Chapter 76: The last pillar

The enemy launched another wave of dark magic toward the remaining stone pillars.

This time, however, the students were ready.

"Intercept his spell!" Seraphina commanded. "Mages, focus your attacks on the incoming magic! Archers, fire the moment his casting is disrupted!"

Several students raised their staffs and weapons, releasing spells that converged on the approaching darkness. The combined attacks struck the enemy’s magic before it could reach its target, disrupting its trajectory and scattering it into harmless wisps.

The archers followed immediately, sending a volley of arrows toward the dark-robed caster.

He barely moved. A thin layer of dark energy deflected the arrows before they could reach him.

Nevertheless, the students had accomplished their objective.

The stone pillars remained intact.

Kael released a quiet breath of relief as he watched the students maintain their formation. Seraphina’s commands had given them a clear purpose, and even those who had previously argued among themselves were now contributing to the defense.

Their efforts were producing results. Unfortunately, that did not mean they were winning.

The dark caster stared at the students with an increasingly irritated expression. Their individual spells were considerably weaker than his own, but their numbers allowed them to compensate for that disadvantage. Every time he launched an attack, several students combined their magic to interfere with its trajectory while the others prepared to counter his next move.

It was an effective strategy, at least for the moment.

The students were not trying to defeat him. They were buying time by preventing him from destroying the remaining pillars.

The caster eventually understood their intentions.

His expression remained composed, but the irritation in his eyes deepened. If this continued, he would accomplish nothing.

Yet there was no sign of panic or concern on his face. Instead, he slowly raised one hand, and the darkness surrounding his fingers began to spread.

Kael immediately sensed the change. The caster was no longer concentrating his power on a single target.

The dark energy was divided into several tendrils, each twisting through the air toward a different stone pillar.

All at once.

Kael felt a chill run down his spine.

"Damn it," he muttered.

"Everyone, be careful!" Jeannette shouted from behind the frontline. "He’s changing his spell! Those tendrils are targeting different pillars!"

The students reacted immediately, but the sudden change caught many of them off guard. Their previous formation had been organized to intercept attacks aimed at one location. Now they had to divide their attention and coordinate their spells across multiple targets.

Seraphina quickly assessed the situation.

"Split your attacks!" She ordered. "Do not let those tendrils reach the pillars! Anyone who cannot intercept them should reinforce the mages who can!"

The clearing erupted with magic.

Fireballs, wind blades, and concentrated bursts of mana shot toward the incoming darkness. Some struck their targets directly, while others collided with neighboring spells and altered their trajectories. The students worked desperately to cover every approach, their combined efforts turning the space before the pillars into a chaotic web of opposing magic.

Seraphina used her Ice Magic to intercept one of the dark magic tendrils.

For a few moments, they managed to hold their ground.

Then one of the dark tendrils slipped through. It struck a stone pillar near the eastern edge of the sanctuary.

A violent crack echoed across the clearing.

The pillar shuddered as dark energy spread across its surface, followed by a burst of dark light. Before anyone could launch another spell, the ancient structure exploded into fragments.

The protective force surrounding the sanctuary flickered.

Several students stumbled as the pressure of the approaching undead suddenly increased. Creatures that had previously been repelled by the invisible boundary began pressing closer, their outstretched hands reaching through the weakening barrier.

"Hold the perimeter!" Rinha shouted, rushing forward with the other senior students. "Do not let them through!"

The frontline fighters tightened their formation, meeting the advancing undead before they could reach the students responsible for intercepting the caster’s magic.

Kael glanced toward the destroyed pillar.

Five gone.

Two remained.

He forced himself to look away and assess the rest of the battlefield.

Seraphina stood near the center of the clearing, directing the students with unwavering focus. Her earlier hesitation had disappeared, replaced by the decisiveness they desperately needed. Every order she gave helped keep the increasingly chaotic defense from collapsing entirely.

Rinha and the other senior students were holding the frontline, on alert if ever the undead broke through the invisible barrier.

Lilith focused her attention on the stone formations, studying their arrangement and the strange energy connecting them. She had been trying to understand the laws governing the sanctuary’s protection, but the constant attacks left her little time to examine them properly.

Kael’s teammates were also doing everything they could.

Darius stood at the defensive line with his greatsword ready. Elias supported the frontline from a better vantage point, shooting the dark caster every time a chance presented. Mira moved between the injured students, treating those who could not fight.

Quinn was clinging tightly on Kael’s shoulder, waiting for its master’s command.

"Qiu!"

"I know," Kael muttered, keeping his eyes on the enemy. "Things are getting worse."

A short distance away, Leon stood with his own teammates, watching the battle with a grim expression. He had not yet committed his group to a reckless advance, but his attention remained fixed on the caster, ready to respond if the defense collapsed.

Jeannette and her companions were in no condition for a prolonged battle after their earlier ordeal. Nevertheless, she refused to remain idle. She had joined the other spellcasters in intercepting the incoming dark magic, using what remained of her strength to redirect attacks away from the pillars.

The effort was taking its toll.

Some students were already breathing heavily. Others struggled to maintain the flow of mana through their spells. The caster, meanwhile, continued attacking without showing any comparable signs of exhaustion.

Kael searched for an opening.

The enemy’s magic was powerful, but its attacks still had to travel from his position to the stone formations. If they could disrupt the spells closer to their source, the students might regain control of the battlefield.

However, the caster was protecting himself with a layer of dark energy, and every attempt to strike him directly had failed.

Charging at him without a plan would only create another casualty.

Kael studied the streams of dark energy as they twisted through the air.

There had to be a weakness.

The pillars were clearly important to the sanctuary’s protection, but he still did not fully understand how its laws functioned. Lilith might be able to identify the principle behind it, yet she had not found an answer.

And he had no convenient solution waiting in his memories of the game. This entire situation had diverged too far from the events he remembered.

He needed to work with what he could actually observe.

Another wave of dark magic surged toward the pillars.

"Left side!" Jeannette called out. "Intercept the left side first!"

The spellcasters redirected their attacks, successfully disrupting two streams. The remaining students concentrated their magic on the final one, forcing it away from its intended target.

For a moment, Kael thought they had succeeded.

Then the caster’s hand shifted.

The disrupted stream abruptly split into several thinner tendrils. Most of them dissipated under the students’ combined attacks, but one slipped through the gap between two spells.

It struck the second-to-last pillar.

The impact shattered the ancient stone.

Fragments scattered across the clearing as the protective force flickered violently. The undead surged forward, forcing Lilith and the others to retreat several steps.

Only one pillar remained.

Kael’s stomach tightened.

The sanctuary’s invisible boundary was now barely holding. The undead crowded against it from every direction, and the students were running out of strength to keep them back.

Across the clearing, the dark caster lowered his hand.

Seeing that only one pillar remained, he smiled.

It was not a smile of relief or triumph after overcoming a difficult opponent. It was the expression of someone who had finally removed an inconvenient obstacle.

He raised his hand again.

Dark energy gathered around his fingers, growing denser with every passing second.

Everyone understood what he intended to do.

The final pillar was his next target.

"Stop him!" Seraphina shouted. "All available mages, concentrate your attacks on that spell!"

The students immediately responded, gathering what remained of their mana. Spells formed across the clearing, while the archers prepared another volley and the frontline fighters struggled to keep the undead from breaking through.

But Kael could see the problem.

They had already been pushed to their limits. Their earlier success had depended on spreading the enemy’s attacks across several targets and intercepting them through coordinated efforts. Now, with only one pillar remaining, the caster could concentrate his entire attack on a single point.

They would have to stop all of it.

And if they failed, the sanctuary’s protection might collapse completely. Kael tightened his grip on his sword, searching desperately for a way to turn the situation around.

The caster’s grin widened as the dark energy reached its peak.

Then he released the spell.

A massive stream of darkness tore through the clearing, heading straight for the final stone pillar.

For one terrible moment, the students could only watch it approach. The last pillar stood between them and the undead horde.

And it was about to fall.