I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 694: The Beast That Devours the Sun (2)

"Kraaaaaaak!"

Cardinal Sartolome screamed.

The priests who had been guarding around him heard the scream and rushed over in alarm.

"Cardinal! Are you alright!"

"What on earth happened?"

The priests' worried voices did not reach Sartolome's ears.

While activating a special-grade holy spell through the magician's body, he had to consume 70% of his divine power.

Since he was trying to use holy magic through the body of someone he was controlling with brainwashing from a distance, he had no choice but to heighten his resonance with the magician.

That became poison.

Sartolome recalled the last scene he saw through the magician's body.

In brilliant light, a pitch-black dot appeared.

That dot spread and swallowed him.

The form that the darkness spreading within the light took at the end was the shape of a gigantic wolf that devoured everything.

'An attack that devours special-grade holy magic! How can such an impossible thing exist!'

Because of that, Sartolome received a tremendous mental shock.

He felt almost exactly the death met by the synchronized body.

It was not a very pleasant feeling.

Even he, who had lived long and risen to the position of cardinal, found it difficult to endure.

Sartolome wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and adjusted his vestments based on white and gold.

"Cardinal. Are you alright? What on earth happened...?"

"Captain Tarian is dead."

The priests were shocked by the shocking truth.

Captain Tarian of the Holy Knights was dead?

He would not lie in such a situation. That meant it was really true.

To think he was defeated when Sartolome was with him. Was the enemy that strong?

"But you don't need to worry. That monster also collapsed after pouring out all its strength. However, it's not completely dead yet. We must cut off that monster's breath right now."

Sartolome judged that it would become very dangerous if Hans regained consciousness and woke up.

More than that, his heart was filled with an unforgiving feeling toward the heretic who had caused him such pain.

He had to kill him immediately. Since this side's strength was greatly depleted, it would be fine if he led the priests here.

However, Sartolome's purpose was ultimately not achieved.

-Swoosh!

Because Cravat, who had approached behind him at some point, stabbed his heart with a cursed dagger.

"Kheuk!"

"C-Cardinal!"

The incident happened so suddenly that no one could respond properly.

Sartolome squeezed out his remaining divine power and pushed away Cravat's body.

Even in this situation, his calm response without panic showed that he had not reached the cardinal's position for nothing.

Sartolome tried to regenerate the wound by wrapping divine power around his heart but the moment he activated divine power, he felt something strange.

'The divine power isn't taking effect.'

Sartolome's gaze turned toward Cravat.

He was taking off his bone mask broken by the shock and throwing it on the floor with a thud.

"H-how are you here?"

"You're people who borrow others' bodies, so I didn't think you'd be completely down with just that."

Even though Cravat had entered the enemy camp alone, his expression was full of leisure.

Sartolome, who had been focused only on Hans, belatedly recalled the fact that Cravat had cast a curse on Hans and then disappeared from the scene.

"Kheuk!"

The moment he came to his senses, he should have been alert to the surroundings first, not worrying about Hans.

It was a mistake he made because this was the first time he had been caught like this since becoming a cardinal.

And in this holy war, that one mistake led directly to death.

Sartolome coughed up blood.

His heart was stabbed and he was blocking it with divine power, but due to the power of the cursed dagger, life force was continuously draining from his body.

"H-how can a mere black magician against divine power..."

"The curse I use isn't ordinary. Its power alone is outstanding."

Cravat waved the dagger in his hand.

When such words came so casually from a young boy's body, the priests felt a strange chill.

"Kheuk! What are you doing!"

Sartolome commanded the priests, even forgetting his usual respectful speech.

The priests belatedly came to their senses and used holy magic toward Cravat.

It was Sartolome who was hit, the priests were fine.

And Cravat was also in a state where fatigue had accumulated from battle and much stamina had been drained.

The high-ranking priests gathered here were sufficient to face him.

"If the one who cast the curse dies, this curse will be lifted too!"

"You know well. Right. If I die, that curse will be lifted too."

-Caw. Caw.

The priests stopped momentarily while trying to activate holy magic.

At some point, crows had been circling around them.

Looking at the black eyes of the crows staring at them made their spines chill.

No matter how you looked at it, they were not normal crows.

"If I die, that is."

The crows that had surrounded the priests descended to the ground.

The moment they landed on the ground and folded their wings, the crows' bulk suddenly grew larger and transformed into the appearance of people wearing black robes.

And there were far more of them than themselves.

The priests who had been surrounding Cravat were conversely surrounded by black magicians.

"Let's finish this now."

The black magicians of the Ancient Curse School activated the curses they had prepared.

Even though they were high-ranking priests, they couldn't possibly withstand the power of curses that even a cardinal couldn't resist.

Black fog spread and the priests' eyes rolled back as they collapsed to the ground with a thud.

If there was something fortunate for them, it was that they died without great pain at least.

Of course, to Sartolome, who had to watch that scene with his own eyes, it could only look like a terrible hell descending to the present world.

His body dying as curses invaded.

Rather, because he used divine power to live, the pain in his heart lasted longer.

Speaking in hindsight, Sartolome should have rather died when his heart was stabbed by Cravat.

Then he would have gone without great pain at least.

However, the survival instinct for life could not be easily abandoned even by that great cardinal, and in the end, he had to pay the price for his arrogance.

"Farewell."

Even Sartolome collapsed powerlessly.

The fallen man was neither breathing nor had his heart beating.

It was finally over.

"Ha, really."

But Cravat's expression was not good.

It was because of the appearance of Galahad Castle floating up over there.

"What a complete mess."

As if to respond to Cravat's muttering.

-Awoooooo!!

A wolf howled in the distance.

It was Hans. He thought he had fainted from exhausting all his strength, but perhaps that wasn't the case.

Cravat soon had to open his eyes wide looking toward the source of the sound.

Something black and clumped was raising its body.

"I didn't expect this."

Hans had collapsed unconscious after exhausting all his strength.

Losing consciousness meant that the 'reason' that suppressed his 'wildness' had shut down.

Thus the Beast of Gevaudan that Hans had been suppressing and controlling awakened once again and roared toward the sky full of dark clouds.

Countless shadows spread out, and the wave of black wolves rose again.

Bigger.

Stronger.

More numerous.

The actions of Tarian and Sartolome, chosen to suppress the cryptid, ironically brought about an even more terrible result.

A place where the best choice made immediately could lead to the worst result.

That was the chaotic madness that war brought.

The Crusaders, who had been vaguely looking up at the rising castle, soon came face to face with the spreading black tsunami.

"C-cryptids!"

"Damn! Everyone into defensive formation!"

They immediately threw away any thoughts of what to do and had to worry about immediate survival.

The wolves that made up the black wave, the cryptids, did not distinguish between friend and foe.

Before, Hans's reason had controlled them to at least distinguish allies, but now that Hans had lost consciousness and the Beast of Gevaudan had taken over the body, it was different.

The wave quickly swept the battlefield, and its aftermath was not small at all.

"This is."

Priestess sisters Ariel and Lucia, who had been fighting against the endlessly rising flood, stiffened their expressions at the chilling energy pressing from behind.

It was the same for Sedina, who was fighting against the two.

Black wolves were rushing in droves from afar.

Counting their numbers was meaningless.

-Woof! Woof!

-Grrrrrr!

-Kwaang!

Wolves with eyes full of madness and red pupils, drooling, rushed at Ariel and Lucia.

The two activated divine power and pushed away such wolves.

The wolves didn't target only Ariel and Lucia.

They bit and tore at the trees blocking their path indiscriminately, targeting even Sedina beyond them.

"Senior Hans?"

Sedina, seeing the rampaging wolf cryptids, instinctively knew something had happened to Hans.

Sedina's head spun quickly.

Something had happened to Hans, and he was now almost rampaging wildly.

Then should she go to save Hans now?

But Rene's presence still bothered her.

If she went to stop Hans, then who would stop Rene?

Sedina's contemplation could not continue long because the cryptids that had bitten through the trees had approached right up to her.

-Crunch.

Vines that pierced through the ground and shot up bound the cryptids and then applied pressure, crushing them.

The wolf's body went limp and melted away like mud.

More wolves filled that empty space and showed killing intent toward Sedina.

Sedina bit her lip.

Right now, stopping those wolves was the priority.

"Th-this is..."

Priestess Camilla couldn't understand the current situation.

She was dizzy from suddenly being transported beyond space by Rene to a safe place, but then black waves rushing from afar had swallowed up the Crusaders.

The situation was truly racing toward catastrophe and chaos.

In Camilla's sight, she could see her sisters' divine power exploding in the distance.

Monsters were targeting her sisters.

"No."

Camilla agonized. Her role was to safely care for Rene.

Until Catherine, her eldest sister and the saint, arrived, she couldn't carelessly leave her position.

But at the same time, she was worried about her other two sisters.

She knew the power of those who had reached the position of priestess, but if black waves rushed endlessly from all directions like that, even priestesses couldn't hold out for long.

At minimum, Camilla, who was skilled in protective holy magic, had to be there for them to endure.

Perhaps sensing Camilla's agony, Rene spoke first.

"You can go."

"..."

Camilla said nothing to Rene.

That she had seen through her anxious state, that she had said such words out of consideration for her, and that she had unknowingly felt relieved by those words.

All those elements were so jumbled together that she couldn't react.

"I was asked by my eldest sister to protect you."

In the end, what she brought up was what Catherine had said at the end.

"Was that a request to protect me even while abandoning the other sisters?"

"..."

"I'm fine. You just saw, didn't you? I can escape safely in any situation."

Right. She had definitely seen that magical power to leap beyond space.

Camilla seemed to understand why her eldest sister had brought Rene this far and cared for her.

Rene possessed a very remarkable ability that others didn't have.

But even knowing that, hesitation was unavoidable.

"Make a choice you won't regret."

Rene's words were the deciding factor.

Camilla stared intently at Rene through her tiara, then soon turned her head toward where her sisters were.

"Thank you. And, I'm sorry I couldn't protect you until the end."

Leaving those words, Camilla headed toward where her sisters were.

Rene was left alone, but she didn't think she had done something reckless.

'I need to escape somehow too.'

Looking at the speed at which those monster wolves were spreading, it didn't seem like it would take long for them to reach where she was.

Moreover, in the distance, the sight of the castle floating up into the sky was clearly visible.

'Brother Heathcliff is in that place...'

The castle continued to rise in altitude.

The moment the castle touched the dark clouds filling the sky.

-Whooosh!

The clouds tore in a circle, drilling a large hole in the sky.

Beyond that, the hidden sky unfolded.

It was the night sky.

She hadn't known how much time had passed because of the dark clouds, but night had already arrived.

Above the pierced sky, starlight was abundant.

The gently rising moonlight illuminated Galahad Castle, tinting it bluish.

Rene suddenly thought this scene seemed very familiar from somewhere.

"This is..."

Though there were still differences in the details.

This was definitely the scene she had seen in her dreams.