Chapter 221: The Invisible Authority

​​"This?!!" Nadia stood up in shock, her chair clattering against the marble floor. Her eyes were glued to the holographic feed of the decimated clearing.

​"Who is that lady?!!" She yelled, her voice cracking with a rare loss of composure. As a Master Teacher, she understood the power scaling of this world better than most, and the woman on the screen defied every known metric.

​"She called herself Mirabella’s slave... And to know great-grandfather, this lady isn’t simple," Emperor George said, his voice low and dangerous. He stared at his elder sister, his mind racing through the historical records of the Sword Empire. To speak of the founder with such casual familiarity suggested a lifespan or a lineage that predated the current imperial era.

​Nadia stared at the Emperor, then back at the screen, her face paling as the implications settled in. ’Mirabella is related to the Sun family. Is this lady one of the Sun family’s hidden guardians?!! If she is a high-tier enforcer, then someone must interfere before the fallout destroys them!’ She closed her eyes, her energy weaving into a high-priority encrypted message sent directly to the observers.

​Hayatobi stood up, his gaze intense. "Who is this lady? She could slap that Beast like it was a minor bug... She is clearly a Lv500 fighter, but how did Mirabella make such a powerful entity submit? Or is she truly an extension of the Sun family’s hidden heritage?"

​He looked over his shoulder at Elrod, the weight of the moment pressing down on the room. ’Things are progressing so fast,’ he thought.

’Is she even prepared for the target this puts on her back?’ He immediately channeled a message through the academy’s internal relay, aimed directly at Mirabella’s galaxy bracelet.

​"With that bug taken care of, I can take you down." Luigi dusted her palms together. She raised one hand toward the heavens, her energy turning a violent, viscous crimson.

​"Blood Moon!"

​BOOOOM!!!

​The world went silent. Everyone—students and spectators alike—froze as a colossal, blood-red moon manifested in the sky, blotting out the sun. The atmospheric light shifted instantly, turning the entire landscape into a haunting, crimson-stained nightmare. The next moment, a giant, vertical eye split open on the surface of the moon, pulsing with a divine killing intent.

​"I don’t underestimate my enemies," Luigi stated, her voice echoing with the weight of a celestial judgment.

​BOOM!!

​A concentrated beam of red light shot down from the lunar eye, moving with a speed that bypassed the sensory perception of everyone below. It aimed directly at the stunned, paralyzed Jessica.

​"Captain!!’

​BOOOOM!!!!

​The impact was cataclysmic. A pillar of red energy vaporized the ground, and a massive wall of dust and smoke filled the air, rising like a dark shroud into the sky.

​"Backup?" Luigi narrowed her eyes, her smirk returning as the smoke cleared to reveal three figures. Standing in front of the shaking Jessica were three of the Dragon Empire’s Masters, their collective defensive auras shimmering like a golden shield.

​"Three of you could actually neutralize my attack... I am guessing you’re all Lv500. Am I wrong?" she asked with a playful smile, her posture remaining relaxed despite facing three peak-tier fighters.

​"Hey Lady, this is a competition!! Interfering to this degree will lead to severe penalties!!" The oldest among them, a man with a long, flowing white beard, stepped forward. His gaze was hard.

​"Penalties? And who exactly will receive these penalties?" Luigi asked, tilting her head.

​"Of course, Your Master..."

​Luigi’s expression instantly turned ice-cold. The temperature dropped, the wind picked up into a localized gale, and a terrifying red energy started emanating from her, filling the entire space with a suffocating pressure.

​’What sort of energy is this? Is it spirit energy or pure demonic energy? She is truly angry now,’ the Old Master thought, his instincts screaming at him to de-escalate. He quickly added:

​"Of course, we can overlook this entire issue if you back down right now. If you leave, no one will be punished... Look here, I am a Master from the Dragon Empire. Of course, I want to see us come out of this competition as victors. Besides... Will your Master be happy if she knows her participation was voided because of your actions?"

​Luigi paused, lost in thought. She knew she could take on the three Masters—she could likely kill them all if she exerted her full authority—but she couldn’t face the prospect of her Master’s wrath or disappointing her plans.

​Like on cue, a shimmering golden light appeared beside Luigi, a ripple in the fabric of reality that only she could truly perceive.

​"Lady Adira!" Luigi exclaimed. The suffocating energy and the crushing pressure instantly vanished. The Blood Moon faded, and the sky returned to its natural, blue state as if the nightmare had been a collective hallucination.

"Lady Adira?"

​The students below were dumbfounded. This terrifying woman was already powerful beyond comprehension, and now she was respectfully calling someone else "Lady Adira." But...

​’Where is this lady? Why can’t we see her?’ The old men thought in disbelief, their high-level detection skills finding only a void.

​Adira, invisible to the mortal realm, stared at the people below before turning her stern gaze toward Luigi: "Master is angry with you."

​Everyone froze. They could hear the voice—melodic, cold, and echoing with ancient power—but they could see nothing. Even those in the Arena were staring at their screens in utter confusion.

​"As one of Master’s spirit summons, shouldn’t you know what to do?" Adira added with a frown, her words a calculated lie to protect Mirabella’s standing in the tournament.

​’Spirit Summon?’ Luigi was speechless. She wasn’t a spirit summon, but seeing Adira’s cold, commanding expression, she swallowed any argument. If Adira said she was a summon for the sake of the rules, then she was a summon.

​"So she is just a spirit summon... How strong is Mirabella to be able to summon such a powerful entity?" one of the Masters asked in shock, his mind reeling at the energy capacity required for such a feat.

​"Yes, and even this lady we can’t see... Is she also a magical summon?" the second asked, his voice hushed.

​The Old Master stroked his beard, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the empty space where Adira’s voice originated. ’She doesn’t have the unstable energy of a magical summon; she is clearly a living creature... and clearly not a human,’ he thought. He glanced toward the holographic drones recording the event.

’I am the only one here that can pinpoint these small details. The Master Teachers are watching from a screen, so they won’t know the difference. If I keep quiet, my Empire will continue this competition... Good job, Mirabella. You’re smarter than I thought.’

​He slowly nodded his head, choosing to play along with the narrative for the sake of the Empire’s glory. "Indeed," he noted aloud.

​SNAP!

​The sound of fingers snapping echoed through the clearing, and Luigi vanished from the sky in an instant, recalled into whatever pocket dimension she called home. The students looked at one another, before hearing the invisible Adira’s voice one last time.

​"I am one of Master Mirabella’s spirit familiars. And Jessica... if my Master encounters you in person, she will kill you. That is, if you don’t apologize for harboring such thoughts." With that final, chilling warning, the voice vanished, leaving a heavy silence in its wake.

"One? How many does she have?!!" Mike exclaimed in shock.

​"It is just a spirit summon. We Masters shouldn’t have interfered; it’s all part of the competition," the old man said flatly, his voice carrying back to the Arena.

​"It’s a shame some people are weak, yet have such big dreams." With that sharp remark aimed at the Sword Empire team, he vanished in a flash of movement with the other elders, leaving the ten students behind, all dumbfounded and speechless on the scorched earth.