I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 716: For the Very Last (1)

'This place.'

Rudger opened his eyes.

He could see the wide open sky. It was still full of dark clouds and too dark to see clearly, but that was definitely the sky.

'This should have been a temporary cavity made inside the fortress, so why?'

The reason was simple.

The cavity and everything above it had completely evaporated as if blown away.

What on earth had happened?

Rudger grabbed his throbbing head and got up.

His hazy memories came back, and what had happened just moments ago overlapped on his retina.

'I definitely thought I had killed Salesin.'

It was a natural result since he had annihilated everything except Salesin's right arm.

But suddenly Salesin's right arm moved and emitted a brilliant light along with enormous energy.

And then.

'This mess.'

Rudger looked around.

It was to find survivors. With such an explosion, even if only the strong had gathered, there might have been casualties.

However, Rudger witnessed an unexpected sight.

"What? You're just getting up now?"

Not far from the blast center, Surna was standing quietly in place.

Surna's lips were full of smiles as she looked this way, but Rudger could tell.

"You... Did you block that explosion with your body just now?"

Just before Salesin's right arm exploded with tremendous power, the first to move was Surna.

Surna squeezed out all his strength and consecutively deployed defensive magic, guardian swordsmanship, protective arts, and black magic.

And then the explosion occurred.

Originally, an explosion that should have swept the surrounding area and killed more than half was blocked by Surna and couldn't even display half of half of its original power.

Even though that remaining force was completely deflected upward toward the sky it still had this level of destructive power.

But more important than the joy of surviving and the surprise that Surna had saved him was something else.

'Where is Salesin?'

Then a person's shadow suddenly rose from behind Surna.

"How tiresome."

-Thwack!

Along with the sound of something being hit, Surna's body flew sideways.

Rudger could only watch that scene.

"How dare you wound my flesh?"

Salesin was not dead but alive.

His body, which had only his right arm remaining, regenerated in an instant and returned to its original form.

Due to the dark lightning blowing away even his clothes, he was in a naked state.

Light arose over Salesin's naked body and changed back into the robes he had worn initially.

It was as if he had returned to his state before the fight.

However, unlike before, Salesin's expression was full of anger tainted with displeasure.

It couldn't be helped.

In a fight he thought he would definitely win, he had been dealt a major blow - who would feel good about that?

Just as no one would feel good about being stung by a bug, Salesin was also filled with rising irritation.

Deep hatred arose toward Rudger, who had dared to make him look like this.

This was his true appearance, usually hidden behind a smiling mask.

"Hah."

Rudger let out a hollow laugh at Salesin's appearance.

Even lizards regenerate their cut tails, but this was the first time he'd seen a lizard grow from a cut tail.

"Laughing? You don't seem to understand what situation you're in right now."

Salesin walked toward Rudger with big strides.

"Did you think you could kill me with such trivial magic? Don't be mistaken. This flesh is merely a vessel to show my form. Unless you damage my essence, I will not die."

"Even so, since the vessel was broken, the inside must have been affected."

"That's only when there's one vessel. Did you forget? I'm a being who has been stacking vessels for over a thousand years. How many lives do you think I have accumulated over the long years?"

"Is that so? Then if I consume all of them, I can kill you."

"Do you know why I'm saying this? Because you don't have even the slightest possibility of doing so!"

Salesin kicked Rudger in the abdomen.

Rudger had to fly backward and roll on the ground.

"Ptui."

He could taste the metallic flavor of blood at the corner of his mouth.

The attack delivered while his body was still not intact from the explosion's shock was more painful than expected.

"Give up the thought of dying peacefully. I'll play with you as much as possible, then cut off your limbs and make you watch with your own eyes how this world is dominated by me. While watching that, I'll present you with a lifetime of frustration and despair."

Salesin approached Rudger again.

He raised his hand and threw a punch toward Rudger.

-Thwack!

Rudger barely managed to cross both arms to block it, but couldn't withstand it with his unstable body.

Rudger rolled backward several times.

Both arms that blocked the punch trembled. He could feel cracks in his bones.

The divine power dwelling in Salesin's fist was also a problem.

It clung to Rudger's forearms and tried to burn his skin along with his clothes, together with his remaining shadow.

Strong.

Even after taking a direct hit from dark lightning, Salesin was fine.

One of his prepared vessels was destroyed, but he offset the damage by switching to a new vessel.

In a way, what Rudger had destroyed with dark lightning might not have been Salesin's vessel, but the mask of his shameless smiling face.

Rudger found that fact amusing.

"Salesin. Do you know something?"

"What?"

"You look much better now than when we first met."

"Your mouth is still alive even as death approaches."

Salesin growled and approached Rudger again.

Rudger just stared blankly at that sight.

A being that could move at supersonic speed if he wanted to, was deliberately approaching slowly as if to show off.

He was blatantly planning to toy with him.

'Is this the end?'

No matter how much he racked his brain, he couldn't think of a way to overcome this situation.

It was at that moment of thinking so.

"You still haven't fixed that bad habit of violence, I see."

A woman's voice quietly echoed around them.

Salesin stopped walking.

Like a clear bell ringing in the dawn fog, there was something in the voice that struck the mind.

'Who?'

Rudger turned his head.

The cavity was nothing more than carved out of Galahad Fortress.

As a result, passages that hadn't collapsed were perforated like holes throughout the cavity.

From one of them, a woman with ash-gray hair appeared.

'Rene?'

The moment Rudger saw her, he thought of Rene but soon shook his head.

'No. No. She just resembles Rene, she's not real.'

But it was a face in his memory.

Precisely, it was a face he had seen when he glimpsed past memories through the World Tree.

"Arkenis."

Salesin called her name with a voice that didn't hide his displeasure as if to make Rudger's guess a reality.

"Have you awakened?"

"You remember me. For someone who has continuously inherited memories, power, and souls, you're surprisingly sane."

"Even without an excellent necromancer, inheriting my own soul is no big deal."

Salesin, or rather the ancient specter wearing that mask, frowned.

"But this is strange. You should definitely be sealed in the catacombs, so why are you fine? It wasn't a seal that could be broken just by the aftermath of battle."

Salesin's gaze immediately turned to Surna, whom he had struck and sent flying.

"I wondered where he got injured, so it was that demon's doing."

"Surna."

Arkenis also looked at Surna.

Her eyes toward Surna seemed very complex.

Surna was already battered originally, but after blocking Salesin's attack alone, she had reached a state where it wouldn't be strange if he died immediately.

"So what brings the great saint all the way here? If you barely escaped the seal and saved your life, you should have run away immediately."

"Naturally, I came to stop you."

At those words, Salesin laughed.

"Stop me? That's even more ridiculous."

Divine power blazed throughout Salesin's body.

"Do you still think you're that powerful saint from 1000 years ago? You've been stripped of your authority, and your power has also declined due to the seal. Your power has been fragmented over the long years and used to create fake saints. You can't even produce one-tenth of your prime power, yet you want to fight me? Did you develop a habit of asking to be killed in a roundabout way?"

"I won't deny it. The current me has only enough power to be called dregs compared to my prime. That alone would reach the realm of superhuman, but it's not enough to face you."

"You appeared before me knowing that well?"

"But you seem to have forgotten - I'm not alone here."

As if Arkenis' words weren't lies, Catherine walked out of the darkness of the passage and stood beside her.

Seeing her, Salesin's eyes widened.

"I'm here too, you bastard."

Catherine extended her hand, and Arkenis took it.

The vast divine power dwelling in Catherine's body transferred to Arkenis.

Wind swirled around them.

Originally, divine power wasn't something that could be transferred like this.

But Catherine's power ultimately originated from fragments of Arkenis.

That power returning to its original owner was as natural as water flowing from high to low.

Having received her power back from Catherine, Arkenis gazed at Salesin with brighter eyes than before.

"With this, I am equal to you."

Arkenis' form changed to light and disappeared, that's how fast she moved.

Arkenis, who had approached right up to Salesin, threw a punch.

-Thump!

Salesin was hit by the punch and shot high into the sky.

Arkenis' body changed to light and chased Salesin, and Salesin also positioned himself in mid-air and faced Arkenis.

Countless lights flashed in the air and shocks erupted.

-Rumble!

Like lightning striking a clear sky, the atmosphere trembled and noise tore at the ears.

Space repeatedly distorted and straightened.

Such was the battle of beings who had transcended even superhumans.

"Are you okay?"

Catherine hurriedly approached Rudger and supported him.

"You...why didn't you go back?"

"Are you stupid? How could I go back from here! There's no way down."

"With your power, you could have easily returned and more."

Catherine smiled awkwardly and said.

"It's borrowed power. I have to return it to its owner."

"More than that, are you really okay?"

"What?"

"You said you returned your power to Arkenis, but..."

Rudger swallowed his words.

Catherine wore a bitter smile.

"You're annoyingly perceptive. Right. I did return my power, but this isn't enough. Even Arkenis showing such power has a time limit. It's because she was sealed for too long."

"Knowing that, you still came forward... it's intentionally to buy time."

In the end, all Arkenis could do was buy time; she fundamentally couldn't defeat Salesin.

"Is there a way?"

"I was at a loss at first, but now several methods are coming to mind."

He thought he could end it with dark lightning, but since that didn't work, he had to seek new methods.

Rudger got up from his spot with staggering steps.

"Are you okay? You, your physical condition is..."

"You don't need to worry."

Rudger wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his thumb.

Using magic to quickly heal the internal injuries and wounds on his body, he approached Surna with a slightly tired face.

"Ah. You came?"

"How's your condition?"

"The worst. Probably, I only have one last chance left."

"If you could use that one chance at a meaningful opportunity, would you do it?"

"Haha. You're really harsh at using people. If you become the principal of Theon, you'll probably be the most vicious principal."

"So can you do it or not?"

"I have to."

There was no wavering in Surna's voice.

It wasn't "I can do it" but "I have to do it."

"If someone has to do it, I should do it. That's right."

He had lived his whole life dirtying his hands.

For Surna, who had transcended humanity, would their laws or standards of good and evil have meaning?

Surna knew.

Having lived long, he could learn things he didn't want to learn through his authority.

He learned human conscience, morality, ethics, good and evil, religion.

Beyond simply knowing with his head, he accepted it with his heart.

[Enlightenment]

That was his authority.

Knowing this, Surna committed all these acts solely for Arkenis' resurrection.

Bringing chaos to the world, making the Holy Nation active again, causing holy wars, even knowing he would reach death.

"So I have to go."

"Understood. However, I need one more person."

"Then how about me?"

Helia interjected.

"You seem fine."

"Thanks to someone protecting me."

Though Helia said that, her expression also showed undeniable fatigue.

Catherine quietly gazed at such Helia, and Helia also just glanced at Catherine without any particular reaction.

"You have no reason to fight more here."

Surna said.

At those words, Helia pouted her lips.

"What are you talking about? The reason isn't for you to decide. If I said I'd fight, then I'll just do it."

"Why on earth?"

"Just, well. We were fellow apostles anyway, and we've known each other for a long time, love it or hate it, so I can at least see you off on your final journey, can't I?"

"How touching."

Helia extended her hand, and Surna took it and got up.

-Thud.

Even in the midst of this, parts of Surna's skin fell to the ground like broken porcelain pieces.

It was a sign that he didn't have much time left.