Re: From Elf Mage to Overlord Slayer-Chapter 25: godslayer CORPS

Chapter 25: godslayer CORPS
The screaming energy was gone.
The plaza was dead quiet.
The crimson rage faded away, and my eyes went back to their usual cold, silver color.
Man, I was tired.
So tired I could barely stand.
That berserker thing had totally burned me out.
Then the System chimed in, cold and clear like it always is.
<ELITE LIEUTENANT DEFEATED: ISOKA KAZUKI>
<MASSIVE EXPERIENCE BONUS AWARDED>
<LEVEL UP! You are now Level 15!>
<You have 20 attribute points.>
I didn’t even have to think about it.
Ten points went straight into my health.
The other ten went into my willpower.
I needed to be tougher, and I needed more control.
The System also told me I’d copied a new skill from Kazuki’s soul.
<New Skill: [Spatial Anchor]. You can pick a spot you can see. For 10 seconds, nothing can touch that spot.>
Okay, a decent defensive skill.
But then a warning popped up.
Great.
<ANALYSIS COMPLETE.>
<CHANCE OF VICTORY (BEFORE RAGE): 2%.>
<CHANCE OF VICTORY (AFTER RAGE): 98%.>
<CONCLUSION: You did not win with skill. You won because the enemy made you angry, causing your power to go out of control. Your anger over the ’Anchor’ is a critical weakness.>
The System’s words were basically a slap in the face.
And it was right.
I hadn’t outsmarted Kazuki.
I just had a total meltdown, and my System turned my pain into a temporary power-up.
I just got lucky.
Crap.
<ASSESSMENT: You are not ready to fight the main bosses. You are a weapon that will misfire. This is not efficient.>
"So, what now?" I thought.
The System gave me an answer, of course.
A new, golden marker appeared on my map, pointing north.
<NEW OBJECTIVE: Travel to the godslayer CORPS. It is a secret academy that trains Slayers.... just like you. You must learn to control the monster you have become.>
<WARNING: The Corp is a dangerous place. The training may cost you what is left of your humanity.>
A school for killers.
A place to turn my grief into a weapon I could actually aim.
Guess it was my only real choice.
My shadow titan glided to my side.
Its one, big amethyst eye just kind of looked at me, like it was asking what was next.
I looked from the shadow to the golden marker on my map.
"It’s right," I whispered to the ghost of Yael inside my head.
"I can’t just lose control every time."
"I need to be smarter."
"Colder."
I turned my back on the ruins of the city and started walking north.
The hunt wasn’t just about rage anymore.
It was about control.
The trip north was a total grind.
For days, it was just me, my feet, and this endless, dead-looking landscape.
Seriously, not even a single slime to stomp on.
The win against Kazuki felt like it was a million years ago, just another achievement unlocked.
My quest log just said to find this "Corps," which was the only thing keeping me from getting bored out of my skull.
But every time I stopped walking, I’d see her... that broken body.
Crap.
I really didn’t want to think about it. Being totally alone sucks.
Finally, the dead zone ended.
I crested a hill and...whoa. The city of Olga.
The graphics on this place were insane.
Compared to the busted-up ruins I’d just walked through, this was like a whole different game.
Shiny white towers, the place was packed with NPCs, all running around like idiots, totally clueless that their world almost got a game over screen.
I started walking down the main street, and it hit me like a stun debuff.
This was not the newbie village.
Back then, my ridiculously handsome face was a girl-magnet.
Here?
It was a people-repellent.
The crowd split in front of me like I had the plague.
No heart-eyes, no swooning.
Just wide, scared eyes before they’d practically trip over themselves to get away.
Moms grabbed their kids, guards put their hands on their swords... It’s like I had some kind of permanent fear aura.
So much for being a hottie. This is way more annoying.
My quest marker pointed up at this huge thing built into a mountain overlooking the city.
The Academy.
It was all black crystal towers and spooky-looking gates with a force field shimmering around it.
Looked more like a final boss fortress than a school, if you ask me.
I followed the waypoint past the city and up some hidden trail that led to... a big, flat wall of black rock.
Great. A dead end.
Is this some kind of joke?
My System just pulsed.
<DESTINATION REACHED.>
I put my hand on the cold rock.
"I was sent here."
The rock didn’t do anything.
But the air got heavy.
Two figures just sort of bled out of the shadows on either side of me.
One second they weren’t there, the next they were.
They wore tight black armor that looked like it was made of solid night.
Their faces were hidden behind white masks with no features except for two glowing silver slits for eyes.
"This place is not on any map," the one on the right said.
Its voice was all filtered and robotic, with zero emotion.
"You are not an initiate."
"How did you find this place?"
"My System sent me," I said, my voice just as flat as his.
I looked back and forth between them.
They gave off this faint aura of dread, a lot like mine, but theirs was disciplined.
Controlled.
The guard on the left stepped forward, tilting his head while he sized me up.
"Your name is not on the registry."
"You have no sponsor."
"No one within these walls knows your name."
"You do not exist."
"And yet, I am here," I said.
The first guard made a short, static-y sound that might have been a laugh.
"The System is a guide, not a key."
"It leads the worthy to the door, but only strength can open it."
He pointed a gauntleted finger at me.
"The Corp does not welcome the weak, the lost, or the broken."
"It forges them, or it shatters them."
"Prove you are worthy of being forged."
"Prove you belong here," the second guard repeated.
They didn’t even draw their weapons.
They just stood there, two pillars of silent, coiled power.
So this was the entrance exam.
I didn’t smile.
I didn’t puff out my chest.
I just let go.
I let a tiny bit of that raw, wild grief—the same crimson rage that had wrecked Kazuki—leak out.
My [Aura of Fear] skill surged, twisting from a simple debuff into a wave of actual psychic pain.
The air around us warped, and the amethyst eye of my shadow titan flared up with matching fury.
The two guards, who had been mountains of unshakable calm, flinched.
They actually took a step back, their silver eye-slits widening.
They weren’t just looking at a potential recruit anymore.
They were looking at me like I was a natural disaster in human form.
"This presence..." the first guard stammered, his robot voice actually cracking.
"This is not the controlled will of a Slayer..."
"This is the scream of a shattered soul."
The second guard held up a hand, not to fight, but to tell me to calm down.
"Enough."
"The test is... complete."
He looked from my blazing eyes to the giant shadow monster looming behind me.
"The Master will want to see this one personally."
The black cliff-face shimmered and dissolved in front of me.
It revealed a dark, spiral staircase leading down into the mountain.
"Welcome to the godslayer CORPS, initiate," the first guard said.
His voice now had a new hint of grudging respect.
"Try not to break it."