A loud explosion occurred near the entrance to the training field, however, Belian and Sara did not even intend to look back and see for themselves what just happened.

They were holding their practical swords tightly as they readied their feet.

"!"

The two dashed forward simultaneously and while Belian held his sword close to his chest, Sara retracted her arm and her sword.

Sara launched countless sword strikes on Belian who had no choice but to block them. Her moves were so quick that Belian could only barely parry those sword attacks.

It was reminding him of two years ago when he sparred against her with Mika. Just like back then, he was trapped in defending all the time against her overwhelming offense.

There was neither an opening nor did he have time to make a counterattack. He did not even have time to catch a break for a single second.

Belian was stubbornly defending, not allowing even something as small as a scratch on his body.

Once Sara retracted her arm for a longer time in order to swing with much more force, Belian could finally take some action and swung his sword at her for the first time.

Their swords clashed for a moment before both of them backed away.

"..."

Belian did not waste a single second and enhanced his blade with fire magic.

Sara did the same and applied water magic on her sword.

And with their swords being modified, the two leaped toward each other once more. But instead of directly blocking each others’ blades, they tried to dodge them.

A vertical fire blaze was spread whenever Belian swung his sword at Sara, whereas water slashes were shot when Sara did it. Sometimes, their magic would clash against each other, resulting in instant evaporation.

The area, where they fought, was slowly covered in that evaporation, worsening not just their but the watchers’ sight.

Still, they kept fighting in that fog by focusing on their other senses.

From outside, one could only see water and fire slashes coming out from the fog’s center occasionally.

But then, the fog was horizontally split in half when Sara cut it.

Belian, in turn, crouched down to avoid getting hit. However, he prepared his attack in the meantime.

When he got up, he launched a sword slash from below.

"!"

Instinctively, Sara swung her sword at Belian.

"Tch...!"

While she only managed to leave a small cut on his cheek, Belian left a shallow cut on her throat behind.

After that, no one of the two moved.

"It’s my loss." the two of them declared at the same time.

"?"

Sara looked confused at Belian.

"You were able to leave a cut on me. If you had used your relic, who knows what would have happened?" Sara explained.

"I could say the same to you." Belian replied, touching the small scratch on his cheek.

Sara chuckled.

"Well, let’s settle on a draw then." Sara suggested, walking back to the others.

"..."

Belian nodded.

"Did you really put your everything into this match?" Elsa asked with a smirk when Sara walked past her.

"As if." Sara huffed.

"Neither I nor he were serious." she added, smiling firmly. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

It was because both of them were not familiar with long-lasting battles. Mostly because of the nature of their relics which practically led to instant death to the enemy, the two of them could only fight seriously if it was a fight to the death.

"I hope that there won’t be a day when I have to be serious against him." Sara commented.

She and the others headed to the entrance of the training space.

A few minutes ago.

"If you land a hit against me, we will leave."

Lily was suggesting a provoking idea to Bakil.

He was about to apologize to his classmate Vasilya Lyravil, whom he accidentally shoved to the ground.

"Huh...?"

Bakil clenched his fists.

"I may not be a part of the council but isn’t it fitting to punish someone who was violent toward the student council president?" Lily said coldly, referring to Vasilya.

And before Bakil could say anything, Lily was about to fire off a fireball.

"?!"

Bakil instantly jumped away with the help of his magic.

However, Lily’s movement was just a feint for him to get away from the others.

"Now I’ve got you where I wanted." she muttered menacingly, jumping to Bakil.

"D-damnit!"

He amassed lightning in his hands and attempted to attack her out of reflex but Lily was faster. Compared to him, she did not need much time to prepare an attack that could knock out the opponent.

Her palm was sparkling and the sound of things crackling was heard from there.

"W-why are you doing this to me?!" he asked frantically, facing his despair as he could not do anything against her.

Even his teacher looked at the two and sighed tiredly. He wanted to stop Lily but he knew that he would only lose face if he tried it. After all, he, too, stood no chance against her.

"Why, you ask...?" Lily muttered.

She looked at his appearance. And then, she glanced over to Vasilya who looked worriedly at Bakil.

"Why do you have to look like that...?" she whispered.

"?"

Bakil did not catch her words.

"You’re all irritating me." she answered bitterly.

Following those words, Bakil was blended as he was caught up in the explosion Lily caused from almost point blank.

"Bakil!"

When he was about to land on the ground, Vasilya hurried over and softened his fall.

"..."

Lily descended without any problems and stared at Vasilya who was protecting Bakil from Lily by spreading her shaky arms in front of him.

"P-please stop here...! I-I don’t want to see my childhood friend like this anymore...!" Vasilya begged anxiously.

"Childhood friend...?" Lily murmured.

Unbeknownst to her, Lily was emitting an even heavier pressure than before.

"!"

Vasilya mistook it as her bloodlust. She gathered up her courage and launched an ice attack on Lily.

However, Lily negated that attack with her fire.

She raised her hand afterward, gathering flames in that hand.

"Stop it now, Lily. You’re doing too much."

Lisa grabbed Lily’s wrist and had a stern expression on her face.

"..."

Lily glanced at her classmate, finally realizing what she was trying to do.

"Sorry, I was getting carried away." she stated softly.

The others from her class, including Elsa, Olivia and Sara, were also there after Belian and Sara’s match ended in a draw.

"I apologize for my student." Ophelia said formally to Erwin.

"I-it’s fine." he replied stunnedly.

Even though he just arrived in the training space, he managed to catch a glimpse at the strength of Belian and Lily.

"They really are a cut above everyone else..." he muttered with a drop of sweat rolling down his cheek.

The white class was walking towards the portal in order to exit the space.

Elsa was behind the group, looking at their backs.

"That’s why I didn’t want to join Hunters." she muttered with a self-deprecating smile.

She never told anyone the real reason why she declined their offers so many times, not even Olivia or Sara. After all, she was too ashamed to admit to them that she felt like she could not keep up with them soon.

Even in the Grand Order, she started to get the feeling that she may be soon surpassed.

"..."

Her gaze fell on Lily for a moment.

Including her, the faces of certain young people Lily’s age crossed her mind.

"I feel old for saying this but we may witness a generation full of monsters in human skin." she joked quietly before joining their sides again.

In the meantime, certain individuals made their moves in the world.

One of them was in a deserted village in Malnor.

"..."

The person stood in front of a graveyard which was oddly located in the center of the village.

On each gravestone, which all looked the same, was a flower placed.

"Just wait a little longer for me. I will soon get my hands on the head of that guy." the man, Mika, announced determinedly.

Mika visited his village to check on the graves one last time before leaving for his next mission.

Meanwhile, the other individual was wandering in the desert in Grat.

Without complaining or a change in the behavior, the person calmly read the newspaper.

"World conference, huh...? So it’s time for the next step then..." the man, Dreyar, muttered pensively.

With his great sword on his back, Dreyar visited many towns in Grat and prepared certain things before he headed to Youra, the capital of Grat and the place where the palace and the current queen were.

And as those two individuals were on the move, the long-awaited world conference was about to open its curtains which would also mark itself in history as the day when everything took a turn for the worst.

It would not only get worse for the world but also for him.

Mika.