The Demon Race
"Ugh! Uwaaaaaah!"
"Are you okay? Please pull yourself together."
I couldn't hold back and retched right there on the spot. Ophelia steadied me, patting my back as I did so.
Well, I had expected this.
Since I'd come to this world from the novel, I'd seen enough of dead bodies to last a lifetime.
But even so...
This...
This was...
"Ugh! Uuugh. Uwaaa..."
Acid rose from my throat, tears and snot streaming down my face.
The feeling of something churning in my stomach made my lungs squeeze painfully, forcing me to pant for breath.
Sweat poured down my face.
"... I told you to go outside."
"Haa... haa. Ophelia. Are you okay?"
Seeing such a pile of corpses, how could she be fine? I turned my head to look at her face.
But her face was just as pale.
Her breathing was ragged, her pupils trembling, and the palm patting my back was damp.
"I've seen dead people before. But... this is terrible. Let's go outside first and call for soldiers."
She tried to support me, but I insisted I could walk on my own.
While she watched me stagger worriedly, Ophelia and I stepped out of the dilapidated building's exterior.
"Buke? Are you there?"
I had clearly told Buke to wait outside.
But in the front yard of the building, overgrown with weeds, no one was there.
"Did he run away?"
"I don't think so."
He seemed genuinely concerned for his missing comrades.
Even if they were all criminals like the corpses we saw, they were still people.
"Buke~!"
I called out for him and looked around. He didn't seem like the type to flee in this situation.
Did he really run away?
It would have been better if he had.
Squelch.
Something squelched underfoot.
I looked down.
"A head...?"
There was a severed human head.
The person had eyes that, as if not believing he would die, were calmly open.
His body was as white as a sheet.
Staring at his unfocused eyes and the neatly severed neck with a dazed expression.
"Run!"
Just then, something red and sharp like a blood blade shot towards me from the front.
Target: my neck.
"...!"
I belatedly twisted my head and bent my waist to dodge.
My brain desperately ordered my body to move.
Move! Move!
But my body didn't move as fast as I thought.
... I can't dodge.
At that moment, the ring I was wearing flashed, slightly altering the trajectory of the blood blade.
"Gwaaah!"
In the end, it pierced through my left elbow.
Shwaaak!
Blood sprayed across the floor.
The pain of my elbow being severed made me frown and unable to stop myself from screaming.
The blood blade that passed through my arm flew far and embedded itself in the wall.
I felt no sensation below my left elbow.
Fortunately, my arm wasn't severed, but the wound was deep.
I grabbed the wound with my right arm and looked up at where the attack had come from.
There was more than one attack.
Two more whip-like blades slithered towards me like snakes.
Ah, I'm dead.
It was too late to block with magic.
At the moment I sensed death, a storm of hot flames from behind swallowed up all the blood blades.
Kwaaang!!
The storm swept even further, destroying the area in front of me.
The heat of the flames reached here.
"Step back."
At the same time as saying that, Ophelia threw off her school jacket and charged forward with a sword in hand.
Her bold appearance momentarily distracted me, and I belatedly snapped out of it and stepped back.
And I looked forward.
From the raging flames emerged a figure in a black robe wearing a thick blood-red mask, gender unknown.
"That magic just now was blood magic... a demon."
"..."
Crunch. Creak.
The demon made a strange sound instead of answering, then dissolved into the ground like blood seeping into the soil.
"... A trick."
Swish. Swish.
Because the flames had just swept through, filling the air with smoke, I couldn't tell where it had hidden.
I had no choice but to feel the flow of senses or mana.
"Ophelia! Left front!"
Before I could even feel the mana flow and shout, she leaped backward.
Just as she escaped, a large red spike shot up from the ground.
Clang!
Ophelia dodged it with a precarious, dizzying movement that made onlookers gasp.
Thud. Behind Ophelia who landed, there was a pool of blood.
And from the pool behind Ophelia's back, a demon suddenly sprang up.
It was a stealth technique using blood magic.
Even if crawling in the bushes, one couldn't not see the enemy right in front.
"...!"
The demon swung a sharp dagger, and Ophelia responded by turning and swinging her sword.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
"Gwaa..."
Creak. Creak.
The demon was trying to pin Ophelia down as is, and Ophelia was holding her ground by stomping her feet.
The sound of metal screaming echoed. Ophelia's reaction was fast, but the demon who attacked first had a better position.
Thanks to mana reinforcement, she could barely hold on. But her stance was crumbling.
During the dangerous struggle, the demon loaded magic into its empty hand.
Blood magic. From its hand, a demonic hand shape made of blood rose up.
Instead of desperately defending against it, Ophelia let the flow take over, lowered her body by slipping, and at the same time, swung a low roundhouse kick to his leg.
Thud!
His stance collapsed. But even as he fell, he tried to attack by extending his palm.
Kwaaang!!
Due to the golden mana wave I shot, the demon lost balance and flew sideways.
"Ophelia!"
"... Good job!"
Because the demon didn't think I was a threat, it left an opening.
Ophelia immediately chased the demon with beast-like movements.
The demon staggered while shooting magic.
Ophelia rhythmically blocked the flying blood blades with her sword, then approached and stabbed a flaming flower fist into the demon's belly.
Thud! Kwaaang!
"...!"
The first attack hit the belly, and then the explosion of flames dealt a secondary blow.
After that, the demon, scorched by fire, rolled on the ground.
"Did you finish it?"
I clenched my left arm, from which blood was dripping, and ran to Ophelia.
"... No. Be careful. The feeling wasn't right."
Ophelia raised her arm to block and said.
Clearly an attack had landed, but the demon was trying to stand up as if nothing had happened.
But it was a bit strange.
"... A doll?"
Like a puppet, the demon stood up with joints creaking, pointed a finger at me. Then its body melted and flowed down, leaving only the black robe it was wearing.
"Not dead... but a clone?"
"... Yeah, I heard some demons can create their clones using other mediums or sacrifices."
Actually, it was from the novel. Unless I was a frontline knight, the chance of seeing demons directly was almost zero, so Ophelia had probably never seen one before.
Thinking the demon had disappeared, I started walking forward to find Buke's remains.
"I have to find Buke's remains."
"... We don't have time for that. We need to hurry and inform the church and the kingdom's knights. First, you go to the church for treatment..."
Ophelia said that while wearing the jacket she had thrown off.
... He probably lost his life right there to the blood blade attack after waiting outside for us.
I promised to protect him.
I said while staggering.
"... Why are you so unaffected?"
The words that came out sounded like I was blaming Ophelia.
I knew I wasn't blaming Ophelia.
It was just that the feeling of being unable to speak would explode if I didn't say it.
At my words, she turned to look at me.
Ophelia's face was gaunt, and she was limping slightly, perhaps from a leg wound.
Unlike her usual self, she wrinkled her face in concern and supported me while speaking.
"I understand how you feel. But your wounds first..."
"I'm... fine."
The wound on my elbow was deep but manageable.
Even if blood was dripping a lot, creating puddles.
Even if I had no sensation below my arm.
Even if the world in front of my eyes looked hazy as if filtered.
"... Therese? Therese? Wait. Snap out of it!"
I felt the ground rushing towards me and closed my eyes.
"Thank you! Thank you. Saintess."
"No. It's only natural for someone who has become a saint."
The church where memories were preserved, the one where Eli, who had chosen to wander the kingdom on weekends with Haru, eventually chose the memory of Eli treating Haru's mother in the past... or something like that.
Since the church side also welcomed Eli's volunteer service with open arms.
Basically, the church pursues volunteer work. However, the nuns who use healing magic have limited mana, and they can't cure diseases.
But thanks to the saint Eli who appeared, who could treat almost anything from diseases to wounds, the First Millia Church was now packed with all kinds of people.
Haru was assisting Eli by treating people next to her.
It was hard, but rewarding.
Eli was also helping people with a bright expression.
"... No, why so many people..."
In the midst of the noisy commotion, a bold and dignified girl's voice rang out.
Soon, a girl with red hair wearing the academy uniform emerged from the crowd.
On the small back of the red-haired girl, one girl was being carried.
"Terese...?"
Haru muttered absentmindedly and widened her eyes.
Because Therese, whose arm was dripping blood, was there.
The red-haired girl muttered.
"... Eliya?"
"Therese?"
The eyes of Eli and the girl met.
Haru thought that this wasn't going to be good.