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---- Mild GORE and BRUTALITY Warning! ----

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Early Evening - Mid Winter : Atlas, Bahamut

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*SNAP* *thump* An abyss-like silence instantly filled the room as the history professor's body limply fell to the ground.

Her neck was snapped, and her spinal cord had been severed; without being able to use her mana, even if I did nothing, her brain would have slowly run out of oxygen, and she would have died.

-But dying in such little pain is unbefitting someone like you.- *Vwooom* An indescribable void instantly encompassed her body before compressing into nothingness, leaving nothing but a footprint out in the hallway as evidence she was ever there. -Sending a soul as filthy as yours to reincarnate would be a disservice to those that deserve it.-

Finally looking into the room again, my cold gaze locked onto the deputy headmaster, and I walked inside. *tap* *tap* *tap* *tap*

Although I made it several steps before he reacted, on my fourth step, his aura slammed down onto me, and a massive rune lit up beneath my feet. *vwWOOOM*

-Nice try.- Quickly moving my aura to counter his, I stopped distributing my weight and shattered the ground like it was made of hardened clay. *CRRRACKLE*

The brightly lit rune vanished nearly instantly before throwing its half-baked spell into the air as a plume of dust and fire.

-Weak...- Seeing him hastily start standing up and readying several more spells in the air, I finally pulled my sword out of its sheath.

*Vwoom* The blade faintly glowed and vibrated as I grabbed it, but after a moment, it stabilized and began spewing my aura out as if it were a part of my body. -Not bad...-

Moving it over my shoulder, I looked up at the dozens of spells in the air and gently swung across the room. *fwip* *VWOOOOM*

The colossal wave of mana it created instantly blew across the room, obliterating every spell in the air and forcefully destabilizing his aura.

Not letting the opportunity slip, I instantly slammed my aura down onto him and changed to my dragon form. *flash-Crackle*

By the time he regained control of his aura and had the chance to stand back up, my foot was on his head. -Too slow.-

*CRUNCH* Pressing my weight and aura down onto him, I prevented even the slightest movements and lowered my head to look into his eyes.

Bloodlust was flowing out of me like a waterfall, but even still, his gaze was more aggressive than fearful. "If you back off and kneel, I'll consider letting you live."

My pupils instantly dilated as I put more weight on him *CRACKLE* "Make me."

As my claws started to dig into the side of his face, he finally forced his mouth open with an expression of rage.

*CR-RACK* The sound barrier instantaneously ripped apart as a massive metal dart teleported from his mouth to my hind leg.

But I watched it with a look of indifference. -Iron, huh....-

*CLACK-BANG* Seeing the dart explode on impact, barely leaving a dent in my scales, his eyes went wide.

"Wrong material, dumbass." *twist-CRACKLE* Twisting his head to the side, I created a steel dart and held it over his eye. "Would you like to see how it's supposed to look?"

Fear immediately found its way into his eyes, but he hid it from his voice. "Who are you..."

"To you, I might as well be the grim reaper, so get talking... Who ordered you to write that letter."

"I don't know what letter you are-"

"The one telling the bitch I just killed to give a few students an amnesia drug and bring them to you."

He immediately hesitated. "I'm not sure what you-"

*CRACKLE* His scales quickly started cracking beneath my paw. "You think I can't kill you?" I looked down at him with a crazed look in my eyes. "I could turn the Holy Kingdom into a wasteland if I wanted to."

"Tch..." He immediately clicked his tongue. "You think Asgard would let you-"

Clamping his snout harder, his bones started the crack. "Call one of your gods here. I dare you." Seeing the fear in his eyes grow, I released his snout just enough to let him speak.

He broke instantly. "Deacon Arca! She was the one who ordered it!" He paused before noticing my expression hadn't changed and anxiously continued. "S-She is the direct subordinate of Goddess Freya's second apostle!"

My expression quickly darkened. "And what were her orders?"

"T-To bring amnesic students to a rune beneath the academy!"

-A rune beneath the academy?- "What kind of rune is it?"

"A rune which shows people the might of the gods!"

I quickly lowered the dart until it was partially embedded in his eye. *shik*

"Argh!" He groaned loudly as if to try and call for help, but we were already surrounded by thick silencing magic.

"To think you fuckers would resort to magic if a student knew better than to let themselves be brainwashed..." I looked down at him with nothing but the desire to crush his skull in my mind.

Exactly four names were mentioned in the letter I read, and not coincidentally, those four were the ones who wrote the correct answers on the test.

Krystallo was not an exception. -These fucking cockroaches...-

But I had to hold myself back. "Hooh..." -If I kill him now, I'll have to find the rest of the rats myself...- With a deep breath, I looked back down at his bleeding face. "You are going to act as if this never happened and give the Kingdom false reports as if everything is fine."

His body quickly started to relax.

"But... You are to also report every single one of their movements to me and gather the names of everyone in this academy affiliated with them." I quickly bent down next to his face. "Just know that if you even think of saying a single word about this, you will die a death more painful than you can imagine." *vwoWOOOOM*

A massive surge of mana instantly flowed into his head as I created the most advanced and brutal oath rune I could manage.

"If you want to try and break it or try to run away, I wish you luck.. because if you aren't careful, you might just experience something no living being was meant to."

*Crackle* Finally finishing, I pulled my paw off his head and eased my aura.

But he just laid there as if he were already dead.

"Pray to the gods all you want. Even they won't dare to try and save you now." Finally turning away, I returned to my humanoid form and walked to the door. "Tomorrow, we will go down to the rune you spoke of. Plan for it."

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- Krystallo ~

"Alright, class, has everyone turned in their test?" The teaching assistant quickly looked over us as she took up the final student's papers. "Since it seems like we still have a bit of time left, you all can chat, do work from other classes, or even nap. I will be sure to wake you up once class is dismissed."

Looking down at Miss Píso's desk, I quickly noticed the paper that Vasilias was looking at earlier and had an idea come to mind. "Could you grade them before we leave? All the questions were 'select your answer'." (multiple choice)

She gave me a quizzical look before smiling. "I, unfortunately, don't have the key, so..."

I immediately smiled. "The key should be on her desk. When she has left in the past, she would leave it there for the assistants to use." It was a blatant lie that made most of the class gave me confused looks, but I didn't care as long as no one said anything. -Miss Píso was one of the teachers Brother wanted to investigate... If she looks over the key and sees the wrong answers.. maybe I can help him alert the headmaster...-

But it didn't exactly go as expected at first. "Hm..." Gently picking the paper up, she skimmed over it but maintained a generally indifferent expression before sitting down and grading a few papers.

I started to get a little worried as the first paper was graded without a hitch, but her calm expression quickly derailed after that.

By the time she reached the fourth paper, her face was warped with confusion. "Um, Nicholas, Ajax, Aithan, and Iris, please stand up."

Almost immediately, the four people evenly spread around the room stood up.

The teaching assistant's confusion instantly worsened. "Do you four spend time studying together outside of class?"

They all glanced at each other before shaking their heads.

"W..what?" Quickly mumbling to herself, she looked back down at the tests and skimmed through the first page of several of them before finally standing up. "Can anyone tell me why Hera Monachikós was sometimes referred to as The Tyrant?"

Dozens of students immediately stood up before the teacher called on one of them. "Because she ruled Bahamut with an iron fist and focused on growing our strength and world power more than anything."

"Correct." She paused before looking down at the test. "But even though that was the case, why did Bahamut leave her in that position?"

She immediately called on another student. "He didn't. Once the great war started, he sent her out to die."

The assistant instantly froze in place with a slightly angry expression. "Does anyone else wish to try and answer?"

Seeing no one raise their hand, she called on a random student but they just gave her the same answer.

After a few more attempts, she tossed the tests to the side and looked over the class with a dark expression. "Can any one of you give me a different answer?"

Fterá and I quickly stood up before she called on Fterá.

"Hera Monachikós kept her position because she was wise and made her decisions based on what would be better for Bahamut rather than what would please the people, even if the Great War caused many of her decisions to age poorly."

She quickly nodded. "Good, and what about you?" She immediately turned to me with a look of expectation.

"I have the same answer as her." I motioned to Fterá.

"I see." She paused for a moment before flipping through the tests and finding ours. "Who was it that taught you two?"

Confidence quickly came to my face. "My mother taught us. She gave us tutoring herself after I told her about this class."

She gave me an odd look before turning back to the rest of the class. "So the answers you all just gave me were what you were taught in class?"

Nearly everyone nodded simultaneously.

"I see." *tap-tap-tap* Quickly straightening up the tests, she put on a serious expression and looked over the class. "In that case, this is a matter I must bring up with the headmaster. Those of you who only put what Miss Píso taught you, don't worry; we will figure out how to handle this matter without affecting you all too negatively. However, you may expect to have classes more often until things straighten out."

The mood of the class plummeted right away, but my head was held high. -I did it!-

A blissful sensation filled my mind as I thought about never having to deal with Miss Píso again.

-Now, I just wonder where she went with Brother... I hope he is alright...-

But my worries were needless as when we were eventually dismissed, and I walked outside to see him leaning against the wall.

Quickly running over to him, I noticed he wore a troubled look, but once he saw me, it turned back into a smile.

"Hey, Krystallo." *pat* "I hope you aren't too worried about the test."

As he laid his hand on my head, every distracting thought purged itself from my mind. "Of course not!"

After another moment though, Fterá ran up to us with an excited expression. "Krystallo, Krystallo! Professor Palaiós just came by and told me he can bring us to the bakery just outside the academy to get the velvet cake he promised before we stopped coming to class! We should go!"

My eyes instantly lit up. "Really?!" I quickly looked up at Vasilias with a gleam in my eye. "Come with us! The bakery has some really delicious things!"

His smile quickly turned pure as he let out a warm laugh. "Haha, alright. You will have to give me recommendations, though."

A look of determination came to my face immediately. "Of course!"

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