19 Rumors (1)

Two weeks had passed since the establishment of the classes.

Everyone gradually got used to their classes and professors, and the student's motivation gradually seemed to fade.

In every class except one, that is.

"Hellfire rupture!"

Raum stepped back, casting the spell with his right hand as he used his left arm to defend himself from Ellen's wind bullets.

Then he raised his hand, shooting out a flaming wall of fire.

A large wave of heat spread around the arena, even affecting the audience that was separated by a thick mana barrier.

"Take this, princess!"

The wall of flames hit something, creating an enormous explosion that filled the whole arena with smoke.

Raum relaxed, letting his guard down as he exhaled sharply.

Although he couldn't see anything as the smoke covered the whole arena, he was sure that she couldn't have dodged that as 'Hellfire Rupture' was an area-of-effect spell that is impossible to dodge in such a secluded area.

"Huff...That should be..enough..."

SWOOSH

"You're wrong."

Ellen dashed out of the smoke completely unscathed.

She dashed to the side, moving to Raum's blind spot, taking Raum by surprise.

Raum's eyes widened as he heard her voice, unbelieving of the fact that she managed to come out unscathed from his attack.

"Tsk."

Raum barely caught a glimpse of Ellen's movement in the corner of his eye and thus tried to react appropriately by leaping to the side, creating some distance between them.

However, that didn't matter to Ellen, as she had already prepared a spell beforehand.

"Rising Clouds!"

A green magic circle appeared beneath Raum's feet, an indicator of wind magic.

Raum was already mid-movement, mid-air, so he had no room to dodge.

"That's not enough to beat me, princess!"

He gritted his teeth, raising both of his arms and clapping them together.

The surrounding area distorted, and a wave of mana spread through the room like a ripple.

"Beelzebub arts..."

He then opened his hands again, forming a mouth with both of them.

"..Gluttony!"

Instantly, the mouth of a gigantic fly appeared before him, ready to take the hits for Raum.

Ellen's eyes widened in surprise as she was surprised by the enormous mouth of a fly.

Gluttony was a bloodline ability that only the members of the Beelzebub clan could use. It is an instant-cast spell that summoned the mouth of a large fly that could essentially eat every magic-based attack.

If the fly eats an attack, that attack will get transformed into mana for the caster.

It is a stupidly strong spell that could be useful to any mage or even none mage.

The only flaw of that ability was that it required an enormous amount of mana, basically depleting all of it, when the enemy baited the fly out or didn't attack at all, making you waste your mana.

As such, it is best used as a surprise counter, a one-time guaranteed evasive.

Raum smirked at Ellen, sure of his win.

This ability could turn the tides of the battle instantly.

However, contrary to Raum's and everyone else's expectations, Ellen's surprised look gradually turned into a smug look of triumph.

"You fell for it, Idiot."

She whispered under her breath, only audible to Raum.

Raum realized his mistake as he turned his head to the ground, looking at the magic circle that then disappeared before its eyes.

'It was a feint!'

Usually, 'Gluttony' would be a guaranteed counter in such a situation, but with the addition of Voidwalker's feint casting, even that could be countered.

The smirk on his face gradually turned into a look of horror.

He turned his head around, spotting a magic circle appearing behind him.

However, he didn't have the time to react.

When he turned around, vines immediately shot out of the magic circle, grabbing Raum's arms and legs and throwing him into the air.

"I'm still not finished!"

Ellen raised her arms, forming a finger pistol, that aimed at the airborne Raum.

"Wind Gun!"

BANG

A bullet of wind shot out of her fingertips, hitting Raum and flinging him back, crushing him against a wall.

"Ugh-!"

With that sound, Raum dropped to the ground, unable to fight.

"The duel is over. Ellen won."

Voidwalker declared from the sidelines as he pressed a button near the arena, deactivating the mana barrier.

***

***

"Come on! That was unfair!"

Raum complained as he learned that Ellen used an elven spell to defend herself. He furrowed his eyebrows, and a playful irritation could be heard in his voice.

After the fight, they both sat down at a bank near the arena, Voidwalker standing behind them.

"Oh, come on, you sore loser. Didn't you also use a bloodline-related ability?"

Raum rolled his eyes before sighing in admittance.

"You're right."

He turned his head to Voidwalker, flashing him a faint smile.

"So. how were we, teach?"

Voidwalker glanced at Raum for a moment before looking at his clipboard and reading his notes.

"While Miss. Elderwood performance was quite impressive. Your performance disappointed me, Mr. Beelzebub. You let your guard down, which led to your downfall."

His cold eyes then darted to Raum, giving him a sharp look.

"If this were a real battlefield, you would be dead already. "

Although that look would scare a majority of people away, his students had already gotten used to Voidwalker's personality.

Even though he looked intimidating, he was not a bad person.

On the contrary, they would even dare to say that he was one of the kindest people they had ever met.

He might have threatened them with a penalty many times, but he never actually went through with it.

If they had to compare him with something, everyone in the room would say the same.

He was like a tired dad, dealing with his troublesome children.

Raum could only chuckle at that warning as he replied with a playful tone.

"Aww, come on, teach...you're worried about me, aren't you? You're such a softie."

Raum grinned as he threw a smug look at Voidwalker, who just responded with an expressionless stare.

"Yes, I might be worried."

Voidwalker nodded as he returned the look of Raum, his expression still unchanging.

"Hey, Raum! Don't tease our professor like this. You know that he's not good with his feelings!"

Ellen complained as she pressed her hand on the head of Raum, rubbing it aggressively.

"-H-ey! Stop it!"

Voidwalker stared at them blankly as they talked about him like he wasn't present.

He raised an eyebrow, questioning the things they were talking about.

'I'm not that soft...am I?'

"Oh, by the way, teach."

Raum leaned his head back, looking at Voidwalker upside down.

"Have you already heard about it? There was a rumor about people in the empire suddenly disappearing for some time now."

Voidwalker raised his eyebrow, looking at Raum with a questioning look.

He had heard about the rumors but just labeled them as fake. After all, most of the rumors are.

A majority of them started as scary stories that some groups of teenagers created. That story then spread around, scaring other people, and those people then told their friends about it.

That cycle just kept repeating until the rumor then someday just died down.

"Oh, yes, I've heard about that."

Ellen chimed in the conversation. She leaned in as she talked, whispering, almost as if the thing she was telling was some sort of scary secret information.

"It seems like it's true..."

A scary smile formed on her face as she resumed explaining.

"..some people from the other combat class disappeared a few days ago, and they never came back...the professor already contacted their parents, but they, too, didn't know where their children were...and yesterday another one disappeared..."

Voidwalker froze up for a second when he heard that the rumors were true.

He suspected what it could have been but didn't want to jump to conclusions, so he decided to inquire further, getting more information about his two talkative students.

"I see. Do you know anything more about this?"

"Hmm..."

Ellen put her hand on her chin, pondering the answer to that question.

"Well, I think I heard that it always happens at night when people go to a certain clothing shop in the Empire. It seemed like the students were sneaking out at night to go and take a look at the rumors, but they never came back.

"I can't fully remember the clothing shop's name, though. I think it was something like...-"

"Schneider Schmidt."

Raum interrupted her, finishing her sentence. The playful tone of his voice disappeared, and his face hardened.

Gone was his usual playful persona, and the true face of the Beelzebub heir emerged.

"That was also the reason why I wanted to ask you this. I've heard that there are rare cases of portals to the depths appearing in the Overworld. I wanted to ask you this as you are the one responsible for our depths classes. Do you think this is one of those cases?"

Voidwalker didn't answer.

He just stared at the wall for a few seconds, seemingly lost in his thoughts.

"It might be. I will investigate it further."

***

***

Early in the morning.

After yesterday's classes, I decided to investigate the rumors.

Although it was rare, there certainly were cases of portals to the depths suddenly appearing in the Overworld.

When I first heard about it, I, too, was surprised.

After all, wouldn't it be obvious if a portal to the depths suddenly formed in the Overworld?

However, it wasn't that easy.

Such portals only opened under very specific circumstances, which was the reason why they were so rare.

They can only appear when the Ether density in the atmosphere surpasses the Mana density in the atmosphere.

That would then depend on multiple factors, such as the weather, the temperature on that day, or even the time.

Although mages or skilled combatants could feel the change of the mana density in the air if they tried, not many people gave such slight changes a second thought.

Only tier 8 or above mages, or fighters on that level, could passively notice such a change in the density.

Either that or being able to feel the Ether would also do the trick.

I doubted that there was someone else who could do that, though.

The only way to close such portals was by entering them and erasing the reason why they existed in the world place.

Most commonly, the reason for a portal appearing in the Overworld was a ruin spawning in the Depths.

The sole presence of such ruins emitted such a powerful Ether that it also started affecting the real world, searching for certain points where the mana density of the Overworld was so low that the Ether from another dimension could break through.

'It's weird that something like this appeared in the Empire, though...'

The mana density of the Empire was generally high as it was a place where many powerful beings with a high mana capacity lived.

Your inner mana would also affect the surrounding atmosphere, raising its density of it.

'It doesn't make sense that such a portal appeared...'

I shook my head, realizing that I had gone off from my original thought process once again.

I sighed, remembering an unpleasant experience that I had in the past.

In cases of those portals staying undetected, after some time, monsters of the depths would crawl out of it, running around in the Overworld and plunging it into chaos.

My first experience with such a 'portal outbreak' still impacts me to this day.

Although I got gradually got used to such sights, I couldn't help but find them disgusting.

It was a gruesome view.

A portal appeared in a small village in the Overworld, and as there was no one capable of efficiently utilizing mana in that village, nobody detected the portal.

When I got the job of eradicating all of these monsters and closing the Portal, I was already too late.

Everyone was already dead when I arrived.

Even though I had already seen many gruesome things at that point in time, the sight still impacted me.

The entire village was demolished.

Crushed beyond recognition.

I tried to look around, searching for any survivor, but the only sight that encountered my eyes was the monsters feasting on the body of the people.

I grimaced as I recalled the gruesome memories.

"Are you alright, Sir? You seem to be unwell."

My line of thought got interrupted as somebody started talking to me.

I raised my head, trying to identify the owner of the voice.