Subscriber of the Gods Chapter 327 - Putting Down the Burden

At the moment Ethan began fighting the 3rd Apostle,

An uncountable number of followers of the Moon rushed into Ivecar Academy.

“Quickly! Quickly! Move to the gymnasium! All of you!”

“What about those who haven’t arrived yet? Has everyone been accounted for?”

“Almost everyone is here! Teacher Claudie and Teacher Duty, along with other teachers, are leading them.”

Claudie quickly relayed the current situation to the other teachers and took the lead in gathering all the students in the gymnasium.

“Huff, huff. Teacher Claudie, it’s all done.”

“Good work, everyone. Hurry inside. New teachers, focus on reassuring the students inside, and the rest, follow me to guard the front.”

Claudie pointed at the front of the gymnasium.

“The principal and the two department heads are over there. There are students in that direction too, so they’re probably fighting the followers of the Moon bastards by now.”

Bam-!

Kwaaaang-!

As soon as he finished speaking, a thunderous noise came from that direction.

It seemed the real fight had begun.

At that sound, the students wore anxious expressions, while the teachers each had different looks on their faces.

The teachers of Ivecar were human after all, and each had their own tendencies.

Not everyone could be like Claudie, and some teachers lacked any particular passion.

They became teachers simply to teach students, without any grand sense of mission.

If given the chance, they only thought about leaving Ivecar for a better place.

But when faced with this situation, they all had the same thought.

Protect the students.

Though complex emotions showed on each of their faces, the idea of protecting the students was the same.

“Teacher!”

Someone urgently called out to Claudie.

“Some, some students haven’t arrived! About ten are missing!”

“Ten? Have they been identified?”

“From what I’ve heard from the students, they were training in the old training grounds in the back during the afternoon. Including that Oz Lazarus…”

Claudie clicked his tongue.

The old training grounds were quite deep within Ivecar.

It seemed the commotion hadn’t reached them quickly because of that.

“I’ll go myself…”

But before he could finish speaking, followers of the Moon wearing black robes appeared.

There were dozens visible right in front of them.

“…!”

“Th-that’s…”

Everyone here had only heard about the followers of the Moon attacking from Claudie.

They had only heard about them, but this was their first time seeing them in person.

Of course, it was the same for Claudie.

Shaaaak-.

The unique dark blue aura emitted by the followers of the Moon.

The sight sent chills down the teachers’ spines.

“Just how many…”

“Why on earth are these bastards at our Ivecar?”

In the urgent situation, they had only been told that the followers of the Moon were attacking, not the reason why. There would have been no benefit in saying they came to kill Ethan.

But rather, the absence of information made their mental strength vulnerable.

“We need to keep our wits about us.”

At that moment, Claudie, who stood in front of the followers, shouted.

“This is Ivecar, and the students are inside. We must protect them.”

At those words, the teachers’ eyes came alive.

As Claudie said, the reason why the followers of the Moon attacked wasn’t important.

What mattered was that they were trying to kill the students.

“Let’s protect our students.”

“Yes!”

“Understood, Teacher Claudie!”

At the same time, the sound of footsteps shaking the earth was heard.

“Eliminate the ruffians attacking Ivecar!”

“Show them clearly where they are!”

It was the knights of Marquis Rond’s house.

Just as the 3rd Apostle had brought troops with determination, Marquis Rond’s house had also arrived with large-scale reinforcements.

Three units of knights protecting the Marquis’ house. A total of 100 knights were running at the forefront, followed by over 300 soldiers responsible for maintaining order in the Marquis’ territory.

“The Marquis… seems to be giving us substantial help.”

Given that Ethan and Claudie had personally gone to request help, it seemed the Marquis had taken their words very seriously.

The number of troops supported by the Marquis’ house was incredibly generous.

As the large-scale troops arrived as reinforcements, the teachers’ expressions brightened considerably.

However, Claudie never let his guard down.

“That one is Claudie Hyde.”

“The 3rd Apostle said we don’t need any hostages this time.”

“Then we’ll restrain the strong ones first, but kill them all.”

“Begin.”

Shaaaak-.

The followers of the Moon began to move, spreading like shadows.

Their speed was incredibly fast.

“Ugh!?”

Seeing this, one of the approaching Marquis’ knights was startled and drew his sword.

The followers of the Moon, who had been sandwiched between the two groups, split into front and back to launch their attack.

Clang-!

Claudie was also surprised.

Although Claudie usually maintained his composure no matter what happened, the heaviness of the sword that came at him in an instant was beyond imagination.

He couldn’t help but be amazed at the strength of the followers of the Moon, which he had only heard about.

“You’re saying… they’re not apostles.”

They’re this strong, yet they’re not apostles.

Then, are the apostles much stronger than this?

If so, how strong is Ethan, who defeated an apostle leading the new inquisitors?

“Hup.”

Claudie gritted his teeth and tensed his lower abdomen.

“You might think you’ve made a clever move by destroying the mana restriction formation… but that was actually a blunder.”

Claudie drew up his mana and stepped forward strongly, stomping his foot.

As he moved forward, the teachers behind him also drew up their mana and followed.

“Do you think you can lay a finger on our students?”

“We won’t let anyone past this point!”

Despite the teachers’ shouts, the followers of the Moon paid no heed.

“Continue the mission.”

Their mission was simple.

Secure as many souls as possible.

Kill everyone in Ivecar Academy.

Complete annihilation was the goal of this mission.

Claudie looked at the other teachers.

Having crossed swords, he clearly saw what he needed to do here.

“One or two of you isn’t enough. Come at me five at a time.”

Claudie provoked the followers of the Moon, putting on a show of bravado.

The followers of the Moon stared at Claudie for a moment, then ten of them rushed at him simultaneously.

“Teacher Claudie!”

“I’m fine, just don’t let them break through!”

The knights of Marquis Rond who had come as reinforcements tried to push in and join the fight, but the number of followers of the Moon blocking them was not small either.

Clang-! Clang-!

Claudie did his best to block the attacks of the followers of the Moon.

The ten followers of the Moon moved as if they were one body, unleashing fluid attacks.

Although the sun was clearly in the sky, the view was as dark as if it were the middle of the night.

‘They’re using a formation.’

However, Claudie didn’t panic.

The Hyde family is also one of the Twelve Families. It’s a place where succession battles occur that are incomparably more brutal than other noble families.

For Claudie, who had endured his childhood there and become a teacher at Ivecar Academy, such tricks were merely laughable.

Clang-! Clang-!

“I’m used to attacks coming from the darkness.”

When darkness fell, attacks invariably came. He could count on one hand the number of times he had slept properly, and he had faced death several times.

It was too cruel to rationalize as a succession battle between siblings, but that experience was proving quite helpful now.

Clang-!

Slash!

He deflected the attacks coming from the darkness and counterattacked, slashing back.

One of the followers of the Moon retreated from that attack.

It was the Mist Swordsmanship, the secret sword technique of the Hyde family.

It spreads mana like mist and inflicts severe wounds on enemies who enter it.

It was a power similar to the formation of those bastards who use mana to darken the field of vision.

Ten against one.

Yet the teachers were surprised by Claudie’s movements, which had managed to wound one of them. It was the first time they had seen Claudie fight so seriously.

It was truly a case of actions speaking louder than words. It was clear that to teach students excellently, one must first set an example.

“Not a single one gets inside.”

“If you want to get in, you’ll have to step over my corpse.”

The inspired teachers blurted out the words they had always wanted to say.

***

Slash!

The surroundings turned white. Red blood fell in the white world.

Drip-. Drip drip-.

The 3rd Apostle groaned, clutching the wounded area with her hand.

“Grrrrrrrr.”

It was a pain-filled sound that seemed to resonate from deep within her body.

Ethan closed his eyes as he heard that sound.

He had poured everything he had learned so far into this single strike.

The 3rd Apostle, properly hit by the Eternal Frost of Trust, froze in place.

But that was only for a moment. Using her switching ability, the 3rd Apostle instantly escaped from the attack range and coughed up blood.

“Cough, hack.”

“Huff. Huff.”

Ethan also exhaled roughly.

He was very out of breath from putting all his strength into this strike, but it would be a bad move to close the distance to finish things off in this state.

Ethan calmly caught his breath while watching the 3rd Apostle continue to cough up blood.

“This is difficult.”

The words came out without him realizing it.

‘The Eternal Frost of Trust landed perfectly.’

If so, the 3rd Apostle should have collapsed on the spot.

But the 3rd Apostle was still alive like that, and Ethan was exhausted from using so much power.

‘She must have defended with another superhuman ability I don’t know about.’

It means there’s one more defensive technique besides Sartre’s Secret Archives.

If not, it means she has an unbelievably high endurance, but Ethan could confidently say that no one had the endurance to withstand the Eternal Frost of Trust head-on.

‘Maybe it’s not a superhuman ability, but an effect of that abyssal soul.’

Ethan knows numerous superhuman abilities. It was one of the most important elements in MePan.

But in that process just now, there was nothing that looked like a superhuman ability, nor did he feel anything else.

As Ethan made his judgment, the 3rd Apostle’s wounds began to bubble and heal.

“Damn it.”

Ethan clicked his tongue.

One way or another, this attack had to be considered a failure.

He had inflicted wounds, but not only had he failed to kill, even those wounds were being healed.

Ethan quickly racked his brain as he watched the suffering 3rd Apostle.

Now he can only use the 4th Form twice more.

Just twice more, putting all his strength into it like the attack just now.

After using those two remaining times, it becomes difficult for Ethan to do anything against the 3rd Apostle.

If he could definitely kill the 3rd Apostle, he would use the Eternal Frost of Trust two more times in succession, but no matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t see a clear picture.

‘No matter how I think about it, I can’t see an angle.’

It was a kind of intuition developed from playing MePan for a long time.

He wasn’t confident that he could kill the 3rd Apostle using the two remaining Eternal Frost of Trust attacks.

‘If I could definitely kill her with two more times, I would somehow stick to the plan. No, I can’t kill her with two more times. Killing isn’t everything, so should I make another plan? I need to keep moving even after dealing with the 3rd Apostle.’

Use the Ethan Swordsmanship First Form to Third Form freely to create an opening and then thrust in the 4th Form again?

But what if the bastard doesn’t die even when the Eternal Frost of Trust is accurately thrust in?

That would be the end.

There would be no more means left to deal with the 3rd Apostle.

‘This method won’t work. I can’t rely solely on the Eternal Frost of Trust.’

This is why you don’t know until you experience it directly.

No matter how much knowledge you have, standing in front of the unknown variable called the 3rd Apostle that he hasn’t experienced, his head throbbed.

However, for some reason, Ethan found himself smiling.

“Huuuuuu.”

Yedam became Ethan.

Based on the knowledge gained from playing MePan, he had lived with a safety-first principle.

Because if he didn’t choose that way, he would die.

Therefore, he had only chosen options with absolutely no risk. Of course, there were times when he had to take small risks, but basically, he only thought about safety.

But Ethan was not originally a person who made safety his motto.

Challenge and break.

Challenge and fail.

His style was to try countless times, fail countless times, and feel his way around like a blind man touching an elephant to understand the overall picture.

But now the time has come to abandon that safety-first principle.

He can’t defeat the 3rd Apostle by playing it safe.

‘Now.’

Ethan relaxed his shoulders.

“Let’s put aside the matter of life and death.”

Then he took a deep breath.

The 3rd Apostle is a high-difficulty boss.

When taking down a high-difficulty boss, there’s only one thing to think about.

“It’s time to enjoy this.”