The Fallen Sword Princess
After confirming that Cheon Yu-ha’s breathing had stabilized, we hurried toward the place Elesia was guiding us. The farther we followed her, the thicker the demonic energy grew, until it became difficult even to breathe. I had to burn mana continuously just to keep my body upright.
“It must be tucked away in a pretty remote corner. That’s why it barely affected the rest of the campus, huh?” Elesia said.
Just as she claimed, Tana Erhen’s body had been positioned as far as possible from the lecture hall where we’d been. When I remembered that the game had placed her much closer to the lecture hall…
That really was the best you could do.
What the demonic medium wanted was my life—and beyond that, the souls of every student attending the academy. Naturally, Tana herself would have been tempted by the devil. The medium was supposed to lure us in as close as possible. Instead, she had done everything she could to put distance between herself and us. Of course the range was still within the limits of her spatial separation, but the fact that she had endured the temptation at all was enough to leave me in awe of her willpower.
“If you hadn’t bought us this much distance, things could have gotten really ugly,” Elesia muttered. I nodded.
The denser the demonic energy, the stronger the monsters it spawned. Had Tana not maximized the gap, far more victims would have fallen. Not every cadet was capable of hunting a monster like this.
“This is it.”
Elesia, who had been striding forward without hesitation, suddenly stopped. She clenched her fist and stared at the door ahead. Beyond it, demonic energy far thicker than anything we had felt so far oozed out like tar.
“Let’s go in.”
She spoke quietly and slowly opened the door. A vast theater unfolded before us. Black bubble-like spectators filled every seat, all of them staring in unison at a single point—the stage. They looked as though they were waiting for a show to begin.
The moment we stepped inside, the door slammed shut with a deafening bang.
Startled, Yu-ha yanked on the handle, but it refused to budge.
“…It’s locked.”
“Once you enter, you don’t get to leave. Figures,” I said.
Elesia and Yu-ha instantly dropped into fighting stances. With this many bubbles inside such a large theater, an attack could come from any direction. Yet I drew my sword and kept my eyes fixed on the stage. I had seen this production before. I already knew that once the subjugation battle began, escape to the outside was impossible. After all, these theatrical subjugation fights were one of the reasons I had gotten hooked on the game in the first place.
A piercing screech tore through the air. We all clapped our hands over our ears at once.
“Ugh…!”
“What the hell is that?!”
The deafening noise gradually faded, replaced by an eerie melody. At the same time, a woman’s singing voice drifted from the stage. Every bubble’s gaze locked onto the performance, and the song continued.
With a sharp pop, the theater lights went out.
“What’s going on?” a bewildered voice asked beside me. At the same moment, a blue glow briefly covered Yu-ha’s and Elesia’s eyes. They had strengthened their vision to pierce the darkness. With the Eye of the Transcendent, of course, I had no need for such tricks.
Tap. Tap.
As if sweeping away the darkness, a spotlight exploded onto the stage. Beneath its brilliant circle stood a woman.
“That’s…”
“Why is Tana up there?”
The woman was unmistakably Tana Erhen, sword at her hip. She wore an ornate, theatrical costume like some kind of dancer and glided gracefully onto the stage.
“Tana!”
“It’s useless.”
Elesia caught Yu-ha by the arm as the girl tried to rush the stage. If no one else could see it, Elesia certainly could—the thick demonic energy wrapped around Tana’s body, an evil no ordinary human could possess.
“She’s not the friend you remember anymore.”
“Save me…”
The moment Elesia finished speaking, a sobbing voice leaked out. Both Yu-ha’s and Elesia’s eyes snapped toward Tana. Her face was contorted in anguish. Tears streamed down her cheeks, every misery in the world seemingly melted into that single expression.
Yet her body moved with flawless precision. The sword at her waist traced elegant, delicate arcs through the air—lines so beautiful that even someone ignorant of art would gasp in admiration. The utter contrast between her tormented face and her graceful movements was surreal.
Watching it, Yu-ha whispered, “Is she… being controlled?”
It was a reasonable assumption. Her body moved against her will while her face remained her own. It looked as though Tana was resisting the demonic contract. That was how it appeared.
But I knew better. The demon was far more vicious than we imagined.
Instead of closing the distance with my blade, I cast a spell immediately. A first-circle fireball—one Tana could have easily blocked. I hurled it straight at her.
BOOM!
“Cut the act and do it properly,” I growled.
To my Eye of the Transcendent, the truth was plain: a demon was wearing Tana’s skin like a mask and grinning beneath it. Once she became the medium for a demonic contract, Tana no longer held any claim to her own body. Her soul had long since been offered as collateral.
Then whose voice had we just heard?
“That’s too cruel.”
From beyond the smoke of the exploding fireball, Tana’s voice drifted out. Yu-ha’s eyes widened in shock.
“You—what the hell did you just—”
“What did I do? Wake up and look.”
Cheon Yu-ha, who had been ready to grab me by the collar, froze the moment she saw what now stood on the stage. Even Elesia, who had remained unfazed by the bubble monsters or the giant, looked genuinely startled.
Half the creature’s face was a melted mass of burn scars. One arm was charred to the bone. Its legs were so emaciated they trembled violently just supporting its upper body. The unburned half of its face was beautiful enough to be called lovely, yet the overall sight was grotesque.
“I’m going to kill every last one of you.”
The words came out in a hideous, cracked voice that ruined whatever beauty remained. A giant easily three meters tall now stood before us, still wearing the exact costume Tana had worn moments ago. A blunt, club-like rod that could barely be called a sword hung at its waist.
The demon had finally revealed its true form.
“What… is that thing?”
“You were charmed by it,” I answered.
It had descended using Tana as its vessel. The sensation was different from a succubus or incubus, but it still employed a form of seduction—only instead of lust, it evoked pity.
In the game, breaking that charm hadn’t been especially difficult. With Elesia present, its power was already halved. On top of that, my Eye of the Transcendent rendered such cheap tricks useless.
I drew my blade with a soft ring of steel and vaulted over the audience seats toward the stage. The Fallen Sword Princess subjugation battle consisted of three phases. We had roughly fifteen minutes remaining. Time was short. Yu-ha knew that too, which was why she kept growing more frantic. She was ready to try anything, and if one approach failed, she would instantly switch to another. Because if she didn’t, Tana would die—not a clean death, but a brutal one while being used as the demon’s puppet.
Yet she was still only a freshman. Cheon Yu-ha was inexperienced, lacking in real combat experience and far too emotional. That wasn’t inherently a flaw, but in this particular situation it was the wrong approach.
“I told you,” I said.
Yu-ha’s body, which had been coiling to charge, flinched. I had released my aura. Elesia’s eyes widened beside me. The energy I radiated pressed down on every living thing inside the theater. It was a mana-heavy technique I normally avoided using, but—
“I’LL KILL YOU!!!!”
—there was no other way to provoke that thing. The moment my aura pressed down on it, the creature shrieked as though its reverse scale had been touched and lunged at me. Its blunt weapon hurtled toward my head.
“At least this part is the same as the game. Lucky me.”
I dodged lightly, then drove my sword forward. The strongest technique I could wield—One Flash.
Crackle—!
Lightning surged across my body as the flame-clad blade shot forward.
Slice.
In a single instant, the giant’s head flew from its shoulders.
***High-Playthrough Exclusive***
Unlike other subjugation battles, in Phase 1 of the Fallen Sword Princess fight, if you pressure the boss in any way it will expose its neck while performing a strange attack. Dump every skill you have into that neck and it dies in one hit. Phase 1 skipped.
However, only attempt this if you’re confident you can kill it in a single burst. If you fail to one-shot it, the boss will have full health and immediately jump to Phase 3. I’m not sure if the developers intended this or if it’s just a bug. It’s been around for a long time and they’ve never patched it, so maybe it’s intentional?