[Timeline: Year 2041]

[Location: Transport Truck – En Route to the Academy]

The adrenaline had faded, leaving only the smell of ozone, dried green blood, and exhaust fumes.

Class F sat in the back of the rusted military transport truck. They looked like they had been chewed up and spat out by a dragon.

Lukas was slumped against the wall, his face covered in soot, twitching in his sleep.

Elena was methodically cleaning mud off her boots with a small wind vortex, her expression distant.

Alaric sat near the tailgate. He rolled his right shoulder, the one that had been dislocated just an hour ago.

It clicked. A heavy, metallic sound.

"How is the arm?" Mozart asked, looking up from his datapad near the driver's seat.

"Stiff," Alaric admitted. He rotated it again but didn't hurt.

In fact, it felt stronger than the left one.

"When Elena healed the bone... it felt like welding iron. It doesn't feel like a joint anymore. It feels more like a hinge."

"The Star-Metal marrow fuses quickly," Mozart noted. "It has reinforced the break. It won't snap there again."

Alaric looked around the truck. "Where are the other teachers? Where did Miss Leona and Miss Lyra go?"

"They disembarked at the outer perimeter," Mozart explained.

"Let's just say their identiy is a bit special for now so they can't openly come to the academy yet, however don't worry, they will return when I have need of them."

"Return?" Lukas woke up, rubbing his eyes. "You mean we have to see them again?"

"They are your Guest Instructors," Mozart smiled behind his mask. "You didn't think one field trip was enough, did you?"

He tapped his datapad.

"Now, listen closely. We are ten minutes from the gates. It is time to rehearse the script."

"Script?" Elena asked.

"Do you think we can tell the anyone we fjust raided a cult hide out on what was meant to be a biggoiner field trip?" Mozart raised an eyebrow.

"If we do, the whole class would be in trouble. The head mistress might even dissect the Titan's Capacitor out of Alaric's chest, and lobotomize Lukas just to be safe."

Mozart said trying to scare these young students.

Lukas paled. "Lobotomize?!"

"So," Mozart continued.

"Here is the official report. We went to Sector 1. We tracked a Mutated Swamp Hydra. It was a Tier 3 beast. The green blood on your uniforms is Hydra blood. The lab? The monsters? Hallucinations caused by toxic swamp gas."

"Lying is a survival skill," Mozart finished, his gaze sharp. "Stick to the story."

"Yes, Professor," the class chorused.

"Good. Now,drink some water. Youall look like dried prunes."

Alaric reached for a reinforced metal canteen hanging from the hook next to him. His throat was parched.

He grabbed it.

CRUNCH.

It happened in an instant. Alaric didn't mean to squeeze. He just closed his hand.

But his grip wasn't human anymore. The reinforced steel canteen crumpled like a wet paper cup.

SPLASH.

Water sprayed everywhere.

"Hey!" Lukas sputtered. "Watch it, heavy hands!"

Alaric stared at the flattened disc of metal. "I... I barely touched it."

"Control, Mr. Ironheart," Mozart observed. "although sudden, but this is your strength now, don't let it control yo, you control it."

Alaric looked at his hand. The metal canteen was destroyed, but his hand, the one that should have been sore from the earlier fight was perfectly fine.

'I'm not hurt,' Alaric realized. 'I'm just... dangerous.'

…...........................

[Location: The Academy Main Gates]

The arrival was a study in contrast.

Class S disembarked from their luxury airship on the East Landing Pad, looking pristine while class F rolled in on the West Road, looking like war refugees.

Vance, one of Prince Nero's lackeys, stepped forward to mock them.

"Well, well," Vance laughed. "Look at the trash. Did you play in the mud, Ironheart?"

Alaric stepped off the truck. CRACK. The pavement splintered under his heel.

"Move, Vance," Alaric said quietly.

"Make me," Vance sneered, shoving Alaric's right shoulder, the same shoulder that had been injured.

THUD.

Vance expected Alaric to flinch. He expected a cry of pain from the injury.

Instead, Vance screamed.

"Ah!"

Vance cradled his wrist. It felt like he had shoved a solid steel beam.

Alaric hadn't budged an inch. The fused Star-Metal joint hadn't even registered the impact.

"I told you," Alaric said, walking past him, his heavy footsteps echoing. "Move."

Vance scrambled away, terrified by the sheer strength of the boy he used to bully.

….....................

[Location: Faculty Office – Mozart's Room]

On the other hand, returning from the field trip, Damien couldn't help bit sigh in relief

Without much hesitation, he locked the door and removed his mask.

Pouring a drink, his hands began shaking slightly.

Not from fear, but from the realisation of what he had seen on the counter.

He walked to the wall calendar.

[Original Invasion Date: Year 2044]

Three years. That was the time he needed to prepare the world for the Total Collapse.

But the Fracture beneath the lab had changed everything.

"The timeline has accelerated," Damien murmured.

He took a red marker. He didn't cross out the invasion date completely. He just added a new, terrifying milestone.

He circled a date one year from now.

[New Event: The First Wave (Northern Gate Collapse).]

The first place to be hit when the Void and abyss started descending large scale, it and it where the demon generals first made their name.

"One year," Damien whispered. "One year until the North Falls. One year until the war officially begins."

It wasn't the end of the world, at least not yet.

But it was the beginning of the end. If the North fell in on year, the war would drag on for decades, turning the continent into a grinder.

He had to stop the First Wave. Or at least, be strong enough to weather it.

He picked up his communication crystal.

"Isabelle."

"Young Master?"

"Liquidate the stocks in the Southern Trade. All of it."

"Sir? That is our long-term safety net."

"There is no long-term if we don't survive the winter," Damien said coldly. "It seems we have to start preparing for a war"

Thinking of the void concentration in the air, his face turned bitter

He looked at the calendar

'At this rate, in one year, the void concentration would be high enough for high-level void and abyss beings to descend.;

"The peace ends in one year, Isabelle. I intend to be the one holding the gun when the war starts."

[End of Chapter 164]

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