<b>? A Game of Chicken (1) ?</b>
The first demon I ever defeated, Trevion the Evil.
That bastard appeared.
“Kyaaah!”
“De-demons?!”
“Prepare for battle, now!”
Suddenly, a panic-struck female student let out a scream.
A cold sweat broke out among all the students as they roused their mana and unsheathed their swords from their waist.
In response to this, a group of Trevion’s appeared from behind the stage. As they lined up on the stage, their expressions exuded grotesque smirks.
While the students appeared terrified, they showed no signs of backing down or running away. As expected of top-ranking students, they were prepared to fight.
The students from the Magic Department started first, preparing their long-distance elemental spells to attack.
「Water Wall (Water Element, ★4)」 + 「ck Water (Water Element, ★5)」
= 「Abyssal Wall (Water Element)」
<i> Fwoosh———!!!</i>
The ck water created by the mob of Trevion’s whirled violently as itpletely neutralized the students’ attacks.
[[[[[[[[[[[[[HelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHelloHello?]]]]]]]]]]]]]
The Trevion mob continuously squirmed in a rapid manner as they repeated their creepy greetings.
Their greetings rang in the students’ eardrums with no intention of ending. It was enough to make anyone go mad.
“There is another demon!!”
“Block it!!”
「Ice Spear (Ice Element, ★4)」 + 「ck Ice (Ice Element, ★5)」
= 「ck Ice Spear (Ice Element)」
<i> Schwook-!</i>
<i> Schwook-!</i>
<i> Schwook-!</i>
In a sh, a demon in a royal blue outfit, ‘Pernicus the Contemtive’, jumped out from behind the curtain and began throwing an onught of ck spears at the students.
[Hm─, Hm─, Hm─, Hm─, Hm─, Hm─.]
Pernicus breathed out sighs from his nostrils, the rhythm resembling a song that no one in their right mind would ever want to hear.
The studentsbined their strength to block the numerous [ck Ice Spear]’s with defensive spells.
However, because their defensive spells were easily neutralized, they had to continue to expend their mana without rest, casting one spell after the other.
[Shaaaa──!]
[Ssseuuu──!]
「Tidal Wave (Water Element, ★6)」 + 「ck Water (Water Element, ★5)」
= 「ck Wave (Water Element)」
<i> Fwoooo─────!!</i>
From out of absolutely nowhere, the shark demon, ‘Orpheus the Submerged’, proceeded to drench the students with its water magic.
<i> Kwaang—-!!</i>
<i> Crash—-!</i>
<i> Kkeeuuu——!!</i>
A huge demon in the form of a humanoid queen ant, ‘Garzia the Hermit’, broke through the outer wall and seemingly posed with threatening splendor.
None of the students were impressed by this disy. Instead, their pale faces reflected fear as they trembled in its wake. Even as they shook and trembled, they continued to cast one defensive spell after the other.
[Buong, Buong, Buong───?]
[Buuu, Oong───? Buong───?]
Past the half-broken outer wall, thorn trees illuminated with a deep-red sky could be seen.
In that glimpse behind, something stomped into the walls.
A herd of pink elephants walked on their hind legs in single file as if they were carriages connected to a train.
They sang in an unknownnguage while dancing to their own beat. As if they were some dance troupe, their weird choreography had no ws and only perfect synchronicity.
<i> Kwaaaang——!</i>
[Buooooong────?]
Behind the disgustingly blinding performance of the elephant herd, an even bigger red elephant followed.
The behemoth stood 10 meters tall, and the wall that was already broken by Garzia waspletely demolished by its entrance. Behind the demon, the thorn trees and hell-like surroundings were further entuated like a sea of fire.
The head of the huge elephant was shaped like a red brain, its hips swayed to the rhythm of samba. It was ‘Elphelt the Evanescent.’
All of this happened simultaneously within a short amount of time.
Before I knew it, Ian had fainted as if it was a given. His head has blood spurting out but I currently couldn’t care less.
“This is one hell of a party…”
All the demons I had defeated in the past joined up like some sort of tea party for a princess, creating a scene of chaos like no other.
The dark elemental magic of ‘Malrog the Envious’, [Mad Banquet].
It was an illusion spell that affected the minds of those within a certain radius, causing previously encountered demons to emerge and gradually consume the target’s psyche. If multiple subjects were simultaneously affected by the magic, they would all share the same illusion.
As a result, demons that manifested outside of the radius of the magic, such as Vera the Summoner, Leafa the Illusive, and Heinkel the Hoarder were not present in the illusion.
Anyway, since Elphelt joined the party, it was the end of this nightmare regiment.
In these illusions, one was projected identically as themselves. The students using elemental magic was enough evidence of this. Additionally, just like when I yed ?Magic Knight of M?rchen?, the [Vs. Demon Combat Power] buff was also amply applied.
Basically, all of this boiled down to one important detail for me.
<strong><i>‘I’m the Demon-Limited Hunter.’</i></strong> [The demons have been recognized as enemies.] [The unique trait [Hunter] is activated!] [Your level and stats are temporarily greatly enhanced!] [Your skill tree temporarily bes +10!]
I swung my hand nonchntly as I activated my rock magic. My target? Towards the students that were struggling against the demons.
「Stone Barrier (Rock Element, ★6)」
The students all looked confused as light brown shields formed around them. Like [Frost Barrier], this spell solely focused on protecting the students while ignoring any other magic including my own.
As if they acknowledged the power of my spell, both the students and demons were speechless as they looked towards me in unison.
“What is this? How is a spell like this possible…?”
“Isaac, you…?”
The exceedingly vain blond noble, Tristan Humphrey. Even he was speechless, as his two eyes lost focus and his jaw dropped. He also seemed to have realized the true meaning of my spell and was rightfully stunned.
Simrly, Amy Holloway and all the other students present could not hide their astonishment.
“Sir Isaac…?”
Kaya seemed surprised that I outed myself so willingly.
<b><i> Whatever, it doesn’t matter anyway.</i></b>
As soon as Malrog the Envious was taken care of, the memories that urred under the illusion spell would all be altered.
For reference, all the memories altered would randomly reflect the subject’s mind so who knows how much chaos would result from this. However, it shouldn’t be too dangerous to anyone.
‘Of course, if I escape this illusion first, it won’t affect me anyway.’
<b><i> I’m going to escape this illusion.</i></b>
And if I seed in hunting Malrog, everyone aside from me wouldn’t remember a thing..
But even so…
‘I don’t want to leave them in the middle of hell’
With a demon horde that huge, even Dark Kaya would be unable topletely annihte them. As such, the students would all die miserably and this ce would turn into a hellhole.
Even if they lost their memories, the scars of trauma would remain. Therefore, I didn’t want to let these children go through such a tragedy.
All the demons readied themselves as if it wasn’t time to care about any other students.
It was a natural reaction considering I was the most dangerous enemy right now.
‘Let’s end this quickly.’
I raised my right hand as I let my rock mana flow.
In the majestic A Hall filled with demons, a light brown magic circle covered the entirety of the vast ceiling.
With wary faces, the demons looked up at my ominous mana.
I unleashed my magic onto them.
「Meteor Shower (Rock Element, ★6)」
<i> Rumbleeee─────────!!!!</i>
It was a relentless bombardment.
The spell I casted hurled light brown meteors and bombarded the demons with astonishing speed.
No cracks could be seen in the onught of gold light. High-density mana created a flood of meteors so strong that it obstructed everything. It was as if the mana created a machine gun that shot endless meteors.
For the demons, there was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.
The meteors that approached the students were immediately absorbed by the [Stone Barrier], thus making it ineffective.
The demons became an indescribable mess, every inch of their bodies were destroyed beyond recognition by the deadly rocks.
With that, I stopped the shower of meteors.
[Hughh—-….]
[Shaaa—-…]
[Sseeu…]
[Kkkieeuuu…]
[Kyaak…]
The venue was drenched in the blood of demons.
The demons turned into grey dust, scattering through the air as the venue remained its clean color. The destroyed surroundings such as the outer wall, however, remained the same.
“What is this…?”
“There was such a monster among us…?”
The students’ voices trembled as they let out their admiration.
Honestly, it was a bit burdensome to see them stare at me with their jaws on the floor.
‘I think it’s about time now.’
When I checked [Psychological Insight] earlier, the goal of Malrog was, ‘obtaining Cherubim’s Ne and killing every student present’.
I didn’t know whether he would run away or cause a massacre after achieving his goal, but that wasn’t important.
‘I need to deal with him no matter what.’
Cherubim’s Ne was the only item capable of fulfilling Malrog’s wish. He would try to obtain it even if it meant risking his life.
As such, there was a high probability that he was going to the stage to snatch Cherubim’s ne while everyone was under the illusion.
He would not ughter the students before getting the ne. This was because everyone under the influence of his illusion was connected to his nervous system.
If he killed someone, he would only suffer unnecessarily. Therefore, before he tries to kill us, he would definitely release his illusion spell first. He did this in ?Magic Knight of M?rchen? as well.
In essence, my n was to crucially time when I escaped this illusory world.
<b><i> If I release myself too soon and I’m too close to Malrog, I might immediately get subdued.</i></b>
<b><i>If I escape toote and he obtains the ne, all our lives are forfeit.</i></b>
When his goal was achieved, it was obvious that he would ughter everyone here without hesitation.
[Hel…? Lo…?]
I intentionally left one Trevion alive. Of course, half of its body waspletely annihted from the [Meteor Shower] anyway.
The only demon left now was that bastard. To maintain [Hunter], I needed to have the intention to destroy it in my next attack, Of course, that was my n in the first ce.
At the same time, I nned to use magic to break this illusion.
As I reached my right arm to the side, I instinctively grasped the magical weapon deep within my body.
‘Frostscythe.’
As pale blue mana clumped together, a deep blue outline of a scythe appeared in my hands.
I surrendered my body to the chill of the Frostscythe.
「Ice Generation (Ice Element, ★1)」
I created a huge icicle above the Trevion that was desperately crawling away.
At the same time, I raised Frostscythe and let it impale the floor.
The Frostscythe’s active skill was activated.
「Ice Sovereign’s Majesty (Ice Element, ★7)」
<i> Hwaaaaaak——!</i>
[Ice Sovereign’s Majesty], a magic that repels any magic used on the caster.
My body glowed with a pale blue light as it burst outpletely.
<i> Hwooooo—!</i>
<i> Kkung—!!</i>
The icicle made by [Ice Generation] fell on the Trevion and impaled it.
And in the glow that filled my view,
I closed my eyes in silence.
* * *
A ck magic circle big enough to engulf the entirety of A Hall was present. It was because of the dark element spell, [Mad Banquet].
A ck maze covered the entirety of the hall from the chandelier hanging from a beautiful ceiling to the wide walls.
[Mad Banquet] was a spell that created a new ‘Illusory World’.
It was simr to [Fictional Hell] used by Leafa.
Outside the illusory world, mana could not even be perceived, so no one knew what was going on.
The students stood like mannequins with lifeless eyes.
With a sporty red haircut, Malrog the Envious practically salivated as he headed towards the stage.
Luigi, the host, and the ordinary male students who brought the luxurious carts were all unconscious.
Malrog began to examine the treasures exhibited on these carts.
There, he found a ne with an oval-shaped coin. Subtle magic was engraved on the mysterious white gem embedded into the ne. It was Cherubim’s Ne.
Malrog let out a wide smile as he reached out towards it.
It was then.
<i> ———Rip.</i>
“Kkeuk!”
From his right eye, a sharp pain was paired with an eerie sound. Malrog hurriedly pressed his right eye as he groaned in pain.
Blood dropped like tears.
Each target of the illusory magic was connected to various nerves all around his entire body.
Therefore, this meant that someone was able to escape the [Mad Banquet]. As if they couldn’t be bound by mere illusion magic, the spellpletely bounced off this existence.
‘How?!’
<b><i> How is this possible?</i></b>
Malrog wasn’t given enough time to contemte this dilemma.
「Rock Wall (Rock Element, ★4)」
<i> Crack—!</i>
“…!”
Suddenly a [Rock Wall] shot up onto the stage and blew the cart away as various treasures flew into the air.
[Kyuu!]
Suddenly, a small golem familiar, Eden, appeared out of nowhere and leapt towards Malrog.
Malrog was stunned.
Before he could react, Eden snatched the ne while quickly putting distance between him and Malrog. He then threw the ne to someone in one swift motion.
As the Cherubim’s Ne traveled across the air, it curved beforending in a man’s hand.
「Rock Prison (Rock Element, ★4)」
<i> Kudududu—!</i>
Malrog hastily casted [Stone Prison] in an attempt to capture Eden.
At that moment, Eden was unsummoned as he disappeared in an outline of rock mana.
Intense killing intent oozed from Malrog. Wondering who would dare interrupt him, he turned his gaze towards the man holding the ne. A deep sense of rage seethed within him.
In a dark corner where no light shone from anymps.
A man with tousled silver-blue hair red at him with his sharp eyes. It was a stark contrast to the mild impression he had when he first appeared.
Inparison, Malrog shone in the spotlight on top of the stage.
He red at the silver-blue-haired man as if he killed his entire family.
“Who the fuck are you, you bastard?”
It was a deep and resonant voice that suited his huge physique.
The silver-blue-haired man, Isaac, didn’t answer. He simply lifted the arm that was holding the Cherubim’s Ne.
<i> Clink—.</i>
The Cherubim’s Ne appeared from under Isaac’s hand.
Next to it, a light brown magic circle was conjured. It was rock magic.
Malrog squinted his eyes.
“If you so much as breathe wrong, I’m going to destroy this, understand?”
An icy voice echoed, slicing the air like a guillotine.