Monsters born from the ‘Prima Materia’ invaded the Kizen campus all at once. Their appearance was less a summoning and more a spontaneous creation. The air would shimmer, and a white, featureless mass would simply drop into existence. That was all. Witnessing these creatures manifest without any discernible cause, the necromancers of a century ago had called it a miracle. The Priests had called it an excretion.
"Run!"
The campus erupted into chaos. School buildings crumbled under the assault of the largest creatures, those classified as ‘colossal’ under Kizen’s monster regulations. Students screamed as they poured out of the collapsing structures.
"Hey, no time to gawk! Move it!"
"They said there’s an underground shelter in the learning hall! Let’s head there!"
Thanks to Meirin’s broadcast, the worst-case scenario had been averted. If the buildings had collapsed while they were all oblivious in their classrooms, an entire class of over sixty students could have been wiped out. The students, who had rushed out in a daze, now saw them for the first time: a horde of monsters, each with a different form, their only common features being their stark white bodies and the black voids that served as eyes, noses, and mouths. They looked like a nightmarish menagerie scrawled onto a blank canvas by a deranged child.
"—Grrrr!"
"Something’s coming!"
A white, medium-sized quadrupedal monster with an emaciated, exposed spine and ribcage crawled along a building wall, its empty eyes fixed on the students below. Just as they raised their hands to conjure magic circles—
’Kaboom!’
The roar of cannon fire echoed as an explosion engulfed the monster’s face. Its head smashed through a classroom wall, and a series of subsequent blasts riddled its body with gaping holes.
’Cannon fire?’
The students looked up. Four galleons, glowing with a spectral green light, hovered in the sky.
"Ah!"
"It’s Elisa! Those are her ghost ships!"
Indeed, Special Admission No. 7, Elisa, had entered the fray, her uniform coat draped coolly over her shoulders. At her gesture, the spectral vessels shifted, unleashing a coordinated barrage that instantly vaporized the white monsters swarming the campus grounds.
Her gaze snapped to the side. A colossal white monster, larger than any school building, was lumbering toward her ships. Just as she was about to order them to turn—
’Huh? Who’s that?’
She spotted a figure—a blond male student, scrambling up the monster’s torso. He clung to its face and activated a liquid bomb clutched in his arms.
A deafening roar accompanied a grayish explosion. Elisa clutched her coat and braced herself against the violent aftershock. A moment later, as the smoke cleared, both the monster’s head and the student had vanished. The headless torso swayed and then toppled backward.
"Ugh, I was having a nice nap. What’s all this ruckus?"
Elisa turned. The same student who had just immolated himself was walking over, completely unscathed.
"You’re Malcolm, Special Admission No. 10, right?" Elisa remarked. "Even a broken clock shows the right time twice a day."
"What the hell did you say?" Malcolm sneered. "Try saying that after you’ve beaten Special Admission No. 1."
He slammed his staff on the ground. Doppelgängers rippled into existence from a magic circle, and Malcolm casually tossed several bombs to them. They snatched the explosives and charged into the densest pockets of monsters, triggering a chain of devastating explosions. Combined with the bombardment from Elisa’s ghost ships, the smaller creatures were swept away in an instant.
"Ahem." Elisa held up a magic amplifier. "From this moment on, I, Elisa, will form a resistance force to stop these monsters. I believe Kizen students should confront threats, not flee from them. Anyone who wants to fight, gather at the open ground in front of the tech building."
Malcolm snorted. ‘Even now, she’s obsessed with giving orders.’
Elisa lowered the amplifier. "You’re coming too, of course, right? Last-placer."
"Get lost, power-hungry bitch."
Similar scenes were unfolding all across Kizen. After the initial shock, the students began to mount a calm and coordinated counterattack.
"Disease and bleeding curses don’t work!"
"Share intel, quick! Weaken the large ones with curses and wipe out the small fry with firepower!"
"Out of the way! I’m building a barricade!"
A male student swung his arms. The windows of a nearby building shattered, and a torrent of desks and chairs poured out, forming a massive rampart. Students scrambled to the top, using it as a high ground to rain down attacks on the monsters below. Curse majors focused on debilitating the most threatening colossal beasts, preventing them from destroying more buildings.
"Any more Combat Magic kids? Send them to the front!"
"Summon all your skeletons! Form a wall! A wall!"
Hardened by Kizen’s brutal competitions, the students’ response was swift and decisive. Their evacuation seamlessly transitioned into a counteroffensive, and they began to stabilize the front line.
"Watch the six o’clock! A colossal one is coming over!"
The biggest problem was the sheer size of some of them. A monster tens of meters long casually stepped over their barricade and entered the clearing. It simply absorbed their dark magic and curses as it advanced, shattering their defenses with a single kick.
"Whoa."
"This is dangerous—!"
Just then, five flashes of light streaked from the air toward the monster. Their weapons and dark magic flared, and the colossal creature was torn into pieces.
A cheer erupted from the students. "It’s the TAs!"
Brad, the Combat Magic TA, landed lightly on the ground after dispatching the monster. He let out a long sigh and glared at his communication crystal. He’d tried calling for backup several times, but it was of no use. In a fit of frustration, he hurled the crystal to the ground and raked his hands through his hair.
"We’re really in for it," a fellow TA muttered.
"Objectively speaking, we’re screwed, right?"
All of Kizen’s professors were away for Lang’s funeral, including the senior-level TAs. The only ones left were the junior assistants assigned to supervise self-study.
"Oh, shut up. It’s better this way," Brad grunted, shrugging off his coat. He summoned his Jet-Black, and the black robes of a combat mage enveloped him. "If even one student dies, we’re all losing our jobs. If you want to stick around at Kizen, you might as well start preparing a résumé for a Watcher position."
He’d had to deal with Simon for three years, and now this catastrophe on top of it all. Brad felt a wave of resignation wash over him. He’d just give up being a TA and become a freelance necromancer.
"Oh."
But the junior TAs were looking at him with expressions of pure admiration.
"I thought your brain was just another muscle, but you can say some pretty cool things!"
"He’s right."
"The other seniors are at the mausoleum. Let’s focus on protecting the students!"
Their morale suddenly soaring, the TAs charged back into the fray.
Brad stared after them, bewildered, before quickly following.
A large-scale counterattack was now underway, led by the TAs and Kizen’s most prominent students. But while their stamina and Jet-Black were finite, the monsters from the ‘Prima Materia’ were endless.
"There are four colossal ones!"
"Get back!"
Elisa’s western front, the first to respond, was the first to collapse. She hastily pulled students onto her ghost ships and began to retreat, but the colossal white monsters were closing in, their massive hands reaching for the ships.
’Ah, I’m exhausted,’ Elisa thought. It had been a mistake to push the pace so hard at the beginning and burn through so much of her Jet-Black. Keeping four ghost ships afloat while simultaneously creating cannonballs was a massive drain.
"They’re catching up!"
"Go faster!"
The oblivious students pounded on the ship’s railing, urging her on. As she seriously contemplated just dropping them all, she saw a boy in a Kizen uniform flying toward the monsters.
A single punch from the boy blew a gaping hole in a monster’s cheek. He used its falling head as a springboard to launch himself at the next one.
The remaining monsters toppled like dominoes, each felled by a single blow. Watching from the railing, Elisa’s eyes widened like saucers. The other students were just as stunned.
"How is he so strong? Is he a TA?"
"But he’s wearing a uniform."
As the five monsters crashed to the ground, kicking up a thick cloud of dust, Prince landed lightly.
[Man, babysitting is getting old,] he grumbled to himself, scratching his head as he watched the ghost ships depart. [What the hell is that Simon guy doing, anyway?]
Back in the command and control room, the battle was completely one-sided.
Simon launched himself off a wall, bringing the Greatsword of Ruin down on Flema with all his might.
The moment the blade neared her forehead, a shroud of white fire erupted around her, forming an impenetrable barrier. The greatsword was repelled uselessly. He saw her smile and raise a single finger. A pure white flame ignited in front of his abdomen.
The White Flame exploded, blasting Simon dozens of meters across the room and into a wall. The instant the flame touched him, an agonized scream from Pier echoed in his mind. Simon slid down the wall and collapsed to his knees.
"Ughh!"
He clutched his stomach where the flame had struck, his body trembling violently. Pain blurred his vision, and drool trickled from his lips.
Seeing his state, Flema smiled with satisfaction. [Hurts, doesn’t it?] she said. [This flame is the power of the Goddess, meant to purify all that is impure. For abominations like undead and necromancers, even the slightest touch is fatal. A living hell unfolds.] She spread her arms wide. [This is proof that you are fundamentally corrupt. The White Flame heals the wounds of those who serve the Goddess, but it mercilessly burns those who follow evil. Can you still deny the Goddess after witnessing this power with your own eyes?]
Silent, Simon drove his greatsword into the floor and struggled to his feet. She raised her fingertips to unleash another blast.
Her eyes darted behind her. Kajan had charged in like a hawk and thrown a punch at her back. But once again, it was blocked by the protective aura of White Flame.
"Ugh!" Kajan’s face contorted in agony. The mere contact of his fist with the flame was enough to make him feel like he would lose his mind.
[You’re trying so hard,] Flema mocked, a grin spreading across her face. [But you can’t picture yourself beating me, can you?]
She turned her hand toward Kajan, and the white flame exploded directly in front of him.
"Aaaaaaaargh!"
Kajan was sent flying. He writhed on the floor as the flames spread across his body before he crashed headfirst into a wall and vomited blood.
Flema smiled, savoring the spectacle. [I acknowledge your struggle in stopping the Desolator. But...] Her gaze drifted to the monitors. Kizen’s students were fighting valiantly, but their lines were beginning to break under the relentless assault of the Prima Materia’s monsters. [You’ve only bought a little more time. No one can stop this Great Purification.]
Simon readjusted his grip on the greatsword, panting as he tried to summon more Jet-Black. Pier’s Bone Armor, having already sustained damage beyond its limit, had been forcibly deactivated and lay in pieces on the floor. All that remained was the bone armor on his right hand, the one still gripping the sword.
[I respect that fighting spirit,] Flema said coolly. [But this isn’t a gap you can overcome with sheer grit. Farewell.] She extended her fingertips, taking aim at Simon.
An interruption occurred. She frowned. A cluster of strange feathers had pierced the center of her White Flame shield. But instead of burning away, they were pushing through, resisting her power.
[Who are you!] she snarled.
She drastically intensified the flames, finally incinerating the feathers.
"Hmm."
A set of light footsteps echoed through the room. A female student with ivory hair walked in, her hands clasped casually behind her back.
"Hello, Simon," Serne said, her voice laced with amusement. "You look like you’re having a hard time."
"How did you get in here—!"
The dazzling, angelic wing on her right side unfurled behind her.
"I came to punch the third stamp on your coupon."

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