The God Of Destruction's Academy Life

As Dominic watched the abomination, he noticed something shifting within it a strange, mounting sensation radiating off its body, unlike anything he’d felt from it before. A truly terrifying presence, as though it were about to crush everything around it into dust. And then he saw Necrotize, who had been standing before Xath’rael, suddenly step back with startling speed, retreating to where he’d stood before.

For the first time, Dominic could make out a flicker of uncertainty crossing Necrotize’s otherwise composed expression. Seeing it filled him with a deep, sinking dread, and he couldn’t stop himself from asking.

"Lord Necrotize, what’s happening? Why is this presence coming off Xath’rael now?"

Dominic paused after asking, hesitant to voice the next question forming in his mind. He wanted to talk himself out of asking it. But he couldn’t hold it back either.

"My lord... will you be able to defeat it?"

The words left him before he could stop them. He knew, even as he asked, how foolish the question sounded there was no version of reality where the God of Destruction couldn’t defeat something. It felt wrong even to consider it. And yet he’d asked it anyway, directly, to his face. He had no idea what the consequences of that question might be, because the being standing before him was, in his own way, no less formidable than the monster they faced an existence capable of ending a life with a single thought. That was who Necrotize was.

But the answer Dominic received after asking was nothing he could have ever imagined. The moment he heard it, sweat broke out across his forehead. It was almost impossible to believe.

"At the moment, it will be difficult. I cannot defeat this thing with the amount of strength I currently have."

Dominic was baffled by the answer.

"What do you mean, my lord? What do you mean, you don’t have enough strength to defeat it?"

His face darkened slightly as he heard this, as though the words had stirred a flood of strange emotion inside him.

"Do you remember that I sealed away most of my power, leaving only 0.01 percent of it active?"

"Yes," Dominic answered, still confused.

"Well, the thing is, I still haven’t been able to unlock that power yet. The moment I was teleported, an extraordinarily heavy set of seals was layered over the one I’d already placed on myself, and that’s what’s keeping me from accessing my strength. After being teleported, my primary focus was getting back here as quickly as possible because of that, I haven’t had the chance to unlock more than a fraction of those seals."

Necrotize paused for a moment before continuing.

"Right now, the amount of power I have isn’t sufficient against that thing. With what I currently have, I could fight a Rank Eight with some difficulty. A Rank Nine would be extremely challenging. And a Rank Ten would be impossible. But that thing has just surpassed Rank Ten entirely it’s approaching the level of a planetary god. And with only 0.01 percent of my power, I cannot defeat something like that."

The instant Dominic heard this, it felt as though the sky itself had collapsed on top of him. His entire body went cold. He didn’t want to understand what Necrotize was telling him even though he understood every word of it with perfect clarity, he refused to let the weight of it sink in. Because if Necrotize lost this fight, there would be nothing left to save any of them. He was their last hope.

"My lord... will you be defeated?"

Hearing this, Necrotize turned to look at him, and saw the fear and uncertainty written plainly across his face. Seeing it, he offered Dominic a smile.

"No. Why would I be defeated?"

Necrotize said with a smile on his face.

"Do you think just because my power is sealed, I won’t be able to fight?"

"No, why would you think such a thing? I am Destruction. And I am never defeated. Nor will I ever be."

After saying this, Necrotize turned back and glanced at Elizabeth. Then he crouched down and picked up the sword lying beside her.

"I’ll borrow your sword for a moment."

Necrotize lifted the sword from the ground and turned his head back toward Xath’rael. A strange red aura had begun radiating from his own body, his strength steadily climbing. Xath’rael, eyes closed, was drinking in all of that power, absorbing it, growing stronger with every passing second. Its strength had already multiplied many times over, and the changes were becoming visible across its entire body.

Its towering height began steadily shrinking. The mandibled, goat-like portion of its face began shifting, slowly reshaping itself into something more humanoid. Its many eyes gradually reduced down to just two. Its mouth drew inward, its nose reshaping itself into something resembling a human’s. The sixteen arms that had extended from its body began retracting, reducing down to eight four on each side. Its lion-like hind legs shifted as well, gradually reforming into something closer to human legs.

Every part of its body was transforming. Even its skin, once entirely red and armored beneath a turtle-like shell, now showed patches of white spreading across it in strange, deliberate patterns, tracing lines across its entire form. Three white stripes had appeared across each of its cheeks. Within moments, its entire physical structure had completely changed.

Its height had dropped from fifteen feet down to roughly six and a half. Its goat-like face had reshaped into something distinctly humanoid a straight, prominent nose, sharply defined jawline, and deep-set cheeks. The lion-like mane that had covered its head transformed into long, brown hair, now trailing down its back. The turtle-shell armor that had once covered its body reshaped itself into sleek black armor, covering its entire frame. The two goat-like horns on its head remained.

And now, an entirely new kind of intimidating aura radiated off its body far more terrifying than anything it had given off before. That aura alone was enough to kill every blade of grass and plant nearby. The ground beneath its feet turned pale and cracked under the sheer pressure of its presence, and even the wind seemed to bend and shift course to avoid it.

Xath’rael raised one hand and studied it, turning it over slowly, examining it from every angle. Then it lowered its hand and looked up toward the sky. The instant it did, a laugh burst from its throat an overwhelming, thunderous laugh. It spread all eight of its arms wide, staring up at the heavens, laughing.

"This feeling. I’ve never felt anything like this before. The power coursing through my veins right now is beyond comparison. With this strength, I could do anything I wanted. I could rule this entire world. There would be no one stronger than me. Every living being on this planet would worship me."

Xath’rael lowered its gaze from the sky, settling it on the boy standing before it a sword in one hand, dressed in a blue academy uniform, a pair of otherworldly violet eyes staring directly back at it. Seeing him, Xath’rael smiled.

"What a magnificent opportunity this is. To think the very first person I get to test this new strength against would be the Ancient Origin of Destruction himself. I’ll truly get to feel my own greatness through this. And once I defeat him, I’ll become the next Ancient Origin of Destruction. Ha ha ha."

Necrotize took the sword in one hand and began walking slowly toward Xath’rael, closing the distance with small, measured steps. As he advanced, a white aura suddenly began radiating from his entire body, illuminating him from within. Streaks of lightning began sparking off that white aura, scattering outward in every direction, the air crackling with a sharp, buzzing hum.

The lightning didn’t remain confined to his body. It spread outward, gradually flowing into his sword, and the moment it reached the blade, the weapon itself blazed to life with the same white light, arcs of lightning dancing continuously around its edge.

Xath’rael watched Necrotize approach, watched the white light pouring off him and the web of lightning spreading in every direction. The instant it saw this, its gaze drifted past Necrotize, settling instead on the unconscious girl lying behind him. That same kind of aura had been radiating off her as well. And this wasn’t the first time Xath’rael had witnessed this particular white light it had experienced it once before, many years ago.

Nearly thirty thousand years ago, on that same battlefield, a woman had once approached it bathed in an identical white light, lightning crackling across her entire body. Even now, it couldn’t put that feeling into words. Even now, the memory alone was enough to send a shiver through its entire form, because in the end, it had died at that woman’s hands. That woman had been Goddess Luna. And because of that history, the sight of that white aura now sent fire raging through its entire body. A flood of fury surged up inside it, one with no way of ever being extinguished.

Seeing Necrotize approaching this way, Xath’rael spread all eight of its arms wide. Red light began igniting in each of its palms, stretching and elongating until each one had taken the shape of a sword though these blades were smaller now, roughly the size of ordinary weapons.

Gripping its eight swords, Xath’rael began advancing toward Necrotize as well. As it moved, a red aura began radiating from its body too, spreading outward like an omen of death. After closing some of the distance, Necrotize tightened his grip on his sword and launched himself forward in a leap, lightning trailing behind him like threads of light. Xath’rael, gripping its eight blades, leapt forward as well, a savage, lion-like presence radiating off its entire form as it charged straight toward Necrotize with its swords raised.

And then

Thud.