Chapter 106
The scenery around me changed the closer I moved toward the center of the Academy.
The ground had turned red and dried out, and the buildings, as if affected by it, had lost their original shapes and twisted into grotesque forms.
“Grrrraaaaaah!”
At that moment, an incomprehensible shriek struck my ears.
I locked eyes with an Asura.
Unlike the other Asuras, it possessed a massive body and a hideously distorted face.
What stood out were the hands plastered all over its body.
The sight was grotesque enough to provoke discomfort just from looking at it.
The closer I got to the source of the manifestation of Hell, the stronger the Asuras became, and their numbers increased as well.
That they had grown stronger meant one thing—they had eaten that many people.
I already knew that I couldn’t save everyone.
Still, I hoped that not a single person would die if I could help it.
Berid, you bastard…….
The Asura covered head to toe in massive hands let out a shriek and raised its enormous fist.
I could clearly feel that its power was on a different level from the Asura I had encountered at the beginning.
Boom!
I lowered my body and evaded its attack.
But the hands clinging to its body stretched out and grabbed my collar.
Damn it.
The creature spread its arms wide and tried to pull me into an embrace.
The hands inside opened wide as if welcoming me.
Disgusting, as expected.
Infernal flames blazed fiercely from my hand.
I formed my hand into a blade and hardened my flow of energy, severing the arm that had grabbed me.
Then, as if in prayer, I brought my hands together and condensed my power.
Scorching heat gathered in my palms.
Paang!
When I struck down on its body, infernal flames burst forth from my palms and pierced straight through it.
After lightly shaking my hand, I burned it to ashes with infernal flames so it could no longer regenerate.
I spread my energy again to estimate my position.
The outskirts still retained the Academy’s form, but the deeper I went toward the origin point, the land itself—and even the buildings—became increasingly warped.
And the side effects of the manifestation of Hell didn’t stop there.
Due to Hell’s demonic power, monsters were naturally spawning.
For example, something like that?
I looked up at an angel statue flying through the sky.
Unlike the Guardian statues, that had been an ordinary statue with no magical function whatsoever.
It was simply that, as Hellification progressed, souls without physical bodies had possessed it.
I focused the Asura Divine Art into my hand.
Crimson infernal flames condensed in my palm.
When I clenched it in my hand, the flames took the shape of a long spear.
I threw it straight at the creature, and the violently flying spear of infernal flame pierced through the gargoyle’s torso.
Kwah-gwang!
With a rough explosion, its body shattered into pieces.
I avoided the falling stone fragments and hid beneath a massive tree.
Wait—this tree.
Seeing a tree that looked strangely familiar, my expression stiffened.
Though it had been so distorted by the manifestation of Hell that I hadn’t recognized it at first, this tree-lined path was the roadside leading to the dormitories.
Which meant that the origin point where Berid had unfolded the manifestation of Hell was the cadet dormitory itself.
Crunch.
My teeth ground together on their own at the filth of his intentions.
In the original game, the place where Berid manifested Hell had been the student council room.
But right now, he couldn’t do that.
I had stayed behind in the student council room, directing people.
More than that, since we were using the student council as our base, it was impossible for him to scheme anywhere near it.
So the alternative he chose was the dormitory.
The reason was easy to infer.
After classes ended, most students headed back to the dormitories.
To create as many victims as possible, he had made the dormitory his nest.
Damn it.
That was probably why the damage had grown this severe.
To begin with, dormitories were places where students without Academy classes went to rest their bodies.
Some would be asleep after finishing training, and most would be lazing around enjoying their free time.
They were far more likely to fall victim than students who had been outside.
The problem was that most demonic rituals produced more horrific results the greater the number of sacrifices.
There was no way that mere manifestation of Hell was his only objective.
In the game, he always moved with some meaningful goal in mind and never did anything that would disadvantage himself.
And the Berid of reality was even more vicious and meticulous than the Berid from the game.
This Sirius Academy was a training ground that nurtured heroes, and the spiritual home of countless heroes it had produced.
That was why top-tier heroes like Kang Jae-seok and Mabel served here as instructors.
No matter how much power those bastards gained through Hellification, their limits were clear.
In other words, for him to stir up something this massive meant that he had something he was relying on.
So what option could someone who had lost Pandemonium’s trust possibly choose?
The first thing that came to mind was Pandemonium’s high-ranking executives.
The absolute powerhouses within Pandemonium.
But there was no way those arrogant, heavy-bottomed figures would step in for someone who had already lost their trust.
If they had moved directly, this wouldn’t have ended with this level of chaos.
Then did a third force appear again?
Like Honey Jack.
But that didn’t seem like a particularly convincing assumption either.
If, like last time, he had paid some sort of price, recruiting a Villain wouldn’t have been impossible.
But conversely, bringing in a Villain of that caliber required a corresponding price.
Berid, who had already lost everything, had nothing left to offer.
As those thoughts continued, I found myself arriving at the cadet dormitory before I realized it.
The cadet dormitory looked like a massive Demon King’s castle.
Asuras crawled along the outer walls in search of living humans.
And screams from somewhere echoed through the air.
Instructors were gathering one after another, but a massive barrier covered the entire dormitory, preventing them from entering.
At that moment, an instructor who noticed me stopped me.
“Are you a cadet? What are you doing here! Run away right now!”
The instructor shouted at me the moment he saw me.
In his eyes were mixed worry and anxiety for the cadets.
Of course, to me, it was nothing more than needless meddling.
I brushed past him and lightly knocked on the barrier covering the dormitory.
Thud. Thud.
Just touching it caused a powerful rebound force.
The barrier wall was sturdier than I had expected.
It was a level of barrier that could only be broken if someone of the Sword Empress or Kang Jae-seok’s caliber showed up.
But the Sword Empress and Instructor Mabel were already struggling just dealing with the Asuras and Demons rampaging outside.
I lightly shook out my hands to loosen up my body.
Just what was that bastard hiding to warrant a defensive barrier of this degree?
Crimson infernal flames flared up from my hand.
The instructors who saw it panicked and tried to stop me.
“Hey, you! Get away from there right now!”
“The Asuras will pour out!”
Come if you want.
They can’t harm me.
And if you’re wearing the title of instructor, you should at least be able to handle that much.
I straightened my hand like a blade and grabbed my wrist with the other hand, taking a stance as if gripping a spear.
The instructors moved to stop me, but froze in place as if they had sensed the energy I was emitting.
“What is this……?”
“How can a cadet have this much energy…….”
Ignoring them, I spread my magic power and created a domain.
Then, raising my concentration, I gradually compressed the expanded domain.
The continuously shrinking domain became small enough to wrap around my arm.
From now on, I had to focus.
If I lost control, it would lead to unnecessary stamina consumption.
Intense heat rose from my core.
Flames spun at a tremendous speed within the domain.
Gradually, my hand began to be dyed red.
As the intense energy accumulated, considerable pressure was transmitted to my arm.
It was as if my hand had transformed into a weapon right before quenching.
At that horrifying heat, the faces of the surrounding instructors twisted.
I turned to look at them.
“If you don’t want to get caught up in this, it’d be better to step back.”
“O-okay.”
The instructors hurriedly nodded and quickly moved away from the barrier.
As I lightly inhaled, a wave of scorching heat rushed in.
Asura Divine Art (修羅神功)
Asura Descent (修羅降神)
The strongest technique I could unleash collided with the barrier Berid had created.
Giiiiiiing!
The barrier screamed as it tore.
The rebound force emitted by the barrier and the power of Asura Descent engaged in a fierce tug-of-war.
Would it break through, or be blocked?
Gritting my teeth, I put my full body weight behind it and thrust my core forward.
Soon, the hand executing Asura Descent touched the barrier.
Crack!
Along with the sound of glass splintering, a massive crack spread across the barrier covering the dormitory.
“Hup.”
With a short shout, Asura Descent finally pierced through the barrier.
At the same time, the barrier shattered into pieces and began to disappear.
“The barrier is down! Everyone, move into the dormitory! Rescue the cadets as fast as possible!”
After confirming that the barrier had broken, the instructors immediately began entering the dormitory.
Releasing Asura Descent, I took a moment to catch my breath.
Using Asura Descent felt more stable than before.
My hand throbbed, but unlike the past, I didn’t suffer burns.
This wasn’t the effect of Hellification.
Asura Descent was, after all, a technique that used the energy within my body—the martial arts of the Heavenly Demon.
It was probably helpful that I had once unfolded Asura Descent across my entire body during my clash with Instructor Kang Jae-seok.
At that moment, an intense presence was felt from inside the dormitory.
A presence on an entirely different level from Asuras or other Demons.
At the same time, a sinister voice echoed in my ears.
[As expected, I knew you would come. Devil Knight.]
Though it was the voice of an aged old man I had never heard before, I knew exactly who it belonged to.
“Berid.”
[I’ll be waiting at the usual place.]
His voice was noticeably excited.
Before I could say anything, the surrounding presence vanished.
It seemed he had said his piece and disappeared.
The usual place?
The shamelessness of those words made my blood boil.
In the cadet dormitory where he had holed up, there was only one place that he and I always used to see.
My room.
That damn bastard had set up the magic circle for the manifestation of Hell in my room.
I immediately entered the cadet dormitory.
As expected, the inside of the dormitory was complete chaos.
There were traces everywhere of fierce battles between cadets and Asuras.
Body parts—whether belonging to Asuras or humans—were strewn about all over the place.
Then, the corpse of someone familiar caught my eye.
“Supervisor.”
His painfully twisted face proved that his final moments had been anything but peaceful.
He was a kind person who greeted the cadets every morning.
I took the sword clenched in his hand.
It was hard to pull free because he had gripped it tightly, as if he had fought to protect the cadets until the very end.
I gently closed his wide-open eyes.
A dull ache welled up in my chest.
Berid, this bastard truly must not be allowed to exist.
The elongated shadow stretching from my body gradually deepened.
Due to the power of Hell, demonic authority was reading my emotions and surging violently.
I didn’t restrain that energy and instead spread it in all directions to check if anyone was still nearby.
There was no one.
The darkened shadow surged upward and enveloped my entire body.
I bent my knees and lowered my stance.
Authority of Mighty Strength
Overwhelming power surged through my entire body.
I didn’t have time to slowly climb the stairs.
Crack.
The ground fractured under the pressure of the tremendous force.
Boom!
With a violent explosion, a massive crater formed in the floor, distorting my vision.
After several crashing sounds, the ceiling collapsed and debris rained down.
Soon, I arrived at the fifth floor where my dormitory room was located.
The fullness of Hell’s power told me I had arrived at the right place.
Standing before my room, I kicked the door open.
Bang!
With a thunderous crash, the door was blown apart.
And then I saw his face.
An old man dressed in black robes.
It was Berid.
“You’ve finally arrived!”
And behind him, a shocking sight unfolded.
There lay Park Min-seo, barely breathing with a hole pierced through one side of his chest, and beside him was the Heart of the Demon that I had once offered to Pandemonium in the past.
At the sight, Berid’s mouth split open grotesquely.
It was a sneer that looked as if my expression was so amusing he could die laughing.