I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 701: Punishment, Determination, and Salvation (3)

Surna looked at Setadel and smiled slyly.

"Right. I promised you. Once all of this is over, I would die by your hand."

"......"

"I couldn't do it before even if I wanted to, but now it's quite possible. This would be your chance for revenge."

Since you have a weapon and all.

Surna muttered while looking at the sword in Setadel's hand.

Instead of answering Surna, Setadel raised the sword in his hand and brought it down.

Right next to Surna's face.

Toward Surna who was looking at him with puzzlement, Setadel spoke with a voice full of anger.

"What are you trying to do now? Did you commit all those atrocities up until now just to collapse here? Are you trying to meet such a hollow ending like this?"

"......"

"Get up and fight. Even if you die, die fighting. You endured through those long years and came this far for that purpose. That's what you have to do."

Surna's eyes widened.

"You're right."

Surna forcibly raised his barely moving body.

His legs were shaking and trembling, and his vision was blurry from the blood flowing from his wounds.

His sense of direction and balance were also somehow off. He wanted to collapse right away and close his eyes.

Still, he didn't forget what he had to do.

"That was what I had to do."

Gripping the sword Setadel had handed him, he looked at Arkenis beyond the curse doll.

He felt his head become much clearer.

‘Inhale. Exhale.’

Breathing in the clear air, Surna looked at the curse doll.

The curse doll was just quietly staring at Surna.

There was no awe or question toward Surna who wouldn't give up and got back up despite suffering such wounds.

The curse doll was, after all, just a creation that was nothing more than a fragment of Lumensis.

Other than sealing the saint and eliminating intruders trying to save her, it had no reason or emotion whatsoever.

"I really don't like it."

Surna didn't like the curse doll's eyes.

The way it treated everything except itself as inorganic matter was exactly like its master, Lumensis.

Surna let out a hollow laugh at the fact that he disliked such things.

'I really have changed.'

Surna had lived for long years receiving hatred, disgust, contempt, and anger.

An apostle who lost his god and was left alone in the world was nothing more than an object of fear and terror.

Surna thought that was natural. So he treated them the same way.

Fear with fear.

Disgust with disgust.

Surna could learn everything.

But what he learned while living were only methods to kill someone - swords, magic, black magic, and such.

The first person to treat such a Surna differently was Arkenis.

As soon as she saw him, she said he was pitiful.

At first, Surna couldn't understand those words. He even felt anger toward them.

He fought saying "What do you know," and was defeated.

And he was defeated next time too, and the time after that as well.

He couldn't understand it. What kind of conviction did that carefree woman possess to be this strong?

Arkenis accepted his challenges every time he picked a fight, and always sent him off with a smile.

That feeling was a first.

He could accept defeat after fighting a strong opponent.

But being treated warmly with a smile without truly showing negative emotions toward him was too awkward.

'It would have been better if I never knew.'

But Surna had learned the warmth of others.

Once learned, he could never forget it.

His power had become a curse that bound him.

The fights with Arkenis drew out the poison that filled Surna's body.

At some point, the number of times he conversed with her increased, and he even played along with her pranks.

He listened to trivial stories, and sometimes asked about things he was curious about.

Back then, he didn't know why he was hanging onto such meaningless time.

But now he knows. He has come to know.

'Did she act that way knowing I would become like this?'

He rather hoped that all of it was behavior done under calculation.

Otherwise, he couldn't understand why he was so devoted to something like this.

It felt like his ego was shaking.

It would have been more comfortable to be forcibly controlled and used by someone superior to him.

But the more he denied reality like this, the clearer the answer became.

'Right. You wouldn't commit such scheming acts.'

Wasn't she someone who wouldn't do it even if told to?

In the end, him going this far was because of his own will, not anyone's coercion.

"I just wanted to save you."

For that purpose, he brought about all the chaos in this world.

Grasping the existence within the Judgment Eye, shaking the continent, destroying the religious order, toppling nations, using demons, causing civil wars only to save one person.

'Let's pour it all out.'

During the long time from birth to living to reaching this point.

All the techniques he had seen, heard, learned, and realized flickered in his mind.

'Everything. Until my insides feel refreshed.'

Dark mana rose around Surna and wrapped around his body.

All kinds of black magic doping techniques were applied to his body. Finally, the curse that Cravat had used settled in his body and flowed out black energy through the sword.

The aura bloomed on the sword mixed with the curse and turned into pitch-black aura.

Blue mana spread behind Surna's back and drew a spell formation.

Besides that, beast tribe spirits, druids' power, and all sorts of sorcery swirled around his body.

The curse doll moved.

The curse doll instinctively realized it would be dangerous to leave things as they were raised its blade-like arms and rushed toward Surna.

With a thud sound, the figure disappeared.

With a slight time lag, the ground where the curse doll had been collapsed.

Pure white flower petals scattered along the path the curse doll had taken.

The curse doll that had approached right up to Surna in an instant swung its arm.

It intended to cut Surna along with his sword.

-Crash!

Surna deflected the curse doll's arm by raising the one arm holding his sword.

-Screech screech screech.

The curse doll's sturdy arm couldn't break Surna's sword and was blocked.

Even when it tried to press down with force, unlike the trembling arm, the sword showed not an inch of retreat.

"What. It wasn't actually that big a deal?"

Surna chuckled at the curse doll's appearance.

-Crack.

Cracks like glass appeared on his face.

Gathering all his power into one and containing it in his body, the vessel couldn't withstand it and began to crack.

"I can see it all. That dirty, sticky malice of yours."

-Crack crack. Crack crack crack.

The number of fine cracks on Surna's body increased.

Surna paid no attention to it and put strength into his sword while emitting intense light from his eyes.

Pitch-black aura surged up like rolling waves and swallowed the curse doll.

The curse doll hastily retreated backward, trying to escape from the black aura.

It saved its life, but the curse doll's arm that had touched the sword rotted into the blade.

The curse doll quickly cut away the rotted part and regenerated its arm.

-Thoom!

The curse doll's body shone white and divine power flowed out.

The momentum being stronger than before seemed to be crying out that it was angry.

"Right. You have to come out like that."

The curse doll and Surna rushed toward each other simultaneously.

The two collided, and tremendous roar and flash confused eyes and ears.

In less than a second, they exchanged hundreds of life-and-death attacks.

In that fleeting moment, they crossed the boundary between life and death several times.

-Creak creak creak.

Branches sprouted from behind the curse doll and turned into arms.

The number of newly added arms was six in total.

Adding to the existing two arms, over eight arms pressed Surna from all directions.

Surna faced them with only one sword.

-Stab!

One arm pierced his thigh.

Surna's sword cut off the arm.

-Slash!

A blade grazed past his right eye. With burning pain, his vision was reduced by half.

Surna's sword tore off its shoulder blade.

-Bang!

A large hole was punched in his left side.

Blood flowed out through the hole, but Surna gritted his teeth and swung his sword.

Pitch-black flashes flickered several times and slashed through space.

All eight arms that the curse doll possessed were cut off.

A large crack twisted in spiral form appeared on the curse doll's face.

Sharp teeth grew between the opened cracks.

-Roaaaaar!

With a roar, the teeth aimed for Surna's nape.

Surna smiled triumphantly at that sight.

"Too late."

Surna's aura digging into its neck was faster than the curse doll biting Surna's neck.

A clean circle was drawn in the air.

The curse doll's pointed head caught in that circle was cut off and rolled on the ground.

The curse doll that had lost both head and arms collapsed on its knees.

"Haa. Haa."

Surna looked down at the curse doll's corpse while panting.

"My victory."

Surna pushed the curse doll's body with his foot.

The curse doll's body fell backward, and Surna trampled on that body as he approached Arkenis who was on one side of the cavity.

Arkenis was still buried in part of the tree.

-Thud.

The sword in his hand fell and stuck deep into the ground.

Surna grasped Arkenis' hand with his trembling right hand and pulled hard.

The breath of the great dragon Heliodor crossed the sky.

The dark clouds remaining in the sky were completely erased by that single breath.

The aftermath was so massive that the scene could be seen from anywhere on the island.

"My goodness."

"Oh. O God."

The entire sky was burning.

The sight of flames that brightly illuminated the dark world covering the entire sky seemed to cry out that the world's end was approaching.

Time passed and the sky returned to its original color.

The thick dark clouds had evaporated, revealing a refreshing night sky.

The starlight-filled night sky looked colder and more chilling than before.

What on earth was happening at the castle?

The people here couldn't imagine it at all.

-Whoooosh.

The great dragon that had exhaled all its breath inhaled.

Though it was just one attack, Heliodor's body was becoming hazy because most of its power was exhausted by that alone.

The gaze of the gradually disappearing Heliodor was directed not at Catherine, but at Helia who had summoned him.

The phantom Heliodor said nothing.

But those eyes full of warmth and affection were saying many things despite being just a phantom.

Helia felt that gaze, but deliberately avoided those eyes because of it.

"......Thank you for helping."

With Helia's words, Heliodor's phantom disappeared.

Silence came to the night sky.

Helia's expression became even more heavily sunken.

"This is really too much."

She had fired the Dragon King's breath no less.

Even so, Catherine was still alive and well.

She wasn't completely fine.

Even Catherine seemed quite tired as if the Dragon King's breath had been dangerous.

In other words, she had survived the Dragon King's breath with just being a little tired.

"This one was honestly dangerous."

Catherine honestly praised Helia.

She had thought her combat power was inferior compared to other demons, but that wasn't the case.

Helia, who had shown her true self even briefly, clearly showed that she wasn't an apostle who had lived long for nothing.

Of course, changing the evaluation now didn't change reality.

Helia's trump card had been thwarted, and Catherine was still alive.

"Then now, slowly......"

Just as Catherine was about to say something, her head whipped around.

Her gaze was directed toward the lower part of Galahad Castle.

Catherine's pupils dilated and the Judgment Eye trembled and strengthened as if resonating with something.

"Ugh!"

Catherine couldn't bear the pain in her eyes and covered them with her hands.

'What is this?'

Helia couldn't understand why Catherine was acting like that.

Showing such a reaction while looking at Galahad Castle probably meant that either Rudger or Surna had done something inside.

'Whatever happened, now's the chance!'

Helia's eyes lit up seeing Catherine let her guard down.

Her choice was simple.

'Let's run!'

Helia used phantoms to hide her body and ran far away.

Catherine, who had suppressed the eye pain belatedly, tried to find Helia, but she had already disappeared.

"Ha."

Catherine let out a hollow laugh.

She had acted like she would grit her teeth and fight to the end, but the moment she judged it unfavorable, she immediately ran away.

She had heard that she was different from other apostles, but she hadn't expected her to make such a judgment, so she was even impressed at this point.

'Still, there's no one to bother me anymore.'

Catherine's thoughts turned to Rene and the sisters.

But rather, not knowing what was happening inside, she couldn't take those children to a more dangerous place.

'Besides, the pain I felt in my eyes just now. It definitely wasn't a mistake.'

Catherine knew well that she was a fake saint.

She had been kidnapped to the religious order's homeland since childhood and forced to participate in experiments there, and only became a saint because she was lucky enough to have high sensitivity to the saint's fragments.

The Judgment Eye she used was also just an imitation fake, so its performance wasn't complete.

The real Judgment Eye was currently possessed by Rene.

Yet for her eyes to react like this meant that this pain was related to the original owner of the power granted to her body.

'If it's the original owner of my power, it would be the saint Arkenis from the distant past who has now completely disappeared.'

Could it be?

Catherine flew toward Galahad Castle with a serious expression.

The world was black.

Nothing could be seen or heard.

In a world where all five senses were paralyzed.

How much time had passed since falling into something deeper than sleep?

A voice was heard from somewhere.

A voice that could never be heard.

"Wake up. Sleepyhead."

Arkenis opened her eyes.

In her field of vision, she saw a large cavity, a pierced ceiling, and light pouring down from above.

Before she could think about where this was, her pupils discovered a man looking down at her.

His skin was cracked like glass, his entire body was covered in wounds, and he had even lost one eye, yet this man was looking at her with a gentle smile.

"Long time no see."