Chapter 333 : The Villain’s POV in the Academy
Chapter 333: The Villain’s POV in the Academy
-Our attacks are working!
-Bring everything we have, tanks or whatever! Don’t hold anything back, pour it all on him!
Waaaaaaaaah-!
Cheers and explosions rang out endlessly from all directions.
As energy churned and mana raged, even the flow of ‘The River’ could be felt gradually changing.
[Foolish…… creatures……!]
The Sky Dragon growled in a voice filled with irritation.
Looking down with his one remaining eye, the humans below seemed no different from a swarm of ants devoid of intelligence.
These creatures would lose their lives from a single light breath of his, yet they recklessly charged at him without knowing their place. Watching them was so absurd that his disbelief gradually began turning into rage.
Then, suddenly, he caught sight of his own face reflected in the glass of a building that had yet to collapse.
The wound stood out far more than anything else. The long vertical gash running from the center of his pupil all the way down to his jaw looked especially hideous, with even the charred-black traces of burning still remaining.
And that became the trigger.
[You foolish creatures-!!]
At last, his patience reached its limit.
He roared toward the heavens with every ounce of hatred and fury he possessed. It was merely a cry without any magical manipulation whatsoever, yet that alone dispersed the clouds and changed the weather.
[How dare mere livestock!!]
To him, humans were nothing more than insignificant creatures.
They were so feeble that no matter how hard they bit with their tiny teeth, they couldn’t draw even a single drop of blood from his body. And yet, their souls possessed tremendous potential, making them useful creatures in many ways.
That was why he had underestimated them.
What he had done for the past 200 years was extremely simple.
He discarded his physical body, covered the entire city with his consciousness(意識), and whenever the humans desired it, showered them with rain imbued with his power. On top of that, he occasionally infiltrated the humans’ consciousness network and subtly interfered with their thoughts, allowing him to harvest their souls without much difficulty.
But that had been his mistake.
The technology the humans had continued developing became a sharpened blade, and in the end, it had stabbed their master in the back.
Regardless of the actual severity of the wound it inflicted, he found the very fact that the tip of their blade had pierced him impossible to tolerate.
No more.
He could tolerate this no longer.
He had suppressed his anger in order to somehow repair and rebuild the system ruined by Drake Stingray, that hideously old slug, but now he realized there had been no point.
[I will rewrite everything……!]
He had to start over from the beginning.
The management system of this farm had been fundamentally flawed from its roots. Drake had actively involved himself in the process ever since this city was founded, so its very birth could be considered an error.
This would not do.
Rather than repairing and reusing it, he had to create it again from the beginning. Their autonomy had to be reduced to the bare minimum. This city was cursed and twisted. It would have to be reborn and grow anew, entirely according to his plan.
The moment he made that decision, the enormous scar running from his eye to his jaw bubbled and healed. His reptilian eye turned toward the foolish humans who had yet to even comprehend the situation.
Why was he called the ‘Sky Dragon’?
[I pierce through the universe and reshape heaven and earth.]
Two hundred years ago, humans had revered his power and bestowed upon him the name Sky Dragon. He would teach these ignorant insects rampaging about what fear truly was.
[I am your Catastrophe-]
He unleashed the full power of the chosen race.
As he roared, the weather transformed.
Dark clouds suddenly gathered, and thunder and lightning raged. The sun disappeared behind the clouds, and rain poured down.
[Your end, and-]
Shadows surged forth, and unidentified light filled the sky. The earth split apart, and water erupted from the fissures.
That alone reduced various weapons of war scattered across the battlefield to heaps of scrap metal, while countless people screamed and began collapsing.
The only ones who managed to survive were the humans known as high-level Adaptees. But even among them, roughly 1/3 were pushed to the point of overloading their bodies merely from detoxifying the tremendous amount of mana emitted by the Sky Dragon.
[It shall become your new beginning-!!]
And.
His gaze turned toward the culprit responsible for all of this.
Aaron Stingray.
[You will be the first, Aaron Stingray!]
His two vertically slit pupils precisely picked Aaron Stingray out from among the countless insects.
Aaron, who had been attempting to exploit another opening to attack, instantly sensed that his position had been exposed and sharply changed his trajectory.
A bolt of lightning struck the spot where he had been just a split second later. He had barely managed to evade it.
[Do you think I’ll let you escape!]
Now that he had decided to fight with his full strength, he had no intention of leisurely holding back and giving that bastard another opportunity.
The Sky Dragon uttered an incomprehensible language toward the heavens, and the dark clouds unleashed lightning at an even more terrifying rate, erasing everything on the ground.
[I’ll erase everything, including you! Everything will begin anew!]
Among human myths, weren’t there many that believed humanity had begun with just one man and one woman in the beginning?
Yes, that was what he would do.
He would leave only the most docile specimens and erase everything else. A Dragon had all the time in the world.
If he bred them generation after generation for a few thousand years, eventually only those incapable of even conceiving the thought of defying him would remain.
Of course, whether the souls of humans raised that way would possess potential comparable to that of modern humanity was uncertain…… but he no longer cared. His fury had already risen to the very top of his head, and he had long since cast reason aside.
Kwaaaang! Kwaaaaaang! Kwaaaaaang!
An immeasurable number of thunderstorms raged as they relentlessly pursued Aaron. Aaron changed his strategy and once again began weaving his threads together.
[Fine, then! Try it if you dare!]
The moment he growled, threads spread broadly throughout the entire Sector.
It looked as though a gigantic spider had built its nest across the entire city. At a glance, it even resembled snow accumulating despite the weather.
The true nature of that spiderweb was revealed when another bolt of lightning struck a building. The lightning that should have mercilessly reduced the structure to ashes instead traveled along the spiderweb and was absorbed into the ground.
And that wasn’t all.
The shaking and shifting ground was bound together by the spiderweb, preventing it from collapsing any further. The humans who should have died like flies were likewise wrapped in the spiderweb like cocoons and safely protected.
At that sight, the Sky Dragon instead burst into loud laughter.
[Khahahahaha! Yes, this is how it should be! I could never accept that a human incapable of even this much managed to wound my august visage! But how long do you think you can endure with mere threads like those!]
The Sky Dragon slammed all four feet into the ground.
The impact helplessly tore apart sections of the vast spiderweb. Some portions managed to hold, but when the Sky Dragon applied even greater force, they ultimately failed to endure.
“……!”
Aaron’s expression twisted.
A massive amount of steam was also escaping from his body. Merely using that technique must have placed an enormous burden on him. The fact that he had dismissed the flaming sword he had been holding before using the technique was proof enough.
But that wasn’t enough.
More…… he couldn’t be satisfied unless he tormented that bastard even more.
He once again began preparing large-scale magic.
[Now, let us go again.]
[Sky Dragon!!]
At that moment, a wave of flames shot straight toward the Sky Dragon’s nape. The impact caused his body to stagger sideways. The area struck by the flame wave had been slightly cooked beneath the scales, slowing its recovery.
Only the Breath of another Dragon could inflict an impact of this magnitude.
Sure enough, Dwindrog rapidly streaked past one side of his vision.
Even if he was merely a youngster who had only just grown beyond being a Hatchling, with a false soul residing within him, a Dragon was still a Dragon in the end.
[Right…… you were here too……!]
In terms of danger, he was hardly any different from Aaron.
Alongside the spell formula he was already preparing, the Sky Dragon began preparing a gift for Dwindrog as well.
But before the spell formula could be completed, another interruption came. A massive barrage flew toward his eye from afar and exploded just before reaching his cornea.
Kwaaaaaang-!
Turning his gaze, he saw an unidentified gigantic cannon(巨砲) aimed at him from roughly several dozen kilometers away. He thought it looked familiar, and then remembered that it was something the ‘Red Fixer’ had used.
[With a mere toy like that……!]
Firepower of that level wouldn’t even be capable of penetrating his scales…… or so he thought, when another barrage came pouring in.
Booom! Booom! Boooooom! Boom! Boom! Kwaaaang! Kwaaaang!
Enormous explosions erupted incessantly around the Sky Dragon’s face.
That gigantic cannon from moments ago was unleashing bombardment without pause. It didn’t possess enough firepower to penetrate his hardened scales, but it was more than sufficient to obscure his vision.
As though that weren’t enough, this time yellow dust that had appeared from somewhere surrounded the area. It completely disrupted not only visible light but even the surrounding flow of mana, making it extremely irritating for the Sky Dragon.
‘Is that [Locust Plague]……!’
That, too, was something once used by one of the Special Mission Fixers. Apparently, despite all the lightning he had scattered around, those who possessed some degree of skill were still alive. Some had even secretly approached all the way to his claws before attempting to attack.
-Die, monster! Dieeeee!!
-Find the Reverse Scale! They said a Dragon’s weakness is the Reverse Scale!
[Do not rush me…… I’ll erase every last one of you!]
But even that was merely laughable to the Sky Dragon. When he lightly stomped his foot, a considerable number of the surviving high-level Adaptees were blown away like fallen leaves.
And when he shook his head once more, the yellow dust that had been disrupting his senses was helplessly swept away.
[Yes, this should be enough.]
The Sky Dragon sneered as he inhaled, then lightly breathed toward the ground. Blue flames flowed through the gaps between his enormous teeth and melted away most of the surviving high-level Adaptees.
When the Dragon Breath subsided, the charred-black earth was revealed.
And on one side of it was a small energy sphere roughly 3 meters in diameter, inside which several humans were huddled together with frightened expressions.
Among them was a familiar face.
[Ah. The heir of Militech.]
Vladimir was struggling to maintain a shield with a terrified expression, tears and snot streaming down his face. But his Overload Rate had already risen to a dangerous level, making him look as though he might explode with a bang at any moment.
[……There’s no need for me to deal with him separately.]
This was the final stage.
Once the magic was completed, he would be able to erase the entire city, including Aaron Stingray. Thinking so, he rapidly filled the empty sections of the magic circle with the spell formula when-
He realized one thing.
‘That bastard’s presence disappeared again……!’
Apparently, Aaron had taken advantage of the brief disruption to his senses to hide. Another wave of displeasure surged through him, but he had no intention of wasting effort searching for the bastard.
He judged that hiding himself was merely another strategy to somehow buy time. But no matter what petty tricks that bastard tried, this was truly the end. He only needed to add one final line to the spell formula to complete it.
Once that happened, it wouldn’t matter where the bastard had hidden. ‘New Valhalla City’ would disappear as it was, leaving behind nothing but land upon which he could build a new farm.
With that thought, just before he filled the magic circle with the final spell formula.
Sparkle.
Sparkle sparkle.
Something unidentified fluttered gently and caught his attention. At first, he thought it might be snow falling, but judging by the size of the pieces and the way they descended, it absolutely wasn’t snow.
[Paper……?]
It was paper.
Unidentified rectangular pieces of paper were scattering down from the sky, quite literally like falling snow.
[Tch.]
What bizarre trick was this supposed to be now?
He was beginning to grow tired of their increasingly ridiculous methods of stalling for time. Paying no attention whatsoever to the unidentified scraps of paper, he filled in the final spell formula and completed it.
A massive amount of mana poured into the magic circle all at once, burning and annihilating the papers fluttering nearby. Some of them were even torn apart by the wind pressure generated by the mana reaction.
And at the same time.
“……You tore it.”
Aaron’s voice could be heard.
The Sky Dragon couldn’t tell where it was coming from, but he didn’t care in the slightest. He had no desire to listen to the voice of an insect that would soon cease to exist.
It was over anyway.
You insects had lost, and I had won.
The next moment after he thought that, an inexplicable phenomenon occurred.
[Where…… is this……?]
He had undoubtedly completed the spell formula, yet the magic circle had evaporated. In its place stretched unfamiliar land, an unfamiliar sky, and unfamiliar mana.
The only familiar sight was Aaron standing in midair atop his threads. The moment he saw him, the Sky Dragon once again felt violent rage and growled.
[What the hell did you do……!]
In response to the Sky Dragon’s question, Aaron answered with a somewhat exhausted expression, yet at the same time, he looked satisfied.
“……Welcome to the Hunting Ground.”