Caelum rapidly slammed the giant red button.

[Crit Crit Crit Crit Crit]

[CRAZY CRIT!!!]

The crit gauge instantly filled.

The sphere of light exploded.

[Fusion Complete]

[Technique Acquired: Reverse Technique]

This time, Caelum had killed a Special Grade Cursed Spirit.

The fragment quality was exceptionally high.

Perhaps because the number of fragments was lower than before, the initial fusion produced only a single technique.

Reverse Technique.

Without question, this was exactly the healing ability Caelum lacked the most.

There was no need to think twice.

He immediately chose not to continue fusing.

The glowing sphere merged into his body.

At once, Caelum mastered Reverse Technique.

[Interference Value Gained: 0.06]

[Interference Value: 0.09]

The masterminds behind the Cursed Spirit faction’s massacre at Astra, Uliya and Knox, had both died at Caelum’s hands.

On top of that, Mordren had lost another cursed corpse here.

For other players, this amount of Interference Value would already be considerable.

To Caelum, though, it was barely worth mentioning.

The next morning.

When daylight arrived, Cursecraft Academy was in ruins.

Battle scars covered every corner of the campus.

Teachers and students alike looked utterly exhausted.

There was no shortage of heavily wounded survivors.

After an entire night of bloody fighting, most of the invading Cursed Spirits had been successfully exorcised.

Only a handful of powerful spirits managed to escape after realizing the situation had turned against them.

The price Astra paid was devastating.

Twenty six academy instructors had died.

Three hundred and twenty eight students had been killed by Cursed Spirits.

Among them were even Grade One Sorcerers.

The losses were catastrophic.

This was the heaviest blow Cursecraft Academy had suffered since its founding.

Three hundred and twenty eight young Sorcerers dead.

That was not merely a number.

It represented Astra’s future.

It was easy to imagine what would happen next.

For at least the next decade, the number of Astra Sorcerers would experience a severe decline.

The damage would echo for years.

At the very least, Astra would not recover from this disaster anytime soon.

Only while cleaning the battlefield did people discover the remains of Graveflame and Mordren’s cursed corpse.

Everyone was immediately shocked and confused.

After all, Graveflame had been a Special Grade Cursed Spirit.

The fact that it had died here without anyone noticing felt absurd.

What kind of person could possibly possess that sort of power?

Someone capable of killing a Special Grade Cursed Spirit and a Heavenly Restriction user on the spot, while also wiping out a swarm of Cursed Spirits and a cursed corpse with Grade One combat ability.

Just imagining that level of strength was terrifying.

Sylas scanned the battlefield.

All he could sense was the overwhelming residue of Graveflame’s Cursed Energy.

Domain: Phantom Leviathan Dominion and Cataclysm of a Hundred Wraiths had completely drowned out every other trace of Cursed Energy.

A chill ran down his spine.

"What terrifying Cursed Energy..."

Such intense residual energy could only mean one thing.

An unbelievably violent battle had taken place here.

And if that was true, the disturbance should have been enormous.

The answer was practically obvious.

Zephyr’s expression darkened.

"A Domain." 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Only a Domain technique could explain what happened here.

Only a Domain could completely conceal the massive destruction from the battle.

His gaze settled on Graveflame’s remains.

That had to be the explanation.

Abel stood nearby in silence.

After a long moment, he turned and prepared to leave.

"Noctis will give Astra an explanation for this," he said seriously.

"No matter what, the traitors came from Noctis."

"Heh."

Zephyr let out a dismissive laugh.

He had zero interest in any so called explanation.

The two most outstanding students of Noctis had defected to the Cursed Spirit faction.

Even though they were already dead, that fact remained unchanged.

The irony was almost laughable.

If Astra’s previous traitor incident had made Zephyr and Sylas unable to fully trust Astra anymore, then this event destroyed whatever trust they still had in the rest of the Sorcerer world.

"Oh right. Is he okay?"

Zephyr suddenly asked Sylas.

Sylas froze.

"You haven’t found him yet?"

The two stared at each other.

Then both suddenly realized something.

Without another word, they rushed off to search for Caelum.

Blackreach.

Inside a hidden Cursed Spirit faction stronghold.

Boom!

Mordren slammed his fist into a wall hard enough to crack it.

His expression was ugly.

"That damn brat again. Ruining my plans over and over."

During their first encounter, Caelum had caused him to lose most of his Grade One Sorcerers.

As a direct result, he had been unable to deploy more forces during the Astra massacre.

Otherwise, Astra’s losses would have been even greater.

Then came their second clash, last night.

In a single battle, he had lost a Heavenly Restriction user and another cursed corpse.

These high combat cursed corpses were extremely difficult to produce.

Mordren barely had any left.

What irritated him most was the fact that he had failed to recover Graveflame.

"A dual Heavenly Restriction user really is troublesome."

Mordren turned toward a nearby figure.

"Unfortunately, I couldn’t retrieve your split body."

"It doesn’t matter. A mere split body is insignificant."

The figure shrouded in black smoke stepped forward, revealing its true appearance.

It was Graveflame.

Unlike the version that had accompanied Knox, this one clearly possessed intelligence equal to a human’s.

It could communicate with Mordren flawlessly.

Even among Special Grade Cursed Spirits, there were enormous differences.

Some became Special Grade simply because their power reached that level.

Others were called Special Grade because that was the absolute limit of what they could become.

The same principle applied to Sorcerers.

Sometimes the gap between two Special Grades was even larger than the gap between a Special Grade and a Grade Four.

Graveflame belonged to that rare category.

Cursed Spirits were born from humanity’s negative emotions.

And among all negative emotions, the strongest and most primal was undoubtedly fear.

Fear of death.

Fear of darkness.

Fear of the unknown.

Graveflame had been born from humanity’s fear of ghosts, monsters, and supernatural beings.

Its origins stretched back to ancient times.

Naturally, its strength had once been overwhelming.

But because human fears differed from region to region, Graveflame had split into many separate entities, each carrying a fragment of the original body’s power.

Over the past thousand years, some of those fragments had been exorcised by Sorcerers.

Others had been sealed away.

As a result, Graveflame’s overall strength had continuously weakened.

Even now, after recovering several split bodies, it remained far from its former peak.

While searching for those fragments, Mordren had provided considerable assistance.

In exchange, Graveflame formed a Binding Art pact with him.

The two now operated as allies.

Lost in thought, Mordren’s eyes darkened.

Overthrowing the Sorcerer world was never going to be simple.

Originally, he still had many plans left to arrange before making his move.

But Caelum’s appearance had disrupted everything.

Even before fully maturing, the boy already possessed strength capable of overwhelming or even instantly killing Special Grade Cursed Spirits.

If he were allowed to continue growing unchecked, the consequences would be disastrous.

Sooner or later, he would become the greatest obstacle to Mordren’s plans.

Mordren made his decision.

"Before we begin overturning the Sorcerer world... we kill that boy first."

"With my technique and your power together, that shouldn’t be difficult."