Chapter Fourteen: Worst Than Monsters

{Infinity………………….}
The voice… it kept fading, weaker with every passing second, like a candle struggling against the wind.
Finding its source was simple. All I had to do was shift.
With the ability to walk on both air and water, I glided across the dark, rippling sea until I landed upon an isolated island.
It looked uninhabited—silent, forgotten.
By the shore, a massive ship lay capsized, its hull split open and battered by waves. Not recent. A shipwreck. …Or was this the work of the gods?
No… the gods wouldn’t waste their time on this.
The voice echoed again in my head, fragile like dying embers. I followed it, pushing through the thick forest. At this point, shifting would only take me far off course, so I trudged deeper, step after step, the smell of salt and decay clinging to the air.
At last, I entered a clearing.
{Look to your right.}
My gaze snapped sideways.
Cages.
Five of them—lined up in grim formation, each separated by about five meters. They were the kind of massive iron cages built to restrain wild beasts at a zoo.
And then—
That smell.
Rot.
It hit me like a punch to the chest, searing into my nose and throat.
BAD-UMP. BAD-UMP.
Through my night vision, I saw them: human-shaped figures piled on top of each other.
Corpses.
The first cage was crammed full. Children. Both boys and girls, none older than fifteen. Their small bodies stacked like discarded dolls, snow half-covering their lifeless faces.
No survivors.
I checked the second cage. The same. The third. The same. In every cage, children’s bodies scattered and slumped, their thin frames twisted unnaturally. They looked like they had starved to death, abandoned in silence.
Who… would do something like this?
{Infinity……….}
The voice again. Clearer this time.
In the last cage… there was life.
I bent the bars apart with ease and stepped inside.
Three dead bodies lay piled in one corner, but beneath them—
A survivor.
I carefully lifted the corpses away, setting them aside. The girl must have used them as a shield against the relentless snowfall.
{She’s still alive.}
A child. About thirteen. Thin as bone, her skin pale and cold, her body already shifting into the bluish hue of death.
{Take her away from here. I’ll heal her.}
Obeying LV’s command, I carried her about a hundred meters away from the cages before setting her down.
LV emerged from me, her form glowing faintly in the darkness. She pressed her hands against the girl’s chest.
A green light flowed out of her palms and seeped into the girl’s body.
{She’s heavily malnourished… barely alive. It’s a miracle she’s still breathing.}
The light spread, washing over the child like spring sunlight after endless winter. Her hollow frame filled out slightly, color returning to her cheeks. Slowly, she began to look alive again.
“I didn’t know you could heal.”
“This is a ‘blessing from a god.’ All gods can heal themselves. I’m using that same positive energy to heal her. When she wakes up… it will be as though it never happened.”
As LV worked, a blinding beam suddenly cut through the night, landing directly on us like a spotlight.
They found us.
“Who goes there!?”
A booming voice blared from a speaker.
Within seconds, eight armed men stormed out from the trees, weapons raised, all aimed at us.
From behind them, a man in a black coat and wide hat strutted arrogantly forward, holding a torch.
“Hmm? What do we have here? We made sure no one could reach this island. How did you get here?”
I ignored him. My priority was the girl. I lifted her gently into my arms.
“You bastard!”
He rushed forward, raising the torch to my face.
“.……… A-Aren’t you…!? Hey, everyone! Guess who we’ve caught!!”
“Who is it, Master Damji!?” the others shouted in unison.
“HAHAHAHA! Today must be my lucky day. Of all the people in the world, I run into the biggest bounty alive…”
Bounty?
“Infinity!!” Damji roared.
“Infinity!?” his men echoed, startled.
Damji smirked, straightening himself proudly. “With the bounty on your head, I’ll live the rest of my life like a king! Don’t take it personally—countless people want you gone. Think about it… when you die, the elite a million ranks beneath you will instantly become number one. And me? I’ll be filthy rich. HAHAHAHA!”
I turned my back, refusing to waste breath on him.
“Wait! Are you just going to ignore the children who died for you?”
BAD-UMP. BAD-UMP.
My fists clenched.
“You should have seen their faces when we told them Infinity was on our ship. Parents paid us to take their children, thinking they’d become like you. They believed we were bringing them to Academia… well, we did, didn’t we? HAHAHAHA!”
They lured them… with my name?
Unforgivable.
“LV…”
{No. Don’t. I’ll take care of this. Keep moving forward. Don’t look back.}
SHOO.
LV burst out of me, her aura igniting the night in crimson light.
GZZIIIIIIIIIING.
Zinertia surged in her hand, then exploded outward in a massive blast.
BLAAAAAAAAST!!!
The world shook.
In an instant, the criminals were gone. The cages. The corpses. Everything obliterated, erased from existence. Only a smoking crater remained.
Zinertia… could be fired like that? The energy had shot from her body in a flash, wiping everything out before they could scream.
Suddenly, I felt drowsy, heavy. My eyelids weighed like stone. She’d used too much power.
Exhausted, LV staggered back into me.
{What are you going to do about this?} her voice slurred with fatigue.
….Nothing.
After the creation of the system, people exploited Academia to traffic humans. For centuries, measures were taken to end it. Now, a hundred years later, anyone who still falls into such traps… it’s their fate.
{Why not tell the elites?}
“LV… you’re a god. You should know better. The elites already know.”
Humanity may seem stable, free of great wars, but underneath… they’re still just humans.
Academia pretends to be holy, but nothing about it is. By flooding the academy with outsiders who look up to us, they restore the illusion of superiority. That’s all.
And those children? Who knows what fate awaited them?
The girl stirred in my arms.
{She’s waking.}
Her eyes fluttered open, unfocused in the dark. She sneezed softly.
{I’ll put her back to sleep.}
Green particles shimmered from my hands, drifting over her. Her eyes closed again.
{What’s her name?} LV asked.
“…Lami. Lami Ecruzia.”
She, too, had been lured with my name. Her parents had paid those criminals to deliver her to Academia. Ten in her family, eight siblings. Her aunt worked in City 5, in a shoe factory.
{We can take her to her aunt. She can’t return to her parents.}
The island… those cages… they must have been stranded for a week. This was City 4’s territory, which meant City 5 was closest.
I shifted 350 km west. My movements grew sharper—I destroyed less each time, learning to conserve energy.
City 5. Outskirts. Her aunt’s home: a crumbling ten-floor apartment from the last century. Room 703.
KNOCK. KNOCK.
A woman’s voice answered cautiously, “Yes? Who’s there?”
I placed Lami gently at the doorstep… and left.
{Do you think she’ll be alright?}
“Don’t worry,” LV said softly. {My healing is unmatched. But tell me… are you really not going to act on this?}
“…No. Nobody asked me to. I saved her because she called for me. Nothing more. I’m nobody’s savior.”
The world’s danger loomed greater than any human could grasp. Even if I fought for myself, humanity benefited.
I would save those who asked. The rest…
{That’s a relief. We can’t stray from our goal. Humanity needs you whole. Don’t waste yourself on minor tasks.}
Minor? Was that what this was?
But my heart… it ached. Images of those children burned into me. Their innocent faces. Their suffering. Why?
Tears welled in my eyes.
{Why are you crying? You said it yourself—you can’t save everyone.}
“I know… I know. But the tears won’t stop.”
……………………………
I shifted back to the capital. At the castle gates, Hinata stood waiting.
“I thought you were asleep.”
“I couldn’t sleep after you left. Where did you go? You did something good, didn’t you?”
…Something good?
“I have this feeling the whole world depends on you. You’re the greatest, after all~.”
BAD-UMP. BAD-UMP.
Hinata…
SHOO.
A gentle breeze brushed past me.
{Are you falling for her?}
Falling? But I was still standing.
{You idiot~.}
“Let’s go inside, Hinata. It’s cold out here.” I laid a hand on his shoulder and led him in.
In the main hall, the glowing screen caught my eye.
“Academia saved by the girl in red.”
“…A girl in red?” I muttered.
“Do you know her?” Hinata asked sharply.
How did this get out? Our battle had torn across places, but—did someone see?
{They mean me. Looks like I’m famous now.}
Yeah. Seems so.
{Wait—you’re not mad I stole your credit?}
“…I’m already at the top. No one’s above me. And besides… you fought too, didn’t you?”
Hinata edged closer. “You’re talking to someone again, aren’t you?”
“Hahaha, what are you saying? Of course not.”
“Infinity~ the tests are coming soon. Will you let me study with you~? You know I can’t do anything alone. You’ve always been my hero~.”
“It’s late… but since you can’t survive without me, I’ll teach you a thing or two.”