I Became the Savior of the Academy’s Villains

Chapter 182

"......!"

Flash.

Luca opened his eyes.

It was an unfamiliar ceiling.

'Not that it could ever be a familiar ceiling, but still.'

He made a dry quip to himself as he sat up.

Throb!

"......"

A sudden headache struck.

It didn't feel like any of his organs were damaged.

This sensation was more like...

Beep! Beep! Beep!

"Master! I'm sorry! I should have stopped you more forcefully!"

At that moment, Whistle, who had sensed that Luca had woken, flew over and let out a loud wail, throwing herself into his arms.

Because of her surprising strength, Luca was nearly pushed away, and only barely managed to hold out by bracing his core.

Whistle rubbed her beak against his chest.

"I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have taught you something like Downpour! When I thought you were pushing yourself, I should've stopped you harder! I should've told you when I felt something was wrong with your upper dantian that receives the power of space! I'm sorry I thought it would be okay when devil's power started accumulating!"

"... Something wrong with my upper dantian?"

Luca touched his head unconsciously.

The power of space wasn't tied to any specific part of his body.

He could draw strength from anywhere, and create it anywhere.

But if he had to answer where it was most comfortable to channel a large amount of power, the answer would be: his head.

More precisely, he could say that power was created the moment he thought.

'... If that's the case, then whenever I think, the power of space is produced in my head, in other words, in my upper dantian, and then transferred to other parts of my body?'

He finally understood the mechanism of the power of space, something he'd been using unconsciously.

As Luca marveled inwardly, Whistle sobbed even harder.

"I'm so sorry, master... I'm sorry..."

"Whistle. Calm down and tell me what's changed in my body. Don't tell me I've lost the ability to use the power of space?"

Moping wouldn't change anything.

Luca himself couldn't immediately tell what was going on with his body.

But Whistle seemed to know, so it was fastest to hear it from her.

"Your upper dantian... it's not actually damaged... but..."

Whistle hesitated for a moment, then cautiously said,

"The opening connected to the power of space in your upper dantian has been slightly torn."

"Torn?"

Luca frowned at the rather violent word.

If he couldn't use the power of space anymore, that would be a serious problem.

"You're not completely unable to use it. But if you do, you'll feel pain, and if you keep pushing, the tear could grow. If that keeps happening, eventually..."

Whistle said in a grave voice:

"You'll lose control of the power of space."

"Lose control, meaning...?"

"It'll either become a hole that sucks in everything, or a rupture that releases infinite power of the sky. Either way, it could be a disaster that completely destroys this continent."

A catastrophe capable of destroying the entire continent.

A threat on par with a fully resurrected devil.

'I've gotten myself into a mess.'

After a brief silence, Luca spoke.

"What exactly counts as overdoing it?"

"Using techniques like Downpour."

"Tsk."

Downpour was a technique where Luca pushed the limit of the power of clouds to raise it to the sky, then likewise maximized the strength of rain and lightning within that cloud and released it all at once.

During that process, Luca continuously drew power from space up to his limit.

Over time, this put a strain on the 'opening' through which he drew this power, causing it to tear.

"But the torn area only affects your own use of the power of space. There's no problem using power through me."

"... Is that so."

"Yeah. But you'll have to give up training celestial wings. You can't use it for anything other than moving around for now."

Celestial wings required him to focus the power of the sky to the extreme.

While he could currently only take on their general shape, he'd been practicing activating proper celestial wings.

But even that practice was now off-limits.

'What a shame.'

Luca clicked his tongue inwardly.

Sensing his feelings, Whistle apologized again in a voice full of guilt.

"I'm sorry, master..."

"No need to apologize. I'm the one who overdid it."

"But... I knew there'd be trouble..."

As Whistle kept blaming herself, Luca suddenly grabbed her.

Squeeze!

"Don't push my buttons, Whistle. It was my choice and my mistake. Even if you'd warned me more, I would have gone ahead anyway."

"Th-that's...."

"You already warned me once, didn't you? I ignored it. This is just the result—I have no reason to blame you."

Luca spoke calmly.

Feeling his emotions, Whistle looked up at him, and soon spoke in a slightly brighter voice.

"See, you should've listened to me, master! This wouldn't have happened if you'd listened!"

"Tsk. Maybe it was better to let you keep blaming yourself."

Brooding on it wouldn't solve anything.

It was better to move on cheerfully and think of what to do next.

Understanding his mindset, Whistle stopped feeling sorry for herself.

"But Master, there's actually a silver lining to all this."

"What is it?"

"You learned an important lesson: you should always listen to me!"

"Are you looking for trouble?"

"Beep!"

At Luca's deadpan retort, Whistle let out a laughing cry and then rubbed her beak with her wing.

"Besides, once the wound heals, the amount of power you can draw from space will increase. It's the same as muscles growing when they're torn."

"Oh? So if I recover, then tear it again, will it get even bigger?"

"... Sometimes I'm amazed by how reckless your ideas are, master."

Whistle remarked, and Luca shrugged.

"Just a thought."

"Your potential grows on its own anyway; there's no need to tear it by force."

"I see."

Luca answered indifferently, then glanced toward the doorway.

Standing there for who knows how long was Ben Dwight.

"So that's the source of your power, Luca?"

Apparently, he could see Whistle's power.

Luca replied blandly.

"What happened to the devil worshippers?"

"That's the first thing you ask after waking up? Impressive, Luca."

Ben Dwight smiled and approached, sitting in the chair beside him.

He bowed his head slightly as he said,

"First, let me apologize. We put too much faith in your strength and made you push yourself."

"Tsk."

Luca clicked his tongue and shook his head.

"I chose this path. Don't worry about it."

"You're still young, Luca. You should be protected. But because you were so powerful, I forgot that."

"Being protected at my age... hmm..."

He was a bit young to argue otherwise.

Unable to respond, Luca just grunted, and Ben Dwight lifted his head.

"Still, thanks to your sacrifice, Luca, we gained a lot of time. Particularly, we were able to hunt the powerful devil known as the 'bug devil' thanks to your strength. With the extra time, we can accomplish even more important things."

In effect, he and Luca had completed in two weeks what normally took a year.

"The intelligence team will need time to locate new devil idols, so we won't need your help for now. We'll focus on obtaining better information rather than just destroying idols."

Until now, destroying devil idols had taken priority, leaving too few people to search for Demonz strongholds or collaborators.

Eltima and Zeritz traveled the neighboring countries in a team, making some progress, but it wasn't enough.

With Ben Dwight and the annihilation team's help, gathering information would become much more stable.

"I see."

Luca answered nonchalantly.

He was a little disappointed, but it wasn't a bad decision when he couldn't push himself any further.

'I've gathered quite a bit anyway.'

He would check exactly how much later, but he'd collected a good number of devil stones and tokens.

That alone made this break worthwhile.

"Oh, and here's the devil stone. After you collapsed, we managed to destroy the place and recover it."

Ben Dwight handed him a devil stone sealed in paper.

Luca passed it nonchalantly to Whistle.

Chomp!

Whistle took it and swallowed it.

Ben Dwight watched and expressed mild admiration.

"So that's what you use devil stones for."

"I hope you'll keep sending any devil stones you find to me."

"Of course. We need them purified anyway, and if we send them to you, you do it for us—so it's convenient for everyone."

Even while he attended school, Luca would keep receiving devil stones as Demonz and the devil idols were destroyed.

That was a huge benefit.

"Sorry again for making you overdo it."

"Tsk. Are you heading straight out to hunt for Demonz information now?"

Seeing him bow his head yet again, Luca clicked his tongue and changed the subject.

Ben Dwight gave a wry smile.

"No, I'll stop by the Church first. With Eltima and Zeritz now involved, we're finally organizing our group properly."

"... I see."

"They said there was some other important topic, but I'm not sure what it is."

As Luca listened, a peculiar look crossed his face.

'Is Heaven's Door about to be formed?'

Zeritz aside, Eltima leaving the academy was a significant event for the Church.

With her and Ben Dwight at its center, Heaven's Door would be established.

'And an important issue at the Church... Must be a new Saint.'

It seemed the protagonist's time was coming, and the scenario prepared by God was about to unfold.

Above all, the existence of a Saint was vital to Heaven's Door.

'The leader of Heaven's Door is the new Saint.'

Saint Amelia—the main heroine, and the Church's key character in the latter part of the battle against Demonz.

Early on, she was an adorable, ditzy student in the holy studies faculty, but later appeared as the leader of Heaven's Door, dropping her dumb persona and revealing her serious, reverse-charm appeal.

'I liked her better as a ditz, honestly.'

Luca briefly recalled Amelia's story, but shook his head—this wasn't what mattered now.

At that moment, Bella entered the room, carrying a basin of water and a towel.

"... Master?"

"Bella."

Seeing him sitting up awake, Bella's eyes grew wide as saucers.

Luca answered without missing a beat.

"Well, I got up just fine. I'm alright, so don't worry t— Ugh!"

"Master!"

Squeeze!

Bella rushed over and hugged him tightly.

Luca found it hard to breathe, but as he felt her trembling, he couldn't say anything.

"Please don't overdo it... Master..."

"... Alright."

He could feel her sincerity.

Luca gave a bittersweet smile and patted her on the back.

[Bella's likability has increased.]

[Ben Dwight's likability has increased.]

"?"

As he looked puzzled by the sudden notification, Ben Dwight, watching nearby, cleared his throat.

"Ahem! Anyway, wouldn't it be better to rest back at your territory than in a place like this? We weren't sure what state you'd be in, so I thought it best to let you recover here, but you look well enough to be sent now."

Luca nodded at his suggestion of sending them straight to their territory.

"Please."

Luca and Bella prepared to return.

Then, standing before Ben Dwight and his companions—

"Thanks for the past two weeks, Luca Traverse."

"You were a huge help!"

"See you again sometime, boy."

They had become quite close over the past two weeks.

Luca smiled faintly at them.

"I'll look forward to it."

― Warp

* * *

Luca and Bella were warped back to the Traverse territory.

Instead of being sent directly to the mansion, though, they emerged in a secluded spot and had to walk the rest of the way—but that was fine.

As they neared the mansion, Luca frowned a bit at what he saw.

"That's..."

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Five armored giants were flying in formation above the mansion.

Leading the squad was Rivik.

And riding on Rivik's back was Ottbo.