Chapter 336 ·The Villain’s POV in the Academy
Chapter 336: The Villain’s POV in the Academy
“Now. Let’s finish this…….”
I spoke as I calmed my pounding heart.
Seeing me like that, the Sky Dragon muttered as if he couldn’t believe it.
[Yes, I have been wrong all this time. You were never human from the very beginning. To think I wasted all this time thinking the way I did against something like you…….]
The Sky Dragon’s eyes gleamed as he continued.
[Fine. I will accompany you to the very end, monster. But there is still an unbridgeable gap in power between you and me. If you are under the delusion that adding a mere handful of modules will allow you to defeat me-.]
“I said this before, lizard.”
Slash.
“Your tongue is too long.”
The next moment.
One of the Sky Dragon’s legs was severed completely.
The enormous pillar that had supported him toppled helplessly and crashed into the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
[Khuaaaagh……!?]
His vertically slit pupils trembled violently with pain and bewilderment. Bright red, viscous liquid surged and poured from the severed surface.
[How did this……!]
The Sky Dragon tried to retreat in confusion, but the second attack that followed didn’t even give him the chance. This time, a horizontal slash flew across and tore a long wound sideways through his eye.
His bewilderment was obvious.
However, perhaps because he had already experienced a wound of similar severity, this time he didn’t panic and instead tried to assess the situation calmly.
He canceled several of the offensive spells he had been deploying, kicked off the ground, and leaped backward.
Because he was so enormous and powerful, even an action closer to a simple jump opened a distance of several kilometers in an instant.
At the same time, enormous magic circles surrounded his wounds.
The blood pouring out seemed to boil and bubble, then the severed leg grew anew and both eyes returned to an undamaged state.
The time it took for that entire healing process to finish was roughly 2 seconds.
Once again, I was reminded that he was never an enemy a human should normally be capable of fighting. But that didn’t matter to me now.
I kicked off the ground as well and pursued him closely. I didn’t have wings like he did, but by properly utilizing the threads of [Cloud Spider], catching up over a distance like this was easy enough.
I deliberately revealed myself right in front of his face and swung my sword in a wide arc.
[You fool, you fall for the same trick again!]
The trap magic activated once more.
Chains and magic projectiles of every attribute came pouring toward me again.
But I didn’t panic.
Trusting the durability of my strengthened body, I decided to endure them head-on. Sure enough, the magic projectiles that had spectacularly torn my body apart earlier now left only a few scratches on my skin.
Slash-!
I swung my sword in a wide arc and sliced straight through the trap magic that was frantically firing magic projectiles. Without losing its force, the blade continued straight through the magic circle and carved a deep wound into the Sky Dragon’s chest.
[Khugh!? Impossible……! This is impossible……!]
Bewildered, he unleashed another breath attack and fired a massive barrage of magic.
Once again, I didn’t bother dodging. I snapped my fingers and fired individual threads toward the magic circles filling the sky.
Slaaaaaaaaaash-!
The magic circles pierced by the threads of [Cloud Spider] shattered like glass and scattered apart. Fragmented mana crystals glittered as they rained from the sky like a fine drizzle.
It seemed modules really did have something like synergy effects.
The [Cloud Spider] Module itself hadn’t become particularly stronger, yet as the other passive modules grew stronger, its performance had improved along with them. Of course, even with my strengthened body, the attack just now seemed to have placed a considerable burden on me.
[Warning! Overload Rate 360%!]
Hissssssss-!
The cooling system activated and expelled a massive amount of heat. The heat was so intense that the nearby ground itself began to melt.
‘I can’t keep this up for long.’
Let’s finish this quickly.
Part of me wanted to toy with him before ending it, but considering who my opponent was, I didn’t have the luxury. I swung my sword again and launched several slashes.
However.
Just before the slashes tore through his body once more, walls suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The walls then began self-replicating and automatically layered themselves together, forming a sturdy fortress composed of thousands of defensive barriers.
“How annoying.”
I gave it a quick scan, but there was no way around it. Deciding that breaking straight through was my only option, I cut into the wall.
Slash.
First, one layer.
Slash, slash.
Then two layers.
And then four layers.
Then eight layers. Sixteen layers. Thirty-two layers.
I swung my sword rapidly, systematically neutralizing the defensive walls. The walls continuously attempted to restore the damaged barriers through self-replication, but I destroyed them faster than they could regenerate.
Little by little…… little by little…… I moved forward.
Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut. Cut.
I continued advancing as I repeated the cuts.
Magic and sword collided and shattered, sending crystalline fragments flying in every direction. The surrounding area was devastated once again by the shockwaves, but I had no room to care about something like that.
[Warning! Overload Rate 360%!]
[Warning! Overload Rate 620%!]
[Warning! Overload Rate 1960%!]
[Warning! Overload Rate 2100%!]
My body had grown so hot that I could practically feel it melting.
Yet strangely enough, my mind was utterly at peace. It was a sensation I had never experienced even once throughout all the countless enemies I had fought.
What was it that I was swinging?
What was it that I was cutting?
When I regained my senses after briefly becoming dazed by that incomprehensible sensation, what I saw before me was a Dragon with a massive wound in his chest, pouring out blood.
[This…… cannot…… be……!]
Even I didn’t know exactly how it had happened.
But I wasn’t particularly interested in knowing.
Through the gap of the gaping wound, I could see an enormous heart pounding and pumping. Of course, its appearance was quite different from a human heart. Rather than a heart, it looked more like a machine made of gemstones.
Hissssssss-!
I slowly moved my overheated body and approached him. Wherever I stepped, the ground melted, forming small pools of lava.
Leaving a long trail of burning footprints behind me, I approached his side. A massive amount of mana poured from the gaping wound, causing an Otherworld Transformation phenomenon, but it was soon devoured by the heat emanating from me and vanished entirely.
I quietly watched the sight, then raised my sword high toward the sky in front of him. Once again, the sword of blue flame burned brightly enough to sting the eyes as it poured out heat.
“I’ll say it one more time.”
I slowly opened my mouth.
And delivered my final sentence to him.
“Do not covet my world.”
Then I brought it down.
Toward his long, extended neck.
The blade sank into the heart so smoothly that I could barely feel any resistance.
At first, the heart didn’t even seem to recognize that it had been cut and continued diligently pumping. But after dozens of pumps, its movements gradually slowed, until at some point, it stopped moving entirely.
Thud.
And so, his heart split into two and sagged lifelessly. The massive amount of mana swirling around the area scattered in an instant, then began flowing along the ‘River’ without any will of its own.
“Ah…….”
The space that had been filled with the noise of battle soon became an empty place where only hollowness echoed.
Once again, I realized just how quiet and fleeting death could be. Even when the one dying was an existence powerful enough to shake an entire world.
“…….”
After standing blankly before his corpse for a long while, I turned away.
And so.
The long, long battle that had lasted for days finally came to an end.
Ah, of course.
Needless to say.
I didn’t forget to loot the Dragon’s corpse.
The battle was over.
No, the word battle felt far too light to describe the scars left upon this city. ‘War’ seemed like a far more appropriate word than ‘battle.’
In any case, the war had finally ended.
With humanity’s victory, no less.
However, the aftertaste of that victory was somewhat different from what I had imagined.
Usually, in comics or movies, a massive festival would be held to honor the victorious heroes returning home, but unfortunately, there was nothing like that at all.
What greeted us upon returning after defeating the Sky Dragon in the Red Hunting Ground was neither a triumphal arch, nor uplifting music, nor fluttering flower petals.
What awaited us were far more bitter and realistic problems.
For example, the tremendous damage inflicted throughout the entire city by the battle with the Sky Dragon following the Monster Wave.
Compensation for the soldiers and civilians who had lost their lives after being swept up in the Catastrophe.
The collapse of the city’s economy caused by the destruction of colonies on a massive scale.
The fact that the city’s entire stockpile of military supplies reserved for defense had been completely exhausted after days of continuous warfare.
The destruction of the Stingray Group.
The refugees from the Fallen District who had secretly slipped into the city.
The crime rate that had begun soaring because of them.
The disappearance of Anti-Rain technology along with the Sky Dragon, and the changing climate of New Valhalla City as the Otherworld Transformation came undone. And without Anti-Rain, there was even the concern of a second Monster Wave occurring.
Well. None of that had anything to do with me.
No, of course it did…… quite a lot, actually…… but after becoming as exhausted as I possibly could, I didn’t want to worry about all of that too.
Hadn’t this body practically played patty-cake with the Grim Reaper several times already? At least for the time being, I needed time to rest both mentally and physically.
Fortunately, perhaps because they knew that none other than I had played the leading role in defeating the Sky Dragon, even the City Restoration Committee organized by the government and corporations left me alone for a while.
‘No, perhaps they simply couldn’t touch me.’
I was the only person in the entire city who had directly wounded the Sky Dragon. Aside from me, there was only Dwindrog, who belonged to the same Dragon Race. There probably weren’t any idiots stupid enough to annoy someone like that and risk getting on his bad side.
If someone like that had somehow become a member of the City Restoration Committee, I would have been unable to contain my lamentation.
I would have said that rather than watching a city led by idiots like these, it would have been better to watch everyone live as slaves to a Dragon.
Anyway, fortunately, I was given nearly a month to recover.
Politicians, legal professionals, the media, and other corporations and foundations all simply left me alone when I said that I ‘wanted to rest.’
During that time, I frequently visited Miyu’s workshop. Naturally, it was to have my newly installed module setup examined.
“This is ridiculous…… You pushed yourself way too hard!”
The moment Miyu first saw my setup, she was horrified. Then she immediately burst into tears. And not just a little—she bawled her eyes out.
“Your Replacement Rate has gone over 70%.”
“……Hmm. So I’m no longer human.”
“I-I’m not joking! Regardless of the law that strips away your human rights once your Replacement Rate exceeds 70%, this is technically a genuinely serious problem. At this point, there’s no way to reverse……!”
Miyu stopped there, hid her tears with her sleeve, then shook her head to herself and muttered.
“No. I’ll find a way somehow. A way to return you to normal, Mr. Aaron.”
“From how I feel right now, there doesn’t seem to be any particular problem. If anything, my body feels lighter than before, and my mind feels clearer. Is it really that serious?”
“…….”
Miyu didn’t answer my question.
Instead, she gave me one instruction.
“From now on, come to me every day for an examination. You need to give me at least two hours a day…… no, about three hours.”
“……Understood.”
What could I do when the person in charge said so?
When I fought the Sky Dragon, I hadn’t exactly been selective about which modules I used, so I supposed it couldn’t be helped. If something looked powerful, I just inserted it, so there might have been problems during the process that I couldn’t perceive myself.
I had no desire for my heart to suddenly stop while I slept, or for something like the incurable disease I had when I first arrived in this world to flare up again, so I decided to follow her instructions.
After that, about a month passed without any major incidents.
Every day, I visited Miyu’s workshop, had various electrodes connected to me for examinations, and spent the remaining time chatting under the guise of counseling.
Naturally, I didn’t go to work during that period either.
From what I heard, Maria seemed to be negotiating various matters with the City Restoration Committee alongside Kalia in my place, but they looked busy, so I didn’t bother asking for the details.
There were, however, a few strange things during that month.
For example, Miyu would suddenly burst into tears and run away while we were talking as usual. Or other acquaintances would react strangely while speaking with me.
Still, although those things bothered me a little, they weren’t serious enough to become actual problems, so I simply erased them from my mind.
After finally ending all the fighting and finding peace, I didn’t want to ruin my mood by obsessing over minor feelings of unease.
And so one month, two months, three months.
Time continued to pass, and my counseling sessions with Miyu continued as well. By this point, I thought it should be safe to conclude that there was no problem, but Miyu stubbornly refused to let me go.
And as the days passed, Miyu cried more and more often. From my perspective, some incomprehensible problem seemed to have arisen.
Then, three months and several days later.
One day, while I was still living the life of a wealthy unemployed man who hadn’t gone to work in months, someone came to the mansion.
“Chairman. I’m here.”
“It’s been a while, Lord Aaron~”
The visitors were none other than Airi and Ciel.