I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 712: The Devil's Proof (2)

"That's quite a surprised reaction. Were you shocked that the sacred barrier protecting your body was so easily pierced?"

"...Right. You were there."

Salesin had forgotten about Surna's existence.

This meant that even Surna, who was called a great demon, didn't warrant Salesin's attention.

Of course, the price for that was not small.

Right now Surna had squeezed out all his power and thrust a strike into Salesin's heart.

That was an attack that would kill anyone without exception.

Moreover, Surna hadn't simply stabbed with his sword. It was close to a combination technique that merged all the skills he possessed, so it held power far stronger than what was visible to the naked eye.

Yet Salesin's expression barely changed.

"You seem to think I was caught off guard like this, but that's a big mistake."

Salesin carefully grasped the blade that had pierced through his chest and protruded out with his fingers.

Then the blade smoothly melted away and disappeared into thin air.

"The reason I didn't pay attention to you was because there was no need to from the beginning. No matter what you do, you can't kill me."

Surna's expression hardened.

It had been an attack he was confident would bring victory, but Salesin was unaffected.

"Are you really human?"

"There's no way you wouldn't know who I am, right?"

The blade disappeared, and the wound on his chest healed instantly.

Even the clothing that had been pierced returned to its original state.

It wasn't at the level of regeneration. It was fair to say his body returned to its original form as if time itself had been reversed.

"I am the one who will become the god of this cage. My position isn't so easy that I'd be defeated by a mere demon."

"Is that so?"

It wasn't Surna who responded to those words.

At the lively woman's voice, Salesin's eyes turned toward the source of the sound.

Right next to him, what could be called within arm's reach.

There, an attractive woman with half white and half black hair was smiling at Salesin.

A free-spirited smile that seemed bound by nothing.

"Then how about two?"

With Helia's greeting, a phantom that emerged from behind her struck Salesin.

It was a giant man of enormous stature with only a mouth remaining, no eyes, nose, or ears.

-Kwaaaaang!

Salesin's body, hit by the giant's fist, flew far away, breaking through the tower's railing.

Salesin tried to stop mid-air and correct his posture.

A shadow falling over his head happened almost simultaneously.

"Oh my."

Before he knew it, a gigantic dragon over 100 meters tall was drawing breath toward Salesin.

-Puhuaaaak!

Soon after, an intense exhale burst forth.

The dragon's breath, mixed with high-temperature flames, blew Salesin downward and slammed him into the interior of the castle.

Not stopping there, red flames spread like waves throughout various parts of the castle.

With Surna's sudden appearance, everyone around stared at him with shocked expressions.

Blood flowed from wounds all over his body, and his face was cracked like glass.

But he was still a demon with tremendous presence.

The great demon Surna had come to help them.

"Did your business go well?"

Rudger spoke to Surna.

The others held their breath and watched their conversation.

"Yeah. I finished it one way or another."

"But you managed to return."

"I still have something left to do."

Surna must be feeling tremendous pain just from breathing right now.

At least that's how it looked to Rudger. And that was actually the case.

Yet Surna smiled as brightly as a boy who had achieved his dream.

However, behind that smile, there was also a kind of resignation.

"Did you forget? I'm a demon. One who has committed all kinds of evil deeds across the continent for long years."

Surna discarded his sword that only had its hilt remaining and drew a new sword from thin air.

"The end of such a demon should naturally be fitting."

"......"

"I know that my actions were evil deeds. I even know they were wrong. Though I say I have no regrets, it's hard to say I have none at all."

Surna caught his breath for a moment.

"Very occasionally, I have such thoughts. Like Arkenis said, wasn't there a slightly better way? Couldn't I have reduced the amount of blood on my hands, even a little? Even if it's just one person... couldn't I have killed fewer? Isn't that a completely foolish regret?"

But such regrets, in the end, were probably comfortable thoughts he could have because he had achieved what he wanted.

Rather, if he hadn't achieved it, he might have regretted not being more ruthless.

So Surna decided to look at the current reality.

"In the end, it's all meaningless speculation. So I'm going to make one final choice. To completely erase that bastard from this world."

For the sake of those left behind he wanted to permanently erase Salesin van Bretus from this cage.

To completely sever the cursed lineage of the Lumensis cult that had continued for long years.

That was Surna's final goal and the conclusion that would end his life.

"I might not be able to kill him. I realized it from fighting just now. I will definitely die in this. I finally got to meet her again, and this will be the last time."

"Why are you trying to do this?"

"Because the end of an evil demon who committed all the world's evil deeds shouldn't be a happy ending."

Surna spoke with an unwavering voice.

"No matter what pitiful circumstances there were, no matter how sad the reasons, the sins committed don't disappear."

Therefore, Surna chose this place as his final battlefield.

If he died fighting that terrible monster, that would be good enough.

He didn't think his sins would be washed away by that but at least this was the end of a great demon that Surna had chosen after long deliberation.

"I can't kill the Holy Emperor. But you're different."

"Why do you think that?"

"Because you're not the type of man who would be defeated so easily before achieving your goal. Right?"

To Surna's question, Rudger didn't answer yes.

Instead, he strengthened his shadows to reinforce his body and said:

"Then buy me time."

"Yeah. That's how you should respond."

-Kuwaaaaaa!!!

A section of Galahad Castle was dyed crimson and began melting.

The structure that had pursued artistry and aesthetics to the extreme by carving pure white holystone became mushy and flowed down like lava.

Lava gathered and pooled at what could be called the center of the breath, creating a massive furnace.

From within that furnace, Salesin stood up perfectly fine.

The atmosphere was combusting, parts of the castle protected by holy law were melting, and beneath his feet was full of bright red molten liquid.

Salesin muttered in a voice so calm it was hard to believe he was the person standing at the center of it all.

"Hmm. A bit hot."

Salesin raised his head to look up.

Through the ceiling that had been blown open and melted by the dragon's breath, he could see the massive dragon flapping its wings and charging at him.

"How insolent."

Salesin reached out toward the dragon.

The dragon that had opened its maw wide to devour Salesin was torn in half lengthwise from head to tail.

Beyond the dragon scattering like a phantom, blue magic power fell like a meteor shower.

"Will that meager thing work?"

Salesin didn't try to block the meteor shower of magic power even while watching it.

He even spread his arms as if to say, try it if you can.

The blue meteors poured down as if they would engulf Salesin, but.

"Hmm?"

Salesin made a questioning sound.

The blue magic power meteor shower fell around him with soft thuds and made blue dots on the ground.

It wasn't the manifestation of destructive magic meant to kill him?

The moment Salesin had such doubts, the magic power that had marked the ground began to draw lines connecting to each other and resonate as one form.

"This is..."

The meteor shower that had just fallen wasn't magic for attack.

It was magic to activate magic.

"That's a bit dangerous."

Just as Salesin was about to interfere with the magic's manifestation, Surna stepped forward.

"Did you think I'd just stand by?"

Though his body was damaged beyond repair, Surna didn't care and threw himself at Salesin.

Even if he didn't die, he didn't want his heart pierced again, so Salesin drew his sword of light to meet Surna's sword.

-Clang!

"Persistent, demon. If you keep moving with that body, you'll only hasten your death."

"If I feared that, I wouldn't have stood before you."

"Is that so?"

Salesin said with a bright smile.

"Then die."

The sword of light grew stronger and melted Surna's sword while aiming for his neck.

But Surna threw his body backward and created a door in mid-air.

As Surna entered through the door as if breaking it, the sword of light simultaneously devoured the space.

Like erasing a world drawn in pencil with an eraser, the places where the sword of light passed were cleanly erased.

However, Surna barely escaped with his body, so he didn't die.

"What was that just now? Spatial movement?"

However, because the sword of light's power was too strong, when Surna appeared by opening a door in different airspace, one of his arms had completely disappeared.

"Interesting. Not only has spatial magic, which was suppressed to prevent escaping the cage, reappeared in the world, but a demon is using it in his own way."

"Can you afford to be so leisurely? The magic is already complete."

Surna's time-buying hadn't been in vain.

The blue dots marked around the melted lava connected to each other, drew geometric figures on the ground, and activated magic with light.

Even before the magic was fully manifested, Salesin had judged this to be somewhat dangerous.

And rightfully so, because what was about to activate was 7th-tier magic.

-Crackling.

The magma pooled on the ground not only cooled instantly but froze solid.

The heat that had been rolling around disappeared, and the flowing scenery solidified as if time had stopped.

The liquid that had been flowing in crimson hardened into gray matter, and frost formed on its surface.

All the heat emitted by the dragon's breath disappeared and the blue flame that had absorbed all that heat in one go shot toward Salesin.

7th-tier magic [Blue Tranquility]

The blue flame that had absorbed all the surrounding heat was incomparably more powerful than when Rudger first used it.

That was natural.

The blue flame that had grown by consuming the body temperature and sacred power of holy knights and senior priests couldn't be the same as the blue flame that had absorbed the entire dragon's breath.

The blue flame now approaching Salesin was the ultimate flame that had condensed the dragon's breath from earlier and all its aftermath into a single point.

Even for Salesin, that flame was dangerous, so he had no intention of taking it with his body.

"Then I'll just erase it."

Salesin swung his sword of light again.

The sword of light and blue flame collided, creating a massive shockwave around them.

The frost that had formed everywhere was swept up in the shockwave and scattered fine powder.

In the beautiful scenery that sparkled and reflected light, the sword of light and blue flame engaged in a contest of strength.

The blue flame that wasn't erased by the sword of light was remarkable, but conversely, it was also surprising that the blue flame, which should have absorbed even the heat of the sword of light, was blocked.

One collision wasn't enough to determine the winner.

Salesin was about to take his stance and swing the sword of light once more but Surna wasn't one to just stand by and watch.

Surna drew countless swords from thin air and hurled them at Salesin.

Blades surrounding him from all sides aimed for Salesin's vital points.

Even for Salesin, it was difficult to ignore all the blades.

While some wouldn't even pierce his skin, among them were swords containing the same power as when his heart was stabbed.

"Petty tricks."

It was a simple deception that could be figured out with a little time, but it was sufficient to create a momentary gap in the current situation.

Moreover, Surna wasn't the only one trying to stop Salesin.

-Rumble!

The ground beneath where Salesin stood cracked open, and from there, a mass of tangled flesh monsters emerged and grabbed Salesin's ankles.

It was a monster summoned by Helia.

The monster began putting Salesin's ankle area into its mouth, trying to gnaw and swallow his lower body with countless teeth.

Blue flame in front, monster from below, and dangerous blades all around.

Salesin twisted his lips into a smirk, then gripped his sword of light in reverse and stabbed it straight into the ground.

-Flash!

An intensely bright light burst forth, enough to tear the eyes, and tore apart Surna's swords and the monster Helia had summoned.

The blue flame flew through that gap, so Salesin caught the fist-sized blue flame with his bare hand that wasn't holding the sword.

-Hissss.

It burned with white smoke on his palm protected by powerful sacred power, but Salesin didn't even blink.

The blue flame tried to devour Salesin's arm, but he applied more force to his grip and crushed the blue flame instead.

Salesin's eyes looked around before turning upward.

"So the real one is over there."

He could see Rudger preparing another magic in mid-air.

The plan was probably to set up double and triple layers, create an opening, and finish it in one blow.

But that was only if things proceeded properly.

The moment he noticed first, Rudger's plan was as good as ruined.

If there were no interference, that is.

-Crackling.

Salesin narrowed his eyes.

The frost fragments that had been scattered around weren't settling.

Rather, they became even colder and stuck to his skin, trying to freeze the surrounding space itself.

Who on earth?

"Hello, Holy Emperor."

Then a water curtain disappeared from mid-air and Casey Selmore revealed herself.

"Do you know who I am?"

"Ah, Miss Casey Selmore. I've heard much about you. The detective of the century who has never failed to solve a case, right?"

"Oh my. Thank you for knowing me. Then you must also know why I'm here?"

"Meeting like this is quite unfortunate."

Casey's expression toward Salesin turned cold.

"Then you shouldn't have touched my family."