Academy’s Undercover Professor-Chapter 311: Demon Basara (2)
“Interesting.”
For the first time, the demon Basara, who had shown almost no emotion thus far, curled up the corners of his mouth into a smile.
Though he said it was interesting, Basara could feel an unpleasant sensation quietly bubbling up from within.
‘Is it because I’m using a human body as a vessel?’
The original owner, Luypholdt, harbored intense feelings of inferiority toward Ludger.
The lingering imprint of those emotions must have seeped into Basara, even as a demon.
‘Not bad, actually.’
A moment ago, Basara had said he didn’t want to fight Ludger.
But after hearing Ludger speak, he’d changed his mind.
He wanted to fight this man.
For the first time, Basara desired something purely of his own will.
“Yes. I’ve been wondering too. Whether I now possess enough strength to fulfill my mission. I’d like to test it at least once.”
How strong had he become now?
And the perfect opponent to measure it against stood before him.
Surrounded by overwhelming mana so dense it made it hard to breathe.
Looking at him with that cold, dismissive gaze.
‘Yes. If I’m going to fight, it has to be against someone like this.’
Basara felt motivation surge within him.
This man was no longer just an obstacle to his mission—he was a trial he had to overcome.
If he couldn’t surpass Ludger here and now, he didn’t even deserve to complete his mission.
“I’ll hold nothing back either.”
With those words, Basara snapped his fingers.
Black mana writhed around him before forming into a spell.
From within his mask, Ludger’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
“Magic.”
“Yes. Magic. Magic enhanced by my mana.”
Demons originally did not use magic.
Their black mana alone was an overwhelming force.
Mental waves born from it could crush anyone.
Even 6th-Circle archmages.
Even Swordmasters.
All fell just the same.
There had never been a need for spells. Their innate power was enough.
But none of that worked on Ludger.
To Basara, Ludger was a perfectly irritating mismatch.
Which, in a way, was fortunate.
By using Luypholdt’s body as a vessel, Basara had become far stronger than before.
Science, magic, and the ideal physical form of a modern mage—
All of it came together harmoniously to create his current self.
And thanks to that, Basara could now cast magic he otherwise wouldn’t be able to use—through Luypholdt’s body.
“You could call it dark magic.”
The completed spell glowed a deep crimson-black.
Mana reacted to it, and the spell activated.
Demonic Iron.
Metal corrupted by black mana materialized midair and shot toward Ludger in a barrage.
This wasn’t ordinary metal magic.
In terms of raw force, it was a level higher than spells of the same class.
Even if the spell was the same, the fuel powering it changed the outcome entirely.
Ludger responded by shrouding himself in shadow.
The spears of metal that flew toward him twisted away the moment they touched his shadows, warping and embedding themselves elsewhere.
Thunk!
One of the spears struck the roots of the dead World Tree—and something shocking happened.
Sssss...
The bleached ivory-colored root began to turn black.
An effect like a curse, infused into the magic by Basara’s power.
“What about this, then?”
Seeing that pinpoint attacks weren’t working, Basara cast a different spell.
This time, he used the wind attribute—Luypholdt’s specialty.
Only now it was far more potent, bolstered by black mana.
Rotwind.
Winds of decay roared across the ground like a beast, rushing toward Ludger.
Wherever the wind passed, the earth rotted away instantly.
Ludger countered with wind magic of his own.
Normally, a rot-based attack should be incinerated with fire.
But this was wind-attribute—if he added fire, it would only grow stronger.
It was better to counter with the same element, but with greater strength.
WHOOOOOSH!!!
Ludger’s wind was no ordinary wind—it carried a sacred energy and collided with Basara’s magic.
The two forces clashed in a fierce tug of war, but in the end, Ludger’s magic prevailed.
As the golden holy wind pressed forward, Basara spread his wings and shot upward, casting his next spell midair.
Shatterfrost.
He spread his arms, and an icy blizzard exploded forth.
A section of the World Tree’s roots froze instantly, then shattered into pieces with a crackling sound.
It wasn’t just freezing—it shattered anything it touched.
Knowing he couldn’t fight ice with more ice, Ludger opted for a different approach.
Five Phases – Fire Subdues Water.
—When fire is too strong, water evaporates instead.
The most effective counter to extreme cold.
Ludger activated another phase of the Five Elements.
Wood Feeds Fire.
Trees rose from the ground and ignited, resonating with Ludger’s flames and feeding them with fuel.
Through the harmonizing power of elemental affinity, the flames surged even greater.
The freezing magic, amplified by black mana, was instantly pushed back.
From Basara’s perspective—and even from what he remembered through Luypholdt—this was an unbelievable outcome.
A power mismatch being overturned by elemental advantage.
But even beyond that, there was something else.
“Then try stopping this!”
Basara unleashed another spell.
Corrosive Waters.
Water that melted anything splashed down on the raging fire.
But the fire flared up with such intense heat that it vaporized the water on contact, licking toward Basara with searing red tongues.
‘How...?’
Basara, who had been so confident at the start, couldn’t shake the strange thoughts surfacing in his mind as he traded spells with Ludger.
Something kept bothering him.
At first, he’d thought Ludger was just someone annoying to deal with.
So he had, in a sense, “generously” decided to let him go.
It seemed logical, efficient.
But Ludger had refused—and chosen to fight.
At first, Basara was slightly intrigued, maybe even driven by his mission.
He thought it would be a good opportunity.
But now—
Basara found himself frowning at the discomfort rising from within.
He didn’t realize that the emotion he was experiencing was anxiety.
Despite being a demon that provoked negative emotions in humans, he was ironically unaware of his own.
“...Enough games. Let’s end this.”
Basara spread both hands wide.
From his palms, human-like mouths tore open—and a spell activated.
Shatterfrost and Corrosive Waters—
The two dark spells fused into one massive force.
Fusion Magic.
[Melting Glacier]
A sluggish, creeping glacier swept across the cavern.
The corpses of black mages and test subjects within it instantly melted and were absorbed into the ice.
The glacier that devoured everything approached Ludger’s body—
Only to be torn apart by a pillar of radiant light bursting upward.
‘Light?’
Basara frowned at the sight but cast another spell immediately.
Fusion Magic.
[Shower of Corrupted Iron]
Demonic Iron and Rotwind—
A hurricane of rotting steel raged forth.
A hellstorm that shredded anything in its path.
It tried to consume the pillar of light.
But the light remained unshaken—no, it grew stronger.
Some of the mana swirling around Ludger detached and fused into the light.
Immediately, the pillar of light split into countless rays, forming a fan-shaped burst.
The spreading light resembled the shape of human hands.
Basara’s storm was shredded by the beams of light.
And at the center of that radiance, Ludger stood—wreathed in shadow.
His hands pressed together in a prayer-like gesture.
A man cloaked in shadow, radiating divine light from behind him.
The sight was so contradictory that Basara momentarily froze in disbelief.
Then—
Ludger unclasped his hands and extended one toward Basara.
Thousand Palms of Demon-Banishment.
Light.
More precisely—light in the shape of human hands.
Golden and blinding, the palms were identical to the spell Ludger had used to crush Luypholdt’s body.
The only difference: this time, there were one thousand of them.
“......!”
Basara flared his wings wide and soared upward at blinding speed.
So fast it seemed like a black slash had been drawn through the sky.
But in the next instant—
The radiant palms pursued him, leaving behind trails of pure white.
Basara darted across the vast cavern with extraordinary aerial acrobatics.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Each time he skimmed past the gaps between the World Tree’s roots, the pursuing light collided behind him, erupting into blinding white explosions one after another.
Though he focused entirely on evasion, Basara couldn’t keep it up for long.
The hands of light weren’t just fast—they were far too numerous.
Eventually, they caught up to him.
BOOM! BOOM! BAM!
Hands of light slammed into his back, shoulders, and waist.
Brilliant white bursts followed each impact.
The force of the blows pierced through Basara’s body.
“Gragh!”
A scream of pain burst from his throat. Wherever the palms struck, it seared like a burn.
As the name implied—these were hands that incinerated the impure.
Realizing he couldn’t go on like this, Basara halted in midair and shifted to defense.
Across his pitch-black body, dozens of yellow eyes bloomed open.
Shadowy black snowflakes spread like spores, coalescing around him into a dark sphere.
THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD!
The barrage of light pounded relentlessly against the sphere from outside.
The barrier rippled but didn’t break.
Basara smirked in satisfaction—until Ludger shifted his stance.
He clenched his outstretched palm into a fist.
“...What?”
The flying hands of light transformed too—into fists.
Fists blazing with fierce golden flame.
Adamantine Fist Seal.
The Demon-Banishment Palms became even more powerful when converted into strikes.
The golden fists rained down on the dark sphere, their impacts cracking it like shattering glass.
Eventually—
CRAAACK!
The sphere fractured and exploded into shards.
Basara tried to spread his wings to flee again, but his body refused to move.
“What?!”
Only then did he realize something was gripping his ankles.
He looked down—and saw a shadow rising from the ground, coiling tightly around his legs.
It was Ludger’s shadow.
Because of the intense light behind Ludger, the cast shadow stretched long and deep—reaching all the way to where Basara hovered.
“You...!”
Basara tried to resist, but the shadow’s pull only strengthened.
Even his enhanced body was useless before this power.
The taut shadow wrapped fully around him and yanked him downward—
BOOM!
He slammed into the ground, cracks spreading through the floor as a thick cloud of dust burst up.
Before that dust even had a chance to settle, golden fists poured down on him like a storm.
“GRAAAAAHH!”
Basara shrieked in agony.
His superior regeneration and fortified body were useless against Ludger’s magic.
Chunks of flesh were torn away, muscles ruptured, and bones shattered.
The holy force didn’t allow even healing.
From afar, Andrei watched in stunned silence.
“...My god.”
A demon wielding the ultimate experimental vessel was being overpowered—by a single human.
Not just evenly matched—Ludger was dominating.
What Andrei saw before him now was like a scene out of forgotten myth.
‘Is that man... a monster?’
Reverence crept into Andrei’s eyes as he watched Ludger.
But he couldn’t be too optimistic.
‘This magic is incredible... but he can’t maintain it for long.’
The evidence was plain—the swirling fog of mana around Ludger was rapidly thinning.
The mana mist, which had reached its all-time maximum, was being consumed at an alarming rate.
Ludger knew that too. That’s why he aimed to kill Basara as quickly as possible.
But Basara was persistent, like a cockroach.
He had clearly decided to endure. No more dodging or countering—just pure regeneration.
“Grrrrnnngh!”
He must still have felt pain, but Basara grit his teeth and endured it.
Andrei sensed the danger.
They needed something stronger.
It seemed Ludger felt the same—he stopped casting the endless stream of golden fists.
Instead, he began to gather the hands of light spreading behind him into a single mass.
The arms stretched, weaving and entangling like threads of silk.
They merged into a single form, each ray of light outlining a shape in the air.
A form of glowing gold slowly came into being.
A radiant Buddha, seated atop a lotus, gazed down at Basara.
The instant he saw it, a shrill alarm rang in Basara’s instincts.
This attack—he must not let it land.
“UOOOOOOOOHH!!”
Basara roared, pouring every ounce of strength into his body.
CRACK! SNAP!
The shadow bindings began to tear.
And faster than Ludger had anticipated.
With each binding that broke, Basara’s skin split, and his muscles ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) ripped apart.
Still—he didn’t stop.
He endured the pain because what Ludger was preparing... was beyond dangerous.
SNAP! SNAP!
At this rate, Basara would break free before the spell was complete.
But just as he shattered the final shadow coil—
His body froze again.
“...You bastard.”
Basara whipped his head to the side.
There stood Andrei—reduced to a husk, half-mad, most of his power gone—yet he was reaching out with one trembling arm.
A binding spell, cast with every last drop of mana he had left.
Basara could tear it like tissue paper if he wanted to.
And indeed, the spell didn’t bind him for even a second.
But—
That fleeting instant...
Was the final puzzle piece Ludger needed.
The golden Buddha was complete.
And as the radiant figure shone in its full glory, Basara’s body froze again.
Its sheer majesty—its overwhelming presence—made even his demonic legs tremble.
Even a demon like him...
Felt it was impossible to stand against this.
Ludger gathered every last drop of mana he had left and extended his hand toward Basara.
Vairocana's Diamond Vajra Palm
The Buddha responded.
Its massive golden hand came crashing down upon Basara.
