The blast crater still glowed faintly where Asmodeus had vanished—jagged glassed earth steaming under the lingering heat of Seraphine's restrained aura. The air around her shimmered, bending light, warping space itself. Even holding back, her presence made the sky above the academy flicker like a mirage.
Eryndor exhaled deeply—shoulders relaxing as the adrenaline thinned out of his bloodstream. The storm within him was quiet now, humming in a steady rhythm beneath his skin, though the air around him still crackled with faint electric blue threads.
Seraphine brushed ash off her robes, her expression softening into the faintest smile.
"I'll honor our deal," she said.
Her voice carried an authority that still made the ground feel lighter—like even her words altered gravity.
"One leave per month. You've earned it… Nasarik."
Eryndor bowed his head—not subserviently, but with genuine respect.
"Thank you, Headmistress. But… I think it's us who should be thanking you."
She raised a brow.
"Oh? For what exactly?"
Eryndor tilted his chin toward the melted ring of stone around them, the ground still molten from her suppressed aura.
"For holding back."
Seraphine paused. Her crimson eyes—always burning, always knowing—softened ever so slightly.
"You really noticed, huh?"
"We all did," he replied.
"If you had ignited your full core… we wouldn't be standing here."
Seraphine laughed—not brightly, but like someone who had carried fear for far too long.
"Alright. Fair enough. You win that one."
Her gaze swept toward the battlefield below—the academy grounds broken, torn, burning. But among the chaos, five figures were fighting like living storms, standing between the invading monsters and the fleeing junior students.
Rein Clark. Kaelus. Darius. Stellar. Dova.
Seraphine sighed.
"At this rate… maybe I should just let the Guardians deal with the invasion."
Eryndor shook his head.
"You don't need to. Look at them."
They both turned.
And gods… it was heaven and hell unfolding.
Rein Clark buried a Dominion-infused punch into a monstrosity's skull—shattering it like glass.
Stellar froze a Titan-Borer mid-lunge—turning its entire lower body into glittering ice sculptures.
Dova touched a charging beast with one finger, and half its torso withered into aged dust.
Darius moved like a shadow between shadows, each strike swallowing chunks of the monster's body into depthless dark.
And then—
Wind howled.
Violently. Beautifully.
Azure.
Eryndor smirked.
"I trust they'll handle it."
Seraphine followed his gaze to Kaelus—who now stood alone, facing a monster so massive it dwarfed every other creature on the field.
KAELUS VS THE SIRAK
The First God-Candidate Showcase
The Sirak's hiss was so deep it vibrated the bones in the skull.
A serpent's body—coiled in endless loops like a pale green anaconda crossed with the towering bulk of a mountain troll. Its scales shimmered with a sickly glow—each one pulsing with venom potent enough to liquify bone on contact.
A single drop of the Sirak's venom could kill an elder class deity.
The ground beneath it corroded just from its breath.
Students fled. Walls collapsed. Magic shields dissolved.
Only one person stood in its path.
Kaelus Magna.
The God Candidate of Azure Tempest.
Wind curled around his feet, lifting dust and feathers of crushed leaves into a perfect swirling helix.
His eyes glowed a pale, almost serene sky-blue—the color of a calm ocean just before a hurricane swallows it whole.
The Sirak lunged.
WHOOM—
Its massive body crashed down like a collapsing building. Every stone within thirty meters shattered into gravel—
But Kaelus was no longer there.
A streak of blue tore through the air.
FWOOSH—
He appeared above the Sirak's head.
"Azure Form—Featherfoot."
He stepped onto the air itself—air that solidified into crystalline wind-string beneath his feet. The Sirak whipped around instantly, its tail slicing through the battlefield like a whip forged from toxic storms.
Kaelus spun.
"Azure Tempest Technique—Howling Sky Fang!"
His heel carved a crescent arc of compressed wind that split the tail's venom layer clean open—spraying diseased purple mist across the ruined courtyard.
But he didn't stop.
He flowed.
Azure Form martial art was not about rigidity. It was elegance. Grace. A wind dancer moving before thought could intervene.
Kaelus descended—body rotating, arms sweeping—
"Storm Palm."
Wind condensed at his palm like a spiraling miniature cyclone—then detonated against the Sirak's jaw.
BOOOOM!
The monster's skull snapped sideways, the force throwing ripples through its thirty-meter-long body.
But the Sirak wasn't just physically dangerous.
It wasn't even primarily physical.
Its true horror—
Came from what rested beneath its scales.
A second mouth opened across its abdomen—rows of fanged pores leaking violet poison that turned the air into corrosive gas.
The Sirak inhaled—
—and exhaled a cloud of violet death.
The poison wave spread outward like a slow rolling fog, melting the marble tiles with wet hissing sounds.
Kaelus widened his stance.
"So this is how we're playing it."
He cracked his neck once.
Then raised two fingers.
Wind screamed.
"Azure Tempest—Cyclone Shell!"
A spiraling barrier of pale sapphire wind coiled around him like a living armor, the edges sharpening until they became blades.
The poison hit the wind-shell—
—and got shredded into harmless mist, dissipating into the air.
Kaelus smirked.
"You're not touching me with that sloppy gas."
The Sirak shrieked—furious, enraged, heaving its mountain-sized body forward to crush him.
But Kaelus moved before it even completed the motion.
"Cloudstep."
He vanished in a flutter of sky-blue feathers, reappearing behind the monster in a heartbeat.
Hands clasped behind his back.
His demeanor shifted—calm, centered, almost noble.
Wind coursed through his veins like divine breath.
He whispered—
"Azure Form—Roaring Sky Dragon."
The air trembled.
Wind condensed into the shape of a massive translucent dragon—five stories tall—its wings stretching across the courtyard, formed entirely from vibrating currents of air.
It roared—
—a sound that cracked windows across the upper campus.
Kaelus thrust his palm forward.
The Sky Dragon surged ahead, slamming directly into the Sirak—lifting the colossal monster off the ground, dragging it through the academy walls, pulverizing three buildings in its wake.
KA-THOOOOOM!
Dust exploded into the horizon.
A crater carved itself into the academy's outer garden.
The Sirak twitched once—
—and collapsed, tongue falling out of its mouth, eyes rolling back into its skull.
Dead.
Absolutely, impossibly dead.
Kaelus brushed dust off his shoulder casually.
"Azure Tempest," he murmured,
"God Candidate confirmed."
Students watching from the shattered balconies screamed and cheered.
Even Seraphine crossed her arms, smiling softly.
"He accepted Azure's call… good."
Eryndor's smirk widened.
"Told you they'd handle it."
Seraphine's arms loosened, the scorching heat fading from her skin.
"Looks like I won't have to vaporize the continent today."
Eryndor chuckled.
"Let's save that for midterms."
The headmistress actually snorted.
Her gaze drifted upward—toward the faint, distant silhouette in the sky.
A figure. Watching.
But not descending.
Not yet.
"The real game has started," Seraphine whispered.
Eryndor followed her gaze.
His eyes narrowed.
The storm behind them settled.
But deep beneath it—something older stirred.
Something darker.
Something celestial.
A memory of a black sun pulsed behind his pupils.