The Old Scholar

As Victoria and her classmates were celebrating the victory outside the colosseum, Leilani was walking over to them as she circled the 3rd floor towards where they were, her gaze looking down on them the entire time she walked when she finally caught sight of them. She jumped from the third floor and landed gracefully on the ground, although it would have shocked many other people, the adults and students watching simply shrugged it off since it was The Dean after all. When Leilani was walking over to them, the students of 3-A were busy cheering with their teacher and even Hissanti, allowing the Dean to pass them by and grab the blonde crown princess by the collar before teleporting out of the area and back into her office. Much to Victoria's surprise. 

"Where did you learn that spell?!" She shouted as she plopped the 3rd year onto a couch she manifested 

"Wha-" Victoria let out a confused sound with an appropriately confused expression

"Answer me! That spell was from the forbidden section of the library. I am asking you now before I do something drastic. Where. Did. You. Learn. It" Leilani cut her off as her gaze turned colder, her pitch-black eyes boring a hole into the crown princess 

"I....I...I read it in one of the forbidden books...Ma'am" Victoria answered with a nervous and scared tone, the realization of her fuck up dawning on her 

Leilani's expression turned into a scowl before she summoned a portal that opened to the nearest bandit camp to her regardless of where it was in the world. She then let out a roar of anger as crimson lighting shot from her fingers into the portal, the crackling sound of the lightning sending shivers down Victoria's spine as she had never heard such a dreadful and menacing sound, even more than the lightning she had cast. 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the portal, a massive cannibalistic bandit camp and its inhabitants were relegated to the past tense after they saw the portal open up above their camp and red lightning burst forth from it, reducing everyone in the area into ash. 

Taking a deep breath after closing the portal and turning back to her, Leilani's eyes narrowed, the anger and rage still evident on her face she stared at the crown princess. Her mind ran through the many things she could do to her as punishment, her anger was justifiable as the spell Victoria had used was a spell used by the Leviathans of old, a spell they used to indiscriminately take the lives of so many who were powerless to stop them. A deep-seated rage that had been dormant for so long slowly awakened inside her as the memories she had read from the corpses came back to her. 

"Do you know why I am angry?" Leilani began as she looked at the startled and scared Victoria 

"I...Because I used a forbidden spell, and I...I had broken your trust" Victoria began with a remorseful tone as she started to tear up 

"There is that...but that is not the reason" Leilani stated after a long silence, giving the crying crown princess a handkerchief 

"Although I am angry at you for those reasons, the main reason is that the spell you used...it is a highly dangerous one. If it were not for my intervention, those kids in 3-B would have died" Leilani added 

{!} 

Victoria's eyes widened as she let out an audible gasp, her hands shivering as she placed her right hand on her lips. Her mind wondered what would have happened if the Dean had not intervened, the thought of being responsible for accidental murder coming down like a war hammer on her heart and soul. Her eyes still locked with Leilani's and past the rage, she could see immense disappointment towards her, disappointment of broken trust, and disappointment for unwittingly putting others in danger. 

"I...I didn't mean to-" Victoria mumbled

"This is not the library of the Imperial Palace Victoria! Get that through your head!" Leilani cut her off with a shout 

"I...I'm sorry" Victoria added 

"Is that all you can say?! Sorry?! Victoria there is a reason those things are forbidden, It's the reason I placed it in the forbidden section in the first place. Because it is dangerous! Did you not think about that when you tried to learn it?!"  

"I..uh...I" Victoria mumbled, unsure of what to say

"Answer me!" 

"Then why was it there!?" Victoria fired back, tears running down her face and her body trembling, her eyes locking with the Dean

"What?" 

"Why was it there" Victoria repeated, causing the Dean's anger to flicker for a moment 

Leilani was silent as she looked at the crying girl before her, the question raised by her stunning her. Why did she keep it there? She thought. as she pondered the question, surely there were more secure places to keep such forbidden material right? Surely she would have been able to safeguard them all from people who wished to do wrong with their knowledge..so why, why had she just placed that book in an easy-to-reach area that only had a magical sealant barrier around the section? Her mind tried to think of an answer, but when the words of Santomin from an event millennia ago came back to her, Leilani knew her answer. 

"It was to serve as a reminder" Leilani stated with a well-hidden regret in her voice 

{!} 

Victoria was taken aback by the answer the Dean had given, not expecting such a response, her tears stopping for a moment as she tried to decipher what that meant. 

"Wha-" 

"It was to serve as a reminder to me...to remind me of the dark history I try my best to steer this world clear from" Leilani added as her gaze turned from the young girl before her and out the large window 

"What do you mean?" Victoria asked, the answer only giving her more questions than answers

Leilani let out a sigh as she turned back to the curious crown princess, she waved her hand at her which caused Victoria to go unconscious, her eyes rolling back and her body leaning onto the couch. 

"I wish to punish you young Victoria but my mind and heart vehemently refuse to do so, instead, you will not remember this conversation Victoria. The spell you remember you used was a normal lightning spell you kept overcharging over and over again with your mana" Leilani added as she snapped her fingers and sent Victoria back to where Leilani had picked her up. 

Leilani's gaze then turned back to the window, seeing dark clouds come down from the higher mountains and slowly making their way to her university. 

"What a terrible day for rain" 

......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Back in the colosseum, Martha was busy helping wrap up the first day of the tournament. The semi-finalists of the class fight for the 1st to 3rd years had been decided after the fights of the day and would be done on Wednesday after the 4th to 6th years had their class fight tomorrow. As Martha was busy helping tidy up the place and watching the students and their parents vacate the arena to tour the campus or head to their lodgings in the inns and taverns of University Town, she had a certain scared feeling of sorts. The lightning attack performed by Victoria had stunned everyone really and it also gave them a sense of dread that briefly surfaced before disappearing. That feeling was something that Martha had never experienced before, and it was a feeling she never knew she had. She wanted to see her lover and ask if she felt the same but after speaking with a fellow combat professor, she learned that the Dean was currently unavailable as she was busy in her office, with Martha deciding that she would not push the issue for now as she imagined that Leilani was busy dealing with things she could not understand. 

As she was busy making her way back to her small home outside the university, she noticed it was still packed, there were still a bunch of families and students wandering around the massive campus. With the people buying food from stalls or playing the numerous games being offered by the stalls, the sights and sounds of people being happy and enjoying the moment made the former general giddy inside as she pictured herself enjoying the joyous atmosphere and event alongside Leilani, laughing and showing their love for one another. These thoughts made her blush as she sat down and enjoyed some meat skewers she bought from a stall, enjoying the well-seasoned and delectable meat and savoring the richness of the flavor and juices. She thought of asking her out tomorrow if she was not busy and after Martha and her class had secured their spot in the semi-finals, as when she did, the moment would be even sweeter. 

.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Victoria on the other hand, was also enjoying the time after the tournament, although she found herself waking up next to her parents who were busy eating meat skewers, when asked what happened after she was celebrating with her class, her parents told her that she passed out due to mana exhaustion from charging up that game-winning spell. Victoria's memories during and after the fight were a little fuzzy but the important thing was that they were now heading to the semi-finals, and soon, the finals. She smiled as she also bought her own set of meat skewers and chatted away the remaining time with her family, unaware of the mind erasure done on her by the Dean to stop her from using a spell that could end up making her an unintentional murderer. 

.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

The second day of the tournament was intense from the start in the morning to the afternoon as the class fight matches of the 4th, 5th and 6th years made the 1st to 3rd years look like child's play. The fights were intense melee that exceeded even the performances of the underclassmen, with spells flying and melees brewing all over the stage that people had a hard time keeping track of, only the combat professors and the more experienced warriors in the crowd could keep up with all the action and the larger match at hand, to add to this, the entire colosseum was even more packed than before and the roars of the crowds were deafening. 

As the day moved on, the 4th and the 5th years had finished their fights by the early afternoon around 1 pm and everyone was getting ready to see the 6th years have a go at it. The seniors of the academy were about to show the skills they had cultivated over the years and tournaments experience of years past, with everyone aiming to be in the semi-finals and then the finals. Around 2:30 in the afternoon was the time for Martha's class of 6-J, a class she had drilled into what she could see as a formidable class formation. She had taught them the art of war from her own personal experience fighting on the frontlines when she was still a general and now it was about to be shown if her training for her students had paid off. Their opponents were 6-I and they were being led by Martha's dragonkin colleague by the name of Draco. Draco was a former mercenary who had fought his fair share of campaigns and wars as well as dungeon diving as an adventurer, he was tough as nails but soft as melted butter around his family, his blue scales matched well with his dark blue combat suit and his black hair and horns, his handsome but aged face also earning him his fair share of swooning of women around his age and younger, with a small joke running around the 6th and 5th years he managed calling him "Daddy Draco" due to his in their words "Charming Eyes" and the like, something that Martha understood as she could see why as she looked at him. 

"Alright. 6-I and 6-J are you ready?!" The elven combat professor referee asked as he raised his hand

"URAAAAAA!" The students of 6-J roared 

"AAAAAAAHHHHH!" The students of 6-I shouted 

"Alright! Ready....FIGHT!" 

The moment the referee's hand went down, streams of lightning from both sides were fired and met in the middle, creating a spectacle of lights as the streams of lightning were fighting one another as they tried to push the other stream backward. After a tense three minutes, the streams of lightning ended with an indecisive winner as mages on both sides were tired, but after a brief respite on both sides, 6-I made the first move, launching their front liners in a forward charge that had two prongs with a smaller center, this was a trap to those who did not understand what was happening, a trap that would encircle the overstretched head that would charge up the center. The students of 6-J however were not going to fall for the trap, rather, they pulled back far enough to overextend the charging front liners of 6-I before the mages of 6-J were able to teleport some of them behind the enemy force. 

{!} 

"Got them" Martha muttered with a smirk as she saw the students 6-I wide eyes and confused for a brief moment, 

That brief moment was all Martha's students needed as the front liners of 6-J immediately countercharged the confused 6-I students, with spells from both sides being thrown into the giant melee, with the sounds of steel clashing against steel erupting immediately. During the melee, the students of both sides were mostly even such as when a male elf student of 6-I wielding a glaive traded even blows with a human student of 6-J wielding a buckler shield and a short sword, with the human student breaking the glaive into two but the elven student quickly adapted and used the two halves of the glaive as a twin pair of swords, launching thursts that aimed at breaking the defenses of the human student, but to his shock, when he launched a thrust she ducked under, she immediately countered with a shield bash that stunned him enough for the short sword of the girl to thrust forward and turn him to a puff of smoke, eliminating him from the match. 

Another was a pair of arachnias trading blows with swords, and both of them firing off web and air bullets to try and break the other, the arachnia from 6-J tried to close in again to launch a pair of slashes to break her enemies weapons but was shocked when the opposing arachnia landed a pair of web bullets that struck her legs and bound them together, causing her to stagger forward and into a pair of thrusts from the opposing arachnia, turning her to a puff of smoke and eliminated from the match. Even the mages of both sides were evenly matched as numerous fireballs, ice lances, earth lances, and a plethora of elemental projectiles were launched and intercepted throughout the fight, with one female dwarf mage firing off a whole barrage of ice lances that were countered by a barrage of fireballs from a dragonkin mage. Speaking of dragonkin, the dragonkin students of both classes were in the midst of a massive aerial melee above their classmates but within the confines of the barrier, discarding their weapons and instead relying on their enhanced dragonkin clawing and slashing at one another with hardened claws and talons, while firing ice and fire breaths at one another in an attempt to outdo the opponent. 

After a full five minutes of the melee, the two classes had retreated to lick their wounds and regroup but it was already clear who had won the melee as the class of 6-I had less than half of their original charging front line students while 6-J still had over half of their own number. Draco's trap had not only failed but had cost his class heavily, the worry and surprise on his face evident as he did not expect this to happen. The only way he and his class were to come up on top was to mount a defense and perform hit-and-run tactics, but Martha was not going to have any of it as she took a deep breath 

"6-J! CHAAAAARGE!" She bellowed with a determined roar 

"URAAAAAA!" The students of 6-J shouted as they did just that, charging forward en masse

Draco and 6-I were caught off guard by the sudden charge, with the mages of the class about to fire off spells but surprised and slack-jawed when the front liners of 6-J suddenly teleported on top of them and quickly eliminated them in single slashes that turned them into puffs of smoke, and when the remaining 6-I front liners turned to engage, they were struck with arcane might in the form of elemental lances, fireballs and lightning streams that cut them down en masse. 

When the charge finished, all of 6-I had been eliminated in grand fashion, with Draco slack-jawed at the outcome. None of them had expected this type of blitz attack and so fast, the only thing he could do was slowly clap for the winners as he had a dumbfounded expression on his face that slowly turned into a laugh. 

"Winner! 6-J, total elimination!" The referee shouted, with the crowd erupting into a massive cheer for the winner, and the students of 6-J also roaring on their own, jumping and running around with joy. 

After the match, Martha and her class were cheering outside the colosseum, with high-fives and compliments all around as everyone was ecstatic at the outcome they had just achieved. Martha hugged all of her students and even saw the students of 6-I  and Draco coming over to them and congratulating them on their hard-fought win, everyone had learned things and it was something that the seniors were very happy with.

{!}

KRAKOOOOM!

But it was to be short-lived however, as a large explosion rocked the ground, with Draco and Martha immediately exchanging looks, drawing their weapons and running back into the colosseum along with other combat professors who were responding to the explosion. When they did so, they were stunned in place as they saw the stages blasted away and pushed to the side by what looked to be a gigantic portal that was colored blue and shaped like a diamond, and standing before the portal were people dressed in gray robes with hoods and all of them had smiles on their faces as they looked upon the crowd in the colosseum before them. 

 

"Rejoice children of this world! For we have to bring forth your deliverance and salvation!" The man in the front of the congregation of cultists announced as he held up his hands

"We are the Cult of The Fallen Gods! And we have come here to bring you the truth of this world and strip it of its false Gods! I am Father! The prophet of the True Gods and Your Savior!" The man continued as his arms suddenly turned into a pair of black tendrils 

While everyone was too stunned to move, a voice rang out from one of the stadium tunnels 

"Combat Professors! What are you all doing?! Move!" Doc Fafnir shouted as he and the rest of the combat professors arrived on scene, 

The voice of one of the eldest Combat Professors shook Martha and the rest out of their daze as well as the daze of everyone else as they saw the combat professors form a crescent formation, placing all 56 combat professors themselves between the intruders and the people in the stands watching everything happening before they too began to evacuate as students and teachers began directing them out of danger, meanwhile the cultists had smaller portals appear that funneled even more of them into the colosseum.

"Tsk, ungrateful children. I shall discipline your defiant actions" The Father said as he locked eyes with Doc Fafnir 

"You can do that once you killed me psycho! I don't know who you are or why you are here but I swear by the gods I am sending you back to where you all came from!" Fafnir shouted in response, 

"Tsk, kill them" The Father said as he gestured for his followers to attack

Over sixty to seventy cultists charged forward, all of them wielding different weapons or magics. Doc Fafnir and the rest let out a roar as they charged in return, with the Doc cutting down several cultists with his iron claw gauntlets in single strikes. The ensuing melee was a blur as the combat professors fought with all their might, cutting down cultists left and right with precision and skill honed by years of teacher evaluations. For example, Professor Anton used his battle axe and swung it in a horizontal motion, cleaving a cultist charging at him with a pair of twin daggers into two and spraying blood all over his combat professor attire, before charging down another cultist wielding a claymore, sending the cultist to the ground before stomping on his head hard enough to turn it into mush. 

Meanwhile, Professor Widow cut down numerous cultists attacking her from all directions, swinging her twin blades with rage and anger as she hated intruders intent on harming her students. When one cultist got the drop on her and struck her with a fireball that scorched her left arm, she fired off a string of webs from her right hand that quickly wrapped around the neck of said cultist and then pulled them in close for her sword to impale them through the chest. Then there was also Professor Pittah easily skewering cultists with her rapier, drenching herself in their blood after she pulled out her rapier from each secured kill. At one point, she found herself swarmed from multiple sides, with the cultists firing off streams of lightning and covering their allies who charged in swinging their weapons, with the oldest combat professor quickly countering by ducking underneath the lightning after blocking it with her rapier and then quickly repositioning herself while killing several cultists with single thrusts through the necks. 

Then there was Martha who cut down her own fair share of cultists, always charging at her outnumbered colleagues and helping them, cleaving numerous cultists into two and then chucking the corpses at other enemies before charging them and slaying them in quick order. At one point, there was a pair of cultists that got the drop on her, landing successful slashes that thankfully bounced off her plate armor before she retaliated with a singular swing that killed them both then and there. 

All the while the melee was happening The Father was busy chanting at the portal, being guarded by his elite cult guards. When he looked back at his forces losing without even cutting down one enemy, he began to chant fast and faster, even more so after he saw Doc Fafnir and Professor Pittah slowly making their way to him, cutting down wave after wave of cultists before them. 

"ΠΤÖχπ⌋ïš" He continued to chant with fervor over and over again, with the portal becoming larger and larger 

Once it reached a certain height, a powerful blast was sent out by the portal, sending the combat professors and corpses crashing into the walls of the colosseum, everyone's gazes turned to shock and horror as their eyes widened. Standing before them was a monster the height of which no one had ever seen, it had a humanoid body with gigantic tendrils for arms, its head was akin to an octopus with many tentacles and tendrils that rested on it, the beady crimson eyes filled everyone with terror as they locked eyes with it, all they could feel was an intense hatred and disdain for what it was looking at. The skies above the campus darkened as the monster looked around. 

"AHAHAHAHA! Gaze upon the true gods of this world! They shall purge all of the rebellious and unsavory elements that populate this heavenly land and soon I shall become one of them! THE AGE OF THE LEVIATHANS HAS ARRIVED!" The Father cried out with an evil cackle

Everyone was silent as no one knew how to combat something of that size and power, the combat professors were filled with dread as it let out a loud roar that spanned the continent, and an unsettling feeling of demise and death filled the air that was only accompanied by the cackling cultists. 

{!} 

KRAAAAKOOOOM!

Suddenly, a singular crimson beam of lightning came down from the heavens, striking the gigantic Leviathan which recoiled and turned to ash as it was sent back into the portal, leaving everyone speechless and turning their eyes towards the skies, a loud roar of cheers came from the combat professors as the silhouette of a woman floating in the air came into view, her hands glowing with crimson energy that crackled in the air.

"You come into my house! My university! and My dimension!" Leilani's voice boomed as she dropped from the sky and landed menacingly into the center of the colosseum, 

"Attack her-" 

Before The Father could even order his elite cultist guards to attack, there was a symphony of snapping sounds before all of the bodies dropped to the ground except for the Father, who was now shaking in fear as he tried to back away but tripped over a corpse and then was immobilized as rods of iron wrapped around his limbs and then lifted him upright and face to face with the woman who killed his so-called 'God' 

"wHO? Who are yo-" 

"Shut up" Leilani cut him off 

"Infiltrating my University is one thing, summoning a Leviathan is another but if you thought you could harm my students on my watch you are thoroughly mistaken. And for that oversight, I will tell you only this. I will break you and you will die screaming" Leilani said as the Father could swear he saw a white demon after image appear from behind the woman staring at him 

A/N: Here we go ladies and gents. Hope you are all ready.