<176 - Previewing the Branch of Destruction>
Curses are similar to diseases.
In the case of a lethal disease, it initially remains latent, causing only mild symptoms, but as it progresses, it begins to inflict real pain.
It disrupts the body’s vital signs and destroys the immune system, ultimately leading to a terminal stage where it takes away life.
Curses do not have a transmission process.
Instead, mild symptoms occur initially to prevent easy detection of the curse’s origin. As time passes, the symptoms worsen, and in the terminal stage, they claim lives.
“But who knew the curse of death experience could become this serious? If I report it to the conference, the whole world will be shocked.”
It’s a scene that could potentially lead to a worldwide explosion in the number of curse casters.
The end of humanity unfolded in the nightmare of Oknodie.
Gwoooooo!
The primordial mountain range rises.
Life, which had long been dormant, unleashes its fury over trivial byproducts of its own flesh.
What on earth could have happened for the curse of death experience to escalate to such extremes?
The curse he knows is not like this.
Usually, a passerby on the street suddenly charges at you with a knife.
A peddler hands you a poisoned apple, and you fall down after eating it.
It’s a curse where a woman, enticing you with her skirt, pulls out a dagger from her thigh and stabs your nape.
Curses constantly analyze.
When this person will let their guard down.
What kind of curse they will fall victim to.
It increasingly adopts deadly and threatening methods.
What usually results is the most realistic threat that one person can perceive.
Just a noble from a territory or an unidentified magician.
The solution is simple.
The dream caster enters a dream and explains that real knights and magicians are not invincible beings, articulating how exceptional their own responses are.
Once the subject is convinced, if they lower the knight’s and magician’s abilities while raising the dream caster’s, the incident is resolved.
You can kill the form of the curse with sheer force and escape.
And then it grows, growing larger until the primordial giant rises.
It transcended even a child’s imagination.
“Ah, Professor Destroyer!”
“I came to help. It seemed like Professor Sadako alone would find it overwhelming, so it’s good that I came. What’s the current progress?”
“96th…”
“What about the curse’s reverse calculation results?”
“There are still four more left beyond this. It stretches to the 100th…”
At this point, the foundation seems more astonishing than Oknodie.
Even the overly studious Empire Nobles wouldn’t go this far with early education.
To what extent did they push early educational progress? It raises suspicions if the foundation’s chairman is training their successor.
“Oknodie. We don’t have time, so let me tell you about the curse’s countermeasures first. There are gaps in the detailed specifications of the powerful dangers you’ve imagined.”
“Gaps?”
“A person who has only heard tales of how big the giant is will not know how its mass is composed or how to support that large body.”
First, we dive into the informational gaps about the giant to weaken that massive existence.
“Have you ever thought about why the primordial giant has slept for so long? It’s because its spine is broken.”
“Eh???”
“On top of that, it lacks the calories needed to maintain that massive body, remaining in a semi-comatose state while barely surviving by absorbing the life force of the earth growing on top.”
The know-how from Nightmare Boss Tobal.
That lies in gaslighting.
“So, that thing can’t even stand straight on two legs. Once it gets up, it won’t be able to move properly for even a minute before falling back down.”
“That’s not true! The primordial giant is powered by the essence of volcanoes and has veins of eternal iron embedded in its spine!”
“…That makes me mad.”
“Ouch!”
Oknodie, with its head gripped, whimpered as it pounded its waist with its fists.
After taking another hit, it finally wrapped its head, rolling on the floor in submission.
“Just knowing a lot for no reason isn’t helpful. If you keep nitpicking the details, dealing with the nightmare becomes harder, you know. When your heavenly mentor speaks, you should just obediently follow.”
“Humph! If I listen to your incorrect speculation, my rewards will decrease, you know?”
“Rewards? Who would give you rewards for doing this kind of stuff?”
“Ah. That’s…”
“…The Foundation?”
“Not at all!”
“Then where? Who?”
“…It really is the Foundation!”
“Truly a mess. Is this a warning the Foundation is giving to the Academy?”
We have the power to make any student cause mana surges and mana disasters to destroy the Academy.
If it goes wrong, they could shatter the whole world.
So don’t provoke us.
Don’t even attempt to take Oknodie away from us.
That certainly seems to be the implication.
When Professor Bronze was found out for stealing the Foundation’s treasures and investigating the Foundation’s back end alongside Professor Sadako, he probably placed a curse on Oknodie after making contact through an audience.
Thinking so, everything about this situation clicked into place.
“Oknodie. If you had to choose between the Foundation and the Academy, which would you pick?”
“Why do I have to pick just one?”
“Don’t your mom and dad make you choose who you like more? It’s the same principle.”
“Hmm. I don’t have a mom, so I wouldn’t know.”
“…Poor thing.”
Seeing it bury its face in the cold arms of the undead and laughing so happily while hiding its head made me feel a strange irritation.
“Instead of dallying around in childish whims, you should deal with the monster you summoned.”
“Tch. Fine. I’ll go.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s the Sentinel Core from the Flame Mage Tower!”
“Even in dreams, just what time did you steal the guardian responsible for the tower’s existence… You really are a born thief.”
“That’s a compliment, right?”
“A true thief should have a habit of sticky fingers.”
A compliment, but not quite; a compliment!
“Why did you steal the Sentinel Core?”
“The reason the primordial giant gets angry is that someone messes around with its lifeline, the essence of the sun. So, we need to supply a substitute fuel!”
“…Indeed. It’s far better than trying to freeze it with powerful ice magic or curses to kill it.”
It was a ready solution even against a world boss.
Though this knowledge belonged to the Foundation, the trio proceeded to infiltrate to appease the primordial giant.
Even against the mobility of the professor class, Oknodie quickly caught up.
“Get inside; I’ll buy you time outside.”
While Destroyer held off outside, Sadako cast a curse on the constricting esophagus.
“If it feels like feeling sharp pricks, it won’t be able to choke because of the pain.”
Following the path opened by the two professors, they embedded the red mage tower’s Sentinel Core near the heart where the essence of the sun was found, restoring life to the primordial giant, halting its rampage.
The world’s end brought on by the primordial giant’s worldwide destruction crisis ended as if it were a lie.
[96th death [Primordial Giant] has been overcome.]
At this point, even an active warrior would find it unlikely to last this long; Oknodie had achieved feats that required a warrior’s life in prior eras.
Destroyer, who assisted in this process, began to feel immensely nostalgic.
The very atmosphere he experienced while adventuring with Ni’alatotep in the warrior party during his active days.
He even felt it was better than back then.
Ni’alatotep, who always ended up using merely temporary patchwork solutions that left a bad taste.
In contrast, every choice Oknodie made felt instinctively like a ‘correct answer’—he fully understood the reasoning behind the actions and their principles.
‘It’s not just the understanding of students and the Academy that’s perfect. The understanding of world disasters and calamities is also flawless, so if I guide correctly, humanity can secure its next century’s safety.’
It vividly took shape in his mind.
Beyond this little child.
With a hand on his forehead, the shadowy figure was chuckling.
The figure of the chairman of the Wiheomhae Foundation.
Could one really ignore the possibility of such a thing?
Could one not offer the best teachings to her?
Could one take this child away from me? It felt like a challenge being thrown.
‘The greatest adversary this era’s warrior could face was not the Demon King. It was right here.’
Surely, the one declaring a gamble on the Academy’s fate through this little child was the most sinister being of this era, humanity’s enemy.
[97th death [Twilight of the Gods] has been overcome.]
[98th death [King of the Culinary Arts] has been overcome.]
A remarkable little brat that even plays with gods and demon kings.
If armed with the Academy’s support, drawing her into the world of light would be a mere trifle.
Destroyer believed wholeheartedly, without a doubt.
[99th death [The Final Day of the Academy] has commenced.]
That belief faltered when he saw the Dragon Principal stepping into action, about to crash right into the Academy.
Though he seemed eccentric, Destroyer once considered the Dragon Principal a stalwart protector of humanity.
Now, the ancient dragon Omosiroi was bringing down humanity’s greatest educational institution, the future of humanity.
The scenario where the principal turns against humanity’s interests.
It unraveled within the nightmare of Oknodie, which operates on a clear foundation of ‘reality’ in any event.
This wasn’t merely a potential existing only in nightmares but something that could happen in the real world as well.
The worst possible future humanity could face.
Having realized that fact, he thought:
‘If I consult the principal and the Academy about Oknodie’s unique potential and seek their support, yet they betray me, that will truly be the end for humanity!’
If one sought to drag Oknodie into the world of light to snatch her away from the Foundation.
The principal’s assistance.
The Academy’s support.
Neither could nor should be received.
Only they—the professors who have directly experienced this nightmare, Sadako and himself.
They must guide this child onto the right path.
The burden of humanity’s future, the peace of the world, and the immense responsibility rested on the shoulders of a former warrior.
