Chapter 353: The Beginning Of The End [XV]

Two days passed, and I, as always, have been busy as ever.

I was supposed to relax, but instead, I spent most of the time beating the life out of the training grounds.

Morning, night, didn’t matter.

Anyone who wanted a spar got one.

Anyone who thought they were “strong enough” learned very quickly that they weren’t.

Not even close.

Well… I didn’t even reach the point of using my sword art or my authorities.

And still, the same thing kept happening…. my opponent hit the floor before the match even became interesting.

“Agh… damn, you’re a fucking monster, bro!”

Kael, who was currently lying flat on his back, groaned while raising one hand in defeat.

I tossed him a bottle of water. He caught it with shaky hands and started chugging it down like he hadn’t had a drink in days.

“Haaah… this is heaven…” he hissed, wiping his mouth and trying to calm his breathing.

Next to him, Tyrian was kneeling with both hands on his thighs, panting like he had sprinted across the entire continent.

“Ugh… give me that!”

He snatched the bottle from Kael’s hands and finished it in under two seconds, water running down his chin.

Then he fell back onto the ground and just stared at the sky, looking like his soul had left his body.

“Dammit, bro…” Tyrian groaned weakly. “I wonder how many women have suffered with you during your nightly sessions…”

His trembling finger pointed at me like I was some kind of criminal.

Kael burst into laughter, even though he winced in pain mid-way.

“Right?! I was thinking the same shit! He’s probably the only guy who could go brick-to-brick with Selindra in bed! No jokes!”

The moment her name left his mouth, my smile dropped.

My mood soured instantly.

Selindra…

I had been avoiding her like the plague these past days. And luckily, she didn’t find me… at least, not yet.

“Serious, man,” Tyrian said, pushing himself back up with a grunt. “What kind of crazy drug did you take to rise from a peak god to a damn 3-star True God in… what? Two weeks?”

His eyes were full of curiosity.

I shrugged lightly, brushing dust off my sleeve.

“I just killed like… one thousand people in the span of a week. Why?”

Both of their lips twitched so hard I almost laughed.

Kael slapped my chest with a groan.

“Who are you lying to, you bastard?!”

Tyrian just shook his head, rubbing his tired face.

“No, really, what did you do?” he insisted. “You weren’t this strong before you got this. Now you’re walking around like you’re the hidden boss of the academy.”

“I trained,” I replied casually.

Both of them stared at me for quite a while.

The silence stretched.

Then Kael erupted again.

“No normal training makes you fold people like paper, man! I swear half the students ran away when they saw your name on the spar list!”

Tyrian nodded fast.

“Yeah! Even the instructor who teaches divine combat looked like he wanted to call for retirement!”

I sighed and sat down on a nearby stone bench, stretching my arms behind my back. A slight pop ran down my spine.

“Not my fault, they’re weak,” I said.

“Tsk. Petty bastard,” Kael clicked his tongue, crossing his arms like a child who didn’t get candy.

Tyrian sat down beside me, lifting his arms and leaning back until he was almost lying against the bench.

His eyes slowly drifted up to the sky.

“By the way, Aestrea… I heard Selindra has been searching for you for a while,” he said calmly.

My whole body froze. Even my fingers stiffened.

“Really? She probably wants to annoy me until I give in and sleep with her or something,” I said, pretending I didn’t care.

“Really?” Kael asked, finally sitting down with us.

He leaned forward like a dog smelling food.

I nodded, giving him a raised eyebrow.

“Why are you staring at me like that?” I asked with a frown.

“Well…” Kael looked unsure, scratching his cheek.

Tyrian didn’t hesitate.

“She said you promised her something. And now you’re avoiding her.”

Ah… wonderful. Just wonderful.

“So… what did you promise her?” Tyrian asked, voice full of curiosity.

“I’m also curious!” Kael added, leaning even closer now.

Both of them stared at me like hungry animals. I felt my eyebrow twitch.

“Nothing important.”

“NAAAH!” Kael exploded, slamming his hand on his thigh.

“There’s no way it’s nothing important! She even made us send her a signal the moment we spotted you!” he shouted.

“Really,” I snapped back.

“It’s nothing fucking impor… tant.”

My voice died mid-word as I slowly turned my head and looked straight at Kael.

Smack…!

Tyrian smacked his own forehead.

“Uhh…” Kael stuttered, his eyes shaking.

“You… fucking piece of shit…”

THUD!

My fist sank into his stomach, hard and deep.

Saliva burst from his mouth as he folded over, choking and coughing like his soul tried to escape his body.

Plop!

Kael dropped to his knees, both hands on his stomach, his face twisted in pain.

“Ghhh—! F-fuck…!” he groaned, spitting a little more as he tried to breathe.

Tyrian only watched him suffer for a moment before shrugging.”You deserved it,” he said in a calm, bored tone.

Kael glared up weakly. “H-He didn’t need to hit me that hard…”

I looked down at him, my face cold and blank.

“It probably needed to be harder,” I said without any hint of care.

Kael shut his mouth at once, his lips pressing together like he didn’t dare let a single sound escape.

I let out a long, deep sigh and rubbed the back of my neck.

“How long till she arrives?”

Tyrian looked at Kael, and Kael swallowed nervously before speaking.

“…Maybe twenty seconds?” he said softly, as if afraid the honesty alone would earn him another punch.

I frowned right away.

“Tell her I’ll comply with the promise after the midterms are over.”

And before either of them could answer, I stepped forward once, my body blurring like smoke, and vanished from their sight, leaving only a small gust of wind behind.

Shit…

That fucking lustful bitch.

Why is she obsessed with me anyway?

I pushed those thoughts aside as I reached my dorm.

My steps were fast, almost annoyed, and the moment I grabbed the door handle, I yanked it open and slipped inside.

I closed the door right away, locking out the noise of the hallway.

The room was quiet, warm, and a little dim because the curtains were half-closed.

I let out a long breath and walked toward the bed, dropping down on it without any care.

The soft mattress sank under my body, spreading a wave of comfort through my back and shoulders.

My muscles finally relaxed after days of constant fighting.

I stared at the ceiling for a moment.

In five days… the entire academy would fall into chaos.

Tests, battles, trials, idiots trying to prove something, people dying, people crying, people begging… all of that nonsense.

I had a feeling it would be worse than usual.

“Haagh…”

A soft breath left my lips as I rolled off the bed and stood up again.

Rest was nice… but too much rest made my skin itch.

I hated sitting still, and hated wasting time even more.

So I stepped out of my dorm, closed the door behind me, and vanished from the hallway in a blink.

I appeared at the training grounds again, the air colder, sharper, filled with the faint echo of metal clashing in the distance.

But Kael and Tyrian were nowhere to be seen now.

“Good,” I muttered.

No distractions.

I walked toward one of the battle rooms, my steps steady and light.

The hall smelled like sweat, mana, and burned stone, signs of the countless fights that had taken place inside.

I approached the small device by the entrance, pressed my thumb on it, and registered my name on the spare list.

Training was better than lying on a bed doing nothing.

Letting hours pass without purpose made me feel like I was rotting.

So I might as well break something, or someone.

RING!

The device chimed.

A small teleport formation lit up beneath my feet, spreading pale blue lines across the floor.

“Finally,” I whispered.

In the next instant, the room dissolved around me.

The light faded, and I stood inside a new arena, wide, circular, with tall stone walls and a cold wind blowing from magic vents above.

Frost covered the ground in thin white patches.

And then I heard a mechanical voice echo:

—Opponent Found—

A name, or rather, a title, flashed in front of my eyes.

[???, the God of Ice]

I raised an eyebrow.

“So you’re hiding your name, huh?” I murmured, crossing my arms lightly.

A God of Ice… probably the worst kind of god against me, as I, too, had the Authority of Ice as one of my main Authorities.

But no one knew that… and of course, would never know.

The only problem was the Goddess of Light… she knows my identity, but like I’ve said before, there’s a small probability that she became obsessed with me because I took her “purity”.

So it shouldn’t be much of a problem for now…

“Are you going to keep day-dreaming?”

The mysterious figure in front of me called out to me, holding an ice spear.

“Shut it.”

My eyes narrowed colder as I took out my sword and pointed at him.

“Prepare to lose.”

“We’ll see about that!”

Fwoop!

We moved at the same time.

BANG!

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