The blind villain of the academy

Chapter 196: To cease to exist [1]

Chapter 195

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Episode 48 - To cease to exist [1]

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The freezing wind lashed against the Ice Queen’s face. No, Vyrelia’s. She raised a hand to her face as she blinked.

At that moment, her eyes fell upon the palms of her hands.

Fine cracks spread across them. Tiny strands of her skin peeled away, crumbling into dust.

Vyrelia rolled up her sleeve. Only then did she see that the cracks extended beyond her hands. They continued up her arm, across her shoulder, and throughout the rest of her body.

’I don’t have much time left, do I?’

The sound of her heartbeat echoed in her ears as her pale blue eyes remained half-lidded and nearly empty.

Like an empty shell, Vyrelia took a deep breath and kept walking.

The freezing wind battered her body as snow accumulated on her loose robe.

Crunch! Crunch!

Her footsteps crunched through the snow as she returned to the cave where Apostle Kaiser remained frozen.

’He’s almost completely thawed. I think he’ll wake up tomorrow... at any moment.’

She pressed her lips together as conflicting emotions surfaced across her face.

’But what if he doesn’t give me "that"? Then everything will have been for nothing, and all I’ll have done is allow a catastrophe to return to this Era.’

Her heart pounded faster and faster as countless thoughts tormented her, but suddenly she stopped.

"...?!"

Struck by a strange premonition, she looked around before raising her gaze toward the sky.

"...!"

Vyrelia’s expression shifted from surprise to utter shock.

A person floated high in the sky with a pair of obsidian-black wings.

The faint sunlight, barely enough to illuminate the landscape, reflected off the figure suspended in the air.

Then the figure extended an open palm, and a black sphere appeared.

"...?!"

The next instant, the black sphere shot through the air at terrifying speed, reaching Vyrelia in the blink of an eye.

Boom! Bang!

The air trembled as an explosion echoed across the entire region filled with frozen monster statues.

A massive cloud of snow billowed into the sky, covering everything within a radius of several kilometers.

Vyrelia emerged from the snow cloud. A wall of ice stood before her.

However, unlike natural ice or ice created with mana, the ice before her was completely different.

It was a deep, ghostly blue. Ice created from an energy that was neither mana nor the Power of Chaos.

Vyrelia staggered backward, shielding her face with one arm. Narrowing her eyes, she looked around.

"...?"

Boom!

Her body moved before her mind could process what was happening. She thrust one hand toward a direction as ice spikes erupted from the ground.

Vyrelia manipulated the ice beneath her feet, which coiled around her legs and launched her backward at tremendous speed.

Bang!

The next instant, the sound of shattering ice rang out exactly where she had been standing.

Vyrelia looked in that direction, and suddenly a silhouette appeared barely a meter away.

Gritting her teeth, she raised her hand as the world around her seemed to distort.

Ice burst forth from every direction, hurtling toward the man before her.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Using only his left hand, the man calmly walked toward Vyrelia, effortlessly deflecting the approaching ice spikes and icicles.

Boom! Clang!

Behind the man, the ice spikes crashed in every direction, sending snow flying into the air.

The statues shattered into countless pieces, and the enormous pillars of ice surrounding them collapsed with deafening crashes.

The man continued walking toward Vyrelia, casually brushing aside the ice spikes.

Then Vyrelia raised her other hand.

Time itself seemed to freeze before her eyes as ice and frost surged from both the heavens and the earth.

Then Vyrelia traced a series of intricate patterns with her hands and murmured,

"Frozen Astral World Art."

The world around her froze, as though a new Ice Age had just begun.

A storm of ice and frost emerged from nowhere, causing the clouds to swirl like a gigantic tornado.

The cold descended in the blink of an eye.

The air filled with shards of ice that tore through flesh and ground bones into dust.

Vyrelia waved her hand, and the supernatural phenomenon surged toward the man.

Then the ground split apart. The shattered remains of the ice statues were pulverized, and the gigantic pillars of ice fared no better.

The white blanket covering a thirty-kilometer radius vanished, revealing black earth that perhaps had not seen the light of the sun for eons.

Vyrelia staggered as she gasped for air. Then blood began to flow from her nose.

"...."

A deafening pain pierced her head. Her face turned even paler, and the cracks covering her body began spreading faster, slowly creeping toward her face.

Her once flawless face was now covered in black cracks as strands of her skin peeled away and turned to dust.

"A-ah... ahh...!!!"

Her eyelids grew heavier and heavier, and the pain coursing through her body suddenly intensified.

Even so, her eyes never left the place where the attack had struck.

"....?!"

She stared ahead as the snow continued to fall, and the visibility was barely enough to make out anything. Her eyes swept across the surrounding area.

She thought she had succeeded, and a weary smile appeared at the corner of her lips, but...

Since arriving in this world, nothing had gone right for her. Standing before her was the same man as before.

She had thought she would at least manage to scratch him, but not even his clothes had a single tear.

"H-How is this possible...? T-This is... this is impossible..."

Her voice was weak, quiet, and almost trembling as she stared at the man with her eyes wide open.

He had white hair, or perhaps silver like the light of the moon. Most of his face was covered, and a blindfold concealed his eyes.

He was quite tall, with a sturdy build. His expression remained impassive as he held a black sword.

Snow covered his head and shoulders while the wind gently swayed his hair.

Vyrelia watched him in silence, holding her breath. Her body was exhausted, begging for rest after everything she had endured.

"......"

She looked at her hand. The cracks had grown larger.

Vyrelia pressed her lips together.

’My existence is fading faster... I... I barely have any time left... I need to escape. Otherwise, everything will have been for nothing.’

Vyrelia stretched out her hand, and a massive pillar of ice erupted from the ground.

Adel tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword with both hands.

He gathered his Dark Mana and drove the tip of his sword into the pillar.

Dark Mana spread through the inside of the pillar, causing it to explode.

Boom!

The ice shattered, sending fragments of the pillar flying through the air.

Adel then raised his head and "looked" ahead, but no one was there.

The only thing left on the ground was a trail of footprints that disappeared after a few meters, erased by the snowstorm.

"Mmm."

He tilted his head slightly, and just as he was about to take a step, he sensed someone else’s presence. He stopped and turned his head.

Lumina appeared, her forehead covered in sweat as she panted from exhaustion. She looked around before turning her gaze toward Adel.

"I-I’m... late. It was hard... to get away from that girl."

Adel nodded and pointed in one direction.

"Let’s go that way. She headed over there."

Lumina followed the direction he indicated. Then she looked at Adel and said,

"That’s where the Phlegra Devils’ habitat is."

"We don’t have any other choice, do we?"

Lumina watched him for a moment before starting to walk. Adel followed her, and before long, the two of them disappeared.

***

"Ahh... ah...!!!"

Vyrelia gasped for breath as she ran with all her strength, forcing her legs to keep moving.

Every breath burned her lungs, and her complexion grew paler and paler.

Her exhausted eyes scanned the surroundings. She kept turning her head before changing direction and continuing to run.

Without realizing it, at some point, a dense fog had surrounded her. Even so, Vyrelia kept running.

Her thoughts raced as countless questions flooded her mind.

’W-Who is that man? H-How does he know I was here? H-How did they find me? Could they be the mysterious hunters I was told about? Do they know about the Apostle’s existence...?’

One thought followed another. Finally, after running for several minutes, she stopped at the top of a hill.

At the foot of the hill was a hollow large enough to hide in.

Vyrelia collapsed, her head gently striking the hard ground. Her eyes remained fixed on the sky.

Then she bit her lip, and tears began streaming down her face.

Fear consumed her. Her heart refused to stop pounding, and above all, she felt unbearable pain.

So much pain that she could barely feel her own body. Her chest rose and fell with difficulty.

Crack!

"......?"

Vyrelia’s body froze the instant she heard that sound.

She raised her head, lowered her gaze, and looked ahead.

"......?!"

A look of horror appeared on her face.

Standing before her was a pack of Phlegra Devils.

Demons at whose hands no one would ever wish to die.

Vyrelia’s chest tightened, and her tears stopped falling as she stared at them.

’To hell with all of this. I’ll disappear soon anyway. I’ll cease to exist. It doesn’t even really mean dying... but maybe dying at the hands of these things is better than ceasing to exist...’

Those thoughts tormented her without end.

She clenched her fists tightly. She lowered her head to the ground before looking up at the sky once more.

’At least... I’d like to see the sunlight...’

But just as she thought that, she realized the Phlegra Devils had stopped making noise.

"...?!"

She raised her head and looked ahead.

Then she understood.

Every single Phlegra Devil was dead.

At the center of the massacre stood a woman, and standing in front of Vyrelia was the same man as before.

"Mhm, this is... very strange... and different."

The man muttered with a serious expression.