I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 709: Light of Despair (2)

With Salesin's appearance, the surrounding air grew heavy.

-Gulp.

The surroundings were so quiet that someone's swallowing could be heard.

It was just one person.

A mere one person who hadn't brought anyone else along had completely seized control of the current atmosphere.

The overwhelming presence that comes with the position of Holy Emperor was by no means light.

Above all, he was spectacular enough to make everyone tense from the moment he appeared.

He had brought down none other than the Wind Elemental Lord.

Just one person had reduced the wind incarnate, who was supposed to have no equal in the sky, to this state.

That alone demonstrated the tremendous power Salesin possessed.

"The cardinals I sent all fell, so I had to come myself."

While everyone was on high alert, Salesin spoke nonchalantly.

"I thought about making a slow entrance in front of others, but seeing the situation, I realized I had to step in immediately."

If circumstances had allowed, Salesin would have slowly revealed himself alongside his guards.

He would have swept through the Cryptid legion while receiving everyone's attention, praise, and awe, marching forward majestically.

The reason he couldn't do so was because Rudger had moved faster than he had anticipated.

"I got properly hit by our little brother. I was planning to make a cool entrance, but now I have to scrap all my pre-planned preparations."

Of course, there was no trace of regret in Salesin's voice as he said this.

Rather, he was even enjoying Rudger's actions that had exceeded his predictions to this extent.

After all, it had sprinkled a little seasoning called fun into his boring life.

Even that emotion was tinged with a gaze that naturally looked down on others as beneath him.

"So since I'm here anyway, I thought I'd make a somewhat cool entrance, and that thing happened to help me out."

Salesin smiled benevolently as he pointed at the Wind Elemental Lord.

"I was flying through the sky when that thing blocked my path. I remembered it from the past. The Wind Elemental Lord that once served Saint Arkenis, but lost its contractor and had been quietly sleeping. The moment it saw me, it bared its teeth."

So I shot it down.

The way he spoke so casually, as if he had swatted a flying insect, made Rene and the others feel strangely chilled.

Salesin had a face similar to Rudger's.

Since they were born of the same bloodline, it was natural if you thought about it.

But from his hair color to his attitude, manner of speaking, and expressions, everything was the opposite of Rudger.

Clearly, he should have looked benevolent, but why did it feel like a terrible monster was wearing a mask?

"Ugh!"

Rene unconsciously let out a pained moan.

It was because Salesin's red eyes had turned toward her.

Just that alone made her feel as if her skin was being stabbed by countless sharp needles.

It was also like the sensation of swarming ants crawling across her skin.

"Oho."

The moment Salesin saw Rene, he immediately recognized her.

That woman was the owner of the Eye of Judgment that the Order had lost.

"I never expected to meet the owner of the Eye of Judgment here. Should this be called fate? The Eye of Judgment that the Order couldn't find despite searching so hard has appeared before me on its own."

Greed appeared in Salesin's eyes.

From the beginning, Salesin had no intention of hiding his emotions upon finally finding the owner of the Eye of Judgment.

"How lucky. Should I say heaven is helping me? Ah, that would be wrong. I'll place even heaven beneath me."

Utterly arrogant words.

What those words meant was simple.

Salesin intended to make Rene his own.

Salesin's finger pointed toward Rene.

What that action intended to do was unclear. No, more precisely, it was too vivid, making it difficult to predict the result.

Just as Rudger was about to move, there was someone who moved before him.

It was none other than the Wind Elemental Lord, whose pride had been thoroughly crushed by Salesin.

The Wind Elemental Lord spread all 6 pairs of its 12 wings to their fullest and shot up into the air.

The people gathered there were astonished.

Despite such a massive body moving, not the slightest air resistance could be felt.

This was a feat possible only for the Wind Elemental Lord, who moved by making the atmosphere itself his own.

The Wind Elemental Lord spreading its wings and rocketing into the sky like a rocket happened almost simultaneously.

It seemed unaffected not only by air resistance but also by inertia.

The sight that transcended physical laws felt like a dream even while watching with their own eyes.

Meanwhile, the Wind Elemental Lord approached Salesin and summoned strong winds.

The wind created by the Elemental Lord formed massive vortexes visible to the naked eye and pushed Salesin's body away.

Salesin, his body wrapped in light, had no intention of dodging.

His body shot up high into the sky once again.

The surrounding atmosphere gathered, covering the clear sky with massive cumulonimbus clouds.

Naturally, Salesin's body, swept up by the wind, was sucked inside the cumulonimbus clouds.

The pure white, glowing cumulonimbus clouds writhed and moved.

Like a beast trying to digest prey that had entered its stomach, winds swirled inside the cumulonimbus clouds, trying to grind Salesin to pieces.

Even with all this happening, not a trace of aftereffects could be felt in the surroundings.

This was an Elemental Lord.

This was a being that stood at the pinnacle of spirits.

However, what was even more surprising unfolded next.

The light inside the cumulonimbus clouds intensified, and the pitch-black storm clouds were completely dyed pure white.

Not stopping there, beams of light began to flow out through the clouds, one by one.

"He's fine even in that environment?"

Alex muttered as if he couldn't believe it.

Salesin was not dead yet.

Rather, he was even using light to provoke, as if asking how much more the Wind Elemental Lord could do.

The Wind Elemental Lord gladly responded to that provocation.

Its wings spread wide as the Elemental Lord moved.

The Wind Elemental Lord flew at a speed that didn't match its massive body, rapidly rotating around the cumulonimbus clouds.

Moving at supersonic speeds without air resistance, wherever its wings swept by, the cumulonimbus clouds compressed inward.

The light that had been trying to escape outside was trapped in the small compressed sphere of water vapor and disappeared inward.

The Wind Elemental Lord didn't stop there.

-Whoooooong.

The atmospheric density inside the cumulonimbus clouds rose rapidly.

Normally, to create such cumulonimbus clouds, the atmospheric pressure would need to be low, but such basic common sense was useless to the Wind Elemental Lord.

Pressure that would utterly shatter barometers rose steeply by the second.

A high-density space contracted by pressure.

The inside of that space, which far exceeded the atmospheric pressure that nature exerts, would surely evoke images of a living hell.

People don't know how powerful the weight of the atmosphere pressing down on them is.

The weight of 1 atmosphere acting on a certain area is 10 tons.

People don't realize this only because their bodies are designed for 1 atmosphere and they live accordingly.

What if that pressure doubles or triples?

Only then would they realize that they are actually carrying something very large and heavy, something invisible to the eye.

Then, what would happen if the pressure exceeded 100 times, 1,000 times or even 10,000 times.

No, what if an even higher transcendent pressure was applied?

The condensed water vapor compressed and turned into ice. Yet the temperature rose tremendously.

In temperatures far exceeding room temperature, water didn't evaporate but froze in place due to the extremely high pressure.

But the temperature continued to rise.

It was literally hot ice.

Hot ice measuring 100 meters in length, width, and height completely swallowed Salesin.

It was the opinion of everyone gathered there that no matter what substance entered that space, not even a trace would remain.

But

-Flash!

A single cross-shaped flash of light split the hot ice precisely in the shape of a cross.

The large ice cube broke apart into 8 smaller cubes and scattered.

Salesin, who appeared from inside, had his arms spread wide and his eyes closed, as if he was savoring this very atmosphere.

There wasn't a single wound on his body, and not even a thread of his clothing was damaged.

The Wind Elemental Lord moved.

Its spread white wings became smooth and hard as if they had hardened.

In that state, the Wind Elemental Lord showed movement that ignored air resistance and charged directly at Salesin.

The wings themselves had become blades, and the atmosphere was vibrating very finely on the surface of those wings.

Essentially ultrasonic blades.

Such ultrasonic blades over 100 meters long were flying at supersonic speeds.

With human reaction speed, it was impossible to even confirm with the eyes, no matter how fast.

However, Salesin didn't lose his composure even in that situation and the reason was immediately revealed.

-Scritch!

With the sound of something being cut, one of the proud white wings of the Wind Elemental Lord was cut off with a smooth cross-section.

It looked as if it had been hardened too much, couldn't control its own speed, and snapped along the grain.

Meanwhile, Salesin was perfectly fine.

All Salesin had done was extend his index finger one step ahead of the timing when the Elemental Lord's wing approached.

Just that alone, yet the Wind Elemental Lord's wing was cleanly cut off.

The Wind Elemental Lord immediately changed direction.

Even while changing direction, its speed didn't decrease. Rather, it accelerated even more.

The Wind Elemental Lord entered the stage of hypersonic speed.

Now its form was no longer visible and it literally became a pure white flash.

The speed when an intercontinental ballistic missile re-enters the atmosphere is Mach 20.

The Wind Elemental Lord's current speed was faster than that if anything, certainly not slower.

Even for the Wind Elemental Lord, it seemed impossible to stably control the surrounding atmosphere at such speeds, as aftereffects were clearly revealed following its movement.

The sky had split.

The storm clouds filling the sky split apart, and through the gaps, the light that Salesin emitted squeezed through the cracks and poured down like a waterfall.

From a distance, that scene looked like a god descending into this world.

"Ohhhh."

"Oh God."

"Please look down upon us with mercy."

Even soldiers who usually had no faith knelt and prayed upon seeing that sight.

The Wind Elemental Lord's blade reached Salesin's neck.

Even the expression "reached" was ridiculous.

A blade moving at Mach 20 would slice through its target and pass by in the blink of an eye, even from a great distance but that was the only way to describe it.

Literally, the Wind Elemental Lord's blade reached Salesin's neck but Salesin's neck was perfectly fine.

That massive body stopped upright in place, unable to cut down even one Salesin.

Looking closely, divine power was moving at the point where the wing and neck met, pushing the wing itself away.

"He blocked it with divine power?"

Those were the words of Alex, who had the keenest eye among those present.

An attack that could slice through even diamond like tofu was blocked by a single layer of divine power surrounding Salesin's skin.

It was impossible to grasp just how tremendous the density of that divine power was, showing no outward signs.

"Yeah. That was quite an interesting little show."

Salesin left his honest impression of the Wind Elemental Lord.

"Not bad, but that's as far as it goes."

Salesin's finger pointed toward the Wind Elemental Lord's body, the overlapping ringed torso positioned at the center of its wings.

-Flash!

A pure white flash like snow pierced through the Wind Elemental Lord's torso.

The torso pierced by the flash melted away, and the Elemental Lord fell down below with its great wings.

The falling Wind Elemental Lord's body gradually turned to powder and soon disappeared as if dissolving into the atmosphere.

Spirits are ultimately beings subject to nature.

When they take damage beyond their threshold, they simply cannot maintain their form and are reverse-summoned, never truly dying.

The Wind Elemental Lord had now simply been reverse-summoned.

However, even considering that, the sight of the Wind Elemental Lord's defeat was too shocking.

Especially since even when the Wind Elemental Lord launched an all-out attack, Salesin didn't budge an inch.

It was an attack so powerful it created the illusion of the sky splitting, yet still.

The name Holy Emperor wasn't given for nothing; that power was absurdly strange.

No matter how Salesin was born with the greatest talent in history, such power was too far beyond normal standards.

Rene's eyes couldn't leave Salesin.

"Wh-who exactly are you?"

Rene had seen it.

When everyone was only looking at Salesin's light, her Eye of Judgment showed her something else instead.

Pitch-black darkness.

A terrible mass that just looking at it would freeze the skin, churn the stomach, and make one feel like vomiting.

Even looking at the Cryptid that Hans had summoned didn't give such a feeling, but Salesin was different.

That thing seemed like human malice and greed rolled into one.

For over a thousand years, no less.

"Oh my. As expected, the Eye of Judgment."

Salesin smiled with a troubled expression.