I Killed the Player of the Academy

༺ Valhalla (1)༻

Hua Ran had a firm belief in her defense and strength.

Her Unbreakable Vajra and the Heavenly Yin Body allowed her to use the overabundant Yin energy at will, so even when bitten by the big wolf, she was confident that its fangs wouldn’t be able to penetrate through her skin, and that she would be able to bash it up.

“Ugh…”

But for some reason.

Her aura wasn’t working as usual.

She felt powerless as her overflowing energy refused to gather properly.

 [Hua…! Hua!]

****

I raced through the forest stepping on the dry branches and dead leaves.

The afterimage of the wolf in front was as tiny as a dot. We were still chasing the wolf, but it felt like we were going after a shapeless ghost.

No matter how fast we were, we couldn’t close the distance.

“Sir Korin…! Y, you’re going too fast!”

The knights with their superhuman bodies couldn’t keep up, even though I had selected the fastest knights in our group.

“What about you, Valkyries?” I asked.

“We can go faster but… not as fast as that wolf.”

Mist and Thrud, the two Valkyries gave their honest evaluation which left us with only one option.

“Alicia. Take it out.”

“Okay…!”

Alicia slashed at the air. The air began to contort and slowly formed a shape.

She took out the gift that had been given to her by a goddess. The Red Horse of Nemain, the Goddess of War, soon revealed its imposing demeanor

“Korin-ssi! Get on!”

I held onto her hand and jumped onto the red horse.

“Go!”

—!!

Like a gust of wind, the warhorse immediately kicked off the ground and raced forward. Everything went by swiftly, and we were dozens of meters away from the knights and the Valkyries in the blink of an eye.

“Ugh… That wolf is too fast!”

“Go a bit faster.”

Hati was too fast, but unlike the wolf that was treading through the forest, we were simply following the path created in its trail.

In the end, we managed to close the distance.

“Alicia. Keep going…!”

“Sorry? Korin-ssi?!”

I kicked off the horse and jumped into the air.

In my hand was the Red Spear, Gae Derg – its alias; the anti-magic beast-hunting red spear. Twisting my back like a bow, my biceps expanded after which I threw the spear with all my might.

Six Ways of the Spear.

Fifth Style, Crumbling Mountain.

The spear carrying a ridiculous amount of aura and mana flew towards the back of the wolf’s head.

Gae Dearg.

One of the two spears obtainable at Mag Mell, the Treasure Island of Danann, by choosing Manannan Mac Lir.

Unlike the Golden Spear which excelled at defense and protection, the Red Spear was purely focused on offense.

Its biggest merit was in its ability to crush all evil and magic. The power to nullify magic was remarkable but in this current situation, its other ability was much more effective.

Extra damage to beasts and 100% accuracy when thrown. When it came to fights against beasts, it was at the same level as Areadbhair, Valtazar’s Spear of Light.

– Kwaaaa!

As soon as the Red Spear was thrown at the beast, dodging wasn’t even an option. The spear would certainly land on its throat.

“…!!”

Sensing the approach of the Red Spear, the Wolf of Apocalypse biting on Hua Ran, Hati, turned around and tried to dodge but to no avail.

– Kwaak!

The Red Spear struck its target as the wolf rolled on the ground in pain.

“Alicia…!”

However, the enemy was a Wolf of Apocalypse, one of the three mid-bosses in the battle against the Frost Giant. This much wasn’t enough to kill it.

“Haaht!”

Propelled by the speed of the Red Horse, Alicia swung her Demon-Slaying Sword. Her sword slashed through the cloudy aura being emitted by Hati and landed on its body.

“Aht?”

But for some unknown reason, her sword was only able to create a small scratch.

“Grrh…!”

Hati swung its arm in retaliation, but the Red Horse reacted instantaneously even before its rider. It kicked off the ground with its four legs to get away from Hati. As expected of a divine beast, the beloved horse of the Goddess of War reacted swiftly to protect its master.

“Grhh…!”

Despite the Red Spear stuck on its neck, Hati did not let go of Hua Ran. It instead tried to look for an escape but… the Red Spear didn’t allow that to happen.

[Hati the Wolf of Apocalypse has been cursed by the Red Spear Gae Dearg.]

– You receive 350% extra damage.

– You cannot escape the Hunting Ground.

– You have been marked. The hunter receives an accuracy buff.

“This spear is literally a spear to hunt down beasts. As long as you remain a beast, you will not be able to escape this area.”

“…”

It was a kind of barrier that beasts weren’t able to leave. After realizing the identity of the Red Spear digging into its neck, Hati let out a growl.

“Korin-ssi. That wolf… it’s very tough.”

“My spear didn’t go in that deep either. That’s weird… It’s not supposed to be this tough.”

The Red Spear was incredibly effective against the Wolves of Apocalypse. Even though I was using the Golden Spear in the last iteration, I didn’t recall Hati being this tough in terms of defense…

“Wait!”

The One who devours the Sun, Skoll.

The One who devours the Moon, Hati.

Another way to interpret the Sun was Yang Energy, and Moon, Yin Energy. The Yin and Yang of the East was also embedded into the setting of this world after all, which meant—

“That guy… I think it devoured Hua’s Yin Energy.”

“W, what happens then?”

“…To my knowledge, its ability changes depending on the characteristics of the aura it devours.”

In the last iteration, it was in the body of Ren. At that time, it devoured the actual Moon but…

“Even though it’s not inside a host, if it really ate up Hua’s Yin Energy… it’s possible that it can mimic her Unbreakable Vajra Body.”

“Uehk… Then do we have to fight against Hua Ran-ssi? How do we win?!”

Alicia sounded like she was tearing up, but it wasn’t all that terrible. It was fortunate that Alicia was here with me.

User of the Domain, Alicia Arden.

Her attacks had 100% physical / armor penetration – she was the biggest counter to Hua Ran.

“I will take the aggro. You look for a gap and cut it down with your Domain.”

“…Okay.”

“Let me borrow your horse.”

The Red Spear was still in its neck, so I lifted my Silver Spear and got on the red horse. Hati and I looked at each other, observing each other’s movement with tension.

“Let’s do it.”

Grabbing tightly on the reins of the horse, I let it sprint. Like two cavalry we were about to collide—

– Guuung…!n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

But that was when a different dimension opened up beneath our feet.

“Korin-ssi…!”

Alicia yelled out loud, but Hati and I were pulled into the bottomless abyss of the alternate dimension.

****

When I came to myself, what I found was a dried-up river reaching all the way to the horizon. Also beside me was a forest more barren and wasted than the wintery forest I had been in just then.

“This place…”

Before continuing with that line of thought, I looked around and found Hua Ran lying on the ground.

“Hua Ran…!”

I quickly ran up and lifted her up from the ground. Tapping her on her cheeks, I tried to wake her up.

Thankfully she slowly lifted her heavy eyelids.

“Unn… Oppa?”

“Ran?”

“…Yes.”

Why did they swap? I wondered but Ran answered the question before I even raised it.

“When we were bitten by the wolf… we were quickly drained of our aura. To the point… that Hua couldn’t keep in control.”

“Damn it. So it really did absorb Yin Energy instead of the Moon. How is Hua?”

“…She has no energy. I don’t think she will be able to wake up any time soon.”

“I see. That’s still good to hear.”

The source of Hua Ran’s abundant Yin Energy was the aura inside her body. Even though she didn’t have enough energy right now after being sucked dry, she should be able to recover without a problem over time.

The only issue was that we didn’t know how long that would take.

“More importantly… Where is this?”

“It’s… probably Valhalla. One of them.”

“Valhalla?”

“Yeah. I’ve told you about the Valkyries, right?”

“…Is this one of the ‘gates’?”

Valkyries each had the right to open one of the 540 gates to Valhalla. It seemed that one of them had opened up below us.

‘This is not good…’

Beyond the gates of the Valkyries were legions of gods.

Einherjar.

The army of gods mobilized in the final war to defeat the giants. One of the reasons why the Valkyries were such annoying mid-bosses in the last iteration was because of their ability to pull out floods of Einherjar through the gates.

– Guraaaaaaa—!

– Guraaaaaaa—!

Ghastly shrieks and laments of the dead reached our ears from afar. They sounded quite bizarre for them to be the voices of the brave warriors who died a valiant death in a war.

“Oppa. Look…”

Ran lifted her heavy arm and pointed somewhere. I turned around and found a skeleton staring our way with its creaking bones.

Originally, this was supposed to be a paradise of warriors where they could live an eternal life, drinking alcohol made of honey and endless meat.

However, their gods had fallen and died. Unlike the Danann who sealed the Paradise in a different dimension and vanished on their own accord, the gods here had met their actual demise.

In other words, they didn’t even have the divine energy required to maintain paradise.

Left without the meat and alcohol that could keep their souls alive for thousands of years, the warriors here met an inevitable outcome.

“Damn it. Right when I don’t have the Sun…”

As long as I had the Sun… this wouldn’t have even been worth considering a fight, because the undead couldn’t last more than a second beneath sunlight.

Now that I didn’t have the Sun which could immediately annihilate the Immortal King, fighting them up front was…

“Let’s run!”

Lifting Ran into my arms, I quickly hurried my feet. Whatever the plan would be, we had to leave this place for the time being.

– Guraaaaaaa—!

– Guraaaaaaa—!

– Guraaaaaaa—!

– Guraaaaaaa—!

The armies of gods let out ghastly wails as they chased after us.

****

Korin and Hua Ran went missing.

The border city was in chaos upon hearing that news.

“Korin?! Where! Where did he go!?”

Marie yelled while shaking Alicia the moment she came back. Alicia slowly explained what happened.

“We were going after the wolf, but suddenly the ground opened up to a different dimension and Korin-ssi and the wolf fell inside. I wanted to follow but it closed itself straight away…”

“Ughh…!”

Marie swallowed her desire to blame Alicia, for she knew that it would be unfair to blame Alicia for it. She also knew how Alicia would be feeling the same as her.

“Dimension… Was it similar to my dimensional magic?” Jopsehine asked but Erin replied after shaking her head.

“No. I don’t think so. There’s no mage who is capable of opening and closing a dimension that quickly. It’s probably…”

“It’s one of our sisters.”

Brunhild stepped forth and explained herself.

“The gates of Einherjar exist across Valhalla. Each of our 540 sisters were in charge of each gate.”

“That means…”

“It is highly likely that they’re isolated in the land of Einherjar – the legion of gods led by one of our sisters.”

“That can’t be…”

Those that were already aware of the ‘gates’ and the power of Valkyries had looks of dismay on their faces.

There was a legion there – an army of gods gathered across countless battlefields, all in preparation for the final war.

Would Korin be able to fight against an entire army without the help of the Sun?

“We have to go save him! How can we go to where Korin is?!”

“That’s… realistically speaking, going to be very difficult.”

Marie almost flew into a fit of rage as soon as Brunhild said that with a shake of her head, but was prevented by Erin. Erin asked in a voice very calm, yet incredibly sinister and heavy.

“Tell us what the method is, so that we can create a strategy. Brunhild.”

“Although we can all open the gates of Valhalla, each sister can only open their own, so to find where Sir Korin is…”

“We have to find the valkyrie that opened the gate, huh.”

What that implied was simple yet impossible.

They had to break through the waves of countless monsters storming the walls, and find the one Valkyrie out of the 19 in the enemy faction at the center of their group.

Was that even possible?

“We have to go. I still have to go.”

Marie remained firm. It wasn’t a matter of whether it would be possible or not. Regardless of what challenges and impossible obstacles there may be, it wasn’t even a question for her.

And the same was for everyone present.

“Let’s find a method. We have to find who kidnapped Korin-ssi and save him as soon as possible!”

“Who got kidnapped?”

It was then.

A voice so coquettish and flirtatious, that it didn’t suit the battlefield of cries and roars, reached their ears.

It was neither loud nor sharp, and yet contained the most lethal venom of a serpent.

Despite riding on an enormous warhorse and being covered by a red furry coat, she did not seem small in the slightest… The girl with a sublime aura put one of her feet on the stirrup before climbing down onto the ground.

“You’re…”

“Say it again.”

The venomous serpent urged them.

“Who kidnapped who?”

The 2nd Princess of the El Rath Kingdom did not even attempt to hide the viciousness in her eyes.