The Genius Tamer of the Academy – Chapter 244

Chapter 244

Inside the barrier, now turned to ruins after repeated battles.

The sight of the devastated ground, pocked with deep craters, filled his vision.

Abaddon muttered in a chilling voice.

“So persistent… these guys.”

Instead of feeling displeasure at the fact that far too much time had been wasted, he found himself simultaneously filled with a sense of wonder.

These young ones, who hadn’t even graduated from the Academy, threw themselves into the fight, risking their lives to stop him.

That faith, That desperation. How could one explain the anger-driven emotions they carried?

Enemies, yet tragically talented individuals.

Abaddon gritted his teeth and stared straight into Lee Han’s eyes as he struggled to stand.

“To think you actually endured an entire hour…”

One hour, until Solia’s barrier finally dissipated.

They had successfully managed to bind him for that entire time.

However, the cost was steep.

Abaddon murmured in a dry, emotionless voice.

“But you lost a friend.”

“Ugh… hngh…!”

At those words, Lee Han let out a grief-stricken sob.

Because ‘holding out’ was the priority, three of them had been rendered unable to fight, but at least their lives were spared.

Even Basilus, born as a dragon, didn’t succumb to Abaddon so easily.

But Won did not.

Won lay dead, eyes wide open, his body torn to shreds.

“Why… why did it have to be like this… ugh… urgh…!”

As Lee Han’s sobs, filled with rage, echoed around him,

Abaddon merely gazed coldly at the average talent who had died in his grasp.

He had been a promising talent within Ardel Academy,

But against monsters that far surpassed the realm of mere talent, he wouldn’t have stood a chance.

Abaddon clicked his tongue briefly, meeting Lee Han’s murderous gaze.

He could kill the remaining three right here if he wished, but he couldn’t afford to waste any more time.

For that reason, Abaddon spoke coldly.

“You’ve done enough.”

The looks in the eyes of the three staring up at him were shockingly similar.

Solia nearly collapsed from maintaining the barrier.

Adela, dazed by Won’s death.

And Lee Han, seething with fury.

Even Basilus, the dragon who didn’t know his master’s whereabouts.

Despite their inability to fight properly, their determined eyes showed they were prepared to risk their lives.

Abaddon loathed those looks, but he acknowledged them.

“I’ll come back later to kill you all.”

With those words alone.

In a fleeting moment that no one could seize,

Abaddon vanished.

“Ah… ah…”

They should have stopped him, but they couldn’t.

They should have avenged their fallen friend, but….

Helplessly, they could only watch his back as he disappeared.

All they had needed was to hold out for an hour.

Beyond that,

There was nothing more

They could do it.

“Ah… ah… AAAH!”

Exhausted, Lee Han collapsed to the ground, screaming in despair.

* * *

Clomp, clomp.

Footsteps drew near.

There was no need to guess whose they were.

The thick miasma felt as if it would smother me at any moment.

I rose from where I had fallen.

Abaddon, drenched in blood, muttered in a chilling voice.

“Guess you bought enough time.”

“…”

“Was that hour you got by selling out your friends worth it?”

I didn’t want to ask what had happened to my friends on the surface.

Somehow, I felt I shouldn’t know.

Despite knowing how dangerous it was, I had left them behind.

Now, it was my turn to pay the price.

Staring directly at Abaddon, I spoke calmly.

“It wasn’t worth it. An hour was less time than I thought.”

“Was it?”

“If I’d had a bit more time, I would’ve used that power to cut off your head first.”

I deeply regretted not being able to do so.

At my cold words, Abaddon responded mockingly.

“How unfortunate that your ‘what if’ couldn’t become reality.”

Crackle, crackle—

A demonic aura, far stronger than Han Si-hyuk’s, surged violently.

That aura burned everything it touched, like a black furnace.

Staring at his monstrous body, I muttered.

Is that really still a human?

If anything, he was closer to a demon.

The angrier Abaddon became, the stronger he grew.

A vast source of magic. His cube traded emotions for power.

The more he used that power,

The more Abaddon would lose all emotions except rage.

Not that he was a particularly kind soul to begin with,

But the more he used that power, the more monstrous he’d become.

“No, perhaps he’s already a monster.”

Crash—

With a single gesture, Abaddon crushed the underground chamber’s walls like paper.

Boom—

The impact sent Yoon Haul, who had been fiddling with a machine, flying.

She crashed heavily to the ground.

“…”

Her bloodshot eyes stared straight at me.

Abaddon took slow, deliberate steps forward.

“Do you know how much I’ve been holding back for you?”

Abaddon smirked wickedly as he spoke.

“If I really intended to kill you…”

“I could have done it long ago.”

He had kept me alive out of necessity.

To find the whereabouts of the remaining cubes.

However,

Just as I had read Abaddon’s intentions from today’s conversation, he had also discerned mine.

“The location of the last one… seems you don’t know it either, huh?”

The last cube.

Abaddon had believed that I had hidden it somewhere unknown to anyone.

But I had made a fatal mistake.

The truth is that I, too, didn’t know the last cube’s location.

A truth that should never have been revealed.

Bzzzz—

Abaddon’s telekinesis snatched away the cube I was holding in an instant.

“The Overwhelming Power That Cannot Be Stopped”

An overwhelming force that defies all attempts to block it.

The massive magical energy fueled by the Cube of Emotions rendered my feeble powers incapable of even interfering with his telekinesis.

“Ugh… urgh…!”

“It’s useless.”

Abaddon muttered those words as he looked down at the two cubes in his hand.

The cubes, bound to me, could be resummoned by me at any time.

Abaddon could neither freely use nor forcibly take them…

But it was simple.

He could take them if he killed me.

“Haha… hahahaha!”

Abaddon, seemingly reaching the same conclusion, began to snicker.

“If I kill you right here, I can take the last one at my leisure… slowly… without any rush.”

“It may take a long time, but compared to how long I’ve waited so far, it’s nothing….”

Abaddon’s expression stiffened as he spoke.

Following his gaze…

Bzzz—.

There was Joey, crying softly.

The gray kitten I had rescued from the sewers.

No longer just an ordinary kitten; it hadn’t grown a bit despite its age.

And now, it appeared anything but ordinary.

It glowed with a green light, burning bright.

To anyone looking, it wouldn’t appear like a normal cat.

Ah.

“It seems I’ve found the last one… Things are changing, aren’t they?”

As Abaddon’s lips twisted into a sneer, I urgently shouted to Yoon Haul.

The last Cube.

We couldn’t afford to lose it.

“Yoon Haul, run away now!”

She was right beside me.

Even though she’d seen it all.

The Cube of Life.

The one that had hidden within a living being, suppressing its power.

Amidst the gathering of four cubes,

The Cube of Life, reacting to the massive magic around, finally resonated and glimmered.

Was the heavens favoring him?

Why now, of all times,

Why must it be so despairing?

Cursing that shimmering light, I charged toward Abaddon.

And Yoon Haul, clutching Joey, began to flee.

* * *

Whoosh—

Abaddon lunged at me like the wind, aiming for my throat,

And I barely deflected his attack with a feeble barrier.

I blocked his blade with my magic.

More precisely, I blocked the sword-like aura surrounding him, aimed at my neck.

Being ethereal, it could freely change its form.

The magic that was once a sword transformed into a spear and charged again.

Abaddon sneered mockingly as he spoke.

“I said I was a monster, didn’t I?”

“You bastard….”

“In a battle against a monster, you are destined to lose.”

“Your pathetic compassion will make you hesitate at critical moments.”

He had witnessed the moment when Han Si-hyuk took his own life.

Since he was controlling him, he knew.

I couldn’t bring myself to kill Han Si-hyuk.

I knew I had hesitated.

“Don’t worry. I won’t hesitate when it comes to monsters like you.”

Because of you,

For the people who died because of you.

I will erase you from this world.

You drove the people I care about to the brink of death.

I had asked them to buy me time, a cruel request.

And I made a promise to Yoon Haul.

That I would buy her time.

“AAAAAH!”

I let out a battle cry as I lunged at Abaddon.

Abaddon’s magic burns everything it touches.

It’s a pain so intense, one would rather be burned alive.

A searing pain, as if your very bones were being incinerated.

Much like the tortures Abaddon inflicted upon me over half a day.

An attack that brings intense agony even with just a graze.

Unfortunately, I no longer feel that pain.

Relying on the Cube of Sensation, I can no longer feel pain.

Even as my body dies,

Even as it’s cut in half,

I wouldn’t feel it.

Abaddon, too, seemed unsettled.

“It seems the real monster is you.”

Boom—.

The trajectory of his attack played out before my eyes.

An abnormal level of perception granted me near-insane evasion speed,

Allowing me to drag out the fight as long as my body could endure.

“Please… just once… just once….”

My magic spheres disintegrated upon contact with Abaddon’s magic.

All I could do was keep aiming at him, over and over, hoping for a meaningful strike.

“AAAAAH—!”

I staggered, but I kept charging.

I struck Abaddon wherever I could.

Firing magic spheres, erecting barriers.

Throwing every spell I had learned to bind him in place, one by one.

But as time passed,

Abaddon grew more desperate, and in turn, stronger.

Whack—

Whack—

Crunch—

Abaddon stomped on me, slashed me, and broke my bones.

He no longer toyed with me like before.

Every strike now was meant to kill.

Without my heightened senses, any of these blows would have been fatal.

“Haa… ha….”

Even as I rose like a zombie, I was deteriorating.

All I had was my best shield.

But it wasn’t the ultimate shield that could block any spear.

I could dodge a little better,

Take a few more hits.

But I was nothing more than a dying scarecrow.

Not a shield that blocks attacks, just one that merely evades.

In the end, I would not win this battle against Abaddon.