The accessory holding Grula’s hair together had been blown apart, allowing her white hair to flow freely down her back. Patches of dirt covered her face alongside splotches of soot. Most of her armor pieces had been blown into shrapnel, only the worn chest plate had remained. Even then, it was dented all over and shifted with the slightest rising and falling of her chest, indicating it was moments away from splitting into pieces. Her red gambeson had been mostly shielded but had areas across her chest and lower torso where holes revealed a tight, black compression shirt similar to her boxers.

She took a final, calming sigh. Her mind was foggy, her vision somewhat dazed. The stars had never seemed so close to her...

"T-There... That was everything..." Grula snapped herself out of her fixation on the stars, tilting her head down as she took some sobering breaths. She had forgotten what it was like to strain so hard... To draw upon everything one had. In that way, it was a valuable lesson. But she knew that she needed to hurry back to the Academy. She planted one foot ahead of her, trying to work up to both of her feet. "Now... I need to-"

Grula's body froze. If she had been dizzy and barely keeping sight of everything around her before, she was now jolted wide awake. The chilling grasp of a firm, cold hand latched onto her shoulder. With the hand's fingers flexing and resting on the back of her shoulder, Grula's heart sank.

"The sky's the limit, eh? You certainly impressed me... Bringing out things I didn't know you were capable of. I suppose even the Academy spies tend to miss a thing or two. But what's the point of trying to be cautious and calculated about it if they get it wrong by inaction?... If it's a game of carefully navigating who I can and can't kill on my own, I almost lost." Meius's voice danced in the air directly behind her. He gave Grula a light shake, still firmly holding onto her. Meius stood and faced the opposite direction of her. His appearance hadn't changed one bit. "Truth be told, seeing as how I averted a very unwelcome and surprising demise, I'm in a good mood now. So, let's talk."

Grula remained still. Her vision was locked onto the treeline ahead. The pupils of her eyes were unable to focus on anything else other than the cover that nature could provide. The beat of her heart was uncontrollably racing faster with each passing moment...

"... Well, anything? Come now. Communication is a two-way street." Meius sighed and rolled his eyes. He leaned to his side, using his planted hand on Grula to hold himself up as he crossed one leg over the other.

"You really are a coward..." Grula's lips trembled open and spilled out the first thing that had come to her head, her resolve slowly coming back to her as she cleared her mind of all the fog. "Only finding the courage to get close now that I'm weakened."

"Of course. It was never my intent to mislead you on that. Although I'd say I'm more of a paranoid coward than anything else." Meius gestured with his hand, daintily moving it in the air as he continued to rest. "So... How about we go back and forth with questions until I get bored, eh? Tell me, just how long have you been watching me?"

"... Since you first conversed with that robed person in the capital..." Grula gritted her teeth, willing to play along for as long as Meius was. "How did you survive my attack?"

"No wonder I lost track of her early... The trace of Mana I used would be obscured the same way she is when using that Lakentos ability..." Meius frowned, ceasing his lean on Grula but continuing to hold onto her. Using her answer, he formulated a new solution but was still intrigued enough to keep going. "Easy. Runic Magic. I was able to make a quick barrier that preserved enough of me to regenerate and heal... Oh! Whose side do you think I'm on?"

"Y-" Grula's brow furrowed. Meius having asked that question completely threw her off. To her in that moment, it hadn't mattered whose side he was on. But when proposed to her, and being forced to think about it, nothing made sense... "I don't know. Not the Lancers' side though... What's your goal? What are you after?"

"Mm... I'll save that answer for later..." Meius shrugged. "Your surprise of an attack earlier made me forget just how shallow you are. With that, I don't have anything more to ask you. But I'll give you just one more question before we resume our play session."

Grula grunted. Her uncertainty of what was going to happen next rose. She had come up with a way to get out of this but needed a moment to commit. But also, the prospect of getting an answer to her most pressing question about Meius tempted her. Grula resolved to pry at Meius for one final time, knowing that once she got enough information, she was going to retreat.

"How have you been lying to Xilvas?" Grula's face turned stern as she tensed up her body. With this charade only going on because Meius had desired it, she wasn't sure if there was a button to press that would set him off. She had readied herself for his mood switching up, or for his answer to come out... "Even in front of Xilvas, I felt suspicious. And I know you've lied to him for sure now. So... How did you do it?"

"Oh? That?" Meius rolled his eyes and grinned. He was about to begin speaking again when a small fit of giggles escaped his lips. Taking a deep breath, Meius recomposed himself. "It's really simple. As I said before in that little meeting, Xilvas's Shade can tell the difference between the truth and a lie by something akin to mind reading. It can also gaze upon the soul to see if a statement matches up with what was said. Even if you were to gaslight yourself into believing a lie that you wanted to tell... It wouldn't work. There would be some give either by mind or soul..."

"... So... Are you trying to say you were telling the truth the entire time? That's laughable."

"In a sort of distorted way, I did tell the truth... You see, you could believe a lie as much as possible, but there will always be a record of the truth in your brain and soul... However, what if there was a way to completely erase the memory with the option to replace it with something else as well?..." Meius's vision drifted towards the sky as he turned his body to face Grula, hand still on her shoulder. Grula's head swiveled as she stared at the man's face... "Dead Memories. A Shade I created for the sole purpose of evading Xilvas's Shade. Given that the person I use it on is myself or someone who can't or won't fight back against my influence... I can touch myself or someone else and alter their memories in any way I desire."

"Then... Just how much of what you said before to Xilvas was a lie?" Grula was ready to leap away, her morbid curiosity only keeping her still as she was terrified at how deep this all went.

"Most, if not all really... If the memory is completely altered and I adhere to that, his Shade can't detect it as a lie because it appears as the truth from my heart and soul... For instance, if I needed to confirm that Godan was the mole in our midst... All I'd have to do is make up a memory of him incriminating himself while I murdered him. Then, I'd just have to repeat it to Xilvas. But that's just an example." Meius's eyes lowered directly down to Grula's gaze, his teeth bearing outward from a wide, mischievous smile. "And I have to say... Admitting it all has never made me feel more free. Like living the truth after telling a lifetime's worth of lies."

She found herself almost paralyzed by his gaze. A look that, not only conveyed Meius's belief in a total victory but outlined just how much he was enjoying this moment. There was a shred of her that wanted to believe nothing of what he said. This feeling within her that had existed prior which desired none of the Academy staff to be traitorous in any way. She wanted to believe that this wasn't the same Meius Valkir that had welcomed her, and later Zen, into the Academy.

But she swallowed her momentary sorrow. It was time to go.

Grula vanished without a single trace of her existence in the blink of an eye. Meius's now empty hand curled into a fist, but his face still held a look of devilish glee... Grula dashed ahead towards the treeline, knowing Meius had no way of stopping her now. However, her somewhat weakened body made this a time-sensitive endeavor.

"You know. This is why I called you shallow. Your plans are hardly ever more than surface deep. But not only that..." Meius chuckled under his breath. He took a moment to unbutton his dark blue coat, revealing his white undershirt. After which, he ran his hands through his white, combed-over bangs, pulling them forward and allowing them to hang over his right eye. "You're a really bad listener. And you don't use available information as well as the others... That's why..."

Grula took a moment to look back, twisting her neck around as she knew she was getting closer to the tree line. However, her focus and confidence in her escape were immediately broken. She saw Meius... Staring directly at her. He had his fist closed, aimed in her direction. Slowly, he unfurled three of those fingers, holding them up at her. As if in slow motion, she watched as he lowered a single one of those fingers... Then another... She thought it was some sort of timer. But her lack of knowledge of what was going on terrified her more than any countdown. However, she happened to glance upwards... A giant, veiny red eye was positioned several meters in the air Meius... Eyeless. She recognized it and remembered it from previous experiences with Meius. And it was tracking her... Somehow…

Meius's last finger returned to being a part of his fist. Grula felt strange... The initial sensation was similar to a stomach ache combined with vomit rising in her esophagus. However, it stopped short of being either of those things. Instead, the sensation turned to agony as whatever was afflicting her felt like it was ripping apart her insides. Then culminating in one final effect. The tearing pain ended, soon followed by a swift growth in the feeling. Bursting out of her lower left torso, her center back, and her right shoulder, dark gray spikes with solidity and weight tore through her body and shot outwards, extending out from her like some sort of base.

Grula's invisibility came to a close, revealing her fully to Meius as she stood in place amidst the bodily invader ripping its way out of her body. With her and the spikes frozen in place, Grula out of sheer suffering and the spikes out of function, Meius took the time to approach her.

"You may surprise me sometimes... However, you have never truly exceeded my expectations of you. Lola did a fine job I suppose. But you didn't honestly think you had a chance, did you?" Meius strode forward, his hands resting on his waist while the jacket bellowed back against the wind. He watched the spikes crumble away as his magic dissipated, leaving Grula with wounds that guaranteed her death. His rhetorical tone settled in the air and within Grula's mind as Meius stood mere inches away from her now. He positioned his lips up to Grula's ear. "A chance to win? A chance to get away?... How foolish you are. You had a chance to try and turn Xilvas against me in the last legs of my well-laid plans... And instead, you wasted it in a vain attempt to douse your rage by playing hero?... And then you expected to somehow get away after having this battle turn south? Much less, using a trick I know about? How quaint. Unfortunately, I place a trace of Mana within everyone I can for such an emergency like this. All I had to do was link it with a timer and Eyeless to get you while invisible... As if I'd let you-..."

Grula latched onto Meius's neck with her right hand, surprising Meius for a moment. He hadn't thought she was able to move... But with a face full of resolve, Meius saw her as not broken yet...

"As if I'd let you!-..." Meius's head crunched and snapped off of his body, Grula's grip completely turning his neck into nothing more than a bloody pulp. However, Meius's body lowered its center of gravity with tendrils appearing as if they were sprouting from his arms. As they wrapped themselves around Grula's body, the rest of Meius's decapitated form soon transformed into tendrils themselves, fully scooping her up.

With a reel back and heave, the tendrils pitched Grula back toward the epicenter of where the cube once was. It appeared as if she were heading for one of the pillars. However, a Shadow Pool ran up the side of the pillar, allowing Meius to leap out from the darkness and intercept Grula. He stomped down on Grula, using accelerated gravity and his body weight to suddenly slam her into the earth from the impact point on her midsection. Grula coughed up a mixture of blood and spit, having no air left in her lungs from the sudden attack.

"Ruin my plans at the very end! Do you have any idea how frustrating it's been?! Using Dead Memories constantly, trying to avoid being caught! Having to live so many different lives! At some point, through the memory erasure and fabrication being so deep, I found myself in an immutable fog of what was real and what wasn't!... All so I could live how I please?!" Meius spread his legs apart and went down on both knees, sitting on Grula's torso. As she desperately tried to fight back, attempting to bring her arms up, her body cried for oxygen and disallowed her self-defense. Meius brought his right fist to her face, then followed up with his left in a slow, methodical series. "And you honestly dared to think you'd kill me?! A man with forty years on you, multiple Shades, and who is willing to put himself through mental agony just to get what he desires?!"

Grula tried to reach upwards with her weakened arms. This only prompted Meius to hop off of her. Instead, he grabbed her right arm. He pulled and heaved, lifting Grula from the ground and swinging her into the stone pillar he had just hopped down from. The pieces of rock and dirt split apart, Grula sailing through it and tumbling onto the ground several feet away.

"You wanna know just how many Shades I have? I truly am awful, Grula! A Shade to manipulate memories! A Shade to create floating eyes to spy for me!..." Meius marched over to Grula's new resting place. He took a moment to stand still and lift his leg. Repeatedly, he stomped his right foot over and over again with each unveiled ability into the back of her head, cratering her head in the ground. "A Shade to create a second body for me out of Mana! A Shade similar to the last one! A Shade to nullify the sensation of pain! A Shade to cause automatic regeneration! All those souls sacrificed without even mentioning the plethora of others that I used to amplify my Potency and Potential!"

Meius charged his leg back and unleashed a furious kick at Grula's body. She scraped and slid against the ground with her back against another pillar. She managed to grab a few breaths as her vision faded in and out, seeing Meius approach her with the same facial expression as before. He knelt in front of her, planting his right hand on her face and squeezing as hard as he could.

"With all those years of my life, I've had plenty of time to master everything at my disposal. Unlike the power-hungry murderer who gets caught and killed after gaining so much might... I am the one who got to master it all. And that's not to mention my latest Shade either." Meius held Grula's head up with her too weak to do so herself. He almost pitied her... But found the thought of her dying on him now to be annoying. With a glow from his hand, Grula's wounds from Meius's hidden attack healed up... But not anything else. "Using Dead Memories, I can also read the memories of people without altering anything. Although it was such a simple idea that it insults me to have not realized it sooner... Your student has given me a tool that makes me nearly invincible now! Avures Kovar's Shade that allows him to turn Flow into Mana. Using Hector's soul, I molded an exact copy of the Shade which took no time thanks to Avures's memories."

"Ah... But Flow... And the damage it causes..." Grula began to regain some semblance of herself... She had felt her wounds close, but she hadn't figured it was anything like Meius deciding to spare her. She needed a plan...

"Easily healed because of Mana Body... But also..." Meius took a step back away from Grula as he stood up straight. She happened to settle her eyes on him as he held up his left arm. Slowly but surely, it appeared as if a multitude of wound openings were appearing on the upper left side of him. Or rather, of what she was able to see from his left hand and up the left side of his neck and face. Within an instant, the openings sprouted faded, ghastly blackish-gray cracks that seemed to spread out and connect to each different opening. There was a faint, pitch-black pulse that repeated every few seconds that originated from within. Meius's outer layer of skin seemed to slightly bulge out from the affected area, projecting the sheer uncanniness that his appearance now held. "My newer project... Flow Body. A time-consuming and power-hungry work in progress that allows me to mitigate Flow damage while using it... However, Avures's work in Omega Arcane has aided my progress in this as well. How funny it is... That twice a Kovar has helped me, and twice I will have killed said Kovar!"

"No... No, you won't!" Grula found the strength to hobble to her feet... The excruciating pain was being overridden by Grula's own will. She had a resolve... One final thing she could do...

"Well... Of course not right now. But down the line for sure. After all, when I'm trapped in the middle of three pillars, I only kill when it best suits me... You asked what my goal is..." Meius held his arms out wide as if he were gesturing to the three shards of stone protruding from the ground around them. The remnants of Grula's box became his example. Three pools of darkness separated from Meius, each one surrounding the shards. With a multitude of sprouting tendrils, Meius's magic wrapped itself around the shards and crushed them into hundreds of small pieces. "Xilvas Numidis, Velix Felsta, and Dyzin... The three pillars of the world hold the strength to sway the world in whatever direction they please. The reality of our age is that we live in a pre-degeneration era, and those three's mere presence is preserving a delicate and fragile peace... Kill one, and the path to destruction is opened... Kill all three... And pure, unmitigated chaos will result!..."

Grula blinked and reeled her head back, her vision still hazy and lapsing. However, she had already made her mind up. If this was truly Meius's real nature and not some grand performative showboating to satiate an ego... Then Grula deemed it her responsibility to battle in full... Though she was outmatched as she was, Grula knew that if she wasn't able to put an end to this here it would be everyone else who paid the price. It was her fault that it was coming to this anyway... And with Meius seemingly able to track her no matter what... She needed to battle as if it were all or nothing.

Grula forged a Pact with herself. Her birthright was now sealed away forever, the only thing that could have possibly allowed her to escape at this point. Without it, she was unable to escape. However, her fighting spirit was restored... Partially. The importance of her Inherent Ability was never high to Grula and only was useful to her when she was called on specifically for it. Not to mention, with Meius's strategy and tools being able to counter it, the powers that be deemed Grula's sacrifice to be of a lower value than it would be for most in that circumstance. Regardless, with a little over half of her Mana back and her fatigue lifted... Grula was able to face Meius with determination in her face for a final bout.

Meius's eyebrow on the right side of his face lifted in a moment of joy and confusion. An abrupt chuckle bellowed out from him as his amusement rose. With his careful methodology, Meius had already replaced the trace of Mana on Grula. This time it had specifically wrapped itself around the area of her being where her Inherent Ability existed. A feat of magical discovery and proficiency that he held proudly within his heart; A feat which existed as a mark of regret, patience, and hindsight. With that, he had felt the connection between Grula and her ability seal off, forever throwing it away. And with it, her only hope of escape.

"Grula Lakentos! My ambition is to slay all three of the pillars! To murder all of them and achieve greater power!" Meius crossed his arms under his chest, holding them straight and perpendicular to his body as his hands sat flat with the palms resting on his arms.

With his crazed demeanor, Meius's arms contradicted his attitude with cold and methodical movement. His hands slid towards the center as his arms pulled apart. A momentary flash of white with a brief glimpse of blackness ran down the length of both his arms. The essence of existence itself, life and death, teetering on a delicate balance as Meius's body became a platform for an exhibit of the two extremes interacting...

"All to fulfill my deepest desires and fantasies! I wish to sever the balance of the world! I yearn to the scourge of our world, tearing it asunder! I covet the humiliation and annihilation of the strong! I want to fear no one! I desire to kill whoever and whenever I want without repercussions!" His hands twisted and met again with the interlocking of fingers. His wrists separated; A sign of imminent divorce manifested with another flicker of reality's essence taking the form of black and white jagged lightning bolts that surrounded his arms.

Finally, the inevitability of cold despair overcame the fleeting nature of warmth. A helix of despair swirled down the length of Meius's right arm. Within it, an infinite void whose unfathomable nature tempted to swallow weak-willed beings without conviction. Harbingers of demise spawned, their form consisting of bolts with a shadowy gradient and his arm being the pale horse to behold. With a final goodbye, a weakened link of life withered away with his left hand's fingers slipping away in a limp, soulless heap. The limb followed suit, dangling down and devoid of spirit. The bolts struck out from his fingertips and rose up his arm. The black coil inversely traveled downwards to his fingers.

With the representation of duality broken, it was time for a new order. The white flicker of life appeared once more, dancing on Meius's left arm and bringing forth newfound liveliness. In a new union, in the creation and cohesion of a new balance, Meius's left hand flexed and grasped onto his right wrist. The flowing nature of the energies shifted and polarized into something new...

Grula clenched her fists as she watched on. It was close to the same movements that he had performed earlier. The same movements that brought a dead man back to life... Even having a front-row seat had not helped Grula to understand the mechanics of it. After all, what Meius used to revive that man was Runic Magic, not Ritual Magic. Which, while similar, had different functionality. And even then, "revival" or "resurrection" through ritual was not a true representation of those words. In short, Meius had somehow brought the dwarf man back to life in a way never before seen.

And Grula was watching Meius try to perform the same movements as before in front of her. Yet, there was no one around, dead or alive. What his intent was baffled Grula. But she readied herself still. A slow stream of particles lifted from the earth beneath her feet. Attaching themselves to her arms, they piled on bit by bit until her entire arms looked to be coated in a mismatch of various rocks and metals. Grula reeled her arms back and opened her fists. The minerals bound to her arms melted into each other, forming a single, solid gauntlet on each limb which had a black metallic sheen to it.

"I told you I would make you experience hell!" The bolts and coil had become one. Meius's right arm was completely darkened with a swirl of tiny black and white bolts at his fingertips. His left hand being the balance, held onto his right wrist and refused to be pulled away. The light and darkness of the rapid energies suddenly fused into one. Calm, evenly flowing shades of jaguar maintained a revolution of running up Meius's arm back down to his fingertips. "You're weak enough to where I can do what I want to you! And for that, I'll toy with you until your spirit is broken!"

Among the debris where Meius's magic had previously spread out, pools of his will had crept over pillars and remnants of destruction. Grula steeled herself. But in the moment her resolve reached its fullest, the truth of the situation dawned upon her.

Grula broke the standstill by rushing forward, reeling back her right arm, and throwing out a first attack. Meius, with no arms available to defend himself, backpedaled with his back stopping against a large rock. He spun against the rock out to his right, Grula's fist slamming into the earthy remains and reducing it to dirt and dust with tremendous force. Meius had tiptoed and danced out of harm's way once more. But with Grula on his tail, Meius aimed for one of his many spots of magic ahead. Grula had nearly caught up to him after her miss and was aiming to grab ahold of him. But Meius jumped ahead, sinking into the Shadow Pool where Grula was unable to reach him.

"Of course! That was all premeditated. Magic can't be channeled when activating one of those! So he has to come out again!" Grula twisted and checked around every area without budging. There were several Shadow Pools in the immediate area.

Her recouped power was not sufficient enough to pull off what she had done earlier in her Weapon Art's arena. And Grula had to be careful with what power she had. She had opted to use her earlier trick, coating her arms in metal and giving them Anti-Magic properties as it seemed that was the only way to deal real damage to him. She didn't have the speed needed to pull off the destructive pressure that could keep Meius down... That being the most likely reason why Meius feared Xilvas. So she needed to corner him.

Grula slammed her fists down on the Shadow Pool, the combination of power and Anti-Magic tearing through the magical essence that composed it. With a quick puff of smoke and dispersing of darkness, the pool had vanished. But the moment Grula had done so, three instances of Meius burst out of the ground, all holding the same pose Meius had been previously. Each in a separate direction, Grula jolted her head around several times. Frustration immediately set in. She was witnessing something impossible... Impossible for anyone else.

They all appeared to be Simulacrum. And they all appeared to be channeling the same magic. It seemed as if Meius had an unlimited pool of Mana. However, Grula knew that Meius was now able to generate Mana in the same way Avures did. But, if Flow Body was anything like how Grula imagined it, it made him practically immune to the dangerous side of constantly using Flow. One would have thought Meius's resources were spread thin here... But that wasn't the case. And Grula knew there was an anomaly among this, but couldn't spot it.

Grula refused to get caught up in any more analytics. She needed to fight now. She charged out in one direction, hopping onto a shard of stone and moving from one to another as the Simulacrum began to retreat. But Grula zoomed ahead faster than he could run away. All it took was a single burst of speed and power, and Grula was now in front of where the copy had tried to run. She thrust her left arm through the copy, its body fizzling out into shadows alongside the artificial blood and insides it had. And with it gone, so too did one of the Shadow Pools disappear.

Grula stormed off into the direction of another, wasting no time in trying to pressure Meius further. As she pursued one, the other took off in the opposite direction. However, she wasn't going to let another one simply run around her. Grula held her left arm out in front of her, the metal gauntlets she created unfurled from her arm and formed a disk shape. She grabbed hold of it with her right hand. During her sprint, she stomped down on the ground purposefully as she slowed her pace. The Meius that ran found his feet entrapped by a section of earth that molded itself overtop of his feet and solidified. Grula used her solid footing to whip her body around and heave the disk-shaped metal at him. Afterward, continuing to run down the last of them in stride.

The captured Meius gave no resistance, allowing the disk to travel to him and sever his head from his body. Shortly after, vanishing like the previous one and taking another Shadow Pool with him. Grula had closed the distance to the final one... Or so she had thought as the tremors in the ground indicated another appearing nearby. Refusing to be distracted, Grula leaped forward and grabbed the Meius she was after. Squeezing down and clenching her hand, Grula crushed Meius's skull into a pulp of skin, blood, and brains... Only for it to turn to shadows and vanish with another Shadow Pool breaking apart as expected.

Being that Meius's presence was now in the opposite direction of where she had gone, Grula decided to expend a little bit of strength to fight faster. Conveniently, one of the stone pillars was in between them. She stomped her foot ahead of her and held out her arm towards the rock. Her magic splintered it out, shattering the structure into minuscule shards and having them rip into Meius's body. Another one down, and another one arose this time to her left. However, the metal disk was on a trajectory back towards Grula. She used a slight amount of effort, magically setting it on course for Meius. This Simulacrum wasn't going to accept being hit by it like the other... But as he tried to dash away, the metal expanded out in a manner of matter closer to liquid. The disk engulfed Meius, solidifying and pressuring him. With the count of three loud, sickly crunches, the metal shrunk down further and further until a final snap and pop was heard... The metal zipped back to Grula's arm, taking the shape of a gauntlet once more as it had left behind a puddle of gore-turned shadows...

In its place, several more instances of Meius rose. But Grula was unwilling to slow down now. She gathered an amount of Mana she deemed to be able to spare in this instance. The remaining pillars and remnants of the arena shattered outwards in all directions. Grula lowered her body and used her arms to block the oncoming debris. Her large area attack made quick work of each Meius, ripping them apart in no time. It was over in a few moments. The instant after her attack ended, she rose back up to her feet. No more pieces of the ground remained for Meius to hide behind or for Grula to use as ammo.

She knew she hadn't won yet, but Meius was nowhere to be seen in front of her... However, her senses alerted her to a new location. Meius's presence rose once more to the surface several meters behind her...

"Poor, stupid girl! Always thinking one-dimensionally about everything!" Powerful winds created from Meius's magical pressure crashed against his head, blowing his bangs out of his eyes. His light violet eyes peeled wide open with bloodshot veins adorning the white area. The pure essence of reality that clung to him had intensified from before, reaching a critical point. "It's time I make good on my promise to you!"

Grula whipped her body around to face Meius. Her enemy had somehow taken an even more crazed look, the surface of his body on the left side taking a deformed and distorted appearance with the Flow practically bursting from his skin. The shifting jaguar shades had increased in speed and volatility, but then suddenly stopped... Its apex had been reached.

"Witness the cruel reality of your situation, Grula! Witness hell! Zero-Sum! Macabre Marionettes!"

Meius had spread his legs apart past his shoulders and lowered his center of gravity to get closer to the ground. Removing his left hand from his right wrist, he reeled back his right arm. The currents of power flashed for one final time as he thrust his arm downwards, plunging his right hand into the dirt below. Those dark bolts reappeared once again the moment his hand had made contact with the ground. As if it were loosening the earth itself, it led the way for Meius to reach his arm down in.

Grula had been too late and ill-prepared, both in the initial stage of Meius casting his Zero-Sum and when attempting to stop him. Her frustration poured over into a tinge of dread and confusion. Grula physically recoiled, taking a step back as she tried to keep her nerves steeled. Erupting from the ground in a slow invasion of the living world, deep shadows crept out from the spot Meius's hand was still dug into. Shadowy bolts leaped at random from one section of the darkness to another. Then... Meius began to pull upwards.

His hand was removed from the hole, Meius carefully raising his right hand upwards. He spread apart his fingers and held his open palm facing towards the ground. All of the jagged bolts focused in on his hand, adhering to the power he held. They became static, no longer blinking in and out of existence, but rather connecting his hand to the shadows below like physics-defying strings. With every inch of separation from the plunge-spot, the lines grew longer until…

Grula saw it. Something had begun to rise out of the shadows as if Meius were retrieving it. Light tremors swirled around in that area as it felt like bits of earth, dirt, and other minerals were now bending to Meius's will. Seeing these objects for what they were, Grula spotted what appeared to be patches of shadows, aforementioned minerals, and more of those dark threads rising from beneath Meius. These things slowly twirled around with the strings connecting them all. Higher with each passing moment, this charade continued for a short amount of time until Meius had reached his peak.

His hand was now held up to the side of him, higher than where he stood as he straightened his legs and distanced himself from the ground. Boundless heaps of the manipulated shadows and minerals swirled around beside him, gaining speed rapidly as they emitted a faint glow. Soon, one shadow patch stopped moving entirely, holding its position in the air... That was then followed by another one... And another after that until all patches were frozen in place at seemingly random locations. A multitude of the black threads jumped from one patch to the other, connecting them all from the loose encasement of air between the concentrated pieces. And finally, the length of the strings shortened, all of them pulling against each other and loosely connecting all the pieces. The final result was a sort of hollow, shadowy humanoid figure. The minerals then played their part, filling in the gaps in this figure. Those gaps resided as a diagonal line that completely circled the cranium cutting across where the right eye would be down to the left corner of its lip…

With Meius's strings from his hand still attached to the figure, he narrowed his gaze and sported a devious grin. Features slowly poured onto the hollow figure. The first one that arrived was its mouth that was fully agape, releasing a loud, guttural groan that shifted rapidly between high and low pitches. Afterward, the figure appeared to grow a layer of skin that spanned its entire body. The figure was now white and had somewhat wrinkled skin... More features began to settle in. Body parts took shape, such as hands, feet, and ears as well as the overall anatomy. The figure grew a sharp nose. Its lips were thin, and it had a long, gray beard that ran down to its chest. But it was also bald. The physical body finished forming all its appendages, fine-tuning the shape of the being. Eyes sprouted on its face, details pouring in and taking form. However, the iris was as black as the pupil... And the sclera was a light blue instead of a pure white.

With the physical form finalized, the diagonal line from before manifested once more as a set of stitches in the same arrangement. The right eye of the created man was still present, merely having stitches on it in a way that seemed impossible. All of that done, a single circular shadow traced itself on the outline of the man, climbing up his body and leaving behind clothes... A set of dark blue robes with slack present for his figure. An orange scarf was tied around his waist like a belt, making his clothes tight in that area. He wore a set of white gloves and black boots with a golden buckle...

"Uh-..." Grula's composure melted away. Her gaze was firmly fixated on the new man in front of her, her eyes twitching. Her breaths were filled with the rising sensation of dread, being short and anxious. Her body trembled. Though she desperately wanted to stay strong in a moment like this, her resolve had begun to waver already...

"Ha... Ha-Ha-Ha... Why do you look so scared?" Meius's lips readjusted, widening out to give off, what he thought to be, an innocent smile. He still held his hand up behind the man, strings still attached to the recently risen... "How long has it been?... It should be a good little reunion..."

"I-... I'm... I'm alive?" The aged man held his hands out in front of his face, flipping between the back and palms as the suddenness of his newfound consciousness rendered him bewildered. However, in a moment of building lucidity, the man reached his right hand back towards his face... He carefully ran his fingers overtop of the stitches that now adorned his head, feeling the binds that now lived within his form. But to him... It felt empty. "But... But I-"

"Died?... Yes, you did, Godan..." Meius gave off a scoff as he flicked his right hand. The dark threads vanished entirely, allowing Meius to step ahead of the confused old man. He twisted his neck and tilted his head back towards him, sporting a simple smile... But upon seeing Meius... The old man's black eyes went wide, his light blue whites being drowned in an ocean of hatred and fear.

"Meius Valkir!?" The old man's hands froze overtop of the stitches, his fingers curling inwards with his nails digging into his revived skin. His teeth clenched as he took a step backward. "What are-?..."

Godan's sight flickered from Meius over to a beaten and exhausted Grula. His jaw loosened and his brow furrowed. His body was stuck in place, his gaze swapping between the two swiftly. Meius took a step off to the side as he turned to the space between Grula and Godan.

"G-Godan?..." The tension in her arms gave out as Grula's limbs hung down by her sides, flowing with the breeze. It had been so long since she had last seen her fellow teacher. Not even his death had any ceremony or remembrance. He was meant to be forgotten, the fate of a traitor.

"I see..." Godan allowed his hand to slide down the recreation of his face and fall off to the side. His angry glare was fully fixated on Meius now. "Come to kill another teacher? Is that it, traitor?!"

"I'm surprised you even remember that much. I did try to make your death instant and painless... I try to show some respect to those who teach me something new..." Meius ran his left hand through his bangs, lifting them above his eyes as he grinned away from Godan's intense stare.

"I find that hard to believe. The truth is that you don't like fighting a full battle. You'll do anything to avoid putting yourself in a dangerous situation if you know what awaits you."

"Correct. However, I've been caught off guard tonight a few more times than I'd like to admit. So consider this to be a move to satiate my wounded ego." Meius removed his hand from his hair, allowing the strands to dangle down in front of his right eye once more... "Grula Lakentos... You surprised me a couple of times, but as I said before... Ultimately, your potential was never something to fear, nor were you ever going to break free of your limits. Knowing that though, I'm pretty pissed that someone like you put me in a tight spot, even if it was for a brief moment."

"Kill another teacher?... Right..." It began to make sense to her. Having taken in the revelation of Meius's intent and history by his own words, the ugly truth came to her. Grula felt a tinge of nausea as she put her hands up to the side of her head.

"I mean, is it really that surprising? I saw it as an opportunity to take out someone who might threaten me later. Though not quite at the same level as Xilvas, Godan has lived almost as long. Those who live the longest, are often the most dangerous... Scapegoating him was easy too. As it turns out, it's really easy to make someone out to be evil or malicious when they aren't there to defend themselves." Meius chuckled, bursting out into full-on laughter after a few moments. The memories of that meeting still lay within both Meius and Grula's minds... It was as if the knife was being twisted deeper.

"Grula!" Godan yanked Grula's attention to him, her hands leaving her face as she looked at him. "It's not too late! If we both fight, we can kill him!"

"As if!" Meius's giggles endured as his fit of joy dragged on. The mere idea made him short of breath as he doubled over. Trying to catch his breath, Meius wiped his hands down his face and cleared the tears from his eyes. "How optimistically foolish can you be? What kind of idiot would revive someone who could turn against them?... Go ahead, try and attack me, Godan!"

"I'll rip you apart, Meius-!" Godan had taken a few fast paces forward, instantly closing the gap between him and Meius. But, peculiarly, as Godan had attempted to will his magical power onto his hand to punch Meius... His entire body stiffened and locked up, his face mere inches away from Meius. Godan felt knots tie around his very soul, a sort of sickness that transcended physicality. With the fact that his body felt hollow, the control over his form locking up forced him to confront the meaning of his imprisonment in this empty vessel...

"You look like you get it now. Good. A great puppeteer always controls his puppets with a tight leash and great precision. But a truly talented master can make his puppets seem alive and autonomous, performing exactly as intended without seemingly any input or orders." The remnants of the magical black threads reappeared at the tips of Meius's fingers, only extending outward by an inch before being rendered invisible. That same hand suddenly flexed outward, his fingers spreading far apart with a reverberation of bones cracking. As his hand quickly returned to normal, Godan found himself moving without any input from his mind and body. He lowered himself down onto one knee... Meius scoffed. "The way I see it, Godan... Like most of my other options for my Zero-Sum... I'll have to directly control you. But it pays to remember that those statements I made aren't just about my ability."

"You mean to say this was all a part of your plan? Every bit of it? What's next?... You're gonna target, Lola?... Fraythorn?..." Grula furrowed her brow, her right eye squinting as well. Seeing Godan in this state gave rise to a flame within her. Though she had normally unshakeable confidence, this battle had given way to a fluctuation of her own belief in herself. But the sense of responsibility dwelled within her.

"Not quite. This whole... Outing with the dig site thing was meant to go much differently in my eyes... Then again, it's not exactly about having each instance planned out to the very minute details. It's about knowing what cards can be played, who is capable of what, and what pawns I can move into position to further my plans. You play by putting the pieces in position and seeing what happens. After all, you can't force things to simply go your way all the time... Such thinking is madness... But ultimately that is what I want to be able to do..." Meius's eyes went wide, his smile outstretched to the furthest degrees that his lips would allow. Though the right side of his face was contained, his left side had already burst out and disfigured. This allowed his grin to take an outrageous and inhuman form... "I understand it now... You've actually presented me with a prime opportunity. It is through you that I will have Lola be put in a position to be killed... Same with the rest of them... Through you, I will be able to control the Academy! Oh, but don't worry... It doesn't involve you joining your brother yet."

"Y-You knew about that? Bastard!" Grula's flame grew. Her fists tightened.

"Of course, I worked alongside the man who killed him. Phoen is a good pawn... Sort of... But do you want to know who will make a really good pawn after I'm through with you?..." Meius's eyes flared, the glint in his gaze drawing every last bit of Grula's ire... "Zen."

Grula leaped from her position and made a mad charge towards Meius. However, stopping her short was Godan. He stood between the two of them, his hands clenched into fists with his arms raised. She paused, the sheer rage within her heart even hesitating in the face of her deceased superior. Godan stared at her with his soul rejecting the notion of what was to come.

"Hm? He's already dead, isn't he? Why hesitate?..." Meius closed his eyes and shrugged. After his short gesture, Meius used his left hand to grip his right wrist like he had done previously as he entered the same stance as he did before summoning Godan. "This is why you're worthless and weak! I was willing to throw away forty-some years of planning and social positioning all to steal the body of some girl whose Inherent Ability would have moved me a single step forward!... That sort of conviction and decisiveness is what separates killers and victims!"

"Grula... I'm sorry!" Godan spread his arms out wide and thrust them back inwards, culminating in a loud clap by his hands. The signal resulted in water suddenly appearing between his hands and firing out in a pressurized, vertical slash. Grula managed to put her arms up in the way of her head as she tried to sidestep to her right. The vicious slash of water sliced up and down the length of the left side of her body, hitting her left arm that blocked her head and upper torso but also striking everything below it. As the blood began to ooze out of the struck area, Godan took both of his hands and held them apart from each other at his center.

The area between his hands spawned energies that appeared to flow into each other effortlessly. Within a moment, the energy sprung to life as a ball of ever-flowing water. Then Godan pointed both of his palms down towards the ground. On cue, the orb lost its composure and spilled outward. It took shape as a miniature waterfall, the falling drops of water spreading out towards the direction of Grula while not losing any volume to the ground below. It was around the time when it overtook Grula's footing that a breath of air visibly left Godan's lips.

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However, Grula knew some of what her fellow teacher was capable of. She leaped up from the ground, the puddle of water spiraling up towards her feet but falling short. When the breath had faded out, every inch of the surface the water had covered began to freeze over. The liquid became solid bit by bit in the blink of an eye. Seeing that, Grula landed on the ground and used her gauntlets to smash the ice below her feet, dissipating the magic. This was just in time as well with Godan having flipped both of his hands up, bending at the wrists. Solid spikes of blue and white rose from the thin layer of ice all around Grula.

She furthered her counteractive attacks. As she marched forward towards Godan and Meius, she punched and broke each spike into a million cold chunks. But the magic altered once more, every piece of ice losing its shape and reverting into water once more. Defying gravity, each bead of water floated in the air harmlessly... Only for a moment almost as if to allow Grula to realize the trap she was in. Each drop of water honed in on Grula, speeding toward her faster than she could react. However, rather than their shape changing to stab, slice, or directly harm her, the water piled on Grula. It was much too quick and sudden for her to stop.

When finished, the bounds of fluid formed a cube of liquid that held Grula within. And only then, did the coldness come back into play as the sides composed of water froze over, trapping Grula within the cube of water. She went to reel her arm back into a punch to dislodge herself from the trap but found her body much too heavy to move. It was as if the water around her was pressing in on her with a rapid increase in strength... The stress began to weigh on her body. Grula's might and willpower were the only things keeping Godan's magic water from destroying her. Her dark skin began to reflect with a deep redness. A lack of air and the sheer pressure closed in on her. Her eyes went bloodshot…

Grula caved in.

Suddenly, the ground opened underneath where she was trapped. The newly appeared pitfall swallowed Grula and her cage whole with the ground reforming overtop shortly after.

Godan's arms fell to his side with a wave of relief washing over him. From the way things had seemed, he thought Grula was much too weakened to fight back against that combination. Normally, upon using any magic, one would feel the depletion of Mana, minor or major... But Godan felt no such vacancy within himself, nor any physical strain whatsoever... He grimaced and shook his head.

"Grula is much too resilient to sudden attacks for me to have continued with such moves. Having Godan do that might be what I needed to draw out the last of her reserves... She can't go far underground like that... She will pop back up probably somewhere within fifty feet of this area..." Meius pushed his magic further, his arm seemingly bringing about the same energies as before... It was almost time again... "But what will she do?"

As if on cue, the ground in front of Godan quaked, opening up with a rising stone square. With herself hanging onto the stone wall, Grula breathed the fresh air once more, having rid herself of Godan's cage while underground. But no time was wasted as she bent to her knees with her feet planted against the wall. She let her grip on the top edge go, and pushed with all her might. The stone wall became her launchpad. Zipping through the air with her force and magic propelling her, Grula held her right fist out in front of her.

In the blink of an eye, Grula appeared on the other side of Godan, somersaulting up to her feet after she had landed between him and Meius. Godan grinned with a relieved sigh exuding from himself. The entire right side of his body, extending into his center torso had been utterly ripped apart. There was no pain... Godan had felt the same as he had before, only further emphasizing the oddity of his undead form. A deep, dark blackness existed in the space where his insides should have been, strange glints of dark violet fluttering about within the void.

But with Grula having torn her way through Godan, Meius only remained in front of her. She charged forward, ready to strike with her left fist. Meius stood in place, darting his eyes between his right arm and the distance between him and Grula. For once, Meius dropped his smug demeanor and attitude. She was too close for him to simply evade this time, and her target was obvious. Though he was convinced there wasn't anything Grula could do to defeat him, Meius hated the idea of Grula possibly achieving a small victory at the moment.

Meius shifted his body as Grula unleashed her full force…

Flesh tore and split. An arm fell to the ground alongside giblets of organs and intestines with a small waterfall of blood adorning the ground where they lay...

"Too bad for you, huh?" A bead of sweat trickled down Meius's face as an uneasy smile reformed on his face. He was turned away from Grula, his right arm shielded by the left side of his body. His left arm had been completely ripped off, with parts of his heart, his left lung, and lower organs having been eviscerated by the force.

Grula gazed on with disappointment in her heart. She missed... Or rather, Meius had managed to take his right arm out of harm's way…

However, a loud, heartbeat emanated from his shoulder area. The bits of Meius's left side that were exposed with Flow pulsed. Suddenly, the bounds of chaotic energy leaped from the bloody nub that remained. The essence of Flow intertwined and weaved itself into a new form... A large, thick arm with a giant hand. The Flow-appendage whipped itself around before slicing through the air to grab hold of Grula. Its palm was pressed against Grula's front side; Its fingers pressed down on her back.

"Nightmarish Purge."

Mana traced along the edges of Meius's Flow arm and split off into five main pieces, each circling the length of this new limb while rotating in even lanes. At the backside of the hand, the pieces converged into a sphere with an endless void. It swirled at an incredibly fast pace, making its appearance even somewhat blurry. Then it flattened out as it traversed over Grula's head. The flat portal of void then manifested several rings, each one traveling down with Grula in the middle of them. Five rings now encircled her…

Grula made a last-ditch effort to defend herself, using her pure willpower and mental ability to weave together the last remnants of her Mana Pool. Rocks and dirt smashed together at her feet and legs, climbing up her body bit by bit as the rings began to surround her. When the last ring was set, so too had her head and face been covered…

The space that entombed Grula became warped, with the air distorting and silence drowning out all sound within...

"N-... No... What is this?..." Godan's grin had slowly died down, the corners of his lip lowering down to meet the despair in his soul. Though he hadn't known what to expect other than death once more, Godan found himself staring down at his damaged body. The dark void within him had slowly crept out, taking form once more and restoring him to his previous form.

Godan spun around just in time to witness Grula's entrapment. The space within the rings began to press down on Grula, the distortion growing in strength. The earthen materials hastily gathered began to crumble and crack. Then, the rocks began to tear away and disintegrate, one by one. Suddenly, all the stones burst off of Grula, pulverized into dust. Godan watched with horror in his eyes as Grula's mouth opened up and silent screams filled the space between the rings. Wounds burst open on her body in rapid succession. Gaping slashes and deep stabs appeared all over her with each passing moment. After thoroughly rending Grula's skin and body for a few moments, the magic ceased. The rings faded out into nothingness along with the flat void. The Flow hand lifted Grula from the ground, allowing her to dangle in its grasp as crimson red spilled and dripped down from off her.

The hand whipped itself around once more, throwing Grula away from Meius. She crashed against the stone wall she had created, causing it to shatter and crumple over with her lying in the debris.

"Grula!..." Godan had tried to will his body towards her, but the shackles of his reanimation held him still...

A hand shoved aside pebbles and rocks, slowly trying to find something to grab hold of. Godan's heart sank watching his old colleague struggle so. Meius, on the other hand, was giddy and delighted as he watched her attempt to work her way out of the pile. The wounded arm and hand eventually planted themselves on a solid piece of earth, pressing down as the rest of Grula rose from the mess. Every single area of her body had been intermittently cut, slashed, and pierced in some way, leaving behind varying sizes of wounds that oozed blood. And yet, despite that, she still found the strength to rise to her feet. As she took a step forward, her balance had nearly given way with her stumbling forward. But, she managed to stabilize herself and hold her body up as stepped away from the pile. She glared up at Meius as she drew upon bated breaths and the last bits of endurance she had... But even Grula felt the hopelessness of the situation...

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"Ah!" The boy in front of me suddenly flinched, reeling his head back while blinking multiple times. "Sorry!"

I stopped snapping my fingers. The old man in front of me chuckled under his breath before shrugging. I looked back and forth between the two of them, my bottom eyelids raising as I took a step back. The old man was the one who contracted me... I think. This kid though... He's just weird…

He had dirty blonde, messy hair, and deep blue eyes. The complexion of his skin was very white and pale, almost like he was allergic to sunlight. And he wore these dark blue robes just like the old man. Monks were like that, unstylish. He sorta had a baby face too even though he was probably around my age. Maybe a late bloomer? It was mean to think, but honestly looking at his face pissed me off... But not in a bad way. He was kinda-...

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"Cute." I planted my hands on my hips, bending over a slight bit as I nodded my head over to the culprits while facing the boy. "Friends of yours?"

"Not really. Could you just get rid of them? I don't know why Father Gin had me show you where they were..." The boy's voice trailed off as his face grew to a light shade of red. He moved his gaze off of mine, refusing to face me.

I found his sour attitude somewhat surprising. One moment he seems warmed by my presence, the next cold. It was silly, but I only like playing games when they're fair. Something was bothering him, and I most likely just happened to be the placeholder for the real reason. Lame...

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"There... All taken care of." I reeled back my ball and chain from the last lizard I struck down, taking hold of my weapon and wrapping the chain around my arm.

"Thanks..." The boy gritted his teeth and kept looking away from me.

"What are you being so fucking sour about?" The spite and draining emotions being thrown at me by him were starting to wear on my good mood...

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"Oh... I get that. I don't think I could stay cooped up in a place like this for more than a day... Nah, not even an hour." I sat on an elongated stair beside the boy. Slowly falling, I lay down on my back with my arms behind my head. "Well... What if you just left?"

"Leave?... I-..." The boy put on a frumpy face as he scooted over to the wall, sitting with his back against it. "I-... Maybe?"

"Hey... What's your name?" I turned my head over to look at him. Never once had I learned his name while talking to him.

"It's Zen."

"Just Zen?"

"That's all I've ever been called."

"... Weird." I rolled my eyes and thrust myself up into a sitting position once more. "Well. My name is Grula Lakentos!"

I had pointed my thumb at myself with my boisterous pride echoing throughout the room. His reaction had me perplexed. At first, he had squinted at me, then he broke that stare into a small smile. The lack of words left me feeling a little embarrassed. I knew I wasn't exactly a huge bigshot, but I figured the Lakentos name carried some weight... Surely people had heard of Brula before and would recognize me as his sister or something... But this kid just looked at me with a sort of dumb look.

"Grula... That name really fits you."

"Huh? How?"

"Grula... It makes me think of the word gruff, and that's how I'd describe you." Zen clapped his hands together and pointed at me, still sporting that stupid smile of his. I raised an eyebrow at him, really not sure how to react to that statement. His face nearly went blue as he saw my demeanor. "Did I say something wrong?... I mean I didn't intend for it to sound bad."

"No-no. That's about how I would describe myself too. I'm not really "girly"..." I let out a sigh as I swiveled my gaze away from him. I rested my elbow on my thigh, perching my head and chin on my hand. "It's just that if I said that about a girl or woman, my mom would smack me across the face for being rude. So clearly, no one ever taught you any manners or how to address a-... Wait, I've only seen men since coming here. Am I the first girl you've ever seen?"

"Huh?... Oh, yeah. I'm sorry." He forced out an awkward mix between a smile and frown, his lips quivering. His face turned beet red. It suddenly made sense why this Zen kid was being so weird towards me... Well, other than the apparent jealousy.

"Say. Why not leave here with me?" I grinned, squinting my eyes with him as I stood up. While looking at his dumb face did annoy me just a little bit, I couldn't deny that I kinda liked his somewhat innocent nature. Plus, he was someone who could come back to the Academy with me. These types of monasteries held tough monks. "I could take you to the Academy and see about them letting you in with my class. My teacher really likes me! She probably likes me enough to even vouch for you!"

"I-..."

"Look, Zen. You said it yourself. C'mon." I reached my hand out to him. He stood up in front of me, his expression turning uncertain. "I'll be with you every step of the way. Just say the words. Say that you wanna come with me and be a Lancer."

"... It's all so sudden."

Zen glanced down towards his robed arm. I almost felt guilty. I clearly stirred some desires within him and fulfilling those dreams directly conflicted with his life here. There was a moment of doubt in my mind too. Would this guy even be Lancer material? Surely if he lived here, he'd have to be a halfway decent fighter, but his hesitation began to wear on my confidence in my offer. But, surprisingly, he had lunged out for my hand with a beaming smile on his face...

"Grula! I wanna be a Lancer!"

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Grula thumped her left hand against her head, knocking her out of a momentary unconsciousness. Her wounds were severe... And she was struggling to maintain her sense of surroundings and self. Meius still stood behind Godan... Seeing how the attack she landed on the resurrected teacher was patched up frustrated the exhausted woman. However, she knew that lamenting the current situation meant she would surely perish. Then again, what hope did she have?

Her Inherent Ability was now forever gone, not that it would have helped given Meius's knowledge about it already. She was nearly depleted of Mana. And there was no way she could outrun Meius in this state. Even if she was restored, she'd still be slower than him. And Meius? He kept showing that Mana was not a resource to be wary of. The same could be said for Flow as well... Grula recognized that she needed nothing short of a miracle.

"Arise!"

Meius's voice echoed throughout the area, catching both Grula and Godan's attention at the same time. His words were a decree that Grula knew the result of. The thunderous command instilled a new sense of dread within her. This was it.

"Asheraun!"

Four pools of absolute darkness had formed in front of Meius. The one to his right was the first to spring to life. Black bits of static and earth swirled above the ground, taking shape like they had before. A large, stocky figure was created from the patches and energy. Stitches became visible on the throat of the blackened figure along with a circular set of them in his torso. The features began to appear. Dark blue filled in the whites and blackness took over the eye color. A tanned-white skin color took over as large muscles and mass began to settle in as well. A sharp jawline was followed by a well-kept and short beard. A straight mustache conjoined to the beard settled in as well. The figure was bald.

Then came the outfit. A ragtag combination of brown leather padding and iron-armored pieces for his torso. His pants were a simple brown leather set with him wearing similarly colored boots. A dark blue scarf appeared wrapped around his collar that draped down to his waist. And finally, on his back, a gigantic blade. A sword that was as wide as the figure, as well as tall.

"Eiva!"

A smaller, slimmer, and petite figure took shape and form from the patchwork Meius was conjuring. The feminine form sprouted long, silver, and smooth hair that spanned down below the waist. The eyes came in, the whites taking in a dark, blood-red color with black dots in the middle. The skin came in pale but fair. Stitches were applied around the shoulder and right arm. The final set of stitches was then put in the center chest.

What soon followed was a deep red body suit that adorned the figure. It spanned the entire length of her body, from the neck down, and hugged the curves of the body. Then came black leather pieces, an assortment of padded and conjoined bits that served as minor protection that covered the chest, back, and legs. Finishing it off was a pair of gray shoes.

"Cynthis!"

Darkness pieced together the next humanoid. An average height and build for an adult male. The first notable thing was the brown hair that sprouted out of its head. It was short and messy, parting in the middle. The eyes filled in like the other reanimated but with a dark brown color for their respective gaze. A tan complexion set in with their skin being visible. Stitches burrowed into the skin completely around the neck of the figure.

Full-on black leather pieces formed over the body alongside black boots. A white cape sprouted out from the back of the collar, flowing in the wind as it spanned down to the legs.

"Tobias!"

And finally, the last figure was pieced together among the bunch. This one sported straight, dark brown hair that fell a few inches past his shoulders. His eyes were brimming with a clear and bright green color. His skin looked white and had scars littered about. Then the stitches set in. Every single scar marked a set of Meius's bindings. There was a circular set of thread around his right eye. But then, after all of those... Several hundred smaller instances of stitches all rose from under his skin and began to connect, only finishing after a few seconds of continuously shifting.

Dark blue robes appeared on the body with a set of brown leather trousers underneath. Brown gloves appeared on its hands along with boots that were colored the same...

Each of the four figures appeared to gain consciousness at the same time. As soon as they all had finished forming, they began to swivel their heads around and take in the world around them.

"What the hell?" Eiva flipped her hands from the backs to the palms in front of her eyes. The curiosity of the current moment consumed her so much that she hadn't even realized everyone else.

"What's going on?... Eiva? Asheraun?" Cynthis's eyes were wide, his being filled with shock and disbelief.

"Cynthis? Is that you?" Asheraun swept his head over to look at the familiar voice. He shook his head as seeing the figure startled him. Then, the reanimated man took a look at his own hands. "Huh? Am I dreaming?"

"No. Unfortunately..." Tobias had taken a quick glance at the three of them but turned his attention to the source and held his glare.

"More akin to a nightmare I'd say. At least, that was the intent." Meius's voice called the other three's attention directly to him. As soon as they had laid their eyes on him, there were furious glances.

"You!" Eiva clenched her fist tightly, seeing her assassin directly in front of her.

"Meius Valkir..." Cynthis furrowed his brow, keeping his murderous gaze on him.

"Wait! Now I remember!" Asheraun raised an eyebrow as he pointed at Meius. "You're that vicious little kid Xilvas kept around!"

"Congratulations on remembering something from nearly seventy years ago. Too bad that is utterly irrelevant now." Meius clapped his hands together a single time. Grula and Godan both watched, unable to peel their eyes away.

"What's the meaning of this, Meius?" Tobias hadn't taken a staunch angry tone, keeping a calm attitude about the situation.

"The meaning? I wanted to inspire a special sort of dread within my victim." Meius gestured his right, open hand out to Grula, standing several yards away from the reanimated and Meius. "This is my Zero-Sum, Macabre Marionettes. As long as I have a piece of someone deceased, I can reanimate them from when that piece originated while also making any desired adjustments I please."

"A fib if I ever heard one." Tobias placed his hands on his hips as he shook his head. "You own nothing of mine that comes from this point in my life. By all metrics, you should have had me in my old, decrepit state where I was suffering from the same disease that plagued Sylvano."

"Ah. But I am telling the truth. I have the memories of your lives. I made sure to read through those so that you might become tools for me to use later. It also allowed me to recreate you all in your "prime" so to speak. The process is a little difficult, but well worth it." Meius held his pose but glanced over towards Tobias as he continued to bask in the moment. "And the hardest part of it all? Forging that geezer's handwriting."

"Hm?... My power is capped." Tobias flexed his hand in front of his face, disregarding the words of Meius, much to his dismay. "Your Zero-Sum puts Mana Cores in all of us to recreate our abilities, no?"

"Eh? What does it matter to you?" Meius's smile dropped as he fielded Tobias's question.

"I'll take that as a yes. If so, it stands to reason you can only reanimate so many people at once depending on just how powerful they were. Your upper limit of Mana dictates that. And stronger people are watered down, if not unable to be resurrected at all. Hence why I feel... Weak." Tobias rolled his eyes and lowered his hand. Meius felt the joy of this situation drain.

"Is that why Mathias isn't here?" Asheraun furrowed his brow and pouted, crossing his arms and shaking his head.

"No, that's because there's no physical trace of him left in the world." Cynthis walked over to Asheraun and sighed. "Which is good."

"Pf. Of course you'd say it like that." Eiva kept looking between everyone talking.

"It is rather unfortunate that I couldn't call upon him. But I'm certain he's watching you all with sorrow in his heart... Anyways, your enemy is Grula Lakentos. I hope you'll all enjoy ripping her apart on autopilot." Meius took his gesture and turned it into a pointing finger directly toward the dying woman. He had hoped for his mood to recoup from the know-it-all talking to him.

Grula watched all five of Meius's reanimated puppets turn to face her fully. She wasn't ready to give up yet but had no idea in her mind as to how to deal with this. But if what Tobias had said was true, perhaps all of them were slightly weaker... No, that wasn't the case.

"Grula Lakentos..." Cynthis rubbed his chin, his expression easing up as he darted his eyes around before focusing on her again. "... Is Lylas doing okay?"

"Lylas...-" Grula let his name fall upon the wind in front of her. A great pain nagged and clawed at her chest. An awful truth was rising within her, but she tried to ignore it. "Lylas is strong and reliable... He's holding his friends together. I wish you could see him."

"I see..." Cynthis took a deep breath. Tiny quivers of regret and hopelessness had settled in and been shoved to the back of his mind. "I'm sorry..."

A small silence had sifted between everyone before the reanimated began to charge at Grula. Coming in from different angles in front of her, Grula pulled her willpower together to put up a fight. But there was hardly anything left within her. However, what little strength remained would have to do.

Cynthis was the first to arrive within Grula's range, bolts furiously sparking from his right hand as electricity was shaped into a thin, short-bladed sword. With his artificed weapon, Cynthis whipped a quick slash towards Grula's neck. Grula managed to parry it just in time as she thrust her gauntlets upwards, bouncing the blade off of her makeshift armor. She then raised her right leg to place a center mass kick into Cynthis to knock him away but found he was much too fast. By the time she raised her leg, he had already jumped around five feet back.

Then, before she could have even reacted, Grula found herself having the wind knocked out of her and being thrown to the ground several feet away. Asheraun had charged at her, knocking her over with his shoulder. As she tumbled and rolled a few paces away, Grula desperately tried to recoup the air and stamina she just lost.

"Quick! Outta the way!" Asheraun heaved the gigantic sword from his back, holding it up with his left arm and then swinging it down with both hands. Grula rolled over to her right, narrowly avoiding sheer annihilation as Asheraun's blade struck the ground. The earth that was hit shattered under the weight and force, cratering and blowing up bits of dirt.

"Watch out!" Eiva was the next one up. Both of her hands were covered in a raging fire. Her right arm performed a throwing motion, unleashing an intense ball of heat toward Grula's location.

Grula rolled backward, managing to get back up to her feet just in time to hop backward with rapid determination. The ball landed where she had just avoided Asheraun's attack. When the fireball hit the ground, the furious energies fulminated further and released a pillar of unfathomable heat, striking up into the sky. Then a second and third one hit the ground as Grula continued to avoid the attacks.

However, Cynthis was at her backside, giving her no further room to escape. Asheraun was charging at her once more with his sword ready to decimate her. And Eiva was still throwing those pillars of fire consistently. And now, Godan was seen some feet away with his magic channeling. Grula managed to catch a glimpse above her with what little time she had to react and process everything around her. Several shards of ice rested in the air, Eiva's magic having most likely melted some, but not all of them.

Cynthis had his blade pointed towards Grula's back, aiming to stab her in the heart from behind... Grula grunted, even shouted, as she stomped her left foot down. A circular etching instantly appeared that encircled only her. In a swift moment, the purpose of it became known. Grula rotated around with the circle shifting her front-facing position for her. Now facing Cynthis, Grula managed to grab hold of his wrists before he got any closer with his stab. The struggle between the two furthered. Grula's hands trembled as the physical strain continued to pile on. But she had no time.

She sloppily adjusted Cynthis's angle to just barely nick her, making a small cut on her already torn-up torso. Still holding onto him, the circle rotated once more and Grula dragged him along for the ride. She made a great effort, heaving Cynthis's body from off the ground and throwing him. He went flying through the air, hitting Asheraun in the process and stopping him in his tracks. It was then that both Godan's shards of ice ripped through the air towards her along with Eiva's fiery magic.

Grula was reluctant to do this but had no choice. The edges of the circle pushed up dirt, signaling for earthen walls to rise out of them and form a small dome over Grula, shielding her from the magical attacks entirely. The fire plume still arose from the base of the dome. The shards either harmlessly bounced off the dome or were partially lodged into it. The four of them stopped further attacks the moment Grula had retreated...

"Stalling are we? No one is coming to save her." Meius scoffed, shaking his head and taking in the scene. It was an absolute mess within a fifty-meter radius. Stone flung everywhere, mud piles from Godan's water and ice, random earthen structures partially destroyed, and scorched earth from the areas Eiva's plumes came from. Meius happened to catch a glimpse of Tobias though, who wasn't moving or seemingly doing anything. "I guess I forgot to give you orders or something. Then again, setting you loose on her would be overkill with the four of them already taking care of it."

"His Zero-Sum seems to function off of given orders. He could probably control people directly, but I imagine it to be too cumbersome or tiring if he has multiple under his control. Which definitely rules out his having access experience with the Principle of Zen. But it seems that autonomy is relayed to the reanimated if they are to directly obey his orders and he doesn't prioritize control. In which case, the order was to attack her. And I fulfilled that by attacking her with particles of Mana so small that it wouldn't hurt her nor could anyone sense it..." Tobias felt Meius's inquisitive glance fall upon him. The strange thing about it was that Tobias couldn't tell if Meius was being willfully ignorant of what he was doing, if he did know what he was doing, or if he didn't understand how his own Zero-Sum fully worked. Tobias had to assume the first two above all. He turned towards Meius... An idea came to him. "Your body looks utterly disgusting right now."

"Is that so?... I suppose I've let Flow Body run amok enough. It's not quite finished yet..." Meius's skin appeared to refold and pull back together. The mass of congregated Flow beneath his skin began to quell down and recess. That too, included the makeshift left arm that had appeared briefly. Soon, he was back to looking normal once more with his left arm and parts of his left torso missing. "Though I could make you look a whole lot worse..."

Tobias watched the dark threads apparate onto Meius's right hand. He most likely hadn't lied when saying he could adjust forms of the risen, given how Tobias was back in his youth. It was strange, he felt just as nimble and powerful as he was back when he was working under the Magi. Still, his form mattered not in this case. Meius wanted to use him, altering his body would defeat that purpose. Even so, Tobias wouldn't have cared. Remembering back to when Meius had killed him, the whole battle had happened spontaneously. No one expected it. And he was sure his son and Losuto were unaware of who had killed him other than Xilvas or one of his lackeys... Maybe even a cultist.

"I'm not interested in prolonging this for your enjoyment, not that I have a choice in the matter I suppose... So how about I help you out? Uncap my power a little so I can heal you, it'll save you the trouble." Tobias began to waltz over to Meius, rolling his eyes and engulfing his right hand in a green aura.

"Sure. Why not? But first." Meius's body suddenly started sprouting wounds and slashes all over himself. However, at the same time, Tobias felt the man's amount of Mana skyrocket as if he were never in battle in the first place. And within that moment, Tobias felt his own Mana rise. "A kid named Avures showed me a Shade that allows you to turn Flow into Mana. So simple, yet so useful, especially for me. I figured you might find that interesting, being a fellow researcher of sorts."

"Not really. Shades are a pitiful shortcut. That name is interesting though. A Variental? I'm surprised to hear they're still relevant somehow. The years haven't been kind to that family or the Kolisti." Tobias put himself next to Meius. He took his right hand and placed the magic-filled appendage on Meius's body.

"Eh... You're such a buzzkill." Meius sighed, frowning and glaring down at the battlefield where Grula still resided within the dome. The small cuts and slashes on his body began to heal over with little effort.

"Good... Now..." Tobias began to work on Meius's internals and left arm. Seeing how they were bigger areas, Tobias put more effort into those parts. He up-scaled the amount of Mana put into his healing, and when Tobias noticed that Meius hadn't been paying attention, he took it a step further.

Tobias unleashed a wellspring of deep Mana, all thanks to what Meius had allowed him to use. A gigantic, inconceivable flare of magic grabbed everyone's attention all at once. A bright green aura flashed and pierced the heavens, essentially lighting up the night sky in the immediate area. The aura formed a pillar that could be seen for miles around. The composition of magic consisted of both Meius and Tobias, sending out a Mana Signature in all directions that was impossible for any magic weaver to miss. Everyone watched on, seeing Meius's face curl into one of disgust and anger. Grula felt the overwhelming signal from inside the dome, taking it as her time to strike...

"What do you think you're doing?!" Meius pulled Tobias's hand off of his body, but the magical pillar still flared with their combined energy.

"Healing, obviously." Tobias gave off a victorious grin that irritated Meius to no end.

"That's enough of that!" Meius flicked his fingers on his right hand. The magical burst immediately ceased to be. And with that, Tobias continued to sport that last grin as his entire being seemed to fall apart at the seams. His body crumpled to dust that scattered into the winds...

Grula burst out of the dome, having the earthen structure split open at the top as she leaped out. The four reanimated all turned their attention back towards Grula as she took advantage of the chaos. Each part of the dome was used, turned into giant shards, and launched towards the four of them. Each shard impaled the reanimated, binding them to the ground and ripping holes through them. Grula landed on the ground, pushing her tired body to the absolute limit as she began to rush towards Meius.

"Let's wrap this up, shall we?" Meius dusted himself off, Tobias now taken care of. “Of course he had to get one over me…”

Grula thought she had more time. Meius hadn't even bothered to move in the face of her chase towards him. She was able to hear footsteps behind her... Grula saw Meius smile again...

She felt a sharp, horrendous pain in her side. Everything seemed to slow down. Looking over to her left, she saw Cynthis with a sorrowful gaze, his short sword jammed into her lower side. As he retracted his sword, blood oozed out of it and Grula stopped in place. She felt a sudden heat overwhelm her from the backside. A plume of fire engulfed her and raged on for a moment before retreating, burning her skin all over and causing her to fall to a knee. Then, without any further time after that, she felt a set of hands on her right arm. The limb went completely numb as the surface of her right arm turned blue and purple. She heard a cracking and ripping sound, unable to even feel her right limb anymore. There had been no pain, her mind either giving in to the agony already or the ice having completely numbed it. And lastly... She felt a force equivalent to a mountain crash down on her back, forcing her face down into the ground as the earth cratered around her...

"Grula!..." Godan's body backed away from the woman, her right arm within his grasp. He pressed down on it with immense force, shattering the frozen limb into tiny pieces. The frustration built further within his heart.

"This is exceedingly cruel..." Cynthis stood over the beaten woman.

"Just how I wanted it. And not dead yet too... Perfect." Meius took a few steps forward, unwilling to get too close to her... "It's unfortunate though that I wanted to keep this going for a bit. However, Tobias ruined that. Tricky bastard. Who knows how many people might be on their way to investigate now?"

The group all gathered around where Grula still lay. Raspy, slow breaths whispered out into the night breeze...

Meius took another step forward. His new plan and tool were in front of him. There was only one thing left to do...

"Grula! Can you hear me?!" Godan's voice put a halt to Meius's intent. He was curious as to what he might say or wish to do, so Meius stopped in place and watched on... Godan poured out what he felt within his soul. "I'm sorry! But you have to get up and fight! Do anything and everything you can! Think about what's at stake here! It's obvious that you and I won't be the last ones Meius kills! He'll go after everyone else too!..."

Everyone watched as Godan's words echoed throughout the quiet night. Grula was still unmoving on the ground, only releasing sounds of faint breaths.

"Lola, Xilvas, Fraythorn, Zen!... Other Lancers! Even the students, Grula-!"

Grula's hand twitched... Her arm moved forward. Her fingers scraped into the ground, drawing blood from her fingertips as she planted her palm down. Using her one arm, Grula struggled and endeavored as she inched her body upwards as much as she could. Her face and upper body lifted from the ground. The skin on her head was red from the burns, her wounds having been burnt closed by Eiva's magic. Her armor was in disrepair and was barely holding on.

Her eyes set upon Meius, who currently held a perplexed gaze upon her. Grula's vision faded in and out of blackness, her head swayed back and forth with her balance being nonexistent. However, she managed to get her leg under her, getting up on one knee... Then the other leg came up... And a moment after, Grula found herself on her feet once more... But her body rocked back and forth and her legs were wavering...

"Grula! As it stands right now!... You are the only thing standing between the Academy and its destruction!" Godan watched his colleague stand up once more. It tore his heart to shreds, seeing her struggle so, but she was the only one he could place his faith in as of this moment. "Grula! You are the Academy right now-!"

"That's enough yapping on." Meius flicked his right hand's fingers like he had done so with Tobias. Godan's form, his reanimated being, crumpled into dust with his speech cut short...

"... That's right." Grula's thoughts carried on. Godan's final message to her reached into the depths of her soul and reignited her greatest purpose.

Among the Academy, those who were its students were its lifeblood. The graduates and Lancers whose origins belong to the institution were proof of the effectiveness of their methods. Even those who hadn't owed their success to it still respected what it did. And though most saw it as a way to earn fame and fortune, the ones who represent the Academy saw it as a family. The experienced and talented individuals who made up the staff of the Academy saw the well-being of the institute as not just a workplace responsibility, but a personal one as well.

Grula was one of those individuals. Her sense of duty and responsibility marked more than just the standard of those around her... But the bar to be surpassed as well. Her sense of belonging and self hinged on the family she had joined in the Academy. Lola was her teacher, her instructor, and someone she saw as her grandmother. She saw Xilvas as someone who understood the core tenets even better than she did, a stern father with their best interests in mind. Godan had been thoughtful and wise, proving himself reliable for those who needed help. Fraythorn was much the same way, but tended to be more concerned with bringing out the best in everybody, even if he was annoying about it. Ecks knew how to dish out tough love and was lauded for being someone who would help even if it was out of his scope. Dullis had quick wits and a sense of care that was often forgotten about with how cocky he was but was never hurtful to anyone. And Zen... Zen was incredibly knowledgeable and studious. Someone who never stopped trying to learn and who could serve as a good example to any student... He was someone she owed a personal responsibility to. She felt that, if she were gone, he would be lost... And above all, she loved him.

However, her role as an instructor prioritized her students. She prepared them as best as she could without being overbearing. She had been tough, maybe even unpopular... She knew that they didn't like some things she made them do. But Grula had their best interests in mind. There was a deep hope within her. That, even if she were to die... Lylas, Bif, Rael, Avures, Olicia, and Ventrix... The six of them would continue to grow and live well...

"I am... The Academy right now!..." Grula exerted control over her tired and weakened arm, bending it to bring her hand up towards her chest.

It was as if she could see the binding strings of fate. Years of effort, blood, sweat, and tears were all in the form of tiny particles that sang and danced around her in unison and joy. The labors of being diligent and supportive bore the fruits which were the smiles and successful futures of all she placed her hopes and love into. She was the wall, first and foremost, between anyone who tried to harm her family... Grula Lakentos was the Academy.

She balled her hand into a fist, fingers clenched with her nails digging into her skin as she held it near her chest. Her arm quivered and wavered under the stress and fatigue, but her soul willed her further. Her jaw clenched with a declaration of seeing this all through till the very end. Her eyes were as open as they could be, bloodshot with determination and pride. And though she had continued to bleed and suffer, Grula swore to not have her efforts be in vain.

She recognized that it was these feelings of duty and responsibility that pulled her into this... In a way, she had defied Xilvas's orders... But her nature was to protect what she loved. If any of the other staff had been in her position instead, would they have done it differently?... Grula was sure that they might have handled it smarter, more carefully, but the response and desire would be the same.

The earth trembled... Then it broke out into a full-on earthquake beneath everyone's feet. Eiva, Cynthis, and Asheraun struggled to maintain their balance beneath the shaking ground. Meius had attempted to back away but found that solid metal shackles now bound his legs to the earth with a facsimile of her Anti-Magic metals from before.

Grula began to shout, her lungs pushing her body and magic to the upper limit as a final wind reinvigorated her power for one final attack. Her hand had become the primary focal point, but that soon extended to her entire body as her magic engulfed her in a thick aura that poured into the ground below. The quakes had reached their apex, knocking all four of them off of their feet in various positions. The reason for the vicious tremors soon became clear as a humongous, massive wall of earth and stone rose from the ground behind all of Grula's assailants and several yards across from her. The sheer size and weight of the monolith cracked the ground all around where it arose. It reached higher with each passing moment until it stopped. It had to have been around fifty meters tall.

Everyone had turned to face it, in awe of the strength Grula had been able to muster up. Grula shifted her hand, releasing the tension in her fingers and pushing her palm toward the ground. It had been difficult to see at first from the perspective, but Meius soon witnessed that the wall was leaning towards them... It pulled towards them all, air resistance not a factor in it toppling over. The speed accelerated with the moments that passed. And, with a monumental and deafening thud, the gigantic stone slab crashed onto the ground. The area quaked one final time at that moment, with dust and dirt being kicked up as the area around the fallen slab cracked and cratered the earth. All four of them had been squashed underneath the immense weight in front of her. They were surely flattened into nothingness.

It was then that Grula made her hand clench back into a fist while keeping the back of her hand facing upward.. Another wave of earthquakes shook the ground underfoot. Both the slab and the ground they stood on became a part of her act. A large section of their footing mirrored the slab as she controlled it, forming a sandwich. She tried forcing her appendage outward and upward, a further struggle conveyed by how her hand seemed to contend with the weight on her shoulders. But in tandem, the double slabs rose from the ground by a few feet. And, second by second, heaps and bounds of magic leaped from Grula into the constructs. The sandwich shrunk bit by bit. Its total size and area were reduced by a tenth each time Grula expended a large chunk of Mana. This continued for several moments until the final shape was present, a cube around ten feet by ten feet.

Grula pulled her hand close to her chest once more, her shouting ceased as she caught her breath. Sweat and blood dripped from her head and body as her body continued to feel so heavy. For a moment, she had thought her control over her magic slipped when she momentarily saw all black. But she quickly took control over her groggy state once more the moment afterward.

Everything she had now oozed into the cube. Grula unleashed her clenched fist and swung her arm out wide. Her lungs unleashed a scream that dominated the immediate area and drowned all other things out. Her Mana went wild, tiny beams of light began to emanate through cracks in the cube as her Manipulation Magic frantically worked on the materials within. The final culmination of it all was the entire cube being engulfed in light…

Then the finale. Grula's screams that had just drowned out all other things were now unable to be heard. The booming echoes of the thunderous explosion overtook all audible noises. Anyone or anything that could have witnessed this moment would have been blinded by the sheer light put out by the detonation. For the final time, the ground in the area shook once more. The heat from the ignition seemed to swallow the area whole...

Nothing had been clear or definitive until the dust settled... Chunks of rocks and dirt were strewn about everywhere. Smoke plumes littered the area with all grass being either burned away or left singed. A residual heat still lingered in the area, distorting the air itself…

And yet, Grula had still stood in that same pose. Her eyes were barely open with her gaze appearing empty and blank. Her armor had been completely blown away. Her gambeson had been burned or torn as well, exposing more of her skin and undergarments. And of her skin, she looked to have been burned even more than previously done by Eiva. Her hair remained intact, though with blackened ends or clumps missing... But, despite it all, she remained.

Asheraun, Eiva, Cynthis, and Meius... None of them were to be seen…

Amidst it all, she was alone.

Grula fell to her knees, her arm collapsing to her side as small, short breaths were signaled by her ghastly wheezes. Though her eyes were open... Grula was not focused on anything. Her blank stare just sat on a pile of rubble in front of her... She was unable to hear anything or anyone... She felt nothing, much too tired and weak to process anything. She thought this to be her end…

But up in the top of her vision, she saw movement. A final image. A set of black boots standing atop rubble…

Everything went to black as Grula's body gave out. She hit the ground with a quiet thud...

----------------------------------------

"Well well, I take it your idea of an aptitude test went well, Lola." Meius was leaning against the wall outside of the arena room in the Academy as I, Zen, and Lola had exited the room.

"It sure did. This little guy has some big potential within him, unlike anything I've ever seen honestly." Lola ruffled the hair of Zen. He blushed, looking over at me with glints of hope and life in his eyes.

However, I crossed my arms and placed myself next to Meius on the wall. My back felt sore, and my legs were burning. My arms were bruised too and I had a few cuts and burns on my face... I looked back at Zen, wanting to just crush his head like a grape. I felt as if he could read my mind or something... Or maybe I just wore my thoughts like clothes because he immediately recoiled and glanced away.

"That's great! So, it'll be Fraythorn, Grula, Zen, Muradin, Almotos, and Jija in your class. Can you handle six? It is a step up." Meius gave off a calm smile as he continued talking to Lola.

I felt a little guilty directing my ire towards Zen, turning my attention towards the ground.

"Oh, of course! I prefer it anyway. It means that everyone has a partner for training." Lola removed her hand from Zen's head and put them together. Her old face always looked so cheery. "I really hope that Zen will be a good motivator for Grula to try harder and take this more seriously too."

The fondness I had for Lola dulled for a moment as I rolled my eyes. I happened to glance back over at Zen. He always had a habit of staring at me when I wasn't looking, so our gazes met once more. His smile wasn't as bright as before but was still present. His eyes were still hopeful too. I couldn't help but have thought he needed a backbone or a more serious demeanor.

"Well. That settles it. Welcome to Lancer Academy, Zen!" Meius stepped towards Zen, reaching out with his hand. Zen took his hand in stride, shaking it as he spilled out appreciation for Lola and Meius's decision. He then almost tripped over his own feet walking over to me.

He stopped in front of me. His attitude grew brighter than before. His face was red as he looked at me with his innocent gaze... He was so cute... Even if I was annoyed with him, I couldn't stay that way forever. I returned a smile at him, glad to have made a friend and helped him out.

"Grula! Thank you! Thank you so much! Now I can be a Lancer with you-!" Zen had begun to gush towards me when something strange happened.

Everything had stopped. Zen wasn't moving. Meius and Lola weren't moving. It was like time had stopped. I found myself unable to move. I wasn't restrained, but frozen in place...

A dark, smoky aura seeped into the room, unimpeded by the stopping of time itself. The light in the room dimmed out to a black and purple hue. The floor was overtaken by a pool of shadows... And out from this pool, sets of endless hands reached out. They grabbed me by my feet, then my calves, thighs, waist, torso, and neck. These pitch-black, void-like hands and arms climbed up the length of my body inch by inch while I was unable to do anything. I tried to fight back, but I was unable to do anything. It was hopeless.

I glanced around at the room. Both Lola and Meius were being assaulted in the same way but were still frozen. My gaze finally set on Zen. The hands successfully covered him head to toe, blocking out his face as their final act.

A larger, more ominous shadow hand climbed out of the pool in front of me. Its fingers were outstretched and its palm faced me. And in a swift moment, it lunged and grabbed my face...