Chapter 68: Solomon's Gate

The whole scene seemed to be hopeless. Miss Edelweiss and her subordinates are keeping the other two demons preoccupied, however, another one showed up. It stood about 50 meters tall and as it towered in the middle of the city, everything it toppled down is on the wrecked path. It traveled slow, but it was no less devastating than the first two demons. The mountain sized demon roared loudly as it fully got out of the gate.

"Has the evacuation completed yet?"

Miss Kyouka asked anxiously. Looking at how late it was at the night, traveling, ergo, panic driven evacuation was even more hard to sustain. But to her relief, Chisaki chimed in.

"Miss Cho-hee said that they had brought almost everyone from the city to safety. We can now move however we like."

"Good." Miss Kyouka nodded, a chance of determination in her eyes was lit.

"Gleren, can I entrust you that huge disgusting being?" She eyed me as she directed my sight to the monitor provided by the scouting group. There was liquid pouring from the colossal demon—black? or may seem similar to that, and to tell you the truth—'twas gross as hell. I nodded in response. But I think there is still something we need to do before that.

"The real problem here was the gate," I said "It would be wise to close it first. I see no sign of it closing, and chances of it bringing other demon is high." I shifted my gaze to Matthias, he nodded at me for affirmation.

"What he said was correct. That gate was made to eat the negative energy of people around it. And as for now, it feeds of the peoples panic—their fear."

"What as terrifying if not disgusting gate."

Martha said nothing. Her eyes were pinned on the floor. Am I worried for her? Sure, I was. Yes, we know each other for a short time. But that time was deemed memorable and fun. I cannot abhor her—not when I know how kind she relatively was.

"I have no qualms taking the demon down." I said confidently, I hate bragging but the situation needs assurance. If I showed even a bit of hesitation here, all the morale will crumble. "The only problem was the gate. I cannot close it, even when I use force."

I seek for confirmation to the Sacred Omen members, or rather the former members. They gave me just what I was asking them. They gave me a small affirmation.

The room was left silent. But that was broken when one of the former members of Sacred Omen (oh, dang. I will just call them the SO—their names sounded even more mouthful now.) A woman with a less intricate vestment, but not inferior to Krueger. She raised her hand to the air, I had them released from my bind—knowing they most likely to cooperated than bicker out each other.

"Uh, uhm…" she hesitated first, but I nodded for her to continue, "I was a summoner, so I have knowledge of many summoned things—I think I might be of help." She said timidly.

"We can use anything. Even theories and hypothesis. As long as it was related to winning this, we don't mind." I looked at miss Kyouka, she bobbed her head as if to say it was true.

"You may speak," Miss Kyouka Assured her.

The girl—oh perhaps woman? Removed her hood, and what appears beneath that obscuring clothes was a young lady. A beautiful platinum-blond girl with hair touching her shoulders.

"I have read that if the condition is meet, the summoned being will then returned to its original place." She said, she had a soft voice but we can still make off what she was saying.

"What could be that conditions?" Miss Kyouka inquired, prompting her to continue.

"The first one was for the summoner to send it back. The next would be for the summoned creatures to complete the request they were given."

Listening to her make it sounds that it was already impossible to send these creatures back to where it belonged. The first one is seemed almost impossible now; those conniving bastards had gone and tucked their tails and run off to something—finding them would take time. The second didn't sound any better. It sounded as if, we should let the demons run amok until their satisfied. None acceptable conditions to bet on.

Fortunately, she was still not done.

"And last—is for.." she paused for a moment and looked at where Maria was lying, "…the sacrificial lamb retake everything she gave. If she took back all the sacrificial catalyst, the summoned being will have no more reason to obey the summoner. It will have no choice but return to where it came from."

That last one sounded plausible—but there seemed something amiss. I furrowed my brows,

"How do we do that, though?" The woman must have worried that she angered me with her uncertain theories, she stuttered, "uh, uh… I…"

"Ah no… I not angry, I was just anxious. You may speak with your own pace."

Everyone in the room eyed me suspiciously as if saying 'ah~you scared her.'—but since I am matured enough, I ignored them.

"It was for the sacrificial lamb to touch the summoned being."

"That was it?" I quirked. It was hard to believe, of course. If I had known this earlier, then I could have tried it much sooner.

"Yes. That was if. The sacrificial lamb just needs to state that she was now taking back all that she had offered. Though, of course to do just that, she must be conscious."

Ah… now it made sense. No one tried to do such method, because it was basically almost impossible to do. After all, most summons which requires sacrifices kills off the lamb—if I used their terms. I looked at Maria's direction.

"So, we really are in a pickle, then?" As I joked, another deafening shriek can be heard from the distance.

"Oh, well. Let's talk about this again when our sleeping princess woke up." I said. "I'll do the prior command, miss Kyouka." Once she gave me a nod, I manifested a shadow from under my feet and disappeared with it.

"Time to take out some big butt."

***

Back in Saint Stella, the school had resumed. With two other students absent, the whole class was in an awkward atmosphere. None the better, their homeroom teacher was not acting quite herself. She was mostly spacing out in class.

"Alright, class please anyone, can you solve this problem?"

Shinra said absentmindedly. Only to be admonished by Elisha.

"But Instructor Shinra… were not in a math class. Plus, there's nothing on the board."

"Oh… you're right. Then self-study it is." After saying such, she plopped down her chair in front of the class. He unmotivated behavior had been going for days since the class begun. No one could fathom what could have transpired for her to take such attitude. While the girls seemed genuinely worried, the boys seemed to be enjoying the fact that they saw a different, if not adorable side of Shinra.

"Boys are really stupid." Complained the girls.

While other girls thought the same, Elisha stole a glance on where Gleren usually sat. She sighed, though hiding her worry to everyone else.

Shinra on the other hand mumbled under her breath. "Gleren, you big buffoon… how long will it take for you to come back…"

Her melancholy had yet to end.

***

On the special class where most of the members of the student council attends is no less lonely. The class had more open seats than usual and the interactive air in it had gone.

The teacher is teaching as usual, the students does their job as well. Pretty ordinary—if not for one girl who kept on mumbling something under her breath…

"Ehehe… brother. You look handsome today, too." She smiled making all her classmates pull a face. The fact that they knew how much she adores her brother, does not bother them. In fact, they find it adorable. But the way she acts right now makes it all entirely on a different level.

"Get a hold of yourself, Miss Sofia!"

Cried one of her followers. Sofy was sketching something on her desk, eyes spiraling out of control.

"Ehehe. So—so handsome." She whispered to her hand drawn picture of Gleren.

"Miss Sofia! Oh, and you're actually a good artist! I expected no less from you!"

"Ehehe. Brother…"

The teacher facepalmed her face…

"Uhg… she'd lost it."