Chapter 20
As soon as the entrance to the ruins was destroyed, a barrier sprang up around the entire site, preventing anyone from leaving.
The barrier had been designed to keep intruders from escaping, but given the situation, it had trapped not only the minions but also everyone who hadn't managed to evacuate in time.
Most of them were Academy cadets, while the few ordinary people trembled with fear, hiding behind walls or crouching on the ground with their hands clasped in prayer.
Praying like that wouldn't change anything, but this time was different.
There were two saviors here who would answer those otherwise meaningless prayers.
"All cadets, protect the civilians! We'll handle the fighting!"
"Civilians, please get as far away as possible!"
Agnes summoned ice to shatter the glass cases displaying the weapons, then took a staff from inside one of them.
The protagonist seemed to hesitate for a moment, too, but as the minion drew closer, he smashed the glass without a second thought and grabbed the Epic-tier weapon inside.
"How strong is it?"
"Probably at least among the stronger ones of the regular types."
"Why would a minion like that be able to get into these ruins?
"We can find out by taking it down and asking. I'll go in first, so back me up.
"Don't worry. I'll make sure to keep it pinned down."
Despite the sudden attack, Roben and Agnes had already prepared to fight, as if they were used to this sort of situation.
The red-haired minion charged, and when it collided with the protagonist, the floor and walls shattered, sending fragments flying in every direction.
I pulled out my axe and protected the civilians from the debris, but there was no way I could block all of it.
"Aaaah!!!"
"Urgh?!"
Something was going strangely wrong.
In the original, Agnes froze the minion, and the protagonist cut off its head in an instant, ending the whole thing.
So why were they struggling so badly now?
At this rate, our only options were to hold out until the guild guarding the ruins realized what was happening and got inside, or kill that minion.
After getting the people far away from the fighting, I turned toward the battle—just as Agnes flew past me and slammed into the wall.
The broken wall crumbled around her, and her pained scream echoed throughout the ruins.
"Let go of me!"
"Heh... I'll smash that smug face of yours."
The black arm extending from the minion's back was pinning Agnes against the wall as if it meant to kill her.
Blood trickled from her mouth. She endured the pain crushing her entire body and sent several ice spears flying at the minion, but it didn't even flinch.
Roben took advantage of the opening and rushed in, driving his sword into the minion's back and through its abdomen. Black blood poured from the tip of the blade, but the minion didn't falter—instead, it began rampaging even more violently.
"You're in my way!"
Roben was sent flying by the minion's punch. He fell to the ground and made no attempt to get up, as if he had lost consciousness.
I could think about why the protagonist was being so thoroughly overpowered by someone who wasn't supposed to be this strong later.
If this kept up, both Agnes and Roben would die.
While the minion's attention was fixed on Agnes, I brought my axe down on its enormous black arm.
Even as she was losing consciousness, Agnes must have frozen its arm, because a single blow from my axe shattered it and cut it off.
"What the hell are you?!"
As soon as its arm was severed, the minion exuded demonic energy from its entire body and began forming and hurling black fireballs.
All of those attacks were focused on me, so I moved with the sole aim of dodging them.
I couldn't keep dodging forever without running out of stamina, so I needed to find a way to deal with it.
A demon's natural enemies are divine talents, healing powers, and holy relics.
There was a holy relic in these ruins, but I couldn't use it right now, and it was unlikely that anyone here had healing powers.
The only person I could count on was the protagonist, but in his current state, even standing seemed difficult.
"Grr, kaaah...!"
The fireballs that had kept flying toward me gradually dwindled, then stopped altogether.
"Finally hit your limit?"
The minion's body gradually lost its human shape, transforming into something more like a monster.
It had used its power until it was practically running wild, so it wasn't surprising that the demonic energy was consuming it. But this made things much more troublesome.
The guy was already far stronger than he had been in the original. If he suddenly turned into a monster, the situation could become the worst possible.
"Move a little farther to the side."
The best weapon for dealing damage to it was the spear-like spike on the ceiling.
No one who had ever entered these ruins had thought it was a holy relic, so it had been left there ever since the ruins were discovered.
No one's going to use it if it just sits here, so it's better if I do, right?
"Freeze!"
-Crack!
Ice surged up from the floor, freezing the monster directly beneath the holy relic. I didn't let the opportunity slip by and threw my axe at the spear on the ceiling.
The axe I hurled with all my strength broke through the ceiling and knocked the spear down. The holy relic pierced the monster's body while it was trapped in the ice.
I'd done everything I could. Now it really was over.
I could leave the rest to the protagonist, who was running over from there.
When Roben swung his sword, its blade blazed with light and sliced through the monster as easily as tofu.
With its body severed, the monster was completely subdued, reduced to a motionless corpse.
"Haa... Is it over?"
"Agnes, are you okay?"
"I'm fine. More importantly, I need to ask this thing something."
As I watched Agnes approach the fallen monster and bombard it with questions, I lined up my shot.
The angle to smash its head in.
"What was your purpose in coming here?"
"It looks like it's lost the ability to speak, too."
"Why did it have to turn into a monster like this?"
Agnes kicked the monster, her voice edged with irritation, and its mouth slowly opened.
Thinking it was trying to speak, Agnes leaned in to listen at its mouth. I rushed over, shoved her aside, and brought my axe down on the monster's head.
Its head split in two, black blood spilling out, and it died on the spot.
Then Agnes grabbed me by the collar.
"Why did you kill it?"
"Because it had to be killed."
"Why?"
"To be honest, I wanted to earn some credit."
"You killed it for such a trivial reason?"
"Is there a reason I shouldn't have?"
"....."
She couldn't say a thing, could she?
She couldn't go around telling an outsider about something that had happened within her family.
That minion hadn't attacked the ruins. It had come solely to kill Agnes.
We needed to interrogate it to find out who was behind this, but now that I'd split its head open, there was no way to learn anything.
Judging by the situation, I was definitely the one who deserved to be blamed, but I had a good reason, too.
Once a minion turned into a monster, it lost all its human traits and could no longer speak.
It became nothing more than a corpse driven by the desires it had in life.
It had opened its mouth just now not to speak, but to release demonic energy from it.
In the original, Agnes was seriously injured in this incident and had to be treated by a priest.
There was no way she'd believe me even if I explained, so whether she hated me or not, it was best to keep quiet and move on.
There would be a chance to talk to her privately someday.
***
"Everyone, please move away from that area. The Prion Guild will take over from here."
"Priests are waiting outside, so you can all leave the ruins."
They'd really made a spectacular mess of things.
And they'd hurt my adorable little sibling.
"Deputy Guildmaster, take a look at this."
"Could this be..."
"Yes. It appears to be a holy relic."
"I don't remember there being a holy relic in these ruins."
"Should we investigate it?"
"Yes. Please do."
The scorch marks must have been caused by the monster, and the ice must have been my younger sibling's work.
Besides, I'd heard that the Academy's top student had joined the fight, so looking at the crystal balls would help me understand what had happened.
"What happened to the crystal balls?"
"We collected them all and gathered them here. But the crystal ball at the entrance was broken, so we couldn't retrieve it."
"Good work, for now."
After looking through the crystal balls one by one, I had a decent idea of what had happened.
Judging by its actions, it hadn't shown any interest in the ruins. It had charged straight here.
And that abnormal strength made it seem like a creature close to the Demon type.
Seeing the top student fight against something like that was certainly impressive.
But this student wasn't the top student or the runner-up, and their only talent was cleaning. How had they dodged every one of that monster's attacks and thought to knock down the spike on the ceiling?
Normally, no one would think a weapon like that could hurt a monster. Did this student know that spike was a holy relic?
"Is something wrong?"
"Take a look at this. Doesn't something seem off?"
"Hmm, you're right. Those aren't the movements of an ordinary cadet. This student moves like someone who's been training for a long time."
"Look into this student. There may be something to them."
I had a feeling I might land a big fish.
If I met this student in person, I'd have a lot of questions to ask.