The moment Breward arrived atop the ship was when Ray manifested the form of mana.
“…….”
Unlike mages, the criteria for dividing a swordsman’s strength are clearly distinguished.
Have they created a mana core?
Can they manifest the color of mana?
Can they produce their own unique form of mana?
Can they overlay it onto reality?
It would not be an exaggeration to say that a swordsman’s strength can be divided into these four stages.
Among them, the third….“the stage of creating the form of mana”.
Commonly referred to as the “Sword Saint rank”.
It was not the ultimate realm, but it was an extraordinary one.
A level believed unattainable without talent.
As such, it was strange for Drei to be handling the form of mana.
It didn’t matter that they were the Harunsdel family, who had only placed their name among the Empire’s two great merchant guilds in this generation.
It simply did not match their standing for even the heir, not the head of the house, to have a Sword Saint swordsman as a guard.
A form of black flames….
Moreover, she was a human who had accepted into her body two unprecedented forbidden arts: monstrification and demonization.
In other words, it meant that a Sword Saint-rank swordsman had been subjected to monstrification and on top of that, a demonization experiment had been overlaid.
This is on a scale that Harunsdel could never carry out.
His thoughts were brief.
Before he could even intervene, another demon who had utterly overpowered the shadow guard was already threatening her.
No…perhaps it was no longer appropriate to call that being the former shadow guard.
Its human shape had collapsed. It became flesh grotesquely swollen.
Across that mass of flesh, dozens of red lines stretched out like circuits.
The engravings of monstrification.
That was about all he could recognize.
Flash. Flash.
…In the darkness, multiple eyes opened across the swollen flesh.
Now, the only remnants of humanity were the hands and face slowly being buried.
A sign of complete demonization. And monstrification seemed to be exerting some kind of influence upon it.
The banquet hall lights returned, as if illuminating the scene.
– Kyaaaah!!
– Wh-What is that?!
In an instant, the number of witnesses surged.
Nearly ten minutes had already passed, time allowed to flow under the pretext of observation.
He could delay no longer.
……In the end, we simply eliminate the demon.
Breward stepped forward.
And the moment he did, he froze in place.
The shadow guard of Harunsdel, who until just moments ago had looked nothing more than a monster beyond saving……
was returning to being human.
Reversing it? A human who had already completed demonization and was on the verge of going berserk?
Something utterly impossible was unfolding before his eyes.
And in the next moment—
Drei who restored to human form pulled out a small dagger from somewhere and stabbed the demon.
At that single strike, the demon collapsed pathetically.
Soon after, with a crash! the stern of the ship caved in.
The demon fell down below.
“Where do you think you’re going!!!”
Without realizing it, he shouted and rushed forward….but that was all.
“……What in the world.”
Nowhere could the Thorn Demon be seen.
***
Gurgle, gurgle…….
“Gah—! Hahk!”
On the opposite side of the lakeshore from where the Harunsdel ship had crashed into the docks.
After swimming for a long time, I finally surfaced.
“Cough, hack! ……Ptui.”
The lake water tasted foul and fishy.
I dragged myself through the shallows and staggered onto land.
“…….”
My body was not normal.
For now, I was holding together thanks to the effects of the drugs I had taken, but from somewhere deep inside, I could feel something going wrong.
As if the backlash of the drugs would soon come crashing down.
“Ghh…….”
And that wasn’t the only problem.
The demon I had taken from Drei was eroding my body.
[Adel Bliss] → [□□□ □□□□]
“……I expected as much.”
Perhaps because it was a demon that had latched on through a demonization experiment.
The demon factor itself was not in a proper state.
Even the system window’s text appeared corrupted.
“Cough, ghhrrrr…”
This was not good at all. Half-baked demon factor or not, it was fatal to a human body.
Rather, the demon’s power was rampaging even more violently, tearing through my insides.
Originally, if you kill the shadow guard Drei, you obtain the trait “Argos’s Vision”…….
Argos’s Vision.
It sounded grandiose, but in-game, the true nature of this ability was merely a simple system support feature.
It simply added a third-person perspective.
It was probably a version of the ability related to the many-eyed demon form Drei once transformed into.
But what I did is different… I didn’t eliminate her. I stole the demon factor itself.
If that’s the case, I might obtain something far better than “Argos’s Vision”.
◆ Warning! [Demon Factor] is invading your body!
With only that thought in mind, I endured the pain….like a child waiting for a marshmallow.
A rock by the lakeshore. I somehow crawled over to it and leaned my back against it.
Demon seed, demon parasite, and now demon factor.
If asked which of the three was the most horrific, I could confidently answer: what I’m experiencing right now.
“……”
I closed my eyes and panted for a long while.
…How much time had passed?
The system window slowly began to change.
It was displaying the state I was being transformed into due to the incomplete demon factor.
[Adel Bliss] → [Forgotten Madman]
……As expected.
A dry chuckle escaped me.
It was obvious that because the demon factor was incomplete, it couldn’t even properly display what the original demon species was.
The name “Forgotten Madman” was probably what I would be called if I truly became a demon.
“……Treating a person like some kind of character.”
Suppressing the agony, I slowly pulled out the paper I had tucked into my pocket.
I used the Purification Recovery Potion against the Rage Demon. I applied curse reversal against the Demon of Justice Execution… And since I can’t use the same method twice….
This time, it was rune magic.
I took out the prepared magic paper and poured mana into it.
The faintly glowing characters carried the meaning: “Purification”.
“……What I desire is the eradication of the demon factor.”
A magic circle that did not yet exist in this world began to gather power violently.
“……Rune manifestation.”
Those words became the trigger.
The game currency NP I had accumulated for so long began draining rapidly as the rune activated.
[Forgotten Madman] ↔ [Adel Bliss]
Slowly, it returned.
“Whew.”
Beneath the blue light of the rune, I let out a breath.
That went well. So far, it’s smooth.
That’s what I thought.
“……I had a feeling something was suspicious.”
Until a voice came from somewhere.
When I turned my head, I saw someone with blond hair.
“…But this is really, completely unexpected.”
Awen.
Awen Damir.
A friend of my older sister Camilla.
“……Why don’t you say something?”
“…….”
My physical condition was still at its worst.
Excruciating pain coursed through my entire body.
“Head Butler?”
***
I’m screwed.
I couldn’t stop that thought from surfacing.
And for good reason. I really was screwed.
Did she see? …Of course she did. Damn it.
Demon worshippers were subject to summary execution.
The reason Camilla once drew her sword at me was because of that.
There was a high chance Awen would attack me.
The only reason she wasn’t attacking right now was probably because she had heard about my existence from someone.
Most likely from Alice Damir, the head maid of Tane, whom I had briefly worked with.
She was also Awen’s older sister.
Is the demonization over? What do I look like right now?
I didn’t know. There was no mirror. Almost instinctively, I had changed into the aide’s face instead of Adel’s….at least that was a small relief.
Damn it.
Awen was walking toward me step by step. Death pressed close with each of her strides.
Awen Damir.
A figure who never once appeared in the original storyline.
She was merely mentioned in passing as Aaron’s younger sister.
……So could I defeat her?
I didn’t know.
I had no information about her at all.
My body was in shambles.
The side effects of the dangerous drug I had taken alone were enough to leave me barely able to move.
Thankfully, the system hadn’t yet notified me of any aftereffects, but judging by how I felt, there wasn’t much time left.
That wasn’t all.
I had already used up a significant amount of the time during which I could transform into the demon’s form.
Austin’s secret art, which accelerated the blood flow within my body, was still active, so the accumulated damage was considerable as well.
All I could do now was collapse on the ground and fling spells at her.
Even that was an optimistic assessment. There was a high probability that the aftereffect of “Mana Hypersensitivity” would set in.
“……I feel sorry for Alice. She seemed to quite like you.”
In contrast, Awen Damir was still an elite student of Tane’s Knight Department.
A direct confrontation was not an option for me in my current state.
……If I can just get out of here somehow. I’ll use whatever time I have left in demon form—somehow.
Right now, the only thing I could rely on were my magic tools.
I awakened every magic tool I had prepared.
◆ “Comprehensive Analysis of Magical Constructs” activated.
◆ Special Magical Tool “Leviathan” enters standby mode!
Leviathan, which would normally have enveloped my entire right arm, was released only up to my wrist.
That meant even the Magic Gun Analysis trait wasn’t in proper condition.
……Slowly, borrowing the power of the magic tool, I crawled toward the lake.
“Wait.”
As if she wouldn’t kill me the moment I did.
◆ Individual Trait “Specialized in Transformation” activated.
“I said wait!”
The instant she stepped closer—
[Adel Bliss] → [Adel Bliss (Rage Demon)]
In the blink of an eye, I transformed into the form of the Rage Demon.
My legs instantly morphed into the pitch-black limbs of a beast. A massive bonus stacked onto my strength stat.
But it still might not be enough.
I even drew in mana waves to reinforce my leg strength. I ignored the cracking sound that came from my heart.
“What are you doing?!”
Awen drew her sword in a single motion and slashed.
Had I been even a fraction of a second slower, that blade would have mercilessly cut me to pieces.
I kicked off the ground half a beat faster and caught sight of Awen staring at me in disbelief.
I’ll sink into the lake like this and swim away to somewhere else.
I can only hope my body holds out until then.
***
──The girl held flowers in both hands.
On a night when summer was close at hand.
After walking across the campus for a long while, she arrived at a small dormitory and quietly knelt.
Offering flowers.
A gesture of respect for the dead.
Stopping by this place to lay down flowers was her daily routine. It was something she never skipped, not even for a single day.
Short dark blue hair. Eyes tinted a faint violet from the aftereffects of an accident.
“……Adel.”
As she softly murmured the name and placed flowers on the gravestone, a half-broken pendant hung around the girl’s neck.
A keepsake left behind by the man who died saving her.
Whenever Sasha Koskov came here, she would always clench her fist tightly against her chest, checking the feel of the pendant.
It had already become a habit of hers.
“……I came to say my final goodbye.”
In the meantime, a great many things had happened.
Far too many things.
But whenever she stood before this gravestone, she returned to that moment once more—
To the time when she first heard of Adel Bliss’s death.
“When I’ve wiped out every last devil worshipper in this world… I’ll come back then.”
As of today, she was leaving Tane Academy.
In order to stand properly as the head of the Koskov family.
“I’ll make sure you can rest in peace.”
The Koskovs, once a family of knights, will now be reborn as a clan of devil hunters who will stop at nothing.
“Until then, no cheating on me, Adel. Got it?”
For Sasha Koskov, who had lost someone precious to her, that was the only thing she could possibly do.
The Harunsdel family.
A house connected to Professor Quinoron.
The very first place the Koskovs would stir up was there.
“…….”
As Sasha turned her back on Adel’s gravestone, her eyes sharpened to a razor’s edge.
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