The Academy’s Ankle Reaper – Chapter 356

I felt a strong will from the power I reached in the Academy’s underground.

I don’t know what kind of will it is, but maybe I can find out if we connect more strongly.

To use this power, I need to figure out what the will desires.

Otherwise, it’s clear I won’t be able to use it the way I want.

The moment I came into contact with the rough, pulsating power, my consciousness was sucked in even deeper.

Everything has mass, and it’s said that those with mass have gravity that pulls everything in.

That’s exactly how I felt right now.

As soon as I attempted to touch the pulsating, mighty force, my consciousness was pulled in by a strong gravity.

The deeper I went, the more I felt time slow down, and the place I arrived at was a vast void where everything was cut off.

And within the void, a giant of light, whose size I couldn’t even fathom, was looking down at me.

‘Is this… your will?’

I could feel the will of this massive being, far beyond what I could handle right now, still alive and breathing.

I didn’t particularly like the fact that it was looking down at me.

Thinking about being in the Academy’s underground… No matter how I think about it, it feels like that, but I wasn’t scared.

If it didn’t like me, it would have burned me up before I even made contact.

‘Let’s see what you desire.’

Summoning my courage to move forward, the giant began to convey what it wanted to say.

– Show me your qualifications.

Qualifications? What qualifications are you talking about?

I asked back at something I never expected to hear, and the giant spoke again.

– Show me what is contained within your sword.

Why is what’s in the sword important?

If it means that I need to show something based on what it holds to be recognized, I can at least say what I have inside it.

What I put into the sword was hatred.

The hatred I had for Cronos, who always bullied me for my small stature, made my sword sharp.

That hatred, trained into my sword, contained the will to not forgive anyone taller than me.

The sword, honed with the single-minded determination to kill all the beings looking down at me, surely held my grudge.

As if responding to my thoughts, an Aura Blade flickering like rough flames appeared in my hand.

‘Is this enough?’

I sought an answer, but the giant reached out to me as if it wasn’t satisfied.

– It’s still not enough.

The hand that was larger than anything I had ever seen filled my line of sight.

It couldn’t compare to even the size of a leviathan, which was just a small island in comparison.

This giant’s size… yes, it was like a star.

– Show me your bottom, successor. If you show me everything, I will also respond.

I had decided to tear apart all those beings looking down at me, but strangely enough, I felt no such emotions towards the giant.

Just as I felt no hatred looking up at the towering Blade Mountain, all I felt towards the giant was awe, like the great nature.

The giant’s hand enveloped me, and a rainbow-colored light swirled around my body.

And———-

The dark night sky brightened again.

Just like before, a light shining from a single being filled the sky, making it as bright as day.

Originally, after this, I would have focused all the aura scattered in the air into the sword, but the sky was still sparkling.

The reason was simple. The sword had already contained as much aura as it could, and excess aura was bursting out all around, filling the sky.

No one could handle such power.

And at the center of it all stood one person.

The smallest human in that place, donning dented armor and wielding a sword.

[….!!]

The leviathan, seeing the light that filled the sky, began to move again.

By using the power of growth, the leviathan’s body, now larger than before, surpassed the size of the Academy’s island.

The strike of a mountain with will would have the power to shatter not just a barrier but crush the entire island.

With that in mind, Atlas acted.

Using the law of physics, he could soar into the air endlessly until he was right in front of the leviathan, but he did not.

He stood firmly on the ground, glaring at the leviathan, who was looking down at him from above, and swung the sword that shone brightest under the daylight.

Compared to the leviathan soaring high into the sky, it appeared quite insignificant, but his sword had a divine presence within it.

– Whoosh!

Like a picture being erased by an eraser, the leviathan’s body began to dissolve along the path of the sword.

As that enormous body dissipated, for the first time, the leviathan couldn’t hide his confusion.

The severed body crashed into the sea surface, creating a fierce wave that struck the port.

It inflicted a blow far greater than simply slashing, but still.

The leviathan was still intact.

Despite losing a part of its body, the leviathan picked up the severed pieces and used the power of growth to return to its original size.

Once again, the aura was focused into the sword.

The light clusters that spread endlessly into the air, beyond the horizon, began to be drawn into the sword again.

The focusing operation done several times before was completed in an instant.

Once more, a flash burst forth.

Before the leviathan could properly move, the flash that dashed across the sea surface caused the leviathan’s body to disappear.

As the part supporting its body completely dissolved, the leviathan’s seven heads plunged into the ocean.

The blood gushing from its island-sized body dyed the sea bright red, and the crimson waves crashed upon the Academy’s port, but still, it did not die.

[…!!!!! !!!!]

With a surge of magic energy, the leviathan once again reattached the severed parts and used the power of growth.

It was a process that was meant to increase the size of the body that had shrunk, but comparatively, only the neck region remained abnormally huge.

Go ahead and try, the bullets are numerous, after all.

Atlas cut and cut again at the leviathan.

After repeating this action a dozen times, the vast majority of the leviathan’s once gigantic body was lost, and paired with the floating chunks of flesh was one head that had grown ridiculously large, threatening him.

[Don’t think this is the end…!]

Emerging from the Black Forest and teleporting to the port, the largest head of the leviathan bared its teeth at Atlas.

At first, it ignored him, but now it looked pretty good.

“I thought you’d be bellowing like a beast, but you can speak just fine? My curiosity has been satisfied at last.”

As I smiled and spoke, the largest head of the leviathan lunged at me.

The head, having undergone several enlargements, was now more than ten times larger than the first time I saw it.

And now, a light ten times larger than any previous flashes bore down on the leviathan.

—————————-

I stared blankly at the sea crashing at the port.

The sea was no longer blue.

Floating upon the sea, now dyed a bright red, were pieces of the leviathan that were much larger than regular ships, and in the port, a fragment of the leviathan’s head lay horrifically, sticking its tongue out.

Either way, it’s a nuisance, even in death.

The leviathan was dead.

This much I could say for sure.

Unlike other demons, who had ties to Hell, the leviathan, which had decided to belong partially to this world, had a real body, not a borrowed one, and now it was all either chopped up or turned to charred remains by the aura.

It may seem a bit shabby for the last act of a demon that had slept in the sea for millennia, devouring countless human souls, but well…

Before I could savor the joy of victory, a fact I couldn’t forget stabbed at my heart.

“… I couldn’t capture ‘Atlas.'”

I won, but I lost.

I wasn’t able to capture ‘Atlas,’ my primary objective, to throw him at Hoenheim for research, but I did complete the secondary objective of ‘slaying the Great Demon.’

That guy surely did something after the demons captured him, but I can’t even guess what it could be.

It’s definitely going to be something strange again.

“Ah… Atlas!!!”

While I was in a staring contest with the dismembered body of the leviathan, Gemma, shining like gold from the forest, came looking for me.

“Are you okay…!!”

“Am I okay?”

Of course, I’m not okay.

The light emanating from me, the light that had filled the sky, stopped.

The pain that I had pushed aside began to rush back all at once.

No matter how much of a Master I might be, the price of holding such excessive power within a human body was far too harsh.

“Wahhh…”

I naturally coughed out a clump of blood from my throat.

Oh, I’m going to die.

After that, I have no recollection.