Maria and Sarah reached the corner of the courtyard—and froze.
This was no longer the Academy. It was a crater of dust and shadow—a living hell.
The four metal rods of Varon's containment device were driven into the ground like coffin nails, projecting a flickering, unstable purple beam toward the center. But this light was no longer an orderly cage.
In the eye of the storm, the black creature (Shadow Stalker)—now swallowed by a mass of dense, bleeding shadows and grown to the size of a bear—writhed in agony. Every time it thrashed against the light cage, waves of razor-sharp shadows blasted outward like glass shrapnel.
CRASH!
The deafening crack of splitting stone rang out.
Just a few meters away from Maria, a massive chunk of the courtyard's upper wall sheared off. Its heavy, lethal shadow plunged toward the earth.
Directly beneath the falling debris stood another female student. She was frozen in sheer terror, eyes wide, watching tons of stone drop toward her.
Maria's analytical mind scanned the grid; a fraction of a second was all she needed.
Damn it... she's in shock. She's going to be crushed.
There was no time to calculate. Her body reacted before her brain could form the command.
She launched herself at the girl.
"Move!"
Maria slammed her shoulder into the student, violently tackling her onto the adjacent grass.
BOOOM!
A microsecond later, the stone wall obliterated the exact spot where the girl had just stood. The earth violently shuddered, sending a blinding cloud of pulverized rock and gravel into the air.
The girl rolled on the ground, scraping her hands raw against the cobblestones, but she was breathing. Trembling, she lifted her head. Through the choking dust, she saw Maria's small silhouette. Without a single moment of hesitation, Maria was already back on her feet, sprinting straight into the heart of the danger—toward Varon's device.
Her eyes widened in absolute awe.
"She... she saved my life."
But Maria couldn't hear her. She scanned the courtyard, dread clawing up her spine.
This was no longer a hidden battle.
Several students caught in the initial blast radius lay scattered across the ground. A second-year girl was pinned under the rubble of a collapsed wall, screaming. A boy was desperately trying to dig her out, but stray shadows lashed at their backs like merciless whips.
Warm blood stained the pristine white cobblestones.
Maria ground her teeth.
I have to end this... before someone actually dies.
The Academy guards were trying to hold the panicking crowd back, but they were paralyzed by their own fear.
Sarah grabbed Maria's arm, her nails digging painfully through the fabric of her uniform.
"Maria... look over there! The dormitory wall!"
Maria snapped her head up.
Deep, jagged fissures were crawling up the stone face of the dormitory building like black lightning. Hundreds of students were still trapped inside.
"If these vibrations keep up... that entire building is going to collapse on their heads!"
Maria clenched her fists.
This is my fault... I brought it here. I led Varon right to it.
The time for stealth was dead. This was a rescue mission now.
Varon stood his ground, a mere ten meters from the raging creature.
His white coat whipped violently around his legs from the sheer atmospheric pressure of the mana. His safety goggles were cracked and askew, but his hands danced obsessively over the floating control panel.
He wasn't terrified. He was starving for it.
The pressure gauges were screaming in the red. The core's mana density had long surpassed critical limits.
Maria broke from cover, shouting through the roaring gale:
"Stop it! You're going to kill it! The device is going to melt!"
Varon didn't even turn his head. His voice sliced through the chaos, cold and entirely manic:
"Stand back, Maria! Do not interfere!"
He forced the primary pressure lever even higher.
"This creature is my only living specimen! If I let it escape, decades of my research go up in smoke!"
"It's tearing itself apart, Master! Look at its body!"
Maria was right.
The creature's physical form was unraveling. Its body bled into dispersing black smoke, its skin tearing open and hastily stitching back together. Its screams were no longer the cries of a wounded animal—they sounded like the very fabric of reality being ripped to shreds.
Varon roared back:
"It doesn't matter! I just need to stabilize the 'Core'! Even if its body turns to ash, the core must remain intact!"
He completely bypassed the device's final safety limit.
The purple cage flared with blinding, lethal intensity.
The creature unleashed a sonic roar that instantly pulverized every glass window in the dormitory and the surrounding courtyard.
The pressure had peaked.
Not just for the monster, but for the machine.
One of the thick metal rods anchoring the containment field couldn't process the monstrous volume of energy.
A high-pitched, ear-splitting whine cut through the air.
CRACK...!
A glowing, molten fissure zigzagged up the metal spine of the rod.
Maria's trained eyes caught the flash.
"Take cover!"
She tackled Sarah, dragging them both behind a massive slab of fallen masonry.
BOOOM!
The rod detonated.
The shockwave didn't release fire; it unleashed a shockwave of pure, concussive blue force.
Varon's own protective shield threw him violently backward, sending him tumbling across the dirt.
But the adjacent old warehouse wasn't so lucky.
The uncontrolled mana beam sliced through the warehouse's structure like a glowing guillotine. A heartbeat later, the roof caved in with a catastrophic crunch.
Stone, timber, and steel rained down.
A thick, suffocating dust swallowed the courtyard.
For three agonizing seconds, there was dead silence... then the harrowing chorus of coughing, sobbing, and screams from the injured students began.
"My leg... I can't move my leg!"
"Help us!"
Maria hacked the bitter dust from her lungs and dragged herself up. Her face was coated in ash.
She assessed the battlefield. It was an absolute disaster zone.
Half the courtyard was a crater. But the true nightmare? The three remaining rods of Varon's device were still active, sparking violently as they tried to contain the collapsing field.
The circuit was broken. Immense energy was pooling with zero outlet.
Maria glared in horror at Varon, who was struggling to stand.
That arrogant fool... he completely severed the failsafe system.
If those three rods detonated simultaneously alongside the creature's collapsing core, it would level everything within a hundred-meters radius.
The dormitory would become a mass grave.
Maria swallowed hard.
Environment Analysis: Device critically unstable. Mana core on the verge of implosion. No senior mages on site. Likelihood of mass casualties: Imminent. Time: None.
Only I know how his circuitry works. Only me.
As the dust thinned, the true horror of the arena revealed itself.
The Shadow Creature, half of its physical form now evaporating into violent dark mist, thrashed blindly. Every lash of its shadow-tails sent arcs of dark energy ripping through the air like the scythe of the Reaper, aiming straight for the pinned students.
Maria bolted from cover toward the control console, but a massive shadow-tentacle whipped down, cratering the earth just centimeters from her boots.
BOOM!
The ground shattered, spraying rock shards against her face like shrapnel. Maria hit the dirt and rolled.
"I can't push through! The incoming fire is too dense!"
Behind the rubble, Sarah forced her shaking hands to steady. She wasn't a frontline warrior. She was an artificer.
She raised her golden bracelet, channeling every last drop of her mana reserves.
"Maria! Go! I've got you covered!" Sarah screamed, thrusting both hands forward.
A domed, glowing yellow shield—patterned like interlocking honeycombs—flared to life, paving a direct tunnel for Maria.
The shadow tentacles hammered against the barrier.
Crack... crack...
The shield splintered. Sarah let out a pained gasp and dropped to her knees, the kinetic shockwave transferring directly into her own nervous system. Blood dripped from her nose.
"Sarah!"
"Don't stop! Run! I can't hold it!"
Maria clenched her jaw. No time for sentiment.
She sprinted.
She tore through the fragile tunnel of light Sarah held open for her.
The ground convulsed beneath her boots. To her left, the remains of the warehouse crumbled. To her right, shadows cleaved the earth.
She moved with lethal precision. Vaulting over shattered pillars, sliding under a horizontal blade of dark energy, she breached the eye of the storm.
She slid to her knees right beside the primary control pedestal.
Varon, his face masked in blood and his goggles shattered, was desperately crawling toward the panel, but his right leg was pinned beneath a heavy steel beam.
Maria slammed her bare hands onto the blistering, vibrating circuitry.
The mana flow was completely feral. The three remaining rods were whining, seconds away from an obliterating detonation.
Her tactical mind mapped the circuit in a microsecond.
I have two options. Only two.
Option 1: Release Protocol (Emergency Shutdown)
Reverse the current and shatter the cage entirely.
Result: The creature is freed into the wild.Cost: A complete data wipe. Varon uses the chaos to slip away. No evidence remains of his illegal experiments. Justice dies here.
Option 2: Lockdown Protocol
Trap the volatile flow in a localized closed loop.
Result: Varon and his machine are sealed inside an impenetrable energy dome until the Royal Guard arrives. The bastard goes to prison.Cost: The internal pressure on the caged creature multiplies by a hundred. The creature is instantly crushed to death.
Maria froze. Her hands hovered over the panel.