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I threw myself into the passage, unable to find my balance as I passed through a circular tunnel of all colors, falling endlessly. After passing through worlds pouring down like mosaics, I finally arrived somewhere, the last thing I passed through being a tunnel made of dark blue bubbles.

I tumbled across the dusty floor, finally stopping my fall, and got up to look around. A somewhat familiar landscape came into view.

,Here is…,

This was the campus of Transcendence Academy. I had really returned to the original world. I didn’t expect to return to the academy so soon. Still, relieved to have arrived in a safe place, I collapsed on the spot.

If not for Raellan and Ilia’s sacrifice and a bit of luck, I would have died at Roel’s hands. Even if I had the advantage in a one-on-one fight with space magic, I couldn’t beat Roel, who had transcended the realm and reached the ending.

Even enduring a few exchanges against Roel, who was tearing apart my space magic, was difficult for me now. As I took a moment to catch my breath, the excitement slowly subsided. I still couldn’t believe that I had traveled to another worldline. With a dazed look, I looked down at my wrist, and the runic letters had turned red again. Proof that it wasn’t a hallucination or a dream.

With a sigh of relief, I swept my face once with my palm, when suddenly a chilling sound like tearing metal echoed everywhere. It seemed that the alarm magic had been activated.

I turned my head and looked around, but there was nothing that would trigger the alarm magic.

As I was wondering what was going on, I realized that the academy’s guard knights were gathering where I was.

,Hey, you there.,

At the rough voice calling me, I stood up and turned around. There, a man with an impression that matched the rough voice was glaring at me with a frown. Judging from his attire, he was clearly a member of the academy’s guard knights.

,Are you a student of the academy?,

Puzzled by his wary gaze, I nodded.

,Yes. I’m Ross from the first-year combat department.,

,First-year combat department…?,

The knight scanned me up and down as if he doubted me, then suddenly held out his hand. Thinking he was asking for a handshake, I cautiously raised my hand and watched his reaction, and the knight’s frown deepened even further.

,What are you doing now?,

,…?,

Not understanding, I scratched the back of my head, and the knight shook his head and sighed.

,I held out my hand to ask you to show me your student ID.,

,Student ID…?,

Transcendence doesn’t have a separate student ID. Since students can be identified with the magic installed at the entrance of the building, there was no need for a student ID. But the guard knight was demanding a student ID from me as if it were obvious.

I felt an unknown sense of unease at the sight.

As if I wasn’t the only one who felt something was wrong, the knight’s hand went to the hilt of the sword he wore on his waist. The knight, who was looking at me with sharp eyes, asked in a rough voice.

,…If you don’t have a student ID, can you show me some proof?,

,What is tha…!,

I quickly took a few steps back to avoid the surprise attack aimed at my neck. Before I could even ask what he was doing, the knight immediately blew on something like a whistle that was hanging around his neck. As if it was a signal, the guard knights who were rushing towards me took out their weapons and began to surround me from afar, closing in quickly.

I didn’t know what the situation was, but one thing was certain. The knight in front of me would prioritize beheading me rather than talking to me to resolve the situation.

I couldn’t just offer my neck, so I prepared for an attack by materializing a shadow spear, and the knight’s eyes lit up as he shouted loudly to those around him.

,It’s a demon invasion! Everyone be careful!,

It seemed that the alarm magic had malfunctioned and they were misunderstanding me as a demon who had invaded the academy. Of course, it was understandable to misunderstand since I suddenly appeared in the middle of the academy. But the opponent didn’t give me time to speak.

The knight raised his sword straight up and swung it down vertically with force. Thanks to the clean motion, it was a blow with proper power. I reacted immediately, retreating backwards and simultaneously raising the shadow spear to create distance.

Kang-!

Sparks flew as the spear and sword collided in mid-air. The knight continued to close the distance and swing his sword, intending to pressure me until his comrades joined him.

I could have easily subdued the opponent by reflecting the attack with space magic or cutting the weapon using a dimensional passage, but I had to hide my space magic as much as possible to avoid the eyes of the Order, so I had no choice.

Once again, the knight swung his sword high towards me. This time, I responded to the attack in a different way. I lowered my stance as it was, and simultaneously used the Breathless Step. A fleeting moment lengthened, and I saw the sword slowly falling towards my head. By slightly twisting my body, I let the attack flow past me, and then used the change in my center of gravity to rotate my body and strike the side of the knight’s sword, which was slamming into the ground, with my spear.

Kang-!

The knight’s sword, which was struck on the side, slipped from his hand and rolled across the floor. The knight, who had lost his weapon in an instant, tried to quickly create distance with a flustered face, but I immediately moved my legs to catch up, and then grabbed the knight by the scruff of his neck.

If I held a hostage, the guard knights who were surrounding me wouldn’t be able to attack easily. That was the action I took, judging that I could resolve the misunderstanding through conversation at that time. But feeling the magic power coming towards the arm that was holding the knight’s neck, I had no choice but to push the knight away and throw myself backwards in a hurry.

Kwakwakwang-!

An explosion created by magic power swept through the space where the knight and I were standing. The power was not considerate of comrades who were close to the enemy. If I hadn’t instinctively sensed the danger and avoided it, it would have been powerful enough to take my life.

I didn’t even have time to lie down for a moment. Because the guard knights who had already approached were swinging their weapons at me as if they were facing an enemy without saying a word. I increased the number of spear blades and knocked away all the swords that were slamming down, and then got up.

At the same time as dodging the magic that was flying straight at me without giving me a break, I changed the shape of the spear into a shield and blocked the sword that was aiming for my right leg. Attacks were flying in from all directions.

Complex battle judgments were impossible. I repeated blocking and dodging attacks with only experience and instinct, and advanced forward.

But the guard knights of the continent’s best academy were not easy opponents. By deliberately using different attack timings from other comrades, they induced me to show a gap while closing the distance. Thanks to that, it wasn’t a big injury, but the tips of the swords grazed my arms and legs, causing bleeding.

Nevertheless, thanks to continuing to advance, I was finally able to lean my back against the academy’s annex building. I had broken through the circular encirclement of the guard knights. If my back was safe, I was confident that I wouldn’t be pushed back against a large number of opponents. Before I could even continue thinking, the guard knights’ attacks poured in.

I didn’t hesitate any longer and confronted the attacks. While moving slightly to the side, if the opponent blocked the spear that was stabbing in from the front with a sword, I changed the shape of the spear at that moment. The shadow spear blades, which had increased in shape and number, rode along the surface of the sword, passed through the cross guard, and pierced the opponent’s hand as it was.

,Ugh…!,

,Ugh, my hand…!,

The knights whose sword-wielding hands were pierced by the shadow spear hurriedly left the battlefield. Since they couldn’t hold a weapon with their injured hands, it was a wise decision. It was also what I was aiming for.

The last remaining person, who seemed to be the captain, resisted to the end with his other hand even after one hand was pierced, but in the end, both hands were pierced and he couldn’t fight. I tried to grab him as he tried to escape with the support of a magician, but I had no choice but to stop because of the person who appeared with a loud thunderclap.

,I was preparing just in case… How dare you break into the academy alone!,

The muscular man with a huge physique, shouting in an angry voice, was my teacher, Raikan. For some reason, he looked different from the last time I saw him.

His muscles covering his entire body had increased, and he had more scars. On top of that, the large scar across his face made his already ferocious face even more frightening.

While I was traveling through other worldlines, could it be that several years have passed here?

Anyway, if it was my teacher Raikan, he would be able to clear up the misunderstanding quickly. I hurriedly lowered the tip of the spear towards the ground and shouted.

,Teacher, it’s me! It’s your student Ross!,

At my words, Raikan, who was twitching his muscles as if he was about to swing his fist right away, looked straight at me.

,Ross…?,

Raikan’s eyes widened slightly as he stared at me blankly. It seemed that he recognized who I was. Just as I was about to feel relieved, I barely managed to twist my head to avoid a huge fist flying towards my face with the power to shatter it. I hurriedly stepped back and shouted.

,What are you doing! It’s me! I’m your student Ross!,

I would have definitely died if I had been hit by that fist. It was a fist with such powerful force. It wasn’t an attack that a teacher could do to a student. As I questioned him with an angry voice, Raikan scoffed.

,Student? Hehe, I see you haven’t forgotten that I was your homeroom teacher.,

Raikan, who made a ferocious smile, said as he retracted his fist.

,Yes, Ross. I remember your name clearly. How can I forget the trash who sold his soul to the Demon King to gain power, then attacked the academy and massacred innocent students before having his neck cut off by his brother.,

,What is tha….,

A thought flashed through my mind at that moment. Could it be that this place is neither the world I was in, nor the world on the verge of destruction, but another worldline…? I hurriedly raised my head and looked at the sky, but unlike what I had seen in other worldlines, the sky was not split, nor was the sun and moon united and swirling. It was just an ordinary sky.

But according to Raikan’s words, I could tell that in this world too, Ross died at Roel’s hands in the same flow as the novel. However, judging from the fact that the sky was fine, it seemed that this world was flowing slower than Roel’s world, which was on the verge of destruction. Perhaps the timeline is the same as the world where the original me was. The only difference might be that I didn’t possess it.

,What the fuck….,

When I think about it, I only know how to create passages, but I don’t know where those passages are heading. I shouldn’t have been sure that I could return to the original world just by opening the passage again. The fact that the runic letters on my wrist were still being maintained was also evidence that I was deceiving the world with magic to avoid denying the existence of another world.

Wooddeuk-

Raikan, who was loosening his body with a scary sound, grinned and infused magic power into his fist.

,This time, I’ll kill you with my own hands.,

The palm of my hand holding the spear became damp with sweat at the sight of Raikan approaching with tremendous pressure and a murderous aura that he would kill me. Even while sparring with Raikan, I had never won even once, Raikan was such a skilled teacher.

I ran away to another world to avoid Roel, who was trying to kill me, and now I’m in danger of being killed by Raikan from another world, it’s so absurd that I can’t even laugh.

Still, if this is another world, it means I can use space magic without any burden. I just need to keep Raikan in check as much as possible, and then use space magic to find an opportunity to escape.

As I thought that and tried to prepare for Raikan’s attack by putting tension in my thigh muscles, a huge magic circle suddenly appeared under my feet.

It was such a secretive magic that I couldn’t even detect the magic power under my feet until the magic was activated.

Before I could even avoid it, tremendous magic power swept through my body in an instant, and suddenly my vision darkened and I felt like I had collapsed onto a hard wooden chair.

My whole body didn’t even budge as if I was bound by magic. I couldn’t move even a single finger except for breathing. My vision was also taken away, but my hearing, smell, and sense of touch were still intact.

I heard footsteps approaching me. The sound of shoes clicking echoed around me.

Who could it be? I don’t have any friends who are such powerful magicians. Then, is the person who kidnapped me here an enemy…?

The footsteps stopped in front of me. Along with the sound of clothes brushing against each other, I unknowingly flinched slightly as I felt a cool touch on my cheek.

The hand that was carefully stroking my cheek had a sweet fragrance mixed in.

In an instant, the dark vision found light again.

And I made eye contact with an unknown girl who was looking at me with teary eyes.

,…Ross.,

The identity of the sweet fragrance that tickled the tip of my nose was the scent of strawberries.