The Black Priest

Feylord Lernon and Teresa Moon were stuck, but not for long, from the looks of it.

Rather than making a move, the Dean patiently waited for them to come down, which they didn't.

Jonathan appeared from the vault and left his golem to take care of the pursuing guardians.

Meanwhile, he hastily dropped a bit of his blood on the magical rune engraved on the top of the staircase.

His figure flashed with a momentary light before he vanished.

Upon seeing this, Feylord and Teresa didn't hesitate to imitate them. They felt a dangerous and suffocating heat come from below as Melissa let out a flaming punch that sent swirling flames at them.

Fortunately, the Translocation Formation wasn't exclusive to Jonathan. When Teresa and Feylord dropped their blood in unison, they saw the light and were assaulted by strong dizziness as their bodies were ripped from one space to the other.

The last thing they saw were the raging flames unleashed by the Dean. It had barely missed them and cascaded on the golem summoned by the alchemist.

The poor mechanical construct couldn't withstand a single hit and was obliterated almost instantly. Nevertheless, Melissa wasn't the least bit pleased.

Instead of giving chase, she charged into the Vault to check what exactly was stolen.

The reason behind her abandoning of the thieves was because the Principal was already on it, and as an Archmagus, Sonia was more than capable of defending herself and unleashing devastating spells.

Parmenas, Stellar, and Frey saw the magical formation glow then a weary Jonathan appear. The youth was gasping for breath and clearly out of energy.

The former Deacon approached the spy and, with his hand stretched, silently demanded the Phoenix Feather.

Jonathan grunted in annoyance and gave him to ominous black feather, but Parmenas frowned and coldly said,

"This is not the Phoenix Feath-"

He didn't even finish when the formation, which was about to get removed by Frey, glowed one more time.

Much to everyone's surprise, Teresa and Feylord appeared. Albeit they were startled by the 'warm' welcome, they didn't hesitate as they spring into a mad sprint in opposite directions.

With a rare expression of surprise and confusion, Parmenas looked at Jonathan before looking left at right.

The black feather was in his hand, but he didn't seem particularly interested in it. Instead, his eyes were especially focused toward Feylord, who was almost about to disappear from view.

Jonathan, supported by Stella, was running away while the shocked Frey snapped out of it and followed them.

The plan was for Jonathan to send the stolen prizes and then destroy the magical formation. However, with the Dean present, he had to teleport himself too or else he would be caught.

He didn't expect Melissa Crimson to arrive so quickly, at least not after Parmenas had unleashed his ungodly 'hounds' around the campus.

Feylord headed opposite of the campus and madly ran toward the South-Western small forest circling the road leading to Ilexset.

Teresa Moon boldly ran toward the campus while ripping her suspicious outfit on the way.

The Sun Alchemists stayed together and fled away, unwilling to assist their secret helper now that the situation had escalated.

'Why me?! Goddamnit!'

With his whole arm covered in brilliant vermillion flames and his hand clutching the Phoenix Feather, Feylord's face distorted when he looked back and saw a semi-flying Parmenas charging at him with his wooden white staff in hand.

At first, the youth shouted outloud to attract attention but it was a futile attempt. The sounds of growling beasts and panicking students were echoing across the campus, making it nigh impossible for anyone to hear him or come to his aid.

He shot a couple of fireballs at the ever-approaching Deacon, but they were extinguished easily by Parmenas' Holy Magic.

With his body feeling heavy and in pain, Feylord gasped for breath and ran without looking back for close to two minutes.

Alas, he was too slow and eventually got hit by a thin shiny spike made of Holy Magic; It penetrated his lower back and made him crash head-first into the ground before rolling a few times and bumping into a tree trunk.

The spike disappeared thereafter, leaving a small hole from which blood profusely gushed out. It was truly a bad day for the young noble, and it was progressively getting worse.

With difficulty, he turned his body and looked at the expressionless Parmenas walking towards him.

The former Deacon looked at the fire enveloping Feylord's hand before saying

"You're seeking that which you do not deserve. Do not blame me for your death."

Then, the staff let out a resplendent and majestic light that fell on Feylord's body.

At that second, an intangible mass of darkness appeared above Feylord, clashing against the Holy Magic for a moment before overpowering it.

It wasn't there to simply defend Feylord as it descended on his torso then, like a worm, crept closer to his arm.

Parmenas snorted and, while quickly mumbling an incantation, moved his staff and cast one spell after the other.

First, it was a translucent tornado made of innumerable white sparkles. With the Deacon at its center, it spun violently and extinguished the darkness latching onto Feylord.

The youth was lifted above the ground then pulled closer to Parmenas.

Second, the white staff let out a blinding light with a radius of 50 meters, thus forcefully revealing the invisible attacker.

Upon seeing who it was, Parmenas frowned and his expression turned ugly. What he was staring at was a silhouette wearing a long religious black robe, lacking anything that resembled a decoration or made it distinguishable from normal robes.

Around the silhouette was literal 'darkness' that made his surroundings distort as if space itself was unstable.

"The Black Priest." Muttered Parmenas as he glared at the unwelcome arrival.

Unlike his usual timid expression, the Black Priest was confident and grinning from one ear to the other. He was a youth with messy long hair, a somewhat innocent face, and a slim and short physique. It was none other than Joshua Boulard.

"Hand over the Phoenix Feather, Parmenas."

Joshua clawed the air with his open hand, causing a strange vortex to spawn and ripe a nearby tree to shreds like a black hole. The ambient Mana became violent and unstable and Parmenas' Holy Magic was getting extinguished.

Only the beautiful and 'calm' flames around Feylord's hand were unaffected. The golden luster around them and the heat they emitted was strong and almost overwhelming.

Feylord was no longer in control over his body, which had been bound by Holy Magic. Still, he continued to struggle and groan, hoping that the Phoenix Feather might do something miraculous and save his life.

Parmenas didn't give any verbal response as he held his staff with both hands and pointed it at the Black Priest.

Several beams of flashing light shot at Joshua, who raised his hand and moved the vortex in front of him.

It blocked the first few attacks but crumbled right after. Joshua's body vanished, returning to invisibility, but Parmenas didn't seem fazed or scared as he let out a blinding flash of light again, revealing the enemy.

Joshua's body was dangerously close and about to snatch Feylord, but a blast of Holy Magic blew him to the back. In retaliation, a spiraling darkness fell from above and hit Parmenas.

It destroyed his barrier and destabilized him for a second.

Exactly at that second, in which their opposite abilities clashed against each other and made them suffer equal amounts of damage, an ear-piercing devilish cry resounded near them.

Both Joshua and Parmenas' bodies stiffened and were immobilized by something beyond their capabilities.

Akin to a tsunami, a literal wave of green mist crashed onto the area, shrouding everything. Feylord felt chill down his spines as the Holy Magic pressing down on his body vanished. However, before he could hit the ground, a thicker amount of mist enveloped him and pulled him away.

Parmenas and Joshua warily looked around, the former first using blinding light to remove the mist and the latter invoking the vortex, which sucked the annoying and obfuscating mist.

The Deacon noticed Feylord's disappearance, but before he could completely get rid of the mist, he croaked and held his throat as he wasn't able to breathe anymore.

While letting out groans of suffocating, Parmenas smashed his staff on the ground and cast a strong gale that pushed away all the mist. Meanwhile, Joshua, who was also affected by [Air Decay], had to deal with much more than his enemy.

In addition to the vortex, he conjured some sort of a magical curtain that enveloped him and acted like a shield. Nonetheless, even with his defense strengthened, he felt something blunt and powerful bump to his rear.

His spell 'Black Curtain' negated most of the damage, but, much to the Black Priest's surprise, an energy of decay touched his spell and literally made it disappear.

Then there was a freezing aura and an icicle that slipped through the torn curtain and pierced Joshua's upper right side of his torso.

"Enough!"

A shout of anger and decisiveness resounded as the Black Priest clasped his hands together and unleashed his sinister Darkness-aspected magic.

The Darkness spread from his feet, pulling the darkness, plants, trees and everything within it. The nearby Arthur was also absorbed then ejected into the air along with everything else.

Even after getting hit by that, he swiftly got up and fled after the mist that carried Feylord away.