It had already been about two hours since the Demon King’s army had unleashed monsters into the Academy.
During that time, Sertia had been unable to move from the dean’s office.
Keh-heh!
She vomited black blood onto the floor. Her once evenly split hair was now mostly black.
Sertia was too weak to move. Intense pain spread throughout her body. With magical energy suffocating the surroundings, she couldn’t muster her strength.
A powerful magical force blew in, strong enough to push away the surrounding mana.
Sertia had been suppressing the curse with the mana in her body, but that act was now being interfered with.
The speed at which the curse spread through her body accelerated.
The barrier is, uh… This is bad… I have to go…
Sertia got up from the bed, placing her feet on the floor.
She couldn’t stand on her two legs. The leg she placed on the ground trembled visibly.
Her body was shaking with chills, yet her temperature was high.
Her head was spinning, and when she closed her eyes, she thought she heard a voice telling her to let go and rest.
But she had to go.
I have to repair the barrier…
It was something only she could do in the empire.
Finally, she grasped the furniture positioned in the dean’s office, barely managing to rise.
Standing up, she saw a mirror.
The reflection of Sertia in the mirror was significantly different from before.
Her once-symbolic red hair was mostly dyed black, and her left eye was now a crimson hue.
The remaining blue light in her right eye had become one of the few pieces of evidence that she had once been human.
Although Sertia took some solace in that fact…
Ah…
Today, the Sertia in the mirror was on the verge of losing the color of her remaining right eye.
The light in her once-blue gemstone-like pupil had dulled, tinged slightly with red.
Mixing the blue and red colors made it a hue closer to purple.
Sertia wept in that spot. She knew how much time she had left.
No matter how much she denied it and struggled, time flowed on.
Killing the mage who decapitated the Demon King was nothing more than the ticking of a clock.
Tock, tick, tock…
No matter what magic was used or how much mana was wrung out to twist causality, it was impossible to stop the flow of time.
Sertia knelt down.
She thought she had long since accepted this, yet now, the mage was terrified of death.
In truth, perhaps no human truly existed who wasn’t afraid of death.
It wasn’t like this when rolling on the battlefield. If she could die fighting until the end, she would have thought that in itself was an honorable death.
Only then did she realize.
Sertia wasn’t afraid of dying.
She was afraid of being a powerless husk, rotting away.
Dying without doing anything, under the sympathetic gaze of others, was a horrifying experience.
For a mage, it was no different from facing death.
Soon enough, she would die in two different ways.
It took a considerable amount of time to accept that fact.
*
The monster invasion at the Academy was something that had to happen sooner or later.
If this world were a novel, and Ariel was the protagonist, then the story had to create a background for the protagonist to grow.
Thus, there was nothing surprising about the events transpiring. It was actually strange that things had been peaceful until now.
However, I had removed two of the most significant culprits behind this incident.
Wasn’t it a bit too much for an outsider to get too involved in an episode of a novel?
That part concerned me slightly.
So, to maintain fairness, I retired the two top powers of the empire from the battlefield.
With this, things should more or less fit together. Since I was a neutral monster, I wasn’t siding with anyone in this incident.
This event was likely a contrived episode meant to raise Ariel’s growth rate.
If that’s the case, it might not be good for me to erase even the background for his growth by interfering.
So, I decided not to step in anymore. It was about time for a supporting character to step back.
After tossing Reina into the survivor group, I took my leave. I warned Rena not to follow me.
To be honest, she would just be a hindrance.
I wouldn’t have worried too much if she were as capable as Sera or Ariel, but Rena seemed like she could die with just the wrong move.
And then there was Albert…
…
I don’t really know.
To be honest, looking back now, I was quite sensitive earlier.
This was the first time using the power of the Demon King. I felt a fleeting sense of being not myself for a moment.
I poured out the bottled-up frustrations that had been accumulating within me up until now, throwing it at him.
So, maybe that’s why I felt a sense of relief now that things had settled down. I had even sternly warned him to stop leaking my information.
I didn’t trust him. If necessary, I would be willing to return one day and kill him.
But, was there really a reason to do that?
Regardless of how it played out, the end would be disastrous no matter what.
If, by chance, things went awry, I’d decided to kill all the people in the empire and destroy the empire.
Only after reaching that conclusion could I feel a bit more at ease mentally.
If I got too caught up in my worries, I’d just stagnate. I resolved to do what I needed to do right now.
The fragments of the Demon King that fell into the Academy totaled five.
One of them was in the possession of Sertia’s subordinate, Seir, meaning there were four seeds of the Demon King wandering around the Academy.
One was accidentally eliminated by Iria on her way, while Reina and Albert each dealt with one, leaving only one remaining.
However, that last remaining one was exceptionally strong.
While the other monsters fed the fragments to create seeds, this one was different.
The reason the Demon King’s army had turned low-level monsters into seeds was simpler than expected.
Monsters of a higher hierarchy were difficult to control and nearly impossible to transport unnoticed inside the Academy.
But with one, it was just about possible. It was a special creature that the Demon King’s cadre, Belial, had been saving.
While having physical specs that were incomparable to other monsters, it also possessed a higher intellect than a usual monster.
It was a rare creature capable of using magic by itself.
They had fed the fragment to such a being.
At the current moment, the garden inside the Academy was akin to hell.
The professors had lined up to confront the enemy, but it was no contest.
Kyaaaaaaah!!!
The seed of the Demon King let out a roar.
Just from that alone, the weaker ones lost their fighting spirit.
It resembled a wolf in appearance, with a purple horn on its forehead.
Having absorbed the fragment, its body was dyed an inky black, with flowing silvery-white mane rippling like flames.
It was already a powerful monster, but with the fragment, it had grown even larger, and all its stats had increased.
That’s going to be tough.
Iria thought as she noticed the energy from the fragment drawing her in.
Naturally, she had no intention of fighting it and instead watched from a distance.
The seed of the Demon King was essentially created by monsters absorbing the power of the fragment.
If the inherent power of the monster wasn’t great, then even becoming a seed wouldn’t result in a powerful existence.
There was an absolute limit to the potential of the growth in statistics when it became a seed.
However, the monster before her was strong even before becoming a seed. So now, it had become an absolute powerhouse.
Iria assessed the monstrous power of the creature from afar.
…
It was slightly less powerful than Seir, who had the fragment.
It appeared to lag a bit in comparison, but that was still an impressive level.
Iria could tell that if she didn’t draw her Red Sword, it would take quite a long time to quell it.
The thing was, it was definitely not an opponent who students would dare challenge, and even the professors left would struggle against it.
Perhaps only if Albert and Reina came together could they barely manage to take it down.
Recognizing that, Iria did her best to ensure the two wouldn’t engage in battle, leaving the rest to Ariel, the main character.
If you die here, then you were just meant to be a vessel from the beginning.
Objectively speaking, at this point, he stood no chance.
Ariel was still weaker than an average professor, let alone the seeds of the Demon King.
Though he was called the strongest student in the academy, there was always a massive gap between students and professors.
However, Iria seemed hopeful that he had something that could bridge that power disparity.
Grrrrrr…
The monster slowly advanced through the professors who had lost their fighting spirit.
As the monster stepped forward, the professors retreated further. Even the seasoned veterans were terrified in the face of overwhelming power.
They had been battling for a long time but had yet to inflict a single wound on the monster.
As time passed, the professors were the ones suffering losses instead.
It was at the moment when despair settled, and no one dared to stand up against the monster.
Among the retreating professors, there was one human gripping a sword and taking stance.
…Starlight Ignition.
White starlight descended.
While everyone else retreated in fear, there stood one boy who did not do so.
His actions held no hesitation.
When everyone was saying it was impossible and feeling discouraged, he charged forward with his sword against the monster.
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