"Get down!!"

Bryan screamed at the top of his lungs while moving his legs as fast as possible.

He seemed to have seen something that Kai and Matilda hadn’t.

A deep, guttural groan rolled through the whole Fire Swamp—and the earth heaved beneath Kai and Matilda’s boots like a living thing trying to throw them off its back. They were really close to the edge of the Fire Swamp right now, near the dip back down to the surface.

Kai’s hand shot out, fingers locking around a gnarled root.

Beside him, Matilda drove her shield into the ground and braced against it.

Everything was quaking; the entire swamp from edge to edge was quaking as if the land had awoken from its ancient slumber. "What’s happening?" Kai held on and watched Bryan in the distance, stumbling and rolling. "Does the Fire Swamp have a magical phenomenon like Mount Dam Anlan?"

"I don’t know!" Matilda shouted back. "Maybe? Professor Hera said nothing!"

Just then, Kai noticed the ground changed color.

A pale red flush bled up through the soil, spreading like a stain from some vast, subterranean wound. The cold blue light from the eclipsed sun, that familiar was of the Blue Void, was now overwritten and replaced by a sickly red glow that turned the swamp into something infernal.

Psshh...

Soon came the steam.

It seeped from the ground in whispering threads, curling up through the soil and spiraling like a snake around their legs. The temperature spiked significantly. What had been a damp, bone-chilling cold became a wet, oppressive heat that clung to the skin and throat.

Even breathing became uncomfortable; the hot air stung the nose and lungs.

For ordinary people, this would’ve been a death sentence; a slow and painful suffocation.

For Supernals like them, it was merely uncomfortable.

But it was getting worse.

Just then, almost like the entire world was in agreement, the quaking stopped.

It left a single, perfect second of silence.

However, just as quickly as the quaking stopped, it returned instantly with vengeance. It was not a violent tremor this time, but a thunderous, grating roar. The ground screamed as if there was something underneath, clawing and tearing its way toward the surface.

Kai looked behind Bryan, who was still running, and saw the distant heart of the Fire Swamp erupt like the entire cultivated cloud was one massive volcanic mountain. Blazing orbs of fire shot skyward—dozens of them, one after another; a barrage of fire that rose skyward.

They climbed higher and higher, a hundred miniature suns that covered the sky.

And when they reached their apex, they hung suspended for a second before they curved and began to descend.

Bryan skidded to a halt, finally regrouping with them.

It came from the heart of the Fire Swamp!" He informed, wrapping his arms around a tree as if he were a terrified koala. "We’ve got to leave right now! Where’s that fucking Pegasus both of you rode to get here? If we stay here, we’re all dead!"

Just then, Bryan stopped.

Unlike him, Kai and Matilda relaxed, as if the situation hadn’t been as bad as they thought.

Unlike him, they weren’t panicking.

"What...? Do you guys have a death wish?" Bryan was at a loss for words.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Kai bent down and grabbed Iris, carrying her with one arm. He turned to face Bryan and raised a brow. "Death wish? Who? If we have a death wish, then we won’t be here, taking risks."

"Then why are we not running away?" Bryan asked.

Fireballs are going to rain upon them any second now, and yet he was the only one panicking.

"I have my shield," Matilda raised her shield. "I’m going to be fine."

"My body is quite durable against elements without an origin," Kai also added, not fearing this rain of fireballs at all as he has the perfect Inner Strength of Stone. "I think I’ll take a few hits, no problem."

"I... I don’t have anything, though," Bryan rasped, but the two don’t seem to care.

He gritted his teeth and went to Matilda.

"Please, hide me behind your shield, too!"

"I’d rather get hit by the fireballs."

Frantically, he shifted to Kai, clasping his hands together in prayer.

"Please! Let me use your body as a shield, too!"

"Are you a cat?"

"No...?"

"Then good luck," Kai patted Bryan’s shoulder like he was saying goodbye. "It’s coming."

Bryan’s panic faded into background noise; he was completely ignored.

Matilda dropped to one knee—and curled herself behind her shield, a turtle retreating into its shell. Kai, on the other hand, turned his back to the coming rain of fireballs, dropped to his knees, and wrapped his body around Iris like a living shield.

Seeing them already getting in position without him, Bryan sprinted away.

"Fuck the two of you! I hate both of you!! I hope you die from the fireballs!!"

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

A barrage of fireballs hammered into the earth and detonated, each impact triggering another, a chain reaction of explosions that rippled across the entire Fire Swamp. Since this rain came from the heart of the swamp, the inner ring suffered the lightest assault, while the other ring bore the full, merciless brunt of the fireballs.

One fireball whistled through the air like it was launched from a catapult and struck Matilda.

Her golden shield absorbed the impact, protecting her completely.

More fireballs descended, smaller than the one that struck Matilda, but there were three of them. The first two blasted the ground on either side of Kai, boxing him in with mud and flame. The third caught him square in the back and detonated.

Fire washed across his back; the remnants licked the ground around him in dying embers.

But his back was barely charred—the Inner Strength of Stone hardened his skin and made it more resistant to elemental fury. Before he could breathe properly, more fireballs descended and crashed onto him.

Boom—!

Boom—!

Each one forced out a grunt to escape his mouth.

It lasted about a minute until the phenomenon was finally over.

By the time the barrage ended, Kai’s back was blistered at the edges and faintly charred, but it was nothing his body couldn’t handle. He slowly uncurled—opening up his frame to check on the small creature cradled against his chest. "Did you get hurt, little kitty? Any burns?"

She meowed as if to answer no, and then blinked slowly as if to say thank you.

Only then did Kai breathe normally again.

"Are you okay?" Matilda lowered her shield and stood up. "That looks painful."

"A bit more painful than I expected—but I’ll manage." Kai groaned as he straightened, a deep soreness radiating across his entire back. Having Perion’s Ending Fragment helped him a lot; a really convenient ability. He then scanned the smoldering area. "Where is he? Did he die?"

Bryan was nowhere to be seen.

He sprinted in a particular direction and disappeared from sight.

Kai was facing away, so he didn’t see exactly where that moron went.

Splash—!

"Phuaah!"

Just then, a figure burst from the surface of a nearby water body—clawing at the muddy shore like it was the last solid thing in the world. Bryan dragged himself halfway onto land weakly and collapsed, cheek pressed against the mud and chest heaving.

He was lucky; absurdly lucky that water had been close enough to save him.

It shielded him from the rain of fireballs.

"I’m alive..." Bryan coughed out a mouthful of water, smiling weakly. "I’m fucking alive..."

Kai and Matilda shook their heads, but the ground shook under them again.

From the center, a massive fireball the size of a car flew up to the sky and curved. Its direction was straight at their position. Or at least, the two of them thought the fireball was heading to them, but it went further.

Passing overhead.

"Hold on a minute!" Kai panicked at the sight. "Isn’t it going to fall down to the surface?!"

Panic seized him.

He sprinted to the edge and threw himself flat against the ground, eyes locked onto the fireball as it curved through the air with terrible grace, leaving behind a trail of black smoke scarring the heavens behind it as it began its final descent.

A single fireball that size could level a house. Maybe even a neighbourhood.

But when it was low enough, it suddenly detonated.

Something blocked its path; a barrier that separated the sky from the surface.

"Don’t worry about debris like that," Matilda stood beside him—and looked down, watching the remnants of the fireball. "People on the surface could not see the real sky, only an illusion of a peaceful sky. That... is the reason why.

"It not only stops debris from falling, but also stops Angels from coming down." She added.

Kai’s eyes narrowed as he watched the point of impact; a bluish energy rippled and flickered, barely visible against the scorched air. He watched as the translucent barrier shimmered once, twice, and then turned invisible again.

Everything returned to normal.

"What happened to the Angels who tried?" Kai asked in a whisper.

"Since the barrier is mainly used for maintaining the illusion, some Angels could go through it using brute force," Matilda had also thought of this before. She had thought about returning to the surface, but as she learned more, she realized it was not worth it. "All I knew was that the Angels who tried would be hunted down."

"Hunted down? How?"

"I don’t know, but have you seen an Angel come down from the sky before all of this?"

"No..."

"Precisely. Whatever the hunting method is, it’s extremely successful."

Just think about that alone sent a shiver down Kai’s spine.

Many Angels were broken, stressed beyond endurance, as they could never feel safe or relaxed, even inside the academy. It was the academy itself that bled hope dry from them. When even the institution itself insinuated that the struggle wasn’t worth it, that ending things was more acceptable than trying to survive, it was only natural that so many tried to return to paradise.

Return to the surface.

Either through sneaking away or through a reckless dive.

But despite that, Kai had never seen a single Angel coming down from the sky.

Not one.

And that alone proved how terrifying the academy’s method of dealing with returning Angels truly was. In all his years living on the surface, even throughout high school, he never heard his classmates mention seeing an Angel. Only Demons.

As if Angels who tried to go home simply ceased to exist.

"Come on," Matilda turned around. "I told you it’s a taboo to look at the surface for too long."

Kai sighed and rose to his feet; it’s time to return to the academy.