Reckoning Hour 195

"That's exactly what I was thinking. We need to balance work and rest and avoid psychological pressure. It's been twenty years since I ascended from the Zeta-rank to the Ita rank. It might be better to relax a bit."

"Me too. My mentor said I'd have to go to Star Abyss for at least another 140 years." Nastisha smiled as the two walked side by side towards the horizon. "It's been a day since I've seen my lovely students. I wonder how they are?"

"You still love the students' lively and boisterous side." Ye Wangnan shrugged. "Those brats are always fighting and making a ruckus, it's driving me crazy. How do you manage to like students so much?"

"Perhaps I'm just an exception," Nastisha said casually. "Ever since my family finished fighting the Hidden Society, I haven't wanted to start a family. These students are my children to me."

"You are truly great, Nastisha." Ye Wangnan whispered, "I know that [Society] has brought you heavy pain, but I also hope that you can get out of these shadows soon. You are still very young, only 160 years old. It is a sure thing that you will descend into the Star Abyss and ascend to the Kappa-rank. When that time comes, the principal will definitely let you take over."

"Who knows..."

Nastisha shook her head. "My students are going to the battlefield one after another. I'm worried that I won't be able to handle it all. Maybe I'll resign and change careers to work in a workshop. In short, I really don't want to have anything to do with war anymore."

Ye Wangnan retorted, "This is not a simple war, but a battle against ignorant and terrifying idealists, and a battle to protect our homeland."

Nastisha did not waver:

"The war has taken away my lover and my children, and I will never set foot on the battlefield again."

The calamity tilted slightly, and the overflowing disaster poured out.

The two walked into the star corridor. Ye Wangnan looked at the beautiful planet and felt a strong urge to go. She grabbed her colleague's hand and said, "Let's go for a walk outside the Space Station. Take some pictures of me."

Nastisha was not originally interested in this kind of behavior, but for some reason today, she suddenly felt like agreeing.

The two left through the safety passage. As powerful beings of the Ita level, their bodies had already undergone sublimation and adapted to the vacuum environment, so they would not be harmed by Cosmic Rays at all. They stepped into the starry sky, cast spells, and drove their bodies to move and transform.

"Oh my! The Astral Plane is so beautiful! Come on, Nastisha, come and take a picture. You have to include the whole of White Candle Star and me in the picture."

The two exchanged thoughts rapidly, their Mental Power intertwined by mental magic. Ye Wangnan, a beautiful young woman, was only 97 years old this year and looked like a young woman. She lifted her skirt and skillfully cast special effects magic, striking various poses.

"You need to lower your head, tuck your chin in, the lighting is perfect. Hmm, there's a meteorite passing by here, it can be used as a backdrop."

Nastisha, holding the magic camera, directed the other party to focus the lens on Ye Wangnan.

However, after taking a few photos, Nastisha realized something was wrong and looked down through the lens.

In the atmosphere of White Candle Star, there seemed to be a faint glow of magic.

... This height must be from a spell cast from the ground, and it appears to be at the same latitude as Trivella.

"What's wrong?"

Seeing that Nastisha was not taking a picture for a long time, Ye Wangnan asked in confusion.

"Nan, I didn't bring Information Rune. Did you bring any?"

"Here." Ye Wangnan took out Information Rune: "I was planning to take a few selfies and post them online."

Nastisha nodded slightly, her tone grave. "... Have you contacted Trivella?"

Why would I bother communicating with the ground if I had nothing better to do?

"Attack now."

Who are you calling?

"Anyone will do, you can call the teachers' dormitory."

Ye Wangnan was puzzled, but he did as he was told, choosing an acquaintance in Trivella and making the call.

"Oran? Is Oran here?"

After a while, Ye Wangnan frowned. "The user you are trying to contact is out of service? Are you kidding me? He just turned himself into Treant at Trivella University the day before yesterday, and he's still taking root!"

"Hit again."

Nastisha's gaze was cold as she spoke in a deep voice.

Ye Wangnan also noticed that something was wrong.

"Auntie Aier Ya, the dormitory supervisor, are you there? Why aren't you in the service area? Today is a weekday."

"Professor Kuer, you live within the third ring road of Trivella, why are you out too?"

"Assistant Instructor Sylvia – why are the Enforcement Team members also out of signal?"

From campus support staff to students, every single person Ye Wangnan called was outside the service area.

"This is too bizarre..."

Ye Wangnan was incredulous. She quickly opened a news app and searched for Trivella.

The latest news was at 10:30 this morning.

The two looked at each other.

"—Someone has blocked Trivella," Ye Wangnan said in a deep voice. "Communications and news are working normally in other cities, but there's a problem in Trivella!"

Nastisha's gaze was icy. She turned to the side, raised her hand, and immediately summoned her magical equipment.

"Nan, go back and report to the principal and Barkomon."

"Huh?" Ye Wangnan was editing a message when Nastisha said that, and immediately paused for a moment. "Wait, what about you?"

Smack

Nastisha grasped a blue-green staff, and the crystal floating at the top of the staff quickly lit up with a dazzling magical light.

"Go home."

Whoosh! In the next instant, Nastisha's figure transformed into a streak of light, instantly bursting into the atmosphere, tearing a dazzling crimson tail of flame across the sky and sweeping across the earth. Her Mental Power swept across the ground, constantly probing the surrounding environment.

Because the planet is round and Mental Power travels in straight lines, her detection efficiency was not ideal. After searching all the way, almost everything on White Candle Star was normal, and she even received several speeding warnings from the spaceport.

But as soon as they approached the land where Trivella was located, her Mental Power immediately vanished without a trace, becoming completely undetectable.

Nastisha sensed the anomaly and immediately released several arcane golems, commanding them to fly over. Using her Mental Power, she remotely controlled them as they Trivella City, where they witnessed a bizarre and wondrous sight:

The train soars through the sky, the buildings on the ground resemble illustrations, the prison is built in the center of the shopping mall, and the toilet is right next to the jewelry store, making it all seem incredibly eerie.

Trivella is like a jigsaw puzzle pieced together haphazardly, where things that shouldn't be in the same space are forcibly pulled together.

Before she could fully observe, several arcane golems suddenly bumped into an invisible barrier and immediately went offline. The other arcane golems immediately turned their view to the spot where the former had gone offline: they saw that her arcane golem imprints had suddenly appeared on the nearby plane.

"This is... Dimensional Barrier?!"

Nastisha gripped her staff tightly, her gaze instantly ignited.

"Crescent Moon!!!"

She swiftly drew a spell array with her five fingers, without any chanting, and raised her staff high, which descended from the sky like lightning that pierced through heaven and earth!

The thunderous roar swept across the entire city. The aura of the Ita-level powerhouse made White Candle Star uneasy. Dark clouds filled the sky almost instantly, and the azure lightning, like a raging dragon, bared its fangs and claws on the black curtain, emitting a piercing and terrifying eerie cry.

Nastisha plunged her staff into the earth, causing the entire continent to tremble. A storm, centered on her, swept across the surroundings in an instant. The humid monsoon brought magical rain, and the gale-force winds dragged the entire city into the depths of a whirlpool.

"The Thunder Domain opens, clearing away everything."

Numerous command panels were projected in front of Nastisha. She multitasked, rapidly editing everything before her with her Mental Power, her magic flowing like water into a pipe, rationally allocating it to every corner.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The dimensional barriers shattered like broken mirrors, and the chaotic terrain returned to normal. However, Nastisha was powerless to deal with the ruins and corpses scattered everywhere.

Her gaze swept across the streets and buildings, where people were killed and injured, and the survivors were generally in dire straits. The cruel scenes of families being torn apart and people dying were so shocking.

"School..."

She looked at the campus with some fear:

"Children, you must all be alright, please don't—"

When Nastisha's Mental Power landed on White Candle Star Interstellar University, her brain buzzed.

"Help! Teacher, please help me!"

"Someone, please save us! There are Implant Equipment Vanguard all outside!"

"You bunch of bastards, classmates, let's show these monsters what we're made of—we'll fight them to the death!"

A stinging sensation.

Corpses floated in the school's beautiful Central Lake; intestines and lungs hung like ripe fruit from the branches of the woods where couples used to meet; Implant Equipment Vanguard indiscriminately shot and killed students fleeing on the track; and the recreation room, meant for students to relax, was now crowded with terrified students.

What stung her even more was that, even with such a disparity in strength between the enemy and herself, the older students still stood up.

The men of the Thanatos Human Race were taller and better at casting spells, so they stood on the outer perimeter alongside the female students of other races, creating a magical shield to leave the weaker races behind to fight a bloody battle.

From newly enrolled students to teaching assistants who stayed on to work at the school, all faculty and students worked hard to maintain organization and order even after the terrorist attack.

This scene...

"Vierria".

Nastisha whispered:

"We fought against the Hidden Society so that future generations wouldn't have to fight."

"I lost everything in the war and swore I would never set foot on the battlefield again."

"But it seems I was wrong."

Her eyes were bloodshot, her heart was bleeding, and her soaring rage made this planet, which could only support the Zeta-rank, feel fear. Lightning that stretched for thousands of kilometers swept across the sky and the entire continent trembled under her magic.

"Crescent Moon, you dare to come back again, very good."

Nastisha's Mental Power enveloped the entire Trivella, and she quickly detected the trace of the waning moon.

"Heh, dimensional jump? You're just hiding in Demiplane, only good for bullying my naive student—I spit on you, who do you think you are!"

Her once neatly styled hair now fluttered wildly as magic surged forth. With a casual tap, dozens or even hundreds of magical amplifications instantly lit up her body.

"Let's settle accounts for your past sins."