Chapter 224: It’s Over
"It seems you children are done playing," the cult master said as he made his way back into the arena.
The entire arena was a scene of complete chaos, with craters, ice and patches of melted earth all around.
The smoke rising all around made it hard to see the results, but the cult master calmly waited for it to disperse.
It took a while, but the smoke cloud finally settled, and what was revealed was mostly what the cult master had expected.
The grand dukes and the King, as much as they looked worse for wear, were still very much alive.
King Magnus had his light sword stabbed in the ground, and he was leaning on it.
From the way the sword was flickering, one could tell that he was running out of mana.
The other three were not much better, especially Ignis, who was now out of his dragon form.
And unfortunately, their opponent, the Excidium, was still standing, though it was now missing an arm; its glow was also significantly dimmer.
However, it was in a significantly better state than the four before it.
Fortunately for the Grand Dukes, there was now a being present that made the creature hesitate to make another move,
And for good reason.
"I see you found a way out, Evelina," the cult master said with a smile as he looked at the headmistress before turning to the two children beside her, "though, I shouldn’t be too surprised since you have the mesmerling with you."
"I see you’ve finally decided to drop the mask, Aldric," the headmistress responded as she looked at the man who had been a professor in her academy without her ever figuring out who he was, until recently.
"Well, you had ended up making it useless, so I had no other choice," the cult master responded with a shrug, "though if you can see my strings now, you should also know what’s coming. "
The headmistress was silent for a while.
Had she tried reading Aldric’s threads the moment they were visible to her, and she had gotten a glimpse of Avera’s fate.
"Yes," she said finally. "I do."
The cult master nodded at her answer; the lack of change in her expression meant that they definitely weren’t going to agree.
"Then you understand," he said, "why my actions are necessary, right?"
"Humanity indeed needs to grow in preparation for what is to come," headmistress Evelina started, looking at the grand dukes and King before her, "but not through your intended method."
"Besides, I’ve long learnt that the future is not set in stone," she continued, "especially since that child’s arrival."
The cult master immediately understood that the headmistress was referring to the anomaly.
While the headmistress was right, Aldric also knew that Avera’s fate in the hands of those beings was inevitable.
The only way to change it was to create beings that could stand against those creatures, even if the drawback was them becoming mindless puppets.
Or at least that’s what he believed.
The cult master silently looked at her for a while before nodding, "Then I guess you’re also a pebble standing in the path of an avalanche."
The headmistress didn’t respond to his words, instead, she just looked at the Excidium.
The creature had been hesitant to move from the moment she appeared, recognizing her as a bigger threat.
Evelina extended her hand, but before she could rest them on the creature’s fate strings, they suddenly disappeared.
"I think that’s quite enough for one day, no?" The cult master spoke up.
Just as he had done with his own strings after recognizing their existence, he had hidden the Excidium’s strings in a dimension separate from this one.
Though the headmistress could still reach them if she tried, it would take time she wasn’t certain she had.
So she lowered her hand.
Aldric looked at her actions with a satisfied smile on his face as he walked closer to the Excidium.
"Until we meet again, headmistress," he said, "and I truly wish you would reconsider my offer."
With that, the two disappeared, leaving behind a mostly destroyed arena and four exhausted opponents.
Conan looked around, noticing that his scanner identified the four before him as ridiculously strong.
Yet, they seemed to have been unable to do anything to that creature, and that very same creature seemed afraid of the headmistress.
No wonder his scanner only showed an error message for her.
Did that mean Adrian also had the potential to become as strong as she was?
"Who was that man?" Isla’s voice pulled him from his thoughts.
Evelina looked at the child for a while before turning back to where the cult master had previously stood. She let out a sigh, "trouble. "
And he indeed was, he was the biggest headache currently, one that she couldn’t wait to be rid of.
But that was a problem for another day.
Instead, she turned towards the Grand Dukes and said, "You look horrible. "
Usually, Ignis would’ve given a response, but he was too exhausted to care.
He just lay flat in the crater he had previously been sitting in and looked at the skies that were rapidly clearing.
Beneath all his exhaustion was a very obvious excitement; after all, even though they had basically lost this fight, he had ended up getting stronger.
Not dying was a plus, since his wives would’ve killed him otherwise.
How would that be possible? He had no idea, nor did he want to find out.
Boreas also had the same thought.
After all, that fight had genuinely been a terrifying one, one that he had seen no way of winning.
Dying here would’ve meant that he’d lost the opportunity his daughter’s butler had presented him.
He also looked up at the skies before finally letting out an exhausted sigh.
"Would you like help getting up, master Boreas?" Sebastian asked as he looked at his master.
"It’s fine," Boreas said, genuinely relieved, "I’m just glad this is over."