An ordinary profession creates the world's strongest

Guanghui realized again that the Huili they knew never existed from the beginning.

The poison took effect, and Guanghui's limbs became paralyzed and weak, and he collapsed. No matter how he struggled, his body only spasmed slightly, completely unresponsive.

"Wait a moment, Kouki-san♪"

Seeing that Kouki was completely unable to move, Eri smiled contentedly and turned to walk towards Kaori.

The time limit for using Soul Binding is almost up.

Hiyama urged Eri angrily.

Thinking that Kaori would be defiled even after death, Kouki and Shizuku felt anxious and angry, with expressions of regret on their faces, and tried desperately to stop her.

Eri's hand, however, reached out to Kaori mercilessly.

Then the chanting began.

Through the layers of puppet soldiers, Ryutaro, Jūgo, Yuka, Junshi, Kousuke, Kentaro and others, even the students who stayed behind, shouted to stop it, but the chanting of the curse did not stop.

In a few tens of seconds, Kaori will become a puppet that obeys Hiyama's orders.

Her dignity will be trampled upon more easily than a weed.

Shizuku and the others were furious, Hiyama laughed heartily, and Eri had a sly grin on her face.

Then--

On a battlefield filled with despair and betrayal, one voice sounded particularly loud.

“…What the hell is going on here?”

It was the voice of the white-haired, eyepatch-wearing boy—Nan Gumo Hajime.

The moment Hajime appeared on stage, it was as if time stopped, causing everyone to stop moving. The pressure he released was as strong as the pressure of a waterfall.

The puppet soldiers had no emotions, so they shouldn't have stopped their movements under Hajime's pressure. However, as a sorcerer, Eri couldn't help but act on her biological instinct—to hold her breath and wait for the danger to pass when near a powerful person—and the puppet soldiers followed suit.

Even though hundreds of people were staring at him, Hajime looked around without a care in the world.

A large number of soldiers and knights attacked the students.

Students gathered together to form a circle.

Guanghui vomited blood and fell in front of Meld.

Shizuku knelt on the ground with a black knife in hand.

Eri and Hiyama froze in place.

And Kaori, who was being held by Hiyama, had her body pierced by a sword and her heart had stopped beating——

"babble!"

I don't know who made the cry.

This terrifying aura that shouldn't exist in this world instantly engulfed the entire training ground.

The extremely strong breath of death made the body tremble. It was a terrible feeling as if there were bugs crawling all over the body, or as if a hand reached directly into the body and grabbed the heart.

This is what is called blood coagulation all over the body.

The body suddenly loses temperature, and the strong murderous intent causes people to have various hallucinations of death.

In an instant, it disappeared without a trace.

Then, he moved at a speed that no one could see, and appeared next to Kaori with a loud bang.

That loud noise was the sound of Hiyama being sent flying, crashing into the inner wall of the training ground.

Hajime suddenly rushed into Hiyama's arms, and in order not to hurt Kaori, he deliberately reduced his strength and punched him away.

“Ahem, umm—hmm…”

Half of Hiyama's body was stuck in the wall, twitching, but he seemed to be barely alive.

With Hiyama's condition, one single blow would have torn his body into pieces, but thanks to Hajime showing mercy, he only suffered a comminuted fracture in the right upper body and several internal organ injuries.

It seemed as if he was unconscious from the pain and woke up from it again, repeating the hellish experience over and over again, emitting strange groans and screams of pain.

Without even glancing at Hiyama, Hajime held Kaori in his arms, gently brushing her hair away from her face.

Then call out to your companions.

"Tio! I'm counting on you!"

“!…Okay, leave it to me!”

"Shiro, Shirosaki-san!"

Tio, who had arrived together, heard Hajime's call and came back to her senses in a hurry. Aiko, who was standing beside her, had a pale face and ran quickly to Kaori's side.

Tio took Kaori from Hajime and quickly chanted magic.

"Ahaha, it's no use, she's dead. I didn't expect you'd even get here... No, I should have thought of that when Kaori came... Well, Hiyama seems to be dying, so Kaori should be given to Nagumo? As long as you don't cross me, I can use magic to bring Kaori back to life. It's not really alive, but she can stay beautiful forever, right? It's better than rotting, right?"

Eri suggested to Hajime. Although she had a smile on her face, cold sweat was beading on her forehead. It was obvious that she was cursing inwardly, "Why is this monster here?!"

Ignoring his son's eyes widened in shock, Hajime suddenly stood up.

Eri, fully aware of Hajime's strength, made no effort to hide her emotions. She clicked her tongue in anger while trying to persuade him, "If you attack me, Kaori will continue to rot."

The murderous intent overflowing from Hajime remained unwavering. He walked slowly towards Huili with an expressionless face.

"Wait, wait a minute, Nagumo. Look at the people around you. Don't you think they're just as alive as they are? There's no way to resurrect the dead, so you should want Kaori to at least look like them, right? And you can do anything to Kaori, right? So you absolutely need me—"

Huili tried her best to persuade him while backing away.

At this moment, a figure suddenly rushed out from behind Shi, and with skills that other puppet soldiers could not match, he fired a sharp shot at Shi.

It's Reiichi Kondo.

That was the poor spearman who had just been killed by Eri and turned into a puppet.

Though a puppet, it could fully unleash the power of its otherworldly cheat. Kondo, drawing upon his vocation as a lancer, launched a fierce thrust, a whirlwind swirling around his spear, striking Hajime squarely in the heart.

"Ahahaha, you're so careless~ or are you just so angry that you fainted--!"

Eri's anxiety faded, and a smile returned to her face. But when she saw that Hajime didn't seem to be in any pain and didn't stop at all, the muscles on her face couldn't help but twitch.

If she were behind Hajime, she would probably have noticed the red magic block compressed to the size of a ten-yuan coin, blocking the spear tip. It was a derivative skill of "King Kong," "Concentrated Strengthening."

Without a word, Hajime fired the shotgun behind his back with his left elbow without hesitation.

Gunshots rang out, and Kondo's face was hit by a powerful shotgun at a very close distance, and his head was immediately blown into small pieces of flesh.

Then there was a sound of blood and flesh flying.

“!…Do it!”

Huili gradually revealed a ferocious expression and ordered the next puppet soldier and Meld to attack.

Although not as close as Kouki and Meld's friendship, Hajime and Meld are still close. In the [Orcus Great Labyrinth], Hajime even used a secret medicine to save him from death.

Therefore, Eri speculated that Hajime would waver, just as Kouki had, and thus reveal an opening. The surrounding puppet soldiers waited eagerly for that moment.

Meld turned into a gust of wind and attacked.

He swung the knight's sword with all his might. A normal sword or shield, even made of metal, would have been shattered by that blow.

He then took it with two fingers of his prosthetic hand.

"...Have you become like this too? What a shame."

As Eri, Kouki, and the others were stunned, Hajime looked at Meld who was pushing the knight's sword hard and whispered.

At this moment, as if by miracle—

“…Ah…Please…”

That wasn't a plea for mercy, even if the people around him thought so, Hajime standing before him could understand that those words were indeed spoken by the real Meld Loggins.

Hajime's answer was just one sentence.

"Leave it to me."

All I heard was a loud bang.

Shotgun shells flew from his prosthetic arm, and bright red flowers blossomed from Meld's body. At the moment of the explosion, Meld's lips seemed to curl into a smile, perhaps an illusion.

However, no one, whether on our side or the enemy, had the energy to pay attention.

Then, a monstrous weapon capable of firing twelve thousand rounds per minute—the electromagnetic acceleration machine gun "Mejerai"—appeared out of thin air, emitting red lightning and a unique spinning sound.

Those who knew its power—Yuuka and Atsushi—had expressions reminiscent of Munch's "The Scream," and they immediately shouted.

"Everyone, get down quickly!"

“Oh no! Get down, ahhhhh!”

Hearing the two people's warnings, Ryuutarou, Jūgo and other front-line members responded immediately, pulling the standing people to the ground and covering them with their bodies.

Then, the embodiment of destruction roared.

Monster Fangs have previously crushed Golem Knights controlled by Liberator, wiping out armies of tens of thousands of monsters, and even negating the Silver Feathers fired by God's Apostles.

Once such a weapon unleashes its power, an enemy as powerful as a puppet soldier won't be able to survive even for a second.

The electromagnetically accelerated bullets shattered all obstacles, destroying the walls of the training ground like pieces of paper, and began to strafing with Hajime as the center.

There was a bloody storm at the scene, with pieces of flesh flying everywhere.

Regardless of their strength or size, all the puppet soldiers were turned into pieces of meat.

Soon, Mejele's roar stopped and the sound of footsteps could be heard again in the silent training ground.

When everyone remains in a lying position and dares not move at all, the one who eliminates all obstacles and continues to move forward is of course the beginning.

Like everyone else, Huili desperately lowered her head, waiting for the storm to pass. Suddenly, the tip of a shoe appeared before her eyes.

Huili raised her head tremblingly, her gaze slowly moving upwards from her shoes, only to see a pair of cold and ruthless eyes, as if looking at a worthless stone on the roadside.

Meijerai was no longer in Hajime's hand. He simply stood before Huili, looking down at her.

Eri was speechless and stared at Hajime blankly. Hajime then spoke slowly:

"and then?"

"...!"

Hajime had no idea what Eri had done, he only understood that she was the enemy.

If it was an ordinary enemy, Hajime would have ruthlessly killed her immediately to end it.

But Eri had touched someone she shouldn't have. Killing her wasn't enough; before she died, Hajime had to make her feel "despair"...

So Hajime was actually asking.

——What can you do? You can't do anything, right?

Eri correctly interpreted Hajime's intentions and gritted her teeth, biting the corner of her lip and dripping blood. Previously, she had been the commander here, holding an overwhelming advantage, but it had been overturned in an instant. Hatred and a touch of fear welled up in Eri's heart for Hajime, this embodiment of unreasonableness.

"How could you possibly understand—"

Just as Huili was about to complain excitedly, the muzzle of the gun was already against her forehead.

Hajime drew his gun with lightning speed, and Eri swallowed her complaints unconsciously.

"...I don't want to hear your feelings or your motives. If you have nothing else to say—die."

Hajime's finger was on the trigger. Eri saw the look in his eyes and understood that he intended to kill her classmate. She also understood that he had no hesitation at all about Kaori's inability to become a puppet.

——I will die.

Huili's mind was filled with these words.

But it seemed she wasn't destined to die.

Just as Hajime was about to blow Eri's head off, a fire bomb flew over. The fire bomb was incredibly powerful, appearing white-hot.

However, the flame bomb still didn't work, as Donal's gun shot through the magic core and easily dissipated it.

“Nagumo aaaaaaaaaaa!!”

Hiyama, covered in wounds, rushed out from behind the dissipated flame bomb and called out Hajime's name in a tone that was not human.

Hiyama rushed forward with a sword in his hand and a lot of blood gushing out of his mouth, his right arm hanging limply.

His face could no longer be described as ghostly; it looked like an ugly alien creature.