Academy’s New Guard is Unusual - Chapter 95

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 95
‘Hmm.’
I looked up quietly.
The blue sky was crumbling, and the vast meadow began to disappear from its edges.
Evangeline had arrived.
“What—what in blazes is happening?!”
Volcan threw a fit.
“It’s beginning, then.”
“If it begins—”
“We have to leave. Will you stay here?”
“No! I want to leave! Desperately!”
“A moment ago you seemed resigned to it.”
“Ha, well, your face has become rather amusing.”
Volcan laughed awkwardly and scratched his head.
I clicked my tongue and extended my hand to Volcan.
“Brother.”
Volcan grasped my hand with a hearty laugh.
I winced and knocked his hand away.
“Hand over that.”
I pointed with my finger to the crown of Volcan’s head. A piece of flesh had risen in a neat little bump.
As Evangeline’s presence shook the Crack, an Outer God Fragment had emerged from outside.
Like earthworms surfacing when it rains.
“You mean this?”
Volcan smoothed the crown of his own head. The piece of flesh fell—plop.
Outer God Fragments were already grotesque by nature, but the one in Volcan’s hand was in a league of its own.
It was too terrible even to describe.
“Yes. That.”
“Why do you want this? I’m not sure I understand, but this is terrible. It feels very wrong. It will bring forth catastrophic ruin.”
Volcan warned gravely. Fear flowed openly in his voice.
I knew this much already.
In the game, everyone who consumed an Outer God Fragment met a terrible end.
Yet there was one reason I was taking it anyway.
“I need it.”
“You’re strong enough already. Why push yourself further—”
“No. I’m insufficient.”
“Insufficient? Who could possibly be the opponent—”
“Stop talking and hand it over. I’m running out of time.”
“Ah, very well.”
Volcan offered me the Outer God Fragment.
It looked sickeningly repulsive, but I seized it without hesitation.
The Outer God Fragment passed into my hand. However—
‘There’s no reaction at all?’
Every time I’d obtained an Outer God Fragment before, all hell had broken loose.
Either a quest window plastered with glory appeared, or my mind came close to complete collapse.
But now there was nothing.
I glanced at Volcan and found his face remarkably peaceful and serene.
He was no longer a barbarian in appearance.
The Outer God Fragment had definitely passed to me.
“Are you certain you’re all right?”
Volcan asked me with concern.
“All right?”
“Your—your face—”
My reflection appeared in Volcan’s simple, bovine eyes.
First came the burned skin weeping with secretions. Densely covering that flesh were the marks of The Church, stamped there by force.
On my right chest, something rotted and suppurating coiled like a serpent.
To call it terrible was an understatement.
By comparison, Volcan now resembled a nobleman at a banquet.
‘Is this a warning?’
Given my grotesque appearance, I had definitely absorbed the Outer God Fragment.
Then the Crack began to collapse entirely.
Time was running out.
I asked Volcan what had been on my mind.
“I heard Squad 42 fell into the Crack and came back out.”
Volcan blinked stupidly.
“Our squad visited the Crack?”
“Are you joking?”
“Joking is what you do, isn’t it? When did we visit the Crack?”
Volcan tilted his head and asked.
His pupils didn’t waver, nor did his eyes blink.
His face was genuine confusion.
‘His memory has vanished?’
It was similar to Milo’s condition.
Milo also seemed unable to remember that time.
“What about Charlotte?”
I asked about the person I’d suspected most.
Charlotte was the only one missing when Squad 42 emerged from the Crack.
“Ah, Miss Charlotte is a very warm person. Like a mother. Truly exceptional.”
Sincerity dripped from Volcan’s voice.
“But you said Charlotte went missing in the Crack?”
“What—what do you mean! Charlotte missing?!”
Volcan reacted violently.
This time his reaction wasn’t contrived either.
Then the scenery around us began to collapse.
“What happened here is a secret.”
I said, looking at Volcan.
“But your appearance—”
Volcan trailed off, looking at my condition.
Blood seeped from my fingertips. It was fairly gruesome.
“I’ll manage. I’ll control my Corruption Level.”
“Not all right at all! How could such a terrible state be acceptable!”
Volcan cried out in a fit. He seemed genuinely shocked.
I spoke to him firmly.
“I’ll be fine.”
Volcan, who’d been staring blankly, finally nodded.
“Understood.”
Then the scenery around us began to collapse.
Since this place was a type of Crack, it seemed to crumble as the Outer God Fragment disappeared.
“What—what is this!”
As the ground suddenly split open and a bottomless pit materialized, Volcan yelped and hid behind me.
“The Crack is collapsing. If we fall, we’ll escape.”
“Fall where?”
“Here.”
I pointed straight ahead. The earth had caved in, leaving a dizzying chasm.
Volcan’s body shook at the sight.
“Heights terrify me!”
Volcan’s dark face had gone ashen.
A creature as massive as a mountain, yet afraid of heights—
I clicked my tongue and kicked Volcan in the back.
“Gahhh—”
Volcan didn’t even manage a scream as he fell.
After Volcan disappeared into complete darkness, I casually took a step forward.
Now I would escape the Crack—
Then the darkness before me split open, and a massive brilliance erupted.
Light so vast it defied comprehension.
As if a planet itself were gazing down.
There was only one existence so brutishly enormous and overwhelming.
‘An Outer God—’
The Outer God gazed down at me silently.
* * *
“Why isn’t he waking up?!”
At Milo’s cry, Evangeline bit her lip.
Grave’s hand, which had clung to Volcan’s bald head, separated easily.
The problem came after.
Volcan regained consciousness, but Grave did not wake.
To Evangeline, Grave’s closed eyes felt somehow distant and faint.
The feeling was ominous.
If left this way, she felt she would never reach Grave again.
She had to wake him at once.
‘But how—’
Then she felt something in the hand holding Grave.
It was a presence of incomprehensible vastness.
Too full of hostility to be a god, too grand to be a demon.
That presence regarded Evangeline.
Evangeline wanted to flee immediately. But if she did, she felt she would lose Grave forever.
Grave was the person who had given her delicious bread.
Whatever other debts she might ignore, the debt for bread must be repaid.
Evangeline suppressed her fear and gripped Grave more tightly.
But gripping alone wouldn’t save him.
Something more was needed.
How should I—
Then Evangeline remembered the Transparent Window she’d seen in the Crack.
It was thanks to that Transparent Window that she’d found the monstrosity in the Crack, and discovered its weakness.
If she used that, she could help Grave.
‘This is it!’
Evangeline moved her hands following the sensation.
Squeeze-squeeze.
She worked very hard at it.
“Wait, you’re touching too much—”
She ignored Milo’s foolish comment!
* * *
‘The Outer God appeared?’
Hard mode or not, it was impossible for an Outer God to manifest directly at this point.
Yet that colossal presence before me could not be explained as anything else.
Even the Seven Deadly Sins, which stand above the Greater Demons, could not be like this.
Then a certain entity tore through space and revealed itself.
It was ineffably grotesque and terrible.
Simultaneously, it was inexpressibly beautiful and noble.
That paradoxical awe existed in exalted form.
‘An Outer God’s Apostle—’
An Outer God is like a vast planet. An entity composed of calamities that flow randomly in different forms of malice.
As an ant cannot comprehend human thought, humanity cannot comprehend an Outer God.
As waves ripple before a tsunami arrives, the Outer God’s Apostle rises before the Outer God appears.
That is why the Outer God’s Apostle emerges only at the very end of the game’s late phase.
So why does such a being appear now?
At that moment, the Outer God’s Apostle regarded me.
Though merely a gaze, I felt each cell of my body laid bare and excavated.
Then the Outer God’s Apostle became clear.
The veil of reverence and respect fell away, revealing the form.
A tall woman with black hair appeared.
Unmistakably someone I had never seen before.
Yet somehow the woman felt strangely familiar.
‘…Evangeline?’
The woman’s appearance was entirely different from Evangeline’s. Her hair color, face, aura, even her build—all different.
Yet seeing her somehow evoked Evangeline.
Why would the Outer God’s Apostle remind me of Evangeline?
It was incomprehensible.
My mind grew tangled in an instant at this unforeseen turn.
No—what mattered was that I now faced the Outer God’s Apostle.
‘Dangerous.’
It was more than merely dangerous.
No matter how hard I struggled, I could not contend with the Outer God’s Apostle at this moment.
The woman smiled gently.
A soft smile that conjured the image of a mother.
Yet from that mouth, decay dripped blackly.
Newbie.
‘…Newbie?’
It was a strange epithet.
Why would the Outer God’s Apostle call me newbie?
Only the Security Corps would call someone newbie.
Suddenly, Charlotte from Squad 42—who went missing in the Crack—came to mind.
Could it be—
Ding!
Then a cheerful sound rang out.
[Sudden Quest] Come to Your Senses!!!
Objective: Come to your senses!!!!
Reward: Cookie!!!
A very chaotic quest window.
It had to be Evangeline.
‘…She can already open quests?’
Normally, a Crack maintains strict separation between inside and outside.
Only two things could affect a Crack.
Luck stat and Evangeline.
Evangeline could create a quest outside the Crack and have it apply within.
The reward being a cookie might seem trivial, but its effect was anything but trivial.
You could see it immediately.
A single quest descended, and the space vast as the universe crumbled; the Outer God’s Apostle wavered.
It was because the continent wasn’t fully corrupted yet.
Even an Outer God could not overcome Evangeline now.
Then the Outer God’s Apostle pointed at me.
Gift.
Something very dark and dense, as if darkness itself had been concentrated, passed to me.
My instinct screamed a powerful warning not to touch it.
I ignored it and seized the black thing.
‘One must accept a gift.’
The Outer God’s Apostle laughed.
Very widely.
* * *
“Mmm…”
A faint breath escaped from Grave’s lips. He seemed to be regaining consciousness.
Evangeline wiped the sweat from her brow with relief.
Her entire body was drenched in perspiration and utterly exhausted.
It was the cost of creating that Transparent Window.
“Sir! Are you all right!”
Grave’s eyes opened slowly.
Evangeline lifted her chin proudly.
Until now, Evangeline had only ever received help from Grave.
But this time she had saved Grave, and she was determined to boast about it.
However, Grave’s gaze turned not to Evangeline but to Milo.
And—
“Charlotte, what does she look like?”
He asked urgently.
Evangeline felt strangely displeased.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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