NOVEL NEXT Chapter 157: Dead
Damien stood on a crumbling section of the southern wall, breathing hard, blood-streaked and silent. His blade pulsed with the rhythm of something not quite alive, something darker, older. It wasn't just steel anymore. It was a treasure fused with time and death energy.
The air reeked of ozone and charred flesh. The heat rising from the blood-soaked stone made the air shimmer like a mirage, but there was no illusion in what he saw. The southern gates had nearly fallen—twice.
The only reason they still stood was because Jiang Xiao Yu had frozen the advancing tide with a high grade seal that had shattered something deep in her core. Her breathing was shallow. She hadn't spoken since.
Around Damien, the last survivors of Pearl Institute and War God College fought with a fire that bordered on madness. Their eyes were wild. Their limbs shook. Their spells flared erratic and overcharged, as if they knew this was their final stand. And still… they fought.
Mu Qingyu was the first to fall.
Her lightning had never once faltered in her life. But that day, it did. It cracked mid-cast as a stone-scaled beast leapt through the ash storm and caught her in midair. Its claws pierced her spine with a sickening crunch.
For a moment, she just hung there… Wide-eyed, lips parted, her body spasming. Then it threw her like discarded meat. She hit the ground with a wet slap, smoke still curling from her fingertips.
Mu Qingling screamed. Not a battle cry—something primal. Something lost.
She and Mu Qingxue turned toward the thing that had killed their sister and unleashed their final spell. Twin lightning storms collided above the beast, split it apart, and rained vengeance on five more nearby.
The force of the blast lit the air white for a second. When the light faded, both sisters were on their knees, their mana gone, blood streaming from their ears. They slumped forward and never rose.
"QINGYU! QINGXUE!! NO!!!" came the broken cry of their instructor, Professor Bai Lian. She dropped her staff mid-cast and ran toward them, only to be dragged back by a soldier. Her sobs echoed through the corridor long after the next wave hit.
The Lin triplets Lin Fei, Lin Bao and Lin Xiu, fought together like a single organism. They always had.
Lin Fei was the first to break formation, shielding two juniors from a charging monstrosity with chitin-covered limbs. The beast's claw impaled him through the abdomen. He grinned through the blood and held the claw in place just long enough to ignite his mana core.
The explosion rocked the southern flank.
Lin Bao screamed. Not in fear. In fury. His vision blurred with rage as he sprinted straight into the wreckage, a spell circle spinning in each palm. He activated both, engulfing himself and four manticores in a column of fire. They burned alive, howling. So did he.
Lin Xiu fought alone now, arms already torn from their sockets, blood pouring in steady streams. He didn't stop. He activated his last spell by biting into the etched crystal lodged in his collarbone. His scream was animal. His jaw broke. His spell launched, but his body didn't survive it.
"NO! NO! NOT THEM TOO!" shouted Professor Wu, almost staggering to his knees. "They were just kids…"
And then came the Five Pillars.
Fang Qi, the so-called Stone Giant, was crushed beneath the debris of three collapsing buildings. The earth itself groaned as the towers fell, burying him alive. He tried to lift the rubble with his remaining mana, but it only sparked uselessly around him. His last word was a whisper: "Sorry."
Han Li, agile, perfect Han Li, was moving too fast to notice the scorpion-beast behind him. It struck between heartbeats. A spear of bone slid through his chest, bursting through the front of his ribcage. His twin sabers clattered from his hands, and he fell sideways, eyes wide with disbelief.
Wu Ren, the frost queen, froze herself and a dozen advancing monsters with a sweeping spell so cold it shattered the air into shards. Her breath came out in a mist that turned to crystal midair. She died smiling, locked in a statue of her own making.
Luo Shan stood his ground as the enemy broke through the barricades. He held the line with a crumbling shield spell while the others retreated. His bones cracked one by one under the pressure. Then he disappeared beneath a writhing mass of insect legs and screeches.
Tian Lei, the pride of War God College, stood at the highest point of the defense and summoned every last soul lance he had. Each one shone with unbearable brilliance. He released them all in a final barrage that turned the sky white.
He fell backward before the last one landed. His heart had stopped. His body hit the ground, still upright. Still defiant.
Instructors sobbed openly by then.
Some kept casting through their tears.
Others couldn't.
They could only whisper prayers, hands trembling as the next wave approached.
And when one girl, barely sixteen, shrieked in terror as a hulking insect beast tore through her with its mandibles, the sound cracked through the battlefield like a blade. It shattered what little composure the instructors still clung to.
The guilt hit like a hammer.
They had trained these children for war. Prepared them for leadership. Told them they were gifted, destined to shape the future.
And now they watched that future die broken, bleeding, screaming…
Piece by piece.
One by one.
Thankfully, of the many prodigies who fell, a few, by sheer will or miracle, endured.
Ming Yu, the Queen of the third years, survived.
Her Icefire mana surged in wild bursts, vaporizing anything that dared to approach her. She fought like a dying star, too bright to last, too furious to fall. In the end, her enemies lay frozen and scorched in equal measure, but she remained.
Barely.
Her breathing was shallow. Her robes were torn and half-burned. Blood seeped from gashes down her side, forming a dark pool beneath her knees. She didn't speak. She didn't cry. She simply sat behind the back lines, weaving what little mana she had left into fragile, flickering barriers that hovered over the ruins of Sector 7.