Chapter 97 - Xyrus Attack III: Hostages of Fear

[3rd Person POV]

Inside Xyrus Academy, in the morning, the supremacist's attack seemed to be still silent, with some conspiratory professors leading their students to traps or areas where they would be trapped. In this way, and due to the force field placed around the academy, little by little the number of hostages and handcuffed people was increasing, with the east side already apparently having been dominated. However, there was still some resistance.

Two professors were together, hiding and launching surprise attacks on as many traitors as they could, without letting their locations leak. Both felt the drain of the ambient mana, but that didn't matter so much, as the weakest among them was in the Dark Yellow Stage.

"Did you see any of them approaching, Vanny?" Said one of them, holding her wand tightly.

"No… for me, looks like this hallway is empty, Vera. But we'd better stay in this room…" The other replied, taking a deep breath and holding tight to her greatsword.

The two were Vanesy Glory, the Team-Fighting professor, and Veronica Saintinell, the Basic Chain-Casting and Spells Formations professor. Both had initially met, when Vera was attacked by two students and a teacher, who had invaded her empty classroom. Glory heard her scream and saved her, almost fatally hitting the invaders. Now, they were both inside one of the rooms in the east part, on the second floor. The room was simple, chairs for students, a blackboard, simple wood and silver decorations, nothing fancy.

Out of pure paranoia, Vera took one of the chairs and placed it in front of the closed door, to slightly hinder anyone who tried to enter. Vanesy kept looking out the windows to see if anyone appeared, enemy or ally, but from the perspective she had, the area outside that part was deserted. The two women stared at each other, with Vera finally sitting down on the floor to rest.

"How did things get into this situation?" Vera asked that question, even though her co-worker was unable to answer.

"I heard that a few days ago, these madmen tried to destroy a small part of the academy in the middle of the night… apparently they decided to do something much more extreme…"

"Wh-What? I wasn't aware of that…" Vera's eyes grew wide.

"Goodsky spoke of this to a few people she trusted... I don't think it's important to withhold that information now, anyway." Vanesy seemed to be trying to fortify her vision, to see if she could find something further away through the window, being behind some curtains.

"Speaking of which… Where is she? I haven't seen Cynti since yesterday morning, in our cafeteria…" Vera questioned this, since Cynthia was known by many as being the strongest among the staff.

"She said she had some errands to run and left early yesterday afternoon… As far as I know it has something to do with The Council." She replied, still keeping an eye on the window.

"So… does that mean they were waiting a moment for her to be out?…"

"Very possibl-'' Vanesy stopped talking for a bit, making her co-worker worried.

"Vanny… Are you seeing something we need to be concerned about?" She adjusted her glasses, not approaching because she had her eye on that room's entrance.

Professor Glory was silent a little longer, until a scream could be heard outside, startling Professor Saintinell. "My god, did they start killing or what?"

". . . Yes, but not ours." Glory said, with a smile breaking out and looking at Vera. "Reinforcement is coming…"

"Reinforcement…? Wait, did they call the Xyrus City guards?!" Vera asked, getting up at once and going to look at the window, but her eyes widened again, in complete shock.

A student in a black uniform, wearing a broken white mask, was fighting two invaders at the same time. She didn't know how, but he managed to dodge the blows and then attack them directly with a sword. If it weren't for the bizarre aura surrounding his body, she'd think he was doing all that without using mana. But the most bizarre part of it all, was the fact that he seemed to give intense blows, even sticking his sword in the stomach of one of them, without seeming shaken.

The student, after apparently killing those two, looked directly at the two female teachers above. This made Vera shiver with fear as Glory seemed to open the window. "Are you crazy? What are you doing??" Vera asked, in shock, but Vanesy just seemed to ask her to give some space.

Vera took a few steps back when she noticed that student taking an extremely high jump, reaching the second floor window with some ease. Being closer she noticed that the mask of that student, besides the cracks, had a vibrant color of green and blue. He cleaned his blade's sword by placing it between his arm and forearm, soiling that part of his clothing with blood as a result.

"Good to see you two here… Are there any other teachers or students hiding with you?" Impressively, that mysterious student's voice sounded sweet, friendly and at the same time quite mature. He kept looking around in that room and then he looked back at the teachers. "Apparently not…"

"Some students were taken peacefully, maybe not understanding what was happening. Others were taken by force while we tried to recover them." Glory replied.

"I see... And how much mana do you have? Is it acceptable?"

"Yes, but that's what's weird, our surroundings seem so... empty." Vera said, watching the floor.

"That's due to some kind of barrier they put up, it seems to prevent mana from flowing normally." The masked man said soon going to the door of that room, putting his ear close to hear the situation in the corridor. "There appears to be at least 1 invader and what appears to be mana beasts from the deep breath... I can't identify how many."

"It's okay, Luz. You can open the door and we'll support you." When Glory said that, Vera got wide-eyed again.

"Luz?... Luz Leywin?... One of ours?!?" She looked completely shocked, it hadn't crossed her mind who that person possibly was.

"When I'm wearing a mask, I told you to call me Diamond. You can be annoying sometimes, you know Vanesy?" He responded to that situation.

Vera was even more in shock, because when she heard the name "Diamond" she seemed to remember something. A news report about an adventurer who managed to reach the highest tier that was normally received only by royal guards. She now realized that the description of the mask that was the main symbol of this adventurer, fit perfectly with the mask of the student in front of her, with the exception of cracks and imperfections, obviously brought with time.

"Let's go... And use as little mana as possible, remember that..." he said, holding tight to that sword again, which suddenly seemed to change shape, turning into a whip with a spiky ball on the tip.

Vera also held firmly to her wand, while Glory did not let go of the two greatswords she had. With everything ready, Luz kicked the door hard, knocking it down and making a woman in black robes get confused. Next to the woman were two mana beasts, one with a salamander-like appearance, but without a flaming-like aspect, and another with a 1.5 m tall wolf-like appearance. There was also another mana beast on the other side of the hall, only having the appearance of a moderately sized hawk.

"Attack!" The woman yelled pointing at the three staff members. Luz heaved a sigh, seeing the mana beasts heading towards them, and because he was further ahead, both the salamander and the wolf targeted him. The hawk, on the other hand, seemed to want to go against Vera, who was the furthest behind of the trio.

"Argh... Children..." Luz mumbled, running towards the wolf and jumping over it, with the whip he attacked that canine mana beast, making the chains wrap around the animal's neck.

The salamander opened its mouth and spit a kind of black goo towards the masked professor, who to defend it, firmly pulled the wolf by the neck and threw one mana beast at the other. The goo hit the wolf and seemed to burn his fur, while the salamander was hit, slamming against the wall and falling to the ground. During that, Vanesy had jumped in front of Vera, defending her friend by using the two greatswords as a shield against the hawk's onslaught, the augmenter managed to withstand the impact, soon after giving a lunge against the bird, which dodged with some ease.

"You disgusting dicathian!!" The woman exclaimed, aiming her hand at Luz and firing a series of fireballs in his direction.

"Give me a break..." He grumbled again, with the whip free, he began to rotate it very quickly, as if it were some kind of shield. The fireballs seemed to dissipate when touching that said "shield", with their heat being absorbed, as the chains were turning orange from so much energy.

"Argh! What dirty trick is this?!?" She didn't seem to stop unleashing that attack, but during this little conversation, it seems that the wolf was getting up, facing the masked professor and snarling.

"Nothing much… this Emblem of yours looks pretty flimsy." When he said that, the woman in black robes ended up losing concentration because she was surprised to hear a term from Alacrya there on that continent that she thought was wild and inferior.

The rounded spiked tip of Luz's whip seemed to suck that heat from the chains, becoming an extremely orange dot. He quickly spinned as the wolf seemed to charge towards his body, and with a powerful swing, whipping the mana beast's forehead, the heat seemed to be used with great efficiency, both that and strength together, were able to explode the canine beast's head.

The woman in the black flinched seeing that scene. 'How does a weakling like this know the concept of an Emblem? And how did he manage to do that?! He doesn't seem to be using any spells, and yet he stalled my attack and inflicted such fatal damage on a Hollow-Hound!! I must finish him off! I can't let him get out of here alive!' she thought, with sweat running down her face, but she managed to realize that the Venomander was still alive and about to wake up.

"Launch a poison blast!!" She exclaimed to the salamander-shaped mana beast, and so it did, throwing a kind of purple dust from its skin, which seemed to cover that part of the corridor.

"AAAH!" Vera was scared by this and managed to get away from where Luz was, Vanesy did the same, while finally managing to reach that flying mana beast she faced, decapitating it using the two greatswords in her hands, having been forced to augment them with her mana.

"Leywin!!" Vanesy screamed, really realizing what was happening.

That stretch of corridor had been filled with an extremely dense layer of corrosive purple fog, part of the paint on the walls seemed to come off easily, while the victorious laughter of that woman in the black echoed through there. She couldn't really see what was going on in there, but loud banging sounds could be heard, as if the Venomander had successfully attacked the boy in the midst of that extreme amount of poison.

"Next will be you, weakling savages!!" She exclaimed, a big smile on her face, but that expression didn't last long.

Something had been thrown out of the poison cloud, it was something big. The Venomander came out with the neck area completely open, and due to some scales that the head was still connected to the body, that mana beast was definitely dead. But what was inside that thick fog now?

Slowly the boy's silhouette began to emerge, with what appeared to be glowing designs illuminating faintly. Gradually, his body became easier to identify, his uniform shirt and some of his pants had been affected by the corrosive poison, thus exposing his physical body alongside numerous runes that were on the sides of his torso, on his back and near his shoulders. Most glowed a greenish color and others were dark purple at the moment, with the fog seeming to be absorbed by such marks.

". . ." The woman stared at it, dumbfounded, not only because her enemy had runes just like she did, but because he had so many. In her mind, the maximum number of runes possible for an individual was 7, thanks to Alacrya's culture, but that…? That was an excess beyond her human standards.

"What are you…?" was the only thing she managed to say, with the boy now aiming both hands in her direction, his arms were quite purple with the accumulated poison, which was accumulating even more in the forearm area.

Finally, from the wrist to the tips of the fingers, veins were getting big and pulsating, the boy panted, as if he was trying to bear the pain of it, and he smiled, answering her. "A basilisk…"

"Vol Venenum." When reciting that spell, the runes on the shoulders seemed to move through the skin until they reached the wrists, glowing brightly and thus a dark jet came out of the fingertips.

The woman didn't seem to have time to react, being hit by that black liquid that seemed to corrode the affected areas almost instantly, making her cry out in intense and desperate pain. The scene became brutal and grotesque, with more of the liquid hitting her in several parts, exposing some of her bones and making her fall to the ground, where the liquid there was dissolving part by part. Her skin disappeared, leaving her exposed flesh, then the flesh disappeared, becoming pure bone, and finally the bones seemed to dissolve too, becoming just a disgusting reddish puddle on the floor.

Vera started to vomit on the floor seeing the unexpected gore scene, while Vanesy just stared, horrified. That was an obvious enemy that wanted to capture them or even cause their death, but to see it being dissolved like that would be almost traumatizing, Glory had wide eyes, with the vision of her slowly going to the back of her student/co-worker, existing all those runes that formed a joint image, slowly ceased to glow.

He was still panted, turning to face the two professors. "There were some vials of potion inside that room, right?" Vanesy just nodded, without removing that surprised expression, and so the boy returned to the room they had left a few minutes ago.

It took a while for words to be spoken there. "Is he one of them? Is he really one of them?!" Vera exclaimed, still wiping her mouth after throwing up, her face turned away from the grotesque puddle.

". . . Don't doubt him… he's on our side at least…" Glory replied, also avoiding looking at that thing. "There is still a chance that there are more of them in this building… they might have heard the screams, so we need to prepare…"

"Are you really sure he's on our side?… Did you see what he did? What kind of student kills so easily and so violently, yet silently?!" Vera exclaimed again, not caring about the second half of what her co-worker had just said.

"If you complain any more, you might end up like her, and no, I won't be the one to do that…" He replied leaving the room, scaring Vera a little, who was staring at him as if he were some kind of S Class mana beast. In his hand, there was a bag for potions, and there were some vials filled with that same black liquid. "I took out some of the poison and saved it for you to use as corrosive bombs, we can't use too much mana, so this will be your plan B."

Vanesy took the bag, as Vera seemed paralyzed with fear, looking at those vials and then asking, with a worried tone, even though she was still slightly scared. "Are you well?"

"A little better… if I had left that poison inside my body any longer, my arm would have started to necrose, so it was a tremendous relief to get the excess out of my hands, a mage without arms can become a burden to the others." He answered casually, as if it wasn't intense, but it was.

Before another word could be said, a low but sharp noise could be heard from inside one of the intact pockets of Luz's pants, he took the artifact inside and clicked a button. "Claire, how are you there?.... oh, okay, that's good to know..." he kept talking to the object, while Vanesy just let out a sigh, knowing that some of her students were safe, until she heard him saying. "No, I haven't found Fey or Curtis yet, don't worry, we'll get them back as soon as possible, but I found two professors while I was clearing the east area… They're Professors Glory and Saintinell…"

"Wait… Curtis? Prince Curtis?…" Vera asked, the scared expression not leaving her face.

Luz soon ended the call and looked at the two there. "Yes, he and another disciplinary committee member were taken hostage, but other than them, all the committee and student council members are in a safe place." Vanesy seemed a little nervous about the situation, not because she knew they had more hostages, but because one of them was the literal prince of that kingdom.

"You have a plan to get them back, don't you? I mean, I know that Curtis is also on the disciplinary committee, but as his professor, I know that he also uses mana all the time for any physical battle, so…" Vanesy spoke, but soon another noise came, this time it didn't seem to come from a visible place, it was just a high-pitched noise coming from the boy she was talking to.

". . . Was that good timing?" He took out another artifact, this time from inside his dimensional ring, it had a crystalline form. With a double tap of the thumb on one side, the crystal glowed green, and a voice began to come out of it, allowing Vera and Vanesy to hear it too.

"Master, I got some information about the locations, apparently the hostages are being gathered on the top floor of the central sector of the academy. But everyone is not here yet." It was a female voice.

"Okay, what about the disciplinary committee members and our members?" Luz asked objectively.

"Only Prince Curtis is here, the elven member you mentioned doesn't seem to have arrived yet. As for the members, Code:FireHell and Code:BigHammer are on the floor, just in different rooms. Code:WaterCube and Code:IcyCube are with each other to keep up appearances. Code:MetalWire is the only one I don't know where he is. Do you know something?" That curious voice asked, while Vera and Vanesy remained silent, equally curious about what they heard.

Luz took a long, deep sigh and answered curtly. "Dead. He was killed thanks to an undercover traitor in the student council."

The teachers' eyes widened, while the girl's frightened voice could be heard on the other end of the communicator. "O-Okay… let's do it for him then…"

"Relax, we will hold a respectful funeral, unfortunately it cannot be the way he would like…" After that he turned off the communicator and noticed the two women watching him. "Before you ask, these codenames are for a group authorized by Cynthia, and the so-called 'traitor' in the student council is the vice president."

"CLIVE?!" Vanesy exclaimed for that information and Luz just silently nodded. ". . . . Really they were well hidden…"

"So, we should be more careful with whom we meet…" Vera's voice was a little shaky with the new information.

"I agree." He made the whip go back inside that strange jewel injected into his hand, then snapping his fingers. "Let's clean up the rest of this building then. The plan that the rest of the committee and I came up with was to wait for all the hostages to be together to launch a counter attack, then we can do something around here until the time arrives. Are you with me?"

Vera shook her head, while Glory nodded, making him speak again. "Okay, Vera, you can try to get through that barrier to get out of the academy and call for help; or going to the training area, where we're using some rooms as a hospital section, we have no idea how long they're planning to do this, or if any of the hostages were hurt. Glory, you follow me, and I know it doesn't feel right, but I want you to obey me if I make any sudden orders, don't even think about it, just do it. Comparing the two of us, I'm the person with higher instincts. Do you both understand?" The two agreed.

So, the three left that area, passing by the opposite side of the grotesque puddle on the floor, arriving at the entrance to the floor below, Vera started to run towards where the training tower would be, with three of those corrosive vials with her for protection. On the other hand, Vanesy and Luz were walking through the corridors, with the intention of now cleaning the first floor.

While this was happening, Elijah and Claire were in the area outside the training building. To protect the place, both hid in some bushes near the entrance, with shotguns in hand, completely full of earth mana. Both were with an extreme tension that could be seen in the face of each, with the fear and terror of some enemy to appear, or worse, a friend who in the end would prove to be a traitor, as happened in relation to Clive Graves.

Claire after a while, making sure there was no one nearby, ran towards where the boy with glasses was, using a very small amount of wind mana to slide with ease on the ground. The boy was even confused by her repetitive arrival when leaving that position, did she want to say something to him? Very likely.

"I contacted Luz, he said that for now he didn't find any students in the east area, only Professors like Glory and Saintinell." Claire said as she noticed something strange about her colleague. "Are you okay?"

"Saintinell?... Oh... Professor Vera, I see, nobody almost ever calls her by her last name in the classroom, she likes to be very relaxed with the students... but it's good that she's okay at least..." Elijah looked a little pensive, with slight memories of his first days at school, after all, Vera Saintinell was one of the teachers he had in that term. But his attention was returning to Claire's question. "I'm fine, yes… why the question?"

Strange was the least that could be said with that scene, Claire saw that Elijah's pupils were dilated, while his irises had a vibrant red color, completely different from the simple moss green that was his normal. Also, the veins on his face, more specifically next to his eyes, seemed to pulsate in a slightly evident way. The simplest way Claire could imagine the difference those traits made in her friend was to compare a simple studious nerd with some rabid boy addicted to elixirs.

"It's just… you… seem a lot more tense than usual…" She said that, even a little impressed with how calm and casual Elijah answered her, it was as if his style of speaking didn't match his face at all. "I mean… you said earlier in the lab that you were suffering from headaches, didn't you?"

"Sorry, but this is a matter between me and the Leywins brothers…" He said, not looking at his captain that much, just holding the shotgun in his hands and looking around.

"I know that Art and Luz have a lot of secrets, that's obvious just knowing them. But you? A secret with them?" She seemed to chuckle lightly, as if she was trying hard not to be nervous at the moment.

"Yes… anyway, we cannot let our guard down, please return to your post." He answered her a little dryly than usual.

"Hey, I'm the captain here, remember? And I looked around, there doesn't seem to be anyone around."

"Exactly…" He sighed and looked at Claire, emphasizing one thing. "'There doesn't seem' doesn't mean it really doesn't. And besides, I know how you see me… I know how you all see me, I find it impressive how only Luz and Arthur are the only ones who take me truly seriously here. But have you forgotten that I'm an A Class Adventurer? That I already had to survive in the Beast Glades for many weeks alone without interruption, always afraid of a mana beast to appear while I was sleeping? You're Kaspian's niece, for god's sake, you clearly know all this, or at least think about forgetting it because you can't believe that someone younger than you has had a more eventful life than yours."

Somehow, Claire seemed to have gotten Elijah into a touchy subject, touchy to the point where he blurted out how he viewed the whole situation and how he felt about the look others were giving him in this academy. She even felt a little silly, and rightly so, no matter if she was the captain or looked experienced, she hadn't been in extreme danger before, unlike Elijah. If it weren't for the danger that was possibly in every corner of the academy now, she would have shown pity for the fact that really, the Leywins' deeds had made her completely forget that their friend was there too, fighting and surviving in a dungeon against an S Class surprise beast.

Her thoughts were cut short when the boy tapped her on the shoulder and pointed in a direction. Confused, Claire looked over and saw what appeared to be two people wearing Xyrus Academy uniforms. They looked tired, but they were running towards the training tower. With that, both DC Officers stood up from behind the bushes, pointing their guns in that direction, more as a matter of self-defense than an actual attack.

"Hold on! Who are you?!" Claire exclaimed, still aiming the gun but clearly having a slight weakness in her right hand.

As they got closer, it was possible to see that it was a couple of elves, the man seemed to scream in panic with their sudden appearance, while the woman, who was much taller, spoke, holding the boy firmly by the shoulder. "We are Zenkya and Trin! From the first year! We were told to go here to find refuge…"

"Who exactly told you that?" Elijah seemed to recognize the woman a little, but not the guy with her, still pointing the gun at them.

"P-Professor Vera… S-she went through some areas and ended up finding the place where we were hiding… She told us that this was the best option and that you, from the disciplinary committee, would be here…" The boy said, seeming to have a little courage upon recognizing Claire and Elijah's uniform.

"Was there anyone else with you that we were waiting for?" Claire asked, lowering the shotgun now.

"My brother…" The boy named Trin still looked scared. "He was with us, but before Vera showed up, he just left to get backup and didn't come back, but other than that, there was no one else with us…"

"Are you hurt in any way…?" Elijah tilted his head.

"Being tired as hell out of mana counts?" Zenkya asked.

"Of course… Come with me, we'll go to one of the rooms we're using… Elijah, keep watching, I'll be back in a few minutes." The boy just agreed with his captain and stood there, seeing her and the two elves going inside.

After that, it didn't take long for what looked like one of the crazy supremacists to appear, it was a man with blond hair without any contrast and with a completely black uniform, but with the hood loose due to his sudden movements, he was also running towards the tower, as if it was following the two elves from before and had decided to attack after seeing only one person on guard there.

'Let's just destroy him…' A voice arose inside Elijah's mind, as always, it sounded quite tempting, and since it was really something he should do, he accepted it without any problems.

Without thinking, the young man put the shotgun on the ground and ran towards the enemy mage, who seemed to be shouting something, but the voice was muffled for him. A gust of ice appeared trying to hit the glasses boy, but with an instinctive movement of the right arm, it seemed to create a gust of black metals that emerged from the ground and went towards the enemy, in addition to being in the way of the freezing attack.

The enemy mage flinched at that sight, apparently he wouldn't imagine seeing a dicathian using magic in these moments, not even a child using something that apparently uses a lot of mana. This bought the boy time, with thin pillars of that same metal appearing on the ground at a certain angle, he managed to launch himself upwards. Before the enemy could reason where that boy was, he instinctively waved his hands again, more wide blades made with that metal emerged from the ground, aiming directly at that mage and hitting him in the legs, damaging them very intensely and making him to fall.

In Elijah's eyes, the world seemed to change in the blink of an eye, the atmosphere turned gray, the environment was no longer the beautiful lawns of Xyrus Academy, becoming a sandy field. And the enemy's image was blurred, only his hair colors were in evidence, with some reddish and silver colors now in his uniform.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" He yelled in fury, delivering a drop kick to the enemy.

Being completely on the ground, Elijah started punching him directly in the face, punching and punching, more and more violently. With his fists being coated in that dark metal like they were gauntlets. More of the red color crept in, eventually soiling the enemy's hair.

'DIE! DIE! DIE!!! THIS IS FOR CECILIA, YOU FUCKING SHIT!!! DIE NOW, GRE-' The voices in his head cut off as Elijah finally stopped and realized he hadn't been breathing during all that subconscious mental rage.

He panted to regain air, the world regaining more colors and he saw that he was on top of the enemy. Its face was completely smashed and the dark gauntlets were now a dirty red. He hyperventilated a lot, finally getting to his feet and thinking at last. "Better not let the others know about it… yes, saying that it was all damage from shooting several shots must be perfect…" That's what he said, with he hearing his voice doubled, as if the voice inside his mind had said the same thing. Returning to the entrance of the building, he saw that Claire was still inside the building, now with the environment there full of obstacles, Elijah decided get a chance of using these as hiding places for new counter attacks.

_°_°_°_°_°_°_°_°_°_°_°_

[Feyrith Ivsaar POV]

An incredible pain was in most parts of my body…

It wasn't as if I had been beaten a lot or anything, it was as if my muscles refused to move and consequently caused some kind of pain. At least the muscles in my eyes could move, allowing them to be opened, giving access to a very aggressive and oppressive scenario.

I was sitting on top of a chair, in front of me there were some students, most of them were people that I was sure to have seen during my rounds that I carried out that whole semester. All of them were handcuffed with their hands behind their backs, from the angle I was, I could see that their handcuffs were of some greenish metal, with a very vibrant red crystal in the center. Likewise, I felt something in my wrists trapping me, possibly that jewel was what prevented me from moving?

"Look at this… this weak elf woke up..." A voice came up, I couldn't move my head to see who it was, and not even my peripheral vision reached it, but I ended up feeling a strong blow on my face. It was not only painful, there was also an icy aspect in it.

"How cute, you didn't even moan in pain… Trying to look strong, huh?" This time it was another voice, a woman appeared in front of me, staring at me as if she was devouring me with her eyes, but it was her smile that scared me. "He's from that stupid group my son talked about, isn't he?"

"Yes… Disciplinary Committee, if I'm not mistaken…" The male voice came out again, the person appeared, showing himself to be some nobleman who loved to maintain class and physical body, because he was wearing a very expensive robe, with the same opening revealing his worked torso.

"Disciplining… They were disciplining Xyrus' amazing nobles? What a funny little joke, don't you think?" The woman said, turning to the handcuffed students, who instantly seemed to try to back away and funnel closer to the wall.

'Argh... what an annoying situation...' I thought, with my internal voice equally feeling that strange fatigue, but soon an idea came to me, when I saw the man also look away, to complain about the students acting like this with the question asked.

It could be extremely risky, but I tried to focus the mana within my core and do some of the unenchanted spells I was taught. However, when I tried to do this, I felt an intense shock throughout my body, causing me to scream. The pain was enough that the pain of moving the muscles in my mouth was almost insignificant.

In response, the man took a metal bar he had in his hand, and slammed it hard into my stomach, making me groan in pain as my body bent over a little. I could see a sadistic smile of satisfaction and so he started hitting harder, several times in that area, to the point that when I opened my mouth to let out another sound of pain, I ended up spitting blood.

I could see several students there with looks of pain too, as if they were feeling the internal panic that appeared in my body, after receiving a punch on the cheek. I could hear a cracking noise, as if one of my bones had broken, but I just moaned in pain again, with the feeling of red liquid dripping from my mouth and appearing in my black uniform.

"Sanches! I hope you don't destroy our 'pinata' too much, after all, the other nobles also want to see the 'candy'~" A new voice came up, I struggled but managed to turn my face to look at it.

He was a tall man, with spiky reddish hair, a simple but terrifying mask of a smile, and uniform that resembled something I would see a noble royal guard wearing at a grand party. He had in his hand a greatsword that, if it weren't for my situation, I would honestly admire, with silver and ruby details. He had the absolute vibe of some renowned fire mage.

The couple who were abusing me seemed to salute him, as if he were their superior. "We're sorry, Lord Draneeve!" Both spoke at the same time.

"We thought we could play with him a little bit before the ceremony." The woman spoke, almost stammering.

"And you can, but not like this… Remember, we're going to do a lot of damage to him and the others we're looking for… Besides a possible auction if we manage to get them out of here with us." His voice sounded so casual saying that, but my eyes widened.

'Not only do they want to beat us to get their anger out, but they're going to use us as products?...' I thought, in shock, as I hadn't imagined that they would go to this level.

The two agreed with him, and he raised an arm triumphantly. "We can't forget that we've already caught a prince! So… that is the one we should damage the least, you never know if the royal family will pay a fortune for ransom."

The world seemed to slow down for me to reason at that moment. 'Curtis had also been caught? He is the only prince in Dicathen, which makes it logical. But if they're talking like that, then they still haven't captured Tessia or Kathyln, and as far as I remember they were with Arthur… Claire and Luz…'

I tried to remember the groups that formed this morning to get an idea of who was still free and might come to my rescue, but my thoughts were interrupted again by a kick in my stomach. The thick boots of the man called 'Draneeve' kept pressing closer to my body.

"To be honest, this… little disciplinary group that the director created seems pretty tough… so you can break him down a bit more, but remember… don't overdo it, y'all hear me?" After those words, he left and left me in the care of that couple again, who continued to kick, tease, beat me, until I couldn't take it anymore, but I couldn't even faint, because I was always woken up with a strong burning sensation in my back.

I don't know how much time passed, just that after so many blows, they stopped and pulled me by the arms so that I could follow them. My body still ached to move, but the pain was from the attacks, not the restriction they had placed on me, it was as if one pain had overwritten the other. So I followed them, with the other students being led behind me by other terrorist members.

Arriving in a large room on a high floor of the central building, I could see several other students, all of them were caged, with bright red bars surrounding them, but that wasn't what caught my attention the most. They were positioned as if they were the audience in an amphitheater, with one end of the room having the "stage". There was a person I knew very well, and on one of the walls there was a greenish spiral, which rotated non-stop, a kind of portal like the ones at the ends of Xyrus City...

But how did they do it? Can they create portals? This is impossible! This is lost knowledge!

Looking back at that person, I saw him with a purple mark on his face and blood oozing from a wound on his shoulder. Curtis was passed out and bound in a chair, with strange black ropes wrapping around his torso and arms. I couldn't analyze the situation better, once again I was hitted, this time behind my neck. My body fell to the ground and I stopped seeing things...

Everything went dark...