Chapter 44
Chapter 44
[An unfamiliar sensation.]
August von Ribera looked down at both of his hands with an intrigued expression.
As if wondering what was so fascinating, he examined his hands one by one.
Then he lifted his head and slowly looked around.
At last, the end of his gaze fixed on me.
[Was it you, then, who struck down my contractor.]
“…Who are you?”
[Ah, I suppose I haven’t introduced myself.]
Murmuring a small apology, August—no, the unknown something inhabiting him—bowed deeply in a polite posture with a light smile.
[I am the Supreme Combat Commander of the Demon King’s Army. You may call me, informally, a Grand Duke of Hell.]
“The Demon King’s Army? A Grand Duke of Hell?”
Alice, standing beside me, looked at me with a flustered expression.
But I couldn’t do anything.
Those vivid yellow eyes.
The crushing pressure that tightened around my heart.
Screeeech.
Strength unconsciously flowed into the hand gripping my sword.
But I had no courage to swing it.
Heh.
As if he had seen straight through my thoughts, he curled his lips into a deep smile.
I barely managed to avert my gaze from those eyes that felt as though they would suck me in.
‘Why, why is that bastard…….’
Supreme Combat Commander of the Demon King’s Army.
Aloken, the Grand Duke of Hell.
He was a powerhouse who contended for supremacy in the Demon Realm, strong enough to be compared to the Sword Saint.
At the end of Part 2, when the full-scale invasion of the Demon Realm began, and at the beginning of Part 3—
He met mutual destruction together with the Sword Saint, who alone stood against the Demon Realm army, and with that, his role came to an end.
But until then, he was a character who had not even been mentioned.
Nothing more than a fabricated existence meant to elevate the Sword Saint’s sacrifice and make it immeasurably valuable.
Screeeeeash—!
In an instant, slashing waves flooded through the air.
By the time I realized it was an attack, a long something had already carved a lengthy gash into the wall behind us.
Aloken’s eyes flashed.
Crimson flames bloomed over his pupils, and the glossy, vivid yellow blond hair was dyed the color of blood.
[Is this about it. Not even 5% of my power, but still.]
The voice, completely different from August’s, was heavy enough to feel as though it would crush my heart.
In his hand was a single sword, one I had no idea when he had drawn.
Thud.
The outer shell was the same as August’s, but a completely different level of existence was pressing down on us.
“Ostia.”
Alice called out to me in a subdued voice.
I couldn’t turn to look at her, afraid that even a moment of distraction would be irreversible, but I could feel the tremor at the end of her voice.
“Ugh…….”
Leysias looked as though she was on the verge of fainting.
As a mage, she was far more sensitive to the flow of mana.
That meant she could feel even more keenly just how vicious the thing dwelling within August’s body was.
‘Damn it.’
As I clenched my teeth, the taste of iron spread in my mouth.
It wasn’t that I hadn’t considered unforeseen variables.
But I had rashly assumed that any variable appearing in the early stages would be limited to that extent.
I desperately spun my brain, searching for a way to break through this situation.
I had taken out insurance just in case, but I hadn’t imagined things would go this far, so it was probably already too late.
Just in case, I looked into the empty air, but no status window appeared.
I had hoped for the intervention of something like “absolute plausibility” due to the divergence from the original storyline, but unfortunately, the flow didn’t seem inclined to go only in ways convenient for me.
I quickly swept my gaze around.
Those who had collapsed showed no signs of regaining consciousness.
‘Top priority is Alice.’
I had a blessing that allowed me to evade death once.
But Alice was still in a state of having awakened nothing at all.
If she took Aloken’s attack head-on, it would be instant death, without question.
Elysia Pendragon Britain, the young lady of the Britain Ducal House.
Werner Demedrio, the second prince of the Kingdom of Demedrio.
Leysias, from the renowned mage family of Sheffield.
And Yuria, the Silent Mage.
All of them were figures who would play major roles in the story to come.
‘What do I do.’
My head boiled.
If Aloken fully adapted to August’s body and a real fight broke out, everyone would die.
Wouldn’t the correct judgment be to save even a single person who could still be saved?
“Alice.”
“If you’re going to tell me to run away on my own, keep it to yourself.”
She forced a calm expression and stood beside me.
I could see the hand holding her sword trembling finely, but there was no sign of retreat in her eyes.
‘Ah.’
A sigh escaped me on its own.
If Alice had run away here, she wouldn’t have been able to bear the title of protagonist.
One who overcomes all given adversity and endures every trial—that was what a protagonist was.
“Listen carefully. The first clash is our last chance. He hasn’t fully adapted to that body yet. So we concentrate all our power into a single strike and sever that connection in one blow.”
The reason Aloken could be summoned was probably thanks to the bloodline of Ribera that August possessed.
But that alone wouldn’t be enough.
For an existence known as a Grand Duke of Hell to manifest in the mortal world, an enormous amount of causality would be required.
[You do not flee, foolish humans. I shall at least acknowledge that spirit.]
Aloken’s smile deepened.
He seemed to have finished adapting to the point of moving freely, as he rotated his wrist and slowly stepped forward.
Woooong—
A dense demonic energy, fundamentally different in quality from August’s, seeped out from his entire body.
Leysias, without needing to be told, created a shield to survive, but it didn’t look like it would last very long.
“…….”
I slowly advanced toward him.
A single strike—the next strike would decide the outcome.
If I failed to survive here, everything I had built up so far would be wiped away in an instant.
Refusing to accept that, I searched for an opening in Aloken with more seriousness than ever before.
‘Would it have been different if I were a Sword Master.’
Suddenly, I regretted not having trained in swordsmanship more diligently.
Right after entering the Academy, I had been lazy under the excuse of preparing this and that.
If only I had trained just a little more during that time.
‘No.’
I shook my head and cast aside all hesitation and regret.
All that mattered was doing well from now on.
First, I had to focus on bringing down the bastard in front of me.
[SYSTEM: Extra Skill ‘Hyper Focus’ is activated.]
With the thought that there was no retreat, I drew my consciousness upward.
The flow of time stopped, and an instant became eternity.
At the same time, Alice and I charged toward Aloken.
Screeeash—!
A pair of swords, each cloaked in golden and deep-blue auras, traced different trajectories as they surged toward his neck.
But Aloken merely looked at them with an expression of amusement.
‘Now!’
Sensing that both our momentums had reached their peak, we clenched our teeth and flared our auras.
Eeeeee—!
The aura clinging to the tip of my sword, though incomplete, began to take form.
What had been irregular settled into place and contained a single possibility.
‘I can do this!’
The exhilaration from power drawn out to its limit washed over my entire body.
Soon, our swords cut into Aloken’s body.
No—at least, I thought they had.
Thud.
A momentary blackout.
My vision darkened as all five senses were severed at once.
When I barely regained my senses while coughing out my blocked breath, I realized that I was rolling across the floor.
“…Urgh.”
As I forced myself up in a situation I couldn’t comprehend, blood spilled from my mouth.
The blood soaking the floor, as if I had suffered severe internal injuries, glowed with a vivid crimson hue.
[Be at ease. You are not weak. Among humans, you would clearly rank among the strong. However, before me, a Grand Duke of Hell, all are equally nothing more than insignificant insects. That is the law of nature. There is nothing strange about it, so calmly accept your death.]
Ignoring Aloken’s incomprehensible rambling, I hurriedly looked around.
If I was in this state, then Alice was……
“Ah…….”
Just one step away.
Alice was lying there at such a close distance that it was strange I hadn’t noticed her until now.
Finding her completely motionless unsettling, I carefully shook her body with trembling hands, and a pool of crimson blood began spreading beneath her.
I hurriedly checked her pulse.
But no matter how long I held her wrist, I couldn’t feel the vigorous beat of life.
“Hey…….”
When I carefully turned Alice’s body over, a long gash stretching from her left shoulder to her right flank was revealed.
It was a wound deep enough to expose her insides; if left like this, she really could die.
In an instant, my head went blank.
My fingertips trembled as I lost all sense of direction, my breathing grew rapid, and my vision narrowed.
‘Hurry, hurry, think of something…….’
A potion—no, a potion wouldn’t be enough.
Only then did my thoughts reach the elixir I had taken from the Imperial Palace Treasury.
I frantically searched my waist, but the subspace pouch had already vanished, likely blown somewhere away during the earlier clash.
I could only stand there in a daze as her body gradually lost its vitality.
The protagonist of this world was dying.
It was strange.
It couldn’t help but be strange.
On the first day of the semester, why didn’t the absolute plausibility that had forcibly pushed the story forward appear now?
Why wasn’t an awakening happening? Hadn’t the protagonist always been granted new power whenever she was in danger?
“…Ah.”
Like a flash of light, the last remaining hope crossed my mind.
I hurriedly tore open the upper part of my tattered uniform.
Then I removed the Blessing of Invisibility that had been clinging directly to my skin.
[SYSTEM: The Blessing of Invisibility effect has been removed.]
I forcibly put it on Alice.
Then, gripping my sword in a reverse hold, I filled myself with desperate prayer.
The Blessing of Invisibility nullifies damage that would result in instant death once.
If so, in what form would that be realized?
“Please…….”
Clenching my teeth, I drove the sword straight into her wound.
With slight resistance, the tip of the blade pierced into Alice’s body, and I watched it with anxious eyes.
“…….”
Even after several seconds passed, there was no reaction.
Only the amount of blood flowing over the wound increased.
“…Ah.”
My head reeled.
Just as my vision spun and signaled mental overload, a dazzling light burst forth from Alice’s body.
[SYSTEM: Blessing of Invisibility is activated.]
It was just a single line of text, but the moment I saw it, I felt the pain that had been constricting my brain as if it would melt vanish at once.
With a rough sigh, all the fatigue I had accumulated spilled out, and in an instant, I felt as though I had aged ten more years.
“…….”
When I carefully gauged her pulse, a faint but distinct movement could be felt in my hand.
Her pallid skin regained warmth, and the wound that had split her body had already healed.
[Ho. You possess something quite rare. Is it the blessing of the phoenix that lives eternally without dying?]
As I let out a deep breath, Aloken approached from behind and spoke.
One of his settings was that he was highly curious.
The reason he hadn’t finished off the two of us must have been because of the Blessing of Invisibility I had just pulled out.
With a myth-grade artifact right before his eyes, how could he not show interest?
Still, I could only call it luck, since my mind had been so overwhelmed that I realized even that only just now.
Clatter.
I picked up the sword that had fallen to the floor.
I had barely saved Alice, but the situation hadn’t improved.
I had avoided the worst, but only risen to the second worst.
“Is it about time.”
[What other trick do you have. It has been a long time since I found a human I like. Human, what is your name.]
His expression was utterly arrogant.
He probably thought that if he so much as moved a finger, he could take my life instantly.
In reality, after consecutive battles, I was no longer in any condition to continue fighting.
“There’s no name worth telling to the likes of demons.”
[Is that so. How dull. Judging by that spirit, I was considering making you one of my soldiers.]
Then, telling me to die, he reached his hand toward me.
“…Ha, guess I’ll live now.”
[……?]
But I collapsed to the ground with a sigh of relief.
At my sudden action, the bastard seemed to sense something amiss and shifted his gaze behind himself.
Clatter—!
[…This is!]
At the same time, chains emitting a dull purple hue surged up from the empty air.
They bound Aloken’s entire body and suppressed his demonic energy.
Click.
The sound of high heels utterly unsuited to a dungeon rang out clearly.
At the same time, a goddess descended, parting the deep shadows.
“You’re way too late.”
Chris Hilton Leycias.
The last surviving member of the annihilated Elf race.
A being whose strength rivaled the Sword Saint, who proudly bore the name of the strongest in the setting, revealed herself within the corridor.