I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 700: Punishment, Determination, and Salvation (2)

Rudger, who had been climbing upward while collecting the relic, briefly stopped and looked back towards the dark stairs leading downward.

Surna would have gone down even further than where the altar was located.

Rudger resumed his interrupted steps.

He suddenly remembered when Surna had told him what she had come here for.

-My purpose is revenge against Lumensis, but it's not just that.

While most apostles move for revenge, hating Lumensis for dethroning their god, Surna said revenge was almost secondary for him.

-You won't believe it, but my goal is extremely personal. Not the destruction of the world, not the death of gods, not the fall of the order. It's not such cumbersome things, but just something infinitely small and insignificant.

Surna muttered like that and then spoke a shocking truth.

-Arkenis is alive.

It was such a natural statement, but Rudger couldn't imagine how much thought Surna had put into saying these words.

-Long ago, when Lumensis interfered in the lower world. That bastard, along with the saint who defied his will, tried to kill me. He must have thought that I would become the greatest obstacle someday. A demon getting along with a saint. That's understandable.

However, there was something Lumensis hadn't anticipated.

That was the fact that Saint Arkenis had defied his will.

When Lumensis interfered in the lower world and tried to kill Surna, Arkenis saved Surna with her own power.

In the end, the enraged Lumensis sealed Arkenis.

-Arkenis was sealed. Hidden by Lumensis in a very deep place beneath this castle.

-So she didn't die that day.

-Right. But to go to the sealed area, conditions are needed. The current me can't go there no matter what, but if we have the relic you brought, it's different.

-Your purpose is to unseal Arkenis and set her free?

-Haha. Well, is that how the story goes?

Surna nodded while laughing.

-That's right. It's an absurd story that the great demon the world points fingers at has committed all kinds of evil deeds for over a thousand years just to save one woman.

Surna looked at Rudger and asked.

-Do you think I'm crazy too?

-If you're crazy, then I'm crazy too.

-Is that so?

At Rudger's answer, Surna responded with a much more relaxed face.

-At least, the last path won't be lonely.

Surna quietly gazed at the woman before her.

He had never forgotten her even once.

He had always drawn her past appearance in her mind, and those memories remained vivid rather than fading.

And now he could face her again in reality.

Perhaps due to the seal, Arkenis' appearance was no different from back then.

It was because of that tree, which was Lumensis' seal and close to a curse.

If no one helped her, she would probably remain in that state forever.

Neither dead nor alive, just eternally fallen into sleep.

"This is the last time."

Surna drew his sword and approached Arkenis.

Crossing the rustling flower field, Surna approached right in front of her and swung his sword widely.

-Clang!

Though it was a sword that could cut through anything, the white tree didn't budge.

Instead, the tree, recognizing external interference, writhed and repelled Surna backward with tremendous force.

-Swoosh!

Surna, who was blown backward, slid smoothly as he landed on the ground.

Pure white petals scattered along that path.

"As expected. It won't go over easily."

The tree made a creaking sound as it moved and changed shape into a pure white doll in human form standing on two legs.

The head part was pointed like an awl, and the arms and legs were also just pointed.

Through the gaps of black cracks on the face twisted in a spiral like a drill, a single red eye glinted.

That was Lumensis' curse.

A dirty arrangement left behind to brutally punish anyone who dared to try to free the saint who defied him.

The cursed doll stepped forward.

Surna also approached the cursed doll.

Having come this far, he couldn't retreat.

-Swoosh.

The cursed doll moved its right arm.

"...!"

Seeing that arm become blurred, Surna urgently twisted his upper body diagonally.

Something sharp cut through from the ground to the wall of the cavity beyond.

The remains of the praying woman statue carved on the wall fell with a thud.

If his reaction had been just a little slower, he would have died in one stroke.

Surna also swung his sword while gripping it.

His sword became blurred and cut the cursed doll's neck.

The cursed doll remained still until the sword approached.

-Thud!

White energy flowed out from the cursed doll as the center and easily deflected Surna's sword strike.

It was the same attack that had defeated the Fire Elemental Lord, but it didn't work on the cursed doll.

"As expected, it's a curse left by a god."

Lumensis could no longer interfere in the lower world, but that was the only power Lumensis had left behind.

A fragment of the power he once possessed as the absolute ruler who dominated the world.

Even though it had been separated from the main body and deteriorated over the long years, it was still this powerful.

However, Surna was not discouraged.

He neither despaired nor was disheartened.

Such emotions had been pushed away into the distant past long ago.

Rather, Surna was delighted.

If that thing truly possessed absolute power, it would have thrown away such troublesome processes and defeated him in one stroke.

'I'm not dead yet.'

The cursed doll was not perfect.

Strong, but not omnipotent.

It could avoid attacks, and even used divine power for its own attacks.

Surna drew a spell formation.

Though he mainly used swords, with his ability to learn everything, he could use magic as well.

"I'm going straight without holding back."

An ice-made warship appeared above Surna's head.

With the sound announcing departure, the Deep Sea Icebreaker fell toward the cursed doll.

The cursed doll gazed quietly at the Deep Sea Icebreaker and then swung its blade-like hand.

-Slash.

From bottom to top, the world was split vertically.

The Deep Sea Icebreaker was split left and right, drawing a smooth cross-section.

Beyond that, new spells unfolded in succession.

6th-tier wind attribute grand magic [Radiant Moon Wind God Palace]

-Boom!

The air pressure rose to an eerie degree and pressed down on the cursed doll's body.

However, the cursed doll stood still in place without falling down.

Even though the wind's form changed into the shape of a giant palace and pressed down directly, it remained unmoved.

Its body should have burst under such tremendous atmospheric pressure, but its motionless appearance was eerily strange.

But Surna hadn't expected it to be defeated by such a thing in the first place.

He used this magic to maintain high-concentration oxygen.

"And there's plenty of fuel."

-Tick.

Surna ignited flames at his fingertips and set fire to the cursed doll.

The massive oxygen met the fire and spread explosively, burning while emitting tremendous heat.

In the flickering hot flames, the cursed doll's red eye never left Surna.

At that moment, the ground where the cursed doll stood writhed and moved, then transformed into a giant beast's maw and swallowed it along with the hotly burning flames.

Compressed air and the flames attached to it.

In the high-pressure, high-temperature environment, the earth that had become a beast's maw couldn't withstand it and melted into crimson, flowing down.

Surna cast spells in succession.

A larger beast's head swallowed the beast's maw.

A large steel box made of steel fell from the sky with a thud and crushed that spot.

He fired large-scale magic in succession, creating synergy.

Just as he thought this would be enough to deal damage, a pure white line split the large steel box in half.

From inside the split box, the cursed doll walked out looking perfectly fine.

No, it wasn't completely fine.

There were burn marks from the flames scattered across that pure white body.

Though one could say they were just burn marks despite using magic of this level of power, Surna regarded them as traces of possibility.

The cursed doll moved.

The moment it bent its legs and extended them with all its might, its form disappeared.

-Bang!

The atmosphere tore and a sonic boom occurred.

Surna quickly rolled his eyes and predicted the cursed doll's movement.

Seeing and reacting was too late. What mattered was where and how it would attack.

'Here.'

Surna rotated his body and struck the creature's arm targeting his lower back with his sword.

However, the cursed doll's offensive didn't end with that one strike.

Two arms made of dry wood, resembling both awls and blades.

They moved at such speed that not even afterimages were visible.

Surna reinforced his body with mana, wrapped himself in aura for further enhancement, then drew another sword from thin air to face it.

-Crash crash crash crash crash!

Each time sword and arm collided, the impact that couldn't be completely neutralized ravaged and devastated the surroundings.

Petals scattered, those petals were cut in half by slashes, and those pieces were cut in half again.

The cursed doll lifted its leg and stamped the ground with a thud.

Even its foot resembled an awl and pierced deep into the ground instead of breaking it.

Seeing this, Surna hurriedly did a backward tumble to retreat.

Pure white thorns sprouted from where Surna had been standing just moments before, aiming for his vital points.

Sharp withered trees like thorns sprouted successively around the cursed doll.

Seeing this, Surna compressed aura to its maximum in the sword he held, then drew it widely horizontally.

The compressed aura cut all the white thorns to pieces and aimed for the cursed doll's body.

The cursed doll held its blade-like hand horizontally to block the aura.

The aura split in half swept through the cavity behind it.

The cursed doll moved.

With just one step, it approached right next to Surna, then raised both arms and struck down.

-Boom!

The cursed doll's two arms carved out the entire ground.

However, Surna, who had already pulled back his body, pressed his hand against the cursed doll's arm and delivered a spinning kick to its head.

-Crash!

The sound of an explosion rang out from the part hit by his foot.

The cursed doll's head twisted greatly to the side.

Surna's body, which was about to make an additional attack, hesitated because a new arm that had sprouted from the cursed doll's shoulder was grabbing his nape.

Unlike the arm wielded as a weapon, this was an arm shaped like a human's.

Surna quickly swung his sword to slice that arm into pieces.

Compared to the real arms, the hastily made one didn't have very high durability.

'I'm still okay.'

The problem was that the creature, which had simply been swinging its arms, was beginning to show increasingly irregular movements.

The cursed doll's red eye stared piercingly at Surna.

He didn't know if the thing had any intelligence, but he could tell it was definitely hostile toward him.

Since it was a remnant left by Lumensis, it was perhaps natural.

The cursed doll charged and Surna raised his sword to face it.

Their forms crossed several times, exchanging countless more attacks and defenses.

-Clang!

Surna's sword reached its durability limit and broke but he drew a new sword and threw it at the cursed doll.

He drew a new sword and threw it again, and nearly 100 swords attacked consecutively but it didn't end there.

The sharply shooting swords suddenly became more than 5 times larger.

The cursed doll watched this quietly, then crossed both arms in an X shape and swung them widely.

The flying swords were caught in that trajectory and disappeared like powder.

Surna's eyes widened seeing this.

With one swing, the swords caught in it disappeared like fine particles.

It meant the thing had done something again.

Before he could even confirm what that was, the cursed doll approached.

As if it wouldn't tolerate creating distance, the cursed doll persistently targeted Surna.

Surna fought back with all kinds of weapons and techniques, magic and swordsmanship, but it wasn't easy.

Blood spurted from his arm.

A cut was made on his thigh, and his cheek was also wounded.

Unlike Surna's body accumulating wounds one by one, the cursed doll remained perfectly fine.

Rather, as time passed, it moved more vigorously.

Through a barely revealed gap, Surna extended his foot and kicked the cursed doll's stomach.

The cursed doll's body was pushed backward, but Surna discovered countless cuts from his sole to his ankle.

Clicking his tongue, Surna used sorcery to heal his wounds.

At the same time, he scattered insects imbued with black magic around to prevent the cursed doll from approaching.

The insects that rose thickly like dust rushed toward the cursed doll, and all of them were decomposed and disappeared with one slash from the cursed doll.

Surna, who was beyond them, urgently deployed a barrier, and along with the torn barrier, he was blown backward, creating small wounds all over his body.

Surna, who had rolled on the ground several times, collapsed spread-eagle on the flower field.

'Even this won't work.'

-Cough.

Blood flowed from his mouth along with the cough.

'I'm getting tired while that thing is getting stronger.'

This fight itself had no chance of victory.

He had come almost all the way.

Only one last thing remained.

A shadow fell over Surna's head.

When he looked to see who it was, it was Setadel.

He was holding a sword in his hand, looking down at him with murderous intent in his eyes.