Episode 42
"...You there, first undo the magic circle."
"Please undo the magic circle, Frey. If you undo it, we will at least spare your life."
"Are you planning to sacrifice the lives of everyone in the commoner dormitory?"
As I summoned all the magical creatures and wore a wicked smile, everyone on the top floor began speaking urgently.
Seeing that, it seems no one here knows how to dispel this magic circle.
"......"
Of course, Serena, who was rapidly reverse-calculating the magic circle from afar, would figure it out soon enough.
'Hahahaha! It's useless!'
Therefore, deciding to proceed quickly with the plan, I stroked the Stone of Domination and began controlling the crow that had been gaping its mouth on the windowsill until now.
"Th-that thing is...!"
"...It's the Demon King's pet, isn't it?"
Then the crow's eyes gleamed as it cried out in all directions before flying over and perching on my head, and soon I gathered star mana in my throat and began mimicking its voice.
At that, the heroines who possessed memories from the previous timeline began to show expressions filled with shock. Having seen that crow enough to be sick of it alongside the Demon King, they would naturally remember its voice as well, so in a way, this was an expected reaction.
"This creature has already fallen under my mental domination. Therefore, whatever you say is futile."
Using the hidden power of the 'Stone of Domination' that can control all magical creatures, I manipulated the crow's expression this way and that while continuing to speak to the heroines in a voice full of arrogance.
"Whatever you do, this magic circle will activate. Then, after 1000 years, the Demon King will reveal himself to the world once more."
After saying that, I made the crow on my head flap its wings once, then continued speaking while arrogantly glowering at everyone.
"Therefore, surrender at this point. If you surrender, I will highly value your fighting spirit and welcome you as members of the Demon King's army..."
"W-we will never surrender!!"
However, Perroche interrupted those words and stepped forward.
"Oh holy Sun God, lend your power to this humble servant... Urgh!!"
Soon Perroche began reciting the ultimate spell that purifies all evil existence, but perhaps because she had expended quite a lot of holy power until now, she ended up stumbling and collapsing partway through.
"It's useless. If you don't surrender... there is only death."
As I spoke to her in a tone similar to the crow while emanating black energy, Klana and Islet stepped forward and spoke.
"...We'll be your opponents. Perroche, you gather holy power."
"If it's a purification spell, it should be able to destroy that crow. So please, give us your strength."
Having said that, the two of them began to glare at me.
"...Haa."
Soon after, seeing Irina and Ariane come out from behind and reach out their hands to prepare magic, I took a deep breath and sank into thought for a moment.
'...Today, here, I need to maximize my evil reputation as much as possible.'
Once this 'update' ends, the 'accumulated villainy points' system that converts my 'evil reputation' known throughout the country into 'villainy points' will likely be activated.
In other words, since things have come to this... I should use this incident to maximize my evil reputation as much as possible.
To do that, while using the Empress who absolutely needs me to keep the Third Princess in check due to the 'Blood Oath,' and the Sun God religious order that has close collusive ties with me to protect my 'political position'... I need to drag my own image through the mud.
Also, to make Serena and my younger sister turn their backs on me... using this incident would be most effective after all.
Thanks to that, once this incident ends, my image will plummet to the worst, and I'll become a public enemy barely maintaining only my 'political position'... but that's fine. That's actually what I've been wanting.
'...And, there's no choice if I want to dispel the magic circle.'
Moreover, to naturally dispel this magic circle in front of everyone watching, this method of causing chaos is the only way.
To neutralize the mana graffiti deeply engraved from the 1st floor to the top floor, the mana and sword qi of the world-class powerful heroines need to spread evenly throughout the entire building.
Once those energies spread evenly...
"Hah!!"
"Haah!!"
Before I could even finish my thoughts, Islet and Klana began charging at me.
"It's useless!!"
I shouted at them in an acting tone while making an evil expression, then sent sword qi loaded with black energy.
-Crackling!!
Then Islet stopped in place, swung her sword vigorously to raise sword qi, and shortly after, my black sword qi and Islet's sword qi collided, spreading black smoke in all directions.
"I don't know if it's mental manipulation or acting, but since the opportunity has come... prepare yourself."
Soon a brilliant light seeped out from within the black smoke, and along with Klana's frigid remark, a destructive beam was fired.
"...Heh heh, I guess everyone is quite extreme since I usually receive a lot of hatred?"
I said a line indicating I was under mental manipulation while looking straight at that beam, then blocked it with my sword and began scattering it evenly to the lower floors.
"As expected, I knew it would be like that... probably."
Then Serena, who had been looking at me sharply until now, smirked and unfolded her fan.
-I'll play along for now.
Soon she covered her face with the fan and moved her mouth so only I could see, then quietly winked.
-Probably.
"...This is driving me crazy."
Then she made a slightly suspicious expression and moved her mouth again, and seeing that, I quietly sighed.
It seems Serena has deduced the magic circle's interpretation and my entire plan in that short time.
'...Well, I prepared a method in case of that.'
She can't be certain about everything regarding me. In other words, no matter how clear a fact it is, she becomes 'suspicious' of even the tiniest thing related to me.
And since I had already thought of a way to disappoint Serena using that point, I nodded appropriately and began looking at Klana in front of me again.
"Hah!!"
But suddenly, Perroche jumped out from the smoke and began charging fiercely at me.
"Perroche! That's dangerous..."
Then Klana began shouting in alarm,
"Urgh!!"
But soon Isabel, who had been sneaking up behind her, took her punch head-on and went flying, and she blankly began staring at Perroche.
"...As I thought, it seems better for me to contribute strength rather than quietly gathering power from behind."
"B-but..."
"I was able to use that spell right away at the auction house because I had gathered holy power in advance for that day. So, to use that spell again now, I need to gather holy power for quite a long time."
Looking at Isabel who was trembling with her eyes rolled back in the distance, having nearly exhausted the Demon King's power, Perroche calmly concluded.
"...Quietly watching a friend's danger from behind is unworthy of a saint."
"Y-you..."
Klana began looking at such Perroche with slightly moved eyes.
"Urgh..."
However, receiving their holy power and solar mana simultaneously while scattering them evenly to the lower floors was killing me.
"...Did Frey have that level of skill?"
Islet, who was quietly watching me, corrected her sword and began tilting her head.
"...According to the dark arts recorded in old literature, the pet magical creatures kept by the Demon King's subordinates erode people's minds, infuse the Demon King's power, and make them hosts."
Then Serena, who had been quiet until now, joined the heroines' side and spoke with a stern expression.
"The energy emanating from Frey's body contains black magic that strengthens the body and the Demon King's power mixed together... It seems Serena's words are correct."
Then Kania quietly agreed and joined the heroines' side, and everyone except Ariane, who looked puzzled while staring at her, quietly nodded.
"...As expected, you were a black magician."
"I see you knew."
"Of course I would. I've cut down quite a few black magicians."
Soon Islet began speaking with a calm expression, and Ariane's jaw dropped and she began stammering.
"I-Irina...! D-did you hear that..."
"...Given the situation, pretend you didn't hear it."
Irina quietly scolded her, and meanwhile Islet began speaking while wreathing her sword in sword qi.
"But I don't sense evil energy from you, so if you help with this incident, I'll be lenient."
"...Thank you."
After saying that, the two began shooting black aura and sword qi at me, and the rest quietly began gathering their powers.
"Everyone..."
In that situation, I stretched out my arms and shouted while slightly raising the corners of my mouth.
"...Charge!!"
Then the magical creatures lurking behind me began rushing at the heroines all at once, and after watching that sight with satisfaction for a moment, I wiped the blood flowing from my mouth and turned around to mutter.
"...I need to run."
No matter who I am, a head-on fight is impossible.
.
"Frey!! Stop right there!!"
"Perroche, have you received the Sun God's protection by any chance?"
Serena, who followed beside Perroche who was running out urgently, rolled her eyes and asked a question.
"Yes! But how..."
"Anyone can guess when someone as hopelessly weak as you rushes forward like that. Anyway... you mustn't use the Sun God's protection right now."
"...Why?"
"If the person who drew the magic circle dies, the entire magic circle will go out of control... and everyone could be in danger. So please restrain yourself."
When Serena spoke sternly, Perroche began nodding with a frightened expression, and Serena, who looked at her distrustfully, turned her head and began shouting to the others as well.
"Everyone else keep that in mind too! Our goal right now is not killing but subduing! So, control your power appropriately!"
Islet, who was running at the very front, spoke to everyone in a cold voice.
"...Focus on the crow above his head. If we take that thing out, it's over."
The next moment, indiscriminate attacks began raining down on Frey who was running around here and there in the building.
"It's useless!! If you surrender even now, I might at least give you a foot soldier position in the Demon King's army..."
And Frey, with a slightly strained expression, continued deflecting such attacks in all directions while running somewhere.
'...Something's strange.'
Irina began watching that situation, which kept repeating, with quite suspicious eyes.
'That appearance is definitely familiar somehow...'
For some reason, from him deflecting magic this way and that, the figure of 'Liana' who saved her in the 'Ashen Forest' comes to mind.
Why on earth?
- Crackling!!
Is it because very faint but familiar, twinkling mana can be felt from the sinister energy-filled sword qi he's sending out?
"Magical creatures, stop those ones!!"
"...Tch, what principle is he using to control the magical creatures?"
Is it because mana that could be felt whenever 'Liana' spoke can be felt from the voice of the crow, the Demon King's pet, that he keeps emitting?
"Ariane, Perroche! Shield please!"
"...Damn, deliberately deflecting attacks in all directions. Does he not care about the students' safety at all?"
Or is it because he keeps scattering everyone's attacks to every corner of the place, preparing something?
'What on earth is he trying to do? Frey?'
After mana exhaustion occurred, two changes happened to Irina.
The first was that as she struggled desperately every day to somehow operate mana, she became able to sense even the tiniest amounts of mana.
Actually, this was almost an impossible feat for a human, but Irina was a future great archmage and a genius whose magical talent would count among the best in the entire history of the Empire.
Thanks to her talent combined with desperate effort, she was able to develop mana sensitivity to a level that would make the Magic Tower gasp in astonishment.
And thanks to that, Irina now feels considerable similarities between Liana's mana and the mana Frey is currently using.
And the second change was that her time spent on magic research more than doubled.
This was largely because she, who originally didn't need to study theory much thanks to her innate magical talent, couldn't use magic due to mana exhaustion, and she knew various magical knowledge that existed in the previous timeline.
Irina, who couldn't train in magic much, had been conducting various research in her dormitory to take revenge on Frey while also preventing the magical incidents that would occur in the future.
And the first thing she researched, and most diligently, was precisely the 'sacrificial magic circle' drawn in corners throughout the commoner dormitory right now.
"That guy... surely..."
She had figured out how to break the magic circle to some extent after reconstructing and analyzing it using only the memories in her head for days, the magic circle that no one could reverse-calculate due to serious damage.
The first method was very simple: just move the sacrifices somewhere else.
However, the inside and outside of the dormitory are currently separated by space-time magic, so using the first method is impossible.
Therefore, in this situation, only the second method, which is quite dangerous and crude, remains.
That second method is... evenly scattering enormous amounts of mana around the magic circle and then driving it all into the medium located at the center of the magic circle - honestly, a violent method that's hard to even call a countermeasure.
If done that way, the mana condensed in the medium will resonate with the magic circle and shatter the magic circle's structure.
But the reason this method is quite violent and dangerous is...
- Crackling!!!
"...Hmm?"
Before Irina, who was thinking and thinking, a brilliant flash occurred.
- Boom! Bang!!
The wind containing moon mana created by Serena swinging her fan and the black giant bird summoned by Kania collided with Perroche's holy power and Klana's golden beam heading toward Frey, causing chain explosions.
- Clang!!
Frey briefly blocked Islet's sword qi that flew through the explosion with his sword, then scattered it in all directions along with the mana dispersed around the area.
It's a scene that looks quite strange at a glance, but the people focused on the magical creatures rushing in from all directions and Frey don't seem to have the leisure to notice such things.
Only Irina, the prodigy of combat magic who had been quietly watching everything from behind because she couldn't use magic freely, noticed the strangeness.
"...Having that degree of collision continue is definitely not a coincidence."
Irina, who had been watching the scene that kept repeating, finally began muttering quietly.
"But... why? For what reason?"
All the situations and circumstances point to one answer, but my heart and head are somehow denying that answer.
Therefore, Irina, who kept thinking until her head was overloaded, fired a small fireball at a magical creature sneaking up from behind and muttered inwardly.
'...For now, put it on hold.'
He was so evil and heinous in the previous timeline. So those actions too might be part of some evil deed.
Just recently, didn't she suffer persecution and humiliation several times while working as a slave in his room?
The unpleasant gaze and sticky touch he sent her were exactly the same form as what she experienced in the previous timeline.
So, she can't be certain yet...
"Cough!!"
Irina, who had been thinking and thinking, suddenly widened her eyes at the situation that occurred.
"Urgh... damn..."
It was because Frey suddenly vomited blood and collapsed to the spot.
.
"...Finally reached the limit, has he?"
"A normal human body cannot withstand the Demon King's power for long. For Frey, it was too excessive a power."
"Time to... remove the crow from his head and end everything."
The people who had been fiercely attacking Frey began slowly approaching him as he collapsed.
"Grr..."
"I don't know how he ended up under mental manipulation, but no matter how you are, this incident is absolutely..."
Islet, who was walking at the very front among those people, began speaking to Frey in a cold voice, but,
"Heh heh... heh heh heh..."
".....!"
When Frey suddenly began laughing sinisterly, she stopped walking and quickly drew her sword.
- Crackling!!!
Soon Frey thrust his sword at her with all his might, and sword qi filled with sinister energy assailed Islet.
"...Kgh!!"
Islet clenched her teeth and received the sword qi head-on, but soon began being pushed back, apparently lacking strength.
""Hah!!""
To help her, Perroche and Ariane summoned a shield and barrier to block the sword qi, and soon the rest also began contributing their strength.
- Rumble!!!
Thus a moment passed, and finally the sword qi ended up bursting in midair without cutting anyone.
""........?""
However, after blocking the sword qi, Frey who had been in front of them was gone.
"Th-there!!"
At that strange phenomenon, everyone was looking around for Frey when Perroche widened her eyes and pointed to the 1st floor lobby.
"Hahahahaha!!"
There stood Frey, standing in the center of the graffiti and absorbing the mana that had been scattered in all directions.
- Humming!!!
"It's already too late even if you've realized now!!"
Soon after his voice echoed, the graffiti from the 1st floor to the top floor began glowing, and the entire building began to shake.
- Crash!!
"...See, I told you it's useless?"
Those who instinctively sensed crisis at that sight began pouring attacks, but the attacks began bouncing off or rather being absorbed by the vast mana that had begun surrounding him.
"Through today's ritual... the great Demon King will resurrect, and the world will walk the path of destruction!! Hahahahahahaha!!"
After saying that, Frey floated in the air and began flying upward at high speed, and Islet, watching that sight, clenched her teeth and ran toward the top floor while saying:
"...You all stay here. I'll go up to the top floor and jump into that mana."
"You can't!! Then you'll..."
"If I can protect everyone, it doesn't matter."
After speaking, Islet began running while destroying the stairs with sword strikes, and the others also began going up to the top floor using magic, not to be outdone.
"...Frey, can you hear me?"
"For the Demon... King..."
Soon Islet, who reached the top floor first, began walking while speaking to Frey with a calm expression.
"It's largely my fault for not preventing you from ending up like this. So, I'll take responsibility and stop you at the end."
"Grr..."
"Then..."
As Frey began to be covered by the massive flow of mana, Islet finished speaking and drew her sword to throw herself into the mana flow, but...
"...No!"
Suddenly Serena appeared from behind, grabbed her leg and toppled her, stopping that action.
"Arghhhhhh!!!"
"W-what...? Why is he...?"
"F-first, a barrier...!"
Soon the people who arrived late because the stairs were destroyed, and Islet, began blankly staring at Frey who had started screaming while floating in the air.
"This mana flow... surely?"
"It seems the magic circle failed."
"Fortunately, there won't be any casualties."
Of course, being ones with world-class talents, they could roughly figure out what happened after not much time, and they began muttering with relieved expressions.
""...........""
Kania, Serena, and Irina, who knew in detail what this was, each maintained silence with their heads lowered or wore expressions of astonishment, though.
- Crackling!!
At that time when relief, solemnity, and astonishment were crossing over, the mana condensed in Frey's body took the form of lightning and began piercing through the top floor's floor downward, and further down.
- Rumble!!!
Afterward, the lightning-formed mana that kept piercing downward for a while, destroying the commoner dormitory's floor, magical creatures, and graffiti,
"Urgh..."
stopped releasing only after the completely limp Frey began slowly falling from the sky after letting out a short groan.
""...........""
And, silence flowed in the top floor for a while.
".......Ha."
Until Irina, who finally met eyes with Frey who was slowly losing consciousness after reaching the floor, let out a short sigh.