With each step the Greater Demon took, more guard knights fell. Yet, they did not retreat. They threw themselves into the fray, desperately trying to protect their princess, only for their lives to be cut short in the chaos.
Eliana felt her heart turn to ice, and her fingertips began to quake.
She realized then that she was nothing more than a foolish, naive girl.
She was a haughty woman who had been blinded by the arrogance that her intellect and courage alone could see her through any hardship. She had left the safety of the Royal Capital and walked straight into a place where she was vulnerable to the whims of the Demon Race.
She was an utterly irredeemable fool.
This was the price of her recklessness.
The loyal guard knights and Academy teachers were being slaughtered one by one—all for her sake. For a dying princess who couldn't even find a path to escape.
(It’s because of me... because I set the stage, these people are—)
Eliana had been so certain that she was the protagonist of this story. She believed that Hero Leon and Albert were merely pawns for her to command. As a princess and the Supreme Commander of the Demon King Subjugation, she was convinced she was the center of the world, the one who directed everything.
But she was wrong.
She was no protagonist. There was no way the center of the universe could be a person who could do nothing but watch her subordinates die, trembling and overwhelmed by her own impotence.
Much less someone forced to exit the stage before the story had even reached its climax.
"Damn you! You won't lay a finger on Lady Eliana— Gwaaaaaaaaaaah!"
The knight who tried to shield Eliana was cut down effortlessly.
The scarred demon, Zalgan, finally stood before her. The sheer volume of mana radiating from his body was staggering. Just being in his presence made her skin prickle with pain.
"This is the end, Princess. Do you have any last words?"
"—I’d rather hear yours."
In that same breath, Eliana thrust her right hand toward Zalgan’s abdomen and screamed.
"Spell 'Zero-Distance Explosion'!"
"Whoa!?"
A violent blast erupted at point-blank range, swallowing Zalgan whole. There was the restriction of distance—and one other factor.
"Ugh...!"
Eliana's right arm was horribly scorched. By forcing the caster to share in the damage, the spell’s destructive power was drastically magnified.
"Fuhahaha... Not bad! And here I thought you were just a little princess playing hero in the back because you were too afraid to get hurt!"
Though his clothes were shredded and his stomach bore a painful burn, Zalgan still wore a look of smug composure.
Eliana did not hesitate. She thrust out her left arm and screamed again.
"Spell 'Zero-Distance Explosion'!"
But the magic did not trigger.
Instead, a searing, white-hot agony flared in her left arm.
Before she could release her mana, Zalgan’s dagger had flashed through the air, severing Eliana's left hand at the wrist.
The princess let out a harrowing shriek of pure agony.
"—A-Aaaaaaaaaah!"
"You're a troublesome one, aren't you, Princess?"
A sadistic smile curled on Zalgan’s lips as he swung his dagger again. The blade plunged deep into Eliana’s abdomen.
"U-Ugh...!"
"Ahahahahahahahahahah! It’s over, Princess!"
Zalgan backhanded her across the face. No longer possessing the strength to keep her footing, Eliana collapsed into the dirt.
"P-Princess!"
The knights cried out, but they were pinned down by the demons and magic beasts, unable to move to her aid.
Eliana tried to push herself up, but between her charred right arm and her missing left hand, she couldn't support her own weight. Her face was pressed into the mud.
Tears spilled from her eyes. She had never imagined she would end up weeping in such a pathetic state. She never thought her sense of self could crumble so easily. Her royal dignity and her strategist’s composure had been stripped away, leaving nothing behind.
(I... was this helpless...)
The person lying in the dirt was no longer a protagonist or a commander. She was just a frightened girl.
Eliana fell into a pit of self-despair. She loathed her own insignificance. She feared the death that was coming for her. The terror of being effortlessly snared by a fate of destruction paralyzed her entire body. She had been nothing but a foolish creature playing tough from behind a wall of safety. Her body felt cold as her lifeblood pooled around her. How much longer did she have left?
Zalgan drew the sword from his hip.
"Well, it’s the end, little princess. Was playing strategist fun?"
At that moment—
Through the haze of pain, Eliana heard a voice from the distance, sounding like a low roll of thunder.
"Thunder Emperor Summon: Chain Lightning of Divine Punishment."
Immediately after, the world was bleached white. A split-second later, a series of deafening roars followed.
Countless bolts of lightning rained down from the heavens, striking with impossible precision to incinerate only the demons and magic beasts.
"Uooooooooaaaahhh!?"
Sensing the impending doom, Zalgan channeled his mana into both arms, desperately trying to shield himself from the lightning. But the jaws of the strike crushed through his defense as if mocking his struggle.
"Gugohooooooooaaaaah!?"
Though he survived the initial strike, Zalgan was blown backward. He tumbled across the scorched earth and struggled to his feet. His arms convulsed violently, and his entire body was racked with damage.
He looked up at the sky, his mind reeling.
"W-What is this? What the hell is going on!?"
No one understood what had just happened.
The other demons and magic beasts had been wiped out. As if directed by the hand of a god, the lightning had descended only upon the enemy. The surviving knights and teachers were equally stunned, many having collapsed to their knees in shock.
In the midst of the silence, one person moved.
Step by step, a male student walked across the blackened ground.
It was a man with heterochromic eyes—one purple and one blue.
Albert von Kronstadt.
"Now then, shall I kill you?"
His cold, ruthless gaze looked down silently at Zalgan.