I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 640 Battle of Myths (2)

Black Dawn Society's Zero Order, no Great Demon Surna looked around, sinking into memories of the past.

"I never thought I'd come back here. It's not exactly a place with good memories."

"Because you were defeated here?"

"I was defeated, yes. But that's not important. Something worse happened."

"I suppose that's why this crater and the surrounding land have become places where life cannot grow."

"That's right. And back then, too, Lumensis' dogs were scattered around like that."

Surna's gaze turned toward the holy knights and priests of the Lumensis Order.

Patricio narrowed his eyes as he sensed the subtle energy flowing from Surna's body.

"A demon."

Along with Patricio, other archbishops felt the eerie energy flowing from Surna. A strange power that irritated their divine force like an allergy.

There was only one being on this continent with such power, a demon who served a heretical god.

"My goodness, a demon."

"Are you saying the lineage of the Holy Emperor has joined hands with a demon?"

"Oh, Lumensis, what should we do about this terrible heresy?"

The priests who saw Rudger and Surna together closed their eyes tightly and offered prayers.

Surna smirked as if finding the scene amusing.

"My, it seems they're treating you as my boss? When in reality, it's the opposite."

"Think however you want. More importantly, what do you plan to do now?"

"What do you mean?"

"All the First Orders are dead. All that's left now are the few remaining members. But it seems you've been anticipating this all along."

"Oh, don't misunderstand. I was just leaving them free in my own way."

"You must have known the price. Since you've come this far, you must want something."

"That's right. I'm a demon, so I don't help someone without any intention."

"Then show me here."

"Aren't you going to ask what I want? What do you think I'll demand?"

"......"

Rudger silently stared at Surna.

Surna seemed to understand something from that silent gaze and shrugged.

"Well, this is awkward. I was planning to watch and gain some benefits at an appropriate time, but things have gotten complicated."

Surna stretched his hand into the empty air.

A longsword appeared in his hand where there was nothing before.

Surna slowly moved forward and looked up at the Elemental Lord of Fire.

"I understand you're uncharacteristically angry, but would you step back? If not, I'll have to fight you."

-Whoosh!

The body of the Elemental Lord of Fire burned more intensely, emitting stronger heat.

Since its entire body was made of flame, the increased heat was a sign of its anger.

Surna clicked his tongue regretfully, but his eyes showed no such sentiment.

"Fine. Since it's a special occasion, let me show you."

As Surna muttered those words, his figure disappeared as if sinking into the ground.

Where did he disappear to?

The Bretus Nation's subjugation forces looked around in confusion, having lost sight of Surna.

An ominous sound, like something tearing, echoed around.

People who turned toward the source of the sound all witnessed the sight of the Elemental Lord of Fire's huge head being severed and falling to the ground.

-Boom!

The lizard-like head hit the ground and turned into something like viscous magma.

Surna, who had cut off the head of the 800m tall giant in one stroke, returned to where he had disappeared from and was examining his sword.

"Hmm. It's unusable now."

The sword he had swung was stained bright red, with its tip melting like molten iron.

"It was quite a sturdy sword, but I guess cutting through pure flame itself was difficult."

The Elemental Lord of Fire was a being that could vaporize everything around it just by standing.

Any weapon would melt or evaporate before even touching its flaming body.

Considering that, Surna's skill in cutting off the Elemental Lord of Fire's head with just one sword was unbelievable even to those who witnessed it.

At the same time an uneasy thought spread among the subjugation forces that this man might indeed be the legendary Great Demon.

"Everyone, pull yourselves together!"

The shouts of senior holy knights and priests washed away the delusion.

At that moment, the headless Elemental Lord of Fire raised its right hand.

A flaming longsword was created above the raised hand.

The giant flame sword, seemingly over 200 meters in length, fell vertically toward Surna.

Surna looked at it and then thrust forward with a new sword in his grip.

Judging by the size difference alone, one could easily imagine Surna being crushed.

The temperature of the flame sword alone was making the surrounding air ripple and melting the ground into a puddle, so it was clear that Surna would vaporize even before being touched.

But the result was the opposite.

-Woong!

The Elemental Lord's flame sword, upon touching the tip of Surna's sword, was split in half like firewood.

-Crash!

The flame sword, split to both sides, scraped the ground and disappeared beyond the horizon.

Following that path, flames stretched out in a long line, melting the earth.

But Surna was fine.

He seemed unaffected by the flying sparks around him, appearing completely at ease.

The Elemental Lord of Fire, having regenerated its head by now, stared at Surna with eyes full of anger.

The surrounding temperature rose several degrees in an instant due to its aura.

Even the priests and holy knights protected by Lumensis' divine power stepped back.

"Where are you looking?"

At that moment, Rudger's voice came from the sky above.

Rudger, holding a golden trident that shone with golden light, was looking down at them with a halo above his head like a judge.

"You came to face me initially, so shouldn't you focus on our fight?"

Rudger holding the golden trident lightly threw it to the ground.

"Trishuna."

The spear of destruction known to have burned down the city of demons made of gold, silver, and iron in one go.

It fell like a meteor as if to punish the humans on the ground.

The priests gathered their power to create a wall of divine force.

Not satisfied with that, they deployed high-level holy magic to create a giant golden shield and summoned countless pseudo-angels to hold shields and positioned them at the front.

Top-tier holy magic optimized for protection and defense was activated in succession.

In terms of magic, it was like firing grand magic repeatedly.

Despite such efforts, the trident easily pierced through all defenses and fell at the center of the priests.

A white explosion spread in a hemispherical form and everything within the radius of the explosion disappeared without leaving even a corpse.

In an instant, more than hundreds of enemies died, but Rudger actually questioned the lower-than-expected power.

He had thrown the highest-grade divine weapon with the intention of clearing everyone at once, but it had taken down only this many.

"This must be your doing, Lumensis."

Through the door that Rudger had opened, Lumensis' pure white divine power was covering the crater and the surrounding area.

It reduced the power of Rudger's attack and supplied endless power to the people who were still alive.

After all, Lumensis was the one who could exert the greatest influence through the Heaven’s Gate.

Even though it was an indirect method of bestowing divine power rather than direct intervention, the effect was quite remarkable.

Those who had lost arms or legs in the explosion's aftermath, or had suffered fatal injuries that were impossible to recover from all recovered from all injuries and stood up from their places unharmed.

Even those who had lost their lower bodies regenerated instantly and rose to their feet.

The tremendous regenerative power bestowed by Lumensis' directly granted divine power.

It was a power bordering on immortality, where one would not die even if only a tiny part of the body remained.

"At this rate, it's hard to tell who's the monster and who's the human."

Those who gathered to kill immortal monsters have become almost immortal themselves.

Where else could such irony be found?

'Still, they seem to be fighting well on their side.'

The battle between the Elemental Lord of Fire and Surna had almost reached its climax.

The Elemental Lord of Fire was strong on its own, but Surna was not inferior.

No, in fact, Surna was gradually pushing back the Elemental Lord of Fire.

Compared to its initial momentum, the Elemental Lord of Fire was greatly weakened.

'Is it because of the Elemental Lord of Earth?'

The reason the Elemental Lord of Fire could come this far was thanks to the lava flowing beneath the earth.

It was able to appear by forcibly breaking through the ground and turning the surroundings into a pseudo-volcanic area.

But the Elemental Lord of Earth sealed the split ground, blocking the magma supply, causing the Elemental Lord of Fire's output to drop to less than half.

The Elemental Lord of Fire glared at the Elemental Lord of Earth as if to ask why it was doing this, but the Elemental Lord of Earth ignored the gaze and feigned ignorance.

'It does one thing well.'

Should one say it has a good eye for the flow of things?

Unlike the Elemental Lord of Fire with its fiery temperament, the Elemental Lord of Earth knew well that preventing this fight from escalating further was more important.

"Seeing such dedication, let's end this."

Rudger grabbed a bow.

Befitting a mythical weapon, it was a mysterious bow full of all kinds of ornate decorations.

When he pulled the bowstring, a light arrow automatically appeared even though no arrow was nocked.

"Brahmastra."

The size of the shot arrow was modest compared to the divine weapon shown earlier.

Its speed was also significantly slower, almost comparable to an ordinary arrow.

But upon seeing it, Patricio shouted to the archbishops:

"Everyone, raise your defenses to the maximum!"

The archbishops were true to their title.

They might have questioned the command but showed no panic or hesitation.

Their bodies were dyed in pure white light, and pseudo-halos appeared above their heads.

As befitting archbishops who embodied more divine power, they possessed much more of the power bestowed by Lumensis.

The archbishops gathered their power, and Bentum, the Holy Knight Commander who joined them, also held golden shields in both hands and exerted all his strength.

His entire body turned golden, to the extent that Bentum himself became like a living golden statue.

The surrounding priests and holy knights weren't idle either.

The priests offered prayers and used holy magic.

Arrows of light, spears of light, pillars of light flew toward the arrow.

Golden weapons, golden sword strikes, golden flags used by the holy knights blocked the arrow's path but the arrow did not stop.

Without even slowing down, it brushed past all the incoming attacks as if ignoring them and drew a parabola toward its destination.

Did it miss?

That wasn't the case. All attacks properly hit the arrow but the attacks inflicted by the priests and knights simply vanished upon touching the arrow's power.

"This is impossible..."

How powerful must that small arrow be for the simultaneous attacks from thousands of blessed people to have no effect?

The shot white arrow finally touched the solid barrier.

It was a pure white fortress that rose as if to divide the world in half.

Special-grade holy magic [God's Stronghold]

It is said that in the heavenly realm where those who serve Lumensis go, there is a golden fortress made of light.

It denies any demon's invasion, eternally radiates brilliant and warm light.

And its size is said to be large enough to wrap around this entire continent three times with half left over.

They used a holy magic that embodies exactly that.

More precisely, it summons a part of the actual golden fortress possessed by Lumensis directly into this reality.

On this land no being could ever surpass this sacred stronghold.

Over the fortress wall that seemed high enough to fill the world, an arrow that looked smaller than a toothpick flew and stuck as a massive explosion occurred.

"Oh my."

Surna immediately stuck his sword into the ground and lowered his body.

The Elemental Lord of Earth also immediately dived deep below the ground.

Only the Elemental Lord of Fire was slow to react.

The explosion's aftermath brushed past the Elemental Lord of Fire, and the flame giant over 800m tall dissipated like scattered embers.

Light flickered, and the sound of tens of thousands of thunderbolts striking continuously surged one after another.

When everything settled the fortress wall was nowhere to be seen, and thousands of troops had all disappeared.

The survivors could be counted on two hands.

They were only the archbishops, including Patricio.

"Unexpected. I intended to kill everyone."

Rudger landed lightly on the ground.

Right in front of him, Bentum, the Holy Knight Commander, still faintly golden, stood firmly in place.

Rudger simply walked past Bentum.

Immediately after, Bentum's body crumbled like weathered marble with a crumbling sound.

"H-how!"

Just as the surviving archbishops were about to use holy magic against Rudger, above Rudger's head, an arm suddenly protruded, tearing through empty space.

That mechanical arm pointed its index finger at an archbishop and then lightly drew from left to right.

The body of the archbishop preparing holy magic trembled, and then his body turned to salt and poured onto the floor.

As another archbishop widened his eyes, a tentacle mixed with human bones, organs, flesh, and muscle emerged through the hole in the sky and touched the archbishop's body.

"What on earth is...Keeeek!!!"

The archbishop's body touched by the tentacle twisted strangely and was sucked into the tentacle like water down a drain.

One archbishop looked at a mirror that appeared before him, and his eyeballs and optic nerves burned and perished.

One archbishop's eyes went blank, and he sat down, offering prayers and mumbling something before turning into a tree.

The archbishops died in various and grotesque ways.

Those who didn't die were in a state worse than death.

Patricio felt it was like divine punishment.

If so, then the question is:

Who on earth would punish the archbishops of the mighty Lumensis Order?

"Now."

Finally, Rudger stood before Patricio.

"You're the only one left."