A whirlpool of bright golden energy surrounded two blond-haired maidens while people watched on from the sides. The moment they touched a sort of trans took them over. Their bodies were now floating up in the air while the two young girls were holding their hands together, not letting go as they spun around in place.

Not far away from the girls was another person that was going through a transformation. The Lightning Emperor Leigong that was about to fade away was just getting his second wind. His body was reconstructing itself as many tiny wisps of energy condensed onto him.

“Not sure how this is possible but I’m not complaining…”

“How could this be… what is this wretched light!”

Zhang Dong had now stopped the Archdemons attack that he shot out through its mouth again. The dark rays were frozen in the air while he kept his finger pointed forward.

“Be turned to cheese!”

With a small flick, the demonic energies did a U-turn and shot towards the creature that fired it off. The monster put up some defenses but the demonic rays managed to do some damage. This damage was fast to close up as this creature’s vitality was quite high.

“You can’t regenerate if there are no particles left to regenerate…”

A massive spike in holy energy caused the whole academy to rumble once more. This power was many times above whatever the Archdemon could output and left the Principal and other magicians in awe.

Zhang Dong wanted to end this fast with the strongest attack possible. How long his new power boost would last was unknown, he needed to use this energy before it ran out.

“This matters not astral being, you will fall like the rest!”

The ugly monster wasn’t having any of this as it charged forward once more. If the ranged attack didn’t work then maybe close range combat would seal the deal. Unfortunately for the Archdemon during his charge, its opponent vanished for a split second.

“Think fast!”

With a swift kick to the face, the Lord of Pain was sent tumbling into some buildings. This kick was packed with holy lightning energy causing the monster excruciating pain, its screams were quite audible to everyone here.

What followed was a one sided beat down. The denizens of this world looked on as the white haired Leigong kicked the huge demon around as if it was a football. There was no end to the hits and the creature had no way of countering the faster opponent. Soon it found itself floating up in the air with many shattered bones and broken teeth.

“yOu...sHaLL… pErIsH...bY…mY…hAnD”

“Not if you perish first.”

Zhang Dong first had to incapacitate his enemy. With swift kicks and punches, he had caused some surface-level damage to make the monster’s regeneration to kick in. He had noticed that during this period the monster would lose most of its speed. The last part was flinging it up into the air as it didn’t possess any flying capabilities that he was aware of.

There was also the bonus of making the monster crash into the giant demon repelling barrier that this academy was surrounded with. This protective bubble was just what he needed to keep this monster in one place.

When the creature connected with this shield he could see the demonic energies and it counteracted each other. It was causing it some harm but it wasn’t enough to kill it. This type of barrier was there to keep things out and not to destroy them.

“Okay, wait there, this is going to be a big one…”

Another light show was started that piqued everyone’s interest. The spirit named Leigong turned into a large sphere of energy that started expanding in all directions. This energy egg started floating up while constantly growing in size till a cracking sound was heard.

“By the gods… what is that?”

“C-could it be…”

The stunned magicians below could see a giant webbed wing appearing from the torrent of bright energy. It was truly gigantic and followed by another one to the other side. Soon a large golden dragon head was seen by everyone. The people that witnessed Zhang Dong’s arena fight remembered this head but not it was attached to the rest of the flying beast.

“A-ancient D-dragon?”

“How is it so big?”

The Principal and Vice-Principal called out with wide-opened eyes. The large dragon that they were seeing was at least fifty meters in height. The wing spawn was even larger which made this majestic creature look even bigger than it already was.

Thanks to Beatrice and Isabella, Zhang Dong was able to reach a state of half-step into the nascent soul. With that, he was now able to manifest his soul beast out into the open. He chose it as it possessed quite the ferocious breathing attack that worked wonders on demonic beings alike. It was backed by holy and lightning energies as well as plasma, this would make quick work of this Archdemon.

“iMpOsSiBlE! HoW cOuLd oNe oF tHe oLd oNeS sTiLl bE aLiVe?”

The Lord of Pain shouted while fighting against the magical barrier that was keeping him from regenerating fully. Regretfully for the red monster, it was too late for him to flee. His opponent in the form of a golden dragon was already charging up his breath attack.

‘Ancient Dragon? Old One?’

The names that were getting thrown around made Zhang Dong raise a brow while looking at his soul beast taking aim. It seemed that his soul beast’s form was quite popular in this world. Maybe thanks to this he would be able to gain some notoriety, luckily for him, most people liked golden holy element dragons.

With a final burst of energy, the dragon moved its head towards the trapped opponent. It opened its large maw to release a torrent of heated plasma and holy energies. It looked like a giant beam of sun radiation shooting out of the dragon’s toothy mouth and it was on a collision course with the Archdemon.

“iNcOnCeIvAbLe… hOw cOuLd I… mY kInG…”

The monster was unable to dodge while being affected by the academy’s large protective barrier. It was bathed in sun-like flames of Zhang Dong’s soul beast, the particles that it was made from quickly evaporated into nothingness. The demonic energy that was shielding it previously didn’t even last for a second.

He made sure to perform the attack for a bit longer. During his travels, he had come across many monsters that could regenerate themselves. Without making sure that the monster was really dead he wouldn’t feel comfortable.

‘I think it's dead… I can feel that its demonic soul has been erased… but what is that?’

Zhang Dong had traded spots with his soul beast and was temporary in his own soul realm. His little Ai helper Bob flew over as it also discovered this item.

‘Nuclei signature detected’

It started glowing red as he had told it to alert him whenever it found anything about the cubes. It would seem that it was inside of this monster for some reason and it couldn’t be harmed by his dragon’s breath.

“That’s enough, I’m coming out…”

He needed to look at this with his own eyes. The energy that he was given was now slowly fading away, there wasn’t much time before he would be forced to take a backseat once again.

The people that were looking up had to avert their eyes as the dragon’s breath was far too hot and bright. When they glanced back up they could only see the large dragon vanishing and Zhang Dong appearing out of the blue. For all intents and purposes it looked like he was the dragon while in reality, it was just his soul beast switching out with him.

While the people were in a state of shock and awe and before the unwelcome guests that he also noticed came over he decided to grab the item he was looking at.

‘It looks corrupted…’

What he was holding wasn’t a cube but a dark crimson gem.

‘Is this really it Bob?’

His Ai companion started beeping after a little ding he gave an answer.

‘Affirmative, this is a portion of a Nuclei but it is incomplete. Should I begin the absorption process?’

‘It’s not complete? How better are my chances of getting home… my own sector after I absorb this thing?’

‘Calculating… 5,1%...’

He frowned after hearing that, before Bob told him that one full cube would give him around a 30% boost in the chances of getting back to his family. This incomplete nuclei on the other hand just got him a measly 5%.

‘This is better than nothing… probably these other Archedemon's that call themselves Demon Lords have these with them. Their King will probably have the biggest one yet…’

From what he knew there were five Demon Lords, which would bring his chances up by 25% after he killed them all. The Demon King was their boss so his Nuclei could be twice or many times more capable. It might push him past the 50% mark which could be enough for him to get home.

‘Killing these demons is probably the fastest way of taking care of things here but…’

He looked down to where Beatrice and Isabella were before. The two were still grasping each other but slowly descending to the ground. From what he could tell their souls had some kind of strange reaction to each other the moment they got close inside the array formation. The other girl's soul was strangely similar to Beatrice’s, he would need to investigate this later as now wasn’t the time.

He was holding the corrupt gem in his hand now after his soul beast had returned. At least that is how it looked to the people around him as there were more of them here now. While he was disposing of the Demon Lord he blasted a hole through this magical barrier revealing what was on the other side.

This barrier kept the outside as well as the inside hidden. It was constructed to not let people from within see any landmarks to keep this place hidden. Now it was gone and he could see the sky above him and also some steep rocky formations. It turned out that this school was built inside some kind of huge volcano. Even if someone looked from outside they wouldn’t be able to see any of the buildings that were placed inside.

This wasn’t all that he was looking at. There was a certain large black dragon looking at him, behind it were other lesser flying dragons with people on them. It was clear that this was the ‘cavalry’ that was late as always.

On the largest beast there sat a man with blond hair and a matching yellow beard. It was clear that the people outside witnessed him destroying the Demon Lord and now they were watching as he turned the monster’s corrupt gem into powder.

“How could this be… an Ancestral Dragon Emperor!”

He could hear the man call out while the other dragons became loud. They soon floated downwards and dropped all of their heads down. It looked as if they were prostrating themselves in front of him.

‘Do they think I’m some kind of Dragon Lord? Well… if this lets me get more resources then it's fine but for now it looks like the time is up…’

Zhang Dong looked at his hand that was previously holding the corrupt gem. He had absorbed it but now his body was going transparent. He used the last of his time to move his hands behind his back and do his usual ‘Senior-straight-like-a-sword’ pose before he faded away into mana particles. This signaled the end of the battle and the end to the demon menace in the academy.