I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 718: For the Very Last (3)

Helia and Arkenis, hit by Salesin's attack, crashed onto the fortress walls.

Surna approached Helia with staggering steps.

Though he wanted to head toward where Arkenis was, he had decided to leave that to Rudger and Catherine.

At the place he finally reached, Helia was collapsed, leaning her back against the debris.

There was a large hole in her side, and blood flowed endlessly from the wound.

In the murky background where even light couldn't reach down.

Covered in dust and drooping weakly, Helia's appearance already looked like a corpse.

"Helia."

When Surna muttered that, the wounded Helia smiled brightly and then disappeared as if melting into thin air.

Next to her, Helia appeared in her usual perfectly fine state.

"Ta-da! Were you surprised?"

Helia said with a mischievous smile.

"It was a lie!"

"You..."

Surna looked at Helia and tried to say something, then closed his mouth.

His remaining eye was fixed on the debris where Helia had collapsed just moments before.

-Tap tap.

Helia patted Surna's shoulder.

"What? Did you come looking for me because you were worried? I'm fine, so go take care of your girlfriend. She seemed pretty badly hurt."

"What girlfriend."

"You're funny too. Coming all the way here, what are you being shy about?"

"...I just think I don't even have the right to do that. It wasn't that kind of relationship to begin with."

"Oh my, what a lover boy you've become. Anyway, hurry up and go. Do you have time to dawdle here? I'm going to recover and then go knock down that arrogant Holy Emperor's nose again, so hurry up and go."

"...Yeah. Got it."

When Surna nodded and answered, Helia was slightly puzzled.

"Huh? Usually you would have added something more to say, but what's with agreeing so readily?"

"Like you said, it's not the time for that."

"Right. Good thing you understand."

"I'm going. Helia."

"Yeah. Take care."

Helia waved her hand toward Surna.

Surna walked past Helia like that, then stopped his steps and looked back at her.

"It was enjoyable being together all this time. Take care. My old friend."

"..."

With those words, Surna began walking again with unsteady steps.

Helia continued waving her hand toward Surna's retreating figure.

When Surna's figure was no longer visible, Helia's appearance melted away like watercolor mixed with water.

And the severely wounded and collapsed Helia appeared again.

That posture leaning against the debris was the same wounded appearance Surna had first seen.

Red blood was spreading wider and wider beneath Helia's body.

"Idiot. What are you trying to do, saying such things on your way out?"

Helia chuckled as she recalled Surna's final farewell.

"Ah. I didn't want to die before either. But now I want to live even more."

Helia lifted her head and let out a sigh mixed with a smile.

With a rumbling sound, the surroundings shook.

Soon, a shadow fell over Helia's head.

Helia seemed to sense her fate and quietly closed her eyes.

-CRASH!

Large debris fell over Helia's head, swallowing up the surroundings.

Rudger and Catherine examined Arkenis' condition.

Though she had been caught in Salesin's attack and fallen from a great height, there were no wounds on her body.

"Don't worry. I'm perfectly fine."

"But most of that power has been lost now."

What protected Arkenis to the end was the last remaining trace of power she possessed.

The brilliantly burning candle had finally been extinguished.

Now Arkenis didn't possess even a part of her original power.

The pupils beyond her trembling eyelashes were brown.

The Judgment Eyes she had possessed since birth had disappeared, revealing her original pupils.

"I'm not particularly regretful. Rather, thanks to this, I was able to buy time. Ah, but maybe I should have held out a little longer."

"The Saint has endured enough."

At Rudger's words, Arkenis smiled faintly.

"Please don't call me that. I've lost my power now. I'm no longer a saint or anything else."

As if to prove her words, Arkenis' hair color was also changing.

It was the same brown as her pupils.

Looking at her like this, she looked like a pretty country girl.

Considering the era she lived in, it wouldn't be wrong to say so.

Surely she must have been born somewhere, in a small but peaceful village.

A good child who helped her mother with work, cooked, and cared for her siblings.

If she hadn't possessed the Judgment Eyes, she would surely have lived an ordinary life.

But the fate given to her was not like that.

Even under pressure that would have broken anyone else a hundred or a thousand times, Arkenis had persevered steadfastly.

Rudger knew how difficult that was, so he paid his respects to Arkenis.

Arkenis looked up at the sky.

"What do we do now?"

Through the gaping ceiling, they could see Salesin slowly descending while scattering light.

Salesin's aura was glowing as if it would immediately annihilate all life existing in this fortress.

"We're too late."

"No. We're not too late."

"What do you mean... Ah."

Arkenis let out an exclamation.

A harpoon that had flown from somewhere had pierced through Salesin.

Any ordinary attack would bounce off without even penetrating the high-density divine power flowing through his skin.

If the attack were weaker, it might even be erased by divine power.

But that harpoon was different.

It had penetrated the divine power and embedded itself more than a span deep into Salesin's solar plexus.

The throwing force was so strong that Salesin's body shook like a pigeon hit by an arrow.

Arkenis' eyes widened in surprise.

Not a sword, not an arrow, not a spear, not magic, not holy law, not divine authority, but just a harpoon.

Wasn't that a tool for catching fish?

Not only had someone thrown it at a person, at the Holy Emperor no less, but it had actually landed a hit.

What happened next was even more surprising.

-Clatter clatter clatter! Clang!

The massive anchor chain attached to the end of the harpoon seemed to extend long, then was pulled taut.

What pulled it was a beastman with white hair like a lion's mane.

Salesin's body, pierced by the end of the harpoon, was also pulled along.

-ROOOOOAR!

A red-eyed monster that appeared from the dark clouds, cutting through the air, trampled Salesin's body as if crushing it.

Salesin's brightly glowing body fell vertically and was embedded in the center of the clearing that 'used to be' Galahad Fortress.

The attack was so powerful that Salesin's body broke through the ground multiple times and continued to be driven downward.

Hans and Pantos joined the fight.

Just as the two were about to chase Salesin and deliver additional blows, light burst from the center of the clearing's floor and Salesin emerged in perfect condition.

"How dare these vermin."

Salesin was filled with rage at the fact that he had been attacked.

Even if just for a moment, Pantos' harpoon had pierced his solar plexus, and he had been kicked by Hans.

One was a lowly beastman, and the other was a beast born from the world's filth.

Though Salesin saw even humans as insects, these were beings even lower than such insects.

To punish the vermin that dared to touch his noble body, Salesin reached out his hand.

The light flowing from his right arm intensified as it aimed toward Pantos and Hans.

At this rate, he would pierce those two in mid-air and turn them into corpses.

However, Salesin's intention could not be fulfilled as he wished.

The light he had extended was swallowed by darkness and disappeared.

"Darkness?"

Salesin stared at the rippling darkness with disbelieving eyes.

Darkness that devours light.

That couldn't be.

Darkness should be weak to light. Light was the truth that drove away darkness and illuminated all things.

But that darkness had devoured his light.

Not just the light of some paladin or priest, but the light of the Holy Emperor himself.

The darkness split apart and a woman emerged from within.

"Who are you?"

The black-haired woman wearing pink-toned clothing stared at Salesin with red eyes.

"I am Selina, a professor at Theon."

Beside Selina was a spirit rippling with darkness.

‘A darkness spirit and spirit synchronization.’

Salesin narrowed his eyes.

'A human has learned spirit synchronization? That disappeared in distant ages, and I thought only a few elves could still use it.'

If she had synchronized with another spirit, the story would have been easier.

Spirits like fire, water, wind, or earth.

But Salesin had never heard of a darkness spirit.

To begin with, it was questionable whether 'darkness' existed as such in nature.

Darkness was merely the absence of light, not something that existed in physical form.

However, even if he tried to deny reality, the fact that a darkness spirit existed now was clear.

Its very existence could be called blasphemous.

And it had dared to devour his light, making its sin even heavier.

-BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!

As Salesin frowned, the sound of cannons came from afar along with blue mana shots flying toward Salesin.

In the precise bombardment targeting only one person, Salesin frowned again, wondering what this was now.

His body was fine, but his mood was foul.

"We've come to help!"

"Captain! Are you safe?"

Cutting through the dark clouds, the Golden Monarch appeared.

At the ship's bow, Ambella stood with her arms crossed, looking magnificent.

Beyond her were the Monarch Mercenary Corps and Reverie School mages together.

"Ha. Those idiots."

Caroline, who had groggily gotten up from the debris, let out a hollow laugh.

She had told them to run away just in case, but those stupid fools had come all the way here to help her.

Even Ambella Burk was with them.

Caroline sent a grateful look to Ambella.

Ambella nodded slightly as if it was nothing.

"Can I join in too?"

With a voice full of leisure, a golden aura stabbed at Salesin's brow.

Salesin immediately created a spear of light to aim at the opponent trying to ambush him, but the opponent immediately noticed and lightly leaped in mid-air, escaping like a mouse.

What landed in the clearing while adjusting his fluttering cloak was Pasius, the knight of Princess Aileen.

"Hmm. Everyone looks to be in bad shape. Am I too late?"

Pasius muttered as he looked at the people scattered around the clearing.

Among them, he could see Clinton and Luther as well.

But he wasn't worried. They too were coming to their senses and getting up.

"Getting up?"

Salesin felt something was strange about the sight of people getting up one by one.

No matter how much Surna had thrown his body to block, they shouldn't have been able to get up like that.

Salesin's eyes, filled with divine power, immediately found the reason.

"The World Tree's life force. I see. So it's the elves' doing again."

Salesin didn't particularly like the World Tree.

The massive life force it possessed always created variables different from expectations.

That's why 500 years ago, when he learned that the kingdom that became the predecessor of the Empire was trying to cultivate a new World Tree underground, he immediately sent an army.

But the World Tree's power on such an island.

Salesin's gaze followed the trace of power to its source.

There was a brown-haired girl there.

Her briefly visible ears were longer than a human's but shorter than an elf's.

"Half-elf."

A child of a human and elf.

But that girl was simultaneously a contractor of the World Tree and a green mage who wielded its power.

Sedina's brown hair grew long.

The extended part was not brown but a translucent silver color.

The silver hair seeped into the ground and reacted with plant seeds to rapidly germinate them.

Countless medicinal herbs grew, and Bellaruna harvested them to use for healing the wounds of the fallen.

Before long, the people who had regained consciousness were united in glaring at Salesin.

Salesin's lips twitched.

Had these insects gotten cocky just because many of them had gathered?

"It's useless no matter what."

However, it was annoying nonetheless.

To first eliminate the most bothersome insect, Salesin glared at Sedina.

"What are you trying to do?"

Rudger stepped forward first and swung his mana-infused sword stick toward Salesin.

"Your opponent is me."

"Weakling!"

Salesin drew a sword of light and met Rudger's sword stick. Due to the difference in power, Rudger was knocked backward.

The Empire's sword masters rushed toward Salesin.

The Princess's Shadow, Pasius.

The Empire's Guardian, Terina Lionhowl.

The Northern Watcher, Leonhart Kimbel.

The Ocean's Ruler, Johann Oceans.

The four sword masters supporting the Empire each drew their aura blades.

"Annoying bastards!"

Salesin swept his sword of light horizontally.

A circular ring formed around him, and the four masters flew far away.

Alex and Pantos took their place and aimed for Salesin's life.

It was a continuous combination without giving him time to breathe.

This time, Salesin created a shield of light with his other hand.

As he raised the shield, a large wave of light spread out, pushing Alex and Pantos far away.

"Hahaha! This is quite an interesting situation!"

Then with hearty laughter, Whiron appeared and threw a punch.

Mana in the shape of a fist hit Salesin's body, causing a series of explosions.

"I-I'll help too!"

Roina Pavlini also arrived at the scene and frantically cast magic, and Rotheron, who had thrown off his mask, also joined the battle.

Seeing this scene, Arkenis muttered in surprise.

"Reinforcements came? How on earth?"

As she stared at Rudger, wondering how this had happened.

From empty air, Rene appeared, leaping across space.

"Brother! I brought more people! I think I brought everyone I could bring...!"

Rene discovered Arkenis and Catherine near Rudger and flinched.

"Ah."