Turbulent clouds in the night sky were gazing down at the City of Swords. The eerie atmosphere around Baelor was accentuated by the peculiar events taking place inside the Academy. The swords throughout the city seemed to be shaking quietly as they felt a familiar mana coming from the Academy. The people sleeping throughout the city were still unaware of the major events taking place but they would soon be made aware of them forcefully.

However, unbeknownst to everyone, one of the Gates inside the city was trembling as the black glob vibrated violently. The black glob whirled around and slowly started to take shape. The Gate had turned stable as it turned to deep black colour that seemed to pull everyone inside it. The surface slowly rippled as several figures wearing extravagant garbs came out of it.

The main figure had a tired face but his eyes were full of avarice as he looked at the castle of Academy situated on the immensely humongous sword. All the figures turned their heads as strong urges filled their hearts.

King Acacia Stone had arrived in Baelor.

********

Everyone was looking at the baffling scene with their eyes widened in shock. The pieces of broken blockade were shimmering around the professors as the small mana orb broke it apart. The most surprised of all was Professor Sorsha. She knew that the power of the mana orb was feeble when compared to her and yet, her blockade gave way to it easily. It was more like, the mana she had influenced just admitted defeat even before the fight.

“Absolute Domination?!” Cecilia’s voice broke everyone out of the stupor. They all looked at her with horrified faces, trying to calm the chill in their hearts.

“What rubbish!” Professor Sorsha said with gritted teeth. There was no Star in this generation. What they had just seen was absolutely bizarre but they could not just call it Absolute Domination.

However, while they were reeling with the shock, the small mana orb had already started to change drastically.

The mana orb bubbled up violently. The feeling it gave off was extremely tyrannical. Light slowly seeped out from the orb as it started spinning in a drastic manner.

One beam of light.

Two beams of light.

Three beams of light….

One by one, the number of light beams increased in number and intensity as the orb spun. The entire academy seemed to have lit up under the magnificence of that bizarre mana.

Everyone was watching it intently. Under everyone’s watchful gaze, the orb started expanding radically. It started to turn into a rudimentary shape of a human. Some parts of the orb split the humanoid figure as they started taking shape behind him.

The humanoid figure of the mana was also gaining perfection as clothes started to appear on his body. Heavily embroidered robe unfurled over its body. The face of the figure also took shape but only two eyes formed on it. The eyes stayed closed for a moment while the robe seemed to be flowing behind due to the wind.

The seven small parts that had split before had also taken place behind the humanoid figure made entirely of mana.

Three on his left.

Three on his right.

While one, the biggest, was slowly converging over the figure’s head.

Suddenly, the humanoid figure opened his eyes and the beams of light radiated everything in his sight. The small pieces of mana behind him had also converged and took the shapes of balls. As soon as the humanoid figure opened his eyes, the balls of mana burned brightly.

The three on the left and the three on the right burned with white lustre while the biggest one over his head burned in a fiery red colour. The fire of the balls had illuminated the vicinity clearly and the students standing far could also see everything happening.

While everyone was watching the scene with their eyes filled with either reverence or horror, only Willem was standing calmly while watching the scene fixedly. He neither said nor did anything. His eyes however were staring right at the biggest ball of fire over the figure’s head.

“Blasphemy!” Professor Sorsha cried out while bringing her hands together in a powerful motion.

Ooooom.

“Baneful Hymn!” Professor Sorsha’s voice thundered as her hands clapped violently. The space in front of her rippled as a deafening sound greeted everyone.

Every student’s eyes widened as they looked at their professor’s attack. The space in front of her had fractured and a violent suction force was trying to pull in the humanoid figure.

Shrieeeeeeek!!

It seemed as if time had stopped. The suction force from the space paled in comparison to whatever hideosity had shrieked from the other side of the fracture. Instantly, several rotten hands emerged from the fracture and extended towards the humanoid figure. The rotten hands were accompanied by otherworldly screams. Whatever beings those hands belonged to were trying their best to rip open the space to cross through.

Mehr had been watching everything while smiling coldly. Slowly and steadily, he had gained a lot more understanding of the mana touched by the Star. When he watched his mana orb breaking the blockade created by Sorsha Innis, he felt extremely jubilant. He hadn’t even needed to struggle a bit. He never imagined that being a Star made him this powerful. However, as he looked at the ripped open space and the hands that stretched out, a chill ran down his spine.

As soon as the hands had clawed out of the space, he felt a cosmic horror clutching his heart.

Mehr slowly gulped his saliva as he looked at the hands slowly reaching for the humanoid figure. He was no match for whatever abomination those hands belonged to, but fortunately, he didn’t need to deal with them directly. The technique that Sorsha used was powered with the help of mana and everything related to mana was feeble in front of him.

Mehr willed and the humanoid figure waved his hand gently. The mana around him rushed vehemently towards the fractures in space. The rotten hands struggled to stop the enormous amount of mana pouring towards them. However, the mana completely ignored the rotten hands and only focused on the fracture in space. It roared as it mended the space, forcing the hands back inside.

A sudden feeling of relief washed over everyone watching. All the students were terror-stricken as the mere aura of those hands was enough to make them vomit.

While the students were sighing in relief, the look on Professor Sorsha’s face was ashen. She had even used her most powerful attack and yet… it resulted in nothing. For a moment, even she had started to think that the one in front of them was the Star but she instantly shook her head as soon the thought appeared in her mind. If a Star had actually been born in this generation, then the entire world would already know about it.

Sorsha looked helplessly at the only person who could change the situation. She turned to Willem.

Willem had been watching everything with the same mischievous glint in his eyes. His eyes were as deep as an abyss, hiding his thoughts completely. He looked at Sorsha and nodded gently.

“Sionn, use a weak attack,” Willem turned to Sionn and said calmly.

Sionn looked at Willem with curious eyes. His wife had used her most powerful attack and even that failed. What use was a weak elemental attack? Nonetheless, he obliged.

Sionn Innis blew gently through his mouth and the wind that escaped turned into a small torrent. The torrent rapidly approached the humanoid figure who was still levitating in the air majestically.

Cecilia was standing on the side while watching everything. She couldn’t decide if she should reveal that she was the Diviner. At first, she thought the Star was planning to come out to the world using the Academy as a foothold, but she soon found out that she was wrong. The Star was only telling the world that he was there. Nothing else. Cecilia slowly tilted her head down as she secretly bowed to the humanoid figure. Even if she couldn’t stand behind him to support him today, there would soon come a time that it would become a reality.

She only needed to wait.

‘Adhara, Sirius and Mehr.’ She repeated the names of the three people. She was sure that one of them was definitely the Star. She hoped that it wasn’t Mehr, due to his violent personality, but looking at the scene today the chances of it being Mehr were highest. She sighed inwardly.

It was the duty of the Diviner to teach the Star the ways of the world. Even though she wasn’t sure if it was Mehr, she would have to start early.

Meanwhile, the torrent had almost reached the humanoid figure. Mehr, who was watching closely, looked contemptuously at the weak attack thrown at his powerful mana. He didn’t understand why such a laughable attempt at attack would be made. Nonetheless, he willed and the humanoid figure waved his hand again.

The mana around him converged into a slash as it shot out towards the torrent. While he couldn't do the fancy, and frankly terrifying, attacks like the one Sorsha used before, he didn’t mind.

After all, his mana was absolute.

The slash descended upon the weak torrent like a wrathful beast and pounced on it with great ferocity.

However, the result that Mehr was seeking didn’t come to pass. As soon as the slash touched the feeble wind attack, it splintered apart immediately.

Everyone’s eyes widened with surprise as they stared at the shocking result. After watching the mysterious figure easily thwarting Professor Sorsha’s every attack, every student was thinking extremely highly of it. And when they saw Professor Sionn sending a weak wind attack towards it, they could only laugh in disbelief. They thought the professor was actually fooling around.

And yet, the result had baffled everyone.

The weak torrent continued after destroying the slash and pounced upon the humanoid figure. As soon as the wind attack touched the humanoid figure, his lustre dimmed and cracks appeared throughout his body.

‘What the fuck?!’ Mehr’s eyes bulged at this scene. He had dominated the strongest attacks of Professor Sorsha but he couldn’t even handle a small wind attack. Mehr tried to will the humanoid figure to attack again but he realised that there was nothing he could do anymore. The humanoid figure was filled with cracks and the chunks of mana had started to blur and turn invisible. The mana touched by the Star was turning to its original form.

“While it was indeed Absolute Domination, that doesn’t mean that it was actually the Star,” Willem stated calmly. “The mana touched by the Star might be an exceedingly rare treasure, but it still exists in the world. The Sword God had a habit of giving his mana as a gift to people he liked. How many Houses have kept that treasure, only Heavens knows. If it indeed was the Star, we would all be dead already. It was someone with a decent comprehension of mana, but no experience of handling mana of Stars.”

Willem’s words were heard by everyone in the Academy. Mehr squinted his eyes. He shook his head in resignation as he realised that he still didn’t understand a lot of things. Even if his real mana gave him an absolute advantage, there were far too many variables in a fight. Magic of Elements being an important one. His Absolute Domination didn’t work on elements at all.

“So, a rat assuming the majesty of the Gods.” Professor Sorsha hissed.

“Well,” Willem’s eyes sparkled as he smiled softly, “What our eyes see is nothing but a drop, what they don’t is an ocean.” He turned his head towards the first-year dormitory as he glanced at a particular balcony where Mehr and Sirius were standing.

“Sorsha, Cecilia. Take the child inside and take care of him. I will search his soul when he wakes up.” Sorsha and Cecilia took Marcus inside the academy without further discussion.

“Master Willem, are you not going inside?” Sionn asked.

“Stop calling me master! The children are watching!” Willem snapped. He calmed down after a moment as he smiled in his familiar mischievous way and looked at the sky.

“Shouldn’t we welcome the unwanted guests that are arriving soon?” Willem looked into the distance where he could see King Acacia and others rapidly approaching the Academy.