After two days/months of preparing and training it was time for everyone to move towards the castle. Currently they were mostly gathered in one of the rooms of the Misty Manor while waiting for Alex to return from his own training, and discussing what they had been doing for the last two months. Rias was visiting with Akeno and Sona after so long apart from them, and was pointedly looking away from Yue who was also trying to avoid catching Serafall's eye. The two of them were put in a room together until Grayfia finished her duties and joined them, and so the majority of the first half of their training had consisted of the two of them trying to kill each other with their magic. When Grayfia was able to join them she immediately knocked some sense into both of them and took over their training to ensure they actually had some results.
Meanwhile Shia, Kuroka, and Tio were also training with each other, with the priority being trying to train Shia's berserk mode. Though everyone looked at Alex strangely when he mentioned it, he then clarified that he wanted Shia to be able to control when she went into her berserk mode instead of having it activate automatically whenever a fight lasted more than a couple minutes. This was why she had been partnered with Kuroka who would be able to calm Shia down after going berserk, and Tio who would function as Shia's punching bag when she did. It was also due to this that Tio's defensive abilities took a steep incline as she was beaten up by a berserker bunny everyday, a job she practically begged for. Anne, Asia, Valerie, and Gasper were all also training together as they practiced using Regeneration magic by breaking objects and repairing them, while Anne also decided to use this time to fine tune her telekinesis by putting the pieces of what she broke together with it before repairing them.
As for everyone else, Kaori was clinging to Hajime after being separated from him for two months, while he was also trying to dodge the overly enthusiastic Serafall who was excited from meeting the inspiration for 'Red Thunder Destroyer'. Meld was waiting by Liliana who was still talking excitedly with Ingvild about everything she had seen during the two days she was shown around Asora. She couldn't believe all the amazing ways they used magic as well as the various technologies they employed for day to day uses, and wondered if it'd be possible to apply such things in Tortus. One of the things she seemed the most taken with though was idols and the music industry in general, which was what she was currently talking about. Off to the side by herself however was Shizuku who was thinking about what she may have to do later. She had talked at length with Alex about what to do regarding the hero party, and told him that she wanted to be the one to help them. She had decided that they couldn't rely on Alex for everything and so it should be one of them that helped this time, a thought that led her to make a big decision regarding herself. Her determination was unshaken even when Alex used the situation regarding Hajime's "death" to point out that there may be traitors amongst her class, something she didn't want to think about but acknowledged as a real possibility. As Shizuku was thinking to herself the door opened and the person they were waiting for finally walked through.
"Hey, well who's ready?" Alex asked dispiritedly, which made everyone look at him with concern. Before they could ask however Nyx followed him into the room and explained,
"Don't mind him, he's disappointed since his training wasn't as fruitful as he hoped it would be." As he sat down she then automatically moved behind him and started rubbing his shoulders as if to relax him, which earned her a lot of weird looks from those around them. She then stopped what she doing hurriedly since she forgot they weren't alone in the training room anymore, and tried to play it off nonchalantly. Though Nyx would never admit it, she had started seeing Alex in a new light after witnessing how much he pushed himself during his training, and started to occasionally do little things to make him more comfortable. When he asked about it she tried to pretend she was doing it against her will, and that her slave mark was forcing to do such things for her horrible master. As for Alex himself, he was disappointed since trying to incorporate Regeneration magic into his training was harder than he thought, and he was unable to reach ssj2. It took him an entire month to properly work his Regeneration magic, since at first when he used it would actually undo all the progress he made in his workouts due to the fact that it reversed the time of his body itself. As everyone continued looking at Nyx weirdly she tried to back away, before Kuroka suddenly disappeared from her seat on the couch next to Koneko and appeared right behind her.
"What are you doing?!" Nyx demanded as Kuroka sniffed her, before disappearing once more and doing the same thing to Alex. After doing so she then declared,
"It's ok~Nya, their smells aren't on each other!" At her confirmation all the women let out sighs of relief as they confirmed that Nyx and Alex hadn't slept with each other yet. Rias and Akeno then stood up and made their way to Alex before they pressed against from each side and said,
"Don't worry, after we're done with this we'll comfort you lots tonight~." Alex looked up at Rias's words and smiled before he wrapped his arms around her and Akeno and pulled them close. He then said,
"I'll hold you to that, now then let's go!" Everyone else nodded as they followed him out to first meet with Aiko.
***
Kouki was standing guard at the entrance of the castle as he scanned the grounds carefully, watching for any signs of Alex and those with him while Ryutarou, Suzu, and Eri accompanied him. They had long since heard about how they'd move that night against the king and the nobles, and that their teacher had been reported to have been seen in the city announcing it to everyone. Now more than ever he wanted to put Alex down as it was discovered that his reach didn't just end at Aiko, but he even managed to control Meld as well, who had been seen as a reliable big brother to everyone since they arrived in this strange world. This feeling only grew when it was discovered that they also kidnapped the princess for him, someone that most of them had also grown somewhat close to. Thinking of all the women suffering thanks to him Kouki was intending to save each and every one, and that sentiment especially extended to Kaori and Shizuku. As he continued waiting for Alex to show up they heard someone running up behind them, so Kouki turned towards them to find a knight they knew.
"Lord hero, the champion of the false goddess has appeared, he's already in the throne room attacking the king!" Kouki paled as he immediately took off towards the throne room with everyone racing behind him, his mind also racing as he tried to figure out how Alex slipped past them. He wasn't the only one standing guard as everyone wanted to get back at the person who brainwashed their teacher, and so they were standing guard at every entrance to the castle in order to catch them, and Kouki especially had prepared for this fight as he trained so hard he even unlocked a new ability. As they reached the throne room however they were confused as they found the king calmly standing there with the nobles and their classmates who had already arrived, meanwhile Alex and his group nowhere to be found. Seeing at there were no enemies Kouki demanded,
"Your majesty, wheres Alex? We were told he was attacking you?" The king was strangely calm however and said,
"Of course we're preparing for his arrival, but there's something we need to do first." As the king spoke he held up an item and continued,
"Behold, light the way to the slaughter!" At the unusual words the item the king held up suddenly lit up and blinded everyone, before a sharp pain exploded from their backs as they were all stabbed by the gathered nobles and the hidden assassins.
"GAAAHHHHH!" Kouki and everyone else cried out as they fell to the ground and were pinned by the ones who stabbed them. The king stood still and calmly watched as the summoned heroes were attacked, alongside a certain someone. When Kouki looked up from where he was being pinned down he looked towards them and cried out,
"Eri, hurry and run before they get you too!" Eri however just stood there with a smirk on her face, before a sound escaped her lips.
"fufufufufu, AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Finally Kouki is all mine~ !" Hearing those words coming from the calm and kind Eri, everyone looked up towards her in confusion from their position on the floor, while she simply sneered down at them. She then stepped forward and wrapped a slave collar around Kouki's neck before planting her lips against his in a kiss while he was still stunned at her actions. Her beloved first kiss was then interrupted when a voice demanded,
"What are you doing Eri?!" This caused her to break off the kiss and turn towards the speaker, Yuuka Sonobe, before saying as if it was natural,
"I'm only taking what belongs to me while throwing out the trash, honestly there was so much trash around my Kouki that it was nauseating. Now that we're in the other world though I could finally get rid of it, and Kouki and I could live here together forever~." Everyone was dumbfounded at Eri's change as none of them could picture the quiet girl who loved books being like this, but Kouki cried out,
"Eri, this isn't you! You must have been brainwashed by that bastard Alex, please remember you're our friend and precious comrade!" As Kouki tried desperately to escape reality Eri laughed once more before saying,
"On my wonderful, stupidly dumb Kouki. This is me, I just decided to stop playing pretend! And by the way I have to thank you Suzu, it was only because I was playing as your friend that I could be around my Kouki so much." Suzu looked heartbroken at how her friend was speaking to her and cried out,
"Was all of this just for Kouki? Couldn't you just confess or something Eririn?!" Eri laughed insanely once more before stating like it was obvious,
"Of course not stu~pid, Kouki would never think of someone as being "special", so I needed to take out the trash around him. I managed to use my specialty Necromancy to basically implant a fake soul into bodies that have just died, so I planned to turn you all into my wonderful puppets while I spend the rest of my life with my new Kouki! But then a silver haired person approached me while I started working in the castle, and they said that if I turned the hero party against a certain someone then they'll give me whatever I wanted~! Apparently they planned to use Ai-chan to make everyone listen to them, but then she had to do something stupid like escaping; so when they saw me turning the people in the castle into my puppets, they asked me to do the same to all of you as well~."
"Eririn..." Suzu said said her friends nickname dispiritedly, which cause Eri to focus her attention on her and say,
"Well I suppose I should thank you for being a good tool for me, I'll let you go first so that you don't have to watch me kill everyone else~." As Eri said that the knight holding Suzu down pulled the blade out of her back and flipped her over so that she was facing up, before aiming the blade at her once more except this time at her heart.
"NOOOOOO!" Kouki cried out as the blade started defending towards one of his friends hearts, but it never connected.
SWISH
SLASH
A certain figure had appeared in the throne room, which shocked everyone present as they looked at the familiar ponytail. Meanwhile the man that was about to stab Suzu suddenly fell appeared into pieces, while the parts that were cut had blackish flames that swiftly turned them into ash. Everyone was silent in further dumbfoundment as the figure turned towards Eri.
"He told me that there might be a person or two among the class that are traitors, but to think it would be you, Eri." Shizuku said as she turned her blade towards one of her closest friends.