The Blind SSS-Class Final Boss Is Obsessed With Me

Chapter 13: Valerius

Valerius looked down at the staff members hiding behind the desk, then back at me. He was torn. His heroic nature wanted to save the students, but his eyes told me he didn’t trust a single word coming out of my mouth.

"I cannot risk it," Valerius said, his expression hardening as he raised his staff once more. The golden light exploded with force, illuminating the dark corners of the lobby. "I will not trust the fate of this academy to a failure like you and a demon! If I must kill you to save these children, then so be it!"

The solar spell was fully formed now. A massive sphere of golden, burning light hovered right above his head, ready to erase us.

I sighed and shook my head.

I tried the easy way.

"Seraphina," I whispered softly. "He won’t listen."

Seraphina didn’t even move from her spot. She didn’t raise a hand. She just tilted her head slightly toward the balcony.

Crack.

A single, invisible wave of pressure sliced through the air.

The massive ancient oak staff in Valerius’s hand instantly snapped into three clean pieces. The glowing sunstone flew out of his grip, hitting the marble floor with a loud clang and rolling away. The golden solar spell above his head completely fell apart, turning into harmless sparks that vanished into the air.

"What?!" Valerius gasped, stumbling backward against the balcony railing. His hands were empty, his fingers trembling from the sudden shockwave. He looked at his broken staff on the floor, then looked up at Seraphina in absolute horror. He hadn’t even seen her attack.

"Now," I said, my boots clicking against the floor as I walked toward the stairs leading to the core room. "Are you going to step aside, or do I need to have her remove you permanently?"

But Valerius was not a man who gave up easily. Even without his staff, his eyes flared with a desperate, furious resolve.

"You think... you think a broken staff makes me powerless?!" he roared.

Suddenly, the air around him began to warp. Even without a medium, his vast pool of mana began to leak out, shaking the very walls of the Administrative Building. The broken pieces of his staff on the floor began to levitate, glowing with a dangerous red heat.

"I have defended this academy for a hundred years!" Valerius shouted, his hands glowing with a golden magic. "I will not let a worthless, talentless brat like you hand over our ultimate sanctuary to the forces of darkness!"

He slammed his hands together.

BOOM!

A massive wave of pure, concentrated heat erupted from his palms, shaping itself into three giant spears of golden light. They weren’t just spells; they were manifestations of his very life force, burning with a temperature that began to melt the marble balcony beneath his feet.

"Die, monster!" he screamed, throwing his hands forward.

The three solar spears shot toward us at a speed that the human eye couldn’t track. The sheer wind pressure alone shattered the remaining glass windows of the lobby, showering the room in a deadly rain of sharp shards.

I didn’t even have time to blink. But I didn’t need to.

Seraphina stepped in front of me.

She didn’t raise a barrier. She didn’t chant. She simply raised her right hand and made a grabbing motion in the air.

Sreeeech!

The three giant spears of light stopped dead in their tracks, just three inches away from my face. The heat was intense enough to singe the front of my hair, but they couldn’t move an inch further. They were frozen in mid-air, trembling violently as if caught in an invisible, crushing vice.

Then, Seraphina slowly closed her fist.

SHATTER!

The three solar spears exploded into tiny golden particles. The shockwave of the defense blew backward, hitting Valerius like a physical truck.

"Arrgh!" the old man groaned, his body flying backward and crashing heavily against the solid wooden doors of his office behind the balcony. He fell to his knees, coughing up a mouthful of bright red blood. The mana backlash had damaged his internal pathways.

"Stop, Valerius," I said, walking up the grand staircase, my voice echoing in the silent lobby. "Every spell you cast is just bringing you closer to a mana explosion. You are a smart man. Look at the facts."

"Facts...?" Valerius gasped, wiping the blood from his chin as he stared up at me with pure hatred. "The fact is... you are a monster’s puppet!"

"Am I?" I asked, stopping at the top of the stairs, looking down at him. "If she wanted to destroy this academy, she could have done it twenty minutes ago. If she wanted to kill you, you would already be a pile of ash. Why do you think you are still breathing, Valerius?"

The old man glared at me, his chest heaving as he struggled to draw air.

"Because I need you," I continued, my voice dropping to a low, persuasive tone. "Or rather, the academy needs you. I can stabilize the core, yes. But I don’t know the administrative runes to lock down the defensive perimeter. Only the Principal knows the master keys. If you die here, the core will eventually collapse anyway, and everyone you wanted to protect will die with you."

I leaned against the stone railing, looking completely relaxed, though my heart was beating like a drum inside my chest. This was the critical moment. If I couldn’t convince him, I would have to kill him, and losing his knowledge of the academy’s defenses would make my plans ten times harder.

"Think about it," I said. "You have two choices. You can keep fighting a battle you’ve already lost, die a useless death, and let the monsters eat your students. Or, you can swallow your pride, trust the ’worthless brat’ you always looked down on, and actually save the people you care about."

Valerius looked at me, his eyes searching my face for any sign of deception. He looked at his bleeding hands, then at the terrified staff members who were now looking up at him from the lobby, silently begging him to make the right choice.

He clenched his fists, his body trembling with a mixture of anger, humiliation, and deep, painful realization.

"How..." Valerius whispered. "How do I know you won’t just turn the defenses against us once the core is stable?"

A small smile appread on my face that made him flinch.

"You don’t," I said. "But ask yourself this, Valerius... do you really have any other choice?"

The silence stretched between us. The distant screams of monsters from outside the building seemed to grow louder.

Finally, the tension left Valerius’s shoulders.

"The... the core room," he muttered. "It’s on the lowest level. I will... open the door."

’Perfect,’ I thought, my smile widening. ’Stage one is complete.’