As Alastor basked in the feeling of a plan's success, he checked where Karna and Axel stood.
[Rank 6: Karna]
[Rank 34: Axel Elio Rator]
'Hmm. Pretty good, but who else managed to beat Karna?'
[Rank 5: Amber Rose]
'This one is understandable.'
[Rank 4: Tori Kento]
'Interesting. I'll keep this one in mind.'
[Rank 3: Alicia Meltia Asher]
'This is the one called the next Illia?'
[Rank 2: A]
'A? Where's the rest of his name?'
A's identity suddenly became clear as huge mountain of a man declared, "I am A! Anybody who wants to challenge me can do so wheneve they want! And Alastor Stele! I want to fight you too!"
'He's pretty strong. Is he acting dumb on purpose?'
"Where is Alastor Stele!?"
'Or maybe not.'
Before we had to do anything, the Headmistress appeared.
Her mere presence caused even the loudmouthed A to quiet down.
With a wave of her hand, those whose names were greyed out, disappeared.
"Those who remain here, you have proven yourself somewhat capable of growth."
"We at the Academy will nurture you, yada yada yada, do well or you'll die."
For a moment, Alastor thought he tuned out her speech unconsciously.
Until he realized she genuinely just skipped her speech by saying those words.
Headmistress Illia continued with a sinister smirk.
"So, welcome to the Academy, where you'll either become humanity's next hope, or die trying."
........................................
After the ominous welcome, they were guided by Professor Aspen to their new homes for the next few years.
The buildings were huge, and these were just for the first years.
A note could be seen stuck on the entrance of the dormitory.
"Rooms A-H have the best facilities. I-P have mediocre facilities, and each letter has 2 rooms attached. P-Z are repurposed barracks."
"The default order of rooms is by your rankings, A-1, B-2 and so on."
"You may change your rooms only after the first year concludes, based on your annual updated ranking."
As soon as Alastor finished reading, he felt a massive hand grab his shoulder, as A 'asked' with a maniacal grin,
"Let's fight!"
'Ugh, musclebound idiot.'
Alastor complained mentally, as he assessed A.
'No weapons, no armour. Hmmm.'
'It would also be beneficial to solidify my position in their eyes so I don't have to deal with them challenging me at all times.'
Alastor nodded.
"Fine then."
Before the final word was even complete, A had thrown his punch already.
Alastor dodged it on instinct, before thrusting the spear towards A's ribs.
Clang!
'What? That's not the noise human skin makes!'
A was pushed back, but not harmed by the spear. He began laughing even more, an eerily wide grin on his face as he shouted,
"Come, let us kill each other!!!"
The other examinees had either formed a circle around us, or entered the dorm.
Karna had a hand on his bow, ready to shoot A at any time, but Axel was freely exploring the dormitory.
Alastor dodged the next punch by a hair's breadth on purpose, before the wrist before him.
A looked at his hand that had an extremely thin red line now, before again using the same hand to punch at Alastor.
'His greatest attribute is that damned defense of his.'
'Thankfully, he doesn't seem to have refined his mana into Battle Aura yet, or he would have been even more of a tank.'
As Alastor kept dodging A's seemingly unending blows, he racked his brain on how to pierce his defense.
Alastor chucked his spear at A, who dodged it despite not needing to.
A frowned and asked, "What do you think you're doing?"
Alastor calmly said, "I don't need a weapon to beat you."
A's racuous laughter turned murderous.
"You certainly have the ego worthy of a top ranker! But do you have the STRENGTH?"
He punched forward with all his might towards Alastor's face.
Alastor dodged again, and lightly punched A's arm before he could bring it back.
"Your blows are like a mosquito's!"
A roared as he continued his mad flurry, the very ground being destroyed by his blows and restored by an unknown power on it's own.
A shouted, "You can't keep dodging my punches forever!"
Alastor asked him with a hint of smugness,
"Can you punch forever?"
A felt a pang of pain in his arm, and looked down.
His arms were completely mangled below the forearm.
A's eyes widened in shock.
'What?! When did this happen? Were these.....from those weak hits of his?!'
Alastor used his shock as he again lightly punched A in the liver.
This time, A clearly felt what had happened.
A hint of foreign mana entered his system, and vibrated before his trained body naturally expelled or attacked it.
A shouted in agony as he felt excruciating agony from the liver shot, and fell to his knees.
"I told you. I don't need a weapon to beat you."
A was still reeling from the pain, as he wondered,
'Just how much control does one need over their mana to use it like that?'
Even so, A did not give up.
He raised his mangled fists as he arose again, the smile not leaving his face.
"Yes! This is it! I can feel it! The rush!"
Alastor immediately went for his head, but A blocked with his arm, acting as if it wasn't wounded at all.
Alastor finally felt A's power as his fist landed on his torso midair.
Or so it seemed to A, before Alastor flipped his body midair, placing his feet against A's punch, and using it to propel himself away.
'Well that could have been bad.'
Alastor thought to himself as he felt the strain in his legs.
He had purposefully landed next to where he had thrown his spear, and picked it up.
A leapt at him, but instead of the blade, Alastor whacked him with the staff part, as more foreign mana entered A's body at once.
A was adapting as well, trying to expel the mana before it vibrated enough to do damage, but when Alastor's spear slammed a whirlwind of strikes against A's body, he had no way to defend.
Finally, A lost consciousness with a final smack on his head.
'Yes, this should serve as a good enough warning to them.'
Alastor made his way through the crowd, the examinees parting for him naturally, as he walked away, leaving an unconscious A behind.
........................................
'They really went all out for this, huh?'
Although it did not compare to the room he had in the Sixth Layer, the room was opulent indeed.
'There's even a personal training room.'
He threw himself onto the bed, and the spear perfectly landed in the weapons rack.
'I've entered the Academy and gained a reputation.'
'Now comes the tiring part. Academy life.'
'However....if I do it perfectly, I can use this as a way to advance much further than usual.'
'Tomorrow, we should be getting a demonstration of every class, to understand what to choose aside from the manadatory classes.'
'I have my mind set on Runes, Pure Mana Theory, and Weapon's Mastery.'
'If anything else catches my eye, I'll decide then.'
Alastor played with a pillow as he thought about possible future contingencies, more specifically, Amber Rose.
'Amber Rose is the greatest weapon against the Weavers, but if she finds out my identity somehow, I'll have to use that mockery of a backup plan.'
'Runes. It all comes back to Runes.'
'Well, I'll deal with it as life goes on.'
Truly embodying a follower of Belphegor, he promptly fell asleep,
........................................
In the Ninth Layer of Hell, Sloth's drooping black castle suddenly had it's entrance blown open, as a 'being' walked in without regard.
He entered the Throne Room by walking through the closed doors, as he walked up to the still sleeping Lord of Sloth.
Satanael, the Lord of Wrath observes his surroundings, pacing as he begins to speak.
"I felt you awakening a while ago, Belphegor."
"And you used quite a bit of power too."
The Lord of Wrath calmly asked,
"What was it for, I wonder?"
As Belphegor remained asleep, Satanael's face was marred with Wrath.
He grabbed her face tightly and shouted,
"Answer me, you bitch, before I tear your realm apart!"
Belphegor remained asleep.
Satanael's arm was raised in the air, as he prepared to destroy every demon under the banner of Sloth.
As he was about to bring it down, when he felt it.
Belphegor had opened her right eye just a centimetre.
And that was enough for Satanael to come back to his senses.
He returned to the guise of a calm and composed young man, as Belphegor closed her eye again.
"Well, this time it was just a warning."
"Don't interfere in a game you're not a part of."
Satanael turned to leave, but could not leave without some mockery.
"After all, Belphegor, you know as well as the rest of us."
"No matter what you do, you will never become Ayin."
As Satanael disappeared, Belphegor broke her throne's armrests in silent rage, before returning to a calm slumber.