Intinium, it felt unsettling.
One must have split her personality in twain.
Or perhaps she had fused with her twin sister. Many possibilities existed.
All the demon kings here were nothing but madmen.
“Hey, was it Licht? I’m really impressed by you guys.”
The Demon King with slit eyes smiled at us, causing chills to run down my spine.
“Licht. That guy’s appearance….”
“That’s probably the true identity.”
The taste of iron filled my mouth. How was I going to face that?
Might (武力) and Might (無力).
The Demon King could use conflicting abilities that the fallen hero possessed.
“I’ll reintroduce myself. My name is Infinity.”
The purple-haired Demon King’s previous fiery temperament seemed to have dissipated, appearing calm.
As he spread his arms, trying to stab a thought into the careless one.
“….Let’s have some more fun, heroes.”
The surroundings shimmered and changed. Infinity vanished along with the Mind Sword falling to the ground.
“Licht..?”
“Kai!! You’re alive!!”
After the shimmer, Pina and Ariel appeared before me.
Looking at the scattered deck of cards on the ground, it seemed they had dealt with my sister.
“Ariel.. Are you hurt anywhere?”
“Pina, you weren’t in some other void, were you?”
Panicked, I couldn’t even mention her alias.
If the Demon King really was dead, it should naturally cause the power to dissipate.
But the void was still intact.
The danger was still very real. I scanned the surroundings for the whereabouts of the Demon King.
“Yes, Ariel and I handled it.”
Pina spoke as if she knew nothing, recounting the situation.
“..Huh? But the professors aren’t here. They should have been with us..?”
Ariel, quick on the uptake, pointed out an anomaly.
The people who had been trapped with them just moments ago were nowhere to be seen.
“Kainel, quickly set up a shield with the holy sword!!”
Damn it, the Ten Heroes had isolated us so we couldn’t get help.
Excluding the four of us, the area was nothing but emptiness.
“I never thought the hero from the prophecy would be in the Academy.”
At that moment, I looked up at a voice I heard. The Demon King of Might floated in the sky.
Behind him stood the Cyclops with its upper and lower halves connected. Now in its complete form.
“Dear hero, so it was you.”
In dazzling brightness, the white titan and Infinity mentioned a hero of a name I had never heard before.
