Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud thud thud thud! Thudthudthudthudthud!

Damian slams his fist on the door with growing urgency each passing second. Neela's and Cycelia's knocking still has some semblance of politeness and decor, while Tisha is outright banging on the door like him.

Thudthudthud!

He hammers his fist into the door once more, and just before attempting to deliver another series of blows to the thick wood, Damian notices the handle move and lowers his arm. The door swings open.

「Nhmmh… Damian?… I'm trying to get some sleep for tomorrow-」

Professor Aria appears in the doorway with her eyes halfway shut, her giant hat hung up on the chair's backrest behind her, and her usually gloved hands are bare as she groggily rubs her eye with one.

「Professor, you need to come with us!」

Damian exclaims with a gravely serious tone and face. Though still visibly sleepy, his voice and the banging on the doors in the hallway seems to be waking her up.

「…What's going on? Come where?」

She asks, lowering her hand from beauty-marked face as her weary eyes narrow in concern instead.

「To demonology! It's headmaster's orders! He's already on his way there!」

He says, and points his finger to the stairwell with one rapid motion.

「…Demonology? Why?」

Aria asks with her brows greatly furrowed, and audibly perplexed.

「There's something seriously wrong with Professor Arkeis! It might not even be him!」

Damian replies, and her face silently turns into an expression of mild shock and visible worry as her head slowly retreats, straightening herself out from her groggy, slumped posture on the door.

「…Go. I will just get my boots.」

She says in a serious tone, staring at Damian with a gaze to match. He nods back, and sprints towards the stairwell as Aria clumsily pushes the door partially shut, running back into her room…

…

Corvus practically jumps out of the stairwell into the ground level, rushing towards the main hallway in a hurried pace, glaring dead ahead with eyes beneath his bushy brows in sharp focus.

《I should have known… I should have known…》

He clenches his teeth, clutching onto his robes at his chest while the loose fabric around his legs flaps back and forth with each quick step.

《…No, I knew. I knew it!…》

The headmaster grinds his teeth in anguish, roiling inside with fury.

《…I should have just told Straf! I should have just told him! I should have just checked on him myself! I should have just trusted my instincts! For over sixty years they haven't failed me!…》

He breathes heavily, speeding through the hallway, almost running as he seethes through his teeth.

《…Who was I writing to these past two months!?》

Corvus passes underneath multiple magic lamps, their bluish light casts long, doubled shadows on the floor and walls as he walks by. He arrives at the main hallway and continues onward on the shortest path to the auxiliary building, and to demonology. Multiple footsteps grow louder from behind him, as well as from ahead. The halls are mostly empty at these hours, so the sound is definitely unusual.

「Corvus!… Corvus, wait up!」

Professor Aria shouts as she and Damian chase after him. Soon after, the girls also jump out into the hallway and rush after the headmaster, followed by a steady stream of professors behind them.

The headmaster only takes a brief pause to glance at the commotion behind him, then continues ahead.

「Corvus! What is going on!?」

Hatless, Aria grabs onto his shoulder trying to halt him, or at least slow him down at a little. His sharp eyes snap to her, but then turn to a pair of female students making their way to the dormitories.

「…For now, come with me. I will tell you when we're out of everyone's earshot.」

He replies, briefly pausing his mad rush once again as everyone else finally catches up, only to immediately pull away and continue onward. Aria exchanges troubled glances with the rest.

The modest group consisting of the headmaster, Aria, Damian, Tisha, Neela, Cycelia and a handful of aide professors rolls through the empty halls like a bowling ball down a lane, filling the hallway with footsteps as if it were full of life once again. They pass crossing after crossing, taking a few turns at numerous junctions while the confused professors continue exchanging worried glances between each other.

When they approach another T-junction, Straf casually emerges from beyond its corner with his hands in his pockets.

「Straf! Straf!…」

Corvus exclaims as he picks up the pace and effectively jogs towards him.

「Hm? Ah, Lia, it's been a while-」

Lightly surprised, he turns his face to the group with his brows gently raised. Time slows as the old man's wrinkly, weathered hand stretches out for Straf's arm. He furrows his brows, and lets him.

「…With me!」

Clutching onto onto his arm, Corvus says in a low growl through his teeth, pulling Straf along. He obliges, briefly stumbling from the sudden and awkward change in velocity.

「…Am I in trouble?」

Straf asks, looking at the old man's unusually sharp glare and serious face.

「No… We are.」

「Cool.」

He shrugs his shoulders in response to the headmaster's ominous remark as he drags Straf along, hands still in his pockets…

…

Fifteen minutes later, in the dimly lit hallway leading to the demonology study…

Corvus stops in his tracks, halting Straf and the rest with his arm extended sideways. He turns around and faces the group trailing behind him.

「Professors, I want you to split into groups of three. Secure all crossings and junctions to the main building. One group stays here on this corner…」

The headmaster looks at the group of duelist professors at the back, speaking in an urgent but calm tone more like his usual self, though his eyes remain sharp and his face is deathly serious still.

「…Aria, you come with us.」

He turns his gaze to the hatless woman staring at him in silence with a matching expression. She nods, and follows as he turns back towards the demonology door, and continues onward.

「What about us?」

Tisha asks, following just behind him. Corvus abruptly aborts his next step, and partially turns around to the young students, looking at all four of them.

「…You stay in the rear near the professors.」

He hesitantly replies as his eyes dart between Neela and Tisha.

「…Mr. Damian, Ms. Lia… If you may.」

The headmaster focuses on the handsome student and the beautiful emerald-eyed girl standing next to him with a worried expression on her face. He makes a gentle, implied request, and heads onward again.

「…Is this really a good idea, Corvus?」

As they leave Neela and Tisha at the dim hallway's corner with the three professors, Aria glances at the two following them, then turns her gaze to the headmaster just beside her.

「No. I wouldn't do this without a team of battlemages, but we don't have that luxury.」

Corvus bluntly replies with a shake of his head, approaching the door.

「…Can I know what's this about already?」

Straf asks, glancing at Aria and the headmaster as he walks beside them at the front.

「That's right… Why are we here, Corvus? What happened?」

Aria nods her hatless head, leaning forward a little as she stares at the old man's face with an intense gaze. He briefly glances at them both, brushing his beard with his hand.

「…I need to see for myself. I am hoping this is just one big misunderstanding, but my hopes for that are dying quickly.」

He replies, and they stop in front of a door with a plaque. Corvus looks at it with an uneasy gaze. It states「Professor Arkeis Krator, Demonology」quite proudly.

The headmaster turns his concerned face to Straf. He rolls his eyes in response and reaches for the door handle, but the headmaster's bony hand is faster.

Crrrreaaaak…

Corvus bursts in through the door, walking a few steps in. His initial scan of the surroundings with his alarmed eyes reveals nothing of note, other than thick smoke-like substance of a color that only mages may see. His eyes drift ever so slightly higher, and widen at the sight of a reddish pink strand, fluctuating and flickering as it arches out from beyond one of the pillars supporting the tall, dark ceiling, and seems to lead through the wall in the general direction of the Academy's barrier crystal. To his truesight, the nature of the arch has only one answer.

《Lifelink…》

He thinks, tracing its path with his gaze, causing Straf to double-take at the thin air above and next to them.

「How many times do I have to say!?-」

The old man with a gray beard rushes out from beyond the pillar, shouting angrily as the origin of the lifelink follows the center of his chest.

He freezes in place, his clenched teeth bared in an immensely complex expression. His eyes are narrowed, and while his face appears to be cringing, it is not as simple as that. It is the face of a man who has been placed in an extremely discomforting situation without an out, and has no choice but to pick between bad options. Corvus has his eyes locked onto his while the gray-bearded man glances at Straf, then Aria, only to wince even harder when he sees Damian and Cycelia peek their faces in from beyond the three as well.

Palpable tension fills the room as if someone was splashing it in by the buckets. The silence continues. Aria glances at Corvus with her brows lightly furrowed, while Straf looks at the old man ahead with a tight-lipped grimace on his face. The tension continues to mount, becoming almost thick enough to swim through.

「…Diebin.」

Corvus utters out in a low growl, his voice carrying multiple tones. Disbelief, betrayal, anger. Archmage Diebin's face briefly flashes into extreme frustration.

「Roskiel!!」

Diebin snaps his eyes upward to one of the pillars, screaming quickly in nigh-panic.

Before Corvus can fully process it, a form of a young man lands before him. He only manages to catch a glimpse of his red glare staring at him.

In the same instant, Roskiel's eyes snap to Straf's grimace, and he swoops his clawed hand for a vicious strike aimed at his throat.

SPLAT!

Aria and Corvus flinch, closing their eyes when a spray of blood and fragments of brain matter spatters their robes and faces.

FWOOSH-THUD!

With his fist out where the vampire's head was a split second ago, Straf remains pristinely clean while Baron Roskiel barrels through the room headless and limp like a ragdoll, then crashes into one of the massive bookshelves, tearing a hole right through it along with the thick tomes and smashes into something else behind it, causing a deafening ruckus.

「Fuck off. Wait your turn…」

Straf says through his teeth, audibly frustrated as he returns to his neutral posture. Diebin only catches a snapshot of the vampire sailing past him at nearly the speed of sound.

Only after the echo of the ruckus dies down everyone begins to properly process what has just happened within the last second. Diebin wastes no time to point his palm at his chest and begin casting.

「Straf! Straf! That's him! He's the one behind the barrier!」

Corvus grabs onto Straf's shoulder, and points at Diebin while he's still mumbling an incantation to himself.

「『Manashield』!」

「I know.」

Straf nonchalantly replies, taking a step forward with his hands back in his pockets as he lets out a large sigh while Diebin summons a shimmering barrier around himself, which quickly disappears from sight. Corvus, however, can still see it just fine. Egg-shaped, it is wide enough to fully contain the mage's body with arms fully extended in any and all directions.

「He life-linked the barrier after all, Straf!」

The headmaster adds, glaring at Diebin. Damian and Aria point their palms at him, but Straf starts waving them away dismissively.

「I know what I'm doing. Get out. It's going to get hot.」

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He says, staring at Diebin while he's now pointing his palm at Straf, chanting another incantation under his breath, glaring daggers back at him.

「What!? Then why are we-!?」

「Aria. Let's leave.」

Aria protests, but Corvus quickly grabs onto her shoulder and starts nudging her backward, also backing out himself. Damian shuffles towards the door as well, while Cycelia remains frozen.

「『Windbolt』!」

「Pft.」

Straf scoffs as a fist-sized blurry space hurls towards him from Diebin's palm, screaming through the room like a jet engine. Shimmering air projects out of Straf towards Diebin, engulfing him.

「What!?」

The archmage exclaims in shock as his spell simply disappears without a trace. Cycelia finally unfreezes at the deafening sound, stumbling a few steps back.

「Ms. Lia! Hurry!」

Corvus exclaims from the open doorway, gesturing his hand towards Cycelia, waving her towards himself as everyone else has already left. She takes a step towards the door, but hesitates.

「I'll show you something cool while we're here, Lia… Stay behind me.」

Straf says, and takes a step directly in front of Cycelia, obscuring her from Diebin with his body.

「So that's it? Really? That's the fucking plot twist? That there is no fucking plot twist, and the obviously evil guy is actually evil?…」

He asks, spreading his hands while staring the archmage with his mouth aslant. Diebin winces, and starts scanning the room around him.

「…It's not fucking Corvus? Seriously? I was gaslighting the fucking antagonist all along!? How did you not break!? Were you in the fucking mafia in your previous life!?」

Straf says, pointing his hand at Corvus in the doorway, who is desperately waving his hand for Cycelia to come to him. With his clenched teeth bared, Diebin points his palm at Straf again.

「…Nah, I don't think so. Here's the deal, shithead. I'm giving you a five-second heads-up before the space you're standing in becomes incompatible with life. You're about to find out what fuel rods feel like.」

Smirking a little, Straf scoffs at the gray-bearded mage and his outstretched palm, completely ignoring his incantation.

《What is he doing!? An archmage is not someone to be trifled with!》

Corvus thinks as Straf continues casually standing with his hands in his pockets while Diebin keeps casting. A bright blue orb appears in front of Straf.

「Five. Four. Three…」

Straf begins counting. The orb rapidly swells in size, from a golf ball to a tennis ball, then a basketball, a watermelon, a bouncy ball… It keeps growing and growing with no end in sight.

「Two…」

He continues, and Diebin's incantation slows down to a halt as he stares at the blindingly bright orb that almost entirely obscures Straf, leaving only his eyes and his legs visible shins-down.

「One.」

Straf says, and the archmage decides to stop casting.

Thud!

He leaps aside, dropping to the floor with his head tucked low.

FWSSSSSHHHH!…

A beam as wide as outspread arms abruptly shoots forward, right where Diebin was standing a second ago, flooding the dim room with bright light and filling it with uncomfortable heat.

「Agh!」

Corvus stumbles backwards out of the room into Aria's grasp, covering his eyes with his arm.

「Aaarrggggghhhhhh! Aa! Aaaahhh! Aaaaaahh!」

Archmage Diebin lets out a pained, high-pitched squeal as his robes begin burning, and as well as parts of his exposed flesh closest to the beam. The beam continues onward, setting books within its very loose proximity on fire in an instant as if they were doused in an accelerant. The spell burns through a shelf with ease, burning through a clean circle almost fit for the Vitruvian man.

FWSSSSHHHHH…

It reaches the pale stone wall, and continues burning through. Straf keeps the spell going for a few moments more while the hole in the wall continues growing as the stone around it melts. Through the increasing gap, he sees that the beam has reached the exterior wall, and is now boring through it with ease.

It keeps going, and punches through. When Straf sees the barrier's red shimmer upon impact, he shuts the spell's mana flow off. The once dim room is now well-lit by orange bookfire while Diebin rolls around on the ground, screaming in pain and trying to pat the flames out.

「How's that, Lia? I think he deserves worse for starting this shit.」

Straf turns a little, letting Cycelia see the effects with a little smirk on his face.

Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump.

For some reason, her heart begins to markedly beat faster while she watches the archmage desperately try to kill the flames dancing on him. She looks into Straf's eyes, blinking at him while her eyes glitter.

「I'm not going to stop no matter what you tell me, Lia, you should leave.」

He says with a nonchalant, completely neutral expression on his face. She nods, and runs out the door. Gasping heavily, Archmage Diebin picks himself up, badly burnt with his robes charred.

「Straf! Let me help you!」

Aria shouts, running into the doorway.

「Yeah, no. This guy caused me too much trouble. I'm not sharing him.」

「What?…」

Straf scoffs in reply. She shakes her head, blinking in confusion with her brows furrowed. Damian and Cycelia peek inside over her shoulder.

「Grrrhnn… I should have killed you first.」

Diebin groans in pain and anger, glaring at Straf with a scowl.

「Take a number.」

He nonchalantly replies, looking at him with a slanted mouth.

「Go on, hit me with your best spell. I'll wait…」

Straf says, pulling his hand out of his pocket with a snide grin.

「…Pinkie promise.」

He adds, wiggling his little finger. Diebin points his palm at Straf again.

「Ageless aetherliths come before me, I open the door and beckon you in…」

The archmage angrily chants with his voice raised loud enough to be audible. Aria furrows her brows harder, before her eyes widen.

「Back! Back, back, back!」

She backs out of the doorway, shoving Damian and Cycelia backwards with her arms outstretched.

「Ahh… What's going on, Aria?」

Corvus asks, still recoiling from the blinding light.

「Bad things! Everyone behind me, right now!」

Aria exclaims, pointing both of her hands down the hallway where the open door is.

Inside, Straf patiently waits roughly two minutes for Diebin to finish casting, as promised.

「『Aetherstone』!」

He shouts with a voice full of anger, glaring at Straf's unimpressed face.

「『Hardlight』!」

Meanwhile, outside the room, Aria is quicker than Diebin by just a second. A bright wall appears before her, partially translucent, tinted golden yellow, though crystal clear unlike the arena barrier.

As Diebin finishes calling the spell's name, [Contextual Time Perception] activates. The space in front of the old man's palm appears to rip apart, as if the world itself was torn apart at the seams in a very localized area.

《…Is that fucking space?》

Straf furrows his brows. A black rock slips through the jagged rip out of its starry background while the loose papers and dust floating in the air appears to gently shift towards the rip. Though initially very quick, as soon as the rock is inside the room, it becomes wrapped in a sheath of plasma and slows rapidly, and the rip behind it shuts instantly without a trace.

《…Wow, it was.》

Mildly impressed, Straf shrugs and gently leans out of the rock's way.

BOOM!

With its arrival, it makes a thunderous boom as it slows down from orbital speeds into a quick halt. The wall behind Straf disintegrates as the rock impacts it, also shattering into fine mist along with it. The door and its plaque is shattered into minuscule splinters, and the energy directed outward forces the door across down the stairs as if it were a paper napkin.

THUNK-CRASH!

The immense pressure impacts Aria's barrier, redirecting most of it aside. The portions of the walls bordering the barrier are immediately smashed into their respective rooms, and everything inside is sent flying towards their opposite corner, badly mangling or outright destroying all the furniture and learning implements inside. The barrier shatters immediately afterwards with the sound of broken glass, and a powerful gust of wind rolls back and forth past Aria and everyone behind her.

「Ngh!…」

With her teeth clenched, she lets out a strained grunt, stumbling a step back, struggling to stay on her feet as her knees wobble. She plummets forward.

「Professor!」

Damian catches her just in time before she smashes her face into the floor.

「Professor, are you okay!?」

He asks, letting her gently descend to her knees instead.

「Ngrhh… I'm fine… But there goes all my mana…」

She groans, gasping for air heavily. Corvus turns his wide-open eyes ahead to the ruined hallway covered in rubble.

《…I have let more than one inhuman beast into my Academy this term.》

He thinks, as he hears Straf chuckle and clap…