The Greatest Warrior of All Time Returns
Chapter 242

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Chapter 242

Just before the enormous rift, formed through multiple overlapping magic circles and sacred spells resonating together, could fully materialize, its structure was being eroded and distorted.

If left alone, the rift’s power would drastically weaken, eventually leading to its destruction or its stabilization into a less dangerous form.

Still, I didn’t let my guard down.

If the problem were truly this simple, the revelation wouldn’t have said that both the Saintess's power and mine were needed.

Yet, looking at the current situation, everything seemed to be proceeding far too smoothly.

In reality, the bizarre rift continued to weaken under the influence of the barrier formation, and its size gradually shrank.

The professors rejoiced and sighed in relief, but I was overcome with a chilling sense of unease.

It seemed I wasn’t the only one.

“Rain.”

At that moment, Luna raised one hand to chest height, palm facing upward.

Drip… drip…

Raindrops began to fall from the sky.

That’s when it happened.

The rift, which had been shrinking without resistance, suddenly began emitting a fierce, bizarre force as if trying to fight back.

This rift had been created using the power of some unknown entity, akin to the red moon.

Naturally, not knowing the structure behind it meant we couldn’t simply respond with magic.

In simple terms, it was impossible to deal with the rift using just the barrier.

However, according to Luna, even those beings—whatever they are—must be affected by the laws of this land if they wish to interfere with it.

That was one of their only weaknesses.

So, even though the rift was resisting, at its core, the flow of mana was involved.

The professors panicked and tried everything to suppress the rift, but it was beyond their capabilities.

“Damn! The resistance is too strong!”

“It’s like the rift is alive! What in the world…?”

“Step aside.”

Ignoring the professors’ desperate cries, I stepped forward and extended both hands.

“Lord Leon.”

I immediately analyzed the abnormally erratic flow of mana and broke it down.

It was an extremely complex and trap-laden stream of mana.

A single wrong move could cause a mana backlash, potentially killing me instantly—it reeked of lethal danger.

But compared to the monsters that appeared in the latter parts of the Labyrinthos, this wasn’t so difficult.

[Mana Interference]

[Linear Circulation Amplification]

[Reverse Order]

I entrusted my mana to the immense energy, letting it burn through me, and then seized an opportunity to twist the flow in reverse.

Crack!!

With a shattering sound, the tentacles sprouting from the rift writhed, tore apart into pieces, and were sucked back into the rift.

And then—

“Ha…”

“How can anyone manipulate it with such precision…?”

The rift, unable to hold on any longer, shrank in an instant and then disappeared entirely.

The threat interfering with the exam, the dangerous trace from another dimension, had vanished.

“Phew… Looks like it’s been resolved safely.”

“Damn, it’s like we’re cursed… this happened before too…”

The professors muttered, relieved.

Indeed, there was no longer any sense of dangerous mana flows in the area.

Those beings don’t have infinite power, so with this space sealed off, interfering any further would be difficult.

And yet, a strange unease lingered.

“Luna.”

“What is it?”

“What do you think?”

“They were clearly caught off guard. But… something still feels off.”

That’s when it happened.

A chilling sensation swept over my entire body, piercing even into the frontal lobe of my brain.

As I slowly turned my head, a calm voice echoed in the air.

“Nice to meet you. And… I sense a familiar presence.”

But rather than sounding like a living being, the voice felt eerie.

Its tone, gender, everything about it was hard to determine—it was distorted, almost like noise.

The source of that ominous presence stood there, wearing a jet-black suit and a black top hat.

Moments ago, there had been nothing in that space.

And yet, he stood there now, as if he had simply manifested into existence.

On the surface, he looked human—but no one truly believed he was.

Because while his body appeared human, his face was far from it.

Pure black void, and glowing white halos in the shapes of eyes and a mouth.

From the darkness, dozens of round eyes and a long, wide smile emerged—a truly nightmarish visage.

He carried no obvious weapons, emitted no aura of mana.

And yet, he exuded a primal, instinctive terror.

But the rift had been sealed—how could something like this appear?

It felt like all known laws had been completely ignored, a deeply unsettling sensation.

Still, it wasn’t as if our efforts had been completely meaningless.

“So then, was the barrier pointless?”

“No. Most of his influence was clearly cut off. Especially those disgusting presences from inside the rift—none of them made it through.”

“Well, that’s something at least.”

“Aaah… aah…”

At that moment, one of the professors, gripped by fear, began gathering magic in both hands.

And then—

Splat!! Thud!

The professor who had tried to attack the entity had his head burst open like a watermelon.

There had been no detectable flow of mana.

Yet the professor died instantly—and the atmosphere froze over like ice, as though cold water had been dumped over everyone.

[Translator - Night]

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“S-Saintess!! The sacred formation!!”

Luna cried out urgently, and the Saintess, Nadia, reflexively clasped her hands together and knelt down.

Fwaaaaah!!

Light gathered around her, flooding the area with radiance.

Then, the eerie black mist-like aura surrounding the entity was suppressed and pulled back into its body.

At the same time, something incredible happened.

From the body of the professor whose head had been destroyed, light began to emanate—and the crushed skull began restoring itself.

“Huuuup!!”

And like someone who had held their breath for a long time and suddenly inhaled roughly, the once-dead professor shot upright.

“What… what is happening…?”

“Re… resurrection!”

Even as the shocked voices of the professors echoed around, Saintess Nadia continued her prayer without pause, hands clasped tightly.

“Tsk. As expected, their preparations were thorough. I didn’t expect them to have a stigma…”

Despite the words, the grotesque being didn’t seem disappointed in the least.

Soon, it slowly lowered its head in a mock bow.

“I am the Herald of the Primordial Being. The Crawling Nightmare—Nyala.”

Watching its relaxed demeanor, I spoke up.

“Luna. Do you know what that thing is?”

“A power related to Will.”

“Then that’s good enough.”

Without hesitation, I drew the demon sword Electra from subspace.

[Will – Strength]

[Blue]

Sslice!!!

A blade aura imbued with blue Will flew toward the creature in an instant.

But unlike with the professor earlier, the creature raised its hand.

Sshing!!!

The high-speed blade aura came to a halt as if it had struck an invisible, colorless shield projected from the creature’s hand.

“I’m sorry, but your attacks won’t work on m— huh?!”

[Reversal]

[Red]

At that moment, the blue blade aura flying toward it suddenly turned red, pierced through the creature’s defense, and split its body clean in half.

Perhaps surprised that my attack landed, the creature failed to react immediately.

Its upper torso, sliced in an instant, fell to the ground with a dull thud and fell silent.

Of course, I didn’t believe that was the end of it.

“My, how cruel—to do this to someone who can’t do anything but talk.”

The creature’s pitch-black face flickered faintly, its pure white eyes gleaming.

“To be honest, I didn’t expect you to be prepared. I acknowledge it. This time, it’s your victory. I failed to carry out the will of the one I serve.”

It spoke calmly, but its lips curled upward in a sinister smile.

“But it would be rude to leave without a parting gift, wouldn’t it? I’ll at least leave you a little present.”

With that, its form disintegrated completely, as if it no longer had the strength to hold itself together.

However, the moment it vanished, a bizarre aurora began to unfold in the distance.

“What is that…?”

“Oh my god… Isn’t that a Stampede Gate?!”

At the professors’ panicked exclamations, I recalled a rift phenomenon I had read about in books.

Unlike ordinary rifts, these unleash a massive number of monsters the moment they are formed—classified as a level-1 catastrophic rift.

That was the Stampede Gate.

In this examination hall, where cadets were currently taking their test… it meant that hordes of those damn monsters were going to charge in.

The problem was that the scale of a Stampede Gate was practically disaster-level.

Even if this was an academy, it wouldn’t be easy to contain it with just the faculty—especially when the students’ safety had to be the top priority.

“This isn’t the time! We need to summon all available combat personnel and evacuate the students immediately…!”

Suppressing their panic, the professors scrambled to make contact.

Watching this, I asked:

“Luna. Did that guy have the power to create a Stampede Gate?”

“No. All he did was tamper with an unstable flow in the air, triggering a gate that was already likely to open soon.”

In other words, he provoked a volcano that was on the verge of erupting and forced it to explode.

“Wait. Can those things even interfere with rifts?”

Luna pondered the question for a long time.

Then slowly answered.

“The reason rifts form… is ultimately because beings like them exist.”

“Ah. That’s… quite a shocking revelation.”

I hadn’t known that.

“Professors. Then what happens to the students?”

“What do you mean?! We need to evacuate them right awa—”

“And if the exam is stopped again, like before, what about the students?”

“Is the exam important?! Their safety comes firs—”

“I’ll handle it.”

“…What?”

“Let them continue the test.”

I’d seen how hard the failing students had worked.

Even if my teaching was somewhat slapdash, they were still my students, and it pissed me off that their efforts might go unrewarded.

The Red Moon.

That crawling nightmare, Nyala.

Such entities were close to the unknown.

But the Stampede Gate it triggered—was different.

No matter how many came pouring out of it, they were still monsters that existed in this world.

Which meant—they were a threat I could handle.

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