The Sunflower's Defeat: Isabel Luna
Isabel Luna. Always smiling brightly, she was the very definition of a sunflower. She possessed a radiant energy that could bring a warm, comforting smile to anyone who looked at her. Recently, however, that laughter had vanished almost entirely. It was all because of the death of her childhood friend, Lucas. A sunflower looks to the sun for sustenance. Now that her sun was gone, she had nothing left.
Every time Isabel tried to fall asleep, her mind drifted back to that fateful day. Normally, first-year students were not allowed to enter the Demon Palace. However, Isabel and Lucas had been part of the first-year special class. Unlike the regular curriculum, the special class recognized exceptional talent and sent its students into the Demon Palace early. Because of this, Isabel should have been there with him.
But the day before they were set to enter, they had argued over something incredibly trivial. Isabel had caught a terrible cold. Even with a fever racking her body, she had insisted on going, but Lucas had flatly refused, putting his foot down. In the end, Lucas left with his newly formed team, promising he would bring back some black tea good for colds on his way home. And then, he never returned. No body was recovered; only the cold, abrupt news that he had been killed by an Apostle.
He was her childhood friend, the one she had grown up with her entire life. And her final memory of him was an argument. Isabel was left completely hollowed out. A sunflower deprived of its sun slowly withers away. She stopped eating, stopped drinking, and could not sleep. Isabel was slowly dying.
Then, one day, a boy appeared before her. A boy who dared to insult her childhood friend, Lucas, in front of everyone. To Isabel, it was an unforgivable sin. Hanon Airey. Consumed by a burning rage toward him, Isabel began to change. Even if it killed her, she resolved to make him take back every single insult he had hurled at Lucas. She became relentless. She forced herself to eat, to drink, and to sleep, dedicating every waking hour to training. To defeat him, to prove to him just how incredible Lucas truly was—that was her reason to keep living.
Hanon was a strange boy. Perhaps because their relationship had started on the wrong foot, he never missed an opportunity to mock her whenever their paths crossed. Many in their class disliked him, and some even hurled blind criticism his way. Yet Hanon never blinked an eye. If anything, he would throw out even more provocative remarks, as if daring them to hate him more. And yet, as if to prove his own convictions, he would casually pull off feats that left everyone stunned. When he defeated the lazy genius, Van, even after Van went all out, the entire Martial Arts department was left in utter shock.
'Just what kind of person is he?' He was completely unpredictable. Perhaps that was why, lately, Isabel found herself thinking of no one but Hanon.
"Isabel, are you okay? Are you tired?"
"Ah, sorry. Don't worry, I'm fine." Startled by the voice calling out to her, Isabel quickly snapped out of her thoughts. They were inside the Demon Palace. To let her mind wander in a place like this was incredibly foolish.
"Ugh... I'm sorry. I'm dragging everyone down because of my own weakness." The speaker was a Holy Magic student being supported by Van. It was Gayson, ranked third in the Holy Magic department. Currently, he was afflicted by an Apostle's curse, leaving his body completely drained of strength. Normally, he could have purified it himself using holy magic. Unfortunately, his luck had run out; he had exhausted all his divine power during a fierce battle with an Apostle right before being cursed. As a result, his recovery was painfully slow. Rather than pushing their luck, Isabel's team had decided to head back to the surface to treat Gayson, and they were currently making their way back up the Demon Palace.
"Don't worry about it. Look at what we were up against. Honestly, we're lucky to have gotten off this easy." A male Magic student on Isabel's team comforted Gayson. Just as he said, the Apostle they had faced on the 3rd floor was far stronger than usual. It had clearly lingered in the Demon Palace much longer than others of its kind. If Van hadn't joined their team for this run, they might not have emerged victorious at all.
Boom!
"More importantly, what is all that racket coming from above?" Mina, a Martial Arts student and Isabel's friend who was leading the way, frowned. They were already climbing the stairs back to the 1st floor. For some reason, the upper level was exceptionally noisy today.
"Is someone fighting an Apostle?"
"But the upperclassmen and our team already cleared the path. Could there really be an Apostle left? Other than small fry, I mean." The students whispered among themselves. Isabel also looked up the stairs, her brow furrowing in confusion. Just then, Van suddenly snapped his head up. His eyes gleamed with a cold, sharp light.
"Get ready, everyone." Before anyone could fully grasp his brief warning—
Ruuuumble!
An explosion that shook the entire staircase erupted. Startled by the massive tremor, the students instinctively lowered their stances. For a vibration to reach all the way down to the 1st-floor stairs... whatever was happening above, it was clearly catastrophic. "Hurry up," Van urged. Sharing his urgency, everyone scrambled up the stairs.
When they finally reached the surface, they were greeted by a thick shroud of smoke. "What on earth happened here?" Mina muttered in disbelief, waving her hand to clear the air. A moment later, the smoke began to drift away, revealing the Gray Forest. The landscape before them was scarred with the violent aftermath of a brutal battle.
Massive roots had been sheared clean off. The ground had been trampled into a desolate, ash-gray wasteland. Scattered everywhere were fragments of flesh that presumably belonged to an Apostle. It was a scene so utterly devastated that it was impossible to recognize it as the Gray Forest they had walked through just hours ago.
"This is bizarre. It's completely different from the Gray Forest I know. The demonic energy of an Apostle is filling this place to a sickening degree." Gayson shuddered, a look of deep revulsion crossing his face. As a devout believer and the third-ranked student in the Holy Magic department, the sheer density of the Apostle's lingering malice was enough to make even him recoil.
"Isabel." Just then, Van called out to her, pointing toward the distance. A blue-haired girl was running desperately, carrying someone in her arms. Isabel recognized her face; she was Aisha Bizvel, a first-year student. A moment later, Isabel's eyes widened in shock. For the person cradled in Aisha's arms was none other than Hanon.
"Ha... Hanon?" As Isabel muttered his name in bewilderment, the others reacted immediately.
"Hanon? You mean that trash?" Mina, Isabel's friend, scowled.
"Oh, the famous transfer student," the Magic student noted with interest.
"Mina, you shouldn't speak of a fellow academy classmate like that," Gayson scolded. It was clear that everyone knew his name. It was a testament to how disruptive and attention-grabbing his actions had been in such a short period of time.
"Let's go." Van, the only one who remained calm, spoke up and began walking toward Hanon. The others followed suit, turning their steps in that direction. Slowly, the rest of the 1st-floor team came into view. But it was Gayson who gasped in the greatest shock.
"S-Sirmiyel?!" The Saint, Sirmiyel Saint Eden. A figure whose political and religious status rivaled that of an Imperial Princess was standing right there. The other students were equally stunned; the weight of the title 'Saint' carried immense gravity, even to academy students.
Yet Sirmiyel did not even glance their way. He was entirely focused, channeling his holy magic to heal the boy lying before him. As the students drew closer, they collectively gasped. Hanon was in a horrific state. His skin was scorched and blistered with severe burns, and his left arm was twisted at a grotesque, unnatural angle. It was a life-threatening injury by any standard.
"...Seron, what happened here?" Van asked, addressing the dazed red-haired girl. Seron slowly turned her blank gaze toward him, flinching as she finally registered his presence.
"V-Van? And Isabel and Mina too... When did you get here?" She had been so utterly overwhelmed that she hadn't even noticed their arrival.
"Seron, can you tell us what happened?" When Isabel pressed for answers, Seron scratched the back of her head, her thoughts clearly disorganized.
"Well, you see... an Apostle appeared on the 1st floor. What was it again? They say that when the same floor layout appears for the hundredth time in the Demon Palace, a highly dangerous Apostle spawns..." Seron rambled, her explanation disjointed. However, Isabel's team was comprised of the academy's brightest and most talented. Despite her rambling, they pieced the story together perfectly. The core of it was this: the Gray Forest had reached its hundredth iteration, triggering the appearance of an exceptionally dangerous Apostle. Somehow, Hanon had known this beforehand, and he had led the team to confront and defeat it. That was the conclusion.
"Is he an idiot? If he knew about something like that, he should have told everyone so we could gather a proper force to fight it!" Mina exclaimed, dumbfounded by the revelation. But it was Gayson who shook his head, refuting her claim.
"No. The Gray Forest remained completely normal until we descended to the 2nd floor. There might have been a specific trigger condition unique to this floor." A condition where the Apostle would not appear until the number of people on the floor dropped below a certain threshold. Indeed, such mechanics had been documented throughout the history of conquering the Demon Palace. Hanon must have known this and waited until all the other teams had descended to the 2nd floor.
"Furthermore, this is the Gray Forest. Having too many people would have actually made the battle more difficult." Gayson pointed to the ash-gray ground. Just as he said, the nature of the Gray Forest made large-scale battles highly disadvantageous. Whether they liked it or not, they had to fight the Apostle with a small, elite group.
"H-He..." Poara, who had been biting her lip in silence, finally spoke up. "He was planning to stay here the entire time until the anomaly in the Gray Forest triggered." Even if the hundredth iteration had passed without incident, or even if the Apostle's trigger required everyone else to leave the floor entirely—he was prepared for any scenario.
"He intended to wait until the very end to prevent anyone from being trapped or killed by the Apostle." By holding this ground, he ensured that the students who had descended deeper into the Demon Palace could return safely. For that sole purpose, Hanon had willingly remained behind in the Gray Forest.
This was an academy. Achievements in the Demon Palace translated directly into prestige, rewards, and future success. Quite apart from the noble mission of protecting the world, Jerion Academy was a gathering place for ambitious youths eager to make a name for themselves. Yet Hanon had cast all of that aside, choosing to wait on the 1st floor. All so that everyone else could return home safely.
And the Apostle that did appear was so lethal that, without Hanon's precise commands, the entire team would have been annihilated. Had any other team stayed behind, they would have been slaughtered instantly, and the exhausted students returning from the lower floors would have walked straight into a massacre. To prevent that, Hanon had thrown himself into the jaws of death, fighting until he was broken and battered, all to slay the beast.
"When I said he looked like a burnt sweet potato, I didn't mean he should actually become one..." Seron muttered, her expression dark with guilt. A heavy, solemn silence fell over the group. Amidst them, Isabel could only stare blankly at Hanon. In her mind, the words he had spoken on his very first day at the academy began to echo repeatedly.
To ensure that Jerion Academy never suffers such dishonor again. Isabel's eyes went wide. Only now did she truly understand. Hidden within those words was his resolve to ensure that not a single student would die, that everyone would return safely. It was a vow to never let another tragedy like Lucas's happen again. That was what he meant... Isabel's fists clenched, trembling violently.
While she had completely broken down and wasted her days away grieving Lucas's death, Hanon had been training himself to stand against the dark, ensuring that such a tragedy would never repeat itself. Realizing this made Isabel feel as if she were sinking into a bottomless abyss. I lost. She had lost to him in every conceivable way. Staring at Hanon, Isabel quietly swallowed her bitter defeat.