The sports festival started off without a hitch, and the sports field was alive with the sounds of cheering.
Both family and friends alike of the students were watching and doing all they could to cheer them on.
Currently, it was the third year girl's 800 meter race, so Lucian was in the crowds watching the girls Stella's grade run with all of their strength, trying desperately to end up first.
Unfortunately, no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't even hold a candle to Stella, who finished ages before the person in second got even close to the finish line.
Upon crossing the finish line, the crowd applauded and cheered as Stella took a gold medal and proudly hung it around her neck.
The most surprising part was she barely looked like she broke a sweat from the whole ordeal, while the girls behind her looked like someone had dumped buckets of water all over their faces.
Watching this, Lucian smiled to himself.
"No one can even hope to be your match; you're as impressive as ever, Stella," he quietly muttered.
Instead of feeling envious or jealous towards his fiance, like many would assume, Lucian was genuinely happy and proud of her.
While he often felt that he wasn't worth her and that having her marry him would be a waste, he still genuinely loved Stella and had loved her for years.
Feeling his gaze on her, Stella turned in Lucian's direction and flashed her medal, smiling brightly.
Momentarily shocked by her actions, Lucian gave her a thumbs up.
Unfortunately, their little interaction caught countless onlookers' eyes, causing them to glare at Lucian angrily.
"Sigh… Love really is blind," some of the students couldn't help but mutter under hushed breaths.
Since Stella was right there, they tried to keep their voices down so that she wouldn't hear, but they would probably say more insulting things openly if Lucian had been there alone.
Realizing her mistake, Stella gave Lucian an apologetic look before talking to some of the nearby students, trying to direct their attention off of Lucian.
Feeling a buzz in his pocket, Lucian pulled out his phone to see a message from Alecia stating that a food truck arrived carrying groceries. Still, other than that, nothing else noteworthy occurred.
Lucian texted Alecia to monitor them, just in case, before putting his phone back into his pocket.
"Hey guys, I need to go grab some water from the water fountain inside, so I'll be gone for a bit," James called out from Lucian's side.
His mother had brought him some sports beverages, but James didn't want to drink them.
Instead, he preferred some nice cold water, which he had run out of, given his empty water bottle.
"Oh wait, I'm going to come with you. I need to take a quick piss," Ethan added.
Lucian nodded nonchalantly, "Okay, I'll see you two in a bit then."
Seeing the two of them walk into the building, Lucian lies back on his bleacher seat, watching some clouds in the sky.
Since they had their event just before Stella's, they needed to wait at least half an hour before their next one.
"You know what? I'll go inside too… This sun is starting to feel a little irritating on my skin. So I'll go inside too."
While he wasn't getting anything like an allergic reaction, Lucian could feel that his whole body rejected the sun's rays, and it caused his skin to feel slightly itchy.
Pulling himself back, Lucian walked over to the door before his phone started buzzing uncontrollably.
Understanding that something had probably happened, Lucian hurriedly ripped his phone out of his pocket to see Alecia's notification.
[They have a dimension destabilizer! Get out of there!]
Lucian's eyes widened in shock as he read Alecia's message.
Dimension destabilizers were extremely hard to find, and acquiring them was even more problematic.
How the hell did the people aiming for Stella get their hands on it?
If what Alecia said was true, it was absolutely terrible news.
But before Lucian could react, he felt the ground beneath his feet rumbling uncontrollably, as if being hit by a massive earthquake.
"KYAAAHH! WHAT'S GOING ON!"
"EVERYONE GET TO COVER! STAY AWAY FROM THE BUILDING; IT COULD COLLAPSE!"
Screams of panic echoed through the crowd as countless people ran around trying to find cover or protect their family and friends.
The rumbling didn't last long, so when it ended, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"Looks like it was some kind of earthquake; luckily, we made it out okay."
"Thank goodness!"
Unfortunately, Lucian knew… This was just the beginning of their problems.
He turned around and saw Stella being guarded by a group of men in civilian clothes, people whom Lucian assumed were secret bodyguards that Stella's family had prepared for her.
He even recognized some of them as the butlers working in the mansion.
"As expected of my future in-laws, they came prepared," Lucian smiled slightly.
But he knew that once the real terrors were unleashed, even they would have difficulty getting Stella to safety.
But even then, they were far stronger than Lucian, so it wasn't like Lucian could do much by helping them fight.
"It's better for me to go and break the dimension destabilizer to end this quickly."
Pocketing his phone, Lucian bolted toward where Alecia had said the device was. After entering the school building, he became visibly faster, almost becoming a blur to the average naked eye.
But before he could go too far, a momentary realization caused him to stop dead in his tracks.
"James and Ethan!"
Remembering that his two friends had gone to go to the bathroom and get a drink beforehand, he realized that their lives were in danger!
Hurriedly turning around, Lucian ran with all his might to find his two friends.
"Please, please be okay!"
Sweat began forming on Lucian's forehead as he began to fear the worst-case scenario, but luckily as he turned a corner, he saw his two friends chatting as they walked out of the bathroom.
"Thank god you two are okay…"
Breathing out a sigh of relief, Lucian was about to call out to them, but a crack appeared in the space behind them before he could.
A pair of raptorial legs appeared from the crack and stabbed at the two boys, piercing them cleanly through their stomachs.