Not far away, Allen and the rest of the main party were out in the wild hunting magical beasts and monsters, laying the groundwork to make a name for their adventurer group, when he suddenly saw Avelina behind them enveloped in a burst of red light.
A sense of foreboding instantly welled up in his heart.
“Avelina.”
“Was she attacked?”
Gus, standing by, looked at Avelina with a grave face.
He squatted down and picked up a handful of damp earth.
He could feel that the entire ground was shaking at a very regular frequency.
“What… what do we do? I still have so much stuff in my dorm!”
Yuan seemed to have never encountered such a situation before, and nervously looked to the leader for guidance.
“Most of the freshmen are out in the wild today, aren’t they? Let’s gather with them first and discuss our next move.”
Lilian thought for a moment.
Considering it was the busy season for lower-year students going out for training, they should be able to find quite a few people.
“We still don’t know what’s happening. At the very least, we need to go back and take a look to see if the situation is within our capabilities.”
Allen rested his hands on his hips.
With the current special situation, he couldn’t let panic spread within the team. “You all…”
As they were discussing their options, a spatial rift tore open behind them.
It was Professor Lia, rushing over in haste.
“Professor Lia!”
“What’s the situation at the Academy…”
Lia didn’t seem too anxious.
After a sweep with her magic, she found that most of the people inside had stable vital signs, so it probably wasn’t a massacre.
The Academy was home to the offspring of noble families and important figures.
If they all died, the Academy might as well close down.
“We don’t know either, we were just out training… What they know, they know even less than you, Lia… Tch.”
Lia turned her head, bit her lip with a look of frustration, then gave her orders: “Find a few more companions and prepare for impact—this is no small matter… It could be other countries taking advantage of the situation. Protect yourselves.”
With that, she shot straight into the red light like a cannonball, vanishing from sight.
“….”
Something big was happening.
“What about Avelina, does this have anything to do with us… right, Allen…”
Yuan seemed timid in the face of such a spectacle, thinking that if the sky fell, taller people would hold it up.
Since he wasn’t strong, there was no need to risk himself helping Avelina through her tribulation.
“If this is an invasion by another country, even if Avelina falls, they won’t let us off either…”
Apart from Avelina’s major force, the other stationed troops would need time to gather information and respond.
In one day, they could die hundreds of times over.
Allen immediately understood that he absolutely couldn’t just run away because it “wasn’t his business.”
Otherwise, destruction would be waiting for him in the end.
“Let’s follow Professor Lia’s advice and gather more people first…”
Not far from them, a man in a black robe with a bear mask leaned against a tree, holding twin blades.
There was a sharp gleam in his eyes.
On his left hand, the mark of the Nightingale was glowing blue.
…
Isabella was even closer to Avelina, forming icicles to attack magical beasts.
Because she was a bit anxious, her magic was becoming harder to control.
Her sister was still in the Academy; she had to go back for her.
After killing the magical beasts, she suddenly saw a petite figure flash overhead—it was Lia.
“Professor Lia…”
Remembering Lin Yue’s instructions, her sister might still be in the Academy, and with Avelina clearly in dire straits, she couldn’t help but take out the blue crystal from the wooden box and look toward the Academy.
This must be the time… Lin Yue.
She gripped the crystal tightly and charged straight toward Avelina.
In Avelina’s street, the usually bustling market was now eerily silent.
Shopkeepers, the florist owner, even Uncle Raul, all lay on the ground as if caught in some kind of illusion, sleeping deeply.
Even the senior magi, under the effect of the red light, could no longer resist and collapsed as well.
All of Avelina seemed to have entered an endless Tsukuyomi—those who should be lying down, lay down, and even those who shouldn’t, did as well.
Lia hovered in the air, surveying it all, as if she had figured out the root of the matter.
A red stone.
Relying on her special spatial laws, she refracted the light in such a way as to bend it away, creating a small area where only she was unaffected.
“The Church…”
She landed in the plaza, scanning everything.
Where was the mastermind hiding?
Just as she tried to cover the entire space with her own domain, she suddenly felt her connection to the planar laws abruptly severed.
Lia quickly deployed a barrier spell to compensate for the loss of the laws’ power.
But as she tried to marshal her magic, she found that the magic in this space was extremely thin—almost nonexistent, not enough for her usual extravagant casting.
She swiftly drew a spatial rift on the ground, but no matter what she tried, she couldn’t find an exit from this domain.
She was trapped in a labyrinth.
Gently landing, she dared not use magic to stay afloat any longer.
Now, her only combat resources were the half of her magic power left within her own body.
Normally, she could fight a prolonged battle for almost a month thanks to her monstrous magic recovery speed, but now, with not a scrap of magical energy in the air, she couldn’t just let loose with her spells and rely on her stats to crush her foes…
“The inventor of spatial magic, the youngest sixth-tier in history, the last gem bestowed upon the world by the gods—Lia Karax…”
As she puzzled over the situation, an admiring voice sounded behind her.
In the very moment she was sizing up the situation, a sharp white light shattered her barrier and appeared at her side.
Lia instinctively turned her head—a small cut appeared on her face.
“Who are you?”
Lia’s icy gaze could no longer be restrained; the mysterious invader and the feeling of insecurity from the loss of the laws’ power only piled on her pressure.
She saw a young man applauding, white halos in his eyes flickering with light.
He… had the power of a peak fourth-tier.
“Descent?”
Lia’s eyes narrowed, as if she had already encountered these people’s methods before.
“So it’s the Church. Is it just you?”
Even with her power and destructive spells sealed, a mere fourth-tier wouldn’t be enough to pose a threat.
The youth didn’t answer, only scrutinizing Lia with eyes filled with longing for a powerful vessel.
Lia gathered her magic, lifted a stone brick from the ground, and stuffed it with compressed magic, masking her true intent to blow him to pieces.
“Pathetic…”
Just as the stone brick was about to hit the young man, a burly warrior wielding a giant sword blocked in front of him, taking the full brunt of the explosion.
“Without magic, you’re nothing but a pitiable little girl…”
Just as Lia started to feel cornered, a burst of flame followed close behind.
Boom!
Lia’s shield took a heavy blow; her reserves of magic dropped sharply.
A few more hits and she’d have little magic left for any big spells.
“…”
As the youth’s lips curled into a smile, the mage who had launched the sneak attack suddenly exploded, flesh and blood splattering onto Lia’s mage robe.
The youth’s expression instantly grew grave.
In that instant when he couldn’t see, Lia had threaded the finest strands of her magic into the mage’s body, parasitically draining his power.
With her vast reserves, she drained him in an instant, causing his body to explode.
Lia’s amethyst eyes shone with a dazzling magical glow.
Though it was a mere drop in the bucket, at least she was no longer completely unable to fight back.
As long as she could find an opportunity to tear open even the tiniest crack in this domain, she could wipe out everyone present in an instant.
“So, you’re a mage’s natural enemy.”
He hadn’t expected that, in such dire straits, she could still unexpectedly increase her odds.
She truly was a monster among monsters.
Lia Karax—she had killed numerous fifth-tier priests of the Church, and even a sixth-tier bishop.
Normally, direct confrontation was to be avoided at all costs.
But today, he was determined to see if this legendary comet could be struck down by his own hand.
“What is this domain? Just what has your Church developed?”
Lia had never seen anything that could cut off the world’s source of power.
“Our Church? Heh… Professor Lia, you really are naïve…”
Two more warriors and two mages appeared behind the youth, all with power on par with his—peak fourth-tier.
They were all dressed in the uniforms of Arbos soldiers, as if it really was an infiltration for war.
Their eyes were dull, devoid of independent souls.
The youth deliberately kept the mages behind the warriors to prevent Lia from repeating her trick to recover her strength.
A drop of blood slowly slid down Lia’s cheek from the cut, falling to the ground.
She knew that, at last, this time the enemy was putting real pressure on her.