"Hah. Of all people, you called her?" Ethan chuckled, though his breath was ragged. "You really think Professor Lena is a good match for me?"
Smoke curled from his shoulders. Blood trailed down his chin. His eyes were sunken, filled with manic confidence.
"This woman’s a duelist," he continued, slowly spreading his arms. "One-on-one. Not crowd control. She’s completely out of her element here."
The students tensed again.
Their faces dimmed as his words took root.
Ethan stepped forward, confidence returning with each word.
"She might scare you kids, but I already beat her once. Professor Evaluation, remember? Back when everyone still thought she was untouchable."
"And you know what the best part is?"
Behind him, the ground writhed.
From the cracks in the floor and shadows under the walls, they returned.
Their chittering filled the silence like a whispering tide.
All under his control.
"I’ve got more where that came from. I could level a city if I wanted," Ethan said, laughing. "Your little miracle worker here—he bought you time. But not victory."
The students recoiled.
But she didn’t flinch.
She didn’t even blink.
Instead, she tilted her head slightly and smiled—not wide, not smug.
"Professor Ethan," she said softly.
Her eyes sharpened like daggers.
"If you surrender now, I’ll make sure you’re given a chance to hire a lawyer."
The tension in the air stretched like a blade.
Ethan’s smile twitched. Just a little.
"...That’s it?" he scoffed. "You think a polite warning is gonna work on me?"
She stepped forward once.
That alone was enough.
The entire swarm froze.
Even Ethan went quiet.
A tremor passed through the floor. It wasn’t magic. It wasn’t an ability.
The students didn’t know it yet, but they were watching a woman who’d killed before without blinking. Who had survived wars while others studied spells. Who had learned control not for style—but for survival.
She took another step.
The light in the room dimmed slightly, not from power, but from intent.
And behind her, Rin—still bleeding, still conscious—grinned faintly.
"...Told you," he muttered.
The tension held like a breath on the edge of breaking.
Ethan’s insects clicked and shifted behind him, ready to strike.
But Lena didn’t draw her weapon.
She watched him with the same calm gaze she used in lectures—only colder. She was waiting. Letting him speak. Letting him unravel himself.
"Oh, don’t look at me like that," Ethan said with a sneer. "The disappointed teacher act? I’ve seen it too many times."
Lena’s voice was steady. "I’m not disappointed."
Ethan laughed, wiping blood from the side of his mouth.
"Now that’s the Lena I remember. The Ice Witch. Cold, rigid, and obsessed with control."
He began pacing slowly, hands clasped behind his back like a mockery of a gentleman.
"You think I’m a monster for what I did here. For hurting a few brats with too much hope in their eyes." His tone turned mocking. "But I’m just honest. They needed this. He needed this."
His eyes flicked to Rin, who was still kneeling, still breathing shallowly.
Lena’s expression didn’t change, but her fingers twitched slightly.
"You know what I hate about this place, Lena? All this fake idealism. This academy pretends it’s building heroes, but really? It’s just raising corpses with pretty resumes."
He crouched beside one of the broken devices Rin had used.
"Do you even know what he did to try and stop me? Pushed his gift until it burned him from the inside. That’s your ’brave little soldier’ over there. That’s what your nurturing produced."
Lena’s voice was low. "He saved lives."
Ethan shrugged. "And shortened his own. Fair trade, isn’t it?"
Then his smile twisted further. Cruel. Almost playful.
"You want to know the real joke, Lena?"
She didn’t answer, but he leaned closer anyway.
"I didn’t even need to do this."
"I could’ve walked out of the academy tonight and disappeared. But no. I wanted this. The chaos. The fear. Watching those little prodigies cry and beg for their limbs."
The students behind Lena went pale. Some couldn’t even look at him anymore.
"Because this is what I am."
He stood straight, spread his arms like a preacher before a burning church.
"You all thought I was the genius professor, right? Published papers, advanced theories, the golden child of insect manipulation."
His voice dropped to a hiss.
"But really? I’m just a man who figured out how to turn suffering into a science."
He pointed to a girl trembling near the wall.
"You know what her scream sounded like when I snapped her barrier in half? Like a kettle boiling. Whistling."
Then he pointed at another.
"That one? Pissed himself when I pretended to send a bug into his ear. Didn’t even touch him. Still did it."
His eyes returned to Lena.
"And that boy—Rin—he lasted the longest. I’ll give him that."
Ethan’s grin faded slightly.
"He annoyed me. In fact, he’s the one that made this much trouble for me! He even killed almost all my insect monster! I’ll kill him for sure...But it would be slow death."
Lena’s eyes finally narrowed. Her voice dropped lower than before.
"Oh, come now. Spare me the lecture. You’ve killed before. You’ve done worse."
"I’ve never tortured children."
Ethan tilted his head. "Not with magic. But with expectations? Rules? Don’t kid yourself, Lena. You’re just a different kind of poison."
Lena took one step forward. It was all she needed.
The insects behind Ethan tensed, but didn’t move.
"You’re wrong," she said simply.
"I never expected them to be perfect. Just strong enough to survive people like you."
For a moment, the words hung there.
A deep silence stretched between them.
Then Ethan chuckled again, tapping his temple.
"You want to know the best part?" he said. "I’m not even the worst thing waiting out there. I’m just the start."
"And once I’m done with you, I’ll go back to work. I’ll refine the process. Make better insects. Smarter ones. Ones that don’t just kill—they remember."
"I’ll burn your office," Ethan whispered. "And I’ll leave one thing alive. Just one. So they can tell the story."
"Tell them: Lena couldn’t save you."
"I won’t need to save them," she said, as she settled into her martial arts form.
"Because you won’t leave this room."