The Strongest Student of the Weakest Academy - Chapter 287

Chapter 287: Karma (VI)

Somnus’s eyes went wide the moment my voice cut through.

“Impossible!!!” His words broke as his calm mask cracked for the first time.

His hand shot up again, trying to press me deeper into his dream, veins of divine energy crawling across his arm.

But nothing happened.

I sat there calmly, watching.

The others reacted instantly.

SHHHRRKKK!

A thousand black tendrils erupted from Shadow, coiling toward me like serpents hungry for blood.

Flames roared beside them, the God of Flames conjuring infernos hot enough to melt the canyon walls.

Bolts of lightning screamed down from the sky, splitting the air itself, while chains of divine steel manifested and lashed around my limbs.

In seconds, I was wrapped from every angle, shadow, fire, lightning, metal.

“BIND HIM!” Shadow roared, his voice trembling with urgency.

“Don’t let him slip out!” The Flame God bellowed, pouring more flames into the binding.

“Somnus, hold the dream tighter!” another god shouted.

“I—I’m trying! His spirit… it won’t stay!” Somnus panicked, sweat beading on his brow. His voice cracked, the certainty gone.

“It’s like his mind isn’t even here!”

“Don’t… don’t panic! He’s just bluffing! He can’t possibly…” The Netorare God forced a laugh, though it wavered.

CRACK.

The chains shattered.

One by one, the bindings snapped apart, as if they were nothing but paper. The shadows froze mid-air, then twisted violently, turning against their master.

The flames sputtered, the lightning bent, the bindings unraveled.

I rose slowly to my feet, brushing invisible dust from my clothes.

Their eyes widened.

The pressure in the air shifted.

It was no longer the weight of gods trying to cage me.

It was my aura pressing down on them.

I tilted my head, a faint smile tugging my lips.

“…You really thought all of that would work?”

“W-What are you…?” Somnus stumbled back, his voice trembling.

“…Shouldn’t you know that better than me?” I replied slowly.

I took a single step forward, and with it, the ground beneath my feet cracked like fragile glass.

They recoiled.

Even gods stumbled back.

“I’ve heard countless talks… about my race,” I continued, my eyes narrowing on them. “But all of that only leaves me with one question…”

My gaze sharpened.

“…what am I really?”

Their eyes went wide with horror, their lips frozen.

None dared to answer.

“Kneel.”

THRUUM!

The world itself rumbled.

“Agh—!” I clenched my chest as pain twisted deep inside me, sharp and burning. Blood welled up on my tongue.

My body protested, yet still…

THUD!

They fell.

One by one, every god slammed to the ground under the weight of my command, their knees buckling, their divinity screaming as it betrayed them.

“UGHHHH!”

“NO…NOOO!”

“HOW… H-H-HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!”

Their roars of disbelief filled the canyon, muffled by the sound of their own bones creaking against the unseen force pressing down.

My lips curled faintly.

“Pathetic.”

Even through the ache tearing at my insides, I walked forward.

“Somnus, right?”

He tried to lift his head, but as he tried, my foot came down before he could.

CRRUNCH!

SPLURT!

His skull shattered like rotten fruit, fragments of bone and ichor splattering the stone beneath.

His body spasmed before divine flesh pulled itself back together, his head reforming in shaky tendrils of light.

“U-ugh…” He groaned weakly, disoriented.

I leaned closer, my lips curling up.

“You told me once… to never forget your name.” I looked down on him.

“But I’ll make sure you forget mine… forever.”

His face was filled with confusion at my words, but he would soon understand what I meant.

“Huff…”

I exhaled slowly, reining in the chaos gnawing at my insides, suppressing the tremors that threatened to tear through my body.

The others writhed on the ground, desperate but unable to rise.

If I let this drag on, some of them might escape.

But I won’t allow that… so let’s try and make this quick.

Plop…

My foot pressed harder onto Somnus’s skull, grinding him into the dirt.

“You like trapping others in dreams, don’t you?” I muttered. “Then let me show you what a real nightmare feels like.”

I extended two fingers, touching his forehead lightly.

A faint ripple of Chaotic Energy seeped into him.

“W-wait—stop! Don’t—” His words cut off as his body arched violently.

CRACK!

His back twisted unnaturally, joints popping under invisible strain. His arms clawed at the ground, leaving trenches as if trying to crawl away.

“Aaaghhh!!” His voice tore through the canyon.

His shadows writhed uncontrollably, flailing like dying serpents.

Each tendril snapped apart one by one, shriveling into black ash as my energy ate through them.

The other gods looked on in horror. Even the Netorare god’s smug expression had drained away, replaced with wide-eyed panic.

“W-what is he doing to him…?” one whispered.

“He’s… he’s torturing him…”

Somnus’s face contorted, eyes rolling back, foam gathering at the corners of his lips. He convulsed again as a guttural scream ripped out of him:

“HHHHHHHHHHHAAAAGHHHHH—!!”

The sound shook the air, but I didn’t flinch. My hand remained steady, slowly feeding chaos into every vein of his existence.

“This is only the beginning.”

I tilted my head slightly, watching as his eyes, normally glowing with divine clarity, clouded over into dull gray.

“You wanted me asleep forever…” I whispered coldly. “…but you’ll be the one begging for the dream to take you away.”

Somnus’s broken voice cracked between shrieks.

“P-please…!! Stop…!!”

But instead, I pressed harder.

My fingers sank deeper into Somnus’s skull, though no blood spilled, the energy didn’t wound flesh.

It shredded the soul.

“NNNGGHHHHHHHH—!!” His body convulsed, snapping like a puppet pulled by too many strings.

Veins bulged across his neck, glowing faintly as if his divine essence was leaking out.

I twisted my wrist.

CRACK!

His ribs bent inward without touching them, bones crunching and reshaping before violently resetting themselves.

Every time they healed, I broke them again with a simple flex of my power.

His scream turned animalistic.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

The ground trembled, and birds scattered from the sky as his voice split the silence of the realm itself.

The other gods looked at the scene with horror in their eyes, and some even closed their eyes at the gruesome scene.

Somnus clawed at my wrist, nails breaking one by one as he tried to push me off. His fingers snapped against my skin, and I didn’t even flinch.

“STOP!!!!!” His voice cracked.

“PLEASE, STOP!! JUST STOPPP!!”

“Stop?” I tilted my head, studying him like an insect pinned to a board. “But you’ve only just started to understand.”

I raised my other hand.

Thin, spiked tendrils of chaotic energy extended from my fingertips and plunged into his chest.

SPLURT!

A geyser of black, oily ichor burst out, steaming as it hit the ground. Somnus choked, vomiting bile mixed with fragments of light, his essence, forced out.

“Urrrrghhkkk!! A-AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH—!!”

The air carried his scream like a curse.

The Gods flinched.

They could feel his suffering, not just see it. His pain reverberated through the air like some kind of warning.

“If he keeps this up, Somnus will… w-will—”

“—shatter,” Shadow whispered with a pale face.

“Body, spirit, memory. Everything.”

Somnus thrashed violently, but his body betrayed him.

His legs bent backwards at the knees with a sickening snap, then straightened again, only to break once more.

His mouth tore wide from screaming, his voice raw, shredding his own throat with sound.

And still, I didn’t stop.

“Look at them,” I whispered in his ear. “They thought you would trap me forever. Now they watch you rot instead.”

Somnus’s eyes darted desperately toward his fellow gods, begging silently for help.

I had released my pressure on them, yet…

None moved.

None dared.

The Netorare God swallowed hard, muttering under his breath, “…this… this isn’t a mortal… this is a monster.”

“Cough, kagughff!”

Somnus coughed violently, spitting more ichor, his face smeared with black tears that ran down his cheeks like tar.

“PLEEEAAASEEEE!!!” he screamed, voice breaking into a pitiful cry.

Still, I didn’t let go.

I twisted the tendrils of chaotic energy inside him, not cutting, not tearing, but grinding.

His soul cracked like glass pressed under a vice.

“NNNHHHHHHHH—!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

His scream carried such desperation that even the hardened gods around us staggered.

TAP, TAP!

Somnus thrashed weakly, his hands now limp as they slapped uselessly at my wrist.

His voice cracked into small sobs.

“P-PLEASE—ENOUGH—!!” He gagged on his own words.

“I-I’ll do anything—!! ANYTHING—!! JUST STOP—!!”

I leaned closer, my breath brushing his ear.

“Anything?”

My voice was calm, almost soft, which only made him shudder harder.

“Y-YES! YES! I SWEAR—!! JUST STOP THIS!!”

I smiled faintly.

“No.”

His pupils shrank to pinpoints.

He screamed again, a broken, childlike wail of pure terror.

His divine body convulsed so hard his bones shattered anew, snapping in multiple places before resetting, only for me to break them again with a mere thought.

The ground beneath us fractured.

The chaotic energy spilling from me distorted the very air, warping colors, making the gods around us nauseous as if reality itself rejected what they were witnessing.

THUD!

Somnus sobbed between his shrieks, his forehead pressing against the dirt as if begging the earth itself for mercy.

“PLEASE—!!! I CAN’T—!!! I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE—!!!”

“Then die,” I whispered coldly.

The chaotic tendrils inside him pulsed.

CRACK—!!!

Somnus’s body arched violently, his scream cutting into silence mid-breath as a chunk of his soul shattered like glass.

His essence burst out of him, fragments of light scattering into the void.

His body collapsed, trembling uncontrollably, yet I kept him tethered to life, not out of kindness, but cruelty.

The other gods staggered back as they didn’t even dare to comment anymore.

I let Somnus twitch helplessly, choking on sobs, drooling, black ichor spilling from his lips.

His mind was already fractured; he wasn’t a god in their eyes anymore, but a husk clinging to torment.

I crouched low, tilting his head up with one finger so he’d look into my glowing slits.

“I told you before…” I whispered.

“You’ll forget my name forever.”

Somnus’s eyes rolled, his lips trembling as a broken sob escaped him. He couldn’t even scream anymore.

And yet, I smiled.

Because he wasn’t finished suffering.

Not yet.