The Strongest Student of the Weakest Academy-Chapter 494: The Heavens Shall Fall (XXXV)

"I choose option three, you ugly fuckers."

The reaction was immediate.

All twelve figures froze in place, and the golden chains wrapped around my body pulled tighter with sudden force, digging deep into my skin until I felt them break through.

Warm blood began to run down my arms, dripping slowly to the floor beneath me.

"A foolish decision," the voices answered together, their tone losing what little patience they had shown before.

"There is no one coming to save you. No god in this world has the strength to oppose what we are. You will—"

『 Oh my~ how rude of them to interrupt! 』

The creator's voice rang in my mind, clearer than it had ever been before, and I felt something change in the air around me in a way I could not see but could clearly sense.

『 Well then, dear~ since you agreed to my terms, let me give you a little gift. After all, I did promise help, didn't I? 』

'What are you—' I tried to speak, but the rest of the sentence never made it out.

Thump, thump, thump!

Something burst to life inside me.

This was not divine power, and it was not the authority I had been using until now.

This was something far stronger and darker, something that had probably been sleeping inside my body until now.

It had been there from the start, hidden within the bloodline of the Fallen God race that came with this body, sealed away and forced into silence from the moment I arrived in this world.

And now... it was no longer silent.

Now it was awake.

And it was furious.

『 Consider this both option two AND option three combined~ 』

The creator's voice was practically singing now, filled with delight.

『 I am removing every limit placed on your race. No restrictions, no chains holding you back. Show them what a true Fallen God can do when the chains come off~ 』

Pain tore through my entire body as something deep within me began to change.

THRUUUM!

My divine core pulsed once, then again, and then it started to expand, pulling in reserves of strength I had never even known existed.

The 『 ✯ Authority of Ice ✯ 』 surged far beyond anything I had used before, rising to a level that made my past efforts feel small and insignificant.

Beneath that, I felt other forces beginning to stir, powers tied to the Fallen God bloodline that had been asleep until this moment.

"What is this?!"

The twelve figures stepped back, their synchronized movements breaking for the first time as they sensed what was happening.

A burning heat spread across my back, and suddenly I felt something tear through my skin and the fabric of my uniform.

Fwaashhh!

Wings.

There were only two of them, not twelve like the twisted angels around me, but their size alone made them overwhelming.

Each wing stretched outward for what had to be over twelve meters, their shape both beautiful and terrifying.

They were blacker than night itself, with dark red patterns running through them like molten veins glowing under the surface.

But they were not free.

Heavy chains wrapped tightly around both wings, made of black metal that pulsed with a suppressing force.

Strange symbols glowed along every link, sealing marks meant to keep the full strength of the Fallen God race locked away.

The transformation did not stop there.

Two black horns forced their way out from my head, curving upward and back in smooth arcs that framed my skull like a crown.

Just like the wings, they were bound in those same chains, covered in glowing seals that held their power in place.

My hair grew rapidly, length spilling down past my waist in a dark cascade that seemed to swallow light instead of reflecting it.

My eyes burned with heat, and even without seeing them, I knew they had changed, the pupils turning completely black while deep red rings formed around them, giving me a look that matched what I had become.

A Fallen God.

Fallen from grace, cast down from higher realms, but never broken.

Never defeated.

Just waiting for the moment when the chains would fail.

CRACK!

The first chain on my left wing broke apart, one link shattering under the pressure building inside me.

The sound rang out across the chamber like a gunshot, sharp and impossible to ignore, and one of the corrupted angels flinched at the noise.

CRACK! CRACK!

More chains began to fail, the glowing seals flickering as they lost their hold.

Each broken link released a surge of raw power that twisted the air around me, bending the space itself as my true nature pushed its way to the surface.

The golden chains binding my arms and legs started to smoke where they touched my skin, their energy breaking down as it came into contact with something far older than the power that sustained them.

"Impossible!" The voices were no longer unified, each of the twelve figures speaking separately now in tones that ranged from shock to dawning fear.

"The Fallen God race was sealed away completely. Those restrictions were absolute!"

Oh?

It seemed that although they knew that I wasn't from this world at all... they didn't know that I was the only remaining Fallen God.

And well... they didn't expect that the true power of this race was going to be unleashed.

CRACK!

CRACK!

CRACK!

The chains wrapped around my horns shattered all at once, pieces of black metal falling away as the seals failed completely.

Power rushed into my mind, bringing with it fragments of memory and instinct passed down through countless generations.

I saw wars that had taken place long before this world had even formed.

I saw gods fall, not because they were weak, but because they stood against things no one should face.

I understood what it meant to be Fallen, and instead of rejecting it, I accepted it fully.

The chains around my wings began to break faster, dozens of links snapping apart with each passing second as the seals gave way one after another.

Every break released more power, and I felt my authority growing far beyond anything I had believed possible.

The 『 ✯ Authority of Ice ✯ 』 changed into something far greater, cold enough to freeze more than matter, cold enough to slow movement itself, and press against the flow of time.

New powers rose alongside it.

The Authority of Ruin, which could tear apart anything that had been made.

The Authority of Defiance, which allowed me to resist forces that claimed total control.

The Authority of the Abyss, tying me to the darkness that existed before light was ever born.

CRACK!

CRACK!

CRACK!

CRACK!

CRACK!

The final chains around my wings exploded outward, fragments of black metal scattering in every direction as the wings spread to their full size.

The force behind them made the walls crack, and the ground beneath me shift under the pressure.

The golden chains that had held me in place did not even break. They simply vanished, burned away by the sheer intensity pouring from my body.

Step...

I landed firmly on my feet, both of my swords snapping back into my hands as if they had never left, and I raised my head to look at the twelve corrupted angels.

Now I saw them clearly.

Pawns.

Servants.

Corrupted husks wearing the stolen bodies of what had once been divine beings.

And they were completely outmatched.

"You wanted to know my choice," I said, and my voice came out deeper, layered with harmonics that shook the air.

"I choose to show you what happens when you threaten a Fallen God who has nothing left to lose."

My wings flared wide, power crackling between the feathers.

"I choose violence."

The temperature in the chamber dropped to absolute zero in an instant, and I moved.

Fwoop!

All the precision I had relied on before, all the measured strikes and movements meant to preserve energy and maintain some form of strategy, vanished in an instant.

What replaced it was something far more direct and far more brutal, the raw and violent nature of a Fallen God finally allowed to act without anything holding it back.

Shing!

Midnight cut through the air in a wide horizontal swing, and the sound that followed did not belong in any normal space.

It was sharp and strained, like the air itself was being torn apart, like the world around us was protesting the force behind that single motion.

A wave of black energy burst from the blade, expanding outward into a massive crescent that stretched several meters across.

Deep red lines ran along its edges, pulsing in a steady rhythm that looked disturbingly close to flowing blood.

The attack crossed the distance between us almost instantly.

One of the corrupted angels reacted too late.

"I– wait—!" Its voice broke apart as it tried to move.

CRACKLEEE———!!!!!

Its wings snapped forward in a rushed attempt to block, dark and gold feathers shifting as it tried to gather energy for a defense.

I saw the flicker of something forming, the start of a barrier, a technique, anything that might stop what was coming.

It never had the time to finish.

The crescent struck it cleanly through the center of its body.

For a brief moment, nothing seemed to happen.

"—no… no, stop, STOP—!"

Its voice rose into a panicked scream as its form began to fall apart.

There was no explosion, no violent burst of force.

Instead, its body started to come undone from the point of impact, breaking down in a slow, horrifying way, as if something was peeling it out of existence layer by layer.

The golden feathers of its wings lost their shine and crumbled into fine ash that drifted through the air, while the darker, corrupted sections melted into a thick, oily substance that clung to nothing and yet refused to fall.

The mask covering its face cracked down the middle with a sharp, dry sound.

A second later, it slipped off completely.

There was nothing underneath.

No face, no features, no trace of what had once been there.

Only empty space where a being had existed moments before.

"A-angel Twelve is— gone…" one of the others whispered, its voice shaking in a way that broke whatever unity they had left.

"N-no… that is not possible… that is not possible!" another said, stumbling back a step.

"We are bound to the Crawling Chaos… we cannot be erased like this!"

But the attack had not ended.

The energy that destroyed their companion did not fade like normal divine power.

Instead, it gathered together, pulling inward into a writhing mass of thick, black substance that hovered in the air.

It twisted and pulsed in a way that made the space around it feel wrong, carrying the same corrupt presence that had filled their wings.

For a second, it drifted, as if searching.

Then it began to move away.

"No, get back!" one of them shouted, panic rising.

"Do not let it escape, it will—"

I raised my hand slowly.

The Authority of the Abyss answered without resistance.

The black mass jerked violently, as if something had latched onto it, and then it was dragged straight toward me with sudden force.

"W-what are you doing?!" another angel cried out.

"That is not something you can—!"

The mass slammed into my chest.

For a brief moment, it resisted.

I felt it pushing against me, trying to spread, trying to seep into my core the same way it had taken over them.

There was a cold, invasive pressure as it attempted to force its way through my power, to twist and corrupt everything it touched.

I closed my eyes for half a second and let out a slow breath.

"You picked the wrong target," I stated quietly.

After all, the thing that made the race Fallen God forbidden... was the power to be able to manipulate every kind of law, authority, or energy.

So, instead of fighting it, I started absorbing it.

The resistance broke almost immediately.

The black substance dissolved into me, sinking into my core and spreading through my power, but instead of changing me, it was the one being taken apart.

I felt it break down, its energy stripped and absorbed, its nature reduced to something I could use.

Fragments of thought and knowledge passed through my mind in flashes.

Whispers of how they spread.

How they influenced.

How they waited.

When I opened my eyes again, the last trace of that black mass was gone.

My power... stronger.

The entire exchange had taken only a few seconds.

I lowered my sword slightly and turned my head toward the remaining angels, taking my time as my gaze moved from one to the next.

My wings spread wider behind me, each movement slow and deliberate, the air around them crackling with contained force.

Frost spread outward across the chamber, creeping along the floor, climbing the walls, forming delicate patterns that looked almost beautiful despite the deadly cold they carried.

None of them moved.

Not one.

Their formation had completely fallen apart.

Each stood where they had been when their companion died, bodies stiff, wings pulled in close as if trying to make themselves smaller.

I could see it clearly now.

They were shaking.

"I… I cannot feel him anymore…" one of them whispered in a seemingly shaky tone.

"His presence… it is gone… completely gone…"

"That was a single strike…" another mumbled weakly.

"One swing… and he… he erased him…"

"This is wrong… this is wrong!" a third snapped, though the fear in its voice was obvious.

"The seals on the Fallen God race should not allow this level of power! Something is interfering!"

"No…" one near the back said, its voice dropping into a quiet, horrified tone.

"Look at him… look at those wings… the chains are gone…"

Silence spread between them after that.

They understood.

The confidence they had shown earlier, the certainty in their control, the calm way they had spoken about breaking me, all of it had disappeared.

In its place, there was only fear.

Step...

I took a single step forward.

The sound of my foot touching the frozen floor echoed through the chamber.

One of them flinched hard at the noise.

"H-he is coming closer…!"

"Do not panic!" another tried to say, though its voice shook.

"We are still twelve—"

"Eleven," someone corrected weakly.

That shut them up.

I tilted my head slightly, watching them with quiet interest, and let a faint smile form as frost continued to spread around my feet.

"Go on," I teased, crossing my arms.

"You were speaking so confidently before. You said no one in this world could stand against you."

None of them answered.

Their silence said enough.

They had seen what happened.

They had felt it.

And now, standing in front of me without their illusions of control, they finally understood something simple and unavoidable.

They were truly afraid.

And they had every reason to be.