Back in the real world, chaos had ensued. After Delta had placed his hand on the orb, he began to wobble slightly before collapsing onto the table. Shortly after, the orb began to react.
It began with a few star-like sparkles beginning around the centre, before they grew, becoming larger and larger and spreading more stars to the rest of the orb, like a group of cancer cells.
Vienna was confused at first but became more surprised as the orb began to become more chaotic, exploding into more stars that expanded like the first. After a while, the entire orb was full of these small stars, but suddenly, they all disappeared.
Gone, as if they never existed.
She had rubbed her eyes as if they were playing tricks on her, but the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was a blinding flash of light before an explosion of force sent her flying backwards.
Vienna was sent flying into a tree tens of metres back and was out cold for a few seconds before she regained consciousness.
She looked down at the pendant she wore around her neck and saw that it had smashed into small pieces that had fallen onto her lap.
"I spent a lot of time on that…" she sighed.
She leapt back up to her feet and looked around quickly. There was a general procedure for this kind of thing, where the teachers would prioritise getting the students out of the immediate vicinity.
Vienna focused her mana on her hands, charging energy into her bracelets which began to expand, falling onto the ground where they turned into a small group of golems that were made of a highly magic-absorbing metal that was used to create magical constructs.
The four rings turned into four golems, each one resembling a mechanical dog, but having four arms sticking out from the side of the body to make the golem more versatile. This allowed the golems to complete a variety of basic tasks quickly and efficiently.
"Grab the students and take them back to the pathway. If they're injured, take them to the medical department."
A small chime signified they understood their orders, and they took off towards the children, scuttering on their four legs at the speeds of the motorbikes that Delta used to ride as a mercenary.
She then charged mana to her ring, causing a green aura to spread around her, rejuvenating her stamina and giving her a shield of protection.
After that, she ran into the billowing smoke, putting on a pair of gold-rimmed glasses that allowed her to see through the magical mist so that she could see the rubble she was navigating.
Ahead of her, she saw a student stuck under a high jump bar which had been knocked over in the explosion.
Although they would have been able to lift a regular bar off, this one was made of a metal alloy that allowed it to resist rogue energy blasts, this also made it heavier, and more difficult to move around.
Vienna reached into her pockets and took out a glove, putting it on before charging mana into it. The glove became more metallic, spreading up her forearm and ending just above her elbows.
"Help! Please! I don't know what happened!" the girl shouted out to the figure she had seen in the mist.
"It's alright now, don't worry. I'm here and I'll get you out."
"Ms Ardensburg? Is that you?"
"Yeah, it is. I'll get you out, then you run down towards the tree line. Okay?"
"Okay."
She leaned over and picked up the pole, lifting it with ease before pulling the girl up.
"Can you walk?"
"I think so…"
"Okay, off you go then."
She pointed in the direction she came from, and the girl began to walk.
Vienna chose to avoid sending the children towards the academy because she wasn't sure how far the mist had spread, and she couldn't get rid of it because it would endanger the students if she were to manipulate large scale magic.
At the same time as her, the other teachers were also doing the same thing. They would do whatever they could to find and rescue the students, before sending them towards the academy and finally, heading towards the centre of the explosion.
Unbeknownst to them at the time, in the middle of the explosion was Delta. Strangely
enough despite being at the centre of the explosion, he looked completely unharmed and was only unconscious.
The table had been blown into the ground, however, Delta hadn't moved from the spot, despite being the closest to the orb.
A few moments later, Vergum arrived at the centre. He saw Delta on the ground and was puzzled instantly.
For Delta to have remained in the exact same spot in the explosion that had even sent Vienna flying, Delta would have to be attributed to every element that had been in the orb, because you can't be injured by magic of your own creation.
This was impossible, however, as the magic in the orb was of every type of magic attribute. All the way from fire to ice, poison to lightning.
The largest number of attributes any single person has ever had was four, and he had gone on to become the King's personal Chancellor in the Kingdom of Altis where the Academy was located.
Whilst Vergum had never taken interest in it, he knew that some of the Arcana and Mana users in the Kingdom's Capital had been working on creating a superhuman with the capabilities of all types of magic, as well as all attributes.
There had been no success just yet, but small progressions were being made often, and Vergum guessed that they'd have solved the problem in the next few hundred years.
It wasn't rare for him to think this way since magic practitioners would have much larger life expectancies since their bodies can replace the energy they are using to survive with magic instead.
The stronger one becomes, the more of this energy they can replace with mana, and thus the longer they can live.
Since Delta was able to use all magic attributes, him riling up all of the magic in the orb must have been the reason for the explosion, so the first thing Vergum would have to do was to hide his secret.
He took out a pill from his pocket, smashing it into a paste before dropping it into Delta's mouth.
He then dirtied him a little with the mud on the floor, before slinging him over his back roughly and carrying him back towards the Academy.
"I got the boy! We can move out now!" he shouted.
Hearing this, Vienna did a final scout of the area for any more students, and upon finding nobody but Vergum, Luo and Angus, she raised her hand into the air and charged mana into the ring on her middle finger.
A wave of energy spread throughout the area, and suddenly all of the rogue magic in the area was sucked in quickly, visibly entering the ring before disappearing.
She stood there for a little while, before collapsing to her knees in exhaustion.
A ring that could absorb magic was incredibly powerful, but it came at a cost. She would have to use an equivalent amount of mana to the magic she absorbed, meaning even with extra mana sources, she couldn't use the magic for long periods of time without wearing herself out too.
She popped a pill quickly, swallowing it before sitting on the ground to regain some energy.
Luo and Argus made their ways over to the students, gathering them up before doing a headcount.
"I think that's all of them. Other than the black-haired kid anyway," Luo said.
"Go set the tables back up. We're going to have to continue. Vergum can take the kid to the nurse, and have Vienna set up some precautions in case that happens again. I'll have to speak with the headmistress later."
Luo sighed before grumbling under his breath as he led the students to the middle of the javelin field in the middle. There were no loose objects around, so they should be fine if anything else happens.
"Damn faulty tech…" Luo grumbled again.