Victor's Sector – Night (Day 14)
"INTRUDERS! VICTOR'S SECTOR!"
The alarm tore through the corridors like a severed artery. Red emergency lights pulsed across the stone, drenching Ethan's concrete pillar in crimson. Steel blast doors slammed shut with finality, sealing the 200-meter killbox. Mana barriers ignited—blue walls humming death, trapping Wello's diversion team inside their perfect breach.Ethan held position. Crossbow ready. 35 meters from Victor's door. Level 2 spatial sense tracked every panicked heartbeat.NEXUS. Combat analysis: Wello team confirmed as diversion. Primary threat vector obscured.Chaos erupted from the storage room. Steel rang. Fire mana roared—Wello's signature. Runes guards—24 armored sentries—converged first, then eight Level 2 wizards teleported in. Full sector response poured toward the bait, leaving Victor's actual door wide open.NEXUS. 93% Runes wizards diverted. Victor's chamber exposed.Subtle spatial ripple. No ward triggered. Air warped 12 meters from the door.Solara materialized. Dean of School of Elements. Mid-forties. Fire-type Level 3 wizard. Crimson robes flowed like liquid flame. Eyes burned magma-orange. Heat distortion warped reality 7 meters around her.She ignored the distant battle. Touched Victor's adamantine door. Fire mana melted the [[ETERNAL WARD]] like wax. Metal glowed cherry-red, then parted. She stepped through the molten gap.Door resealed behind her. Perfect silence.Victor's Chamber – Same MomentVictor sat on a basalt throne, pendant pulsing against his chest. Eyes closed. Chamber air thick with blood mana—copper tang sharp enough to taste.Reality split. Solara emerged from flame.Victor opened his eyes. No surprise. "I was waiting for you, Solara."Her magma eyes locked on the pendant. "My old friend. Hand over the otherworldly object. Or die."Victor smiled, fingers tracing throne armrest. Crimson mist gathered behind him. "It will not be that easy."Blood mana coalesced. Lona stepped from illusion. Dean of School of All. Illusion-type Level 3 wizard. Early fifties. Silver fractal robes shimmered like mirage. Smile playful, eyes predatory."You two," Lona purred, voice layered with phantom echoes. "Let's not fight. We all serve Wizard Wilson ultimately. Just hand over the otherworldly object to me. I'll share the resources after I break through to Level 4."Solara's flames flared white-hot. "Stop your nonsense. Let's begin."Three Level 3 CataclysmSolara struck first—Fire Singularity. Perfect sphere of plasma, 10 meters diameter. Chamber hit fusion temperatures. Stone vaporized to glass. Air ignited.Victor countered—Blood Dominion. Crimson tide flooded the singularity, boiling instantly to steam. 3000°C plasma met 5000°C blood vapor. Shockwave shattered outer walls. Victor's throne liquefied beneath him—he floated on blood membrane, untouched.Lona exploited chaos—Illusion Cascade. Reality fractured. Seven perfect duplicates materialized, each radiating identical Level 3 signatures. Which was real? Victor hesitated 0.3 seconds. Solara fired blind.Chamber became hellscape.Solara's Inferno Cascade—flame spears tracking through illusion. Three Lona duplicates burned to ash. Four remained. Victor's Hemorrhage Field filled room with corrosive blood mist. Solara's fire robes dissolved. Skin blistered.Lona laughed—Phantom Replication. 23 illusions now, layered across probability spaces. Each fired Mana Mirage Spears—half-real, half-illusion. Victor's blood membrane shredded. Ribcage exposed, pumping mana through severed arteries.First aftershock hit corridors.Ethan's pillar shook violently. Ceiling chunks fell. Level 3 mana pressure registered as "city-killer."NEXUS. EVACUATE 800m IMMEDIATELY. Structural collapse probability: 78%.Corridor Collapse – Wello Diversion AbandonedEvery Runes wizard froze mid-spell. Fire/blood/illusion signatures collided."LEVEL 3 CATACLYSM! VICTOR'S CHAMBER!" Lead instructor screamed.Total withdrawal. Runes wizards teleported out instantly—abandoning Wello's team completely. Storage room battle died like cut thread.Wello blinked, scorched but alive. Seven Elements operatives staggered upright. Realization hit."Solara's through! Cover extraction!"Panic overrode orders. Every wizard present—Runes, Elements, even School of All observers—recognized Level 3 signatures. One exchange leveled cities. Aftershocks killed thousands.Level 2 wizards sprinted for lives. Apprentices abandoned posts. Guards dropped shields. They fled like ants from collapsing hill—knowing stray mana ripple meant obliteration.Ethan blended into flood. [[SHADOW STEP]] chained through panicking mass. Invisible.Second blast rocked mountain.Victor's chamber wall exploded outward—40-meter breach glowing molten red. Entire sector wing tilted 4 degrees. Emergency stabilizers screamed.Victor's Chamber – Elemental FurySolara: Flame Collapse. Perfect vacuum firestorm. Oxygen consumed. Chamber became anaerobic hell. Victor's blood mist flash-boiled, filling space with superheated aerosol.Victor: Crimson Reconstitution. Blood fog recompressed to diamond-hard Hemocite Blades—10,000 micro-lances shredding Solara's fire barriers. Her left arm severed at shoulder, cauterized instantly.Lona opportunistic—Mirage Dominion. 41 illusions filled every vector. Reality doubt paralyzed targeting. Victor's next blood wave hit empty space—true Lona elsewhere.Solara exploited—Corona Burst. Chamber became star surface. 8000°C radiance. Victor's skin carbonized. Lona's fractals flickered out 29/41.Victor counter—Blood Eclipse. Light devoured. Perfect darkness. Solara's fire mana signature vanished. Lona's remaining fractals destabilized.Third aftershock—mountain scale.Ethan felt sector wing collapse fully. Three barracks flattened. Void fractures lingered—teleport blocked 4km radius. Residual mana storms lethal to Level 2s.Total evacuation complete. School of All extraction teams pulled Lona's observers. Elements teleported surviving operatives. Runes formed 3km perimeter.
Ethan's Vantage – 3km East Ridge
Blood torrent, fire storm, illusion web clashing in Victor's crater.NEXUS. Blast projection: 18,000 casualties if uncontained. Current containment: 82%.Glan materialized beside him. "Level 3s. Solara's fire. Victor's blood. Lona's illusions.""Wello was bait," Ethan said.Glan nodded. "Wilson watches this."Fourth exchange lit night sky.Fire/blood shockwave vaporized abandoned wing. 2km scar across mountain face. Residual flames burned green—unquenchable.
Chamber Crater – Minute 17
Solara critical. Both arms regrown twice. Mana at 39%. Final gambit: Solar Flare. Chamber became contained star. Walls fused to magma.Lona opportunistic. 9 illusions remained. Total Mana Mirage. Drained 31% Victor's reserves through phantom siphons.Victor breaking. Chest cavity exposed—heart visible, pumping blood mana. Pendant flickered. Last resort: Origin Hemorrhage. Chamber became single-point blood singularity. Solara's plasma compressed to neutron density. Lona's fractals destabilized completely.Mutual annihilation threshold.All three hovered at collapse. Mana exhaustion absolute. Spatial collapse seconds away.
Wilson intervened.