Lizel-senpai and the others came back after the cheering competition. There would be a vote to decide which team won, but that seems unnecessary at this point.

Of course, everyone had switched back to their previous clothes, and Stella's Cards weren't with them. I guess it would have been too crowded if everyone had come.

"Let's go to the cafeteria to eat lunch."

Lizel-senpai said that. Come to think of it, Ginsei Academy's cafeteria is more like a high-class restaurant. Mom had brought food from home, so I wonder if it's fine to eat there.

Well, it should be fine. I myself once ate a boxed lunch there. It was embarrassing, but it's not illegal or anything. Besides, considering the number of people in Ginsei Academy today, the cafeteria probably isn't even working.

So we all headed to the cafeteria. On the way, Stella approached me.

"So, Yuuto, what did you think of the show?"

"It was really good, it seriously got everyone fired up. I thought an earthquake was happening with how much people were shouting."

"That's good and all, but don't you have anything else to comment?"

Is there anything else for me to say? I'm not tuned in enough to these kinds of shows to offer much constructive criticism, and there was no need for me to say I thought Stella would win this competition.

Maybe she means something in regards to Lizel-senpai, Reina and Miyabi? Does she want to bring up the topic of trading Cards again?

Even after some time thinking, I couldn't find anything that seemed to fit the bill. And it seems Stella had also lost her patience with me.

"Don't tell me, Yuuto didn't see it."

"Eh? I saw the show. Of course I did."

"I'm not talking about that! Did you send mana to your eyes during the show?"

"No, why?"

It might have been just my imagination, but I'm pretty sure I heard the sound of something break. Stella's expression went from happy to angry.

"Yuuto, you remember the photo album I gave you, right?"

You mean the one you made me buy. Yes, I remember it, I told her.

"You remember how I left a little something special for you there? Did you not think there was something similar in today's show?"

"Ah, that didn't even cross my mind. So Stella prepared something like that today?"

"Yes, that's right. If Yuuto had sent mana to his eyes during the show, a little bit of the outfits would have become invisible, making our outfits a lot more risque."

"W-what? Isn't that dangerous? Like, not just me, anyone could have seen it."

"That's why just sending mana to the eyes isn't enough! You need to unlock it with the same method as the photo album. Do you know how hard it was to keep this hidden from Lizel and everyone else?"

"How is that my fault? In the first place, it was Lizel-senpai who unlocked the photo album. I don't even know how to do the method you said."

"Haaa?!"

Stella got mad enough she gave me a punch in the gut. The others weren't listening in to our conversation, but they got pretty surprised when Stella made me fly a few centimeters off the ground.

Was she using Maximize or something? It was one hell of a punch.

"Hmph, stupid. I'm never doing anything for you ever again! Let's go, Neith."

Stella angrily walked out. Everyone was confused, especially Neith, who was suddenly roped in.

But I'm the one who wanted to complain most of all! How can I be at fault for this?!

"U-um… I don't know what happened with Stella and Yuuto-kun, but I'll try to talk with her about it…"

And so Neith went after Stella. I hope Neith can calm Stella. I'd really rather not fight one of Lizel-senpai's friends, and this just seems like a horrible reason to fight.

But with this, our group was shortened by 2 people. It was quite a rough goodbye, but at least Stella punched me in the stomach before I had lunch, otherwise I'd be putting it all out by now.

"What was that, Yuuto?"

"Did Yuuto-san do something?"

"I swear I did nothing!"

"Nah, surely Yuuto did something perverted and it got Stella mad."

Don't nod at Miyabi's words, mom, dad! Believe in your own son!

"Yuu-kun, you should be more mindful of how you act around girls."

"That's right, Yuuto. Make sure you properly apologize to Stella when you can. It would be awful if she blacklisted us from her shows because of you."

Looks like this is a fight I'm not winning. If nothing else, my parents have already started discussing how I should apologize.

Somehow, I managed to convince everyone we should keep going to the cafeteria. It didn't take us long to arrive.

My parents were surprised when they saw how luxurious the place was, just like me when I first came here. My mom even asked Lizel-senpai if it was alright to have brought food from home, but she said it was fine.

By the way, I was horribly wrong before. Because there are so many people in Ginsei Academy today, the cafeteria looks even more like a high class restaurant. I mean, I really wouldn't be able to tell this place apart from a restaurant.

Of course, this made me and my parents even more embarrassed at having brought food from home, but it seemed like it was only us. Everyone else was not really minding it, so it helped us calm down as well.

"Let's sit."

Even without Stella and Neith, we were still quite a big group. Me, my parents, my Cards, Miyako, Ruki and Swordia. 9 people in total. So we took up a lot of space.

Once we had a table, mom started setting up the food she'd brought. Even though we were in such a big group, there was enough food for everyone.

Well, Miyabi complained there was too little in her place, so Lizel-senpai put in an order for her, which made Miyako deeply embarrassed, but otherwise things seemed pretty fine.

"This one is Yuu-kun's."

"Thanks, mom."

For whatever reason, my lunch was set out from the rest. I wasn't a picky eater, nor did I have any allergies, so I don't know why mom did this.

But oh well, I'll just enjoy it. It's not like my own mother would try to poison me or anything, so it's not like it mattered why mine was separated.

We all dug into our food. I looked Swordia's way to see if she needed any help, but it didn't seem like it, so I decided to leave her be.

"Hmmm~ Yuuto-kun's mom makes really delicious food! I wonder if you could teach me."

"Oh my, I wouldn't mind it, but I'm still not sure if I'm a good teacher. Yuu-kun, is your food good?"

Now that she mentions it, the food does taste different from usual. Maybe it's some new sauce or some change in the recipe? In any case, it may be different, but it's as good as usual.

"It's really good, but did you change something in the recipe?"

Mom looked pretty happy and even laughed to herself. On the other hand, Reina was looking somewhat embarrassed.

Wait a second, I know this pattern. Mom's now going to say-

"Actually, Yuu-kun, Reina-chan was the one to make your food. I've been teaching her how to cook recently."

"Wow, this is really amazing, Reina. It doesn't lose to mom's usual food even one bit."

"A-ahaha, Reina's embarrassed desu."

Of course, with such a good result right in front of him, Ruki was even more insistent that mom teach him until she eventually gave in.

By the way, I heard Miyabi ask her mother if she was also taking lessons, to which Miyako replied "I've only been capable of making charcoal until now…"

So even someone like Miyako has stuff they're not good at. Well, just like how I'm working hard to become stronger, I'm sure Miyako will also eventually learn to cook if she keeps at it.

We were all enjoying our lunch. It seemed like things would go normally. After this, we would enjoy the evening events, then go home to come back the next day.

But something unexpected happened.

*crack*

I thought I heard something crack. I looked around, but nothing was out of place. Only Ruki had stopped eating, as if he had been frozen in time.

I was going to ask him if something was wrong, but then I heard it again.

*crack*

Pretty sure I heard it this time. And it wasn't just me, Lizel-senpai and everyone else also started looking around.

But no one could find anything out of place.

*crack* *crack* *boom*

Then, we heard the sound of an explosion. We also felt everything from the air to the ground shake. What could have produced such an explosion?

Hot, the air started feeling like it was burning. Actually, some stuff like the table cloths did start catching fire.

I used ice magic to put out the fire on our table and cool the air around us, but the fire soon started again. The best we could do was save what we could and leave what we couldn't.

People started desperately running from the cafeteria, some even blew holes in the wall. Thankfully, it seems everyone was able to escape safely.

{Everyone, please remain calm. If you can, leave Ginsei Academy. If you can't, we will begin rescue operations now.}

The Devil King's voice. Could this be some kind of attack? But if so, by who?

In any case, it seems like it's best to leave for now. As we were escaping from the cafeteria, I saw it…

I don't know what that building was used for, but it was being swallowed by lava. I could see people trying to escape, only to be swallowed by the lava.

On the ground I saw the figure of the Devil King, and beside him was someone else. I hadn't noticed him beside me until he spoke, but Ruki was also looking down at that scene.

"Dad!"

Was the person beside the Devil King Ruki's father? It seemed to be the case. Ruki seemed like he wanted to go to him, but gave up on the idea and decided to escape with us.

As we were leaving, I saw more lava pools surging from the ground to swallow up more buildings and people. Even the cafeteria we were just at didn't escape.

Thank god we all managed to escape unharmed, it was nothing short of a miracle.

But still, what had just happened? As much as I was curious, I didn't plan to stick around to find out. We left Ginsei Academy as soon as we could.

/

Since everyone was eating, there was unlikely to be anything that required his attention, so the Devil King Barbatos Gandou was resting in his room.

He had already eaten, so he planned to sleep the rest of the time available for lunch and only get up once it was time for the evening events. He had watched a number of events during the morning to observe some people of interest, mostly in Lovers' camp.

But his plans were suddenly interrupted when he heard a noise.

*crack*

"Huh?"

Barbatos was immediately on alert. He left his room and surveyed his surroundings, he couldn't find anything by sight, so he tried his magic senses.

"Oh no."

He knew what was going to happen, and it wasn't going to be good. He might not know what exactly it would be, but he had a general idea of what to expect. A Disaster was coming.

First things first, before he even put out the evacuation order, Barbatos needed to make sure there was a way to evacuate. He headed to Ginsei Academy's entrance and noticed that the Disaster would also block the entrance, and consequently the exit.

Barbatos couldn't let that happen. He knew that, by blocking this Disaster, the others would get even worse, but he also couldn't let the exit be blocked. There wouldn't be any point in telling people to leave if the way out was blocked.

In the end, what Barbatos did was focus power on his fist. He would make use of his Characteristic Magic at full power to divert the Disaster that would befall here to other places. That act itself would probably generate victims, but Barbatos saw no way around it.

From the outside, it looked like he had just lightly punched the ground. The people around him were confused, but that was fine by him.

"Alright people, everyone leave. Come on, get out."

Everyone looked at each other confused. What was he saying? Why would they leave? A lot of them hadn't heard the noises yet.

"Are you people bad of hearing? I'm saying to get out."

Barbatos displayed an intensity that was unusual for him. People started leaving, be it by fear of him or simply because it was the Devil King's command.

*crack* *crack*

It wouldn't be long now. Some people stopped to try and find the source of that cracking sound, but Barbatos hurried them along.

Because of Barbatos' previous action, the number of places the Disaster would hit had increased. With a motion of crushing something with his hands, Barbatos dealt with as many spots as he could as he made his way to the biggest one.

*boom*

And then it erupted. Lava flew up from the ground as if it was a volcano. If it was that, Barbatos would have had a much easier time, but alas, this lava wasn't just ordinary molten rock.

"Shit!" Barbatos activated the magic communication that relayed his voice throughout Ginsei Academy. "Everyone, please remain calm. If you can, leave Ginsei Academy. If you can't, we will begin rescue operations now."

Barbatos may have said that, but it wasn't quite true.

Lives were not created equally, there are people in Ginsei Academy Barbatos cannot let die. Even if the tradeoff is letting many others have that fate instead.

So Barbatos' first order of business was to make a mental map of Ginsei Academy, where his people of interest were, and the areas that would be affected by the Disaster.

Luckily, a lot of Devil King Candidates hadn't even shown up. About the ones that were in Ginsei Academy…

Luck favored Stella and Neith, they were near the entrance and should be out within minutes. Barbatos didn't particularly care for Ibiza, but he should also have no trouble escaping.

Fleminar seemed to be making her way to Barbatos, and Marchosias was in the building that was being swallowed by the lava. Marchosias had no way to escape without facing the Disaster, and Fleminar was unlikely to leave if he told her to, so Barbatos figured he might as well have them take a trial by fire.

That left Yuuto and Ruki. It would take a little bit, but the place they were at, the cafeteria, would also be swallowed by the lava. That was a bigger risk than Barbatos was willing to take, so he used his Characteristic Magic to make sure Disaster wouldn't befall them.

There was a chance Barbatos wouldn't have needed to do this, or that Yuuto and Ruki could have escaped on their own, but that was a risk Barbatos couldn't take. He was fine with letting Yuuto fight other Candidates so he would grow stronger, but this was sure death, and that he couldn't allow.

Again, lives are not equal. Who knows how many died because of this decision? Because help didn't get to them fast enough or because they had to take the hit that was meant for someone else, whatever the reason, it didn't change the fact that this act would cost lives.

There was unlikely to be anyone, but Barbatos would accept any resentment thrown his way. What he couldn't allow, however, was for the people he wanted alive to die.

"It's been a while, Barbatos."

Barbatos turned around to see who had called for him. One might have had trouble saying if it was a man or a woman, depending on how they saw them, but Barbatos soon recognized who it was.

"Yo, Mike. I have my hands a bit busy at the moment. Mind helping out?"

"Hm? Ah, I see. Yuuto, isn't it? Very well, you keep dealing with that. I'll see who I can save."

The man called Mike was an old friend of Barbatos, and Ruki's father. That said, their resemblance wasn't much. There was a much bigger resemblance on the mother's side.

Mike had long blond hair, a face that could only be described as angelic, and a very calming, almost motherly, voice. His clothes didn't display his figure, but a good eye would show he's no weakling.

He turned towards the building being swallowed by lava, only to see a strange sight. A boat of ice was making its way over.

"Is that Marchosias? Very interesting. He has become much stronger if his Emperor's Command can make front to a Divine Disaster. If only he could talk with his Arcana as well…"

"All in due time. When he arrives on this side, help take the people out and tell him to go back to get more."

"Understood. But it seems you have a visit."

"Gandou-kun!"

Fleminar arrived at that moment. She curiously looked Mike's way, but had more pressing matters to attend to.

"What's going on?"

"You see, sensei ate spicy food just now, so I went to the toilet. But it seems like it was a bit too much for the plumbing, hahaha!"

"This is no time for jokes."

Barbatos apologized to Fleminar. He noticed Yuuto had just gotten out, so he stopped his Characteristic Magic. It wasn't long after that that lava swallowed the cafeteria.

As Barbatos wiped off his sweat, Fleminar also noticed Yuuto, though he didn't turn to see her. It wasn't hard for her to put 2 and 2 together. It would be too much of a coincidence if Barbatos' strength had run out at that exact time. She noticed he had meant to save Yuuto.

"I'll need you to go to the furthest buildings to help people get out. Focus on saving lives. Mike, after you're done with Marchosias' boat, go help Fleminar."

"… Got it."

Now wasn't the time to stand around talking. Fleminar decided to obey Barbatos, if nothing else, this was the first time she saw him act as a proper Devil King.

Mike also nodded, but for now he simply saw Fleminar off. His first job was Machosias after all.

"Fleminar has also grown much stronger, I see. It's a shame there aren't more people alive from the last Devil King War."

"Well, it couldn't be helped. When I came back, everyone but these 2 were already dead. If I had taken a little longer, we would probably only have 1 of them."

There was no point in continuing to think about what-ifs. Marchosias' ice boat was about to arrive, so Mike went ahead to do the job Barbatos had entrusted to him.

As for Barbatos, he had already recovered enough, so he crushed the lava that had swallowed the cafeteria. He then started making his way to the epicenter, in other words, the most dangerous place.

He arrived there soon enough. Luckily, it seemed to have started in the forest, so the number of victims there was lower. At least, Barbatos hoped so.

"Alright then, time to beat you up."

The lava had no will of its own, but it almost seemed to be calling Barbatos forward. Barbatos jumped, and coincidently, or maybe not, the lava erupted and was flying towards him.

Barbatos punched the lava. A deafening sound resulted from that. Both Barbatos and the lava went back to where they had originally come from.

"Hmm…"

Barbatos looked at his fist. It was slightly burned, but otherwise fine. If this was the epicenter, then he could beat it, literally.

Once again, Barbatos jumped, but this time it was as if he intended to dive into the lava. And once again, the lava flew towards him.

Barbatos punched once, then twice, thrice, and so on. He was literally beating down the lava.

The Disaster called upon its divided strength. It was what Barbatos wanted. Rather than just going around closing the spots 1 by 1, it was easier to just beat it down at the epicenter.

Even so, the fight was not easy for the Devil King. It took him hours to finally be rid of the Disaster, and by then his fists were pretty well burned as well. Might even take a day or two for a doctor to heal him even.

"Phew, finally."

It had been a while since Barbatos had done such an intense exercise, maybe he was a little out of shape. Barbatos wiped his sweat as he made his way back to Ginsei Academy.

He still had to access the damage and fix everything so the Devil VS Lovers Festival could continue tomorrow, since there was no way to keep going today.

Luckily, with this being a Disaster, there was no need for much investigation from his part. The biggest piece of work waiting for him was a list of victims, but Barbatos figured he'd leave it for Amon when he came back next week.

"Barbatos!"

"Gandou-kun!"

Barbatos quickly recognized Marchosias and Fleminar's voices. Mike was also coming with them. Mike noticed how burned Barbatos' fists were, so he healed them. They were as good as new in just a few seconds.

Marchosias didn't see anything special about that, but Fleminar sure did. Marchosias was much more interested in what in the world had just happened.

Barbatos explained he dealt with the problem at its source. Fleminar and Marchosias didn't understand properly, but Mike simply nodded along. The survivors from the previous Devil King War had many questions, but Barbatos refused to answer any of them.

"Rather than that, help me fix the school for the festival tomorrow."

"I'm not moving a finger to help you."

"I-I have to compete in the quiz, so I can't tire myself too much."

Just like Barbatos refused to answer their questions, they refused to help Barbatos with his work. Eventually, the 2 used Transite to escape before Barbatos could order them as Devil King.

"Some friends they are. Come on, Mike. With the 2 of us we should be done by- Mike?"

"Good luck on your work my friend. Also, take care of Ruki."

"You come back here, you bastard!"

Mike flew away. He looked more like an angel ascending to heaven, but not to Barbatos.

He turned to look at what had survived the damage. With magic, it could all be fixed in a week, so holding the festival tomorrow wasn't impossible, especially if he changed a few locations, but still…

"Guh. Amon, please come back! I don't want to work!"

But no one answered the Devil King's prayers, so he was forced to do his job.