37. The Third Method
37. The Third Method
The dungeon, having begun to run wild, had turned into utter chaos.
The inner walls and pillars reinforced with concrete were collapsing.
As the magic formulas that had been weakening the dungeon crumbled, monsters began pouring out from inside.
The dungeon kept altering its structure like a living creature, trying to devour the students who had entered its body.
"Just die!!!"
"Uwaaah!!!"
Inside the wrecked dungeon, Senior Andy and I were dashing around without hesitation, slicing through monsters.
A dense Aura Blade had formed on Senior Andy's sword, ripping monsters apart left and right.
As a former member of the Imperial Knights, where only knights who had reached at least the upper ranks of Expert could become full members, Senior Andy was also fighting fiercely without restraint.
When I said a Great Demon was descending inside, he initially suggested we should all just flee, and I nearly killed him.
'With all this chaos, what's the instructor doing?
It's been ten years since you retired? Senior, do you want to die by my hand right now, or are you going to handle yourself properly?'
After I grabbed him by the collar and had a serious chat, he fought well.
We were searching for students isolated by the constantly warping dungeon, protecting them, and getting them out.
In my hand was a compass-like artifact that detected life signs.
It was an artifact I had obtained in advance in preparation for today.
The rescued students followed behind us as we smashed through the dungeon walls that changed in real time and slaughtered monsters, struggling to keep up, but their eyes were all shining.
"Whoa... so that's the Imperial Knights..."
"I... the instructor looks completely different now..."
Everyone was looking at Senior Andy with eyes full of admiration.
I was just holding a long sword, but Senior Andy's sword was wreathed in a thick, rippling aura.
We were moving in similar ways... I wasn't even using an Aura Blade while smashing through rock walls,
but in the students' eyes, the tall Senior Andy, radiating a brilliant Aura Blade, was naturally cooler... of course he was. Damn it.
I, who was cleaving rocks without an Aura Blade, was the more impressive one, but there was no way those kids would understand that.
I had spread my sensory perception in all directions, and when I felt nothing else around, I stopped and asked Senior Andy.
"Senior, that's everyone now, right?"
"No, Simore is still missing..!"
Come to think of it, Riber was nowhere to be seen.
A place suddenly surfaced in my mind.
It was the hidden room where I had just slaughtered the remnants of the Demon Church.
If Riber was also born with the protagonist's fate... there was a high probability she was there.
"Ugh... I have an idea, so get out first! I'll manage somehow!!"
"Then I'll be grateful...! Alright, kids, let's evacuate quickly!!"
"""Yes!!! Instructor!!!!"""
As Andy once again destroyed the dungeon wall with his Aura Blade and dashed in a straight line toward the exit, the students chased after Senior Andy.
Just as I was about to search for the hidden room again, the wave of demonic energy spread throughout the entire dungeon once more.
An incredibly dense demonic energy, far beyond that of an ordinary demon, was spreading.
"A Great Demon really does seem to be descending! What the hell did it eat to be coming out like that!!"
Just then, something suspicious caught my eye.
The seal on the boss room, which had been locked, was twisted.
Pitch-black demonic energy was swallowing the boss room... whole.
The boss room was simply being used as a sacrifice.
"I wrecked everything, and they just stubbornly performed another ritual in that short time?!"
I had put real effort into wrecking it, so it was unbelievable that they had performed another ritual in such a short time.
This was why I hated those heretic bastards.
They were like cockroaches; if you saw one, there were countless more crawling around where you couldn't see them.
I had to find the two of them quickly.
----------
The entrance to the hidden room had changed, but it was not difficult to find.
I knew that room was located directly beneath the boss room, so it was just a matter of dropping down below it.
I felt a human presence.
It was Emy's presence.
Was Riber somewhere else?
But I had no choice but to focus on Emy right in front of me.
Black light was gathering in the Great Demon's hand.
Emy was not moving.
Black stakes made of demonic energy were driven into her legs.
If things continued like that, Emy would die.
"Hey.. He-hey-hey-hey-hey-hey-hey-hey-hey-hey!!!!!!!"
Emy could not die.
She had taken a few shots at me, but no matter how I looked at it, Emy was the Devil Slayer.
She wasn't the same person as Hayden Parker, but she was the protagonist of the story, following his narrative to some degree.
Born with a protagonist's strong fate, she was, to me, no different from a canary in a coal mine.
Whenever an event from the original story... that is, a dangerous incident occurred, warning signs were bound to appear around her.
The reason I had run around so desperately this time was largely because Emy had appeared in the Devil Slayer's attire.
If I hadn't seen her looking like that back then, I probably would have let my guard down after killing all those Demon Church bastards.
I wouldn't have prepared this diligently.
Yes, she was practically the one and only warning device in this world.
I had finally found the one I had been searching for, and she was going to die a meaningless death in a place like this?
I would absolutely not allow it.
She had to stay by my side, continuously alerting me to the warning signs of dangerous events.
She had to survive, long and healthy...!!!
Strength flowed into the hand holding my sword.
The opponent was a Great Demon. Just stabbing it with my sword like this was meaningless.
I channeled aura into my sword.
A corona of aura light began to swirl along the elongated blade.
The light, which had flickered like a faint glow, began to brighten gradually, until it eventually emitted a radiance so intense the blade itself was no longer visible.
At the upper level of Sword Expert, an Aura Blade looked like flames enveloping the sword.
The expression 'the aura blazes' came from that, but the aura I had created did not fit the expression 'blazing.'
The Aura Blade I formed looked, at a glance, like a sword simply made of light.
A sword of light where an overwhelmingly immense power silently raged like a storm.
When I first succeeded at this, I thought it looked like a lightsaber from a sci-fi movie.
My Aura Blade, shot out like a ballista bolt, embedded itself in the Great Demon's flank.
-Puuuuk!!!
[Keuaaaaaaahhh!!!!!!!!]
The Great Demon, stabbed in the side by the Aura Blade, screamed.
"What kind of bullshit are you pulling on my canary!!!!!!!!!!"
There are three orally transmitted methods to kill a demon, but the world only knows of two.
Because the third method was a useless one that could not be used even if you knew of it.
A third method surpassing 'Holy Power' and 'Pure Substance,' which only about ten people on the entire continent in this era could wield.
That was the Aura Blade that had reached the 'Extreme.'
I pulled my sword out, leaped backward, and landed in front of Emy.
The Great Demon clutched its flank in agony.
Around the stab wound, burn marks remained, and pitch-black demonic energy was billowing out through the puncture hole.
[This pain... different from holy power...!! It's exhilarating....!! Hotter than the brimstone fires of hell!!! ]
Belphegor, as if experiencing such pain for the first time, clutched the wound and screamed like a lunatic.
[Yes... I've heard of it. Vermin that can inflict wounds upon us.... You, you're a Master!!!!!]
An Aura Blade that had reached the 'Extreme,' with an output that made the sword itself invisible, was proof that one had ascended to the realm of a 'Master.'
"Yeah, punk. You're that old and this is your first time seeing a Master?"
I was one of the only three Masters in the Empire.
---------------------------------
An Aura Blade that had reached the 'Extreme' twisted reality.
A Master was a realm unreachable by mere skill or physical prowess; the heart befitting a Master twisted reality.
Just like the demons, beings from another dimension, and the gods of the heavens, it transcended the laws of this world.
Since an Aura Blade at the Extreme departed from the world's rules, it was a lethal means even against demons, beings from another dimension.
"Ha. It broke again."
The long sword that had looked perfectly fine until just moments ago had turned into a pile of black ash.
An ordinary sword could not withstand a Master's Aura Blade.
I had already burned up one earlier, and now another was wrecked.
I could just retrieve the sword I left at the Knight Order... but infiltrating the Knight Order to do that was suicide.
Fortunately, there was a sword made of rare metal right in front of me, so I bent down.
Emy, her face a mess with tears, looked up at me.
"Atlas... how..?"
"Riber was here earlier too. Where did she go?"
"...By now, she's probably... at the dormitory."
"Well, that's a relief."
Just like when Emy had disappeared before, Riber had vanished again, so I had been a bit worried.
One less thing to worry about.
I picked up Emy's mithril greatsword.
"I'm borrowing this."
The center of gravity of the thick sword was different from the long sword I usually used, giving a sense of unfamiliarity, but I endured it.
Holding a sword bigger than my own height was irritating, but if even Emy could use it, there was no way I couldn't.
As I took the sword, Emy asked with a surprised expression.
"But... how did you get here..?"
-Ttak!!!
"Ow!!"
Since she asked, I gave her a flick on the forehead first.
I had told her to tell me if she was having a hard time, yet seeing her nearly dying on her own like a clumsy sunfish made me angry.
There were a mountain of things I wanted to say, but I held back, postponing it until after I dealt with the demon in front of us.
And I condensed it all into the one thing I wanted to say most.
"Shut up. You're going to get it big time later, so stay put and behave."
Emy looked somewhat wronged, but I ignored it, turned back around, and shifted my gaze back to the Great Demon.
I would not lose to some tactical punk dropped by the Demon Church.
Facing the Great Demon, the Aura Blade blazed forth, taking the shape of the mithril greatsword.