The Strongest Student of the Weakest Academy-Chapter 489: The Heavens Shall Fall (XXX)

We took over a side chamber just off the High Chamber entrance, a room that must have hosted quiet administrative meetings before the fighting reached this deep into the stronghold.

The walls still carried decorative engravings that no one looked at anymore, because every sound bleeding through the corridors outside made it impossible to forget what was happening beyond them.

BAAAM!

ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Steel clashed somewhere not far away, followed by a sharp burst of divine energy that rattled the doorframe, and then the low, pained shout of someone who had been too slow to move.

Torres posted two guards at the entrance without needing to be told, and the rest of us stepped inside, bringing the smell of blood and burned ozone with us.

The room filled quickly, commanders gathering around what we turned into a table by clearing off a carved desk that had probably been worth more than most kingdoms.

Everyone looked worn in a way that went beyond simple fatigue, because this kind of exhaustion settled into the bones after sustained violence, and we had only been fighting for forty minutes.

Christina was already busy working, her device displaying layered tactical screens.

Her fingers moved skillfully over the screen despite her sleeve being stained with someone else’s blood.

While she wasn’t the one directly killing, command kept her close to all the action.

"Casualty report first," she said, her voice cutting through the room before anyone else could start talking.

"I need exact numbers, not estimates."

A muffled impact echoed somewhere down the hall, followed by a shouted order and the crack of a weapon discharging.

No one turned toward the noise, as they were already used to it.

Torres was the first one to speak.

"Gamma Squad has eleven confirmed dead, four more out of the fight, and with the med teams. We have fifteen still able to engage."

Christina nodded once, her eyes already scanning the next column of data.

"Delta Squad, nine killed, six wounded. Fourteen left who can still hold a line." Dresden continued flatly.

Senna shifted her weight slightly, one hand resting against the table as if she needed the support more than she wanted to admit.

The fresh scar along her arm still looked raw.

"Epsilon held the courtyard," she said, then hesitated for half a breath before continuing more honestly, "seven dead, three wounded. Nineteen are still operational."

Kiera’s report stood apart from the others, and even she seemed aware of it.

"Alpha Squad is intact. No losses. We’re inside the Records Department and already pulling data. Extraction is running smoothly for now."

For a moment, no one spoke. Outside, another surge of power rolled through the corridor, followed by a scream that cut off too quickly.

Christina’s expression did not change as she logged everything, though I knew she was already turning those numbers into projections and survival rates that no one else in the room wanted to hear out loud.

I too was doing exactly the same.

"Beta Squad," I asked.

Her hand paused for a fraction of a second before continuing.

"They’re in extraction. Sixteen remaining from twenty. Heavy pursuit." She exhaled quietly through her nose.

"They did what we needed them to do. They pulled multiple response teams away from here."

"Are they going to make it out?" Torres leaned forward slightly.

Christina did not look up from her screen.

"Rax knows what he’s doing," she stated, although she didn’t look too confident on her own words.

No one pushed further.

She shifted the display, bringing up a schematic of the stronghold layered with movement markers that updated in real time.

Red indicators flickered across multiple corridors, converging slowly toward our position.

"Here is where we stand," she continued.

"We control the High Chamber entrance. Alpha Squad has access to the Records system. That gives us two objectives secured." Her finger traced downward on the map.

"The control nexus is here, three levels below. If we take that, we control their defenses."

"Aghh..." Dresden let out a tired breath, furrowing his eyebrows.

"And between us and that point, there are going to be more of those things we just fought, maybe worse."

From outside the chamber came the dull thud of bodies hitting stone, followed by someone shouting for a medic.

Torres rubbed at his jaw.

"The technology worked against the Early 8✯ True Gods," he stated, though he did not sound convinced.

"If we push with enough coordination—"

"They are already adapting to our new technology," Senna cut in.

"They have seen how we fight. They have seen what our weapons do. The next group we meet will not walk into the same mistakes."

She was right, and everyone in the room knew it.

I looked at Christina.

"How long before they reach us in force?"

She checked multiple feeds in quick succession, her eyes moving rapidly across the data.

"Thirty minutes on the optimistic side. Forty-five if their coordination falters. When they arrive, it will not be in small groups."

BOOOOOOOOM!

Another distant explosion rolled through the structure, stronger this time, close enough that dust shook loose from the ceiling and drifted down in a fine gray curtain.

"So we either push now," Torres said quietly, "or we dig in and hold."

"With what we have left," Dresden added, not as an argument but as a fact.

Christina’s hand came to rest lightly against my arm, brushing slighly. This was a signal that she was a little nervous.

"We need to decide," she said, her voice softer now, meant for me even though everyone could hear it.

"We either commit to the final objective, or we secure what we already have and make sure we leave with it."

Kiera lifted her head slightly from her tablet.

"We are at forty-two percent extraction," she stated. "If we hold this position for another twenty minutes, we will have enough data to cripple their systems long term."

"Unless they shut it down before that." Torres shook his head.

"They cannot," Kiera replied, and there was no hesitation in her voice this time. "The Records system is isolated. They have to come through us to stop it."

That shifted the room.

"So holding guarantees the data," Senna said slowly, thinking it through. "Pushing forward risks everything we have gained so far."

"And succeeding in the push gives us control of the entire structure," Torres countered, though even he sounded less certain now.

Outside, the fighting surged again, closer this time. Someone shouted a warning, and a moment later, the sharp crack of a containment array activating echoed down the corridor.

I looked around the table, at each of them, at the strain in their faces and the quiet calculation behind their eyes.

They were thinking about who would still be standing in fifteen minutes.

"We hold," I said at last.

The decision settled over the room with a weight that felt both heavy and necessary.

Christina’s shoulders loosened slighly before she straightened again, already shifting into direct execution.

"Defensive positions," she said immediately.

"Gamma and Delta at the entrance. Epsilon establishes a fallback line here. Medical teams set up behind us. I want rotations for anyone who is still able to stand."

The commanders nodded and moved without delay, the argument already over because there was no time left to argue.

"Fifteen minutes," I said to Kiera.

"I will make it faster." She gave a short nod.

Torres paused at the doorway, glancing back once.

"We hold this," he said, not asking, not doubting, but needing to say it out loud.

"We hold," I nodded lightly.

He left.

The room emptied quickly, leaving only the distant sounds of fighting and the low hum of Christina’s tablet as it tracked everything we had set in motion.

She looked at me then, the composure slipping just enough for the exhaustion underneath to show.

"You chose to keep them alive," she said quietly.

"I chose to stop losing them," I replied.

She stepped closer, her hand finding mine without hesitation, interlacing her fingers with mine tightly, probably seeking comfort.

"That matters more than taking another room..."

"You saw the field clearly when it counted. Not everyone can do that."

I let out a slow breath, listening to the battle still unfolding beyond the walls, to the constant reminder that none of this was finished yet.

"Fifteen minutes."

She gave a small nod, her grip tightening slightly before she let go.

"Then we make those fifteen minutes hold," she answered, already turning back toward the door.

"Because when they come for us, they are not going to hold anything back."

BAAAAM!

Another impact shook the corridor, followed by the rising clash of weapons as our front line met the next wave.

Christina walked right in front of me, right back at the war.

At this point, I stopped slighly, as I let out a cold breath that escaped my lips. My eyes turned cold as a wave of ice spreaded throughout the whole room.

I turned around and looked at the walls in front of me.

Based on our intel, this room is pretty close to the main chambers; however, these walls are very fortified, and a strike from an 9✯ True Gods wouldn’t do much damage.

But well...

"Midnight is exactly an ordinary sword."

I shifted my stance slighly, letting out yet another cold breath.

"Moonlit Ice Lotus Sword Art..."

Clank...

I closed my eyes before letting the Authority of Frost surround my entire being.

『 Seventh Move! (✹ Absolute Zero Eclipse ✹) 』