Early Evening - Mid Winter : Atlas Academy | Atlas, Bahamut

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*tap* *tap* *tap* *tap* The sound of my footsteps echoed down the long, empty hallway as I made my way into the academy's central spire.

The final class of the day had just started, and after leaving Krystallo's history class to a substitute, I was on my way to the deputy's office.

But while an onlooker might have thought I was relaxed, I was far from it. -A rune that's meant to show people the 'might of the gods', huh...- Every time I thought about the possibilities of what the rune could be, my fist clenched. "Hooh..." -But I still need to lay low for now...-

After my discussion with Mother the night prior, the direction of my suspicions had started to waver, and after much additional thought, I inevitably dismantled everything I knew to try and form a new perspective.

But not a lot changed.

As things laid, the deputy was working directly under one of the church's deacons rather than the Chalastís family or the headmaster, but because of the headmaster's weird movements and reactions to things related to this matter, I couldn't rule out that they weren't unrelated. -It feels like the headmaster is trying to cover things up.. but he also has reluctance...-

Whether it was simple acting, coincidence, or whether he was truly under orders, I was completely in the dark. -The fact he is a Latreía makes me think it's a coincidence...-

But at the same time, having one of the main voices of the Latreía as a subordinate would put the Holy Church in an incredible position of power over Bahamut's future, even more so than by infiltrating the academy. -But I can't be sure...-

He was simply like a wrench that would force me to rethink everything whenever I tried to incorporate him. -At least Mother said she would look into the Chalastís family... Hopefully she can find something...-

Finally making my way to the stairwell, I ascended the academy's spire and eventually made it onto the deputy's floor.

*Vwoom* Forcing my aura through the wall, the moment I stepped out of the stairwell, my aura filled the entire 1-and-a-half-kilometer-long circular hallway, but unlike yesterday, I couldn't feel a single aura other than the deputys. -To clear the floor today... It seems he's still trying to save face...-

The hallway was so quiet you could hear a feather falling, but I didn't bother lightening my steps at all. *thump* *thump* *thump*

As I walked, I began slowly pushing my aura into the deputy's room, but nothing seemed amiss until I was about to step up to the door.

*CR-RACK* The instant I stepped to the side, splintered wood blew out of the door, and a thin piece of metal zipped past me.

-To think he would do that without care for the oath...- Turning and glancing back at the other hole made on the other side of the hall, I leaned back and let another metal rod zip past my chest. *zip-CRACK* -He must be confident in his mental strength...-

Finally turning back to the door, I casually pushed it open and immediately saw a massive dragon squirming on the ground in pain.

"AAGH!" His breath was haggard, and his body was shaking.

-To think he had the willpower to push through the oath's penalty, not once, but twice...- Slowly walking over to him, I matched his gaze with a condescending look. "You missed."

The anger on his face quickly reappeared, but it only triggered more pain. "AAAGGH!"

It was a scene that brought me immense satisfaction. "Seeing you squirm around like a poisoned rat... Something about it is truly enlightening..."

His angered gaze immediately locked onto me as he gritted his teeth. "You fucking.. m-monster..."

-Hoh?- "You can still speak?" -That's not right...-

His voice quivered. "W..who are you..."

I paused momentarily before a slightly sadistic smile crept onto my face. "You can just call me.. the exterminator."

Setting my hand on his head, the oath rune expanded and began to glow.

Almost immediately, his eyes went wide, and his body went limp. His brain didn't know how to process an amount of pain magnitudes beyond what would be possible to translate through his nerves, so it simply shut off.

But as I walked over to the human-sized desk near the wall, he jolted awake and began writhing in pain once more.

At that point, it was simply a matter of time.

-Now the question is whether he will cave or go insane...- As I made it to the desk, I sat down and picked up a random stack of papers while also searching through the desk's contents with my aura. -My guess is one minute...-

But, to my surprise, it took nearly three minutes for the squirming to stop, and when I eventually turned around, I could still see light in his eyes. -That willpower is truly something...- "Are you finally willing to cooperate?"

He immediately gave me a shaky nod. "P..please.. spare me..."

-Hoh?- I slowly stood up with a bit of intrigue. -To think he didn't ask to die...- "That would be possible.. but it would require a bit more than a little cooperation."

"A-anything!" He responded instantly. "I'll do anything!"

My smile quickly widened. "In that case, why don't you start by answering a few questions..."

The next half hour passed in an instant, but while my mood started off quite good, with the deputy name-dropping several of his subordinates and supporters, it eventually turned troubled.

Among the names he mentioned, most were just some low-nobility contributing with the promise of authority over Siratha or Bahamut, but on the other end of the spectrum, several were extremely high nobility contributing in order to curry the favor of the gods.

-What a shit show... But the Chalastís family was never mentioned...- "What about the Latreía family?"

The deputy instantly hesitated. "I'm.. not sure."

-Ah, shit...- It was the one response I didn't want to hear.

"If they contribute financially, I don't know about it, but what I can say is..." His expression quickly turned troubled. "The headmaster has never blocked us or our plans... To an extent, it felt purposeful."

My expression quickly started to darken. -So my gut wasn't just from me overthinking things...-

We continued talking for several more minutes after that, but the moment he recovered enough to stand, we left for the rune beneath the academy.

The whole walk was shrouded in silence, but while the deputy's staggered condition received many odd looks, no one dared to stop us.

At least until we reached the bottom of the central spire's main pillar.

For the most part, nothing looked special about it; it was simply a massive stone pillar with a hallway wrapping around it.

But as we approached it, a knight in bright white armor released the light magic around himself.

*vwoom* *shing* He held his sword out in front of us without hesitation. "Deputy.. you know the rules-" *CLACK*

In an instant, the deputy clocked the knight's head, knocking him out and causing his body to crumple to the ground. *cl-clunk*

It was a heavy but clean swing, leaving nothing but a small dent in his helmet as evidence that it had ever happened.

But that dent was immediately fixed. *pop*

Continuing up to the pillar's side, the deputy put his hand on it and injected mana into a massive rune just inside the white stone, causing the tiles around the pillar to sink down and form a staircase.

-That's quite clever...- As we started walking down, the deputy dragged the knight along before eventually setting him down in the entrance of a relatively large chamber, big enough to fit a few small dragons.

-But what is this place?- At first, it just looked like a big empty room, but as I went to send my aura into the floor, countless runes lit up beneath my feet, and the floor started to sink down. -I wonder who made this...-

Inspecting the runes more closely, it was immediately clear that they were not developed in recent years. Even for me, some of the runes were incredibly complex. -But if this place is that old... What is the rune at the bottom going to be?-

My mind quickly wandered as we descended, but eventually, the elevator slowed down, and a massive room came into view.

The deputy wore a somber expression as the elevator finally stopped. "This is the place."

The room was easily a hundred meters tall and a few hundred meters wide, but it was almost entirely taken up by a round, dark mythril platform with a deep black orb embedded in its center, surrounded by several bright blue monster cores.

As we walked out into it, I wore a confused expression; no matter where I looked or sent my aura, I couldn't find any kind of rune anywhere.

But that was when it finally clicked.

-There's no way...- My eyes widened as I turned back to the black artifact in the center of the platform and, this time, pushed space mana into it.

However, instead of seeing a space rune, I saw something else... Something incomparably disgusting...

Noticing my expression, the deputy tensed up and stared at the ground, but I simply changed to my dragon form and walked past him without any care at all.

-No, I must be seeing things wrong...- Quickly making it to the central-most black orb, I wasted no time throwing some mana into it.

Almost instantaneously, dozens of tendrils of divinity squirmed out through the shell of the artifact before splitting into dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of copies of themselves.

To say it was stomach-churning was an understatement. -To think something so viscerally disgusting could exist...-

As I raised up my paw, I formed a small amount of antimatter and coated it in space mana.

Although I had no idea what I was truly looking at, seeing its countless tendrils slowly multiply and grow, stretching straight toward my head as if to grab it, made me feel sick. -Whatever it is.. it shouldn't exist...-

*tink-FLASH-BAAAANG* The entire mythril platform instantaneously splintered before being blown to pieces by a shockwave, sending massive cracks throughout the room and simultaneously obliterating the floor and walls.

*crackle-crumble* But even as the cracks spread to the ceiling and the walls started to crumble, I felt nothing but disgust.

After a moment of silence, I slowly pulled my paw out of the deep hole in the ground and finally turned around to look at the deputy with immense bloodlust.

He was simply standing there, completely frozen as if stunned by fear.

But whether he was afraid of me or the thing I just killed, it didn't matter. "I hope you can explain to me what the fuck that was..."

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