I Became A Flashing Genius At The Magic Academy-Chapter 486

Toa Legrohn opened his eyes.

Much had changed.

Much had become unfamiliar.

The crimson lightning of Twilightis, High Priest of the Dark God Cult, which he couldn’t withstand even after betraying his humanity and embracing dark magic, was now being overwhelmed by the green life force radiating outward.

The moment the two forces clashed,

For an instant, there was silence.

No—that wasn’t quite right. Toa Legrohn hadn’t been able to hear anything for a while. His eardrums had long since ruptured, and the sight in one of his eyes was already failing.

He couldn’t move either of his arms, and one of his legs was torn to shreds, dangling uselessly.

This wasn’t due to Twilightis’s attacks. It was the backlash from forcibly drawing upon the power of the otherworld—it had ravaged his body.

...In the end, no matter what I do, I’m going to die.

As Toa Legrohn began to close his eyes again, someone slapped his cheek.

Smack!

It was described as a slap, but...

For a 9th-class /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ grand mage, the hand that delivered it felt weak, almost fragile.

He immediately knew who had struck him.

"You fool."

"Master..."

Through his blurry vision, Toa Legrohn saw Scarlett’s figure. He couldn’t help but laugh.

The person he had desperately sought to protect was alive and well, standing before him. That alone was enough.

"Why did you do something so foolish?"

"To fulfill your dream, Master."

"...You reckless idiot."

Scarlett reflected on her dream.

Having reached the pinnacle of humanity, she had been dissatisfied and wanted to surpass even that limit.

Seeing her apprentice take that flawed aspiration upon himself, sacrificing his life in the process, ached in a corner of her heart.

It was now undeniable that Toa Legrohn had become one with the dark magic.

But how could she resent a student who became what he was for the sake of her dream?

Even though he must have caused immeasurable harm and committed atrocious acts driven by twisted desires, she couldn’t hate him.

Scarlett, after all, had always been selfish.

As someone who could proudly say, "You did well," to anyone who acted for her sake, the Witch Queen was not one to easily scold.

"It wasn’t reckless."

"...What do you mean?"

Toa Legrohn smiled bitterly. His body was beyond repair, unable to cast another spell. His dream of conquering the otherworld was now unattainable.

But...

He had seen it.

"Master, I saw it."

"Saw what...?"

"A world beyond limits. A place where humanity sheds its mortal coil and soars freely across the heavens, wielding omnipotence over all."

"What are you talking about...?!"

"It was so close, just beyond my grasp. Ah... but in the end, it was only a mirage."

"Wait. That’s impossible. That can’t be..."

Scarlett shook her head in disbelief.

Even if it had been a mirage, the fact that he had seen it was the problem.

He saw it.

That meant the world beyond limits actually existed.

‘I never saw it.’

After reaching her own limits, Scarlett had encountered a great wall.

No matter how hard she knocked or tried to break through, it was futile.

At some point, she had accepted there was nothing beyond that wall.

Half resigned, she had lived her life with no sense of urgency.

Even if she lost all her power, it didn’t matter. She believed she could rebuild it slowly, as there was no higher plane to pursue.

But then...

Hearing those words...

"You... where exactly did you go...?"

"...Master."

Toa Legrohn tightly shut his eyes.

Should he share the hope he had seen with his master?

It was a trivial concern.

His only worry was simple:

He feared that his master, like himself, would succumb to the allure of the otherworld’s power and fall.

Boom!

As Toa Legrohn hesitated, the green energy clashed with the crimson thunderclouds, creating an immense magical shockwave.

A silver-haired girl with green wings and glowing red eyes swung her staff, causing the High Priest’s dark magic to fade away.

Twilightis’s defeat was imminent. Once his thundercloud domain disappeared, Toa Legrohn’s life would also end.

Time was running out.

With no other choice, Toa Legrohn spoke with great effort.

"Master. To transcend limits is a privilege granted to only one chosen by this world."

"Only one...?"

"As long as that one exists, no one else can glimpse the other side of the limit. Even the greatest talents will find it meaningless."

Cough!

Toa Legrohn spat a mouthful of blood. He knew his end was near.

"There can only be one ruler, no... one god of this world. And right now, the world fights to claim that divine seat."

Toa Legrohn shifted his gaze to Baek Yuseol.

"The Dark Mage King, the High Priest of the Dark God Cult, the Twelve Heavenly Moons... even that boy, Baek Yuseol."

"This is..."

Even Scarlett, the Witch Queen who had lived for a thousand years, had never known such a truth.

She felt a pang in her chest as she looked at Toa.

"So, you tried to become a king? That was far too reckless."

The figures Toa had mentioned were insurmountable for someone like him.

They were all beings on the highest level of existence in the world.

"No. I chose another path. I realized this fight was meaningless from the start."

"Meaningless...?"

"The First Mage is still alive. He reigns as the god of this world, which is why you couldn’t ascend as the next god, Master."

"What...?"

Scarlett gasped sharply.

This revelation was beyond shocking—it was incomprehensible.

"So I made my choice. If I cannot rule this world, I’ll conquer another. By controlling that otherworld, I believed I could gain the power to shape worlds."

It was reckless, but not without logic.

If the First Mage, alive somewhere in this world, couldn’t be defeated, choosing another world was the next best option.

And the result of that choice...

Was this.

"Master..."

"...Speak."

"I’m leaving now. In my life, I achieved nothing and lived as a detestable wretch, leaving behind no legacy. But still, I have one thing I can give you."

Toa Legrohn lifted his trembling hand.

In his palm was a black, writhing substance—a fragment of the otherworld’s power.

"The otherworld..."

"Yes. This is the last piece of the otherworld I forcibly seized and held onto."

It was barely larger than his palm.

One might think it insignificant, but that would be a grave mistake.

Scarlett understood.

Zero and one are different.

Zero remains nothing, incapable of change or growth.

But one...

One holds potential. It could become two, a hundred, or even infinite. That single possibility was what one represented.

Toa Legrohn was offering Scarlett that fragment of potential.

Having lost all his dark magic, barely clinging to life to maintain even that small piece of the otherworld, he had endured just to deliver this gift to his master.

"Here, Master. Take it."

"I... I..."

Scarlett hesitated.

Was it truly right to accept a fragment of the otherworld? Could she handle such a burden?

Even after living for a thousand years.

Even after calling herself the greatest, the Witch Queen.

Even after claiming to have stood at the pinnacle of the world.

Scarlett couldn’t make the decision and instinctively turned to Baek Yuseol.

But, of course, even Baek Yuseol couldn’t easily make that judgment.

With a stiff expression, he stared at the fragment of the otherworld that Toa Legrohn extended toward them.

"What exactly is the otherworld?"

It was a question he had pondered for a long time.

An unanswered riddle he hadn’t solved and might never solve.

"I..."

Baek Yuseol swallowed dryly and opened his lips to speak.

But before he could finish—

Slash—!

Toa Legrohn’s head was severed and fell to the ground with a dull thud.

It happened in an instant.

As the thunderclouds dispersed, the death-eating birds dissolved into the gray void, and Twilightis’s limbs twisted grotesquely as he vanished into the rift.

"Kehehehehe!!"

Even as his body shattered, Twilightis let out a vile laugh before disappearing completely.

Despite the silence left in the wake of the dissipating thunderclouds, no one could celebrate.

The entire world was beginning to be consumed by a gray hue.

This meant only one thing.

"...Returner of the Void."

Flap!

From the center of the sky, a gray figure walked toward them, meeting Baek Yuseol’s gaze.

"You were asking what the otherworld is?"

His first words were the truth.

"It’s the collection of infinite alternate worlds you’ve abandoned."

"...What?"

"You have no right to turn your back on it."

In the gray figure’s hand was a fragment of the otherworld, the very one Toa Legrohn had desperately maintained even in death.

Even the Returner of the Void wouldn’t have dared take such a fragment lightly.

"Truly... exquisite."

For once, the Returner of the Void revealed emotion. His actions conveyed the joy of having obtained something extraordinary.

"You bastard...!"

The first to react wasn’t Baek Yuseol but Scarlett.

The Witch Queen could not forgive this arrogant man for killing her apprentice right in front of her.

"Aaahhh!!"

Gathering all the golden lightning at her command, she pulled it into her hands and combined it with a glowing golden magic circle in the air, unleashing a thick beam aimed at the Returner of the Void.

Boom!

But, annoyingly, the Returner didn’t even attempt to dodge.

With a simple distortion of space, he deflected the beam entirely.

If Scarlett had her full power, she might have been able to counter the spatial distortion and land an effective hit.

But...

"In your current state, it’s useless, Scarlett."

"I’ll kill you...!"

"...Ha."

For the first time, the man laughed.

The Returner of the Void, who seemed incapable of such an act, let out a faint smile.

"You said you wanted to kill me?"

Updat𝓮d from frёewebnoѵēl.com.

He raised one corner of his mouth.

"You shouldn’t have hesitated. When your apprentice offered this to you, you should have accepted it entirely with your will. Had you done so, you might have had a small chance to kill me. But you squandered your final opportunity. Blame your pathetic insight for failing to recognize the value of this precious thing."

"You..."

"Stop, stop it! Scarlett, that’s enough!"

As Scarlett began to muster her mana again, Hong Biyeon grabbed her arms from behind.

"You’re the Witch Queen, right? Is this how a queen is supposed to behave?"

Hong Biyeon gritted her teeth as she glared at the Returner of the Void.

Behind her, Ruudrik slowly floated over, locking eyes with the gray figure.

‘The spatial distortions are stabilizing.’

The lessening of the distortions caused by the magical waves meant that Ruudrik’s power was returning to its full capacity.

But the same would hold true for the opponent.

This was the Returner of the Void, the master of space itself.

"There’s no need to be on guard."

The gray space began to warp once more.

As when he arrived, the Returner of the Void used spatial distortion to retreat.

"I’ve obtained what I wanted..."

As his lower body disappeared into the rift and his upper body was halfway through, he opened his mouth to finish his words.

Slash—!

But before he could, someone struck.

The rift was cut, severing the Returner’s upper body and halting his spatial transfer.

Though his physical body wasn’t real, the damage from his form being torn apart was significant.

The Returner of the Void frowned, looking toward the one who had slashed him.

Baek Yuseol, with a carefree expression, pointed his magic sword, Cheongpung Myeongwol, at him.

"Who said you could leave?"

"...You’ve already learned to cut through layered spaces?"

"Layered spaces? I don’t know about that. I just swung my sword, and it cut."

"...You shouldn’t be capable of that yet. It’s dangerous even for you. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, I know. I was warned."

He had been told by another Baek Yuseol not to use this ability yet, as it was meant for the future.

But what did it matter?

If not now, when would he ever get to slice through space like this?

Watching the fragments of the Returner’s form slowly reassemble, Baek Yuseol smirked.

‘I timed it perfectly.’

Though it was disrespectful to Ruudrik, he had spent time learning the vulnerabilities of spatial magic while working alongside him.

The most critical weakness he discovered was the brief moment after spatial transfer.

The Returner of the Void’s transfer was much faster than that of other spatial mages, making it nearly impossible to exploit. But hiding behind Ruudrik and striking at the precise moment wasn’t difficult.

So, Baek Yuseol smiled confidently at the Returner of the Void, whose face was twisted in displeasure.

"If you want to leave, leave that behind. You thief."