The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 34

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 34. Last Words (3)
Crack. Crunch. Snap!
A sickening sound of bone breaking.
In an instant, the merchant’s swollen body transformed into the grotesque shape of a monster.
“D-Dale! Now isn’t the time to order skewers!”
“I know.”
At Iris’s urgent cry, I quickly put distance between myself and the merchant.
‘What is this?’
No matter how I looked at it, the situation was abnormal.
Furrowing my brow, I expanded my perception widely.
‘Demonic energy?’
From the monster-transformed merchant’s body emanated a sticky, repulsive aura.
As his body swelled, beyond the torn fabric of his clothes, I could see the Demon God’s stigma burning with black light.
‘Why is a Demon Human inside the Academy…?’
No.
Should I even call this a Demon Human?
While it was technically correct to call someone bearing a Demon God’s stigma a Demon Human, this creature resembled a demonic beast far more than a Demon Human.
‘Demonification phenomenon.’
The inevitable end of a human who received a stigma from the Demon God.
When the power of the stigma spiraled beyond control and demonic energy erupted, the body underwent a grotesque transformation.
‘This phenomenon rarely occurs now that the Demon God is sealed… why?’
The demonification phenomenon was intimately connected to the Demon God’s stigma.
With the Demon God’s seal still unbroken, the stigma couldn’t exert its full power, so a “rampage” of this magnitude almost never happened.
Yet the demonification phenomenon had occurred.
‘Someone deliberately triggered the rampage.’
I narrowed my eyes as I regarded the merchant-turned-beast.
“Grrrraahhh!”
The merchant, no longer capable of human speech, let out a guttural shriek and charged at me, kicking over the street stall’s sign.
“It’s dangerous, Dale!”
“Yeah, it is dangerous.”
For him, that is.
“Not me.”
Berald’s martial technique.
Heaven’s Reversal.
“Grrrahhh… Kack!”
I seized the merchant’s arm as he shrieked and lunged, twisting it violently.
The grotesquely swollen merchant’s body crashed hard against the ground, head first.
Boom!
Dust rose in thick clouds.
I picked up a fallen skewer and hurled it toward the fallen merchant’s head.
Whoosh! Crack!
The mana-infused wooden skewer pierced through the merchant’s head and lodged itself in the ground.
“D-Dale, what is this…?”
“A Demon Human.”
More precisely, it *was* a Demon Human.
But that distinction hardly mattered in the current situation.
“A Demon Human? Why would one appear at the Academy?”
“I don’t know. But…”
Before I could finish my thought.
Boom! Crack!
Roooaaarrr!
“Kyaaahhh!”
“What, what is this?!”
“Demonic beasts! Demonic beasts have appeared!”
The once-peaceful festival grounds erupted into screams and roars in an instant.
“Damn it.”
As I’d suspected, there wasn’t just one demonic beast that had appeared at the Academy.
Demonic beasts shrieked and rampaged wildly.
People who had been enjoying the festival moments before scattered in all directions, and terrible chaos consumed everything around us.
Still, as befitted the Hero Academy, some Candidates gripped weapons and stood to face the rampaging demonic beasts, but their efforts only seemed to amplify the confusion.
Boom! Whoooosh!
“Hey! What were you thinking using flame magic here, you lunatic?”
“Damn it! This is the only spell I can use—what do you expect from me?”
“Hurry! Someone bring me a sword! I left mine in the Dormitory!”
Clumsy righteousness only ever brought sorrowful results.
The Candidates who had left their weapons in the Dormitory and had been drinking since early morning to celebrate the festival couldn’t possibly respond properly to this sudden ambush.
“Get out of the way, you drunks!”
“You’re in the way!”
Of course, there were some Candidates who managed to hold their ground against the rampaging demonic beasts even under these adverse conditions, but they were insufficient to quell the chaos that shook the entire Academy.
“R-Run away!”
“Ahhhhh!”
The panicked crowd instinctively fled toward the School Main Gate to escape this place.
As if targeting the fleeing people, the demonic beasts surged toward the Main Gate.
“Dale! There are children heading toward the Main Gate…!”
“Camilla went with them, so it should be fine.”
But I couldn’t ask Camilla alone to protect the children amid this chaos.
“Let’s head to the Main Gate and regroup with Camilla.”
“Yes!”
Iris and I rushed toward the School Main Gate.
“Roooaaahhh!”
“C-Camilla!”
“Everyone, calm down!”
“Grrr! Where on earth are all these demons coming from…!”
As I headed toward the Main Gate, I saw children crying, Antonio Priest desperately trying to organize them, and Camilla wielding her sword against the surging horde of demons.
“Camilla!”
“Oh, Iris…! No, Your Holiness!”
Camilla’s expression brightened instantly upon spotting Iris rushing toward her.
“Grrrowwwl!”
Seizing that moment, a demon’s arm swung down.
A grotesquely swollen mass of flesh came crashing down like a club toward Camilla.
“Not on my watch!”
Camilla nimbly dodged the demon’s arm and slashed upward with her blade.
Slash.
The severed arm tumbled across the ground.
“Screeeeeee!”
The armless demon shrieked and stumbled backward, but only for a moment.
The horde of demons surrounding the area caught the thick scent of blood and surged forward in a frenzy.
Not toward Camilla, but toward the terrified children huddled together.
“No, this can’t happen!”
Camilla turned in alarm, trying to reposition herself.
“Leave this to me!”
Iris stepped forward and chanted a blessing prayer.
“Seven Divine Ones, illuminate your children with merciful light!”
Her eyes, now shimmering with rainbow hues, turned toward the advancing demons.
Along with a sacred cross drawn from above downward.
“Seven Stars’ Protection!”
Whoooosh!
A pristine white barrier spanning dozens of meters unfurled in a perfect circle, enveloping Iris and the children.
“Screeeeeee!”
The flesh of demons touching the barrier burned away with an acrid smoke.
The demons hesitated and retreated from the barrier.
“Grrr.”
Having abandoned their attempt to breach the barrier, the demons turned their heads, searching for their next prey.
“Looking for someone?”
As I stepped forward, the demons’ attention fixed entirely on me.
They let out savage shrieks as if they’d found their next meal, surging toward me.
I let out a soft chuckle and drew my sword.
“D-Dale! It’s dangerous!”
“Brother, get inside here quickly!”
The children inside the barrier cried out urgently as they watched me.
I shrugged and instead took a step toward the horde of demonic beasts.
“Grrrrr!”
“Cackle, caaack!”
“Screeeech!”
The demonic beasts let out ferocious roars as they charged from all directions.
Camilla rushed to my side and leveled her sword at the beasts.
“Tsk! I’ll handle this side! You take the other—!”
“No, there’s no need for that.”
“What?”
Before Camilla could turn to look at me with a furrowed brow,
I charged forward to meet the incoming demonic beasts head-on.
“Grrrrgh… hack!”
I leaped onto the wildly swinging arm of a demonic beast and drove my sword straight into its skull.
“One down.”
I twisted the blade free from its skull and cleaved through another beast lunging from the side.
Spinning my body in a full rotation, I delivered a devastating back kick to the jaw of a beast attacking from behind.
Crack!
With the sound of its jaw shattering, the beast collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
“Three down.”
I kicked off from the falling beast, launched myself high into the air, and descended upon the horde.
‘My body feels so light.’
Perhaps it was because my magical power had nearly tripled compared to a few weeks ago.
My body felt as if wings had sprouted from my back.
“Five, six, seven.”
I twisted my lips into a savage grin and slaughtered the demonic beasts like a wolf among a flock of sheep.
It took barely over a minute for all the dozens of demonic beasts to become cold corpses.
“Wow, woah.”
“That’s… that’s insane.”
Soft exclamations escaped from the children watching the massacre of demonic beasts from within the barrier.
“…Just who are you?”
Camilla’s mouth fell open as if she couldn’t believe what she’d witnessed.
“We don’t have time to be amazed.”
The School Main Gate was still crowded with people trying to escape and the horde of demonic beasts pursuing them.
I had no way of knowing how long Iris’s barrier would hold, so we needed to escape this place as quickly as possible.
“Over here! Over here! Evacuate this way!”
Just then,
I saw Morpheus rushing toward us from the distance.
“Don’t go toward the main gate—head to the Annex Cafeteria! I’ve set up a temporary shelter there!”
It seemed the professors had pooled their strength to create a safe zone.
I turned to look at Iris and spoke.
“Let’s head to the Cafeteria.”
“Yes, of course!”
Iris was about to lead the children toward Morpheus when—
“Wait, no! Leo hasn’t arrived yet!”
One of the children cried out urgently.
At those words, I looked back at the group and realized Leo was nowhere to be seen.
“Wasn’t he with us the whole time?”
“Oh, he said he was going to the Restroom, but then suddenly monsters appeared….”
“…Damn it.”
Even the nearest Restroom was quite a distance from here.
“I’ll go get him.”
“I-I’ll come with you!”
“No. Iris, you take the children and follow Morpheus first.”
Moving as a group in this situation would only hinder us further.
“But….”
“I’ll be fine, so don’t worry. Camilla, I’m counting on you to look after Iris and the children.”
“…Understood.”
Camilla nodded with a grave expression.
After sending Iris and Camilla toward Morpheus, I rushed toward the Restroom.
“B-Big brother!”
It was a small mercy, I suppose.
Squeezing every ounce of mana from my body as I reached the Restroom, Leo emerged from his hiding place in the corner and rushed toward me.
“Ugh…! S-Suddenly monsters just…!”
“Don’t panic. Get yourself together.”
“W-What about the other kids?”
“Iris and Camilla took them somewhere safe.”
“Oh….”
Leo’s expression brightened at the news that the other children were unharmed.
“Let’s head to the Cafeteria. The professors will protect us there.”
“Y-Yeah!”
With that, Leo and I made our way toward the Annex Cafeteria.
“Raaaahhh!”
There, Lucas Kane stood wreathed in a crimson aura, savagely battling the horde of demonic beasts surging toward him.
Behind Lucas Kane, I could see Bianca and Jade Bastian, along with several other professors, engaged in combat with the demonic beasts.
“Professor!”
“Dale! You’re safe!”
Lucas Kane, spotting me, crushed the skull of an oncoming demonic beast with his axe as he rushed over.
“I’m fine. But where is Morpheus?”
“Morpheus?”
“Yes, Morpheus should have arrived here with Iris and the children.”
“…What are you talking about?”
Lucas Kane furrowed his brow and shook his head.
“Morpheus has never been here.”
“…What?”
Never been here?
“I don’t know what he’s doing or where, but I haven’t seen a trace of him since earlier.”
“….”
Demons were running rampant throughout the Academy, yet he hadn’t seen a trace of him?
The man supposedly in charge of operating the Seal Festival?
“…Wait.”
A memory suddenly flickered through my mind.
A recollection brushing past my consciousness.
-After all, I’ve been so swamped with Seal Festival preparations lately that I haven’t had time to focus on anything else.
-Ah, now that you mention it, you’re the one in charge of operating this Seal Festival.
-Yes. From issuing permits to street vendors to scheduling the event… ugh, I’m dying here.
It was Morpheus who had issued permits to the merchants at the Seal Festival.
And.
The ‘merchant’ who had entered the Academy that way had become a demon, creating the chaos we faced now.
“Damn it.”
I ground my teeth and stomped my foot roughly.
‘It was you.’
The Archbishop of Reverie, Ashtaroth.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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