Magic Academy's Bastard Instructor - Chapter 299: In Hell We Live, Lament [4]

“Melissa!”

“O-Oppa?!”

In a fit of rage and panic, Zen immediately rushed back to the home he had arranged for Melissa.

Ever since the incident years ago, Melissa had somehow managed to acclimate to society with surprisingly little change.

Though the seal remained within her, she still lived relatively normally, learning magic at her own pace while trying to enjoy the life of an ordinary young woman.

The moment Zen arrived, he immediately grabbed both of her shoulders.

“Was it you?!” he demanded. “Those Demons… were you responsible for them?!”

“W-What?!”

However, contrary to his expectations, Melissa looked utterly baffled, confused, terrified, and offended all at once.

At that moment, Zen immediately retracted and mentally berated himself for even suspecting his own little sister in the first place.

“I…”

For a moment, words failed him.

Melissa stared at him in disbelief, still trying to process why her brother had suddenly barged in and accused her like that.

“O-Oppa… what are you talking about…?”

Zen lowered his gaze.

The hysteria in his eyes gradually faded, replaced entirely by guilt.

“I found one,” he said, his voice as low as a whisper. “A Demon.”

“And…?”

“…It used to be human.”

The atmosphere inside the room instantly sank.

Zen slowly clenched his fists.

“The mana signature coming from it…” he continued. “It resembled the same dark flames from that day….”

Melissa’s expression paled. “No…”

“I know,” Zen immediately said, rubbing his face in frustration. “I know. I shouldn’t have suspected you. But the moment I saw it, the first thing that came to mind was what happened years ago…”

Melissa remained silent.

Truthfully, she understood why.

Because even now, she herself still feared the thing sealed within her.

“Oppa… there’s something I need to tell you…”

Zen looked up immediately.

“What?”

Melissa hesitated briefly before lowering her gaze.

“This thing… it’s been communicating with me…”

“….”

At that moment, goosebumps crawled down Zen’s spine.

He already knew the thing sealed within Melissa was capable of thought. Something intelligent. Something that should not have existed in the first place.

Those massive purple eyes that had stared back at him that day were enough proof of that.

Eyes so vast and incomprehensible that merely looking into them instinctively filled a person with dread. Eyes that felt more akin to standing before an abyss so immense that the human mind itself could barely process its existence.

“…What did it say?” Zen asked.

Melissa slowly clenched her hands together.

“At first… it only whispered things I couldn’t understand,” she admitted. “But lately… the voice has become clearer.”

Zen’s expression gradually darkened.

“And?”

Melissa hesitated again. “It says… there’s not much time left…”

The room instantly fell silent.

“It keeps saying the world is already exposed,” Melissa continued quietly. “That the White Nights was only the beginning… and that eventually, everything will return to nothing if humanity continues as it is…”

Zen narrowed his eyes. “…That sounds like manipulation.”

To him, it sounded no different from the whispers of a Demon attempting to tempt someone into lowering their guard.

Ever since encountering those corrupted humans, he had already begun to understand how insidious outside influence could be.

“I thought so too. But…” Slowly, she raised her gaze toward him. “…Oppa, what if it isn’t lying?”

Those words caused Zen to momentarily freeze in place.

For a brief moment, the room fell completely silent, the atmosphere growing heavier as the implications behind her question slowly settled in.

“But what does it even mean?” Zen eventually asked, his voice noticeably quieter than before. “Exposed… exposed to what exactly?”

“I don’t know…” Melissa answered honestly as she slowly lowered her gaze again. “But I feel like… in this vast universe… we’re not alone…”

The moment those words left her mouth, an uncomfortable chill crept down Zen’s spine.

Because, strangely enough, that thought had crossed his mind before, too.

The more Zen learned about the world after the White Nights, after humanity was reset, the more it felt as though reality itself had been tampered with.

Humanity did not simply evolve overnight. Entire laws governing the world had changed. Mana had appeared seemingly out of nowhere, while creatures that should not have existed were now emerging across the planet.

It was as though something had fundamentally rewritten reality itself.

And if those purple eyes truly originated from somewhere beyond their world…

Then perhaps humanity had unknowingly opened a door it was never meant to touch in the first place.

Melissa slowly clenched her hands together.

“It keeps calling humanity ’visible,’” she murmured quietly. “Like… before the White Nights, we were hidden somehow. But now…”

“…Now what?”

“…Now something else has started looking back.”

“….”

After that conversation, the most natural course of action was to place Melissa under constant observation while ensuring she had access to the best treatment, protection, and facilities available to practice her magic.

Because at that point, Melissa had become the only direct connection Zen possessed to whatever those purple eyes belonged to.

Zen concluded that the thing sealed within her might possess answers humanity desperately needed to understand.

Years passed.

Six years later, reports of strange hallucinations began surfacing across different regions of the world. At first, governments attempted to dismiss them as side effects of mana exposure, psychological stress, or mass hysteria caused by the unstable state of society.

But the incidents only continued increasing.

People claimed they could hear voices whispering to them at night. Others reported seeing shadow-like figures standing at the edge of their vision before vanishing the moment they turned their heads.

Some victims eventually lost the ability to distinguish reality from hallucination entirely, descending into madness while muttering incoherent phrases about the sky, the stars, and eyes hidden beyond darkness.

Then, a year later, humanity finally reached a conclusion.

Spirits.

That was what they began calling them.

Entities that seemingly lacked physical bodies yet could still influence the minds and emotions of people around them.

And those spirits… for reasons Zen desperately wished were merely coincidence… also carried traces of that same signature.

The black flames.

Those purple eyes.

At that point, Zen finally understood there was no longer any room left for hesitation.

Everything was connected.

The White Nights.

The Demons.

The spirits.

Those purple eyes.

Whatever existed beyond those eyes had already begun influencing their world long ago.

And if humanity continued remaining ignorant, then eventually, they would be destroyed without even understanding what they were facing.

With that realization, Zen finally made up his mind. No matter the risks, no matter the consequences, he needed answers.

And the only being capable of giving them was the entity sealed within Melissa.

“…You’re serious.”

Jihyeon’s expression had darkened the moment Zen explained his plan.

Inside the underground chamber beneath their research facility, countless magic circles illuminated the walls while layers upon layers of sealing formulas continuously rotated throughout the surroundings.

Ever since the incident years ago, the place had gradually evolved from a small hut into something closer to a prison than a laboratory.

Or perhaps a sanctuary.

Even Zen no longer knew which description fit better.

“I am,” he answered.

“This is insane, even for you.”

“….”

Zen remained silent.

Because truthfully, he knew she was right.

Attempting to directly communicate with an entity capable of influencing reality itself was no different from willingly throwing oneself into the abyss and hoping the abyss decided not to swallow them whole.

But humanity was running out of time.

The Demons were increasing.

The spirits were appearing more frequently.

And worse, the mana density across the planet continued rising year after year, as though reality itself was gradually becoming more compatible with whatever existed beyond it.

“Zen.” Jihyeon’s voice softened. “You know what this thing is capable of.”

“…Yeah.”

At that, Zen slowly lowered his gaze toward his own hands.

For a brief moment, memories resurfaced within his mind.

The wars.

The Demons.

The corrupted humans screaming in agony while turning into monsters.

“…Oppa.”

Zen immediately turned toward Melissa.

“What if…” Melissa hesitated, slowly clenching her fists. “What if I stop being myself…? What if I die…? What if I just…”

“Stop talking,” Zen cut her off immediately. “I won’t let you die.”

At that moment, the atmosphere inside the chamber fell silent.

Because that was the one possibility Zen never wanted to acknowledge.

The seal had held for years, but with every passing year, the entity’s connection to Melissa only continued strengthening.

The line separating the vessel from the thing sealed within her had gradually become more blurred over time.

And if they pushed too far, there was a very real chance Melissa herself might disappear entirely.

In any case, the underground chamber trembled as the ritual finally began.

Layers upon layers of magic circles illuminated across the floor, walls, and ceiling. Their patterns rotated slowly while enormous quantities of mana flowed through the chamber like streams of light.

At the center of it all sat Melissa.

“Last chance to back out,” Jihyeon muttered while making final adjustments to the outer formation.

Zen stood directly across from Melissa.

“…No.”

Humanity had already crossed the point where ignorance could save them.

“Alright then,” Jihyeon said. “Once the connection establishes itself, do not provoke it unnecessarily. If the entity attempts to overwhelm Melissa’s consciousness, I’ll forcibly sever the ritual.”

“And if severing it fails?” Zen asked.

“…Then we contain whatever comes out.”

At this point, Zen stood second to none in the world when it came to magic.

And quite frankly, compared to the monsters and prodigies that had begun emerging across the globe, Jihyeon herself was no longer considered anyone particularly extraordinary anymore.

But what the two shared was something far more important than talent.

Absolute trust.

For Zen, there was no one in the world who understood him better than Jihyeon did. She had seen him at his weakest, watched him grow stronger, and remained beside him through every stage of his life as Zen.

Likewise, Jihyeon trusted Zen enough to stand beside him even while confronting something neither of them truly understood.

And perhaps that trust was the only reason they had made it this far.

Slowly, Jihyeon stepped back toward the outer layers of the formation while Zen approached Melissa at the center of the chamber.

“You ready?” he asked.

Melissa forced out a small smile despite the tension visible on her face.

“…Not really.”

“That makes two of us.”

For a moment, the atmosphere felt light.

Zen placed his hand against the center of the main formation.

The ritual immediately reacted.

Boom——!

Every magic circle within the underground chamber illuminated simultaneously as enormous quantities of mana surged through the formation.

Dark flames spilled outward across the chamber floor.

Immediately, the sealing formulas activated. Chains of golden mana wrapped around the spreading darkness before it could consume the surroundings entirely.

Melissa winced.

“Melissa!”

“I-I’m okay…”

But she clearly wasn’t.

Black markings slowly spread across her skin while the air inside the chamber rapidly grew heavier with every passing second. Even the mana itself felt distorted now, as though reality was slowly bending beneath the weight of something trying to emerge.

———!

At that moment, Zen flinched.

“….”

Those eyes.

“….”

Watching him from somewhere beyond the darkness.

The black flames gathered behind Melissa like an endless ocean of shadows slowly taking shape.

———!

And at that moment, the world turned black.

As though existence itself had suddenly been swallowed whole.

Sound disappeared completely. There was no ringing silence, not even the subtle noise one normally noticed when everything became too quiet.

It was as though the very concept of sound had ceased to exist entirely.

For a brief moment, Zen could no longer even feel his own body. There was no air, mana, gravity, or anything.

“Noona?”

Zen looked around.

“Melissa?”

But no one responded.

Then, amidst the void, those purple eyes opened.

Massive beyond comprehension, they emerged within the darkness like celestial bodies staring directly into reality itself.

Merely looking at them caused an instinctive sense of dread to crawl throughout Zen’s entire being.

The sensation resembled standing beneath an endless night sky and suddenly realizing the stars themselves were staring back.

For the very first time in his life, Zen felt insignificant. In a world that treated him like a deity, before this monster, he was nothing more than an ant.

——So you’ve come.

The voice did not echo throughout the darkness. Rather, it manifested directly inside Zen’s mind, vast and incomprehensible, as though existence itself had spoken to him.

“…Araxys.”

Zen had never heard that name before.

No history book mentioned it.

No ancient text had ever recorded it.

No human had coined such a term.

And yet, the moment those purple eyes gazed upon him, Zen instinctively understood exactly what this being was called.

The name simply existed within his mind as naturally as breathing.

Araxys.