I recalled that day, the day the sky had turned blood-red. I rembered the warmth slowly fading from the body in my arms.
“Why?” I had asked.
The battle against the Demon God’s army was a hopeless fight, and realizing there was no chance of victory, I had told my comrades to leave behind and run. It wasn’t a grand, noble sacrifice worthy of admiration.
After all, I was an immortal, one who would return to life shortly after dying. If my asly life could buy us a way out of that disaster, then that was the right choice. Of course, if the Demon God’s forces captured , it wouldn’t end with just losing my life. There would be torture, agony, things worse than death.
But that didn’t matter. Pain couldn’t kill . Suffering didn’t an it was the end. Even if my body were torn apart, burned to ashes, or shattered into dust, I wouldn’t die. That was why I had no complaints about staying behind to act as bait. In fact, I thought it was the wisest, most logical decision—until Iris, who I thought had fled, ca back to save .
“Why? Why did you do that? Why did you co back?” I had scread, tears falling, as I looked at Iris. She was barely standing, covered in blood, gasping for air.
I had assud she escaped with the others, but instead, she had returned without knowing and used a miracle, at the cost of her life, just to save . Not for the group, not for the world, just for .
Why? Why? Why, why, why?
My head was filled with nothing but that question. She ca back to save my life? How could that make any sense? To , life was no more valuable than a pebble lying by the riverside. Countless in number, unnoticed when lost, and easy to discard at any ti. That was the worth of my life. Yet, she gave her life for a worthless pebble like that? Why would she make such a senseless, idiotic choice?
As I sobbed, she gently reached out to touch my cheek, her voice faint. “Eh! Heh. I’m... glad.”
“Glad? What are you glad about? What part of this is good?”
There was nothing to be glad about. She would die from the backlash of using the miracle. Humanity would lose the hope known as the Saintess. The Demon God’s army would grow ever more relentless. In return? All we got was one asly life—mine. Out of the thousands, the tens of thousands of tis I could die, this was just one instance where I lived. How could anyone call that a relief?
Yet, she said again, smiling brightly, “Truly... I’m so... glad!”
Without the slightest trace of regret or hesitation, and ever so peacefully as her eyes slowly closed.
***
In a space cloaked in a violet barrier, not even the screams and monstrous roars echoing across the academy grounds could be heard. There, the Saintess of the Seven Stars, with her soft pink hair disheveled and breath ragged, glared at the man before her. “You bastard!”
The vile curse was shocking coming from the mouth of a Saintess.
The man, who had kind eyes and dark brown hair, smiled gently at the seething Saintess. “Oh dear, is that sothing you should be saying to a professor?”
“Shut up! You call yourself a professor?”
Morpheus shrugged with a smirk, eyes gleaming with amusent. “Haha. Let’s not use such strong language, shall we? You’re only making want to tornt you more.”
As he flicked his fingers, a wave of violet energy surged around Iris’s body. The next instant, a scream tore from her throat as agony akin to that of her whole body being crushed drove her to her knees.
Morpheus clicked his tongue in mock disappointnt. “Honestly, you’ve been screaming non-stop. It’s getting a little annoying.”
His gaze then shifted to the side, where Camilla, the children from the orphanage, and Father Antonio lay unconscious on the floor, their eyes dazed as if they had been drugged. “Can’t you follow Camilla’s example and stay quiet?”
Gritting her teeth through the pain that crushed her entire body, Iris stared daggers at Morpheus. “You... bastard!”
In that instant, her eyes glead with a radiant, rainbow-colored light. The violet aura binding her evaporated like mist. Freed from the magic, Iris gasped for breath, sweat dripping down her pale face.
“My, my! To neutralize my magic just by looking at it... The power of the Seven Eyes never ceases to amaze , truly.” A dark glint of greed flickered in Morpheus’s eyes. “You have no idea how much I’ve sacrificed to get those eyes. How hard I’ve worked.”
“Oh? And by working hard, do you an unleashing monsters during the school festival?”
Morpheus sighed, shaking his head with theatrical regret. “No, no. This whole ss wasn’t even part of my original plan. I don’t like such barbaric thods. But thanks to a certain ddling worm, my plans went off track. I truly do feel sorry about that, Iris.”
“Feel sorry? What the hell are you talking about?” Iris angrily replied.
“Originally, I had planned to take them slowly, painlessly, so that not even you would realize it was happening. Now, I’m left with no choice but to take your eyes through cruder ans.” He had carefully built this sche over ti, but all of it had been ruined because of one unforeseen variable.
“Cruder ans?”
“A physical extraction,” Morpheus said with a soft, almost gentle smile.
Iris went pale. “W-what are you saying...?”
“Hmm? Was I not clear? I’m going to pluck out your eyes, Iris. Ah, don’t worry, I brought the proper tool.”
Morpheus pulled a tal object from his pocket. A spoon-like instrunt, almost like the kind one would use to scoop ice cream. Only this one’s edge was razor sharp, clearly made for sothing far more grueso. “Just push this in, scoop it out, and voila—perfectly extracted eyeballs. If I were to extract the magic through sorcery, so of the power within the Seven Eyes might be lost. But given the situation, I’m afraid this is the only option.”
Absorbing the power of the Seven Eyes in its entirety was certainly important. But even more crucial was to erase the Seven Eyes from existence altogether.
“The power you possess is far too great an obstacle to our cause,” he said.
“Your cause?”
“Haha. What else would a demon’s cause be, if not one thing? If his seal were to be broken, you damnable heroes, and the hypocritical Seven Gods you serve, would all vanish from this world.” Morpheus was obviously referring to the resurrection of the Demon God sealed away five hundred years ago by the Great Five Heroes.
He spread his arms wide, his expression giddy—like soone high on a drug. “Now do you understand? Why I went through all this trouble to get my hands on your eyes?”
Iris glared at him. “You lunatic!”
“Well, feel free to curse all you want. Not that it’ll change anything.” Still wearing that gentle smile, Morpheus took a step forward.
“D-don’t co any closer!”
“You would do well to stay still. Try sothing reckless, and...” Morpheus flicked his fingers again. A wave of purple mana spread out and covered the fallen children and Camilla like a suffocating blanket. “The people you care about might not make it.”
“Y-you bastard! If you lay even a finger on Camilla or the kids, I swear—”
“Haha, I’m joking. Relax.” He chuckled, shoulders shaking with amusent.
“Joking?”
“That line about your loved ones dying if you resist. Doesn’t that sound like sothing a di-store villain would say? I only said it because the mood felt appropriate. Don’t take it to heart. But really, even if you don’t resist, I’m going to kill every last person here anyway. Oh, naturally, that includes you too, Iris.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Morpheus offered a serene smile, his eyes crinkling. “Isn’t it obvious? Didn’t they teach you in school? Demons must be exterminated without exception. The reverse holds as well, doesn’t it?”
If heroes were the enemies of demons, then demons were, by nature, the enemies of heroes.
“W-wait! Then the children have nothing to do with this!” Iris replied.
“Hm? Now that you ntion it, you’re right. But do I need to bother making such distinctions?” Morpheus laughed and continued walking. “They were just unlucky to be in the wrong place at the wrong ti. Isn’t that reason enough for them to die?”
Iris bit her lip hard, her face drained of all color. Until now, she had only read about demons in books; this was her first ti facing the raw, suffocating malice of a devil wearing a human face. She was scared. Fear coiled around her like poison, making her tremble uncontrollably. Though she was praised as a Saintess by many, behind that title stood nothing more than a twenty-year-old girl who hadn’t even graduated yet.
“P-please... Soone... soone help.” The words escaped her lips.
She wanted soone to help her, but why, why was it that at this mont, what appeared in her mind was not the face of a professor, but that of a fellow cadet?
“Haha. I can understand how you feel, but no one’s coming.” Morpheus turned and gestured proudly at the violet do encasing them. “The barrier surrounding us, it’s literally made from lives, you know.”
“Made from lives? Don’t tell ...”
“Hmm, I’d say around two hundred demons? Every last one of them was a treasured subordinate. A sha, really.” He shrugged as if it were nothing.
“You’re insane.”
“Compared to the value of the Seven Eyes, that level of sacrifice is aningless.” If it ant obtaining the eyes blessed by the Seven Gods, he would sacrifice far more without hesitation. “Well then, shall we get started?”
Morpheus suddenly seized Iris by the chin, his grip rough. “Try not to squirm too much. It’ll only hurt more.”
The sharp, knife-like edge of the spoon-shaped tal tool neared her eye. Suddenly, a ripple spread across the purple barrier like a pebble dropped in a still lake.
“Hm? Looks like soone found the barrier,” Morpheus said. But so what if they did? “The Veil of Illusion will take at least an hour to dispel even if all the professors in the Mage Division worked together—”
A blinding white bolt of lightning pierced through the violet barrier with a boom and ca crashing down toward Morpheus.
A voice rang out. “An hour, my ass!”
Morpheus cursed under his breath and scrambled back. The hand holding the tal tool was nearly severed, blood gushing from the wound. Eyes wide with disbelief, Morpheus turned toward the source. “What the hell?”
Standing protectively in front of Iris was a young man with dark gray hair.
The young man’s deep green eyes locked onto Morpheus. “I finally found you, you bastard.”
Dale stepped forward, baring his teeth in a savage grin at Morpheus— no, at Astaroth.
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