“Cough, cough!”
Dust clouded my vision and filled my mouth as screams erupted from every direction.
Shaking off my confusion and looking around, the city appeared surprisingly intact considering a meteor had just fallen. Of course, that was only in comparison to what would have happened had the meteor collided directly.
Those quick on their feet were already fleeing in various directions, while others who hadn’t yet grasped the situation were getting pushed and shoved around.
“Saint!”
Though I was concerned about the people and my friends, I prayed that everyone was safe as I checked on Mariel who was coughing beside me, just as I had been. Fortunately, she didn’t appear injured, though her persistent coughing suggested she’d inhaled quite a bit of dust.
“Hack… What in the….”
“Please stand up first. We can assess the situation after…”
Klang!
Out of the limited visibility through the dust, a spear came hurtling from somewhere. I quickly drew my holy sword from its scabbard to block it, but the force was considerable. The attacker was at least as skilled as a knight of significant caliber.
However, as the dust settled and I could see beyond it, the identity of the attacker was unexpected.
An existence that ought not be present in this city: a demon.
“How could a demon…!”
“Ellesia! Saint!”
In the confusion over the demon’s appearance, another figure arrived calling out to me and Mariel.
Fortunately, I wasn’t the only one here. Professor Ferent, who was our homeroom teacher, and Professor Selen from Class 2 both approached us after the initial chaos to check on me and Mariel.
“Ellesia, be careful!”
Ignoring Professor Ferent’s warning cry to be cautious, I immediately focused on killing the demon in front of me.
There was no need to exchange blows; it was already clear that the demon before me was merely a lower-class demon. At the start of the semester, this might have been a challenging opponent, but now, a lower-class demon was no match for me.
“Kuaaak! You wench!”
Without needing to summon the strength of a hero, the demon’s weapon was cleaved in half with a single swing of my sword and it tumbled to the ground.
When did they enter? How could they have possibly entered in the first place?
Hordes of demons, dark beings, and monsters were rushing toward the city. Though the city’s protective barrier magic should have repelled them, they were roaming freely within the city limits.
Some demons were slaughtering among the citizens, while others were locked in combat with professors. Comparatively weaker students were handling the dark beings and monsters, or a few had grouped up to take on demons.
With Mariel’s situation now stable, thoughts of others rose to my mind.
Friends, of course, including Presia and Lindy, and numerous other acquaintances surfaced in my thoughts. Still, like someone as selfish as me who even now didn’t know why I was chosen as a hero, I worried primarily about my friends and Presia.
On our side, we had Sword Master Selian, and Anne, whose skills surpassed not only her peers but also the academy level. Even Yuli, who used to be weak, had awakened as a necromancer through a contract with Linne, obtaining power comparable to Anne’s.
As for Presia, unlike the time during the first semester when she had struggled against an intermediate demon, she had since grown so much that she’d single-handedly killed one, making it almost an insult to my worry.
However, just because they were strong doesn’t mean I wasn’t worried.
With Ferent and Selen here, Mariel’s safety was secure. These two experts, especially when backed by Mariel’s holy magic—an inherent nemesis to demons—were practically invincible. Even a superior demon would be at a disadvantage if it came here alone.
Thus, I should be able to leave.
“I’m fine, please look after the Saint for me!”
“Ellesia! Ellesia!”
Ignoring Professor Ferent calling my name from behind, I set off in a run toward the location where my friends were. I cut through hordes of dark beings and monsters standing in my way, heading toward where I last saw them.
While the horde of dark beings and monsters, as numerous as they were, were easy to break through, demons, even at the lower level, were a challenge that forced me to pause.
Despite starting off with a promising rush, I hadn’t managed to go very far. During this time, anything could have happened to my friends and Presia. With an invasion of this magnitude, it was unlikely there weren’t any superior demons involved, and possibly more than just a few. If anything unfortunate happened to my friends…
“Kee!”
Was it because I was distracted while fighting? A claw from an intermediate demon grazed my forearm. Immediately putting up my guard and stopping my forward motion, I took a few steps back to put some distance between us. Although lower demons were easy to handle, an intermediate demon was one where I needed to give it my all to secure a victory.
However, before I could focus solely on the intermediate demon, a few lower demons who were previously unengaged were slowly approaching to surround me. I could either focus on the intermediate demon and risk the lower demons’ encirclement or push back the lower ones and lose my edge over the intermediate demon.
What a dilemma. Determined to break through this situation despite the potential new wounds, I gripped my holy sword tightly when it was then that one single strike turned the tide.
Swoosh
A silent strike so silent that not even the sound of the sword cutting into flesh or the cracking of the neck was heard. Not even a flashy technique—just a simple swing of the sword that effortlessly passed through the intermediate demon’s neck. The party responsible didn’t even bother slowing down as he/she passed the intermediate demon, but the wind created as they went by made the demon’s head finally fall to the ground. The intermediate demon continued to gelgel laugh as if oblivious to what was happening until its head finally slid off and hit the ground.
In the human domain, there were only nine known individuals capable of cutting off an intermediate demon’s head that easily. Sure, eight of them were publicly known, but I knew of one more.
“Sel!”
Right there, before me, was my friend, Selian.
“El! El! Are you hurt anywhere…?”
While the remaining lower demons hesitated over Selian’s sudden appearance, she paid them no mind, anxiously inspecting my arms, legs, torso, every which way—front, back, everywhere.
Before I could reassure her that I was fine, her frantic hands eventually found where my arm had been grazed by the intermediate demon.
“It’s, it’s injured…”
“No. As you can see, it’s just a shallow scratch, and nothing else is hurt…”
It was barely a scratch, far less than the kind of injuries one might suffer from normal daily accidents. Moreover, even the intermediate demon’s claws had no poison. It was truly a minor wound, and so I quickly informed Selian in hopes of calming her down. However, she either didn’t hear me or was too focused, hovering around the minor wound as if touching it might make it worse, flustered and fretting over the injury.
Then, she lowered her head deeply, withdrew her hands that had been hovering anxiously around the wound, and once again gripped the sword that had previously cut off the intermediate demon’s head.
“How dare…”
“Sel…?”
Murmuring softly enough for only me to hear.
“How dare… How dare… How dare…”
As the murmuring repeated over and over, the volume slowly increased.
“How dare, how dare, how dare, how dare, how dare…!”
Her voice gradually grew louder, filling the surrounding space that was already surrounded by lower demons. The murmurs turned into shouts, and the worry in her eyes that were for me had now turned into blazing anger.
“How dare injure El’s body!”
I knew her anger wasn’t directed at me, but I still flinched as she disappeared instantly in an instant.
She reappeared in front of one of the surrounding lower demons.
However, if even the intermediate demon didn’t notice her sword until it got cut, how could a lower demon possibly stand a chance?
Without giving them even a moment to flee, Selian quickly decapitated the lower demons in succession and severed their limbs once more. It was mere coincidence, wasn’t it, that all the severed left arms were in the same position as the one that injured my arm?
After swiftly clearing the area around me, Selian returned to my side.
“El, is the wound alright?”
She seemed finally composed.
“It’s just a scratch. Are you okay, Sel? What about the others?”
“Ahh!”
She briefly exclaimed in surprise then immediately responded in a hurried tone.
“I’m fine, so let’s hurry to where Anne and Yuli are…”
“Cough, cough! Oof, what kind of flames are these…”
Interrupting her sentence, someone stepped into view, kicking away the corpses of demons.
A familiar voice and face—one of the acquaintances from the academy: the former receptionist, now a professor in the Department of Magic.
“Professor!”
True to his reputation, as a professor in the Department of Magic, his appearance seemed unharmed except for the slightly disheveled attire.
“A, Miss Ellesia. You’re here, I see. Truly, befitting a hero to be unscathed.”
“Thanks to the professors and my friends. Are you alright, Professor? There seem to be quite a number of demons…”
“Ah, you don’t have to worry about me. I’m not someone who would fall to demons.”
Contrary to his earlier frazzled state in the morning, his confident voice was reassuring.
In such dire straits, the strength of a single professor was incredibly important.
“The demons seem to have attacked. I’ll head south with a friend, so please take care of things on another side.”
Judging from Selian’s words, Yuli and Anne seemed to be still where we had originally been. Therefore, I decided to continue heading south.
“Ah! Just a moment, Miss Ellesia.”
“Yes?”
“I have something to give you. Please take this.”
As a professor in the Department of Magic, he must’ve had possessions useful in a situation like this. Whatever it was, anything from him would surely help us in the upcoming battles.
As the professor rummaged in his coat to retrieve something, I stepped closer.
However, what he handed over was entirely unexpected.
“El!”
A hand roughly grabbing my nape and pulling me back. Naturally, it was a situation that left me baffled.
But it wasn’t Selian’s sudden grab at my nape that startled me, nor the collar of my shirt tugging at my neck.
My attention was drawn instead to the dark, pointed object piercing straight where my face had originally been as I toppled backward. The object had sprung forth from the professor’s coat while I had been standing in front of him.
