The wind blew.
Water splashed.
Aint danced in the midst of it. It wasn’t a dance out of desire, but because he wanted to live and couldn’t allow Professor Aria or Professor Nania to get hurt.
It was the dance of escape.
─!
The power of the spirits and aura clashed.
A massive explosion opened a brief moment of respite.
Even so, the magic circle imprisoning them remained intact.
“Huff, huff…!”
Aint was breathing heavily.
It was hard. Not so much because of the battle itself, but because he had to fight while considering the situation of those he was facing.
“…Is there no way out?”
Through the window, the large magic circle could be seen.
Professor Dominique was right—the eyes he had planted worked, and the circle had been corrupted.
The Saintbird, symbol of the Empire, turned into the demonic peacock, and the degenerated circle began to crack, eventually summoning a demon.
— It’s demon number 65, Andrealphus! That damned bird has descended on the Academy!
— We have to get out before it destroys everything! And we don’t know what Dantalion is doing! Hurry up, Aint!
Whether they could defeat it or not was a problem for later. The important thing was that, in a battle against a demon, the difference between Aint being present or not was immense.
‘If we fight alongside senior Luina, and with Jace, Verian, and the professors, we can do it!’
It wasn’t impossible to stop it.
The professors of the Academy weren’t Royal Knights or Archmages, but they were just one step below.
But that was the problem—the opponents Aint faced were also professors.
“Professor Nania, please, wake up!”
The answer was a high-ranking water spirit launching itself at him.
Water whips turned into a net trying to entangle him.
Aint barely managed to break them, when the wind took advantage of the gaps.
He reinforced his body with aura and punched where Aria had been. But she was no longer there—only a wind blade remained.
His body was already full of wounds, and still he couldn’t find a clear solution.
— Aint, it’s time to decide.
“But…!”
Gardner kept pressing him.
— If you keep this up, you’ll die! Since when did you think you could restrain a professor without inflicting serious injuries? That’s true arrogance!
— Don’t forget! Even if you’ve grown strong enough to be recognized anywhere on the continent, you’re still a student!
It was true that Aint had reached a fearsome level for his age.
But the same applied to the professors of the Academy.
And even if they were under mind control, unable to use their full strength, having Aria on their side balanced that disadvantage.
— If you continue like this, you’ll die, and the Academy will be destroyed by two demons.
— Are you going to let that happen?
— Aint! Didn’t you say you wanted to be a hero?
“But becoming a hero by killing my comrades…!”
— Don’t be a child with a demon in front of you!
— Besides, it’s not about killing them! Just injure them enough to knock them out and give them a potion afterward!
Gardner was right.
Wanting to save Professor Nania and Aria from getting hurt wasn’t a mistake in itself, but that will was cornering him. And what he was doing now wasn’t the best option.
“…I’m sorry, professors. Aria. I’ll give you a superior potion afterward.”
Aint made up his mind.
He would bring them down and escape from there as fast as possible.
At that moment—
─!
The magic circle shook. Not from within, but from outside.
Someone was hitting it from the outside with aura.
Boom!
Thud!
The door trembled endlessly. The circle vibrated.
Crack—
A crack formed.
That magic circle, so strong that Aint couldn’t break it without first taking down the two elves, was breaking.
“…Someone outside?”
Hope lit up in Aint.
— Yes! Someone is breaking the circle from outside! Shout, call for help, maybe they can hear you through the crack!
— Some demonic circles were like that—impossible to break from inside but fragile from the outside. This is your chance!
“I don’t know who you are, but help me…! Break this…!”
But then.
“Sorry, but shortcuts aren’t allowed.”
Professor Dominique’s voice rang out, and the pounding stopped.
Hope crumbled in an instant.
“…Eh?”
— Damn it! Then there’s only one option left!
The hope that had emerged after so much struggle turned to despair.
Aint clenched his teeth and made a decision.
“Professor Nania, Aria… I’m sorry.”
You’re professors, and yet you let yourselves be manipulated by the corrupt, allowing them to attack your own students. Right?
With that thought to support him.
─!
He unleashed all his strength and swung his sword.
***
The darkened sky.
The summoned demon.
Verian felt a déjà vu.
“Andromalius…”
The appearance and presence were different, but there was one common factor—it was a demon.
Its name and type didn’t matter. What mattered was that it had descended and had to be stopped.
And to do that—
“Aint…”
They needed to find him. Fernan had said it—Aint was the only true natural adversary of the demons.
That’s why, in any problem related to the corrupt or demons, they had to look for him.
Rooooar—
“Out of my way!”
Verian pierced through the chest of a rank 8 monster—a Krikter.
They were repulsive insects that moved in swarms, and there were dozens more behind it.
But they were only rank 8.
Unable to stop Verian, who had grown tremendously by following Fernan and Aint.
After sweeping them aside, he exited the training field and heard screams from all directions.
But he ignored them and ran toward the research building.
The key point was the demon. And only Aint could face it.
Wasting time saving a person in front of him meant condemning hundreds on the island.
“Verian?”
“Senior Gismond?”
They both understood each other’s intentions in an instant: the direction and urgency were the same.
“Looking for Aint?”
“You too?”
“He’s probably in Professor Ladina’s lab.”
“I saw it in the paper a few days ago. I’m heading there.”
“Let’s go together.”
“Alright.”
Together, they moved faster.
The monsters couldn’t significantly hinder them.
“He’s not here…”
“It’s empty. Where did everyone go?”
A bad sign.
‘No Aint? Then how are we going to stop the demon? We can’t even escape through the circle?’
The protagonist was missing at the worst moment.
Gismond hesitated, unsure what to do.
Then they felt a strange energy. It was demonic magic, but different from the one permeating the Academy due to the demon.
“…You feel that?”
“Upstairs.”
They hurried up.
There they saw it—a closed door, vibrating walls covered in magic circles.
The demonic magic was coming from there.
“A seal?”
“What is this…?”
They knew immediately it was a prison for Aint.
They both struck with their swords at the same time. Aura pounded the circle again and again.
─!
The rebound was stronger than expected.
Gismond clenched his teeth. Could they break it?
But seeing Verian persist without stopping, he couldn’t give up either.
After several strikes, finally a crack sounded.
“We can break it!”
“Is someone in there?”
“I don’t know who you are, but help me…! Break this…!”
It was Aint’s voice. They had found him.
Gismond felt elated.
But at that moment—
“Sorry, shortcuts aren’t allowed.”
A figure appeared and just by brushing the circle, the cracks closed as if nothing had happened.
“Professor Dominique?”
“A pleasure, Verian. Gismond. I’m sorry to say you can’t come in. I prepared this place especially for Aint.”
“What?”
“No way.”
They weren’t naive enough to miss the truth.
Professor Dominique was one of the corrupt. The shock turned into horror.
“You deceived us all this time…!”
“Humans often say, the fool is the one who lets himself be deceived.”
“Wanna play now?”
“But not with me.”
Before they could respond, Dominique vanished like a shadow.
And in his place, someone else appeared.
“…Senior Carlo?”
“Carlo Deneb?”
The winner of the Magic Tournament, Carlo Deneb.
“Why are you here…?”
“Watch out!”
Verian pushed Gismond and rolled forward.
─!
The place where Gismond had been was destroyed in a single strike. Electric bolts spread out.
“Shit, what is this…!”
“His eyes are gone! I’ve seen it before—he’s under hypnosis!”
“What did you say?”
Carlo, with a vacant expression, raised his staff.
“Looks like we won’t be able to free Aint without defeating him.”
“Damn it—and we have to beat the champion of the Magic Tournament? While a demon is destroying the Academy outside?!”
Gismond and Verian clenched their teeth.
***
“Professor! Something terrible is happening! Outside right now…!”
Pieto Felice, assistant in Professor Valmon Atra’s lab in the Department of Magic, responsible for the subject “Beasts and Monsters Studies,” opened the office door urgently.
“A demon has descended, and yet…”
He wasn’t there.
The one who was always in his office, in his lab, in the faculty dorms or the classrooms, wasn’t in any of those places.
He even checked behind the towering stacks of magic books just in case, but nothing.
Where had he gone?
Thinking he might be meeting with other professors, he checked the offices and labs of the others.
And then he realized—not only was Professor Valmon Atra missing.
“Professor Valmon is gone too? Mine is as well! Professor Ladina! Where is she?”
Professor Ladina Brancheff, responsible for “Basic Magical Alchemy” and “Enchantments and Attributes.”
“Professor Nania!”
Professor Nania Veris, of Introduction to Elementalism.
“Professor Farmion! Where has he gone?”
Even the newest one, professor of “Naval Combat Studies.”
“Professor Gert!”
“Professor Eliair! Where the hell are they?”
“A demon has descended!”
Even the professors from the Department of Knights.
Not a single one remained.
All of the Academy’s professors had vanished.
All, except one—Professor Grad Xanth from the Department of Knights.
Only he was fighting the demon.
“We have to find the professors!”
“Surely there’s been some accident!”
The assistants joined forces to search the entire Academy.
They searched both the Department of Magic and the Knights’, the research building, the faculty building, and the dormitories.
“Did we… find them…?”
“The professors…!”
But they found them in an unexpected place.
“…Holy heavens.”
“Professor…!”
Inside the Ravidus Hall room, it was stained with blood.
____
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