The Sky Begins to Crack
The control room.
It was packed with professors.
They had split the dome-shaped arena across hundreds of screens, watching every angle of the scene unfold.
Every one of them possessed a talent related to observation.
"So who's your pick for first place this time?"
"I'm voting for the top student, Lee Seoha. That kid shows you absolutely nothing."
"It's not just that he shows nothing... The truly terrifying part is, no matter how much you dig into him, there's always something more underneath."
Most of them had their attention fixed on Lee Seoha.
Professors always took a keen interest in the top-ranked student, but this year's was special to the point of excess.
The first person to clear the Tower of Ordeals, and an individual whose talent was nearly impossible to even glimpse the edges of.
He was also the person Seo Yebin, known as the Emperor, had watched with the greatest interest as of late.
The Emperor, Seo Yebin.
This academy had existed for thirty-five years, yet fewer than ten people had ever managed to pique her interest. Considering that, he was someone worth watching very closely indeed.
"His movements are ordinary. No signs of physical conditioning whatsoever."
"Which means mana chose him."
"Looks like conditioning simply wasn't necessary. Didn't you see the footage from Professor Song Rahee's practical class? That brat shrugged off her curse like it was nothing."
To describe that boy honestly, he was a kind of anomaly.
The sort of thing their common sense simply could not explain.
"Three of them took down a Shadow Serpent trying to climb into the upper tier."
"And in the process, one of them killed it in a single strike. The cause was a blow Lee Seoha delivered."
Saint Royalrose.
Now there was a remarkable figure — hailed in the place called Heaven as someone born perhaps once in a century.
And yet if you asked whether he could stand against Lee Seoha, they would only attach a question mark to the answer.
Even so, they all wished for one thing.
That the boy would show them even a sliver of what he truly was.
"What the—"
One professor muttered blankly at his screen.
The room was focused on observing the dome, but their talents allowed them to see far more than that.
They saw the sky — as if it were glass, about to shatter.
They saw the archer known as the Emperor's Star, Seo Yebin's own, deploying to intercept something.
And they saw that her opponent was a monster spoken of as one of the Seven Evils.
"...Fiend?"
At that moment, the simultaneously broadcast screens began to fill with static. Flipping to black and white, they went dark one after another.
"It's a demon assault! Alert everyone, now!"
"The phones aren't working! It looks like every electronic device has been disabled or cut off from calls!"
"It's spatial severance — we can't see anything inside the dome at all!"
"Then move! NOW! The students are in danger!"
The control room erupted into chaos in an instant.
Seo Yebin was extraordinary.
But the academy's fighting strength — resting on her shoulders and the shoulders of her Stars — was not as great as one might think.
One of the professors swallowed hard.
Possibly — no, certainly — a catastrophic bloodbath was about to unfold.
"What is this...?"
I wore an expression of sheer disbelief.
Because what I was seeing was too unbelievable for words.
Tap! Tap!
My phone was ringing in real time.
The reason was one thing and one thing only: the emergency number I'd given Seol Hwaryeon wouldn't stop buzzing.
She'd already sent me more than ten messages.
...Was she always like this?
I'd never seen this side of her before.
Not whenever she came bouncing over with a beaming smile to ask me out.
A memory surfaced of her asking, "Hey, it's a nice day out — want to go hunt some demons?" as if it were a casual date invitation.
...Honestly, this might be an improvement.
Or is it not?
Letting out a long sigh, I checked the messages.
A chill ran down my spine.
But somewhat presentable? That's just cruel.
Am I not spectacularly handsome by any reasonable standard?
I started as a genuinely solid base and refined myself into a once-in-an-era beauty, thank you very much.
After that, Seol Hwaryeon fired off roughly fifty more messages.
I stared at my phone with dead, weary eyes.
"Lee Seoha, are you ready?"
"Yes."
The assistant filling in for Professor Han Yunbi asked, and I rose from my seat and headed for the sparring arena.
The mock battle format gave us roughly ten minutes — time to take stock of our own condition and devise a strategy for taking down the opponent.
The ten minutes passed.
I downed three lightning-quick elixirs in succession and headed to the arena.
How's everything looking?
Fine.
My condition was perfect.
The only problem was that my opponent was a tough one.
And that's not the only problem, either.
The demons would inevitably come for Seo Gayeon.
The starlight mana she possessed was the natural nemesis of all demons.
Simply basking in that light was enough to lower their ranks of manifestation — an absurd, cheating power.
Hong Yuhwa bore the epithet of Usurper.
And the epithet Seo Gayeon possessed was...
My thoughts cut off there.
Saint stepped onto the arena floor with a confident smile on his face.
"Ah, what a glorious day. How could I fail to offer a prayer to the Radiant God I serve?"
"..."
I stared blankly at the absurd display before remembering, oh right, he was always like this.
I sighed inwardly — and then noticed Heukcheon staring off to one side.
Heukcheon?
My lord, it would be best not to fight this battle.
What are you talking about?
I looked at Heukcheon with puzzled eyes. She was fixated on a single point in space. Following her gaze, I turned my eyes upward toward the sky.
"What the—"
At the same moment, Erciel murmured in a dazed voice.
...The sky was cracking apart.
"All matches are hereby suspended! Every student is to gather together immediately!"
"Professors, form a defensive perimeter around the students! The students' safety comes first, above all else!"
I stood there, staring blankly at the sky.
They're seriously attacking the school?
To face Seo Yebin, the Emperor herself, they'd need to bring someone of at least her caliber.
Someone who was, at minimum, one of the Seven Evils.
And this phenomenon — I recognized it all too well.
A fiend, warping the space of the heavens through sheer personal power.
...Which meant this place was no longer safe either.
I swept my gaze rapidly around the area.
First, I had to find Seo Gayeon.
"Any contact with the outside?"
"None! We believe there's a barrier sealing off everything between the inside and the outside!"
If it was just a barrier, that was a relief.
Defying Heaven's power could shatter it in no time.
More importantly, Seo Gayeon—
"Looking for someone?"
"...Just found her."
Seo Gayeon stood beside me, smiling brightly.
"You were looking for me, weren't you?"
"Yeah. Like I told you before, demons can't resist the mana you carry."
Some time ago, the evil spirits that had been hunting Seo Gayeon — evil spirits, true, but still — had all vanished like mist the instant her starlight mana bloomed.
"So Seoha, you need me right now?"
"That's right."
At my words, Seo Gayeon broke into a radiant smile.
"It could put your life at risk. Will you still help?"
"Of course. After everything you've done for me, how could I not?"
"Thank you."
"So what's the plan?"
"How much of your starlight mana can you use?"
"Right now, only the tiniest amount."
"That'll be enough."
Even the tiniest amount didn't matter.
Because that much was enough to bind a demon.
I took Seo Gayeon with me and headed toward the barrier.
Barriers like this usually had a core at their center — deactivate that core, and the whole thing came undone with laughable ease.
Put the other way, a barrier exists to make that core as difficult as possible to reach, trapping everyone inside by any means necessary.
That was why escaping a barrier was supposed to be an ordeal.
For me alone, it was so easy it was almost insulting.
The problem was that the same couldn't be said for everyone else.
"Professor Song Rahee. Can you determine what kind of barrier this is?"
"...The level is far beyond me. It looks like a barrier mage of at least the upper tier — no, the very top of the upper tier — spent an entire month laying this down."
Professor Song Rahee's face had gone completely white.
Interpretation — the art of dismantling enemy magic was her specialty, and even for her, this barrier was on an entirely different level.
Her knowledge of spell-breaking was superb enough that she could still take it apart, but.
"It severs space itself. Any external intervention would require the Headmistress to break through personally; that would be the practical approach. If I try it myself, it will take at least three hours."
Far too much time.
"Then..."
"I'm afraid breaking out under our own power will be nearly impossible."
"So we're supposed to hold this position and protect the students until the Headmistress arrives?"
Grim expressions spread across the professors' faces.
Their opponents had invaded the school with deadly serious intent.
And now, without even being able to confirm what methods those opponents might employ, they'd been forced to put the students' safety up as collateral.
KWAAANG!
A thunderous detonation split the air on one side, and waves of dark mana began to roll in.
...The demons had arrived.
"Professor Song Rahee. Break the barrier first. We'll hold the demons."
Led by Instructor Seo Wooju, those who had finished checking their weapons began stepping forward.
And then, the pitched battle.
Professor Song Rahee threw herself into analyzing the barrier's core, doing everything she could to unravel it.
That is, until a single remark from the top student, who had appeared beside her.
"...That's not how you're supposed to do it."
Lee Seoha froze the instant the words left his mouth.