For a moment, everything seemed calm.
The wind rustled the leaves of the single, massive oak tree in the center of the courtyard. The sunlight hit the manicured grass, painting a picture of academic peace that felt utterly wrong after the carnage inside.
"The Gate is locked," Drex said, pointing at the fleshy barrier sealing the main exit.
Sai didn't answer. He just sighed—a long, deep sound of exhaustion—and ran toward the oak tree.
He stopped in front of a pristine, black, rugged sedan parked in the shade of the tree. It wasn't a normal civilian vehicle. Its body was thick and angular, looking especially strong, as if it had been carved from a single block of obsidian.
SMASH.
Sai put his elbow through the driver's side window without hesitation. He reached in, ripped the panel off the dashboard, and fished out the ignition assembly.
ROAR.
The engine screamed to life. The sound was like a jet engine waking up, vibrating the ground beneath their feet.
"Get in," Sai said, sliding into the driver's seat.
Drex scrambled into the passenger seat just as the front doors of the main building exploded outward.
A tide of nightmares poured into the courtyard. Leading them was Mr. Vance, no longer hiding his nature. He was fully encased in an iron-like shell, his limbs thick with grey plating, charging like a juggernaut.
"KILL THEM!" Vance bellowed, his voice sounding like grinding metal.
Sai slammed his foot on the pedal.
The obsidian sedan shot forward. But Sai didn't aim for the gate. He aimed for the perimeter wall.
The engine shrieked as the speedometer redlined instantly.
"Hang on," Sai said flatly.
"To what?!" Drex screamed, clutching the dashboard.
SCREEECH.
The car hit the incline of a decorative flowerbed at top speed.
The suspension groaned as the sedan launched into the air. They soared over the twelve-foot perimeter wall, clearing the stonework by mere inches.
The car slammed down onto the road outside.
It wasn't the smooth asphalt of a city street. It was a ruined, cracked wasteland road, split by battle, colossal footprints and time. The sedan chassis shuddered violently under the impact but held together.
Sai didn't let up. He spun the wheel, correcting the drift, and floored it.
As they sped away, kicking up a cloud of grey dust, Sai checked the rearview mirror.
The Academy was receding, but the threat wasn't.
Shapes rose from behind the Academy walls, but they weren't the only ones joining the hunt. The ruined city around them—a vast graveyard of concrete skeletons and vine-choked skyscrapers—began to move. Rolling abominations of bone and flesh burst from the alleyways, while insectoid horrors scurried along the sides of crumbling buildings. They shrieked and lunged, but the obsidian sedan was a black blur, tearing down the broken road faster than the nightmares could follow.
"Faster!" Drex yelled, watching the horde shrink in the distance.
"I'm flooring it!"
They were pulling away. They were going to escape.
Then, a massive shadow eclipsed the sun.
The Principal had caught up. And the owner had come to collect his prized ride.
Except he wasn't human anymore.
He was a colossal, winged nightmare of grey flesh and stone, diving straight for the stolen sedan like a missile, moving with a speed that made the car look like it was standing still.
"Bail," Sai commanded.
Before Drex could process the word, Sai kicked the driver's side door off its hinges. He grabbed the Monarch by the collar and threw them both out of the speeding vehicle.
They hit the asphalt, rolling violently across the ruined road.
A split second later—CRUNCH.
The Principal slammed into the empty sedan. The impact was cataclysmic. The obsidian vehicle was flattened instantly, the force sending the twisted wreckage skidding through a rusted guardrail and into a debris-filled intersection.
Drex groaned, sprawled on the cracked pavement. He was conscious, but barely. His mana was empty, and the rough landing had rattled his bones. He watched, his vision swimming, as the Principal rose from the remains of his own car, shaking the earth with his steps.
The monster roared, baring fangs as long as a crane arm.
Sai had stopped rolling and hopped to his feet. He dusted the gravel off his uniform, adjusted his collar, and sighed.
It was a heavy, weary sound. The sound of a man who just wanted a nap but was being forced to work overtime.
"I really liked this uniform," Sai muttered.
Drex didn't try to warn him. He didn't tell him to run. He knew exactly who was standing there.
He just watched, waiting for the legend to act.
Sai sighed and whispered the command.
"[System Override: Deactivate Transcendent Skill - Fate Veil]."
The concrete around Sai's feet pulverized into dust—not from an attack, but from the sheer weight of his existence returning to reality.
For two years, he had been a smudge on the world's radar. A background character. A nobody.
Now, the mask was off.
Something dense, heavy, and ancient rippled outward. It wasn't the mana of a student; it was the aura of a veteran who had killed titans.
Sai raised a single hand.
"[Copied Legendary Skill: Star-Fire Lance]."
A beam of blinding white energy erupted from his palm.
The sound was like a thunderclap detonating at point-blank range. A spear of condensed stellar plasma erupted from Sai's palm, turning the world blindingly white.
There was no resistance. The Principal's stone-shell armor, his reinforced flesh, his regenerative cells—none of it mattered. The beam drilled through his chest and kept going, carving a molten trench through the city block behind him for another three miles.
When the light faded, the Principal was gone. Vaporized into drifting embers before his fist could even touch the ground.
Drex's jaw hit the floor. He stared at Sai's back, his mind unable to comprehend the gap between the lore and the truth. The descriptions in the book felt like scribbles compared to the sheer, terrifying scale of the reality standing in front of him.
ROAR.
The victory was short-lived. The rest of the horde had caught up. Hundreds of monsters—crawlers, flyers, rollers—poured into the intersection, surrounding them in a circle of teeth and claws.
Sai cracked his knuckles. He didn't flinch. He didn't back down.
"Fine," Sai said, his eyes glowing with a terrifying light. "Bring it on."
He took a step forward, ready to face them all.
HUMMMMMM.
The sky split open.
Before Sai could throw a single punch, a pillar of blinding golden light slammed down from the heavens, engulfing both him and Drex.
It wasn't an attack. It was an abduction.
Gravity reversed instantly. Sai and Drex were yanked upward, ripped from the battlefield before the monsters could even react.
As the ruins of the city faded and the world dissolved into blinding white light, a System window—bright, gold, and arrogant—materialized in front of Sai's face.
[ GODDESS MESSAGE ]
"I deployed my latest hero into the middle of those vermin to exterminate them, but I didn't think I'd find my runaway employee there too. The skill you stole from me actually managed to hide your presence from my perception. How repulsive, Hero 002."