Chapter 155
With the combined effort of several professors and students, it was possible to temporarily seal the movements of the Ancient Dragon.
However.
‘⎯⎯!’
The Ancient Dragon, composed entirely of bones, roared once again.
The magical bindings restraining its massive body trembled violently.
Those who had cast the spell hastily poured more mana into it, trying to strengthen their efforts.
Yet, it was not enough to stop the Ancient Dragon, one of the powerful forces among the Twelve Divine Beasts, once a ruler of monsters.
In the end, all spells binding the enormous bones were destroyed.
Kuwuung⎯⎯!
Furious, the Ancient Dragon punished all who had tried to bind it.
However, the opponents were no mere weaklings.
These were the students and professors of the esteemed Hero Training Academy.
They quickly created a barrier to minimize the damage.
After swiftly evacuating the injured, they turned up the heat of their resistance.
⎯Stay focused!
⎯Prepare the second spell! We’ll cast the combined sealing spell once more!
⎯Hurry and pull back the injured! This could turn into a long battle!
In the midst of this chaotic world.
Francesca’s gently glowing eyes were fixed on the back of her uncle, who was guarding her.
Her eyes were shaken by an unexpected development.
Ocell Victoria Lucien.
He shouldn’t be here.
There was no reason for him to be in this state, causing all kinds of abnormal reactions throughout his body.
And he was certainly not a hero who would protect the clear villain that he had become.
Even though they had lived under the same mansion for years, outside of matters related to unique spells, there had been almost no conversations between them.
Why on earth was he trying to protect her…?
She had already known that he was a follower of the Goddess Church.
He had never hidden that fact in her presence.
Given what she owed him, along with his personality, she thought he would not disclose anything outside.
When the unique spell cast against the Ancient Dragon failed and all authority slipped away weakly from her grasp, a thought crossed her mind: perhaps her uncle’s earlier declaration to become her assistant was meant for this moment.
Otherwise, there was no reason for him to take on such risks.
She considered it to be some sort of divine guidance from the Goddess.
Then… what about this?
Was even this attempt to protect her, while his body was breaking down, also the Goddess’s will…?
Was he revealing his own identity that he had kept hidden until now…?
What on earth was the purpose of all this?
“Uncle… why, why are you…?”
“Francesca. Our goal has been achieved. The bishops have safely entered. The Academia is in unprecedented chaos.”
“It was a success. The bishops invaded safely. Academia has plunged into unprecedented chaos.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying….”
“The only thing left was to bring the Ancient Dragon to the very center of Academia, but… that’s become quite impossible, so we must change our ‘plan.’”
Francesca couldn’t grasp what Lucien was talking about.
She knew he belonged to the Goddess Church, but that seemed completely separate from her own affairs; she had no memory of sharing any plans with him.
Yet, he acted as if they had been in this together from the start and were now facing a crisis.
Was he trying to share the blame for betraying Academia to reduce the risk?
No, that wasn’t it.
After the incident occurred, he could have safely escaped Academia on his own, preserving his life without injury.
But here he was.
Choosing to appear here instead.
Ignoring the safest option, he had voluntarily brought about a crisis.
With his eyes rapidly deteriorating.
Lucien, he withdrew his glance from Francesca, who was peeking at him.
“Survive and escape.”
“Excuse me…?”
“Prepare thoroughly and look for the next opportunity.”
What kind of preparation was he referring to?
He hadn’t mentioned any specific object.
Francesca wanted to know the exact meaning.
So she tried to ask, her rusty throat ready to speak.
“Lucien—!”
Breaking through the group of golems ahead.
A warrior charged in fiercely.
A woman with the same title as a professor, Louisa, the formidable fighter who had ranked 12th in the Hero Ranking during her active years, radiated a threatening aura as if she were about to devour Lucien.
With her veins bursting from her arms, Lucien barely managed to withstand her attack.
The auras of the two clashed, emitting a powerful light.
Louisa, like an enraged beast, twisted her mouth to speak.
“You bastard! Survive and return? Today, your limbs will be torn apart and your skull shattered—you’re hilarious!”
“…You haven’t changed your dirty mouth, Professor Louisa.”
“How can I speak nicely in a world crawling with pests like you? You filthy, degenerate bastard!”
“Degenerate… That’s not wrong, but… the order is just a bit different.”
“What?”
“I was a member of the Goddess Church before I became a professor of Academia. And…”
Lucien was about to continue his statement but stopped. Instead, he made a small gesture and moved his mana.
The elite golems positioned around responded to his slight change and began to engage in combat.
Unlike the Skeleton Soldiers fighting fiercely, fueled by endless mana from the Ancient Dragon, there was a clear distance that prevented their battles from intertwining.
Twisting and turning.
The muscles in his arm, clashing with Louisa, had an eerie quality. The erratic movements of the muscles swelled and shrank, displaying instability.
Louisa narrowed her fiery eyes as she observed this.
“What have you done to your body?”
“Well… at least it’s not beneficial, right?”
“You’ve been continuing your recent research only to do this incomprehensible nonsense. It doesn’t seem to have amplified the power, does it? Huh? Give it a try—!”
Lucien was pushed back by Louisa’s ferocity.
Her strength was even effective against the Ancient Dragon.
The difference between them was clear. Lucien’s feet scraped against the ground as he retreated.
Even in this precarious situation, Lucien scanned his surroundings with his eyes.
His golems and Skeleton Soldiers were in battle, while the enemies positioned a bit further away were clearly in a tense situation.
The surrounding enemies were in a tight spot.
However, a male student with an arrogant smile, Vargan, had approached and was passing by Francesca and Louisa.
Louisa noticed his presence but didn’t try to stop him, only gripping her dagger tighter, perhaps in trust or to ensure he wouldn’t interfere.
Lucien couldn’t completely resist this.
Vargan kept his steps steady.
His outfit wasn’t the uniform worn by the other students.
It was a pitch-black suit that resembled a shadow.
The fabric and shoes wrapped around his long legs were equally dark.
“There’s no time for distractions, Lucien—!”
“….”
Vargan faced Francesca, who couldn’t even stand properly, and the golems.
*
“Well-crafted golem, isn’t it? It’s as if there’s a person trapped inside.”
⎯…….
Currently, Francesca had some mana left.
But her exhausted body couldn’t move freely.
The foremost golem guarding her was Lucien’s masterpiece.
Vargan gazed accurately at it. The golem seemed to know Vargan had mentioned itself.
It was too refined to be simply referred to as a golem.
And it possessed a voice.
“No…. It would be improper to call it a golem. Even if its body is a rock, to think of the weight of the soul contained within it is not to belittle it.”
What’s embedded in that well-shaped stone is something of great value.
It could be called Lucien’s secret weapon or his prized possession.
“It looks like it’s not feeling cramped inside. The one I carry hates being confined like that.”
Vargan knew that Francesca wouldn’t carelessly move anymore.
He focused on the golem before him.
The creature inside the golem was a spirit.
On par with the duke’s spirit, Naias. A high-level entity.
Originally, this was the Ego weapon Liam was to acquire first.
The spirit of darkness, Arcane.
It’s quite astonishing that the core of the golem is a duke-level spirit.
⎯…….
Arcane slowly moved its arm.
Though it looked like a mannequin, its movement was incredibly natural.
“Indeed… You’re not controlling your body but materializing and manipulating the surrounding darkness. Quite fascinating to see in person.”
This place was currently illuminated only by moonlight.
A space shrouded in darkness.
The Duke’s spirit of darkness, Arcane, could handle the essential elements composing this space.
“The structure where the existing spirit’s power and the mana Lucien infused into the golem resonate to produce new outputs. It seems efficient and stable, truly a cherry on top.”
This habit was close to Vargan’s nature.
When faced with something he had only seen in novels, he meticulously savored the information he could gain and sought out its strengths.
⎯… If you get any closer, I will resist.
A voice emanated from the golem that composed Arcane’s body.
Perhaps resembling its master, it had a curt, emotionless tone.
Vargan smiled subtly and replied.
“Such a pity.”
Then, with a clack, he continued his steps.
⎯… I’ve confirmed your will.
With a gesture, Arcane moved the massive shadow it had prepared.
The surrounding darkness was completely controlled by that movement.
Like a film played in reverse, the thickly condensed smoke burst forth.
The dispersed darkness, now with mass, swarmed toward Vargan like a horde of insects.
The darkness rushed towards Vargan like a swarm of insects, carrying weight.
Its movement was swift.
Destructive.
In an instant, a shadow of a black cube trapped Vargan.
Arcane grasped at the air.
The cube responded, gradually increasing the number of its faces, pulsing like a heart, compressing its insides.
From six faces to twelve.
From twelve faces to twenty-four.
From twenty-four faces to forty-eight.
…
What throbbed like a heartbeat quickly approached the shape of a sphere.
Then Arcane brought both hands together, pulling the grasped air with more force.
Applying pressure to increase its power.
The information that Vargan possessed far superior combat prowess compared to ordinary students had already been acquired.
No need to measure; full power from the start.
As soon as the compression was complete, to the point of shaking both hands.
He halted the action along with the mana that he bestowed.
With such power, it could easily kill even a bishop-level Altife.
A fragile human body would have turned into nothing but dust…
⎯…!
Something obscured Arcane’s vision.
It was the hand of the man he had just trapped.
Arcane briefly scanned the information about Vargan.
Schugenharz Troa Vargan.
He specializes in familiars and curse magic.
Then… was what he had compressed not Vargan’s true form but an illusion…?
No, that can’t be.
His ‘eyes’ do not deceive with illusions or phantoms. They pierce precisely through reality. No matter how high his level of comprehension, that is.
Excluding the number of illusions.
So… could it be……
“…How unfortunate.”
Gripping Arcane’s face with one hand, Vargan spoke sincerely.
The golem constituting Arcane’s body was of average female height, making Vargan’s voice sound somewhat from above.
Crack.
A sound like something breaking was heard.
In that moment, Arcane realized how Vargan had not died.
“How unfortunate is the reality of having to destroy this unparalleled golem.”
If it weren’t an illusion.
He had directly shattered his magic through head-on confrontation.
Squeezing Arcane’s face like crushing an apple, Vargan effortlessly tore off her head.
From the neck of Arcane, who had lost her head, black flames burst forth.
“…….”
Vargan behaved as if nothing had happened.
He shook off the useless shards of the golem he had gripped and placed a black crystal in his bosom.
Countless other golems remained, seemingly ready to rush at any moment, but he didn’t care.
“With this, it’s just the two of us left. Francesca.”
“…….”
He addressed the woman who was slumped like a flower.
“You still look like you don’t understand. Are you only planning to confront the truth after death?”
She staggered to rise, but found it difficult.
Just like when Vargan had first mentioned his assistant.
Francesca glared at him with sharp eyes.
“…What do you know to be spouting such nonsense?”
“Well, I suppose I know at least more than you…”
Vargan chuckled lightly before asking.
“Do you want to know the truth?”
“What…?”
“I’m asking if you want to know all the causal relationships you’re unaware of.”
That was something even Liam, the original protagonist, did not know.
A twisted narrative from which I hold exclusive knowledge of the truth.
And it originated from the foolish tale of one man.
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