BOOOOOMMMMMMM!
The earth shook violently, tossing every body at the party off balance. Glasses toppled and shattered from every table. Screams erupted as students scattered like a hive of bees disturbed.
The thunderous sound outside Black Dragon House made Witzany, who had been calmly grading homework in her office, snap her notebook shut and rush out to check on her students.
From beneath the ground, a colossal crimson centipede burst forth, tearing up the field before Black Dragon House into a gaping pit. Its towering body loomed up against the moonlit sky, a dark silhouette of someone standing on its head. The students' dance floor collapsed into ruin.
Ray, Aria, Jason, Karua, and Kana, who had been casually picnicking on a mat and playing Old Maid, froze in shock, staring at the sight. Students shrieked and fled past them as the fiery, monstrous centipede advanced.
Name: Zenfire
Species: AresCentipede
Level: 70
HP: 50,000 MP: 70,000
Element: Fire
Rarity: S-rank
Description: The Warfire Centipede, a calamity beast of ancient times. Legends say it was hunted to extinction, for it could implant parasites that drove living beings into madness—forcing them to slaughter each other and ignite senseless wars that toppled countless empires.
Skills: Parasite Implant, Frenzy Parasite, Hellfire, Venomous Flame Fang, Flame Carapace
Its countless legs writhed grotesquely against the sky, sending chills down every spine. Musicians clutched their instruments and bolted. Couples abandoned their dancing partners mid-step. Friends threw aside plates and chairs, fleeing without coordination as the Warfire Centipede descended.
Its massive form aimed straight for Ray's group.
But before it could strike, a hulking figure stood in its path—Victor, the Black Dragon senior. He did not flinch.
"Bapho, Black Flame!"
He summoned a horned beast wielding a black sword and swung it against the centipede's head.
BOOOOOOOM!
Bapho was driven back several meters from the sheer force of the collision, but with a heave it raised its black sword and cleaved upward, deflecting Zenfire's charge.
Victor, the self-proclaimed king who had reclaimed his throne after Karua's punishment, bellowed at the panicked students:
"LOSER! Are you even Black Dragon students?! Anyone who runs instead of defending this house—I'll take your key and throw you out to sleep on the streets! Cowards!"
The words froze their legs. Pride shackled them. Shamed and furious, they turned back to fight. Whether from fear of eviction or unwillingness to be branded losers, the Black Dragon House surged as one.
Over a hundred students summoned their beasts, unleashing a barrage of attacks upon the legendary monster. For all their obsession with power and pride, nothing enraged them more than insult and defeat.
The Phoenix House students, who had retreated, now gaped in astonishment. The Dragons were actually fighting together. Their coordination was chaotic, nowhere near Phoenix's teamwork, yet their raw destructive power battered Zenfire relentlessly, leaving it little chance to recover.
Water jets, searing flames, lances of light, lightning bolts, whirling winds, bites, slashes, charges—hundreds of beasts swarmed it with every assault.
"Lava Dragon Sword—Draeger!" Karua roared, sending his earth dragon's molten blade crashing down.
"Poison Mist! Sazlin!" Jason shouted as his gorgon spewed venom.
"Power of the Stars, Sereni!" Aria commanded, her unicorn firing a radiant beam.
"Nixie, burn it down!" Ray cried, his phoenix diving with a torrent of fire.
The barrage drove the blazing centipede crashing into the ground, its health halved.
The man standing on its head cackled, his emaciated frame revealed under scorched, half-burnt skin. Gold hair bristled atop a skeletal face.
Cheers erupted from Phoenix House's students as Headmistress Witzany arrived, flanked by Professor David and the elder Kegel.
The centipede's master only sneered.
"Just as the cult leader Seagull foretold. Every move falling into place! Born with Pandora, burn with Pandora! Zenfire—Frenzy Parasite!"
"Seagull? Frenzy Parasite!?" Ray froze, turning to Aria. She met his gaze and nodded—she understood. The Seagull Bobby had mentioned was none other than the cult master himself. But the others remained clueless, bewildered by Ray's alarm.
Ray lunged at Jason, seizing his collar. "Jason! Get the strongest anti-parasite medicine you've got! Now!" His urgency stunned the purple-haired boy.
"Wha—what the hell are you talking about?! What kind?!" Jason panicked.
But Ray's eyes held no triumph, no relief—only despair.
"If Seagull is the Pandora cult leader, then everything is already set! He's the one who gave Bobby that Ice Tyrhorn cow!"
"So what—?!" Jason snapped.
"Today—today we ALL! ate that ice cream, Jason! The whole barrel! The parasite—it's already inside every student in this school!"
Too late. As Jason fumbled out a vial, Zenfire's Frenzy Parasite activated.
Over a hundred students fell still, heads bowed in eerie unison. Their eyes flared blood-red. With one command, their beasts turned in unison toward Witzany.
The infected students merged souls with their beasts.
The centipede's master shrieked with glee.
He thrust out his finger. The crimson-eyed horde surged forward, mouths frothing, charging their own teacher like mindless zombies.
David broke into a sweat. Kegel trembled. The sight was hellish. Witzany alone remained composed, peeling a candy wrapper as if unbothered, though her eyes betrayed pain. She understood.
Her greatest weakness was being turned against her: the children she loved, forced to kill her.
She smiled faintly at the oncoming nightmare, her hand trembling.
"If you cannot win with strength, then you turn to schemes. Fitting… for the cleverest man in the world. Seagull Lavender… should I be proud or ashamed to have raised you…"
The cultist shrieked back: "The society you built will crumble, Witzany! Burn with Pandora!"
"Professor David, Professor Kegel—just knock them out. Put them to sleep."
They nodded grimly. David fused with his giant owl, splitting into twenty clones, striking students at the nape to render them unconscious one by one. Kegel, merged with his cloud-sheep, unleashed lullaby waves, sending swathes collapsing into slumber.
But against the frenzied tide of red-eyed students, the three professors strained.
Witzany stood at the rear, healing, buffing, hesitating every time one of her beloved pupils lunged at her. The pain etched into her young face was unbearable.
Seagull had been gone for five years, building his cult in silence. Overwhelmed, he had chosen not direct power, but to break her spirit.
At last, most students collapsed. But the cultist grinned. His plan was already complete.
Zenfire charged, channeling its ultimate move—Hellfire.
The blazing inferno surged straight at Witzany.
She did not move. With a flick of her wrist, her azure phoenix breathed out its own flame.
The blue fire swallowed the hellfire effortlessly, lighting up the night in searing brilliance.
Zenfire and its master burned together. His screams carried no terror, only fanatical devotion.
"Hahaha! Burn with Pandora! My mission is complete, Lord Seagull! I go now to join the faithful—to await the true day of liberation! Hahaha!"
And then he was gone, leaving only ash, a monument to his faith.
"…So you came intending to die," Witzany murmured. At last she grasped his true intent.
The battle was only a façade. The true goal—
—was to abduct Ray Landroll.
Five minutes earlier.
Karua had paled as Ray explained. Around them, students' eyes turned red one by one. Only he and Kana, punished with confinement, had not eaten the ice cream.
Kana clung to her brother's arm in fear. The dark-eyed boy snatched medicine from Jason's stash and forced it down his throat, knocking him out before the infection took hold.
But Aria and Ray's eyes had already turned crimson. They merged with their beasts and lunged at Karua. The bespectacled boy barely dodged.
"Heh… Mister Ray… this is bad… Kana, wake Jason I'll buy time."
"Yes, Karua!"
Kana shook Jason desperately, then rifled through his endless pouches until she found another matching vial.
By the time she turned back, Karua was bleeding profusely, his diamond-scaled armor shattered, his lava blade broken. He had endured Ray and Aria's combined onslaught, diverting every strike from his vitals.
With a final desperate grip, he seized them both. Kana understood instantly. She dashed forward, pouring medicine down their throats.
The three collapsed together. Karua could not move, drenched in blood. Kana rushed back to pour healing potions over him, her chest aching for her reckless little brother. Along the way she found Jason's invisibility vial, splashing it over all of them, dragging them to safety.
Minutes later, as they stirred awake, she sighed with relief—only for the invisibility to fade.
A massive black crow swooped down, spotting them.
It was the centipede master's beast, tasked to use the cursed pouch dangling from its leg—a dimensional demon bag—to capture and kill Ray Landroll.
Kana didn't see. Jason was turned away. Karua, broken and slumped, could barely keep his eyes open. Ray, the target, was oblivious.
Only Aria saw.
Her instincts flared.
"Ray! Look out!"
The silver-haired girl leapt, shoving Ray aside.
The cursed bag's pull engulfed her instead.
Her slender body lifted into the air.
Ray reached desperately. "Aria—grab my hand!"
Their fingertips brushed—then slipped apart.
She smiled sweetly at him, silver hair fanning out like moonlight. Her lips moved, but the wind carried her words away.
And then
Her body was swallowed into the abyss, vanishing from sight.