Flourine stood by and kept watch of the firefighters that had finally made it to the scene.
Fortunately, the fires had stopped spreading. However, the flames coming directly from the College of Magic were still growing stronger by the minute.
While she silently observed the firefighters up close, a group of her guardian knights suddenly appeared in the distance, one of them quickly approaching her with a worried tone.
The knight spoke, seemingly out of breath. "Chancellor, please walk back a bit, it's for your safety—
"Ah..." Flourine quickly pressed her index finger on the knight's lips, almost causing him to fall down with a red face.
The knight was left speechless as he covered his mouth before looking at his comrades, whose faces were filled with disdain, contempt, and perhaps even jealousy. Some even placed their hands on the hilts of their swords.
. . .
"You're all tired... This is why knights also have to take driving lessons so they don't have to run each time. Go take a rest. After that, go help the firefighters," she said with a calm tone.
Before she could lecture them even more, she suddenly froze in slight surprise.
But it wasn't only her that was surprised. A majority of the people amidst the chaos also froze.
Flourine held her palm up, focusing her eyes as the wind near her hand suddenly went violent.
Glowing pink petals suddenly emerged out of thin air and took on the form of an elegantly designed staff before bursting into a bright light and revealing the actual staff.
The knight spoke up in shock. "Chancellor, how did you—
He also froze and immediately realized that the putrid essence and strange disruption had finally disappeared for no apparent reason. Before he could announce it to his comrades, a sudden bright light covered the streets.
Flourine looked up to see a long yellow streak of bright light with arcs of lightning roaring in ferocity around it. She raised her eyebrows because of the line that seemed to stretch for what seemed to be hundreds of meters long.
"Oh my, that's heading towards the city..." she said before the glowing petals around her suddenly emerged again and engulfed her like a curtain before she disappeared completely.
Far up in the air, Flourine was in the direct pathway of the ray of destruction. She turned her head around to see the bustling center of Owhen City, then turned back towards the main issue.
"The essence is quite different on this one. Could it be that technology has reached a certain point...
that it could rival proper magic?"
Flourine drew a big smile on her lips and eyes and pointed her staff towards the destructive attack.
The surrounding area in front of the tip of the staff suddenly collapsed and formed a lightless orb that was around the size of her height, the horizon of the sphere seemingly bending and curving the light that was around it.
Once the yellow beam hit the lightless orb, an ear-piercing roar emerged as every bit of the essence was consumed into nothingness. Much like a train going inside a tunnel, the tail of the ray was the last to be seen.
Flourine hummed a tune as the black orb suddenly disappeared without any fantastical effects.
She then glanced at the direction where the attack came from. She immediately knew that it came from somewhere in the College of War.
***
Body parts and black liquid began falling toward the ground.
Taking this golden opportunity, Nuriel quickly flew his way toward one of the falling remains and briefly touched it to make the connection needed to collect the Scepter fragment.
Without delay, Nuriel returned to Yevdokiya.
However, the student's celebration was quickly cut short.
The few who had come into contact with the liquid suddenly screamed in agony as their skin began to melt where the fluid had touched them.
Before anyone could move, the flesh and fluid froze midair then shot inward, slamming into the center of the crowd.
Those touched by the liquid jerked violently. It moved beneath their skin like something alive was reshaping them. In seconds, to everyone's horror, they became just like the thing they'd helped kill.
"R-run!" one of the students shouted.
The entity managed to reform itself, albeit in a deformed appearance. Its limbs were crooked and bent the other way, but despite the grotesque appearance, its face remained calm as if it were a doll that couldn't feel pain.
Without hesitating, it spread its fabric-like tentacles and turned towards where the Spire used to be.
In the air, Yevdokiya aimed at the entity but chose not to fire, as there were injured students dangerously close to it.
Thankfully, the entity did not busy itself with killing the helpless students as it made a straight dash toward the ruined Spire.
'As long as you hit it, it'll be over!' Nuriel silently shouted in high hopes.
Now that the disruptions were gone—plus the power-up coming from the two Scepters—Yevdokiya prepared another devastating shot in the mere instant the entity flew toward a space where there were no people.
Yevdokiya's fingers were steady at the trigger, but the moment she was about to shoot, a bright pink light emerged in front of the entity. She recognized the figure to be the Chancellor of Owhen University.
Clicking her tongue, she pointed the barrel away as the arcs of lightning and swirls of essence began to dissipate into the air.
"Be a dear and hold still while I delete you." Flourine promptly raised her staff and ripped apart the space where the entity inhabited.
Like shredding a paper, the same was done so with the entity. However, in a barely noticeable move, the entity intentionally separated its head before it could get damaged and manipulated its structure into a small dart that zipped through the air.
It all happened in a blink of an eye—which caught even the Chancellor off guard.
"Dammit!" Yevdokiya aimed somewhere toward the Spire, but she couldn't land the entity within her iron sights.
Flying towards the Spire, Nuriel held on tight to her
.
'So fast… is this the power of a mere fragment?' Even Nuriel was in disbelief, but he remained calm in order to help look for the entity.
Shudder.
In a split second, Yevdokiya turned her metal broom around and pushed hard on the throttle, making her freeze in place.
Nuriel looked at her face to analyze why she suddenly stopped pursuing—only to find a look of horror and near vomiting.
Although Nuriel couldn't sense essence like most people could, he could tell why she was reacting like that. When he turned towards the ruined Spire, a crimson red cloud suddenly appeared.
[Warning!]
[Scepter network is being disrupted to a high degree—
[C-Connec
##Projection Lost]
The screen lost its clarity and disappeared. Before long, her metal broom suddenly weakened in power as she slowly lost altitude due to the interference.
As for the Chancellor, the moment she teleported near Yevdokiya's area, she too suddenly lost her essence control as she immediately started falling to the ground.
However, Nuriel caught a glimpse of a shadow that leaped toward her to catch her from the free fall.
After that ordeal, the two turned their attention to the large smoke pillar—but what was new was the red glow that was emerging within the thick smoke.
To their surprise, it was the entity, now reformed back to its original health. To Nuriel's horror, the entity was cradling the Witch's Artifact as it ominously floated and glowed with a dreadful color.
Why was the entity whole?
Why was it cradling the Witch's Artifact?
What was its goal in the first place?
Unfortunately, he could only leave his mouth agape as somehow, the crimson cloud—which represented the area of disruption—was growing bigger and bigger.
'What to do...' Nuriel repeated to himself but couldn't find a strategy.
Eventually, the vision around him started to blur and he immediately knew what it meant. 'No! Not yet!'
Despite his pleading, his ethereal form started to fizzle out as the world around him grew dark.