Chapter 33

The underground ancient castle stained red-crimson flames roared as they carved through the maze's walls.

-Kwaaaacrack!

Henrik nimbly dodged the attack and glared at his opponent.

Bena Aspera.

A person bewitched and brainwashed by an artifact created by demons, now threatening the Academy. She was the one who had unleashed the Hellhounds into the underground ancient castle.

"Henrik Dusk... how are you here?"

"......."

Henrik didn't answer.

Bena narrowed her eyes as she looked at Henrik.

"Don't tell me you tailed me?"

"......."

No answer.

There might be a listening device in the necklace she wore.

When Henrik looked down at Bena coldly, she ground her teeth in anger at being ignored.

-Splash! Whoooosh!

Bena manipulated a massive fireball, extracting small blazing Lava Spheres from it and firing them at Henrik.

Henrik dodged the magic, but the spell curved and struck his back.

-Fwoooooosh!

The Lava Sphere scorched Henrik's back thoroughly before disappearing.

He'd taken painkillers just in case, so there was no pain, but each spell packed tremendous power.

'This is troublesome.'

Killing would be easy, but he had to face her without killing Bena, so he couldn't move boldly.

Every time he launched an attack, he aimed to destroy the necklace, but each time she protected it. Still, the reason Henrik could keep fighting Bena was because she wasn't yet accustomed to combat.

The power was terrifyingly strong, but her accuracy was severely lacking. Moreover, her complexion worsened with each spell she cast.

Her soul was being destroyed by the use of forbidden arts and the demonic artifact.

If this standoff continued, Bena's life would be in danger. Even without landing attacks, her self-destruction was inevitable.

-Thud!

Henrik used the maze wall as a foothold and swung his sword at Bena.

-Clang!

Bena created a solid magic barrier, blocking Henrik's sword with a smirk. But Henrik had naturally anticipated his attack being blocked.

Henrik swiftly moved behind Bena, outside her field of vision. Then he pulled a small potion from the pouch at his waist and drank it.

-Gulp.

In that moment, the world seemed to stop.

He couldn't hear sounds due to the potion's side effects, but that was a minor issue.

'Instant Acceleration Potion.'

It had the effect of creating superhuman acceleration for a brief moment in exchange for temporarily losing one of the five senses.

The ingredients were extremely expensive, and if made incorrectly, the side effects were severe-it was a potion Henrik had created near the war's end.

A precious potion that could only be completed after mixing wyvern claws, harpy feather oil, magic stones, and mana water, then letting it drip for a month.

After entering the Academy, he'd begged Ted for ingredients and succeeded in manufacturing this single dose.

"What the...!"

It was just a moment. Bena, who'd turned around to track Henrik with her eyes after he vanished from view, was shocked.

Henrik, who'd definitely been far away with distance between them, had approached right in front of her nose in the blink of an eye.

Sensing danger, Bena fired magic in all directions. From the massive fireball she'd created, beams made of flames writhed.

The beams carved through walls and shattered the ceiling.

The magic, having lost its way, turned the underground into chaos. The underground walls cracked with splitting sounds as fissures spread.

'If we keep fighting, the old castle won't hold.'

-Shhhhhh!

Henrik kicked off the floor and charged.

Fireballs flew past, grazing and burning his collar. As the flames grazed him, he slowly felt the heat.

From his arm to his shoulder, as a fireball grazed past, an even larger fireball followed.

But it was slow.

Having surpassed his current level's limits and entered the next stage through temporary movement, everything looked slow to Henrik.

He couldn't hear sounds.

1 second.

Henrik dodged all the fireballs and sprinted toward her.

Bena kept shouting something, but Henrik paid no mind and kept moving. Dodging the fireballs by a hair's breadth, step by step.

Finally, he reached her.

2 seconds.

Henrik's blade flashed.

Slicing through the air, he inserted his sword blade between Bena's fingers as she tried to grab the necklace, targeting the gap.

-Ping!

In the muted world, finally a single sound spread out.

It was the sound of Henrik's sword meeting the necklace's gemstone.

-Crack, crackle. Pop!

The moment the necklace's gemstone shattered, the world flowed quickly again. The wind created by Henrik's movement surged.

Bena's hair whipped around.

It had happened in an instant. She gasped for breath and stared blankly at Henrik.

But Henrik stopped there, not thrusting the sword deeper, smoothly withdrawing it and sheathing it.

"Ah...!"

Then the necklace, split precisely in half, dropped to the ground with a thud. Gradually, Bena's red eyes returned to their usual blue.

She looked around, then met Henrik's eyes.

"Where is-"

Just as she seemed to regain her senses and was about to say something, the scar that had been eroding Bena's shoulder began emitting red lightning.

"Urk...! Aaaah!"

In pain that tore through her flesh, Bena clutched her shoulder and staggered.

Witnessing her shoulder's flesh writhing and bulging, Henrik hurriedly knocked Bena unconscious and plunged a syringe into her convulsing shoulder.

When he'd first discovered the eroded mark on her shoulder, he'd made this medicine in preparation for such a situation.

-Crackle! Kzzzzzt!

As the syringe's medicine was injected, the scar released tremendous magical power.

Ear-splitting sounds and a powerful storm raged.

Red lightning bolts scattered in all directions.

After the scar released its powerful energy for some time and finally quieted down, Henrik checked Bena's condition.

He'd managed to stop the erosion from going into a rampage using the medicine, but it hadn't completely disappeared yet.

Bena exhaled ragged breaths, breaking out in a cold sweat as if in agony.

Her body was cold as ice.

Watching her look as if she might die at any moment, Henrik hurriedly carried her out of the labyrinth.

* * *

"Grrrrr."

"Woof woof!!!"

Meanwhile, the three surrounded by Shadows faced off against the pack of creatures, tension running high.

-Whoosh!

Amecitia swung her sword and severed a Shadow's neck, but the Shadow quickly regenerated it.

Carmine also used his dagger to slash a Shadow's abdomen, but it didn't deal much damage.

"We really need to take down the caster..."

Grimory bit her nails as she glared at the Shadows. They were managing to hold on by attacking the approaching Shadows, but there was still a long time until morning.

The Shadows' weakness was light.

It was around 3 AM now, so they'd need to hold out at least three more hours until sunrise.

"Grimory! Think of something! You're good at using your head in situations like this!"

-Slash! Slash!

Amecitia spoke while cutting off the regenerating Shadow's neck again.

"We need to hold out three hours until sunrise..."

"..."

Grimory glanced at Carmine.

Unlike Amecitia who was still fine, beads of sweat were beginning to form on Carmine's forehead.

It felt like holding out for three hours would be physically difficult.

"A more efficient and systematic response method..."

Just then, a good idea suddenly occurred to Grimory.

If they divided roles by thinking in terms of role groups rather than individual specialty skills, it seemed like they could hold out.

Moreover, Grimory had recently learned magic that, while it couldn't damage the Shadows, could respond to them effectively.

"Carmine! Can you handle three of them by yourself?!"

"All of them alone? Do you have a plan or something?"

"Yes! You don't need to damage them! Just draw their attention!"

Grimory hurriedly pulled out the small wand hanging at her waist and shouted.

"Light!"

The Light magic, one of the basic utility spells.

It was simply magic that summoned a glowing orb, but it was effective against Shadows.

As Grimory began pouring more and more mana into the spell, the glowing orb grew brighter and brighter, beginning to emit tremendously bright light.

The Shadows, robbed of darkness, hesitated and their movements became noticeably sluggish.

"Amecitia! Light! A magic sword with strong light!"

"Got it, order received!"

Catching onto Grimory's intention, Amecitia concentrated and began creating a magic sword.

While Amecitia created her magic sword, Grimory swung her wand. Water droplets gathered in the air and-crack!-transformed into sharp ice spikes.

-Whoosh!

As Grimory swung her wand, the ice spikes flew toward the Shadows.

Thunk thunk! The Shadows collapsed with holes pierced through them. But they quickly recovered their wounds and stood back up.

"Tch."

She clicked her tongue briefly and looked at Amecitia.

"Can't you do it faster?!"

"Shut up! I'm concentrating!"

Amecitia, concentrating with her eyes closed, snapped at Grimory's urging. Just then, a Shadow that had circled around lunged at Amecitia from behind.

Thwack! Carmine kicked the creatures away and slashed the Shadow's belly with his reverse-gripped dagger.

-Splurt!

Black shadow splattered.

But the black shadow that splattered on the ground slowly crept back to the Shadow and healed its wound.

"What?! When did you get here?!"

"Just concentrate on making your magic sword."

Flutter. His black robe billowing, Carmine moved forward again to face off against the Shadows.

-Thwack! Wham wham! Thwack!

He held out as if using martial arts, blocking the Shadows' attacks.

He dodged powerful attacks and deflected weaker attacks with his body.

The plan Grimory devised was to slow the Shadows' movements with her Light magic, have the fast-moving Carmine draw their attention, and use Amecitia, who had the most decisive power among the three, to hold out.

Flash! As the magic sword was completed, the sword Amecitia held emitted brilliant light. The blade crackled as lightning sparked from it.

As she moved the sword, blazing flames could be felt. Seeing the powerful magic sword, the Shadows hesitated and backed away.

"If it's light, then fire and lightning!"

-Bang!

As Amecitia kicked off the ground and charged forward with her magic sword, the Shadows counterattacked her in unison.

"Carmine!"

At Grimory's instruction, Carmine appeared.

Taking advantage of the Shadows being distracted by the magic sword, Carmine, who had been melting into the darkness, appeared behind them and used wire to bind the Shadows tightly in place.

"Nice job, Carmine!"

Amecitia grinned and swung her sword with all her might.

-Swooooosh!

The magic sword released a fierce elemental aura and cleanly bisected the Shadows as if cutting tofu.

Splat! Unable to withstand the intense attack, the Shadows burst into shadows.

However, due to their characteristic of continuously regenerating unless the caster was defeated, the shadows wriggled and clumped together, coming back to life.

"Ha! Easy! If we keep hitting them like this, won't we catch them eventually?"

-Fizzle...

Contrary to Amecitia's confident words, her magic sword disappeared weakly after cutting the Shadows.

"With that?"

Carmine, who was drawing the Shadows' attention while dodging here and there, looked at Amecitia and smirked mockingly.

"I just used a lot of mana in today's training, that's all! I can do more if I concentrate!"

After repeating this pattern for a while in their standoff with the Shadows, the three of them were finally running out of stamina.

"Ugh......"

Having overused her mana, Amecitia was overcome with nausea.

She gritted her teeth and concentrated again to form her magic sword.

As she swung the flickering blade, flames erupted and scorched the corridor floor. The Shadow leapt back, putting distance between itself and Amecitia.

"Come at me, all of you. I can do this all day."

"......."

"......."

The other two grew quieter.

Carmine's back was drenched in sweat, and Grimory was swaying from excessive mana use.

"Grrrrr......! Graaaah!!!"

One of the Shadows suddenly charged.

Just as Amecitia moved to face it with her magic sword-

-Fizzle.......

The mana-depleted blade vanished.

-Crack!

But Amecitia didn't give up. As she swung her sword at the Shadow, the creatures suddenly swelled up large and-pop-disappeared like bursting soap bubbles.

"Huh?"

"Uh......."

"Wait......."

At the Shadows' sudden disappearance, the children stared blankly at the empty space.

"Did we finish them off?"

"No, I don't think that's it......."

"......."

Grimory cautiously approached and looked around.

But the Shadows had vanished without a trace.

Only the black scorch marks from the magic sword remained on the corridor floor.

"They just disappeared."

"Yeah."

"Could it be...... the caster collapsed?"

There was only one possibility they could think of. The caster had fallen.

Someone must have taken down the caster.

But who?

Only one person came to the children's minds.

"It must be the professor."

"Right. He was already moving ahead of us."

"It couldn't be anyone but the professor."

Grimory let out a sigh of relief, then her legs gave out and she plopped down on the corridor floor.

"Seriously, hanging around you two, I'd run out of lives even if I had several."

The floor scorched by the magic sword, the shattered windows, the wrecked corridor.

"......."

"......."

"......."

The three of them silently surveyed the trashed hallway.

The Shadows were gone. That was certainly good news.

But Shadows are magic beasts that leave no trace when they disappear.

So whose traces were these left in the corridor?

"How are we going to explain this."

Carmine's single comment sent chills down their spines.

The enraged dorm supervisor and Henrik's cold stare.

And the demerit points and mockery from the other students.

It felt hopeless.

-Creak.

Just then, Amecitia heard another sound.

-Thud, thud.

At the heavy footsteps, she froze.

It was him.

She could tell immediately just from the sound of those footsteps.

There was only one person in the academy who wore shoes as heavy as military boots.

"You three...... what are you doing here."

It was Henrik.