Chap 46-Incredibly Incompetent

 

In the basement of the academy’s main building, in front of the private teleport gate leading to the Rapelasia family’s territory.

Reizel Rapelasia stood alone, gazing at the faintly glowing magic circle.

After the commotion in the headmaster’s office a little while ago, she had finally succeeded in securing Yeon Bennet.

Although there had been some friction with the academy professors, and Yeon Bennet’s attitude was different from what she had expected, the result was, in any case, as she had intended.

However, Reizel couldn’t shake off a certain unease.

It was different from the picture she had imagined.

She had anticipated some resistance in the process of bringing Yeon Bennet from the academy, but she thought she could definitely predict Yeon Bennet’s own reaction.

The infamy of being Terra’s worst villainess, the declaration of expulsion from her family, and isolation at the academy.

If she were the person she was known to be, she would naturally be trembling with fear, crying and clinging, or begging abjectly to be spared.

But the Yeon Bennet she actually faced was completely different.

She stood in her way without any agitation, saying she would follow with such composure.

‘What on earth is she thinking?’

She was more uneasy because she followed so willingly.

As if she had some other ulterior motive.

Could she be planning something after going to the Rapelasia territory?

Or is she trying to find my weakness and use it against me?

Various possibilities flashed through Reizel’s mind.

But she forcibly shook off those thoughts.

Now was not the time to worry about such trivial anxieties.

Whatever Yeon Bennet’s intentions were, a much more important and urgent problem was weighing on her.

It was the condition of her beloved daughter, Sera.

As time went on, Sera’s condition was visibly deteriorating.

The Rapelasia family had mobilized all its skills and knowledge, but it could not stop the progress of the Contamination that was consuming Sera’s body.

Now, as a last resort, they were using a powerful preservation potion to almost freeze her body, delaying the magical beastification at the cellular level as much as possible.

But that was only a temporary measure, not a fundamental solution. The effects of the potion would not last forever.

There was no time.

Yeon Bennet.

The only being who was unharmed even after coming into contact with Contamination.

She was the last hope.

As soon as Reizel secured Yeon’s body, she planned to mobilize the family’s top researchers to ‘dissect’ and analyze her.

She had to find out the secret of how she could resist Contamination and quickly create a cure for Sera based on it.

Every step was urgent.

If she delayed even a little, she might lose Sera forever.

Normally, ‘experiments’ on living humans were taboo throughout Terra, but Reizel didn’t feel the slightest guilt about Yeon Bennet.

Rather, using her for human experimentation was a way to repay her for the harm she had done to Terra and to help humanity, even if only a little.

It was at that very moment when Reizel was hardening her resolve and waiting for Yeon Bennet to arrive.

Wooooong—!

The teleport gate behind her suddenly began to operate with a loud noise.

Blue magical power swirled, creating an unstable rift in the center of the gate.

“What is this?!”

Reizel reflexively turned around and took a defensive stance towards the gate.

Beyond the warp gate, Reizel felt an immense presence that was growing stronger and stronger within the unstable, fluctuating spatial rift.

It was a wave of extremely pure and overwhelming power, unlike any magical power she had ever experienced.

Dazzling as if facing the sun itself, and at the same time, an awe-inspiring energy that made every cell in her body tremble.

‘Holy power?’

Reizel frowned.

There were very few beings throughout Terra who emitted such powerful and pure holy power.

A sense of foreboding enveloped Reizel’s entire body.

Reizel drew up her magical power and glared fiercely at the brilliantly shining rift in the gate.

…

Transcendent.

They were once mortals.

Born with finite lives, they fought against fate in their own ways, grew, and finally surpassed the human limit of level 10.

Their stories were so great and intense that.

The Akashic Records, where all the records of the universe slumber, recognized their lives as ‘myths’ and granted them powerful divine power befitting them.

That was the transcendent.

They started as mortals, but they came to possess the power to fight on equal terms with gods who had existed since the beginning or who had taken shape from the gathering of sublime faith.

They were the strongmen of a new era who had transcended the limits of mortality.

But their emergence shook the existing order.

About 1000 years ago, as the number of transcendents gradually increased and their power grew, the gods who had enjoyed eternal power felt threatened.

The gods, who could no longer condone the birth of new beings who were coveting their positions, made an extreme decision.

It was to erase all mortals, so that no more transcendents could be born.

To stop this terrible plan, the transcendents rose up against the gods who were trying to become their creators and destroyers at the same time.

Thus began the magnificent and desperate war between gods and transcendents, with the future of mortals at stake.

The war, called [Ragnarok], swept through countless dimensions and annihilated countless beings.

In the end, the war ended in the victory of the transcendents.

But the price was too high.

What remained behind the glory of victory was all the dimensions that had been shattered and entangled.

The age of the gods had ended, but the wounds they left behind were too deep.

The entangled dimensions were barely merged into one form, and thus a new world, ‘Terra’, was born, where the gods had disappeared.

However, the transcendents who had won the war also suffered enormous wounds.

Their divine power was weakened, and their very existence threatened to break the unstable world of Terra, which had just been born.

In the end, most of the transcendents chose to retreat to the spirit world beyond the realm of reality to wait until their wounds healed and the world stabilized.

Only a management system called the ‘System’ remained, continuing the tedious task of stabilizing Terra.

And now, here.

In a space in the spirit world that had been silent for a long time, transcendents gathered in one place for the first time in a long time.

“…So, since Dorothy was attacked, it’s only right that I go!”

What broke the silence was a sharp and agitated female voice.

A woman with snow-white hair fluttering and burning, intense eyes shouted, clenching her fist.

Around her, destructive magical power, true to its name, was rising like a heat haze.

Anaide, the Witch of Destruction.

The current head of the Witch clan, and the eldest of the three sisters born to the great Witch Oz.

She looked around with burning anger and glared at the other transcendents.

Of course, no transcendent felt fear at her threatening aura.

They just wore indifferent expressions, as if they were bored or thinking, ‘Here we go again.’

No matter how much she was the Witch of Destruction, there was not a single being weaker than her here.

“Hmm, calm down, Anaide.”

A transcendent opened his mouth in a leisurely and playful voice.

It was an existence whose form was as indistinct as a shadow.

“The Witch clan will produce another guardian after Dorothy? Aren’t you being too greedy? You have to give others a chance too.”

“That’s right.”

This time, a transcendent wearing huge armor chimed in with a heavy voice.

“And Anaide, you originally have divine power specialized in destruction and attack. The role of ‘guardian’, who has to protect the world and maintain balance, doesn’t suit you at all.”

“Shut up!!”

Anaide shouted furiously.

Crimson magical power swirled around her like a storm.

“I don’t care whether it suits me or not! I’m going to find the guy who made Dorothy like that and tear him to pieces. How dare you touch my sister?”

Watching Anaide, who was unable to contain her anger and was rampaging, the other transcendents just shook their heads or sighed.

Her fiery personality had not changed now or then.

But apart from her anger, Dorothy’s absence and the issue of selecting a new guardian were important matters for all the transcendents in the spirit world.

At that time, a man leaning against a crystal pillar emitting a mysterious light quietly opened his mouth.

The golden scales that were glimpsed between his dazzling blond hair revealed his extraordinary nature.

“I will go.”

His voice was low and resonant, and made listeners feel awe.

His name was Ationez, the primordial dragon of the ancient dragon race, a powerful transcendent.

Several transcendents nodded at Ationez’s suggestion.

As the apex of magical creatures, the dragon race, he had the ability to freely manipulate various magics.

There seemed to be a tacit consensus that he would be suitable for the role of guardian, who had to maintain the balance of Terra and deal with various threats.

The atmosphere seemed to be leaning towards him becoming the next guardian.

However,

“You can’t.”

All eyes turned to where the voice came from.

The platform where six thrones were placed, above the space of the spirit world.

From there, a woman’s voice echoed.

Three of the six thrones were empty.

The Dreamer, who was known to have disappeared a long time ago.

The Evil God who is currently causing problems in Terra.

And… the God of Fighting’s seat, who could not attend this meeting due to unavoidable circumstances.

The owner of the voice was one of the three sitting on the platform, a woman with long, mysterious purple hair.

She rested her chin on her hand and looked down at Ationez with a languid yet sharp gaze.

“May I ask why?”

Ationez asked, maintaining his courtesy but unable to hide his displeasure.

The purple-haired woman chuckled and replied.

“Reason? The reason is simple.”

Her gaze shifted from Ationez to the other transcendents, and then back to her colleagues on the platform.

“That Dorothy was attacked without leaving any trace. Completely erasing the presence of a transcendent from Terra. The only ones who can do that are…”

Her voice lowered slightly.

“The Six Heavens.”

She gave a meaningful smile and glanced at the other two transcendents sitting on the same platform as her.

“But it’s not me.”

The air in the spirit world froze instantly.

The Six Heavens.

The six beings at the very pinnacle of the transcendents.

Her implication that the traitor was one of them came as a great shock to the other transcendents.

She turned her gaze back to Ationez.

This time, it was a look filled with blatant contempt and ridicule.

“So, I can’t send you, who is the pet lizard of that old geezer, the ‘God of War’.”

“……!”

Ationez’s face turned red with anger.

But he couldn’t bring himself to refute it.

“You might be on the side of the traitor, so how can we trust you and send you down to Terra? Isn’t that right?”

She asked mockingly.

Ationez could only clench his trembling fist and glare at her with an angry expression, unable to say anything.

The other transcendents just began to read the purple-haired woman’s expression.

Her words, one of the Six Heavens, were as good as the laws of the spirit world.

She looked around again with a satisfied expression and declared.

“Okay. Then let’s do this. Transcendent directly related to the Six Heavens will be excluded from this guardian position. Anyone have any complaints?”

The other two of the Six Heavens sitting on the platform also showed no particular reaction.

The handsome man with black hair and cool features, the ‘God of War’, just glanced at the purple-haired woman with a displeased expression, and then indifferently turned his head away as if to say, ‘Do as you please.’

He had an attitude that he was not interested in such matters in the first place.

The ‘Death God’, who was sitting next to him and looked like a young girl, was different.

She smiled brightly, as if she was having fun, with her gray hair braided down.

“Do as you please. I don’t care anyway.”

Behind her innocent smile was a chilling aura of death.

The meeting of the spirit world seemed to be coming to an end as the purple-haired woman intended.

It was just when the discussion about who would be the next guardian was about to begin again.

“Huh?”

Suddenly, Anaide, the Witch of Destruction, who had been raging with anger until just now, muttered as if she was puzzled.

She frowned, staring at a point in the air.

“…That’s strange?”

When a transcendent asked, “What is it, Anaide?” Anaide tilted her head and replied.

“I just… looked at Terra… and someone’s already gone down.”

“What?”

“There’s no more room to fully contain our power in Terra. It’s already saturated.”

At Anaide’s words, the meeting place was instantly abuzz.

The transcendents each began to examine the state of Terra with their own divine power.

And expressions of bewilderment and surprise began to appear on their faces one by one.

Anaide’s words were true.

Someone had already descended.

It meant that someone else had already taken Dorothy’s place.

While everyone was flustered and examining Terra, only the purple-haired woman on the platform showed a different reaction.

She narrowed her eyes and stared intently at one point in Terra.

And a low murmur flowed from her lips.

That voice was mixed with deep doubt and a very slight displeasure.

“How did that bitch!?”