The God Of Destruction's Academy Life

Every student present stared at the massive corpse lying before them. For a long moment, they stood in complete silence, saying nothing, simply staring at it, still struggling to process what had just happened.

No one moved. No one breathed too loudly. It was as if some part of them still expected the thing to twitch, to rise, to prove that this was another trick in a battle that had already broken so many of their expectations. Someone’s sword slipped from numb fingers and hit the ground, the sound of it unnaturally loud in the stillness. A few students who were still gripping their weapons realized their hands were shaking and couldn’t remember when that had started.

After a while, Varon finally spoke, his voice quiet.

"We won... We actually won against this abomination."

The moment the students heard him say it, something clicked into place in their minds. They finally understood, they had actually defeated the monster that had loomed over them. And then the celebration broke loose.

"Yes, we’ve won! We’ve won!"

"We finally defeated this nightmare!"

Someone let out a laugh that cracked halfway through and turned into something closer to a sob. A boy near the back simply sat down where he stood, legs giving out beneath him, staring at his own hands like he didn’t recognize them. Many students dropped to their knees, weeping with relief and joy, the tears coming before they even realized they’d started crying. Others threw their arms around each other, embracing in celebration, gripping onto whoever was closest as though letting go might make the moment less real.

A girl who hadn’t spoken a word since the fighting began was suddenly shouting a name, over and over, the name of a friend she’d been certain she would never say again. The whole clearing erupted in jubilation, relief and grief tangled together in the same breath, because even in victory, not everyone who had entered that battle would be walking away from it.

Dominic remained standing where he was, staring silently at the fallen abomination before him. Its massive body lay sprawled across the ground, black blood still pouring steadily from its severed neck. A short distance away lay its head, the light gone from all four of its faces, staring out with an empty, hollow gaze.

Dominic let himself take in the sight for a long moment. Then, in his mind, he thought:

I did it. I actually beat it. I avenged my companions. I didn’t break the promise I made to Sara. I didn’t become a liar to her. I didn’t become a liar to myself.

A quiet joy welled up inside him as he reflected on what he’d accomplished. But as he sat with the thought, he suddenly noticed a group of students closing in around him.

They began thanking him, one after another.

"Dominic, thank you so much. You saved all of us. Without you defeating it, I don’t think we would’ve survived."

"Thank you, Dominic. Thank you. You avenged Brian. That thing... it killed him right in front of my eyes. I was helpless against it. Thank you so much."

Dominic went a little flabbergasted as the torrent of gratitude poured over him. He didn’t know how to react. It started making him feel awkward, and all he could manage was an odd, stiff smile as the students kept thanking him.

Elizabeth, standing a short distance away, watched the entire scene unfold with genuine astonishment. Seeing Dominic’s courage and bravery filled her with relief. She herself hadn’t been able to do much throughout the entire battle she’d only been able to stand back and watch students die because of her own words. But now that Dominic had defeated it, she felt real relief settle over her no more students would have to die because of her. And most importantly, she’d managed to keep Lyra alive. That alone meant everything to her.

With that thought in mind, Elizabeth turned her head toward Lyra, standing to her left. But what she saw when she looked at her was nothing she’d expected. While every other student around them was swept up in celebration and relief, their faces free of tension at last, Lyra looked nothing like them. Sweat still poured down her face. Her skin had gone completely pale. Elizabeth couldn’t understand why she’d be reacting this way, and seeing it filled her with a fresh wave of dread because this kind of reaction from Lyra was never a good sign. Unable to contain her curiosity any longer, she finally asked.

"Lyra, what’s wrong? Why are you sweating like this? Is something the matter?"

Lyra didn’t answer right away. She simply stared straight ahead, lost in thought. After a moment, she slowly turned her head to face Elizabeth.

"Elizabeth, something is wrong. Really wrong. I don’t know what it is. But something inside me is telling me that something extremely wrong is going on. I can feel it in my stomach. The Qi in the air is behaving strangely. And most importantly, there’s a strange feeling that’s been building inside me for a while now, and it’s suddenly started boiling over. It’s like there’s an obvious question I want to ask, but something inside me is stopping me from asking it. And that’s the part that scares me the most."

Hearing this, Elizabeth swallowed hard. Her words reignited the fear inside her. And then she realized something herself she, too, had a question she wanted to ask, one that had been sitting on the edge of her mind. But she couldn’t bring herself to ask it either. Something was holding her back from putting it into words.

Elizabeth received no answer. She could only look at the students gathered around her, unsure of what might happen to them now. In her mind, she called out.

Lord Necrotize, where are you? Why haven’t you come yet?

Then she noticed something. Everything around her had gone utterly still. No rustle of leaves, no familiar sway of branches. Everything stood frozen, like stone. She remembered that when the abomination first arrived, the forest had reacted the same way. No leaf trembled, no animal stirred, not even a bird had taken flight. She’d assumed it was fear of the creature. But now that it was dead, things should have returned to normal.

Elizabeth lifted her head slowly and looked up at the sky. And that was when the more pressing truth struck her: they were still trapped inside the barrier. The sky above them still burned entirely red.

As these thoughts churned through her mind, a sound broke the silence. Applause. Not just she but every student in the clearing heard it, a slow, deliberate clapping. They searched for its source and found nothing. It wasn’t coming from any of them. And the number of hands clapping kept growing, as though one person after another was joining in, until it felt like hundreds stood unseen around them, filling the clearing with the sound.

Every student listened with the same uneasy feeling twisting in their chest. Some had already begun to feel real fear.

Dominic turned his head, scanning the trees, but he couldn’t place where the sound was coming from. The longer it went on, the louder and more numerous the claps became. Then, cutting through it, he heard a voice. Not one voice, but four, speaking in perfect unison, as if a single sentence had been split among four throats.

"Marvelous. Truly marvelous. To think human offspring have grown this capable in the last thirty thousand years. To think they actually defeated this thing. It almost makes me want to spare them." A pause. "But alas, I can’t."

The moment the words faded, the students snapped into position. The Combat Department drew their weapons in a single motion. The Magic Department began weaving their spells. Every other department fell into formation around them.

They scanned the tree line, the bushes, every shadow in the forest, searching for whoever had spoken. There was no one. Yet the clapping continued, echoing from all directions at once.

Then something else caught their attention. The abomination’s corpse, still lying where it had fallen, began to glow. A deep red light bled out from it, not only from the body itself but from the scattered blood and severed pieces strewn across the clearing. All of it began to shine the same crimson color.

Slowly, the body started breaking apart into small fragments of light, scattering like embers caught in wind. The students watched, wide-eyed, disbelief written across every face.

Dominic swallowed hard. His grip tightened around his sword’s hilt out of pure instinct, sweat sliding down his temple. Then he felt it, threads of red light spiraling around them, coiling tighter with each passing second. The light converged, and in an instant, it revealed something standing before them.

Dominic’s entire body went rigid. His fingers loosened without his permission, and his sword slipped from his hand, landing in the dirt with a dull thud. He didn’t even notice. He could only stare, transfixed, at the thing the light had unveiled.