Inside the manor was pure chaos, now it wasn't only the explosions that was causing panic, but the other families in the manor.

It has now become evident that the Ayuna's were at their weakest, and if their enemies didn't take this opportunity to destroy this branch family, then they would most likely die regretting it.

So then began the slaughter, the manor was full of screams of the younger generation, and it wasn't only the Ayuna's being slaughtered, but their servants as well.

The only one who wasn't having that much trouble was Onyx, who was escaping with his cousins.

It was the complete opposite in the slave quarters compared to the manor, at the moment everything was still.

Inside the room, Cronix was frowning, "Cayden we've got to leave right now, too many people are dying, and it's starting to scare me! This is our fault, I'm already indirecting killing people." Cronix's voice was slowly becoming strained the more he spoke about death.

But Cayden was slightly confused about what he said, "What do you mean you could feel it?"

Cronix's eyebrows furrowed slightly, "You can't feel it...?"

Shaking his head, Cayden said, "No, but that doesn't matter right now, we need to get Lapsa and leave this place. But we can't leave this room with all the fighting outside." Cayden stayed logical despite Cronix's worries.

Scrambling his hair, Cronix tried to think of any way to leave this room, without dying or leaving anyone behind.

His eyes suddenly brightened as he reached into his magic bag for something he completely forgotten he had. He took out a cloak, this cloak wasn't magical, but it was extraordinary.

However, Cayden couldn't see that, "What the heck are you doing, wearing more layers isn't going to help you."

Cronix ignored Cayden, and finished putting on the cloak, when he put on the hood Cayden gasped.

While he could still see Cronix with his eyes, he couldn't sense him. It's like his presence vanished.

Outside the room, the two Core Creation experts were slightly frowning, while they were fighting the crow, they were also paying attention to their surroundings, and sensing every being around them.

They knew there were two boys in one of the rooms, and they sensed Lapsa behind one of the buildings, as for Riley... They didn't sense him!

But now inside one of the rooms, there was another person they didn't sense, and that's what drew their attention.

But the crow didn't allow them to be distracted. The earlier negotiations failed the moment Ortan told the headmistress about Riley's involvement, so they were back to fighting.

While they were distracted, the door to one of the rooms quietly opened. Cronix silently walked out of the door, there were some black particles in the air coming off from some black flowers he had never seen before.

He glanced at the fight happening less than 15 feet away from him, the crow and the headmistress were both casting spells, or more so the headmistress since the crow didn't know many spells and used basic attacks, while the head butler sat on the side resting.

A worried flash appeared in his eyes as he saw the crow on the losing side of that fight.

But he knew he didn't have the time to worry, so he quickly scanned the nearby surroundings. It didn't take long for him to see both Lapsa and Riley hiding behind another one of the quarters.

He slowly made his way to their location trying not to draw any attention from the fighting Core Creation experts.

Despite walking to them in their frontal view, they didn't notice him, they were too distracted by the fight.

So when they both heard a sound in front of them, Lapsa jumped, and Riley immediately attacked, a trail of fire suddenly blasted into the front of Cronix's cloak.

While there was no effect, thanks to the cloak, the power of the blast shocked Cronix, it wasn't something a Caster stage magic user should possess.

And Cronix wasn't the only one to notice, all three of the Core Creation magic users' eyes darted over to where Riley shot his blast.

But while the other two were distracted by the seemingly arrival of another Core Creation stage magic user, Mistress Amethyst directed the surrounding pollen at the crow.

The dark elements around the bird suddenly grew excited, and a thick feeling of dread enveloped her.

Out of her peripheral vision, she saw a monstrous cloud of black pollen heading her way. Not willing to waste any of her remaining time, she flew up, but the pollen followed her.

Once the bird was high enough, she dove and twirled, the dark elements around her followed her movements, creating a spinning cone.

The cone slammed down on the pollen cutting through the cloud, and heading straight towards the headmistress.

However the headmistress wasn't going to just watch and do nothing. No, instead her whole hand became covered in lightning, with sparks flying off in all directions.

She raised her hand up in the sky towards the crow, her hand was in a closed fist except for her pointer and middle fingers which pointed towards the sky, the lightning left through those fingers.

The lightning and the cone collided, creating a shockwave that spread out to the surrounding buildings; some of the more weaker buildings even showed signs of collapsing.

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Both bird and human were knocked away, but right when the bird landed, a second attack rang out, but it wasn't one of electricity, but of fire.

"Damn it." Cronix couldn't help but mutter this when he saw the crow being attacked by Ortan, but being a Caster stage magic user there was nothing he could do, but that wouldn't stop him from trying.

He took out pieces of paper from his magic bag, and imprinted a teleportation array with 12 lines in an instant, but just as he was about to send it towards Ortan, an arm stopped him.

The arm belonged to Riley, "You're too weak, let me handle this."

While Cronix didn't know Riley well, he felt the strength of the blast through the cloak, and it was barely comparable to someone in the Core Creation stage.

However there was something else he noticed about Riley through that blast, his power was unstable, as if it could vanish at any time, and the dark elements around him were chaotic.

The crow and him were probably the only ones here who knew what that meant. Cronix took a meaningful look at Riley before nodding and turning to Lapsa.

He grabbed Lapsa's arm and ran back to the room. Riley watched them leave before he looked back at the battle with a little dread, but more so anticipation.

Around him, two shapes began to materialize in the air, on his left a sword and on his right an axe.

As they took shape, Riley's speed accelerated. Ortan already noticed Riley running towards him, so he wasn't caught off guard, and the next ring of his fire bell created a wave that went in all directions.

Riley didn't panic however as both of his weapons swung themselves against only the spot right ahead of him.

With the slice of both weapons an opening was created in the wave, Riley dashed through it and took a swing at Ortan.

Ortan's bell that was originally only the size of a fist suddenly expanded, until it was the size of a boulder, the loud clunk sound resounded as the weapons hit the bell.

Inside the room, Cronix brought in Lapsa, and immediately ran up to the array. A large amount of mental energy left his expanse and entered the array.

The array flickered a bit before fully activating. Cronix let out a soft sigh, while his actions may have seemed unafraid, he was actually terrified of the possibility of him failing.

"Okay, all we need is to get her back over here, and we're ready to go. We only have a minute to do this." Cronix muttered.

Cayden sighed, "Let me get her. Stay here and manage the array."

Cronix nodded, but before he let Cayden leave he threw his cloak at him, "It'll keep you safe."

While Riley kept Ortan busy, the crow was allowed to give her full attention to the headmistress.

But there was a hint of scorn in the mistress's eyes when she glanced at Riley, "As a young master of the house, do you feel no shame using the blood sacrifice art for servants, to use against your own family?"

Riley's eyes narrowed, and he tried to pay attention to his own fight. The headmistress stopped paying attention to Riley and stared at the crow.

But before anything else could happen here, the earth began to shift. The crow saw far off from her side, a cloaked figure staring at them manipulating the earth.

She recognized both the cloak and the person, she knew this was her signal to end this.

From within her body came out an orb smaller than an avocado seed, and she threw it up straight at the head mistress before quickly flying off.

The head mistress reacted before she could stop herself, and used a bolt of lightning to attack the orb before it hit her, resulting in its collapse. The collapse released all the remaining energy inside the core, creating an explosion.

The explosion wasn't large but it was powerful, and it affected the whole area.

Riley was smart, and when he saw the Crow retreated, he followed behind. The crow flew quickly for Cayden, and into the cloak she landed, Riley was the same, while he did have to squeeze tightly with Cayden to make that happen.

Ortan wasn't so lucky, he didn't understand what was happening, and when he did, it was far too late.

But there was a major problem with this explosion, while the three of them were safe, the room with the array wasn't.

That problem immediately caught the attention of everyone inside the cloak. Cayden was the first to react, creating a massive earth wall.

While the other two couldn't make structures like Cayden, they did what they could using their elements to try and neutralize the force.

Even with their combined efforts it was difficult, but what really surprised Cayden was the durability of the cloak.

This was the collapse of a Star Core Magician's core, yet it somehow managed to stay intact without any bit of damage.

Once the power of the explosion dispersed, Riley looked on at the destruction it caused, most of the quarters were destroyed by the blast.

The room with the teleportation array barely survived thanks to the combined efforts of Cayden, the crow, and Riley, but even then all the walls and roof were destroyed, the only remaining thing intact was the floor.

The destroyed walls revealed a pale Lapsa and a very stressed out Cronix, he was touching the array infusing his mental energy like his life depended on it.

A minute had already passed, which was the time the array was supposed to expire, but like he saw Mr. Williams do at the mines in Alktarsha, he was forcefully extending the time.

There wasn't much emotion in Riley's eyes as he looked on at the destruction, and if there was any, it'd probably be melancholy.

Cayden watched Riley, he walked up to him and grabbed his shoulder, "Let's go."

Riley's eyes closed, and they stayed closed for a few seconds, when he opened them, there was a small hint of resolve.

He turned to Cayden and shook his head, "They're not dead." And as if on cue, the rubble began to shift, revealing two bloody figures, but they were extremely weak, but the same could be said for everyone else.

Especially the crow, using the beast core had taken a toll on her body, and with the added burden of having to help defend the array, she was running on fumes.

Cayden frowned, and cursed under his breath, "Why is it so hard to kill someone at the Core Creation stage?!"

Chuckling, Riley turned to face the head butler and the headmistress, but his eyes seemed more focused on mistress Amethyst than butler Ortan, "You should go." He quietly said.

"Wait, you're still not coming with us?" Cayden's grip on Riley's shoulder tightened, which caused Riley to sigh.

He grabbed the hand on his shoulder and said, "Neither of us have much time left, you really should go. Here, I give you this and I'll help you take out any loose ends."

Riley then grabbed his magic bag that was on his waist, and placed it in Cayden's hand, "Your body doubles are also in this bag. The outside world is a lot harder than this place, so good luck."

Those were the last words he said to Cayden before he ran off. Behind Cayden, Cronix and the crow looked at each other then at the running Riley, they both knew what the other was thinking, and what Riley was planning on doing.

The headmistress, and Ortan both narrowed their eyes as they watched Riley approach them, his steps quick. Then their hearts shook as they sensed unstabled fluctuations coming from within him.

They knew what he was planning on doing, and if he succeeded it would be the end of them, but they were too weak to do anything worthwhile.

However, while she knew she was going to die, there was something mistress Amethyst needed to do. Taking out a stone from her own magic bag, she threw in the air.

Riley didn't know what the stone did, but he didn't care. All the stars in his magic expanse trembled, and Ortan's eyes were filled with horror as he felt all of Riley's stars collapse.

The last thing Cayden saw of Riley was a ball of energy emerging from within him, before he was dragged into the array by Lapsa.

Cronix could barely hold on any longer, his mental expanse was almost completely empty, and even if he had more, it was becoming harder to keep the energy inside stable.

Once Cayden and Lapsa entered the array, the crow was next. Cronix took one finally glance around, their body doubles were on the floor, and another explosion rang out.

Cronix wasn't willing to see anymore, he entered the array as his last words in the Ayuna residence sounded out, "I'm sorry."