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Chapter 177: Attack (3)
Chapter 177: Attack (3)
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Chapter 177: Attack (3)
A colossal demonic beast emerged from the rift.
No, could that even be called a “demonic beast”?
Its form resembled a clay doll abandoned and crushed by a child at play.
Its grotesque appearance was like a mass of countless flesh fused together.
The ten-eyed demonic beast they had encountered before had been strange enough, but compared to this mass of flesh, it seemed almost endearing.
“…Ugh.”
Professor Elisha clamped her hand over her mouth, fighting the urge to retch.
The memories came flooding back.
* * *
“Aaaahhhh!”
“Elisha! R-run! Get out of here now!”
A burning village.
The air filled with the sound of desperate screams.
In a small village of fewer than 200 people, a massacre unfolded.
Villagers fled, pursued by demonic beasts.
And then...
A horrifying roar that seemed to tear at one’s very soul.
The monstrous mass of flesh, towering dozens of meters high, swung its tentacles, snatching fleeing villagers like fish on a line.
Crunch. Crunch.
The mass of flesh consumed them alive, swallowing them whole.
Enna, who used to tease her with bugs from the woods.
Oliver, who taught her the importance of strength for farming.
Aunt Philia, who secretly baked her sweet treats behind her mother’s back.
The people she knew.
The world she lived in.
All crushed beneath the demonic beast’s fangs.
Obliterated into unrecognizable fragments.
“Ack…”
“Honey! Over here! Hide Elisha here!”
Frozen in terror, she was hastily shoved into a closet by her parents.
From between the cracks, she saw it all.
Her parents, ensnared by the tentacles.
Their faint screams echoing in the distance.
The sound of flesh being torn, bones crushed, and innards splattered.
* * *
“Ah... Ugh.”
Elisha clutched her chest as if in physical pain, gasping for air.
“Heh, heh. So, you remember now?”
“…Jackal.”
Professor Elisha bit her lip so hard it bled.
“Well then, since you’re reminiscing, how about a little family reunion?”
“…What?”
Jackal casually tapped the mass of flesh with the back of his hand.
Krrrrrk.
The demonic beast’s flesh began to shift, reshaping itself into the forms of humans.
Two figures emerged, their expressions twisted in agony.
“Oliver... Aunt Philia...”
“Hmm? Oh, my mistake. Wrong ones.”
Jackal chuckled, shaking his shoulders in mock amusement.
Then, he tapped the demonic beast’s flesh again.
Krrrrrk.
With a sickening sound, the flesh reshaped itself once more.
And this time…
“…Ah.”
Elisha’s eyes widened in shock.
“Mom… Dad…”
Her face turned deathly pale as she stumbled back.
“Ack… No…”
The memories came crashing in.
The distant screams.
The sound of bones shattering and flesh being torn apart.
Her mind was overwhelmed.
Her soul consumed.
“Gasp… gasp… gasp!”
She tried to channel her mana to calm herself, but for some reason, the power she usually wielded so naturally wouldn’t respond.
“W-why…?”
She stared at her Stigma with trembling eyes.
“Professor.”
Dale approached her, gently gripping her shoulder.
“Step back for now.”
“…Dale, Cadet…”
Leaving Professor Elisha behind, Dale strode toward Jackal.
“So, you’re the candidate Mephisto mentioned.”
Jackal crossed his arms, his gaze intrigued as he studied Dale.
“The one he said to be cautious of…”
Dale clicked his tongue in annoyance.
“That bastard sure loves throwing my name around.”
“Heh, heh. Consider it an honor. In all the decades I’ve known Mephisto, this is the first time I’ve heard him warn about someone.”
Jackal smirked and raised his hand slowly.
“Fortunately, I prepared a gift just for you.”
“A gift?”
“Heh. Why do you think I only sent the riffraff to infiltrate the academy?”
Pulling a sharp dagger from his belt, Jackal sliced his palm open, letting blood spill over the runes etched on his body.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Dozens of rifts opened around him, and from within poured a horde of monstrous demonic beasts.
Each one surpassed the ten-eyed demonic beast in power.
“Honestly, I thought this might be overkill for a single candidate…”
Jackal shrugged before extending his hand toward the demonic beasts.
The runes on his body ignited with an ominous glow.
“My children.”
Krrrk! Screech!
The demonic beasts contorted in pain, letting out chilling cries.
Jackal’s voice carried a sinister command.
“Kill him.”
Boom!
The demonic beasts charged at Dale in unison.
“D-Dale!”
Professor Elisha tried to shoot webs toward him, but her mana wouldn’t flow, leaving her powerless.
“Ugh!”
A demonic beast knocked her aside, sending her rolling to the ground.
The horde quickly surrounded Dale, obscuring him completely from view.
‘Why… Why can’t I move my mana?’
Desperation etched across her face, Elisha touched her Stigma, trying to draw out her power.
Yet her mana remained unyielding.
“Heh, heh. Having trouble with your mana?”
“You… What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
Jackal leisurely shook his head.
“I did absolutely nothing.”
“Then why…?”
“Did you know that the Stigma connects not just to the hero’s body but also to their soul?”
Jackal tapped his chest as he continued.
“And so does the mana within it.”
“…What are you trying to say?”
“It means, my dear Professor, that a demon of the mind has invaded your heart.”
A demon of the mind.
Demon of the mind.
She had heard of it before.
A state where qi and magic are blocked, triggered by overwhelming negative emotions like fear, anxiety, despair, and hopelessness.
‘You’re telling me… I’ve fallen into a Demon of the mind state?’
Professor Elisha looked at Jackal with trembling eyes.
No.
That couldn’t be true.
On that day when Jackal crushed her village and killed her parents.
She had lived for this moment alone.
The day she would meet Jackal again and take her revenge on him.
But now...
Standing before him, she was consumed by fear, unable even to muster her magic, falling into a Demon of the mind state?
“Ridic...ulous…!”
Grit.
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Elisha clenched her teeth so hard blood seeped from her lips.
The sharp pain momentarily brought her mind back.
And just as her immobile magic began to stir slightly—
“El, li... sha…”
“Come here…”
“……!”
A familiar voice echoed in her ears.
Eyes wide, Elisha raised her head.
Her parents, formed from grotesque lumps of flesh, reached out their hands toward her, speaking.
“Aaaaahhh!”
Elisha screamed, falling backward.
The sight of her father reaching for her and her mother beckoning her over…
It filled her with terror unlike anything she’d ever known.
“Ah… ugh. Aaaa…”
Collapsing to the floor, Elisha curled into herself.
Wrapping her arms around her shoulders, trembling like a scared child.
‘It’s… just like back then.’
Hiding in the closet, peering out at the chaos.
Watching as monstrous tendrils dragged her parents away.
The helpless, powerless little girl she had been.
“Cluck, cluck. Do you see it now?”
Jackal’s unpleasant laugh echoed as he approached her.
The old man’s gaze scanned her, savoring the sight.
“The 9th-ranked hero? The Spider with the Cursed Eye? No, no, no. That’s not who you truly are.”
His wrinkled face stretched into a wicked grin as he continued.
“This is your true self.”
Helpless, powerless.
A little girl who can’t do a thing.
“This is… the real face of Elisha Baldwin, the hero!”
Cluck, cluck, cluck!
Jackal cackled, clutching his stomach as if he couldn’t contain his amusement.
“What a shame! Your student should have witnessed this pathetic sight!”
“……”
“But... it seems your beloved student is already dead.”
Jackal lazily turned his head.
Surrounded by his familiars, the figure of Dale was nowhere to be seen.
There was no need to look to know the grim fate that awaited the gray-haired cadet.
“…Hah.”
At that moment.
A faint laugh escaped from Elisha’s lips.
“Hm? What’s so funny?”
“I’ll admit it.”
Elisha gave a small nod as she spoke.
“You knew more about me than I expected, Jackal.”
The true face she had hidden behind a cold mask.
The frightened little girl she had worked so hard to bury.
Jackal had seen through her completely.
“But.”
Elisha glanced toward where Dale was, surrounded by monsters, with a faint smile.
“You don’t know a thing about my student.”
“What?”
As Jackal furrowed his brow.
Fwoooosh!
A massive flame erupted among the monsters.
“Grrrrkkk!”
“Kehehh!”
The creatures surrounding Dale were consumed by the flames, letting out pitiful screams.
“What is this…?”
Amidst the blazing flames and swirling gray smoke.
“Hah.”
A glint of green light shone through.
“…He was alive? Amid those monsters?”
Jackal’s eyes widened in disbelief.
Step, step.
Slow, deliberate footsteps echoed as Dale emerged through the smoke.
Without sparing Jackal a single glance, as though the man weren’t worth his attention, Dale walked toward Elisha.
“…Cadet Dale.”
Her face rigid with shame, Elisha turned her head to avoid his gaze.
“I’m sorry. I…”
“I disagree.”
“…Disagree?”
“What that tattooed bastard said about knowing you? I disagree.”
Dale’s voice was calm as he met her gaze.
“I don’t know what kind of past you’ve endured. I don’t know what you were like as a child or how deep your scars run.”
But.
The Elisha Baldwin I know—
“Is cold, stern, with a mischievous streak, and occasionally shows an unexpectedly cute side.”
He reached out, rummaging through her pocket.
Pulling out her cigarette case, he handed it to her.
“And is the most impressive, strongest hero I’ve ever met.”
“Cadet Dale…”
“Well? Moved, are you?”
“No, honestly, it’s pretty cringe.”
“What.”
“I’d record it and play it over the school intercom if I could.”
“Wait.”
How could she think of something so horrifying…!
“But… well, I’ll admit. It helped.”
Professor Elisha pulled a cigarette from the case and placed it in her mouth.
Sss.
Dale lit the tip with a flicker of ash flame, and Elisha slowly stood up.
Siiip… haaah.
Exhaling a stream of smoke, she looked at the fleshy puppets of her parents with a crooked smile.
“Thanks to you, I can now crush Mother and Father without a shred of hesitation.”
“……”
Wait, Professor.
When you say it like that, it sounds really weird.
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