Chapter 367: Crimson Twin

Just as Axel was healed well enough, from the golden potion given by Lumina, everyone felt a massive destructive power build up right underneath their feet. They all cried out in fear, overwhelmed in every possible way by the threatening power, a force so great that not a single one of them had even a 0.0000001% chance of surviving.Axel also gritted his teeth just from the sheer amount of power underneath them, even though he had altered the magic formation, just enough that it would fire 0.5 seconds later than it was supposed to. His heart could not help but beat faster in fear of the possibility that he could indeed die, just from that. They could all die, everyone that needed to be alive and everyone that did not.

Thankfully, just as it was supposed to happen originally, the principal deconstructed and broke down the spell. Before it could do anything, Axel heaved a massive sigh of relief, even for him, who was moderately sure that things would turn out okay, sweat trickled down his forehead.

The others had all dropped down to their knees. Lumina, Heinz, Enrick, and Thorian had all dropped down to their knees. Only Jaden had remained standing on his feet. Strangely, the guy was looking straight towards him. His eyes did not hide the suspiciousness he had towards Axel, which was only increasing by every second. But the brilliant bastard tactfully did not choose to confront him at the moment.

Heinz asked, a trace of terror still evident in his voice, "What the fuck was that?"

All of them asked similar types of questions, but there was no one to answer. Axel’s eyes drifted upwards, seeing only some incomprehensible flashes of light too high above for him to see clearly and too fast to comprehend the current state of the principal.

Lumina was still shaking, too overwhelmed by the power of a 5th-tier spell. Axel went close to her, bringing her in his embrace and comforting her to calm down. Thankfully, she was still in the form of the Luminary. It would have been worse otherwise.

This time, Thorian asked Axel, seeing him as the calmest, and seeing his rune eyes flashing, "Axel, do you know what just happened?"

Axel separated from Lumina, as he answered with a grimace, "I’m not sure, but from what I could see, the undead being that is fighting the principal had likely set up some explosive magic formation under us in advance."

"I think somehow the principal was able to disable it before it could explode and kill us. That’s the only thing I could think of from the energies and broken constructs remaining underneath."

Then Axel’s tone turned absolutely serious as he addressed everyone, looking at the massive explosion that occurred in the distance from Gareth’s final attack. He stated in an urgent tone, "Guys, I need you to go and retrieve Forger Gareth’s body."

Jaden asked with a frown, "What are you talking about?"

He pointed his finger at the far edges of the island, at the massive cloud-like smoke that rose upwards. The reason many of them did not notice it was because of what had just happened. He explained, as his rune eyes kept shimmering, as if seeing through the distance that the rest of them could not.

He explained further, "That explosion was because of Gareth’s attack, probably the last attack he could do on the Death Knight. Sophia is progressing to the second phase. From what I could see, you need to bring the forger here as fast as possible. Lumina and I might be able to stabilize his condition."

"We have to at least try and save him, especially when he was ready to throw away his life, without any hesitation."

With that, Heinz, Enrick, Thorian, and Jaden ran towards the direction where Sophia and Gareth’s unconscious bodies were, since they were all pretty sure that the Death Knight had not died; at least a strong team needed to go and retrieve the forger’s body.

As the four sprinted forward, slowly becoming smaller and smaller in Axel’s vision, who looked to the right, Lumina still seemed shaken by that dreadful power. Axel surmised internally that just as the Luminaries’ silver stardust could purify and erase the death energy.

But in converse, Death Energy, if it is powerful enough, could also corrupt the holy power of the Luminaries’ bloodline. So, maybe that extinct bloodline was causing that fear to erupt within her for that reason.

Axel sighed, looking upwards towards the sky, as 90% of the purple moon had already been devoured. He clenched his fists; there was no going back. The dreadful moment had finally arrived; everything had gone according to his plan up until now.

Quite flawlessly so. A part of him hoped something would go wrong. Something that would dwarf the stage he had set up, from the very beginning, ever since entering the unified human academy. The pieces were being set up, one by one, even when he wasn’t in control.

Axel brought out a small, round artifact that looked almost like a button and pressed on the red spot, muttering softly, "Activate preset barrier."

The moment Axel stated that sentence, a massive, semi-transparent barrier rose from all directions where the 500 students were standing, meeting in the middle to form a powerful, dome-like barrier.

A barrier that would prevent all outside inspection, even the principal and the High-Lich, would no longer be able to inspect within this area. While the barrier was active, no one could see anything from outside, as if there was nothing there in the first place, almost nonexistent.

Everyone, including all the students, was confused and perplexed as to why Axel had suddenly put up such a barrier. Vyra went closer to Axel, asking him cautiously, "Could there be another attack?"

Lumina seems shaken just by the thought of it. But Axel did not answer; he only continued to look upwards into the sky, and his ominous silence created a heavy tension in the air. Then, the silent haters of Axel slowly came forward for the first time.

Prince Luther, Ken Dusker, the 2nd Suncrest Prince, and the third Suncrest Princess.

The first Suncrest prince asked, with narrowed eyes, but the cautiousness in his tone was obvious, "Axel Nomrad, what’s going on? Is there another attack incoming?"

Again, Axel remained silent. A bad feeling started to grow in everyone’s heart, as everyone who had survived was now a 2nd-phase Seeker; their intuition, as a living creature, had grown far more powerful than it was before.

All of them could feel it —the growing unease, wrapping around their hearts tighter and tighter like a venomous snake, making sure the prey would not escape.

Axel’s eyes finally moved away from the purple moon as he turned around and muttered, "Brain Shock."

The moment those words came out, all those carrying the suncrest bloodline, Prince Luther, second prince, third princess, Lumina, and Ken. Five of them simultaneously received an electrical shock in their brains, an overload in their nervous system, as their eyes rolled backward, and all of them fell flat to the ground. Lumina’s silver shining form also vanished, returning to normal.

Vyra’s eyes widened in disbelief, just as she was about to shout and attack him, Axel appeared right behind her in a flash and chopped at the back of her neck. She turned unconscious immediately. Dropping to the ground like the rest of them.

Then Axel’s eyes turned to the remaining ones, so many of the elite students of humanity, the best students and the future pillars of the human race, more than that, they were the cream of the crop, the ones who survived on the infamous night of the dead. He could see it in all their eyes —the overwhelming fear and tension, desperation mixed in with their shouts and screams.

A trace of regret was hidden deep within his eyes as he iterated in remorse, "Sorry, Guys. I really am sorry, but it must be done. There is no other choice."

Sophia asked the four of them, "Why can’t I see anything if there are still 500 students remaining?"

Heinz, Enrick, Thorian, and Jaden turned back. Their eyes widened in disbelief as the four saw absolutely nothing in that place, where all the students should have been. Before any of them could comment on that, a ghostly, ominous laughter of the Death Knight resounded from within the fire. Making their very bones shake in terror,

"Hhhhhh... hhhehh... hehh... HEHHHHHHhhhhhhaaaaHHHHhhhhh—kkhhhkkk..."

Just the sounds of it were disturbing enough that their brains threatened to shut off, to protect their host. Thankfully, Sophia put up a barrier of darkness around the four of them, stopping the inhuman screeching laughter from reaching their ears and knocking them unconscious.

She ordered them with a hardened expression, "Take Gareth’s body and run, with every ounce of energy you can muster."

No more words were needed, and the moment when Sophia dissipated the wrapper of darkness around the four of them, they ran like madmen, making the charred body float through levitation magic.

Sophia’s expression turned serious. This time, she did not conjure swords made of the darkness she controlled; instead, she brought out two powerful swords, which were completely red in color, out of her space ring. They released an ominous glow as Sophia grabbed the hilt of the two swords.

The two swords worked as a pair, and could be considered as one Hybrid relic. The name of the relic flashed through her retina as she started powering them with her Saint Force.