Interlude – Emergency Evacuation
(Takes place parallel to Rolien's system activation and mission start)
---
The bell tower rang—once, twice—then shattered into silence.
A haunting siren replaced it, echoing across the fractured academy grounds.
Bright red sigils blinked to life across campus. Evacuation Protocol: OMEGA.
> "Move! Move to the east gate! Prioritize injured!" a knight barked, directing students down the cracked marble stairs.
"Shield bearers, keep a perimeter—DO NOT ENGAGE anything coming out of the summoning seal!"
Smoke trailed in the air. Rubble trembled underfoot.
From the upper terrace, Crown Prince Caelan clenched his fist, healing aura glowing from his palms as he closed a wound on Mira's shoulder.
Leto, his arm wrapped hastily, supported Sophia who had a bloodied gash across her forehead. But she refused to lie down.
> "Where's… where's he?" Sophia asked, staring toward the central building, her voice barely a whisper.
> "Who?" Caelan asked without looking up.
She didn't answer.
Just turned her gaze toward the chaos, toward the black trail scorched into the earth like a phantom's mark.
> "The Black Wraith..." she murmured.
"He'll come."
Leto glanced at her, a little confused.
Mira didn't ask—she saw the faint smile tug at Sophia's lips, even through the blood.
> "You believe that rumor? That he's real?" Leto asked.
Sophia didn't respond.
But she clenched her fingers tightly around her torn sleeve.
> "He always shows up when it matters," she whispered to herself.
"Even if no one remembers his face."
---
Across the courtyard, a group of knight cadets and a few advanced seniors led lines of panicking students through debris paths and broken magical wards.
One of them, a second-year combat student, cursed under his breath.
> "What the hell is that thing in the sky?"
"I don't know," someone else replied, "but the professors said it's incomplete. Something's interfering with it manifesting."
> "You mean… someone?"
"Yeah."
They looked toward the west wing, where a black streak of motion had torn a path moments ago. The building's wall was still smoking.
---
> "HURRY UP!" another instructor shouted.
"Thirty minutes, people! Knights from the capital will arrive in thirty—but we have to hold until then!"
---
Sophia limped forward, ignoring Caelan's hand reaching out.
> "You're bleeding," he said. "You need to lie down."
> "I'll live," she said without looking back.
"Just make sure someone remembers he was here."
---
Far off, a faint shockwave cracked through the air, shaking the windows.
And then… a voice. Digital. Cold.
From speakers no one could see.
> "Gerberra online. Combat Lock: Outer Entity. Protocol—Sovereign Breaker: Initialized."
Reincarnation of the magicless Pinoy!
From zero to hero! " No Magic,No Problem!"
Encounter 32: two sides of the same coin part 2
The Great Sage. The Phantom. And the Seven Angelic Series Users.
---
Location: The Grand Cathedral of Aeterra – Holy Seat of the Divine Church
The crystal bells tolled in slow, thunderous rhythm—an omen carved into sound.
The mural above the altar flickered as divine light dimmed. It depicted the forgotten legend:
A Great Sage, cloaked in silver and flame, standing against the maw of the Outer God Xexaria—her massive form twisted, unstable, reality-breaking.
Beside him: a lone warrior in black armor, face hidden behind a mirrored helm, fists clenched. His presence blurred the lines between man and myth. They called him the Phantom.
Behind them both: seven angelic figures, each radiating a different light, some holding blades, others books or relics. Wings etched in celestial fire.
> "It was never just the Sage," the High Cardinal murmured, trembling. "Nor the Phantom alone… The prophecy was right. The Seven were real."
---
A panting scribe stumbled in.
> "Your Eminence—we have confirmation. Mana surges. Massive distortions. Just like the texts described. She's trying to manifest again."
The High Cardinal turned to the altar and drew the old scroll of the First Era, reading the ancient lines aloud:
> "When the stars are veiled and the world's core trembles, She shall reach again from beyond."
"Only the Great Sage, the Phantom who walks without chains, and the Seven born of angelic fire shall stand between the end and rebirth."
---
Location: Imperial Palace – Throne Room of Emperor Theodin
The emperor's hand trembled as he traced a single name at the bottom of the forbidden scroll:
> Rowan Elian Grey — The First Great Sage.
His other hand hovered over a half-burned page detailing the Phantom's final act—his face never revealed, his death never confirmed.
> "Grey..." the Emperor whispered. "Is it your descendant? Or your shadow?"
And beneath that:
> The Seven Angelic Series Users will awaken only in the darkest hour. If even one is missing… the seal will break.
His voice broke as he fell to one knee, whispering not to the divine, but to fate itself.
> "If you walk among us again, Sage… If your Phantom still breathes… Light the path. Or we all fall into her maw."
---
Across the Continents…
In the shattered tomes of the Dwarven Kings, flames reignited on sealed pages.
In the far north, buried in ice, Catherine the Ice Queen felt a shiver not from cold—but from memory.
In the east, the Divine Summoner Trese gazed at the stars as they dimmed, one by one, and whispered:
> "It begins again…"
Seal Chamber – Beneath the Academy
The air twisted with unnatural heat and cold. Walls warped. Light fractured.
Rolien stood still, the hum of his prototype arm Gerberra: Final Roar pulsing like a heartbeat. Every inch of the chamber was crawling with writhing tendrils—Xexayis had begun to anchor.
But she was incomplete. Thanks to the sabotage, her form was inconsistent—half-giant, half-humanoid, with her arms dragging far too long, fingers bending in wrong directions. Her skull was smooth but cracked, and what should've been a mouth was an abyss that whispered every language and none.
> "You return… Sage," she hissed, her voice echoing from every wall, every atom.
"We remember your scent. The unmaker. The man outside fate."
Rolien clenched his fists. "You've got the wrong guy."
> "No. You wear his shadow… and his arm."
She raised a claw and the entire room pulsed.
Stone shattered.
Gravity failed.
Then returned.
Rolien flicked his visor settings to Stabilize Reality Sync. His HUD flashed warnings in red.
> [Spatial Inconsistency Detected. Temporal Skipping Active.]
> "So much for stealth," he muttered.
He drew his saber Ashcutter—the blade flaring with a sharp, distorted whine. His Punchline 2.0 rotated into firing position, and Gerberra locked at full sync.
> "System—scan for weak points."
> Analyzing…
Core stability: 72% – Incomplete Manifestation
Anchor Node: Heart-Chest Cavity. Warning: Unstable. Suggest internal rupture.
Probability of Victory: 21%.
He cracked his neck.
> "I'll take those odds."
---
Clash: Black Wraith vs. Xexayis
Without another word, Rolien charged forward, using Dash—a flicker of movement that left a distorted echo behind. Xexayis responded with a sweeping claw, her body breaking and reforming in jerks of corrupted movement.
He ducked under it, rolled forward, and activated Hauling Punch—Gerberra ignited in a blaze of crimson flame, and slammed into her midsection.
The resulting shockwave tore through the walls.
> [Direct Hit. Weak Point Shaken. Core Exposure: 12%.]
Xexayis screamed—reality trembled. Her claw came down like a guillotine.
Rolien launched Punchline 2.0, grappling to a ledge, dodging it by inches. "Gotta do better than that, spaghetti fingers."
> "You mock what you don't understand…" she screeched, unleashing a barrage of tendrils tipped with glowing runes.
Rolien fired his experimental Beretta—each shot laced with impact boosters. The runes fizzled mid-air, knocked off course.
Then, Gerberra began to overheat.
> [Caution: Prototype Approaching Redline. Structural stress at 73%.]
> "C'mon, just hold it together…"
He dove again, this time toward the core. Just as he neared it, Xexayis's mouth opened wider than any human's should.
And from within—he saw a fragment of stars.
A galaxy of corruption.
> "That's her true form…" he muttered. "Still pushing in."
Then—
> BOOM!
The roof of the chamber collapsed inward, and Xexayis reeled as several mana artillery shells crashed into her from above.
> "NOW, WRAITH!" a voice echoed from the shattered gap. It was Principal Thorne, standing beside Rolien's uncle, both using heavy anti-magic cannons salvaged from the academy's vaults.
Rolien didn't wait.
He charged Gerberra, the arm now burning white with outer-time energy. The sword in his other hand split into flame, then he launched himself straight at her chest.
> "This is your stop."
As he neared the core, Gerberra roared—
A blast of blinding light, a scream from Xexayis—
And the chamber exploded in radiance.
Silence.
The light faded.
Smoke drifted through fractured stone and warped magic residue. A crater lay at the epicenter—at its heart, Rolien, crouched on one knee, his visor cracked, breathing hard.
Xexayis, though wounded, wasn't dead.
She writhed now—smaller, hunched, less coherent. Her giant frame had lost mass, but her presence was more concentrated, more aggressive. Her voice screeched through the chamber like a thousand whispers.
> "You should've killed me… Sage…"
Her twisted limbs clawed at the ground, trying to stabilize what remained of her anchor.
> "You and your cursed body… A hollow mockery of divinity!"
Rolien wiped the blood from his mouth.
> "Yeah, well—" he rose slowly, locking his sights on her core, still glowing faintly through her unstable chest—
"I've got one more trick…"
System Alert
> [Gerberra: Final Roar – Core Detected. Charging Sequence Initiated.]
[Warning: Overload Risk 93%. External Focus Required.]
[User Must Remain Stationary For 28 Seconds]
[Unsealing... Outer-Time Core…]
[Gerberra: Final Roar –
0.7%]
The arm began to pulse with unnatural blue light—not mana, not spirit—but something older.
Outside time. Outside creation.
Like a piece of the void given form.
The chamber shook as the vents on Gerberra's arm split open, heat steaming off in waves, the barrel humming with cosmic energy. Lines etched across his gauntlet glowed with symbols that didn't belong to this world.
> "What is that?!" Principal Thorne gasped from above the ruined catwalk.
> "Something he said he never wanted to use," Rolien's uncle muttered grimly. "He calls it... Final Roar."
The floor trembled as Gerberra's vents began to hiss. Blue light—raw and foreign—coursed through the arm like molten stars. The glow deepened, vibrating with a frequency that didn't belong in this world.
Rolien's stance faltered. His leg buckled slightly.
> "Tch... damn thing's unstable…"
She knew. Somehow, the Outer God understood.
> "YOU DARE BRING THAT POWER INTO THIS REALM?!"
She lunged.
Masses of broken limbs, tendrils, and eyes screamed toward him.
He clenched his jaw, but it was too late—the backlash hit.
Rolien didn't look back.
> "Uncle. I need twenty seconds."
> "You got ten," the older man muttered, already loading his enchanted repeater.
> "Then shoot faster."
Suddenly, from the side—Professor Kael emerged, cloak burned, body injured, but staff raised.
> "Not letting some one-armed cadet take all the glory!"
Together, the defenders unleashed a barrage to hold her back.
A sharp pain stabbed his chest, and a mouthful of blood burst out between his teeth. It splattered on the inside of his visor, staining the heads-up display red.
> [Gerberra: Final Roar – 23%... 24%...]
> [Warning: User Vital Signs—Dropping]
He gasped, chest rising unevenly. Every breath burned, like his lungs were being crushed from the inside.
> "Still not enough… Keep charging…"
---
Principal Thorne saw him swaying in place.
> "That thing's going to kill him!"
But Rolien didn't stop. He couldn't.
> "You stupid arm…" he muttered, coughing more blood. "Hold together."
Gerberra's casing cracked slightly, blue light leaking from the seams like it wanted out.
---
> [Gerberra: Final Roar – 52%... 66%...]
[Gerberra: Final Roar – 42%... 61%... 73%...]
Rolien's mind burned. His vision doubled.
The energy surging into Gerberra wasn't something a mortal body should contain—even one like his.
> "C'mon... just a bit more you Fucking arm!!…"
His whole body began to tremble.
Even his enhanced, mana-less frame—the infamous Heavenly Body—was straining under the pressure.
Veins across his neck bulged. His prosthetic hummed violently.
And still—he stood his ground.
---
> "C'mon…" he growled, eyes sharp even through the haze. "If I die, I'm taking you with me."
Across the battlefield, Xexayis lunged—fury and fear etched across her twisted, partial form.
---
Then the moment arrived.
> [Gerberra: Final Roar – 100%]
Xexayis screamed, shattered the last barricade, and burst forward—
Just as the Final Roar locked in.
Rolien raised the arm, slammed his boot into the cracked stone, and anchored himself.
> [Final Roar – READY]
[Target Locked]
[Release Safety Protocols – OVERWRITTEN]
[UNLEASH]
> "Gerberra…let's send her to Jesus!" he muttered, voice low—
> "say hi to those in that other side mud lady!!"
The Beam
A pillar of light burst from his arm—deep blue edged with black lightning, burning with a scream of time itself collapsing.
The beam hit Xexayis square in the core.
And kept going.
Through her. Through the walls.
Up to the sky.
From the city above, a beam like a divine lance shot into the heavens, parting clouds, silencing all.
Xexayis let out a final sound—not pain, but rage.
Then—
> Boom.
Silence.
Dust.
Static.
Then the System pinged.
The ground still shimmered with heat when a slow, deliberate clap echoed through the fractured chamber.
Then came a laugh—low, cruel, soaked in mockery.
From behind a crumbling archway, the gray-haired man limped into view. His cloak was scorched, and his face smeared with blood and dust—but the smirk on his lips hadn't faded.
> "Well done… Black Wraith."
The Wraith raised his arm, shoulders rising and falling with every ragged breath. His visor flickered, the display cracked from strain.
> "You're still breathing, huh?" his voice came out rough through the mask's modulator.
> "Did you think I'd leave everything on the shoulders of one half-born Outer God?" The man chuckled, slowly raising a small obsidian remote, its runes pulsing faintly red.
> "What's that?" the Wraith asked, tense.
> "A little insurance," the man said, toying with the device. "Let's just say… if anyone comes after me—boom. Your precious little academy becomes a crater."
The Wraith's fists clenched. His HUD lit up in red, but his eyes never left the man's hands.
> "You son of a—"
THWIP—FWOOOM!
Before the man could blink, Punchline 2.0 fired from the Wraith's arm, shooting across the air like a black rocket.
> "What the—?!"
The reinforced gauntlet slammed into the side of the gray-haired man's face, sending him crashing into the wall. A half-second later—
> BOOOOM!!
The explosive core of the punchline detonated, sending flame and debris everywhere. The wall behind him buckled, partially collapsing under the force.
The Wraith breathed heavily, lowered his arm, and muttered through his mask:
> "There. That's my parting gift."
But even through the smoke and debris, the gray-haired man's figure twitched, already beginning to vanish—his teleport spell kicking in through a blood rune.
> Tch… slippery bastard.
> "UNCLE! THORNE! I'm going after the bomb!"
> "Go!" Ardan shouted, drawing twin daggers as a squad of cloaked enemies rushed them. "We'll clean up here!"
> "Watch your back!" the principal barked, raising his staff. "They're after you too now!"
The Wraith didn't respond. He dashed into the smoke, sprinting full speed, armor hissing and vents screaming.
> [System: Warning – Vital Signs Critical]
> [Gear Integrity: 28%]
> [Scans Active – Tracing Bomb Signature…]
He turned a corner—then another.
The school was burning. Rubble. Fire. Magic scars. Screams.
But he didn't stop.
> [Anomaly Detected – Sector C – Old Storage Sublevel]
> [Risk Level: A+ – Mechanical Construct / Non-Mana Detected]
> "That's where the hostages were… damn it—"
He clenched his jaw, pain shooting through every step.
> "Please… not too late."
Then he vanished into the lower halls—alone.
Crown Prince Caelan was now coordinating the remaining knights, helping carry unconscious students through what was left of the northern exit. His healing magic flickered, sweat beading down his brow.
Sophia stood with a group of advanced cadets, watching the smoke rise from the underground structure.
> "He's heading for the old sublevel…" she whispered.
Mira, her hair singed and her arm wrapped hastily, looked up from tending to a limping student.
> "You mean him?" she asked.
> "Yeah," Sophia said quietly. "He's going to try and stop the bomb."
Leto, leaning against a broken column, glanced toward the distance.
> "Then we hold the line here. No one disturbs him."
> "He won't fail," Sophia whispered, blood still on her cheek. "He never does."
The Wraith tore through the hallway like a shadow with weight. His boots cracked over rubble and his mask-filter wheezed as the pain in his ribs spiked with every breath.
He didn't care.
He just had to get to the bomb.
> "C'mon… just a little more…"
His HUD blinked.
> [Bomb Signal Strength: 89% – Close]
> [Estimated Detonation Timer: UNKNOWN]
He was nearly there—until—
> CLACK.
A step echoed from ahead. Slow. Calm. Heavy.
From the hallway ahead, a figure emerged—hooded, wrapped in a long gray cloak with armor underneath. His face hidden in shadow.
But something about his stance… the air around him…
Rolien froze.
The man stepped forward, one hand dragging a knife lazily across the wall, the other resting behind his back.
And then he spoke.
The voice was slightly distorted—but not enough.
> "Long time no see…"
The Wraith's visor locked onto the figure.
> "…Rowan Elian Grey."
Time stopped.
A chill crept through the broken stone corridor.
Rolien's breath caught in his throat.
He hadn't heard that name in years.
Not since Earth.
Not since the battlefield.
> "You…" he muttered, voice low, ragged with disbelief and fury.
He took one step forward, the blue glow of Punchline flickering against the cracked walls.
> "I had a hunch… ever since I found that crooked C4 buried under the west wing."
His voice tightened.
> "I knew someone from our world—from Earth—was summoned… or reincarnated here, just like me."
Then, his tone sharpened to a cold snarl beneath the ghost-like mask.
> "But I didn't expect it to be you—you fucking terrorist."
The figure tilted his head slightly, grin visible just under the shadows of the hood.
> "Still dramatic, huh, Captain Rowan?"
He stepped closer, just outside knife range.
> "Tell me... are you still haunted by the screams from Istanbul? Or did you finally make peace with all the kids you couldn't save?"
Rolien's right fist clenched, and a low hum built inside punchline
> "You're one to talk, Salmon."
> "Hunter Solomon," he corrected smugly. "And now, I've come to finish what I started. You got lucky last time, with your team… But this time, no extraction. No backup."
> "I don't need backup. I am THE backup!"
> "Of course not," Solomon said, pulling a wicked-looking dagger from beneath his cloak. "Just like old times."
To be continued....