The Academy’s Ankle Reaper – Chapter 158

-Whoosh!!!

The doors of the church were shattered, and two people burst out with a force that felt like cannonfire.

One was a holy knight dispatched from the Church Country, and the other was hard to identify.

His whole body was covered in soot, making it difficult to see what he looked like.

But I could tell he was significantly shorter than the holy knight.

The holy knight, who had been kicked away, plowed through the stone pavement in front of the church, finally stopping after smashing into three trees.

For an ordinary person, it would have been no surprise if he was already dead, but he had indeed entered the realm of superhumans.

Spitting out blood and dripping it from his mouth, he gritted his teeth and stood up.

And as soon as he got up, he was kicked again, flying through the air.

It was a person flying, but the ground was scarred as if a cannon had left its mark.

“Ugh… Grand….”

Wrapped in holy power, the holy knight prepared his spell again but couldn’t finish it.

This was because the soot-covered guy was always right behind him.

When he swung at the holy knight’s legs, his knees buckled, causing the spell he was preparing to collapse.

Despite this, the soot-covered person seemed intent on destroying the holy knight.

The knight somehow pulled up his holy power, reinforcing his defenses to the limit, but there was no mercy.

Ultimately, the holy knight could no longer stand.

He struggled to hold on, but his limits were reached.

Yet the soot-covered man did not stop.

No matter how I looked at it, the knight could no longer withstand his attacks.

If he continued to beat him the same way, it was clear that his life would end.

The soot-covered man seemed completely indifferent.

This time, he grabbed the knight’s leg.

Raising his hand high, he brought it down like a guillotine.

-SMACK!!

“Ugh… Aaaah!!!!”

The knight’s right leg was severed.

He was tall, so it wasn’t his ankle but rather his shin that was cut off.

The agony of losing his leg made the knight writhe, but the soot-covered man still seemed unsatisfied.

His hand rose high once more.

Whether he intended to cut off the other leg or something else, no one could tell.

Just as the hand was about to descend onto the knight, someone grabbed his arm.

It was Master Hulan, who had rushed over upon seeing the church in ruins.

“Let go.”

“Isn’t that enough?”

“Not yet.”

The person attacking the holy knight was Atlas, his body covered in soot.

Hulan thought to himself how this guy was always suffering from fire-related damage whenever he saw him.

“I have to cut off his leg. They underestimated me. They didn’t even listen to my demands and branded me a heretic. I need to instill fear. I’ll make them never underestimate me again.”

“Don’t you think that’s excessive? Look around. No one underestimates you; they fear you.”

“Fear isn’t excessive. It’s necessary.”

The holy knights in the church were now all incapacitated.

But Atlas had no intention of looking around.

His gaze never left the knight captain, who was gasping for breath.

It was as if all his nerves were focused solely on that one person he intended to destroy.

“Move aside,”

“… Are you going to kill that holy knight?”

“If necessary.”

“Then at least deny it as empty words. I can’t just let that slide.”

He didn’t intend to kill right away.

As always, he thought of making him suffer until he was on the brink of death and then cutting off a leg, but it depended on how the captain responded.

If he continued to resist, it was not impossible to kill him.

“I was attacked first, and I’m doing nothing but retaliating, so it’s not your place to interfere.”

“No matter what, you don’t need to kill him. You might want to calm down a bit.”

As their disagreement was about to escalate, Atlas finally glared at Hulan.

The air between them thickened as they merely exchanged fierce glares.

He wanted to avoid a clash with the Master.

Though he was using the Power of Polymorph to hide his condition, Atlas’ state hadn’t improved at all.

Just the fact that he was having this conversation with him was proof of that.

Normally, he would have ignored whoever the opponent was and pushed forward, but he felt pressured to persuade Hulan first.

However, that didn’t mean he had any intention of backing down when it came to the fight.

At any moment, when anyone moved, it could turn into a tense confrontation between Masters.

Just then, the stifling atmosphere, which had been suffocating, suddenly dissipated.

“Atlas!! Are you okay??”

Upon hearing that voice, the tension surrounding Atlas, who was ready to tear anyone apart, relaxed drastically.

Realizing that River and Amy had come to the church, he felt as if he had become a different person.

“What’s up… Are you all okay?”

“One holy knight came looking for Amy, but we found it suspicious and took him down to come help you.”

It seemed they had gone to check on Amy as the investigator had mentioned.

But the two, thinking it was suspicious, managed to subdue the holy knight and were rushing to rescue Atlas, who was captured by the church.

Feeling a wave of relief upon seeing the two suddenly appear, Atlas finally looked around.

His eyes took in the utterly destroyed church and the remnants of the holy knights.

With a sigh of relief, he muttered.

“You guys should consider yourselves lucky.”

————————————————————

The air was let out.

Fury had risen so high to the top of his head that he thought he had to kill at least one person to feel satisfied, but seeing River and Amy untouched made it all seem inconsequential.

While he had said he would stop, it didn’t mean he had ceased trying to cut off the captain’s remaining leg; nothing else had changed.

In the church, holy knights who could no longer use their holy power lay beaten with broken legs like corpses, and the captain, though one leg was fine, had been thoroughly beaten to the point where he could no longer summon his holy power.

He didn’t think it was wrong to have destroyed the holy knight order and severed their legs.

They should be grateful.

That he hadn’t cut off their heads was proof of his mercy.

Leaving the church in tatters behind, the three quietly slipped away.

Hulan didn’t pursue me as I quietly left the scene.

After a while, when we returned near the hospital, I confirmed that there was no one else around, and then the Power of Polymorph was dispelled.

“Ah… Gah…!!”

“See, you’re not okay at all!!”

“I was just… putting on a show…”

All at once, everything that had been pushed aside came rushing back like a tsunami.

With no strength left in my legs, I slumped down, and River came to support me.

“… To Professor Praha’s laboratory…”

“I’ll carry you, but don’t die on the way.”

“I’m not close to dying….”

———————————————————

In the Church Country, the Saintess was boiling water for tea, putting aside her paperwork.

It was time for afternoon tea.

Once all the paperwork was finished, she enjoyed her tea alone, along with the pastries she had prepared.

It was a nice break to relieve the fatigue from her demanding work.

That was, until an uninvited guest made an appearance.

“Se-Saintess, there’s a huge problem!!”

“… It’s tea time.”

The Saintess felt a bit irritated at the interruption of her break.

“I’m sorry! But it’s a very important matter..!!!”

One could only wonder how urgent it was for him to come, but unless it was something of utmost importance to disrupt her precious break, she was ready to get angry.

“Well, if it’s not too much to ask… what’s the issue?”

“An attack! The holy knight order we dispatched has been obliterated!!!”

“The holy knight order…? That’s indeed a serious matter.”

Unfortunately, it truly was a significant issue that meant she could no longer enjoy her tea time.

She decided to sip her still steaming cup of tea as she received the report.

She couldn’t allow her freshly brewed tea to go cold.

The holy knight order was one of the core forces of the Church Country, and if they had suffered significant damage, it would pose a great threat to them.

Though it was unfortunate to waste her precious relaxation time, she decided to listen to the report quietly.

“Please elaborate.”

“This matter concerns an urgent request for support from the fifth-ranked bishop dispatched to the Academy. The red-feathered holy knight order, which was conducting heresy interrogations, was defeated by a heretic disguised as a student, leaving all members severely injured and unable to move.”

The red-feathered holy knight order dispatched to the Academy was composed of the elite directly from the Church Country.

If these top-tier elites, capable of easily defeating top-tier demons, had all been severely injured, that meant the forces of the Demon Church lurking within the Academy were more formidable than anticipated.

But around that time, a certain person popped into the Saintess’ mind.

‘If there was a demon powerful enough to do that… he certainly wouldn’t just sit by…?’

The Empire’s Master embedded within the Academy, Atlas Titan, was an incredibly powerful Master.

If an opponent was strong enough to take down the holy knights, he would have sensed something and dealt with it first; the lack of information regarding this was troubling.

This left two possibilities to consider.

Either Atlas, for some unknown reason, was unaware of the situation and the holy knights were ambushed, or… Atlas had also fallen victim.

She didn’t even want to imagine the latter scenario.

If an enemy strong enough to take down a Master had appeared, the Academy would already be engulfed in flames.

“An attack on the Academy… It’s already a frequent target of demon terror; this is indeed a serious issue. Do we have any information about the suspect?”

“Yes! The suspect is about 150 cm tall with distinct blonde hair, and reportedly was also known as a suspicious student within the Academy. He had been on the radar for various violent acts against many students, and it seems he has finally revealed his true colors this time.”

“Hmmm, I see. About 150 cm and… blonde hair…”

The Saintess’ hand came to a halt.

The description of the suspect matched someone she was all too familiar with.

Someone very well known to her surfaced in her mind.

‘Could that person have had a conflict with the holy knights… and it came to this?’

But she wanted to think it wasn’t possible.

Why would he, who quietly hunted demons from the shadows, suddenly have a misunderstanding with the holy knights?

“Is the name four syllables?”

“Yes! I also brought the name. It’s registered as Atlas Nemea, but it appears no such person is on the family register of the Nemea clan, suggesting he’s an identity thief and forger of documents! A heinous criminal!”

The Saintess said nothing, merely pinching the bridge of her nose.

‘How do I resolve this…?’

She had sent him to hunt demons, and now it looked like he had clashed with a Master.