Cameria

“How could this happen!?”

The devil nun, who had been planning to enjoy the show, now revealed a look of shock.

In her astonishment, I also observed…

—The red thin thread connecting them was shaking.

“Whatever… the contract is still in place, as long as her soul is still in my hands…”

Seeing her about to clap again and control Rebecca…

I can’t give her that chance!

At this point, I’ll just bet on it!

“Sophina! Ten o’clock direction, forty-five degree angle! Attack there quickly!”

“…? But there’s nothing there…”

“Don’t worry about it, attack now!”

Seeing my determination, Sophina stopped questioning and fired a beam of light toward the direction I indicated.

…Light magic has the ability to purify evil, and the Saintess of Light’s purification is even stronger—so, is it possible it can also sever this strange thread?

—It has to succeed!

Watching the light, I prayed in my heart.

Under my gaze, “Sophina”‘s light passed through the red thread,

and the latter, losing its tension, fluttered in the air and dissipated.

The devil floating in the sky was shocked once more.

“…What!? The contract was actually…?”

At the same time, the flames on Rebecca completely extinguished…

In contrast, she lost all strength and collapsed into Noel’s arms.

Her plan thwarted, the devil glared viciously at me.

“It was clearly a good show… you child, always ruining our plans at the perfect moment…”

But that anger only lasted a short while.

“Fine, it’s not yet time to purge you… and purging isn’t my job anyway.”

“Snap!”

She snapped her fingers, and a door of darkness opened behind her.

“At least I’ve collected enough fear…”

“Trying to escape?”

“…!?”

A sharp, bone-chilling sword edge approached the devil like a swooping eagle, unnoticed until now.

The one shocked wasn’t just the devil—even I was dumbfounded.

For no other reason…

…The one descending from the sky was actually the miss!?

Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen her since earlier…

Could it be that while our attention was drawn to Noel, she had already snuck into action?

“You bastard who toys with others’ emotions, I won’t let you off easily.”

The sword edge fell from above, piercing deeply into the devil’s throat.

The instant it struck from behind, the devil lost her floating ability and plummeted like a meteor alongside the miss.

“Thud!”

A massive sound echoed through the academy… proof of their impact with the ground.

An ordinary person would surely have died from such a shock, right?

…However, devils aren’t that fragile.

I saw it—at the moment of landing, countless chains wove behind the devil, forming a cushioning net.

The miss was surprised for a moment but quickly twisted her wrist again, attempting to decapitate the devil directly.

But crimson chains had already缠绕上来; to escape them, the miss could only abandon her sword and retreat back to our side.

“Tch… so I didn’t manage to cut off her head directly?”

The devil was pushed up by the chains, which also pulled out the sword embedded in her.

Purple blood seeped from her throat.

Yet even so, she could still speak normally.

“…To think I was ambushed. I was careless.”

Her fingers lightly brushed the cut on her neck, and the wound astonishingly vanished.

“Feeling a bit angry now?”

Just being glanced at by those goat-like pupils sent a chill through me enough to freeze my entire body.

…Is this guy on the same level as Vladimir?

Compared to her, the previous Lilith was nothing more than a tiny ant.

She raised her hand.

I, Cameria, heed my call and manifest here, “Chains of Contract”!

Countless crimson chains burst from the ground, heading straight for the miss…

No, it should be said, targeting everyone.

I quickly handed my short sword to the miss while erecting layers of rock walls to block the chains.

But…

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The chains not only pierced through the rock walls effortlessly but didn’t slow down at all.

…As expected, ordinary rock walls are useless?

But preparing large-scale magic requires construction time; this was too sudden, I simply didn’t have time…

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Fortunately, the miss’s swordsmanship was astonishing, deflecting every chain that pierced through the rock walls.

Sparks clearly flew where blade met chain.

It hurts so much!

Can’t block it…!

Yaaaaaah!

But the other students, and even the teachers, lacked such skill; under the chains’ assault, they could only suffer miserable wounds, screams rising one after another.

The few uninjured besides us were probably only the other male protagonists protected under the heroine’s light barrier.

Unlike defensive magic of other attributes, light magic seemed able to block these chains.

Ngh…!

But judging from “Sophina”‘s strained expression, blocking the chains wasn’t easy.

…After all, this is still the early game; having over level ten would be impressive, and blocking attacks from an enemy on Vladimir’s level is already outstanding.

“Not over yet?”

But the devil’s next words sank our hearts further.

She held a wooden baton from who-knows-where, elegantly waving it like a symphony conductor.

Under her command, those chains seemed to gain life.

What was once monotonous charging suddenly became winding, serpentine attacks, unpredictable.

If before they were wild boars, now they were swimming snakes.

One or two might still be trackable with the eyes…

But with so many, relying on sight alone inevitably led to oversights.

Even someone as strong as the miss was no exception.

Sword light flashed, afterimages flew, yet one chain still broke through the seemingly impenetrable defense net, thrusting toward the miss.

“Miss!”

I couldn’t help shouting.

Hearing my voice, the miss reacted immediately, twisting her body to dodge the attack by a hair’s breadth.

However… there was a bulging pocket on her clothes.

It must be the gift box she stuffed into her pocket earlier.

Since it wasn’t part of her body, the miss misjudged.

And the chain just happened to hit that protrusion…

The result was the chain tearing the pocket and shattering the gift box.

The black contents inside splattered everywhere, some even landing on the miss.

Staring at the black substance stuck to her clothes, the miss froze for a moment, then clenched her silver teeth, fists tightly gripped, tears welling in her eyes, looking utterly furious.

“…Unforgivable! Unforgivable!”