Chapter 180: Siege of the Academy

Chapter 180: Chapter 180: Siege of the Academy

The academy’s barrier activated instantly.

A translucent dome of golden light erupted from the ground, encasing the entire campus — buildings, courtyards, training grounds, dormitories. The barrier hummed with dense mana, reinforced by generations of Grand Core cultivators who had poured their energy into its foundation. Students inside the barrier scrambled backward,staring upward at the darkened sky and the figures standing on the air above them.

Instructors and professors poured out of every building.

The Vice Principal burst through the barrier from the inside.

He rose into the sky — an old man with a shaved head and a scarred face, his robes whipping in the wind of his own ascension. His aura exploded outward. Astral Realm. Early Stage.

The pressure of his cultivation pressed against the dark sky like a fist pushing back against a tide.

He stopped twenty meters below the hovering figures. His eyes swept across them — seven silhouettes, each radiating powerful auras.

He shouted, his voice carrying across the entire academy with supernatural force. "State your purpose! You dare trespass on the grounds of the European All-Star Academy?"

The figures looked down. One of them — the one standing at the center of the formation, radiating Peak Grand Core pressure — tilted his head. His voice was calm.

"Give us Lucian Grimaud. And the Soul Matrix Treasure."

The Head Instructor, hovering beside the Vice Principal, spat, his expression twisting with fury.

"You dare come to our grounds and not only demand one of our brightest students but also the academy’s treasure? Surely, you must be delusional."

The Peak Grand Core master who had spoken sighed.

Another figure beside him — also Peak Grand Core — smirked. "Not like we expected compliance."

He raised his hand. A treasure flew out of his storage ring — a small, crimson orb pulsing with dark energy. He formed a hand sign with his free hand, his fingers moving in a rapid sequence. The orb expanded.

BOOM.

The orb erupted outward, its energy racing across the sky in concentric rings. The crimson light spread over the entire academy sealing everything inside.

The Vice Principal frowned. He raised his hand and fired a concentrated fire blast at the red barrier. FWOOOOM. The blast struck the crimson surface. A crack formed and sealed itself instantly.

He turned toward the figures. "What’s the meaning of this?"

The two Peak Grand Core masters reached up and pulled back their hoods.

The first was an older man with sharp features, dark skin, and amber eyes.

Tariq al-Khamsin. Patriarch of the Khamsin family.

The second was a lean, gaunt man with pale skin, hollow cheeks, and eyes that glowed with a sickly green light.

Seth al-Apep. Patriarch of the Apep family.

Tariq moved first. His hands formed a seal. Blood mist erupted from his palms. He swung his arm downward. "Blood Mist Slash."

A crescent wave of compressed blood mist screamed toward the academy barrier. The air hissed where it passed — TSSSSSS — the corrosive energy eating through the atmosphere itself.

Seth followed. His hands moved in a different seal. Dark energy coiled from his fingers, taking shape — a massive serpent of condensed shadow. Its body was thirty meters long, its fangs dripping with dark venom. "Shadow Serpent."

The serpent launched toward the barrier alongside the blood mist slash. The two attacks converged — blood and shadow — striking the golden barrier simultaneously.

The Head Instructor’s aura exploded. Peak Grand Core Realm. His A-Rank ability activated. He formed a hand gesture — fingers interlocking, palms spreading — and a giant golden avatar materialized around his body. The avatar was twenty meters tall, armored in golden light, its fists raised. It looked like a deity descending to the mortal plane.

The avatar’s fist swung downward. BOOOOOM!

The impact shattered both attacks simultaneously. The blood mist scattered. The shadow serpent dissipated into fragments of dark energy that dissolved into the air. The shockwave from the clash sent debris flying across the academy grounds.

Tariq clicked his tongue. "Tch."

The Vice Principal rushed them. His body became a streak of fire — Early Astral Realm speed that left a trail of superheated air behind him. He closed the distance to Seth in a heartbeat, fist cocked back, blazing with enough heat to melt stone.

Seth’s eyes widened. He raised his arms to defend —

"Hey, Du Maurier." Seth’s voice cut through the chaos. "It’s your turn."

BOOM!

A massive shape crashed between Seth and the Vice Principal. The impact created a shockwave that leveled the area around the academy barrier — trees uprooted, stone pathways shattered, earth cracked and thrown upward. CRAAAASH. Dust and debris erupted in a wall of destruction.

When the dust cleared, a giant beast stood between them.

An A rank corpse bear. Ten meters tall. Its fur was matted and dark, its flesh rotting in places, its eyes replaced by glowing orbs of dark energy. The stench of death rolled off it in waves. Dark aura pulsed from its body — necromantic energy animating dead muscle and dead bone, forcing the corpse to move with unnatural speed and power.

Louisa Du Maurier descended from above, landing on the corpse bear’s shoulder. Her dark hair caught the dark sky’s light. Her beauty was ethereal — pale skin, violet eyes, a smile that belonged on a painting rather than a battlefield. Her aura radiated outward.

Early Astral Realm.

She looked down at Seth with amusement. "You will do well to mind your tongue, Apep."

Seth’s jaw tightened. His inner thought was a single word of pure annoyance. Bitch.

Louisa’s gaze shifted from Seth to the Vice Principal. Her smile widened. She looked at the academy below, at the barrier, at the thousands of students cowering inside. Her violet eyes found the combat building.

She looked back at the Vice Principal.

"Now, let’s be straight. Comply or die."

The Vice Principal’s frown deepened. He could feel her aura — Early Astral Realm, same as himself.

"Do you think the academy will cower just because of a few Dark Order members?" His voice was steady. Defiant.

Louisa laughed.

"Do I look like those clowns?" She tilted her head, her violet eyes gleaming. "Please. Don’t insult me by comparing me to those monkeys. I’m the real deal."

She clapped her hands together.

The sky above her darkened further. Portals of dark energy ripped open — five, ten, fifteen. From each portal, a figure dropped. Beast puppets — B-Rank creatures reanimated with necromantic energy, their bodies stitched together, eyes glowing with dark light. Wolves. Bears. Serpents. Birds. Each one radiated the killing power of a B-Rank beast, enhanced beyond what they had been in life.

And among them — human corpses. Grand Core masters. Three of them. Their bodies preserved, their cultivation cores reanimated with dark energy, their empty eyes burning with necromantic fire. They moved, their mana signatures fluctuating between Mid and Peak Grand Core.

Tariq al-Khamsin watched the display from his position beside Seth. His amber eyes tracked every corpse, every puppet. His inner thoughts were careful. I better take note not to mess with that woman. Her necromancy has only grown stronger. Three Grand Core corpses and fifteen B-Rank beast puppets — and she’s controlling them all simultaneously without visible strain. The Du Maurier family’s ranking among the great clans is not without reason.

The Vice Principal’s expression darkened. The situation had gone from dangerous to catastrophic. The Peak Grand Core patriarchs were bad enough. The Early Astral Necromancer was worse. But an army of B-Rank beast puppets and Grand Core human corpses turned this from a negotiation into a slaughter.

"Go," Louisa said casually, as if releasing hounds for a walk.

The corpses rushed forward.

The beast puppets scattered — some charging the academy barrier, their bodies slamming against the golden dome with enough force to crack the ground beneath them. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. Each impact sent tremors through the campus. The barrier held — but the cracks were spreading.

The three Grand Core human corpses engaged the instructors. The first corpse — a Mid Grand Core fire user in life — launched a fireball at a group of combat instructors. FWOOOOM. The instructors scattered, raising barriers, countering with their own abilities. The second corpse — a Peak Grand Core earth manipulator — slammed both palms into the ground. Earth spikes erupted across the battlefield, impaling two instructors who couldn’t dodge in time. SHLK. SHLK. Their screams echoed across the grounds.

The third corpse — a Mid Grand Core wind user — created a tornado that ripped across the courtyard, tearing up stone benches, lampposts, and everything in its path. WHOOOOSH. Instructors raised barriers against the wind, but the corpse pressed forward, launching wind blades that cut through defenses like paper.

The remaining beast puppets threw themselves at the academy barrier in waves. B-Rank bodies slammed against the golden dome. CRACK-CRACK-CRACK. The barrier’s golden light flickered. Maintenance staff inside the barrier channeled mana into the reinforcement arrays, desperately shoring up the defenses. But the attacks were relentless. Coordinated. The puppets didn’t tire. They didn’t feel fear. They didn’t stop.

The academy’s instructors fought back fiercely. But the corpses were durable. Necromantic energy reinforced their bodies, making them harder to damage than they had been in life. Wounds that would kill a living cultivator were shrugged off. Arms were severed and reattached. Torsos were pierced and kept moving.