Snow no longer felt cold.
It felt heavy.
The evacuation zone was in ruins. Cracked stone, overturned barriers, frozen blood staining the white ground. Healers were nowhere to be seen yet, and wounded students lay scattered behind half-formed shields, some crying, some silent, some shaking too hard to even scream.
The sky was still torn open.
Rank 0 through Rank 3 aliens clashed with academy defenders in scattered pockets, but something had changed. The air itself felt wrong—compressed, suffocating, as if the world was holding its breath.
Hiko felt it first.
A pressure far worse than the Rank 4's gaze.
This wasn't just presence.
This was calamity.
The tear in the sky widened violently, ripping open like fragile cloth. Reality screamed. Mana collapsed inward. Even the aliens already on the battlefield recoiled, screeching as something far above their hierarchy began to descend.
A voice echoed—not spoken, not thought.
It simply existed.
The Calamity Rank Alien emerged.
It did not have a single form.
Its body shifted between silhouettes—towering, skeletal, starved, colossal—like reality couldn't decide what shape it was allowed to take. Its surface reflected nothing, swallowing light instead. Around it, space warped, folding inward as if gravity itself was afraid.
The moment it appeared, barriers shattered.
Students collapsed instantly.
Some screamed.
Some couldn't.
Rougen was not there.
Panic exploded.
"He's not here—!"
"WHERE IS ROUUUUGEN?!"
"Healers! WE NEED HEALERS!"
As if answering the cry, light flared at the far end of the battlefield.
White and green magic erupted as healer squads arrived, slamming staffs into the ground, casting layered recovery fields. Wounded students gasped as mana stabilized their bodies, broken bones knitting just enough to move.
"Get them out!" a healer shouted. "Anyone conscious, move NOW!"
But the Calamity Rank Alien raised what might have been an arm.
Space cracked.
A wave of annihilation rolled forward.
Teachers threw themselves in front of students, spells colliding desperately—
—and then—
Everything stopped.
The wave froze.
Mid-motion.
Mid-destruction.
The sky darkened completely.
Then the world fell away.
Rougen arrived.
He stood between the Calamity Alien and the evacuation zone, coat torn, breath steady, eyes burning.
He was late.
And he was furious.
He raised one hand.
"Cosmic Room."
Reality shattered.
The battlefield vanished.
Everyone—students, teachers, aliens—was pulled into another space entirely.
They stood in the void.
Not darkness.
Space.
Endless, breathtaking space.
Galaxies spiraled in the distance, violet and gold. Nebulas burned like living storms. Stars drifted slowly, impossibly close, their light reflecting off invisible planes. Time felt slower. Sound felt distant.
It was beautiful.
And terrifying.
At the center of it all stood Rougen.
The Cosmic Room recognized its master.
A fluid veil of space wrapped around his body like a living cloak—dark blues, silvers, and starlight flowing constantly, as if he were wearing the universe itself. His form sharpened, his presence expanding beyond human limits.
His eyes changed.
They glowed—not with light, but with pressure.
Eyes of anger.
Not rage.
Judgment.
Astral Magic unlocked.
The mana around him transformed instantly. His spells were no longer elemental or arcane—they were stellar. Planets formed and dissolved at his fingertips. Lines of constellations burned across his arms like sigils.
The Calamity Rank Alien recoiled for the first time.
Rougen spoke, his voice echoing across the cosmos.
"You chose the wrong world."
He moved.
There was no dash.
No leap.
He simply appeared in front of it.
Astral Magic: Event Horizon.
Space collapsed inward, crushing the alien's outer layers as if gravity itself had turned hostile. The Calamity screamed—an existence-level shriek that distorted stars.
Astral Magic: Stellar Severance.
Rougen swung his hand.
A crescent of compressed starlight cleaved through dimensions, slicing entire portions of the alien away. Its form destabilized, trying to regenerate—but the Cosmic Room denied it.
"This is my domain," Rougen said coldly. "You don't regenerate here."
The alien unleashed everything—corruption, gravity inversion, reality erosion—
Rougen didn't dodge.
Astral Magic: Cosmic Authority.
The attacks unraveled mid-flight, pulled apart into harmless dust of light.
He stepped forward one last time.
Astral Magic: Supernova Collapse.
A miniature star ignited in his palm.
Then imploded.
The Calamity Rank Alien was erased—not destroyed, not killed—removed, its existence crushed into nothingness.
Silence filled the Cosmic Room.
Then—
Reality snapped back.
The battlefield returned.
Snow fell again.
The sky began to close.
Aliens remaining screeched and retreated, dragged back through collapsing tears. Rank 0s disintegrated. Rank 1s fled. Rank 2s vanished. Rank 3s roared once—then were gone.
The war ended as suddenly as it began.
Rougen stood alone, Cosmic cloak dissolving, Astral Magic fading. His eyes returned to normal.
He exhaled.
Healers rushed forward.
Students stared.
Hiko stood frozen, heart pounding.
Inside his mind, the devil spoke quietly—seriously.
…So that is a true Spatial Realm.
Rougen turned, looking over the students.
"Evacuation complete," he said. "You survived."
The snow continued to fall.
But nothing would ever feel the same again.