"What?! He just turned totally purple!"

"I-I've never seen that kind of Primal skill before!"

"It's definitely the Primal Essence of Darkness. My father has the same awakening, but he can't do that. All he can do command is shadows to do his bidding."

"That's pretty strong on its own, but yeah... I wonder what kind of skill it is that it changes all of your hair and even your eyes to purple... It must be very powerful."

"Maybe, but maybe not. He's a very young man, so he may have just awakened. See how he has no wrinkles yet? His ageing isn't visible."

"True. Well, I guess we'll have to wait and see... I wonder if he can win with just a single Primal skill? It's pretty bright in here, so Darkness isn't the best Primal Essence to utilise."

The beastkin having lunch here were having a field day analysing Lone and his awakening. Darkness quite enjoyed the attention, but regardless of it, he stretched his back fully and smiled coyly as he licked his lips.

"My, my, my... Such a shame that I'll have to injure such a pretty face... Were it up to me, I'd play with you a bit, but you see, as unfaithful as his mind can be, my precious master is rather loyal with his body... Well, mostly," Darkness joked towards Lone's opponent, sending shivers up the young man's spine.

A bit nervous and clearly quite upset, the boy tightly gripped his ebony wand and yelled, "Fireball!"

His black wand lit up with magical runes and a sphere of raging flames was created at its tip before being fired directly towards Darkness.

The Primal smirked. He stepped forwards straight into the spinning ball of fiery death. Almost like a dream - or perhaps a nightmare to some, the Fireball directly struck Darkness' chest and didn't even come close to scratching his battlemage armour.

Darkness grinned as he reached out a hand and used it to gently pat the young mage's shoulder. "You wouldn't happen to have any other spells, would you? That wasn't even enough to tickle me, and my master already owns that little party trick, I'm afraid."

The boy began violently shaking the second Darkness touched him. "Ah, that's right. I forgot that mortals struggle to handle my raw and pure power when they come into direct contact with it... Master sure is an odd one, isn't he?"

At this point, the boy was foaming at the mouth and his veins were bulging out of his skin as they all turned into a deep shade of purple.

Darkness sighed grandly. "How boring." He moved his hand and placed it on the young man's head before saying, "Darkness Absorption. Wakeless Nightmare."

Like a puppet with its strings cut, the boy toppled over. His veins returned back to normal, but it was clear to see that his eyes were constantly rolling and he was muttering incomprehensible words.

Darkness ignored him and took a second to look around the cafeteria. "Yes, yes. I know, Master. Low-key, no? Well, you see, Master, the trick to staying under the radar, as you would say, is to simply make it seem like whatever outlandish thing that you had done simply hadn't happened in the first place. Mass Memory Darkening."

Much like the boy lying on the floor next to Darkness, all of the spectators save for Soph and Eolande collapsed and fell unconscious.

"Perfect. Well then, I should take my leave now before Sky rips me back in," Darkness gleefully said.

After giving both Eolande and Soph a joyful smile, the Primal Essence returning to its home within Lone's soul, resulting in his hair, eyes, and tails all returned to their original colours.

Congratulations! the host's passive skill [Fire Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 4.

Lone shook his head and sighed after reading the notification. "Well, the kitchen staff got knocked out too. That idiot Darkness... Let's just go back home and have lunch there. Unless you too wanna attend a lecture of something?"

Eolande covered her mouth as she giggled. "The Primals are always so entertaining, hmm?"

Soph smiled sweetly. "I wanna eat, so let's go home."

Lone nodded, and so the three left The Academy. Lone was a bit worried about the fact that Headmaster Erion had witnessed Darkness' actions, but since he wasn't stopping them from leaving nor questioning them, then Lone just assumed that the Divine was already aware of the fact that he was the avatar of at least one Primal.

It wouldn't be much of a problem to Lone if that information was released to the public at this point since he was very confident in his strength, but he would be lying is he said that he wasn't at least slightly afraid of Divines and Ancients who were strong enough to avoid dying to Mental Destruction.

Regardless, Lone, Soph and Eolande returned to Madame Cortelle's Palace of Rest on their own. Breena and Swind were more than strong enough to deal with any trouble that came their ways, and they were both responsible and mature people, so Lone didn't mind leaving the two teens on their own.

It was hard to recall at times due to how adult he acted, but Swind was still only a 15-year-old young man.

"Say. It. Again," Swind demanded as his mechanical arm tightened its hold around the young woman's neck that was within its grasp.

Clawing at the fairy-forged and heavily-enchanted limb, the girl coughed heavily as she struggled to get any air into her lungs.

"Say. It. Again," Swind commanded then leaned his face closer to hers. "Say it again or apologise. I will kill you otherwise. I'm giving you a chance to earn my forgiveness."

All of the students in the hallway were shaking from fear. The seemingly weak and peaceful man with some scales on his face and a metal arm and tail had suddenly started threatening an innocent and weak girl.

The girl in question shifted her eyes towards the crowd, clearly begging for help.

Knowing that she was the daughter of a duke of a foreign empire, a nobody noble of Falron coughed and pulled himself together. 'He can't kill us if he doesn't want to get expelled and potentially executed. I should just find out why he's angry and deescalate the situation. Seriously, this is why demis are such a bother... I don't particularly mind in this case though since I can get close to such a powerful noble family...'

Clearing his throat thoroughly and then putting on as friendly of a smile as he could muster, the young man approached Swind and said, "You'll be expelled at this rate. You're one of the new freshmen, right? Can you please let her go so we can talk about this maturely? It won't be long before a teacher or a professor hears about this and forcefully separates you two."

Moving his face slightly, Swind's slitted eyes turned to stare at the boy that had had just spoken, making him break out into a cold sweat. Swind didn't say anything and just calmly watched him. It was unnerving, to say the least.

A few seconds passed before Swind slowly nodded his head. "You're right."

He dropped the girl, resulting in her collapsing on the floor. She immediately grabbed her neck and began panting heavily as she refilled her lungs with air.

Swind got down to one knee and held the girl's head up by her hair. "If you ever say anything like that about Rachel again, and I mean ever, then I will kill you. I won't care about the consequences at that point."

At that moment exact, a short lady no taller than 4-feet rounded the corner and frowned. She was wearing the robes of a professor and was quite clearly a dwarf of some sort.

"What's going on here?" she asked in a forced accent as a scowl took a hold of her expression. Clearly, she had trained herself to mask her dwarven slang and heavy dialect that was reminiscent of Earth's own Scottish accent.

The girl who had only just caught her breath scrambled to her feet and pointed a finger at Swind. "That filthy de-, em, that... that man attacked me for no reason! He was going to kill me!"

The professor slowly glanced between all of the gathered students. "Is that true?"

No one dared answer. If they told the truth, no doubt, as a form of revenge, the notoriously petty noble girl would persuade her father to pressure their families. Even as a foreign duke, a duke was still a duke and held immeasurable power both politically and physically, especially since she was from one of the continent's superpowers.

On the other hand, if they chose to lie to help reinforce her statement, then if The Academy ever found out the truth, they could all face expulsion on grounds of bullying a demi-human.

Seeing this, the dwarven professor frowned. "Well, you. Swind the Lemurian, friend to Lone the Ninetails and fellow member of his adventurer group, The Wanderers. What have you got to say for yourself?"

Swind bowed his head respectfully and replied, "This human girl tried to bump into my shoulder to intimidate me, but as I am an A-ranker, I easily dodged her. As a result, she fell onto the floor. I was happy leaving it at that, but then she chose to insult my precious friend and lover, Rachel Redtail - who is currently critically injured and unable to attend her classes."

The professor nodded. "I've heard about her condition and sympathise with her. Soul injuries are no joke, but regardless, a mere baseless insult does not justify threatening a fellow student's life."

Swind nodded. "I fully agree. I ignored her once again and continued on my way, but that was when she muttered under her breath that she would go out of her way to bully Rachel if she ever recovered and that she was hoping Rachel would die to her injuries. I am a tolerant man, but I will not stand such a heinous attitude towards the one that I love, especially as it comes unjustified."

Swind narrowed his eyes and stared dangerously at the trembled noble girl. "Lone has taught me to always give people a second chance. Professor, while I respect you and The Academy as a whole, should she act in such an ugly manner towards me again, I will separate her head from her shoulders. I swear on the Primals."

With the gruesome threat behind him, Swind turned around and walked away. The sight of his bastard sword strapped to his back only helped reinforce his chilling statement. A few of the more learned students were able to identify just how massively powerful that weapon was.

The dwarven professor frowned and held her forehead in her hand. "Primals damn it... All of you, come with me. For not answering my request, you'll all be punished. Don't worry, you won't get expelled or anything severe like that."

She then looked at the girl who had started this. She was, unbelievably, smiling condescendingly towards Swind's back. "What are you grinning for? I'll have to let Headmaster Erion handle you himself. He's given out orders to all members of staff to do so to anyone that causes trouble for The Wanderers. I don't know why he's giving them preferential treatment, but you screwed up badly here."

The girl furrowed her brows. "My father won't allow me to be punished. He'll have that de- that man's head for today. As much as I am against violence, he loves me very dearly."

The dwarf shrugged. "He can try. How strong is your dad again?"

Smiling proudly and holding her hips arrogantly, the noble girl answered, "Father is a double-X-ranker!"

"Heh. Good luck then. Anyway, come with me to Headmaster Erion's office. I'll drag you if I have to," the professor said uncaringly as she tried her best to hide the tremble of her hands by shoving them in her pockets. 'I'm a triple-X-ranker, for the Primals' sake, but that guy... an A-ranker... Fuckin' hell... He could have killed me if he wanted to... What the hell is up with that adventurer group? Even regardless of those insane limbs and that ridiculously powerful sword, he could have still ended me as easily as squishing an overripe turnip... Thank the Primals that none of them took my class... That would be a disaster...'