I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 703: The Demon King and the Saint (1)

"Demon King Heathcliff. I will stop you here."

"Then stop with such childish tricks and come at me with your full strength. Saint Catherine."

Catherine rushed forward.

Behind her back, a pure white magic circle unfolded, and golden chains aimed at Rudger from all directions.

From behind Rudger's back, shadows suddenly rose and spread tentacle-like things in all directions.

Black tentacles like thorn vines clashed with the chains, entangling each other in mid-air.

It was fierce, like snakes biting each other's necks.

The two forces that entangled like that couldn't withstand it and disappeared as if annihilating each other, and through that gap, Rudger and Catherine engaged in close combat.

"Do you think you can beat me in close combat?"

Rudger recalled his first encounter with Catherine.

Her word choice was just a bit extreme, but when he told her to move aside, she immediately rushed at him - he remembered her boldness.

It was the same even now that she had become a saint.

Though she had been educated and equipped with the compassionate attitude and behavioral patterns of a saint for public display, her foundation ultimately lay in this undisguisable straightforwardness.

The speed and posture of her fist containing golden power were extraordinary.

It was clearly a technique learned from monks specialized in close combat within the religious order.

Though her body itself was frail, her power was not.

With this level, even Sir Whiron would likely be overwhelmed in terms of strength.

Rather than confronting her directly, Rudger responded with maximum evasion.

The moment Catherine approached closer, Rudger lightly kicked her ankle, which was her center axis.

Catherine's body, which had lost balance while charging, floated up, but she instead twisted her waist in that position and delivered a spinning kick in mid-air.

Rudger leaned his head back to avoid Catherine's kick.

Catherine, who had placed both arms on the ground, spun fiercely and swung her legs again.

The divine power contained in her kicks carried the momentum of a typhoon.

As Rudger lowered his head, a golden flash cut through the space behind him.

The long and sturdy corridor of the castle was sliced apart.

Rudger also did not give in and swung his sword stick.

The mana gathered on the sword stick shot out in a crescent moon shape, cutting through everything.

Even Catherine, who had been blocking most things with her powerful divine power, judged that this was dangerous and moved her body to the side.

"Your close combat skills have improved a lot!"

"Fighting made me improve."

"Did you learn from a good teacher?"

"I learned it in dreams."

"What's that supposed to mean!"

Even while having a conversation, Catherine did not rest the tempo of her attacks.

As if trying to prove that attacking first rather than blocking or dodging was advantageous in battle, she continuously delivered consecutive strikes without rest.

In the shower of divine power that even Helia would stick her tongue out and find difficult to counter, Rudger calmly dodged or blocked, and sometimes counterattacked through the gaps.

Everything around was destroyed due to the intensely powerful force.

The aftermath resonated throughout the entire Galahad Castle.

"Wh-what is this!"

"The castle is collapsing! Everyone be careful!"

The fight between Rudger and Catherine had the effect of temporarily stopping all other fights inside the castle.

Like how other small fish flee in terror when two large whales are fighting, causing the surrounding creatures to scatter.

Behind Catherine's back appeared the upper body of a giant wearing golden armor.

The giant, holding a large shield in one hand and a large spear in the other, glared at Rudger from beyond his helmet.

A massive spear shot forth along with flashing light.

In that scene like a meteor falling, Rudger's shadow stretched long, and from within it, a crow raised its body.

The monster with a crow's beak grabbed the spear with its fierce hands, then threw a punch at the giant with its remaining hand.

It was Aether Nocturnus, filled with mana, displaying its full power.

The giant, struck by the punch, staggered and retreated, and not missing that opportunity, Aether Nocturnus charged forward.

However, the giant was no pushover either.

The giant raised his shield in one hand to push back Aether Nocturnus and aimed for its nape with the spear.

While the two summons were fighting, Thousand Seas Ice Breaker slid across the ground like skating and aimed at Catherine.

"With just this pathetic magic!"

Catherine's fist shattered the Thousand Seas Ice Breaker like glass.

"You think you can defeat me!"

The scattering ice crystals sparkled and filled the surroundings.

-Whoooosh!

The crystals rotated and engulfed Catherine, moving as if to grind her up.

Catherine snorted and stomped her foot hard.

Golden flames spread in a radial pattern, melting the crystals and even tearing apart the whirlpool.

It was an overwhelming force that no attack could penetrate but Rudger never thought he could defeat Catherine with just this from the beginning.

Behind Rudger's back, a large tree appeared.

Catherine narrowed her eyes as she looked at it.

That wasn't ordinary magic. It was similar but different, and above all, it contained very intense power.

"Try blocking this once."

Gebura (GEBURA)

The power responsible for destruction that judges all unnecessary things in the Tree of Sephiroth.

The magic used by Rudger, who had now reached the 7th rank, was unparalleled.

Dazzling flames engulfed Catherine.

Rudger was confident he could guarantee victory against anyone, but he couldn't do so against Catherine.

The reason was unfolding before his eyes right now.

She, wearing golden armor all over her body, was slowly walking toward him with both arms crossed.

While enduring the magnificent flames that Gebura was spewing forth.

Catherine leaped high and shot toward Rudger like a meteor.

Rudger covered his entire body with shadows and wore a crow mask on his face.

Catherine collided with Rudger, and their bodies, entangled with each other, broke through the ground and crashed down below.

-Thud! Thud! Thud!

Breaking through several floors, breaking and breaking again.

Rudger, who had barely fallen like that, pushed Catherine, who was trying to pin him down, backward.

Behind Rudger's back, a blue mana field formed, and metal cubes were generated in mid-air.

The cube pieces gathered and transformed into large serpents. Three of them, no less.

The steel serpents let out soundless roars and pressured Catherine from all sides with their mouths wide open.

Catherine extended her hand and erected a pure white barrier.

The steel serpents collided with the barrier and were pushed back, but after reorganizing themselves, they continued to ram their heads against the barrier with the momentum to break it.

The barrier made with protective holy magic couldn't withstand it and shattered, and the serpents raised their sharp scales with a rustling sound and tried to bind Catherine.

Catherine grabbed the snout of the serpent that approached first, then applied force and tore it apart from top to bottom.

She swung the body of the serpent, which she had torn exactly in half, at the ones charging from both sides.

The moment the serpents fell silent, the cubes that made up the serpents' bodies changed.

The cubes gathered around Catherine and rose sharply upward like spires reaching toward the sky.

At the same time, lightning struck with fierce flashes.

The lightning that should have scattered randomly gathered in one place through the lightning rods made by the cubes.

Catherine, standing at the center of it, unknowingly knelt on one knee due to the massive electric current.

Catherine, whom neither Sedina's World Tree roots nor Helia's dragon phantoms could do anything about, was different when facing Rudger.

Catherine gritted her teeth and emitted light around her.

The halo that rose in a circle behind her back sprouted sharply in all directions, then transformed into the form of countless spears.

Spears of light that emerged from the halo escaped the lightning and flew toward Rudger.

Rudger created a shadow cloak behind his back and spread it wide.

Hundreds of gun barrels emerged from inside the cloak, beyond the shadow space.

"Magic bullets. Simultaneous firing."

Rat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat!

The gun barrels inside the cloak spat fire.

Rather than shooting ordinary bullets, they shot compressed mana, which was sufficient to block Catherine's spears of light.

While the magic bullets intercepted the spears of light in mid-air, Catherine broke through the surrounding lightning rods and escaped outside the lightning's range.

Pure white steam rose from various parts of her golden armor, but Catherine didn't care.

The cube pieces in the form of lightning rods scattered like puzzle pieces, then gathered into a large mass of metal and fell toward Catherine's head.

"Hmph!"

Catherine snorted and struck the falling mass of metal with her fist.

The massive lump of metal split exactly in half and fell to Catherine's left and right with thudding sounds.

Catherine lightly shook her fist once, then spread golden wings wide behind her back.

Rudger stored the firearms inside his shadow cloak, then transformed it into crow wings and rose into the air.

Catherine flapped her wings and charged toward Rudger.

Rudger rotated his body and scattered black feathers.

The scattered feathers transformed into black evil spirits and circled around Catherine, trying to bite her.

"How annoying!"

Even Solomon's evil spirits were nothing more than gnats to Catherine.

Catherine ignored the evil spirits and charged at Rudger. Targeting the caster himself first was a natural choice.

"All things are vanity and vain."

However, the moment Catherine's fierce hand tried to grab Rudger's collar, the golden armor passed right through Rudger's body and went through to the back.

"What!"

Catherine flapped her wings and made an emergency stop in mid-air at this scene that transcended common sense, but the gap revealed in the meantime was fatal.

The metal cubes gathered on the ground had already formed fixed artillery, and fired projectiles with intense magnetic fields.

Five railguns accurately intercepted Catherine.

Catherine had to create a shield in one hand and block the railguns. The power was considerable to take with her armor alone.

Meanwhile, Rudger chanted spells and drew techniques.

The blue mana scattering around him gradually expanded like the Milky Way.

The technique, incomparably large and complex compared to the techniques needed for 6th rank magic, was like looking at a painting.

Catherine felt a sense of crisis.

Although it was only half-complete, her judgment eye urgently warned her to leave this place quickly.

Beyond her judgment eye, she saw a future where great darkness would swallow her.

Catherine gritted her teeth.

'I want to do that too!'

No matter how incomplete it was, it was the power to see the future.

Yet it was completely ineffective against Rudger.

Rudger was skilled in close combat and even better at long range, knew how to use swords and employed fighting techniques, and used magic that was on a different level from ordinary magic.

'I must block it!'

Catherine intended to prevent Rudger from completely completing his technique.

Catherine, who had returned her shield to light powder, recklessly charged toward Rudger.

She didn't care whether the railguns hit her armor or not.

'Ignore minor attacks!'

The railguns weren't exactly minor attacks, but compared to the magic Rudger was about to use, they were like child's play.

The armor on her shoulder fell off, and one wing was pierced through and disappeared but Catherine smiled with satisfaction because she thought she could stop Rudger before his technique was completed.

That is, until she saw his blue sapphire-like eyes beyond the mask turning red.

'What.'

Rudger's eyes turned red.

An invisible massive force roughly shook Catherine's body.

'This is divine power?'

Catherine could feel that this unprecedented power Rudger used was of the gods.

Though it only managed to stop Catherine's movement for an instant, in this fierce battle, that one moment was enough.

Finally, the technique was completed and Rudger's magic unfolded.

The blue technique changed to pitch black as if stained with ink, then slowly descended while swallowing the entire space.

It looked like a black tablecloth fluttering as it fell.

Even seeing that, Catherine couldn't think of breaking through or blocking it.

The moment it touched that darkness, all her power scattered and disappeared.

The darkness itself was decomposing, swallowing, and absorbing her divine power.

'That can't be.'

The darkness pressed down on Catherine as is.

Catherine crashed to the ground and was swallowed by the darkness.

She tried to struggle in the darkness, but the darkness held her body like sticky tar and wouldn't let her go.

Even when she tried to get up, the viscous darkness gripped her tightly, preventing her from escaping.

7th rank dark attribute magic [Black Rest]