[Author's Note: I am sorry for the long upload. I had a lot of things to take care of the past two weeks. Thankfully, I managed to take care of it. Now that summer break is here. I'll try to pump out one chapter per day. However, I'll still be busy with my part-time job, so there are no guarantees. If you readers wish for me to upload frequently, I would be encouraged to do so if you would all take the time to leave a comment or add my novel to your collections. Anyways, thank you, readers, for your continued support.]
Charles POV:
"TAKE THIS! BURN TO ASHES! PHOENIX BLAST!"
Prince Ginger fired his attack at me head-on with the intention to kill.
The sheer amount of murderous rage he had on his face when he launched that spell would make any opponent on equal footing with him feel unnerved.
Of course, as a veteran of many battlefields and the chosen of Ishta, such a look was akin to the yapping of a puppy who had his toy taken away.
Although flashy, the power behind the blow was mediocre. Even the weakest member of the Knight Order of The Goddess' Sword back on Solaris should be able to counter that attack with minimal injuries.
However, instead of dodging or blocking, I decided to let it hit me.
Why would I do that?
To show my overwhelming superiority and drive him into despair!
Now I know what you are thinking.
You're probably thinking, "This old man is quite twisted and evil!"
Well, you aren't wrong to think that way. After all, I am attempting to break his mind and spirit so that it can be remodelled into a proper young gentleman.
Believe me when I say it works. If some of my former students were here, they'd tell you how much of a hellish re-education instructor I was.
Anyways, back to the battle, Prince Ginger's attack, P*nis Cast or whatever (he really needs to work on his naming sense) took several seconds to hit me.
I responded by coating myself with a thin layer of mana that negated all damage.
Prince Ginger's spell hit me head-on and exploded, churning up a massive dust cloud that made seeing things difficult.
Good gracious! I can't see anything at all in this dust!
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it'll part any time soon.
I silently used a bit of Wind Magic to blow the dust cloud away.
Prince Ginger, who was still gloating over my supposed defeat, suddenly looked like he's seen a ghost.
"HOW THE HELL ARE YOU STILL ALIVE!? THAT ATTACK SHOULD HAVE KILLED YOU!"
"Hmph! Never underestimate your elders, boy!"
I stuck my greatsword into the ground and got into a combat stance.
"Now, allow me to correct your mistakes so far in our fight."
Prince Ginger recollected himself and yelled.
"SHUT UP! AS IF SOME HAZBIN OLD GEEZER LIKE YOU COULD TEACH ME, THE GREAT PRINCE OF BELAND, ANYTHING!"
I ignored his outburst and continued the lecture.
"First lesson, always conserve your energy as much as possible during a fight."
In the next instant, I disappeared in a flash. Then reappeared within a meter's distance and struck Prince Ginger with my fist.
I aimed at his chest with my left, un-armoured hand. The little brat barely managed to block the blow in the nick of time with his longsword. Despite blocking it, he was sent flying across the Arena and slammed into the wall, forming a crater four meters in diameter before falling to the ground.
Fun fact, if I punched him with my right hand, which is covered with my family artifact blessed by the Goddess, he would have been instantly obliterated, and not a shred of him would have remained.
Ignoring his condition, I continued.
"Uselessly wasting energy to respond to your opponents' taunts is one of the worst things to do. Not only will your judgement become clouded by anger, but you'll also fall for your opponent's traps. It's also unwise to attack an opponent with a slow high energy consumption spell when you don't know anything about them, and that comes to my second lesson, speed."
I dashed forward, picked him up by his collar, twirled him mid-air like a lasso, and threw him several kilometres away, where he smashed headfirst into the opposite side of the Arena's wall and remained deeply rooted there.
"If you are going to use a slow-casting spell like that P*nis Blast of yours, do it if you're confident that you have a high casting speed or if your opponent is immobilized. Otherwise, your opponent will seize the opportunity to eliminate you mid-cast."
"SHUT UP!"
Oh, he managed to get back up.
This was not surprising since I did cover him with a light barrier that'll prevent him from getting fatal injuries, but it won't avert him from getting a few broken ribs as I want to ingrain today's lesson into his very bones.
Looking at me with bloodshot eyes and bared teeth like an animal and continued yelling.
"SHUT UP!"
"SHUT UP!"
"SHUT UP!"
By Ishta's name! I think he's lost it!
"YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT ME!"
"DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT FEELS TO BE TREATED AS A SPARE!? TO BE CONSTANTLY COMPARED TO YOUR SIBLINGS AND BE TOLD TO WORK HARDER WHEN YOU'VE ALREADY DONE YOUR HARDEST!?"
"I ATTEMPT TO ACHIEVE ONE MEANINGFUL THING IN MY LIFE, AND YOU DARE GET IN MY WAY OF RIDDING THE WORLD OF THAT ACCURSED SHARON FAMILY!"
This guy must have a few screws loose in his head or was terribly neglected as a child. Either way, feeling insecure about your own abilities is no reason to be bullying an innocent girl who has nothing to do with your miseries.
"You do realize that that doesn't justify your actions for trampling on the weak."
"If you wish to change others' views about you, you should work harder."
"Taking your problems out on someone who has nothing to do with your inferiority complex won't help uproot the cause of your problems."
When I saw Prince Ginger remaining silent, I hoped he was contemplating his mistakes and was willing to apologize for his past misbehaviour.
It turns out I was wrong.
"F*CK YOU, OLD MAN! IF I'M GOING DOWN, I'M DRAGGING YOU WITH ME!"
What happened next shocked me.
Prince Ginger took his longsword and sliced both his wrists open.
I don't know what he's attempting to do, but I do know that if he doesn't get those self-inflicted wounds treated, it'll soon become fatal.
As I was about to knock him out so he could leave the match and get treated, Prince Ginger began drawing something on the ground with his blood.
By Ishta's name! He's drawing a Demon Summoning Circle, isn't he?
I better stop him before it's too late!
For Prince Ginger, of course, not me. It is impossible for them to defeat me unless they are on the level of Notoros.
[Author's Note: Notoros is the Demon King Charles died against for those who forgot.]
Now that I think about it, how strong are this world's Demons?
Perhaps this would be a good test trial to gauge their strength.
After all, we're fighting in an enclosed space far from civilians and monitored by trained members of this Academy.
I decided to wait and watch Prince Ginger and wait for him to complete his ritual before attacking. This would allow me to compare the strengths of Demons on Lunara to the Demons of Solaris.
Even if every world shares the same Hell, the Demons that invade their world will have varying degrees of power.
Why does that happen? According to Miss Mina Asami and Lady Ishta, worlds created by High Gods are abundant in a source of energy called Origin.
I won't go into details on what Origin is or does since I was never particularly good with science.
All you need to know is the more Origin a Demon absorbs, the more powerful and intelligent they become.
Once a Demon gains enough Origin, they become a walking, intelligent calamity who wishes for nothing more than the destruction of other worlds in order to obtain more Origin.
It remains unclear why the peak of the Demon caste want more Origin. However, there could be nothing good that comes from it.
Funnily enough, despite being called the Demon King, Notoros wasn't a Demon. From what I know, he was supposedly the creation of Lady Ishta's brother, Destryos or something, who sent Notoros to destroy Solaris because he was mad that Lady Ishta didn't join the Primordial Wars, in which the gods fought against some otherworldly beings whom I'm calling the Outer Gods because their real name is a pain to pronounce.
Basically, the Outer Gods wanted to take over the universe for some nefarious purposes. The war lasted for a long time and claimed many lives, one of them being the High God Orphis, whom Lady Ishta loved dearly. After Lord Orphis died, Lady Ishta buried his body and quit the war.
This dealt a blow to the gods' forces as they lost two of their best fighters. Destryos, another High God, was reasonably upset and begged Ishta to continue to help them fight. Lady Ishta refused.
The gods would win and drive away the Outer Gods, but not without heavy losses and many gods were killed in the process. I'm talking less than a few hundred or so.
After the war, Destryos blamed Ishta for the losses they suffered during the Primordial Wars. However, Lady Ishta, despite deserting them, was still popular among many gods, so Destryos couldn't try to kill her. Instead, he decided to make her life miserable by destroying her creations.
Destryos creates Notoros and sends him to Solaris, where he starts a killing spree. Two centuries later, Notoros is defeated, and I get sent to another world.
By Ishta's name! I'm getting more off-track than usual!
Where were we?
Ah, right!
I broke myself out of my thoughts and looked to see how Prince Ginger was doing.
Oh, it looks like he's nearly finished.
I do hope a relatively strong Demon comes out of that circle. I need to see if I had gotten rusty during the time I was dead.
Hmm, he's taking out a crystal? And it's filled with evil energy comparable to the Evil Dragon Fafnir of Immortal Flames.
This'll be fun.
Prince Albert POV:
THAT F*CKING OLD MAN!
I'M GOING TO KILL HIM IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO!
Once I've completed the ritual, that old man is screwed!
After I'm through with him, the Sharon b*tch and my snobby sister, I'll make the world bend down on its knees!
I drew the last few symbols needed for the ritual before taking out an enormous pumpkin-sized crystal from my Storage Ring.
Inside the crystal was a beating red heart that constantly emitted a bright reddish-orange glow.
This was the Heart of Balarog.
From what my sources tell me, once I complete this ritual, I'll obtain the power of the evil Red Ancient Dragon itself!
Once I do, no one can stop me!
Not the instructors of Babylonia, not the Eigth-Circle Mages, not the Headmaster and most certainly not that Sharon b*tch and that old stooge of hers!
With this power, I'll be able to rule over all of Lunara!
Heck! Maybe Goddess Vera would be so impressed that she'll make me a god and marry me!
With Blood Drinker, I sliced the crystal containing Balarog's heart in half.
The large beating heart within the crystal transformed into dark red particles and flew into my body.
One-second passes.
Two seconds pass.
Five seconds.
Ten seconds.
Nothing.
...
F*CK!!! DID THAT GUY LIE TO ME!?!
WAS HE IN CAHOOTS WITH THAT OLD MAN SO I COULD MAKE A FOOL OF MYSELF!?
As I was about to make a last-ditch attempt to charge the old man, my head was suddenly filled with pain, as if a muscular, burly man bashed my head in with a blunt metal cudgel.
I stopped mid-rush, dropped Blood Drinker, and clenched my head in pain.
Just as it subsided, the pain attacked me again.
This time, it was much, much worse.
"ARGHHHHHHH!!!!"
My body felt as though it had been dipped in molten lava. Unable to withstand the pain, I collapsed, twitching and spasming.
While on the ground, I used my remaining energy to look at my arms.
And what I saw pleased me.
Yes! It looks like that shady guy was right after all!
Soon enough, all of Lunara will be worshipping me as their new god!
[WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS FOURTH WALL BREAKS THAT AREN'T CANON. WHY AM I DOING FOURTH WALL BREAKS? I'M BORED FROM DOING AUTHOR'S NOTE ALL OF THE TIME, SO I'LL TRY SOMETHING NEW.]
Charles POV:
It turns out that the bloody pentagram Prince Ginger drew didn't summon a demon.
Want to know the details?
If you do, great!
If you don't, I'll continue.
After Prince Ginger drew that bloody pentagram, he invoked it by shattering a crystal orb containing the essence of a powerful evil dragon.
Instead of summoning a demonic being, Prince Ginger undergoes a transformation.
As you probably guessed, he obtained great power from the ritual.
However, I won't speak any further than this.
If you want to know what happens next. Please leave a Powerstone or comment and add this novel to your collections. It'll help prolong my existence so I don't get scrapped like all the other characters that my creator tossed aside.
Seriously, I'm begging you, although I lived a fulfilling life, I don't want my universe to be erased with the click of a delete button.
Anyways, thank you for taking the time to read this novel and a shoutout to Bluepikachu23 for your constant support and donation of Powerstones, even though I often update late.
I'll see you, readers, in the next chapter.
Peace!