The two stood there in the dim hallway, looking at the ceiling. The stones that the walls and ceiling consisted of seemed to be flickering as if whatever was powering them was malfunctioning. The ground was slightly shaking but they both knew it wouldn’t be from an earthquake.

Then suddenly, Villin had a deja vu as he remembered his first dream. Dread overcame his heart as he suddenly grabbed Amelia and jumped backward.

At practically the same time the shaking intensified and a part of the ceiling fell down, exactly where they had just been. Yet even now some of the smaller rocks and a large amount of dust had fallen onto them.

Amelia quickly got up with her wand in hand, she was pointing it at the part of the ceiling that had now opened up, Villin saw she was planning to climb onto the mountain of rocks and see what had caused this but he grabbed her arm and said “Run” before dragging her along.

Amelia didn’t resist and started running alongside him, her curiosity now replaced with a certain amount of fear as she realized what had just happened. A part of The Academy, known to be the school with the best defenses on the entire central continent, had collapsed.

Villin ran until there they got to a crossroad, then he went to the left. The collapsed roof was in between the duo and the magic array classroom, which was still his goal for now. Even though he had no idea what was happening, the professors probably did and since professor Crumb told him the magic array classroom was a ‘good place to be in these days’ he would make it his priority to reach it.

They ran through multiple corridors, Villin knew the layout of the school by heart and so it wasn’t hard for him to figure out an alternate route toward the classroom. The shaking intensified somewhat, and after running for five minutes Villin only saw two other students, they looked terrified and headed for the dormitories where the rest of the students were.

The walls continued fluctuating when Villin suddenly heard a rumbling behind him. He turned around and saw that thirty meters further a part f the ceiling had collapsed again, he was starting tho fear this would continue until the entire school collapsed when the situation changed.

Two figures jumped out of the hole in the wall, they were both kids that looked slightly older compared to himself and Amelia, they wore dark green robes that were full of dust. Amelia had also noticed the situation and without hesitation, she fired off a spell without incantation.

The two green-robed enemies had only just noticed them when Amelia’s spell hit one of them. The boy that got hit instantly puked out blood before falling off of the pile of rocks.

The girl that had jumped down next to him looked at them with surprise before sending a green streak toward them. Villin promptly stood in front of Amilia while casting ‘Reverto’.

About a sixth of his magic power was consumed as the spell got sent back toward the caster, and nearly the same time Amelia aimed her wand over his shoulder and sent out a dark purple streak of light. The green-robed girl managed to block the first attack with another spell but she hadn’t noticed the dark purple streak of light in time with the limited lighting. The spell hit her in the abdomen, said abdomen immediately got pierced as if she got stabbed with a spear and she fell down in astonishment.

Villin’s breathing quickened, they were fighting other people, other magus. He felt like puking himself for some reason he didn’t understand. He hadn’t felt nervous thus far and even took death lightly when he stood in the arena with Kayley and Rein, so why did he feel so sick right now.

This time it was Amelia who grabbed his hand before running away, he followed as he forced his confusing feelings back, they quickly turned a corner before Amelia pushed him against a wall and hurriedly spoke. 

“Those green robes mean they are students of Decorus, the second-best school in the central continent. Looking at the color of the robes they could be anywhere between the first and third grade. They will likely move their main forces toward the dormitories meaning we are mostly safe. As for the reason you wanted to take me away from the dormitories, is it because you knew about the attack?” Villin wasn’t sure what to think of the way Amelia was looking at him, it was extremely intense and uncomfortable, nonetheless, it allowed him to get back to his wits and reply in a steady manner.

“The teachers knew, we have to make out way to the magic array classroom, it’s only a few minutes away!”

Even though Villin didn’t mind telling her the exact situation there was no time for all of that right now. If the school was truly being attacked they only had three possible courses of action.

The first possible course of action was to team up with all of the students in the dormitories and try to defeat the invaders. The second possible course of action was to head toward the grade holder’s office. The grade holder wasn’t actually a teacher as far as they knew but students did have to go to him if they wanted to get permission to use the teleporters or something of the like. It was possible the grade holder themselves had a way to open the doors that led to the teleporters but it was still rather unlikely.

Villin figured that if The Academy was truly smart they would probably have the teleporters immediately disable when the defenses get breached, otherwise the enemies might be able to get to the other sections of the school and attack the higher grades.

The third course of action was to follow professor Crumb’s hint and get to the magic array classroom. There must be a reason he sent the trio there, maybe it was safe from attacks or it would open a secret teleporter to evacuate, or perhaps its where the reinforcements would come from. 

Amelia decided to follow Villin’s lead simply because she herself also had no idea what to do, they had no clue how many attackers there were, there might even be teachers among them. As for their own teachers, she had no idea when they might come back but she didn’t hold much hope toward a rescue.

And so the duo headed started moving again, ready to fight against any enemies that might appear.