The Academy’s Deceased Ate It All

The shattered Svengali suddenly squirmed and exploded.

It was a force that seemed to swallow everything up to the point that if I was sucked in, I might even be crushed.

I didn't panic and hung with the greatsword lodged upside down, but as it grew, I was thrown into the air.

It was a fact that I already knew that if Svengali's body was destroyed, it would take the form of a giant tree in this way.

Although he died absurdly, Lee Jae-Joon in the original story changed his form three times to fight.

In Svengali's case, two times.

In other words, this time would be his last.

‘I'm sure the strategy in this form was… .'

Fortunately, I clearly remembered the fact that you can only inflict damage by attacking the face that sticks out randomly at regular intervals.

However, it was only like that in the original story, not necessarily in this world.

As proof of that, this greatsword imbued with the power of the spirits was firmly locked in the body.

However, it looked impossible to continue using it, as the sword blade was cracked as if it could shatter at any moment.

― Damn things! I tried to respect you guys and not hurt you as much as possible! It does not matter now. I shall put seeds directly into your brain, spinal cord, and nerves, and forcefully crush your reason and mind!

Not far away, his face appeared and he let out an angry scream.

It seemed he hadn't noticed me hanging yet.

Then… .

I grabbed the handle of the greatsword, spun my body in the air, and stepped onto it.

Normally, this would have been impossible, but it was a feat that was possible because I was in a state where my physical abilities had increased dramatically due to the overlapping of multiple blessings and buffs.

If Henir's shadow had been fine, it would have been over in an instant.

Leaving the regret behind, I stretched out a branch of the World Tree and hung it on the curved part.

I speeded up in the air as if I were doing a pendulum movement and threw myself toward his face.

— … And make you regret it for the rest of your life?!

The guy, whose eyes were flipping over and was spitting out anger, stopped speaking in surprise when I popped out from his blind spot.

It seemed that he was trying to stop me somehow, but his reaction was visibly slower now that his body was so huge.

Maybe I was faster.

No, either way was good.

I immediately raised my hand to shove Nidhogg's fang into the face of this annoying guy.

And it was when it was in my hand.

Suddenly, something flashed through my mind.

[The condition hidden by ??? has been satisfied.]

[Additional restrictions are lifted as conditions are satisfied.]

[You feel your will has become freer.]

Soon after, memories that had been forgotten began to emerge, like a phantasmagoria.

It was so instantaneous that there was no time to resist or react in any way.

"Ah."

In my memory, I was playing a game.

And my sister, who was watching next to me, suddenly asked if she could try it too, and I immediately deleted the data and handed the game console to her.

When I asked my sister who she would choose, she immediately answered with a smile.

Jin Ye-Seul.

I tilted my head slightly at the unexpected answer.

There are a lot of kind and good ones though… I muttered, and she immediately responded.

Her mom and dad are trash just like ours. But I really like her because she is confident and unshakable in everything she does.

On the screen of the game console, a character with black hair and eyes shining like purple amethyst was standing with a dagger.

Despite my advice that a dagger is not good and that bare hands are better than a dagger, she remained unusually stubborn, saying that she preferred it this way.

Yes, well.

I nodded and said.

Then Oppa will get you one of the good ones later.

Daggers in particular have a big difference in performance.

At that, she nodded as if she understood… .

“… Keu!"

I was violently kicked out of my memory and pulled back into reality, as if someone had ripped out my hair on the way.

Because of the vine that had grazed past the corners of my eyes.

Before I could question the memories that passed by as if they were interrupting my actions, I had to brace myself as I fell straight from the sky.

Because no one could survive a fall from this height.

“……!!!”

“Come here, come here!”

In the midst of all this, Mandragora, which had been hiding in my pocket, sneaked out.

Perhaps it was not of his own volition, the guy struggled with his roots in the air in a panic.

I quickly reached out and grabbed him, extending my right arm.

A branch of the World Tree stretched out and stuck to the vine that had been striking down with the force to crush me, and using that power in reverse, I was able to turn in mid-air.

Immediately after, along with a heavy sound, a vine the size of a large tree hit the place where I had just been.

Without stopping, I put all my strength into pulling on the branch of the World Tree.

Then, as if being dragged, my body flew at high speed toward him in a circle.

The short flight ended only when his body and my back collided violently.

"Ugh!"

Exhaling from the impact of the collision, I somehow managed to cling to his body tightly.

The grazed left eye was fortunately not deeply scarred, but it seemed I would not be able to open it properly, at least not until it was treated.

― You rat-like bast*rd! Where did you run away!

Svengali, who has transformed into a giant tree, seemed to have put all the strength it had into the hardness and weight of its outer skin.

Instead, he had to give up all other abilities, such as agility, sensing, and intelligence.

He became so dull that he didn't even know that I was actually attached to his body.

I stayed like that for a while and started to catch my breath.

“…… .”

In the midst of all this, I didn't lose my grip on Nidhogg's fang.

I fixed it carefully, looking at it gripped tightly in my hand.

There was no sign of the same thing happening as before.

First, as I put it inside my body, I remembered what Svengali had said earlier.

He obviously looked at me and muttered that I smell of him.

Smell of him.

Hearing those words, there was only one existence that I could think of.

Ariman.

Seven Evil that is related to space and existed only in settings.

He must be referring to that guy.

Then does that mean he's played some kind of trick on me in some way?

“…… .”

Once I realized something strange, there were not one or two things that bothered me.

Old memories that I couldn't recall at all, as if it had been erased with an eraser.

Information about this world that I remembered as if it had been carved out here and there.

Behaviors that now seem somewhat inexplicable... .

It was not something that I could overlook with a light heart.

I bit my lip for a moment, then shook my head and pulled myself together.

Let's do what needs to be done first and then think about it.

Even though I knew him quite well, Svengali was by no means an opponent to be taken lightly.

“Huu.”

Perhaps thanks to the blessings of the spirits, I could feel my body recovering quickly.

My body, which had been throbbing and broken from the rough movement earlier, was as good as ever.

My left eye, however, had not yet recovered, and it was not difficult to notice that this was due to the poison on Svengali's vines.

Perhaps it stopped at this level because of my high poison resistance.

― Aha? You were hiding here... Euaaak!!!

Meanwhile, my eyes met the face of Svengali, who had found me.

His gigantic, horrible-looking face was smiling with a grin as if saying, I finally found you.

At that, I reflexively pulled out Yado's dagger and threw it at his pupil.

It flew like a boomerang and precisely pierced his eyelid-less eyeball, and as I saw the vines fly, I reflexively grabbed the handle of the dagger, sending my body flying as I watched the vines fly by.

The dagger, which had been clumsily embedded in the relatively soft pupil, could not bear the weight of me.

― Gyaaaaak!!! Geuaaaak!!!

As it was, I quickly slid down holding the dagger as if I were on a slide.

In the midst of all this, it was a bonus to tear the guy's eyes open long.

“Aak… !”

I lost my grip on the handle on the way and was thrown back into the air.

Svengali, with one eye torn, glared at me like he was going to kill me, but did nothing.

He seemed to remember well how I had escaped by using the vine he had swung at me earlier.

― Keep falling, squash like a bug, and die…!

Dumb*ss.

I clicked my tongue a little.

He must have really lost most of his intelligence, or he seemed to have forgotten all about the fact that I still had the blessings of the spirits.

In fact, a notification window just appeared.

[The Spirit of the Wind begins to push your falling body away.]

― Keuha, hahaha! I am really curious what your flattened figure will look like... !

A pure white sword aura suddenly flew towards the face of the guy who had been talking invidiously like that.

The guy who was hit with the sword aura again, right in the eyeball where he was injured, let out a scream as if it was unfair.

As far as I knew, there was only one person who used sword aura like a field of pure white snow.

That was the sword aura fired by Nam Hyun-Hwa.

― Aaaaak! Y, you guys really want to see ..!

Svengali's face twitched with a scream as if he couldn't take it anymore.

In the midst of all this, I felt someone squeezing my body that was falling down.

“I caught you.”

I heard a familiar voice whispering in my ear.

Red hair dancing in the wind flickered in my vision.

Han Soo-Young.

It was her.

Hugging me from behind, she whispered.

“Now I'll never let you go like that again."

* * *

As soon as they saw the giant tree growing with the force to pierce the sky, most of the people in the banquet hall headed there without hesitation.

Ahn Joo-Hyuk and Nam Hyun-Hwa took the lead, followed by Han Soo-Young, Choi Hyun-Woo, and Jin Ye-Seul.

And Ivan, Lee Yu-Na, and Ahn Do-Hoon followed closely behind them.

However, Jin Ye-Jeong, Jin Ye-Seul's older sister, did not accompany them, saying that she was worried about her mother.

At her words, the others nodded as if they understood, but Jin Ye-Seul only glared at her once, as if it wasn't even funny.

“That's… World Tree.”

While running for a while, Ahn Joo-Hyuk muttered as if he could not understand.

As he said, the closer he got to the giant tree, the more small branches of the World Tree appeared here and there on the ground.

“… It doesn't seem like a normal thing. We need to hurry our steps a little more."

“Oh, yes.”

Nam Hyun-Hwa said that in a sharp voice without realizing it, and Ahn Joo-Hyuk nodded involuntarily.

“…… .”

And Han Soo-Young noticed that thing had somewhat similar mana to the one Yoo Ji-Hyuk had delt in Margo's dungeon before.

She clenched her teeth and tried her best not to fall behind.

― Gyaaaaak!!! Geuaaaak!!!

A distant roar rang out, this time with a clear meaning.

The group stopped for a moment, and Nam Hyun-Hwa raised her head.

And she could see the back of Yoo Ji-Hyuk, who was falling, sliding down its eyes, along with a grotesque, huge human face that screamed.

“As expected. That giant tree and the boy who was dragged now are fighting.”

With those words, Nam Hyun-Hwa drew her sword and quietly took a stance.

A pure white aura formed on the blade of the sword, and slowly the blade of the sword began to tremble as if in resonance.

“And it looks pretty dangerous.”

I can't just let a child die in front of my eyes.

Thinking so, she immediately swung her sword.

The pure white sword aura was shot towards the old tree as if it had a will, and Choi Hyun-Woo, who watched it from the side, put on an astonished expression.

'You don't look that much older than me... .'

She was at a level he couldn't even imagine.

While he was thinking about how much effort she had put in, Lee Yu-Na shouted in a small voice.

“That, isn't that him?!”

Someone was falling from the air.

As soon as they saw it, Jin Ye-Seul ran like crazy, and Han Soo-Young quickly cast a spell.

She had never felt so fortunate to have honed her space magic as she did now.

She felt a wild wind along with a strange floating sensation.

Han Soo-Young reflexively reached out and hugged Yoo Ji-Hyuk's body, which was flying towards her.

Holding his body tightly, she whispered unknowingly.

“I caught you.”

She remembered how Yoo Ji-Hyuk's figure had vanished before her eyes by Lee Jae-Joon.

Perhaps it was her imagination, but his body felt so light.

Her hand that was holding him naturally grew stronger in strength.

“… Now I'll never let you go like that again.”

She didn't know if he'd heard her whisper, but Yoo Ji-Hyuk looked at her with a sigh of relief.

“Nice timing.”

“I am always… Wh, what!? You! Why is your eye like that!”

“Ah, since we're fighting, it's a little bit.”

"That's not a little bit. It's definitely not a little bit hurt!"

Han Soo-Young, who had a relaxed smile, changed as soon as she saw his left eye covered in blood.

Yoo Ji-Hyuk, who was actually injured, responded by saying it was no big deal, and sparks flew in Han Soo-young's eyes at his indifferent attitude.

“What the hell do you think you are, every day… !”

"Wait a minute."

Covering Han Soo-Young's mouth, who was about to shout something, Yoo Ji-Hyuk looked at the old tree that was a Svengali with meaningful eyes.

Its body was trembling to the point that it could be seen from a distance.

“Soo-Young, let's go down a little later.”

"What?"

Looking at her dissatisfied expression, he said.

“Can you tell everyone to be careful, it's dangerous?"

There will be an earthquake soon.

He added, muttering so.

“Be especially careful under your feet, as the roots will come up through the ground.”

At his words, Han Soo-Young closed her eyes without a single doubt and immediately concentrated her mind.

Soon she heard a rumbling sound.

An earthquake was taking place.

“… And this is the last one."

His eyes naturally narrowed, knowing full well that this was his last struggle.