A demonic ritual was unfolding in the heart of the bustling city square.
The fountain at the center of the plaza no longer spewed water. Instead, it poured forth a sinister, corrupted energy.
Above it, the Cross of Johannes floated in midair, devouring everything around it.
This land had already become the domain of demons.
“Ah… this feels wonderful. This sense of freedom. It’s been far too long.”
Standing beneath the fountain and gazing up at the Cross of Johannes, Andras reveled in the power surging through her body.
Right now, she could cast Tier 6 magic without end.
She could crush those weak, helpless insects until they burst.
“Look at this power. Now this is what true authority looks like.”
A mountain of corpses lay piled beneath Andras’s feet.
They were imperial soldiers who had rushed here in an attempt to stop the demonic ritual.
Hundreds of soldiers and dozens of knights had risked their lives to stop it, yet not a single one had succeeded.
“How pitiful. Kuhuhu…”
Andras crushed the corpses one by one with gravity until they burst.
It was an act of pointless cruelty, done for no other reason than to amuse herself.
“Once the Hellgate opens, His descent will finally come. We weren’t able to perform the ritual for His descent on this land, but… there’s nothing we can do about that now. As long as we can bring Him down somehow, that’s enough. Then our long-cherished wish will finally come true. Isn’t that what you want as well, Berith?”
“You really do have such a boring wish.”
Berith sat on the edge of the fountain, idly flipping a gold coin into the air.
“You seem to think of Him as some almighty being who grants every wish. Let me tell you something interesting.”
“…What?”
“The one you know is nothing like the being you imagine. In truth, He’s absurd, insignificant, and utterly unimpressive.”
BOOM-!!!
The space where Berith had been sitting crumpled under crushing gravity.
Andras’s outstretched hand was pointed directly at him.
Of course, the attack hadn’t gotten so much as a speck of dust on Berith.
“You may be a useful collaborator, but I will not tolerate insults toward Him. Choose your words very carefully.”
Andras’s razor-sharp warning was directed at Berith.
Berith merely stared back at her with emotionless eyes.
“You’ve never found it strange, have you? Then again, I suppose that’s only natural when you’re trapped inside that tiny little mind of yours and can’t see beyond it.”
“What exactly are you trying to say?”
“Andras. I’ll tell you ‘One Truth.’ No matter what you ask, I swear upon my very existence that I will answer with the truth.”
Andras’s eyes narrowed.
She had once looked into Berith and his abilities.
Berith was said to speak nothing but the truth at moments like this.
Of course, apparently no one ever believed that truth.
“The truth, you say…”
Naturally, there was something Andras wanted to know.
“…What exactly is ‘He’?”
The true identity of the Evil God.
The Evil God existed in demonic records, but to Andras, He was a being from myths thousands of years before she had even been born.
Countless demons had tried to resurrect the Evil God, but none had ever succeeded.
The Hero had always stopped them.
They could speculate about the Evil God’s powers from the descriptions and praises left in ancient records, but those powers had never once been proven.
Andras pursued the Evil God simply because she was a demon.
“Is that the truth you want to know?”
“…Yes.”
“What kind of being is He, huh…”
Berith caught the gold coin he had been flipping and answered.
“He is ‘nothing.’”
BOOOOM-!!!!
Everything around where Berith had been sitting collapsed inward.
Andras had unleashed a gravitational field and crushed the entire area.
“You worthless insect…! You dare insult Him…? I knew I should’ve killed you long ago…!! You damned liar…!!!”
Enraged, Andras began preparing magic to finish Berith off.
But Berith was nowhere to be seen.
“…He ran away. Fine. It doesn’t matter. I’ve already figured out how his ability works. The next time I see him, I’ll make sure to kill him.”
As if on cue, a group of sacrifices arrived to soothe Andras’s rage.
Five figures stood before her, weapons drawn.
Andras even recognized one of them.
But that hardly mattered anymore.
Andras descended the staircase formed from corpses and spoke.
“Welcome, you miserable human insects.”
Andras spread both hands, and a violet gravitational field warped the space around her.
Even at a glance, it was clearly an overwhelmingly powerful gravity spell.
Behind her, the empty air split open in crimson, revealing a Hellgate on the verge of opening.
It was the unmistakable sign that the Hellgate would soon be fully unleashed.
“Now die.”
Hero Leon and his companions began their battle against Andras.
* * *
Darius was on the verge of losing his mind.
“Damn it…! What kind of ridiculous magic is this…?!”
Beyond the barrier in front of him, Ex was being attacked by Elia so viciously that he could die at any moment.
He was being slashed by a sword, pummeled by fists, battered by kicks.
His bones were breaking and his flesh was being torn open, yet he continued fighting back.
It was a miracle he was still alive, much less moving.
“Goddamn it…!!!”
Darius needed to save Ex immediately, yet the barrier didn’t look like it intended to suffer so much as a scratch.
At that moment, the ring in Darius’s hand flashed.
It was Beatrice’s ring, the one Elia had ripped off Ex and thrown away.
「Brother! We can’t do this with our strength alone! Call Lady Milia and Count Lemercier!」
“Good idea! Milia! Count Lemercier! Get over here immediately!!”
At Darius’s call, Milia and Count Lemercier quickly arrived nearby.
The moment they reached him, they understood the situation.
“I’ll break it!”
Flames erupted from Milia’s sword as she unleashed her aura and slashed with all her might.
It was the full power of a 7-Star martial artist.
And yet, the barrier remained uncut.
“What in the…”
“Allow me to examine it.”
Count Lemercier immediately began analyzing the barrier.
Once he understood what he was looking at, his expression darkened.
“What is it?!”
“This isn’t magic a human could possibly create. There are thousands… no, tens of thousands of barrier spells layered on top of one another.”
“What…?”
Count Lemercier continued explaining while trying spell after spell in an attempt to dismantle the barrier.
“Magic on this scale would strain even a dragon, a supreme existence. The fact that someone is maintaining it at all is absurd. If the caster continues sustaining something like this…”
Every attempt failed without leaving so much as a mark.
“The caster will inevitably die. The sheer amount of mana required will consume not only their lifespan, but their very existence.”
Count Lemercier’s gaze turned toward Elia on the other side.
“That girl will die today no matter what happens.”
BANG-!!
Darius slammed his fist into the barrier.
“I don’t give a damn about that! Are you saying there’s no way to save Ex?! That man saved the Empire from destruction!! I will not let him die as his reward for saving us!!!”
“However, Your Highness. Even Teleportation Magic cannot pass through this wall. There are simply too many barrier spells layered together…”
BANG!!!
“I!!! DO NOT!!! WANT TO HEAR THAT RIGHT NOW!!!”
Darius’s fist smashed violently against the barrier.
The barrier, cruelly indifferent to his desperation, didn’t even tremble.
“He’s the first true friend I’ve managed to make in my entire life…! He’s my brother, a man who risked his life to save this Empire…!!”
Count Lemercier and Milia turned their heads away.
They were ashamed of how helpless they were in front of this barrier.
There was no way for them to save the boy trapped beyond it.
Not for them.
“I’ll break it.”
A girl’s voice came from behind them.
A girl with long golden hair and blue eyes.
There was unwavering resolve in those eyes.
And beneath it, the faint glimmer of murderous intent.
Count Lemercier stared at her in shock and immediately moved to block her path.
“Lola…! Why are you here?! I told you this place was dangerous…”
“You said that barrier has tens of thousands of shields layered together, right?”
Lola’s resolute gaze met Count Lemercier’s.
“Father, I can break it.”
“Lola… even you won’t be able to handle something like this.”
“When it comes to the amount of mana I have, I won’t lose to anyone. Especially if the person I’m competing against is Elia…”
The murderous intent in Lola’s eyes deepened.
“I absolutely refuse to lose.”
Lola’s blue eyes shone in response to her mana.
She raised a hand toward the sky as though commanding the heavens themselves.
Mana so dense that it became difficult to breathe answered Lola’s will.
It yielded to the impossible demands of a girl who was practically magic incarnate.
Thousands of stars were born in the empty sky.
Their numbers continued to multiply, filling every direction with light.
An overwhelming torrent of magical power moved for Lola and Lola alone.
Lola’s Stella Strike took shape overhead.
The sight made Count Lemercier pale in horror.
“No, Lola!! If you use that spell recklessly…!”
“Can you do it?”
Darius asked Lola with desperation written across his face.
Lola nodded.
“I’ll make it happen. No matter what.”
Lola fixed her gaze straight ahead.
Resolve and murderous intent filled her eyes.
Then she lowered the hand she had raised toward the sky and gave her command to the stars.
“Because I want to save my friend too.”
And the stars poured down upon the barrier.
BANG-!!
One star stripped away one shield.
BANG, BANG-!!!
Dozens of stars shattered dozens of shields.
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM-!!!
Hundreds, then thousands of stars tore away the same number of layered shields.
As the relentless bombardment continued, the barrier steadily grew thinner.
A single girl was accomplishing something even a 7-Star martial artist had failed to do.
But there were still tens of thousands of shields remaining.
“I’m not going to lose to you in sheer numbers either, Elia…!!!”
For every star that vanished, another was born.
Thousands soon became tens of thousands, all hammering relentlessly against the barrier.
And with every strike, more shields were torn away.
‘It hurts…’
Lola felt her fingertips and toes beginning to tingle.
It was a warning that her Mana Sickness was flaring up.
‘It hurts, but…!’
This wasn’t the time to care about pain.
She gritted her teeth and endured it with everything she had.
Ex was probably suffering far worse on the other side.
Ex had always made sure she didn’t have to hurt.
And yet Ex was always the one who willingly chose to suffer.
So this time, she needed to be ready to hurt too.
‘Just wait a little longer, Ex…! I’m coming to save you…!’
Countless stars descended in answer to the wish of the girl outside the barrier.
They fell to break through the wall created by the girl inside.
One girl wished to reach him.
The other had built the barrier to reject him.
* * *
“Please evacuate this way!”
“Follow our instructions! We will protect you!”
“If anyone feels that something is wrong, tell us immediately!”
The spectators from the Entrance 2 seating area had been relocated through large-scale teleportation.
Their destination was the academy’s grand auditorium.
The knights who had been stationed there in advance moved with practiced efficiency, helping the civilians evacuate.
Among them was Roxwell, currently serving as acting Knight Commander.
‘Something feels wrong.’
Roxwell’s gaze continuously swept across his surroundings.
An inexplicable sensation kept needling at him.
It was the instinctive warning he always felt when danger was near.
‘I’ve honed my instincts as far as they can possibly go. If they’re reacting this strongly, there has to be something here.’
But no matter how carefully he looked, all he saw were frightened civilians evacuating and knights helping them.
That only made him more uneasy.
‘I expected at least a few demons to sneak in…’
It was too quiet.
Far too quiet.
Quiet enough to send a chill crawling down his spine.
‘No. This is bad. I need to warn everyone first…’
Just as Roxwell was about to alert the other knights,
“Mister.”
Someone tugged at his clothes.
It was a very young-looking boy.
Judging from what he was wearing, his clothes were remarkably shabby.
‘Shabby…? Among this crowd…?’
“Mister, mister.”
“…What is it, kid?”
“Mister, mister.”
“…?”
Just as Roxwell began to wonder what was wrong,
“You there! Move away from the entrance!”
A stranger was standing directly in the grand auditorium’s exit.
It was a woman.
She had abruptly stopped in the doorway, bringing the entire evacuation line to a halt.
“Did you not hear me?! Move aside!!”
Despite the knight’s warning, the woman simply stood there blankly, staring at him as he approached.
“This is an emergency! I will not tolerate this kind of obstruction…”
The knight reached out to drag her aside.
At that moment, tragedy struck.
SHLK-!!!
The knight’s head was severed from his body.
At the same time, his chest was pierced by something resembling a grotesque tentacle.
It happened so quickly that everyone nearby simply froze, unable to process what they had just witnessed.
The cause of the gruesome scene was the woman who had been blocking the way.
Because the woman had transformed into a hideous tentacled monster.
Roxwell was the first to recover.
“A DEMON!! EVERYONE, PREPARE FOR BATTLE-!!!”
At his shout, the knights drew their swords on pure instinct.
Roxwell drew his own sword and prepared to suppress the tentacled monster.
“Mister, mister, mister, mister, mister.”
The boy still clinging to Roxwell’s leg spoke again.
His voice came out like some broken machine repeating the same malfunctioning sound.
That was when Roxwell’s instincts screamed at him.
SHNK-!!
“Ugh-!!”
An attack aimed at his neck and heart.
Roxwell barely managed to block it, reacting to the killing intent at the last possible instant.
He immediately kicked his attacker away and retreated.
There was no question what the attacker truly was.
“Misteeer, mi-misterrr, miissteerr.”
The boy who had been clinging to his leg had already transformed into a monster.
It looked identical to the creature blocking the entrance.
Another demon.
“KYAAAAAA-!!!”
“DEMONS-!!!!”
“S-SAVE ME-!!!”
The appearance of the demons sent the crowd into a frenzy.
Of course it did.
They had just watched a knight’s head go flying right in front of them.
But that wasn’t the only reason panic erupted.
“Th-There’s another demon over here!!!”
“Wh-What are the knights doing?!”
“Save me!! AAAAAAGH-!!!”
Monsters began bursting out from all sides and attacking the crowd.
Every single one of them had the exact same appearance.
That meant all of them were the work of the same demon.
The exit was blocked, and monsters were appearing from within the crowd itself.
The real problem was that no one could tell who was a monster until they transformed.
Someone would be screaming in terror, only to suddenly turn into a monster.
Someone else would try to stop a monster, only to transform into one themselves.
‘It’s not some kind of contagious transformation. They were hiding among the crowd from the beginning. But how are there this many…?’
Roxwell immediately cut the monster in front of him in half and began issuing orders to the knights.
“Civilian safety comes first! Subdue anyone who tries to approach you without warning!! I’ll handle the rest!!”
“Yes, sir!!”
Several knights rushed toward the exit to force it open.
The rest moved to hold back the demons among the crowd.
Then seven White Light Swords appeared around Roxwell.
“I don’t know what kind of bastard is behind this…”
Roxwell’s will filled all seven swords.
“But every single one that shows itself is going to die.”
The seven White Light Swords shot toward the monsters.
* * *
“Hmm? Well, that’s unfortunate… There was someone stronger than I expected.”
From this spot, turning her head was enough to see the Tournament arena in the distance.
A lone girl stood in an empty alleyway with her eyes closed.
With her eyes still shut, she observed the vision being transmitted to her.
“I wanted to kill as many as possible… but I guess it can’t be helped. The timing was bad. I finally got to descend in person too… Hmm…”
Gremory, wearing Hilde’s form, let out a sigh.
“Well, I can always make more clones.”
The monsters inside the grand auditorium were Gremory’s clones.
Now that Gremory had descended, she could summon the bodies of humans she had absorbed as clones.
That was why, after returning from the Theocracy, she had spent her time corrupting and devouring large numbers of humans in preparation for this attack.
She had only managed to eat around a hundred people, but that was enough.
As long as she managed to get even a single clone inside, she could summon all the rest through it.
Using that method, she had successfully planted one clone each at Entrance 2 and Entrance 3.
Then the attacks began.
‘Andras, this is what you called a contingency plan, right? Still, it’s not easy. I didn’t expect another 7-Star to be here. I thought the Sword of the Empire was the only one.’
There was nothing she could do about opponents beyond her abilities.
Besides, killing humans was only entertainment.
Gremory had a much more important mission.
Her attention shifted to the strange ivory dagger in her hand.
She recalled the command Baal had given her when he handed it over.
‘I confirmed Berith through your vision. He has chosen a different path from ours. That means we must seal him away. With this weapon, even you should be able to stab Berith. I’ll have you descend personally to make absolutely certain there are no mistakes, so prepare yourself.’
Baal was right.
Berith treated her as if she were worth less than dust.
No.
He treated nearly everyone that way.
Even if she attacked him from behind, he would probably just stand there and let himself be stabbed.
‘Because he wants to show you the despair of realizing that even landing the attack means absolutely nothing.’
But this dagger was different.
‘Arachne’s Fang. An artifact designed specifically to seal demons. One stab, and it freezes the target’s very existence…’
It was one of the artifacts created by Baal, King of Demons, for the purpose of permanently sealing hostile demons.
Baal possessed dozens of artifacts like it.
He had also acquired anti-demon sealing weapons and facilities created by the Theocracy.
There was a reason he was known as both an Archdemon and the King of Demons.
‘Still… what should I do about that 7-Star martial artist…?’
While her clones continued their slaughter inside the grand auditorium,
“…Found you.”
Gremory’s target entered her field of vision.
Someone was walking toward the Tournament arena.
A boy with ominous black hair and emotionless eyes.
He looked bored as he idly flipped a gold coin between his fingers.
“Berith…!”
It was Berith, the Demon of Lies.
–TL Notes–
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