System Dion
The rock golem raised both fists high, slamming them down with crushing force. The impact ripped through the ground, sending shockwaves rippling outward in every direction and shaking the foundations of the entire complex.
Having just attacked to repel the intruder, the golem tried to lift its arms again, only for heavy chains to erupt from the floor and coil around its massive limbs.
“Big and dumb. That’s all it is.”
Rai’s mocking laughter landed lightly on the bound arms, and the golem thrashed wildly, as if it actually felt something.
Enraged, the golem reared its head back for a final overhead smash—only for Leila to drop from above.
“Crack!”
Her sword descended straight into the golem’s skull. The sound was small, but the mana that followed it plunged deep into the monster’s core, raging like a storm inside.
Unable to withstand the torrent, the golem’s body shattered into countless pieces. Amid the debris, a glowing spherical core came into view.
“Abigail.”
“I don’t need to tell you.”
Abigail’s sharp retort came through gritted teeth as she dove into the collapsing rubble, snatching only the core and vanishing again in a blur.
Half a second later, the remaining fragments rained down. In front of Rai stood a mountain of debris that looked suspiciously like the ruins of a collapsed building. The golem’s remaining arm still bore Rai’s sitting form. Coughing from the dust, he waved a lazy hand.
“That’s a pricey one. Go sell it somewhere nice.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know the market price, but around a hundred and fifty gold coins? Take it to a place that appreciates its value. Dwarves who tinker with mana engines or scholars of forbidden magic will love it. It’s not exactly common, so either an auction or a discreet sale will do.”
At the number 150, Abigail’s nimble fingers stopped twirling the core on her palm. A normal laborer earned barely a gold per month—pricey indeed.
“If it’s worth that much, why don’t you just keep it and split it with me?”
“Eh? Split? No thanks. It’s yours.”
Rai tossed the core over without hesitation. Abigail narrowed her eyes, staring at him with heavy suspicion.
Her mental image of Rai was that of a money-obsessed gambler, so of course she looked at him like that.
“I’m not particularly fond of money. I’ve been burned too many times by greedy bastards, so I actually don’t like honest people.”
Abigail kept the distrustful glare, but Leila—someone who knew the Devil of All Nations personally—simply understood the words.
Rai had been the one who took the biggest hit from the fallen central nobles of the Keilen Kingdom. Not the enemy nation, not even the Empire. It was Rai himself.
Even though he hadn’t been an easy mark, the king had still stood in complete agreement with those nobles. How many unfair situations had he endured?
How many times had the royal palace been thrown into chaos while the Devil of All Nations stood over the corpse of a central noble?
Swinging a sword right in front of the king was an act that deserved execution, yet many nations had once believed the Devil would seek refuge somewhere. Of course, that prediction had been wrong. The Devil returned as supreme commander without a single punishment.
“Instructor Leila, what do you think?”
“Does she look like the type who’s short on money? You’re digging for trouble now. Just pocket it and save the living expenses. Stop wasting time and get back to the academy—study hard.”
Abigail had once been so poor she took mercenary jobs just to survive, and she had even joined the assassination plot against Sixth Princess Emilia. The assassins hadn’t told her the target clearly, so she betrayed them at the last second to protect her. Being involved with the plot itself, however, could never be undone.
“… … I’ll use it well.”
Leila gave a silent nod. Abigail accepted the core with obvious reluctance.
They had been fighting hard enough to deplete their stamina and mana. It was time for a short break.
Rai remained perched on the severed golem arm, sending up a small flame to light the dark space. Leila and Abigail sat nearby to rest.
Both were quiet people, so the trio fell into a peaceful silence as they stared at the flickering flames.
From the outside it might have looked strange—three people silently gazing into a single flame in total darkness. But none of them cared. It was simply comfortable.
Rai tore his eyes from the fire and looked around at the academy’s most critical core district. Countless traps and guardians protected it. Of course. Destroy the core and everything collapsed. But Rai felt a faint unease.
The academy principal held authority over the ancient ruins. Why had he been forced to break through by himself? Officially, no permission had been granted, yet Selenas had accepted Rai’s demand to head toward the core. She only needed to lift the barriers and traps. Instead, Rai had dismantled every single one himself.
“Why not ask the principal for help? You could just bypass the trap, right?”
“No fun in it?”
It was hard to tell truth from lie from his tone, but Leila noticed the tease and glared. Rai shrugged.
“Whoa, you look like you want to kill me. Okay, okay. I’m not refusing help. I just can’t accept it.”
“Can’t accept it?”
“Yeah. You think all those traps and guardians in the academy were installed by them? Wrong. Everything here was built by the ancient ruin itself.”
Any ancient ruin with defense systems was expected to be this way, so Leila wasn’t surprised.
“But the principal has the authority. If we use that…”
“Authority…? You think the principal is above the core?”
Rai smirked, lips curling.
“Look at the academy’s famous Immutable Forest. It’s actively changing the very nature around it—one patch of land here, one entire region there. It keeps shifting forever, yet the ecosystem never collapses or loses balance. Even dragons can’t do that.”
“According to the records, ancient humans possessed powers stronger than dragons. There are many ancient ruins with abilities we still can’t measure.”
The Empire owned vast lands and therefore possessed countless ancient ruins. Some were still being explored, others had their secrets fully mapped and powers fully utilized.
The volcanic zone contained the Giant Cauldron, an ancient ruin that generated heat-based energy. The Empire held complete control over it. The Cauldron powered massive industrial districts that produced metal goods and housed research labs requiring enormous power.
When Leila objected, Rai nodded.
“Don’t confuse the energy-controlling ruins with the academy’s ruins. It’s not about creating energy—it’s about creating it and using it however you want. The Immutable Forest wasn’t built on the principal’s orders, was it?”
“… … So the core actually has will?”
At Leila’s answer, Rai drummed his fingers on the golem’s severed arm with delight.
“Bingo. Now I get it. They never showed their face, but this core has a will. It’s not a subordinate of the principal’s—it’s more like a partner.”
Leila’s expression hardened.
So far everything had been normal, but if the core decided to turn hostile and target the students, there was no way to stop it. The ability to teleport any target inside the academy instantly meant no one could escape.
Abigail had been staring blankly at the flame, but now she glanced at Rai with concern. She had realized the core’s danger too.
“Why… does the Empire not manage the core properly?”
“Not that they don’t manage it. They simply can’t.”
The shocking answer left Leila speechless.
She had always thought the academy was protected by ancient ruins. Now she understood it was a fragile safety net—one that could flip into danger in a single moment, depending on the core’s mood.
“You can read the academy history books. Terakan didn’t come to the core. The core came to Terakan and spoke to him.”
Abigail, uninterested, didn’t know. But Rai had investigated everything since arriving at the academy and knew the truth.
The history books recorded that when the first emperor Terakan arrived in the Regandia region, the core had knelt first, recognizing his heroic nature. However, most history books exaggerated achievements, so whether the core truly surrendered remained unclear.
“Ancient ruins aren’t just traps and guardians. There are also barriers even the core’s own magic circles can’t break.”
Rai had experienced that for himself. He had dismantled physical barriers that should have been unbreakable more than once.
“No one has ever broken these barriers?”
Leila felt a fresh surge of unease. Even the Devil of All Nations was only one person when compared to the entire Empire.
Thousands upon thousands of talented mages studied the ancient ruins, desperate to uncover their secrets. If Rai’s words were true, then a single person was stronger than all of them combined.
“There are a few who can break them. Barriers are just patterns. Anyone can solve them with enough time. You could bring the vice-principal right now and solve it in no time.”
“Then why hasn’t anyone approached the core?”
Rai looked at Abigail. The sudden attention made her scowl immediately, but Rai only grinned.
“Because I can’t approach it.”
“Can’t approach it?”
“First, an apology. The part about bringing you along for fun was a lie.”
Leila turned to Abigail. The sudden focus made Abigail fumble in her pocket and pull out a small pouch the size of a fist.
“Is this related?”
“Yeah. You’ve been keeping it safe.”
“What is it?”
“A mana shard containing the vital information of priests who can wield divine power.”
Leila was smarter than a normal warrior, but she wasn’t a pure mage, so she didn’t fully understand Rai’s explanation. He took the time to elaborate.
Shards of this kind stored biometric data. How Abigail had obtained it from Luteria Church priests while learning the Joue en Lucette sword technique. Rai had once dismissed it as useless and destroyed the data, but later used the knowledge to collect similar shards from ancient ruins. This time he had gathered biometrics not only from Luteria but from nearly every church inside Regandia.
“What can we do with it?”
Leila asked why anyone would risk illegal data collection without understanding the necessity.
“If direct access to the ruin is impossible, we create a new way in.”
“And that new way is Abigail?”
Abigail, who had only been dragged along as an exploration partner, was stunned.
“Yeah. Remember what I said earlier? Ancient ruins can do things even dragons can’t. So what exists above dragons?”
“… … Gods.”
Even though elemental spirits existed, the easiest conclusion was gods. Leila’s answer made Rai nod.
“Correct. Gods. Some ancient ruins were created by gods. We don’t know if those who became gods among the ancients existed, or if gods were present from the beginning.”
“…”
Rai spoke cheerfully, but the other two remained silent.
“So why do I need this?”
“Right now, you are the god.”
“…”
Abigail’s hand paused halfway back into her pocket. She slowly lifted her head and stared at Rai with narrowed eyes.
“I’m not actually a god. But the core judges me as one. It’s a simple trick.”
“So you collected the divine-power shards from the priests?”
“Exactly. When the core’s sensors scanned, it looked like hundreds of divine-power readings were converging on you alone. Only a god could produce that. Even if the divine power is weak, the core has to acknowledge it.”
Countless geniuses lived in the Empire, yet without entering the ruin, there was no way to accomplish anything. The first emperor Terakan had already recognized the core and built the academy—there was no bypassing the land.
The academy’s ancient ruins blocked access for everyone. Not even the creator—gods—possessed authority to enter. Rai had walked into the ruin under the emperor’s command and the core’s defensive system, something no one else could do.
Adventurers and magic enthusiasts would be thrilled, but neither Leila nor Abigail looked pleased. One had been sent to monitor. The other had been dragged along by mistake.
Both were unhappy.
“Alright. Shall we try the final gate?”
Rai stood up with a bright, cheerful voice, as if he hadn’t noticed their mood at all.
The final gate was the heavy door sealed by the same barrier Rai had struggled with for two hours. A small mana orb floated outward, announcing the barrier’s dissolution. The massive door slid inward with a low groan and opened.
Unlike the dark corridor outside, inside was a space flooded with blinding white light.
“Guest three entry granted. Welcome to System Dion.”
A neutral, emotionless voice echoed inside their heads and greeted the three of them.
Rai smiled despite the joyless tone. The voice was polite, but it lacked any warmth.