Broken Possessors of Infinite Regression Academy

The Flame Bear and its subspecies, the Ice Bear, had superior physical abilities, as bears were known for, and they also used various special abilities.

They could breathe ice and fire from their mouths, and their front paws were enchanted with attributes. They were also ridiculously huge, standing about 4 meters tall when they stood on their hind legs.

“Cover me from behind, Mira!”

Brynhild charged directly at the Flame Bear, which was spewing flames from its mouth, from a distance. The Holy Sword absorbed the fiery breath, and her body stuck close to the bear.

“Save me! Ple-urk?!”

“If you stick so close, you can’t even dodge, so shut up and stay still. Before I throw you to them as bait.”

I kicked the priest, who was trying to cling to me, and he rolled on the ground, making strange sounds. Because of his round body, he rolled quite well.

The nuns, who had been about to do the same, sat down next to the priest when they saw him fly. They were quick to catch on, probably because they had been living off him.

“Woooooo!!!!!!”

The Ice Bear, which had been circling and observing us, finally charged. A chilling coldness emanated from its front paws, and frost rose. It was an attribute enchantment.

I recalled what I had learned in the theory lecture. In a one-on-one situation, they were powerful enough to make an ogre seem trivial, but being monsters, they lacked the intelligence to think beyond that of a beast.

So, in theory, it was possible to kill them in one blow.

I channelled mana into Eternity. The blade, imbued with mana, shone with a blue light. The Ice Bear raised its right front paw diagonally and brought it down with force.

I took the opportunity to move to the left of its front paws. As I propelled myself forward, the bear’s front paw slammed into the spot where I had been standing, creating ice shards and cracks in the floor. The frost-covered paw, emitting white mist like snow, was about to strike again when I was already next to its left front paw.

-Crack!

I swung Eternity. Without using any special techniques, just by infusing it with mana, the blade effortlessly sliced through the incredibly thick fur, skin, fat, muscles, and bones.

The head, which had been giving orders, was severed, causing the body to lose balance and stumble forward a few steps before collapsing. The impact created a loud thud, shaking the air.

“Hiiiiik?!”

The headless body rolled and stopped right in front of the high-ranking priest. He gagged at the sight of the severed neck. Blood gushed from the headless torso.

‘So it really is possible in theory.’

If one had the reflexes to dodge the front paws, the physical ability to withstand the cold, and the strength to cut through the incredibly thick skin, fat, muscles, and bones in one blow, it was possible to kill them instantly.

“Hey! Are you going to keep cheating like this? Why do you keep killing them in one hit?!”

Brynhild, who had been fighting the Flame Bear, shouted in exasperation, having witnessed the scene.

“Do you need help?”

“Ah, you…! I can do it myself! You just watch and protect those people!”

Half of the Flame Bear’s body was now covered in flames. The Holy Sword cut off its left front paw, which was not yet engulfed in flames. The paw was completely severed, despite its size.

But as the Flame Bear roared, the flames on its body burst forth, regenerating the paw. The paw made of flames naturally stepped on the ground.

If given more time, it would have perfectly regrown its paw. Brynhild, aware of this, became more aggressive to finish it off before that happened.

-Kwaang!

The Holy Sword blocked the bear’s descending front paw, causing Brynhild to grunt and kneel on one knee. It seemed a bit too much to counter with just her physical strength.

However, that in itself was already impressive. Without using physical enhancement like I did, she had taken the full brunt of a bear’s front paw, whose body length was about 4 meters, with just her pure physical abilities.

‘There’s still room for her to get stronger.’

If I consistently helped her from the side, she would definitely improve.

As Brynhild fought, infusing the Holy Sword with divine power, she finally managed to cut off the Flame Bear’s neck.

“Mira! I w-!”

-Rumble……

Before she could rejoice in her victory, the entire dungeon began to shake. Confusion filled Brynhild’s face.

Everyone, except me, who had planned this, was taken aback by the unexpected situation.

“The dungeon…!”

The walls, floor, and ceiling of the dungeon were collapsing simultaneously. Everyone’s faces turned pale at the sight of the dungeon itself crumbling.

“What the heck?! Why is the dungeon collapsing?!”

“……Yeah?”

I pretended not to know and said, “Well?” as I poked the nuns, who were desperately clinging to me, with Eternity to shake them off. Even this was according to the plan I made with the Demon King.

“Hurry! This way! I’ll lead the way!”

The high-ranking priest took the opportunity to start running towards the way we had come. He ran surprisingly fast, as if he had been holding back all this time. The nuns hurriedly followed him.

In a nice way, he was leading the way, but in reality, he was trying to abandon us and escape. And I didn’t plan to put a nice spin on it.

“What the heck? After we fought to protect them, they’re trying to run away first?”

Brynhild was also taken aback, her expression incredulous. She had deliberately kept her distance to avoid the flames, so she had more reason to feel wronged.

“They can’t possibly outrun us anyway. You know that. They can’t use physical enhancement, so even if they run first, how far can they really get?”

“That’s true, but……”

“Should we just leave them and run too? They betrayed us first, so why should we care?”

“……”

Brynhild hesitated at the suggestion of abandoning them. The fact that she was even considering it showed how different she was from the original Hero, who, influenced by Aria, always stuck with her and couldn’t bear to leave anyone behind.

The original Hero would have immediately rejected the idea.

“Ugh, uwaaaaaah!”

Brynhild didn’t have time to continue her hesitation. The priest’s scream came from the passage ahead, and the nuns were crawling backwards on the floor.

Following them was the Flame Bear, with the high-ranking priest’s waist in its mouth.

“Kke, uuuuuh……”

The Flame Bear’s jaws clenched around the priest’s waist, causing it to cave in, and blood flowed up through the holes in his face, making him gag. The bear’s abdomen, where its teeth were embedded, was being cooked alive.

The priest, whose innards were being eaten alive, stopped moving after a while. The nuns, who had been throwing up, were now crying and begging us to save them.

“Save……urk.”

“Should we save them? Do they look like they’re worth protecting to you?”

“……I don’t know.”

Brynhild looked conflicted.

I didn’t intend to make Brynhild into a perfect saint like the original Hero, who tried to protect everyone. I had already failed at that.

And to change her value system, which prioritized protecting everyone, I needed to shake the very foundation of that belief. The Starlight Sect, which appeared to be saintly at first glance but was actually the opposite, was perfect for that purpose.

“Kyaaaaak?!”

The dungeon solved the dilemma of whether to save the nuns or not. The floor, which had been slowly turning into a spider web of cracks, finally started to collapse.

The Flame Bear, which had been feasting on the corpses, fell with a somewhat funny ‘Kwaang?’ sound, and the nuns also fell into the abyss without us having a chance to help them.

“Well, I guess we don’t need to worry about that now.”

“……Yeah.”

The speed at which the cracks were forming was increasing. By the time half of the chamber we were in had collapsed, Brynhild, who had been dazed for a while, finally spoke.

“The entrance is blocked……”

Just as she said, the rocks that had fallen ‘coincidentally’ blocked the passage we had come through. If we had more time, we could have broken through, but there was no way we could do that while the floor was collapsing.

“So, there’s only one answer: we go down.”

“Down? Hey, wait a minute!”

I picked up Brynhild and held her under  my armpit. Ignoring her struggles, I jumped into the collapsing crack and accelerated my body. A scream came from the Hero.

I surrounded us with a defense barrier to prevent any impact, and as we fell faster than the falling rocks, we soon reached the new ground.

“……Underground?”

Brynhild, now standing on her own two feet, tapped the ground curiously, as if she found it fascinating that there was another underground level beneath the collapsed dungeon.

She wouldn’t find this place so fascinating if she knew that Elysier and I had created this structure.

I slightly increased the intensity of the defense barrier. Rocks were falling from all directions, and we needed to protect ourselves from the impact. Brynhild, observing the falling debris, muttered with a slightly bitter expression:

“……Those two, they’re probably dead, aren’t they?”

She was probably referring to the two nuns who had fallen before us.

“They’re probably dead.”

“……Yeah.”

The nuns on either side, unlike the fat high-ranking priest, hadn’t directly done anything, so she felt a bit guilty.

But I knew that they had also done all sorts of atrocities under the power of that priest. It was the original Hero who had hanged them, after all.

If Brynhild had been like the original Hero, completely pure and innocent, influenced by Aria, she wouldn’t be compromising with reality like she was now.

The good Brynhild had personally hanged them, so their atrocities must have been severe.

“Let’s keep walking. We can’t just stand here.”

“Okay. I understand.”

Brynhild and I continued walking through the underground space, still maintaining the protection magic circle, in case of any unexpected situations. No matter how capable Elysier was, she couldn’t control every falling rock.

We followed what looked like a path and soon came across a corpse. It was a nun, with only the lower half of her body visible, as the upper half was crushed under a rock.

Looking around, there was another corpse buried under the rocks, with only its left arm poking out. It was obvious who these corpses belonged to.

“……”

Brynhild stared at the bloodstains, which still retained a faint crimson color. Concerned that the shock might be too much for her, I walked up next to her.

“What’s wrong?”

“Hey, Mira……”

Brynhild, staring at the corpse, clenched her fists and looked at me.

“I’m a Hero, right?”

“Yeah.”

I wondered if she was feeling guilty about not being able to protect everyone, like the original Hero. That wouldn’t do.

I knew this was a bit extreme, but given the situation, it was necessary to drastically accelerate the Hero’s awakening, which took a year in the original story.

I had been thinking about various possibilities in my head, but what Brynhild said was unexpected.

“A Hero shouldn’t think like this… but I keep thinking that it’s a relief that the person crushed under the rocks isn’t you, Mira. I’m a Hero, so I should protect everyone, but……”

“……”

“Your words keep coming to mind. Do they have any value to be protected? I’m also being selfish. It’s a relief that they died in your place. The previous Hero didn’t do this, they said. Mira, am I not qualified to be a Hero?”

She must have been seriously considering what I said earlier.

This was the perfect time to change Brynhild’s values.

Not a Hero who, like the original, shoulders all the burden alone, saves 99 people but agonizes over the one she couldn’t save. But a Hero who is fundamentally good but also knows how to look at the big picture.

Awakening as a Hero means accepting the burden of being chosen by the Holy Sword. It would be easier to bear that burden if she became a Hero who accepted reality rather than trying to be a perfectly flawless Hero.

One failure is enough for me.

“Brynhild.”

I walked up to Brynhild and met her gaze.

“Yeah.”

“I told you earlier. You don’t have to try to protect everyone, even if you’re a Hero.”

If it were Aria, the protagonist of the original story, she would have said something flowery like always trying to protect everyone or let’s work together to save as many people as possible.

But I’m not like that. I couldn’t say such things, knowing that it’s impossible.

“There are people worth saving in this world, and there are people who aren’t. And those people were not worth saving.”

I conveyed all my experiences, my position as a failure, my regrets, and all those emotions through my eyes. She needed to acknowledge that there are people in this world who aren’t worth saving.

“……People who weren’t worth saving?”

“The entire Starlight Sect is full of rotten people. Those two were similar. They were fawning over the priest, using his influence to commit all sorts of atrocities. They deserved to die.”

“……Really?”

Instead of answering, I gently plucked the strands of blue hair that were stuck to her cheeks one by one. Brynhild quietly accepted my touch.

“As a Hero, you should try to save as many people as possible. You should work hard for that. That’s true. It’s a good sentiment. But you should know that it only applies to people who are worth saving. You don’t need to worry about people like them. You can’t, and you shouldn’t.”

“But I’m a Hero…… That’s what they said at the Imperial Palace, too. Heroes should always……”

“Be special? Try to save as many people as possible? Endure even when things get tough? No. You don’t have to. Listen to me. Before you’re a Hero, you’re a human. You’re Leona Brynhild, a human. You’re a human first, and then you’re a Hero who wields the Holy Sword. There’s no reason to deny your humanity because of the burden of being a Hero. Why should you sacrifice yourself just because of a duty you didn’t choose?”

“……”

Her golden irises widened slightly. After plucking the last strand of hair, I placed my hand on the top of her head and gently stroked it.

“So, don’t try to be perfect on your own. Look around, ask for help when you’re struggling, sometimes say you want to throw everything away and rest…… Just try that.”

The last part was my fantasy of what it would have been like if someone had said this to me. It was also a fantasy of having someone to say this to me, so I paused for a moment.

If I replaced the word ‘Hero’ with ‘savior,’ it would have applied perfectly to me.

“Don’t try to be perfect on your own. You have people to help you. Aria, and, well, me, even though it’s a bit awkward for me to say this.”

I swallowed the words ‘unlike me.’ The people who helped me are all dead, but Brynhild here will never be like that.

I won’t let her be.

“Well, that was a bit long-winded, but the bottom line is this. You don’t have to try to save everyone, and you have people to help you, so ask for help when you’re struggling. Don’t try to bear everything alone.”

I wasn’t sure how much of this advice would be accepted by her as a Hero.

But one thing was certain: if she accepted this advice, the Brynhild next to me would be completely different from the Brynhild that Priscilla, Rosalia, and Elysier had experienced.

“……People who will help me.”

Brynhild, who had been dazed by my words, looked at the Holy Sword in her hand and then smiled and nodded.

“Yeah. I understand. I’ll do that.”