My Students Regret It After I Retired

48 – You’ll Be The Only One To Die

“Leos, haven’t you realized? Most humans are incompetent and don’t grasp their own limits. No matter how hard you try and devote yourself for others, the capacity of your vessel and those of others are different. They cannot overlap no matter how hard they try. How can you think a monster like you, who can effortlessly kill dozens, could mix with those who cannot even properly kill one or two people?”

“That’s none of your concern.”

-Clang!

Arthan met Leos’s swung sword head-on. He retreated while deflecting the blade. Even so, his mouth didn’t stop moving.

“Your abilities are certainly different. The mindset you have when killing people, without any hesitation, is practically innate, and your ability to kill monsters is unmatched. The fact that you can seal all existing Red Gates proves that you were born with abilities different from ordinary people. You shouldn’t be playing with people like pawns on the ground. You should be in the heavens, higher than the sky, looking down on these uncivilized people with us.”

“Shut up!”

Leos rapidly rotated his body and swung his chain sword in succession, Arthan desperately defending himself. He failed to block all the attacks, however, and this time, he was grazed near the shoulder, blood trickling down.

“To have changed so much in just a few years. I’m certain of it. If you just had a little more time, there wouldn’t be anyone in the Celestial Assembly who could defeat you. If you join the Celestial Assembly, I’ll make sure that no one bothers you. The false accusations you were unfairly saddled with? With just one word from me, I can distribute press releases across the empire to clear your name. If you want, I could even make the Emperor himself declare that your crime was a misunderstanding.”

“…”

“The Dark Shadow and Belin who slandered you? I can go to their locations myself and cut off their heads. If you just say one word that you will join me, I can do all of that.”

“Arthan. I used to think you were truly strong, but…”

Leos watched Arthan’s blood on his chain sword and added,

“Why do you seem so weak now? It’s absurd that someone weaker than me is babbling about protecting me. I have no idea how I should accept that.”

-Grind

Arthan, clearly bothered this time, bit his lip hard. Even so, he smiled in order to maintain his composure.

“Like I said, you must distinguish between being spirited and being arrogant. No matter how outstanding your abilities are, you can’t win against the power of time and experience. It hasn’t even been 5 years since you fought monsters and less than a year since you directly killed people. Unlike you, everyone in the Celestial Assembly are monsters created with innate abilities honed by countless efforts and eons of time. It’s too early to compare you to us. It seems difficult to have a conversation, so I will return for today. When we meet again…”

– *KWAANG!*

Leos swung the chain sword fiercely. But this time, its destination wasn’t Artan. Leos struck the upper ceiling of the last remaining escape route.

– *RUMBLE*

In an instant, the collapsing ground blocked the exit to the outside.

“I could clear these scraps easily enough to get out,”

Artan pulled an artifact from his pocket, intending to clear the debris, but Leos seized the opportunity and threw a dagger.

“Tch!”

The man reluctantly put the artifact back into his pocket and drew his sword. A sword that pulsed with the same green light as the Immortals. As he drew it, Artan spoke.

“It’s not your time to die yet. So step aside. Killing you here would invalidate all the work I’ve put in for years, wouldn’t it? If you keep going like this, I’ll have no choice but to kill you.”

Leos smirked, a bitter smile, and replied.

“In battle, the one who worries about the other’s life is the stronger one. And here, you’re the weaker one.”

“The weaker one…”

Artan swung his sword horizontally, cleanly slicing through the wall, sending pieces of it clattering to the ground.

“This sword is reinforced with a person’s life force. It’s beyond compare with those swords filled with mere mana. Skill aside, you can’t even match me in the quality of our weapons.”

“It seems you see everything as a tool. People, life, everything.”

“Isn’t it obvious? Even some of the slackers in the Heavenly Assembly are hard to even consider human. Treating bugs that aren’t even part of the Heavenly Assembly as tools is only natural.”

Leos, without another word, charged at Artan. Watching Leos lower his body and swiftly advance, Artan clicked his tongue and swung his sword to either side as a warning.

Even though the sword strikes were meant as a warning, their trajectory was aimed perfectly at Leos’s head. From the receiving end, it would definitely feel as if the sword’s energy was about to slice off one’s head.

‘He’ll definitely dodge it.’

With that thought, Artan waited for Leos to create distance, then was going to use his artifact to remove the debris and use a spatial movement artifact to escape. However.

“What a goddamn maniac!”

Leos didn’t dodge the sword aura, he just kept running.

– *Fwip!*

The sword aura fiercely grazed both of Leos’ cheeks. If he’d been off by even a little, his head could have been cleaved clean off. But Leos didn’t give a damn, he kept going and swung his mace hard from right to left.

– *Whoosh!*

Artan raised his sword’s edge, bringing it alongside to block Leos’s mace. Just touching it would surely cleave the mace in two. But right before the mace connected with the sword’s edge, Leos, keeping the rotational force, lifted the mace straight up into the air.

The strike of the mace, expected to hit the left, targeted the empty space. Leos’ body naturally moved upwards too, leaving him exposed.

‘This is my chance.’

He had to take advantage of the moment his body was in the air due to the rotation. With that thought, Artan aimed to inflict a moderately severe wound on Leos, and tried to thrust his sword into his abdomen. But.

– *Chwarrrrr!*

Leos swung his leg, and the chain around his ankle began rapidly coiling around Artan’s body. His gaze was already taken upwards, so he hadn’t been paying attention to his lower body, and now Artan’s ankle was completely bound.

“This cheap trick! Chains are nothing, I’ll just cut them with my sword!”

Artan immediately tried to cut the chain on his leg, but Leos wasn’t going to let that chance slip. Leos hurled a dagger from his chest, and then closed the distance once more, swinging the chain-sword directly at Artan’s face.

‘Shit!’

Artan tried to parry, but his legs were bound, limiting his movement. He knew that excessive movement would leave him vulnerable to the following blow, so instead of defending, he chose a simpler option, twisting his head to dodge. But that was Artan’s mistake.

– *Chwarrrrrr!*

The instant Artan twisted his head to avoid Leos’s chain-sword, Leos spun his body the other way and yanked the chain-sword right back. The chain-sword, pulled sharply at its end, thrashed wildly, trying to return to its original position, and in that process, the chains swung greatly from side to side. Leos, through minute movements, directed the position of the swinging chains.

As a result, when the chain retracted, it started encircling Artan’s neck. Just like being tied up by a thrown rope.

With both his leg and neck bound at the same time, Artan still couldn’t take his eyes off Leos. He knew that swinging his sword carelessly would make him immediately vulnerable to Leos’s chain-sword.

‘Goddamn it, am I really struggling this much with just some chains…?’

Not adamantium, not diamond, not even some other artifact of immense strength. Chains that are tough to break by brute force, but could be cut like tofu with a sword. For him, a member of the Celestial Council, to be struggling so much with something like *chains* was utterly absurd, even to himself.

His heart began to race like crazy.

‘If…if Leos properly utilizes the weapons we possess?’

The man was certain. This wouldn’t just be a coup on the scale of the Peren Empire. A monster would be born that could swallow even the neighboring empires whole. He believed it without a doubt.

-CRASH!

-BoooM!

With a tremendous series of explosions, they began battling, tearing the interior to shreds. The sword energy Arthan swung shattered the cave’s interior, collapsing the supports holding up the ceiling until it was open to the sky. Leos avoided the attacks that could be fatal, steadily building damage on Arthan’s body.

He focused all his energy on preventing the chains binding his neck and legs from being cut.

Arthan stood still, drawing a figure eight in the air with his sword, and whispered.

“Even if you try to immobilize me, it’s meaningless. If you can’t pierce my blade, the result will not change.”

The moment the man spoke those words, Leos, who had only been charging forward, began to retreat.

‘Now is the time!’

Arthan recognized a slight opening. He immediately tried to slash through the chains bound to his legs with his sword. But.

“Even if you possess incredible artifacts, your flesh isn’t invincible, is it?”

In an instant, along with Leos’s words, a presence was felt in the sky, and Arthan looked upwards.

“Shit…!”

An expletive, spewed from the mouth of the man who had always maintained a dignified facade.

In the sky, dozens of mana bombs were being dropped by Spirelle. Leos had maneuvered Arthan to shatter the cave ceiling during their battle. And all of it, was for this moment.

“We’ll…we’ll both die! Stop it right now!”

Leos pulled a monster carcass from his inventory. As he smashed the monster’s head, a black miasma instantly enveloped him. It was a manipulation of the monster’s power – a bizarre ability triggered by the creature’s body being destroyed.

This was the secret behind how Leos had remained unscathed during the massive explosion at Red Gate that had wiped out monsters en masse. The effectiveness of the shield was already proven. The conclusion was obvious.

Leos looked at Artan and spoke.

“Not both of us, only you will die.”

-KWAANG!

Dozens of explosions began to rain down from the sky in succession.