In the end, amid the panic and fear in the masses, a thought came to Zielle’s mind. Aediva foresaw a golem yet the thing that appeared from the bowel of the dormitories was not a golem but a gigantic slime that towers the whole infrastructure. Why is it like that? Could Aediva’s vision be wrong?

“Aediva…” Zielle called out for the girl but immediately shook her head and snapped out of it rather quickly as she hauled the children that were separated from their parents - her agility proving a great help as she crossed through the area where debris and large chunks of the slime rain over their heads.

The horrified screams of the children pierced her ears but thankfully, it was not for long. As soon as she reached one of the barriers nearby setup by one of the teachers, Zielle dropped them off and turned around just in time to see a slime tentacle come crashing against their barrier. The whole ground shook from the shockwave that the barrier failed to block away. To their panic for a slight moment, some of the children stumbled out of the barrier as some debris and tendrils came down upon them.

“Mama!!!” one of the children screamed. The horrified Zielle almost wanted to puke when she saw how close the debris was on the child's head. Those green eyes looked at the bulky man with a large shield blocking the danger from the children who was almost pancaked by the large chunk of the dormitory wall.

“You’re okay kids. Now get back to the main barrier! I’ll cover you!”

Zielle only stared at the adventurer - noting that he was one of those she had seen with Aediva earlier. That was the moment she noticed a white trailing snaking around the debris and chunks of slime raining down on them. Upon realization, Zielle’s eyes open wide to the pleasant surprise but immediately something rather heavy tugged at her heart when seeing Aediva merely glance at her before disappearing behind the piling rocks.

Zielle bit her lip and looked away before picking up the children who were too scared to run on their own to safety.

“I will kill that girl! I swear I will have her head! How dare she disrupt my plans! Just a little bit more then my creation would’ve been--”

In the room filled with broken tube tanks and bodies of people scattered on the black floor, Rachel stood alone at the podium overseeing the whole room - a dark purple magic circle pulsing as it circles around on the stand.

Rachel panted for air, feeling her whole body ached from the rocks that knocked her out earlier. Fortunately for her, she has the pocket knife that the students overlooked to free herself from the rope that bound her. Rachel spits to the floor, feeling the disgusting sand and dust on her tongue as the result of a sock stuffed into her mouth. That was the last straw for the horrendous existence she had to tolerate.

“That ungrateful little thing… I’m going to kill her for everything” Rachel said like a chant, bloodlust oozing from her whole being as she looked at the monitors with ragged breath. Her orange orbs filled with pure hatred widened when seeing the white trail running towards the dormitory and a wide manic grin appeared on her face.

“Speaking of the devil! Ahahahahahaha!!!” a maniacal laugh echoed in the Battery Room as Rachel scrambled to the magic circle.

“I may have lost my rights to use that wand but I still have this. I’ll kill you before the golem is fully completed. Let’s see how much more you’ll scream, worthless Noi!”

From afar, a trembling young girl merely watched with tears in her eyes and blood on her body as she looked at the deranged warden of the once pristine dorm. She hugged the boy who was wrapped flimsily with her jacket - the coldness from the body betraying her hopes for his survival after he was sapped from his internal mana or rather, his life force.

“I’m so sorry… I’m so sorry… Little brother…” Fay apologized, sobbing uncontrollably - refusing to move even when the roof threatened to fall over her head.

Her whole body aches and her blood that leaked on her skin feels like boiling and scalding the part it touched. She kept running - ignoring everything and everyone around her towards the towering slime.

‘Arthur! Eden!’ she screamed in her head as she narrowly avoided one of the slime’s extensions swooping towards her. That moment, Aediva knew that the slime was indeed controlled by someone and it was directed towards her and her alone.

“Ngh!” Aediva groaned when she was blasted off from the shockwave on an impact coming from a tentacle she didn’t notice. She barely had the time to breathe when another almost crushed her should she not avoided it - albeit at the cost of scraping her arms and chin on the coarse brick road once neatly arranged.

“YOU’VE TRULY LOST IT, HUH? RACHEL?!” angrily, the girl barked at the tower, panting hard as she felt the weight in her body slowly piling against her. Aediva jumped away, just in time to avoid another slime tendril swiping at her head but her agility betrayed her when she failed to avoid another that slammed against her abdomen and sent her flying to the stalls with a resounding boom.

It was a sight that Zielle managed to witness the moment she noticed almost all the slimes retracted and focusing on the sole girl who was at the moment among the closest to the dorm building.

“Aediva!” Zielle shouted, gasping herself when the slithering slime slammed before her and forcing her to retreat a few steps back.

“Do not interfere, Ms. Mythey…” that voice coming from the loudspeakers all around the area startled Zielle.

“I could forgive you for what you have done. I understand that you must’ve been manipulated by that little rascal isn’t it? You poor thing…” Rachel crooned, making Zielle frown.

“What..?”

“Obviously she was using you for her own benefits. Since she has no magic herself, you see. I’m just trying to punish someone who dared to step over their boundaries. An insolent insect like her should be gotten rid of soon or she’ll just cause more problems…” hearing Rachel’s rather irrelevant speech made Zielle confused more than anything.

“What the hell are you rambling about?! You’re just spouting nonsense!” Zielle shouted to the air before the slime slammed all in the direction of the one girl who was clearly injured and almost succumbing to fatigue. Zielle parted her lips to shout for the girl whose figure was not even appearing from the rising smoke from the stalls that were crushed from the impact. But before her voice could call for Aediva, she saw the smoke move in a way it was splitting from a force of something that flew so quick in three rapid successions. Zielle’s looked at the three blurry objects that were thrown from the place where Aediva was and witnessed first hand the sheer destruction it did.

The impact of actual marble pillars tore a large enough hole on the slime’s main body. However, even before Zielle could be at awe at the sheer power of the random thing Aediva hurled at the slime, she was shocked by the much more impressive speed of the slime regenerating its missing mass. Zielle looked back at Aediva, her eyes widened in disbelief at the sheer sight of the girl who looked absolutely enraged.

Her pupils completely dilated like a snake, her irises glowing and swirling like molten silver. Her nose scrunched in disgust and her usually short canine baring like a snake’s fangs. Almost inhuman guttural snarl came from her as she stepped off the piles of wood and stones. The ponytail Zielle has made for her that morning was disarray and loose. Her unofficial school uniform was torn all over.

“I’ll kill you…” the berserker growled.

“How are you not dead?!” Rachel’s voice boomed from the loudspeaker, completely disbelieving what she was probably seeing from where she is. A wild feral grin carved on Aediva’s face as she dragged a marble pillar she probably picked up along the way as she stepped towards the slime tower, her fingers dug deep into the marble pillar.

The one girl watching suddenly felt a heavy weight setting on her shoulders while watching Aediva in her current state.

“Aediva! Stop!” Zielle shouted as she took a step closer only to have Aediva swiping the marble pillar at her - which almost graze the one approaching.

“Stay away. You’re a nuisance” Aediva growled at Zielle before leaping at the slime with the pillar in her hands thrown at the slime tendrils that were slithering towards her.

“Grahhh!!!”

“Hah! Do you think you can outrun my defense system?!”

From a distance Zielle stood in silence as she watched the fight between Aediva and the slime which Rachel stated as a defense system. At that very moment, Zielle quickly realized.

The look of desperation. The reason why Aediva wouldn’t stop even when facing so many of the slime tendrils swiping at her…

Zielle was about to run at Aediva to stop her but unfortunately for her, she was bound to be blocked by a lot of things that day - one of them seemed to be an adventurer who dared to stop her from advancing towards Aediva who was getting closer to the base of the towering slime. Zielle gritted her teeth as annoyance started to bubble to the surface.

“STAY OUT OF MY WAY!” Zielle barked at the one adventurer who was holding her back.

“What do you think you’re doing!? It’s dangerous!” the adventurer said.

“AEDIVA!!! DON’T DO IT!” Zielle shouted.

“Zielle,” that night, after they were done with potions and Zayen’s being forcefully used for duplication magic, Zielle was stopped by the one professor who has been with them the whole time. Aediva and Cath had long been walking to their dorms which left Zayen and Zielle with Cypher. Seeing how Zayen was being so impatient, he was already way ahead of the two who were still lingering at the road leading to the Portal Dome that houses every portal to get to the main school areas.

Zielle stopped when hearing her name being called and turned around to look at the man who had stopped in his tracks.

“I honestly do not wish to ruin your earnest good will to befriend that kid but you are aware of what she’s currently doing are you” Cypher said, sounding cryptic as hell if only Zielle didn’t know what he was on about. But she knows, and honestly, from the get-go when she joined Aediva at the library too.

“I don’t mind,” Zielle said with a dry smile. Zayen had told her about the same thing for quite some time.

“... Her loyalty is to a fault that it’s hard for me to look away. I mean, who wouldn’t want a friend like her? … Even if she sees me as someone who appeared at a convenient timing right now…” Zielle said as Cypher merely stared at her, even with the sunglasses on, she knows he was staring at her while listening intently to what she was saying.

“... Very well. It was me who said you’re allowed to do anything you wished long ago anyway…” Cypher said before a long while of silence set in between the teacher and student.

“... Lord Luzeheart” Zielle called, facing the man upfront and straightened herself with a hand on her chest. Those fingers wrapping around the rounded lion head handle of the walking stick clenched tightly.

“... This is but an old man’s selfish wish…” Cypher said, quietly.

“Will you watch over her? That girl…”

A smile appeared on Zielle’s face even before Cypher could even finish his words.

“... Don’t worry, Professor! I don’t plan to let her go off on her own. She might think of me as a nuisance though. … Well… It’s not like I’m not used to being treated like a tool anyway…” Zielle smiled.

“Don’t bother me!” Zielle shouted and immediately, she threw the one who was holding her wrist and leaped over the boulder in front of her and with a burst of energy, she jumped straight to the girl who was being relentlessly assaulted by the slime or as they know it now - the defense system Rachel set up for her project.

Flinching when she felt the stinging cold as she descended back to the ground near Aediva, Zielle’s suspicions were instantly confirmed right and she won’t allow Aediva to do whatever she had in mind. She swiped her wand and in an instant, earthen blocks raised from the ground and blocked all incoming tendrils.

Seeing how wide those silver eyes were, Zielle only let out a small smile of triumph before the wand slipped from her hand and her body crashed against Aediva as her arms wrapped around the girl drunk from berserk.

Both of their figures disappeared from the place before the slimy protrusions could crush them both.