The announcement did not come from a person.
It came from the world itself.
Every magic device in Japan activated at the same time.
Phones. Watches. School systems. Emergency crystals. Military networks. Even ancient relics that had not been used for centuries suddenly lit up.
A single message appeared everywhere.
Absolute Rank Detected.
Name: Tengen Orasu.
Threat Level: Beyond Calamity.
Status: World-Class Existential Threat.
For a few seconds, nobody understood what it meant.
Then panic spread across the entire country.
At Tengen High, the ruins were still burning.
Not with fire.
With warped space.
Buildings were half folded into other dimensions. Some structures existed in two places at once. Others were simply gone, erased like they had never been there.
The air felt broken.
Rougen stood at the center of what used to be the main plaza. His coat was torn. His expression was empty.
Gold Prasso was kneeling, his golden aura faint and unstable for the first time in decades.
Two Radiances were gone.
Not missing.
Gone.
No bodies. No remains. Just absence.
Feril Verrel.
Jinkaru Zen.
Names that used to shake the world.
Now reduced to silence.
Students were being evacuated by high-ranking sorcerers from other regions. Many were injured. Many were in shock. Some were just staring at nothing, unable to process what they had witnessed.
Goru sat on the broken steps of the academy.
He had not spoken since the battle.
Hiko stood beside him.
"…Your father," Hiko said quietly.
Goru did not answer.
Riyo was being treated by multiple master-level healers. His left side was heavily damaged. His missing arm was wrapped in dense mana seals to stop dimensional instability from spreading.
Rougen walked toward them.
His voice was calm, but heavy.
"It's official," Rougen said. "The World Council has classified Tengen Orasu as the first Absolute Rank in recorded history."
Hiko felt his chest tighten.
"Absolute… Rank," Hiko repeated.
Gold finally stood up.
"That rank was supposed to be theoretical," Gold said. "Even Calamities were considered the ceiling."
Rougen looked at the sky.
"It seems the ceiling was never real."
Across Japan, destruction spread like a chain reaction.
Tengen Orasu did not stay in one place.
He moved.
Not walking.
Shifting.
Entire schools vanished overnight.
Some were swallowed by dimensional distortions.
Some were crushed into compressed space.
Some were left floating in fractured reality, uninhabitable.
Over twenty major sorcerer academies were destroyed within two days.
Hundreds of minor training facilities disappeared.
Entire regions lost contact with the rest of the country.
Tokyo survived.
Osaka survived.
Kyoto survived.
Because they had ancient world-class barriers built during the Zodiac Era.
But everything outside the main protected zones…
Was falling apart.
The media called it The Dimensional Disaster.
The government called it Level Black Emergency.
The World Council called it…
The Beginning of the Absolute Age.
At Tengen High, a mass memorial was held.
No speeches.
No music.
Just silence.
Thousands of students stood in rows, wearing damaged uniforms, looking at the empty platforms where the Radiances used to stand.
Gold stepped forward.
For the first time, his voice shook.
"We lost two of our own," he said. "And we nearly lost this entire generation."
He looked at the students.
"At this point, survival is no longer guaranteed. Training is no longer enough. Power alone will not save you."
Rougen spoke next.
"Tengen Orasu is not just an enemy," Rougen said. "He is a walking collapse of reality. The laws of magic do not fully apply to him anymore."
A murmur spread through the crowd.
Holo Uto clenched his fists.
Kaiser Touya swallowed.
Zenith stared at the ground.
Nyx felt her aura tremble.
Everyone in the Chosen Class felt it.
Fear.
Not the kind you feel in battles.
The kind you feel when you realize the world might actually end.
Later that night, Hiko sat alone in his room.
The lights flickered constantly due to unstable mana currents.
He stared at his hands.
At the faint cursed flame still burning around his fingers.
Inside his mind, the devil finally spoke.
"…So that's him."
Hiko did not answer.
The devil continued.
"An Absolute Rank is not just strong. It means he has stepped outside the system. He is no longer playing the same game as you."
Hiko clenched his fists.
"Can he be beaten?"
The devil was silent for a moment.
Then.
"…Yes."
Hiko looked up.
"But not by the world as it is now."
Outside, the sky over Japan was filled with warning lights, barrier grids, emergency sigils, and evacuation portals.
The strongest nation of sorcerers in the world…
Had just entered a state of permanent war.
And somewhere beyond reality itself…
Tengen Orasu was watching.
Waiting.
Not to destroy the world.
But to remake it.