The sight of those glowing red eyes didn't spark questions in my mind - not why it appeared here, not why it chose now. My thoughts narrowed to a single desperate calculation: how to keep Friena breathing through the next five minutes.
An oppressive darkness pulsed around the creature's unnatural form. What should have been radiant angelic wings hung like tattered shrouds of void, each feather dissolving into swirling fragments of pure shadow. Its humanoid frame seemed to absorb the very light around it, leaving a silhouette darker than moonless night. Those burning crimson eyes fixed on us with predatory focus.
With terrifying grace, it raised arms wreathed in the demons' cursed Ether. The dark energy coalesced between its clawed fingers before launching upward in a seething black mass. The projectile expanded with grotesque fluidity - like some nightmare amoeba stretching its membrane to impossible limits. Within seconds, the entire forest was encased in a shimmering dome of corrupted energy. Not just a barrier - a soundproofed slaughterhouse, perfectly designed to keep our professors while the hunting began.
My mind raced through every possible escape route, every attack pattern I might have read about, every scrap of knowledge that could give us even a second's advantage. But the novel's details slipped through my fingers like smoke - the more desperately I grasped at them, the faster they dissipated. The crushing weight of our situation turned my limbs to stone, and I collapsed to my knees, utterly useless, while Friena braced herself in a fighter's stance beside me.
A cold realization gripped me - if a main character died here, the entire world's fate would unravel. The butterfly effect would cascade through events yet to come, leaving a future I couldn't even imagine. The thought alone sent icy fingers crawling down my spine even to the point where my bodies natural gift couldn't let me have my composure.
The fallen angel's head rotated with unnatural precision, stopping at that perfect right angle to study us. Its expression twisted into something grotesquely amused, savoring our desperation like a gourmet sampling fine wine. It saw everything - Friena's injuries, my paralysis - and knew we were already dead.
The forest itself began dying around us as the creature siphoned the life-giving Ether from the trees. Vibrant greens faded to sickly gray, leaves crumbling to dust before they could hit the forest floor. The very air grew thick with the scent of decay. Though the trees still remained standing, it was apparent that nothing in our vicinity could be considered alive.
Friena lunged in a flash of desperate courage, sword gleaming - only for a sound like snapping branches to echo through the clearing. Her right leg contorted violently, bones twisting at impossible angles before she even hit the ground. Her scream tore through me, every agonized note shredding what little composure I had left.
"PLEASE!" My voice shattered the dying forest's silence, raw and broken. "Take me instead! Just let her go!" I pressed my forehead into the withered earth, tears mixing with the crumbling soil.
After a short pause
When I dared to look up, the angel's face had twisted into a mockery of laughter, its glowing eyes promising neither of us would leave this forest alive.
I trembled uncontrollably as Friena writhed on the ground, her hands clutching the mangled ruin of her leg, her screams carving through the forest's deathly silence. The fallen angel showed no hesitation—dark energy swirled around its outstretched claws, condensing into razor-sharp lances of corrupted Ether. One after another, they materialized midair, their numbers multiplying exponentially.
'Ten… twenty… fifty—' My vision blurred with panic. 'At this rate… if even one strikes her—'
Then—impact.
A shockwave tore through the clearing as something collided with the angel's face with enough force to send its entire body hurtling backward. The lances dissolved into black mist before they could fire. Dust swirled in the aftermath, revealing a figure standing where the monster had been—tall, poised, her blue drill curls shimmering faintly with residual energy.
Her usual regal composure was gone. Instead, her piercing violet eyes—normally so aloof—locked onto me with startling intensity. Sorrow, fury, and something dangerously protective burned in her gaze. The sleeves of her pristine uniform were torn, her knuckles bloodied from the punch that had just sent a fallen angel flying.
'Right,' I realized dully. Of course it was her. Who else could knock back a fallen angel like it was nothing?
It was none other than the heroine of the novel - my housemate, Evelyn von Ardentis.
Though inferior to the novel's protagonist, Evelyn stood unquestionably as the second strongest being to ever exist. And with the main character absent from this world, she would inevitably claim the title of strongest.
'If she's here... maybe I can focus on getting Friena to safety.'
The angel remained oblivious to its barrier's fatal flaw - it blocked all waveforms in and out of the forest. The academy's monitoring systems relied precisely on such frequencies. The moment that dome formed, every professor would have known something was wrong.
Help was coming. Eventually. Not that we needed to wait now that Evelyn had arrived. Even without the protagonist's influence, she'd somehow awakened her powers - though I wondered how her motivation differed from the novel's timeline, where she'd only awakened after seeing the MC critically injured.
Without even glancing at Friena's writhing form, Evelyn rushed to my side, her usual composure shattered. "Klare! Are you hurt? Tell me where!" she demanded, her voice trembling in a way I'd never heard before.
"I'm fine," I assured her, eyeing the blood coating her knuckles. "But you're-"
"It's nothing," she cut in, her expression hardening as she turned toward the fallen angel. "There will be much more before I end this monster"
Naturally she'd mistake it for a monster - no royal had seen a true demon in centuries. Yet what struck me most was the undisguised relief that had flashed across her face when she saw I was unharmed. This was the same Evelyn who never showed weakness, whose pride was legendary throughout the academy. The contradiction left me speechless.
As Evelyn rose to her feet, I found the strength to stand as well. My characteristic composure resurfaced, allowing me to suppress the lingering tremors and concentrate entirely on securing Friena's escape from this nightmare.
"Evelyn, I'm entrusting the monster to you," I declared, my voice steadier than I felt. "I must guarantee this girl's safety"
A flicker of something unreadable passed through Evelyn's eyes - a rather complex look at me for caring for Friena. Yet she gave a firm, understanding nod, her warrior's instincts overriding whatever personal feelings might have surfaced in that moment.
Carefully, I cradled Friena in a princess carry, adjusting my grip to minimize any jostling of her mangled leg. Her sharp intake of breath sent a pang of guilt through me, but I steeled myself - getting her to safety took priority.
"Just hold on, Friena," I murmured, my voice deliberately calm despite the adrenaline coursing through me. "You're going to be okay. I'll get you out of here."
With her secured against my chest, I broke into a sprint toward what had once been our escape route - now dominated by that ominous black barrier. My muscles burned with exertion as I carried her to the very edge where the dying grass met the corrupted darkness, gently lowering down.
I had no bandages, no medical supplies. Jaw clenched, I tore the sleeve from my uniform with a sharp yank, the fabric giving way with a satisfying rip. The makeshift bandage was crude at best, the material already soaking through with crimson as I secured it around the worst of her injuries.
'This will have to do,' I thought grimly, tying the final knot. The academy healers could work miracles with far less - assuming we lived long enough to reach them.
The minutes stretched endlessly as I kept vigil over Friena's unconscious form. My limbs grew leaden with exhaustion, my eyelids heavy as the adrenaline that had sustained me began to fade. Friena lay deathly still, her breathing shallow - the merciful unconsciousness that followed her adrenaline crash might have been the only thing sparing her from unbearable agony.
'Where in the gods names are the professors?' The thought burned through my fatigue like acid. 'This pathetic barrier - they should be able to tear through it like parchment! Do our lives mean nothing?'
My spiraling thoughts shattered as the barrier trembled violently - a thunderous impact shaking the very ground beneath us. Evelyn's broken body slammed against the shimmering darkness of the barrier right next to us, her uniform in tatters, her usually pristine features marred by blood and bruises. From the forest came a terrifying existence - the angel, now towering three times its original size, its transformation horrifyingly complete.
The creature I'd foolishly hoped Evelyn could handle had evolved beyond my worst fears. Slowly, deliberately, it emerged from the forest's gloom, those hellish crimson eyes locking onto us with predatory focus. The light that shone on it as it stepped outside of the dim forest and into the little field between the barrier and the forest showed its grotesque body.
Two twisted obsidian horns now crowned its skull, framing a disturbingly feminine visage. Its wings - already monstrous - had expanded to nightmare proportions, each feather-like tendril dripping with shadow. But most terrifying was its mouth - a glowing white maw that split its face in a grin too wide, too hungry, filled with needle-like teeth that promised an eternity of suffering.
That smile told me everything. The hunt was over. The slaughter was about to begin.
I started shivering yet again.