Chapter 383: Inter-Academy Tournament (XXXV)

For several long seconds, nothing could be seen.

Thick clouds of dust, smoke, and residual elemental energy covered the entire battlefield in front of the main stronghold.

The ground was cracked and scorched.

Large chunks of stone had been blasted away. The ancient walls of the stronghold itself had visible cracks running along their surface from the force of the combined assault.

On the battlefield, the remaining students from Gloria and Dragon Slaying Academy stood frozen, breathing heavily as they stared into the thick smoke.

Their faces were pale, and their hands trembled around their weapons.

They had poured every last drop of power they had left into that final attack. If Gray had still been standing after that... then nothing they did would matter.

In the viewing hall, the crowd was completely silent.

Thousands of people held their breath as they stared at the projection screens. The camera feeds showed only swirling smoke and the faint glow of residual mana.

Then the smoke began to slowly clear.

Bit by bit, the thick clouds parted.

And what appeared in the center of the destruction made every single person watching freeze in place.

Gray stood there.

Completely unscathed.

Not a single wound, a single tear in his clothes, or even a speck of dust on his black robes.

In his arms, he was holding Mariinne in a bridal carry.

The Dragon Slaying girl was bright red from the tips of her ears all the way down to her neck.

Her cheeks were the color of a ripe tomato.

Her dual short swords had long since fallen to the ground. Her hands were weakly gripping the front of Gray’s robes as she stared up at his face with wide, flustered eyes.

"M-my prince..." she whispered, her voice barely audible.

"Y-you... you caught me...?"

Gray looked down at her with the same calm, indifferent expression he always wore.

"You were about to get caught in the blast," he said simply.

"It would have been annoying if you were eliminated."

Mariinne’s face somehow turned even redder.

She buried her face against his chest, her long silver hair falling around her like a curtain as she mumbled something completely incoherent.

In front of Gray’s eyes, a small system notification appeared.

[-1630 Soul Points]

He had used Nullification at the last possible moment, erasing the entire combined assault before it could touch him.

The cost had been high, as one thousand six hundred and thirty soul points was not a small amount.

But it was still within acceptable limits.

His soul was not in any real danger.

He closed the notification with a thought and continued standing there, holding Mariinne as if the massive explosion that had just shaken the entire floating island had never happened.

The silence in the viewing hall lasted for one more second.

Then the entire arena exploded.

"HE’S ALIVE?!"

"HE’S COMPLETELY FINE?!"

"HE CAUGHT THE GIRL IN THE MIDDLE OF THAT ATTACK AND DIDN’T EVEN GET A SCRATCH?!"

People were standing up in their seats, screaming at the screens. Some were clutching their heads in disbelief.

Others were laughing hysterically from pure shock. A few younger students looked like they were about to cry from excitement.

In the VIP section, the reaction was even more intense.

The Emperor’s eyes were wide as he leaned forward in his seat.

"He nullified an attack of that scale... while protecting another student at the same time?"

The Northern Duchess, Evelyn, covered her mouth with one hand as she laughed softly.

"Oh my. He’s even more outrageous than I thought."

The Saintess Elara’s luminous silver eyes remained fixed on Gray’s figure.

For the first time since she arrived, her gentle smile faded slightly, replaced by something closer to genuine surprise.

Gloria, however, had the strongest reaction of all.

She stood up from her seat so fast that the chair scraped loudly against the floor. Her golden eyes were wide with pure, unfiltered shock.

Her face had gone completely pale.

She looked as if she had just seen a ghost.

’Impossible...’

Her mind was racing.

’I personally planted five different power-sealing barriers on him when he entered this trial. Five. Even one of them should have reduced his strength by a significant margin. With all five active, he should only be able to display a fraction of his real power...’

Yet the student standing in the middle of that destroyed battlefield looked completely unaffected.

He had taken a combined assault from the strongest remaining fighters of two academies... and walked out of it without a single wound, while casually carrying another student in his arms.

Gloria’s hands clenched into tight fists at her sides.

’Even with most of his power sealed... he is still this strong?’

The thought sent a cold chill down her spine.

Aurora, sitting nearby, simply smiled. It was a quiet, satisfied smile as she watched the screen.

"I did warn you," she repeated softly, not even looking at Gloria.

"You can underestimate anyone... but not Gray."

Back on the battlefield, the remaining students from Gloria and Dragon Slaying Academy stared at Gray with expressions of pure despair.

Adrian’s sword almost slipped from his fingers.

"He... he nullified everything..."

Vaelor’s greatsword trembled in his hands as he looked at the completely unharmed Gray.

"What... what the hell is he...?"

Maelis’s gravity magic flickered weakly around her hands before dying out completely. She looked at her stepbrother with a complicated mixture of emotions she could no longer hide.

Selene lowered her cyan-glowing sword, her earlier determination completely drained.

Lira’s Sun Sword had gone dark. She stared at Gray as if she were looking at something that should not exist.

Ronan’s partial dragon transformation was already fading. He stood there breathing heavily, unable to form any words.

Mariinne was still bright red in Gray’s arms, too flustered to even try escaping.

Gray looked around at the defeated and exhausted students surrounding him.

The black crown above his head continued to float silently, radiating that same dark, oppressive aura.

Without any warning, Gray simply opened his arms.

Mariinne let out a small, startled yelp as she was unceremoniously dropped.

Thud!

She landed flat on her back on the cracked stone ground, her silver hair spreading out around her.

For a moment she just lay there, staring up at the sky with a completely blank expression, her face still burning red.

"...My prince is so mean..." she mumbled weakly.

Gray completely ignored her.

He briefly massaged his wrists, as if the earlier Nullification had left a faint residual strain, then tilted his head slightly to the side.

His black eyes scanned the remaining students from Gloria and Dragon Slaying Academy with cold indifference.

"Is this your last struggle?"

No one answered.

The silence that followed was heavy and absolute.

Gray waited a few more seconds.

When it became clear that no one had the strength or the will to continue, he simply turned around.

The black crown floating above his head flickered once, then dissolved into wisps of dark energy that faded into the air.

The oppressive aura that had been pressing down on the battlefield disappeared with it.

Without another word, Gray walked back toward the massive gates of the main stronghold.

He didn’t look back even once.

The remaining students from both academies could only watch in silence as he disappeared inside.

The heavy stone doors closed behind him with a deep, final thud .

Inside the main stronghold, the atmosphere was completely different.

The outer walls were ancient and battle-scarred, but the interior was surprisingly intact. Soft magical lights floated near the high ceiling, illuminating a large central hall.

At the far end of the hall was a raised platform, and on that platform sat a simple but sturdy bed covered in clean sheets.

Gray glanced at it for a moment.

’A bed, huh?’

He walked over without hesitation and sat down on the edge.

After a second of consideration, he lay down fully, resting his head on the pillow and closing his eyes.

If anything happened, his senses would wake him immediately.

After the performance he had just given outside, he sincerely doubted that anyone still had the courage, or the strength, to challenge him again.

From the very beginning, this had been the result he expected.

He had used himself as bait.

He had forced the two strongest remaining academies to gather their elite forces in one place.

While they wasted their power trying to take him down, the rest of Clementine’s students had freely conquered stronghold after stronghold.

The buffs had stacked.

The Crown of the Abyss had been activated at the perfect moment. And now the main stronghold was securely under his control.

Everything had gone according to his plan.

Naturally... he could now rest since he was pretty damn confident that the rest of his class would be able to gather enough tokens with the buffs they stacked.

Even if they didn’t... he could just go gather them himself.

It wouldn’t take longer than an hour if he did.