Chapter 60

The great sword tore through flesh, shattered bones, and dug deep.

The enemy’s upper body was sliced diagonally, and blood gushed from the severed surface.

Kicking aside the convulsing corpse with its upper half sprawled sideways, Damien let out a breath.

Around him, a dozen or so corpses were scattered.

Ragged, filthy vagrants.

They were no different from madmen.

Laughing maniacally, they stabbed and slashed at people screaming and fleeing from the sudden disaster.

Their purpose and identity were unknown.

Damien’s mission was to roam the city and subdue them.

For the magic academy students, their main task was to somehow extinguish the fires.

At the same time, they had to evacuate surviving citizens and send the injured to the academy.

Even five hands wouldn’t have been enough, but with the knights gone to the Imperial Palace, the students had no choice but to handle it themselves.

That’s why everyone was scattered across the capital.

At least the capital’s soldiers were supposed to support the firefighting and evacuation efforts, but…

Damien looked around.

Corpses clad in light armor were strewn about.

The soldiers deployed here had already been slaughtered by the rioters.

Right. There’s no way the soldiers could’ve beaten these rioters.

The rioters he’d faced were fast and surprisingly strong.

They were on par with his academy peers.

In other words, they were all at the level of apprentice knights.

The academy’s judgment had been reckless.

They thought it was just a simple riot suppression, but if each one was this strong, the other students would struggle.

Still, it was a bit surprising that so many soldiers had been wiped out so easily.

“Besides, they’re tougher than I expected…”

The sensation of the great sword cutting through felt strange.

Cutting through a person usually felt like slicing butter with a knife, but these felt more like undercooked meat.

“Was it because of the weapon?”

Damien looked down at the great sword with a puzzled expression.

It was the black iron great sword Ha-shal-leur had gifted him that afternoon.

For some reason, the silver plating had peeled off in patches, leaving it blotchy.

“Damien! Are you okay?”

Milia came running toward him. Soot stained her cheek, and she held a bow in her left hand.

In case of emergencies, freshmen were ordered to move in pairs or groups.

Milia had chosen Damien without hesitation.

Considering both were top-ranked freshmen, pairing them together was inefficient, but…

Ha-shal-leur had insisted they stick together as much as possible.

After all, they’d be together even after graduation, she’d argued.

So, she pushed the logic that it was better this way, as it freed up additional personnel for other teams.

“I’ve cleared this area. How about you, Milia?”

“I took down three, but… something’s off.”

She avoided saying “killed,” perhaps deliberately.

Damien glanced at Milia. Her pale fingertips were trembling slightly.

It was her first time killing someone, after all.

“But are these really people? They’re a bit… off.”

No, it’s too early to jump to conclusions. People like Ha-shal-leur exist, after all.

Some people just have unusually sturdy bodies.

…Still, Milia seemed to sense something strange too, tilting her head in confusion.

“Off how?”

“They were all insane. Even when their bodies were being cut by the soldiers’ weapons, they just charged forward… and they didn’t die easily.”

That was true.

Damien recalled the recent fight.

“They even pushed themselves onto my great sword… charging recklessly.”

Though they did collapse and die afterward.

“…They were like trolls. My arrows worked, though.”

“Trolls…?”

Damien’s mind flashed back to a lecture he’d once heard.

Fearless ferocity.

Bizarrely tough bodies.

The soldiers, despite outnumbering them, couldn’t kill a single rioter.

…There was only one answer.

Regenerators.

“No way…”

Damien approached a rioter’s corpse and ruffled through its head.

The ears were missing.

Instead, there were traces of something cut off on either side of the skull.

“It’s true…!”

“Damien?”

Milia called his name, puzzled.

“These rioters aren’t human—they’re beastmen!”

“Beastmen? What do you mean…”

“If their blood is thin, it’s hard to tell them apart from humans, so they cut off their ears and pretended to be human!”

No wonder the soldiers were wiped out.

Thinking the enemy was human, they must’ve attacked with steel weapons.

But as the beastmen charged through the blades, the soldiers lost their lives.

Without silver-plated weapons, beastmen couldn’t be defeated.

**Silver-plated weapons.**

Damien looked down at his own weapon again.

The black iron great sword, with its heavy black sheen, had patches of silver plating peeling off, glinting in the light.

It was the sword Ha-shal-leur had forced on him as a gift.

“Did she know…? How?”

Suspicions swirled in his mind.

It was clear Ha-shal-leur had known the beastmen would attack.

Otherwise, there’d be no reason to suddenly prepare a silver weapon at such a perfect time.

But how?

How did she know something even the Empire’s knights couldn’t predict?

And if she knew, why didn’t she say anything?

It was a mystery. Only questions and doubts remained.

“They’re really beastmen…? Wait, if they’re beastmen, the others are in danger!”

Milia’s face turned pale.

Damien nodded.

Right. Even if their skills were similar, they couldn’t win if the enemy were beastmen.

Even if they cut each other down, only they would fall.

Besides, Milia hadn’t realized it yet, but the real problem was…

Not just that.

These are just simple low-level thugs. You could say they’re no different from conscript soldiers.

They’re just causing chaos on their own, and it doesn’t seem like they’re the ones who came up with such a systematic attack plan.

There must be a commander. Leaders who incited the thugs and commanded the raid.

If the thugs are mixed-blood beastmen, then who are the leaders commanding them?

“Hmm… at least two, I guess…”

A growling sound echoed from behind.

Milia hurriedly aimed her bow.

Damien, who had just put down the thug’s corpse, grabbed his greatsword and stood up, turning around.

Two shadows were approaching, silhouetted against the flames.

One was a giant with a wolf’s head on a massive torso, his right hand gripping an axe dripping with blood.

Beside him stood a young man who didn’t seem to be pure-blooded, his appearance looking like a forced mix of a human and a bear. He was smaller compared to the wolf beastman and held a longsword in each hand.

“Beastmen, warriors…!”

Milia broke out in a cold sweat.

Her vague unease had turned into reality.

A pure-blooded wolf beastman and a mixed-blood warrior with thick blood. Even if the two of them fought with all their might, victory was far from certain.

“Milia. I need your support.”

Damien, gripping his greatsword, stepped forward.

He pushed his doubts to the back of his mind. That was something to think about later. Right now, he needed to focus all his consciousness on the battle.

At least, thanks to this sword, he could fight.

That alone was a relief.

The roars of the beasts echoed, and the greatsword and axe clashed violently.

======[Ophelia]======

At the same time, Ophelia also encountered it.

She had been wandering around with a reluctant expression, dragging along the man named Hans, who had been paired with her.

She cut down the attacking vagrants with blades of air and extinguished the burning houses by cutting off their oxygen. She wasn’t particularly active, though.

Then, a voice rang out.

“Magic woman…! Lucky us.”

Suddenly, her footsteps stopped.

A bull walking on two legs blocked her path, laughing as he leered at her with a disgusting hunger in his eyes.

“Haa… no wonder it smelled so bad. A beastman, huh.”

Ophelia frowned deeply.

A pure-blooded beastman? Why on earth would such a thing appear in the capital?

‘Really. The knights and guards, all of them are useless.’

The magic herb she was holding snapped in half.

With a sneer, Ophelia gathered her magic power. Unlike before, she was serious this time.

There was no other way.

To deal with a pure-blooded beastman, her usual half-hearted magic tricks wouldn’t cut it.

At least it was fortunate that he only had one eye.

“Hey, Hans, was it?”

“…Yes.”

Hans, who had been trembling and sweating bullets, turned to Ophelia at the sudden call.

He had already sensed his death the moment he saw the pure-blooded beastman. After all, even if he ran, the beastman was faster.

“What you’re about to see… if you ever blab about it, you won’t live to see the morning sun more than three times. Keep that in mind.”

“What do you mean…?”

Hans was speechless at the sight before him.

A storm of magic power raged.

Her red hair, caught in the fierce wind, rose into the air like flames, swaying like fire.

The sheer amount of magic power was at least five times that of the top student in the magic department.

For the first time in seven years.

A blade storm, unleashed with full power, surged toward the bull beastman.

======[???]======

In the western part of the city, the walls of the church shelter shattered with a loud crash.

Beastmen, pierced by spears of light, were flung out and slammed into the alley walls, dead beyond any chance of regeneration.

Following them, ten holy knights and a young woman walked out from behind the debris.

The holy knights’ armor bore the mark of the cross, and a silver holy light swirled around them.

They were members of the Elpinel Church Order in charge of the shelter.

“Elpinel…”

The woman muttered, clutching the holy symbol around her neck.

She was the embodiment of purity.

Her snow-white hair cascaded down to her waist, and a thin golden chain encircled her forehead like a crown.

Behind her, a white holy light fluttered like feathers.

Her white priestly robes were spotless, giving off an otherworldly aura.

The Saint Candidate.

Lacey Elmain Staldorf.

She kissed the holy symbol and continued.

“…The heretics, the wicked. Those who are not human shall be destroyed.”

With a quiet prayer, a brilliant holy light enveloped an entire section of the city.

Wherever the light touched, the flames were extinguished, and Elpinel’s blessings descended upon the remaining people.

“Those who are not human shall be destroyed!”

The holy knights, drawing their swords, responded in unison.

Singing the wrath of Elpinel, the God of Grace, they marched eastward.

To destroy every visible enemy.