Anyone subjected to complete disregard cannot help but feel displeasure and anger, to say nothing of an academy associate professor who usually held herself in high esteem.
Particularly when this disregard came from a delinquent student who, in her mind, possessed atrocious talent, questionable moral character, and had long been abandoned by his family. That sense of insult, mixed with long-standing prejudice and the frustration of her thwarted plans, instantly shattered the final shred of scholarly restraint Audrey possessed.
Seeing that Greg not only sneered at her threats but even turned his back completely unguarded toward her to focus entirely on untying Silvia, her rage was thoroughly ignited by his attitude of treating her like non-existent air.
"You arrogant, useless trash!"
Audrey let out a low roar and wasted no more words, her emaciated fingers swiftly tracing pale green wind runes in the air.
Although she specialized in magic history theory and combat was not her strong suit, she was still an official associate professor at Glory Cael Academy and had reached LV28.
Furthermore, she had mastered several mid-tier wind magic spells. Even though her proficiency was generally not high, dealing with a piece of trash who was rumored to still be stuck at LV10 in his second year should be child's play.
"Wind Lash!"
A semi-transparent, pale green whip composed of compressed airflow shot forth from her fingertips alongside a sharp whistling sound, viciously striking toward the back of Greg's neck!
If this strike connected, it would be enough to dislocate an ordinary person's neck bones and render them unconscious on the spot.
However—
Greg did not even turn his head.
Just as the wind whip was about to touch the tips of his hair, as though he had eyes in the back of his head, his right hand did not pause its untying motion for a second, while his free left hand casually flicked backward.
A solid, sharp Water Arrow, shimmering with a faint blue magic sheen at its edges, shot out at a speed and precision far exceeding Audrey's expectations. Arriving later yet striking first, it met the aggressive wind whip head-on with absolute precision!
Pfft!
When the condensed Water Arrow met the unstable wind whip, it instantly pierced through it and tore it apart!
The dispersing chaotic currents fluttered Greg's blond hair and the edges of his clothes, yet failed to harm him in the slightest.
The Water Arrow, its remaining force unabated, grazed Audrey's cheek with a thud and embedded itself deeply into the decaying wooden wall behind her, its tail trembling with a hum.
The sneer and rage on Audrey's face instantly froze, turning completely blank.
She staggered back half a step, subconsciously reaching up to touch her cheek.
A burning, sharp pain radiated from it, and her fingertips met a warm, slick moisture.
By the residual dim glow of the nearby magic circle, she saw her fingers stained with a striking crimson.
Blood... I... am injured?
Was that just now... Water Gun? The most basic water magic spell?
B-But... how could a piece of trash at LV10 pull off such power, speed, and control?!
No, absolutely impossible!
He must have used some single-use magic item!
A massive sense of absurdity and cognitive shock left Audrey's mind in complete chaos.
Yet she was an adult who had weathered storms after all, and she quickly suppressed her shock, the ruthless look in her eyes growing even darker.
Since ordinary magic could do nothing to this bizarre delinquent student, then she would use an even more effective method!
"You forced my hand!"
Audrey shrieked, suddenly pulling an object from the inner pocket on the other side of her professor robes.
It was precisely that transparent little glass bottle sealed with a cork stopper, the one used earlier to knock Silvia unconscious.
Inside the bottle floated a small amount of white gas, swirling faintly in the dim light.
She intended to use this bizarre thing against Greg!
As long as she opened the cork stopper and let the gas inside diffuse, no matter what tricks this kid had up his sleeve, he would surely collapse instantly just like Silvia!
"Senior Greg! Watch out for that bottle!"
Silvia had just freed herself from the ropes. Her hands and feet were still numb, but seeing Audrey pull out that strange little bottle again, she instantly cried out in anxious warning.
However, her warning came a moment too late—or rather, Greg's reaction speed far exceeded her expectations.
Almost at the exact moment Audrey pulled out the bottle, even before her fingers touched the cork stopper, Greg's right hand had already completed the final movement of untying the knot. With a flick of his wrist, the rough hemp rope covered in dust and grass clippings—which had just been removed from Silvia—seemed to be endowed with a sinister life!
Tentacle Entanglement LV1!
The rough hemp rope, like an awakening dark tentacle, abruptly shot out from Greg's hand, its speed leaving faint afterimages in the air!
Instead of moving in a straight line, it traced a tricky and agile arc, wrapping around Audrey's right wrist that held the glass bottle with terrifying precision!
"What?!"
Audrey felt her wrist tighten. An irresistible brute force surged over, causing her fingers holding the bottle to involuntarily loosen.
Clack.
The glass bottle slipped from her hand and fell.
Yet in the fraction of a second before it smashed onto the hard ground, another section of the hemp rope struck out like a striking viper, effortlessly coiling around the falling bottle and catching it securely. With a swift whoosh, it retracted and landed steadily into Greg's already open left palm.
The entire process flowed like water, taking place in the blink of an eye.
"This...!"
Silvia watched dumbfounded, her pink eyes filled with incredible shock and wonder.
She knew Senior Greg was strong and had witnessed his composure and skill when dealing with monsters in the dungeon.
Yet in such a close-quarters, constantly shifting confrontation, resolving a crisis with such effortless calm still shocked her deeply.
Senior Greg... is really amazing!
It was as if nothing could be hidden from him, and he could handle anything with ease...
Greg weighed the small bottle in his hand, feeling its cold touch.
He had actually been guarding against this thing right from the start.
In the original game, as one favored by the Goddess of Light, Silvia possessed a built-in layer of sacred Divine Protection, granting her considerable resistance against negative status effects like ordinary toxins and curses.
Yet even so, in the storyline, Audrey merely opened this bottle, leaving Silvia in her sleep completely powerless to resist and falling into a deep coma.
This was definitely not something any ordinary potent sleeping potion could achieve.
"My other half."
Nightmare's voice sounded at the right moment, carrying a trace of disgust:
"The contents of this bottle... although heavily diluted and disguised, indeed contain a faint, filthy aura originating from the same source as those stone tablets. This item must also be related to the Mother of Depravity."
"As expected."
Greg's eyes turned cold.
The gas inside this bottle was a gift from the true mastermind behind this event, just like those stone tablets.
Audrey had not only used the stone tablets of an Outer God, but even her auxiliary items came from the same source.
For a teacher responsible for educating students, this was beyond cruel.
"No! Give it back to me!!!"
Seeing her final reliance snatched away, Audrey completely lost her mind, the last trace of reason swallowed by chaotic obsession.
She shrieked and recklessly lunged toward Greg, her emaciated fingers clawing like talons in an attempt to snatch it back in the most primitive manner.
However, at this moment, she was riddled with openings in Greg's eyes.
Greg shifted his footwork slightly, easily dodging her messy lunge. Keeping the bottle in his left hand, his free right hand shot out like lightning, a clean and sharp knife-hand chop striking precisely on the side of Audrey's neck.
"Ugh!"
Audrey groaned softly, her forward momentum coming to a sudden halt. Her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed limp toward the ground.
Greg smoothly raised his foot, gently cushioning the impact against her abdomen with the top of his foot, then hooked and pressed down with his ankle, firmly pinning Professor Audrey—who had completely lost the capacity to resist—face-down onto the cold, filthy floor.
The entire process was as easy as subduing an unruly child.
"Cough... cough cough..."
Choked by dust, Audrey coughed violently. She struggled to turn her head, her bloodshot eyes staring fixedly at Greg, filled with unwillingness, malice, and a sliver of despair on the verge of breakdown.
She shouted raspily:
"You... you cold-blooded demon! What do you know?! You don't understand how far a mother will go for her child! My son... he's innocent! He deserves a bright future! I just wanted to give him a chance! A chance to possess mana like a normal person! What is wrong with that?! How could geniuses like you who were born with everything ever understand our pain?! Let go of me! Give it back to me!!"
She attempted to use maternal love and sacrifice as weapons, standing on the moral high ground to launch her final counterattack, her voice shrill and piercing as if Greg were the villain thwarting a mother's great love.
Greg looked down at her, his face showing not a single trace of emotion, only an icy calm.
In the dim light, his amber eyes resembled frozen amber, clearly reflecting Audrey's distorted countenance.
"For your child?"
Greg's voice was not loud, yet it clearly pierced through Audrey's wailing: "What a... nauseating excuse."
Audrey's screeching came to an abrupt halt, as if her neck had been squeezed shut.
"I've seen far too many people like you."
Greg continued, his tone as casual as discussing the weather:
"Treating your child as a tool to fulfill your own unachieved dreams, as a bargaining chip for comparison and boasting, as a fig leaf to escape your own incompetence. The moment your child fails to meet your expectations, you blame heaven and earth, feeling as though the entire world owes you. 'For the child's own good'? It is nothing more than a fig leaf you forcefully graft onto these evil deeds to hide your own anxiety, unwillingness, and twisted desires."
"Your son lacking magic talent is a misfortune, but it is not the end of the world, nor is it a reason for you to kidnap and harm others! Your son has his own path to walk. It may be rugged, but that is his life."
"And you, Audrey Hope—as a mother and as a professor—you could have guided him to accept reality, search for other possibilities, and accompanied him in his growth with love and support. Yet what did you choose?"
Greg applied a slight pressure under his foot, causing Audrey to let out a groan of pain.
"You chose the most selfish, crazy, and irresponsible path. You turned your own despair into malice and harm inflicted upon others."
"You claim it is all for your son, but have you ever thought about it? If your son knew that his hope of acquiring power was built on the foundation of an innocent young girl being kidnapped, harmed, and perhaps having her soul permanently corrupted, what would he think? Would he be grateful to you, this great mother? Or would he be tormented for the rest of his life by this gift steeped in crime?"
"What you wanted was never what was good for your child. What you wanted was to rid yourself of the sense of shame brought by having a 'son without mana,' to satisfy your own pitiful desire for control and vanity. Do not use a word as sacred as maternal love to gloss over your ugly, hideous selfishness."
Word by word, like the sharpest ice spikes, his words mercilessly pierced through the psychological defense line Audrey had meticulously constructed.
Her mouth hung open, yet she could make no sound. Her face turned pale as paper, and the frantic light in her eyes flickered violently like a candle in the wind before extinguishing completely, leaving behind only a dead, gray void and numbness.
Greg's words might have been somewhat extreme, but combined with his insights from his past life, they indeed struck at the core of those who committed harm in the name of love.
Perhaps Audrey really did love her son at the very beginning, but under long-term pressure and the subtle erosion of paranoid darkness, that love had long turned twisted and rotten, becoming her excuse and driving force to commit evil.
Seeing that Audrey had completely lost the will to resist, her eyes vacant as she lay limp on the ground like a creature with its spine ripped out, Greg spoke no further.
He nimbly used the hemp rope that had just accomplished a great feat to firmly bind Audrey's hands and feet together, tying a complex yet sturdy knot to ensure she could not break free.
Having done all this, he straightened up and let out a long breath.
Though the process had its twists and turns, it was finally resolved before things deteriorated further.
Silvia was fine, and Audrey was subdued.
Next, as long as he contacted the academy to wrap things up, this matter could be considered smoothly... or at least successfully resolved.
He turned around, intending to say something to Silvia, who was still standing there dazed, telling her not to be afraid because it was over.
However—
BAM!!!
The dilapidated wooden door of the ruined hut, along with half of its frame, was smashed open from the outside by a terrifying force!
Wood splinters flew everywhere as smoke and dust billowed anew!
A figure rushed inside at an astonishing speed, the gale brought forth by his momentum sending the residual dust in the room whirling into the air.
Greg's pupils shrank sharply. Subconsciously stepping in front of Silvia to shield her behind him, his entire body's muscles tensed in an instant as his sharp gaze locked onto the uninvited guest at the doorway.
The dust slowly settled.
The newcomer was tall, clad in a dark leather hunting outfit that differed completely from the academy's style, topped with a hooded grey cloak.
The hood was pulled very low, concealing most of his face and revealing only a hard-lined chin.
In his hand he held an oddly shaped, short-handled battle-axe. Its blade caught no reflection from the moonlight filtering through the broken roof, emitting only a suffocating sense of heavy dread.
His gaze lingered for a brief moment on the despondent Audrey, then swiftly swept over the stone tablets and the small bottle in Greg's hands, before finally fixing upon Greg and Silvia behind him.
An unhidden killing intent, like a tangible cold stream, instantly flooded the narrow space.
"Hand over the stone tablets, the Breath of Slumber, and that girl."
From beneath the hood, a low, raspy male voice sounded, devoid of any emotion, carrying only an unquestionable command:
"Otherwise, I shall grant you death in the name of the Mother Goddess."
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