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-Lochxen-

It had started as a First-Year Mid-Semester Test that was being broadcast to the entire Academy to tune in and watch if they wished. But at some point—likely when the Demon from Hell arrived—it became a must-watch.

For some, it was entertaining.

For the Majority, it was terrifying.

The strength and experience of the First Years didn't matter anymore. What mattered was, what did this mean for Lochxen? Was the Academy safe?

Hell, what could a Demonic presence mean for the Acheron Empire as a whole?

The ones who had the luxury to think about these questions were Students and Professors who had nothing to do with the ongoing incident.

For those involved, all those questions were secondary to the task of ensuring the students were all safe.

The trio of Professors; Cynthia Kragsten, Lea Gilligan and Raoul Raoul did their best to rip open the veil. But it didn't matter how mighty a spell they cast or how great their strike was, it stood strong still.

Digging a hole into the earth to try and move under the Veil was pointless. Professor Lea Gilligan, custodian of the Lochxen Forest—as Study of Magical Beasts Professor—knew just how deep the veil extended underground and informed her colleagues it would be of no use.

"The Veil is supposed to keep all Beasts within. And among those beasts are those who can burrow into the earth. How could we keep those in if the veil didn't extend underground?" She said with an expression of anguish.

Unlike the other Professors, she actually had a link to one of those within the Veil. She could basically feel the danger of the situation better than any of the other two could. Regardless of what they could watch on the screens.

She was right about the Veil of course.

In fact, just as the veil created a Dome above ground, it was completed with another Dome underground, making the fortification into a complete sphere.

Digging was pointless. The only hope they had was to overwhelm the veil with their magic and strength.

Alas, it proved impossible.

It didn't feel like they were even being stopped by superior strength. And while that might sound like an excuse, it had some truth in it. What was keeping the Professors out wasn't superior magic, but a superior order to stay out.

The first Professor to arrive after things really began to look awry was Professor Arlette Louvene.

"Stand back!" She announced and was already tossing vials at the Veil before the other Professors even took note of her presence.

The vials she tossed stuck to the veil and the Professors only had a few seconds to leap back before the vials exploded with enough force to shake the earth. But once the explosive cloud cleared away, the veil remained.

Arlette's heart sank. The look on her face was one of trepidation but she gathered herself then. And just like the Professors she met on the scene, she unleashed her Magic against the veil. And just like them, she failed.

"It's no use," Raoul said.

Cynthia and Lea just stared and said nothing. They understood her. And they understood telling her it was pointless was… pointless.

When Arlette had expended all of her Mana and pressed her hands against it breathing hard from exertion, the first set of the students stumbled out of the thicket of trees, looking weakened but alive.

Arlette felt a little disappointed when she saw them because a certain someone wasn't among them. And then she felt a twinge of shame for such a thought. She recognized those three. They used to be in her Alchemy class before dropping it for the Mid-Semester Tests.

They, as well as every other student within the Lochxen Forest deserved to get out of it safely.

But then, the trio touched the veil and found they could not move through it. They stared at Arlette with open mouths as horror set in. And then they began to strike against the veil, their expressions twisting more and more as their fear rose.

They cast their eyes back a few times as though they were worried something was going to catch up to them.

Something did break through the thicket of trees a few seconds later, but it was another trio who came to the same realization as the first.

They couldn't get out.

Arlette's grey eyes were wide as she watched the students open their mouths and cry out in terror but the sounds never went through the veil.

With a flick of her wrist, she had Mana Recovery potions in hand and downed them. Ready to give the impossible task another try.

A hand closed around her wrist then and she turned to look into Cynthia Kragsten's face. Cynthia's expression was hardened but the look in her eyes was similar to Arlette's.

"Rest," Cynthia said calmly, "We've tried brute force. It's not working. So let's try something else."

And so, difficult as it might be, Arlette turned her eyes away from the Veil and joined the circle of Professors as they brainstormed.

"The veil has a power source, doesn't it? Something that supplies the Mana to keep it up. If we turn that off, we can get it down," Raoul said.

"Already tried," Lea said shaking her head, "It's no use. The veil is connected to the power source. So once the veil was corrupted…"

"The Power source was corrupted as well," Cynthia completed for her, shaking her head, "Gods…"

There was a moment of silence and then sounds of vibrations came from the Storage Ring on their fingers. For Lea, the Vibration was from one of her pouches.

They all retrieved devices but the look on their faces as they did made it clear they already knew what the vibrations meant.

"The Academy is in turmoil. We're receiving calls from all over the Empire. Parents worried for their children. A lot of them are requesting permission to have their representatives enter the premises and bring the Veil down themselves…" Raoul said, "Fucking disaster."

"The Headmistress?" Arlette asked with her eyes glued to the screen where she watched Caius, Delia, and Aurelius battle Belron the Fiend.

"We've sent a message to her. She's not at the Academy at the moment. But we've received word she's on her way back," Cynthia said while swiping her finger across her device like it provided the information she was relaying.

Raoul nodded and relief crept into his expression.

"Great," he said, "If it's her…"

Elvira Lennox, the Lochxen Academy Headmistress was almost always away on Academic retreats. Her last publicly displayed Magic Circle was the Ninth. It was heavily rumored that she had advanced to the Tenth Circle but there has been no official confirmation.

Unlike Raoul though, Arlette couldn't be relieved.

Cynthia and Lea were of a similar mind. The Headmistress was indeed very powerful but if their guesses were correct, then strength, no matter how great, may not be able to get through the veil.

Eventually, the Professors could not just stand around and do nothing. So they went back to attacking the Veil almost as though in the hope that they were chipping away at its structural integrity.

But that was all it was; Hope.

More and more teams arrived and were met with the disappointment of being unable to get out. This was also the case for the trio of Kaya, Eloise, and Aylin who arrived with Doran's team in tow.

If anything, the disappointment was worse with them.

And having seen on the screen what Kaya had to do and what was trying to break through her last-ditch defense, the Professors perfectly understood the dire expressions the trio wore.

"No…" Arlette said then in a voice lower than a whisper.

Other Professors had arrived to help in breaking through the veil but Arlette kept watching the screen. She had watched Caius get struck and hit the ground, unmoving and her eyes were just wide as she stared.

And now, before she could know what happened to him after, the final spinning disc giving them a visual was destroyed. And the screen that had been dedicated to playing that visual went dark.

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