My Special Ability is Growing Muscles

Principal Aelthar Crownguard, Principal of Nexus Academy, the White Flame of Humanity, ranked 28th in the Hero ranking.

Unlike Major Pain who was always pasted everywhere in Awakened comic books, Principal Aelthar was more low-key but to those on the know, they knew that the Principal of Nexus Academy was the bigger menace among the two.

Revered as the White Flame of Humanity in the higher circles of humanity, he is one of the oldest active S-Rank Heroes.

He once singlehandedly annihilated a Demon horde that besieged an entire city, burning the corrupted landscape clean for miles.

Known as the teacher's teacher, dozens of current human Generals and Guild masters once studied under him.

His existence is why Nexus Academy is feared and respected above all human institutions. IF Major Pain is the disciplinarian warlord, brutal and unrelenting, then Principal Aelthar is the holy bulwark, calm yet overwhelming.

He was the face of Nexus Academy, and now, he was here.

BZZZ!

His mere presence crashed against the battlefield like a sledgehammer.

Principal Aelthar has 3 special abilities, Aeterflame Sovereignty, Runic Dominion, and Hero's Command, a unique aura ability.

The first is a unique hybrid of holy light and fire elementalism that is passed down through a lost bloodline. Principal Aelthar can create flames that doesn't just burn, but purges, cleansing corruption, illusions, and dark energy.

It can burn demons from the inside out, bypassing regeneration. At full release, it manifests as a giant flaming sigil in the sky, his Domain where all enemies are consumed by white-gold fire.

Runic Dominion made Aelther a master of spell-runes. With his ability, he can instantly inscribe runes mid-battle, layering wards, seals, and traps into his environment.

As for Hero's Command, unlike Pain's Battlefield Will that breaks morale, Aelthar's aura inspires.

Allies under his aura feel surges of clarity, courage, and stamina, fighting past limits. Against enemies, it suffocates them with the crushing weight of inevitability, the sense that they are already doomed.

And now, this old man, this walking legend, when his Academy was under threat by the Demons finally stepped into the fray.

Another miscalculation on the Demon part. Afterall, by now, 3 on 1, they thought they would have taken care of Major Pain already.

But with Aelthar now here, everything changed.

The Coliseum had become a battlefield of nightmares.

Stone cracked and burned, screams bled into the air, and the ground itself seemed to weep under the weight of powers too vast for mortals.

Where nobles once laughed and scouts once scribbled notes, now rivers of blood ran. The Demon Lords had come not to test, but to slaughter.

And two men stood against them.

The instant Principal Aelthar Crownguard landed beside Major Pain, the air solidified. It pressed down like a thousand storms, crushing lungs and bending stone. Demonic auras clashed against human defiance, and the very world trembled.

Watching from the protective confines of the arena shield, Kairo felt his chest seize at the sight of that old man. The sheer aura of his presence was overwhelming.

His knees buckled even inside the arena. He couldn't breathe. 'This pressure… this is what it means to be S-Rank!' He thought.

At this moment, Kairo felt the gulf in power.

Malgar Voidborne sneered from the broken stands, void cracks hissing like snakes around him. "Two S-Ranks… the humans are bold tonight".

They were Demons, and they would never show weakness, not even in front of a human legend, most especially in front of a human legend.

Serika Thornveil's mask-laden face twisted with delight. "Bold… and fragile."

Ulfar slammed his molten hammer into the stone, magma spilling through shattered tiles. "Then let us crush them."

Pain moved first.

The eyepatch was long gone, the Eye of Pain a blazing silver sun. Every demon foot soldier within sight shrieked, still suffering, writhing as phantom torture seared their souls. His voice roared like cannon fire.

"COME! Let us go again!"

Ulfar obliged, and he took the first step forward as the molten hammer descended like a falling star. Pain braced, Iron Soldier Physique hardening his body until his skin gleamed like tempered steel.

Then…

KABOOM!

The impact split the earth, stone fountains erupting, but Pain grinned through bloodied teeth, holding his ground.

Serika's illusions swept in again, a tide of false blades and phantom corpses, sending a visual overload of the same falsehoods, Pain's old comrades, his students, their screams ringing in his ears.

His silver eye flared, and every illusion shattered into piercing agony that rebounded into her.

Serika staggered, coughing blood, yet laughing madly through it.

Meanwhile, Malgar's void claws reached for Aelthar, rifts gnashing like the jaws of a beast. But golden runes flared around the Principal, sealing space in burning lines. His voice was calm, heavy, and absolute like a law of nature.

"Be gone!"

BZZZ!

Aeterflame Sovereignty ignited in a mighty wave and white-gold fire burst across the Coliseum, cleansing corruption, cauterizing the cracks, burning Serika's illusions into ash.

Every Demon foot soldier caught in it screamed as they combusted from the inside out, their corruption unmade.

Malgar's eyes narrowed, silver void clashing against white fire as black fissures tore reality apart while golden sigils knitted it closed. Darkness and light warred, neither yielding.

Every clash was an earthquake that destroyed the coliseum even more.

Ulfar's hammer blows caved in seating blocks, magma spilling like rivers. Serika's illusions twisted nobles into berserkers, stabbing each other in madness. Malgar's void swallowed screaming scouts whole, erasing them from existence.

Their powers bent reality to fulfill their biding, twisting the laws of nature, becoming the herald of natural disasters themselves.

Pain roared, fists colliding with molten steel, his aura suppressing thousands of lesser demons into unconsciousness. His Eye of Pain burned Serika's masks into nothing, forcing her shrieks of agony into the night.

Aelthar spread flaming runes across the battlefield, caging foot soldiers, erecting radiant barriers, searing corruption clean with each wave of his hand.

His aura, Hero's Command, steadied faltering instructors and inspired the wounded guards to rise again, their eyes blazing with newfound courage.

This was S-Rank war. Not battles fought with blades, but calamities colliding until the world broke.

But even with all these reality-bending powers, gods bled too.

Another void slash tore across Pain's ribs, blood spraying hot. Major Pain didn't even flinch, gritting his teeth through the pain as he retaliated with rabid ferocity, the ferocity of a cornered predator.

Aelthar staggered under Malgar's void, a deep cut splitting his chest open, yet he simply inscribed a glowing rune with his own blood, sealing the wound mid-battle without faltering.

His flames surged higher, golden firestorms swallowing hundreds of demons in cleansing light.

And across from them, the Demon Lords endured.

Ulfar bled molten ichor where Pain's Eye cracked his spirit, but he swung harder. Serika's masks burned to ash, but new ones formed from her blood, laughing louder.

Malgar's void trembled under the holy fire, but his grin never wavered. The duel was endless, a clash of monsters that no mortal should ever witness.

Inside the combat barrier, Kairo shook violently.

Every clash rattled his bones. Mira clutched her dagger, pale but unyielding. The applicants whispered, prayed, and some even sobbed.

"If this shield breaks…," one muttered, voice trembling, "we're all dead."

The demons outside knew it too. Legion foot soldiers pounded at the protective dome, their claws scraping, their spells hammering. Internal saboteurs within the Academy added their strength, unraveling wards.

Cracks spidered wider; the barrier screamed.

Ulfar's hammer smashed down again, shockwaves ricocheting, and then…

CRACK!

The sound of shattering glass.

Aelthar's golden runes flared, trying to reinforce it, sweat beading his brow. Pain's roar shook the arena as he fought to keep the tide back.

But it was too late.

The barrier shattered!

The glasslike dome exploded into shards of mana, fragments raining down as for the first time, the surviving applicants stood exposed.

BZZZ!

Nothing protected them anymore as a tidal wave of demonic energy surged toward them, claws, fangs, and a fury of steel descending.

Kairo staggered back, stomach biting, body frail, but his fists clenched. "Not here, not now," he gritted his teeth. "Not like this!"

Mira's eyes widened in horror. Hugo, Ben, and the others screamed.

And over it all, Major Pain's voice boomed across the chaos, fury and command entwined:

"Protect the children!"

The battlefield drowned in fire and void!