Ch.86Academy Attack Incident – 8

“UWOOOOOOH?!”

Maker’s body, caught in the trap, shot up into the air. The creature screamed strangely as it flew skyward and crashed into the barrier. Hands made of flame seized its body from above and below.

The flaming arms swung sideways, tearing the creature in two, armor and all. Even as its body was being torn apart, it attempted to counterattack. Dozens of tentacles sprouted and lashed out in all directions.

KWAGWAGWANG! Where the tentacles struck, massive craters formed as if bombs had exploded. Trees as thick as several arm spans were torn away like tender young shoots.

The creature regenerated both of its torn halves. Seeing that the Maker had become two, I drank in more pure mana. Blue light, transformed into magic circles within my body, spread out riding the wind.

As if unwilling to just watch this happen, the tentacles twisted and coiled before attacking me. I surrounded myself with a barrier to deflect the attack, then slammed a massive stone pillar down on the creature’s head.

“Kuhek?!”

The Maker ‘entities’ were flattened under the rock that must have weighed at least a hundred tons, making strange noises as they spread out flat.

“Not yet! Not yet!”

The flattened bodies exploded outward like a blast. Each of the thousands of scattered pieces began growing into a Maker. Those that couldn’t escape from under the rock were instead breaking it apart from below.

Before they could fully form their bodies, I thrust Eternity into them. As the blade, saturated with refined mana, pierced the soil, the already devastated earth twisted once more.

Tree roots grew wildly, covering everything. A mist of ice and frost settled over them. Soon after, sharp icicles shot up from the frost particles, stabbing everything in sight.

Finally, flames covered it all. Ice and fire collided violently, creating thick steam. The Makers exposed to the mana-infused steam evaporated one after another.

As its pieces evaporated in succession, the creature gathered its fragments and appeared as its main body.

“This is amazing! You’ve become much stronger since I first greeted you! Is this the result of training? Or were you hiding your power all along?”

“Think whatever you like.”

“Then I’ll assume you were hiding your power! In this Maker’s humble opinion, this doesn’t seem like a level one could achieve through simple training!”

Despite appearing so frivolous, he was still a Legion Commander with surprisingly sharp senses. Back then I might have been just a talented student at the Academy level, but not anymore.

“Hehehe, this won’t do! I must hurry to kill you before the Sword Saint arrives! If I hold back my power out of fear of the Sword Saint and end up dying by your hand, it would shame the name of Legion Commander!”

“Oh, really? You don’t seem to have many cards left to play, so how do you plan to deal with me?”

I glanced at the time, deliberately allowing him to keep talking. It should start taking effect soon.

“This Maker’s— KUHACK?!”

‘It worked.’

The Maker suddenly vomited a strange mucus as he was about to puff himself up and speak dramatically as usual. I could see his skin not covered by armor turning a murky grayish color.

‘Finally taking effect.’

I thought I’d been administering it for quite some time, but only now was it showing results. The Maker noticed the grayish mucus seeping through his skin and shouted in a panicked voice.

“What have you done to my body?!”

“The exact same thing you were trying to do to me.”

“Poison! You used poison! How cowardly!”

“Didn’t I just say it’s exactly what you were trying to do to me?”

I simply paid him back in kind, seeing how he’d been quietly spreading poison from the start when he set up the barrier. I’ve been healing the surroundings in real time while detoxifying myself, to prevent the Academy from being contaminated.

If left alone, this area would probably have turned into a toxic swamp.

“It’s okay. I won’t be angry. I suppose that’s all a slime brain can come up with?”

“KRAAAAGH! You dare call me a slime again! I won’t forgive you!”

The enraged Maker began inflating his body as if making one last desperate attempt. Each extremity of his body swelled rapidly, like balloons being inflated.

In just a few seconds, he grew larger than a decent-sized building and cackled.

“Too bad, Miss Mira Crate! You’ll die here with me!”

“Why? Are you planning to fake a self-destruction explosion like the others and escape with just your main body?”

“……”

The Maker fell silent for the first time. Having had his final trump card exposed, he couldn’t hide his confusion.

When I heard from Priscilla about her fight with the Legion Commander, she mentioned that the Maker had once threatened her like this and escaped, so I took a guess—and it seems I was right.

“If you want to explode so badly, I’ll help you with that.”

I snapped my fingers. The refined mana filling the inside of the barrier poured into his body. His grayish body rapidly turned blue.

“KRAAAAGH! What are you trying to do, Mira Crate?!”

“What you were planning to do.”

While continuously injecting refined mana into his body, I changed the shape and position of the barrier. The cubic barrier transformed into an icosahedron and shrank to surround the Maker rather than myself.

As the barrier closed in around him, the Maker grew desperate, trying every method to escape, but the barrier held firm. His body filled the inside completely.

I continuously pumped mana into the barrier. His body swelled enormously as it turned a mana-like blue color.

The Maker, who seemed like he would expand forever, finally stopped after nearly filling the entire icosahedron. He was shouting something from inside, but I had no intention of listening at this point.

Though I wanted to taunt him a bit, it would only give him more time, so I restrained myself and placed a tiny spark inside the barrier.

—!!!!!!

The small spark soon met the refined mana, triggering a chain reaction. The inside of the barrier transformed into a massive purgatory. Flames that embodied hell itself used the Maker’s entire body as fuel, causing a spectacular explosion.

The flames that consumed him pounded against the barrier as if unsatisfied. The surface of the icosahedron rippled wildly, but the barrier maintained its shape.

Until everything inside was incinerated by the purgatory, leaving not even ashes.

As there was nothing left to burn, the flames gradually subsided. I compressed the barrier small enough to fit in my palm, then crushed it. The icosahedron, turned to blue powder, scattered into the air.

‘That makes two down.’

Five Legion Commanders remained. Considering how much damage the original Legion Commanders caused in the original story, this was a remarkable achievement.

I exhaled my final mana breath. My body, which had been glowing pale blue, gradually returned to its original form. As forest air entered my lungs instead of mana, I felt a refreshing taste in my mouth.

All that remained was the Undead Dragon that should have been causing havoc here. It was wriggling on the ground, its body split into 27 pieces, each piece fixed to the ground.

I gathered what little refined mana I had left and snapped my fingers. White flames engulfed the Undead Dragon. It was a spell I had used against regenerative undead creatures in the other world.

I had been restraining myself from using it in this world since it seemed not to exist here. Once used, it leaves too intense a trace.

‘Still effective.’

As the white flames subsided, I could see a white crystalline residue, like salt, settling on the ground. I quickly cleaned up. While I was at it, I restored the devastated forest to a reasonable state.

The fact that a Legion Commander came here must remain secret until it’s revealed. If that becomes known, it will inevitably lead to questions about who defeated them.

Just as I finished cleaning up, I sensed an incredibly intense killing intent from far away. The Sword Saint had arrived. I wouldn’t need to worry about that side anymore.

‘Where might the Chairman be?’

Only the Chairman remained. Astaroth had supposedly lured the Explosion Dragon out of the Academy, but I wasn’t sure of the outcome.

‘Surely he won’t be permanently missing like in the original story?’

I felt uneasy. Maybe I should ask Elisciere.

“You’ve grown weak, Meligor. Did you flee to humans and become tainted by them?”

“Shut… your mouth… I told you… not to call me by that name…”

Erestica gritted her teeth, but with her joints all twisted and half-crushed body, she could do nothing. If she were human, it would have been a miracle to even be alive in such a state.

Mahvat looked down at her pitiful form mockingly and laughed softly.

“Dying in human form rather than as a dragon won’t negate your identity. Black Dragon.”

“I said… shut… that mouth…!”

Crunch, crunch. Ignoring the screaming of her crushed and broken bone fragments grinding against each other, Erestica tried to rise, but soon collapsed flat on her back, staring at the sky.

It wasn’t for lack of will, but because her body truly wouldn’t move.

“What a shame. If I had a little more time, I could have devoured you. If I ate you now, I don’t think I could digest you properly. I suppose a Black Dragon is still a Black Dragon, even when rotten and weakened?”

“Try it if you—kuhuk, kuluk!”

Erestica coughed up dark red blood as she tried to move. Crack! The precarious joint of her left shoulder shattered completely.

Looking down at her with genuine contempt, Mahvat dropped something onto Erestica. It was an incredibly precise placement, considering the size difference between dragons and humans.

“Right. I almost forgot.”

Erestica’s eyes bulged with rage as she saw what had fallen on her body.

“The ‘new one’ I promised. Grow it again or not, do as you please.”

It was the corpse of a woman who had starved to death. Judging by the condition, she had been dead for at least 30-40 years. Her dried, twisted face was frozen in terrible agony.

“Hmm, come to think of it, was the one you were raising still alive?”

“……”

“Anyway, I’ve kept my promise, so don’t bother me anymore.”

With those final words, Mahvat departed, leaving behind not a shred of interest in either Erestica or the woman he had dropped.

Erestica stared blankly at the corpse of the woman who had starved to death decades ago, now lying in her arms.

A dragon’s sense of time is completely different from a human’s. What might be decades for humans feels like an insignificant amount of time to dragons.

He probably collected this woman in advance, like preparing supplies. But because he used dragon standards rather than human ones for “in advance,” she had been abandoned for decades before finally being brought out.

Even Erestica, who had lived as a human for 130 years, sometimes made such mistakes—how much more so for one who had never experienced such a life?

“……”

Above all, Mahvat would never care about humans anyway.

Just like 130 years ago.

“Hic…”

Even if it was just a fleeting moment for dragons, it wasn’t for Erestica.

“My child…”

Clear tears streamed down Erestica’s face as she recalled memories of the past. With trembling hands, she painfully untied the string that had bound her hair.

She had failed. She had intended to kill Mahvat and place it on his grave to appease the grudge, but she had failed again.

“My child… my baby… I’m sorry… Mommy is so sorry…”

Clutching the worn-out hair tie to her chest, Erestica wept for a long time.