Shizuku grabbed Kouki's armor and threw him back towards everyone as the time limit for his newly awakened skill 'Supreme Break' ran out. She had just realized their mistake of entrusting everything to Kouki since he never held awareness that the demon race were also "people", and had fatally hesitated to kill the woman when he had the chance. She faced the woman as a cold look appeared in her eyes and she prepared her sword. The demon race woman had already recovered from Kouki's previous attack and said mockingly,
"Oh? That's some nice killing intent you have there, you seem more deserving of the title of 'Hero' than that idiot over there. Sadly I'm going to have to kill you now, Ahadt!" Calling out its name, the monster the demon race woman kept hidden during their first fight on the 90th floor started making its way towards Shizuku. It was not only large but it had four arms and a body like that of a gorilla while its head was like a horse with fangs. Shizuku readied her sword, while also silently lamenting not for the first time that it was a western style sword instead of the katana that her family's dojo 'Yaegashi Sword Style' favored.
There was nothing but silence for a split second, before the monsters started moving and Shizuku vanished as the world blurred around her and she used her speed to rush towards the demon race woman. She also kept part of her focus on the monster Ahatd, as even at her maximum speed it was able to keep pace regardless of its size. Suddenly as she moved she could sense an attack coming towards her, and Shizuku slowed just enough to avoid the tentacles that one of the cat-like monsters tried to attack her with. She slashed at the tentacles, completely severing them, before resuming her attempt to attack the demon race woman as the other monsters started focusing on her as well. While having to avoid their attacks it was no wonder that Ahadt's giant fist entered her field of vision, and Shizuku who specialized in speed and evasion had no choice but to try and guard with her sword and sheathe. But the expected impact never came, instead the world around her blurred at even faster speeds than she was capable of, as a split second later a large boom from Ahadt's attack connecting with something rang out, while Shizuku suddenly found herself in a crouching position and facing another direction while what seemed to be an arm was wrapped around her.
She was filled with nothing but confusion as she turned her head towards the sound of the impact, and saw the person that was crouching over her as if to shield her from the attacks, and the entire room was silent in response to this persons arrival. He was completely covered in thick muscle and had a head of untamable hair that gave a a bit of a wild look while also unflinchingly glaring at Ahadt. The silence continued for a few seconds, before it was broken by the sound of Shizuku's best friend Kaori crying out,
"HAJIME!" Which prompted Shizuku to look over and see a white haired eye patched guy and a girl with darker skin that had just arrived where her classmates were. The girl then called out,
"Who needs healing? I'll see to you immediately." While everyone was silent to begin with as they observed the one Kaori referred to as Hajime, the same classmate they thought had died four months prior, they turned towards the new voice and saw what appeared to be an exotic beauty dressed in very revealing clothes. It don't take some of the boys long to seemingly forget the situation they were in and declare their yet to be treated cuts and bruises. This was cut short by Kaori, who gave Hajime a brief look of longing before directing the girl to those who needed attention the most; starting with Kouki who was weakened from 'Supreme Break', and Suzu who was suffering from blood loss from earlier wounds. As her brain was attempting to process what exactly was going on, a thunderous boom suddenly sounded out once more,
BOOM!!!
Drawing Shizuku's attention back towards the one who saved her, as Ahadt continuously tried to pound them into paste. However as it continued striking them the person above her never even flinched, before Ahadt raised all four of its arms while letting an intense bellow, before the man moved once more at speeds that not even Shizuku could keep up with and a concussion of sound nothing like the previous ones sounded throughout the cavern.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!
The entire tunnel shook as the aftershocks of the impact spread, but what grabbed everyone's attention was the giant hole in the middle of Ahadt's chest. Though Hajime and the woman didn't react to the situation at all and calmly continued what they were doing, everyone else was staring dumbfoundedly as the seemingly unbeatable monster was killed in an instant. The one that was shocked the most however was the demon race woman as she couldn't believe that the specially made monster that her revered superior gave her was killed so easily. While shaking with rage, she decided that even numbers can overwhelm strength and pointed at Alex before ordering,
"KILL HIM!" To the rest of her monsters. All of them focused their complete attention on the man and started rushing forward, only to collapse while foaming at their mouths a second later. The man continued to slowly walk towards the demon race woman, who now seemed paralyzed with fear as the reapers scythe was nearing her neck. She decided to rely on her trump card, and started to quietly chant the lines needed for the high tier earth magic 'Final Prison'. As the man neared her she finished chanting the lines she cried out,
"Final Prison!"
And a cloud of gray smoke seemed to fly from her outstretched hand towards the man when he was less than ten feet away, causing Shizuku to try and warn him. However everyone's expectations were once more betrayed, as the cloud stopped right before the man by what seemed to be an invisible wall.
"What the-" the demon race woman said in surprise, before she realized that the cloud of gray smoke was moving closer as the invisible wall seemed to push it back as well. Panic surged through her heart as she tried to back up away from the smoke, before she hit an invisible wall behind her as well.
"What?! No, NO! LET ME OUT!" She cried in desperation as the smoke closed in on her, but some small part of her wondered where this seemingly impossible barrier came from when a mocking tone sounded behind her and what appeared to be a cat Demihuman with two tails appeared,
"Nyahahaha, looks good doesn't it? Consider this payback for bringing those demon cats~Nyan." It was obvious to those watching how she was offended with her two tails twirling through the air behind her, similar to the demon cats with tentacles. The demon race woman, Cattleya, could only watch as her own attack closed in on her. Though she could hear the idiot hero in the background telling them to save her, neither the man nor the demihuman moved to save her. As the cloud of gray smoke started covering her she said to the man with confidence,
"Whatever happens to me, my fiancé will kill you and all those you care about." The man simply smirked in response to her words, as the intense painful sensation of turning to stone overtook her senses. The last thing Cattleya saw before her vision went dark was what seemed to be white mist within the gray smoke.
***
As the woman cursed him and swore her fiancé would get vengeance, Alex couldn't help wondering 'why enter a war where you might die, if when you do it's taken so personally?' His thoughts were interrupted however when a shout came from behind him,
"Please, turn her back with healing magic! There's no need for anyone to die!" Ignoring the worthless hero's words, Alex walked forward once the smoke dissipated and Kuroka removed the barrier. He then raised his hand and with only his finger flicked the statue of the demon race woman before it shattered. There was complete silence after Alex's act, as even though it wasn't bloody or overly dramatic, that didn't change the fact that they had just witnessed someone dying.
"Why? WHY DID YOU HAVE TO KILL HER?!" Kouki practically shouted, which Alex continued to ignore as he turned towards Kuroka.
"I want you to eliminate all traces of the battle here including the monsters. We need the demon race to think that she died from the lower floors instead of us or the heroes, since it would only cause more issues between the races." Kuroka groaned at all the work he was giving her, but then smiled instead as she drew closer and pressed her breasts against him,
"Alright, but I expect to get rewarded plenty later tonight~Nya." Alex smiled at the thought of "rewarding" her before Kuroka set off to do as he requested. One of his arms was then grabbed and enveloped in softness as Anne clung to him and said,
"I finished healing those who needed it." Alex thanked her for her work, while also noticing how she was oddly seeming quite affectionate in front of others. Anne clung to Alex while occasionally a cold look would drift towards the students from her, as several tried to use supposed injuries as excuses to get close to her, one guy even wanted her to try and treat a wound he had supposedly sustained on his upper thigh directly. Then there was that one petite girl that gazed unashamedly at her cleavage while she treated her. Everyone's gazes were then drawn to the scene of Kaori crying while clinging to Hajime in the background, and unlike in the original series he unhesitatingly wrapped his arms around her to comfort the girl. Shizuku smiled at her friends happiness and most of those around also looked at the scene with contention, with the exception of Hiyama and his gang, and Kouki who seemed torn on what to do before eventually making his way over to Alex. Sensing trouble Shizuku and a few others also made their way over as Kouki got in front of Alex and demanded,
"You had her imprisoned and unable to fight back, why did you kill her?!" Alex sighed as he wasn't looking forward to dealing with the idiot. Shizuku then said,
"Stop Kouki, he just saved our lives so we should be thanking him." Kouki however said as if it was obvious,
"Yes but he killed someone who was unable to resist, and who he could have easily captured with his abilities." Alex sighed and said,
"Listen, cookie was it?"
"It's Kouki." Kouki said with a small amount of irritation. Alex nodded and said,
"Touki?"
"Kouki!"
"Sushi?"
"KOU-KI!"
"Ok ok, Cookie." Ignoring Kouki's continued irritation while Shizuku tried to calm him down, Alex continued,
"Firstly what did you plan to do if she was kept alive, and secondly why should I have to do as you say and live by your standards?" Either ignoring or just flat out not noticing the sarcasm in Alex's words, Kouki said,
"You could have captured her and sent her to jail or something instead of just killing her, and it's just a normal thing to not want someone to die!" Alex shook his head, and decided to try and slap some sense into Kouki.
"If we sent her to jail then a life worse than death would be waiting for her, as she could provide valuable information about the demon race movements and plans. They would do anything and everything to pry the information from her, using torture and various other degrading practices like sending soldiers to bed her to break her spirit, suffering that would even be extended thanks to the healing magic available in this world. Then after they get what they want, they would probably continue the torture just for fun or send her straight to public execution to raise public moral. All of this would in fact make the problems with the demon race worse as she would then become a martyr and example of human cruelty even though they would probably be no different if they captured one of you. So even if I had captured her and handed her over to the soldiers, she probably would have died by their hands eventually anyways, as is the norm in wars. Or did you naively think that she would just be sitting comfortably while imprisoned for the rest of her life, or that she'd be free to go home after the war was over?" At Alex's words a lot of students didn't seem to know how to react to reality that he described, as it never seemed to hit them what being at "war" actually meant. The idiotic bundle of justice however stated,
"I-I'm not naive! And the Knights and the kingdom would never do the things you described, they're good-"
"That's enough Kouki!" Everyone turned towards the new speaker, and saw commander of the Knights Meld sitting where he had just been laying while dying a moment before. He had been used to get to Kouki and the others psychology, and was kept barely alive to do so. Since Hajime felt indebted towards Meld for never discriminating against the useless him, he used some of the god water he had on himself to save his life.
"B-but Meld, he's saying terrible things with no basis about the kingdom and the Knights." Meld shook his head at Kouki's words and said,
"What he described was pretty accurate, after all there would be no mercy for an enemy. It was things like this and killing that made me hesitate to continue your training, as I saw all of your innocence and regretted that we had selfishly involved you in our wars. Please, I am sorry!" Even while injured, Meld tried to prostrate towards the students who were forced to endure some hardships because of their selfishness and his own negligence. Many of the students, Kouki included, tried to get Meld to raise his head and stop apologizing as they didn't blame him for anything. Once they were done Meld then focused his attention on Alex and said,
"Thank you for saving our lives, would you please honor me with your name?" Alex nodded, and introduced himself and the two girls,
"This is Anne and Kuroka, and I'm the champion of the goddess Gabriel, Alex." Meld didn't seem to know how to react to Alex saying he was a champion of a goddess he had never heard of, but settled with,
"It is a genuine pleasure to meet you. I'd hate to ask, but would you be so kind as to lead us out, then I would like a chance to sit down and drink with you." Alex nodded and replied,
"Of course, we're only staying in town tonight though so we'll have to do our drinking then." Meld nodded but want sure how Alex planned to leave from the 89th floor so quickly. His unasked question was quickly answered however when Kuroka returned to Alex's side and said,
"All done~Nyan. So to the surface now right?" Alex however shook his head and said,
"To the tenth floor, it would look too suspicious if we took such a large group out of the labyrinth with no one seeing us." Kuroka nodded at Alex's words, and before anyone could ask what they were talking about, a large magic circle spread from under Kuroka's feet that grew to envelope all of them before everyone disappeared in a flash of light. The moment they vanished however the illusionary shattered fragments of the demon race woman's statue flickered out of existence.