The man smiled wryly. "Not that I know of." He answered his wife without looking at her, constantly maintaining his gaze on the reaper that had appeared in the night sky of his kingdom's capital. There were only two possibilities for this otherworldly phenomenon. Either it could be some expert displaying his might, probably subconsciously. If not that then it is even more disastrous and it is a natural event, warning them of some kind of approaching apocalyptic world event.

"What do we do? No. A better question will be can we even do anything? I can't channel any mana, and I am sure that must be the case with you too." The woman beside made her remarks. Watching her husband nod in agreement, she continued. "I can't tell exactly what it had done. It might have sucked out all the mana from the surroundings or it might just have cut our links with it."

"It is both of them. Yes, it has absorbed a lot of mana around yet from time to time I can feel its presence like my body is trying to latch onto it but it always slips through my grasp like sand." It was a rather shocking revelation for the woman but she kept quiet and turned to look at the entity in the sky, hoping that it will peacefully vanish.

***

In the same palace, there were many underground prison cells. Moving through the narrow caves, at the end of the entire prison system, there was a large gate. It had many large symbols drawn all over it. Behind that door, there was a single man inside the large room. Once again the same symbols can be seen painted on the inner walls of this dark cell.

In the center, there was a raised platform on which the man had been subdued. Thick chains were connecting the collars around his neck and limbs, to the ceiling. Those symbols were painted on even these chains as well as his entire naked body. He was riddled with ghastly wounds.

He seemed to be unconscious but just as the apparition revealed itself in the sky outside, his fingers twitched. Slowly his neck turned and he pulled his head up to look up. His eyes turned completely dark as he stared up as if he was seeing something through the roof overhead.

The whites of his eyes were gone now and he kept staring up until a small grin was revealed on his face. "Hahahaha... Looks like the time has finally come.. hahaha.." It was amazing how this man was able to sense anything that was occurring outside his cell, despite all the restraining spells placed on him.

***

Back at the Greenville magic academy, the entire campus was plunged into an eerie silence. In the largest building, on the top floor, a woman sat in her seat writing something on the paper on her desk. She was on the older side but was still a rather beautiful lady. To her side, her assistant will take the papers away from her, once she was done. Before handing her the next set to work on.

"It's so late at night, Wendy. Please let me get some rest." The woman whined, refusing to sign the next set. The younger woman shook her head firmly. "It can't be done, principal Madelyn. We need to complete all this before morning. So please bear with me." She said, while placed the next set on her desk.

"You can't be this cruel to me, Wendy? Don't you see I am of your mother's age? Please cut me some slack and sign them in my name." Madelyn playfully but her tongue at Wendy. "No... We can't do that principal." Sensing an opportunity, the older woman immediately took action and got her to sit in her place and placing the pen in her hands.

Before Wendy can realize what happened, she was already in the principal's chair. "Hehe.. no one will ever know. You are the best Wendy. Here is your reward." Saying till here, Madelyn pressed her cherry lips on her cheek and gave her a deep peck.

Wendy blushed as she rubbed her face. She took on an angry expression. "How many times have I told you, principal? Don't go on kissing people without their consent." But Madelyn only chuckled as she placed her face directly in front of her's. "Hehe.. but don't you like it when I do that?" Wendy turned even redder in response as her anger grew. "Enough. One more word and you are signing all these by yourself!"

That was it for Madelyn to back off from teasing her junior. "Okay, okay. No need to fuss about it. Here. I will go away." She slowly backed away with both her hands raised in the air, signifying her surrender.

Wendy humphed as she began signing the documents one after the other. All her signatures were an exact copy of Mrs. Madelyn's.

On the other side of the room, Madelyn stretched her limbs as she walked away. But before she can get out of the building she stopped in place, sensing something abnormal. Turning around she walked towards the window. Wendy had not sensed anything and she kept working but before long the lights went out.

As they relied on magic for the illumination, it was a very rare occurrence for the lights to malfunction. Unable to continue, Wendy saw Madelyn staring at something outside the window. She curiously walked towards the principal and began looking out to check what interested Madelyn so much.

Nevertheless, she saw nothing on the ground, outside. Just heavy rain. Turning back at her she can see Madelyn had a serious expression as she stared down. Looking closely Wendy found that the principal was not looking at anything particular, it was more like her eyes were gazing through the void itself.

"Ahem.. is something wrong, principal?" She didn't want to disturb the woman but she had grown but curious. Madelyn took her own sweet time responding to her. "Look up."

Wendy did so but all she can see was a black mass of clouds and nothing else. It took her a full 5 minutes to figure out that they were standing right under a huge gaseous figure. Wendy forgot to even close her jaws in absolute amazement.

***

Some distance away from the principal's office, Yana and her students were hustling through the rain. But suddenly Yana stopped in her tracks as she can feel a heavy burden on her shoulders. She immediately turned to look up and witnessed the phenomenon. Was this sign of an apocalypse? The girls behind her can't feel the pressure she was dealing with and neither can they visualize the entity in the sky, right above their heads.

Yana shook her head. There was nothing she can do to affect this event anyway. There were far more capable people in the capital that can handle it. She had no idea that the people she had placed her hopes on were all standing in awe of the image, with no hope of confronting it.

"Is there something in the sky, teacher?" Sophie called out to Yana, which pulled her back from her reverie. "No. It's nothing. Let me go on ahead." She hurriedly shook her head and ran towards the laboratory. She had a life to save and every second was precious, so she left the girls behind.

***

Julia was comforting Hera in the darkness. A few minutes ago the light orbs had stopped working and she can only blame it on bad weather. "Why had they not brought in Mrs. Yana yet? I am afraid, the more we delay this, the harder it will be for us to save him." Hera warned but there was nothing both of them can do in such a situation.

Julia herself was going through a guilt trip. She recalled the confidence with which she had exerted that he won't have to face death. It was all her fault. They should run some further tests on this potion, considering the effects it can put on the body. She turned to look at the pale face of the boy who had lost all signs of life.

*Thud* Yana dashed through the door. She was rather angered by these stubborn girls. Time and again she had warned them against working on this project but they had always brushed off her warnings, overly confident in their skills. And now it has truly resulted in a tragedy. All this for a few score points more than their contemporaries?

Yet, she knew it was not the time to lash out at them but to save the guy lying lifeless in the bed. But as soon as she saw her face, her anger seemed to have doubled. It was just a child. He was even someone that she was familiar with. It was the sweet little kid that had helped her out in cleaning many a time. How did he end up in a situation like this?

Yana gave a furious look at the two girls, making them cower in fear and drop their gaze in submission and guilt. They had prepared themselves for a scolding but none of it came as their teacher had dashed to sit beside the boy and had taken his hand into her, slowly trying to channel her mana into him.

"Huhh? She can't feel it. She can't sense any mana. Though she knew her body had stored up plenty of it but she can't seem to access it. Julia and Hera saw the frown on her face and they came closer. They saw Yana try again and again with both his hands and his chest but nothing was working and the woman was growing frustrated with every minute.

"Is there something wrong, Mrs. Yana?" Their teacher was the last hope they have in saving the boy. If she too failed, then they had to prepare for the worst. Not only would they have gotten a slave boy killed, but it will also affect their grades.

"I can't sense any mana. You guys check too. Can you feel anything?" Both girls hurriedly did the same but just like Yana, they can only frown. Julia checked with Hera before replying. "We can't, teacher."

Yana didn't respond to them. Instead fell into deep thought. It must be that phenomenon that was going on, outside. It must be cutting them off from the mana in the atmosphere. What will she do now? Every second passing was an extra nail in this poor boy's coffin.

Few more minutes passed and now all 5 girls were surrounding Yana, who was still struggling with the boy. Anxiety can be seen on all their faces as they looked at each other in silence. All their hopes were slipping by. But what had them bewildered, that none of them, including their teacher, can use mana, at all. This was the first time they had faced such a bizarre situation in their lives.

Yana was rubbing the boy's hand to produce some heat when suddenly she can feel her link get established. Without wasting any time she began channeling her mana in his body to check what had gone wrong. As they watched Yana's hands glow the girls sighed with a breath of relief.

"Aggghhhhhuuuuuu.. huuuu.. huuuuu..." Most of them stumbled on their feet, as the slave they had assumed dead, literally came back from dead. He was trying to suck in large quantities of air into his oxygen-deprived lungs.

Yana hadn't even begun a diagnosis when the boy came back alive, on his own. Her eyes were a bit moist as she saw him pat his chest while trying to gulp as much Asir as possible. Yana didn't care about the difference in their status and held the boy against her chest. "There, there.. don't worry... My boy... It's okay." She knew the boy was in shock from the extreme predicament he went through. She rubbed his back trying to soothe him.

Others watched in awe as the boy and the women kept holding onto each other for a long time. In the end, once the boy gained some semblance he blushed and broke the hug. "Ahem... I am okay, Mrs. Yana."