[Arthur's Pov]
'Monster...'
With my eyes finally opening after I hit the wall, I was met by one of the most horrid sights that I had ever seen. Blood and guts were strewn across the floor, and the source of it all was on his knees in the center of the room.
In front of him stood a real monster, a monster with white hair and sky-blue eyes. With four orbs of water continually penetrating the muscly body, while streams of water tore pieces of flesh off with every strike, he scared me a lot more than the monstrosity with tears in its eyes.
"Zero... Stop..."
Yet, my weak voice didn't reach him, and before I knew it, everything went black once again.
****
[Zero's Pov]
'Holy fuck...'
In contrast to what I had thought, Zero hadn't been consumed by sadness and broken down in tears. Instead, he had opted to completely fuck our enemy up, and it hadn't taken long before he was down on his knees with his arms torn off and his stomach splattered across the floor.
Even though he had tried to regenerate as quickly as possible, it had only been met with either another shot from one of our orbs or a whip of the streams of water, rendering it useless.
And now, our opponent had reached his limit, his head hanging limply as his last breath slowly escaped his body.
"-Zero?!-"
At the same time, a submerged-sounding voice rang out, a feminine voice that I heard so much these last week. Looking up, my teacher was running quickly towards us, her face pale with fear.
'What's she so worried about...? We won, right?'
*Cough!*
A spray of blood escaped us, and I finally noticed what my confused mind had missed during the entire fight. Blood was pouring out of our every orifice once again, and I could finally feel the insane pain that surged throughout our body every time our heart worked to keep our vessel functioning.
Then, everything went black, and I could only remember our last thought.
'She's going to be mad, isn't she?'
****
[Jessica's Pov]
"Zero?!"
Finally arriving at the club where I had gotten word of a demon attack, the first thing I got to see was a large pile of red flesh on the floor and a kid whose white hair had gotten red from all the blood.
With his face covered in blood, I couldn't stop a shiver from running down my back, as I kept forcing myself to run to his side. And just as his blue eyes went damp, I managed to catch his small body.
'Did he do this...?'
Just the pure insanity of the situation made my head hurt, desperately trying to find some semblance of reason.
However, before I got the time to think it through for real, voices could be heard from a corridor on our side.
"Let me fucking go! I swear to God, if Arthur is dead... ARTHUR!"
Ms. Red had come out from the corridor, quickly followed by a big group of my current and previous students, as well as two men in black suits.
A rush of anger quickly started to take over my being as I started to get a picture of the situation, but because of the princess, I had to bite my lip to calm down.
There were so many questions I had to ask, like why was I the first one to get here? Where was the royal guard or any hunters from the big guilds?
While Sophie was holding Arthur on the side, one of the suited men came over to me, "Thank you for your service, Ms. Turner. Now, with the authority of the royal house, we will take it from here."
'What the fuck is he talking about?!'
Dismembered and crushed bodies were lying all around the room, even some who I assumed to be his colleagues.
And yet, they had hidden to make sure Sarah was okay?
"Don't fuck with me! Where the hell is the military?! And what the fuck are the guilds doing?!"
I couldn't take it anymore, even more so as he still wore no expression on his face.
Calmly, he went on to quickly explain what was happening.
"The demons attacked several facilities at once, including sending people to the castle. So there was no one available, or at least they weren't. Until now."
With him pointing his eyes toward the entrance, a huge group of people ran into the club, a mix of both royal knights and hunters.
In the front, an old man led them, an old man that I knew from very long ago.
"Greetings, Ms. Turner. I'm sorry we're late."
The guild master of Obelisk looked just as worn down as ever, his wrinkles seemingly deeper than ever.
"Mr. Stone..."
"Is that the young Zero that I've heard rumors about? Please allow me to rush him to our medical facility. We have all..."
"That won't be needed."
Unsure as to how or why, Dr. Smith had also arrived, quickly making his way to me and lifting Zero from my arms.
"I'll be going first."
And just as quickly as he came, he left with the bleeding boy, not caring about his clothes getting soaked with blood.
Finally getting a proper look, I could see the students looking terrified, with both Caroline and Anna puking in a corner.
"How... how did this happen..."
"As I said, Ms. Turner..."
"I wasn't asking you, you piece of shit!"
Flinching a bit because of my voice, the bodyguard took a step back, only for the one I actually directed the question at to step forward.
"It's like the man says. There were multiple demon attacks at the same time, and because of the priorities of the royal guard, most of their resources went to protect the king. We as well had no idea who was where, we just tried to save as many as possible."
The worst part about his words was that there was nothing for me to be angry at. If what he said was true, then it wasn't weird that they couldn't get here sooner.
As for me, I wouldn't have been here either if it wasn't for an anonymous tip on my smartwatch telling me I had to go here.
There were, however, some people that I did have the right to be furious with, but that I couldn't do anything to if I didn't want to commit treason.
I didn't blame the other students for not helping out, even if they could likely have been a big help.
From my understanding of the two injured students, I was pretty sure that they wouldn't have accepted them following anyway.
Mr. Stone's wrinkly hand landed on my shoulder, "I am truly sorry, Ms. Turner. But now we have to deal with this situation first. Roger, please attend to the injured young man over there! Matthew, send scouts...."
As the veteran hunter yelled orders at his men, and even to the royal guards, my mind was still a complete mess.
'Who could have made something like this happen? Who could...'
Then, the coin dropped. Someone who might have the tools to know about the princess's whereabouts, who most of the time appeared to always have complete control.
'Could it really be you?'
If it really was him, then the target of the attack might not even have been the princess. If it was, he would've killed her in Kurat already.
So, in the end, if my gut feeling was correct, there was only one conclusion.
'Does he want to get rid of Zero?'
"Ms. Turner... Is Zero going to be alright?"
A golden-haired girl came up to me, her face pale with worry and disgust. To her question, the emotions that I had ignored came rushing back.
Following her, two more students came up to me, just in time to hear my answer, both wearing similar faces to the princess.
I wasn't all too worried about Arthur as I could sense his mana moving, but Zero... I had no idea.
However, I knew that no matter what happened here, the princess wasn't to blame. So, I lied, and spoke so all three would hear me clearly.
"Of course he is. That boy is strong, a lot stronger than you think."
Reacting to my words, Stella, Thomas, and Sarah all felt relieved enough for their tears to start falling, accompanied by slight smiles on their faces.
'You have made some good friends, Zero...'
****
[Zero's Pov]
"Huff...huff.. "
'Fuck... It hurts so fucking bad...'
Having just finished another episode of my body cramping up, I was only met by the stiff voice of my doctor.
"You know, kid? You truly are an idiot."
'Thanks for the kind words...'
Even though everything had worked out alright, though I didn't know how much of Zero's lifespan was sacrificed, it was hard for me to feel satisfied with the situation.
Mostly because of this insane pain that ravaged my body, accompanied by the voice of a very unempathetic doctor.
"Don't worry. The pain will soon go away. Or at least it shouldn't stay for more than another five hours."