Chapter 43: A Chill Old Guy
The Imperial Zenith School descended into chaos as a pressure powerful enough to rival a collapsing nation swept across the entire area, catching both teachers and students completely off guard.
Old Ben, the ever-calm follower of the Immortal Count, felt that overwhelming force.
Yet, before reacting, he calmly finished the chocolate pie on his table.
"Tasty..." he muttered with quiet satisfaction, tapping his belly lightly as he left behind a generous tip for the chef.
The next moment, he vanished from his seat and reappeared at the main gate of the school.
"I knew Seth was right... our little guy is troublesome, or perhaps it is more accurate to say that he carries a destiny similar to the first hero of this era," Old Ben murmured, his tone thoughtful.
"Still, this kind of trouble is far too early and far too excessive."
His gaze sharpened.
Through his perception, he could sense terrifying presences converging toward the academy from across the Empire, each one moving with urgency.
Even in his current state, his awareness stretched across nearly half the world, a testament to his unfathomable strength.
This world itself was vast, so vast that it defied conventional understanding of planetary structure.
But then again, this world had never been normal to begin with.
Old Ben stepped forward and arrived at the dungeon in an instant.
His gaze immediately swept across the lower levels, where he confirmed that Caelum and the others were still alive.
Then he looked upward, and what he saw made his expression turn serious.
That entity... had already reached a half-descended state.
In the next moment, Old Ben appeared beside Aurelius Zenith, whose expression visibly shifted in surprise.
"Sir Ben!" Aurelius said, immediately performing the Imperial Salute without hesitation.
Although he had already sent out summons to several of the Empire’s strongest figures, he had not expected this man to appear.
"How did they even manage to summon an Outer God... no, this is not summoning," Old Ben said calmly, his gaze fixed ahead.
"It is the opposite, that being is forcefully descending."
Aurelius’ expression darkened as realization dawned.
"You don’t mean–"
"Yes," Old Ben replied without delay.
"It is targeting the daughter of Xavier."
He had been present at her birth and was fully aware of the anomaly surrounding her existence, yet even now, what he was witnessing did not entirely align with his expectations.
Shaking his head slightly, Old Ben turned to Aurelius.
"What do you plan to do? We cannot leave this as it is."
"The King is currently in isolated training, and I was considering banishing it from the Earthly Plane," Aurelius replied.
Before the conversation could continue, several powerful presences arrived almost simultaneously.
"What?! It has already–!"
"No way... Aurelius, should we try to teleport it to the deepest point?"
"Wait... Sir Ben?"
Only then did they fully register Old Ben’s presence.
Old Ben chuckled softly, returning their Imperial Salutes before addressing them with a much more serious tone.
"All of you will evacuate this area and isolate the surroundings completely. I will perform a cleansing to erase this being from the face of the Earthly Plane."
The air grew heavy.
Every single one of them stiffened.
They understood what that meant.
"But Sir Ben, if you do that, then you will..." one of them began, unable to finish.
"Say no more," Old Ben interrupted calmly.
In truth, he had been searching for something, perhaps a suitable opportunity, perhaps something more and now that such a "gift" had presented itself, he had no intention of refusing it.
Meanwhile, due to a lack of clarity and rushed decisions, both sides unknowingly misunderstood each other’s intentions.
The surrounding space had already been sealed to prevent corruption from spreading, and the place itself was a uniquely sensitive location, which was precisely why Aurelius had refrained from unleashing large-scale destruction earlier.
Now, however, the situation had escalated beyond restraint.
Together, Aurelius and the five others raised their hands.
Massive magic circles manifested across the surroundings, drawing in vast amounts of ambient mana to construct a multi-layered defensive barrier that sealed everything within.
At the same time, two among them released overwhelming aura pressure, reinforcing the structure and stabilizing it against external collapse.
Inside that barrier, Old Ben stood alone, facing the fragment of the Greater Void.
The entity spoke, its voice incomprehensible to most, yet to its surprise, Old Ben understood it perfectly.
It was the language of the Old Gods.
"Stupid humans... always wasting time on meaningless things, I was at my weakest just after descent, but you will now lose that chance," the entity laughed, its voice distorting space itself.
Old Ben sighed faintly.
"You should control that laughter. Today is not a good day for you, believe me on that."
The Greater Void paused in shock, hearing Old Ben say the language of the Old Gods
"And you... you are nothing more than a flawed imitation," Old Ben continued.
"Hardly worth acknowledging."
"You—! How do you know this?!" the entity demanded, its killing intent surging violently.
"How do you know the hidden history?!"
Old Ben’s expression did not change.
"Hidden history?" he said calmly.
"I would call it hidden shame. Now, let’s finish this, refining you will take some time."
In the next instant.
They clashed.
Golden aura erupted around Old Ben, radiating a brilliance that seemed to reject all godly beings.
Wherever that aura touched, portions of the Greater Void were erased completely, as if they had never existed.
"Impossible!" the entity roared.
Their collision shattered space itself, creating violent spatial fissures that threatened to tear everything apart.
The barrier outside trembled under the strain, its stability pushed to the limit.
Beyond the barrier, Aurelius and the others poured immense amounts of mana into sustaining it, even resorting to powerful artifacts to maintain its integrity.
"I should have just teleported it away..." one of them muttered under pressure.
"It will be fine," another replied, forcing confidence.
"After all... it is Sir Ben."
Aurelius remained silent for a moment before speaking quietly.
"Sir Ben... he still looks exactly the same as the day I first saw him."
His gaze softened slightly, memories surfacing.
Back then, he had been nothing more than an arrogant child standing within the Imperial Palace.
And even then, Sir Ben had looked exactly the same.
Not a single change had occurred to his appearance.
That realization left a complicated weight in his heart.
Yet, despite everything, not for even a moment did Aurelius consider the possibility of Old Ben losing.
***
"How can a being like you exist within the Earthly Plane?!" the Greater Void roared, its voice shaking the surrounding space as its current body flickered, becoming partially incorporeal.
Old Ben regarded it with a calm, almost indifferent gaze.
"What an idiotic thing to say, I remember there was someone who..." he replied in a measured tone, while the pale golden aura surrounding him continued to erode the Outer God’s existence piece by piece, as if rejecting it on a fundamental level.
"Shut up!" the Greater Void thundered, its rage distorting the surrounding space and causing violent tremors to ripple outward.
Old Ben, however, did not react to the outburst, and instead shifted the direction of the conversation entirely.
"Can you feel it?" he asked, his voice steady and unhurried, as though they were merely discussing something trivial.
"The gazes from above, however there is no need for you to concern yourself with them, because I have already blocked their sight."
For the first time, a faint trace of unease appeared on the face of Greater Void.
Old Ben continued speaking, his tone carrying a subtle edge of mockery.
"Unfortunately for you, if you remain here any longer, the situation will escalate far beyond what your superiors would be willing to tolerate, and I doubt they would appreciate the consequences of your actions... would they?"
"You dare threaten me?!" the Greater Void roared as the provocation worked.
In response, it burned a portion of its own essence, and the surrounding space began to collapse inward violently as gravity twisted beyond natural limits, compressing reality itself into a singular point.
The distortion intensified rapidly, forming a black hole that began devouring everything within its range, including Old Ben.
Despite the overwhelming force attempting to consume him, Old Ben remained composed.
"For you to even think of harming me... you have chosen the wrong place, the wrong vessel, and are even two thousand years too early." he said quietly, his expression shifting.
At that moment, the golden aura surrounding him vanished entirely.
Then, an axe appeared in his hand.
At first, it seemed almost nonexistent, as if it existed outside the perception of the world itself, but in the next instant, the golden aura surged into it, bringing it into full manifestation.
The weapon expanded gradually as ancient and incomprehensible symbols illuminating across its surface.
While the surroundings dimmed, as though the world itself had been drained of color and meaning.
By then, Old Ben had already been swallowed by the collapsing singularity.
Complete darkness consumed everything.
"Hahahaha!" the Greater Void laughed, feeling the crushing force of the black hole take effect.
For a brief moment, however, doubt flickered within it, as it recalled the axe and confused it with something.
Something that could not exist on the Earthly Plane.
And yet, space began to fracture.
The black hole split apart from within, as if something had torn through its very foundation, and a golden axe burst outward with overwhelming force.
What followed was a radiant surge of light, resembling a descending meteor yet far more terrifying in nature, as it engulfed the Greater Void entirely and began erasing its presence from existence.
"AHHH—!" Greater Void screamed, its voice filled with genuine terror as it felt its connection to the manifested body being severed completely.
In that final moment, it understood.
"Y-You... how can you be on the Earthly Pla—!"
Its voice was cut off mid-sentence.
The fragment of its existence within this plane was erased entirely, leaving behind no trace, no remnant, and not even the memory of what had occurred.
Old Ben stood within the fading aftermath.
With a simple motion, he erased all traces of his involvement, ensuring that nothing remained that could be perceived or traced back to him.
Then, taking out a small jar-shaped artifact, he carefully gathered the residual fragments of the Greater Void.
"This should be enough," he muttered, his gaze lifting toward the sky.
Above him, the barrier had cracked under the immense strain of the battle, and although the destructive force had been contained within, its aftermath could not be entirely hidden.
On that day, every individual within the Imperial Zenith School witnessed an unforgettable sight.
A vast, spectral phenomenon spread across the sky.
Like a meteor shower rising upward, defying the natural order itself.
