Slaughter

The dark energy wave approached!

The endless blue glow that expanded from Captain Keith started to battle against it. Bit by bit it managed to tackle it for a while until...

Until the third energy wave came in!

With extreme speed, both second and third energy waves decimated the blue glow as they started to eat Captain Keith alive!

Screams of pain and absolute agony reverberated throughout the town. Since Captain Keith's mana outside his body worked as a powerful medium for his voice and mental fluctuations.

His emotions spread throughout the town. Those horrifying and agony-filled screams and feelings made countless mortal citizens die of a heart attack. It's as if they are personally experiencing those emotions!

Thousands of bystanders died because of the emotions of a single being...

This is truly a world of magic, where one can kill countless!

The dark energy waves kept eating Captain Keith alive, trying to get past him for a better meal, the Town Lord!

Yet the blue glow that constantly poured out of Captain Keith made the dark energy waves immobile. Since Captain Keith's mana was constantly being burnt.

It created an impregnable shield that they couldn't hope to penetrate and all this time Captain Keith had to endure the feeling of his soul being burnt. 

Yes! His soul was actually experiencing the absolute horror of being burnt alive! 

To become a mage, a mortal has to foremost connect with his soul. Unveil his mind's eye to perceive the world, to perceive the mana!

Mana in the body of the mage is contained, nourished, controlled, improved and used through the person's mind's eye!

It's an irrefutable fact in the world of Aria that without the mind's eye one can't improve his or her existential state!

Of course, there have been countless attempts to substitute it, but everything turned out to be an utter failure.

The only thing that might even come close to replacing the mind's eye is an array!

But to replace the mind's eye, the organ which can evolve, with an array with a set abilities with no way to improve them is a bit dumb.

Of course, it doesn't mean that's impossible, it's just that no one on Azraa Continent has done it before.

The soul-tearing screams of Captain Keith intensified with each second as his life was slowly slipping up. The amount and quality of mana he had in his body was enough to take half of the town together to the afterlife if he self-destructed.

Mana's quality and amount equal lifespan. Of course, if this was entirely true then mages could live endlessly if they just absorbed mana all the time, but the reality is different.

Soulspan is the major factor that governs the longevity of the living being. Through grasping the mana, the soul can live longer.

With the understanding of mana, the soul can manipulate mana within their limits.

There are 6 known grades of mana corresponding to the Evolutionary Realms. 

Each grade signifies the comprehension of the ways of mana. Like Artifact Grading, it has 3 levels: Low, Mid and High.

To advance higher in the Evolutionary Realms, a person should comprehend their next phase or realm of the Evolutionary Realms.

The dark energy waves kept growing stronger as more energy pulses joined in.

Captain Keith was already dead, his soul was burnt to the ashes, he screamed till the moment of his death, filled with regret and pain.

Eventually, the copious amounts of mana in Captain Keith's corpse were all burnt up. Due to his mana being completely spent, nothing remained of his body. His body transitioned into a bonny corpse as it crumbled into dust and scattered in the wind.

Seeing that the intruder can send this deathly pulsating energy wave multiple times, Town Lord fled!

He burned his own mana as he turned back and shot off with extreme speed. 

The *Spatial Chaos* spell was still active and couldn't be switched off by Town Lord Loid since he was too weak to do that and wasn't well versed in the subject of space to begin with, the space will stabilize its disturbance with time.

His speed reached well over 500km/h as he didn't show signs of slowing down but instead accelerated even more!

He burned his lifeforce to get farther and farther, leaving behind a trail of blue energy.

The blue energy is a type of mana that the majority of humans wield. 

It doesn't specifically depend on the race but on a magical object that progenitors of humans frequently came into contact with or just the first human being born with such mana type.

Town Lord Loid frantically accelerated as he kept burning his mana. Unfortunately for him, demons were vengeful. 

A concentrated beam of dark energy shot from the direction of Oswool Boot Camp. At this point, Town Lord Loid was dozens of kilometers away from that location, but the beam quickly caught up to him.

He was terrified to the extreme since he was sure once this thing hits him he is done for!

He put extra passion into executing various speed-increasing spells, he even activated the spell which was imbued into his flesh...

Like arrays, spells can be imbued into the flesh too.

He activated the *Death Vines* which in exchange for other people's lifespan will recover his!

Black tentacles extended from his body as they covered hundreds of meters. 

Hundreds of people were caught by these tentacles as mana in their bodies was completely sucked dry.

As an Advanced Lesser Mage, he had to absorb the lifeforce of thousands of people to have a chance at survival, but time was short as the beam struck his body.

The town was once again filled with agonized screams of another Advanced Lesser Mage. His voice raged on for good 10 seconds until it suddenly died out.

The entire town was silent as two of its pillars were brutally slaughtered.

___ 

Meanwhile, in the waiting room of the jungle biome. All cadets still sat in the kneeling position as utter silence reigned over the place.

Noah curiously watched the projection which demonstrated the slaughter above. He had a satisfied smile on his face as he said "As expected of Lariel, grandfather made a good decision by saving your life".

Lariel just smiled in response, as Noah said, Lariel was saved by Noah's grandfather who recruited him as his subordinate afterwards. Lariel had offended a powerful mage in Demonic Abode by being better than his descendants, but Noah's grandfather witnessed his talent in time and saved him from gorry death. He was eternally grateful to him as he couldn't be more willing to serve this person. Plus, Noah's grandfather was one of the most influential beings in the Demonic Abode.

Little to no one dared to obstruct his path and he steadily rose in status and Evolutionary Realms until he was tasked to retrieve his recently found descendant - Noah.

Moreover, it would be a pitiful loss for his grandfather if he let the sole offspring of his most talented son die!

It really was a matter of talent and potential, otherwise, this whole commotion would have never happened.

As for Noah's father? He was a battle maniac who didn't care about anything else except becoming stronger. It was obvious whose son Noah was.

A while later, a portal materialized in front of the throne. It was 6 meters tall and wide. It showed the scenery of the dark cave.

Noah stood up from his majestic throne as he commanded "Follow me to the bright future my friends!" with a step, he disappeared from their view as he reappeared in the portal's scenary.

Lariel looked at them with a cold gaze as he unleashed the pressure of Intial Greater Mage!

The kids shuddered from utter fear. Even Andrew found it hard to breathe. Everything became blurry until Noah's voice resounded "Hurry up!".

The cadets stood up and headed towards the Warp Gate. Everyone was cautious and didn't dare to show discontent or any other negative emotions.

In front of absolute power, they were nothing more than dust that can be brushed off anytime.

Under the watchful gaze of Initial Greater Mage, they couldn't even think about anything negative regarding Noah or Demonic Cult since he could easily sense their mental fluctuations.

All living beings emit mental fluctuations. Of course, they can be concealed from those with weaker and similar strengths, but those who are entire realms or levels above them can easily sense them.

For an Initial Greater Mage, sensing the thought process of the mortals was easy as breathing.

Eventually, everyone entered and exited the Warp Gate.

Andrew looked around as 120 kids were warped to this unknown location. The cave was relatively spacious as its height was 10 meters and its width was well over 100 meters.

The kids frantically looked around, afraid that a monster from those fairy tails might pop up out of nowhere.

But there was none...

Yet!

___

Lariel was still in the waiting room of the jungle biome. He couldn't decide which way was the most effective to bring down the entire town.

He thought about a shockwave blast that will skin everyone layer by layer, but it was too mediocre, too standard and common. He wanted something new.

In his long life of 969 years, he used up almost all possible town-decimating methods...

He thought for a while and chose a random idea that came from the deepest parts of his twisted mind.

Instantly, dark-colored mana expanded from his body as it traversed the entire town. It went unnoticed since there was no one comparable to his understanding of mana in this town.

The dark energy infiltrated now defenseless Array Cores of the town's arrays. With his demonic energy, he eroded the protective measures as he gained total control of them. 

In the next moment, the walls and the surrounding buildings exploded. Agonized screams could be heard throughout the entire town...

But it wasn't over!

The demonic energy enveloped the whole town as it cast an illusion on everyone! Every citizen of the town perceived each other as enemies and absolute slaughter began!

"Hehe, this is what I call a battlefield royale!" said Lariel as he entered the Warp Gate.