The Devil's True Form
The Imperial Academy in its complete form. Established for the purpose of conquering the Ruined Lands, this institution champions elitism. It discards all distinctions of family, age, social status, and gender, judging each person’s worth solely by ability. Old or young, highborn or low, only skill holds absolute priority. Students must therefore train without cease. Failure to become one of the empire’s super-elites would ruin both their personal reputation and their family’s prestige.
Crackle!
Every time Ed summoned his suit, all eyes converged on him as a matter of course. Rivals could not help but wonder how much further his suit had been upgraded, while those who aspired to strength had no choice but to watch the academy’s strongest with eyes full of envy and admiration.
“Hey, hey! He’s summoning it.”
“Wonder what’s different this time.”
“Fucking badass.”
Under the weight of every gaze, a black object shot out of a rift in the air and clung to Ed’s back. It was none other than the ultra-high-speed carbon nanotube injector he had developed over the weekend. The device wrapped his entire body in carbon nanotubes that possessed both elasticity and rigidity, ensuring no window of vulnerability appeared while the suit was equipping.
Shwaaaaaah!
Black latex-like carbon tubes began to spread from his back. Just like an Iron Man suit fused with nanotechnology, they instantly enveloped his whole body in black and vented dark vapor as a byproduct. The black mist served as excellent smoke cover, hiding Ed during the suit’s vulnerable equipping phase.
At the same time—
“Ah, what’s happening inside…”
“Why is my heart racing like this…”
By concealing himself in the black vapor, he instilled terror in enemies and anticipation in allies.
The academy students listened to the precise mechanical clicks and whirs while staring into the black fog where Ed stood. Crimson light flickered intermittently within the mist, as though a monster were scattering its glare. The red luminous stones mounted on the suit created the illusion.
Swaaaaaah…
At last the mysterious black fog began to dissipate. The students swallowed hard, eagerly awaiting Ed’s imminent appearance.
Clack!Clatter…Clack!Vrrrr!Clack!
Finally, the black vapor cleared and Ed was revealed. He had finished equipping the suit and appeared to be running diagnostics. The smooth metal armor on his shoulder blades opened wide to inspect the injector, while the palm section of his gauntlet glowed red and emitted a high-pitched keeeeeeeng!. At the same time, the mana stone embedded in his chest radiated crimson light, supplying mana throughout his body. The empowered stones then linked with the mana discharge system, causing red radiance to surge across his entire frame.
“………”
The students watched in silence. Even the instructors remained mute as they stared at Ed. He stood alone within the lingering black vapor like a transcendent being who had completely surpassed the human race. After countless improvements and modifications, his suit had finally settled into a design that instinctively conveyed the symbolism of a “devil.” Even imperial citizens who had never seen a real demon would feel awe and fear simply by looking at it.
“It’s… even more insane than last time.”
“Absolutely broken.”
Yet the moment the vapor cleared and Ed’s face became visible, the students felt an inward wave of relief. It was the reassurance that came from knowing the most terrifying force was on their side. When the person wearing such an overwhelming existence was the trustworthy “Edga Fix” whom everyone acknowledged, the devil’s form stopped being an object of fear and became something they could worship without hesitation. In cruder terms, it wasn’t scary—it was just badass.
Ziiiing… Vrrrr…Clack.
Having completed its function check, the suit extinguished the red glow that had spread across its surface. Ed twisted his body this way and that, then gave his honest impression of the newly improved suit.
“Not bad.”
A short while later, the giant screen in front displayed footage of Ed’s party raiding the dungeon. Even though it was an outdoor class, they had set up a projector to live-stream their fellow students’ performance. This was, of course, a deliberate design by the professors to stoke competitive spirit. Humans naturally become conscious of how they appear to others, and those watching inevitably compare themselves and feel stimulated. In a place that gathered the empire’s greatest talents—people whose pride was their very lifeblood—seeing outstanding performances from classmates was bound to deliver a powerful shock.
Ed’s rampage through the dungeon, sweeping away monsters, was the prime example.
What the hell… I felt it when he beat Max, but this is just hopeless.
The balance is ridiculous. His long-range attacks are powerful, yet that mobility device makes closing in difficult. Even if you force your way in, the powerful barrier prevents you from dealing damage.
Ed’s Devil Suit possessed destructive power, speed, utility, and strategic depth in equal measure. It performed perfectly whether in close combat, ranged battles, or aerial fights. No matter what monster appeared inside the dungeon, he could respond, and he crushed them with overwhelming utility and raw power. Monsters that previous students had struggled desperately to defeat were massacred by Ed without the slightest effort.
“Clarice, take the left fork at the next junction. Ghost-type monsters spawn there, so you’ll have an easier time. Roy, raise a mana barrier on the right passage. Fire-type monsters are—”
Moreover, Ed did not monopolize the spotlight. He assigned appropriate roles to his party members so they could shine as well, directing the overall strategy and only stepping in to support them when necessary. It was completely different from the other teams, where members competed against one another for more points.
“…I should have done it like that.”
The students who had entered earlier were now regretting their actions as they watched this ideal party. Because they had competed with their own teammates, the party’s balance collapsed and they had been forced to abandon the dungeon midway. In the end, what mattered in group battles like dungeon raids was not individual ability but cooperation. The true core of this evaluation was not showing off personal brilliance to the instructors for points, but perfectly carrying out even small tasks to contribute to clearing the dungeon.
It should appear any moment now…
Ed was not leading the raid so perfectly merely to earn a good evaluation. He was conserving strength as much as possible because he knew a sudden event could occur during any outdoor class. He had no idea when or where it would strike.
What’s going to show up this time?
The outdoor class surprise event was something that always happened the first time a player entered a dungeon during their first outdoor lesson. The game had been designed so that the player would gain fame by performing brilliantly in that first outdoor class. In other words, the event’s purpose was for a player who had been completely beneath everyone’s notice to suddenly defeat a boss monster and thereby draw the attention of the main heroine NPCs.
Receiving an S-rank in that event would make Isabella take interest, while stopping at A-rank would only earn mild attention from Enya. Anything below B-rank would only attract the notice of NPCs who were practically extras, which—for Ed, who had raised the difficulty bar so high—would be a disastrous result that required restarting the game. In short, a reroll.
But the event’s direction must have changed by now. A stronger monster could appear.
Since Ed had refused to follow the predetermined story flow, both the event content and its rewards had likely shifted. At this point, when he had already monopolized the main NPCs’ attention to the extent that they harbored one-sided romantic feelings, interest from Isabella or Enya was no longer a meaningful reward.
This world has high variability. A definitely stronger monster will appear.
Therefore, the game’s algorithm—or rather, the world’s will—had most likely prepared an even greater reward than the main NPCs. And greater rewards were always accompanied by correspondingly greater danger. To obtain a bigger prize, one had to overcome a crisis of equal magnitude.
[…….]
When they finally reached the deepest part of the dungeon, Ed doubted his own eyes. A powerful monster that should not have appeared until a year later was waiting for him at the end.
Chomp! Chomp! Chomp! Glorp! Gulp! Splurch! Chomp! Chomp! Crunch! Crack! Grind! Chomp! Chomp!
The instructors and students watching the giant screen outside also froze in place. A demon species—one they had never seen before—was tearing apart and devouring a mountain of corpses.
Its grotesque appearance, as if a human and a monster had been forcibly fused, was horrifying enough to trigger primal human terror.
The creature muttered incomprehensible demonic words as it looked at Ed’s party, delivering yet another shock to everyone watching. While speaking monsters existed, none had ever used such bizarre and ominous language.
“Everyone fall back behind me! This is not a level you can handle!”
The on-site instructor, sensing the crisis, pulled Ed’s party back and drew his weapon, ordering them to flee immediately. But—
Crunch!
“Guh…!?”
While the instructor had his back turned, the demon species’ arm stretched like rubber and pierced straight through his abdomen. A second-grade instructor who was merely mid-level Sword Expert had fallen to the creature’s surprise attack.
“Kahk! Guh!?”
The demon began to rummage through the instructor’s stomach, sucking out both blood and mana. The rubber-like arm drew the instructor’s mana and blood in surging gulps, twisting the man’s face into a grotesque shape.
Splat!
At that moment, one of the party members hastily drew his sword. He tried to sever the arm that was drinking the instructor’s blood, but the blade that struck the demon’s arm cracked instead. A panicked, hurried strike could not have been infused with proper mana.
The demon species muttered more indecipherable demonic words and shook its shoulders, clearly enjoying the terrified reactions of Ed’s party.
Slaaaaaash!
Just as its arm stretched out grotesquely once more, a sudden Boom! erupted. An oval plasma shield radiating ultra-high-temperature plasma expanded from Ed, protecting both him and his comrades.
Ed, who had been standing dazed for a moment, turned to his terrified party members.
“Sorry. I spaced out for a second.”
His gaze then shifted to the instructor who was on the verge of death. The reason Ed had not stepped forward even as the instructor reached this state was because a vision had unfolded before his eyes. A vision of the empire being destroyed by demons.
Yet Ed could not understand why. Just like the day he had embraced Isabella from behind and lulled her to sleep, today as well he found himself overlapping past and present, wearing a vacant expression. Because of that, the instructor had suffered a fatal wound.
The demon muttered while staring at the arm that had been severed by the ultra-high-temperature plasma shield. Yet the severed limb was already sprouting anew as if nothing had happened. It was even tougher and more lethal than before.
Whoosh!
The demon species closed the distance in a single leap and began hammering wildly at the plasma mana shield. Its hands melted from the extreme heat with every strike, but the regenerated hands were stronger and tougher than before. The more it struck, the greater its destructive power became.
“Everyone listen carefully.”
Ed, who had remained silent while maintaining the plasma mana shield, finally spoke. Even as the shield shook unsteadily and began to crack under the demon’s relentless punches, he continued.
“The professor should be on his way. Our goal is to survive until he arrives. But the mana shield looks like it’s about to break. It can only hold for another thirty seconds at most.”
Only thirty seconds remained—an impossibly short time. In that span, the insane monster could easily annihilate them all before the professor arrived. Yet Ed stared at the demon species with its grotesquely split grin, his eyes completely steady. Then he uttered words no one could believe.
“So I’ll take it on. Clarice, treat the instructor’s wounds. Roy, raise a mana barrier to protect them. Garnet, cover Roy and deflect any surprise attacks.”
Ed intended to face the creature alone. The same monster that had effortlessly defeated an instructor—a student was going to fight it by himself? Yet everyone could only nod at Ed’s subsequent actions.
Because Ed—
Crackle!
—created a rift in the air,
Slide.
—grabbed the metal mask that appeared from within,
Clack.
—and fitted the sleek obsidian metal mask over his lower face.
When Ed pressed a button on the obsidian mask, carbon nanotubes began to discharge from its microscopic vents. The black carbon nanotubes instantly wrapped around the sides of his face, covering both ears, then perfectly enveloped the back of his head and crown.
Vrrrrrrrr… Clack. Clatter… Ziiiing… Click.
But it did not stop at merely covering his face. Once the black carbon nanotubes had enveloped his entire head, mechanical components meshed together with precision, adding detailed design and functionality.
Clack.
The mask attached to Ed’s lower face instantly fired additional carbon nanotubes and internal metal parts, completing the helmet’s design. All that remained visible were Ed’s two eyes as he glared at the demon species.
Slide.
Ed checked the plasma mana shield that was on the verge of collapse, then turned to his comrades to leave them one final instruction. At the same moment, the locking mechanism on his forehead released, and a metal eye mask descended over his eyes. Mechanical parts meshed together with a series of clicks, fusing the eye mask and helmet into one.
Then—
Flash!
Sharp, upturned eyes ignited with crimson light. Inside the dark cave, Ed scattered red glare as he spoke to his party.
“……”
Ed’s voice had changed subtly. His party members listened to the heavy, low tone and could only nod with dazed expressions. Perhaps because of the helmet, the deepened timbre carried something that resonated in the chest like the voice of a god.
Bang!
That voice and form were not a fleeting mirage. The demon species shattered the plasma mana shield and charged at Ed, only to be sent flying into the distance with a single punch.