The bus shook again.
This time, because of the the monster's moving.
"Everyone stay calm!" a voice shouted from the front. One of the teachers, Mr. Vance, stood braced against the rattling door, trying to keep his balance as the vehicle trembled. His coat flared as the wind screamed through a cracked window.
"Get down! Stay low! Do not leave the bus!"
Most students were already hiding. Some cried. Others clutched their phones, hands shaking as they recorded or tried to call home. The illusion of safety had shattered. Elaris was supposed to be secure. Mana police, barrier wards, guardian towers they were never supposed to fail.
But outside, the creature moved again.
The pavement cracked under its limbs. Each step it took rippled the air. Its mouth didn't open to roar, but the pressure it emitted made the nearby street signs warp, the lights flicker unnaturally.
Ren stayed crouched. But his eyes never left the window.
★★★
Sirens wailed in the distance.
Then, a light.
Not sunlight.
Not headlights.
But something far more refined.
From above, a circle of glowing sigils burned into the sky, and five silhouettes descended through it like falling embers. Long coats. Staffs and blades at their sides.
The City Magician Taskforce had arrived.
And at their front, cloaked in blue and gold, floated a man known across the world.
Yato Ridai.
His presence alone bent the wind. His boots didn't touch the ground. His mana shimmered around him like threads of starlight woven through air.
A few students peeked through the windows, their fear giving way to awe.
"Is that him…?"
"Yato Ridai… he's real?"
"He's… glowing."
Watson's voice cracked through the stunned silence. "The founder of the Central Mana Academy. First-tier mage of the Sapphire Court. This is bad. They wouldn't send him unless this was a Class S threat."
Mira stared at him. "You're seriously reciting facts right now?"
"Shut up. It helps me stay calm."
...Watson shouting towards her but it wasn't in anger. It's in curiosity. Curiosity of someone's arrival during battle like he/she is changed the direction of the battle.
Outside, the team spread into a wide formation. Runes appeared beneath their feet, marking their casting zones. They didn't speak. Just moved.
Yato raised one hand.
The moment he did, the world tilted.
A pressure fell across the block like the sky had lowered itself onto the earth.
Ren's eyes widened. Not in pain. But in curiosity.
That pressure.
He'd felt it was unimaginable.
" How any human have this type of terrible powers."
" He is not human... He is Yato. The Great mage."... Watson interrupt Ren with curiosity.
In everyone's eyes hope seens with curiosity like they are waiting for this time since so many years. And their curiosity is valid also because Yato is great among magicians and also a very famous personality around the world. All loves him so much.
Yato spoke one word. The creature snapped its head toward him, sensing the challenge. Its body shuddered, distorting like melting wax.
Then the fight began.
The air exploded.
Three magicians fired at once silver bolts of pure mana rocketed toward the beast. It screamed, that low twisted sound again, and leapt into the sky. Its limbs curled unnaturally, mist pouring from its body like venom smoke.
It moved too fast.
One of the magicians was struck mid-cast. He slammed into a parked car and didn't get up. The others adjusted, weaving new spells, shouting names of elements and numbers in coded sequence.
Yato moved without sound.
He vanished, then reappeared in front of the monster, slamming his palm into its side. A symbol burned into existence on contact a spiral sigil, shifting with arcs of blue light. The creature screeched, its flesh burning in the shape of that spiral.
Ren gripped the seat.
He should have been afraid. Terrified. But instead, his pulse quickened in a different way. His muscles tensed. His vision sharpened. Every detail burned into him. The curve of Yato's spell. The rhythm of the monster's movement.
He understood it.
Not perfectly.
But instinctively.
"Why…" he whispered. "Why do I feel like I've seen this before?"
Watson noticed again. "Ren… what's going on with you?"
Ren didn't answer.
He couldn't.
His mind was racing, but his body stayed still. Like it remembered battle without needing reason.
★★★
Outside, the ground cracked again.
Chunks of asphalt rose like islands. Buildings flickered. Not physically but something warped around them. The creature was leaking more than mana. It was unraveling reality in small circles. Like its presence alone broke the rules of the world.
A magician shouted, "Zone 3 is collapsing! Mana law is destabilizing!"
Yato lifted both hands now. His coat flared like wings as a massive barrier shimmered into place around the block. The shimmer stretched high above the skyline, dimming the city with a dome of translucent blue.
"Keep it inside!" he barked. "Don't let it bleed into the next sector!"
Ren watched that barrier form and felt a familiar ache behind his eyes. It pulsed like memory.
Then he felt it.
A crack inside him.
Small.
But growing.
The bus jolted again. Not from the creature.
From him.
The metal near Ren's feet groaned faintly. Mira gasped and looked at him.
"Ren… are you okay?"
His breath came slower now. His skin was pale. But in his eyes, something dark was moving. A flicker of blue, a thread of smoke curling out of his fingertips before disappearing.
Watson saw it too.
"What the hell…" he whispered.
Students nearby began to notice.
"Is he… glowing?"
"Ren…?"
Ren stood up.
It wasn't a decision. It was instinct. His body moved like it remembered a rhythm his mind had forgotten.
He stepped past Mira, past Watson, and toward the bus door.
"Stop him!" someone yelled. "Stay inside!"
But before anyone could react, the door slammed open on its own.
Ren walked out.
Into the chaos.
Wind tore at his hair. Screams echoed. Mana bolts crashed around him like thunder. But Ren didn't stop walking.
The creature turned.
Its eyeless face locked onto him.
It moved.
Faster than thought.
One moment it was twenty meters away.
The next, it was in front of him.
Teeth like light opened wide.
Ren raised one hand.
No spell.
No training.
Just memory.
The world paused.
A ring of dark-blue symbols spun from his palm. Not like the magicians' glyphs. These were older. Cruder. Alive.
The creature struck.
And stopped.
A wall of violet light erupted between them, forged from nothing. The beast skidded back, screeching, smoke pouring from its limbs.
The street went silent.
Even the magicians froze.
Yato's eyes locked on Ren from above. And for the first time since his arrival, his expression changed.
Shock.
Recognition.
He whispered one word under his breath.
"…Impossible."
Ren lowered his hand.
And breathed out.
He also in shocked and amazed like what this happened.why his body reacts such this way?
In his mind so many questions remain and the world around him looking towards him but he is lost in his thoughts... In his inner world.