Chapter 241: The Chairman’s Fury

High above the shattered academy, beyond the remains of the broken barrier, a single figure floated in silence.

He looked young—far younger than someone bearing the title of Chairman should have. Pale-blue hair flowed in the wind, and his equally pale eyes burned with unmistakable anger as he stared down at the scene before him.

Aldren was there.

Holding Lucen.

And Lucen—

Lucen was wounded.

Near them stood the red-bearded man, Hidari, dark violet corrupted mana pouring from his body, while two more hooded figures hovered nearby, each releasing the pressure of an 8-star warrior.

Caelum’s gaze lingered on them for only a moment.

Then his eyes shifted downward.

Below him, Astralis Arcanum was burning.

Fire spread across buildings and courtyards. The academy grounds were filled with battle, blood, and fallen bodies. Students and professors fought desperately in the chaos, and the sight of it made the anger in his eyes deepen further.

Slowly, Caelum drew his sword.

And vanished.

Aldren’s eyes widened. He reacted instantly, releasing Lucen and pulling his hand back—but even then he wasn’t fast enough.

A flash.

A line of blood.

Several of Aldren’s fingers were cut cleanly and sent spinning through the air.

Before anyone could even process what had happened, Caelum had already taken Lucen into his own arms and disappeared again, descending rapidly toward the academy below.

Hidari froze.

For the first time since his arrival, genuine shock crossed his face.

Neither he nor Aldren had seen it.

Not the movement.

Not the strike.

Not even the moment Caelum crossed the distance between them.

That was how fast he had been.

Aldren grimaced, clutching his injured hand as healing mana gathered around the wound.

Hidari immediately turned and shouted, seemingly issuing an order to the two hooded warriors behind him—

But then he stopped.

They were gone.

His eyes snapped downward.

Far below, on the ruined academy grounds, both bodies were already falling—split apart before they had even realized they were dead.

Hidari’s eyes widened.

When did he cut them…?

Below, Seris, Ron, and Jax had still been fighting the remaining enemies around them. Then, in an instant, the opponents before Seris were simply cut apart, their bodies separating before collapsing onto the broken ground.

Seris froze.

Her eye widened slightly as she looked up.

A figure was descending from the sky.

A young-looking man with pale-blue hair, sword in hand.

The Chairman.

For one brief moment, relief crossed her face.

So that’s why the barrier broke…

But then she noticed what he was carrying.

And her heart sank.

Caelum Lysander was holding someone in his arms.

When Seris realized who it was, her whole body tensed.

It was Lucen Merrith.

Caelum descended only long enough to place Lucen into Seris’s care.

His pale eyes swept over Lucen’s condition once, and then he took out a vial filled with shining dark-blue liquid and handed it to her.

“He’s been poisoned. Give him this.”

Seris caught the vial immediately.

Before she could say anything more, Caelum added, “I’ll take care of the ones above.”

Then he vanished.

A burst of air exploded outward from where he had stood, and in the next instant he was already back in the sky.

High above the academy, he faced Aldren and the red-bearded man standing near him.

Caelum’s eyes locked onto Aldren.

“From the young age I always told that fool not to trust you so blindly.”

Aldren smiled as if they were discussing something trivial.

“Oh, but he did. Lucen was always like that.”

Caelum’s expression darkened further.

“Shut up. Don’t say his name, traitor.”

His grip on the sword tightened.

“I’ll finish this.”

The moment he moved, a sonic boom erupted through the sky.

Caelum shot straight toward Aldren—but just before his blade could reach him, another figure appeared in front of him.

Hidari.

The red-bearded man raised his black-purple sword and intercepted the strike.

Metal screamed against metal.

Hidari bared his teeth. “You’re not here to finish anything.”

The two clashed again instantly.

Their swords blurred through the air, each collision sending violent shockwaves through the sky above Astralis Arcanum. Hidari fought fiercely, dark violet corrupted mana pouring from his body as he pressed slash after slash toward Caelum’s vital points.

But the difference between them was obvious from the very start.

Caelum dominated.

Every movement of his sword was cleaner, sharper, and far faster. He slipped through Hidari’s attacks as if reading them in advance, his blade carving shallow cuts across Hidari’s body one after another. A line opened along the shoulder. Another across the ribs. Another along the thigh.

Meanwhile, Caelum remained completely untouched.

Not a single scratch marked him.

Hidari’s breathing grew rougher, his sword arm heavier. Corrupted mana flared thicker around him as he gritted his teeth and shouted, “Aldren! Quickly, help me! With both of us we can do this—”

Caelum’s eyes, already cold with anger, turned even sharper.

“You won’t be able to do anything.”

Then he unleashed more of his mana.

The change was immediate.

A monstrous pressure descended over the battlefield.

It was not merely mana—it was weight itself, as if gravity had multiplied several times over in a single heartbeat.

Below, students, teachers, and surviving enemies alike were forced to their knees. Broken stone cracked further under the sudden heaviness, and the very air felt difficult to breathe.

Caelum sensed it and held back slightly, restraining the pressure before it crushed those below completely.

Even so, Hidari began trembling.

His pupils shook.

“Peak… 8-star…!!”

Caelum didn’t answer.

He simply looked at him—

And moved.

Hidari couldn’t even react.

A silver flash cut through the sky.

His left arm spun away in a spray of blood.

Only after it was already falling did Hidari realize it had been severed.

He staggered back, clutching the stump, his face twisted in disbelief.

Caelum did not pursue him.

Instead, he lifted his gaze past Hidari and fixed it on Aldren, who floated behind him with that same calm smile.

“Ready to die?”

Aldren’s smile widened just slightly.

“Wow. After returning, you’ve become quite strong.”

He tilted his head, studying Caelum with casual interest.

“You never told me—or the other professors—how you became so young-looking now.”

His eyes narrowed faintly in thought.

“After you returned, I calculated how strong you might be… but even then, you surpassed my expectations by quite a lot.”

Then, as if remembering something minor, he asked,

“Anyway… how is Lucen?”

A pause.

“Did you give him the blue lifewood antidote to cure his poison?”

For the first time, a trace of surprise crossed Caelum’s face.

Aldren noticed immediately.

“Looks like you did,” he said.

Then his smile became uglier.

“But do you know something? The poison I made for him is very special. And it happens to be extremely compatible with blue lifewood essence.”

His voice remained calm. Almost pleasant.

“By giving him that, you’re pushing him even closer to death.”

Caelum’s eyes widened.

Then he looked downward.

Below, Seris was already staring in horror.

Lucen’s body had started jerking violently. His muscles seized, his whole frame trembling in spasms as if something inside him were tearing itself apart.

Seris’s face lost color.

Caelum’s expression twisted with fury.

“ALDREN—!!!”

He flashed toward him.

But Aldren raised a hand.

“Wait.”

His tone remained smooth.

“In this limited time. Only I can cure him.”

Caelum stopped.

Only barely.

Aldren continued, “I have the antidote.”

He took out a vial containing transparent purplish liquid. A small magic circle glowed faintly around the glass.

Caelum’s voice turned cold enough to freeze the air.

“I can take that from your corpse.”

Aldren shook his head.

“No, you can’t. The vial is imbued with my magic. The moment I die, it will destroy itself.”

“You’re bluffing.”

“Am I?”

Aldren smiled again.

“Why don’t you try, Caelum?”

Caelum’s jaw tightened.

Then, without warning, a blue magic circle appeared behind Aldren.

At the same time, he threw the vial downward.

Because it was bound with magic, it shot toward the ground far faster than it should have.

Caelum’s eyes widened.

He vanished downward instantly and caught the vial before it could shatter.

The moment his hand closed around it, he looked back up.

Aldren was already holding the badly injured Hidari. Behind them, one small magic circle and seven large ones had formed in the air, all merging into one enormous teleportation formation.

Aldren smiled down at him.

“Farewell, Caelum.”

“Have fun healing him.”

Caelum’s teeth ground together.

For one moment, he looked from Aldren—

To Lucen below, still convulsing—

And then back again.

Then Aldren and Hidari vanished.

Caelum appeared beside Lucen at once.

Seris looked up at him, shaken. “What’s happening to him…?”

Caelum didn’t answer immediately. His eyes dropped to the vial in his hand.

There was a small paper attached to it.

He tore it free and opened it.

On it were written simple words:

You gave him the right antidote. This is just colored water. You were too much a fighting obsessed Idiot to notice that.

For a second, the world seemed to go silent.

Then Caelum’s eyes burned with fury.

“ALDREN SAGEWELL—!!!”

The ground beneath him cracked from the force of his rage.

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