The royal capital's sky fell into darkness, like a deep abyss turned upside down.
"What… what's happening!?"
People stared as the spreading ink slowly covered the entire sky, devouring their last bit of hope.
Some mages inside the academy tried to release sparks from their hands to light the surroundings, but no matter how hard they tried, not even a single spark appeared.
"Crap! Mana disorder!"
A mage suddenly shouted in alarm.
Something even more terrifying followed, a powerful wave of negative emotion surged toward the mages.
Those who had barely been able to stand could no longer remain upright. One by one, they collapsed to the ground.
Gwen's heart grew heavy with unease.
Her instincts told her that perhaps… it wasn't just the academy in danger.
The entire royal capital might soon be plunged into catastrophe.
"Look! What's that!?"
Several students pointed toward the mountain behind the academy and shouted in fear. The scent of terror quickly spread through the crowd.
The gradually fading barrier had become transparent enough for them to see the outside world.
But what appeared before their eyes was a sight none of them would ever forget.
The demon's body was swelling at a terrifying rate, devouring everything it touched.
The mountain behind the academy couldn't withstand the crushing pressure and began to collapse. Yet, instead of falling, the rocks were wrapped up by the demon's tongue and fed into its bottomless maw.
Even the sky itself seemed to be bitten away, shattered like glass, exposing the endless void beyond, hissing and crackling.
"Th–That… that's the demon?"
"The one that took Professor Devin…?"
Panic spread through the entire academy.
Even those outside could see this disaster unfold clearly.
For the first time, the royal family realized the gravity of the calamity. Troops were mobilized, and large groups of mages rode carriages, racing toward the academy to assist.
For a moment, screams, the sound of galloping horses, and the rumble of collapsing mountains filled the capital.
———
Kefra was thrown out like a kite with its string cut, crashing through several thick trees before finally coming to a stop.
The demon looked down at the fallen demon hunter and its own ever-growing body, laughing harshly.
"Thanks to you, girl."
"Though it's still a bit short of perfect… I really shouldn't be too greedy."
The "girl" it mentioned, of course, was Henny.
It had never imagined that the random human it chose would possess such profound magical knowledge.
For the demon, that was a heaven-sent gift.
Under its temptation, Henny had borrowed immense power from it, and inside the human academy, she had built a mana absorption array even the demon itself could barely comprehend.
That complex spell formation, made up of countless sub-arrays, was so intricate that even a fourth-tier mage would need a great deal of time to decipher it.
Henny had used that array to absorb enough magic to fulfill her revenge.
Yet in the end, everything had benefited the demon.
As long as the array remained active, the mages would continue to serve as its mana source, feeding it endlessly.
At this point, the demon didn't even want to eat Henny anymore.
The knowledge within her mind made it feel an overwhelming greed, not for flesh, but for wisdom.
Demons usually wouldn't kill their contractors easily, especially ones as talented as Henny.
Now, faint glimmers of light flickered on its skin.
They came from the mages of the academy, their magic was still being drained, feeding it continuously.
Its body overflowed with energy, far beyond what it had ever given to Henny.
In a way, Henny had already repaid her debt in full. There was no need for the demon to consume her anymore.
Suddenly, a bright white flash shot through the air, Kefra charged out, completely unscathed. Her silver blades crossed in her hands as she rushed straight at the demon.
When facing demons, demon hunters gained special bonuses, but the tradeoff was losing part of their sanity.
Yet in battles like this, relying on instinct was far more effective than logic.
The demon's gaping mouth split open instantly, spewing out countless black tentacles between its jagged fangs.
With an impatient swipe of its massive hand, it slapped Kefra hundreds of meters away.
But she refused to fall. Again and again, she charged forward, her twin silver blades, crafted from a special metal, cutting into the demon's flesh each time.
Though the damage was minor, the humiliation was immense.
The demon grew irritated. The opponent was so weak, and yet, like an annoying fly, it just couldn't swat her dead.
Then suddenly, a faint glimmer of magic appeared.
A purple spell circle formed between Erica's hands. Every rune, every line was etched precisely in place.
Clasping her hands together, she chanted, space itself tore open around the demon.
From the rift burst dozens of glowing purple chains, piercing straight into its body.
[Second-Tier Magic: Nebula Lock]
'It worked!'
Erica was both shocked and overjoyed. Thankfully, she had once studied this spell under Viktor. She had never expected that her first time using it would be against such a terrifying foe.
The demon instantly felt its magic flow being restricted. It turned its attention toward the iron chains cutting off its power.
"Annoying little mage…"
It roared and struggled violently, shaking the entire mountain. Massive rocks crumbled and fell.
Moments later, the chains shattered.
Still, the short delay had already served its purpose.
Within that brief window, Erica drew several smaller magic circles.
Each one, without exception, granted Kefra a magical buff.
"Speed, attack, resistance, endurance, add them all!"
Erica's hands moved rapidly as she continued chanting.
She had studied these enhancement spells thoroughly, even refining them under Viktor's guidance.
Casting buffs like this was second nature to her now.
With enough buffs stacked, Kefra's movements became even faster.
Seizing the moment when the demon broke the chains, a flash of white light streaked by, she cut through countless tentacles and teeth, striking deep across the demon's neck.
The demon roared in agony. The special silver blades left wounds that couldn't easily heal.
It could feel its power leaking out, its mana bleeding away.
It thrashed wildly, its tentacles tearing off in chunks and falling to the ground.
Nearby, Professor Devin looked up at the horrifying sight. His body trembled uncontrollably as he crawled and rolled away with all his strength, barely escaping the writhing tentacles falling around him.
The demon, now enraged, began devouring itself.
Its fangs retracted, and the countless tentacles quieted.
Then the massive mouth on its head began to eat its own flesh, blood and filth spraying in all directions.
The stench was so foul it corroded half the forest around them. Erica felt a searing pain across her skin and quickly dropped to the ground, avoiding the spreading miasma.
The more it devoured itself, the more grotesquely the demon's head swelled.
By the time it had consumed its entire body, its mucus-covered head looked ready to explode.
What remained was a massive, swaying head spewing endless black ink.
Droplet by droplet, the ink fell to the ground, sprouting into towering tentacles like colossal black pillars.
They slammed down.
Waves of ink, a hundred meters high, engulfed everything.
Erica was swept away, slamming hard into a pile of rocks, one arm impaled by a jagged stone as pain shot through her body.
Kefra was submerged under the ink, struggling desperately, sinking deeper and deeper.
The demon opened its enormous mouth, its tentacles wrapping around Kefra, dragging her upward, ready to swallow her whole.
Suddenly, Kefra smiled, a strange, defiant grin.
With a flick of her finger, countless silver blades hidden beneath the ink shot skyward, piercing straight through the demon's massive head.
The demon screamed in agony. Kefra seized the moment, breaking free of its grasp. She flipped in midair, driving several more silver daggers into its skull.
"Die, demon!"
Each dagger embedded in its head glowed with searing white light. Metallic hums echoed across the sky.
The daggers detonated one after another, like a chain of bombs exploding across its body.
Visible shockwaves rippled outward.
The demon let out a final, anguished scream. Its head burst apart, turning into a dense, pitch-black mist.
The blast's force pulverized the remaining trees to dust. Smoke and debris filled the heavens.
Kefra's body weakened, and she collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.
"We… won…"
But then...
A voice, deep as the abyss, rolled across the sky.
"Had enough yet?"
Kefra froze and looked up.
The endless black mist reformed, reshaping itself into a massive, filthy head.
It opened a single glowing eye, bright as a lamp, staring down at her, filled with greed and madness.
Kefra's eyes widened in disbelief.
A hundred-meter-long tongue burst from the ink beneath her, sweeping horizontally and striking both her and Erica, hurling them far away.
The sheer force of that blow left their bodies limp and wracked with pain.
The demon's tongue slowly slithered toward them again.
But suddenly, a wave of weakness spread through its body, it froze.
'Its mana… is draining!?'
"No… what's going on!? This isn't right!"
Panicking, it tried to draw magic from the academy again.
But no matter how much it absorbed, no mana entered its body.
Only more and more flowed out.
It turned its massive head toward the academy.
At some point, the black barrier above the school had begun fading, turning transparent.
Someone had broken the formation.
But that shouldn't have happened.
Even if it were broken, it shouldn't have caused this level of backlash.
Its dim mind couldn't think further. It looked down again at Erica and Kefra.
It no longer had time to devour them.
In rage, it unleashed everything upon them, lashing out with its colossal tongue, sending both of them flying high into the air until they disappeared from sight.
Having rid itself of those annoying pests, the demon dragged its body forward, step by step, toward the academy.
It would make this its fortress.
Here, it would summon a demon gate, let its offspring swarm forth and claim this land.
It would build an empire of its own.
"…Hm?"
Suddenly, it looked down, sensing a faint trace of life below.
Professor Devin.
He had curled himself up tightly, trembling in fear.
The demon grinned, then burst into laughter.
"Hahahahaha! So you're still alive, you pathetic fool!"
"You're that girl's enemy, aren't you?"
The demon didn't know exactly what Henny had been thinking, but it decided to spare this man, for now.
A gift, perhaps, for the girl who had given it endless knowledge.
Its tongue wrapped around the shivering Devin, and with a single leap, it bounded toward the academy like a missile.
———
At the same time, inside the barrier, the mages' faces filled with relief.
"Yes! Right there!"
Following Vega's instructions, Viktor inserted the final magic rune.
In moments, the array began to dissolve.
The mages felt their mana returning, overjoyed, ecstatic beyond words.
Even Viktor felt a pang of emotion.
'Henny… you really are kind.'
As he unraveled the formation, he noticed a reverse circuit Henny had built into it.
Once the spell was broken, it would trigger a mana reflux, the magic drained from the mages would return from the caster back to them.
Henny must have anticipated that the demon would use her knowledge to strengthen itself.
So she had built a hidden flaw in the spell.
If the demon truly became uncontrollable, then breaking the formation would be the mages' one and only chance to turn the tide.
It was Henny's final move, the last masterpiece of a girl who had knowledge but no magic talent.
As everyone celebrated their returning mana, cheering and thanking Viktor, they failed to notice the shadows gathering silently around them.
The academy's stone floor began to crack. Buildings trembled, their foundations eaten away.
Several mage towers began swaying, then collapsed with deafening booms.
The tall classrooms crumbled like brittle clay, collapsing in an instant.
In just seconds, the entire academy had changed beyond recognition.
The once-proud institution now lay in ruins.
Countless people raised their heads, staring at the towering, giant-like figure.
"D–Demon!!!"
The overwhelming darkness spread above them all.
The demon's long tongue dropped Professor Devin to the ground like a discarded corpse.
At that moment, panic consumed everyone.
That suffocating aura, the terror that had briefly vanished from the mountain, had returned.
There was no doubt.
The demon had come to the academy.
Drooling greedily, it seemed ready to devour everything.
But then, a massive azure magic circle rose from the ground, enveloping everyone in its glow.
[Third-Tier Magic: Domain of Mana]
[Effect: Greatly restores mana within the area; massively increases magic damage output.]
Viktor's calm voice sounded through the chaos.
"Well then, time for a team fight."
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