Chapter 122: A Missing Evelina?

*** Another Few Minutes Later

For such a momentous achievement, I expected more fanfare.

But in the end, they just had me wait in the lobby, of all places, for Evelina while they went to deliver the news to her.

It was taking longer than I expected, though.

Couldn’t they just teleport her here and be done with it?

With the recent chaos, the number of observers should have far outnumbered the students and professors still remaining in the field.

Surely that would be enough to grab one student.

But apparently not…

Even in another world, big organizations still manage to get things done painfully slowly.

“What a joke…”

I sighed. This world was full of exaggerations, and now they expected me to believe it still took this long to handle a simple process?

At least the sofa was very comfortable. I might have assumed it had comfort magic imbued in it if I weren’t already strong enough to detect something like that.

[Light Transfer]

An observer appeared in front of me, clearly a high-level light mage, considering his use of spells.

Light transfer… a more advanced version of light displacement.

But enough analyzing his strength.

He clearly wanted something from me.

“Umm… we might need your help in bringing Lady D’Arclight.”

“Huh?” I sat up and uncrossed my legs.

Sure… I know Evelina was powerful, but even she could be easily overwhelmed by hundreds of observers. But that isn’t even their only choice.

They could just announce it and talk to her about the situation so they can deliver her safely.

What the hell could have possibly happened that they couldn’t even escort her out?

“We can’t find her.”

“…Seriously?”

Wait… that explains one thing, but what about the speaker announcement? Couldn’t they just use that to draw her out?

“And before you ask, yes, we’ve tried the speakers.”

“And?”

“The public announcement array isn’t responding.”

“…That’s not possible.”

The academy-wide announcement system was hard-wired into the Royal Sanctum itself. It was defended with ungodly amounts of mages in order to keep it functional in a test as dangerous as this.

[Photographic Memory]

Even during last year’s Hunt, when an entire tower collapsed, the speakers still functioned, if what I read from a textbook was correct.

It wasn’t something that just… stopped.

“The relay is active,” he continued. “Power is flowing. But after your battle, the burst of magical energy disrupted the air so badly that neither the speakers nor voice magnification spells will work.”

Ah…

So it was my fault…

“If you want to excuse Lady D’Arclight from the examination, you have to find her yourself.”

The observer tossed me a wristband, the same one all the observers wore, that marked that you weren’t part of the examination.

“You do you.”

[Light Transfer]

The observer blinked out of existence, leaving me to do their job for them.

I sighed, stood up, and strapped on the wristband. No use complaining about it now. Besides, if I wanted to see Evelina, it would probably be faster to find her myself.

God knows I need to find her quickly for my sanity as well.

I rolled my shoulders once and stepped out of the lobby.

The moment I crossed the threshold of the Sanctum, the difference in atmosphere was immediate.

Inside, everything had been pristine, quiet, and controlled.

Outside?

It looked like a war had marched straight through the academy and decided to take its time.

Stone pathways were split open like fractured glass. Entire facades of once-elegant buildings had collapsed inward. Smoke still rose from a distant district where someone had clearly overestimated their casting range.

Right.

Everything was still a mess at this point.

I was surprised it had managed to reach this close to the Sanctum, though.

“Guess the constant fighting had urged more people to stay in the corners. And as more people gathered, fighting naturally occurred.”

Well, that didn’t matter.

And at least now I was able to teleport again.

[Profaned Step]

I teleported on top of a half-destroyed building, its top half looking like it got a huge bite taken out of it by a giant; it was a miracle the building itself didn’t topple.

Whatever caused the damage, it had to have been a very powerful fireball…

[Soul Sense]

“Nothing?”

Even with the vantage point, I found no signs of her at all. Not a single speck of powerful dark magic, not even the slightest bit of demonic magic. Either she wasn’t even present, or she was completely hiding her presence.

But why would she even do the second option?

Then it hit me, she did just help me fight off Corvus’s shadow domain…

Even I don’t think she can come out of that unscathed.

[Eye of the Profaned]

– Demonic Dominion

[Ach!]

There it was…

I’ve gotta hand it to this eye—I never expected it to have a range that big. Then again, the darkness released from Corvus’s defeat probably helped extend it.

With dark magic thick in the air, my authority was able to travel an absurd distance.

Far enough that it managed to find Evelina’s succubus, even through all those layers of cloaking magic.

She was suppressing it.

Hard.

The pressure of it pressed against the edges of my awareness, like something trying to push through a thin wall and being forced back every time it almost broke free.

If I hadn’t deliberately shoved my perception outward, stretching it to its absolute limits with Demonic Dominion layered over Soul Sense. I might’ve dismissed the whole thing as nothing more than lingering echoes, just leftover residue from Corvus’s domain clinging to the air.

But it wasn’t residue.

It pulsed.

Faint, unstable.

And undeniably demonic in nature.

There was a rhythm to it, a struggling heartbeat of power that kept flickering, like she was trying to calm herself down from an emotional high.

“…Of course you overdid it,”

I narrowed my eyes and pushed my focus tighter, letting the rest of the city blur out into meaningless noise.

The location snapped into clarity, like a map being suddenly brought into focus.

Northwest.

Near the warehouse district where Vivianne’s team was hiding.

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