“Thud, thud, thud”

“Watch out, there are shade beasts here!”

“Shing!”

There were shade beasts on the other side of the wall. Unfortunately for the beasts, however, these were not the same people as they were before entering the academy. Needless to say, any who approached were quickly eradicated. Even the weakest of the bunch—Elany—could now hold her own against a shade beast.

The path led up a sort of hill, which they climbed as the sun rose over the territory.

“Woah, you can see everything from here!” Elany exclaimed.

“So pretty.” Aileen breathed out.

The Shildwell territories had indeed been ravaged by war, but enough time had passed that the damaged foliage had grown back, presenting them with a wonderful spectacle before them. Sure, there were countless ruins spread about the land, but it just tended to add to the mood. It felt as though they were exploring a long lost land.

“Not only can you see the next city from here, if you look closely, you can see the palace ruins, as well.” Flint pointed out.

“Anyone want to go ahead to check for signs of Lucy? I don’t feel like making a big scene right now.”

“I’ll go” Eric volunteered.

“Alright then, I’ll give you a little head start,” Reylor smiled as he placed his hand on Eric’s shoulder.

“Poof” Eric was instantly transferred to a place just a short distance from the city gates.

The rest walked, arriving at the city shortly after Eric exited it.

“I found some news.” His eyes sparkled. “It appears that Lucy has set up a mage school, which she teaches at regularly. And do you want to guess where it’s at?”

“Is it here?” Elany asked the obvious question with a look of excitement.

“Yes it is. Not only that, but she is here right now! She just took her students to a field nearby for some long-ranged practice. But keep in mind, she is going by the alias of Rose in case someone from Vilnor comes by.”

Everyone nodded their heads in acknowledgement.

“Let’s go,” Eric said, leading them toward the plain.

Looking closely, they could see a lady wearing a sleek white dress with gold and red trimmings, and with red hair tied up in a bun.

“Whoosh” There was a slight and gradual pulling sensation in the atmosphere.

The eyes of Reylor, Khes, and Eric all narrowed at the same time.

“Link up!” Reylor yelled, holding out his hands. Everyone grabbed hands, and Reylor teleported them to the field.

“Hello?” “Rose” was taken aback with the sudden appearance of six unfamiliar figures. Well, some of the felt almost familiar, but not quite.

“Everyone gather together, or you’re gonna die! Flint yelled out, after also catching on to the situation.

With an expression of confusion, Rose paused for a moment. A moment was all it took for her face to take on a horrified expression. “Do as he says!” She called out. She didn’t know if these “strangers” could do something about the situation, but she didn’t have much choice but to chance it.

A prime spell. A prime spell had been activated, and the caster definitely was not weak, as evidenced by how much magical energy was being channeled into it.

The spell slowly, yet quickly began to form into a mass of ice-type magical energy.

“Arcane Aegis!” A shield formed in front of Reylor as he moved in front of the rest of the group.

“What are you doing?” Rose yelled out, as her stomach began to churn and thoughts raced through her mind. “Why? Why are you doing this? I was responsible for this, for not paying attention. Why does someone else have to be the one to die from my mistake?”

“Voosh” By this time everyone realize something was going seriously wrong, and Aileen erected her dome barrier over the group.

“Kabam!” The ball of magical energy exploded into various-sized fragments of ice, which began blasting down from the sky in front of them.

“Thud, thud, Schump”

The ice shards slammed into the shield, with the smaller fragments being absorbed and the larger ones bouncing off. There was so much pressure, though, that Reylor began to be pushed backward from the residual pressure.

Aileen began to sweat from the effort of holding back the after shocks released from the collision of the prime spell with the arcane aegis.

“Requiem of the saints, sing unto me” Elany softly voiced. The sound of an angelic choir seemed to descent from the sky, soothing the nerves and calming all within range. This reduced the pressure on Aileen’s mind, helping her to keep the barrier up.

At the same time, Flint was not idle.

“Crrr” “Thunk” A pillar of bedrock broke through the ground and anchored itself just behind Reylor, giving him something to brace himself against.

“Thunk, Thunk” Two low but sturdy earthen walls rose up in front of Aileen’s barrier, reducing the pressure even more. She was still under a lot of pressure, but at least her ragged breaths began to even out a bit.

Unfortunately, Reylor was not as well off. The spell let off at Votran High was merely a low-class prime spells released from a scroll. This, on the other hand, was a very high level spell which had been activated by using a full chant.

Sweat began to drip down his forehead.

“Oh, no,” Lucy thought. “He’s running out of mana”

The even though the Arcane Aegis was able to pull magical energy from other dimensions, it still required a massive sum in order to maintain to form of the spell. And even though Reylor, as a Seldin, had flawless magical affinity, a large mana pool was something that would still have to be trained.

As an expert magician, and now a teacher, Rose knew the signs of mana exhaustion intimately.

“If we are to die, it will be fighting.” She narrowed her eyes. “Everyone, try to give me some space!” She called out, earning herself a small area in the corner of the barrier.

Phoenix skin, stage one! Her body ignited with white flames, though this time the flames were not nearly as hot as when she faced the mages on the road to Votran.

She stepped out of the barrier, and was immediately bombarded with the pressure waves. Her armor flickered, but held enough to help repress the pressure as she slowly pressed forward. “Crrr” A set of solid stone footholds appeared, leading to where Reylor was, once Flint realized what Rose was attempting to do.

Finally arriving behind Reylor, she braced herself against Flint’s stone pillar, as well.

“This will be strange and hurt a bit, but bear with me” She yelled out, with her voice barely breaking through the cacophony of sound coming from impacts to the shield.

She reached forward and latched onto his waist, to keep herself from being blow backward. She then slipped one of her hands under his shirt and placed it just below his chest—right where his mana core would be situated. “Sssss” Her hand grew hot, searing both his skin and hers. Then the heat went away and was replaced with a strange kind of warmth, along with another phenomenon—the meridians in her hands connected with the meridians just below his chest. Reylor felt an indescribable warmth as mana began to pour from Rose’s mana core into his. This time Reylor was able to begin breathing a bit easier, as through their connection, he was innately made aware of her abundance of mana—it was an insane amount.

Not only did Shildwell descendants have fantastic affinity for fire magic, they also had another, less obvious advantage to the general populace—they had massive mana cores, even before they began training, no need to mention how much mana they could contain after being trained.

“Woosh” The prime spell fluctuated slightly as what ambient magical energy remained was retracted for use by another spell.

“No, this can’t be happening” ran through the minds of both Reylor and Lucy at the same time. The others inside the barrier didn’t notice it. “We are having enough trouble against just this one spell…”

But then something surprising happened. The magical energy condensed into a spear, but this spear was odd. First off, it was not pointed at Reylor and Rose’s group, but toward a position in the sky. That wasn’t the only thing, though. It didn’t seem to be made from any particular type of known magic. It was translucent, yet shimmered, as if it were made of diamond.

Suddenly, the spear flew forward and an incredible speed, and its movement was followed by a shriek as a mage fell from the sky, impaled by the spear.

Also, at that moment, the prime spell dispersed. This being the case, Reylor waved his hand, dispersing the shield. Lucy severed the link between their meridians and then helped the extremely weak Reylor back into the barrier. Elany quickly cast healing spells on both of them.

At this point, Reylor knelt down for a moment. “Kachink” Now having a moment to spare, he was able to switch his meridians back to his spatial energy core. Life seemed to return to his eyes as the spatial energy began circulating through his body. Unfortunately, it took most of the reserves he had left just to get back to this point, so he quickly switched back to his mana core and sat down to regenerate his mana.

Having been relieved from the pressure of the prime spell, everyone felt relieved. It did not last for long, however. They sky lit up with color as an army of Vilnor mages revealed themselves. “Dangit!” Flint yelled out, voicing the thoughts of many. “He even brought friends.”

The obvious course of action at this point would be to open a space gate and run out of there, but unfortunately, Reylor did not have enough spatial energy left, and one of the mages was using a space-lock spell, which prevented anyone within a certain distance from opening a spatial gate via magic.

Things were not looking good at all. But just when most were despairing, a single person appeared. A figure descended from the heights of the sky, clad in an exquisite white robe, and disguised under a hood. She gracefully spread out her hands as she chanted words that no one could hear. The earth trembled.

“They are pulling energy directly from the earth!” Flint exclaimed. Aside from earth and void magic, no spell should be able to accomplish this feat, yet here was some person who was doing so with a strange spell that was neither earth nor void-aspected.

The whole world seemed to shudder, as a multitude of glassy figures formed in the sky. These figures ranged from the shape of simple fish to sharks to massive whales, along with all sorts of other swimming creatures. It felt like the sky had suddenly turned into an ocean!

“Feast!” A smooth voice split through the air, ringing out.

The magical creatures shot out, devouring the mages they encountered.

“It’s her! It’s the witch! It’s the witch!” an older practitioner called out.

“Shing—th-th-th-thunk” A torrent of crystals rained down from the sky, decimating a squad that were trying to sneak up on the group under Aileen’s barrier.

“Wrrrr”

Several spatial gates were opened up from the outside as a new army of mages began flooding out. Meanwhile, the sea of crystal creatures had dissipated.

All the students within the barrier began to wear downcast faces. They thought they were saved, but now even more were coming. And surely such a massive spell could not be repeated…

Khes smirked.

An eerie sight unfolded as all the mostly intact corpses rose up from the ground—and they began attacking the new batch of mages!

If one could see under Queen’s hood, they would have noticed a quizzical expression on even her face!

Unfortunately, undeads were significantly inferior to the living, when it came to people, but Khes was still able to take out a large group of the new arrivals, and each death meant another addition to his army. In addition, whoever he could not kill with his army, he could at least pressure and wear down. Meanwhile, one more portal opened—though this one was only large enough to accommodate one person. A muscular man emerged and immediately plunged down into the center of the fray.

“Kaboom!” A shockwave was emitted as he slammed into the ground, creating a crater and instantly killing everyone within 10 yards of him, and injuring everyone within twenty. He then proceeded to run forward. He would find a patch of mages and perform a few hand seals, and then a great pressure would come over them, ending their lives. A few were able to withstand the pressure, though, but for them he would simply punch in their direction. His fist never made contact—but it didn’t need to, as a sharp aura continued out, slamming against the mages and ultimately ending their lives.

Of course, many mages attempted to counter attack this man, but whenever a spell was close to making contact with him, a rune on his body would light up and shatter the spell. This was the might of Xendus.

Meanwhile, an endless hail of crystals came from Queen, pelting the entire battlefield around Xendus.

“Xendus, you dare!” A man cried out, rushing toward his position. This man, as well, had bulging muscles and runes covering his body. He was another grand auramancer.

While auramancers were rare, and grand auramancers could be considered anomalies in the world, Xendus was not the only one of his kind. His fame was not without reason, however.

Xendus turned and raced in the direction of the voice.

“Kabam! An earsplitting noise rang out as fist collided with fist, and the earth fractured below them.

“Boom, boom, booom” Under the loud peals of aura collision, a vast area was cleared out since nobody wanted to deal with the sound and pressure up close.

Meanwhile, the battlefield had cleared out enough that Queen had now begun targeting individual mages, instead of using her costly area-of-effect spells.

At this time, Khes, Flint, and Rose left the barrier in search of their own prey. Rose would pick out a particularly strong mage to fight against, while Flint and Khes worked together to clear out any nearby mages until she could kill the one she was fighting against. It was a slaughter fest.

Finally, the spatial gates closed, and all of the mages in the area had been defeated—leaving only the one auramancer fighting against Xendus.

Xendus and the other auramancer both pulled their arms back, preparing to put all they had into one final strike, as they both furiously gathered their auras into their fists. The nameless auramancer’s muscles bulged. Xendus’s… Didn’t… He smirked. The other sensed something was wrong, but it was too late.

“Shoof”

The auramancer fell dead.

While he was gathering aura into his fist, the man failed to keep some protection around the rest of his body, since there weren’t any melee soldiers nearby and mage spells would be repelled by the runes on his body. What he was not prepared for, however, was a sneaky ranger that had circled around them during the fight. With one arrow, Eric had taken the life of a grand auramancer—and thus ended the war.