The Slave Has Been Rediscovered
"Black magic. Its operating principle is fundamentally different from conventional magic. Ordinary mana is too inefficient for it, so it must be converted into black mana, and on top of that it demands life force as fuel. Frankly, its uses are limited, too. Compared to magic, which can serve countless purposes, black magic amounts to little more than destruction and exploitation. Its one unique trait? Well, at most you could point to demon summoning."
Vext opened his third eye and glared at me as though he wanted to kill me on the spot.
"There's a reason it's called a magic *art* rather than magic. You'd have done well to learn at the Academy why Archmages never touch the stuff."
"No, no! That's what makes it so cool! It's a spell that demands your very life to cast!"
"A magic art."
Vext pressed a hand to his forehead as if dizzy. He bit his lip until it bled.
"It's fine. It's fine. I still have the next stage prepared. Whew—thank goodness I did."
Vext drew a dagger. Before anyone could react, he drove it straight into his own heart. Instead of blood, mana tainted pitch-black burst from the wound.
And then—
― Oooooooooh
A grotesque sound rolled in from far away.
"Mmhm, the defining trait of black magic. Demon summoning. Yes, this is it. Now I look at least a little magnificent, don't I?"
Vext's body rose into the air. Around him, a massive black pillar took shape.
At the same moment, explosions thundered beyond the Academy's walls. The outlines of enormous, impossibly enormous figures were visible even from here. Void demons. High-ranked ones, at that.
The demons began to move. Not just one or two—at least six, no, eight. Destruction and chaos devoured the space around them. The spectators, screaming, fled in utter panic.
"Hm."
Something about this didn't add up.
However gifted Vext might be, he held no class higher than 3-Star, and as a mage he had only reached the 3rd tier.
For his age, he was certainly a prodigy—but even sacrificing his own heart should have let him summon a demon of that caliber barely once.
"Ahh, look at me! Everyone, watch me! Now you understand, don't you? This is black magic—the supreme art that grows stronger the stronger you become!"
I decided to table the cause analysis for later and run. The Vext of this moment was extremely dangerous. Xuehua and Marque in the arena, two from the Fire Hall—and of course, my own flyweight life was every bit as much at stake.
"Ooooooh!"
The airborne Vext was gradually being swallowed by the black mana. I tucked Xuehua and Marque under my arms and ran.
"Professor!"
"Shifu?!"
We sprinted across the ground even as the black mana crept over it, reaching the edge of the arena, then the west gate, and shoved the kids through.
"I say! What in the world is happening here?!"
Vande bellowed, still failing to grasp the situation. Are you serious? You need an explanation now?
"I'll bring my disciple. Go rescue the knight cadets."
"Why would Vext—"
"NOW!"
I smacked him hard across the back of the head, and only then did he bare his teeth in a low growl and charge back into the arena behind me.
Vext hurled black fire at us as we ran. In the blink of an eye, Vande swatted it aside with the flails in both hands. A weapon of high sanctity—an excellent choice. So he wasn't a complete fool after all.
Vande grabbed the knight cadets and escaped first. My disciple was still unconscious from Xuehua's blow, so extracting her took a little longer.
That was when Vext cast his next black art. Soul Prison—a barrier spell that split inside from outside. He intended to seal us inside the arena.
"Professor Pidia!"
From beyond the gate, Vande hurled a chain toward me. I made a snap judgment. There wasn't enough time. I entrusted only the disciple student in my arms to the chain.
― Shrrrk!
The chain whipped around her body in an instant. The Soul Prison rose—and by the narrowest of margins, only she made it out beyond the gate.
In the arena, there remained just me and Vext, now consumed entirely by darkness.
Cut off from the outside. Those beyond could only watch us.
"Hmm, so it's the Slave Merchant left standing instead of the Weapon Master. What a flavorless matchup. Still, grudges make excellent fuel. I'm looking forward to this! Just how much of the Academy's impregnable defenses can my demons tear down?"
Vext stretched out his hands. Thin threads dangled from the tip of each finger, puppeteering the colossal demons outside.
Demons on that scale would deal serious damage to Caesus Academy's defenses, no matter how formidable it was.
That would be a real problem for my lectures going forward.
No—before that, I just hoped no students would get hurt.
After all, if they ended up taking a break before even their first class, they'd have a hard time settling in afterward.
That was when it happened.
― KWA-BOOOOM!!
Amid a thunderous chorus of explosions and impacts, the colossal demons began to fall.
"…Huh?"
Vext could only stare at the spectacle, slack-jawed.
"Slipping a black mage of at least the 6th tier in among the recommended students. They badly underestimated us. Badly, I say."
Chancellor Bert Mustang let out a shivering laugh as he drew out his emergency communication artifact.
"This is the Chancellor, broadcasting to all security forces. This is Code Griffon. Every unit—not a single demon gets inside those walls!"
At the Chancellor's command, the Academy guard swiftly deployed along the ramparts.
Even as fleeing crowds jostled and crushed around him outside the Main Arena, he calmly assessed the situation and ran his calculations—
Minimizing casualties, all the way down to the political calculus of preserving the Academy's standing.
This was precisely the role he existed to fill.
Midway through, his gaze happened to land on the VIP box, and the Chancellor laughed out loud in sheer disbelief.
"Haha. That lunatic woman."
The Empress was still resting the Princess on her lap, stroking her hair, serenely enjoying the spectacle of the black mage and the Slave Merchant in the arena below.
"WAAH—what NOW?! Where did these things even come from?!"
Tia jammed her mage's hat down tight, hoisted her staff, and shouted as she cast.
She landed a full-force fire spell square on target, but the massive demon before her showed no sign of going down easily.
To raise her output, she built sixteen more auxiliary mana-tank manifolds on top of her standing formation and deployed them in a Xuanwu defensive array.
"Those are the same ones we saw in the Demon Realm. So we just hit them first, right? Blessings incoming!"
Yuri poured divine power into Luca and Tia. Shimmering starlight fragments coalesced and clung to the two of them, applying beneficial blessings like constant regeneration.
Her vision sharpened, Luca's eyes snapped open and her thigh muscles detonated.
One hundred and forty meters covered in less time than a human's reaction speed could even register.
Aura bloomed along her plain, unadorned longsword.
Only a genius gifted with the sword—or someone who had staked their entire life on honing it—could take mana into a blade and transmute it into aura.
A sword, by its nature, is a weapon that strikes only the physical. Against opponents without form—magic, evil spirits—its reach ends at a hard limit.
Aura is what breaks through that wall. The miracle that makes a sword something more than a sword, and the proof of a swordsman who has surpassed mere swordsmen.
Only one who has reached the very summit of the blade earns the right to bear the two characters of Sword Saint on their nametag.
"Hoo."
It fires.
The sword—and with it, Luca's blue aura.
Right now, she was a touch more serious than usual.
― SHRAAAK!!
A giant demon nearing fifty meters in height was bisected in a single stroke of the frost-laden blade.
Skrrrch… squelch—
She'd cut it down, but it wasn't over. From the demon's severed cross-section, a black, clinging curse came pouring out.
"Watch out!"
Yuri, relying on a beastkin's lightning reflexes, leapt upward in an instant. Pale divine power coiled around the crude metal gauntlets she had already equipped on both fists.
"Mass Purification!"
― KUUUUNG!!
Yuri slammed her fists into the ground with everything she had. As though an earthquake had struck, the earth split and shattered.
Light flooded into the fissures, and divine power erupted. The spilling curses clumped together and vaporized on the spot.
"Thanks, Yuri."
"Don't mention it. But why on earth are demons like these at the Academy?"
"Is it dangerous in there too? Is Master going to be okay?"
"…Ugh."
At the mention of Master's name, Luca and Yuri both reacted with startling intensity. They looked ready to leap over the walls and charge inside that very second.
The only reason they didn't was that demons still remained outside the walls. At their current strength, clearing those out wouldn't take very long.
But if they didn't do it—
"Second battery, bombardment!"
"Reinforce the defensive barriers—tighter, tighter!!"
The three of them had already taken in the sight of the Academy guard waging a life-or-death battle atop the ramparts.
It was obvious that lending those defenders their strength, even briefly, would help enormously.
And rushing to Wicker's side now, without knowing what was happening inside the Academy, might accomplish nothing at all.
Besides, their duty as Heroes had long since ended. For these three, who had fought for the continent until now, there was no reason left anywhere to fight for strangers whose faces they'd never even seen.
And yet.
If they turned their backs on the task laid right in front of them and ran—would Wicker even welcome them when they arrived?
'At the very least, Master—'
Yuri remembered the taste of the bread he had given her, that very first time.
'Even when he could have thrown us away…'
Tia remembered the warmth she had felt when he tended her wounds.
'He never looked away.'
Luca remembered his rough hand ruffling her hair.
And as though to settle the three of them at their final crossroads, a dignified head of silver hair swept past before their eyes.
"A swarm of 4-tier demons? Yaaawn, you three can handle all of those! I'm going inside to wring that drunkard's neck!"
Aisha—covered head to toe in grass, apparently having tumbled a good distance through the trees—darted inside the walls in the blink of an eye.
Only after confirming she was safe did the three finally relax and take up their weapons afresh.
"Everyone, get ready. I'll start with the demon on the right!"
"Copy."
"Let's head back in!"
The three moved as one, their first steps landing in perfect unison.
"Mmm, uuuugh! This makes no sense! These are 4-tier demons! How are they falling this fast?! What is even going on?!"
Vext clawed at his own hair and ground his teeth together. Then, sharply, he twisted his head and pinned me with a venomous glare.
"Did you pull something again? Slave Merchant."
I hadn't the faintest clue what was happening, but I flashed him a light smile anyway.
Serves you right.
"Uuu, uuuuugh!"
Vext hurled a Soul Burst at me. For now, I ran and dodged.
It would be lovely if I could block it with artifacts or treasures, but unless I had a 5-Star class in hand, I was carrying nothing with any real combat value.
He was burning away his own life and soul to fuel his black magic, so a little damage ought to bring the whole thing crashing down—and all I held was a single wooden sword.
"Skills."
Wondering if there wasn't some way out of this, I opened my status window.
A single message was floating there.
A slave has been rediscovered.
[Slave Exploitation] is now available.
Current uses remaining: 1
Would you like to view the available skills?
What on earth is this supposed to mean?