A Chaotic Entrance Ceremony (5)
Arhen Isis.
With bubblegum-pink hair, an omnipresent lollipop tucked between her cheeks, and a diminutive stature reminiscent of a young child, she was the textbook definition of a pint-sized, cute girl character. In the original story of Arhen Academy, she had enjoyed immense popularity among the supporting cast. Small wonder, really. Crafted to target every lolicon trope imaginable, she was an academy principal who looked like a middle-schooler on the outside, yet was secretly an ancient archmage who had walked the earth for centuries. How could such a character not be wildly popular?
Still, as mentioned, beneath that harmless exterior lay a terrifying monster with hundreds of years of accumulated sorcery under her belt. But that wasn't what mattered right now. Why had a sudden spark of hope ignited in my chest the moment she appeared? The reason was blisteringly simple.
She's just ridiculously fucking strong.
Her epithet as an Archmage wasn't just decorative fluff. As the renowned "Archmage of Words," she stood among the transcendent few in this era capable of rewriting the world's underlying logic at will, fashioning her own unique magic out of raw conceptual authority. Granted, by the mid-to-late game, the sheer cosmic scale of warfare would leave little room for a utility-focused mage like her to intervene. But at this precise point in the timeline? She was practically an untouchable demigod. Even if it was only temporary and localized to a small perimeter, the fact that she could casually freeze the flow of time itself was proof enough of her monstrous prowess.
Her unique magic was Power of the Word—a high-order reality alteration spell that infused intent directly into the mana comprising the fabric of existence, commanding reality to obey. Just seconds ago, she hadn't even chanted an elaborate incantation; she had merely uttered the single command to halt, and everyone in the area—myself, my companions, and the beast—had frozen dead in their tracks. From the demon's perspective, it had to be utterly surreal.
No, perhaps sheer bafflement wasn't what the demon was feeling at all.
More likely, it's wetting itself over the realization that it might die right here and now.
The Demon Realm operated purely on the law of the jungle. For this creature to have attained the rank of a High-Rank demon, its instinct for measuring absolute power had to be razor-sharp. It wouldn't take more than a heartbeat for it to grasp that an entity capable of sealing its very movement with a whispered word could crush it like an insect without lifting a finger.
"Oops, my apologies. Let me let you little ones go."
The instant Arhen finished speaking, mobility flooded back into my limbs. Beside me, Evan and Stella began to stir as well, though Stella remained paralyzed by trauma, her head slumped forward as her mind radiated fractured, incoherent panic.
"What on earth just...?" Evan stammered, frantically checking his own hands in bewildered confusion.
"I merely suspended everything in this vicinity, save for your consciousness, for a short—wait, what?!"
Arhen, who had been leisurely strolling toward us with her hands tucked behind her back and a lollipop rolling in her mouth, abruptly froze. The candy slipped from her lips and dropped straight to the bloodied grass. Her large eyes were fixed on me.
Ah...
Now that I thought about it, to anyone else's eyes, I had to look like an ordinary student on the brink of death. Scratch that—with a severed, gargantuan demonic limb protruding through my torso, I didn't look mortally wounded; I looked like a fresh corpse.
"You... are you still alive?!"
The shock must have shaken her to her core. Her voice trembled with an edge of panic I had never once heard in the original game.
"[...Who... might you be...?]"
Naturally, I knew full well who she was, but dropping her name out of nowhere would arouse unnecessary suspicion, so I feigned ignorance. But then she lunged forward.
"J-Just hold on a moment longer! I'll apply emergency first-aid right away...!"
W-Wait, hold the fuck up?!
Realizing that a breath of life still lingered in me, Arhen began channeling mana, intending to cast healing magic. No! Absolutely not! After all that desperate struggling, I had finally earned the right to savor pure, unadulterated agony without inconveniencing anyone around me, and she wanted to cure it?! She could do whatever else she pleased, but stealing my rightful bliss was unforgivable.
I weakly raised a blood-soaked hand to ward her off.
"[I am... quite all right... A wound of this severity will regenerate on its own shortly... Rather than tending to me, please look after Brother Evan and Sister Stella first...]"
I'm genuinely fine, lady! In fact, I'm profoundly grateful that you showed up at the perfect time to clean up this mess, so please, for the love of god, do not rob me of this modest slice of happiness...!
To an outside observer, my condition was undoubtedly horrific beyond description. But looking around objectively, Evan and Stella were so psychologically shattered by the ordeal that they couldn't even process my state anyway, rendering her concerns totally moot. For a brief second, I worried she might ignore my plea and force her magic on me regardless, but she possessed centuries of wisdom. A single look at my divine constitution seemed to tell her everything she needed to know about my identity.
"...Understood."
Thank goodness.
Now I could immerse myself completely in the euphoric bliss of pain. Feigning an attempt to dislodge the impaled claw, I deliberately twisted the jagged bone deeper into my flesh, working to maximize the tearing sensation. I had to extract the arm eventually for my natural regeneration to finish closing the wound anyway, so no one would ever suspect I was prolonging it on purpose.
Time for happy hour.
Squish, tear...
Ngh... ah...♡
Until moments ago, the sheer urgency of survival had kept me from appreciating the agony to its fullest extent. But now that our savior had arrived to resolve the crisis, I could cast all worldly worries aside and comfortably indulge in the sensations coursing through my nerves. Truthfully, pint-sized kid characters weren't my cup of tea—especially the types that masqueraded as cute brats while harboring hundreds of insidious schemes beneath their skin—so I had never been particularly fond of her in the game. But right now? My preferences felt on the verge of doing a complete one-eighty.
The world had never looked so radiant. Cheering Arhen on in my heart, I prepared to wrench the demon's mangled forearm a little further through my abdomen.
"...At the very least, allow me to spare you the pain."
...Wait.
No, hold on, what the fuck?!
"[Y-You truly... do not need to...]"
"Nonsense! Severing a single sensory pathway barely consumes a drop of my mana, so do not fret over me, child."
No, that's not what I'm worried about—
Ah!
Ahhh!
Aaaarrrrghhh!!
"There. Feeling much better, aren't you?"
Are you fucking kidding me?!
"[...Y-Yes... My... humblest thanks...]"
"Fufu, think nothing of it."
FUCK!
A mere ten seconds ago, I had practically worshipped her as the GOAT—the Greatest Of All Time—and finally understood why all those degenerate lolicon fans fawned over her so obsessively. I take it back. Every single word of it.
GOAT my ass. From this day forward, she was the WOAT—the Absolute Worst Of All Time.
Damned loli hag.
The nightmare had finally drawn to a close.
The young girl who introduced herself as the academy's principal, Arhen Isis, assured them that the faculty would take full responsibility from here on out and urged them to put their worries to rest. The demon was escorted away under heavy magical containment—ostensibly to extract intelligence regarding the intrusion. She had even explained the method in passing: by freezing every