The Graduate Student Wants to Assassinate the Professor - Chapter 91

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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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Chapter 91

As Khalid had said, the solution lay close at hand.
—No… I… I…
Nifra, stammering, clutched her head again.
—Aaaahhh! Ah! Ahhh!
She screamed multiple times before collapsing to the ground. Smoke-like wisps emanated from Khalid’s left horn, which was embedded in her head.
—Tch, so this is the limit.
Khalid clicked his tongue and examined Nifra. She writhed on the ground, pleading with him.
—Kill me, please… I don’t want to live with this agony!
Khalid grasped his own horn rooted in Nifra’s head and channeled mana through it. With a sharp crack, the horn separated and fell into its original owner’s hand.
In that instant, crimson blood gushed from Nifra’s mouth.
—With an unstable circuit, you won’t last long, Halgrok.
At Khalid’s words, Nifra’s eyes blazed as she looked at him. With Khalid’s circuit gone, Halgrok’s suppressed circuit reactivated, and Nifra’s original consciousness began to sink.
—In any case, if I take time to erase what little remains of the circuit…
Khalid’s vision blurred, but he bit his own tongue and barely maintained consciousness.
—Until then, I need only seal Nifra away…
—Seal? Ha! How absurd.
Nifra, speaking savagely, staggered to her feet.
—Now that I can’t move a single finger, can you truly stop me with that broken body?
She was right. Khalid had no strength left to stop Nifra no matter what she did. Standing upright without collapsing was all he could manage now.
Yet Khalid refused to yield, standing firm and speaking each word with deliberate clarity.
—But you, in turn, will have no choice but to cling to a body that dies slowly.
—Caladniel, Caladniel… time is my ally.
Nifra bared her teeth in a cruel smile. She drew up the last remnants of her mana and lifted herself into the air.
—I retreat for now, but anticipate the reunion with your beloved sibling that awaits in the future.
Then she vanished into the Crescent Moon Night Sky.
Khalid tried to pursue her, but he had truly reached his limit. To chase Nifra, he would need magic, yet no mana remained. Nor did he have any physical strength left.
—Nif… ra…
Khalid collapsed and lost consciousness.
At that same moment, Leoryna’s consciousness was fading when—
“Leoryna!”
Pongko’s voice rang out clearly. Thanks to it, Leoryna snapped back to awareness.
“Pongko!”
“Leoryna! I’m getting you out right now!”
Leoryna’s mana circuit activated, beginning to expel the Talamans mana that had invaded her. It was because Pongko, connected to her as a Familiar, forcibly activated her mana circuit from outside.
“You wretched creature!”
The darkness roared, realizing it was being driven out, but Leoryna had already reclaimed control of her body. Once she could move somewhat, expelling the mana became easier.
At last, Leoryna could see the landscape of the real world.

* * *

Leoryna’s eyes darted swiftly across her surroundings. Khalid still lay collapsed on the far side.
The moment she realized Talamans still had his grip on her throat, she hooked her leg around his neck and squeezed.
“Ugh….”
It was a race to see who would die first.
Eventually, Talamans released her throat from his grasp and broke free from her leg lock, putting distance between them.
Leoryna coughed several times and gripped her staff firmly. Pongko gazed up at her with concern from beneath her feet.
“Leoryna, are you alright?”
“Seems so. Thank you for pulling me out. How long was I unconscious?”
“About thirty seconds.”
At Pongko’s answer, Leoryna was somewhat startled. Inside that realm, far more time seemed to have passed, yet it had only been thirty seconds.
“What about Khalid?”
“He’s still unconscious. He doesn’t appear to be dead, but….”
“That’s strange. The attack he took didn’t seem severe enough to knock him out like this.”
From what Leoryna could tell, all Khalid had suffered was being knocked backward.
While Leoryna tilted her head in bewilderment, Talamans unleashed magic at her. She deflected it with a counter-spell and pivoted sharply to change position.
As she drew closer to Khalid, she moved to his side and checked his pulse. Even as she did so, Talamans continued his relentless assault, forcing her to defend with protective magic.
Fortunately or unfortunately, Khalid’s pulse beat clearly and strong. Yet his eyes remained firmly shut.
“Why? Why won’t he wake up?”
Leoryna couldn’t linger long over Khalid as Talamans’ attacks came in rapid succession.
As she dodged by constantly shifting position, she drew near Khalid and questioned Pongko again, who stood guard beside him.
“He’s truly unconscious?”
“I believe so. If he were conscious, he wouldn’t be so quiet while Leoryna is under attack.”
“Fine.”
She cracked her neck once sharply, then cried out.
“Pedicasius!”
Taking advantage of Khalid’s unconsciousness, Leoryna unleashed magic freely, attacking Talamans without restraint.
But what was Khalid’s state during all this….

* * *

Khalid struggled to expel the demonic circuits that had invaded his body.
When he had taken Talamans’ attack moments ago, it was not merely magic that struck him. The corrupted circuits born from the tainted mana within his horn were gnawing away at his flesh.
‘Get out of me….’
Khalid groaned, straining to move even the tips of his fingers. Yet no sound escaped his lips.
‘Leave my body this instant!’
-You will become king, Caladniel.
‘Halgrok! No, you are merely a phantom of Halgrok! Begone!’
-You will become king and lead the Demon Race. Even if you refuse to accept it, you cannot act as you please.
‘You said yourself you despise this method.’
-Yet there is no other way.
‘There must be another path.’
Khalid spoke with conviction, but his adversary only cackled in response.
-Will you prevent my descent….
‘If I can. Do not drag me into your twisted vision!’
-Oh, Caladniel. Your fate is written in your very essence. There is no escape, no matter your refusal.
‘You are beneath my contempt. You are not the true Halgrok—leave my body now.’
Even as Khalid resisted, the presence whispered into his ear.
-You are the Demon King….
He longed to cover his ears and shut out Halgrok’s voice, yet it was not something he could simply choose not to hear.
Then it happened.
“By the name of Causality, I declare!”
A familiar voice rang out in Khalid’s ears.
“Let it be as you will!”
In that instant, Halgrok’s mana that had flooded Khalid’s mind began to dissolve, and finally vanished entirely.
‘The name of Causality…?’
Khalid knew whose epithet that was.
‘Petila.’
Before he could react, a brilliant golden light enveloped him warmly, and he surrendered to unconsciousness.

* * *

“Pedicasius!”
Countless threads erupted from the tip of her staff, weaving instantly into an intricate web.
Leoryna seized the moment Talamans was ensnared and sluggish, unleashing a relentless barrage of offensive magic.
Talamans severed several threads to evade the spells, but failed to cut them all—his body bore lacerations across multiple points. Leoryna refined her technique, the threads becoming more precise, and succeeded in severing Talamans’s leg.
“Gaaaah!”
She granted him no reprieve, slicing away his other leg and both arms in succession. Pongko trembled at the sight.
Yet even in that state, Talamans did not fall. Just as when he had endured Khalid’s assault, something tar-like sealed the severed edges, binding them firmly together.
“It’s because of the horn! The horn’s power seems to be the cause!”
At Pongko’s words, Leoryna’s eyes narrowed.
Since Talamans’s attacks themselves were monotonous, Leoryna evaded and deflected his strikes while continuously casting her web. When the Confinement Room had densely encircled Talamans, she pulled the threads taut.
Shhhhwack!
Talamans’s body split apart into dozens of fragments.
“Is this enough?”
Leoryna gazed upon Talamans, now so thoroughly mangled atop the threads that his form was unrecognizable, her expression one of doubt.

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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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