Chapter 137

Kwaang!

“What, what is that?!”

Stella shouted in surprise at the suddenly ringing loud noise.

It was hard to believe that it was a sound that could be heard at the Academy.

It was the sound of something exploding.

“What could have happened at the Academy…?”

Uriel murmured with a worried expression.

Her concern was valid.

Considering what had happened at the Academy so far, it wasn’t that strange for something to happen during the exams.

Of course, predicting that such an event would occur was not the case.

This generation was the golden generation, with heroes and saints attending the Academy directly, so it was only natural to understand that the demon’s attacks would be concentrated to an extreme degree.

But…

“That explosion just now didn’t happen at the Academy.”

The three of them had come outside briefly to look for Aria, so they knew.

The explosion that had just occurred was not at the Academy but rather on the back mountain.

“Why is there an explosion on the back mountain…? I have a bad feeling about this. We need to go check it out quickly.”

“Wait a moment. It seems something is happening at the Academy…”

With Stella expressing concern, Evan asked nervously, “What do you mean by that?”

“No, I mean… the flow of magic is strange… It’s not the usual appearance of the Academy…”

At that moment, Evan’s eyes widened.

“Get down!”

As soon as he shouted for them to duck, he pulled Stella to the side, and a thorn grazed her, embedding itself into the wall.

Stella, who was watching the building that had been pierced like tofu while sweating profusely, turned her head to where the thorn had come from.

– Kiki-kik…

The thorn that had just been shot out made a strange sound as it seemed to regenerate from its body.

“That’s…”

“That’s a low-level demon…”

Evan’s words startled Stella and Uriel.

Why was there a low-level demon inside the Academy?

“There has been an instance of a high-level demon before, but didn’t it sneak in back then?!”

“Wha…?! There was a high-level demon in the Academy?!”

“Ah…”

Realizing her mistake as soon as she mentioned it, Stella glanced at Uriel with an expression of regret and sighed.

In any case, they couldn’t just stand idle now.

Evan drew the sacred sword.

– Hmm… What is happening…? Is this magic?!

Esther, who seemed to have just awoken and was murmuring in a sleepy voice, shouted with surprise.

“Sorry, Esther. Can you help me out a bit?”

– Is there even a point in asking what I can help with? We have an obligation to subjugate the demons anyway.

“That’s… true.”

He was a hero.

It was only natural to subjugate demons; they were simply nightmarish beings trying to destroy this world, not living beings like them.

He couldn’t just stand by and watch.

Evan dashed forward, swiftly beheading the low-level demon that had just shot out the thorn.

Realizing late that Evan was charging at him, the demon tried to swing its claws, but the sacred sword was much faster in slicing through its neck.

– Ki, eek…

After the demon instantly died, Evan cleaned off the blood from his sword.

“Wow… You’ve really improved a lot.”

“That’s amazing, Evan!”

As Stella and Uriel praised him with admiration, Evan, embarrassed, turned his head away for a moment when suddenly…

– Kiki-kik…

– Keheh…

– Kekeh…

As demons began to appear one by one, Evan broke out in a cold sweat.

Something was off about the situation.

“If there’s more than one demon… could it be…?”

The demon’s attack.

In other words, was it the Demon King Army’s intrusion?

He hadn’t expected this level of chaos when a single low-level demon appeared in front of him, but if the paths rarely traveled by people were filled with low-level demons, the practical training grounds crowded with students…

‘Hell…!’

It would have turned into a hellscape.

Stella’s previous mention of the strange flow of magic probably had that reason behind it.

But what was important now wasn’t that issue.

The back mountain…

The large explosion of divine power that had erupted from there was too suspicious.

Only one person could unleash such a tremendous amount of divine power at this time.

Of course, if you count those who could unleash such divine power, it would be two, but that person wasn’t in the Academy, was she?

“Aria must be… at the epicenter of that explosion.”

Though he had no evidence, he was certain.

Aria was there.

However…

“Stella, Uriel. I have a favor to ask.”

“A favor? Hey Evan… You’re not suggesting…?”

Stella, realizing what he was about to say, tried to stop him from saying something ridiculous, but Evan spoke faster than she could.

“I’m going to rescue Aria, so you two should return to the Academy, check the situation, and ask Dean Argen for help.”

Knowing where she was, he couldn’t just turn back now.

If he went back now, it would only delay things further.

Thanks to his necklace, his powers as a hero had awakened, so no matter how many low-level demons there were, they were insufficient to block his way.

But it was enough time to stall.

“I’ll handle things here, so please.”

“Ugh… You really…”

Stella sighed as if resigned and approached Evan.

Then, she embraced him for a moment.

“…?!”

Startled by her sudden show of affection, Evan was about to shout and ask what she was doing, but Stella looked serious.

“Just wait a moment. As I said before, the flow of magic around here isn’t good, so if I don’t leave a clear trace, we won’t be able to track it.”

“Uh… uh…”

“… Done.”

She released him and stepped back, but Evan still stared at Stella with a blank expression.

“What… what?! I can’t help it if you look at me like that! I’m worried about Aria too, okay?!”

“A, Aria…?”

“I’m just telling you this in case you misunderstand, but the reason I hugged you just now was to place my magic on you.”

That was…

Hearing Stella’s words, Evan finally realized that he felt some strange magical energy within his body.

‘This is… magic I’ve never seen before?’

When did she create such magic?

“And I know you like Aria anyway, and I don’t particularly have feelings for you, so for Aria’s sake, it would be best not to misunderstand.”

“… So the magic is…”

“Tracking magic. To be precise, it’s a spell that obtains your spatial coordinates through you as a medium. I’ve developed it much more than before, so you don’t have to worry about mistakes.”

“Back then…”

“That… was when you guys went to the back mountain.”

Only then did Evan recall when that had been.

Now that he mentioned it, there had been a time when Stella had suddenly appeared out of nowhere just as he was finishing up a trial of power.

He had just brushed it off at the time…

“Anyway, while I’m worried about Aria, we must inform the Academy that something has happened to her, so I’m reluctantly just listening to you. Got it?”

“… Yeah, I understand.”

While saying that, Stella seemed uneasy, scratching her head for a moment, and again urged him not to tell Aria.

Of course, Evan had no intention of mentioning that Stella had hugged him, as that could lead to Aria misunderstanding, but still…

“If the magic here weren’t vague, I wouldn’t have gone this far…”

“Uh… huh?”

“Never mind. It would only make things more awkward to explain here. We should get going first.”

Saying that, Stella turned and walked away with Uriel in tow.

For the time being, they needed to escape this place and find Argen to explain the current situation.

He didn’t know what kind of demon had attacked, but after all, the one with the strongest power and authority here was Argen Isis, the dean of this Academy.

As Evan’s gaze shifted from Stella and Uriel heading quickly toward the Academy to the demons before him, he began to gather divine power into the sacred sword.

“Shall we start with a show of force first?”

Feeling the divine power gradually enveloping his body, he unleashed a sword aura to establish dominance.

In a one versus many situation, it was practically essential.

Before the demons who were being swept away could even gather their wits, Evan dashed out without hesitation.

To eliminate the demons that were disturbing the peace as quickly as possible.

And…

‘Just wait a bit…!’

For Aria, who might be fighting alone over there.