I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 689: The Desire to Achieve (3)

"What?"

Rudger's words were so dry and emotionless that they were no different from saying he would clean up trash scattered on the street.

How many people on this continent could possibly say such words to a cardinal?

Aldre clenched her fists.

Even if he was the Demon Lord, saying such things to a cardinal was extremely humiliating.

"Let's see how long that arrogant face of yours will last!"

Aldre used holy magic.

Three advanced holy spells that priests would need to pray for a long time to deploy were cast in succession.

Winged soldiers in pure white armor rushed at Rudger with spears.

Behind them, a massive pillar shot out from the center of a magic circle made of light, and a pure white Iron Maiden emerged from behind Rudger to attack him from behind.

All of them were lethal strikes meant to cut off the opponent's breath.

Rudger watched this and lightly tapped his foot.

The moment his shoe touched the pure white ground, black waves spread out in concentric circles.

The moment the waves touched the winged soldiers, they generated black tentacle-like shadows that bound their entire bodies.

The force was so strong that the soldiers created by holy magic couldn't even resist and were crushed by the tentacles' grip, turning into particles of light and disappearing.

The Iron Maiden attacking from behind was the same.

The Iron Maiden that had split its mouth wide open on both sides trembled violently as soon as it touched the waves, then melted away without a trace.

Finally, when the waves grazed the pillar of light that had been shot, its direction twisted completely and it stuck into an innocent wall.

With just one tap of his foot, he had instantly nullified three advanced holy spells.

"Right. There's a reason why you're called the Demon Lord, isn't there?"

"You're not ignorant about me, so isn't this too reckless?"

Rudger looked at Aldre with a cold gaze.

"You shouldn't be unaware that your colleague died by my hand, so can you afford to act so bravely? Or perhaps you have something to rely on."

"Shut up!"

Aldre activated an artifact of the religious order he possessed.

Intense light burst forth, obscuring Rudger's vision.

Through the gaps in the light, swords of light appeared in succession, aiming for Rudger's vital points.

‘How foolish. Being careless against a cardinal?’

Aldre smiled with murderous intent, then immediately widened her eyes.

Within the light, she could see Rudger's shadow, standing still in place, stretched long behind him due to the light.

That shadow began to wriggle and gradually expanded, eventually moving with long, black tentacle-like appendages.

All the swords of light were caught by the shadow and disappeared.

The stronger the light, the clearer and stronger the shadow became.

And even when the light completely disappeared, the shadow still remained in place, growing its influence.

The shadow standing behind Rudger suddenly rose up and took the form of a giant raven.

'A magical beast!'

Aldre immediately recognized that the shadow raven was a magical beast.

Much stronger and more threatening than ordinary magical beasts.

The Demon Lord's magical beast was different from those of other mages.

The shadow raven spread its wings wide.

Wings so large they touched both ends of the castle's wide corridor flapped as the raven flew forward.

"How dare a mere creature!"

Aldre activated holy magic again.

Blinding light exploded, tearing apart all surrounding objects.

At the same time, Aldre fingered a small rosary in her bosom.

The reason she could act so confidently against Rudger was thanks to this holy relic.

The holy magic she had just used was merely a distraction to confuse the opponent's vision.

It was nothing more than buying time to use this holy relic.

If the Demon Lord had noticed this fact, he would have tried to finish her off before the holy relic could be activated. But surprisingly, Rudger was still standing calmly in place.

'That arrogance will be your death!'

Finally, the holy relic was ready to activate.

Since the opponent was waiting like a target, she felt foolish for being nervous until now.

Aldre took out the holy relic and aimed it at Rudger.

"Holy relic activation."

The rosary in her hand vibrated and emitted a large wave around it.

Pushed back by the wave, Aether Nocturnus retreated and returned to Rudger's shadow.

"I wondered why you were acting so confidently, so what you believed in was a holy relic."

"It's too late to realize now. The holy relic has already been activated."

Aldre smiled with victory while Rudger quietly stared at the rosary.

Around the small rosary containing tremendous divine power, complex divine power patterns were carved.

The holy relic Aldre used was of the same grade as the one that had tried to seal Grandel's soul.

This holy relic activated targeting only one person, and its effect was simple.

It crushed the opponent to death with tremendous pressure.

A pure white hammer-like object was generated above Rudger's head.

It was a gavel used to render judgment in court.

Aether Nocturnus felt a sense of crisis and inflated its body to a large size.

The enlarged raven's wings transformed into arms, blocking the falling gavel from the sky with both arms.

Aether Nocturnus' arms, which seemed capable of blocking even if the sky fell, crumpled as soon as they touched the gavel and collapsed downward.

"How foolish. Did you think you could easily block this holy relic? The power of this holy relic is conceptual."

Aldre was confident.

Even if it were Luther, called the continent's greatest swordsman, or Clinton, called the strongest mage, they would meet death before this holy relic.

The same went for Salesin, the Holy Emperor who was the master of this holy nation.

"The power of this holy relic is proportional to the size of the 'desire' held deep in the opponent's heart."

All humans possess desires.

And naturally, humans are beings who can be endlessly greedy.

Even very young children have desires of unimaginable magnitude within them.

I want to become famous. I want to earn a lot of money. I want to become handsome and be treated well. I wish everyone would kneel before me.

This holy relic detects such wishes held deep in the opponent's heart and delivers judgment with power befitting those desires.

"Indeed, it looks dangerous."

Looking up at the gavel falling slowly but surely, Rudger immediately moved to another location through shadows.

Rudger disappeared from his spot and appeared quite far away, but it was useless.

"Running away is pointless."

Because just as Rudger had moved, the gavel appeared identically above Rudger's head.

"You can't avoid it, and you can't block it. Once activated, the holy relic doesn't stop until the opponent receives judgment."

The activation itself took a long time and was complicated, but once activated, it could completely finish off the opponent.

It was a vicious holy relic that only ended when one was struck by that gavel and had to bear the weight of their own desires.

"Demon Lord. You must be trying to destroy this world and create a new one."

A desire so vast it could cover this entire continent.

In other words, the weight of this desire was equivalent to the entire world.

"Be crushed and disappear under the weight of the world you seek to destroy. On your final journey, die regretting your desires and sins."

Aether Nocturnus struggled to protect its master, but couldn't withstand the power of the holy relic.

"Come back."

Rudger gave a command to Aether Nocturnus.

Aether Nocturnus looked down at Rudger with questioning eyes, but upon seeing Rudger's calm pupils even in this moment, obediently returned to the shadows.

"So you've finally given up resistance. At least you're not showing an ugly appearance on your final journey."

Aldre thought Rudger had already given up everything.

The pure white gavel fell onto Rudger's head.

Bright light scattered around and wind swirled.

There was no sound.

That gavel was a kind of conceptual something manifested by the holy relic.

Only Rudger was actually receiving physical force; no aftermath affected the surroundings.

The light faded along with the wind.

Aldre thought Rudger had been completely vaporized without leaving even a handful of blood.

Considering what he had done, there was a very high possibility that he couldn't completely bear the karma of his desires.

"That's..."

Right.

That's certainly what should have happened.

"This can't be."

Aldre muttered with a trembling voice.

Her eyes, trembling like dry branches in the wind, captured the sight of Rudger still standing calmly in place.

"Th-this can't be. The holy relic definitely activated properly!"

"Right. The holy relic activated properly."

The person who had been directly hit by the holy relic affirmed those words too easily.

"It was certainly surprising. A holy relic whose power increases dramatically in proportion to the size of the opponent's desires. Anyone else who had been hit would have been crushed to death by the gavel."

"Wh-why are you fine? What sorcery did you use!"

"The holy relic activated properly. I properly felt the power of that holy relic."

Right. Rudger had certainly been hit by the holy relic.

And he had felt that weight.

The weight of his true desires.

"My desires, it seems, are not strong enough to kill me."

"Don't be ridiculous. There's no way you're fine! If you have no desires, then why are you committing such acts!"

What could his true desires possibly be that he would start a holy war, something rare even in long history?

It didn't make sense logically.

Aldre's head became dizzy and she unknowingly staggered.

"I have no obligation to tell you such things."

"Th-that..."

"So. Is this all you've prepared? Or you can reveal other hidden cards you've kept. No, you definitely should."

Tremendous magical power began to emanate from Rudger's entire body.

"Because if that's the end, you'll die here."

"Ugh, aaaaah!"

Faced with reality that shattered common sense, Aldre let out a scream-like shriek and tried to activate holy magic.

-Stab!

"Ah."

However, Aldre ultimately failed to manifest the holy magic.

Because along with the burning pain stabbing her back, she discovered the tip of a sword that had pierced through her chest.

"Th-this is..."

Aldre turned her head slowly, blood flowing from her mouth.

Her pupils, filled with shock and terror, discovered Surna smiling chillingly at her.

"I wondered where you had run off to, so you came all the way here?"

Surna had somehow made it here.

Then what about her companions? Where were the other two cardinals?

Aldre's curiosity was quickly resolved.

"I was late because I had to catch these guys."

Surna threw what he had been holding in his hand onto the floor.

What rolled away were the heads of Cardinal Joseph and Cardinal Sehar.

"And you're the last one now."

"This...!"

Before Aldre could utter words filled with hatred and curses, Surna swung his sword.

Blood splattering in all directions stained the pure white interior of the castle red.

It was quite a brutal scene, but neither Rudger nor Surna batted an eye.

"Are you okay? You seem to have been hit by a holy relic, but you look better than I thought."

"As you can see."

"The fact that a cardinal came charging here with a holy relic means they've probably figured out roughly what we're trying to do. Their bowels are properly on fire, so those who had preserved their strength to appear at the end must have moved up their plans."

"It's not just us who are impatient."

"Right."

At that moment, the castle vibrated greatly once and emitted a large wave around it.

The wave stretched far beyond the outer castle to the coastline of Bretus.

The reason such a thing suddenly happened was simple.

"Is it stage two?"

If stage one had the entire castle glowing, the start of stage two was the castle's transformation.

The castle began to move with rumbling sounds.

Corridors split as new paths were created or blocked.

The positions of doors and windows changed, and the overall structure of the castle transformed like a maze.

The noise made by the massive and intricate mechanical device that had been stopped for a long time was extraordinary.

It was very loud and magnificent, as if warning that something was about to happen to this entire world.

-Whoooosh.

A woman walked out nonchalantly onto the still messy beach in one corner of the coastline swept and washed away by the tsunami, where the weather hadn't yet receded.

"They say a holy war has begun, but this is a complete mess."

Casey looked at the scene of Bretus, which she was seeing for the first time in her life, with complex eyes.