"Eek!"
"Monsters! There are monsters!"
"Run!"
The students in the church panicked instantly.
Those sitting at the back—the transient students—screamed and fled, swarming toward the main door.
"Ah!"
"There are monsters here too!"
But just as a few of the transient students rushed out the door, before they could even feel relief, a slug-like monster caught them with its tentacles and shoved them into its mouth.
The sound of chewing echoed, and the screams abruptly ceased.
With monsters both in front and behind them, the students realized the horrifying truth, their faces now etched with despair.
Nino and Itsuki huddled together in the crowd. Having never encountered such creatures before, they were utterly consumed by terror, their expressions frozen in panic.
And what made it even more hopeless—
One after another, several more monsters emerged from the church entrance. Each had a different grotesque form, all abstract and nightmarish, attacking like wild beasts—pouncing, biting, tearing people apart until they were unrecognizable.
At the front of the hall—
A kappa-like monster appeared, the serrated leaves on its head spinning like shuriken before launching forward, slicing through the waists of the students in the front row.
These were the permanent students, far quicker and more decisive than the transient ones at the back.
Some immediately turned and fled, while others summoned their magical energy, attempting to fight back.
"Don't underestimate us!"
"We're still magi, damn it!"
Two young men roared as they charged forward.
But their magically enhanced bodies couldn't withstand even a single volley of the monster's spinning blades. Before they could react, they were cut in half at the waist. Blood pooled across the floor, and the air filled with agonized screams.
Yumizuka Satsuki was paralyzed with fear.
Overwhelming terror blanked her mind, leaving her unable to even think of running. She could only watch helplessly as the spinning blades hurtled toward her.
"Ah—!"
As she squeezed her eyes shut, a sudden force shoved her from the side, knocking her to the ground.
When she opened her eyes, she saw Tohno-kai—no, Tohno Shiki—removing his glasses, his face twisted into a deranged grin she had never seen before. He pulled out a small knife from his pocket and lunged at the kappa monster.
"Shiki-kun!"
"D-don't you dare… disrespect the teacher!"
The kappa monster bellowed, recalling its spinning blades, which reformed into a long whip in its hand. With a vicious crack, the whip lashed out in a blur of motion, striking toward Shiki.
Shiki ignored the incoming attack entirely. Instead, his body suddenly pitched forward, his hands and feet hitting the ground as he moved like a spider. In a stance that should have been impossible for a normal person to generate any force, he shot toward the monster at an inhuman speed. His knife whistled through the air like a scythe of death, aiming straight for the monster's life.
The students around them scattered, fleeing in all directions. After witnessing the fate of those two reckless fools, no one dared to stand and fight.
Oumaru was the first to run.
Less than a second after the kappa appeared, he bolted for the back door.
"Like hell I'm dying here! I'm gonna become a magus!"
He dashed toward the door at top speed, only to halt abruptly when he saw the sight of the slug-like monster at the entrance devouring a person alive.
Right after, hordes of monsters began pouring out from the entrance one after another. A quick count revealed at least ten of them. The larger ones couldn't fit through, but the smaller ones, like starving beasts, charged into the church.
Six smaller monsters, roughly human-sized, squeezed through the door, swinging their claws with terrifying ease as they gleefully tore people apart.
Screams erupted instantly, turning the scene into a living hell.
"We're done for! There are monsters on both sides!"
Oumaru's face turned ashen, his body trembling like a leaf.
At one point, his eyes locked with one of the monsters.
The creature grinned savagely, baring its teeth, and lunged at Oumaru with its claws raised.
Oumaru's face drained of color in an instant.
Acting on instinct, he yanked a figure from the side and used them as a human shield.
"Nino!"
A shrill scream from beside him made him freeze.
Only then did he realize he had pulled over the older twin sister, her face twisted in panic. As she was dragged in front of the charging monster, her expression turned deathly pale.
Oumaru gritted his teeth, ignoring Nakano Nino, and instead hurled himself toward the stained-glass window on the right side of the church.
"I'm a magus—I'm more useful alive! Pretty women can be found later—right now, I have to survive!"
With that thought, he smashed through the stained glass and leaped out.
Meanwhile, inside the church—
The monsters rampaged unchecked, slaughtering without restraint.
The claws in front of Nino drew closer and closer. Her senses stretched infinitely, as if time had slowed in the face of death. She could even see the fresh droplets of blood dripping from the monster's claws.
For a moment, death pressed against her face at the closest distance she had ever experienced, like the Reaper swinging his scythe down upon her.
"Are there really this many cursed spirits in Tokyo?"
Amid the endless stretch of her senses, her ears filtered out the screams, instead catching a muttered remark that echoed in her mind.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A rapid series of gunshots rang out without pause.
Bullets, as swift as light itself, shot in from the church entrance. Like homing missiles, they unerringly struck the monsters inside, blasting fist-sized holes through their bodies.
The attacking monster's movements froze mid-lunge, its cruel grin stiffening before its grotesque body collapsed lifelessly to the ground.
BOOM!
At the same time, a thunderous explosion erupted at the entrance.
The massive, over-two-meter-tall slug monster was sent flying by a single kick, crashing through the church wall before landing in a crumpled heap on the distant street, barely alive.
"Whoa, that's amazing! But, uh, could you maybe tone it down a little? Rebuilding the church is a pain!"
"I don't have a weapon."
"Don't lie—I can clearly see the gun in your hand!"
Amid the bickering, a man and a woman stepped through the church entrance.
Among them was a girl with short rose-colored hair, dressed in a Japanese-style maid outfit. She raised her arms as if protesting, speaking loudly to a young man beside her—clearly the main source of the noisy atmosphere.
Next to her stood a young man with white hair and crimson eyes, wearing black-framed glasses identical to Tohno Shiki's. His tall, slender frame boasted broad shoulders and a narrow waist. Despite it being winter, he wore summer attire without a care, gripping a futuristic-looking large-caliber pistol in his hand.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
After stepping through the gate, he fired three more shots in quick succession.
Streaks of light bullets tore through the air, piercing clean holes through the last three monsters.
"My aim's not half bad!"
Roy stood in a pool of blood, a pleased grin spreading across his face.
***
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