While Anna was deeply shocked by the man’s words and the clue that hinted to his true identity, Noel remained calm. He needed to be calm. His mind had pieced all the clues together in an instant and he already knew what he was seeing meant.
Anna’s second prophetic dream, the dead Arvil Bloodthorn, the ring on the mysterious man’s finger, along with the strange irksome feeling at the back of his head when he first met Winston - it all pieced together into one big picture of lies and deceit.
Noel, while bothered and shaken by this revelation, kept his cool. As evil and downright appalling it may be, what was more important was his decisions after learning this fact.
Would he remain unmoving and surprised, or take action and avert the incoming future the prophecy foretold?
A glint flashed in his eyes and he pushed both of his hands forward toward the black membrane of dense space that acts as the wall of the sealed space. On his wrists, two white wristbands expanded out and covered both of his hands, forming two gloves covered with cryptic magical runes that held arcane power.
The mana within the air and within his soul trembled and melded together. A series of complex formulas flashed through his mind as he activated the mind magic he had prepared way before, accelerating his thought process and altering his mental state.
As his processing prowess broke past the limits of the human brain, blood dripped down his nose while a complex magical array formed in the air in front of him.
Anna was at first surprised by her sudden actions when her emotions suddenly turned calm and tranquil. It was as if a guiding force was caressing her shaken heart and guiding her to the right path.
Without any hesitation, she pressed both of her palms as the spirits around her roared with spiritual strength. Through the vast ocean of spirits that made up the world, her soul intertwined and linked with the spirits that controlled space, and the black membrane in front of her rapidly pulsed like ripples forming on the surface of a calm pond.
Strangely enough, even though she controlled such a vast amount of spirits of space on such short notice, they cooperated with her without any resistance, and even her mana expenditure was significantly reduced.
It reminded her, no, it was entirely similar to the experience back then when she first fought Mammon in the fight inside the dungeon. But this time, the cooperation of the spirits was much more unrestricted, granting her nearly total control over their will and power.
She didn’t let the strength get through her head however and remained calm and collected. Space continued to warp ahead of her in an attempt to break through the thick membrane of dense space, while Noel went through some motions and chants as the magic array continued to turn more solid and opaque.
Arvil, who was busy fighting with Winston inside the sealed prison of space, narrowed his eyes as his supernatural senses given by his unique physiology allowed him to notice the minute changes found on the outer membrane of the cell.
When he looked closer and observed the tiny ripples that formed, he subconsciously looked over to the only transparent part of the pitch-black spherical walls and saw Noel waving his arms and going from one stance to another, with the magical array twisting and turning in rapid succession.
Although he may not be the greatest in all aspects of magic, living for hundreds of years still gave him plenty of time to learn various magical principles ranging from the creation of magical artifacts, alchemy, botany, and even magical arrays.
So, with a casual glance, he could tell that the main component of the magical array Noel was creating was somewhat like a hook that wanted to connect to a specific anchor. Moving along that line of thought, his eyes locked in on Winston’s hands where a unnoticeable silver ring released an invisible ultraviolet light that weaved into a tiny dot.
Immediately, Arvil had deduced the next course of action he had to take. The wings on his back stretched out into a wide expanse of darkness and blood, while tentacles of shadows stretched out from the ground beneath him.
Winston smirked confidently and squatted down which caused his grotesque legs to bulge out and release a dark purple glow. The purple orb on his chest rapidly pulsated with light as if it was driving him to overdrive, like an engine on steroids, causing space to warp and bend according to his will.
With a single leap, he traversed hundreds of meters in a single instant and his two knife-like arms created deep cuts through space itself, forming a dark void in the fabrics of reality. A trail of wind pressure and warped light followed from behind as dark purple energy gathered within the edges of his biological blades.
A single swing and a catastrophic attack of dilating wave-like space roared like a tidal wave of liquid space. The tsunami of dark purple light converged and spread out, and rapidly approached the tiny figure of Arvil Bloodthorn.
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He wasn’t bothered though as the tendrils of darkness formed a gigantic wall of shadows. The blood leaking out of his numerous wounds gathered and formed a whole expanse of blood weapons coated in shadows. Not only that, but the vast sky of blood weapons above and behind Arvil released vast spiritual energy that caused the temperature to rapidly drop.
While the wall of darkness bent and expanded in size to fully cover the tsunami of water-like space, the sea of blood weapons burst forth like a cataclysmic rain. Incredibly cold spiritual energy spread out like frozen air, and it would only take a short moment before one’s soul was spiritually frozen by this mystical attack.
Winston’s figure rapidly moved from one place to another, teleporting in and out like a strange avatar of light. His mana and stamina were rapidly depleted by the series of teleportations he had done, but with his special body specifically made to cater to his needs, his mana was practically endless as long as the magic he used was space-related.
Arvil continued to control the sky of blood weapons to attack Winston while making sure to protect himself because while Winston was avoiding Arvil’s attacks, he still made sure to abruptly teleport here and there near Arvil to catch him off guard and deal a fatal blow.
The two monsters of combat continued to fight without pause as Arvil slowly found his mind aching and throbbing from the mental strain, but the opportunity he was waiting for was finally here!
Trapped in a moment of carelessness, Winston teleported himself right into another area of attack as the constant strain of avoiding the endless sea of blood weapons finally landed a blow on his body. A single clean chop landed on his left hand and a burst of blood exploded out of his arm.
In a single second, nearly a third of his body’s blood was sucked out to form more blood weapons that were poking out of his body, but Winston remained calm and his body turned transparent for a split second. The weapons piercing through his body mysteriously phased off while his arm rapidly regenerated within that time frame, but Arvil’s objective was successfully accomplished.
Tendrils of shadows formed beneath the severed hand and the hand soon reappeared right in his grasp. Thick layers of shadows covered his body like an onion as he hastily worked with Noel who was busy forming the magical array outside the sealed space.
Surprised by the sudden spur of ease, Noel ignored his thoughts of surprise and shoved them to the back of his head. Instead, he focused more on the task at hand and soon formed a connection with the ring inside the space prison.
Winston’s face was full of panic as he seemed to have realized what was happening and launched a rapid barrage of space cuts and fissures toward the onion-like barriers covering Arvil’s body, but it was to no avail.
With an internal helper now at hand, along with Anna’s constant pressure exerted on the pitch-black membrane, the dark walls entrapping Arvil inside the prison of space soon trembled and pulsed, forming one crack after another as rays of light burst into the scene.
As soon as the barrier broke, the sky and earth shook and trembled. With the center of the academy as the epicenter of the strange burst of mana, a mystical barrier soon covered the entire school and put the state of reality within the barrier into a strange place between real and fiction.
Anna, who finally destroyed the sealed space, silently heaved a sigh of relief upon seeing this unknown change and felt the weight on her heart lighten by a tiny bit, but that relief was short-lived as she felt an incredibly gigantic mound of murderous intent directed at her.
It was as if the air itself warped to this thick killing intent as crimson red light surfaced around Winston who was standing there at the center of the infirmary, with no visible bruise or wound on his ceramic-white skin.
“You…” He chuckled maliciously and unceremonially disappeared. With a hypersonic boom, his arm was already clutching Anna’s neck, and he lifted her up to the sky with a devilish grin. He tightened his grip around her neck, but Anna’s eyes released a burst of brilliance and he found that even with his monstrous physical strength, he was unable to actually grab her neck and instead only clamped on a monstrously dense barrier of space, wind, and light.
He clicked his tongue upon witnessing this and took a casual step to the side. A shadowy tendril of darkness lunged forward in an attempt to pierce through his heart, while magical chains tried to bind his arm and legs, but both were avoided without much effort on Winston’s part.
Then, with Anna still stuck in his tight grip, he tried to deal a few more attacks at her bare body but he was intercepted time and time again by her solid defensive skills through spirit magic.
Smacking his lips, Winston teleported away from inside the infirmary and appeared right at the open blue sky above the academy. He eyed Anna with a playful smile and asked, “So, how was my performance this past week?”
“Creepy and trash.” Anna gritted her teeth as the wind and sky bent to her will. Water vapor and clouds converged into a vortex with the two as the center, and rumbling could be faintly heard from the distance.
“Okay, I guess it’s understandable that you’re angry.” Winston shrugged his shoulders and raised his grotesque leg. “But it’s your fault for being so gullible.” With a kick, Anna’s figure was launched down into the ground at hypersonic speeds, but the wind spirits acted as her cushion and she hovered a few inches right above the ground just before she crashed.
The next moment, Winston, who was flying in the sky, unfurled his jet-black wings fully and looked up.
Just like him in the sky, a couple of people soon appeared.
Arvil stood there clad in an armor of darkness, and with the dark clouds acting as his protection from the sun and providing him plenty of shadows to mess around him, his battle strength was in tip-top shape.
Next was Anna, who came flying in with a burst of tremendous speed and was surrounded by a layer of wind and clouds.
Then Noel appeared with a flash of white light, although he was a bit further in the back since his combat prowess was the weakest out of the four in the sky.
Lastly was the final support the three just needed.
From a burst of converging water and wind, Christopher Laum looked around, confused and bewildered. Then, he saw the monstrous appearance of Winston in the far distance and a look of realization appeared on his face.
Taking a quick look at Arvil, Anna, and Noel with a surprised gaze, he mumbled, “You two better explain yourselves later once this is done.”
Then, as he extended out his hand, a burst of flames exploded, and out came his battle staff, causing his aura to skyrocket to a whole new level. Taking a deep breath, Christopher glared at Winston and shouted, “Whoever you are… Prepare to suffer the consequences of causing a ruckus in this academy!”