Siruntel Demonic Realm (9)
Class B had joined forces with Class A.
With Class A's aggressive support, they tore through the demonic realm like a storm.
Early on, coordinating fifty people had caused a few snags in the chain of command — but once they split the work, with Class A taking the front and Class B covering the rear, things settled fast. Class A formed their usual breakthrough spearhead and carved through every demonic beast that blocked the path, while Class B only had to mop up stragglers and ambushers. It was essentially a free ride on Class A's bus.
Thanks to that, they advanced with barely any serious injuries. By the time they reached a position far enough from the heart of the realm to breathe, they finally stopped for a rest.
"Whaaaat?!"
Esabel's eyes went round as saucers, her voice cracking as if someone had just told her a person jumped off a roof.
"So you just let him go off alone?!"
"……"
Carotin's grim expression was answer enough.
"What on earth were you thinking……"
Esabel had found it strange from the start that Class A was all here and Leon was nowhere to be seen. The moment she got a chance, she'd asked Carotin where he was — and the answer had hit her like a brick to the skull.
"You should have stopped him! Or gone with him!"
"I mean, it's not that simple……"
Apparently feeling sorry for Carotin getting chewed out by the princess, a Class A student named Kiana — who'd been listening nearby — cut in.
"Uh…… to be precise, we didn't send him. He just went."
Theron, wiping blood off his sword, nodded along.
"Yeah. Of course we tried to stop him. But how do you stop a guy who digs his heels in and insists he's going?"
Solin, peeling damp hair off her forehead, added her own two cents.
"Honestly, I'm not even that worried. If it were anyone else, sure — but Leon?"
"Right? Like he'd lose to a bunch of demonic beasts."
"I can't even picture it."
"He'd just go wild-eyed and beat them all to a pulp."
"……Huh?"
Listening to them talk with a calm that bordered on leisurely, Esabel's face went blank.
What the hell do these people think Leon is……?
Unlike the Class A students, who spent nearly every waking hour stuck to Leon's side, Esabel had only ever run into him by chance. She simply didn't know him the way they did.
Amid the noise, Billy kept his razor-sharp focus, scanning their surroundings without a break.
"I think……"
His voice was flat and low.
"We ought to start worrying about ourselves first."
"……?"
The students around him turned with puzzled looks — and then they heard it.
Thud. Thud.
Two men with purple skin and horns stepped into view.
"Whoa! Look at all of 'em!"
"This is gonna be fun."
They grinned from ear to ear, greedy eyes raking over the students.
"……!"
It was a bizarre sight — dozens of trained swordsmen flinching and falling back because of just two people.
"D-demons!"
"You've got to be kidding……"
But given what those two were, the reaction made perfect sense. These were monsters that tore humans apart like insects.
Shiiing.
"……"
Billy drew his sword, eyes dark and heavy.
Come to think of it…… I doubt they only sent two demons.
Leon, sprinting with Celia on his back, had the thought out of nowhere. The faces of the Class A students flickered through his mind for a moment — then vanished just as fast.
Eh, they'll be fine.
More than enough time had passed. They'd have linked up with Class B ages ago by now. That meant they were already a long way from the center.
And Billy's with them.
Even if they ran into other demons, Billy was there. Leon might have slowed the guy's growth a little, but the protagonist of an overpowered-hero story wasn't that easy to knock down. In the original, Billy had just attended academy classes and trained alone with no special events — and even then, Leon, who'd thrown every cheat he could think of at the problem, still couldn't catch up to him. It drove Leon up the wall, but right now, that fact was oddly reassuring.
Anyway. This wasn't the time to worry about other people.
Yeah. My own nose is about to fall off — who am I fretting over?
Celia's breathing was growing fainter. Leon's insides were a wreck. Even making it to Class J in one piece was looking dicey.
And how far did those bastards run in the meantime?
While he'd been busy dealing with the two demons that had popped out of nowhere, the Class J students had put distance between them like they had wings. Leon spat a curse under his breath. At least he'd managed to pick up their trail — something to use as a landmark. That was something.
He was gauging the direction of the footprints when it hit him.
"……!"
Goosebumps prickled across his skin. The back of his neck went ice-cold. A bone-deep warning screamed through every nerve, and Leon dropped into a crouch just in time.
BOOOOM!!
A blade of demonic energy ripped through the air where his head had been a heartbeat earlier, shredding empty space.
A massive frame packed with muscle. Two eyes that wandered independently of each other. A mouth hanging open in a dull, vacant gape.
He looked sloppy. Stupid, even. But the demonic energy rolling off him in heavy waves was on a completely different level from the demons Leon had just faced.
Celia murmured weakly against Leon's ear, her voice hollow.
"……Leon. For what it's worth — I'm glad I got to spend my last moments with you."
"……"
This time, she didn't tell him to leave her and run. There was no running from that. Both of them knew it.
"Put me down. I want to die fighting, at least."
"……Alright."
Leon didn't argue. He knew how fiercely Celia held her pride as a warrior. Unlike before, neither of them could promise they'd walk away from this — so she had the right to choose how she faced the end.
Thud.
She looked ready to collapse at any second, but Celia forced herself upright on her own two feet.
"That black sky earlier. Was that you?"
Talkan regarded them with one eye on Leon and the other on Celia, his speech slow and blunt.
"What if it was?"
Leon answered while scanning for an opening — but in his current state, he doubted he could even leave a scratch.
"……I see."
Disappointment settled plain across Talkan's face.
"Not strong."
He flicked his right hand — light, careless, like shooing a fly from his face.
The aftermath was anything but light.
Demonic energy erupted from his fingertips in a violent blast of pressure.
BAAAANG!!
Leon and Celia went flying as if a truck had slammed into them.
"Gahk!!"
"Kh……!"
They both coughed up blood as they tumbled through the air, only stopping when their backs smashed into a massive tree trunk.
CRACK!
"Urgh……"
Spines shattered. Meridians twisted into knots. Neither of them could get up again.
The power was absolute. Even if Leon had been in peak condition and free to use his biggest techniques, finding a path to victory against this thing would have been a long shot. This was a being you weren't supposed to meet in the first place.
"This is ridiculous……"
Leon muttered a bitter laugh. Someone had screwed up the balance patch.
Didn't even last a year this life.
He felt death coming. And as always, regret hit harder than fear. He'd clawed his way back into a world this interesting — only to die like an idiot without living even a fraction of his previous life.
As his consciousness faded, Leon sneered at himself and sighed.
Thud. Thud.
Heavy footsteps approached at a deliberate pace. A mission was a mission, and Talkan intended to finish the job properly. He closed in on them.
Leon and Celia, bodies locked in place, could only watch him come.
Talkan reached out with a hand the size of a pot lid, aiming for Leon's head.
"……Shit."
Leon glared murder at that palm — and then.
……
……
—CRUNCH!
"……?"
The upper half of Talkan's torso vanished.
A split second later, the sonic boom arrived.
BAAAAAAAAANG!!!
An attack faster than sound, punching straight through space itself.
"……?!?!"
Talkan reeled back in pure shock.
"Celia!!!"
A man vaulted in front of them, putting himself between the demon and the two broken figures on the ground.
Tall. Solidly built. Purple hair with a faint blue sheen, pulled tight into a ponytail. Long eyes and strong features — a handsome man by any measure.
Through cracked, blistered lips, Celia's voice slipped out in a whisper.
"O……ppa?"
He was the eldest son of the Helbridge family. Celia's blood brother. A Master-level spearman and a water elementalist who commanded water spirits.
Aqua Helbridge.
"Heh."
Looking at the Talkan who'd been blown apart in a single strike, Leon let out a crooked little grin.
Yeah. The world never lets you see even one step ahead. Absurd things happen all the time. And that's what makes life interesting.
"Young master!"
"Young lady!!!"
Knights' voices rose from every direction. Leon let them fill his ears.
"……"
And closed his eyes.