57. Calamity Star
57. Calamity Star
Cherry-blossom-colored Mana pushed back the Demonic Energy.
The completed Roundhouse Kick (回軸) smashed the saw blade to pieces.
Then, I pulled the body in front of me close.
"...Ah, my lady?"
Eurasia's body, reduced to rags, collapsed weakly. I examined her closely.
Blood poured from her face, and a large wound was carved into her side. Her fingers were all twisted, her forearm was broken, and coin-sized holes had been punched through both thighs.
But all her limbs were still attached.
She was breathing, and she recognized who I was.
Her Mana Veins weren't severed, and there was no Mana rampage. She was only showing symptoms of Mana exhaustion.
It looked like Eurasia might break through the wall of Tier 4 if she pushed just a little further, so I'd grabbed Fabiana, who was about to charge in right away, and held her back to watch.
Just as I'd expected—no, far beyond what I'd expected—Eurasia had done well. Her body was intact, she'd reached a higher Tier, and she'd wrapped her sword in Sword Aura to cut off the Demon's arm.
Even after pushing herself that horribly, if she's in this condition—
"You're remarkably fine."
"...Yes...? I-I, hic... sob... h-hic... I-I'm really, really hurt... hurt, you know? I almost... hic... almost died, you know? And... that's all you have to say...?"
"Why. Want me to give you a kiss when this is over?"
Giggling—I picked up the half-sword rolling around on the ground.
"...Heheh, heh. Hic... A virgin!! A viiirgiiiin!!! The scent of a virgin purer than anyone! Who, whowhowhowho are youuuuuuu!!!!"
And I hurled it straight at the Demon charging toward us.
"What's this virgin shit from a first meeting, you fucker."
Th—WHAM!
The sword, shot like a meteor shower trailing pink, slammed into the Demon's abdomen.
"Kieeeeeek!"
The Demon, with the sword lodged in its gut, couldn't withstand the sword's force and went flying far away, smashing through several walls.
"Ugh, fuck. Ugly as shit, too."
I shuddered and poured a Potion into Eurasia's mouth. Then I turned my head and looked toward Fabiana, who was holding Silina and feeding her a Potion.
Silina was fine too.
If anything, she was in better shape than Eurasia.
Eurasia must have protected Silina.
The sight I saw just before coming here—Eurasia was standing in front of Silina, blocking her.
And I could see one dead human and a person torn into four pieces... no, a Demonized Human.
Judging by how he had died, it looked like he'd tried to assassinate Silina.
The Demonized Human seemed to have been killed by the Demon.
Still, it looked like they'd handled it well.
I did trust Eurasia, but I never imagined she'd do this well.
The people I saw on the way here, the students too—all of them were completely unharmed.
The only real problem was Demonic Energy poisoning, and that had somehow been resolved with the antidote Fabiana brought.
So Eurasia saved everyone within her reach.
Good girl, good girl. Such a good girl.
I wanted to ruffle her hair and shower her with praise right then, but unfortunately there was no time for that.
From one corner, I spoke to Fabiana, who was holding Silina and stabbing the traitor's corpse with her sword.
"Senior Fabiana. That promise I mentioned earlier. It applies to Silina too, so please tell her."
"...Eliarnes. The opponent is not a Monster, not a Demonized Human, not a Black Wizard—it's a Demon. Are you truly all right with this? Wouldn't it be better to go together after all?"
Stab, stab—Fabiana stopped stabbing, wiped the blood from her face, and asked with a worried expression.
She's not your average psycho either.
"No. Just stay here and protect the kids. If you join me, Senior, they'll all die."
I shrugged, took off the hood I was wearing, and draped it over Eurasia's shoulders.
"You worked hard. And congratulations on reaching Tier 5. You looked amazing."
"...Hic... sob, waaaaah! I-I... I really tried, hic... tried so hard... to save everyone... hic, sob... Her Highness too, I... tried, hic... tried to save her..."
"Yeah. You did great. That's my Eurasia."
I gently wiped Eurasia's tears and rose from my spot.
"Anyway, now that your Tier has gone up, I should teach you something new."
I parted my loose hair to both sides and tied it up.
"Watch closely."
I wrapped bandages around my hands and stepped forward.
"Every bit of this lesson will serve you well."
At the same time, the cherry-blossom-colored Mana raged (狂亂).
*****
An ordinary human could not face a Demon.
They could not even stand against one. So winning was naturally impossible.
The Demonic Energy a Demon emitted could tear a human apart in an instant, and a casually swung hand could chop a frail body into pieces.
Conversely, an ordinary human could not wound their bodies. Only by repeatedly hammering them with Tier 5 Aura and magic of the 5th Circle or higher could one perhaps leave a scratch.
The Realm where one could at least attempt to flee from a Demon was Tier 6. To face a Demon and win required a superhuman who had reached Tier 7.
But what on earth is that sight?
BOOM—!
"Kieeeeek!"
CRACK—!
"Kiaaaaak! You insolent giiiiirl!!"
CRUNCH!
"GRAAAAAGH!! It hurts, it hurts, it huuuurts!!!!"
A human was facing a Demon.
A small girl was driving a Demon back.
Without a single weapon, without a single piece of armor.
With her fists, she was beating the Demon down.
She didn't take a single hit. As if she knew everything in advance, she dodged, deflected, and countered every attack.
And all the while, she landed dozens of attacks.
She struck the same places again and again.
She kicked the same places again.
She hammered down on the same places again.
That was all.
Just.
She was simply beating it down.
Fabiana could tell Eliarnes was doing something.
But she couldn't tell what. She couldn't see it properly.
Even though she couldn't see it.
She couldn't picture Eliarnes losing.
Fabiana had struck the Labyrinth walls several times on the way here.
Stabbed them with her sword, kicked them, slammed her body into them.
And still they hadn't broken—the Labyrinth walls and ceiling.
Those very things were now all breaking before her eyes. And Eliarnes was lightly deflecting attacks powerful enough to destroy the Labyrinth's terrain.
As if that weren't enough, she pounded the Demon with her dainty little fists. They looked truly weak and soft, but the Demon struck by them coughed blood and staggered back.
No.
They weren't just fists.
Fabiana let out a hollow laugh.
"Hah..."
Those fists were wrapped in Aura.
More precisely, at the very moment of impact, cherry-blossom-colored Mana flashed and Aura wrapped around them.
And at the same time, it burst outward.
"She was Tier 4 just moments ago, so when on earth...?"
Eliarnes had been Tier 4 until just before coming here. Yet the moment she met a Demon, she'd awakened to Tier 5?
And beyond that.
She'd only just reached Tier 5, yet she was already displaying Aura control bordering on the miraculous?
It was absurd.
Genius, monster—she'd surpassed all of that.
She just... didn't seem human.
Even Eurasia, collapsed right behind her, had merely cut off a Demon's arm with Sword Aura.
That alone was enough to call her talent something that defied the Heavenly Principle (天理).
But then, what on earth was that?
"...The Reincarnation of a Hero?"
She thought it was absurd.
But what was unfolding before her eyes seemed even more absurd.
Fabiana de Hermann.
She had always thought of herself as a genius.
She had never once thought she was weaker than others.
But that didn't mean she'd been consumed by her talent.
She had truly put in bloody effort—enough that her Mana had rampaged during training and brought her to the brink of death.
But now.
She felt an overwhelming sense of powerlessness.
Could she join that fight and match her pace?
"...Hoo."
It was possible.
If she threw herself in prepared to die, she could match Eliarnes's pace for even a fleeting moment.
But that was all.
After that fleeting moment, she would die.
That was why she wouldn't do it.
Fabiana knew how to distinguish courage from recklessness.
"...How beautiful."
So, deflecting the aftermath of the battle, she simply admired.
"She protected two imperial princesses. I'll have to open the imperial treasury for her."
And she resolved to prepare the greatest reward she could for Eliarnes.
It was the same for Silina.
Her unhealed wounds hurt and her consciousness was hazy, but Silina could confidently say her eyesight was better than anyone else's there.
And so, Silina could see, however faintly.
The Demon's strength.
And Eliarnes's martial might (武威), stronger still.
And Eurasia—
With eyes wide open, she watched Eliarnes's movements clearly.
And she was more shocked than anyone else here.
Even for Eurasia, who had spent the longest time with Eliarnes, her current appearance was beyond imagination.
Despite countless sparring matches and having gone through quite a lot together, she had never seen Eliarnes fight seriously.
Sparring was, at the end of the day, sparring.
No matter how close it came to real combat, it was still only sparring.
Moreover, Eliarnes was the only daughter of a ducal house.
She was a direct descendant of Eustetia and the next head of the family.
Who could threaten the life of someone like her? At least within the Empire, there would be no one.
And so Eliarnes had never once shown her true strength, and so Eurasia had never known her full power. She had only guessed.
But she never imagined her full power would be this much.
No—could this even be called her full power?
She didn't know. She couldn't be certain that this was her full power. After all, Eliarnes's face wore the same relaxed smile as always.
Because of that, Eurasia was certain of Eliarnes's victory.
And then.
Clutching her strangely pounding heart, she thought.
'...If it really all ends... will she... give me a kiss?'
Eurasia, who believed in Eliarnes absolutely, didn't even consider her defeat.
She merely replayed that playful smile from earlier, and her scent, and her warmth, and her touch, and her voice.
*****
At last, the battle reached its final stage.
The Demon, beaten to rags beyond recognition of its original form, staggered and stopped attacking.
But its spirit wasn't dead.
If anything, its presence had grown sharper. It felt too alien to be the same Demon as before.
Then the Demon spoke.
"...Pink. You—you were pink. It was pink. Yes. Pink. An unforgettable color. Detestable cherry blossoms. Hateful cherry blossoms. Hero. Eustetia."
It hadn't lost its reason like before.
Its voice isn't unpleasant.
The body that had writhed with every word was now still, and the gleaming inverted eyes sank deep.
"You are a descendant of the cherry blossoms."
At those words, Eliarnes tilted her head.
"Getting beaten so much you regain your sanity—isn't that a bit fucked?"
"Ahh... At last, at last I've found you. Descendant of the cherry blossoms. Blood of Eustetia. If I only have you... if I have just you alone, I can return to Labyrinth's embrace."
"It just says whatever it wants. Fucking thing."
I provoked it in case it might reveal something about its comrades, but as expected, its reason hadn't fully returned.
It couldn't be helped.
The Demon standing before me was a bastard abandoned by Labyrinth, whom it had served.
A Demon abandoned like that couldn't handle the Demonic Energy bestowed by its master. When that happened, its appearance distorted hideously and it lost most of its power.
That didn't make it a complete pushover.
It still retained enough power to slice through most Tier 6 opponents in an instant.
The Demon's characteristic toughness was still intact.
Anyway, it had lost its reason.
It was a Demon whose mind had been consumed by Demonic Energy.
There was no need to waste words on it.
Having reached that conclusion, Eliarnes stepped forward to finish off the Demon.
At the same time.
"So, the Demonic Energy I've accumulated until now—I'll use it all for you."
The Demon moved.
It stretched its tentacles toward the Labyrinth Core.
Immediately, the tentacles wrapped around the Labyrinth Core returned and pushed the core into its mouth, which was split into eight parts.
Gulp.
The moment it swallowed the core, all the Demonic Energy in the area concentrated around the Demon.
CRRRACK—
The entire landscape distorted. The ceiling collapsed, the ground surged upward, the walls crumbled, and soon the Labyrinth disappeared.
"Ugh. Just die quietly, won't you. Desperately clinging to life... tch."
What remained was the half-destroyed interior of the museum,
the Labyrinth's barrier cutting that museum off from the outside,
and the Demon, all its wounds healed and now harboring power greater than before.
Behind her.
Because of the Demon's characteristic oppressive pressure, the ordinary people had long since fainted, foaming at the mouth.
Silina and Eurasia, who had barely managed to rise, collapsed again and trembled.
Fabiana, trying desperately to hold onto consciousness, bit her tongue and gripped her sword.
And Eliarnes—
"What is all this...?"
Looking around the museum interior revealed after the Labyrinth vanished, she laughed—giggled—like a child who'd received a gift.
"There are so many weapons?"