It did, in fact, not take long. The knight was nowhere close to Darriwil's skill or strength. And as a result, it had Izuku sifting through its corpse to see if there was anything worth of value. Of course, its armor was the first to go into Izuku's bottomless box. The man underneath the armor looked like any regular dude you could find on the face of the earth. Next was his weapon, which was a duplicate of the one Darriwil was using, save for the fact that it was less sharp.
Once he was sure there was nothing else to loot, his eye caught on something that was situated just right next to the gate. Picking it up with his hands, he examined the thing. It was a bottle full of liquid he wasn't really familiar with.
At least it was worth something, but his gut feeling told him that it was worth more than the value in his head. Gently pocketing it inside his bottomless box, Izuku then laid his hands against the solid bars of the gate, its iron feeling cool to the touch.
"Oi! Katsuki!" His shout echoed past the gates and the ash blond, who was waiting by the side, emerged with a raised brow.
"The key worked?" Katsuki asked and Izuku nodded.
"Yep." Izuku popped the 'p' and shrugged his shoulders. "Just got a bit of a problem but managed to solve it… eh… hopefully."
"The fuck you mean hopefully?" Katsuki's eyes narrowed.
"So, you've already heard from Thops that a key could only be used by a single person, right?" Katsuki nodded and Izuku continued. "That meant only I could pass through with the single key we have. But luckily, I met a merchant just close behind me that sold me a key similar to the one I have..."
"... You're saying that it might blow up in my fucking face, is that it?" Izuku remained silent for a while, before nodding with a wry grin.
"On the lower end of the spectrum, yes." Izuku turned around and proceeded to head back to the seal where his theory on leaving this place might work. "Anyway, you'd rather wait for me here for the next… few weeks maybe? The academy is huge, and I plan to scour the entire place before heading to the top."
"... Fuck it, send me the key." Katsuki groused and crossed his arms. "But if this blows up on me, you better be sure I won't be resurrecting like your undying ass, otherwise, I'm giving you a knuckle sandwich and shoving it far down your throat."
"Fair." Izuku shrugged and left the ash blond to his own devices. Truth be told, he was kind of hesitant, seeing as it had the chance of making Katsuki implode, but it was negligible. It was better than leaving him alone and unfortunately meeting a being that was stronger than him. Less chance of having him becoming a red puddle on the ground.
Greeting the merchant on his way back, he summoned Torrent and rode off like the wind. This time, it didn't take as long to reach the seal, Torrent vanishing into motes of light as Izuku disembarked his spectral steed.
Laying his hand on the seal, he imagined teleporting back to the entrance where Katsuki was waiting, and suddenly, he felt his entire body shift.
A brief second later, he appeared with nary a sound, right next to a startled Katsuki who was readying his fists. Upon realizing it was just Izuku, he lowered them then sighed.
"Fuck, thought you were an enemy for a second." Katsuki approached Izuku with a relaxed gait. "So, you got my ticket in?"
"Got it right here." Izuku grabbed the key from his bottomless box and tossed it Katsuki's way. The ash blond caught it in his hands and stared at it for a short while while letting out a hum.
"So, the fuck do I do with this? Insert it against that thing like you did?" Said Katsuki as he pointed towards the seal.
"Pretty much." Izuku replied while laying a hand on the glowing seal. "See you on the other side."
In a blink of an eye, Izuku found himself back into the giant area right next to the lift up the academy. Not sooner did Katsuki emerge from the seal, his chest heaving up and down as he patted himself to see if there was anything amiss.
"Nothing out of place? Organs still in one piece?" Izuku sauntered up to him, and Katsuki had to cringe at the last question.
"... No… Shit, teleporting feels weird…" Katsuki sighed, hand on his head as he staved off the sudden vertigo, and offered the key back to Izuku, only for him to decline.
"Keep it. It's yours, since I doubt it would work for anyone else as long as you're alive." Katsuki paused, before nodding and pocketing the key inside one of his pockets. "Anyway, let's not waste any more time. Time to head up and see what this academy's like."
The both of them headed for the lift, the giant structure held with sturdy chains as large as the average human torso. Putting their weight over the pressure plate located right in the middle, the lift shook, causing both Izuku and Katsuki to stumble a bit before they managed to get their bearings.
"Welp, hopefully the chains aren't rusted." Izuku joked, and all Katsuki could do was glare in his general direction.
The ride up was as rickety as the chains pulling the entire thing up, with seldom shakes here and there. Both Katsuki and Izuku, mostly Katsuki, stumbled every now and then thanks to the sudden shakes, but it wasn't that much of a problem.
They saw the end as they looked up, a wooden floor – or roof, depending on the view – a thankful sight to behold. The lift stopped, and the duo stepped off, their footsteps stomping against sturdy wooden oak. There were no creaks at all, which was a testament to how well-maintained it was.
If only they could do the same with the lift that felt like it was just a bad day away from breaking and sending the users to their doom. Ahead of them, the fog made it hard to see whatever lay beyond, but the distant lights coming from some of the windows, as well the gargantuan silhouette of a building looming in the background.
"Damn, first a castle, now Hogwarts." Katsuki whistled, garnering the attention of Izuku.
"Didn't think you'd read a pre-quirk era book." Izuku teased with a sly grin.
"Oh, fuck off." Katsuki flipped him the bird and Izuku burst into laughter.
As they marched on, they arrived in a kind of small plaza with a fountain right in the middle before an archway revealing a curved set of steps leading into one of the main buildings. They inspected the plaza, noting the various cages that were surrounding the fountain. Off to the left side, a patch of greenery could be seen sitting plushly, the blades of grass swaying with the wind.
They ignored the right for now, their curiosity for the giant building getting a hold of them. Passing underneath the archway and through the open gates, they came face to face with the stairs, and as soon as one of them – in this case Izuku – stepped on the first rung, a voice echoed from above.
"Halt!" Up above, they could see something shining within the fog. Squinting at the view, Izuku could see something like a rod underneath them. It didn't take long for him to conclude that the glowing thing was in fact, a stave. "The academy is closed to outsiders, reveal your mode of passage and leave, or suffer the consequences!"
Izuku blinked, then looked at Katsuki, the ash blond shrugging as if he wasn't that surprised to be met with force to begin with. Facing back towards the shining light, no doubt a sorcerer wielding it in their hands, he took in a breath and hoped that they wouldn't come to arms if he could help it.
But then again, he was trying to get the great rune from the supposed head of this academy, who also doubled as the queen of the country, so he wasn't that optimistic.
"First of all, I'm not leaving." Izuku began, fully intent on being honest. A person who didn't shy away from killing he was, but he was no liar. "Secondly, I got the key from the corpse of a sorcerer about west of here in some kind of Dragon's nest."
"... By Rennala, I told him not to try researching dragons." Another stave lit up and Izuku could hear another sorcerer, this time female, mutter under her breath.
"At any rate," the other sorcerer's voice came back, this time booming with more authority. "The academy is closed until further notice to those not under our prestigious center of education. Leave now, or we will resort to forceful methods."
"And like I said, I have business to attend to inside your academy." Izuku sighed and ascended another step. "Just need to get something then I'm leaving."
"Halt! I said halt!" The voice grew more and more irritated, and as Izuku continued to ascend, with Katsuki nipping at his heels, the fog grew light enough for him to see the two sorcerers posted on guard duty. They wore robes with red sashes lined with golden threads that hung around their shoulders and stretched down just past their waist.
What was more interesting were the head pieces they wore, which if Izuku wasn't mistaken, were made of stone with glintstones socketed into its eye sockets. They also wore a pretty golden crown above their head, which just added to the flair.
"... Oh shite! It's the Tarnished that killed Godrick!" The female sorcerer shrieked and immediately sent a Swift Glintstone Shard Izuku's way. The other sorcerer, alarmed at the sudden revelation, also sent another Swift Glintstone Shard.
Welp, so much for diplomacy. But at least he wouldn't be killing these two. They were clearly sane and were just doing their job. Knocking them out and tying them up would be the best he could do for them.
It's not like anyone else could enter the academy without a key anyway.
Izuku dodged the first attack by side stepping to the left and obliterating the next with his trusty All Strike. Behind him, Katsuki blinked, his reflexes clearly too slow to keep up with the sudden attack that was almost as fast as an arrow flying at a person.
The two sorcerers up above didn't let up, continuing to hurl glintstone sorcery after glintstone sorcery at Izuku in the hopes of stopping him from entering the main hall. But he didn't give a shit. They were so far below him that laughing at their attempts just made him look like an asshole.
"Sorry, but my business is urgent." Izuku apologized in advance as he leaped towards one of the sorcerers. The fearful shriek coming from the female sorcerer made his chest clench, but he didn't worry too much about it. She attempted to fling something at him, her stave glowing slightly, but Izuku arrived just before she managed to get a hit off.
Instead of using All Strike to cleave the poor woman in twain, Izuku casted fists and knocked her into next week, his metal gauntlets impacting both sides of her headpiece and sending her straight to the ground.
Not wasting time, he twisted about and gave the other sorcerer a clean shin to the forehead, the man letting out a grunt for a second before nearly tumbling down the stairs, only for Katsuki – who was content to watch Izuku blitz through them without wasting a second – to catch him and gently place him back on the ground.
"Thanks for that. Don't really wanna kill these people for just doing their jobs." Izuku stated as he withdrew some rope from his bottomless box. Katsuki scoffed; his arms crossed as he glared at the horizon.
"As if. You just don't wanna kill them 'cuz they can talk." The ash blond closed his eyes and thought back to the soldiers – or the bandits – that roamed Limgrave. "Otherwise, you wouldn't have gone on a killing spree in Stormveil Castle."
"Yes, and that too." Izuku admitted while tying the two together, making sure the knots were tight and secure. "Didn't really expect to be encountering sane people in the academy, but then again, this is an academy built for the gifted to thrive. I doubt they'd let the deaths they had stop them from living on."
The two went silent as Izuku finished up, the two sorcerers tied close to each other, but also giving them some room for movement. He wasn't that much of a tyrant.
"You do know this isn't gonna hold on for long." Katsuki turned to Izuku, and the armored greenette nodded.
"I know, but my plans have changed. If the sorcerers here are as sane as these two, we're gonna have to blitz this place and get to the top quickly." Izuku pointed upwards, and Katsuki could only roll his eyes.
"Do you know how fucking huge this place is? Do you even have a map of the damn academy?" The ash blond gesture towards the building, and Izuku shook his head.
"Not really, no, but that isn't going to stop me." Izuku stood up and turned to the entrance. He took a step forward, only to stop and look in Katsuki direction for a brief moment. "And besides, this is a school, right? What if you were able to learn how to use Glintstone Sorcery?"
"Like these two?" The ash blond pointed at the two downed sorcerers. "Eh, maybe. Who the fuck's gonna teach me then? You? Haven't seen you do something they did while travelling, so I doubt you'd know."
"... You make a great point." Izuku hummed. "Anyway, that's for the future. For now, what about heading inside and getting a change of scenery?"
The two of them headed inside, and their eyes boggled at the scene.
"I thought this was an academy, not some kind of church…" Katsuki muttered, his piercing red eyes roaming all over the place. Extravagant chandeliers hung overhead, with pews neatly ordered in lines facing some kind of altar just ahead.
The place was brightly lit with candles atop candle stands the height of a regular human, with torches lining the marble pillars that had marble jutting out from each. A bunch of cages, similar to the ones they had seen back in the small plaza before the curved steps hung from above, all of them empty.
The floor had a carpet that stretched from the entrance into the altar, and probably the most confusing thing to see in a place of worship were the number of books stacked on top of each other on pews or scattered across the floor. Then again, it was an academy, so there's that.
There was also another sorcerer doing who knows what in front of the altar. Probably praying or worshipping… Something along those lines.
"Didn't expect it either. Maybe I'm missing something about Glintstone Sorcery." Izuku responded while rubbing a finger against his chin. He'd have to ask Melina more about that thing in the near future when they finally get to rest.
"Hm?" The sorcerer next to the altar heard them and turned around, the stave he was using thumping against the ground. "You're no students of the academy. Who are you and how did you get in?" Izuku was about to reply, only to be cut off by said sorcerer. "No, those two wouldn't let outsiders in. Which means… Intruders!"
All of a sudden, multi-limbed puppet-like things fell from the ceiling, each of their hands holding swords, and one of them holding a bunch of crossbows.
"Duck and cover!" Izuku yelled and both he and Katsuki found refuge behind the marble pillars. Not a second later, arrows began raining pelting the marble, their arrowheads sinking into the pillars. "Holy…!"
"Begone, trespassers!" The sorcerer shouted and the next moment, something impacted the floor right next to Izuku. It exploded and caught Izuku in its radius, glintstone pelting against his armor. Luckily, it barely scratched the metal, steel holding fast against magic of all things.
He'd have to thank Master Hewg for reinforcing them the next time he saw him.
Izuku looked at Katsuki, who was hiding behind another pillar, and the two came to an understanding. Without a second wasted, the two shot out of cover, Izuku bullrushing one of the puppets and Katsuki doing the same.
The only difference was Izuku was using pure strength, while Katsuki used his Quirk.
The explosions echoing throughout the hall was pure agony to the ears, but both Izuku and Katsuki were used to them, thanks in no part to Katsuki using it exclusively on him when they were young, and Katsuki just having adapted to loud noises.
His old hag had one helluva scream.
"What manner of sorcery is that!?" The sorcerer gaped, his eyes behind the headpiece glued at the ash blond unleashing successive blasts from his palms. He didn't get an answer as his light went out when something bonked him on the head hard, the sorcerer impacting against the ground with a thud. At least the soft carpet softened his fall.
Meanwhile, Izuku was busy wrestling with the soldier puppet that had swords with his bare hands, the puppet losing horribly as its limbs were bent and broken with each passing second. Meanwhile, Katsuki was blowing up the one with crossbows, his Quirk doing all the heavy lifting.
A few seconds passed and finally, the hall went silent.
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A/N: I can smell the Marvel Rivals MRC trophy. Already reached Celestial and the boiz are well on their way. I want that 6K USD 1st place damnit...
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