an illusion of mind

"Damn it! why are there even demons in the empire?!" A student yelled out as they ran through the halls, his name was jack he was a student that barely managed to make it into the royal class and now this was happening to him...

"If it wasn't for that damn Demon..." The boy thought back to when the giant that was a demon jumped onto them, they were ordered to spread out because they couldn't beat the damn thing!

"Fuck! Now I'm stuck with Her!" He turned as he looked at Regina, she was an eccentric girl, and honestly she gave him the creeps...

Jack did not want to be stuck with her of all people, He was really unlucky.

He ran as fast as he could trying to outrun the girl but she suddenly stopped and grabbed him by the arm dragging him into a dark corner, the lights in the academy seemed to have been cut, most likely through magic interference.

Jack was surprised as Regina wrapped an arm around his waist and pulled him closer to her, he felt his face heat up being in such a close proximity to a girl, he opened his mouth to speak however she covered his mouth with her hand and whispered in his ear.

"shut up!"

"Do not attempt to speak at all." She said tightening her grip around his stomach, was surprised by her strength as he couldn't escape her grasp even if he tried.

what is she doi-

His trail of thoughts was cut off by a loud roar and a gigantic demon charged through the corridor next to them, it was too enraged to notice them.

Jack's eyes almost bulged out of their sockets as he was finally let go.

"You know what that thing would have done if it found us?" Regina spoke her tone almost belittling him.

"Well I'm sorry for not being able to sense that fucking thing from miles away!" He gestured exasperatedly at the path of destruction the creature left behind it.

"tsk, how'd you even make it to the royal class?" Regina clicked her tongue as she walked in the destroyed corridors of the school.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Jack yelled out at the strange girl.

"I'm leaving to follow that thing?" She said smiling at him.

"Are you insane?! did you see how big that was?!"

"You might not have seen it but it was actually chasing one of my friends..." she said as she continued on her way, Jack looked left and right and decided to follow after her, he knew she was strong he watched the Tradition of trials match before so he was actually safer with her than not.

He grumbled along the way as he walked forward.

Adam ran for his life as the gigantic demon followed after him destroying everything in it's path, he took a sharp turn to slow the demon behind him who roared in frustration.

He ran as fast as he could finally making it to a wide enough area to turn and confront the demon who burst through the door of the lecture room, Adam jumped back hiding in the shadows as the demon tried sniffing him out.

"Shit... How did it turn into this?!" He cursed under his breath as he sneaked through the large lecture room, he made sure not to make a single sound else he would alert the large demon.

It kept sniffing around, it didn't seem to possess any intelligence whatsoever, it's eyes were wild like those of an animal, but even those possessed the slightest hint of intelligence unlike this demon, it simply looked like a beast that knows nothing but killing...

Adam gulped at the thought of fighting that thing, for all he knew it was probably on the same level of strength as the professors of the academy.

He froze as he saw a blinding light coming from the doorway, and a beam of concentrated light shot at the brute demon's back, it recoiled the burn marks left on it's back healing almost immediately, it turned and roared at the person standing at the doorway who turned out to be Amanda, Adam's jaw hung loosely at this sight, Is she stupid?! why would she attack that thing?!

He gritted his teeth and before the brute demon could jump at Amanda and rip her apart Adam swiftly jumped out of the shadows and slashed at the demons back with his dual daggers, they left several cuts on it as he landed in close proximity to Amanda.

"What the hell are you doing?! Run Now!" He pushed the stunned Amanda along prompting her to run with him.

They ran as fast as they could.

"What's the plan?" Amanda asked.

"Plan?! What plan?! I was gonna form one but you ruined it!" Adam yelled at her.

"Right now let's just make it to a wide area so we can't be cornered by that brute..." Adam sighed as he ran, he could hear the brutes screams from far away, the closest spacious area around was the combat fields, they weren't close to any exits from the academy building so they would have to do with that.

"Turn left!" He said taking a sharp turn as the brute scraped against the floor destroying it not expecting the sharp turn as it immediately took off after them again.

"To the Fields! We have to make it to the training grounds!" Adam yelled out through the loud sounds of roaring from the beast.

Amanda nodded and shot a few light beams behind her to slow the thing down a little.

Evelyn stood over two corpses of demons as she examined them, she had killed them, they were the only demons out in the training grounds when she made it here, so it was quite easy to get rid of them.

"This place is so quiet... it gives me the creeps because I'm used to seeing it filled with students..." Suzi looked around the training grounds, she had met up with Evelyn after they made it to the training grounds, Suzi wasn't quite familiar with Evelyn she only knew her from the Tradition of trials so she was pretty awkward around her.

They just stood waiting and chatting a little, Evelyn only replied in small sentences often being 'no', or 'yes' she didn't seem like a very sociable person or she just deemed it unnecessary to speak with Suzi...

Suzi opened her mouth to speak before suddenly the door leading into the academy building slammed open Suzi and Evelyn stood on high alert Evelyn created a pink javelin holding it up ready to throw it at any demon that walked in through the door.

Suzi's stance softened slightly when she saw Adam along with Amanda ran through the door they were yelling something once they spotted them.

"-UN!"

Suzi tilted her head cupping her ears trying to listen closer, while Evelyn lowered her javelin slightly but she didn't dismiss it.

Once they were close enough Suzi and Evelyn could finally hear what they were saying and her eyes widened when she spotted the giant demon running after them.

"RUN!" Adam yelled at them and they turned and started running, Evelyn chucked her javelin straight at the brute demon while running.

"What the hell is that?!" Suzi yelled as she ran along the others, she looked back at the brute demon who was roaring loudly as it stomped the ground it plunged it's fingers into the floor picking up a big chunk of the floor and throwing it at them.

Everyone stopped and Evelyn surrounded them with a barrier of pink energy successfully stopping the pieces of debris.

"We can't run! We have to fight it!" Evelyn yelled back at her friends as she created several pink swords and chucking them at the brute demon who simply waved a hand and smacked them away.

"... I'm not sure if we can..." Adam said warily holding his daggers up.

"I never took you to be a bitch now Adam..." Suzi smiled widely her body shaking from both fear and excitement as she faces the giant demon, Adam frowned and glared at her.

"Despite the unsavoury choice of words I agree with Suzi..." Amanda spoke up as her body glowed in bright graceful light, she took her stance her rapier glowing the steel turning yellow-ish silver.

"Fine, Fucking hell is it wrong for a man to not want to die?" Adam held up his daggers dark green ethereal tendrils emitting from it.

Suzi ran forward her hands glowing in a white light as they took the form of a claw, she was about to strike the demon but before she could make contact, it's head suddenly exploded as a giant hammer exploded it, surprisingly the demon was still moving as it turned around and threw a fist at it's assaulter.

Suzi's eyes widened as Regina backflipped away her resting her giant oversized hammer on her shoulder, "Did ya miss me~" She smirked at Suzi who just jumped back as the demon smashed the ground next to her.

It's head started regenerating as a loud roar could be heard, it kept smashing the ground blindly until it's eyes regenerated fully and it set it's eyes on Regina, Suzi also looked towards her and she spotted a student standing next to her sweat dripping down his chin, she recognized him from their class but she did not know who he was.

"I should have just left..." Jack spoke up as he took a step back from the demon's target.

Regina sneered as the demon put it's full attention on her, but then another person rushed in through the door, Arron made it into the training grounds as he prepared to slash at the demon in front of him.

His body glowed bright silvery white as he slashed forward cutting off one of the brute demon's arms as it roared loudly while regenerating another.

"Arron! You're here!" Amanda brightened when she saw him however she had to block a piece of flying debris from the brute's angered flailing.

"We have to stall until a professor arrives! we can't kill that thing!" Adam yelled out as he slashed at the brutes back when it was distracted by it's anger, the wound immediately healed.

"I think I can get rid of it..." Arron said while dodging a swing from the wild seemingly immortal demon.

"How?!" Suzi asked while sending ethereal white slashes at the thing.

"If we completely irradicate it, then we should be able to kill it right?"

"I think..." Adam dodged a piece of flying debris sending his daggers at the demon, the demon was being pelted by several attacks that hurt it greatly but it always regenerated from them just as fast, "Do you even have the means?!" Adam asked dodging a big swing from the beast by jumping over it.

"I think I do... I've been working on this for while." He said as he took a stance with his sword across from his back while he started glowing brightly.

Adam's eyes widened along with Regina's, they both recognized the stance and knew what was coming, if it could defeat a B ranked drake, then it could probably eradicate this thing...

"I need time though!"

"...We'll buy you as much time as possible..." Adam reluctantly agreed, while if killing this demon and finishing it off would be good, Adam still thought that stalling for a professor to come is a better idea, however he knew that there was no actual way for a professor to know where they are, and they were probably busy with the demons, along the way he saw many professors battling against strong demons this demon attack seemed strangely coordinated, demons couldn't possibly do that unless...

Adam's eyes widened when he saw the giant fist making it's way towards him, he swiftly ducked and ran his blade along the giant arm using it's momentum against it, it barely winced though as it roared loudly swinging at him again, Adam ran away while a heavy sword fell down on the arm severing it.

They continued pelting the demon with attacks distracting it from the ever brightening ball of white light, a giant spear pierced it's chest but it just grunted and broke the spear of pink energy into pieces, leaving a big hole in it's chest which was mended almost instantly.

"Is it ready yet?!" Suzi yelled as she held off the demon on her own slashing at it while the others pelted it with ranged attacks.

And as a response to Suzi's query the ball of bright white light was sucked back into Arron's body as he let out a breath his eyes turning silvery white.

"Move away! he's about to do it!" Regina yelled at them as Suzi jumped back while the others distanced themselves.

Arron stomped forward his blade turning a bright silver light, a big beam of white light erupted from the blade as Arron swiftly slashed and pointed the beam of white searing energy at the demon who was oblivious to the attack.

It roared loudly in pain as it's silhouette to the onlookers seemed to fade into pieces and when the white energy subsided, there was nothing left there...

"Holy shit... How did you do that?!" Suzi jumped up staring at the devastation caused by the attack, "This is crazy!"

"Haha... I've been learning how to use this since last time in the dungeon... but one small problem is that it leaves me really drained~" Arron plopped down on the floor as he panted from exertion.

Evelyn looked at the destruction caused in awestruck eyes widened, she had never seen an attack of that magnitude performed by a student...

Regina just laughed at the way the demon screamed before it evaporated, earning her some strange looks from the others.

It was quite an intense fight so Adam sat himself down on a piece of debris and sighed, "Well, Now that the demon is dead... All we have to do is wait for a professo-"

Everyone froze as they felt a malevolent presence where the destruction was, all of their heads turned at once towards the source none able to move a muscle from the fear it induced in them.

And standing there was... a human? No, it's a demon, it was a demon that looked human, it had a perfect human female body with curved horns sprouting from between it's black silky smooth hair.

It had the face of a beauty and boasted a perfect figure however the aura it possessed couldn't let anyone form any thoughts about it's appearance, it opened it's mouth to speak, it's finger next to it's lips as it tilted it's head.

"Are you the ones that killed my pet?"