“Parker Dominic Opus...”
“Holy Mother, have rcy...”
Roughly four hundred refugees had gathered inside the cathedral. The sounds of prayers fell among them.
“It’s okay, Louis... As long as you’re with Mommy, you’re safe... It’s okay...”
“......”
A mother held her child close, repeating reassurances over and over.
That anxiety stretched on—until soone shouted.
“...It’s coming!”
It was one of the soldiers guarding the shelter.
Everyone turned.
“Everyone, stand up! A giant monster is approaching! Evacuate underground imdiately!”
“What?!”
“I said, a monster is headed this way! Go underground! Don’t go outside!”
The area turned into chaos in an instant.
“What do you an ‘don’t go outside’?! If it’s coming here, we should run!”
“If we go underground and the floor collapses, we’re all dead!”
“Please follow orders! Move now! The cathedral’s basent is safe!”
Confusion and disagreent spread through the crowd. The soldier tried desperately to push people underground, but the frightened flock refused to be controlled.
“Everyone, calm down!”
Then, one man stepped forward and cald the crowd.
A tall, well-built man in full plate armor—a noble and imposing knight.
“I am Havaten, knight of the Count! From now on, I will take responsibility for your safety!”
A knight of the Count!
The very ntion brought visible relief to the eyes of the territory’s people.
“C-Can you handle it alone? I heard the monster broke through the castle gates...”
“Our knights, and all military forces, are already on their way! They will defend this place!”
“B-But still...”
“You must calm yourselves!”
He shouted loudly.
“In tis of crisis, the greatest casualties co from panic! For now, stay put! I’ll assess the situation and guide you again afterward!”
A mother whispered to her child.
“It’s okay. The knight will protect us, Louis.”
“......”
The child nodded.
He looked like a strong, righteous knight. Even as he left the entrance, he kept turning to look back at the citizens, as if concerned.
But if only he had turned his head to look forward instead...
His death was aningless.
The sky of stone fell on him as he walked away with his back turned. Crushed before he could even scream, his body was flattened along with the ground—slowly compressed into nothingness.
Boom—!!
A deafening roar shook the basent as an enormous boulder rolled in, smashing through one side of the cathedral wall.
Suddenly, darkness swallowed the inside of the cathedral.
The civilians, all at once, felt sothing uncanny. What they had thought was simply a massive boulder now felt unmistakably like a human skull.
Even with the ten-ter-high cathedral wall collapsed, all they could see was a single eye socket and nose bridge.
Breaths held across the cathedral.
Then, a slit opened down the center of the eyelid. A single red, shattered eye slowly moved—then stopped.
It had made eye contact with the child nestled in his mother’s arms.
“......”
There were hundreds of citizens present, but not a single one could scream or move.
Within that eerie silence—
Outside the window, the monster’s massive, half-remaining jaw began to open.
As if it would take one giant bite.
***
The Hero ran. Toward the cathedral. I was running too, but he was faster. He would arrive first—just barely—at the sa ti as Eymon’s knights ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) charging in from the other side.
Glory, the Hero.
I had spoken with him a few tis. Summoned him to strategy briefings and explained our plans. But the Hero always had that vacant, doll-like stare.
“Do you understand the plan?”
When I asked, the disheveled, sky-blue-haired Hero stared blankly at , his eyes loose like soone drugged. Then, with split lips—who knows who had punched him—he mumbled:
“...If there are demons, I kill them.”
“To kill them, you have to understand the plan.”
“...If people are in danger, I save them.”
“So. The plan?”
“......”
No answer.
After the eting, he simply left, pulled out a cheap bottle of liquor from his pocket, downed it, picked up soone else’s discarded cigarette butt, started smoking... then curled up on the ground and passed out.
An enigma of a man.
“He’s... kind of weird, isn’t he?”
“He’s strong, that’s for sure. But you can’t really communicate with him. Don’t worry too much.”
“Ugh... I don’t like him.”
The Dante Assassination Squad had basically written him off.
But once war broke out, I was forced to recognize him as the real Hero.
He was absurdly strong. He wielded [Divine†] power, and each blow he struck rivaled or surpassed even [Grandmasters].
Based on his strength alone, I’d place him sowhere in the top 700 rankings. Yet he looked barely mid-twenties.
Without him, the outer wall would have fallen to siege weapons a long ti ago.
His na and title were well earned.
● Hero Glory
The entire ti I prepared for the Bomiteka battle, I kept thinking about this world’s structure.
The DLC title, [Professor of a Heroic Tale], inherently acknowledged the setup of Hero versus Demon King. It also declared that the one to defeat the Demon King would be the Hero.
Which ant... the fate of this world rested with that hopeless bastard.
At the sa ti, according to the information, the Empire possessed a 「Holy Sword†」. And soon, the Hero was supposed to draw it.
In other words, he would save the world.
My job, whether it was teaching him, or reshaping the world’s stance toward demons—whatever it took—was to act as a professor.
So with the Hero alive and now running toward Bomiteka, I assud this ss would wrap up relatively cleanly.
Bomiteka had only 5–10% HP remaining.
But still, I decided to double-check the outco, because I couldn’t stop thinking about one troubling detail: the report that the Hero had a [Bug].
⋮
『 World Spoof: Ti Spoof [60 sec / 20 fras] 』
⋮
The Hero reached the cathedral and struck Bomiteka’s massive jaw.
At the sa mont, Bomiteka bit down on the cathedral.
As the building collapsed, the Hero continued to swing his sword, and like an explosion at the tip of a toothpick, Bomiteka’s massive body began to rupture.
< Eymon: Glory! What the hell are you doing?! >
And that’s when the problem occurred.
Just after two people—apparently a mother and child—were sucked into Bomiteka’s jaw, the Hero changed.
“HHHAAAAAAHHHH...!!”
The Hero scread and charged into Bomiteka’s mouth.
He shattered the monster’s teeth.
But during the clash, sothing inside the mouth struck and broke Glory’s sword.
< Eymon: Glory! Pull back! Pull back!! You don’t even need to do this, we already almost won!! >
Even with half its jaw broken, the reinforced hide held.
Glory scread like a madman, slamd his fists into the incisors, headbutted the front teeth, and forced his way in.
“Soone pull that bastard out!”
“He’s done for! He’s completely insane!!”
As knights looked on in horror, Glory slipped right into the shattered teeth.
< Eymon: What the hell are you doing, you bastard━!! >
As Eymon scread like he’d choked on raw potatoes, I arrived—just in ti to see Bomiteka crush its own teeth shut. Crack crack crack!
The Hero had been swallowed.
“Glory got eaten!”
“What the hell is that guy?! Why did he do that?!”
The soldiers who had just arrived were all in shock.
I stood frozen. I didn’t know how to respond.
Then, Bomiteka cracked open from the inside and died.
But a despairing status screen appeared:
< GA OVER >
Followed by a series of notifications:
⋮
「 Bad Ending: Hero’s Death 」
⋮
「 Bad Ending: Hero’s Death 」)
「 Bad Ending: Hero’s Death 」ㅇ)
「 Bad Ending: Hero’s Death 」ㅅㅇ)
⋮
Ti moved rapidly. The sky was pitch black. No stars.
After years of effort, we stood before the Demon King—but sothing incomprehensible had brought it all to a halt.
At the very end of the farthest tiline, we could not kill the Demon King.
There was no way to kill him.
Because Glory was gone.
The mont I realized that, everything—including and this faded world—crumbled.
“......”
When I opened my eyes, I saw the cathedral.
Glory’s blow splitting open Bomiteka’s jaw.
Bomiteka clamping its mouth shut.
The Hero’s crazed, desperate assault.
< Eymon: Glory! What the hell are you doing?! >
Lastly, I heard Eymon’s scream.
Ah.
Goddamn it.
< Eymon: That’s dangerous! Pull back right now!! >
< Eymon: Pull back! Hey! Hey, damn it! Why are you doing this?! >
Voices I hadn’t heard in the skipped fras ca through more clearly—Eymon’s panic and confusion.
“HHHAAAAAAHHHH...!!”
And then I understood.
The mother and child were eaten by Bomiteka.
The Hero was trying to save them.
He wasn’t thinking about how his own death would doom the world.
Now I understood Glory a little better. He was soone who hated demons and wanted to save people. A blindly self-sacrificing Hero—almost idiotically so.
< Eymon: Glory! Pull back! Pull back!! You don’t even need to do this, we already almost won!! >
I clenched my teeth and ran harder toward the cathedral.
Just as Glory headbutted his way into Bomiteka’s shattered teeth.
“No—stop!!”
“That idiot...!”
Nearby knights and assassins scread as they protected civilians or tried to evacuate the area.
< Eymon: What the hell are you doing, you bastard━!! >
Right now.
This was the mont.
I had to act.
There was only one thing I could do.
But I had no idea if I would survive doing it.
Bomiteka’s jaw, massive as a skyscraper, began to close. Glory was inside, and the beast was trying to make sure he would never co out—shattering its own teeth to do so.
No ti for options. No ti to think.
“P-Professor Dante?!”
“You can’t go in there!”
I rushed toward those closing jaws.
< Eymon: Professor Dante!? What are you doing!! >
As Eymon lost it over comms, I reached Bomiteka’s mouth and raised my 「Giant Soldier’s Sword○」 to full output. I stabbed the sword into the monster’s maw, then reached out with both arms to brace the upper and lower jaws.
“Professor Dante, what are you—?!”
“It’s too dangerous! Please co back—!!”
It felt like the world itself was trying to crush between two cliffs.
BOOOOOOOM━
For a mont, I couldn’t breathe.
The magical pressure on the sword connected directly to my body.
With both arms spread wide, I felt the entire universe pressing in to flatten . I resisted.
That alone was my limit. I could do nothing more.
Barely holding the jaw open, my arms trembled. My body scread under the pressure.
But Bomiteka’s jaws didn’t close.
I was holding them.
< Eymon: Ah! >
Eymon finally realized sothing and shouted.
< Eymon: Break the jaw—!! >
The soldiers who had fallen back sensed it too and rushed in.
“We have to save Professor Dante! Break the jaw!!”
“Smash its jaw—!! Artillery! Mages!!”
Magic. Cannon fire. Enlarged warriors.
Everyone nearby threw everything they had at the jaw.
“Professor!!”
Elize’s desperate voice. Balmung’s lightning blade. Kendreik’s war axe crashing down with a roar—“Hrrraahh!!” wielding “Santa Barbara.”
“Professor! This is all because of that lunatic Glory?!”
Quick-witted Gray finally understood the situation and rushed in to stand before .
I wanted to tell him to get out.
But I was at my limit—just holding out.
My eyes were already bleeding.
Gray shouted into Bomiteka’s mouth.
“Glory, you dumb bastard—get the hell out—!!”
Get out right now...
Get out right now...
Get out right now......
The echo rang through the beast’s skull.
And then—
Footsteps.
Erging from the darkness, Glory appeared carrying the mother and child—just before they could be lted and consud.
He was covered in blood. He must’ve fought whatever small “Bomiteka” existed inside its throat.
“What the hell are you standing around for?! Get the fuck out already—!!”
Glory got slapped by Gray and pushed out.
“Professor, let’s get out too. Please...?”
The cat showed a rare expression of concern.
At that mont, Bomiteka’s jaw shattered.
Gray caught as I collapsed.
We had won the war.
⋮
< ⧉ You have repelled [Corrosion – Hiaka]. >
< ⧉ With only [Total Combat Strength: 35.2M], you killed the one-horned demon Bomiteka, ensured 96.2% survival inside the [Isolation Wall], saved the Hero, and preserved all major characters. >
< ⧉ Completion Rating: SSS >
< ⧉ This is an incredible feat! >
< ⧉ You are awarded 1 「[Rare] Lucky Box□」 as a [Corrosion] reward. >
< ⧉ For achieving SSS, you receive bonus rewards: 「[Heroic] Lucky Box□」 and 「[Legendary] Lucky Box□」. >
< ⧉ You have earned 50 Star Fragnts from [Corrosion]! >
< ⧉ Of the 33 Stars, 12 have observed you. Multiple Stars grant rewards for this thrilling spectacle. >
< ♥ rejoices in the many lives you saved. [25] >
< ж enjoyed your struggle. [10] >
< ⁺₊⋆ is pleased to have lent its light. [30] >
< † thanks you for protecting the cathedral. [33] >
< 火 had fun!! [10] >
< ↑ reluctantly admits—due to soone’s persistent nagging—that this zone showed the best performance among all seven Isolation Walls. [25] >
< ○ leaves its report. [30] >
< ⚉ is annoyed, but begrudgingly sponsors you, due to pressure to fulfill Hiaka constellation duties. [20] >
< “Peace Star☮” wanted to give more, but encountered a problem... ㅠㅠㅠ [50] >
< │ㅅㅇ)’s viewership fee [1] >
< Total Star Fragnts: 284 >
< But 284 isn’t a neat number. >
< ⧉ grants an additional 16 fragnts. Total: 300 >
< Several Stars will now pay closer attention to you. Depending on your choices, a [Stigma] may be awarded. >
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