How to Survive as a Trash Extra Villain

Chapter 120

[Culture, art, imbued architecture, delicacies…! Humans protecting something, also delicacies…!]

Eating humans called ‘teachers’ by the young ones brought greater satisfaction. Brahmus was so happy, he forgot his life in hell.

Gleeful, he turned his head.

[You…]

Gilbert’s stellar force-infused sword swung.

[Graaaaah!]

Brahmus screamed, rampaging. Stomping academy buildings, he staggered.

Strange. An odd sensation. Alien yet unfamiliar, deeply unpleasant.

What was it…?

[Right… it stings.]

It stings. My face stings. A stinging sensation. Burning demon blood oozed from a diagonal slash across his face.

[I’ll devour all…!]

Eyes wild, Brahmus looked at the falling vermin. The insolent pest that dared wound his flesh.

[I’ll eat to heal…!]

He opened his mouth. His massive maw, matching his colossal body, stretched beyond its limit with a crack.

[Hoooooo…!]

Wind rushed in, sucked into Brahmus' abyssal maw.

"Aaaaah!"

A cadet was swept into Brahmus' mouth. A shocking sight.

Someone shouted.

"Everyone, be careful! Grab something!"

Another.

"No! Evade! This whole area will be devoured!"

Another gave up.

"Help, please, help…!"

Brahmus' maw, like a black hole swallowing all, extended its influence across the academy.

[Ooooo…!]

Drunk on hunger, Brahmus gazed happily at his mouth, ready to swallow everything. A world mere food.

Humans steeped in fear and despair were like parsley on the main dish.

As despair etched into every human watching this black hole-like predation technique.

They recalled.

True light shines brightest in darkness.

A single beam flashed. Not a grandiose photon cannon, nor accompanied by thunder or intense heat.

Just a single white beam.

Under a blue sky, it’d be barely visible, but in this blood-red world, the beam crossing the heavens was glaringly vivid.

[Huh?]

Brahmus, making a dumb sound, raised his head in unease.

Why hadn’t he noticed? Why only now?

He could be forgiven for missing it, engrossed in paradise’s feast after centuries. He was gluttony, destined to devour the world.

But it was too fatal.

His body was defenseless. His mouth fully open, using his ultimate technique to suck in all, at that moment.

A thin, thread-like beam struck Brahmus' head.

[Urk…?]

A massive explosion followed. A white mushroom cloud engulfed Brahmus, deafening the academy with a roar that burst eardrums.

"Aaaah!"

"What’s happening?!"

Brahmus' head snapped back. Blood sprayed. His vision blackened, momentarily dazed.

His mountain-like body seemed to topple backward.

"There!"

"He’s falling!"

A boom sounded as he steadied himself, firmly planting his feet.

[…]

Brahmus clamped his mouth shut. Silently, he confirmed blood streaming from his head.

His whole body was ablaze, as if plunged into a fire pit. Intensely painful.

[Blood… this vermin…!]

Brahmus' mirth vanished. He reached out, summoning a giant hammer and axe.

Forged from hell’s minerals, refined over years to hold hellfire, the demon lord’s armaments.

Gilbert shouted like a scream.

"Everyone, evade!"

I had failed.

Brahmus, battered, swung his hammer, collapsing two buildings in succession.

His axe split the ground, exposing its innards.

[Ooooo…!]

Brahmus opened his mouth, firing a deep green beam. It pierced the academy in a straight line.

"Urk?!"

I felt the vile heat of the green photon cannon from behind, grimacing.

Had I been a fraction slower carrying Hailey, I’d have been obliterated.

Despair settled over my heart. Dizzying helplessness tried to pin me down, but I resisted, gritting my teeth.

The decisive shot, fired with maximum stellar force, failed spectacularly. Despite peak exhilaration, the result was poor.

It wasn’t ineffective, but closer to provocation.

[Ooo…! Keltu! Said! Kill you! Martin…!]

Brahmus' roar of my name chilled me. The colossal beast charged straight at me.

"Teacher Hailey! I’m setting you down! Flee the other way!"

I placed Hailey in a safe clearing and kept running. Brahmus advanced, shifting direction with me.

The academy’s defensive magic and sturdy buildings were no obstacle.

Buying time was just that. A limit would come. Now… what to do?

[Urk!]

Brahmus, charging, clutched his head, struck by stellar force, staggering. White sparks visibly flared.

Know-It-All (Lv 4) analyzed that Brahmus took significant damage.

One more time?

‘No, that’s absurd!’

He wouldn’t wait! Even in a race within the barrier, I had to flee. Facing that monster head-on was suicide.

[Stop…!]

Brahmus opened his mouth wide.

Multiple green photon beams fired. I dodged between buildings, leapt, and twisted, evading all.

[I won’t let you escape…!]

A giant hammer and axe flew. I dodged, but the area became a sea of hellfire.

‘Hot!’

I raised stellar force and mana to shield myself.

[Got you…!]

"Gasp…!"

I gasped. Green hooks, flown from nowhere, latched onto my body.

Brahmus was about to pull.

"Don’t touch my class' cadet."

A red greatsword slashed, severing the chains and space itself. Seeing the Platinum Numbering No.1 knight, red fur cape billowing, I shivered with awe.

"Te-Teacher Hectia."

"…Sorry for being late."

Behind him were Adela and the Shadow Knights, Anette and the Defardly Knights, Luri and the Elidore Knights.

"Hmph, quite a mess. …Damn that Keltu or whatever delayed us."

"Sorry for being late, Cadet Martin. Late, but we’ll join."

"Martin! Look at those injuries!"

Luri ran to check me, but I only stared at Hectia’s blazing sword energy.

‘To shatter Brahmus' chains with mana, not stellar force.’

[Ugh, vermin, slithering like eels…!]

Brahmus extended his four arms, summoning the axe and hammer again. Thrown with far greater force than the chains.

But the batter’s realm had shifted.

The red greatsword clashed with the axe and hammer, exploding. The axe and hammer flew back. The greatsword hummed.

[Ooo, oooo…!]

Brahmus, seeing this, smiled.

[You humans, I acknowledge. Platinum knights.]

He opened his maw, advancing.

[To us, delicacies…!]

Hectia’s form vanished. No, my eyes couldn’t follow. Even Wild Instinct barely caught his afterimage. Hectia’s sword energy clashed with Brahmus' armaments again. The force uprooted academy buildings, blowing people away.

[Die!]

A deep green annihilation beam shot from Brahmus' maw, striking Hectia. It pierced straight, hitting the barrier, shaking space.

[Kahahaha!]

But.

A crescent flame sword energy burst through the green smoke, slashing Brahmus' skin. Amid the dispersing smoke, Hectia stood, still fierce.

"It won’t be easy."

***

"Impure things, return to hell!"

Nerjin’s scattered cards shot out, transforming into guillotine blades, severing demon necks.

[Arrrr!]

Sebastian, enlarged, swung his forepaw, crushing three lesser demons.

A sword sliced the air. Savo, wielding it, darted among demons, swinging relentlessly.

‘I need to retreat.’

Muscles ached. My blood-soaked body felt grimy. I needed to fall back and regroup.

‘But.’

"Aaaah!"

"Save…!"

Even without looking, I heard people begging for life behind me.

‘Trouble. No retreat path.’

The coffee wagon had tried escaping with the evacuation. They hadn’t expected a barrier. Royals, nobles, elites, commoners, men, women, young, old—all trembled in fear.

Nerjin stepped up. Sebastian stepped up. So Savo raised his sword.

Some joined with courage, but most were useless… serving as meat shields to buy time by being torn apart.

"Huff, not easy."

Nerjin drew cards but stopped, charging a nearby lesser demon. He kicked it with his shoe, grabbed its neck, and twisted it dead.

His dwindling card deck was proof.

‘I don’t know.’

The many entrusting their lives to us. Lilac and Bianca watching from the coffee wagon. Nerjin, out of cards. Sebastian, not fully healed from the duel assessment.

"Urk!"

Demons swarmed Nerjin, pinning him down.

"Urgh, if I’d mastered celestial mechanics…! Urk!"

I had to save him.

[Whine!]

Demons clung to Sebastian like ticks, tormenting him.

As I tried to rush over, countless demons charged me. Cutting them down, I couldn’t move.

‘What do I do…?’

As the front line broke, demons reached the civilians.

"Aaah! Save me!"

"The demons are here!"

Lilac and Bianca swung ladles and kitchen knives at demons. Futile, of course.

‘How did I end up here?’

Nerjin lay immobile on the ground.

‘Right, the black market.’

Sebastian collapsed with a boom.

‘Where are you now?’

The one who saved me from pitch-black darkness was Master Martin. The omnipotent master who seemed capable of anything. But… he wasn’t here.