Chapter 103 : Chapter 103
Volume 2
Chapter 27 : Blade of Blazing Fire
“Tea...cher.”
That soft call was so faint it was almost inaudible, buried within her grief-stricken sobbing.
This was not the awakening of her consciousness, but rather the instinct of a certain girl, something that had been carved into her bones after calling out that way countless times in the past, now surfacing here at last.
【Teacher Prang, can I go out and play?】
【Teacher Prang, I got a perfect score on my martial skills exam. Pretty amazing, right? When will I ever score that high on a magic exam? Hehe, I have no idea.】
【Teacher, I was not fighting anyone! Those bad guys ran into my fists on their own.】
【Teacher, if you get angry that easily, you are going to get wrinkles.】
【...】
【Teacher, I have decided that in the future, I am going to become a saintess.
Why, you ask? Because... because being a saintess just sounds incredibly cool, does it not?
Wearing a pure white gauze dress, smiling under the guidance of God as I bring salvation to the world—and then smashing all the bad guys apart with my fists.
That is just too cool.
A saintess cannot get married? I do not care. If I ever find true love, I will absolutely chase after it with courage.】
【...】
【Teacher, you will bless me, right?】
Those voices from the past, voices that had never once faded, echoed through his mind again, clear as day.
The old man froze for a moment, and then molten fury erupted from his aged eyes like lava.
“Lord Love—I’ll fucking kill you!”
The old man let out a lion-like roar, and the filthy curse words he had abandoned ever since becoming a teacher burst from his mouth once more.
Flames swirled in his palm.
The cane he always maintained with such care, set with gemstones, melted within the blazing fire and transformed into a twisted black blade.
The old man gripped the blade tightly and advanced against the light of the Holy Sword.
And then—
He drove that blade, filled with blazing fire and hatred, straight into the girl’s chest.
This time, it was her heart, precise and true.
At once, the pink star-tipped wand in the old man’s other hand, the central staff of the grand ritual, trembled lightly, and the crown fused into the barrier trembled along with it.
It was as if they were resonating.
The enormous mechanisms beneath the academy began operating once more with unprecedented vigor.
That immense power, using the old man’s gaunt body as a medium, poured madly into the saintess’s body.
Centered around that heart, which had long since ceased beating, layer upon layer of tiny yet exquisitely precise structures proliferated through the saintess’s blood, flesh, bones, and skin, rapidly multiplying, searching, pressing down, and expelling the power and marks belonging to Lord Love.
“Get the hell out of this body, Lord Love!” the old man roared again.
As the power continued to pour in, the saintess’s body convulsed and trembled without end, as though some existence were fleeing and struggling inside her body, only to be slowly crushed into a smaller and smaller space by those inching, precise structures.
The cracks on the saintess’s exquisite face became clearer and clearer, and from behind those cracks, a terrifying will belonging to a higher plane cast its gaze upon the old man.
Indifference.
Wrath.
And then...
Mockery.
If you are pouring all your power into this side, does that not mean the other side is terribly weak?
In the next moment—
The saintess suddenly retched, and then a hideous ball of flesh came spilling from her mouth.
An eye emerged upon that flesh-ball, but it merely cast Professor Prang a cold glance before, without the slightest hesitation, controlling the flesh-ball and sending it flying toward the heavens above.
The saintess’s face gradually shattered, as though it had lost the support of some power, and along with it, her body too began to wither and decay.
Looking at that face as it slowly broke apart, Professor Prang felt his heart wrench once more.
But he quickly came back to himself, and his gaze followed the remnant of Lord Love—that flesh-ball.
High above the heavens hung a blue moon.
A chill suddenly surged through him.
Ignoring the wound in his chest, Professor Prang abruptly swung the pink star-tipped wand in his hand.
Endless structures layered over one another and rushed after the flesh-ball.
But it was too late.
Or rather, Lord Love had been too decisive.
The moment the first wave of attack had been blocked by Professor Prang, It had immediately abandoned that precious Crowned One’s body without hesitation and gone to summon the arrival of today’s second protagonist.
Splat.
The flesh-ball slammed into the barrier.
Like a mosquito flying at full speed through the night, crashing into glass.
The flesh-ball instantly burst apart into a lump of mangled flesh.
And from within that gore, writhing flesh-buds suddenly multiplied at high speed, spreading rapidly along the surface of the barrier.
Like some tenacious plant bursting with life, they continuously drove their roots into the barrier itself.
Crack.
Professor Prang’s attack had not yet arrived, but the crisp, shattering sound coming from the barrier instantly darkened his expression.
A crack appeared in the barrier.
Just as once a dam developed a breach, collapse became impossible to stop, a vast number of flesh-buds frantically burrowed inward along the crack.
And so—
Crack crack crack crack...
More and more fissures began to appear.
Even as the grand ritual continuously poured Mana into the barrier, trying to repair it, those flesh-buds that had already burrowed inside were like bullets embedded in flesh, preventing the barrier from healing.
And beyond that barrier, the enormous blue moon became clearer and clearer.
A single ray of moonlight seeped through the cracks in the barrier.
Then two.
Then three.
Then countless.
Until it had been riddled through and through, the barrier that had resisted the blue moon finally shattered completely.
And so, a gigantic blue moon, already occupying half the sky, appeared above all of Saint Maria.
The moon was far too immense. Before It, all things in the world seemed pitifully small.
As a result, the craters and shadows upon its surface appeared exceptionally clear, vaguely forming a savage face.
And beneath that moonlight, the countless shadows on the ground began to sway, like evil ghosts that had caught the scent of flesh and blood, wandering through the silent academy.
As Professor Prang gazed at the blue moon, his entire body turned cold.
The blood in his chest was still flowing.
And precisely because of that, he felt a despair that was painfully real.
Merely facing Lord Love descending through a medium had already forced him to expend every ounce of his strength and every method at his disposal.
So how was he supposed to face what came next—this terrifying existence that, by relying on the unique nature of Its authority, had directly descended with part of Its true body?
...
...
“I never expected that even the Saintess of Purification would be corrupted by an evil god.”
From atop the great clock tower, Professor Gran watched everything unfold below.
Usually as unserious as ever, even he could not help but sigh in amazement.
“But at such a great cost, it seems these two are absolutely determined to obtain that thing beneath the academy. I really cannot imagine what they want it for.”
“Lord Love’s actions are understandable. By human standards, It is mad to begin with, so nothing It does would be surprising. But what leaves us baffled is...”
From the darkness came another aged voice:
“Why would the other one do this?”
“...”
A brief silence followed.
The dim candlelight swayed, illuminating those extremely aged figures.
Most of them leaned on canes. Their faces were covered in age spots, and the air of decay clung to their bodies.
Some of them had only just been shaken awake from the coffins they had prepared for themselves.
And yet, no one would dare underestimate these old people, for every one of them was an unquestioned towering pillar in his own field.
If their names were announced to the world, the entire academic circle of the Empire would be plunged into upheaval.
They were the true foundation of Saint Maria Academy.
All seventeen lifetime professors of Saint Maria Academy had gathered here, except for Professor Prang, who was still above battling the evil gods.
And when they made a decision here, even the principal of the academy could not overturn it.