CHAPTER 188: THE BEGINNING OF THE END

Five figures quickly flew across the sky, their faces painted with awe and admiration.

Thousands upon thousands of dark hands flew past them as if aware, and with unique weapons in their grasps, they launched at the sudden flesh barrier that had obstructed their paths.

As Stefan used his will fueled by his mana to expertly control their retreat in the sky, he couldn't help but gasp at the sight of hundreds of thousands of weapons colliding against the massive scaly wing.

A deafening sound of metals colliding against each other spread far and wide, disorienting the retreating figures and those far away. A massive shockwave spread around the area, disrupting Stefan's will, and before he knew it, he lost control of Arlo, Arianne, Joe, and Ella's bodies.

"No!" Stefan shrieked as he stretched his hand at the plummetting kids but because he had not regained his balance in the sky, he couldn't control his will perfectly.

However, what he feared didn't come to pass.

Among the countless dark hands drifting past them to join in the clash of weapons and flesh, five hands suddenly flew out, and discarding the weapons in their grasps, they moved with ghostly speed, and caught the plummeting group.

Arlo and the others regained their balance in time to see through the gaps in the shower of darkness and metal before them, how the dark scales covering the fleshy wings that stood high as a mountain cracked before countless trails of blood trickled down from it.

Just when the group was thinking that the army of darkness and metal might just gain an edge, the dark hands suddenly stopped in their paths. Soon after, they turned into pools of darkness that slowly disappeared. The weapons they held flew through the air towards Evangeline, before disappearing into her spatial ring.

A long pause soon followed, during which nobody reacted. The magnitude of the short yet terrifying battle that had unfolded before their eyes not only shocked little kids like Arlo, Arianne, Ella, and Joe but even a grown teen like Stefan.

The falling massive dark hand conjured by Lord Cromwell's will attack had long disappeared, with the massive scaly wing alone remaining, with rivers of blood flowing down.

A few more moments of pause ensued before a sigh broke the pin-drop silence, at the same time that the huge wing disappeared.

A perfectly unharmed Lord Holden looked at Evangeline with an unreadable frown on his face. It seemed the injured wing had not affected him in the slightest. A look of surprise further surfaced on his face when he saw the usually respectful Evangeline look at him coldly.

Only Lord Cromwell appeared disheveled despite not suffering any injuries. Those inflicted on him had healed a long time.

"What happened here?"

Lord Cromwell frowned, a look of displeasure contorting his face when he saw Lord Holden throw the question at him.

Annoyed, he harrumphed and didn't reply. Instead, he glared at the young girl in a black suit who continued to stare at him with a chilly gaze.

Despite being shocked by Evangeline's shocking strength, Lord Cromwell felt more annoyed and angry. Not only had he lost his face before many eyes, and due to a girl young enough to be his daughter no less, the girl in question seemed to not be satisfied.

Lord Holden furrowed his brows when he didn't receive any reply, but thankfully a new figure appeared at the now great clearing of almost five kilometers, at that moment.

Lord Hayes kept silent for a moment, throwing a surprised look at Evangeline, then finally opening his mouth and recounting what happened.

The more Lord Holden heard, the more his expression turned ugly.

His now cold eyes lingered on Arlo who had wisely been brought back with his group by Stefan, before shifting them to Evangeline.

"So, correct me if I am wrong. But this boy killed almost fifty of our students, yet you are willing to protect him?"

Evangeline didn't reply for several breaths, causing the already chilly air to turn suffocating.

"You are wrong." She shook her head before she continued, "He must pay for what he has done, that is certain."

A confused look flashed on Lord Holden's face, "Then what exactly is your problem."

Ignoring him, Evangeline merely pointed at Lord Cromwell causing the latter's expression to distort, "It just mustn't be him!"

"Girl, you are taking it too far. No matter how talented you are, it wouldn't matter if you lack respect for your elders." Lord Cromwell bared his two fangs.

"Eh!" Evangeline merely smirked without commenting. Her lack of response only further infuriated Lord Cromwell. It made him feel like he was the one not behaving his age.

Now fully understanding what truly happened, Lord Holden rubbed his face with a tired look.

"So you are telling me you endangered the students, destroyed several kilometers of structures, and almost killed each other because of a simple misunderstanding?"

"A simple misunderstanding?" Lord Cromwell scowled. "This little girl disrespected me in front of many eyes and instead of criticizing her, you are complaining? Tell me, what did I do wrong by wanting to punish the human? If we want to go by her actions, doesn't that mean she wouldn't allow even you to punish the brat?" Lord Cromwell threw out several questions without a pause, his eyes burning fiercely into the hunched old Lord.

Lord Holden sighed. Of course, he was too old to be goaded easily by his friend's words.

However, he couldn't help but feel tired.

'Why is today so long?' The Old lord thought to himself.

Not only had there been a sudden commotion caused by the appearance of lightning flashes in the sky and the sudden rumbling of the earth, but there was also the matter of Emperor Razor...

And now this...

Another sigh escaped the old Lord's lips, this time sounding more weary. He rubbed his face and thought of how to resolve the situation. In normal situations, he would have simply corrected Evangeline and given her a small smack on the head, however, he obviously couldn't do that now, as for some reason the young girl was acting especially cold.

Not to mention that her power shocked him greatly...

Of course, he wasn't threatened by her strength but knowing that the young girl now had power that far surpassed even many of the clan Lords, the old Lord couldn't help but reevaluate her standing.

Stumped about what to do, the Old Lord grumbled in his mind.

'Could this day get any worse?'

And as if fate had been waiting for him to ask that very question, Lord Holden felt a connection established deep within his body and mind, a connection that bore through his very core, cut abruptly.

'Huh!?' The Old Lord blanked out for a moment before his eyes widened. Slowly but surely, his eyes glowed red at the same time that they shone with madness, his bloodline rampaging fiercely within his body.

The Old Lord wasn't alone...

Lord Cromwell who had been glaring fiercely at Evangeline had similar reactions to him, and the same was true for the cold yet calm Evangeline. Her indifferent expression was broken, her face distorted by anger, with a light of intense madness flashing deep within her eyes.

.....

Arlo experienced a rollercoaster of emotions that day. Not only had he not gotten any rest after his harrowing experience in the secret realm, but he had even identified and exposed one of the strongest leaders of the world as a follower of evil, putting in motion a disaster whose magnitude he couldn't even imagine. Then Rose seemed to have seen a part of his future, one that didn't bode well for him from her reaction. After that, she had fallen into some sort of deep coma, and he didn't even get a chance to figure out her state deeply. If it wasn't for the connections established between them as members of Ella's wolf pack, Arlo would have been feeling extremely anxious, even more than Joe felt for his sister, and would have lost his calm a long time ago. Then, he returned to his academy and fulfilled the promise he made a week ago. He knew the repercussions of his actions wouldn't be small...but he never knew it would be so grave, ending with him killing tens of figures he wasn't even familiar with. The deaths of these young talents weighed down on him like a mountain and seemed to have left some scars in his mind, one that even Arlo himself wasn't yet aware of.

As if that wasn't enough, the vampires seemed to want to 'punish' him, something Arlo was definitely sure wouldn't be so simple. But it wasn't like he didn't deserve it...however, Evangeline had swooped in and defended him.

Despite feeling choked by strong negative emotions, a warm feeling engulfed Arlo's heart. That was why he refused to leave her side.

But it seemed Evangeline defending him had now also put her in a tight spot, one that Arlo didn't hope for.

A feeling of fatigue engulfed his body. Despite being a powerful warrior with a formidable physical body, one proven by how his bony hand had already healed, Arlo felt a feeling of weakness fall over him. No matter how Arlo tried to act calm or behave in ways that showed he had a great deal of maturity, he was still a child in body and mind, one that would turn eight in but a couple of hours. Add the negative emotions and guilt pressing on him, it wasn't unreasonable for him to feel mentally strained. The fact that he was still able to act and stand firm was nothing short of admirable and deserving of respect.

But he had reached his limit...

Seeing the old Lord who had previously appeared before them in the forest outside the academy rub his head tirelessly, Arlo decided to speak out and receive his punishment. He didn't want to pull his teacher into his problems than he already did.

"I..." Before he could say more than a word though, he felt something was wrong. The air was suddenly cold...chilling and frighteningly cold.

And then he noticed it.

The sudden dark look on not only the Old headmaster's face but even Evangeline's, Lord Hayes and Lord Cromwell's. And with the almost 360-degree vision granted to him by his dragon eyes...

He saw the same look on Stefan and Arianne's face.

The aura around them suddenly turned chaotic causing Joe and even Ella to shrink back in fear.

'What is going on?' A feeling of deep unease suddenly settled within his mind, one greater than all the times his dragon sense had warned him about today.

Just as Arlo started feeling that something big must have gone wrong, Lord Holden, Lord Hayes, Lord Cromwell, Evangeline, Stefan, and Arianne suddenly raised their heads and bellowed to the sky.

"ROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAR!"

Arlo's eardrum vibrated intensely from the deafening roar, but he ignored the sensation as he belatedly realized that the roars weren't only coming from beside him...but all around him.

Close and far away, the entire academy seemed to be shaken by countless roars that pierced the sky and shook the air. And Arlo couldn't help but notice what they shared in common.

Madness!

One so deep and intense that it made his skin crawl!

What Arlo didn't know was that it wasn't just within the minor world the academy was located in, as similar situations were happening within the Lunar world and many more worlds ruled by vampires.

As the countless roars seemed to merge into one, the intensity of madness rising to a limit that shouldn't be possible, Arlo inadvertently remembered the event that seemed to have happened a decade ago, one that had almost plunged the humans of the Lunar world into annihilation.

But before he could dwell too long on that thought, there was a sudden change beside him.

The roars still continued to shake the void, without any sign of stopping soon. However, Arianne's angry bellow seemed to have turned to stifled tears at some point when he was lost in his thoughts.

"... grandmother...wuuu."

Arlo's expression instantly changed, "What happened to Scarlet?" He asked his voice filled with agitation.

Covering her face with both hands, the previously cold but now mischievous Arianne choked out in between her sobs.

"I-I don't know. But...my connection with her suddenly cut off."