The Academy's Genius Regressor is The Angel of Death

Chapter 1: Regression

They said fate was written by the Gods....

I almost laughed.

If Gods had written my fate, then they were shitty authors.

What kind of story ends with a single survivor kneeling in the ash of everything he swore to protect?

"....cough...!!"

Forcing my eyes down to my stomach, I saw a massive hole in it.

Crimson blood poured out, I could see the ground beneath me.

I lifted my gaze forward, only to see hundreds of corpses piled high like a mountain.

Their flesh had turned rotten, some had no limbs, while others simply headless.

They have all long since left the world.

The rotten corpses were once my men. It was me who had turned all of them into undeads to let them fight the last standing Demon Lord.

I simply had no choice.

Angel of Death.

This title truly suits me.

"Cough.... Cough..."

More blood spilled out from my mouth.

"Haaaa...."

How ironic....

I have won. But... I have lost.

Struggling to catch my breath, I turned my head to the other side.

The once chaotic battlefield was now dead silent.

My gaze widened and the landscape before me turned to hell itself.

The land of Caelistra was mostly covered in charred, reddish hue. It was the color of blood mixed with mud.

Apart from me, there was no sign of any other living.

Moving my head to both sides, I searched for her.

"Where....?"

I tried to talk, but only the whisper escaped.

"...where is she...?"

My eyes darted around the wasteland.

THUD!

Just then, something fell from the sky.

I turned towards the sound.

About five strides away, a massive figure of a half chopped Dragon sprawled out.

It was Valgaroth, the Demon Lord of Wrath.

It sprawled out thirty meters even in death, a colossus of a dragon with two pairs of wings. Its skull had been split open from the crown and what remained of its brain oozed slowly down the slope of its face.

Black blood oozing out from the wounds formed puddles where it fell.

From just a glance I could tell that it was dead.

A broad smile appeared on my face as I saw it in this state.

The so-called king of Demons, Valgaroth, the Demon Lord of Wrath is finally dead.

"Haha... took you long enough to die, you damn lizard."

FWOOOS!

A sharp gust of wind came, and soon after a woman landed beside me.

"Look at you. You are dying ahead of me." She spoke.

Unlike me, she was standing tall like a dignified human even in this wasteland.

’Ah.. there you are.’

My eyes were relieved as I found her.

Long black hair with striking gold strands at the edge that flutters with the wind, and those golden eyes which wore the same old coldness even in such a state.

A golden mark glowed on her right hand, winding up to her shoulder like a serpent of light.

Well... at least I am not alone.

"Hah. Give me a break." I sneered back at her cocky tone. "At least let me die peacefully."

I don’t like this woman.

Shrugging her shoulder, her gaze fell on my stomach.

She didn’t wait any longer and simply sat down, and put her right hand above my bloodied stomach.

Her Holy Serpent of Light grew even brighter.

Just one touch from her, and I already started to feel better.

But even so...

"...why are your wounds not healing?"

She tried once again. But despite closing up the wound, it only made the blood gush out faster.

It was as if my body was resisting her Holy Mana.

"Are you an idiot?" I could at least talk now. "Dark Mana and Holy Mana are born to oppose. You would do me more harm than to fix."

"Ah..."

She finally realized.

Thirty Days of non stop fighting must have made her restless.

"You should stop pushing yourself." I said this to her.

She thinks I would not notice it.

Too bad...

I’ve known her too long to fall for that.

She finally gave in. Her legs lost all energy and she fell right next to me.

It was only due to her Holy Sword that she was even able to support herself.

I coughed up more blood.

"Cough... Cough... You... you are going to die as well."

I can see the cataclysmic flames burning around her heart.

’Good grief...’

That damn lizard did her dirty.

Cataclysmic Fire was an unquenchable Flame which could not be extinguished by any means of magic. Not even Holy Magic could heal it.

A powerful attack by the Demon Lord of Wrath.

"...this can’t be happening."

She finally noticed her own state.

I saw her slumping her butt on the ground, and her body slowly leaned towards my direction.

Our shoulders brushed, but even so she was resisting to lean onto me.

I thought about our situation, and how messed up everything is.

After decades at each other’s throats, the Holy and Dark Empires finally allied against the Demons, against the havoc neither of us could stop alone

"Hah... Haah..."

I could hear her ragged breathing.

"Dying, and still too proud to drop the ice-queen act?"

"Shut up."

I still remember the old times. When she and I were sworn enemies.

We had spilled each other’s people’s blood, following a hatred passed down from a history no one alive even remembered.

If anyone had told me she and I would end up on the same side, I’d have laughed in their face, or killed them, for a joke that bad.

"Rian..."

She spoke my name, suddenly.

"..."

"What did we do wrong?"

It was a strange question, coming from her.

’What did we do wrong?’

If I had to count them all... then everything. Right from the start, from the way we’d dealt with the Demoness of Lust.

If the Dark Empire hadn’t executed her back then. If I hadn’t simply obeyed when they ordered it, and just listened to the ’Demoness of Lust’ for once.

Then maybe we would have had her on our side.

"Tell me," she said again.

I forced my head toward her.

"Why does it matter now? We’re already doomed."

That was the truth of it.

Both the Dark Empire and the Holy Empire had dug their own graves from the very beginning.

"If only we’d worked together," I muttered. "From the start..."

Then things might have turned out so much better than this.

And it wasn’t just that. I—no, we had made so many blunders that, looking back now, it was almost laughable.

"That’s right..." Her voice came bitter now. "None of it would have turned out this bad if you and I had just worked together from the start."

I blinked and looked at her. And to my amazement, even now, even after everything was already over, I could still see the rage burning in her eyes.

’Why is it still burning that bright?’ I wondered.

"It was all our fault," she said. "We never should have listened to the empires."

I sighed.

"Then maybe you should’ve dropped the ice-queen act and actually come talk to me, back at Caelistra Academy."

Because that was the truth of it, she was the one who’d kept everyone at arm’s length, always cold and untouchable.

"And how exactly was I supposed to talk to you?" she shot back. "You spent the entire academy holed up in your room. For god’s sake, I barely saw you show up to class."

"Hey, now. I was busy doing important stuff."

"Sleeping is not important."

"It is, when you’re a genius. My mind needs rest."

"Genius my ass."

"Tsk. Is that any way for a holy maiden to talk?"

"It is when the holy maiden’s talking to you."

She let out a breath that might have been a laugh, if either of us still had the strength for one. For a moment the rage in her eyes flickered into something almost fond.

I must have noticed late, but even I was smiling, just a little.

"...See?" she murmured. "It wasn’t that hard. Talking to me, was it?"

I didn’t say anything.

"We were fools." She added. "Both of us, all along."

"Pftt! Cough..!! Ah, shit!"

I almost laughed myself to death.

She shot me a glare.

I steadied my breathing.

"That reminds me, back at the academy." I said it as something from our old days surfaced. "You tried to talk to me once."

It had been right after my first week there. Jeanne had approached me during lunch, and I’d shooed her away, assuming it was some Holy Empire plot.

’Hm... maybe I shouldn’t have.’

"Ah. You still remember that?"

"Not my fault. A lot of girls tried to hit on me back then—ow!"

She drove her elbow into my side.

That hurts.

Can’t she see, I am already dying?

A moment later, she was staring at me.

"You know, I tried to make things right between us."

"Hm?"

She kept going, ignoring my confusion entirely.

"It was just like the last time. I did everything I could to fix things between the empires, and I failed. So then, the next time I tried to at least fix things between you and me... but you were too stubborn."

"What are you blabbering about now?"

Maybe the flames had finally reached her brain.

"Rian." She said my name again. "If you went back in time... what would you change?"

At that point I was certain the flames of Valgaroth had eaten into her mind. So, to make her last moments easier, I humored her.

"Let’s see... Maybe I’d go and actually talk to you. Set everything right between us. And tell you not to give a damn about the empire’s orders." I paused. "What do you think?"

"...."

She stared back at me without blinking.

"Right," she sighed, rubbing her forehead. "If it were someone as stubborn as you... it might actually work."

"Right?" I shrugged proudly.

And right after I said that, she placed her right hand over mine.

"What?"

Before I could react, the Holy Mark swirled across her arm.

"This Holy Mark is called the Serpent of Time. It took me decades to awaken its true potential, but once awakened, it lets a person return to the past."

I looked at her face which was now covered with bruises. She looked even crazier than before.

"Hey, Jeanne. Sorry to interrupt, but—"

"This is my second regression." She said it plainly, stopping me cold.

I just stared at her.

Regression? As in... going back in time?

A laugh escaped out of me.

"No, you’ve finally lost it. The flames got your head, that’s all. Time magic is impossible."

"You asked me once how I always knew where the demons would strike next. Do you remember? In Luthanberg at the bridge. You told me I had good instinct but in reality I’d already watched it happen. And also..."

As she began counting, my laugh dried.

Because I remembered her standing at that bridge a full day before the attack.

"...Why didn’t you inform me before?" I asked.

"Because you were too stubborn. I had known you better than you, I had to watch you die in all my lives. Your stubbornness is something which made me hate you the most."

"...."

I swallowed, and forced the words out of my throat.

"You... you don’t mean it. You must be making things up?"

"Do I look like someone who would crack a joke while dying? Am I that crazy?"

I almost nodded, but stopped as she was preparing to hit me again.

She sighed.

"Rian. This time, I’m putting everything I have left into you. So if you go back, please, come find me and tell me not to listen to the Empire."

As she spoke, the Holy Mark on her arm flared brighter. Then it split clean in two, and one half crawled from her arm onto mine.

My left arm burned so fiercely I thought someone had poured molten metal over it.

"Jeanne...?"

My eyes went wide, because the next thing I saw was her body slumping toward me.

I caught her.

"H-Hey. Stay with me!"

I shook her and as I did, I realized her pulse was already gone.

"....."

I didn’t let go. I just held her, until her body turned cold in my arms.

What the heck?

You can’t just die on me after blabbering something crazy.

It took ten whole minutes for Valgaroth’s flames to finish consuming Jeanne’s organs.

If it had been me, I wouldn’t have lasted five.

Even so, my own body is getting cold now. All of it, except my left arm.

My eyes drifted to the Holy Mark burning there.

It glowed just as brilliantly as it had on Jeanne.

Dark Magic and Holy Magic were supposed to oppose each other. But seeing a Holy Mark as sacred as this glowing on my arm, the arm of a dark mage, the so-called Angel of Death...

I didn’t have a word for what I felt.

"...."

Jeanne’s eyes were still open.

I traced my hand over them and closed them.

It felt wrong and strange at the same time.

"...Hey, Jeanne," I rasped.

There was no one to answer, but I said it anyway.

"You really are something, you know that? Dumping all of this on me, and then leaving."

My chest heaved.

"You are so cold..."

The dark at the edges of my vision was spreading. And my arm, the one she’d marked, burned hotter the colder the rest of me grew.

I thought of the academy. Of a girl with cold golden eyes who’d walked up to me at lunch fifteen years ago, and a boy too proud, and too afraid of my own father, to do anything but turn her away.

If you went back in time... what would you change?

Everything. I’d change everything.

"...Alright," I breathed. The word had barely any sound left in it. But, even so, for the last time, I looked at her.

"If what you said is true. Then, let’s do it again."

My eyelids fell and then light swallowed everything.

. . .

[A/N: Only the ch.1 is in 1st perspective, the rest will be in third.]