Ahead, smoke curled faintly between the towers. Shouts echoed distantly. The mana-engines hummed lower, then cut with a sharp click. The bus stilled. Students leaned forward, whispering nervously. The driver stood, his face pale. "Remain calm. There's… there's been a breach."
The word rippled like fire. Breach.
Ren's chest tightened. Outside, shadows flickered, massive shapes moving between buildings, limbs too long, maws too wide. Monsters.
The teacher on board rose sharply, his hand outstretched. "Stay seated. Do not panic." His voice was firm, but his knuckles were white.
The bus shook.
This time, because of the monster's movements.
"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 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 creatures moved again.
The pavement cracked under their limbs. Each step it took rippled the air. Their mouths didn't open to roar, but the pressure it emitted made the nearby street signs warp, the lights flickering 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. Staff 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."
Ren's gaze sharpened. Beside him, Watson whistled low. "Well. Guess we're in for a show. That's one of the Academy's golden stars. I heard he once held off a beast tide with a single barrier."
Mira's voice carried from the front, tinged with awe. "He's… amazing."
Watson grinned, leaning forward to whisper loudly, "Careful, Mira, you're drooling."
Her cheeks flushed instantly. "Shut up!"
Watson's voice cracked through the stunned silence. "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?"
"It helps me stay calm."
Watson spoke in curiosity. Curiosity about someone's arrival during battle, like he or she had changed the direction of the fight.
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 monsters roared. Shadows writhed, teeth flashing.
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 felt it was unimaginable.
"How can any human have this kind of terrible power?"
"He is not human... He is Yato. The Great Mage." Watson interrupted Ren with curiosity.
In everyone's eyes, hope was seen along with curiosity, like they had been waiting for this moment for so many years. And their curiosity was valid, because Yato was great among magicians and also a very famous personality around the world. Everyone loved him so much.
Yato spoke one word. The creatures snapped their heads 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 beasts. They screamed, that low twisted sound again, and leapt into the sky. Their limbs curled unnaturally, mist pouring from their bodies like venom smoke.
They 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 monsters, slamming his palm into that side. A symbol burned into existence on contact, a spiral sigil, shifting with arcs of blue light. The creatures screeched, their fleshes 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 movements.
★★★
Outside, the ground cracked again.
Chunks of asphalt rose like islands. Buildings flickered. Not physically, but something warped around them. The creatures were leaking more than mana. They were unraveling reality in small circles. Like their 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!"
Everyone watched that barrier form.
The bus jolted again. From the creatures.
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 creatures turned.
Their eyeless faces locked onto him.
It moved.
Faster than he thought.
One moment he was twenty meters away.
Next, he was in front of them.
Teeth like light opened wide.
Ren raised one hand.
A ring of dark blue symbols spun from his palm. Not like the magicians' glyphs. These were older. Cruder. Alive.
The creatures were struck.
And stopped.
A wall of violet light erupted between them, forged from nothing. The beasts were skidded back, screeching, smoke pouring from their 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.