The students in the courtyard were shocked when Kye suddenly hit the ground. The impact threw dust and chunks of concrete all over the place. Layla blew the dust away and rushed to where Kye landed. She rolled over and was struggling to her feet.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m gonna feel that one tomorrow,” Kye said as Layla helped her up. “I’ll be fine, I cushioned myself with aether. The landing was nothing compared to the beast’s punch. That thing is using mana and it was still more powerful than my aether output.” Kye looked around at the students in the courtyard. “All of you, take shelter this instant. You cannot be outside at a time like this! The more we have to worry about you, the more we are distracted in combat.”

The students didn’t move, they just looked at her as if she had said nothing.

“What the hell?”

“You heard her, take shelter!” Layla echoed. The students still didn’t move. One of them snapped a finger next to his ear and acted as though he didn’t hear that either. Layla quickly accessed her phone HUD and used her authority to force all of them into a single channel. “Go take shelter. If your hearing loss persists, go to the infirmary once we announce that it’s safe to go outside.”

“““Yes, ma’am!””” The group ran away toward their dorms, as instructed.

Layla removed the channel and turned back to Kye. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m okay enough. A little pissed off, even.”

Layla wasn’t convinced and began using healing magic on Kye. She felt better right away.

“Your healing magic is so soothing, mom.”

“It makes me happy to hear you still call me that.”

“Hmm?”

“Mom.”

“Oh. Why wouldn’t I still call you that? Just because you’re one of my instructors now that doesn’t change-”

“That’s not what I mean.”

Kye smiled at her. “Yeah, I know. You may not be my first mother, but you are still my mother. Despite knowing what I am, you still came down here out of concern. I’ve had parents abandon me in past lives after they learned the truth, but - at least from my perspective - you don’t care about that.”

Layla tearfully hugged her daughter, unable to hold back after hearing what Kye said.

“I hate to interrupt you two, but we have a battle to win,” Allison said over the channel.

“She’s right,” Layla said.

“Before we go back up, I have a question,” Kye said.

“What’s up?”

“Why is everyone holding back? Only Alethea and I are using aether.”

Layla grimaced, knowing she wouldn’t be able to lie, but she wasn’t sure how to explain it. “Aether is very rare. The total number of people known to possess it... is less than ten thousand. That’s across the thousands of planets in all five universes. Even royals aren’t guaranteed to have it. And even among those that do have it... it’s extremely difficult to use.”

“You have it, right?”

“Yes, but I can’t use it in combat. It’s very powerful but for those of us that don’t have a strong control over it... it’s basically all or nothing. And even the most basic spell cast with it is devastating in our hands. If I were to cast Flare with aether, the same spell you and Alethea used earlier, the city below would be put in danger. Even Allison has trouble with it, and she was a child prodigy like you.”

“But, Alethea and I-”

“The two of you use it like it’s second nature. Your control is nothing short of a miracle to us.”

Kye thought to herself for a second but quickly remembered what Allison had just said only a moment prior. “We should discuss this more later. For now...” Kye flared her light aether to full power. “We have a battle to win.”

When Kye was knocked out of the sky, Alethea reacted differently than Layla. While Layla went after Kye, Alethea went after the S-Class. White mana and white aether were already more potent than other types, and she engaged the beast with everything she had.

“Overdrive.” The aura of white aether around her body changed, and the glow in her eyes refined. A ring around the edges of her pupils and irises formed, and her irises continued to glow but very dimly compared to the rings. A thin outline formed around her body surrounded by a thicker, dimmer aura.

Unbelievable. Allison was watching in awe. Her control of aether is... unreal. She’s just sixteen years old and she can already do this much? Even if they are reincarnations, this is just... What in the world has she experienced? She could turn society on its head with this. Her output was a far cry from my own before, but after she used that “Overdrive” spell it’s no longer insignificant. Can they both do that?

Alethea had already earned its attention with void magic, but now that she was putting out so much more power the beast saw her as the biggest threat. She was angry and ready to fight. The beast rushed Alethea, but Allison had no intention of letting the beast ignore her. Allison ramped up her mana output to match Alethea and chased after it.

A sword suddenly appeared in the beast’s hand and was engulfed in its mana. It brought the sword down on Alethea, but it merely cut through the air. Alethea moved quickly. She dodged to the side and countered the beast with a downward cut across its chest. The beast reached out with its left hand, but Alethea was already gone. She left a ball of aether in her place just as the beast was trying to grab her, and its fist closed around it. The fist vanished as it touched the orb, the beast drawing back a handless wrist. Allison and Alethea capitalized on the distraction and sliced through its chest, Alethea from the front left and Allison from the back right. The beast’s lower half fell briefly but quickly flew back up to reconnect with its body. Its fist regenerated quickly as well.

“That’s quite the regenerative power,” Alethea said. “Three seconds to completely recover from that.”

“Yes, meaning we’ll have to take it down in two.” Allison glanced at Kye and Layla on the ground and saw the two of them in the middle of a hug. She sighed in exasperation. “I hate to interrupt you two, but we have a battle to win.”

Fully recovered, the beast charged again. Alethea and Allison began exchanging blows with the beast. One blocked while the other landed a powerful attack, switching it up frequently. The beast possessed an incredible amount of mana, but Allison and Alethea had experience on their side, and soon Kye joined them.

Allison noted that Kye’s change in appearance matched Alethea’s. Both her eyes and aura were refined in the same way. So, she did it, too. If not for the appearance, I can tell from the massive increase in her output.

“Do you think you can restrain this thing with your increased power?” Allison asked. “If you work together?”

“Possibly,” Kye said. “Do you have a plan?”

“I do. I’ll use aether to kill it, but my control isn’t as good as yours. I’ll need a stationary target to do it safely.”

“Safely?” Alethea asked.

“I’ll explain what she means later,” Kye said. “I just learned myself. Trust her, though, it’ll be worth it to try.”

“Okay, let’s do it.”

Kye and Alethea immediately set to work before the beast could recover from their previous attack. A myriad of aether-generated objects appeared as they channeled their power. First, a set of golden chains wrapped around the beast, then a set of thicker white chains did the same. After, a series of black and gold orbs appeared around the beast, and thin lines of aether attached to the golden chains. Alethea created a set of white circles, flat side pointed at the beast, surrounding it. It didn’t appear that they did anything. Finally, the girls joined hands and placed the final binding on the beast: a sphere of gold and white mana surrounding it.

“It’s done. The beast is restrained!” Alethea said.

“These bindings will hold it, I have no doubt,” Kye added.

Allison released her aether and aimed at the beast. The sheer amount of aether she released dwarfed Kye and Alethea, however, her aether did not refine as theirs did. Allison’s blue aether simply covered her body and her eyes glowed blue, unlike the unique appearance that Kye and Alethea’s aether took.

Allison drew a large circle in the air with her aether and began channeling into it. The beast struggled all the while, unable to move even a hair’s breadth under the multiple layers of binding spells. Allison was chanting throughout her casting, not wanting to allow even the slightest error.

“Heed my call and come forth. Give form to my offering.” As she chanted, the ring of aether changed into a magic circle and small orb-shaped catalysts formed around its edge. “Find the focus. All is connected.” A circle-shaped catalyst formed in front of the magic circle, and a line of aether connected each orb catalyst to the circle catalyst. “Expand. None before may oppose the judgment of the goddess.” The magic circle and all the catalysts quickly grew in size, roughly ten times their original size. Allison placed both hands on the magic circle and spoke the name of the spell, “Annihilation!” A massive surge of aether poured from Allison to the magic circle, where it was distributed to the orb catalysts and focused into the single circle catalyst. A beam of raw aether blasted forth from the circle catalyst and completely engulfed the beast, bindings and all. Nothing was left of the S-Class beast or any other caught in the line of fire behind it.

When Allison stopped channeling, Kye and Alethea high-fived each other and cheered. “We did it!” They flew over to Allison and held her hands out for her to do the same. Allison was taken aback by the sudden celebration but gave in, smiled, and high-fived them. As they celebrated, a gigantic magic circle formed and sealed the rift above.

“Looks like the Atlantis sisters finished their spell,” Allison said. “Come on, you two, let’s clean up the leftovers.”

“Right,” Alethea said. “We should work quickly before Overdrive wears off.”

“What exactly is that spell?”

“Uhh... I’ll explain later,” Kye said. “It has a time limit, and we won’t be able to fight once it’s gone.”

“I see. Let’s get this done quickly, then.”