I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 711: The Devil's Proof (1)

-Kuoooooo!

The Beast of Gevaudan howled.

Like how other wolves howl when the leader howls, all the cryptids simultaneously let out a howling.

The sight of thousands, tens of thousands of cryptids howling all at once was too gloomy and grotesque.

Just hearing the sound alone might drive ordinary people mad or cause them to faint from terror.

Of course, to Pantos, such things were more trivial than the sound of a mosquito's wing flapping.

-Charrrrruk.

As Pantos swung his anchor chain, the massive iron chain whipped about like a whip.

A huge circle formed with Pantos at the center and everything within the circle was sliced away.

It was an attack that didn't distinguish between friend and foe, but it didn't matter.

After all, there were only cryptids in this vicinity anyway.

-Kang! Kang! Krrrrung!

The wolves rolled back their red eyes and endlessly rushed toward Pantos.

The beasts that knew neither fear nor terror tried to bite and tear apart the hunter by pushing forward with their tremendous numbers.

That sight looked like a tsunami rushing toward a small sailing boat.

"Hup!"

As Pantos swung his massive anchor, the cryptids caught up in it were torn to shreds and scattered into pieces.

Black liquid-like traces splattered everywhere.

In that scene, Pantos saw waves crashing against coastal cliffs.

It was the same now.

He crushed a cryptid that rushed to bite at his feet.

The skull shattered and its contents spread like a burst water balloon.

It reminded him of the time he had to brace his legs while stepping on a ship's deck during a storm.

The waves are coming.

It was a black wave full of beast fangs, madness, and death. It was like the sea during a typhoon.

It's the same now.

This is a sea of death.

The trial he had overcome countless times and must overcome.

Never yielding, never weakening, and never stopping.

White steam rose from his body as he began to squeeze his physical limits beyond the warm-up stage.

With the addition of Spirit on top of that, it seemed as if white sea fog was rising around Pantos.

The cryptids clustered together to form a massive wall.

Pantos threw the harpoon he held in his hand.

The cryptid barrier touched by the harpoon was not just pierced but completely pulverized as if a large tunnel had been created.

It was a refreshing sight to behold, but Pantos didn't think much of it.

Though he was killing cryptids without rest, his sharp intuition had been directed toward only one existence from the beginning.

'It's coming.'

The moment Pantos muttered to himself.

-Puhwak!

A massive arm burst out from among the cryptid forces and tried to crush Pantos.

It was the Beast of Gevaudan.

Pantos, who had been watching its movements carefully from the start, immediately reacted to that gesture.

Evasion? No. A hunter must not be afraid when facing prey.

Only a head-on confrontation.

-Charrrrruk.

The monster's arm that was trying to crush Pantos was wrapped by the anchor chain.

Before it could even try to shake it off, intense pressure grabbed and pulled the monster's hand.

-Sway!

The massive bulk swayed greatly for a moment and lost its balance.

Pantos didn't miss that opening. He rushed forward like lightning, climbed up the monster's arm to its shoulder, and swung the massive anchor he held.

-Jjeoeoeoek!

The sound of a hundred pieces of skin bursting simultaneously echoed grandly.

Pantos showed interest in his eyes.

No matter how sturdy the prey, its head should have flown off the moment it was hit by this, but the Beast of Gevaudan only had its head twisted slightly to the side.

It was unreasonable durability.

The monster's head returned to its original position, and the light inside its skull shone even more fiercely.

It seemed properly enraged.

However, Pantos didn't stop there either. He raised the harpoon he held in his other hand and drove it straight toward the eye.

He didn't worry about Hans having aftereffects when he returned to his original form later.

There was no time for such comfortable thoughts in the first place.

This was a ridge of life and death where there was nothing but hunt or be hunted.

If you set foot in this place, you had to throw everything you had at this ordeal.

That was the path Pantos had walked so far and the direction he would continue forward.

-Kwaaaaak!

The Beast of Gevaudan, with its eye stabbed, screamed.

Pantos thought that sight seemed to be howling more from sadness than from a cry of pain.

It wasn't a mistake.

It was sad.

The beast that had driven a nation into terror and chaos, the monster that had seized all the world's fears was crying while being sad.

"I see."

Pantos muttered softly.

If asked what the most important thing for a hunter was, Pantos would answer without hesitation: You must know your prey better than anyone else.

Knowing your opponent, understanding them - that was the most important element in hunting.

The prey's living radius, behavioral patterns, thought patterns, and so on.

You can only hunt if you know all of that.

Ironically, to the prey, the hunter was both the natural enemy that would kill them and at the same time the one who understood them best.

Pantos understood the Beast of Gevaudan.

He ended up knowing the cryptid that was an object of fear to everyone.

"You were just sad from the beginning."

The Beast of Gevaudan's unconditional hatred burning toward living beings was because of sadness.

Cryptids are a kind of supernatural phenomenon that occurs when all the negative elements of the world gather and accumulate.

A suspicious person bouncing around with springs attached to their legs.

A human resembling a lizard.

A monster resembling a dragon said to live in the depths of a lake.

It was natural that people's fear and anxiety would follow such witness accounts.

These beings were collections of such negative things to begin with.

Such various cryptids are subjugated and disappear by human hands.

But as long as the fundamental cause of their occurrence exists, cryptids would never disappear from this world.

And the Beast of Gevaudan, standing at the pinnacle of all cryptids, instinctively understood all these facts.

Why it was born, and that even if it died, another self would be born someday.

Yet those who created it sent looks of hatred and fear.

Because it understood, it was sad, and so the monster cried.

Because it was too sad it cried endlessly.

"How pitiful."

Pantos pitied the Beast of Gevaudan.

Though he knew he shouldn't pity his prey, Pantos decided to be honest about this emotion itself.

Perhaps it was because inside that monster was Hans, who was still his comrade.

Whether it heard Pantos' words or felt the sincere compassionate emotion in his eyes, the momentum emanating from the Beast of Gevaudan became somewhat gentler.

However, though the atmosphere that seemed ready to explode like an active volcano had improved slightly, its hostility still hadn't disappeared.

In the end, it was a fight where someone had to see the end.

If light hadn't descended from the sky then, it really might have ended that way.

-Krrrrrrung!

The cryptids that had been targeting Pantos stopped moving and simultaneously raised their heads.

The same was true for the Beast of Gevaudan and Hans.

Light fell from the sky, and soon a massive wind blew, showing the movement of a giant being with pure white wings.

'That is.'

Pantos' superhuman vision captured the being with six pairs of wings.

'It's the same as that guy.'

The prey he had once targeted.

A part of great nature that dwelt in the deep places of the sea and very occasionally came up above the surface to sunbathe while spewing tremendous sea fog, the water elemental lord that resembled a giant whale.

It was an existence equal to that one.

The wind elemental lord was fighting something.

Though surrounded by light, Pantos easily realized it was a person.

The wind elemental lord was giving its all to kill one person.

It created massive cumulonimbus clouds, compressed them, and raised the pressure to maximum.

As if that wasn't enough, it even sharpened its wings and wielded them like blades.

Finally, its movements became so fast that even Pantos could barely follow them, and it precisely cut the cloud-filled sky in half.

The sight of clouds rolling up into the sky as they split, revealing the black night sky through the gap, was probably a scene he would never see again in his remaining life.

'The wind elemental lord lost.'

What was even more surprising was that the wind elemental lord's attack, delivered with such force, failed to kill the human.

In the end, the wind elemental lord crashed to the ground and was reverse-summoned on the way, disappearing without leaving even a trace.

With the elemental lord that had maintained a clear atmosphere around the castle gone, dark clouds covered the sky again.

The only thing shining under the blackened sky was the one who had defeated the wind elemental lord.

It was Salesin.

-Krrrrrrr!

The wolf cryptids showed instinctive wariness as they glared at Salesin.

The wolves were unconsciously stepping back and retreating.

They felt fear from Salesin’s appearance looking down on all things with light.

'To think those monsters would feel fear.'

Actually, Pantos felt a similar sensation.

A sharp sensation where his skin was pulled taut and all his body hair stood on end.

An overwhelming presence felt even from a distance.

Such a strong being that anyone would have no choice but to bow their head in awe the moment they faced him.

But someone began to fight such a Salesin.

"......"

Rudger Chelici. No, Heathcliff.

That man who had guided him was now fighting that inhuman something.

The Beast of Gevaudan also watched that scene and Pantos suddenly became curious about what it was thinking.

That's when it happened.

The Beast of Gevaudan, with eyes that had become much calmer, muttered toward the shadow fighting the light.

[Elder...brother.]

"......"

At this moment, the Beast of Gevaudan's wildness slowly sank beneath the depths.

And Hans' reason, which had been sleeping until now, surfaced.

Rudger was silent.

The moment he tried to open the sealed celestial gate, Salesin forcibly closed it.

Salesin had laid hands on his unique authority that no one else could interfere with.

"You look surprised. Why? Did you think only you could do that?"

"......I see. Though I don't want to admit it, in the end you and I have the same blood flowing through us."

"Your vessel was just the largest, not the only one."

As if to prove those words, Salesin forcibly sealed the celestial gate that Rudger was trying to open.

If it were completely opened, it might be different, but blocking it before that was entirely possible.

"Conversely, you judged that I would also be dangerous if I used this power. That's why you blocked it."

"I won't deny it. But that's the story of when it's used. Now that your most important ability is blocked, how do you plan to face me?"

"Ridiculous. This power was only part of what I possessed from the beginning."

Rudger created spell formulas around him.

Blue mana constellations dominated the space, surrounding Rudger and Salesin.

Simultaneously, ships made of ice appeared from all directions and charged toward Salesin.

Salesin let out a chuckling laugh and raised his hand, lightly sweeping it horizontally.

-Jjeoek!

Though Salesin’s hand didn't even touch them, the distant warships shattered like broken glass.

Through the ice fragments scattering in all directions, Rudger naturally prepared his next magic.

"How about this?"

Black evil spirits appeared around Rudger and bared their teeth toward Salesin.

"Oh. Magic that doesn't use spell formulas?"

Magic without spell formulas.

True magic used by magicians from the very distant past that was now obsolete.

"Magic composed of the power of faith, belief, and such mysteries."

Salesin muttered and added more words.

"But I've already seen that too."

Salesin, no. What dwelt within him was a collection of karma that had lived for over a thousand years.

The power and knowledge that had been passed down from the distant past under the name of inheritance even contained the true magic that Rudger was showing.

As if it wasn't empty words, Salesin raised his hand.

His halo grew stronger and a soldier made of pure white light was summoned as if weaving thread.

Pure white armor and pure white wings spread behind their backs.

They looked like angels descended from heaven for a holy war.

The soldiers of light tore apart Rudger's evil spirits.

-Kyaaaak!

Even those powerful evil spirits were no match for the soldiers of light.

"How could mere evil spirits win against God's soldiers?"

Rudger didn't give up and prepared his next magic.

The form of a large tree bloomed behind him.

All the Sephira of the Sephiroth tree shone and condensed into one energy.

The power compressed to the extreme was shot toward Salesin.

The soldiers of light that had been rushing at Rudger were swept away by the Sephira and annihilated.

"This is a bit dangerous."

Salesin created a pure white disc above his head.

It was the same power that had forcibly closed the celestial gate Rudger was trying to open.

The disc stood before Salesin like a mirror and expanded greatly.

The disc, transformed like a shield, swallowed the magic Rudger had shot.

The absorbed power was spewed out again from the disc.

Rudger hastily threw his body to the side to evade.

The pure white beam that diagonally cut through the sky penetrated the clouds and flew beyond, disappearing.

A moment later, an explosion occurred above the clouds in the distance, and pure white light gently illuminated the surroundings before disappearing.

Thinking this wouldn't do, Rudger wrapped mana around his sword stick and rushed at Salesin, swinging it toward his neck.

The mana turned black and became a shadow, and within that shadow dwelt the power to cut through space.

Facing the dangerous power that could cut even the user if handled wrongly, Salesin also created a sword of light in his hand to block Rudger's sword.

"Close combat?"

Salesin, who asked so, immediately stepped and swung his sword.

The sword of light embroidered the air. It wasn't just swung carelessly, but contained techniques that only one who had handled a sword for a long time could show.

"I'm quite fond of that too."

That experience was not inferior to Rudger's at all.

Though their techniques were equal, Salesin’s power output and compatibility were stronger, so Rudger was pushed back.

The moment Salesin tried to finish Rudger, other people who couldn't stand watching intervened.

The Masters, who had somehow recovered their bodies, aimed for Salesin’s vital spots and thrust their swords.

The thought of cowardly ganging up on him wasn't in their minds.

"Haven't you realized yet?"

Salesin swung his sword widely and brushed them all away.

Alex reached out and caught Johann, who was bounced back and about to fall below the spire, and Terina supported the flying Leonhart.

"You cannot defeat me. You're just weak humans after all."

Salesin spoke as if conveying a natural truth.

"Is that so?"

-Pook!

At that moment, a black blade burst through Salesin’s heart.

Salesin looked at the blade with widened eyes and turned his head.

"Then how about a demon?"

Surna, with cracks in his skin, was smiling with satisfaction.