I felt a wave of magic imbalance swept through the city while I was sleeping in the bed that night. That level of magic imbalance does not match of any normal level of magic abnormality. It is much more powerful, it matches that of Infinity level magic. There should not be any Creatures of Infinity level magic other than me after the death of The Unknown. So who could that be? Are they of Evil or Good intention to the world?

I kept rolling in bed until it was morning. I did not get to sleep a wink with all the magic abnormality about. It finally stopped at around 6 a.m. in the morning, when it is the time for me to wake the girls up for school.

I blame the world for my lack of sleep.

As I walk into school today, I can see people pointing behind my backs and laughing at me about me being a complete failure in yesterdays’ Transcendence. I ignored them, knowing that I have performed my best yesterday, it is just only the world doesn’t understand.

During break time, I noticed that there is a new student in our class. He has quite a handsome look, with white hair and a pair of white eyes. He is busy looking at his smart phone at his seat. He must be another Creature in disguise as I can sense magic flowing in him. However, the amount of magic flowing in him reaches Infinity level magic. He must be the one responsible for the waves of magic imbalance this morning, meaning he must have been awaken by something, or someone, this morning. I will have to check with Master to see that if he has any records of a Creature with Infinity level magic sealed deep within the city itself.

It is my duty to check the Creatures of Existence, especially when they are of high level magic, to ensure their intentions are not evil. This is important because I want to keep the entire dimension of Existence at peace. I had enough of fighting ever since the incident of Luricerite.

“Hey, new student, what is your name?”

The new student froze for a moment, then looked up from his phone. He stared at me before saying:

“You. Your name is Innight isn’t it?”

“Indeed I am. What is yours?”

“Cal me Vincent. Nice to meet you, Innight, I have heard a great deal of things about you.”

He stood up and passed by me, as he does so, he whispered:

“Especially about the Ancient Beasts, Zealus.”

Then he left the classroom.

I myself am stunned for a moment. There are no other Creatures that knows about that incident other than The Unknown and me. The Unknown is eradicated after the Luricerite Incident, so it is impossible for him to be here. Who can this Creature be?

That was when I heard many voices sounding outside the classroom. I took a peak outside, and see every people is every class gathering outside their classroom, all of them seems to be awaiting something.

“What is all this commotion about?”

“You don’t know, failure? Richard the idol is transferring to our school, starting today!”

So my nickname is failure now. All because of the Transcendence incident.

“What, is that someone famous?”

“Don’t you know Richard the idol?”

“I have no interest on the world of idols. They are nothing but normal humans to me.”

“Say what you want, but she is super famous in the region of Singapore!”

I can’t read with the commotion around the classrooms, I decide to pay the rooftop a visit.

Our school’s rooftop is beautifully decorated with some trees and flowers planted, with some benches available for students to sit there. I sat down on one of the benches and started reading my Dark Codex.

“You must be special, knowing about this place.” A voice came.

I looked up from my book. The speaker is a sea-blue haired girl with twin pigtails and a pair of deep blue eyes.

I stared at her for another few moments. She blushed and looked away.

“Don’t stare at me so long, it will make others jealous!”

“Who are you?”

She looks shocked. She took a few steps back from me.

“Ah, of course, there are bound to be people that do not know me. Ha, ha, ha…”

She then proceed to take out a stun gun and shocked me. I was taken aback by action she has taken so that I didn’t have time protect myself from that attack.

“How could anyone not know me?” She wailed. “I am not an idol if people doesn’t know me at all!”

An idol? I thought. Could she be Richard? How could any idol have such a habit of using a stun gun on people?

I quickly created a barrier to shut her off the contact from her with me. She was flung away from me.

“Are you, perhaps, another magic caster?”

“I am. Don’t mess around with me too much.”

I thought that this school is supposed to be normal! Why does almost everyone in the school treats magical caster as something common when it is supposed not to be known to the world?

“Well, I’m a magic caster myself! Have you heard the new announcement made by the school itself? We are going to participate in a tournament! I hope I will get to face you! Remember me, my name is Richard!”

“Huh?”

She then proceed to teleport away, perhaps back to her classroom.

The bell rang, signifying the end of break time.

After school, I went over to the noticeboard to take a glance of what Richard mentioned. There I found an announcement that matches Richard’s description. It was written using magic so only us magical caster will be able to detect it.

We are now beginning the annual magic tournament in Rescendant College. In this tournament students are allowed to use their magic powers to their fullest to defeat their opponents. To win the battle, the players are to either render the opponent unable to battle, or to force them to give up. The battle will take place during start of August, and it will be held at the Underground Arena. Winners will be granted one Artifact of their choice in our collection and win cash prizes. The draw of the competition is shown below. You will be informed of the battle through the announcement system.

I begin to look for my name. I found it under block E, and my first opponent is some random people that I do not know. I do not worry about can magic caster in the school other than Vincent, which probably has a chance of defeating me.

With all these evidence, it is evident. This school is most probably a magic school in disguise, it does not teach the casters on how to use magic properly, but to train them as fighters through fighting each other. This is worse than what I really wanted, the last thing that I wanted was to fight others, but to survive here, I will have to do so. Casualties are bound to happen with all of this in place.

“Innight, please report to the Underground Arena.” Came the announcement. That is my signal for the first battle of this entire tournament.

I took a look at the map of the school, and found a lift at the main building. Once inside the lift, I found a hidden button labelled “B1” and pressed it. The lift begin a downward descend into the ground. When it stopped and the doors opened, I found myself in a cavern, with stalagmites everywhere, a sign is stuck on the walls of the cave pointing to the direction of the Underground Arena, I followed the sign and reached a large opening of the cave. In there is a large amphitheatre, everyone is already sitting inside in the amphitheatre, and I can see my opponents getting ready in there.

So, even normal humans gets to observe this tournament? What is wrong with this school?! Aren’t magic casters supposed to be a secret from the human population?

I sighed.

I entered the amphitheatre and approached my pair of opponents. I recognize them, they are the members of Glory 3usi9.

“Hey, we heard of you, Innight. Hope you will give us an easy time defeating you, just like Transcendence itself.”

“I think you are going to be disappointed about that, my enemies.”

“Alright,” The speakers boomed. “First battle of Block E, Innight vs. Emilia and Bhurt. Begin!”

The two of them created a tornado of sharp wind to attempt to slice me into pieces.

“Weaklings. Doom: Envelopment!”

The Void flooded the stage and consumed everything, the tornadoes disintegrates and the two opponents vanished into The Void. I win.

The audience were silent for a moment. Then they roared, saying something like I cheated and configured the stage to swallow the opponents.

All of them are idiots. Very little magic casters and even more so for humans have viewed The Void before. So it is no surprise that they say that I cheated because they have not seen The Void before. The judges should be able to clean up this mess though.

The judges were able to identify The Void, luckily, so victory is granted to me. However all the audience, or most of them, jeered. They are all brainless.

Every day after school I was summoned to the Underground Arena to continue a battle. For most of them I used a magic draining spell to quickly end the battle, for some of the opponents that attacked, I instantly used The Void to destroy their spell and the opponents at the same time. In my world, as long the opponents don’t attempt to hurt or kill me I will give them a chance to live, for those that did deserve to die. Very quickly I was forced to face Charlotte, Time and Nicki, I just drained their magic to prevent a fight happening at all.

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Then come the day that Richard wanted, for me to face her. Everyone cheered for her, but jeered at me, there were also audiences that laughed at me, I can hear them saying that I will not be able to win over her since she is rumoured to be extremely powerful. Well, I have detected her level of magic, she is of high end of Lord level magic, but that is still weaker than I am. I will try to not hurt her too much and not devour her, because doing that is going to cause a huge uproar.

“Are you ready to be defeated, Innight?” Richard asked me.

“Far from it. You will know why once we begin.”

“I doubt so… You have not faced anything on my level before. I am the strongest magic caster in the world itself, you will taste defeat, and then you shall acknowledge me!”

“Dream on.”

The speakers boomed.

“Alright. Match 5, round 8 of the magic tournament, Innight vs. Richard, begin!”

I waited to see what Richard has on her sleeves.

“I hope you are ready for this, Innight!

The ground itself moved upwards and surrounded her, becoming an armour. In her left hand a sword of water materialized, in her right a mace of fire materialised.

So she is a master of elemental magic. She may be a little difficult to be deal with, if this is going to be a case. Most of my Elemental Magic spells is going to be neutralized as an effect. I have to resort to using only Void Magic to counter her and defeat her. Perhaps add in a little Time and Space as well. This is going to be an interesting battle.

Richard begin to rush towards me, swinging her mace towards me. I flew up into the sky and avoided the hit, the mace made a crater of fire on the ground.

“Oh, so you can fly. Well, I can too!” She flew upwards and threw the mace in my direction. I used my hand and caught it without any impact.

“Got you! Inferno: Phoenix Renewed!”

The mace turned into a flaming phoenix and begin to set myself on fire. I know that it is of no ordinary fire because the fire were green, it is hellfire, and cannot be extinguished by water. It does not help her though. I can easily use this fire to my advantage.

“Do you really think that you are the only Elemental Master in the world itself?”

“Huh?!”

I controlled the fire and begin blasting balls of hellfire onto her armour. The amour begin to crack but it immediately repaired itself by bringing up more Earth from the ground.

“This is starting to get stupid. Zafkiel: Heavenly Sword!”

Her sword of water suddenly is infused with Light Magic, it duplicates itself and filled the entire sky with swords, and then it rained down on me, covering everything in smokes.

“Bow before me, everyone, I win!”

“You are far from doing so, Richard.” I said this with the barrier around myself.

“How come you are not dead?!”

“I have told you countless times, you have not faced someone of my standards. There are no longer any one in the entire Existence that has the power of mine. Had you not been any famous figure you would have been destroyed long ago.”

“Don’t hold back! I want to see how powerful you actually are!!”

“Fine, you ask for it. Absolete: Annihilation!”

A magical circle with the symbol of light appeared under the feet of Richard and a beam of light shot up from it, completely covering her.

Instead of hearing screams of her, she laughed.

“I am the Elemental Master, such tricks does not work on me! I should be thanking you that you teach me a spell that I will not have known!”

“That was a diversion. Fermion: Inhale Magic!”

All her magic is transferred from herself to me. I can sense that she is trying to put an encryption on her magic, but it is too late. Her magic is completely drained, her amour came apart and her sword and mace vanished.

“Now then, I win.”

“Not yet!”

I can sense waves of magic imbalance spreading out from her.  Purple tentacles begin to grow out from her, one of her eyes pops out of her face, hanging on a thread, and her canines grew out of her mouth.

She turned into a monster, her power now reaches on the lower end of Infinity level magic. Just what kind of power did she receive? She now speaks to me in a distorted voice.

“You must be wondering what gave me this power boost. I have discovered a spell that can boost my power, I found it in a Codex that is hidden deep under the city itself.”

A Codex? Under the city? It must be the Ruins that we have visited the back then with Master. SO there is an entrance to that Ruins that we don’t know off? Either way, we have to erase the Ruins completely to prevent more people from accessing it. This battle is proving itself to be more troublesome than it really is.

“Now I’m not satisfied with just rendering you unable to battle. I’m going to take your head as a trophy!”

She seems to be getting just a little too serious about this. I need to end this battle quick.

“Everyone here, cheer for me, Richard the Idol Queen!”

 Everyone cheered. Then she turned around and faced me.

“Time to erase you, Innight! The super invincible monster queen is here to greet you!” She said these as she ran towards me.

I sighed. It appears that I have to eliminate her completely. I materialized my personal Dark Matter sword and used Overclock to accelerate my time. In seconds I sliced my sword across her multiple times and cut her up into pieces. Her head with the monstrous face looked at me.

“Who are you? Even with all this magical boosters I still cannot beat you. What are you exactly?”

“I am Zealus, the Creator and Destroyer of Existence. I hold Infinity level magic, and am the one who sealed the Ancient Beasts. Remember that in your mind as your soul wanders in the Death Realm.”

Saying these, I used my sword to pierce through the skull of Richard. The head then withered away.

The crowd let out an angry roar after I slaughtered Richard. I knew that after this incident, I will earn a bad reputation in the school for killing the famous idol of Singapore and in the school itself. I walked away from the amphitheatre as many people begin throwing things onto the play field.

After that I have no more battles for an entire week. I do not know what the planning committee is up to, they may be preventing me from further fighting because of what happened to Richard and they are preventing me from further worsening the school’s reputation.

When I finally was called to fight again, I was assigned to fight Vincent in the finals. That is of no surprise, knowing that he has Infinity level magic.

“Nice to see you again, Zealus. However I have no intent to fight you. I withdraw the battle.”

And so that was how I won the tournament. I did not get to win anything in the end because of how chaotic the entire school became after knowing I won the tournament through killing most of my opponents and in the process killing Richard as well. So in the end I wasted all my time and effort attending the tournament, only to earn myself a chain of bad reputations and hatred.

“In the end, you earned nothing at all?”

“Yes. Also that city has to be destroyed. It holds certain information that is likely to balloon into huge problems if left alone. That battle with that girl named Richard showed it.”

“If that is the case then we should move now. We need to find the entrance, though.”

I did a scan over the area and found the entrance to be near our school itself. From what I can discern, it is located directly below the amphitheatre of the school. We begin our movement to the school. The girls begged to come along but I only allowed Time to come along with us as she herself can prevent her detection through manipulation over Time.

When we reached the school, we found the main gain to be locked. Needless to say, the side gates are locked as well. Master asked me:

“Innight, can you pick the lock?”

“Rather than picking the lock, I can just break the lock itself and then repair it thereafter.”

“Actually, just pick the lock. I – “

“There, lock broken.”

“Never mind then.”

We walked in to the school compound. The school at night is different from the school at daytime. Everything is so deadly silent and darkness surrounds everything, Form the Main Building the lights shone there.

That’s odd. The school itself is locked during the night so no one is able to stay around in the school itself during night time. Power supply is terminated during night time as well to conserve electricity, so why is there light on?

“I propose we explore the Main Building first. I am curious about why are they people inside the school compound in this hour.” I mentioned. Master agreed with me so the three of us entered the main building.

We wandered through the empty building and first discovered, in a hidden room behind a false wall, a large cylindrical machine that connects from the floor to the ceiling, beside the cylinder were various wires, gears and metal pieces. A computer screen is also attached to the machine itself.

“I wonder what this machine does.” Time poked around the machine. She then found a flip switch on the wall beside the machine and flipped it down. The machine starts roaring and immediately I felt my magic being extracted from myself into the machine itself.

“Time, turn it off!” I commanded her.

Time flipped the switch back up, the machine stopped functioning.

“So this is the machine that was responsible for all the magic extraction. We have to destroy it to prevent The Gathering from using this machine.”

I used The Void to dissolve the pieces of the machine, all that is left is the cylinder. I produced a bomb and attached it onto the cylinder.

“Innight, maybe you should find a better way…”

“This is the best. Since it is attached to the ceiling and the floor I cannot simply use The Void to swallow it up. If I break it into pieces, it may lead to them being able to reconstruct it again with ease. This bomb is Void magic based and will remove anything that comes into contact with it, so this entire room will vanish once the bomb is activated. This will prevent them from building another machine anytime sooner.”

I stretched out and took a glance around the room to see if I missed anything. Then I saw a robed someone out of the corner of my eyes.

“Hey, who’s there?” I shouted.

The robed person saw that he was spotted and quickly left the scene. I enter Alzelea state to view where the robed person went and discovered 6 other people with the same mana signature. There are gathered in the principle’s office, just one floor directly below us. I melted into the floor and peeked out of the ceiling of the principle’s office.

“Leader, there are in this building itself now. They might discover us if we stayed here.” The robed person rushed in and said these.

“Quick, move out of here! We cannot let anyone discover us now that the Ordeal is at hand!” The leader has a familiar voice.

“Too late, The Gathering. All of you are trapped in my Dimensional Pocket. Now, please reveal yourselves. Who are you exactly?”

The leader used a spell to tear apart my Dimensional Pocket and held the Members’ hand, then they warped away, but not before I tore off the hood of the leader.

It was Alicia.

She is the leader of The Gathering. But why? And how? So many questions suddenly pops up in my mind, but not a single answer to them.

“Innight?” Master called for me from the upper floor.

I sank back into the hidden room.

“So did you catch The Gathering?” Master asked.

“No. They managed to escape my Dimensional Pocket using their own magic and teleported away, but not before I managed to catch a glimpse of the leader’s face. The leader of The Gathering happens to be one of my classmate. She is the only daughter of the president of Singapore, and always act like a spoiled little princess, never be able to accept the success of others. I wonder why and how did she become the leader of The Gathering.”

“I think I know how they managed to escape your Dimensional Pocket, Innight. I have checked the operational date of the machine itself. It has been consistently activated over time and have only been activated for short pockets of time. It accumulates over time and thus give them your ability.”

“I’m not concerned about the machine right now. I want to know The Gathering’s movements and stop them before they take their next move. If they managed to steal my power, and they have accessed the Infinity Dimension, they would definitely have successfully revived The Unknown, all that is left of their plan is to awaken the Ancient Beasts. We don’t have time. We have to prevent that at all cost. If the Ancient Beasts awakes, the whole Existence will be destroyed.”

“Then what about that city?” Time asked.

“That can wait. We have to figure out where The Gathering has gone to and destroy them completely, then I will have to find out and destroy The Unknown once and for all. This will have to take the highest priority over everything else right now. Tomorrow I will hunt that classmate down and question everything I can from her.”

“And what shall we do now?”

“Let me destroy the machine. They will not be coming back to retrieve it now that we have been here.”

I activated the bomb and we retracted from the hidden room, the room is then destroyed completely.

“Can’t you trace The Gathering now and figure out where they had gone?” Time asked.

“They appear to have vanished from the surface of the Earth itself. I fear for the worst.”

“That can’t be! They should not have taken the move so quickly!” Master cried.

“I cannot find them anywhere at all. The only explanation is that they have teleported to the other Realms, or the other Dimensions. I worried that they are heading to the Prison Dimension, where the Ancient Beasts are asleep at. I can do another type of tracing spell, one that is across Dimensions, to figure out where exactly there are at, but it will take some time.”

I sat down on the floor and entered Alzelea mode. This time I entered a deeper state of Alzelea mode and begin looking across the Dimensions to figure out the energy signature of The Gathering. After searching around for a few moments, I found them. It is as bad as I suspected. They have gathered with The Unknown and have reached the Prison Dimension. I returned to my senses.

“We have to evacuate the citizens of the city. They are at the Prison Dimension. The Prison Dimension is located in the same point in space as the city of Singapore is, but on a different plane. Once they managed to awaken the Ancient Beasts and escape the Dimension, the first city that will be to come under attack is the city of Singapore.”

“But how are we going to convince the citizens?” Time questioned.

“We don’t need to, we only need to teleport the citizens away into another Dimensional Pocket first.”

“Innight, do you have any plans to defeat the Ancient Beasts?” Time continued.

“They are of high level of Infinity level magic, to destroy them will require an extremely powerful catalyst and using an ancient ritual. I will have to round up all the Ancient Beasts first before doing that. We should go back home and meet up with Charlotte and Nicki now. We also need to contact all magic casters to stand by to delay the Ancient Beasts once they arrived, so that I can prepare the ritual itself.”

“Let us begin. The Battle of Magic.”