Alex, Mira, along with all the other students outside the training arena all made their way over to the same clearing they were all familiar with by now.
Normally, students only went there four times over their entire time at the university. Once each year for the opening ceremony.
So it was very unusual and a bad omen that the freshmen had been there three times and they hadn't even finished their first year yet.
When they arrived, there were already millions of students standing, waiting for the Principal to show up on the stage.
Alex felt a sense of Deja vu coming to this place.
It was almost the exact same scenario as 6 months ago when Zorath first declared war on the human race.
Only this situation was much more serious.
The previous meeting was about preparing the human race for war.
But this one was about defending themselves from an impending, existential threat that had already killed billions of their own people.
And most of the students had already realised what this meeting was most likely about.
But there was nothing they could do about it.
They'd get expelled, or probably even worse, if they tried running away or skirting their duties.
Soon enough, the rest of the students arrived, all with faces of dread and fear.
And as if on purpose, the Principal appeared on stage right after.
Alex gave him a questioning look, to which the Principle only gave him a curt smile back.
'Yup. Looks like I'm going to the frontlines...'
Alex knew what that smile was for.
But after finding out that he could get soul orbs from other sentient races, he actually wasn't too upset about that fact.
"I can share with you now that Zorath missed something before he left. Something that will be very crucial to how we fight this war."
As he spoke, a holographic screen showed up behind him, large enough for all the millions of students to see.
On the screen, many details about the Red Demon race were carefully documented, also courtesy of the Pioneer crew.
They may have inadvertently led the Red Demon race right to their front door, but they at least managed to salvage their reputation post mortem by hiding away this information.
They had spent 2 months surveying and documenting the Red Demon race before Zorath noticed them and sent them on their merry way to hell.
And some of the details they had noted were going to be key in this war.
One of them being the fact that the commander of this enormous fleet that came to attack them was a King class S+ rank, just like Principal Farnes.
When the students saw this fact on the board, they all felt a sense of relief.
"I know how all of you must be feeling at this moment, probably thanking the gods for the fact that you have me on your side."
But Principal Farnes's continued speech was bound to fill them with dread once again.
"Don't take this information for granted, as we have also learned an even more disturbing fact about their race."
The screen behind him flashed once again, this time revealing a different set of information, one much more disturbing.
"The King and Queen of the Red Demon race are both Ancient class existences, both at S tier as well."
"As for their children, the three princes and one princess, they are all King class existences, on the precipice of reaching S tier. With their power, only the strongest of our S tiers, at a minimum of Mutant class, could take them on."
"Not to mention the fact that the Red Demon race has over 3 times our number of S tiers."
"..."
"..."
Silence pervaded the millions strong crowd of students.
Even if they somehow managed to defeat the hundred million strong fleet, along with their commander and other strong awakened, the enemy could just send an even stronger force to overwhelm them, or the King and Queen could just come and end this war themselves.