Chapter 13 - Chapter 8 - If You Want Peace, Prepare for War

Synergist, Asher Guren

After a few hours, Tetsu and I had decided that this upcoming battle is more pressing than getting Lily home to her mom.

Therefore, instead of stopping into Arisen to search for her mother, we headed straight for Avalon, of course, we radioed ahead that we'll be bringing guest, but that, of course, made Will, furious at us once more.

That was understandable, we crushed a gang on my day off, and we accidentally saved a child, then we found the Rocheforte Kingdom Princess on the way.

Tell me all that was just coincidences.

As soon as we touched down the ground, we ran for the briefing room, Will and Bella are already waiting there.

All other squads were also recalled back to base for the war council.

"This is the first princess of the Rocheforte Kingdom, Aria B. Rocheforte. According to her, the 2nd angel is looming in the capital."

Bella stepped up with her tablet in hand and read some reports.

"According to the reconnaissance of the Third Squad, there are rising Houkai energy levels in the capital, the Devils are also gathering a large force in the north"

"It is very likely that they are working with the Angel, so, our priority is to protect the civilians in the battle, evacuate them, then exterminate the army and the Angel. The operation will start at 19:00"

"Yessir!"

All of the squads were battle ready, Tetsu and I were left in the war room, along with Aria and Nishimiya.

"Ash, I'm giving you permission to use the Keys again, you aren't fully recovered yet, but we'll need every strength we could get our hand on"

I nodded at him, Tetsu had already the Key of Frost which he named Cocytus.

Having finished the meeting, there's one place that I really want to visit before this whole battle start.

Lily still refused to leave my side and has been calling me daddy all the way.

The hospital was in the third district, with my efforts, after one year, we've been able to set up a pretty much decent hospital fit with modern equipment.

On a certain room, laying on the bed as if she was peacefully sleeping, her silver hair spread out of the bed, I wished a kiss could just wake her up like in the fairy tale, but unfortunately, reality isn't so kind.

For about two months, she'd been sleeping here unmoving, it's not as if she was dying no, Dr. Kayla said that she's in a dream state, her mind was locked out somewhere where she's constantly dreaming.

I grabbed the nearest chair and sat next to the bed.

I grabbed her hand quietly; Lily was by my side and seemed to be wondering who Cecilia was.

"Lily… this is Cecilia, she's my… she's my very precious friend"

"She's not your lover?"

EH!? H-how does she even know what that is!? Is that even okay for a child to know?

"W-Well, not yet… but, once she wakes up, yeah"

"Why won't she wake up?"

"Something happened… I'll tell you the story when she wakes up okay…"

After a while, Lily stopped her questioning, I stared back at Cecilia, I don't want to say goodbye to her or anything, it'll jinx us, it'd be dangerous.

"I'll beat that Angel and wake you up okay, Cecilia"

After my visit, just as Lily and I were out of the hospital, I saw Nishimiya standing there waiting for us.

"Guren… No, Asher-kun… can we talk for a bit"

Bella picked up Lily from the hospital, I was left with Nishimiya who said she wanted to talk, for some reason, she started calling me in my first name.

Without saying a word, I headed for the southern part of the island where the park was, overlooking the lighting city down below, on the west the sun slowly sets, it's only about a few hours till the operation begins. And yet Nishimiya wanted to talked to me.

I sat down on the bench, just a bit of space, Nishimiya did too. For a few minutes, I just stared at the sea and the Arisen city in the distance.

"…This is pretty nostalgic," Nishimiya said.

For her, yeah, she didn't experience this kind of thing for a year, the exposure with modern technology in this world probably brought back some memories to her.

"It feels like I'm back in Japan…" Her eyes soften as she made a small smile. "I couldn't believe my eyes when I first saw you back in the castle… I thought I was mistaken because you had changed a lot, outside, you were barely recognizable, but my heart was telling me, it was you…"

She started recounting some memories of her experiences in the Capital and the Labyrinth.

After I was chased out, during my rebellious and hatred phase, she actually wanted to follow me out of the castle and confirm my story, but the others stopped her. That's natural, who'd want their goddess Kaede gone off with a man accused of rape, right?

Like Tetsu, she held a grudge against our classmates for not listening to my explanation, but she still interacted with them like normal unlike Tetsu who completely cut them off.

Many times, she wanted to chase after me, but Murasame was looking after her, so, she made a promise that after they cleared the Scarlet Labyrinth, she'll set off on a journey to find me.

But that didn't happen because I suddenly showed up in the celebration party, completely different, then later that night, she actually recognized me.

She set out a week after, trying to find me around the continent. Then, here she is…

"So… aside from that story, what is it you really want to tell me?"

She looked down bashfully, "Actually, I… no… I'll tell you after this is all over"

"Hey, if you have something to say, say it now, it will raise my chances of getting killed with that kind of stuff left unsaid!"

She looked at me in surprise, it was probably unexpected, but it often happens, when you say: "after all this is over, I'll definitely marry her" then ultimately ends up getting killed first.

She stood up and looked at me.

"Actually, you know what? Just forget about it, I just want to tell some of my experiences" then she left.

Will that count? I don't know if that would actually count as not a jinx.

Well, whatever, I'll just do, to the best of my ability not to get killed off.

I stood up and looked at the City below once more. I was almost time for the mission, and I should be heading back. Before I turned, I heard heavy footsteps heading to my direction, it had to be Murasame, she might have changed her mind.

"What, did you change your mind and finally tell me-"

"I love you!" She said so in a straight face as she stared at me.

"Huh?"

It took me a minute to actually processed what she just said…

EHHHHH!!!???

"EHH!? W-What!?"

"I'm not asking for a reply." She said. Despite her straight face, I noticed a slight blush on her face, it must be taking her all just to keep her straight face.

This girl, Kaede Murasame, the goddess of my school, the beauty of my class that everyone looks up to, had confessed to me!

This is beyond messed up! Not only am I unpopular back then, I'm also a loser! Just what was she attracted to me? My face? My hair? My muscle!? No, that's bullshit! Even back then I'm completely normal, and in this world, I've barely spent my time with her.

Sure, she'd speak to me from time to time, but that was then on japan, I've changed since then what, no, that's not the question, Why me of all people!?

"There's always that one person who'd love someone different," She said "one girl that would love a guy like you"

She walked near me, in panic, I leaned back on the railings, up close, I could see that she was really blushing.

"Well, that's me, too bad, huh?"

"…!"

AH!!! My minds going blank! My super brain that had created thousands and thousands of technologies is shutting down completely!!

I can't think!

Wait! If I don't answer her, here and now, I'll be jinxed, I need to answer her truthfully.

Honestly, I was happy to have such a beautiful and kind girl like Nishimiya confess to me. If only this was just like light novels, in games. Like a harem manga.

"…Sorry, Nishimiya, I'm grateful that you have those kind of feeling for me, but my hearts already set on someone else. I hope you forgive me, but I'm not so thick-skinned to actually say that "I love you" just to make you happy."

Unfortunately, that isn't the kind of reality I'm in, polygamy isn't a standard here, but I'm not exactly planning on staying at this world.

I just wished that there was some ending that everyone would be happy, but that was only a wish, reality isn't that kind, someone's bound to be hurt by something.

Nishimiya closed her and looked down, then silently hugged me.

"…please… just let me stay like this for a while…"

Soon enough, I could feel her tears in my shirt, those tears hurt more than any of the attacks that I've received from people and monsters alike. It's ripping my heart to shreds.

I wonder how long we've stayed in silence as the sunset disappeared into the sky.

"…Thank you, for answering me honestly… sorry for all the trouble"

While saying that, Nishimiya peeled herself away from me and smiled with relief. It was the familiar kind smile that she'd show me.

"…I'll be going first, Asher-kun, see you later…"

As if her worries have dissipated, Nishimiya brushed her forelocks aside and walked away gracefully.

Seeing her disappeared out of the park, I looked over the sky with a question.

"What the hell am I doing…?"

Teacher, Rika Akiyama

A few rays of Moonlight shone in through the barred window, lighting an otherwise dark cell. The stark contrast between the white light and the dark room was striking.

The furnishings in the room were rather spartan. The floor was made of metal, and there was only a single wooden pallet, a tiny desk, and a squat toilet. Frankly, prisons back on earth were more comfortable than this cell.

Rika leaned back against the wall, huddled up in a corner of the bed with her face buried in her knees.

Three days had passed since she'd been imprisoned here. Thanks to the bracelet strapped to her wrist, she couldn't use any magic.

At first, she'd tried all she could to escape. But even cutting herself and drawing a magic circle with her blood hadn't allowed her to cast magic. And naturally she wasn't physically strong enough to break the bars of her cell. Nor had she been able to slip past the silver-haired nun who came to bring her food. The nun was far stronger than her and had easily been able to overpower Rika.

The bars over her window prevented her from escaping through there. The most she could do was get one arm through.

Though even if there hadn't been any bars over her window, she wouldn't have been able to escape. Her cell was at the top of a tower on the summit of the Divine Mountain. It was unlikely she could reach the ground without dying, and even if she could, the mountain was crawling with priests. Avoiding all of them and making it back to the capital was an impossible task.

In the end, Rika had been reduced to huddling in a corner of her cell. Though she was worried about her students, there was nothing she could do for them.

"What are they trying to do to my students... What's happening..." As Rika mumbled that to herself, she thought back to what the nun had said before kidnapping her.

Apparently, the nun's master would have found it inconvenient if Rika had told her students what she'd learned from Asher. The nun had wanted one of the students' plans to continue unhindered.

Worry and despair swirled around inside her mind. Rika thought back to the boy who'd died in Mizushima, Riku Yukitoshi. She worried that another one of her students might be trying to do something they could never take back, and she couldn't help agonizing over it.

Stuck alone in this prison, she had plenty of time to think. The more she pondered over recent events, the more she realized that there had been something wrong inside the palace when she'd returned. Adamos and the other leaders of the kingdom had been acting strangely fanatical when she'd gone to see them.

That blue-haired nun must have done something to them. If the strange spell she'd cast on Rika had really been some kind of mind control technique, then it stood to reason that the king and his retainers had been brainwashed.

However, neither Mei nor Aria had been acting out of the ordinary. Still, there was no telling what might have happened to them in the time since she'd been captured though.

As she prayed for their safety, Rika remembered one other thing the nun had said.

She'd said that she needed to eliminate the "irregulars."

That word brought to mind specific students of hers. The boys who'd saved her life. Despite being so strong-willed, he'd still seriously considered the advice she'd given him.

She was worried for his safety, but she also really wanted to meet them again.

"Guren-kun, Akagi-kun…"

"Yeah? What's up, Sensei?"

"Wha!?" Rika couldn't believe her ears. There was no way Tetsurou would be here right now.

She glanced around her room, but saw no one, then tilted her head. Am I hearing things?

It wasn't just her imagination, though. Tetsurou called out to her again.

"Up here, Sensei."

"Huh?" I'm not just hearing things! Rika looked up at the window.

Tetsurou was poking his face between the bars.

"Huh? What? Akagi-kun? How? This is the top floor... on the summit... Huh?"

"Yeah, I know. Just calm down, Sensei. I need to make sure there aren't any traps here..." Tetsurou swept his gaze across the room, confirming the space was clear. There was a flurry of red sparks, the wall froze and suddenly a hole appeared in Rika's wall that was wide enough to let a person through.

Rika's room was at least 100 meters from the ground. And yet, Tetsurou just waltzed into the room as if the ground extended past Rika's walls.

Tetsurou smiled as he saw the shock on Rika's face.

"Why do you look so surprised? I thought I was doing a pretty good job of hiding my presence, but it sounded like you knew I was already here... Made me lose confidence in myself, honestly."

"Huh? I did? How?"

"I mean, you called my name, didn't you? Wasn't that because you knew I was here?"

Naturally Rika had known no such thing, and had only muttered his name because she'd been thinking of him. Not that she could tell Tetsurou that. And so, she hurriedly tried to change the topic.

"A-Anyway, why are you here..."

"To save you, of course."

"You came all the way here just to save me? Really?"

Tetsurou raised an eyebrow. Her odd actions made him wonder if she hadn't already been brainwashed. He walked up to her and checked for signs of brainwashing, but it seems that wasn't the case.

Rika blushed and her heart began to beat faster. The boy she'd been thinking about had happened to come save her just when she was hoping for him to, and now he was standing next to her bed staring intently at her.

If they'd had a simple teacher-student relationship, Rika would have simply asked him what was wrong. But they didn't, so she found she could do nothing more than stare back at him.

He took her by the hand and examined her bracelet. It seemed he wanted to remove the artifact that was sealing her mana. But that wasn't what Rika saw it as. She squealed and said some rather scandalous words.

"We can't, Akagi-kun! This is too sudden! And I'm your teacher!"

"What were you thinking Ri-chan? I'm gonna freeze and break the chain"

"Huh? Oh, that's what you were doing..."

"What did you think I was doing?"

"Ahahahaha... I'm sorry. It's nothing..."

Tetsurou stared quizzically at Rika, who tried to play it off with a laugh. She once again changed the subject, asking how Tetsurou had known she'd been captured.

"The princess told us."

"By the princess, do you mean Aria?"

"Yeah. Apparently, she saw you get taken. She couldn't tell Atsushi or the others because she was worried, they were under surveillance, so she slipped out of the castle to try and find us."

"So, it was Aria-san... You agreed to help her?"

"I guess. This is partly Asher's fault, after all. Plus, we're here to get revenge on that Angel" Tetsurou smiled awkwardly, then shattered the bracelet sealing Rika's mana and stood up.

"Anyway, let's get out of here. Asher, Kaede and the princess should be with Atsushi and the others right now. We'll decide what to do next after we've all met up."

"Eh? Guren-kun? In the capital?"

"Yeah, well, it was one of the objectives of our mission."

"Very well. Be careful, Akagi-kun. The holy church branded you a heretic. And it's possible the person who kidnapped me is…"

"I know. There's some stuff I need to do here once I get you to safety, so I'll probably end up fighting them sooner or later. I came here knowing that." Tetsurou nodded; his ironclad resolve evident in his gaze.

There was one other thing she needed to warn Tetsurou about. Before she could though, they both heard a loud crash in the distance. The air shook.

Rika stiffened and looked up at Asher. He looked into the distance; his gaze fixed on a certain point. He guessed that the commotion had come from the ground, and got a report from the communicator.

"As expected, huh?"

She demanded an explanation with her gaze.

"Sensei, the devils have attacked. That noise was the sound of the capital's barrier being destroyed."

"Devils are attacking!? Doesn't that mean..."

"Yeah, Rocheforte is under siege. My comrades told me through communicators. They've got a huge army of monsters with them too. They caught the human army totally by surprise."

"Impossible." Rika paled and shook her head.

Her shock was understandable. It should have been impossible for the devils to bring an army capable of invading the capital this close to the city without anyone noticing. Moreover, the barrier guarding the capital was nigh invincible. It was unthinkable that the devils had not only shattered the barrier, but had also done it without being spotted.

"The Force is already intercepting them, for now we need to get you to the west forest, we've set up the base camp there"

"O-Okay."

Tetsurou scooped Rika up into his arms and prepared to jump. She squealed and threw her arms around his neck. However, just then, a blinding light rained down from above.

"Ah!?" It resembled moonlight, just more intense. Tetsurou's instincts told him it was dangerous though, and he heeded their warning. Without even a backward glance, he leaped through the hole he'd made. He heard Rika shriek and cling even tighter to him, but there wasn't any time to spare for her.

A second after he leaped out of Rika's cell, the silver light blew it to pieces.

The light made a strange noise as it slammed into the stone wall. It wasn't the sound of a physical object slamming into rock, nor was it the distinctive hiss of heat melting stone. No, it sounded as if the light had simply dismantled the component parts of the wall. The top of the imposing tower blew away in the wind, its stone turned into particles finer than sand.

Tetsurou steadied himself in the air with Icarus and muttered to himself.

"Was the tower... disintegrated?"

"Correct, Irregular." Though he hadn't been expecting an answer, he got one anyway. The girl who answered him had a voice as pure as a bell's peal, but it was utterly devoid of emotion.

Tetsurou looked up and saw a blue-haired, golden-eyed girl gazing down at him. She was floating above what had been the tower's summit. Her appearance matched the description Aria had given of the nun who'd kidnapped Rika.

She wasn't wearing a nun's habit, though. Instead, there was a helmet on her head, gauntlets on her arms, and greaves over her legs. Over her torso, she wore nothing but a white sleeveless dress.

There were, however, metal plates covering both sides of her waist. Though it was a bit odd, it was clearly a combat uniform. She resembled one of the Valkyries from Norse mythology.

She soared into the sky, as if gravity had no hold over her. With the moon framing her silhouette, she turned to face Tetsurou, a pair of glimmering silver wings unfurling from her back.

The way they shimmered made it look like they were made entirely of Houkai energy.

Her glorious blue hair fluttered in the breeze. There was a mysterious, otherworldly beauty to her. Unfortunately, her eyes ruined her good looks.

While everything else about her shone like the moon, her eyes were as cold as ice. There was not even a trace of hatred in them. Only a mechanical, emotionless frigidity. It was as if she was just a doll.

The girl met Tetsurou's sharp gaze and spread her arms wide. Her gauntlets shimmered, and a pair of large, hiltless swords appeared in her hands.

The two-meter longswords glimmered with the same silvery light as the rest of her. She swung them as if they were weightless, and addressed Tetsurou in an emotionless voice.

"I am Rasiel. An Angel of god. My duty is to remove unwanted game pieces from my lord's game board."

A clear declaration of war.

The girl standing before Tetsurou was a true Angel, sent directly by Ouranos himself. So those so-called gods finally decided to get in my way? He'd ruined too much of their fun, so now they were going to eliminate him.

The air began to tremble as Rasiel gathered her Houkai Energy.

Eventually, a wave of pressure crashed down on Tetsurou and Rika like a waterfall. Rika grit her teeth and tried to withstand it, but she was as white as a sheet. The pressure was too much for her. However, just before she fell unconscious, she was surrounded in a veil of frosty wind. Tetsurou's Cocytus blocked the wave of pressure Rasiel exuded.

Rika's eyes snapped open and she looked up at Tetsurou. Despite the overwhelming pressure, he didn't seem the least bit cowed. On the contrary, there was a murderous glint in his eyes, and a fearless grin on his face.

Tetsurou stared Rasiel down and boldly declared his thoughts.

"There you are Angel, you're gonna pay for what you did to our Cecilia!" Eight thousand meters in the air, far above the skies of the Divine Mountain, Angel of Houkai and the shield master of the Guardian Force clashed.

Swordsman, Mei Murasame

"Huh!? What's going on!?" Mei jolted awake as she heard the sound of shattering glass. She threw off her sheets, grabbed her sword, and jumped to her feet. Her instantaneous reaction made it clear that she was always on guard, even when she slept.

"....." Mei tensed up and held her breath, ready for an attack. Only after she had ascertained there was no one else in her room did she allow herself to relax.

She had been even more vigilant than usual these past few days. People had started vanishing mysteriously from the palace.

The disappearances had begun a few weeks after the battle of Mizushima.

Mei had been worried about them since day one. She couldn't tell what exactly was wrong, but her sixth sense had told her that something wasn't right.

At first, she had just chalked it up to stress. Her best friend wasn't by her side anymore, the demons were far stronger than they had expected, and everyone was struggling with the problem of whether or not they could really kill. It was possible she was just on edge.

But eventually she realized her senses weren't deceiving her. Something was definitely wrong.

It wasn't until today until she had proof though.

Three days ago, Rika had returned and told Mei that she'd had something important to tell everyone that night. Right after that, she had disappeared. Dinner came and went, and she was nowhere to be found.

Furthermore, Aria and Kaede vanished that same day. The palace guards and servants were panicking.

Three people Mei knew well had vanished without a trace. Rin and the rest of Ri-chan's guard squad started searching frantically for them. Hayato and the others helped out, of course.

It was then that Bishop had shown up and told them that Rika had gone up to the Divine Mountain to make their argument against Asher and Tetsurou being declared heretics.

Naturally, Mei and the others had demanded the Bishop let them join her, but he'd refused. The lift heading to the main cathedral at the top of the mountain wasn't working, and there was no other way to the temple.

They took their complaints to King Adamos, but he simply told them that Rika would return in three days and that they should just wait. Reluctantly, the students backed down.

Mei's worries continued to grow. She still had no proof that anything was happening, but she was certain something bad was. Worse, Captain Noel had vanished too, so she couldn't ask him for advice either.

Three days. If we just sit tight for three days... Three days had passed, and the morning of the invasion dawned.

Neither Rika, Aria nor Kaede returned.

Bishop and the other priests had vanished as well. Not only that, the guards they'd assigned Rika, Arthur and his squad, had disappeared too. The lift to the main cathedral still wasn't working.

Both the king and the prime minister refused to meet with the students.

In another day, it would be four days since Rika, Aria and Kaede disappeared.

However, it seemed only Rin and Mei were worried about that.

Though Hayato did think it was odd Rika hadn't returned, he couldn't fathom that something dangerous might be going on within the palace itself. He thought the discussion about Asher and Tetsurou's heresy was just dragging on.

Mei could tell Hayato's conflicted feelings regarding the two were clouding his judgment. Moreover, his mind was too preoccupied with thoughts of Kaede, and whether or not he could really kill, to think about much else.

Since most of the other students still looked up to him, the fact that he wasn't worried about Rika was enough to reassure them that they didn't need to be either. If he said she was okay, she was okay.

So, Mei had decided to consult Rin and her friends. They were the only other students who shared her sense of unease.

They decided that if Rika didn't return by tonight, they'd scale the mountain, lift or no lift.

After finishing her preparations for tomorrow's climb, Mei had climbed into bed fully alert. Rika hadn't returned, and she was growing suspicious of everyone in the castle. Which brings us back to the present.

Mei silently put on her equipment and slipped out of her room.

She silently cursed as her door made a slight squeaking noise when she pushed it open.

Looking down the hallway, Shizuku noticed that Rin, Ranko, and Airi were standing outside their rooms as well. They were standing stock still, timidly examining their surroundings.

"Ah, Meicchi!" Airi spotted Mei and called out to her without thinking. Mei instantly put one hand on her sword. Rin and Ranko bopped Airi on the head, furiously whispering "Idiot, what if that was an intruder!?" "Don't be so careless, idiot!"

Airi apologized tearfully, while Mei waved her hand to let them know the coast was clear.

Rin and the others stepped into the hallway while Mei jogged over to Hayato's room and knocked.

The door swung open immediately. Hayato was standing there, fully dressed. Behind him, Ryu was in the process of getting up. It seemed the sound had woken them as well.

Mei sighed, and looked at Hayato with a pained expression.

"Hayato, you really need to be more careful. Don't just open the door for anyone who knocks... Look, you should at least make sure the person on the other side is a friend. What if I'd been an enemy?"

"But we're in the palace. Why would there be enemies here?"

Hayato tilted his head in confusion. Though he'd heard the noise earlier as well, he still seemed to believe the palace was completely safe.

Judging from his bleary eyes, he wasn't fully awake yet either.

"Well something's not right, so stay on your guard." Ryu called out from behind Hayato. "Alright, alright. But I think you're just overthinking things, Mei." Neither of them made any move to get ready.

"Anyway, Mei. What was that noise just now? It sounded like something shattering..."

"I'm not sure. I'll go wake the others up and see if anyone knows anything. I have a bad feeling about this..."

Mei turned back to Rin. Rin nodded and she and her friends split up to wake the others.

Unsurprisingly, those who were constantly fighting on the front lines were already up and ready. Gorou Nagayama, Kentaro Nimura, Kyousuke Sendou, Ayako Tsuji, Mao Yoshino, Daichi Hayama, Rei Kondou, Shido Nakano, and Yoshi Satou answered Shizuku's summons immediately.

The rest of Rika's bodyguard squad was out before Mei even got to their rooms.

Sadly, the rest of the students weren't so prepared. Those who hadn't fought in months were extremely slow to respond, and some were still asleep. Mei had to beat a few of them awake. Others, she had to coax out of their rooms because they'd heard the noise and were too scared to come out.

"I'm sorry for waking you up in the middle of the night, guys. But most of you guys heard that noise, right? It should be safe inside the palace, but I think we should go see what's going on still. It might be dangerous, so let's all go together." Hayato's words breathed life into the students, and those who were still half-asleep finally woke up.

They all nodded nervously, wondering what could possibly have happened while they were sleeping.

Just then, footsteps approached the group from the end of the hallway.

The students all turned around and saw Nia, Mei's personal maid, running toward them. The one who'd reprimanded the other students earlier for relying too much on Mei.

"Nia!"

"Mei-sama..."

Nia's tone was forlorn.

It was surprising to see her so openly depressed. Nia was from a family of knights, and she was normally much calmer and more composed, like Mei.

Mei opened her mouth to ask what was wrong, but before she could say anything, the words spilled from Nia's mouth.

"The barrier's first layer has been destroyed."

"Wh-What!?"

The reason for her unusual solemnity quickly became clear.

"The demons have launched an assault. They have an army outside the gates, and they've already broken the first barrier."

"How did they..."

Nia's report was so shocking that even Mei couldn't remain calm.

The other students broke out into an uproar.

All of them had believed the demons would never make it as far as the capital. It lay on the northern tip of the continent. Everyone had assumed the demons would need to conquer all of the other human cities and forts before they could assault the capital.

And even if they did reach the capital, the students had believed the barrier would hold. After all, it hadn't been breached in centuries.

Their shocked reaction was only natural.

"Nia. There's a total of three barriers protecting the capital, right?" Hayato asked with a grim expression.

There was a total of three barriers, with each successive one being smaller and sturdier than the last.

"That is correct, Hayato-sama. The demons destroyed the outermost layer with a single attack. It's only a matter of time before they break through the rest..." Hayato nodded and considered his options. After a few moments of deliberation, he decided to strike.

"We'll go out and try to buy some time. In the meantime, evacuate all the residents. If we can just hold out long enough for the soldiers and knights to get into formation..." Only a few students looked like they agreed with Hayato's proposal; just the other front-liners and Rika's guards.

The others looked away, ashamed. They had long since lost the will to fight. Their spirits had been crushed that day in the Scarlet Labyrinth.

Even if it was just a defensive battle to buy time, they didn't have the confidence to face an entire army.

Hayato realized he couldn't force them and closed his eyes in resignation. We'll just have to do what we can with the few people we have. Before he could say as much though, Shizuku interjected.

"Wait, Hayato-kun. Rather than rushing out without preparation, I think we should find Noel-san and his knights first."

"Shizuku... But..." Shizuku turned from Hayato to Nia.

"Nia-san. You said they had an army, but... do you know their exact numbers?"

"I'm not sure, but it looked to be around one hundred thousand strong."

Everyone gulped. This was no small raid. This was a full-scale invasion.

"Hayato-kun. There's no way we can take an army that large on our own. We need to get more people first. We're the strongest resource the humans have, we can't just waste ourselves recklessly. Which is why I'm thinking it would be smarter to find Noel-san first." Though she spoke softly, her words were resolute. She was still a member of the hero party, after all. Moreover, her suggestion was logical.

"Yeah, I agree with Shizurin. That's the smart thing to do. I knew those glasses weren't just for show!"

"G-Glasses don't automatically make people smart, Haru."

"Fufu. I agree with Shizuku as well. It seems she was the only one thinking rationally among us. What do you say, Hayato?"

Hayato hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he gave in. Like the rest of the party, he trusted Shizuku's rational judgment.

"You're right. It's especially in times like these that we need to stay calm. Let's link up with Noel-san and his knights first." Nagayama, Hayama, and Rin all agreed with that assessment as well. And thus, the search for Captain Noel began.

First, they headed for the staging area where they figured the knights would be.

In their haste, no one noticed that one among their party was grinning evilly.

There were plenty of soldiers and knights gathered at the training grounds when Hayato and the others arrived. It had been designated as the staging area during emergencies, so that wasn't surprising.

Joseph Randall, the vice-captain of Rocheforte's knights, was explaining the situation to everyone. Most of the soldiers were pale-faced; hearing that the barrier had been broken must have shaken them.

Hayato despaired when he saw how low morale seemed to be among the soldiers. Joseph spotted him as he walked into the courtyard, and interrupted his explanation to address him.

"I'm glad you're here. Have you heard what happened?"

"Yeah, Nia told us. Umm, where's Noel-san?"

Hayato looked around the courtyard, trying to spot Noel in the press of bodies.

"The Captain's busy right now. More importantly, come, join me. You're our leader, so you should be standing in the center..." Joseph ushered Hayato and the other students to the center of the courtyard.

The students who no longer fought seemed reluctant to join, as they weren't doing anything to help the cause. However, they were unable to resist the tide of soldiers silently pushing them onward, and were jostled along with Hayato.

Mei didn't like how silent and emotionless the soldiers and knights looked. Something was off about them. In fact, something was off about this whole situation. The feeling of unease Shizuku had felt since waking up grew stronger. She gripped the hilt of her katana.

"Hey, Mei. Is it just me or..."?

"It's not just you. Don't let your guard down. Something strange is happening here."

Rin did her best to stamp down on the mounting feeling of dread. Though Mei didn't want to go any deeper into the crowd, she couldn't do anything but get pushed along. Fighting against the crowd was inadvisable

Something's not right.

The other members of the frontline parties felt it too. No one said it aloud, but they all felt it.

Finally, Hayato and the others were shoved into the center of the courtyard.

Joseph continued his speech. Mei grew more worried by the second.

"Comrades, the situation is dire. However, there is no need to fear. There is no one who can match us. There is no one who can defeat us. Death will take none of you today. For we have the hero on our side. Remember men, today is the day we've trained our lives for. Draw your swords, comrades!" As one, the soldiers and knights unsheathed their weapons.

In the midst of it all, someone stammered out, "Wha, whoa." Mei and the others turned to the noise. Kyousuke had been casually muscled out of his spot next to Gorou. "U-Umm..." Another confused voice. This time, it was Rin who was separated from the group.

They weren't the only two, either. Before long many other students, mostly those who fought at the front lines or were part of Rika's guard, had been split up. Each of them was surrounded by a platoon of soldiers and knights. Goosebumps rose on Mei's arms. Her instincts screamed at her to get out of here.

"Everyone, run—"

"Behold, this marks the beginning of a new age!"

Before Mei could finish her warning, Joseph pulled something out of his pocket and raised it high above his head.

At his words, the soldiers all turned as one to him. Confused, the students followed suit.

A second later there was a bright flash.

Whatever Jose had been holding emitted a burst of light as bright as a flash grenade.

Hayato and the others screamed as the light pierced their eyes. They quickly turned away, but they were already blinded.

A second later, there were a number of meaty thuds.

"Agh!?"

"Gah!"

"Gwaaah!?"

They were immediately followed by a series of screams.

Not screams of surprise, like the screams the students had given when the light hit them, but screams of pain. After that, there were a few loud thumps as people fell to the ground.

Amidst the chaos, Mei drew her weapon and readied herself.

She just barely managed to block the sword thrust that came for her.

Like the others, she'd been blinded by the light. But thanks to her years of training, months of experience, and excellent senses, she was able to fight back even while unable to see.

Finally, her sight began to return, and Mei examined her surroundings. What greeted her was a nightmare.

Her classmates had all been stabbed in the back by soldiers, and were lying on the ground.

"Wha..." She'd been prepared for something terrible to happen, but this was beyond her expectations.

What on earth is happening? Why are they doing this? Mei's voice caught in her throat.

The wails of her classmates pierced her ears. The scene in front of her was so shocking that Mei's brain shut down.

Don't tell me they're all dead!? However, though Hayato, Ryu, Haru, and Rin were all lying in pools of their own blood, they were still breathing.

Knowing that her friends still lived brought some small measure of comfort to Mei. However, all of the front-liners aside from her were too gravely injured to even move. Cold sweat poured down her back.

Kyousuke was the most badly injured out of all of them. Swords were sticking out of not just his back, but his limbs too. He was twitching weakly on the ground, clearly in pain.

Worse, the rest of Mei's classmates had been cuffed with mana-sealing shackles.

No one would be able to heal them.

What do I do? What do I do? Mei desperately cast her gaze about, looking for a solution. It was then that she noticed something strange.

"Oh my, I guess I should have expected you to come out of that unscathed, Mei."

"Huh? What? Wh-Why? What are you—"

There was a single one of Mei's classmates who wasn't on the ground in a puddle of their own blood or pinned down by a cluster of soldiers.

And right now, they sounded nothing like their normal self. Mei trailed off, stunned. She'd opened her mouth more out of reflex than anything.

A second later, one of the knights charged at her from behind.

"Ngh!?" Despite her shock, Mei still managed to dodge out of the way. The one who'd betrayed them looked down at her, exasperated.

"I can't believe you dodged that too... Of course, you'd be the one to make things difficult."

"Seriously, what are you—" Mei was cut off by a storm of steel. All of the soldiers around her attacked at once. Their movements seemed unusually sharp. It was almost as if they'd been powered up.

Mei still managed to dodge their attacks somehow. While she was weaving between swords, she heard someone call out to her, and turned around.

"Mei, help me!"

"Nia!"

Nia was lying on the ground, a knight straddling her. She was seconds away from being pierced through by his sword.

Mei dashed to Nia, ducking through the horde of soldiers using a combination of No Tempo and Supersonic Step. She bashed the knight away with her sheath, sending him flying.

"Nia, you alright?"

"Mei-sama..."

Mei helped Nia to her feet while warily observing the nearby troops.

Nia hugged Mei from behind, seemingly terrified.

Then a second later, she drove a dagger into Mei's back.

"N-Nia? Wh-Why?"

"....."

Mei's mouth twisted into a pained grimace as she looked down at her friend.

Nia's eyes were devoid of their usual warmth. She looked expressionlessly up at Mei, as if she were an unthinking doll.

It was then that Mei finally realized.

Nia hadn't been acting oddly because the capital's barrier had been destroyed. Her subdued demeanor and empty eyes were exactly like the knights and soldiers surrounding them.

In other words, she was under the influence of whatever it was that had made them all go crazy.

Unfortunately, Mei had come to this realization too late. Nia pinned Mei to the ground, twisted her arms behind her back, and shackled her with the same magic-sealing cuffs the soldiers had put on the other students.

"Ahahahaha. I guess even you couldn't predict she'd stab you, huh? Yeah, see, that's why I waited until the last minute to put her under my control." The burning sensation in Mei's back contrasted starkly with the cold ground at her cheek. She realized now that the soldiers acting strange hadn't been the work of demons, but this student.

The truth stung. Mei couldn't accept it.

No, she didn't want to accept it. That she'd been betrayed by someone she trusted.

They'd gone through so many crises together. It was inconceivable that she would betray them, but Mei couldn't deny what her eyes showed her.

"What is the meaning of this... Shizuku!?" Shizuku, the quiet, thoughtful, kindhearted girl who always put others first, who had fought together with Mei for the past few months was in fact— a traitor.

She'd purposely missed everyone's vitals. So that they could lay there writhing in pain while she gloated. All of the other students gazed at Mei in shock.

Mei's soldiers made no move to attack them any further. They stood at attention; lifeless eyes trained on their new master.

Shizuku walked past the students, examining each in turn. Gorou lay on the ground, twitching. Kyousuke had lost so much blood he'd nearly fallen unconscious. Rin stared wide-eyed at Shizuku; disbelief written across her face. Shizuku's footsteps echoing off the cobblestones was the only noise that broke the silence.

She ignored Mei's question and stopped before Hayato.

With a maniacal grin, she whipped off her glasses, grabbed the mana-sealing collar her soldiers had put on him, and dragged him to his feet.

"S-Shizuku... why... Gah... would you..." Though he wasn't as close to Shizuku as Kaede and Mei were, Hayato still considered her a good friend. He couldn't understand why she would betray them. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he forced his question out.

Like before, Shizuku didn't answer. Her expression didn't look entirely sane.

She leaned over and said in a singsong voice, "Caaaught you, Hayato-kuuun."

"Mmmf!?"

She pressed her lips against Hayato's in a passionate kiss.

The sound of their saliva mixing together carried surprisingly far across the empty courtyard. Shizuku lost herself in the act, savoring the kiss as if she'd been desiring it her whole life.

Stunned, Hayato tried to shake her off but the nearby soldiers pinned him in place. In his weakened state, bereft of his magic, Hayato wasn't able to overpower them.

After a good amount of time Shizuku finally pulled away, satisfied. A silver thread of drool connected the two of them. She licked her lips seductively, then suddenly turned to the other students.

They were all looking at her, their expressions a mixture of confusion and pain.

Shizuku nodded in satisfaction and focused her attention on Mei.

"Well, that's how it is, Mei."

"What do you mean, that's how it is...? Gah."

Mei glared at Shizuku, blood leaking from her mouth. Shizuku shook her head in an exaggerated motion, as if talking to a particularly slow child.

"Still haven't figured it out? You see, I've always wanted Hayato-kun to myself. I just did what it took to make him mine. Make sense now?"

"If you loved Hayato... all you had to do was confess! You didn't need to go this far..."

Shizuku's face went blank for a moment.

But then, her grin returned.

"No, no, no, no. That wouldn't work. Hayato-kun's too kind to give people preferential treatment. Even though you're all trash, he's too nice to leave you alone. The only way to make Hayato-kun mine and mine alone was to clean up all the trash lying around him." Shizuku shrugged her shoulders, as if her motives were the most obvious thing in the world.

Everyone was still too shocked to get angry at her disparaging remarks. Her entire personality had changed, and Mei was honestly doubting whether the girl in front of her was really Shizuku or not.

"Fufu, I'm so glad we all came to this world. Getting rid of all of you would have been difficult back in Japan. Which is why, of course, I can't let you guys win this war and go back home. Because Hayato-kun's going to spend the rest of his days here, with me. Forever." Suddenly, everything clicked. Mei hesitatingly gave voice to her conjecture.

"Don't tell me... the reason they broke the barrier so easily... was because..."

"Ahaha? You noticed? Yep, I did that. I smashed the artifact that powered the barrier." Her guess was spot on. That still didn't explain how the demon army had reached the capital completely unnoticed, but that was at least one mystery resolved. Shizuku nodded to a platoon of soldiers who were standing silently next to her, looking like reanimated corpses. Mei guessed they were the ones who'd actually carried out the deed.

"I mean, if I killed you guys, there's no way I'd be able to stay in the kingdom. So, I went to the demons and made a deal. I'd let them into the capital and take care of you guys and the soldiers for them, and they'd leave me and Hayato-kun alone."

"When... did you get the chance to..." Hayato muttered in disbelief.

Shizuku had been training together with them in the palace all this time. It should have been impossible for a devil to get past the barrier and make contact with Shizuku. Hayato still half-hoped that this was all some big misunderstanding.

Sadly, even that hope was dashed.

"Remember that woman we fought in the Scarlet Labyrinth? Before we left, I used necromancy on her. I commanded her to deliver a message to the demons who came to retrieve her body. To be honest, I was scared it wouldn't work. I needed to get in touch with them without getting killed... so I ended up using necromancy... but I'd wanted to keep those skills hidden so they wouldn't get suspicious. It turned out alright in the end though." As she'd said, Shizuku had reanimated Devil's corpse to deliver a message to the devils who came to retrieve it.

The devils had sent their reply by reanimating a human's corpse and sending it to Shizuku. The barrier was primed only to keep out devils, so the corpse had made it past.

Mei, already pale from blood loss, paled even further when she realized the implications of what Shizuku had said.

Necromancy was an art that utilized the lingering regrets people left behind when they died. Though she'd hidden her abilities, Shizuku had long since mastered the skills needed to reanimate people. In other words, all of the soldiers in the courtyard, and even Nia were acting strange not because they were under some kind of mental control, but because they were dead.

"Then...that means everyone here is..."

"Only moving because of my necromancy of course. They all died ages ago. Ahahahaha!"

Mei grit her teeth, her mind refusing to accept the answer her reasoning had brought her to.

"Y-You're lying! There's no way a dead person should... gah... be able to talk!"

"I'm just that good. I can give my corpses a portion of the personality and memories they had in life, so they're capable of holding a conversation. It's an original spell I came up with, Spirit Binding."

Normally, all necromancy was capable of was reading the last thoughts of the deceased, or creating a corpse by injecting mana into the lingering regrets they left behind. Skilled practitioners could even reanimate corpses, but they would still be mindless.

Their abilities would be inferior to their living versions, and as they were incapable of thought, the corpses would need to be controlled directly by the necromancer. Of course, a simple command like "Attack" didn't require constant management, so a necromancer could set a horde of corpses on someone without having to micromanage them all.

But something like holding a full conversation like Nia and Jose had been doing should have been impossible with just necromancy.

What Shizuku had done with her Spirit Binding was rip out her victims' memories and personalities from their souls, and implant them into their corpses.

In other words, she'd interfered directly with their souls. With just her own skills, Shizuku had managed to create an inferior version of ancient magic.

That was how overpowered her necromancy abilities were. Despite saying she was bad with necromancy; she had actually been a genius at it. Furthermore, she'd devoted all of her free time to secretly honing her arts. What was truly terrifying was the warped motives that had driven that growth.

In fact, the only reason Shizuku hadn't killed all of the students right away was because she could only use her Spirit Binding on one person at a time.

Still, Mei found it hard to believe that not a single person noticed she was slowly taking over the army. Shizuku's Spirit Binding took time, and the first cases of soldiers acting odd had appeared quite a few days ago.

Suddenly, a terrible thought ran through Mei's mind.

"Don't tell me... you killed Ri-chan and Aria too..."

"Hm? Nah, I didn't touch them. I've got nothing to do with what happened to them."

Mei breathed a sigh of relief. She'd been worried Shizuku had eliminated them because they'd caught on to her plan or something.

Shizuku saw some of the tension drain out of Mei and grinned wickedly.

"It's too early to relax."

"Huh?"

"The girl who took Ri-chan's pretty scary. She knew what I was up to, and she actually decided to cooperate. All of the most important people in the kingdom are under her control, you know? Remember how the king and all his nobles started acting weird recently?"

"Ah!" Mei wasn't the only one who gasped. Rin and the others had spent the past few days searching everywhere for Rika, only to now discover that she'd been kidnapped.

Thinking back, the king and his ministers certainly had been acting odd.

But no one had suspected that everyone at the top of the kingdom had been brainwashed.

"You know, I was pretty worried when she told me she knew my plans. I thought I might have to end up killing her." Shizuku wiped an imaginary bead of sweat off her brow. Obviously, a lot more must have happened during that encounter, but Shizuku didn't bother explaining any of it.

"Anyway, it's thanks to her that everything went so smoothly. I was able to speed up my plans by months. Heaven itself is on my side! Everything I do has god's blessing! Don't worry everyone, your deaths won't have been in vain! I'll put your corpses to good use as vanguards in the devil army!" Shizuku danced under the moonlight, flitting between her former classmates and the reanimated corpses of the soldiers she killed.

Arms spread wide, she spun in a circle at the center of the courtyard. She truly believed that her actions had been ordained by god.

Finally realizing that she was serious, Hayato interrupted her deranged cackling.

"Ngh, stop this, Shizuku! If you keep going like this, I really..."

"You won't forgive me? Ahaha, I knew you'd say that. You're so kind, Hayato-kun. But you know, that's why all this trash always gravitates to you. So, I'm going to have to Spirit Bind you too. That way, you'll only look at me, and only say what I want you to! You'll be mine and mine alone! Aaaah, it's going to be so wonderful!" Shizuku wrapped her arms around herself and shivered in ecstasy. No one could believe this was the same quiet, thoughtful, bookish girl they all knew.

She had gone crazy. That was the only explanation.

Though Spirit Bind preserved some of the host's original personality and memories, the necromancer still had full control of them. No sane person would want an undead puppet for a lover.

"This isn't real...It can't be! The Shizurin I know would...never do something like this! Somebody's... Gah, somebody's controlling her! That has to be it! Open your eyes, Shizuku!" Blood dripped from Haru's mouth as she yelled. It hurt to move, even to talk, but Haru still tried to crawl her way over to her best friend.

Shizuku turned to Haru and grinned maniacally. Then she walked over to the student closest to her, Kondou.

Afraid of where this was going, Kondou whimpered in pain and tried to back away. Unfortunately, he was still pinned down, with his mana sealed. All he was able to do was squirm in vain.

Shizuku stopped right in front of him, that same maniacal grin still on her face. He shivered in fear, knowing full well what was coming next. Hayato and the others yelled at Shizuku to stop.

"S-Sto— Gaaaaaah..." Kondou's pleas transformed into a garbled scream. A single sword had been plunged into his heart.

This wasn't a wounding blow. This was fatal.

"Renji! Gaaah!"

"Damn you, Nakamuraaa! I'll— Gah!"

Satou and Nakano yelled out, but the knights pinning them dug their swords in deeper, cutting off their remarks. The students could only watch.

Kondou's spasms slowly faded, and he eventually grew still. Tough as he was, even he couldn't survive a stab to the heart.

Shizuku raised a hand over him and began an incantation no one had heard before. Once she finished her chant, a transparent version of Kondou appeared. His apparition overlapped with his corpse and melted into it.

The knights who had been holding him down stepped back, leaving him free.

Hayato and the others gulped as they watched Kondou's dead body slowly get to its feet. He had the same lifeless expression that Nia and the other soldiers all had.

"Aaand done. That's one puppet complete." Shizuku's cheerful voice rang out through the silence. She didn't sound like someone who'd just killed her classmate and desecrated his corpse.

"S-Shizuku... Why..." Shizuku turned back to Haru and said in the same cheerful voice,

"Thanks, Haru. It's because of you that I was able to stay by Hayato-kun's side. Both here, and in Japan."

"Huh?"

"You don't get it? The whole time, it was like there was this unspoken rule that only Kaede and Mei could be next to Hayato-kun. If you tried to approach him, the other girls would band against you.... Since I was powerless back in Japan, somehow getting myself into that circle would have taken forever. That's why I'm so glad you were there. You were so stupid that everyone just laughed at anything you did. So, no one would get mad at you even if you did join Hayato's circle. So being known to everyone as your 'best friend' was the best thing that could have happened to me. I could be by Hayato-kun's side, and no one would say anything. And once we got brought to this world, I was even able to be in the same party. You're the most convenient best friend I could ask for! Thank you so much!"

"Ah..." Something inside Haru broke. Her best friend, the person she'd trusted the most in the world, had just been using her. Everything Haru knew about Shizuku was a lie. The light went out of Haru's eyes, her mind shielding her from the pain of reality by granting her the bliss of unconsciousness.

"Shizuku, how dare you!" Mei screamed at Shizuku and tried to struggle out of Nia's grip. Nia grabbed Mei's hair and slammed her to the ground.

Mei continued glaring at Shizuku through the pain. Being rendered immobile had done nothing to dull her anger.

"Fufu. Oooh, you're mad now. I love it when you make that face. You know, I've actually always hated you. You always got to be by Hayato-kun's side, and yet you always looked like it was a chore to look after him. I hated that arrogant attitude of yours! Which is why I've prepared a very special role for you."

"What... do you mean?"

"Fufu, I wonder what your best friend will think when the first thing you do after your reunion is kill her?"

Mei's eyes opened wide as she realized what Shizuku was trying to do.

"You're going to make me kill Kaede!?" Shizuku clapped her hands theatrically, as if to say "good job figuring that out." The corners of her lips twitched up into a smile.

Shizuku wanted to turn Mei into a puppet and use her to kill Kaede.

"To be honest, I wouldn't have minded letting her live since she left... but there's someone here who realllllly wants to make her his puppet. He's been a huge help, so I guess he deserves a reward. Plus, I'm a good girl who keeps her promises!"

"D-Don't fuck with— Gah!?"

Mei forced herself to move, even though she knew it would exacerbate her wounds. But before she could even get up, Nia stabbed her again.

"Haha, does it hurt? It does, doesn't it? Don't worry, I'm a nice girl. I'll let you sleep real soon..." Shizuku slowly walked over to Mei. It appeared she would be next.

The other students all started struggling against their captors. They didn't want to see anyone else end up like poor Kondou.

"Stop! Please, stop this Shizuku!"

Hayato especially struggled valiantly against his bonds. The five mana-sealing shackles restraining him cracked. In his attempt to activate Overload, he was putting an inordinate amount of strain on his restraints.

However, the undead knights held him in joint locks, keeping him pinned down. As their brains no longer functioned, there were no limiters to keep their muscles in check, and they were actually stronger than their living versions.

Despairing, Hayato could only watch as Shizuku drew closer to Mei.

Mei did her best to remain conscious. At the very least, she wanted to face her death head-on. She refused to give Shizuku the satisfaction of passing out right before she died.

Shizuku smirked at Mei and took a nearby knight's sword. It seemed she wanted to do the honors herself. Sword held high, she gloated one last time.

"Bye, Mei. I gotta say, pretending to be friends with you made me want to puke." Mei glared at Shizuku, but her thoughts turned toward her best friend.

She knew there was no way her warning could reach Kaede, but Mei still sent off one final message to the girl who searching for her crush.

I'm sorry, Kaede. But please, don't trust me the next time we meet... Live a long life... and be happy...

Silver moonlight glinted off the sword in Shizuku's hands. She brought it straight down, like a stake she was trying to drive into the heart of a vampire.

As she watched the point come down, Mei prayed.

Please, let my best friend survive this ordeal. Please let her find happiness. I'll be dying before you, and I know I might end up hurting you. But still, I'm sure you'll be fine. You have Guren with you, after all. Live happily, together with him. I hope...

Time slowed to a crawl, and Mei's entire life flash before her eyes. Looks like that really does happen when you're about to die... Feeling the end of her life at hand, she awaited the moment when everything would turn black.

"Huh?"

"Wha?"

Both Mei and Shizuku cried out in surprise.

Shizuku's sword had been stopped by a palm-sized barrier of light.

The two were startled out of their reverie by a voice that shouldn't have been here. A strained, almost panicked voice.

The voice of the girl Mei had just wished happiness on-the voice of her best friend.

"Mei-chan!" Ten glowing shields appeared around Mei, surrounding her in a glowing dome of protection. Kaede created a few more and sent them flying in front of Nia and Shizuku. These flashed brightly, and exploded in a supernova of light. Kaede had overloaded the mana in her barriers, causing them burst. It was a makeshift way to turn her defensive skills into offensive ones.

"Ah!?" Shizuku raised her arms to try and block out the light, but the resulting shockwave and shards of shattered shield that assailed her bowled her over.

Nia, too, was blown away by Kaede's Barrier Burst. She quickly recovered and moved to restrain Mei again, but was stopped by Kaede.

"Divine Shackles!" Chains of light slithered up from the ground and restrained both Nia and Shizuku.

Still dumbfounded, Mei turned toward the sound of Kaede's voice. There was no way her best friend should have been here, but there she was, standing between the ranks of zombified soldiers.

It wasn't an illusion. Kaede really was standing there.

Tears of happiness spilled down her cheeks. This time she'd made it in time. Barely, perhaps, but this time she'd protected the people she wanted to protect.

"K-Kaede..."

"Mei-chan, just sit tight! I'll save you!" Kaede saw how injured everyone in the courtyard was and quickly moved to heal them. She started chanting the greatest light recovery spell, Aether-flow.

Their wounds were serious enough that she needed to prioritize healing them over everything else.

"Why are you here!? Why is it you all have to keep getting in my way!?" Face twisted in an insane snarl, Shizuku ordered her soldiers to attack Kaede. The soldiers rushed at her, intent on stopping her chanting.

Their swords were met by a glowing wall of light. Not a single one managed to reach Kaede.

"What happened to you all!? Why are you acting like this!? Come back to your senses! Shizuku, what is going on here!?" Aria had raised a golden dome to protect Kaede while she cast her healing spell.

Aria stood behind Kaede, trying to make sense of this situation. She couldn't fathom why her soldiers and knights were attacking the students, nor why Shizuku seemed to be the one in charge of them. She demanded an answer from Shizuku, but Shizuku ignored her.

Though she was a princess, Aria was also a skilled mage. Skilled enough that she'd single-handedly been able to protect Moss's caravan from over forty bandits. Holding back a group of knights, even knights that had been strengthened via zombification, long enough for Kaede to finish her spell was an easy task for someone of her caliber.

Panic colored Shizuku's face as she realized her plan was starting to crumble.

"Tch. Guess I've got no other choice." Impatient, she looked over to where her classmates lay.

She didn't have time to turn them into her puppets anymore. Her only option was to kill them before Kaede finished her spell.

Before she could make a move, though, one of the knights banging on Aria's barrier lost his head. His decapitated corpse slumped to the ground.

Standing over the knight's body was none other than Daichi Hayama.

"Nishimiya! Princess Aria! Are you two alright!?"

"Hayama-san? How are you moving with such terrible wounds!?"

Aria paled as she saw the condition Hayama was in. Kaede was too disciplined to stop her chanting, but her eyes opened wide in surprise as she took in Hayama's wounds.

His shirt was soaked in blood, and there was still more spurting out of the hole in his chest. It was obvious he'd pushed himself to the absolute limit to break free from his bonds.

He staggered and leaned a hand against the barrier to steady himself. Liliana hurriedly opened a Hayama-sized hole in it to let him into its protection.

Once he was safely inside, he collapsed to the floor.

A second later, Mei yelled out a warning.

"Wait! Get away from him!" Blood dripped from her mouth as she shouted. It hurt to talk, but she had to warn them. Shizuku had mentioned that one of her accomplices wanted Kaede as his own, and Hayama had been able to escape his bonds when even Hayato hadn't. The connection was obvious. Hayama had to know Aria's barrier would hold until Kaede finished her spell. Yet he'd gone to "save" them anyway. There could only be one reason why.

"Kyaaa!?"

"Ah—!"

Sadly, Mei's warning was too late.

Hayama leaped to his feet and shoved Aria out of the way, breaking her concentration and dissolving the barrier. He then circled behind Kaede and stabbed her through the chest.

"Kaedeeeeee!" Mei's devastated yell echoed through the courtyard.

Hayama buried his face into Kaede's neck. There was a madness in his eyes. He still had one hand wrapped around the hilt of the sword sticking out of Kaede's chest.

From the very beginning, Hayama's injuries had been faked. He'd only pretended to have been done in with the other students. In reality, he'd been Shizuku's insurance against any more of Hayato's heroic bursts of strength.

The moment Kaede had appeared, Hayama knew she'd heal everyone and ruin their plans. So, he'd put on act to lower her guard.

"Hehehehe, Finally! I finally did it! I knew it, I really am better than Guren. I am, aren't I, Nishi... I mean Kaede? Right? I'm totally better than that loser! Hehehe, Hey Nakamura, hurry up and bring her back. You promised you would." Shizuku shrugged noncommittally. Then she started walking over to Kaede.

But before she could start casting, Hayato interrupted her.

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaah! How dare youuuuuuuuu!" He pushed so hard against his restraints that they all cracked. Watching Kaede get stabbed before his eyes had caused him to go berserk.

The cracks in his restraints grew larger, and the knights holding him down looked like they were struggling. His strength was immense. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite enough to break free.

Hayama, who'd been watching everything with detachment, suddenly heard whispering next to him. Looking down, he noticed Kaede was still breathing. The wound was fatal, but she wasn't dead yet.

He brought his ear to her lips, trying to make out what she was saying.

"Mother... heaven... embrace... Aether...flow." She'd continued chanting through the pain, and had somehow managed to finish casting her spell.

Even when she was on death's doorstep, she was stubborn to a fault.

Hayama stared at her in shock.

Kaede knew she only had seconds left to live. And yet, she hadn't spent her final moments crying, or lamenting her fate, or even calling out to the boy she loved. No, she'd used what little time she had left to fight.

The way she saw it, this was the best way she could show her devotion to Asher. The boy she'd fallen in love with had been someone who never gave up, no matter how tough the foe or how unwinnable the situation. If she truly wanted to win his heart in any way she could, the least she could do is keep on fighting until the very end.

And so, she traded her life to cast one last spell. Her indestructible resolve held through, and she managed to chant it to completion.

Ripples of light spread out from Kaede.

They covered the courtyard in seconds, healing anyone who was injured. Swords still stuck inside students were forcibly pushed outward by the healing light. At the same time, the light dulled the movements of the zombified soldiers.

Naturally the light tried to heal Kaede as well. However, unlike the other students, her wound was fatal. Moreover, Hayama was still sawing his sword back and forth inside of her, and the light wasn't able to repair such grievous damage fast enough. Hayama was hellbent on making sure Kaede died.

"Hey!" A quiet voice suddenly spoke, Hayama, who was clinging into Kaede making sure she died suddenly vanished and crashed into the far wall.

"Gah… cough… Ngh." Half-buried in the wall, Hayama spasmed and coughed out a lungful of blood. His internal organs have been pulverized, and most of the bones in his upper body shattered, but he still lived.

The pain was so great that it knocked him unconscious, and then woke him up again. He groaned continually, the pain rendering him unable to move.

A silhouette started shimmering beside Kaede. A young man with a long white hair tied in a ponytail appeared, he didn't even spare Hayama a glance. He lifted Kaede into his arms, removed the sword embedded on her chest, and gently brushed off her face.

"What'd I say about jinxes?" He said to her "You almost got yourself killed"

The soothing light of Aether-flow started healing her wounds but she was still in no condition to move.

"hahaha…" Kaede laughed weakly "Sorry…"

"Just rest, I'll take care of the rest"

As if the world has stopped, everyone looked upon the newcomer, Rin, Ranko and the rest of the Ri-chan protection squad already knew who he was.

"Guren! Nakamura betrayed us!" Rin yelled out.

Asher simply stared at them as if it wasn't that obvious. "Didn't I tell you she'd betray you? And what were you doing with the umbrella Ranko-chan? You're should've figured it out by now!"

"Eh? Ah!!" Ranko whimpered for a bit, the black umbrella's hidden feature, Asher was hoping that Ranko had already figured it out, but apparently haven't yet.

The black umbrella's supposed features were raising Ranko's magic power, but it also detects when magic is being used while also neutralizing any effects that was inflicted in the user, but Ranko still hadn't figured how to activate them.

On the other hand, Shizuku ordered her puppets to attack the distracted Asher, she thought that even if Asher displayed some insane strength that he did earlier, he still won't be enough fighting large numbers of enemies.

Hundreds of puppets came at him, what could a single unarmed person even do at this situation. Unfortunately, Asher does not follow such logic. He got into a karate stance and made a straight punch at the first Zombie Soldier that came, following the punch, an insane shockwave blasted the remaining Puppets behind flying.

"Wha…!" Shizuku cried out in surprise, Asher did not spare a second kicked another zombie and sent flying towards other monsters.

Another zombie came from behind him.

Before they realized it, Asher had placed his fist right below its neck and thrown upwards for an uppercut, launching the unfortunate undead to the stars.

In less than a minute, more than 50 of the hundreds of Zombified soldiers had already been destroyed.

"You've gotta be shittin' me!" Shizuku muttered in disbelief, and she was justified in doing so.

After all, these zombies aren't cannon fodder, they were all the best the kingdom could offer, with their inner limiter removed, they're enough to give the hero party a run for their money as demonstrated.

And yet, they could do nothing to stop the young boy from demolishing them.

Asher kept on demolishing zombies, on the other hand, the students have already started fighting back, with their own strength retrieving their own artifacts.

The others, Ryu, Akaashi, and Rin were forced to fight off the soldiers crowding around them. But as always, no one took any notice of Kyousuke.

Even when his mana had been sealed, no one had noticed him. But then, his innate talent at going unnoticed wasn't something that required magic to use. So long as they weren't staring directly at him, people would forget he was even there.

"Akaashi! Sonohara! Here!" Kyousuke grabbed Akashi's artifact, a powerful cutlass, and one of Rin's artifacts, a set of twelve throwing knives, and threw them at their respective owners. He wanted to get them armed before the soldiers restrained them again.

Even his shout wasn't enough to get their attention, but when the two of them saw their artifacts show up at their feet, they guessed what must have happened.

"Be careful, Akaashi! Don't cut my hands!"

"How clumsy do you think I am?"

Rin held her hands out, and Atsushi cut through her shackles with impeccable precision. His job was Cutlassier, so it stood to reason he knew how to use his weapon. Freed and able to use magic, Rin instantly activated the abilities of her own artifact. So long as she had one of the knives in her hand, she could call back all the others.

The knives themselves weren't that strong, but the fact that she could always call them back made them quite powerful.

Rin's remaining knives flew toward her, cutting through the soldiers holding Ranko and Airi along the way.

In the meantime, Aka succeeded in freeing Akito and Nao.

"Haru! Put up a barrier for us! Protect the guys who aren't fighting!" Ryu barked out orders while Akaashi, Rin, and Kyousuke ran around freeing everyone they could.

He knew the stay-home group would be too scared to fight even after being freed, so he asked Haru to guard them. Shizuku had realized turning everyone into puppets would be impossible now, so she changed tactics. Her soldiers now struck to kill, not to immobilize.

Hence why Ryu had hoped Haru could save all of the other students now that she was free, but when he glanced back, he saw her still sitting there.

"Huh?" Her eyes were glazed over, and it looked as if she didn't even register the battle going on around her.

"Haru!"

"Ah S-Sorry!"

Her usual cheeriness was nowhere to be seen. It was obvious from her expression that she was in no state to fight.

Cursing Shizuku for doing something so horrible to Suzu, Ryu scooped her up and went to defend the remaining students himself.

Most of the rearguard still had their shackles on, and were unable to assist.

Gorou, Akaashi, and the others knew that so they formed a protective circle around the remaining students. Ryu muscled his way into the ring and began punching people.

This was a fight to protect his comrades, it was natural that he participated.

But no matter how many zombies soldiers the group defeated, more rose to take their place. Just how many damn people did she zombify!?

"Fucking hell!"

"Calm down, Kirishima!"

Gorou tried to keep Ryu in check. The two of them were serving as the students' living shield. It was only because they were taking the brunt of the enemies' blows that Rin and the others were able to attack.

Without Ryu, the students would be overwhelmed in minutes.

Gorou knew how much Shizuku's betrayal hit most of the main party, but if Ryu leapt into the fray, everything would be over.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY! KAEDEEE!" Tears in her eyes, Mei tried to claw her way over to Kaede. But the waves of zombie knights held her back. She was too distraught to fight effectively, and her blows missed their mark more often than not. Seeing how badly she was fighting only made her more distressed, which in turn dulled her blade even more.

"Move!" Asher shouted punched through the Zombie that was blocking Mei.

It was then that Hayato used brute force to punch a hole in the wall of soldiers and create an opening.

Pure hatred oozed from him as he charged forward, wrapped in an aura of blazing white light.

"Eri, Haymaaaaaa!"

"That's as far as you go, Hayato-kun." Eri used her final trump card. She knew Hayato well enough to have all of his weaknesses charted.

A single soldier stepped in between Shizuku and Hayato.

As she'd expected, Hayato lowered his sword.

In a trembling voice, Hayato called out.

"No... Not you too, Noel-san..." Standing in front of him was none other than the captain of the kingdom's knights, Noel Barrens. He was why Hayato had stayed his sword.

"Hayato... why are you pointing your sword at me... I didn't teach you to fight so you could kill humans..."

"Huh? Noel-san... I'm not..."

"Hayato, don't listen to him! Meld-san's already dead!" Mei's words shocked Hayato out of his reverie.

But by the time he'd returned to his senses, Noel's sword was bearing down on him.

Hayato hurriedly raised his own sword to block. Noel's blow was so powerful that the ground beneath Hayato cracked from the force of it. Like the others, Noel's internal limiter had been removed, allowing him to exert the full strength of his muscles.

"Noel-san... I'm sorry about this!" Face twisted in anguish, Hayato nevertheless fired off a series of lightning-quick slashes.

But even in death, Noel's swordplay was impeccable. Though Hayato was using Overload, Noel was still barely able to keep up. Part of that was because Hayato was still hesitating a little to kill Noel. He knew in his head that Noel was already dead, but that didn't make it any easier to fight him.

But even with that handicap, Noel had no chance against Hayato as he was now. After a furious flurry of blows, Noel's sword was knocked out of his hand.

Hayato stepped in and swung wildly at Noel's neck.

But just before he parted Meld's head from its shoulders—

"Please don't kill me... Hayato."

"Ah!?" Hayato's sword stopped inches from Noel's neck. Could it be that Captain Noel hasn't been killed, and he really is just being controlled? Can we still save him? This was Hayato's greatest weakness. He was easily swayed by his emotions, and couldn't commit. He should have made a decision and stuck with it. Either save Noel or kill him. However, Hayato couldn't be that decisive. He continually restructured his priorities based on whatever new information became available. Though he never doubted his own righteousness, and always interpreted things in a manner convenient for him, it still meant that when it came down to the wire, he stumbled.

Noel kicked a nearby sword up into his hand and once again struck at Hayato. This time, however, it was Hayato was who being pushed back.

"Ah!? Gah! Wh-What the? I suddenly feel weak—" The strength drained from Hayato's limbs, and he sunk to his knees. It wasn't because Overload's time limit was up. There were still a few minutes until that happened. Besides, the recoil from Overload didn't leave Hayato vomiting blood. He retched, another mouthful of blood splattering the ground.

"Phew. Looks like it's finally working. I used a potent poison but... I guess I should have expected you'd be able to resist it, Hayato-kun. If I hadn't kept the captain handy, I might really have lost," Shizuku said nonchalantly. Hayato hugged himself and looked questioningly up at her.

Shizuku ran a finger across her lips and smiled sweetly.

"Hehe. If the prince's kiss is what wakes the princess up, then it's the princess' kiss that puts the prince to sleep and makes him hers... permanently. Don't worry, the poison's not lethal. You'll just be paralyzed for a little bit! Fear not, I'll be sure to kill you with my own two hands, Hayato-kun!"

"So that kiss back then was... Gah."

Indeed, when Hayato had kissed him after springing her ambush, she'd fed him poison.

She'd taken the antidote beforehand, which was why she hadn't been affected. Nobody would have expected her to poison someone with a kiss, especially not the boy she ostensibly loved.

"Shizuku, you really are... Gah." Hayato was once again reminded of the fact that Shizuku's nice girl act had been just that, an act.

The poison finished paralyzing his limbs, and Hayato slumped to the ground. He lay there, spasming uncontrollably. No matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't reassert control over his limbs.

Despite the chaos, The Other students had been backed off in a corner under Haru's barrier. Asher was also being horded by the other Zombie Soldiers and he could barely attack their numbers every punch another one would replace the fallen Zombie.

"I got this!" he psyched himself up "Oh… I got this!"

Shizuku grabbed a sword and pointed the sword at Hayato's chest. "See you later Hayato-kun~"

Before she could thrust her sword, someone suddenly crashed on the center of the courtyard.

When the smoke cleared, Tetsurou lied on a crater groaning.

"That might have hurt a bit…"

"Tetsu… Don't tell me, you're dying!!!" Asher cried out sarcastically

"Don't write me off yet!"

"Shucks, I was gonna avenge you"

"Whatever, haven't you finished this already? The Ri-chan's rescued, stage's set"

Asher simply shrugged his shoulders and looked at the situation once more, because of Tetsurou's sudden appearance, Shizuku stopped her commands at the zombie soldiers.

The students were backed to a corner, Kaede, Mei inside Aria's barrier, aside from that, Hayato lying in the pool of his own blood, with Noel standing over him.

"Well, play times over," Asher said "I'll need to finish this quick"

He raised his hand and the googles resting on his hair transformed into a golden dagger. The moment the dagger appeared, Rin and Ranko knew what was coming next, and their faces twisted into a striking impression of The Scream.

"Rise, my legion!" His shadow extended and covered the whole courtyard, then from the shadow rose hundreds of shadow monsters.

Shizuku was surprised to see Asher brought out a necromancy skill, everyone knew for a fact that Asher is a synergist not a necromancer or anywhere even close to that, there was also the reason that he barely had any affinity for magic, but what he's doing doesn't follow that logic.

With the Void Archives Mimic: Key of Domination, Asher gained the ability to control shadows, what he's doing isn't exactly necromancy nor magic either.

Nonetheless, Shizuku spared no effort and ordered her puppets to attack the shadow legion, in just a few minutes, all of the shadows were destroyed, despite that fact, Asher and Tetsurou remained calm, which made Shizuku suspicious.

"Hah! What's with that magic? Is that just for show? They barely stood a chance at my Zombies!" She developed a sneer.

Asher simply laughed at her remarks "Ahahaha!!! That's funny, you think you've won? Listen mortals! I am the Supreme lord of the Shadows! Asher Guren! I shall trample-!"

"Whatever, just do it already…" Tetsurou had to rain on his parade, they have no time to spare, they still need to fight the 2nd Angel, pointlessly using their abilities here would do no good in the long run.

"Ugh… fine" Asher grumbled and snapped his fingers.

The Shadow Legions started repairing themselves and attacked the zombie soldiers. Shizuku was surprised at the shadow legion's ability to regenerate, but still she figured that there's a weakness to such powerful skill.

She ordered her puppets into an all-out war against the Shadow Legion. The fact that the Key of Domination's Shadow Legion's regeneration lies on Asher's mana which will run out fast if the situations not finished, he'll run out of mana before the main event, to which he acted on the next one.

Asher walked towards Shizuku, noticing this, she put Noel and Kondou on him. Noel swung his sword at Asher with all of his considerable might. Any normal sword or shield would've been sliced in half by force of the blow, but the Iskandar isn't a normal weapon, even if it's a mimic, it's original for was still a Divine Key. He blocked it so easily, it was like defending a swing from a kid.

"So, you kicked the bucket too… What a shame." Hayato and the other's watched, dumbfounded, as Asher pushed Noel's sword back. He heaved a despondent sigh as he looked at what Noel had become.

And then, a miracle occurred.

"Ah… P-Please…" Shizuku wasn't controlling her this time. Even if it seemed like it to the others, Asher knew those were the words of the real Noel Barrens, who was once his instructor.

There was only one response he could give to a request like that.

"Sorry, I'll be borrowing your power"

Asher switched Iskandar into a back handed grip and cleanly sliced off Noel's head, proceeding to the next one, Asher attacked Kondou, immobilizing him by slicing his legs then finishing it with a stab through the heart, to be doubly sure, he slit his throat, long and wide.

That sudden unhesitating kill brought shocked to the other students, their classmate, once regarded as the weakest, the loser and the nobody, even dead, he didn't hesitate to end the life of someone he knew.

Asher's eyes were glowing blue, burning with anger all directed at Shizuku, not because she betrayed him a year ago, no he's long past that, he's angry for trying to kill Kaede, the girl who gathered her courage to even confess to a nobody like him.

Even though her strongest puppets have been destroyed, she still had the other ones attack him, even with the numbers of the Shadow Legion, it wasn't enough to even stop all the zombies from attacking Asher. Aside from that, the numbers of the Shadow Legion are diminishing.

Learning the fact that Shizuku had the advantage in numbers gave her confidence, she began to develop a sneer on her face as she looked at Asher.

"Ahahaha!! Even with that power of yours, you can't hope to beat my army!"

On her confident remark, Asher smiled and scoffed at her, then gave her a condescending look.

"Who said you ever had the advantage?"

Rise!

The corpse of the fallen Zombie Soldiers started shaking violently, Shizuku was confused, what gave him that kind of confidence, he wasn't even moving from his position, his shadow legion is slowly getting pushed back, and yet, he's still confidently sure that he'd come out on top of this disadvantage in numbers.

"You, dumbass bitch… disadvantage in numbers, did you really think that'd work against me?"

The Shaking zombie soldiers stopped, from their chests, arms started clawing out of the bodies and standing up as new Shadow Legion soldiers on Asher's side.

Asher stood confidently, one hand in his pocket, the other holding the gleaming Iskandar, by his side, stood two new Shadow Legion Generals, the former Knight Commander, Noel Barrens, and the Dragoon, member of the Front-line Party, Kondou.

"That only works as an advantage for me"

They stood by his side, both of their faces glowed blue showing their faces that were smiling, despite the fact that they were once more revived as Shadow Legion Generals, the look on their face had never been happier, maybe it was the fact that they could get revenge on the one that killed them.

"Wha…!"

It was at this moment, Shizuku knew, she fucked up. The moment she learned that Asher could get more Shadow Legion by the corpse of her own army, there was already no chance of winning.

Shizuku grit her teeth in frustration. A trickle of blood dripped from her lip. A few moments ago, she'd been in complete control of the situation. Everyone had been dancing at her tune, and her dominance was but a simple fact. But then, a wild card appeared, the Joker, Asher went and destroyed all her work for the past year in just under five minutes. The unfairness of it all infuriated Shizuku. She glared daggers at Asher, her hatred overpowering her fear.

"You little-" Before Shizuku could finish her insult, she felt the cold blade pressing on her neck.

Asher was already in front of her pointing Iskandar at her, both Kondo's Spear and Noel's Sword was on either side of her neck. One wrong move and she's already dead.

"I don't care what drove you to this, I don't care what your motives are, and why you betrayed me, I don't have the time to listen to you explaining them. Any last words? Then die" Asher gripped Iskandar and put pressure on it. Shizuku could tell from his eyes. He wouldn't hesitate to kill one of his classmates, nor did he care that doing so would only further damage his reputation among his classmates.

I'm going to die. That single thought filled her mind.

Fortunately for her, it appeared Shizuku had the devil's luck,

A fireball came out of nowhere before Asher could push Iskandar any further. It burned white-hot, and quite a bit of force behind it. However, with Asher's high resistance to fire, it was more like a gust of warm wind than that of a fire, it wasn't enough to hurt him either. It he sliced off the spell easily.

"Gurennnnnnn!!!" Hayama burst out from behind the fireball, charging straight for Asher. He was covered in wounds, and didn't even seem capable of proper speech anymore, but had somehow found the strength to fight.

He had a sword in his hand, though his right shoulder was shattered and dangling limply. Blood dripped from his mouth as he ran.

Fact of the matter was, he looked utterly pathetic.

"Shut up, will you!" Annoyed, Asher kicked Hayama in the chin. He rose a few inches into the air, but didn't go flying. The force of the impact had been transferred entirely into his body, which was why he didn't move much.

Asher then raised his leg up high, and brough it down, delivering an earth-shattering axe kick.

His heel slammed into Hayama's skull, and smashed it straight into the ground. The floor cracked as Hayama's head hit it, and a fountain of blood spurted from his forehead. Then, his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell unconscious instantly.

It was obvious he was at death's door, but Asher didn't stop beating him.

As Hayama's head bounced back up, Asher kicked it again, sending him flying into the air. He held back so that Hayama would regain consciousness instead of die.

As Hayama fell back down, Asher grabbed the back of his collar and held him up. Hayama struggled against Asher's grip, but his weak thrashing achieved little. Asher was beyond the realm of mortal strength, and Hayama had lost too much blood to put any power behind his kicks and punches.

"Ish all your fault! If it washn't for you, Kaede would've been mine!" He vented all of his deep-seated resentment. Asher was honestly a little impressed that anyone could sink so low. Hayama's unabashed depravity would have made normal people sick to their stomach.

Asher, however, didn't even bother saying anything. His face was an expressionless mask, only his eyes glowed in the dark night. To him, Hayama wasn't even worth wasting his emotions on.

"You're so pathetic… you couldn't even do something worthwhile in your miserable existence…"

"Ish all your fault!"

"Don't pin this on me. You're the one who decided to stoop on this level. Both here and in Japan, you've always been the loser. You didn't lose to other people. You've lost to yourself. You never once tried to take responsibility for anything. All you ever did was sit on the sidelines and insult everyone else, when the real loser was always you"

"I'll kill you! No matter what ish takesh, I swear I'll kill you!" Hayama had gone completely insane

Asher gave Hayama one last pitiful glare before looking off into the distance. He could already spot the devil army on the field, the 2nd angel was about to come any second with her army of Houkai Beasts.

Asher wind up and threw Hayama really hard all the way out of the castle and the capital (probably).

"Good luck surviving out there. Knowing you, you wouldn't last a second" of course, despite throwing him really hard, Asher made sure that he held back enough for that Hayama wouldn't die on crashing on the ground, he wanted Hayama to feel what Tetsurou and him felt when they were down in the abyss, the constant fear of death hunting you.

Unfortunately, because he'd taken his time with Hayama, he'd run out of time to kill Shizuku. Because his concentration slipped from Hayama, Shizuku managed to slip out of Noel and Kondou's guard.

[Attention, All Divine Key Holders, the 2nd Angel has appeared on the battlefield, repeat, the 2nd Angel has appeared. All operators remain on stand by and deal with the Devil Army and the Houkai Beasts, the Divine Key Wielders shall deal with the 2nd Angel]

Bella's voice rang from the communicator device that was on Asher's ear. He looked at Tetsurou who nodded at him.

The Shadow Legion once more disappeared into Asher's shadow and the Void Archives reverted to its original shape. Tetsurou ran off dashing for the field outside the capital.

Meanwhile, Asher and the rest of the students walked over Kaede. Mei clung to Kaede, she didn't want to let her best friend go, on the other hand, Kaede had only seemed exhausted despite the blood on her dress, the spell she casted had healed her.

"Guren-kun! Kaede's… She's… What should I do?" Mei looked far more ragged than Asher had ever seen her. She was on the verge of breaking down. With panic overcoming her, she seemed to have forgot that Kaede wasn't in imminent danger in the latest.

Asher sighed at the expression of Mei, Asher was tempted to tease her a bit, but now's not the time for that. He shook his head.

"That girl's too stubborn to die. She's not gonna die yet"

He knelt in front of Mei, who was sitting on the ground still holding Kaede. He cupped her cheeks gently and raised her face, forcing her to meet his gaze.

"Stay strong, Murasame. Wallowing in grief won't do anything, I've been there before. Kaede's gonna live, I promise you that."

"Guren-kun…"

A faint glimmer of light returned to Mei's empty eyes. Asher smiled gently and joked, "If you're not there to look after everyone, how're these fools going to manage? Besides, Kaede wouldn't want to see you like this either… right? They all need you.  No one else is masochistic enough to take care of these guys"

"who're you calling a masochist, you, dork. Can I… really trust you?"

"Don't trust me, I'm just a traitor."

Asher's smile didn't fade, but looking into his eyes, Mei could tell he was serious. Kaede was already out of danger with the spell, but even so, she still needed a treatment.

The color returned to her face. She nodded to Asher with newfound resolve. Relieved that Mei no longer looked like she was about to break, Asher stood up. He pulled out a vial from his pack and handed it to her.

"This is…"

"Give to that other dumbass childhood friend of yours. He looks like he's in a pretty bad shape. But if you want don't do it and let him bleed to death, that'd please me more than anything"

"You…"

Mei turned back to Hayato with a start, as if she'd only just remembered he was there.

After Shizuku had left, the tension had drained from him and he'd fallen. His breathing was shallow, and he really did look weak.

"Thank you, Guren-kun" Mei clutched the vial to her chest, tears in her eyes. Asher nodded and turned back.

Vulcan then, crashed on the empty part of the courtyard. He walked off to a safe distance, he touched his boots activating Icarus's full capabilities to fly.

"Time for a revenge match"

"My Friend!" Ranko called out "Um… Ri-chan. Where's Ri-chan?"

"Ah… Oh yeah, you guys should head for the western forest outside the capital, we've set up camp there, Ri-chan's probably there, get Kaede treated there, Sonohara, Ranko-chan, can I leave them to you guys?"

Both of them firmly nodded. Asher reached out his hand, Vulcan flew to his hand magically.

"Guren!" Hayato called out one last time, but Asher didn't spare him a glance.

"You should get out now, there's a high chance that the capital will be wiped out in the upcoming battle!"

"I can still fight!" Hayato struggled to his feet but miserably failed to even stand and stumble on the ground, Asher kicked the ground and flew off into the distance.