The world grew heavy.

When the blast doors to the vault melted dripping like wax onto the concrete floor, the air in the room changed.

It was a physical alteration of gravity.

Thrum.

Three figures stepped through the ruined doorway.

They looked like biological weapons wearing human skin.

The one in the center, the Leader wore a pristine white lab coat over a suit of pulsating bio-armor. His face was hidden behind a mask of stitched flesh.

To his right stood Elder Pyre.

He was massive, his skin replaced by black, volcanic rock grafts that leaked magma.

The heat radiating from him was enough to curl the pages of the notebooks in the students' pockets.

To his left crouched Elder Skitter, spindly and elongated, his limbs replaced with insectoid blades.

He twitched with unnatural speed, his eyes compound and glittering.

[System Warning: High-Threat Detected.]

[Entities: 3x 6th Order Cultivators (Modified).]

The Leader stepped forward. His voice was synthesized, echoing from a speaker in his throat.

"You stole something you shouldn't have," the Leader said, looking at Alaric. "That belongs to the Association."

BOOM.

The three Elders released their Intent.

It hit the students like a tidal wave.

"Guh—!"

Elena collapsed instantly. Her knees hit the floor, her hands clawing at her throat. As a Mage, she was sensitive to mana pressure.

This felt like the sky was falling on her neck. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't cast. She was paralyzed by the biological instinct of prey facing a predator.

Alaric tried to stand. The Titan's Capacitor in his chest thumped violently, feeding him strength, but his mind was reeling. His body was heavy, his vision blurring.

And Lukas...

Lukas was pinned to the wall. The heat from Elder Pyre was triggering his own fire affinity, but in the worst way.

His red flames sputtered and died, suffocated by the stronger fire.

"I'm going to die," Lukas whimpered, tears evaporating on his cheeks.

"I'm weak. I'm just a kid."

'No,' a voice screamed in his head. 'Burn. If you're going to die, burn hotter.'

FWOOSH.

For a split second, the sputtering red sparks in Lukas's hand changed.

They condensed. They turning a deep, oxygen-starved Blue.

It lasted for a microsecond before Lukas's eyes rolled back, and he slumped forward, consciousness fading under the pressure.

The Leader laughed. A dry, rasping sound.

"Children," he scoffed. "And a piano teacher? The Academy has grown arrogant."

He pointed a finger at them.

"Pyre. Incinerate the trash. Skitter. Retrieve the heart."

"Yes, Prime," Elder Pyre grunted.

The magma-skinned giant raised a hand. A ball of concentrated lava, the size of a carriage, formed instantly. The heat was so intense the concrete floor began to liquefy.

[6th Order Spell: Volcanic Catastrophe]

Elena squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the end.

CLAP.

A single, crisp sound cut through the pressure.

Mozart stood in front of his students. He hadn't drawn a weapon. He was simply adjusting his gloves.

"You are scaring my students," Mozart said, his voice calm, bored, and utterly terrifying.

The pressure in the room vanished. Or rather, it was pushed back.

Mozart's own Intent, sharp, cold, and tyrannical formed an invisible dome around Class F.

"Class," Mozart said, not looking back.

"Open your eyes."

Elena gasped, sucking in air. Alaric stumbled to his feet.

"Watch closely," Mozart commanded.

"This is what the Peak looks like."

He snapped his fingers.

"Leona. The Tank."

"Lyra. You know what to dot."

"I'll handle the Leader."

ROAR.

From the shadows behind Mozart, a white blur launched itself forward.

Leona exploded in speed. The ground beneath her feet shattered into dust as she closed the distance to Elder Pyre in a single heartbeat.

Pyre sneered.

"A physical fighter? Against Magma? Burn to ash!"

He threw the Volcanic Catastrophe. The massive ball of liquid fire roared toward Leona, hot enough to melt steel instantly.

Leona didn't dodge.

She grinned, revealing her fangs. She raised her right arm the Void Gauntlet.

"Time to eat," Leona growled.

She punched the spell.

CRUNCH.

There was no explosion. No shockwave.

The moment the black metal of the Void Gauntlet touched the 6th Order spell, the runes on the arm flared purple.

The lava collapsed. The gauntlet sucked the mana dry in a vortex of black light, turning the terrifying attack into harmless sparks.

Elder Pyre's eyes widened behind his rock grafts. "Impossible—"

"My turn," Leona roared.

She stepped through the dissipating sparks. She grabbed Pyre by his magma-crusted face. Her grip was strong enough to crack the bio-armor.

"You call that fire?" Leona laughed. "you should stick to lighting birthday candles!"

SLAM.

She drove him into the ground. The entire facility shook.

…...................…..

Meanwhile, on the left flank.

Elder Skitter was moving.

He was a blur of speed, bouncing off the walls and ceiling like a chaotic beam of light. His insectoid blades whirred, cutting the air itself.

"Too slow! Too slow! You can't hit what you can't see!" Skitter chittered, his voice vibrating.

He targeted Lyra, who was standing perfectly still in the center of the room, her hood down, her spectral grey skin glowing faintly.

Skitter appeared behind her.

"Gotcha!"

He swung his blades, aiming to decapitate her.

Slash.

The blades passed through Lyra's neck... and hit nothing but smoke.

Skitter stumbled, confused. "An illusion?"

"No," a whisper came from inside his own shadow. "A shadow."

Skitter froze. He looked down.

His shadow was moving. It elongated, rose up from the floor, and wrapped around his legs.

Lyra stepped out of the darkness of Skitter's own silhouette.

Her speed impossible to track. She moved through the cracks in space where light didn't reach.

"You rely on speed," Lyra whispered, placing a dagger gently against the back of his neck.

"But compared to me, you're still to skow."

Skitter shrieked, activating his bio-boosters to spin around.

SHING.

Lyra dissipated into mist again and reformed in front of him.

She grabbed his insectoid arm.

"Let's see if insects regenerate," Lyra said emotionlessly.

RIP.

With a sickening tear, she ripped the cybernetic arm from his socket.

Skitter screamed, purple blood spraying across the walls.

…..................

Back in the center.

Leona was dragging Elder Pyre across the floor by his leg. The massive rock-man was battered, his magma grafts shattered.

"Get up!" Leona roared, slamming him into a support pillar. BANG.

"I haven't even used the gauntlet's release yet!"

Pyre coughed up lava-like blood. "You... monster..."

"I'm not a monster," Leona grinned, raising her black metal fist which was now glowing with the stored energy of the spell she had absorbed earlier.

"I'm a Teacher now."

[Void Art: Calamity Release].

She punched him in the chest.

KA-BOOM.

The stored energy of his own spell, amplified by Leona's physical strength, was released back into his body.

Elder Pyre exploded.

There was no other word for it. His bio-armor disintegrated.

His chest cavity vanished. The force of the blow blew a hole through the back wall of the vault, carrying what was left of the Elder into the dirt beyond.

Simultaneously, a wet thud echoed from the left.

Lyra stood over the headless corpse of Elder Skitter. She wiped her dagger on her cloak.

"Target neutralized," Lyra reported, her voice bored.

Silence returned to the vault.

It had been thirty seconds.

Two 6th Order Cultivators—beings that could destroy a city were dead.

The students of Class F were trembling.

Alaric stared at Leona.

He had thought he was strong with the Titan's Capacitor.

But watching the Lion General... he realized he was an ant.

'That,' Alaric thought, watching Leona wipe magma off her armor, 'is true strength.'

Mozart clapped his hands once.

"Excellent demonstration," Mozart said.

He turned to the Leader.

The Prime Elder was standing alone. His subordinates were paste. But strangely, he wasn't running.

The Leader began to chuckle. The sound was distorted, glitchy.

"Impressive," the Leader buzzed. "The White Lion and the Phantom. The rumours were true. But..."

The Leader reached up and tore off his mask.

Beneath it was a swirling vortex of purple energy contained within a glass skull.

"I am not a warrior," the Leader said. "I am but the Key."

He slammed his hands onto the ground.

CRACK.

The floor beneath the vault split open.

The Leader instantly sacrificed his own life force, detonating his core to tear the fabric of reality.

A massive fissure opened up in the center of the room. Void mana, thick, heavy, and suffocating began to pour out like black smoke.

"The Door is open!" the Leader screamed as his body began to disintegrate into the rift.

"The Abyss welcomes you!"

Mozart's eyes narrowed behind his mask.

This wasn't a regular gate this was an abyss gate.

"Leona! Grab the students!" Mozart barked, his calm facade cracking for the first time.

"Back! Now!"

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