The Vengeful Extra's Ascension-Chapter 256: A sudden change

The next morning came pretty clean and deceptively peaceful for what was about to happen not too long after.

Sunlight crept over the Academy spires in soft gold bands, glinting off enchanted glass and floating walkways. The world looked ordinary, too ordinary, like it was holding its breath.

Albedo stood on the boarding platform, hands in his coat pockets, breath fogging faintly in the cool air as the floating train eased into place with a low, resonant hum.

The Aetherline Express was a sleek thing, silver body segmented by glowing mana rails beneath it, hovering several meters above the ground as arcane repulsors stabilized its weight. Carriages drifted into alignment soundlessly, doors sliding open with practiced precision.

It was created recently, with the goal of giving students more options to move to, from or throughout the Academy Campus.

Students boarded in clusters, chatting, laughing, complaining about early lectures.

Ember wasn’t with him out in the open. Academy regulations restricted contracted high-tier beasts from public transit unless properly sealed. She remained in his Soul Beast space and was currently just sleeping, waiting to be summoned.

He stepped into the carriage and took a seat near the window.

Across from him sat a pair of second-years discussing spell matrices. Further down, a merchant couple murmured quietly. A professor skimmed through a floating tome, completely absorbed.

Albedo leaned his head back, eyes half-lidded.

The train doors sealed. With a gentle lurch, the Aetherline lifted, gliding forward along invisible pathways as the city dropped away beneath them.

Buildings shrank. Streets became lines. The world softened into distance.

Albedo exhaled, relaxing but he could barely sleep before shit hit the fan. The mana rails beneath the train spasmed violently, blue-white light flashing red in an instant. The hum of stabilizers twisted into a shrill, discordant shriek.

"What the, ?" someone shouted.

Albedo’s eyes snapped open. The air dropped as Gravity inverted for half a heartbeat.

The carriage slammed sideways as an unseen force crushed into the train’s underbelly. Wards flared desperately across the hull, then shattered like glass.

~BOOM!~

The explosion was absence, as mana vanished all around them. The entire train lurched, repulsors dying mid-flight as the world rushed upward to meet them.

"BRACE!"

Too late, as the Aetherline Express plummeted.

Wind roared through the carriage as the hull tore open, metal screaming under impossible pressure. People were thrown from their seats, bodies slamming into walls, luggage flying like shrapnel.

Albedo was already moving. He slammed his hand into the floor, mana flaring instinctively, then,

Nothing.

The spell collapsed in his palm.

His eyes widened.

’Mana suppression.’ Was his first thought.

The ground rushed up. The world shattered.

***

Impact came like the wrath of a god. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

The train smashed through layers of enchanted forest canopy, obliterating trees in a storm of splintered wood and twisted metal before slamming into the earth with a deafening, bone-rattling crash.

The carriage Albedo was in tore free from the main body, skidding across broken stone and dirt before rolling, once, twice, before finally coming to a violent halt.

Silence followed. No mana hum or background pulsing.

Albedo lay sprawled amid debris, breath knocked from his lungs, ears ringing. For a second, he didn’t move, just listened.

Screams echoed in the distance. He pushed himself up slowly, body aching but intact.

Perfect Adaptation, he noted distantly. Still working.

He staggered to his feet, eyes scanning the wreckage.

The forest around them was... wrong.

Trees stood frozen mid-sway, leaves unmoving despite the wind that should have followed the crash. Light bent strangely here, shadows stretching too long, edges blurring unnaturally.

A dome shimmered faintly in the air above the crash site.

"Is everyone alive?" someone shouted nearby.

Albedo moved automatically, pulling a trapped student from beneath a bent support beam, snapping the metal with raw physical strength when mana refused to answer.

"Stay still," he said calmly. "You’re bleeding."

"I—I can’t cast," the student whimpered. "My mana, it’s gone."

Albedo frowned. He focused inward. His mana pool was there, but leaking, being drained. Slowly, steadily, like water through cracked glass.

That was bad. He reached instinctively for Havoc and Ruin, but nothing answered at all. His soul felt... distant. Like his weapons were on the other side of thick, insulated glass.

"...No," he muttered.

That was worse. He straightened and took stock. Passengers were emerging from the wreckage in small groups, maybe thirty people total. Some injured. Some panicked. A few trying desperately to activate artifacts or cast spells, all failing.

A middle-aged man slammed his fist against the air.

"There’s a barrier!" he shouted. "We’re trapped!"

Albedo approached the edge of the crash site and extended his hand slowly.

His fingers passed through shimmering distortion before meeting solid resistance.

A spatial enclosure, and it was draining mana to maintain.

A prison. Someone had gone to an absurd amount of effort to make this happen.

Albedo’s jaw tightened.

"This wasn’t an accident," he said aloud.

A professor limped up beside him, face pale. "You think this was an attack?"

"I’m certain," Albedo replied.

His eyes glowed faintly purple as Source Code flickered to life, but even that felt muted here, its reach shortened though its power remained the same.

He analyzed the structure. The mana drain wasn’t uniform. It pulsed in a rhythmic way, as if encouraging exhaustion rather than immediate collapse.

’A test or a capture net,’

His thoughts snapped back to Seraphyne’s words.

’Leashes come in a lot of shapes.’

They didn’t want him dead. They wanted him contained. Albedo exhaled slowly, forcing his racing thoughts into order.

Havoc and Ruin were inaccessible and his mana was draining. Prolonged combat would kill everyone here.

Which meant brute force was off the table. Good thing brute force had never been his only option. He crouched, pressing his palm against the ground.

Space here was artificial.

Folded, anchored to something external.

Which meant, "There’s a core," he murmured.

A control point.

This prison needed an anchor.

And anchors could be broken.

He stood, turning toward the scattered survivors.

"Listen to me," Albedo said, voice calm, carrying. "This space is designed to weaken us over time. Panic will make it worse."

A few people recognized him as the Rank 1 from the first years, and from his duels over the recent times.

The murmurs shifted.

"If you try to force your way out," he continued, "you’ll die. So don’t."

He met their eyes one by one.

"I’m going to find the exit," he said. "Until I return, stay together. Move as little as possible."

Someone swallowed. "And if you don’t come back?"

Albedo’s lips curved into a thin smile.

"Then whoever built this will regret not killing me when they had the chance."