Floor 25 of the Heaven Reaching Tower.
Ryan stood in the middle of what appeared to be a palace made of pure, dazzling white stone.
His emerald green eyes moved toward the sky, reflecting delicate white feathers that slowly fell until his eyes stopped on a winged figure.
A woman was flying in the air above him, wearing white armor and a helmet. A golden halo floated delicately above her head. Her long golden hair fluttered in the wind while white wings spread behind her back, propelling her with a gentle, rhythmic flutter through the sky.
Her pure white eyes seemed to be filled with disdain as she stared at Ryan on the ground.
"An angel..." Ryan whispered, stunned by the sight before him.
From what he had learned at the academy, Angels were one of the peak races that the Aegis Alliance had encountered through the rifts. Almost every individual of their race has a crystal tree related to the element of light.
Seeing it and reading it were two entirely different things, and despite knowing his situation, Ryan couldn't help but observe the angel in front of him.
At least, that was the case until the angel made her first move.
The angel raised her right hand high into the sky, and the next moment, ten spears made of light appeared behind her back.
Lowering her hand, the spears fell one after another towards Ryan.
Ryan quickly took a stance while moving his right hand in front of him, his index and middle fingers raised like during his fight in the arena. This same movement that he has repeated tens of thousands of times in these past few months has become imprinted in him.
It wasn't a special technique that he had learned from a master. It was just a set of hand movements that he had found in an ancient book that was supposed to help him concentrate and direct his energy.
He had searched for information everywhere he could to improve himself even a little, and although at that time he found the idea of using hand movements to concentrate laughable, he had quickly discovered that his mind would strangely calm down when he performed these movements that seemed so simple.
And as the spears of light quickly approached him, he whispered, "Barrier."
A barrier barely larger than him surrounded him, blocking the spears of light that shattered into bursts of light on impact. The barrier shook slightly for a second. The next moment, tiny particles of light left by the remains of the spears were absorbed by his barrier, which took on a slight white glow.
Ryan only glanced at the particles of light once before directing his crystal essence through his ability.
Dozens of spike-shaped barriers appeared around the angel, aimed at her white wings, but before they could reach her, a white light escaped from the angel's body, taking the form of a bright white bell, protecting her from Ryan's attack.
The angel spread her two wings, making the bell disappear. The bursts of light around her seemed to give her a divine appearance.
A long sword of light appeared in her hands as she fluttered her wings, moving quickly towards Ryan, who reacted by creating a barrier in her way.
Tightening her grip on her sword, the angel swung it forward, slicing the barrier in her path in two.
The angel came before Ryan, her sword raised, ready to bring it down on him when her movements stopped when she saw the smile on Ryan's face. Raising her head, she saw a solid barrier fell on her.
She began moving her body to receive the attack when she felt her feet trapped in a barrier. Using more strength, she broke the barrier restraining her movements while swinging a slash at the barrier that fell on her.
A shrill sound rang out as the sword of light and the barrier collided.
Despite the frail appearance of her body, the angel had stopped the fall of the barrier, which was several times her size.
Resisting the weight behind the attack, she gradually pushed back the barrier.
Ryan, who had taken advantage of this opportunity to get away from the angel, once again formed numerous spike-shaped barriers around her as well as more solid barriers around the angel's arms to restrict her movements.
Sensing a threat to her life, a white light shone in the angel's eyes before spreading across her body and growing rapidly, blinding Ryan.
The sound of an explosion and shattering glass rang in his ears. The next moment, he felt his barrier shake violently, and some of his crystal essence drained in the process of maintaining it.
A crater had appeared where the angel was standing a moment ago. She had now appeared before him with her sword of light in her hands, swinging it quickly in a furious assault on his barrier.
As Ryan accessed his aurora collar, a white stone appeared in his hands. He made several seals with his hands, and small inscriptions materialized around him before being printed on the stone, which shone brightly the next instant.
Numerous elemental particles of light were released from the stone and quickly absorbed by Ryan’s barrier.
The barrier that trembled under each of the angel’s furious assaults became more stable, resisting more easily to the angel’s light elemental attack.
Yet, despite the consumption rate of his crystal essence being reduced to maintain his barrier in place, he still felt his crystal essence being drained quickly under the attacks.
Ryan frowned, "Looks like I can't go any further than that... I should at least try to give it my all," he said, biting his lip.
His face suddenly paled as a large amount of crystal essence disappeared from his spiritual world.
A barrier suddenly formed around the angel's head.
"Collapsing Barrier!"
The angel couldn't react to the apparition of the barrier around her head. The barrier suddenly began to compress on itself before exploding.
Ryan smiled momentarily, but his face quickly turned somber when he saw the angel still alive with shattering particles of light falling to the ground.
Despite protecting herself at the last moment with a layer of light, her face was still ruined by his attack, with half of her head bleeding profusely, but she looked at him with her eyes filled with cold light.
An explosion of light manifested around the angel as the sword in her hands grew larger and more tangible.
She raised the sword above her head before bringing it down on Ryan with all her strength.
Ryan watched the sword fall. He no longer had enough crystal essence to maintain his barrier.
He just looked at the angel with a smile as he whispered, "Fuck it..."
The angel's sword sliced through the barrier and Ryan. The next moment, his vision sank into a world filled with white light.
***
In another area of the academy, away from the Heaven Reaching Tower, a student with spiky dark blue hair was sleeping comfortably at the base of a tree with a soft pillow under his head and a look of satisfaction on his face.
A girl appeared next to him, with dark red eyes and long, dark red hair. Her slender figure was accentuated by the uniform she wore and a vibrant touch was added by the presence of a crimson scarf wrapped around her neck.
"Wen Zhao, wake up!" she said, her eyes staring at the sleeping student.
The expression of satisfaction on Wen Zhao's face changed as if someone had pulled him out of a sweet dream.
"Give me five more hours…" he replied, half asleep.
The girl frowned at his reaction as she jumped and sat on him, trying to provoke a response from him, but he just adjusted his position and seemed to continue sleeping without caring about the weight falling on him.
A vein appeared on the girl's forehead. She grabbed Wen Zhao by his uniform collar before lifting the upper part of his body and shaking him back and forth.
"Wake up!"
"Hmm? Liu Xing? Why are you waking me up? I was having a wonderful dream..." he said, slowly waking up, his voice weak as he yawned and rubbed his eyes while absentmindedly looking at her.
"You! Idiot! Someone took your place in the rankings. You dropped to 98th!"
"And?" Wen Zhao replied nonchalantly, rubbing his hair.
"Go challenge him to a duel, or at least take the tower trials to reclaim your spot. It should be easy for you if you put in some effort."
"Why would I do that? It takes too much effort. I could spend that time sleeping instead."
"Acting like that will make people think you're weak."
"It not like they will chase me in my dream. They can think whatever they want. It doesn't bother me."
"But it bothers me! The other students will dare to say that my fiance is weak!" Liu Xing raised her voice, clenching her small fists and gritting her teeth.
'She's cute when she acts like that,' thought Wen Zhao as he stroked Liu Xing's head.
"W-what are you doing?" she said, surprised, a blush appearing on her cheeks.
"I just thought you were cute and wanted to pet you."
"C-cute?!" Liu Xing's train of thought ceased as her entire face turned bright red.
With a swift motion, Wen Zhao wrapped his arms around Liu Xing and pulled her down to lie with him. His hand moved over his pillow until it reached an inscription, which he activated with his crystal essence, falling asleep the next moment.
Liu Xing suddenly snapped out of her stupor and looked at him before directing her gaze to the inscription on the pillow, a frown appearing on her face.
"All of this is Wen Xin's fault for giving you this pillow! Just wait until I catch you!"
Far from the two, inside the Master Inscriptionist Association, in the president's office, Wen Xin was quietly sitting at his desk when he suddenly felt a chill down his spine.
Beginning to get up to leave Wen Zhao's embrace, Liu Xing stopped, staring at his sleeping face. Her frowning expression softened at the sight, and she lay back down beside him.
"I'll deal with him later," she said, closing her eyes.
Angel, Wen Zhao and Liu Xing Illustrations:
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Great chapter thanks for your hard work
Thanks.