I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 651: Broken Family (2)

"Master!"

Seridan, who had been watching from behind, screamed in terror.

She never imagined that not only would a person's head turn 180 degrees, but that it would also spew a pure white beam from its mouth.

Rudger, who was engulfed by the beam, seemed to have disappeared as if erased by an eraser.

"Are you okay?!"

"Don't make a fuss."

Rudger rose from the nearby shadows.

"I was just a bit startled, it didn't even graze me."

Though it didn't hit him, it wasn't a power to be taken lightly.

What had just happened was an attack that concentrated high-density holy power into a roar and expelled it outward.

Even though it was just a roar, it was powerful enough to pierce a hole through the sturdy structure of the inner sanctum.

Judging by the sharp cross-section of the hole, it was no ordinary power.

"I wondered why they wrapped those restraints so tightly, but it was to suppress and compress the holy power trying to escape outward."

Diena, seated on the golden throne, smiled and praised Rudger.

"That's correct. As expected of someone from our family, you have a good eye."

"I don't know about the rest, but for a person's neck to turn like that... Is it acceptable to modify a sibling so ruthlessly?"

"We're not exactly on friendly terms with each other. This is the fate of the defeated. The twins are in better shape comparatively."

"You call it better to modify human bodies at will, destroy their minds, and wrap them in restraints?"

"The real one is separate."

-Clank.

Diena said this while rattling the golden chains gripped in one hand.

The thing bound at the end of those chains crawled out from behind the golden throne.

"......"

Seeing the person who revealed themselves, Rudger was speechless.

"Say hello, Heathcliff. This is Petra Van Bretus, your older brother. You remember him, don't you?"

Of course he remembered.

Petra Van Bretus was the sibling who had tormented Rudger, the youngest and illegitimate child, most persistently and cruelly.

He remembered him as a childish and arrogant little brat.

Since it was an event from over 20 years ago, only childhood memories remained.

But what about Petra now?

Not only was he crawling on all fours like a slave, but his entire body was covered in scars, burn marks, and bloodstained bandages.

His eyes were covered with an eye patch, and his hair was missing in patches, likely due to traces of abuse.

He looked like a leper patient or a victim barely rescued from a fire.

"What on earth have you done to him?"

"I told you. The twins are in relatively good condition. This unruly child continued to bare his teeth and rebel against Brother Salesin until the end. This is what became of him."

Diena chuckled softly.

"But we didn't kill him."

She said that, but Rudger could tell that Petra was barely clinging to life.

And that killing him would be the greatest mercy and salvation for Petra.

"You should have just killed him."

Rudger's eyes examined Petra's physical condition.

It was a process that occurred instinctively, whether he wanted it or not, as one with the bloodline of the Holy Emperor.

On the skin beneath the bandages, brands and holy magic formations were engraved.

They had literally carved those onto his living flesh.

Rudger felt pain rising from the brand on his own back.

Above all, those weren't just simple brands.

Those brands contained effects.

"You intend to detonate all the holy power accumulated at the cost of his lifespan at once. You've created a living human bomb."

"That's this child's fate. If external enemies hadn't invaded, there would have been no need to use such things."

Diena shook her head.

"It can't be helped in the current situation. Really. Brother Salesin has such a twisted taste."

Diena was verbally blaming Salesin for his cruelty but to Rudger, it was clear that Diena was enjoying this too.

"So, farewell. It's been fun being with you. Petra."

With Diena's command, the golden chains glowed.

The light from the chains spread throughout Petra's body through his neck, activating the holy magic formations engraved on his skin.

"Ah, uh. Ah......"

Petra tried to say something as he opened his mouth, but no voice came out.

Of course, since his teeth had been pulled out and his tongue completely cut off.

But perhaps, if his mouth had been intact, he would have said something like:

-Stop it.

Petra trembled once, and then his body inflated like a balloon filled with air.

Petra's body was about to explode.

"Wait! Won't they themselves be harmed if this happens?!"

Rudger immediately answered Seridan's question.

"The power of holy energy doesn't just manifest such simple physical force. That explosion will cause great damage to enemies, but conversely, it will bestow stronger blessings on allies."

And the holy power about to burst was accumulated for over 20 years by someone descended from the bloodline of the Holy Emperor.

They had wrapped and compressed it without any gaps, and even amplified it by sacrificing lifespan.

If a demon, a hostile being to them, were present here, they could be completely annihilated without a trace when that exploded.

The danger was the same for this side as well.

Rudger stepped forward to block it, but the opponent wasn't just watching either.

The siblings Lawrence and Lorelai charged toward Rudger again.

Their legs bent at bizarre angles as they flew at Rudger's body.

A sonic boom erupted, tearing the air, and shock waves burst outward.

Rudger tried to block or deflect those attacks while moving forward, but the twins were persistent.

-Swoosh!

Rudger thrust out his sword stick in a surprise attack.

Lawrence, who would normally have avoided it, took the hit directly.

-Stab.

Rudger's eyes widened at the sword stick embedded in Lawrence's abdomen.

It wouldn't come out.

'These guys, don't tell me they're deliberately...'

They were doing this to buy time for Petra to explode.

The mindless twins couldn't have judged and acted like this on their own.

Obviously, someone must have given the order.

The smile on Diena's lips deepened.

"Good job. Little siblings."

Just as she was saying her farewells, confident in victory, Rudger gave a sardonic smile.

Seeing this, Diena showed a puzzled look in her eyes.

You smiled? Why?

"I think I've gathered enough attention. Aren't you a bit late in making your move?"

"We had a lot to prepare on our side too."

A pure white flash fell from the sky.

What seemed like light was actually the trajectory created by swinging a sword.

Petra's body, which was about to burst, was cleanly split from crown to floor.

-Hiss.

The holy power on the verge of explosion dissipated.

At the moment just before the explosion, there's a gap, a weakness as thin as a thread, like a needle hole, visible only in the world of a comma-second.

The blade that precisely wedged into that gap completely nullified the effect of the holy power.

"Who is it!"

Diena shouted in surprise.

She hadn't sensed any presence at all until Petra, who was right beside her, was split in half.

The intruder didn't answer and swung the sword that had split Petra horizontally toward Diena's neck.

"How dare you!"

Diena didn't just sit there and take it either.

The golden throne she sat on emitted light, generating a strong repulsive force that pushed the intruder and the sword far away.

The intruder, thrown backward, rotated once in midair before calmly landing on the ground.

Diena frowned when she recognized the intruder.

"A demon? Could it be the Great Demon Surna?"

"My, recognizing me. I'm honored. I thought there would be no one left in this world who remembered my face."

"How could I not recognize that hostile aura?"

"Yet you didn't recognize it when that hostile aura came close?"

At Surna's provocation, Diena clenched her fist as if incensed.

Although she had maintained composure against Rudger, being mocked by Surna, a demon, was an unbearable humiliation.

Diena's lips trembled as she tried to say something, but then she took a deep breath and smiled again as before.

"Yes. I acknowledge our oversight in not noticing that. But to think a demon would come here alone. You must still miss her?"

Still miss her?

What Diena said was clearly related to Surna.

Rudger gazed at Surna.

Since he could only see his back, his expression wasn't visible.

"What? Seeing that you can't answer, I must have hit a nerve? Well, of course, in the past, you conspired with Saint Arkenis, a traitor to the Holy Nation."

Diena spoke with confidence, as if she knew something about Surna.

"That's why you came here too, right? You're a demon, so you pretend to be hostile to our Holy Nation while actually having other intentions, you think I don't know?"

"Ah. I was wondering what all this chatter was about."

Surna scratched his ear with his finger, as if her words were quite boring.

"Why are you bringing up such ancient history? Don't blame others just because you lost the power of the Saint, at least not so excessively."

"Ha. Lost the power of the Saint? Who caused that in the first place! Besides, we haven't lost that power yet. In the homeland..."

Diena was about to say something but looked at Rudger and sealed her lips tightly, as if there was something that this side shouldn't hear.

Towards such a Diena, Surna spoke mockingly.

"Well, if you still live trapped in past glory, I won't particularly stop you. However, there's something wrong in what you said, and I want to correct it."

"Something wrong?"

"I guess you don't know."

Surna smiled slyly.

"The demon that came here, it's not just me alone."

"What..."

Right after, beyond the large passage where Rudger and his party had come from, an enormous power surged.

The first to react was Diena.

"Everyone fall back!"

With her warning, the golden throne's light intensified.

A wide golden barrier was deployed around her.

-Whoosh!

Right after, a dragon's breath covered the area like a tidal wave.

"Waaaaah!"

Seridan and Bellaruna, who were watching from behind, fell on their backsides from the dragon's breath passing overhead.

The dragon's breath incinerated every defensive soldier of the inner sanctum it encountered.

Even though such a wide-ranging attack should also sweep up allies, no such mishap occurred.

The dragon's breath, as if it were alive and breathing on its own, bypassed allies while persistently targeting only enemies.

Evasion was futile.

Agile experimental subjects lowered their bodies or jumped high, but the dragon's breath changed direction as if it had a guiding function and consumed them.

Those consumed didn't even leave behind screams.

Even their screams were combusted and disappeared without a trace in an instant.

The crimson flames flickering under the blue moonlight mixed and turned purple.

The only survivors in this world of fiery prison were Diena, who had deployed a barrier with the power of the golden throne, and the allies around her.

"Oh my, how disappointing. I prepared that strike for a long time, hoping to sweep everyone away at once."

With tapping footsteps, Helia emerged from the darkness.

From her half-white, half-black hair to her revealing outfit that showed her sensual figure.

Diena's expression froze coldly when she saw Helia.

Another demon had appeared.

Just the fact that Surna had entered the inner sanctum of the Bretus Holy Nation was already trampling the pride of the Holy Nation into mud.

But now, not just one demon, but two?

"After the Great Demon who dallied with the Saint, now comes the last princess of an extinct race? It seems today is the day to sweep away all these hostile beings."

"I didn't want to come to a place like this either, you know?"

Helia grumbled, glaring at Surna.

Surna, sensing Helia's gaze, shrugged his shoulders and gripped his sword.

"I'll take the front line. You take the rear."

"Yes, yes. As you wish."

Though Helia said that, she activated her power to support Surna from the rear.

Power [Illusion]

Illusions with full physical force weren't fake deceptions of the eye, but practically real.

Ancient beasts arose around Helia and charged towards Diena but Diena didn't just sit there either.

As she raised holy power while seated on the golden throne, bundles of golden chains burst out in a fan shape from behind the throne and collided with the beasts.

Golden chains breaking under the beasts' teeth and beasts being pierced by chains and disappearing.

Through that gap ran Surna, wielding his sword.

-Clang!

When Diena pulled out a golden scale in one hand, the scale tilted to one side, and golden energy shot out like a spear, grazing Surna's cheek.

Simultaneously, Surna's thrust sword cut one of Diena's cheeks and stuck into the throne's backrest.

Before blood could flow from Surna and Diena's cheeks, the wounds healed instantly.

But their expressions were opposite.

Surna smiled, while Diena's expression hardened further.

Turning away from their fierce clash, Rudger looked back at the twins.

"Honestly, I don't have anything but ill feelings towards you."

With no one to interfere now, he could fight in earnest.

"But I'll send you away quickly, without pain."