Further back, Lusian advanced with his evacuation group.
Riding beside him was Isabella, surprisingly calm despite the chaos unfolding around them.
Lusian glanced sideways at her.
"I know you were assigned to this group... but why didn't you go with Caleb?"
Isabella smiled softly.
"Because I feel safer here."
She absentmindedly stroked Aureus's neck.
"Besides... it's nice to walk around without someone watching over me every five minutes."
Lusian let out a small chuckle.
"Poor Caleb."
"And poor Prince Leonardo," Isabella added with a resigned sigh. "They both think I need protection all the time."
Before Lusian could reply, Adela quickened her pace until she was riding beside him.
The usual calm expression on her face had vanished.
"My lord."
Lusian turned toward her.
"What is it?"
"Aureus is restless."
"He won't stop looking toward the mountain."
"I think he senses something."
Lusian looked at his beast.
Aureus's ears stood perfectly erect.
His breathing had grown heavy.
He didn't look frightened.
He looked...
alert.
"I feel it too," Lusian murmured.
A strange uneasiness spread through his chest.
It was difficult to explain.
As though every step they took was bringing them closer to something that should not exist.
Adela lowered her voice.
"We should leave this place."
"I'll escort you to the capital."
Lusian slowly shook his head.
"No."
"If we retreat, everyone else will be left exposed."
"And besides..."
He frowned slightly.
"This never happened in the game."
"There was never an evacuation like this."
"There was never a stampede of this scale."
"There was never..."
He stopped.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
Then...
A deafening roar shook the valley.
The collision of two massive waves of mana made the earth tremble.
Everyone looked up almost simultaneously.
Far away, on the mountainside, explosions of fire lit up the gray sky as bolts of lightning and towering pillars of wind descended one after another.
The defensive line had entered combat.
And a second later...
they appeared.
Hundreds of monsters poured down through the trees like an unstoppable tide.
At the same time, the doors of the village houses began to open one after another.
From within...
the first undead emerged.
A chill ran down Lusian's spine.
It wasn't a coincidence.
They had been waiting for them.
One of the cultists lunged at Lusian with unnatural speed.
He reacted instinctively.
Their swords collided.
In the same motion, he channeled dark mana into his blade and pierced the enemy's magical core.
The cultist collapsed without uttering a single scream.
Lusian stepped back.
His brow furrowed.
He had consumed far more mana than usual.
"...A weakening field?"
He had no time to think.
"Lusian!"
Emily's voice cut through the chaos.
He turned immediately.
Leaping onto Umber, he shot across the street like an arrow.
Isabella ran after him.
"Wait!"
"Don't leave me behind!"
Lusian slowed down just enough for her to catch up.
When he reached Emily, he found her completely pale.
"What happened?"
She struggled to catch her breath.
"That mana..."
"It's horrible..."
"It just keeps spreading."
Lusian scanned the surroundings.
Everything looked the same.
No.
Something was strange.
The undead were everywhere.
But...
none of them pursued those who stayed still.
They only attacked people who tried to leave.
One of the students suddenly sprinted toward the village exit.
Five undead immediately changed targets.
Two cultists even abandoned their own battles to intercept him.
Lusian followed the scene with narrowed eyes.
What...?
The student fell.
The cultists didn't finish off the others.
They simply...
returned to their original positions.
As though they were guarding something.
Emily spoke again.
"Lusian..."
"The mana is coming from somewhere."
"I can feel it."
He looked up.
No...
They're not trying to defeat us.
Adela made her decision immediately.
"Isabella."
"Get on Aureus."
"I'll search for the source of that mana."
Then she turned toward Lusian.
"Take Emily with you."
"If Emily can locate the source..."
"we still have a chance."
Lusian nodded.
"We need to find the professors."
"If there really is a large-scale weakening field..."
"they'll have noticed it too."
Emily closed her eyes.
Her affinity with light allowed her to sense the flow of corrupted mana.
She slowly raised one hand.
"That way..."
"It's getting..."
"stronger."
The four of them moved through the ruined streets.
With every step...
Lusian's suspicion grew stronger.
The undead ignored anyone who remained inside the village.
But the moment someone tried to escape...
every one of them changed targets.
It was too obvious to be a coincidence.
No...
They're trapping us.
The clash of steel echoed as they rounded the next corner.
Screams.
And a voice Lusian recognized immediately.
Kara.
She was surrounded, fighting like a cornered beast against more than a dozen undead. Dark mana saturated the air, while the students with her staggered backward in panic.
That instant was enough.
Lusian didn't think.
He acted.
"Umber!"
The beast shot forward like a living projectile, crushing the undead that was just about to tear into Kara from behind.
"Idiot!" Lusian roared as he intercepted another attack. "Fall back! Fighting alone is suicide!"
"Shut up!" she spat between ragged breaths, refusing to take a single step back. "What are you doing here?"
"Get back to the group," he ordered coldly.
Kara glared at him, her eyes burning with pride...
but she couldn't deny it.
She was at her limit.
As Lusian turned away, she shouted after him.
"Where are you going?!"
"Somewhere you can't," he replied without looking back. "Now go!"
Adela arrived at that very moment.
She stopped beside Kara, her composure strangely unshaken even amid the chaos.
"If you stay here, you'll die."
She extended her hand from atop Aureus.
"Get on. I'll take you."
Kara hesitated for only a moment...
before finally accepting.
She grabbed Adela's hand and climbed onto Aureus behind her.
Lusian let out a quiet sigh of relief.
At least that was one less thing to worry about.
He was about to continue searching when a desperate scream tore through the village.
"Someone help him!!"
Everyone turned.
A first-year student had suddenly collapsed into the mud.
No one had attacked him.
He had no wounds.
No spell had struck him.
He had simply...
fallen.
Two classmates rushed to his side.
"Hey!"
"Get up!"
"Answer me!"
One of them checked his pulse.
The color drained from his face.
"N-no..."
"He's not breathing..."
Emily's eyes widened in horror.
"What...?"
The professors stopped fighting as well.
Allan cut down the undead before him with a single slash and hurried over.
He knelt beside the boy.
Not a single wound.
No blood.
No sign of poison.
Nothing.
It was as if life itself had abandoned his body in an instant.
A chill ran through Lusian.
What the hell...?
At that moment...
another student dropped to his knees.
Then another.
And a third.
The cultists didn't move.
Neither did the undead.
They simply stood there...
watching.
As if...
this was exactly what they had been waiting for.
At the other end of the village, Enzo fought on the front lines alongside Damaris and more than a hundred Lord-class mages.
The rain dampened the flames.
The mud made every movement more difficult.
And even so...
that wasn't the worst of it.
Every spell consumed far more mana than normal.
Every passing minute...
their reserves dwindled.
No one understood why.
No one possessed enough affinity with light to locate the source of the corruption.
Then a figure burst through the battlefield.
Riding atop Umber, Lusian carved a path through the undead while they barely seemed to try to stop him.
Emily rode behind him.
"Enzo!" Lusian shouted.
The master turned immediately.
"Emily can locate the source of that mana!"
For the first time since the battle had begun, Enzo felt a glimmer of hope.
"Perfect."
He looked at the young woman.
"Emily."
"Can you find it?"
She took a deep breath.
Closed her eyes.
Her light affinity slowly spread across the village.
Her face turned pale.
"It's..."
"Very close..."
"Before, it was only a faint presence..."
"But now..."
"It's as if it's covering the entire village."
Her eyes snapped open.
She pointed toward the center.
"It's coming from the governor's residence."
Enzo didn't hesitate.
"Lusian. Adela. Adel."
"Find Professor Clara."
"If anyone can undo a spell of this magnitude..."
"it's her."
The three of them nodded immediately.
Enzo raised his sword.
"The rest of you, with me!"
"We're opening a path!"
Fifty-two masters advanced behind him.
Damaris remained at the defensive line.
They couldn't allow the monsters to reach the students.
As they ran...
another student collapsed.
Then a second.
Neither of them had any wounds.
Enzo clenched his teeth.
"What the hell is happening...?"
Emily looked away.
Her voice was barely a whisper.
"The mana..."
"It's getting stronger."
The governor's residence came into view.
The windows stood open.
The front door...
was open as well.
Everything was far too quiet.
Enzo raised a hand.
The masters immediately took combat positions.
"We're going in."
They crossed the threshold.
And the ambush fell upon them.
An explosion of black mana shook the entire building.
Enzo barely managed to raise his sword.
A monstrous impact hurled him out of the house.
He crashed through a wall.
Then rolled several meters across the rubble.
The masters froze.
They had just seen...
a Magister...
sent flying with a single blow.
For an instant...
no one breathed.
Then Enzo spat out blood.
He slowly rose to his feet.
Looked at the ruined house.
And smiled.
It wasn't a joyful smile.
It was the smile of a veteran who had just remembered who he truly was.
"Too many years spent teaching..."
he muttered as he wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.
"I'd gotten used to fighting students."
He tightened his grip on his sword.
Mana once again enveloped the blade.
"Never again."
He charged toward the residence once more.
This time...
not as a teacher.
But as one of the warriors who had survived the war.
Several mages followed him without a moment's hesitation.