The instant Duente and Liweida shook hands, a pillar of fire erupted from the Sky Dome Academy beside them.
Its brilliance was so intense that it even outshone the sunlight, lighting up even the garbage dump on the mountainside.
“Such tremendous magic power… What’s happening?” Liweida looked toward the academy.
Duente remained silent.
At that moment, he felt the Innate Flames within him stir restlessly, guiding him, summoning him to a certain place.
He was certain that the pillar of fire descending from the sky had been caused by Ailisi.
After all, he hadn’t managed to fully wrest her Innate Flames away.
Therefore, the source of the resonance could only be Ailisi.
“Liweida, don’t worry about it. The Academy Protection Organization will handle everything.”
“But Senior… as a member of Sky Dome Academy, we should—”
Before Liweida could continue, Duente cut her off, “It’s none of our business. We’re just ordinary students. Let those ‘adults’ deal with this chaos.”
His real thought was: ‘If Ailisi can’t survive this crisis, then I’ll finish her fate myself.’
Liweida nodded, “Since Senior says so, I’ll listen to you.”
‘Seems she really trusts me. That feels nice.’
A warmth rose in Duente’s heart, but he didn’t show it.
“Let’s head back to our dorms and conserve our strength. This time, we’ll be the first to conquer the Black Tower.”
“Alright, though I was hoping to spend a little more time with you~” Liweida said playfully.
“Then let’s stay here and observe the academy from above. We’ll watch how the people down there scramble to handle this sudden situation.”
“Wow, Senior, you’re so mean!”
“Mean? I think it’s a good thing!”
“It is mean, it is!” Liweida lightly tapped Duente on the waist, laughing happily.
Duente picked up two old chairs from the trash pile—discarded school desks and chairs.
He gave one to Liweida and kept one for himself.
And so the two of them sat on the mountainside, watching the chaos in the academy.
While the two enjoyed their leisurely observation, the real victims were the innocent students trapped inside the school.
“Run!”
“The volcano’s erupting!”
“I just came out to hang my shorts—how did I get blown up?!”
A fountain in front of the boys’ dormitory suddenly burst into a towering pillar of fire.
The passing students scattered in terror.
They had never seen anything like this; they all thought it was divine punishment.
Fortunately, there were no casualties.
The Academy Protection Organization arrived at the scene immediately.
Captain Loyer gave the order: “Level 1 alert. Evacuate the students quickly, secure the surrounding area, and request activation of a large-scale defensive barrier to isolate the unknown massive magic power source.”
Vice Captain Colin quickly received word from higher-ups, “Permission granted. Deploy the defensive barrier immediately!”
The captain and vice captain, along with a total of ten elite members, surrounded the continuously erupting pillar of fire and swiftly formed a multi-person magic circle.
In unison, the ten chanted: “We ten, with our bodies as monuments, erect walls in the void, sever the sky as a boundary. Wherever we stand, inside and outside shall be eternally separated—unbreakable except by blood and oath!”
At the same moment, all ten pressed their palms to the ground.
Light burst from their palms and instantly wove together into a magic circle halo—
The next instant, the halo rose into a wall of light that closed in midair.
Wherever it enveloped, the firelight, wind, and breath were severed.
A hemispherical light barrier emerged from the void, gradually separating the two worlds inside and out.
Then a figure shot out from within the fire pillar, squeezing through the gap in the defensive barrier before it fully closed.
It was a female warrior wreathed in flames.
Her entire body had turned into fire: her hair, eyes, hands, feet, and even her clothes were all made of flame.
The fiery pillar vanished—all absorbed into the female warrior.
“Duente…”
She whispered that name, then looked toward the mountainside behind the academy, locking onto Duente directly.
“Tch… I didn’t expect this… Liweida! Get ready to fight!”
Liweida, who had been sneakily watching Duente, jolted in fright at the sudden battle order.
“S-Senior? What’s happening?”
Ailisi charged at Duente with incredible speed.
Without hesitation, Duente lunged forward, tackling Liweida to the ground and covering her body with his own.
The next second, Ailisi streaked past above them, trailing a long fiery contrail.
It took Liweida a moment to react.
“That was close! Thank you, Senior, for saving my life!”
Duente didn’t have time to respond.
He had already summoned his exclusive weapon through the Soul Core.
The Mana Light Sword.
Ailisi, having missed her attack, turned around and dove at Duente again.
In Duente’s hand, a sword of pure mana appeared.
At first it was faint, but as he released his magic, the sword gradually turned into the color of flames—identical to the blaze enveloping Ailisi.
“Liweida! I’ll hold her off. Go all out and crush her!”
“Got it!”
Duente gripped the sword with both hands and braced himself to meet Ailisi’s charge.
When she touched his weapon, a flicker of human light returned to her eyes, but it was quickly swallowed by the flames.
‘Damn it… I should have drained her power to nothing by now…’
With brute strength and the blessing of the Innate Flames, Duente managed to block Ailisi’s assault for a few seconds.
But the current Duente was not the powerful man he had been before his reincarnation.
Relying solely on the Innate Flames, he couldn’t match a true Heaven’s Chosen Brave.
“Liweida! Are you ready yet?!”
“I’m coming, Senior!”
Liweida had already completed her magic release.
Her form had changed.
Black-and-white wings sprouted from her back, a black cross-shaped sword appeared in her hand, her hair turned white, and her entire outfit transformed into a Shadow Attire composed of shadows.
While Duente resisted Ailisi’s assault, Liweida had long since finished charging her energy.
She pointed her sword at Ailisi.
At the tip of the cross-shaped sword, a mass of black energy crackling with black lightning condensed.
“Shadow Spear Annihilation Cannon!”
A black beam of condensed shadow power shot forth, rushing toward Ailisi and piercing straight through her left shoulder.
Ailisi was gravely wounded, and the mana within her was weakened.
The force of her impact diminished, giving Duente a chance to catch his breath.
As the mana subsided, all the flames on Ailisi were absorbed into her wound.
Her hair and eyes returned to their original state.
The left shoulder, severely damaged by the Shadow Spear Annihilation Cannon, was repaired by the Heaven’s Chosen Brave’s self-healing talent.
For now, her life was not in danger.
Duente also breathed a sigh of relief.
He dismissed the Mana Light Sword, paid no attention to Ailisi lying naked before him, and turned to Liweida instead.
“Good work. Thanks to your timely intervention, I might have been burned to death.”
Liweida deactivated her transformation, returning to her original appearance of black hair and school uniform.
“Hehe, Senior is amazing too. Your quick reaction gave me the chance to show off~” She smiled sweetly.
She then looked at Ailisi.
Though she felt disgust inside, she put on a magnanimous front.
So she took off her jacket and draped it over Ailisi’s body, deliberately saying, “She looks so pitiful like this. I’ll lend her my jacket.”
Duente replied, “Whatever. If she dies here, that’s her own bad luck.”
“Senior is so heartless~ So cool!”
What Duente didn’t say was that he wished Ailisi would die right now.
But not yet.
He had to kill her in the right place, at the right time.
He had to torment her thoroughly first, then take everything from her, and finally her life.
Right now, she was a mess after losing control—far from the satisfaction of revenge.
So the plan would continue.
When the Academy Protection Organization personnel arrived, they couldn’t believe what they saw—
The rampaging flame human that had burst from underground was actually Ailisi, the most prominent second-year student?
A rampaging solo entity that even a large-scale defensive magic array couldn’t stop had been subdued by two students?
Vice Captain Colin said he had never seen such a strange thing.
Captain Loyer said, “You two students are suspected of possessing illegal powers. Please come with us.”