The world snapped back into existence.

  Seraphina's eyes flew open. Her lungs seized, then expanded in a gasp that burned. The ceiling above her was white, fluorescent, real.

  Her body remembered how to breathe, how to feel, how to exist in three dimensions with weight and temperature and the dull ache of muscles held too long in one position.

  She was in her dorm room. Bed. Desk. Window showing a sky that flickered with unnatural colors.

  “Fuuuck, that was…trippy.”

  The door was open.

  Reina stood in the doorway, one hand on the frame, the other holding a cigarette that had burned down to ash without her noticing. Her ginger hair was disheveled, her gold eyes sharp despite the dark circles beneath them. She looked like she'd been running for hours.

  "One of you is awake," she said. “Finally.”

  Seraphina sat up slowly, her hand instinctively going to her throat. The phantom sensation of that darkness, that void, still clung to her skin like oil. "What... what happened?"

  "An assault." Reina stepped into the room, her heels clicking against the floor with deliberate precision. "Twenty minutes ago, the Academy's outer wards collapsed, the other students were in disarray due to the rogue witches rushing in and I’ve been protecting you all since the thirteen of you." She gestured vaguely. "Were completely unresponsive in your rooms."

  "A Zenith," Seraphina breathed. "Someone trapped us in a Zenith."

  "Obviously." The voice came from the doorway.

  Neila stood there, leaning against the frame with her arms crossed. Her twin-tails were slightly disheveled, her blue eyes sharper than usual, but otherwise she looked untouched by their experience in the void. The same couldn't be said for the expression she leveled at Seraphina, her eyes narrowed and crossed her arms.

  “I woke up faster than you.”

  Seraphina’s mouth was slightly agape. “Is that what you’re saying? In this situation?”

  For a long moment, the two of them stared at each other. The air between them crackled.

  Then Neila's lips twitched. Just slightly. Just enough.

  Reina watched them. "As touching as this reunion is, we have bigger problems." She gestured toward the window, where the flickering sky had begun to pulse with a deeper crimson. "The invasion is still ongoing. Sophia and the others are still sleeping. You two are the first ones out."

  "How many?" Seraphina asked, already moving toward the door.

  "How am I supposed to know? They hit us hard and fast, whoever planned this knew exactly when our defenses would be weakest."

  Neila pushed off from the doorframe, cracking her neck with a sharp twist. "So they're smart and organized. How delightful." Her eyes, those unsettling chips of cerulean blue, had begun to glow with the faint light of gathered mana. "How does this relate to me? Those vermin aren’t my responsibility, why do you expect me to risk my life to protect this wretched place?"

  Seraphina stepped forwards.

  “I’ll go.”

  Neila clicked her tongue and narrowed her eyes.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  [She’s just like Lucy, some hero you are]

  “You’re gonna get yourself killed.”

  “If we really aren’t just cogs in a machine then what are we supposed to be? We’re tools meant to be used to save people.”

  “Huh?”

  Neila stared at her, wide-eyed.

  [At the very least she isn’t as stupid as Lucy, but she isn’t much better]

  “Fine, you’d die without me anyways, I’m following.”

  "Courtyard's the main front. They're trying to push through to the main hall." Reina stepped aside, clearing the doorway. "I'd send you with a squad, but we’re currently short handed so you two will have to do."

  "We're faster alone anyways, we’re the ." Seraphina was already past her, moving into the corridor with the fluid grace.

  Neila followed quickly behind her.

  “Don’t ever say that again, that was corny as shit, like something out of a superhero movie.”

  “Is it wrong to want to sound cool?”

  “Yes.”

  Her pink hair streamed behind her, wispy bangs catching the flickering light. "Neila?"

  "I'm right behind you, don't worry." Neila's voice dripped with its usual condescension, but there was something else beneath it now. Something almost like respect. "Try not to die before I get there. It'd be embarrassing to explain to the family."

  "Would you care?"

  "Of course, the funeral would be a pain in the ass to organize, and since no one could give an inkling of a shit about you, all the responsibility would be dumped onto me."

  They moved.

  The corridor stretched before them, scuffed floors, flickering lights, the distant sound of combat echoing through the walls. Students huddled in doorways, some armed, some clutching wounds, all with the same wild-eyed look of people who'd woken to find their safe space suddenly unsafe.

  A first-year, his uniform torn, reached for Seraphina as she passed. "Please help."

  "Go towards the end of the hallway, you should meet the Vice Principal."

  "But-"

  "Move."

  He moved.

  Neila shot her a glance as they rounded a corner. "Bossy. I like it."

  "Shut up."

  The emergency stairs were chaotic, students were pushing past each other, teachers trying to maintain order, the distant thunder of explosions shaking dust from the ceiling. Seraphina took them three at a time, her hand trailing along the railing for balance, her mana already spreading outward in that thin, probing wave she'd developed in the darkness.

  *Eighteen hostiles in the courtyard. No—twenty-three. More pouring in from the east.*

  "Can you feel that?" she asked.

  Neila, keeping pace beside her with that deceptive speed her small frame allowed, tilted her head. "Feel what?"

  "Them. Their mana signatures. There’s something wrong with them, like a balloon on the verge of popping."

  "Gross imagery, but no. Mana signatures aren’t really something I can pick up on." Neila's eyes narrowed.

  “Help me!”

  A student crawled towards Neila, pulling down at her pants.

  Neila’s face contorted into a look of disgust, quickly shaking her leg.

  “Get off me.”

  The student flew towards the wall, his back hitting against the brick wall.

  “Neila!”

  “What?” Neila placed her hand on her hip. “He crawled towards me first, like some dirty little bug.”

  His hands started to balloon up, then slowly, his cheeks, his flesh started to expand like something was filling him up with air.

  “Help me.”

  Pop.

  Blood splattered across Neila’s face, she immediately recoiled, wiping her face of the blood.

  Seraphina immediately froze up at the pool of blood beneath her feet, leaning against a nearby pillar for support, she blinked once, then twice.

  Her throat burned up as she puked out her lunch.

  “That was a surprise.”

  "This is crazy," Seraphina said, wiping her lips. "An insta-kill technique is crazy, it doesn’t even seem like an intangible technique, more like an ability of reincarnation."

  "What’s your plan then?”

  “We jump them.”

  “Is that really your plan?”

  “Yep.”

  “Dumbass.”

  They burst through the emergency exit into the courtyard.

  The manicured lawns were gone, torn to mud and rubble, craters dotting the earth. The fountain, that classical stone monstrosity, lay shattered in pieces across what used to be a reflecting pool.

  Students fought in scattered clusters against opponents who moved with unnatural speed and coordination.

  Rogue witches. Dozens of them. Maybe hundreds.

  And everywhere, everywhere. There was blood.

  Seraphina took it in in a single frozen moment.

  A girl she recognized from her Mana Theory class, pinned beneath a chunk of fallen masonry, her leg bent at an angle. Three rogues advancing on her position, their eyes gleaming with the feral light of people who'd been hunting too long.

  Two students trying to hold a defensive line near the main hall entrance, their techniques flashing in desperate, uncoordinated bursts against a wave of attackers that seemed endless.

  And at the center, a figure stood alone amidst the carnage, watching the chaos with the casual interest of someone observing ants through glass.

  She had this shiny long black hair that was hidden by her gray hood, even with her face obscured, her golden eyes still pierced through.

  “Go.”