On my way out, a crow flew in. The same one that once brought me the two-hundred-million offer. Betelgeuse had always reported to me via communication. I knew exactly what it meant that this crow had come.
I stroked its head once and checked the note tied to its ankle.
"......"
The information on the slip was a fairly detailed long passage. And it contained something a bit disconcerting.
‘......Inside the Sanctuary there was a massive underground facility, on whose walls a transmutation array for Curse No. 99 was drawn, ......and hundreds of thousands of skulls densely lined the walls of the underground facility.... And Betelgeuse left the purpose of its existence as a question.’
But as a power-user of this game, I knew. It was a device for 100% utilization of 『Soul Devouring Curse』.
It looked like an attempt to reach a curse higher than 99.
Higher than 99 is 100.
Curse No. 100.
A curse that doesn’t exist in the game.
However... I knew how to touch the code, and once, in a hospital room, I had torn open the game files.
There, as an unimplemented dummy data, Curse 100 clearly existed.
Its name was—
‘Curse of Apocalypse.’
And its content: a curse that gives the two-horned demons one more horn.
‘In other words, having lost the Demon King, Setian intends to reach Curse No. 100 and make himself the new Demon King.......’
According to Abraxas’s memories, the Demon King had existed, so Setian too was attempting to go against Heaven’s Way.
"......Thank you."
I stroked the crow’s head.
With those pitch-black eyes it stared blankly at me for a beat, then slowly lowered its body and gently closed its eyes.
At my Constellation-level sensitivity, I sensed it stop its own heart.
I wished that somewhere far away this fellow would be happy with its master.
Memories from childhood welled up.
When people started going away from me one by one.
I used to wonder why this world had to exist, why everything was designed to have an end.
I still haven’t found an answer to that.
Only that almost all those who left like that had done their best while alive.
Their efforts must not be made to come to nothing.
A future like that is something I won’t accept, starting with myself.
『 Flash Secret of Heaven 』
At last, my body became raindrops of light—photons—and began to rise into the sky.
***
It was early autumn. The heat had finally broken, and out of nowhere rain began to pour over the academy. It was neither demonic interference nor human trickery.
Within it, assassins shattered raindrops as they flew.
"Spread as far as you can! Keep it spread and lure the thing!"
< Yes!! >
At Shaman Kreutz, Head of the Assassination Department’s direction, the professors moved.
In the midst of it, Shaman recalled attending the Hero Party’s lecture about a week ago.
There Dante had explained in detail about “all forms of demons.”
Using [Illusion], no less.
First among them—
—The true nature of the two-horned demon Setian is the monstrosity called “Summonkken.”
The essence of Summonkken is “summoner.” But according to Dante, the one-horned Summonkken can only summon hornless demons.
—But since he has two horns, he can summon one-horned demons.
Judging by how he had once summoned six or seven Trappycche, Dante added, that would be close to Summonkken’s full force.
No demon saves up their ultimate.
—If there’s a next battle, my guess is—prepare to face six one-horned demons.
It begins with that monster.
Trappycche.
The violet wave ricocheted off Ezekiel’s shield and condensed into a single core.
Above it, Warrior Department Head Vulkan rushed in, [Gigantification] turning him into a 12-meter giant.
" U r a a a a a a!!!! "
Twelve branching sword-auras compressed into one, becoming 『Swordsteel』. That massive weapon, bright as midnight day, smashed Trappycche’s core.
CRACK!!
The horned brain hidden inside the giant jelly cracked in part, but Trappycche became a wave and coiled around Vulkan.
< We have to save Department Head Vulkan! >
< Wind mages!! >
In the midst of it, Shaman also flew in—toward Summonkken, arrogantly seated near Trappycche’s “head.”
From Shaman’s body, a spherical space spread and occupied several kilometers of the area.
『 Hunting Domain 』
From now on, this place was where the hunter called Shaman would catch and kill a beast.
『 Lightning-Flash God-Body Wind 』
Within it, Shaman could swap the positions of his thrown arms and his body.
『 Thousand Needles, Ten Thousand Flowers 』
Thus, thousands of throwing blades scattered into the dark like the blackest fireworks in the world and targeted Summonkken.
Then Summonkken’s eyes split to his temples—becoming four—and tracked Shaman. At the same time, he drew a soot-black sword.
He who had sat as if upon a throne had to launch his body. Behind him the storm of blades swarmed like sardines.
KA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KANG!!
Where the sword swept, hundreds of throwing blades pinged away, and as many were replaced. Yet after being cornered several times, Shaman shouted,
"Chief Professors—!!"
At that moment, high above, Chief Professor Toy laid down 『Firefly Sanctuary』, and wrapped in totemic power, Wilhelm and Chief Professor Baekwa moved. 『Great Sun-Annihilating Flame Orb』—enormous fire-spheres poured down.
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWANG!!! The two-horned demon, wreathed in Wilhelm’s flames, pulled back his body, but then Baekwa’s blade came from behind him.
Fwish!
It was 『Space Leap』. He was the White Saber branch chief, a battle-type assassin—his sword tip tore through the two-horned demon’s ribs.
"Uh-heh-heh! Hah, not much, are ya?"
But Baekwa dropped the grin—the Summonkken’s head turned 180 degrees to look right at him.
"Oh, you son of a—"
CHOMP!
From the monster’s opening mouth shot a long arm that shredded Baekwa’s forearm.
But Baekwa knew as well.
Every chief professor here had heard Dante’s special lecture.
Thunk!
The assassin instead seized the monster’s arm with his right hand. Voom!! Heavy mana occupied the entire space—a narrow space-occupation power called 『Mutual Destruction』.
"Angela, you reaper hag!!!"
Baekwa screamed as if tearing his throat. Even Summonkken had to lift his head now—for among all chief professors, one of the mightiest, Chief Professor Angela’s strike was plummeting straight down from the sky, like a guillotine.
『 Reaper One-Cleave 』
The old woman’s blow with the giant scythe crashed onto Summonkken.
Summonkken thrust up a hand in haste.
KRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAASH!!!!!
Air burst, Trappycche’s body burst, the Summonkken’s hand protruding from his mouth burst. But Baekwa hurriedly scooped up Angela and fled. It wasn’t enough.
CRUNCH! CRRACK! GRRRRIND!
It wasn’t that Summonkken took no damage—but it was insufficient. Worse, with parts of space itself shattered, the [Summoning] he had been priming while seated all along was finally complete.
Within the vertically ripped, dozens-of-meters gashes in space—monsters began to push their heads out.
Jinksythe of Curses — Jinxxytte
Bomiteka of Throwing — Vomittekka
Sosercer of Magic — Socerrchee
Combatookh of Battle — Combattookh
All of them began to be summoned one by one from Summonkken’s hands, spilling out.
At that, Hiaka’s assassins, mages, and warriors roared and widened the distance.
At the same time, Shaman Kreutz re-racked thousands of shuriken and thought,
‘We’ve taken at least one tempo.’
The Mage Tower wasn’t broken yet, and the Assassination Department’s intrusion had been blocked.
‘But......’
A single one-horned demon—though not even fully summoned—was a monster that had thrown the Assassination Department into shock.
There were five of them here—and with them an even stronger two-horned demon.
In fact, from the moment the five one-horned demons burst out, the tide began to turn rapidly against them.
Unless they were going to crash and die like moths in a flame, they had to give ground as they advanced.
Jinksythe scattered curses with those six arms. Flesh rotted. Metal began to rust. Mages had to attempt purification through headaches.
Combattookh and Socerrchee rampaged like mad—respectively a battle-type one-horned demon, and a magic-type one-horned demon.
Its very physique—like vertebrae set up as a staff—Socerrchee’s dozens of ice lances swept several assassin-professors.
And the hands of Combattookh, in the form of a Buddha with 108 forearms, extended without end to bombard the mages.
At last, Vomittekka kicked off the ground with its massive jaws and slammed into the Mage Tower. Then, splitting its crude mouth up to the ears, it began gnawing the tower building apart.
KWA-BOOM!!!
By then, the chief-professor mages capable of 『Teleportation』 had spirited away critical documents and research equipment inside, but there was no way to remove the 『Barrier of Peaceful Nature☮』—and it broke.
Once the barrier that protected humanity, restored it, and killed the power of curses shattered—
‘......’
Before a place where each individual creature was easily dozens of meters in size—monsters palace-large writhing and flying—the #71-ranked Shaman could not deny that he felt like a mere human witnessing a calamity.
So too with a newly appointed junior professor who had been nearby when Shaman hurried aloft and joined the fight. He panted for breath and couldn’t master his shaking legs.
Wails rose on all sides.
The one whose head just burst had been his cohort. The forearm of the senior professor who had spoken kindly to him at his hiring interview was severed. For a junior professor who had only ever known how to fight in a small space against one or two, it was a gigantically scaled battle he could hardly accept. A catastrophe.
However—
Humanity had its guardians, too.
At some point Combattookh, which had been flying in, stopped. There stood a single person.
Though merely human-sized, with only a sword in hand, that person halted the monster’s advance.
─── .
Soon an unprecedented light began to burst from the sword, and the professor realized—it was a 「Holy Sword」.
The reason for the strategy of buying time had been to wait for them to arrive.
< Announcement. >
In his ear, through the comms, came the voice they had so long awaited.
< Glory Wonderland and three others—the Hero Party—have arrived. >
At last,
< We will commence demon extermination. >
Two sword-bearing Heroes. One cleric. And one assassin whose every ability skyrocketed nearly threefold the moment she joined the Hero Party. With their entry, the tide that had been collapsing found equilibrium in an instant.
Glory’s demonblade 「Warbringer♠」 was a sword made with “ultimate destruction” as its very purpose, and thus worked lethally even against demons—the source of power. Jinksythe’s arms blew off.
Assassin Balmung’s sniping was exquisite. When Vomittekka opened its mouth to devour something, rounds lodged within. When Jinksythe attempted a 90-series curse, the very fingertips blew off.
Socerrchee’s magic—where spells fired from each and every rib attached to its spine—detonated just before completion. It was a continuation of the training Dante had recently put Balmung through, using [Illusion] literally thousands of times.
Over the groaning wounded, the divinity† of Adele Mouin descended. It healed the injured tens of times faster than any healing potion that exists in this world.
Finally, Eve flew in—popping and slicing Combattookh’s arms like strands of hair. When light flashed, the demon’s body scattered to pieces.
However, this strong showing only barely pulled the overwhelmingly losing balance back to the center line.
Around then, the rain began to fall a little harder.