Following Alec, the others also slowly turned their gazes toward the ceiling. However…

"There's nothing there." Ticka stated the obvious.

"It certainly looks that way," Victoria said, her eyes narrowing.

"Maura, how do you feel about trying out that new spell?" Alec's voice was flat.

If Maura had to describe it, it would be with the words 'eerily calm.'

But she had no reason to say no. The Poem had cleared her mind. Although she had just gotten it the other day, she was confident she could cast it.

"I was just waiting for an excuse." Maura closed her eyes to visualize the spell formation that Alec had given her. She could tell that it originated from Fireball, but only because she knew the spell formation for Fireball like the back of her hand.

Anyone else who saw it would confidently say that it was an entirely different spell. Some might even say that it was no longer a fire spell.

Maura might have even agreed if it were before the discussion she had with Alec and Taryeon about the nature of fire.

But there was no doubt in her mind right now that it was a fire spell. It just didn't care about the pretense and flare that all other fire spells obsessed over.

It was a fire spell boiled down to its core, reduced to the bones, and stripped of all excess.

It was then rebuilt with a different image in mind.

It was an ornamental statue melted down and reforged as a weapon.

Gradually, the spell formation came to life in front of her.

Victoria and the others looked on curiously. They didn't immediately recognize the spell formation. But that was no surprise. Only maniacs and geniuses recognized spells immediately just from the spell formation.

After almost half a minute, Maura was done. She completed the spell and pointed it at the ceiling with a satisfied and excited grin.

However, for several seconds after the spell formation vanished, nothing happened.

The others simply thought Maura had failed. Alec and Maura knew better–Alec because he trusted Maura, and Maura because she felt the heat start to build in front of her palm.

A moment later, a red light the size of a snowflake came into being.

'That's not supposed to happen?' Alec tilted his head with a frown as something that wasn't part of the spell formation happened.

In a span of a few seconds, the red light grew to the size of Maura's palm. With a sudden hum, it then shot toward the ceiling in a red beam.

Too curious to resist asking, Nia inched closer to Alec.

"Hey, what spell is that? I haven't heard of one quite like that."

"Heat Ray."

"Heat Ray?" Nia frowned. She definitely hadn't heard of a spell by that name.

Alec couldn't suppress his satisfied grin. He had succeeded. Although he had taken a lot of inspiration from Fireball, he had undeniably made his own spell. It hadn't ended up quite as he expected, but it was close enough to make him proud—too proud to stay silent.

"I made it."

"What?" Nia wasn't sure she heard Alec right.

But before he could answer, the ceiling came crashing down.

No.

Alec pushed Nia away and darted forward, tackling Maura out of the way, just in time.

If it had been the ceiling, it wouldn't have mattered what he did.

Unfortunately, it wasn't necessarily a good thing that it was a monster and not the ceiling that descended upon them.

Alec and Maura crash-landed a moment before a loud thud rang out right behind them. Alec didn't waste time caring about the discomfort from the poor landing. He instantly threw up a barrier and then another. He didn't have time for more than that before a needle came flying toward Maura. This time, it was powerful enough to pierce the outer layer before being stopped.

Maura's eyes were wide, and she was panting quickly as she stared straight into the eyes of a monster the size of…

"Thanks…" She said in a low voice.

Alec didn't bother responding. They weren't done yet. It was way too early to be grateful.

"But what is that…?" She asked, fear weakening her.

Almost as if to answer Maura's question, the monster gradually revealed itself.

Until now, only the eyes, the slit of its barely open mouth, and the tongue darting back and forth with a hiss were visible. The rest of its body shimmered like poorly cut class. The ground below it and the walls behind it were slightly blurry and out of focus.

Starting from its head, the cloak of invisibility faded like scales flipping over. The invisible snake became visible, revealing a long, thick body of white scales.

"A motherfucking bitch of a devious snake is what it is. This shitstain is going to die."

Alec and Maura slowly turned to look at Ticka, who looked like she was about to explode with anger. A spell formation had already reached completion in front of her, and a moment later, a boulder grew into existence above the snake's head before dropping down.

Sensing the shift in the air, the snake simply moved its head to the side, dodging the boulder.

"How fucking dare you, you son of a bitch-whore. Die."

As the snake with a head twice as big as the head of a horse turned toward Ticka, she conjured an Earth Wall above its body as if to cleave the giant snake in half.

Almost as if to mock Ticka, the snake let the wall hit it. The wall broke and crumbled under the momentum of its own weight, barely leaving a scratch on the snake's pristine scales.

"Shit. Damn bastard. Vile filth."

"Alec, do you happen to know what we're dealing with here?" Victoria asked, noticeably less calm than she appeared. She already had an idea. But she hoped Alec, who possessed a surprising amount of knowledge and intuition for a commoner, could give an explanation different from the one she had thought of.

"A third-stage monster."

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