"...."

A strange silence suddenly took over the surroundings. Standing face to face with the hooded figure, neither side moved.

....Or more like, the hooded figure was too concentrated on me to make any moves.

'He knows me.'

The more time passed, the more I was sure about it.

Whoever was beneath the hood, knew the previous Julien. My fingers twitched at the thought.

For some reason, I felt a different emotion rather than being scared. I wasn't sure what that emotion was, but if there was something that I was clear of, it was the fact that I...

I wanted to see his memories.

Thud.

The silence was shattered by the low 'thud' of the now-deceased cadet's body hitting the ground. From the side, Josephine flinched involuntarily at the sound.

On the other hand, Kiera frowned.

I couldn't tell what she was thinking. With her gaze fixed on him, it seemed like she realized something.

".....Oy."

And with such thought, she was the first one to speak.

Her voice attracted the hooded figure's attention as their head turned to face her. Lowering her head slightly, Kiera looked up.

"Who are you?"

It was an unexpected question. No, rather, it was a logical question, but from what her expression previously read, she seemed to be aware of something else.

"....."

Her question was met with silence.

A magic circle flickered in her hand. It was directed towards the hooded figure.

However, before she could even fully form her magic circle, he disappeared. Time seemed to slow down at that moment.

Before the others could react, the figure reappeared before me.

I didn't react at all.

But even so, as their hand grasped my shoulder, I felt my body lift up slightly. In the last few seconds, I watched as the others looked at me with widened eyes.

'Ah.'

Then...

The surroundings changed.

***

It all happened so fast that Kiera hardly had any time to react.

Her mind had been so preoccupied with thoughts of the hooded figure being connected with her aunt that she couldn't react at all when the hooded figure disappeared before her very eyes.

Shortly after, he reappeared right before Julien.

"Wa-"

In those last moments, her eyes met with Julien's.

They...

Felt oddly calm. Almost as if he had been expecting such a situation. However, Kiera wasn't sure if what she had seen was true or not as he disappeared alongside the hooded figure shortly after.

By the time she had moved, they were already gone.

"....."

In the silence that suddenly gripped the surroundings, Kiera's mouth opened and closed repeatedly.

She was unsure of what to say at the moment.

"Ha, this..."

Breaking her out of her thoughts was Josephine who was looking at her bracelet with a pale face.

"What?"

"T-that..."

Frowning, Kiera was about to smack her in the head when Anders spoke for her.

"The bracelet. It doesn't work."

"Mine too."

Upon hearing Luxon's confirmation, Kiera looked down at her bracelet and tried to activate it. However, besides the ranking, the emergency function wasn't working.

"Fuck."

A curse slipped out of her mouth then.

"W-what do we do?"

Hearing Josephine's panicked voice, Kiera didn't answer immediately. For some reason, she recalled a conversation they had a few days ago.

'If anything happens to me, you take the lead.'

Kiera didn't think much of it back then. She thought that in the case he got injured, or the other teams got him, she'd be the next one to take the lead.

It made sense since she was the strongest in the team.

However, thinking back to the calm expression on his face during those last moments, Kiera had another thought.

'What if... What if he expected something like this to happen?'

It was a ridiculous thought. One that made absolutely no sense.

So... why?

Why did such thoughts keep flashing in her mind?

"Ugh."

Groaning, Kiera ruffled her hair. Fuck, now's not the time to think about such things...! Looking around, Kiera's eyes suddenly paused.

"....."

They were fixed on her ankle. There, she could still feel Julien's thread. Her eyes widened all of a sudden, and she turned in the direction of where the thread was.

Gritting her teeth, she shouted.

"Fuck! Follow me...!"

This guy...

There was no way he didn't know about this!

***

A few moments before the attack.

"....."

Delilah was quietly staring at all the projections of the cadets before her. There were plenty of projections, but with her mind, she could focus on all of them at the same time.

It was of no burden to her.

For now, everything was proceeding smoothly.

All the cadets were advancing at their own pace. Some faster than others.

Even so, Delilah didn't particularly care about the speed. At the end of the day, what mattered was the final score, not the speed.

The leading cadets were running through the maze fast because they wanted to get to the boss monster faster, but even that wasn't a viable solution since it expanded a lot of energy. Only the elites of elites could follow such a reckless strategy.

It was for that reason that Julien's team took her interest the most.

For them to go at such a pace... Surely, they had a plan.

"What the hell?!"

"....."

It was at that moment that Delilah noticed the first irregularity.

Lifting her head, she noticed one of the Chancellor's frowning. Setting her sights on him, Delilah recognized him immediately. He was the Chancellor of a medium-sized Academy.

The Astell Institute.

It was a respectable Academy.

However, for some reason, he was currently making a small fuss.

"What's going on here? Why is this not working?"

When she took a better look, Delilah did indeed notice a peculiarity with his projection. It was all black.

Immediately, her brows trembled slightly.

'....It can't be.'

Closing her eyes, she spread her mana outwardly. Within a few short moments, they covered the entire stadium and seeped into the tunnels.

However, she felt something block her attempt just as she did so.

Immediately, her eyes opened up.

"....."

There was no trace of panic in her expression. Looking around, she slowly stood up from her seat and excused herself. Her actions attracted the attention of a few Chancellors, but that was about it.

They were all too focused on their own cadets.

"..."

Moments after coming out of the room, her figure blurred and she arrived at the emergency entrance of the Labyrinth.

Located outside of the arena, and in a more secluded area of the Academy, where only a couple of small storage buildings stood, it was established so that the participants could be evacuated in case of emergencies.

The reason why she came here by herself was because she didn't want to let the news out that something had happened.

If the news were to spread, the audience would without a doubt start to panic which would cause quite a little bit of trouble. Concerning the other Chancellors, she couldn't trust any of them.

Delilah preferred to act before anybody noticed anything.

It was for that reason that she decided to operate by herself.Especially since she also had an idea as to who the ones involved were.

'It should be this one.'

Stepping over a certain area, Delilah waved her hand.

Immediately, the ground fluctuated, revealing what appeared to be a large metallic trap door. Glowing in a multitude of colors were a set of runes.

Delilah was just about to enter when she heard a voice coming from behind.

".....I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Without saying a word, Delilah turned her head.

An unexpected figure appeared.

"Aziel Kleber."

One that Delilah was somewhat familiar with. He was a known criminal within the Empire. Someone whom the royal family put a heavy bounty on.

'So he's also a part of them...'

It wasn't as though she didn't expect it.

With a wave of her hand, the space around them fluctuated, and a dome covered their surroundings.

'Space separation'

It was one of her spellsa creation that enabled her to fashion a separate dimension, isolating individuals within it.

With this technique, she didn't need to worry about anything getting destroyed or anyone finding out about their current exchange. To the outside world, it looked like nothing was happening.

"Wow, you're taking things rather seriously."

Standing taller than her, and leaning against one of the walls, Aziel's hazel eyes glowed mysteriously as he looked around.

A thin smile spread across his lips.

"Even so, I'm happy that the one closest to the Zenith recognizes me."

"....How did you get here?"

Delilah wasn't one to brag, but she was powerful. Her perception covered the entire Academy 24/7. Not only that, but the Academy also had several other powerful individuals whose perception was just as great as hers.

Added to the many devices installed around the Academy, Delilah found herself frowning.

'Something is not adding up.'

There had been too many problems as of late.

Clearly, something wasn't working within the Academy. A traitor, perhaps?...And for them to be able to do something like this, they were without a doubt high up within the Academy.

The thought made Delilah's frown deepen.

'Who?'

In any case, Delilah couldn't dwell too deeply on the matter. She had a job to do at the moment, and sparing Aziel a single glance, she raised her hand.

Kraka!

The space around him folded, then compressed, squeezing him into a pulp.

It had all happened so fast that he hadn't had any time to react.

"....."

Silence once again returned to the surroundings.

Just as Delilah was about to turn her attention back towards the entrance, a figure hovered in the air above her.

Wearing a smile, he looked at her.

"....You don't seriously think I'd let myself be that close to you, do you? I'm not suicidal."

Rubbing his neck, he chuckled before reappearing a few meters away from her.

He looked to be in a good mood, nonchalantly walking around as if he was enjoying the moment.

"Besides a few, I don't think there's anyone in this world that can truly fight on equal terms with you. Sadly, I'm not one such individual either. However, my job is to stall for time, so-Uh?"

His words stopped mid-way. All of a sudden, Delilah's eyes changed.

As if ink had been injected into her eyes, they turned inky black as the darkness spread to envelop the entire eye.

A change began to sweep through the surroundings.

Suddenly, the background began to fade away.

The sun transformed into a stark white orb, casting a hollow light over the landscape. The surroundings shifted to shades of gray, and the ground began to sink beneath Aziel's feet.

From the depths, black hands emerged, reaching out for him as he surveyed the grim scene with a solemn expression.

No longer did her appear as nonchalant and happy as he did before.

In fact, that expression was long gone. What replaced it was one of fear and apprehension as he went on to hoarsely say,

"Domain..."