Elsewhere, far from the academy and its carefully ordered halls, an extremely beautiful young woman ran through a dense forest beneath the pale glow of moonlight. She could not have been older than twenty, yet the way her lithe body moved defied common sense.
With every step she took, her body seemed to fade and reappear several meters ahead, carried by a spell known as Ethereal Steps, a fifth-tier movement art that only an advanced mage could make use of, which meant this young woman was an advanced mage!
Her speed was so terrifying that her figure was reduced to little more than a blur as she leapt from tree to tree, the branches cracking beneath her feet as she passed.
Long strands of dark purple hair that lightened at the edges streamed behind her, whipped violently by the wind, and when the moonlight struck it just right, the tips of those strands shimmered faintly with gold, lending her an almost unreal beauty.
