Chapter 100
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 100
Chapter Title: Nowhere to Run
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“Aah!”
“What is this all of a sudden!”
“Assistant Aaron! Are you alright?”
Screams erupted from the assistants all around.
The moment he was struck in the head, Aaron let out a hollow laugh.
He never imagined that even Aint Armian could detect demonic energy, nor did he expect him to throw a punch so brazenly.
“…This is absurd. Professor, you can’t possibly believe that I’m a Vile Breed…?”
*Crack—*
A pure white frost surged from all directions, freezing Aaron’s entire body.
“…Hk?”
Aaron quickly chanted an incantation, conjuring flames. Resisting the cold, he retreated and shouted.
“What is the meaning of this!”
“And if I don’t believe him? That boy may be a first-year student at the academy, but he is also of Armian blood.”
“Even if that bloodline is the natural enemy of demons, I don’t believe it can unconditionally detect all demonic energy!”
“……”
“Moreover, we have been together for three years. Is this all the faith you have in me, Professor?”
Enough to attack me immediately?
Aaron’s face hardened.
The frost once again targeted his arms and legs. But this time, Aaron did not go down so easily.
Having anticipated it, he swiftly moved out of the way.
“It has been three years with you, but my patron has supported me for the last six. He guaranteed it.”
“Three years and six years. Isn’t that just a difference in time? For the past three years, I have done everything and anything for you, Professor!”
“I recall compensating you handsomely.”
“How can you say that now…!”
The assistants showed signs of panic at the sudden confrontation erupting within the lab.
“Professor! Even if Aint Armian said it, calling Assistant Aaron a Vile Breed is a bit…!”
“That’s right, Professor! Please, just listen to me for a moment…!”
Aaron agreed with the assistants’ words. But Rosalia remained utterly unshaken.
She simply…
Unleashed the grand magic she had prepared in advance.
───!
It was a storm that froze everything in the laboratory. In the biting cold, Aaron’s flames flickered out like a candle.
In an instant, half of his body was frozen, and Aaron collapsed to the floor.
“Don’t tell me? Are you using the Ice Crystal now?”
“A Vile Breed can’t be caught through ordinary means.”
“If you use the incomplete Ice Crystal like that, it will surely shatter!”
“That is for me to bear.”
At her calm demeanor, Aaron’s expression changed. The flushed complexion, the face contorted in a scream—all of it vanished.
“…You’re convinced that I am a Vile Breed, aren’t you?”
“Are you trying to make excuses now?”
Rosalia scoffed.
“The very fact that you’ve forced me to use the Ice Crystal is proof that you are a Vile Breed, Aaron.”
An ordinary assistant would never dare to resist me.
“…Indeed, you have a point. I was so flustered that I slipped up, unlike myself.”
*Hehehehe*, a frivolous laugh, different from before, burst out.
He was no longer pure, no longer simple-minded. No, to be precise, he was no longer the ‘Aaron’ they knew.
“I thought I could use these fools to get away, but it seems I was mistaken. To think you’d use the Ice Crystal right away… ha…!”
Aaron exhaled deeply. Black demonic energy billowed out like smoke, engulfing the laboratory.
*Crack—*
Immediately after, the thunderous sound of shattering ice followed.
─!
“Where do you think you’re going!”
A sword of pure white light pushed back the darkness. A portion of the demonic energy targeting the assistants was extinguished.
“Armian… As annoying as ever.”
Without hesitation, Aaron exhaled again, replenishing the dissipating fog.
He then made a swift judgment.
Facing both an Armian and Rosalia at once is impossible. It would be best to retreat for now.
‘The window.’
The moment he stealthily reached for the window in the darkness.
─────!
A massive repulsive force struck him.
A hidden magic circle glowed, revealing itself. They were drawn not only on the walls but also densely packed on the ceiling and floor.
“Hk, since when?”
*Click, clack—*
The sharp sound of heels approached rapidly. It was Rosalia.
With every step she took, the demonic energy receded, as if making way for her.
“Not long ago, when I was in the Taklakan Desert, I met a Vile Breed who blabbed on and on about his plans. Do you know how I assessed him?”
“Isn’t that exactly you right now, Professor?”
“No.”
Professor Rosalia shook her head slightly.
“He opened his mouth simply because he was foolish.”
As for me…
“I have a plan, which is why I’ve kept you occupied for a moment.”
In that instant.
────!
The mana within the laboratory began to boil.
“What is this…?”
By the time Aaron realized something was wrong, it was already too late.
Forward, backward, left, right, up, down. The transparent magic circles inscribed in the six directions began to glow as they absorbed mana.
Frost, Blockade, Sealing, Suppression, Confinement… The runes engraved on the magic circles indicated a single, unified purpose.
To capture Aaron.
To cut off his flow and block his escape.
And then, to completely freeze and seal him away.
The surging mana was at a level that even Aaron could not easily handle.
This shouldn’t be happening.
He had been confident because he truly believed he could escape.
No matter if it was Professor Rosalia, no matter if it was an Armian, even with a few more assistants added to the mix.
But this…
“Don’t tell me you used the Ice Crystal here as well?”
He realized why an overwhelming amount of mana was shackling him.
“Of course. Did you think I would use the Ice Crystal just to freeze you a little? It was all groundwork for this moment.”
A perfect trap to ensnare Aaron.
For this, Rosalia had willingly expended the Ice Crystal.
“I truly dislike it when someone takes what is mine. To be precise, I despise it.”
*Click*, she took a step closer to Aaron.
“The same goes for anyone who messes with my things.”
“You would have been better off saving the Ice Crystal and submitting it.”
“You can look forward to it. I will make you beg and plead for death, to make you wish you had died now.”
“Then I absolutely must escape.”
A black aura slithered up and enveloped Aaron’s entire body. It was demonic energy.
“Showing your true colors, are you?”
“It would be foolish to hide it in a situation like this.”
───!
“Aaaaaah!”
“Get back!”
In a brief moment, mana collided, and an explosion erupted between the two.
The assistants screamed and retreated, and through the gap, Aint squeezed in.
*Clang!* Though a hand and a sword clashed, the sound of metal striking metal rang out.
—It’s a barrier!
A barrier was enveloping his hand.
“Utterly disgusting.”
Confronted by the light at point-blank range, Aaron’s face twisted into a grimace.
“Armians. A cursed lineage.”
“The curse is on you, fiend!”
Demonic energy surged. The instantaneously released energy pushed Aint back.
“I was a bit surprised, but you won’t be able to catch me. Well then, if the opportunity arises, I will see you again, Professor.”
Just then, the door burst open.
“Aaron Prain! So it was you!”
It was Pernyan, who had been waiting outside. He was surprised once by the frozen laboratory, and a second time by the sight of Aaron, who remained unfrozen despite it all.
But his actions were faster than his emotions.
A staff was already in his hand, and a wall of rock rose to block the space between the glass window and Aaron.
“Well done, Pernyan!”
There was no need for a separate incantation. In the blink of an eye, a hundred ice spears that filled the lab flew toward a single target.
“Well now…”
Aaron extended his hand. A barrier of black fire melted all the spears.
But in that fleeting gap, the adversary of demons pushed through.
─!
Light and darkness collided.
Aaron’s body slammed into the rock wall. Spitting out the acidic blood that had pooled in his mouth, he pushed back the relentlessly charging Aint.
“Getting physical isn’t really my style…”
He smeared his fingers in the overflowing blood and scattered it into the air. A black magic circle summoned something.
It was a demonic beast.
“A Seid?”
An 8th-grade shadow beast that mimics the form of other living creatures. The creatures identified the nearest life forms and transformed.
Some became Aint, some Rosalia, some Pernyan, and others the assistants.
They charged.
“Foolish tricks!”
Rosalia’s magic froze the Seids. Aint’s light completely annihilated them.
It took only a few seconds for dozens of Seids to disappear.
But that was more than enough time. Enough to find a new escape route.
Aaron ran. Not for the window. The window, under the influence of the grand magic, was a path to death, not life.
The answer was the opposite direction. The door that Pernyan had opened.
With everyone focused on advancing toward him, no one was guarding the door itself.
“Stop him!”
“The door! Close the door!”
“I can’t let you do that.”
Pernyan stirred up sand to claw at the fiend, but Aaron didn’t resist and instead took the hit directly.
He also endured Aint’s immediately following sword strike. He extended a hand, sacrificing it, and scattered the acidic blood from his wrist to halt Aint.
Simultaneously, he manifested flames to engulf the area around the open door. The assistants who tried to close it screamed and were thrown back.
At the sight, Pernyan ground his teeth.
Although Rosalia’s laboratory was quite spacious, it was not an environment where he could freely use large-scale earth magic that altered the terrain.
One misstep could cause the building to collapse.
It was for the same reason that Rosalia had only used magic on the level of freezing Aaron or launching ice spears.
But as soon as Pernyan confirmed Aaron’s destination, a twisted smile formed on his lips.
“You foolish Vile Breed. Moving exactly as I thought you would.”
Originally, Pernyan had no intention of significantly altering the contents of the prophecy book.
The future is an asset.
The information of the future was the greatest weapon Pernyan currently possessed, and disrupting that future was a foolish act of discarding his own weapon.
That was why, until now, he had made changes within a scope that wouldn’t drastically alter the future. With one exception: his relationship with Ruina.
This time, too, was different from the others.
The direct catalyst of his downfall.
If Ruina was the beginning of his fall, this was the end.
If he didn’t stop it, if he didn’t change it, he was doomed.
There was no other choice. Even if the prophecy book lost all meaning, this was a path he had to take.
He must be caught. If not caught, he must be killed.
There were no other options.
“You’re smiling…?”
Aaron reached the very front of the open door. But he soon stopped. He had no choice.
“Well, well, just as Hyeongnim said. This is the first time I’ve seen such a blatant Vile Breed with my own two eyes. I’d like to perform an exorcism, in accordance with the will of the great Dragon God.”
Because the Saint of humanity was waiting outside the door.
“I’m sorry, but I’d appreciate it if you’d leave that to me, Student Jace.”
“…President?”
No.
Because behind the Saint stood a giant against whom it was impossible to resist.
“…It seems escaping immediately is out of the question.”
An immense power, indescribable in words, bound Aaron’s body.
“Not just immediately, but forever. Did you really think you could pull something like this in my front yard and escape unscathed? You piece of garbage Vile Breed.”
*Ho ho ho*, the President stood with his hands behind his back. No one here knew how long he had been there.
“You will neither leave this place nor die easily.”
“Are you so confident?”
“If I weren’t confident, I should just die, shouldn’t I? Becoming an old man with no ability, only uselessly aged.”
*Tap.* The President lightly pressed Aaron’s forehead with his finger. With just that, his form crumbled.
“Professor Rosalia.”
“Yes, President.”
Professor Rosalia hurried to his side.
“Freeze him. Your ability is better suited than mine for containing trash.”
“Yes.”
“I’ve torn away everything that was protecting him, so it should be much easier.”
Without a word, Rosalia drew a magic circle. As she chanted and moved her mana, Aaron’s body quickly froze over.
The situation was settled.
“I’ve heard most of the story.”
But it wasn’t over.