[Scanning Battlefield...]

[Hostile Density: Extreme.]

[Friendly Casualty Rate: Rising Rapidly.]

[Target Priority: Secure a rally point.]

Alvian landed in the Grand Plaza, the site of his tournament victory only hours ago. The marble floor, still scarred from his battle with Valeria, was now slick with fresh blood.

A group of freshmen were huddled near the fountain, screaming. Surrounding them were three upperclassmen wearing the robes of the Arcanist faction. But the Arcanists' faces were gone, replaced by writhing tentacles of shadow, and their hands glowed with unstable, corrupted mana.

"Help! Someone!" a freshman girl shrieked as a fireball mingled with black rot flew toward her.

"Inefficient," Alvian whispered.

He didn't run. He didn't shout. He activated [Shadow Step].

"BAM!"

Alvian appeared directly in the path of the spell. He didn't block it. He simply let it hit his chest. The [Vestments of the Void Monarch] flared with a pale blue light, absorbing the thermal energy instantly.

[-0 HP]

The corrupted Arcanists paused, their rudimentary intelligence struggling to process the newcomer. Alvian looked at them. He didn't see students. He saw experience points. He saw targets.

"You have chosen the wrong side."

Alvian raised his right hand. The [Lance of the Void Winter] materialized, the black metal shaft humming with the infinite mana coursing through his veins.

"[Frost Descent +2]: Flash Freeze."

He didn't cast a storm. He released a pulse. A ring of absolute zero energy expanded from his body, moving faster than the eye could follow.

"CRACK! SNAP!"

The three corrupted students froze mid-cast. Their bodies turned into statues of grey ice instantly. Alvian spun the lance, the blade trailing violet mist, and swept it horizontally.

"Shatter."

The lance connected with the frozen statues. They didn't break; they atomized. Thousands of shards of ice exploded outward, glittering in the light of the burning buildings.

[You have slain Corrupted Student (Elite) x3!]

[Experience Gained: 45,000!]

The huddled freshmen stared up at him, their eyes wide with terror. To them, the figure in the black, flowing coat with glowing violet eyes was just as terrifying as the monsters.

"Get to the skiffs," Alvian ordered, his voice amplified by a simple wind cantrip. "If you stay here, you die."

He didn't wait for them to thank him. He turned his gaze toward the Vanguard dorms. He could feel a massive collision of mana signatures there. Valeria.

"System. Flight."

Wings of frozen starlight erupted from his back as he triggered the [Avatar State] for mobility. He shot into the sky, leaving a sonic boom in his wake.

The Vanguard fortress was under siege. Not by students, but by something else. Drop pods from the rift above were slamming into the ground, unleashing Syndicate shock troops clad in heavy, mana-dampening power armor.

"HOLD THE LINE!" Valeria's voice roared over the din of battle.

She was standing at the gates, her silver armor battered and scorched. She had reactivated her [Titan Bloodline], her body glowing with golden light, but she was struggling. A massive, four-legged walker tank—Syndicate tech—was hammering her shield with a rotary mana cannon.

"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"

Valeria slid back, her boots carving grooves into the stone. Behind her, dozens of younger Vanguard students were trying to hold off a wave of Void-Imps.

"She can't hold that forever," Alvian noted.

He checked his mana. 45,000/45,000. Regeneration: 4,500 per second. He was a walking reactor.

"Let's balance the equation."

Alvian dove. He didn't aim for the troops. He aimed for the walker tank.

"System. Divert mana to [Runic Aegis +2]. Offensive Configuration. Max Output."

Fourteen massive purple runes materialized around him as he fell. He compressed them, stacking them in front of his lance tip like a kinetic spearhead.

"Gravity Assist."

He accelerated.

The pilot of the walker tank looked up just in time to see a comet of violet light crashing down from the heavens.

"KABOOM!"

Alvian slammed into the top of the walker. The runes detonated on impact, dealing tens of thousands of points of True Damage. The walker crumbled, its legs buckling, its chassis flattened into a pancake of scrap metal.

[-45,000! Critical Breakdown!]

The shockwave knocked the surrounding Syndicate troops off their feet. Alvian stood atop the wreckage of the tank, pulling his lance out of the ruined engine block. He looked at the stunned Syndicate soldiers.

"My turn," Alvian said.

He raised his hand.

"[Frost Descent +2]: Glacial Tomb."

The air turned solid. A massive block of ice, the size of a city block, slammed down on the Syndicate formation. There were no screams. Only the sound of crunching metal and freezing flesh.

Valeria lowered her shield, staring at the sudden mountain of ice that now occupied her front yard. She looked up at Alvian, who hopped down from the wreckage.

"You're late," Valeria panted, wiping blood from her forehead.

"Traffic was bad," Alvian replied, flicking a piece of scrap metal off his shoulder. "The sky is leaking."

"Is the Vice-Headmaster...?"

"Dead," Alvian stated. "I put a spear through his heart. But he was just the doorman. The real threat is still coming."

He pointed up at the rift. From the darkness, massive shapes were beginning to emerge. Not drop pods. Warships. Syndicate Frigates, sleek and black, armed with mana cannons capable of leveling cities.

"This is an invasion," Alvian said, his eyes narrowing. "Valeria, get your people to the Undercroft entrance. We need to choke them at the elevators."

"The Undercroft?" Valeria asked, confused. "We just escaped from there."

"Exactly," Alvian smiled, a cold, ruthless expression. "It's a maze. It's dark. And it's full of traps I haven't triggered yet. If we fight them in the open, their ships will bombard us. If we drag them underground... they fight on my terms."

System alerts flashed in his vision.

[Warning! High-Level Threat Detected.]

[Enemy Commander: Voice Three (The Professor).]

"Go," Alvian ordered. "I'll cover the retreat."

Valeria nodded. She turned to her troops. "VANGUARD! FALL BACK! TO THE UNDERCROFT!"

As the students retreated, Alvian turned to face the incoming fleet. He gripped his lance. He checked his cooldowns.

"Come on then," he whispered to the sky. "I have plenty of inventory space."

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