The flying wooden boat conjured by Grand Magus Yvere came to a quick stop just outside of the tall structure that was visible above the Hall of Aspire. All the passengers on the boat had their eyes in one direction.
Right in front of them, Emery could see the figure of Grand Magus Zenonia standing in a confident manner between the arch of a broken window. She had a smile on her face as she spoke to the elderly grand magus.
"Well done, Yvere. You have managed to stop the spell halfway." She then turned to glance at Emery. "Not just you could escape the recall spell; you even managed to bring the three elders here. You are indeed full of surprises."
Grand Magus Yvere let out a brief cough before he took a deep breath and said, "Unfortunately, we don't have time for casual chat."
As soon as the old grand magus said those words, the wooden boat suddenly shot up and crashed into the structure.
The female grand magus reacted quickly enough to dodge out of the way, but Grand Magus Yvere proceeded to stab his nature staff into the floor of the place. Numerous white roots shot out from the floor, chasing after her with incredible vigor.
Grand Magus Yvere's action was so sudden Emery, and the others were thrown out of the boat and onto the floor. When Emery recovered his bearings and looked up, the two grand magus were already gone from the room, fighting in the sky.
Emery, Olivier, Eeshoo, and Atlas quickly got to their feet and shifted their gazes around them. The four of them looked upon the hall full of windows with a glowing blue crystal in the center and a metal pole that soared high past the ceiling out of the hall.
The group quickly readied themselves for battle when they noticed something moving on the other side of the hall. Their gazes hardened when four figures clad in dark robes stepped out from the shadows behind the crystal and became extremely serious when they realized the four figures were all Crescent Moon magus.
"Aaa… we find ourselves four more little acolytes…."
"This group has no girls, though."
"It's really a pity we don't have any more time to play, so we just have to kill you all right away."
After saying those words, Emery and the others were startled when they saw the four of them suddenly start shaking violently. Following immediately after was the sight of their bodies beginning to transform; their skin turned pale white, their eyes became bloodshot red, and their ears up high.
"Bat bloodline!"
Hearing their talk about killing acolytes made Emery anxious as his mind thought of his friends whose situation was unknown, seeing their transformation which proved they were part of the half-bloods who betrayed their kind, made him furious.
Olivier took a step forward and spoke as his spirit energy churned out like a waterfall.
"Let's take care of these fools quickly."
The Sword Saint's words caused the four magus to burst into laughter, but it stopped as quickly as it came when Olivier cast [Temporal Shift] on the hall they were in. Their faces changed drastically when they felt their bodies were affected, their speed becoming slower.
Alas, their realization came slightly too late, Olivier had already dashed right in front of them, brandishing his sword with utmost precision.
[Motion Stream]
The sword aura contained within each slash revealed its might as the Sword Saint unleashed a storm of attacks upon the four magus. It was so powerful it was enough to send the four magus scrambling over in panic.
Olivier's attack managed to force them to leave the vicinity of the artifact. Although they managed to get out of the way eventually, they did not escape unscathed. Patches of red were visible as various cut wounds could be seen on their bodies.
"Huh, that's the time spell kid!"
While the magus' attention was on Olivier, the others did not squander this golden opportunity. The first to make their move was none other than the half-machine acolyte, Atlas.
Bursts of fire shot out from his feet as Atlas' figure disappeared from where he stood and sped at breakneck speed. It took him less than a second to arrive in front of two of the magus. Before they could realize this, they both felt their bodies being grabbed. A moment later, they were shocked to find themselves pushed out of the window.
In the meantime, Eeshoo focused his spirit weapon on the other two magus. Under his adept control, the flying weapons relentlessly bombarded the two from all directions, forcing them away from the blue crystal artifact, before eventually sending them out of the window like their other two comrades.
Emery immediately took advantage of the opportunity provided by the three. Casting [Blink], his form disappeared and reappeared right next to the blue crystal artifact. His hand gripped the Headmaster's Staff tightly, ready to do what he needed to do.
Just a few hours ago, these four acolytes were competing with each other, now they displayed a perfect level of teamwork as if they shared one mind.
Despite the fact these magus possessed shadow skills, which made them annoyingly difficult to contain due to their elusive nature, Eeshoo was able to decisively keep them from reentering the hall. All thanks to his Soaring Shuttles swarming the place that proved just as annoying to deal with, if not more.
Meanwhile, Olivier jumped out of the hall, flying on top of a sword, and helped Atlas fight the four magus outside. It was a two against four battle, one focused on the left and one on the right, with Eeshoo giving them support with his flying weapons from inside the hall.
Not wasting the time gained by the others' efforts, Emery approached the blue crystal and tried his best to operate the artifact lying before his eyes. With the Headmaster Staff in his right hand, he channeled his spirit energy into his left hand as he reached out to touch the crystal – the usual way to operate artifacts.
The moment his hand touched the artifact, Emery could instantly feel his spirit core going awry. But in the next moment, the staff in his hand sent out a pulse that immediately calmed down the chaotic feeling.
It took an entire minute before he could get a result. He was quite surprised to see that the blue crystal, both the artifact and the staff, were emitting a soft glow. He became even more surprised when he suddenly found a strange sensation pressing down on him.
It was as if he was gradually flying away from the palace and could see the academy in its entirety. At this precise moment, Emery could perceive the millions of figures present in the academy at this time, both humans and elves.
The battle, the screams, every bit of it.
He even discovered he could feel further afield if he wanted to, to sense the vast expanses of space up to where tens of planets surrounded the academy, however he then reached his limit.
Emery quickly realized the blue crystal was an amplifier for Spirit Reading, allowing its user to perceive things that were beyond normal limits.
He had the means to do the task, what he needed was a way to execute command into it.
As he could not find such a function on the blue crystal or the staff, he realized it had to be the console that was placed right next to the crystal.
As he swiftly approached the machine-like console, to Emery's relief it worked just like the cube artifacts, which he could access all over in the academy. This console, however, had a specific task which differentiated it from the cube artifacts.
As soon as he touched it a light rune came out that translated into his mind.
[Accessing Magus Academy System]
[Database] [System Message] [Recall]
When he chose the Recall option, Emery was relieved to see that what appeared was actually a history log of the teleportation the machine had performed. With this, he should be able to bring back those who were teleported.
[Category: Exchange Recall]
[Completion: 3218/7859]
[Status: Hold]
All this was surprisingly much simpler than Emery initially thought. In fact, it took him only a few seconds to finally find the option he was looking for.
[Reverse Recall]
"Yes! This is it! I can bring them all back!"
But before he could execute the option, Emery's face changed when he felt a spatial distortion on the console in front of him. Knowing how dangerous it was, he quickly jumped away. The entire machine suddenly shattered and was sucked into the void.
Seeing that, Emery subconsciously glanced out the window. There, he saw the figure of Grand Magus Zenonia with a wicked smile on her face.
"No no no… I can't let you do that."
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