Mika found himself surrounded by flames while having to face his former classmates and friends. It may have been no problem for him to escape but because he needed the Holy Spear to block the way of the other teachers, who were chasing after Ophelia, he could not summon Excalibur for a while.

Ophelia, in turn, was ordered to join Sara and Olivia who were in the midst of the conference which, however, slowly turned for the worst.

"..."

While trying not to look into Mika’s eyes, Lily summoned a few fire creatures. But she chose to call weak creatures despite knowing that Mika was strong.

"Attack..." she ordered softly.

Meanwhile, her fellow classmates also readied themselves. Even Rachel and Harik prepared themselves.

They swore to support Mika in whatever ways if they were to reunite but they noticed that something was wrong with the whole situation. It was untypical of Lily to act that way and they could not bear to leave her be on her own.

"..."

Rachel gritted her teeth and closed her eyes.

"Is this really the right thing to do...?" she muttered internally torn apart.

She was about to take a step forward, albeit shakingly.

"Don’t force yourself." Belian remarked sternly.

"Lily. The three of us will be enough." he added, referring to Lisa as well.

He was considerate of Harik and Rachel’s relationship with Mika and therefore, he wanted to spar them from this confrontation.

"..."

But Lily did not react. Instead, she walked forward.

And with each step she took, her pace increased until she was running.

However, Mika, too, started to dash forward. His entire body, including his silver sword, was covered in lightning.

"Lisa, be careful!" Belian reminded her.

"Got it!"

The two enhanced their weapons with their magic as they gripped them tightly.

"...!"

Lily set her hands in flames as she tried to attack him but at the last second, she also closed her eyes.

And once she opened them, she saw only the firewall that she created.

Mika was not in her sight anymore. After all, he appeared in front of Lisa who was shocked by the sudden turn of events.

Lisa managed to quickly regain her composure and parried Mika’s sword attacks. However, it was clear that she was pushed back by him.

"Ugh...!"

Her rapier was flicked away and was then stuck in the ground before Mika kicked her in the stomach, sending her to Harik and Rachel, who stood far away from the fight.

"..."

Belian was beside Mika and did not hesitate as he swung his sword down on him.

After that, Belian continued to swing his sword at Mika but he never managed to hit him as Mika dodged them nimbly.

"Why are you not fighting back?" Belian asked after stopping his barrage of strikes.

"I don’t see a reason to fight back."

Mika stared at the side of the sword which was pointed at him.

All the time, Belian tried to hit him with the blunt and non-lethal side of his sword.

"?!"

Belian’s vision turned black all of a sudden as Mika grabbed his face with his hand. And as if his head was a ball, Mika threw Belian to the others as well.

Following that, Mika turned around quickly and cut through the low-ranked fire creatures with his lightning-enhanced sword.

Lily was behind those creatures and launched a fire blaze from her hands after they were cut down by Mika.

It came to a clash between lightning and fire as Mika tried to slash her next attack.

After that collision, Mika was left with slight burn marks on his body.

"..."

Lily bit her lower lip as she prepared her next step.

"That’s enough now."

"?!"

However, she halted abruptly after Mika suddenly appeared behind her with his blade close to her neck.

Normally, she would have admitted her loss at that moment but she could not.

"I want to stop. Believe me... There’s no one who would have hated fighting you more than me." Lily muttered frustratedly.

"Then, why are you doing this?" Mika asked apathetically.

His gaze wandered to the black bracelet on her wrist.

"I..."

She clenched her fists.

"I can’t tell you..."

"I see."

Mika raised his hand to the air.

"...?"

Everyone looked up until they saw pillars of light shooting down from the sky. Those pillars pierced the ground beneath them and caused chaos.

"!"

During that chaos, Lily lost sight of Mika again.

He teleported himself to the other side of the high firewall and was now facing the teachers and other white-class students from the lower years.

Instinctively, some teachers stormed Mika but Mika knocked them out quickly.

"..."

Her colleagues and some of her students were beaten one after another but Cindy could not move. Although they did not have many opportunities to talk, she knew that Ophelia trusted and respected him a lot. Thus, she could not make a step and fight him.

"Good decision." Mika muttered as he passed Cindy who appeared as if she was petrified.

He continued to knock out those who dared to go against him without injuring them fatally.

However, he soon faced a new wave of people. The other class of third-years.

Due to the low number of third-years, the students were split into two classes. One of them was the white class, which his friends were part of, and the other was the so-called general class which was practically a mix of all the other students, no matter if they were previously a red, silver or black class student.

Mika recognized some familiar faces, including his former roommate and friend.

Gerard Armwright.

It was as if time stood still when the two looked each other in the eyes.

And based on that moment, Mika was certain that Gerard did not change at all, be it personally or appearance-wise. He was still the same.

However, he could not claim the same for himself.

After two years, Mika turned into someone completely different and he knew it himself. His appearance was different and his personality was far from that back then.

"Lily Hayth! Take this seriously now!" Ralph shouted.

Like Lucio, it was also untypical for him to raise his voice in that manner.

It sounded like he was threatening her.

"..."

Lily, who was on her knees and facing the destroyed ground, dug her nails into the soil and clenched her fists then.

"Remember what you have vowed to us back then!" Ralph added.

At that moment, the white-class students turned to Lily in confusion.

"Vow...? What does he mean, Lily...?" Lisa asked.

"..."

Lily stood up.

"Nothing." she replied coldly as she headed toward Mika once more.

However, in her mind, she replayed the day when she was forced to make certain vows.

It was roughly a year ago during the same time when she received the announcement that she would receive a seat in the Grand Order.

On that certain day, Lucio met Lily.

At first, it was an honorable occasion as Lucio officially congratulated her for her achievement as a second-year, however, everything turned south from then on.

As an individual, Lily was already a very strong person, however, her relic enabled her at that point in time to summon an entire army. The public knew about that and the admiration some of them held for her quickly turned into fear.

And telling her that the nations decided that Lily could potentially turn into a threat to humanity, she was given two options: She would either be treated as an actual threat or she could continue living her life like always if she agrees to the restriction of her powers.

Overwhelmed by that statement and due to the heat of the moment, Lily had no choice but to opt for the second choice. Thus, she received the black bracelet on her wrist.

"Vow to the following things and I guarantee that you can live your life like always." Lucio said back then with his gentle smile.

1. Never turn hostile toward Loogam.

2. Eliminate everything and everyone who threatens Loogam.

3. Never tell anyone about the bracelet.

"If you break just a single one of those vows, then you and everything in your vicinity will be blown to pieces." he added sternly and concernedly.

Back then, Lily trembled as she was forced to put on the bracelet on her wrist. She was not at a level where she could fight back against anyone who would threaten her, thus, she had to obey reluctantly.

Of course, she was confused about the vows as they sounded weird to her but those thoughts crossed her mind later, unfortunately.

And after putting it on her, the bracelet emitted some small flickering dark matter.

"I-I, Lily Hayth..."

She pressed her fist against her chest.

Her voice trembled.

"...vow to never break any of the aforementioned rules."

Back to the present.

With an empty gaze, Lily wobbled toward Mika.

Small flames gathered around her hands.

And said flames soon turned into blue ones.