Chapter 89
Chapter 89
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 89
Chapter Title: The Reversed Story
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One of Seraph Academy's main events.
The turning point that changes the story's flow.
In movie terms, the turning point.
From this moment on, players learn that dead characters never come back to life.
And the first sacrifice is Rak's closest (same-sex) friend.
Exactly my position.
Back then, after spoilers were rampant in the galleries, it got memed with the Yamcha image and turned into a joke, but at first, everyone was shocked.
Because the mid-boss announcing the Demon King's revival was way too strong,
and the way the hero's friend died was brutally cruel.
Of course, I had no intention of letting it happen, so I was on high alert, but one anxiety flashed through my mind.
This would be the moment of deepest intervention in the hero's academy story.
The school app screen flows with text from our Seraph Academy emblem alongside the hero's message.
Prepare for the darkness.
After receiving a more chilling than usual 【Actual Situation Briefing】, we entered the gate.
"What?!"
We dropped into a cave-like place.
Aru panicked and quickly hid behind me.
"This is a map where you can't shoot breaths and stuff~~!"
She called me dead weight and all that...!
Aru gets surprisingly scared in places where she can't fly around.
"Help me, Mob. Protect me! If you protect me, I'll protect the Dragon Warrior, right?!"
She clings right to my side.
Kind of cute.
Seems like she hasn't forgotten that I helped her before if things get dicey.
"Ugh, you useless dragon."
"I'm not useless! If anything gets close, I'll bite it dead!"
Rak gripped his sword and stared down the endless dark passage.
"...The mana feels heavy. We need to be more careful than usual."
As he said, heavily armored skeleton soldiers appeared, and combat began.
"Leave the undead to me!"
While Elysia chanted a holy magic that enveloped the entire cave, Rak stood guard in front of her, facing the skeletons' fierce assault.
"Per lumen sacrum, pereat mortuus!"
⟨ Extermination of the Undead ⟩
The time it took to chant the S-rank holy magic 'Extermination of the Undead' was a mere 5.64 seconds!
The skeletons all dissolved into light and vanished.
Having synced up for over two weeks now, we were tightly bound by trust in each other, ready for any enemies that came.
And...
As always, the sneaky backstabbers were mine to handle.
Hey, heroine ass view is mine!
Splat!!
"Urk!"
"Urk~~!"
Aru mimicked my kiai and swung her dragon tail to help.
The bones shattered with crisp snaps.
"When did you pull out that tail?"
"I yank it out for surprise attacks in close combat! It's tougher than steel!"
"Impressive..."
I stroked the tail.
"Eek?! Don't touch it lewdly! It's an erogenous zone!"
"...It is? So you fight by swinging your erogenous zone around?"
"Ugh, you perv with your dirty mind. Learn from the Dragon Warrior's noble form~!"
As Aru and I bickered while advancing, Rak, who was leading, suddenly stopped.
Everyone turned their gaze to Rak.
"Rak, what's there?"
"No way, the mana reaction is at least B-rank or higher──."
Rak quickly sensed the anomaly and lowered his stance.
An ominous rift of darkness.
'...'
What stepped out from there was a red-haired beauty.
──Of all people, her.
Demon 4th Legion Commander, the strongest female demon mage 'Cruel Nialite'.
The demon race's top mage, who can shapeshift into various faces and steal the abilities of those she transforms into.
She also has advanced scouting abilities that let her infiltrate the academy in the early stages.
Her combat power is top-tier, needless to say.
Fighting her now is a guaranteed loss!
"Just a bunch of kids and a few girls here to greet me?"
"Looks like we're the first ones to find her."
Rak assumed a stance, not letting his guard down.
"Sorry for coming at you sword-first, but mind telling us what you're here for?!"
"...Such a leisurely question. What do you think I'm here for?"
"Dragon Warrior! Be careful!!"
No sooner had Aru warned than a beam of flame swept over our party.
Karina instantly blocked it with a fire barrier of the same attribute, but some broke through, melting the floor like lava.
"You blocked that? Not bad."
She shook out her hands as if it were just a casual greeting and smiled.
No one knows Nialite's true form,
but at first glance, she looked like a flat-chested, foul-tempered loli with an attitude.
Her real form is curvier, but she prefers this smaller one for mobility.
"The enemy's firepower is no joke. Stay sharp!"
"Since you blocked my strike, I'll tell you as a reward. I'm here to announce Lord Demon King's revival."
"The Demon King's revival...?"
"The tyrant of tyrants who will trample all you humans of this land!"
Rak's voice trembled in disbelief.
"Lies! We were weakening the Demon King's harbingers!"
"Looks like you've forgotten the previous hero's teaching to prepare for the darkness. The darkness always comes. I'll use your corpses as my message?"
The second attack came.
"Everyone, watch out!"
Rak shouted and charged forward first.
Our highest win-rate strategy, based on all the data we'd accumulated.
The saintess's buffs wrapped around the hero's body, and Rak's radiant aura lit up the cave.
But Nialite wasn't intimidated and summoned long, red, thorny spears around her.
Infused with fire mana, she hurled them at us with telekinesis.
Each one an S-rank 'Spears of Punishment'!
"Grk!"
Rak tried to deflect them with his sword flow, but was pushed back, several spears flying toward us.
Aru quickly flew in and swatted some with her tail, but it wasn't enough.
Fragments from the shattered spears embedded in the saintess's thigh, Aru's wing membrane, and tail, setting them ablaze.
"Ugh!"
"Agh!"
The party's mood turned grim in an instant.
Nialite smirked in satisfaction.
"Who should I crucify first?"
"Don't touch my comrades!"
"Oh?"
Rak pursued Nialite at a speed beyond everyone's expectations.
Nialite hopped away to widen the gap, but he closed in even more precisely with his sword flow movements.
"Not bad? You might be stronger than before~!"
Even that was shattered by a shockwave from Nialite in an instant.
Rak was thrown down, on the verge of a fatal blow.
"No!"
Elysia cried out desperately.
"Help him!! Moro!"
Damn! Not yet! I need to wait until Nialite summons the sacrifice for the event trigger!
A fragment from the shattered Spear of Punishment flew toward Karina's face.
Fuck, this is what happens when you can't refuse drinks!!
I smacked the fragment away from Karina's face with my hand.
"M-Moro──?"
Karina looked up at me in confusion.
Because I'd moved so fast in that split second.
"Fall back."
I drew an intangible sword from my hand. From level 30, Tyrant's Heaven-Conquering Style allows swordless combat.
Drawing a sword forged in the mind is called a mind sword.
Distance means nothing.
I swung the sword, severing both arms of Nialite as she tried to attack Rak.
"Huh?"
Blood sprayed from the stumps of Nialite's arms.
"Who the hell are you?!"
Nialite hurriedly regenerated her body with mana and retreated. Elysia, seeing it, said in shock.
"That's not holy magic! She regenerated with black magic! How can cursed demons do that?"
"Think demons can't borrow even one compassionate god's power? Naive girl. More importantly..."
Now Nialite's interest was fully on me.
"Where'd a guy like you come from? Interesting. First wound in 300 years."
"Was that a setting too? Sorry."
"Die!"
I deflected all the incoming Spears of Punishment.
If the hero party's average level is around 30, each Spear has enough power to instant-kill a level 40 character.
Aru's physical stats for blocking those are insane...
Of course, the hero party doesn't die here. It's just a forced defeat scenario.
'But... can I twist it here?'
Seeing Elysia trembling with injuries,
watching Rak struggle, I couldn't just stand by.
I swung the intangible sword.
"Urk!!"
Sensing the ferocious energy, Nialite instantly raised dozens of mana shields, but they shattered like thin glass.
"Eek!?"
Nialite's body vanished with the sword pressure.
Space warped, destruction.
Only traces of blood splattered around.
"───In one strike."
"Don't let your guard down."
As everyone was stunned, I gripped my sword and warned.
Nialite's form regenerated from nothing. She looked seriously pissed, eyes rolled back.
"I-I can always regenerate. As long as my soul and will endure."
"I know that setting."
"Insolent human, no need for a mere herald now. I'll kill you for real and scatter your form."
I swung again, blasting Nialite's form away once more.
"Urk, ack!"
No matter how much she can regenerate overall, it wasn't without damage— I felt her soul shake at my sword tip.
"Ah, ugh...! Ah...?"
It's over.
In the gap as she finished regenerating, I cast Hypnosis Ghost.
Clear Rewards have no exceptions.
Everyone fell into hypnosis.
Now to overwrite their memories.
"Nialite, you've delivered your message plenty. Now go home quietly."
Normalization begins.
For the heroines, erase my exploits,
and make them believe "Rak stood against Nialite, she backed off after a bit, and we averted crisis."
Finally, Rak's turn. I swallowed hard.
Blood dripped from his hand as he gripped the sword.
Even in the moment hypnosis took hold, his sword tip was aimed at the unknown enemy.
Rak.
'...I've intervened too much.'
Rak missed the hero awakening event he was supposed to get through his friend's death.
That was the biggest issue.
I hesitated until the very last second, wondering if I should step in early.
We needed to let it reach absolute desperation for Rak to awaken, then hypnotize to resolve.
That would have been perfect.
But there was a variable.
Everyone hurt and suffering.
...Something I didn't want to see.
Because I, too, as the supporter Moro assigned the role of "block crises when they come," was with them.
"Damn..."
Erase everyone's memories?
I ruined it and blocked Rak's awakening.
Or force an awakening with hypnosis?
After messily fixing it, what next?
If a stronger enemy comes and we can't handle it, I'll intervene again.
Erase memories again.
Because I've grown attached to you all.
'...It's already too late to turn back.'
I couldn't complete Rak's memory wipe.
I realized in that instant it was all meaningless.
I didn't want to watch puppets dancing on my palm.
At least the hero's main story, I wanted to let play out.
"...I shouldn't have gotten close to you, Rak."
I regretted it.
Shouldn't have helped Rak then.
The hero's growth story that swelled in my chest broke here.
By Hypnosis Ghost.
......
.....
....
"Everyone, you okay?!"
In the end, I put Rak's memory wipe on hold.
"Don't move, Rak! Looks like internal injuries. I'll heal you now."
The saintess hurried over to tend to her comrades' wounds.
"Ow ow... Thanks, Elysia. Man, we almost died."
Rak looked up at me mid-pain and smiled.
"It's all thanks to you, Moro. Thanks for saving everyone...! Moro!"
"Ah..."
My chest stung.
From behind Elysia, busy with healing, Arukaris walked over.
"What are you saying? Dragon Warrior, it was you who saved us all, right?"
"...Huh? What are you talking about? Moro just repelled that demon, didn't he?"
"Eh? Check if this guy's head's okay. It was Rak, the Dragon Warrior, who saved us all with his cool swordsmanship!"
"Huh?"
"Yeah, Rak saved us all. So cool♥"
Even Karina agreed, and Rak tilted his head puzzled.
"Rak, you okay now?"
"Check Moro's wounds too. He was just fighting her."
"Huh? Moro was behind me the whole time?"
"......"
As everyone's statements skewed in the same wrong direction, Rak looked at me.
I avoided his gaze.
"I'll head back first today."
Elysia stood in panic and grabbed me.
"Moro, are you hurt anywhere? Let me see?"
"No, I'm fine."
Rak said worriedly.
"Oh, got it! Because of the huge risk of Tyrant's Heaven-Conquering Style... right?"
"Yeah. Heading back first. Need some rest."
"O-Okay──."
No huge risk. My body's perfectly fine.
I could take on the Demon King's entire army alone.
───.
But now, I don't know what to do.
If only I hadn't grown fond of them.
If someone died, the saintess would revive them anyway~~~
If I'd had that mindset... would it have been okay?
Returning to base a step ahead, I holed up in my room to sort my thoughts.
Perhaps the scheduled sense of loss.
The bitterness that Rak's story wouldn't return now melted into the night sky.
"Moro, can I come in?"
About an hour later.
Rak came to see me personally.
Probably had questions from the memory mismatch.
"Come in."
I greeted Rak while chugging from the bottle, the liquor I'd refused even in the party.