Chapter 47: Boss Battle, go to Buff, Fight in a Group!
The sky over the Royal Capital plunged into darkness, like a vast and quietly inverted abyss.
"Wh.....what is happening!?"
The crowd watched as the spreading Black Ink gradually blanketed the sky, swallowing their hope.
So Mages within the Academy tried to conjure sparks from their hands to illuminate the area around them, but no matter how hard they tried, not even a single ember could be coaxed out.
"It's bad! Magic Power disruption!"
A Mage suddenly cried out in alarm.
A crushing wave of negative energy—far more intense than anything before—surged toward the Mages.
Those who had still been on their feet monts ago began to falter, 1 after another.
They collapsed in succession, and a creeping unease began to rise in Gwen's heart as well.
Her instincts told her that perhaps it was not only the Academy that was in crisis.
It was possible that the entire Royal Capital was about to be plunged into catastrophe.
"Look! What is that!"
Several students cried out, pointing toward the Back Hill of the Academy. A wave of dread rippled through the crowd in an instant.
The barrier had grown transparent enough for them to see what lay beyond it.
But the sight that t their eyes was one none of them would ever forget for the rest of their lives.
The Demon's form began to swell at a terrifying rate, consuming every piece of the landscape it touched.
The Academy's Back Hill, unable to bear the violent compression, began to crumble. Yet the rocks did not fall—instead, the Demon's tongue coiled around them and sent them plunging into its bottomless maw.
Even a portion of the sky itself was gnawed away, shattering like glass—revealing nothing but void beyond, hissing and crackling as it collapsed.
"That……that thing, is the Demon?"
"The Demon……that saved Professor Dewen?"
Panic spread through the entire Academy.
Even those outside the Academy bore witness to the disaster-like chaos unfolding before them.
For the first ti, the Imperial family took the calamity seriously. Troops were mobilized, and a large contingent of Mages loaded into Carriages and ca racing toward the Academy in full support.
For a mont, screams, the clatter of Carriage wheels, and the thunderous crack of collapsing mountainside filled the entire Royal Capital.
***
Kavra was flung away like a kite with a snapped string, crashing through several thick and towering trees before going still.
The Demon looked down at the fallen Demon Hunter and its own ever-growing body, and let out a jeering laugh.
"I have you to thank for this, little girl."
"It's still not quite enough, but I can't be too greedy now, can I?"
The little girl the Demon referred to was, of course, Heni.
It had never once imagined that a perfectly ordinary person it had stumbled upon by chance would carry such a vast and dense reservoir of magical knowledge.
To the Demon, this was nothing short of a gift from the heavens.
Under its manipulation, Heni had borrowed an enormous amount of power from it.
And within the human Academy, she had constructed a Magic Power siphoning formation beyond even what the Demon itself could have conceived.
A compound formation woven from countless different formation types—even a 4th-Tier Mage would require a considerable amount of ti to analyze and dismantle it.
Heni had used that formation to draw enough Magic Power to accomplish the revenge she desired.
Yet in the end, all of it had fallen into the Demon's hands instead.
As long as the formation held, the Mages within would continue to serve as its Magic Power source, fueling its unrelenting growth.
At this mont, the Demon no longer even wanted to devour Heni.
The knowledge housed within Heni's mind had stirred in the Demon a hunger for knowledge it had never once felt before.
A Demon rarely kills its contractors without reason—especially contractors as exceptional as Heni.
Now and then, a faint light flickered across its body.
That was the Magic Power being continuously drained from the countless Mages of the Academy, feeding it a steady stream of recovery.
The Magic Power within its body continued to swell.
Many tis over what it had ever given Heni in exchange.
In a sense, Heni had repaid every last debt between them. There was no longer any need to consu her.
Then, suddenly, a brilliant flash of white light erupted—and Kavra burst forward, completely unscathed, both hands gripping the Twin Blades in reverse, charging straight at the Demon.
A Demon Hunter gains a combat Buff when facing a Demon, but in exchange, loses a portion of their reason.
Yet against a Demon, fighting on pure instinct was clearly the greater advantage.
The enormous maw on the Demon's body was torn open in an instant, and countless black Tentacles ca gushing out from between the rows of fangs.
With an impatient swipe, it batted Kavra hundreds of ters away.
Yet she refused to fall. Again and again she charged back, and each ti she managed to land so asure of damage on it with the specially forged weapons in her hands.
The damage itself was not great—but the humiliation it carried was extre.
The Demon began to grow increasingly irritated. Its opponent was so pitifully weak, and yet she clung to it like a fly, impossible to swat away no matter what it tried.
Then, at that very mont, a faint magical glow flickered to life.
A purple formation slowly took shape between Erika's outstretched hands, every line and every Rune etched into place with precision.
She pressed her palms together. The space around the Demon tore open in an instant—clouds resembling scattered stars materialized out of thin air, and from within them, dozens of purple chains erupted, driving deep into the Demon's body.
【2nd-Tier Magic: Nebula Lock】
"It worked!"
Erika was equal parts shocked and elated. It was fortunate she had once studied this particular magic under Viktor. She hadn't imagined her very first ti using it would be against a fearso enemy like this Demon.
The Demon imdiately felt its internal Magic Power et with significant obstruction, and its attention snapped to the chains severing its magical conduits.
"Hmph, botherso Mage."
It wrenched itself free. The surrounding mountainside shuddered in response to the motion, and enormous chunks of rock ca crashing down.
Before long, the chains shattered.
But to have sealed it for even a short ti was enough.
Within that brief window, Erika had already drawn several small formations.
Each and every one of them was layering magical Buffs onto Kavra.
"Speed, attack, resistance, tenacity…….add all of it!"
Erika worked at a furious pace, weaving formations and chanting without pause.
She had studied each of these spells thoroughly, and Viktor had even given her no small amount of advice on improvents.
Deploying these small-scale Buffs ca to Erika as naturally as breathing.
With enough Buffs layered onto her body, Kavra's movents beca blindingly fast.
She seized the gap the mont the Demon twisted free of the chains, and in the blink of an eye, a streak of white light cut through the air—threading past countless Tentacles and fangs, driving down with savage force onto the Demon's neck.
The Demon threw its head back in pain. The special Twin Blades inflicted on it sothing far beyond ordinary wounds. It could feel the Magic Power within it hemorrhaging without stop.
It thrashed in a frenzy, and countless Tentacles began to tear free from its body, dropping to the ground.
Professor Dewen, collapsed on the ground, looked up at the horrifying scene before him. He was seized by such violent trembling that he instinctively squird and rolled away with every last ounce of his strength, narrowly avoiding the Tentacles raining down around him.
The Demon grew agitated. The rows of fangs and blades across its body gradually retracted, and the countless Tentacles fell still.
Only the single massive maw of its head remained active—and it began to devour its own enormous body with savage ferocity. Blood and a fetid stench erupted in a torrent.
The reeking fluid corroded more than half of the surrounding forest. Erika, too, felt a piercing pain crawl across her skin.
She dropped to the ground imdiately, pressing herself flat to avoid the miasma drifting through the air.
The more it consud, the more grotesquely its head swelled. By the ti it had devoured its own body whole, the head—slicked with viscous fluid and blood—looked as though it was about to burst at any second.
What remained in the end was a single, endlessly swaying head, spewing Black Ink in every direction.
Drop by drop it fell to the ground, and from each point of contact, Tentacles erupted upward—towering pillars of Black Ink stretching toward the sky like enormous columns holding up the heavens.
1 strike ca down, and a 100-ter-high tidal wave of Black Ink swept everything into it.
Erika was swept up in the Black Ink and slamd hard into a shattered rock face. 1 of her arms was pierced through by a jagged shard of stone, and agony flooded her entire body.
Kavra was subrged beneath the Black Ink, struggling desperately, yet sinking further with every passing mont.
The Demon spread its massive maw wide, and Tentacles coiled around Kavra, drawing her toward it to be swallowed whole.
Then, suddenly, Kavra smiled—an eerie, unsettling smile.
She gave a sharp tug of her fingers. Beneath the Black Ink, scattered silver blades launched themselves skyward, driving straight into the Demon's enormous head.
The Demon let out a screech of pain. Kavra seized the mont, wrenched herself free of the Demon's grip, and in a single rolling motion, drove several silver-white daggers into the Demon's head as she moved.
The Demon shrieked in pain. Kavra pressed the advantage and broke loose from the Demon's grasp.
"Die already! Demon!"
The daggers embedded in the top of the Demon's head began to blaze with searing white light, 1 after another. A resonant tallic hum rang across the sky.
The daggers detonated across the Demon's body like bombs, 1 by 1.
Ripple after ripple expanded outward in concentric waves visible to the naked eye.
The Demon let out a wretched howl. Its head exploded with a thunderous boom, dissolving into a mass of impossibly dense black mist.
The violent shockwave ground every remaining tree in the vicinity to powder. Ash and smoke blotted out the sky.
Kavra's legs gave out beneath her. She dropped back to the ground, gasping for breath.
"We won……"
Then, without warning, a voice like sothing dredged up from the depths of the abyss drifted down from the sky, sending a shiver through Kavra's entire body.
"Are you quite done?"
She looked up.
The endless black mist had converged once more, reforming into a filthy and grotesque head.
It opened 1 of its eyes—round and luminous as a light bulb—and fixed its gaze on her. Within it swirled nothing but greed and madness.
Kavra stared at the sight before her, unable to believe what she was seeing.
The 100-ter tongue atop the head shot out from the Black Ink pooled on the ground, sweeping sideways—and sent both her and Erika flying over 100 ters away.
The devastating impact left both of them feeling as though their bodies had co apart, overwheld by excruciating pain.
The Demon's tongue crept slowly toward the 2 of them.
Then, all at once, a terrifying wave of weakness surged from within the Demon, stopping it cold.
The Magic Power inside its body……was draining away!?
"No, what is this? Sothing's wrong!"
The Demon focused its concentration and attempted to draw Magic Power from the Academy.
But no matter how it tried to absorb, not a single drop of Magic Power entered its body.
All there was—was Magic Power draining away without end.
It turned its head, looking back toward the Academy.
At so point, the black barrier over the Academy had begun to dissipate, growing increasingly transparent.
Soone had broken the formation!
But this should not have been possible.
Even if it had been broken, a Magic Power backlash of this magnitude should never have occurred.
The Demon's sluggish mind could not sustain any further deliberation. It lowered its gaze, glancing briefly over Erika and Kavra.
It no longer had ti to savor these 2 humans.
Consud by rage, it vented everything onto them both. It lashed out its tongue with savage force—the colossal impact launched the 2 of them completely into the air, until they vanished entirely from sight.
The troubleso insects dealt with in an instant, it dragged its body forward—step by step—and lumbered slowly toward the Academy.
It intended to make the entire Academy its stronghold. From there, it would summon a Demon Gate—through which its offspring would pour forth and claim this place entirely.
It would reshape this land into an empire of its own.
"Hm?"
Suddenly, it lowered its gaze, sensing the faint pulse of a life force below.
It was Professor Dewen, attempting to curl his body into as small a shape as possible, trembling with fear.
And so the Demon bared its maw in a wide grin and erupted into wild laughter.
"Hahahaha! So you're still alive, you foolish little thing."
"You're that little girl's enemy, aren't you?"
The Demon had no real idea what was going through Heni's head—but for now, it could keep this one alive and leave him for Heni to deal with.
Consider it a gift of thanks to Heni, in return for the boundless knowledge she had given it.
So its tongue coiled around the trembling Dewen and, like a missile, flung him hurtling toward the Academy.
***
At that sa mont, the expressions of every Mage within the barrier began to ease.
"There—right there."
Under Weija's guidance, Viktor inserted the final magical Rune.
Almost imdiately, the formation began to dissolve.
Countless Mages felt their Magic Power beginning to flow back into them. They were overwheld with joy, unable to contain their excitent.
Viktor felt sothing stir in his heart as well.
Heni. She really was gentle.
After dismantling the formation, he noticed sothing Heni had left behind—a Reversal Formation.
Once soone successfully broke the formation, it would trigger a Magic Power backflow effect.
The Magic Power that had been siphoned from the victims would begin to flow back at the sa rate, returning from the caster's body to those it had been taken from.
It seed Heni had anticipated all along that the Demon would use her knowledge to seize even greater power.
And so, she had left a vulnerability in the formation in advance.
If the Demon truly grew uncontrollable in the way she feared, then breaking the formation would beco the Mages' only chance to turn the tide.
This was the final piece Heni had left on the board—her last and decisive strike, from soone who possessed only knowledge, with no magical talent to call her own.
While everyone around him was rejoicing at the gradual return of their Magic Power—
They offered Viktor flattery and gratitude in equal asure.
None of them noticed that a mass of black shadow had begun to converge from every direction at once.
The stone pavent of the Academy began to crack apart. Countless structures were gnawed away until they teetered on the edge of collapse.
Several Mage Towers swayed under the Demon's convergence and, with a thunderous boom, burst apart.
The towering Teaching Building crumbled like packed dirt, collapsing in an instant.
Within the span of re seconds, the Academy was transford beyond recognition.
The illustrious Academy that had once glead with brilliance was reduced to ruin in the blink of an eye.
Countless people could not help but look up toward the colossal, titan-like silhouette looming over them.
"A—A Demon!!"
It seed to bring with it an endless tide of terror, a pall of dread hanging over every head.
It extended its long tongue and dropped Professor Dewen onto the ground—the way one might discard a lifeless dog.
At that, countless people were plunged into complete and utter panic.
The overwhelming presence of terror, combined with the horror that had just monts ago vanished beyond the mountaintop—
Everything pointed to the sa truth.
The Demon had arrived at the Academy.
The greedy Demon dripped foul saliva, as though it intended to swallow everything the Academy contained.
And then, at that precise mont, an enormous fluorescent-blue Magic Formation rose from the ground, bathing everyone within its light.
【3rd-Tier Magic: Domain of Magic Power】
Effect: Massively restores Magic Power to all within range. Massively increases magical damage output.
Viktor's calm voice drifted out from nearby, unhurried and composed.
"Well then. Ti for a raid."
User Comments
0 comments from readers