Two students, immortals, were in his office, standing in front of his desk. They wore badges numbered 1 and 5.

(I shouldn’t have left my guild… They might’ve bailed me out of this) Chase thought and sighed.

“What have you called me here for, old man?” Cain asked.

“I’m assigning the both of you a mandatory secret mission. Refusal isn’t an option, and your success or failure will determine the fate of the Grandiel continent. I’m giving the mission an estimated danger level of S+,” Chase explained.

“A S+ mission? I’ll go alone. A weakling would only get in my way,” Cain said while he sent a glance filled with scorn towards Alcantis.

Alcantis didn’t bother wasting words.

“Don’t get overconfident. It won’t be as easy as you make it sound,” Chase said in a rare, serious expression.

Cain’s interest was piqued seeing the headmaster act this way. In the entire five months since the founding of the academy, Cain hadn’t seen the headmaster act seriously even once.

“The mission is to assassinate a Demon King candidate. The immortal Ryzel,” Chase said.

Alcantis was secretly surprised at the mention of a Demon King candidate. She had heard Hope state his name as the Demon King Zieg back in the Ancient Dungeon, and had her suspicions. The room was filled with complete silence.

Only immortals could fight evenly with other immortals, even peak A ranks don’t stand a chance against the weakest of immortals that don’t possess any Worldbreaking abilities. When immortals battle one another, victory and defeat could be decided under a second. Although everyone that makes it into the S rank is classified as an “immortal,” there are huge differences between each immortal. The outcome of a battle between immortals depends on each immortal’s overall time being an immortal, experience, strengths and weaknesses, habits, personality, magic affinities and abilities, mana capacity, equipment, preferred styles of fighting, known Worldbreaking techniques, and many other factors.

In actuality, Zieg and Alcantis were extremely lucky to have survived their encounter with Yashao, The King of Wolves. Yashao had just recently become an immortal and hadn’t known any Worldbreaking techniques, and Alcantis’ new ability “Terror Realm” was exceedingly effective against Yashao’s chivalrous and selfless nature. If Yashao hadn’t realized that the reason for his existence was gone through the effect of the ability, and that all the members of his pack had already died, he would have definitely easily killed the two of them. Instead, he had chosen suicide to meet with the rest of the members of his pack in the afterlife. It was simply a bad matchup between Yashao’s sense of values and Terror Realm’s effect.

Only now did Cain understand the seriousness of the situation. He was made aware that the headmaster thought the Demon King candidate Ryzel posed enough of a threat that it required the two of them to fight him. Two new immortals against an experienced one.

They set off immediately with a gargoyle leading the way. The gargoyle led them to an isolated manor in the North, outside of a city, before flying off. They broke down the door to the manor, and entered it.

At the end of the large room they entered was a demon, an immortal with dark grey skin covered in intimidating glowing red lines with his back turned. The immortal stood near the decapitated head and body of a demon lying on the floor, and was holding a red sword that dripped with the demon’s blood. He had killed another of Zieg’s loyalists just moments before their arrival.

Ryzel turned around to face them and brandished Bloodwhistler. He saw two immortals wearing badges with the numbers “5,” and “1.”

“That’s the emblem of that academy, isn’t it?” he asked them.

They tensed.

(Zieg’s sword!) she noticed.

Alcantis was just about to dash forward and attack him when, “Wait! He’s not a weakling like you. He’s strong. The strongest I’ve ever met, maybe even stronger than the old man,” Cain stopped her. He could tell just by the difference between their mana capacities.

“Our chances of winning, four, maybe five percent…” Cain mumbled.

All three of them stood at a stalemate in the position of a triangle.

“If you don’t move, you’ll die, you know?” Ryzel said in an attempt to bait them towards him.

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Cain held one of his palms out towards Ryzel, and said, “First phase: Morning Mist.”

The temperature of the room dropped. A cool, icy mist pervaded the room, and soon the whole room was encompassed by the mist. The mist revealed thin, invisible lines all over the room and inbetween the each of them. Wires. They were nearly invisible to the naked eye. A single strand of that wire was enough to cut through limbs.

Those wires was what Ryzel used to cut down the entire cult that protected Zieg’s sword, Bloodwhistler, without having moved an inch.

“I should’ve known that wouldn’t have worked on immortals,” Ryzel said with a click of his tongue. The wires were retracted back one-by-one, and soon there were none left. As soon as all the wires were pulled back, she made her move.

Alcantis leapt towards Ryzel, “Release,” she muttered. The bandages on her arms ripped open to reveal gauntlets with single blades running down the entirety of her forearms. “Worldbreaking technique: Terror Realm,” her gauntlet’s blades were covered in a veil of dark purple.

(That purple aura feels dangerous, I can’t be hit by that) Ryzel thought. He prepared to dodge the attack and pivoted his torso when, “Second phase: Frostfield,” Cain said.

The ground beneath Ryzel’s feet was covered in a layer of ice, and the ice was slowly crawling up and devouring his feet, restricting his movement.

Ryzel’s shoulder was slightly cut. Time froze for a moment. He was brought to a world of darkness. After a thousand years went by, time resumed.

A second passed.

The ice restraining his feet was forcefully broken. Alcantis was kneed in the stomach and kicked back. She was sent flying and rolling backwards.

Terror Realm hadn’t broken his will.

Ryzel had bloodshot eyes, and yelled in rage, “ZIEG!”

The mana in the room gathered to coat around Ryzel’s body. He was absorbing so much mana that it exploded outwards, making Cain lower his head, shielding it with both of his arms and sliding him backwards.

“I’M NOT LIKE YOU! I’LL SUCCEED WHERE YOU HAVE FAILED, AND THE GRANDIEL CONTINENT WILL BECOME A PARADISE FOR DEMONS! THIS IS THE ERA OF RYZEL!” he shouted.

What he had experienced for a thousand years were scenes of Zieg as the Demon King standing atop a balcony, looking down on him as if he were an insect. That was his greatest fear, but his greatest fear was also a source of anger for him.

Alcantis’ only Worldbreaking skill had absolutely no effect on him, and only served to infuriate him. She picked herself up, and all three immortals were in a position of a triangle again.

“Ripper, we’re withdrawing back to Galvane. He’s too strong for the both of us, we need the old man’s power to stand a chance of winning,” Cain said without taking his eyes off of Ryzel.

Alcantis nodded, and they slowly backed out of the room without turning their backs to Ryzel.

“Fine, I’ll spare the two of you. I needed some messengers. Tell your headmaster that I, Ryzel, will soon become the Demon King, lead an army to destroy his school, and make this a continent for demons!” he laughed wildly.

As soon as Alcantis and Cain left the manor, they took off into the air and flew at their fastest speeds back to Galvane.

Ryzel made an ominous smile as he made a realization, “It only takes one person to bring back a message, right?”

Bloodwhistler began levitating in the air and shot towards one of the departing figure’s back faster than they were fleeing. The sword was approaching the student’s back, and would soon skewer them in a matter of moments.

He sensed an object drawing close behind him. It was mere inches away from him.

“Fool,” Cain smirked without dodging or turning back, and said, “Third phase, Worldbreaking technique: World of Ice.”

At that moment, everything behind Cain froze. The sword froze. The entire manor they were just in froze. The world froze. Everything behind him within a 500 meter diameter was covered in a layer of ice. With Cain as the epicenter, even the air behind him was frozen in ice.

“That’ll buy us some time,” he said as the two retreated back to Galvane at their highest speeds.

Their mission had ended in failure.