Sheathing the Staff of Azur, Gawain surveyed the interior of the church. The puppet soldiers sent from the outside as reinforcements had all been dismantled. He and Sellen walked toward a set of remains that still flickered with the pale light of glintstone.
"So, this is their surveillance tool. If I speak here, my voice should carry through, right?"
"Indeed," Sellen replied. "The engravings on this stone are designed to transmit sound. Say what you wish; those on the other side will hear it clearly."
The corners of Gawain's mouth curled into a smirk. Recalling the faces of certain 'old acquaintances' from his memories, he fixed his expression into a predatory snarl.
"Listen up, you lot hiding in the back. Don't bother causing trouble; I've arrived at the Academy. Take a good look at who this is—Master Sellen herself. Do you really dare oppose her?"
Sellen, catching on to her apprentice's lead, gave a sharp nod and added her own icy greeting.
"I have only one thing to say to you all: You, come to the classroom. I am coming for you!"
Gawain didn't think that was quite enough. He unsheathed the Sword of Night and Flame and leveled it at the glintstone.
"And this weapon is a heavyweight: the Sword of Night and Flame. We're in the Academy now. You lot of sorcerers had better back off. I'm giving you one chance: get your formations ready in the classrooms and try to hold your ground. Don't go trying any other tricks, or I promise you... things are about to get very 'floaty.' Believe me yet?"
Their words were transmitted perfectly through the glintstone to the sorcerer wearing the Twinsage Crown. For some reason, the professor suddenly felt a strange, unsettling sensation of weightlessness.
"Master... what should we do?"
"We wait for them in the classrooms," the lead professor replied, his voice trembling slightly. "Most of the sorcerers are still on our side. The odds are a hundred to two. We have the home-field advantage. The advantage is ours!"
"Master speaks with great wisdom!"
"Master, I've always been curious: how many types of glintstone sorcery have actually been discovered? I saw a fair few in Sellia, but now that we're at the Academy, it feels like there are dozens more I've never even heard of."
After leaving the Church of the Cuckoo, Gawain carried Sellen on his back, leaping across the rooftops toward the classroom block. As he casually swatted away any puppet soldiers attempting to block their path, he voiced his question.
Back at Stormveil, he had already sensed that the glintstone magic system here differed slightly from what he remembered—not that it was contradictory, but rather that it was far more diverse. He was curious to see what other strange discoveries he might find.
Sellen pondered for a moment before explaining.
"Having been away for so long, I find it difficult to give a definitive answer. However, you know of the four most famous classrooms, representing the Stars, Comets, the equality of Moon and Star, and the practical application of battlefield 'cannon' and 'judgment' sorceries.
Beyond these four mainstream directions, students often explore niche fields or collaborate across classrooms. That surveillance glintstone you saw earlier, for instance, was essentially a joint research product."
She tightened her grip on her apprentice's waist. Traveling along the edges of cliffs and jumping between rooftops was a bit more of an adrenaline rush than she was used to. Looking up, she could already see the silhouette of the Grand Library.
"Sorcerers often have sudden bursts of inspiration and submit their findings to be archived in the Grand Library. If someone wishes to use those findings during a certain period, they must pay a price. The Academy is the sanctuary of knowledge for the entire Lands Between; after so many centuries of accumulated research, I doubt even the Queen knows exactly how many variants are stored within those halls."
Gawain hadn't expected the Academy to have something akin to a patent system, but it made sense. When knowledge can be converted into productivity and power on such a scale, mechanisms for exchange were bound to emerge.
Before long, he looked down and saw the massive, rotating waterwheel. In the game, one had to use that device to reach the classroom area.
But it clearly wasn't the only way. Aside from his "parkour" route across the roofs, there was a passage that had long been sealed—likely the road students had used to enter and leave the Academy in the past. After all, you couldn't expect students to play Mirror's Edge every time they went to class, only for a few unlucky ones to fall off and be selected by an Abductor Virgin for a one-way trip to Volcano Manor.
The primary function of the wheel was to continuously haul glintstone up from the mines below. Gawain peered down. The closer they got to the heart of the Academy, the richer the glintstone deposits became. It confirmed his theory: the Academy was built directly atop a massive glintstone vein.
This abundance was likely the reason the Academy could remain self-sufficient while sealed for so long. During a war, it could instantly transform into a massive armory. No wonder Queen Rennala had been able to hold her own against Radagon for so long.
He noticed the Alabaster Lord, who usually guarded the area with gravity balls, was absent. Seeing nothing else of interest, he turned his gaze back to the path ahead.
Following Sellen's directions, the master and apprentice arrived on the roof of one of the classroom buildings. Sellen pointed at the structure beneath them and spoke with certainty.
"Apprentice, the top floor of this building is the Twinsage classroom. When I was driven out and imprisoned, the leader of this classroom was the Academy's current chief administrator. I suspect he was the one listening just now."
"Excellent. Let's start there."
Just as Sellen predicted, there were only two people in the room. The one of higher status was the leader of the Twinsage sorcerers—the most powerful among them.
The professor was standing by the window, silently contemplating how to handle the intruders. Orders had already been dispatched; every sorcerer capable of combat was on patrol.
Without a doubt, the intruders were hostile and formidable—an entire church full of puppets hadn't slowed them down. While he didn't know if the intruder was the "Storm Lord" they feared, he estimated the man was at least on par with the heads of the various classrooms.
Against such a foe, ordinary sorcerers were useless. They needed to stall for time, surrounding the intruders for a multi-front assault.
But the intruders' movements were erratic. The lifts were locked down, yet they had reached the Church of the Cuckoo anyway. After the surveillance stones were destroyed, they hadn't appeared on any of the normal paths. Where will they strike from?
As he pondered, two figures—a man and a woman—suddenly appeared outside his window.
Startled, the professor realized these were the intruders. Before they could crash through the glass, he leveled his staff and fired a Glintstone Comet.
Sellen's staff flared with mana. A verdant Glintstone Barrier manifested in the path of the comet, absorbing the spell and causing it to shatter and dissipate harmlessly.
In that instant, Gawain gathered his strength and kicked the window open, soaring into the room.
The professor's subordinate tried to cast a support spell, but Gawain sent him flying with a single kick. The man's body smashed through several desks and chairs before rolling across the floor.
Though it was just a casual strike, for a demi-god level warrior, it was more than a sorcerer's fragile frame could endure.
The lead professor realized things had gone horribly wrong. He had stayed here to coordinate the defenses from the rear; he never expected the pair to bypass his lines and burst through the window. With his most trusted subordinate out of commission, he was alone.
The disadvantage of fighting two-on-one was immense. He needed to find a way to escape and rally the other elite sorcerers.
But as he tried to stand, he realized his path was blocked. Sellen had already reached the door. As she pressed her left hand against the frame, countless blue glintstone crystals began to grow and spread, sealing the exit entirely.
"Apprentice, you're in luck," Sellen remarked. "Our first catch is a big fish. This man is the strongest of the Twinsage sorcerers. Even among the professors, few can match him. He gave your master quite a bit of trouble in the past."
The professor stared at the woman—a living nightmare to men like him—and felt his scalp go numb.
"You are truly persistent, Sellen. If we could have killed you back then, we never would have left you alive, Witch. Now that the stars are in motion again and your destiny is no longer stagnant, have you come back just to die?"
Sellen chuckled, her hand over her mouth. she observed the mana flowing through the glintstone; her opponent was desperately trying to send out a distress signal for reinforcements.
That suited her fine. She was in no hurry. When the others arrived, she wouldn't have to bother sorting through them; she'd just eliminate them all at once.
"Come back to die? While it's pointless to argue with a dead man, your days of occupying this Academy end tonight.
Heh. You lot should have known this day was coming. I suffered plenty at your hands. Looking back, I should almost thank you for exiling me to Limgrave; otherwise, I might never have found the means to return today. As a token of my gratitude, I shall ensure your death has some value—at least as a training dummy for my apprentice's latest lessons."
The professor felt a minor surge of relief. Sellen was as arrogant as he remembered; that was how he and the other sorcerers had managed to capture and imprison her before.
Since she wasn't attacking immediately, he glanced at the stranger in Carian armor. Does he have a connection to the Royals? Why is he carrying a legendary weapon that hasn't been seen for years?
Sellen called him 'apprentice,' but based on their interaction, the professor suspected their relationship was far more than that. He could sense a decent pool of mana in the man, but he didn't look like a top-tier sorcerer.
He had never heard of Sellen having such a pupil. Most of the students she had taught in the past had eventually betrayed her.
And that kick—plus the window entry... he didn't move like a sorcerer at all. The professor recalled their earlier theory about the Storm Lord, and cold sweat began to bead on his forehead. It couldn't be...
"So you are the Witch's apprentice? I don't know what lies she used to deceive you, but you have made a poor choice. Have you not heard what she did to her former students?"
"Former students? I—"
Seeing Gawain hesitate at the mention of her past, the professor didn't wait. He leveled his staff and unleashed a flurry of spells.
A Swift Glintstone Shard shot forth from the Staff of Azur, intercepting the professor's magic in mid-air.
Gawain raised an eyebrow. He hadn't even finished his sentence before being attacked. So much for professional courtesy. Since the man didn't want to be civil, Gawain didn't need to hold back.
The professor retreated rapidly, trying to keep his distance. But his caution was unnecessary; his opponent had no intention of closing in.
With such a perfect sparring partner, Gawain intended to squeeze every drop of value out of him before finishing the fight. For a time, the room was filled with the thunder of colliding spells.
Gawain watched his opponent's every move. Many times, they used the exact same spell, yet the professor's version was significantly more powerful.
Gawain's intelligence was high enough that the gap in raw power shouldn't be that large; the difference lay in the technique and mastery of the casting. Under the "guidance" of this unwilling tutor, Gawain's grasp of glintstone sorcery began to grow—just as his other skills had reached their peak through life-and-death experience.
The combat between sorcerers was largely homogenous. Unlike warriors, who had a vast array of techniques from kicks to resins to sickles, sorcerers were glass cannons. The fight was a matter of who had the higher stats and who could land the harder, faster hit. That was why the "hidden" sorcerers of Sellia were so feared.
The Twinsage professor was reaching a breaking point. Sellen stood by the door like a casual spectator, blocking his colleagues from entering while he was forced to duel this monster.
In terms of glintstone mastery, he believed that with the Queen mad, no one in the Academy was his superior. His opponent had some skill, but not much. Yet, while the professor landed several direct hits with his strongest Comet spells, the results were non-existent.
At first, there was a reaction—the man flinched or bled slightly. But then a blinding white light flared around his opponent, and after that, the magic didn't produce so much as a flinch. The man eventually stopped even trying to dodge, simply observing the professor's casting to try and replicate it.
Feeling his mana nearly exhausted, the professor lowered his staff. He broke into a fit of hysterical, self-deprecating laughter, then turned to Sellen and roared:
"You cursed Witch! If you want revenge, do it now! I will not endure this humiliation! What do you take me for!?"
Sellen was sitting lazily in a chair she'd pulled up, savoring the sight of her enemy's breakdown. It was indeed a pleasant view. But the pressure from outside was mounting, and though she'd enjoyed the show, it was time to end it.
"That's enough, Apprentice. He's of no more use. Finish it."
Gawain nodded. He had indeed memorized several of the professor's casting nuances. It was time to deal with the crowd gathering outside.
"You attacked me before I could finish speaking. If you like playing those kinds of tricks, I remember telling you how I'd handle you back at the church, didn't I?"
"Wait... what are you—?"
"That's right. Time to fly!"
A powerful wave of gravity magic gripped the Twinsage professor. With his mana drained, he had no way to resist. Then, a storm gathered into a massive vortex, whisking his battered body into the air and slamming him through the door. In that instant, a slight sense of weightlessness seemed to ripple through the entire Academy.
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Elden Ring: In the Name of Ash (229 chapter - Ongoing)
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