Arifureta: SPECIALZ

Chapter 22: The Heiligh Incident (Part 1)

The hero's party are awakened by the commotion outside. They all decided to gear up and gathered around, but Kouki noticed a missing priest.

"Where's Kaori?"

They glanced around, and they too noticed that Kaori had gone missing. Shizuku and her group are the only people who knew of about Kaori and Yuka. But, Shizuku can't allow the hero panic and cause an uproar due to the priest's disappearance,

She's about to comfort him, but a maid is found running toward the group. Shizuku recognized her as Nia, but she noticed her eyes are devoid with light.

"Shizuku-sama.. the great barrier has been broken." The maid informed, startling the hero's party. "The demons are invading."

"Oh no.." Shizuku uttered in dread. "Just how could this be..?"

"We'll stall them as much as we can." Kouki declared. "If we use that time to get the capital's citizens to safety and give the soldiers and knights time to prepare-"

"Hold on, Kouki-kun!" Eri interjected. "Instead of charging blindly into combat, I think we should first try and meet up with Meld-san and the rest."

"But.."

"Nia-san." She turned her attention to the maid. "How many demons do you think are there?"

"I'd roughly say around 100.000.." Nia said.

"Kouki-kun, we don't stand a chance of holding them back on our own. We need to fight numbers with numbers." Eri suggested. "For that, don't you think we should work in tandem with Meld-san and the rest?"

Kouki couldn't deny that logic, so he accepted the idea. The hero then leaded his party out of the palace, not knowing that 4 of Y/n's friends had snuck away in silence with Endou.

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They had arrived in the coliseum where the kingdom soldiers have gathered. They couldn't find Meld in there however, they encountered his vice-captain, Jose Rancaid.

"Where's Meld-san?" Kouki glanced around.

"The captain is doing something important." Jose informed with a monotone. "For now, though, please come to the center."

They obliged to his instruction and moved forward as the soldiers gave them a path. Shizuku gave the soldiers a glance, and she noticed that they all acted the same was as Nia. However, she kept it silent for her job is currently as a distraction to lure out the mastermind behind the scene.

The heroes have made it to the center where the soldiers are standing around them. Then, Jose made his appearance on a balcony.

"Everyone!" He called. "The situation is dire but have no fear! Let us all welcome out hero! Today is the day for which we exist!

Jose then drew out his blade, and the soldiers followed his gesture. Then, he brought out a glass orb and raised to the air.

"A beacon to signal the beginning! Behold!"

The orb suddenly flashed a blinding light, and the heroes fell one by one with a shriek of agony. The light then died down, and Shizuku is the only who still standing. She looked to her classmates and to her horror, they're all cut down by the soldiers but still alive and breathing.

"Oh?" A familiar famine yet malicious voice echoed. "I suppose I should be impressed, right, Shizuku?"

Shizuku turned her attention to the voice and found a person standing above the audience seat. Due to the distance however, she couldn't recognize the person.