As all of these battles were going on, within the Observation Hall, the atmosphere was a mix of awe and breathless tension.
Various Professor, some of whom didn't even teach Freshman at all, were standing clustered around the massive three-dimensional projection of the Monster Scape, its various biomes rotating slowly as mana currents flickered across the holographic terrain.
The battlefield at the center of the Rainforest Biome had become a vortex of elemental carnage. Colored pulses representing the strongest students flared with every movement, spell, or clash.
"Remarkable…" murmured Professor Malloran, adjusting the monocle on his eye as the image zoomed in on the very center. The central clearing flickered with collapsing terrain and energy shockwaves and showing the battle that was taking place.
"Albedo's performance is beyond expectations," Malloran continued, his tone reverent. "He's outmaneuvering Miranda and William simultaneously, and managing to consistently get his hits in."
"Exactly, and he's using William's ego against him. He knows William will eventually descend into attacking Miranda as well, so he keeps using quips to take jabs at him. He looks like a seasoned veteran." Professor Darnis said in agreement.
The projection shifted into a split screen, and now it was Lucian the professors were focused on. His sword danced against Morgana's shadows and blood daggers, weaving a pattern of relentless pressure.
"He was nearly taken out earlier," Professor Elwin observed, rubbing his chin "But now he's fighting like a blade that's found its rhythm. Look, he's predicting her binds, dodging before they even fully manifest."
"Morgana's on the back foot," Skye admitted begrudgingly, her arms crossed with frustration, "She's trying to pull distance, but he's not letting her. Her weakness has always been close quarters combat, and he keeps forcing her into it,"
The Professors all continued to murmur as they watched the battle, absolutely fixated on the screen until...
The doors to the Observation Hall burst open.
A young staff member, breathless and pale-faced, stumbled inside, holding a glowing tablet. The aura of urgency around him was so palpable it silenced the room in an instant.
"Apologies for the interruption, but," he gasped, "We've lost control of the Monster Scape."
"What?!" Kayle snapped, turning toward him.
Professor Darnis stepped forward immediately, "What do you mean, 'lost control'? That entire dimension is bound to the Academy's spatial anchors. The Eye of Aeons is synchronized with it, "
"The anchors are failing," the young staffer said, "The Eye of Aeons is still receiving data, but it can't project or intervene. We can't teleport anyone in or pull anyone out. The seal has been hijacked from inside."
A heavy silence fell across the room as the Professors comprehended what that meant.
"What… hijacked it?" Malloran asked grimly, even as the screen flickered. Slowly, almost as though in response, the projection warped.
A dark purple glow began to pulse along the outer edges of the biomes, arcane symbols and glyphs not part of any Zephyr encryption code.
Dozens of Abyssal Sigils flared across the projection in violent purple and black, erupting like infection points throughout the Monster Scape.
Every professor leaned forward in horror. Kayle's hands clenched as she recognized what those were, "Abyssal runes."
"They're inside…" Elwin whispered, "Inside the Sphere. They've been there the whole time."
The screen suddenly zoomed into a section along the Tundra Biome's outer region, where a group of students, injured but still alive, were running from something.
From the shadows, black-fanged figures emerged, twisted humanoids with limbs that shimmered like oil-slick steel. Abyssal Beasts, their cores cracked and dripping with tainted mana, pounced without mercy.
The students screamed.
One of them, a Silver-Rank girl, raised her hand for the emergency teleport trigger on her wrist. Nothing happened.
"No… no…" she gasped.
The next moment, a claw pierced her chest and threw her against a tree like a ragdoll. Blood sprayed.
There was no golden light. No emergency extraction.
No safety. The professors stood frozen in horror as, one after another, the fleeing students were brutally torn apart.
"They aren't being teleported out…" Darnis whispered.
"The system… it's gone," Malloran said, "They're trapped."
Kayle turned sharply, "We need to activate the Relics! Inform Headmistress Raphaeline and force a dimensional rift!"
Skye's face paled despite her usual arrogance, "That will take time. They've sealed it from inside. The amount of mana it'll take to breach it… we'll need a full Council override."
"The students…" Elwin said quietly, "They'll be picked off like sheep. They have no idea."
More dots on the projection winked out. Each loss wasn't a simple "elimination." There were no teleport signatures. They were just... erased.
All across the dimension, Abyssal sigils continued lighting up.
The Rainforest Biome remained untouched, for now, but the sigils appearing grew closer and closer to that biome.
"By the Gods," Malloran whispered. "They're going to slaughter the Myth-Class."
"They waited," Kayle said, voice low and tight. "They waited for the strongest students to gather in one place. All of them, Albedo, Miranda, William, Lucian, Morgana and others, they're all there. That was the plan. Use the exam to kill the next generation of elites."
Skye finally broke her silence, voice cold with fear, "We're about to lose more talent than any war has taken in the last decade."
"Not if we reach them first," Kayle declared, her hand moving over her Sigil. "Start the override. Activate everything. I don't care if it breaks every rule in the Imperial Charter, if we don't act, the Academy will be hollow."
They all moved quickly then, the Observation Hall erupting in movement, light, and chants as emergency procedures.
Meanwhile, the students were still battling. Trees lay cracked like splintered bones, the earth torn and blackened by mana shockwaves.
Zeus clashed fists with William, laughing through gritted teeth even as the frost burned across his knuckles.
Miranda blinked in and out of existence, warping through time-space folds like an echo, keeping Albedo in check while her celestial chakrams sang behind her.
Albedo meanwhile kept looking around, his senses extremely sharp as he waited for any sign of the Abyss, but so far, he hadn't seen them as of yet. While the Abyss had attacked on the 7th day, he wasn't dumb to think they wouldn't go earlier if they had the chance.
Everything was fine until,
The shriek cleaved through the battlefield like a spear of silence.
Everyone stopped. Even the sounds of crashing spells and cracking trees halted, as if the entire Rainforest Biome had held its breath.
All eyes turned towards the sound of the scream.
The scream had come from one of William's nobles, a boy named Halmar, Low-Silver, known for his barrier magic. His mouth was still open mid-scream, blood trickling from the corner of his lips, as his entire body twitched.
Something had pierced clean through his chest. A long, jagged black blade made of swirling, abyssal matter. It pulsed as though alive, embedded straight through him.
Behind him stood a figure cloaked in torn priestly robes, a gaping smile on his face. His eyes were completely black, with no pupils. A brand of writhing ink glowed along his neck.
Then more shimmered into view, 20 of them in total. They weren't students.
They weren't even pretending. Each wore tattered clothing, each bore marks of corruption, and each radiated power that stifled the air.
The weakest among them was Gold Rank.
The strongest... an Amethyst Rank man with long white hair, whose fingers danced with spectral tendrils as he strolled forward with a relaxed, almost polite gait.
"Oh my," the man said, voice high-pitched and pleasant, like a merchant greeting old friends, "Looks like we arrived at a bad time. Did we interrupt something?"
Nobody answered. Albedo remained staring at the man with white hair who was speaking, he wasn't the one who appeared in the Novel, which meant they had changed their plans, and sent someone stronger.
In the Novel it was only 12 of them, now it was 20, and the highest rank had changed.
'Ahh fuck,' Albedo thought to himself. It seemed world had made it its personal mission to have him killed somehow.
Halmar's body slid off the abyssal blade with a wet sound and hit the ground, unmoving.
"You killed him," William said, voice like ice, stunned into cold fury.
The lead Worshipper tilted his head, "Indeed. He was making far too much noise. And unfortunately, so are all of you."
Another of William's men, a girl wielding twin daggers, was suddenly lifted into the air by a long tendril that pierced through her abdomen, writhing through her flesh like a snake beneath the skin.
She gasped, coughed blood, then went still.
The tendril tossed her corpse aside like garbage.
"Two down," the Amethyst Rank Worshipper grinned.
He raised a hand, and the Abyssal Sigils already etched into the forest floor flared.
Then the jungle howled.
Cracks tore open in the air around them. From the darkness beyond, monsters emerged.
But these weren't the usual variants of the Monster Sphere.
These were Abyssal Beasts, corrupted, malformed, snarling nightmares that dripped ichor and voidfire. Some had too many limbs, others floated with no legs at all.
Their eyes were pits of hunger, their mana a twisted, unstable frequency that made every student's stomach churn.
There were dozens. of them.
Albedo raised his guns instantly, and all the other students immediately went back to battle stance, realizing the danger they were in.
Even William, normally calm and composed,looked genuinely shaken.
The monsters began to descend into the clearing.
And for the first time since the start of the battle. The strongest students looked at each other and didn't see rivals.
"We need to push back," Albedo said, his voice sharp and commanding, "Now! Before they spread!"
"Miranda, barrier, Lucian, hold the line, Zeus, with me!" he barked, already moving.
Miranda's celestial mana erupted into a shimmering dome of warped space-time, shielding their group from the first barrage of Abyssal beams.
Lucian lunged forward, slashing down a Beast that tried to pounce on Elara. Zeus roared, punching another creature so hard it exploded into black mist.
The battlefield became chaos again.
And high above them, on a ridge overlooking the carnage, the Amethyst-Rank Worshipper smiled wider than before.
"Kill as many as you want," he said to the other cultists, "But make sure to leave a few alive."
"What if they defeat all the monsters?" One of the cultists asked, and the white haired man chuckled,
"Then summon THAT thing!"