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“Stella!!”

Nova lunged at Lilith with the intent to kill.

Without a moment of hesitation, a killing blow soared toward her neck.

Lilith narrowly dodged the sword by a hair’s breadth.

“Get away right now!”

Lilith, struck by a follow-up from the side, was sent flying.

“Cough!”

“Damn… Stella, are you okay?!”

Stella’s pupils, caught in a giant’s hand, had gone blank.

‘Has she been subjected to a mental attack?’

Lilith’s ability is hard to counter unless you’re a unique mental ability user. Especially not now, as Stella was extremely vulnerable to psychological attacks.

“What did you do?”

“Ahhh!!”

Nova, in a fit of rage, severed Lilith’s arm in an instant.

Not stopping there, he hacked off both her wrists and legs, rendering her incapable of standing.

“Ugh… Do you think this will change anything?”

“What did you do?!”

“Hmph… well, it’s too late now, so I’ll tell you…”

Upon hearing Lilith’s reply, Nova’s expression stiffened sharply.

“It’s over now… the seed has been planted, and all that’s left is to wait…”

Slish!

Lilith’s words came to a swift end.

With her lower jaw, including her chin, severed, the flame of her life began to extinguish slowly.

“Cough… You shouldn’t kill me… I won’t die quietly, not at all…”

[Congratulations! You have defeated Executor of Lust, Lilith!]

[Reward: Check it]

Ignoring the status window that appeared in front of him, Nova severed the arm that held Stella.

“… We need to get to Shia quickly.”

‘Only a unique mental ability can counter a mental attack. With my power, it’s impossible.’

With Stella in his arms, Nova hurried out of the hospital.

He dashed straight toward the Academy.

*

Inside the hospital room Nova left,

Not long after, strange sounds began to emerge.

From the completely severed body, a black liquid began to ooze out and bubble.

Suddenly, a hand burst forth from the liquid.

“Haah… haah…”

The one who revealed himself was Executor of Gluttony, Alastor.

He hadn’t died despite being in two pieces.

“Haha… to think I’d almost be killed twice by mere humans…”

He pulled out a half-broken cross from his arms.

It was cracked severely, looking as if it would break at any moment.

“Hmph… have I exhausted all my power… to think I’d have to use a Sacred Relic in a place like this.”

He licked his lips, muttering to himself in disappointment.

“Baphomet is going to be furious. Used up the power of his own Sacred Relic before even making a deal…”

He turned his head to check on Lilith’s corpse.

“Have you completely died, Lilith? When I meet that bug of a human next time, I’ll definitely…”

At that moment, a presence could suddenly be felt coming from the hallway.

“Is it a human…? Well, after causing such a ruckus…”

Realizing that staying here was pointless, he opened a portal and stepped inside.

“Damn… looks like I’ve consumed too much power.”

The place he arrived was not the Demon World.

Having summoned the soul of a heroic warrior and exhausted all his power, he had managed only to avoid being captured on the hospital roof.

“Now I have no choice but to wait until my magic returns…”

Just then, someone suddenly appeared behind him.

Surprised, he turned to see a young boy wearing a red dragon mask.

“You are… Vega! Why are you here?”

Behind him stood the boy who symbolized the vacant Executor of Wrath.

He was known as Vega among the demon race.

“Did Paimon send you? To assist me?”

“Yes.”

Hearing that, Alastor sighed in relief, breathing heavily as his stamina depleted.

Alastor explained the situation to him.

“Lilith is dead. We need to return to the Demon World and regroup.”

He signaled for Vega to open a portal, but Vega did not move.

Feeling something was off with his actions, Alastor spoke again.

“Please open the portal quickly. I’m feeling a bit tired right now…”

“Did you use a Sacred Relic?”

“Are you… interrupting me right now?”

“…”

“Understanding your place despite not being an Executor for long…”

Even with Alastor’s warning, Vega wouldn’t stop questioning.

“I asked if you used a cross.”

“Tch… yes, I did. Is that enough?”

“How many times did you use it?”

“I used it twice.”

He answered reluctantly, unable to hide his displeasure.

“Getting cocky just because you have Paimon’s favor…”

“Is that so…”

“What? What do you mean…”

Boom!

“Well then, it looks like you can’t live any longer.”

The moment Alastor turned slightly, something erupted in front of him.

It was something he would never normally see but was essential—his own heart.

“Kuh… what the hell…”

“I should thank the Divine; thanks to you, I’ve been spared some effort.”

Vega’s hand pierced through his back and grasped his heart.

“Is this part of Paimon’s orders? That bastard finally swore…”

“Your summoning of the dead is bothersome… now return the Sacred Relic.”

“No! It can’t end like this…!”

Whack!

His urgent voice was silenced as he slumped down.

Soon, he vanished completely without a trace.

Holding the cross, Vega gazed indifferently at Nova, who was rushing away with Stella.

“So, he finally managed to reach weapon reproduction… Should’ve dealt with him sooner.”

He leaned back as he opened the door to the Demon World and stepped inside.

“Those damn pieces of the Divine’s game… will not go as you desire.”

Spitting words filled with distant malice toward the sky, Vega disappeared.

*

“It’s a monster!”

“Ahhh!!”

On the other hand, the Academy was plunged into chaos.

Class A was in a panic due to the sudden appearance of monsters everywhere.

“Where did all these things come from?!”

Lucid attempted to deliver a blood-charged strike at a spider-like monster before him.

The spider-like monster dodged the attack, looking terrified.

“Excuuuse me? You dodged it, you monster…”

Just as he was trying to strike again,

Siel stood in front of Lucid.

“Stop! That isn’t a monster!”

“What are you talking about? How can you say that about it…?”

“That monster… was a human until a moment ago!”

“What?!”

Upon hearing it, it did seem absurd.

Aside from the trembling students around them, he couldn’t see the classmates who had been there just a moment ago.

“Are humans turning into monsters? No… is this an illusion?”

“It seems like it. It’s probably a type of unique mental ability.”

“In that case… let’s just subdue it for now.”

Lucid moved the blood-charged sphere over the monster.

As she opened her clenched fist, the blood mesh spread out in all directions.

“Sorry, but you need to stay put right there. For the sake of avoiding chaos…”

At that moment, suddenly, a wyvern-shaped monster charged at Lucid.

“No… I told you to stay still…”

“Stop it!”

Startled by the sudden shout, Lucid reflexively blocked the wyvern’s attack.

“Ugh!? How rude! What are you doing…?”

Just before being crushed by the attack, dazzling colored flames pierced through the wyvern.

“That isn’t just any monster! It’s a real wyvern!”

“Shia?… Weren’t you supposed to be down?”

Rushing in with heavy breaths were Shia and Serena.

The wyvern writhed in pain, engulfed in the colorful flames.

“Right now, the Academy is a mix of students who look like monsters and real monsters.”

“What does that mean…? Why is this suddenly happening…?”

Lucid was baffled by the nonsensical situation.

Siel, relatively calm, asked Shia without any sign of anxiety.

“I don’t really know, but can you distinguish between the two?”

“Yes, but the problem is, it’s hard to break the illusions for all these students at once.”

“You can’t do it all at once?”

“First, I’ll inform you, so let’s deal with the monsters together.”

As the four entered the corridor and looked at the windows, the Academy was in a state of ruin.

They were inflicting wounds upon each other,

and some were truly being attacked by monsters—

it was a veritable cauldron of chaos.

“This is truly a big deal…”

“We need to stop that right now…”

At that moment, a loud crash echoed from the end of the corridor as a swarm of monsters came charging toward them.

“Shia, are those monsters? Or are they humans?”

“They’re all monsters!”

“There are too many!”

Just when the horde of monsters sought to trample them,

it suddenly felt as if everything in that space had frozen solid.

“This magic… could it be!”

“Filthy beings… how dare you touch the daughter of someone!?”

The horde of monsters froze instantly.

A chilling aura filled the entire space.

Everyone was shocked at the appearance of the man who calmly walked down the corridor stairs.

“That man is… the North’s Lord of Frost!”

“Top Ten? The fourth in rank…”

“Father?”

Revealing himself was the head of one of the great families that protected the Empire,

the ruler of the North, one of humanity’s strongest—

Nuer de Gruwein.

 

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