Chapter 42
Chapter 42
Dense, highly concentrated demonic energy began to seep out little by little, centered on the altar.
Faced with something even more vicious than during the Death Knight incident, those who had been sitting hesitantly rose one by one and put distance between themselves and Gaus (August).
“Leysias.”
“[Guardian, soon gathering beneath it, becoming an upright shield. Mana Shield].”
Snapped back to her senses by Ostia’s call, she hurriedly deployed a shield at the alarming turn of events.
Soon, a blue barrier that formed in midair pushed back the surging demonic energy and enveloped the people.
Even so, they stared at Gaus sitting atop the throne with faces that could not believe what they were seeing.
“Gaus-kun! What on earth are you—!”
Pshk.
A single black thorn shot up from the ground and pierced straight through the chest of the student who had spoken to Gaus.
His academy uniform was quickly soaked in blood, and his body collapsed limply toward the floor.
“You bastard….”
Ostia’s face twisted.
Gaus snorted at the sight and began to walk forward slowly.
“You still don’t know your place.”
“…!”
In an instant, Ostia lost sight of Gaus’s body.
As he hurriedly turned his gaze to track the presence that had vanished into the air, leaving behind a black afterimage, he felt a rush of killing intent surging from just below his chest.
“Die.”
Crunch.
“…Khk!”
A single blow, devoid of technique or form, was driven squarely into his chest.
Along with the sound of bones shattering, Ostia’s body was flung far away, smashing through the dungeon wall before disappearing.
“…….”
Thick dust rose above the collapsed debris.
The audience fell into silence.
“…H-hey, this is a joke, right?”
To them, the sight of Ostia being taken down in a single blow was far more shocking than Gaus, drenched in demonic energy.
His party members, in particular, could not hide their anxiety.
Even without the title of top student, he possessed a distinctive presence all his own.
He had always been brimming with confidence, resolving everything smoothly as if he knew in advance what would happen no matter the situation.
Today’s dungeon expedition was no different.
When everyone hesitated at the sight of the Death Knight, he alone had stepped forward, taken command, and formed a battle formation.
Because of that, the thought that Ostia would somehow handle it had settled in a corner of everyone’s hearts.
But when he was knocked out in an instant, their minds went completely blank.
It was the same for Elysia, the academy’s second-ranked student and young lady of the Britain Ducal House, and for Leysias, the top student of the magic department and heir to the Sheffield family.
As a result, no one could step forward to face Gaus.
Only a single person.
‘I was careless.’
Alice narrowed her eyes and gripped the hilt of her sword.
Ever since entrusting herself to Ostia, she had relied on him for everything.
Today as well, she had heard talk about a fiend, but thinking that it would be fine as long as he was there, she had followed behind with a relaxed attitude, as if on a picnic.
“…….”
Taking advantage of the moment when Gaus, intoxicated by his own power, let out a strange sound that was neither admiration nor a groan, Alice looked toward the collapsed debris, but she sensed nothing.
There was no way he had died from a single strike, but the impact must have been severe, as it seemed it would take time for him to get up.
“Phew…….”
A faint sigh escaped from between her lips.
Then, with her eyes wide open, Alice released the pressure she had been suppressing.
“…Huh!”
The first to notice it was Elysia, who was closest to her.
Though her entire body had been pinned down by the demonic energy Gaus was emitting, the warm aura flowing out from beside her allowed her stiffened limbs to move again.
“Alice…….”
“There’s only one enemy. I’ll take the front. Like with the Death Knight, mages, prepare light-attribute magic. Vanguards, look for an opening and dive in.”
It wasn’t very loud, but her powerful voice pierced their ears.
Those who had been frozen until just moments ago clenched their teeth and nodded, rekindling the dying embers of their fighting spirit.
“You bitch.”
Gaus stared at Alice, who was emitting an extraordinary aura, with narrowed eyes.
He remembered her— a girl who had stuck close to Leios’s side since the start of the academy.
He guessed she was probably in some kind of relationship with him.
“With a face like that, being a concubine wouldn’t be bad.”
Grinning as if the mere thought amused him, Gaus raised his sword.
As the tip of the blade, from which pitch-black demonic energy was surging in streams, pointed at her, Alice tugged up one corner of her mouth and smiled as if it were laughable.
“Do you even know who you’re talking to right now?”
In an instant, both of their bodies vanished.
Gaus tore through space at a destructive speed, while Alice slipped into his blind spot with an assassin’s footwork.
Their movements were so fast that those watching from the side felt as though both of them had disappeared altogether.
Boom-!
Pitch-black demonic energy collided with pure white aura.
Amid the fragments scattering through the darkness, Alice grinned and whispered.
“I won’t go easy on you just because you’re his younger brother.”
“…!”
Alice knew that Gaus was August, the fourth prince and Ostia’s younger brother.
She also knew that he harbored a pathological hatred toward Ostia.
“I—!”
In an instant, the demonic energy erupting from Gaus’s body grew violently stronger.
Alice, with sharp eyes, caught the opening in that moment.
‘Whether you use demonic energy or aura, as long as you’re fighting with a human body, the way you fight is similar. And someone who suddenly gains overwhelming power is bound to create openings.’
It was an insight she had gained through her life as an assassin.
Shweeeeeek-!
Alice kicked off the ground and retreated, planted a hand on the floor, and flipped her body over.
Letting the blade of demonic energy slicing through the air pass by, she flowed into Gaus’s guard with movements as smooth as running water.
Clear Mirror, Still Water.
A mind without the slightest tremor hardened the tip of the blade.
That was the foundation of an assassin, and the path to reaching the ultimate extreme.
The pure white aura that bloomed at the tip of Alice’s sword sliced across Gaus’s body.
Slash.
Feeling the unmistakable sensation in her fingertips, Alice wore an expression filled with conviction.
It wasn’t a fatal wound, but it was at least a grievous injury severe enough to keep him from moving for a while.
However, when she turned her head to check her opponent’s condition, right before her eyes was Gaus’s body, stretching out a hand toward her with a sneering grin.
“……!”
Alice kicked off the ground before her mind could fully process the situation.
But that fleeting gap was fatal, and it brought about an inevitable result.
Thud-!
“…Khk!”
A familiar sense of déjà vu, as if being hit by a carriage.
Soon, accompanied by searing pain coursing through her entire body, she was sent bouncing across the ground.
“Miss Alice!”
Following up, the other party members launched a combined attack.
They, too, had clearly seen Alice’s sword cut through Gaus’s body.
“Press him all at once!”
At Elysia’s sharp command, their weapons surged toward him simultaneously.
And in the midst of it all, only Gaus displayed movements on an entirely different level.
He kicked away Elysia’s body as she closed in first, yanked the spear thrust at his neck by Diark, and hurled it at Maria, who was charging at him with bloodshot eyes.
Without even confirming their bodies colliding and flying away, he crushed everyone in a single instant, and by the time one breath ended, there was no one standing before him.
“Ughhh…….”
Perhaps he had held back his strength—no one had died instantly, but everyone had suffered critical injuries.
Each clutched their wounded areas and groaned, and it seemed difficult for them to recover in a short time.
Paaaash-!
Right after that, a spear of pure white lightning dropped down from above Gaus’s head.
It was a decisive strike aimed at the opening created immediately after the fight.
Just like during the Death Knight battle, the mages had no doubt that he had taken a fatal blow.
Confident of that, they immediately began casting the next attack spell, but when pitch-black demonic energy surged upward from the ground and devoured the lightning spear in an instant, they were left speechless.
“Ah, ahh…….”
Confronted with that incomprehensible strength, Yuria collapsed to the ground and crawled backward.
The other mages did not fall, but they were just as terrified.
“Good.”
Only Gaus was savoring his power with his entire body.
Every single cell screamed that it was brimming with strength.
And crushing the vermin that dared to oppose him with that power felt like the ultimate pleasure.
“Mages, huh. There are quite a few decent-looking bitches.”
Gaus’s interest now turned toward the mages.
At his ominous gaze, the mages flinched.
Leysias steadied her trembling hands and hurriedly looked around.
‘Me, the ones left are……!’
The vanguard had been completely wiped out.
Ostia, the strongest among them, had gone silent after the first blow, and Alice had followed soon after with no news yet.
What remained were five mages, herself included.
But when even she, the strongest among them, had no solution, there was no way the others could have a better one.
“Somehow! Somehow, hold on!”
Leysias shouted at her companions through clenched teeth.
Wasn’t he the third prince, Leios? She had heard that the bloodline of Ribera was born with special power.
‘I can’t die in a place like this!’
“You! You too, get up and fight quickly! Show the ability he acknowledged!”
“Ugh, ughhh…….”
At those words, Yuria snapped back to her senses and desperately gathered mana, but even at her best it would have been difficult, and now, with her mind shaken, there was no way it could manifest properly.
Pshk.
The hard-earned mana fizzled out with the sound of air leaking, only drawing unwanted attention.
“I won’t let you do that.”
“……!”
At the voice that suddenly sounded right before her, Leysias sucked in a breath.
Immediately after, with an ear-splitting roar, a violent shockwave swept over her body.
Kwaaaang-!
“…Kgh!”
But Leysias blocked it splendidly.
Her Mana Shield was a spell that repelled an opponent’s attacks for as long as the caster’s mana allowed.
‘But that last strike took away a third of it.’
The mana she had conserved by barely using it during the dungeon exploration quickly revealed a gap.
That meant that with the next attack, she would have to block it and decide the match with a counter.
‘…Useless lot.’
Clicking her tongue as she looked at the fellow mages who had been knocked down by the previous shockwave, Leysias thought that it would have been nice if they had been even a little help, but those lacking always ended up like that at the critical moment.
“Where are you looking?”
At Gaus’s voice sounding from right nearby once more, Leysias lowered her body.
‘Unless he’s an idiot, he won’t fall for the same thing twice!’
Her specialty was high-speed chanting and parallel processing.
She excelled at manifesting multiple spells through rapid incantation.
“[Binding].”
“[A short step that leaps through space. Blink].”
“[O lightning, pierce the enemy’s body. Lightning].”
In an instant, three spells unfolded.
Bound by the first spell, Gaus lashed out with his hand, but her body was already to the side.
And then the third spell activated.
It was a basic lightning-attribute spell, but she had forcibly crammed it full of mana, so the force of the descending lightning was anything but ordinary.
Pajijijijik-!
The acrid smell of burning pricked her nose.
Seeing Gaus engulfed head-on by her spell, a light of hope settled in Leysias’s eyes.
Lightning-attribute magic contained the light attribute.
That meant it was a lethal counter to demonic power.
No matter how strong he had become, there was no way he could be unscathed after taking it head-on.
But there was something she had forgotten.
Just moments ago, Gaus had a record of cleaving head-on through Dawn’s Breath, the very spell that had felled the Death Knight.
It was a miscalculation she hadn’t been able to make in the urgency of the situation.
That mistake came back to choke Leysias herself.
Grab.
“……!”
At the hand gripping her neck, she gasped for air and struggled violently, but as her vision grew distant, her hands and feet trembled uncontrollably.
“Die, inferior thing.”
With eyes devoid of even a shred of mercy, Gaus tightened his grip around Leysias’s neck.
In just a few seconds, her breath would surely be cut off.
At that moment, a sudden burst of light slammed into Gaus’s body, forcing him back as he released Elysia’s neck.
“Don’t pick on a kid who’s done nothing wrong.”
Spit.
Alice, who had somehow gotten back up, spat out blood-tinged saliva and spoke to him while flicking a sword from which golden aura was blooming.
“Come at me, you bastard.”