I got into school for nothing-Chapter 277
I got into school for nothing (277)
Lesson 54. What You Shouldn't Touch – 2
The group finished their meal without further incident.
Kron remained unconscious, so Shati called a maid to have him moved to a bedroom.
"Princess, you certainly made quite an impression as soon as you returned after such a long time."
"I didn't do it."
"Yes, yes, Sir Kron simply slammed his head onto the table and fainted of his own accord."
Fitting for the Demon Realm, even the maids were far from ordinary.
A maid, carrying Kron without any sign of strain, was about to leave when she turned back to Shati and spoke.
"That's precisely why I despise that old man. He shouldn't drag me into his bloated ambitions."
"Even if you say that, we all know your true feelings, Princess. Now that you've gained power befitting you, you'll be able to fulfill your ambitions to your heart's content!"
"Hah... Fine, let's just say that."
Shati didn't prolong the conversation, merely wearing an expression that said, "This is exactly why I didn't want to come here," as she sent the maid away.
"Let's go now. He asked us to watch his display of power, so we should go and see it."
"Senior, your family relationships are truly incredibly complicated."
"What is it, Planning Manager? Are you finally taking an interest in me now? Still, if you're going to meddle in our family affairs, you'd better be prepared— Ah, Mira! I'm just kidding!"
Thump— Had a collision already occurred? A distant boom echoed from far away.
Ban Yuwon barely managed to break up the minor clash that was happening right there, then led the group outside.
No, just before that.
"Aire."
"Hm."
Ban Yuwon extended a hand to Aire, who responded calmly as if she had expected her name to be called.
"This is a present."
"If it's a present, then last time... Oh?"
As expected, she hadn't anticipated it.
He watched, satisfied, as Aire's impassive eyes widened. What he placed on her palm was a chillingly blue and transparent... ice crystal, brimming with immense ice magic within.
Everyone guessed where it had come from.
"To think a junior would possess the talent of a Grand Thief (大盜). Tricking even the Demon King, that's quite impressive, isn't it?"
"I neither tricked nor stole anything. I merely restored something that had already vanished and claimed it. My recent training in creating tangible forms from the intangible seems to have helped. Aire, take it."
"...It's astonishing."
The Ice Shield of the Demon King was a relic of ancient mystery forged into a shield, but Ban Yuwon succeeded in extracting only the pure concept of mystery from the utterly destroyed fragments of the crumbling shield, processing it into the form of a crystal.
Easier said than done; he wouldn't have succeeded if he hadn't been training recently to create goblins in the Tower.
At that time, in a pinch, he might have imbued the concept into an artifact he possessed, but it would have been impossible to deliver only the essence to Aire as he did now.
"It's even more... incredible than the shield I saw earlier."
"Of course it is. That shield was originally the result of weakening and sealing a power that couldn't be controlled, trying to manage it somehow. Concepts don't always become a 'plus' just by adding more. Sometimes, by removing what's unnecessary, they only grow deeper."
"I don't understand what you're saying, but I do understand that Yuwon is giving a gift to another woman who isn't me."
Mira pouted, thinking, "Surely I was the one who initiated this trip."
Hearing Mira's words, Aire blinked her transparent, sky-blue eyes, like an autumn sky, a couple of times. Then, without a word, she subtly pushed her bangs forward, drawing attention to the snowflake hairpin Ban Yuwon had given her in the past.
A vein throbbed on Mira's forehead.
"Hey, you, come with me to the top of the Demon King's castle."
"Calm down, Mira! The Demon King's castle is all collapsed, where would its top be?!"
"So, when exactly are we going to stay here?"
Fortunately, the battlefield wasn't far.
It seemed the Human Empire side had resolved to end things today, as they had encroached upon the border, bringing with them even the Emperor's Royal Guard Knights, whom Shati had called the Human Empire's elite.
Indeed, from their perspective, it was only natural to believe that Shati, who had suddenly appeared from beyond dimensions, swept through the imperial army with formidable power, and then, as soon as she entered the Demon Realm, the Demon King's castle collapsed, meant that she had intended to overthrow the Demon Realm from the start.
And all of them—.
"Kwahahahahahahat! Cheonma, he has given me a great gift!"
All of them were being utterly crushed by a single Demon King, wielding a greatsword and rampaging on the front lines.
According to his own words, he seemed to have grown even stronger despite being thrashed like that earlier.
They had heard earlier that Cheonma had helped the Demon King control his Blood Magic before leaving, but they hadn't imagined it would result in such a significant power boost.
"Come, come even more! The Demon King whom you humans so desperately wish to kill is here, so what is your so-called Emperor doing, and where is he?!"
As the Demon King roared and swung his greatsword, crimson magic surged along its trajectory, engulfing the humans and grinding them to dust.
As the emblem embedded in the Demon King's hand glowed with an eerie light, crimson fiends rose from the corpses of the fallen humans, using their bodies as vessels.
They then swarmed the humans, creating more corpses, and the Demon King's authority, constantly exerted by feeding on human deaths, summoned even more powerful monsters.
Those monsters hunted even stronger humans, grew larger again through the Demon King's authority, and this time, they overwhelmed the Human Empire's elite forces, the Royal Guard Knights, tearing at their weapons, armor, and limbs.
They were desperately cruel and terrifyingly strong.
It was utterly impossible to believe this was the same Demon King who had been endlessly beaten and rolling on the ground by Cheonma.
"In any case, his ability to wield authority is..."
Shati frowned, watching the Demon King's exercise of authority, which seemed to utterly disregard the concept of dignity that should fundamentally be granted to all beings.
Meanwhile, Mira was not observing the rampaging Demon King, but rather the black-clad group assisting him and surging through the battlefield alongside him.
"Are those the Dark Magic Soldiers?"
"Ah, yes."
They seemed to have uniform weapons and attire, all clad in black armor that concealed their entire bodies and wielding shields bristling with spikes. Their appearance was truly ferocious, as they perfectly blocked every attack aimed at the Demon King while savagely swinging their shields to clear away anything that obstructed their path.
Crimson Blood Magic connected all of them, constructing a kind of mobile barrier, and it even seemed to possess offensive capabilities.
"Among the Iblis, they are rare individuals specializing in guarding something. Perhaps that's why their Blood Magic rarely runs wild, and given that we primarily need to fight while protecting the fairies, they were precisely what I wanted."
"So, the ability to guard..."
Mira thought that if wiping out all enemies before a threat reached their allies could be considered 'guarding,' then they were indeed excellent guardians.
Ban Yuwon also nodded, concluding that it had been worth Shati dragging the entire group all the way to Diabolo to acquire them.
"They are strong indeed. If they can match the Demon King and face the Human Empire's elite head-on, then certainly against higher dimensions as well..."
"Kyahahaha! Now they're all my subordinates! Have I become a little more respectable?"
"Well, if they follow Senior's words well, then I suppose so?"
"..."
Shati was not so dull as to miss Ban Yuwon's implication.
She narrowed her eyes, glared at him, and spoke.
"This battlefield has nothing to do with me. I'm not some Iblis rampaging, drunk on Blood Magic, so why should I go and slaughter those humans?"
"If Senior wants to command the Dark Magic Soldiers by asserting her authority as the Demon King's castle heir, then naturally, you should. And as for the Human Empire, you've already killed plenty since the moment you entered this dimension. Why act innocent now?"
"Wow, you really don't hold back a single word just because I'm not 'your woman,' do you?"
"Stating the obvious."
When Ban Yuwon snorted in response, she glared back at him but still gave a nod.
"I know, I know, but I just found that bastard annoying. I brought friends for the first time in ages, so couldn't he have at least greeted us a bit more politely?"
Sure enough, she was still holding a grudge about the Demon King showing killing intent towards Ban Yuwon's group earlier.
Shati, who had been ruffling her hair with one hand in annoyance, finally let out a deep sigh and floated into the air.
The higher-tier magic she manifested, Annihilation Magic, began to slowly amplify her momentum, synchronizing with her horns and wings.
"I'll be back. I'll make sure those bastards can't even whimper and follow only my commands, no matter what."
"Go ahead."
Shati shook her head as if finding Ban Yuwon's fluttering wave of his hand detestable, then immediately flew into the heart of the battlefield.
Shati, ignoring the Demon King who watched her with wide, astonished eyes, and likewise bypassing the agitated Dark Magic Soldiers, reached the front lines. Extending the hand that held the Horn of the Demon King, she unleashed her authority to its maximum limit.
"Explode, all of you! Kyahahahaha!"
Throughout Shati's entire life, Blood Magic had never obeyed her will.
This was partly due to her not being born with it, but also because she despised Blood Magic itself.
Yet now, astonishingly, the Blood Magic of the entire area reacted intensely to the authority she manifested with Annihilation Magic, surging towards her.
Perhaps it was that Blood Magic, the power of later generations, naturally submitted to Annihilation Magic, the power of the First Demon King.
—Boom! Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang!
The authority manifested by the Annihilation Magic she possessed endlessly amplified its destructive power under the influence of her horns, wings, and the Horn of the Demon King, and the reacting Blood Magic instantaneously expanded its scope of manifestation.
The result was an even grander series of explosions than when she had faced the Empire's border guard earlier.
It was truly overwhelming to witness a section of the Royal Guard Knights, said to be comprised only of the strongest knights in the Human Empire, being engulfed and utterly annihilated.
"Kkuaaah! The witch didn't betray her father!"
"We should have expected it from the moment the Demon King appeared unharmed, damn it!"
"M-mana... The mana in the entire area is being lost. Could it be that she possesses even greater control than the Demon King?!"
"Kill her! Prioritize killing the witch!"
Even though she had gained such powerful authority and magic, her appearance in the middle of the battlefield, floating in the open air where anyone could see her, seemed to transcend confidence and border on arrogance.
Of course, she had prepared for all sorts of attacks aimed at her.
—Urahaaaaaaa!
Just before arrows imbued with dense Or and sniping magic, designated as top-priority assassination targets against Shati, could pierce her, a monster appeared in the air with a strange battle cry.
Its true identity was, astonishingly, the Bronze Devil that Shati had summoned during authority experiments with Ban Yuwon earlier.
That creature, who had sworn to follow Shati on the condition that she wouldn't annihilate him with her authority, had astonishingly evolved by accepting Annihilation Magic, its entire body now covered in deep black and glowing gold.
—Nothing can shatter the Blackgold Devil!
"What a lame name...!"
The next moment, as Ban Yuwon shuddered at the name he simply couldn't resist mocking, all arrows and magic targeting Shati veered off course and struck the monster.
But astonishingly, the creature absorbed all of them without a sound, then converted them entirely into Annihilation Magic and fired them from its fingertips, demonstrating power that cut through everything it aimed at like a laser beam.
—All blocked! Not a single one missed!
"Well done. Keep doing that in the future."
The Blackgold Devil, proving its loyalty by throwing its very body into the fray, fearing that Shati might annihilate it.
Shati smiled in satisfaction and began gathering Annihilation Magic again, while the monster perfectly protected its master, buying her time to manifest her authority.
Shati herself probably hadn't realized that a familiar she had acquired by chance would be so useful....
"Hm?"
And all of it was certainly witnessed by the Demon King, as well as the Dark Magic Soldiers.
"The authority is as I expected, but now even a familiar. Hah, quite impressive."
He didn't understand why she, who had been holding back, had suddenly come out to sweep away the Human Empire, or why she hadn't wanted to fight in the first place, and he had no intention of trying to understand.
What was important now was simply the fact that his daughter, who had proven her qualification as heir to the Demon King's castle with her military might, was fighting at the vanguard of the Demon King's army!
"Look! That woman will be your master from now on!"
"We are watching, Your Majesty, Demon King!"
"Then what are you waiting for? All of you, charge after Shati! Today, we shall finally sever the lifeline of the Human Empire! Kwahahahah!"
The Human Empire, confident enough to deploy even its Royal Guard Knights, had its Emperor hidden away in the safe Royal Palace, and ultimately, the Demon King's ambitious goal of destroying the Empire that day could not be achieved.
However, because the Royal Guard Knights who protected the Emperor were all annihilated, save for the remaining forces, the Emperor eventually died in a civil strife that erupted within the Empire, and the same went for the other imperial family members.
The Human Empire, having lost its central pillar, wandered aimlessly, and the Demon King's army, slowly picking apart the sinking Empire bit by bit, eventually succeeded in bringing about its complete downfall.
Thus ended the long and protracted struggle for dominion in the A-4 Dimension.
Comments