“Gyahhhhh!!!” their combined shout reverberated in the air. As they find their bodies being pulled back by the powerful gravity, they flail around - careful to not let go of the phylactery in their arms and the unconscious body of their dorm leader.

“This is a bad fucking idea!!!” Eden shouted as they were literally skydiving back to the ground after their unceremonious launch to the air with his own magic. The whole experience felt so surreal. They were so lucky. Eden, for once fucking hopes it doesn’t end any time soon.

Not when their dormitory is a literal battlefield right now.

Those deep red eyes stared in disbelief.

The proud castle where they reside was destroyed - at least half of the whole structure caved in. The beautiful towers torn asunder. Debris strewn across the whole grounds and the jewel gardens dead and burning.

Dark clouds loomed ominously above them, stretching as far as the eyes could see - the suffocating darkness swallowing any light from above. Magic circles appearing here and there from the large barrier outside of the Efren Dorm grounds.

The Creation’s roar deafening in their ears.

Eden wondered in horror for just a second as they are freely falling, ‘How long is this going to drag out?’

“Eden!!! Do something!!!” Arthur’s scream pulled back Eden’s mind into his head. With whatever little mana he had left, Eden swung his wand hard towards the ground.

“Ventiel Adfhal! Wind’s Grand Ode!” he shouted. Lo and behold, bright green manifestations of the wind gather right underneath them. The cradle of wind enveloping them, breaking their fall with utmost gentleness. Until Eden felt all his mana drained and they abruptly fell hard to the ground with loud thud.

“Agh!” the two both shouted in unison - unleashing all the curses in their minds.

Thank goodness it was close to the ground when Eden’s mana depleted.

The two boys laid there on the ground, tired to even utter any more words. Eden clutched the phylactery, bringing it even closer to his chest despite it being already digging into his skin. Arthur sits up with a heavy sigh and his sword dragging behind him - Cath and Daniel unconscious on the ground as he stands ready at the sight of the approaching tendrils.

“This is nuts,” Eden groaned.

“It’s a battlefield. Nothing will give us a break” Arthur huffed, readying his sword in front of him albeit his form was getting poorer each time he lifted that sword. For once, Arthur cursed at himself in his head.

‘If only I’m a lot stronger. I lack practice. This is not where I’m going to be ended’ he thought at the back of his head - only managing to slash one of the protrusions. An unrestrained scream broke from his throat when he felt searing pain at the side of his waist - red pool tainting his white shirt. He gritted his teeth, fearing his strength is starting to fail him when there are at least four more of those slimy protrusions approaching them at a speed that is too fast for him to even counter with his sword.

Emerald eyes widened and closed shut to brace for the incoming death by slime out of things. He waited but it appeared their luck truly hasn’t run out. Arthur felt the temperature dropped with an alarming steepness.

Something as cold as ice grazed past his cheek - a familiar chiming noise made him open his eyes. He stared in relief when seeing what could be a commonplace sight that day.

Black and silver icicles floating around her, a battered girl holding a sword of ice. Her hand was probably numb from holding a sub-zero weapon for so long. Her previously beautiful wavy hair was now choppy and mismatched in length. Blood stained her shirt, the hoodie she religiously wore gone to who-knows-where.

“... Can you still move?” her voice sounded hoarse when she asked Arthur that the young blond man knew she had probably been fighting these completely aggressive tentacles that are still persistently attacking even though its main body was already turned into the golem that’s actively on a rampage right before them.

“The golem?” Arthur murmured, his eyes trained on the gigantic humanoid brick structure that was causing the constant tremors.

“The teachers’ should be ready with their offensive magic by now” Aediva said, her expression stoic unlike her usual smiling self as she stabbed her sword to the ground and made her way to Daniel who’s still quite unconscious. She looked away towards Eden who was still lying on the ground with dark bags under his eyes, his face drained of any color. A sign of mana depletion that’s too close to danger than she’d like.

Wordlessly, she took Daniel to her shoulder - carrying him like a sack and pulled Eden to stand on his two feet. Her free arm wrapped at the back of his waist to support him.

“C’mon buddy. I know you can still walk” she said, sounding tired as hell but still forcing herself past her limits. Eden grunted, clutching the cursed item that’s probably the cause of all the mess they’re trapped in.

They trudged forth, Arthur following their back with Cath tucked in his one arm while another with his sword dragged along. For a second, he took the chance to look behind and watched as the sword Aediva left behind floating around to block the somewhat intelligent protrusions of the slime, coming their way.

“Aediva… You’re pushing yourself too much” Arthur said.

“... Save your energy for other things, Arthur…” was the only reply given to the young man. That proved enough to silence him which Aediva was grateful for. Only after they had only reached the main barrier did he have the courage to speak up again but by that time, Aediva was already turning her back from them.

Arthur almost panicked at the girl’s action but found his body leaning back and falling straight to the grassy ground when his body finally registered his fatigue in the presence of safety.

“Wait! Aediva?!” Arthur straggled a shout as he looked at the paramedics rushing towards them.

“Where are you going?!” he asked, pushing away the oxygen mask that the medics are trying to give him. It was only then he noticed something’s off.

No one saw her except for them.

Arthur now realized that all the time they were heading to the main barrier, it was some sort of a clone of their friend that sent them to safety.

Probably realizing he had noticed, the magical apparition smiled albeit very weakly.

“You idiot! Why the hell are you-” Arthur found himself unable to even continue what he was saying when the dupe made by the Frost mage pointed elsewhere - forcing him to look.

A large bright blue magic circle growing in the sky where the golem was and in seconds, rained down a blinding light towards the golem. Arthur almost felt his heart drop when the golem, despite its scream still stood upright. He can’t believe it.

There was no mistaking it. The accursed creation- Rachel’s abominable creation was actually unharmed from a powerful fifth tier magic. If that’s the magic that Arthur assumed was the result of their teachers’ working, couldn’t scratch the damn thing.

What will?

Arthur looked at Aediva’s shadow as she sighed as if she could feel the question in Arthur’s mind.

“We’re a tad too late. Rachel’s golem is practically speaking, completed by the time you guys freed Daniel from the core pillar and brought out the phylactery” she said.

“No! But we have the phylactery! The golem’s heart! If we destroyed it-”

“Would do nothing actually” Aediva cuts off the young man’s panicked ramblings.

“Then what could destroy that thing?! The most powerful that humans could do is fifth tier magic!” Arthur said, pushing away the medics and stepping closer to the now translucent figure of the girl whose real body is nowhere to be seen. He felt the pain in his waist throbbing, making him fall to his knees from the pain.

“... Something’s approaching” Aediva said, prompting Arthur to look at the sky and at a moment’s notice he noticed something moving past the skies of the academy. Jets. Actual fighter jets.

“The Council of Mages…” there only one association that Arthur could think about when it comes to military force that would send something like that to a damn school.

“So it seems” Aediva replied. Just for a moment, Arthur hoped. Hoped that the missiles that was shot towards the golem fucking works. Imagine his heart crumbled when one of the jets was crushed like a toy by the enraged golem - forcing the other jet to retreat. The missiles that were shot towards the giant golem didn’t even leave a significant scratch.

The dread was simply too much to ignore at that point. Arthur could hear the wails of terrified people who witnessed the same view. Yet one person in his sight didn’t seem to be surprised by that turn of events.

“It’s time,” she murmured.

Arthur stared, dumbfounded and at loss of words.

“Aediva?” he called out, reaching out to her hands yet failing to even grip it for her body was not anymore solid like it was before.

“...” then a smile, a dry one, tugged at the phantom’s face.

“Hey, cheer up. Orbelesia Grace is coming to an end soon” she said.

“... If missiles and fifth tier magic can’t even leave a dent on that foul creation… What the hell could?!” Arthur asked. A chuckle replied to him first.

“A Thaumaturgy” with that final two words uttered to the young man, the phantom disappeared.

Hearing the spike in the ambient sound, Arthur turned and looked. Green orbs dilated at the sight of what only could be described as a large orb gleaming in brilliant silver appearing in the sky like a miniature moon - only it’s filled with an inconceivable amount of mana that he could even feel its presence from where he stood.

“... Orb of Accord?” he muttered in disbelief.

To no one’s expectations, that day, people saw miracles with their own eyes.