DEMON KING'S Love Redemption

Chapter 16 The Protective Instinct

Freya heard the command. Taking a deep breath, she concentrated her mana into a single, brilliantly glowing arrow. She took aim, but just as she was about to release the shot, two Goblins lunged from the branches above, targeting her exposed shoulders.

Vann, standing ten meters back, felt his heart skip a beat. The world around him suddenly slowed to a crawl. He could see every speck of dust drifting in the air, every twitch of the Goblins' muscles, and the flash of realization and fear in Freya’s eyes as she sensed the attack from above.

The protective instinct of the Demon King, buried under millennia of regret, erupted in a single heartbeat.

Vann didn't think. He no longer cared about his disguise. He didn't care if the whole world witnessed his darkness.

Don't touch her.

Vann slammed his foot against the earth.

A wave of cold, hollow mana erupted from where he stood, silent yet heavy with an overwhelming pressure. The grass beneath his feet instantly charred, crumbling into fine ash.

Vann blurred into motion. This was no longer the movement of a human student; it was Shadow Blink, a movement technique that allowed the user to traverse space in a lightning-fast flash through the shadows.

Shing!

Freya was about to roll away to avoid an attack, but she felt a massive presence suddenly materialize behind her. She turned and found herself staring at Vann's back.

Vann didn't reach for his wooden sword. He simply raised his left hand and, without even touching the two goblins suspended in mid-air, he clenched his fist.

Crack!

A crushing weight of condensed gravity slammed into the goblins from above, driving them into the dirt until their bodies shattered into pieces. The ground around Vann's feet fractured into a perfect, jagged circle.

"Vann...?" Freya whispered, her voice trembling. She could feel the aura radiating from his body—no longer that of the quiet, awkward boy she knew, but the chilling, lethal presence of a sovereign.

Vann didn't turn around. His eyes, now flickering with a faint crimson glint, were locked on the Goblin Shaman in the distance. The Shaman, visibly terrified, began chanting a protection spell, but Vann merely flicked his finger.

A thin black line streaked from Vann's fingertip, tearing through the air with the sound of ripping silk. It pierced the Shaman's shield, tore through his chest, and continued onward, obliterating three massive trees before finally vanishing. The Shaman collapsed without a sound, his body instantly disintegrating into black soot.

Seeing their leader slain in an instant, the remaining goblins scattered in terror into the dark woods, leaving behind an abrupt, heavy silence.

Vann panted heavily. He quickly suppressed his mana, forcing his eyes back to their natural black. The freezing air around them slowly began to warm. Realizing what he had just done, he turned slowly toward Freya, who was still slumped on the ground.

She was staring at him with pure, unadulterated horror. In her hand, her bow of light had flickered out. Freya looked at Vann's hand, then at the crater he had carved into the earth, and finally at the pile of ash that was once the Shaman.

"What... what was that, Vann?" Freya asked, her voice barely a whisper. "That wasn't normal gravity magic. And that... that wasn't anything taught at the academy."

Vann swallowed hard. He wanted to reach out, to help her up, but he saw her instinctively flinch away. A small scratch on her cheek from a stray branch leaked a single drop of blood, and the sight of it cut him to the core. He had failed to let her shine; instead, he had left her wounded and terrified.

"I... it was just a reflex, Freya," Vann replied, his voice raspy. He tried to smile, but he knew the expression was hollow and broken. "I told you, didn't I? I’ll protect you."

"Protect me?" Freya stood up, using her bow for support. She looked at him sharply, but tears of confusion were already welling in her eyes. "That power... the way you destroyed them... it didn't feel like protection. It felt like... annihilation."

Professor Mordred and the other students began to approach, taking in the devastation Vann had wrought. Elric stood frozen in the distance, too afraid to come closer.

"What happened here?!" Mordred demanded, his eyes scanning the crater with a complex expression—one of shock, but also a certain, unsettling satisfaction.

Freya looked at Vann one last time, as if searching for a grain of truth behind his dark eyes. Vann braced himself, a thousand lies already prepared in his mind. But before he could speak, Freya looked away.

"Vann saved me, Professor," she said flatly, her voice devoid of emotion. "He used an explosive artifact he found in the library yesterday. That’s why there’s so much damage."

Vann was stunned. Freya was lying for him? Why?

Mordred narrowed his eyes; he clearly didn't buy the story, but he had no proof otherwise. "An artifact, you say? We will discuss this further back at the academy. Everyone, gather up! We’re leaving this forest immediately!"

As the group began their trek back, Vann trailed at the very back, alone. He watched Freya’s back as she walked ahead with stiff posture, never once looking his way. Vann reached into his robe and felt the handkerchief he’d prepared to tend to her wound, but he knew he wouldn't get the chance to use it now. He had saved her from the goblins, but he felt as though he had lost her in an even more devastating way.

As they crossed the forest boundary, Vann felt a sharp gaze from the shadows of the trees. He glanced back and saw a pair of crimson eyes, far larger and older than any goblin’s, watching him with pure malice.

"Fate will not let you rest, Demon King," a voice whispered in his mind, carried on the forest wind.

Vann clenched his fists until his nails bit into his palms. "I don't care about fate," he whispered to the darkness. "I will kill anyone who tries to touch her again."