Chapter 310
“Love”
Sweat trickled down the Professor’s forehead.
The projection of one’s beliefs manifests as a space.
Therefore, a battle of projections is essentially a clash of beliefs.
In this belief showdown, the one with the stronger conviction, the one who is confident in their belief, emerges victorious.
Up until now, the Professor thought his conviction was unparalleled, only second to the Messiah.
Even when compared to his own mentor, Seira.
Although the level of belief that the Messiah holds to save the world isn’t quite the same, the conviction to save his mentor reached impressive heights, making it no weak belief.
But the moment Kim Deok-Sung awakened his projection.
His darkness was engulfed and vanished in Kim Deok-Sung’s universe.
“Kim Deok-Sung, what kind of belief do you possess…?”
The Professor furrowed his brows.
Even now, Kim Deok-Sung’s projection, his universe, was devouring his darkness.
His belief to save his mentor was faltering, being overshadowed by Kim Deok-Sung’s.
The Professor gritted his teeth.
His hands shook violently.
The Professor squeezed the Magic Core.
Vwoom!
The Magic Core within him throbbed, pulling up magic energy.
“I cannot allow this!!”
As the Professor raised his gram, the encroachment of the universe momentarily halted.
At that moment, the Professor’s eyes locked with Seira’s.
Seeing Seira return to her prime form made the Professor’s eyes tremble.
There was not a hint of sympathy in Seira’s crimson gaze.
A cold, piercing stare directed at a betrayer, not a disciple.
That gaze jabbed at the Professor’s heart.
‘Mentor…’
The Professor bit his lip.
He was prepared to not be understood by his mentor.
Prepared for his teacher to not acknowledge him.
But he couldn’t waver now.
“I will move forward without hesitation for your salvation. Even if it is a path that you cannot understand or recognize!”
As the Professor steeled his resolve and solidified his belief, darkness began to rise around him.
“Even if I show an ugly side!”
The Professor gritted his teeth.
Vwoom! A sinister dark gray aura, unlike his projection, surged from his body.
Predator.
The gift of the Professor that allows him to gain the abilities of any otherworldly being by consuming their flesh.
The Professor’s gift allows him to gain abilities from the otherworldly beings he consumes.
Because this ability was granted as a result of inhumane biological experiments, the Professor usually regarded it as a grotesque power and refrained from using it.
But now, it was an emergency.
Even a grotesque ability had to be used.
Everything was for the sake of the teacher’s salvation.
At that moment, as the Professor made that resolve—
Gurgle.
The darkness surrounding the Professor began to take shape.
It was the otherworldly beings.
Countless beings he had absorbed and devoured manifested through the abyss that yearned for a savior.
From the darkness reminiscent of a bottomless pit, the dark otherworldly beings emerged.
In front of him stood Seira, clad in dazzling white light.
“From now on, this White Empress will face humanity’s enemies.”
Seira declared to the Professor.
“Super── Nova! Genesis!!”
A skill name burst forth from Seira’s lips.
It was the skill that granted her the title of White Empress.
Her ultimate ability, which could inflict grave wounds even on Omega Rank otherworldly beings with a single strike.
A wide-area destruction skill, Super Nova Genesis, that reproduced the explosion of a supernova with magical energy.
Along with it, a pure white sky appeared in the dark corners of the cosmic expanse.
From the white sky, beams of pure white light struck directly at the Professor.
Boom-BOOM-BOOM!!
An explosion of light reminiscent of a white sun descended.
The darkness of the cosmic expanse quivered, and the stars and galaxies floated in the universe trembled.
Watching the blinding white flash and the accompanying explosive roar, Seira bit her lip.
She knew.
Her wounds hadn’t fully healed.
The injuries that Seira had sustained to her Magic Core couldn’t be mended by a mere handful of healing spells.
Seira was an EX Rank hero and the sole survivor of the Five Crowns.
She was a precious asset even in the hero nation of Japan, and thus, the Japanese government had provided her with countless new medicines, therapies, and healing spells.
They mobilized every scientific and magical healing method to save her Magic Core, but the permanent damage dealt to it showed no signs of healing whatsoever.
The current situation was merely a temporary miracle brought on by Kim Deok-Sung’s projection and the blessings of the stars.
Once the projection was released, things would return to normal.
“But even so, this is astonishing.”
However, Kim Deok-Sung had accomplished what no healing method had managed to achieve until now—a temporary complete recovery.
Perhaps, even if not a full recovery from the permanent damage, there might be some slight progress after the projection was dispelled.
Feeling that fact in her body, Seira gazed at her opponent with her crimson eyes.
Sssssss.
Where the white light scattered, a huge shell, like a snail, lay at the center.
Crack.
As the massive shell shattered, he emerged from within.
“C-Cough cough, hehehe…”
It was the Professor, chuckling.
Using the absolute defense shell characteristic of the Omega Rank otherworldly being, the Black Tortoise, which he absorbed through the Gift Predator, he had barely managed to withstand Seira’s Super Nova Genesis.
Thanks to the Gift activating the characteristics of the otherworldly beings, the Professor had transformed into a form closer to that of an otherworldly creature, lolling his tongue.
Thanks to the manifestation of the characteristics of the otherworldly race, the professor, transformed into a grotesque form closer to a non-human entity, licks his tongue.
“…I… I’m not finished yet. Master. I will… definitely…”
The professor grits his teeth.
He didn’t want to show this ugly appearance smeared with the traces of the otherworldly race.
But he knew he couldn’t win without doing this.
The vision he implemented with the Super Nova Genesis just now, the reality yearning for a savior, was completely shattered.
Still, the professor couldn’t stop.
The reason he lived was right in front of him.
If he fell here, the betrayal from ten years ago would mean nothing.
So he had to move forward.
Even if it meant burning his life here.
If he could save the master, it wouldn’t matter.
That’s what the professor thought.
“…I will save you. I won’t give up on your happiness!!!”
At that moment, the professor’s arm twisted grotesquely, muscles swelling.
“Professor, no, Jude.”
Seira spoke.
At the sound of his real name, the professor flinched.
“You said you would save me, but I do not wish for your salvation, for the New World you desire.”
“But… Master, you are truly not happy…”
The professor squeezed his voice out in despair while adjusting his cracked glasses.
“I do not wish for your salvation.”
Those words stabbed into his heart like a dagger.
He had anticipated such a response, yet it was a statement he did not want to hear.
While the professor was overexerting his worn-out Magic Core to draw out his magic,
“You’re right, Jude.”
Seira’s words caused Jude’s body to freeze.
Seira smiled faintly.
“There was a time I thought so. After sending my comrades away first and raising my disciple to become the worst villain, I believed I had no right to be truly happy.”
Seira placed her hand on her ample chest.
For nine years since that day, Seira lived like a prisoner locked in a cage.
“But not now.”
Seira said firmly.
With a hug, she embraced Kim Deok-Sung and stroked his black hair.
“Even for someone like me… happiness has found its way.”
A smile graced Seira’s lips.
Her face turned a deep shade of red.
Thump, thump.
Seira’s heart raced like a teenage girl experiencing her first love.
I like him.
I love him.
Seira finally understood the true meaning of the saying that the person who loves is the happiest in the world.
Thus, Seira was the happiest person in the world at that moment.
Since that day ten years ago, no, it was the first happiness she had found throughout her entire life.
“Look, Jude. Do I still seem unhappy to you? Does this smile look like a lie?”
Seira’s gaze turned toward the professor.
The former disciple who had succumbed to the enemy’s temptation and fallen into the worst villain…
As a member of the Five Crowns, as a hero, he had to be punished.
But as a master, as a teacher, she could not do that.
If a disciple goes astray, it is the master’s responsibility.
She had to correct the deviation and guide him back to the right path.
I had to grab hold of him and guide him back to the right path.
Not as a hero, but as a mentor.
“…Right now, I am truly happy. Every single day brings me joy… I can’t bear to face my fellow comrades in the heavens.”
Seira said this with a shy voice, her face turning red.
A bright smile bloomed on her face.
The Professor’s eyes wavered.
“…That…”
He, who prided himself on knowing his mentor better than anyone else.
Even after not meeting for 10 years since the betrayal, there wasn’t a day he didn’t miss her.
That’s why the Professor could see it.
The current teacher, Yoshizaki Seira, was genuinely happy.
In fact, she looked even happier now than when she was with the swordsman she was in love with from afar.
The Professor couldn’t help but acknowledge it in his heart.
But his mind still struggled to accept it.
“That’s true. But in the New World…”
“I have never wished for a New World. You wouldn’t either, Jude. The reason you betrayed me wasn’t for some nonsense like that, but solely for my happiness.”
Seira cut off the Professor’s words.
At her reply, the Professor fell silent.
“If you truly wanted my real happiness… if that’s why you betrayed me…”
Swish.
Seira lifted Kim Deok-Sung off her, rising from the ground.
Her gothic dress flowed gracefully.
Thud.
As Seira approached him, the Professor, weak in the knees, sat back down.
“Please don’t make me suffer anymore, now that I’ve just found my true happiness. Don’t bring me unhappiness again.”
At Seira’s words, the Professor trembled.
“My former student.”
Hearing that word, tears fell from the Professor’s eyes.
He finally realized.
The happiness he so desperately wished for his mentor had been achieved.
That his actions had been wrong.
That the behavior he sought from his mentor was not in the New World, but somewhere else altogether.
Yet, despite that, his mentor had not given up on the fallen him.
‘I was… wrong…’
And he admitted that he was mistaken.
“…Mentor… What have I been doing all this time…”
What?
The Professor trailed off, holding back his words.
Doubt, powerlessness, and self-loathing surged within him.
The traits of the otherworldly beings that had been transforming his body gradually faded away.
Just as his form began to revert to his original human shape.
“Well then, sleep well, my former student.”
A white flash glimmered from the tip of Seira’s index finger.
The Professor realized it was an attack meant to subdue him, and though he had enough strength to dodge it, he didn’t.
Because he didn’t deserve to.
Instead, he accepted it.
His mentor’s final reprimand.
Boom-Wham!
With a loud explosion, the white flash enveloped the Professor’s entire body.
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