Even After Reincarnation, I'm Going to the Academy

Chapter 11

『 Translator – Divinity 』

Rohan couldn't understand.

He knew he had made blasphemous remarks.

But the other party's reaction was strange.

Instead of saying something like "How dare you disregard God!", he asked what he meant and then charged at him, saying "Just die."

An ordinary priest would try to seize even a bit of God's attention by saying something like "You shall be punished" or "Wash away the insult to God with blood."

'Is he different from other priests?'

Maybe it was because he was young. Acting like that wouldn't get him much attention from God.

'Well, it doesn't matter.'

Judging from his swordsmanship, he seemed like a paladin, but although his weapon was quite shiny, he had no shield or armor.

He looked about 16? 17? At that age, he couldn't possibly defeat him, who had lived for a long time.

'Fool.'

He was rushing in, overwhelmed by emotions, when he should have been cautious?

Rohan smirked and chanted a spell. Ordinary mages had set spells, but dark mages were different.

They offered their souls to create new magic formulas. In other words, there was no set method, which often made them seem unpredictable to other mages.

"Be bound!"

Numerous skeletal hands sprang up from the ground, trying to grab Eugene's feet.

The divine power surrounding Eugene's body rotated. The crimson shield, which looked like an aura shield, didn't allow the skeletal hands to touch his body.

'...Red?'

Rohan blinked.

Red? Wasn't divine power supposed to be golden? No, that wasn't it.

Seeing the skeletal hands melting before even touching him, it was definitely divine power.

'...Wait a minute. Red?!'

Red divine power.

That was the unique divine power possessed only by the priests of the War God, Arcana!

'Why is a priest of the War God here?!'

200 years ago, the War God's sole apostle, who ended the Great War, went into hiding in this forest.

The grand temple was also moved here, and she was forgotten into the annals of history, as if resting for the future.

Although the War God was receiving a lot of attention now due to the notoriety of the priests and their past actions, it was true that she had been forgotten for a while until 100 years ago!

Even when Rohan approached, tampered with the barrier coveting the War God's power, and prepared human sacrifices, the War God didn't budge. And now she suddenly appeared?!

'No, this is an opportunity.'

The War God had only one apostle. Unlike the God of Light, the God of the Sea, or the God of the Forest, who had countless priests.

A blessing concentrated solely on one person.

However, that boy was still young!

There was no way that a mere child could handle the blessings of a noble god who hadn't bestowed them upon any hero in the past.

"...Even if you are a priest of the War God! You cannot overcome this long passage of time!"

Black magical power enveloped Rohan's wide-eyed form.

"Rise!"

A skeletal hand shot up, lifting Rohan high.

At the same time, countless skeletons rose from the ground, blocking Eugene's path.

"Those skeletons are...!"

"Haha! They're the undead I collected from the village I attacked a few days ago!"

"Kuguuuuu–"

Rohan tapped the palm of the skeletal hand with the tip of his staff.

A small tremor.

"Gather."

However, the moment he added one more spell,

The faint tremor amplified, echoing throughout the entire forest.

...Kugugugu.

...Kugugugugu!

Soon, goblins emerged from between the trees.

"Kieeek!"

The frenzied goblins, drooling, rampaged recklessly.

Behind them stood gloomy goblin shamans in black robes.

"......"

Eugene, seeing the approaching skeletons and goblins, stopped in his tracks.

If he were an adult, he wouldn't have cared about these mere goblins and would have attacked him directly.

'As expected, he's still young! Weak! I can kill him!'

If he offered that boy as a sacrifice, he could gain power comparable to a god.

Rohan, his eyes gleaming with greed, pointed his staff at Eugene.

"Do you see the goblins before you? Among them, the shamans can forcibly 'enrage' other goblins. So don't move! If you move even a little, I'll enrage all the goblins in this village."

Goblins themselves were a weak race.

But what if there were many of them?

What if they attacked without regard for their lives in a frenzied state?

'Even if he's a priest of the War God, that young boy won't be able to break through!'

Today, he would obtain the power of God and write a new history.

'The Karma family is just the beginning.'

Eugene stopped in his tracks and looked up at him.

Actually, he hadn't stopped because of those measly goblins and skeletons. He instinctively knew that if he swung his sword now, he could wipe them all out.

But the reason he stopped here was that...

This was the perfect spot to finish him off.

"Actually, I was curious about what kind of grudge you had against the Karma family, and why you went so far as to curse him and ruin his life..."

Eugene's entire body was enveloped in a red aura. The War God's blessing activated, invigorating him.

"But I don't need to know. You're just trash, and you're going to die. I'll find out the rest by torturing your servants."

His eyes turned bloodshot.

His senses sharpened. The War God's blessing didn't just enhance his physical abilities; it also showed him the opponent's past deeds.

「Rohan Arma

Current Status: Wanted Criminal

Number of Murders: 500 (estimated)

Villages Annihilated: 5

Crimes Committed: Murder, Human Sacrifice, Blasphemy」

No matter what his story was, he was just a criminal.

He might not be a hero or anything, but he had the power to kill a bastard like him.

"So just die."

Thud!

He kicked off the ground and leaped upwards. Rohan, his eyes wide with shock, hurriedly raised his staff.

Magical power swirled around the staff.

"Strike him down!"

Crash!

It was the magic he mainly used before becoming a dark mage. The lightning imbued with magical power possessed far greater power than the original spell.

But it didn't reach Eugene.

"Cancel."

The magical power that formed the lightning dispersed.

A higher-level mage had disrupted the flow of magical power and scattered the spell's structure.

"Dark Mage Rohan."

Niphella chanted a spell. Although he had been missing for a while due to Rohan's attack, he was a professor at the continent's best academy.

It wasn't difficult for him to cancel the magic of a mediocre dark mage like Rohan, who had become strong through unorthodox methods like human sacrifice.

Especially if it wasn't the kind of magic dark mages used, but the kind he often saw!

"Stop acting pathetic and just die. Your family is already destroyed, and this is what you brought upon yourself."

"Shut up! What do you know?!"

Rohan raised his staff with bloodshot eyes.

It was the staff that his father, the lord of Arma territory, had given him.

Back then, Rohan, who received the expensive staff as a gift, sought a shortcut to become stronger to live up to his father's expectations, and...

"I, I just wanted to revive my family...!"

...his family was annihilated as punishment for violating the laws of the Imperial Family and the Temple.

The crime of trespassing on the territory of the great War God who ended the Great War in the past, the crime of damaging the forest, the accumulated illegal activities...

"Revival my ass. If you started something you couldn't handle, you should have taken responsibility."

Eugene's foot landed on the giant skeleton's hand. The skeleton, reacting to the divine power, writhed in pain and flailed its hand.

Rohan leaped back and climbed onto the skeleton's shoulder.

A red line grazed past him. A small cut appeared on his cheek, and blood trickled down.

And then,

Thud!

The skeleton's body, having lost its skull, crumbled.

The red divine power burned the magical power itself, preventing the skeleton from regenerating, and Rohan, having lost his footing, plummeted.

As he fell, Rohan gripped his staff tightly.

"I-I can't die here!"

He gathered all his magical power and summoned an undead.

A fake lich! A fake lich with fluttering gray ash appeared.

"Kill him! Kill that guy!! Kill him by any means necessary!!!"

《Aaaaaah!》

The fake lich, driven berserk by its master's emotions, opened its mouth wide and unleashed its magical power.

An ear-piercing scream, capable of shaking and devastating the human spirit, echoed.

But Eugene didn't waver in the slightest.

Gripping the sword tightly with both hands, he slowly raised it above his head.

Woooong–

A crimson aura enveloped the sword.

Eugene lacked both experience and skill.

But the moment he entered combat, his eyes sharpened, and his senses heightened explosively, telling him what to do and how to do it.

Eugene's sword was definitely not a divine artifact. However, it was comparable to one, and its power changed depending on how it was wielded.

'In one strike...'

His eyes saw the flow. The movement of the magical power covering the surroundings was clearly visible to his sharpened eyes, and he could see how to cut it down.

'I'll cut it.'

Whoosh!

The sword swung. It looked like a miss.

But the result was completely different.

Slash!

The magical power that formed the fake lich was split in half. The divine power burned the magical power, and behind the crumbling fake lich, Rohan was falling.

Rohan was reflected in Eugene's closely pursuing eyes. His hair was drenched from magical exhaustion, and his eyes were filled with despair.

The strength he had shown before and his ambition to surpass God were nowhere to be seen.

"Aren't you too weak?"

Rohan also saw Eugene's eyes.

His eyes, curved with ridicule, weren't those of a priest at all.

It was as if he were...

"A-A demon...!"

"That's you. No, you don't even deserve to be called a demon."

Eugene whispered in a cold voice.

"You're just experience points that Arcana intentionally left alone."

Rohan's eyes widened.

What? Intentionally left alone? That was ridiculous. Rohan was called a genius.

He had used his brains to avoid God's attention, approached the barrier, and stayed in this place where he could create a 'gap' to steal God's power.

It was a brilliant plan, and it could have succeeded if things went according to plan.

But to be intentionally left alone?

From the beginning, was he just playing into God's hands?

"N-No way–"

Eugene didn't listen any further and thrust his sword into Rohan's heart. Rohan, pierced through the heart, vomited blood.

Spurt!

As Eugene swung his sword sideways, the light faded from Rohan's eyes as he was split in half, his heart pierced.

Soon, both bodies plummeted downwards.

It was quite a height. Eugene had reached this point with just a few leaps, but that was because he had used a blessing on his legs.

The knights were generating sword energy and cutting down the goblins, but they were far from Eugene.

But Eugene wasn't worried.

"Fly!"

Niphella had cast a spell to slow his descent, and he wasn't weak enough to die from falling from this height anyway.

After cutting down Rohan, his regained composure cooled his head.

'Ah, damn it. I got excited for nothing.'

It was his first time fighting a dark mage, and he had lost his cool for a moment, feeling as if his parents had been insulted.

But looking at him now, he was nothing special.

'He's definitely dead, so I just need to clean up.'

Eugene looked down. Skeletons and goblins were still swarming below, and perhaps because they had lost their master, the shamans were making strange noises as if they were running wild.

Wiping them out didn't seem difficult. It would take some time for the knights, but they didn't seem to have any trouble dealing with them.

'Hmm?'

Woooong!

Suddenly, the sword vibrated. To be precise, the jewel embedded in the blade was vibrating.

'...What's this?'

The sword moved on its own, pointing its tip at the building.

Then, Eugene's divine power was drained, and the sword started shaking violently.

"What? What's wrong?"

He gripped the sword tightly in surprise. But the jewel on the sword, vibrating as if it wanted to escape, flashed brightly.

...!

Something flew towards him. Eugene instinctively raised his sword to block it.

But there was no need to block. The target of something was the sword itself.

It was a blue jewel, the same shape as the red jewel embedded in the blade.

'...What's this?'

Was this really not a divine artifact? No, but why was the jewel embedded here?

Many questions crossed his mind. But he shook off his thoughts and looked at the goblins and undead filling the ground below.

'Let's clean this up first.'

He couldn't do anything else until the situation was resolved.

He coated the blade with divine power, just like before. Eugene's eyes widened.

"Uh oh?"

The divine power that was supposed to coat the blade went out of his control and fluctuated wildly before... exploding with a tremendous blast.

Kaaaaaaaaaaang!