Episode-970
Chapter : 1939
"What is this?!" the Collector screamed, shielding his eyes from the blinding glare.
The Shadow-Stalkers didn't have eyelids to shield. They didn't have physical bodies to protect them from rocks or swords, but they were made of shadow. And light is the natural predator of shadow.
The grid of lasers descended.
The first laser sliced through the lead wolf mid-leap. It didn't cut like a knife; it burned like acid. The beam passed straight through the smoky body of the beast. Where the light touched, the shadow didn't just separate; it boiled away instantly.
The wolf let out a sound that wasn't of this world—a high-pitched shriek like tearing metal. It tried to dodge, twisting its smoky body, but there was nowhere to go. The lasers were everywhere. They were a cage of light.
Another beam hit its leg, severing the smoky limb. Another hit its spine. Within a second, the terrifying monster was reduced to nothing but wisps of grey vapor, dissolving into the air.
The second and third wolves tried to retreat. They scrambled backward, their claws skidding on the stone floor, trying to find a dark corner to hide in.
But Airin wasn't done.
Her hands were still raised, pouring more and more power into the floating glass. The shards were beginning to melt from the heat, turning into droplets of molten silica, but they held their shape just long enough.
She twisted her wrists, changing the angle of the main beam.
The web of lasers shifted. It swept across the room like a broom made of fire.
The beams caught the retreating wolves. There was no fight. There was no struggle. It was simply erasure. One moment, there were two monsters made of nightmare and abyss, snarling and ready to kill. The next moment, there was just bright, clean air and the sharp smell of ozone.
The Shadow-Stalkers were gone.
The intense light faded as the glass shards finally turned to dust and fell to the floor like snow.
Silence returned to the Crystal Greenhouse. But it wasn't the heavy, scary silence from before. It was the stunned silence of a battlefield after the cannon stops firing.
Airin stood in the center of the path. Her chest was heaving. Her hands were smoking slightly, the skin red and tender from the heat she had channeled. Blood from the glass cuts dripped onto the stone, bright red against the grey dust.
She felt exhausted. Her legs felt like jelly. Using that much power, that quickly, felt like she had run a marathon in ten seconds. But she didn't fall. She refused to fall.
She looked up.
Across the room, the Collector was standing perfectly still. His hood had fallen back completely. His pale, veiny face was twisted in an expression of pure shock. He looked at the empty spots where his monsters had been, then he looked at the small, trembling girl standing in the middle of the room.
He looked terrified.
"You..." the Collector stammered. He took a step back, his arrogant confidence completely shattered. "That wasn't magic. That wasn't a spell I know. What... what school of magic teaches that?"
Airin straightened her back. She wiped the blood from her hand onto her skirt. She looked him right in the eye.
In that moment, she didn't feel like a commoner. She didn't feel like a student who was afraid of failing her exams. She felt like the woman from her dreams. She felt like the wife of a Major General who had stood her ground against impossible odds.
"It’s not magic," Airin said. Her voice was quiet, but it carried across the room like a bell. "It’s geometry."
She took a step toward him.
The Collector flinched. This girl, who had been cowering against a table a minute ago, was now walking toward him like a hunter.
"You said I was a battery," Airin said, her voice getting stronger with every word. "You said I was just a vessel for power."
She raised her hand again. Even without the glass, her palm began to glow with a soft, dangerous golden light. The heat coming off her was palpable. The air around her shimmered.
"You forgot one thing," she said. "Batteries discharge. And if you overcharge them... they explode."
The Collector snarled, trying to regain his composure. He was a member of the Seventh Circle. He was a master of dark arts. He shouldn't be afraid of a schoolgirl.
Chapter : 1940
"You got lucky!" he spat, raising his hands. "You destroyed my pets. Congratulations. But do you think a little light show scares me? I wield the power of the Void! I can swallow your little sun whole!"
He thrust his hands forward. Dark, purple energy began to gather in his palms. He was preparing a Void Shield, a barrier that ate magic. He was getting ready to crush her himself.
Airin watched him. She analyzed his stance. She analyzed the time it was taking him to gather his mana.
She knew she couldn't beat him in a straight fight. She was tired. Her hands hurt. She didn't have any more glass to create the laser grid.
But she didn't need to beat him. She just needed to hold him.
She remembered the red light blinking in her mind—no, not her mind. That was Lloyd’s mind. But she felt connected to him. She knew, with a certainty that defied logic, that he was coming.
Evan always came back.
"Try it," Airin challenged him. She spread her arms wide, making herself a target. "Come and take the light."
The Collector roared and unleashed a wave of darkness.
But just as the shadow surged forward, the sound of glass breaking echoed from above. It wasn't the small tinkle of a beaker. It was the massive, thunderous crash of the roof caving in.
Airin looked up and smiled.
The sky was falling. And he was bringing the storm with him.
________________________________________
CRASH!
The sound was deafening. It was louder than thunder. It sounded like the sky itself was breaking apart.
Above them, the entire glass roof of the Crystal Greenhouse exploded.
Thousands of shards of heavy, reinforced glass rained down like a waterfall of diamonds. The metal support beams groaned and twisted, tearing apart as something heavy smashed through them from the sky.
The Collector flinched, looking up in alarm. He raised his Void Shield above his head to protect himself from the falling debris.
Dust and dirt billowed out, filling the room with a thick grey cloud. For a moment, nobody could see anything.
Then, something landed.
It hit the stone floor between Airin and the Collector with an impact that shook the entire building. The floor tiles cracked and buckled, creating a crater. A shockwave of wind blew the dust away instantly.
In the center of the crater, a man was crouching. One hand was touching the ground to steady himself. He was wearing a fine nobleman’s suit, but it was torn and dusty. His dark hair was messy, whipped by the wind.
He stood up slowly.
It was Lloyd.
But he didn't look like the calm, boring professor Airin saw in class. He looked terrifying. His eyes were glowing with a cold, blue light—his special [Blue Ring Eyes]. His face was twisted into an expression of pure, unadulterated rage. He looked like a demon who had climbed out of hell to find the person who hurt his family.
He turned his head and looked at Airin. His eyes scanned her in a split second, checking for blood, checking for broken bones. When he saw she was standing, a tiny bit of the tension left his shoulders.
"Are you hurt?" he asked. His voice was low and rough.
"I... no," Airin stammered, staring at him. "I'm okay."
"Good," Lloyd said.
He turned back to face the Collector. The relief in his face vanished, replaced by a cold, hard look that promised violence.
"You," Lloyd said. It wasn't a question. It was a sentence.
The Collector stepped back, his shadow spike dissolving as he lost his concentration. "You... you are the Ferrum Lord. How did you get past the barrier? That was a Grade-A isolation field!"
"I broke it," Lloyd said simply. "With my fist."
He took a step forward. He didn't look like he was going to cast a spell. He looked like he was going to tear the man apart with his bare hands.
"You touched her," Lloyd said. His voice was getting quieter, which somehow made it scarier. "You hunted her in my school. You tried to hurt my..."
He stopped himself before he said wife.
"My student," he finished.
The Collector regained some of his confidence. He sneered. "So? You are just one man. I have the power of the Abyss. My Void Shield can stop anything you throw at it. Fire, lightning, steel... it eats everything."
Lloyd tilted his head. He looked at the black wall of energy protecting the cultist.
"It eats energy?" Lloyd asked. "Okay. Let's see if it can eat a star."