Iris knelt near the final statue, hands still pressed against the mana channels where the nodes had been moments ago.

The synchronization should have worked.

It would have worked if not for–

She stopped herself before anger could spill out completely.

"Composure first. Analysis second. Anger never."

That was what Mother always said.

That was the way of Lockhart.

Iris Lockhart did not get angry easily. She was calm, deliberate, controlled, and analytical to a fault according to the adults in her life growing up. The perfect heir. The flawless tactician. The kind of person Grace trusted to stabilize something as complex and dangerous as a dual-node statue synchronization in the middle of a battlefield.

And yet–

Her hands trembled in shame.

Just slightly.

Iris flexed her fingers once, forcing the tremor away, then looked past Grace’s layered barrier toward the retreating Class B students.

Elara Lockhart stood near the base, surrounded by classmates shouting her name.

"Leader!"

"Elara!"

"You did it!"

Iris felt something cold settle in her chest.

Not jealousy of course. That would be beneath her.

But... recognition.

Elara had always been the loud one.

The emotional one.

The branch-family girl standing in Freya’s shadow, failing to control her mana, lashing out when criticized, always compared and always found wanting.

Iris had dismissed her, she could admit that. Elara was simply not good enough to gain her attention.

Not cruelly. Just... accurately. Logically.

Or so she thought.

Now Elara stood burned, exhausted, nearly drained, while her class rallied around her.

She was the reason class S was going to lose now.

Iris’s jaw tightened.

I misjudged her.

"Iris."

Grace’s voice pulled her back.

Iris turned and found Grace beside the statue, hands still glowing faintly with residual light magic.

Her expression remained calm, but there was something under it that told otherwise.

"Can you restart?" Grace asked quietly.

Iris checked the mana flow.

Unstable.

The disruption from Mira’s water thread had torn through the carefully balanced synchronization structure like a blade through silk.

It would take time. Minutes, not seconds.

Too long.

Iris opened her mouth to answer–

Then stopped.

Something was wrong.

Not with the statue.

She stood slowly, scanning the area.

Class S students were reforming around Grace’s orders, Irene regrouping after her fight, Freya repositioning near the perimeter defenses.

Class B reinforcements had arrived, emboldened by Elara’s disruption.

Class A and Class C pressed from two sides.

The battle was chaos.

But this mana felt worse than chaos. It almost scared her, and she could barely sense it.

Was this an Academy trick?

"Do you feel it?" Iris asked.

Grace’s expression shifted, but she did not respond.

Before Iris could speak again, Sapphire appeared near the statue carrying Class B’s two minor nodes.

Iris’s stomach dropped, forgetting the minor disturbance in mana she had just felt.

If Sapphire could synchronize those nodes into the final statue before Class S recovered–

They couldn’t allow her to reach. She’d heard things about that girl, and even seen her work. That rune... it had to be hers.

"Irene!" Grace shouted.

Irene moved, but too late.

Class B’s node team surged forward under Sapphire’s direction.

Iris tried to force her mana back into the statue’s channel, but backlash flared through her pathways violently, the disruption was still present.

She could not restart fast enough.

For the first time since the Inter-Class War began, Iris understood with cold, horrifying clarity.

Class B might actually take the final statue.

No, the clarity was that class S might lose.

For some reason, she never thought it possible due to Grace being leader. There was something there, like she had all the confidence in the world, and perhaps that had rubbed off on Iris as well.

Was this my fault? Iris thought. Logically, she knew it was foolish. There were too many unknown variables that even Grace did not know about.

That didn’t help the shameful feeling in her gut, however.

Class S was going to lose, no matter the excuses she made for herself.

Then suddenly, Grace stepped forward.

Not like someone whose plan had collapsed.

She entered like someone that never doubted they would lose.

"Iris," Grace called quietly. Her voice cut through the noise. "Remain conscious. Support my rhythm if you can."

Iris turned, confused and in pain, but before she could protest, Grace placed her hand against the statue.

Barriers spread around them. They looked like Grace’s.

Light spread through the stone.

The light wasn’t the harsh, aggressive kind that overpowered everything in its path. This was different. Softer. Purifying.

Iris’s eyes widened.

The dual-node channel was damaged.

The backlash was still cycling through the mana flow like jagged glass.

Forcing holy mana through it meant Grace would take the instability into her own body.

Holy mana was different from normal mana, although Iris wasn’t too educated.

Iris didn’t know much about the holy teachings of the Church, as they were very secretive. Sure, to the public, they showed themselves as honest and transparent, but she knew better, being in a position of power herself.

But she knew a few things of holy power.

Every saintess could take energy being outputted and apply it onto themselves.

This meant a multitude of things.

Grace was using that principle now, absorbing the chaotic backlash and channeling it inward, which would in theory speeden the capture process.

The statue’s runes began to glow again.

Iris latched onto it.

Her hands trembled as she reconnected to the dual-node flow, following Grace’s rhythm instead of forcing her own. The synchronization resumed, slowly, painfully, but it resumed.

And it was so much smoother.

If before it was like she was stepping on a floor full of stones, now she is gracefully passing through a flowerbed.

Once again, Grace proved to be someone worth following.

This wasn’t a moment of everything going according to plan for Grace.

She was winning because when the plan failed, she stepped into the damage herself and salvaged the situation.

Class S reacted to that belief.

Irene, wounded and burned, planted her scythe into the ground and surrounded herself in white flame. She did not speak. She did not need to. Her body became the wall between Grace and the enemy, adding to the barriers the Grace had just put up.

Support students of class S realized too, and they focused on new barriers as well, even if they were instantly taken down by the charging class B students.

Even students who had hesitated after Marcus’s murder started moving again because Grace had become the anchor of sorts.

Iris felt the battlefield shift around them.

Class B was still pushing. Class A and C were still closing in behind.

But Class S stopped wavering, and Grace didn’t have to say a word.

Iris wasn’t even sure that was her intention, it was simply her affect.

Mira attempted one final disruption, sending a weak thread of water toward the channel while Sapphire tried to push Class B’s nodes into the unstable gap.

Iris saw both.

She could not stop them alone, but she didn’t think that would matter.

Grace absorbed Mira’s interference directly into her light, absorbing the attack through the usage of the unique magic she was using.

Grace grit her teeth in pain. Her hands shook. But she held the synchronization.

Iris could see class B’s panicked expressions as dozens of students rushed them.

But it didn’t matter.

If they wanted any chance, they would have to get through Irene, Freya, and the multiple barriers.

Iris focused on the statue in front of her.

98%...

99%...

The final statue changed. It started glowing, and the runes that wrapped around it started to glow as well, as the mana nodes inserted into the statue were finally inserted into its massive body.

The Academy announcement boomed furiously.

The winner of the Inter-Class war is Class S!