The smell of blood rose heavily around Nariens Field. Corpses of soldiers from both Neurn and Qtiryn piled up in a horrendous scene. Despite the trick Ordeus had used, which was now slowly depleting, it still couldn't ensure the safety of most of his soldiers, a sign that the Neurn forces were not to be underestimated. At that moment, the tension between the two sides escalated, as their strength and numbers were clearly on equal terms.

  "This is... quite a sight to see," Revir said, holding back a Neurn soldier who had morphed his Dark Ender-infused wand into a sword using his Vergus spell. With ease, Revir used half his strength to push the soldier away with his halberd, slashing his body decisively without hesitation. Blood splattered everywhere like a river as a result. "To think that this 'Holder war' is already this messy. I can't imagine the messiness of the Flame Eclipse War if its going to happen."

  Noire, listening to Revir's statement, grunted as several soldiers tried their hardest to burn him with repeated fireball spells. But somehow, the spells, though standard-level in the flame element, were far stronger than Noire thought they would be.

  Thankfully, as a soldier shot his next fireball, Saria countered in time, instantly shooting her arrow against it. Both evaporated into thin air upon contact. Not stopping there, Saria cast her spell above, pointing her bow to the sky as a white magic circle appeared overhead. Simultaneously, the same magic circle also appeared above the enemy soldiers. As Saria shot one arrow toward the circle, it transferred itself to the other magic circle, multiplying into a rain of arrows that forced the soldiers to back down.

  "What the...?" one soldier gasped, covering his eyes from the dust and rock debris caused by Saria's arrow rain. "Those students... where are... they..?" He looked around in high alert, only to be greatly surprised as Noire and Saria were already above them.

  "N-Noire? Are you sure thi-this is safe?" Saria asked, trying to remain calm despite her internal panic.

  "Of course it will be safe," Noire replied, reassuring her while readying his heavy shield. "Safe enough to throw this thing outta their face!" He heavily threw his shield against the Neurn soldiers below, then used it as a landing platform as he quickly swung his Gladius against their faces, causing them to scream in pain rather than dying instantly, leaving them lying on the ground groaning.

  "Hmph. That's what you get for trying to mess with me," Noire said, looking down at the pathetic sight of the soldiers.

  "Seems like we're surrounded," Rein said, slowly panting as his grip on his Azure lance slightly loosened. "What should we do now, Aria?"

  "It's easy. Since this is a war, I can finally let out everything as I please," Aria replied with a smile, slowly lifting her greatsword as particles of flame collided with the sword's body.

  "Uhm, Aria? What are you doing?"

  She didn't listen to Rein’s words, only exhaling deeply. "Purga—" She gripped her sword tightly, and the body of her blade became a huge pillar of fiery flame, roaring into the sky. "—torio!" she roared her spell's name, swinging it down heavily as the soldiers around them were knocked out in a sudden blast of flame before the trail of fire disappeared completely.

  "Was that really necessary to use such an advanced spell like that?" Rein asked, confused yet feeling strange about Aria's method of counterattack.

  "At least it worked!" she exclaimed, laughing it off to hide her embarrassment. "I mean, don't you feel good to release your most powerful spell in battle after hiding it for a whole few months?"

  "Oh yeah. Forgot that you come from a house full of power obsession," he mumbled to himself, looking away from Aria's gaze.

  "Is that supposed to be an insult?"

  "Nope. That's just a fact."

  Carol, still in the middle of battle, slashed one soldier after another, panting heavily as her energy slowly depleted. "This is troublesome. There are too many of them," she muttered.

  However, as she turned her head, she caught a glimpse of Karl. He gave a brief smile, turning his head over his shoulder toward Carol just before entering the abandoned watchtower. Instantly, Carol let out a widened grin of fierce excitement. She decided to ignore the soldiers in her area, using her sheer power to break away from their formation.

  Having arrived at the tower door, Carol, without hesitation, slashed the door in half and walked inside. To her surprise, the interior was mossy and ancient, until an unknown whisper echoed in her ears.

  "This whisper... is it coming from above?" Carol mumbled to herself, deciding to walk upstairs. The closer she got to the roof, the louder the whisper became. Somehow, her heart and mind felt a heavy pressure from the sound. (This is nothing... This pain... is nothing I cannot endure...) she thought, clenching her hand to force herself to endure it.

  After a long climb up the stairs, Carol finally met face to face with Karl, the one person responsible for everything: for stealing her only happiness away and leading her to such suffering.

  "Ah, we finally meet, Leviathan's child," Karl stated, turning toward Carol with a hideous smile. "How's your life going?"

  "You expect me to answer that? After everything you've done to me and the village?" Carol responded, her expression hardened with fury.

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  "Well, it's not my concern about the flame that burned your hometown. Didn't Hindrey already tell you that he's the one who put up the flame?" Karl said, shrugging the topic off as if it were unimportant.

  "None of your concern, you say?" Carol gripped her sword tightly, a sign that her fury was boiling hot.

  "Before you lash out all that emotion of yours against me, how about I tell you a tale about myself?" Karl offered, casually gazing at Carol like a scientist observing his own guinea pig. "Of course, it's going to be the full context behind my actions in the past. After all, can't have that revenge feel incomplete without knowing very well about the murderer."

  Meanwhile, Revir, managing to slash yet another Neurn soldier, noticed that Carol was nowhere to be found in the chaotic battlefield. As he turned to search for her, a sudden spear appeared out of nowhere, flying toward him. He swung his halberd to counter the spear, only for Hindrey to teleport alongside the spear, catching it back into his hand. Their weapons clashed, the tip of Hindrey's spear meeting the edge of Revir's halberd.

  "To think that my beloved lecturer is attending this war, even joining the enemy faction," Revir snorted, still trying his best to match the strength of his former teacher. "This world really is full of surprises, huh?"

  "Rather than you trying to find that cursed friend of yours, how about we settle our score here once and for all?" Hindrey offered, slowly pushing his spear forward.

  "Heh, 'cursed friend,' you say? I don't know what you're talking about but, that point of 'settle scores with you' is really intriguing," Revir replied, also slowly pushing his halberd forward. "Well, I guess it really is the right time to settle this. You're the only one I didn't beat yet after Irlia, you know?" He tightly gripped his halberd, channeling most of his strength to break the clash between them and Hindrey.

  "Hmph," Hindrey spun his spear around, cracking his neck as he prepared for a fight. "Then, I'll be the judge of your progress. Show me how much you've improved these past few months, Revir!" he exclaimed, rushing toward his former student.

  The other group of students, positioned at the back of the battlefield, acted as support, providing medical help to the wounded soldiers. Arvain, without breaking a sweat, used his Light Magic. A vast, yellow magic circle appeared beneath a large gathering of wounded soldiers, slowly healing their major wounds. Most of the soldiers were astonished at his healing magic.

  "No need to thank me. As the successor of the Blight Holder, it's already my job to support my comrades," Arvain said, arrogantly flaunting his smile.

  "Arvain! We need your help here!" one of the students demanded.

  As he walked toward them, he slightly rolled his eyes toward the watchtower in the distance. In that instant, he saw a glimpse of the short fate of the war: a girl with long, white hair and a broken, dark halo levitating on her head, commanding a vast amount of Dark Ender as she massacred everyone on the field.

  Consumed by fear at how hideous that future truly was, Arvain froze in place.

  "Arvain? Are you okay?" another student from the same group asked, worried about Arvain's sudden shift in behavior.

  "Okay?" Arvain snorted, snapping back to reality as he laughed off her question. "I'm more than okay, girly. I just remembered someone as beautiful as you."

  The student chuckled in embarrassment. "Glad that you're okay there. I thought you had fatigue or something." she said.

  "Hey! We need help here!" one of the doctors demanded, in need of extra hands.

  "Coming!" the girl responded, walking fast to the doctor as she left Arvain alone.

  (That scene...) A flicker of the grim fate he saw recalled itself in front of his eyes. "I have a bad feeling about this," he mumbled to himself, watching the tower intently in nervous.

  "Now, Leviathan's child. Let me tell you a little bit about my past," Karl said, snapping his finger as he created a stone wall to block the exit.

  "A long time ago, I had a dream, like every child should have. A dream where I wished to be as powerful as a Holder. Although that dream was already achieved as the Gaia Holder, I saw something more than that," he offered one hand toward Carol, then clenched it tightly. "Leviathan, a cosmic entity with otherworldly strength. More powerful than the Holder and even the Child of Light. At that moment, I finally set a new goal. A goal that I would do anything to achieve more power than I already have."

  "And to do so, you want to capture me?" Carol snorted in disbelief. "Quite power-hungry for someone who already had everything he wanted."

  "There's more than just 'power hungry,' Leviathan's child. This world is too plain for me to see. No chaos, no memorial change for the people to experience. Only the mundane cycle of the strong preying over the weaker, repeated over and over until it started to make me bored. That's why I have to do this," Karl opened his arms wide, embracing the madness of his ideal. "By having a Leviathan that I can control for myself, not only will I be the king of this world, but I'll also receive the chance to see this 'underworld' for myself. Only then would I finally see the ideal world I want!"

  "But that so-called ideal world you're wishing for... does it require you to sacrifice innocent lives?" Carol asked, clenching her hand in frustration mixed with annoyance.

  "Indeed, and it has already reached its final stage," he pulled out a tube of red-like crystal, glowing fully with Dark Ender as he showed his creation to Carol. "Isn't it beautiful? It took me a few months to create this masterpiece, thanks to the Zarikh whom I've been manipulating and using."

  With that, he threw the tube at the center of the ground, letting the crystal levitate itself toward the empty slot on the ceiling's mural.

  "Knowing this, is your desire for revenge still boiling hot?" Karl asked, looking menacingly toward Carol.

  "More than before, you bastard," Carol responded, her hair slightly turning white as she channelled her Irene power. "That ideal you chose is nothing but absurd to me. In fact, you did exactly what a mundane thing this world always does: the strong preying on the weaker. Burning my village... destroying everything I had. You think all that ideal and dream you talked about is going to justify everything you've done?"

  Hearing her statement, Karl chuckled out of pure amusement. "Justified or not, do you think it's going to stop me from achieving what I want?"

  Unable to hold her anger, Carol immediately swung her sword down heavily, casting a high-energy wind spell traveling toward Karl. However, he casually created a stone wall in front of him, acting as a defense where their power met. As a result, Carol's wind spell left no scratch whatsoever on Karl's stone wall.

  "If revenge is what you want so much," he snapped his finger, shattering the stone wall in front of him. "I would gladly deliver it to you... as long as it is needed to awaken you as the pure Leviathan!"