Chapter 225.

PART 1.

Dhiraj is facing one of the heavy hitters among the invaders. He does not know who he is, but judging by his looks, he is from outside of the Subcontinent. Likely from central Asia. Wherever he might be from, by supporting this invasion, he has made himself the enemy of Dhiraj Bishnoi, the headmaster of this fine institute of learning.

This man seems to be an expert in animation. He is turning the objects around him into walking weapons, as tables and chairs are modified into gruesome-looking creatures that go on to attack others and Dhiraj. But these creatures are no match for Dhiraj’s spells, as he liquifies them before they even reach him.

Manipulating this liquid plastic, Dhiraj tries to strangle his enemy, but he proves to be quite nimble. However, Dhiraj is certain of his victory. It is his area, and the wards are on his side. Speaking of which, they finally start to show their effects, as the movement of the invaders is slowing down, while some of them are falling to illusions crafted by the wards. In their stupor, they attack each other, and the staff and the senior students take advantage of this and begin to slaughter them.

Dhiraj’s foe is also affected, but the illusions have no effect on him. But Dhiraj is not worried. He brings out a viol and breaks it. Rather than letting the potion fall to the ground, Dhiraj manipulates it and creates small globules of it. When they make contact with his enemy, the potion starts to melt through his skin. Once it enters the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth of this unknown man, Dhiraj wins because there is no way to heal the damage. Cutting the head with a Slicer spell, Dhiraj turns to Corvus.

However, it seems that the old mage has involved himself in a battle of his own, with someone who looks around to be the same age as Corvus. Whatever the case, he seems to be handling himself right now, so Dhiraj shifts his focus to other areas. If Corvus needs help, he will ask for it.

PART 2.

As the invasion begins, Corvus is annoyed. Why must they interrupt his retirement time? He is quite happy enjoying his days drinking tea and checking the manuscripts of the books about alchemy. And yet, some idiots keep interrupting him.

“What’s this?” he muttered, sensing a familiar presence that he had not felt for a long time. “Well well well. Look who crawled out of their hole?” he mocked.

“Corvus!” roared the old man, who cleared his path with a wave of magic once he saw the former headmaster and heard his mocking words. “Your tongue is still too sharp for your own good.”

“Shalva Shastri. You tried beating me in my scores, but you failed. You tried taking the position of the headmaster, but you failed. You challenged me to a duel and lost. And it took you this long to crawl out of your home. You do not deserve any consideration from me.” said Corvus, with lightning sparking around his body.

“You. you were always like this. But today, I will end you!” said Shalva, and attacked Corvus with fire.

The fire was easily quenched with the water, while Corvus seized the initiative by using the earth element. Shalva has to jump away, as the ground beneath his feet turns into quicksand, which nearly swallows him. However, he did not sit quietly or go on defense. He also attacked, encasing Corvus in a hunk of rock.

“You dare to use the earth element, you should know that I am the master of this element hahahahahaha!” laughed Shalva, as he prepared to crush Corvus into a pulp.

“You get excited so easily.” Sighed Corvus. His body releases a strange chemical, which melts the rock covering his body. He then attacks Shalva with fire, nearly burning him then and there.

Though he avoided the larger stream of fire, Shalva got burned badly. Taking advantage of this, Corvus prepares to finish him. “You will regret it, mark my words.” He said as Corvus burned him alive.

Proving his words correct, a massive spell is triggered after his death, which prepares to destroy everyone present here. Realizing that there is no time to ask for any help, Corvus smothers this spell with his own magic. Once the spell completes, Corvus gets all the life sapped out of him, and he falls down dead.

PART 3.

The retreat of the monarch goes well in the Doichland. Hatori and Zeko have secured Avinash’s exit, while Josh and Raven follow behind them. As the door opens, they see more attackers coming in, but Hatori and Zeko are not worried about it. They can take them on.

But this is exactly when Albus stabbed Henry in the back. This quickly devolves into chaos, as various monarchs nearly started to fight then and there. The Albions and these masked attackers started to come after Avinash, and the confidence of Hatori and Zeko took a huge blow. There is a limit to how many people they can fight at once after all.

Still, despite being pinned in the middle of the angry monarchs, and the attackers, Hatori and Zeko try their best to keep Avinash out of harm’s way. Josh and Raven provide support, but they are all overstretched since the Albion guards are also attacking them from behind. Hoping for any help in this situation is futile, but they try to get out of there as best as they can.

Hatori thought of using his shape-shifting spell, but he realized that it is not going to be useful here since the spell was likely going to damage others as well. Of course, Avinash is free to cast his own spell, and the tiger made of fire starts to prowl around him, burning anyone who comes too close to the king.

One of the masked mages attacked the wall of the room, and the side where the Subcontinent group was trapped started to collapse. Zeko tries to stabilize it by using the earth element, but he loses focus from the battle.

Hatori was not able to keep an eye on him, and as a result, he saw him die slowly, as the spells of their enemies got passed his defense and damaged his body. Zeko does not fall before he stabilizes the area, and Avinash quickly summons his body and seals it inside the runes on his wrist.

Hatori loses himself in his fury. However, he did not roar or make an angry statement. Instead, using the blood that is flowing in the room freely, he paints the runes for necromancy. The bodies that were dead suddenly have crimson sparks appearing on them, and the corpses get up and start to attack the masked mages.

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Others are horrified by this, but they are unable to stop this from happening. Masked or not, Hatori’s ritual consumes all the corpses, and suddenly, the masked mages are outnumbered by the corpses. As they die, they are also added to the number of these walking corpses.

Realizing that the tables have turned, they try to retreat, but the undead army chases them. Not letting them escape, these corpses slaughter them all, as they run to the entrance of the castle of the Kaiser. “Enough, boy! Let one of them live. We will need one of them to question!” said Batya.

The corpses lose the spark they gained, and then they fall down dead, lifeless as before.

Hours later, the kings are arguing once again. Some of them demand the head of Hatori for his stunt, among them is the pharaoh and to a lesser extent, Kaiser. He does not want the man dead, but at least some token punishment to show that this kind of thing is not acceptable.

Albus is missing from the meeting, as he is imprisoned by the emperor. The Albion guards he brought with him are now dead as well, therefore the country has no presence left in this discussion.

“That boy, he violated the corpses of our men and women! He should be punished for it, for an uncontrolled necromancer like him is a danger to society!” said the pharaoh, slamming the hand on the table.

“Is that so? Well, let me tell you. This man has thwarted two plans of a dangerous necromancer, one of which involved a dead battle mage. And besides, how are you speaking now? You were so quiet before. Given that you were hiding under the table, you hardly have any room to speak.” said Avinash.

“Even so,” said the Kaiser, “His actions cannot be excused so easily.”

“And what about your own actions?” asked Avinash. “For a supposed secure place, how many of your mages were found behind that mask? This was a serious lapse from you. But you don’t say anything about it.”

The Kaiser is furious with that remark, but he refrains from saying anything. He does not have the hire ground here to chastise the young king, even though his words are too sharp to endure.

“Ahem. If I may?” asked Henry.

He has survived the killing attempt by Albus due to his protective enchanted clothes. His guards quickly secured him afterward, so Albus did not get a second chance.

“Of course.” They agreed to listen to him.

Henry brings out the envelopes that Hatori, Josh, and Raven have already seen, and told Avinash about. “I believe you should read this information.”

This, of course, caused even more outrage among them. “Some secret group is manipulating us?” said the Pharoh. “It does make sense. My grandfather did warn me about this after all.”

“The captain of the previous tournament, Peter Volkov acquired this information. He died in the process, so we should be thankful to him,” said Batya.

“But the question is, what do we do now? That the evidence is true there is no question about it. What Albus did today is the biggest proof of that.” said Kaiser.

“Speaking of whom, what do you plan to do with him?” asked Avinash.

“I cannot let him stay here for too long.” said the emperor. “I will send him back because I cannot keep him imprisoned here forever.”

“I get it,” said Avinash with a sour expression. He does not have to like it, however.

“I suggest one plan. For now, we should go back to our own lands, and control the chaos going on there. we should also stop fighting among ourselves, and coordinate to hunt these three and their supporters.” Said Henry.

“I agree with this plan.” Said the Pharaoh.

“Me too.” Said Avinash. “Let’s hope that Zhongguo will have it together, we could use their support in this endeavor.”

PART 5.

Suresh is reading the reports of their operation. So far, the war has gone in their favor. Apart from advising, he has not taken part in this war directly, since it would reflect badly upon their group if a foreign general fought for them directly.

The choke points to the capital were not defended well, which was a serious oversight. The defense of the warlord who took over that area, only arrived there recently, so he did not have much time in setting up the defenses.

While Suresh is reading this report, his guards are dealing with the assassins who came after him. he is not concerned about these amateurs. Ever since he became a mercenary and then joined the forces of the king, he has encountered some truly dangerous assassins. Compared to them, these three are nothing.

“General,” said Liu Bao. “The boss has sent me to get you. We are about to march into the capital, and he wants you to be by his side since you have supported him so much.”

“Do you think I should go there?” asked Suresh bluntly.

“I do not see any harm in it. it will be a signal that the relations between our nations will be warm.” Said Liu Bao.

“Very well. after you, minister.” Said Suresh.

However, when he arrives and looks at the situation, Suresh suspects a trap. The capital is empty of any defense force. They should not be able to march in so easily. Sidling close to the emperor-to-be, he whispers so only he can hear him. “I suspect a trap. You need to be careful here.”

Meng Hao did not give any indication that he heard Suresh. Though he calls Dong Tuna, and whispers some instructions to him. the general then leaves in a hurry to accomplish his assigned task.

Suresh is proven right. When they got inside of the capital, the city was lit on fire. But Meng Hao rallied his forces, and they put out the fire. Meanwhile, Dong Tuna is busy catching the forces of the enemy who caused that fire and killing them.

Despite their best attempt, they are unable to save the city from taking some damage. Half of the capital has burned down, but despite this, Meng Hao takes the throne and becomes the new emperor of the Zhongguo. Suresh, along with his other supporters congratulates him while thinking of his home.

He would like to go back as soon as he can, thank you.

PART 6.

The invaders have been driven away. The funeral for the lost professors and students is currently going on, and among them, is the funeral of Corvus, which is attended by Dhiraj personally.

As the funeral pyre begins to burn, Professor Bali comes to observe it. Looking at the thoughtful expression of the headmaster, he decides to ask. “What are you thinking?”

“We can’t be reactionaries anymore.” Said Dhiraj. “Otherwise, this will keep happening to us.”

“Then what can we do? We are an institute of learning. Not war, remember?” asked Bali.

“I don’t know.” Said Dhiraj. “But I will find a way.”

He will also make sure that the legacy of Corvus is not tarnished by politics, and that he gets all the honors he deserves.