"Evacuate."

"Huh?"

Lily lifted her face, however, the confusion on her face instantly turned into shock once the academy was attacked by something.

Something crashed into the conference room where the world leaders and the top mage groups were.

"..."

Mika remained indifferent even with almost the entire teaching staff pointing their magic at him from all angles.

"A-an ambush!"

Many students, who just came for the graduation ceremony, started to panic and run away. Only the third-years and some underclassmen from the white classes stayed behind.

In the meantime, everyone in the conference room stayed seated aside from Hunters and the Grand Order. While Hunters remained calm, the members of the Grand Order and Cylia were stunned by the surprise attack.

"Is that...?"

Apathetically, Lucio stared at the spear which was stuck right between his feet.

"I guess this is his way of saying that there’s no need anymore to wait. So what’s the reason for this meetup?" Olivia huffed triumphantly.

Lucio sighed as he palmed his face.

"I wanted to be nice to you but if you enter my place and dare to behave in such a way, then even I can get mad, you know...?" he muttered.

"..."

Sara readied herself and placed her hands near her hips despite there not being a sword. Elsa, in turn, stretched her arm out and signaled her comrades, who were alerted due to Sara, to stay put.

"Cylia Tiam and Olivia Rostanta..."

"?"

Cylia turned to Lucio.

"Hand your nations over to me, Lucio Graymen, the ruler of Loogam, Stakew and Malnor." Lucio stated, looking down at the other two leaders.

"Are you out of your mind? Why should we do that?" Cylia replied offendedly.

The Grand Order, too, looked baffledly at Lucio.

"In order to fulfill my goal I need the power to control the entire world. Currently, I rule over three out of five nations so it’s only natural for me to target your nations, too, wouldn’t you think that, too?"

"I’ve prepared myself for two years and now it’s finally time to become the one and only world leader." Lucio added, clenching his fists.

However, after he finished, Olivia was laughing.

"What bullshit!" she laughed as she stood up from her seat.

"If that’s the topic you wanted to discuss, then I can save you the time for that."

She headed to the hole which the spear made.

"My answer is obviously no." she answered with a smirk.

Then, she glanced at Sara.

"Let’s go, Sara."

"Wait."

Lucio stopped them.

"There was never space for any kind of negotiations. In fact, there was never the option for any of you to object to it." Lucio said coldly, still sitting.

"..."

Cylia had a strange feeling.

"If you don’t want to hand your nations over to me, then you should know what will happen next, right?"

"What’s going to happen? Tell me?" Olivia replied, mocking him with her fearless smirk.

"What a foolish queen."

He stood up and faced both Cylia and Olivia.

"It means that I have to take them forcefully from you."

"In other words, it’s war."

"!"

The Grand Order widened their eyes.

"I-isn’t that too much...?!" Elsa chimed in hurriedly.

But Cylia raised her hands, signaling Elsa to stay quiet.

"A war? Your folk don’t even have the courage to travel on the sea. So why do you think that your people would be willing to wage war with Grat?" Cylia said sternly.

"I let my actions speak for me." Lucio said, smirking at Cylia menacingly.

"Oh, is that so?"

Olivia stepped forward.

"Speaking of action, why don’t we settle this in the Rostanta type of way?" she suggested.

It was commonly known that Rostanta was a nation ruled by the mightiest. A regular tournament would be held to determine the next ruler of that nation which a member of the Rostanta bloodline always won until now.

"It’s simple. If you beat me you’ll become the new king of Rostanta."

"O-Olivia, what are you saying?!" Cylia remarked.

She accidentally slammed the table out of agitation.

"So? What will you do?"

Olivia mocked him further by gesturing with her finger to come over to her.

"!"

But suddenly, a teacher came crashing through the walls from outside and landed on the table of the room. He was unconscious and it seemed like he was hit in the face.

"Or if you want to take a shortcut, you can always try your luck and fight him instead." Olivia joked, pointing with her thumb behind her.

"..."

Lucio walked over to the now two holes in the wall.

He looked down at the area where the graduation ceremony should have been held. However, most of the students were gone and on the stage was a big commotion as many teachers surrounded a single student.

Lucio’s gaze turned grim and sharp when he identified Mika as the root of the problems.

"He was hiding all the time, huh?" he muttered.

Then, he inhaled deeply.

"Lily Hayth, what are you doing?!" he shouted vigorously which was shocking for everyone in the room as they did not perceive the usual gentle Lucio as the type of person who could get enraged.

"?!"

Down below, Lily got goosebumps after hearing Lucio’s voice.

"L-Lily...?"

Her classmates looked at her in confusion and vigilance.

Lily took a few steps back from Mika who still had an unfazed expression on his face.

"Everyone..." she muttered, sounding as if she was in great pain.

Her voice and hand trembled as she summoned her wand and pointed it at Mika.

"Get ready to fight...!"

"H-hey! What are you saying now?!" Lisa asked flabbergastedly.

"Why should we do that?!" Rachel replied irritatedly.

"Just listen to me!" Lily yelled suddenly.

"Lily..."

The white class did not have a clue what she was thinking but they understood that Lily was desperate and that she was forced to behave that way.

"I’m eager to hear your explanation later." Harik joked nervously as he readied himself.

He smiled wryly at Mika.

"..."

Belian, however, stepped forward and stood beside Lily as he drew his sword.

And when he did so, Ophelia could not stay put any longer and joined Mika’s side.

"Leave them to me, Ophelia. I want you to handle the others behind me." Mika ordered calmly.

Ophelia turned around and saw the glares of her fellow colleagues as well as some students.

"Ophelia, please explain yourselves!" Cindy asked shockedly.

Ophelia sighed with a faint smile.

"I suppose we do look like the villains here..." she remarked jokingly.

"Weren’t you prepared for that role?" Mika replied nonchalantly.

"I was but it still feels strange, you know?"

Then, Cindy dashed forward, trying to freeze Ophelia from point blank whereas Belian also leaped toward Mika.

Mika drew Excalibur, making both their swords clash.

"You show up after all those years and the first thing you do is ambush the academy...?" Belian said tensely as he pressed his sword against Mika’s sword.

Mika pushed him away by putting more force on his swing. Ophelia, too, managed to dodge Cindy’s palm.

She grabbed her wrist and pushed her away.

Following that, Ophelia and Mika looked at their opponents.

"We’re here to save the world from Lucio Graymen." they stated simultaneously.

Obviously, everyone was in disbelief after hearing that. After all, Lucio never showed any signs of plotting anything evil.

"If we don’t stop him, then the world as we know it will fall into ruin." Ophelia said.

"What we saw during the invasion two years ago was just a glimpse of the world he’s trying to create." she added.

Suddenly, Ophelia was put into a dark sphere.

"Ms. Ross, I thought you were the kind of person who wouldn’t spread such nonsense." Ralph stated with a frown.

"Nonsense?"

Mika made the human-sized sphere disappear in an instant by touching it with Excalibur.

"Do you really think we’re attacking Loogam and Lucio without something supporting our reason?" Mika said, glaring coldly at Ralph.

"Or are you perhaps in cahoots with him?"

The usual kind and gentle Ralph clenched his wooden staff tightly.

"Students and teachers! Get those intruders!" he shouted.

Those whom he addressed approached Mika and Ophelia but on their faces, it was visible that they were anxious and reluctant.

However, flames suddenly surrounded the stage where they were.

"There’s no need for them to step in." Lily stated indifferently.

Only the white class and Mika were inside the space which was surrounded by her flames.

"We alone will be enough to deal with him." she declared with a bitter expression.

"..."

Ophelia, who was outside, looked at the fire concernedly.

"Change of plans. Ophelia, go and join the others." Mika said.

"Understood."

Without hesitation, Ophelia headed toward the conference room to join Olivia and Sara.

"Ophelia! Wait!"

Cindy and a few other teachers tried to chase after her.

"Enlarge."

Then, the Holy Spear appeared right in front of the academy’s entrance and grew bigger.

"!"

The earth trembled for one moment as the big spear landed and blocked off the entire entrance, enabling to stall Ophelia’s chasers.

"I understand that you have a reason for doing this but just like you I also have a reason for what I’m doing." Mika said as he walked toward his former classmates.

He drew his silver sword.

"Please, step aside."