73. Demon Terror
73. Demon Terror
A mix of reactions erupted from the spectator stands.
Groups that had grown friendly over the day and were now flirting as if they didn't care who won,
groups glaring fiercely and cheering for their respective sides,
a crowd cursing out Atlas for his overwhelming lead, people picking fights—there were all sorts.
That was only to be expected, since it wasn't just one or two people but a full 120 who had come from Clover Academy.
It was noisy in many ways, but considering the purpose of the exchange meeting, I thought it was a decent outcome since some students had managed to get to know each other.
But then, the situation suddenly turned strange.
It started the moment pitch-black smoke began billowing from the center of Margaret, who had stepped forward as their leader.
"Whoa... what's that?"
"Smoke screen?"
Ordinary people lived their whole lives without ever facing a demon.
So, seeing the demonic energy pouring out so thickly it was visible, they simply thought it was a smoke screen meant to obscure vision.
By the time they felt something was off, it was already too late.
"Uh... uuh? Why am I...?"
The Clover Academy students, having witnessed the demonic energy spewing from the center of the arena, began to act strangely.
They scratched at their bodies all over and thrashed about like people stricken with disease.
"What's wrong with you guys??"
"S... save me—my body!!!"
As all 115 Clover Academy students, except the five competitors, simultaneously went into convulsions, the demonic energy erupting in the arena's center went completely unnoticed.
"Uwaaaaaaagh!!!!"
A collapsed student staggered upright, spewing black demonic energy from his mouth—similar to the stuff pouring out in the arena's center.
His skin had discolored to black, and his eyes had rolled back, showing only the whites.
And a single small horn sprouted from the crown of his head.
Seeing them rise in forms no longer human, the academy students slowly edged backward.
"Wh... what's with these guys??"
No matter how you looked at it, it was bizarre.
Unable to grasp the situation and cautiously gauging the mood, they heard someone shout at them.
"You guys..!! What're you standing around for—get away, now!!!"
They didn't know who it was, but that voice was the signal.
The Clover Academy students, now turned pitch-black, lunged at the academy students.
"Graaaaaaaagh!!!"
All of a sudden, hell unfolded at the academy.
-----------------
Emy, who knew more about demons than anyone else at this academy, noticed the calamity too.
-It's a demon! As I thought, the Clover Kingdom fell into the clutches of the Demon Church...!!
The spectator stands had already become utter chaos.
The demonic energy gushing so thickly that Atlas couldn't be seen—this meant at least a highest-ranking demon was being summoned.
And the demonic energies erupting from all over the arena—those meant mid-ranking or higher demons, at minimum, were being summoned as well.
-No... the demons aren't being summoned directly... They're using the students' bodies as sacrifices—not summoning demons, but demons nesting in their flesh and turning them into demon-touched.... That's why no one noticed right away..
Whatever it was, the severity of the situation remained unchanged.
The students, who had just witnessed the people they'd been chatting with moments ago turn into monsters before their eyes, were thrown into a panic, creating secondary and tertiary damage.
The academy didn't entirely lack countermeasures against demons, but they hadn't been designed with an incident of this scale in mind.
-Kill the demons. If you leave them be, an enormous number of people will be hurt and die. Only you can do it.
I agreed with my Companion's opinion that this situation had to be stopped somehow.
"Everyone, get out of here, quickly!"
"Th... that thing isn't the same? We have to help Atlas first..!! He doesn't even have a weapon right now!!"
"Worrying about Atlas here is the most pointless thing you could do!! Evacuate to safety first!"
Lucia trembled with anxiety, watching the pitch-black demonic energy swallow Atlas, but Emy, who knew his true identity, stopped her.
How dare anyone worry about him,
there was nothing more useless than people who hadn't even reached upper Expert rank worrying about Atlas, a Master.
Lights of magical power flashed across the spectator stands, now a scene of pandemonium.
Someone was suppressing the furious onslaught of over a hundred demon-touched.
It was the professors, who had come to watch the exchange meeting with nothing else to do.
The professors split into zones and began blocking the demon-touched's fierce attacks.
[Announcement: All academy students, evacuate to the main building..!! All professors capable of fighting, hold back the demon-touched!!!]
The Headmaster, who had been in the VIP Room, also rushed outside and began subduing the demon-touched.
"Shouldn't we help too??"
"The professors are working hard at it, so let's evacuate to safety first...! We'd just get in the way."
Everyone looked somewhat uneasy, but for now, they all agreed with what I said.
Liber grabbed the hem of Emy's clothes.
"... Emy, you're not going to... disappear on your own again, are you?"
"Huh?? M... me?"
"You did that before, remember...?"
Emy recalled the time she had witnessed the great demon's descent together with Liber.
"... Yeah, I will. I know how to deal with those demons better than anyone."
She didn't lie, but told the truth.
"Isn't there anything I can do to help?"
"If it were a regular bandit gang, it'd be fine, but Liber, you've never fought a demon before. Leave it to me and evacuate somewhere safe. That way I can fight without worry too."
Liber wasn't weak, but unable to use holy power and without a weapon made of rare metal, he could do little more than stall for time against the demon-touched.
It would be a relief if he didn't just end up getting hurt for nothing by staying close.
"...Alright, I'll leave it to you."
Just the professors alone couldn't stop the demon-touched.
The demon-touched seemed suppressed, but unless special methods were used, they relied on the demonic trait of taking no lasting damage. They didn't die and constantly resurrected.
There were only three methods to exterminate demons.
And Emy possessed one of those three.
"Russell-ssi, evacuate, quickly!"
"Uh.. uuh? What about Parker-ssi??"
"She said she's bringing other people and told us to escape first."
As soon as she confirmed that Liber was taking Lucia and escaping, Emy left the VIP Room and headed for the spectator stands.
Why did ominous premonitions always turn out to be right,
and why did things she genuinely hoped wouldn't happen always come to pass.
She shoved the complicated thoughts aside; first, she had to kill the demons.
Emy equipped the gear she had kept ready just in case.
A Devil Slayer had appeared at the academy.
---------------
The demonic energy had scattered so thickly it was suffocating, making it impossible to see even Margaret.
Nine out of ten, inside it, she was either becoming a demon-touched by accepting demonic power, or turning herself into a sacrifice to summon a demon.
I was so dumbfounded I was at a loss.
I couldn't believe that a group sent to represent an entire nation—not some terrorist organization—had all infiltrated for the purpose of terrorism.
The Empire and this kingdom weren't even close in national power. If the Church hadn't mediated, it would have already become part of the Empire. What in the world gave these puny little kingdom bastards the nerve to do this?
"I prided myself on being a crazy bastard, but are these guys the real lunatics? Where does that confidence come from??"
Were they actually scheming to start a war?
Maybe they thought if they landed a strong preemptive strike first, the Empire would get scared and try to negotiate.
A guy confident in his own power could especially think that way.
"Brother!!"
I'd been seriously mulling over whether those bastards had gone on some kind of collective drug binge, I was so flabbergasted, when Hera came running up from behind.
"Are you okay?? Are you hurt anywhere?? Let me see your hand."
"I'm still fine."
As soon as Hera ran up, she grabbed my hand—the one that had swept away the Clover Academy students.
"You could've won safely, so why did you do something like that..!!"
She must have been really worried about me facing an Aura Blade with my bare hands.
But the situation was too dire to carry on with such a touching conversation.
"Whoa... that looks like a demon. Captain, can we really block that..? I've never seen a demon like that before..."
One of the club members swallowed hard, looking at the demonic energy swirling right in front of us.
Were they seriously thinking of fighting this? Seeing how long it was taking, it wouldn't be strange for at least a highest-ranking demon to come out, even if it wasn't a great demon.
'If I try to half-ass a fight against this... aren't these people going to act rash and say they'll help...?'
I was scared they'd feel they couldn't just leave me and run away.
It wasn't a great demon that ruled over hell, but their most loyal, highest-ranking right-hand demons had densely concentrated demonic energy infused even in their ordinary attacks. People without any countermeasures could die just by grazing it.
This wasn't an opponent students who were upper-middle to upper Expert rank at best could handle.
Just being here made them dead weight.
So they wouldn't worry, let's all get out together first, and then I'd quietly come back here alone.
"What are you thinking about fighting it for? Let's leave it to the professors and evacuate the students first!"
The moment my words ended, brilliant spells rained down from the sky aimed at Margaret.
[Announcement: All academy students, evacuate to the main building..!! All professors capable of fighting, hold back the demon-touched!!!]
The Headmaster, who had been in the VIP Room, stepped in to begin pacifying the situation in earnest.
The mere fact that someone more capable than them had stepped forward to manage things caused a layer of the sense of responsibility in their hearts to peel away.
"Right?? That's the better move, isn't it??"
"Aren't those Clover bastards insane?? It's not just one or two—this is a large-scale terrorist attack??"
No matter how strong they were among the students, they were, in the end, students.
We all tried to escape outside the arena together, but
from within the demonic energy, where you couldn't see an inch ahead, an incredibly dense demonic presence began to be felt.
-Aaaaaaagh!!!!!
The demonic energies scattered all at once, and a woman's scream that sounded like it was being torn apart shook the arena.
-It hurts...!! It hurts!! It hurts!!!!!! Why... why me!!!!!! Why!!!!!!!!!!!!
What appeared inside was a giant demon....
"No... it's a demon-touched."
"Demon-touched?? What the hell is that??"
"A human who accepted a demon's power."
"That thing.... is human?"
The senior club member looked at the demon-touched appearing behind him and freaked out.
Yeah, it was a demon-touched, but... calling it human was a stretch.
A giant about five meters tall stood towering, its body a deep purple like Margaret's hair color, since she served as its main body.
Traces of human facial features lingered on its face, but everything that should have been there—eyes, nose, mouth—was missing, replaced by empty holes.
And from those holes, thick demonic energy oozed out, creating a dense black fog around its face.
The most horrifying part was the demon-touched's torso.
-Aaaaah... Aaaaaaaaagh!!!!!
Margaret was embedded entirely in the demon-touched's torso.
All the clothes she'd been wearing were gone, and her limbs were embedded in the demon-touched's body, making her look like a torso model.
Whether she was in excruciating pain, black, bloody tears streamed from her eyes.
As if expressing that agony, the giant staggered, covering its face as if weeping.
The demon-touched Margaret, which had crashed—thud—into the arena wall once, lifted its face and stared directly at me as I tried to escape outside the arena.
-You... you...!!! It's because of you..!!!! If it weren't for you..!!!!
It looked at me with eyes brimming with hatred, as if about to charge at any moment.
Watching the demon-touched Margaret lower its body and growl, poised to leap this way, the Swordsmanship Research Club members' faces turned pale.
"Run!!"
-Thud! Thu-thu-thud!!!
"How dare you crawl into this place!!!"
The demon-touched Margaret, which had been trying to charge at me, flinched under a barrage of spells from the Headmaster.
"Whoa!! As expected of the Headmaster!!"
"Hurry, run away!!"
In that gap, the Swordsmanship Research Club and I quickly escaped the arena.
The arena had become utter chaos.
The professors' magic formed defensive lines to suppress the demon-touched, and in the meantime, students scrambled over each other to flee the arena.
Abruptly, someone spoke.
"Wait... if all those bastards became demons, does that mean... no way?"
"... It can't be that, right?"
None of them said it out loud, but it seemed they'd all thought something similar.
The Sword Saint had orchestrated this terror.
Nothing could be more terrifying than that.
"We can't be sure it's not him... if this wasn't his doing, the Sword Saint should normally be running around slicing up demons by now, but..."
The situation was already this messed up with just the demon-touched, and now the Sword Saint on top of it?
All the students desperately thought, please, let it just be an unnecessary suspicion.