Chapter 41- Uninvited Guest

Both sides took their battle stance waiting for the signal to start when the arena's roof suddenly exploded. Stella cast null magic to protect the students from the falling debris while Griffin and Helgard scanned the area to look for the one who activated the spell. From the dust, a cloaked figure came out. His face was pale and his eyes were growing faint green. He was also wearing a visible belt under the cloak with bottles filled with poisons and acids. The staff he was carrying had the mark of the Dark territory carved in it and his aura was as strong as Griffins.

Yes, he was indeed the 2nd ranked supreme mage Achlys, the leader of the dark territory. Though he rarely participates in battles, he is always pulling strings on both sides for entertainment.

"What brings you here Achlys?" Griffin asked out of curiosity.

"I was just came by to watch the duel. That' all." he replied.

Kazuki then realized his mistake. For normal mages, they can't tell Kazuki's strength because he's hiding his aura but for supreme mages, they could easily tell ones strength based on the magic power surrounding them and Kazuki forgot to suppress his magic power.

The truth is, Achlys went to Holy kingdom in order to meet Giffin but he felt a large amount of dark magic power gathering at Magic Academy so he came to see what it was. To his surprise, he found two students preparing to have a duel. He looked at Kazuki and saw the magic power gathering inside him. Greatly excited, the blasted the arena's roof to witness the fight.

When Rhyle saw him looking at Kazuki intently, the high paladins surrounded him and took their battle stance. Achlys was not an idiot to not notice the paladin's strength so he threw his staff away and walked towards Griffin. Though he threw his staff, they still couldn't let down their guard because of the poisons in his belt.

"Just let me see the duel and I'll leave after. You have my word." he said in a serious tone. Griffin on the other hand, thought about it for a while because he's afraid that Achlys's might be planning something. He told the two high paladins to sit beside Achlys so that they could stop him if he does something suspicious.

Stella then started to use [Time reverse on the arena] to fix it.

(Note: Time reverse is a 4th tier null magic that winds back time in a certain area. Though useful as it seems, it actually consumes a lot of magic power and it doesn't affect living things. Magic change the world's order but there are some things even magic cannot do.)

After a few minutes, the arena was fully fixed and the teachers entered. The academy decided to resume the duel but with teachers as the audience because the students were dismissed because of what happened earlier.

The two participants once again entered the arena and Stella prepared the explosion spell. As she activated it, the both pulled out their weapons and charged towards each other.