Chapter 99: The Senior’s Conundrum

“Right, I want you to do something for me real quick.”

Evelina shot me a mischievous smile and pointed at a nearby building, where a group of seniors had somehow turned the entire place into a fortress.

They had experience and skill compared to our batch; they’d likely already gone through this exam dozens of times.

They knew what to do, but that also made them a very tempting target for anyone who wanted to stir up a bit more chaos than usual.

“I’ve only seen you use decisive strikes, maybe you can show me something… larger?”

She wanted me to obliterate the entire seniors’ fortress.

Usually, that would be a stupid strategy, but only for those who couldn’t fight for themselves; keeping the seniors alive would only mean fewer points for us if they got their way.

But if I destroyed their only hiding spot, they’d have to relocate, which would make the professors target them—and in turn make it easier for us to target the professors while they’re distracted.

And I really had no qualms about it.

Should be fun…

Besides, not like they would expect the attack to come from this so-called ’dragon’s den.’

“Sure, but I’ll sadly have to hold back.”

“Afraid you’ll destroy the entire grounds?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

I laughed, already reaching my palm out as I temporarily stopped siphoning my dark magic, allowing me to use its full potential for one attack.

If light magic has its own area-of-effect spell that can wipe out an entire zone, then dark magic definitely has one too.

Just far… far stronger considering the material where it came from.

[Dark Serpent]

[Oblivion Rain]

[Umbral Cataclysm]

I stumbled slightly as I tried stacking the spells, slightly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of formulas and equations that instantly filled my head.

It was like when I first arrived in this world.

Guess just still being an apprentice rank while casting expert-level spells was still too much.

Doesn’t mean I still can’t do it after some effort, though.

*** Senior’s Fortress

Inside the building, meanwhile, the seniors were already preparing for their next move; they acted like a military unit instead of just normal students.

Already having a premade chain of command and logistics that almost made the entire examination pointless.

To them, it’s just another way to artificially elevate their grades.

And the one behind it all was Nyra Persival, the leader of the seniors’ alliance and the student president of the seniors’ council.

She was the daughter of an influential duke and a close rival of the D’Arclights, a family famed for their exceptional wind magic and their distinctive violet-red hair that matched their heterochromic eyes.

“What’s the report?”

“Same as last month, the juniors are declaring an all-out war, while the second years are being more careful.”

“Same as always, huh?”

Nyra chuckled, fingers fiddling with her hair as she lounged back in her chair.

Their command center was set up in a fourth-floor classroom, with the teacher’s desk and chair serving as their leader’s makeshift throne.

“Thanks to this, I might not have to repeat the year…”

Another student spoke, positioned by the windows and in charge of reporting any threats.

“What did you fail this time, Kraft?” Nyra gave a teasing look at the student.

“Apparently, the professor said I take too long to cast…”

“That again, huh?”

“I can’t help it, okay!?”

Nyra was about to say something else when the student by the window suddenly stiffened.

“…Uh. President?”

Nyra sighed. “What is it now?”

“I think… something’s wrong with the air itself.”

That finally got her attention. Nyra sat up, eyes narrowing. “You know the drill: define the problem before saying why it’s wrong.”

Before the student could answer, every ward etched into the walls flickered at once.

Like Christmas lights, but with their flickering sped up a thousandfold—fast enough to trigger a seizure.

Then went dead.

“…That’s not possible, Chris made sure that—” someone muttered.

Outside, the night sky darkened unnaturally, like someone had poured ink over the stars.

Nyra shot to her feet; it was clear they were being targeted by a large-scale dark spell. “All units, defensive formation—”

Too late.

The first thing that hit was the rain.

Not water, but shards of compressed darkness, falling silently at first, then harder, faster, punching through barriers like they weren’t even there. The upper floors screamed as chunks of ceiling collapsed.

“The entire top floor has fallen!”

Another student chimed in from a transceiver by Nyra’s desk.

“Barrier team, now—!”

A massive shadow coiled above the building, its outline serpent-like, its presence crushing. The structure groaned as if it were alive and very much regretting it. It wasn’t even the main spell; it was just a minor buff.

And then—

BOOOOOM.

The ground buckled.

The entire fortress imploded inward, not exploding outward, but collapsing on itself as if gravity had briefly decided it hated that building in particular.

From the outside, it looked almost clean. No massive fireball. No blinding light.

Just a fortress that was eating itself like a miniature black hole was placed directly in the middle.

Not wild to say that’s exactly what happened.

Didn’t even take long for Observers to start crowding the area to grab students who were near the point of no return.

[Flight of Freedom]

Nyra avoided the worst of it by literally crashing through the concrete as she retreated, doing her best to gather the remaining survivors into a safer area while fending off professors who were using the chaos to pick them off.

And as if things weren’t already bad.

Something terrifying had finally spoken.

“Oh…?”

Corvus looked at the surprising display of destruction in the distance, distracting him from his skygazing as he studied the weird way the space distorted.

That was an interesting dark spell he hadn’t read about in conventional textbooks.

“Isn’t that…?” Corvus stopped, then grinned. “My old friend, I never expected your textbook to be deciphered so quickly.”

***

I felt a sudden shiver travel through my body as I finished casting my spells.

Didn’t even get a chance to enjoy the destruction as the sudden foreboding feeling began to fill the building. Only one person could do something like that.

’You took an interest, eh…?’

I looked upward for a brief moment.

Corvus…

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