"…

"

"…

"

The perfect silk-like pitch-black darkness spilled into around twenty black-haired people – all of whom were speechless.

"Ha-kchuu…!

"

"Bless you.

"

…and shivering from the horrible coldness that sipped into their bodies together with the last thing that Rasseriat saw before dying.

The scruffy pale-blue-haired man, reaching out his hand towards the round woman while her mana was frozen, and then the connection was lost.

Raseriat ended up transferring all of the frozen mana back to the other Ghosts, but didn't manage to do the same thing with her mind and ended up perishing.

All of that had posed some really worrisome questions, to say the least…

What spell did the mysterious ice magician use, how strong he actually was, why would Raseriat pick a fight with a strong opponent while she was supposed to merely observe the interesting boy and make contact with the aspiring darkness magician in the Academy?

Was she the one getting attacked?

How in the world did she end up actually dying?!

There really wasn't supposed to be any ice magician – or rather ice sage – to actually take any of the members of the Ghosts of Bellcephora by surprise…

Unless someone like that was born while they weren't paying attention.

Yes… that was the most likely answer to the situation at hand.

"What bothers me the most is that this guy wasn't even touching her directly… the freezing capabilities of the ice mana should be reduced at the distance – unless there was some trick to it, that guy might be the strongest ice attribute wielder in recent history.

"

A feminine man rubbed his hands together and sniffled with a grim expression.

"Raseriat was really desperate to escape…

"

A pale long-haired young woman shuddered and nuzzled against an equally cold short-haired young woman.

"She was only comfortable with facing opponents who couldn't fight back – this guy clearly wasn't one of those but when she realized it, it was too late.

"

The leader of the group, a large muscular man shrugged his shoulders while hugging the one-armed woman by his side.

"Yes, yes – losing Raseriat is very sad and unfortunate – but more importantly, what will be our response? Lossing one of ours like that has never happened since three hundred years at least…

"

A wrinkled old man asked curiously, glancing at the one-armed woman…

"Do you even have to ask? The answer is obvious.

"

The one-armed woman raised her stump and pointed it forward.

"The Ghosts will pay him a visit, like in the old times.

"

She declared and the shadows erupted around her.

——-

A pale-blue-haired man was running away from the chase.

His pursuers were many and of different attributes but thanks to his ice-mana and spells he was able to keep them at bay, even the pesky teleporting light magicians.

In the course of his escape he somehow ended up at the execution ground near the royal castle – which was quite a feat to reach that far in such a short amount of time, but it was all thanks to the overpowered ice enchantments – it was also clear that the ones after him are trying to push him right into the hands of the King's Guards laying nearby in ambush.

|Ha! As if they'll succeed this time…!|

The man laughed to himself and recast the area of effect spell that hampered the use of mana to an excruciating degree, causing the reveal of the teleportation destination point, allowing him to dodge the oncoming light magicians before they appeared.

It was a very useful spell and Ludier was justly proud of coming up with it.

It was a silent night – too silent – the moon and the stars were shining brightly and the shadows grew extremely long and dark as if they were turning into gates to the void…

"…huh…?

"

No, that last part wasn't normal at all…!

And neither was the absolute silence – unfortunately for Ludier, he picked up on it a second too late…

A shadow of the podium for the execution has swollen many times over and it covered the whole ground making it seem like the running man was hovering above the endless void.

"What in the…!?

"

The ice magician gasped in shock and fear.

Before he could react a giant pitch-black hand emerged from underneath him and grabbed him in its claw-like fingers squeezing the air out of his lungs.

"Wha…?!

"

*WHAM*

And then it smashed him against the podium.

Ludier didn't even have the time to scream, his bones broke from the impact and his organs have ruptured from the initial impact.

*WHAM* *WHAM* *WHAM* *WHAM* *WHAM*

The giant demonic arm picked him up and then slammed him against the podium again.

And again.

And again.

*SPLAT*

The cycle kept repeating that until there was hardly anything left from the man turned into mincemeat – aside from viscera and gore, leaving the bloodied rags as the most discerning part of the pale-blue-haired man.

Suddenly the night became even brighter than a day and a terrifying pressure appeared.

"We could have asked him about what happened, you know? My intuition tells me that we are missing something.

"

A single voice came out of the darkness and complained.

"Shut up, Elsby.

"

"…

"

The choir of unison voices silenced her and the next second the jet-black darkness subsided and the more natural darkness returned together with all the various sounds of the night.

"Hurry- we can't let him get away!

"

…which included the voices of the pursuing group of mages…

——-

*click*

"Ah! Zoe… mi…?

"

The door unlocked and Miriette jumped up from the headmaster's seat at which she made herself comfortable a while ago, but her enthusiasm evaporated the moment she saw the glint of the platinum hair and the small frame of the person who entered the office.

"Well, I haven't expected to see you around.

"

The dark-haired girl ended up slumping back into the comfortable chair and kicking her feet up on the desk.

"What is it? Is the disappearance of the headmaster your doing?

"

She breathed out and asked, looking over at the platinum-haired girl who didn't move an inch after entering.

"You really are lucky that you are so thick-headed that you missed the danger right in front of you… Although it was probably because you were too busy thinking about Zoemi. No, I didn't do anything to miss Aspakeony.

"

"Hey…!

"

The young-looking girl shrugged her shoulders and scoffed, making the dark-haired girl flinch and straighten her back with the face bright red from embarrassment.

"Zoemi did a great job hiding you here, but now the danger had passed, it's actually shocking how easy it was to scare that guy away – so easy that it makes me all the more anxious… But everything is going well so I think I might leave this body for good. I already left it once and there was no repercussion, so it should be fine.

"

The platinum-haired girl spoke with an indifferent expression, not really aping attention to whatever Miriette was doing.

"…if you want to say goodby to Zoemi, you should just stay here with me and wait…

"

The dark-haired girl sighed and rolled her eyes, annoyed at herself for being nice to the older – but younger-looking – girl.

"Oh, no – that's not why I came here for.

"

"…eh…?

"

The platinum-haired girl shook her head and waved her hand dismissively, throwing Miriette for a loop.

"The danger had passed, you should go to Zoemi instead of wasting your time here.

"

The platinum-haired girl declared.

"No, I don't think I will listen to that advice – Zoemi has told me to…

"

"The danger had passed but Zoemi is in trouble now. Go check up on him, stupid.

"

Miriette tried to dismiss her, but the platinum-haired girl shook her head with a disappointed expression and shared more information…

"What?! What happened?!

"

…just enough to stirr up the dark-haired girl right ack into full attention…

"Go and find out – he will not be mad at you for leaving.

"

The small girl shrugged her shoulders and explained while opening the door again and leaving without looking back.

——

"Eh…? Why am I here?

"

A tall, crimson-haired beauty furrowed her brows looking around the hallway leading to the headmaster's office.

She certainly didn't remember coming there at all…

*whoooosh*

"…!

"

Suddenly, something passed her and in shock she realized that it was young lady Epsine, running down the hallway in a very unladylike manner.

"Miri! Hey! Hold up!

"

The crimson-haired girl raised her hand and called, but the dark-haired girl didn't react to her at all.

"Geez, what got into her…?

"

The tall girl furrowed her brows and sighed.