"Evacuate! Move, now—quickly!!""How long until they get here!?"
BOOM!CLANG!
The sounds of collapse and destruction echoed relentlessly as buildings buckled one after another, crumbling into ruins. Dust clouds rolled across the streets like choking fog.
But the wait didn't last long. From the torn air itself, severed hands thrust outward, gripping the very fabric of space, crushing loose embers into distorted streams of light.
The royal guards had arrived.They were ordinary soldiers—most between Rank 5 and 7—but they were numerous, disciplined, and drilled to perfection.
They reacted instantly.Barely two minutes after the anomaly appeared, ten Rank 6 elites were already on-site, attempting to suppress it.
One soldier pulled out a flute, while three others flicked open matchsticks.
"Draw the flame!"
At the command, the three soldiers raised the matchsticks to their lips and blew.A spiraling vortex burst to life, sucking in all ash and sparks, compressing them into a swirling sphere of blackened red embers.
The flutist played.His melody rippled invisibly through the air, manifesting an illusory cage of spectral hands that clamped down on the demon within.
Wrapped in the Eternal Flame, the demon opened its blank white eyes, staring down at the hands restraining it. Slowly, its body began to distend.
A guard hurled a trident crackling with white lightning straight into its torso.The weapon pierced through and exploded into hundreds of smaller bolts.
From one flicker of lightning, a metal hand materialized—bright, polished, impossibly smooth.
As the demon swelled dangerously, the lightning weakened, thinning out.At that moment, the metallic hand flared with power, expanding dozens of times its size, grasping the demon entirely in its colossal grip.
"Your turn."
At the signal, several more figures shot into the sky, weaving seals of mana.A giant cube of condensed mana crashed down around the firestorm, sealing it from all directions.
A complete prison—tight, reinforced, unescapable.
Two silhouettes then walked straight through the mana wall as if it were water.
Phole, Vice Principal and Royal Supervisor of Blue Light Star Academy.Tinkell, Deputy Master of Melody Academy's Sound Division.
"Flame-Type Heavenly Demon… estimated to be above Rank 9?""Two Rank 10s against an over-tier 9. Think it's enough?"
Crack… crack…
The gigantic hand holding the demon began to fracture.Blue flames sprayed outward like shrapnel before spinning back in vicious arcs.
The metal hand desperately absorbed the flames—along with the demon's own leaking mana—to repair its wounds.
"Condense!""Intonation!"
Hundreds of radiant stars flared into existence, circling the imprisoned demon.In an instant, an entire galaxy whirled around it, forming a celestial cage.
…
High above, an eye watched the world—a grotesque mass of moss-covered flesh, its cube-shaped features twitching with every breath.
"Death-Type Spirit Demon. Rank unknown. Likely above Rank 9. Recommendation: deploy royal emergency squad," a soldier reported anxiously, face twisting from the oppressive aura radiating off the creature.
He was speaking to the city's security captain, who was already mobilizing reinforcements.Strangely, the captain didn't seem worried at all.
Because—
A squad of silhouettes sprinted toward them.Leading the charge was Euni, heir of the Xinsoi noble family.
He chanted a binding spell.Chains spiraled around his arms and legs, all pointing toward a single center—his heart.
"Spread out and protect the civilians!"
His voice snapped like a commander's. He then glanced toward a rooftop where a cloaked figure stood.
"We'll handle things here."
Euni lunged straight toward the demon.The cloaked figure—draped in black with a white mask—drew a handgun from beneath the cloak.
Golden chains burst from thin air, coiling tightly around the demon just as it began to move.Then—
BANG. BANG. BANG.
Bullet after bullet tore through the demon's head and torso, detonating in bursts of scorching sparks like miniature fireworks.
"GRUUUUUU!"
Millions of eyeballs spilled from the shredded parts of its body, tumbling to the ground—each one exploding on impact.
Euni grimaced, tightening the chains wrapped around his own body.His pain fed directly into the spell, making the demon writhe in agony.
At that moment, the masked figure sprinted forward, planting dark-furred hands against the empty air—
…
An unnamed entity suddenly appeared in the habitat—not stepping out, but as if it had fallen from an invisible crack in reality.The air around it twisted and warped, as if space itself was trying to avoid touching its existence.
It bore a rough humanoid shape, pale pink like a fetus forced to grow in darkness. Its limbs were unnaturally long, covered in swollen, bloody flesh nodules—each one trembling in sync with the body's subtle convulsions, as if breathing on its own.
Its mouth was not on its head.Instead, on the right side of its abdomen, a gaping slit of flesh opened directly into the stomach, constantly dripping corrosive digestive fluids. Within, the coiled intestines twitched slightly, like dying worms under the light.
The creature had no eyes, nose, or ears—the places that should have formed a face were smooth and flat, yet countless monstrous teeth sprouted from the surface like fleshy roses, opening and closing with irregular breaths.
Along its spine, instead of spines, tiny infant-like hands emerged—many delicate and small, grasping blindly, as if seeking life to cling to.
Its real hands were mangled, flesh peeled away from bone. Teeth marks—human teeth marks—were clearly visible, as if it had devoured its own fingers in an endless hunger.
No one understood why it had appeared.But everyone felt the same thing: this was not a being from the human world, but from somewhere deeper, older, darker…
Promet stood before it, gripping a bloodstained sword.Behind him, more creatures like it emerged from the shadows.
He readied his stance.He was only a second-year student—facing even one of these things was already reckless.
"Now!"
Lightning crashed from the sky, engulfing the entire clearing.The beasts recoiled at the deafening boom, stumbling back—
—only to be ambushed from behind.
Students burst from their hiding spots according to the plan:one group creating sonic agitation, another luring, another delivering direct damage, and another scouting and shielding.
Dozens of trainees swarmed the monsters.
From the fading lightning strike, a blade thrust forward—aimed straight at the beast before Promet.
A suit of pale-gray armor—woven from bone-like plates and reinforced with gleaming scales, like those carved from a dragon—stood revealed.
The one wearing it was none other than the protagonist, Promet.