The air thickened, pulsing with a dark, charged mana so intense it felt like a weight pressing down on my chest. Every instinct I had screamed danger, and before I could blink, a twisted, hulking figure emerged from the smoke—a monstrous version of a student, but with something far worse in its eyes: cold intelligence, watching us like prey.
"This… this thing wasn't in the novel," I whispered, barely holding back the urge to swear. As if the regular corrupted students weren't bad enough.
A blinding surge of radiant mana flooded the room, momentarily stunning everything in its path. I spun around to see Instructor Seraphina step in, blazing like a miniature sun, her aura rolling off her like a shockwave. The cafeteria doors flew open as several academy guards followed her lead, each armed to the teeth, their eyes locked on the corrupted students, ready to strike.
"Wait!" I shouted, darting in front of them. "Don't just randomly hit them! They're corrupted students, and if you push too hard, they'll—" I hesitated, lowering my voice with a grimace. "They'll blow. Big time."
Seraphina's eyes narrowed as she nodded in quick understanding, her mana easing just a fraction. "Understood. Focus on containment, not destruction," she called out to the guards. They shifted, adopting more careful, measured stances.
I felt the tension ratchet up around us. Whatever had changed in this twisted timeline, the rules were different, and so were the threats.
The lead creature let out a chilling, guttural laugh, its gaze sweeping over us with unsettling focus, like it knew exactly how to dismantle our defenses.
This was supposed to be just another day. Now it was a live battleground.
"Well," I muttered under my breath, gripping my sword tighter. "Nothing like a bit of chaos to spice up the afternoon."
Seraphina's gaze cut through the chaos, zeroing in on me as she swept closer, her tone deadly calm. "Lucius, what in the world is going on here?"
I met her eyes, talking fast. "It's bad. These students took some kind of illegal potion, turned them into… well, that. They're unpredictable, volatile—if they blow, they'll take out half the cafeteria with them. We've got to contain them without too much damage."
Seraphina's face darkened, taking in the corrupted students, her jaw set. "Understood." Her gaze landed on the hulking lead creature—the Higher-tier Corrupted. The calculating glint in its eyes sent a shiver down her spine too. "This wasn't some careless accident. Someone orchestrated this. Deliberately."
She turned sharply to the guards. "Containment only. Use barriers to force them back; focus on evacuation for the students. Keep those things from spreading outside this room."
The guards snapped into action, casting containment spells around the creatures, their movements efficient and practiced. Magical barriers flared to life, herding the remaining students toward the exits.
With Seraphina here, the chaos started to fall into a tense kind of order. But as I caught a look on her face—a flicker of wary calculation—I knew she felt it too: this was only the beginning.
I barely had a second to catch my breath when the realization hit me, as sharp and cold as a dagger. My gaze fixed on the Higher-tier Corrupted—its movements, the unsettling power thrumming off it. Something about this didn't fit; in the novel, the corrupted students were supposed to appear way later, and never inside the academy, let alone in the cafeteria during lunch hour. The plot had been blown wide open.
But there was something worse. This creature's intelligence—it watched us with an awareness no Corrupted should possess. And the aura? It pulsed with a depth and menace that had no place in the original story.
My mind raced, scanning through what I remembered. This was supposed to be a standard corruption incident, simple enough: deal with the chaos, get everyone out safe, maybe even wrap up with a life lesson. But this was anything but standard.
Then I saw it: a faint, glowing mark on the creature's chest—a Corruption Seal, the kind of forbidden rune used to control mana. But this one was far more intricate, a malicious design miles beyond anything I'd ever read about. Whoever had done this wasn't just tampering with students. They were rewriting the rules, going far beyond a simple academy scuffle.
My jaw tightened as I realized just how off-script things had gone. Whoever was behind this wanted one thing clear:
The academy, and everything I thought I knew about it, was in far deeper trouble than I'd imagined.
The creature's roar shattered the tense silence, a low, guttural sound that reverberated through the cafeteria. Mana thickened around it, a vortex pulling power from the other corrupted students like a parasitic drain. As the creature absorbed their energy, its body twisted and expanded, limbs morphing into monstrous shapes, skin darkening to a shadowy hue. Lucius stared, stunned. This wasn't just a powered-up corrupted student—it was evolving, mutating before their eyes.
"Perfect," Lucius muttered, gripping his sword tighter. "Because this wasn't nightmare fuel already."
I caught Dorian's eye, where a spark of fire and lightning danced along his clenched fists. "Lucius," Dorian's voice held a sense of urgency, "if we don't stop this thing, it's going to tear through every defense in the academy."
I forced a nod, swallowing the dread creeping up his throat. "Looks like we've got no choice."
Instructor Seraphina, seeing the creature growing in power, summons her own formidable magic, sending waves of energy to pin it down. "Dorian, with me!" she commands, casting barriers and unleashing beams of mana to disrupt the creature's transformation.
Dorian joins her, casting spells with relentless precision, each strike filled with fire and lightning as he channels everything he has into the fight. Lucius watches, praying that this might finally trigger the moment he's been waiting for—Dorian's Divine Element awakening. But the creature's power surges again, nearly breaking through Seraphina's spell.
A pulse of verdant energy ripples through the room as Instructor Seraphina steps up, filling the air with a crisp, earthy scent that cuts through the chaos. Her aura blazes—nature and wood mana, thick and intense. Vines and roots snake across the floor, wrapping themselves around the monster, twisting tighter with every drop of mana she pours into them. The creature strains against the growing entanglement, its eyes flashing with something far too calculating for comfort.
"Dorian, with me!" Seraphina's voice rings out, sharp and commanding. In one fluid motion, she thrusts her hand forward, reinforcing her spell with a barrier, interwoven with wood and mana, aiming to hold back the monster's relentless advance. The monster barely falters, its twisted form bulking up, seeming to feed off the very magic trying to restrain it.
And then, Dorian charges forward, his own mana flaring in a storm of fire and lightning. The cafeteria erupts into a fiery green glow as his attacks mesh with Seraphina's, a relentless bombardment that would send a normal monster running. But not this one. Instead, the thing absorbs each strike, its form swelling larger, darker. I catch the glint of frustration flickering across Dorian's face as the creature roars, swatting Seraphina's vines aside, tearing through her barrier like it's paper.
It lunges, a clawed arm smashing through the remnants of her spell, aimed right at her.
"Dorian!" I shout, but he's already moving, throwing himself between them. He summons a blast of flame at point-blank range, deflecting the strike, but the force sends him skidding backward. There's a beat where he stumbles, catching his footing, jaw clenched, face twisted in frustration. Sweat beads down his forehead, and I can see the exhaustion, the mounting struggle of fighting something so unstoppable. Yet he's not backing down; if anything, he's digging deeper, his mana surging with a kind of raw defiance I hadn't seen before.
And then it happens—a shift in the air, a crackling spark of energy rippling out from him. My heart skips a beat as I sense it—a strange, powerful energy, almost… legendary. I'm watching a myth take shape in real-time.
Dorian grits his teeth, his aura flaring brighter, hotter, the sheer intensity nearly blinding. A brilliant light suddenly engulfs him, and in that instant, he's more than just Dorian, my friend. He's something more, something dangerous, something divine. The air thickens with an elemental purity that makes my skin prickle as his mana splits and rebinds, fire and lightning merging in a dazzling fusion.
His fists are clenched, blazing like molten metal, and his eyes, glowing like they're lit from within, lock onto the creature with a fierce intensity. That aura surrounding him—no, radiating from him—ripples outward, filling the room with a blinding brilliance that holds this undeniable power, one that practically dares the monster to keep pushing its luck.
Seraphina, catching her breath, pulls back just slightly, giving Dorian the space to do what's coming. A glint of something between awe and satisfaction flickers in her eyes. "Nicely done, Dorian," she murmurs, and then louder, "Let's end this."
Dorian doesn't need any more encouragement. There's no hesitation, no trace of the frustration that had clouded his face before. It's like he's been reborn in those few seconds, and the creature seems to feel it, too. For the first time, the gleam in its dark, monstrous eyes dims, the sinister intelligence flickering, as though it's starting to grasp just how outmatched it's become.
Dorian raises his hands, and the flames and lightning converge, surging together into a spiraling orb that hums with an intensity that's palpable even from where I'm standing. And then he releases it. A beam of pure, divine energy shoots across the room, slamming into the monster, staggering it, scorching its dark aura, its hulking frame trembling under the weight of his unleashed power.
Seeing the opening, Seraphina doesn't miss a beat. Vines thicken and grow, doubling in strength as she funnels more mana into them, winding tighter around the creature's limbs, forcing it down, pinning it. She gives Dorian a small nod, the kind you give a fighter who's just earned a place on the front lines.
And Dorian? He's not done. His eyes burn with a fierce focus as he channels everything he has into one final, unrestrained burst of fire and lightning. Each bolt strikes with an intensity I've never seen, tearing through the creature's defenses. It's like watching a storm made flesh, a whirlwind of elemental fury that doesn't let up until the monster's aura begins to crack and shatter.
I take a step back, letting out a breath I didn't realize I was holding, watching as Dorian—now wielding the full force of his Divine Element—finally overwhelms the creature. Its form withers under the relentless assault, the once-intimidating dark energy fading into nothing.
"Now that's more like it," I mutter, a grin tugging at my lips. I can't help it—seeing Dorian like this, in his full power, makes me feel like I'm witnessing something legendary, a story I'll be telling over and over.
With a final roar, Dorian slams down his last bolt of divine energy, a strike that shakes the very foundation of the room. And when the light fades, all that's left is silence and the creature's mangled, defeated form, pinned under Seraphina's vines.
With his new power blazing around him, Dorian stands tall before the higher-tier Corrupted, his face hard-set with that look of sheer, I-am-the-wind-and-the-fire determination. Mana is practically spilling off him in waves—strong, fierce, and as unstoppable as a runaway cart with no brakes. The air around us crackles, charged and electric, like even it's trying to keep up with the sheer intensity radiating from him. And me? Well, I'm just here gripping my sword, silently thinking: Finally. This was the moment I'd been waiting for.
But as Dorian shifts, ready to bring down the hammer on this thing once and for all, the creature lets out one last, guttural roar, its own mana spiking to a sickeningly dangerous level. Instinctively, my grip on my sword tightens, a prickle of dread scraping down my spine.
Because if Dorian's newfound power isn't enough to put this thing down? Then we're in for one very long, very messy day.