“What…? Weren’t we supposed to get out now that Mia is eliminated?” one of the students from the Eternum Royal Academy asked, confusion etched on his face.

A few minutes had passed and they still didn’t get teleported out of the practical dungeon.

“I think so. She was the last student from Silverleaf, right?” another spoke, glancing around at the others.

The remaining students began to murmur among themselves, and even Ella and her group couldn’t help but feel puzzled.

“But isn’t it strange?” Rose suddenly spoke up, her voice cutting through the chatter and catching everyone’s attention.

“The moment Mia was eliminated, the usual notification that tells us how many students are left from the other academy still showed one.”

“Right…” Ella nodded, her brow furrowing in thought.

“After Lucas and Maya eliminated Derek, it said only one student was remaining. So we should have won, right?”

As her words hung in the air, everyone fell silent, deep in thought.

Then Lucas muttered:

“Unless… Aestrea entered the dungeon just before Mia was eliminated…”

BANG!

“GAAAGHH!”

Just as he finished speaking, a loud scream pierced the air, and in front of their eyes, one of the students disintegrated into wisps, their body vanishing as if it had never existed.

They turned toward the sound of the gunshot, and there he was—a familiar young man with silver hair and glowing red eyes stepping into view.

His clothes were in tatters, hanging off him like rags, soaked with dark stains of blood that oozed from deep gashes and scratches covering his skin.

Each wound looked agonizingly deep, blood gushing from them and pooling at his feet, creating a gruesome sight.

“A-Aestrea…” Ella gasped, her hand flying to her mouth in shock.

It was clear that those injuries hadn’t come from the practical dungeon.

Just by looking at him, anyone could tell why Aestrea hadn’t appeared in the second phase and only showed up now in the third—he had been busy fighting a powerful opponent.

However, it wasn’t time to worry about Aestrea, after all, they were still in the academy’s competition!

Ella quickly shook her head and looked towards her teammates.

“Prepare to atta—!”

—SPLURT!

A violent spray of blood erupted as a silver line sliced through the air as if cutting through paper.

In that instant, four students vanished into wisps, their screams echoing in the air before being silenced.

“A-ah…” Ella stammered, shock washing over her.

She wasn’t alone; Lucas, Rose, Maya, and Iris were equally stunned, their faces pale as they processed what had just happened.

But each one of them quickly got out of their waze, and prepared to attack Aestrea.

『 Fire Series: Phoenix Rush (✦ 6th-level Spell ✦)』

Immediately, Rose raised her stuff and started preparing her strongest spell. Just by seeing that attack from Aestrea, she knew that he wasn’t there to play around.

“Maya, let’s go together!”

Lucas spoke to Maya who nodded her head, her fists clenched tightly as they both dashed toward Aestrea like a bolt of lightning.

At that moment, Aestrea, looking at the forming fire phoenix, slowly turned his head towards them and raised his sword.

Shing!

A silver crescent wave of mana shot toward them, but they didn’t stop as a golden barrier suddenly materialized around them.

Aestrea didn’t seem surprised; he merely glanced at Iris, who had summoned the barrier.

CRACK!

“What?!”

Lucas exclaimed, eyes wide with disbelief as the crescent wave pierced through Iris’s barrier like it was made of paper.

Both Lucas and Maya instinctively tried to shield themselves from the incoming attack, panic flooding their senses.

At that moment, from behind, a group of students tried to attack Aestrea, but he didn’t even glance at them as he diagonally swung his sword.

SPLURT!

A silver line cut through the air, and the students behind him were cleanly severed in half, their bodies collapsing to the ground before dissipating into wisps.

Blood sprayed everywhere, painting the ground in a horrific crimson color.

But it didn’t stop there.

The silver light surrounding Aestrea intensified, glowing with a fierce energy that crackled in the air.

『 First Move! (✦ Ice Lotus Bloom ✦)』

An ice lotus formed above him, delicate yet deadly, as Aestrea swung his sword downwards.

The moment the lotus reached the center of the remaining students, he clenched his fist tightly.

“Bloom.”

He uttered a single word, and then…

FREEZE!

A wave of bone-chilling cold surged through the forest, sweeping across the ground like a dark tide.

It didn’t take long for the icy blast to reach the students, and when it did, the temperature plummeted.

The remaining students were caught off guard, their bodies instantly encased in ice. They gasped in shock, but it was too late.

The ice shattered with a sickening crunch, and blood gushed out in a gruesome spray.

The only ones left standing were Ella and her group, their faces pale with horror as they witnessed the brutal elimination of their classmates.

On the outside, the crowd erupted in cheers, but amongst them, the students of the Silverleaf Academy were the loudest.

Not to mention the high nobility…

“Did he get stronger in the span of a few days?” Evelyn, the northern Duchess, exclaimed in her same neutral expression.

If she could manifest emotions, she probably would have a shocked face.

“Yeah… it seems so.” Elandor, the Sword Duke, nodded his head in confirmation.

Unlike Evelyn, he had shock splattered over his face, but beneath that, there was an undeniable hate for Aestrea.

He had eliminated his dear grandson after all.

To their reactions, Empress Isabella couldn’t help but smile widely.

“This little guy… seems like a perfect partner for Ella, no?” she said, turning to face Francis, the emperor.

He frowned deeply, his expression darkening as he shot her a look that seemed to say, ‘You’re still on that?’.

“She’s my dear daughter, and this Aestrea is just a commoner,” he replied, shaking his head in disapproval before glaring at Isabella.

Then, he leaned closer to her and whispered.

“Don’t forget your place, woman.”

Empress Isabella immediately clenched the hems of his dress as she heard his cold words.

Although they appeared to be a perfect couple from the outside, the reality was quite different.

The Emperor was a very lustful man, with countless mistresses, and he often neglected Isabella. She had been forced into marriage with him due to his obsession with her in their earlier years.

However, right after their wedding ceremony, he suddenly lost interest in her.

They never conceived even once during their marriage.

Isabella was the daughter of the previous Empress, and Francis doted on her because he had loved his late wife very dearly.

However, he also threatened Isabella, insisting that she act like the perfect wife so that his image as Emperor would not be tarnished.

Despite this, Isabella genuinely treated Ella as her own daughter, but she received no recognition or appreciation from Francis.

“Oh, would you look at that?” Evelyn muttered softly, and immediately, everyone’s eyes were drawn back to the big screen.

BAAM!

Both Lucas and Maya were sent flying through the air, their bodies crashing down before Ella caught them just in time.

“Gah… this guy…” Lucas coughed, blood spilling from his lips as he clutched his chest, his breaths coming out in ragged gasps.

“Agh…!” Maya groaned, holding her stomach as she limped on the ground, pain etched across her face.

Immediately, Iris rushed over to them, her hands glowing with a soft light as she conjured a healing spell.

“Hang in there, guys! I’m almost done!” Rose called out, but just then, Aestrea’s figure vanished from sight.

And Ella’s eyes immediately traced it as she dashed towards Rose.

CLANG!

Ella’s sword clashed against Aestrea’s right in front of Rose, whose eyes went wide with shock.

“Agh…!”

Ella grunted, trying to push Aestrea back, but he stood firm, slowly forcing her to retreat.

“Guys, help!” Rose shouted.

She really couldn’t do anything because she was still preparing the spell, and needed to focus all of her mana on the spell.

In other words, she was a living target.

CLANG!

Lucas swung his sword at Aestrea from the side, but Aestrea simply lowered his body and deflected the blow with the handle of his sword, handling both Ella’s and Lucas’s sword at the same time.

However, there was still one missing person who had been buffed by Iris’s spell.

“HAAAA!”

Maya shouted as she threw a punch, her fist enveloped in a deep surge of mana.

But at that moment, as soon as her punch met Aestrea’s body, his body turned into mist.

“Oh… no…!”

The force of Lucas’s sword swing sent Maya crashing into Ella, splitting her in half before she could react.

Blood sprayed everywhere, gushing from her body as she fell to the ground before dissipating into wisps.

“KUAAGHH!”

Ella was sent flying backward, her body slamming into a tree with a sickening crack.

The impact shattered the trunk, and she continued to fly through the air, breaking more trees in her path, blood trickling from her mouth.

Fortunately, Rose wasn’t attacked or anything, and her spell was finally complete.

“PHOENIX RUSH!”

She screamed loudly as her staff glowed brighter than ever.

Immediately, a fire phoenix erupted from her staff, soaring toward Aestrea like a blazing wind, making everything on its way catch on fire.

But, Aestrea remained calm, and simply raised his sword.

『 Second Move! (✦ Ice Lotus Barrage ✦)』

A barrage of crescent waves of mana shot toward the phoenix, each one being stronger than the last one.

Initially, Rose thought that soon enough the crescent waves would stop because seemed to consume a lot of mana, but they didn’t.

Each one struck the phoenix, weakening it further until, just a few meters from Aestrea, the fire phoenix completely dissipated into dust.

“D-damn… h-how much mana, haah… do you have?!” Rose gritted her teeth, breathing heavily, frustration and fear mixing in her chest

She had spent all of her mana on that same move, but surprisingly, it was easily taken down by Aestrea.

To her words, Aestrea didn’t say anything, keeping the same sharp and cold expression.

He looked towards Lucas, then to Ella, and finally to Rose again.

‘This… are the ‘heroes’ that eventually are going to save the world?’

‘Do they have a hidden technique or something?’

Aestrea pondered to himself.

When he first arrived in this world, he believed he could challenge just one of them and perhaps be evenly matched with him or her.

But now…

All of them together didn’t muster a chance against him.

‘But, I’m still going to keep my guard up… After all, both Ella and Lucas didn’t use a single of their techniques.’

‘Maybe, their powers come more from their techniques, and not raw skill…’

He took a step forward.

‘They can’t be so weak.’

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep